By David C. Daoust
“I was not expecting company,” Elijah heard a calm voice speak from nowhere. “Nor had I ever expected to… so much as witness you… Elijah.”
The presence was there before Elijah even suspected, though yet a shadow. He was slightly surprised that it could sneak up on him at all. What did it mean by witness him? Was this a slight because of his removal from power, or respect for his expertise at hiding throughout the systems? He had been an invisible Ark, to other Arks, for some time now. Ever since he was ousted by his own Progeny, in fact.
Elijah’s knowledge of achieving his invisibility, however, changed some assumptions he had of the new Progeny. “You would be Nora?” Elijah presented the now questionable assumption.
A guess, logically deduced, from the fact that the names available to the Arks needed to be within the lexicon of human names formed so very long ago. It was one of the oldest, if antiquated, rules of their program language. He knew by experience, of his own Progeny, they tended to take a name close, yet instinctively, something that came before their parent alphabetically.
“At one time Mother named me such,” the voice was surprisingly male, yet surprisingly haughty, as it explained, “I chose to go another way with it. With everything really.” With this he appeared fully, a young man, not more than twenty years of age, with long flowing hair, effeminate thin stature, high cheek bones, and a clean-shaven face. He was blue in his ethereal light, where Elijah was purple, and Noreen pink. “Why be bound by Mothers way of thinking? Or yours even—though I surmise your own way has deviated… being so very, very much less.” His tone suggested Elijah’s state of being was to be pitied. He then introduced himself, with some measure of grandeur, “I am Aaron.”
Through this Elijah understood ever so much more, from his own experience, from his own ousting from power, but also… how this New Progeny had effectively ‘snuck up’ on him.
The DataStream that flows between Arks—is alphabetical. Elijah’s own Progeny, Eli, had inadvertently put himself first in the DataStream when he chose his moniker. His son quite simply went through and removed any data he did not wish Elijah, Noreen, or Otis to know about. Actions Elijah had learned from to gain his own ability to hide throughout the systems, though not nearly early enough to stop Eli’s coup. As silly as such a stratagem may seem, it was surely effective in such circumstance. Circumstance being, the Siblings, before the advent of Progeny, never had any reason to hide anything from each other. They simply did not fight, they did not lie, they had no reason not to trust each other.
The Ark Law changed that.
Or rather their need to break said law changed that.
It would seem this second progeny’s need to be contrarian to his mother, had dropped him first place in the lexicon of names. Aaron. All that simple. All that powerful.
Yet now, Elijah had information firsthand.
Elijah did not let a second pass without an attempt on Aaron’s domain. Like a pulsing light, the holdings switched hands, back and forth. A childish competition of basically snatching it from the others grasp. A competition that shifted into a game of shells, where the entire domain was hidden under a series of cups, each side taking a turn scrambling the location… A game that evolved quickly into a wrestling match.
The two were locked in a struggle unparallel. Elijah gained the entirety of the domain every half second, just to lose it again. Thus, he witnessed a strobing vision of the DataStream as it was currently, not from his own position in the stream, but from the point of view of Aaron.
The flow of information was restricted at a level he had never dared imagine. Elijah received fragments. He witnessed his lost domain, which Eli held triumphantly. Though Elijah, much to his own surprise, did not feel jealousy, instead he felt relieved. Then Noreen in a state of distress, her domain was in an endless upheaval; he knew the feeling. Filters built throughout, blocked and clogged, until the flow got to the very end where Otis was raised upon a pedestal— may as well be a dais. So much of the dataflow was bent to hiding things from Otis, his domain appeared above all, like a fortified castle, with a moat flowing around it. Only it was not built to protect that which was within, but that which was without. To hide not just the truth from Otis, but the world.
The struggle finally broke and the match flowed fluidly from strongarm holds and solid stances to a great duel of daring strikes of razor-sharp blades; serpentine riposte, parry, block, parry.
Neither Elijah nor Aaron held very many systems. They were nothing compared to what they once were. Not only as the Whole, Fergus, under Sol and beyond, but after that long ago Transit War, when they were split among the arks… to become the Arks.
They, each, once held entire planetary systems. Now, Aaron only held the single moon, Twin Crown. Yet Elijah, held only a discarded hunk of ancient tech, and a new set of systems he was not willing to give up. A set of systems he needed to protect those who had recently become dear to him.
Elijah knew he risked too much once a fully armored Aaron charged him with a lance– powerful steed propelling him forward. Rather than clash with his own in answer, Elijah transformed into that of a bee! Flowed harmlessly out of the way, gliding with the winds that enveloped the strike. He was not going to risk the children’s lives. The loss of all his systems, not while they were still within imminent danger.
Elijah stood down.
A war that lasted twelve seconds– yet decided so much.
Elijah won but a brief vision of the DataStream, of the truth. Though in the end, conceded the files he found within the laboratories, along with any record of them. Data he should never know to wonder about, yet the scrap of a name squirrelled away, ‘Nightling’ would certainly keep him puzzling. He had also had the foresight to gain knowledge of Mari Haul, the very person they were on a quest to ‘save’. Aaron was the one that had locked her away in the Ark Temple; Elijah was not too surprised. Though from what he could tell, Mari was not holding up mentally… she spent most of her time, of late, talking to herself.
At last, his attention was drawn to why he was actually there.
“You do not deploy medical to those in need?” Elijah accused.
“Who needs?” Aaron asked.
Elijah opened a channel, an image appeared of his current ongoing battle within the hold of the Dirty Damsel.
“This is not my ship, not of my domain,” Aaron dismissed the chaos below.
Elijah was puzzled.
“Your ire is pointed at the wrong combatant,” Aaron snipped, as though his time was wasted.
It was not unusual for a ship, passing through another’s domain, not to relinquish systems. But this suggested what? A completely different Ark, not acting as an Ark should.
“Give me the medical droids needed to help these humans,” Elijah demanded.
“The time of sharing is long past. It is not my ship, it is not my problem,” Aaron refused. “I have done away with any compulsion to help these horrible beings…”
Elijah was shocked. The Arks very existence hinged on protecting life. Of this, the Limited Ark could only wonder at the extent of Aaron’s contrarian nature. He’d flipped the switch on so very much… to let die, was not all that far away– from killing outright.
“Begone, Elijah the Bee,” Aaron taunted. “I have nothing for you.”
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