"Lessons from Master Rufus"

[Cptn Elias Moore 0]

Candles, Elias was surprised to note, were scattered around the guest quarters' living room, providing a dim, eerily flickering illumination. Rufus was sitting pefectly still in one of the armchairs beside the room's only viewport. The viewport, however, was covered by what looked like a bedsheet... candles on the nearby curio shelves came dangerously close to setting it on fire.

 

Only the top of Rufus' head, bare of his trademark blue hat, was visible above the back of the armchair. After failing to answer the door chime, he was now making no acknowledgment of Elias' entrance. Aware of the man's age, Elias wondered if he had fallen asleep in the armchair... or perhaps worse? He cleared his throat loudly and the old man stirred. "Mr. Rufus?"

 

Rufus popped out of the armchair and turned to face Elias with a swiftness that came as quite a surprise from the old man. "Captain! My goodness, our appointment, it must have left my mind."

 

"My apologies, I disturbed your sleep." Elias made a motion back toward the door. "I'll come back at a better time."

 

"Oh, no, please, perish the thought. I was not sleeping, but meditating." Rufus circled around the chair to the doorway leading to the bedroom. There he retrieved his walking stick, which had been leaning against the corner. After seeing him stand up so vigorously, Elias was starting to wonder if the man even required a walking stick. "Though I may appear quite aged, Captain, I am not yet to the point where I drift asleep at any brief period of inactivity."

 

"Hardly my implication." Elias smiled. "I was simply mistaken. As little as I know about your people, I can't even be sure if you normally sleep in a bed. I've known some species that sleep standing up."

 

"I have met a few such beings myself." The man walked back to the viewport and motioned to the armchair. "Please, have a seat. I thank you for giving me time out of your schedule, frightfully busy as I am certain it must be."

 

"The time away will do me good. Besides, I'm here for mission purposes anyway, right?" Elias walked over to the chair and motioned to the candles. "Where... exactly... did you get these?"

 

"From here." The old man patted the front of his robe with his free hand. Though Elias didn't think this was much of an answer, he didn't press, but merely raised a curious eyebrow. "Now I believe you wished a lesson on Quantus and of his talents?"

 

"Yes, in a manner of speaking. If the men who stole our ship do work for him, it's reasonable that he will confront us at some point. Any knowledge of your people's talents would..." Elias' voice trailed off. He was only just noticing that he was becoming a bit light-headed in Rufus' quarters. His attention was drawn to the smoke being given off by the candles and the aroma that accompanied it. He somehow understood that the candles were having this effect on him.

 

As if in reaction, Rufus reached his free hand into the front of his silver robe. Elias expected him to pull out another strip of his mysterious "gum," but was even more shocked to see him produce a small glass dish with a teacup on top. "Refreshment, Captain? Please, I insist." Elias blinked at Rufus' robe and accepted the cup, which contained an amber-colored liquid. Rufus reached into his robe and pulled out a second dish and teacup before seating himself in the second armchair. His head as foggy as it was becoming, Elias wondered if he hadn't hallucinated the whole thing. The cup in his hand was very real, however... as was the liquid inside--risking a quick sip, he found the drink to be remarkably tasty. Furthermore, a few moments after he'd sipped it, his head began to clear.

 

"Alvwyne, it is called." Rufus said with a smile as he lay his walking stick across his lap. "A favorite of mine. Captain... if I may make a bold observation, I have noted that you refer to 'my people' and 'our talents' as if these are collective entities. Your people, the Humans, are known by the other peoples of the galaxy to boast remarkable diversity, correct?"

 

"Ah, yes." Elias put the cup down on the small table between the chairs. "Our anthropologists have joked that if you've met one Vulcan, you've met them all. With extraterrestrial species--that is, species not native to my... er, celestial sphere--the people often share the same personality and behavioral traits. The communities are all generally organized the same way, the citizens all striving for essentially the same goals. Temporary rifts may form in the population for any number of superficial reasons... but even as they go to war, you can still observe that all the parties involved share the same traits that give away a member of the species. With Humanity, this isn't the case. Each one of us is so different from even our closest family members, that members of other species have to get used to the realization that we're all Human."

 

"Indeed. Well I can tell you, Captain, that my people are not like those others that Humankind has encountered. Far from it, the diversity of Midgar's people is greater than that of the Humans. In fact, the diversity on my world extends even to the physical. The people of Midgar come in so many shapes, sizes, textures, and anatomical arrangements that only the most devoted scholars can hope to catalog them all even in a generous span of life."

 

"They have something like that back on Earth." Elias said. "Animals... creatures of all varieties that they share the planet with."

 

"Oh, no, Captain. You misunderstand. We have animals on Midgar as well... but I am indeed referring to beings of higher intelligence."

 

"That many intelligent beings? Different ones?" Elias asked. "How odd. It's very unusual for more than just one such species to evolve and coexist on a single world."

 

Rufus smiled warmly and sipped his Alvwyne. "Truly Humans know a good deal of this universe at large, and you are quite learned in their ways, Captain. I can only now tell you, for words alone would not allow me to elaborate, that things work rather differently on Midgar. I do hope you will have the chance to visit."

 

Elias, already feeling the candles starting to take their hold on him again, retrieved his own Alvwyne for another sip. "Erm... Rufus, this is certainly enlightening... and I do want to know more about your people, in whatever variety they're found. But... does this have something to do with Quantus?"

 

As Elias' head was again cleared by the Alvwyne, he realized that that may have come across as rudely impatient. Rufus merely chuckled. "My good Captain, I never say anything that does not bear some relevance to the matter at hand, even if you do not immediately see it, or in fact ever will. For our most practical purposes, it merely illustrates how difficult it would be for me to prime you completely on the talents of the people of Midgar, for their talents are every bit as diverse as their shapes, their colors, and their ideas of a good joke. There was another point to be illustrated, one that concerns Quantus directly, but it may prove unimportant, and I do not think you could fully grasp it at this particular juncture, not without direct exposure to Midgar. No offense intended, of course; it is just that Midgar is an astoundingly complex place."

 

Elias' face twisted a bit. "Hmm. Could you at least give me an idea of what my crew might expect from him?"

 

Rufus answered by picking up his walking stick and pointing the crystal-capped end at the covered viewport. Elias nearly jumped out of his chair as a moving image, akin to that produced by a film projector, suddenly appeared on the bedsheet. The image showed a young-looking woman similar in appearance to a Human, but with abnormally large eyes and long purple hair. Her face was set in concentration, but the motions of her heavy breathing were apparent. A row of books, lined up on a shelf it appeared, was barely visible behind her.

 

"I give you, Captain, a transmuter. Not Quantus, mind you, but one of his apprentices. This was recorded many years ago, before she accompanied her master on his desertion of Midgar. The room you see is one of the lesson chambers in my Council's tower. This particular apprentice was already quite accomplished at the craft at this point... but the training never ends until the apprentice is promoted." Elias looked at Rufus, then at the walking stick--it was no longer pointed at the sheet, but the image remained. How was he doing this? Rufus cleared his throat noisily and pointed the stick at the sheet. "Captain, you will want to see this."

 

Elias, dumbfounded, observed the image on the bedsheet. The woman's skin seemed to quiver for a moment before an astounding change came over her. She no longer appeared to be the young woman with the purple hair; she was now a grotesque-looking creature with green skin, an enormous head and shoulders, and a wide drooling mouth with two long tusks jutting up from the jaw.

 

"Quite a disguise, wouldn't you say?" Rufus asked. "Handy for frightening small children at night... or for infiltrating the Uhrka Tribe of the Arcanroot Mountains to determine when their next raid is planned."

 

"Incredible." Elias said with nothing but honesty. "All of these... transmuters... can do this? Change their appearance at will?"

 

"Oh, yes." Rufus nodded. "They can, in fact, do quite more than this. And you will want to observe now, for this is where the true danger of their talent lies."

 

Elias watched the bedsheet eagerly, something he'd never imagined he would do in his lifetime. The green creature's skin quivered just as the woman's had, but this time it did more than simply morph to a new appearance. It broke apart into hundreds of shimmering, dancing points of light. Elias did jump out of his chair at this, but not just because he was shocked by what he was seeing. "I've seen this before!" He said.

 

Rufus looked up at him, his thick white eyebrows lifted in surprise. "It's a transport shimmer!" Elias said, glancing down at him. "I mean, it doesn't look exactly the same as ours or any of the other races'... but there's no mistaking one."

 

"Transport shimmer?" Rufus asked. "To what are you referring?"

 

"Our transporters... that we use to send people off ship and bring them back, at least when we don't use the shuttle pods. We mostly use them for cargo, though." Elias explained. "They break matter down into its subatomic components, then transfer those components through a focused beam to the transport destination, where the particles are reassembled back into the parent form."

 

Rufus shook his head. He was the one confused now, and he realized that Elias was speaking in the Humans' scientific language. "Maybe your talents," Elias continued. "Aren't all that different from ours."

 

Elias grinned and looked back at the bedsheet. The bookshelf behind the mass of particles now appeared to be sliding to the left. He realized that it was the transport shimmer that was moving and that whatever device was recording this spectacle was focused on it. The view rotated around the room until the shimmer stopped in front of a tall marble statue. Elias blinked and wondered exactly what was going to happen. His grin turned upside down when the shimmer enveloped the statue and the dancing of the particles suddenly picked up speed.

 

The statue appeared to slowly explode. Miniscule bits of marble were launched in every direction as the statue morphed from a depiction of a tall stately figure to an unrecognizable chunk of stone gradually shrinking amidst the cloud of debris. By the time the transport shimmer moved away, there was no statue left... only the last bits and pieces ricocheting off the walls. It had been completely torn apart.

 

The image eventually stilled, and a short silence that followed was broken by Rufus' voice. "We recovered this from Quantus' study shortly after his desertion. Little attempt was made to conceal it. It reveals that, even years before he left us, he was teaching his most valued apprentices to turn their talents to murder and destruction."

 

Elias looked down at the old man. His expression was unreadable, but there seemed to be a very deep sadness lingering behind his crystal-blue eyes. As Elias looked back at the image where the marble statue once stood, he could see where such sadness might originate...