I, Propitiator: "Chapter 2"

Chapter 2

“Love will come to save us, if only we’ll call. He will ask nothing of us, but demand we give our all.” –Warren Barfield

Kanda stretched out her hands to break her fall as Zurui threw her violently out of his room. She never thought she would have to sell herself as a slave and certainly not to a master that would take anything she valued from her. You see Kanda was an I and the Arashad Regime had sent Zurui, one of their most treacherous operatives, to her region. He had basically made it so that unless she sold herself to him, Zurui would have revealed the Ies and all hope of protecting Terra Lapsa would have been lost. Zurui flexed his right bicep as if to show off his tattoo. In a ghoulish font the words on his arm “you are mine” moved to haunt her. Kanda knew she had to escape, but she was stuck on a spaceship with a large crew and tight security. She wasn’t trained in flying them, as if the feat of getting through all the security wasn’t enough of a challenge. The best she could hope for was an I to hear her final telepathic plea for help as her spirit could no longer hold her away from the assailing Zurui.

Oliver shot straight up with a sharp ringing sound in his ear. Telepathically he alerted me, ‘Don’t wake Mom just yet, but do start flying us to these coordinates.’

‘Why are we venturing there? Isn’t it close to the Arashad Regime’s new base?’

Oliver reached my room and whispered, “An I is in trouble and we must save her.”

He must have figured that saying it verbally would help me just trust that he knew what he was doing, even though he really didn’t. From there, my mind kinda avoided actual logic or reasoning and just accepted that we were going to save whoever this I was. Perhaps it was the word “her” that got my attention. As he grabbed his tipir and got to the teleporter, he telepathically reminded me, ‘Keep the ship in stealth unless otherwise instructed. Wake Mom in half an hour if we haven’t left this place yet.’

Kanda was sobbing softly when Oliver found her. He had snuck through the vents for nearly an hour trying desperately to locate her without being found. She looked up at him and then cried harder. Oliver tried to comfort her, but she only murmured something inaudible. The next moment Zurui closed the door Oliver had come in through. Zurui was now fully dressed in onyx, from head to toe, not a single part of him exposed to the light. The only change of color in his black outfit was a giant blood red Z across the chest of the man. “And so Lieutenant Avner comes to rescue this worthless woman.”

Oliver clenched his fists, scanning the room for anything he could use to his advantage. Zurui continued on, “Superiority is defined and expressed when the strong display their power over the weak. I am greater than you because I am not restricted in any way. My strength is displayed even now. I do as I please, go where I want, protect what I care about, leave what I don’t want behind. I know you’ve been struggling with what you want to do and what you should do. I can see it in your eyes. You crave power. No, it’s more than that. You crave the freedom that comes from power. You know exactly what you want and how to get it. That lieutenant is extraordinarily special. It’s yours for the taking, all that’s left it to express your superiority over an I. You want her, just take her and turn your back on the Prime I. What did he ever do that’s so special? You can barely prove his existence. Show me you are worthy of the kind of power I have and I’ll give you more than you have ever dreamed of.”

Oliver slowly moved over to Kanda, glancing back at Zurui for but a moment. He placed his arms around her as he raised her into a sitting position. Then as he telepathically told her everything would be alright, Oliver aggressively stated, “Darkness knows only darkness, but light pierces through it!”

With that, his tipir flew out at Zurui. The malevolent figure produced an energy staff of his own and blocked the incoming projectile. “Foolish child! You just turned down the offer of a lifetime.”

He charged at Oliver and Kanda, but Oliver continued speaking, “Darkness knowing only itself, brings forth death, but in the light of the Prime I, we have a peaceful assurance of life.”

Zurui turned around mid-stride to block the assault of energy bolts that was now coming from the tipir. In a back flip, Zurui advanced closer to Oliver while still blocking all the shots, but by then Kanda, Oliver and his tipir all faded in thin air as a result of teleportation. “You need to move faster next time.” Mom said to Oliver as she instructed me to fly back to Terra Lapsa.

Oliver was stunned by Mom’s critique. Wasn’t it good enough that they all were back safe? He must’ve wondered. Regardless of what he thought, he quickly let go of Kanda and walked back to his room to go back to bed. In hindsight, my imagination inquires what Kanda was thinking of all of this. Perhaps she was just too shocked at the series of events that unfolded. Even still, Mom decided to converse with her, “So what’s your name? Where are you from? What happened?”

Kanda stammered, “My na-name is Kanda Tamwong. My assignment was to the sou-south-Asia region of Terra Lapsa. Zurui found me, ma-am.”

“Please, call me Ms. Avner, or even just Camryn. Really, there’s no need for such formalities; you’re among friends again.”

Kanda ran her hand through her long black hair. It was only a few inches longer than mine, no darker either. The stunning resemblance in that regard made her feel like a sister with almost no real familiarity. The skin color was also fairly dark on both of us; in my case sunlight scarred me from my youth. The biggest difference was probably the fact that she had brown eyes whereas mine were blue. Another difference, but one that wasn’t necessarily there at all times, was that generally a purple highlight was on the underside of my hair, yet she had none. Yet in height, overall figure, nearly anything else, we looked very much alike. “Friends…” Kanda’s voice trailed off.

It seemed appropriate to nod, Kanda then continued, “My memory fails to produce a date when it was last clear that friends of mine existed.”

Mom was pleasantly surprised as she inquired, “And in all this time you still hold such high regards for the Prime I?”

Kanda’s voice was suddenly firm and certain, “Yes, he is worth living for.”

The next day, Oliver was busy writing his reports on what had happened at the station. Explaining the interior of the enemy ship was particularly difficult because it didn’t follow any format we had come across before, so he had to write nearly every detail about it. While he was doing so, Kanda sat across the table from him. She didn’t really say much, perhaps she was still too shaken up by the whole ordeal. However, it could also have been that she had developed a crush on my brother. After all, who wouldn’t love the person that saved them from a merciless monster? On the other hand, since Zurui hadn’t harmed me, it was as if nothing much out of the ordinary had happened, so my plans to meet with Daedalus continued on. Mom operated the teleporter setting me down quite gracefully in the park near the college. Before my feet had carried me more than ten yards, Daedalus called me, “Sarah!”

Before my body had finished squaring off with his, Daedalus teased, “You know I think someone caught you teleporting down on camera.”

With much agitation, a single inquiry proceeded from my lips, “What?”

He produced a recording of me teleporting down, played it, “See, it’s right her-”

The camera spiked shutting off all together. He frowned, saying, “Why did you do that for? It’s not like I was gonna do anything with it!”

“It wasn’t me! Really, it wasn’t! Ies can’t short out a video without technological equipment, only Vytor can do that!”

He nodded as if understanding that it was some random occurrence. For me, though my mind should have been trying to figure out what really did happen, it was focused on Daedalus. Since you Terrans also wouldn’t know what a Vytor is, allow me to explain.

Vytor are cybernetic humanoids that have high technical adaptability. Their eyes see in infrared more than normal light, their voices are capable of hypersonic screeches, and physically, they often are a leg up on the average I. About half of the Vytor are part of the Arashad Regime, while the other half is on our side. This particular issue leads to a lot of double agent Vytor. Given what Kanda had shared, it was possible that Zurui was part Vytor.

Anyways, as thoughts flooded my mind regarding what he could have asked me here for this time, Daedalus broke the silence, “Well, this time I’d like to take you to see a movie. How does A World They Once Knew sound to you?”

“Um, sure… What is it about?”

“I’m not altogether certain, but Ross said he really wanted to see it so he told me to bring a friend. He seemed stoked about the idea of space travel or something.”

We went to the theater and sat in the front. Personally, the movie seemed so unrealistic my mind was more on what Kanda was doing than the giant screen in front of us. However, about a third of the way through, Ross got up to use the restroom. No one else was in the row. Daedalus didn’t seem to notice at first. Or did he? Out of the corner of my eye, it seemed that he was stretching. Yet in a few seconds, the warmth of his right arm around me would set in. The sensation was exhilarating, but also calming. Not wanting it to go away, my gaze maintained on the screen a few moments and then my head turned to face his. My heart raced as he moved closer, tilting his head. Yet before anything further occurred a loud voice rang in my head, ‘Where are you, Sis? We must retreat now. The Arashad Regime knows our ship’s orbital path.’

Jolted by the poor timing, my mind could not form a proper response, instead my lips blurted, “Sorry. I must leave now. Bye.”

Running out of the theater, he seemed so confused, perhaps hurt, but it didn’t matter. There wasn’t any time to explain why. As soon as I was out of view of everyone, Oliver teleported me back onto the ship.