Date: Wed, 01 Jan 2014 14:15:37 -0500 From: alexzander <alexzandermurot@hushmail.com> Subject: New World Apprentice - Chapter 8 Disclaimer: This story is complete fiction. None of the characters or scenarios are real. This story involves intergenerational sexual relations. If this is not your thing or it is illegal for you to read such things then don't read it. If you enjoy reading all the stories on this site, please consider making a donation to Nifty: http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html Feel free to email me at alexzandermurot@hushmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 8: Home A low hiss eminates through muffled air. Static? Water? The steady tone slowly takes shape and coalesces into warbled sound. It is still so very dark. The sound retreats to nothingness. - Without sense of the passage of time, the sound returns. The intonations have a soft warmth that seem familiar. There is a growing desire to bring order to the sounds. Pushing with invisible strength, structure takes hold and the sound is a voice. 'My mother' - Consciousness - From a seemingly endless tunnel, a distant light appears and grows ever wider until it consumes everything into a blinding whiteness. Unable to look away, shadowy forms appear in the light. Suddenly in focus is the tear-streaked face of a woman who speaks, "Max?" 'I'm Max' the boy thinks to himself. He turns to see another figure standing nearby, a man. The man has warm caring eyes that feel comforting. "Where...." Max speaks from a mouth that feels like it has not known moisture of any kind. He tries to form more words. Sensing the boys discomfort, Emily brings forward a cup with water and tilts it to her sons mouth. "Max...my Max..." Emily is overjoyed with relief to see life shining in the eyes of her only child. "Mom?" Max' mind finally starts to awaken further and he turns his head to the other person in the room "...Darwin" Darwin nods his head and his eyes well up with tears, "I'm so sorry Max, this is my fault...if I hadn't brought you out there..." "But it was beautiful...." Max spoke corsely and tried to clear his throat. Emily and Darwin smiled back at the boy who, despite being in a medical facility and having faced near death, speaks of the beauty of a landscape where he was nearly killed. Active A.I. systems had already sent updated vitals to Misa's ReD the moment Max' brain patterns began to activate dormant synapses. Moments later, Misa entered the room and swiftly moved to Max with a Sense-Glass Tablet in hand to check on her patient. "And the apprentice returns to us" she smirked down at Max with a subtle look of relief in her face. Max spoke, "Are we back home?" "Yes Max you are back in Port Copenhagen. There will be time to explain everything that happened but now that you are conscious again, it is time to rest some more while the nanos finish purging any remaining toxins in your system." Misa looked only at her tablet when she spoke and upon finishing, seemed content at whatever it told her. Max gave a small nod and closed his eyes once again. - In his office at ICR headquarters, Darwin sat opposite Emily 2ven. He looked remorseful as he began to speak, "Mrs. 2ven, no words can describe how awful I feel about what happend to Max. I take full responsibility for the incident. We were travelling independently of our scheduled work- " Emily raised a hand to indicate her need to reply, "Deputy 4ster, did you bring a poisonous spider with you to bite my son?" Darwin was not expecting that question. "Well, no of course not, I - " Emily cut him off and continued, "Then I'm not entirely sure why you think you're responsible for, what was obviously an accident. Deputy, I've always respected you and your reputation here at ICR. When Max learned that he had been the one chosen to be your apprentice he was thrilled. Ever since that day, he always goes on about how much he enjoys the work" Darwin had a look of relief on his face, "Your son does extraordinary work and we are all very proud of him here at ICR. If he chooses to continue his apprenticeship, I'm sure he will have an exceptional career". "If he chooses to continue?" Emily inquired, "Deputy, I doubt that my son will be leaving the ICR anytime soon" Darwin gave a nod of agreement. "Mrs. 2ven, there is something else that you should know." Darwin hesitated, not sure if he should broach the subject or not but seeing all that occurred, felt it was the right thing to do. "Max and I...well, we have formed more than just a professional relationship..." Emily took in the words and sat with them for a moment. "I see. I should have guessed that it had developed further" "Really?" Darwin was a bit shocked "Max spoke very highly of you in some writings he sent to me during your recent travels. There was, something more, that he eluded to about the bond that had formed between you both" Emily looked away, perhaps slightly embarassed about speaking of her sons intimate feelings. Darwin blushed, never having known that Max had written about any of this. "Your son has become very special to me. I would never do anything to hurt him and I would understand if you had any objections." "Deputy, I will protect my son with my very life, but I cannot choose who he cares for - or even loves - if that is the case" Emily spoke with an honesty of a mother who cared deeply for her son. With a losing battle in holding back tears and with a wavering voice, Darwin spoke, "I do love him. I am proud to say it. I never thought I could find someone as wonderful as Max." "Thank you for being truthful with me Deputy. I can see how important Max has become to you. He is a very special boy who will soon be a young man and I am thankful that he has you." Emily looked down to her folded hands in her lap "My husband is away far too often and I know that part has been very difficult for Max...and me." "I too had an absent father, so I can understand how difficult it must be for both of you." Darwin said. "I promise to be there for Max and to help with whatever he might need" "I appreciate that Deputy." Emily rose from her seat and shook hands with Darwin. - Several hours had passed and Max finally regained some strength and started to feel more like himself. It would not be until the next morning that Max heard the rest of the story of what happened to him. Travis had come in early after hearing that Max was awake again. He entered the boys room and found Max happily eating some breakfast. "Hey Max!" Travis said, with a genuine expression of relieved concern. "Hello Travis. Thanks so much for coming to visit me" Max replied. "It's great to see you awake again, the last time I saw you....let's just say you weren't looking so good" Travis flashed back to his last image of a sickly looking Max. "You saw me when I was sick?" Max inquired Travis had a slightly surprised look on his face, "Wait, no one told you how you got back?" "No, not yet. Can you tell me what happened?" Max looked eager to know. "Max. I had to jump you back." Travis explained the whole story to Max, "My shift was nearly finished for the day and a com signal pops up, so I go to answer it and it's Deputy 4ster. He's totally frantic and it sounded like he was crying. I never heard him sound so desperate." Travis looked up into Max' eyes. "Go on." Max said. "Okay, well, at first I can't even understand him, he's like, all yelling and there's this roaring sound in the background and it's hard to hear him. Then I realize he's calling for an immediate emergency jump for him and you. I leap into action, because, you know, I'm good at this stuff, so I quickly start calibrating the port and then the TS Vector starts aligning to regulate the spatial plates so that the micro-worm holes can-" Rolling his eyes, Max cuts off Travis mid sentence, "Travis! I don't need every detail about how the system works" Travis chuckles a bit, "oh, right, okay...so I jump you both to Port Copenhagen! The Deputy is standing there with this helpless look on his face and he's holding you in his arms and you're both all sweaty. I'm frozen for like ten seconds with no idea what's going on and then I run up and he sets you down on the pad." Travis suddenly has a concerned look on his face again but continued, "...Max you were - I mean you looked like you were gone. Your skin was all grayish and I could see all these little blue veins everywhere. The Deputy ran over and called the med lab and I just sat there holding your hand, wishing I could do something. You were so cold." Max didn't know how to respond to the story. It was like hearing some fantastic tale that happened to someone else. It's hard to imagine that your very life hung in the balance when you couldn't recall any of what transpired. "So you saved me" Max looked at Travis and both of them had tears in their eyes. "Well, maybe not saved, I just helped bring you back home." Travis wiped away the tears and felt Max pull on his arm. He fell forward into a strong embrace with the boy. Hearing the door open, they separated to see Darwin enter the room. "Is everything okay here?" Darwin spoke seeing their damp faces. Max smiled, "Yes, everything is great. Travis just told me how we made it back." "Oh. It's good that you heard it from Travis. He jumped us back just in time to get you up here. If it had been just a few minutes later - " Darwin felt a lump form in his throat and couldn't bear to finish his sentence. Travis rose from the edge of the bed and looked back at Max, "I think I need to get going. It's great to have you back with us Max" The door shut as Travis exited and Darwin stood facing his apprentice. After a pause long enough for both of them to study the face of the other, Darwin rushed forward and hugged Max as hard as he dared. "I love you so much Max" Darwin spoke with his mouth against the boys head. "I love you too Darwin", Max returned the strong embrace. In that moment man and boy held each other knowing that they would spend their lives together. Whether by chance or fate that they were brought together, their paths had crossed and would never separate. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The New World Apprentice by Alexzander Murot - 2013. Final Thoughts: As I said early on, I wanted to take a bit of a unique approach with this story and explore a positive and loving relationship between the two main characters. I know there are readers out there who can appreciate that. I stay very well read on subjects pertaining to a variety of real-world global issues that we are currently facing on the planet and writing lets me consider what might occur should something catastrophic really unfold in our future. I've enjoyed taking the journey with Darwin and Max and I hope you have as well! I'd very much like to hear what you thought about this story if you had a moment to share your thoughts. Email me at: alexzandermurot@hushmail.com.