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October 15, 2285

Watcher Ship Icarus

Venus loomed large in the view of Allorien. Their cockpit was entirely transparent, as if they were sitting in a chair floating through space. Now’s my best chance. They found my secret data corruption; they couldn’t explain it. Allorien looked down upon Edith streaking forward toward Venus.

Edith

Magic Practice Room

Water flowed in concentric circles on the floor of the square room, as if controlled by a powerful wind. Tim stood in the middle of the circles and moved to reverse the motion. The water twisted into a spinning water spout and then settled back onto the ground in concentric circles, going the reverse direction.

Jaedon was standing in a corner and started stepping forward, clapping. “Well done. Well done.” Before Jaedon knew it, all the water sloshed him and immediately evaporated. “Yeah. Yeah. Very funny.”

Tim sat down in the middle of the room. “I still feel like something’s missing.” He closed his eyes.

Jaedon picked up a small bucket silently and walked toward Tim. “You have a strong affinity with all four elements. You can sense them. And feel them around you.” He upended the bucket of sand on top of Tim while he wasn’t watching.

The sand flowed out of the bucket but hung for a moment in the air before spraying back into Jaedon’s face, causing him to drop the bucket.

“You know I can see that, right?” Tim taunted. The sand collected behind Jaedon and then put itself back into the bucket. “Each grain of sand carries the element of earth. I can see them all now. Yet, inside of us, there’s water, fire, earth, air and still just a bit of void. I’m missing something.”

“Well, you’ve far surpassed the training I can do. The king will continue it.” Jaedon said as he sat down with Tim.

Yes. You are still missing something. Tim jolted up and started looking upwards. “The voice is back.”

“Edith. Yellow Alert. Make haste for the Venus perimeter ring.” There was a short ding and the fusion engines on Edith kicked up. Everyone on the ship was thrown off their feet. Allorien’s ship followed closely, fully able to keep pace with the human craft.

Twenty minutes later, Edith made a big, slowing skid turn and settled behind one of the large laser gun turrets. The automated turrets didn’t have anything to lock onto. They only saw Edith.

Bridge

Everyone on the ship collected on the bridge, they looked at the panoramic view screen. The laser gun turret in front of them continued its automated search for targets against the backdrop of a star field. The small blue dot of Terra Firma hovered slightly above it. A crescent Venus loomed large behind them. There was a deafening silence until Sam spoke up: “I think we lost it.”

No. I’m still here.

“No we didn’t.” Tim said. “They’re still here.”

Jaedon spoke next, “so we have in our presence an entity that we have no defense against, that only people attuned to magic can sense, that can see us, and may or may not be a threat to us.”

That assessment is correct. Except I am not a threat to your existence.

“And, that can hear us, it seems.” Tim responded. “They claimed not to be a threat but said the rest of that assessment is correct.”

All the people on the bridge looked around except Tim. He was becoming attuned enough, he had a feeling Allorien was not onboard. “They’re not actually on the ship.” He said.

“How do you know?” Alestra was unaccustomed to not being able to experience the world around her. The lack of direct information stressed her out.

“A flash of a feeling. What am I missing?”

Focus. Look at the void. Inside you and out.

Tim sat down in on the floor in the middle of the bridge and searched around him. It was all void; except for Edith and the gun turret. He measured his breathing, slowing it to the pace of one breath a minute. His heart rate slowed in response. He looked inside himself and saw every element. Looking deeper within himself, he saw the void.

I can’t do this, Tim thought to himself.

Yes, you can, Allorien’s voice responded from inside his deepest core. The voice came from him? That can’t be. He focused on the core within him. It’s different. It’s not void. He searched outside the ship again. The void outside the ship was different.

You’re almost there. Allorien’s voice came from within him again. Tim focused on the void within him; everyone else focused on him. It’s a different void. What if I just consider it to be the opposite of void? He focused on inverting the feeling of void within him.

The memory of his mother came back to him the sound of sirens the feeling of fire burning his hand. He screamed out loud, everyone looked at him and moved toward Tim. There was an invisible barrier in a circle five feet around him in a sphere. Nobody could reach him to help. Subconsciously this barrier formed around him. He was completely unaware of the people trying to help him. Tim focused on the pain, holding it close. What if this is what makes me who I am. He looked back within himself and the void was no longer there. It was replaced with a core of bright crystal projecting a clear white light.

He came back to awareness to see everyone trying to get to him. “I’m sorry.” The barrier crumpled and everyone rushed him. A group embrace was interrupted by the voice from Allorien. You didn’t run from the trauma that forced you from recognizing yourself. You should be able to see me now.

Tim Li sat back down and focused inside himself and saw the core of crystal white that had replaced the void. As he reached out, he saw that each of his companions also had a core of crystal white sitting with the other four core energies. Tim couldn’t see their core before. He stretched out further and found the clear distinction with the void that surrounded the air that surrounded all of them.

In that void, there was another white crystal present. This crystal didn’t happen to surrounded by the other elements, that’s why he didn’t see it before. He froze for a moment then said, “082-mark-042”

Jaedon jumped into action. “Edith, get the cannon. Fire it there.”

Tim came to full consciousness just a moment too late. “No!” The shot had already been fired. It broke into six different beams as it struck an invisible object. The six beams deflected harmlessly into space.

Allorien’s voice responded to the attack. You found me after all.

“Yes. We’ve finally found you. Please show yourself.”

Allorien lowered the adaptive camouflage on his ship. It was smaller than Edith overall, but unlike Edith’s bean shape, it was shaped like a vertical ballpoint pen. The ship shined a bright silver, reflecting the light of a sun that wasn’t in the solar system where it was manufactured. Warning sirens started going off around the Venusian security net.

Edith said, “that may not have been the smartest move. If we want to keep our friend in one piece.” The three nearest sentry guns noticed the foreign ship. Three of the strongest lasers humanity ever created impacted Allorien’s ship and ricocheted harmlessly off.

I don’t think I should stay here.

“No, but I have an idea.” Tim responded audibly.