Arin Aye: The Middle Passage

by Alan D Jones

care of this.”

  Akina touched my arm, “No cousin, let me handle this.  I’ll take them to the pit. We can work out a safe way to unfreeze them later.” Given that I was a man of peace, and in fact a missionary, serving in the less traveled corners of the universe, my cousins tried their best to protect me from the realities of our role as protectors of human-kind.  In much the same way, in the previous generation my Aunt Ruth was protected by her sisters because she was so tender hearted. By moving them to the “Pit”, a place out of time, we were in layman terms, storing them in a place that something between purgatory and hell. Releasing them there, they’d have to fight it out with the demons that existed there in the flesh. But these were powerful being and that at least provided them a fighting chance.

  At last we reached Rachel, Nick and Reggie.  Reggie staring up at the frozen godlings from atop the last chunk of the drill to be cracked open called out, “Good work Cuz. I’m impressed.”

  I replied with a smile.

  This is who I am. This is why they call me. I am the Alchemist.

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  The First Fall

  Year: 2341

  What becomes of us when a star falls, when we lose a child and seemingly all hope is lost? This is a question that no parent ever hopes to answer.  And yet as a parent I’ve answered three times. My name is Michael and I am descended from the mating what most call angels with humans. We are the heroes of legends. Known as demigods, we refer to ourselves as merely the children of those who came before. And thus were my three children as well. Each of my children were born with only a portion of my ability, given that their mother, Vicki, was fully human.

  The mission was to be a humanitarian one, a visitation upon an alien world to bring glad tidings. The place was Andromeda Six, the sixth earth-like world found in that galaxy, and of particular interest because it was a world seeded with humans (and other mammals, all of which decimated many of the indigenous species) thousands of years ago as a part of some long since abandoned grand experiment to determine if humans were indeed intrinsically violent. That alien race planted humans on several other worlds as well, but none were as warlike as the residents of Andromeda Six. But when a rogue planet appeared in their sky all hostilities between nations ceased. That it might be on a collision course with their world was the fear of most, but the reality of the learned among them.  And since they’d not yet learned to navigate the stars, the locals were stunned to see a starship, albeit a modest one, streak across their sky. The ship passed over thousands of people who witnessed it land in a centrally located mountain range at an emergency conference of their world leaders. Most of the inhabitants of Andromeda Six were unaware of the world of their origin, but many of their leaders were very aware of the fact and hoped against all odds that someone from their parent world might arrive to save the day.   Seeing the strange vessel land in the middle of their courtyard, the leaders walked out unto the lawn to greet the visitors.

  My oldest, Nicholas exited the star craft first. He had the ability to transform the state of matter, be it to solid, to liquid, to gas and back again.  He also, inherited my gift of never aging past thirty years of age. In truth, he was over three hundred years old. Tall and athletic, and possessing all the poise of the military officer he’d once been, he forced a smile to the hopeful men and women before him. As the eldest, he felt the need to always take the point and that day was no different. His heart was heavy because he and his siblings, who’d been sent by the Elders (a governing body for those such as us), had just learned that there would be no help from home to avert this extinction event, even though upon their acceptance of the mission they’d been told that it would be so.

  Rachel, my middle child, a doctor and seminary graduate, descended from the craft after her older brother. She didn’t possess any gifts that the human eye could detect beyond that fact that she would never grow old from the passing years. However, what she did possess was the armor created by my mother and her sisters. The bracelets, breastplate, shield and sword, each had supernatural properties and appeared to the naked eye only when needed.  But she also, received, in part, my gift of dreams.  Many of her dreams foreshadowed things to come. Rachel was a strikingly beautiful woman who looked so much like her mother that many questioned what role I played in her creation.  But on that day, her face was blushed as this new audience took her in. She’d been frantically reaching out to any who might be able to help, since there would be no formal help as she’d been led to believe. Her options were limited at the time. If these events had happened just fifty years earlier, she could have reached out to my mother Sarah or my Aunt Deborah, when both were still alive. Or if they’d had more time they could have sought me out.  Although I was thousands of light years away, I would have found a way to aid them.  My Aunt Ruth was alive and certainly could have addressed the matter as well, but as protector of our world, she could not leave her post.

  Last to exit the star vessel was my youngest Simon (at that particular time of his life he preferred to be called Luscious, but we his family chose to call him by his given name). He was not blessed with agelessness, but did have the ability to change the mass of any object, making it heavier or lighter as he wished. He was also, in some ways the misfit of the lot. In and out of trouble all of his teen and adult years, he often used his gift to hustle others in games like pool.  As a practice, his two older siblings would request the aid of my time and space traveling cousin Akina, to go back into time to retrieve Simon for the mission de jour. So, in this instance, since he was incarcerated at the time, he was in a prison cell one moment and in the next aboard the star craft with his older siblings. Simon lived for these excursions, as an escape from a life which even he had to admit, had played out short of what he expected for himself.  And although he seldom showed remorse, he certainly felt it from time to time. But whenever his siblings had a big mission they’d reach back into the 21st Century to retrieve him.  Nick and Rachel were now living in the twenty-forth century and Simon knew that in each trip to the future he’d see some new marvel that he could never have even imagined. And though the days in the future were always grueling and perilous, they were ultimately rewarding when done. But this day was different.  Simon, who was the only one of the three not surprised by the devastating twist of events, felt a woeful sense of being as he first glanced at all the hopeful faces below him. Only forty four years old, but looking at least fifty five, Simon tugged at his salt and pepper goatee as he stepped down the staircase to join his brother and sister. Simon knew that this backward world of few heavy elements and no galactic exports worth mentioning stood little chance of assistance from any civilization capable of altering the course of a planet. In fact, if anything, the powers that be would only stand to gain by harvesting the remains of these two worlds once they collided. In over three hundred years and hundreds of seemingly inescapable jams, the three of them had always found a way.  There had always been a way.  But as he gazed upon the looming planet in the blue sky above a realization swept over Simon that there was really only one way this time.

  Through their translation devices Nick and Rachel spoke to the leaders, doing their best to explain why no cavalry was en route.  A tearful Rachel said over and over again to the angry leaders, “I’m sorry, there is nothing that we can do.”

  But my son Simon corrected his big sister, “No, there is one thing that we can do.”  Simon ran back up the stairs into the starship. Expecting him to return with something from the voice controlled ship, Nick and Rachael were surprised to hear the vessel roar to life and begin to ascend.  Over their communicators, they called out to Simon, “What are you doing?”

  As he put on his space suit, Simon replied, “On our approach, I saw a smaller uninhabited planet just outside the orbit of this planet.  I’m thinking that if I can increase the mass of that planet, I may be able to alter the path of the rogue planet enough to miss this world. I’ve never tried anything this mass
ive before but I don’t see that we have much of a choice here, but we have to try. The onboard computers are running through the scenarios right now. “

  Nick cried out over the communicator, “Simon, what are you doing, man? Come back and we’ll figure something out. You know we always do these things together.”

  Simon replied back, “Come on big brother, you know full well that you’ve always taken on the risky tasks on our little adventures throughout the years.  So, maybe it’s my turn.”

  In tears, Rachel repeated her brother’s name, “Simon, Simon…”, knowing full well the cost of his gambit.

  A resolved Simon replied, “Hey, I’ve known for some time that it would end this way for me. Ever since I realized that neither of you were lying to protect me, when you said you’d seen no record of how I died.  That told me that my day would come on one of my little excursions to the future with you. But you can’t change your destiny can you? And if I am destined to die, what better way is there?” Simon paused for a moment before continuing, “I’ve lived a life of easy choices and thoughtless actions. Be we descended from