Copula Chronicles: The Complete Collection: Origin, Descend, Ascend, Legacy

by Venessa Kimball

  Sebastian starts in on her. “We talked about this Siobhan.”

  She nods. “I know what you said. I’m just concerned about the man power once you get here.”

  I remember our conversation in the car when we were on the way to the safe house earlier. If we approached average humans with what we have to offer—the implantation of a device that will help them adapt and evolve with our world in order to survive—they would run the other direction and straight into the arms of the Sondians who would force their warped device on them.

  Balthazar shifts in his chair as he answers Siobhan. “We’ll make our move soon.”

  Suddenly, the screen freezes and fractures as the connection is lost. Ezra leans over Sebastian, trying to connect back with her, but he can’t get her back online. Xander suddenly turns away and walks from all of us still hovering around the laptop. He looks back at us and runs his hand through his hair as he looks at Ezra. “Jesus, she looks just like her.”

  I know his guilt is weighing as heavily as mine is, but I’m already thinking beyond the similarities. Why hadn’t Ezra told us the risks of saving her? “Fifty-fifty chance?” I ask directly as I glare at Ezra. “Why didn’t you tell us when I asked you about saving Corinna back at the cabin?”

  Feeling the brunt of my accusation, he looks away from me. “If I had will it have made a difference? Would you have decided it wasn’t worth trying?”

  His comment is meant to sting. “No.”

  Ezra moves away from the laptop and folds his arms over his chest as he stares at me. “Then why ask rather than just going in and taking a chance on saving her. Are you afraid you might not succeed?”

  Son of a bitch. Before I can move on him, Nate takes hold of my wrist, keeping me from coming face to face with him. “Fucking nice Ezra! Real nice! Why don’t you just rub my face in the dirt while you’re at it!”

  Ezra ignores my attack and steps toward Nate and me, not backing down. “You need to know you may not succeed! That is the only way you’re going to push yourself harder!”

  I shake my head at his warped way of thinking. “In what world does that make any sense Ezra!”

  He turns in a semi-circle and spreads his hands out wide. “In this fucking world Jesca! This world where all of what we know, everything we see, and what we fucking breathe will change in a matter of months, weeks, days even!”

  Sebastian and Balthazar both step in and pull Ezra aside. Sebastian looks back at me, then everyone else. “We’re all under pressure. Just calm down.”

  Ezra breathes deeply and lowers his head, refusing to look at me as he walks away from all of us. As Sebastian walks after him, I notice Xander follow as Balthazar starts laying out the plan for the next twelve hours––eat, sleep, and hop on a private plane to Tokyo, Japan.

  “We need to see where everyone’s at with controlling their abilities—combined and separate. Talk to me.”

  Balthazar folds his arms waiting for someone to start. Luke responds, “Jake, Elicia, Nick, Angela and I have been training together. Elicia was a little rusty, but her Telekinesis and Ushering came back to her quickly after training with Nick.”

  Nick adds, “Yeah, we’ve been able to combine our abilities more than a few times.”

  Suddenly, Ezra’s voice rises from behind me. “Why haven’t you said anything?”

  Ezra comes back into view from the kitchen with Xander right behind him. “Because of this! You would freak out! He doesn’t have a clue, Ezra!”

  Nate and I both start toward them and I ask, “What’s going on?”

  Ezra’s face is beat red with anger as he looks around the room widely. “I warned you not to go into his head Xander!”

  Nate steps in. “Ezra, it’s okay! I’ve been helping him!”

  Ezra bellies up to Nate. “He’s not supposed to be initiating dreams with Sam.”

  Xander shakes his head. “I’m not. He comes to me!”

  My eyes are bouncing like a Ping-Pong ball between the three of them as I try to catch up with what’s happening.

  Xander lowers his voice to try to defuse the situation. “Sam needs to think I’m still loyal to the Sondians. You said it yourself back at the cabin, Ezra. I need to keep him thinking that I’m on their side. He can’t get into my head! I won’t let him in! Nate has been going in with me to make sure I get out of the dream safely.”

  “What?”

  I can’t keep my cool knowing that Nate and Xander are putting each other in danger pulling some astral projection shit like this. “How did either of you think it was a smart idea?”

  Balthazar crosses his arms over his chest. “Sam is very strong. Has he detected you Nate?”

  With his hands on his hip, Nate looks at Xander sideways then answers him, “No, Xander has been very careful with blocking his thoughts while in the dream state. I’m able to feel and hear everything in the dream, just like I am with Jesca’s, but still remain just an observer––undetected.”

  Sebastian looks between Nate and Xander. “Wait, you two are linked?”

  Ezra responds for them. “Yes. Nate and Jesca are linked as well.”

  Sebastian’s eyes widen as he turns to Balthazar and laughs maniacally. “Unbelievable! Just extraordinary!”

  He looks back to me, Nate, and Xander as Balthazar runs his closed fist over his lips in thought and mumbles, “Fascinating.”

  Nate waits for me to return his gaze and says, “I promise, we aren’t in danger, Jes. You know that you would sense my fear. And, you haven’t, right?”

  I hadn’t sensed anything, but how long have they been doing this? When? Days ago, they were at each other’s necks, now they are dream buddies?

  A phone ringing from the table distracts all of us. It’s the iPhone attached to the laptop. Jake leans over and announces, “It’s Claiborne. He’s trying to connect with us on Skype.”

  “Adam Claiborne?” Ezra asks as he walks away from us and toward the laptop.

  Sitting in front of the laptop, Sebastian answers the call and it connects broadcasting a very thin, white haired man trying to steady the camera on his end. His round spectacles cast the reflection of the screen, hiding most of his eyes. “Sebastian?”

  Righting the camera, he scoots back and takes in all of us as we approach the screen. “Oh. Is this a bad time?”

  Sebastian responds, “No Adam, its fine. This is the Dobrian team I spoke of accompanying us to Japan. Speak freely, please.”

  I’m not sure who Adam Claiborne is, but as he flips through a file in front of him, my guess is he’s one of the scientists working with our fellowship.

  Adam skittishly eyes all of us as he looks up from his notes, then back down. “Um, okay. Well, we have determined the cause of the pull from within Andromeda through the GRB—” GRB? What the hell is a GRB?

  Adam stops himself mid-sentence suddenly and pushes his glasses up close to his eyes before starting again. “Sorry. Mixed company. So, there are these gamma ray bursts that aren’t visible to the eye, but our satellites can detect them. We’ve been tracking these bursts and they are coming from within a large black hole in Andromeda.”

  Ezra interrupts, “Hold on. From inside the actual black hole?”

  Adam leans in closely to the webcam and looks a little distorted from the shape of the lens. “Yes. I was just as surprised. We have pinpointed its location from within.”

  Elicia interjects, “So, the black hole and these GRB things are like a cosmic string attaching to our galaxy, reeling us in like a fish on a fishing pole?”

  The visual of us being a fish on a fishing pole is effective as I picture these bursts drawing us closer. Adam looks disappointed at her layman’s answer as he clears his throat. “Well, I guess that’s one simplistic way of looking at it if you must. It is all speculation as to what its drawn to, but our theorists believe it is us pulling it in.�
��

  “Us?”

  Adam seeks out me and nods, “Yes, us. Humans. More specifically, the life force each human being carries.”

  Nick scratches his temple and shrugs. “Why? I mean, what’s so special about it?”

  Ezra sits in the open chair next to Sebastian, his eyes glazed over as he tells us what he’s thinking. “Our life force. Our souls.”

  Adam shakes his head. “It’s only theory.”

  Ezra doesn’t seem to acknowledge his correction as he continues, “The uniqueness of our race is that we have souls. That is our life force.”

  Adam flips his file closed roughly and responds sharply. “Mr. Kahn. Souls are of the speculative. I’m a scientist. I look at facts. Energy, positive and negative matter are solid and factual.”

  Ezra glares back at the screen. “Good for you. I’m going with souls being the major attraction buddy boy.”

  I address Ezra directly seeing he could be on to something. “So, you’re thinking that whatever is in the blackhole—”

  Ezra’s brows rise as he looks at me eagerly. “Whom ever.”

  I correct myself, “Who ever is in the blackhole is trying to draw us in because they are curious about our souls?”

  Adam tosses his file down roughly. “Speculation!”

  “And, the soulless are cast out of heaven.”

  Ezra’s reciting of a biblical reference draw me deeper into the mysticism and supernatural turn this theory is taking.

  Elicia jumps on the bandwagon. “Whatever is drawing us in is soulless and is attracted to them.”

  He looks down at his folded hands, trying to contain himself but his quaking voice gives him away. “It’s evident my input is complete here. Sebastian, while I’m a man of science it seems the spiritual influence in the room has taken over and my services are no longer needed.”

  Balthazar tries to calm him. “Now wait Adam. No one is saying that.”

  Adam clears his throat and takes his glasses from his face, tossing them onto the table in front of him. “After all that we have encountered thus far, you as well as I know that science can’t explain everything. I’m not a religious man, so I can’t speculate accurately. But more than not it has been referenced that something supernatural, spiritual even, is at work here.”

  Ang brings the conversation back to the concern of where it is drawing us. “If we succumb to the blackhole, where would we go?”

  Claiborne’s dark brown eyes are no longer hidden by the glare on his glasses as he looks directly at Ang. “Once you are in the blackhole, you will be torn to pieces. When you succumb to it, you are obliterated.”

  Ang’s brows raise high. “That’s a perky outlook.”

  Adam quickly adds, “But, there are other theories being considered now. Ones that give more depth and character to a blackhole—much, much more.”

  Luke has been quiet until now. “The possibility of black holes being connected to white holes?”

  Claiborne grins and shifts in his chair, visibly excited. “Our galaxy, our world, is being pulled into the black hole and could be pushed out through the white hole on the other side. Into another universe. Maybe another reality parallel to our own.”

  He leans back in his chair and rocks side to side in his swiveling chair, unable to hold still with the ideas running through his head. “Even more, the black hole might evaporate before we are pulled into it. Poof!”

  The exaggeration of the hand motion of us disappearing into thin air is a visual I don’t need to think about.

  He dips his head from side to side realizing the dead end his last statement portrayed. “In any case, all of these theories are just that. Until we are faced with it, we can’t prove any of them.”

  As I lay in bed, Elicia and Ang already asleep, I think about what Balthazar said about how some people will be too weak to move forward and evolve when the intersection occurs. Every day for the last six months, I’ve been enveloped in theories of how our world will change, how we will change, and what I’ll have to fight for––our humanity. I feel like I might be one of the weak that will stagnate and die rather than evolve, adapt and survive. How can I possibly be one purposed to save our world if I hold so much doubt?

  I let my eyes fall closed for only a second when I hear my name.

  “Jesca.”

  The room is dark, except for the small amount of light seeping in under the closed door. Figuring the voice is Elicia’s, I look over at her bed but it’s empty. I look over at Ang’s bed––empty. They were here just a second ago––Wait. Shit. I’m in a dream. I must have fallen asleep. I sit up and start to rise when the door opens revealing the silhouette of a slender woman in a gown. I can’t see her face, but as she enters and closes the door behind her, the hair on my arms stands on end and every goosebump on my skin surfaces. Unable to see her face as she continues to move toward me, I scoot further up the bed toward the headboard. Sensing my apprehension, she tries to reassure me with her soft voice. “Please, don’t be afraid.”

  “Who are you?”

  There’s a pause before she answers. “Someone close.”

  As she slowly sits on the edge of the bed, fragments of her features are revealed as an unknown source of light casts on her. in the faintest light of the room. As the similarities are too close to my own, I find myself testing what could easily be a reflection as I lift my hand to touch my face. The form across from me doesn’t move, raising my awareness that this woman is not me, I lean closer and reach out to touch her. As soon as my fingers touch her forearm, the contact spurs a film reel of images raining through my head. All the images are of me. Me as a teenager walking to high school with Elicia. Me swinging on a swing set, Delilah pushing me. Me being held by Roan as I cry after a nightmare. Me, me, me.

  Me.

  She’s not me.

  Holy shit.

  I pull away from her and open my eyes at the same time. Her face more visible now than it was before. “It’s me Jes. Anna.”

  I breathe in deeply, then release it slowly before stating what I believe is the obvious. “You. You’re a ghost.”

  “Not quite. Ghosts aren’t always aware they’ve passed. Most of the time they are stuck between this world and another plane of existence––another world all together. I’m fully aware of my passing unfortunately. And, I’m not stuck or lost between worlds.”

  “Where are you?”

  I know my question sounds odd so I explain. “I mean, I know you’re here in my dream. But where are you really?”

  “Far away––too far to have ever been able to reach you until now.”

  “Why now?”

  I wish I had rephrased that, because it comes out all wrong. I try again. “How are you able to reach me now?”

  She lowers her head and her voice weakens suddenly. “Somehow, I felt your life force. Something I hadn’t felt since the night I passed.”

  When she looks up at me, her eyes seem greener than they were moments ago. The tears spill along her cheeks and I realize why the sparkle and iridescence exists in them now––she’s crying.

  “You’re afraid of what this world holds for you. I’ve been afraid too. I doubted every ability, every decision I made in the beginning. That doubt and fear was no match for the hope and faith I didn’t realize I possessed. And Jesca, I know that your hope and faith will pull you through this. I know because I see the strength within you and it’s so much more powerful than anything I’ve ever possessed myself.”

  As her supernal tears flow down her cheeks, I can’t hold my very real ones any longer as she says “As you sat in that crib in the back of the cabin, you had the power to call your father to try and save us. What small child has the will to survive like that? The will to save life?”

  I shake my head at her. “You seem to forget I failed. You died. I didn’t save you!”

&n
bsp; As my voice rises with emotion, hers does the same. “That wasn’t your responsibility!”

  I rise from the bed. “How can you say that? I should have called to him sooner! He got to you too late!”

  She stands up to me, but a fraction taller. “Yes, but it wasn’t for lack of trying Jesca!”

  I stare at her blankly. “He tried?”

  Anna’s voice breaks between words as she explains. “He wanted to combine our abilities and save me. I knew my purpose had already been fulfilled. You were my purpose Jesca. The most beautiful and powerful purpose your father and I ever achieved together. My time here on earth was done even though he tried to hold on.”

  Somehow, I steal a glimpse into her memories without touching her this time.

  ***

  Sam pulls me from the sofa and we struggle. His maniacal eyes look so different from what I last remembered. Something has happened to him. This isn’t him! I plead for him to stop as he raises the knife above him and strikes down on me. The burn is instant and the pain aches through my body, spreading like wild fire. I stumble back and into the coffee table in the center of the room, his crazed look changing to sheer terror and panic.

  Sam’s eyes widen suddenly as I feel Ezra’s energy closing in on us. Turning in a circle, he mutters to himself, “What did I do? What did you make me do?”

  He throws the knife aside and comes down to me, his face so close, I can see the crawling veins of his bloodshot eyes. Shakily he whispers, “I didn’t want this Anna. If you had just chosen me, I could have protected you from them. They wanted this. Not me.”

  In one swift motion, Sam pulls away leaving me staring, at the ceiling gasping for air. The baby––Jesca. Her cries are now screams as I lay there motionless. Her voice is the only thing keeping me from drifting under. I can’t leave until I know he’s here with her.

  ***

  I’m not able to stay in her head any longer. It’s too much to handle. Closing my eyes, I block out the rest as she pulls me into her celestial arms.