by Beth Hoyer
grimace on the man’s face and hands in fists which he continues to watch and then Jinks abruptly sits up awake and appearing to be gulping air which he frowns as an image of a tapestry looking old flashes in his mind which he sees a picture of a man on it wearing clothing that look medieval and the man has Jinks’ face which he frowns wondering why he’s getting that image till he stiffens of shock as another memory comes to his mind. He sees in the mind a memory of living with the Zeskys while a few days after being found by Vladimir exploring the house comes to the third floor to hear chanting noises which he goes up the stairs slowly to spot Vladimir and Beata with Katherine all in a kneeling pose backs to him all facing a tapestry hung on a wall. He sees the tapestry is of a man wearing medieval clothing with Jinks’ face. He continues to watch with a frown while feeling confused as the three continued chanting their words in a language he later learned was Russian.
Alexei frowns as the words in Russian come to his mind which he stiffens hearing the words are the Zeskaya chant words of “Ay Kabaiya, we will live forever, live forever."
He frowns some more as another memory comes to his mind which he recalled after Katherine had her son who was a year old he was brought to the attic room and shown the tapestry and told that the man in the tapestry was called the Master an immortal all knowing king who rules with a gentle hand and that when he communicates its through people who’s eyes that turn night sky colored and a different voice tone. Alexei frowns of the memories turns eyes the door but his feet refuses to move and he hears male voices sounding like the elementals ordering him not to go into the room till after the storm is over with. He feels confused hears a gasp sound and looks at his right to see Lisha standing next to him her eyes staring at the monitors with shock on her face. He signs a question of what got her shocked which she signs that her father showed her a tapestry looking old of a male with the man in the room’s face at his house once and mentioned to her that it’s his religious beliefs which she adds that her father in the past called his religion Christianity and refers himself as a Christian but has stopped referring himself as that after he showed her the tapestry. Lisha adds that her father won’t tell her much about the man in the tapestry but only said that he is called the Master and has refused to tell her more about it without a price tag of her believing in his beliefs something her mother has insisted to her to balk after discussing her father’s religious belief to her mother. Alexei frowns as he signs that Lisha’s grandmother his wife had her father’s beliefs and passed them on to him and adds that he was shown a tapestry like it and told it was of the Master an immortal all knowing King who rules with a gentle hand which he balks telling Lisha about the master communicating through people and the change people get when he does that after getting a bad feeling running through him. He eyes Lisha who frowns on her face then watches her sign that what her grandfather said was correct about the Master which she learned from her mother who informed her of that along with telling her that believers seemed to view the Master like Christianity’s all seeing god and sometimes mix up Christianity with their religion while believing in the Master. Alexei gets the feeling again looks at Lisha hard who is staring at the monitors and then she looks at him with all black eyes and a smile on her lips before fading from view in a puff of white smoke which he stiffens blinking his eyes to find himself leaning against the wall sideways near the monitors with head on the wall while feeling a hand patting his cheek and he jerks his eyes open to see Janie looking at him with concern in her face while patting his cheek. He stares at her with confusion as she speaks that she saw him looking like he fell asleep standing up while leaning against the wall and has been trying to wake him up for a few minutes which he was slow acknowledging her. Alexei frowns as he speaks requesting that next time the Highlanders visit with their helicopter remind him to ask them for a medical doctor who is qualified to handle the Zeskaya ship’s facilities. He sees a frown on Janie’s face who speaks that the Highlanders visited the Zeskaya by car earlier and has brought a doctor a Human male along with them for the Zeskaya ship’s facilities who seems to know how to use them when they tested him on getting some of the soldiers tested themselves. He frowns as Janie continues to speak that the Highlanders’ stay was short only to say to one of the soldiers to tell Alexei that they should test Jinks and see if he is Human, a Hybrid or another Human like species. He nods his head of agreement and then peers at the monitors to see Jinks is still sitting up while appearing to be gulping air through his mouth and eyes the door which he hears the elementals’ voices telling him to wait till the storm is over to go into Jinks’ room. He speaks to Janie that once the storm is finished he’ll have Jinks tested and adds that he doesn’t trust the storm to screw the results by knocking out the power as the lights above blink on and off once. He sees Janie nod her head and then she speaks that Alexei should go to his quarters and get some sleep for he looks like he’s exhausted and has probably not recovered from being in the cryogenic tube. Alexei doesn’t protest nods his head and feels Janie’s hand on his arm pulling him away from the monitors through a maze in the ship to his quarters which she leaves him. He goes inside his quarters to his bed and lies his form down on top of it shutting his eyes allowing himself to fall asleep and he passes out.
Alexei in his quarters feels hands on his back as he walks through his bedroom doorway to find himself in the cryogenic tube room with one tube open showing a figure appearing to be Eric his son inside which he darts towards it and takes a look at him to notice he has scaly skin and figures that he’s not Eric only to feel stabbing pain in his back that feels a like a sword stabbing him falls to his knees and feels his hand grabbed put onto the monitor console and opens the tube Eric’s twin is in it and then he’s released to hit the floor going unconscious to float above his body watching as Eric’s twin remained asleep as a Zeskaya appear shaking Eric’s twin on the shoulder who remains sleeping and sees the Zeskaya hit the ground with a loud groan sound followed by form still which he sees his guard dubbed Shadow by others but actually a son of Kurpanov Kossman dubbed Eric who lifts him up and sees the scene change to show Shadow hauling him to a gate and then the scene goes black which he comes to feeling claws holding him up along with a headache and hears a female voice sounding Meritanian like yelling in his mind that he needs medical attention now and their killing him by not letting his companion haul him through the gate to someplace for medical help which he hears nothing else as he passes out unconscious to come to finding himself lying on a bed clothes off his form and he feels like he’s wearing a hospital gown on his form with a blanket up to his chest and jerks open his eyes looking around with confusion to feel his hand grabbed by a gloved hand which he jerks looking off his left to see that the hand’s owner is Shadow himself which he feels confused seeing Shadow there and speaks asking what happened to him due to recalling someone transported him off Shadan to someplace else then stabbed him from behind and he remembers feeling someone lifting him up and dragging him before clawed hands grabbed a hold of him and someone was screaming about him needing medical help before he passed out unconscious to wake up here. He stares at Shadow who releases his hand to sign hand language that after seeing Alexei disappear through a doorway he found himself in a forest facing a gate and told by a male Meritanian he figured was Ramses to go through and got an image of a place in his mind which he went through to see himself in some room where Alexei was lying on the floor and there was a figure identified as a Zeskaya shaking some guy with some weird facial look on the shoulder while lying in some bed which he hid himself going to the Zeskaya punching the idiot out unconscious then lifted up Alexei and found himself with Alexei in some gate room which he tried to haul through the gate but bony figures with veins popping appeared in the room which Alexei thinks their Banshees as Shadow continues signing got a hold of Alexei and refused to let him haul him through the gate. He wound up releasing Alexei as several of those figures got a hold of him and pushed him through the gate which he found himself a
lone in Alexei’s quarters in the living room feeling frustrated with the species’ interference till there was banging on the quarters door went to answer. He frowns as Shadow continues signing that guards were at the door saying that Alexei’s tracker signal said he’s in his quarters in distress which he figured was the bedroom darted into it followed by the guards to find Alexei lying in bed unconscious which he was transported right to medical for through tests which a stab wound on his back was found along with operated to see if there were any internal damage and there wasn’t any but his implants were replaced due to that the tests indicated that they were failing and outlived their usefulness hence he getting new ones. Alexei senses Shadow isn't fully telling him anything manages to say that but Shadow refuses to tell him. He manages to find the new medical doctor has given him another body guard he sees is some weird hybrid dubbed Breaker he not sure where he came from. Alexei recalls fully himself
