The Foundation Zone: Extensions by Amber Millard (top inspirational books .txt) 📕

The alien turned to approach the group. Sarah squeaked threats which a couple of people backed her up while the rest forced them to shut up and let Jordan take over. The 6’10” giant pretty much towered over everyone in the room; his eyes were gray with blue streaks and his hair was black.

He saw how frightened the group became but then a thought came to him,

“Why didn’t I think of this before?” The expression on his face changed from dull aggravation to relief. Laand’ell turned on his heel and walked toward the wall, his image disappeared. Very little time passed while Jordan led Aaron back into the group; they huddled together making plans. Unbeknownst to them, the door had already opened and Laand’ell was half way across the platform when Sarah squealed in terror.

“Oh my God there he is again!”

The group had only seconds to react; Jordan saw he was reaching for Aaron so he dove and brought the teenager with him to the floor.  Next Laand’ell thought of lassoing the group, which was more efficient than fight a small mob. He went to activate the control panel and called up two red orbs; they revolved around the group and drained their energy pretty quickly. On his second attempt Laand’ell was able to put his hand on Aaron’s head; Jordan grabbed his arm trying to remove him but then his consciousness was pulled into the mind touch.

He found himself standing behind Laand’ell and Aaron as the two were staring at two different screens. The two were exchanging memories from Jordan observed. Laand’ell, standing to the right of Aaron, looked back at the soldier.

“Oh, you’re here.” He said sounding disappointed.

“Landing…”

“My name is Laand’ell.”

“Whatever, I don’t care. What I want to know is why you brought us here?”

Laand’ell inhaled deeply, “I didn’t do this but I have a good idea of who did.”

When Laand’ell lifted his hand there were more people in the room, much more. He turned the orbs off,

“This is getting out of control.” He touched another symbol, this time the communication pucks displayed a new face.

“Yes Laand’ell, how may I help you?”

“Grand head Ree’Oaal, we have a great problem!”

Half an hour later Saatswei’ell stopped the test then instructed Marie to hide in a room adjacent to the testing chamber; meanwhile Yandan and Bialai stood ready to knock down the door. The door rolls open right on time with Saatswei’ell standing to exit. He wears a straight face for Bialai because of her sensitivity to energy fluctuations, but even if she wasn’t paying any attention to energy levels, reading Saatswei’ell’s face is easy. Whenever there is a situation, he often produces a barely noticeable tick on his bottom right eye lid. It was there when he abruptly walked out of the room, hardly acknowledging their presence.

“Buz Usuin!” Yandan yelled down the hall.

Marie waited in the room, thumbs twiddling together. The room seemed a little livelier than any she has known; she looked at the walls and there were unique collections of art, Takzen art. They weren’t paintings but novel sculptures that reached out to catch her attention; at least for the moment. When Marie entered the room, all she saw were half spheres on the walls; twelve in all and all the rooms she observed seem to be dome shaped. She sat down, then they started taking shape and soon the silvery bowls on the walls started changing color. Each wall section had a theme, depicting something from a certain period in Takzen history but as if sensitive to the newcomer’s awareness, the half spheres stopped, turned their art back into putty but sat most of their mass on the seats nearby Marie’s. It was as if the masses were reading her life force to know what she would like; the half spheres were intelligent pieces of art but Marie was a challenge because she isn’t Takzen, however the half spheres tried and came up with rough estimations of what Marie liked. It was neat to make a man-sized bird of paradise sitting there flapping wings and fluffing feathers. It didn’t make a sound but it did try to fly, downsizing immediately to compensate, it even began to change colors resembling that bird even more. The other blobs decided to model after something in Marie’s past and they all formed into a dog, a car, a statue, a horse, but then the last seven models started hitting close to home with her parents, the moment she saw her body lying on the ground with a cord sticking out of her chest, hang gliding, cruising with family, her first kiss, a man and hang gliding once again. Why hang gliding again? It was a recent memory that she felt the most passion and surge in energy. It was one of the best times in her life.

Marie’s chest began to glow; even more she began to glow! She saw a second model of the man, it was her boyfriend. The well sculpted, mono colored likeness stirred up dormant emotions, until now she focused on career and just simple dates, nothing deep. Her boyfriend, however, thought differently and considered marriage but Marie got cold feet whenever he pushed the subject. After three years, it was about time either way.

Suddenly the majority of the models turned into blobs again except the boyfriend model; the rest had made an intricate gazebo roof. The man finally took color as well as the gazebo. It was a still reenactment of a memory; a very recent memory! Marie didn’t realize that the model holding her hand neither was she aware of a Takzen in the room until the lady made a comment:

“Wow this is very different!”

Marie broke from her trance to find a strange woman standing at the entrance. They both stared at each other wide eyed. The models went back to being half-spheres on the wall; the lady looked stunned to find that Marie wasn’t a part of the models.

“Who are you?!” the lady demanded.

“Um, hey my name is Marie and I was pulled from my body for no reason so Sat White Elk or whatever his name is put me in here. He thought I would be safe in here.”

The lady shook her head; she was more confused than curious until she finally understood the name.

“Sat White what… oh you mean Saatswei’ell?” she asked exhausted by the discovery.

“Yeah, I’m sure he’ll explain everything when he comes.”

“Yes I can’t wait to hear this. I’m sorry Marie, my name is Bialai.”

While the two were moving passed each other’s surprise appearance, Saatswei’ell was making his way toward the room; his decision to take the long route will be his worst mistake; his ability to forget that he disregards everyone and everything in his surroundings is his worst mistake. Aaksaun will have to try bringing him back out to connect with the people again. As he approached the entrance a thought passed through his mind; it was pleasant and warm, he smirked and it was the first time in decades that he actually relaxed in a public area, though no one was around to see it until he entered the sphere room holding the ladies. Saatswei’ell’s smirk disappeared, however Bialai turned her head just in time to catch a whisper of that crack before it faded completely. She had to remember that moment to bring it out in the sphere room again because she couldn’t believe she saw a glimpse of a smile. Bialai couldn’t recall a time when she saw any other emotion on his face; what look more interesting were the deep fluctuations in his energy guard. The shifts were so strong that the ladies could feel it where they were sitting! Of all the people that had to discover Marie it was Bialai. At that moment he wondered, like the times before, if fate had an issue against him and was teaching him the hard way.

Saatswei’ell stood in the doorway a moment longer, contemplating his next action but his mind was drawing up nothing but one conclusion. Marie, however, sat a little nervous from the two staring at each other for so long; she felt compelled to say something and decided to just greet Saatswei’ell, but as soon as Marie opened her mouth Bialai opened hers and Saatswei’ell rushed to be the first one to break the ice:

“I’m sorry I should have told you all sooner.” Bialai looked taken aback by the apology.

“What?”

Could she be hearing right? Either way she had to get her bearing and stay ahead of Saatswei’ell. There were times when he worked his power through his words; by instinct or some conscious effort he has the ability to catch the attention of as well as stir the power within others and only those with as much experience and power as him have been able to resist such charm.

Marie could see the power, however, only in a fluid translucent outline. She scrutinized the effect and observed it in Bialai just as well. This was interesting.

“It’s alright Saatswei’ell; I was just stepping in here to prepare to for Yandan’s session.”

“Oh no Bialai, I wouldn’t dare get in your way, besides we were just leaving.” Not only could Marie see the fluctuations but the force was hard to ignore and she found herself fighting to breathe.

Then as if they could sense Marie’s struggle, both Saatswei’ell and Bialai quickly settled down. Bialai reached out to touch her back but Saatswei’ell grabbed her hand before she made any physical contact. It wasn’t just to deliver extra energy for support; she needed to know how this foreigner came to New Taksa without setting off a few screams. Saatswei’ell knew better than to leave her for too long but his plan isn’t going as expected.

“Bialai, I think your friend; what’s his name?”

 “His name is Yandan, you should know. You were the one who interfered with his work, including today!”

“Oh, so he is the one I’ve been bumping into lately. He seems a little restless.”

“That’s because you are constantly in his way!”

“I’m not the one who’s running into people!”

Marie became tired of the rant; she wanted to get home as soon as possible. Home seemed like a wonderful idea, a beautiful one if she could get the two giants to focus. Bialai wasn’t as tall as Saatswei’ell; the women are usually six inches shorter, but that didn’t dwarf their personality. Bialai, being an excellent example of that showed that she could handle herself as well as the next person.