She was more confused than ever. “Machines? In his blood? What is this you speak of?”
“A nanite is a tiny machine first created by your distant ancestors eons ago,” Xith said. “Each component is so small, it cannot be seen by the naked eye. The boy lying before you produces a multitude of such devices in his form, and these help to facilitate the healing of his body. When his blood is consumed by other humans, a sufficient amount of these nanites will also initiate the recovery from any injuries as well as initiating the renewal of damaged cells- thus the effect can be a complete revitalization of diseased or failing organs. Of course, these nanites have a limited half-life, so the effects are temporary.”
Miri could not quite fathom everything she had heard, but it was enough to relieve her immediate worries. “Are you saying Rion will recover from the venom’s effects?”
Xith nodded. His voice was hollow and lacked tone. “Yes. You just need to give him some time. Orla poison is quite virulent, for it is a powerful multi-toxin that destroys both the nervous system and human tissue. Be patient, and I shall update you on his prognosis in due time.”
Even though she continued to converse with him, her mindsense was unable to detect his presence at all. It seemed her powers were unable to affect or influence him in any way. Since Xith indicated Rion was out of immediate danger, she decided to try and question him more on other things. “Where are we heading towards?”
Xith slightly adjusted his posture. “I have a series of chambers at the next station. You may find a few things of interest to you there.”
Miri decided to tell him the truth. “I am unable to sense your thoughts, yet you were somehow adept at calling out to Rion, and it led us to this place. How were you able to do such a thing?”
“When you see my true form, then you shall have the answers you desire.”
She decided to try another tact. “Why did you want Rion to search you out?”
Xith brought up his arm and pointed a greenish finger at the boy. “I am sorry to say he is the last of his kind. If this planet is to somehow recover, then he will be needed to do the work of a dozen.”
“I found him in the wastes,” Miri said softly. “All he remembers before was an intense suffering while at the hands of the Magi. Who are his mother and father?”
“The boy is the last of the star children,” Xith said. “They have no parents, for they were birthed in artificial wombs.”
Miri was taken aback. “But it cannot be true! Every child birthed into this world must have a mother and a father.”
“In technologically primitive societies it would be the rule, yes,” Xith said calmly. “But more advanced civilizations have unlocked the secret of genomes. With newfound knowledge, societies can breed humans selectively, even choosing their abilities beforehand.”
The tunnel had suddenly revealed an opening along its side. The gentle current soon brought the raft beside a small pier made of something similar to stone, and the watercraft soon ground to a halt. Miri stood up and saw there was an adjoining dry passageway that seemed to lead towards a set of doors. Globes of bright white light the size of a man’s head were suspended over the ceiling at spaced intervals, giving out a solid brightness equal to daylight. Strange humming noises seemed to emanate from the rooms beyond.
Miri had gone into a crouching position the moment the once sealed doorway at the far end of the dry tunnel seemed to open by itself. The noise of clanking, grinding metal followed as a bronze creature walking on eight legs emerged from the now opened doorway and began to approach the moored raft. Miri immediately grabbed her spear and held it in both hands.
Xith raised his scintillating hand in a gesture of peace. “Please do not be alarmed, it is merely a transport obot, which shall take the boy over to the infirmary.”
The man-sized obot had a rectangular body with a flattened top. The machine’s segmented legs resembled an octapede’s, as it crawled along the length of the adjoining tunnel before stopping beside the raft. Miri remained wary when the creature extended its two forward limbs and gently lifted the boy up before placing him on its back. As the obot began shuffling down the corridor, Miri leapt out of the raft and followed it closely, her spear at the ready.
“Where is that creature taking Rion?” she asked.
“To a room of healing,” Xith said, his body beginning to flicker in and out of existence. “My true form shall await you there.”
Miri quickly followed the metal creature as it shambled down the corridor and entered through the now opened doorway. The moment she walked into the high-ceilinged chamber she stifled a gasp. The large room was shaped like an octagon, with converging overhead arches supporting the top. More globules of light continued to radiate an intense brightness that nearly blinded her when she looked up. Along the sides of the hall were a number of strange, box-like machines that seemed to glow and hum with unseen power.
An elevated platform occupied the far end of the room. The obot mounted up the steps slowly, making sure the boy would not fall off its back. Miri continued to walk beside it, occasionally glancing with concern at Rion’s unconscious form. Another set of doors lay at the rear of the stage, and the middle entryway opened the moment she had made it to the top of the level. A hooded figure, not unlike the ghostly apparition on the raft, walked slowly towards them, only this time the form was made of solid material.
Stopping just a few paces in front of her, the figure made a slight bow before throwing off its hood, revealing a hairless man with bright green skin. His eyes were the color of cobalt blue, and had no pupils. He gave her a smile, showing perfectly proportioned white teeth and a violet tongue. “Greetings to you. Once again I am Xith, and this is my true form.”
Miri had to blink several times, just to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. “Are … are you human?”
He shook his head. “No. I am in fact a machine. I believe the word for my kind is andro.”
She let out a deep breath. “You are a machine? I-I would never have dreamed someone could create something akin to a man.”
“The previous generations of humanity were capable of great feats of invention,” he said. “But it was the reliance on this very technology which led to the sorry state of this world. Please follow me.”
The obot led the way past the door, and there was a similar chamber that lay beyond. The adjoining place was smaller, and there was a dais near along the side walls. The obot brought the wounded boy over beside the podium and placed him gently onto the table. Rion moaned a little but remained unconscious.
Looking around, Miri could see uncountable crystal prisms of varying sizes that seemed to float by themselves around the room, their scintillating, angled surfaces reflecting the light in varying hues. “What are these things?”
Xith plucked a fist-sized crystal from the air and held it before his eyes. “These are all that is left of my archives. I am sorry to say much of the memories here have been corrupted over the countless years since my creation. Nothing can truly stop the ravages of time.”
“Years?”
“Ah yes- the current word is cycle,” Xith said, correcting himself. “This room once stored all the collected history and information of this world, and the passing of time has rendered much of what contained here as lost. I cannot give you the full and exact answers to whatever you seek, for there are huge gaps within the archives, and these are no longer retrievable.”
Miri nodded. “I am beginning to fathom what you are saying. When I conversed with tellers before, they too have told me much knowledge of these lands are now lost.”
“Good, I had high hopes you would understand, for you are quite intelligent.”
“Let me repeat my query,” Miri said. “How were you able to call out to Rion?”
Xith looked towards the sleeping boy’s direction. “I communicated with his nanites.”
“The tiny machines living within his body?”
“Yes,” Xith said. “They can be controlled,
and can also be used as a means of remote communication. When the star children were being transported to this planet, each one of them was to make their way to me, so I could instruct them as to their tasks. Sadly, the transport they were traveling in was waylaid, and their guardians were killed. All this of course took place eons ago.”
“They were attacked? By whom?”
Xith shook his head. “I am afraid I do not know, nor do I have any inkling as to why. As I have said, there are huge gaps in my collective memory banks.”
Miri could only shake her head in disbelief. “There are so many things I would like to ask of you. I was led across these lands by a Gorgon, and it was she who told me to protect the boy.”
“Ah yes, the Gorgons,” Xith said. “They were to be the culmination of human evolution, only it did not turn out as everyone expected. Every human was supposed to be transformed into them, but those plans were soon done away with when their terrible power brought forth destruction on an unimaginable scale.”
Miri was aghast. “Are you saying the Gorgons were meant to be our future selves?”
“Yes, when humanity finally sent out their ships across the stars to forge new kingdoms in other worlds, Earth was to be left alone in order to heal the pollutions of technology and overpopulation, only something catastrophic happened.”
“What occurred?” Miri asked.
Xith gave a disappointed shrug. “I am afraid I no longer know what took place, for my memory has been lost. Suffice to say, much of the plant life died out, and the oceans were either frozen beneath the soil or evaporated into the atmosphere. The sun began to turn reddish and will soon collapse onto itself, but it will not happen until a few more eons pass.”
There was sadness in Miri’s eyes. “Then we have arrived at the end, not at the beginning.”
“All is not lost,” Xith said. “The star children were created to help return life back to this world. Their nanites hold the seeds of healing. But there are those who would oppose them, such as the Maker.”
“The people of these lands say the Maker is a living god, what do you know of him?”
Xith scoffed. “The Maker is nothing more than a machine. It was once a nanite factory to help fight pollution in the world’s atmosphere, only now the passage of time has corrupted its purpose.”
“If it is but a machine, then it can be stopped,” Miri said.
Xith nodded. “Yes it can. Before I sealed myself in these vaults countless cycles ago, my remaining spies had told me a Gorgon had taken control of the Maker. If you are to shut down the Maker, then this being must first be defeated.”
“But Gorgons are the most powerful beings of legend,” Miri said. “How could I possibly have the power to kill one?”
“Even Gorgons succumb to the passing of time,” Xith said. “From what little I know of her, she is the last of the First Three.”
“The First Three?”
“Upon their creation, there were only three Gorgons,” Xith said. “Neth, Elayris, and Idusa. The third sister was killed during the Great Rebellion led by the Magus Kaelr, when Neth fell in love with him and they defeated Idusa together. The First Three were the most powerful of the Gorgons, and their offspring produced descendants with lesser- yet still formidable- abilities.”
“I witnessed Neth’s passing when she helped me during my time in the Black Redoubt,” Miri said softly. “If what you say is the truth, then this remaining Gorgon must be Elayris.”
“Yes, Elayris,” Xith said. “She must already be somewhat weakened from her advanced age, yet her gift of Vis would still be formidable.”
“Then how could I defeat somewhat like her?”
Xith smiled and pointed at her chest. “The power lies within you.”
Miri frowned. Just before she died, Neth had said the same thing to her. “You are being too cryptic. The Gorgon I had encountered in the Black Redoubt said something similar to me, yet I could not truly understand what she meant.”
Xith continued to stare at her. “These eyes on my face do not just provide standard visual faculties, they also allow me to see your genetic imprint.”
“I do not understand.”
“My eyes can see your ancestral lineage, your genome sequence,” Xith said. “I know who your parents are.”
Miri gave him an incredulous look. “My father and mother? I am a child of the wastes, an orphan.”
“You are the offspring of Neth and Kaelr.”
The words hit her like a powerful sandstorm. Miri could hardly stand and her knees began to buckle. It was all too much. Her entire body began to tremble. “I … no … How can it be?”
“Neth chose you for a reason,” Xith said. “She knew her sister needed to be eventually destroyed, but she was far too weak to do so, and Kaelr was already dead. She therefore willed her daughter to return to her.”
Miri’s mind was in a daze. “How?”
Xith pointed to her weapon. “You carry your father’s spear. She knew about the star children, and how they were needed to restore the world to its former splendor.”
Miri was speechless. The revelations were proving too much.
“The Maker spews forth nanites into the air,” Xith said. “These machines help spread the rusting sickness across the lands because they use ferrous metal as fuel to prolong their half-life. The second set of nanites also prevents the precipitation of the atmosphere, the forming of water vapor in the air.”
Miri shook her head. “I do not … follow.”
“The world was once full of water lands, these were called oceans,” Xith said. “In order for these to form again, water must be liquid and the rains must fall. The nanites the Maker produces prevents such things from happening. By defeating the Maker, you can bring these oceans of water back.”
It was all beginning to sink in for her. “If I am a child of a Gorgon, then why can I not use the mindforce?”
“The power lies within your genome sequence,” Xith said. “But it is in a dormant state and must be brought forth.”
“How?”
“There is a way,” Xith said. “I can give you access to a genome chamber that shall bombard you with a different set of nanites, they will restructure your sequence to bring forth the power of the Gorgons, but the procedure is fraught with danger.”
Miri looked down. “This … ritual you speak of. Could it kill me?”
“There is a possibility,” Xith said. “The genome chamber has not been used for countless cycles, and its nanites may have been corrupted. The last offspring of the Gorgons who attempted to use it died when she was unable to suppress the agony, and the nanites ate her alive.”
Miri gritted her teeth. It was the very dream Rion had told her about. The red cloud of dust would eventually consume her, leaving nothing more than a bloody skeleton. It was the reason why the boy had been reluctant for her to accompany him. Now it all made sense. If she had any chance to defeat the Maker, she would have to undergo this trial.
She turned and stared into his pupil-less eyes. “I shall go to this chamber.”
The boy’s once blackened forearm had returned to a bright pink hue, and he was beginning to stir. Miri ran her hand along his hair once more, for she wasn’t sure she would get another chance to do so. There were so many things she wanted to tell him, but time was short. If she needed to enact the ritual, then it was better to get it over with while he was still resting. The one thing she didn’t want the boy to witness was her death.
Xith made his way back into the room. “I have recalibrated the nanites. The chamber awaits you.”
Miri stood up. She had taken off her clothes, for the molecular machines needed to get into contact with her bare skin. “If I meet my end, will you allow Rion to stay here with you? I cannot have him face the dangers of the world out there by himself.”
“I can offer him sanctuary here, but if he truly wishes to leave, I cannot stop him,” Xith said.
Miri started walking towards the exit. “Keep him he
re until he comes of age, at least. That is all I ask.”
Xith let out a short chuckle as he strode beside her. “He will remain in his childlike form for at least a hundred cycles. His nanites constantly regenerates his cells so his aging is retarded.”
“I am not concerned if it takes two hundred cycles- he is too weak to be out there alone,” Miri said tersely as they both walked into a narrow corridor behind the room. “If you claim I am the daughter of Neth and Kaelr, then I myself must be thousands of cycles old.”
“My memories are incomplete,” Xith said. “Suffice to say I do not know the exact details of how you were born or raised. Perhaps you may find out more when you encounter other vaults such as these.”
“Vaults?”
Xith nodded as they rounded a bend in the corridor. “Yes, before the disaster that ruined the planet, your ancestors had decided to safeguard various forms of life and knowledge. They were eventually sealed in what are called the Vaults- secure depositories that contain the elements to bring back life to the lands above. If you defeat the Maker, you must travel across the planet and rediscover these lost places in order to make the world livable again.”
Miri bit her lip. “It seems like this is but a never ending task you have set out before me.”
They came upon another door, only this was made of clear glass. Xith touched a bronze plate beside the entryway and the barrier parted, allowing them to enter the room beyond. The inner chamber was divided by numerous glass partitions, and in the center of the place was what looked to be a cylindrical crystalline cage with a white base. The walls around them were of a pale white hue, emphasizing a sparse, impersonal interior.
“You may step inside the chamber, and I shall initiate the nanite sequence,” Xith said.
Miri did as she was told. The glass cylinder descended downwards until it reached the floor, totally encasing her in a transparent enclosure. She wasn’t quite sure what would happen next, but she had been steadily building up her reserves of Vis just in case.
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