The Anaerris Code: Part 1 The Gemma (A Gemma Sinclaris Series)

by LK Kelley

  “Why is there always a 'but' in there somewhere?” Rick muttered, still in shock.

  “Yes, there is, Rick,” Stan agreed, turning back to Kulana. “But, what?” Stan demanded.

  “But...we were ready to Terraform Earth,” he held up her hand to stop gasps of outrage, then continued...”...if it was uninhabitable for our species. When we found out that....”

  Stan flew off the handle, and interrupted, yelling at him.

  “So, you're telling me, that if Earth wasn't habitable, you would have deliberately wiped out the human race just so we could live here? Kulana, that is NOT our way, and you know it!” Stan yelled.

  At that point, Taylor had a revelation. Her eyes widened in horror as it came to her.

  “Oh, Creator!”

  “What?” Rick rushed to her side as he saw her knees buckle.

  “The war! The war, Stan!” she cried. Then, she looked at Kulana. “This was never completely about Onaerris invading Anaerris, was it? It wasn’t about the blood, either, was it? It was about that damn machine! Onaerris wanted the machine to Terraform what planet, Kulana? Anaerris? Or, Domaerra? Was that the real reason for the war?” Taylor demanded. When no answer was forthcoming from Kulana, Taylor yelled louder. “Well? Was it? Was that the reason for the war? Tell me, Kulana! All over that damn, fucking machine?”

  Kulana closed his eyes, and slowly nodded his head.

  “For the love of the Creator! What the HELL were you thinking?” Stan yelled.

  “At the time, we were thinking that no matter what happened to us, we would be able to rebuild Anaerris! It never occurred to us that there would be so few of us would be left, nor that our moon was beyond repair! The machine was developed by an Anaerris as commissioned. Then, she made a deal with someone from Onaerris.”

  “Are you telling me,” Taylor stated in a cold voice, “that we had a traitor in our midst, and you didn’t know who it was?”

  Kulana didn’t answer. Taylor realized something.

  “But, you did know, didn’t you!” she screamed, trying to jerk out of Rick’s arms, but he held onto her tightly.

  “Taylor...please! We were trying to decide where we needed to go when we received a note from the Princess telling us to find our way to Earth, informing us that she had given the crystal to the one person that she would trust, but she did not tell us who that was,” Kulana explained, continuing. “When we arrived on Earth, we were stunned to find that the planet was heavily populated. Our advanced scouts had not returned to us. We were not expecting so many humans to be here!”

  “Wait! Hold it!” Rick interrupted. “That was ten-thousand years ago! Man has always believed that man was hunter gatherer at that point!”

  “I know. It was a deliberate ruse to keep your species from knowing about the already, highly, advanced civilizations that were on the planet. Especially since we were directly responsible for helping the human species grow even more exponentially! After the great flood, we made sure that mankind would never remember any of them, nor did we leave any reference to them. Unfortunately, we couldn't erase it all. Things were found by very smart humans in archaeological digs. And, even more, humans have an uncanny capacity to pass stories, verbally, down through the ages, and we couldn't control all of them. So, the stories became legends, passing into mythology. While we were unable to keep them from knowing even a little bit, we did succeed, in a way.”

  “Go on,” Stacy encouraged Kulana. “May as well tell us the rest, because we need to have all the variables.”

  Kulana nodded.

  “When we originally arrived, as I said before, we found an island – a large one – in the middle of a newly formed, and vast ocean. It was here that we took up residence. “Azor took the name Poseidon. He was the first to fall in love with a human. He had loved all human females, and loved having sex with them. But, this one female was the love of his life, and he married her. Her name was....”

  “Cleito,” Stacy filled in the blank, earning surprised stares from everyone.

  “How did you…?”

  “Remember what Kulana just said? Humans passed their history down through repetition. When it became mythology, and writing was ‘invented’, the stories were written down.”

  Everyone stared at her.

  “What? It was a passion of mine, before I met Stan. I liked hearing the stories, and trying to figure them out!”

  “Yes. That's right. But, it was when they married that the most amazing thing happened. She had children. Not just one , but five sets of male twins! After that, he no longer wanted to be a “god”, but stepped down, and Jaxx took over the mantra of Poseidon. Their birth was a miracle! As you know, neither Onaerris nor Anaerris can have children – either with the separate races, or together. We were the 'fallen' angels that everyone talks about. And, that's almost a correct term for us. Our powers on Earth were great. Without the radiation from our home sun, they grew exponentially. Even more so, because the humans believed in us as gods. You know we thrive on worship. But, once we realized that our powers were becoming stronger and stronger, and our race was able to mate with humans, and have children, we made the decision to stay here. And, the one who held the crystal, and we still never knew who, put it somewhere on Atlantis, and as if fated, it malfunctioned. Some say due to earthquakes prior to the inundation. And, quite frankly, that makes sense.”

  “I doubt that,” Stacy said. “You're lying, Kulana.”

  Kulana's eyes narrowed at her.

  “Sometimes, I wish that Stan had never found you! Your know the truth, and that’s far too powerful for anyone!” Kulana told her. “In other words, Stacy? You're nosy!”

  Stacy ignored him, and demanded, “Kulana? What is the truth?”

  “Oh, hell! Seriously?”

  “We’re still waiting, Kulana,” Taylor said impatiently, tapping her foot.

  “Uh-huh. I’ll admit it! I give up! What you do not know is that it did not malfunction,” Kulana’s voice was exasperating.

  “It. Did. Not. Malfunction.” Stan said in a dead tone, as if talking to himself.

  “No. Somehow, Eloran found out where it was, but could not access it. So, he deliberately triggered earthquakes, hoping to activate it. He wanted to rule! With the mixing of our bloods, our own children would survive, and they were able to reproduce. So, he decided that it was time to wipe the rest of the humans off the face of the Earth. For no other reason than he felt himself superior to them. Most humans called our children ‘Nephilim’. And, of course, he was successful to a point, but humans still survived. But, the crystal was lost, but where is the question. ”

  Stan started to pace. He couldn't believe what he was hearing! They'd all been lied to for the last nine thousand years! In fact....

  “And, you let him stay on the council? What the hell, Kulana?” Stacy exclaimed.

  “Well, Babe, I wouldn't say it that way,” Stan said sarcastically. “It’s more like Damn it all to Hell and the Council should all be assigned to Damnation, first!” Turning to Kulana after he took several deep breaths. “Is the machine missing, or stolen?”

  “Like I said...we don't know what happened to it. It disappeared. We have speculated that it was lost in the deluge. Luckily, it didn’t work the way he thought, because there was nothing inside it except the ocean. Someone gave him very bad intel. I’ve worked hard, and sent people to find it. But, we've had no luck.”

  “OK. So, what makes you think it would be around here?” Taylor huffed.

  “The machine had an internal emitter. But, it never worked. Until recently. We have detected it on an extremely low frequency – too low for anyone but us to hear. We monitored it over the last several years, and have determined that it is somewhere within this area.”

  Kulana was tired, and moved to sit down on the long sofa. He dropped his head, and folded his hands. Correction. He clenched his hands together. After several minutes of quiet, he spoke.

  “Where is Jaxx?” he asked.


  The four looked at each other. Taylor shrugged, and Stan nodded.

  “He's in the mating with Gem Elwood,” she told Kulana.

  At that, Kulana's head jerked up to look at them with wide eyes.

  “Mating? Jaxx and…? Oh, fuck! How did they meet? That explains everything! And, why call her Elwood? Her last name is Sinclaerris!” Kulana shook her head.

  Taylor and Stacy looked at each other, then at the men. Turning back to Kulana, Taylor answered her by pointing to one finger at a time.

  “Sinclaerris? What the hell are you talking about? That's the name of our ruling family!”

  “Yes? And?”

  “How can she be a Sinclaerris?” Taylor was completely surprised. She did not see that one coming!

  “Because she is.” Kulana puzzled at why the obvious wasn’t clear to them.

  Taylor shook her head. She'd have to put that on the back burner right now.

  “Well, first, they met at the library almost five years ago.” Pointing to the next finger, she continued. “Next, she survived the massive storms that came through here over the last week and a half! They were weird. Of course, this is another something that we still don't understand. Wanna explain that to us as well?”

  Silence erupted. Then, a horrible thought came to Taylor.

  “Oh My God! The library! It was donated to Gem! The library belongs to the Sinclaerris family!”

  Kulana nodded and rubbed his temples. He had a headache. A massive one! He knew that Gem would mate at some point or another, but he had never believed it would be with an Onaerris! And, certainly never Jaxx, of all Onaerris! His head jerked up when he realized what Taylor had told him.

  “Wait! What storms?” Kulana said in surprise.

  “The ones that seemed to follow her everywhere she went! The library was almost destroyed. Then, her truck was damaged, but Jaxx asked Stan to fix it, since it meant so much to her. Then, that same storm's lightning burned down her house. And, two nights ago, one followed her and Jaxx to the border of his property, only lightning struck the truck causing it to wreck and impaled Gem on a tree. She was dead!” Rick told him.

  “Yeah,” Taylor continued from Rick. “Then, her wounds healed miraculously leading Jaxx to believe that she was more than the jewel.”

  Kulana had to ask.

  “The Jewel? What are you not telling me?” He paused, then jumped up, and his eyes became wild as if he was trying to find a way out of the house. He knew the answer, but still, “I demand you tell me!”

  ~ 13 ~

  “Have you heard the one about that fan that gets shit thown at it?” ~ Gem

  “I asked you what are you not telling me? Don’t try my patience any further!” he warned them, after a prolonged silence.

  Taylor's head was spinning like a top. So, she decided to take each issue one at a time, starting with Kulana's declaration that Elwood was not Gem’s name. And, until she had the entire story, there was no way in hell she was going to out Gem!

  “Wait a minute, Kulana. There's too much going on, so no. We will not telly you anything without answers first! So, let's begin with why you said Gem’s name was Sinclaerris?”

  Kulana sighed. This was really going to be a mess!

  “You may as well all sit down. It is going to take a while to explain.”

  “Oh, sure! Like nothing else took time, or was hard to explain!” Stacy muttered under her breath.

  Everyone sat down except for Kulana, who paced back and forth, trying to figure out how to explain it to them.

  “I'll have to start at the beginning, or it won't make any sense,” she turned to them.

  “What you are about to hear has been kept a secret since before we left Anaerris. It was not my secret to tell, but a very select few knew about it.”

  “Cut the crap, Kulana! Spill it!” Taylor demanded.

  “Huh? Crap? Spill?” Kulana was really puzzled by the slang.

  “Never mind. Forget it! Just begin.”

  “Once the Terraforming machine had been built, we were betrayed by one of our own,he notified the Onaerris that we had it,” Kulana told them. “There were only about five of us who knew the entire truth, and we would never have told a soul. But, it was still enough for Princess Analyse to trust us – even after her transformation.”

  “Transformation?” Stan asked. “What transformation?”

  “Yes. You see, Analyse had fallen for another – an Onaerris, to be exact.”

  “Say what? You're saying our own Princess fell for an Onaerris? How is that even possible?” Taylor asked.

  “I know! I know!” Kulana waved his hand at Taylor to drop her questions. “At this point, it doesn't matter. When we were told, we were sworn to secrecy about it. By 'we' I mean the King and Queen, myself and Faerron.”

  He began to pace, again.

  “Yes. Secrecy,” he said as if to himself. “What none of us foresaw was that our Princess would also be killed by an Onaerris.”

  “The one she was in love with?” Stacy asked stunned.

  “No. By another. On the last day of the battle, she was perched atop a bluff at the edge of the peach sea – or at least where the peach sea had been. We had used the machine to drain the ocean just before the first attack, because we had received intel of the actual day and time. Anyway, her transformation was on that day by her Onaerris lover. Analyse had been on the bluff, when a rogue Onaerris drove a spear though her back, gutting her.”

  Both Stan and Taylor gasped in horror, while Stacy eyes bugged out, and slapped her hand over her mouth in horror.

  “Yeah, well, the one who ran her ‘s was the Uncle of Jolinaer, Prince of Onaerris, and Analyse’s mate. In Jolinaer's anger at his own uncle, he cut his head off, then dropped to the ground to hold his love.”

  “She and the Prince? Jolinaer? Holy shit! How did that happen?” Stan asked, then wave his hand at her. “Go on. We'll talk after you finish.”

  “Yeah. We will,” Taylor narrowed her eyes at Kulana.

  Continuing, Kulana told them the rest of it, and what she told them shocked them even more than anything they had ever even imagined.

  “Analyse was dying. There was no coming back from a spear of Onaerris, as you know, because our weapons are coated with a poison that can kill us. OK. I digress. You see, Jolinaer had offered to turn her into a Demon like him during their time together. Of course, she had refused every time – except this one. She either changed, or died, and her precious cargo would die as well.”

  “OK. I'm almost afraid to ask, but what cargo?” Rick asked.

  “Something that was impossible. Totally and completely impossible! No one had ever foreseen it, because it had never happened before!” He paused for effect. It was obvious that he was ready to lower the boom on all four of them.

  “Kulana! What?” Stan almost yelled.

  And, the boom was lowered!

  “The precious cargo? Oh. Right. The Cargo. Princess Analyse was pregnant with Jolinaer's child.”

  Four mouths dropped open. The silence was deafening. All of them were sitting in complete disbelief. No Anaerris nor Onaerris had ever been able to procreate!

  “WHAT? You said WHAT? No! Impossible! Not possible! That is a lie! It has to be! Pregnancy can't happen with any of the ‘fallen’! It's not possible, Kulana!” Taylor gasped in shock.

  “I know. We said the same thing, but it was true. Analyse was pregnant, and the only lover she had was Jolinaer. When she realized that she was throwing up – morning sickness I think the humans call it – she was so excited that she told our King and Queen, her Father and Mother. Faerron and I were called in, and told about it. The shock and surprise was so great, we ran around for three days with smiles all over our faces. Of course, we were asked over and over what the hell was going on, but we never told a soul! Not that we didn’t want to tell everyone, since it was so monumental! They had already realized that they would have to leave, but refused to give the destination to anyone. The battle began the f
ourth day after they told us. Well, to continue. Analyse was dying, of course, and it was then, and only then, that she agreed to the change. Jolinaer bit her, drained her, then gave her his blood, which, as you all know, is the only way another can be changed into”...

  “A toothy monster?” Stacy finished for him, rolling her eyes.

  Kulana huffed, then continued.

  “We still do not know where they went, but they disappeared into history, never to be seen again.”

  “You mean you really don't know?” Taylor asked to which Kulana shook his head.

  “Faerron believes that they fled to the Fae realm. Analyse was great friends with the Fae Queen. It was there that we believe she delivered a child – a little girl. These rumors ran wild. You know that time passes differently within the Fae realm than any other realm. I also believed that the child was brought to Earth by a Fae, and when grown, as the legend says, she would mate with an Onaerris, thereby allowing the royal lines of both worlds to continue. The combined blood lines would give her powers beyond anyone from both races. She would, then, become the most powerful being in history – all universal history. It was said that she would be called the “Anaerris Jewel”, and would be charged with a book – codex – of Anaerris, which was written by Analyse and Jolinaer. When it was time, the Jewel would find it, and it would set off a chain of events that was designed to change our entire universe.”

  “Into what?” Rick muttered.

  There was silence as Taylor, Rick, Stan, and Stacy contemplated Kulana's incredible revelation. Not only was Gem their friend, but this, combined with what they knew about Gem, confirmed that Gem was the Anaerris Jewel. Try as they might to wrap this around their heads, it was completely difficult despite the proof that Jaxx and Taylor had found her. Kulana saw Taylor's expression, and his eyes widened.

  “You know, don't you? She found the book, didn't she, Taylor? Stan? You must tell me!” Kulana demanded. “She is in grave danger from Eloran!”

  The two looked at each other, and back at Kulana. Both nodded their heads.