Aristian Holiday

Chapter 6: The Flame Within

It was a though someone had kicked him in the stomach, he couldn’t catch his breath, there was a bright light and a gust of wind that drew him out a torn portal and then darkness. His mind swam about neither here or there. He could not hear anyone, not even his own heart beat. There was nothing but darkness and silence. His last thoughts were about someone, but could not recall who he was or the words he had spoken. He felt an ache in his chest as if something was smothering him. A deep sadness he could not explain; why did his hands reach out, who was he reaching for?

“He’s coming out of it, someone get a blanket on him, we don’t need him to go back into shock!” It was a man’s voice- deep, with authority. “Have those wounds dressed! I’m surprised he survived with you bunch of screw ups! I can’t believe how fucked up this mission was, the Council of Elders is not going to be pleased with this, he was not to be harmed!”

There were other voices, but Iason did not recognize any of them. “He should be ok by the time we get back.” spoke Victor, the ship’s Physician. “But that head injury is going to delay things a bit, he’ll need to heal, and that will take time. Which of you brutes left all these bruises?”

Iason was having trouble concentrating as if his mind was expanding in every direction, unable to form clear cohesive thoughts. With great difficulty, he focused and could understand a bit more of what was being said. One thing he was certain of, he no longer was on board the Ios.

“Oh-oh, Darius, he’s trying to break through the mental blocks! He’s amazing, the real thing- shit! Quick- get Martin, finish with at line so I can dope him up again, we can’t have him waking up in mid-transport.”

Iason felt a pinch in his arm and then his mind began to swim once again into a dark and cold place.
Iason was adrift in a sea of darkness, his thoughts left his mind like ripples on a pond; he found his thoughts would appear as a mist and when he reached out to touch them they evaporated leaving him with nothing but fragments- bits and pieces, which he couldn’t understand.

One picture did remain at the edge of his mind- it was a young man with dark hair and equally dark eyes. He sat in a chair with his face in his hands crying. Iason felt a twinge of pain and tightness in his chest when he focused on this one image; it neither evaporated nor did it wander away like all his other thoughts. But he couldn’t hear him, or speak to him, but he did notice he was injured.

He had a bandage on his head and cuts along his face and hands. He felt as if he wanted to gather him in his arms to comfort him, but he couldn’t because he was adrift at sea, dark and cold. Then he heard his name

“Iason!”

Iason turned towards the sound of that voice, “Iason! Don’t leave me!” Iason focused on this extending his mind to all directions until the voice became clear “Iason, where are you? Are you hurt? I’m afraid…I’m lonely….”

The words echoed in his ears, in his mind and finally in his heart. Iason’s body began to twitch, his heartbeat began to pound in his ears and his mind began to awaken.

“I’ve heard this before…he was ill…ill with a fever…he was afraid.” In his mind the locks that prevented him from recalling his memories were beginning to open, “Riki! Riki is calling me, where is he? Oh! He was hurt- he was against the bulkhead unconscious…I must go to him…”

Victor continued to monitor Iason as he was kept sedated, the mind blocks were holding keeping Iason’s body asleep, however, his brain was a different thing altogether. His brain activity was increasing by the minute, his awareness would soon bring his body back under his control. Victor was in awe as he had never witnessed the strength of such a mind.

“Go inform Darius that Lord Mink is waking up.” Victor said to the medic monitoring his vital signs. He had never seen anyone quite like Iason; the mental blocks were being rejected by Iason almost as fast as he entered each command. He was having trouble keeping up with the number of mind numbing subliminal thoughts needed to pull away his awareness filling his mind with useless information leading him to believe he was adrift alone at sea. But Victor would not be able to maintain the pace for long.

Iason was cold and he shivered as images continued to pour in and out of his awareness some clear and some still veiled in a mist. He was not physically restrained but felt bound, suspended upon nothing. Even with multiple mind blocks preventing him to awaken, Iason found that the deeper he dove into his mind, the fog began to clear on a subconscious level within his mind’s eye. He began to piece together his last moments on the passenger liner.

"I turned around...I heard Riki cursing...he dropped his box of Meditation Spheres...spheres...I was about to reprimand him for his language...in a public place...naughty Pet!...but the ship was struck...we all were thrown against the bulkhead...my head..it hurts...arm and leg...ache...Odi is yelling...something about...fire...yes-laser fire..what the?..Ayuda pushed me to the deck...Oh! Ayuda stepped in front of me...he's been shot!...now what?..Odi is fighting what looks like a huge Bio-Droid...possibly a Class-D or higher?...I need to assist him....Riki!...Riki is against the wall...he's bleeding!...he's unconscious!...no...not my Riki...I need to go to him...what's this?...this Bio-Droid is strong...these are only used by the Military...too strong...who are these people?!...let go of me!...someone has my hair!...oh! My neck...I must get to Riki....Riki what is this darkness?...my head is...in...darkness...Riki..."

Iason felt as if his mind was going in all directions, he knew he was being prevented from waking up, but felt helpless, his body would not respond, although he felt some movement a moment ago, he couldn’t get his body to move again. He tried to focus on waking up, but felt restrained, as if a great weight was placed on his body.

He heard the echoes of several voices, but couldn’t quiet understand all that was being said. Commander Darius entered the room, Iason was lying on an operating table in the Medical Station with monitors attached to his head, and other parts of his body, and he could see that his injuries were being treated.

“Darius, Lord Mink seems to be resisting the mind blocks, we will have to either let him wake up or induce a coma until we can better treat and monitor his injuries, although if he awakens it will increase the risk of further complications to his head wound, as it has not healed enough; the shock could kill him.”

Victor pointed to the monitors, “As you can see, the activity in his cerebrum is off the charts, he is either dreaming, or he is processing somewhere deep in his psyche. I’ve never seen read-outs like this; what is this all about?”

Darius walked up to the monitors reading them with interest “Just keep him under Doc, I can’t risk further injury, he needs to heal before he awakens. Not only that- he is a Blondie, his strength alone would overpower most men, the Bio-Droids had a hard enough time keeping him restrained on the Ios, if we hadn’t sedated him, the whole mission would have been a bust. We lost several men in this mission due to his strength alone, even though he was severely injured.”

Victor pointed to the monitors, “OK, then I will induce a coma for now, but if his vitals begin to drop, I’m going to bring him out of it. We don’t know the exact amount of damage that head wound may have caused. What happened? He had bruises all over his body and that gash on his head is serious!”

Darius looked agitated at Victor’s observations. “The whole mission was disaster Victor, let me just say that everything that could go wrong- went wrong. If it wasn’t for the back-up Bio-Droids, we possibly would have failed and killed everyone.”

Darius combed his hand through his hair, he was pissed off and Victor knew not to push it, knowing Darius was a man who rarely lost his cool, and was meticulous in every aspect of his command. That his face expressed any emotion was disturbing enough, as the Commander rarely let his feelings reach the surface of his otherwise stoic demeanor.

“Very well, I’ll do my best. I will have to accelerate his healing, and keeping him under will allow the swelling to go down. But you need to brief me Darius, as to what I’m dealing with by keeping him sedated.”

Darius looked at Iason, “Do you think he can hear us?”

Victor looked at Iason and then at the many monitors he was hooked up to, “Truthfully, I doubt it, however, as I mentioned, his readings are off the scale even for a Blondie from Amoi, although his position as Head of the Syndicate would require a heightened intelligence to keep counsel with Jupiter…”

Darius motioned to victor by running his hand across his neck signaling him to stop talking. “Keep me up to date with your progress, I’ll be in the command center.”

Victor nodded, as Darius left; he glanced at Iason who continued to twitch as if he was in the middle of a nightmare. “Well Lord Mink, I’m sorry to keep you down for so long, but I must tend to your wounds, if I harm you, please forgive me, it is not my intent…sleep well.”

Victor entered the commands as he adjusted the monitors leading Iason into a deep, dark slumber. He introduced mind blocks to the pain center of his brain fooling his mind to feel no pain whatsoever. He then focused on the pleasure center of his mind and stimulated his brain to believe he was experiencing something enjoyable.

“Have a pleasant dream Lord Mink, I hope you have many while you sleep.”

Victor then began to treat his wounds with Accelerator, first on his minor wounds to confirm the pain blocks were in place, and then slowly he worked on his head; Iason had a long gash on the right side of his head, apparently from debris that was flying around during the explosions.

Having removed the debris and cleaned the wound, he began to slowly repair the many lacerations on his scalp. He did receive quiet a blow according to the scans to his head, he suffered a fracture above the right ear, which required acceleration treatment of a different sort enabling the bones on his scull to mend and heal. The lacerations would require a more delicate touch to reduce any visible scars. Victor shook his head.

“What a waste, he is visually stunning, it is a crime to mar any part of him.” He murmured under his breath as he traced a gloved finger down his cheek stained with his blood and took in the site of his body as it lay on the operating table with only a sheet covering his pelvis.

His assistants worked in unison to rapidly heal all this exterior wounds; Iason had fractures to his left arm and left leg, once the bones were set, similar Accelerator was applied to mend the fractures. Victor monitored his brain activity that showed no spikes to the pain center of his brain. Feeling a bit more relieved, he motioned to his assistants to continue.

Iason was in surgery for some time, Victor completed the final procedures to his head thankful that his patient was not able to feel the pain his wounds would certainly have caused; further treatment would be required once they arrived at their destination to prevent any unsightly scars on his otherwise perfect body. Once Victor was satisfied with the outcome of the surgery, he left the room to brief the Commander.

*~*~*

Ayuda awoke in a cell, his hands were bound by chains as were his feet. His head ached and he noticed he had numerous cuts and bruises. He looked around the cell but there was nothing but the cot he laid on and the door. He could hear two men outside his cell, probably guards he thought. They were speaking in hushed voices.

“Hey Neil, it looks like, things didn’t go as smoothly as the boss planned huh? Wonder what they’re going to do with pretty boy in there?” Zeke, pointed at the cell door.

Neil lowered his voice, “He’s one of that Blondie’s personal bodyguards, so I think the boss wants to keep him around for some reason or another.”

“Hey, what was all the commotion about this guy Iason anyway? He just looks like a typical Blondie.”

Neil shook his head, “Don’t you know who he is? He’s the Head of the bloody Syndicate! Lord Iason Mink, that’s who he is. Darius was given this assignment from the Council of Elders, so I don’t know much about it- they’re being all secretive and stuff.”

Zeke thought about this, “There is something I heard Darius say about this guy.” Zeke nodded his head towards the cell Ayuda was being held in. Neil came close to Zeke as he spoke.

“This bodyguard had a tattoo on his left wrist that had the Commander upset, it had to do with the Council of Elders.”

Neil looked confused, “What is it? Do you know?”

Zeke shrugged his shoulders. “No, but he was put in isolation immediately that’s why we’re guarding him, I don’t know much more than that.”

So they had been abducted, but by whom and for what purpose? Ayuda couldn’t make out what the guards were whispering about, but knew there was more to his part in this, than he knew about. It made no sense to him as to why he was also abducted, he was just a bodyguard, nothing more.

He recalled the attack, first the Ios was hit by what he figured were timed explosions meant to cause chaos in order to abduct Iason. They were heading to the dining section of the cruise ship; Iason had been invited to dine with Lord Bastian and several delegates to discuss the Trade Convention.

Iason was guarded by Odi and himself plus a security team consisting of six Amoian guards and four Class-A Bio-Droids. As they traveled down the corridor, the ship was rocked by a large explosion tossing everyone to the opposite bulkhead. Several hatches in their corridor were blown by smaller explosives as they came under attack. Odi had gotten to Iason first who was buried by debris and two of the Bio-Droids.

Then a firefight broke out before he jumped in front of Iason who by then was fighting against a rather large Bio-Droid. Odi was overcome by several armed men when Iason was tranquilized. He thought he was going to die, when in truth he had also been tranquilized. The second explosion blew several outer hatches and they were being pulled by the suction of the venting oxygen. Many passengers where sucked out into space, while he and Iason were being held by Bio-Droids when they were hit by a blinding light before being sucked out into space.

Ayuda remembered the frightening moments as he and Iason were suspended in a light. He felt overcome by the pressure as the ship vented oxygen taking his breath away, as he and Iason were violently extracted from the corridor into cold space. They were being pulled by a tractor beam into the opened shuttle bay of another ship. This all occurred in a matter of moments before he lost consciousness but Ayuda would have this etched into his memory forever.

He now wondered about Iason, where was he? He kicked himself for not pressing harder for Iason to take the private chartered flight “Fucking Jupiter!” he thought. He went over every detail of their plans in his head replaying each detail. Departure from Amoi went according to plan, and the flight was uneventful, that is if you could call a mob scene wherever Iason and Riki were out and about.

By the second day they had all settled into their suites. He and Odi had split the security teams to watch over Iason and Riki around the clock, and security sweeps were conducted regularly and at different intervals to prevent anyone from guessing their daily agenda. As he feared their attackers must have infiltrated the ship at one of their many stops to take on more passengers. Ship’s security was tight; however, it was impossible to monitor every passenger, as many were of different species.

He looked at his bound wrists and noticed his wrist guards had been removed. He’d worn them all his life and was a gift from his grandfather. They were made of white gold engraved with his family’s crest depicting a Warrior holding a shield and sword. They were given by the older men in his family to all males. When they came of age, they were tattooed with the corresponding symbol of loyalty on their left wrist and placed on the path of Security.

It was a mystery as to whom they chose to protect or why, as all things in the Firm were always cloaked in secrecy. He was placed in the service of Lord Mink through his father’s influence being Chairman of Amoi’s oldest and most prestigious security firm “Shield of Honor.”

When it was reported that Lord Mink had been poisoned with Agetha, he was assigned by the Firm to solicit the employment of this Blondie Elite for reasons unknown even to him. He had this ominous feeling hanging over his head; an unsettled part of his brain nagged at him.

He received an incoming beacon from his father Hector Stone, the night before departing from Amoi. He was very cryptic, his voice was low and deliberate “The Flame will burn one’s hands if held too tight son, remember your lineage and remain by his side.”

Ayuda wondered why he had not heard from his father in so long, yet out of the blue decided to send him this message. The Flame? What did he mean by that? The Flame was a myth, a tale told to young children at bed time. He stared at the message board puzzled by this communication. He felt there was more to this and pondered what- if anything- the Shield and Honor had to do with Iason Mink.

So this may have been the only reason he was taken and kept alive by his captors. The wrist guards weren’t valuable he thought to himself, more sentimental than anything else, and he wondered why they had been removed, when the jewelry he wore was far more expensive, and had not been touched.
He knew he had to find a way to escape and find Iason, his instincts told him there was more to this abduction than ransom or a grudge, it had purpose and he needed to discover what that purpose was.

“Open the Cell!” Darius commanded in a booming voice that woke Ayuda from his deep thoughts.

The door opened and in walked Darius, he was tall with dark brown hair tied back with golden hair ties, his eyes were deep gray, and he had several scars on his face which reminded him of Katze. Ayuda noticed he dressed as a Noble with a loose fitting royal blue shirt and trousers. He wore a scarlet colored sash about his waist and knee high black boots.

Despite his appearance, he appeared to be about the same age as himself. He had a military presence about him, which told him he was a man of some authority. Around his neck was a long gold chain necklace that held a round medallion.

As Ayuda focused his eyes on the medallion his expression changed from anger to one of confusion. The medallion was engraved with a Warrior holding a shield and sword. Darius stood near him and spoke.

“You must have many questions as to what has happened. Suffice to say that not all is what it seems.”

Ayuda looked down at his left wrist and then at Darius, “Where is Lord Mink?! What have you done with him? And who the hell are you people?” Ayuda made to sit up which made Zeke and Neil instinctively step forward to guard Darius.

“I am Commander Darius Raymone.” Darius gave him a slight smile, “All in good time Ayuda, I will send the medics to treat your wounds. There will be plenty of time for answers.” Darius turned on his heels and was gone, leaving Ayuda more confused then before. He wondered how he knew his name- more confusing was the fact that he wore the crest of the Shield of Honor around his neck.