The Relics- The Keystone Trilogy - Part 1

by Michael K. Damron

  “Damn,” said Ferra. “That makes this stuff way more interesting.”

  “Do you still have a hard time sensing morphacite?” said Alexie.

  “Yes, my sister and I just don’t have the right genes for it, I guess. Even so, Garnet and I have done well with developing our telepathy—even been practicing mind control a little bit on one another.”

  “That’s what Jack and I did to develop our abilities!” said Alexie, her countenance shifting from excited to sorrowful.

  “You have a real connection with him, don’t you?”

  “Yes. It . . . it was totally unexpected. It’s deeper than anything I thought I could, or ever would, experience with someone. While we were on Cyprus—Bridgett, Butch, and I—an eerie sensation materialized inside me and I knew something was happening or going to happen to Jack. If I’d only listened to my intuition, I could have—”

  “They would’ve thought you were crazy, for one thing,” said Ferra.

  “I know, but I’m not crazy. Jack felt something too, before we all split into teams and went on our missions. I didn’t pay him any attention, though. I said everything was going to be fine.”

  “Alexie, you’re not to blame. You need to pull yourself together so you can be there when we rescue Jack and Marcel from the rogues.”

  “Ha, you’re right, Ferra” she said, smiling. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk this much.”

  “Don’t get used to it,” said Ferra, smirking.

  “I won’t,” said Alexie, giving her a hug.

  As they exited Jack’s room and walked down the hall, Ferra gave Alexie one more bit of advice before heading to her room.

  “It may be a futile effort, but you should try to form a cognitive link with Jack.”

  “What? Ferra, it’s a nice idea, but—”

  “If the two of you have such a strong connection with each other, it’s at least worth seeing how far you can take it. I can sense my link with Garnet from miles away. It may be a crazy idea, but we’ve both seen a crazy thing or two since we’ve been here.”

  “You know what, you may have a point,” said Alexie.

  Ferra nodded and continued on to her room. Assuming the warp to Harbin would happen soon, Alexie hid the notebooks among her things and walked back down the corridor to the elevator. Before pressing the button to open its doors, she paused and closed her eyes. Focusing as intensely as she could, Alexie attempted to send a cognitive link into the ether, hoping it would hit its intended target and let her know Jack was okay.

  A blue light flashed from the crack below the door as the sound of a portal sizzling into existence found its way into the room where Jack and Marcel were being held.

  “I think they’re finally here,” said Mark, his face beaming with excitement.

  “Who, the ones that’ll supposedly change my mind about joining your cause?” said Jack. “Some all-powerful authority figure coming to make me an offer I can’t refuse?”

  Mark opened the door to greet the rogues on the other side, but not enough for Jack to see who they were.

  “I’m so glad you’re finally here,” said Mark. “Were you excited when you heard we got him?”

  “I was absolutely elated—exuberant, in fact!”

  Jack was taken aback by the voice. It was familiar to him, but he couldn’t place it while in such a stressful predicament. As the door swung open, Nigel walked into the dimly lit room and planted himself in front of Jack.

  “N-Nigel! Wha—? said Jack, unable to complete a coherent thought.

  “In the flesh!” he said. “Good to see you, Jack. And, oh, Marcel, you’re . . . well, you’re unconscious and can’t hear me. Looks like you’ve had a rotten evening, though!”

  “I thought you were dead! At least, that’s what John told us.”

  “Well, of course he said that. I am dead!” said Nigel.

  “N-no, you’re right in front of me. You’re very much alive.”

  “Yes, I’m still alive here, but . . . you see, the reason they think I’m dead is . . . Oh, this is ridiculous. I simply can’t talk to you like this.”

  Nigel lifted his hand and shifted the morphacite away from Jack’s body. Jack noticed his muscles were stiff as he was helped to his feet.

  “Ha! You’re looking like you’ve had a bit of a rough time getting here,” said Nigel.

  “I’m so confused right now. Would you please tell me what the hell is going on?”

  “Yes, of course,” said Nigel, clearing his throat. “Without further ado, I present to you, the person you’re really wanting to hear from.”

  Nigel motioned to the doorway, where another dark figure’s frame stood in the opening. Stepping into the light, James, Jack’s father, appeared before them. Jack cycled between a look of horror and astonishment, unable to utter a single word.

  “Hi, Son,” said James.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  A NEW BEGINNING

  Jack succumbed to the shock of seeing his father, alive and in the flesh, by turning white in the face and losing the ability to keep his knees locked in place. To prevent his son from dropping to the floor, James acted fast and moved a chunk of morphacite behind Jack to help him stay upright.

  “Dad, this . . . this is impossible!”

  “Afraid not, Jackson. There are more possibilities than you can fathom,” said James.

  “But I saw your lifeless body! It couldn’t have been a trick. I know it was you.”

  “You’re not wrong, Son. I did die—Nigel too.”

  “I . . . I don’t understand. Are you some kind of zombie or something?”

  “Ha! I don’t know, Nigel, are we zombies?” said James, turning to his friend.

  “No, sir, I believe there’s a different explanation for why we’re still alive and kicking,” he responded in a playful tone.

  “There’s a lot you’ve yet to learn, Jack,” said James. “But first, what do you say you and I go surprise your mother with your presence?”

  “Mom’s here!” said Jack, excited and confused.

  “She sure is. And boy, did I ever have some explaining to do when she saw me.”

  “I think I’d like some more explaining, myself,” said Jack.

  “All in due time, Son. You’ll learn everything you need to know, soon enough.”

  James put his arm around Jack and began leading him through the unfamiliar building. The adjoining room James and Nigel warped into led to others that brimmed with natural light. Jack had never walked through a house so large. He couldn’t tell where they were, but the architecture and decor within hinted at a Japanese aesthetic. Here and there, Jack noticed the odd sight of small robots and drones autonomously moving or flying around the building’s interior. They were unlike anything he had seen before. Everywhere he looked, there were also large collections of morphacite stacked in corners—more than he had ever seen while at the Searcher facility. At the end of a narrow hallway, James pushed open a door to reveal Melissa, Jack’s mom, on the other side, sitting with a book in her hands. Upon seeing her son, she sprang up and wrapped her arms around him.

  “Jack! Oh, Son, is it really you?” she said, proceeding to kiss him on the cheek. “Your dad was saying he wasn’t sure how long it would take or how easy it would be to rescue you. Thank goodness you’re okay!”

  “I’m glad you’re okay too, Mom,” he said, smiling with relief.

  She began to look him over, quickly noticing dried blood on his left forearm and a scar that resembled a multi-branched lightning bolt.

  “James, I want you to look at this. You said he wouldn’t get hurt. Just look at his arm!”

  “Oh, he’s a strong, young man. The blood on his forearm is from us having to remove his citizen chip, just like we had to do with yours, sweetheart. You knew we needed to act quickly and take it out the moment he was away from the Searchers. Besides, it looks like his exo’s already helped heal the wound.”

  Melissa looked down at her own forearm t
o observe the bandage covering the still-healing scar from when hers was removed. “I just don’t like seeing my baby boy with an injury.”

  “Mom,” said Jack, drawing out the word.

  “I don’t want to hear it, Jackson. You’ll always be my little boy and I’ll always want to protect you.”

  Jack blushed and rolled his eyes.

  “I will say that lightning-like scar on your arm has a mean look to it,” said James. “How on Earth did you get that one?”

  “It was from an electric blast that came out of an old trap when it detonated during a mission with the Searchers. Mark actually left a note at the site to warn us. But, as it turned out, the twins’ telecoms weren’t working right, so they couldn’t be alerted to the danger. By the time we made it to them, Garnet found the trap and accidentally triggered the blast.”

  “Oh, no!” said James. “I remember Mark telling me about the ancient trap he discovered. It was inside an old jungle temple, if I remember right. If you received an injury like that, what happened to the twins? Did they make it out all right?”

  “Yes, they’re okay. Garnet took the brunt of the blast from behind a morphacite shield I formed in front of her to try and block the explosion. It was a close one, but she recovered after a few days in the medical ward and, luckily, Ferra received even less of a scar than I did.”

  “That was quick thinking, Jack. You very well saved the girls’ lives.”

  “Yeah. Thanks, Dad . . . I just . . . You still haven’t told me what the hell is going on with everything around here. I mean, this is all insane, right? First, you’re dead, then Nigel, then Mom goes missing, then I’m abducted by the supposed enemy and taken here for the strangest family reunion I could imagine. Why? How?”

  James gave a knowing look to Melissa before turning to his son to say, “Come on, Jack, we should take a walk. I’ll explain everything as best I can.”

  As James turned to exit the room, a small of the morphacite in a corner of the room began to move and make plinking sounds as it formed into the shape of an elk, no more than a couple feet tall. It galloped toward James, who outstretched his hand and reformed the tiny creature into a cube before placing it back in the corner.

  “Wait, you have a familiar too?” said Jack.

  “You know what that is? I’m impressed, Jack. As skilled as I may be with morphacite, it can be hard to keep my familiar from making an appearance when it wants to.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The poor thing follows him like a puppy,” said Melissa. “Well, it’s much less intimidating when it’s small. If it forms itself from a large mass of morphacite, that’s when it can seem a little scary.”

  “Yes, I agree,” said James. “I’ll better explain familiars to you later, Son. For now, there are other things we need to talk about.”

  They walked outside into a sprawling garden with lanterns adorning either side of a stone path. Small ponds of water connected via narrow streams with arched bridges to allow passage over them. Many large stones were placed in select locations throughout the landscape. Pine trees and Japanese maples embellished the space, while lotus, iris, and horsetail plants enhanced the land’s beauty. As Jack walked across the first bridge with his father, he noticed a collection of large carp swimming below. Just as he saw inside the large home, more unique kinds of automatons, both terrestrial and airborne, inhabited the outside area.

  “This place is beautiful—so serene,” he said.

  “The area certainly is peaceful,” said James. “I don’t know if you can tell by the house or the surroundings, but we’re at a remote location in Japan—somewhere on Shikoku Island, to be exact.”

  “I was getting a feeling we were in some Asian country while walking through the house. Although, I have to say, it’s strange to see these robots everywhere I go.”

  “Ah, yes, the robots. They’re the creations of one of our team members. She’s brilliant, and it seems as though she makes the droids out of some inner drive or compulsion. She’s able to do every technological thing we ask of her, so, in return, we let her do whatever else she wants that makes her happy. You’ll meet her soon, she’s quite interesting.”

  “She sounds like an interesting character . . . There’s something I’m curious about, knowing where we are. I haven’t heard of many warp crystals anchored to anywhere in Japan. At least, I don’t think I heard of any while I was at the Searcher facility,” said Jack.

  “You’re thinking right. Mark and I created the ones anchored to this island ourselves. There’s a few that exist and are anchored to Japan’s larger islands, but none to our current location that we didn’t create.”

  “Ah,” said Jack, looking across the landscape with a vacant gaze.

  “Well, Son, are you ready for me to tell you everything from the beginning?”

  Jack nodded his head, curious about the events that transpired and led to him to standing beside his father in that exact moment. When James placed his hand on the back of his son’s neck, he was able to show Jack a firsthand experience of everything that happened along the way.

  It all started when I received a call from a higher-up in the AEB regarding a new job position they wanted me to fill. The way they described it made me intrigued as to the importance of the job. After a blood test and several conversations about the new division, I met Mark and Nigel. A short time later, I was asked to complete a simple request before I could join the division: reach out and touch a levitating sphere. Once my skin made contact, the exo traveled up my arm and onto my back. That’s when it began to unfold and implant itself, sending the long, metallic wires held within throughout a multitude of muscle fibers in my body, up and down my spine, and into my brain.

  Months later, after several archaeological digs and a litany of training sessions with Mark, I met Rakiten. He decided to spend a short time with me, explaining how I still possessed a well-intact, ancient gene strain. With his training, I learned to do things with my exo I couldn’t have ever imagined. My abilities quickly escalated from having an elementary control over morphacite to achieving a strong dominion over it. In addition, the standard cognitive links I could achieve evolved into full-blown mind control. Time flew by as we found more of the ancient relics and added new members to the Searcher division. My abilities eventually surpassed Mark’s to such a degree, Rakiten started making more frequent trips to the division so he could take my training further. With him as my mentor, I began to gain control over aspects of gravitational physics, develop greater intuition and anticipation with my surroundings, and find the capacity to increase my physical strength beyond normal human levels. I started to become intoxicated with the power Rakiten conjured from within me.

  It wasn’t long, however, until Mark inadvertently entered Rakiten’s mind and saw the designs the Archon had for the Searcher division. He saw the vast wealth and power of the AEB founders that had been kept hidden from the world for decades. After telling me of what he learned, and hearing of the Archon for the first time, I began to notice little phrases and hints from Rakiten that pointed to something malevolent. In secret, Mark and I told Nigel, Freya, and Seb the intentions of Rakiten and the Archon, while also convincing them to defect with us. A couple others had just joined the Searcher division, but we had no time to vet them and convince them to defect with us. The day for taking action was close at hand, and the plan was anything but simple.

  Mark, Seb, and Freya were tasked with stealing a large majority of the morphacite, exos, and warp crystals on hand at the facility, then they needed to create a distraction by fighting their way out. While John helplessly watched and the new Searchers were too callow to resist in any meaningful way, Nigel and I pretended to have a difficult time fighting Mark and his fellow defectors. I chose to stay behind and not go with them, at first, because of you and your mother. Mark, Freya, and Seb—they didn’t have a child or a spouse to worry about. Nigel didn’t either, but he decided to stay with me and help with getting you and Mom
to safety. You must understand, if I defected with Mark and the others, Rakiten would have likely gone after you and your mother to use as leverage against me, or worse.

  While Rakiten began a mission to hunt down the Searchers who went rogue, I was placed in the division’s lead Searcher position after Mark’s betrayal. John handled the administrative, recruiting, and mission coordination work while I conducted research and trained the next generation of Searchers. Everything I did for the division from that point forward, however, was a facade. After figuring out how to anchor morphacite between two states, I began using it to place secret messages in pocket-sized notebooks between pages written with regular ink. To assist with the rest of my plan, Mark told me of a technological genius he’d recruited. I had her place an untraceable tracking chip in my old necklace—the one I always used to wear. The next step was to place the necklace with the notebooks in my office at home, letting you know of their location in the video I left for you. I then found a container holding an exo at the division and tasked Nigel to give it to you on the day of your graduation, a good while after my supposed death. He was also told to give you a scrambler so you could listen to my video in complete privacy, without the worry of the message being intercepted by anyone.

  My death, as well as Nigel’s, is where the plan gets a bit more creative . . . and macabre. On a hunt for more relics, Mark found the recipe for a serum which allows those injected with it to harness even more power from their exo. Simply put, the serum gave me the ability to use my exo and gain access to nearly anything I needed from an infinite number of realities. For my plan to work, everyone had to believe I was dead, even my own son and wife. To achieve such a feat, I pulled my own body from another version of reality wherein I suffered a premature death. It was another version of myself in which my life had ended. My exo must have removed itself from my body when I died, as I noticed it on the ground, recoiled into its original spherical form while a large void remained in my back where it was once implanted. When the moment was right, while using a mask as a disguise, I dropped my lifeless body at the Searcher facility’s front entrance. Naturally, they would have no clue my corpse on their doorstep wasn’t the real me from this reality.