Origin Equation

by Charles F Millhouse

  “He warned me, and I did nothing to prepare. He warned me and I didn’t listen because I hoped we could work together to fix our problems. But our problem is you Avery Lexor, and you Havashaw Orlander, and all of you who stay here and debate our fate when all the evidence has not been carefully examined. You are all the problems with this Union, and we will not be a part of this... not anymore. From this moment forward House Tannador withdraws from the Union. We withdraw to make rational decisions, and to follow my father’s wishes. The Union is not a part of any of them.”

  Da’Mira couldn’t be prouder of her brother than she was at that moment. He was the leader House Tannador needed. Hek’Dara saw that, and she saw that now, too.”

  “Guards get them out of our sight,” Avery demanded.

  Gregaor stormed forward, and exclaimed, “NO!”

  The chamber fell silent, the Orlander guards stopped just inside the doors and Avery stood from his chair surprised at Gregaor’s sudden hostility.

  “I don’t know what is happening here,” Gregaor said in an acidy voice. “Has humanity fallen so far into this stupor that none of you see it. You are misguided, you have lost your way and you have no leadership.”

  “Enough,” Avery exclaimed and shoved a finger back toward Gregaor. “Guards, clear this room now.”

  The Orlander security men scrambled forward, the Xavier telecom cameras spun into the room recording everything from all angles.

  Da’Mira threw herself forward toward Avery, applying her weight on the table she said, “Arresting us will not alter the fact that Uklavar is coming, he’s coming, and we have no way of stopping him.”

  Gregaor barked out a roaring laugh, bellowing, “You can forget it Da’Mira... they won’t listen to you. Why should they? The woman who blew up their breeding facility. You’re enemy number one. There is nothing you can do to prevent the inevitable... nothing!”

  A hand latched on to Da’Mira’s arm. She turned toward the guard. Martin was being detained by two officers, who pinned him against the wall. He struggled but their combined strength was too great for him.

  The Lady Anders was being hauled from the chambers, tears raining off her face she reached forward as if trying to grab ahold of something to prevent them from taking her.

  Quinton was shouting something at the Union members, who congregated into a corner of the room so the security men could execute their orders. Da’Mira threw her bodyweight forward, her fingers dug into the table. She and Gregaor glanced at one another, he wore a celebratory smugness on his face as he was calmly escorted from the room.

  Da’Mira grimaced. Uklavar was coming but he had already won. He had won, without even setting a foot on Earth.

  Evergarden Home of the Family Everhart

  High Earth Orbit

  June 19, 2377

  Moyah pushed the man off of her. They had been engaged in passionate love making, but in reality, it was only unadulterated sex. It was an attempt to fill a hole in her heart, but like all the past attempts over the last one-hundred years, it was meaningless. Moyah had loved only one man, in a different time, a different life.

  Her choice for a new love was limited to those men on Evergarden. She never left the orbital platform. Never went to clubs, or dinner, or even Union meetings. How could she explain her appearance? To everyone in orbit of Earth she was an old woman, but in reality, she still looked like the same thirty-three-year-old woman that she was when she became Moyah Everhart.

  Her choices for a new partner was limited to security guards, maintenance men, and dock workers. To them, sleeping with Moyah Everhart was a privilege, to her, it was a release, nothing more. She had, had many encounters over the years. Some more memorable than others. Bedding one or two, or even three men at a time quenched her thirst for sex, but it did nothing more. She was destined to be alone.

  Moyah would like to think she was content with that idea, but she would be lying to herself. She missed being in love, not simply for the sex, but for the companionship. She spent many hours alone and on the verge of going insane. There were servants that she had grown friendships with – but being in love was different. It wasn’t something she could put into words. Not many people could. Love was love. There didn’t need to be any more of an explanation than that.

  She climbed out of bed and turned on the lights. The external window was tinted, but even then, the glow of the Earth peeked through. She and her companion didn’t exchange words when he stood from the bed. He scooped up his clothes from the floor throughout the ornate bedroom and gave her a fleeting glance as he scurried out of the room. Moyah stood there alone. She was sure she’d gained a reputation as a slut throughout the lower decks of the station, but she didn’t care. No one would say it to her face, even if it was true. There was no one else that could understand her torment. Living forever wasn’t what people would think. She was lonely. If it wasn’t for Colin, she might go insane.

  Colin McGregor was with her daily. They spent many hours talking, exploring ideas and making plans. Plans when they would face the future together. Colin made her laugh, made her cry and made her understand that she had no other choice but to be alone, be Moyah Everhart. For she was the only one that knew the true danger coming.

  Together she and Colin worked out a defense that would safeguard the Earth, but it wasn’t flawless. Nothing was, he would tell her.

  “Was he worth it?”

  Moyah eyed Colin as he lay on the bed. “He was adequate,” she said.

  Colin rolled out of bed. He straightened his tunic and flattened out his kilt. He faced her and said, “When are you going to realize that sex is sex. It means nothing unless you do it with someone you love.”

  “But I am,” Moyah admitted.

  “You are?”

  “You’re with me,” Moyah said with a smile. “I look into your eyes, and you watch with intent.”

  Colin turned away. “You know I’m not real, you know I’m...”

  “Shut up,” Moyah said slipping into a dark bath robe, and said, “I know you’re not real, Colin. But I’m so lonely.”

  “You have your servants,” Colin said.

  “They’re just servants,” she said remembering a time when she was less than a servant. Living on Earth in the Tribe of the Free. I’m anything but free now.

  “I miss the short time we were together,” Moyah said. “If I would have listened to you when I wanted to go home. If I wouldn’t have attempted it, I might be on the Earth now with my daughter. I was so stupid.”

  “Excuse me Milady... are you talking to someone?”

  Moyah spun around to find a short young girl standing in the bedroom doorway. The girl was dressed in all white and carried a handful of towels. “I’m afraid I was... yes,” Moyah admitted.

  “I saw your... I mean he left and...” the girl said with a gulp and added, “I brought you clean towels, I figured you’d want to shower.”

  “That’s thoughtful.”

  “Ask her, her name,” Colin said.

  Moyah regarded Colin for a moment, and then turned toward the short girl. She was young, maybe eighteen with dark skin, wide marble sized eyes, pouty full lips and short yellow hair.

  “You need a friend, other than me... a figment of your imagination,” Colin whispered.

  Moyah released a breath of air through her nostrils, and said, “What’s your name?”

  “I’m Delta, Milady.”

  “Delta, from this day forward I want you to call me Moyah.”

  Delta smiled, and shook her head, saying, “I don’t think I could.”

  “Go on,” Colin nagged her. “Make her understand.”

  Moyah eyed Colin. She could admit to herself he wasn’t real, but he still had the same mannerisms as the real man. Or at least how she perceived Colin to be. So many years had passed since she had the chance to speak to the real Colin. Had she remembered how he sounded, or for that matter how he really looked. It was quite maddening.

  Yet, Moyah conv
inced herself she wasn’t going mad. Maybe the real reason the Colin phantasm was urging her to take a friend, was because she needed someone in her life.

  “Go on, talk to her,” Colin said with a smile and a nod.

  “Don’t pressure me,” Moyah replied.

  “Beg your pardon mam?” Delta said.

  Moyah pinched her eyes with her thumb and index finger, exhaled and told Delta, “Go about your duties.”

  “If you let that girl go out of the room, you’ll regret it,” Colin said.

  Moyah didn’t reply.

  Colin tossed his hands in the air and scoffed.

  “Don’t treat me like a child, I’m not a child, Colin.”

  “Then stop acting like one. You always were stubborn.”

  Moyah hardened her jaw, she hated when the Highlander talked down to her.”

  “Stop acting like the spoiled High-Born you’ve become,” Colin snapped.

  “I am not spoiled,” Moyah snapped back.

  “So, you’re not too good to talk to the servant. Prove it,” Colin said snidely.

  Moyah turned to Delta. The girl hadn’t moved from where she’d entered the room. Towels still in hand, she studied Moyah, but averted her eyes when Moyah turned to her.

  “If it would please Milady, I can come back later,” Delta said.

  “No,” Moyah said and held her breath.

  “What are you waiting for?” Colin whispered.

  “Would you stay, would you talk to me?” Moyah asked Delta.

  The servant nodded as if she were afraid to say no.

  “Come here, put the towels down and sit with me,” Moyah said sitting on the edge of the bed.

  Delta did as she was instructed. She sat on the farthest edge of the bed and folded her arms in front of her, hands in her lap. She regarded Moyah with suspicion.

  “You mustn’t be afraid,” Moyah said.

  “I’m not,” Delta replied, hesitant.

  “I would like to talk, that is all.”

  Delta stared at Moyah, a confusion riddled her face, and she said, “Alright, Milady.”

  Moyah eyed Colin who stood there, arms folded in front of him. She sneered at him, but the Highlander didn’t budge.

  Moyah leveled her voice, keeping it calm, as to prove she wasn’t insane, though she figured that’s how most of Evergarden thought of her. “I have all kinds of servants, Delta,” she said. “What I don’t have is a friend. I want you to be my companion. Live here in my apartment and just keep me company. Can you do that?”

  Delta sat there silent for a long while, the idea flittering through her gray eyes. Cautious she said, “I don’t know Milady... I.”

  “You would have the run of the apartment, be allowed to go anywhere on the platform,” Moyah said in her most convincing voice. “I need someone to be with me, stay with me.”

  “You have to understand Milady, this isn’t something that is normal, even for you. I have heard stories about the other High-Born families. How their servants are treated. It’s different here, and all of the servants know it. But what you’re asking is – shocking. But even though it’s better here than on other platforms... but.”

  “Go on, speak your mind,” Moyah said.

  Delta slid further away, almost falling off the side of the bed and minded her surroundings, and said, “You created the breeding facilities and you voted for the approval of the Orlander security force. How can I believe what you say?”

  “She has a point,” Colin said.

  “I know she has a point,” Moyah snapped.

  “Who are you talking to, Milady?” Delta asked standing from the bed – her arms folded in front of her.

  Moyah chewed on her lower lip, and exhaled, saying, “You’re right... you’re right, I don’t have a right to ask you to do something that you’re not prepared to do. You can go.”

  Delta didn’t move. She dropped her hands to her side, and said, “I’d like to be your friend, if you could help me understand why you did those things.”

  Moyah stared at Delta, her story was so unbelievable that she had a hard time believing the wild tale herself. She pointed to the end of the bed, and said, “Please, sit back down and I’ll tell you the whole truth.”

  Delta blinked at Moyah a few times and sat back down.

  Placing her hands in her lap, Moyah drew a breath. “I warn you,” she said. “What I’m about to tell you will sound far-fetched, but I swear to you, it’s the truth.”

  Delta was quiet but nodded her response.

  Moyah cleared her throat, but before she spoke, she searched the room for Colin, but he had gone. Maybe because she didn’t need him anymore, or maybe because he was never there in the first place. Her brow knitted and she studied Delta, wondering if the girl was real or a figment of her imagination, too.”

  “Are you alright, Milady?”

  Moyah studied Delta for the longest time. Her thoughts flying back to the moment she became Moyah Everhart. In that time, she has kept the secret of who she was, and where she came from. She kept the knowledge a secret. Secrets she could never tell. In the decades since she arrived on the space platform and faced Rothchild Everhart she was the lone custodian of this terrible knowledge. A heavy burden on her shoulders and it grew heavier over the years. Heavier than any one person should bear. She needed a confidant and if not Delta, then who?

  “Milady?” Delta asked in a shallow breath.

  “Moyah, call me Moyah.”

  Again, Delta replied with a nod and waited as Moyah began her story.

  The Planet Kepler 369, AKA the Planet Shin’nor’ee

  The Expedition of Professor Charles Long

  At the Center of the Planet.

  October 20, 2442 – Earth Time

  The research of Cosmos went as far as it could. The team reached an impasse. There was no other information they could obtain without surveying the ship itself. That meant finding a way onto the vessel without disrupting the field around the ship and in fact destroying the planet. If what the expedition suspected was true, the entire planet was held together by a delicate balance, and if interrupted, could destroy the planet in a matter of minutes.

  Charles Long and Jonna Grace stood at the precipice of the Cosmos. The harmonic energy resonated in a calm even tone. The closer Jonna came toward it, the steadier it vibrated. Charles studied the effect it had on Jonna. Her light chocolate hair blew steadily around her face, and her amber eyes sparkled. It was as if she and the barrier around the ship were connected in some way.

  Maybe because Jonna now contained the combined memories of the Cosmea, Charles didn’t know for sure. He wasn’t sure what he knew. Events transpired so fast in the beginning, to be slowed to a snail’s pace.

  “I’ve been studying the barrier,” Jonna said. “And I believe we can enter through here.” She reached out an open palm and placed it steadily against the forcefield around Cosmos. “I can circumvent enough power for two of us to pass through. But once we begin, we must move fast and step through without haste.”

  Charles rubbed his chin, and asked, “Once we get in, will we be able to come back?”

  “I don’t know,” Jonna replied.

  Charles grimaced, but didn’t say anything. As an archeologist he understood the risks. But unlike other expeditions, this one was far more important. Knowledge was the key, but this time using that knowledge was even more important. It meant the salvation of a species and to rid the galaxy of a monstrous scourge that infected it. If they didn’t come back from Cosmos, then there would be no point in going. If anything, they had to come back with what they found on the ship. If there is anything at all, he thought.

  A light touch came to Charles’ back and he heard Navaho Night ask, “And what should we do if you don’t come back?”

  Charles turned toward Navaho to find Spencer Lawson standing with her. “Wait here as long as you can,” he told them. “Then return to the surface and tell Hyta what happened.”

  “Are you sure
you want to do this?” Spencer asked.

  “That ship holds secrets long forgotten,” Charles said. “It’s a treasure trove of information. Even if it doesn’t tell us how to fight Uklavar, the knowledge we’ll gain will be priceless.”

  Navaho nodded and said, “We’d be going if we could.”

  “Be careful,” Spencer said.

  Jonna grabbed Charles by the arm. “We must go – now.” She eyed Navaho and Spencer and with a finality in her voice she said, “Goodbye,” and she pulled Charles through the thin field.

  Charles’ heart stuck in his throat. When he passed through the layer of energy it pricked his skin like a thousand little needles. He fought to take a breath – his lungs were smoldering. An icy-hot sensation enveloped him, and his ears popped as if he had gone to a higher altitude.

  A milky film marred his vision as if he were in a thick fog. Charles stumbled ahead with a guiding hand from Jonna. Blind and unable to hear, he narrowed his other senses, concentrating, he smelled the odor of burnt wire hanging on the air. Reaching out, he ran his hands along a smooth, slick wall that was oddly cool, but vibrated violently.

  A low-pitch whining sound pulsated around him and it acted as a beacon. He focused and his hearing began to clear. There was a woman shouting commands, something about an unstable event forming outside the vessel.

  When Charles’ eyesight cleared, the image of a wormhole filled the main viewport. The ship rocked from side to side, and he had to constantly shift his footing so he could keep on his feet. His vision cleared – flashes of lightning struck viciously at the mouth of the spatial tunnel.

  Another command came from the front of the ship, “Try and reinitiate an engine restart.”

  A man sitting at the far left of the deck replied in a concerned, but professional tone, “Main computer is offline. Switching to backups.”

  A woman sitting to the right of the main pilot’s chair advised, “Captain we need to abort.”

  “It’s too late, the unstableness of the wormhole is acting like a gravity well and pulling us in,” the pilot said. “We have no other choice, we’re going in.”