“We can rebuild elsewhere,” Malzod says in the end. “With Wudak and Gritu gone there’s not much point keeping this place anyway. It was their will that kept it going.”
“It’s the best thing to do under the circumstances,” Joshua says.
Malzod steals a glance at Kroll who sits away from us, the whole time studying our every movement.
“What will you do with him?” he says. “He gets extremely restless when you’re away.”
“You don’t like him, do you?” I say with a smile.
“Like him? He pounded my teeth in while he was sedated. You don’t like a beast like that. At best, you learn to ignore their presence.”
“I’ll tell him to respect you and stay out of your way,” I offer. “Would that help?”
Malzod shrugs his shoulders. “It is yet to be seen,” he says.
I swear Malzod has said more words in a single day today than he has in all the time that I’ve known him.
“There is one more thing,” he says. “You have a promise to keep.”
When his eyes become grave, I know immediately what he means.
*
ZOLKON STRUGGLES TO HIS FEET and steps to the bars of his cage. “I am surprised to see you again,” he says with respect. He looks thinner and weaker than the last time I saw him. It’s as if parts of him are closing down one at a time preparing for the final end.
I step aside so he can see Kroll who’s waiting for me in the back.
“Ah, the invincible beast,” Zolkon says rubbing his hands together. An attempt to laugh is immediately interrupted by pain. “I wish I could tell you I believed in you,” he says when he recovers. “But I deemed your kindness too great of a weakness to overcome.”
“Kindness is not a weakness,” I say.
Zolkon’s eyes grab onto mine. There is sweetness there, like a hopeful boy. “Did you come to fulfill your promise?” he says in a whisper.
Malzod appears from the shadows. I watch Zolkon’s fearful eyes while death approaches him.
“Not him,” he says. “You have to be the one to do it, girl. You have to liberate me. Nobody else.”
Malzod nods and steps back in respect to some Sliman code I don’t understand. Kroll and Malzod turn around to give us privacy. I know I have to do what I came here to do.
I reach for the receptor.
Zolkon’s eyes beam with excitement when he sees it in my hand. “There’s my beauty, the OS-1456,” he says. “Never thought I’d see it again.”
I raise the sensory receptor and create a small energy field. It caresses the lock on the cell until the door pops open.
“I’ve decided to free you,” I say. “You’ve paid enough for your crimes. Learn from your mistakes and make wiser choices in the future.”
Zolkon stares at me, for once unable to say anything.
“The way I see it, you have two options,” I go on. “You can either try and get back with the aliens, try to convince them you’re still loyal to them and beg for an acceptable place with the Sliman officers. Or you can join us and start all over. You can find redemption and regain what they stole from you as a young boy. You can build from there. It’s your choice.”
I walk away allowing him time and space to decide. I know there’s a good chance he will try to escape. I’m willing to take that chance. My legacy will not be brutality only. Every enemy has a heart and a soul. I will not fear my enemies, I will attempt to understand them.
I’m not going to hide any more. From now on, it’s war until every child is freed. If our side wins, we will build a bridge that will unite humanity with all beings willing to embrace forgiveness and charity.
*
“YOU DID IT AGAIN,” Damian says as he steps out of the shadows of the trees.
“How do you do that every time?” I say. “One of these days I’ll accidentally zap you to oblivion.”
“My skin is thick. Nothing can hurt me,” he says with a wink.
I turn on a light beam to study his face in the darkness of the forest.
“When did you get here? And what are you blabbering on about?”
“You saved a dead man,” he says. “Or should I say a dead Sliman?”
“There is light even in the darkest soul,” I say. “Why are you here?”
“I came to see you.”
He says this simply and honestly. It’s been a long time since things were simple and honest between us. I can ask him a lot of unimportant things, like who flew him to the base, how he knows about my decision to free Zolkon or why he left his post at the military training camp in the first place. I choose to stay silent. If he wants to talk to me, I’ll give him the space to do so.
“I’m thinking that maybe I should live with the Dark Legion,” he says.
“Still searching for a place to belong?”
“No, I know where I belong now,” he says. “It’s just that belonging isn’t always an option.”
I grab his hand and push him down to the damp earth. I sit beside him and study his features looking for clues to the mystery he presents to me.
“Quit talking in riddles,” I say. “Tell me what you mean.”
“How is this going to end, Freya?” he says. “I won’t cause you any more uncertainty and disappointment. It’s better I am where I am needed, where I can make a difference.”
“You always make a difference, Damian, wherever you go,” I tell him. “There is nothing but good in you.”
His smile is bitter and short-lived.
“You don’t get it, do you?” he says. “It’s happening. I feel it. It was inevitable, I guess, if you think about it. I was able to change the consistency of my skin the other day. I’m finally turning into a Sliman, Freya. Mind and body.”
I take his face in my hands and look into his eyes. “There are worse things to be. Believe me, I met her.”
“I don’t see how we can stop it,” he says.
“You will still be Damian. Your heart will be fierce and loyal. You are capable of more than you know. You are special and powerful and strong. Find something you believe in, and you can change into anything you want. The power is within you. I feel it.”
He runs his fingers through his hair. Then he covers his face with both hands. Whatever it is that is weighing him down, I welcome it. Because in this moment when he thinks the Sliman inside him will win the war, he’s the most human he has been in a long while.
“There’s only been one time I believed in anything,” he whispers. “When I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt what mattered. When my brain wasn’t screaming at me that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, that I did not belong. Once in all my life.”
I have heard this passion in his voice before. I try to move away but it’s too late. He takes my hand and pulls me closer. His fingers trace my face then mess with my hair. They tickle my neck and then stop on my lips.
“And it wasn’t the Sliman in me,” he says. “I know it now. It was all you.” He stares into my eyes for a moment before he kisses me. I am caught in his revelation like a star in the night sky. I long ago gave up on the idea of him coming back to me, yet now that we kiss it feels like we’ve never been apart.
When he unbuttons his shirt, I am finally awakened from the spell. I pull away but then I see all the scars on his body. The scar on his right arm when he got shot in front of me. The scars on his shoulder where the drone tentacles pierced his skin. The pink scar on the right side of his chest from when he saved Tobi.
I reach out and touch those scars that would not have been there if he had never met me. He pulls me closer to him and as I feel his skin against mine, my insanity returns. I want him now more than ever.
“You as good as handed me over to Finn last week,” I say. “Why are you doing this now? You said that I should have a life with him.”
“I did. But I’m not asking for a life with you. Just for this night.”
“It’s wrong,” I say weakly knowing I have already lost the battle
.
“Daphne was right,” he says. “We should never be together. Too much combustible energy is produced when we get close.”
“Yet, you’re trying to get close to me tonight.”
“I think the world can handle one night,” he says.
I have to be wise and strong if I am to lead a revolution. But tonight is not about revolution. Tonight all that I want is to help him heal.
*
SECTOR ONE IS ALMOST EMPTY. Everyone’s over at Sector Three where there is a presentation of the new security and shielding systems as well as footage from Spring Town and the Dark Legion encampments.
I don’t need to be there for that. It’s only been two days since I returned from the encampments and I was able to witness everything first hand. Pip and I have brought Tobi to the playground which is no more than a set of swings and a see-saw on a bunch of fake, padded grass. No matter, Tobi loves being here and so does Pip who can’t pull herself away from the swings.
I sit on the fake grass with my touchpad in hand trying to untangle the overlapping mess of my upcoming meetings and travels. There’s so much on my schedule, I’d need three lives to get through it all. I have to find some room for personal time or I will lose perspective.
I have to spend time with Zoe and all the girls. I have to try and patch things up with Ella. I have to spend more time with the commander who seems to be rather fond of me now. The list gets longer and longer and I’m about to give up when Finn shows up.
“Taking a break?” I ask him.
“I thought you might like this,” he says and produces a bouquet of white roses from behind his back.
“Where on earth did you find these?” I exclaim. Exodus L21 has a lot of wonderful lettuce, broccoli and spinach plants but flowers aren’t exactly a priority.
“Joshua brought a bunch,” he says, “and I kind of stole these from him.”
I take in the sweet fragrance of the roses. Pip comes over and I pull two roses from the bunch to give to her.
“Freya,” she says, “now that Finn has given you roses, does it mean you will marry him?”
I just about choke on my own spit. Finn bursts out laughing.
“What did I say?” Pip says. “It’s not funny. People get married all the time on the station.”
“We’re different people, Pip,” I say. “Such things don’t cross our minds.”
I look at Finn. “Can you stop laughing, please? The thought of me getting married should not be that amusing.”
“Come on, Freya. As if you would ever submit to any man,” he says and gets up. “I’m supposed to be at work right now. See you girls later.”
“Let’s go back, too,” I tell Pip after he’s gone. I put my touchpad back in my pocket but as I get up, the receptor rolls out of my other pocket and falls right onto Tobi’s lap.
I lean over to take it back but stop cold in my tracks when I see the receptor coming alive in his little hands, humming and buzzing like it’s exactly where it belongs.
I cover Toby up in his blanket and type a message on my touchpad to be delivered immediately.
Three simple words. “I need you.”
BEYOND THE RIVER OF TIME
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Table of Contents
PART ONE Cradle Will Rock
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
PART TWO City Above The Clouds
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
PART THREE You can never go home again
16
17
18
19
20
[scifan] plantation 03 - shadow empire Page 16