She was grateful that he cared enough to ensure her safety but his methods and ethics were deplorable.
* * *
The ghoul crept out from behind a tree when he was checking Shehin.
He was lethargically returning to a state of hibernation but still managed to clasp her and drive his fangs into her shoulder. Pain sliced through her neck and she screamed when Wrexel’s sketh missed her face by inches, driving into the center of creature’s head.
Amber swooned, lost her footing, and dropped to her knees and then her side, her head narrowly missing a rock as Wrexel caught her. She looked up at him as the poison traveled in a visible purple line down her arm, numbing her body as her full memory came crashing back.
Amber’s last thought as her eyes closed next to the now-immobile ghoul was that she was losing consciousness in the presence of two evil demons.
One was thankfully dead; the other was the despicable, psychotic despot who owned her.
10
Invasion
Two Years Previously
From the start, media coverage was non-existent. Amber knew only of their appearance as a fortunate insider with Travis as her fiancé. Travis Anders, ex-astronaut, like her own father had been in his youth, was the present head of NASA’s exploration program in his resignation period to becoming a senator. He had been placed in a position of confidence despite his youthful 49 years. His main responsibility had been to head up the current space transition team on a course to boldly push the boundaries of science and aeronautics to ensure the long-term vibrancy of America's space program. With his recent moves to gain respect in the political arena prior to their arrival, he was the natural choice to head up the NASA initiative to communicate with the journeying aliens when they first received their signal.
The message didn’t give them much time to react. Their crafts, thus far undetected, were three days away and the decision to keep their impending arrival a secret was tantamount.
When they finally did arrive, their large, hovering ships remained invisible. As communicated and promised, they stayed just outside of Earth’s atmosphere and used a superior technology that would keep them out of any telescopic sites.
Still shocked by the civil contact from an alien nation, they were even more astounded when a transporter craft arrived, bringing a representative to explain their reason for coming. The news was unpleasant, but when they presented NASA’s finest scientists with ability and technology so much more advanced than their greatest inventions, they assumed the role of the inferior race and allowed the intellect and choices of the arriving Thromians to lead in all decisions for Earth going forward.
This stance was encouraged and followed, most especially by Travis.
After their initial meeting, Travis received an implant that would give him the ability to understand the speaker no matter what language he spoke. They inserted a tiny capsule into his ear and, after a few seconds of pain and a few days of trial, he declared it safe for the rest to have one fitted.
Miraculous.
Inexplicable.
Each person chosen to be part of the negotiating team that would be leading communications with the alien race received one. To Amber’s surprise, Travis came home with one for her.
As Travis worked for NASA and had a new political role, they chose him to work closely with the US President when they included specific dignitaries from countries they saw fit to share the grave and sad announcement. The aliens had come from their distant galaxy to aid Earth and brought news so distressing they could not reveal it to the masses, for pure panic would ensue. They decided that it would be kept as a high-level secret from everybody outside of the negotiating team and the White House elite – and even from their families at first, which made Amber privileged as Travis’s future wife.
* * *
The program to search for potentially hazardous asteroids had not detected what sped toward Earth with deliberate certainty. An asteroid of large proportion that moved fast enough to destroy all life was just a month away. The aliens known to NASA as “Thromians” were there as an ark to gather and rehabilitate as much of humanity as possible because destroying the asteroid wasn’t a possibility. The Thromians advised that they had exhausted all prospects and found no way to stop Earth’s fate.
Gratitude emanated from the team of negotiators at NASA from the moment they presented evidence of the asteroid. They accepted it without question. The concern and aid brought by the highly evolved and selfless Thromian nation were revered. They pledged to help evacuate as many of Earth’s people as possible and relocate them with settling assistance to a new planet in a new galaxy. They were viewed as saviors of an elite humankind included in the trust network established by the US President. Only a select humankind would be saved, but that was the natural law of Earth; when disaster struck, some survived and others did not. They could have introduced a lottery system, but the governments agreed, as despicable as it seemed, life would continue through controlled choice. They established a selection committee to ensure that all races and ethnicities would be included within the numbers that the Thromians evacuated.
Security remained tight and, amazingly, there were only a few leaks. Those who knew what transpired were determined to keep it a secret and ensure the wellbeing of those added to the selection roster. Those who did find out did not make it to any respected news cables. This left them to recite their story to crackpot sci-fi magazines and low-rated TV channels that did not have enough credibility to cause more than minor interest. Throm had unique abilities to take hold of the World Wide Web and communication satellites to stop anything important from leaking.
There would be no mass hysteria, just mass death.
* * *
Amber felt saddened by the entire ordeal and worried it may induce a corrupt roster process but Travis adamantly advised this was not the case. The selection committee was fair; how was a lottery any better?
She waited patiently every night for Travis to come home with news that would hold her in awe. What the visiting aliens looked like, how they acted, updates about the galaxies and systems that existed so far away. New laws of physics, mathematics, and phenomena revealed, overwhelmed, and taxed Earth’s most brilliant minds. According to Throm, Earth’s future home would be the only uninhabited planet in a solar system of eight, called Diogel, where others – including the Thromians – now lived. Eight planets of different beings. Everything that Amber learnt from Travis had her confused and spellbound, especially the tale of Earth’s long and diverse history.
“It’s just so much to take in and understand, but we are not the only evolution of humans to live on Earth,” Travis told her. “The Thromians were the first human colony, followed by two others. We are now the fourth.”
“Apparently, each evolution comes to the same sad conclusion: no respect for Earth or value for our natural resources, internal wars, disease... it’s always the same,” Travis explained.
“Each time Earth came to an end, this angelic race of beings called the Yimmyrd would step in and save as many humans as they could, relocating us to their solar system of eight planets named the Diogel. We will be the final to join. All planets are in a joint federation, watching out for one another, fighting and protecting their Diogel system from 104 other rogue aliens that want the fertile planets within their system for themselves.”
Travis spoke with awe and excitement. “The Yimmyrd, these angelic beings, are the ones that control Diogel, the solar system that will be our new home. The Thromians are here under their instruction. Wrexel says that they assumed this evolution of Earth would end the same way. They were giving us an opportunity to perhaps be the one human race that would succeed in caring for our planet, but this asteroid came out of nowhere and they had to do an early evacuation.”
“It’s so tragic,” Amber replied, “but if you see how we have been conducting ourselves, I don’t think our ending would have been any different.”
“Perhaps
,” said Travis. “What has been confounding us and the theologians on our panel is to find out that this angelic nation known as the Yimmyrd actually communicates directly with the Creator of all life.”
Travis was an atheist, and this had been the hardest concept for him to grasp. “Throm said that the Creator of All has always held Earth in special esteem, setting it aside and covering our solar system with protection so that we could evolve without interference from the 104 and from Diogel. These 104 rogue nations and the civilized inhabitants within Diogel have always been out there and we never knew. If only we did, perhaps we would have not systematically self-destructed, needing the Yimmyrd to swoop down and pick up what was left each time.”
He sighed with disappointment. “The first colonials, now Throm, destroyed the Earth through war. The second through religious fanaticism. The third cycle of humans killed themselves off with rampantly growing sexually transmitted diseases.”
“Our scientists and theologians are actually sitting at the same table,” Travis added incredulously. “They have come to realize they have both been correct in a sense. Earth’s renewal and rebirth four times is a combination of more advanced methods of evolution and creationism than we can fathom. I think scientific textbooks and religious scripts are worthy only of being burnt right now; it seems that nobody had it entirely right.”
Travis told Amber that experts were locked in discussion with the Thromians, who were trying their best to evacuate as many as possible in the time that lasted for Earth. Soon they had enough consensus to start the mass departure, but all knew from the very first move that it would not be without some panic and terror for those below in the last days.
Just prior to the evacuations, they leaked a plausible story that a solar surge was expected and communications such as the World Wide Web and satellite TV would be temporarily impaired. The greatest countries in the world released messages that it would soon be repaired and individuals were to remain calm for a week or longer, during which the world would be out of communication among itself. Most nations declared a week’s vacation to ensure that people remained safe at home. Electricity was also affected, but the enormity of how much of Earth was controlled by satellites came as a surprise to most human beings.
* * *
Evacuations started.
Amber remained in their house for the most part, but she heard that with the disappearance of whole families and communities a lot of hysteria rose up that was not reported. Travis told her that, locally, conspiracy theories had taken precedence and churches claimed it as the start of the rapture. The barely plausible excuses offered to justify the halt in all communications left the people angry and confused but unable to share their concern. Some communities revolted in rebellion and fighting was widespread. Others pooled together.
They faced an uneasy and sad reality, but there remained little they could do to stop it, least of all explain the actual truth in any simple way. Amber suffered the devastation of the loss of her planet deeply but Travis tried to cheer her up with stories of the thousands who were already safely on Thromian ships that he had visited personally. His reports of people kept happy, well-fed, and safe by the great Thromian race was comforting.
Amber was still amazed at how both the aliens and the NASA evacuation teams were able to move entire communities but she realized that human beings, when faced with certain death, could practice confidentiality, especially if it ensured the safety of their families. Mass hysteria did not come to full fruition, or if it did she remained unaware of it.
Travis told her that the Thromians were a military nation but they also had an entire sector of their people dedicated to what Earth would term “humanity issues.” Experts on both sides worked hard to ensure that many representatives from all lifestyles and societies would be saved. If not all of the world could be uplifted, then certainly members of every society, culture, and religion would be so that nothing was lost. A noble task not without difficulty, but Travis was determined to ensure that corruption and favoritism did not rule and he claimed his plans were successful. Money and power meant little and so human decency and civility ruled the day when it came to the uplifting of Earth’s communities – or at least they hoped.
Negotiations and evacuations continued at a hurried but relatively undisturbed pace. As planned, in the blackout week whatever those left behind believed did not come into focus because governments found their own ways to use their armed forces to keep the peace on Earth until the elite were gone. Before the arrival of the aliens, Amber had spent her days preparing for a lavish wedding and children not long after because she was so much younger than Travis. With their arrival, her plans had been halted and because studying now seemed like a waste, she was left with hours of very little to do but contemplate the changes they would all soon be going through.
* * *
One night, just as the evacuations started, she went downstairs to see if Travis had returned home, eager to hear an update of his day. Instead, she halted in her steps. She slipped to the side, hiding behind the porch curtains when she heard Travis telling her father that he had an opportunity to take her on board one of the vessels. Her father’s response stopped her in her tracks.
“Are you sure Amber can handle that kind of responsibility? She has been doing well so far, but we don’t need a repeat of past episodes.”
The conversation devastated her. Her father’s doubts were misplaced and cruel.
“She hasn’t had an episode in a long time, James. She has handled the news of this entire evacuation without a single regression. Remember, it’s important for me to be seen in a normal relationship. Amber can be quite charming when she is well, and this bodes well for me when they vote in a new world government.”
Amber had been labeled as mentally ill since she was a child and had been suitably medicated all of her life. James, being a man of science and reason, did not understand how Amber consistently dreamed and saw visions even into adulthood of a mother she had never met, one who died in childbirth.
“I chose to make Amber my wife, and that means including her in an active government role. Her psychotic episodes are under control, and when they do rise up, the adjustments to her dosage seem to work. She hasn’t told me of any dreams and visions of her mother for a long time.”
A hand clasped her own, and she looked at Sam, Travis’s teenage sister. Sam had overheard and come to stand silently supportive at Amber’s side. Travis had formally adopted her three years previously when their parents were killed in a motorcar accident. Unfortunately, their journey had been to find a rebellious Sam, who had gone out without permission. She understood the anguish of living with a parent or relative who leveled continual blame.
“Amber!” Travis flashed James a warning look and moved to hug her when she walked toward them. Sam disappeared, avoiding her brother as she usually did, probably knowing he would find a reason to berate her for anything and everything she had done that week.
Travis softened when he saw her stop and pick up her pet dog.
“Amber, I know your heart is breaking over Banjo.” He misread her sad expression. “But the Thromians will not move animals.”
Amber nodded, still unable to smile as James greeted her with his usual emotional indifference.
“But you may have an opportunity to put the plea forward to somebody who could make a difference,” Travis said excitedly.
Amber saw her father grimace and realized that perhaps he had coveted the idea of going on board the ship with him. He had failed political dreams that he relived in Travis and he surveyed his future son-in-law’s victories as his own.
“The Thromian leader, known either as The First Lord Wrexel or the Monarch Regent, has agreed for you to come to our next meeting.” Travis was determined to cheer her up, afraid she had overheard his talk with her father.
“Why?”
“A few of us asked if we could bring our spouses to dinner and he approved a few selected guests.”
“How nice,” she murmured.
“I realize all of this must be exciting and yet so boring for you, having to wait each day for my return.” Travis kissed her. “But before you know it, we will live a dream. There is a lot of talk about my role in the future once we reach Rheese and when you are my First Lady, your days will be full.”
James nodded smugly that their lobbying was a success but his smile faded as he addressed Amber. “How are you feeling, dear?”
“Fine, Dad, thank you.”
* * *
That night Amber sat at her bedroom mirror and stared at her image as she replayed the conversation she’d heard that afternoon. She pressed the insecurity down and ignored the inner voices that rose within her. Instead, she reached for her brush to part her hair in the style that Travis chose for her. Sleek and understated, he told her when she went to the hairdresser just weeks before. Remember, you are representing me, he said when she showed him the layered look she preferred. She lifted the coral-shaded lipstick he chose.
Garish red, Amber? That will not project an image of sophistication.
She opened the draw and saw the unused lipstick roll across the wooden bottom. It lay there with the earrings that were too brassy, the hair clip that was too loud.
She was lucky to have Travis help her. Otherwise, she would be a huge embarrassment to him. She was fortunate that he monitored her; blessed he was prepared to live his life with a woman who looked at her own reflection but saw her dead mother hovering behind her.
Her mom always wore a white hospital gown in her visions, her dark hair flowing down her slender shoulders much like Amber’s own. She stared at Amber with a mixture of love and sorrow.
Amber wanted to repeat as always, “You are not real,” but there was no point. Her mother, Lilith, would not fade away. She checked her bottle of medication and realized she would have to go to James and confess that the visions had returned in earnest. She would have to endure his pity and smothered anger as he opened his safe to increase her dosage.
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