The Acolytes of Crane (Theodore Crane, #1)(56)
‘I cannot believe he dragged you into this too, Liam. We are not supposed to believe—oh my God. What is that?’ Mariah yelled, with her hands over her mouth.
From the dark of the sky flew two dark and shadowy masses that appeared with Lincoln and Dan in grasp.
‘Woo-hoo, that is what I am talking about!’ Lincoln yelled.
‘That was flipping awesome,’ Dan said with his classic style.
‘Everyone, listen to me, please,’ I said. Everyone looked stunned by the presence of two giant Bromels standing before us. Migalt was one of them, and I did not know the other. ‘Migalt, I need you guys to watch over us while we wait for the extraction.’
Migalt looked at me as if I was funny and said, ‘I believe we have it under control, Theodore. The rest of you, please wait to be taken to the ship.’ He peered at me. ‘One of the conditions was that the four agree to go with you. Otherwise your team will be ineffective. Strength of heart and conviction of valor are the key constitution of a team. Did they all consent and with informed knowledge of what lies ahead?’
I was sweating now. How could I be so incompetent at this kind of thing? I had many months to prepare, yet…
Suddenly, blasts roared out of the sky and scattered explosions around us.
‘No time!’ shouted Migalt. ‘Leave now!’
In a wild burst of blinding light, the first group—Dan, Lincoln, and the other Bromel—left. The second huddle—Mariah, Liam, and I—stood in awe and fright. These two, who were the most unwilling and freshly recruited accomplices, pleaded to me not to go. Guilt struck my heart like a dagger. The instructions were to bring willing individuals, but I felt in that moment they were acting out of their fear of the unknown. I held my amulet in hand, and it turned from a cool blue to burning hot.
We all gaped at a fiery, huge object in the darkness that magically appeared out of nowhere. A Dacturon battleship had just revealed itself with four blasts from its cannons.
As Mariah and Liam ducked for cover, Migalt agilely stuck out his spear into the direction of the warship, and the incoming fire bounced off the tip of the spear into wild, random bursts. One of the blasts exploded a hole into the side of a semi trailer in the parking lot, spewing out shards of metal and glass.
My entire body was now tingling with vehemence. Glancing to my side, I saw the shocked faces on Liam and Mariah as they appeared to be vaporizing before my eyes. I looked down at my torso and arms; every cell in my body appeared to be growing translucent. I turned my head to view Migalt, as he soared toward the invading vessel with majestic spear drawn and intent to destroy. I screamed, ‘No!’
“My thoughts were absent. The teleport was complete.”
12 THEODORE: THE URIEL
“The Uriel was five hundred and thirty-five feet from end-to-end, with a wing span of seven hundred and twenty feet—nearly the length of two football fields joined end to end. There were panels sporadically placed upon inside walls within the body of the ship to simulate distant stars with luminous white speckles, as if we were watching the giant view screen on the command bridge in Star Trek.”
It was like the Spruce Goose with an iridescent radiance from its faux star glow, fitted with futuristic weaponry, and built on a sleek contemporary design. The great engineers of today’s Earth would probably have heart attacks—out of joy—after seeing that beautiful machine.
The two groups were now banded together in the nerve center of the ship, the Chamber of Rafal. Dan, Lincoln, and Liam were accepting their new surroundings with open arms. But not Mariah.
I hugged Mariah, because she seemed distraught and regretful.
‘Theodore, my parents told me they were getting a divorce tonight,’ she said. Immediately, I thought, where did that come from?
‘What? I’m so sorry. I hope I haven’t made things worse,’ I said. No wonder she agreed to run with me this evening on the spur of the moment. Who wouldn’t, after hearing the same day about the divorce of your beloved parents? There was nothing I could do to console her. I could not tell what she was more concerned about, the divorce or being whisked away to a strange spaceship. She was immediately transferred to a special bay to be debriefed by Zane himself. I was worried that Zane would deport her back to Earth, because she wasn’t entirely willing, as my orders required. Then without the required five, my entire team and myself could have been deemed unfit for the mission and regretfully returned to our home world.
My last visit to the Uriel was brief and left me with no time for exploration. I wanted to put in a request for a tour. I didn’t want to leave anything by the wayside.
The Uriel, our new home, was now situated close by an incredible, breath-taking gigantic space formation called the Cliff of Divinity. It was several light-years tall, much like the Pillars of Creation. It was like a Niagara Falls of interstellar debris flowing into a dark abyss. The flow was a lava lamp-like unification of purple and black. The translucent violet was produced by the light emitted from neighboring stars outside the gravitational pull of the cliff.
We left the chamber to be introduced to our quarters. We walked through hallways that visually seemed to have a transparent wall on the interior side of the ship, re-creating the deepness of space. It was just imagery collected from cameras situated outside the walls of the ship to relieve the feeling of containment, and replace that anxiety with an overwhelming sense of vastness. The other boys were thoroughly impressed.