After walking down the corridor, they entered an elevator. Once inside, the Gnol pushed a button and the lift began to ascend rapidly. After a few seconds, it stopped. A door behind them slid open. The Gnol and Ariauna turned around. This time, Ariauna’s heart stopped. The elevator led to the bridge of the mother ship she was on. Gnols of different ranks worked at various stations on the bridge. Directly ahead was a gigantic view-screen or plasma shield. Which one? She wasn’t sure. Nevertheless, all one would have to do would take a few steps past the shield and he or she would be floating in space right above Earth. The image was breathtaking.
Her attention to the scene drew her in. Hundreds of other Gnol ships surrounded and flew around the mother ship, causing her more anxiety. A coordinated attack? she wondered. She then saw explosions erupting all over Earth. The realization of what she was witnessing had finally settled in. She had made a terrible mistake.
She then turned to the Gnol, who still had a firm grip on her arm. “Where is Dorange Gar? I demand to speak with him immediately.”
The Gnol ignored her and looked at the command chair in the center of the bridge. There was a Gnol sitting in the seat. All Ariauna could see was part of his arm and his hand. The Gnol’s fingers drummed along the control panel of his armrest.
“My Lord,” the guard said gruffly, letting go of Ariauna’s arm and then kneeling down into the customary Gnol salute.
The Gnol stood up, his long, dark hair hanging loosely to the middle of his back.
Finally, Ariauna thought. Now she would finally be able to speak with Dorange. But when the Gnol turned around, Ariauna’s world came crashing down. Her legs felt like jelly and her knees buckled. She felt lightheaded and nearly passed out before the guard caught her after he had stood back up. Calum stirred and whimpered.
After a few seconds, Ariauna became conscious of her surroundings once again. She couldn’t remember walking to the Gnol in charge, but now she and her guard escort stood a few feet ahead of the command chair and in front of the gigantic view-screen.
Horror flowed over her like a scalding hot shower. Her eyes followed the gigantic Gnol standing two heads taller than she. When her eyes met his eyes, she cowered in fear. His eyes were menacing, glowing red orbs that exuded evil. She turned away from his indifferent gaze, but then gathered the strength she needed and met his eyes once again. “W-where is Dorange Gar?”
Koroan Chast stared at her for a long moment. He just looked at her like she was a wounded animal, a lower class species. She could tell that he had no compassion for her. It was just a look of callousness. Finally, he spoke, looking at the guard. “That will be all.”
The guard did his customary salute and left for his station back down in the brig.
Koroan turned his attention back to Ariauna, “You have done well, Ariauna Tomwon. Your success will be rewarded.”
His attention then shifted from her to the child she held in her arms. As soon as he laid eyes upon his grandchild, Ariauna noticed a slight change in his countenance. His eyes softened as the bright red dimmed and flecks of blue began to appear. It was almost as if his eyes were transforming back into their natural shade of blue. He also looked at his grandson differently than he had toward Ariauna. It seemed to her that a hint of compassion had slipped through the dam he had built up for years. A dam that blocked any type of kind emotion from being released.
He reached out and took Calum from her arms. As he did so, Calum began to cry again. Koroan stared at his grandson, holding him out in the air, and seeming as if he wasn’t sure what to do. Suddenly, he shook his head and his eyes flashed back to the glowing red orbs of evil. He looked at Ariauna with disdain and shoved Calum back into her arms. Calum began to wail. “You are now his caretaker,” he said roughly.
Koroan looked up and past her. A door on the wall far behind them slid open. Ariauna spun around. For a moment, she felt some relief in her hopes to be redeemed for her mistake and hoped that someone would come to her rescue because the woman who walked out of the door was almost identical to Celeste. But to Ariauna’s dismay, it wasn’t Celeste. On the contrary, this was a being of immense power, yet her countenance was soaked in and dripped pure evil like a rain-drenched weed ready to ravage an entire field of healthy crops.
The woman’s eyes glowed bright blue, which captivated Ariauna’s attention. She stared into the woman’s eyes, mesmerized. Despite her evil demeanor, the woman was absolutely stunning with flawless hair and skin and a perfect female body, covered snugly by a magnificent leather battle suit.
The woman ignored Ariauna completely as she approached. She stopped within a few feet of her and glared at Calum, who was still crying incessantly. Ariauna tried her best to calm him down, but the fear of the woman standing in front of her was almost too much to bear.
“My Queen,” Koroan said in deference to the woman. He then bowed his head and backed away.
Ariauna was astonished. To her knowledge, Koroan was the most powerful Gnol alive, at least until his presumed death. But now, here he stood alive and well, submitting himself to another who was undoubtedly more powerful than he was.
The woman grabbed Calum from Ariauna’s grip. Ariauna tried to resist, but the woman pushed her away like a gnat. Calum wailed uncontrollably as the woman held him high above her head in front of the image of Earth on the view-screen. Instant fear and trepidation gripped Ariauna. The woman, holding Calum, contained no compassion whatsoever, not even a hint of kindness, empathy, sympathy, or even love, for that matter. Despite her perfect physical beauty, this woman’s soul radiated pure evil, all of which she directed toward Calum, causing Ariauna to fear for his life.
For a moment, Ariauna thought the woman was going to disengage the plasma shield and toss the baby into the void of space. But she didn’t. She just held him in place above her head and away from her body like a possession or a prize won in battle.
Finally, she spoke poisonously like venom dripping from a serpent’s fangs. “At last . . . the key . . . the key to take what is rightfully ours . . . the chosen one.”
*****
Reagan Test Site, Kwajalein Atoll . . .
Celeste paced frantically on the tarmac in front of one of the two Nighthawks that arrived on Kwajalein hours earlier. The back ramp of one of the Nighthawks was lowered and the two pilots that had arrived in it walked down the ramp, their gear slung over their shoulders. Celeste, freshly dressed in black battle fatigues, checked her watch. 3:23 p.m. Her head jerked up, searching for her husband. For the first time that she ever remembered, she was angry with him.
She wasn’t sure why. Perhaps part of her anger stemmed from the fact that she partially blamed Jake for their son being kidnapped. After all, if he had been more aware and not asleep, it was possible that he could have helped fend off her father and Macaria.
She checked her watch again. This time, anger began to boil to the surface. “Jake!” she hollered.
Jake stood talking with Kevin, Anyta, Kylee, and Lexis a few meters down the tarmac. He quickly gave each of them a hug and then turned and ran to his wife. After he arrived, he tried to comfort Celeste by giving her a hug as well. She pushed him away with tears beginning to well up in her eyes again. “Our son, Jake.”
Jake lowered his head and grabbed her hands. “I know. He’s alive. We just can’t rush into this thing. We need to make sure we’re ready.”
Celeste nodded her agreement. She knew that she was being impatient. But she was desperate. Their baby son had been ripped from their arms by the most powerful evil beings in the galaxy. She couldn’t bear the thought of him in their care. She and Jake made their way up the ramp, through the cargo hold, and into the cockpit. Jake guided his wife into her seat. She buckled herself in as Jake secured himself into the other pilot’s seat. He began clicking on the controls when the communications system within the fighter came alive.
“Jake, this is Kevin.”
“Go ahead, Kevin,” Jake replied as he typed his coordinates int
o the fighter’s computer.
“We just received word from Bantyr.”
Jake paused because of the trepidation in his uncle’s voice. “What’s wrong?”
“Skip and Jennifer are safe with Bantyr, but . . .” He trailed off.
“But what?” Jake asked with urgency.
“But he just told me that Dorange came out of the Pyramid of the Sun alone.”
“Which means what, Kevin? Don’t tell me my dad is dead,” Jake said with anger beginning to creep into his voice.
“I didn’t say that, Jake. Bantyr hopes your dad and Sage are prisoners. Chris, the other two pilots, and I are preparing to leave for Teotihuacan as soon as we can. . . . We’ll get your dad back, Jake.”
“All right. Keep me posted,” Jake responded soberly.
Celeste reached over and grabbed her husband’s hand before he began punching in commands again. The strain of losing their son and now possibly his father was beginning to wear thin on him. Even though his demeanor was stoic, she could tell he was doing his best to keep it together.
Jake squeezed her hand and looked back at her into her eyes. With a small smile, he said, “Let’s go get our son.”
*****
Onboard the Raqel II in orbit over Earth . . .
Nichelle had been awake for nearly a half hour as she sat alone in her cell. There was no guard present, at least in her visibility. Her strength was beginning to return after her body suffered severely from the serum Ariauna had injected her with.
Frustrated and angry, she stood to her feet and began to pace back and forth in her cell. She focused her attention on what she believed the control panel would look like on the wall just outside of her cell. Reaching her hand out, she felt like she had connected with the device telekinetically. The plasma shield flickered for a second. She tried again. And once again, the shield flickered, but came back on at full strength.
She was about to try again when a monitor on one of the walls of her cell blinked on. She was shocked at who appeared on the other end of the monitor. “Ciminae,” she whispered.
The woman smiled at her and laughed at her eerily. “No, Nichelle. I am only Ciminae Chast in body but not in soul.”
“Macaria,” Nichelle replied with fear in her voice.
“Yes . . . How is your cell? Are you comfortable?”
“What do you care?”
Again, Macaria laughed. “I assume you have questions. Questions about how a feeble Terrestrian was able to defeat you.”
“You’ve obviously developed a way for humans to become like Gnols,” Nichelle stated.
“Ah yes, but there’s an antidote to that. One that you have just experienced firsthand.”
Nichelle thought about the serum Ariauna had injected her with.
Macaria continued, “Thanks to Dorange Gar and the serum that he used to fool us all of these years, he also had his scientists develop a serum that . . . well, makes us human . . . weak. He used this serum on Gnols that questioned his authority. Now, we can use it.”
Because Nichelle was focused on Macaria, she failed to notice that her cell’s plasma shield had disengaged. Directly behind her were two Gnol guards. Before she could react, one guard held her in place while the other guard injected her with more serum.
Instantly, her legs wobbled as her Gnol strength left her body. The two guards held her up so she wouldn’t fall to the floor. They guided her to her bed and threw her on it. They then turned and left her cell. Nichelle looked up at the monitor again. Her vision was blurry, and she felt feverish. Her body began to tremble as Macaria smiled at her with a triumphant grin on her face.
“W-where is Calum?” Nichelle asked weakly.
“Calum is where he rightfully should be. Now, get used to those injections; you are going to need continual injections for what we have planned for you.”
Before Nichelle slipped into unconsciousness, a deep and foreboding feeling of gloom swept through her body.
*****
Ariauna had never been so scared in her entire life. Even with all of the horrors she experienced as a slave, she never felt so afraid. Four Gnols stood over her, two females and two males. They were all covered in surgical attire. All she could see were their eyes. One of the females took charge as she gave the other Gnols orders. The other three grabbed her and forcibly turned her onto her belly, face down. They tied her arms and legs down, securing them to the gurney.
They had yet to secure her head as she looked up. There, standing above her, was Koroan Chast. He was holding Calum in his arms. The baby was wide awake and stared at Ariauna. It almost seemed as if the child could sense her fear. His blue eyes were large and inviting. A strange feeling of comfort entered her body as she stared back into his eyes. She was about to get lost in his gaze when Koroan spoke.
“We are taking that chip out of the base of your skull.”
“Why? So you can control me?”
“Precisely, my dear. . . . But that would require me or an Enforcer to be present with you all of the time. And frankly, I do not have that kind of time. No, once we remove the current chip in your head, my doctors are going to implant a new chip. But this chip will not be placed at the base of your skull. They are placing it in the center of your brain.”
Fear and anxiety began to drown her again as if she was being held under water. Her breathing became frantic. One of the doctors injected her with something as they secured her head to the table. Instantly, she began to relax.
Koroan knelt down with Calum still in his arms so he could look into her eyes. “Know this, Ariauna. Once the chip is in place, you will be completely under the control of the Gnol Empire. You will still be free to think what you want, but if you say or do anything contrary to my will or the will of my queen, the chip will kill you.”
*****
After Koroan made sure Ariauna was under and being properly worked on, he made his way to his private quarters. Now he sat in his office chair, gazing out at the world before him. Gnol fighters zipped past the view-screen. He felt a little odd. One of his subordinates, a female private, had offered to take care of Calum so that he could attend to more important matters, in particular, the invasion. But something inside him made him say no. Now, he sat in his plush leather office chair with his grandson in his lap.
He looked down at the boy. Calum was staring back at him with eyes wide open. He had a hold of Koroan’s index finger, trying to suck on it. As Koroan stared at the child, he allowed a small smile to crease along his lips. The smile stayed on his face as he thought about the last few months. Ever since his rise from the dead, he was different. Different in the fact that his desire for power had diminished. Yes, his ultimate goal was to still dominate the galaxy. But now that the goddess of light had taken a physical form, his end goal and hers didn’t seem to mesh. Additionally, he had to be sure that his thoughts didn’t betray him whenever he was in her presence.
As he continued to stare into Calum’s eyes, an emotion - one that he had pushed back all of these years - crept into his bosom. He took a deep breath, trying to push the emotion back into the dark recesses of his soul in which he had it buried. The emotion almost caused him to tear up. Thoughts that he thought he would never experience again popped into his mind, followed by deep feelings of grief. He soon realized, as he held Calum snugly in his arms, that he missed his family. He missed Raqel, he missed Ciminae, and yes, he even missed Celeste, even though he believed that she had committed the worst sin by betraying him and everything he believed in.
Yet, there was something about holding his grandson in his arms. There was a connection, and the feelings that were bubbling to the surface again scared him. He quickly stood up and laid Calum on a small bed that had been placed in his office from his ship’s infirmary. Calum stirred and began to cry.
Irritated, Koroan rushed out of his office. He shot one of his lieutenants, working as an analyst at a station on the bridge, a look that could kill. “Take care of that child!” he demande
d.
The lieutenant, a young, attractive female, jumped from her seat and stood to attention. “Y-yes, my Lord,” she said, bowing her head.
Koroan watched as she entered his private office and quarters. He walked to the command chair of the bridge. As he did so, he could sense the tension on the bridge increase from the other Gnols working at their various stations.
He plopped himself down into the command chair of the bridge and gazed out at Earth.
“My Lord?” questioned one of his subordinates who was working at a communications station.
“What is it?” Koroan replied, emphasizing that he did not want to be disturbed.
“You have an urgent message coming in.”
“From whom?”
“Dorange Gar.”
“Transmit the message.”
Koroan watched as the 3D holographic image of Dorange Gar appeared in front of him, hovering a few inches from the floor of the bridge. He then stood and took a few steps forward so that the holographic projectors could capture his image, sending it back to Dorange on Earth. Before he could respond, Macaria erupted from her private quarters and quickly made her way toward him.
CHAPTER 15: GOD’S TOUCH
Onboard the Raqel II in orbit over Earth . . .
Koroan felt uneasy with Macaria by his side. Before Macaria had arrived on the scene, Koroan was the most powerful being in the Gnol civilization, maybe even the most powerful being in the galaxy. But now, with Macaria, he felt awkward, not sure of his place.
As Dorange relayed his message about the recent events at Teotihuacan, he could sense the rage boiling over in Macaria.
“You and Major Washantu are all that are left,” Macaria said curtly.
“Yes, my Queen.”
Macaria looked at Koroan. The expression on her face was like a two-edged sword cutting through his chest. “This is your fault, Koroan!” she bellowed.
All of the personnel working on the bridge froze in fear.
“Your people cannot even handle one rogue Gnol and a few human ingrates!” she screamed as she stretched out her hand. She locked on to a surprised Gnol working at his station. She then levitated the horrified Gnol to her. “They are untrained and weak,” she seethed as she squeezed the life out of him.
Worlds Without End: The Prophecy (Book 3) Page 29
