“You only know what is now and what was then. I know what will be,” Neight screamed defensively. “It is not for me, it is for our continued existence.” Taking matters into his own hands, he negated the paralysis and Allister doubled over, gripping his lower abdomen.
“How dare you interfere with the will of the Eight and King Anton Infinity.” Transus lunged at him with horns forward.
“Back, Transus,” Neight said to the creature fiercely, he grabbed the creature’s head. After a struggle, Transus was flung into cavern’s side. It recovered, coiling part of its tail around Neight’s leg, then attacked using fearsome claws. Neight blocked with the spiked arm plate of ancient armor.
“Neight?” Allister said gasping, his hands covered in his own blood. “I don’t want the gems. I saw the death of the universe…”
Neight faded in and out of sight as the spell weakened. Allister tried to intercept Transus’ claws with a punch. It transported so fast it looked as if it moved aside and up on a chessboard, like a knight. It backhanded Allister and continued to its target, the alien kneeled on the floor. Neight’s clawed hand morphed into soft appendages as Zosma energy formed a circle around him. “The prophecy says a king will fall. The prophecy says doom for us all. A sliver of power given to thee, by the might of great Cera and Watiki. To avoid obliteration by Evale’s cold. Transus, you shall transport no more.”
Transus stopped moving as white energy withdrew from it and into Neight’s hands. After the spell was complete it flew back, having lost some of its luster.
“You take the gems, you’ll know how to use them better.” Terrified, Allister flattened against what he hoped would become an exit.
“I was never meant to,” Neight admitted. “It is clear to me now why we protected your mind. This would not have happened any other way. Trust me, if you trust no one else. There is an end you cannot see. It does not end with us.”
Allister was the catalyst, an essential part of the cosmic puzzle. Pieces of Neight’s form drifted away like ashes separated by wind. There was nothing left in the spell to keep him intact. “Use your left hand to retrieve them…it is the only way.” Neight disappeared.
Transus burst from rubble. Allister positioned his body sideways, anticipating the head-butt and delivered a well-timed uppercut. He met his enemy in the air and connected with its face using an energy charged fist. Transus’ horns grew out, zooming forward as it landed belly down and slid along the surface. One drove through Allister’s thigh, then ripped out. The other three got his shoulder and two places on his abdomen. Allister fell to one knee but snapped them in half with relative ease.
“How is this possible?” Transus roared, expecting its horns to be invulnerable to destruction.
Allister squared off, tattered uniform and bloody lip brightened by the signature color of Zosma energy passing back and forth between clenched fists. A stunning discharge fired from both his hands, shattering each of the creature’s arms into shards of the semi-precious Earth stone.
“You wield Zosma energy…” Transus sputtered, toppling over. “Realize the power you hold brings devastation…”
Allister grabbed the two gems from the magnificent mirrored display, and what was left of Transus melted into the floor. White light shone through cracks of clenched hands, burning hotter than anything he’d felt before, but no scream escaped. Transition into wielding the gem’s cosmic power was a feat few mortals accomplished. Foam seeped from the side of his mouth hinting at the oncoming seizure.
C20 SECRET HQ
Former Middle East, April 2026
Private Coates averted his eyes from Leesa’s unconscious body, bravely anticipating the arrival of more agents.
Leesa blinked swiftly, “What happened?” She moved into a more alert position. Devastation to the tunnel’s infrastructure only scratched the surface of her power’s potential. “I did this?”
He nodded.
Lightheaded, Leesa used the pile of rock to keep balanced.
“Private Adams instructed us not to move,” Coates said, shifting the weapon to his side.
“You take orders from me. Not our prisoner.” She took a poorly executed step.
The soldier caught her arm. “You mean the prisoner we came here to rescue?”
Leesa separated herself from the young private’s assistance. “Find the ship so you can get out of here alive.”
The heat dropped to 99 degrees during the wee hours of the morning; he saluted her before climbing up the side of the opening. She watched him disappear over the top and fell against a pile of rubble, a vision of a giant citadel set in the middle of a volcano invaded her mind. A strange roar echoed alongside it. More pressing matters to tend to. Leesa moved on and got back up. Pinkish morning sky meant she only had three more hours to get everyone out of enemy territory or their mission was considered “unsuccessful.” First thought, find Allister.
The gem’s energy backlash left Florence in pain, palms resting against the underground, tangled waves of hair touching her shoulders. Major timeline shifts often rippled across all psychic minds, with emphasis on rip. Her mind felt dismembered after sharing Leesa’s vision. It meant a change in the course of human development, highly significant but confusing. She’d have to consult with Neight on their return. Florence wiped her hands of the soft soil as Dolores’s wellbeing crept back into the list of priorities. “Ms. Adams, can you hear me?” she asked telepathically. The prisoner’s mind was blocked due to hysteria. “C’mon. Let me through. You can trust me.”
The door’s outline came into view as bits and pieces of thoughts leaked from behind it.
“I’m sorry Allister,” Dolores whispered, “I hope you can forgive me…for everything.”
“We’re here to rescue you!” Florence shouted telepathically, “Don’t make this mistake, don’t leave him alone.”
“I have no choice,” Dolores answered, staring at the time stamp on the bomb. There were two minutes left. “Tell him I love him. Please take care of my baby boy, the way I couldn’t. Oh God…it’s happening like Neight told me.”
“I…I…” She sputtered, avoiding a promise to a dying woman she barely knew.
“Promise me!” Dolores insisted.
Emotional urgency hit her through their psychic link. “I promise. I’ll take care of him.” Florence said completely unprepared for its intensity. Forty-five seconds left.
Dolores had a specific reason for enlisting her as Allister’s guardian. “It’ll make sense one day, help you in the long run,” she sighed. Guilt escaped her mind, replaced with peace. “Patrick Adams, I’m coming to spend eternity with you.” Five final seconds felt like years, forty-seven years to be exact, flashing behind tearless eyes.
Florence was halfway out of the tunnel when the bomb went off, fire and sand raced her to its entrance. She scarcely won, diving to the ground while the explosion evaporated above her.
ALLISTER ADAMS
Former Middle East, April 2026
The cavern of transports had returned to its original non-mystic form as an Earth cave when Allister woke up. Glistening gems on the back of each hand were reminders of a legendary battle. A life sized flash engulfed his human form, emptying the cave.
C20’s maze crumbled like the walls of Jericho, blocking crucial pathways, while morning sun crept through parts of intact ceiling. Brandt stretched out of his paralysis, instantly confused until peripheral vision showed the result of his worst fear. He shook the device and held it up to his ear, it wasn’t blinking.
Leesa kept quiet, waiting for Brandt to come her way. He fired against the corner and she tumbled over herself. Shaking, the captain raised his weapon while exiting the tunnel, “Hands up, Lieutenant! Hands up while I figure this shit out.”
White strings retracted into the hardly visible gems as Allister appeared behind the two. “What did you do!” He grimaced, interrupting their confrontation without stealth or secrecy.
“I didn’t do anything! My mind was paral
yzed.” As a criminal drops the murder weapon, the inactive remote fell from Brandt’s hands. “The, the bomb went off.” Post traumatic stress took him back to the moment when he discovered his home in Cumberland Falls in flames, when he found out his family perished.
“I’m gonna rip you to pieces,” Allister whispered, zooming forward to trap his enemy by the neck. Kinetic force sent Leesa out of the way. A voice mixed with sadness and bloodthirst escaped. “Why’d you bring me here? Why’d you kill her!” He raised a fist, fighting the urge to pummel the captain’s face in and wondering if it would even work against his field.
“I-I-I was told to bring you here ‘cause we need you on our side, but—” Brandt said, weaponless, his eyes fully open in disbelief, “now it’s all wrong. All wrong.”
Tiny as they were, the gems shimmered like diamonds as more light filled the area. Leesa recovered. “You bonded with them?!” The robot returned like it never left, locking all emotions beneath. My mission, true mission, was to retrieve the gems without a host. How will I explain to my father and the directors he bonded with the gems and how can I justify not killing him for treason? Leesa asked herself. He was a one-man army, already powerful in his own right, but enhanced with the cosmic ability to move through matter without a full understanding of its limitations or lack thereof. She focused on his heart, constricting blood flow to it, he needed to die to break the bond.
Allister’s face turned white. “It wasn’t my fault,” he strained, unlocking whatever unchecked feelings she’d buried.
“I can’t.” Leesa loosened her grip. The thought of him dying gave her chills. Memories of all those years she spent watching Nicolas throw his life away, without love and family, and she’d started down a similar road. The opposite was a life she wasn’t sure she wanted but was scared not to have.
“Of course you can,” Brandt said grimly. “That’s what they made you for.”
Seeing her humanity resurface gave Allister hope. He tried with final breaths to reason. “Leesa…please listen to me.” The super computer known as his mind wasn’t presenting a way to take her down, nor reacting properly to the threat, his feelings stood in the way.
“I’ve told you to call me Lieutenant!” The weapon resurfaced, its decisions holding no remorse or morality, many more had died for much less. Psychic energy blazed around her like wildfire.
“Private Adams wanted the gem’s for himself the whole time,” Brandt taunted.
“Don’t listen…” he sputtered, body failing to keep up with her annihilation.
“If you care about him,” Brandt continued, “kill him now.”
“Silence!” Leesa screamed; the captain flew away without her lifting a finger.
Allister locked eyes with her, pinned to the wall, waiting for her finish the job. Love radiated between them, not contempt, not fear. She moved closer without realizing it, softening with every step. Butterflies the first time they met, how he’d saved her during battle, the visions, their connection, Allister himself, it all mattered more. The energy calmed and before they knew it his hands cradled her waist.
“What were you thinking?” she asked, captivated.
“I don’t expect you to understand. You don’t see what I see. I had to bond with them or…” Variables made it hard to explain, he looked to the sky for clarification.
Leesa wanted the answers. “Or what?”
“It doesn’t work like, how you think it works.”
“You kids don’t know anything.” Brandt retrieved a weapon, then stepped to the boy pointing it aggressively. Allister moved her out of the way.
“Your mother was the love of my life. She was the only thing I had to live for.” Long silence. Face-to-face, both of their eyes moistened with tears. “They took your lives away. They took our lives away with their agenda. Forcing you and Dolores to run and cut off your family after what happened to your father. And Leesa…robbed of youth, your humanity, and a decent upbringing.”
Their surroundings faded and Brandt was no longer with them. Misshapen terrain indicated recent transport. “I think I’m using the gems by accident,” Allister said, trying to wipe off the afterglow from his hands. “Where are we?”
A metal leg half-buried in sand meant one thing. “Is that Dr. Belladonna?” Leesa asked, with their arms intertwined. Allister felt a tug from behind, but when he went to speak Leesa interrupted. “We have to get her and get out of here. Time is up.”
Florence witnessed moving in slow motion through groggy eyes but white light erupted like a star’s death enveloping both of her teammates’ bodies, then collapsed into a miniature black hole.
CAPTAIN JAY BRANDT
Former Middle East, April 2026
Throbbing. Restricted movement. Loss of strength. Symptoms following Florence’s near-death experience. She touched the giant gash on her temple. Hundreds of unread messages waited behind a virtual fence until the bomb disabled C20’s signal canceling technology, they lit up the Cynque watch’s screen. Florence cursed, skimming over them in the darkness. An Andromeda Project funded rescue mission wasn’t approved because of too many unknown variables, leaving the four of them in a considerable amount of danger.
Her contact was willing to call in personal favors and invest his own money to get them back alive but after Florence didn’t answer, the messages got more aggressive. He threatened her reputation thinking she’d run off. “Stop,” she said into the watch. “Everything is fucked. I failed. And I think I’m trapped here alone.”
Intense shouting followed the sound of a few dozen footsteps. Florence tried pushing the rocks off of her legs but they were too heavy. Weapons charged and ready, C20 agents descended on the scene.
“Leesa and Allister disappeared in front of me,” Brandt said to her, one knee in the sand. “Any idea where they might’ve gone? It’ll help your odds of living.”
“You know better than to kill me,” Florence snapped back. “Get me out from under here and maybe I can help you.” Barring his psychotic charm and cool demeanor, she felt an underlying sense of loss and loneliness. Dolores’s death dug him deeper into his position as C20’s leader, instead of snapping him out of it.
“Fine, we do it my way then.” Brandt revealed an elliptical shaped gadget and placed it on her head. Florence screamed before passing out again. “Gotta make sure you don’t play any mind games on me,” he said solemnly.
“Sir,” one of the soldiers from the main control room connected. “We detected a physics defying irregularity right where you’re standing. The residual energy around it, is identical to the transporter gems. I’m bringing up the image now. It’s arranged…like a hole.”
Both of his key targets were right in front of him and now they could be anywhere on Earth, the Savior wouldn’t be pleased. Captain Brandt thought of how best to share the bad news. Hopefully no more examples needed to be made, meaning he’d beg to live long enough to track them down.
“Get her free and recalibrate the enhancement machine to amplify psychic abilities,” Brandt finally said, with his hands on his hips, “Map any and all anomalies like this one ‘round the globe. I want to find them before our enemies do.”
Prompt answering was required but a formal greeting was not. Brandt stepped away from the on-duty agents.
“Brilliant work, Captain Brandt. You will be handsomely rewarded,” the distorted voice said.
“I didn’t do anything,” he replied defiantly.
“Ah, but you did. You captured one of most powerful telepaths on Earth. I’d say you accomplished more today than we have in past five years.”
“Did you kill Dolores?” Brandt asked, knowing the Savior’s answer. Trust in the guiding voice waned as he matched similarities between C20 and the Andromeda Project operations. Neither cared about his well-being, only as it pertained to their success.
“Everyone runs out of time at some point. Humans can’t live forever,” the Savior chuckled.
“You’re a monster,” Brandt whisper
ed. “I asked for one thing and you took her away from me.”
“Captain Brandt, let’s not do this. I always keep promises. I would’ve spared her if Allister cooperated but he did not do what I asked, did he?”
“No.” He leaned his head against the dirty wall.
“The gems are activated and they’ve been used,” the Savior said, “so I suggest you find them or you’ll be reunited with Dolores very soon.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Infinity Cluster
ALLISTER ADAMS
Dragozium
“Fuck,” Allister moaned. He felt like he’d fallen from the empire state building. Recently broken bones still ached post-healing process and his exterior wasn’t back to normal quite yet. Transportation couldn’t be that painful. Details about weather information, dates and times, coordinates, location, terrain mapping, all came up with error readings on his Cynque watch but temperature read 175 degrees.
The scenery would’ve been inspiration for Carl Sagan. A green moon four times the size of Earth’s straddled the horizon and lush, colorful plant life covered the clearing. The sky’s magenta glow made it neither day nor night and noises of animal life filled the air.
Allister got up, remembering moments from before his blackout, they were sucked through a portal but he came out alone on the edge of a cliff. During a frantic search he lost balance and fell over the edge, layers upon layers of unforgiving vegetation knocked him unconscious. He was thankful to know there was another explanation for his discomfort. Blurry terrain cleared after a few blinks, active volcanoes lined where the heavens met a series of lava lakes. It certainly explained the heat.
Awareness made it all stranger; purple, blue and silver color of vegetation, trees taller and thicker than redwoods. Their leaves grew from long branches crossing over each other to create the web he fell through. Smell of a recent storm lingered in the air, it left the landscape covered in sulfuric rain.
The Andromeda Project (The Cluster Chronicles Book 1) Page 24