beyond the river of time

by Stella Samiotou Fitzsimons

  back.”

  “More questions,” I say.

  “No, you need to learn to trust me, Freya. I will return the world to you. I promise.”

  It takes all that I have, but now I manage to form that smile for him.

  *

  THE DARK LEGION has been restless and lacking leadership. When Sirku enters my room, I

  am more alert thanks to Doctor Armand’s visit to balance off my meds. Sirku is the smallest Sliman

  I’ve ever seen. He’s not much bigger than Finn. Maybe that’s why he was allowed to visit me when I

  asked for him.

  “Thank you for coming,” I say.

  “My honor, Queen,” Sirku says.

  “I am no one’s queen,” I say. “I’m just Freya.”

  “Yes,” Sirku says with a polite bow.

  “Why would the great Kroll mention your name?”

  “I do not know. Perhaps that I am his genetic brother.”

  I’m stunned. I’ve never heard of any type of familial bonds between Sliman once they have been

  mutated. “Say that again,” I finally say.

  “We have the same parents,” Sirku says to me. “I was picked for the Dark Legion after Kroll

  excelled at all experiments and tests and became the perfect prototype. My transformation wasn’t as

  successful.”

  “Did you grow up with Kroll?” I ask. “As a child?”

  Sirku shakes his head. “I have no memory of my parents or any siblings,” he says. “I wouldn’t

  know about Kroll if they hadn’t tested us together in the genetic labs.”

  “Do you know that Kroll advised me to put you at the head of the Legion?” I ask him.

  This surprises him but I can tell that he is pleased. I make up my mind right there and then. I

  offer him the position and he accepts gracefully. I take his hand in mine and let the electric current flow freely between us. If only I had the presence of mind to have done the same thing with Torik.

  *

  THE STARS SPARKLE like pearls falling out of oysters in a blue ocean. I watch them above

  me sitting with Pip. Her touchpad is creating a false night in my hospital room using a popular

  environmental program the kids of Exodus all have on their touchpads. I dream we are in the ancient

  past in a fairytale.

  Finn sits with Nya in the dark of my room while Pip sits on my bed making my eyes see the

  magic of night. I try to give her my attention, but my mind is on the mission that I have not been

  allowed to join.

  Exodus resources and manpower have been enlisted to form part of the army that will attack

  Plantation-15.

  Somewhere on the station Commander Eldritch and Joshua wait for Malzod’s call. I have asked

  for Doctor Armand to visit me again in a few minutes.

  I hug Pip. “Do me a favor, sweetheart,” I say to her. “Go check on Tobi and Tilly for me.”

  She clicks off her program and Finn gets up to turn on the light.

  When Pip is gone I sit up to show them I am getting stronger. I’m not.

  “Don’t even think about it, Freya,” Nya says with a motherly tone.

  “I’m going,” I tell them. “Surely my instincts can be of value.”

  “It’s not that kind of mission,” Finn says. “This is all about timing. The plantation’s systems will

  be shut down at nine tonight for one hour. We’ll approach cloaked from the sky. If the smallest detail fails, we will all die.”

  “We will have Exodus support throughout,” Nya adds. “Three Exodus fighter space pods are

  being loaded on the carrier that will take them down to Earth and release them on Plantation-15

  during the shutdown. We will land in the darkness of the surrounding forests and then we will just be ourselves.”

  “Come on, I want to blow stuff up too,” I say.

  “Tick, you can barely walk,” Finn reminds me once again and I want to punch him in the nose. I

  must be feeling better.

  I smile stupidly for my friends and think secretly about my own plans.

  18

  Ella makes me promise that I will never tell Finn that she flew Tilly and me out to where our

  forces have gathered in the woods. Doctor Armand was harder to convince. I made it clear that all his friends would die out there if I did not get my hands on a receptor.

  Just after Malzod called, the troops quickly assembled and departed without me. The doctor

  administered the shot while Tilly helped me dress in my battle gear. The shot will give me extra

  energy and strength for a few hours. It was a nasty potluck of drugs, all of which should not be given to someone who survived cardiac arrest only hours before.

  Doctor Armand told me I must remain calm no matter how intense the battle becomes. The risk

  of heart failure after this surgery is extremely high if I get any more excited than his drugs are already making me.

  Tilly and I walk the last hundred feet in the woods and spot burning red specks in the sky above

  the trees. I know it’s the fighter space pods that Nya mentioned. They are fast and soundless. They

  vanish as soon as they appear.

  All of Exodus elite fighter units are here with Finn and Nya. They are under the command of

  Colonel Adams who is barely thirty years old but ferociously ambitious and rugged. They linger in

  the shadows of the trees and we have no choice but to walk right up behind them.

  Twenty elite fighters quickly surround us with their guns aimed at our heads. I must remain

  calm, Doctor Armand’s words echo in my head.

  “Two more Saviors reporting for duty,” Tilly announces loud and clear.

  A few of the fighters lower their guns, but the others wait for a commanding officer. Joshua

  appears with Finn and Nya.

  “What the hell are you doing out here, Tilly?” Finn asks. “Wait, is that you, Freya? What do you

  think you are doing?”

  “Doctor Armand pronounced me fit for battle,” I say bending the truth. “This is where I belong.

  Tilly too.”

  “You’re going to get yourselves killed,” Nya says.

  “Fine with us,” Tilly says. “As long as we are by your side.”

  Finn shakes his head. “I should have known,” he says and walks away with Joshua to talk with

  Colonel Adams.

  Nothing could keep Joshua away from a mission that involves saving Zoe.

  All our experience from the days at the alien facilities when it was just twelve of us against the

  empire has come in handy. Finn has instructed the troops how to move in absolute silence. A

  necessary tactic to trick any sensors that could be anywhere as we near the plantation.

  The first sparks in the sky mean the battle has begun. The plantation has been caught off guard

  with its monitoring systems compromised. There’s zero time to rejoice. The next moment a shower of

  tactical missiles rain down on what we know to be the main laboratory sector. The night is lit up with the results and the buildings start to burn.

  Most of their laboratories are underground so this is just to announce our arrival. The target was

  picked because it is the furthest away from the dormitories and usually empty at night.

  As soon as the roaring flames rise up, we hustle out of the shadows and come upon a small side

  gate. Malzod picked this one, no doubt, as the best entry point.

  Malzod has linked Finn into plantation security so he could use his touchpad to deactivate any

  electric currents around the gate. There’s no time to locate any scanners that might still be active but so many alarms must have sounded with the fire that we might sneak through undetected.

  Finn climbs over the gate fast
as lightning. The uproar in the plantation gets so loud that I cannot

  tell with certainty if Finn has come upon any sort of resistance or not. Within a few seconds, the gate opens and Finn stands in the opening with a wide smile on his face.

  “All clear,” he says.

  The guards have vacated their posts to help put out the fires. Finn orders Nya and Tilly to stay

  close to him. Nya’s face gleams in the moonlight with the desire for vengeance. She holds her weapon

  against her chest and I swear I’ve heard her talking to it.

  We run along the plantation pathways among the various buildings in hopes of reaching the

  Armory and securing it. I am sweating madly and trying to ease my breathing. It doesn’t take long

  before we come upon the first Sliman watch. Finn quickly takes down the first one with a vicious

  blow to the throat while Nya shoots an arrow through the dead center of another guard’s chest.

  Colonel Adams shoots the hand off one who tries to grab his communication device.

  The element of surprise has worked. So far so good.

  We can see the Armory now. Finn orders the fighters to split into two groups and surround the

  building. The fighter crafts will provide cover.

  Finn turns to Joshua. “We’re going in,” he says.

  Joshua nods. “I’m going with you,” he says.

  “It’s no place for you, Joshua,” Finn tells him. “We will be fighting in close quarters.

  Experience is everything.”

  But Joshua insists. I am surprised when Finn allows both Joshua and me to join him as we

  descend into the plantation’s bowels. The fighters have just entered the Armory blasting away the

  Sliman guards when Finn leads the way into the area where the western elevator is located.

  We run down a dark corridor when four Sliman spot us and come running at us. We stop and

  drop to the ground.

  “Cover me,” I yell as I jump up and run to meet the Sliman. I dive and slide toward their feet. As

  they reach down for me, I put my hands on the first two faces that I see.

  “Don’t let your slimy friends get me,” I tell them. “I’m your mistress now.”

  For a few seconds I have no idea if this is going to work. If the Empress recalibrated every

  single one of them to have no reaction to my touch, my gamble will be deadly. But my fears are

  unfounded. The two Sliman shake their heads and then turn against the other two guards.

  I get up and call over to Finn and the rest of the team to hurry. We get to a staircase and run

  down to Level 1. Finn spots the elevator first.

  “That was amazing,” Nya says when we get in the elevator. “You turned their brains into butter

  just by touching them.”

  “Don’t get too excited,” I say. “It won’t be of much help if we come upon an army. Or the Ghost

  Legion.”

  “What’s that?” Joshua says.

  “The new kind of monster that’s bred around here,” I say.

  “Hush,” Tilly says. “I can hear something.”

  Tilly’s ears have never been wrong. Finn hits the emergency stop button and we come to a

  sudden halt.

  “What did you hear?” he asks Tilly.

  “Whispers,” she says. She closes her eyes to better concentrate. When she opens them again, we

  see fear in them. “Aliens below,” she says.

  We have no way of fighting against receptors. We’re well aware of that. We knew it was a

  possibility we’d come upon aliens. Finn takes out his touchpad and sends a message to Colonel

  Adams. Diversion needed. Bomb HQ.

  Finn’s gaze has never been more intense. “Watch your heads everyone. We’re dangerously close

  to the HQ.”

  “Holy shit, this is hardcore,” Joshua says causing Finn to roll his eyes.

  A few seconds later the first bomb hits the ground above us. It is an explosive mechanism

  designed to bring down the walls it targets with as little damage as possible to surrounding

  constructions. It is a bomb nevertheless. We feel the impact and the thud of the explosion all the way down to our bones. The elevator starts shaking. I hold on to Finn and Tilly trying to calm down my

  fear that we might get buried alive.

  Nya pulls out an arrow, loads her shock bow and launches the arrow deep into the elevator

  door.

  “I just had to do something,” she says.

  “You girls are insane,” Joshua says. “I begin to think Zoe’s the only one among you with any

  common sense.”

  Finn shakes his head. “Sorry, buddy, Zoe is as bloodthirsty as these three here.”

  “Shush,” Tilly says. “I can hear them again. They’re leaving. They must think the explosion

  jammed the elevator.”

  Finn starts the elevator again. When the door opens to Level 4, we’re all positioned to fight.

  We’re alone. We stay low and move quietly to the left. “The Ghost Legion is on the right,” I whisper.

  “Can you hear anything, Tilly?”

  “No, everything’s quiet,” she says.

  I wonder if the new legion has been moved which makes me fear the Saviors might have been

  moved, too. There’s a second explosion above us and we all duck but we are deeper now and more

  sheltered from the bombs.

  “We’re holding our own,” Joshua says with a smile. “You didn’t think we could, did you?”

  “We haven’t done anything yet except put our lives in danger,” Finn says as he leads the way

  down the left division of Level 4.

  We move cautiously staying close to the walls. Tilly stretches her vision and hearing abilities to

  the maximum. It’s so cool that she can do that. I walk behind her with my pulse gun in hand ready to

  defend her if need be. Joshua is behind me with Nya at the end of the line.

  I check my watch. 9:36. How long will the bombs and the fighters at the Armory keep the Sliman

  troops from finding us? How long before the Empress and her cronies figure out that the plantation’s

  systems are down and we’ve been feeding the monitors with old footage? How long before she

  realizes what’s going on down here at the bottom of her fortress of terror?

  We come to the area where the prisoners should be held according to information collected by

  Malzod. There are four different doors and we will have to open all of them.

  The first room is a lab. There are two empty chairs with straps for the wrists and ankles. Painful

  experiments are being conducted here. We know all about them. Nya pulls an explosive arrow but

  puts it back in the sheath when Finn gives her a scolding look.

  “We can’t do everything at once,” he says. “Priorities, Nya.”

  The second door leads to an office with padded walls and what looks like an interrogation chair

  with small electrodes attached to it.

  When the third door opens, Joshua drops to his knees covering his face with his hands. When he

  gets up, tears roll down his cheeks as he looks into Zoe’s stunned eyes. She’s chained to the wall next to Biscuit and Theo.

  Nya, Tilly and Joshua all run to their mates. I limp after them beginning to lose strength.

  “Rabbit and Scout?” Finn asks.

  “They moved them today,” Zoe says overcoming her initial shock.

  Our hearts sink. “Where?” Finn says.

  Zoe shakes her head.

  “We don’t know,” Theo says as Nya calibrates her pulse gun to blast off the chains. Finn does

  the same for Zoe and Biscuit.

  I consider all three from head to toe while their mates hug and kiss them.


  “Are you hurt in any way?” I say.

  “Zoe has a sprained ankle,” Biscuit says. “Theo and I are fine.”

  “We thought you were all prisoners,” Theo says. “That’s what they told us. Biscuit saw you,

  Freya. How did you get out?”

  “Never mind that,” I say. “There’s not much time.”

  Joshua scoops Zoe up into his arms. We dash back to the elevator.

  I have to practically bite my lip not to ask if they have seen Damian. I know that the answer will

  be negative. She wouldn’t let Damian mingle with anyone. Even Malzod had only vague information

  about him.

  “Where’s Nya?” Theo says.

  We all look around. A second later, we jump backward as we hear a loud thud coming from

  within the level we’re on. Nya comes running with a look of satisfaction on her face.

  “You couldn’t resist, could you?” I say.

  “Minimal explosive power,” she says serious as stone. “But they won’t be able to use that place

  again for a long time.”

  There’s no point in arguing with her. We jump into the elevator.

  “We knew you would come,” Biscuit says as we start going up.

  Unfortunately, the hard part of this rescue is still to come. We have to fight our way out of the

  plantation to the designated area for take-off. Then we have to hope the drones won’t be called to

  action before we are far enough away to outrun them.

  We escape the rickety elevator and race down the long corridor to the front of the building. The

  apocalyptic scene hits me like a kick in the stomach.

  The Armory is under siege with our fighters trapped inside. They are being attacked by an army

  of at least one hundred Sliman. I also spot two aliens watching from the safety of an armored vehicle surrounded by a handful of guards.

  There are fires burning in several outbuildings and the smoke has filled the night sky. The

  children of the plantation scream from within their dorms not knowing what’s going on. Plantation-15

  only houses a couple hundred children. It’s still uncertain if we’ll be able to take them with us.

  We dart back into the building before the Sliman see us. I check my watch. “Twelve more

  minutes,” I say. “Malzod and his team won’t be able to override the systems beyond that.”

  Finn tries to make contact with the fighter pods. It takes several attempts before he can establish