The Acolytes of Crane (Theodore Crane, #1)(76)

Migalt’s voice boomed as he stared daggers at us, ‘This meeting begins now, as you are aware, your former team leader—and let’s be perfectly clear, infiltrated a wing of this ship that was forbidden. His actions took the digital life of one Sepheran and destroyed two Ophanims that were each over two thousand years old. All three of these soldiers were decorated in battle and have served Zane in the highest tradition of honor, loyalty, and valor. Theodore is now a rogue.’

His eyes, brimming with outrage, locked into each of our own as he scanned the room, daring us to defend Theodore. ‘He was last seen entering the Valeon Galaxy. Upon his own initiative, his IPU was reformatted, and he is now separated from our communication and surveillance, leaving him just as dangerous as Travis. Your ultimate duty is to obey your true leader, Zane. The role of Messiah has been stripped away from Theodore. Remember, there is no Sephera without Zane, and Sephera must be defended at all costs. Does anyone have any information that can help us in delivering Theodore to justice?’ Migalt asked.

We all sat and looked at each other, but I knew what was going on there. Sometimes adults think they are superior to kids and in most ways, they are. But not this time.

Seeing our stunned reactions, Migalt leaned over to his fellow Bromel and whispered to him, ‘This is a lost cause.’

Migalt badly misunderstood the concept of loyalty and friendship. Perhaps beyond Earth, friendship was an archaic concept, an old relic to be tossed away.

No. We belonged to Theodore. To discredit him was an assault on what we stood for at the beginning. Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno. All for one, and one for all.

This maxim was at the root of our dissension, carefully concealed from Zane and his followers. We didn’t follow Zane to the ends of Earth, let alone throughout the continuity of space. We exalted Ted. He was leading us to the destruction of Travis and the Odion, and that is what I was for—until the moment Migalt spoke harshly of Ted.

‘Why is it that you are not standing by Theodore now? He brought us here to fight with you, side by side!’ Liam roared.

Migalt slammed his enormous hand on the armrest and shouted, ‘You don’t understand! Theodore is no longer Theodore. He has been compromised. His mind has been accessed by evil, and he is now a perpetrator of treason. That makes him a threat to the Urilian resistance and an obvious threat to Zane.’

He raised his hands in frustration, and muttered to himself, ‘I can’t believe I am reasoning with a bunch of teenagers.’

‘We are no longer teenagers because of your brain-washing! We have become what you wanted from us!’ Mariah stood up and asserted herself. She was trembling. I looked at her in awe, mentally cheering her on.

Migalt snarled at us. ‘You are failing to connect because of your inability to process.’

We were shocked at his abject dismissal of our worth.

‘In my eyes, you are insignificant.’ Perhaps attempting to bite his scurrilous tongue, he softened his tone. ‘There are only two ways that this can end. We destroy you now, or you go to Karshiz for training. There, you will be under the guidance of King Trazuline. We will issue weaponry that suit your abilities and you will train. Is it a deal?’

We glanced at each other. We were pinned down by his ultimatum. If we decided to oppose him, then we may have been deleted here and now. Theodore had told me about how easy it was for Zane’s forces to make someone disappear.

I weighed my options carefully. There was one reasonable thing to do, and it was to relieve the pressure on our group by swearing our allegiance to Zane’s agenda.

I knew my group was smart enough to decipher my upcoming fa?ade. I stood up and spoke as dispassionately as I could, ‘We are here, and our desire is to preserve Sephera. I don’t have anything to say about Theodore. He was always private with his thoughts, and I knew him better than most. So I apologize if he made things difficult for us. We, too, are devastated by his actions. Would anyone else like to say anything?’

My friends stayed silent. As expected, they knew exactly what I was doing. We were going to keep our support for Theodore a secret.

We were dismissed, and as I was leaving, I was interrupted by a transmission from a male voice on my nanocom, ‘Acknowledged. Order to deploy Humans to Karshiz granted. King Trazuline’s request confirmed.’

King Trazuline’s request? Something was going on, and we hadn’t even been given a choice yet. Somehow, I had the feeling that the covert transmission was mistakenly broadcast to my nanocom; perhaps others as well. We were now too dangerous, even for Zane, to remain aboard his ship. Our team was in purgatory. We chose to avoid confrontation. Zane was the chess master. Trazuline was a designated king who had chosen to make a move on Zane’s chessboard, for whatever reason. As for the rest of us, well—we were pawns.

We all retired to our rooms. Mariah was having doubts and cried against my shoulder before I reluctantly cut her loose to rest. We were failing, and it was because the diligence, which had defined us and bound us together, had disappeared when Theodore left.

We were meant to be his understudies, but it was more than that. He had made us believers. Theodore gave us desire, and he was everything that we needed. Mariah’s crying affirmed this thought.


Before Zane had appeared in a puff of smoke and beseeched me to seek out Theodore, back on Earth, I was just a boy whose dad who had only one life goal—to mold a young gifted kid into a dentist. I realized there was no going back. By bringing me to a strange new destiny, far beyond the stars, Theodore had liberated me from the shackles of a one-track destiny.