Chapter 23: Calm before the Fire

All that the people living on the surfaces of Olympus 2 have to do would be to look up in order for them to see the storms of asteroids burning up in the thick atmospheres of their planet, as the night skies were lit up while the day skies were brightened by the temporary stars across the sky.

Asteroid showers are to be expected, though it is hardly to this extent, and the initial projections are that of the more direct version, as the rocks are going to take a more direct and vertical route, rather than the current ones which are more skin to a decaying orbit. However, nobody is going to complain about this deviation, as the increased time travelling through the atmosphere meant that a much higher percentage of asteroids will burn up before reaching the shields for each of the settlements and cities, and the handful that made it all the way down there can be easily taken care of.

Is this a miracle? The citizens looked up into the sky and wondered. Previously, this would have been something to the extent of divine punishment, but rather now it's actually something beautiful.

The refugees that were trying to squeeze into cities now have a chance to take a breather, and some of the surviving child looked up into the sky with wild eyes and pointed up.

'Moving stars!' The baby exclaimed excitedly as he clapped his little hands together.

'Moving stars indeed.....' The refugee mother said, picking up the baby and leaned against the wall besides her. The immediate crisis has passed, and there is finally a second for her to take a deep breath and relax before the next crisis is here. Threats in a crisis are like waves in the ocean, once you are there by the waters, the thing will just keep coming.

All you can do is to brace yourself and hope for the best.

'The current trajectory of Olympus 2 is uncertain, though immediate danger due to that of the asteroid belt is passed for now. And with more time, orbital infrastructure have more time to be set up and tuned to counter asteroid threats from now on.' The news announcer said, as holograms of her is shown across the planet, 'the government strongly urges people to help each other in this trying times, as this is all that we can do at this time.'

'Meanwhile, I have the chief of the Mirror Array station here on the line, as he described how he and his stuff survived an earlier encounter with the streams of asteroids, which would have completely tore through the orbital mirrors and lead to energy shortages in many key cities around the planet and impact directly on the planet's shields. Thank you for being with us today, could you outline how the station survived this onslaught?'

'I.....' The chief looked like he has aged ten years in a day, 'I had help from a group of incredible people.'

'Are you talking about the staff that's working at the station?' The host wanted to clarify his statements, 'it is only to be expected that the best leaders are humble.'

'No.....' The chief looked up at the camera, his eyes burning into the camera lens on his end, 'I was abandoned by the government, devoid of resources and support. We were destined to die up here.'

'And then they arrived, the bearers.'

And with that, this is the first day that the bearers are known to the galaxy.

'They saved the station, and they left just as quickly as they arrived.' The chief said with a grateful tone, as he held both hands together, 'and now, they are going to save Olympus Prime.'

'The bearers?' The host doesn't seem to believe what the old chief is saying, and yet she is professional enough to still carry on the interview.

'Is it too late to change the name now?' Zel asked, as he fluently distributed drinks to all of the cups on the table. His prosthetic arm working with pinpoint precision as he looked at Rydel tauntingly, 'can your arm do this?'

'Ask Ol, the ancient trinity here were the ones to make up the name.' Rydel said, taking on the challenge by Zel as he picked up the drink bottle.

'I will lock down any spewed fluids babe.' Valerie said with a high pitched chuckle, as she joined in with Zel in rooting for Rydel to fail in this impromptu challenge. In the mean while, Alrith's hugging the giant cup of hot chocolate sipping away as Rydel's firm hand holding onto the bottle hovered over the tiny cup in front of Alrith.

'I am rooting for you!' Alrith encouraged with a bright smile as her red hair bubbled up, and that distracted Rydel just enough to completely miss the cup. Thankfully, Valerie's right finger lit up slightly and those fluids were frozen in mid air. Then, Elmyra waved her fingers and moved the cup under the fluid before Valerie released the Lock Down.

'Fallacy!' Zel declared himself the winner as Rydel dropped back onto his seat in defeat, 'biology isn't always better! Appealing to nature is a fallacy! Hahahahaha...'

'That's never the point...' Rydel tried to fight back, but now half the table is cheering for his demise, and even Valerie is joining in with it.

'Alright, alright.' Ol finally opened up, 'Zel, do the rest of the drinks please.'

'With pleasure, Sir.' Zel stood up and continued around for his victory lap.

'From this day onward, the existence of us will no longer be a secret.' Ol first started by addressing the elephant in the room, 'however, there are of course no official records of our identities, and Cellica is the one that's making sure of that.'

'Thank you, Cellica!' Rydel lead a cheer which the rest of the group joined in. Seeing the attention of all of the bearers all gathered onto herself, the usually confident Cellica blushes slightly and tried to wave off their thanks, though the alcohol that she's been sipping on isn't doing her any favors on that front.

'I verified whether Olympus 2 is on a stable orbit or not,' Ol said, looking all around the room at his family, 'it won't be easy for those living on Olympus 2, but at least we know the people will be safe for now. There are a lot of things that will needed to be done, but our job there is done.'

'Sure is convenient.' Zel commented once again, and slowly that will become a tradition for whenever Ol does anything with the Scroll of Truth.

'Convenient for us to get to Olympus Prime before everything gets even more crazy.' Elmyra corrected him, and Cellica nodded in agreement.

'The parade from the new Rocky government has already evacuated the entirety of the orbital ring's populations on Olympus Prime over the past few days, and they will continue to move people away from Olympus Prime should they desire to do so.' Ol said before looking over to Cellica, 'Do you have any extra information on the official stance of the Galactic government?'

'So far, the recommendation is to stay put and stay calm, though they do not directly oppose if anyone wishes to elave. Those on the orbital rings are more at threat, so most of them either left already, or dropped down to the planet's surface.'

'Making that a prime location for evacuation efforts without burning the atmosphere to a crisp.' Ol explained, and space elevators are a lot more efficient at moving people up and down constantly.'

'This all sounds good, so where do we come in?' Rydel asked.

'There isn't anything we can do directly.' Valerie said, leaning over on Rydel's shoulder and almost made him spill his drink, 'we are all powerful beings here, but still we won't be able to do what a thousand ships can do, and there are millions of ships.'

'That is true, which is why we will stay around and monitor the situation.' Ol said, 'don't worry, there will be asteroid storms, solar flares and plenty of other issues.'

'And what if they can't get everyone out in time?' Zel asked, always the cynically practical one, 'what are we going to do?'

That is indeed the single most difficult question to answer, and no one in the group have an answer to that, though there are certainly ideas.

Elmyra and Rydel shared a glance towards each other.

'No...Are you serious?' Zel looked back and forth between the two before scratching his head with his prosthetic arm, 'oh you crazy bastards.'

'What?' It appeared all of the group understood what Elmyra and Rydel is hinting about except for Alrith.

'They are crazy.' Torelamri comforted the confused human girl, 'they do crazy.'

'I mean...' Rydel said, looking at everyone in the group, 'I have a feeling that we will face Brakagi down eventually, and he was capable for moving a sun.'

'About that...' Ol said, slouching his shoulders, 'right now, the New Rocky government is hailed as saviors of the galaxy while the GBI and the galactic government are at the worst in terms of public support ever. There isn't anything we can do about him right now. Right now...we need something different that can change all of this.'

'As annoying as all this shit is, we will need the support of the public in this.' Elmyra said, rubbing the sides of her temples annoyingly as she went ahead to tie up her short black hair, 'I saw how many parents handle the public opinion. Often times, their opinion of the company is worth much more than the actual performances. This is especially true in a fragile situation such as this one.'

'Exactly, which is why our next steps will need to be even more carefully thought out, as we have a little bit of time between the next big crisis.' Ol said, as the casual dinner atmosphere began to drain from the room and all of the bearers shifted back to business mode, 'we will still do what we can to help and save as many people as possible, however, to stop Brakagi's plans, we will need to use whatever publicity we can before presenting our intelligence about the truth of it all.'

So this is how everything is supposed to work out according to Ol's plans. They have made their first action in public, saving the mirror array station on Olympus 2 and making the presence of the bearers known to the galaxy. However, they are nothing more than a mysterious group at this moment, and few is known about them.

Their end goal would be stopping Brakagi from whatever his next steps are, and to do that, they will need the galaxy to know about the painful truth of the Olympus system, and the truth behind their new 'savior'. However, if Brakagi even has any sense of political maneuvering, he would very easily manipulate the media and brush all of the statements aside as statements released by the galactic government in order to bring the public back to their side. However, so far, all the public knows is the humongous failure of the galactic government and the selfless assistances provided by the newly formed New Rocky Government.

The bearers are a new force to be reckoned with in this galactic political game that only had two players before. However, the balance of the game is heavily tilted towards being in favor of Brakagi and his government, as he has now transcended his status as the leader of the New Rocky government. He is now the symbol of peace, hope and reform in the galaxy.

In order to fight against a symbol, the bearers will need a symbol of their own. However, they cannot just come out and push...Valerie, or Elmyra as their symbol. They will need acts of heroism backing up behind them, and they will need to garner public support much like how Brakagi is able to harness it, and they will at least need to be in the similar ball park in order for their voice to be heard and respected in the galaxy.

The simplest thing that they can do would be to save the Olympus Prime from its impending doom with the power of their artifacts, and letting the galaxy know that they are here to protect them. Then, that's when they can finally let the galaxy know the truth about the decaying orbit of Olympus 2...somehow. Perhaps there will be a full profile on Brakagi from the GBI by the time everything is done and dusted, or perhaps they can somehow confront Brakagi and force him to show the galaxy how his powers work.

It is only then, that they can tackle Brakagi and his New Rocky government head on, however, there is no saying what will happen at that step. Will the people of the galaxy believe whatever they are saying? Or would their statements tear it all apart again...Most importantly, what will Brakagi react, and how will Absolute Being come into this?

As brilliant as all of the strategists are in the bearers, being Valerie, Cellica and Ol, they still cannot account for so many factors.

And also, nobody can agree on who that symbol should be.

Nobody is comfortable enough to be hailed as the new perfect being. All of them are freaking scientists and thieves and shit, and the person with the most experience dealing with the high societies were a fugitive on the run not long ago.

'What about Rydel?' Valerie suggested as both Cellica and Ol turned and look at her later in the day after the dinner is all over.

'Naw....'

Meanwhile, Rydel is looking at his right arm when it suddenly twitched frantically. This has happened way too many times before, though he has always hid it from the others apart from Valerie as to not let them worry about it. Alrith also has an idea of what is going on, but augmentation of this kind really isn't her forte.

Whenever he is feeling out of control with his emotions, whatever thing in his right arm will always respond to his feelings. This strange phenomena has been happening ever since he has regained the same amount of strength, power, speed and control over his new organic prosthetic right arm as his 'normal' left. Then, it is as if something is awakening inside of his right arm, a subconscious hidden within his subconsious...another being...a ghost, or a pet. Sometimes he can feel it talking to him, communicating with him, and yet he can never understand what the sensations is all about.

Maybe he really should have stuck with mechanical augmentations. Rydel grinded his teeth together as the twitching sensation turned into a ripping pain, as if a knife is directly stabbing one of the tendons in his elbow. Letting out a few long breaths, Rydel distracted his mind away from this strange pain. It must be some sort of a growing pain.

'Rydel?' Alrith's voice came from behind him, 'why are you sitting in the dark?'

He has been sitting in the viewing room overlooking the stars way out in the distance, and he sometimes prefer a bit of quiet time in the dark.

'Alrith?' Rydel looked to the side, as Alrith took a seat next to him. They haven't had much chance to talk ever since they got back from their visit to Anozee the Life Springer, and everything have been moving so fast that he forgot Alrith as the new kid is often lost in the conversation, 'are you all good?'

'You right arm. It's acting up again?'

'You can tell?' Rydel said, as Alrith tapped on her personal interface to turn on a tiny flashlight, and that's when Rydel spotted a few cracks along his lower arm, as those cracks looked like thick viscous oil flowing in Rydel's veins, which is kind of true from looking at the alien thing that was used to forge his arm.

'I don't know how exactly this works, but those with replacement limbs typically go through a period when the brain is trying to relearn the capacities of the limb, and when it wasn't allowed to fully explore all the possibilities.....' Alrith said, running her cold fingers along his arm, 'the brain tend not to like it.'

'And that is painful.' Rydel murmured before looking over at Alrith, who's eyes glowed brightly, reflecting the light from her flashlight, 'I have been controlling and suppressing my right arm just to let it match up with the abilities of my left, but...'

'It's not supposed to be that way.' Rydel continued, 'Anozee said I can do so much more.'

Standing up onto his feet, Rydel finally let go of the restraints and constant control over his right arm. Instead, he is dropping all of the mental and physical shackles onto the ground, and letting it all go. It's time to stop treating his right arm as nothing but an arm. It will become a tool that will save his and his friends life....he is sure of it.

Now...reveal your true nature. Rydel commanded, and let everything go.

The ripping pain is gone, and what remained is a soothing sensation of stretching, as his brain is opened up to a flood of new information. He felt...as if his hand is flattened....no, it was squashed and cut up and split into a thousand pieces.....

Rydel's breath begin to turn heavy and rapid, as his right arm began shaking. This is natural with the brain reconfiguring the circuits that control the body, and yet the reaction has never been so strong in all of his rehabilitation process! Rydel opened up, and he saw his right arm turning entirely into a network of black thick viscous fluid, and yet despite it's liquid form, it is holding shape freely. This almost felt like the normal shape, and Rydel tried to put everything back together into his right arm that's slightly normal looking.

Instead, he formed a giant black rod with his right arm.

Well, this won't be good in life, but it may be a good thing to wack people with.

'How...are you feeling?' Alrith asked with a light worried voice.

'This is strange.....' Rydel said as he raised the thing that now looked like a tree trunk besides him, 'but it's cool...like super cool...'