A Paradox in Retrograde (29 page)

The others looked on still staring up as the light of the fiery speck
of the departing ship grew dimmer in the distance. Before them
he could not yet express his true self so that anger he swallowed
it whole in one painful gulp. With a deep breath his eyes opened
and once again he displayed a veil of tranquility. It was then that
he left them there where they stood. As the distance between
himself and his human allies increased, the subtle power which
he had held over them had begun to dissipate. Without the words
and gestures the spell cast by a mere whisper of suggestion was
broken. As if waking from a stupor one by one they came again
to control their own minds. As if lost in time most could not fashion from their senses a recognizable chain of action to account
for the last day. Most were left confused possessing only disjointed imagery for memory. Nor could they remember what had
brought them to that place.

Hurtling toward the deep blackness of space the Alien craft
slipped through the outer boundaries of the atmosphere at tremendous speed. As the fusion rocket tore at the bounds of force
that had held it, the effect of pressure and gravity on their fragile
human bodies was made evident. Landaus struggled to remain
conscious as the intensifying forces forced the blood in his head
downward. Before him the vision of the world collapsed into an
ever shrinking point of light, and then darkness.

He awoke some time later afloat, midway between what had been
the floor and the ceiling, confused at how he had ended up here.
He had passed into unconsciousness and now floatedin the
weightlessness of space. He twisted his body around toward the
cabin window. There before him in its entirety was the great
glowing orb of the Earth filling the cabin with its reflected light.
A more splendid sight he had not before seen. Caught in the vision of its raw beauty, he was momentarily dumbfounded. He
watched as the great circle of fire that was the sun rose now at
two o'clock above the Eurasian steppes, casting its golden light
upon the land. An arch of light usurping the shadows as it
moved across the face of the Earth as it spun almost imperceptivity on its axis. For a moment he watched mesmerized in its
beauty as great swaths of golden light glinted now off the face of
the water below.

Suddenly he remembered he was not alone. His son was here
and his safety would allow no time to dwell on such wonders.
Kicking with his legs from the ceiling, he pushed himself back
down toward the command chair. He secured his belt and took a
quick view at the monitors. From the diagrams presented on the
view screen he could tell that the ships orbit was a stable one.
He watched as the point of light that represented the ship swept
around on a great ellipse along the polar axis. Although this was
a good thing he was troubled by how they had made it this far.
He realized that while he was in an unconscious state the ship
had somehow auto negotiated a stable orbit. He looked around
and the others were still safely secured in their harnesses. How
was it so he wondered that he alone was floating about freely
within the cabin? A vague memory then rose to the surface. He
remembered now. Just as the curtain of darkness wasabout to be
drawn before his eyes he made a realization. Without the benefit
of the flight suits they could not hope to arrive in a conscious
state to orbit. He had in haste made a grave error. To account for
this he was forced to act quickly. He undid his harness so he
could access the auto pilot command panel that resided just beyond his reach. Somehow in the closing moments of consciousness he had managed to program a stable orbit intothe navicomputer.

One by one the others awoke from their pressure induced daze.
Xora unbuckled herself from her harness and floated effortlessly
upwards. She was amazed when shestepped off from ceiling
and found she had sent herself hurtling toward Landaus. An instant later he had caught her, but her momentum sent them both
crashing toward the floor. Landaus took the brunt of it hitting his
head on the metallic floor. He let out a plaintive "Ouch" but for a
tiny lump he was fine. She on the other hand found herself no
worse for wear though a little embarrassed safely within Landaus's arms. It was somewhat awkward for both of them, so Landaus tried his best to make light of it. "Well lady Xora how do
you find weightlessness? It seems you've already mastered it."

"Your wish is my command good lady." He released her and
she began again floating upward. This was so far out of her experience she was startled by what was happening. With a look of
startled confusion on her face he shouted out, "What is going on?
Why am I floating?"

Surprised he knew the answer he responded. "I too have never
experienced anything like this but somehow I know what it is.
Perhaps this knowledge was imparted to me along with the flight
tutorial I received from Amida. It would seem that effects of the
Earth's gravity are cancelled out by our orbital momentum
around the planet. Gravity is still affecting us, for we are right
now in controlled state of free fall."

By now all save the prisoner were free from theirharnesses and
were floating about the cabin. All it would seem had survived
their ordeal unscathed. Landaus calledout to Grunhuf,
"Grunhuf awaken our prisoner. I should talk to him he has a stake
in this too. Grunhuf made his way over to the corporal and shook
him heavily. His eyes opened wide with surprise. "Wake up soldier the colonel wants to speak with you." Landaus too made his
way over to the constrained soldier and spoke to him. "Corporal
you've had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the
wrong time. You need to understand there has been a coup of
sorts and any orders you were following up until this point were
illegal. As your rightful commander I am giving you the opportunity to make things right for yourself and volunteer after the
fact for this mission. I know you didn't ask to or agree to be here
but you are here nonetheless. I would much rather prefer to not
waste the energy spent keeping eye on you. So what do you say?
If we untied these ropes are you going to cause us trouble or toe
the line?"

"May I speak freely sir?"
"Yes, speak your mind."

"Sir, I was only guarding the ship as ordered. If I had known it
was you who was coming I would have saluted and done my
duty as told."

"What is your name Corporal?"
"My friends call me Lex sir.

"Well Corporal Lex, that being the case, I'm sorry you had to
take such a knock on the head. We couldn't be too careful. I
hope you understand. Grunhuf untie him."

Though Landaus could not recall it, it had been hewho had personally trained the corporal in the handling of explosives. The
Corporal however had a keen memory of it. "Yes sir, I had a
good instructor."

Grunhuf as he untied the prisoner was the first tosay it out loud.
"Ok we've made it this far, what now?" They all looked around
the room at each other to see that none among themhad a shred
of a plan past get to Nibaru. All that had been thought of before
their departure was the very good idea of confiscating the explosive charges. This had served the duel purposes of not only leaving Ananda's atomics without their much needed primers but also
giving them a useful weapon. The explosives provided them an
ends whose outcome though not entirely clear, was far more concrete than the means.

Sensing a growing uneasiness, again from the child's mouth the
disembodied voice of Amida spoke. "My friends it is to your
credit that under such circumstances that you have done so well.
And Landaus, your natural skill as a pilot far exceeds my own
when I was your age. You are to be commended. However there
is much now to be done. We must patch in a course for Nibaru.
This ship has gone missing and soon they will come looking for
it. We must use this to our advantage. They will not have expected us to be in possession of this ship. We should be able to
evade their defenses and approach unmolested. What we do upon
landing is another story." Grunhuf who was keen to avoid being
killed asked, "OK we manage to land, what's to stop a great
horde of warriors from slicing us to ribbons?"

"I understand your fear Grunhuf. If I may I would propose a plan
of action?" They all seemed eager to hear and nodded agreeably.
"We have one thing that trumps all others. We are in possession
of the young prince. As long as he is in our custody no harm shall
befall us. We shall upon landing announce to them our intentions,
and if all goes as planned we shall obtain an audience with the
king."

Landaus then added, "Let us not forget why we are here; that is to
somehow hamper their ability to strike. We should make our way
to their waiting ships and destroy them using thoseexplosives.
We'll split into two groups. Grunhuf and I along with the boys
will bluff our way the palace. Using this foray into as a diversion,
Xora and the Corporal Lex with stealth will go about setting the
explosive charges among the enemy warships. I think we may be
able to cause enough of a stir that you may slip unnoticed into the
deserted dock yard. There Lex can string a device that can be detonated at a distance, perhaps by radio frequency."
Lex seemed excited and he nodded eagerly, "Yeah I can do
that."

Grunhuf held on his face an expression of disbelief so he again
asked a question. "I have seen these creatures; they are more
beast than man. How is that they could agree to such a meeting
after showing nothing but belligerence? I don't believe we'll last
five minutes out there."

Landaus had an answer ready. "By using a few of the charges
we can rig an explosive device. We hang it around young Leif's
neck attached to a dead man's switch. They'd have to know it
was real however to make it work. Lex can you rig something
like that?"

"I think so sir."
"Good, then get to it."

Amida responded, "The answer is despite what you think;
though they are the aggressors they are not without some degree
of honor. Though we are at war Aaralaat is a practical man. He
understands that the taking of hostages is a part of that and he
would not allow anything to happen to his sole heir. There is
much that you don't know about your foe. In the endhe is not
much different from you."

A look of bewilderment came over their faces as they tried to
reconcile their experience with what they were being told.
"What do you mean by that, exactly?" Landaus shot back at him.

Amida drew a sigh and spoke, "Perhaps the time is right for
you to learn the whole truth? Long ago visitors escaping the destruction of their planet in a far off star system came upon the
system of Sol. They had been part of a colonial convoy on its
way to a new home world when their ship's plasmafield became unstable. They were forced to abandon their ship in
life boats. Their long range sensors identified a suitable
safe landing. Soon a course was plotted for a primordial
Earth. They were told by their comrades to hold tight until
a rescue ship had arrived, as a signal had been sent to the
home world. The convoy moved on without them and the
rescue ship never came. After a while they began to surmise their kind had not fared well in their new home. After several years they decided to make the best of their
new home. After all it was so much like a paradise as the
wild beauty of life flowed from every nook of the pristine
planet. By shear chance their arrival there in the Sol system coincided with the era of planetary convergence of
which you are now familiar. It was decided to improve
their chances of survival that their contingency should be
broken in two. One would colonize the Earth and the other would do so on Nibaru. What ships that had been available the life boats were converted to ships more suited for
exploration. Once they were there, they found a world
seemingly as promising as Earth, so an outpost was set
up. By then their fuel was virtually depleted. Theywere
then forced to make the difficult decision to stay put. For
those who had chosen to go the Nibaru, they could not
have foreseen their fate. Over time they watched asthe
gulf of space between them grew ever wider. For a decade
or more contact between the two colonies was maintained. Earth bound astronomers kept it in its sights for
decades. Eventually as Nibaru retreated again into the
darkness even the communication signal was lost. To
each group the memories of the others would eventually
be lost. This however was just the beginning, for both of
these isolated groups in the fullness of time adapted to
their new environments, surviving more or less by the
dictates of harsh nature. Their relationship one to the other was lost in the mists of time. You and your kin are the
descendants of those earth bound travelers. The others
hidden within volcanic caverns deep in the frozen rock of
Nibaru endured there for five hundred generations.
There in that time would be manifest a most hideous expression of evolution. By the time the Earth and Nibaru
were again within striking distance the one species had
become two. Thus with a clock works regularity the intervals of discord and strife had begun."

With all that had transpired in the last several days
though they could barely register the meaning of what
they had been told no one dared challenge the truth in it.
Landaus was numb for everything he had thought he had
known was somehow wrong. Looking upon the young
prince he noticed how the milky glaze of his translucent
albinized skin held within the form of a man. It was a
different kind of man to be sure, but a man nonetheless.
At that moment he resolved not only to protect his home
but also to do whatever it took to end this senseless cycle
of violence.