Event Horizon Threshold

by Kaitlyn O’Connor

  She was ready to go in fifteen minutes.

  The government goons were at the door in ten.

  Aurek and Dylan held them off while she skimmed into her suit and helmet, and Tor gathered everything together and re-activated the gateway that had brought them.

  * * * *

  Roslyn was startled to discover by the time they’d reached Eden again that there were people everywhere, living in tents while they worked on permanent structures. They created a ripple when they arrived. There were wary looks cast their way, a touch of guilt, almost as if they expected someone to show up any minute, claim ownership, and run them off. There were tentative smiles of welcome and a few friendly greetings regardless, but it was obvious they weren’t sure if they were allowed to claim a spot and make a place for themselves.

  She understood. She felt the same constriction—because on Earth everything already belonged to someone else with more money or power or both.

  The concept of free land had vanished if there ever was such a thing.

  “What do want to do?” Aurek asked when they paused to look around.

  “I think we need to claim a piece of the garden while we can,” she said quietly, ruefully. “We need the food and it looks like everybody that’s come has grabbed up as much as they can.

  “Yes.”

  With that, he left her standing, gaping at his back and strode to a rise.

  Clapping his hands together, he shot a lightning bolt into the sky—which got everyone’s attention even though they’d been inclined to ignore the clapping. “You are allowed only enough of the garden to feed yourself and your family! Greed will not be tolerated.”

  The settlers glanced at one another.

  “Who died and made you god?” someone shouted.

  Aurek spotted the one who’d asked who had made him god and shot him down with a lightning bolt, knocking him back a couple of yards before he hit the dirt. “The old gods,” he growled. “I am a guardian. Dylan and Tor are also guardians. We are here to bring order and maintain peace.”

  “But … we don’t know what we’ll need,” someone else complained.

  Aurek left the mound and paced off the amount he thought, or knew, it would take to sustain the family and then sent Dylan and Tor to establish the lines of the other claims.

  Rosyln was still in a state of shock when he joined her again.

  He’d told her that he and the others were guardians, but she hadn’t considered what it might mean or might entail.

  It only made sense, though, that there would be peace keepers. In some ways Earth dwellers were civilized well past their instincts. In others … well they were still pretty territorial and this situation had brought out dormant survival instincts, clearly.

  Well, probably not so dormant in some.

  The majority made every effort to establish a self-sufficient colony that was also efficient and environmentally conscious.

  Naturally some didn’t and they were extremely resentful and belligerent about being told to keep their carbon footprint to a minimum for the sake of others.

  Some settled down and complied with the demands of the many and some disappeared, most likely to another place on the planet to start their own dump heap.

  Roslyn knew it was cynical, but it was also true.

  People never really changed.

  That was her purpose now, beyond making a home for her new family—to make sure generations knew exactly what the penalty was so that they could at least delay the inevitable even if they couldn’t prevent it.

  Aurek dragged her close for a kiss—and more.

  She was open to the kiss, but she drew the line at ‘more’. “We need to pitch our tent.”

  He grinned down at her. “You are too shy. We do not need a tent.”

  “Like hell!”

  He chuckled and led her away to where Dylan and Tor were busy setting up their temporary home.

  Aurek left her to inspect it and decided to approve and called Roslyn to give her approval.

  She wasn’t sure what they would do if she didn’t accept the ‘nest’. She was half tempted to find out, but she could see they’d worked hard so she shelved her temptation toward mischief.

  Thankfully, they had a solid home built of stone by the time the triplets arrived as Aurek had said they would.

  She didn’t think she’d really believed that part.

  But they were a stunningly handsome group and their fathers were, justifiably, proud.

  A little too doting to Roslyn’s mind, but she thought life would probably knock them down a few notches without her worrying about it too much.

  Eventually the government sent a troop of soldiers—delayed by almost a year because something had mysteriously happened to the gateway. The soldiers seemed very threatening at first, but they were told to stand down by their commanding officer and left the little colony to look for trouble elsewhere.

  Roslyn watched them go with a sense of relief. “Do you think … they’ll come back?”

  “Possibly,” Aurek said.

  “There will be no trouble,” Dylan said, a note in his voice that made Roslyn uneasy.

  Tor nodded. “We are the peace keepers. We will by god keep the peace.”

  “Oh! That’s so reassuring!” Roslyn responded.

  Aurek gathered her close for a hug. “If I thought there would be trouble do you not think I would send you and boys away?”

  Roslyn thought that over. “You aren’t sending me off by myself with those hellions of yours!”

  Aurek, Dylan, and Tor looked torn between amusement and indignation but the amusement won out. They laughed.

  “I’m serious!”

  “I know,” Aurek said, chuckling.

  Roslyn shook her head at him. “I don’t know why I love the three of you so much!”

  “Because we are yours,” Aurek responded promptly.

  “And you are ours,” Dylan added.

  Tor glared at the other two, searching for something to add. “And I am the best lover,” he added finally.

  And promptly got his ass kicked.

  The End.