Advent, Chapter 1-Awake
Chapter 1: Awake
JULY 4, 2004, 11:46 PM
A knock on the second window resonated through my room, and I came out of my closet from where I had been weeping tears for those that were doomed come the next day. Opening the window and removing the screen with minimal sound, the dark figure climbed in. I illuminated a dim light in the corner of my room, enough to reveal the long snout, crocodilian tail and scaly features of the saurian trooper that carried my message and my package. The dinosaur-man removed the sack from his side.
"Finally, I meet one of you face to face," said I.
With some sort of salute unfamiliar to me, he proceeded to dig into the sack and remove a small metal box no bigger than my two fists. "The Federation sends its eternal gratitude; this is for you."
"I presume this to be the famous vaccine I've heard so much about?" I inquired.
"I give you no guarantee, as I am just a messenger, but as a member of the Saurian Army, isn't it obvious that it is indeed?" He replied in an awkward business-like tone. "Ah, I had almost neglected to give you this message. It is from our highest-ranking military officer. Although you are unfamiliar with his name and rank, I will tell you that you are the child of his research and time. In a sense, you are his son, being just that in his own opinion." The trooper gave to me a CD; how they acquired this human technology, I have no right idea, seeing that it had only been five hours since the flagship has descended into orbit. "There is a small aircraft waiting for you outside. I will give you ten minutes to consult the contents you have just received. After that, we will depart." With that, the saurian ambled out the window and stretched his wings to jump to the silent and hovering craft waiting but twenty feet from my window. At risk for being seen, I presume, the craft darted out of sight, high into the sky.
The existence of such advanced technology was not unknown to me, though it would be quite disturbing and remarkable to anybody unfamiliar with the deep reaches of saurian technology. Ten minutes was ample time to listen to the message. The officer that the trooper had detailed spoke through the sterile tone of an automated translator as follows:
"I am so very pleased with your work and dedication to the saurian race. Every last one of us thanks you from the deepest reaches of their hearts for restoring us to our home planet. I understand that you are pressed for time, so I will keep the formalities at that for now. No doubt our messenger has given you the package that you now hold within your grasp. Inside, you will find something you are sure to find amusing and quite useful. Our latest experiment at headquarters involved polarized electromagnetic propulsion, a force, that when harnessed, can power any wingless being such as yourself at lightning-fast speeds. The vial of green liquid inside the box will insert a proviral strain of DNA-orientated manufacturing genes into all of your cells. The blue vial will allow you to fly without wings instantly, while the green will gradually allow your cells to grow the components necessary to incorporate permanent PEP into your structure. Lastly, you are being transported to a sub-orbital satellite by the messenger that has delivered these provisions. We expect you onboard within two hours. May God be with you, and good luck."
I had not known that the saurians believed in God, or perhaps they were simply reinforcing my own beliefs. Now, there was no time for God; to believe in Him in man's darkest hour, where my shadow only contributes to the greater evil, would be more insult that compliment to His ranks. I ejected the disc and broke it in two, threw one part out the window, another on the floor of my room.
Time drew short. The messenger had departed not four minutes to the second, and his promised return drew nearer. I double-took my watch: 11:57. In just over eight hours, the operation would begin, and the four horses would gallop around the world in one day and one night.
I withdrew the two vials, blue and green, from the metal box that I had set upon my wooden mantle. Removing the safety from one and then the other, I rammed their pointed needles into my thigh. A sharp jolt of pain, like a sword going through my leg, then nothing. Must have been an anesthetic they slipped in, damn good one at that; my leg grew limp, making walking a chore resembling carrying logs across the bottom of a lake in January. My attention somehow sprung to the thought of my parents, sleeping in the master bedroom, not fifteen yards from where the end of the world had begun.
I walked up to my parents door, turned the handle. The squeaky springs in the mechanism roused my father. He half sat up in the bed, dazed, confused and probably somewhat peeved. It was like sleepwalking, normally I wouldn't go into my parents room whilst they rested, for violation was sure to yield consequences and loss of trust. Trust, something that I have never felt. A condition such as this would be sure to demand psychological counseling, but I was sure of my advent, and unafraid of humans despite my lack of trust in them.
"What the hell are you doing up?" My father asked in a decidedly pissed tone. I just stood there, looking at him. My mother woke up just before I was about to say something.
"Why are you up?" She queried. Still I just stood there.
"Huh? You just going to stand there? Go back to bed!" Father hissed.
"Is there something wrong?" My mom queried in a half-understanding, half-peeved tone.
"I...I just," I spoke out weakly.
"You just what?" Father said.
I couldn't give either one the vaccine. If it were one or the other, I would give it to my mother, but I just couldn't. There was no reason as to why I wanted to abstain, but I made a decision against my human will to break the rules. I withdrew my empty hand from my pocket, took a few steps towards the door. "I love you both, and thank you for today," was all I could get out. They gave me a blank look, sort of looked at each other. They already thought I was a basket case, so no harm done probably.
"....we love you too," my mother said, putting her arm across my father's chest in a restraining fashion. "Goodnight." I exited, closed the door behind me, not uttering a word back. 'Thank you for today.' And I would thank the rest of humanity for the day after for their sacrifice.
One minute or so remaining, I returned to my room and jumped out the two story window onto the roof. Much to my surprise, I did not land on the shingles; suspended in mid-air, I realized that the agent had already kicked in. I brought up my HUD to view my physical condition, and sure enough, it had been activated. I hovered but ten feet from my bedroom window, feeling free and untethered. Though the experience was dull for most of me, the 28.9% of me that was human was in pure ecstasy.
"Ready?" The trooper was hovering behind me, wings outstretched and flapping gracefully in long, relaxed strokes against the cool breeze flowing in the dark of night.
"Where's the ship?" I questioned eagerly.
He grinned eagerly. "What's a ship when you can fly? Come on, we're going to have fun," he spat back at me. The prospect of 'fun' before the apocalypse stirred up both a feeling of utter deviousness and despondent guilt. Oh screw it, I'm a machine, not a saint. He batted his wings fiercely, and took off like a dart towards the moon. "You coming?"
I shook off the surprise and followed him. My flying skills were surprisingly well-developed, despite my lack of experience, making catching up to the trooper easy. For about thirty seconds, we were silent. I broke the ice with a question. "What's your name?"
His wings went vertical, stopping his flight while he hovered. I had to reverse my course to get back to where he had stopped. In a most formal salute of raising the middle digit, pinky, and thumb to his brow and retracting the gesture instantly, he introduced himself. "Second-Class Military Reconnaissance Officer: Sa'ta'evna, handle, Molfreya at your service, sir."
"There's no need for formalities, officer. I choose to stay out of the business of the Federation. The only reason I did this job was for two reasons. One, I was programmed to do it, and two, I love the universe and would hate to see a species such as the human destroy it just like they almost destroyed this planet." I took off at a slow pace.
Molfreya followed close by me. "Aren't you the least bit upset by these happenings, if it's not too bold to say sir?"
"That is too bold, officer."
"My apologies, sir. Sir, do you plan on staging an attack on the humans as it was planned?"
My eyes widened as my brow shifted. "An attack? A full frontal assault? I thought this war was to be waged with pathogens, not weapons."
He waved off the suggestion with a hearty laugh. "Hardly a full assault sir. The man whom you received a message from, he requests that you follow through with a coup against the humans before the real warfare begins."
"May I ask as to the occasion why?"
"Orders are orders, and a request is a request."
I wanted to look good in the eyes of the orator upon the recording, seeing that he is the highest in the military ranks. Though I had little interest in becoming involved in the Federation's military pursuits, I wanted their favor. To look like a half-bred fuck-off in the eyes of the military means one thing: treachery. Treachery on both sides means exile, and I couldn't very well hide on a planet covered by my enemy. One thing was made very clear to me: there are no humans in this world that I love, and six billion others that deserve to die. I consented to issuing the assault. "Where are the forces?"
"What forces? We're doing this ourselves, just you an' me."
My brow shifted again, pointing out the foolishness of the endeavor. "We don't have any weapons, so how the hell are we supposed to launch an assault?"
"We have weapons, you especially. I am equipped with ten twenty-kiloton meson bombs, along with all the abilities that are integrated into you."
"What abilities? I can fly and that's it."
"Wrong, you wield the agent's abilities, that is, control over force. Try focusing your power into a....ball or something in front of you. Concentrate."
"You've got to be crazy. You think this is DBZ or something?"
"Just trust me," he said in a rushed tone, probably due to my confusing integration of human culture into his brain uninfluenced by the strange dreams and wishes of humans. "Or are you questioning your alliance with the Federation?"
I proceeded to sigh heavily, smirking at the trooper and admitting defeat. "You win, fine, I'll do it." I shut my eyes and released the forces flowing through my body, forming it into a ball in front of me, just as Molfreya detailed. My muscles tingled, my mind relaxed, and my eyes looked around aimlessly inside my eyelid. Spreading my arms, I kicked things up a notch. I could feel a field of wind, a cyclone enveloping me. It was like the power of the gods was in my hands, a hammer that could bring down anything.
"Holy shit! You're--holy shit...." Molfreya then became speechless for a while.
The increment by which I increased my power with every passing second grew exponentially. I felt something I had never felt before: invincibility. I was not a mortal, but a god, capable of leveling a city with a snap of a finger. The mass of energy I was forming was nearly complete. There.....now it is ready.
I opened my eyes to see a glowing entity of blue light that half made me bowl over in surprise. I lost my flight and plummeted towards the ground, catching myself but twenty feet or so from the bottom. I ascended back up to Molfreya, him laughing like a hyena at my faux. "Ohhh, that was very good! You're the best by far! And you almost had it too! Amazing, truly remarkable. Try it again, but this time find a target."
My hands felt hot, burning, searing, but the pain was worth the price of power. Those who mocked me, any human, would pay dearly, and those who resisted would fall to my awesome power and utter invincibility. I was ready to kick ass.