by M. Modak
As his body transformed, he remembered meditating silently at the reflecting pool a mile away from the dry dock deep under the ocean. Lavar and two trusted elders had gently drawn him out of his relaxed state and asked him to listen to what they planned. He stood up and they traveled deeper into the underground passageway and into the Temple of Cycles where they explained everything to him.
Lavar sat next to him at a large table cut from a single blue diamond and said, “As you know, these caverns were created long ago by the root of TOL when it rested in the stewardship of the Red Dragons. Now, all that’s left are the endless tunnels some of our kin call home.”
Elder Tan spoke up from across the table, “When TOL’s former stewards forgot who they were and lost their way, Elohim called upon a few men, elves and other creatures to rescue the sapling and relieve them of their duties. Most of the Red Dragons understood their mistake and regretfully submitted to Elohim’s will, but some resisted.”
Elder Ellis added, “Terrible things could have happened if not for the few who bravely stood against the dark foe, allowing TOL’s relocation.”
Lavar moved off his seat and dropped to one knee. He drew a deep breath and said, “I am now asking you to be one of those elves.” A long moment passed filled with all the implications of his request, and then he stood up, took his seat and waited.
Grand Master Drahca had been the last one from their world Lavar called upon to give his all for the greater good. No one had heard from him since, except in dreams. Drahca didn’t have a family though, Yrrep did... There wasn’t a wife or children waiting for Drahca to return home just a lot of grateful people who missed him dearly. They were sure he would never return.
There was a long moment of silence as they all closed their eyes and reviewed their world’s history up to that point. Their united minds revealed personal visions, and their feelings about them. Most visions were common stories everyone knew but some things they shared were private, family-knowledge, passed down from elder to elfling for tens of thousands of years. Once it was clear that there was no other way, Yrrep humbly accepted.
“Here’s what’s vital,” Lavar said, “You must save a human named Whitman and stop the greatest threat to all life, Sapen. Technically, you will be from the future. However, the past you will be entering is not from the same stream of time this world occupies. It exists near, alongside our world’s time line.”
When Yrrep heard that he thought, we are all one. Everyone is in danger. Even the far-away events in a distant universe have impending consequences for the creatures in this world, and therefore, it matters to all life everywhere.
“This Sapen is the original,” Lavar said, “He started it all. By stopping this Sapen, all the others could be stopped.” He paused as he looked away. Then he looked back Yrrep and said, “Though Sapen’s motivations are beyond sanity I still seek the least violent and harmless solution. I ask you to do the same. ”Yrrep remembered giving him a moment longer to reflect on his own words. Then Lavar added, “I am aware of the consequences that have taken place due to my desire to be harmless. I regret some of those decisions and I have learned from them too. You must do what is necessary to accomplish this mission, but don’t lose your soul to gain the world, or all the worlds. It’s better to walk the line than drown in either extreme.”
Later, when they held prayers, Elder Ellis proclaimed that he foresaw the final blow Yrrep was to give Sapen. In a trance he said, “You will not immediately stop it. She will be his downfall or his salvation.
“Life or Death?
“You must give her life, show her the way! Choose life Yrrep, Choose life,” The elder repeated this over and over again for hours. “Choose Life Yrrep!”
Yrrep thought that anything was possible; if he was to go, he had to assume that he would be the one to destroy it. In his experience, many things did or did not happen regardless of what was foretold. Then again, it often happened exactly as prophesied though not in the expected way. He believed that in the end it was all a matter of observation and choice. They expected him to do something to stop this half-living thing, Sapen. What he might do should begin a chain of events that resulted in the completion of his mission.
After that, Elder Tan reminded him, “Don’t forget, this is the universe that the rebel Red Dragons had been exiled to. They could be the key to what has started the Great Change.” He had considered that possibility already and that was why he needed to train.
Lavar concluded with, “Compared to the lives of the people you’re about to be teleported to, you have lived a perfect existence. So be careful, everything you say and do will be the opposite of everything they believe is true. If you can, avoid contact with the locals whenever possible.”
That was ten years ago. It had taken Lavar and the elders all that time to plan and calculate the exact location to when- and where- he would be going. He had spent the time preparing his family, making his last child, and honing is skills to the highest degree of excellence he had ever achieved. He had stayed a third of the time at home on Grace in the ship’s extensive library, and the rest engaged in heavy combat training with elves, dragons, men and dwarves.
His last memory, just before the teleportation process started was of Lavar saying gravely, “This is your last chance, we can stop now. This will probably be a one-way trip.”
He shook his head silently as he looked deeply into his first wife’s green eyes. They already knew that. It was a chance he was willing to take, for his friend, to save his family, and to honor Life Herself. However, in the end, it was all to save TOL.
As if looking thru wet glass, he saw ribbons of red liquid swirling around him pulling the remnants of his body apart in a slow motion explosion of blood vessels and intestines that twisted as it vanished into a fine mist. He watched as the cloud convulsed and collapsed in on itself until all that was left of what was once his true form vanished in a crack of light!
His body changed into an infinitely shrinking spark, and then went into the roots of TOL.
In a flood of memory, his mind returned to the present and he opened his eyes! Suddenly he remembered where he was! He had almost died! No one had ever struck him with a weapon like that or captured him before.
What happened? What did that woman hit me with? He calmed himself, losing his mind right now would make things worse.
He allowed the energy, stored in every living cell, to release and his whole body began to glow. There was something covering him, he was inside something, a bag? His hands and feet were restrained but he could move his head a little. He looked down through the now dimly lit folds of cloth that covered him and gasped! There was a fist size hole in his chest. He could see his heart. It had holes burned into it and it had stopped beating; one lung was not working!
He increase the release of stored up energy, healing energy. Then he let his body completely relax as his cells began to work overtime to repair the damage.
He felt movement coming from all around him, and he closed his eyes again and listened intently, allowing the sounds to form images in his mind. He was inside a round structure just a little longer than he was tall, but four times as wide. He was in a truck! His mind reeled; cars and trucks were passing by as strong currents of wind blew over them. He knew that sound, how the air felt when he jumped and was flying hundreds of feet above the ground. He was on one of the light roads.
Where are they taking me?
He had learned some of the language spoken by the natives. They called it Espanol. When visitors to this part of the world could not speak the same tongue as the natives, they all referred to another universal language, English.
The driver was speaking English to another man sitting next to him, “I wish we would’ve just taken the next flight to Mexico City instead of carrying that thing back there along the skyway like some standard-mail delivery.”
“That guy gives me the creeps,” the passenger said, “did you see his skin glowing after she hit him with t
hat plasma cannon?”
“Yea, electric blue, that was right out of Star Wars.”
“What part?”
“When Darth Vader threw the emperor down into the Death Star. You know, Episode Six.”
“That was way-before my time; I’ve only seen movies seven through ten…Where do you think he came from? Do you think he’s one of them?”
“One of them,
“An alien!”
There was a long moment of silence, “You think he could be an alien?” the driver asked.
“What else could he be? When they were loading him in, back at the Panama warehouse, I overheard the doctor that examined him telling her that his internal organs were formed differently.”
“That’s classified,” the driver said in a professional tone. The radio turned on and music began to play. The driver whispered, “They bug these trucks...I know you have Top Secret security clearance or you wouldn’t be here, but you didn’t hear this from me…I think he is the real thing. A few days ago, I saw an emergency report flash across internal security with an attachment, a real UFO landed on top of the Brazilian Capitol Warehouse. I opened the attachment and saw the video before they erased it! Four very large men, all big like him back there, each dressed in red jumpsuits, exited the craft.”
Yrrep’s eyes shot wide open, the Dragon Exiles have arrived!
The driver continued, “They entered the building using a small hand held device, scanned our records with it and just before the video fuzzed out I saw one withdraw a sword and cut a hole out of the far wall. Then it looked like they simply disappeared, right in front of the camera, but after slowing down the footage I saw that they were actually running. I don’t know how fast you have to be traveling for it to seem like you just disappeared, but that was fast!
“Now we have this guy. They tried to play it off as if he had some kind of Pineal or Thyroid disease, but I’ve never seen a sick person move like that. I was supervising the external surveillance team when he entered the infrared field. The first silent alarm went off at 30 feet above the ground! An auto camera targeted him. It’s like he just jumped the twenty foot, razor laced electric fence and flew over 40 feet across the lawn and landed near the truck!”
“Or fell from the sky,” the passenger said. What if he was beamed down from that UFO?”
“If that happened why didn’t they just beam him right where they wanted him? The weird thing was his clothes-”
“Or lack of any,” the passenger interrupted, “And did you see the size of his…”
“Major Ragan, Captain Kurt!”
A voice sounded over the intercom, “If you know there are bugs in the truck and that we’re listening, then you should also know we can filter out the lame Mexican love music. Now shut up about the package! Others might be able to hack our systems.”
“Yes sir!” Major Ragan said.
They were silent for the next few hours as they listened to the worldwide news. A young woman’s voice spoke, “The Second Pax Romana or long peace has been declared by the founder and inventor of the Light Streets. Mr. Whitman spoke today at the Atlanta Nexus Completion Ceremony. He said, “Every Nation State where the Light Streets have entered, peace with its neighbors has followed.”
The news anchor continued, “Mr. Whitman went on to encourage everyone outside the Light Street Network to vote in the coming elections for the candidates who support the Connected Global Initiative. If the vote wasn’t on the ballet they were encouraged to write it on the form as a statement of support that their leaders would see.”
A dry sounding newsman said, “In the Si-tech news, the program to repair the ozone layer has been voted down due to a lack of funds. The Laytech corporation vowed to continue developing the technology so that when, “The political will was right,” and the, “Correct funds were in place,” they could mass-produce there atmosphere scrubbers and, “Save the world.”
“In other news,” an older woman spoke with a light Spanish accent, “a small town in Peru has rejected their government’s ban on coca leaf consumption, which was hastily brought before the Council a few days ago, and, for the second time, they rejected the Connected Global Initiative otherwise known as the Light Street Program.
“Some in the small community claimed that an angel appeared and stopped a demon that attacked some of the villagers while workers not far away were illegally trying to install the Sky Street Matter Generators.”
An old woman spoke in a thick Spanish accent, “The demon woman cut off my husband’s hand. Then the angel appeared out of nowhere, there was a sword fight, she was defeated and left. The angel put my husband’s hand back on then disappeared, maybe into the trees…”
There was a short moment of silence before the newsperson said, “We will be monitoring that situation… Today a new tax was introduced, designed to stop the locals from consuming the coca leafs that naturally grow in Peru. However, this law is being met with greater difficulty.”
The truck stopped. He had been in and out of a trance-state as he blocked the pain in his body, healed and listened to the radio. A thin transparent layer of tissue had formed over his exposed organs and an hour earlier, his heart had started beating again. Since then, blood had been flowing and the healing process increased tenfold, he could feel strength returning to his limbs. Still, he needed water and sunlight to complete the process.
It had taken the truck a while to descend to street level, giving him enough time to consider what he would do when they reached their destination; he would have to act fast. He did not know where he was, but he knew they were taking him to Mexico City and that was along the route to Atlanta.
The door opened, “Oh, my god!” Ragan said, “That’s a bad smell. They could’ve washed him before putting him in here.”
“At least he’s still dead,” Kurt responded, “That thing still gives me the creeps.”
Ragan walked around to the opposite side of the truck and slid the table Yrrep was on out the back like a metal tongue. “Where is everyone?” he said, “I thought there’d be an army here to help load this thing onto the airplane.”
“I don’t know?" Kurt said as he fumbled with the bag, “Maybe they want to keep it a low profile thing. I’m just glad they were able to divert a plane here so we don’t have to drive all the way to Atlanta with this rotting body in here.”
Yrrep closed his eyes as the bag started to open. Kurt whispered, “I just want one more look before he disappears into a lab somewhere never to be heard of again.”
There was a long whistle, “Do you see that? It looks like scar tissue has formed over the hole in his chest. OMG! His heart is beating!”
The arms and feet restraints that seemed so strong before were now pushed aside like leaves in a light breeze. Yrrep jumped to his feet. The two men fell back a step in shock, but still within his arms reach! Quickly, before they could call for help or shoot at him he took their weapons and tossed them as far as the eye could see. Then he reached down and held their necks at the blood supply to their brains until both men fell unconscious to the ground. As fast as he could, he placed them both on the table he had been on and shoved them inside the back of the truck. He got in, closed the door, and then started removing the black uniform from the larger of the two men.
He placed his hands on the garments and began chanting. Moments passed as light started to glow from his hands. He was using precious energy he needed to heal, but he had no choice. He pulled the garments at places, directing his energy where he stretched it and slowly new material, exact copies of the molecular structure within the fabric, formed. He repeated the process with the boots, socks and even the helmet and glasses.
He put the uniform on then repeated the process in places so that it fit him in a comfortable but convincing way, just as it had fit the soldier. He apologized to both sleeping men for what he had done to them and thanked the soldiers for the ride and his clothes. He knew they could not hear him but it was his way.
 
; He listened for any sign that someone outside might be coming but he heard nothing. Quickly, he opened the door, stepped outside into the glorious sun and closed the door behind him. His skin wanted to soak in the life-giving rays. He needed the energy, but it would have to wait. Escape was all that mattered now.
A running leap landed him on top of the nearest building. Above him hovered another junction of Sky Streets with cars, trucks and buses coming and going in all directions. Below him, he saw some men approaching the truck he had just abandoned. They were walking too slowly to be concerned, but in a minute they would sound an alarm and the place would be crawling with black uniformed soldiers, looking for him.
He looked up at a nearby Sky Street then jumped and landed on its edge. A large mirror attached to a truck missed him by inches as it raced by. He jumped again, then again reaching higher street levels. His internal sense knew which way was north and the color of the light streets confirmed it. Blue streets were going north yellow streets were going south. He paused as a large truck passed overhead then jumped, landing on the roof of its trailer. He lay flat and waited, and then carefully peeked over the edge of the trailer to see if anyone had noticed him.