Technocracy: AETHER, Part 12 (Final)

Down below the city of Atlanta, in the earth,

Down below the concrete, and the bedrock beneath that,

Was the Atlanta canto of the Technocracy,

Their invulnerable base—or so they all had thought.

But it lay in ruins now, its walls and halls destroyed,

And the damage to its central dome and portal was

Immense, and it crippled all their operations now.

Arius stood at the bottom of the massive dome,

Gazing up at the cracked, ruined central area,

Its cold neon red light momentarily put out.

“So impressive,” Arius then murmured to himself.

“So impressive, in more ways than just their elements.”

“Father Arius,” over his shoulder came the voice,

And he turned, and saw his four main allies now approach:

Murasaki, Belladonna, Faraday, and Crick.

“Sister Belladonna,” he said, “your status report?”

“The canto has sustained heavy damage,” she replied,

A twitch in her beautiful green eyes as now she spoke.

“It is hindering our operations, and we shall

Be delayed at least another hour, ere we act.”

“By which time the Elementals likely will be gone,”

Arius said. “If the four of them can all be made

To fly, by the powers of the Air Elemental.”

“Rrgh,” growled Murasaki. “There’ll be hell to pay for this.

The High Technocrats will put us all to scrutiny.

Not to mention YOU, Father, will be under attack,”

Murasaki said. “They will accuse you, say you have

Lost the Elementals like you lost the Seraphim.”

“I have dealt with them before,” he said. “I shall again.”

Faraday then walked up close to where Arius stood.

“I don’t understand,” she said, and looked up at the dome.

“All the charts we had made of the Elementals’ growth,

All the graphs we’d made about the development of

Their powers suggested that they were not yet this strong:

That they would not be able to do the things they did,

The things that I saw with my own eyes—that they would not

Be able to do those things for many years to come.”

“I suggest we throw those charts out, Sister Faraday,”

Arius said. “It is clear our calculations were

Incorrect. All four Elementals have grown beyond

What we theorized about them, and they’ve done it fast.

And, of course,” he smiled, “from now on they only will

Grow stronger and stronger. They have not yet hit their peak.”

“So what do we do?” asked Brother Crick. “What’s our next move?”

“We regain them,” Arius said. “We shall hunt them down.

They may leave Atlanta. They may venture all the way

To the ends of the Earth, but they won’t escape our grasp.

They are… not just powerful,” and now Arius smiled.

“They are cunning, clever, and they have a keen, strong sense

Of what is true and what is false. Their own sense of right

Is reliable, and all of this will serve them well.

What is more, the four of them, together, seem to be

Far greater, and better, than they’ll ever be alone.

I would not be so surprised,” Arius slowly said,

“If out in the real world, they do better than we think.

I think they’ll survive, and thrive, out in the wild world,

So we may not catch them right away.” And then his eyes

Narrowed. “But inevitably we shall hunt them down,

And they will be ours again. Again, they will be mine.”

“We’ll need Stalkers for this,” Sister Belladonna said.

“Yes, Stalkers and more,” said Arius. And then he frowned.

“I almost had them,” he said, almost so low that they

Could not hear him. “I almost convinced them all to stay.

Hmm,” he muttered, and he cast his gaze upon the ground.

“Father,” Belladonna said, “you almost seem… depressed.”

“Perhaps I am, just a little,” Arius replied.

“Perhaps I should just have talked to them all from the start.

If I had explained things to them—laid out all my dreams,

All my plans and my ambitions, would they all have stayed?

If I had not treated them like experiments, but

Treated them like men and women... would they still have fled?

Would they have stayed if I had been more honest with them?”

None of his disciples ventured to reply to him.

Then amid the silence of the canto’s massive dome,

Arius began to chant, in slow and rhythmic voice:

“Remorse is memory awake,

Her companies astir, —

A presence of departed acts

At window and at door.

It's past set down before the soul,

And lighted with a match,

Perusal to facilitate

Of its condensed despatch.

Remorse is cureless, — the disease

Not even God can heal;

For 't is his institution, —

The complement of hell.”

“What is that, Father?” asked Belladonna. He replied,

“Just an old poem. But there is no time for more of that.

There is no more time to feel remorse for what has past.

Now we must move into the next stage of all these things.”

Arius then from the light stepped, back into the dark.

“Okay,” Terry asked the others. “Are we all ready?”

“I am,” Saera said, and nodded, as her snow white hair

Ruffled, and her silver white eyes gleamed and blazed so bright.

“Yeah, I’m ready,” Marin said, her hair of navy blue

Billowed, and her sapphire blue eyes glimmered and shone.

“I’m ready,” said Ardo. “Let’s do this!” His crimson red

Hair ruffled, and his ruby red eyes were burning bright.

“All right,” Terry said, his own hair of metallic brown

Glinting in the starlight, as his copper brown eyes did

Their shift to bronze, that occurred whenever he was at

The moment of making a decision. So he said,

“Saera? Let’s go,” he pointed again up at the sky.

“That way. That is north. Take us that way.” “How far?” she asked.

“As far as we can go before sunrise,” Terry said.

“We’ll stop when the sun has risen. We should go all night.”

“Very well,” said Saera, who then spread her pale arms wide,

And once more the winds blew, blew around them, blowing hard,

Swirling around them, yet they did not their bodies touch.

Instead they swirled in the space around the four of them,

And Saera, Marin, Ardo, and Terry, all as one

Rose off of the ground, ascending up into the air.

As they rose they also began moving forward, too,

Flying forward in the direction Terry had said,

Into the north, and they rose, and flew, flew forward now,

Faster, faster, ascending and accelerating.

“Do you think we’ll ever come back here?” Saera asked as

She flew them upwards, and faster, faster to the North.

“I don’t ever want to come back here again,” Marin

Growled, and grit her teeth and pulled her lips back in a snarl.

“If I never see this city ever again, I

Will live and die happily for my entire life.”

“I might kind of want to come back,” Ardo gently said.

“I mean, fuck, it’s gotta be safe here some day, one day,

Right?” he asked, and he looked back at Terry as he spoke.

“Maybe some day,” Terry said. “But not for a long time.

For a long time, I think, we are going to have to run.”

“Well, let’s get on with it, then,” said Saera, and then they

Increased their speed, and the clouds were whipping by them now.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” Marin said, voice hard and firm.

“Fine, let’s go,” said Ardo. He laughed. “Let’s go on a quest!”

“A quest I’m not sure we’ll see the end of,” Terry said.

So the Elementals, all four of them, all as one,

Saera, Marin, Ardo, Terry, flew into the sky.

Flew into the sky festooned with all the gleaming stars,

Flew into the sky, and flew into the endless North,

Flew into the sky, and flew into the great unknown.

Leaving all they knew behind, they flew into the world.

NOT THE END

Technocracy: AETHER, Part 11