Chapter 18 - Control
Year 3001. 21 Days until classes start. Blue Whale-CivPT+* ‘Specialized Personnel Transport 3’ traveling to the south pole
“Take it easier there Kaiser.”
I held my hand to my face as I stepped out of the stasis chamber as I wheezed out a response, “Yup.”
Athena frowned and looked at something projected onto her eye, “We’re going to arrive at the south pole in about half an hour.”
I coughed out puffs of blue gas, “What’re we doing?”
“Remember the mission list I gave you?”
“Yup.”
“This is the first one you got.”
I blinked as the bright sunlight flashed in my face, “Uh. Yeah. Hold on.”
I heard a popping sound of plastic breaking followed by a thudding sound. Athena handed me a little box and sat down in an armchair that was near the stasis chamber, “Take a sip of some of that cranberry juice.”
I looked down at the box, but it was just a blur. I rubbed my eyes. Didn’t help. My vision itself was foggy. Ugh. I pushed the box up to my face and poked my chin with the straw until I found it in my mouth.
I felt the liquid flow down my dry itchy throat. A warm feeling welled up inside the back of my nose, “BLEAARGHH.”
I opened my teary eyes and looked up at Athena who was grinning, “Kaiser, how was that?”
Wiping the tears out of my eyes I looked at the box. I could finally read it, “Is this really cranberry juice?”
Athena nodded, “You just need some kind of liquid to get the stasis fluid out of your throat.”
I looked at the little pool of blue liquid that was vaporizing on the floor, “Huh.”
“Are you doing better?”
I looked at the box of juice, “The rest is mine, yeah?”
Athena laughed, “I’m not taking it from you.”
“Hey, just making sure.”
“You’re less stiff than before.”
“Stiff?”
Athena sat back in her chair, “Yes.”
I frowned. What could that mean? I took another big sip of the juice and looked out the window as the deep blue ocean curved away from the horizon. A breathtaking sight. White wisps of clouds flew past the craft as it ascended in the atmosphere.
Athena made a sigh and handed me a tablet, “Take a look at the mission.”
I grabbed the tablet and briefly scanned it. Too hard to focus. Thoughts were running through my head. Waves of doubt and curiosity. I took a seat and frowned, “I still don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
“What everything that happened yesterday means.”
“You’ve already mostly recovered from the discussion.”
“Yeah not that. Dr. Monday explained that to me.”
She looked at me, “I can explain it again. When Dr. Monday left you had just come out of regeneration.”
“Yeah. What was so bad about the final condition?”
Athena gazed out the window as the craft entered space and the light pull of the magnets in our boots were enabled. She had a sorrowful guilty kind of look on her face. She frowned, “Sacrifice.”
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“SPT three landing sequence initiated. All thrusters to VTOL. Brace for bumps and please stay secure in a seat. Please keep all loose objects contained.”
I felt a poke at my arm, “Hey. Kaiser. Wake up. We’re landing.”
“Ugh. What?”
“The extraction site. Look out the window!”
The white expanse of snow over ice filled the view as a sprawling city spread out below the craft. I pointed at the window and looked at Athena, “That is the research base?”
“Yup. Not much of a base anymore.”
“It’s a whole city!”
Massive structures on large treads sat atop the Antarctic Ice Sheet with bore holes in various locations around the mobile city.
Athena pointed towards one of the holes, “That’s the site we’re going to. A newly established extraction site.”
“So… what do we do?”
“Today we just watch. Observe. Learn how this works.”
I watched as the city became larger. Particles of snow seemed to zoom past the window as the ship fell towards the ground. I felt the weight of gravity disappear as the craft started accelerating downwards into the ice.
“VOTL ignition. Brace for deceleration hover.”
The cabin shuddered as the deafening roar of the atmospheric engines fired. Out the window I saw a massive nozzle shooting a bright orange stream of flame under the craft. Chunks of frozen nitrogen fell into the flame from above the nozzle as the liquid oxygen froze the nitrogen around the injector.
Large quantities of vapor and gas spewed out the side of the craft to guide it towards the correct launch pad. A thin fog of steam seemed to envelop the thrusters as the falling snow vaporized. As the window fogged up I felt a strong pushing sensation as I was squished into my seat.
The cabin shook and tilted as the craft arrested its descent.
“Brace for impact.”
I watched the valves on the thruster’s twisted cutting off fuel.
Thud
I exhaled, “Whoa.”
Athena leaned on my shoulder, “Beautiful. Isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go. I heard your father is at the base today.”
“Father? Really?”
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“Kaiser!”
I stepped off the landing platform and looked in the direction of the bellowing voice.
“Over here!”
I waved as I saw the small figure scurry around the pipes, cords, and other equipment, “Dad!”
He had a massive grin plastered on his face as he walked up to the landing ladder and grabbed it to hold it steady, “It feels like I haven’t seen you in years!”
“It’s been less than three days.”
“Three days? It sure felt like more than that.”
“Yeah. You said years.”
He let out a laugh and extended his arm towards me, “Get down from up there. I’ve got a lot to show you around here!”
The cold metal ladder seemed to seep through my gloves as I slowly made my way down the ladder in an awkward manner. The puffy jacket and pants really got in the way of securely sticking my feet to the rungs.
When my boots touched the bottom of the last rung dangling a meter above the pad I looked over at my father, “Uh… how did you know I’d be here?”
“How? How do you think?”
“Maybe you looked into the files?”
He chuckled, “You give me way too much credit.”
“Hmm yes. You wouldn’t be able to navigate the file system.”
“Oh, come on. I’m not that hopeless.”
I grinned underneath the mask covering up my face, “Sure. I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“Bend your knees!”
Landing on the steel floor of the mobile launch pad I felt the shock run up my leg, “Augh. Owch.”
I looked over at father and saw him holding in laughter with that look in his eyes that screamed, “I told you so.”
Rubbing my knees a bit I sighed, “Yeah yeah. I got it.”
He had that smug grin in his eyes that he always had before delivering his signature line, “I told you so.”
I shot him an annoyed look, “Yeah. I know you did.”
My father raised an arm and a little vehicle with puffy pillow like wheels rolled up over the edge of the pad and came to a halt in front of us, “Hop in, I’ll show you around the site.”
-----
“What does sacrifice mean?”
He gave me a peculiar side eye I hadn’t seen before. An alarmed look. The look of someone who had just seen a ghost, “Athena?”
I nodded, “I asked about the third number from the discussion.”
Gaius nodded, “We expected this to be honest. After all we, your mother and I, have raised you to be an ether conduit.”
“Ether conduit?”
He nodded, “You’ll figure it out after you leave the academy.”
That phrase never sat right with me. I’ll figure it out. Sure. But I want to know now not in the future? Ugh.
I sat in the vehicle in silence as we began rolling down the ramp off the side of the launch pad. Something wasn’t adding up. Something felt… off. Raised to be an ether conduit? I knew people did things to accept ether better but I didn’t do any of that. In fact, I don’t remember doing anything special. I just… lived normally?
I gulped, “So, what do you mean by expected?”
“Earth wants your ether. It wants a cut of the stuff you refine.”
“Is that what sacrifice is?”
Dad stared at the floor of the vehicle, “Nobody can tell you what sacrifice means until you sign a contract.”
“With Sol?”
He frowned, “You probably can’t even do that.”
“What?”
“You’re probably too independent for even the sun to contain you.”
Wait. Contain? Contract. My eyes opened wide, “Wait, the contract is meant to limit the power rather than give power?”
Father looked at me in the eyes, “This is the secret that founded and brought ruin to the Commonwealth. A secret the Republic has decided to not ignore.”
I sat back in my seat, “But… why?”
Father clasped his hands together, “Let superhumans roam the planet without any control? Only a crazy person would let that happen.”
“What if someone didn’t want a contract?”
He frowned, “You already know.”
I looked out a small window on the vehicle. I did know. After all, the whole point of the Lunar war that established the commonwealth was to put Lua under the control of Earth. It made sense. The war wasn’t for resources or control. It was to put a leash on the psychics. The remnants we still fought to this day. Or are they remnants?
So. I've been busy. Like really busy. I'm working on a 2nd book and that has sucked a lot of time. I'm trying to return to the weekly schedule but we're probably gonna go to no real schedule and a post whenever the hell I feel like it. Is this good for the story? No. Do I care? Kind of. Will I ever do a proper launch? Um...
In other news, today I'm shouting an author I know Robocreator223. (This shout was supposed to go out over a week ago and I'm really sorry)
I've read a bit of their story and I believe that people who enjoy the kind of power things from Wyrm in The Brain and stuff from the recordings would really enjoy this story. It is very interesting and unlike my story is actually well edited.
In other news, I've decided that patreon is kinda just not gonna be a good path for me. I'm just gonna write this book purely for enjoyment rather than trying to make back any money from it. If you want to support me consider checking out my hot takes on my or by talking to me. I love talking to people. Especially if you do cool things. If you're reading this you're cool. A follow, favorite, comment, or review also helps a lot. Thanks for reading and putting up with this idiot. :>
