Rise of Aen (27 page)

“You hesitate, child. What is it you
fear?”

“I fear that if I say his name aloud now, then once the storm washes ashore, it will be shouted endlessly to grant asylum to those who aren’t worthy. I fear the spoilage of your ways and lifestyle if people should find out why we have come so far to live with so little, but I fear more of not being able to fulfill a dead man’s last
wish.”

The monk understood, or so Krista thought. All this was unknown to her before this minute. She wondered what this coming storm was, and why it had led her daughter here; the prospect of something that bad deeply frightened her. He nodded and turned to the guide and spoke in his native tongue for a moment as Sara fumbled through her translation dictionary in attempt to try and follow the conversation. After a brief chat, the Sherpa bowed to the monk and began making his way down the mountain without
them.

“Wait!” Sara shouted. “We aren’t done here, don’t leave us!” The guide neither turned back, nor acknowledged her cries as he soon disappeared around the
bend.

“Your worry of broken secrets is removed—now tell me who has sent you to our doorstep.” The monk asked with
firmness.

Sara was panicking; things weren’t going to plan anymore and fear was winning out of common sense. “I’m sorry, Mom.” She blubbered. “It wasn’t supposed to be like
this.”

“The name, please.” The monk reiterated, waiting for the
answer.

But Sara was lost in a wave of crashing emotions. All the pent-up angst and fear that she used to drive her this far was now gushing forth as tears poured down her face. Concern over being abandoned so far away from home on unknown ground began to grip Krista, but unlike her daughter she began to search her memory for anything Sara had told her about a new person she had met or interviewed recently. She struggled for a moment before remembering a person she had been asked about that might have known her late husband; it was the only name that she could think
of.

“Aen.” Krista blurted out loudly causing the monk to now turn to her and quickly silencing the panic attack of Sara. “Aen sent us, although I don’t know
why.”

Silence followed her quick answer; the monk looked at her, then her daughter, one at a time—over and over as if to be sizing them up. Krista wondered if these might be those warrior monks from the movies but then reminded herself that this was not China. He looked peaceful, but she had learned in her life that looks were
deceiving.

“Krista and Sara Foster, I presume?” he asked. “Come inside, we have been eagerly expecting you. We have made more than modest accommodations for you in the temple as I believe you would be more comfortable there then in one of our meager
homes.”

Krista was stunned and did not follow as the monk led them through the now opening gates. It took only moments for the smaller man to notice as he stopped and turned back to
her.

“Such mistrust is sad to see, but know that a great deal of effort has been taken to bring you here
today.”

“I see that.” She said sheepishly. “But I am uninformed on why we are here and who this mysterious Aen
is.”

“Aen is the Harbinger, and he has brought you here to be safe from the coming storm.” He
replied.

“Harbinger of what and what is this storm the two of you keep referring to?” she
demanded.

“He is the Harbinger of the fall of Earth; his coming forewarns of a great evil that will rain fire down upon the world as you know
it.”

“Aliens Mom, we are about to be conquered by aliens!” Sara spoke again at long
last.

Fear now gripped her heart tightly; Krista knew why her daughter had hidden so much from her. This was the type of secret that would tear the planet apart in utter chaos. Riots, mobs, and disorder would reign. This was why she had been dragged across the globe and to the top of the world. Sara had found safety and wouldn’t go without safe passage for her
mother!

“Come inside and I will explain everything over some tea.” The monk pleaded as he guided them through the gates which closed tightly behind them. Krista doubted that many people would have the means or energy to break those after the ordeal of climbing the mountain for three
days.

“Who are you?” Krista asked
softly.

“My name is Nyun, and I knew your husband for a brief moment of
time.”

THIRTEEN

Lyarran Vessel Amarra, Southern Pacific Ocean Floor -
Four Months and Nineteen Days until Arrival

Aen was impatient—he was waiting for his mechanical friend to accomplish what it called a near-impossible task. In his mind, however, near-impossible still held a chance. There was little else for him to do to keep him occupied, so he paced back and forth in the former Operations Control room of the
Amarra.

It was a different type of request, one brought about by sheer curiosity from his previous conversation with Caretaker concerning the Empress’ interest in him. Not one to stand on ceremony, Aen asked for the link to be established with her ship so he could ask her in person why she fancied him so. The request was also risky, if he got too animated or excited he may jeopardize her want to help save this
planet.

So he continued to pace, stepping carefully over the wires strewn about the floor. Caretaker had hijacked a maintenance drone and inserted its core into the machine’s processor, essentially giving itself a body. Now with a multitude of limbs to do its own work, it had successfully torn apart most of the inoperative systems on the dormant ship in an attempt to recalibrate and restart them. To Aen it seemed a bit pointless, but it kept the AI busy and out of his hair for the
meantime.

“How much longer until you connect with her ship?” he asked as he struggled to untangle his foot from a web of
cabling.

“There is no time table for what you ask; it is a one and a billion shot at making contact with the Empress’s ship as its drives are engaged for jump space travel,”
Caretaker whined.
“It is the equivalent of trying to aim at a single photon of light as it exits your sun and hurdles towards this
planet.”

“So what you’re saying is that you can’t do
it?”

“No, what I am telling you is that it is not an easy process and that some patience on your part is called for,”
it snapped back.
“I am waiting for the ship to come out of its jump to make contact; the Fleet ships can maintain their jump space drives for only so many days of constant use before they must exit the jump and vent the drive reactors and cool the engines. If the Lyarra’s Fire entered jump space anytime in the few days after your little interruption on the Council meeting, it should be due to reappear in normal space soon. In fact, I am scanning the galactic plane between us and the Imperial center for such gas anomalies such as those of Lyarran ships in their cool-down
period.”

Aen’s head was spinning; all of that sounded good, but he had little idea of how much of it was possible or true. All he knew is that he needed to talk to the Empress before all hell broke loose here. Nodding with approval, he shook his foot loose of the mess and slowly returned to his dark corner of the armory. The quiet serenity of the ghost ship was broken by the metallic ringing of his footfalls on the floor beneath him. In his old life, places like this used to make him nervous and scared. Now, however, he moved with confidence as an apex predator should; there was not much he would be afraid about any longer save for the task of being a savior to a planet that didn’t know he
existed.

The thought stopped him in his tracks—a planet. Aen had already separated himself from the human race and begun to think of himself as something completely different. In truth, he had begun to accept the inevitable. There was no reason for him to think he was able to live a life of any sorts here any longer; no human would accept him for what he was and was capable of doing. And even though he had fretted long and shed many a tear for his past life, the realization that it was gone was
almost...calming.

So now he stood here in an alien vessel which was not so alien to him anymore. Once this was over, Aen would return back with the Lyarrans and try and acclimate himself to their ways and lifestyle although Aen thought deep down that even amongst the assorted races of the great Empire he would still stand apart and
alone.

For a man who wanted nothing more to be loved in his life, this was the truly hellish outcome he always had nightmares about. More and more it looked like he was destined to remain alone for more than just a lifetime; if he was truly immortal as the Empress had told him then he would spend eternity around others but never truly with anyone. But before his ever over thinking mind could expand on this last thought, he was paged by
Caretaker.

“You might want to rejoin me up here,”
it nattered.
“I think I have made
contact.”

Lyarran Vessel Dark Light, Uncharted Space -
Four Months and Nineteen Days until Arrival

Lyxia overlooked the reports on their progress towards the forgotten star system and smiled softly to herself; they were a bit ahead of schedule. The Dark Light now rested at the edge of a strange, and long dead, system with a spinning pulsar at its heart while they vented their plasma drives from a week long jump. Her crew had pushed this ship far beyond its design limits as they felt the urgency on getting to Terra Sol before all was lost. In doing so, she was pleased to see that the ship had held up more than well against the hardest of pushes
recorded.

Sitting at her perch, a station at the rear of the Operations Control Center that was elevated for her to see all around her and show her position as Council, Lyxia studied the incoming station reports carefully while keeping a close eye on the Ops Con staff as they went about the routine system
checks.

Lyxia was not keen about stopping here, of all places, but the ship had begun to show some minor strain under such a long jump so it was now or face oblivion. So to ease her worry, she had assigned a young Paxyn recruit to keep an eye on the radiation levels building on the forward shielding from the zombie star that pummelled all around it with its deadly power. They had moved the ship away from the long arms of radioactive output that spun away from its chaotic core to what was deemed the safest spot at the far reaches of the dust cloud remaining from the spectacular death of the God that once stood
here.

It always broke Lyxia’s heart to see one of these great beings end a glorious and warm existence to become one of these death-bringers. To spend all its time nurturing and loving its creations before destroying everything it had help grow in its death throw. She had watched one of these explosions once as a cadet in the Academy; part of the only class in the long history of the Fleet to do so; and all were brought to tears by the sudden violence of it. The bigger the God was, the more violent its final cries
were.

Realizing she was staring aimlessly into space, Lyxia quickly refocused herself and resumed her duties. These reports were boring as hell, but wholly necessary, considering what they were rushing off to do. The last thing she wanted was to overlook something small now that would build into something critical during the battle. There were too many lives aboard the Light to take anything for granted, never mind the poor souls on Terra Sol. As time wore on, she found a few anomalies; an overheated plasma coil here, a few maintenance items there, the odd squabble amongst shopkeepers in the city at the heart of the ship and some malfunctions in the atrium to which she dispatched crews to all to be fixed immediately. Nothing was to be left to
chance!

Time seemed to be at a standstill; Lyxia hated these venting drops. The ship always was vulnerable and exposed during them and it wasted so much crucial time. But a true warrior had to take all the time given to be best prepared for battle, and it was this old phrase that helped her manage her angst during these down times. As she was about to finish her last report, she heard a familiar but unexpected chime sound; the holo-link was
active.

“Who the hell knows we are out here?” she barked as she shot out of her seat and stood tall. Her hands quickly went about neatening her uniform as she stood to make sure she carried the look of her station. Unlike the blood-red color of the Ifierin soldiers, her dress uniform—more of a tight-fitting jacket/dress mix, along with tights beneath—was a deep blue with white and silver trim. Its collar ran up just below her jaw and it hugged her curves down to an inch above her knees with the fasteners off to the left side all the way down. Adorned on the right breast was the Imperial Fleet insignia of a blazing white sun with two spears crossed tightly beneath. The whole ensemble was quite striking and noted her power over the plain, red-colored uniforms of everyone else
aboard.

“Tracking,” her communications officer answered as her nubile fingers began to fly over the touch panel station. “Looks to be coming from...that can’t be right.” She said after a
pause.

“What can’t be right?” Lyxia asked. “Where is it hailing
from?”

“Terra Sol, Counsel. But that doesn’t make sense. It’s coming from the
Amarra.”

What had figured to be a routine day now spun into total confusion? This is why she hated these breaks in the action, because of unexpected and totally unanticipated things like
this.

“Put it through to the chamber.” She said with a sigh, wondering what else that damned AI would bother her with now. Almost sulking in her slow walk to the lone door to the front of the room, Lyxia wanted little to do with this nattering machine. She took her time, but eventually had to face the facts and entered the holo-chamber as the door fell away to the sides. Her head hung down, she moved to the center of the room in which there was a chrome circle on the floor to stand so one could be seen. Once there she raised her head and her heart skipped a beat, for before her was not the avatar of the Amarra’s AI, but the creature that had stood captivatingly before the council—before her stood
Aen.

Himalayan Mountains, Mount Kailash, Tibet -
Four Months and Nineteen Days until Arrival

It had been a long night, one spent without sleep and absorbing the most harrowing news Krista had ever heard. Now as she lay quietly in her hammock in the back room of the temple, she now faced the hard truth that Sara was right about Aaron not dying in the accident. Worse yet, he had been kept alive and tortured in some unknown science experiment which he eventually died from, and the people responsible had created their weapon they hoped for. Aen had decimated them in retaliation for his birth and the deaths of those who were tortured alongside him, so there was some relief and closure for her. But now what could he do against an advanced alien race which was intent on conquering and enslaving them
all?

This is why she was dragged across the globe, this is why she left her New England home for this place. Aaron had wished them to be safe, and this Aen had granted this wish and brought them here. But as this monk explained what Aen was, more questions than answers started to come up in her head. She had stayed silent at the time, but only to better phrase her concerns rather than blurt them out
randomly.

Her eyes sought out the form of her daughter, sleeping in the darkness—a hard task, considering the deep darkness of the night up here on the mountain top. After a moment of searching, Krista found what she sought, as the motion of Sara’s chest rising in her exhausted slumber. Now that they were here and she had broken down after holding all that in for so long, Sara’s rest was long overdue and much deserved. The question that kept popping up in Krista’s heart was what did they do
now?

At the moment, there was little she could do and that was the frustrating part. Her place in all this was only to be safe and sheltered from the attack coming. It was hard to accept, but she was to sit this one out as a far removed spectator to the drastic change this cynical world would unknowingly face. It hit her that everything she knew might be gone after this—her family, friends, her business and even their little town. When life was able to be resumed, all of it could be gone! These thoughts brought more tears to her tired eyes. She was helpless in the face of this, and like it or not she had to accept
it.

Slowly her body began to win out in the fight to remain awake and her weary eyes began to close themselves. Sleep began to wrap its warm, inviting fingers around her and slowly dragged Krista down into its embrace. She began to dream of this mysterious Aen and all the horrors that were coming behind him before her eyes had finished closing. Nightmares or not, she was sleeping and that was a start towards dealing with the news she had been dealt. For now, it wasn’t the end of the world, but in her dreams she could definitely see it from
here.

Lyarran Vessel Amarra, Southern Pacific Ocean Floor -
Four Months and Nineteen Days until Arrival

Aen watched as the form of a woman began to take shape in the holographic display, but soon realized it was not the one he sought. But even before he could bark at Caretaker for the mistake, he saw the figure and stood silently transfixed as his heart began to race. The figure—obviously distracted with other things—had her head down in contemplation but he knew her face in mere moments. It was the woman from the council
meeting!

When she looked up and their eyes met, Aen felt the connection, one like he had never felt before. His mind swooned and his heart soared, but he kept himself composed physically. Now was not a time to go all haywire over a woman. But looking at her, he could see a similar struggle. Whatever was between the two of them, it was stronger than expected and seemed to grow each time they saw each other. To Aen, the way she looked at him was unlike anything he could ever imagine—in her eyes he was something to be treasured and it made all the heartache he had disappear. Aen knew this feeling and the timing of it scared
him.

“How can I help you?” she asked after a long silence. It amazed him how he had been almost preprogrammed to understand the Imperial dialect, as her lyrical voice rattled off the words. Aen opened his mouth, but could not find any words to reply. She had him spellbound and tongue
tied.