Ways of Power 1: Power Rises

The Ways of Power

Book One

Power Rises

R.M. Willis

Published by Burning Willow Press, LLC

Burning Willow Press, LLC (USA): 3724 Cowpens Pacolet Rd., Spartanburg, SC 29307

This edition published in 2015 by Burning Willow Press, LLC (USA)

Copyright © R.M. Willis 2015

All rights reserved.

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For my wife and children who have supported my dreams and allowed me the freedom to pursue them.

February 18, 2057

Alex jumped up from his desk at the sound of the major’s boots marching down the hall. He hadn't wanted to call the short-tempered man at two in the morning, but what choice did he have? He sprinted to open the door, but was a second too late.

              "Ouch!" he exclaimed, shaking his hand as if that would relieve the pain of his jammed fingers.

              The major cocked a thin black eyebrow, and slowly shook his head. The man looked as though he had been up for hours, smart green uniform perfectly pressed, his steel blue eyes clear and focused, and every short hair on his head standing at perfect attention.

              Alex couldn't help but wonder if every military man was able to look this professional in just under twenty minutes, or if Major Scott slept standing up in a hermetically sealed chamber.

"Now what kind'a idiot goes to open the door when someone else is clearly coming in from the other side? Some genius you turned out to be."

              "Sorry, Major Scott, I was trying to get the door for you sir."

              "Humph, well kissing up won't make up for you hauling my ass out'a Mrs. Scott's bed. Now quit playing around, get me a cup of coffee, and show me this development of yours."

              Alex felt his jaw drop. "I forgot the coffee, sir, I'm sorry!" He turned and dashed into the little break room off to the side of his office.

              "What do you mean you forgot the coffee? How in the hell can you be up and working at this time of night with no coffee? How did you and your lab rats stay awake over at Evolucon?"

              "With all due respect, sir, they didn't have me working at night," Alex called from the other room.

              The major shook his head again as he mumbled, "Yeah well, they weren't paying you as much as we are either."

              Within in a few moments Alex returned, a steamy cup in hand. The major looked up from Alex's monitor, his clean shaven jaw clenched. "Why didn't you tell me she gave birth?"

              Alex swallowed hard, as he handed the coffee over, "Well, sir, that's why I called you in. You see, sir, there were some unexpected side effects."

              "What kind of side effects?"

              "I think it will be easier to show you, sir." Alex answered, picking up his data pad, and grabbing his white lab coat off a hook behind the door. "If you'll come with me."

              The major cocked his eyebrow, and shook his head again; he was always shaking his head. Alex always got the feeling that Major Scott was disappointed in him, or worse his work.

              They headed down the abandoned halls, the sound of the major’s boots echoing up and down the corridor seemed in tune with Alex's heart pounding in his chest. He wasn't sure how the major would react when he saw the infant, but he knew it wouldn't be good. They wanted something that wouldn't be noticeable as
different
.

              Quickly they made their way to the secured elevator. Two camouflaged guards stood with pulse rifles on either side of the door. Alex always thought it was kind of funny how they stuck out in their "camo" in the brightly lit white surroundings. Both guards snapped to attention at the major’s approach, hands saluting with practiced precision.

              Major Scott quickly saluted back. "At ease gentlemen. I need to get down to the lab."

              "Of course, sir," said the one on the left, as both men visibly relaxed. "I'll need your identification card, sir."

              The major nodded and handed over his I.D. as the guard approached a terminal built into the wall. The guard slid the card into a small slot beneath the monitor and it disappeared, as a small biometric panel was revealed.

              "Your palm and security code sir."

              The major placed his hand on the panel and rattled off a string of letters and numbers.

              A green light flashed around the border of the elevator before a mechanical voice announced, "Major Andrew Ulysses Scott, identification verified."

              The guard handed back the major's card before turning to Alex. "Identification card, sir."

              Alex rolled his eyes, "Oh come on Brian, I just left thirty minutes ago, and I come through every day."

              The major shook his head, and the guard repeated his request. Alex sighed, and went through the screening process. He understood the need for security, but he and Brian hung out during off hours; the man
knew
him damn it!

              "Dr. Alex Lewis Tipton, identification verified."

              "Of course it is," Alex said, stuffing his card back in his coat pocket, and marching towards the elevator.

              After getting to the subterranean lab, the major made for the nursery as quickly as he could. He needed to know what “unexpected side effects” he was going to have to report back to Washington.

"Sorry, Major. I should have told you the baby isn't in the nursery."

The major stopped, and spun around on the spot. Alex nearly ran into him. "Where is it then? I don't have time to search the whole lab!"

"Of course you don't, sir. The baby is locked in break room C. I thought it would be wise to keep out of sight until you arrived."

The major nodded, and headed in the other direction. Unlike the empty office area upstairs, the lab was manned every hour of every day. People quickly jumped out of the way and Alex quietly apologized to them in the major's wake. Most people simply smiled and nodded as they continued about their business.

              "What the hell is that?"

              "Well, sir. That’s the baby," Alex explained, securing the door behind them.

              The major looked up from the tiny naked lump of green flesh, and slowly shook his head at Alex, before returning his gaze to the “baby.”

              Intelligent orange cat-like eyes with vertical pupils looked back at him. The child's emerald skin reflecting off the white walled incubator appeared to glow slightly. It already had a full head of deep brown hair that just barely covered slender, pointed ears.

              "I told you not to use so much plant and animal DNA. Washington will never go for something like this…damn. Has the mother seen it yet?"

              Alex shook his head no. "It has a name, sir."

              The major cocked his eyebrow as he silently glared back at Alex.

              "I call him Puck…what do you think?"

              "Cute, real cute. Now if only
it
was." The major shook his head and began pacing the room.

              "Using the base pair sequences we used was the only way to get the types of abilities you were asking for," Alex explained.

              "Oh come on, Doc! You can't tell me with all your DNA programming that you couldn't have seen this coming and flipped a few switches so it wouldn't look like…look like-"

              "An elf?"

              "A monster!"

              Alex threw his hands up in defeat. He had assumed that the baby would have a few non-human characteristics, but nothing like this.

              "You're certain it will have the extra sensory abilities that we need?"

              "Yes,
he
will have some super-human abilities, but what exactly those will look like I'm not certain yet. We won't know for sure until he matures a little bit."

              "And, just how long will that take?" The major demanded, glaring at Puck once more.

              "With the enhanced maturation sequences, he should be fully grown in five or six years."

              "Fine, tell the mother it’s dead."

              The baby began to cry the moment the major made the statement.

              "Then I want you to start working on a way to fix your mistakes, and find a way to grow the next one without using a surrogate!"

              The major left the room, slamming the door behind him. Alex put his data pad on a table next to a lush ficus tree.  He picked the baby up and cooed softly. Cupping one hand under his bare bottom, and patting him gently on the back with his other, he rocked back and forth trying to calm the child.

              Once his crying subsided, Alex lay him back in the incubator. He was careful not to cover the baby up. He had reacted poorly to all attempts to dress or swaddle him. As Alex paused as he reached for his data pad and the phone on the table to call a nurse. The tree which had been lush and healthy just moments before now stood dead in its pot.

              He turned back and forth between the child and the tree, and in a flurry added several notes to his data pad, called for a nurse, and ran back to the lab.

Earth, 5,000-years after the Eugenics War
s
 

Adroman woke when his wife Carcella suddenly sat up in their bed. Everything appeared to be in its place, though it was hard to really see anything by the moonlight streaming in through the window.

"Everything okay, love?" he asked.

              "Yes, fine I guess. It must have just been a bad dream."

She lay back down next to him, and he wrapped his arms around her, delighting in her warmth.

It was then that he noticed the utter silence of the night. He and his wife enjoyed falling asleep with their window open so that they could hear the songs of the nighttime creatures. They thought of it as their personal lullaby, the
chi-chree
of the crickets, and the throaty
brrough-bit
of the frogs by the pond. Why was it so quiet?

"NO! PLEASE! PLEASE STOP!" The blood-curdling scream came from down the hall and ripped at Adroman's soul…that was Rancoth. Carcella leapt from their bed, and flung open the bedchamber door as she ran down the hall. In the next moment Adroman vanished from their bed to reappear inside their son's room.

              "NO, PLEASE, I DIDN'T MEAN T-"

Rancoth's voice was cut short by the eight foot tall demon standing before his bed, its hand firmly grasped around his neck holding him in the air.

"Release my son!" Adroman shouted, advancing on the blood-red creature with huge leathery wings.

"
Ya sol Y' chal drock
!" it spat, its soulless midnight eyes fixed upon him. As it spoke Adroman was frozen in place, unable to speak or move, forced to helplessly watch as the demon strangled his son.

A moment later Carcella burst through the door, with a sword she had conjured in hand she leapt at the demon. It smiled at her attack, revealing small pointed teeth as it spoke. "
Ya sol Y' chal drock!
"

She too was frozen, her sword held high in the air. The demon flexed its rippling muscles, and though it stood naked and hairless no gender was evident.

Once its eyes were no longer on him, Adroman found he could move again, and he teleported himself behind the demon. The monster threw his son back on the bed, and turned to face Adroman's attack.

Adroman was frozen again, but with the demon's gaze no longer on his wife, Carcella was free to attack. The beast seemed to sense it was in danger from behind and lashed out with its whip-like tail. The small boney spikes that led from the bridge of its nose to the tip of its tail sliced through her stomach.

    Time seemed to stop for Adroman. He looked into Carcella’s eyes; she looked down at the thin red line that began to spread across her white night gown, and then looked back up at him.

A look of both surprise and sorrow reflected in her glowing deep purple eyes. Her soft silver hair encircled her proud and delicate features as it slowly swam forward, unable to catch up with the upper half of her body as it fell back, leaving the open and bloodied remnants of her entrails perched atop her still standing legs.

The sight would be forever burned in Adroman's mind, left there to haunt his dreams, both when sleeping and awake.

He did not know if his son was still alive, and as much as he wanted to fall to his knees and allow the demon to kill him as well, there was no time to mourn. He had to do something to get Rancoth away.

The demon looked and released a cold growling laugh at Carcella's dead form. Adroman was free from its spell once more. He closed his eyes, and flashed once. The demon turned back too late.

Adroman had his son in his arms, he flashed again, and he and his son were gone. A thin veil of white smoke left in their wake.