124 CHAPTER 123

"Now that's a huge accusation." Kira said sitting up. "and the people will have your head on a spike if they hear that."

"I know. Vudga is the people's favorite. But when will you learn dear child that I don't make claims if I am not sure?" Clare said. She heaved and sat back, resting her body on the chair and smoking her pipe. It was as if she had forgotten about Ham and Kira in that passing moment.

"Wait," Ham rested his blue eyes on Clare, hoping to get a clear picture of what the women were saying, "You mean this machine…"

"Nebula," Clare added.

"Nebula," Ham continued, "You mean it can allow people to transport things to the other side?"

"Exactly. And that is illegal. Our people live on rare metals. That's basically our food. But Vudga had been exporting it to the other side of the world."

"That's absurd. What your tongue Clare and keep your voice down. Someone might just hear you," Kira whispered.

���It is the truth, Kira," Clare said without looking at them. Kira's warning did nothing to keep her from rattling like a machine without control. "Can you see? The famine and the hardship. What do you think is causing all of it?"

"That's how it has always been, Clare. Hear yourself talk for once." Kira stood, looking down at Ham as if telling him to talk sense into the older woman.

"I don't blame you, you have been away so many times with the Sky dancer to notice the current trend in the people. All you do is fly and fly and fly. And when you return, you act as if all is well, when the whole world is going haywire."

"Now you are making that sound like a bad thing. You and I know that going into space with Sky dancer has been our only means of survival."

"Yes, Kira. You and the rest of the crew put your life in danger every day to provide more metal food for the people. But for once, Kira." Clare sat up, this time, wearing a look that was filled with sorrow and anguish.

"It has not always been so." She continued, "That is the Vudga's doing. There is enough metal food to go round for decades. But he has been selling them and exporting every single metal to the other side of the world."

"That's not true. There is no evidence to your silly claims, Clare."

"No," Ham shook his head and the two women turned their attention to him. They had forgotten him again. But it doesn't matter at the moment. What Clare said made sense. If the Vudga was transporting metal to Anadan, then it means that every Hubot that had been created was illegal. The metal used on them was not just some common metal that might cause decay to the flesh if not tended properly. It was more like a metal mixed with some elastic properties. It would bend at will and could blend with the skin, making it the perfect material to help Hubots that have lost their body parts to accident or other hazards.

"Clare is right. I think this Vudga guy is actually transporting your food metals to our world."

"That's the evidence," Clare gurgled as if the pipe on her lips was about to choke her to death, "What other proof do you need?"

"This is hilarious. The funniest joke of the millennia." Kira frown. The chair groaned in protest as she dropped her weight on them heavily. Her pinky hands went through those dark slickly cascade that dangles loosely behind her. She was worried, and the patch forming around her eyes said it all. She must have trusted Vudga long enough to be acting as though he was a saint without a scent.

"I had my doubts before, but now I think everything is clearing up," Ham said. Kira was giving him a piercing look. He could see the fear sagging on them. The possibility of having the smallest truth in what they were saying was the only thing the girl feared at the moment. She was finding it hard to believe.

"Those metals have been used to help the less fortunate. They are being used to help those who have lost one body part or another."

"What?" Kira and Clare exclaimed simultaneously.

"You sound surprised."

"That's because we are," Kira said.

"Who attaches food on their body?" It was Clare who spoke this time.

"Well," Ham shrugged and shifted his weight to the other side. "Who eats metal?"

The women shared an understanding gaze with themselves, and as if they had been waiting for him to say that, they both burst like a bag of laughter. It was awkward, but Ham was glad because of the comfort which was returning to the room. He couldn't have imagined it if they had decided to kill him or worst, hand him over to the authority to be tortured again in that green cube machine.

The thought of the machine-made his emotion stir into a gloomy one. He couldn't imagine the agony and the risk of dying and resurrecting again.

"We must act fast," Clare said. She was holding something in her hands now. It looked like a dueling cane, but much more advanced and electronic. Its body held different bulbs and on the apex, where it had swollen like a bud, were two coiled rings, hanging freely over each other.

"If we must find Nebula, then must act today. We must find it and find a way to preserve the life of the people before the great destruction comes."

"The great destruction?" Ham asked, this time, he was the one wearing a worried look.

"You haven't told him?" Clare asked, watching Kira from the corner of her eyes as if she had grown a second head. With the dueling cane object in her hand, she touched the scroll on the table, and it folded into the cane as if it was sucked in by an unseen force.

"There is a prophecy," Kira said, ignoring Clare.

"Prophecy," Ham repeated. He closed his eyes and tried with a failed attempt to remember how many times the word showed in the library of his father. He was beginning to hate the word. Prophecy. It was the same word that Leonard and Raz had used to brainwashed Jeff and Ema, making them believed some fables that had been told by some insane people. That had led to the death of Jeff and Ema.

"Yes." Kira nodded. She was looking at her pipe now, not sure if she to light them again or let them remain at bay for the moment. "It was said that The One who comes with the sun will liberate our people. He will unite us and bring destroy Lord Vortex once and for all. But that will be after great destruction by Lord Vortex himself."

"No way," Ham chuckled at their foolishness. "You mean to tell me that I am the one who comes with the sun?"

"Yes, boy." Clare smiled. "You have fulfilled nine of the prophecy so far. Remaining two"

Ham shook his head in disagreement. He was a nobody, and there was nothing special about him. Jeff was the one that has prophecy hanging all about him. Perhaps he was the one these people were waiting for, not him.

"There must be a mistake somewhere. I don't think I am the one. I don't have what it takes."

"Yes, you do." Clare sucked her pipe away. She pointed the dueling cane she was holding to the table and pushed one of the buttons on it. The object clicked and slowly, two brown scrolls purged out from the cane, unfolding in their wake as they settled on the table. Clare picked one of the scrolls and tucked it into her clothes.

"That's your copy, my dear. Save us from the hands of the Vudga."

"Please," Ham said, standing up from his seat. He would not raise these people's hope by giving them false impressions of what he barely knows about.

"I don't think I am the one you have been looking for. But I have a friend, however, whom the prophecy in Anadan had foretold will destroy Lord Vortex. This had nothing to do with me. I am not him."

"The prophecy foretold that one of our own will find you," Clare said, looking amused by Ham's character.

"And I found you," Kira said weakly.

"Does the prophecy also said that I can run away if I like?"

"You can," Clare laughed, "But that will mean exposing yourself to the people and kissing going back to your world bye. The choice is yours and yours alone. You can run out of the street, the door is wide open. Or you could stay and help us fend off the threats that are coming to our land by helping us retrieve Nebula."

Ham bit his lower lips. He stared at the door. It was the road to freedom, but he would be bound to this world forever. 

"Okay," He said, turning back to Clare and Kira. "I will be your hero, but that's as long as until we retrieve Nebula. I will be gone after that."

"That's a fair deal, my dear," Clare puffed the smoke and watched them as they dwindle in the air, "Let's hope fate does not have anything install for you."

Ham shivered. The way the woman had said those last words, it was as if she knew what was going to happen to him but had refused to tell him.