The Acolytes of Crane

14 LINCOLN: THE MISSING LINC





“Guard thirty-four, to command center—request to engage prisoner eight-six-seven-six.”

“Go ahead, thirty-four—guns are hot—over.”

“Opening view box to deliver the message—over. Prisoner! You know the drill! Restraints now!”

Another goon is at my cell’s entrance, with orders from the warden. I place my arms into these derogatory wall restraints, to alleviate the paranoid worries of the frightened guard behind the vault.

“Audible message from the warden is as follows: ‘If I am correct, you and your rogue human crew were separated from Theodore Crane at some point. If possible, I want an account of your separation, and the events leading up to the battle of Tritillia. These are your orders. Comply and you will have your request granted.’ Message finished. Disengagement of prisoner eight-six-seven-six complete. Request temperature sweep of room and disarmament of wall restraints—over.”

“Fine! I hope you can hear me! Because if you don’t terminate me, I will terminate you, warden! You hear me! I will end you! There is no prison that can hold me,” I shout.

The wall restraints release me, and I fall upon the floor. There is no greater urge than to show hate for the warden. Where was I in my story? Let’s see—after our savior left us.

I narrow down my database search to a couple of files within my processing unit, and start with the first.

“After this, I’m done! I will not give any more information until I am guaranteed termination!”

“Before Karshiz, it was a tough time for us. After all, Theodore went rogue, to escape the clutches of Zane. Yeah—Mariah was knocking on the door, and my best friend was marooned in space. We were stuck in a sick joke. I left Earth for this?”

‘Lincoln, come on, let’s go. You take too long to do the simplest things,’ Mariah said, as she tapped on my door with her petite hands. I peered through the window, and saw Dan and Liam behind her.

Throughout our travels, Mariah always seemed to be the one that was underestimated. Tiny hands are no measure of strength when referring to the power of talent and skill. A dainty finger can still pull a trigger. I don’t think we were in store for what she was capable of doing.

I was trying to figure out what to wear when she summoned me. Simple decisions were difficult for me, because I always overthought them. My fears were that the next choice I would make was going to be the last. These were my only fears, until Theodore left us. It was two days after my best friend Ted stormed the Garden of Odion to kill Zane, with his own sword—wild man.

We were lost, like a bike with no wheel and a broken chain. Theodore was so good to us, indeed, too good for us. I believe that Theodore wanted more for the future of the multiverse than Zane could ever have the capacity to imagine.

Some people die by courage, and live through fear, but Theodore—he feared nothing, and anyone that planned to jump from a cliff to prove a point had courage—or they were nuts. I had it in my head that it could not end with Ted dislocated from his team. Not on my life.

‘One sec, can you be patient?’ I asked at the door, with my friends eagerly behind it.

I knew what to do. Ted’s plan was to bring balance to the multiverse, but I could not lead his crew. I was not the right person to be a leader. At least, not in the way that he did. I was only capable of devising a plan. I never had the guts to implement this plan before I met Theodore.

He was passionate about the cause and yes, there were some dark days before he knew his time was up. I knew him best, and he wasn’t a quitter. If he wanted Zane dead, then Zane should have taken his last stroll through the Garden of Odion that day.

‘Hey guys, okay-okay, I’m done. What’s up?’ I asked.

‘We are going to the debriefing or whatever. Let’s try to stay close to each other. People have been somewhat upset about the thing with you-know-who,’ Mariah said, she looked around to suggest people were watching, ‘People think we may have been in on to it.’

Dan jumped in, and it was obvious how he felt. He said, ‘Yeah, everyone is pissed. Ted leaves us high and dry with a bunch of aliens that flippin’ hate us. Now we are going to some bullshit debriefing. They are probably going to enslave us with some more contraptions and turn us into robots. What a bummer.’

‘Okay, everyone. We have to talk before we go,’ I said, with caution to the possibility of eavesdroppers. I opened the door and everyone filed into my room. ‘Something is wrong here. I don’t know what it is, because I don’t have the facts. What I do know is this . . . pull in close so you can hear me.’ I lowered my voice to a whisper and pulled everyone into a huddle, ‘We are going to be viewed as traitors, and the only way we are going to survive is if we act like we are totally clueless about what Ted did. Keep your eyes open and watch for clues. There is something bigger going on here, and we have to figure it out. Let’s go to the debriefing.’

‘Easy for you to say. You sound like a Ted-groupie,’ Liam said, as he walked away from me. I ignored him. I knew that enormous stress, coupled with unfamiliar surroundings, could cause emotions to run high.

Everyone strolled down the hallway when, through a doorway, I was grabbed.

‘What the heck?’ I yelped.

It was Tezmarine. ‘Lincoln, I don’t think Theodore was himself. He would never do that,’ she pleaded. ‘He cares too much to do such a thing.’ It was tough to watch the Karshiz Messiah cry. The sight of her bawling made me feel like we had no hope.

‘Tez, it is alright. I will find Theodore, and when I do, he is going to be just the same,’ I said. ‘Trust me, there is something weird going on, and if anyone is going to make all this right, it will be me.’

‘If you find him, Lincoln, tell him to hold on,’ she said, and then she bolted through the door.

I combed my hair with my hands, and hurried to catch up to the others. My hair was greasy and my teeth had a plaque carpet on them. In my family, it was important to have good oral hygiene. Apparently space creatures from outside Earth had never bothered to reflect upon the concept of the simple toothbrush or the much-maligned dental floss.

My dad was a dentist. He always complained about the dental assistants after work. He hated that they threw empty cardboard boxes in the trash. He wanted them to recycle, and they always ignored his demand to protect the environment.

I could just see him in the dental office telling his minions to quit chatting about the latest on-screen heartthrob and get back to work. He wanted me to be a dentist from the day I left the womb.

We didn’t shower for the entire month we had been on the Uriel. It was barbaric. Eventually, we became okay with the dirt. I thought there would be some sonic shower technology to scrub dirt and skin oils from our bodies in this future, but there was nothing—yet. It was funny, really. They had this advanced, top-notch technology to eradicate all disease within your body, but nothing, really, for basic hygiene on your skin. It was baffling.


I finally caught up, and we loitered outside for a moment before entering the conference room, which was well-guarded by ornate, golden double doors. We were reminiscing about life back home on Earth.

‘What I miss most is my video games. I was on the second-to-last level of Call of Duty,’ I said.

‘You’re thinking about a video game?’ Mariah rolled her eyes. ‘How about chocolate-chip pancakes in the morning for breakfast, or the bumper cars at Fun Haven. That’s what I miss. I also miss my mom and church,’ Mariah said, as she looked down at her feet. ‘I just want them to put in a church service here.’

Liam piped up. ‘Preserving Sephera is a damn good cause worth fighting for, in my opinion.’

Before Dan could jump in the conversation, the double doors suddenly burst open. It was Migalt. ‘You may enter now. The debriefing will begin shortly.’

We sat down. With Theodore gone, the room was filled with a queasy phobia of the unknown. We had lost our leader, the one who had brought us all here, and the one who knew all the secrets of Zane and his empire. Now we were now lost ourselves.

Migalt and another fellow Bromel sat near the rear of the room opposite to the entrance. They were perched atop two massive traditionally carved wooden thrones, sitting like kings. Remember, the Bromels were twelve feet tall, so the thrones were correspondingly huge. We felt like miniatures in a room for giants, cowering before the might displayed before us. Migalt, his legs splayed out, announced, ‘Projection recorded of the traitor, Theodore Daniel Crane, at 23:12:39 yesterday. Permission granted to view.’

As we gazed on in fascination, desperate for answers, the hologram played right in the middle of the spacious conference room, looking nearly as convincing as the real thing. The present image was a playback of the video surveillance the day of Theodore’s attempted assassination. I knew from watching it that Theodore wasn’t—Theodore. Not the Theodore we knew.

His eyes were distant—determined. There was no soul in his actions, only blank anger. That was all I needed to know. In a strange way, I felt reassured. I glanced at my teammates. I could tell they were thinking the same thing.

Migalt’s voice boomed as he stared daggers at us, ‘This meeting begins now, as you are aware, your former team leader—and let’s be perfectly clear, infiltrated a wing of this ship that was forbidden. His actions took the digital life of one Sepheran and destroyed two Ophanims that were each over two thousand years old. All three of these soldiers were decorated in battle and have served Zane in the highest tradition of honor, loyalty, and valor. Theodore is now a rogue.’

His eyes, brimming with outrage, locked into each of our own as he scanned the room, daring us to defend Theodore. ‘He was last seen entering the Valeon Galaxy. Upon his own initiative, his IPU was reformatted, and he is now separated from our communication and surveillance, leaving him just as dangerous as Travis. Your ultimate duty is to obey your true leader, Zane. The role of Messiah has been stripped away from Theodore. Remember, there is no Sephera without Zane, and Sephera must be defended at all costs. Does anyone have any information that can help us in delivering Theodore to justice?’ Migalt asked.

We all sat and looked at each other, but I knew what was going on there. Sometimes adults think they are superior to kids and in most ways, they are. But not this time.

Seeing our stunned reactions, Migalt leaned over to his fellow Bromel and whispered to him, ‘This is a lost cause.’

Migalt badly misunderstood the concept of loyalty and friendship. Perhaps beyond Earth, friendship was an archaic concept, an old relic to be tossed away.

No. We belonged to Theodore. To discredit him was an assault on what we stood for at the beginning. Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno. All for one, and one for all.

This maxim was at the root of our dissension, carefully concealed from Zane and his followers. We didn’t follow Zane to the ends of Earth, let alone throughout the continuity of space. We exalted Ted. He was leading us to the destruction of Travis and the Odion, and that is what I was for—until the moment Migalt spoke harshly of Ted.

‘Why is it that you are not standing by Theodore now? He brought us here to fight with you, side by side!’ Liam roared.

Migalt slammed his enormous hand on the armrest and shouted, ‘You don’t understand! Theodore is no longer Theodore. He has been compromised. His mind has been accessed by evil, and he is now a perpetrator of treason. That makes him a threat to the Urilian resistance and an obvious threat to Zane.’

He raised his hands in frustration, and muttered to himself, ‘I can’t believe I am reasoning with a bunch of teenagers.’

‘We are no longer teenagers because of your brain-washing! We have become what you wanted from us!’ Mariah stood up and asserted herself. She was trembling. I looked at her in awe, mentally cheering her on.

Migalt snarled at us. ‘You are failing to connect because of your inability to process.’

We were shocked at his abject dismissal of our worth.

‘In my eyes, you are insignificant.’ Perhaps attempting to bite his scurrilous tongue, he softened his tone. ‘There are only two ways that this can end. We destroy you now, or you go to Karshiz for training. There, you will be under the guidance of King Trazuline. We will issue weaponry that suit your abilities and you will train. Is it a deal?’

We glanced at each other. We were pinned down by his ultimatum. If we decided to oppose him, then we may have been deleted here and now. Theodore had told me about how easy it was for Zane’s forces to make someone disappear.

I weighed my options carefully. There was one reasonable thing to do, and it was to relieve the pressure on our group by swearing our allegiance to Zane’s agenda.

I knew my group was smart enough to decipher my upcoming fa?ade. I stood up and spoke as dispassionately as I could, ‘We are here, and our desire is to preserve Sephera. I don’t have anything to say about Theodore. He was always private with his thoughts, and I knew him better than most. So I apologize if he made things difficult for us. We, too, are devastated by his actions. Would anyone else like to say anything?’

My friends stayed silent. As expected, they knew exactly what I was doing. We were going to keep our support for Theodore a secret.

We were dismissed, and as I was leaving, I was interrupted by a transmission from a male voice on my nanocom, ‘Acknowledged. Order to deploy Humans to Karshiz granted. King Trazuline’s request confirmed.’

King Trazuline’s request? Something was going on, and we hadn’t even been given a choice yet. Somehow, I had the feeling that the covert transmission was mistakenly broadcast to my nanocom; perhaps others as well. We were now too dangerous, even for Zane, to remain aboard his ship. Our team was in purgatory. We chose to avoid confrontation. Zane was the chess master. Trazuline was a designated king who had chosen to make a move on Zane’s chessboard, for whatever reason. As for the rest of us, well—we were pawns.

We all retired to our rooms. Mariah was having doubts and cried against my shoulder before I reluctantly cut her loose to rest. We were failing, and it was because the diligence, which had defined us and bound us together, had disappeared when Theodore left.

We were meant to be his understudies, but it was more than that. He had made us believers. Theodore gave us desire, and he was everything that we needed. Mariah’s crying affirmed this thought.


Before Zane had appeared in a puff of smoke and beseeched me to seek out Theodore, back on Earth, I was just a boy whose dad who had only one life goal—to mold a young gifted kid into a dentist. I realized there was no going back. By bringing me to a strange new destiny, far beyond the stars, Theodore had liberated me from the shackles of a one-track destiny.

Liam was torn by his father’s adultery. Mariah was dealing with her own issues at home, and until now, had not left anything to chance. Dan did just the opposite; he gave into chance, and scorned the boredom of his life with risk. That was then. Now, as a nascent team, we were already given purpose. We just had to capitalize on it.

No one loses a diamond in the rough and walks away.

We admired Zane for his resolve to protect Sephera, but Theodore was in our hearts. He was still the Earth’s Messiah, despite Zane’s verdict that he be stripped of this title. Wherever Ted was, whatever he was doing now, I knew it was in our best interests.

In that video, they showed us of Ted destroying the Ophanims and romping through the Garden of Odion. Zane had intended for that portrayal to have us recoil from the memory of Ted. In fact, it was the opposite. The only thing that I saw in that likeness was how powerful one boy could be. He was a kid who defied the savage world of abuse at the hands of his father. Ted was formed in the belly of cowardice; in his primary school years he was thrashed by the weathered hands of hatred. He once had told me that his father and mother meant nothing to him, because he meant nothing to them.

We valued Theodore. Even though our mystical fantasies of outer space were brutally demolished, we had replaced these idle thoughts of teenagers with deep connectivity and esprit.

Although I was not destined to be a spiritual leader, my love of logic and my incredible powers of observation could save us. I was the missing Linc. From that day on, I studied every move the resistance made. I looked for holes, gaps, flaws, and cracks. I was destined to find all the weaknesses of our adversaries, not for maliciousness, but to inaugurate our crew’s rise as the acolytes of Theodore Crane.

“In the morning Dan, Mariah, and I, would leave the Uriel on a one-way trip to the planet Karshiz. There, the Bromels in charge of us would leave our entire crew stranded with King Trazuline. What he wanted from us I was yet to discover.”