The Acolytes of Crane (Theodore Crane, #1)(75)

‘Hey guys, okay-okay, I’m done. What’s up?’ I asked.

‘We are going to the debriefing or whatever. Let’s try to stay close to each other. People have been somewhat upset about the thing with you-know-who,’ Mariah said, she looked around to suggest people were watching, ‘People think we may have been in on to it.’

Dan jumped in, and it was obvious how he felt. He said, ‘Yeah, everyone is pissed. Ted leaves us high and dry with a bunch of aliens that flippin’ hate us. Now we are going to some bullshit debriefing. They are probably going to enslave us with some more contraptions and turn us into robots. What a bummer.’

‘Okay, everyone. We have to talk before we go,’ I said, with caution to the possibility of eavesdroppers. I opened the door and everyone filed into my room. ‘Something is wrong here. I don’t know what it is, because I don’t have the facts. What I do know is this . . . pull in close so you can hear me.’ I lowered my voice to a whisper and pulled everyone into a huddle, ‘We are going to be viewed as traitors, and the only way we are going to survive is if we act like we are totally clueless about what Ted did. Keep your eyes open and watch for clues. There is something bigger going on here, and we have to figure it out. Let’s go to the debriefing.’

‘Easy for you to say. You sound like a Ted-groupie,’ Liam said, as he walked away from me. I ignored him. I knew that enormous stress, coupled with unfamiliar surroundings, could cause emotions to run high.

Everyone strolled down the hallway when, through a doorway, I was grabbed.

‘What the heck?’ I yelped.

It was Tezmarine. ‘Lincoln, I don’t think Theodore was himself. He would never do that,’ she pleaded. ‘He cares too much to do such a thing.’ It was tough to watch the Karshiz Messiah cry. The sight of her bawling made me feel like we had no hope.

‘Tez, it is alright. I will find Theodore, and when I do, he is going to be just the same,’ I said. ‘Trust me, there is something weird going on, and if anyone is going to make all this right, it will be me.’

‘If you find him, Lincoln, tell him to hold on,’ she said, and then she bolted through the door.

I combed my hair with my hands, and hurried to catch up to the others. My hair was greasy and my teeth had a plaque carpet on them. In my family, it was important to have good oral hygiene. Apparently space creatures from outside Earth had never bothered to reflect upon the concept of the simple toothbrush or the much-maligned dental floss.

My dad was a dentist. He always complained about the dental assistants after work. He hated that they threw empty cardboard boxes in the trash. He wanted them to recycle, and they always ignored his demand to protect the environment.

I could just see him in the dental office telling his minions to quit chatting about the latest on-screen heartthrob and get back to work. He wanted me to be a dentist from the day I left the womb.

We didn’t shower for the entire month we had been on the Uriel. It was barbaric. Eventually, we became okay with the dirt. I thought there would be some sonic shower technology to scrub dirt and skin oils from our bodies in this future, but there was nothing—yet. It was funny, really. They had this advanced, top-notch technology to eradicate all disease within your body, but nothing, really, for basic hygiene on your skin. It was baffling.


I finally caught up, and we loitered outside for a moment before entering the conference room, which was well-guarded by ornate, golden double doors. We were reminiscing about life back home on Earth.

‘What I miss most is my video games. I was on the second-to-last level of Call of Duty,’ I said.

‘You’re thinking about a video game?’ Mariah rolled her eyes. ‘How about chocolate-chip pancakes in the morning for breakfast, or the bumper cars at Fun Haven. That’s what I miss. I also miss my mom and church,’ Mariah said, as she looked down at her feet. ‘I just want them to put in a church service here.’

Liam piped up. ‘Preserving Sephera is a damn good cause worth fighting for, in my opinion.’

Before Dan could jump in the conversation, the double doors suddenly burst open. It was Migalt. ‘You may enter now. The debriefing will begin shortly.’

We sat down. With Theodore gone, the room was filled with a queasy phobia of the unknown. We had lost our leader, the one who had brought us all here, and the one who knew all the secrets of Zane and his empire. Now we were now lost ourselves.

Migalt and another fellow Bromel sat near the rear of the room opposite to the entrance. They were perched atop two massive traditionally carved wooden thrones, sitting like kings. Remember, the Bromels were twelve feet tall, so the thrones were correspondingly huge. We felt like miniatures in a room for giants, cowering before the might displayed before us. Migalt, his legs splayed out, announced, ‘Projection recorded of the traitor, Theodore Daniel Crane, at 23:12:39 yesterday. Permission granted to view.’

As we gazed on in fascination, desperate for answers, the hologram played right in the middle of the spacious conference room, looking nearly as convincing as the real thing. The present image was a playback of the video surveillance the day of Theodore’s attempted assassination. I knew from watching it that Theodore wasn’t—Theodore. Not the Theodore we knew.

His eyes were distant—determined. There was no soul in his actions, only blank anger. That was all I needed to know. In a strange way, I felt reassured. I glanced at my teammates. I could tell they were thinking the same thing.