Finding the Lost Boy Read online

  Chapter Three

  The moment that Eathen took Katelin's hand in own all of the fear that this whole situation might be some elaborate test or trap set up by the Galaxy Police Force (commonly known as the GPF) or some rebel faction. This girl was real and she was no soldier, nor did she have any shockhaven control and he silently cursed himself for not noticing before.

  "Nice to meet you Eathen." she said. Thank god that he knows his own name, she thought. That little bit alone would make getting him home that much easier. "Is there anything I can get for you?" she continued, motioning towards the kitchen cabinets. "Something to eat or drink maybe, and then we can work on trying to get you home."

  Eathen smiled when he realized that the only emotion that he could feel from this girl was her concern for him and his well being. It had been so long since he'd felt either from another person without them having other motives, that he was truly touched. "A glass of water would be wonderful." he said. He really was thirsty and he knew it was rude to refuse refreshments as a guest.

  Katelin felt herself start to blush when he smiled at her and quickly rushed off to get the glasses and hide it. "So just water then?" she asked, as she started to fill the glasses.

  "Yes, thank you." he said, still trying to figure out how he wound up here. He knew this was real, but every time his thoughts would take him to any of the different Masters or to any of his recent training, night training in particular, he would have more violent flashes of combat with the Masters. From the brief flashes it was live combat he was sure. He'd seen two of the Masters cut nearly in half, one from shoulder to the opposite hip and the other right down the middle, both dead from what he was nearly certain was his sword.

  Katelin sat the glasses down and sat in the chair next to Eathen. "You know," she began, sliding a glass over to Eathen. "You Really should eat something. It'll help with the healing process." She could only assume that he was being polite. It was nearly noon and in all of the excitement of the morning and last night she'd missed breakfast herself and was noticing it now. "Really it's no problem, I was going to make myself something anyways."

  Eathen smiled and took a sip of his water. "I mean no disrespect and will in no way be offended if you need to eat, but I'm an immortal and don't need to eat as ofter as normal mortals do." he said, trying his best not to sound condescending or ungrateful. Unfortunately he had very little experience dealing with normal mortals, and the few that he had dealt with had always known what he was.

  "Oh," Katelin said. She'd never known an immortal before and knew nothing about them other than what the name implied, that they were not mortal in the normal sense. "Is that why you didn't die last night?" she asked, and no sooner had the words left her mouth did she realize how insensitive they sounded.

  Eathen looked at her somewhat confused. "I don't really know, but more than likely yes." he said taking another sip of water.

  "I'm sorry," Katelin began then looked down at her own glass. "I didn't mean to upset you and I know that it came out all wrong and sounded horrible. It's just that-" she stopped when she looked up and saw him holding up a hand with a smile on his face.

  "You have nothing to apologize for." Eathen said, still smiling. He had suffered through far worse attacks on his pride and feelings than Katelin asking a blunt question, but he did find the way that she was worried about offending him amusing. "I wish I could give you a better answer but I have no idea what happened last night or even how I got here to be honest."

  "Oh," Katelin said, with a sigh of relief. She was glad that he wasn't upset and that he seemed just as tough mentally as he was physically. And over all he seemed to enjoy talking with her and she with him. "Well..." and she began to tell him about the night before. As she went on she began to relax and feel more at ease with the boy, who kept an attentive gaze fixed on her that she couldn't help but blush a little when their eyes met. In the gaze of his deep gray eyes she felt small. Not in an insignificant way, but as though those eyes held an understanding of things beyond her comprehension. More than that though, she felt warm and safe in his gaze. She liked the feeling even though she didn't fully understand it.

  Eathen listened to Katelin as she told him how he had fallen from the sky, how she had drug him up to the house from where he fell and then cleaned and treated all of his various wounds. He had to admit to himself that he'd underestimated her before. She was tough, knowing that he was twice her weight at least, and she was smart and skilled too. When he'd woken up he'd thought the bandages were done better than any that he'd received before by the professionals at the training facility. Now he knew who to thank.

  "Well I suppose I owe you even more thanks." he said inclining his head in a bow.

  "You don't have to thank me." she said, standing up and putting a hand on his shoulder gently. Then she went to the counter top. "I'm gonna make myself a sandwich. Are you sure you don't want anything?" she asked.

  Eathen looked up and smiled. "No, I'm fine, but thank you though." He looked back down into the half empty glass and went back to thinking about how he wound up here. Katelin had told him the name of the planet and what it was close to during her story of how he got to the planet, but he didn't even remember having a reason to be in the system it self. Not only that but something was holding him back from seeing these flashes as whole memories. He looked down at the sword that was laying across his lap and that was when he realized it had changed. It use to be white, not red. He knew it was the same sword that he had always carried. He could feel the same soul that had always been inside it even if he couldn't form a proper connection with it in his weakened state. He knew that presence even if it felt distant and cut off. He knew his sword. Why hadn't he noticed it before, he wondered. Then he thought back to almost falling and using it as a cane and gave it up to having other things on his mind. Then he thought of why his sword might have changed, and he made a connection.

  "Katelin," he said, turning towards her. "When I was falling last night you said I looked like a bright red ball right?"

  "Yeah red, the same as your sword." she said, grabbing her plate and sitting back down beside him. "It'll be okay even if you can't remember how you got here." She could see the wheels turning as his eyes were closed tight and she could tell he was trying to make sense of everything that had happened and find the missing pieces. "You still have the rest of your memories so you know where you're from so we can get you home to your parents."

  Eathen made the connection that it was his shockhaven that had protected him upon entry to the planet, but his shockhaven energy had always shown white, the color of joy and pride. Red was the color of anger and rage and he had to wonder what could have mad him so angry that he was consumed with enough furry to even corrupt the purity of his sword. Then he thought back to the flashes of violence that he was growing to accept he had done. He realized that the red glow that covered everything in these flashes was coming from him. And as his thoughts went back to try and remember what could've caused him to burn with an all consuming, murderous rage Katelin's angelic voice broke into his separate train of thought and he heard her say "...your parents..." and all of his wonder was ended abruptly as his mind was assaulted by the truth.

  Eathen was looking at a video feed of a man in his late twenty's dead on a lab table surrounded by men in white coats with face masks and power tools. The man was very familiar, although he was hardly recognizable. The men in white coats had cut him into pieces. As his chest lay open and the top of skull was removed one of the men casually asked another. "Do you think we have enough material for the replication process?" The other man nodded. "Good, although it seems like such a waste." the first man continued. He looked at the other man across from him over the table waiting for a response.

  The other man simply shrugged and said. "He was given a choice you know, but he refused the offer, saying that the whole idea of project Yeagher was totally appalling." The video stopped and Eathen knew the face. It was his own just a few
years older. The man torn apart on the table was the father he'd never know.

  The next moment he was looking at another video. In this one there was a woman, probably the same age as his father. The woman was in a rounded bio-tank that looked like an over sized, transparent egg. The tank was on a circular track and was moving with some considerable speed. Like the first video this one was also filled with men in white coats. One of the men walked to another man who was sitting at a monitor. "Given the average span of time from insemination to birth how much can we increase the artificial gravity without killing the subject?" he asked.

  The man at the monitor hit several keys then looked back at the first man and said, "Without killing the subject or the host we can safely get to roughly twenty times the standard by the time of birth."

  "The host is expendable." the first man said. "Project Yeagher is far more important than the host. Besides the host already has a slim chance of living through the entire process and will never make a recovery worth living for. So how high can we push the artificial gravity keeping just the subject alive?"

  "Anywhere from thirty to forty times standard depending on when the host dies." the man at the monitor said.

  "Do it." the first man ordered and walked away.

  The video ended and the memory faded to the nothingness of closed eyes. Then the nothingness began to glow bright red, burning with the furious anger that he had forgotten until now. The GPF had killed his parents. They died so he could be made into some sick science experiment and lied to for as long as they could manage.

  The pure rage fueled hatred that Eathen felt at that moment turned the rest of his thoughts into a incoherent blur as the images of his parents that he'd never know and the dead masters along with the cruel words from the video played in his mind on a random loop.

  From somewhere that seemed forever away he heard the sound of breaking glass and someone calling his name. At the sound of the voice the anger began to subside and Eathen was left with a sadness that was just as consuming.