Worlds Without End: The Prophecy (Book 3)

by Shaun Messick

  With Calum still secured in his arms, Koroan stood up slowly, coughing. With his free hand, he helped Macaria to her feet. For a long moment and in silence, they stared at the marvel before them. The energy beam now extended out of the atmosphere into space, leaving Macaria to wonder where it led to.

  She was about to turn and speak to Koroan when she heard the hum of hover engines behind them. Whipping around, she looked into the cockpit of a Nighthawk; her eyes finally stopped, meeting the vengeful gaze of her nemesis. “Celeste,” she seethed.

  *****

  Commander Ezekiel Soren drummed his fingers on the armrest of the commander’s chair on the bridge of the Raqel II. Several hours had passed since the escape of the prisoners, not to mention the destruction of the hangar bay, all of its fighters, shuttles, and other military aircraft. He was sick to his stomach as it churned. He knew that he would be severely punished for his failure to recapture Jake, Celeste, and Nichelle; maybe even be killed.

  He wasn’t sure what to do as he stood up and paced back and forth in front of the view-screen with the image of Earth on it. Fighters and shuttles flew across the screen as well. As he paced, he could feel the eyes of his subordinates looking at him. He didn’t dare look at them, not knowing if their stares were looks of compassion for what would happen to him once the queen goddess returned or whether they were concerned for their own lives as well.

  For a moment, he was tempted to issue the retreat order that would send the entire Gnol fleet back to Terrest, leaving Macaria and Koroan alone on Earth. The thought was alluring. However, he knew that he would be seen as a coward in the eyes of his crew and subordinates if he gave the order. Mustering courage, he looked up at a lieutenant working at one of the stations. “What’s the status on the repairs within the hangar bay?”

  “The engineers have managed to build a temporary plasma shield. B . . .” the lieutenant hesitated.

  “But what?”

  “But all of our fighters and shuttles were lost or damaged beyond repair.”

  Commander Soren nodded his acknowledgement. “How long?”

  The lieutenant spoke into his comlink, communicating with the lead engineer. After a couple of minutes, he looked back at Commander Soren. “Another hour or two.”

  Soren nodded. “Good. That’s better than expected.” He then turned his attention to another officer on the bridge, an attractive blonde female, Lieutenant Ameria Vealente. “Any indication of where the prisoners escaped to?”

  “Based on their trajectory,” she said, “they were headed for the country called Egypt, the same place the goddess mother is.”

  “Have you been able to establish communications with our queen yet?” Soren asked.

  “Negative, sir,” Ameria responded.

  Without responding, Soren turned back to face the view-screen. He was relieved, at least for now, that communications had not been reestablished with Macaria, but he knew that would be short lived. He continued to stare at the screen for a long moment, when something caught his eye. He walked closer to the screen and examined a spot in the western hemisphere of the planet within the country the humans called Mexico.

  There, a bright white light pulsated from the planet, growing larger by the second.

  “Commander, I’m reading two massive energy surges from the planet,” came a voice from behind him.

  “Two?” Commander Soren questioned. He was about to turn around and question the officer again when he saw another bright white explosion from the surface of the planet from the country of Egypt. He backed up to take in the full view of the planet when the ship began to tremble. “What’s going on?”

  “This can’t be possible,” said Colonel Yeatlee, his second in command.

  Soren turned to look at him. “What?”

  “The combined energy output from those two points,” Colonel Yeatlee said, pointing toward the screen, “is ten times more than the energy output from the wormhole in orbit above Terrest.”

  Soren turned back to the screen. “That’s not possible.”

  As the ship continued to shudder, two beams of light erupted from the planet’s surface. Everyone on board watched in amazement as the two beams met each other just above the atmosphere above the Atlantic Ocean. Suddenly, a concussive blast sent the ship reeling backwards. Soren fell down and then scrambled to the commander’s chair as the ship’s pilots fought to maintain control.

  Buckling himself in, he watched the screen as fighters, battle cruisers, and shuttles carrying troops on and off planet were caught in the energy wave’s wake, ripping them apart. “Evasive maneuvers,” he ordered.

  “Propulsion systems are down, Commander!” said one of the two pilots that was piloting the ship.

  Soren cursed and focused his attention back to where the two beams of light met. His eyes widened and his heart sank with the realization of what he had witnessed. A wormhole was beginning to form where the two beams met, growing at an exponential rate.

  As the wormhole grew, it amassed a tremendous amount of energy and began sucking in anything in nearby space. Gnol ships and fighters, unable to escape, were pulled in. Luckily for the Raqel II, the initial blast pushed the ship away from the wormhole’s gravity field.

  “Not again,” Commander Soren muttered, remembering the last time a miracle saved Earth from a Gnol attack. Back then, he was a lowly colonel, commanding a squadron of troops on the planet. At that time, his entire team was taken out by the miraculous meteor shower that rained down hell and destruction on the planet. He was severely wounded from the shower and his face, arms, and legs carried scars forever, reminding him of the ordeal.

  Quickly, he jerked his head toward Lieutenant Vealente. “Order the retreat!”

  Lieutenant Vealente nodded and began talking frantically into her com.

  Soren glanced back at the wormhole; it was growing so fast that it was now bigger than the wormhole that orbited Terrest. Suddenly, the Raqel II jolted forward. They were now spinning out of control toward the monster that engulfed the majority of the Gnol fleet.

  “Propulsion systems are back online!” one of the pilots shouted.

  “Get us away from that thing!” Soren ordered.

  The Raqel II continued to careen out of control toward the wormhole. Amazingly, all systems within the ship seemed to be functioning properly, thus the image of Earth and the gigantic wormhole remained on the view-screen.

  Finally, the pilots were able to get control of the ship and managed to break free from the gravity of the wormhole with the ship’s powerful thrusters.

  “Get us as far from that thing as possible,” Commander Soren ordered.

  The pilots hit the thrusters and the mother ship took off toward Earth’s moon, a safe distance from the wormhole.

  With the advanced propulsion capabilities of Raqel II’s thrusters, they made it to the moon in a matter of minutes. When the ship stopped, everyone on the bridge continued to watch in dread as the wormhole grew even larger. A handful of ships, shuttles, and battle cruisers managed to break free and made their way to the moon as well.

  “Look at the size of that thing,” a young corporal said from his station.

  Soren just stood on the bridge, dazed, staring at the wonder before him. The circumference of the wormhole now surpassed the entire circumference of Planet Earth. What was even more astonishing was that it wasn’t sucking anything in anymore. With its enormous size, it should have devoured Earth and anything else near it. In fact, damaged ships floated helplessly around its perimeter. It was the calm before the storm.

  “It’s like someone or something is controlling the wormhole and its energy,” Commander Soren said to himself.

  “What are your orders, sir?” Lieutenant Vealente asked.

  Commander Soren turned back and looked at the lieutenant with a dumbstruck look on his face. He shook his head. “I-I’m not sure.” He then looked at Colonel Yeatlee. “Can you detect Lord Chast’s and the queen’s bio-signatures?”

&nbs
p; “Negative, sir. The energy coming from that thing is blocking my scans.”

  Soren was about to speak again, when another officer pointed at the screen. “Sir, look.”

  Soren turned around and watched as a beam of light of mammoth size began to form from the two beams that created the wormhole. It formed just below the horizon of the wormhole. The beam was nearly as bright as the sun, the glare making it difficult for everyone to watch.

  Once the energy coalesced, the beam exploded into the wormhole, sending another concussive blast out in all directions. More Gnol ships exploded to pieces as the shock wave ripped through space toward them and the moon. Without any time for evasive maneuvers, the shock wave hit the ship again, causing it to shudder, but not as violently as before. After a few minutes, the trembling stopped.

  Commander Soren took a few steps toward the screen and asked, “Any idea where that beam of light is going?”

  After a few seconds, Colonel Yeatlee responded, “Based on its trajectory and if our calculations are correct, that beam is headed straight for a constellation of stars that the humans call Orion’s Belt.”

  CHAPTER 19: EARTHQUAKE

  The Great Pyramids at Giza, Egypt . . .

  Celeste scowled back through the cockpit window at Macaria. For a moment, she wanted Jake to fire at Macaria and her father, but Koroan held Calum in his arms. If Jake fired, he risked killing their son.

  “What’s going on?” Nichelle asked, amazed as she pointed to the pyramids, which were ablaze in pure white light.

  Energy beams radiated from the points of each pyramid into a point from which they merged into a single massive beam of energy, which then erupted into space. The glare of the light was so bright, in fact, that Jake had to tint the cockpit windshield, which he could do with a click of a button, so they weren’t blinded by its brightness.

  Celeste ignored Nichelle. She didn’t care what was going on. All she cared about was getting her son back. “Land the ship,” she demanded, still staring into the glowing red eyes of Macaria.

  “You’re not going out there,” Jake said. “Your strength hasn’t returned.”

  “Land it!” Celeste barked.

  “N—”

  But Jake couldn’t finish his response as the Nighthawk suddenly shuddered.

  “She’s got us!” Celeste screamed as she watched Macaria raise her arms, using her powerful telekinetic powers to grasp the ship.

  “I’ve lost control!” Jake said as he hit the controls to the cargo hold. He quickly unbuckled himself and unbuckled Celeste as well, grabbing her by the arm. “C’mon!”

  Nichelle, who stood behind them, took off first for the cargo hold. Jake and Celeste followed. They felt the ship turn sideways as Macaria turned it. Nichelle managed to jump out of the hold, but Jake and Celeste fell and rolled, slamming into the side of the cargo hold wall. They then floated through the air for a few seconds as Macaria lifted the ship rapidly and then threw it down just as fast toward the ground with all of her might.

  As soon as Jake’s boots hit the floor, he mentally locked on to Celeste and sent her flailing toward the opening of the cargo hold. Celeste flew through the air and through the cargo hold opening. She was about thirty feet in the air and falling fast toward the sandy ground around the pyramids. She braced herself for impact. Her shoulder hit the ground first, followed by intense pain as it popped out of place. She managed, however, to roll her body so that she stopped upright on one knee.

  She turned just in time to witness the large explosion of the Nighthawk in a brilliant, orange fireball. “Jake!” she screamed as she jumped to her feet.

  She had no idea if their transfigured bodies could survive the intense heat from a crash such as the one her husband had just been involved in, let alone tissue regeneration. Consequently, she feared that he might not have survived.

  Just past the flames and smoke, she saw Nichelle running toward her. “Celeste! . . . Are you okay?”

  Grimacing in pain, Celeste popped her shoulder back into place. “Go and see if Jake is okay. I am getting my son back.”

  Before she took off, Nichelle grabbed her arm. “You can’t. I don’t know about you, but I still can’t use my abilities because of our last injections. Macaria will kill you.”

  “I don’t care. She has my son!” Celeste said, jerking her arm away. She sprinted toward Macaria on the other side of the burning Nighthawk. As she ran, her gaze drifted toward the burning craft. Sadness tore through her heart, knowing the only man she ever loved was under the burning pile of twisted metal.

  With no time to grieve, she turned her attention back to Macaria, who stood waiting for her. Celeste continued to sprint as she saw her father, with Calum still in his arms, take off for the shuttle. “Dad, no!” she screamed, veering off after him.

  Celeste didn’t get far as Macaria grasped on to her telekinetically and launched her through the air. Once again, she found herself falling to the ground at a rapid rate. She turned her pain-free shoulder this time to the ground and braced for impact. Her eyes widened in fear after realizing that Macaria sent her hurtling toward the plasma energy, which was still surging around the pyramids. She hit and skidded through the sandy surface with no pain at all. After stopping, she lay there for a few seconds, surprised that she had not burned from the plasma energy’s intense heat.

  She jumped to her feet in amazement. The plasma energy was gone now from the surrounding ground and the pyramids. It now collected just above the atmosphere as a giant wormhole began to form. Dark clouds bellowed in and gusts of wind began to stir, causing the sand to swirl around her. She focused her attention back toward Macaria, who was now running toward her. She thrust her arms forward and sent a weak force in her direction.

  The invisible force barely nudged Macaria as she used her own abilities to toss Celeste to the side. Celeste flew to the side and landed with a thud as Macaria ran past her and into the Great Pyramid. She wasn’t even focused on Celeste; she wanted something within the ancient structure.

  After Celeste stumbled to her feet, she was about to chase after Macaria, but the rumbling of jet engines from behind caused her to freeze in her tracks. She turned around and saw Koroan piloting a Gnol shuttle about fifty feet in front and above her. Its gun turrets were raised and pointed at her. Her father also held Calum up with one arm, so she could see him clearly through the cockpit.

  With her eyes, she pled with her father not to hurt her son. But Koroan had a look of determination on his face, telling her that he would not only kill Calum, but kill her if she continued to interfere.

  As the wind gusts grew stronger and whipped around her, she used as much strength as she could to stay on balance. Debris and sand pelted her face and golf-ball-sized hail began to rain over her, clanking off the shielding of the shuttle. She stood there for a few minutes, not sure of what to do next. She had no strength to throw down her father’s shuttle just as Macaria did with the Nighthawk, so she decided to go after Macaria.

  She was about to turn around when she felt a stabbing pain enter her back and penetrate all the way through her stomach. She thought she heard the audible scream of her father, yelling “No!” through the cockpit of the shuttle as she looked down in horror. A double-edged sword with red plasma snaked around its blades had penetrated through her stomach.

  The blade quickly exited and she dropped to her knees, her remaining strength leaving her body. Macaria then walked in front of her as the blade extracted back into its hilt; in her other hand rested the gold plate of Terrest. Macaria stared at her with an evil expression on her face. She leaned down and whispered into Celeste’s ear, “Now, you will suffer a painful death as this world and everyone you love on it is ripped apart.” She glanced up at that gaping wormhole forming above them and then turned back to Celeste, giving her a nefarious smile.

  Macaria then turned and ran for the shuttle that Koroan struggled to land in the whipping wind. The hail continued to pour down, even denting the powerful armor o
f the ship and causing untold pain over Celeste’s body in addition to the mortal wound in her stomach.

  Koroan managed to land the ship and extended the cargo hold door. Just as Macaria reached the entrance, Koroan ran down the ramp, yelling, “What have you done!”

  Macaria snapped back at him. “She’s dead to you, remember? Or has the compassion you have for that abominable child spilled over to your daughter? Do not get sentimental, Koroan!” She then ran past Koroan and up the ramp.

  Koroan turned and looked at Celeste. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she actually saw a hint of compassion in his expression.

  “Help me, Father!” she yelled through the howling wind.

  He didn’t respond and continued to stare at her with a look that told her he didn’t have any other choice as he backed up on the cargo hold ramp. Once he arrived in the cargo hold, he pushed the button to close the doors.

  “No!” Celeste screamed in despair as the doors slowly began to close.

  As she watched, the despair of losing her husband and son, as well as the pain enveloping her body, mind, and spirit transformed into an immediate burst of energy as her transfigured body’s adrenal glands released adrenaline into her system. She sprang to her feet and ran for the shuttle, faster than she had ever run before. The shuttle left the ground just as the cargo hold ramp was about to close. Using every ounce of strength she could muster, she leapt about twenty feet into the air and caught the ramp. She pulled herself up into the cargo hold and rolled over into it just as the ramp closed and sealed shut.

  *****

  Even with Koroan’s superior strength, he struggled to maintain control of the shuttle. The wind gusts slammed against the ship along with debris and hail. He glanced over to his right. Macaria sat stone cold, staring out of the cockpit window. A surge of anger and hate raged through him as he thought of how she had just murdered his daughter in cold blood. Of course, at one time, he wouldn’t have hesitated to do the same, but not anymore. Ever since Macaria brought him back from the dead, he was different. For some reason, the end goal that she had planned for him all along just didn’t seem that important anymore.