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by Gareth Worthington

  EPILOGUE

  Location: Tocayōtla, Southwest Rice Terraces, China

  KJ stood atop the pinnacle of the Moon pyramid. A cold dusk wind blew across the small stone square, making his skin prickle. He scanned the faces in the courtyard far below; his brethren, Huahuqui and Phalanx, soldier and civilian. They stared up at him, their auras wracked with remorse and guilt. It swarmed his mind.

  Merry, Lex, Igor, Leo, Nikolaj, and Svetlana were in the front row, their Huahuqui loyal and attentive at their feet. Each held in the arms an infant Huahuqui or new-born baby. The future of planet Earth. His friends kept their minds shielded as if to spare him their feelings, but it was written all over their faces: they pitied him this burden. This role forced upon him. His whole life, he had been told he was a leader. He’d never wanted it. It seemed to him that fate had a sense of humor, sick as it was. And his first job as leader was not a happy one.

  His friends gave weak smiles and almost imperceptible nods of encouragement for the task at hand.

  KJ closed his eyes, clutching the orb in one hard, fingers trembling, and reached his mind out to his mom and the broadcasting station in Antarctica. Past the rapid beating of birds’ hearts and rodents scratching, fishes swimming and trees photosynthesizing. Under the crashing waves of oceans and through the silent air he pressed until he found his consciousness in a dark and cold place.

  His breathing began to slow, pulse decelerating to match the rhythm of his dying mother’s heart.

  “Mom?” he called with his mind into the dark.

  KJ felt Freya’s consciousness spasm as she woke from her path to death. He could sense how she lay awkwardly slumped in a makeshift harness, high above the ground. The straps seemed to cut into his own legs. His own fingers tingled with the sensations she felt: an orb clasped in one hand, and in the other Dacey’s gills. The Huahuqui’s life force was weak, tied to his mother’s. She would die, too.

  “KJ?” his mom projected.

  “Mom, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I can’t save you.”

  His mom coughed, and he felt it in his lungs. A warm trickle ran from his nose and onto his lips, though of course only she bled.

  “It’s okay baby, I know.” Even her projected words sounded as if they were wheezed out. “It’s just my time.”

  “Mom, I know you’re tired. You’ve worked so hard.” A tear slid down KJ’s cheek, his lips quivering with each word. “But, I have to ask you one more favor. I need you to help me, okay?”

  There was a lasting silence, Freya’s mind slipping into the next world and back to this one.

  “Of... of course. Anything for my... my Mr. Man,” she said, finally.

  KJ swallowed away the stone in his throat at hearing his childhood name. “Mom, we couldn’t stop it. Apophis, the asteroid, it’s coming. I have to tell the world. They need to know. They need to be able to say goodbye ... to loved ones.”

  Freya murmured.

  “Mom, I need your help to do it. I need you to connect with the orb, one last time okay?” His heart cramped and the tears came in great floods. “Together,” he said aloud, the word spat out between sobs.

  “Okay... baby.”

  The familiar power surged into KJ, flowing into his brain and his muscles. His whole being once again on fire. Immediately, he was connected to every Huahuqui both in China but also in Antarctica. And then through them, to their bonded humans. Like biological relays, his connections grew and spread not only among the Stratum and the Phalanx, but to plants and animals, and people.

  Like any network, those in closest proximity to the Stratum connected first. At his side, Catherine’s admiration, pride and love for him, poured into the collective consciousness. Then, those closest to KJ’s heart joined the collective. Svetlana’s soul finally free of Victoria, she freely succumbed to the power of the orb. Through Latin America, past New Mexico, KJ’s chi found its way to Texas—to Lucy Taylor. There in a room full of high-tech equipment, monitors and a gaggle of government agents, she sat staring into space. He could sense enormous guilt weighing her down, a boulder upon her heart. Utter failure. Lucy’s heartbeat raced as she became aware that KJ was inside her head and that she was now part of a global hive mind for the first and the last time.

  But, KJ could not linger there to placate her. To tell her she did her best. To tell her it was okay to call her brother one last time, rather than address the American people, as he knew she wanted. That KJ was about to take that awful burden for all humanity. Instead, he pushed further connecting to as many people as he could.

  As the net grew so did the strain on his mother, sucking at her last ounce of strength. He had no way of knowing how much of humanity he had now found, but he was out of time. She was out of time.

  “My fellow humans,” KJ began, his voice ringing in every head he could find. “Who I am, and how I am speaking with you is unimportant. What is important is what I must tell you. And while I want to tell you to not be afraid, I can’t.”

  Dread washed its way through the consciousness web. Some believed themselves schizophrenic. Others that God himself was talking to them. KJ breathed in deeply and tried to control his own emotions, leading the Stratum and the Phalanx to do the same. It sent a ripple of calm outward all around the world.

  “Mankind was given time on this planet. Time as a species, lasting millennia, and time as individuals. Mere decades,” KJ continued. “It has been human nature to squander this time. Play with it as if it were a high-risk poker game, one humans were so sure would be won. But now, God, the universe, fate, call it what you will, has called in our chips.”

  Freya hacked a cough, which made KJ’s own chest convulse.

  Catherine grabbed his arm, but he waved her off.

  “If you look to the sky, you will see it darken, not with the coming of night but an asteroid. For most of you, the sun will not rise tomorrow.” KJ clenched his jaw, struggling to find the words. “By way of fate, it will mostly be Huahuqui and those humans who have bonded to them who will be left after the Earth has shaken to its core and the dust has settled. Whether this is fair or not, is not the question you should be asking yourself now. Instead, ask with whom you should be spending these final moments. Find those that you love, grab hold of them. Tell them. Do not let go. Find your ...”

  “Huaca,” his mother wheezed aloud.

  KJ choked out another sob but righted himself. “Yes. Find your... huaca. Your happy place or person. And may that be the memory you take into whatever awaits you beyond. I’m sorry.”

  Though the Huahuqui tried to emanate a blanket of tranquility, the overwhelming terror that exploded from every soul connected to KJ was unbearable. Feeling the grief of more than a billion people. The unnameable gaping hole it tore in his heart. He had to let go. There was no more to say. He had done all he could. He pulled back his consciousness. The light faded away with the receding of his mind, until once again, it was just him and his mom alone in the dark.

  Her irregular breathing filled his mind.

  “Mom?” KJ said out loud, forgetting to project his words.

  “I’m here, Mr. Man,” she replied audibly, too.

  “Mom, I’m sorry. I failed.”

  “No baby ...” She took in a sharp breath. “You did what you were born to do—lead.”

  “He died, mom,” KJ said, his voice trembling. He could hear gentle sobbing in the crowd before him as they listened to only his side of the conversation. “Jonathan. He died. Saving me.”

  “I know. I felt it.... but he was your dad, KJ. He would have died a thousand times for you.”

  KJ sputtered, but no words came.

  “Make him proud, baby. I love you and Nikolaj... with all my heart.”

  And then, she was gone. KJ felt her light go out, a last breath exhaled.

  KJ opened his eyes and met Nikolaj’s tear-filled gaze. There were no words that could express what needed to be. Not even their bond would suffice here. Freya Nilsson Teller was as much a mother to Ni
kolaj as she was to KJ. The nucleus of the family. Their guiding star. How were they supposed to lead the world without her?

  The crowd shuffled and murmured, their attention drawn upward as a loud boom split the air. Apophis had entered the atmosphere.

  KJ broke his lingering stare with his brother and intertwined his fingers with Catherine’s. He held on tightly, transfixed on the shadow as it grew larger against the setting orange disk in the sky. Apophis’s dark silhouette engulfed the sun, and the sky grew black. A rumbling grew louder as the very air caught alight with the coming of death.

  Catherine’s grip grew so tight it cut the circulation from KJ’s fingers.

  As with a solar eclipse, Apophis’ shadow slid over the setting sun as it screamed toward its final destination somewhere over the European continent. There it would vaporise hundreds of kilometres of land, cities, men, women, and children before sending a shockwave around the world that would crumple countries and drown coastlines in a super-massive tidal wave, the like of which had never been seen by human eyes.

  The age of man was truly over. By tomorrow morning the Sixth Sun would rise, and the Stratum and the Phalanx would inherit the Earth. KJ could only hope they would do better than those who had come before them. But, his kind were young and inexperienced, with the power to inflict death at will, and deep in his heart he knew—those who do not heed the past, are fated to repeat it.

  THE BEGINNING.

  About the Author

  Gareth Worthington holds a degree in marine biology, a PhD in Endocrinology, an executive MBA, is Board Certified in Medical Affairs, and currently works for the Pharmaceutical industry educating the World's doctors on new cancer therapies. Gareth is an authority in ancient history, has hand-tagged sharks in California, and trained in various martial arts, including Jeet Kune Do and Muay Thai at the EVOLVE MMA gym in Singapore and 2FIGHT in Switzerland. His work has won multiple awards, including Dragon Award Finalist and an IPPY award for Science Fiction. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers Association, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and the British Science Fiction Association. Born in England, Gareth has lived around the world from Asia, to Europe to the USA. Wherever he goes, he endeavors to continue his philanthropic work with various charities.

  www.GarethWorthington.com

  www.ItTakesDeathToReachAStar.com