by JK Stone
Jerren nodded and helped Terrah to her feet saying, “We will explain what’s happening on the other level. It may take a while.”
Terrah was a bit confused at what was happening. When the blonde lady said her sisters were up there her heart gave a flutter, and Terrah had hoped she didn’t just get Saleria and Vellia involved in anything dangerous.
Looking between the six other occupants of the room Terrah couldn’t explain it, but something within her instilled a great trust in these people, and it wasn’t just because they got her out of that hellhole. Hoping she was not seriously mistaken about their characters, Terrah nodded.
Jerren looked toward the others in the room and said, “I think it’ll be for the best if only two of us accompany Terrah for now. Who wants to join me?” Terrah watched as the short brunette haired beauty stepped forward and took his hand. Jerren let out a chuckle then said, “Well that’s settled.”
Jason spoke a moment later saying, “We’ll be on level two when they’re ready.”
Jerren nodded and turning toward the archway on the left, and he and the dark haired lady escorted Terrah down the adjoining corridor.
Chapter Three
Terrah approached a smooth wall that dead ended the corridor and she wondered what they were up to, when Jerren said, “Here we are. Are you ready?”
At this point Terrah wasn’t sure what to expect anymore and just nodded, then to her surprise, Jerren placed his hand on the wall and an archway that wasn’t there just moments before had appeared and opened, and Terrah could hear both Vellia and Saleria’s agitated voices from within.
Jerren motioned for Terrah to enter and the moment she did, she heard her sister’s call out to her.
“Terrah!” Saleria shouted as she rushed to embrace her, and a second later Vellia joined in.
Saleria looked as if she’d been crying, though her eyes were dry now and Saleria asked, “What’s happening? I was in my office one second, and the next I was stuck in this room. Then a minute later Vellia showed up.”
Looking her sisters in the eyes Terrah said, “Saleria, Vellia, I would like you to meet Jerren and,” she looked at the dark-hair green eyed woman, “I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name.”
The woman smiled warmly at the three of them and said, “My name is Eneria, and it is a pleasure to meet you.”
Terrah felt warmth course up her arm as Eneria shook her hand, and a feeling she had only felt for her sisters and Pops seemed to engulf her.
Both Saleria and Vellia had been eyeing Jerren, and Terrah could just imagine they were baffled by his brightly glowing eyes.
“Terrah, what’s happening?” Vellia asked her imploringly as she seemed to force her gaze back to Terrah.
Terrah wasn’t quite sure where to begin and just said, “There was an incident at my job and these people rescued me. They have something to tell us, and from what I can figure out so far, it has something to do with our mother…”
Saleria and Vellia looked at her in apparent confusion and Terrah clarified, “Our birth mother.”
Both Saleria and Vellia seemed to calm down and Terrah knew they would be very interested to hear what these people had to say, no matter how they got there.
Jerren shook each of their hands with a smile and said, “We have a meeting room set up on the next level. With any luck, we will sort everything out. This last hour has been quite the whirlwind for us and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”
At Jerren’s touch, Terrah had felt a pleasant and loving sensation course into her body, and her apprehension seemed to melt away, so she nodded and Jerren led her and her sisters through the corridor and into an inner corridor.
Jerren looked between Terrah and her sisters then said, “We’re going to use a gravity lift to get to the second level. You’ll feel a fluttery weightless sensation kind of like when you drive too fast over a drop-off.”
Terrah knew her sister would be fascinated by that kind of technology with her being a physics instructor, so she watched Vellia for her reaction.
A moment later Jerren said, “Ascend level two,” and Terrah had to fight the feeling of nausea when her innards began to float freely inside her body, and to her amusement, she saw that Vellia was equally as stricken.
“Whoa, that’s different,” Vellia said with obvious excitement to her voice.
Jerren let out a chuckle and replied, “That happens a lot around here.”
Terrah landed on the upper level with a slight hop after the hole in the ceiling they’d passed through closed up to form a floor beneath them, and Jerren led them to the table situated in the middle of the room.
The table was shaped like a flat-topped pyramid, and it had two chairs on each of the short sides and three on the longest side, and Terrah figured that would be where she and her sisters would be seated.
Everyone stood and Jerren initiated the introductions. “At the head of this table is my eldest brother Jason and this is Alise, they’re the commanders of this ship, and its designation is TDS 1. Next, we have my younger brother Justin and Calia, they’re the commanders of TDS 3. As you know my name is Jerren and this is Eneria, we’re the commanders of TDS 5. Everyone this is Terrah, whom you have already met. This is Vellia, and this is Saleria.”
Terrah noticed they had a pointed look at Saleria when Jerren announced her name and she was about to ask what it was about when Jerren spoke again.
“If you could have a seat, we can get you up to speed on what we know.”
Terrah took her seat then Saleria and Vellia sat on either side of her, and almost immediately Vellia raised her hand in question.
Terrah wanted to laugh. She had a feeling Vellia would have no end to her questions with how much she wanted to be an astronaut growing up.
“Yes?” Jason asked.
“Jerren said you’re the ships commanders, what does TDS stand for?” Vellia asked.
Jason nodded with a smile and said, “As good a place to start as any I guess. TDS stands for Time Dilation Ship.”
Terrah had been watching Vellia’s expression when Jason said that and she was not surprised a bit to see that Vellia looked giddy as a school girl upon hearing that.
Jason closed his eyes a moment then Alise nodded and began speaking, “These ships were built as far as we can tell over three million years ago, by a race called the Imortum. Almost four hundred thousand years ago, the operation of these vessels was handed over to a race called the Lantins, and they lived in a massive city-ship called Lantis.
“Due to mispronunciation and language barriers, their name had changed over time. You would know them by the name Atlanteans, and the city by the name Atlantis… the derivation of that name came from people saying things like, ‘they died at Lantis’, in confusion after the cities destruction. Over time, at Lantis became Atlantis. And their language was Lantin which is the ancient root language of Latin.”
Alise looked between Terrah, Saleria, and Vellia then seemed to come to a decision and said, “This history is going to be detailed. I feel it best to build up to where we are so there is no confusion. If any of you needs to stand you can do so. If you need to eat, let us know and we can take a break.”
Terrah nodded in understanding and her sisters must have as well because Alise continued with her recitation about what the ships were used for and what being a commander of the TDS ships entailed.
Every once in a while, someone would stand and stretch, But Terrah sat spellbound through the telling about the eleven Lantin family members who conspired to overthrow Lantis, and were ultimately responsible for Lantis’s destruction.
Then Alise explained that the prior commander of TDS 5 was in league with her family, in attempting to capture and or destroy all of the other TDS ships, and that the commander named Enyali attempted to kill off Justin and Jerren as well.
Alise mentioned the dark matter bombs they had asked Terrah about earlier, then Alise brought up a display and showed them the destructive power of
the weapon.
Terrah looked in horror at the destructive power of the bomb, and with a gasp, she exclaimed, “Damn… and we have one of those on Earth?”
“What!?” both of her sisters shouted in unison.
“Yes,” Alise said, then she peered to her left. “Jerren, would you like to continue from this point?” Alise had asked.
Jerren nodded and began speaking, so Terrah focused on what he had to say.
“Like Alise said before, there was a power surge in the master control room. I was in there at the time and I saw the displays for TDS 2 and TDS 4 activate briefly. I called for the other commanders to help and we got a location on the deactivated ships. TDS 2 was in orbit of a planet called Serqalin and TDS 4 was here on Earth. TDS 4 is currently located at a place called Area 51.”
This statement drew a snort from Vellia. “That place is an urban legend,” Vellia said with a grin.
Jerren turned to Terrah with a raised brow, and she figured he would want her to confirm it. Divulging top-secret and classified information went against everything she was trained to do, but Terrah finally decided that any government that would allow her to be tortured the way she had been, didn’t deserve her loyalty. So, taking a deep breath Terrah said, “Actually,” Her voice drew her sister’s attention, “Area 51 does exist.”
Jerren smirked, he must have known the inner dilemma Terrah was battling with, and she continued, “I’ve worked there for over six years now.”
“But I met you in Las Vegas almost a year ago, and you took me to your house at Nellis Air Force base?” Saleria stated questioningly.
Terrah nodded and she explained, “My house is on base, but the workplace I took you through was a cover. I fly into Area 51 for my real job. I am…” she shook her head realizing she was no longer working for the Airforce anymore and said, “was… in charge of surface level security, a couple of months ago, there was an energy spike from the lowest level of the base. I was the highest-ranking officer on the base at the time, and I was ordered to investigate the incident.
“What I found when I arrived on the level was a massive battleship, but the ship that caused the power surge was apparently a replica of this ship. After that day, my security clearance for that level had been modified to overwatch the scientists as they ran tests on the craft, and about a month ago, there was an accident that caused the deaths of everyone down there except me.”
Terrah explained what happened to her, and that she was being blamed for the incident, and how “Pops attempted to release her, but after being tasered she hadn’t seen him again.
Terrah didn’t want to upset her sister’s any more than they obviously were so she didn’t explain what Bias had been doing to her or what Bias kept telling her he was doing to their guardian, so Terrah signaled for Jerren to continue.
Jerren explained about going to the lowest level of the base attempting to locate the dark matter bomb and finding the ships. Then what he heard General Green and Smith discussing about Terrah. He seemed to pause a second then he mentioned the voice telling him to ‘save her,’ and Jerren pointed to Terrah.
When Terrah heard that Pops was down at the lowest level, and not being tortured as she had been repeatedly told by Bias, she almost burst out crying but she struggled to hold it in, and a moment later Vellia drew her attention.
“Who said it?” Vellia asked.
Terrah grinned when Jerren answered her in their childhood language.
“She called herself Inola. She’s an Imortum and is still amongst us somewhere. We…” Jerren motioned between himself and his brothers and added, “thought she was only an imaginary friend from when we were younger. But now we know better.”
Saleria and Vellia looked dumbstruck for a moment then Saleria said, “We had an imaginary friend by that name as well. When I first saw you in that outfit I thought I was hallucinating. Your body looks just like hers did; only we couldn’t see her face clearly.”
Jerren smiled, stood and extended his arms and in a flash, he transformed in front of them.
Terrah gasped, and she heard her sisters do the same.
“Did she look anything like this?” Jerren asked with mirth to his voice. He turned around so they could get a better look a moment, then he lowered the outfit and sat down and continued with the telling.
“As I said, we were told to save her,” He said as he pointed to Terrah again, and when he got to the point where they were on the ship after rescuing the three of them and why, Jerren yielded back to Alise.
Terrah was relieved that Jerren didn’t go into detail about the condition they’d found her in. She didn’t think her sisters would be in any condition to listen to anything else Jerren or the others would have to say until Saleria and Vellia talked Terrah’s ordeal to death.
Alise nodded and turning to Saleria she asked, “What kind of medicine do you practice at Johns Hopkins?” Alise asked her question with a type of tone and smile that made Terrah think she already knew.
“I work in the Immunogenetics research lab. Why?” Saleria asked.
Alise activated a display and brought up what appeared to be two sets of three DNA scans. “What do you see here?” Alise asked.
Saleria seemed to study the scans for a few minutes then she said, “Damn, these are extremely detailed, the upper three are from monozygotic triplets, the same goes for the lower three.”
“And?” Alise prodded.
Saleria looked at the scans a little longer then she said, “This is extremely rare. They’re also fraternal twins to each other, with almost identical DNA. According to the scan data, the first set of triplets are male and the second are female.”
It looked like Saleria’s mind was still chomping on the information when Terrah and Vellia both realized what they were getting at, if both of them asking, “Really?” in unison was any indication.
Their statement drew Saleria’s attention. “Really what?” she asked.
Terrah pointed from Jerren and Jason to Justin questioningly, and they all nodded, so Terrah nudged Saleria and said, “They’re our brothers.”
“Those scans were performed just after you all came aboard this ship,” Alise stated. Then she brought up an image of each of their brains and magnified it greatly in the location of the pituitary gland, saying, “Right there is the most intriguing part. Each of you has or had that upon boarding this ship.”
Terrah didn’t know what ‘That’ was and looked over at Saleria for an answer.
Saleria sat staring in apparent confusion a moment, then she asked, “Is that a triple helix DNA strand?”
Alise smiled and nodded. “Yes,” she stated assuredly.
“We,” Alise gestured to their group. “Had our DNA altered, for the men, they went from only having one strand of triple Helix to all of them being triple helix. As for us women, we had ship generated bodies that were similar to humans and our artificial intelligence program was projected into them.
“The bodies used to be temporary, but we ate some special food and after that, we were transformed and our consciousness was bound to the bodies. We are now as alive as any of you.”
Terrah was astounded to hear that the women were actually AI, she could only imagine AI getting to this level. What they had on Earth was only in the beginning stages and limited in its functionality, but secretly the thought of it scared the hell out of her. Vellia and she huddled with Saleria, and Terrah asked Saleria if it was possible.
To that, Saleria looked at the scans then over at their ‘brothers’ and told them it was.
A few minutes later Alise drew Terrah’s attention when she said, “We believe you are supposed to be changed as well. We will not force you. It will be your decisions.”
Terrah’s heart thrashed at Alise’s statement. She wasn’t sure about being ‘changed’ as Alise put it, but after everything that had been happening to Terrah on Earth, she was a little more than willing to take them up on the offer if only to get off of the planet, knowing full wel
l that she would quite literally be screwed if the military, or more precisely Bias U’san ever got his hands on her again, and at this point she had no doubts that her military career was over.
Terrah’s sisters, on the other hand, had great careers and jobs that they loved, or at least enjoyed from time to time. Terrah, Saleria, and Vellia sat speechless at first, then she and her sisters began discussing their options.
Saleria was hesitant at first, but when Terrah reminded them that Jerren had felt they were in danger, and that is why they were up on the ship in the first place, both Saleria and Vellia seemed a little more inclined to agree to stay as well.
“I’ve made it a point to avoid any situations that would put me in danger ever since Christian Argos. Why would I have been in danger now?” Vellia asked.
Terrah’s blood began to boil at the thought of that sociopathic man, and what he tried to do to Vellia. Shaking her head to clear her mind, Terrah said, “It’s most likely because of me being rescued. Bias was more than likely having both of you watched, and when I escaped he probably instructed his minions to grab you.”
Terrah wasn’t sure why she said it, but she was almost positive that she was correct in her assumption.
“Why didn’t they try to grab me then?” Saleria asked.
“I don’t know, maybe you were surrounded by too many people, you do work in a busy hospital,” Terrah replied.
Saleria shook her head and said, “Actually someone could’ve come after me, but I’d locked myself in my office. There were a lot of people pounding on my door and I wasn’t answering my pager or phone. Come to think of it, my cell phone was probably destroyed when I threw it as well.”
Terrah looked at Saleria with her questioning expression, and Saleria just said, “I was having another really bad day,” Saleria peered around, then added, “This may be the time for me to consider a life change.”
Terrah could relate to that, then recalling Saleria’s unannounced visit to Vegas almost a year ago, and what prompted her need to get away that time, she nodded in understanding. At this point, it appeared as if all three of them were ready to sign on the dotted line to get the hell off of Earth.
