by SJ McGarry
The Royal Family followed the guards down a long marble corridor until their feet touched upon the automated walkway whisking them quickly to the other side of the command center. Once there, they entered a glass platform, and a spiral motion propelled them up to the 120th level of the Empire’s headquarters where all dignitaries and guest were housed during any government conferences or meetings.
CHAPTER 22
Close Encounter
The swirling platform came to a halt. The Royal Family stepped off and turned to their right leading them to another hallway. A series of shimmering portals glimmered along both sides outlining the entrances of multiple rooms. The guards came to a stop in front of their destination.
The room consisted of one large master suite with a stunning view of the capital city of Atrore. A paragon of brilliant lights illuminated like a field of diamonds spreading across the horizon as far as the eye could see. The spacious room appeared as the ideal meeting place to work together on their plan. Two adjoining rooms led to their respective bedchambers and bathrooms.
The Royal Family, still shell-shocked from watching the VIVs of BC memories past, had their minds spinning from the radical and fatalistic plans presented to them by the General Council. Hope for planet Earth's survival appeared rather grim.
"Mom, Dad, I don't know about you, but I am exhausted. I'm going to lay down and try to get rid of this horrible headache."
"We will wake you in a little while," Her mother reassured her.
"Sounds great," Nella, let out a big sigh, agreeing to meet later.
Entering her room, she was surprised to find Konan curled up in a ball on a chair in the form of a Black Panther cub, appearing ever so comfy with not a care in the world.
"Why are you here?” she questioned her faithful protector. “My dad instructed you to wait at the castle until we returned," she reminded him.
"And be kept out of the loop? I do not think so, Princess. My place is right here to guard you, as it is my duty! Your father also told me to keep the mind probe open in case of trouble, and to beam there in an instant if I sensed anything amiss-and I sense a possible disturbance big time," Konan replied.
"Nonsense," Nella replied, waving her hand in dismissal. "I'm safe while I'm here at the Empire's government headquarters."
"I disagree, Princess, but perhaps it is best you learn about danger while still here on friendly territory, rather than later with fewer of us to battle the enemy on your behalf."
He is too sure of himself, Nella thought. And what did he mean by his remark-battle the enemy on my behalf? "You're so full of yourself Konan. I’m going to clean up and try to get some sleep. I'll return in a few rings, and we can continue this ridiculous discussion." Turning to make a swift retreat, she stomped into the bath chamber.
"As you wish.” Grinning from ear to ear at Nella’s attempt to goad him, he quickly started shifting into an adult male panther. Lifting his massive front paws and extracting his razor-sharp claws one by one, Konan began cleaning and shaping them into lethal daggers.
As Nella entered the bath chamber, she was awestruck; the room was huge. The oversized bathtub could fit four people with room to spare. It glistened and floated within a mist at an elevated level, with two stairs allowing her to step up and into its soothing embrace. The marble washbasin gleamed, and ornate mirrors shimmered and hovered above, all waiting to soothe and give comfort to her weary body and mind.
"Water, flow," she commanded as the tub started to fill. "Add bubbles, with a dab of rosemary and myrrh."
As the hot, steaming water ran into the tub, she walked over to the floating mirror which hung suspended above the free-floating washbasin giving off sparkles to show off its beauty.
Nella unclasped her hair, letting it fall in natural waves around her face and cascading down her back. She picked up a cloth to wipe off the condensation forming on the surface of the mirror from the gathering steam.
As Nella stared into the mirror, a demon-like image stared back at her and lunged forward as it bellowed, "Nella, turn back now while you still have a chance to live! If not, you will be captured and put into a capsule left to wander the satellite galaxies and wormholes of space for eternity!"
The demon's fangs dripped with green drool. Bulging; lacerated eyes oozed a foul liquid from red-streaked veins. Snake-like appendages sprouted from its head, armed with sharp teeth at their tips. Forked tongues darted in-and-out as the demon hissed its hatred at her.
Nella let out a curdling scream. Losing her balance, she stumbled backward and hit the wall, which sent her sprawling to the floor on her rump. It had taken her by surprise to observe such a blatant, obscene display of nothing more than childish wizardry. It still frightened her to the core. She knew the warning was real enough, with lethal implications.
The next thing she realized, Konan was standing beside her in his true warrior form. He positioned himself in front of her. With one colossal breath, he blew crystallized frost, freezing the demon in a death grip within the mirror, and with a swipe of his hand shattered the vision into a million pieces. A heap of black dust fell to the floor
A mini wind funnel appeared and swirled the dusty fragments out of the room, through the open skylight. With an arched eyebrow, Konan turned towards Nella, sending a BC ‘I-told- you-so,’ message.
So irritating, Nella thought. Finding her voice, she let out a big sigh. "Humph! Okay-you win- you are right again as usual. Thank you for the rescue. Now please leave-let me relax in peace," she managed to say without allowing him to know her fears or see her embarrassment over this encounter.
Stripping out of her clothes, Nella stepped into the soothing bath water and immersed herself up to her neck to relax her frazzled nerves, soaking in the luxurious, bubbly waters. She kept one eye open to make sure no additional demons could sneak up on her.
As the bath water started to get cold, with a wave of her hand, the tub emptied, and she dried off, covering herself with the fluffy white robe provided, returning to the bedroom. Konan was nowhere in sight.
Just as well, she thought to herself, too drained for any further discussions. All she wanted to do was sleep.
Pulling back the beautiful comforter, she fell into the bed's open embrace. Looking up at the open celestial skylight a spectacular view of their beautiful galaxy stretched across the heavens, showing the first Ring of Centaurius far in the distance. She watched as falling stars shot across the sky. Personal flying machines swished across the panoramic view as everyone scurried about, keeping to their assigned schedules within the rings.
Exhaustion from the day took its toll. As if in slow motion, her eyes gradually closed and a dream snared her subconscious mind.
CHAPTER 23
Dreamscape
Nella’s mind floated on the breeze of a beautiful summer day via astral projection, a magical mode of travel. It was transporting her to a place far away that she did not recall visiting before. Her BCC informed her that it was the year 2001 on planet Earth and that she was off the coast of Ecuador, near the Galapagos Islands. She remembered a bit of Earth's history; this was where Charles Darwin, an English naturalist, and geologist developed his theory of evolution by studying wildlife in his early years of study.
Crowds of people gathered on the shoreline. Litter and debris covered the beach giving the visual more like a dumpsite, rather than the usual white, sifted sand. The ocean no longer boasted its beautiful sea-green color but instead appeared to reflect a shimmer of black, slimy sludge lining its coast for as far as the eye could see.
Upon focusing her eyes, Nella noticed the dead bodies of giant tortoises-as well as rare species of birds in various stages of stress or deterioration-scattered along the shoreline. Humans were running around trying to rescue as many live creatures as possible, transferring them to crates and loading the wildlife on a truck for transport, she heard a young man refer to it as a ‘van.’ Another volunteer yelled out they were taking a load of animals to the medical stat
ion far from the devastating scene before them, where Nella learned animal doctors called vets, assisted to help the injured back to health then released them back into the wild.
As she walked along the shoreline, a magnetic force drew her towards a young man standing at the water's edge. He appeared to be around her age. She came and stood beside him. His head turned, and she gazed into his warm, sea-colored eyes. She sensed an old, kindred spirit.
Trying not to draw attention to herself, she asked, "What's your name?"
"Allen. What's yours?" he inquired, feeling a strong pull towards this beautiful stranger.
"Nella."
"Ah, how interesting, we have backronym names."
"Excuse me?"
"Allen, Nella, Nella, Allen-you know backronyms, or semi-palindromes, half-palindromes, reversible anagrams, word reversals, or whatever you want to call it."
"I'm not sure I follow you," Nella replied, looking at him like he sprouted two horns.
"No matter, it's not important. Just a bunch of terms and plays on words invented by a group of logologists who have nothing better to do with their time." Then, noticing her strange clothing, he asked, "You're not from around here. Have we met before? You seem somehow familiar."
Nella turned and gazed out across the ocean to avoid his searching eyes, breaking the magnetic draw of attraction or whatever force pulled them together. "No," she replied. "I'm just visiting. What happened here?"
Allen explained that his dad was the founder of a non-profit rescue organization called the National Wildlife Federation, or NWF. He was training and working part-time during the summer as a volunteer to rescue and bring relief to the creatures caught in these horrible disasters.
Turning to face Nella, he explained, "One of the primary reasons for the NWF is that we help wildlife impacted by oil spills and other catastrophic situations by organizing and deploying volunteers and surveillance teams wherever they are needed all around the world. The organization's cleanup of any given accident extends for years, as NWF is also on the ground, coordinating the restoration efforts with coalition partners," he stated with pride.
Nella felt an immediate connection on some deep, cellular level to Allen, and she filed their meeting away in her memory bank.
"Would you like me to show you our base operations and see the steps involved in rescuing the wildlife affected by so many of our disasters that occur either from nature or humanity?” Allen inquired.
"Yes, I'd like that," she said with a guarded smile in place.
Allen returned Nella's magnetic smile. His intuition buzzed like busy bees. He somehow knew their meeting was not accidental, and that their connection had a purpose. "Wonderful," he responded. "This will help you understand what our volunteers face-I'm sorry to say-on an on-going basis. Come; let me first introduce you to a few of my team members." Allen turned around and approached the group of people who were huddled together, engaging in a frantic banter.
Nella's eyes squinted shut as all her senses went on red-alert. She could feel a high-energy power source bouncing off Allen. How interesting, she pondered, wondering if she discovered an exception and alien ally with this stranger.
Humans stored limited telepathic abilities, as their BC chips lay dormant and useless with no record to date of enhancement activations.
While attending her medical training, she learned that no human, through the centuries, mastered or used their BCs to communicate through the Universe using any of their potential powers. It seemed to her that it was indeed a waste of brain power and perhaps if they had developed their full ability, their planet wouldn’t have had to go through so many devastating occurrences through the history of their world.
As they approached the crowd of volunteers, one of the members waved their hand, pointing to a spot further out past the breakers. Their eyes burned as they struggled to keep their masks on for protection and to block out the stench of death. Their eyes followed the path of the volunteer’s outstretched finger which pointed a disturbance further out on the ocean’s surface.
Allen's eyes followed to where the group was pointing. He turned back to address Nella but realized she vanished into thin air the same as she appeared. "That's strange," he mumbled to himself. Her appearance and disappearance bothered him along with his disappointment. He checked the coastline and glanced back towards the lot where they parked all the vans and cars.
Nella had simply vanished.
CHAPTER 24
Jarmu, the Killer Whale
Leaving the humans, Nella transported further down the coastline where she picked up the spiral BC distress signal transmitting from a killer whale. Her BC receptors began to translate the whale's thoughts.
‘Jarmu felt very protective of her calf Rami, who swam by her side. Jarmu had been receiving vibrations through the ocean's waterways that reflected some activity a few hundred miles further up the coastline of Ecuador.
She always tried to keep her distance from any of the metal, offshore monstrosities that had sprung up over the past few years, built along the various coastlines. The big steel monsters floated freely in many parts of the ocean. Jarmu understood she had no control over this situation.
A school of fish swam her way. She opened her mouth to feed, but by instinct, she realized that something was not right. She noticed how sluggish the fish swam, and even stranger was how the fish did not attempt to dodge the gaping cavern that her open mouth made. That was a first! Quickly, she shut her mouth and ordered Rami to do the same.
Jarmu and Rami continued navigating their way up the coast. They swam at a leisurely pace, mainly for Rami's' sake.
Jarmu needed to surface to take a breath. She slowly started her ascent with little Rami following close behind mimicking her every move.
Poking her head out of the water, Jarmu took a deep breath, shooting a spray of water from her blowhole as she surfaced, with Rami imitating his mother's example. Scanning the surface of the ocean, pausing for only a moment, she saw a stream of Black Death headed their way.
Jarmu dove back under the water with Rami still close by her side. She noticed the other sea creatures around her in various stages of sickness. The Black Death was slowly draining them of their life force.
Signaling to her calf to keep close, they began swimming back to join with the pod. Changing direction, Jarmu tried to prod her calf along, but Rami was not capable of keeping up the pace because of his small size. Panicking, she swam in circles in a desperate attempt to encourage him to swim faster.
In Jarmu's valiant effort to save Rami and herself, the Black Death reached them. Slowly, she rose to the surface to take a deep breath to begin once again her perilous escape. Horrified, Jarmu discovered the Black Death had partially plugged her blowhole, and she could not get a full breath of air.’
Nella's body jerked, and her eyes popped opened as she gasped for air. Sweat permeated her body. She bolted upright, trying to control her breathing. It was only a dream, she told herself, but somehow, she had a feeling that it had been more than just a dream.
She heard her mom's voice calling from outside her room, and with a swishing sound, her mother stepped through the shimmering portal. "Nella, wake up, sweetheart, it is time for us to brainstorm. We heard you gasping for air. Are you okay?"
Stretching her arms and wiping her sleep crusted eyes feeling like used sandpaper, Nella tried to reconnect her brain waves making a note to file the dream in her BC memory. "What time is it?"
"It's late. We decided to let you sleep longer since you seemed exhausted." Megan looked closely at her daughter. "You look stressed out, and you're sweating. Are you ill?”
"No, I'm okay. I had a disturbing dream, and I guess I woke up as you came through the portal."
Another swishing sound announced the arrival of her father as he entered the room. He looked at his daughter for a moment in silence and then stated, "You were sent a message from one of Zennibar’s demons, and Konan followed you here, rescued you, and did aw
ay with the demon by giving it a frozen death."
Nothing Nella experienced physically or mentally could pass unnoticed by her father. She still could not block his GLR, but she was working on it. She wished she could acquire the gift for future use.
King Johan could look into a person's mind and using his gift of GLR, gave him the ability to divine the intent of any living being within the galaxy, by accessing their thoughts and SMCs. Thus, not much escaped her father's knowledge.
"Yes," Nella responded to his accurate account.
"Nella, are you alright?" her mother asked in alarm.
"I'm fine, thanks to Konan."
"You also had a disturbing dream, young lady. Care to talk about it?" her dad inquired.
"No, not now. I'm not sure I can make any sense of it," Nella truthfully responded.
"Very well, come," her dad said, then reached out his hand to pull her up out of bed. "Let's go into the master suite and discuss the issues at hand."
NELLA AND HER PARENTS ate a late dinner of the meals sent to their suite. It seemed like hours flew by as they discussed the future of Centaurius, Earth, and their respective galaxies. They unanimously felt that none of the plans the Council had submitted would work for the benefit of all Centaurians on their planet, and they would be detrimental to Earth's future.
Frustration took hold of her mind leaving her spent with the exhaustion. Realizing her energy wasting away in negativity, Nella decided she had heard enough and wanted to share with her parents the dream and to present an alternate plan that was formulating in her mind.
"Mom, Dad, I have given a lot of thought to the suggested plans from the Council. I do agree that they all seemed somewhat radical. However, each of them had a few good points. By incorporating some of the good points and modifying them with a new plan, I think it would help to heal Earth's decline. This is what I suggest."