THROUGH DREAMSLEEP 93
Turfur gripped the laser pistol harder, a trip in the neuroelectric circuits. The ruins of his house he had built long ago, another stain in Albelost's history. He ran out to the street, yelled for the others.
They shouldn't be far. I'll burn holes through their heads. Maybe they won't go around burning houses anymore. They should have just left me alone, now they done fucked up.
Into the city, he ran full speed.
Velin frantically tried to pry her way into the cube; Avest sat inside, sweaty, confined. The little white screen before his face, the only source of light.
DESTINATION:
The message formed on the screen. Any where in time and space, the gates open wide! The opportunities presented, overbearing, like taking command of the universe's fate after living the life of a sperm cell.
Any more comfortable? I don't think so. I don't know how Locish could do this. He could spend a day in here!
An alarm bell sounded off. The letters flashed.
"How do I do this?"
"Enter destination."
"Take me back to when Locish was still here with us in his own body."
The screen went out.
Inside dream-space, timelines merged, new creations submerge into the fabric of reality. Enter, potential made manifest.
The sides hissed opened, Avest awoke inside the cube, inside Locish's office.
A deep ache throughout his being slowed his exit.
"Whatever you want, I will not give to you, creature." Locish leaned against the desk, arms folded across his chest. "In fact, protocol calls for me to exterminate you. Do you know what that means, exterminate? It means I will put an end to your existence by force."
"You're back!" Avest stumbled over to the Grand Elder. "I knew it would work! You said it would!"
"I'm afraid that was my downfall. Oh well, my path to success is ever changing. Sharing classified information with an outsider, I thought you couldn't be one of them. I trusted myself in trusting you, now I have to kill you. Your people may be getting into power, but we still hold the codes." He held a thin black rectangle in his hand, pointed it at Avest.
"Stop talking like that, you know I don't understand a word." Avest stood still. "You just need to come along with me in the cube and we'll be good again. I knew you were still here with us."
The door to the outside opened. The other Avest stepped in. Locish repointed the XT-8R quick, a cracking whip sound; a pile of fresh ash in the doorway blew around in the breeze.
"No!" Aveat tackled the Grand Elder to the floor. They wrestled for control of the XT-8R.
"What did you do to me?"
"That wasn't you! You wouldn't be here, filthy demon! You know all too well the reason why you are still here. You've come from far away stars, trying to spread your disease."
"Shut up! Just shut up and get in the cube." Avest slammed Locish's on the ground. The old man moaned. Avest, heart racing, recklessness increasing with the sense of time, ripped the XT-8R out from his hands and stood, grabbing one of the chaotic legs.
"You don't know what you're doing with that! Give it back before you get us all killed!"
"Only if you get inside the cube."
"No!" Locish pushed Avest back with a kick to the pelvis.
"You don't get it? Do you? You're not going to be here with us one day. Your body will be found, but you, the energy, will be gone."
"What do you mean? I'm going to die?"
"If that's what you call it. I will come and find you in your room in a corner. You mumbled something, I don't remember. Oh! There was an eagle, stiff, cold. In your bed."
"It's not an invasion, it's a rescue party! You fool! I could have killed you before you told me this! We don't have time to waste! There's only room for one, you must stay here until I come back. Don't move, don't talk to anyone!" Locish stood, jogged to Dreamsleep 93.
"I'm going back too! You can't leave me here, I'm saving you! Avest dove, grabbed his wrist. Locish turned, knee to the face.
Broken nose, blood ran down, splattered the floor.
Inside the Grand Elder's office the OverRide frequency-switch occurred. The seeds thrown in the Grand Elder consciousness network break through the dirt and the sun shines bright.
When benevolent authority becomes benighted, the sun rises just the same.
"Stay I say." Locish rubbed his knee with the freed hand and went inside the machine, closed the doors.
Avest sat, slumped on his knees, half-shut eyes staring blankly at the cube.
I don't-I-I-don't like thi-aaahhhh! The pile of ash in the doorway nearly all gone, the questions add on. I-I did something, said the wrong thing, ah, I don't know. Wrong place, my head, oh my goodness. That cube did this to me. A sercurity mechanism within it, this is how it goes for non-Grand Elders. He dropped face first on the floor.
TO BE CONTINUED.......