Mother.
“Did you hear that?” Celeste asked, looking at Jake.
With a stunned looked on his face, Jake rubbed his hand over his son’s head again. “Yes. But it . . . it was more of a feeling.”
Celeste nodded in agreement.
Mother, Father.
This time, the words came to their minds more clearly. Calum watched his parents with large blue eyes.
“How’s that possible?” Jake questioned.
“I don’t know.”
Evil is rising. Evil is rising. Take me out of this place. Do not let the darkness overtake the light.
Again, the words flashed into their minds. The feelings were so powerful that there was no questioning that their newborn son’s spirit was communicating with theirs.
Jake stood quickly, sweeping Calum into his arms. “We need to leave now. They’re coming.”
*****
Nichelle fought back the tears as she sorted out her feelings. She glanced up toward Jake and Celeste, who sat on another rock several meters away. She watched as the new parents doted over their newborn son. The same questions that haunted her soon after the deaths of Jake and Celeste swirled in her mind once again. As they did so, conflicting emotions swept over her, and the tears began to flow from her eyes. She needed to make a decision. If not, all that she had worked for would be lost.
She slowly stood to her feet and began to make her way to Jake and Celeste, when she saw Jake sweep Calum into his arms, shout something, and then rush toward the transport.
*****
“Ariauna?”
Ariauna, startled, quickly turned around. She had found a thicket of trees not far from the transport. It was the only place she could hide. She was angry, more angry than she could ever remember being. But she was also embarrassed at her behavior.
She took a step backwards, her defenses up as the large Gnol approached. Sage held his hands up. “It is okay, Ariauna. I am to going to hurt you.”
“Stay away from me!”
“I just want to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you. You are all the same. Savages with an unquenchable thirst for power and conquest.”
“Not all of us,” Sage replied as he continued to walk slowly toward her.
Ariauna quickly pulled her plasma pistol from its holster on her leg. “Stay where you are! I’m warning you!”
“Okay,” Sage replied, stopping.
“Don’t come near me.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
“Gnols don’t keep promises.”
“I am not like other Gnols. Just hear me out.”
Ariauna paused for a moment. “There’s nothing to say.”
Sage looked down, kicking at the brush under his feet. Looking up slowly, he met Ariauna’s fearful gaze. “I know what you have been through.”
Ariauna spat back with a venomous tone, “You have no idea what I’ve been through! No person should experience the horrors that I experienced at the hands of your people!”
“You are right. But I have read the minds of slaves and former slaves. And I can only imagine you feel the same, since I cannot and will not read your mind because of your mind inhibitors.”
Ariauna shook her head, the anger about to boil over into rage. She wanted to lash out at the Gnol before her. Her finger tightened on the pistol’s trigger.
Sage seemed to notice her increasing trepidation and sat down on the ground, making him less of a threat. Consequently, Ariauna slowly lowered the gun but changed her mind, quickly pointing it at him again. She wasn’t about to let this Gnol deceive her like so many others. “Okay,” she said. “I will hear you out, but I am keeping my gun on you. And don’t even try to use your powers to try and take it away from me.”
“I won’t,” Sage responded.
Ariauna sighed. “Okay. What do you have to say?”
“I understand why you do not trust us. There are many Gnols that I do not trust either. But I want you to know that I have given my word to Adrian that I will fight for the Terrestrians.”
Ariauna didn’t know what to think. Her anger clouded her judgment. She slowly lowered the gun and said, “How do I know that you just won’t turn around and kill us all once we get to Earth?”
“You do not have that reassurance, Ariauna. Like I said before . . . we cannot be trusted. But I can give you my word that I will not let anything happen to you or anyone else here at this place.”
Ariauna completely lowered the pistol. She felt a twinge of guilt as memories of what she had done prior to the final attack flooded her mind.
*****
“I don’t think the old codes we have will work,” Adrian said with frustration and then looked back at Kevin and Skip. “They probably already know that we aren’t dead and will be searching for us. Yes, this transport is the property of the Gnols, but they will be monitoring incoming and outgoing traffic from the wormhole. If we transmit any suspicious codes, we’ll be captured for sure.”
“Then what do you propose we do?” Kevin asked.
“I’m not s—”
Before Adrian could finish his response, he heard Jake running toward them with Calum in his arms. Celeste followed close behind.
“We need to leave now!” Jake said, skidding to a halt next to his dad.
“Why?” Adrian questioned.
“I can’t explain it now, but the Gnols are coming.”
“How?” Nichelle asked as she approached the group. “This canyon is deep enough to hide from drones or satellite scans, at least for enough time for us to get the shuttle fixed.”
“Wait,” Adrian said, holding up his hand. “How do you know?”
Jake paused before responding. He was about to speak when Celeste cut him off. “Call it intuition.”
“I’m going to need a little more than that,” Adrian said.
Jake and Celeste glanced at one another. “Okay, Dad. Just don’t think we’re crazy.”
“From what I’ve witnessed, I don’t think crazy exists anymore,” Adrian replied.
Jake nodded in agreement. “Calum told us.”
Skyler chuckled as he joined the group as well. “The baby? What are you talkin’ about?”
Adrian held up his hand to cut Skyler off. “Let him explain.”
“Calum connected with us telepathically. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like his spirit was communicating with ours.”
Adrian stood in silence for a few seconds, letting the words sink in. With what he had witnessed and seen in his life, there was no doubt Jake was telling the truth.
He quickly turned to Skyler. “How long until the transport is space ready?”
A concerned look graced over Skyler’s face. “She can fly all right in the atmosphere, but the thrusters are offline, which will make it impossible to fly in space.”
“How long until they are back online?”
Skyler shook his head. “I’m not sure. Maybe four to five hours, seven tops.”
“How long before the Gnols arrive?” Kevin asked.
“We’re not sure, but it may be within the time frame that Skyler mentioned,” Celeste said.
“Okay,” Adrian responded. “Get everything packed up. We need to be ready to go once Skyler gets the space thrusters repaired. And Skip, go find Sage and Ariauna. We don’t have much time.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, his newborn grandson began to cry. He could tell, however, that the cry wasn’t one of hunger or of any other discomfort. No, this was a cry of warning. A warning to get off Terrest as soon as possible.
CHAPTER 6: SURVEILLANCE
Koroan’s Palace, City of Chast . . .
Dorange awoke in a panic. He tried to inhale, but nothing was happening. A Gnol nurse rushed to his side. “Relax, my Lord,” she said as she gently pulled the breathing tube from his throat.
He fought the urge to gag as the tube was removed. He inhaled deeply and then tried to sit up. He felt dizzy and quickly laid his head
back onto his pillow. “Where am I? What happened?” he asked sharply.
“You are in the palace’s infirmary, your Excellency. When your soldiers found you, your vitals were barely detectable. You lost way too much blood to even be alive.”
“Where is Doctor Chaldreen?”
“He is treating other soldiers who were wounded in the attack.”
“Get him now!” Dorange demanded, trying to sit up again.
“You need to rest, my Lord,” the nurse said as she placed her hands on his shoulders.
“Don’t touch me!” Dorange hollered. But he didn’t have the energy to fight. He lay back down, glaring at the attractive nurse.
She quickly averted her green eyes from his stare. “I-I am sorry, my Lord. But you need your rest. I will go and get the doctor.”
“Good!”
Dorange watched as the nurse left, her scrubs covered in blood from treating so many wounded. He tried to sit up again. But this time, he couldn’t even muster the energy to lift his head from the pillow. He felt strange and in a tremendous amount of pain. Not since his time before becoming a Gnol had he ever felt this weak.
Doctor Chaldreen rushed into the room, his scrubs covered in blood as well. “My Lord, you are awake.”
Dorange narrowed his eyes in disdain toward the tall, young doctor. “Of course I am awake, you fool!”
The doctor reached his bedside and began to check his vitals on the monitor next to his bed. He glanced at Dorange with a look of suspicion but quickly averted his eyes.
“What is it, Doctor?” Dorange demanded.
The doctor avoided eye contact with him as he spoke. “I am sorry, my Lord, but I have to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“You lost way too much blood and you needed a blood transfusion. But your blood type did not match any of our blood reserves.”
“What do you mean it didn’t match?”
The doctor sighed, obviously mustering the courage to talk to the Supreme Lord over the Gnols. “We managed to find a match from one of the palace slaves.”
“So. You know as well as I do that we have similar blood types to the Terrestrians.”
“I understand that, my Lord, but . . .”
“But what?”
“But we have a distinct genetic marker in our blood that separates us from them. The slave is a mela.”
Dorange’s jaw tightened. Could this doctor really suspect him to be a normal human being? He knew all too well what a mela was to Gnols. Melas were a cross between a Gnol and a native Terrestrian. Prior to his disappearance and supposed death, Koroan had issued an order because of Celeste’s treachery. The order was that no Gnol should mix their seed with that of a Terrestrian. To do so would mean certain death and lifelong slavery for their offspring. All Gnol citizens were also genetically tested to see if any of them happened to be of mixed race. Handfuls of adult Gnols were found, arrested, and forced into servitude. The slave whose blood matched his was obviously one of those adults who had been found.
Prior to the order, melas could hide in relative obscurity and blend in. Their abilities weren’t as finely tuned as or as easy to master as a pure Gnol’s. But with practice and extreme focus, just as Dorange had mastered, their abilities could rival that or even compete with the best of the pure Gnols. This was probably why he felt so weak. The serum he had derived from the blood of pure Gnols changed his DNA to that of a pure Gnol when he injected it. But it wasn’t permanent. That was why he continued to need the serum. He was now almost two-thirds human again with the infusion of blood from a half Gnol, half-human female.
“Please forgive me, my Lord, but I have to ask. Who were your parents?”
Rage flushed through Dorange’s body; he wanted to kill the doctor right where he stood. “How dare you ask me that?” he spat. “Do you question my bloodline?”
The doctor seemed to recognize his rage and, knowing what Dorange had been capable of, backed away from the bed. “M-my apologies, my Lord. I-It is just that—”
“It is just what?” Dorange yelled.
“I—”
“My Lord!” General Sapharius said, bursting into the room.
Dorange glared at the suspicious doctor. “Leave us.”
Doctor Chaldreen bowed his head and scattered out of the room as fast as he could.
“What is it, General?” Dorange asked, turning his attention back to his trusted second in command.
“It is good to see that you are well, my Lord. We have found them. Our contact within their ranks has activated the homing beacon on their ship.”
An evil smile graced along Dorange’s lips. “Good. There will be no escaping us this time. I want you personally, General, to lead a team. Make sure there are no survivors.”
General Sapharius stood to attention, giving the standard Gnol salute by crossing his right arm over his chest and giving a small bow. “Yes, my Lord,” he replied. He then turned and began to make his way out of the room. Before he reached the door, he paused and turned back around. “I almost forgot, my Lord. We have received a strange message from—”
“Not now, General. I need to rest,” Dorange interrupted, holding up his hand. “Complete the mission, General. . . . Oh, and one final order, have Doctor Chaldreen arrested and executed immediately.”
*****
Mount Resumpsi, Gnolom . . .
Koroan sat in the darkness of Gnolom atop Mount Resumpsi. He stared at the blue orb in the sky, hoping that Dorange Gar or one of his other trusted generals had received the message. For several days now, the makeshift communication array was continuously transmitting the message to Terrest.
He continued to watch, grateful that Macaria was in the hollow of the mount. Even though his breathing mask was getting low on oxygen and becoming very uncomfortable, the last thing he wanted to do was to go back into the hollow and be in her presence. Koroan had never been uncomfortable before in the presence of another Gnol. He had always been the intimidating one. Macaria was no ordinary Gnol. She was more powerful than he was, now that she possessed the transfigured body of his late wife.
An uneasiness settled in his stomach. It was a feeling he had not experienced in a long time. Nonetheless, he knew what it was. After all of the murders and the deceit to get to where he was, he never felt the feeling before. But now - now the guilt was beginning to come forth.
He took in a deep breath, focusing his thoughts on power and what his end goal was. He couldn’t let the guilt settle. Guilt was weakness. Guilt led to remorse. Remorse led to penitence, and penitence led to compassion. Something that he promised himself a long time ago to never feel again.
Frustrated and dreading going back into the hollow, he slowly stood to his feet. He was about to levitate himself off of the mount when an explosion knocked him off. He began to free fall and then quickly stopped himself in midair. He levitated himself back up to the array and looked as a sickening feeling penetrated his gut. The power source, powering the array, had overheated, causing the array to explode. All that remained was the bottom portion. Now there was no way to send a message to Chast. He was now stranded on Gnolom with an evil being more frightening than any he had ever encountered before.
*****
Terrest . . .
General Raul Sapharius moved to the front of the shuttle, now en route to the rebels and their location. He glanced back at his twenty-man team, dressed in battle gear and ready to attack. He turned back around and looked at the monitor between the two pilots. They were approaching the location. “How much longer?” he asked.
The pilot to his right, his flight helmet covering his head and face, glanced up. “E.T.A. twenty minutes, sir.”
It was just after noon on this part of Terrest, too bright for a surprise attack. Even so, Dorange had ordered them to destroy the rebels, and Raul wasn’t about to let his commander down. “They are probably making preparations to leave the planet,” he said. “As soon as we make contact, I want you to fire at any transport
shuttles on the ground. After you pass by and before you swing back around for another attack, drop us off, and we will move in as you provide cover fire.”
“Understood, sir.”
Raul didn’t respond. He stood quietly scanning the surrounding landscape as the slim battle transport sliced through the air. Raul watched the red dot on the monitor. They were nearly on top of it. He looked out and saw a deep canyon coming up fast. “That’s where they are hiding,” he said emphatically, pointing at the canyon. “They found the deepest ravine to avoid our surveillance. Dive into the canyon and attack the moment you have eyes on them.”
Raul then went back into the cargo hold with the rest of his team and secured himself in his seat. The g-forces pressed down on his body as the black ship dove down deep into the canyon. After a few seconds, he heard the pilot.
“We have contact, sir.”
“Good. Fire at will, Captain.”
*****
Mount Resumpsi, Gnolom . . .
Koroan didn’t want to go into the hollow. He knew that Macaria would be furious with him. Nonetheless, he had to tell her that the communication array had overheated and blown up. He walked into the mount, slowly, as he took off his breathing mask. He scanned the dying garden, searching for her. She was nowhere to be found.
He figured she must be inside the pyramid that housed the tree of life. The tree of life, he thought. What an irony that a tree that could bring eternal life to mortals was now dying itself. Its entire power source drained just to bring his late wife’s body back from the dead to serve as a vessel for Macaria.
He entered the pyramid and found Macaria standing at the base of the tree. Rotting fruit covered the ground, and its putrid aroma saturated the air, causing him to hold his hand over his nose.
“The array is destroyed?” Macaria asked firmly.
How did she know? he wondered.
“You insignificant fool! I can read nearly every pitiful thought in that feeble mind of yours.”
“Y-yes, my Queen. The array is destroyed. There is no way to repair it and we don’t have any supp—”
Before he could even finish his sentence, Macaria spun on her heel and rushed toward him with so much speed that he barely had time to react. Now he was on the receiving end of a choking grip as Macaria levitated herself a few feet above him, clutched his throat, and lifted him into the air. “You are pitiful,” she seethed. “I leave one simple task for you to perform and you can’t even do that.” She then dropped him to the ground.
Worlds Without End: The Prophecy (Book 3) Page 11