Priya Echo's Adventure by David Gold - HTML preview

CHAPTER 60 - BRAIN PUNCH

The survivors roamed, dazed and confused among the pines. “Let’s get back to the hotel,” Valco insisted. Returning to Panorama Precinct, they came upon the outskirts of the town just as one of the sailing houses rained down a fragile, harmless shower of saw-dust onto their shoulders. Behind them the crowd cheered as the absurdity withdrew, like a tide, leaving the locals in a town that still had some parts remaining and was not totally a lost cause. The following day the two of them were speaking on the roof of the hotel, overthinking their next purposeful move, when around them the scenery traded itself for another. Gunfire and powerful noise cut through the air. Symmetries of black architecture interwove itself around them. What looked like a band of spell-infantry fell as the ray of a trajectory cutter sliced through. Priya looked out and saw its source, the armored Rikiral warrior firing on their position, blue-skinned, the shoulders adorned with ornamental ribbons. A man in a brown coat stepped over the bodies, holding a shotgun in each hand. Atmosphere escaped as the docking bay doors unfurled themselves. Bodies subtly inched away from his feet. In the background, she could see soldiers curving through the spaces between the stars - Rikiral and human alike. From the back of the man emerged his skull attached at the top to his entire spinal column, as if the full piece had decided to become immaterial. It rested behind his back for a moment, until the individual vertebra broke off and curled around to the front. The man took each piece and loaded them into the shotguns as shells, then fired a shot. It rung out and hit the Rikiral attacker dead center, killing him instantly. “Echo … do you recognize me? I fought by your side ... you promised to help us” the fallen enemy murmured as he bled. Turning his face, Priya could see a dark cheek, his eyes weary and wet, “I didn’t have a choice”. Priya fell to her knees as the memory decayed.

Soon enough, they found themselves back on the roof again. “Valco … are there any good choices in life, or do they just look different from the other side?” she sobbed. Pulling the scientist to her feet, he embraced her while the trembling ceased. “Tell that to them, '' he said, pointing over the ledge to the people milling about below. “Thank you” she accepted, surveying their motions for a time, “the disorder itself … FIRE virus must be evolving as a result of the turbulence of the focal element. It’s manifesting flashbacks like this one. We have to stop its growth before it traps someone in a memory”.

They continued to discuss when Priya received a coded message, interrupting them. “This is coming from the SOTA. Etheria’s scientific team was apparently able to revive a satellite dish on a moon in the Alpha-E sector. It’s Rikiral” she reported. “If we can capture a stock of weapons, we could use them against the magnate” Valco perceived. “Agreed, that could give us the upper hand … but it sounds like they have something else in mind” she paused. Echo transferred her telepathic sight by placing a hand onto his shoulder. Valco closed his eyes and saw the beacon drifting, tendrils of electricity lashing and arching back into a framework from every side. “We could capture that, and harness it” she heard him say. “A dying probe … it’s probably relaying an old distress signal” Echo considered. “Empress … Etheria, if our people are able to study this in time, they could use it as an energy source to build a machine that counters the maelstrom”, he thought aloud, grave in his admiration of the profound. “That’s a long-term program brother, we’re at war” she jousted immediately. Etheria came between their newborn rift to broadcast their other discovery … by first glance a loftier one, “Our dish is getting a signal from the lunar surface. Take a look at this, friends. Here was the capitol White Jade before the war. According to records it fell in a single hour, in a bombardment by the Rikiral. The population abandoned the entire colony for Earth as a result. Now follow the path to the periphery, where you’ll sense three signatures hidden below the surface … on either end ….

some kind of facility”. “Leftovers from the time they resided with us. They were first turned to shelters, then stations to coordinate the attack” Valco realized briskly, his words returning home, through a chronicle of the past. “Don’t blink, you’re not going to believe this” Etheria chuckled.

Their perspective was sprayed with a lather of black and white. Priya reacted accordingly, the motions of her thoughts conspiring on one obvious verdict. “Are we witnessing the Static Ocean

… Uffhill would love this” Valco conceded. “The object you’re seeing is about a hundredth the size of the moon, spherical and composed of pure static. It was invented by Rikiral … It was programmed” Etheria explained, narrating the exhilaration of their senses. Echo tempered the delirium of her disbelief. A head researcher of the team spoke up in the midst of silence,

“According to historical records the attack on White Jade was brazen, occupying a massive proportion of their armada for little gain”. “We were just told the lunar inhabitants retreated after the attack” Echo argued. “Indeed, but that was in the works already. The visitors were centuries ahead of their counterparts when they arrived. A young, defenseless people. By granting us sorcery, the Voices of Reason used us as foot-soldiers to repel their exploration. It was obvious who their true enemies were. It should come as no surprise that the attack on the lunar capitol was simply a ruse, one to lure the Voices and Telenon into the open, to capture him in a fabricated orb where even he couldn’t escape” the scientist related eagerly. The researchers laughed at their reaction. Echo was happy to have such an answer fall into her lap. It was like every atom in her body was dancing all at once. “This is amazing, we can finish what they started '' she thought aloud, applauding through the telepathic link.

“Let’s think about this for just a moment. Do you really know you have a perfect trap?

He outsmarted it once before, and if you’re considering doing that … it would have to be all or nothing. What if he seals you instead? The beacon’s energy can help us in the long run” Valco argued, as his words were tinged with wonder. “That’s easy for you to say brother, you don’t have to face him” she countered. “You are really trying me right now! Instead of listening to my advice before, you just lectured me” he lamented, turning his back. Feeling the weight of her self-absorption, she tiptoed up to him and pressed her face into his back, “Valco … I don’t know what our connection is, but it is strong, like you. That’s why you tried everything to save me

once, even though it didn’t turn out that way … alright. I believe you when you say it’s not worth it”. Sighing heavily, he turned back around,“That’s admirable sister” he intoned. Now his eyes opened back up, “Then here is what I suggest. We obtain the satellite and its energy.

However, with our abilities still returning, it would be difficult to cross that distance”. “I think you underestimate your own strength” she began, “and there is a new technique that could aid us in getting an object over a stellar distance. It’s called empty recurrence, an invention of the rite of the true naive”. “What do you need?” he asked, seeing that she was curiously looking up and down his body. “Something to absorb the electricity … give me your brain” Priya concluded, and placed both of her hands on his temples, causing the organ to become immaterial, and like a trained surgeon retrieved it and placed it about three feet off the ground in the center of the roof.

Valco looked over reluctantly. “But if we’re going to do this, put it at the corner over there so I can make a running start at it” he asked. Priya held the brain perfectly still at the corner of the roof, and synced the signal from the satellite dish telepathically with him so that he could visualize the full trajectory. Like a sprinter he charged forward and directed all of his strength into his fist, knocking the brain through the atmosphere where it sailed towards its course across freckles of light, through numberless simplicity.

Revolving like a piece of a shipwreck, the satellite appeared in the view of the brain, who felt itself overtaken by numbness as it neared the end of its voyage. Metallic components loosely tethered together rattled with the escape of lawless static. As the brain came upon it all of the electricity was charged with strange, unearthly prowess. Drawn into the outflow, it became tangled in currents, and soaked them up like a sponge. Back on earth a cloud of hot steam freed itself from his mouth, “It’s back in my skull, sis, and I can feel the heat”. “Segregate it into parcels and diffuse it through the link to the research group” she instructed. Just in time. As voices faltered, it became evident that even a brief connection could not withstand the turbulence. The task complete, they headed downstairs once more.

Priya walked across the hotel lobby and sauntered out to the entrance. In the distance the foliage of a vineyard stretched out across a neighborhood that had once been quite unremarkable.

“That’s Mar’s vineyard” Valco started, “which means the realm is emerging gradually”.

“Without the RODI it will be a trickle. A feat like that is impossible in the eye of the storm”

Priya lamented. But seeing an old thing in a new place, her heart turning to curiosity as it was drawn to the vineyard.

THE END

THANK YOU FOR ALL READING MY BOOK.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED READING IT AS MUCH AS I ENJOYED WRITING IT

DID YOU LIKE, “ECHO’S QUEST, BOOK 1 - AWAKENING?”

HERE IS A PREVIEW OF THE SEQUEL

“PRIYA ECHO’S ADVENTURE - BOOK 2 - ASCENSION WAR”

COMING SOON - BOOK 2 BONUS CHAPTER - CRYSTALLIZED APRICOT

Location: Echo Realm, Cyalola

Date: Second Age

“Please be careful. The living quarters still have a few traps which have not been removed as of yet” Crystalized Apricot informed the debonair couple touring the copious corridors of the maiden palace. They continued onwards, nodding silently in assent at her words, regarding the blithe wallpaper and furnishings that seemed as if placed somewhat out of time. At the close of the decade, the rising population in the Sky-Nest cities, most notably Omeinn forced the hard settlement of the archipelagos, where quaint farming villages had previously stood undisturbed. Threats from the hunters over time slowly diminished until they were a thing of the past. It dawned on the Actress that the palaces were obsolete. Apricot remembered the day they were gathered all together to hear the news. Filling the vacuum, yuppies with enough riches and prestige flocked for the new real estate. Passing a dining table, inconspicuous coasters laid haphazardly across a placemat. Flinching, saw-blades retracted from them, ready to leap into the air. Extending an arm out, the guide prevented the couple from closing their proximity to the table, pacifying the coasters. Luxury overspread the second quarter salon, which they wandered into for an intermission, and their guide stopped, crippled by its foreignness, feeling the phantoms of the maiden’s twirl about the room in fresh youthful abandon. “Oh man, she is really selling this, you had better step in before we get shafted” the wife whispered in her husband’s ear. “Yes, yes, this is all very well and good, but what real benefits does this property offer besides extensive living quarters? '' he asked, striving to bring her back on course. “It’s just …

there's a lot of history here. Just over by these couches there was a long oval where me and my sisters would play cards. For that reason, you’ll never feel alone. To be honest it’s got more than you could possibly need, like the amenities here in the salon. If you pull this crank here, the chandelier will descend and give you a massage and back-scratch, and let’s say for example the wallpaper doesn’t suit your taste, you can simply walk over here to the corner and take hold of it” Apricot demonstrated, pulling the sheet from the wall like a magician pulling a tablecloth, leaving the paintings and other furnishings untouched. Felicitously, after pulling a dresser drawer and tucking the article in she was given a trinket by the furnishing in gratitude from a wooden compartment. “Most of the furnishings here will reciprocate” she added, upping the ante. To seal the deal, she took them to the second quarter walking balcony, where they parted to have a word alone. Remembrances of the other girls filled the recess of her mind … Nicoletta the Ornate One, Audrey Meadowsweet, Galatea of the Ten Velvet Roses, Finality Dulcie, Sybil Eater of Mint Jam … the company pouring glasses of lemonade on the porch, whittling clumps of lemon sculpture with caramel knives. Like a mirage she could see Galatea again, lifting aesthetic hand-weights to strengthen her appreciation of nature’s beauty. “We’ll take it!” the husband announced, breaking her concentration. The price was not unreasonable for the square footage and worth its weight in status. Apricot let the couple sign, so that Perennial Shed passed hands simply. He dashed a cursive mark so quick as to refute an opportunity for her to formulate an inner expression about it. But time was short, so she headed out to the village of Taken Ground on the island to prepare for the housewarming bash that would, without a doubt, draw a sprawling crowd of socialites. On the drum of her ear she felt the birdsong of the tide, the unmuted swell of the aviary ocean. It drew attention to the trees and grass by paralipsis, the sum of a wholesome green milieu flanking the village. Received by the caterers, she met with them a

bit. They took her inside, where she scrutinized a vanilla cake in the shape of a house. For the middle course they prepared stuffed lungs. Chef Wellow named off the various creatures harvested from the laughing clouds overhanging the island. They had been testy enough to bite one of his assistants in the arm, but he was doing just fine. Escorting her to the next table, he introduced plates of wheat crackers dolloped with curd, a gilled meat-berry to garnish the top.

Biting into one would deliver a pop of sweetened cranberry. Then she was shown soup bowls that would, upon receiving a helping of fruit peels heat up, forming a chowder. “This is fantastic!

I think I’m ready for the sky-nesters to rush us” Apricot exclaimed. With the basic errand complete she departed to Swooshing Wind, their twin island’s bunker to grab a few odds and ends. Resolute movement through the halls declined until her crystalline hands began to sweat.

Apricot felt herself shouldering the burden of history. This place too would soon face an equal solemn denouement. Phantoms troubled the visitor with nostalgia anent how easily and unthinkingly her sisters moved onto their counterparts in the adult order of things. Proliferation of Bliss slid down the railing of the stairs. Now she oversees the Railway Alliance as its baron, guiding the leisure industry. Every summer the cabin-ball trials are held aboard the train of the syndicate’s choosing. The maiden saw the girls chase each other with volumes pilfered from the library balanced on their heads, and on the bottom step was Galatea, older by only a year, glancing lazily through a picture book. If anyone got out of line, she would step in, and form a circle from the growth of ten velvet roses to calm their strife. Later she organized the purge against the hunters, granting rank to anyone who served in that capacity until the Free Audience was formed as the replacement governing body of Cyalola. Audrey Meadowsweet founded The Bureau of Harnessing Fools for Useful Purposes. Jade Versatility invented the machinery to harness the color of peacock feathers for energy in the bowels of the sky-nests, and the inventions that measure the transformative properties of peacocks for the Department of Metamorphic Census. Almond Memory runs the University Olivia. Even Sybil chaired the Office of Jam. “But I have nothing” Apricot thought, feeling the taste of uncomfortable fact.

Residue in the form of mist stained the carpet as the phantoms toppled over. Mercifully, that would not affect the value. “Bread is only bread for a short time, until it moves through time, and by that, I mean the anus” he said, giving a paltry excuse for his actions. NEE Phycia robbed the plate of its contents, a slice of the rich vanilla cake that Apricot earmarked for herself. As he wiped the frosting off his lip all semblance of composure fell from her face. A thirty something yuppie from Doka sky-nest, he was more than willing to bait another for simple pleasure. The anxious host drew a step closer to the red blazer in retaliation, “Nee, I’m very happy that you're enjoying yourself, but why don’t you go take a lap?”. “Did you want me to circulate? actually, I had the liberty of doing that already. I spoke briefly to nearly every one of the sisters'' he articulated, assuming a more serious posture. “They are more talkative than me” she hinted brusquely. The buyers were ensconced on the corner sofa looking drained from so many mochi macaroons. “For instance, Dulcie let me know how you gave an equal percentage to each of them for the sale of the house, 1200 stripes is what she said. The others told me the same'' the gossiper tallied, pointing to her sister. “Of … course. It belonged to all of us” the maiden echoed in a way that marked verbally how self-evident the remark truly was. Nee would not give up the flow of banter. He buttoned the blazer in defense before continuing onwards, “then I ran into the couple who told me rather plainly about the selling price. I did the math … Apricot, that leaves a surplus of twenty percent. What did you do with those stripes? Are you keeping them for yourself?”. “Sir, if you must know I’m giving everything to charity” she stated heartily, snapping back with care by the precision in his words. “And what is their name?” he followed. Apricot

suddenly felt a prick of solitude, taking in by contrast the salon and its daedalian opulence with her eyes. Then the blur of the socialite was exchanged once again with the wall and its subtle weavings, the unspoken quid pro quo of consciousness. The maiden took a step back, breaking the bond, “It’s not important. Maybe I should go see how someone else is faring”. “Apricot, stop.

I want to know the name” he doubled, the boyishness of his face resolving into a hateful stare.

Grabbing him by the arm, they passed by a ravel of fuddled red-cheeked partiers into a quiet corridor. “Nee, what do you want?” she whispered. Smiling, he took her candidness as a favorable result, “I just want what everyone wants, the truth”. The maiden sensed no deviation in his stare, the distracted way in which other men would glimpse the soft rise and fall of her bosom, the way crystalized sugar over the orange pinkness of apricot flesh dilated to the pumping of air. “Alright, if you have to know, I was going to use it to start my own real estate business. Perennial Shed is good practice, after all” she said, making obvious where the surplus was destined for. “That’s enough mam. I just wanted to make sure. Most people will go to the grave before admitting their fault, but that’s just human nature. As a matter of fact, since you shared with me just now, I will share with you. If you recall, I was one of the first to arrive before eight just as the party started. There was time to burn and no supervision, so I decided to tour the rooms on the ground floor. Of course, I wasn’t trying to cause any trouble, but I found a cabinet in the fifth study on the left. A middle drawer was slightly ajar, so I went to close it, and found this” he illustrated, cunningly flaunting a stack of paper clipped together from his blazer.

“What is this?” Apricot mused as he handed it over. Her eyes briefly scanned the pages. Dead silence. “Phycia … this is …” she stumbled. “Yes, it is the script. Take a gander at the first page

… and you’ll find this very funny” he giggled, pausing for her reaction. Apricot scanned the names of the company until coming upon the most eccentric character of the lot, “I am … I was the director?”. “That’s right mam. Flip twenty pages over and you’ll see Olivia’s scene. The part where she had stage fright and the realm began, guess what? That was her part! She was supposed to have stage fright. What a method actor!” he declared, pride swelling in his youthful body. “Nee … the way you dealt with this matter was very sharp. If you’re not doing anything …

would you prefer to join my company as lead salesman for Apricot Realty Team. I could use your talents” she offered, drinking in the warmth of his laugh. Agreeing, he left allowing her a second to inspect her own annotations in red ink, “She tried again to replicate stage fright. This will be more than fifteen times to no avail. With opening night tomorrow, it’s just going to have to happen on stage. Olivia, it’s all up to you”. Worry dissipated and she glanced out through the lonely balcony. Rainbows darting across the aviary ocean folded into peacock feathers, and drifted to the waters below, tinging them with clusters of light. Making a detour to the ground floor, she tossed the script back in the dresser and returned to the party, where bowls of soup from boiled fruit peel and plenty of cheer awaited.

AUTHOR BIO

David Gold is a writer and author of Priya Echo’s Adventure, Book One – Awakening. He grew up and lives in beautiful Cary, North Carolina. He attended East Carolina University, received his bachelors from North Carolina State University, and an associate’s degree from Wake Technical Community College. When it comes to writing, he loves to brainstorm fresh, original story ideas. Currently he is interested in writing compelling fantasy, science fiction and cross-genre stories.

To connect with David, email him at 123chesswizard@gmail.com

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