by Blake Vanier
The children clamor down the stairs toward the arena where they check in with a Borukin.
Iona watches Ryder and Nero walk to the red team, while Thea and Korbin wait for her on the blue team. She smiles. I hope we beat them.
They walk toward an older Borukin girl who is separating the other children into two groups. “Humans?” She says with a bit of disappointment. “Can you at least use Aether?”
“Heck yes,” Thea says. “We’ll smoke anyone who gets in our way.”
The Borukin girl smiles. “I like it. Well, obviously you’ll be taking lepisents. We’ll start you off on defense, so go over there.” She points to one of the groups.
“What?” Korbin says. “I want to be offense. I’m going to get the Orb!”
“Yeah, and Stone’s mother was an Erohsian… I tell you what, if you prove yourself, I’ll let you make an attack run with me.”
Korbin grudgingly accepts and the Human children join the defense group with a few Borukins that Iona recognizes from school.
Once the rest of the children finish filing into the arena, the competitors select their Aether objects. The offensive team mostly gets lepisents, while the defensive team only gets styks.
The game starts with a blue explosion of Aether in the center of the arena. The children yell in excitement. Iona and the others watch from a distance as the children at the boundary take turns advancing on the other side only to be pushed back.
“This sucks,” Korbin says. “We should go up there and get some action.”
“Protecting the orb is important, too,” Iona says. “I’m sure there’ll be someone any moment.”
Eventually, one of the larger children from the other side runs past the defenders and zaps two others with Moltrik Aether that leaves them convulsing on the ground.
“Woo!” Iona says and points. “Here comes one now.”
The boy just barely dodges a volley of Aether from the Humans. He glares at them for an instant then runs to the side of the Arena.
“Get him!” Korbin says, running after the Borukin.
“Yeah!” Thea starts running.
Great… Iona looks at the orb and the other defenders then chases after her friends.
Thea catches him. He blocks a couple of Thea’s attacks with his lepisent, but she quickly overwhelms him. He falls to the ground.
“I got him!” Thea says, dancing.
Korbin kicks the dirt. “He was totally mine.”
The boy slowly starts to get up. “Stupid Humans. Why don’t you go back to your babysitter?”
Korbin steps toward him. “Who are you calling stupid? You’re the one that just got toasted by a girl a quarter your size.”
“I toasted your buns on high!” Thea says as she dances. “Totally well done and crispy.”
“You better show some respect or you’ll regret it.”
Thea stops dancing. “I’m sorr―”
“What are you going to do?” Korbin asks. “You’re out. It’s game over for you. Do you want a tissue because it looks like you’re going to cry? You poor baby―I mean Borukin.”
Yells erupt from the other side of the field. A large skirmish breaks out. Kids rush to the fray, followed closely by the officials.
Korbin looks at the fight then back to the Borukin boy. “Uh oh. That doesn’t look good for you.”
The boy scowls. He turns his lepisent on Korbin, zapping him twice. Korbin falls to the ground, thrashing.
“Hey, that’s cheating! You can’t do that,” Thea says, stomping her foot. She looks around to get an official’s attention, but they are all turned away.
He turns and shoots at Thea. She jumps out of the way, just in time. Another group of Borukins join him. They all start shooting at the girls. Thea and Iona block a few attacks but are overcome. Moltrik Aether courses through Iona’s body, making her muscles clench painfully and sporadically. She falls to the ground, curled into the fetal position.
“Jerrik, we saw you got zapped by a little girl and came over to see if you needed help braiding her hair,” a Borukin girl says. The others laugh.
“Shut your dumb face, Sadie.”
“Jeez, take a joke.”
“Whatever.” Jerrik glances in the direction of the distracted officials then turns to the Humans. “These Humans think they’re better than us.” He zaps Korbin again. “What are we going to do about it?”
They zap the girls as well, laughing. Thea starts to whimper.
“So pathetic,” Jerrik says.
Ryder runs over. “Hey, stop. They’re out.” He looks at Iona. “Are you okay?”
Iona nods, trying to stand up.
“Go get the orb and mind your own business,” Jerrik says.
“These are my friends.”
“Then you should join them.” Jerrik shoots Ryder.
Ryder defends but is hit and falls to the ground. The Borukins laugh and zap them all once more.
Nero steps in front of Iona and Thea.
The Borukins stop, frowning at him. “Oh you, the wannabe. What are you doing out of the corner I put you in? What do you expect to happen now? A little thing like you… and you found a styk. That’s so cute. Get out of here before we hurt you like the rest.”
“Go get help,” Iona barely whispers.
“Leave them alone.”
Jerrik grins. “You asked for it.” He shoots a ball of Aether at Nero.
Nero hits the ball of Aether into another boy who falls to the ground in spasms.
Iona pain’s is suddenly an afterthought. What?
“Get him!”
Nero blocks, dodges, and sends their attacks back at them, putting several down.
“How are you doing this?” Jerrik asks.
“It’s called Odo. Have you tried it?”
Was that a comeback?
Jerrik growls and points to Sadie, who has a styk. “Give him a free lesson in Roroon. If you break any bones, I wouldn’t hold it against you.”
Sadie steps forward, attacking Nero in perfect form. Nero clumsily blocks a few of her strikes, but she hits him in the elbow and the leg, causing him to curl over. She follows through with a strike to his ribs, which he takes with a grunt. He wraps his arms around her styk as he falls to one knee.
Sadie smiles. “Are you teaching me the ‘grab the styk and call for mommy’ technique?”
She tries to pull her styk free and her smile falls away. Sadie puts her foot on Nero’s shoulder, pulling with all her might. The styk won’t budge. Nero whacks her in the knee then the hand, causing her to let go and stumble backward.
“Did you seriously just let him take your styk from you?” Jerrik asks.
“I couldn’t draw. He’s cheating somehow.”
“Yeah, good excuse.” Jerrik grabs a styk from another Borukin. “Let me show you how it’s done.”
Nero straightens himself as best he can, holding his two styks up.
The Borukin charges. Before he can get to Nero, Sosimo knocks him over. “Enough!” He looks at the shocked Borukin children. “You are all a pitiful example of Borukins and should be ashamed. Get out of here before I do something stupid.”
They run off. Iona pushes herself up, noticing the game is over. Everyone is filing out of the Arena.
“They were such cheaters,” Korbin says once standing.
Sosimo nods as he helps Thea up. “They were, but I was more pleased to see you all standing up for each other. That’s family.” Sosimo turns to Nero. “That was the sloppiest and most oddly impressive demonstration of Odo I’ve seen in a long time. You didn’t tell me you were actually performing Odo with Saraf. Maybe you should train with us sometimes, too. It looks like the others could use more practice with defense.”
“Yeah, that was awesome!” Thea says. She hugs Nero. “Thanks for making them stop. It really hurt. How did you do it?”
Nero shrugs. “I saw them hurting you all and I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Thanks, Nero,” Korbin says q
uietly.
“How are the ribs? I saw you take a good shot to the side.” Sosimo gently pokes Nero’s side and moves his arm around. Nero grimaces. “It’s going to be sore, but I don’t think there’s any serious damage. I think you all deserve some ice cream. What do you say?”
“Yeah!” Thea leaps up. She grabs Nero’s hand and pulls him toward the exit.
24
Recuperation for Body and Mind
Isis
Do you think I want this?
Isis opens her eyes. Her heart is racing. It takes her a moment to remember where she is. When she does, she sees an Erohsian doctor reviewing the holographic screen on her wrist computer.
The doctor smiles, closing her computer. “Good morning, Isis. I'm glad you finally got some sleep. How are you feeling?”
“Meh.” Isis closes her eyes, waiting for a wave of nausea to pass.
“That's from the accelerators. You’ll be feeling like that for a few days, as much as we had to pump into you.”
“When can I leave?”
“Well, let's see. You had multiple third degree burns from shrapnel melting through your armor. You have a sprained shoulder and a broken wrist. Your spine is bruised, and a number of your ribs are broken. There’s some minor internal bleeding. The base of your skull is fractured from when your helmet was ripped off. Your throat is bruised. Overall, you should be here for a little over a week total.”
“That’s unacceptable.”
“Were you listening? If it weren't for the accelerators and other treatments, you'd be in the hospital for months.”
“You need to do better.”
The doctor's eyebrows rise. “I heard I was treating a female Erohsian officer and had a glimmer of hope you'd have some sense.”
“Don’t talk to me about sense. The only reason Erohsia is anything is because the men have the drive to get things done. If I’m to keep up, I can’t be in here a week. They’ll show me no mercy.”
“Like the way they showed the Humans no mercy when they took their land?”
“Oh, don’t tell me you’re one of those touchy-feely Human sympathizers. They’re a dangerous race, and they need to be monitored.”
“Any race is dangerous with too much power,” the doctor says. “How do you think they feel about us?”
“Please.” Isis throws up her free hand. “I’m not sure if I’m nauseous from your sympathizing or from the drugs. Will you just get me something for it?”
The doctor lets out a sigh, nodding. “There was a General Belshiv to visit. I told him you needed rest. Will you permit visitors now?”
“No. I’m not in the mood.”
“Okay, then. I’ll be back soon with something for your nausea.” The doctor walks out.
Isis repositions herself, looking at her bed stand. She sees her wrist computer and carefully reaches for it. The holographic screen pops up perfectly in front of her.
Isis has a long list of messages, several from General Belshiv. I’ll deal with that later. She calls the field doctor from the medical pod.
After a moment she appears on Isis’s screen. “Ma'am, how are you feeling?”
“Wonderful…”
“I'm not surprised. I'm still impressed we cut you out of your armor in one piece.”
“Did you find anything about what the heck we were chasing?”
“As you know, all of the targets were killed. The primary target was shot multiple times and he was confirmed dead on site by a soldier on your order.”
“Were you able to confirm as well?” Isis asks.
“After stabilizing your condition and sending you to Sunta, I ordered the bodies of the targets to be brought back and isolated. It seems, though, RIGID found my preliminary report interesting and snatched up the bodies before I could examine them.”
“Damn. Anything that could drastically enhance a soldier to the level we saw would definitely catch their attention. Did the spooks take everything?”
“They missed a few blood samples I had stashed. I was able to look at them more closely.”
“What did you find?”
“Well, I'm not so sure our soldiers were actually traitors.”
“Why?”
“They all have an infection. It seems to have a tremendous effect on the body, so it could have easily affected their minds. Whatever it was, we only saw the tip of its full potential.”
“The infection? What do you mean?”
“It was developing, turning into something else, becoming more efficient. That's why the later targets were faster and stronger than the first ones we took out. In their blood, I found three distinct components. The first one was normal Erohsian cells. The second, was cells that were infected and mutated. I’m guessing those are the source of their increased strength, speed, healing, and Aether abilities.”
“And the third component?”
“It’s hard to tell. All I found were remains of something foreign.”
“What do you mean by remains?”
“Whatever it was, it was coming apart. I think this explains why the victim we had in the medical pod died so quickly. The infected cells showed an increased rate of degeneration, which leads me to believe they have some sort of dependency on this foreign body.”
“Wouldn't you expect some sort of degeneration after death?”
“Yes, of course, but not this quickly or to this extent. If this foreign organism disintegrated and the infection spread to the heart, the heart would fail. I’m just grateful we didn’t see further progression of the infection. I’m not sure we’d recognize them as Erohsians. And to think how hard they’d be to kill…”
“We’d find a way.”
“I imagine you would. Is there anything else?” the medical officer asks.
“No. Keep me informed if you learn anything new.”
“Yes, Ma'am.”
Isis hangs up, then calls her secretary.
“Hello, Ma'am. I'm glad to see you up. How are you feeling?” he asks.
“Wonderful. Anything come up since I last checked in?”
“The scientist, Alec Frey, called. He says he’d like to talk to you about an item of mutual interest when you're available.”
Isis sits up straight. “Really?” She feels a sharp pain in her side and settles back down. “Did he say anything else?”
“Nope. I asked if he wanted to leave a better message, but he insisted on talking to you directly.”
“Okay. Is that all?”
“There’s one interesting turn of events with the Human uprising, but it can wait until you’re out.”
“What happened?” Isis asks.
“It appears they’re gaining a bit more momentum. Do you remember the Human Art Lively?”
“Yes, he's an Erohsian loyalist, correct?”
“That was correct. He just flipped sides. He had a large public speech where he criticized every Human policy we have. He said that Catalyst is the only hope the Humans have if they ever want to escape our tyranny. We had to send in the riot squads to calm the Human crowd, which, of course, further upset them.”
What flipped him? “Did the terrorists get to him?”
“Potentially. We have reports that say he was acting a little odd. He could have been drugged. We’re trying to talk with him, but we can't locate him. I'll let you know if there are further developments.”
“Good. I should be out within the week. Send me the reports as soon as you can.”
“Yes, Ma'am.”
“Any word on the orphans?”
“We still haven’t been able to learn the identity of the Borukin who helped the children.”
“Did you request entry information from the Borukin Gate?”
“Yes, but they still can’t recover the records. Much was destroyed by the Drebin.”
“Keep looking.”
Isis ends the call and takes a deep breath, trying to get through the nausea and frustration. I hope there’s a bucket nearby… She closes her eyes.
After a moment, her stomach settles.
I can’t help what I’m doing.
She awakes with a kick, relaxing the moment she sees her hospital room. That’s getting to be annoying. Her heart settles after a minute, and she calls Alec.
“Isis, I heard the news. Are you okay?” Alec asks, concern playing across his face.
“I'm fine. What did you find out?”
“Right to business, as usual. Even a hospital bed can’t curb your spunk.”
Isis rolls her eyes. “Cute. So, what’d you find?”
“Seriously, Isis, how are you?” Alec looks at her, his vibrant blue eyes intent.
She hesitates for a moment, then lets out a breath, her face relaxing. “I’m okay. Having a little trouble shaking the bastard, but I’ll manage. Thanks for asking.”
Alec smiles. “Of course. Now, since you’re not dying, let’s get to business. I've been doing research… I’ve found three pieces of active ancient technology similar to the one you found. They’re dated to the same time, within the uncertainty of the measurement. Your piece, though, is in much better condition than the others. It’s amazing.”
“Any idea of what they do?”
“The other three pieces are called Braunstadt pieces. They’re named for the person who first made the correlation between them. No one’s had any luck cracking the tech, so there are only theories.”
“And what might some of these theories be?” Isis asks.
“The one I like suggests that each one is connected to one of the six Corusnigmas located around the world.”
Isis lets out a breath. “If you’re going to suggest they’re some kind of key to opening the monoliths, I might fire you.”
“You wouldn’t, and we both know it. I’m the smartest scientist in Sunta, and I know you have a thing for me.”
“Oh please, get over yourself,” Isis looks away, hiding a small smile.
“Why are you so against the idea?” Alec asks.
“Of you and me?”
Alec assumes a stern expression, which is belied by a twinkle in his eye. “Can we please keep this professional, Isis? I’m talking about the Corusnigmas. What makes it so hard to believe that they can be opened?”