Life-After

by J. A. Laraque

  Even as I listened to every word my thoughts were only on Clara. Hearing his story changed nothing. I no longer cared about my past. I could feel myself getting stronger. My body regained its feeling and I could move slightly. I remained still not wanting to tip my hand. I did not know what I could do to such a life form, but I was going to try whatever I could.

  “Now watch as I drain the life energy from within the Life Stream.” The life form said. “I will send it to my dimension where it will give us the power to survive.”

  I watched as the energy from the satellite poured into the newly created tear in space. The life form turned and looked up at the energy beam and smiled. I sprang to my feet and jumped towards the life form. His arm stretched out, his hand grabbing hold of my neck. He held me in the air and laughed.

  “Did you really think I could not feel your power return?” The life form boasted. “I no longer have use for you. Too bad I cannot feed you to the entity. I am sure he would have enjoyed you.”

  I did not have time to ponder his words about another entity. His hand began to glow and my body was wracked with pain. I felt my energy being drawn out of my body. Flag was unconscious on the ground and I myself was quickly losing consciousness. My eyes began to close. I knew I was dying, no, I was fading from existence. My arms fell limp to my side and I realized death had finally come for me.

  Then a rush of power flowed through me. It was unlike anything I had ever felt before. I could feel another presence inside me. It was powerful and gave me the strength to break free. My eyes opened and grabbed hold of the life forms hand. It was then that I saw the second life form had awakened and grabbed hold of my ankle. He had channeled his energy into me. The first life form released me and tried to back away. I swung forward with all my might. My fist glowed brightly as it tore through its chest. I stood there looking into the widen eyes of my enemy. I could feel its evil energy within its body.

  “There will be no afterlife for you!” I screamed.

  I focused all my rage and energy into my fist. The life form screamed as I opened my hand and released the contained energy within tearing through the remainder of its body. I felt the energy inside the life form break apart. Its energy began to flow into my hand and I absorbed it all into my body. The second life form released its hold on me and slowly rose to its feet. Its skin began to shine and the glow beneath it brightened.

  The life form approached Flag and knelt down placing the palm of his hand on Flag’s chest. An aura of white light surrounded Flag’s body. His eyes opened and the life form helped him to his feet. The life form walked over to the computer station. It placed his hand over the computer and I could hear it powering down. The beam of energy that fired out from the dish ceased, but the tear in space remained. The life form then turned to me and began to speak.

  “Words cannot convey my apologies for what has been done to your world.” The life form said his voice almost identical to the other but softer, more peaceful. “I can only show you why my son believed what he was doing was right.”

  The life form approached me and placed his hand on my forehead. My eyes felt heavy. I closed them and from the darkness I could see stars appear and then in the distance a planet that looked identical to my own. The life form did not speak to me, but I could feel its energy communicating with mine. It was feeding knowledge into me, teaching me its history.

  Their world was very similar to my own. They evolved from primates into humans that were identical to my own world. They struggled with war and conquest through the centuries until an expedition to the core of their planet discovered life energy. Unlike my word their discovery was announced worldwide and it brought their warring factions together. Over the next hundred years they conducted experiments and discovered that their bodies contained the same life energy.

  Their research was different than what I had witnessed traveling to different realities. They did not focus on awakening the life energy in a living human, but in retaining their life energy post death. They discovered upon death that their life energy was absorbed into the planet and recycled to create new life.

  A decision was made and a test subject volunteered to be killed by having its body converted to pure energy and then trap the released life energy within a containment unit before it could be absorbed by the planet. The process worked and the first living sentient soul was born. As time went on they were able to shed their physical bodies at will and become a life form of pure energy.

  An age of wonder and discovery lasted for thousands of years. They were able to travel their universe and explore the wonders of space, but never came in contact with another living life form. In time they learned to combine their power and even drain life energy from their own planet to create offspring. This allowed new life to be created and without death, the wisdom and experience of time allowed them to advance to the height of their capabilities.

  Their civilization spread out across the universe. They had created and colonized thousands of planets creating billions of new lives. Then one day and anomaly appeared in the center of their universe. A team of their best scientist traveled to the anomaly to investigate. It did not take them long to realize it was a gateway to another dimension. However, they were unable to travel through the gateway. Whenever they tried their life energy would be absorbed by it. It was the first loss of life in over two thousand years and so a parameter was created so that the anomaly could be further studied.

  It had only been a few weeks when they detected a presence approaching from within the gateway. It had an energy signature similar to their own life energy. At first they believed it was another energy life form such as them. They were correct that it was an energy life form, but it was nothing like they were.

  The energy life form was massive and expanded out to the size of their planet. The black colored energy moved quickly absorbing the life energy of anything in its path. They tried everything to stop or destroy the entity, but nothing they tried worked. The entity traveled from planet to planet absorbing every living energy source found there.

  An emergency order was given to bring all the energy life forms together in the farthest location from the entity. As the entity devoured stars and planets the life forms knew it would only be a matter of time before the entity would come from them.

  One of the life forms named Eon was tasked with finding a new way to either escape from or destroy the entity. Eon returned to the anomaly and discovered he could enter it if he poured some of his own life energy into the gateway beforehand. However, when he did this the energy signature within the gateway changed. When Eon traveled through it he discovered my universe and an abandoned space station.

  Eon discovered the space station was not created by my species. He also discovered that like his species we contained life energy within our bodies, but it had not yet been awakened. Eon knew we could not help him and traveled back through the anomaly. It was when he emerged on the other side he was confronted by his son Erix.

  Erix was astonished to discover his father could travel through the gateway and wanted to know what his father had found. Eon explained to Erix that the life forms on the other side were primitive compared to them and could not be of use to their cause. He then asked Erix to stand guard over the anomaly while he reported his findings to the others.

  Erix’s curiosity led him into the anomaly. Erix traveled to my planet which was still fighting the Global War. Erix realized our world also contained life energy and feeling we were an inferior species returned to the anomaly. Before reentering Erix landed on the space station and was able to access its computer. He discovered the space station tapped into a second gateway and within that gateway was an immeasurable amount of life energy.

  Erix left the space station and returned to his dimension. There he sought out the entity and was able to communicate with it. He was only able to learn that the entities only purpose was to devour life energy. Erix struck a deal with the entity. He led the entity to the tear i
n space and promised to feed it unlimited life energy if it would spare his people. The entity agreed and Erix returned to my dimension and retrofitted the space station to transmit the energy from within the Life Stream directly to the entity.

  When Eon returned he discovered the entity, but it did not attack him. Eon noticed the energy being sent through the anomaly feeding the entity and entered the gateway to investigate. He found Erix on the space station and confronted him. He told Erix that using the energy from the Life Stream could destabilize it. Erix did not listen. When Eon tried to shut off the energy feed Erix attacked him.

  During the struggle the central containment unit became damaged. Eon could see that if the containment unit failed it could destroy the space station and the gateway. Eon sent his energy into the containment unit to seal it from the inside. Erix followed trying to stop him. Eon was able to overpower him, but only enough to seal Erix within the Life Stream. Eon knew that only his life energy could keep Erix from escaping and reactivating the feed.

  Eon removed his hand from my forehead. I opened my eyes to see Flag standing next to me. Eon had shown us both what had happened. Eon turned and walked to the edge of the room and looked over toward the containment unit.

  “I was aware of what my son was doing, but I was powerless to stop him.” Eon said. “I myself was looking for a way to leave the containment unit, but it was impossible less I freed Erix. When you destroyed the unit Erix overpowered me and dragged me from the gateway. I was drained of energy, it was only when he killed the one you call Clara that I was able to slowly regain my power. When I felt your power returning I grabbed hold of you giving you some of my power so you could defeat my son.”

  I finally knew the truth, but it came too late for Clara. I had nothing to say to Eon. I could only think about her.

  “So what do we do now?” Flag asked.

  Eon approached me and held his hand out to mine. I took hold of his hand and could feel his energy coursing into me, but there was something else. It was not just his presence inside me, but another. He took my free hand and opened it. A small tear opened in the palm of my hand. A swirl of white energy poured out from it. Molecules of energy spun and danced taking shaped. My eyes widened as it formed a humanoid body.

  “Clara!” I cried.

  Her body had been recreated before my very eyes. She smiled as I took her into my arms. I held her tightly feeling the energy coursing through her body.

  “Energy cannot be destroyed.” Flag said.

  “That is correct.” Eon replied. “Clara’s life energy was absorbed, partly by you and me, David. We have the ability to create new life using our own life energy. We just recreated Clara’s body using a mixture of her life energy and our own. Everything we are is contained within every atom. As long as we have that we can never die.”

  I held Clara in my arms for what felt like forever. I did not want to let her go, but I knew we were not done yet. My world and the souls within the Life Stream were safe, but Eons dimension was not. I knew the entity would sooner or later arrive in our dimension.

  “To answer your questions on what now…” Eon began. “I have closed the gateway to the Life Stream. The life energy inside is secure and I must return to my dimension before the gateway closes. You three are life forms of pure energy as I am now. You can travel though space at the speed of light. You can return to your home or explore your heavens the choice is yours.”

  “I’m coming with you.” I said.

  I looked in Clara’s eyes and could see she knew what I was planning. With part of her life energy coming from mine she knew what had occurred in Eon’s dimension. Flag remained silent. He too knew that we would never be safe until the entity was destroyed.

  “So am I.” Clara said.

  Before I could open my mouth in objection Clara placed her index finger to my lips.

  “I know everything now, David.” Clara began. “I have no place back on our world. I grew up sheltered from the war. My parents were wealthy and were able to buy their way out of the conflict. When they were killed in an accident the Alliance military claimed all their assets. I was over eighteen and they forced me to join the military.

  I went A.W.O.L and when the Alliance police came for me I attacked them. I killed one of the soldiers before being shot myself. I remember hitting the ground and thanking God for allowing me to die. I was selfish and if I couldn’t live as I did before I did not want to live at all.

  I never loved anyone besides myself. Even my parents were more of a means to an end than anything else. I cried when they died, not because of the loss of my parents, but because of the loss of my status. I never fought for anyone else but myself, but that changed after I died.

  You said it yourself, David. All that matters is now. We now have a chance to do something. Maybe with your power we can stop the entity and if not then we will die together knowing that we tried.”

  I hugged Clara knowing she was right. I did not know what use I could be to Eon and his people, but I also had nothing to return to.

  “I will remain here.” Flag said. “Someone needs to be here when you return and this space station has unlimited research potential.”

  “Very well.” Eon said.

  Eon walked over to Clara and I and took hold of our hands. I felt my physical body fading as it turned to pure energy. I looked up into space at the anomaly and then back down toward Flag.

  “If anything else besides us comes through the gateway you must destroy this space station.” I said to Flag. “If we cannot destroy the entity then we must at least slow it down. I won’t forget what you have done Flag. Thank you.”

  Flag nodded. I turned to Clara and smiled. I did not know what would be the final outcome, but all that mattered was that we were together. Our bodies became pure energy and streaked out into space. As we entered the anomaly I was fully prepared for whatever would happen in my life, after.

  20

  From the Journal of Dr. Henry Flag

  As I have reached another cycle I will once again recap my findings. It has been seventy-two years since David, Clara and the life form called Eon entered the gateway. I can only hope that they were successful in destroying the energy devouring entity and are living out their lives in that dimension.

  As for me it appears I cannot age unless I physically alter my body. This and lack of need to eat or sleep has allowed me to study this station from head to toe several times. I confirmed that this space station was indeed created by beings other than my own. This structure is made of pure life energy. It resonates with the same frequency as the energy signature emanating from my home planet.

  Unfortunately, Erix wiped the stations computer clean of any data not relevant to the Life Stream and opening gateways. Therefore my study has been confined to that. Originally, I gained access to satellite data around my home planet. I was able to learn that a peace treaty was signed between the Alliance and the Federation over sixty years ago. Since then the planet has been at peace.

  There has been no data on life energy or gateways that I could find. However, this was not the case in the other worlds I was able to gain access too. I was able to use the stations dish to open small gateways to other dimensions, just large enough to probe for data and life signs. So far I have opened up twelve gateways and have been amazed to find twelve different dimensions that contained life similar to my own.

  So far I have learned significant information on six of them. It appears that each dimension is very similar to my own. Each has a single planet with intelligent humanoid life. Each planet also has a core made from life energy. In the previous six, the inhabitants had not reached the technology age, but when I began researching the seventh planet I found something incredible.

  The seventh planet has an almost identical history to my own world with only minor differences. Currently their world is in the ending days of a global conflict. However, their Alliance military has discovered a human with awakened life energy. Labeled Patient Alp
ha, this is the first confirmed case of a living awakened human that I have found, but that was not the most astonishing part.

  I intercepted a transmission sent from an unknown source to a Doctor Theed at the Alliance research facility. The voice sounded human and spoke of giving Theed a way to awaken the life energy in all human beings. There was a distinct energy signature that I found in the transmission. It is the same as one I found when I first emerged from the gateway within the Life Stream. This tells me that whoever contacted Theed is not human, at least not a living human.

  Theed has agreed to meet the mystery man. This event will take place tomorrow. I have remotely accessed one of their satellites and placed it over the location the voice that told Theed to meet him. This should be an interesting find to say the least. Whatever may happen tomorrow one thing is for certain, on that world The Awakened Project has begun.