Chapter 21 – Did You Hear the Draken’s Call?
The ship had been flying through the air for several hours since they had left the Magnam village. Most of the crew went to their respective rooms, save Levitas who sat in the main room on the couch, Wander sitting at his right. Zephay was sitting over on a chair to the right of the room, his legs propped up on the unfolding leg rest of the chair. Alos sat on the center rug, cross-legged, playing with his new hand to pass the time.
“So we're headed to Alarcin now right?” Wander said, his body laid out in a heap of flesh on the couch.
“We are going to the plaza there, yeah.” Levitas replied, pulling himself up from the pit of the couch and looking over at Wander. “We’ll be there soon enough, just relax.”
“Says the man with all his stuff.” Wander replied, grabbing hold of his snot green suit and pulling it. “I think it’s pretty understandable that I want to get out of this shit.”
Zephay laughed, pulling his head up, displaying his smirk. “At least you get to change, be thankful for that. I have to wear this.”
Alos laughed and then pulled out his Orb, pulled down his goggles, and powered up. He checked his messages which were surprisingly empty, except for one which was from Big Beastin'. He selected the message, opening it. It read,
“Where have you been?????? Are you alright? I haven’t heard from you since that night. Message me back when you can.”
Alos’ mouth curled up into a guilty clump of lips. He selected to respond and then filled out a message back.
“Yeah I’m fine man. Things have been crazy and I’m still trying to get settled, I’m okay though. It’s kind of complicated, but let’s keep in touch. Send me a message back when you see this.”
There was no way to tell whether or not Big Beastin' would get back to him, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to try and get a response. They had been online friends for years, like Darkbum94, or Frank as Alos now knew him, and their relationship had always proven useful to him. Alos shrugged in hope and then powered down his Orb into sleep, sliding his goggles back up onto his head.
“You got an Orb?” Wander asked, sitting up and turning to Alos. “Or I should ask, what is your BOT?”
“Yeah, my Orb is an older model, a “Spheroid 3”, but I constantly update the software, and my BOT.” Alos responded, holding his Orb up for Wander to see. “In fact, my BOT is completely programmed by me and aside from all the normal movement functions, I figured out a way to implement a recursive feedback loop that allows for efficiency structuring and growth. Its name is 0rnj, Zero r n j.”
“Can you say that again in Common?” Wander laughed.
“Basically I figured out a way to allow my BOT to learn, borrowing from some pre-programmed data packages of course.” Alos was smiling unconsciously; it had been awhile since he had had the opportunity to talk about Omninet related things, and more specifically BOTs. It felt good, REALLY good.
“So what’s that mean?” Zephay asked, skeptically. “I had a BOT in my Orb back home, but it was just a prepackaged model, all of this is kind of over my head.”
“It means that it takes my input and then filters it, storing new commands and then integrating them into its functionality. It is getting to the point where I can make it perform functions that don’t even directly translate to real impulses. Like making my BOT’s arm stretch, or swallowing data and creating an internal copy of it that I can then extract.” Alos’ long winded reply left a pause in the room.
“The impulses from my nerve implants constantly feed into my BOT’s database, so I’m hoping it will eventually grow into something even bigger and better.” Alos sat smiling, twisting his cybernetic hand around in a complete circle, as it held his Orb.
“Freakin’ nerd,” Wander laughed, “I love it.”
The ship began to descend and Xri came into the room. He walked into the kitchen, and then reemerged with a bottled beverage, standing at the back of the room looking up at the display. The screen showed the ship lowering down into a raised open dome platform, hundreds of ships parked down below inside the structure. They lowered down into an open space within, slowly touching down onto the platform floor.
“Alright boys, this place is extremely busy, we need to stay grouped.” Xri said walking further into the room and then standing at the center. “Floatercycle gangs have been known to frequent this area and I do not know about you, but I do not feel like dealing with any bounty hunters today. Stay close, stay tight, and let us get in and get out.”
“I can vouch for that.” Wander said, as he stood, proceeding to arch his back letting out a long grunting sigh with his stretch. “A floatercycle gang called the “Slime Fists” used to roll through and give me trouble all the time. I’d rather not have to deal with any of those thugs.”
Xri nodded, his large bamboo hat rocking back and forth with it.
“This area is a Lycanian friendly one, so Dardaños will accompany us, chaperoning you three today. Levitas and I need to make a quick purchase before we go see Danias, so while you go get your things we will be doing that. After, meet back up at the small antique shop just south of where we will enter the plaza, Dardaños knows where it is, so there is no need to worry.”
“I’ve seen that shop before, it’s called “Unique Antiques” right?” Wander asked.
“That is indeed the one.” Xri’s smile peeked out from under the shadow of his hat. “Very well then, there should be no trouble finding it.”
Xri walked back to the edge of the room, stopping under the doorway that led into the hallway.
“I need to grab something from my room and get Dardaños; I will meet you all down in the loading room.”
Alos sat up, placing his Orb back into the large pouch in his sweater, and then stood. He proceeded to stretch his back, reaching his arms up and leaning as far back as his balance would sustain. A few cracks escaped from his spine, and after a deep breath, he felt ready to go.
“So Levitas, what is this plaza anyways?” Alos asked, following behind Levitas with Zephay and Wander.
“It’s one of the centers of commerce in the western part of the Non-States. Think of it like a city sized mall, that just so happens to be one of the few places that isn’t corporately controlled actually.” Levitas said, leading them down the hallway. “But like they were sayin’, it’s still gang infested.”
This drew Alos’ curiosity. By the way Levitas said it, he was led to believe that most places were corporately controlled, and the more he thought about it, back home in Optimaris definitely seemed to fall under that category with its relentless advertising and money driven consumer culture. It seemed he had escaped a cultural slavery and ended up into a literal one.
“Are most places corporately controlled? The more I think about it, the more I see that at least Optimaris was.”
“Kid, Dimun and a few other global corporations have their fingers wrapped around just about everythin’ that goes on in this world.” Levitas shook his head, leading the group onto the lowering platform where they all stood waiting for Xri and Dardaños. “Even this plaza, while mostly small businesses, are still dependent on the major corporations at some point. Dimun Medical, Dimun Banking International, Dimun Electronics, Dimun Energy, Jriton Defense which is just a sub company of Dimun, Jace Co Banking, and the list goes on. They own the world, and hell, your parents’ involvement with them is probably why you’re here right now.”
Alos jaw sagged in the astonishment of truth that Levitas had just said. His parents WERE involved with Dimun through lobbying and funding committees. The very meeting his parents went to the day he discovered the extent of their involvement, WAS a Dimun committee meeting. If his parents were that involved with this company, the committee would have known about what they were going to do to Alos. They wouldn’t have just known, they probably would have ordered it. But why would his parents allow for that?
“How can these countries put up with this!?” Alos yelled, not realizing his raised voice. “How can they allow this corruption?”
Levitas shrugged, shaking his head, his mouth pulled up into an empathetic half smile.
“They are as oblivious as the people they consist of.”
There was a momentary pause as they reached the boarding platform.
“Well hot damn, this is depressing.” Wander added, folding his hands and resting them on his head.
Entering from the stairway, Xri followed by Dardaños entered the room. They walked onto the platform joining the others and then motioned for Levitas to send them down. Levitas nodded, and then pulled the lever lowering the platform, sending them all down below to the ground.
At the bottom, Xri led the group through the shipyard, which consisted mainly of small end maglev cruisers, with a few slime floater specimens clumped up in between. They continued on passing a ship twice the size of Xri’s shaped like a giant flat H, with thrusters occupying each corner. At the end of the shipyard, there was a large archway that led into a room with stairs stretching from one side to the other, all of them leading down and packed with assorted people.
They pushed their way through the crowds and managed their way to the bottom which led out into an underground concrete shopping center. Each wall was lined with shop entrances each displaying neon signs and digital displays advertising their merchandise. There were small makeshift booths partitioning the shops, occupied with a merchant and their product beside them. Even at the center of the walkway, kiosks surrounded by people sat every ten feet. There was a group of street performers slime dancing amidst the crowd, people throwing tips into a bucket they had placed on the ground. The thick crowds of people created an environment that was difficult to pass through, and a stench that indicated the area needed better ventilation.
“This is where we split,” said Xri propping back his hat to make eye contact with each crewmate. “Hurry and get your things and then meet us back at the antique store in fifteen minutes.”
Wander nodded in agreement and then the group split, Xri and Levitas pushing left through the crowd headed down the plaza. Motioning to his right with his head, Wander led the other group of him, Alos, Zephay, and Dardaños down the opposite direction of the plaza. The originally dense crowd seemed to lessen as they made their way further right until it was only sparse groups of scattered people.
“It’s just right up here.” Wander said, leading the group over to one of the bigger shop entrances. Above the entrance was a giant sign that read, “INN” with a picture of an overflowing mug of beer below it. They followed Wander inside.
The room consisted of a check-in desk along the far wall, with an elevator and a set of stairs right of it. On the left side of the room, curving around the corner, was a lounge area, complete with cushioned recliner chairs, a screen display and a gaming console in a shelf below. Below the gaming console was a PC drawer, and sphere wheeled legs holding it all up.
In the right corner across from the stairs down, there was a mirrored section matched with a bar and bartender and booths and tables spread out around it. A group of men sat in the corner, smoking and drinking, cards held in hand, each with a pile of crumbled bills and stamped coins sitting before them. At the center of the three men was a pile of tossed in money.
Wander motioned towards the lounge. “Just chill here for a minute, my stuff is in the locker room on the lower floor. I’m gonna grab it, and get changed; I’ll be right back.” He turned around and walked over to the staircase, skipping down the steps. Dardaños walked over to one of the tables besides the men gambling, and sat, joined by Alos and Zephay.
“Don’t mieend us gentlemen.” Dardaños said nodding to the man smoking a cigar as thick as a sausage. “Eet has been awhieele since Iee have seen dis playeed.”
“What game is it?” Zephay asked halfheartedly.
“Gamblin’ Joe. Er Bettin Poker as it’s alsuh knuhn.” The cigar smoking man said, holding his cigar between his lips as he talked with his flat voweled accent. He placed his cards face down in a fan, and then threw in a twenty. The next guy to his right, then placed his cards down also throwing in a twenty. Finally, tossing his cards face down onto the table, the last man of the three blew air out his mouth sputtering his lips.
“I’m foldin’ boys.”
“You’re no fun Chuck.” The cigar smoking man said. He drummed his fingers across the backs of his facedown cards looking up at the man beside him, starring him in the eye. A small smirk surfaced, stretching the corner of his mouth subtly.
“Mah money’s on you.” The man said, shifting his cigar over to the other side of his mouth.
The other man starred back trying to read the face of his opposition. His eyes squinted, and even his nose seemed to flare, literally trying to sniff out the bluff. He then smiled, looking at the other man as if he had just been told a secret.
“I’m seein’ right through yohr bluff little man. I’m bettin’ on that nice hand of yohrs.”
“Don’t be so sure.” Pulling his cigar out of his mouth and letting out a thick ring of smoke, the man flipped over his cards showing an assorted lot of randomly numbered cards that amounted to nothing more than a ten high. The other man slammed his fist on the table, flipping over his cards, revealing a two, an ace, a pair of eights, and a king.
“FUCK.” The man threw his head back in a whiplashing snap. He shook his head as he raised his cup of strongly smelling alcohol to his mouth. “God damn it man, you’re always takin’ mah money.”
Just then jogging up the stairs, Wander came up into the room, a bulky, multipocketed, black and grey backpack, slung over his right shoulder. He stood swinging his arm through the other arm strap of his backpack and then tightened the straps down. With the clothes he was wearing and his hair let out, he looked like an entirely different person.
Thick wavy dark ginger hair like a mane of fire, falling just below his shoulders, speckled with flecks of amber catching the light. Tying back his hair was a white bandana, with smoky grey embroidering, worn and discolored from years of apparent use. Under the bandana there was a slight bulging holding the shape of goggle rims. After he pulled them down and over his pale blue eyes, Alos could see they were goggle glasses belted around the back of his head and under his dense forest of hair. The tips of black tattoos poked up from the bottom of his neck from out of his collar, leading up into his hair.
He was wearing a dull grey hooded long coat, sizing from his shoulders to his mid thigh, with the inner lining being a soft charcoal black. Pockets covered the coat, slight bulges occasionally suggesting the possibility of something resting inside. Over his chest was a matching black vest, under it a bone white long sleeve shirt, both it and the sleeves of the coat being rolled up to his elbows together. Tight fitting black jeans covered his legs, with a black, synthetic, double ringed military style belt suspended around his waist. Steel toed combat boots wrapped around his feet, silver lining the steel implants with electrodes attaching to his legs.
As if all that wasn't enough, black fingerless gloves were worn around his hands and hiding under the leather of the gloves, the bulge of small steel studs pressed out from the knuckles. Small electrodes could be seen at the rim of each finger section, also extending from the wrists of the gloves up his forearm.
His raised brow and snarky grin completed the outfit.
“Well looky here, if it ain’t ol’ Wander himself.” The cigar smoking man said. “Didn’t recognize ya in that green suit you was wearin’.”
“I’d love to stay and take your money Job, but me and my friends here are on a tight schedule.” Wander replied, pulling at the wrist of his right glove.
“Very well lad,” the man nodded his head in acknowledgement towards Wander. “We’ll see ya aroun’.”
Dardaños stood with Zephay and Wander and began walking back towards the entrance of the inn.
“Do yah ‘ave everything?” Dardaños asked, placing his mechanical hand on Wander’s shoulder.
“Everything I own is in here or on my body.” Wander said as he grabbed the strap of his backpack, pulling on it. “I had another backpack, but it was on me when I was taken and I never got it back. My poor, brand spankin’ new levboard was in there too!” Wander made an exaggerated pouty face at the statement.
“Levboard?? You had one of those?” Alos asked, as he followed Wander out of the inn.
“Oh yeah, I’ve rode one for as far back as I can remember.” Wander said, leading the group of three back through the plaza towards where they originally entered from.
“I’ve always wanted to take a shot at riding one,” said Zephay. “But they were banned in the UDA the instant they came out. Too many stupid kids, with greedy, sue-happy parents.”
“We might just have to arrange that then.”
Wander was smiling at Zephay looking over his shoulder at him. Reaching back, Wander unzipped the top part of his backpack, stuck his hand inside, and then after rummaging around briefly, pulled out an old expandable levboard.
“This is Sally. She’s been my baby for over ten years now.”
“WHOAAA COOOOL!” Alos and Zephay said together, rushing up to the board to examine it. Even with the increasingly dense crowds of people, their attention was magnetized to the levboard.
“Can I try it!?” Zephay’s wide eager eyes looked starving for the experience of flying around on a magnetically propelled board.
“Later. It’s out of juice; I need to charge it.” Wander said, placing the board back into his backpack and zipping it up. “And even before I let you, you’re gonna need to learn how to use it so you don’t end up with a broken neck like one of those stupid kids.”
Zephay laughed, “Sounds like a plan. Once all this is done and over with, I’d love to give it a shot.”
Alos was looking down at the electrodes stemming up from Wander’s wrists onto his forearms. He was wondering why Wander would buy electrodes, it wasn’t like he was trying to have his BOT record his impulses like Alos was. And by the way they came directly from his gloves, and the ones on his legs from his boots, it seemed oddly specific.
“What are those electrodes for anyways?” Alos asked pointing at the small circular pads, with millimeter thin wires running under an adhesive back to the gloves.
“It’s so I can control the levboard.” Wander squeezed his fist and then relaxed it. “Up, down. The same goes for the ones on my legs.”
“Ohhh that makes sense.” Alos said, feeling stupid for not realizing it sooner.
The crowds suddenly became thick to the point of shoving, as they passed by the staircase they had originally entered through. Mobs of people surrounded the area, each trying to push their way through to the nearest clearing. Wander shoved a path through the mob, followed by the other three.
They continued along, passing all the shops as they pushed through the dense crowd, until it eventually began to thin out. Alos noticed that the only reason the crowds were so thick in that area was because it was right by the entrance and people lingered over there. In both directions as they got further from the entrance, the crowds rapidly lessened.
Over on the far side of the plaza, Alos could see Xri and Levitas walking towards them. The two stopped along the way at a shop, with the sign above reading “Unique Antiques”, and waited for the other to catch up. Wander led the three up to the shop where they met, and then they all entered inside.
A strange smell emanated from the room as they entered inside, smelling of pungent incense burning. The shop was littered with random silverware, china dishes, mirrors, and a random assortment of other things including an old time knob am-fm stereo sitting atop the glass display counter. The pickings of bluesy guitar scraped out from the old speakers within the stereo, carrying the vocals of a song Alos recognized. He began to hum along with it subconsciously.
~Carryin’ through
A man’s gotta do
What he’s gotta do
~He ain’t wastin ‘nother day
Kids hungry back at home
An' there are bills to pay~
There was an older man dressed in a stereotypical clerks outfit behind the counter; having a white shirt with a white dust covered apron over it. He stood sweeping a broom back and forth staring down at the ground his back faced to the entrance. As the crew rolled into the shop, the elderly man slowly turned around supporting his hunched posture on the handle of the broom.
“Ello there, ‘ow can I ‘elp yee today?” The old man said in his wavering lip smacking voice.
Xri stepped past Wander and approached the counter. He placed both of his hands palm down atop the glass, pausing. With his head draped down, and his hat shrouding his face, Xri just stood, motionless, breathless, in complete stillness.
“Did you hear the draken’s call?” Xri asked through the stillness.
The man’s face instantly shifted in keen awareness. His eyes squinted and his brow arched.
“I’m unsure, ‘ow did it sound?”
“The claps of thunder shook even the mountains with fear.”
A wide tittering smile stretched across the old man’s face. He walked over to the side of the counter and opened the wooden hatch which folded down over the path to the back. With a sweeping gesture of his arm, the man looked at the crew.
“You never do forget, come in Xri, come in! Danias is waiting in the back.”
Xri reached up and pulled the tip of his hat down in gratitude towards the old man and then led the crew through the space and into the back. The smiling man turned watching them enter the back, bowing his head to them the entire time. Alos wasn’t used to such a formal gesture, even in the political realm his parents were involved in; such outright bowing was never done. Shrugging, unsure of what to make of it, he followed the others into the back and away from the grainy sounds of the radio until finally it muffled into the distance of the previous room.
In the back, resting on top of a circular couch that hugged the perimeter of the room was an older black furred Lycanian. Dressed in a fitted navy blue and grey pinstriped suit, the Lycanian was holding a nozzle connected to a hose that linked up to a hookah. He turned to the crew as they entered, eyeing them with sharp yellow eyes, puffing away at the nozzle of the hookah.
“Iee didn’t expect ya so soon, Xri.” Danias said in a smoke worn voice, as he exhaled a dense cloud of smoke. “What is it ya need dat Iee can’t give ya over tuh net.”
“Danias, my brother, I know you have been busy dealing with The Claw, but much has happened in your leave.” Xri took a seat on the circular couch beside Danias, soon joined by the rest of his crew.
“Zeith has been taken by the Crusaders, more specifically by Van.”
Danias was bringing the nozzle of the hose to his mouth when he paused midair. His head turned slowly toward Xri, his brow twisted into a knot of fur.
“ ‘ave ya been able to track ‘im down yet?” Danias’ voice lowered as he spoke.
“We have located him to a testing facility south of the capital. He is not in the bunkered under city, but he is still underground. This is why we came to you; we need to find a way in and then a way out.” Xri tilted his hat back and sat back into the couch, stretching his arms out over the top.
“Iee ‘ope you’re not planning on just flying in.” Danias said, shaking his head with a smile. “No no, ya will ‘ave tuh be more stealthy dan dat.”
“We want to do this drawing the least amount of attention possible, Danias. We cannot afford any military response on their part.”
“Indeed, ya said tuh facility was south of tuh capital, yes?”
“Yes, it looked connected, but how, or by though what means I do not know.”
“What were tuh details of tuh room? Iee think Iee know which it is, but it is good to be sure.” Danias brought the nozzle to his mouth and drew in deeply. Milky white smoke filtered through several partitions within the hookah and then finally bubbled up into the central chamber where it collected and then ran up the hose and into his mouth.
“The lights within the room seemed to be green. It was a circular room with cells lining the walls. There was a hallway leading in from within the core of the facility and a second hallway leading away into a separate room with four solitary confinement stasis cells. The circular room was lowered with a bridge running over it leading from one hallway to the other. That is all I remember.” Xri’s eyes were squinting with concentration, looking up at nothing in particular.
Head tilted back, blowing out thick rings of smoke, Danias exhaled the rest through his nostrils and then turned back to Xri.
“It is tuh Royal Lab he is in. Dat is not good news fer ya.”
Danias turned and his predatory yellow eyes caught Alos’ for only a brief moment, but it was still enough to trigger an instinctual unease, along with goose bumps protruding from his arms.
“As ya said, it is underground, so ya can’t just flyee in, especially if ya don’t want trouble.” Danias placed the nozzle onto a hook beside the hookah, and then rubbed his chin. “A train runs from tuh marsh farms in tuh Non-States, up to just south of Deus Sanctum. Myee proposition would be tuh stow awayee on dat train, and den hop off in tuh city.”
Xri nodded in agreement. “Once we are within the city, how will we find the entrance to this facility without being noticed?”
“Tuh train will stop underground, next to other trains, wit’ some floatercart platforms, and an elevator up. Take tuh elevator to tuh surface, and you’ll come out into uh loading station fer passenger transport trains. Aroun’ tuh corner t’ere should be a Divima church wit’ a tavern across tuh way. Go into tuh tavern and ask tuh bartender fer “Barley”, and say Iee sent ya. ‘Ee should be able tuh ‘elp ya from t’ere.”
“I trust you Danias, as a fellow brother in the Resistance, I hope for all our sake that this works.” Xri said, pulling his hat back down and standing to his feet.
“Don’t worry Xri, ‘ee’s a one of myee best men in Tuh Claw.”
Xri smiled from under his hat. “One of your best gangsters? How reassuring.”
The comment caught Wander off guard and made him laugh, soon being joined in by Zephay and Alos. The crew stood to join Xri, along with Danias.
“Thanks again Danias,” said Xri extending out his hand to Danias. Danias welcomed the gesture clasping Xri’s hand in a gentlemanly handshake, and then pulled him in for a hug.
“Guhd luck, Xri.”