Promises & Prophecies

by Lee Watts

  "I have to get back to Theera," he remarked, though was talking to himself.

  "Theera?" the overly-aged duchess questioned. "Impossible. What do you want to go back there for?"

  "The transfer device is there. I have to get to it."

  "You have that blasted bracer you wanted, why don't you find another of those devices?"

  "Because the only other one is with Saqir Nexos and there is no way I'll be able to get to it," he grumbled. "The rest were destroyed after The Abduction during the time of purging."

  "It's all fables anyway," the quivering, boney old woman sneered. "Your grandfather filled your head with childish fables. There's no such thing. He never found some lost planet with alien artifacts, pha."

  "Oh, but he did, Mother. I've been there; Alexander has too, though I don't know how he managed to escape."

  "Alexander," the woman spat with contempt. "Cheyenne's boy? He'll never give you anything, Salazar. He's a Lyons, and they only take. They use you, and then they abandon you. If you don't have something he wants, then he'll never let you get within a lightyear of that device." With that, the decrepit old woman walked out.

  In bitterness, Salazar stared blankly at his desk as he focused on her words. He knew she was right. If he didn't have something Alexander wanted, then there was no way his half-brother would help him.

  The only bargaining chip I had was the Plyeecian stones, but now Alexander knows of their existence, and I'm sure he's had Realm ships take them. What in the name of the twin worlds can I offer him?... Of course, he thought in sudden realization as a broad smile crossed his face. And I'm the only person in the universe who can give it to him.

  ***

  As Councilors left the royal conference chamber behind the platform of the nearly reconstructed main hall of the palace, Yilib Wasi entered the room with his assistant, Timotheus. No longer invited to Council sessions since Caedmon's return, the former royal vizier thinly veiled his contempt at the man now replacing him at Alexander's side. Seeing the former queen there with the chief translator, he was further disgusted. Yilib knew Cheyenne used to be a follower of the Sect but had left them years ago because of Caedmon's teachings about the Codex.

  "Sire, may I have a moment of your time," the exquisitely robed man began with a bow.

  "Yes, Yilib. What is it?" Alexander asked.

  "Actually, it's about what you just said, Sire. I, of course, defer to your authority in appointing whom you wish as grand vizier, but I've noticed since your…restoration… you have refrained from using my appropriate title as chief mediator. With respect, I'm afraid I must be insistent on its required use."

  Alexander paused and placing down the datapad he held. Eyes boring through his ornately-clad advisor, Alexander spoke slowly.

  "I am king, Yilib, not you, and you will make no requirements of me. You are right about one thing though, I have refrained from calling you mediator, because as the Holy Codex says, There is one mediator between the Elder and man, the man Elkanah. I don't know how the Sect introduced the heresy that people cannot pray to the Elder directly but instead must to go through mediators of men. You are no more holy than those who tell you their prayers. In fact, the Sect is replete with scandals and corruption."

  "SIRE! You are the one now speaking heresies by defaming the Sect. 'The Sect is mother the Sect is father-' "

  "NO," Alexander cut off the recitation. "The Codex says, Call no man thy father for one is our Father, which is in Paradise!"

  "Mind your tongue, Alexander Lyons," Yilib scolded. "The Sect is far more reaching than the Realm. It was around centuries before your rule and will be here centuries after you are gone. If you don't recant your rash words this very moment, I'll have the Supreme Mediator himself have the Elder pluck your name from Paradise, leaving you no hope for eternity! Recant!"

  "Don't threaten me, Yilib," Alexander rebutted. "You have no power over my soul. Elkanah himself said, I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father; which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand! For too long I've allowed the Sect to spout it false teachings in the Realm! For too long the Sect has lied how it has the power to decide who is ejected from Paradise or made a 'blessed one.' The Sect has no power of expulsion from Paradise, nor the authority to declare the dead as blessed ones when you see fit! In fact, it is the Sect that is now ejected - ejected from this palace, ejected from Theera, and ejected from the entire Realm! The Sect is not father; the Elder is Father. He is all, and as for me and my kingdom, we will serve the Elder!"

  "So be it," Yilib growled. Turning with a flare of his robes, he began storming out. "Come, Arbiter," he commanded Timotheus, but the younger man held his ground. "I said come!"

  "I… I cannot," Timotheus responded meekly.

  "You dare defy your mediator?"

  "No… for it as the king quoted, there is one mediator between the Elder and man. Elkanah is my mediator, not you. From now on it is Him I will follow, not the Sect."

  "Blasphemy!"

  "Blasphemy, Father? Blasphemy is putting the words of men above the words of the Elder. The Sect has steeped itself in traditions and practices against the explicit teachings of the Elder. It's a dead religion based on the works of men and not the Elder! I've seen what power the word of the Holy Codex has. I saw it the day the Religious Center was opened; we saw it at the palace the day they retook Theera. The Narrow Way the King and Faithful Voice speak of is the true path, not the lifeless ways of the Sect. I see now the Sect has no hope to offer for eternal life, no holy authority, and it does not hold the keys to Paradise as it claims! Lies! It's all based on lies! You've lied to me my entire life, and it was going to send me straight to the Vortex! Elkanah is the way, He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Elder but by Him! You came in here demanding that someone recant; well, your demand is met, for I am the one who now recants. I renounce every tie I have to the Sect; I turn my back on it, and turn to the teachings of the Elder, and in Him alone do I put my trust!"

  Infuriated, Yilib turned angrily, marching out of the room and out of his son's life. Brokenhearted, Timotheus watched him leave.

  Seeing his sorrow, Caedmon crossed to the young man and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

  "He was the only family I had left, and now even he's gone."

  "Nay," answered Caedmon, "for this day are ye birthed into the family of the Elder, and each believer 'tis now thy brother or sister."

  "I've always wanted to do what's right. I always felt I was meant to serve the Elder fully, but… I don't know how."

  "Then come," Caedmon invited, "I feel the Elder hast indeed chosen thee. Therefore, I will instruct thee in the ways of the holy writings and in what thou must do to become the Faithful Voice of the Elder."

  Infuriated, Yilib angrily strode down one of the halls of the palace. Going to his chambers, he grabbed a few personal items then crossed to the computer and purged all of his files. Making his way out of the palace he slowed as something occurred to him. If Salazar had kept some records about Yilib's involvement in drugging the queen or conspiring to destroy the Chariot his life would be forfeit. He couldn't risk there being any trace that could lead to him. Changing direction, he turned and used the lesser traveled corridors to make his way to the king's office. Two guards stood on either side of the doorway. Figuring they had no idea he was relieved of duty, he told them he was on an errand for the king, so they granted him access to the room. Securing the door behind him, Yilib walked down the elongated room toward the king's desk. The tall window behind the desk was slightly ajar. He thought it odd that security had not ensured it was closed, but perhaps Alexander just wanted to air out the room. Turning around, he leaned over the desk to access the computer there.

  "What? Who's there?" he whispered then stopped suddenly upon seeing the hint of something move in a darkened corner of the room. Startled, he jo
lted to an upright position believing he had been caught by palace security. Within a pulse of his quick-beating heart, he realized the person in the room with him wasn't a security officer. The pale-skinned intruder, a Ramillie, wore a tight-fitting leather suit with light armor, a heavy blaster at one side and a vicious looking blade weapon on the other.

  "Who... who are you?" Yilib trembled as he spoke the words, and the sinister-looking man slowly edged forward.

  "We are Asha," the man answered with the sound of multiple voices as he continued to stalk closer.

  "We," Yilib tried to clarify as he stepped backward. "You're... you're one of them, aren't you? You're one of the Dridmor."

  The possessed man shook his head and gave a wicked, toothy smile.

  "Not one," the man corrected. "Many."

  With a shaking hand, Yilib extended his arm attempting to excise the spirits as he had witnessed done once before by the Faithful Voice.

  "B-by Elkanah, which Caedmon proclaims... I... I command you to... to depart from him."

  The infiltrator stopped, tilted his head inquisitively and hissed in his unholy choir of voices, "Elkanah we know, and Caedmon we know... but you... you we do not know."

  With that, the attacker opened his jaw unnaturally wide, and his teeth seemed to elongate. As he charged, Yilib cried out in terror. Hearing the cry, the guards outside the door went to investigate but found the door locked. One of them reached for the override passkey in a pocket of his utility belt, withdrew it and inserted the card into the door's reader. By the time it took to do this and for the door to part open so the guards could enter, they saw the intruder standing over the blood-soaked corpse of the chief mediator. Hearing them come in, the attacker turned toward them and went for his blaster. Weapons already drawn, the guards beat him to the trigger pull but had to use an unusually high number of hits to bring down the intruder.

  Then, rising like ash when wind blows across it, came wispy streaks of oily, black smoke from the dead man's body. There was the sound of voices moaning that turned into screams then the pillar of smoke suddenly jetted out the open window and went high into the air. When the Ka Tchar failed the first time, it had sought out seven other spirits more wicked than himself, but with their combined strength they again missed their target. There would be one final attempt to kill this son of Darius to ensure he couldn't fulfill the prophecy, and it was the last attempt the Ka Tchar needed to make.

  CHAPTER 9

  "Clouds and darkness are round about him..." – Psalm 97:2

  Enveloped by swirling gas and dust, the starship Fortune penetrated deeper into The Cloud.

  "Turbulence increasing," Jaiden called out as the ship began shaking.

  "She'll hold together," Sosimo reassured him, confident of his precious vessel. The vibrating of the ship grew steadily greater, causing an automatic damage alert to sound. Quickly hitting the indicator button of his command chair, Sosimo silenced the notification.

  "Not that I'm concerned, and on a completely unrelated note, how much longer until we reach the other side of The Cloud?"

  Clutching her console to keep her footing, Mei checked the equipment.

  "I can't get a reading of clear space yet. Interference is too strong," she answered as the ship bucked in a sudden, violent lurch. "Sensors just went off-line; we're blind."

  Noticing a drop in velocity, Sosimo called out, "Helm, I didn't say to reduce speed."

  "It's not me, Captain," Jaiden replied. "The electromagnetic field is intensifying. It's growing… thicker."

  "Compensate," Sosimo instructed. "We have to push through. I don't want to get stuck in the middle of this thing."

  "External pressure increasing," Mei informed and was forced to shout over the increasing noise of the straining ship. "Should I raise shields?!"

  "Negative!" Sosimo yelled to be heard. "I think activating an energy field in here isn't such a good idea!"

  Peering through the dense fog on the main viewscreen, Sosimo thought he saw something.

  "What's that?!"

  Before anyone could determine, the unidentified object was blanketed by the reddish-orange mist. The ship continued forward, shaking heavily as it pressed onward. Suddenly reemerging from the dust was the object, which was an immense section of a shattered starship's hull.

  "Hard to port!" Sosimo shouted.

  Jaiden pulled on the controls, but the ship angled only a fraction, remaining on a rapid collision course.

  "Negative responsive, Captain," Jaiden reported.

  Seconds from a head-on impact, Sosimo ordered, "TRY STARBOARD!"

  Flipping the directional controls, the ship veered swiftly, incredibly swiftly. Avoiding the derelict ship, the Fortune was now sliding sideways thru The Cloud at high speed.

  "Whoa!" Sosimo exclaimed, forced to hang onto his command chair to keep from flying across the room. "JAIDEN," He shouted over the torrent of sound, "TURN US INTO THE CURRENT!"

  Straining to reach the console, Jaiden adjusted the directional controls and vectored the ship to face the driving force. Now in a straight line with the natural flow of the energy, the ship somewhat smoothed in is flight, though the noise continued.

  "Good work, Jaiden," Sosimo complimented while having to yell to be heard. "Now, tell me what happened?"

  "There's some kind of a cross-flow," Jaiden shouted in explanation. "We're facing it, but the current is so strong that we're barely moving forward. On this heading we're not making any progress to the inside; we're just looping whatever is at the core of The Cloud!"

  A long, low moan resounded throughout the ship's structure.

  "What now?" Sosimo groused.

  "It's the external pressure," the trim first-mate answered. "Much more and we'll have a hull breach!"

  "We have to turn back, Cap'n!" Byron shouted over the noise filling the bridge.

  "No!" Sosimo responded. "I won't turn back," he added. Narrowing his eyes, he glowered at the image of the raging tempest surrounding and crushing his ship. Snapping his fingers, he raised one of them as a thought occurred to him. "Mei, open all the starboard vents!"

  Hatches slid open and magnetic containment fields deactivated along one side of the Fortune. With the exterior pressure far higher than that internally, the particles of The Cloud rushed into the open sections of the pirate vessel, the force of that pushing the ship deeper toward the core.

  The ship rocked as it exited the hard-rushing current.

  "We're clear," Mei announced as the noise levels dropped. "External pressure back to normal."

  "Straighten us out," Sosimo instructed. "Resume course toward the interior."

  "Aye," Jaiden acknowledged and went to adjust the controls. "Uh, Captain… the directional indicator is going crazy. I'm unable to get a bearing."

  "It's the magnetic distortion," Mei added. "There's no way to tell which direction we exited that current. We might be above it, below, to the side… who knows."

  "We can't just pick a direction at random and hope it's the right one," the portly Byron complained. "We've been in here for hours already. Who knows how much thicker The Cloud is. We might get lost in here permanently."

  Mei looked to her adoptive father figure with concern. His eyes darted to her, thinking the same thing. They both knew Byron was correct, but not wanting to dishearten the crew, they didn't voice their misgivings.

  "I'm beginning to think the reason no one ever lived to say what was on the inside of The Cloud is because no one ever actually made it through."

  "Come on, Byron," Jaiden goaded. "What makes you say that?"

  "Those," he said pointing to the main screen.

  Sosimo turned to the monitor but wasn't sure of what he was looking at.

  "Mei, magnify the image."

  Zooming in, the shapes became recognizable. Littering the way ahead, like an asteroid field of inert rocks, were hundreds of battered ships floating dead in space.

  "Life signs?" Sosimo asked.

  "Sensors are still
off-line, Captain," Mei responded. "But from the looks of those ships, I wouldn't guess so."

  As they drew nearer, the exposed interiors of the derelicts confirmed Mei's assessment. Vessels of designs spanning centuries and from scores of worlds now hung motionless in the dust cloud.

  "These must be the ships that tried to breach The Cloud during the millennia," Byron reasoned in awe of the sight. "But how did they all end up here?"

  Mei offered a theory.

  "They were probably pulled in by that current we passed through then eventually thrown clear. The elevated distortion in this section must draw them here by magnetic force."

  "Think of all the things that are still in those ships, Cap'n," Byron suggested greedily. "We could make a fortune by looting these."

  "I didn't come all this way just to scavenge off those who didn't make it through," Sosimo answered. "There's a much bigger prize awaiting us, but maybe we can use these ships to figure out which way to the center."

  "How?" Jaiden asked.

  "Hey, I came up with the idea; you do your part. What am I paying you people for anyway?"

  "Paid?" Byron questioned. "Wait a minute, I've not seen pay in a while." He leaned over to Jaiden and whispered, "Kid, you gett'n paid?"

  "I think the captain is onto something," Mei interjected.

  "Yes… yes, of course, I am," Sosimo agreed, glad for an interruption to the conversation. "What am I onto, Mei?"

  "The dispersion of those ships."

  "What about them?" Jaiden asked.

  "Look, they're not all over the place; they're relatively close together here but follow the line and see how they're scattered."