by Stone,Kord
Each of them took it in turn to dawn their armor. It was strange however, if they drew their weapon they would vanish as they did before, but after holstering the weapon the hood would always drop as well.
Jerren called out a few minutes later, “Let’s move on to hand to hand combat.”
Eneria looked at Jerren questioningly and Jerren replied, “I’d feel better if I knew you were able to protect yourselves if you’re attacked.”
Eneria smiled up at Jerren, which made his heart thrash in his chest. She had not let that side of her show since the incident, and Jerren found that he had missed it a great deal.
“I do not think that will be a problem. I am well aware of many methods of self-preservation.” Eneria said looking confident in her skills.
Jerren frowned, he didn’t want to hurt Eneria’s feelings, but self-defense took discipline and a lot of training. Sighing Jerren said, “Alright, show me what you know.”
They both went into full armor and began the rounds. Eneria had great footwork and was able to fend off all of his attacks as well as land a few well-placed hits. Jerren knew if he had not been armored, he would have had more broken ribs, or have been in pain for weeks at the very least.
Jerren moved around jabbing and dodging for another few minutes, and was still unable to land a single blow, and circling her, Jerren waited for her to make a mistake. Eneria made an unbalanced cross step and seemed to falter and he attacked.
Jerren realized a second too late that the move had been a deliberate ruse to draw him in. In that second Jerren found himself flying through the air and he landed several feet away with a thud. Eneria, Jason, Alise, Justin and Calia rushed to his side and his hood came down. At first it must’ve looked as if he were crying. But they soon realized it was laughter.
Jerren sat up, “Damn, you’re good. Where did you learn that?
Calia chuckled from beside Eneria, and answered for her, “Flintis?” she made her statement into a question.
Jerren looked at Eneria questioningly. “Who’s Flintis?”
Eneria nodded and said, “Flintis was the grand master mon’chi in the Heike temple at Lantis.”
Alise sounded impressed as she said, “He only took one new student every couple of hundred years. Your commander must have been very impressive to have him as his master.”
Calia chuckled again and everyone looked her way. Calia looked at Eneria apparently for permission to tell them what she knew, and Eneria nodded.
Calia then smiled and stated, “Eneria’s commander was not trained by Flintis. He was… Flintis.”
It was obvious Calia and Alise were in awe over the man, and Jerren wanted to know more about him, “I can see he was a great fighter if your skills are any indication, but what made him so revered?”
Alise said, “Flintis was the only tenth level Grandmaster in at least thirty different forms of what you refer to as the martial arts. My first commander Andel told me once he was chosen to be a student as a child, but on the day he was to begin his training however, Andel was turned away at the door, and he was never given a reason why.” Alise looked at Eneria questioningly.
Eneria shook her head, “Flintis never discussed his former students. I always felt there may have been a student that betrayed him, but he refused to speak of his students good or bad.”
“Did you ever sift through his memories?” Alise asked.
“No, but not for a lack of trying. He had a very high synaptic functionality that blocked me out. I could only see what he allowed me to.”
Jerren smiled, “That’s the commander you were referring to before?”
Eneria smiled and nodding back at him she said, “Yes.”
Alise looked confused as she asked, “We were told he was sequestered in the temple for thousands of years. One day he just stopped being seen in public. I thought he died in the blast at Lantis.”
Calia shook her head, “No that story was fabricated, Flintis had lived a very long time. As a matter of fact, he was one of the first to undergo the chlorophyll procedure after the Lantins discovered it. Atlas was very close to him as were the kings who ruled Lantis after Atlas abdicated his rule. And when Flintis reached out and told Atlas he needed to get away from public contact, Atlas put Flintis on the top of his list of replacement commanders.”
Alise looked confused, “Atlas was going to let Flintis replace him on TDS 3?”
“No. On occasion if a commander was killed and they did not have a replacement commander, Atlas would assist in the new placement. He did so with TDS 5 on three occasions. One of those times with Flintis. Then thirty thousand years later with Baelentus. We helped out with the other ships quite a bit come to think of it.”
Alise shook her head, “You never had to do that with my ship before.”
Calia grinned and with a chuckle she said, “Yes we did, on three occasions as a matter of fact. Each time you were accompanying the commander off of the ship and you both died.”
Jason moaned, “The Albatron?”
Calia looked at Jason and nodded. “Yes, and on Nerroth as well as Baeton.”
Alise’s shocked look turned to concern, “How did you intervene?”
The first and last times were relatively easy, With the Albatron we simply waited for the disk to pass through its digestive tract, the last was just a matter of retrieving the commander’s body. Nerroth, on the other hand had almost killed Atlas in the process. After the fire geyser erupted, your commander’s body and your disk went down into a lava filled crevice, and it proved quite difficult retrieving.”
“How did my program get re-integrated with the ship? Until recently we didn’t think the TDS ships could be in close proximity to one another,” Alise said with apparent interest.
“You are right; we couldn’t get close to the ships. To answer your question, we would send the disk drifting in space. It is kind of interesting. Once floating in space the disk begins drifting, and the disk is drawn toward the ship and would pick up speed the closer it got. Once the disk came in contact with the hull of the TDS the AI would reintegrate. When the AI was reintegrated, Atlas and I would wait to see if the AI would set off to retrieve a new commander if the beacon indicated they had a replacement or send out a call for help. If a call was made, we would assist in placing a new commander.” Calia ended with a shrug as if to say it was a common practice.
“Why were we never informed? I always thought the ship somehow retrieved my programming,” Alise asked.
“Atlas never considered it anything special, he just figured it was part of his job and left it at that,” Calia finished with a shrug.
Alise walked over and hugged Calia, “Thank you anyway,” Alise pulled back and asked, “How did you get notified of the ships being in trouble if I was not onboard?”
“When the incident happened with Flintis and I needed assistance, I sent out a request for help. But I was still active and able to do it.” Eneria stated.
“Eneria is right,” Calia agreed, “If the AI program is active and not deactivated with the commander’s death they can send out a request if there is no replacement commander. But if as happened in your case, that both AI and commander died, the ship sends out an automated beacon to the nearest ship, in it there is a commander replacement status. We always seemed to be the closest, and I do not know if any other ships ever had to retrieve a new commander or an AI.”
Jason said, “That might explain why there were no alarms from TDS 2 and TDS 4.”
Jerren looked at his brother, “What do you mean?”
“Remember Alise and Calia told us that if these ships are knocked off of the pyramids generator beam, the ship will power down, and that is what we did to TDS 5.
“Well if TDS 2 and TDS 4 were knocked off the beam like the Toralins boasted, then it stands to reason the alarm was never sent. That could be why they were unable to contact either of the other ships for assistance,” Jason looked at Alise who nodded in apparent agreement.
E
neria smiled, “Well at least we do not have to worry about that any longer. The master control room seems to reset the ships power systems pretty fast. Instead of three days for a reset like I expected, it only took two hours at most.”
The group spent the rest of their time going over defensive maneuvers with the others, and then Calia looked around the room, “Unless we have anything else to do in here, we may want to get back to the ships. It is not as if they are moving without us.”
They all agreed and reentered Jerren’s ship with a familiar blur. Calia said, “The meal will be on our ship in four hours. We will see you there.”
Once everyone was gone Eneria turned to Jerren and asked, “What was that remark about the ships not moving? I checked and we are still headed to Earth.”
Jerren chuckled and told her, “Check the time differential between when we left the ship and came back aboard.”
Eneria got a puzzled look and said, “It is only off by a second, but we were in there for well over three hours.”
Jerren said. “That’s what Calia was referring to, time is not moving in that room. When we’re in there, these ships for all intent and purposes are at a standstill.”
Eneria looked confused a moment, then she asked, “If that is the case, then how were Alise, Calia, Jason, and Justin able to enter the void storage before we exited? We were in there before they entered, so we should have exited before they even entered the void storage.”
Jerren thought about it a moment, then said, “Your guess would be as good as mine.” He looked down at Eneria and added, “It may have something to do with these body suits.” Jerren thought to test that theory and with a wave of his hand, Jerren was standing there bare as could be.
Smiling at the look Eneria was giving him, Jerren said, I am going back in there without the suit, if I’m not back in a second, then summon my body suit and come in to get me.” And Jerren stepped back into the Void storage.
Jerren waited in the void storage for what felt like five minutes, and he added an extra minute just in case he had counted a little fast, but Eneria still hadn’t come into the void storage after him, so he called for the archway to his ship, and stepped through.
Once back on his ship Jerren asked, “So?”
“You only just entered and came right back out,” Eneria replied.
Jerren nodded and explained that he had been in there for over five minutes before returning, and he said, “It would appear as if I was correct; there must be some kind of temporal alignment when we are wearing these suits.” Jerren performed a phased swipe, and a moment later he was back in his body suit.
Eneria took hold of Jerren’s hand and gave it a squeeze.
Looking down at Eneria Jerren raised a brow at her and asked, “Does this mean you are going to stop ignoring me now?”
“I am still afraid—”
“I know you’re afraid you will injure me, and now I know why you believe that. But you need to understand that I know accidents happen. I don’t believe for a minute that you would intentionally injure me.”
Eneria began to speak and he placed a finger on her lips as he continued, “the emotional separation over this past week has caused me far greater pain than any physical injury. I want you to move back to my… no our room, and if it will make you feel better I will sleep in my armor, not that I believe I need to.” Jerren said firmly.
Eneria smiled, apparently understanding him, and she eyed him from head to toe before saying, “I can think of another way aside from the Void storage to alter the perception of time.”
Jerren’s heart began thrashing again, he looked at Eneria very interested in learning how she was going to accomplish this, and was a bit surprised a second later when there was a flash and they were standing in the bedchamber.
Jerren was looking down at Eneria’s naked form and said, “You’re right, this does effect the passage of time greatly,” grinning over the pleasure he was going to show Eneria, Jerren scooped her up and took her for a ride in their four-poster time machine.
*****
A while later Jerren rolled to his side a bit out of breath but with a cat that ate the canary grin plastered on his face.
Eneria looked at him quizzically, “You’re not intimidated by the fact I am able to defend myself?”
Jerren chuckled and replied, “Neither intimidation or jealousy regarding your skills make sense to me. I’ve a great respect for anyone who has the discipline you’ve shown… You had to of known your skills far exceeded my training, and instead of just humiliating me in seconds, you tested the bounds of my training.”
Eneria smiled, “I think Flintis would have liked you, and that is saying a lot. Aside from his students, he would only converse with a rare few individuals.” Eneria considered what to tell Jerren and continued, “I told you Flintis had a powerful mind. Well, it went much further than that. He had some very impressive abilities far above his skills in combat. He could see people… really see them.
“He once told me he was never in a hurry to find a new student, and flat out refused to take some. I am not sure if Andel was one of them,” Eneria said thinking Jerren was going to ask.
Jerren nodded and she continued, “It took Flintis almost three hundred years of getting to know me before he decided to train me.”
Jerren furrowed his brow, and then smiled and stated, “Flintis didn’t just give you the information… I like that. I was thinking you had learned it due to the bonding process.”
Eneria smiled, “No, Flintis once told me ‘nothing given is worth taking and only through intense and sometimes painful learning, hard work and steadfast devotion can one truly benefit and reach a higher understanding.’ That was followed by a smack to my head that I still have no recollection of seeing.” Eneria laughed.
Jerren smirked and said, “He sounds like he was a deep man. What happened to him? If you don’t mind my asking.”
Eneria frowned, “I am not really sure what happened, he had been meditating in the observation level and he called out to me one day. He told me to set a course for SOL—”
“SOL?” Jerren asked.
“I am sorry, SOL is the abbreviation for the ancient name for the solar system that Earth is in. The full name is Solis v… this is odd, I used to know the full name.”
Jerren nodded and Eneria continued, “Flintis never told me what had happened or why we were headed there, just that he needed to get there fast. We had arrived and Flintis called for me.
“I appeared in the Dojo and he placed a hand on my head and said. ‘Great pain is on the way. You must endeavor to endure it. Remember peace can be found within.’ He turned away then back to me, took my face in both of his hands and said, ‘Love, given freely is the only thing worth taking. When you find love, you shall be whole again’. I remember thinking I had no idea what that meant. He had a very saddened look on his face as he turned away from me, then I felt a course of energy and Flintis just vanished without a trace.” A tear fell from her eye and she wiped it away.
“You loved him?” Jerren asked.
Eneria fought back the tears and replied, “No… I did not know what love was at the time. When he vanished I felt saddened by his absence. And for a while I thought that is what he meant by great pain. I was disillusioned of that notion however when Enyali and her family captured Baelentus,” Jerren took her hand and she could feel some of the pain from the memory recede.
Eneria forced a smile and continued, “The reason for the tears is because I now know what he meant about love making me whole. I always suspected Flintis could see future events and after what has happened to me and how I am today, I am almost positive he could.”
Eneria took Jerren’s other hand in hers, “The power surge I felt from Flintis when he vanished is the same feeling I get every time I look at you or when you hold me in comfort or even when I am thinking of you.
“I never felt it before and didn’t have any reference. But I know now it is love that Flintis fe
lt for me. Which thinking back on it I find kind of strange, because I never had a gender, he must have loved me for my wit.” Eneria said with a smirk, and she felt the emotions rolling off of Jerren when she made her declaration.
“So, you love me?” Jerren asked.
Eneria nodded, “I have felt this way since the moment I activated the bonding process. It was only now, recounting what Flintis told me that I know what it truly means. It was causing me a great deal of pain separating myself from you, and I am sorry I did that to you, I love you.”
Jerren pulled Eneria closer in a tight embrace and said, “I feel it also, and I love you very much as well.”
Eneria chuckled and replied, “I know,” and she stretched up and planted a kiss on him.
Chapter Seventeen
Jerren and Eneria had been meeting with the others on one ship or the others for the past five days, working on possible incursion scenarios, and TDS 1 was about to enter range of the second probe Alise had launched after she had picked up Jason. So Jerren, Eneria, Justin and Calia were aboard TDS 1 to finalize the mission plan.
Jerren was looking at the display and after all of the time jumping back and forth he knew he was looking at Earth, but he really wasn’t sure when he was looking at it. So he asked, “Alise, what’s the Earth date down there?”
Alise said, “By the current Earth calendar it would be August first two thousand eleven. Just before all of you came over, the ship time jumped. Neither Jason or I did it, so we think Inola wants us here at this time for all of this.”
Jerren nodded and Alise turned and asked, “Eneria, did you see where on Earth Anubisis is likely to be?”
Eneria walked over to the display showing Earth. Anubisis has two locations that Osiris knew of. One is here.” Eneria pointed to the desert in the general location of Area 51, “I remember having to transport him down there a few times. Enyali wanted to know what he was up to down there, but like I said before, I had to destroy my probes before we found out anything, and she was too much of a coward and afraid of Anubisis’s retaliation to go down and look for herself. And the other location is here,” she pointed to the southwestern coast at the center of Italy.