Thomas said, “Today we're going straight up the hill.”
Eden nodded. She followed him across the path to the base of the hill that she'd been staring at for hours.
As they started up a well worn path, Eden could see that the palm trees were more like very tall fern plants. They were sporadically growing all over the hillside and the ones along both sides of the trail shaded them nicely as they hiked.
Eden was about to speak, but instead suddenly grabbed Thomas' arm, frightened. She stiffened up against him for protection. In the middle of the path ahead, a sleek animal as big as her was sitting with two smaller versions of itself. It was intermittently licking the smaller versions up and down their bodies. The animal suddenly stopped what it was doing to eye Eden because of her sudden movement. Then the big animal casually sniffed the air and went back to its licking.
“She won't harm you,” said Thomas.
“What is that?” replied Eden.
“It's called a black panther. She's grooming her two kits.”
Eden released her grip on Thomas and relaxed. Already impressed by the enormity of the cat, she marveled at its amazing beauty. Its eyes were pale yellow and set in a background of shining black-purple fur, accentuated by dapples of light dropping through the palm fronds from above. Instinctively, Eden wanted to move along and leave the panther alone. At the same time, she felt compelled to study the creature. “I've never seen anything like it.”
Thomas replied, “They're part of the big cat family.” Then he gave her an inquisitive look. “Do you not have them in the biosphere? I thought you did.”
Eden looked away in thought, wondering if she had actually seen any cats in the biosphere, but eventually shook her head no. “We have something similar called bears, but no cats.”
Thomas smiled. “A bear?” He chuckled. “I know those creatures well.” Then he gestured with his hand for Eden to continue the walk.
Eventually, they encountered a small foot bridge arched over a gurgling creek. It was constructed out of two thick slabs, cut perfectly to form the arching bridge. The two slabs contained specks of gold, black, red and clear rock crystal running throughout them.
“Go ahead,” he said.
When she took her first step onto the bridge, she gasped and immediately jumped off.
Concerned by her odd reaction, Thomas placed his hand on her back assuringly and asked, “Are you okay?”
She nodded a yes, while giving him a strange look. She wondered if she had just imagined it. She shrugged and placed her foot back onto the bridge, then felt another electricity like zap hit her foot and travel up her leg. She quickly retrieved her foot and shook it in the air while delivering Thomas another odd look.
Thomas bowed to her, then raised his eyes to meet hers. “I must apologize. It's been a long time since I've been with an off worlder and have been remiss by not mentioning a few things. You aren't used to—” He cut himself off and stood straight, tilting his head. “You do know ebb rock, don't you? You're from Lumus, after all. I would think you'd be used to its energy by now.”
Eden raised her brows as she stared at the two slabs of rock. “That's not ebb. It's similar in appearance, but it's not ebb.”
He frowned. “I'm very certain that it is.”
She scanned the bridge a moment longer, wondering why he would think such a thing. “No, I don't know what kind of rock that is, but I can tell you that it's not ebb.”
Surprised, he said, “Look again, Eden.”
What looked familiar was the grayness of the stone with the black and red specks, but the gold and clear rock were foreign to her. “Yes, it bears some likeness.”
Thomas rubbed his chin. “I see. When ebb is used in your culture, what's different from what you see here?”
“It doesn't have the transparent and gold specks, that's all. And, well, it doesn't zap you when you touch it.”
Thomas dropped his arms to his sides, releasing an irritated sigh. “They've hidden it from all of you. They've given your race some freedoms, but have hampered other types of growth in more horrendous ways.” He glanced down at Eden's bare feet peeking out from under the hem of her white robe. “Let's continue over the bridge. Your feet will be fine, although a little toasty by the time you get to the other side, but that will pass.”
Thomas' tone was lower than usual, more monotone, because something she had said bothered him. When he took his first two steps onto the bridge, he was moving faster than usual and his stride was just a little less graceful than normal.
Eden frowned and stood in place. She wanted to ask him about what seemed to be bothering him, but her mind went to his last statement. “What was hidden from my people?”
Thomas stood on the other side of the bridge, wondering if he should fully answer the question now or leave it for later. He folded his arms. “Apparently, the Prime Director's race, which are the giants of your bedtime stories, have removed the gold and crystal from the ebb rock before you're allowed to use it. They've done so for reasons that are too lengthy and too complicated to explain right now. In short, they have dumbed you down, giving your people very little chance of advancing your abilities with the amazing qualities of the gold and crystal. Had they left them in place, your people would have learned how to tap into your abilities very quickly, allowing you the experience of true freedom. But, in short order, you would have broken the chains that bind you to them.”
Thinking about everything he said, she finally asked, “The giants of our children's bedtime stories? I'm not following. The giants are fictitious. All of the stories take place on another planet, one that doesn't exist. They're children's sto—”
Eden suddenly yelped because she had stepped onto the bridge while talking. A crackling zap of energy had sparked against the ball of her foot. She hopped off the bridge with an embarrassed smile. Thomas simply smiled and said, “Again.”
She stepped back onto the bridge, ready for another zap, but nothing happened. She lifted her hands in the air as she delivered Thomas an exasperated look. “It didn't do it this time!”
He released a little laugh, his sad demeanor gone. “Shall I give you some applause?”
She waved her arms around in the air, enthusiastically acting like a child. “If it will help with getting me over the rest of this bridge, then yes!”
Thomas grinned and clapped his hands as Eden took a step forward and leaped into the air as another bolt of energy shot through her toes and up her calf. She landed on the bridge, took three quick strides, jumped onto the grass and did a little dance, doing her best to dissipate the tingling sensations. She was in the middle of a twirl when her foot slipped, causing her to fall into Thomas' arms.
“Whoa,” he said, and pulled her snugly against his chest.
She couldn't help but giggle as she looked up at him, but instantly dropped her smile, eye to eye with Thomas, his baby blues staring down at her. She was too close to him, yet she was extremely comfortable with it, as if she'd been in his arms a thousand times before. She also felt a strange impulse to draw him closer for a kiss, but Thomas stiffened, surprised by her relaxed reaction. He stepped back and straightened her up on her own two feet and immediately turned away. He started walking toward the top of the hill, moving faster than usual.
Eden paused, trying her best to understand what had just occurred. Was she just imagining things? Didn't he want to kiss her, too? Or had she misread him and he was disgusted by the incident?
Thomas pointed ahead, still walking faster than they had been. “Let's keep going.”
She started to follow him and wrapped her arms around her chest, feeling confused and rejected. Loneliness swept through her, abandonment, or rejection—she couldn't quite decide which, but she wondered why she'd be feeling any of them. After all, she'd just met Thomas and barely knew him. She stared at the grass as she proceeded up the hill, harboring a lingering sense of gloom that she couldn't shake.
After a few minutes of silent hikin
g, with his back to Eden, Thomas stopped abruptly, clenched his fists and stared at his feet. Then he said out loud, “I'm sorry.” He turned around to face her. “I think you may have misread my intentions when I caught you.”
“I think I did and I apologize.” Her face was emotionless because she was more embarrassed than anything else.
He bowed. “I'm not used to another person's touch, and maybe that's what you sensed. It's been a long time since I've actually been around another human being, let alone a female of my own kind.”
“You haven't interacted with other humans?”
“No, not in a long, long time.”
“I thought you said there were a lot of humans on Aurora?”
“Yes, but I'm not in close contact with any of them. I live in a village with the Sirians and Fae. We monitor your part of the universe to help those in need.”
There were those words again—those races. He had mentioned them once before during one of their many conversations, but Eden hadn't seen them yet. But, according to Thomas, she would soon enough.
“Let's continue on to our destination.” He turned around and resumed walking up the hill. Eden followed, her mind full of thoughts and insecurities. She had almost kissed him and it had seemed like such a natural thing to do at the time, but why? Thomas was extremely attractive, that was certain. But, she hadn't felt any attraction for him until she was in his arms, even though his gorgeous blue eyes were enough to make a person's head swim, let alone his kind demeanor and strong physique. She shook her head, rolling her eyes. This was nothing but a childish crush. There were more important things to be concerned about.
“Where're we going, anyway?”
Thomas had already reached the top of the hill and stopped. “Come and enjoy the vista with me.”
She stopped next to him to stare at a panoramic view of a vast landscape of rolling hills, palm forests, and varying types of other foliage that extended well beyond the village, with several more crystal dome structures popping up throughout the vastness of what she was seeing.
“Take a look over there.” Thomas pointed to her left.
She followed the direction of his finger and all she could say was, “Wow.”
A vast city with giant dome structures were littered throughout a thick forest. Orbs, some gold and some silver, flew from dome to dome that she thought must be flying vehicles for the inhabitants.
“That's the city of Eos. We're less than a two hour walk away. Yet, I haven't been there in...,” he shook his head, “I don't know how long.” Thomas shrugged, then sat on the ground cross legged, inviting Eden to do the same. “Now the reason why I led you up here. Please sit.”
She nodded and sat facing him, cross legged.
"Hold onto the grass," he said.
"Why?"
He pressed down on a perfectly round rock next to him. Eden jerked her head back in shock as a holographic image of Aurora materialized in front of her.
"Village Onyx, Star Guild Hill," he said.
Star Guild? thought Eden. Why would a hill be named after her people's military?
The holographic world lit up, then spun around and stopped at their current location. It zoomed in on their hill. Eden could see the small figures of Thomas and herself sitting cross legged within the hologram. Something was recording them at this very moment! She was about to look around for a recording device when a red glowing dot pulsed on the figures in the hologram. Thomas touched the dot, turning it blue, and the hologram disappeared.
With the next instant, the ground started to move, then it started to sink. A hundred foot diameter glass dome manifested, enclosing them. How it got there and how it popped into physicality, she did not know or understand.
Like an elevator, the glass dome encasing them descended at a fast pace. Dirt and roots surrounded them at first, then only dirt, then just solid rock as they continued their descent.
She glanced at Thomas observing her. "Be calm. What I want to show you is beneath this hill."
She nodded, somehow already knowing that Thomas would never harm her. She'd never felt so secure around another human being before, so being calm with him wasn't such a difficult task.
The lower they descended the faster they traveled, to the point that everything around them was just a dark blur as the remaining light emanated from their glass enclosure. It was very dim, so much so that Eden could see Thomas only faintly. He was still in the sitting position, but now his eyes were closed and his hands were on his knees, palms up.
Suddenly, they entered an enormous underground cavern of some sort, illuminated by an immense rock crystal jutting upward ten or so feet from ground level. Three extremely large craft surrounded the giant crystal. Although none of them were as large as Starship Brigantia, they were nearly the size of her old starship. She thought if Brigantia could comfortably hold 10,000 crew and passengers, then each one of these could probably facilitate about 6,000.
But, before she could ask any questions, the grass upon which she sat and the glass dome disappeared and were replaced by ebb flooring. Thomas stood up, extending his hand to Eden, pulling her into the standing position. He smiled. "I want to introduce you to Star Guild."
Star Guild? She tilted her head. "That's not Star Guild, Thomas.”
He walked down a rocky incline, heading toward the three space craft, all the while seeming to ignore her.
She shrugged it off and followed him while admiring the ships. Close-up, they were massive in size, translucent, and seemed to fade back and forth between a silver shine to a golden luster and their sleek design would indicate that they were built for speed. They were sphere like in the front, which merged into an orb-shaped mid section that thinned out toward a rear-end consisting of two large, thick wings that each looked long and wide enough to hold a thousand or so people. A large thruster was fixed on the underbelly where the wings would have met in the middle.
Next, she spotted the landing gear consisting of four thick sled-like runners—two in the front and two in the back.
In awe of these beautiful ships, she suddenly realized that she was standing beneath the nose of one of them. She reached her hand up to feel it. It was cool and emanating a calm energy. She felt a strange desire to hug the ship. She'd give anything to be able fly one of them.
Thomas walked up beside her and placed his hand on the immense ship. “When this gets going, it looks like one big orb."
"When I was about to make contact with those torpedoes, two orbs about the size of my Thunderbird jumped in next to me. Was that...one of these?"
Thomas shook his head no. "These are much too big. The ships you describe were our Oberums. There are hundreds of them docked in the launching bays within each one of these starships."
He smiled, then waved his hands in the air expansively, introducing Eden to the craft. "This is what I wanted to show you. These are the original ships of Star Guild. They're stationed here for the purpose of service to the Knights Templar. If you are of the bloodline, as I suspect that you are, then you will captain one of these ships. I would surmise that your main mission in life has just begun. The first time you fly your starship, she'll give you her name."
Bloodline? She'll give me her name?
∞
A starjumper, a big craft for carrying large cargo, circled a landing pad on top of a large tubular structure extending more than a thousand feet into the air. Other similar structures, but far below, were clustered at the base of the tall landing tube.
Prime Director Zim Nocki was gliding the starjumper in for another pass as he stared out through the cockpit windshield. This side of Lumus was filled with hills, red rock, and ebb factories expelling massive amounts of steam from large chimneys.
A very tall man was seated next to Zim, eying the view below and scratching his chin, lost in thought. If anything, Zim could tell that this man was unimpressed, so he looked over his shoulder at the two other men occupying the seats behind him. “We're clear to land, gentlem
en.”
Just an hour prior, Zim was ordered to pick up these men from a larger transport ship for unexplained reasons. He had just assumed that two of the men were interviewing for the next Prime Director position, since their height barely exceeded 7 foot 5 inches. The new human cycle was about to be launched. The current one was ending by termination, which meant that Zim's job would be coming to an end in nearly two weeks. The other man sitting next to him was a touch over 9 feet tall, most likely a mentor to the two men sitting in the back seat.
Zim pulled back on the stick, hovered, then descended onto the landing pad. The door opened and Zim stepped out first, followed by the others. He grinned and took a deep breath. “Fresh air, fellas. Get it while it’s good.”
The other men took deep breaths and Zim pointed toward a red mountain range riddled with jutting yellow and white rocks at its base. “Over there, more than a thousand miles away, our forces are pounding Starship Sirona, one of the human ships that tried to escape.” Then he laughed. “All of the troops and pilots we sent are greenies, just below novice. They've never fought a live battle, and practice makes perfect.” He slapped the back of his nearest companion, but then uncomfortably gripped his own collar and straightened his tie. “Welcome to the other side of Lumus, my friends, where we play and humans are forbidden.”
The nine footer, Shan Ru, gave Zim an odd look. He had red hair, blue eyes, and his hands were pulled within the long sleeves of his brown robe. “You mean to say that no human has ever been to this side of the planet?”
“They're forbidden,” Zim replied. “We’ve set up two separate civilizations. Of course, its unknown to them that they occupy one side of the planet while we occupy the other. In some ways, it makes things a bit more difficult, but in other ways it makes things a lot easier. It’s a give and take kind-of-a-thing, you know? We have them believing that no other races exist, therefore we don't exist. And,” laughed Zim, “they think this side of Lumus is exothermically radioactive. They think they can come no closer than fifty miles to the prohibited line or they'll die a hideous radioactive death. The Prime Directors of the present...” he jabbed a thumb at himself, “and the past have 'informed' the humans through the centuries that the radiation is somewhat under control yet unable to cross the boundary. They believe it’s well contained.” He smiled heartily and slapped the back of Shan's shoulder. “So naïve.” Then he walked toward an elevator at the edge of the landing platform. “Follow me, boys.”
The Veil Rising Page 17
