“The good news is that the physicists ‘hunting’ after the wave have observed a gradual descrease in the speed of the wave. The UGN’s council has motioned to send out free-flowing sensors that continuously monitor the progress of the situation and warn any incomers. The area inside the wave is considered contaminated and strictly off limits, meaning, hundreds, perhaps, thousands of systems will not be able to use the Swift-space and will have to reconcile to using older, and slower planes that twist through lower dimensions.
“It seems impossible, right now, that the Swift-space should ever be repaired because anyone that does not natively belong to the area, cannot survive. Some suggest that we should start using Nethers’ traveling dimensions but criticts say that this will upset the inter-galactic relations.
“We will keep you updated throughout the..” the vision cut off and Lexan found himself staring at a blank wall in front of the Art classroom.
“Hey,” Bloo tackle hugged him while Lexan tried his best to hug back.
“So where are we going?”
“Well, we have two hours to waste. Let me show you this great place I know,” She smiled and led him to the transport station.
They took a trip to another sphere and within minutes arrived. They walked through a typical corridor. Lexan opened a door at the end of the corridor and it turned out to be another transport, but one that he has seen before, a different one, that transported solely across great vertical distances.
“Are we going up?” He asked.
“Nope, we’re going down,” Bloo smiled and the light grew brighter, noting that the destination has been selected and the transport is awaiting passengers. She noted that typical transports can move creatures only between Orbs but not underground. Lexan stepped in and seconds later walked out into a dark cave, illuminated by the transport light and fungi on the walls.Bloo gripped Lexan’s hand and led him through more than a few passages into an enormous and beautiful chamber. Stalactites and stalagmites grew all around into complicated shapes. Small crystals illuminated different spots; they grew out of the fungi and lichen. They sparkled like diamonds and their refraction of light caused little rainbows to travel from one rock formation to another. Lexan looked around and noticed the many entrances that sparkled deep in the darkness they led to. No artificial lighting was required, the boy realized.
He stared in amazement and remembered visiting caves on Earth with a group of tourist like himself, but none of those caves were as gorgeous and breath-taking as these. His jaw hung open.
Bloo noticed him staring and pierced the magical trance, “See? It’s a nice place.” She smiled.
“I never said it wasn’t,” He whispered back softly, as if he worried his voice might cause the collapse the dream of the cavern.
“This is where they get the crystals for concentration items, rings, and stuff, you know,” she said knowledgeably.
“The what?” He whispered.
“You see these crystals?” She motioned all around her, “Their refractive properties make them special, they can be used to concentrate light and other electromagnetic waves,” He shook his head.
Her eyes narrowed, “Look, see this ring? It helps control Aetheric energy. It absorbs the energy until there is enough to unleash a more powerful force. Don’t you have one? Everyone needs it to channel their energy,” She held up her hand and showed her bright red ring. The thin metal band looked like nothing special but it was certainly made from a strong alloy to avoid breaking or scratches. There was a ridge in the middle of the ring, holding the red formation.
“I don’t have a ring,” He held up his hands.
“Never mind,” She gave up again and turned back to the main chamber to enjoy the light show.
“How does it work?” He asked mindlessly, moving his head slightly left and right, trying to see if he could catch one of the rainbows off guard but no such luck, the rainbows moved with him.
“I don’t know, I’ve heard something about trans-dimensional energy rifts, but I don’t know.”
They both sat down on a flat rock and smiled. The place somehow seemed to quiet their minds and give them inner peace, and happiness. Bloo’s ring started to glow along with the other crystals, and they looked down on it.
Their hands touched briefly and with embarrassment, they quickly moved away. Lexan and Bloo turned their attention back to the twinkling and dancing of the lights in the dark.
III
The two silently returned to class where the teacher already stood, waiting for the students there. Bloo sat right next to Lexan.
“Hello, my name is Ríta,” the teacher started, “there is an accent over the ‘I’ remembered that. I am a Shun from the United Galactic Nations, your big neighbor. I came here in pursuit of Aetheric arts and your school, Athiris offered me a good job as an art teacher. In this class, you will learn the basics of Aetheric arts. Here are a few examples,” She motioned toward the adjacent walls covered in intricate patterns. The patterns moved and changed colors as one shifted positions. The art also seemed to respond to thinking. Lexan, for example, saw calms blue waves while Bloo saw glowing red, which was calming to her, they realized.
“I will teach you the fundamentals. I warn you though, we only have a half of a year together.” She explained the procedures in the mini studio and future project assignments. Then she showed everyone slideshows of pictures from famous artists. Every picture contained similar patterns as on the wall but each one was slightly different. Some, instead of reflecting thoughts, tried to adjust them. And some had nothing to do with the viewer at all. Some leapt into several dimensions, and changed in different ways over time. Rita explained the phenomenon of different perspective, wherein everyone sees something entirely different in the pictures. The bizzare shapes and patterns when on and one produced an occult feeling in the class when some seemed to have almost biblical allusions in it.
“The class will be over soon. Just remember that all the greatest artists started as callow as you are right now. There is no need to give up on art even if it gets too overwhelming at first,” With her last words, the bell rang and everyone exited the classroom with a hum.
Bloo and Lexan parted ways with a warm hug. He felt well. He remembered Alary for a few moments and the great times they’ve had together until that one day when Mt. Raki took him from the Orphanage.
The night before he left, it reappeared in his dreams night after night. Lexan smiled grimly as he remembered he did not have to face it anymore now that he has banished his sleep.
IV
“We will always be together, I promise,” Alary said one night. They sat together in the thick fog of the morning at the Orphanage’s playground. She kissed Lexan softly, leaving her hand on his back.
He smiled, looking up at the stars. He wanted to at least but the thick fog seemed to block out even the moon. He took Alary into his arms and hugged her tightly. Whenever he did so, no matter how many times he’s done this, his heart raced and thumped loudly until he let go again.
Alary could always feel that tremendous, thunderous heartbeat. It’s how she made sure, every day, that he still loved her. After an argument, she would still hug him goodbye and place her head on his chest. If she heard his heart skip a beat, and pound loudly and proudly, she would know that everything would be alright. And it was always alright.
She reached up and kissed his cheek. Lexan kissed her forehead and helf her ever tighter to his body. He too had a way of finding out if Alary still felt the same way about him. And it was all about the hug. If she hugged him, he knew she still loved him. She always hugged him before they departed.
These silent beautiful moments had ceased for both of them. Lexan thought about all the time they spent together, silently, holding each other. He suppressed a silent tear, as always, and let go off Bloo. He smiled and departed toward Meditation, which incidentally, was taught by the same teacher Lexan had for Transformation.
Th
e thought of Alary left Lexan as he saw Bloo smile at him. He skipped to his class happily, eating some nutritional cubes available next to the water fountain.
V
“Ah,” Mt. Trance sighed and looked around, smiling, “I see some familiar faces from Transformation. Sadly for the rest, these students will have an easier time in the class since I teach the two subjects jointly,” He greeted the new students.
“We will start with the simplest form of meditation today, it is the meditation of breath control with soothing music to aid the process. Throughout the year, you will see how music and your current mood will affect your abilities. The exercises, over time, will always start with soothing music, then we will practice with no music, and afterward, you will listen to the sound of several busy environments. Finally, you will gain focus and meditate effectly even with distracting and obnoxious music playing very loudly.”
Mt. Trance looked around and nodded to himself, “Everyone, please, position yourself with your legs crossed. Straighten your back and close your eyes. Put your hands either on your knees or cradle them between your legs.”
Lexan did as asked. His body would not, however, relax. Such routing thing as meditation did not require a class, it was the same as Transformation and many other classes he would have to face. He sighed, finally realizing that what was true about schools on Earth was true about schools in the United Republics. He will learn many useless things that will never have an application in real life. He would be taught useless details that he will neither remember nor care to remember. And just as on Earth, there is a whole dedicated class to a subject everyone knows everything about. Meditation was a routine activity that everyone in the class knew already.
“Now close your eyes. Relax and let go. Listen to the music closely and meditate as you would usually do,” The music started. A compilation of instruments started playing. The whole of the music sounded like the ocean waves rising and falling, licking the beaches and washing over the sands. Every few seconds a wave or two crashed over a rock formation. Lexan let his body and his mind become one with the rhythm of the music, no matter how useless he thought the activity was. His mind crashed and reformed, flowed left and right. It rose and fell, expanding and contracting, stretching out of proportion.
Thin wisps of air passed by. The room vibrated with unknown energies, everyone felt it. Lexan probed his surroundings with his mind. The others around were transforming into Aetheri, silently, effortlessly, and most importantly, painlessly.
The boy felt energy flow through him and from inside him. He felt his mind overcoming the bodily limitations and slowly, he started to transform, too. His body vibrated and started shifting into different dimensions. It prodded through space and time to other places. Lexan breathed in and with an exhale, the enveloping distortion in existence reached his eyes and the darkness he saw turned to light. The clothes he wore, the electronics inside his skull turned to life. His living tissues turned to a higher state. A thin layer of energy accumulated around his body and dispersed once the transformation was final.
Strangely, his new state of being did not drain him as before. It felt relaxing, much more relaxing than the excruciating first time. Minutes passed by as seconds normally did, the new state, this higher level of being gave him an uplifting feeling.
The feeling was akin to flying; he felt the ground below disappear. Lexan left his eyes closed, his legs crossed and his head held high but he no longer felt constricted by this position. His body, his physical state, was no longer a part of him. The world around him took on a form more real than it had before. He felt his life to be the only one existing, he felt himself be the only true being, a messiah of life and existence. At the same time, he felt one with everything. He let his mind wander through his surroundings, becoming one with the mind of the wall, of the Spheres, and the planet. His mind expanded and he moved into the mind of the galaxy.
Yet he was not alone, no, he was not the messiah. Everyone was the messiah, the savior, everyone gave life to the universe. Once connected, everyone felt the same way: happy and blissful. They have their individuality but that individuality becomes a part of a higher collective. This system had once been set by the elders, Lexan realized.
So many thoughts, strange, and peculiar thoughts and feelings rushed through his mind but he started to focus only on one. The thought of content. His content with his school, Bloo, the lovely blue-skinned Shun, and his content with his life.
When the bell rang, Lexan fell into a temporary depression. He achieved such a blissful and wonderful state of mind that having it ripped away so suddenly, made him go as far as to consider suicide.
VI
The universe can be warped and twisted, that is known. Sometimes, it can even be ripped, though most likely, it will heal itself soon. The Aetheri have found a way to travel through universes, places where the laws of nature applied differently. The world that is known, has a limit of the speed of light. Swift-space, in contrast, has no limit to speed whatsoever. As long as one has enough energy, they can travel for lifetimes, visiting different creations by bending through different dimensions.
The laws are usually different, no universe is the same. Some universes warped through several dimensions visibly while others only show one or two. The laws are set, never-changing, it is thought, and no one can break them. Or can they?
Who is it that set these laws? Who enforces them and who controls the reality? The power of the mind can surely shift the view of reality but never can it defy it.
VII
“..You will learn how to warp assigned dimensional subspaces to your liking. You will be able to access this little Universe through the closet door in your dormitory.
“Yes, that is the secret that has been kept from you the whole summer or a whole year if you took the pre-student course.” The whole class listened to what the teacher talked about. They all vividly stared, but no one said a thing. The woman pursed her lips in a manner that suggested she wanted to laugh.
“My name is Precursa,” She started warmly, “Every single class has listened to what I had to say after that welcome.” She smiled and laughed heartily, the class followed in suit. Lexan noted how easily she made everyone pay attention to her and make the whole class laugh.
“I will teach you many things this year.” Tr. Precursa continued,”including how to —sjidne skdioucne—..” Lexan hit his helmet the same way he would to make an old television work. The screen in his helmet shifted and his degree vision turned off. He mentally screamed at Bran but she did not answer. He looked around wildly, the people he just saw were gone. People sat all around, yes, but all wore silver or gold suits with helmets. The same way he did, and he could not recognize a single person. Tr. Precursa could still be seen but not for too long.
“Is something the matter?” Tr. Precursa stopped her speech and turned to Lexan as soon as she noticed how oddly he behaved. Everyone also did. Lexan reddened but knew no one else could see him, hopefully.
“My – static- is -static- working,” Lexan tried to explain his troubles but only three words left the helmet.
“Go outside then and go to the nearest protocol droid and tell him your -static- he wiiiiiiiiiiiilllllllllllllllll heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllpppppppppppp youuuuuuuuuuuuuu.” Most of the speech unscrambled and finally at the end the whole translation slowed down to a halt. Lexan nodded and left.
He walked out of the classroom and sighed with relief as the door hissed closed.
“What's going on Bran?” He said, pushing the mute button on his NCC to make sure he could not be heard outside of his suit.
“I...do not know.” The computer answered unconvincingly. The tone did not change, but the computer answered with hesitation.
“Is your software failing? Or hardware?” Lexan asked, concerned.
“Nothing that I can detect.”
Lexanchecked the NCC and the log of the last few operations. A list of commands scro
lled through, most of it meaningless junk. The fifth command from the bottom announced the end of connection with Las, Raki's computer. That perplexed Lexan. Why connect to Las?
“How is Las?” Lexan asked catiously.
“I have not been in contact with Las since we were on the ship” Bran answered indifferently, as always. Her steel-cold voice did not bear any emotions, Lexan noticed, anymore. She finally resembled what she was, a computer. Lexan checked the log again to make sure he did not misread it and left to find a Protocol Droid.
As he walked down the hall, Lexan realized how free he will be when no one will monitor his thoughts. His head will finally be clear, how so? If he gets a new computer, he will reprogram it so that it can't access his real-time thought processor/logger. What if Raki had noticed? He thought. But then, he was justified to rid himself of Bran. She lied and recorded his dreams, invaded his privacy. Her personality, AI, or anything of hers won't be destroyed, she will simply not have access to his suit.
At the thought, Lexan readjusted his belt and ran into a Protocol Droid, he fell back in rebound.
“Are you okay?” The robot asked politely as it helped him up.
“I have ... a ..problem...” Lexan said.
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