She rubbed her eyes, wiping the sleep out of them. She looked at the clock on the nightstand by her bed and turned on the lamp. “Three in the morning?” She grunted and flopped down in bed. “Why am I awake?”
Maybe because she needed to find a job. She didn’t want to go back to teaching at the university. It was hell getting that job in the first place, being a woman and all. Though her archaeology mind recently took over and the lust to go on another dig had surrounded her like a blanket. She couldn’t wait to find artifacts thousands of years old and to write about her discoveries.
She shook her head. “Go to sleep.” Tomorrow would be a long day searching for work. Perhaps she could find some shifts at the local restaurant. With her good looks, she’d be an easy hire at food joints. She curled her fingers in a fist. “It’s not about the looks, stupid.” Serving food would never be her first choice, anyway. She could help her dad on the farm. The farm threw a handful of problems at him daily, and he probably wanted help.
She crinkled her brow, pushing herself up and staring out of the window. “Why is the window open?” She’d shut it last night. As summer faded and fall rushed in, the cool air found its way back into her small town in Michigan, and she didn’t like it.
“Because I opened it.”
Ali jumped back, startled, and knocked her head on the bed’s headboard. A man walked out from the shadows in the room's corner, his arms tucked into a Space Templar robe, his hood covering his head and face. He pushed the hood back, letting it fall against his shoulders, his blue eyes shining at her. “I’m Skye Vor—”
She shoved the covers off of her and pushed out of bed. “No, no, no. You go back to Aurora or wherever it is you came from.” She pushed him toward the open window, wanting to get him as far away from her and her family as possible. “I’m not going on any missions. I’m not fighting any evil guys. I’m staying here.” Throwing him out the window wouldn’t hurt too much. It was only a two-meter drop if that. Maybe more, but who cared. No way would she let Skye recruit her again, and by Guild, she wouldn’t let Skye get to her dad. Shae’s need to help every damn Being in the galaxy would guide him quickly back into the Space Templar ranks, even if it tore him from his two greatest loves—Helen and her.
Skye stopped moving as if cemented to the floor, some Space Templar trick. “Ali, I’m not moving, no matter how hard you push me.” He held a smile, his face as gentle as a teddy bear.
Ali sighed and walked back to her bed, sitting like a teenager that didn’t get her way. “No, Skye. I’m not going back. It’s been two months, and I…” She nodded… “Okay, yes, I miss my friends there, and some people on my mining team, especially Daf. I miss her a lot, but my mom and my dad and—”
He put his hand up. “I’m not asking you to leave Earth. I’m here to ask you to help Earth and her people.”
Ali cocked her head. “What do you mean?” Did he want to send her on a humanitarian trip?
He walked closer, frowning. “A lot has transpired in a short period of time since you and your father came home.” He bit his lower lip, as if not wanting to tell more. “Someone murdered King Anu. Enlil was the next in line and has taken over the throne on planet Nibiru. Against Sabra’s and Enki’s wishes, he plans to bring Anu’s entire fleet and the Graxic allies to Earth.”
Ali sat straighter. “And create another slave planet, another slave race?” Her nostrils flared. “That piece of ebb.”
“This planet is where humanity originated, and it’s where the Anunnaki created their first slave race. Yes, they plan on doing it again, believing they own you. To do so, they must decimate the population to an easily controlled, more manageable number.”
Ali’s heart burned, and her veins boiled. She stood. “Enlil…that son of a pig swine.” She wanted to growl, to throw something, to take a knife and stab it into Enlil’s chest. She paced. “What do you need?”
“They’ll come soon, but how soon? I don’t know. We’re monitoring Nibiru and their fleet’s movements. So far, they haven’t left their sector. But they will, and when they do, they’ll strike hard.”
“Again, what do you need from me and my father?”
“We need you to command Tranquil and Ascension.”
Of course. “Where’s Swift?”
“Here, on Earth, with Eden.”
“Eden is here?”
Skye dipped his head. “She’s been here as long as you have, studying the art of the Sight.”
“The art of the…” she didn’t want to ask. “Where are Tranquil and Ascension?”
“We tugged them to your Solar System. They’re at our base on Earth’s moon, waiting for you and your father.” He reached behind his back, pulling a sword from its sheath and lifting it over his shoulder. “Sol awaits your touch.” He set the sword on her bed. He reached into his robe’s pocket and pulled out a necklace. He placed it on her bed. “Your father’s Space Templar crystal and pendant, if he shall take it.”
Ali eyed the items, pushing off her bed and stepping away. She let out a gush of air. “I didn’t sign up for any of this.”
He dipped his head. “Neither did I, but here we are—”
“Ready to take on the galaxy, to serve all of its creatures and Beings, and all that mumbo jumbo.” She nodded, her eyes fixed on Sol. “Is that what you were going to say?”
“Something like that.” The floorboards creaked as he walked toward the window. “It’s not much of a choice when they are coming to your planet. I await your decision, nonetheless.”
Ali shot him a look. He was gone as if vanished, the window now closed. She grimaced, her heart flaring with an anger she couldn’t quench quick enough before she lurched for the sword and picked it up. She held it up and squeezed its hilt. Purple flames crept outward from the edges. She let out a grunt, tightening her grip. She gasped when a plasma bolt shot from the sword’s tip.
White dust and cracked wood fell on her as she loosened her fingers around the hilt, a hole now in her mom’s ceiling and roof. She wiped off her hair and face with her free hand and opened the window. She slipped through the opening and landed on her feet in the backyard.
As she walked, her heart screamed and her gut twisted, wanting to end Enlil more than ever. She pushed through the back hedge that separated the yard from the wheat field. She made her way to the middle of the field and raised her sword, curling her fingers around the hilt.
The sword blazed, plasma fire flaming from its edges. She tilted her head toward the stars. “Skye Vortek of the Space Templars,” she yelled. “I accept.” She breathed heavily, thrusting the sword higher toward the night. “I’ll end Enlil,” she said under her breath. “I’ll end him.”
Thunder cracked across the sky in the distance, followed by a flash of lightning. She loosened her grasp on Sol, and the plasma flames extinguished. She let the sword drop to the ground. She fell on her rear and eyed the moon. “I should have known the war wasn’t over.” She shook her head. “I should have known, but this time, I’ll end it.” She grabbed a fistful of dirt and blades of wheat and threw them. “I’ll end it once and for all.”
The End
Author Notes - Brandon Ellis
May 22, 2020
Thank you so much for reading another Star Guild novel. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Right now, I’m in Bali, isolated in a gorgeous house twenty meters from the ocean. My front yard is black sand, and a giant volcano sits to my left. The sunset is beyond amazing.
Not all of us are this lucky in the world during these trying times. We have a political divide, a pandemic, and a divide amongst the pandemic as well, not to mention the dying and diseased.
I want to give a heart-felt love and light (Bali-style) to all the essential workers. We love you dearly and thank you. With all that’s occurring, there are always people helping, giving, and smiling. If you can keep that in mind, then please do.
Humanity is filled with kind souls. I believe you are one
and I believe I am too. So when this all ends, let’s find a way to tell those we love, that we do indeed love them.
From my heart to yours, I thank you and send you wildly happy thoughts.
Much love,
Brandon
Connect with Brandon
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His Facebook crew are fun, engaged readers, and can think of an alien race name for his books in a minute flat. There, you can read early chapter drafts for books Brandon is working on, join his ARC Team and read finished books before they are released, and much more. Again, here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/EllisIsland/
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