Momentum

by Yefon Isabelle

  We landed off the coastal beach by a string of bamboo resorts with a massive long terrace. It looked deserted floating atop green coloured water as the jets hovered in protection above us.

  I breathed a sigh of relief in the completion of the last installation of the electromagnetic stabilizer. Now, we had to get to our last location, Antarctica, terrestrial south pole. As we took off, one jet plane combusted in the air.

  “Nargothians!” Ranishé exclaimed.

  “They exchanged fire with the six remaining fighter jets. The Nargothian ships annihilated the fighter jets, save one, that took a suicide mission ramming into the Nargoth ship and they all went up in flames. I gasped in horror as we flew away. We could not fail. Not now.

  Antartica

  The continent lay on a giant sheet of ice. With a temperature of -13 degrees, the continent remained uninhabited, with ice covering the entire land mass.

  The peninsula emerged from below as we landed. Ridges and dunes of ice decorated the landscape like an architectural work of art. Caverns, bridges and towers all made of ice, stood glorious, fashioned by the invisible hand of nature—or not.

  A large piece of ice shifted and distinct hole with ridges from top to bottom similar to steps emerged.

  “Let’s hope the ammonia molecules haven’t solidified. It will be nothing short of a disaster.” Ranishé breathed, placing the metal box with utmost care.

  “How so?” I creased my brow, anxiety creeping up my spine.

  “We have been constantly under pursuit, moving the device many times. Under pressure, the glacier stabiliser becomes very unstable. If it has solidified, we’ll have no use for it”

  “Oh no.” I crossed my fingers as Ranishé opened the box.

  The Collider seemed empty. I gasped. Why is it empty?

  “It’s not empty.” He smiled.

  “It’s just colourless, a mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen. Oh, it’s still stable. I was so unsettled. It should send the molecules to the entire ice sheets stabilizing the glacier region.” He lifted the device poised to set it in place.

  A humming sound caught my attention. I looked up and watched in horror, the wraith Mothership and infantry spectres emerged from within its bellies, surfing on hovercrafts.

  “Ranishé, Gema, fast,” I yelled as we covered them by exchanging fire with the Nargoths. This was the final battle and the wraith had put in all they had. I couldn’t fail. I would stake my life before they got the final say.

  I reminisced on my BUDS training and groaned forward.

  I aimed the EMP rail gun and hit one shade. He tumbled and fell to the ground as his hovercraft crashed onto a nearby ice peak. He jumped, his armoured feet landing on the ice floor. He lunged forward extending his palm and the wheezing sound it generated, spat bolts of electricity, his dark hooded overall, twirling with the wind. I dodged, rolling away and somersaulting towards him, kicking him to the ground. I scurried for my gun and aimed at his chest, I squeezed the trigger and the weapon whined blasting him a few meters away. He lay motionless like a log.

  There were more Nargothians coming towards me. “Era, Zores, cover Ranishé and Gema,” I yelled.

  “Aleesi, Nanda, Avis, with me.” I groaned diverting the attack as they followed my direction.

  “Let’s hold off this distraction and perhaps make some Nargoth roast. How about that? Huh?” I panted as we dashed away from fire gliding over ice sheets skipping and somersaulting.

  “I’d love that.” Aleesi nodded to me, her oval face, expressionless. A female angry shade sent a series of nonstop bolts my way. I dodged taking cover behind an ice peak which shattered, sending me staggering out into the open. I rolled over aiming the gun at her midsection. I missed as she dodged I aimed at the craft this time around and the lights dimmed the craft now out of power, threw the entity that mounted it. She groaned her grey eyes peering angrily at me. She aimed her weapon, but I was faster. I knocked her with the railgun she fell with a thud.

  A buzzing sound stirred me, I turned to face a shade hovering behind me. He whipped me with his electrically powered weapon and I staggered falling to the ice sheet. My whole body vibrated. I knew what it was like to be electrocuted. My sitter had once when I was about eight years old, given me a kitchen knife and instructed me to touch a bare wire with it in our home basement. It was the same feeling, amplified a thousand times more. I felt useless. I could not think or speak, just the bolts coursing through me and possessing my entire body. My eyes went blurred. I felt sleepy. Damn! The weapon was deadly. I heard faint voices yelling my name and shook my head, trying to keep a sane mind.

  The spectre drew closer, aiming his weapon once more a smug expression worn on his visage. The weapon whined for a few seconds, granting me time to clear my head. With the feeble strength I had, I leapt a few centimetres off the ground and kicked him off his craft. He fell, his craft hovering idly away. His massive boots marched towards me his hands fisted and his jawline set. He was huge. I approximated him to weigh about one hundred and fifty kilograms and one hundred and seventy-five centimetres tall.

  He was a tough opponent. He gnarled racing towards me. I couldn’t take onto him in a close quarter combat even though I developed my stamina over the years. I could stay in a fight for 40 minutes before getting tired. I had to target his strategic weak points. I fisted my hands and waited as he roared rushing towards my position. His blow missed upsetting my jugular bones as I swayed sideways, giving him a clean foot sweep. He fell to the cold floor and I wasted no second in targeting his neck area and delivering pressure points incapacitating him. A trick I had learned from my Sensei, Asiki.

  More hover crafts raced towards me. I couldn’t keep somersaulting off the ground I needed to get rid of them fast.

  I rushed towards a wrecked hovercraft swung it and it hit one of them who in turn knocked off his colleague. They fell with a domino effect, but it wasn’t over. I had to get even with them.

  I got hold of a hovercraft mounted it and tried to position myself on it, but my balance was a little bit off.

  I looked down and found Ranishé and Gema were done installing the device. They rushed in to join the fight. Ranishé nodded at me as I finally found my balance. With a new weapon in hand, I knelt on one knee swinging myself and rotating the craft firing my gun and knocking every shade in sight.

  Suddenly, tunnels of bright elemental light, sprung from the Mothership, emitting a desolate whirlwind, suctioning every Nargoth and their equipment into the craft. I blinked in shock.

  “Eden, down from the board, now!” Ranishé screamed a worried look spread on his face.

  I somersaulted landing softly on my feet as the hovercraft on which I surfed, dematerialized suctioned by the weird tunnels.

  “I think I like her.” I heard Gema say as the squad giggled.

  Then the Nargoth Mothership zapped out of view, disappearing into nothingness, together with its elongated grey and obscure cloudy tunnels and their wreckages.

  “What just happened?” I questioned, stunned by the event.

  “A nightmare,” Ranishé stammered.

  “This is even more serious than I thought. The shades as you call them, have learned to manipulate and commercialize teleportation into the basest form. This isn’t good. How long before it becomes available to every single one of them? They’d use to go anywhere they want anywhere in the universe.” He chattered.

  “Well, as for me, I’m just happy they are gone and the mission was a success. We aren’t getting cooked by solar radiation or any of that stuff you spoke of.” I shrugged.

  “Hey,” I nudged him.

  “I’m sure you’ll get to deal with them another day,” I assured.

  “Yes. Right. You are right.’ He nodded.

  “So, where do we go from here?” I asked as we huddled together.

  “The mission is complete. We did it. Yay.” I skipped girlishly.

  “Well get back to our world.” Gema hastily responded.

 
“But you do not have a ship. Maybe you’ll get to live an earthly life after all. It’s fun by the way.” I teased.

  “Oh, you wish. A ship is underway.” Gema eye-rolled me.

  “Ranishé?” I probed, hoping it was a joke.

  “While you were kicking shade ass, I sent a signal via the device.”

  My heart sank. This was happening and he was going to go like nothing happened. What did I have left, anyway? My friends were dead and gone. I couldn’t tell the truth of what happened to my superiors.

  “Well, I certainly can’t fly myself out of here can I? How do I get home? Tears welled in my eyes and I tried to conceal them with a fake giggle.

  “Oh, I’m sure you can manage,” Nanda voiced pocketing, his massive veined hands with unkempt fingernails.

  “Eden, I am…” Ranishé whispered, touching my shoulder.

  “Do not touch me.” I shrugged his hand off.

  “What’s wrong?” He furrowed his forehead, his brows drawn together.

  “Nothing. I’m fine.” I breathed biting my lower lip.

  “No, you are not. You are angry.” He positioned himself in front of me.

  “I’m not angry ok? I’m just—” I trailed. I couldn’t I couldn’t tell him. I was stronger than that. He couldn’t know how I felt about him —if he hadn’t deciphered already.

  I started to walk away and he shadowed me, placing himself in my way. His scent and aura were unbearable it engulfed my senses.

  “Gosh, there is something about your scent, it’s just so— “I whispered.

  “Oh yeah,” Gema hollered from a few meters away.

  “I know exactly what scent it is. There is a chemical that lingers in us Andranivians. Oh! It makes people from other worlds hallucinate.” Gema laughed.

  “Do not listen to her.” Ranishé scoffed.

  “What thing, Eden you aren’t making any sense.” He whispered.

  “Oh yeah? So what I’m crazy now?” I squealed.

  “I did not say that, come on.” He coursed his strong hands through his hair.

  “I do not understand all of this attitude.” He grimaced.

  “Yes, you don’t. So don’t bother trying to.” I sassed, rushing towards the plane and sprinting up the staircase. I heard him murmur something to Gema, then followed me into the plane.

  “Stop, Eden, talk to me.” He spun me around and our eyes met. His hands nestling mine.

  “I do not want you to go.” I pouted.

  “Eden, I’m not from here. I have my own home. People waiting for me back home.” He spoke in a hushed, rippling voice.

  “Oh, you have a wife and kids? Is that it? Because it makes a whole lot of sense now.” I stepped back, avoiding skin contact. He was too tempting to be close to.

  “What? No, I do not.” He frowned.

  “Listen, Eden. There is something I didn’t tell you before or omitted to tell you.” He held my hands blanketing in his. My hungry eyes searched his patiently waiting for whatever it is he wanted to say.

  “I lied when I said there wasn’t any other aberration I knew of. The way my heart skipped when I first saw you and looked into your shiny amber eyes. The way my fingers ached to lay my lips on your golden almond tint. Right now as I speak, you radiate like a queen with moonlight all over you.” His voice resonated. He drew me closer to his warm chest. I closed my eyes and lay my head on his chest as he cuddled me with words I longed to hear.

  “I didn’t foresee this connection. It wasn’t supposed to happen.” His warm breath tickled my ear.

  “Back here we call it, love. No one plans for it. It takes you unawares. “Well, where I come from, many consider it a virus. A dangerous one.” He beamed.

  “What do you consider it to be? These makers may not be perfect at all. Love is the one real thing in the midst of all this fakery.” I whispered.

  “Perhaps I’m defective. An unforeseeable error. A flaw in the creationism mechanism.” He licked his lips teasingly.

  “What are you going to do about it? I questioned.

  “I do not know. However, I like the feeling a lot.” He smiled, his deep eyes gleaming and his dimples visible even more.

  “Then stay here with me.” I beseeched.

  “Eden, I do not think I can live without you now. My life was perfect before everything. Maybe it was random maybe not. However selfish, I may sound now, I’m happy it did because I found you. Nothing will be perfect for me without you.” He whispered.

  “He laid his lips on my 4B, kinky, curled, puffed bun. I closed my eyes and let the energy radiate within me.

  ‘You are so tempting” He smiled.

  “I have a proposition, but you are not going to like it.” He started.

  “Spit it out.” I thumped his arm.

  “You are so feisty and tough. I like it.” He laughed.

  “Kinky, huh?” I bit my lower lip.

  “I’m sorry, what’s that?” He creased his brow.

  “Never mind.” Come on, what is it?” I squinted up at him as he towered several centimetres above me.

  “What you hold is harmful information. Going back into the world and keeping it from your bosses is impossible. They will use your parent to get the information.”

  ‘I do not follow.”

  “Eden, you’d save their lives if you stayed away... make the government believe you are no longer alive. You have to come with us,” Ranishé whispered.

  ‘No!” I categorically declined.

  “The government will use every means necessary to get to you. They know something is going on, something sinister. There is no way you can convince them otherwise.”

  He gazed me straight in the eye.

  “I understand perfectly. But my parents, they’d be heartbroken” I breathed, lost in his mesmerising eyes.

  “No, not exactly.” Ranishé rattled his head.

  “But—” I started, but he cut me off.

  “You will get a chance to tell them.” He flashed a mellow smile.

  “But you said no one could know.” I gazed wide-eyed.

  “I trust you and in effect trust your parents. If they could beget someone as divine and smart as you, I’m sure they themselves are equally as smart and out of this world gorgeous.” Ranishé stroke my cheekbones.

  “Are you using this narrative to compliment me?” I twitched my lips into a delicate smile.

  “Yes, you are so beautiful, Eden.” His thumb graced my upper lip.

  “You’ll tell them. But before that, we have something important to do.” He breathed laying a soft kiss on my temple.

  “You’ll do all that for me? Break your rules?” I gasped.

  “Yes, and much more. I’ve broken a thousand rules just standing here with you.” He nestled my chin in his hand and huffed abruptly,

  “Oh! The ship is here.” He peeked through the window and I followed. We rushed outside into the snow hand in hand, receiving weird stares from the squad and from four men erupting from the spacecraft, dressed in identical white space suits. They marched towards us as Ranishé saluted them.

  ***

  I stood in the front door, my hands trembling. The ship was cloaked with its invisible force field. I knocked at the oak wooden door, staring at the blue whitewashed walls of my home. Nostalgia washed over me. The lawn where I used to play, the orange trees I climbed and the swing I swung on. I was going to miss everything.

  Father opened the door, his greying hair more emphasized than before. Tears welled in my eyes as I flung myself into his arms. He whisked me inside immediately to my greatest pleasure. I didn’t want to be seen, especially by the neighbours. The curious Beri could be sitting on her window, as usual, trying to know everyone’s business.

  Mother caught sight of me and her teacup slipped from her frail hands crashing on the floor. She whimpered as I rushed into her waiting arms, tears welled in her eyes.

  “Mother, Father, I need to tell you something really important. I started as they sat me down on the
flowery sofa. I sat in their midst and their arms engulfed me.

  “I need you to be strong and know that this is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. If anything happened to you guys because of me, I would never forgive myself.” I began.

  “Ed, you know I would give up myself for you in a heartbeat. That’s how much I love you.”

  ‘I know, Father. I won’t give you that opportunity because I know.”

  “Are you in trouble?” Mother started.

  “This is what happened and no matter what, no one must ever know.”

  I narrated every single happening.

  “Mother jerked when I told her we had combusted the plane to fake my death. It was the only way. To save their lives and the world in general.

  “From the moment you were born, I knew were destined for greatness.” Father sniffed. We hugged for how long I could not discern.

  Mother found it had to let go of my hand when I told them I had to go. Father was tough and knew more than anyone the importance of national security. Eventually, she smiled her cinnamon eyes gleaming in the dark as she held my face and kissed my forehead as Father urged me to go before the government sent people over to ask questions. I soullessly strolled out of the house towards the huge tree where the vessel was shrouded.

  I sobbed as Ranishé took my hands leading me inside the ship. I clung to his chest, tears pouring down.

  “Shh! You did the right thing.” Ranishé held my hand in his and caressed it.

  “I hope so,” I whispered.

  “What about you, won’t you be in trouble? They’d punish you for bringing in a stranger.” I stood stunned.

  “We will deal with it when we get there. I can handle whatever punishment they send my way as long as you are safe.” He whispered laying his soft moist lips on my forehead.

  “For now, I just want to get lost in this moment.” He drew me close to his chest.