by JK Stone
Doran sighed and said, “With the Chlorophyll DNA in Baelac’s body he survived and his wounds were healed. But without power, we were stuck on the ship with no possibility of escape.
“We realized something must have gone wrong, because on several past occasions this ship had gotten into trouble and we received help from TDS 3. But this time, nobody came to our aid. The chlorophyll made it so Baelac did not have to eat to survive, and as long as he got some form of radiation exposure he would have been fine, only we were not exposed to enough, and he slowly starved to death.”
Terrah remembered taking the Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape course, and she felt great hunger for the weeks she was in the field, but the hunger she felt was nothing like starving to death, and she gave a shiver just imagining what Baelac and Doran went through.
“How long did it take?” Terrah didn’t know why she would ask such a morbid question, but once Terrah asked the question, she found that she needed to hear the answer.
“It took almost a thousand years before Baelac died completely,” Doran said with a saddened expression.
Terrah couldn’t believe what he’d just said. Surely, he must have made a mistake. Then the last word registered, “What do you mean by ‘completely’?”
“Without the Chlorophyll Baelac would have died within weeks. But with it, his body slowly shut down and that along with the binding disk ensured his brain stayed alive until the last moment. His body shut down after nine hundred years then it took another ninety years before his neural pathways finally degraded. Soon after that, I went offline.”
Terrah felt as though she was going to be sick. She couldn’t fathom the torturous hell Baelac must have gone through. Taking a few deep breaths, she suppressed the tears that were threatening to flow, took Doran’s hands in her’s, and looking into his eyes she said, “That had to have been hard on you. I can see now why you said it would have been better to die in the crash.”
*****
Terrah and Doran had sat talking about her life for the next few hours. She told him about her sisters, and how they were raised by their guardian after their parent’s deaths, and before she knew it, Doran said they had arrived at Earth, not that she needed the announcement. Once in orbit, the Multi-Phasic Neural associations hit her, but within seconds she had blocked them out again.
A moment later, Doran got a confused look and said, “I cannot connect to the Pyramids generator.”
Shaking her head, Terrah realized she had forgotten to tell him about that, and said, “The pyramids generator on Earth was destroyed many thousands of years ago. The closest one to Earth now is on Daregon, that’s why we were there.
We need to get this finished so we can meet up with the other ships,” Terrah said as she stood and Doran followed as she made her way to the control room.
She peered down at the console and asked, “Why did we time jump to this period?”
Doran looked down and said, “I am not really sure, it is more than likely a glitch in the ship’s temporal system. Right after I set course for Terra, I mean Earth; the ship performed a time jump. This ship has had issues where it has performed time jumps on its own before, so I did not really consider it.
Terrah considered what Doran just said, and after everything her brothers had told her about Inola taking control of their ships, not to mention how close the ship had jumped in time to where she needed to be, she seriously doubted the time jump was accidental, or a malfunction, so she continued with her plan.
Terrah maneuvered the ship into a geosynchronous orbit over England, then time jumped the ship back a day to December twenty-second. Looking over at Doran, she asked, “What do I do now?”
“Since there will be nobody to say the words, you will have to perform the ritual. Once Baelac’s remains are on the Altar stone you need to say these words, ‘a’o’ vita lucretur sed illustratione in mortem verum scientificum cum… ignis sit renasci.’ The moment you say ‘Ignis’ you must set Baelac’s remains ablaze. It is an ancient Druis ritual, and he believed that it would enable him to move on.” Then Doran shrugged his shoulders as if to say he was sorry she was forced to do this.
Terrah nodded and said, “I’m ready.” Doran looked at her with a doubtful expression, but a moment later she was on the planet’s surface.
Chapter Thirteen
Terrah appeared in a meadow just outside of a Henge that looked to be in pristine condition. The meadow was surrounded by thick, very ancient looking trees with a light snowfall covering the ground where she was standing, and she wondered if anyone even knew of the Henge’s existence.
Terrah looked down and saw Baelac’s remains beside her. She knelt down, picked them up and proceeded through the standing stones to the shimmering Altar within.
Once she passed through the outer standing stones, she had a wave of energy pass through her and the Altar came into clearer focus. Something about the energy put her in mind of the tales of ancient magic, but shrugging the flight of fancy off, Terrah placed Baelac’s body on the Altar then stepped back to take in her surroundings.
Terrah had never heard of a Henge made of pure crystal before, and she could have sworn they were made of stone when she passed through them. She approached one of the standing crystal pillars and ran her hand along it in wonder.
Upon making contact, Terrah thought she could hear voices surrounding her and promptly turned to look. The voices disappeared, and she looked at the remains of the prior commander and figured she should get it over with and she approached the Altar.
Drawing in a deep breath, Terrah recited, “A’o’ vita lucretur sed illustratione in mortem verum scientificum cum,” she drew her weapon and tried to fire an energy beam as she said ‘ignis’, but her weapon wouldn’t discharge. Shaking her head, she holstered her weapon and reviewed what happened, or in this case what didn’t happen.
When she drew her weapon, it wouldn’t fire, but she also didn’t vanish like all the other times she had drawn it. A deep feeling came over her that this was a sacred place and the energy wave probably disabled her weapons.
It took another minute of thinking the situation over before she came up with a possible solution. Eneria told her about a side effect of the Ambrose and absorbing energy, then she remembered pushing energy into the ship to restart the engine and she wondered if it would work to ignite Baelac’s remains.
Terrah figured if this didn’t work she could always retrieve something to set the blaze from the ship, and she approached the Altar again.
Terrah placed her hands on Baelac’s remains and recited, “A’o’ vita lucretur sed illustratione in mortem verum scientificum cum,” she pushed energy into his remains which caused arcing and finished with, “ignis sit renasci!” Terrah ended a bit excitedly.
The sound of voices seemed to be chanting on the wind one moment, and a second later the Altar erupted in a flash of flame, then within seconds of that, Baelac’s remains turned to ash that swirled in the air.
Terrah drew in a sharp breath a moment later when an ethereal form of the commander took shape, and after taking in his surroundings then chanting in the same ancient language that filled the air, he began communing with them. The chanting seemed to recede a little, and he looked down at her.
“I must give you and Cian… no, his name is Doran now. I must give you and Doran my unending gratitude before I depart. Terrah ó Na Réaltaí, please let Doran know that the sacrifice he made enabled me to endure, and I will be forever in his debt.”
Baelac seemed to peer back at the voices that filled the air, then back to Terrah saying, “I have no right to ask this of you, but could you do me a great favor?”
Terrah felt immense sadness at the tone Baelac spoke to her in, and she could feel the despair emanating from him. Nodding Terrah said, “If it’s at all possible I’ll help you. What is it that I can do for you?”
“The Druis chants are speaking of the betrayal of my kin, and the destruction at Lantis, I can sense the dea
d, but some of my people are still in need of assistance. I would ask that you save them. And though this is selfish of me to ask, could you please rescue my twin sister Krysali. Doran will know how to find her.”
Terrah nodded. There was no way she could deny Baelac’s final plea so she resolved herself to help Baelac’s sister in any way she could, and said, “I’ll do my best.”
Baelac’s ethereal form seemed to shimmer, then he peered down and smiling warmly at her, he said, “Thank you, I can move on in peace now, knowing you have righted my greatest regret. Be well on your journeys.”
Baelac’s body began to resonate and pulse, then Terrah heard him speak, and the words seemed to flow through her as he said, “Krysi, don’t blame yourself, you sacrificed your life for mine, I am at peace, now live your life.”
All the time he was talking Terrah could hear an echoing chant that seemed to come from the very space surrounding her. She took a final look at Baelac’s figure suspended above the Altar, and a moment later the chanting got louder and his form seemed to swirl as he was drawn into a darkened spot atop the Altar like a vacuum.
The second he disappeared the air crackled with energy, then a second later an electric blue energy sphere blasted from the Altar stone and shot into the sky, then the chanting suddenly ceased and Terrah was engulfed by the intense silence surrounding her.
A bit startled by what Terrah had just witnessed, she absent-mindedly stepped back out of the inner standing stones and passed through the energy wave on her way out.
To Terrah’s surprise, she found that the standing stones were indeed made of stone, at least from the outside of the Henge. She approached the closest pillar and touched it as she did while inside, but the only thing that happened this time was the feeling of warmth coursing up her arm with a pleasant tingling sensation.
Pulling back and shaking her head in astonishment Terrah peered around the snow-dusted clearing, and silently she lamented the fact that in another six months, Earth would be attacked, and within two years the lush green vegetation surrounding the planet would be a mixture of browns and blacks. Sighing regretfully Terrah called out to Doran, “It’s done, I’m ready to return.”
The next moment Terrah was in the decontamination room and Doran’s voice rang out. “The scans do not show any signs of contamination or injury. Do you still wish to proceed through medical?”
Smirking Terrah said, “No, I’m fine, I need to speak with you though,” and once the passage opened she went down the corridor to join Doran in the control room.
Doran was standing beside the Mission prep console as Terrah entered the control room, and he pulled her out of her musings when he spoke.
“I know that seems a bit foolish to do, but it was his final request,” Doran had a sympathetic look on his face as he said that.
Terrah was still mulling over what she had seen and agreed to, and replied, “It was no problem, I felt a little silly at first, but once he appeared—
“What? Who appeared?” Doran had asked of her.
Terrah looked at Doran and said, “Baelac’s ethereal form appeared and thanked me. Then he gave me a message to pass on to you and he made a request before he moved on also.”
Doran stood there and looked at her in what appeared to be shock, and then he asked, “What was this message?”
“Baelac said, ‘the sacrifice you made enabled him to endure’. What did he mean by that?” she asked.
Doran’s shocked expression changed to one of stunned disbelief as he took a seat and said, “I only ever thought it was just a traditional ritual, Baelac had witnessed it several times over his life, but nothing ever happened. I only thought it was a funeral ritual.”
Smiling Terrah said, “Yes, well there’s a lot more to it than that apparently. What did Baelac mean by your sacrifice?” she asked again.
Doran looked uneasy at the question and she was about to dismiss it when he answered.
“I did not tell you the whole of the situation. I was in observation with Baelac when the ship hit us. I was actually in my own body at the time, and just after the impact our systems began to fail, I knew we were going to have a total power failure and I attempted to reset the power systems, but the ship was not responding. I knew the ship’s power would not reset on its own, so I uploaded into Baelac’s binding disk with the intent of transporting both of us off of the ship.
“Baelac once told me that if I had not been there to talk with him he would have gone insane. That is more than likely what he meant,” Doran cast his eyes down in apparent mourning as he said that.
Terrah felt for Doran, she could feel great sadness coming from him, so she walked over and pulled him up and standing with her head against his chest, she wrapped him in a warm hug. “You were a good friend and companion to Baelac.”
Terrah peered into Doran’s eyes and saw his saddened gaze cast her way. Thinking to put Doran at ease, Terrah stretched up and kissed him.
The kiss began gently at first, and then Terrah’s mind and body seemed to go into overdrive, and the next thing she knew her kiss had turned very carnal and Doran had become a very active participant as her hands ran up Doran’s back and through his thick black hair.
Before long Terrah was running her hand along every surface of Doran’s body that she could reach, and he was caressing hers as well. She had already removed his shirt and was making her way down to his pants. She fiddled with the clasp but was unable to release it, and in her frustration, she gripped the fabric and tore the pants open.
Smiling to herself at how easy that was, Terrah began placing kisses along Doran’s chest and abdomen. Looking down she took a firm hold of him, then dropping to her knees, Terrah thought to explore his body further, but glancing upward into his astounded gaze, it seemed to cause a sensory overload and Doran lost consciousness and began falling.
Terrah tried to cushion Doran’s fall, but he was going down too fast and he hit his head on the console.
Hurrying to check Doran’s condition, Terrah saw he was bleeding from his contact with the console, and not knowing what else to do for him, she activated the medical unit and summoned Doran to it.
Terrah made her way into the medical bay and performed a medical scan of Doran’s head, then examined it. He had a laceration along the right temporal region that the medical unit had already healed, and a mild concussion which was being rectified also. Within seconds, his body was back to normal and she took the time to examined Doran in detail.
Terrah had heard women in the past say how disappointed they were when a man went off prematurely, but instead of being a disappointment, it aroused Terrah to know that her touch had sent Doran over the top like that.
Terrah had to stifle a laugh as the memory of an old parity of a hair shampoo commercial passed through her mind. In that, the commercial made allusion to sexual favors that had knocked the man out, but it was the pleasure of the shampoo that had done it. But this event mirrored what the commercial alluded to.
Terrah was still examining the scan a little while longer and was startled when Doran let out a sigh, and looking over she saw that he was propping himself up on the medical bed.
Doran looked around apparently confused as to how or why he was in medical, and upon seeing her standing by the wall he asked, “What happened to me… and why am I naked?”
Terrah chuckled, approached and hugged Doran before saying, “We got a little carried away. You passed out and hit your head. I didn’t know what else to do for you, so I put you in the medical unit and it healed your injuries.”
Doran nodded in understanding, with all the anomalies he had experienced since reactivating, he thought something was wrong with his ship made body, and after what just happened now he was sure of it, despite the diagnostics coming back normal. Doran had remade the body several times now, but the anomalies were still present.
Doran’s body had been reacting oddly ever since activating the bonding process. At first by how his thoughts were wand
ering, then the male appendage growing and shrinking every time he was in and out of Terrah’s presence. Now with her embracing him again, his heart rate accelerated then he began breathing heavily, and he was feeling light headed.
Doran thought back on the events leading to his loss of consciousness, she had stretched up and begun kissing him. His already thrashing heart threatened to burst from his chest as he felt wave after wave of what he thought had to be emotions, they were emotions he never had before and he was feeling confusion.
Doran remembered thinking he was about to die from sensory overload, and when Terrah dropped to her knees and peered up at him, his body began to quiver and he felt a pressure build.
A moment later it felt as if a floodgate had opened then his eyes rolled back into his head and he lost consciousness. Yes, I definitely think something is wrong, he thought to himself.
Standing up Doran forced a smile down at Terrah, and said, “It was not necessary to heal me, but I thank you anyway. If my body takes too much damage, the ship will just create a new one for me.”
Looking back down at his body Doran asked, “And why am I naked?” he asked once again. Terrah grinned at him and he almost passed out once again.
“Well, I did say we got carried away. I think next time we should use a bed though.” Terrah said with a laugh.
“Are we going to do that again? It made my body react strangely,” Doran stated.
Terrah stretched up and kissed Doran again, and then she said, “Yes, I think we’ll do it again… that and a lot more. Just not right now. I have a few things to take care of at the moment, starting with the bedroom,” Terrah stated, and then she briskly exited the medical unit.
Terrah’s expression turned to something Doran couldn’t place, it almost looked like disappointment.
Doran was left behind to wonder at what he had done wrong. What had passed between them was more intense than he had ever experienced, and after he had lost consciousness, Terrah’s interest in him seemed to wane.
