Technocracy: AETHER, Part 6

When Marin and Saera, escaped, they ran to the right.

When Terry and Ardo escaped, they ran to the left.

And it just so happened that their four chambers had been

Placed along the corridor such that all of them ran

Towards each other. They were all headed each others’ way.

“MARIN!” Saera shouted as she saw her blue-haired friend

Running straight for her. “SAERA!” cried Marin out as she

Saw her friend come flying towards her, just off of the ground.

The old best friends reached each other, and both of them cried,

Weeping tears of joy Saera landed, and Marin drew

Her friend tightly up against her in a fierce embrace.

“I’m so happy!” Marin cried, and wept enormous tears.

“Me too! Me too!” Saera cried, and wept. “I am so glad!”

“Saera! Marin!” “TERRY!” both girls cried out as they turned

And saw Terry running towards them round a curving bend

Of the corridor. Both girls broke off their hug and ran

To meet their friend, whom they both so happily embraced.

“I’m so glad you’re both okay!” cried Terry, and his eyes

Leaked silent tears as he clutched his two friends desperately.

“Same to you!” said Marin. “I’m so glad that you’re alive!”

“You are the one that started this off,” said Saera then.

“I heard one of them say you’d escaped, and that was what

Drove me to attempt escaping from them in my turn.”

“Yo!” “ARDO!” cried Saera, Marin, and Terry as they

Saw Ardo come running towards them. And their eyes were wide

Because Ardo’s naked body was immersed in flame.

It was not the blue-hot fire it had been before,

But his body was still swathed in flickering orange flames.

“I’m not gonna hug you if you’re on fire, you jerk!”

Marin shouted. Ardo laughed, with tears upon his cheeks.

“I missed you too, fatass. I’m real glad that you’re okay.”

Ardo put his flames out, and then Saera flew upon

Him and drew him into a gentle, but firm embrace.

Terry hugged him fiercely, and then Marin finally

Came in, and she sighed and clutched his right arm very tight.

The four of them finally were done with their embrace,

And they pulled apart, and Terry and Ardo both looked

Towards Saera and Marin, and Marin shrieked suddenly

And tried desperately to use her arms to cover up.

“Eep!” she squeaked. “I’m naked!” Terry groaned and rolled his eyes.

“We’re all naked! In case you hadn’t noticed!” he said.

“We can worry about that later. We’ve got to go!

We’ve got to get out of here!” “But, hmm, then, where is ‘here’?”

Saera asked. “Where are we, exactly?” She looked around.

They all did, and Terry to the ceiling raised his arm,

Palm open, turned upwards. He said, “We are underground.

Wherever we are, we’re also underneath the earth.”

“Can you bust us out of here?” asked Marin in response.

“I think we’re too deep right now,” said Terry to her next.

“We’re too deep, there’s too much rock for me to pull apart.

I’m strong,” he grinned, “stronger than these guys thought I would be,

But I’m not THAT strong. At least, not yet, I’m pretty sure.”

“So, what’s the plan, then?” asked Ardo. “We need to go UP,”

Terry said. And to emphasize this, he pointed up,

Upwards towards the ceiling. “We need somehow to ascend,

Ascend to where we’re not as deep underground as we

Are right now. If we get higher, and there is less rock

Between the surface and us I think we can escape.

If there’s not as much rock, I think I can break us through.”

“Okay!” Marin said, and punched a fist into her palm.

“That’s the plan. Let’s go!” “But where is ‘up’?” Saera then asked.

Terry pointed to their left along the corridor.

“That way. That direction I can feel the metal slope

Upwards. If we go that way, I think it takes us up.”

“Let’s go, then,” said Ardo, and he snapped his fingers, and

On both hands erupted flames that blazed hot, orange and red.

“Who knows what we’re gonna meet down here,” he said to them.

“We’re alone down here, but all four of us have our powers.

We have to be ready to fight, as we go along.”

“Right,” said Marin. “I’m ready,” she curled her lip and snarled.

“I’m ready to slap all of these Technocrats around!”

Saera hovered off the ground, and floated at their sides.

“Let us go,” she told them. “Come now, it’s time to escape.”

“Come on!” Terry said, and he began to run off to

The left, Marin and Ardo fast running in his wake,

And Saera was floating just beside them, keeping pace.

They ran, ran along the corridor, and sure enough

A big ramp before them opened up, its heavy doors

Swinging silently and effortlessly open, and

The four of them passed through it, and hurried up the ramp.

Hurrying and hurrying and hurrying they went.

They saw a Technocrat, whose eyes opened wide. He said

“It’s—” but that is all he got out before Marin swung

Her hand out and a huge jet of churning whitewater

Emerged out of thin air and erupted right at him,

Knocking him against the metal walls, knocking him out.

Saera, flying next to them, then heard with both her ears

A faint sound, a pulsing sound, a sound that rose and fell

On the air. “Do you all hear that noise?” she asked her friends.

“I can hear it,” Ardo said, as he kept running on.

“Sounds like an alarm,” said Marin, running beside him.

“Well, they know that we’ve escaped now,” Terry commented.

“We need to be on our guards in case they try something

We don’t expect. Be ready for almost anything!”

They saw no more Technocrats as they kept running on,

Running up the ramp, and two more doors stood at the top,

But they opened automatic’lly as they approached,

Swinging open, and the four of them emerged into

A huge chamber, black, and lined with gleaming neon red,

Blackened rounded walls that were festooned in neon red.

Saera, Marin, Ardo, Terry all came to a stop,

All of them somewhat startled by what they now could see

In front of them, placed there at the center of the room.

It was something black and curved. It had so many curves!

It sprung from the ground below them on a curvéd stalk,

On a stalk that looked like one half of a circle huge,

Of a big, black circle—that was what the stalk looked like,

One half of that circle; and positioned just below

Its summit, fastened beneath it, was another half

Of another black circle, this one not quite so big,

And below that one there was another half-circle,

Smaller than the one above it, and this carried on

Onward, downward, the black metal half-circles went on

Forming concentric rings of many one-half-circles,

So many lines of black metal half-circles were there,

Fastened together from the top of the fixture by

A great bolt that held all of the half-circles in place.

And, as all four of them watched, all the half-circles spun.

All of the black metal half-circles were rotating.

Each black metal half-circle spun at a different speed.

The big outer half-circle, foundation of it all,

Spun most slowly, grinding, swinging very slow around.

The half-circle one below it, the slightly smaller

Half-circle spun just a little faster. Then below

That one, the one smaller than it spun yet faster still.

So on downward it went, each half-circle that decreased

In size, it increased in speed of rotation in turn.

Until the last, tiniest half-circle of them all,

In the very center of the black contraption huge,

Spun at rapid speed, revolving round and round so fast

It was like a top that had just started off its spin.

So the huge concentration of black half-circles there

Rotated and spun, and all four of the teenagers

Could hear a gentle creaking and grinding sound, as if

There were gears churning somewhere, somewhere they could not see.

“What is that?” asked Marin, voice to whisper dropping down,

Though she did not know why suddenly she spoke so soft.

“I do not know,” Saera said. “I have not ever seen

Anything like this before. It does seem very strange.”

“It’s something the Technocracy made,” Terry remarked.

“It’s some weird technology that they have conjured up.”

Ardo snarled, his eyes gleamed neon red, and on his hands

There rose flares of burning flame. “Let’s destroy it!” he said.

“No,” said Terry. “It’s not doing any harm to us.

And it would take too much time to break it, tear it down.

We need to spend all our time escaping. Let’s get out!”

“There’s the door!” said Marin, pointing ‘cross the chamber then.

“Yeah,” said Terry, “that door leads up, I can feel it now.

I can feel the metal sloping upwards. So let’s go.”

So the Elementals across the huge chamber ran,

Ran across it, and the big doors swung open as they

Came in front of them, and so the Elementals left,

Left the strange contraption of black half-circles behind.

Elsewhere in the canto, in the huge black metal base,

Somewhere higher, and more inner in the metal dome

Brother Crick and Father Arius hurried along,

Their black-booted feet carrying them swiftly as they went

Along the black curving metal corridors, which were

Lit with those lights of cold neon red, that shimmered down

On them as they walked, both of them swathed in their black robes.

Arius shook his head. “I cannot believe that they

Escaped,” but as he said this, a smile curled his lips,

And it almost seemed to Crick that Arius was now

Proud, and happy, of what had occurred within their midst.

“Yes,” said Crick, trying to shake off his bewilderment

To see his superior behave in such a way.

“Yes, well, it seems that all four of the Elementals

Were too strong to be restrained by the bonds we designed

Specifically for them.” “Oh, they were too strong, were they?”

Arius said, and that smile curled up his thin lips.

“They are more impressive than I thought,” Arius said.

“I did not expect them to be this strong so quickly.”

“They are clever, too, Father,” said Brother Crick to him.

“All four of them used their powers to a good effect.

Each of them escaped and broke out in a different way,

In a way that made good use of their four elements.”

“Stronger than we thought, with cunning, and intelligence,”

Arius said, and he smiled then. “My, my, look how

My creations have behaved. It almost makes me proud.”

“Yes, Father,” said Crick. “But now we must see to the task

Of restraining them, getting them back in our control.”

“Indeed,” Arius said. “So, then, what are we to do?”

“Well, ideally, we would send the Nephilim,” said Crick.

“But—” “But, of course, Brother Crick,” said Arius to him,

“Both of us know well that this canto is not equipped

With a Bestiary. So we HAVE no Nephilim

That we readily can draw on. We do not possess

Complements of Stalkers, Sylphs, Sonids, we do not have

Any of them that we can employ.” “You are correct,”

Crick said. “We do not have a supply of Nephilim.”

“Do we have ANYTHING?” Arius asked to Crick then.

“Do we have any Nephilim we can use at all?”

Crick tugged at his black-robed sleeve and suddenly there rose

A floating display of holographic neon red.

Crick fingered and flew through menus, readouts, and reports.

Finally he found the data display he had sought,

And his green eyes ran over it, searching, seeking out.

“Ah, there are two Serpentines,” he said to Arius.

“There are two Serpentines resting in the Marina.”

“Hrngh,” grunted Arius. His upper lip curled up.

“Serpentines are big and clumsy, awkward, long, and large.

They are transport Nephilim, ones we primarily

Use to travel to our cantos in oceans and seas.

They are not exactly attack Nephilim. They are

Not the ideal units for our situation now.”

“No, Father Arius,” Crick said. “I am well aware

That they are not ideal. But they are all that we have.”

Arius’ silver eyes narrowed, and then he said,

“Fine. They’ll have to do. Deploy them. Send them out, and set

Them at only Five Percent Fatality. I don’t

Want the Elementals killed, or harmed in any way.

Where are the Elementals now?” Arius asked next.

Brother Crick again went through his holograph displays.

“They’ve been a bit hard to track,” Crick said to Arius.

“As you know, they do not show up on normal sensors.

So I’ve had to use the video feeds that we have

Around the canto. But I can report that they have

Just entered, and now I see that they have all just left

The Empyrean Generator chamber,” he said.

“Good,” said Arius. “That sets them up to reemerge

In the Median Common Area. We can set

The Serpentines there, to be positioned. That space is

Big enough that they won’t be constrained, despite their size.

So, deploy them!” “Yes, Father Arius,” Brother Crick

Said, and snapped his fingers. “Yes, it has been done right now.”

So the two black-robed men walked along the corridor.