"What is this great expedition?"
"Remora is a place comprised of individuals who wanted to change the world. And they all did, in their own way. That's why they live in peace and harmony with everything around them. Mark wants to expand Remora's idea of a Triangle Society around Eden, but I don't think he quite understands the gravity of that request."
"So what about you? What did you do to change the world?"
She looked away from me and smiled as she gazed into the star-drowned sky. I haven't seen so many stars since I visited Rayden's countryside as a boy.
"I live on Dilo. I am not a citizen yet; I was only brought to Remora to meet you."
"Why me though? Just what the hell is so special about me? This stupid reaction sure has all you nerds interested."
"You are not a stupid reaction, you are an answer to a question that mankind has asked for a very, very long time."
"Whatever. I am so tired of hearing this shit," I muttered as I lit up the cigarette Virgil gave me earlier. Helena then walked up directly next to me and pulled it out of my mouth.
"You are childish. You have to start really thinking about who and what you want to be. What do you want to be, Collin?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know when I don't know anything about myself!"
"You will learn tomorrow, I promise."
"What do you want to be! You want to expose my condition? So you can live in this paradise?"
"You have a very negative opinion concerning my motives. You want to know what I want?"
"Yeah. I said that. That was a question, I didn't stutter."
"All I want is to be happy for the rest of my life, as if that were so much to ask for."
I took a step back, had to catch my breath—she stole it. It wasn't just that she was beautiful, she was smart, and I actually felt like I could trust her. Then she would say things like that. Those words stayed with me, like a scar from before the genome, I would carry those words with me for life.
She ran her soft hand down my arm continuing to study my tattoos; I could not help but ask her the question.
"Why are you so interested in me?"
She smiled and backed up slightly. "You have this presence to you, I can feel it. You've already inspired billions upon billions of people, making history in the PGL. You can't let that go to waste. I just know we launched this expedition to find you. Arcoh stumbled upon you by—"
I gently removed her hand from my own and gave her my direct attention.
"Unfortunate coincidence—let's leave it at that; Helena, I'm not what you are looking for."
"Collin, this world, this galaxy, is ours; if we don't shape it somebody else will. For what it's worth, I think all of humanity would agree that someone like you should shape it over a monster like Arcoh."
"I just don't know how I could ever gather the courage and resources to face him."
"Mark has the resources, don't you worry about that. You said earlier you'd follow me anywhere. Is that still true?"
"I am a man of my word, Helena."
"Then follow me to the temple, and maybe we can both gain some insight on what to do in this life. Promise me you'll do this."
"I promise."
"Then let's go to bed, tomorrow is going to be the longest day of your life. Possibly literally—a Remoran day lasts seventy-six hours."
- ACT II -
THE GREAT EXPEDITION
CHAPTER 7 - WRATH OF THE KING
I was rudely awoken by a very loud and persistent knock on my door. I slept for twelve hours. For the first time in weeks I slept.
They posted me up in the city's only guest housing, reserved for those like Mark, Victoria, and Silas, and people applying for citizenship, in the isolated paradise the people of Remora had created for themselves.
The room was simply exquisite. Twenty-foot ceilings carved of marble, and lined with limestone pillars. Artwork created by the locals was woven into every visible orifice; this gave the room a very dynamic quality, oh, and how could I forget the view?
This island on Remora has nearly perfect weather; the surface with the breeze stays around twenty-three degrees Celsius year-round. It is always warm and cozy and rains only ever so often. So all of the buildings in the ocean city are built openly. For instance, in my room, when I awoke, roughly ten meters ahead of me, was my balcony. I could feel the benevolent ocean breeze brush against my body as I awoke. The sensation was incredible.
So. Despite the fact I was so rudely interrupted, I was feeling so good after my rest, that I only threw a minor temper tantrum. "Collin! Hey, Collin! Wake up! We're running late!"
"Hold on, damn it! I'm up! I'm up, you idiot!"
I jumped out of my king-sized bed, in my marble-crafted room, and managed to throw on a pair of pants before I rushed towards the decorated double doors.
"What! What do you want! I was slee—"
I stopped in midsentence when I saw that it was her. Helena just simply smiled and cocked her head sideways towards me.
"Hey. You're up."
"Yeah, uh sorry about—"
"Get dressed. We have to get going; we need to eat."
"Right. One moment."
I quickly put on my jacket and my specialized boots that Virgil had given to me on the Alexandria. I rushed towards the door, Helena was quick to get us moving.
We walked down the hallway of the guest house and came across a strange sight. I heard some yelling in the room ahead of us. Then, out of the room ran a very large man, dressed in nothing but his drawers. He covered his chest and ran down the hallway—crying hysterically.
I recognized him as the man Victoria was talking to at the club the other night. So I was not surprised to see her stroll out of her room wearing black lingerie and shouting, "Where are you going, big boy? We haven't even started yet!"
Helena covered her expression of laughter and I stared, disgusted, at Victoria as we quickly made our way by her.
"My god! You are terrifying!"
"Get out of my face!" She tried to swing at me but missed, and we quickly made our way down the hall and out into the streets.
Victoria sighed and lit up a cigarette. She had a few moments to enjoy the drag before her holoband began flashing red.
***
[-
-The Citadel of Angelides-
There the five of them stood, in shock and awe of the unfolding events before them. Earlier, Victoria picked up a signal broadcasted from the crew that was transporting the gravity weapon. She quickly gathered Mark and headed to the citadel where they could present their problem to the Triangle—the founders of Remoran society. They are rumored and considered the wisest individuals in the human race—having been around since the departure from Mother Earth, and the original date of the first Alpha Genome prototype.
"The crew that was transporting the gravity weapon experienced a turbine failure in their half-light reactor. As a result, they were only able to travel 30 percent of their original speed, taking them three times longer to get to us." Mark began, then nodded towards Victoria.
"Here's our situation. What you are watching on this screen is one of my soldiers, cowering in a closed space, the feed is live—390 minutes ago, given the distance. They were hijacked by the crusader fleet."
The Crusader warships roared furiously behind the jacket transporting the colossal gravity weapon. At 37,000 kilometers a second, and with a fully functional half-light reactor, the crusader ships had no issues matching their speed across the open plain of space.
The crusader ships fired anchors that pierced the armor of the transport. The anchors dug deep into the hull of the jacket, and began to bring the transport to a halt, using the reverse turbines of the half-light reactor.
This is where the transmission began.
"They've killed everyone. That's what he said—the engineer you see hiding in the closet."
Doctor Reselles then bolted out of his chair, rubbed his glasses on his
red vest, and pointed directly at the screen. "Look!"
The broadcast of the engineer took an interesting turn when he was pulled out of the locker he was hiding in. He found himself lying on the floor, staring up the barrel of an assault rifle. I'm sure this came as no surprise that they let him live, at least so their king could have this moment with Mark.
Arcoh walked casually over to the engineer and waved aside the pawn who was pointing the rifle at him. The engineer attempted to stand, but Arcoh bent down, and persisted.
"Oh please, there is no need to get up, good sir. You are fine right where you are. Kick your feet up, relax."
The engineer then shot a stare at Arcoh, and began pleading for his life. "Please, I . . . I don't know what you want, but—"
"Shut up."
"I don't know anything, I'm just an engineer, I—"
"Shut. Up."
"I will be of no help. Please let me go. I have a family."
"SHUT UP! Shut up! Shut up!"
Arcoh then began beating the engineer with his bare fists as he continued to speak. "I - don't - like - repeating - MYSELF!"
Arcoh sighed and then saw the blood on his white gloves. He shook his head in disappointment, and snapped his fingers at one of his soldiers. After a soldier came up to him to hand him a new pair of gloves, he addressed the engineer.
"I don't care if you can hear me, because I know you are recording. You are broadcasting to them. I have a message I want to deliver to your Good Commander, as they call him."
Arcoh then ran his hands through his oily, jet-black hair, and formed it into a straight fashion. He smiled and even laughed slightly as he began to explain his threat.
"Mark. I am hurt. My dear old friend. Why did you take my prize away from me? You have angered me to a point where . . . where . . . where I have become violent! SO violent! You have no idea what you have done! NO IDEA! And you will have no idea of the kind of hell I am about to make you—and all of Remora—experience!"
Mark and the others were speechless. Silence can be immensely horrifying for most people in situations such as these. I'm sure that at least Mark felt that—knowing what could come next.
Arcoh ceased his outrage and gathered himself before he would kneel down, and speak directly into the camera, implementing a soft tone to his voice. “The thing about violence, it is progress. One wins, one does not. And, I'm afraid that, this is just one of these situations, old buddy. It's natural selection—conflict is the only way we can survive. Because it challenges us. But, you, Mark, the Good Commander, you will not be a challenge, you will be exercise.
"You will not beat me, and now that I have your precious weapon, I promise that I will bring the weight of the world down on your shoulders. You will collapse under my wrath. You will lose everything. You took that boy out of my hands.
"You stand no chance, I will not accept surrender. This is not a threat—this is a guarantee. This is fate. I will see you soon, old friend."
Arcoh smiled and moved his head directly to the side, while the soldier behind him raised his firearm, and fired a round into the camera, and through the eye of the technician. Effectively ending the feed, and turning the holoscreen projection into static.
"Commander?"
Have you ever had a moment in life, where you knew you were missing something, and that it would hurt when you found out? Call it a momentary lapse in judgment. You knew something bad was going to happen, but you chose not to believe in the consequences. And it felt terrible, did it not? Mark didn't make the wrong decisions, but he had his doubts. He was struck with a sort of paralysis, precisely how I felt there in that field of ashes on Minerva. Profound it is to be speechless.
"How did this happen?"
"I'll tell you exactly how it happened! You have a spy in your fleet, Commander Wyman," Reselles said as he shot over a glare to Mark.
"No, it can't be. The soldiers of the moons are the most loyal in all of Eden." Mark walked up to the half-circle table and placed himself in the middle of the conversation. Reselles sighed and tapped his fingers together and looked towards Lady Angelides.
"Where outsiders gather so do ideals of identity, you know that this is poison to Remoran society. Not all men are as selfless as you are, Mark. That is one of the two reasons we appointed you to defend our planet. The second reason was to protect our interests in paving ways to new and healthy ideals of social, and personal evolution. Our primary concern is order and civility among our people, and my fellow leaders. I fear that if news of this act of terror reaches our citizens—there will be a panic."
"Mark, if we don't stop him."
Mark knew the significant power of the weapon, a tool of boundless power. He knew that he should have left it in the ocean where he found it. He was beginning to realize how careless he had been. How much damage his negligence would cost.
"We did not create this expedition in order to wage war against the largest nation in Eden!" Reselles shouted.
"I will do everything it takes to ensure we are not destroyed by our own weapon! That I can promise you!"
"Enough." Lady Angelides, still dressed in light, laid her hand on Mark's shoulder and broke her silence. "Mark knows what he has done, I know that he would do anything to protect us. He wants to fix this, I say we let him."
"My lady, surely you cannot condone war against the Kingdom of Salaras."
The lady nodded to Mark, who spoke out in a slower tone, obviously still quite disturbed, and embarrassed by his failure as a military leader.
"I'm sorry that this happened. We had to save them. I can't stand the feeling that the decency of humanity is fading away."
Reselles spoke out against the commander in defiance. "Why again did we rescue those degenerates?"
"Mr. Reselles, their death tolls account for 7 percent of the entire human race. It most certainly would have spread to our sector had it not been stopped. I have already given the speech to my soldiers. This expedition will continue as planned.
"The war against the Kingdom of Salaras has always been inevitable, so we will travel to Gannon, and ask the president of the GDR for the assistance of their great armada. In the meantime, we will help rebuild what Arcoh's crusade has taken from the people of Eden."
After sitting for so long in silence, the fifth member finally spoke up—a conduit, an ambassador to Father Cyrus, the tip of the Triangle.
"What do you say, Father? You are the deciding vote."
The hooded conduit—those who were the mortal voice of Father Cyrus himself. From what I understood this Father Cyrus was merged with our technology, and had attained transdimensional abilities. He couldn't be seen by the human eye, due to his transcendence over a thousand years ago, so he had these conduits, projections of hooded monks like those who surrounded the Temple of the Void.
"Was this expedition all an effort to form a front against the Kingdom of Salaras, Commander Wyman?"
Mark let out a sigh, and redirected his stare out to the all-encompassing open balcony. All of it gently smothered by the beautiful weather covering the city. "In a way yes, but not only. The lady has already stated: we are striving to provide the children of Eden with better opportunities than the ones we were dealt. I want them to be able to sleep in their beds knowing that they don't have the fear of waking up to a world on fire."
Doctor Reselles adjusted his glasses and looked towards Mark. "Do you hope to accomplish this with the help of this Collin King? What does he have to do with your great expedition, Commander?"
Father Cyrus looked down as Lady Angelides spoke for this situation. "You have no right to drag this boy into your quest for galactic retribution, Commander. We all agree on the great expedition, but this one boy, what could he possibly do?"
Mark looked down and after a long silence he responded as a smile came over his face.
"You see, he is the answer to the question we have been seeking for so long. He is proof that we can do better. The decadence of isolation, and fear, is killing t
he human race. He knows how to draw a crowd, and people will follow behind. You will see, I promise you—his evolution will change everything. People will follow him because of who and what he is. You cannot possibly imagine how significant he is."
The conduit looked intrigued as the figure leaned in towards the table.
"I plan on seeing him shortly, and what question does he answer Commander?"
"Why do we deserve to live, when we destroy everything we create?"
"Ha, how cliché, Commander. I like it, but if you foul this up—another race will die. This Arcoh, he seems to be a man on the edge of insanity; he'll do everything he can to claw his way out, and secure this misplaced sense of greatness he hopes to acquire. Be wary, Mark, he is very unpredictable, and capable beyond anything you can imagine."
"I understand the risks involved, and thank you for the warning. There is much to be done, we will ascend back into the heavens within the hour. Father? If you could please, when you meet Collin, tell him where he can find us."
***
We were walking for what felt like hours. Maybe I had been spoiled by artificial gravity my whole life—I felt heavier on this world. Normally it would not have been a problem, thanks to PGL training. I hate to admit this, but my injuries at the time were slowing me down. I had not fully recovered from all that happened on Minerva—I don't think I ever will fully recover.
The gravity on my injuries, especially on my leg that Legate Ivan broke, took a serious toll on my mobility. I admit, I felt a little intimidated when I saw that Helena had barely broken a sweat.
"Hurry up, slowpoke!" she shouted.
"This heat is killing me."
"It's 24.7 degrees Celsius, with a light breeze. You couldn't ask for better weather!"
"It's the gravity, I need to stop for a moment."
A New Divide (Science Fiction) Page 9