Worlds Without End: The Mission (Book 1)

by Shaun F. Messick

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  Skip was too excited to sleep. He and his team had arrived at the temple ruins almost four hours ago and had already made surprising discoveries; discoveries that he never would have imagined even in his wildest dreams.

  From the moment they had begun to decipher the writings on the walls of the temple, they had found out that the writings followed the chronology of Terrest. The hieroglyphs that had shocked Skip the most, however, were the first ones he deciphered on the left wall of the narrow hallway just inside the entrance. In English, the writing read: In the beginning, God created the heavens and Terresta.

  Skip was astonished. The only word that didn't translate was Terresta, which Skip presumed to mean the planet of Terrest. Was it possible that the writings that he was deciphering within this temple on another planet were, in fact, the Bible of Terrest?

  And that wasn't the only discovery. Skip had made it way halfway down the narrow hallway and discovered that many of the writings were similar to the Holy Bible. The only differences were the names and places. He had just made another discovery that the Tilicah tribe were the chosen people of the God of Terrest, much like the tribes of Israel being the chosen people of God on Earth, when his communicator beeped.

  Skip put down the scriptures he had borrowed from Jake. He grabbed his communicator and flipped it open. "This is Colonel Hendricks."

  "Skip, this is General Gibson. Is everything all right there?"

  Skip looked around. "Yeah, everything's fine. Why?"

  There was a pause. Then, Skip heard Sean sigh. "Good. Adrian, Jake, and Doc had to go and rescue Celeste. She's been injured."

  "Is she okay?"

  "She's still alive. But I have more bad news. Within minutes, the base is going to be under attack by Gnol forces."

  Skip jumped to his feet. "Do you need us to return to base?"

  "Negative, Colonel. Your orders are to stay put until further notice. We are evacuating as many civilians as we can to the second base. If you need to reach us, you can send a message through the encrypted codes I gave you for the communicators."

  "Yes, General. Contact me as soon as you can."

  "I will, Skip. General Gibson out."

  Skip slowly closed his communicator. How could he stand by and let his friends fight a more powerful enemy, while he satisfied his curiosity? He had to do something.

  Skip slowly bent down and opened his communicator again. "Captain Morasea."

  "Yes, Colonel."

  "You and your men come back into the temple and meet me in the temple room with the fountain in five minutes. We have an emergency."

  "Yes, sir."

  Skip flipped his communicator shut and sprinted to the temple room with the fountain; the same room he and Jake had slept in their first night on Terrest. Once inside the room, he awoke both Ariauna and Jaskead.

  Jaskead, who had been sleeping on the floor with just a thin blanket for cover, rolled over groggily. "Wha ? What is it, my young friend?"

  Skip, unable to keep the fear from his voice, said, "Our friends are in trouble."