Binary Seven Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 

The sun shone bright over the plains where Aldon Jax worked his field. He was the only person living in his small hut, with his small field beside it, and he had to work every day in order to produce enough food to survive. Because of this, his hands were strong, his arms and legs were thick. He was a smart man, and knew what he had to do to maintain his lifestyle.

He finished harvesting a row of carrots, and looked up at the sky shielding his vision for a moment, taking a break underneath the hot sun. He wiped his forehead with his arm and bent back down to continue to harvest his field.

A sudden dust storm obscured his vision and forced him to pause his work. Aldon put his shirt over his mouth to avoid breathing in the dust, which stung his lungs. The dust settled, and Aldon took a deep breath. He looked down below himself, at his carrots, and took a step back in surprise. There, in front of him, was a strange metal cube, sitting on top of a mound of carrots. Aldon bent down to pick it up, and was surprised to find how light it was. Did the dust storm deposit it here? What was it doing? Aldon held it up to his eyes and examined it all around. It was solid grey, with beveled edges, and a soft tracing of circuits on its surface. The sun beat down on Aldon's back, and he was reminded that he still had work to do. He put the cube back on top of his carrots, and forgot about it while he went to work.  The cube sat still, watching him.

When the day was over, Aldon filled his wheelbarrow with the day's harvest, and headed back into his hut, which sat at the outskirts of a small town in the middle of the Anasari region. He took the cube with him, and that night at dinner, he sat at the table with the cube on the other side of him. He reached out to touch it, and stroked its surface, feeling the coldness of the metal beneath his fingers. The cube sparkled. Aldon leaned back to examine it. The cube shimmered, and then melted into a puddle on top of Aldon's table. Aldon reached out his arm to catch the strange liquid before it fell onto the floor, but the liquid sucked itself back up and formed into another shape. It took a while for Aldon to figure out what it was.

A baby? Aldon reached out his arm tentatively, afraid to touch the new figure in front of him. What was it? Was it really the cube? Was someone playing a trick on him?

Aldon touched the baby, and found that it had the same soft skin that a baby should have. Only, it wasn't moving. Only when Aldon retraced his arm did the baby begin to wail at the top if its lungs, like a fresh newborn. Aldon didn't know what to think, so he picked up the baby and rocked it gently in between his arms. The baby looked at Aldon, cooed, and then smiled. Aldon paused. Were babies supposed to smile when they were just born? Had this baby just been born? What was it?

A big problem became apparent. How was Aldon supposed to feed the baby? He didn't have any milk, and he definitely didn't have anything to nurse it with. He decided to go into town and search for an answer. He finished up his dinner in one quick gulp, and exited his hut with the baby in his arms. He headed for the main road, the one that would lead him into town, where he would most likely find help. He didn't know what else to do. The sun set in the background. Aldon was grateful that the baby didn't seem hungry now. It simply lay in his arms, cooing softly. Aldon stared at the baby for a long while, his mind whirling with questions. Whose was it? Was it is? What would happen to it now? Did he have the ability to keep it? All these questions and more occupied Aldon until he reached the outskirts of the town of Gulvier. The river Talmar ran beside the town, which surrounded the bridge that linked the two sides of the main road. It was a tiny place, unseen by the Empire that controlled the land, except for when tax day came. There were about sixty buildings scattered throughout the village, some of them work buildings, some of them houses. The inn stood taller than all the rest of the buildings, though not by much. Aldon could hear ringing coming from the blacksmith's shop. He walked up the main road with the baby in hand, thinking about where to get help for it. Why not try the inn first? Mother Gresha was sure to know a thing or two about babies. Aldon took a turn off the main road when he was in sight of the inn and walked up to its front entrance. A villager pushed his way past and into the building. Lights came out of the inn's windows, and music wafted on the air. Aldon steeled himself, and then stepped through the entrance and into the building.

Inside, a low smoke lay over everything, from the candles, and from the patrons who smoked tobacco. The fireplace blazed merrily, with a pig roasting over it. The smell of cooking meat filled the room, a good smell that made Aldon salivate. At the end of the room, a long bar stretched from wall to wall, manned by a large woman with an apron on, her black hair tied back in a bun. Gresha Caldwal, though most people called her Mother Gresha. She sighed Aldon and waved him over to the front of the bar. Aldon obliged, and walked through the center of the room with the baby. He sat down on a stool, leaned his elbows on the counter, and showed the baby to Mother Gresha. Gresha eyed the baby for a moment, without saying a word, and then clucked her tongue in a reproaching manner.

"Who'd you get mixed up with? Don't tell me you accepted someone's unwanted child?"

Aldon almost told Gresha the real course of events, then decided not to. Who knew what other people might think of his story. He nodded his head politely. "It looks like that's what I did."

Mother Gresha crossed her arms and put a stern expression on her face. "And you want to know how to keep it alive?"

"Yes."

"There's no chance."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I mean, you don't have a way to nurse the child. It has to have mother's milk. Cow's milk and goat's milk just won't do. Why did you accept the child anyways? It's dead as it is. It’s a wonder that it's so calm, in the situation."

It was true, the baby was calm. Its eyes looked out at the world intelligently. Mother Gresha peered close at the baby, and her eyes narrowed a bit. She pulled up the baby's lip, to reveal a nice shining row of white teeth. She hummed. "This baby's already teethed," she said. "As a matter of fact, you might have a chance. I take back what I said before. Though, it is strange for someone to give away their baby at this stage. How did you meet this person?"

Aldon scratched at the back of his head. "Uh, they just came into town, and called at my door because I was the closest to the outskirts."

"Are you sure you don't want to give the baby to someone else? Someone that can take better care of it?"

Aldon shook his head. "I'd like to try," he said.

Mother Gresha nodded serenely. "Good, then. At this stage, babies can eat mushed food, and can drink some water, though not too much."

"Mushed food? Would carrots be fine?"

"As long as she has variety in her diet, it will be fine."

"I think I can handle that."

"Good. Take care of her for me. What's her name?"

"Oh," Aldon said. He hadn't thought about it yet. "Her name is . . ." He paused. "Botone. I like the name Botone."

"Botone? That's a strange choice."

"I like it. That's her name."

"So be it."

By then, a group of people had gathered around Aldon to take a look at the new baby. Most of them were working women, probably mother's themselves. Aldon got up from the counter, excusing himself from the commotion. He picked up the baby and brought her out of the inn, and into the street. Mushed carrots, he thought to himself. That can be arranged. He looked down at baby Botone and smiled. She smiled back at him, and laughed. Aldon got a warm feeling in his chest. He returned home with her in his arms, and sat down at his table with a plate of carrots in front of him. He mushed a section of carrot with a knife, and handed it to Botone. Botone grabbed it, and scarfed it down. Aldon watched, impressed. He took another piece of carrot and gave it to her, and she ate it just as fast. Throughout the night, he continued to repeat the process, his eyes opening further with wonder each time. How much did babies eat? This one seemed to have no end to its appetite.

Around midnight, Aldon noticed something strange. Botone seemed to be larger than when he had first found her. He picked her up from her chair, and confirmed the fact. All those carrots had gone straight into her body size. Was this normal for babies? Of course, Botone wasn't a normal baby. She was part of the strange cube that had come to Aldon during a dust storm. There was no way that she was normal. Aldon put her down, and noticed that he was sleepy. Botone did not seem in the least bit tired, but Aldon put her in a soft pile of hay beside his bed anyways.

One week later, and Botone was walking about the house, eating everything in sight. She moved quick, and loved to play with Aldon when he would let her. She was getting big, and was now about the size of a two-year old. Aldon kept in touch with Mother Gresha, though he didn't take Botone with him for fear of exposing her fast growth. Mother Gresha gave him tips about the keeping of children, and he returned the favor by purchasing drinks from her. Botone did not require very much maintenance, for a child, and sometimes Aldon felt comfortable enough leaving her at home.

Another month passed, and in this time Botone grew up to the size of a seven-year old girl. Her hair was a deep copper color, and her eyes were sea green. She liked to sit on Aldon's porch step and stare out at the world beyond. She also liked to help Aldon with his work, though Aldon didn't let her that often. He stopped contacting Mother Gresha for help, because of how much trouble Botone's fast growth gave him. She talked very little, sometimes about the weather, sometimes about food.

One day, she got hold of a piece of onion paper and charcoal, and began to draw. When she was finished, she had a perfect representation of Aldon's face. Aldon took it and hung it up on his wall. He looked at it at night and wondered who Botone really was.

One night Botone leaned in to the bedroom and looked at Aldon while he was whittling a broom with his knife.

"Aldon," she said, "I'm scared of the night."

Aldon put down his knife and his broom. "Why would you say that?" he asked. "What reason do you have to be scared?"

Botone sat down on the corner of Aldon's bed, and clasped her hands in front of her waist. "Something happened to me a while ago, at night. And ever since, I've been afraid of it."

"What happened?" Aldon asked.

Botone shook her head. "It's better that I don't tell you."

Aldon reached over and placed his hand on top of Botone's head. "I'll be here to protect you," he said.

Botone held out her hand, her eyes locked on Aldon's. "I have something to show you," she said.

Her body shimmered around the edges, and her skin lost its color, becoming a thick metallic grey. Her substance turned into a goop, and formed around Aldon's arm, crawling up his shoulder and covering half of his torso. It was warm, and soft like human skin. Aldon kept his cool, thinking to himself that this was only expected. The baby wasn't really a baby, after all.

"I'm growing," Botone said, her voice echoing through the room without any discernable source. Her body flowed off of Aldon's arm and then took the form of a sword, and half of a circle. An unfinished shield. "But I'm not done yet. I'd like to ask you to keep me until I finish my development."

Aldon could only watch in awe. "I . . . I think I can do that," he said. "You came to me, after all. It's been long enough that I care about you."

Botone formed back into her human body and looked at Aldon. "Thank you. I care about you too."

Aldon nodded, then put his hand back on Botone's head. "You're a real strange kid, you know that?"

"I won't be a kid for long," Botone replied.

She was right, it took her only two more months to come to full development, as an attractive young woman with long copper hair and sea green eyes. During those two months, she helped Aldon harvest in his fields, and ate half of everything that he harvested. Sometimes they would get to talking about the world, and Aldon found that Botone was in fact very wise. Aldon enjoyed having a partner in his house, because it meant a sharing of the load. It also meant someone to keep him company, and he realized then how much he had been wanting for company during his long years as a solitary farmer. Botone meant a lot to him. He began to dread the day that she would come to full development.

When she finally broached the subject, it wasn't like Aldon had expected. She talked to him over dinner one night, underneath the light of a single candle.

"There is a great troubling in the land," she said, catching Aldon off guard. "I'm at the center of it."

Aldon paused in his meal, to let Botone's words sink in. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I don't know any more than that," Botone said, putting her hands down on the table. "All I know is that there's something wrong with the world, and that I need to find out what, because I'm somehow important to it."

"I can believe that," said Aldon. "Stranger things have happened here. What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm going to go on a journey," she said, "Though I don't know where. All I know is that I have to go."

"It would be best if you were to find out where you want to go first before adventuring out into a dangerous land."

"Is the world really that dangerous?"

"I can't tell you for certain, but I think it is." Aldon shifted in his seat uncomfortably. The thought of Botone, alone out in the wilderness, made him shiver. But he wasn't sure yet if he wanted to accept her decision to go on a quest. "Why do you want to go on a journey?" he asked.

Botone sat up straight in her chair. "I believe that there's something inside of me that needs to be found, and I have to find someone that can tell me what's inside of me. Who I am. What I am."

"You're my friend, that's what you are," said Aldon. "Don't get all broken up on me."

"It's just that I don't know. Anything. What I'm doing here. All I have is this vague sense that something's wrong."

"How about this. We'll go into town tomorrow and ask around for someone that knows something about you, drop hints at the inn, talk to Mother Gresha about your problem."

Botone folded her hands in her lap and looked down at the table. "I'd appreciate that," she said. "Thank you."

Aldon wasn't quite ready to go on a journey, but he knew that he had to face Botone's problem, had known it for a long time. He had let himself get comfortable with her in his house, and now he felt the pangs of sadness that came when he realized that he might have to separate from someone that he had grown to care about. He pushed back his chair and finished his meal in a few quick gulps.

"I'm going to go outside," he said, picking up his overcoat from a hanger on the wall.

Botone scarfed down the rest of her food and stood up next to Aldon. "I'm coming with you."

The two of them left the inside of the house and sat down in a pair of chairs on the porch step, overlooking Aldon's fields, his neatly planted rows of corn, about ready for harvest. Aldon took a deep breath and looked up at the stars.

"Journeys take a lot of money, you know," he said. "For food, horses, all that kind of stuff."

Botone leaned forwards in her chair and held out her hand. The skin on her palm shimmered, and coalesced into a spherical form. It splayed out a little bit, and gained a few facets around the edges. Then the grey matter switched colors, and became a shimmering crystal that reflected the starlight into a hundred different colors. Botone smiled. "See, money won't be a problem."

Aldon picked up the diamond and rolled it between his fingers, cherishing the feeling of the stone on his skin. It was cool, just the right amount of sharpness to arouse his sense of light-heartedness. He looked at the diamond for a long time, admiring its faceting, the purity of its crystalline structure.

"Is it real?" he asked.

"Diamonds are just a certain form of carbon," Botone said. "It's easy for me to create things like this. Don't ask me why, I don't know."

"What else can you make?" asked Aldon.

Botone put her hand on her chin and stared up at the stars. "All kinds of things. Here, look." She placed her hands together in front of her chest and moved them around as if she were playing an instrument. A form appeared in the air, and dropped down quietly into Botone's lap, turning a brilliant shade of yellow. Botone picked it up by its green stem and handed it to Aldon. It was a flower.

Aldon examined the flower and the diamond next to each other, and marveled at their complexity. "Where does the stuff to make these come from?"

Botone chuckled. "Carrots. Lots of them."

Aldon smiled. "I see you put all the food I give you to good use."

Botone leaned back in her chair. "You can keep those, and more. It's the least I can do to repay you for being so kind."

Aldon put the flower to his nose and smelled it. He caught the scent of fresh wind, and the smell of hair after a wash. He rolled the diamond between his fingers. "How about other living things?" he asked. "Can you make a frog?"

Botone put her finger to her lip. "I never thought about it, as a matter of fact. I don't know if I can, or what will happen when I do. Although, I don't like frogs. How about I try a bird?"

"A hummingbird," said Aldon.

"Right," said Botone. She put her hands together in front of her chest and moved her fingers as if she were playing an instrument. A form began to appear between her palms, taking on the shape of a tiny little bird. Botone swept her arms apart, released the bird, and it flew up into the air, taking in a deep red color in its fluffy feathers. A small string of matter connected the bird to Botone's chest. Botone smiled. "There. Hey, I can see what the bird sees." The bird fluttered around Aldon's face, and then moved in to the flower, poking its long thin beak in between the petals. Its wings beat with a heavy frequency.

Botone chuckled, and the bird fluttered up into the air again. It jerked to the side for a moment. Botone sucked in air through her teeth. She held on to her chest with one hand, and with the other, supported herself on her chair. She breathed in gasping breaths.

Aldon snapped the hummingbird up in his hands and placed it in Botone's open palm. The bird was reabsorbed into her skin, and she leaned back in her chair, taking a deep breath. "That was painful," she said. "I don't think I can keep so many creatures alive at once."

Aldon looked at Botone, glad that nothing worse had happened. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Botone put her hand to her forehead. "Yes, I'm just tired. I don't think I was made for this kind of stuff."

"You say you were made. Who made you?" Aldon asked.

Botone shrugged. "If I knew, I would tell you. But I don't."

Aldon looked up at the stars, and took a deep breath of the fresh outside air. He stood up from his chair and faced the door to his hut. "I'm going inside. Tomorrow we go search for answers."

Botone stood up as well and followed Aldon inside. "Tomorrow," she said.