Sci-Ops- Nova

by Jedi Reach

  - Adron Von Aegis

  **************

  Jace went to see Xenia in her quarters during nighttime after he completed his round of work. The Scion entered the alien beauty’s room and found her looking over the moonlit ocean by the balcony. Xenia’s blindfold was missing. Her glowing eyes were a source of light even when Jace approached her from behind. Xenia felt his presence coming closer and allowed him to wrap his arms around her waist.

  “It’s been a long day, how are you holding?” she reached back and caressed his face.

  “I’m good.” Jace kissed her neck and sighed contently.

  Xenia turned around; her glowing eyes engrossed in Jace’s. The Scion looked directly into her eyes, knowing full well the heights he’d experience from such exposure, yet neither of them seemed to care. Xenia needed Jace there with her in that moment and Jace needed his other half.

  “You good for this right now?” Jace asked.

  “I am.” Xenia leaned forward and kissed Jace. As the two locked in an embrace, time and space shifted around them, their powers colliding to create a spectacular lightshow. In their world Site X evaporated. There was no military base, no weapons, no scientists, no Adron. Everything around them transformed into a scene akin to the Garden of Eden – a paradise for the two to make love alone, freed from their arduous duties; at least if only for this night.

  **************

  Jace and Xenia woke up some hours later, both their powers still sustaining the heavenly environment around them as they laid curled in each other’s arms.

  “Jace?” Xenia called.

  The Nova Leader listened; his eyes shut as his forehead rested against his lover’s.

  “Do you think one day we could have this?” Xenia asked.

  “Heaven? I already do every day with you, even in the dark times.” Jace smiled.

  Xenia blushed.

  “That’s not what I meant. I mean to be normal.”

  “Normal?” Jace opened his eyes.

  “Yes, simply this. The place doesn’t matter as long as I have you. Just a time without missions; a time without powers and weapons, and a time without alien invasions or federations. A time when we can just be a man and a woman. Normal.”

  “It’s interesting you’d want that.”

  “Why?”

  “Because look at you. You’re far from normal and yet such a powerful being as yourself wants what any woman would want.”

  “Don’t you?”

  “Of course I do. I might be a Scion but I’m still a man. Still a human like you. Yeah, I’d love if we could just go out to some random diner and order a coffee and a tea. Maybe some burgers or something; I don’t know – the point is, I’d love if there could be a time when we could just be a man and a woman. Nothing less and nothing more. As long as I have you.”

  “What would the rest of the Nova crew think if they knew you were so romantic behind closed doors?” Xenia teased.

  “I don’t know, and I don’t care. The love I have for you keeps me going keeps me going and it’s why I can never give up and never surrender.”

  “Never give up, never surrender.” Xenia pondered on his words and became visibly disturbed.

  “What’s wrong?” Jace noticed.

  “It’s my brother. He won’t stop. He really won’t give up or surrender. Not until Adron is arrested or killed, and I have a bad feeling about it all.” Xenia said.

  “Tell me.” Jace said.

  “After Lars is done dealing with Adron he’s coming to deal with us.” Xenia replied.

  “What do you mean by deal with us?” Jace asked.

  “Part of Lars’ mission is to eradicate all traces of virol, including the strain we have. I said deal with because maybe reason can prevail. Scott has made remarkable progress in his work after all.”

  Jace thought over everything carefully.

  “It’s interesting how this is unfolding and where everyone stands. Adron contacted me you know.”

  “I could sense your thoughts were strange earlier, but I didn’t imagine you became so adept at your mental blocks. Soon I may not be able to read any of your thoughts.” Xenia quizzed.

  “I didn’t want to disturb you prematurely without understanding it myself.”

  “I understand. What did Adron tell you?”

  “It seemed he wanted reason. Perhaps a resolution.” Jace held Xenia’s hand and placed it on his temple. Xenia gained full telepathic access to Jace’s earlier encounter.

  “I see,” Xenia said, absorbing the information. “How do you want to proceed?”

  “There are always two sides to a coin, Xenia. For now, we must be patient. It could be a trap.”

  “What about my brother?”

  “We’ll deal with Lars when the time comes. For now, let’s see what Scott has in the morning.” Jace replied.

  “Alright, but Jace?” Xenia reached for his arm. “Promise me something.”

  “What is it?” Jace quizzed.

  “You won’t go alone again. You won’t shut me out. I’m no longer a dream, I’m here with you now. You understand?” Xenia squared her lover in the eyes fiercely. She meant business. Jace held her hand with his and stared her in the eyes seriously.

  “I promise.” he replied.

  Xenia smiled.

  **************

  Morning came and the Nova Leaders went to Scott and his team of scientists inside one of the test facilities. Scott was noticeably happy upon the leaders’ arrival. He bolted toward them with a fat smile, his excitement bubbling for all to see.

  “What’s got you so fired up?” Jace asked.

  “Think you two are gonna’ like this.” Scott said.

  Xenia and Jace glanced at each other.

  “What do you have to show us?” Xenia asked.

  “Come.” Scott led the way into another room.

  Inside the room was dark though there was an observatory glass that peered into another room with very bright spotlights, and in the middle of the room, a glass-shaped ball filled with virol hovered above the ground. A team of scientists were busy monitoring various computers that displayed several readings.

  “Alright Larry,” Scott pressed a button on one of the nearby keyboards which allowed a radio inside the other room. “Show us what Agent-Y can do.”

  Larry, along with multiple other men in biohazard suits, entered the other room from another opening carrying a large case with them. They opened the case and a glass ball containing white goo floated out of the box. Larry tinkered with some buttons on a remote device which acted as input controls for the new ball. He steered the new ball next to the virol-contained ball.

  The virol-ball suddenly jolted, then magnetized toward the new ball next to it. Both balls seemed to be attracted to each other and there was a calmness to the usual volatile virol substance. The virol seemed almost pacified to the white matter while the white matter itself was always pacified.

  “Son of a bitch,” Jace smiled and shook his head. “We can control it now?”

  Scott beamed at his work. “That’s right.”

  CHAPTER 18

  Stone, Bakker and a group of men in black were gathered in a meeting room where a live stream of a man in his 60s was being broadcasted. The atmosphere was tense. After all, this was the usual CIA protocol of navigating through lies; survival of the fittest.

  “Bakker tells me the Scions have their own strain of the alien bioweapon,” Fisher, the man in the stream, said to the group. “Seems you’ve become trusting of them Stone.”

  Bakker, along with the other men in black, peered at their superior. It was truly a dog eat dog world and in Stone’s line of work, he was no stranger to it. The thought of the conversation he and Jace had some days prior about the damned came back to him.

  “Well, well, well Fisher. We are talking about the same Scions that aided us in arresting the rogues. I’d say they deserve an inkling of trust if we’re supposed to be deploying them. I trust you to get your end do
ne. Don’t you trust me?”

  “With all due respect sir, we trusted Lea. We raised her and she betrayed us. What makes the rest of them any different?” Bakker butted in.

  All eyes were on Stone after Bakker dropped that bomb. Stone glanced at Bakker and realized his once loyal subordinate was blatantly gunning for a higher paygrade.

  “Scions are dangerous, they can’t be trusted. If we can’t control them then we can’t use them. Whose side are you really on?” Bakker added.

  “What do you have to say about that Stone?” Fisher asked.

  Stone lit up a cigarette and blew the smoke out of his nose.

  “The way they now is our fault.” Stone replied.

  “Our fault?” Fisher folded his arms.

  “We may have power over the whole world but we’re still human. We’ve made mistakes. If our solution is to destroy everything we created, then what have we learned? Everything that has happened has been an inevitability of the programs we started.”

  Suddenly the lights went off and the live stream of Fisher ended. A thunderous boom echoed in the distance. The backup power kicked in and base’s alarms went off.

  “We’re under attack?!” Bakker blurted, confused and appalled by the possibility. Stone tried accessing his holographic interface from the panel on the meeting table, but nothing happened. The systems were fried.

  “Stone?” Bakker sounded worried.

  Stone got to his feet and grabbed his sidearm.

  “Let’s move.” he commanded his men.

  **************

  In another section of the same base which Xenia was kept in before she rejoined Nova, Victoria, an imprisoned Scion, moved to her prison door to figure out what was going on. She looked through the tiny glass window and saw panicked staff running down the hallways, the sounds of automatic rifles firing behind them. Anxiety rushed into the Scion. She didn’t want to go out in a box without a chance to fight. Victoria’s room, along with the rest of the imprisoned, were encased in bioelectromagnetic oscillators that pacified psionic powers.

  The chaos outside Victoria’s cell gradually faded and an eerie quiet crept in. Victoria backed away from her door; frightened by the ominous presence drawing closer. The window she looked through turned black and seconds later, the door exploded open. Victoria screamed as a tall, dark shadow walked in with red eyes, unaffected by the psionic countermeasures. He waved his hand at the psionic binds on the wall and they faded to dust. Victoria felt her powers quickly returning to her as she stared at the shadow man, confused.

  Why wasn’t he attacking?

  Lea walked into the room and moved in front of Adron.

  “Unit 14. Victoria?” Lea asked.

  “That’s me?” Victoria said, her heart throbbing through her chest.

  “Are you ready to get out of here?” Lea continued.

  **************

  Stone and Bakker accompanied by a squadron of armed men in black moved down the corridors of the Arizona base to find body after body of staff personnel, trashed equipment and spent bullet shells.

  “Permission to use lethal, sir?” Bakker asked starkly.

  A monstrous roar echoed from behind the squadron. They spun around, guns drawn to find Unit 6, a berserk Scion with seething fangs, growling at them about a room away. Bakker opened fire, followed by the rest of the men in black. Unit 6 retreated and leapt away.

  The squadron chased him, turned the corner, and noticed he was nowhere to be found. Unit 6 scaled the ceiling and jumped behind them, howled, and blue flames covered his entire body. By the time they turned to fire at him, Unit 6 unleashed a hellish blast of fire that engulfed the room.

  Stone and Bakker barely dodged the line of fire in the nick of time while their men burned to crisp from the ambush. Stone fired from a safe distance at Unit 6 while Bakker fled the scene. More soldiers rushed into the vicinity, guns drawn and firing with Stone. The pyromaniac leapt into the shadows, thrusted back from the heavy firepower coming at him.

  A terrifying scream echoed throughout the base and penetrated the ears of all the soldiers, including Stone and even fleeing Bakker who fell to the ground holding his head, writhing in agony. Stone knew exactly who was doing it the moment it happened. Victoria alongside Adron and Lea appeared behind him. Stone pushed himself to get up. He struggled to get to his feet as he noticed the trio.

  “Lea.” Stone called.

  “Father.” Lea replied.

  “Don’t do this.” Stone pleaded.

  “Do what?” Lea asked, stepping away from her new allies toward her father without an ounce of fear.

  “Whatever you’re planning. It’s not worth the blowback.”

  “Lea, we must get going. Is the other one going to come?” Adron asked.

  “Wait a moment, please,” Lea turned to Adron before facing her father again. “You say it’s not worth the blowback. Was I worth the blowback?” Lea asked.

  “Yes, even if it was my fault. Don’t repeat my mistakes.” Stone replied.

  Lea had psyched herself up for the time she’d confront her father and as the moment unraveled, she found herself surprisingly conflicted. Everything she learned was from him.

  Why was he saying that now?

  A flaming hand penetrated Stone from behind and went through his chest.

  “No!!!!!!!” Lea screamed as her father fell to the ground lifelessly. Unit 6 backed away and looked at the fallen Stone in disbelief he had actually done what so many Scions over the years had dreamed of doing. Lea marched directly at the pyromaniac and decked him in the face.

  “You idiot! Why did you do that?!” she shouted.

  Unit 6 twitched with rage. Adron discerned where things were going and using his lightning speed, stepped in between the two of them.

  “Enough!” the overlord bellowed. “We’ll deal with this later. Lea, get us out of here.”

  Victoria overheard the footsteps of more soldiers coming with her finetuned hearing.

  “We can’t hold here forever.” she added.

  Lea stared into Unit 6’s eyes, enraged, and reluctantly opened a portal to her right.

  “We’re not finished with this yet.” she said to Sven.

  “Let’s go.” Adron led the way into the portal.

  Victoria and Sven followed.

  Lea walked to the portal, halted, then looked back at her father. She could see he was barely breathing. Looking at him made Lea reflect over the path she took. She had tried so hard to get away from her father and the evils that was done to her, and yet, she was there thinking on their differences.

  Did the apple really fall that far from the tree?

  “I just wanted to be free.” Lea said to her father, then left.

  **************

  Lea exited her portal into a safe vicinity she and Adron had been using after Lars’ last attack; a cavern in a snowy, mountainous range in Russia. Victoria and Sven were trying to make sense of their new surroundings. The cavern was covered in virol, a process Adron performed to keep the place warm in addition to sensing any possible intruders from miles away through its radiations. The virol also provided bioluminescence, allowing the cavern’s inhabitants sight.

  “Why did you do that?” Lea asked Sven.

  “Why didn’t you?! So many of us he locked up and used for his experiments. All these years you had the chance to kill him and you didn’t!” Sven growled at her.

  “You moron! If you really think my father is the sole reason we were locked up then you’re out of your fucking mind!” tears streamed down Lea’s face as she yelled.

  “Enough,” Adron stepped in between them and glared at Lea. “Lea, I understand what this means to you but there are more serious matters at hand. It won’t be long before The Hunter finds us again.”

  Lea closed her eyes and shook her head.

  “I’m sorry…” she wiped her cheeks, looked at Adron and took a quick breath to refresh herself and stay on course. She didn’t want to show any more weakness.
“…what about the stargates? He destroyed them, didn’t he?”

  “Yes, but he is using an interstellar ship. It won’t take him very long to return to earth.”

  “What should we do?” Lea wondered.

  Adron turned to the two new Scions.

  “You two,” he gazed at them. “Your freedom will not be so easy. There are forces coming after us.”

  “What do you want from us?” Victoria asked.

  “What do you want for yourself?” Adron retorted.

  “To be free. For real this time.” Victoria said.

  “Freedom.” Sven grunted in agreement.

  Adron pointed outside the cavern.

  “If you want to go out there on your own, feel free. You are not prisoners here.”

  Victoria and Sven looked at each other and wondered what they should do. Sven’s face made it seem he was about to take the chance and book it, but Victoria scolded him with her eyes. Adron and Lea freed the two, wasn’t that at least some reason to hear them out before bailing?

  “Be warned. The forces coming after you will not rest until you are captured again. What I want is what you want – true freedom without any pursuers and without anyone to slave for. I propose to you what I proposed to Lea. We leave this world and never come back. We find a place where our kind will be accepted and if we can’t find a place, we make one.” Adron said.

  Victoria laughed.

  “You can’t be serious. Are you?” she asked.