by Mikayla Lane
Dar looked out at the sea dragons who were watching the exchange between him and the stranger. “How can I tell if that’s true? Or that you’re really talking to them?”
Cin had expected the intelligent child to make him prove his words. “How about we ride them?”
Little Dar gasped, his mouth forming a large O. “They’re too fast! You can only play splash and chase, not ride!”
“You have to know how to ask,” Cin assured the excited boy. “Want to try? The worst that can happen is you fail.”
“OK!” Dar ran and splashed into the water, leaving Cin to run after him.
Cin had little time to warn the sea dragons that they were coming in to ride before Dar swam out and was treading water in front of the pod of seven sea creatures. The nanites formed an invisible waterproof shell around him as Cin waded out to Dar and the group.
The moment he was beside the child, Cin splashed a little to get Dar’s attention. When those brilliant blue eyes looked at him, Cin made an odd hand gesture in the air. Seconds later, the largest sea dragon swam over, ducked under the water, and came up between Cin’s legs.
Dar nearly went under the water from the shock of seeing the sea dragon put Cin on its back. “Did the hand gesture do that?”
“Yes, it’s a sign to them that you would like to ride. Those that want to play like that will come to you,” Cin promised the curious boy.
Dar tried to make the same hand gesture but didn’t get it right. “Can you please show me again?”
Cin was entirely charmed by the polite and intelligent little boy and showed him how to make the gesture again. This time, a moderately sized sea dragon flew through the water, dove under, and popped back up with an excited Dar clinging to its back.
“It worked!” Dar screamed in excitement. “How do we make them swim?”
Cin showed Dar another hand gesture before his sea dragon shot through the water, staying near the shore. He turned around to see if Dar had gotten it and held up a hand to stop his dragon. Dar was flying through the air, hanging on by a scrap of dragon beard before losing his grip and skipping across the water.
Getting ready to turn around and save the boy, Cin was surprised to see another sea dragon scoop the kid onto its back and take off again. Losing his grip again, Dar went flying before being grabbed by another dragon.
Cin was getting concerned until he heard not only Dar’s hysterical laughter, but the chittering laughs among the sea dragons as well. Dar wasn’t just playing with the sea dragons. At this point, the happy child was their toy, and they all loved it.
They spent hours playing with the sea dragons while Cin taught little Dar how to speak to the creatures the child adored. Conscious of the dangers of changing the future, Cin had only given Dar the same knowledge the sand dragons gave to the Shamans of Mascador.
The only change this day would make in Dar’s life would be the cementing of their trust and friendship and cause Dar’s family to realize the depth of the boy’s true destiny. It would also be the catalyst to Dar’s new interest in space and serving in LAW when he came of age.
Through the memories still forming in Cin’s mind of his century’s long friendship with Dar, Cindrac knew how important it was for the child before him to become the warrior he’d just left.
“Will they still respond if you’re not here?” Dar asked, bringing Cin out of his thoughts.
“Of course, they will,” Cin assured the boy. “It’s their language. Watch their beards. They move in the same motions I’ve shown you. It’s a visual representation of their vocalizations.”
“Like sign language?” Dar already knew the answer. It made sense to him now.
“Exactly like sign language,” Cin agreed with a smile.
Brilliant blue eyes looked up at Cin. “I can feel the energy around you. You’re powerful, but it’s like you’re wounded too. Is that why you’re here? For spiritual healing from the Shamans?”
Cin chuckled. “I’m here because we become good friends in the future.”
Cindrac was just wondering how the intelligent and perceptive child would handle that news when those blue eyes twinkled at him.
“You’re here to make sure I don’t freak out when I meet you in the future,” Dar grinned, showing his adorable dimples in both cheeks. “Makes sense. You are kind of weird-looking, and there’s that creepy energy thing you got going on.”
Cin burst into laughter, and Dar chuckled along with him before the boy turned serious. “I’m meant for bigger things than this world, aren’t I?”
“Only you know that answer, Dar,” Cin told the boy. “Don’t let anyone dictate your future for you. If you never leave this world until the end of your days, I will still be your friend. I will still be in your future. The path you take from here is your own. I’m going to be there to support whatever decisions you make, but I won’t tell you of a future that you haven’t chosen yet and alter your decisions either.”
“Why me?” the little boy asked, unafraid of the very mature conversation.
“Because you become one of the most honorable and genuinely honest people I’ve ever met, and one of the very few that I will ever trust,” Cin spoke honestly, giving the young man the respect he deserved.
Dar nodded in understanding and looked out at the sea creatures still playing in the water. “Mama says only the strongest Mascadorians can become dragon warriors, like my Daddy. He died in the Formassian Wars, defending Mascador from the Consortium. I want to be that strong and brave.”
“You already are, Dar,” Cin promised. “Now, you just have to grow into that fierce determination and courage already inside of you.”
Cin and the little boy sat in the sand and watched the sea dragons until it started to get dark. Dar turned to Cin and smiled sadly.
“I’m not going to see you again for a few years, am I?” Dar was clearly unhappy about it.
Cin chuckled but couldn’t stand the sadness he felt in the boy’s energy. “I will return soon. I promise. Until then, all you have to do to talk to me is type this in any comm or computer, then follow it with whatever you want to say.”
Cin traced the symbols on the boy’s palm, each lighting up the boy’s skin until Dar was holding up his hand and staring at the glowing characters.
“How will it get to you?” Dar asked in wonder when the symbols began to fade.
“The first symbols are like an alarm that tells me I have a message. Then I can read what you said and respond to you,” Cin promised.
“Dar? Where are you?” a frightened woman called from the dunes above them.
“I have to go!” Dar stood and looked down at Cin before hugging him tightly. “Thank you, my friend. I will talk to you soon.”
Before Cin could respond, the small boy was gone.
Chapter Seven
The setting sun appeared like a blood-red smear in the sky when Cindrac returned from the past, and the planet Mascador. Between the sky and the thread of expectation in the planet's energy, Cin knew that something was going to go wrong tonight.
Turning on the propaganda news, Cin was sickened to see that everyone in Cheyenne Mountain was dead. The soldiers, scientists, all the way down to the cleaning slaves, and the elites were blaming it on him.
Warnings were displayed on the chyron that anyone seeing Cindrac must immediately report him to the authorities. Anyone not complying would be considered an enemy of the people and given a traitor’s death.
Cin snorted when he heard the last part. The elite’s idea of a traitor’s death was nothing more than a horrific display of how sadistic the bastards were. Nothing was off-limits to them, and they made sure to make each gory, hellish death a worldwide televised spectacle.
It was all a game to the elite who told themselves that the terror and suffering they were causing humanity benefited some demonic deity they worshipped. In truth, the elite were psychotic monsters who reveled in the brain damage caused by their millennia of inbreeding.
&nbs
p; Cindrac refused to let their threats determine his next course of action and held his hands out beside him, testing the energy around him. No longer needing the elite databases of alien technology now that he’d gained access to LAW’s systems, Cin wouldn’t give the elites the satisfaction of exposing himself again and risking more deaths.
Gathering the strands of energy from the air around him, Cindrac sent out a wave of power meant only to reach the nearest computerized technology. It took mere seconds before the codes within the energy shut down anything on the planet that wasn’t essential for human survival.
As the code traveled from computers to anything using technology of any kind, the power, water, sewage, and food systems were left unchanged and even strengthened. The elite’s private communication systems were permanently destroyed, as well as all backup systems.
The bunkers where the elites would go to hide were sealed, and all life support systems were shut down. No more would Cin allow the evil bastards to avoid the chaos and destruction they wrought.
Next, all kill switches in the slaves were permanently disabled, subliminal programming was eradicated, and the drugs pumped into the food and water supplies of the slaves was stopped. Cin believed it was time the people were able to think clearly again.
Although Cin would like nothing more than to kill all of the elites, he knew that the human race could not govern themselves yet after centuries of enslavement. But fixing the problem in this timeline wasn’t the solution, and he wasn’t trying to do it here.
Cin’s goal was to make the lives of the slaves better while he went back in time to make sure this future never happens. To keep the elite in chaos for a little while, Cin set off the kill switches in eighty-percent of the elite still alive. He knew the remaining twenty percent would be far too paranoid to think about doing much damage.
There was one place Cin was determined to personally shut down before he made the trip back in time. It was a place he’d been searching for since discovering its existence on one of the secret elite computers not connected to the global network.
Leaving the security cameras running worldwide, Cindrac made a portal in the air and stepped through the shimmering disc into a ridiculously decorated room. Cin immediately rendered the soldiers unconscious using the computer chips still embedded inside them.
Dozens of small children, ranging in age from two to twelve years of age, dressed in a hideously provocative manner, ran to hide in fear. Several overlords attempted to flee as well, but Cin immobilized them through their kill switches.
Standing in the middle of the room, keeping the elite from leaving, Cindrac connected the security cameras to the global propaganda networks and cut in on the regular fear-mongering and propaganda. After ensuring no one could shut down the transmission, Cin faced the nearest camera.
“I’m Cindrac, once a soldier slave. I’m now free, and so are all slaves on Earth. Your kill switches have been disabled. The poisons and drugs are removed from your food and water, and the subliminal programming is gone.” Cin paused to give the people time to think about what he’d said.
“The elite are being destroyed, the minions are next, and those who work with them will answer to me!” Cin roared the last and grabbed hold of a cowering man. “These animals no longer hold any power over you. Be kind to one another. Work for your livelihoods, and learn to live together while I remove the monsters from our world!”
Cin snapped the man’s neck and dropped the lifeless body to the floor. “Anyone caught harming a child will be killed instantly. Anyone caught helping an overlord will be killed instantly. Anyone caught harming another ex-slave will be killed instantly. These are my rules. Follow them.”
Cin stalked around the room used for ritual sexual abuse and slaughtered every damn overlord he could find. Knowing there were others, Cindrac stomped through the elaborate complex until he’d found them all.
Cin heard sniffles and crying everywhere, and he awakened the soldiers and other slaves forced to work in the twisted compound. With no orders to follow, the soldiers and staff were confused over what to do and turned to Cin.
“Stay here and protect these children,” Cin ordered them. “Do not harm or touch them in any of the ways you witnessed here. I’ve left ancient child-rearing information on the computer systems. Study them, and learn how to care for the kids until I return.”
When everyone nodded mutely, Cin was getting ready to create another portal when a soldier walked up to him. “Are we really free?”
Cin nodded and was horrified when the soldier turned his weapon on himself and blew his head off. Dozens of others followed suit until he was able to shut down the chips in the firearms.
“Why are you doing that?” Cin asked the remaining soldiers.
One soldier stopped from killing himself burst into tears. “I can’t live with what we allowed to happen here. The kindest thing you can do is kill me.”
Cin closed his eyes, caught between a rock and a hard place. After seeing the horrors that the elite had done to the children for centuries, he couldn’t blame the staff for feeling that way.
“How many of you agree with him?” Cin was sickened to see that every single adult wanted to die.
Changing his plans, Cin ordered the frightened children to go to the docking bay. Once they were gone, he set off the kill switches of every adult on the island. Ending the televised transmission, Cin stormed out of the room to where the children were waiting.
Scanning the docking bay for the largest ship, Cin directed the children inside and helped them strap into the seats. Cin launched them into the sky without even entering the cockpit and tried to calm the terrified kids.
Twenty minutes later, Cin landed the ship on the roof of the world’s premier medical center for the elite in Greenland. He quickly ushered the kids downstairs to the emergency room and used the intercom system to call the medical staff to them.
Standing protectively in front of the children, Cindrac faced the startled doctors and nurses. “You will care for these children as if they are the most precious thing in this world because they are. You will not lay a harmful hand on them, sexually or violently. You will deprogram them and strip the drugs from their systems.”
“The overlords-” a doctor began before Cin cut him off.
“Can no longer harm anyone, and if they attempt to come to this island, their kill switches will automatically detonate,” Cin growled in anger. “Do as I say!”
Medical staff scrambled, ushering the children to rooms and beginning triage. One of the nurses moved to stand in front of Cin.
“Can we please dull the memories of what was done to the children so they can try to heal?” the nurse was near tears, and Cin was touched by her concern for the kids and her bravery in confronting him.
“Of course,” Cin readily agreed. “I think it would be a good idea for you to oversee their care while I’m gone.”
The nurse looked terrified, and one of the doctors that remained in the room didn’t look too pleased. Cin turned his attention to the doctor.
“I want you both to work together to ensure the children heal and thrive. Can you do that?” Cin didn’t need to look at the nurse to know she was nodding her head. His eyes were trained on the doctor.
“If we help you, the elite will kill us.” The doctor was terrified of the overlords.
Cin stormed over to the man and stood within inches of his face. “If you don’t do what I told you to do, I will kill you long before the overlords figure out a way to get to this island without blowing their fucking heads off! They can’t hurt you anymore.”
Cin said the last more gently, trying not to terrorize the newly freed slaves. He spent several more minutes calming the doctor and nurse and giving instructions on teaching the children how to read and write. When he felt that the kids would be safe and in good hands, Cin created a portal and escaped to his cabin.
Pacing the deck to calm his nerves, Cin couldn’t get the image of the terrifie
d children out of his head. The soul-deep agony of what the kids had gone through since birth felt like a dagger to his heart.
Unwilling to spend another second in this nightmarish future, Cin created a portal, took a deep breath, and stepped through. It took more than a few minutes for Cin to adjust to the change in scenery.
Earth: Year 2010
The old weathered resin boards used to build the cabin gleamed in the early morning sunlight. Nearly new furniture Cin had never seen before graced the living room, kitchen, and deck. Only a light coating of dust rested on everything and told Cin that the place had been recently inhabited.
Moving through the familiar cabin, Cin realized he liked it a lot more in the year 2010 than he did the year 2273. The furnishings were homier and brighter than in his time, and Cin collapsed into a recliner.
Hijacking the home security system, Cin traveled the computer lines until he accessed the internet and familiarized himself with this time period. He couldn’t be more surprised at the information available to every citizen in this country.
Shaking with excitement because he could own things in this part of the century, Cin accessed the local county records. He easily changed the ownership status of the cabin from a bank repossession to his name.
Needing a last name, Cin added ‘Miles’ in the required spot on the title, the Latin word for soldier, and ordered a certified copy to be sent to the cabin via mail.
Next, Cin knew he would need an official identification to wander around this period and hacked into the state department of motor vehicles. Getting up from the chair, Cin headed to the nearest mirror and stared wide-eyed at the mane of white hair on his head.
As a soldier, he’d never had it longer than a trimmed finger-nail. Now, it was thick and hung down to his shoulders. Uncaring what it looked like, Cin used the nanites in his eyes to take a picture that he sent into the DMV for his driver’s license, which he also ordered mailed to him.