The Lover's Parable Through A Seven World Journey

by Millerson, Brady

  “So, what’s the plan, Commander?” John asked as Stephen took a seat beside him.

  “I’m not exactly sure. Command wrote on the com-system that communication wasn’t secure enough. Our orders are with that man down there,” he said, motioning with his eyes to the awaiting soldier.

  As Sofia reached the back of the vehicle, she pulled her pack from the hook on the wall. Crawling upon her knees to keep her balance during the turbulent drive, she was about to drag it to the doorway when Maryanne took hold of her by the arm.

  “Do you still trust him, Sofia?” she whispered.

  Finding it difficult to make eye contact with her due to the forceful nature of her tone, Sofia nodded her head, saying, “I know he’s a little different from the last time I saw him. And I know that you don’t trust him, but…”

  “But, nothing,” Maryanne interrupted. “He didn’t even flinch when you mentioned your son to him. I think he’s working against us.”

  Lifting her eyes to Maryanne’s was not an easy task, especially while such harsh words against John were falling from her mouth. As one who had a disdain for confrontation, Sofia found it difficult on most occasions to speak her mind, but she was not about to let Maryanne lash out in such a manner.

  “No, Mary,” she said. “You’re wrong. I don’t fully understand what he’s been through, and neither do you. But I love him. And, I know deep down inside, John is still the same man he used to be. It may take some time, but he’ll come back.”

  She began to turn away, taking up her backpack and leaving the antagonistic woman to her skeptical views, but Maryanne took hold of her shoulder, forcefully restraining Sofia against her will.

  “Step outside of your fantasy world, Sofia,” she said with a spiteful whisper, making sure that the men up front were not aware of their conversation. “Take a good look around. You two were living a dream. The world that you built up in the forests of Blue, it wasn’t real… this is real.”

  Yanking herself free, Sofia brushed off Maryanne’s hand, saying, “It was real, Mary. As sure as the Savior is real, and as sure as He helped us when we didn’t understand the reality of His being. That home in the forest was real.”

  “It wasn’t. You just got lucky finding your way there,” Maryanne snapped.

  “Lucky? Mary, how can you say that? We were sent there by…”

  “It was just luck,” Maryanne said, shaking her head.

  For a moment Sofia was speechless. But the reality of the fact that Maryanne had said the words was settling in. Taking up the shoulder straps of her pack, she said to her, “This war has hardened you. You’re no different than he is. I love you, Mary. You’re like a sister to me. But I won’t stand for you to talk to me like that.”

  Turning back for the last time, with a tearful eye Sofia dragged her baggage away. Maryanne continued to stare at her, expecting her to look back, but she did not. The distinct voices of John and Stephen conversing together were like scalding water poured upon her heart. The war had changed everyone.

  As tall as the air vehicles appeared through the front windshield, they seemed to John to have lost their intimidating appeal after his experiences with the skyscrapers in the ruins. Pulling alongside the awaiting deserter, he cut the engine and exited his seat, following Stephen to the rear of their transporter.

  The Savior was beating down hot and heavy as the steel door to their armored machine lifted open. Stepping out onto the desert sands, the hum of the idling rockets filling the air, the four passengers made their final exit from the vehicle’s stifling confinement.

  The last of the deserters approached them, introducing himself as one Captain Banks, a former high-ranking agent from the Security force on Raw. He was a much more mature appearing gentleman than John would have expected to see committed to such a physically laborious duty as a recon mission. His facial features and age-whitened hair were an obvious distraction from the well-maintained musculature of his body.

  Stephen, familiar with the Captain from their past Security details, was apprehensive at first. He questioned Banks as to why, of all the other officers, he was the one chosen to stay behind. The Captain explained that he had volunteered after receiving a security message from Central. He went on to explain that, after he had read the dispatch, he realized that a well experienced leader would be needed to complete the task at hand, and without hesitation he insisted that Stephen step down from his duty as Mission Commander, allowing him to take over. Initially, Stephen seemed at odds with the idea. But after reading the message himself and hearing further details of the rationale of Central’s thinking, he willingly conceded his post. With Mission Command being turned over to Banks, John watched as the two officers shook hands before making his request.

  “Would you let me look at the letter?” he asked, but the Captain refused.

  “It contains highly sensitive material,” Banks said “I can only divulge its contents to those with a high-level security clearance. But I can tell you that Central did locate your little device. And it has made a huge impact on our plans.”

  Motioning to Stephen and Maryanne to follow him, the two operators excused themselves from John and Sofia, accompanying their newly assigned Commander up the ramp of one of the airships for a private chat. John folded his arms and watched them as they disappeared into the transporter’s storage bay. There was something about the Captain that did not sit well with him.

  Taking John by the hand, Sofia pulled him to the open door of the transporter, sitting down on the step of the threshold.

  “I’ve missed you so much, John. I can’t believe we’ll finally be able to go back to our home,” she said. “I knew this day would come. I prayed for it so often.”

  Disconnected from the conversation, John waited impatiently for the return of his newly found superiors.

  “Do you look forward to reading again?” Sofia asked.

  Hearing her speaking, but unable to keep his attention, he heard the words from her mouth, but did not discern the particulars of her question. He felt like two creatures in a single body: one yearning to be with his wife, the other desiring to push her away. The latter was the victor in the psychological battle.

  “Uh, yeah. I mean, no. Not really,” he stuttered.

  “Well, I do,” she continued. “I can’t wait to get back to our bed. Do you remember…?”

  “No, I don’t, Sofia. I don’t really remember anything,” John snapped. “I know that you can’t understand it. I’m like a dead man inside. I’ve done things that you would not believe… that I wouldn’t want you to believe.”

  “I do understand. I really do.”

  “No. You don’t,” he yelled, slamming his fist into the side of the ground vehicle’s cabin. “You couldn’t possibly understand. I have something inside of me, tearing at me everyday. It never goes away. Ever.”

  Sofia stood up, placing her hand upon his shoulder. She moved closer to him, she longed to be at his side. But he stepped away. It was as if her touch was mere dust as he brushed her aside.

  “Don’t do that, please. I can tell you I love you. I know I do. But, I just don’t know what it is to live anymore,” he said.

  Backing away, Sofia turned from his face as she tried to hide her emotions. John let his head hit into the cab of the transporter. He was unsuccessfully attempting to relax the anger away.

  A witness once more to her sorrow, Maryanne walked out of the airship with Stephen and the Captain just as Sofia turned aside from John. Although she missed the details of their ordeal, in her heart she was glad to finally see Sophia get a glimpse of the Sweeper’s soul. It was apparently just as she had suspected: cold and hardened.

  “You two need to get on that ship,” Stephen said, pointing to the rumbling column of steel waiting to make its departure from the planet. “It’s programmed to take you far below your crash-site home. And with plenty of provisions to get you there comfortably and safely.”

  John was leaning against the wheeled vehic
le, and Sofia wondered whether or not he was ready to make the trip with her. Lifting his head from the hot, metal plating of the transporter he stared at the Commander in silence.

  “Are you ready to leave?” Stephen asked him.

  “You’re going to Golden, aren’t you?” John asked to the silence of Stephen and the Captain. “There’s someone there: the cause of all the troubles of the worlds. This is a death-card mission, isn’t it?”

  As if they were children caught in a lie, the two officers looked at one another, then back at John.

  “It’s sensitive data, John,” Captain Banks said. “I can’t say whether you’re right or not.”

  “I know that’s what you’re going to do,” John responded. “And I can tell just by looking at the two of you that neither of you were made for the job. It’s not in your eyes.”

  “What are you talking about, John?” the Captain asked.

  “You know what I’m talking about, Banks,” John said, pointing at him with the fierceness that Sweepers were notorious for.

  Sofia could not comprehend what they were arguing about, what it was that John was accusing them of being too incompetent of performing, but she felt the full breadth of rage that had consumed him. She began to understand Maryanne’s fears a little better, as she began to fear him, too.

  “There’s no one here incapable of completing the mission,” Banks said. “We’ve all done our time in the field.”

  “You were Security, nothing more. You have no idea what field time is,” John retorted. “This is a different kind of world.”

  Swallowing hard against the dryness of his throat, the Captain adjusted his collar. The Sweeper’s presence was getting to him.

  “This isn’t what you’re thinking, John,” the Captain said, with a light glance at Stephen and Maryanne. “There are three targets on that planet. Each one holds a scepter of power. Each one has the same authority to wage war, to destroy absolutely.”

  “Now, we don’t have all the specifics,” Banks continued, “But your computer has given us a starting point. By the time we land on Golden, Central will have enough information for us to finish what we need to.”

  John was listening intently with a discerning eye upon the men when Banks walked down the ramp, pulling him aside. Quietly setting about with a discussion on the few details that they had concerning the Golden planet, the Captain, although unsuccessful in his endeavor, was careful to avoid letting Sofia in on the conversation.

  The airships beside them were currently stocked for a reconnoitering of the asteroids, he explained. Central was in the process of sending another ship to Golden that he, Stephen, and Maryanne would need to locate once they arrived. It would contain all the necessary items for them to fit in with the culture. Its onboard computer would also have more details for them regarding the whereabouts of the Three.

  While Banks was still laying out the details of the basics of their plan, John walked over to Sofia before interrupting him with a request.

  “Let me go with you,” he asked.

  “John,” Sofia said with a startle. “No, don’t do this,” she begged, taking hold of him by the shirt.

  “I don’t think we could allow that,” Stephen interjected.

  John moved Sofia’s hand away, stepping closer to Stephen. Maryanne slid behind her mate, fearfully peering around his arm at the Sweeper.

  “You don’t think you can allow it?” John questioned. “So, you three are going to split up when you get there, is that it? Each one of you will take down a single target each?” he continued, shaking his head in disbelief. “Let the woman stay with Stephen as a team. The Captain and I will work separately. There’s no way you’d be able to pull it off otherwise.”

  Facing John’s back, Sofia put her hand upon him, but he ignored her touch.

  “John, let’s go back to Labor, you and me together. We don’t need to fight in their war. It’s none of ours,” she pleaded.

  “It is ours, Sofia,” he responded.

  Stephen looked at the Commander with a shaking of his head. They were not authorized to allow John into the fold. Although he would make an excellent asset, he was too independent, and Central was recognizing him as a potential threat.

  “What about this woman here?” the Captain asked, pointing at Sofia.

  “Wait,” Stephen interjected, “we can’t take him.”

  The Captain held his hand up, silencing the officer.

  “She’s going back to Blue,” John said.

  “Going back?” Sofia was aghast. “I’m going to stay with you, John.”

  “No, you’re not,” he answered sternly.

  “Oh, yes I am. There’s no way…”

  “Sofia,” he yelled at her. “You’re not listening to me. This war is mine. It’s all mine. You need to get on that ship. After I finish this I’ll come home. Now go!”

  “No, I’m not going back to Labor alone.”

  “You don’t have a choice,” John said, taking her firmly by the arm, directing towards the awaiting airship. “You need to go home.”

  “No! No, John. I’m not going back there without you,” she screamed out, tearing her arm away from him and falling to her knees. “Do you think you’re the only one suffering? I’ve lost things, too. I’ve lost you. Our son is gone… I don’t want to be without you ever again. Please, John. Please, don’t make me go.”

  John could do nothing to stop her crying. And he found it impossible to respond to her needs, as he would have liked to. The burning wall of his heart would not allow it. Watching her prostrate at his feet, all he could see were the eyes of the dead staring back at him, hanging on the targets in his death room back on Raw. He was faced with nearly the same choices that originally brought them to the place where they were now standing. Go back to Labor with Sofia, or take her down another path of destruction. The responsibility of his actions, of her well-being, was all on his shoulders. But unlike that day in their home, when he made the decision for the both of them to head north, to seek the answers he desired, it was all about knowledge, to the solving of a mystery. Now, it was about revenge, about righting what had been wronged.

  Looking down at the pathetic love of his life, weeping and frail, John chose the only way he knew how to walk. Taking his first step upon the only clear path at the fork in the road, his mind was now set. Looking to Banks, he said, “I guess you’d better notify Central that you’re going to require more provisions for the mission. You have another two man team to provide for.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  After the briefing with Central, the five passengers of the air transporter destined for Golden Planet made their way to the upper deck of the airship. Securing themselves into the flight seats, they prepared for lift-off.

  As Sofia pulled the restraining straps across her chest, she felt the breeze of adventure blowing upon her once again. Although he was still at a standoff with her in regards to her insistence in being present for the mission at hand, she knew that through John’s change of mind, as it pertained to her return home, she was slowly peeling through the layers of hardship that had covered over his heart for so many years. Eventually she would reach that core and find her true love waiting.

  Buckling himself into the chair, John recognized the frustration building inside of him as he worried about keeping Sofia out of harm’s way. Still trying to keep focused on the assignment, especially as they destined themselves once again for an unknown world, he was consumed by a burdening uneasiness of not being fully in control of his own destiny, let alone Sofia’s.

  Up in the flight control room, Banks and Stephen made their final checks upon the ship’s systems. Calling out through the onboard speakers, Stephen turned off the automatic launch sequence, choosing rather to inform his crew manually.

  “Engine checks are a go. We have ten seconds to lift off,” he said.

  With the head pads obscuring her view, the tip of Maryanne’s nose was visible to Sofia across from where she was seated.
The movement of the ship was steadily growing more erratic under the intensifying vibration of the transporter’s engines as it began to rev up, high pitched and whining. Sitting on the other side of her, John’s eyes were closed. He appeared to be deep in thought, ignoring the coming flight.

  With a burst of flames and thick, black smoke, the pointed, steel machine began to rise above the surface of Red, leaving its charred fingerprint stained upon its sandy crust. The surface of the red planet below was speedily falling away, its hills and valleys shrinking into obscurity. Passing through the greenish-blue expanse, its voyage would take it into the darkness of space.

  It had been so many years since the day John first made contact with the red planet. The surreal atmosphere of the moment caused by the events of the past twelve hours seemed almost artificial: a trick of his mind. He was always so certain that he was meant to die there. He found it hard to believe that he would not be stepping foot upon its bloody soil anytime again in the near future.

  The unknown is an impossible thing for the mind to grasp: there is just nothing there to conceptualize, to reconcile the thoughts with, nothing to prepare for or against. Golden World was one of those oddities. Each man and woman on the transporter would, eventually, be getting acquainted with its actual existence, but what he or she would find at the end of the journey, no one could tell. There was no point of reference to start from, with the exception of a few items of food and luxury from the crates on Labor. It was all a mystery.

  Traversing space to such a distance from the Savior was beginning to physically make its mark, as the coolness was settling into the internal atmosphere of the transporter. With experienced pilots at the helm, who understood the inner workings of the ship, the passengers were able to get a glimpse through the camera system of the distant planets, like tiny balls, encircling a bright sphere of flaming light.