Chapter Seventeen
Drellic had kept Simone awake inside the highest chamber of Delendra, for the entire night. He spoke of his wife more than anything else. Drellic had even referred to Simone by Moya’s name, several times. It was as if some form of dementia were slowly taking hold of him, as if he wasn’t disturbed enough already.
At first, Simone feared that Drellic’s violent outbursts would become more severe, the more she refused him, but it had a disturbingly opposite effect. Drellic would simply ignore Simone’s shrill cries to be released and continue speaking of his past, and how he planned to mold humanity into a race he could be proud of, all the while attempting to reach a certain level of intimacy with her. He insisted that they had an unbreakable connection; a bond of celestial proportions that he had felt the instant Simone first set foot on Charon.
Until that night, Simone had never seen Drellic fully enraged. She had made the tragic mistake of comparing Drellic’s situation to that of her situation with Callum. She had said that Drellic had stolen her from the love of her life, just as the Architects had stolen Drellic from his beloved Moya. It was that unequivocal truth that provoked a nearly merciless beating.
Drellic lifted Simone off the floor and threw her from one side of the observation chamber to the other, sending her crashing into the glass dome. He then lifted her from where she landed, and threw her back to the other side of the chamber, and into the opposite side of the dome, with even more force than he had used the first time.
When she landed on the floor the second time, two of her ribs were broken and she was spitting up a substantial amount of blood. Aside from turning her head to cough and gag, she felt completely paralyzed and was in the most horrific pain of her life.
Drellic calmly walked to her and looked down upon her, as she struggled to breathe. She could only turn her head, just enough to see him smiling down at her.
“You must learn to be more careful, Moya,” he said, softly.
He then gently lifted her off the ground and held her in his arms. “I won’t always be there to catch you, my love. Just think of our unborn child.”
Simone shook with fear then passed out from the pain and blood loss. Drellic then felt on odd sensation of being watched, like nothing he had ever felt before. The light of the rising sun caught his gaze. He then turned to face the glass, while tightly holding Simone close to his chest, like a small child, to see two suns rising together in the distance.
“What is this?” he whispered to himself. “Is this the sign I dreamt of? Gree sai brentos retorn tu mine?” Which in the ancient tongue meant, “Have my people returned to me?”
Hours later, Simone awoke in her bedroom at the Opera House. She realized that her ribs at somehow been healed and that she was in very little pain. She quickly sat up, only to find Drellic sitting at her bedside.
“I only healed the important parts,” Drellic said, as he pointed to a small mirror on her nightstand. Simone looked upon her reflection, to see that cuts and bruises, still covered the majority of her face.
“You always knew your defiance would have a cost, Moya,” said Drellic. “I used some of myself to repair your body, but I want the wounds on your face to remain for the time being. I want you to have a constant reminder of the consequences you faced.”
Simone had been toying with the idea of enabling Drellic’s worsening dementia, by playing along with his delusions, and assuming the role of Moya. She had until that moment, been too frightened to engage him as his dead wife, but knew that it was the only way she would ever win his favor.
By this time, her only goal in life was to see Callum again. What she didn’t realize, was that at that very moment, Callum was on his way to her and was driven by the same goal. They had both decided for themselves that any chance of having a normal life, or a life at all, was gone.
The simple joy of being reunited, if only for the briefest of times, would be all that would be afforded to them. Having been out of contact and separated by continents for days, they had both decided that seeing one another again would be the only thing that would soften the blow of their inevitable surrender to Drellic.
Drellic had referred to an unborn baby, just before Simone had lost consciousness at Delendra. She knew she had spent far too much time in an unconscious state, while in Drellic’s company, and that her being pregnant was in fact, a probability. The horrifying possibility of carrying Drellic’s child, sickened her.
Even more so, than the idea of an army of men and women, who according to Drellic, shared in Drellic’s powers and were heading for Earth. He had explained that the second sun that had recently appeared in the Sydney sky, was not a star at all, but a ship constructed by the descendants of the survivors of ancient humanity. Drellic said that the consciousness of the Starblood within him, had assured him that the new arrival was not a threat, but the descendants of his people, he had been praying to meet. He was overjoyed at the notion of being reunited with a race, whom he could deem worthy of himself; a people, he could proudly call his own.
Simone remained silent, as she was ordered out of bed and out onto the balcony, overlooking the city. Drellic stood beside her and watched, as the second sun appeared to be increasing in size, as it was nearing the planet. Had an actual star materialized that close to the earth, the entire planet would’ve been engulfed in flames, in minutes. Yet, there had been no difference in temperature, since its appearance. This brought Simone to the unfortunate conclusion that it had to be something other than a star, and that Drellic could’ve actually been correct about its origins and purpose.
She felt herself submit to her situation and said, “I’m sorry. I should’ve never disobeyed. You’ve always known what’s best for our people.”
Her words forced Drellic to look away from the twin suns for the first time. He looked upon her face and seemed convinced of her sincerity.
“Do you mean that?” he asked.
Simone forced a smile and replied, “I do. I’ve always known that only you can save us.”
Drellic was amazed by what he was hearing and had longed to hear those words from Moya’s lips, for an eternity. He gently held Simone in his arms and pulled her close to him. She struggled to remain calm and closed her eyes, imagining that it was Callum and not a monster. As he gently brushed Simone’s hair with his gargantuan hand, Simone felt a wave of relief pass over her, as Drellic healed the wounds on her face. He then released her, looked upon her now flawless face and said, “Den el da sentral I renue.”
It meant, “That is the beauty I remember.”
He saw that she didn’t understand and became frustrated. “Don’t worry,” he said. “When our world was destroyed, so was our entire way of life. I will teach you to become who you once were.”
He held her close again and observed, as the second star had come to occupy half of the visible sky. The actual sun, was tiny in comparison and was nearly fully eclipsed. Though it appeared to be a giant orb of radiating heat, there were still no environmental changes caused by its presence.
The blinding light of the incoming star-like object, continued to fill the sky. At the same time, nearly 10,700 kilometers north of Sydney, Callum and Mary had quickly learned to manually pilot the stolen recon ship, and were in a mid-air shooting war, with another ship of the same design.
Callum had decided to bypass the ship’s autopilot and make a slight detour to Tokyo, Japan. Mary didn’t fully understand why at the time, but Callum knew that buried somewhere in the rubble of the Darkside facility, was the ancient recording device that Simone had found in Antarctica. It contained a detailed audio and visual account of the fall of the ancient world, and how Drellic came to acquire his amazing powers. He saw it as an opportunity to gain invaluable intelligence about Drellic, and although it would make their survival that much more unlikely, he knew that if he and Mary could survive Tokyo and recover the device, it would increase their odds of surviving Sydney.
The other ship was badly
damaged from Mary’s weapons fire. While Mary kept her eyes fixated on the enemy ship, while firing 5,000 degree bursts of hot energy, Callum’s job was to keep the ship steady and engaged, while struggling with the incredibly sensitive propulsion system.
One final shot from the cannon, on the underbelly of Callum’s ship, decimated the enemy ship, sending a tornado of metal debris, spiraling down into the Pacific Ocean.
“I think they got off a distress signal, before they went down!” yelled Mary. “We don’t have a lot of time. What the fuck are we doing here?”
“You’ll understand when we find it. If we find it,” Callum replied.
The Tokyo ruins appeared to be deserted, from overhead. Callum piloted the ship to the outskirts of the city and found the demolished Darkside facility, sitting at the foot of a blackened runway, where the Hades spacecraft had once stood. He descended to the exact spot, where Hades had been parked years earlier, and allowed the ship to hover beneath the light of the gleaming orb, which was entering the earth’s atmosphere.
As Callum and Mary exited the ship and hopped down to the ground, they looked up, to see the blinding white ball of energy, which was roughly the size of a football stadium, slowly moving south.
“It has to be heading for Australia. What do you think it is?” Mary asked Callum. “You’re the one that went out into deep space and found him. Ever see anything like this?”
“I have no idea what that thing is. But whatever it is, it can’t be good,” Callum replied. “And we still have more bandits to worry about. We need to get inside, right now. There’s no doubt in my mind, we were tracked here.”
“You still haven’t even told me what we’re doing here,” said Mary.
“I already told you. You’ll understand when you see it, assuming we live that long,” Callum snapped.
Callum and Mary disappeared into the rubble. Much to their advantage, Drellic was no longer interested in them and had not dispatched any other ships to pursue them. Drellic was far too concerned with the approaching star-like object that was clearly on a direct path for Sydney. He was convinced that upon its arrival, he would be greeted by a massive assembly of friends that would aid him in his quest to save modern humanity from itself.
The construction crews that had been working tirelessly to rebuild Drellic’s monuments, were ordered to cease all operations, and devote all of their attention to properly welcoming the inbound ship. Using whatever scrap metal they could find, the crews were ordered to erect a massive landing platform, at the center of the downtown Sydney area. Drellic noted that the orb had never once changed its speed, since its arrival. At present speed, it would land in Sydney in about five hours. Drellic’s super speed and strength would’ve allowed him to complete the platform himself in several minutes, but he enjoyed watching the people do his bidding. Aside from Simone, Drellic looked upon all of modern humanity as a subspecies of his people and felt that the intense ongoing labor would do them good.
Within the rubble of the Darkside facility, Callum and Mary had already been searching the wreckage for nearly an hour and still had no further contact with the enemy. Callum had acquired a flashlight from the commandeered recon ship and was entering a section of rubble, in which two hallways, from two separate floors, had been merged together.
He knew that Mandrake had a copy of the Siren footage, which he was never allowed to see aboard ISS, which had been destroyed, but the device itself should’ve still been in lock up, in Mandrake’s office at Darkside.
Callum carefully climbed from one section of floor to another, which had been pushed down to his level by recent weapons’ impact. The entire building had essentially been compacted to half of its original height. Callum could see Mandrake’s door just ahead, on his left. It still had his name plate attached to it.
The floor was on a steep incline, and he was forced to climb up to the doorframe and use it to slingshot himself inside the room. Mary was positioned below him, on level ground, with her assault rifle clutched firmly in hand.
“I think you should go back outside,” Callum called down to her. “The upper levels aren’t stable. You might get crushed, if you stick around too long.”
“Bullshit. What about you?” she replied.
“If the building collapses and I don’t make it out, try to find a small metal box with Drellic’s language written all over it,” Callum began. “That’s why we’re here. It’s a recorder. It has records of things that happened here, during his time. You have to find it and get it to people you trust.”
“Holy shit,” she replied.
Callum and Mary were then both startled, as a shrill, creaking sound began echoing through the walls. The floor boards beneath Callum’s feet, began to crack and small bits of debris from the upper level began to rain down on Mary.
“You need to go,” Callum said. “Hope to see you soon.” Mary nodded and reluctantly left the building, as Callum finally got a hold of Mandrake’s doorframe and pulled himself up into the office.
Much to his surprise, Mandrake was inside waiting for him. He was sitting on the floor, with his back pressed up against the far wall. There was a pool of his blood at his side, which originated from a deep bloody gash on his left side. Callum could see that he was barely alive, and also had the ancient recorder gripped tightly with one arm, while he held his wound with his free hand.
“Sir?” Callum whispered.
“That’s right, you son of a bitch,” Mandrake answered. “It’s me.”
“How did you get here? How did you survive?” Callum asked.
“Escape pod,” Mandrake replied. “I was in my office on the station, when the missiles hit, and just so happened to have my own pod under my floorboards, waiting for me.”
Mandrake coughed and spit up some blood onto the recorder.
“Oh, look what I’ve done now,” he said, chuckling to himself. “I’ve gone and made another mess. You like what I’ve done with the place, Hammond?”
“You did this?” Callum asked, as he looked around the crumbling structure.
“They never bombed the building. They found out about the recorder and had this place searched for nearly three years, and they couldn’t find it. Dumbass traitors,” Mandrake replied with a smile.
“My pod was programmed to return me here. I snuck in and detonated every explosive in this place, taking dozens of the bastards with me. That was days ago. Must’ve thought the recorder was destroyed, because no one has been back here since, until you.”
“I stole one of their ships,” Callum said. “I saw a medical kit on board. I can patch you up and give you something for the pain.”
“Fuck you. We both know I’m dead. I’m surprised I held on this long,” Mandrake replied. “What are you doing here anyway?”
“Looking for that,” Callum said, as he pointed to the recorder. “Everyone I came down with is dead, except Simone. They took her, sir. Drellic’s holding her in Sydney. That’s where I’m heading now, but first I need that recorder. I need to know everything I can about him.”
“I can’t stop you from taking it. I’m just about dead, anyways,” said Mandrake. “But you can’t let them get their hands on it. The information on here is all we have on him.” Mandrake’s speech slowed, as he began gasping for air. “Simone was like a daughter to me,” he stuttered. “You better fucking get her back.”
“I will sir,” said Callum.
“I think I’m done here, son,” Mandrake said. “Just pay close attention to what you see on this. He has a weakness.”
“What? What do you mean, sir?” Callum asked.
Mandrake remained silent, as his gaze shifted from Callum to the open window, and the bright orb sailing through the sky.
“Drellic has a weakness,” Mandrake repeated.
“What weakness?! What is it?!” Callum shouted, but it was too late. Mandrake was gone and the building was continuing to crumble around him.
Callum grabbed
the recorder and gently closed Mandrake’s eyes, which were still fixated on the falling star, outside the window. He then exited the office and slid down the inclined floor panel, to the level ground, below.
Mary was anxiously waiting for him, as he made it outside.
“I thought you bought it,” she said.
“Me? Never. Let’s get fucking going,” he quickly replied.
Bewildered, she noticed the bloodstained, metal relic under Callum’s arm, as they boarded the recon ship and rocketed away to Australia.
The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three Page 20