Ashlyn Chronicles 1: 2287 A.D. (8 page)

Minutes later, Robbie announced that he was about to land.

Stratton opened the door, waving them on. “Hurry it up, guys; the radiation is hot out here. We’ve only got a small window.”

Victor then added, “I’ll start the decon process aboard the shuttle.” Victor knew that a lack of protective armor meant that he and Ashlyn needed it the most.

Before taking the final step aboard the transport, they took a moment to look at their surroundings. It wasn’t a city anymore. It was a barren, apocalyptic wasteland, scorched and brutal. Seeing the brick building that had saved them, so simple in its appearance, it seemed miraculous that they had survived.

“Tynabo?” said Ashlyn, her voice barely audible. Her eyes fluttered open for the first time since her rescue. “Tynabo?” A quick glance around the room revealed that she was in a hospital. Her left arm was hooked up to an I.V. unit attached to the bed. Behind her, on the wall, a screen displayed her vitals.

The door by the end of the bed opened. “I thought I heard you. Glad to see that you are finally awake. I am Renee, from the Bioscience Department. I’m temporarily assisting here in the med unit. We’re a bit understaffed right now.” The two women exchanged smiles as Renee touched Ashlyn’s arm with reassurance. “Now that you’re awake, you won’t need this anymore.” She removed the I.V. from Ashlyn’s arm. “You were asking for Tynabo?”

“Yes. It’s really important that I speak with him.”

Renee pulled a chair up to the side of Ashlyn’s bed. Speaking softly she said, “First, there seems to be a bit of confusion as to what we should call you. Do you prefer D’na or Ashlyn?”

“Ashlyn or Ash. D’na is Tynabo’s pet name for me. It’s his idea of an inside joke.”

Renee smiled. “So, tell me, Ashlyn, what’s the last thing that you remember before waking today?”

Ashlyn paused for a long moment, focused thoughts not coming easily. “There was an alarm. Then they told us all to report to a chamber. There was a lot of confusion, people running around. No one seemed to know what was happening.”

“You have no memory of the day we found you? Nothing at all?”

Ashlyn shook her head slowly as she fought to recall.

“I guess I’m not surprised,” said Renee. “We have a lot to discuss. First, I want you to know that you are safe. Just a few more days to get your strength back and you will be good as new. I must say—you are a very popular girl. You have a lot of friends that are anxious to see you.”

Ashlyn smiled and nodded. “But first, I need to see Tynabo.”

“Ashlyn, a lot has happened. Things have changed. You were in stasis a very long time!”

“How long?”

Renee winced. The intensity in Ashlyn’s eyes demanded an answer. “It’s been almost fifteen years.”

“Fifteen?” Ashlyn swallowed, her eyes widening. Ashlyn dug deep, trying to remember. The set of her eyes deepened as hundreds of scattered images suddenly came flooding in. “We were attacked.” Her memories became clearer. “A small fleet of ships jumped into our system. They seeded the atmosphere with radioactive isotopes.”

Her eyes watered as she recalled violent, torturous, horrifying scenes. “The radiation burned everyone. I remember all the children.” Coddling her belly, she vainly attempted to ease the emotional pain. She closed her eyes. “I can hear them screaming.” Ashlyn’s mind brought up thousands of images of melted, blistered, and charred faces. She saw the world’s cities in flames—entire continents hidden under a sky turned black from fire and ash—a world that was dead.

Ashlyn opened her tear-filled eyes. “Spiders. There were spider-like creatures!”

Renee again took Ashlyn’s hand. She drew in a deep breath, shocked by what she heard. “Yes, you’re right, on all counts. That is precisely what we watched happen on the video feeds from around the world. But, the big question is, how do you know all that? You were in stasis.”

A cold chill raced through Ashlyn as she saw Renee shift uneasily in her seat. “It’s Tynabo, isn’t it? He’s dead. He wouldn’t have left us in stasis for fifteen years if he was alive.”

With sympathetic eyes, Renee continued, “Yes, and there’s no easy way to say this, Ashlyn, but—you are the
only
survivor from the Foundation.”

“Everyone died? Everyone?”

Renee squeezed Ashlyn’s hand. “I’m truly sorry.”

Ashlyn’s eyes closed. Her head dropped. A tear fell. “How many people died on Earth?”

“Are you sure you’re ready for all this?”

Ashlyn’s head rose. She nodded, her eyes wide, expectant of a hard-to-hear answer.

After a brief hesitation Renee continued, “Almost nine billion. There’s only six thousand of us left.” Renee looked up, glancing at Ashlyn’s readouts.

Disbelief flooded Ashlyn’s mind. The numbers were staggering. “How did you survive?”

“We almost didn’t. It was a rough ride. We weren’t fully operational when the attack came. We still had major dependencies on the mainland. Everyone worked around-the-clock for months to get Sea Base up and running.”

“Sea Base?” asked Ashlyn.

“I’m so sorry. Yes, you are in the Challenger Deep Sea Base in the Pacific. We’re almost 11 kilometers down.”

“Challenger Deep—we’re in the Mariana Trench?”

Renee nodded. “You know your geography.”

“History, actually. I’d read about the early Challenger expeditions to the trench,” said Ashlyn.

“Okay. You know your history, then. The Trench is the reason we survived. Between the mineralized canyon walls and the enormous energy and heat being emitted by the thermal vents, the enemy ships couldn’t detect us. It’s also why the spiders can’t get to us.”

Ashlyn studied the mural of Poseidon holding his Trident on the wall. “And what happened to the alien fleet?”

“A few days after they’d seeded the atmosphere, they released the spiders. Two weeks later, they left,” said Renee. “Then, nothing—up until two weeks ago, anyway. Our probe in the Sirius star system sent us an alert that the alien fleet is inbound. Best guess is that we have a few days to a few months, but there is no way to know for sure. Time dilation being what it is. Nor do we know the capabilities of their ships. We don’t think it’s a coincidence that the shelf-life of the isotope is expiring and radiation levels are pretty much back to normal.”

Ashlyn’s eyes watered as the horror of all the events settled in her heart. “So much has happened.”

“I’ve said more than I should have. We’ve had time to adjust and acclimate. For you, the world you remember was only yesterday. I am sorry, Ashlyn. I’m sorry about your friends and about Tynabo. I wish your first day with us had been an easier one.”

“It’s not your fault, Renee. I needed to know. I wouldn’t have let you leave without telling.” A soft smile tilted Ashlyn’s lips. “Renee, if you don’t mind, I think I do need a little rest.”

Taking a bottle of water from the fridge, Renee handed it to Ashlyn. “I’d like you to drink this slowly. The bed you are on is actually a cellular regenerator. It is what healed you. The regen requires you to maintain a high moisture index for it to work properly.”

“Thank you.” Ashlyn took a sip of water and set it on the table beside her.

“All right, try to get some rest. I’ll check on you in a few hours. If you need me, just call out. Gena, our computer, will notify me.” Renee smiled sweetly and stepped out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her.

Alone, Ashlyn closed her eyes. She needed answers. Her life depended on it. Ashlyn then spoke the words that would open the conduit between her and the man for whom she had been created. She would now find out if he was still alive. “Alnilam, Mintaka, Alnitak.”

The words released a powerful burst of adrenaline. It raced into the deepest corners and recesses of her mind, activating the genetically engineered circuitry that had been dormant within her.

By design, Ashlyn’s heightened passions rose within her like those of an emboldened warrior, breaking the chains that had kept her aura bound to her physical being. Hungering for harmonic balance, Ashlyn’s aura loosed an invisible tendril of flame. It stretched outwards, sliding around the imperceptible gravimetric eddies of space with uncanny precision. With a graceful and surreal beauty, it found him asleep in his quarters.

Had she not been under the control of the fugue, she might have even chuckled, for like most men he had simply let his uniform fall to the floor beside the bed. She might have even given thought to the worn set of admiral’s bars that were sitting on the nightstand and the stack of tabbed and dog-eared strategic warfare books that he had fallen asleep to. At this moment however, her attention was singularly focused.

Seeing his defined chest, chiseled stomach, and muscular forearms, her breath hastened. She wanted him as desperately as she wanted to surrender herself to him. She wanted to be dominated by him. The desire embodied within Ashlyn’s aura swirled about him, teasing him, coaxing him.

The two flames were tender, yet merciless—loving, yet unrelenting. The flames intertwined, becoming a fiery pillar of molten gold. It moved slowly, savoring the moment for which it had waited so long. It was a dance of lust, joy, and fulfillment realized. A dance which no human eye or human heart had ever known.

Securely locked within the fugue, they were safe. The desolate and destroyed world outside faded away into nothing more than a forgotten memory.

***

Renee had only taken a few steps away from the door, when she remembered that Steven had wanted her to give Ashlyn her personal items upon waking. He had hoped they would help ease her transition.

Though only a few seconds had passed since she had left, Renee opened the door just in time to hear Ashlyn utter the words, “Alnilam, Mintaka, Alnitak.” Though she recognized the words, she knew nothing of their contextual significance.

She stood frozen as flashes of sparkling light danced around Ashlyn. The air itself glowed golden in color, and the room became alive with sizzling, crackling energy.

Ashlyn’s hair lifted, papers fluttering around the room as if they were in a twister. Renee watched as Ashlyn’s breathing grew heavy, erratic—her body writhing deeper into the throes of ecstasy. As the blanket covering Ashlyn sailed across the room, carried by the wind, Renee observed an unseen force manipulating Ashlyn’s body. Her breasts contorted under the touch of invisible hands, her stomach compressing as if someone were atop her. Her hips canted, and her legs came up, wrapping themselves around an invisible presence, her nails clawing at the bed.

Renee shouted above the roaring wind, “Gena, record everything that is happening to her. Run a full chemical and adrenal gland scan and maintain a continuous scan of her brain activity. Highlight all anomalous readings. Chart everything about her down to the molecular level. I want to know what’s happening to her!”

***

While fast asleep, a tendril of energy touched Steven, waking him. As his own electrical field responded to the Siren-like call of Ashlyn’s aura, his mind released a massive wave of adrenaline. It raced through him, opening dormant neural pathways. Like a man lost at sea on a moonless night, Steven found himself afloat in a dark, featureless void. Though seemingly alone, he knew he was not. He could feel a tender warmth lovingly calling him. It encircled him, rousing him with a skillful lover’s touch. His passions raged.

Far above him was a solitary, yellow, glowing ember. It twinkled once, twice, and then erupted in a brilliant, golden flash that made him wince. It dimmed, warmed to orange in color, twinkled, and then split in two. The two radiant embers moved around each other, traveling faster and faster until they danced like a pair of frisky fireflies. They flashed, the two becoming four. Four became eight. They split and split again, brightening the darkness in much the same way as the first warm rays of a sunrise chasing away the cold loneliness of night.

As the hauntingly beautiful pathway formed, the dark sea around Steven evaporated. In some mysterious way, the light begged him to let the warm passing breeze carry him along in its wake. Under its mesmerizing control, he could not say no.

No more corporeal than a ghost, Steven drifted down the pathway toward the golden light that was growing ever brighter with each passing moment. As the light engulfed him, the image of Ashlyn solidified before him.

Her beauty arrested him. She was the hallowed epitome of feminine sensuality, hypnotically beautiful in every detail. Her face was soft, sensual, and one for which nations would go to war.

Seeing her now, his thoughts drifted.
She is a woman of which men dare not dream, fearing they will become lost to their lust and never awaken.

Aching to hold her, his soul hungry to devour her, he felt a crushing need to possess her. As his mind succumbed to obsessive desire, the nucleus of each cell in his body was set ablaze. Even as his deepest desires wished he were in her arms, so did the melding of their auras make his wish possible.

The sensuality of her touch left him gasping for air. Ashlyn’s eyes closed, her lips parted, finding his.

The savage but tempered man within was unleashed. Her kiss instantly captured him, and not unlike a heroin addict, he became enslaved to the rapturous psychosis.

Under a thunderous cloud, wrapped within each other’s arms, they basked in the warmth of the fugue.