by Randal Sloan
The Borjon Nest Leader, whom the humans would have called the Emperor, had realized the importance of what they had discovered and organized a quick defense, but it had been to a number of his advisors that were secretly members of the Order that he had immediately gone to for help. That led to a secret meeting between the Nest Leader and the Master of the Order, and the first time the Prophecies had been used in the aid of their cause.
Twice now the Borjon had fought the evil Aerstone to a standstill, each time a costly war that had left both sides rebuilding. Even then, that second time, if they hadn’t had the ability to strike back at the Aerstone worlds and give the Aerstone true casualties, they probably wouldn’t have stopped the war. That surprise strike deep within their territory, made possible by using those fast ships to attack at the back door, was the one that had bought them so much time for peace and prosperity. Unfortunately, by that time in the war, the Borjon hadn’t the will nor the ability to complete the purge of the Aerstone that would have been necessary to end their final threat to the galaxy.
Now Master Hadassah was the one who would have the privilege and responsibility of speaking with the Prophesied One, and he prayed that he would be able to tell her the things he needed to without losing her support. Everything he’d seen so far told him she would be willing to listen.
Master Hadassah also knew their upcoming mission was the most dangerous one yet and he vowed to find a way that she and her team would survive. Without them, everything would be lost. Unfortunately, the Prophecies only told them that it was necessary and of its many dangers, but not why, nor did they provide clues on how they could complete the mission and survive.
To the Master, when he was honest with himself, it did not look like it was possible.
The next morning Jarra and her team woke refreshed and enjoyed a bountiful and entirely human breakfast, all except Kaeden who had his own meal this time. Once more Jarra had grown nervous anticipating her meeting with the Master, but she managed to hide it from her companions. Only Jason, with his more intimate knowledge of her, knew what was going on, but he could only offer her small comfort. Truthfully, he was quite nervous as well.
Kaeden was not so much nervous as apprehensive, but he managed to hide his own agitation. He succeeded more because the humans still hadn’t learned to read Borjon body language than for any other reason. Still, he kept quiet and managed to avoid getting into deep discussions. He had already decided he definitely liked this young group of humans and was glad he’d gotten this assignment. His hopes were the Master would not want to change that at this late date.
But soon it was time. Jarra and her little group were whisked off to the Borjon equivalent of an airport where they caught a flight to a small island off the largest continent on the Borjon world. The Borjon aircraft weren’t that different from their human counterparts, but once more they seemed to have an aesthetic to them that humans had missed.
It was a good distance away from the Borjon capital city, so the flight took some time, most of it over the water. A pair of what the humans would have called stinger craft kept watch to either side, but the flight was uneventful. Again, Jarra suspected their presence was more for their comfort than from any necessity.
Finally, they spotted a land mass in front of them, land that quickly resolved itself to be a semi-tropical island with beaches surrounding most of their view. Soon they were coming in for a landing and it was too late to worry about nervousness or apprehension.
Having seen the Master on that call with her uncle and father, Jarra recognized him immediately as the only Borjon awaiting them as she exited the craft. She wasn’t surprised to find him waiting for them, except she had expected maybe a little more ceremony or perhaps a somewhat larger group.
He spoke in Galactic Standard, his accent better than young Kaeden’s but it was still obvious he would never be fluent. “Welcome to our small nest away from big nest. Order has nest claim to island. Best place to talk of Prophecies.”
Jarra nodded. “Thank you for your invitation,” she told him with a smile. “My dear friend Amy has agreed to translate if you would be more comfortable speaking your native dialect.”
“Yes. The Translator. Kaeden has spoken to me of her. It would indeed be best — words get lost in translate, Translator know.”
He gave Amy a Borjon smile. “Please. I work hard to learn but you special skill. Most important not miss words of Prophecy.”
He spread his arms wide, indicating the entire group. “Come. We talk in garden.” He led them along a path that looked to have been hacked out of the tropical growth that seemed to cover the island. They hadn’t gone very far before they came to a strongly demarcated garden area. Jarra realized the jungle-like growth was really just an outwardly facing disguise to keep any intruders away. Even more so than the rest of their race, the monks appeared to be masters of gardening if what she saw was any indication of their skill.
They continued forward into the garden until they reached a large clearing containing what was not exactly a gazebo, but surely the Borjon equivalent. It was large enough that all of them were able to take one of the seats available. With a glance at his Master, Kaeden joined them.
The Master came to stand in front of them, close enough for Amy to hear well enough to translate. Then he began speaking in the High Borjon dialect with Amy translating. He spoke slowly enough that she was not stressed and easily relayed his words.
“Welcome to the heart of my nest away from the monk home nest. As you can see, I enjoy our native plants and other garden features. This is where I come to meditate when I wish to calm my heart and mind.”
He smiled at Jarra. “Young Jarra, you too know of the power of meditation. Only when you are one within yourself can you do those things that require the merger of mind and body, something you do very well. But I digress.
“The words of the Prophecy were given to us by the Forerunners. Despite your discovery on the way to our home nest, we still know very little about the Forerunners, although we have seen the ruins of some of their ancient structures. We believe, but do not know for certain, that they somehow dismantled most of their buildings before leaving the galaxy. My personal theory is that they found a way to move to a higher level of being and did not want to leave their physical materials behind to gradually decay. Perhaps their technology allowed them to simply dissolve the buildings when they were no longer needed.
“But most importantly for us, they left behind the Prophecies, the words that are the foundation of my Order. Over the millennia that we’ve had them, they’ve never been proven wrong. Not that we always understand them. No, often we don’t really understand until after the Prophecy has been completely fulfilled. But we know enough to look for roles as defined by the Prophecy. The Human with the Golden Hair is without a doubt you, young Jarra, or perhaps it is more than that — it may well be you and a future daughter, as I know your nest father has already explained to you.
“Prophecy looks across time and it sees only the mountaintops. If the mountains are close enough together, we cannot tell the difference from our viewpoint. As you now understand, all of our race live with the long view on life. That is why we did not rush to learn of your Empire until we knew the mountaintops were in view. Someday, perhaps your young race will learn to live that way too.
“The Prophecy tells us of your role and about your companions. It tells us of the things we know you must do, such as finding the higher level hyperspace travel. We also had to leave you to do it in your own way or the things meant to happen might not have taken place. It did feel important to me to send you words of advice through your nest father before your last mission.”
Jarra smiled. “I thank you for that. If you hadn’t done that, perhaps we would not have survived.”
“Yes, and we would now face difficult times, but you did survive and you brought the Translator, another role mentioned in the Prophecy. Before you leave, I will give young Amy a copy of a third dialect
spoken only by the Order. It will allow her to read the Prophecies, which I will give to you in their entirety. Along with that, we will provide the works that were found with them and are obviously intended to help with their interpretation.
“But even more importantly, for you will soon discover the pitfalls of studying prophecy, I will give her a copy of the Aerstone language, for we believe that will be important for your mission. Speaking of your mission, I will shortly tell you what I know of it and why you must undertake it, although I know it is fraught with danger. Nevertheless, the Prophecy says it must be done.
“But first, let us have some refreshment.” He clapped his hands and a couple of monks appeared with trays containing fruit and also what the humans found to be a very refreshing drink.
While they ate, the Master considered just how to tell them of what he knew. He could only tell them so much, and he knew he had to handle that with care.
“I know you’ve heard the history of the fast ship attack against the Aerstone. What you probably weren’t told was that it was a suicide mission. We knew the enemy would eventually rally enough defenses to stop the forward thrust from the attack; after all, we were attacking their core planets and physically killing a large number of them for the first time in the war. They were suddenly terrified and fought back with everything they had. So we knew there would be no way to safely organize a retreat without giving our secret away.
“That meant the mission was volunteer only and only a few ships had a chance to possibly return. Those were picked by lot because we still needed the information that the first real thrust into their territory would provide. Just as it wasn’t safe for the majority to return, neither would it be safe for some of the chosen ships to do so due to their individual circumstances, so we picked several. Any ship that was detected would have been likely to let the secret out, so we made the criteria for a safe exit very high. Only a tiny handful actually made it back. The rest fought until they were destroyed or self-destructed if necessary.
“Unfortunately, our AI tech was pretty crude at the time, so most of the information they brought back was ultimately beyond our ability to comprehend. Neither did we have one who can read the patterns like your young Sasha. I think it was an idea before its time, and we tried to force that particular Prophecy to take place much earlier than it could happen just because we wished it were so.
“You see, one of the quatrains of the Prophecy specifically talks about the need to gather information about the enemy, or those that wish to end all life seeds. Obviously, that refers to the Aerstone, who have completely become synthetic, and their plan to end all biological life in the galaxy? But does it refer to them as a race or only to their leaders? One cannot twist prophecy to mean what he wants it to mean. That only leads to disaster. So we don’t know.
“All of that is to say this: The quatrain that we’re discussing comes after the one that describes your initial victories against the enemy. It is essential to the completion of the remaining quatrains or we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I cannot overstate the danger I believe you will be in. That is why I must ask you one more time: Are you sure you are willing to accept this mission?”
The Master knew he’d told them more than they could handle with such blunt speech, but he needed them to commit with their whole hearts if they undertook the mission. Of course, a big part of himself hoped they would turn it down. He’d come to love them all in his own way and every part of this mission sounded quite bad to him.
“No one could possibly blame you if you turn it down. You could simply return to your home world with our thanks for all that you have done for us. We will put together our own team and send them; we’ll even send the data we retrieve to your Sasha. You would live to fight other battles.”
For a moment, no one spoke. The Master had shocked them all to the core.
Jarra finally answered him. “This is not my answer alone to give you. It must be a group decision. Can you give us a few minutes alone to discuss it?”
The Master nodded. “I will give you as long as you need.”
Kaeden started to rise to go with the Master, but Jarra shook her head. “Not you, Kaeden. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a part of our team now. We desire your input as well.”
As soon as the Master had disappeared into the garden, Jarra looked around at her team, all of them more friends than subordinates. “What do you think, guys? He makes it sound pretty simple. We go home and let someone else do this.”
She sighed. “It’s not like that doesn’t echo my feelings. I’m tired of always being on the tip of the spear. Let someone else fight the battle.”
Sara had not added to the discussion before because she had nothing new to add at that time. “Listen, all that sounds great if we could do it, but the problem is, I don’t think they can do the mission. One of the things I’m pretty sure they’re going to need is someone to hack into the Aerstone NET. I’m not bragging, but I know of very few that can do that job and none of them are here other than me. I think if we turn it down, we’re dooming it to failure.”
Gabo had another worry. “I don’t think anyone else has much of a chance of survival either. There’s no way they’ll figure out how to pull off an escape and I’m pretty sure we’ll find a way. We’ve escaped a lot worse things.”
Sasha didn’t like what she saw in the patterns. “The thing I don’t like is what he said about trying to bend the Prophecy to match what they want instead of what it says. I’m pretty sure the Prophecy refers to us doing it and not some backup team. Do we dare even think otherwise? Why else would they ever be talking to us if they didn’t think that?”
Sasha started to stop her impromptu speech, but another thought flashed in her head. “And another thing — what was that he said about the source of the evil? Is it the Aerstone race or is it their leaders? Who else besides us might be able to figure it out? No disrespect to you, Kaeden, but your people have fought these guys for millennia. How could any of you possibly have an open mind?”
Everyone was quiet for a moment. Sasha’s thoughts had been rather deep. Finally, Jason looked over at Jarra. His words were the last straw in her defense. “I know why you’re saying this, love. You’re worried about all of us, your friends, the ones you love. But you know you have to do your duty and we know we must do ours too.”
Jarra had tears in her eyes as she looked at them all. “Then I say this now. You guys had better work harder than you’ve ever done before, because I’m determined that we come back alive. All of us!”
Master Hadassah returned to them a moment later. It was as if he sensed the interaction of their minds and their determination to go through with it. Jarra suspected that was exactly what he had done. Who knew what powers the Master had?
He shook his head, the action very close to that a human would do. “I knew you wouldn’t turn away, but I had to be sure you were in this all the way. Plus, a big part of me has come to care for you and I wish I didn’t have to put you in harm’s way. If I believed there was any other way, I wouldn’t be here talking to you.”
He looked at them intently. “I can only promise you that we’ll give all the support we can. I’ve already transferred to your ship all the data we have from that last voyage into Aerstone territory. Hopefully, dear Sasha, you will be able to get something useful out of it. We’ve also sent the best maps we have both of hyperspace and the physical universe in that area of space. I believe it will enable you to determine your entrance and exit plans, even knowing that it’s quite incomplete. Of course, we have no idea what changes the Aerstone may have made to their deployments in that area; however, based on long distance scans we believe it still to be very sparsely populated.”
Master Hadassah gave them all the Borjon equivalent of a smile. “Despite the obvious danger, I believe you will somehow survive. Each of you is a special person with special skills and even more so, together as a team you have already accomplished the impossible more than once
.”
He looked around at them all, having debated whether he should tell them all. He still hadn’t made up his mind even this morning, but as he looked into their faces, he knew he had to give them the rest.
“There is one other thing. I didn’t want to tell you, because I didn’t want to affect your decision. But now, since you’re committed to the mission, I believe you should know. As one blessed with the sight, I’ve seen many visions. I have seen much as to the need for the mission, but very little from the actual mission. But the one thing I’m certain of — somehow you’re going to do something that will change the galaxy for good in a way unforeseen by all!”
Jarra just stared at him for a moment. Something told her that he was right and even more so, it seemed to explain something she had been sensing all along; something just at the edge of her consciousness, something that had begun after her discussion with Adrihel.
Smiling, she told him, “I think you’re right, Master. I’ve been feeling something about the mission that I can’t seem to narrow down to specifics, but I think that’s it. Of course, I don’t know what it means, and it still only means that we must do our best and see what happens. But I thank you for your words.”
The Master just nodded. For a moment, he just savored the feelings he had for them. Who would have believed he could come to care so much for them, all members of an alien race and whom he’d only just now met in the physical world.