Emergence: Chapter 7

With the cold metal railing in his hands, Foton leaned over the balcony; a large semi-circle that jutted out of the Spire not far from its pointed peak. From here, Foton could see to the edge of New Orbus and to the dusty stone ruins of Orbus beyond. He looked down to the streets surrounding the Spire. There were landmobiles on the grey roads, their anti-gravity generators negating the need for wheels. Foton disliked landmobiles; they didn't have the sense of freedom that aeros had. The aeros had full 3-Dimensional movement, within certain bounds; they were to go no higher than 1500 Standards due to aerospace regulations. Sometimes, Foton wished he could forget his responsibilities and just fly, free of society's restraints and the bounds of gravity.

Foton moved along the balcony, his arms gliding along the smooth metal railing. From this position, he could see more of the parks that been specially grown for this metal hulk of a landmass. While he could not see the people in them, he knew that there would be children there, playing together under the watchful eyes of their parents; this wasn't like Raan, where children were brought up by Raisers. Further away, Foton could see the ten biodomes, each mimicking the average climate of one of the other planets in the Twelve, aside from Oblivion. This allowed New Orbus to grow food and host animals from all of the planets, not having to rely on trade in case of emergency. These were huge, each the size of small towns or large villages; the populace were not running out of food any-time soon. These were guarded by a collection of orbital systems, which Foton could just about make out from his viewpoint as a group of silver dots in the sky. But these were no-where near as well protected as the Anti-Gravity generator that suspended New Orbus above the surface of Orbus. Not only were they monitored by a stealth-orbital system, but their locations were kept a secret, with several decoys. Each had a mag-pulse generator, to repel high-speeding metal projectiles, and the thick, dense casing should be enough to repel orbital cannons. From his viewpoint, Foton could see one of the decoys; he knew where the real one was. These were giant cuboid buildings, stretching almost 1000 Standards into the sky; unmissable, but necessary to house the hulking machinery within.

He started as a sound disturbed him. Turning, he saw an Irinian woman walking towards him. She was tall, but not as tall as Foton, and very slender. At certain angles, her skin had a faint silver shimmer; metal fibres were inserted into Irinians' skin at birth to protect against the planet's weather. Running along the left side of her face, stretching from eye to her ear, before travelling down to the side of her mouth was an Irinian Augmentation, or Aug for short. “Foton,” she said, bowing her head.

“No need to bow to me, Teriva.” Foton said, smiling. “What brings you here?”

“I came to see Tahkshi,”Teriva said. “You're his bodyguard, where is he?”

“He's gone to talk to someone.” Foton answered solemnly. “Have you heard about Raan?”

Teriva sighed. “Yeah. And still my sister refuses to come to the capital.”

“Maybe Arias doesn't want to pledge her armies in a war that may only last a few days,” Foton suggested, “although the Xaosians are pretty serious; they're not gonna give up.”

“Exactly.” Teriva agreed. She ran a hand through her black hair. “I only came here to Tahkshi, and now I'm a political mediator.”

“Tell me about it.” Foton said light-heartedly, “I'm practically an ambassador for Prauw.”

Teriva chuckled, twisting her mouth as if trying to hide her smile. “I never knew you were from Prauw.” she said, folding her arms. “I always assumed Raan.”

“Wha', and talk like this, ma'e?” Foton said in a Raanian accent.

“Wow...” Teriva said, “You should be an enemy of Raan for that accent! And I meant the wealthier parts.”

“Nah, Prauw. It's not the best place, but it's simple.” Foton stated.

Teriva nodded, “Simple's good.”

They fell into silence for a moment, before Foton's pocket emitted a high-pitched squeal. He pulled a com out of it and pressed the button in the centre. “Foton here.”

“I know,” came the voice of Lord Tahkshi, president of the Empire of Twelve, “otherwise your com wouldn't be ringing. Can you pick up Devilclash and meet me at Buun's com-room?”

“Why?” asked Foton, annoyed at Tahkshi's sarcastic comment.

“Because Buun would be a good ally in our war with the Xaosians.” Tahkshi said.

“Alright then.” Foton said, before glancing over at Teriva. “By the way, Teriva's here.”

“Is she?” Tahkshi's voice sounded more enthused now. “Pass me over please.”

Foton mentally grinned as he passed the com over; one mention of Teriva would suddenly make Tahkshi polite. Teriva began talking into the com, but Foton ignored her; it didn't matter to him what they were saying. There was a sudden giggling and Foton saw Teriva's cheeks redden. She waked over to Foton, still talking into the com. “Love you too!” she called into the com, before passing it back to Foton, who raised an eyebrow; she was acting like the child she would've been thirty years ago.

“So, the Buun com-room with Devilclash?” Foton affirmed.

“Yeah, see you soon.” Tahkshi finished, before the com began to buzz; the call was over. Foton pushed the com's button and the buzzing stopped, before replacing it in his pocket.

“What are you doing now?” Foton asked Teriva.

“I'm going to wait for him here.” she said, leaning on the balcony's railing. “You should probably be going.”

“See you later.” Foton said, turning away.

He walked into the Spire, before entering an elevator, which took him down to the penultimate floor. From there, he went into the Tracking room, where he went over to the central computer and placed his thumb on the pad in front of it. This checked his thumbprint against the one on the database, whilst monitoring his pulse to make sure that there was one, or that he was not panicked or coerced into opening the system. A red light turned green and the screen turned on, displaying a map of each of the Spire's floors, all of them covered with blue shapes. Each blue shape was a bodyguard, all of whom had chips implanted in them; in Devilclash's case, it was attached to the Hive-Stone rather than in the neck. The Tracking room's purpose was to allow Foton, as the chief bodyguard, to find and track the other guards. He brought up a search box and typed in “DEVILCLASH-pyr”. She was on the seventh floor, standing in the main hall. Foton sighed; the Buun room was on the floor below the one he was on, nowhere near the seventh. For a moment, he wondered why Tahkshi hadn't just commed her as well, but then he remembered that Devilclash couldn't carry a com with her all the time. On the way out of the room, he spied the old building-com; this allowed him to communicate with everyone in the building, or on one floor, at once. He dusted it off and plugged it in, before selecting Floor 7 from the menu. He cleared his throat, before saying, “Devilclash, please meet Foton outside the Buun com-room. Repeat, Devilclash to the Buun com-room.” He watched Devilclash's dot move towards the nearest elevator. Foton smiled and nodded, before walking out of the Tracking Room and moving towards the stairs to the floor beneath.

Twelve doors set in a circle greeted him as he arrived on the com-floor. The door he had came through and another door led to stairs, spiralling in opposing directions; one up, one down. The other ten doors led to separate com rooms; one for each of the Twelve, aside from New Orbus and Oblivion. One to Foton's left had “BUUN” engraved on a plaque attached to it. Pressing his ear to the door, Foton could hear Tahkshi's soft and soothing “political voice”.

“Should you really be listening?” came a rasping voice.

“Devilclash,” Foton said, turning to see the Pyrkagias. “You got here quickly.”

She began to walk over to him, but her feet didn't touch the floor; they never did. “D.” Foton asked, “Why do you bother to do the actions? Or even look human?”

“The Primary recommends it, so that we can fit in.” Devilclash said, “It doesn't work though, people still tend keep away from us. Also, I think it's a nice form.”

“It is.” Foton admired the Pyrkagia; powerful, immortal and somewhat graceful. For a swarm of bugs, anyway.

The door to the Buun com-room opened and Lord Tahkshi emerged, his red and gold lord's robe billowing behind him. “Foton. Devilclash.” Tahkshi acknowledged them both with a brief nod.

“Why did you want us, sir?” Foton asked.

“Well, Foton, I'm pretty sure you know your job description; you're my bodyguard, and you will guard my body.” Tahkshi said. Foton bit back a retort. “And you, Devilclash; partially for the same reason, but also because of your species. The Pykagian Primary refuses to talk over coms; we have to go to Buun to ask for his help.” Tahkshi turned to Foton. “I'm assuming you've never been to Buun before?”

“You assume wrong.” said Foton.

“Really?” Tahkshi said, his voice going higher-pitched in his surprise. “Good. Nixiin has the ship ready for us, so can you two go there now? I'm going to see Teriva quickly.”

“You had better be quick.” Foton said, his deep voice becoming more of a growl.

Tahkshi ignored him and walked away at a brisk pace.

Devilclash turned to Foton. “Have you really been to Buun?”

“Yes.” Foton said. “I wouldn't lie to my client.”

“But you hate him.” Devilclash stated; not a question, but an utterance of fact.

“Not hate.” Foton said. “Distaste, but not hate.”

“So, why'd you go to Buun?” Devilclash asked.

Foton paused for a moment, before looking at Devilclash and saying, “Fancied a change of scenery.”

She gave Foton a strange look and said “Okay then.”

He nodded, before turning and walking to the stairs heading downwards, knowing that she didn't believe him.