Kira swallowed, pursing her lips.
As their tiny ship drew closer, it was clear that what had been gathering here had been doing so longer than either of them had been alive. Perhaps centuries.
Their stealth ship exited the cloud and entered the vastness of the Ra armada, passing vessels the size of small worlds and every sized vessel in between. Vast highways of smaller ships and craft moved between the larger ones in perfectly defined paths moving through the armada in all directions.
“What is this place?” Tanner breathed, still in shock.
“Impressive, is it not?” Zaer affirmed.
“What the hell do you people want?” Tanner looked at Zaer.
“You’ll know soon enough.”
Their ship moved between several artificial planetoids orbiting a huge barren asteroid-looking rock the size of Mars. The asteroid was not at all natural, but cleanly symmetrical, like a massive concave planet-sized oasis half covered in a stunning massive dome. Their vessel narrowed its orbit of the artificial world, hugging the surface until their ship soon came to a vast port, allowing it to enter the main dome. Within it, rose other immense domes and spire’s of incredible architecture and beauty, some of the domes hundreds and thousands of miles wide. Beneath the many domes, sprawling cities and wooded areas dotted the interior.
The small vessel entered a shimmering field at the base of the largest domes, finally settling down in a kind of executive-looking landing area with tall beautiful trees, ornate manicured gardens, and towering fountains.
All of them exited their vessel and were escorted into a sleek black executive vehicle the size of a long city bus. The interior of their vehicle flowed with opulence; with elegant swivel chairs and fine stone tables. Tanner and Kira stood looking out the windows as their limousine-like vehicle quickly hovered them into the largest and busiest of the domed cities and toward a tall triple spire that grew out of the crystalline dome to look over the city and the rest of the huge planetary domes below them.
Their vehicle came to rest in front of what looked like the entrance of a magnificent spire palace. The tall sweeping pillars and glass extended several miles skyward. They departed their limousine and then passed between colossus golden statues of fearsome fury-maned beasts with eight paws and wings that formed a portico leading into the palace.
Once inside, Captain Zaer took hold of Kira’s arm. “I’m afraid, my dear, this is as far as you can go. Only men are allowed any further. I will need to escort Tanner alone. My, personal guard will see to your needs.”
“No.” Tanner looked at Captain Zaer. “She stays with me.”
“I understand your concern, Tanner. The guards will remain with her. You have nothing to fear, I assure you.”
Zaer wasn’t lying but he wasn’t telling the whole truth either. Kira wasn’t safe with these people.
“You will see her later, Tanner. I promise you.”
Tanner didn’t trust him.
“It’s okay, Tanner. Go with him.” Kira coaxed.
Tanner looked at the guards. Their weapons weren’t exactly pointing at them, but they were at the ready. He glared at Zaer; then pursed his lips and nodded.
Somewhere toward the top of the central spire that rose well outside of the huge dome, Tanner entered a towering royal chamber lined with carved and smooth stone columns decorated in dark charcoals, blacks and softly illuminated white drapes that cast light wherever it was needed. A glossy-smooth stone floor seamlessly inset with beautiful mosaic patterns of the most intricate details led to a tall rounded window that overlooked not only the cities within the domes below but provided a near one-eighty degree view of the massive armada drifting within the cold hard darkness on the horizon beyond.
Tanner could feel the presence of the man standing in front of the huge inset window long before he’d entered the chamber.
Zaer and Tanner approached the man from behind as he appeared to be surveying the horizon in the distance.
“Welcome, Tanner Levi.” A smooth masculine and younger than expected voice came from the man standing in front of the massively tall rounded window. His hair was longer in the back; it neatly curled thickly in dark waves. An imperial black and gold-trimmed cape draped from his broad shoulders, affixed to his snug, well-fitted clothing over his broad muscular shoulders.
“You—you speak English?” Tanner asked.
“Of course.” The man looked over his shoulder. “And twenty other of your world’s tongues. Does that surprise you?”
“A little.”
The young man turned and stepped into the light in front of them. The presence of the man was not what tanner expected. Perhaps in his mid to late twenties, well dressed and well built, the incredibly handsome guy moved like flowing water, with the same grace as Kira and Amethyst.
“I am Prince Dane of the house of Ra.”
Tanner said nothing.
“You may leave us now, Zaer.” Dane said without looking at the captain, his eyes still fixed on Tanner.
“My prince.” Captain Zaer bowed and then quickly left the chamber.
“You’re not fond of my Captain Zaer, Tanner?”
“Not really.”
“Interesting. Why?” Prince Dane asked.
“He’s a liar.” Tanner began. “I don’t trust him.”
“He can be—a little uncivilized. To be sure.”
“So, you’re really a prince?”
“I am, Tanner. One of many, actually. You look tense. Please, relax. You are in no danger here. Let me offer you some refreshment.”
Tanner watched as several very muscular young men entered dressed in little more than dark purple draping silk-looking loin cloths and golden bracers and other sparse but otherwise fine polished jewelry. They brought trays of fine simple foods and cut crystal glasses filled with different colored drinks.
Tanner helped himself to one of the glasses, as did Dane, but Tanner wasn’t exactly feeling hungry at the moment. The servants left the trays that now floated motionless where they had been left.
He followed Dane to the massive curved window.
“Tanner, you must forgive our rather abrupt abduction. The Imperium has momentous plans for you.”
“What kind of plans?”
“You’re a god, Tanner. It’s time you started to live like one.”
Tanner looked out over the horizon. “You’re preparing to attack Earth, aren’t you?”
“Perhaps that will not be necessary.”
“You’re afraid of my planet, I can feel it.”
“So you can. Do these feelings of yours tell you why?”
“No.”
“I am told that it is impossible to lie to one such as you.”
Tanner nodded.
“Hmm, excellent.” Dane sipped from his glass with a handsome smile. “Then I shall tell you the truth, Tanner. But first, let me treat you to my personal spa, some,” Dane tugged on the collar of Tanner’s Henley, “finer clothes, more becoming of a god. And then a dinner, in your honor.”
“Kira? Where is she?”
“You have a companion with you?” Dane raised an eyebrow.
“We left her down stairs. With Captain Zaer’s guards.”
“Hmm. Not wise. Women within the Imperium do not share our significance.” Then Dane spoke as if to no one. “Retrieve Tanner’s female, the one called Kira, and bring her as my guest to the spa.”
62
R ion stood in avatar on the bridge of the Tiburion, his hand moving over his jaw in utter disbelief. Carson’s avatar was next to him.
“I thought you’d both would want to see this first hand.” Dark stood next to their slightly transparent shimmering avatar images.
“Jesus.” Rion shook his head.
“At least they’re keeping their distance. The cloud is working, that’s for sure.” Dark tried to bring some encouragement to the situation as all viewed the vastness of the armada staged for battle before them.
“For now,” Cars
on lamented. “If even a fraction of that fleet gets through the cloud—Earth, will fall.”
“What do they want from us anyway?” Beau asked.
“That’s a fair question, Beau.” Carson assured. “Rion?”
“The Masters left their own people to find a new world where they could live in peace. They left a corrupt Imperium they couldn’t fix. Much like the American colonists who left the monarchy in England to settle in the New World.”
“I don’t think that fully answers the question, Rion,” Carson began. “If you have a government this vast, people are probably leaving it, or trying to, all the time.”
“Maybe the Masters were the first to succeed?” Dark floated the notion.
“How?” Carson asked.
“We just made a jump to get here. Maybe they did as well?” Dark offered.
“An extragalactic jump?” Carson raised an eyebrow. “Is that even possible, Rion,” Carson turned to him.
“It could be. But you’d need one helluva power source to create that kind of conduit.”
“It appears that these Ra now have such a power source.”
“Now?” Beau asked.
“Good observation, Beau.” Carson nodded. “Two hundred thousand years ago perhaps they didn’t. What is powering their vessels at this point?”
“Adam says it’s a highly refined ion.” Dark answered.
“Oh? Not Reflex?”
“No. Nothing they’re using even comes close to Reflex.”
“So, we’re more advanced than even the Ra at this point?” Carson continued.
“It would seem so.”
“Interesting.”
“What is?” Rion asked.
“Just a thought. Rion, there’s a reason the Ra are here and I don’t think it’s because they care about some separatist group that fled their imperium.”
“You think we have something they want?”
“I do. Something I’d be willing to invest the entire resources of a galactic empire and assemble vast fleets to retrieve. If I were to guess, they’re standing at the entrance of the Garden of Eden. I’d be willing to bet they’re after access to the Tree of Knowledge—the knowledge, of the gods.”
* * * * *
On a much lower floor of the spire, one that was within the sprawling dome, Prince Dane and Tanner entered a lavish bathhouse room with a steaming pool surrounded by beautifully cut stone and tall garden trees and flora. The room was so vast it appeared to Tanner that they were outdoors.
“I am well acquainted with your world’s culture, Tanner.” Dane led them to the steaming water’s edge where more of the mostly unclad male attendants waited. “So, I wanted to introduce you to some of ours.”
Tanner nodded.
The attendants began carefully relieving Dane of his fine clothes as well as Tanner’s casual ones. It was a little unnerving, but he’d read stories in history class of the Roman public bathhouses. This didn’t appear to be much different than those.
Dane motioned for Tanner’s attention, but he’d already felt Kira as she entered the room. “Your female is here.”
Two of the royal guard escorted Kira into the room and then left without a word.
Dane was immediately intrigued by Kira’s movements. She moved like royalty, even as well as himself. He’d heard stories of these Kir, how they had defeated the armies of the Seven and how their weapons had taken out entire warships of Sentinels. The Kir were invulnerable. But to suddenly have one of them here? Although he rarely spoke to females, he found himself oddly respecting this female—immensely.
The attendants began relieving Kira of her clothes.
“You must forgive me, Kira. I am not accustomed to speaking with women, at least not directly. I am Prince Dane of the House of Ra.”
She nodded. “A prince?”
“I am. Both you and Tanner are welcome here, as my personal guests.”
Kira could feel his reticence in talking to her. Still, he was violating his own cultural morays to advance whatever mission he was on.
“You are free to speak here, Kira,” Dane assured.
“Our cultures are very different, Dane,” Kira noted politely.
“They are. Indeed.”
Tanner watched as Kira appeared indifferent to seeing Dane fully unclothed. She followed the two down wide stone stairs into the steaming warm waters along with several attendants until they were waist deep in the sweet-scented pool. Dane immersed himself to his neck and then stood once again as his attendants began moving soft cloths over his deeply cut and well-muscled wet skin. Both Tanner and Kira did the same. Kira was actually enjoying the luxury treatment, but she could feel Tanner wasn’t all the big on being touched with so many hands and over his skin and personal areas.
Their attendants moved wonderfully scented lathers through their hair and over their skin. All of them then moved to a flowing area of the pool that drifted away their lathers as each immersed fully into the deeper, slightly flowing steamy waters.
They followed Dane up the stairs on the other side of the bath where more attendants waited in front of the tall concave window overlooking the busy city garden square only a couple of stories below. Each attendant held very lightly scented plush cloths that left their skin dry and pampered while drying combs and brushes left their hair clean and no longer wet.
All of them were provided with fresh clothes. Their attendants dressed them in fine body-hugging pants with comfortably pouched fronts that made no effort to hide any fact that the wearer was male. They were then given snug-fitting dark shirts and short dress coats that fit unusually well. Kira was impressed with how nice Tanner looked in the fine clothing as the attendants skillfully dressed him and attached a cape that was similar to Dane’s. Kira’s own clothing draped much more loosely, deeply exposing her cleavage in front, with an open back that dropped low enough to expose the top cleavage of her ass, but otherwise covering her elegantly in a similar style to what each of the men wore, with the exception that her clothing did not include a cape.
With their hair also style and dried, Dane led them on a short tour of the lower floors of the palace towers where they saw many other people, beautiful people, men and women, who bowed elegantly as they passed them.
“Does everyone bow like this to you?” Tanner asked.
Dane smiled. “Tanner, these people you see are Ra aristocracy. They see me everyday. They’re not bowing to me. They’re bowing—to a god.”
“Huh?”
“Let me show you to your guest chambers. We have many things to discuss.”
* * * * *
“There it is. That’s the ship we were following.” Gage pointed to the vessel in the large dome as he piloted their fully cloaked vessel well away from the highways of ships moving between the colossal vessels deep within the armada. “This must be their headquarters.”
“Gage.” Kirin scowled.
“What?”
“Dude, that’s a palace, not a headquarters.”
“Really?”
“This fleet is part of an imperium. My guess would be that someone important lives here. Someone who is likely part of a royal family.”
“So this is the command center.” Gage acknowledged.
“You’re just not getting this are you?”
“Huh? Apparently not. What am I not getting?”
“There probably isn’t a military vessel on this rock. That ship we were following, it’s a personal craft. There probably aren’t even any weapons on it; none to speak of anyway. This whole region of the armada is like your Wall Street or Fifth Avenue. I haven’t seen a military vessel since we got here.”
“Oh. Yea, I guess you’re right. I see what you mean.”
“Look at this city, it’s the size of L.A. There are millions of Ra here, just in this dome alone.”
“So what are you saying?”
“Gage, there are probably more people on this artificial planet than there are in the US. And this place doesn’t even scr
atch the surface of the people manning the vessels orbiting us.”
Gage nodded his understanding.
Kirin scowled. “Reflex or not, these people are not going to be afraid of us. Not in the least.”
63
D ane led the three of them to an extravagantly decorated, house-sized room tastefully and beautifully apportioned with fine soft furniture, decorative pillows, throws, draperies and other fine luxuries. Under the dome and through tall ornately draped windows they could see the cities spread out beneath soft clouds below.
“This floor will be your chambers for the time being. The servants will attend to any of your needs. You have but to ask,” Dane assured.
“This is a little posh for prisoners,” Tanner mumbled.
“You are not prisoners here, Tanner. Trust me. Please. Consider yourselves emissaries. Diplomats if you will. Of Aden.”
“Dane,” Kira began. “Why are we here? Really?”
“I simply want our people to see you as imperial guests.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“Indeed. Since it is apparently impossible to mislead either of you, allow me to be boldly candid.”
Both nodded.
“Your ancestors, Kira, and yours as well, Tanner, to a degree, once belonged to the Ra Imperium. We bore them. Trained them. Gave them our knowledge and our resources. And for hundreds of thousands of years they served my father advancing the knowledge of the Ra beyond measure. The Imperium was a benevolent influence within a galaxy of races that was ever at war. As we expanded our own influence, the Ra ended the petty conflicts of the other races. We brought stability and civilization to an otherwise unstable and hostile Universe.”
“You mean through conquest,” Tanner added.
“Sometimes, Tanner. But not usually. Only some of the races had to be dragged into becoming more—civilized; their warring cultures had to be destroyed and remolded, not unlike the savages your European’s encountered when their ships sailed into the Americas.
Paradisus (Awakened Book 6) Page 24