The Acolytes of Crane (Theodore Crane, #1)(57)

‘Dude, those Bromels were intense. I can see why they are Zane’s bodyguards. They could probably kick some serious butt!’ Dan said, as he stopped to immerse himself in the infinite black space presented on the wall.

Liam playfully kicked my foot, tripping me. I turned to chase him, and he put me in a headlock, wildly grinding his knuckles into my scalp.

‘Say uncle-say uncle,’ Liam said jokingly.

‘Uncle, Uncle! C’mon goofis! You are going to make me go bald if you keep doing that,’ I said, as I ran ahead to avoid our frisky scuffle.

‘Thanks, Ted,’ Liam said.

‘For what?’ I asked.

‘For this. If you didn’t bring me here, I’d be stuck on the third rock down from the sun in the Milky Way!’ he said, and continued down the hallway.

I laughed, running after him with my lips pursed, and I shouted, ‘You owe me a kiss!’

I could feel the presence of Dietons. They flowed around us, and in the center of our group, the formation of a body rose up from the ground. Level-by-level, the body began to take shape. The robotic man-thing standing beside us introduced himself as Nezatron. I recognized him immediately from my first encounter on the Uriel, shortly after I had been saved from a certain death at Taylors Falls. The others in my group gazed on in wonder.

‘I am Nezatron. Theodore has met me before. As you can see, I am made entirely from Dietons. I am from Sephera; therefore, I am Sepheran. I will be guiding most of your training on this ship. Welcome to the Uriel. It is the name of this ship. You will be sequestered to your sleeping quarters until notified. Don’t touch anything,’ Nezatron said.

Nezatron, as I remembered him from before, was robotic in nature. However, he was now of human form. The facade that he disguised himself with was of a man with platinum hair, slicked back; bright blue-green eyes, like the ocean near a coral reef; and about-average height—standing about six feet.

His voice was similar to before, but more human-like, yet still monotonous. It was the first time I actually saw—with my own eyes—the formation of Dietons. It was a sight to remember.

There was astounding warmth radiating from within my body. It was a feeling of inner serenity that pushed outward from the center of my chest, leaving a tingling sensation at the outermost nerve endings of my body. The quality of the air within the vessel was pristine. I breathed deeply and cleanly.

I rummaged through my sleeping quarters, exploring what was known and unknown. It seemed designed for the comforts of an individual, but there was one important thing missing—a bed. A button on the wall intrigued me. Pressing it, I felt a flow of Dietons again, and then I heard Nezatron:

‘Lie down. Do it. You can trust me; after all, we have been through a lot. C’mon, lie back.’

I leaned backward slowly, and I felt my body braced by an invisible pressure. I lay completely back, comforted by the softest feeling I could ever imagine. It felt as if I were lying on a nimbus cloud, or millions of bubbles.

Nezatron said proudly, ‘What you lie upon is actually millions of Dietons. These Dietons were equipped with microscopic platforms. There are enough to encompass your entire body. No matter which way you move, the Dietons will adjust to give you systematic support at essential points of your body. In other words, they will give you complete comfort while you sleep.’

I rolled around. Nezatron was correct. The Dietons adjusted to my movements and provided an extremely comfortable platform for sleeping. Although, if any human watched me test that technology, they might think I was blithefully possessed by the way I was levitating about my room.

I learned that Dietons could not be observed with the naked eye until they worked together intensely to form an object. It was when they bound together their attachments with finality such that they created an image. The bed that I was toying with presented itself as a light grey transparent sheet of Dietons with slightly visible edges.

Nezatron was the most interesting form of Dietonical mass. He referred to himself as Sepheran, so I realized that when Dietons formed Nezatron, he was considered Sepheran. If the Dietons formed an inanimate object, that however was not considered a Sepheran, since that identity was only given to beings that had formed a new sentient soul. Nezatron certainly qualified. Although he appeared human, and executed flawless mannerisms that wouldn’t cause any by-stander any cause for alarm, he was still essentially robotic in nature. Despite that, he was definitely his own person, with his own soul. That was weird.

After the tours of our rooms, Nezatron led us five to a huge conference room in the middle of the ship. It had sunken wide steps that appeared as a circle, with its bottom-most platform right in the center. He beckoned for us to step down to the eye of the circle, and we did. We looked at the cavernous ceiling; it was a glass dome that, again, afforded us a wide view of outer space.

Suddenly, from a holographic projector on the ceiling appeared the image of Zane. We were engaged in a sort of hologram conference call. He said, ‘Attention! Please draw near. My name is Zane, and this is my ship, the Uriel. We are at war. My creators, the Dacturons, which I have long ago disavowed, have chosen a path of destruction. Urilian involvement in their lives angers them, and they choose war as the solution. It is my duty to raise awareness of this growing threat. My belief is that we all must involve ourselves in this fight. You will represent Earth, compliments of Theodore. We ran the database of Earth’s entire population, and with our findings, we now know that he is the only one capable of delivering us from this threat. He has risked his life to get you here, and lost everything, because of Dacturon greed and jealousy. Did you tell them about the death of your grandparents, caused by our enemies, just last night?’