Still, I have to give Alyce the perfect opening if I want this to end quickly. Maybe, if I just coat my limbs with the dark matter? I think I’ll be able to still control him like that, and it’ll make me strong enough to keep her occupied until Alyce gets in place.
I don’t have time to think it over; I have to act now. The First Kind is starting to catch up to the events of the battlefield, and I have to keep her from doing so. Thus, without holding back anymore, I charge against her, both my hands and feet changed into their ash-gray form.
She tries to keep me in distance with her laser guns, but Dark Jay’s skin is as good a shield as I remember. I use my hands to deflect the laser beams and move closer to her. Now, if she wielded an Esuh spear, I would have a problem. But if it’s only those laser guns, then I can manage.
However, for a First Kind, she manages to stay true to her title. I can’t take a step forward for some time with her aiming at every vital point she can, showing the marksmanship of a professional. If I wasn’t a professional myself, I would be dead hours ago. I keep up with her shots for some time, until Alyce is in place.
Then, she releases her grip and falls straight on the female First Kind. By the time she realizes we have her cornered on the wall, I’ve charged towards her. With one last, combined effort, we manage to stop her. She’s quite surprised that someone could have avoided her attention for so long, but it seems that the Phadh are naturally strong in a forest.
I’m ready to take her out when Alyce stops me.
“What are you doing? She was going to kill us. She would have done the same thing if we were in her position,” I say.
“So? Is that a good enough excuse for you to kill her? Are you a killing machine Jasih, or a warrior? Would a warrior go on with an unneeded murder if they could avoid it?”
We stand there, looking at each other for some time. Honestly, I can’t believe what I’m saying, but she’s right. Letting her live is dangerous, but killing her is just a cruel act of animosity.
For some reason, Eladia’s image pops in my mind. Alyce reminds me of her so painfully much.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Eladia
This can’t be true; it’s impossible. It’s like I’ve spend all my life looking behind me while the truth was standing right there, in front of me. I mean, if the Organization is right, then the Nusae are only the latest link in a long chain of Great Mysteries, with the biggest one being: who the hell created these cubes?
I’m lying on my bed, thinking. My mind flies to the moment Cross kicked the siblings out of the training room. I still remember his face having that distant sense of pride. He was really pleased that I was able to kick their butts even though my training is obviously incomplete.
Still, that flash of satisfaction left his face as soon as we were alone. Back then, I felt like I was the one in trouble. It’s not like I was the one sneaking around, though. I wasn’t searching for the truth myself; I didn’t know that there was a Greater Mystery behind all those Nusae relics. Alec spilled the beans to me all by himself. I wanted to clarify that to Cross, but seriously, he wasn’t in the mood for a civilized conversation. He looked like if I said the wrong thing to him, he would take my head off.
“Well, they are still very young and inexperienced, no matter what they say. They weren’t supposed to tell you anything about the Great Mystery. Honestly, I don’t know why they did it.”
Back then, he turned and tried to walk away from me before telling me anything. Well, I wasn’t going to let him go just like that. At that time, I didn’t know that pushing him would actually make me feel even worse than I was already feeling, but as a Chronicler, I owed it to myself to learn the truth. It was my dream we were talking about, a dream I was trying to achieve since I was a young child on Yaerus.
“Wait! Dale...don’t go. I know they weren’t supposed to tell me anything about the Nusae, but there’s clearly something to be told here. Please...I beg you...tell me. I’m not made to be an assassin, you know that. It was just a way to keep me safe while we were running away from the black-maskers, but now we’re meeting your friends, and Jay, and my friends, and...and...”
In retrospective, I feel really bad that I begged him to tell me. I didn’t expect that he’ll shatter my hopes of solving the Great Mystery in one lifetime, but I had to know.
“Look, Eladia, I know you’re a Chronicler, and I’m sure you’ll do good by your people and all, but it’s not in my place to tell you. Jasih is the one that must share this knowledge with you, not me. If it was in my hands, I would have told you long ago, trust me.”
“But why Jay? What does it matter if you or Jay tell it to me? Will that cancel your prophecy and end the universe or something? Is that why you can’t tell me anything?”
I was provoking him. Hell, I would have said worse things if he didn’t snap so easily. Or maybe he didn’t snap. I don’t know. Everything is so fucked up in my mind now.
I remember seeing him sigh and spend five whole minutes looking at me and the floor, one after the other, probably thinking what he has to do. In the end, it seems that telling me was the right path to follow, a path that ultimately deviated from the Organization’s rules.
“There’s a tale in an ancient language that only the people of the Organization can recite. The Organization was created to protect the knowledge the Nusae had acquired about the Lost Civilization. The Lost Civilization is the name that the Nusae gave to who they thought created the Cubes.
“The tale starts with the story of a species more ancient than Nusae themselves. They were called the Two Faced, or the Esuh, and reigned over the galaxy with the strength of a thousand civilizations. Human civilization hadn’t started back then, at the prime of the Esuh reign over the Galaxy, but there are reports that indicate that they tried to communicate with us in the past. When they saw we weren’t sentient, they left Primordial Earth alone. They wouldn’t fight what they perceived as animals.
“The tales goes on to say that the Esuh were evil and killed just for the fun of it. But that was to be expected since their ancestors used the forbidden power of an all-mighty cube to drive another species to extinction. The Nusae, afraid that the Esuh would also drive them to extinction, made the same choice, the choice to use the Cube to destroy the Esuh in an instant and bring peace in the Known Galaxy. But, everything went wrong after that.
“The Nusae remained dominant for many years, well, until the Phadh appeared out of nowhere and started antagonizing them. The Phadh started a war, taking many of the Nusae colonies with them. The Nusae, unable to keep up with the Phadh cunning war tactics and advanced technology, started losing ground fast. It was a complete and utter disaster, the likes that the galaxy hasn’t seen to these days. But, the Nusae never expected that the Phadh would discover the mysteries of another artifact of similar technology to the cube, one that in the end drove them to extinction.”
There were many things I didn’t know. I was so focused on listening to him that I had forgotten how to breathe.
“That means...”
“That means that the Nusae Relic you found isn’t actually of Nusae origins. And, the cube your friend so carelessly flashes here, and there is a weapon of mass-extinction. And the worst part is that it’s controlled by his emotions, and since you have now taken over a big part of them, it means that you’re as important to this mission as he is. Every time you too met in bed or emotionally, the cube was starting to unlock. Your love has put in danger the whole galaxy!”
After that, Cross left the training room without saying anything else, and I was left alone with my thoughts. Since that time, I’m trying to focus and find a ray of hope amidst the chaos. All my work, all my theories, were for naught. The Nusae were driven to extinction by our very own Phadh, but the Esuh and everyone else before them used that tiny cube to destroy their enemies.
And now, we, the human race, is caught up in the middle of this.
I would have sulked all day in the bed if I di
dn’t want to know more about that theory. But, as soon as I get on my feet, something suddenly starts to attack our spaceship. I almost fall to the floor from the sudden tremors of laser cannons barraging us from the outside.
“What the...?” I mutter, but there’s nothing I can do.
“Eladia, come to the bridge. Now!”
It’s Alec on the intercom. He must have fucked up in some way, I’m sure.
Still, running to the bridge is a feat itself, even in the middle of the space. The hits are now faster and more damaging. I’m able to get through the danger zone quickly, but after I arrive at the bridge, I realize that the whole ship is in danger now.
“What’s going on? Who’s attacking us?” I ask, but I see all their faces frozen, shocked. They seem to know the answer, but they don’t want to admit it. “Hey! Guys! What’s wrong? We’re going to die in here if you don’t do something! Do you hear me?”
But no matter how much I yell at them, they don’t say a thing. I run to the pilot’s seat, but Alec is frozen still, his hands squeezing the helm. He does nothing but stares out of the main window, trying to find a way out of this. But there’s not. The ship is in critical condition, and the hull won’t withstand another barrage like the previous. We have to evacuate, and fast.
I look around me but I see that the entrance to the room is on fire. In fact, the whole room is on fire now. The flames move towards us fast, relentlessly. It’s too late to back down now. There’s only one thing to do now, but Alec doesn’t seem fit to do it.
I get over him and tilt the steering gear down, towards the planet. We quickly set course to Zeania. We’re lucky that we’re in orbit around this particular planet, to begin with. The machines rev a bit and the ship trembles uncontrollably.
“What are you doing? You’re going to kill us all!” Alec screams, but then he understands. “Shit, you’re a genius.”
He leaves the pilot seat and gets behind me. He starts pushing many buttons from both his hidden keyboards. In the spur of the moment, I remember something that the teachers taught us back in the college. Phadh has build machines that don't allow to enemy ships to infiltrate into their planet, rendering every spaceship useless the minute they enter Zeania’s atmosphere.
Their planet has a naturally weak gravitational field that allows to them to cast an electromagnetic net around the whole planet, capturing enemy spaceships and holding them in place until the foot soldiers arrive. So, with some hacking magic from the Mist of the Organization, the net will help us dull the impact on the planet’s surface just enough to probably save our lives.
Even so, there’s only one thing I haven’t quite figured out yet: what if Alec doesn’t make it in time?
I tremble in fear even amidst the hot interior of the bridge. This is the first time I face death with my own eyes.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Jay
“We must be getting close. We’ve been walking all day already, and I don’t see the end of this fucking forest. Where is that temple?”
I’m lost, tired, angry, and hungry. I want to to get off this green planet as soon as possible. I can’t even begin to describe the irritation I feel inside me, a feeling that’s getting stronger every time I see her, the plant girl, walk casually like this is a stroll in the woods. I mean, what the hell? We were supposed to be there two days ago, and two days ago before that.
“I’m not sure. I can feel the distance getting smaller, but I can’t quite find the location yet. Maybe another day? That must be. Do you know that--”
“Yes, I know. I fucking do know that it’s difficult for your collective mind thing to calculate the distance between places and time and shit. But I’m starting to think you’re playing me kid, and honestly, you don’t want to be the one mocking me right now. Do you understand?”
For a moment, I think I see something flashing in her eyes, but I’m not quite sure that it’s there. That’s because when I raise my head above, I see a strong light penetrate the thick shadows of the super-forest. It’s like the sun has decided to send us a sign, but it’s too early in the day for that to be true.
“You noticed that too?” Alyce suddenly says.
“I’m not sure. What is it?”
She closes her eyes and touches the trunk of a tree. Her hands submerge into the lined surface, creating ripples throughout the trunk like it’s made of water. Five minutes pass, and there’s no reaction coming from her side. During our first days here on this planet, I was worried that she was planning something, trying to get away from me and leave me alone in the middle of nowhere, but now I know that this was one of the many hidden abilities of the Phadh.
All those giant trees are her living ancestors called Colossi. There are living, breathing Phadh, big enough to be unable to move and old enough to have forgotten everything about the ways of the living. They’re practically dead, yet living through the minds and experiences of their younger brethren. The whole planet is full of forests like this one, graveyards of Phadh sharing their experiences for endless years until they lose consciousness and turn into trees on an empty planet.
The Phadh are honestly a miraculous species, but they are nothing more than trees after all.
It takes her some time to confirm the information, but when she does, she pulls her hands out and returns to me. “We have to hurry, Jasih. A spaceship is ready to crash to a location close to us. We have to get there and check for any survivors,” she says.
I feel confused for a moment. Is a spaceship crashing on this planet? Aren’t spaceships forbidden to enter Zeania’s airspace or was that something that I didn’t get?
“Wait a moment, Alyce. I thought you said spaceships aren’t allowed on this planet.”
She stops and sighs. I don’t like people sighing to make me understand their point. I’m not from this era, and so all these peculiarities confuse me.
“You’re not wrong, but you’re not right at the same time. When a ship is crashing, the planet’s defense system allows it to enter into the planet and provide help, if possible. We’re mostly pacifists, Jasih. We did make mistakes in the past, but we’ve learned from them,” she says.
I’m not sure I buy this pacifist act, not after I saw with my own eyes what the Phadh did after the end of the Intergalactic War. But, I agree to go on with it. At least for now, that is.
“Then, they will be okay. Or if they don’t, then they will die a quick death. It’s more than most of us could have asked.”
I want to get to our spaceship soon enough that I don’t think straight. When I hear the words that come out of my mouth, I suddenly freeze. “Shit,” I say.
“Yeah, you finally got up to speed, right? So, are you still sure you don’t want to check the crashing ship? It’s really close. It would only take us an hour or so to get there.”
She’s strangely optimistic about the time it will take us to arrive at the crashing site. For the last week she can’t seem to get anything right, but now she knows exactly the place, and the time it will take us to get there? Something smells fishy here.
“Okay then, lead the way,” I say.
I wouldn’t have let her get what she wanted, but she has a point. What if that spaceship is very own Enigma? Then, we’ll have nowhere to return to, and we’ll be trapped in this hellhole until someone comes and picks us up. So, just to be sure, we have to check on the spaceship that has just crashed.
For once, it only takes us an hour to get there, which is a miracle regarding the past week. Also, the ship that has crashed is a Class 1 spaceship with extensive damages, nowhere close to our Class 5 juggernaut. It seems highly unlikely that someone could have survived the impact, though.
But, there’s someone that taught me to never give up when the improbable happened. That person is the one I love, the woman I can’t take my mind off, the human that made me regain my trust in life.
And that same person is now standing behind me, a laser gun in her hand, aiming straight for my back.
; I turn and look at her; she doesn’t move. I’m not sure she’s even breathing.
I’m not sure I’m breathing.
“Eladia,” I mutter.
“Jasih,” she responds.
For the first time, she’s able to pronounce my name right.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Eladia
It feels like a dream; everything feels like a dream. I can see him standing in front of me, staring me in the eyes, searching for a sign, but I’m not sure if he’s really here.
Jay, his platinum skin glistening from the sweat, his dark hair waving in the subtle breeze. He’s actually here.
“Eladia,” he mutters.
The sound of his voice makes my heart skip. I don’t know if I can speak, but digging into my inner passions, I manage to find the strength to reply.
Alien Romance Box Set: Alien Former: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Books 1-5) Page 66