by Greg Dragon
“OK, everyone, please go inside and await my return,” Rafian said softly as he sensed that the beings were there to see him, and if they meant to be violent, he would rather be the only one sacrificed.
Marian began to argue, but Rafian spoke to her in Tyheran, asking her to be a soldier instead of a wife. Camille too was going to object, but she knew that when it came to matters of life and death, Rafian VCA could not be swayed from words that he commanded.
Once he was alone, the alien triad motioned towards their ship. Rafian accepted and began his descent towards them.
The jumper temple sat on top of a rugged cliff, but the planet’s gravity was extremely limited, and it allowed them to make large jumps, fall from tall heights, and perform stunts that couldn’t be done on planets like Vestalia. Rafian jumped from the craggy cliff, opened up his thrusters, and glided towards the ship’s entrance, ignoring all of the chatter that came at him through his helmet from the people who loved him. They were asking why he was joining the visitors. Once he made it to the floor of the valley that held the banana, he spoke into the communication device.
“Can’t really tell you why I know this, but this meeting is important,” he said, and the chatter died down as they listened to their leader.
“If I do not exit this ship in three hours, I want you all to jump home to your ships and tell the commanders there what occurred. We are all brothers and sisters in this organization, and, as you all know, there is no leaving unless you die fully and your soul transitions on to the other realm. Subcommander Tayden will be the new leader if I die. She will know what to do to transcend this and keep us going.”
The silence of the comm was so still that he almost asked if anyone was listening as he said his last rites to them.
“Marian, if you lose me here, my wife, I want you to remember me as the man I was when I proposed to you. I would hate for this awful confusion of the last few weeks to be my legacy. I am so sorry that I brought you here into our war-torn galaxy.”
With that, he silenced his comm and walked towards the ship, trying to decipher how he would open its invisible door. The trio that had summoned him had come to his side as he spoke, and he saw for the first time just how tall they were. Each of them stood eight feet tall, and they made a strange, harmonious melody when they got close to him. He felt as if he were dreaming and the beings were warrior spirits come to whisk him off to a glorious end. He felt himself smiling, the melody was so soothing and peaceful, and it was unlike any music he had ever heard before. His mind began to drift, and his vision appeared the way a vid looked when there was too much static and the picture could not come through clearly. His body felt limp, and he involuntarily walked forward and opened the ship’s door to enter.
When his thoughts had been silenced and his body made ready for the ship’s interior, Rafian awoke to find himself seated in an egg-shaped seat. The room around him was a dome with pearly white walls that appeared similar to the ones he had seen the first time he met Arn. Almost instantly, a pretty blue Cel-toc appeared next to him and began checking his vitals to make sure he had adjusted well. Seeing the Cel-toc brought up emotions from Rafian that he had never experienced before. He was frightened of it, angry, and heartbroken. It was a wash of emotions that drained him physically and made him want to destroy it. Try as he might, however, Rafian was unable to move or control his body. That in itself was frightening, as his mask and gloves had been removed.
The Cel-toc stood in front of him after completing her checkup, and her visage changed to one that looked very much like the aliens that had invited him there.
“Rafian VCA!”
The voice was synthesized, which made sense if the aliens were unable to form words that he could understand with their mouthless faces. It seemed that they used Cel-tocs to cater to and communicate with humans, which made him think that their personal appearance to collect him would have been a showing of great respect.
The android said his name in a manner that reminded him of how a father spoke to a son or daughter he was proud of.
“We have watched your career and ascent with admiration. We are Neeraki Sentients, and we travel from a far place. Four hundred years have passed as we watched your race teeter on the precipice of endangerment to this juncture, where the Geralos are set to control Anstractor. You are one of many hopefuls for your race, Rafian, but we choose you to be the guardian of the crystals that we have allowed Anstractor to possess.”
The Cel-toc grew silent, and Rafian found that he could again control his mouth—he tested this by moving his tongue to lick his lips and mouth silent words into the air.
“Are you gods?” he managed to ask. “Are you beings that are bigger than this galaxy—the universe even—and is this a game for you?”
He was shouting it angrily now, because he felt that the aliens were responsible for the Geralos scourge and possibly the Felitian threat that held Marian’s galaxy of Luca in its iron grip. Why would he be chosen? he wondered. His career was commendable, yes, but so were the careers of people like Tayden, Val, Camille, and even the Helysian’s own commander. Why him, and why now? If his introduction to warp crystals and the jumper fellowship was the extra to put him over, then why not choose Camille or Tayden to be this guardian of the crystals? If they said anything like prophecy, destiny, or any of that foolishness, he would not hear it. He needed concrete proof of something to verify he truly was some special person to be selected by these beings.
The Cel-toc came to life again, this time with a smile on her face, which Rafian knew was an attempt to relax him. Before she could speak, he started in again.
“Those of you who watch, do you not realize that this is one of the disgusting androids that killed my young friends on Genese and starved me within an inch of my life as a boy? Did you pick this thing as your avatar and weaken my mind and body to torture me, or is it mere ignorance that you put a former prisoner in front of his captor?”
The Cel-toc put a finger to her lips to shush him and began talking as if nothing he said had gotten through to the aliens.
“Our plan is above you, too large for you to fathom and too complex for your organic brain to comprehend. We are above games, but Anstractor and specifically Vestalia is important to us. We chose you to be the one to represent our philosophy to the human race. The Geralos are not to take Anstractor, and they are not to get a hold of the warp crystals or anything related to them in any form. You are to move your people, destroy this temple in its entirety, and secure the knowledge so that the crystals are never compromised.”
Rafian looked around. His head was finally his to control now, and he was surprised to find the three beings standing behind him, light dancing across their faces as they puppeted the Cel-toc to say the things it was saying.
“What if I were to refuse you?” Rafian asked.
“You are not permitted to refuse us. If you let your hubris allow you to make a series of decisions that compromises us, then we would be forced to destroy the crystals and the planets that are a threat to our race. This would mean the entire Anstractor galaxy would be removed, Rafian, because it is here that the taint resides. It is here that the crystals were lent to humans in order to right the genetic mistake that is the Geralos and stop their plague from spreading to other worlds.”
Rafian was going over it in his head, and he understood. The planet Geral had once been an abandoned husk of nothing for thousands of years, but it had developed life after a time, and that life became the vicious lizards that took their aggressive conquering to the other planets. He had read about the Makers when he was a cadet. They were mythic beings that came from a distant galaxy that held a million suns and a solitary planet. The Makers were the ones who gave technology, rewards, and charity to ancient civilizations when they risked genocide or irrecoverable collapse. Their primary goal was balance and peace, though their strange laws disallowed them from directly assisting anyone.
He couldn’t believe that he was meetin
g them, let alone talking and shouting at them. They were gods, as much as gods are described, and they had chosen him to do the very thing he had always aimed to do in the first place. Who was he to refuse assistance in destroying Geral?
“What would you have me do outside of what has been told to me already?” he asked. “Will you be giving me any help for my charge? Will I be receiving a magical sword that never breaks, or a suit of armor that deflects blasts back whenever I’m shot at?”
He was being sarcastic, but he wondered if they understood sarcasm or if his ridiculous requests would be met somehow.
“We have given you a charge, young Rafian. This charge is to lead and to succeed in your leadership. The gift we give you is an understanding of the crystals and the power that they hold. You do not have to take them with you when you jump—this is a misunderstanding. You simply have to know when it is time to return and will yourself back with all of your heart. The technology is beyond your understanding, and it isn’t covered in any of your recorded archives or people. Arn Stryker was charged with this same task that we are giving you, and he let the power consume him into worthlessness. You killed him once. When you return, you are to remove the gift of resurrection from him and end his life. We will not meet you again in this lifetime, Rafian, just as we did not seek out Arn for the seventy years that he has led this order.
“You asked about the android that imprisoned you as a boy, but we bring her here to clear the distractions and remind you of your history. Everything you love has been taken by the Geralos, and your home planet along with your race is almost lost to them. What will you do, Rafian? What will you do in this last hour of your galaxy?”
Rafian thought about the question, and it upset him that he had allowed Tyhera’s situation to make him forget his goals.
“I’ll tell you what I will do. I will lead my people to victory and the destruction of the Geralese horde.”
They kept him there for a span of a month after allowing him to radio the temple to let them know that he would be fine. When Rafian VCA emerged again from that ship, it was on a dead, cloudless night. He was the same man who had entered a month past, but he was a man who could now see the entire forest of potential beyond the large trees that stood in his way to reaching it.
When he had walked a few yards from the ship, it began to rise quickly into the sky, and he watched it go for a long time before setting foot towards the temple to carry out the instructions he had for his lieutenants. It would be a different set of missions for his jumpers, and he would have to retrain them properly. No matter how long this all would take, he was happy that for the first time in his life, fate was on his side.
Memory 22 | Homecoming
The tiny ship was coming towards the Helysian at a rate that could be easily mistaken as hostile, and the commander scrambled the gunners to man their stations as they tried their best to communicate with the pilot rocketing towards their position. The Helysian was in a panic. Never before had the Geralos done something so bold as to attempt a kamikaze run on their hyper drive. It was one of the surest ways to sink the vessel, and they wondered what sort of explosives they had onboard and whether the ship alone, or whether there a squadron waiting to jump in.
The soldiers on the Helysian were on edge, but Aurora SYN flashed a beautiful white smile and screamed at the commander to hold fire because the ship belonged to their lost lieutenant, Rafian VCA. It had been three years since she had seen him last, and the rumors persisted that both he and Camille had met their demise by way of the spy network that took them in. She refused to believe it. Having made the soul bond with Rafian so long ago, she felt as if she could feel his life force, and when the ship appeared, she knew that it was he who was onboard.
She could hardly contain her excitement. She was bouncing in front of the gun that she was meant to man, and the commander looked at her quizzically, wondering if there was any chance that she could be right and that the ship belonged to Helysian’s prodigal son, Rafian VCA.
When the first gunner opened fire, the comm finally came to life, and a deep voice asked them to cease fire, as the vessel was indeed friendly.
“This is Commander Rafian VCA of the Network, former marine of the Helysian and forever a son of Vestalia.”
The ship breathed a collective sigh of relief, and it was as if every marine onboard found his or her way to the dock in order to see whether it was truly Rafian onboard the ship. When the vessel docked, it was of an alien design that none of the pilots had ever seen before. It was large enough to be a cruiser, but the shape of the wings, the slick thrusters, and the proton cannons that seemed to be everywhere let them know that this was a fighter, and one that was strong enough to take on the Helysian if there had really been an enemy onboard.
The back hatch opened with a mist of detox steam pouring out, and several dangerous-looking men and women hopped out and formed a path as Rafian emerged with Marian—now a jumper herself—in tow. Aurora clasped a hand over her mouth. He was bigger now than she last remembered and seemed meaner. She looked at his entourage and at his uniform—dark blue with white highlights decorated with badges, medals, and what seemed to be las-sword burns. He removed his helmet to reveal his trademark bald head and thick chin beard that started up into a mustache but stopped at the crease of his lips. His ebony skin glistened with sweat from the humidity of the steam, and his boots were spiked and cruel.
The woman next to him looked like nobody she had ever seen before. She was human, but her thick crop of ebony hair plaited into a long ponytail revealed a face that seemed unique, and her beauty was striking! So much so she could see that every Helysian man was already under her spell.
Rafian walked past his men and smiled widely at Aurora—he had missed her a lot during his days at the jumper temple. He walked past the commander, saluted him and the crew, and nodded at the gunners. He found his way to his sister, lifted her from the floor, upon which she had collapsed, and hugged her long and hard.
“Is it really you, Rafian? Is it really you? Please don’t tell me that this is some dream or trick being played on me, because my heart will not be able to take it!”
She was crying and clung to him for dear life as Rafian fought back his own tears and let himself surrender into her arms the way he did with Marian. He took her hand and walked her over to Marian, where he introduced them, and then he did the same with the commander and the friends who had come out to see him. Surprisingly, Vani was also there. She had the stripes of a colonel, and he felt a strange wave of pride for her accomplishment. The old scars and anger were removed, and he hugged her they way he had Aurora, causing her to bawl out loud and kiss his face happily, whispering apologies and letting him know how worried she had been. This ritual went on for a time as everyone who knew Rafian rushed out to meet him. Some inquired about Camille and were elated to hear that she was fine. Others, such as Kim, kept their distance and watched with admiration.
The jumpers had been restructured under the leadership of Rafian, Camille, and Tayden. They had changed their name to the Network and made themselves known with the destruction of a major Geralese starship by the name of the Vestal.
Rafian needed Helysian as a temporary base for attempting the liberation of a base on Vestalia, where he planned to set up their formal headquarters. His return to Helysian was more than a homecoming for him, as he knew that his face would inspire the men and women, along with putting the necessary fire in their belly for the violence and destruction that was to come.
He had also come back to get Aurora. She was his sister, and he didn’t like to have her so far away from him, where his influence couldn’t keep her safe.
He took Marian on a grand tour and spoke of his troubled youth, his ascent to first grade, and his rocky relationships with women who broke his heart.
“Though you had no Memory of your past in Tyhera, Raf. I could sense a deep sadness within you when we first met…Well, the meeting that occurred after our fight.”
After the tour, Rafian and Marian sat in his old apartment, sharing a bottle of brandy and reminiscing on their union and everything that had transpired since then. Camille did not want to come to the Helysian, embarrassed about what she had gone through and not wanting to deal with the questioning eyes and the judgment about her disappearance. The temple’s destruction was left up to her, and Rafian knew that she would obliterate it satisfactorily. Tayden had reformed her rangers within the Network’s ranks, renamed them the Crystal Thorns, and started reconnaissance runs on the area of Vestalia that they had picked out to become their headquarters.
“If you had it all to do over again, husband, and you knew the end result of everything that would come, would you join the jumpers, or would you have run off with Camille to dodge their recruitment?”
Rafian sipped slowly at his drink and ran his finger over the sword scar near his right eye as he thought deeply about Marian’s question. Ironically, Marian cherished the scar he had given her on their first meeting, but it had been repaired when she took a bullet through her cheek during one of her training exercises. The Kelpor healing system had the ability to obliterate wounds and scars, and unless you had someone manually operating it, you were not able to pick and choose what it mended. Marian’s beautiful face was now flawless, but Rafian kept the slice Arn had given him near his right eye when he gave him his true death, as was promised to the Makers so many months back.
“I went through so much to have you, Ree, even crossing galaxies to meet you, the woman who would become my wife. I am convinced that you are my destiny, and I am not meant to love another woman. That being said, the only thing I would change about my history is that whatever happened to Cammy when we were training did not happen.”
