Rise of Aen (17 page)

“War.”

Aen sighed. “The world is always at war, or have you been observing the wildlife instead? A war with
whom?”

“I believe the question is: with
what?”

“Enlighten
me.”

“
There is a dark evil roaming the galaxy, one the Empire has long fought with, but all we have managed is to keep them at bay. Powerful and ruthless, they wander system to system, stripping planets for their resources and selling the inhabitants as food or slaves. And if the sensor grid set up throughout the galaxy is to be believed, there is a group of these creatures heading
here.”

Aen was silent as if he had been struck hard in the face. There had been something worse than being separated from his family—the prospect of them being slaves or worse
killed.

“How long do we
have?”

“That is….difficult to calculate. At best assumption, maybe a year or two until they breach the Oort Cloud. That is why you were born. You are the Harbinger of the coming of the Lyarran Empire, as only you will be able to summon them to rescue Terra Sol. Humanity cannot stand alone against these creatures, but help is on the other end of the comm line I have been trying to
re-establish.”

“So what you are trying to say is that I am supposed to save Earth? Humanity is fucked,” Aen said with a sarcastic
grin.

“This would not be one of those situations in which a joke is needed, Aen,”
Caretaker
scolded.

“Yes, Dad,” Aen mumbled as he got the chest-piece loose on his armour and it clattered to the floor. His humour was a front; the thought of being the last hope of the world was a ton of weight and he was unsure if he was ready for that. He wondered if he was truly ready for any of this. All he wanted was to find a dark corner to hide in and sleep, make the world and all his problems disappear if not but for a brief time. The last few days had been rough and he needed a
break.

Another resounding crash echoed off the walls as a few more chunks of armour fell from him. He was now free of the damaged protection and walked away from the preoccupied Caretaker silently. Aen was hoping the AI wouldn’t follow him as he began to descend to the lower levels of the bunker. Finding a secluded spot near a generator and sat down. Reaching into his leg pocket of his bodysuit, Aen pulled free a picture he had taken from the house of him and his family. His finger traced the lines of Krista’s face as he stared into the image’s eyes and for the first time since his rebirth, Aen
cried.

EIGHT

Rocky Mountains, Utah –
Military Installation Code Named White Rock

Taylor and his crew had returned from Cairo and begun to reassess their strategy and lick their proverbial wounds. The mission, even after months of planning, had been a total disaster. Four of the hybrid soldiers had been killed—no, obliterated. There wasn’t even enough left of them to sweep up into a soup can. Taylor himself needed twenty stitches to close the wound on his shoulder plus he had a bruised larynx and whiplash of his neck and back muscles. And they thought they had the
advantage!

He had retreated to his quarters and had begun to actually listen to his doctor’s advice and rest, when he heard the unmistakeable sounds of Patterson’s footsteps approach his door. When the sound stopped, there was a long pause before the knock on the door
came.

“Enter,” moaned Taylor. His whole body hurt now and he wondered when the damn meds would kick
in.

With a swift motion, the old General slid in the door and shut it silently and pulled a chair up beside Taylor, staring him direct in the eye. There was hesitation in his eyes, along with anger and
frustration.

“What the fuck happened, Jensen?” Patterson said
softly.

“It’s all in my report,” mumbled
Taylor.

“I read the damn report, but I want to know what you aren’t fucking telling me, son. Your report says one thing, but your eyes tell me another. What did you
create?”

“I don’t know, but it is stronger than we ever dreamed. It is wondrous and terrifying at the same time. I think we might have made a weapon too powerful to control, I think we created our
undoing.”

Patterson’s eyes shut from these words and his head bowed in frustration. His greatest fears were coming to life. Out of the promise of riches and reward had come a demon, and it was intent on making sure they all paid in full for his creation. Taylor was right, the general had read the report. He had also watched the recordings of the head cams of all in the fight. The battle plan was perfectly executed, even with the surprise outbursts of power from it. What he couldn’t figure out was how a creature stuck with so many blades sunk in to the hilt could be so dangerous. At a cost of over four million dollars apiece, this demon had simply erased two of the hybrid soldiers from existence and left ashes in their
place.

“May God forgive us for what we have done,” Taylor whispered as the meds kicked in and swept him away to sleep. Patterson stood and looked down at his long-time friend. He wondered what kind of penance one could do for such an act, and even if absolution was possible for sins like
theirs.

“It isn’t God’s forgiveness we should pray for, my friend.” He answered to the unconscious Taylor on the bed as he walked to the door. “And the one whose forgiveness we should ask for doesn’t seem the giving
type.”

—

The sand beneath his feet was hot and dry, the air and wind burned and bit at his skin, and the visage of an endless scorched desert before him highlighted by the red glow of approaching dawn was breathtaking, but Aen knew none of it was real. It was obviously a dream, but the sensations were overwhelmingly real enough to make him second guess. That and the fact that he couldn’t remember the last time he had actually slept added to his confusion. This was an alien world, not Earth, but the question he couldn’t answer was
where.

“It is not a matter of where, but when my dear child.” A soothing female voice chimed in as if his question in his mind were said aloud. Immediately he looked about to find the owner of this voice and when he found her behind him Aen was
awestruck.

Sauntering towards him was probably the most gorgeous creature he had ever laid eyes on, never mind imagined. Standing exactly his height and wearing sheer robes with the shadows of her curves and body outlined beneath, the creature was obviously not human. Her hair glowed orange, along with her eyes to match, and her skin was almost a liquid gold color. She was a bit more human-like than Ameia, but still very different at the same time. Her movements were fluid, sultry and almost calculated; this creature was a predator of the highest level and her sexuality was her weapon of disarming her foes. Her very presence demanded respect, she emanated an air of
importance.

“It is still your home,” she continued before he could speak, “But it is a few billion years from the present.” Now standing off to his left, she motioned to everything around the two of them. “This is how Terra Sol dies, Aen—this is the end of the world. Sol is dying, and she is expanding as she devours her children one by one. Life is gone here; humanity has fled to the
stars.”

Aen watched as the sun rose above the horizon; he took a deep breath in shock as it was not the small disc of light he had always known, but a massive red fireball that dominated the sky. He fought the primal urge to flee by digging his heels in the sand deeper as he stared at death straight in the
eye.

“Why show me this?” he asked. “Why bring me
here?”

She turned to him and ran her hand across his face softly and seductively. This creature oozed raw sexuality and he found her increasingly hard to
resist.

“I am showing this to you because you fail to understand what you are. Words from your mother and the construct have fallen short—this will not.” Her hand ran from his cheek to his shoulder then to his back and around him as she circled him slowly. “The prophets fear you and rightfully so, but to me you are rather…..intriguing. You may not realize it, but you will outlast us all and this is a testament to that. This future is certain, at least the demise of the star is, but events leading up to this are not
set.”

Aen was frozen in place by the sheer power of her words. Her voice carried a melodic tune that was hypnotic, as if she was soothing the beast as to remain unharmed. It took all he had to muster his
words.

“Who….who are
you?”

“You have seen me before, and I have long had my eyes on you, my child.” She said coyly as she finished her circle around him and now stood mere inches away from him. The air between them was charged with sexual tension, her scent was tantalizing but he remained still. There was something holding him back from losing himself in her—not fear, but something
nonetheless.

“You didn’t answer my question,” he stated
defiantly.

Putting her hand on his chest, she felt his heartbeat with it, before nuzzling her head into his chest to hear it. A smile drew on her lips as she felt the true power beneath. She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath before stepping back again, but her hand remained on his
chest.

“You didn’t
answer….”

“All will come in good time, but now is not that time,” she interrupted with that smile still on her orange-colored lips. Eyes of piercing fire looked back at him gently and
softly.

Aen grew frustrated; so much of his life now was that of prophecy and legend. He felt like a puppet held in place by his master’s strings and he longed for the day to strike his master down to free himself. The loss of control of his life was tearing him
apart.

“No one controls you, my dear.” She replied once again to his thoughts. “You are a slave to no one, not even myself. Your destiny is yours to write, not that of prophets and scholars. You alone are to set upon the
path.”

“What about all this?” he said, motioning to their
surroundings.

“What about it? This is not but a stone in the road; this is an event, not an outcome. Nothing you do will cause this or bring this about. It is simply a tool to show you what you truly
are.”

“And what is that?” Aen
asked.

She sighed, removed her hand from him and slowly backed away. Once again he was mesmerized by the silkiness of her
movements.

“You are a light in the eternal darkness of time, an infinite in a finite world—you are the best of all of us, yet doomed to suffer along with us. You are who you are, Aen, and that should be
enough.”

It was Aen’s turn to sigh. The constant circle of words was giving him a headache. He was tired, he knew this was but a dream, but obviously his unnamed hostess arranged for it. And every time he wanted an answer, all he got was a
run-around.

“But I don’t know who or what I am.” He decided to answer her riddle. “So how can I be
enough?”

All of the sudden, the dream began to fade from the vibrant colors of red to a deep blackness, as if in response to his failed attempt to solve the puzzle. Her fragrance was still very present, even though his eyes no longer could see behind the veil of darkness. She giggled, and then spoke her last words before he
awoke.

“But when you figure out who you are, what a majestic being you will become. And I look forward to the day when it is I who bows to
you.”

Aen’s eyes shot open as her last word still rang in his ears. A quick glance around reminded him that he had indeed been sleeping. Sensation returned to him, the feeling of the chair beneath him reassured him he was back in real time. The cool air of the computer room nipped at his skin and the constant hum of the machines themselves slowly rose from the nothingness. Once again, he was in the here and
now.

He began to replay the whole thing in his mind before it slipped away into fragments of memory. He thought hard of where he had seen her before, but struggled. Turning his attention to what she had said, he began to sort out what had all happened. It began to dawn on him how frayed his mind truly was from all this and how emotionally fragile he had become. Maybe that was the truth to her riddles. Maybe, it was more about rediscovering who he was than what he would
become.

Aen slowly rose and stretched his weary frame. It had been so long since he simply rested, long enough for him to wonder what the limits of his new body truly were. In fact he began to wonder what extents he could push those limits to. There were so many questions about what he was, and all he had were riddles to answer them with. So it was all left up to him, and Aen figured it would all have to be learned on the go. Knowing that his adversaries had been weakened by the last conflict made him want to rush into the next foray, but strategy had to come before hurried fury. He knew he was beyond their capabilities of defeating him, but he wanted to make sure they knew that before he killed each and every one of
them.

Bristol County, Massachusetts

Snow fell gently and majestically as it coated the entire city with a soft blanket, making it look like a sleepy little town. Everything seemed more serene and beautiful, even the graveyard in which Sara so frequently visited. It was all just a perfect picture, and she stood by her father’s grave for her usual weekly session. There was no bitter cold, the weather was cool enough to snow, but not too cold as to keep people inside and the wind was nearly
non-existent.

“Mom says she felt you looking down on her,” Sara said with a forced smile. “It was the other day, when she was doing her running around. She said she felt you there. She never talks about you, I guess it still hurts after all this time for her. But you know Mom, she always gets quiet when stuff bothers her and never talks about
it.”

Sara paused, tears welling up in her eyes as she struggled to continue. “I just...I wish I could feel what she did. I’m jealous, Dad, and I miss you so bad. And I wish I could make those responsible for you being gone
pay.”

“That is not your
burden.”

The voice behind her scared her half to death. Sara recognized it as the stranger that had been meeting her here off and on the last few months. Quickly she turned angrily to face him, but what she saw was even more shocking. Instead of the usual dark grey suit and long, black overcoat he usually wore, the man was adorned in some kind of body armour that glistened in the falling snow. The armour seemed to be a consistency of a liquid, black color of it like the surface of a lake at
night.

“But it is something that is being dealt with none the less.” He
continued.

“You know these meetings between my dad and me are private?” she asked scornfully, with her tears flowing from her eyes. “I honestly wish you would get the
hint.”

Aen knew she was angry, he had witnessed the look in her eyes many times over her life. She had taken a stance of ownership as she stood protectively between him and the empty grave behind her. It took a great deal of effort to restrain from smiling—Sara always looked so cute when she was angry and he constantly laughed at her when she scowled
so.

“I mean no insult by my visits, but my intrusions do have merit to them.” He replied holding his hand up and extended to calm her down. “It is you I seek, not him or a
fight.”

Sara had long felt this man had been somewhat stalking her, but had never really let the thoughts linger to long as his visits, as he called them, had always been brief. Now, she began to wonder at what he truly was
after.

“Why me? I mean, why do you always come here and only
here?”

“Because of a promise I made, and no matter what happens in your life from here on out, I will always keep that
promise.”

“Dad made you promise to watch over me?” the tears rushed from her now. Her cheeks were streaked with wet and frozen
tears.

“In a way, but it was to make sure you got the answers you so desperately need to move on. But for now, the more you know puts you in more danger then you can
imagine.”

“I don’t believe you!” she screamed at him. Years of frustration began to boil over. “And why do you always wear those damn glasses? What the fuck are you
hiding?”