Tevun-Krus #100

4 - The One Crux - @RainerSalt - KrusPunk

The One Crux

By RainerSalt

"Thou shall not pass!"

The alien who had uttered these words glowered down at Jim, brandishing a lightsaber in each one of its three hands.

"Really?" Jim's despair faded for a moment, dwarfed by the sheer absurdity of the situation. "Did you learn your English from Lord of the Rings?"

The alien frowned. "What's wrong with that? It's one of your finest works."

"Yeah, right, but..." Knowing the alien had a point there, Jim decided to change the subject. "But Lord of the Rings pales beside The One Crux. And..." He took a deep breath because this was what he had come for. "... The One Crux is ours, not yours."

"It was yours. But you've forfeited your right to keep it." It pointed a thumb at the crystal tower it guarded. Then it crossed its sabers in perfect six-fold symmetry. "We are its guardians now. And you, you go back to the shadows you came from."

Jim was tempted to run, daunted not only by the alien's weapons but by the muscles bulging beneath the creature's black scales and by the three sharp-tipped horns crowning its bone-crusted head. But running was not an option. If he returned empty-handed, the president would throw him into the prison camps on Terra Brutta, and his wife and seven kids would face starvation.

He just had to get into that tower. There, The One Crux was waiting for him to take it. "We created it millennia ago. We hold all rights to it."

"Do not talk legalese to me, human. You are not worthy of The One Crux. Yes, your species has created it, and it is the best you have ever produced. It is even the best in the whole universe. But you humans, you are barbarians. All you do is war among yourself, kill each other, and destroy any beauty you have ever crafted. This is why we have taken it. To safeguard its perfection and to protect it from annihilation." The alien swung its middle saber, missing Jim's nose by a hair. "And now run, you fool."

The creature was right, Jim had to admit. Humanity had a gift for blunder and a tendency to follow idiots.

Yet he would not let this go. He would rather die than return without his prize. "But we've learned from the mistakes in our past."

The alien snorted, raining a spray of boogers on Jim. "That's what you always say." It raised its two outer arms as if preparing to smite the human.

Knowing he'd have nothing to deflect the incoming blows, he racked his brain for a way out.

For anything to save the lives of his wife and children. To go back to them. To join in their love and laughter as they huddled around U-tub watching...

That was it.

"Wait!" He dug into his pocket and retrieved his iTub. "If you think The One Crux is among the best the whole universe ever created, you're wrong. There's something much better."

His enemy barked a laugh. "What a wimot poop. Better than The One Crux? There's no such thing."

Fumbling desperately, Jim started U-tub on his iTub, activated its holoprojector, and placed the device on the ground. A 3D video came to life right between Jim and his adversary.

The alien squinted at the projection. "What is this?"

In the video, a cat tried to squeeze itself into an upright cardboard tube. Doing so, it and the tube fell over.

"It's a kitten," Jim said. "They live with humans."

The alien grunted as the animal now tried to enter from one end, pushing the tube away. It followed, pusher and pushee going faster and faster until the latter hit a wall.

"Oops." The alien chuckled.

The collision with the wall stopped the tube, and inertia carried the kitten's forepaws and head right into it.

"Wow!" The alien sat down, its eyes glued to the scene before it.

"Just wait. It gets even better." Jim took a step to the side, and another one, but the alien did not heed him.

Only the kitten's pedaling hind legs and tail still emerged from the cardboard, and the tube rolled over.

The alien pointed a lightsaber at the projection. "Hey, look at this!" It laughed when the animal kicked air.

Jim slid past his adversary as the cat uttered a desperate meow. Then he ran, leaving an unhappy feline and its guffawing audience behind him.

The crystal tower was a mere stone's throw away, and he reached its wide-open door in a few heartbeats. As he entered, he cast a glance back.

The cat now had managed to stand on its hind legs, with its fore half still trapped in the tube. The alien was shaking with laughter.

In the tower, a spiral stairway of shimmering obsidian led upwards.

Jim didn't hesitate. Up and up he went, round and round, until he reached a platform at the top. Around him, the transparent walls offered a breathtaking view of the jungles of Muckbottom. The sheer flanks of the Vrenelis mountain range glowed in the sunset beyond it.

But what truly drew Jim's attention was a pedestal of shimmering gold and the object placed upon it.

He stepped closer.

This was it. No doubt.

Humanity's greatest work ever.

Holding his breath in awe, Jim touched it and moved a finger along its old yet still smooth surface.

It had been forged in the depths of the ancient internet by scores of master wordsmiths. And only one copy had ever been printed before the Big Bad Reboot had destroyed all digital records. Only one embodiment remained, cast into atoms and molecules.

Made into a book.

Darkness ruled the cover. Daunting, yet drawing his gaze to a ghostly 100. And above it, the title stood strong, in white, bold letters.

THE ONE CRUX

Or, in the old tongue,

TEVUN KRUS