Skies Over Tomorrow: Constellation (6 page)

I fell for what seemed like minutes. My blood cooled and dried as I dropped against the air. The Cheney building, the backdrop of Sapphire, and the night sky over the landscape of Mars meshed one into the other. It was happening, yet I had no control. I believed it was my body's way of preserving its existence, and I began to teleport. To where, I did not know. I reached out in front of me, and the molecules of my fingertips became irregular. The sizzling distortions rippled along my body as it curled into itself. With the last billow, as my back stiffened and my arms folded across my chest, came the climatic separation of my atoms, dispersing in a sudden puff. I strewed away like the seedlings of a dandelion on the summer winds of Earth.

My eyelids pulled open as if driven by hydraulics. Blinking a couple of times to clear my vision, I found myself squinting up at a fluorescent light. I took in a deep breath and felt electrodes pull against my skin, as my eyes continued to adjust. I hurt, and I felt naked and wet. There was a fragrant odor in the air. It really hurt to breathe. The room was dark, and monitoring devices stood about me like multi-eyed creatures, pulsing and beating with excitement at my every heartbeat and neural output. Lifting my head, I saw that I was nude. A gauze pad dressed the wound above my left breast. It was then I could smell myself; I had been scented from a bath. I sat up straight on the medical bed, feeling the injury through the bandage for a few seconds. I was exhausted, and needed clothes. Those electrodes that failed to pull away from me after sitting up, I peeled off. How did I come to be in this cold room?

“I see you're awake,” he said, as the main lights flickered on.

I felt as sick as the muted greenish-gray walls that surrounded me, as I looked to the room's entrance. A bit startled, I did not believe it was him. His eyes hazed over, his stare intense, the wicked grin on his face disturbed me.

“How do you feel?” he said, as he moved to turn off a couple of the monitors.

“Fine, but I'm surprised. I never imagined that I would meet you, Gailen.”

“With your abilities, meeting me sooner was not impossible,” he said. “On your many visits to Earth, we could have made acquaintances any number of times—if you had really wanted to. You knew I was here.”

I looked away. Even though what he said was true, I was not interested in meeting him.

“One of your kind takes refuge on this comatose world, and you're not interested in visiting him? That's somewhat selfish of you, Naomi.”

In disbelief, I looked back to him with wide eyes. “You're a telepath?”

“Yes,” he said. “You are unable to probe minds?”

“That's right.”

“Don't worry. I don't violate people purposely, or as a show of my superiority. However, remember there is nothing you can hide from me.”

“It doesn't matter. I am forthright.”

He smiled and said, “Honesty cleanses the soul.”

“Yeah, and clothes keep the body warm.”

“Yes, of course,” he said, as he turned about and walked away. I slid down off the bed onto my feet, as he then said, “I took the liberty of having your garb washed and mended.”

I watched him squat before a cabinet. “I'm sure you take the liberty to do whatever you feel.”

“That's very true,” he said.

“How did I end up here?”

“I summoned you, so to speak.” He stood and, turning about to face me, said, “Subconsciously, of course.”

“What do you mean?” I took a couple steps to him to retrieve my attire; he met me with the clothes draped over his forearms.

“I will explain, but first let me ask you what your other endowments are—other than teleportation.”

“Telekinesis.” I took hold of my green polka-dotted panties.

“I, too, am telekinetic.”

“What?” I said, easing into the underwear and pulling it up, letting the waistband snap against my lower abdomen. “No class B has that combination of ESP.”

Gailen glared at me. “You must purge that term from your vocabulary,” he said. “It's degrading to who we are as individuals and what we are as a people.”

“Yes, you're right. Forgive me.”

Sensing my apology was sincere, he dismissed ever being insulted by my own ignorance toward those of our kind, and the riled expression on his face melted away. I then took the matching brassiere and maneuvered my arms through it, painstakingly so as not to aggravate the tender muscles of my chest. After pulling it over my head and down over my breasts, I adjusted it for comfort, and said, “I don't understand how you summoned me.”

“I am of the first generation of Neo sapiens, and perhaps the only one created with telepathy,” he said as he started to walk around me. “Those who made us saw my ability to know things hidden by the mind as a mistake. I see it as a blessing.”

“Of course.” I felt his stare probing, not my clad body, but my head. Often the stare penetrated my eyes to touch my soul, though I did not shy away from the intrusion. He was one of my kind. I reached for my leggings, as he passed in front of me.

“You are special, too,” he said. “Unique because you can teleport. I see that you are genetically related to Carmichael. Interesting. You were to be more than a slave. Still, I'm curious as to what his reaction was when he learned you had the power to escape, or to help others to freedom for that matter.”

“I am in no way related to him.”

“Yes, yes, but you can't deny that you are indeed special,” he said. “You can go anywhere at your heart's content and do as you wish when you want. You are what it is to be free.”

“I have seen beautiful places here on Earth.”

“Treasures yet unseen by my eyes.”

“Perhaps I can show you sometime.”

“Thank you for the kind gesture.”

“So, what's your plan?” I then said, as I slipped one leg, and then the other into the black, tight knit material and pulled it up to my navel. Quiet, he passed in front of me a fourth time. I grabbed the black cotton turtleneck and inspected it. “I may not be a telepath, but you are up to something.”

“Not just something, but freedom from the Federation—for Earth, myself, and for you.”

I pulled my head through the shirt and said, “We are free.”

“No, not since the United Nations of Earth granted the Federation territory.”

“What?” I pushed my right arm through one sleeve of the shirt with ease.

“You didn't know about the Federation outpost constructed a year ago?”

“No, I didn't.” The left arm required that the other sleeve be slid over it with slow movements.

“Well, it's not far from here. More of a small metropolis though, but the early sign of a cancer that will eventually grow to consume this planet.”

“You plan to stop them?”

“Yes, I do.”

“And you want me to join you?”

“Yes,” he said. The hypnotic look on his face did not reflect the emphatic tone of his voice.

“I can't. Earth is not my concern and you still haven't explained how I came to be here.” I then tucked the hem of the shirt under the snug waistband of the leggings.

“The places that you have visited here on Earth, the life-giving lands that touched your soul had once covered every square kilometer of this planet. Heaven existed so long ago, but God grew weary of the old humans as they opened the gates of Heaven to Hell.”

His voice dazed me as he continued to circle around me.

“Over the centuries, according to the Ancient Text, the Sire of Evil, born from the old humans, fooled and led them on the path to self-annihilation. The Ancient Text points out that even to this day, they continue on this path.”

“What is this Ancient Text?”

“The sacrilegious book that tells of The Creation of Earth and of old humans. It tells of the First Coming of God's Son to this world, and it foretells the end of Hell on Earth and the rebirth of Heaven and humanity.” He paused.

“What does this—”

“If you were God and you sacrificed the life of your Son for the sake of humanity—as you know it today—would you give humans a second chance to get right by you, and live in harmony amongst themselves and the planet?”

“No, of course not.”

“That's what the Ancient Text tells us. The old humans failed to acknowledge their God as Savior, the Supreme Being that gave them life and would give them life even after death.”

“What does that have to do with freedom from the Federation?”

“Since coming to Earth, I have realized the rebirth of Heaven,” he said. “With this realization, I've come to believe that the true purpose of our existence, as Neo sapiens, is to protect Earth and guard against those who will prevent Heaven's revival.”

“What can I do? What can we do?” I took the last article of clothing. “How will we protect Earth?”

“You will know all in time, but first you must decide to join with me.”

“No.” I tossed the cloak over my shoulders, wrapping it around me, and then said, “This is not my destiny.”

“You feel some greater calling?”

“I don't know, but what I do sense from you is not right, no matter how noble your intentions.”

“I see,” he said.

“I can't take your side, so you deal with the Federation however you please. I'll deal with them my way.”

“Your way nearly killed you.”

“I'm alive though.”

“Thanks to me,” he said.

I fell quiet with a frown. My head started to hurt.

“Do you know what it is like to feel the minds of the 2.8 billion people who survived the death of this world?”

My curiosity peeked.

“To know the lives of so many people? The wealth of emotions?”

“What are you saying?”

“I know when a person is born,” he said, “and when that person dies. It does not matter where they are on this world.”

“You knew the times I was here on Earth.”

“Yes, and only because your life force does not stem from the collective of souls of this planet. You see this collective of souls, as I call it, is from where the individual life force is born. It is where the spirit returns after death.”

I was quiet.

“Tragedy fell upon this planet a long time ago, when old humans believed they were the masters of their fate, as they still do. It was merely an illusion created in their minds by the Sire of Evil. Since then, the order of nature has been off balance. What you see now was to be God's Kingdom. Earth was to be Heaven,” he said, “but as old humans evolved, this world decayed and became Hell. However, as you have seen with your own eyes, and felt with your soul, Heaven still pulsates with life, readying for the life force of the planet to give it birth. You see, the order of nature is a reciprocal relationship between Earth and everything it sustains—rocks, birds, trees, everything including the old humans. The collective of souls gives Earth life, as Earth supports the individual life force. One cannot exist without the other.”

“What does that have to do with God and the Ancient Text?”

“The collective of souls is the means by which God saves the individual soul itself. To acknowledge Him here on Earth while existing in the flesh and blood, one's life force is assured a way back into the collective.”

“Back into?”

“When life is born, it comes from the collective, and when that life perishes from this physical state, it returns from where it came. The cycle just repeats itself over and over. One is forever going from darkness to light, light to darkness, and on and on until the heart of the spirit is pure, allowing the soul to ascend and be closer to God.”

“Is this some belief in reincarnation?”

“No, it is the eternal life, as promised by the Ancient Text.”

“And what happens to the individual life force if one rejects God?”

“It becomes weak and lost, or sometimes trapped forever on this planet to be a slave to the Sire of Evil. Man had no idea of what Evil was really about, as the number of souls trapped on this planet multiplied and diminished the collective, and by then, it was too late. When the planet died and Evil reigned, man abandoned it.”

“Yeah, I suppose they did.”

“Now, I feel the cycle of life happening when I am awake, and see it when I sleep. So when you visited Earth, well, let's just say your life force was irregular. On one occasion during your visit, I tapped into your subconsciousness. It was the only way to follow you as you traveled the universe. In time I became attuned to your spiritual being, and when I felt it weaken, I took control of your mind and guided you here. I wanted to help you.”

I was speechless to know firsthand how powerful he truly was—much more than what could have been imagined.

“Yes, I am indeed powerful,” he said, “but you also have great power. Unimaginable power. If we unite, we can protect Earth from the Federation.” He revolved around me in silence for a moment.

“No,” I said. “No, I cannot. The kind of power we possess can and will consume and corrupt us. We will lose sight of what is to be human.”

“God will not lead us astray.”

“Of course not.”

He frowned at me.

“You've disappointed me as well, Gailen.”

“We're of the same kind.”

“Then stop your psychobabble mind tricks, and get out of my head.”

It was at that moment I felt as if I had surfaced from the depths of the ocean, escaping its crushing pressure.

“I saved your life,” he then said.

“As God would want you to, I would think.”

The room was quiet as we stared at each other.

“Listen, Gailen, I made a mistake to go after Carmichael.”

“It was brave of you.”

“Still, I reduced myself to their level, and for what? Petty vengeance.”

“The Ancient Text tells of an eye for an eye.”