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Authors: A. Bernette
CHOSEN: A Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel
CHOSEN
A
Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel
Book One
of
the Chosen Series
By
A. BERNETTE
CHOSEN by A. Bernette
Paperback: ISBN-13:
978-0692743607, ISBN-10: 069274360X
Amazon.com: ASIN -
B01H7TAQXW
Copyright © 2016 A.
Bernette
Published by Wonder Works Services, LLC Atlanta, GA
All rights reserved
by A. Bernette
Twitter
@AuthorBernette
www.Facebook.com/AuthorBernette
Amazon.com/Author/Bernette
www.Bernette.net
I would like to acknowledge my mother
who has always been my cheerleader. I would like to thank my husband for his
confidence, support, and beta reading through this process.
A special thanks to C.E. and K.C.
I would like to acknowledge and thank
every person who has read my works and who will read them.
Thank you to those of you who
supported me as beta readers and error finders.
I would also like to give a special
thanks to the editor who swept in like an angel and helped give this book wings
– M
Common Terms Used in Series
ARC:
Antarctic Research Center
EAT:
Eastern Allegiance Time
Lubles:
Form of currency
SEP
Agents/Officers:
Security, Enforcement, and Protection Agents or Officers
PDU:
Personal Disposal Units
ROC Room:
Research, Observation, and Control Room
RePM or RePM Division:
Relocation and Population Management Division
Southern
Allegiance:
South America
Northern
Allegiance:
North America
Northern
Liberty:
Europe
Southern
Liberty:
Africa
Eastern Way:
Asia and India
New South
City:
Atlanta, Georgia
Crossroads
Location: Unnamed
Time: Unmeasured
“WE ARE AT a crossroads. If something drastic doesn’t happen
and happen soon, we will not be able to continue,” Kean said moving slowly
across the space in front of Yin, San, and Cho.
“What we need to win this battle has yet to
be retrieved and the Chosen don’t seem completely up to the task. Everything is
happening to ensure that things are right when we finally get there. If they
don’t get to the end, all we have done up until now is a waste,” he warned his
three Earth Council members.
They were absent sensation in the empty
space of nothingness. No heat, no cold, and no discomfort. It simply was,
without justification or explanation. There was no depth or parameters by which
to perceive any measure of space or time. This is where they existed, in their
refuge from what was once their home, but was no more.
If they wanted to have a life outside of the
void, it would have to be Earth or they would be forced to wait, possibly
thousands of years longer. Yin, San, and Cho sat uncomfortably in this void,
under the studious gaze of Master Councilman Kean who was scrupulously estimating
every possibility.
Kean had been selected to oversee the
midlife projects including those on planet XM-471, also known as Earth. Before
they’d come into the space that has no name he already knew what they would
communicate to him and he’d forbidden them to speak it into the vibratory force.
His almond shaped amber eyes with golden
flecks reminded his team of a lion, strong and fierce when needed. Dark grey
hair crowned his head where much darker hair had finally given way, but he
still had the vigor of his youth. He considered each member of his team one by
one, gathering their thoughts as if picking them out of a muddled soup.
Their thoughts, ideas, and solutions on the
problem they faced were all jumbled, floating about in one large kettle set on
high heat. It was the problem they’d been trying to solve since they had
initially been sent to XM-471.
That was before the humans even began truly
measuring time themselves or even had the concept of it. It was when Kean and
his kind had lost something critical to remaining viable on planet XM-471. He
now second guessed the Council’s decision to do the program as they had done
it.
Success required such a specific combination
available only from their people, the humans, and something that had only been
possible in the last human generation. But that was a decision already made,
and now the four of them, along with the rest of their surviving people, had to
live with it.
“I am unimpressed with the prognosis, with
what has happened to date, and even with the prospects for the plan as it
stands. Time and again I’ve seen the senseless slaughter of innocents. The
metallic taste of blood is still etched in my memory from where it seeped into
grassy battlefields, forever staining the land like a curse. I have watched the
burning carcasses tied on stakes. Those charred bodies that once contained the
screams that wracked their dying bodies,” Kean shook his head, but the memories
never left. What he’d seen was unforgettable and it was the reason he was
nearly out of hope for XM-471.
But he continued, for the benefit of those
looking to him to lead them to their final home and for the three before him
who hadn’t been involved in the mission as long as he had. “I’ve heard the
sound of body clapping against body as they rolled down dirt embankments into
shallow, unmarked, mass graves. We all know too well how the scent of rotting
flesh could fill the air for miles.” He let the image hang on the emptiness of
the space, allowing their silence fill the void.
If he let himself think about it he could
still smell the scent of death around him. He’d witnessed the sorrow and
mourning of those left behind, searching for a token or a memento among the
dead and decaying bodies before covering them or burning them. In those moments
he’d wept with them.
Kean spoke again, this time without the
drama of reminding them of the wretchedness he’d seen in humanity.
“They’ve had chances to change, chances to
prove they could be good stewards of the planet and nurture it, together. But
over and over I’ve had to conclude that this species is too immature and
stubborn. It could be many more millennia before they will be mature enough to
participate as an ally or hold a place as a member of the Master Council of the
Unseens,” Kean said with a shake of his head.
“They are making progress – at least now,”
Cho spoke up hesitantly.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have millennia. We
cannot continue living in the void, borrowing temporary homes of our allies as
our population dwindles to nothing. Now - it has to be now,” Kean said before
his thoughts passed beyond that moment.
Looking in on XM-471 now, with its beautiful
greens and blues, it floated like a beautiful giant ball - brilliant and bright.
It once held so much promise. He wished he was wrong but he was sure he had
been right in his assessment. They needed the current plan to be successful.
Otherwise, if the human species was successful in making their home planet
uninhabitable, the subject XM-471 would be no more.
Earth, as it was called, would be classified
as no longer viable as a possible home until the planet healed and allowed new
life to begin again. Until then, it would be among the ranks of the other young
fading stars that were stuck in an endless rotation, waiting to sustain life.
Kean reflected on his rocky tenure and the
number of other young systems he’d studied and tried valiantly to guide, only
to see them lay waste to themselves. None had made it even as far as Earth.
When Earth made a major shift towards
industrialization nearly two hundred fifty years before, Yin had been assigned
to the Earth Council. She was the youngest and newest member of the Council.
She still held onto the hope that the Chosen eight and their Keepers, a group
they’d been designing and cultivating for generations, could find success where
others had failed. Yin believed that with the eight and the aid of the Loyalists,
Earth could be saved from itself.
Yin looked out the side of her eye at her fellow
Council members, San and Cho. They were all reluctant to look directly into the
golden eyes of Master Councilman Kean. They could feel his disappointment crawl
along their nearly non-existent skin and then slip through underneath, where it
would linger.
Failure would be devastating, leaving them
and their fellow beings caught in the void while a search continued for a new
home. They were the last chance for Earth, the final Council group that would
be assigned to the planet. If they could not save Earth, the planet would be
abandoned as unsalvageable and the allies would move on.
Serum
University of Southern Allegiance in Santoria, Southern
Allegiance
Year 2149
DR. CLAUDIA LIMA prepared the last dose for the final pair of
the Chosen. Within the month she would head to Antarctica to administer the
specially formulated serum during the thirty-ninth week of pregnancy, as she’d
done for the others. It had taken her nearly twenty years of research to come
up with a combination that met the Council’s requirements after the failed
initial experiment.
The Chosen had to have the vibrational energy
of the continents infused into their DNA along with the proper levels of
testosterone to accompany the initially approved serum, that she’d adapted
later for their needs.
At the time, the request had sent her
reeling, at a loss for how to do what was asked. However, as years passed and
she progressed in her research she’d found the solution, as she had eventually
done with the unique use of quartz. The Council had given her the idea but she
still had to make it a reality.
Years of research and trial and error had
led her to identify a key crystal that naturally formed on each continent.
She’d broken them down to their chemical elements and integrated them into the
serum. The children would forever hold the vibration of their birth continent
and together, the vibrations of the earth.
It was a breakthrough that had taken longer
than the Council had hoped but the solution came quickly once the science and
technology became available. Despite having found the answer, the work and
administration of the serum hadn’t been without its setbacks. Dr. Lima was
concerned with the shortcomings in the current program.
Ren had been the first, and after his
injection and reaction, she’d been forced to revisit the delicate balance of
all the chemicals and crystals used. He didn’t have the benefit of the quartz
crystal in his serum like the others. Alexis was her second charge and she’d
only added a small amount of the quartz and green chrysoprase.
Looking back she probably could have added
more but she didn’t want to have a repeat of the violent reaction experienced
during Ren’s birth. Not even Kim knew how close she’d come to dying during the
seizure she’d had after he was born.
She’d given one last push and the serum that
flowed through both of them caused the seizure that rendered her unconscious
and unresponsive while Ren fought more than any newborn should have to. When
Kim woke a few minutes later, Ren was still crying but she had no memory of
anything after the last push. She took him to nurse, never knowing how close
she’d come to death.
Marco’s had been uneventful and his mother
had agreed to it for health purposes. She’d served during the wave of the flu
that was going around at the time and saw the lives it claimed. If a shot
during pregnancy could protect her son, she would do it. Dr. Lima smiled at the
memory of Teresa before her thoughts turned to the one mother who hadn’t made
it. She quickly pushed that memory aside. The child had survived and was still
thriving, healthier than most who came through the line of Descendants.
There were still the last two children and
she needed to remain focused on the present. She shook her head and filled the
vials with serum, placing them delicately into her small silver box lined with
soft thick foam. She placed the box inside of a black portfolio size briefcase,
which she then placed into her medical bag.
She’d done what the Council had asked and as
she was committed to do as a Loyalist. They all had to do their part for the
mission to be a success. She’d given her entire career to designing the formula
and identifying the parents who would bear the children chosen to heal the
world of its corruption and abuse. After this, she would be nearly done and
could perhaps find more time for her real job at the university.
Her private lab was funded by an unnamed
group of other Loyalists and held the serums administered to the prior six
infants. The first ones were already toddlers. After the twins were born, her
last job connected to the administration would be to clear the data from the
systems so the children could not be found or identified later. As she wrote
her daily report, she let herself play with the idea of being done with this
phase of her life.
The research she’d begun as a doctoral
student of twenty-five had taken her to nearly forty-five years old and brought
her in contact with amazing people, including the three Keepers under her
guidance. Sometimes, she thought it funny that she’d been chosen to be their
guide even though she wasn’t that much older than any of them.
She considered her daydream of being done
despite knowing the Council wanted more from her after this. She was still only
in her forties. She still had plenty of time to live.