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Authors: Diego Valenzuela
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like a pyramid; not hanging on to anything, he was standing in the middle of the car like a thousand-pound statue. “From now until your first visit back to Roue, you will be entirely secluded in Zenith. Now sign.”
Akiva took the pen from Barnes’ hand and read the document reluctantly. Finally, Jena passed a copy to Poole and finally Ezra, so he could get to reading.
The jargon was technical and confusing, but the message was clear, and made clearer by Barnes: his life in Zenith could only exist in Zenith, and be shared only with those within Zenith. The alternative was too terrifying to consider.
Of course there was no point in trying to negotiate; the agreement was a standardized document without room to accommodate either one of them. After skimming through it, finding nothing to surprise him further, Ezra asked for the pen and signed, being the first to do so.
Barnes took the document and pen from Ezra’s hand and waited for the rest. He went back to his loop.
They were all in silence when the train came to a halt.
“Welcome to Zenith,” Barnes said and invited them to step outside.
“What is a Creux?” the tall, thin man said, and the acoustics of the enormous auditorium carried his voice.
The group had followed Barnes from the train to the auditorium, never slowing their pace. Ezra had hoped he’d get at least a glance of what the Zenith headquarters looked like, but all he managed to see were long, white hallways. They had found the auditorium ready for their orientation: four desks in the front row were ready with a bottle of water and a thick plastic-bound booklet for each.
“The Creux is a mystery. We don’t know who made them. We don’t know where they come from. All we know is what they do: They save humanity from extinction. Refer to figure 2.0 in your booklet, please,” he said.
The man giving them the lecture was Dr. Yuri Logan, and there was something about him that made Ezra uncomfortable. His hair was slicked back tightly, and a thin mustache did not flatter his pale complexion. Also, the expensive suit he wore was far too large for a man of such narrow frame.
“Figure 2.0 is a picture of the first Creux that was excavated. It was discovered twenty-seven years ago by Dr. Julian Mizrahi, who christened his discovery a Creux, after a word in a dead language meaning ‘hollow.’”
Ezra looked at the picture, which showed a man standing next to a forty-foot-tall suit of armor, surrounded by desert. The photo was captioned: DR. JULIAN MIZRAHI & CODENAME ‘FIRST SILVER’ // 6/5/504 A.F.
Was that suit of armor the Creux?
“The Creux are beings of varying sizes and shapes. Though some pieces of the Creux appear biological in nature, they are entirely covered by a hard outer shell: an exoskeleton. They possess some very unique abilities you will learn about during your time here. A total of twenty-six Creux have been excavated since First Silver, all discovered inside or close to Roue. Ever since First Silver, studies have been made to determine the suits’ origins, but nothing conclusive has been discovered— no questions ,” he said when Jena raised her hand. “Next image.”
Ezra flipped the page of the booklet. Every page was stamped with the words ZENITH in black and a large CONFIDENTIAL in red. The next photograph depicted a tiny shadow against a grainy gray background Ezra couldn’t really recognize.
“What you’re looking at is Creux model c-05, codename Vector Prima. It was discovered a few years after First Silver, and it measured thirty-seven feet in height. That photograph shows Vector Prima measuring less than a micrometer.”
“Wait, what?” The words escaped Ezra.
“Through nearly two decades of studying the Creux, we discovered their purpose: they have the ability to change in mass without losing its structural integrity or its power. They can become as small as you can appreciate in that photograph and return to its original size. Zenith was created to
Akiva took the pen from Barnes’ hand and read the document reluctantly. Finally, Jena passed a copy to Poole and finally Ezra, so he could get to reading.
The jargon was technical and confusing, but the message was clear, and made clearer by Barnes: his life in Zenith could only exist in Zenith, and be shared only with those within Zenith. The alternative was too terrifying to consider.
Of course there was no point in trying to negotiate; the agreement was a standardized document without room to accommodate either one of them. After skimming through it, finding nothing to surprise him further, Ezra asked for the pen and signed, being the first to do so.
Barnes took the document and pen from Ezra’s hand and waited for the rest. He went back to his loop.
They were all in silence when the train came to a halt.
“Welcome to Zenith,” Barnes said and invited them to step outside.
“What is a Creux?” the tall, thin man said, and the acoustics of the enormous auditorium carried his voice.
The group had followed Barnes from the train to the auditorium, never slowing their pace. Ezra had hoped he’d get at least a glance of what the Zenith headquarters looked like, but all he managed to see were long, white hallways. They had found the auditorium ready for their orientation: four desks in the front row were ready with a bottle of water and a thick plastic-bound booklet for each.
“The Creux is a mystery. We don’t know who made them. We don’t know where they come from. All we know is what they do: They save humanity from extinction. Refer to figure 2.0 in your booklet, please,” he said.
The man giving them the lecture was Dr. Yuri Logan, and there was something about him that made Ezra uncomfortable. His hair was slicked back tightly, and a thin mustache did not flatter his pale complexion. Also, the expensive suit he wore was far too large for a man of such narrow frame.
“Figure 2.0 is a picture of the first Creux that was excavated. It was discovered twenty-seven years ago by Dr. Julian Mizrahi, who christened his discovery a Creux, after a word in a dead language meaning ‘hollow.’”
Ezra looked at the picture, which showed a man standing next to a forty-foot-tall suit of armor, surrounded by desert. The photo was captioned: DR. JULIAN MIZRAHI & CODENAME ‘FIRST SILVER’ // 6/5/504 A.F.
Was that suit of armor the Creux?
“The Creux are beings of varying sizes and shapes. Though some pieces of the Creux appear biological in nature, they are entirely covered by a hard outer shell: an exoskeleton. They possess some very unique abilities you will learn about during your time here. A total of twenty-six Creux have been excavated since First Silver, all discovered inside or close to Roue. Ever since First Silver, studies have been made to determine the suits’ origins, but nothing conclusive has been discovered— no questions ,” he said when Jena raised her hand. “Next image.”
Ezra flipped the page of the booklet. Every page was stamped with the words ZENITH in black and a large CONFIDENTIAL in red. The next photograph depicted a tiny shadow against a grainy gray background Ezra couldn’t really recognize.
“What you’re looking at is Creux model c-05, codename Vector Prima. It was discovered a few years after First Silver, and it measured thirty-seven feet in height. That photograph shows Vector Prima measuring less than a micrometer.”
“Wait, what?” The words escaped Ezra.
“Through nearly two decades of studying the Creux, we discovered their purpose: they have the ability to change in mass without losing its structural integrity or its power. They can become as small as you can appreciate in that photograph and return to its original size. Zenith was created to
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