“We heard. It was a long shot, Brett,” Dianne consoled.
Harlan was walking around the place where Francesca had stood only moments before. He was moving his hands through the air making sure she wasn’t still there.
“They’re not going to trust us, Mr. President.” Frank assured, watching Harlan move himself in and around the place where Francesca had stood.
“I want to make contact with whomever is on that ship,” the president reiterated. “The Dominion is not going to have our best interests in mind; only their own.”
“And what if Di Roma is right?” Frank countered. “These Ra are a lot more intelligent than we are. We saw how easily Amy and even our own enhanced more or less just took over around here—before we were able to put a stop to it.”
“Frank has a point, Brett,” Diane agreed. “We’re more than a little intellectually outgunned here.”
“But we have some of our own Ra, do we not? Working for you Frank?”
Frank nodded. “Kids mostly. We use them to sniff out other Ra. But, they’re not trained for anything, Mr. President. They have no experience. It’s the only way we have of really controlling them. They’d be just as vulnerable to these adult Ra as we are.”
“Damned if we do and damned if we don’t,” the president mused, still watching Harlan bouncing up and down on the carpet where Francesca had been.
“More like just plain damned, Brett,” Diane offered. “At some point you run into a situation where there just isn’t going to be any escape. We’re pretty much there.”
“I don’t believe that. There’s always a way out and a way up. Somebody out there besides the Dominion knows how to contact whomever is on those ships. How do we find them?”
“Call them?” Harlan suggested, not really paying any attention to their conversation.
“We’re doing that.” Frank argued. “We’re beaming all kinds of signals at them. They just ignore us.”
“How do the Dominion get there?” Diane asked, beginning to play the game of talking through a problem to a solution.
“They have their own ships.” Frank stated the obvious.
“Then how do we get one?” the President asked.
“Steal one from the Dominion?” Harlan suggested, now engaging in the game of logic but still looking at the ceiling where Francesca apparently had ‘beamed out’.
“We’d have to find one first,” Diane said.
The president was still asking questions. “Where do they hide them?”
“Underground? Like the Kir?” Frank contributed.
“Bad idea,” Diane began. “We got our clocks cleaned the last time we tried that approach.”
“It’s too bad they’re not already down here. We wouldn’t need a ship then.” Harlan was looking up at the ceiling now wondering if whatever had beamed Francesca away had burned runes into the ceiling somehow like Thor did in the movies. He didn’t notice the other three staring at him with widened eyes.
“Good God, Harlan!” Frank was more surprised than any of them.
“What does your chief of staff do for an encore, Brett?” Diane shook her head with a grin.
The president’s smile was widening. “Frank, that’s got to be it, they’re already here. Somewhere. Both of you,” he nodded to Frank and Diane. “Figure out a way to find them. Fast.”
Frank was already heading for the door with Diane in tow.
The president put his hand on Harlan’s shoulder. “Good work, Harlan. And that’s why I keep you around.”
“Huh? Where are they going?”
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s talk about your estate in the Bahamas.”
“Really?”
82
D ane looked out over the city called Bethlehem from a place called the Holy of Holies. In many ways the temple spire reminded him of his own homeworld of Ra. The people of Aden, or Earth as it was called in their English tongue, were not unlike his own race. They built tall buildings. None of the other races did so. Perhaps it was a mark, the very image of the Ra now indelibly etched within their genetica. A short smile tipped the edge of his mouth. They were much more like his own race than they realized.
Carson moved to the window where Dane now stood gazing at the grandeur of the small metropolis below.
“You cities are beautiful, Carson,” Dane complimented. “Not unlike those of the Ra.”
“Thank you. I wished that all of them were as nice as Bethlehem.”
“Not every city of the Ra is glamorous either, Carson, I assure you. Are your Yin friends still deliberating about my offer?”
“They are. But there’s been a complication. The fleet that penetrated the cloud has mobilized to the edge of the system. They’re avoiding our planetary bodies for obvious reasons, but they have dispatched an executive vessel similar to your own.”
“Executive vessel?” Dane’s eyebrow lifted.
“Apparently your brother Rase is on his way here.” Carson watched the Ra prince carefully. Dane did not appear at all happy with the news.
“I probably do not need to tell you, Carson, that my brother’s presence here complicates matters immensely.”
“Oh?”
“I was tasked to bring Reflex back to the Ra. I would have done that, centuries ago. However, the discovery of Aden being a Yin homeworld presented an enigma. Something I needed to study.”
“We are more than just Yin,” Carson deduced.
“You are. Your newbloods, these, Reborn, as you call them, they are psionic Ra. There is much more at stake here than just Reflex at this point.”
“I see.”
“I do not think my brothers understand the significance of what Aden represents. Or if they do, they are afraid of it. Rase intends to seize Reflex and then destroy your world. I believe that is his intent.”
“Perhaps we could convince him otherwise?”
“I do not think he will be able to be convinced otherwise, my friend. He is much older and much more set into his ways. He sees me as young and foolish; an idealist.”
“You leave us between the devil and the deep blue sea.”
“I have not lied to you, Carson. I also sympathize with the position you and your world have found yourselves within. I will take what I have come for and leave your world in peace. Rase, on the other hand—” Dane did not finish his thought. He didn’t need to. Carson knew what he was up against.
“Apparently, he wants to talk first.” Carson looked out over the early morning of the city.
“Of course. I am here. Thousands of my vessels now patrol in your orbit. It is the only reason he has not assaulted this world already.”
“I assume the two of you will need some privacy to talk.”
“Not at all. I make no pretense of my intentions at this point, Carson. What Rase wants to say to me, he can say before all of you.”
* * * * *
The Ra prince was escorted into a kind of tall triangular audience hall at the top of the city’s main spire. The room was smaller, but the windows overlooked a small beautiful city below. He nodded approvingly. Several people mingled within the room, both men and women, including Dane. Rase still found the idea of a female liaison highly repugnant, but Francesca had been quite refined in her protocol in dealing with himself as a prince of the royal family. She could easily pass for a princess herself.
Rase moved to where his brother was talking with two other men and a youth.
“Brother,” Dane began. “What a surprise.” His sarcasm only very thinly veiled.
“If only.” Rase returned. “It is a good thing my admirals noticed your vessels in orbit, Dane,” he began with his own unveiled sarcasm. Dane’s flagship was larger than Earth’s own moon having deployed a small armada that now orbited the globe, in a low enough orbit that they were ignored by the weapons of Luna. “Otherwise, there might have been an unintentional accident.”
“My compliments to the adeptness of your crews then.” He raised his glass of Blue. Th
e drink was interesting in how it refined his thoughts and senses. They could use such a remarkable liqueur within the Imperium.
“I have work to do, Dane. How long will you be here?” Rase appeared to all but ignore Carson, Kari, and Jerrod.
“I’m not entirely sure.”
“I have my instructions. I cannot guarantee your safety if you remain on this world.”
“I have no need of your protection, brother,” Dane responded confidently.
“You have clearly been beguiled by these natives, Dane.” Rase ignored Carson but nodded at Jerrod. He was impressed with how beautiful both of them were, especially the woman. But beautiful or not, he had a mission to complete. “I cannot allow you to endanger yourself in this manner.”
“I’m in no danger, Rase.”
“I see the situation differently.”
“I’m sure that you do. However, Aden is my ward. You are deliberately interfering. Father will not be pleased.”
“I have already discussed your ineffectiveness regarding this world with Father. He has given me authority as well to complete his request.”
“Ineffectiveness. I suppose telling our father that I have already completed the mission must have not been part of your conversation,” Dane leveled.
“The knowledge of Reflex had not been delivered when last we spoke. I told him I would be accelerating his request.”
“I think that our Father will not be pleased to learn that you attempted to deliberately deceive him.”
“Outrageous. I have done nothing of the sort.” Rase glared openly now.
Their argument was interrupted as a soft shower of light began falling from the top of the central ceiling of the tall room. Both Dane and Rase watched as the liquid light cascaded down and then flowed like water across the floor of the polished stone dais and then around the feet of everyone in the room. The form of a young woman took shape within the rain of light. She stepped from it, her skin a soft white glow as if the light were part of her somehow.
Everyone within the room watched as Lisa elegantly walked the steps down off the dais dressed like a goddess, her hair and near transparent clothing softly billowing in a light wind that wasn’t there. The light cascading down from above seemed to cling to her as she walked. Like it needed to be touching her. Like it was part of her somehow.
Both Dane and Rase were immediately taken by her beauty and the elegance with which she moved, seemingly flowing like the liquid light that moved around their feet.
She approached the two princes, eyeing both of them with an almost mystical look, a psionic glow lightly burning within her eyes.
“Who are you?” Dane’s face was filled with surprise. Rase wasn’t able to hide his own astonishment as well.
“Lisa,” she said simply.
Both Rase and Dane couldn’t help themselves. They bowed in respect. Neither one had ever bowed to a woman—ever.
“Your name is beautiful,” Dane complimented.
Lisa smiled.
“I am intruding only because I have come to warn you, Prince Rase. And you as well, Prince Dane.”
“Warn me?” Rase asked.
“Your father, Emperor Darius, intends to destroy this world; just as he has the other Yin homeworlds. Reflex is less of concern to him at the moment. It is we he cannot abide. The Aden Reborn represent a natural threat to his power and his throne.
“Your brother was sent to destroy you, Dane. With or without Reflex. Is that not so, Prince Rase?”
“I—” Rase didn’t know whether to be angry or awed that she somehow knew his clandestine personal orders from the Emperor. Rase looked awkwardly at his brother.
Dane glared at him.
“Do not be angry with your brother, Prince Dane. You would have been given the same instructions were you in his position. And you would have carried out your father’s wishes without hesitation.”
Dane nodded. He knew she was right.
“It was noble of you to come to at least attempt to save your brother’s life, Prince Rase. However, I fear your efforts have been in vain. Even now in your absence, your father’s admirals are preparing to launch an assault on our homeworld.”
“They wouldn’t dare!” Rase glowered.
Carson addressed Rase as a battle-seasoned commander; looking him straight in the eye. “If Lisa says your admirals are about to attack, Prince Rase, you can be assured that such an assault is imminent. I can only surmise that your father is desperate that this small world not survive.”
“He would kill—both of us?” Rase gasped in alarm.
“He ordered you to kill me.” Dane folded his arms, a little disgusted that Rase actually thought himself to be above such where their father was concerned. Rase’s arrogance as a much older brother was unsettling.
“Aden must represent exactly what you say, Yin Lisa. An unbelievable threat to his authority.” Dane shook his head. “I knew this world was special. I had no idea how afraid Father was of it.”
“A small portion of the fleet is approaching from a safe vector. It looks like they still want to keep their distance from our moon,” Kari reported, her mind seamlessly linked into the continuum, a myriad of sensors, both passive and active feeding her mind nearly everything she needed to know about the approaching vessels.
Both Rase and Dane were nodding.
“Your planetary bodies are deadly,” Rase acknowledged. “We have no means to repel your weapons. It is as if the weaponry ignores even our best shields.”
“How many of your vessels did you bring, brother?” Dane asked.
“They are not any of mine, Dane. It is Father’s own. His entire First Fleet. Most of it anyway. Many vessels were lost in the conduit making the jump.”
“Then they will have no loyalty to you or to any of us whatsoever.”
The interior of the Holy of Holies suddenly illuminated with a detailed holo image of the fleet as it approached.
“Seventeen thousand warships are on an approach vector,” Kari alerted.
“I do hope your defenses are half as good as your weapons.” Rase suddenly found himself looking into the faces of Carson, Kari, Jerrod and Lisa and feeling very differently about who they were to him now.
“I wouldn’t know,” Carson admitted, looking at the sun god, Jerrod, with a steeled look.
Jerrod’s eyes met Carson’s, a slight smirk tipping the corner of his mouth.
The ground around the feet of brown-skinned laborers began to noticeably tremble. Small quakes on the mountainside coffee plantation were not uncommon. But the current tremor didn’t just subside after a few moments. It didn’t feel like an earthquake so much as a continuous soft rumble beneath them that bounced the loose dirt around their feet. Then something pushed up slowly from beneath the lush mountain soil of the planation. Something smooth and black. With only a subtle tremor, a pyramid began to grow up from the ground. It slipped from beneath the earth like a house pushing its way out of the ground. It rose slowly as harvesters slid and leapt from the its sides, sliding and dropping onto the still vibrating ground along with the plants and soft rich soil. The black pyramid grew out of the lush soil until it became a short obelisk, rising further and further from the earth, spreading only slightly now as it emerged, growing several feet with each passing minute.
Now tall and towering hundreds and hundreds of feet above them the obelisk hummed as if something ancient and long dead were suddenly coming to life for the first time in ages upon ages. A blue-green and bright-white glow spat forth from the top of the still growing tower. Some fell to their knees before then immense structure in reverence, gripping the holy crosses and beads around their necks, their minds deep in reverence and prayer.
“Admiral Vise, we’re detecting energy signatures emanating from the surface. Dozens of them in fact.” His first officer reported but Vise had already noticed the surge. “We’re still not at optimum range yet.”
“We’re more than close enough, commander. All destroyers in synchr
onized formation,” the admiral ordered. “Commence initial bombardment immediately.”
The Sherpa climbers bundled in their warm gear and holding tightly to their ropes watched in stunned amazement as the black glass tower continued to rise out of the icy snow not far from the summit of the tallest peak on Earth.
Passengers aboard the cruise ship flocked to the starboard side of the ship’s railings watching in fascination as a black obelisk rose steadily out of the sea only mere inches from their ship as it moved through the waters. They reached out their hands to touch the black glass that still had seawater running down the side of it. The tip of the tall black structure suddenly lit with a blue-green light that shot skyward.
The admiral watched as dozens of white-hot golden bolts streaked through his fleet, penetrating the massive vessels and continuing through them to strike other vessels beyond. For several moments it looked as if the mammoth vessels had been unharmed by the penetrating beams that had moved through them, but suddenly, one by one, the immense ships seemed to expand as if trying to contain an explosive force that then erupted from within them, shattering the vessels into millions of pieces of exploding hot debris.
“We won’t last long under this kind of heavy fire, Admiral,” his commander informed. The admiral’s second in command watched from the tall windows of their observation deck as a huge vessel not far from their own command ship took a glancing hit; the front of the vessel exploding moments later leaving the rear of the vessel floating aimlessly as if a sharp claw had just rent the forward third of the vessel from its hull.
“Relax, commander. It will all be over in a few minutes.”
Nearly a thousand Ra vessels looking more like deadly assault cannon than ships drew together in tight formations of fifty vessels each as they slipped ahead of the advance offensive fleet. The fronts of the destroyer vessels soon lit with a dim light that built deeply from within each of them. The vessel formations began spinning in a kind of synchronized dance as the barrels of each suddenly lit brightly with the power of suns that belched forth from within them. From each of the scores of cannon formations, the nearly fifty streams of white-hot plasma shot forth like snakes that then began spiraling together as if drawn to the other streams in a swirling, tightening mass until the plasma had become a single-braded strand of intensified white-hot horror. As soon as one formation had released its ungodly hell, another formation fired the same. Each releasing volley after volley of immanent destruction toward the tiny blue world.
Paradisus (Awakened Book 6) Page 35