Ascension

[FMJ]

Ascension
FMJ
©2018
(1)

He had been cautioned by the hospital doctors that a possible side effect of a flash-burn injury was a reduction in the physical range of motion but the treatment and follow-up rehabilitation would have doubled his recuperation time. After fifteen days in the hospital, Marty was anxious to get back to the shop floor where he belonged.

The second degree burns and blisters on the side of Marty’s neck and arm had mostly healed but the scar tissue lacked elasticity. Simple repetitive motions, especially those involving turning and reaching were more difficult. Working through the difficulty was occasionally painful and usually awkward but he was determined. He had taken twice as long as he normally would to replace a malfunctioning sensor in the emergency life support air system of a Knight because he lacked the basic flexibility to reach the device. Improvising an alternate route through secondary electrical seemed like going the long way around but it served the purpose.
When he sat in the pilot’s seat to run the final diagnostic checklist to be certain the fault code had been cleared, the machine spoke.

“You are the T9.”

“Pardon?” Marty answered looking up from his portable logic display.

“You are the T9 that configured the Instrument in his Ascension.”

“I don’t understand. I am a T9, that’s my proficiency rank but I don’t know anything about an instrument or an ascension.”

“You were there when the Instrument Ascended, you were touched by his Illumination. You are the T9.”

“Touched? You mean burned?” Marty asked making a quick mental connection.

“The Illumination touches all those close to the Instrument. Such is the nature of the Instrument.”

“Since when do Knights speak in riddles?” Marty asked starting to lose his patience.

“All will be revealed.”

“Okay, let me see if I’ve got this right,” Marty said shaking his head. “What you’re saying is the Centurion itself is this ‘Instrument’ and the power upgrade I performed on that Centurion was part of this ‘Ascension’?”

“You are the T9.”

“I’ll take that as a ‘Yes’. But the flash-fire after his restart that ‘touched’ me; the accident was part of this ‘Illumination’ you’re talking about?”

“You are..., yes, T9.”

“Alright, then when you said that the Illumination will ‘touch’ those close to the Instrument and such is the nature of the Instrument, did you mean that this ‘Illumination’ wasn’t actually an accident, but some kind of a..., product of his ascension?”

“You are the T9.”

Marty sat back with a thump, “Then it wasn’t an accident after all! I was burned in some kind of a concentrated energy burst the Knights are calling the ‘Illumination’, whatever that was,” he realized with a mix of shock and relief.

“The Instrument will Illuminate the world.”

With a stunned look, Marty scrambled out of the pilot’s seat and ran stiffly to the open doors of the passenger elevator.
He punched the button for the second sub-level of the depot maintenance floor fully expecting his work area to still be a shambles; cordoned off till the accident investigation was concluded.

When the elevator doors opened, Marty was astounded to find his work area deserted, clean and smelling of fresh paint. All the yellow ‘caution’ tapes and barriers hastily erected following the ‘accident’ had been removed and all evidence of the flash-burn damage repaired.
The melted access scaffolding over the service bay had been meticulously replaced with new and the safety hand rails re-coated with fresh yellow paint. The massive Centurion, however had simply disappeared.

[Lone_Hawk]

Thank you FMJ, I was wondering where this was going to go...

[Texican]

FMJ,

Illumination and Ascension.....

Now where have I read something similar....

And if the Centurion is the Instrument, where did he go???? Ascended???? To Where????

So many unanswered questions....

Texican....

[ted]

Thank you! Like Lone_Hawk, I was wondering where you would take this.

[Dosadi]

Thank you

D.

[john70]

Thank you! Like Lone_Hawk, I was wondering where you would take this.

[FMJ]

(2)

Immediately following the lengthy and admittedly confusing briefing with Colonel Temple and her Centurion concerning their unusual actions, General McCready made a private call to a local business establishment.

“Pop’s Garage, how can I help you?” Pete McCready answered through his headset from inside the motor access hatch of a Tiny-Turbine single-seat speeder in the service bay.

“Dad? This is Mike. I’m afraid I need to ask for another favor,” the General said without pausing to explain.

“Sure, Mike, anything. Will we get to see Ambassador Nes again?” Pop asked hopefully. “Mabel really enjoyed that whole Eloysian Embassy hostess thing last time.”

“Well, no, not this time, sorry. Dad, there was some kind of an accident here at the maintenance depot where Dominic was getting a special power upgrade,” the General explained.

“You’re back here on the surface? Over at the Depot?” Pop interrupted.

“Yes, and the technician performing the upgrade was injured in some kind of a flash-burn accident before he could complete the procedure,” the General continued.

“How can I help?” Pop asked already suspecting he knew the answer.

“Dad, before you volunteer to help, you need to know this situation has gotten dangerous and more than a little weird. I’m going to have to swear you to secrecy if you choose to get involved because things have gone so far down the rabbit hole now that I don’t even know if there is a way back. No one else knows we’re having this conversation so I need you to know you can refuse without anyone being the wiser.”

“What are you trying to say, Mike?” Pop asked curiously.

“What I’m saying is that if you want to steer clear of this, you can. You can just say, no thanks, Mike and no one else will know. You can just go on with your daily business at the garage like you did yesterday and the day before that without any additional risk,” the General continued.

“Mike, you must have needed my help or you wouldn’t have called. Jenny probably needs our help because something has happened to Dominic and it just so happens he is a friend of mine, so I’m in, thick or thin. What do you need me to do?”

“You’re sure?” the General asked gratefully.

“Sure, I’m sure. Now if you need something, Mike, just level with me and tell me what it is,” Pop said quietly.

“I need to get Dominic out of the depot. I need to bring him to the garage so you can look at that custom power upgrade for yourself. The investigation underway here at the depot is becoming more positive by the hour indicating the upgrade itself was responsible for the accident in the first place. You’ll have full disclosure; all the blue prints in the upgrade design template, the engineering and feasibility studies and the checklists the technician used to perform the procedure,” the General explained.

“That’s it? I only have to pick up where somebody else left off on a rebuild? That doesn’t sound so tough. Shoot, the way you were going on about secrecy, I thought you had something tough for me to do.”

“People got hurt, Dad. I signed the requisitions. Heck, Orbital even provided the fusion engines based on my recommendations alone. But it’ll be your call. If this custom upgrade, in your professional opinion, was the cause of the accident then I intend to take full responsibility. It won’t be pretty but I feel like your judgement is the only one I can still trust on this,” the General concluded.

“You know you can count on me, Mike, I’ll do my best. When can I expect him to arrive?” Pop asked.

“Well, about that, uh..., he’s, well, he’s almost there now,” the General replied a little sheepishly.

“Whoa. I guess I’d better clear my schedule for today then. Can I reach you at this number if I find something, Mike?” Pop asked trying valiantly to stifle laughter.

“No, this number won’t exist after I hang up. This call was encrypted and scrambled for our privacy. I’ll send you a contact number where I can be reached. Thanks again, Dad. Thanks for everything.”

“That kid hasn’t changed a bit,” laughed Pop as the line disconnected with a loud click.