Rescuing Monica was still my primary mission in life at that point but despite my devotion to bringing her back, something within me still would not allow me to simply cast Audrey aside. I was confident that once we found Monica’s location we would be able to rescue her but I didn’t know exactly where we would stand at that point. I still loved her more than anything in the world; however I had also developed a powerful attachment to Audrey that couldn’t be ignored. I had no idea of what I was going to do once we found Monica but something told me that whatever I ultimately decided would end up making me feel like the worst guy in the world.
As Howie and Ace powered up the video game console I decided to bury my worrisome thoughts and focus on enjoying the bit of precious down time that I had with my two best friends. Our lives had become so complicated that opportunities to simply kick back and relax almost never seemed to occur. That’s what made those moments so precious and that’s exactly why we continued to force ourselves to momentarily forget about the danger that was barreling toward Earth in hopes of being able to have a sliver of fun for the night.
And we did have fun. We laughed. We joked. We played video games. It was just like the old days—as if Howie’s wormhole had somehow catapulted us back into a time where reaching the next level of our game was much more important than the impending destruction of our planet. Still, I wish we had had more time and I wish I could have somehow known what was about to happen in the days and weeks to come. Perhaps then I would have known not to take a single second of that day for granted. I didn’t know it at the time, but unfortunately that night would be the last night the three of us would ever hang out like that again.
18. CONQUEST
THE GREATER:
“WHAT TROUBLES YOU, FATHER?” I ASKED AS I STOOD behind The Righteous watching as he solemnly stared down at the vessel who lay unconscious in front of him in a small translucent pod that stood at the center of the dimly lit, circular room in which we stood.
“The Goddess has gone silent yet again,” he replied without taking his eyes away from the vessel.
“Perhaps she communes with the vessel,” I suggested as I took my place by his side and stared down at the small human girl who lay peacefully in the center of the chamber before us.
“Perhaps,” The Righteous considered as he stroked his pale gray beard with his right hand.
As I gazed upon her breathtaking beauty, I couldn’t help but wonder if her physical appearance had anything to do with the Goddess’ selection of her. Then again, the more I stared at her the more I realized that there was much more to her than meets the eye. Something told me that her destiny as the vessel of Eden was rooted in much more than mere beauty alone.
I glanced over at my father and watched him as he continued to study the vessel. It was as if he was attempting to read her thoughts or perhaps establish some sort of psychic connection in order to determine what was going on inside of her head. The hints of doubt that registered in his eyes as he watched her saddened me. My father had always been the strongest man I knew; therefore, seeing him in those moments of weakness were sometimes a bit more than I could bear. I certainly appreciated that he trusted me enough to show his true emotion in front of me but in the back of my mind I sometimes longed for the perspective of the others. To them, he was still just as undeniably strong and unrelenting as the day he united the four crowns and became the High King of Eden. To them he was still invincible—because they never saw the tears that he had shed when Eden and the Goddess were lost. They never saw the agony that tormented him when he wondered if we would ever be able to reclaim our home. All they saw were the grandiose speeches and all they knew of was the crown—only I knew the man who stood behind it.
“Thank you, Son,” The Righteous suddenly whispered as if he had read my mind.
“For what, Father?” I asked.
“For everything. Your presence is what gives me hope even when all hope seems to be lost,” he replied.
“Thank you, Father,” I said, not completely understanding what he meant.
“When your mother came to me all those years ago she spoke of this very day,” he continued.
“And what did she say?” I asked.
“She asked for my help in stopping the growing threat of the Equillian Federation. They had not yet invaded our galaxy at the time but the Goddess had foretold of their coming. She said that in exchange for my help she would give me everything. And I laid with her that night and in seven days she delivered you unto me. A child that I saw as no more than a weapon to aide in my pursuit of absolute power. I had asked her how I would know when I had obtained what she had promised and she said that one day I would simply realize it. When I ascended to the four thrones and united them all as High King I thought that she had finally delivered her promise of giving me everything, but only now do I realize that she had done so the moment she placed you in my arms.”
“Thank you, Father,” I said and we nodded at each other then continued to stare down at the vessel in silence. I had lived for nearly two-hundred Earth years by that point, which was barely middle-aged by Anokian standards, but in my lifetime my father had never displayed much affection toward me. He had always shown appreciation for my power and dedication to his cause but never had he shown genuine appreciation for simply having me as a son—until that moment. To be completely honest, it felt a bit awkward at first but in the back of my mind I appreciated finally having confirmation that he regarded me as more than merely an impenetrable wall between him and the would-be challengers for the Broken Crown.
“How close are we to obtaining the deep space communicator?” The Righteous asked, finally breaking the silence.
“Close. I have a team of Knights in place and our Stranger assets are working on getting us access to Area 51. Alias has assured me that their plan is proceeding as expected.”
“Is it absolutely necessary to involve the Strangers with this operation?” The Righteous questioned.
“Unfortunately, it is, Father,” I admitted.
“And you’re confident that the rumors have not swayed their allegiance?”
“I do not wish to speak out of turn, Father, but are you certain that there is no place for them in our society considering how instrumental they have been to our operations in the Americas?” I asked.
“There was only one human on this planet worth saving, my son—and she is but a memory now. The rest of them are animals and they will have no place among us,” The Righteous said firmly.
“Understood. There are still grumblings and we have not yet located the source of the rumors, but as far as I can tell the Stranger leadership still believes that they will have a place at our side once our fleet arrives. At least for now we shouldn’t have any issues with their compliance,” I assured.
“Very well then. Keep me updated on your progress,” The Righteous instructed before turning and heading toward the exit of the observatory.
“I will not fail you, Father… and we will reclaim our home,” I called after him.
“I know my son… I know,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at me as he paused in the doorway with his long white cloak fluttering in the air behind him.
I nodded then turned back to the sleeping vessel as my father exited the room. There was no emotion in her flawlessly beautiful face as she lay there as still as a photograph—no indication of what was going on inside her mind. To think that the fate of our entire universe ultimately rested on the whims of such a small human girl was enough to even cast a sliver of doubt unto me. But it was far too late within the eleventh hour for me to give in to doubt.
The Equillian Federation had to be stopped. For millennia, their rhetoric of peace and prosperity for all sentient beings had done well to mask the true nature of the insidious threat they posed to the universe. Their unusually long life spans and rapid reproductive cycles coupled with their secret ultranationalist beliefs made them truly the most dangerous threat imaginable. Simply put, they were
invaders—a plague of grey scum that had spread to the Andromeda galaxy and conquered entire worlds in less than a century without having fired a single weapon. Instead of conquering through war the Equillians did so through trade and manipulative diplomacy. One by one they used their advanced technology to trade in exchange for citizenship and real-estate in different solar systems within our galaxy. Once they established a firm foothold within a system their 2500 year life spans and rapid reproductive cycles would ultimately lead to them quickly overrunning the population of the indigenous inhabitants and gaining control of the system’s resources as well as their governments. Entire civilizations, conned out of their very way of life, were forced to give up their home worlds and retreat to the barren planets in the Third Quadrant near Eden, our home world. My father was the first to bring the grievances of the refugees before the galactic counsel but the other counsel members were either too oblivious to the Equillian threat or too corrupted by Equillian bribes to agree to take action.
Now that they had ceased control of Eden and gained access to our Anokian-Steel reserves their threat had grown exponentially. The foolish earthlings had no idea of what they were involved in. They feared us because of our physical might, but they did not realize that the true threat was the so-called ally that they were helping to oppose us. Their methods were always the same—an initial alliance followed by technological gifts and favors. And the one thing the conquered races never realized until it was too late was that an alliance with the Equillian Federation always ended in conquest.
19. THE FALL OF EDEN
MONICA:
I WAS COMPLETELY FROZEN IN DISBELIEF AS THE BRILLIANT blue and white light in front of me cascaded outward in all directions. The intense, white-hot light given off by the being that had appeared before me burned several times hotter and brighter than the sun but I was somehow completely unharmed and able to peer into the fiery ball of majestic light and see that the massive amount of vibrant blue energy had taken the form of a gigantic eye that was staring directly at me.
A gentle wind fluttered the red cocktail dress that I was still wearing and a thick gray haze of fog crept over the nothingness in which I stood as I peered upward and stared into the gigantic pupil of the humongous spectral eye before me that stretched as far as my eyes could see. The eye appeared to be female and it actually didn’t look very threatening but I was still no less frightened by the unbelievable enormity of it.
“Do not fear, child, for I will bring you no harm,” the enchanting voice called out as the spectral eye towered above me the same way I would tower above an ant. There was no mouth, but I was still somehow able to hear it speak, although I couldn’t tell if I was actually hearing the voice with my ears or inside my head. Her voice was soothing, however, and suddenly I wasn’t quite as apprehensive as I had been initially.
“W-what are you? What do you want with me?” I stammered.
“I am called the Goddess of Eden ,” She replied.
“So it’s true. You want me to be your vessel?” I asked.
“Yes…” the Goddess whispered with a subtle hiss that sent a chill down my spine.
“But why me? Why choose me out of all the people on Earth?” I asked.
“It is the very purpose for which you were created. ‘Tis destiny that has chosen you, child—not me,” the Goddess replied.
“I don’t understand,” I admitted.
“Very well then… I will show you what has come to pass as well as that which lies ahead. Perhaps then you will come to understand,” She softly replied.
My mouth gaped in surprise as the blackness that surrounded us suddenly began to shimmer and fade away. After a few moments even the Goddess’ spectral eye began to fade and the blackness that had once beset me was replaced by a crystal blue sky. My heartbeat raced as I realized that somehow I remained; hovering in mid-air amongst the clouds as the Goddess’ eye completely vanished. My heart thumped even faster when I noticed several enormous aircrafts streaking through the sky, headed directly toward me. I clenched my eyes shut just before impact but to my surprise I didn’t feel a thing as the sophisticated aircraft phased right through me as if I was nothing more than a ghost who had charged into a vicious battle that was starting to fill the sky.
“What is this place? What’s happening?” I yelled as I turned in a full circle watching the droves of futuristic aircrafts clash in mid-air around me. Countless missiles and beams of red energy filled the sky as the squads of opposing aircrafts sought to annihilate each other. Half of the aircrafts were shaped like miniature flying saucers and they appeared to have the advantage against the conventionally shaped crafts as their circular designs allowed them to fire their red death rays in all directions.
“Behold the siege of Eden—the culmination of a galactic war instigated by those who wanted nothing more than to seize this treasure.” The Goddess had not yet reappeared but I could still hear Her enchanting voice as though She was still right in front of me.
When it came to the planet Eden, She was absolutely right—It was a treasure. Even as legions of star ships clashed all around me I couldn’t help but notice just how breathtakingly beautiful the environment was. Despite the chaos that filled the air and the great city that was under siege below, the rest of the environment still somehow seemed oddly peaceful—completely impervious to the devastating carnage that was threatening to consume it.
“This is Eden,” I finally whispered as the battle around me waged on.
“Yes, child. This is where we took our last stand—and it is also where I was destroyed,” the Goddess replied just as a bright blue ball of light suddenly erupted in front of me.
Ships from both sides turned and attempted to flee but the fiery ball of light quickly expanded and consumed them all as it cascaded across the horizon. When the light finally dissipated, the now mangled ships hung suspended in the air for a fraction of a second before they all began to plummet toward the ground below. As the droves of decimated ships spiraled toward the war-torn city below I suddenly realized that only I and another mysterious woman remained within the sky. She was hovering in the same spot where the fiery ball of blue light had appeared and Her ankle length, raven hair whipped wildly in the strong winds that surrounded us as Her intense eyes smoldered with a fiery blue glow. The sunlight shined brightly against the sophisticated silver and black armor that covered Her athletic physique from head to toe.
“Is that you?! Is that you, Eden?” I called out to Her.
“Yes, child,” I heard Her say in my head as the version of Her in front of me floated upward and tightened Her fists in anticipation. “This was the form that I took many years ago when I first ventured into the corporeal world.”
I was paralyzed with fear as the same deep, menacing hum from my dreams rang out and suddenly the once crystal blue sky began to violently shimmer. The Goddess ascended higher into the air as thousands of the same humongous circular spaceships from my dream suddenly appeared all around us.
“Run! Eden! You have to run!” I shouted to Her as the wind picked up and the fire in Her eyes intensified. Her silky locks of ankle length, raven hair danced within the wind as the energy within Her eyes suddenly spilled outward and in an instant Her entire body was consumed by it. I shuddered in horror as the hovering spaceships that surrounded Her fired massive waves of red energy beams at Her, but to my surprise, the beams were harmlessly deflected away as they crashed against the protective barrier of blue energy that now surrounded the Goddess.
My eyes widened with surprise as one of the giant circular spaceships closest to Her suddenly collapsed onto itself and fell from the sky as if it was nothing more than a massive soda can that had been crushed by an equally giant invisible hand. I watched in awe as another spaceship suffered the same fate as the Goddess extended Her right hand and forcefully clenched it into a fist. The enormous flying saucers continued to fire upon Her but none of their weapons could penetrate the radiating barrier of blue energy that had f
ormed into a force field around Her.
Fury burned in Her majestic eyes as She continued to clench Her fists and instantly reduce the circular dreadnaughts into scrap metal. She was crushing two to three of them at a time but before long the sky around us was almost completely blackened as more and more of the humongous flying saucers shimmered into view and joined the fight faster than She could crush them. A devastating clap of thunder shook the globe as The Goddess slammed Her hands together, then spread Her arms as quickly as She could. Suddenly the hoard of spaceships that once surrounded Her were torn into two separate groups against their will. The ships all frantically fired their thrusters in hopes of escaping Her grasp but as She gritted Her teeth and clenched Her mighty fists it was obvious that they were all under Her control. Another thunderous clap filled the air as The Goddess slammed Her hands together once more and the thousands of enemy starships that were caught within Her power suddenly collided into each other and went up in a massive ball of fire and metal. Pillars of flaming smoke and debris littered the skies as the Goddess’ eyes burned even brighter than before and Her midnight waves of impossibly long hair cascaded through the air behind Her like the blackened wings of a mighty archangel.
“I don’t understand,” I said, still frozen in disbelief at the sheer power that She possessed. “You single handedly defeated an entire fleet of their spaceships. How could they have possibly defeated you?”
“I too once thought myself to be invincible… but that was before the Guardians,” The Goddess replied as Her vessel turned and suddenly glared at the ground beneath us. My heart skipped a beat as I noticed that thousands of humanoid robots were leaving the battle below and cruising upward towards us like a hoard of missiles that had been launched from the ground. I knew that I couldn’t be harmed as we were merely glancing into the past, but as I watched the droves of lifeless machines make their way towards us I couldn’t shake the overwhelming sense of dread that was churning in the pit of my stomach. A deep, menacing hum filled the air as the collective whirring of the swarm of robots drew near. The Goddess, still shrouded in Her fiery field of blue energy, was completely still as the group of machines finally reached our altitude and hovered in a circle around Her. Each robot was nearly eight feet tall and they appeared to be made of the same shiny silver and black metal that the Goddess’ suit of armor was made of. Their heads reminded me of a sophisticated version of a motorcycle helmet and the menacing glare of their upside-down triangle shaped visors sent a cold tremor down my spine.
Savior Part 2: Son of Eden (The Savior Series) Page 19
