“There’s no sign of civilization, even of life more advanced than the pond scum that covered Earth a billion years ago.”
“What the hell?” Dylan asked, springing up from his seat and scooting to the transparent wall.
A brilliant, green column of light blossomed from a plateau in the northern hemisphere, near the day/night terminator, and rose until it reached the edge of space.
Chad formed a spatial telescope. “Holy- That looks like a plasma tornado. It’s extremely well contained. Completely vertical.”
“It’s technological,” Dylan said.
“I don’t see how it could be otherwise,” Chad said.
“Krea,” Sara asked, “have you ever seen anything like it?”
The Collector shook her head.
“Take us into synchronous orbit, would you, Chad?” Sara asked. “Krea, would you mind taking us down in your ship?”
Krea approximated a human smile, but Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith looked uncomfortably at each other then at her.
Ji-min whispered to Sara, “they find it, not disagreeable, perhaps awkward is a better term, that Krea is providing the ship without a stake in what’s learned.”
“You’re getting rather good at reading their auras,” Sara said.
“I only got hints from that,” Ji-min said. “Mostly, I know what motivates them.”
“Of course,” Sara told Krea, “any information gained is yours to do with as you see fit. Let’s call it joint ownership?”
The Mr’s relaxed and Krea’s smile widened.
#
Sara, Dylan, Ji-min, and Krea nestled in the ship they still called the UFO. It silently detached from the ship and drifted away, toward the planet’s surface. Scars from the Quadriga’s encounter with the Demons still marked its surface, though they gradually healed. The ride down would have been turbulent for a human ship, but the Collector’s technology padded every bump. They followed a smooth, helical glide path around the plasma tube.
“It’s beautiful,” Krea said, admiring the intricate patterns the emerald lights traced.
“Yes, it is,” Sara said. “I suppose some beauty is universal.”
“Math is universal.”
“Math?”
“Don’t you see it?” Krea asked. “The harmonics, resonances?”
“I hadn’t noticed,” Sara said. “To me, it feels satisfying at an intuitive level.”
“You like Western classical music,” Ji-min said.
“Yes.”
“In some ways, the patterns in the stream are similar.”
“Can you bring us closer?” Sara asked.
“A little, yes,” Krea said.
The ship drew toward the beam, pulses of green blending with the star’s brilliant red. As the ground approached, the bottom of the plasma pillar vanished as if a spigot were shut off, the last of it flowing toward the stratosphere at supersonic speed. The ship set down adjacent a five-meter-tall, roughly cone-shaped pile of rocks that was the pillar’s apparent source.
“Are you ready to do this?” Sara asked.
“Let’s go,” Dylan said.
Krea unfolded the side of the ship into a thin-yet-strong ramp and the four descended.
It was night now, an echo of crimson light on the western horizon the last traces of the setting red giant. Flat stones, a few meters across and aglow with faint yellow bio-luminescence from a moss-like plant, stood spaced irregularly around the rocky cone. They slid aside revealing tunnels angled into the ground. From them, squat, broad-shouldered creatures resembling bipedal horned toads with smooth, brown, leathery skin emerged. The aliens surrounded the landing party, twenty trembling creatures holding obsidian-tipped sticks in front of them. Staring. Waiting. Their ranks parted and an alien a head taller than the others stepped forward, wielding only an ornate walking stick. It turned its back to the humans and squeaked to the assembled masses.
Ji-min said softly, “I clearly see what is being said. The leader instructed the others to return to the safety of the underground. He says he intends to vanquish us on his own.”
The crowd wavered, then in groups of two or three returned to their burrows. The leader stood, back to the humans, until the last retreated then turned to face them.
“We mean no harm,” Sara said, palms held open.
“I’m sure you don’t,” it said in flawless English. “But you don’t belong here, either.”
Sara’s jaw fell.
The leader morphed from a leathery, toad-like being to a resplendent human male, long, flowing hair falling over muscular shoulders with long robes that would have appeared white under Sol’s light, draped over sandaled feet. Feathery wings sprouted from his back and spread out in an impressive display. “You may find this form more familiar. Though I never took it on Earth, your artists tend to depict me like this.”
“Who… who are you?” Sara asked.
“When I walked your world in a form similar to this, I was known as Sariel.”
Sariel’s form shifted again, this time appearing as a middle-aged Asian woman with jet-black hair flowing over graceful shoulders.
Ji-min stepped forward. Tears flooded over her cheeks, and she trembled. She ran to the woman, throwing her arms around her.
The woman hugged her back, a compassionate, loving, motherly embrace.
“Unje,” Ji-min said. “Unje, I missed you so.”
Thank you for reading The Gods We Seek. Learn Earth’s fate, and that of her heroes, in The Gods We Find.
Ji-min’s beginnings are fascinating. Read her origin story.
Connect with me for free, exclusive access to the opening chapters of upcoming books. Want to chat about the books or about how AI will impact our real world? I’d love to hear from you!
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It’s important for me to tell a story that is scientifically accurate (when it comes to human technology) and scientifically plausible (for the rest). Just as critical, the story must be compelling. That was made possible with the kind help of many individuals. I would like to thank:
Dr. David Hone of Queen Mary University of London; Dr. Mark Abney, Associate Professor, Department of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago; The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration for their guidance regarding weather transmitters and their potential to skip off the ionization layer created by an EMP; The beta readers: Mark Abney, Jack Brown, Brian Butler, Kimberly Davenport, Carol Dixon, Dr. Rebecca Johannsen, and Lynn Reynolds. My thanks to Scouting BSA for their kind permission to use the Eagle Scout trademark.
The Gods We Seek Page 29