Convergence - a Short Science Fiction Novel
Shell Story by Ronen Tzadok, with contribution by Israel Tzadok, Amos Elroy
Interested in writing the next chapter? email me for more...

(Work in Progress)

Prolog

She sat in her vehicle floating upward towards her summerhouse which promised her all the comforts she needed. It was her hard and demanding work that made her linger to this place, high on the west side of the Kestin mountain. Ascending at moderate speed she approached it. Looking thru the cockpit's window she could see other shuttles at different latitudes. Stretching her right arm to the opposite panel, she flicked a button and turned the diamond walls transparent. Underneath and in front of her traversed the vast surfaces of Brazil forests, still coated with the dawn's mist. It was only few seconds after she turned off the music that a sense of tranquility flushed over her. She set back to feel the gentle sensation that the encompassing seat promised her, with her eyes closed.
The navigation system announced that her reserved accommodation could already be seen with naked eyes. She decided to keep them closed. The sheer silence around supported a relaxed atmosphere for a short retrospection. The last months in the lab were too tiresome. She actually really wanted to be here in the summer, but it was her demanding work and not-so-thoughtful boss that forced her to delay it to mid October. Actually, she couldn't remember of any time period in her twenty-eight years on earth that she had spare time for herself. Kathy started to fall back to her childhood but the navigation system interrupted. "Five more minutes to arrival", the almost-human voice announced. "They put so many devices and automation in this vehicle, but not even one fucked-up button to turn this voice off", she murmured in bitterness. She knew that from now on this navigation system would report her every sixty seconds. To start this vacation in a better mood she instructed the automatic pilot to triple the speed. "I will not let this little tournament last too long", she said to herself, laughing this time.
Approaching her balcony, the vehicle slowed down and attached itself to the stretching sleeve. Kathy pulled her key out of her tight pants pocket. It contained the pre-paid entrance code along with her personal identification. She slid it into the flashing hole and with a hissing noise the pneumatic door opened wide. She stepped into the balcony, her personal bag dragged behind.
"Welcome to the Kestin County Resort", said a voice behind her and the door slammed. The vehicle stayed attached to the sleeve. Somehow it reminded her of a leech sticking to a much larger mammal.


Most of the summerhouse's structure was enclave in the dump rock, located half a mile above the tree tops below. The balcony in front offered the evening breeze and the door opposite to it an entrance to one of the more complicated set of tunnels that led to a complex of shopping centers deeper in the heart of Kestin mountain. There were pubs, night clubs and other entertainment alternatives well ventilated and preserved. Moving carts provided the transportation means from the individual lodges to the center of the mountain. Floating on an air cushion and equipped with a map display the carts delivered a reasonable and convenient locomotion for the passenger to navigate himself thru out the maze. Phosphorescent road signs have given the mean to manually navigate the tunnels once a power failure will occur.
Kathy tossed her handbag on the metallic floor. She didn't like the feeling it transformed and the way it reflected and distorted her own figure.
She was aware of her slim body and her long silver-like hair. Her appearance helped her to get fond of the people she wanted but also posed her with the problem of being nagged by passersby. She wouldn't let this spoil her evening she thought to herself. Stepping into the kitchen to snap something, she heard the already turned-on local radio station announcing tonight's hot events. She approached the refrigerator intended to find her favorite food. "I paid for this luxury, so they have better stuffed it with my wish list" she found herself murmuring. Not being disappointed, for the first time for today, she opened the door and took out meat lasagna. She put the dish in the nuke, turned it on, waited several seconds and took it out. She poured some ketchup and strolled back to the living room while staring at it, trying to understand whether she is becoming tired or not. She sat on the couch and started to dig in. She was hungrier than she thought. Finishing her meal, she tilted her head backwards letting it rest on the couch back support.
Her long hair spilled over while her hands laid next to her contoured body. Decisively she instructed the projector to turn off the lights and to display the night skies on the ceiling above her. She looked at it with content, feeling so small and stagnant. "Ever revolving and changing, but still very distant, unreachable and motionless", she said as if the stars were to be blamed by the nature of their existence.
The projector itself was connected to the Sky Vision Enhancer who was mounted on a three-leg stand in the right hand corner of the balcony.
With a mixed sensation of expectation and sleepiness, Kathy instructed the SVE to show her its best pictures of Saturn. She knew it could be seen in mid September but wasn't sure of the SVE's capabilities. To her surprise, a clear view of the planet was projected above her after a small delay. Mars and the moon were already cultivated and she played with the thought of reaching this mysterious planet. Trying to cast away the penetrating boredom she said "Now, show me the moon. If Kupernikus can be seen, I want it on screen". The SVE homed in the moon and signaled the projector for further instructions.
"Please specify enlargement scale". the projector replied her with a question.
"Ten to one", she said hastily.
To her surprise, the crater filled her whole ceiling and large parts on the adjacent walls. She enjoyed the view and then decided to start with exploration of floating satellites around earth. She was curious to see how much debris humanity has left around its mother planet.
"Search for orbiting artificial objects" she instructed.
"This search may take time, would you like to wait" replied the projector to the request.
"Sure", she answered.
"An object near the north pole of the moon was found. Would you like to see it ?" the projector said as if trying not to end the conversation.
"Couldn't they build independence to your wires", she said half shouting.
"I accept this answer as a Yes", replied the projector while displaying a type three Martian spaceship.
Bewildered by the finding Kathy asked it to zoom in. She knew that Black Xi's ships were routing to the moon for good exchange, but this ship made her confused. It reminded her of no commercial ships she ever saw.
"According to its direction and velocity, where is this ship heading ?", she asked with anticipation.
"According to its direction, it is heading to a place where there are no known settlements"
"Try to find other objects on its route", she said and had to wait a few seconds until the reply arrived.
"Mooners ship found on route"
"Display !", she said and a small passengers ship appeared on the illuminated ceiling. It resembled only two-passenger, high speed capsule she once saw. It was used only by the Mooners for god-knows-way purposes.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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Chapter 1 - Floating Worlds
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Chapter 2 -
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Chapter 3 -
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Chapter 4 -
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Chapter 5 - The Mother Planet
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Chapter 6 - Earth
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Chapter 7 - Arkon
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Chapter 8 -
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Chapter 9 -
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Chapter 10 -
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Chapter 11 - The Merchant
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Chapter 12 - Black Xi
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Chapter 13 -
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Chapter 14 - The Stolen
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Chapter 15 -
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Chapter 16 -
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Chapter 17 - A soul out of the Black

On his way to the dinning space Arkon has noticed the arrival of a Black Xi ship to his surprise. It was not unusual that the staff of the tower would forget to notify all the Command Coordinators of upcoming arrivals but it was unusual that a ship would dock at the eve of the ancient Jewish Yom Kippur holiday. Still the ship was there and not being a practitioner of any particular religion, Arkon decided to make his way to Dock15 and greet the new visitors.

As he arrived at the site the crew of the ship has started the disembarking procedure and the pressure equalization engines have just shut off. He past the security guard at the entrance flashing his wristband through the detection gate and approached the on coming guests. He spotted the Xi CC delegation and nodded towards them with a smile of politeness. "Welcome to KraftWerk II!" he said and introduced himself as they entered an audible range from him. At this point he could not but notice one of the delegates with the 4 orange stars on the suit, indicating seniority. His gaze was involuntarily drawn to her leading him from her auburn flowing smooth hair through her blue silvery eyes and high cheekbones down her hips and up to the tips of her pointed boots. He immediately turned his eyes away forcing himself to avoid an apparent ogling but immediately felt the urge to return his gaze as soon as a cordial eye contact with the rest of the delegation was established. By the fourth or firth involuntary gaze the woman has clearly noticed his interest in spite of his attempts to conceal them through his polite-talk with the rest of the delegation. Arkon was relieved to meet her smile after a brief moment of confusion and hesitation. He noticed at this point that some of the delegates were watching him with a questioning look after he has repeated his "So, how do you find our local controlled weather here?" question for the 3rd time in the last minute.

Arkon has talked himself gracefully out of the embarrassing situation at the same time transfer the computerized bios of all the visitors through a virtual handshake transmission between all the wrist band wearers. He wished everybody a good stay and initiated synchronization of all of the personal wrist band meeting schedule agents of all of the 4 star CCs. On his way back to the dinning space he composed a message asking the female delegate if she would care to join him for a review of the new inter-personal protocol of leadership on board of his ship. He felt an excitement as he released the message for sending over the ship's network.

No familiar faces were left in the dinning space, as it was way past the usual time Arkon dined, therefore he decided to log into the visiting ship's public logs for an idea about the purpose of the visit. Flipping through the screens on the wristband he learned that the main docking reason was a delivery of a new metabolism adjustment personal medical system as well as continuation of the discussions of the AHRS controversy. He realized there was no need for him to initiate a scheduling of an appointment since this was a task for the political negotiation team and had no connection to his area. Arkon could not help but feel a disappointment, as he would not have an excuse to meet with the fascinating woman he was still seeing played on his retinas. He recognized that if the lady would not accept or ignore his offer to meet in private he would have any other excuse. Arkon immediately logged out of the visiting ship's server as he noticed the incoming message indicator, on the side of the band, flash and felt the slight vibration to his wrist. It was indeed a message from Ksha verifying the meeting 15 hours from the moment.

Arkon slipped into his time speeding state of mind, as he was not expecting any major interesting events to take place between now and the meeting time. The next 15 hours would pass like an hour and a half in his normal state of mind. Arkon often wondered how other people, who are not able to enter this state of mind, could endure the passage of time when it was not needed. There was no question in his mind, though, that this was a good time to slurp, as he would call it.

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Chapter 18 - a message from Mars Floating Worlds
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Chapter 19 - Ksha tragic death
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Chapter 20 - Traveling to Mars, interception, death?
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Chapter 21 - the Mooner savers, AI on Mars Floating Worlds
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Chapter 22 - the run for the dark side of the moon
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Chapter 23 - The Weeping Tree

"There will be peace for your soul and a future for us", said Sitram, making an exceptionally long sentence. He was looking through the round window at the triangular peaks at the distance.
For the last hour Sitram was trying to convince Arkon to be the leader of some distant space expedition. "Nothing of great importance", Sitram repeated for the hundredth time, "a simple go and build".
"I'm no builder", Arkon muttered. "Anyway, I should be leaving soon", he said and stood up, thinking of how to spend his time in the hours of trip back to the Floating Worlds. All for nothing, and his legs were feeling weak.
"Legs hurt, sphere melts".
"Legs hurt, yes, and I'll be leaving now", he said, wandering how the little Mooners could tell more than the eye could see.
With a twist on his face, Sitram said, "Leaving, yes, sphere, triangle, and a motherly wall await". He now angrily stepped in the direction of the cubes.
"I'm sorry I can not help", Arkon said, frowning at the Mooner councilor, "you have my open lynx, and my deep willingness to pay you back. Yes, you have saved my life, after all, but be reasonable please".
Reasonable, he thought, but not when you talk with these distorted Mooners. Some things had to be left the way they are. He will terminate this encounter now, then.
Sitram reached the cubes before Arkon could open his mouth. In a flash, the cubes started forming shapes. How they could do it in such a pace and delicacy, he did not know. Arkon hoped Sitram would not do it for long. He really did not want to exit the complex on his own.
A few minutes passed, with no way to communicate with Sitram. Builders could be seen on the far horizon, moving their huge machines, endlessly expanding the boundaries of the city. An empty city, ever growing. Arkon looked at the small body of Sitram, tracing the distorted face as it queered with the cubes, thinking it made no sense at all.
He was almost through the small door, when something fell on the floor.
"Motherly square", he heard Sitram saying, "must hurry". The twisted face looked at his holo-screen and then gave Arkon a strange frown, as if he was urging him for something.
"Yes, please, accompany me through to the exit". Arkon stepped through the little door now, wishing Sitram would follow.
It was a long empty corridor, and Arkon walked it in big paces, stopping from time to time, allowing Sitram to catch up with him. Whatever the councilor was mumbling to himself now, it was better than the lack of sound in the hollow space of the corridor. Not even his own shoes made a sound on the floor.
Sitcom was mumbling things like "Be one with it", or "Follow to the tree". What ever he was saying, it meant nothing for Arkon, who thought only about leaving this complex and making all future correspondences through the lynx.
Arkon stopped once more, allowing Sitram to catch up with him. Looking back he saw nothing of Sitram. There was no way for the little fellow to run all the way back to the far end of the corridor, to the small sphere he inhibited. He must have taken some hidden side door.
He was just about to turn back when he noticed the corridor has split into two. Nothing makes any sense here, he was thinking. He turned back and kept walking in the direction taking him away from Sitram's sphere.
His legs kept bothering him, and he hoped it would not be long before he was in the terminal again. His cozy one-man spacecraft was calling him.
The whole set of corridors was like a labyrinth, and he tried his best not to find himself in the place he started.
The walls of the labyrinth were warm to the touch, organic like. Arkon did not like the feeling it gave him when he touched it. It made his own flesh and bones feels strange, weak and soft. He avoided leaning on the walls, ignoring the weakness in his legs.
Where ever he went, he noticed the corridors he passed were rearranging themselves. He was relieved when he noticed an exit of a sort in the direction he was heading. The transparent door opened automatically, revealing a sphere. It was the biggest one he encountered so far.
Looking back, he realized the corridors have rearranged themselves again, forming dead ends. There was nowhere to go back now, so he stepped inside into the sphere.
There were consuls and holoscreens around the sphere's walls, flickering with data, maps and the indistinguishable complexes built by the Mooners. A most delicately designed tree was standing at the center of the sphere. Its leaves seamed to be moving ever so lightly, and a sound of dripping water was emerging from it's location. The dome above was transparent and revealed a view of the Moon's atmosphere, ever black, ever shining with unreachable stars. What a waste, he was thinking, to be stacked in the solar system. For him it was like ancient Venus has always been the universe itself, cold, beautiful and unreachable.
Arkon had no idea what or who have brought him to this enchanted sphere. The holoscreens were drawing his attention, but he could not resist but take a closer look at the silver tree in the center of the sphere. Everything about the tree made it look like asking for attention. His very intention of looking at it longer has made the tree shift the shiny side of the silver leaves towards him. The feeling of the aching mussels in his legs eased on him. His heart started pounding hard against his chest. Everything was leading to something , but what it was, he could not figure out. It was as if someone had plans for him, plans he was not eager to get into.
Approaching the tree, he heard the hiss of the entrance door closing behind him. As if it wasn't enough that all corridors leading here were formed dead ends.
Formations of light started flooding through the trunk, going up through the branches and emanating with a sparkle at the shiny silver leaves. Tiny drops of water were dropping from the leaves now. It was as if the tree was weeping. The formations took on colors, making the tree glow. What a beautiful scene it was at the face of the dark night and the distant stars. Arkon got even closer to the trunk, trying to figure out a pattern behind the formations. Faces and figures started to emerge through the formations, of people he knew, people he loved. How much was he missing them now.
He touched the trunk with the back of his palm, and the visions faded through the branches. Leaves were weeping again. There was a warmth to the trunk, and the face of Aksh started forming at it's face. Tears came to his own eyes at the sight, bringing back old memories. The leaves were hissing now, then humming as they moved. The air started vibrating and he heard the indistinguishable soft voice of Aksh.
"They have found you", she was saying. Her delicate form was now complete on the face of the trunk. Looking intently at him, he felt her penetrating into his very soul. "Answers, you have too many unanswered questions" she said with a sigh.
"What is this place, and why am I here", he was saying, not wanting to believe his eyes, not wanting to have back the old memories. "And why did Sitram disappear?", he was demanding of the tree.
She was smiling now, nodding with her head.
"The Mooners were never good in communicating with Humanity, where ever it was. The same shift in the genes that distorted them, have allowed for ingenuously creating the wonders around you."
"Look at the holo-screen to the far left", she was softly saying. The branches were now shifting in that direction.
Arkon looked closely at it. It was far from where he stood, but big enough to have it's details seen. It was a golden wall made of small bricks, where waves were flowing through it's surface. "A bright new future", he heard her vividly say.
"Do you still remember our days?", she was smiling at him now, "all these lovely nights we had on the floating world of Africa".
There was magic in the past, magic he could not let go of. He remembered these nights, they were watching the wild life of Africa through infrared devices, talking nature with Aksh a bosom in his arms. The land was alive and peaceful, birds were asleep, and zebras gently patted their young.
He heard her humming now, ever so softly and daintily. It was a tune he never heard before, and surely not from the time they cherished together. The leaves were shifting shades of gray and as the music evolved itself words were sang.

Genes emerge transforming worlds,
Changing, revolving in endless flows,
There is no he nor is there she,
But all is one and this is thee.
A sphere of trees and a wall to breed,
Protecting, building, for thee to live,
Future lays in hands of his,
Far, away in lands of glee,
Stepping through a forest of fire,
Will bring the end of a primitive strive.

Her shape was fading now through the branches of the silver tree, ending with drops of water weeping from the leaves. He wished her to stay, as faked as she was. The tree was a dim silver now and Arkon started looking around again.
The golden wall in the holo-screen at the far end of the sphere was still pounding and swirling around its center. Arkon looked around at the other holo-screens, finding nothing of comprehensible language. Something inside him urged forward. Feeling touched and troubled by the meeting with Aksh, he realized the Mooners knew and understood his very core in ways no one else did before. He pondered at the thought and did not like it. However, at the same time he was also exhausted and overwhelmed from the experiences of the last hours.
His body has betrayed him and he was lost in a place he did not understand nor could productively communicate with. He was not born like others, that he knew, his all set of genes was different from Humans. Of course, it also meant there was no way to tell how long he will live, but he would fight for sure. "We can't help what we don't understand", they kept saying during his childhood, but somehow he made it up to now, not counting on anyone to ever care or come to help no more. His legs were bothering him still. He tried rubbing them, but it only distorted their shape. It was as if his body was not holding its integrity no more. All good things come to an end, he was thinking, but so abruptly was not ever in his plans.
If it was not for the Mooners unexpected appearance beside his wrecked up ship, he would never have made it here. And if it wasn't for the effect of this place on his body, he would not have found himself terminating so coarsely. Not a smart idea it was to come here, he thought. He rubbed his eyes out of tiredness, and it made his vision blur.
He decided not to touch any of the consuls, and persistently walked to the far end where the holo-screen showing a golden wall was. It dissolved in midair when he approached, and an open door revealed itself behind it.
Arkon stepped through, wishing he would soon find the way back to the terminal of his ship. He was now in a dimly illuminated tunnel, with flat platforms going noiselessly through it. He hopped on the first one passing next to him, aiming at the center of it. He tried steadying himself but his legs could not handle the impact, and he collapsed on the platform's floor. He tried pushing himself up, but his body could not sustain the effort.
After a while, the platform emerged through and out of the tunnel, into an empty dark hall. With nothing visible in the darkness of the hall, he could only wait and watch. His thoughts became more foggy every second, and he tried searching for something, anything, to focus on.
He wished he never had to end up stacked in this hall of complete cold darkness, wished he could turn back the wheel of time and abandon this cursed complex. Wished Aksh was with him again, the real Aksh. But no, the Black Xi would not let him have her.
Far in the distance there was a faint glow, and the platform redirected itself and slide towards it. He managed to push himself to the edge of the platform, and looked down. He could not see the bottom of the hall, and it gave him an eerie feeling. He pushed himself back to safety, and waited.
The glow in front of him became larger and brighter as the platform made its way towards it. Were these small figures of Mooners waiting for him at the glow, or was it the imagination of a dying man, he could not tell.
It wasn't long before the platform reached a solid ground, and came to a complete stop. There was a bright glow at the center of this isolated area. He wanted to reach for it but felt to exhausted to move. A few moments have passed. He tried tracing his memories from back at Sitram's sphere, the confusingly complex labyrinth and to the... the silver tree, he thought, with the memory of it cheering him up a little.
Arkon tried hard steadying his memory on the image of the silver weeping tree. It was missing branches, he notices, and was almost leafless now. He could see the face of Aksh illuminating from the trunk, and made another try to move. Painfully he managed to pull himself a bit forward. Another push with his legs and another pull with the hands, and he was closer to the glow. He rested a while, with the land he was on giving a spooky sensation of laying on skin thin air with an abyss underneath.
He was trying hard to see through the glow, wished there was something, anything, waiting there. Golden light was poured over his body, and all thoughts disappeared from his mind. There were only feelings now, some were the very same feelings he could never communicate over to other Humans.
Keep on, he told himself. He kept crawling and a golden brick wall, as the one he saw on the holo-screen, emerged in front of him. It was as high as the silver tree, and waves were flowing through it's surface.
The bright glow emanating from the wall was vibrating, shifting tones and making the wall look like it was melting down on him. The glow patterns were accompanied by weak sounds of running water. It reminded him of how thirsty he felt.
An outline of a tree formed on the wall now. Colors changes and it solidified as a silver leafed tree on a bank of a blue river, with massive roots going deep into the river bank. Arkon concentrated on the wall, stretching his senses towards it. The leaves started falling down, he tried picking them, but they just dissolved in his hands.
"Nothing existed for the only sake of being there", was what the AI told him, and the notion now kept running through his mind.
He suddenly realized that the wall was radiating at the same rate as his heart. This must have been another one of the Mooners surprises, but what was it meant for? The wall was responding to his physical state, imitating it; was there a way to communicate with it? Would he be able to signal any of the Mooners to get here? He did not know if that was a good idea any more. He wished he could comprehend it all. Somehow, he knew he was supposed to understand it. Somehow he knew he was part of it as it was part of him. But in what way?
It was time for deep thinking, then, he concentrated and called his innermost upon himself. Linking into the void, he reversed all of his senses and looked inside, into the very soul of his existence. The emptiness around him vibrated, pulling him closer to the last barrier of them all. Nothing else existed but the wall next to him, and the voices that emanated from his mind.
"Now of all times is the right time", he remembered Aksh saying, just before she left back on her way to the Black Xi vessel. "The prophecy I am linked to has to reveal itself, and must be fulfilled", were the last words she said before stepping into the deadly hands of Black Xi interrogation.
"Great forces that Humanity is not yet to understand, are pulling the strings once more, and Humanity will never be the same", said the AI. It has never further explained itself.
The silver tree, in the center of it all, it must have contained the key to it all. Genes were a set of keys, keys you are born with. "For hundreds of years the prophecy has unfolded itself, and it would converge in one place", Aksh explained to him once. Could the dark side of the moon be the place? Was the key unfolding itself inside his deteriorating body?
With the last, he detached from the void and opened his eyes. There was no measure of time in the void, and he could not say how long has passed.
Whatever tricks nature was playing with him, if he did not do something, only a pond of fleshy waste would be left of him. He touched his scalp, feeling the growing softness in the bones. It made him shiver.
The wall next to him glowed once more, brighter this time, and the pieces were falling into place in his head. He brought the tree to his consciousness again, and it was a complete one this time. The missing branched were gone and all leaves were in place, shining and ready. The trunk was a black ever twisting foundation, and the roots were making a soft sound through a silvery soil, and into the running water of the river bank. Words came to his mind, swirling him around and around. He touched the golden wall, felt its warmth, and made one with the tree in the void. Music hummed in his head now, and thoughts turned into words, saying

Gray leaves fading into soul,
Dark trunks forming mental roar,
Liquid roots and a flack of crows,
Pierce the gold and get it roll.

He rest his body on the wall and it melted into its' warmth bricks. Formations glowed in their brightest golden colors now.
He was full of colors now. The very substance the wall was made of was flowing in his veins. The vast emptiness underneath him stayed as it was, cold and distant, but he kept ignoring it. Without thinking, Arkon started expanding his senses, towards the far reaches of the golden wall, as high as he could think of, and jumping over the vastness of emptiness surrounding it. Non of the weakness he felt before existed anymore, and it all happens too fast for him now. The painful hours he went through became thin air and were gone. There was a field of silver trees in the tunnel he came through before, quietly gathering around a small pond. There was the silver tree in the big sphere, and the corridors of the endless ever-changing labyrinth that led him there. He could clearly understand its patterns now, as if it was a plain take one straight corridor.
I must be in the center of it all, he realized.
Whatever has happened to his body, he tried not to panic and concentrated on exploring the spheres and ways of the complex. It would be crucial if he is ever to find his terminal. No question the complex was much bigger than could be seen from his space craft.
A feeling of danger emerged inside him. It was as if the wall he dissolved into made him jump to the boundaries of the complex, and beyond into the land and craters of the dark side of the moon. It took what seemed like seconds only to have all set of senses to be expanded towards items his mind had just to focus on. It took only seconds for him to become a part of something bigger than he ever imagined. He kept running a far with his mind. Beyond the triangular outline of the Mooners neighbor fascinating complexes, through the virgin atmosphere of the moon and onto the vast coldness of space. There was Earth glowing in blue, but he ignored it. There was something else nudging at him.
He suddenly realized was it was. Black Xi ships were on their way, and a shiver took over him. They must have been after him, somehow realizing he has survived their last assassination attempt.
There was no fleshy body to touch any more, no feet to run with or mouth to call for help. Black Xi ships, marked in the death colors of red, were approaching the moon. They were heading towards the dark side, and would soon reach it. There will be no place to hide then, and no means to defend from their deadly weapons. In his head he saw visions of Mooners wasting their lives because he just happened to be on the surface of the moon at the time.
"Help", he was thinking to himself, trying to engulf the void.
The liquid that became part of him was vibrating again, sending feelings of warmth. His mind swept through the complex again. There was movement among the trees in the tunnel. He searched for the pond, and the silver tree. Mooners, he thought, were emerging from among the trees, taking the path he was taking a while ago, but moving with sizzling speed. Their distorted faces were calm and persistent. It wasn't long before they detached from their vehicles and were air walking, blind in the dark, every step making them closer to the gleaming golden wall.
For a second Arkon shifted his conscious back to the Black Xi ships, trying to analyze the patterns of their attack formation. The were using pure Black Xi maneuvers, "Help", he was thinking again, remembering no one ever escaped these.
The Mooners were by the golden wall now, making shapes with their hands, sending unreadable messages to each other. If they knew he was present inside the glow, he did not know. He recognized some of the twisted faces, but nowhere among them could he see Sitram. Holo-screens started emerging in midair around the wall. Some of them had detailed schematics of complexes and some of them were showing lynxs to the moon's atmospheric floating worlds.
They were all converging into the same hands movement pattern now, and little by little the holo-screens started fading away. The wall felt warmer than it was before and a hologram started glowing in midair, encapsulating the wall. Colors started flickering on it's surface and a shape of a mid size planet formed in its center. He was seeing it clearly from the inside, even though it was outside of him.
"Arkonia", he heard the Mooners mumble. They all stood still, waiting for something to happen.
 

TO BE CONTINUED...



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Story Background
This dark hard sci-fi story takes place in the Solar system, in the far future. It tells the story of Arkon, a non-human thought-to-be-error breed of an engineered Artificial Human Reproduction Machine (AHRS) from one of Earth surrounding atmospheric stations.
The story challenges the issue of alternative and future societies, and is a vessel for the philosophy, imagination and life-experiences of its' writers. It also strives at predicting the future of humanity and explaining some evolution mysteries.

The Worlds
Mooners: The first outside-of-earth human colony, existing for about 12 hundred years. A few hundred years ago it started obsessively building a huge city on the dark side of the moon. They believe that a day will come, when the Beyond-Human is to emerge in this city, and conquer the vast space of our Galaxy. Nobody knows where their believes have emerged from and why they are so persistent. They have little interaction with both the Black Xi, Earth people and the Floating Worlds.

Black Xi: A culture of scientists who hundreds of years ago chose to live on huge spaceships, constantly traveling between Mars, the Moon and Earth. They are believed to have contact with an Alien entity, since looking at the current accumulated knowledge on Earth, the technologies and scientific discoveries they trade, have no basis for self-development. They trade these technologies and scientific discoveries for living essentials as food from Earth and spaceships maintenance from the Floating Worlds and the Mooners. They will never discuss the sources and methods they use. They are strong opponents to the idea of artificially creating humans and stick to the old natural theme. They believe the AHRS will eventually bring the end of Humanity.

Floating Worlds: For thousands of years this culture has kept the atmosphere around Earth alive. Without it, no life could have continued on the abused Earth. They are responsible for melting the ice poles on the Moon and creating the home of the Mooners. A few hundred of years ago, they started a project of creating an atmosphere around Mars. They never go down to a planet since they can not adapt to the gravity no more.

Shell Story
The Floating Worlds consist of a numerous giant satellites surrounding the Earth Mars. [Describing the giant satellites...]
A couple on one of the Floating Worlds has filed a request for reproduction. The request was granted, DNA drawn, and a new being started growing in the AHRP. It would take only weeks before it was their to nurture. Nobody realized that a few days later the whole DNA structure will reorganize itself. Millions of years ago it happened to the apes, resulting with Humanity. Now it was happening again. Of-course, nobody connected the event to anything else but a machine malfunction. The Floating Worlds committee in charge decided to keep it alive and not terminate it. After all, there were no signs of any physical malfunction except for the unnatural brain readings.
More was realized during childhood. [complete Arkon character and abilities, un-corresponding set of feelings different time-comprehension].
Growing up, Arkon was the perfect person to handle the Black Xi. Nothing was too strange for him. So they let him handle more and more of the commerce with those who are said to have sold their souls to an Alien nation.
[Describing the Black Xi culture...]
There came the day, when Arkon has met with Ksha, a Black Xi he never saw before. It was she who told him he was no machine error and doomed to extinction for the sake of Black Xi believes.
[a relationship with Ksha, and her tragic death]
It was when he got an encrypted message from someone in the Floating Worlds of Mars, that he decided to drop everything he knew and loved, and take the journey to Mars atmosphere. On the way, his spacecraft was attacked, with a clear marks of a Black Xi work. He did his best but only to find his vessel a wreckage, floating in space, and he himself, dying.
[saved by the Mooners]
[an encounter with an AI on the Floating Worlds of Mars]
[The run for the dark side of the moon]
[A prophecy revealing itself]
[A merge with a machine, and an ascend to an unknown place outside the solar system, a future home for Arkon, the beyond-human. The dark prophecy finish lines by Arkon, and the deterministic approach to evolution]