The Agathon: Reign of Arturo

by Colin Weldon

  “We’ve picked up something off the port bow,” she had said to him pointing, “Vishal just detected it. It’s huge. Looks like a ship of some sort.”

  He had followed her hand as she pointed out the large window behind him, and sure enough, drifting towards Earth One, was a craft with eight triangular sides, creeping towards the space stations. They had received a transmission from the craft a few minutes later. The visual had shown a young human woman looking at them through the screens. She had introduced herself as Carrie Barrington. She had told them not to worry, that she had been sent by The Agathon to rescue the human race and bring them to a new world and that they were to prepare themselves for immediate evacuation. After several minutes of elation and shock, Aron had run past India towards the entrance of Arturo Verge’s office. India had shouted at him as he approached the door.

  “Where the hell are you going?” she had asked him.

  He turned to her, out of breath, and felt happiness for the first time in his life. He smiled at her.

  “I’m going to wake up my daughter,” he said, laughing.

  31

  “Who’s there?” said Doctor Tyrone Tyrell in the dark. It felt like he was standing on solid ground, but there was no light to tell him what that ground looked like. He could not even see his own hands in front of his face. He could hear someone breathing. He was not sure if it was his own breath or someone else’s. He had been here for an eternity. Wandering around in the dark. He heard voices. One of them sounded like his own. There was something in the dark with him. He was sure of it. It had been here since he had arrived. Watching him. Stopping him from seeing. It felt like he was in a cave with no walls. There were no echoes when he shouted. His voice rippled into nothingness. For a moment, there had been a bright light and Carrie’s face had been looking down at him. He had pleaded with her for help. Then she was gone. The light had been extinguished by whatever was here with him. Holding him prisoner. It felt like he had been here his whole life. Alone in the dark with something. Some unseen monster watching his every move. He felt transparent. There were semblances of thought. Strange imagery that kept filtering into his mind. At one point, he thought he was running through a forest. Had he been speaking to an alien life form? He was sure he had seen Carrie. She looked different. Had they been free floating in space? He was sure he had been injured somehow and that this was some sort of coma. The images had felt real. There was something behind him. He turned to see nothing. The ground began to vibrate and something approached from behind him. Giant meandering footsteps in the dark getting closer. He began to run. The ground beneath his feet disappeared and he felt like he was suddenly floating. The sound of the approaching giant grew stronger. Where did the ground go? he thought to himself. Was he dead?

  “Help me!” he shouted into the void of nothingness. He was in hell. He was paying for his sins. There was a universal truth and he was being taught a lesson. Another flash of vision struck his mind. He was on a ship. Talking to a strange looking alien life form. It was his voice, but not his voice. The sound of the giant footsteps boomed all around him as he floated freely in the darkness. His other self was saying something. He closed his eyes and calmed the terror in his mind to try to hear what he was saying.

  “She will finish this” his other voice said.

  “She is too dangerous to keep alive” responded the strange alien being.

  “When she is finished, I will kill her,” said the other Tyrell.

  The voices faded into the darkness as something grabbed his leg in the darkness. A giant claw-like appendage. He turned, but saw nothing. He screamed at the nothing and tried to wriggle free, but it was no use. A booming voice exploded from the dark.

  “Keep your place!” it said.

  The noise of it rattled his brain and the claw-like fingers dug into his unseen leg. Tyrell screamed again.

  “Somebody help me!” he yelled, knowing nobody would answer. He wished he was dead, truly dead. Something terrible had captured him. Something dark. It had him firmly in its grasp and would never let him go. He felt its breath close to his face and it smelled acrid. It smelled like death. And it had wanted Carrie Barrington.