Through The Ascension Room***Book One COMPLETE***

CHAPTER SEVEN ~PART TWO~

CHAPTER

             Seven

Physical training class is over and we have a quick lunch in the dining hall (which seemed like it lasts for an eternity). After lunch we are sent to technical training with Dr. Finley. I can't shake what just happened from my memory and I don't think that anyone else can either. The walk to the technologies room is long and quiet. Even Cynthia has not much to say. Her face holds a blank stare as we walk the halls. She glances up at me occasionally, and gives me a half smile in an effort to make me feel better. It doesn't work.

We enter the technologies room where Dr. Finley is busy leaning over some dismantled time piece. Our arrival breaks his concentration as he stands to greet us. His enthusiastic welcome is ignored by most of the students, but I smile at him. He walks over to me as everyone finds a seat. "Mr. Briggs, what's going on? Did something happen?"

As I am about to answer, the door of the room flies open revealing Hilt in the doorframe. He signals for Dr. Finley. They talk for a moment in the doorway then they move to the hallway as they let the door close behind them. The trance the other students had been in must have broken by now because small pockets of conversation begin breaking out in soft, muffled whispers all around the room. I begin feeling self-conscious as their eyes peer at me from every corner of the room.

"Don't sweat it man, you could've done a lot worse than four minutes... You could have passed out like Donald did." Tristis tries his best at making me feel better. Valde leans over and whispers loud enough for the whole room to hear, "yeah and I'm pretty sure he wet his jockeys as well." They both erupt in a rambunctious laughter. We all turn to see Donald's curiosity in looking at me fade away as his eyes drop to the ground. His pants do look damp and I feel sort of sorry for him, but finding humor at his expense kind of makes me feel better.

“Alright, that’s enough.” Percy interrupts sending a stern glance around the room. “Playtime is over kiddos.”

Percy is a primacy here at the base. Primacies are the ones who have been here the longest and have been selected as leaders by the instructors. Most of the kids here think they are suck ups and don’t really pay much attention to their flaunts of authority. I wouldn’t pay much attention either to Percy’s words if it wasn’t for his freakishly tall stature and the unshakable feeling that he doesn’t like me.

"I don't think four minutes is all that clock took on when Alex was up there. I mean did you see the weathered look of the clock?" Cynthia's face scrunches up in an effort to process what she is thinking about. The cuteness of her face makes me smile, and it feels good to smile right now. "It must have been quite a bit older. And the inscription?" The four of us fall silent as her last words sink in.

"What do you think it means?" Valde asks.

"Beats me." Tristis says fiddling with a piece of equipment on the table in front of him.

“It means beware of the Sumus Exi—Extium, or whatever it said.” Valde spits out.

“Sumus Exitium, you space head.” Tristis corrects Valde.

"Whatever it means, it for sure wasn't there before Alex sent it back." Cynthia pauses as Dr. Finley enters back into the room. His gaze is unwillingly fixed on me and I again feel very uncomfortable. He must sense it because he looks away, moving to the front of the class. Eagerly the class and I wait for some explanation to what had happened in physical training, but instead Dr. Finley continues his lecture on the localizer time map (the wrist piece we are to be wearing at all times when out in the field).

I do my best to focus and take in the lecture but I don’t think I quite pull it off. The best I can do is sit silently looking like I'm listening. Blank, staring face on the outside as the inside races with questions. Questions that are becoming more like puzzle pieces that just don't quite seem to fit together. By the time lecture is over most of the other kids are long past what had happened and leave without more than a grand total of three or so stares. I tell Cynthia and the guys that I'm going to stay behind and that I'd meet them at dinner.

Cynthia gives me a hug and squeezes me tightly. She must sense my anxiety. She can always seem to read me just right. Her tight hold on me slips away and she leaves the room with Tristis and Valde (who are both horsing around like usual) they knock into a beaker tipping it off a table without noticing. I reach out my hand, and though my arm is a good ten feet too short, I catch it. I place it back on the table exactly where it had fallen from.

"Nice catch. You're getting better my friend." Dr. Finley says taking a seat next to me.

"Thanks."

He shifts in his seat seemingly a little disheveled. "Hilt told me about what happened in the training room today. Do you know what you did?" He asks.

"No." I answer hoping that he is going to tell me.

"You didn't send the clock four minutes into the past. Turns out, it was more like twelve years. That's why it was weathered and worn and severely battered. The battery was long dead in that thing which is why it was no longer ticking when it came back around."

My relief in the fact that I am not a total failure is stifled with the questions filling my throat, looking for a place to escape.

“Alex, not many people can perform such a feat this early in their training. Let alone at any point in their training. . .” His words trail off as his gaze seems to be fixed on some point in the corner of the room.

"What about the inscription on the front. What was it, 'somu, sumus..."

"Sumus Exitium." Dr. Finley interrupts. His face grow sickly white and for the first time since I've met him he seems pressed to either lie or not tell me something. The room grows cold with silence.

"Why don't you go get some dinner Alex. You must be starving. We can talk later, I promise. I've just got a lot of things I need to get done here today, sorry." And with that Dr. Finley goes back to the work he was on when we entered the room before class.

Strange behavior for even Dr. Finley who is already usually prone to a little weirdness. I leave the room not realizing how hungry I really am. I head for the dining hall and grab a tray of food, turkey and gravy with mashed potatoes. I find Cynthia, Tristis and Valde and sit down. Before a word is spoken I begin scarfing the food down. Valde and Tristis are eating in a similarly hungry fashion.

"What did you and Dr. Finley talk about?" Cynthia doesn't beat around the bush. She asks what's on her mind. I like that about her.

"I guess I didn't send the clock back in time only a couple of minutes." My response gains the attention of Tristis and Valde as they stop shoveling food into their mouths to listen. "In not sure how, or why but I actually sent the clock about twelve year into the past."

Valde's jaw drops as he lets the partially chewed food fall from his mouth and Tristis drops his fork onto his plate.

"Wow, that's—that’s amazing." Cynthia says staring at me in disbelief.

"No way that's impossible. How can you do that?" Valde's response is somewhat jealous and you can tell he is not very happy with having the second longest time.

"Alex destroyed your time!" Tristis reminds Valde as he begins to spit food from his mouth as he laughs.

Valde elbows Tristis in the side, "shut up you oinker!"

"And you know the inscription?" I ask drawing back their attention.

"What? What does it mean?" Cynthia asks.

Part of me feels like I'm snitching on Dr. Finley. Like I'm degrading our trust and loyalty by telling them, but I feel he broke trust first making it easier to tell them. "Dr. Finley couldn't or wouldn't tell me what the inscription meant."

"do you even think he knows? Cynthia asks.

"I'm pretty sure he does."

"Why do you think he didn't tell you?" Tristis asks.

"I don't know. But I think we should find out.”