Life-After (22 page)

My mission was the same as Alpha Factor’s with one difference. I was to obtain detailed information on the Federation project not just destroy it. I attempted to have Sara removed from the mission but my request was denied. Two days later Sara and I were drawing near to the Federation research facility ready to begin our mission.

The Federation kept minimal security I later learned this was because there was an organization working from within the Federation known as the Key. They were later tied to many events around the globe including the escalation of the global war. The Key, headed by Olivia Shaw, had been researching life energy long before anyone else. The Flag’s brought them the closest to their ultimate plan which unfortunately we never discovered.

They were able to keep their project under the Federations radar which made accessing the facility much easier. With Sara and I inside we found the main research laboratory, but it was not only heavily guarded but occupied by the Flag’s. We had no choice but to engage. I did not hesitate to fire on Henry Flag or his father. However, Sara hesitated and was wounded. Before Henry died he was able to set off the alarm while his father escaped.

I had the data the alliance needed and set the charges but Sara could not walk. We made it halfway to the exit when we were surrounded. The soldiers at that point did not want to take prisoners and opened fire. Sara told me my eyes began to glow a deep crimson and an aura of red energy surrounded my body and expanded out. She described it as a shield that repelled the bullets.

Sara told me she screamed out my name but it was as if I was in a trance. Then in a flash of light the energy expanded out again this time in a massive explosion. By the time Sara opened her eyes she told me there was nothing left but fire and ash. Alpha Factor confirmed an unknown blast at my exact location that had the power greater than eleven nuclear bombs. Sara and I escaped unharmed and rendezvoused with the alliance extraction team and was taken back to alliance command.

While Sara was treated for her wounds the alliance ran more tests on me. It was at that time I was introduced to the new head of Alliance scientific research a Doctor Alexander Theed. Theed was astonished that my abilities had not only returned but increased. During this time the Federation contacted the Alliance to begin peace talks. They had discovered the Key’s plan and with the destruction of their best hope of winning the war had no choice but to surrender.

The tests performed by Theed turned up nothing. Everyone was puzzled that my abilities came and went with no viable reason. They tried everything, but could not bring out the red energy or any other for that matter. With six days until the signing of the peace treaty Sara and I were allowed to leave and five days after that we were wed.

The Alliance wanted to keep both of us close and so they gave Sara and I positions at the newly redesigned Naxum Research Center. It was run by Jonathan’s wife Lola and Jonathan was head of Naxum security with I as his lieutenant. Sara returned to her scientific roots and worked alongside Lola on various project to improve human life. Sara told me everything was great until the day we found the meteor headed towards earth.

Everything was tried to stop the meteor but in the end it was an unknown blast of energy from near our moon that shattered the meteor with a devastating effect on the planet. Everyone within Naxum and the other shelters were saved, but by the time we had dug ourselves out the world was nearly destroyed by the Asher’s.

Once freed Jonathan, Lola, Sara and I were called to Alliance command. Theed had made a breakthrough discovering that the energy fired from near our moon had a similar signature to the life energy I had used to destroy the Federation research facility. The military was able to capture a weapon from the Asher’s and Theed wanted to use its energy on me to see if it would awaken my abilities.

Theed warned me of the risk, but it was our best hope to fight against the Asher’s. Sara told me she wanted to tell me not to subject myself to the energy, but she knew it was the right thing to do. She watched as Theed bombarded me with the energy and my body turned from flesh and bone to energy. I had no control over my actions, but what happened next was what changed everything.

My body becoming pure energy was set to an autopilot as Theed called it. The energy was encoded on a subatomic level to return to its source and its source was the Asher’s base ship. When this happened I overloaded their systems. Their ship was not designed to handle my modified life energy and so the feedback destroyed all of their systems. The Asher’s were also energy beings and shared a hive mind. With their base ship destroyed their containment suits ceased to function and without them their energy dissipated.

As their ships fell from the sky and their suits to the ground Theed and the rest of the global scientific community searched for any remnants of my life energy. What they did not know was that after the base ship was destroyed my life energy returned to earth and merged with the global computer network.

I was pure energy feeding off their data and there was no known way to contact them. That was until an alliance programmer named Randal Cyrus updated the global network with a new operating system codenamed Destiny. What Randal did not know was that his program had been hacked and modified by the Asher’s they wanted to be able to travel using our communication network. It would have allowed them to go anywhere with an energy outlet within seconds. The side effect was any sentient energy already in the network could also travel anywhere and with that I had my way out.

Subconsciously I entered an energy containment unit Theed had used when running tests on me. When I did so my body returned. From energy to matter I was whole again, but something was wrong I would not awaken. After a battery of tests Theed theorized that my mind was still trapped within the network and that was keeping me in a coma. He created a special capsule to hold my body until he could find a way to awaken me.

Before Theed died of a heart attack he turned over his research and my care to Lola and Sara. It was Sara who devised a way to keep my capsule connected to the global net with the original Destiny software running in hopes that my mind would return to my body. Over the next few years the world came together and using the Asher technology rebuilt our planet to its old glory and beyond. Seven days before the celebration of the rebuilding of New Chicago I awakened from my coma.

The final report on the Asher’s where that nearly one hundred and fifty years prior an exploration vessel crash landed on our planet. It was discovered by what was then known as the United States military. What they found was an empty ship, they did not know that the beings inside were made of pure energy and had entered their own computer systems in an attempt to protect themselves. When the military began running tests on the ship the energy was transferred to their computer systems and eventually the alien energy was released into the countries network.

Across the ocean a young doctor by the name of Kanak Sarin was experimenting on himself in the hopes of finding an energy force he believed was contained within his cells. He had created a device to scan his body searching for any energy signals, but needed processing power in order to decipher any data he might have found. To do this he connected to the global net, but he was not only scanning his own body for signals he was also sending out data on his own body. It was believed the aliens intercepted that data and entered his body. They were never able to confirm if the aliens took over his body or not, but Sarin did received just enough data from his own body to continue his work.

Sarin continued on studying life energy and during this time he married and had a son named Ravi. As Kanak grew older his son took over his research, but unlike his father Ravi shared his work with the India house of study, their scientific division. When Ravi began to make significant breakthroughs he caught the attention of Olivia Shaw. Shaw and The Key had at that time established a foot hold within the Chinese government to begin preparations for what would be known as the global war. They convinced the Chinese government to abduct Ravi and force him to use his research to create super soldiers using life energy.

The rest of the story is known with Ravi’s escape from the Chinese and eventually ending up in my country. What was unknown and still speculated upon was that the alien life energy inside Ravi’s father passed onto him in some capacity. Much of Ravi’s research came by running tests on himself and using his own cells. It was believe that Ravi was aware that something was different about his body, but it was never established if he knew why.

Ravi used his own body in creating a cure for the cellular degeneration disease. It was believed that the original sample contained trace amounts of the alien life energy and was injected into the people of my country including my grandparents. From there it was passed on generation to generation but only from those who received the initial serum. What happened to me could have happened to many people except for two factors. When the alliance attacked my country all the other original test subjects and their descendants were killed and the samples from my parents were destroyed.

Life energy does exist, the report concluded, but without the alien life energy it would not have awakened. The alliance military believed the Asher’s attacked out planet looking for its people and once they discovered they could use human life energy as a power source planned to drain it dry. Their downfall came from a natural protective instinct. The Asher’s, when outside of their containment suits, could transmit themselves back to their base ship where a collective of alien being in the form of pure energy was stored. The aliens tried to do that when they crash landed but with no base ship around entered their own computer systems instead. When Theed turned my body into pure energy that instinct kicked in and my energy traveled to what it thought was its home. However, my human life energy corrupted their alien life energy and so the combined alien and human life energy became dominate and their systems could not handle the change and so it overloaded destroying them.

I was a hero to every living soul on earth. My story was spread across the globe even before I awakened and everyone looked upon my sacrifice to come together to rebuild the planet. I on the other hand had a long road yet to travel. I had awakened into the arms of my first love to a world that adored me and a history I could be proud of and yet I struggled to believe it. I eventually told Sara and the others everything. I needed help and was brought to see Doctor Silva.

Over the last two years she helped me ride the rollercoaster of ups and downs as I leaned to accept my life as true and as real. Even though I never once had a dream or vision of Clara or those other lives, I remembered them as if a traumatic event that I could never forget. To say that all became well would be a lie. There was no cure, Doctor Silva told me. She told me all I could do is live each day and enjoy it to the fullest and finally that was what I was ready to do.

“
So my last question for you is do you believe it?” Doctor Silva asked. “Have you accepted your life here and now and can move forward with it?”

I paused for a few moments thinking on her question, perhaps too long. So much had happened over the last two years and even though I could find reasons to deny my happiness and consider my reality false I began to realize the problem came from within me and it always had. My question to myself was always if I could accept happiness and not look for a reason to doubt it. I believed I had my answer.

“
Yes, yes I believe it and can move forward.” I responded. “It’s not as if life is perfect. There are still struggles out there even for the most revered person on earth.”

“
Life is a struggle.” Doctor Silva replied. “The true test is do we continue the fight until we find what we truly want or do we surrender to what is laid before us. David, what is important is that you find your truth. You must find what makes you happy and once you do hold onto it and never let go.”

I stood from the couch and took a look around the office for the last time. Doctor Silva outstretched her hand. She had given me my life back and to me she was the hero. I turned towards the door. On the other side was my truth, my happiness, waiting for me. The sun shined brightly that afternoon over the lake. The world outside called to me in a way it never had before. I felt deep inside that everything would be okay from then on.

“
I’ve found what makes me happy.” I said. “I made her a promise. I told Sara I would never let her go and I never will, thank you Doctor Silva, for everything.”

We shook hands like professionals, but she was much more than just my doctor. I opened the door to the waiting room. Sara sat their eyes locked onto mine as I walked out. I smiled knowing in my heart that my nightmare was over. Sara ran over and wrapped her arms around me. I held onto her tightly and whispered in her ear that I would never let her go.

14

Doctor Silva once asked me to explain to her the difference between a delusion and true happiness. I told her you could feel it, deep down, all the way to your core. Her response was that accepting that true happiness can come to an end is how you know it is real. Even after I left Doctor Silva’s care I often thought about her sessions and everything she had taught me. In a way she was not just helping me accept happiness, but preparing me for sorrow as well.

Sadness was, for the first time in my life, a commodity that was in short supply. With much of the world rebuilt after the invasion the global government took steps to insure that another war or invasion would never happen again. I had a role to play in their plans and Sara and I were happy to help.