The Red Phoenix

by Alex Carter

  The creation of the Sun successfully resolved the lack of light and heat on Planet Earth. It also had a secondary benefit for the mercenaries. The indigenous population of Earth had lived their entire lives in cold, dark conditions and their bodies had never had any exposure to light or heat. When the Sun was created, they had no immunity to the withering effects of the light and heat. They were blinded by the omnipresent light and their bodies could not withstand the searing heat. The indigenous population of the Earth was wiped out almost instantly by the devastating effects of the Sun. The original inhabitants of Planet Earth were not the only casualties of the Albedo Prism. In addition to the seven planets that perished when the giant crystals were taken from them, the light that the Albedo Prism had used to create the Sun was stolen from elsewhere in the Universe. This resulted in the loss of light and heat on many other planets. The Human Race’s gain was therefore at the expense of both the indigenous species of Earth and numerous other species and planets that were unable to survive without light. The mercenaries had advised the Human leaders of these potential consequences in advance however the actual number of planets and species affected was far greater than they had estimated. The Human Race had found a way to survive but this was at the expense of almost every other planet and species in the Universe. The Human leaders were ashamed of their actions and to conceal these cataclysmic details they ordered their historians not to document what had happened.

  It was to be expunged from their history.

  Planet Earth would now be declared as the only living planet and the Human Race as the most advanced species in the universe. All the humans that were transported to Planet Earth were placed into a state of suspended animation before the journey and this ensured that they had no memory of Planet Drax. The Human leaders created back stories about the evolution of Planet Earth and new histories were invented. The message was spread that humans had evolved on Planet Earth and that it had always been their home. It was decreed that any mention of the Albedo Prism was to be permanently struck from the history books. Officially the Albedo Prism did not exist and the events never happened. The humans were never to be told of the real history of how life on Planet Earth developed.

  The humans we encountered that had heard this story dismissed it as pure fiction and mythology. They remarked upon how it was a fantastic early example of science fiction. They laughed about how it was obviously impossible for the Human Race to have come from another planet or for Earth to have been habitable without any light or heat.

  We didn’t laugh with them.

  We wept.

  We now knew the real story behind the creation of light on Planet Earth.

  So much of the information now made sense. The Humans knew exactly what they were doing when they instructed the mercenaries to create the Sun. They needed to get rid of our species in order to steal our planet. The Legend of the Albedo Prism is an accurate description of the painful events from that fateful day. The humans authorised mass murder and attempted to eradicate our entire population.

  The Human Race will pay for what it has done. We will find the Guardians of the Light and take their crystals from them. We will show no mercy. We will take back this planet and return it to a state of perpetual darkness.

  Chapter 16

  The Scottish weather returns with a vengeance on the way back to Arty’s car. The route back is downhill, but we are tired from the climb and a combination of driving rain, sleet, hailstones and an ice-cold wind make it hard work. Arty and I are drenched and exhausted by the time we reach the car. I feel frozen to the core and my hands and feet are numb with cold.

  “I’ve got a change of clothes for both of us in the car” Arty announces as she unlocks the Land Rover and pops opens the back.

  “You’re a life saver Arty” I say as I start to peel the dripping wet clothes off my soaking skin. My fingers are so cold that I am struggling to make them do what I want them to.

  Arty seems less effected by the cold than I am which is probably the direct result of years living in Scotland. She unzips a black holdall bag and starts rummaging around inside it. She finally finds what she is looking for and hands me a peach coloured jumper which has a large cartoon picture of a pig on the front. The cartoon looks like it has been drawn by a small child but is neither cute nor funny. I reluctantly take it from here and as I look in astonishment at the cartoon pig, she hands me a pair of black and white striped dungarees. Ordinarily I would not be seen dead in either of these two items but after trekking for hours in freezing, damp clothes I am genuinely grateful for both items. I use my last drop of energy to remove my saturated clothes and put on the cartoon jumper and dungarees combo. The feeling of the dry material against my cold sodden skin is bliss. Arty has also changed into dry clothes. She is now wearing a pair of combat trousers and a fluffy jumper with a photo of two West Highland Terriers on the front. We climb into the car and simultaneously let out a sigh of relief as we close the doors. There is nothing like getting back to the warmth and safety of the car after being out in the elements all day. I’m cold and tired and can’t wait to get back to the comfort of Arty’s cottage. Arty fires up the engine and executes a customary wheel spin as we screech off at top speed.

  I’m asleep before we reach the mainland.

  It’s dark when I wake up. The Land Rover is bouncing along at high speed as I focus on the light from the headlights in front of us. I attempt to make out where we are and, once I spot a couple of familiar landmarks, I am delighted to see that we are on the single-track road leading to Arty’s house.

  “How long have I been asleep” I ask.

  Before Arty has a chance to answer we are both thrown up out of our seats as the car lurches into a pothole in the road.

  “Whoa! That is a big one! I’ve been meaning to get that fixed for a while!” Arty shouts as she looks back towards the offending hole in the road. “You’ve been asleep for almost two hours dear” she says as the car continues accelerating towards the house. Arty executes a handbrake-turn-stopping-procedure and the car violently twists ninety degrees sideways, enters a skid, lifts onto its two outer tyres and thumps down to a halt outside the house.

  “Do you have to keep doing that?” I ask as I peel my face off the side window.

  “Yes!” Arty says with a smile. “It’s fun!”

  “Have you ever thought about what would happen if that goes wrong?” I ask, once again taking the reverse role of the responsible adult. “You do realise that if you don’t stop in time you will destroy both your house and your car, not to mention the risk of killing yourself in the process.”

  “Oh, don’t be so dramatic Angel” Arty replies. “I’ve only rolled this car once and it was actually quite good fun!” she continues nonchalantly.

  “I give up” I say to myself as we take off our seat belts and get out of the car.

  The house is beautifully warm as we enter and there is a delightful smell of home cooked food.

  “I put a broth into the Aga before we left this morning” Arty says as she heads towards the oven.

  The smell of the food makes me giddy with hunger. I have a quick wash whilst Arty sets the table. When I return to the kitchen area Arty has put out two large bowls of broth together with two small homemade loaves of bread.

  We devour our soup and bread without saying another word to each other.

  “That’s better” Arty says as she pushes her empty bowl away and sits back in her chair.

  “Absolutely” I reply, doing the same. I catch sight of the cartoon pig on my jumper. It makes me smile.

  “So, do you have any idea who Ron could be?” I ask.

  “I’ve been racking my brain for the whole of the drive home and I honestly can’t recall Lux ever mentioning anybody called Ron” Arty says with a shake of her head.

  “There must be somebody. The letter said that the invisible directive would guide our way. We’ve got the name so now all we need to do is work out who Ron is and find him.” />
  “We need to get all of your grandfather’s papers out and search through them for any mention of somebody called Ron” Arty says as she gets up and disappears into the bedroom. She returns a few moments later with a suitcase. It is an old-fashioned rectangular case with two large leather straps around the outside and looks like the sort used by explorers in old movies. The case is covered with stickers of all different shapes and sizes. Each of the stickers is emblazoned with the name of a country, a picture of a mountain or both. Across the top of the case, just below the handle, the name ‘Lux Champion’ is printed in gold letters.

  “This was the case that Lux kept all of his important papers in” Arty announces as she places it onto the table. She unbuckles the leather straps and flips the lid open. An aroma of old leather and ancient letters permeates through the room. The case is filled to the brim with papers, letters, drawings and photos, all of which look ancient. Arty picks up a photo lying at the very top of the case. It is a black and white shot of four men and three women standing at the top of a mountain. I recognise my Grandfather in the centre of the group, but I have never seen any of the others before.

  “This is the Blackout Comet Society or the Blackout Seven as I used to call them” Arty says as she hands the photo to me. “This photo was taken at the top of Ben Nevis on the one occasion that they all came to stay with us. All Seven of them were professional mountaineers. I used to pull your grandfather’s leg and say that the Blackout Comet wasn’t real and was just an excuse for a group of pen pals to justify a mountain climbing club. Lux would laugh and tell me that he’d prove me wrong the next time the Comet came back again” Arty says, breaking into a smile at the memory.

  “Can you remember all of their names?” I ask.

  “Now, let me see” Arty says as she puts her reading glasses on. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen these people, I’m not sure if I can remember all of them. OK, the first two are easy. The lady on the far left is Zina who I think lived in Nepal. Standing next to her is Sky from Argentina. She was hilarious. The next guy along with the beard, now what was his name? He had travelled from Antarctica and made me laugh by telling me how warm he thought it was in Scotland! Now, was it Luca? No. Lucio? Yes, that was it! It was Lucio. Lux is obviously the next in the line. The guy with the beard standing beside him is Titus and the huge guy at the back is Blaise. I think the young lady on the end was called Piper.”

  “Nobody called Ron then?” I ask, obviously disappointed that this has not resolved our problem.

  “No, I’m afraid not” Arty replies looking equally disappointed as she takes her reading glasses off.

  “What about a nickname? Did Grandad refer to any of them as Ron, maybe as a joke?”

  “I don’t think so Angel. As I said I don’t recall Lux ever referring to anybody as Ron.”

  “So, what now?” I ask.

  “We start working our way through this case from top to bottom to see if we can find anything relating to a Ron” Arty replies as she points to the mountain of paper in the luggage trunk. “I’ll put the kettle on; it looks like we might be in for a long night” she says as she heads over to the Aga.

  Three hours later Arty and I are surrounded by the contents of my grandad’s case. We have separated out all the letters, newspaper cuttings, drawings and photos and stacked them into different categories in date order. I have written down the name of everybody that Lux had any direct correspondence with.

  So far there is no sign of anybody called Ron.

  “So, it looks like this is the last one then” I say as I pick out the only piece of paper remaining in the case. Arty nods. It is a newspaper article from the Sydney Morning Herald from two hundred years ago. It carries the headline “Day of Darkness hits Sydney.” The article documents the full-day eclipse that took place on 31st July that year. I quickly speed-read through it. I can’t see the word Ron anywhere on the page. I file it in alongside the other articles about the last global eclipse.

  “We haven’t managed to find any reference to a single person called Ron in any of this. I’m not sure what else we can do” I say, almost to myself.

  “Hang on a minute Angel, I think I might have found something” Arty says.

  I look over and see that she is holding a small pile of letters in her hand.

  “Think back to when you dropped the ultraviolet lamp. Didn’t you say that you hadn’t scanned all of the rock and that it was possible that the message may have said more than just RON?”

  “I scanned about three quarters of the way across the surface before it fell out of my hand so it’s definitely possible that there could have been more” I reply.

  “These three letters are from different members of the Blackout Seven to Lux” Arty says as she waives the three letters in her hand. “They all refer to a meeting that Lux was arranging whilst they were all here in Scotland.”

  “But we have checked every one of those letters and there was definitely no mention of anybody called Ron” I reply.

  “I know but I’ve been reading the actual contents of what the letters are about. There is no mention of any person called Ron, but these letters relate to one of the meetings that the Blackout Seven had” Arty continues.

  “And….?” I ask.

  “The meeting was held on the Isle of Rona.”

  “So? Was Ron invited to that meeting?” I reply.

  “The Isle of Rona” Arty says once again.

  “Yes, I heard that the first time. Is there any mention of anybody called Ron being invited to the meeting?”

  “R...O...N...A...” Arty says, spelling out the letters of the word.

  “Ohhh!!!” I exclaim. “R..O..N..A!!!”

  “Do you think that the letters might have spelled RONA if the lamp hadn’t fallen out of your hand?” Arty asks.

  “Yes!” I say enthusiastically. “It definitely could have spelled RONA.”

  After the last three hours of despair I suddenly feel totally energised. I then realise that I have never heard of the Isle of Rona.

  “Wait. Have you heard of the Isle of Rona?” I ask.

  “Heard of it? We practically drove past it today dear. It’s a small island to the north east of the Isle of Skye. I don’t think anybody lives there anymore. It’s mostly used by seals and birds these days” Arty says with a grin.

  “Right well we need to go there and see what we can find. How do we get there? Is there a bridge?” I ask.

  “No, there is no bridge over to Rona but don’t worry about that. I’ll give my old friend Angus a call. He’s got a fishing boat business on Skye. I’m sure he’ll be happy to give us a ride over to Rona on one of his boats” she replies with a smile.

  “Can we go tomorrow?” I ask.

  “Of course, but before that let’s get to bed for some well-earned rest. It looks like we’ve got another day’s adventuring ahead of us tomorrow Angel!”

  “Isle of Rona here we come!” I say as we both head off to bed.

  Chapter 17

  We now know the source of the abominable light on our planet. The Albedo Prism created the light and it remains critical to its continuing presence. The Legend of the Albedo Prism states that the prism was divided into seven pieces and these pieces are now under the protection of seven individuals known as the Guardians of the Light. Our mission is to find the Guardians of the Light and take the pieces of the Albedo Prism from them. Once we have the seven pieces, we will control the source of the light on Planet Earth.

  The Legend of the Albedo Prism did not provide any information on the Guardians of the Light. No details were provided on their identity, their appearance or where they were located. Nothing was recorded and our investigations did not uncover any references to these Guardians. We had nothing tangible to work on. The trail was cold.

  We sought help.

  Our infiltration of the human world and universities meant that we had access to educated humans. As we were dealing with an ancient manuscript, we contacted the
most senior and famous archaeologist in the world and asked for his help. He was aware of The Legend of the Albedo Prism but believed that it was an urban myth invented by the followers of Voodoo in Haiti. He was dismissive when we advised him that we had discovered the only remaining copy on earth. He remained sceptical even when we gave him the book. He initially said that it was probably the best hoax he had seen during his time as an archaeologist. Despite his scepticism he undertook carbon dating and other forensic tests and took time to read and analyse the text. Following this analysis, he declared that this was, without any shadow of doubt, one of the oldest books ever written. He became overwhelmed with joy and excitement and declared The Legend of The Albedo Prism to be the most significant archaeological find of all time. He said that it provided categorical proof that all previous scientific theories about the history of the universe, Planet Earth and the Human Race were false. He wanted to organise a global press conference to report his findings to the world. This was to be the biggest archaeological discovery of all time and his name would go down in history. He wanted to re-write the history books once and for all.

  We could not let this happen.

  We had no interest in re-writing human history or revealing the sins of their past. Our agenda was to uncover information about the Guardians of the Light in order to hunt them down. We needed to avoid any undue excitement amongst the humans as this might alert the Guardians. We wanted to take the pieces of the Albedo Prism for ourselves so that we could extinguish the Sun and rid Planet Earth of humankind.

  We advised the archaeologist that we did not want any publicity and that he needed to keep the revelations contained in the book to himself. He refused to agree to this request. He advised us that it was his obligation as a Professor and a Fellow of the Royal Archaeological Institute to report his findings to the world as soon as possible. Indeed, it was his duty as a citizen of Earth to make sure that everyone knew the correct version of historic events.