Rev's Odyssey - R. R. Kaufman (booksvooks txt) 📗

he let me return to Brix?

 

Raká

Because he doesn’t want to see you die.

 

Raká walked over to a cabinet and brought back protective clothing and two wooden stick poles about the height of Rev. They put on the headgear and black protective clothing. Positioning themselves in the middle of the large mat, they cross-struck each other’s sticks to start the match.

Rev struck the first blow. A hard contact against Raká’s stick. He slid his stick out from Rev’s pole and aimed it directly at Rev. She quickly countered his attack by swinging with an upright motion to misdirect his blow just in time. Raká whipped his stick in a sideways strike at Rev’s head. She ducked and swung her stick in a sweeping motion at Raká’s legs. He jumped, thrusting the end of his stick towards Rev’s torso. She countered by moving sideways, crouched down and swung her stick upwards towards Raká’s exposed elbow. He maneuvered his stick on a downward angle to block her strike.

Rev backed up slightly as her opponent twirled his stick between both hands in a whirlwind technique. Rev waited in a defensive position. Finally, Raká thrust forward with an offensive move. Rev blocked underneath with an upward slash. Raká forced her stick to the floor mat and quickly went for her head. Rev crouched just in time. Rev lunged forward trying to spear Raká but lost her balance. He was too quick. He caught her wrist, twisted it gently, and disarmed her.

Raká showed her some maneuvers to improve her skills. After a few more matches they called it quits. Rev always enjoyed the stick fighting matches with Raká, continuously learning from this sixty-year-old master.

 

Raká

I am pleased with your performance. This is the longest you have lasted before accepting defeat.

 

Rev

Thank you, Raká. Please excuse me but I must get ready to see my father.

 

She bowed slightly, smiled and went back to her room to freshen up.

 

Chapter 6

 

 

Rev knocked and entered her father’s room.

Magnified by the thick glass wall, an approaching shark appeared so huge it looked like it was about to swallow Kosni whole as he stood a short distance from it. He turned to face Rev.

 

Kosni

Do you remember Prook?

 

Rev

Of course. Why?

 

Kosni

I want you to visit her.

 

Rev was taken aback. She wasn’t sure if she heard her father correctly.

 

Rev

Are you saying I can return to Brix?

 

Kosni

Only for a day. Prook has been a life long friend. If anybody knows where your mother is, she will. She knows everything that goes on in Brix. Make sure you go with Stike and don’t ever go near Razor. As soon as you can, return to Genus with what you’ve found out.

 

Kosni reached in his pocket and took out the gold chip.

 

Kosni

Keep it safe. I’m sure if you find Mars he can tell you about its importance. Now rest up for a few hours. I’ll prepare the launch thruster and send out a signal to Brix that you are coming. You leave at dusk. Be extremely careful, Rev. I’ll see you within twenty-four hours.

 

Rev hugged her father goodbye and went back to her room for a rest. A few hours later she put on her swimming gear and went to the launch site.

A technician was there to help her inside the vertical chute. She put on her breather as the water filled up in the long tube. The technician in the control room gave her the countdown.

A few seconds later Rev was shot out of the thruster in a cascade of bubbles. She could barely contain her excitement. She had to control her rapid breathing. She surfaced. It was almost dark. The shoreline was visible and she hoped Stike was there to greet her.

 

Chapter 7

 

 

 

High up in her iron fortress Razor looked down at the lights of Brix. How could a little girl be such a threat, she thought. Everything was going as planned. She had complete control of Brix. Hopefully she’ll be able to find this rebel teenager who destroyed her droke and stole the chip and set an example to everyone in Brix that you don’t mess with Razor.

Where was Vice? He was supposed to be back an hour ago. He better have good news. Just then she heard the door bang shut and turned around to face Vice. The room’s low light cast a long shadow from Razor’s tall lean figure, as she crossed the room to talk to her son.

 

Razor

What have you found out?

 

Vice

Nothing.

 

Razor

What do you mean, nothing?

 

Vice

She was invisible. Nobody saw anything. Besides, they don’t trust me even if they did see her.

 

Razor

The only video we have of her is in the junkyard. Nowhere else. She must have stayed in the shadows before she entered it. Somebody must have helped her.

 

Razor and Vice watched the video the droke took of the girl in the junkyard. It showed every scene from when the girl was spotted by the droke to when she destroyed it. Razor became furious as the final clip showed nothing but a giant claw clutching the droke’s head.

 

Vice

Whoever she is, she’s smart and resourceful.

 

Razor

Well I’m smarter and more resourceful. Nobody beats me. Especially some waif from this inferior world.

 

Vice

I don’t see what the big deal is. You can always replace the droke and the gold chip.

 

Razor

You are missing the whole point of this disastrous event. It shows I’m vulnerable. People of Brix could follow her as some kind of fearless leader. Empires have fallen because of one small crisis that grows into a full-scale rebellion. I’m not going to let that happen to me. Besides she’s a thief. I hate thieves. Who is she? Where did she come from? What does she want? And another thing, if that gold chip gets in the wrong hands it could destroy all my hard work.

 

Oh no, thought Vice. It was going to be one of those evenings. More ranting and raving. As a sixteen-year-old boy Vice was happy to just play his video games. How could he slip away unnoticed. He just wanted a bite to eat and tune out everything and everybody by going to his room and playing his games. But he had to tread lightly with his mother.

He had learned through the years a technique of detaching himself from her madness. When she went into a delirious rage he imagined he was standing away from himself watching from afar. It helped calm him.

But avoiding her altogether had cost him dearly as a child. Razor demanded attention from anybody that she was talking to, and when Vice was about eight years old he started mocking her when she was yapping to him. Razor picked up an apple and whipped it at him. Vice didn’t duck in time. She hit him in his left eye. She let Vice scream for several hours before seeking medical help. Too late. Vice lost his eye.

Now Vice wore an eye patch. He never got used to a glass eye. Whenever his mother looked at his patch, he hoped it made her feel guilty. But she just told him that he should have ducked. He had a collection of about two-dozen different eye patches. Why not make the best of a bad situation.

Vice decided to divert his mother’s attention away from this girl. He pointed to the gold bracelets and gold rings his mother was wearing.

 

Vice

At least you have lots of gold to make another chip.

 

Razor

Are you talking about my jewelry? These are ancient Egyptian bracelets and rings that are over thirty-five hundred years old worn by kings and people of power. Are you nuts? Study your history and you might learn something other than how to blow people away in your video games.

 

Vice

I wish I could study my history. I wish I was back on Earth and be with my friends instead of this dumb place.

 

Razor

Oh shut up, Vice. You complain too much. When I find this teenage monster that stole my chip, then we’ll go through the Lux back to our planet. Now help me out. The sooner we catch her, the sooner we go back for a visit.

 

Vice

Okay, mom.

 

Razor

So you’ll keep an eye out for her?

 

Vice

Ha, ha. You’re really sick mom. Oh, I meant to ask you. Who do you play against in this week’s droke tournament?

 

Razor

Someone called Stike.

 

Chapter 8

 

 

When Rev reached the shore it was dark. She looked around for Stike. A minute passed before she heard someone whisper her name.

 

Rev

Stike?

 

A tall lean boy stepped out of the shadows.

 

Stike

Rev, I’m so glad you made it back. I’m sorry I didn’t see you off the other day. The drokes set up a blockade and I was so worried when I couldn’t get back to you in time.

 

Rev

Things worked out okay.

 

Stike

Yeah, they sure did. That was an amazing feat. I hear Razor is furious. We have to watch our backs and move carefully.

 

Stike handed her a dark blue boiler suit with a hoodie. The same coveralls everyone wore in Brix, thanks to Razor. Rev put it on over her swimming gear. They climbed up the steep path of the cliff to the top. Rev could see the faint lights of Brix ahead. The cliff was some distance down the beach from the junkyard where she had jumped off previously.

As they walked towards Brix, Rev looked up at the sky and was overwhelmed. The brisk night made the stars shine brighter and the two moons orbiting each other lit their way.

Rev hadn’t seen much when she visited Brix two days earlier. She had reunited with Stike after over three years. Stike had told her about her mother’s and his father’s disappearance. Now she needed more details about what was really happening in Brix.

They moved quickly among the trees that grew on the outer limits of the town. As Rev got closer to the town she was shocked to see huge factories pouring out black smoke.

 

Rev

What do they make there?

 

Stike

Razor has all the town men and older teenagers building steel parts for her ship at Bluster Harbor. They work long hours. Their businesses and farms have been neglected and she pretty much owns most of them.

 

Rev

How did she get away with it? How could one person control everybody?

 

Stike

Because she has an army of drokes and can do anything she wants.

 

Rev

So what causes all that black soot?

 

Stike

She has the men work the hills to extract some kind of iron material and black rocks. Then it’s melted in huge furnaces. It’s what makes the steel. The rest blows out the big smoke stacks.

 

They continued towards Brix. The two moons cast a soft light on the small cottages that encircled the town’s main business center. Here the buildings were made of red bricks. Rev breathed a sigh of relief. This was the place she fondly remembered. But the streets were empty. A strict curfew was in effect.

Stike guided Rev through the shadows of the town buildings. Three drokes were gathered at various positions. Flashing lights from their heads, crisscrossed across the streets.