Arin Aye: The Middle Passage

by Alan D Jones

angels or not, we three know that my gifts have largely been wasted on me. You two have always seen fit to see the very best in me, what I might be some day. Still, I am no noble sort, but perhaps I can have a noble moment.”

  Nick, fighting back is own tears, called to his little brother, “Simon, I know of a few million folks down here who would disagree with you regarding your nobility.”

  “None of us is noble in and of ourselves, Simon. Each of us simply opens ourselves to selfless moments from time to time.” Rachel spoke in an attempt to comfort Simon.

  “Thanks for the kind words sis.”

  Rachel followed, “But they’re true. We are all the same, and this moment bears witness to that.”

  Simon composed himself before continuing, “I’m instructing the ship to return to you once I’m on the planet I mentioned. The ship is going to loop out a bit away from all three planets so that it’s not caught up in gravity field I’ll be creating. Still, it should reach Andromeda Six in plenty of time for a safe escape should my efforts fail. And of course, I’ve locked you two out of the voice command system for the next seventy-two hours.” Knowing that in moments he’d step into the breach never to return, the space suited Simon paused a second time before opening the outer airlock to the cold vacuum of space, “I love you two more than anything.”

  Rachel replied , “We love you too.”

  Quoting their collective mantra, Nick added, “We three, then, now and forever.”

  Alone on the small barren world, Simon knelt  stretching his hands out to the ground below and focused as he had never done before.  Even shielding himself as best he could from the artificial gravity he created, it would not be long before Simon was lying flat on his back unable to lift his own head. He’d hoped that he could save the doomed world by merely increasing the mass of this small world so that a simple flyby would suffice in altering rough planet’s path enough that it would miss Andromeda Six.  But not a single calculated scenario supported such a plan. The only sure solution was to increase the mass of the small outer planet to the point that it would collide with the rogue planet. In doing this the ship’s calculators projected that Andromeda Six would incur a more pronounced tilt in its axis and be drawn into an elliptical orbit, but would survive.

  Still, there were consequences.  The proximity of the Rogue planet was already causing widespread coastal flooding as the seas rose and earthquakes as the tectonic plates shifted under its pull. The flooding was so severe that over seventy percent of the land was already covered in water. The increase in mass of the third planet in play, only made things worse. Soon as the water began to evaporate there would be worldwide rain showers that would last for weeks. And while the data being streamed in from the starship’s computers to the siblings showed that Simon’s plan was indeed working, there was little change to the naked eye as all three worlds pulled still closer together. During those three days my three children, seemingly in a world of their own apart from the chaos all around them, communicated almost constantly. Sure they spoke of vectors and velocities, but largely they discussed time, or better yet past times. They recalled the moments of their shared lives. They spoke of their mother, long since departed. They spoke of me and made fun of my silly caps and overall lack of style. They recalled family vacations and times with their many cousins and extended family. All the while they hoped for a miracle, even as they were accepting of the fact that they indeed were the miracle, the Hand of God, for an entire world.

  On the morning of the third day, Simon called from the cold, dry, dead world to his siblings one last time, “Hey, I’m calling my shot, rogue planet in the corner pocket. Problem is that I’m riding the cue ball. Ha, how’s fitting is that?”

  Nick never one to give up, replied, “We’re still waiting to hear back from Akina.” The thought was that Akina could teleport to Simon’s location and rescue him before his barren world collided with the rogue planet. But Akina’s movements at this time were like the wind, with no one outside of the elders able to consistently contact her. There were at least two Elders with telepathic powers with telepathic powers strong enough to call on Akina when needed.  Supposedly, word had been sent to Akina, but there’d been no response. We all knew that Akina was slowly going mad, but she always seemed to find a way to make all the really important calls.

  Simon laughed, “And I don’t think you will. I tell you brother; I see a shadow behind the curtain.”  This was the third time in three days that Simon had inferred that he, Simon, was a problem the Elders would like to go away. And sending just the three of them on this mission without the needed support or equipment was a perfect solution. He didn’t know for sure, but wondered if the Elders had even reasoned that he, Simon, would do just as he did. “Although, I don’t understand why they didn’t simply banish me to some uncharted planet or the Pit as they’ve done with others?” The “Pit” was a parallel universe which some might call purgatory. “Maybe, they thought that as long as I lived, you guys would simply find me and bring me back.  I don’t know, doesn’t matter now, it is, what it is. Funny, how at the end of things, you gain such clarity about what matters and what doesn’t.”

  A tearful Rachel called out as the worlds closed in on one another in Andromeda Six’s dusk lit sky, “Simon…”

  “Sister, would you give me my last rites?” Simon asked. When Rachel was finished, Simon continued, “Please give my love to Dad and please look after my kids.”

  Nick with his arm around Rachel’s shoulder answered back, “Of course, we will.” He answered so, even though he and Rachel had done so for his children and their descendants, for some three hundred years, since his mysterious disappearance.

  Through the static Simon replied one last time, “You know it really is an awesome sight to see another world taking up most of the sky. I can see her oceans swirling. I’ve never experienced anything so surreal, so beautiful and yet so frightening.”

  Rachel cried into her communicator “We’re here with you, Simon,” as the static raged back.

  Nick joined her, as they called into the ether over and over words of comfort to their little brother. But as they saw the silent horror of the two worlds colliding overhead, they both fell to the ground in a tight embrace. Bitterly, they cried together as the world around them rejoiced. Like a ricochet shot in a game of pool, the two worlds collided and then largest chunk of what remained of both worlds careened into deep space. The resulting debris first seemed to cast a halo around the event, before scattering in every direction. Having lost much of their velocity most of the resulting asteroids would fall into the host star before Andromeda Six passed that way again in a year’s time. Conversely those projectiles with higher velocities would exit the star system or establish themselves into a higher orbit, only threatening Andromeda Six occasionally as they fell out of orbit one by one over millions of years, with each star fall a reminder of the grace afforded that day.

  Nick and Rachel carried on as one would expect, but it was never the same.  When Akina delivered the news to me, a part of me died.  I’d known that Simon disappeared sometime after the year 2040. But like his siblings, I’d hoped that he simply decided to live off the grid to avoid the authorities and even the Elders. I liked to believe he was intentionally out of contact, but safe and maybe even happy. And perhaps he is.

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  The Prize

  Year: 2525

  As one who can turn lead into gold, or more importantly, steel bindings into vapor, being restrained was a new experience for me. Because of my ability to transmute one element into another with a simple touch, it was not uncommon for some to try to capture me for their own personal gain. But always they’d failed.  Those using more traditional restraints failed for obvious reasons, but even those who’d tried to bind me using some form of electromagnetism failed as well when my body transformed into non-conductive matter. For the first 300 years of my life, many of the attempts were almost comical.  But with of th
e passing of my mother (also known as Black Sarah for her reputation of laying waste to entire civilizations), some of the powers that be in the universe joined the chase and with them came better equipped kidnappers. This time, the villains used something akin to an antigravity gun, actually several of them, to capture and hold me.  Interestingly this time, all of my captors continued to wear their disguises long after they’d secured me in the hull of their star craft.

  At long last the captain of the vessel joined her compatriots in the holding area. Her voice boomed through the room, “You are the one they call The Alchemist, while others call you the Missionary, are you not?”

  “Yes, but my name is Michael.”

  “You’re the one who can transform any element into another, right?” A cloaked mercenary cried out.

  “Quiet!  Do not speak again!”  The captain snapped at her contractor.

  “Yes, I have done that from time to time.” I replied to the stifled crew member, in the language in which he spoke.

  The captain scowled before continuing.  “These cowards crouch in awe and fear because of the tales of what your mother and her sisters did to the eternal realms like Olympus, despite numerous reports from credible sources