by Douglas R.
Our elevator continues to round the vine and when it stops, the beautiful ocean, shimmering with the sun is swallowed under our feet as the door gives way. Rhiannon takes the first step out.
This is a high tech lab. Scientists scurry around and more clone soldiers patrol the room. In the center of it is a massive chamber, rising in a solid Hexagon.
"Hello, Ria," says Cinder, quickly showing up with his favorite Nanotop in his hands that he uses to record almost everything about me. My progress, my skills, how much I've eaten, my sleep. And annoyingly even my periods. And to think we used to go to the same Engagement lessons when we were kids, where he would pick on me. It just drives me nuts.
"It's Rhiannon."
"We know. So how's Myla doing?"
I cross my arms, "Ahem, you could ask me for once, you know?"
Cinder chuckles, his eyes all over his Nanotop, "No need. I always know." He holds up his device and various charts are on the screen with my auburn hair claiming a portion on the side. As I zero in on the chart labels I gap, astounded.
"You're even reading my hair pigment levels? That's impressively obsessive."
He pulls his Nanotop out of reach and puts his fake smile forward, "This way now."
Cinder leads us to the Hexagon Chamber while downsizing his Nanotop to a biscuit and tucking it in his back pocket. A large man in a robe stands outside the Chamber. His white beard almost swallows his face. This is the leading Elder. This is Artemis. Beside him are Phoebe and Thea, who in my opinion should be mom of the planet.
"Myla," says Artemis. "Doing well?"
"I am."
"Then step inside."
Rhiannon leads me to a spot next to Cinder. I stand on a steel grating and instantly a path of blue light illuminates from under my feet, straight to the Hexagon. Cinder hands me my Kronite Warrior belt—an extremely rare asset that I treat as a pet—and I wrap it around my waist.
I take a deep breath and gaze ahead as the Hexagon opens up with a hiss. Rhiannon whispers in my ear to calm me down. "Just keep your eyes on Phoebe. You'll be fine."
I almost laugh because Rhiannon and I used to call him bean-head behind his back a lot. It feels wrong in the guts to make fun of Phoebe 'cause he's a really cool guy. I wish we could have names for Cinder. Gosh! Why did the Universe make him so perfect?
"Off you go," says Rhiannon. I stroll over the glowing path toward a metallic structure inside the Hexagon, resembling a giant cage. Two green laser beams strike my eyes to scan me. If anyone else were standing where I am they would be smoke by now.
Once I'm in, the Hexagon shuts itself and the cage opens up, revealing a bright sphere floating in the air, pulsing between orange and white in steady beats. When it's orange you can see lines engraved in it that form pentagons, turning it into a beehive. The white flash is too bright and covers it up.
In the time I am able to recap my environment my hair has begun to float off my shoulders. The entire room is sizzling with energy. I raise my hand and my Warrior belt activates, sending threads of Kronite into the fabric of my sweatshirt and shorts, forming guards on my elbows and kneecaps. It meshes with my clothes to protect me if I'm ever under attack. The Elders proposed I wear it as often as possible to allow the Kronite to grow accustomed to me. Heights, curves and all.
As my palm approaches the orange ball in the air I shut my eyes and let the instincts guide. I make contact and grit my teeth to brace myself for the part I hate the most.
3
A million emotions and a million pictures pound through my head. All at once. My body shudders as the Oracle takes over. The veins in my forehead bulge. I feel like my brain is under attack. It's like trying to trap a waterfall in a single drop of water.
Being a Lebra with many strengths has never made this experience easy for me. I can't tell you what I see. I see too much. I see everything. It's like going to the past and being in every corner of Pandor at the same time. There is nothing to hold on to. Countless memories and voices crash inside of me, like an avalanche into my subconscious mind, where all history goes.
I feel hollow. Like a tunnel. The emotions of thousands of Pandorians thunder. Battle cries, laughs of the dead, love, hatred, pain and loss. They keep coming. Faster and faster like the speed of light and I scream.
Screaming is a normal part of this. It doesn't happen occasionally. But when I feel swamped I need to let it out. I arch my back, lean my head backwards and scream up. My hand feels glued to the Oracle so I can't let go if it hurts. My brain doesn't want any more of this but it won't stop.
I have fainted a couple of times. Especially when I was a beginner. I wouldn't want that to happen again. Artemis is always expecting so much from me. It would be embarrassing to let him down after working up a fairly good reputation in the last blue moon.
And there's also Rhiannon. I always want to make him proud. I bite down. Just a little more.
I no longer feel my body. I feel locked inside my own mind. Like a prisoner. Surrounded by so many things I don't want to see.
Surprisingly, it all stops abruptly. Like someone turned off the switch. I am left in the black. The darkness slowly drifts towards me. I can feel my body again. The veins in my head relax and I gasp desperately for a good breath.
As quick as a spark, battleships appear in space around a cloudy darkness, circular, and hovering over—
"NO!"
I fall back to a cushion on the floor with my heart in my throat. My chest sinks from what I've just seen. My pulse races over my already exhausted body.
The Hexagon opens up and Rhiannon and Cinder rush in for me.
"Myla, are you okay? You're panicking!" Rhiannon kneels beside me and puts his hand around my head. I roll my head back into his arms, seeing Cinder looking down. I gasp again, trying to recall what I saw.
"She saw something," says Cinder.
"Is that true?"
I reach for my voice but it seems to be missing. He takes my hand and I find some strength to say yes.
"What did you see?"
Cinder calls back through the door, "We need Energizer One. Hurry!"
My eyes rolls back at Rhiannon, almost blank.
"Myla, what did you see?" he repeats. "Don't black out now. You have to remember what you saw!"
I feel confused. Lost in the moment and trying to find myself. In five minutes everything I saw will be completely forgotten and passed into my subconscious self. I will have barely any access to them until I am a complete Lebra. And that is no time soon.
"Myla?"
"Battle..." it takes such an effort to put a word out. I gasp quickly. I may have only one more chance to say something that makes sense. A list of words start jumping inside of my head and I have to choose one. Wisely. My mouth gaps open, in need of air and my memory is slipping away.
"Yes. Battle and...?"
I stare back at him, losing myself into the world of blurs. Before his face fades away I find his deep black eyes and the right word finally clicks.
"... space."
A man in a green tunic, slides beside Cinder and places a face mask over me. The air fills in quick. It's so good I can almost taste it.
Rhiannon's mouth gawks as he connects the words. He knows what I've seen. But I can't read the expression on his face anymore. Everything I see smudges together and all feeling goes away. It's like falling asleep.
4
From here the clouds don't seem so far away. My arms are drawn up with my palms together, my body stretched into an arrow.
"Okay, pull it in," says Rhiannon.
I focus on my core as I pull in my lower muscles, releasing my arms down and then raising them up again, drawing the energy into my hands. I bring my foot up to my other knee, and unclasp my hands. A magnetic aura begins to surround me. I can feel it leaving my body. I shut my eyes to focus.
Please don't stop like last time.
"That's great!" Rhiannon claps.
I have a smile on my face. I am creating an orb a
nd I'm getting a little better at it. When I know I've got it right I open my eyes and see the proud look on his face.
Orbing is like having a flower blossom inside of you. You have to channel it out and express it through your body. You have to relax and use the right muscles at the right time to direct the orb into any expression you desire.
I started out with Mountain which requires stretching into the sky with your palms facing each other. When you feel the energy building up there's that climax you want to look for. Then it finally breaks out and you can make of it what you want.
When I first began practicing three blue moons ago, I thought orbs were ball-like force fields that surround you like a bubble. They're quite different. They do come in energy balls. Orbs have no real color.
But they have a peculiar effect. Orbs make things blurry. The air around me is sizzling with static, distorting the beautiful background into a haze. Even I seem a bit surreal to myself, like a hologram in the water.
Rhiannon pulls out a spoon from a makeshift table we use for fruit salads and tosses it to me. It bounces off my orb with sparks. He picks another spoon and does the same. My orb protects me again and I bite my lip. I want to have some fun here.
I raise both hands up like a fork and draw the magnetic feeling between my palms, sucking my orb into a ball and thrusting it at Rhiannon.
"Woah!" he dodges the blow and my orb smashes into the makeshift table. It explodes into pieces. Porcelain, wood and our fruit salad in shreds.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!"
Rhiannon laughs aside, "Brilliant, Myla."
"Thanks. But I just ruined our lunch."
He walks over to me and touches my cheek. He's a head taller than me. "You did great. And we can always get more fruit." He smiles, then looks over my head. I turn back and view the incredible landscape. This is my Outdoor Training Ground. It's an expanse platform and is three quarters high up the Tower. From here everything looks small. Except for the trees. They simply resemble a green carpet. The canopy marches down the city to the long beach. The massive jungle trees on the far right almost seem to reach into the clouds. Their treetops are covered in a thick fog that's been there for as long as I can remember. Towards the left the hills roll themselves into peaked mountains, where three pink glowing pyramids landmark the scene—home to the Elders.
Across the sky is the dome of our sister planet, Arius. I once had a friend. Her name is Xena. We attended Engagement together but after I was chosen her family moved her to Arius.
"I don't have many friends anymore."
I turn back to Rhiannon. He's moving to the bench by the railings. I follow his lead and sit across him. He tucks my hair behind my neck and traces my scalp with his finger.
"It will be better."
"I don't know. You say that a lot. I don't know what's cool about being a Lebra. It's like I'm the Elders's puppet. I wish I were in a different planet. Like Arius or Heamus."
"And where would I be?"
"Living next door."
"So I'd still have to put up with you smashing our fruit salads. Brilliant."
I laugh. Rhiannon always turns the tables around.
"Pandor can suck."
"You mean Artemis?"
"Yes." They have programmed me to please him but it doesn't mean I like him. After a tiresome battle with the Oracle he ordered Rhiannon to give me an Orb session.
"I got a plan," says Rhiannon, "Why don't we go to Earth?"
"Ha! Are you kidding me? Of all places? There are way better planets to run off to."
"I know. But you have an uncle there."
"And I can't understand why he would punish himself like that."
"What do you have against Earth?"
"They're like so old school. I learned about them in Engagement. They had a global war. Twice! Imagine if Pandor fought against itself. And to think they did it twice! Twice? They're maniacs. They barely care about their real problems."
"That's some opinion."
"It's a Lebra's opinion," I nod, "They need to get real."
I lean back and cross my arms. I love the idea of running away with Rhiannon. But I know that will never happen.
A bright light appears in the sky and shoots like a laser up through the clouds.
I sit up, startled. "What's that?"
In a heartbeat, the sky explodes into a blanket of light, traveling across the sky all the way to the green hills and glowing pyramids at the horizon. "Are we Shielding?"
We never do that unless there's some real danger. The last time it happened, I was chosen. On my initiation ceremony we stood at the base of the Tower and watched with cameras and screens how the turret of the Tower bulged into a beautiful bright light that beamed toward the sky and illuminated the entire planet within a flash.
They Shielded the planet to hide me from the enemies. Once I knew I was a Lebra my brain waves transmitted that awareness through space-time and anyone with the right tracker could find me. It's like how the Vine knows where to take you by reading the thoughts you air to it via telepathy.
To prevent my brain waves that carry my identity from escaping into space where our enemies would find them, they put up a shield. Plus, it also serves as a barrier between the dimensions of the Golgorians and our own. It's a weird and strange thing to say but the Golgorians are long gone and dead. They no longer exist in our dimension. But they're still out there. I'll explain that later. Right now Rhiannon is trying to avoid my gaze.
"What's happening, Rhiannon?"
His eyes blink and there's a subtle drop in his character, as if a veil was pulled back from his hidden concerns.
"Did I see something? Did I say something after the Oracle?"
"Listen. We don't want you to freak out."
"Tell me what happened, Rhiannon!"
"We thought it was best to not let you worry. Everything is under control."
"Well now I know something is wrong. We just shielded Pandor again—"
Another giant flash explodes in the sky and I jolt, spinning around. Arius is now covered in a dazzling radiance of its own, spreading over the planet and expanding into space where it fades out. The rays of the second Shielding reach our city, sparkling on our infrastructure. I turn back to Rhiannon with slits for eyes. "Two Shieldings!?"
"Not two. One each."
I cross my arms. My heart is galloping and my Warrior belt releases the Kronite back into my fabric, creating an armor once more. It does that when I sense danger. Or when someone's trying to zap me. Rhiannon knows by the Kronite that I am not walking away without an answer. I look him straight. "What's happening? Tell me what I saw."
He sighs, "Okay. When you finished with the Oracle, you were blacking out. And you were trying to say something."
"What did I say?"
"Two words. Battle and space."
My chest sinks and my eyes jump to the sky, "They're here!"
"No. Maybe not yet. We scanned the near space and we couldn't find trace of them. We Shielded again as an extra precaution. You're safe."
"I don't understand. How do you expect to scan for something that is almost not even real!?"
"We're not looking for the battleships. You know it's not about that. It's about Stretaka."
The name turns me cold. In Engagement we learned about the Great War between Pandor and Golgoria. Sometimes I catch glimpses of it from the Oracle. Capricorn was Lebra at the time. He led Pandor to victory. Some say it was the biggest war of the universe. Entire planets were annihilated. Golgoria was taking down one after the other. Arius and Heamus were next. Pandor stepped in to fight back with help from the Meteorans.
What made the Golgorians invincible was something that no planet has yet to replicate. They made a mind. They say it resembled a gigantic brain, hidden in one of the battleships, perfect in every way. A former leader named Stretaka had died during the beginning of the war and they preserved his brain. His ability to think and plan, to search and destroy was like none other.
They searched for a way to continue his genius. And that resulted into something bigger than all of us.
The mind of Stretaka controlled the Golgorian warships and their attacks. It was far superior than anyone ever imagined. Perfect at evading attacks. If you've ever played a game against a computer at its best you'd know what I mean. But programmed machines have loopholes. Minds at certain levels are just no match.
There was no way to defeat the Golgorians with such a weapon. No matter how much was sacrificed. After a long battle, Capricorn finally found a way. It probably wouldn't destroy the Golgorians but it would lock them away.
Capricorn sacrificed himself in the plan that required him to give up his life and his strengths. He could change the dimensions of any space as long as he was there. Dead or alive.
He opened a portal to a new dimension in the heart of the battle and locked himself away with Stretaka. In a whirlpool of darkness all the Golgorian battleships were sucked away, along with some of our own. The Great War was won.
For a while.
Now, the Golgorians are back. They're still caged in the darkness of their other-worldly dimension but they have power to step out. The good side is that they won't last an hour on any planet without disintegrating and dying for good. This dimension is not compatible for them. The bad side is they will be insanely powerful.
Rhiannon notices my distress. He puts his arm behind me and leads me back into the Tower. "Let's get you home."
"I don't like this," I tell him.
"I know. I'll take you home. Okay?"
"Okay."
The scariest thing about Stretaka is all about him. The Golgorians may disintegrate. But he won't. He's a mind. His essence is mental activity. He can go where he wishes, without limitation, just as much as x-rays would penetrate iron. The only thing stopping him is the Shield. I know he wants me. I know why he wants me.
Stretaka of all things, desires a body of great potential. A Lebra would be a perfect match. Me and him. We are compatible. But I will die. And Stretaka will return.