Aedlem hurried to the prearranged meeting place at the city center, hoping with all his heart that Selnem and Jerin were still alive and able to meet him there. According to the predetermined organization, each detention facility’s rebellion cell met at a different staging area, to keep the crowds manageable, and at each location they received the same instructions for the next phase of the liberation of their planet.
The plan was to use the Kkàc technology against them. Commandeering their weapons and armed vehicles, they would storm the nearest city in a surprise assault. With each successful battle, their momentum would roll on to the next city, and the next, until all of Panlithia was free again.
The final phase involved driving the orbital vessels away, but Jerin had yet to reveal how that feat would be accomplished.
Aedlem set aside thoughts of the next battle for now, dodging in and out of the crowd to find his son and friend. Joyful reunions sprung up all around him as loved ones found each other safe and sound. Intermixed with the happy sighs were isolated instances of weeping, as loved ones learned of family members who had not lived through the uprising. Staying focused, Aedlem turned his head back and forth, scanning the faces as he pushed gently through the throng, trying to catch a glimpse of the tall, handsome Selnem or the man who he knew to be a god, Jerin.
“Aedlem.” The unmistakably calm voice came from his right.
Aedlem turned and smiled in relief. “Jerin! I am so pleased to see you. Have you seen Selnem?”
“No, but he is alive, and he is here somewhere,” said Jerin.
Given Aedlem’s experience with Jerin’s uncanny ability to see beyond the natural, he was instantly relieved to hear the news.
“Oh, thank the Ghosts,” said Aedlem.
“You can thank us later, friend,” said Jerin.
“Father!”
Selnem ran to Aedlem and embraced him, this time much stronger and warmer than the last. As they stepped back, a young woman appeared behind Selnem. Selnem reached out instinctively and took her hand, bringing her forward to stand beside him. “This is Vesagh,” he said. “Vesagh, this is my father, Aedlem, and Jerin, the leader of the liberation.”
Aedlem could see from Selnem’s smile that he was in love.
“I have heard many good things about you, Aedlem,” said Vesagh. “And Jerin, we owe you so much.”
“Vesagh fought at my side,” said Selnem. “She has the courage of ten men, and a heart of gold.”
“Even though I’m one of those no-good believers,” said Vesagh, joking.
“Even though,” said Selnem, pulling her around the waist and drawing her close to his side.
“You are a believer?” asked Aedlem, his face lighting up.
“Our entire resistance cell is – well, except for Selnem – but we’re working on him,” she said with a smile.
Aedlem made a quick study of his son’s face after that comment, and was pleasantly surprised to see that Selnem did not seem put off by it. Of course, it could’ve just been that he was in love, but Aedlem hoped it was something more than that.
“Come,” said Jerin. “We must organize and move quickly, before the Kkàc can regroup.”
The three moved toward a damaged monument in the center of the courtyard, and stepped up on the base of it to stand two heads above the crowd.
“Everyone listen,” called Jerin, having the amazing ability to raise his voice without sounding like he was yelling. Equally amazing, his words resonated and carried to the furthest members of the crowd, despite the considerable noise. In moments, the crowd was silent. “I am Jerin.”
A soft murmur of recognition moved through the square. Everyone knew his name as the leader of the rebellion, but few outside his inner circle had laid eyes on him.
“I commend you for your valor this day. But it is not over, yet. This is General Selnem and Colonel Vesagh,” said Jerin, indicating the two people standing next to him. Selnem and Vesagh were bewildered to have suddenly acquired ranks, but they understood Jerin’s motive and hid their surprise. “Do you want to be free?”
The crowd roared “Yes!”
“Do you want to rid this world of the oppressors?”
“Yes!” was the unified cry.
“Then you will listen to General Selnem,” said Jerin.
Jerin turned to Selnem and spoke to him in his normal, quiet voice. “General, command your troops.”
Selnem stepped forward and began calling out instructions, organizing the people into units with commanding officers for each, taking Jerin’s cue and following the Panlithian military format.
Jerin stepped over to Aedlem and whispered, “He will be an excellent leader for the New Panlithia.”
Aedlem just smiled and nodded, watching his son work, pleased with the transformation he was witnessing.
#
Under the leadership of General Selnem, the Panlithians marched from city to city, defeating the Kkàc with their own weapons. With each victory, the Panlithians seized more and more armaments and gained more and more soldiers for the next fight. As Selnem and Vesagh coordinated the effort, with some guidance from Jerin, they grew even closer. Between the influence of Vesagh, Aedlem, and Jerin, not to mention the growing number of believers he commanded, Selnem was truly starting to have a change of heart. Things were looking up – and maybe they did have the Ghosts to thank.
#
The final battle for Panlithia was to retake Aedlem’s own city in Panlithia Minor. Aedlem asked to be given command of a unit. Although he was aging, and had only had minor roles in most of the fighting over the last three months, his heart was on fire and he was determined to be involved in reclaiming his own home. As such, Selnem gave him charge of the battalion that was to take the south end of the city, marching on two detention facilities.
This battle would be different than the others. Intelligence reports indicated that all the remaining Kkàc on the surface of the planet were holed up in the detention facilities of this city. They had executed every last Panlithian slave to crush any chance of rebellion from within, and had taken up a strong defensive position. Having lost every battle, despite sending reinforcements from their orbital vessels, the Kkàc were making their final stand here. This last battle would surely be bloody and drawn out, but in the end, Panlithia would be free.
Aedlem led his battalion around the city to approach from the south. This was to be a multi-pronged, timed assault. By slightly staggering the attacks, Jerin hoped to drive the Kkàc to the center of the city, where they would be contained, surrounded by a New Panlithian Army that was hundreds of thousands strong and ready to fight to the death.
Aedlem’s contingent was to strike when the first sun reached zenith. As the time neared, the entire battalion offered up a silent prayer to the Aliens of the Sky. Aedlem directed his prayer to Jerin in particular. Whatever happens, may my son live, and learn to love the Ghosts.
#
Jerin watched from the vantage point of a destroyed temple near the center of the city. Everything was going according to plan. The Panlithians were saving themselves, using their own strength, their own will, their own leadership, their own desire for freedom. People were helping each other and showing kindness to one another, even in the most difficult of circumstances. The humbling hardships were causing people to rise above and conquer not only their enemies, but their own darker sides. A massive resurgence of faith had taken hold, and it drove the people to success.
Hordes of Panlithians had forced the Kkàc to the center of town, using the aliens’ own equipment and weapons. Soldiers in vehicles mounted with massive energy pulse cannons led the charge, followed by hundreds of troops on foot, wielding handheld lasers. The final fight was a vicious one – but in the end, the Kkàc were simply overwhelmed and fell to the powerful Panlithian spirit.
Jerin himself stayed out of the fighting, according to the mandate of his people. He was allowed to influence the Pan
lithians, but not to truly participate in a physical way. Despite his separation from his people, he honored that arrangement, and continued to have hope that the Panlithians would grow sufficiently in faith to help him make it back to his own kind.
When it was clear that it was over, he made his way to the battlefield and sought Selnem and Aedlem. He quickly sensed trouble, and went to where he knew he would find his companions – the emergency meeting place - Aedlem’s old home.
The small, old cottage was not too far from the center of town, in what used to be an outlying district, before the city had grown so much. It bore the marks of the occupation – overgrown garden, broken windows, charred eaves – but was still intact and looked as though it could be habitable with a little work.
Jerin entered through the broken front door and took a seat in the main room. The house was empty, but would not be that way for long.
Within minutes, Selnem kicked in the door, a body stretched across his blood-covered arms. His face was battered, his clothes torn, and his legs were starting to buckle under the strain of his load. He staggered in and laid the broken body of his father at the feet of Jerin, tears streaming down his face.
“They killed him,” he said, not lifting his eyes from Aedlem’s body. “He’s gone. And all his faith cannot save him now.”
Jerin looked down at Aedlem piteously. “He was a good man, Selnem. His faith was not in vain. Panlithia is free.”
“And he is dead!” yelled Selnem. “Where is the freedom he earned for himself? I do not understand – I do not understand.” He shook his head woefully. “The irony is, now that I believe, he is not here to share with me in the joy of my conversion. He could finally have what he always wanted, but, now -”
“Wait here,” said Jerin. He bent and lifted Aedlem, seemingly without effort, and carried him to another room, closing the door softly.
Selnem was confused, but too grief-stricken to even try to figure out what was going on. In this sudden moment of solitude, he remembered how his mother would pray, and got on his back, facing the ceiling, and called out silently to the Aliens of the Sky, begging for a miracle.
It seemed like a long time passed. At the sound of footsteps, Selnem opened his eyes. Had he fallen asleep, or merely into a deep meditation? The footfalls, it turned out, were not from within the house, but without. He heard the person step onto the fallen front door and into the passageway, and he sat up.
“Vesagh!”
They had become separated toward the final stages of the fight. Both had feared the other dead.
“Selnem, I was so worried,” she said, rushing into his arms.
“Perhaps the Ghosts have answered my prayers, after all,” said Selnem.
“You were praying to the Aliens of the Sky?” asked Vesagh. “So, you are now a believer?”
“You knew it was just a matter of time,” said Selnem. He grew sober and looked at the floor. “As did my father.”
Seeing Selnem’s face grow cold, Vesagh asked, “Aedlem? Is he -”
“Dead.”
At that moment, before the news even had time to sink in for Vesagh, a door opened to the main room, and a glowing figure stepped out. His white hair seemed to gently flow as if underwater. Light emanated from his flesh like a beacon. But the most astounding thing was his face – it was the face of Aedlem.
“F-Father?”
“Yes, Selnem, it is me.” His voice sounded melodic, and calm-yet-powerful.
“Are you – are you dead?”
“I live.”
“How?”
“Jerin. He heard your faithful prayer.”
“Where is he?” asked Vesagh, managing to overcome her awe enough to loose her tongue.
“Gone. Jerin infused me with his own life force. He transferred his energy to me, restoring me – but sacrificing himself. The process was fatal for him. He gave his life that I might live – indeed that I might live forever. I am now as the Ghosts.”
“Jerin was a Ghost?” asked Selnem. As the words came out of his mouth, he realized he had already known the answer. He wasn’t sure when he had known, but for some time he had at least consciously suspected Jerin to be more than a Raath agent. Subconsciously, his heart told him Jerin was not of this world. As he stared at his metamorphosed father, waves of peace and joy began to flow over him.
“The Lone Ghost,” whispered Vesagh. “The Only was real. And we knew him!”
“But what of the Aliens of the Sky?” asked Selnem. “I know now that they are real, that they were really here in the past. But, are they coming back?”
“Jerin told me,” said Aedlem, “that immediately following the final battle, there was such an outpouring of faith among our people that he was able to use that energy to contact his own people, the Aliens of the Sky. They told him that they had won the battle in space against the Kkàc, and would soon return to destroy the Kkàc that encircle our planet in their space vessels. But once they were done with that, the war would be over, and they would move on, never to return.”
“Never return?” said Vesagh with alarm. “But why?”
“We no longer need them,” said Aedlem. “There are other worlds they intend to watch over. Ours has found its way again. They simply intend to install me as their sole representative here in the new era to come.”
“You will be the leader of our people?” asked Selnem.
“No, you will,” said Aedlem. “I will be the New Lone Ghost. But you, my son, are to reign in the liberated New Panlithia in the wake of your victorious rebellion. With your success as a leader in this war, and as one of the youngest people to abandon the New Way and become a New Believer, you are the ideal person to lead our people.”
“So the Ghosts will never return?” asked Vesagh, still trying to accept this rocking of her faith.
“They have fulfilled their purpose and started a new cycle of life for Panlithia,” said Aedlem. “But that does not mean Panlithians should abandon their faith. Believe in the Aliens of the Sky, and believe in the Ghosts. Their influence, love, guidance and protection will always live.”
Selnem and Vesagh were speechless.
“And to help perpetuate their influence, I have a task for you, Selnem. In the woods, about six pastures west of here, you will find a hidden cave. Inside are several volumes of the writings of Jerin. His words will form a basis for the New Faith. Bring them forth and share them with the world, and Jerin will live on through your efforts.”
With that, Aedlem embraced his son, and then stepped outside and slowly ascended into the Panlithian sky. Selnem and Vesagh stood holding each other, watching as this god floated upward. His light grew as he rose, becoming a bright orb to light the world for generations to come.
THE END
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