Chapter 8

The next five years of Bracken's life began as normal as most. But as he grew older, he began to discover his ideals clashing with those of the world around him. He was nearing the end of his mind training at the Institute in Tiwa. It was time now for him to find his future. Time to chart his course, time to begin his own life. But what would the future hold, he wondered. What possible life could there be for him or anyone else? What dreams could ever come true in a world that seemed to have no tomorrow?

New threats of war came from across the Sea of Aurin. The High Council had brought the Destroyer weapon out of hiding again. They tested it on the barren northern desert. Although few in Ebbern ever saw its explosive flash glow against the sheltering Ribbon Crags, its poisonous aftereffect nonetheless spread slowly through the atmosphere. And now, not only Nerkush had the weapon, but other nations as well. The future of peace looked bleaker every day. If war was to come again to Ebbern, some feared it would be the last that their planet would ever know. It would be the last of anything any of them would ever know ... but death.

"How's your last week of guidance going?" asked Bracken as he sat on the broad lawn in front of the mind-training center. His hair and complexion were darker. His eyes now were a deep blue, reflecting a sense of destiny. His face had lost its youthful fat. It was lean and chiseled.

Lisha Fleam sat across from him. She was beautiful. Her blond hair and delicate features were enhanced by a slender, but well-developed figure. She was mad at the moment though, but Bracken didn't seem to mind. He enjoyed watching her even when she was angry.

Lisha jabbed her stylus into the ground and looked frustrated. "Boring, as usual," she said. "I can hardly wait for the last day." Her long soft eyelashes blinked unconsciously as she concentrated on the black case in her hand. Behind her, learners walked back and forth between their instruction stations, housed in circular pods ringing the spire-shaped central building. Tubular corridors, like spokes of a wheel connected the rooms to the central hub. A variety of courses ranging from studies in early Nerkusian tribal structure to lengthy investigations of the sci-tec discoveries, were programmed into the learning consoles that filled the rooms.

Bracken plucked a blade of grass and slipped it between his lips. "I'm glad this last week's free. I'm going to spend some time exploring the far canyons."

Lisha looked up from her note-recorder, its readout panel blinking red. "Haven't you been out there before?"

Bracken chewed on the green between his teeth. He had, but he wanted to go again. The air up there was better and the hillside was quiet and peaceful. "I've been up a few of them, but there are still several I'd like to see." He was hoping Lisha would go with him. But she only frowned and continued talking about her struggles with sub-body analysis. Ten feet away Silas and Lisha's friend, Klime, lay side by side on the grassy carpet, talking quietly.

Lisha nodded toward them. "Klime does so well. She hardly concentrates, and then always makes the highest response. I'11 have to work hard this week to keep up with her." Bracken watched Lisha with a subdued sense of awe. Her golden hair fell over her shoulders and spilled down her back. It sparkled as the sun glistened upon it. Her attractive face held two large brown eyes that warmly coaxed his attention. Lisha knitted her brews. "Do you think if I used the K-4 mode it would resolve easier?"

Bracken reached out and took the recorder from her slender hand. "Here, let me try." In a way he found it hard to believe this girl was truly interested in him. He had watched her for years, secretly hoping for her affection, yet never really believing it would come to pass. Now that she had begun to show an interest in him, he found it hard to understand. Perhaps she was intrigued by his different ways, he told himself. Bracken punched out several recycle functions and then fed in another formula. "There, I think this is what you're looking for." He handed the instrument back to her.

She smiled as the answer glowed on the display panel. "How'd you do that?"

"It's simple. Just use the Z-7 function."

Lisha punched out the code expectantly as Bracken watched. The last few years of his life had changed him radically. At first, it had been concealed inside. But now it had begun to manifest itself more and more. His manner of dress, what he did, what he believed changed more each day. The things his peers pursued had become meaningless. Most of them were caught in the same cycle of empty facades. He had a greater destiny, he told himself.

"It's working," said Lisha, delightedly setting up another problem and running it through the recorder. Bracken had sensed the stream of life turning, moving in a different direction... deep somewhere in the flow of humanity, something was changing. He was part of that change. Nothing would hold him to the senseless routines of those around him. He heard the waves of a distant sea. His eyes could see the shoreline of another world. Perhaps this was what had caused Lisha's fascination with him. But whatever it had been, he was glad.

Lisha switched off the recorder and dropped it into her pouch. "Bracken, these things come so easily for you. Why aren't you more interested in them?"

Bracken pulled another blade from the lawn. "I guess I'm just beginning to find out there are other things even more important."

Lisha looked at him with a quizzical glance. "Like what?"

Bracken hesitated and then smiled back his answer. "Well, it would take some time to explain. Tell ya what, if you'll come hiking with me, I'11 share them with you."

Lisha thought for a moment. "Now that you've helped me solve my problem, I guess I don't have any excuse not to."

A melodic chime sounded in the distance. Bracken stood to his feet and offered her his hand. "Good, we can meet here tomorrow and then take my trans as far as the upper trail."

Next to them, Klime rose from the grass. "We'd better be going, Lisha, the second pod's always crowded after break."

Lisha turned to go. As she did her hand gently brushed Bracken's. "I'm looking forward to a good time tomorrow."

"So am I. See ya."

"Goodbye."

Bracken and Silas watched as the girls walked back toward the center. Then, without talking, they turned and climbed back into Bracken's trans-rig and drove away.

A light breeze brushed Lisha's hair bark across her shoulders. Bracken admired it as he followed her up the hillside. The two of them had been climbing for about a half-hour. The air had a fragrant aroma. It was almost intoxicating. Bracken breathed deeply, drawing in the fragrance of the surrounding foliage. "The cresh smells good, doesn't it?"

"Yes, it's so colorful," answered Lisha as she glanced from side to side, enjoying the visual beauty of the yellow-green plants that dotted the slope.

Soon they came to a small brook that splashed its way down the gentle rise. Bracken helped Lisha across it. They removed their leather cleks and sank their bare feet into the tingling water. Bracken took her hand. A warm flush came over him as he gripped her slim, soft fingers. "Be careful/ there's a large rock here," he warned as they approached the other side of the stream. Reaching the opposite bank, they both sat down with their feet soaking in the creek. The water whirled and bubbled past them, its clear texture gleaming in the sunlight.

Bracken tossed a small pebble into the brook. "When I look at a stream like this, I get a clean feeling inside. I could stay here forever; watching it, listening to its gurgling conversation. I guess that's the way I wish people were . . . pure . . . alive . . . transparent. Always changing, but always the same.

Lisha gazed down at the rocks on the bottom of the streambed. Their multi-colored surfaces, polished smooth by the rushing water, stared back. "It's not often you meet someone like that." She thought about Bracken. His openness. He was like that, she thought. "I've always hoped to, but it seems like everyone is caught up in their own desires."

Bracken curled his toes in the gritty soil near the creek bank. "I agree. People don't seem to have time for the valuable things in life."

Lisha pulled several small thistles from her walking shoe. "My father's a good example. He's more interested in selling thermo-collectors to farmers, than being with me and the rest of our family." Lisha stopped rather abruptly. Why was she so quick to share with Bracken. She was telling him things she would seldom tell anyone else. Too often she had found herself hiding her real feelings inside. Everything was bottled up. Now for some reason they came bubbling out to Bracken. She watched him as he threw pebbles into the brook. It was something more than his striking features that appealed to her. He seemed to have a strange but warm glow in his eyes, as if a fire burned in his soul and his pupils mirrored its flickerings.

They sat quietly for a moment and then Bracken broke the silence. "You're not the first person to feel that way. I've felt like that for a long time. The whole thing's beginning to make me sick. Leaving Tizra will be a pleasure. There's nothing really here that I want anymore, except our friendship."

Lisha looked intently at Bracken. "Why's that? This is your home. Your family's here. You've grown up here."

"I guess that's part of the problem. I've lived with these things long enough."

"What things?"

"Oh, the town's too small, the thinking too narrow and selfish. Nerkush is larger than just this little valley. The universe is bigger than Ebbern."

"That's obvious."

"I know, but it's something more than that."

"Like what?"

"Like maybe there's something outside. Something outside of Tizra and something outside of Ebbern."

"What do you mean?"

"Haven't you heard the rumors about the space disks. They're supposed to be from out there." He pointed toward the sky. "Then there're the Mingus Gems. They're said to be the door to another dimension."

"Sure. But those two things are worlds apart. Anyway, how do you know if they're real?"

"Because ... I've seen one."

"You have?"

"Yes. Silas saw it too."

Lisha paused for a moment before responding. She didn't know whether to believe Bracken or not. But she decided to see where their conversation would lead anyway. "Well, now that you've seen one, what do you make of the whole thing?"

"I think there's a connection."

"Between the disks and the Gem?"

"Yes, and I'm planning to find out for sure tomorrow."

"How?" Lisha giggled, humoring him. "You're going to grow antennae and just ask for a ride on one?"

"No," he snarled back playfully at her jest, though feeling a little hurt inside. "I'm going to Shidow and find the hidden Mingus mine."

"Oh sure. You'll just run up there and trip right over it. You've got to be kidding. The sci-tec said no one would ever find it."

"Well, I think they're wrong." Bracken was growing a little upset with Lisha's unbelief. She sensed it and backed off.

"Maybe you can find it, Bracken," she said smiling gently at him. She liked him and even if some of his ideas were hard for her to believe, she would overlook them. "If you do, please bring back one for me," she said warmly.

He softened under her grace. "I guess I’ll know for sure in a few days." He looked back down the hillside toward Tizra and sighed. "One thing I know, I'11 be able to see things more clearly when I'm away from here. It'll be good to think for myself without being told I'm wrong by my parents. I think a lot of questions will start to be answered then."

He thought of his parents and their constant cliches and admonitions: "Be successful, be someone your parents can be proud of!" And of course, their quoting of the Volume, and all its worn out phrases. He couldn't believe in something he had never seen. He believed in things like the brook that was in front of him. Not in stories about any hidden evil Prince who lured people off the true path. He could see evil all right. It lay in the threat of the World Destroyer weapon. The fear of its awesome power being unleashed by some madman in a moment of passion, seemed to Plague even the peaceful moments he had, like this one. Pictures of barren, charred landscapes flashed in his mind. "Something has to change, you know, Lisha. People have got to open their eyes and start to really care...to be themselves and quit scuffling in the game of smashing others to put themselves ahead."

He looked into her brown eyes for a moment and then turned away. The flush came back. He was finding it so easy to love this girl. She was beautiful not only outside, but inside. Her desire to learn, to explore what he explored excited him. She seemed intrigued by his different ways. When he thought about it though, he wasn't quite sure what had caused it. He had grown up like most kids. But somewhere, maybe when he had reached his fourteenth year, he had found a different path. He'd heard a different call.

His friends seemed to walk the same well-beaten road, but he no longer walked there. He had either been stepped on too many times, or had just grown bored with its endless repetition. "You know, Lisha," he began again, "most of those I've grown up with seem to have their greatest joys jostling their trans-rigs or talking about the last girl they took down." He frowned, the edges of his mouth turning down and his pupils pin-pointing for a moment. "It's always the same. Drink nectol when the Rest Day comes, joke, act smart. Try to impress girls like you. I just don’t want to be that way anymore, and I guess I never..." he stopped.

Lisha was looking at him with a gaze that melted him to the core. Her brown eyes were alive with a warm glow. The breeze stirred her blonde hair. Her lips were moist. The slightest hint of her white teeth peeked through them. "When did you start to feel this way, Bracken?" she asked.

As he stared at her, he felt a deep urge to reach out and pull her to him. He longed to press his lips against hers and to hold her in his arms. Instead, he went on with his answer. "I guess it really started when I was young. I began to wonder about things. Like the stars, the sea, the snow on the mountains. Why are they so beautiful? What are they there for? How can I understand what they all mean? It's like pushing through a haze toward the sun. Shaking off the shadow of narrow thinking, I mean. I've found there're more important things in life. Don't you feel that way?"

"Yes, I can really identify with what you're saying," Lisha felt an increasing bond growing between them.

"Besides, there're others who feel the way I do. They've been away from this little village. They've seen the new things that are happening in Accad and Demur and they've told me about them. I suppose that, too, is part of the reason I've changed."

Lisha wanted to hear more. "What did they say about Accad, what did they tell you?"

Bracken moved closer to her, resting his hand gently on hers. "There's something happening with a small group of people down there. They think like you and me. They write and sing about a new age. An age of enlightenment. An age coming to all of us. We just have to care about one another and it will come."

"Is that all they believe?"

"No, there's one other important thing. They want Nerkush to dismantle the Destroyer weapon."

Lisha looked deep into Bracken's blue eyes and thought about what he had said. It sounded rebellious, almost blasphemous, but that was what she liked about Bracken. He was bold enough even to believe in something others found wrong. Her own fears, of course, bothered her too. What future would their planet have if war came again. Looking at it from that point of view, she found it easy to agree with him. "This is what you've been hoping for, isn't it? You've been hoping to find people who believe like you. People who believe in life and not destruction.

"Yes, and I want to be part of them, even though a lot of narrow people think they're strange."

"My father's one of those narrow people. He's always griping about the oddballs who live in Accad's old neighborhood. He told me he saw a few of them on his last trip down there. Said they were really strange."

"It seems like those who look for something real in this world are always considered strange. But I've learned the truth about them. They're honest and bold people."

"That's so beautiful, Bracken. I want to be like that." Lisha’s voice seemed to caress him. Against the striking glow of her face, the beauty of their surroundings seemed to fade. She was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. As they talked Bracken yearned for her. He could sense her responding to him. Bracken’s voice trailed off again. Her face had completely captivated his attention. For a moment he hesitated, unsure of what to do next. But her smile soon dispelled his fear.

Reaching out slowly, he touched her shoulders and pulled her close. Slowly, his fingers brushed across her lips, across her delicate cheek, and ran through her silken hair. She closed her eyes, savoring his touch. As he held her, their lips met in a trembling embrace.

The brook continued to gurgle happily even after the sun ceased to dance on its surface.