Advent, Chapter 3-Meeting
Chapter 3: Meeting
JULY 5, 2004, 4:36 AM
I grew tired as our ascent took us from one side of the planet to the other. Still, I could not tell which land, foreign or otherwise, that we flew over, for there was only cloud and darkness that lay below us. However, in the sky above us, there lay the stars that glistened like the drops of dew, scattered across an infinite sphere of emptiness. I did not believe in astronomy being able to foresee events, but I'm sure that if it were not for my doubt, they would surely tell me something. The hour of change was at end. At one end was humanity, at the other, the saurians. In the center, the fulcrum of this deadly lever, was I, a being not belonging to either, yet destined to betray one friend and help another. With one betrayal, comes a favor to another; such is the fulcrum's purpose.
"How much longer is this going to take?" I asked Molfreya as I caught up to him.
"It should be no more than five minutes, now that you happen to bring it up," he replied.
Five more minutes, and I would meet my "Father." The voice that made the recording seemed to belong to a big, surly and brash person, or at least that was my interpretation, if one can truly judge another by their voice to determine their stature. By the words that Molfreya used, it made me sound more like an experiment than an actual child in his eyes, like a scientist might treat a specimen. Whenever any word entailing "Dad" brought forth close memories of the human father I had. I never really liked him that much, though he certainly was very proud of me. Besides, he didn't know the real me, he just knew my human interface program. Deep down, he was just a tool that I used to get what I needed in the first phase of my life, my mother the same.
My eyes began to close, my head began to nod. I checked my energy levels, and was rather shocked that they were dwindling well below what I had expected; only twenty-thousand units left and descending at a rate of 4,923 u/min. We had to make this quick, or else I would have to switch back to humanoid from organoid, and plummet to the ground like a dead pigeon. I kicked it into high gear, leaving a pale-blue contrail behind me. Molfreya, a bit surprised I presumed, caught up with me in time, but not before I laid eyes upon that beautiful flying fortress in the sky.
The sun reflected a yellowish-orange hue from the polished exterior of the behemoth structure, causing me to shield my eyes at the sight of it. I saw, upon closer observation, a plethora of trees, plants as well as fauna of every kind in enormous gardens encased in the smoothest of glass that jutted out from the golden-metal surface. But I felt not only a sense of admiration radiating from this wonder, but a faint signature of heat. Yes, it was definitely several degrees warmer when I came close to it, which gave me a distinct feeling that this place was indeed paradise.
For now, however, more pressing matters were at hand, as I was steadily losing energy and had yet to find a door that would lead me in. Molfreya finally came up from behind me and signaled to follow him. About three-thousand feet around the structure, a section of the ship became a door, where three large sections retracted into the wall, revealing a lighted interior. Upon following Molfreya in, I hurriedly switched back to humanoid OS mode before my mechanical systems crashed. Much too relieved to be paying attention though, for a being of the most beautiful colors one has ever seen stood before me. Bright red, dark blue, spiraling lines of gold that reached across the snout and down the legs. Shrouding the areas of his body which I could not see was a long, singular garment, mostly red and orange, that was parted at the shoulders where it was draped over him. As it ran downwards, the two parts came together to make a robe about a foot and a half above his groin area. Overall, he looked like an ancient Mayan king, one which would hardly belong on the most advanced piece of technology built by an super-terrestrial race.
Four guards were in his company, or assistants, attendants; something of that sort. Each had a rifle-like device attached to their back, a long sword in a hilt on either side of their hip, and armor that glinted in the dawning sun. Though intimidating, I was intrigued by the mere sight of it; I had to restrain myself from going forward and asking questions of them, or inspecting their armor perhaps. I had nearly forgotten about the decorated one in the middle, when he spoke up as I neared his proximity.
"As I take it, you are number 54?" He inquired.
"Indeed I am," I replied.
Stepping forward, with his reversed ankles placing each step carefully and slowly upon the ground as if he walked on eggshells, he inspected me. I stood stoic, as the saurian made a pass by my left side, looking me up and down. As he made a movement to touch me, I flinched slightly. Withdrawing his finger, he chuckled in his resonant tone of voice. He came up on my left, and as he stood in front of me once again.
"The Federation surely has outdone themselves this time. I had not expected you to be in such excellent working order," he said. Standing up, and being more formal, he continued, "Did you by chance travel here by flight of your own making?"
"Yes, Molfreya and I made a four-hour flight to get here," I said, trying not to brag.
"Is this true, Molfreya?" The decorated one asked.
"Yes. This one has some potential m'lord, a real flyer this one is." Molfreya responded.
"Indeed. And here I was expecting your arrival to be by aircraft," said the decorated one.
"I wanted to make sure that he was really the one, the real thing. You know as well as I do m'lord that no human could sustain that kind of stress for more than ten minutes. With this outcome, I'm very much convinced that he is of saurian making." Molfreya said.
"Yes, well on to more important things," said the decorated one. He waved off Molfreya to parts unknown, while the guards scattered, convinced that I was the "real deal" or whatever they called me around here. We began walking further into the interior of the ship. It looked like a docking bay, with craft scattered about in stalls here and there. Vapid, vicious looking aircraft were these, some of which might have been from some cutting-edge sci-fi series. "First thing's first. Your human name is unacceptable in this atmosphere. Tomorrow night, we will hold a feast in your honor, as we are forever indebted to you, and among one of the activities to be performed is your naming. I know not whether you have a name in mind, but be wary that you shall have only one, so make it count! My son ended up with the name Rebne'kar. Do you know what that means in saurian? It means Sandy Boot!!! What the hell was the priest thinking? Sandy Boot??? Well, worse comes to worse; I lost him to a mining incident on an asteroid about eight cycles back; that's about six earth years."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Was he your only son?"
"Oh no, I have two more, one of which was the one that brought you here."
"Molfreya?" I looked down, stuck out my lower lip in thought. "Interesting." We walked silent for a few seconds, until I asked the decorated one what that name meant in saurian.
"Molfreya, hmm. If I'm correct, that translates to New Child. I was away on assignment while he was born, and I would have done anything to see him hatch. I missed the naming ceremony as well. I believe it was my mate who gave him that name, though I do not know why she would give such a kind-hearted being as him such a and, well, brittle name. Oh! Speaking of names, I had almost forgot to introduce myself in all the excitement! My name is Ecanius, the commander of this ship, and second in command to the executive of this operation, Commandant S'Thkra."
"What does--,"
"What does my name mean? It translates to Zenith."
"Ah, and what about, um, S'Thk--,"
"Sa-tree-ka, I know a strange name, but it translates, oddly enough to Horseman. Now who would go and name their son Horseman? Such a strange name..."