The Final Reality (Alex Pella, #3)

by Stephen Martino

  Christine watched as the Vimana touched down in the center of a large and open city complex surrounded by a thriving jungle. Beautiful gardens full of colorful flowers, trees laden with fruit, and green vines adorned the landscape.

  A large, white dome stood prominently in the center of this lush city. Attached to it at the Northern, Eastern, and Western poles were three white, cylindrical shafts projecting out along the ground as far as the eye could see. They radiated in the sunlight and appeared to pulsate in sync with the dome to which they were attached.

  Young women with silken dresses and flowers in their hair tended the gardens. Upon the site of Bhadra exiting the ship, they all bowed with respect.

  Bhadra looked towards the brilliant dome in the center of the city. Because it was surrounded by gardens and flowering trees, this portion of the city was the closest open area her Vimana could set down without destroying anything sacred in its descent.

  With great urgency, she sprinted down a grassy path leading directly towards the dome. Adorned on both sides by abundant peach and pear trees, they provided shade from the midday sun. As she approached the dome, Bhadra noted a beautiful depiction of a pregnant woman holding her expectant belly engraved at the entrance. In her womb was an upside-down triangle punctuated by five large, red dots.

  The cradle. Bhadra thought.

  As she ran, Bhadra stumbled onto the ground, landing on her chest and abdomen. A sudden quiver along the earth knocked her off balance. The key thrusted out of her arms upon impact. As she lay face down on the grassy path, she could hear a distant roar. Her palms also felt the earth rumble.

  A white glow caused her to squint, obscuring the dome. As the light faded, an unmistakable sight came into view. A cigar-shaped ship known as a valix now blocked her path to the cradle and destroyed the flower garden on which it landed. Piloted by the Phrees, she knew they were here for only one thing.

  The key.

  The rumbling in the distance grew louder as she scuttled on her hands and knees over to the key. Grasping it in both hands, she jumped to her feet and attempted to run. However, two strong men wearing white tunics tied at the waste and long kilts made of strips of brown leather grabbed her. Pulling her by the elbows, they turned her to face their leader, Zorian.

  “Why such haste?” he asked. “Were you planning to carry out an unsanctioned action?”

  “The council of thirteen already decided, Zorian,” she indignantly responded.

  Bhadra’s arms were forced behind her, causing her to drop the key.

  “The council is no more,” Zorian stated as he sauntered over to grab the key. “The Phrees are now in charge. That means you and the rest of your pitiful Kathole clan must submit to our will.”

  Taking the key, he placed it under his arm and said, “There will be more outposts, and the cradle will continue to function at full capacity.”

  “Stop it now—before it’s too late,” Bhadra insisted. “No matter how many outposts you create, as long as the cradle remains functional, you can’t stop the inevitable. Do the right thing!”

  Before he could answer, Zorian became distracted by the distant rumble. Pausing for just a second, he turned and walked into his ship.

  “You will kill us all!” Bhadra yelled feverishly. “The death of our planet and all her inhabitants will be on your shoulders!”

  His soldiers boarded the ship after throwing Bhadra to her knees. Pleading outside the vehicle, she said as the door closed, “You are to blame! It is your fault!”

  “Take us out of here,” Zorian ordered. “And let us never return.”

  He then walked to the back of the ship and laid down on a hammock stretched between two glass poles. Other hammocks also bordered the periphery of the room. Each were accompanied by a large circular window to their side.

  Nonsense, he thought, resting the shield on top of his stomach. Utter nonsense. If it were up to the Katholes, we would be left fending for ourselves using stone tools and our bare hands. Turning off the cradle would be like turning back time.

  With his body sore from the recent scuffle, he wanted to rest before returning home. Once there, he planned to finish the remaining outposts and put forth a global initiative to create hundreds more.

  Zorian could feel the ship slowly levitate into the air until the cradle’s dome descended out of view.

  His eyes began to close as he let the urge to sleep overtake him. Zorian’s worries dwindled as quickly as his consciousness. In what seemed like a mere second, one of his countrymen ran frantically into the room and startled him out of his slumber.

  “Consulate Zorian!” the man said. Wide-eyed and completely white with fear, he pointed out the window. “Sorry to disturb you sir, but—”

  The man was left speechless, unable to finish his thought.

  Zorian jumped out of the hammock and peered through an enormous, adjacent window. His arrogance quickly dissipated at the sight. A massive tidal wave at least 100 feet tall was overtaking all the land as far as he could see and heading directly towards Dilmun.

  “This can’t be,” he said as his voice cracked. “This isn’t happening. The outposts. They were supposed to hold.”

  He muttered the same words over and over as he watched the colossal wave submerge Dilmun in the far distance as it continued its path of destruction. Bhadra’s last words echoed throughout his head and stung like a thousand bees.

  You will kill us all…

  Chapter 23

  Chapter_23

  “Maybe this is just an isolated event?” Zorian stated, grasping for hope.

  In haste, he pushed his fellow countryman to the side and ran up the stairs onto the ship’s observation deck. There, a pedestal not unlike that located in the council hall, stood under a domed glass window on the ceiling.

  Zorian waved his hand over the pedestal. His palm trembled in the process.

  A hazy, three-dimensional image began to form. Grabbing both sides of the pedestal, Zorian dropped the key, watching in complete horror and disbelief the sight unfold before him. His face turned white while his legs quivered.

  Blue, foamy water engulfed the entire planet.

  Christine, too, was aghast at the site. While Zorian observed the disaster unfold on the pedestal, her mind filled with the details of this great flood.

  She could hear, The trouble began in 9600 BC, modern time, when the growing northern icecap’s asymmetric weight destabilized the Earth’s thin, fragile crust overlying a massive, viscous ball of magma underneath it.

  The image in the pedestal zoomed in on the North American ice cap.

  The Earth’s wobble and rotation accentuated the force of this asymmetric weight and caused the Hudson Bay area, originally located at the North Pole, to slip fifteen degrees southward. Like a domino effect, other massive tectonic plates also shifted as a result, creating massive destabilization of the Earth’s crust.

  Volcanoes erupted around the globe as large plumes of smoke and ash filled the atmosphere from every continent.

  The image in the pedestal shifted to Europe as Christine watched an enormous tidal wave crush the continent. Italy and Sicily, which had been connected, both became small dot-like islands on the globe. The same occurred with the British Isles and Ireland.

  As the globe rotated, Christine observed how the vast Russian and Chinese landmasses were washed under the sea. The deluge also pummeled India, causing this once large landmass stretching far into the Pacific beyond its modern-day borders to become but a small island isolated from the entire planet.

  The great landmass known as Mu on the Pacific continental shelf sunk precipitously into the ocean, leaving but a few scattered islands in its wake. These were the remnants of a once mighty continent lost into the ocean.

  Christine could not bear to watch any longer. The carnage and massive loss of life was too immense. She tried to tune out the voice, but it continued, explaining in detail the destruction that ensued throughout the planet.

  Zorian fe
ll to his knees. No longer able to support himself, he simply collapsed under the weight of his own guilt.

  “What have I done?” he wept.

  Zorian knew he was at fault. He and the Phrees had been fighting the Katholes for decades about minimizing or even temporarily halting the use of the cradle. Though they clearly understood its adverse effect on the polar ice caps, pride and the blind belief in their own technology overshadowed reason.

  “Consulate Zorian,” a concerned voice inquired.

  Too distraught to answer, Zorian continued to weep.

  “The captain wants to know where to land,” the voice again intruded.

  “There’s nowhere to land,” Zorian muttered with his head down. “It’s all gone, swallowed up by the oceans.”

  “There must be somewhere we can go,” the soldier asked, also shaken by the recent events. “We cannot fly forever.”

  Grasping the podium, Zorian finally stood. His bones and muscles ached with each laborious movement. “No, we can’t fly forever,” Zorian commented. “Nor can we live forever either.”

  Finally having the courage to look into the young man’s eyes, Zorian saw the same fear and distress that he, too, felt. Everything was gone. His friends, family, and home had all been swept away by the ocean. He was alone.

  They all were alone. Orphaned by Mother Nature.

  Zorian felt a slight sense of urgency jolt through his body. Now is not the time for self-pity, he thought. I have failed the entire planet, but I’m not going to fail this crew. If there’s one last thing I need to do, it is to bring them all down safely. Anywhere—.

  Black smoke and soot began to cloud the windows, making it more difficult to see outside the ship. However, the crystal network that created the image in the pedestal was not subject to atmospheric conditions. Looking at the image, Zorian saw a tiny island projecting out of the blues seas surrounding it.

  Taking his finger, he pressed on its exact location. “Go,” Zorian said, “tell the pilot to plot a course for this place. The coordinates have been sent.”

  “What is it?” the soldier asked.

  “Your salvation,” Zorian answered. “Now, go before there is zero visibility outside.”

  The man turned and ran out of the room.

  Zorian looked blankly out the ship. As if in a trance, he stood unmoving for the entirety of the trip.

  Through the smoke, Zorian slowly saw land come into focus as the ship approached. Recognizing the architecture of the temples, he knew that they arrived on the mountaintop fort of Athens.

  Zorian bent down and grabbed the key with one hand as the ship landed. Since it no longer served any purpose, he was unsure what to do with the useless relic.

  “Consulate Zorian,” asked one of the soldiers aboard the vessel as he and a group of Phrees entered the ship’s upper deck, “what do we do now?’

  Zorian had no answer to give. Though his fellow countrymen repeated themselves and pleaded with their leader, he stood still, blankly staring ahead. He was simply at a loss of words.

  After a few more futile attempts to garner his attention, the Phrees left the room, mumbling amongst themselves. Zorian soon followed, exiting the ship while in a continued trance-like state.

  The area was in complete chaos as people clamored everywhere for safety. Choking on the smoke, they ran haphazardly. Many had nothing while others clenched onto whatever meager belongings they could carry. Some families huddled together and sobbed. Others moaned wildly and screamed in horror.

  Zorian walked through the crowd with the key in hand. He knew not where he was going, nor did he care. His face was cold and pale. His eyes were wide open, and he stared blankly into the distance. All was lost for him.

  A holy man wearing a long red and white robe prayed on his knees to a chiseled marble statue in front of him. As if lamenting, the priest cried out for mercy and begged for forgiveness.

  “Take this,” Zorian insisted, handing the man the key. “I have no further need for this relic.”

  The priest took the key and grasped it under his arms. Before he could ask any questions, Zorian turned and walked away from the holy man. He then blended into the frantic crowd and became one with the mass of humanity.

  The vision slowly began to fade as Christine felt her mind once again enter her body. A tingling sensation ran through her body as the two once again united. The room gradually came into focus.

  “Murph,” she blurted after a few failed attempts. “Murph?”

  Before Christine called out again to her friend, she suddenly noted that they were no longer alone.

  “Who are you?” she asked defiantly, assuming they were Lopers.

  Still uneasy on his feet, Murph looked at the trio of uninvited guests and said, “Why don’t you all leave now before there is any trouble.”

  “We mean you no harm,” Terzin responded warmly. Carefully grasping the crystal in Murph’s hands, she tenderly placed it above the pedestal in its rightful place.

  “I see you must have stumbled into one of our lost hall of records,” Terzin said, pleased that some relic of her past remained. Surprised that any of these rumored places still existed, she went on to ask, “What did the crystal reveal to you?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Murph responded curtly. Still eying them with caution, he, too, suspected they were most likely hostile.

  “That is unfortunate,” she responded, with disappointment in her voice. “Regardless, you must not touch the crystals unless you understand what you’re doing.”

  “So, this is just a hall of records?” William came up from behind and asked. “Are any of these crystals around here one of those Marks that will stop this seismic catastrophe that has overtaken the planet?”

  Christine shuddered at his words. Is it happening again? she thought. Was the great flood in my vision just a precursor for something far greater that is occurring now?

  Images of the planetary destruction haunted her. She could still see the entire planet engulfed by the ocean and hear the cries of agony.

  Christine looked over to her friend Murph to see if he had a similar reaction. His usual gruff exterior concealed what he was thinking—if anything at all.

  “No,” Terzin stated. “These crystals harbor stories from long ago, like a modern-day library.”

  William went over to grab a crystal, but Terzin held out her hand in response. “One day I’ll show you how it all works.”

  William certainly liked the sound of that and complied without debate.

  “But what does this place have to do with the red dot on the Maternal Mark?” Marissa asked. “And why didn’t Orisihpa recognized its significance?”

  “It has long been believed that these halls of records were lost to time or destroyed.” Terzin explained. “When our friends here stumbled into this room and activated one of the crystals, it must have relayed back to the Maternal Mark their unauthorized entry. I can only assume that even Orisihpa had not known of the continued existence of such places.”

  “You all OK down here?” echoed a voice down the stairwell.

  “Alex!” Marissa exclaimed as she turned and ran over to her fiancé who was entering the room. Embracing him with a firm hug, she placed her head up against his chest and held him tightly. “I thought I’d lost you again.”

  “I thought I’d lost you,” Alex responded as he rubbed her back with his free hand.

  William walked over and gave Alex a small punch in the arm. Trying to hide his overwhelming sense of relief, he nonchalantly said, “I’d knew you’d get out of there.”

  That makes one of us, Alex thought, recalling the narrow escape.

  “How’d you find us?” Marissa asked.

  “I have my jet-engine enhanced aero-bike and our stratoskimmer quantumly linked,” Alex answered. “Like a beacon, the ship led me directly to you.”

  Alex then looked around the room and noted all the crystals levitating above the pedestals, “This is where the re
d circle on Maternal Mark lead us? How did you figure out the exact location of this area?”

  “The fluctuating magnetic fields converged directly on this spot,” William explained. “So, that’s where Tom landed the ship. When we exited, this cave’s what we found.”

  “Are all these crystals Marks?” Alex asked.

  “None of them,” Terzin said, disappointed. “We are in a hall of records. Legend has it that they are scattered across the globe. When one of the crystals was removed from the pedestal here, it must have somehow alerted the Maternal Mark.”

  Christine slowly walked over to Alex. Still unsure as to the genuineness of their guests, she cautiously approached. Attracted by the shield-like relic Alex held in his hand, she needed to obtain a better view.

  Is this they key? she thought. Unbelievable!

  The closer Christine walked, the weaker she became. The effects of her mental journey had not worn off as of yet, further exhausting her with each step. Attempting to focus on the Achilles Shield, she became light-headed and collapsed.

  Marissa ran to her side and took out her medical bag. Placing a tape-like bio-strip on her head, she said, “Vitals stable. However, she’s hypotensive and dehydrated. Plus, her NMDA receptors in the brain appear to have been overstimulated.” She looked up at Alex. “I’d prefer to bring her back to our hideout in order to stabilize her. I fear she could start seizing.”

  “If there’s nothing else down here for us at the moment,” Alex responded, “we better take her and leave now.” Pointing to the puck shaped device on the shield’s surface, he then said, “This makeshift cloaking device I placed on the shield will only work so long, and I’d rather bring it back to our hideout and give it an upgrade before Julius finds us again.”

  William looked over at Murph. “The invitation goes to you, too, big guy.”

  “My home’s here in Philadelphia.” Murph responded. “I will live and die here. Plus, I bet no one in your hideout can make a good cheesesteak.”