Kingdoms Away 1: Jorian Cluster Archives (3 page)

Al was reading in the main lab and reached
down to pat Charles when they both fell. Al’s coffee spilled over
the floor but his last thoughts were of Charles, and in a mental
cry he called out his dog’s name. As he woke, he blinked and tried
to move. Every muscle hurt and felt heavy. He dragged his arm
towards him and pushed himself up, his mind strangely foggy.

Far away in another galaxy a mantra was
sung.

Charles in danger

Protect must

Human serve purpose

Go must

Protect now

Claim Reos

Fear permeated the room.

Al Reos looked on helplessly as the intruder
laughed cruelly. The sound echoed around the laboratory. The space
vessel Tunuen, with a final jolt, hung in empty space, vulnerable
and alone. And, just like their vessel, Al’s mind refused to work.
They had prepared for every contingency except meeting aliens. His
team, and anyone close to his section, had been herded into his
main lab by handsome, arrogant beings. Al was sure he’d seen
similar faces around, back on Earth. His heart scrunched, seeing
the mass of fur to his far left.

Charles, his faithful bush dog, was dead. Al
had rescued, healed and raised the pup from a South American drug
dealer. When the intruder had burst through the main doors,
Charles, still confused from waking, had attacked, ignoring Al’s
command. The intruder had swept his arm across the animal, breaking
Charles’s bones; he had yelped in agony, dying within minutes. Al
had rushed forward, only to be backhanded by the tall intruder.

Al was nauseous with shaking hands and blurry
eyesight as the eerie, sallow green eyes surveyed the three
still-breathing scientists. Two of Al’s comrades were already dead.
The intruder had not used any physical means to kill them.

“Who is next? You—” the intruder, Jaruen of
the Diminuen, looked at Al “—obey us or die.”

Al felt pressure build in his head; he knew
if he hesitated any longer, he would crumple to the floor like the
others, dead. The scientists hadn’t spent decades in preparation to
leave the ruined Earth and its regulations to come under someone’s
rule now. Sam whimpered close to where he unsteadily stood. She was
doubled over a work station trying to right herself.

“Go to hell.” Was all that Al could get out
as the pain increased, his knees weakened and Jaruen forced him to
the cold, hard floor.

“Actually, that’s what we are trying to
avoid.” Jaruen brushed aside a stray blond curl from his handsome
face. “You scientists are so obstinate; even now, many of you are
dead.”

The pressure in Al’s head increased.

Jaruen yawned. “And still you resist.”

Al’s narrow, freckled face showed pain, but
he could still see that Jaruen was gaining pleasure from the
encounter. A smile appeared on Jaruen’s white, chiseled
features.

Al looked up and into his eyes and said,
“Well, there you go, superciliousness will mar anyone’s features. I
think I’ll call you ‘Jar’.”

The smile disappeared from Jaruen’s face.

Al blinked and focused to the alien’s left,
seeing a shimmering shape in the corner of the laboratory.

“Tricks?” Jaruen laughed but looked over his
shoulder anyway, his dark robes only slightly moving around his
lean body. He frowned slightly. He saw nothing. “I’m growing bored.
I’m surprised you haven’t realized that you wouldn’t have been able
to leave Earth without our help. You even named this … ship after
us.”

A moment more passed.

Al and the others didn’t quite believe him
but it was too much a coincidence to ignore. Suddenly, Jaruen’s
face distorted with anger and he vanished from their sight. Al’s
mind was released. He staggered up and over rushing to Charles’s
body, crying unashamedly for his beast. Anna, the second in charge
of zoology, went to the human bodies, shaking her head at the
waste. Sam rubbed her head. “They are keeping the women alive.”

Al nodded but then heard a voice in his head.
“Reos. Come.” He dazedly turned toward the shimmering corner and
lurched across, his head still pulsating in pain.

Mark, the head biologist, called out in
shock, “Al, where are you going?”

“Stay here, I think we have allies.” He
reached the corner and vanished. He tried to ignore the fact he
grieved more for his dog than his family or dead comrades.

An Elysian directed Al to a different section
of the Tunuen, where he instructed Al to get into a life pod. Al
crawled in and watched the tiny monitor as a creature enveloped the
pod once it had been ejected. He passed out.

When Al came to he studied the monitors with
data showing a breathable atmosphere outside so he opened the pod.
He stood up and stared around him. The green sky was enough for Al
to realize he was on an alien planet. He rubbed his head. Of course
he was on an alien planet! What an idiot. In front of him hovering
over an ocean, level with the white land he was on, were three huge
orca whales, as large as small cruise ships on Earth. They were
shades of green, blue and silver. He started laughing at the
same.

“Shit, what a crazy dream.”

The white surface under his pod was in fact
rock slate, very smooth, that went as far as he could see to his
left, right and behind. The green ocean stretched as far in front
of him as he could see.

“Must listen, Reos, not much time. You should
not have seen us, we help, we hear animal cry out, Charles. We see
Diminuen attack, we stop them but they are now your problem, we
save you and animals, many of you died Reos, genetic pool weakened,
go back home?”

Al took a moment; grief and pain still
strong. Hell, what did he have to lose? This was a coping mechanism
surely. His psychologist would be proud if he played along. “No, we
cannot.” Or would his psychologist be prouder if he rejected the
strange scenario?

“Diminuen still plan to salvage failure, they
want to breed with humans, much danger. Descendants will be
stronger, intelligent but still flawed. Difficult decision.”

Al looked at all three, not sure who was
speaking. Whales speaking? He was definitely delusional. The
largest glided forward; he was a deep silver with a little blue and
green with the white markings of a traditional orca. “I am
Nysintheor, brother to the oldest Elysian Pyrintheor.”

“Thank you,” Al croaked, thinking maybe his
sub-conscious, or the aliens, thought he’d respond best to giant
whales. “I must meet with the others to decide. I don’t know what
will happen now. You have saved us. Will you not show yourselves to
me?”

“This is who we are.” The voice was
amused.

Right. He was reaching the point of laughing
hysterically again. “We owe you our lives. I speak for myself and
the others when I say we want to repay you for your aid.” Sure, why
not? No reason to be rude.

Silence greeted this.

“We will consider this, Reos, when we return
to the Joiran Cluster.”

“Joiran Cluster?”

“Yes, Reos, the far reaches of the universe.
We monitor and protect our cluster of galaxies from harm.”

“How do you travel?” He stared up at them. He
asked sarcastically, “Swim the spatial currents?”

“Dimensional travel, we have no need of
ships. Diminuen have ability to travel dimensionally too, short
distances without ship, but need ship now, they are tired, they are
diminished, only managed to make it to your ship. Short distance.
Deliberate action.”

“And yet they still have much power, enough
to take over the ship and kill us with their minds?”

“Yes, power much, but humans clever too, make
Diminuen show you how to make machines to travel dimensionally,
Reos.”

Brilliant idea. “Double thanks then, my
friends.” My subconscious, my aliens. A breeze rustled through his
brown hair, cooling his hot face. “Can we come to live at the
Joiran Cluster?” Might as well press for a resolution and he began
to suspect these creatures were real.

“Study us, Reos?”

Al gulped. As they could put thoughts into
his mind, they were reading his.

“No, Reos, you put words into our minds.” Al
thought they sounded amused at this ability. “We study too,
Reos.”

Had the AT worked after all and provided him
with mental prowess? He wondered if that biochemical engineer was
still alive. He’d be stoked. Al nodded, feeling strangely humbled.
Strange, because he still didn’t really believe in what he was
doing and seeing. “I would like to offer my services to you, as
modest as they are.” He scratched his head, trying to feel for a
lump. Had he hit his head?

“You have good heart, Reos, and special
ability. Not many on Tunuen have good hearts. We consider your
request. But know this: we have great enemy in eighth octant in
Joiran Cluster, the Sharith. We hold them back, but for how much
longer we do not know. They travel in space ships, razor sharp and
dark. No dimensional travel, but fast.”

Sharith. Nope, he hadn’t heard of them
before; not in any of the TV shows he’d grown up with or watched
while bored on some evenings inside the Earth installation.

In front of Al a great wave, like a tsunami,
rose and came towards him with surprising silence. He stared as it
stopped, twice as tall as he, and spanned to his left and right as
far as he could see. Inside the water, words formed, rising out
like some kind of liquid typeset. He read and touched the text,
sweeping it down to move the words along. His finger was wet when
he examined it. “What is this?”

“Whenever you need to contact us, use the
wave. You and your descendants will be able to call upon the
Elysian Library.”

Wow. He hadn’t seen this type of technology
either. “It’s liquidology.” He passed out, collapsing inside the
pod he hadn’t actually left.

Al, having recovered from his uncomfortable position
after crumpling inside the pod, nodded slowly, seeing he had little
choice. When he had gingerly lifted his head out, hoping to see
more humanoid figures, it was toward the Elysians still floating
over the green ocean. He sipped a ration of water. He finally had
to admit he was really on an alien planet talking to whales. “We
might be able to help. I’ll talk to my comrades.”

“We will call a Gathering at the Oriri, and
I, Nysintheor, brother to the oldest Elysian Pyrintheor, will
contact you. Only you. Only Reos.”

“My offer still stands as well, Nysintheor. I
will help in any way, in honor of Charles and my people who died
and those you have saved.”

“Reos?”

“Yes.”

“We accept. Prepared to change, Reos?”

“Change?” Al wondered what he’d gotten
himself into, but he knew he must, just as a small boy he knew he
had to help animals he felt the same connection now. He’d never
regretted dedicating his life to animals. “I will do what I
must.”

“We will return you to the Tunuen, altered
genetically, improved, stronger, intelligent, neither you nor your
descendants must breed with pure Diminuen; if you do you cannot
help us.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We know, Reos, but must trust us. Your
people desire instinct, and this will be our gift to you. However,
for your line only human breeding, no girl child will be born. Only
boys will be born, only Reos males can help. Of the others
eventually all pure human strain will die out and then no
more.”

“Do you agree?” Another orca had floated over
to ask him, moving just as a whale would, in water.

Al had a nagging thought after Jar’s
comments. “Did they, those beings, help us while we were still on
Earth?”

Silence filled the region until one said, “We
have detected their technology on your ship. So, yes. But fear not,
as we have made our terms clear to them.”

The tone held hints of threat if disobeyed
and he was mindful orcas were killer whales. “I’ll help.” Al nodded
to strengthen his own resolve more than anything. In due time they
may come to trust him. How they were going to change him he had no
idea.

During an indefinable amount of time he saw
flashes of light, labs, and soft voices comforting him. These were
no whales changing him. Perhaps the whales were some kind of
projections. Some kind of vessels. He drifted in and out but
gradually woke to a new world. At least, that’s what it felt like.
Professor Al Reos, already a brilliant zoologist and chronologist,
was returned, enhanced, to the Tunuen. He could see and hear
better. His sense of smell and touch improved. But it was his
instinctive senses that he noticed the most. He sought out the
survivors, shocked by the carnage as he strode through the ship.
The humans would have no choice but to breed with the sullen and
resentful Diminuen. Whatever the Elysians said to them, worked.
After Al directed the new order of things, neither species liked
their options, but they had no choice, for none could return to
Earth. Within the week, when an uneasy alliance had been made with
the Diminuen, Nysintheor, brother to the oldest Elysian Pyrintheor,
returned and contacted Al Reos.

“You may come, Reos, with your ship.
Come.”

The Elysians guided humans, and the now
subdued and resentful Diminuen, to a cluster of many bright
galaxies and then to a beautiful planet that they named Renuen.

Many years after landing, Al Reos had
numerous children with Gabriella, who had lost her husband. She had
been Special Forces and their boys grew up scientists or Special
Forces. But he fathered many other children from other human women,
to increase the Reos male population to create what the Elysians
called the Living Gate, its purpose unclear. All others eventually
agreed to interbreed, with a new attite infused, instinct driven,
human Diminuen hybrid resulting in an unusual end product. They
simply called themselves Joirans, as they adapted to the new
worlds.