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Episode 25: Eyes to See
"How is he today?" Starsha's voice reached across the room to Alex who stood by his friend's sickbed.
Alex looked back over his shoulder at the queen. "He is… better I think." He replied. "He moves sometimes, but hasn't opened his eyes once."
Starsha came to stand by Alex, he covered hand held out to translate her words, "He will though."
"I wish I had your confidence." Alex replied, downcast. "He should have woken up by now. It's been… so long since we crashed here."
"Meer weeks." Starsha provided, "Not as long as it seems."
Alex let his head droop even more.
"Do not fear for him, Alexander." Starsha offered, "The hand of Yahweh is not so weak that it cannot save."
"And what does that mean?" Alex asked quietly. "I'm just supposed to believe that God is going to miraculously heal him?"
"Yahweh does as He wills." Starsha replied simply. "I have seen enough to know that without doubt."
"Well, I haven't." Alex said, his voice harboring a bitter edge.
Starsha said nothing to this for a long time, instead she knelt beside Adam's bed and laid her covered hand atop his.
She began speaking, but with her hand no longer free, Alex had no idea what she was saying. He had learned a few words in Iscandarian, but the majority of the language was still lost to him.
He looked down at the young queen and shook his head when he saw her head bowed in reverence as she offered an unknown prayer to her Yahweh.
Starsha felt the rough hand of the Eratite man lying in front of her. To her it told the story of their long journey here to Iscandar on the wings of adversity. It told her of every moment he spent on board that ship and every second he suffered at the hands of his captors.
She gently squeezed Adam's hand and looked at his closed eyes. His eyelids fluttered once and she held her breath, hoping they might open, but an instant after they moved, they stilled again and she knew it was more likely a dream than him waking.
She watched his chest rise and fall slowly as he breathed, now without the assistance of the medical equipment – for which she thanked Yahweh. At least he'd made that much progress.
She sighed quietly, knowing it could be much longer before Adam woke up… and… there was the possibility that he wouldn't wake up at all.
She bowed her head as the words she had seen so many years ago etched into the floor came back to her and she couldn't help but whisper them, "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."
The day she'd seen those words came back all at once. She'd been wondering who she would be – what her future held. She hadn't known it at the time, but her entire world was about to be thrown into turmoil. She had watched her people – every one of them except her sister Astra – die. She had held infants as they breathed their last. She had tended to young men and women as their bodies aged well beyond their physical age. She had seen the old drop dead before her eyes. She had prayed for deliverance from this madness, but it had not come – not as she'd expected it to.
The day Desslok had come to her world and eradicated the rest of the virus his own brother had unleashed on her world. And with that one act, he had cleared the vestiges of her old life away. Nothing remained of the old Iscandar except the field of the dead, now many times the size it used to be.
If she looked up now she could have seen the thousands of graves staring at her from outside the window, their shining spires seeming to look into her heart and ask, "What will you do now to save a life?
Starsha thought on the question as it echoed over and over. There was nothing she could do for Adam that she hadn't already done, but there was one thing she could do again.
She knew Alex wouldn't understand her, but this was not for Alex; this was for Adam, and for all those who's died here. And it was for Yahweh.
Starsha's mind went back to a prayer she had learned when she was a little girl. She let her eyes fall closed as she spoke, "Heal us, O Adonai, and we shall be healed; save us, and we will be saved, for the one we praise is You." Starsha wished that her sisters could be with her now to see what Yahweh had done even now in saving these two from the hands of their captors. "Bring healing for all our sicknesses, for O Yahweh, for You are our faithful and compassionate Healer and King. Blessed are you, Yahweh Rophe, the Healer of the sick of Yisrael.*"
Starsha raised her eyes to Adam. His eyes remained closed, his breathing unchanged.
She stood and turned to go, holding her hand out so that Alex could understand her again.
"I shall leave you with your friend." She said as she walked back to the door.
She was just about to let her hand drop to her side when something stopped her.
"No…"
The one word gripped her and she whirled back around to see Adam's weary eyes now open and looking at her in gratitude. "Stay… please." He somehow managed to say, his voice raspy from long disuse.
Alex, in utter shock, did not protest his friend's wishes, but instead stared at the other man in wonder, knowing that he had just seen the very thing he had not believed in a moment ago – the hand of Yahweh, moving as He willed it to.
Dara felt like the world made no sense anymore. She looked at the walls of her tiny cabin, wondering what would become of her.
The Rakiah Cobel was heading out towards Balan now. Their orders were simple: go to Balan and rendezvous with the other ships who would also be assembling there.
Dara knew something was about to happen, but she had no idea what it might be.
Were they going to launch an offensive against this one ship? Surely this was more force than necessary if that was the case.
But then she remembered the notes Melda had left and the logs from other ships that had been in the conflict with the Eratites too. This ship was like nothing she had ever seen – nothing any of them had ever seen. But how had it become so powerful? What had happened that had turned the tide?
Dara closed her eyes and thought about that very question – what is this universe could have happened to give this ship the advantage it seemed to have.
Surely the Eratites possessed nothing of this magnitude – a weapon powerful enough to completely destroy Ee Katan Zakkar; that left a number of possibilities. There was little chance that anyone from Gamilon had given them this technology, and the Cometines certainly hadn't. They would have conquered the weakened world, not helped it. The same was true of the Bolars, should they even know of the existence of the Eratites.
There was the possibility that some unknown group had pitied the people and given them a gesture of goodwill…
But that was highly unlikely.
Then there was the last possibility…
Dara sat up and reached for the old book she'd found under the floor. She opened the front cover and read the strange title again. "Tanakh."
It was an unfamiliar word, though she had an idea of what she held. She'd heard some of her old customers talking about it. In her hand she held the words of Adonai Himself. She didn't know if she quite believed that yet, but she would concede that perhaps there was something to this book.
She flipped through the book, more slowly than she had when she'd found it.
This time she noticed markings next to portions of text. How had she missed this the first time? The first marking came about a fourth of the way into the book. She read it, but it didn't make much sense to her.
"If any of thine that are dispersed be in the uttermost parts of heaven, from thence will Yahweh Adonai gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee."
She turned more pages and found another mark. This one read,
"Thus saith Yahweh Adonai: Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and set up Mine ensign to the peoples, and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders."
Dara's brow furrowed at the mention of children being brought home and her heart ached as she wished her child might be brought home again.
She shook the thought away and tried to refocus on what she was looking at. She turned again until she saw the next mark.
"And I will be found of you, saith Yahweh, and I will turn your captivity, and gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith Yahweh; and I will bring you back unto the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive."
And on to the next.
"For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep Mine ordinances, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God."
Dara stopped for a moment, finally seeing the theme of these words – Aliyah – a nation returning home. She continued through the rest of the book, reading the last three marked pieces one after another.
"Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will save My people from the east country, and from the west country; And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Yerushalayim; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness."
"And I will sow them among the peoples, and they shall remember Me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and shall return. I will bring them back also out of the land of Mitzrayim*, and gather them out of Asshur*; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not suffice them."
"Remember, I beseech Thee, the word that Thou didst command Thy servant Moshe, saying: If ye deal treacherously, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples; but if ye return unto Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though your dispersed were in the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to cause My name to dwell there."*
Dara closed the book and reached to lay it back in its place under her bunk, but as she did, she felt one of the end pages start to fall out. She pulled the book back and opened it, not wanting the only clue she had about Melda's real thoughts on what was going on to be damaged, but she didn't see a loose page falling out of the book, instead it was an extra page, nothing like the rest.
Dara pulled the strange page all the way out of the book and stared at it.
"I can't even read this…" Dara thought as she turned the page this way and that, trying to figure out what it said. Then an idea came to her.
She got up out of bed and stood in front of her computer console.
She held up the sheet of paper and asked simply, "What does this say?"
The computer took a moment to respond and Dara held her breath, hoping the machine could understand what she couldn't."
"No known translation exists for this text." The computer replied.
Dara sighed and started to return to her bunk.
"Possible language match identified." The computer suddenly announced. "Text is 95.89% similar to Iscandarian."
Dara stopped in her tracks, not knowing what to think.
"Iscandarian?" she asked without thinking.
"Correct." The computer replied.
"But… it cannot be translated?" she asked, not sure how that could be.
"The text is coded."
"So decode it." Dara shot back.
"I am not programmed to override security protocols."
Dara's eyes widened and instantly she knew something much bigger was going on and she'd just tumbled right into it. If she'd harbored hopes of getting out of this, she knew they'd all just vanished.
"I have heard from the Sentinels; the ship is in trouble."
The words broke into Mariposa's world and grabbed her back from the snow-covered forest she was roaming. Her mind returned to the hollow of the Nine.
"Trouble?" Mariposa asked.
"Indeed." Elazar replied, "They are trapped between a sea of fire and a great void. The flames have no will of their own, but the void possesses an all-consuming hunger, and it reaches for the ship, yearning to swallow it and take the lives of all aboard."
"How can that be so?" Mariposa asked, "What has happened to create such a terrible creature?"
Elazar did not reply right away and Mariposa started to worry about him.
"Elazar?" she asked "What is it?"
Her rescuer finally replied, "It is… a story I have only now come to know, and it is one that I cannot tell you now, Mariposa. But you must know that there is much more to this creature than meets the eye. Its will was given by Abaddon, but its shape was given by a leader of men. He strives to lead his people home, but he has lost his sense of who he is. There is much he does not know about those he has befriended, and it may be his undoing."
"Who is this man, Elazar?" Mariposa asked.
"He… is lost." Elazar replied.
"But what is his name?" Mariposa asked, hoping it was no one she knew.
"I cannot tell you, Mariposa." Came Elazar's quiet reply, "I cannot reveal his name for now, though one day you will know it, I am sure."
"But why?" asked the girl.
"It is not time for you to know." Replied Elazar.
"I don't understand."
"I know." The man said, "You must see this with clear eyes. To tell you who wars against this ship would be to cloud your sight. I have told the Nine the story I heard from the Sentinels and they agree."
"Do they know who this man is?" Mariposa asked, a bit irritated that she might be the only one left in the dark.
"No." Elazar replied, "Only that he is trying to help his people survive."
This made Mariposa pause, "I… know a man like that, though he is far from here, and he would never do such a thing as attack an innocent ship for his own sake… Has this ship threatened him with their weapon?"
"They have not." Elazar replied. "Not directly. His forces attacked the ship and they did what they thought was necessary to survive. They used their weapon against his forces at the cost of many lives."
If she could have nodded, Mariposa would have, but the pod's restrictions did not allow her to do so. "Has this ship lost any of its crew at this man's hand?"
"They have." Came the reply.
"So blood has been spilled on both sides. This will be hard to overcome." Mariposa thought back to the years she had spent behind the lines with her mother, her friends, Desslok and Masterson – all the lives that had been lost in that great rebellion. "Perhaps they could find a way to help each other. What is this ship's purpose? Have the Sentinels heard?"
"The ship seeks to save its people from extinction. Their homeworld is riddled with disease and they come seeking a cure."
"So they share a similar goal." Mariposa said simply, "Both of them care so much for their people that they have taken extreme steps to save them. They have all sacrificed to see their loved ones safe."
If Mariposa could have seen Elazar she would have seen the look of admiration on his face, and if she'd looked a little deeper she would have seen great pain hidden in his eyes. He was glad she could not see him, because he knew she would have seen through him, and he could not tell her his reasons for harboring such great sorrow – not yet, perhaps not ever.
"I hope that one day soon they will realize what you have said, Mariposa, but I fear that they are far from seeing that for now. But I pray that they see it before it is too late."
"Elazar, the Sentinels are moving." The voice of one of the Nine broke in. "It seems that something else has caught the Malha's eye. She fears this ship, but she will not be returning to that galaxy anytime soon. She has found another pawn to use in her game."
"Who?" Elazar asked.
"It would seem that a legend has awoken – the legend of a world with the power to make the impossible become reality. But she has chosen not to seek it herself; instead she has enlisted another – one named Sabera."
At this name alarm ran through Mariposa. "Sabera?! Sabera of Gatlantis?"
"Yes. It is she. Is she known to you?"
"She is…" Mariposa replied, "She was a cruel child, if she holds power on Gatlantis, I am sure she has not changed for the better. Should this ship struggling to find its cure run across her path, then may Adonai help them."
*Hebrew blessing for healing
*Mitzrayim – Egypt
*Asshur – Assyria
*References include: Deuteronomy 30:4; Isaiah 49:22; Jeremiah 29:14; Ezekiel 36:24-28; Zechariah 8:7-8; Zechariah 10:9-10; Nehemiah 1:8-9
Episode 26: Over the Threshold
"But Captain, it's still fairly new to us. What if we don't arrive as planned? What if something goes wrong on the way? And with the Storm Leader aboard too – if she were lost – "
"Pauker, shut up," Captain Raphan gave his second-in-command a stern look. He shut his mouth. "The gates have been explored by many a ship since their discovery four years ago."
The look on Pauker's face said he wanted to protest more, and Raphan understood the fear of the unknown. The Leader's order terrified him, but if they were to reach their goal swiftly, the Aquarius Gates were the the only way. Balan was the gate nexus. From there, they could travel to any number of destinations, some unexplored.
The uncharted gate Cobel wandered through after the battle with the Eratite ship sent them farther off course than Raphan imagined. They couldn't afford misstep like that on this mission.
"We are taking the gate, Pauker, as the Leader had commanded us to. Once at Balan we will wait for further orders."
The executive officer nodded reluctantly. He mumbled as he stood next to the captain. Raphan could almost hear Pauker's knees knocking together.
"What did you say?" the captain challenged.
"Captain, it – it chills me to the bone every time we go near a gate. What am I to do once we've crossed the threshold?"
"Go to sleep, Pauker. No ghosts will touch you there." The captain shook his head at Pauker.
The stories about strange sightings inside the gates weren't foreign to Raphan. The gates caused hallucinations in some of the weaker-stomached travelers, but no permanent harm.
"I can do that when we get there?" Pauker asked, his eyes wide.
"If it will stop you from complaining any more about it then, yes, you may go to the med bay and get a tranquilizer."
"Oh, thank you, Captain!" Pauker gushed. "So why is it called the 'Aquarius Gate'?"
"All hands, prepare for gate travel."
The voice echoed over the ship-wide comm system.
"Huh...? Computer, what is gate travel?" Dara asked, covering a brief yawn. She rolled out of her bunk.
"Gate travel is the transportation from one hub of the Aquarius Gate Network to another. The transportation involves a warp-like state where the crew of a ship may experience space-sickness, claustrophobia, hallucinations, or symptoms of depression, though these side-effects are rare. Most symptoms can be managed by the ship's on-board medical personnel."
"But what should I do to prepare for it?"
"If you are unaccustomed to gate travel, stay in your quarters. Do not roam the halls. Do not move suddenly. Do not eat or drink anything until you emerge from the gate. If you must consume nourishment during this time, be prepared for nausea and dizziness."
Dara winced as her last space-sickness episode rang in her memory - it was a long time ago, back when she'd worked with the cargo chief Malak aboard a freighter. The old ship had its problems, but the crew became her family after she'd been turned out by her former lover, her daughter's father. Her time aboard the worldship Gatlantis ended abruptly, but her time there burned in her memory.
The people of that ship were cold and unyielding. She shivered at the thought of one, Sabera, a silver-haired child with skin the color of green moss. Her eyes were hard, black stones that stared through the soul and her heart was a loveless pit of dark despair. Dara dared not think what might happen if that terror ever took power.
"Gate travel will commence in three minutes."
"Great…" Dara thought, "I suppose I'll have to get used to space travel again…" she sighed and sat back down on her bed. The countdown to the ship's jump through the gate flickered above the door to her quarters. Two minutes and forty seconds left.
She closed her eyes and waited.
The air swirled around her. She felt the sting of cold, but it wasn't like the normal cold of space. Freezing darkness seeped into her room through the hull. Her skin prickled with electricity.
"Computer, how long until we reach our destination?" She asked, her eyes still squeezed shut.
"Three hours, fifty-two minutes," came the reply.
"How often are these gates used?" Dara asked as her daughter's dear face sprung to mind.
"Two months ago, the gates came online for military use. The Aquarius Gates are recently reactivated. They were discovered five years ago by an exploration vessel and reactivated for exploration four years ago. They are at least three centuries old."
"So they don't know much about these gates," Dara whispered, alarmed. "We could be jumping into anything!" Her eyes popped open and she shot up out of her bunk. The room swam and her gut clenched. She sank back onto the mattress.
"The gate system is mapped and thoroughly traveled. It is disturbing to many, but safe to use," the computer countered.
Dara let out a sigh of relief, but wondered what was so disturbing about gate travel, other than the space sickness – and the unnatural cold.
She rubbed her shoulders, working some heat back into them. The shadows around her flickered and she looked up. Dark fingers floated through the air, reaching out with ghostly hands. Dara froze.
That smell. She subtly sniffed the air, her eyes fixed on the phantoms milling about her quarters. It tasted bitter and smelled of death.
"Hell-spawn..." Dara breathed and huddled into the corner of her bunk, making herself as tiny as possible.
"The Wave Gun's ready." Wildstar flipped open the weapon sights and fixed his eyes on the target.
The star's surface roiled an angry red. Dangerous flares spiked all around them, reaching up to impale the stalwart ship with its deadly fingers.
"Start the countdown," Avatar ordered. "Venture, keep us away from those flares."
The countdown began.
At two seconds on the clock Sandor announced, "The flare is rising."
A red zero ticked into view as Derek saw the wall of fire looming ahead. His finger curled around the trigger mechanism. He pulled. A surge of power exploded from the ship out into space, cutting through the void with bold purpose.
In the instant of blindness that followed the blast, Derek felt the panic of uncertainty. He took off his shock glasses and tried to rub away the fog. He blinked hard over and over until the spots in his vision disappeared. When he could see again, he broke out in a wide smile. There in the midst of the flames was a hole.
The Argo shot forward, just squeezing through the gap.
The darkness surged ahead. It's prey was within reach. Just a little farther and it would have the ship once and for all.
It stretched out its hand to take it.
A blast of light filled the void of space with its brilliance, knocking the darkness backward so hard it had to get its bearings again. When it did, it screamed in pain at the light, its brightness burning into the creature's essence.
"No!" it wailed, "No! You cannot get away from me so easily!" it growled in rage and thrust itself towards the ship again.
It burned – the light from the blast ate at the creature with a voraciousness it had not felt before, save from the sword of the Enemy's servants, the malakhim.
What was this ship? The Master did not say it was anything special. In that instant it realized that what it sought was something far more dangerous than it had ever perceived. He felt the touch of the great Enemy within the ship's light. It shrieked and threw itself into the light, knowing that there was nothing more it could do – not in Shaddai's presence.
The last thing it felt was a wall of fire bursting through its body, sending it back to the void from whence it came.
The flare reformed right behind the Argo. Alarms shrieked at the heat.
"Venture, get us out of here!" Avatar ordered.
"Aye, Captain." Mark pushed the engine as hard it would go after a wave gun salvo. The ship sailed on, leaving behind the Red Star and the shocked enemy fleet that tried to cut them off.
Nova looked out the front viewport and sighed heavily, relief washing over her. She'd felt the void coming for them - an oppressive presence trying to crush her. She wrinkled her nose at the stench of sulfur and rotting flesh.
She looked around the bridge, "Did they feel it too?" she wondered, looking at Derek and Mark. They looked relieved. Eager seemed to just be happy they were away from the star's heat. Dash was the same. Orion was a little edgy, and Homer too. Then there was Sandor. The science officer stared at his station in a daze.
She glanced back at the captain. Her eyes locked with his for just a moment and she knew he'd felt it too.
Avatar looked away from her, "Sandor, Forrester, Glitchman, and Orion, come to my cabin. Your replacements have been notified. The rest of you, prepare for a warp."
"Yes, Sir," came the collective reply as the captain's chair rolled up its track, taking the captain with it.
"Wonder what that's about." Derek said when the listed officers left.
"Don't know," Mark replied, "But he'd better make it quick whatever it is. That fleet isn't going to stand around staring at that star for long. We're bound to be followed. Even if we warp now, they could tail us. They seem to know which way we're going somehow, and they've followed us after a warp before. What's to stop them from doing it again?"
"Nothing I guess," Derek replied.
"Maybe they're coming up with some strategy for the warp or something," Mark let go of the controls long enough to wipe the seat off his face.
"Yeah, maybe," Derek took off his gloves and flexed his aching hands. "After all, they're the ones he usually calls before a warp anyway – except Homer. Not sure what that's about. Maybe he wants to leave a message for the Gamilons. Tell 'em they'll have to try harder to kill us."
Mark let out a skeptical huff, "Right, Wildstar."
"Hey, it was just an idea.," Derek defended, "You have any better ones?"
"No, I guess not," Mark stared out at the vast expanse of stars still ahead and let the autopilot reinitialize.
"You know why you're all here." The captain said once all four officers were present. "That was no space phenomena we encountered."
"Captain, I can't get the feel of it off my skin," Homer said in anxious disgust.
"It showed me things I haven't seen in years," Sandor said, "The deaths of friends – family. Things I had hoped never to re-live again."
Orion said solemnly, "I heard it comin' - like a great lion gatherin' to jump on its prey. Such a sound it was. And when it died… the scream it gave up…" the old engineer shivered.
There was a long silence before Nova spoke up, "I smelled death…" she managed, "It wouldn't leave until I got up to come here. It was like I walked into a mass grave." She felt sick remembering the reek.
Avatar met each officer's gaze and said, "The taste of blood is one I know well, and one I do not relish, but I too felt the presence of whatever was trying to overtake us. I tasted its death at the hands of the fire."
Nova noted the similar expressions on everyone's faces and felt their unanimous consensus.
"I had hoped never to live to see this day..." the captain whispered. "when murderous shadows crept from the darkness and stalked the light. I hoped I would be gone by now, with my family in a place I would never have to see such horrors again. But I am not and I have just experienced the presence of great evil."
The captain sighed and bowed his head, "May God be with us all on this journey, for I fear that this is but the beginning of what we will face as we go on."
He looked up and met the gaze of the four. "Will you pray with me – for the safety of us all, and for our success. Will you pray that, no matter what we may face, that we will return with this cure offered to us by this angel of mercy so far away. Will you pray with me that our strength will not fail, though tried by fire."
Nova nodded solemnly with everyone else fell to her knees, offering up her prayer to the Almighty.
Elisa walked past headstone after headstone, noting the names and dates of birth and death on each one. Some had eulogies on them, some were bare. Some were ornate, others plain.
It was raining now, but the rain stank of the tsarebetim. It reminded her how little time was left for Gamilon. If everything she read and saw about the damage to Gamilon was true, the world had less than ten years left until it became an unlivable wasteland filled with noxious gas and poisoned earth.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she thought of everything she'd lost here – her home, her parents – her son…
She reached the place, a small grave marked with great care, "Deror Lysis. Date of birth: 1/4/2190. Date of death: 5/9/2198." Elisa laid an open palm on the grave. No coffin lay beneath the marker. Deror's body was riddled with the tsarebetim poison and they were forced to burn it. It was worst night of her life. After Leader Desslok took the throne from his usurper brother they all hoped peace would follow, but she and Dommel woke one night to find their son missing.
The Leader and his second in command, Masterson Talan found the boy in the clutches of Fiske, a servant of the Malha. Fiske succumbed to the tsarebetim and died moments after they found Deror.
"Elisa."
She looked up. "Admiral," she greeted, glad to see a kind face.
"I'm glad you chose this place to meet." Raymond Talan scanned the area. "You seem to bear a heavy burden, my friend. What is it you have come to me about?"
"The Leader," she said. "I don't think I can go along with what he's doing anymore."