A New Divide (Science Fiction) (3 page)

              "What is—"

              "Your desire to live showed me something significant—now you have captured my attention. That will to live of yours brought us to this intervention. This revelation must be quite a feeling, my friend."

              I stared blankly at the man, unable to see his face. The light reflecting off his golden shoulder arcs was blinding me. My world began to, slowly, come back to focus.

              "I am not your friend, asshole," I replied as I tried to move my limp body.

              "But you are, Collin. When this war expands across this solar system, I will be the only person who can help you."

              "War is dead! It has been dead for centuries!"

              "My history beckoned me to bring it back to life. War is the only way humanity will understand my resolve."

              "Why? Why us? What have we ever done to you?" My face became blood red as I trembled in not fear, but anger. He saw this and all he could do was smile, as he leaned towards me and extended his hand.

              "To be great you have to be willing to be misunderstood. People fear what they do not understand, Collin, and when they find out
what
you are, they will fear you as they do me. You and I are of like kind. So take my hand, and I will show you what desire can accomplish."

              I was so confused at
that moment
as he had so eloquently put it. I tried to speak but he was right. I had nothing but questions. How did we survive the impact of that missile? Who was this arrogant prick speaking to me? And just what the hell was that light that blinded me before I blacked out?

              "Collin! Collin, don't listen to him! He is a master manipulator!
Arcoh
! Listen to me! You have won, you have destroyed everything! Please show mercy—"

              "Mick!" A soldier then jammed the butt of his rifle into the back of Mickey's head. He had been conscious the entire time just waiting for me to wake up and smell the ashes of our world. Mickey fell to the ground, and the man in the flashy suit signaled his subordinate to bring him over to us. Even as
Rayden One
collided with the ground off in the distance, the minute I heard that name, my attention was devoted to him.

              "You . . . you are
Arcoh the Eminent
?" I stammered.

              "Your friend, this Mick, is wrong. This was never about winning. This was about never finishing a conflict. This was, and will always be about creation.
The Great Crusade
is only the beginning of things to come."

              "Collin—" Mickey coughed up blood upon the fire-stained ground and caught eyes with me.

              "Mick, what is going on?"

              "You don't remember?"

              "The only thing I remember is winning the Olympic cup, Rayden One under attack, and that light, that blinding light."

              "They broke the peace, Collin. They are here for one reason: to kill every last one of us." Mickey shot a look of disgust over to Arcoh as he once again spat upon the ground.

              "But what should I expect from a man who slept for over a thousand years before he arrived here? Arcoh! You are a man living one thousand years in the past! This future you want, maybe it could have existed on Mother Earth, but not here, not in this system. Everyone in
Eden
will devour you!"

              "How dare you speak to His Grace in such a manner!"

              "Ivan, holster that sidearm and calm down. I would like to offer Mr. King the burden of choice."

              Ivan jabbed his foot into Mickey's leg and he dropped to his knees. Mickey groaned in agony as Ivan drew his sidearm, pressing the cold barrel against the back of Mickey's head.

              "When I get my hands on you I will—"

              "Enough! I offer you one chance to spare your friend's life." Arcoh had this kind of gesture he performed when he was feeling anxious. He would massage his ring finger of his left hand with the thumb and middle finger of his right hand, and he would grin maniacally as he did it. From that moment on, he created flames of hatred that would burn forever in my heart.

              "We orbit around a primary world on this moon. The remainder of your people have fled to the hostile surface of the planet your race holds so dear,
Rayden
. I know that you know where they are licking their wounds."

              "You expect me to give up my own people? You really are as stupid as you look." When I said this, Ivan responded by pulling the hammer back on his sidearm, and pushing Mickey's face to the ground.

              "MICKEY!"

              "Look at me, Collin! LOOK AT ME! He will kill him! Tell me where they are! Now choose! CHOOSE! Me or them! ME? OR THEM?" I looked over to Mickey, and I trembled in fear as Arcoh pounded his chest demanding an answer from me.

              "Collin?" Mickey inquired.

              "I can't, Mickey. I just can't."

              "I know, Collin, I know. It's okay, it's okay, my friend."

              "I CHOOSE THEM!"

              Arcoh walked up to Mickey and waved Ivan aside. Mickey struggled to talk as Arcoh drew his diamond-tipped sword to my best friend's throat.

              "Never give up hope, it is all you have now, brother."

              Before I even had a chance to say goodbye the blade tore his skin, and his blood sprayed across my face. I closed my eyes. I couldn't look, I felt so weak, so helpless, scared, and angry. Arcoh then walked up to me as he whipped his sword, freeing the diamond-edged blade of the blood belonging to my best friend.

              "The freedom of choice comes with great consequence, Mr. King."

              "Just do it. I want all to end."

              But he just smiled, and even began to laugh, as he holstered his sword and bent down to me.

              "Why have you done this? You have taken everything! I have nothing left to live for!"

              "You know nothing of life, Collin! You have everything to live for. It is only when a man loses everything below him that he can find the courage to discover all that can lie above him."

              "You're not going to kill me?"

              Ivan then lifted me to my feet, and I stared directly into Arcoh's eyes, as he spoke his twisted words of reason.

              "Kill you? How could I kill you when there is so much left for you to witness?"

              In my attempt to pounce at Arcoh I passed out from the pain. My sight faded from me when I noticed the life had already fled away from Mickey's eyes. There was something else there, in the sky above us, where
Rayden One
was situated before it fell to earth.

              It was a ship, a single massive ship that was raining down hell onto the surface below. Expelling rivers of artillery and fire, seemingly unending, it was setting our entire world aflame, not one square meter of
Minerva
would be left intact. To Arcoh and his kingdom all of it had to burn, until all that was left were ashes.

CHAPTER 3 - THE PURGE

              "How long has it been?"

              "Three weeks, Mr. King."

              "Impossible. You are a liar."

              It was the Light Therapy—meant to weaken an individual enough to begin the medicated brainwashing method used by the Kingdom of Salaras and their king's manipulative society. It's sensory torture, they break you to your template so they can re-create you in their vision.

              They sit you in a pitch-black room and flash a light at you in very unsynchronized patterns. And they do it in a way that is purposely annoying. After only one hour it had me screaming at the top of my lungs. They restrained me when I tried to tear my eyeballs out, and instead they pried my eyelids open for the remainder of my sentence.

              They gave me just enough food to keep me alive. It was so disorienting, it felt like months, so when he told me it was
only
weeks I felt another layer of hope peel away from myself.

              But that was his goal in the beginning, to destroy my hope.

"I see you've finally arrived."

              I again remained silent. I was more concerned about what was behind him. He had brought me before my childhood home, and he had set it on fire. I watched as the building that housed me for my whole life fell apart. I watched as it was swept away into the wind of a now barren wasteland.

              I watched the only thing left that mattered to me burn to rubble, and there was nothing I could do but remain silent. It is a truly profound feeling to be speechless, and it broke something inside of me.

"Collin, my boy, you are almost free of your past."

              My lip quivered as I tried to hold back the anger I had felt. Then tears began to stream down my face as I picked up a charred teddy bear under the fields of ash.

              I have never, ever,
wanted
to kill somebody until I met Arcoh the Eminent. My hate for him consumed me as we sat in that field. His eyes glimmered as he watched it with me. He loved the sight of it. Fire is passion, fire is desire, fire is will, and fire is hatred. To him it was all beautiful.

              "Why? Why have you done this to me? To us?"

              "I've already told you. The only reason I let you live is because of what you are."

              "And just what the hell am I, asshole?"

              "You are the next step in human evolution brought on by a collision with biotechnology. I just want you to know that everything I do to you, will only be to make you understand."

              "What more could you do? You have DESTROYED EVERYTHING!"

              "No, you see—like you—I am also the last king in my bloodline and when I die, my nation will die with me."

              "I will never help you."

              "But what choice will you have when I destroy all that you know? You will know nothing but me."

              I continued to stare at the ground, refusing to look into his eyes. He laughed and tried to look at my face, but I avoided him at every opportunity. I could not let him see my vulnerability; it meant my survival. "You still think there is hope for your old life?"

              "There is always hope, Arcoh. You will not beat me. I will not lose to you."

              "You don't get it, boy. I have slept for over one thousand years, and traversed an ocean of stars, to give the people of Eden what they deserve!"

              "What could you ever bring to humanity other than agony and death?"

              "Lives free from the burden of choice, and a king that will choose for them. People who believe in the lies of freedom are the most ungrateful of all." Then, I laughed. I needed to do something to snap back at him. I wanted him to understand that it would take much more to break me.

              "You can't take free will away from humanity, you stupid asshole! People believe in freedom! We will ALWAYS fight for what we believe in!"

              Arcoh chuckled and smacked me with the back of his hand, nearly breaking my jaw. "You're right, they will believe in me, I will make them understand. And all you can do is watch."

              "What are you talking about?"

              "The Great Crusade—that begins the extermination of the rejects."

              I realized at this point that there was no reasoning with him. He was far too stubborn, possessed by an idea that died with our first motherworld long ago. So I cried as I started to think of all of the events that would follow after he slaughtered my people. I cried because my hope was dim and all I could do was pray for something to happen.

              "What will it take for you to spare the people on Rayden?" I asked shattered and completely broken of hope. And when I did, he again began massaging his ring finger as he bent down and gazed into my eyes for the first time in three weeks.

              "I want you to look up, beyond the smoke."

              Above us was a glorious sight: our motherworld, Rayden. It hung high, taking up nearly half the sky, and underneath the great planet, the light of the suns was sneaking through. Their light bathed my façade. I had finally understood why he brought me here.

              "Please, Arcoh! I will do anything you ask!"

              "Damn right you will."

              I then punched the ground and pulled my knee into my chest, attempting to stand.

              "Don't fret, my boy, they would have cast you out. They will not understand you."

              "What the fuck are you talking about?"

              "Look for yourself."

              Arcoh took his sword and slit open one of the sleeves of my jumpsuit. The fabric tore away, and it revealed something that only brought me terror at first sight, and great concern.

              "What? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME? MY SKIN!" My skin was no longer the light tan color I had lived with my entire life. In fact it was every color, my skin was alive—constantly changing and morphing in geometrical patterns. My forearm still remained in form, but the skin was bleached by every color in the spectrum; it was almost like an all-enveloping tattoo made of glyphs that moved with a pattern.

              "Not me, my boy, you did this to yourself. A reaction to the genome you took three weeks ago." I thought it was fatal at first glance, I thought that my life would be coming to an end, but then suddenly I remembered the crash. I had stopped, not the missile, but the explosion—I had contained it.

              It is a truly profound feeling to be speechless.

              "I didn't purge the Raydenites to find you. You were the silver lining, the prize for all of our
effort
. The Raydenites left the Kingdom of Salaras long ago, and they had to be dealt with for their deception to the throne. During our ninety-minute war I found something remarkable—you, a boy, a lost boy, holding a genetic key to immortality."

              "This is—"

              "We are leaving now. I've had a change of heart. It's interesting how you say you would do anything for your people. They are not
your
people."

              "You'll spare them?"

              "There is no fun in hunting half-dead animals. If you take my hand we will discover everything, where you are from, who you were born of, and I will present all the opportunity that you will ever need in your life."

              No better way to recruit an enemy when you have all of the answers. I am nothing if not honest, and Arcoh had me there, he had convinced me. I never felt so lost in my entire life, everything I was told by my father and Virgil was a lie.

              "You have no idea who you are, do you, Collin?"

              I felt that my entire life was wasted on false values, everything they told me, everything I did was for nothing. All the proof I needed was imprinted on my skin, below my neck and from my waistline to the cuffs before my hands.

              So in that moment I knew I needed a guide to discover the truth of who I was.

              And as I reached for his hand, a miracle happened. Although I would have hardly called it a miracle if I could've seen beyond the smoke.

             
There are parts
of this story that go untold in my personal point of view. That being noted, this story is not mine alone to tell. These are the records of those who were beside me all along. They fought with me and even
learned
with me and their experiences were just as important as mine.

              They broadened my perspective on what had happened. I can't deny you this chance to see the picture more clearly. So I will tell you everything that happened between our different worlds. Beyond my eyes and speculating the others—and
once again
, to better
inform you
so that you
can inform yourself
.

***

TEN MINUTES EARLIER

{Rayden: Western Hemisphere}

[--]

-Outlander Citadel-

              "Fix your stance, Silas!"
Mark went to stab Silas, who ducked and fell over after nearly dodging the wooden sword.

              "Sorry, sir!"

              Mark darted towards Silas and kicked him in the face as he attempted to stand. He stumbled back, and quickly reacted by swinging his wooden sword at Mark's head.

              "Predictable," Mark said as he dodged Silas's strike and struck him with a blow that swept him off his feet. Silas slammed into the floor of the white room and Mark rushed over him. And after rubbing his back he laughed at Mark, who dropped the wooden sword above his head and helped his young protégé to his feet.

              "You are very fast, sir."

              "Old man's reflexes is all that is. You'll catch up to me one day, but fix that stance. We will work on it soon."

              "Yes, sir, thank you, sir."

              "I told you the 'sir' thing annoys me, Silas. And what's the other thing I told you? Remember?"

              "With everything you do grow smarter. How could I ever forget?"

              "That's right. You'll be a great admiral one day, Silas. I have all the faith in the world in you." Mark sat down on the floor of the white sparing room and panted, out of breath like his subordinate.

              "Sir! I mean Commander."

              "Silas, you are so cautious not to offend. I am only a man, just you as well."

              "I'll watch it, Mark."

              "There we go."

              Just then, General Casey, Zachary Wright's staff general, ran panicked and impatient into the sparing room. "There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!"

              Mark laughed as he wiped the sweat off his face with a towel. "Ha! Never thought I'd be missed so much for an hour."

              "Commander Wyman, with all due respect for you
Remorans
and your armada, we have to move now!"

              "Whoa, all right. Take it easy. Silas, on your feet."

              General Casey quickly led Commander Mark Wyman and his subordinate into the clustered hallways of the citadel. It had been only three weeks and Arcoh had exterminated over thirteen billion Raydenites. Only 10 percent of my people had survived, and all of them had fled to the citadel within the mountain for asylum.
              "General Casey, what seems to be the problem?"

              "The EMP storm has passed. An entire crusader regiment sits on the verge of the horizon just waiting for those particles to clear. We need you to act immediately! We need your weapon, we need the might of your fleet!"

              Mark did not seem offended that General Casey blatantly insulted his competence as a leader. In fact, he went further to kindly re-inform him of the situation.

              "You underestimate me, General. My people are in place, and that
weapon
has already begun to take effect on the regiment Arcoh deemed 'enough' to complete his objective here."

              Casey smiled brightly, as if completely relieved by the Good Commander's remark. "Ah, I apologize, sir. I know you didn't have to help us, but these are dire times. We just don't have the ability to fight them anymore."

              "Arcoh's old-world reason will doom us all if he is not stopped. This is not just on your people but ours, the GDR, and all of Eden as well."