Sentry Rising

by Birkenhead, Naomi

  “Right,” Gabriel began clearing his throat, “The beginning.”

  Before he began Gabriel hoisted a book from off one of the dozens of shelves. He removed the dust with a quick puff of his breath and gently laid it in Thad’s hands.

  “I thought you said no books?” Thad said gently cradling the book. Very carefully he traced the delicate gold scroll work stamped into the dark leather cover. He fingered the tarnished brass clasp that secured the contents of the book tightly to their pages ensuring the story they told remained for generations. “This book is beautiful.” He whispered with admiration, “It looks very old?” He added a tiny question mingling among his statement.

  “It is the oldest book in the universe,” Gabriel answered. “Open it,” gently prompting Thad.

  Thad Hesitated. He worried the book would disintegrate in his hands.

  “Go ahead, it will be fine. I promise,” Gabriel encouraged him with a wide smile. His heart was racing. He could hardly stand the anticipation as he watched Thad's fingers set to work on the lock.

  Slowly Thad released the clasp. He lifted the cover to reveal the old weathered parchment of the first page. “It’s blank,” Thad stated, his voice swirling with confusion and disappointment. He gazed at Gabriel with quizzical eyes. Gabriel face lit up with delight as he began to speak, offering no explanation.

  “Over a hundred million years ago the universe witnessed the birth of new life. The first beings populated a green planet on the edge of a spiral galaxy known as the Milky Way. Her inhabitants a passive race born with the sole purpose of acting as the keepers of the universe’s knowledge and history. As the first race advanced, three other galaxies bore new life; a planet in the Cygnus galaxy and two planets in the Hydra galaxy. Earth was formed a hundred years later. Being in the early stages of development, the great Creator breathed life into one hundred beings designed specifically to carry the scales of justice and order. They were known as the Zion race. A blood of righteousness ran in their veins. A brain more cunning, more intelligent then any, filled their perfect skulls. Bodies built for speed and confrontation drew strength from the sunlight. The Creator knew that in time the worlds would advance to a stage when the Zion race would no longer be needed. So they were constructed without the ability to reproduce.”

  Before Gabriel could open his mouth to continue, a beam of light soared from the pages of the book and collided with the domed ceiling above them. A perfect representation of what Gabriel just described played out like it was once again the beginning of time. The sudden movement from the book caused Thad to jump sending the book tumbling to the floor. The images immediately disappeared as the leather cover snapped shut, once again imprisoning them.

  Thad sat completely dazed. He didn’t know what to do. “How did you do that?” He asked breathlessly, not taking his eyes off the roof where only moments ago swirling images of distant planets evolved and were given life. He could see as the early peoples small villages gave birth to great nations. He watched the landscapes change with time and seasons. He witnessed the migrations of exotic creature’s race across the planets crusts. Sunsets and sunrises illuminate stars and moons that didn’t exist in his skies.

  “I never said there wouldn’t be pictures,” Gabriel said with a grin as he picked the book up off the floor and placed it back in Thad’s hands.

  Thad glanced down at the piece of history resting on his palms. “Sorry for dropping it,” He mumbled his mind floating around in his head.

  “It’s not the first time it’s been dropped,” Gabriel assured him, “and it probably won’t be the last.” He leaned over and gently lifted the cover of the book. The hostage images immediately leapt to their freedom once again scattering across the ceiling.

  “However the Keepers were better at preserving the history than collecting it. So a race from the world of Uraleigha, now known as the Seekers, was chosen to document the history of the new worlds as they unfolded. But the Keepers soon realized that the accuracy of the mind when recalling situations was limited. So in order to record history precisely as it happened they developed a way to directly interface with the Seekers most unique attribute, their third eye, and collect the images in real time. The storage drives are then brought back here and downloaded into books just like this one,” Gabriel said patting the book in Thad’s lap. “You only need to speak the first lines on the page to active the display window. So right now you are witnessing the true beginning of time.”

  “Really,” Thad squealed with excitement.

  “Amazing isn’t it,” Gabriel said gazing at the image on the roof. “I never tire of seeing it. You know I have read this book at least five hundred times,” He said glancing over at Thad.

  “I can see why. This is just so…so…so…” Thad said struggling to find the right words.

  “Cool,” Gabriel finished.

  “Cool works,” Thad agreed smiling.

  “Shall we continue?”Gabriel asked, before picking up were he left off.

  Thad nodded his head with vigorous excitement.

  “Minerva, Aetherius, Uraleigha, Fairum Celest and Earth are the original five worlds in the universe. It is from these worlds that all other life was created.” As Gabriel spoke the images on the ceiling shifted and changed.

  “The inhabitants of these five planets were diverse and unique in there own ways. They developed separate cultures, belief systems, languages and advanced according to their societies needs. Even with their differences the worlds co-existed in harmony, understanding that their individualism provided them with infinite opportunities. The unique bond between the worlds led to the formation of the Celestial Coalition. Bi-annually, elected representatives from each world gathered to exchange intelligence, progress and even short comings. Each world took their turns hosting these forums and soon other festivities coensided with the events. Eventually each world became capable of sustaining their own and separate justice systems. The Zion race joined the coalition as consultants, sharing their expertise and information on executing and maintaining balance and order. An Inter-Universal law was also written that governed the general rights of every inhabitant across all galaxies.

  Now, a key survival instinct is to breed. Eventually the populations on the worlds began to grow bigger then what the planets could sustain without offsetting the balance of nature, so they created realms within the planets, parallel worlds in a separate dimension.”

  “Wait a minute, what do you mean realms within the world?” Thad asked with excitement.

  Gabriel enjoyed Thad’s eagerness. “Earth has the Realm of Tuathia, which is Remy’s home world. Aetherius which is Zyphera’s home world has the realm of Cytheria, and Uraleigha which is where Miss Mirdy is from houses the realm of Ignatia. Mathias’s home world of Fairum Celest protects the realm of Nedra. Minerva is the only one of the original five that has no realm. We are the only people to inhabit this planet.”

  “You’re pulling my leg,” Thad accused, scrutinizing Gabriel with a suspicious eye.

  Gabriel shook his head. “I am telling you the gospel truth.”

  Thad stared at him wide eyed.

  “Can I continue?” Gabriel asked when Thad failed to produce any sort of noise.

  “Oh....right… sorry, my imagination was running away from me,” Thad admitted sheepishly.

  “Naturally,” Gabriel replied. “Whose wouldn’t,” he winked.

  “So for hundreds of years harmony and balance remained constant even as new plants were formed and joined the Celestial Coalition. Peace reigned throughout our universe for Millenniums. All this changed the day Xavier Sostantivo was elected to represent a small planet named Mazrequin. He was a conceited, power hungry, left wing fanatic who believed himself a superior being and should naturally rule all worlds. His jealousy and desire to dominate the universe lead to civil war in his country. His armies soon began penetrating the defenses of the other worlds igniting a universal war. The blood of any who opposed him seeped into the soi
l of their lands. Many died before the Zion race intervened. The event set shock waves through out the entire universe. He was eventually arrested, discharged from the Coalition and sentenced to life in prison. Years later, Xavier broke out and his family soon traveled well beyond the known galaxies to seek out undiscovered planets which they could foster their own way of life on. They found what they were looking for and settled in a remote portion of the universe called the Circinus Galaxy, home to some of the most inhospitable planets. They established a colony on a planet with the most hospitable environment, and named it Neptus. They survived the harsh conditions on Neptus by building a giant dome around their city and creating a network of tunnels under the planets surface. After many years of engineering, designing and testing, they successfully produced a way to alter the atmosphere of the planet to sustain life on the surface without the dome. This advanced technology made it possible for many of the other desolate and inhospitable planets to become habitable. They secretly began populating these worlds and created the Sostantivo Empire. They severed all ties with the Coalition and for centuries had not been heard from. The Sostantivo family never meddled with life on the other planets again, so eventually they were all but forgotten.”

  “So where do the Watchman come in?” Thad asked interrupting Gabriel.

  “I am glad you asked,” Gabriel replied. “After the war, the members of the coalition began to fear for the safety of their worlds. They decided that from then on, each world would segregate itself. A means of transportation would be established to allow limited contact among the different worlds. Earth was chosen, because she was the youngest planet, to literally house the doorways and father a race capable of maintaining them. Since the purpose of the house was to act as a cover for the transportation system the rooms needed to be functional as both a room and a doorway to the preset world. Charms were set in place to protect and activate the portals. Only those with the disarming charm, or had the right travel documents would be allowed passage.” Gabriel explained.

  “So we Watchman were put in place to ensure that someone like that Sostantivo guy wouldn’t have access to other worlds?” Thad asked, wondering if he understood the information Gabriel just explained to him.

  “Peace is a friendship. If one of your friends is constantly doing things that hurt you, eventually a fight will break out. Now imagine if another war broke out involving the entire universe.”

  Thad’s eyes opened wide in fear. “Life would become very scary,” He replied in horror as images of war torn cities with screaming children sitting beside the bodies of their dead parents crashed into his mind. His eyes welled. “I don’t want that to happen.” He said trying to blink away the tears.

  “I know you’d do whatever it takes to make sure it doesn’t,” Gabriel said scooting over to comfort the boy.

  “So everything has been good since the Sostantivo’s broke contact?” Thad asked hoping the answer would be a happy one. Thad’s heart fell as a heavy sigh escaped Gabriel lips.

  “Three hundred years had past when one of our Keepers returned from the Zion home world barely alive. Sadly everybody has a weakness, an Achilles heel you could say. Xavier’s great grandson discovered the Zion’s weakness and went in under cover of night, slaughtering the entire race as they slept. The seed of hate seemed to have been passed down generation to generation along with his superior beliefs. Since they had been out of contact with rest of the universe for so long, they were oblivious to the Coalition’s decision of segregating and restricting movement between worlds. They soon found out that save for a handful of people on each world, all history before their segregation had vanished. They were less than pleased to find that access to the other worlds was not an option unless you had a spacecraft capable of covering the vast distances. Their attempt at regaining a foot hold in the universe crumbled to pieces. Irony is, the Zion race was dying and word had it they had little more than a few years left.”

  “So what happened to the Sostantivo’s? Didn’t they receive some sort of punishment?” Thad wanted to know. Just from the little information he received from Gabriel, he already possessed a great dislike for the family. What kind of person harms another human, least of all when they are defenseless? “What a bunch of cowards anyways,” Thad thought to himself.

  “The saying in your world “You reap what you sow” is very true. Thirty seven years ago word reached us of their demise.”

  “That’s a good thing isn’t it?” Thad said cheering up a bit.

  “Evil is only replaced by evil,” Gabriel replied.

  “Huh?” Thad’s face scrunched into a wrinkled puzzlement.

  “On their home planet of Neptus, there lived a colony of many different races. Like the other worlds in our galaxy, it became very hard to sustain life. So they created the realm of Barathrum. The other dimension was just as harsh as the original. One day the technology used to keep the realm habitable failed, and with in minuets all life in Barathrum was wiped out, and the planet plunged into darkness. The Sostantivo family had been meeting with the residents of Helios, another one of their planets, when the disaster struck. They were the only survivors. They managed to successfully repair their equipment, but when the air cleared, the dead rose in a giant black cloud. They sought to seek revenge and obliterated those who were responsible for their demise. The entire Sostantivo seed is thought to be wiped from the face of the universe. For a long time the dead roamed their world becoming known as the Shadow Breathers. They developed a great hate for all mankind. Since their colony was a collective of different races, they had the combined knowledge of the entire universe. This put them at a great advantage. They knew the secrets of many worlds and how they were protected. Over time they formulated a plan to overtake not just the Sostantivo Empire, but every world in the universe. Luckily not every Shadow Breather agreed with the plan. Some defected and informed the Coalition of the attack. We quickly devised a plan, and thwarted the attack without inflicting harm.”

  “How did you do that,” Thad asked his voice full of awe and wonder.

  “We set up a light barrier in the atmosphere of the planet. Since the Shadow Breathers can not survive in the light, they were unable to leave Neptus. But no one could have foreseen a surviving heir of the Sostantivo bloodline aligning with the very foe who slaughtered his ancestors.

  “Wait a minute I thought you said the Sostantivo seed was wiped off the face of the universe,” Thad stopped Gabriel, recalling the story in his mind.

  “So we thought. Soon, Madron Xavier Sostantivo the son of Cyn-marie, Xavier the third’s only daughter, emerged from hiding and professed his desire to follow in the footsteps of his Fore Fathers.”

  “One member is causing all this grief,” Thad said amazed that one person could set off such a chain of events.

  “The Shadow Breathers are a very deadly sort. Traces of their human forms remain, but they are spirits unable to pass into the kingdom of death.”

  “Spirits,” Thad whispered, his face going a shade whiter as he briefly peeked up at the image sprawled across the roof.

  Gabriel laughed. “They can only live in darkness, so they use the shade of the trees or even your own shadow, to creep in the day and carry out their monstrous deeds.”

  “That makes me feel loads better.” Thad said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

  “So how come they can only survive in the dark?” he asked

  “To tell you the truth I am not entirely sure. I believe it has to do with the nature of their deaths and the process used to resurrect the environment,” Gabriel replied. “We have been trying to study the chemistry, but without a way to test our theories, they will remain just that, theories.”

  “Keepers of knowledge but not all knowing….interesting,” Thad said slightly louder than he meant to.

  “Hey, now that’s hitting below the belt,” Gabriel replied pretending Thad had hurt his feelings.

  “Nice try,” Thad said quickly changing the direction of the conv
ersation “If these Shadow people wanted to kill everyone including the Sostantivo family, why are they working for a Sostantivo?” He asked. “There is no way I would work for someone that I didn’t like,” He thought to himself.

  “Being stuck on the planet for a century is bound to make anyone go crazy. When the Grandson of the Sostantivo family proposed an alliance granting them their freedom, they did not hesitate. They have been loyal to him ever since, reaping their revenge on any planet they can access.”

  “So where do I fit in,” Thad asked the question again, “How was I chosen?”

  “There has been rumor of a child born of a bloodline. …..” he hesitated, throwing Thad a weak smile, “Well the rest doesn’t really matter.”

  “Yes it does. That is why I am here, for you to tell me who I am,” Thad said politely disagreeing.

  “Look Thad, I understand that you suddenly feel like you have lost yourself and everything you thought before was just a partial truth. Certain information given at an inappropriate time could end up having a negative effect. Do you understand?”