Truly: First Omnibus

Chapter Two: Without fail

"What's keeping you, old man?" a tall, brown haired man demanded without thinking twice about leaving and hitting the bar scene. The younger, brown-eyed, twenty-year-old seemed to wait a lot. This was a usual thing being that he was the assistant and bodyguard to an old man who was mainly interested in mental curiosities. Whenever he found himself in over his head he could bet it was Zen Taro that had his mind down some wormhole that had some kind of special significance or a black hole spider in it but the pay was good so he kind of didn't mind.

"The data relay is slow and I'm looking for the y and x factor on this map. Generally, these things take time. What's your hurry, my son? You don't have to pay your bookie for two months from now. It's not like he can hunt you down today, you know."

A couple of objects fell from a corner of the crowded room and a short, skinny old man with digital readout on his skin toppled back into a nearby chair that rolled across the floor of the instrument- crowded hut. The hut was busy with instruments and miniature robots doing minor tasks. It had old blown transistors on a shelf and holographic displays all over. It was nothing but a techno dump, to put it lightly. But it was what the old man liked to call his hideout.

The place in particular had been a shut-in's house. The man who had lived there was not fond of people and liked the fact no one in the neighborhood was nosy. In fact, 2235 Strata Lane was not the place to be going into someone else's business unless you had heavy armament and a death wish. The man who lived there was so set on staying that he even tried to throw Zen out of his house but with a little bribing and some persuasion he reluctantly moved across town. It was a better location with a view of the great city of New Metro. Too bad the crusaders later picked him up for questioning and subsequently he ended up terminated when he was trying to escape.

The brown-eyed twenty-year-old looked at the old man. "Life's too short to be waiting around. I'd rather be living recklessly than living without a check for my services. Well, that's my life motto and I'm sticking to it."

The old man peeked out from the hole where he was encamped and said, "Oh, Darshnel, life was hectic enough without you running off and to a casino or something. It's bad enough as it is that you're the only one who will be my bodyguard and assistant but now you're in over your head in debt. I really thought better of you."

The young man leaned against the doorframe and replied, "It's even more horrible that nobody believes in your destination. Most people think of it as a fable and usually tell it to their kids." A couple of robots walked by Darshnel's feet and picked up several computer drives before moving on to the mainframe to put them into the computer.

The old man nodded. "Well, at least my associates and I believe in the pool of radiance. It's not like I'm alone in my search for this fabled place." The old scientist noted this many times before but his associates had still not introduced themselves to the juvenile Darshnel.

In fact, Darshnel didn't know if they existed or not. He was beginning to wonder if they were real or figments of Zen's imagination. The things that Zen would tell him about his associates were kind of out there and had Darshnel hoping that his friend of twelve years wasn't going to be sent to the loony bin. It was one of those things he put up with from the eccentric old man, though.

Darshnel turned around and grabbed a book. "I'm not one to believe everything I hear but the place where reality ends is kind of a little out there. In fact, it's a bit old of an idea. Heck, it was ten years ago that such a thing was disproved, wasn't it?" Darshnel flipped through the book of old scribbling. A loose page floated out onto the ground. He picked it up and wedged it back into the book. About this time, the scientist had grown rather frustrated. Truly, it didn't take much these days. He pulled down his goggles and countered, "It wasn't disproved. It was just shut up by the higher-ups in the government, and believe me, that wasn't good for the science community. They had such an opportunity to realize all of knowledge that it would make all past achievements in science pale in comparison but the government believes that they are the people who run the universe and want to keep everything under their thumbs. But if the people figured out that the fates are real then they'd revolt. The governess and guild master would have to resign. It would be utter chaos."