The young Earth girl did not deserve to have a fate such as this, “If I could, I would take the quest all upon myself,” the boy spoke slowly, the liquid shimmered with each word.
Another force pulled him closer to the woman, “We will save the galaxy,” Lexan said. He and Alary would be the saviors, and they could even invite Nangern. He would surely comply.
“Such fate,” the boy spoke again. He remembered the dreams, the series of dreams he's had for the past two years. The dreams about the strange men, the burned beings, the angelic figures, and the symbols. We are destined to be together Alary, the boy thought, “Destined,” he said. All of it led up to this moment. He would see her in her beautiful dress, and they would dance in the Great Hall. The two would embark on a ship and fly thousands of light years to Nangern.
The weight of the world pressed down on Lexan again, “What if I can't do this?” he asked the motionless picture of Alary in his hands, “What if I cannot help?”
Suddenly, the boy's pent up energy eased and left behind a panic attack. Wrecked, completely drained, Lexan laid down on his bed and closed his eyes. The cool NCC liquid flowed down his arms onto his chest and formed the symbol from his dreams, the one that naturally came to him all through his stay. It was the symbol he pre-programmed into his NCC as HIS symbol. The half-ellipse cut through by a single double-pointed line with a torn in the middle. His NCC always pooled over his shoulder or arm as a temporary tattoo in form of that symbol.
“What does it even mean?” the boy said out loud but still no one would hear him outside his helmet, “So many questions.” His heart quickened pace.
“What if I had misunderstood?” he asked, his pulse rising. The quiet beats roared in the boy's ears. A strange pain resonated inside the Aether's skull. He closed his eyes and let a gentle stream of sounds infiltrate his helmet.
The slow and quiet beats accentuated some kind of foreign instrument. The music seemed to resemble a visual pattern. Lexan's mind opened up and let the healing music in. It healed and smoothed the boy's worries and troubles.
Aetheri are known for their endurance, and Lexan was not about to fail. His resolve hardened. An enormous shudder through the ship reminded the boy that they had docked. Solan had already left with his luggage, that is, his Surf board. The foreign music subsided, and the boy took his own board under his arm. As he walked down the now empty hallways, the heat rose considerably. Finally, he reached the scorching doorway.
There, he stood shocked for what seemed like minutes. A thin bridge connected the Cruise ship and the star station. The star blazed hot upon the surface. Lexan looked left and right to see purple magnetic fields holding the ship in place. Every now and then, a lightning discharged along the field. But there was no cover, the boy realized. The bridge did not have a ceiling, it did not form a hallway, nor a portal, it was just like a side-walk in space, only thousands of miles away from the hot star.
Yet, as the young Aether walked down the metal, scale-covered bridge, he did not feel panic nor fear. The bridge was stable, it did not sway, nor did it scorch the boy's feet. When the Lexan implored with a thought question, Joshua switched the boy's view to include visual elements that could not be seen without special equipment, visual elements that make some travelers feel at ease. An enormous shield rose up and covered the bridge and its surroundings. The star station floated mighty and proud in its red aura that symbolized electromagnetic counter fields which diverted the star's energy elsewhere.
Several other details added to the safety feeling, a myriad of holo-projections resembling a line of droids stood by the edges of the walkway, ready to catch him. Lexan smiled to himself and walked swiftly toward the Space Station. At first glance, it seemed completely flat, looking left and right, but Joshua informed the boy of the slight curve. The massive black ring surrounded the enormous star, it stretched for countless kilometers, numbering in several millions. The young Aether stepped inside and was overwhelmed by the bright interior. The walls shone white as did the floors and ceiling. Thin blue fluorescent lines pulsated inside the walls. They rounded the corners and enveloped the doors.
Lexan put his hand against the line and it shone brightly. The line swerved and surrounded the boy's fingers and palm. The blue pulsated strongly and the line widened until it became a full wall-screen. Flickers of random colors entranced the boy until a comprehensive blue and white menu showed up.
“Hello, [Muray]. What can I do for you today?” A female voice announced itself when the lines conformed to show a face.
“Can you tell me where I am?” the boy asked.
“Sure, you are in the forty-fourth quadrant of the Orbital Star Station,” the female voice answered.
Lexan stared at the blue-lined portrait and asked for directions to his room and to the Surf Simulation room. Solan had left him a message to meet him there for practice. The computer obliged and Lexan was rewarded with instantaneous knowledge of the forty-fourth quadrant, one at the relative “beginning” of the circular station. He walked down the bright-white pathways, the blue lines of light followed him and occasionally guided him and informed him of an interesting fact about the place.
The boy's room was small, as was expected, with a single Closet entrance. He put down his surf-board and realized that he barely had any space to move around. Frowning, he picked up the board again and opened the Closet door. Surprised, in front of him blazed the Sun, or the Aether Star. The yellow gem seemed to emit no heat. Cautiously, Lexan stepped forward into the space, he floated. The Star seemed to be the right relative distance away as the Star Station was, making the sight even more believable. As the boy neared the apparition, he realized that he could not have been outside, simply because his suit would not be able to shield him, and as he looked back, he realized that the Star Station was absent. The door way stood open but there was nothing else. Lexan floated around for a bit and switched his view to see magnetic and suspension fields.
Immediately, he recognized hundreds of shelves created with pure forces. He placed his Surf board on one of the closer transparent blue holders. He realized that a warp in reality created the large Closet space, and also, created the illusion of being in the same reality he just left within the station. The boy left back into the room. Solan wanted to go ahead and enjoy the star for a couple of hours before starting training, so Lexan decided to chip away at the weaknesses of his plan.
His ultimate goal was to bring Alary, him, and Nangern together. First step was to convince Alary to join him which should not be hard. Second step is the travel.
The boy ordered Joshua to pull up a visual interface, under much protest the MPI obliged and Lexan was presented with a list of flights out of the Aether system. All of them grossly over-priced, I'll need a job, he thought and money. But that would take time. Lexan tried to come up with another way. He could get on a star ship, and fly across the galaxy in the cargo or he could work ON the ship. Alary could do the same. He thought hard but could not make sense of it. The situation seemed to have so many solutions but none of them nearly comfortable to be plausible.
Either he could travel as a stowaway, a hitch-hiker, or work off the transport charges. Not many transports were headed to the Independent Outlying Nations, and even less of them planned to stop near the Nether invasion sites. Maybe Alary will come up with an idea, he thought.
With a distant thought, the boy sent Alary a message that he wanted to meet up. Still clueless about who he was, she agreed and told him to meet her in the hundred and fiftieth quadrant. Quickly, he replied with agreement and made arrangements with Solan who had apparently forgotten about the meeting and was currently surfing the blazing fireball.
“Meet me in the simulation room,” Alary sent Lexan a message and their contact broke off again. The boy felt an adrenaline rush building up. He smiled and without haste, he ran to the nearest in-station transport circuit. A special type of carrier cut through the entire Star Station and enabled its reside
nts to circumnavigate the station within a single hour.
At the end of one hall simply stood a door, once it opened, it revealed a small room that could hold about ten people standing. Cushioned benches encompassed the walls of the room and in the middle materialized a wide table. Lexan sat inside and gave the room a command to take him to the hundred and fiftieth quadrant. As soon as he gave the command, Joshua informed him that they had arrived. The boy checked the time and realized that they had, indeed, traveled for about twenty minutes. He also realized that several other passengers had appeared within the room.
After a long troublesome walk with his Surf board, Lexan arrived at the simulation room, a cylindrical tall room. Its white walls were lined with blue pulsating lights. He jumped into the middle, the door seemed to open in mid-air, half of the room stood below and the other above him. He landed in the middle and floated gently. Positioning the board below himself, Lexan activated the simulation.
Out of nowhere, waves of plasma hurdled in and the temperature soared. The walls disappeared and Lexan was on the top of a star. Not the Aether Star, but another smaller star that had a lower temperature and shone orange instead of yellow. He smiled and let his hands dip into the plasma.
He expected to feel a watery substance, but instead he felt the plasma inch away from his hand and disperse. The substance resembled a highly charged cloud of plasma with an energy of its own. The boy sat down on the board and dipped his feet into the plasma. He felt the temperature rise, the clouds swirled. Lexan tried to propel the board by the use of his legs. And yet again, to his surprise, he felt the board move when he kicked his legs against the clouds. The clouds solidified under the pressure of the kick and pushed him forward.
The board accelerated, and its rider tried to hold his balance. It pushed up and floated down over the invisible waves of energy. Whenever the board fell too steeply, a cloud of energized particles swept over Lexan, the sensation was indescribable. The cloud-like substance burned hot, while outside, above the sea energy, the cold space pressed down upon the boy.
He built up speed to jump over a particularly large wave that surrounded a dark spot. Lexan leaned forward and the board accelerated, splitting the clouds in two and creating more waves. Finally, he was fast enough to jump over the wave. The front of the board dipped down, and then launched itself across the wave. Lexan ducked down on the board and let it fly up into the air. A spray of particles washed over him and then disappeared behind as the board flew above the surface again. The hot wave turned into a cold breeze, the boy looked down and saw the turmoil of clouds and energy below. Bubbles of particles boiled, and dark spots covered the area. He must have been ejected kilometers into the space.
The Aether smiled to himself and felt adrenaline rush through his body. Never in his life had he imagined he would surf on top of the Sun. And finally it came, a solar flare.
The darker spots angrily pulsated until a stream of pure energy unleashed itself from the enormous fireball. The flare targeted Lexan and directly hit the bottom of the board. Its rider could not hold on, and plummeted down into the fires, the board flew elsewhere, far away. He screamed as he fell and accelerated incredibly. He imagined the pain he would feel when he would hit the surface head on.
He closed his eyes in anticipation only to feel the energy clouds wash over him. He dipped deep down, hundreds of meters bellow the surface. The environment felt like warm water. The clouds lifted him upward and he “swam” or rather “fell” toward the surface. Yet before he could swim across the surface and look for his board, another solar flare pushed him into the darkness. This time, he felt the flare strongly push him on his back, push him very harshly. The pain seemed to amplify with the heat. He screamed in pain and blacked out. Seconds later, he opened his eyes, conscious again, floating in the hot plasma face down. The clouds bubbled into his face. He coughed and turned over, looking up into the sky.
The stars shone brightly and the boy enjoyed the few seconds of peace. Sun Surfing has exhausted him even the few minutes he engaged in it. His body slowly progressed lower under the surface, but the puffs of energy lifted him higher.
“So, what's your business with me?” A voice asked, Lexan turned on his side to see a girl in a black suit, similar to his. She was laying down on her Sun Surf board, his board was next to her.
He reached up for it and laid down.
“You seriously have no idea who I am, do you?” He smiled, Both of their avatar projections were turned off. Their basic information, though, was available. The girl before him did not bear the name “Alary” but rather a nick-name, “Mosai”.
“Mosai is not your real name, is it?” he asked.
“What do you mean? And no I don't know who you are. I have never met a [Muray] in my life.” She answered, her voice set the boy's heart on fire. He had a temporary flashback to when he had met her, and he remembered all the times they had spent together, “How do you know me?”
“We've spent some time together, a few years ago,” he said and watched her reaction, she was motionless. When she answered, she was half laughing to herself.
“You clearly have me confused with someone else,” she stood up on her board and Surfed away, “Good luck finding whoever you're trying to find!” She waved back at him and Surfed out into the fiery seas.
“Wait!” Lexan, surprised at her reaction, jumped on his bored and went after her, “You are who I am looking for, Alary!”
The girl did not slow down, she simply laughed again, “First you say it's not my real name and now you call me by it. What's your deal?”
“What?” the boy slowed down for a second so he could think. Word filtering, she still had the implants. If he had not traveled to that other world to get his removed, he would not have noticed the difference either. He sped up again, as much as he could, unfortunately, his board could not catch up to her. He felt frustration, after so long, he meet her, he got to talk to her and all she could do was surf away and ignore him.
“Come back, I still want to talk to you!” Lexan yelled out after her, she turned around and surfed toward him.
“What is there to talk about?” she asked, her masked face gave away no expression but her voice indicated annoyance, “You mistook me for someone else. I don't know who you are. And it's not possible that you've known me years ago because I am from the Cardinal Regions!”
“Yes, I know. You're from Earth,” said Lexan and waited for her to be shocked, perhaps speechless.
Instead she replied, “Yeah, I just said that.”
Another word filter, he thought. The boy changed the simulation, so that they would appear on a large green pasture with a blue sky and puffy white clouds.
“What did you do that for?!” Mosai jumped off her board onto the grass, slightly angry.
“Take off your helmet,” Lexan looked seriously at her. She did not respond, instead she moved to go past him. He grabbed her arm and threw her back away from the door that she summoned. She stopped in mid-air and turned into an Aether, puffing with red pulsating energy.
“What the hell is your deal?” She threw her board away and moved into her fighting stance, “If you don't move away from that damn door, I will beat the hell out of you. So get away.”
“Take off your helmet,” Lexan said again, he turned into an Aether. He had no idea how else to get her to take it off.
He was about to take his off, when Mosai attacked. She ran toward him and launched a punch aimed at Lexan's face. The boy dodged and hoped to land a punch in her stomach. Mosai moved out of the way and jumped up into the air, turning into the second degree Aether.
“I did my research, you're a first year. I don't see how you want to compete against me. I'm at the level equivalent of a fifth year.” She created a small fireball in her hand, one that burned brightly, much more brightly than Lexan’s previous attempts. The energy swirled out of her fingers into the air. There it burned and bent the light around, it resembled a
tiny star with its own nuclear fusion reactor at the core. She threw the ball at Lexan who sucked the energy out of the air around his hand. The cool air condensed with ice crystals. Keeping the mass together, the boy launched his own projectile to meet the fiery sphere.
Lexan jumped into the air, spreading the Aether energy all over his body. Each cell in his body vibrated with the same frequency, they aligned together and started “turning” into the direction of a different spacial universe. Finally, in a brilliant flash of light, the cellular structures ruptured. As if made of pure energy, the boy floated in mid-air, the wind blowing through him.
“How did you-?” she stared at him in surprise. But before the boy, now invisible to mortal eyes, could answer, the girl launched several more fireballs at him, each burning slightly differently. One burned blue because of its condensed core, another burned brightly white, and the last one burned red as it expanded with its motion. She dove down to the ground.
The boy dove toward the ground as well, only to see the fireballs flying straight at him. He flew straight down and at the last second, he pushed down with one of his legs to move straight forward toward Mosai. Several fireballs splashed against the ground, igniting the green pasture. Joshua informed Lexan that the shields had been raised within the structure to compensate for the battle. Several other projectiles continued to follow Lexan. The girl gave up on the fire and rather ejected massive electrical spikes toward him, like lightning but more direct; she succeeded in grazing his leg which jerked from the electrical charge. He attacked Mosai with a concentrated lightning of energy as well. He felt electricity flow through his body, the particles charged and escaped through his fingers. The discharge directed itself toward Mosai and with a great thunder, it landed upon her body.
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