For a moment, I consider my experiences of speed and strength while running in the woods last week before asking, “How was he getting increased levels of copper in his bloodstream?”
Ezra replies, “Sebastian discovered that the more connected his body became to the Copula, the more smooth the entrance and exit from the wormhole. He decided that a second generation Copula needed to be engineered as an implant. A battery would be inaccessible and unnecessary upon implantation.” Think of the second generation Copula in terms of a modern-day pacemaker that needs to be charged every so often. All of his vitals were monitored as a safety precaution. The charge initiated the electromagnetic propulsion in the Copula. His body only reacted to the Copula, not the charge. The Copula’s release and synthesis with Sebastian’s body was much greater with this generation. It also increased the Copula’s release of copper residue into Sebastian’s body after each travel, thus the increase of copper within him.”
Ezra leans back in his seat. “Sebastian knew he needed more minds to filter through the immense amount of discoveries he’d encountered up to this point. He handpicked close and trusted colleagues to begin traveling with him. The list included biologists, botanists, geologists, and every type of engineer under the sun. He also made sure the people he’d chosen were agreeable to the inevitable plan, which was to eventually develop and live there. Only those that were chosen by him and agreed to the plan were implanted with the Copula.”
Ezra pauses and looks at me for a long time, silently.
I become self-conscious. “What?”
He continues, “There was one day, one event, which changed everything. That very moment in time shifted everything for the Onoch family, his bloodline, and everyone part of the inevitable plan. Both the Onoch boys were attending university in London. Balthazar decided to come home for a surprise visit during fall session break. He’d chosen a path similar to his father, Sebastian, physicist. He’d just been awarded an internship with NASA in the States and wanted to tell his father. He was partly eager to tell his father of his success. Partly eager to see what had been hidden behind this fortress for years. Sterile counters, sterile walls, and minimal furnishings. Beakers, metals and maximum welding machinery. Computers generating data, downloading and auto-saving like an electronic record keeper. I’m sure the distinct smell of sulphur and the metallic residue Sebastian left behind on his traverse caught Balthazar’s attention.
“Does it really smell like that?”
Ezra looks at mom and dad, before answering my question. “Yes, it does.”
Huh, I figured he wouldn’t have an answer I guess. “You’ve traversed?”
He nods, and then looks down at his folded hands. I look to mom and dad. “Have both of you?”
Mom and dad slowly nod.
Ezra clears his throat, breaking my hard yet empty stare. “Balthazar didn’t know the smell, but the residue was a sign that his father was doing more than theorizing. The smell of sulphur. Data scrolling on a computer. He couldn’t help his curiosity. What had his father been doing? That’s when he stumbled upon the file labeled “Onoch’s Blueprint of Travel.”
Ezra takes a sip of his drink and shifts in his seat. “It’s not what you think. Sebastian wasn’t in Dobria while his son was picking through his top-secret files. He was at a department meeting. When Sebastian returned home, he noticed the parked car in the porte-cochère. Balthazar was still sitting in front of the desktop when Sebastian entered the lab.
***
“What’re you doing here?”
Balthazar turns in the chair, holding a disc in his hand, then slipping it into his shirt pocket. “You’ve been busy over the years with all of your travels. Tell me, what have you found out there?”
Balthazar’s smile is filled with both quandary and envy.
Sebastian drops his head in disappointment. “This isn’t for you.”
Balthazar interrupts, “For years I have followed in your footsteps, desperately wanting to be your protégé.”
Sebastian steps through the door shutting it tightly behind him. “You’re growing into a respectable physicist.”
Balthazar rises from his chair. “I was coming to tell you about my internship. NASA wants me to assist the aeronautical physicists on future launches for a year.”
Sebastian shows genuine astonishment. “Son that’s wonderful news!”
Balthazar shakes his head. “You know what would be wonderful news? To hear my father tell me that I’m worthy enough to become his right hand. I want to be a part of this, Dad. I know what you’ve been pursuing. I have read all of it. You’ve succeeded where so many have failed or not even fathomed attempting. You’ve traveled to another galaxy, for God’s sake. I want in.”
“This isn’t for you. You’re not ready to be a part of this Balthazar. You’re young and impressionable. You can create an imbalance in our world by opening paths to others. I was naïve when this began. Now, I wish I could take back what I have put into motion. It isn’t too late to stop what imbalance can perpetuate from here. I’m ending all of it!”
Balthazar moves around his father haphazardly. Sebastian tries to stop him, but fails as Balthazar pushes his hands away. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out the disk. “No. There’s too much to be discovered.”
As Balthazar walks away, Sebastian calls to him, “Don’t do this, son. Don’t start something you know nothing about.”
Balthazar scoffs and glares at Sebastian.“Like the way you put ‘something’ into motion years ago. Taking your children to another city far from what they knew. Having them raised by the nanny and butler. What about that delicate balance?”
***
“What a jerk of a kid.”
Ezra carries on, “Balthazar fled back to London. He delved into Sebastian’s research, riding on his coattails. He began building his own design of the Copula and started experimenting. The programming of the coordinates of the Andromeda galaxy was a bit tricky, but not impossible for Balthazar. Within months he was traveling.”
“Did he travel to Dobria?”
Ezra answers me in a matter-of-fact tone. “He couldn’t!”
“Why not?”
“Because every Copula is coded and paired. Sebastian had put the coordinates of the Andromeda galaxy into the file Balthazar took, not Dobria’s. Sebastian’s implanted Copula was specifically synchronized with the homing device in Dobria. Nothing Balthazar would create, would have the specific coding to take him there. It would be to another world somewhere in Andromeda.”
CHAPTER 7: COLLATERAL DAMAGE
Jesca
I reach for the water mom has brought to the table for all of us as Ezra divulges Balthazar’s plan. “He’s found a world in the Andromeda galaxy. Balthazar lacked caution and respect for the nature of things just as his father feared. His team was hodgepodged and rough around the edges, sketchy at best. The world they’d discovered was so different from Sebastian’s Dobria. The planet was a sulfuric, volatile environment. The surface was rocky with tall stalagmites emanating gases with high concentrations of acidity. The bubbling, liquid solvent that quick, eel-like life forms were darting through contained high levels of ammonia. The liquid was murky and iridescent, purple swirls of chemical scattered over the surface. Sonde, the name he gave his world, appeared uninhabitable by human life. But, just as Sebastian had, Balthazar found signs of subterranean life.”
“Is this the part where you tell me the aliens, I mean beings, had three eyes, green skin and spoke in an unrecognizable tongue?”
Ezra looks at mom and dad first, giving them the floor. “You want to take this?”
My dad clears his throat. “They were able to shift into beings that would appear less threatening for the ‘visitors’. The first time Balthazar wrote of his encounter with a being that hadn’t yet shifted, it had demon-like features. Sunken eyes that were blacke
r than deep space. Protruding forehead and chin. A gray coloration to their skin. And they were much larger than us in height and girth.”
I watch him as he explains the details slowly to me and realize my father had kept this entire past life from me.
“Have you seen one?”
Dad nods, “Yes, and so have you.”
I feel burning in the pit of my stomach, spreading to my brain. “What?”
Mom comments, “Your nightmares. Sondians have shown themselves in your nightmares.”
Ezra adds quickly, “And now in your waking hours.”
“The kid that bumped into me on campus at the crosswalk, my mom’s and dad’s eyes in my nightmares and the dark shadow stalking me are all Sondians?”
Ezra responds without missing a beat. “Yes. That’s why I had to get you and your parents out of there. They’d made contact with you.”
Ezra continues as I come back from my thoughts. “Balthazar’s team grew over the years, mere months in Sonde time. Time there moved similarly to Dobria’s with their shared galaxy, Andromeda. All of the team members were young and eager to be a part of this historical endeavor. The collateral damage that could result was a distant fear that was overlooked by the amazing benefits they perceived for Earth.”
“Collateral damage?”
“Team members believed that they could create a cosmic link between Earth and Sonde indefinitely, allowing constant passage between the two worlds. It was common in the 90’s for theoretical physicists to consider our universe to be expanding at an accelerated rate. Both Sebastian and Balthazar were neck and neck on their findings and research at this point. Sebastian was trying to halt what he’d put into motion with Dobria and now with Sonde. Balthazar was pursuing his obsession full throttle. As both worked in two different directions, pulling against each other, another theory was uncovered. A collision of two galaxies.”
I look at mom and dad, and then back at Ezra. “A collision of galaxies? That’s hundreds of thousands of years away at best.”
The silence is deafening.
I try to generate a response from any of them. “Right?”
Ezra sighs. I’m learning that sound is always followed by bad news. “No, not right. The collision is upon us.”
My whole body goes rigid and the burning fear in the pit of my stomach churns.
My dad speaks up. “Remember Caleb Onoch? Sebastian’s eldest son? He ran with many of the same friends that Balthazar did back in London through university activities. Caleb had been seeing less and less of his brother and his growing group of rogue scientists. He caught on to Balthazar’s periodic disappearing act that resembled his father’s from years before. Caleb told Sebastian what he knew about Balthazar’s traveling and where he’d been, Sonde.
“Sebastian sends in infiltrators. Ariel and Alice Sera.”
I look at Mom and Dad. “My grandparents?”
Mom and Dad nod their heads. First mom and dad, now grandma and grandpa!
Ezra continues, “They quickly became accepted onto Balthazar’s team due to their physics background and granted passage to Sonde. Their mission was to destroy the stationary disc on Sonde and lab that housed all of Balthazar’s and the other Sondians work.”
Is this some kind of name they gave themselves? “Sondians?”
Dad speaks out on this. “Their fellowship. Those that supported Sonde and Earth’s link and Balthazar’s methodology and ideas were part of the Sondian fellowship.”
Mom adds, “Our fellowship of Dobrians destined to protect humanity from Balthazar and the Sondian fellowship’s decision to permanently link Earth to Sonde.”
Ezra rises and walks over to the fireplace mantle. “They were to initiate their Copulas and traverse back home after severing the link from Sonde to Earth.
“Balthazar?”
“He was to be stuck on Sonde with no known link to get back to Earth. However, Balthazar was too smart for that. His team rebuilt what was destroyed. The beings there on Sonde found it to their benefit to provide assistance to the Sondian fellowship’s pursuit.”
Cautiously, I ask, “Advantageous?”
“Granting them passage to Earth. The one concern Balthazar didn’t predict was their purpose. Was it to co-exist or to take over?”
Ezra takes his eyes from the mantle and gazes at me. “This is where you come in. Sebastian could no longer protect Earth with his team of trusted colleagues since they were dedicating all of their time to discovering vast amounts of information on Dobria. He had to have guards to protect Earth. Coincidentally, Balthazar discovered he couldn’t protect the link between Earth and Sonde without guardians on both planets.”
I stand and fold my arms close around my waist. “So I’m a guardian for the Doberman side.”
Mom corrects me, “Dobrian, dear.”
I rise and start to pace, trying to process the wormholes, the device my ancestor created, the worlds, Dobrians, Sondians, being a guardian.
Mom’s voice sounds pained as she speaks. “I know it’s so much to take in.”
I glance at her. “You think?”
I know I have come off catty to her. “Sorry.”
“Your abilities, the humming vibration, the voices, your energy deep inside are all too much to take in. I know, because it’s happened to me and I watched it happen to your mother. That’s why you have to be trained.”
“Trained?”
“Yeah,” my dad responds
I look at dad, and then back at Ezra. “My mother. What do you know about her?”
Ezra brushes his hair back with his hand and seems tense from my direct and unexpected question. “Your mother, Anna Gershon, was a guardian, just like me and your parents.”
He looks up and studies me for a moment before speaking. “You look so much like her, Jesca. Her eyes were an emerald green, where yours are more of an olive green. Her skin was fairer too.”
I find myself hanging on his words, my only connection to the woman who gave birth to me. Ezra continues seeming to be lost in his thoughts of her. “She was one of the best at seeking out the Sondians and specialized in the undercover missions. She was brave, strong, and a mentor to many others and me. During her last mission, she and your father became pregnant with you. Immediately, she wanted to become inactive, settle in Georgia, and live a normal life for you. Your father and she made that happen and after you were born they were able to enjoy a simple life being a family before—they passed.”
I try to push down the knot developing in my throat.
Ezra gauges my response before he continues, treading cautiously. “The Sondians had undercover assets as well and Balthazar knew your father and she were the threat he had to eliminate. When he learned about you—”
Ezra’s voice trails off, not wanting to give voice to my potential fate.
Ezra shifts forward as he explains. “I was one of the guardians Sebastian put on watch in Georgia. One day, Anna sent me to run some errands for her, your father was already at work. When I returned, you both were gone.”
Ezra’s memories of the events seem to raise his temperament as he walks us through what happened. Sebastian and other guardians came to help track Anna and you, while I was sent to get your father from work, but he wasn’t there. His boss said he never made it in. I was the best shot at finding all three of you and Sebastian had me track using my abilities. We tracked you to an old run-down cabin on the edge of town, the Sondian head hunters had you all holed up waiting for Balthazar’s call to—kill you all.”
His final three words are nearly spit out into the room. “Sebastian and the others wanted to wait until dusk to attack, but Anna and your father were putting up such a strong fight from the sound of it in my head, I knew we wouldn’t have time.”
Tears begin to well in Ezra’s eyes, turning them a golden brown color. “Your mother—she was
n’t the type to back down from a challenge, especially with you in the crossfire. As soon as I heard the gunshot, I led the attack.”
I’m on the edge of the sofa, tears clouding my eyes as I listen to his emotional recollection. “We attacked from every entrance and you were safe in my arms immediately.”
The withheld tears in his eyes finally over flow. “I was able to talk with Anna and your father before their passing. Your mother’s only request was that I find safety for you and give you a normal life. When the time came, she said I’d know and that I’d need to prepare you as a guardian.”
I wipe furiously at my cheeks now stained with tears. I can’t stop them from overflowing. Mom and Dad come to sit next to me to give comfort. I don’t push them away, needing the tenderness they offer. My voice is weak when I ask. “What about my father? You didn’t say much about him.”
Ezra looks at mom and dad first, then me. “I didn’t know him well, but he was a good man. Loyal to your mother.”
Mom interrupts, “That’s when Ezra found us. He was a single man, not an instant family, and your mother wanted you to have stability. Sebastian told Ezra about us.”
My father adds, “We were inactive guardians and could provide safety and the normalcy you needed. Ezra stayed close by for this very reason—to train you when it was time. You’re just like Anna: strong, independent, intelligent, and brave. It’s time for you to find your true self sweetheart.”
As my parents sit on either side of me, I look down at the Persian rug and follow the spiraling pattern with my eyes as Ezra’s voice carries through the room. He’s talking about meeting the others on the outskirts of Nevada for debriefing and training in some kind of facility when all of the details seem to melt away leaving me numb to everything happening around me.
Copula Chronicles: The Complete Collection: Origin, Descend, Ascend, Legacy Page 7
