Hello Mr. Robinson Pt. 10

"I am unfamiliar with that term." I said and let her explain instead of looking it up.

"Hara is a person's presence. Great warriors, skilled businessmen and politicians often have one thing in common, Hara. There are times when someone enters a room and you feel them before you consciously see them. I hope that is a sufficient explanation."

"Thank you, Kusanagi-san, I think I understand. Does Nick's Chi training strengthen his Hara?"

"You are very observant," she replied grinning. "The Dragon Chi is very dynamic. It is embodied in waterfalls, ocean waves and thunderstorms. It can also be found in a gentle rain, a ripple in a still pool... it is strong at times and equally gentle as is needed. Have you trained in the combat arts?"

"I have as a matter of fact."

"I have tutored him." Rhea said just before she hugged Akira tight and held onto her. "I have missed you so much!"

"How is he treating you Sensei?" Akira asked Rhea.

Rhea was Akira's teacher that was interesting. They walked off whispering to each other and I gave them the time and distance they required. I poured myself a drink and walked over to the starboard side of the deck. I could see Nick, dressed in just dark karate pants, going through a kata of some sort. My mind latched onto his movements and saw mistakes. The J'Nai training had taught perfection of breath, movement and thought. Nick was sloppy in all three. I opened the door and stepped out onto the deck. Nick noticed me and stopped. We walked towards each other and shook hands when we were close enough.

"I'm glad you accepted my invitation." Nick said and I nodded. "Pretty earth-shattering stuff huh?"

"Yeah, I guess you are worried about that..." I said not sure how to approach his sloppy technique.

"Speak clearly Greg, I can see something is bothering you."

"Your technique is crap today." I replied wincing on the inside.

"Really," he said drawing out the word. "You want to show me how it's done then."

"I didn't bring any..." I began and Nick pointed to three lockers bolted near a set of stairs that led towards the rear helipad. "Fine."

I walked over and opened one of the lockers and found practice weapons in it. The one next to it held several clean uniforms. I stripped down and slipped into a pair of ghi pants. It was warm enough to forego the top. Nick and I squared off near the middle of the deck. I felt the girls' attention on me. Nick and I bowed to one another before taking up a ready position. My stance took Nick off guard. I could see his confusion and let him take the offensive. I easily sidestepped his opening strike. I stayed within his reach but he never got close to landing a punch or kick. He shifted tactics and tried for grappling. I let him get a grip on me and a moment before he would take my feet out from beneath me I sent him hurtling to the deck. I heard the girl's gasp in surprise.

"What the hell was that?" Nick asked as he got to his feet.

"I could give you its name but is essentially a hip toss." I said as Nick looked at Akira for understanding.

"Okay tough guy show me what you got," Nick growled as he closed the distance between us.

"As you wish," I replied even as I felt his Chi manifest itself.

Nick cloaked his entire body in energy and I smiled as I launched a series of punches and kicks that landed squarely. The J'Nai were aware of harnessing life force. They called it O'Su or soul fire. The key difference in what Nick was using and what I manifested is that I could augment my O'Su with psychic energy. It was like adding nitrous to a high-performance engine. Nick was a blur as he attempted to block and turn aside my attacks. He failed at every turn. He wouldn't want me to pull punches so I didn't. A minute later he tapped out and admitted defeat. Akira looked at Rhea in stunned silence.

"He is my Sensei," Rhea whispered. "I know it doesn't make sense. But I assure you it is true."

The five of us settled into one of the three hot tubs aboard the Numenor. Akira had an amazing body and I swear she liked the way I looked at her. Isix and her prehensile tail got her own amount of attention from Nick and Akira. Nick moved leisurely as the bruises appeared all over his heavily muscled body. Nick wasn't one of those businessmen that let themselves go with success. He pushed his body as much as he pushed his mind. We talked about the anomaly orbiting the sun and what it meant for the world. Nick's humor hadn't improved and he frowned a lot as I offered suggestions about altering Ares to fit the new mission parameters.

"Do it Greg," Nick muttered. "I trust your judgement. Hell, you are one of a handful of people I could set lose and know that you'd have my best interest at heart no matter what."

"Tell him Kouryou," Akira whispered hiding a smile.

"Not in front of our guests," Nick said blushing. I had never seen him blush before. "Fine... I was going to wait until Christmas but things are moving faster than expected. As you know as my Black Bishop you are my intermediary with other members of the Order."

I looked over at Isix and Rhea uncertain about him mentioning the Order of Chthon in front of them. Rhea just grinned and moved closer. Nick explained seeing my panic and confusion. Akira and Rhea belonged to a sisterhood that served him, the Hidden Master. Isix belonged to another branch of that same sisterhood but she had served Jon Masters, the Sublime Master. She was aware of the mechanizations of the Order. The sisterhood had been established by one of Nick's predecessors as a kind of control mechanism within the Order. Members of the sisterhood were taken from daughters of the members of the Order. Today they were wives, lovers and daughters of the Order. They provided critical information to Nick about plans set into motion by members that could impact the security as well as the stability of the group. Nick had informed the other two leaders of the Order of my existence. They didn't know who I was only that I was the Hidden Master's go to guy. Little was different in my duties with the Order than it was for the Oval Office, the Pentagon and NASA. To keep my identity secret Nick had modified an existing technology just for me. He told me that it had been applied in London. The supposed empty cube had not been empty after all.

"Where the hell did you learn to fight?" Nick asked and I looked at Rhea for her approval. She nodded as she sipped her drink.

"It is a J'Nai combat style. I learned through a kind of genetic memory. It is difficult to put into words actually."

"I respect that." Nick replied as he moved his limbs gingerly. "I am glad the ship has one of the Stones onboard."

"Stones... what kind of stones?" I asked.

Akira cupped her hands together and offered me a sip of the water we were sitting in. I sniffed the water and it smelled strangely familiar. I took a drink and a surge of energy coursed through me. Where had I felt that sensation before? The energy stone in Jon's staff of office. The water I had hung suspended in after my near-death experience with the faulty gate. There was another memory at the edge of my perception. I tugged at it and a flood of memories hit me as the tapestry unraveled.

I was on one of the Maiden Worlds. The suns hung near the horizon and I was practicing one of the many combat forms I had learned recently. I stopped and looked at my hands. They weren't Steve's hands they were my own. I felt a deep sense of familiarity with my own body. This wasn't one of Steve's memories this one belonged to me. How was that even possible? My instructor got to his feet and he looked concerned. He was a tall muscular J'Nai with hair the color of jet and eyes that shone like sapphires. He wore the uniform of a Solitaire. He was the leader of our troupe. We were the Dancers of Death an elite martial group that traveled the strands to aid in the defense of the other J'Nai worlds. I had shown great promise and the Solitaire had chosen me to take up the title and form a new troupe of my own. Another flash of memory struck. The decades I had spent among the J'Nai learning the arts of war from a dozen masters. I had honed the skills of the Totems first. They were the core troops that served the J'Nai war god. I listed them off and the traits that each of them held so dear. The Wraith had taught me stealth, movement and precision. The Spider had instructed me in the ways of perception, teleportation and sensing the presence of nearby strands. The Knight taught me honor, discipline and the importance of comrades. The Phoenix had taught me how to soar above the battlefield and rain down hell fire from above. The Scorpion had taught me face to face combat and the joy of victory.

The troupe did not follow the war god. No, they were the children of the trickster deity. They were the masters of camouflage, acrobatics and laughter in the face of death. They enhanced all the skills I had previously learned and honed them to absolute perfection. Whether it was hand to hand combat or firing a sniper rifle there was no room for error. I became a machine upon the killing ground and only after the battle was won did I allow my feelings to emerge. The troupes were clinical in their combat strategy and inhuman in the way they waged war. When we appeared, enemies broke and ran. We were a shadow that fell over our foe and left none alive when we passed.

The Solitaire and I sat across from one another and shared thoughts. My confusion rose but he soothed it with words and images. He told me that he expected this moment. It had been foreseen and prepared for. He explained that I had spoken with his remote ancestor and told her of a day when I would falter and need to have certain words given to me like some great gift from the distant past. He laid a comforting hand on my shoulder and explained.

"It was told to her and she passed it down through my family. A day will come when the Singer in the Void shall reappear. He will be like a child to our ways and you shall give him what aid he requests without hesitation. There will also come to pass a day where he seems to doubt his skills. You are to say onto him these words precisely. Relax. Breathe. It's going to be okay. I know you are confused but all I can tell you is this. You have touched six confluences of great power. They marked you deeply even though you were unaware at the time. Time falls away and space is no hindrance."

"That's it?" I asked and my teacher and friend just smiled. "I understand part of it but the rest may just have to sort itself out."

"Goodbye Voidsinger," he said frowning. "It was an honor being your friend."

The world snapped back to normal. I was once more in the hot tub with Nick, Rhea, Isix, and Akira. They were staring at me and I lifted my hand and saw why. The back of my hand had a shimmering J'Nai rune tattooed on it. I turned my arm over and interconnecting runes covered it. I looked at my other arm, my chest and my legs. It appeared most of my skin carried a glowing rune matrix. My fingers, palms of my hands, bottom of my feet, genitals and face were free of the runes. I looked at Rhea for explanation but she seemed more in awe than fear.

"I have heard the songs of the Old Ones and their rune armor. It is a lost art now. The most powerful of our seers were tattooed in ancient times with those symbols and they aided them in many ways. That is all I know, but how? How did you get marked so Greg?"

"I don't know."

Nick wisely decided upon silence. He could see how shocked I was by the sudden change. A moment later one of the crew appeared carrying an ice bucket with a magnum of champagne. Glasses were provided and Nick did the honors. We toasted to the future. It reminded me of the ancient curse. May you live in interesting times. The future was unwritten but I feared there was a rough draft out there somewhere. I managed several glasses of wine and a few shots of something a little harder. I stood naked on the upper deck of the Numenor watching the sun set. The sky was crimson but darkening as the last of the light faded from sight.

"Master... Nick wishes to speak with you," Akira addressed me from behind.

"Master?" I said turning to face her. "He is blessed to have you in his life."

"As you are to have the Lady Rhea." She replied as she held up a navy-blue robe for me to slip into.

"Yes... without hesitation... I... I don't deserve her..." I muttered feeling the weight of history upon my shoulders.

"Liar, you deserve each other."

I smiled and followed her to Nick's cabin. It was huge and possessed every luxury a man could want and a few that were just over kill. Nick was wearing a black silk kimono. It bore the seal of the Kusanagi clan. We regarded each other and we both wore the same expression. Akira left me alone with her master and lover. I sat opposite of my employer and waited for the boom to fall but it never did. He offered me a bottle of water and a smile reached the surface despite my feeling sorry for myself.

"I don't know how the hell that happened," Nick said breaking the silence between us. "I know you have no fucking clue but it means something. Greg, I need your help now more than ever."

"All you have to do is ask."

"I am asking. I need someone to take the load off the Hidden Master. You are that guy. I have created a piece of tech for just that purpose. Okay that is not entirely true. I have adapted some old tech for that purpose, very old tech. This falls under a real trust issue. You can walk away and I won't blame you."

"Just when things are getting interesting, hell no. What is it and how does it work?"

"Have you ever heard of the city of Iram?"

He told me all about his discovery of a lost city. How he had discovered ancient tech that likely came from Atlantis. One of those technologies was a kind of psychic parasite. After years of intensive study and manipulation he could program the parasite for his own purposes. The problem with it was that it failed to bond with human physiology. I nodded at this point. He felt after further research that the Atlanteans may have been J'Nai refugees. So, I was a viable subject to field test the tech. He sent me a comprehensive file that detailed everything the records spoke about the parasites and their hosts. I drifted into the digital ether and read every aspect of the file twice. If he had managed to reprogram this thing the benefits were worth the risk.

"The parasite might be what triggered those runes to appear. She is bonding on not just the psychic plane but the physical as well. Okay, let's see if she likes you." Nick said getting to his feet.

I followed him below decks to a portion of the ship that required Nick's retinal print to enter. My heart was thumping in my chest and I was nervous about this little decision. My life was changing and faster than I was ready for. But if Nick trusted his technicians I had to as well. Lights came to life automatically and the hallway was noticeably cooler than the rest of the ship. We reached a metallic door that bore the warning 'bio hazard authorized personnel only'. Nick opened the door but I was the only one that entered the room. The center of the room was dominated by the gleaming metal cube four feet on a side. The top of the cube split open and a glass cylinder rose from the darkened interior. There was a dark blue fluid inside of the cylinder. Nick's voice came over the loud speaker and startled me. I looked over my shoulder.

"The contents of the cylinder are the final bonding agent for the parasite. Without it, well your body will absorb it and pass it harmlessly through your system. You can turn back..." he said even as the sound of shattering glass filled my ears.

I turned as the fluid rushed towards me just before I blacked out. I was cold. If I dreamed I had no recollection of it. My tiered consciousness recorded every detail of the bonding process. I wished it hadn't. It was a nightmare and the feeling of suffocating lasted far too long. I woke up on the floor of the bio hazard room. I opened my eyes and stared up at the LED lights above me. There was no pain. I sat up and looked at my arms, legs and chest. I couldn't see that anything had changed. I slowly got to my feet and saw that the shattered container had been returned to the bowels of the cube. I turned my head and looked at the thick bullet proof observation window. Nick and Rhea stood behind it. Nick's expression was neutral while Rhea looked like she wanted to murder Nick where he stood.

"Are you ready Greg?" Nick asked over the speakers.

"Ready, ready for what?"

"This..." he said as he pressed a series of buttons.

I heard the deep whoosh and saw the flare of blue flame as the entire chamber was engulfed in hell fire. I tried to cover up but it was useless. I felt warm but nothing more than stepping onto a hot beach in the middle of summer. I could detect the acrid chemical smell in the air but my lungs and flesh remained untouched by the inferno. The fire died away and I touched my hair fearing it had been removed by the flames but it remained as unscathed as the rest of me. I opened my eyes and saw that my flesh had a layer of ash covering most of my body. I rubbed a spot on my arm clear and the skin beneath appeared clean, smooth and hairless. The blaze had seared off all the hair from my arms, legs and genitals. I flinched a second time when freezing water fell from the fire suppression system built into the ceiling. I rubbed my body clean and realized much of the ash was in fact the remnants of my robe. I touched my face and was happy to find my eyebrows intact.

The water drained into the floor. A moment later I heard and felt the floor vibrate as the drains closed. A new sound filled the chamber and I stared in disbelief at Nick as the air was removed. I thought at any moment I would be gasping for breath but it never happened. I gave Rhea a thumbs up so she knew I was okay. I couldn't speak in a vacuum and there was a telepathic block surrounding the chamber. Ten minutes passed before Nick triggered the next test. Instead of pumping air back into the room a foul smelling green haze shot from spigots in the ceiling. I guessed it was methane gas. I took a hesitant lungful of the gas and I was fine. Oxygen wasn't necessary for my survival any longer. After another ten minutes, he cycled the methane out and replaced it with sea water. I could taste the salt in the water when I inhaled. I drifted off the floor and hovered over the cube. I opened my hand and a thin transparent membrane formed between my fingers and thumb. The same was true with my toes. I swam around and even placed my webbed hand against the glass window. Rhea pointed to her neck and I reached up and felt the gills opening and closing as I breathed.

The tests went on for another hour. They ranged from surviving twenty atmospheres of pressure to other toxic atmospheres. Some of those included deadly airborne diseases and toxins. Before I was let out they had to take blood samples to be tested to make sure I wasn't a carrier for said plagues. I think the worst was the subzero temperatures I had to endure and watch my junk shrink to miniscule proportions. Once my blood cleared me for human companionship the door was unlocked and I left convinced I had made the correct decision. I was given a fresh robe and another bottle of water. Rhea hugged me and cried, her mind filled with the horrors she had experienced on the other side of the glass. It had been torture for her to watch me endure one deadly environment after another. The moon had risen since I had gone below decks.

"Um Nick... how the hell is this going to help you as Hidden Master?" I asked.

"This technology allows you to alter your appearance. You can change not just your face but your skin pigmentation and voice as well. You can meet with members of the Order in any guise that suits your fancy. You can disappear in a crowd just as easily."