Soteria- The Crisis Forge

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by Roberto Arcoleo


  Then the allure came forth. It was gradual, yet steady. I was sure I saw her complexion grow rosier and her lips fuller. Her body became increasingly more sumptuous. It felt as if a drug were rising in my brain. Was it all in my mind, or was it real? All I knew was that those penetrating eyes owned me, and with my feet planted as if in quicksand, I looked across the room, mesmerized.

  “I told you I would see you again,” she said with that accent I could not pin down.

  I did not respond to what my eyes were seeing. Instead, I said with a smirk, “Yeah, you did. And not much else before you left me there, high and not so dry.”

  She smiled. “I guess I owe you an explanation, but it’s complicated. Do you have any vodka and maybe some weed?”

  “I always have weed, but only bourbon to pour,” I responded.

  “That works,” she said, taking a deep breath.

  Before she even spoke, I started to feel strangely comfortable. I was singing, “Don’t think twice, it’s all right,” yet somewhere deep in me I knew I should have been chanting, “Abandon all hope, ye who enters here.”

  “I hope you’re not pissed at me for leaving you up there. I really like you, you know, and I felt really bad about leaving you like that, but I thought it was the safest place for you at the time.”

  I am a cynical, skeptical, and questioning kind of guy, but I completely accepted her words as if she were commenting on the weather.

  “Listen, this is a very long story, so let’s get stoned and maybe play for a while before I explain things.” She smiled and gave me that ever-confident look, knowing I would not refuse.

  She paused; her mouth started to move. She hesitated before speaking. “A lot of what I will tell you is going to be hard to accept.”

  She looked good. My God, did she look good. I sat down next to her thinking to myself how much I wanted her all the while feeling a strange tantalizing terror. I was not really sure what it was I wanted. All I could think was, Tommy you better buckle up.

  “Sure. That sounds good to me,” I said. She smelled like Jasmine, but not the perfumey crap that found your nose in a room full of fashion model types. It was beautiful and real, like I remembered from the gardens in Bali. She took off her cap, and her hair fell back onto her shoulders. She pulled off her jacket and threw it on a chair. Her manner was cockier than it was the day we met.

  I had already put aside the fact of being left up in that tree and the two weeks I spent in the psych ward and the fact that I was sure that her appearance had changed before my eyes. My brain was swimming in her aura. This was more than a physical thing: she had me.

  We made love for the rest of the night; incredible, delicious, rapturous, almost acrobatic love. She kept asking me to do things and talk to her. “Talk to me, tell me you are going to fuck me until I scream!”

  She liked it rough, that’s for sure. I started to get nervous thinking that she might also like to give it as well as take it. Sometimes it felt more than scary. She needed things, things I did not understand. Unapologetically, she said, “Don’t be afraid, you can’t hurt me,” and then she whispered sweetly, “I am not an ordinary person. Let your fantasies run wild, I’ll do almost anything, so enjoy me.”

  She looked into my eyes, fixing me with that gaze. “I can keep my kinkier side to myself if you want, but give me a chance.”

  Wow! She was dark, darker than any woman I had ever known. She was pulling me in, further and further down. I felt she needed things I was not sure I could give. “Saya, Saya, Saya… I’m not into pain….”

  “Just relax, you’re not going to hurt me no matter what you do. I have more than one face to show you. You can always bail if you want to.”

  I was not sure what that meant. It was true that I had never experienced such pleasures before. There were moments I was not even sure what was happening. Her darkness frightened me, but what frightened me more was how much I loved it.

  Finally, exhausted, I said, “Hey, I need a rest.”

  “Okay, that was fun, rest a bit, I’m not leaving for a while.”

  With these words, she sat up in the bed. Her expression grew serious, then she smiled. “You know, I wasn’t completely honest with you when we met. I knew you were in that bar. I was looking for you. I didn’t know if you were the right person at first, but after we spoke, I was sure.”

  “The right person?” I asked.

  “Jason told me where to find you. He thought I needed a friend until he came back. Someone who could understand me, fulfill me. Someone I could trust. Someone who could one day tell his story and also his brother’s, and… Oh yeah, someone with a big and beautiful cock. The last requirement was definitely mine.” She laughed.

  “What are you talking about, and who the fuck is Jason?” I was getting pissed. The thing I hated most in the world was when a woman mentioned another guy right after having sex. But then she took my hand and said, “Relax, this is different,” and for some reason, it was all right in my mind.

  She continued, “I told you that I knew you were in that bar from a hundred yards away.”

  “What! How? And who the fuck is this Jason?” I replied, still annoyed.

  “Jason is worried about me just picking up strangers for sex. He thought that I might be drawing too much attention to myself. Not that anyone could hurt me, but he thought I should pick one person. You are a very lucky man, Tommy. You’re cool, that’s for sure. But you were in the right place at the right time.”

  I was not overly flattered by these words, but I didn’t say anything.

  “It’s a long story, and you’re going to find it hard to believe, even though you know it was me who put you up in that tree, carried you a half a block and fifty feet into the air, and then disappeared faster than the human eye can see… Stop being in denial about it.”

  I had been in denial about it, hoping I could wish it all away. Sometimes I thought I had lost my mind, but no matter how I tried, I knew I was up in that tree and in that hospital. “Shit! When are you going to tell me how the fuck you did that…?”

  “I told you that I’m not an ordinary person, Tommy, and if this is going to continue, you are going to have to accept that. Compared to Jason and Mark, I’m… just a human, but you will come to understand that, compared to any other person in this world, I’m very special. It will all make sense when you meet them.”

  “Who is them? And what do you mean?”

  “You know I put you up in that tree.”

  “Yes, and I didn’t want to accept that fact because it was freaking me out.”

  “Don’t be frightened, Tommy. I’m going to take good care of you, at least until Jason returns, and then I’m afraid I’ll be history. But I promise to leave you very well off. I am filthy rich, you know. But there is a big but to all of this.”

  “Please, no buts, and you dress like a hippy on welfare! And AGAIN, who the fuck is Jason?”

  “He’s from a place very far away. He was here for a while, and now he is gone. But he will come back. He told me to wait, and he gave me this.” She put her hand on a beautiful amulet, a purple flower she wore around her neck. She moved her hand, and it started to glow. “We communicate through this, and he protects me with it, as well,” she went on. “The way I dress is just my thing. I kind of live like a hippy too. Jason made sure I had truckloads of money. It was all in his plan, and now you are in his plan, as well. He wants me to be happy since, in a way, he created me.”

  At this point, I was spinning, trying to make sense of what she was saying. Is this all some long drawn out hallucination, an acid flashback? No, she is real. She is real and here. And not knowing why, I accepted it all. I didn’t know if I should feel lucky or cursed. All I knew for sure was that there was no exit sign in sight.

  “Listen,” she said, “there is one thing, though; you cannot tell anyone about me. You would be putting your life in danger. Those were bad individuals that sent that ambulance towards us. So just stay cool, hang on, and you
are going to have a great ride.” She laughed.

  She knew I was in, that I had moved all my chips to the center of the table. But she could see I was scared.

  “Tommy, you can do this. I knew from the start you could do this. Jason noticed you, but I chose you.”

  With that, she leaned over me and wrapped her legs around me. She took me into her. I felt her warmth caressing me, and then, as if a breath of air filled me, weightless, I started floating up. I realized we were three feet above the bed, her thighs holding me softly as we rose. Her body started to move up and down, and my whole being went electric.

  Then softly she spoke, “One day you are going to tell the world our story. Mine, Jason’s, and Mark’s too. It’s a long story, and it travels very far, but for now, I can tell you that it all started years ago in Japan, when a present for the emperor slowly floated down upon Hiroshima.”

  She told me the start of her story that night, who they were and where they were from. It was the first night of many nights, many stories. I did not accept what I was hearing for a long time, despite what I was experiencing, for it was impossible to deny what she was. I am not even clear how long we were together. It’s still mostly a blur. We moved around a lot, always hiding, but never wanting. Time did not seem to matter to me much, she was the only thing that mattered. After she had disappeared, I went to a lonely place for a long time, but as I promised I kept her secrets…she said one day I would tell her story. She said I would know when the time was right, but who will ever believe it?

  Chapter 4: The Flash – 1945 Earth Time

  Masao opened the shade and looked out the window. The sky was pale blue that morning, with only a few white clouds. It was warm. How quiet it is, he thought, as he looked out the bedroom window, down upon his flowers reaching over the front fence, their shadows dancing on the pavement. “It’s going to be a beautiful day,” he said softly, turning to his wife just opening her eyes. The jarring sound of trucks rushing past in the street beyond his gate brought his mind back. He looked out again and saw that they were full of soldiers.

  “Reiko, the Americans bombed Tokyo again. I spoke to Takeo, the baker’s son, last night; he had just returned from there. He said it was horrible. The newspapers are not telling us everything. Whole areas are destroyed, people burned alive. We must take the children to the countryside, to your sister’s farm in the north. They will be safe there.”

  “I know. I spoke to his mother. Do you think they will bomb here soon?”

  “I want you to stay there for a while. Maybe things will change.”

  “I’ll pack some warm clothing and sweaters for the children. It can get cold up there at night. I will make some rice and get some salted fish for the trip. Is there anything special you would like me to get?”

  Masao did not answer. Instead, he was staring out the window; something in the sky caught his eye. A parachute was whimsically falling through a cloud. “That’s strange…”

  There was a bright flash, a great wind. He remembered the first time he saw Reiko by the river, how beautiful she looked in her green dress… suddenly the shadows of the flowers disappeared.

  Chapter 5: The Discovery

  “How high did the surface temperature get?”

  “Over four hundred and twenty centrons and rising. All surface structures have been destroyed. Eighty-seven percent of the inhabitants in the central portion of the city have been annihilated. The results of the second bomb are just coming in from the probe.”

  “I am sending the full report to the lieutenant now.”

  The cargo ship Marissa was on a routine run carrying lithium from Allison-9, an asteroid on the eastern edge of the galaxy, to the home world of Eldern. The ship sounded an alert. They had picked up a disturbance. The small, rocky planet orbiting a G-2 class star had experienced several nuclear explosions within a short period of time. Analysis determined it had been caused by intelligent life. A probe was launched to evaluate the situation as protocol demanded.

  The lieutenant knocked on the captain’s door.

  “Yes, lieutenant? What is it?” asked the captain in a hurried tone. “I’m quite busy.”

  “You requested the analysis of the report from the probe as soon as possible,” he replied.

  “Yes, Are there issues? Be quick with it – we’re about to encounter a field of radiation. Damn these supernovas.”

  “It appears the preliminary analysis was correct. The planet is inhabited by intelligent life,” he answered.

  “And…?” asked the captain.

  “It is a class 6 planet, 72% covered by water, 97% salt-based. It has a large diversity of life. The dominant species call themselves humans. They are biological and carbon-based.”

  The captain responded, “Go on.”

  “We estimate there is a population of 2.5 billion of these humans. They live in groups in diverse clusters. These groups are in varying stages of technological development, the most advanced of which have nuclear capabilities. They quantify their time in units of revolutions around their home star. These units are called ‘years.’ Their average lifespan is 64 of these units. They seem to be in the midst of a global war.”

  “Devastation?” the captain inquired.

  “Yes, massive,” answered the lieutenant. He handed him his visualizer.

  “Hmm… Continue, lieutenant.”

  “Similar to other biological species of this type, they are divided into two subsets, which they define as ‘sexes.’ They reproduce through the coupling of these two sexes.”

  “What is their technological development?” asked the captain.

  “While they possess nuclear capabilities, they are quite primitive,” replied the lieutenant. “They will not develop any form of interstellar travel for at least 300 of their years. They appear to be mostly violent and warlike, crude in all respects. They do seem quite caring towards their offspring and spend a great deal of energy on their development. The more urban of them have some understanding of government, but on the whole, their rudimentary technologies leave them constantly preoccupied with efforts of survival.”

  “Well, since they appear to be in the process of destroying themselves, and we face no immediate threat from them, formulate a full report to be filed with central logging when we reach home. Proceed on normal course,” directed the captain, turning back to face the dashboard.

  “Sir, there is something else. This species is unique. Look,” he said.

  The captain was transfixed as he viewed the devastation, Masao’s last moments of life. “This being’s last thought is of another?” asked the captain.

  “Yes sir, they experience emotions and deep feelings for others. And there is another thing...”

  “Continue.”

  “Sir, they create stories while they are asleep. Look, they are amazing.”

  The captain watched the images come forth slowly, as if in a haze, like fog rolling off water:

  A little girl plays a violin in front of an auditorium full of people. She plays and plays, but no sound comes out. When she finishes, the audience stands up and applauds.

  “The one on the stage appears smaller than the others. Is she very early in her development?”

  “Yes,” responded the lieutenant, “but they all create these stories, and what’s more, they discard them when they are finished; they just float out into space and eventually fade to nothing. Here, I have another sample.”

  A small boy sits on a train. A conductor comes by and tells him “The next stop is yours.” He looks out the window and reads the sign, “My Home,” but the train does not stop. The conductor comes by again and says, “The next stop is yours,” but again he sees the sign, and again the train does not stop.

  “Is he concerned about being lost?” the captain asked, engrossed.

  “Everything appears to mean something other than what is shown.”

  “Interesting, it is all symbolic then?”

  “Yes, and the computer agrees. They call
it dreaming,” responded the lieutenant, as another appeared.

  A gray-haired man in a dark suit finishes using the toilet in the bus station restroom. He goes to the sink to wash his hands when a young woman wearing a lacy white dress approaches him. He turns to her and says, “You’re in the wrong room.” She takes hold of his hands and starts to dry them with a towel and answers, “Your hands are cold; you should use warmer water.” “They always are,” he said softly, looking down upon his hands. “I know,” she replied.

  “Why is this young woman drying his hands? Does this action mean something?”

  “The significance is a mystery,” answered the lieutenant.

  “And then there is this one; at first glance, it appears to be some form of ritual, maybe a rite of passage, but it definitely has hidden meanings. It is more complicated, so I have asked the computer to interpret the communication.”

  A young boy stands near a swimming pool dedicated to diving. Older boys start calling to him, teasing him to jump off the smaller board. He replies, “But I can’t swim.” Some young girls join in, egging him on. He hesitantly walks out on the board and jumps. Barely keeping his head above the water, a bunch of older boys surround him. As he grasps the ladder, an older boy sneaks up from behind, pulling off his bathing suit. Seeing his suit fly out of the water, some of the younger girls quickly gather about and start to chant, “Climb out! Climb out!”

  “He is being taunted. Is this a story in his mind or an actual occurrence?” inquired the captain.

  “This is while the boy is sleeping. It continues,” said the lieutenant pointing to the visualizer.

  A dark-haired teenage girl approaches him from behind, whispering in his ear, “You will have to come out sometime.” His sex organ grows firm.

  “I am trying to understand. This appendage appears to be a means of pleasure as well as reproduction… Does it have other functions?”

  “Apparently, his mind is resolving something that lies deep within his psyche, maybe forbidden things. The obvious is not the whole story.” It continues:

 

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