“I know about attraction, Kira. I used to be a halfblood.”
“I thought you said you were a Reborn?”
“I am a Reborn—now.”
“How—? Halfbloods can be Reborn?”
“I don’t know, talk to the Princess. She—never mind.” Tanner didn’t really want to go into it.
“Tanner, how old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
“Wow.”
“What about you?”
“Twenty-four. Plus or minus forty-thousand.”
“Are you really that old?”
“It’s a long story. So you really work for the Princess?”
He nodded. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this.”
“Why?”
“I’m supposed to be undercover for the Sentinels. I think I’m being a pretty awful spy at the moment.”
“You’re not a spy, Tanner,” she smiled, her fingers moving his hair out of his face. “You’re a guy. A guy that just got caught up in something that no one should ever have to deal with. How did they find you?”
Tanner sighed. “I was working for the Wraith.”
“Really?” Kira made a face.
“I know,” Tanner rolled his eyes. “Please don’t tell anyone. I needed the money.”
Kira giggled. “So how do you know Amethyst?”
“She helped us get into Interra.”
“Why am I not surprised.” Kir frowned.
“That bitch is creepy. Sorry. Witch. She just feels like that to me.”
“She’s not a nice person, Tanner. She kidnapped my brother once.”
“I wonder why she brought us here?”
“Who knows what she’s up to. Maybe she thinks you and I are working together.”
“We are together,” Tanner smirked, flexing his still very hard rod deeply within her, touching her still sensitive G-spot.
“Huh—” she drew a quick breath, her body flexed and rippled with the intense feeling. “That’s not what I meant,” she breathed a warm smile.
Both began moving in a slowly sweet lovemaking rhythm again.
“Tanner? Do you trust me?” she asked him.
“I can feel you, Kira. Of course I trust you.”
“We need to be careful. I don’t know who Amy is working for. The Kir have a saying, ‘Always trust your attraction.’
“Really?”
She nodded, and then rolled him to his back, filling herself with his long male.
* * * * *
“Jesus, what the hell happened here?” Ethan looked out the fighter’s seamless sculpted glassteel canopy at what they were now passing through.
“Whatever it was, it wasn’t small.” Ty exclaimed.
Their tiny fighter moved slowly through a field of huge battle wreckage, some of which was still warm and giving off sparks of energy. It looked like a massive junkyard of scrap metal and charred debris.
“Any idea what kind of vessel this used to be?” Ethan asked.
Ty looked over his instruments with both his vision and his feelings. “I’m trying to get some kind of ID on the configuration from the wreckage but, there’s nothing coming up. The pieces must be too small to get a reading.
“There is all kinds of ion and reflex residue in the area. Whatever this vessel was, it went up real bright. I can see what you mean now when you said you saw some kind of flash.”
“What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know. But we need to get back to the Paradisus. Let Brenda know what we’ve found here.”
Their fighter swung about nimbly and then accelerated quickly out of the area. The scattered junk of what remained of the doomed vessel floated silently across the dead of space. Soon a large piece of hull faded into nothing. Other smaller pieces also faded away into nothing. The remnants of whatever had been seemed to just fade from existence, piece by piece, until all that remained was empty desolate space and the quietly spinning rings of dust and ice.
52
A nd here I thought I’d never see you again.” Rowan smiled at Brenda over a tall Champaign glass at a Ritz in London. “It’s not even been a month. Couldn’t stay away from me now, could ya?”
“If only.” Her smile looked worried.
“Trouble in paradise?”
“You could say that.”
“You have that look in your eye.”
“And what look is that?”
“The one that says ‘I need Rowan to pull my butt out of the fire.’ That look.”
“It’s not my butt I’m concerned about.”
“Oh? Whose then?”
“Everyone’s.”
53
G age lifted himself groggy from bed. Kirin was still sleeping but someone was moving around in their kitchen. He slipped quietly from the sheet, found some jeans and then found Rowan finishing some breakfast in his apartment.
“You’re here a little early. It’s not even five yet.” Gage ordered up a cup of coffee from the creator pad.
“It’s gonna be a long day, my friend.”
“Oh? You make some progress on finding the tomb?”
“You might could call it that.”
Gage grabbed his mug and took a seat at the tall breakfast table.
“Gage, I’ve been thinkin’ about why the Ancients came to this world. Been thinkin’ about that for centuries, actually. But it wasn’t until yesterday that I learned a few things I didn’t know or realize before.”
“Oh? Did you find some new clues?”
“I did. And you’re not gonna like it. The Ancients, our ancestors—were thieves.”
“They stole something?”
“Mate, they more than stole it.”
“What’d they steal?”
“The very thing that’s powering your sanctuary—the secrets to Reflex.”
“How do you know?”
“Let’s just say a little bird told me and keep it at that, for now.”
“Your little ‘bird’ happen to look like a curvy blonde?”
“Maybe.” Rowan grinned.
“So these Ancients—did the little bird happen to mention where they came from?”
“She did. Another galaxy. Not even from our own. More than two-hundred thousand years ago.”
“I’ve been wondering about our ancestors, ever since you first showed me that mining vessel. The Kir have a belief that the Ra were the descendants of a previous civilization much older and even more advanced than they themselves had become. They could do the miraculous. A lot of the Kir and then Human legends descended from this super-race of ancients. Not a whole lot is known about them.”
“It’s more than just legend, Gage.” Kirin wandered into the kitchen dressed like Gage, wearing only some commando denim and moving his fingers through his thick uncombed bed-head hair. He picked up a fresh mug of Starbucks from the creator and sat down.
“I heard what you two were just talking about,” Kirin continued. “The truth is we had reason to believe the Masters were like ancient gods themselves, just kind of pretending to be Ra. The Masters were much more than they were even telling their own people. It was said that at one time they were like any of us, but then they evolved somehow. They left their bodies behind and became something like raw thought and emotion, a kind of self-willed light; like angels. They saw what all of us would eventually become, so they wrote the Books of Ra as a kind of history and as a guide to the future generations just before they left paradise.”
“Left paradise?” Rowan asked. “Sounds like a Bible story.”
“Sure,” Kirin sipped from his mug. “The Masters departed this world. But about a third stayed here and eventually died out; their longevity being poisoned by the blood of humanity somehow. That’s the story anyway.”
“Wow, that sounds really similar to some of the Bible stories.” Gage set down his mug. “A third of the angels falling from heaven.”
“Yea, well, apparently the Masters failed to mention why they booby-trappe
d the whole star system on their way out.” Rowan appeared annoyed.
Kirin raised an eyebrow. “Do you think that’s what Gage and I ran into at Mars? Some kind of old targeting scanner left over by the Ancients?”
“Kirin, Gage—there’s a reason the war between the Sentinels and the Seven never escalated off world. The moment a Ra vessel left Earth, it got blown out of the sky—by Luna.”
“Huh? Our own moon?” Gage’s curiosity was piqued.
“That’s right. What scanned your ship the other day was old, but it wasn’t ‘left over’. Before the Ancients left, they set up defenses within the whole star system. Evidently the active sensors were able to pick up your DNA, Gage—your Reborn DNA. Otherwise you two would not be sittin’ here right now.”
“Actually, I think the Books of God do mention that, Rowan,” Kirin began.
“Having partaken of the knowledge tree of Ra, the Sentinels banished the enemies of Aden leaving them to work the ground like men. And the Ra placed blazing weapons all around Aden to guard the way to paradise.”
“That’s the current translation, anyway.” Kirin finished.
Rowan’s eyebrows went up. “That passage is not in any of the books I have, that’s for bloody damn sure.”
Kirin half grinned. “That’s because you’re not Kir. The Sentinels removed and destroyed several books from their copies of the Books of Ra. For some reason they didn’t want their own people to know certain parts of their ancient history.”
“Sounds like the Kir were engaging in a little heresy,” Gage mocked. “Keeping books not officially recognized by the rest of their brethren?” he smirked.
“Well isn’t that just bloody lovely. Got your own little Apocrypha. Nice.” Rowan scowled at Kirin.
“Some things never change, Rowan.” Gage mused over the top of his cup.
“Apocrypha? What’s that?” Kirin asked.
“The ‘hidden books’ of the Bible,” Gage offered. “The Church originally had them within their Bible when the canon was formed.”
“Right,” Rowan chimed in. “But Jerome and then later, Luther wasn’t a big fan of them; so when his movement split the Church, during the Reformation, he tossed ‘em out of the Bible. Later on it became taboo to even have them; people became afraid of them. In some churches God would ‘send you to hell’ for even reading them.”
Kirin nodded. “What was in them that was so bad?”
“Nothing. Just some history of the Jewish peoples and a few miracles here and there. Truth was, not even the Jews wanted to keep them around in their own Bible. It’s part of why Luther tossed them out of his.”
“That’s exactly what happened with the Books of Ra,” Kirin began. “About two-hundred thousand years ago, the Ra fractioned into the clans. The Sentinel Masters were the guardians of our knowledge while the Seven were the Chief Council and leaders of our people.”
“Interesting. I think we’re beginning to see some of our history emerging now,” Rowan mused. “The Ancients called this world ‘Aden’. It’s obviously the same Aden that’s in the history you just told us about, Kirin. But I know for a fact now that the Ancients weren’t indigenous. Why the different factions?”
“Rowan,” Gage proffered, “let’s say the Ancients had been here a while. You said they stole the knowledge of Reflex power. Whoever they stole it from, maybe they wanted it back.”
“Makes sense. Wouldn’t you?”
“I would. So, what if those people followed the Ra here to Aden, like two-hundred thousand years ago?”
“Gage, our little bird was pretty clear, the Ra came here from another galaxy. Without Reflex, I don’t think they’d have the power to traverse those distances.”
“So where’d they come from?”
“Orion.”
Both Gage and Rowan looked at Kirin.
“They must have come through Orion. The legends call Orion the birthplace of the Ra. The Kir even have songs about it.”
“So how did the ‘enemies of Aden’ get there? And then here?” Rowan asked.
“They must have followed them somehow.” Kirin shrugged.
“Interesting—” Gage mused.
“What?” Rowan asked.
“It almost seems like a déjà vu of when Moses and the Israelites stole the ionic tools the Sentinels had given the Egyptians.”
“What tools?” Kirin asked.
“You guys were all in stasis at the time, Kirin. The Sentinels provided the ancient Egyptians with tools that allowed them to build their cities out of stone. Their pyramids at Giza are still standing to this day.
“So the Israelites stole the tools and then turned them onto the Egyptian army?” Kirin asked.
“It’s exactly what they did,” Rowan acknowledged. “Bloody mugged the Egyptians is what they did.”
“True,” Gage agreed. “According to the Bible, the Hebrews held up the whole nation, taking their gold and wealth and then they left after enduring decades of slavery under the Egyptians.”
“Sounds a lot like Karma,” Kirin shrugged.
“The Egyptians didn’t think so. They chased Israel to the edge of the Red Sea.”
“Then what happened?” Kirin asked.
“There’s an area that actually goes dry at certain tides, but then the water comes back in, fast. A famous general named Napoleon learned the hard way just how fast that tide comes back in. Both Pharaoh and Napoleon lost men during the crossing. Apparently Pharaoh lost most of his army.”
“So what has that got to do with the Ra? You think that maybe some of the Ra that were following the thieves came with them somehow?”
“To me the Red Sea is a like the barrier between our galaxies. We use portals all the time. Imagine a portal that can allow you to traverse the distances between galaxies.”
“That would take more energy than—I can’t imagine how much energy that would take.”
“Exactly. You couldn’t keep it open for very long. Maybe several minutes or a couple of hours at the most.”
Kirin nodded.
Pharaoh follows you into the Red Sea, or the portal in this case. You’re long gone on the other side, but some of his army, some Ra vessels manage to make it through before the tide comes in, or the portal closes.”
“Sure,” Kirin nodded. “Plausible.”
“Like with Israel, it’s more or less a one-way trip. You’re stuck. You can’t go home; so, what the hell, these are your people. You’re in a New World. It’s hostile, you have no idea who even lives here. I say they banded together for survival; even though they hated each other.”
“I agree,” Rowan chimed in. “But obviously they didn’t stay all chummy for very long. Some of those Ra probably still felt like the thieves needed to be punished. The war must have broke out about the time everyone split into the clans and the Sentinels took away their toys. Made them live like the Humans.”
“That’s what angered the Kir, guys,” Kirin added. “It’s why the Kir wanted nothing to do with the Sentinels. Our knowledge and our culture were synonymous with who we were as people. The Sentinels were making the Seven and the rest of the Ra live like animals.”
“So for the past hundred thousand years,” Rowan now took up the narrative, “one group of Ra lives like gods and the other is forced to climb their way back up the knowledge tree as punishment for not playing nicey-nice with others. In the mean time, these original Sentinel Masters keep advancing and become god-like in their evolution. That’s bound to really piss-off the colonists at some point.”
“And probably why the Masters wanted to keep the history hidden from everyone,” Gage agreed.
“Okay, so the ancient history lesson is fine, but that still doesn’t explain why we got scanned. You’ve just defeated the bad elements of the Ra. Why did the Masters go to all the trouble to setup defenses?”
“Because they didn’t want the Ra coming back for the power source they’d stolen, is my guess,” Rowan answered.
“But, without
Reflex, how would they even get here?” Kirin asked. “The closest galaxy is over two million light years away.”
“Maybe they got here the same way the Ancients did?” Rowan mused.
“They got here?” Gage raised his eyebrow at Rowan. “What do you mean by, ‘they’?”
“Yea, well, I was getting’ to that. Watch.”
A three-dimensional holo-image of Saturn’s rings glowed to life in front of all of them.
“I’ve been keeping my eye on the ark since she left; I’ve got a passive sensor trained on the Paradisus as it wanders around Saturn. I didn’t actually see this until our little bird pointed it out last night, but look what showed inside the scanning field—that little dot you see there next to the rings is the fifty miles long Paradisus.”
A tiny flash caught the attention of both Gage and Kirin.
“And that, Gents, was this—”
The sensor recording reversed and then zoomed into the area of the rings. A massive dark vessel, perhaps ten miles in length smoothly moved into view of the sensor.
“Who is that?” Gage mused.
“Don’t know. From the sensor log it’s got a very refined ion propulsion and power core; minimal shielding. Too far away to get an empathic reading, but a vessel that size has got a crew, maybe ten thousand, maybe more. Who ever they were, they weren’t expecting what happens in the next few moments.”
A sudden huge energy burst exploded against the side of the vessel, engulfing it entirely as the ship erupted from within. It only took seconds before the massive vessel was little more than a floating hot smoldering scrapyard.
“Jesus,” dropped out of Gage’s mouth.
Kirin’s eyes were wide as well. “That ship was miles and miles long!”
“And all of it just that fast. I’ll fast forward. Watch what happens next.”
“The debris—it’s vanishing,” Gage watched until nothing remained of the vessel’s fragments.
“Good environmentalists those ancients. Like to clean up their messes.” Rowan mocked.
“You mean they don’t want to leave any evidence,” Gage corrected.
Paradisus (Awakened Book 6) Page 20