Rise of Aen (20 page)

“What proof do you offer that you are the fabled Harbinger?” a voice yelled from above
him.

Aen raised his eyes and once again they fell upon the blue-haired woman. She was captivating, something in the way she looked at him made him smile inside once more. Struggling to stand, he was about to answer when the Empress did it for
him.

“My word that he is should be proof enough, but also the fact that he is here amongst us now. It was always written he would appear in a place he should never be; what place else then a Council meeting would be
better?”

Her smile was warming and reassuring, but a look in her eyes told of more alarm than her actions did. He had crossed a line, Aen knew that, but he had to be here now. There was no other way to do it. That’s when he heard her voice in his
head.

“Tell them nothing about your dreams!”
she whispered to him in his mind.
“
Most in here seek to possess you as a weapon or a trophy to wave about as a conquest. You are more than that and if you wish to fulfill your full destiny you will tell them little more than you already
have!”

Aen was confused, but he never truly understood politics on any level and actively sought to avoid it in day-to-day life. In a meeting such as this back on Earth, he would be completely out of his element. Here, well he was at the mercy of the only one who seemed to care about him at the moment so he decided to play
along.

“My mother had me reach you as soon as possible, and seeing as we have recently rediscovered her ship I thought now was as good of a time as any.” He said after long
last.

“And what of Ameia?” the creature with the piercing blue eyes piped in
immediately.

“It is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that she, and the rest of the expedition force, have passed on to the Fields of Emmaran.” He remembered the reference of the rites of the dead from his teachings. “Ameia died so that I could stand before you now, a sacrifice I will not soon forget. May the Gods hold her close as she ascends among
them!”

“You are well-versed in our customs, child.” Iana spoke again as she began to pace the floor below, never taking her eyes off him. “I assume that annoying AI managed to survive and teach you well in her
absence?”

Caretaker mumbled something barely audible in response, but his attention was turned by another alarm on the main panel. Immediately, it stopped mumbling and accessed the systems causing the alarm. After a few quiet seconds of data transmission, it spun around to look at Aen. If it could manifest a look of concern, Aen imagined this would be
it.

“They are coming!”
it exclaimed.
“The Husk have found Terra
Sol!”

—

The AI’s voice had carried over the holographic transmission and its words reverberated through the room. It had outwardly pronounced an ancient evil’s name like it was just another word, not the hushed horror that was associated with this sort of being. Just the mere mention of the Husk brought panic to an entire city; a Husk marauder en route to a planet meant certain
doom.

More machine than biological, they had made themselves into cybernetic zombies with a hive mentality. It was assumed the original race, before the mechanical augmentations, predated even the Lyarran Empire as one of the first races in the galaxy. The Husk were old indeed—known as scavengers, slavers and conquerors of worlds, they would not stop until the task at hand was complete. The Empire had fought them for an eternity to a mere stalemate, so what would that mean for a race such as the
humans?

Iana was very concerned, she had thought there would be more time. Terra Sol was not ready to face this evil yet and Aen was not ready to face his destiny yet. She had seen how the loss of his family had devastated him, but what would the wholesale slaughter and destruction of his home world do to his already tattered
soul?

She raised her hand to quieten the room and within a few seconds it did, to Aen’s amazement. The whole time, her eyes never left this—her gaze remained locked. To her, it was his eyes that captivated her. Nothing could have prepared her for the power behind those eyes and even through the holo-link she could sense the being he would soon become. Indeed he was the Harbinger, and whether or not he was willing to embrace destiny awaited him. The simple fact that he was powering an entire starship with his body was startling, to say the least. This Aen was a powerhouse of energy and might, but coupled with his shattered soul she worried about what he may truly
become.

That’s when Iana noticed that it wasn’t herself that held Aen’s attention. Following his eyes, she looked across the room to see what had him so distracted. Her heart was relieved when she saw that returning his stare was Council Lyxia. There was an energy linking the two, even though neither were in the room in person. That is what she would use to mend his broken soul—love. Not her own, as was her original intent, but the love of someone who could actually be with him in this new life of his. In her heart, she truly hoped this would make a difference in his future because heaven help them all if he took the wrong path, the Husk would be the much lesser of the possible
evils.

“You have upon you a great evil approaching, Harbinger. Terra Sol is lifetimes away from ever being able to withstand such a force. What will you do? What can we do to help?” the Empress asked, much to the chagrin of the entire Council. Rarely had she offered help like this without agreement from the Council; it was they who truly governed the Empire, and she was there to oversee and rule even though she had the right to overrule any decision they
made.

“It is not your place to offer help to this rim world.” A voice from up front interjected; obviously a senior Council member. “The Council had not ruled on a motion yet and they are not worthy of joining the Empire
yet.”

Iana was about to put the old nag in her place when it was Aen, to her surprise, who answered the snub of the Uwarryn Council
elect.

“And who are you to judge our people’s worthiness?” he shot back. “What right do any of you have to resign our planet to such a fate? Look into yourselves before you make such decisions and be certain it is what you want versus a cowardly
choice.”

His words hit the room like a tidal wave; all in it were shocked that this creature from a primitive world would say such things to such high-standing creatures. This was the upper echelon of the Empire and he was not; Iana was breathtakingly impressed. Very few would have the gumption to appear to an invite only Council meeting never mind hand them their collective asses. She decided to let it go no further and put forth a motion save this argument escalate any
further.

“My dear Council,” she said, as she turned and addressed them all. “Put before you is the motion to divert Fleet ships to the rim world, Terra Sol, in order to save her inhabitants from the horrors of the Husk. The fate of billions of innocents is in our hands, so let it not be with casualness that we decide this. We need a majority decision one way or the other, or resources cannot be allocated
accordingly.”

A long inaudible discussion ensued, words in languages that were gibberish to Aen. His heart felt like it would jump out of his chest, pulsated harder than ever before in anticipation. Like anytime one was in a situation of immediate need, time passed more slowly than usual as Aen fought the urge to speak and keep pushing for a decision that favored the Earth. Responses were spoken to the Empress or transmitted to her central station. Aen saw the look of sadness in her face and began to brace himself for the news. This was obviously a fight the Council saw fit not to
join.

—

The conversation between the creature and the Empress was riveting, as was this being himself. Lyxia had never seen anything like him, and she found herself quite taken with him for some reason. His eyes burned like the event horizon of a black hole, the edges bright blue as they encircled the bottomless black inside. And unlike the men of Pax, her home planet, who were born soldiers and arrogant to the point of no return, he was emotional and confident in what he was. His power was obviously immense, but was held in check by his humility. This was a truly wondrous
creature!

When it was time to vote on the motion, she found herself unable to say no, unlike the majority of the Council. In fact, she volunteered to take her ship into the fray; they were close to the rim as it was and could be there before all was lost. She watched with sadness as the Empress began to read aloud the verdicts. One no after another; laced with excuses and hesitation on renewing an age old war that had taken a huge toll on the Empire. Then the Empress stopped and turned to look Lyxia straight in the
eyes.

“Is what you have written here true, Council
Lyxia?”

“Yes it is
Goddess.”

“And you would go against the consensus of the Council, knowing that you take your ship to the rim without any
others?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

It was the directness of the question that caught Lyxia off guard, not the question itself. Quickly gathering herself, she stood tall and
spoke.

“Because it is the right thing to
do.”

“Explain yourself
please.”

“None of us here have the right to deny his request, none of us have been in his position. I have fought the Husk, I have felt how powerful they are and seen the wreckage they leave behind. Would any of us not do everything to save our people given the chance? Without the Fleet, would any of our worlds stand a chance if it was our
turn?”

Lyxia took a deep breath and noticed how quiet the room was. The Empress beamed a smile of a proud mother back at her and nodded for her to continue. “The Dark Light will be there in six months, Aen of Terra Sol. And if the rest of the Council would get their cowardly heads out of their asses, reinforcements should arrive soon after! In your body flows the blood of my friend, your mother and our kin. That alone should be reason enough to come, but I cannot live with myself if I turn my back and let an entire planet die. So at the least, I will come and fight for Terra
Sol!”

“And so will I,” the Empress called out causing objections from everywhere. She held up her hand to silence them and waited for quiet to continue. “We have invested our best minds in your people, and they thought you were worth saving.” She turned to her giant companion. “Ready the Lyarra’s Fire and two destroyers, we will make haste to the rim and hopefully there will be some trouble for us to get into when we
arrive!”

Bryx nodded and spun around to carry out his orders. Iana looked directly at Lyxia again and smiled brightly. For the first time in her career, she had broken the rules and been rewarded for them. Looking up at the alien across from her she smiled and nodded her head as he clasped his hands in prayer to her and bowed in
thanks.

“The Council will not reverse their decision, despite your wanton involvement in this, Empress.” An older Paxyn
declared.

“And I would not ask you to, as is the way of the Empire. I do not see fit to overrule the Council at this time, but I will not condemn an entire world to death!” She looked over at Aen and the smile faded from her face. “You must hang on until we arrive. Fight hard, but fight smart. Most of all, you and your people must survive, Aen of Terra Sol. Long will be the days until the Dark Light arrives to assist, and in those dark days the human race will redefine their place in the
future.”

Lyarran Vessel Amarra, Southern Pacific Ocean Floor

The strain from the ship’s energy draw finally took its toll on Aen and he shut down the holo-link system. Falling back into the command chair, he was exhausted and spent; the lights on the ship dimmed slightly from the power decrease. But even through the exhaustion, Aen was happy; help was coming, even if it was just a few
ships!

One by one he removed the smaller power inputs from his chest in an attempt to alleviate some of the discomfort being caused; ignoring the chastising complaints of Caretaker about the minor systems shutting down with the loss of power. Closing his eyes, Aen thought back to the two women he had seen just moments before; the Empress and the Commander with her piercing blue
eyes.

The Empress, he was expecting—her statue had been true to life, her beauty wasn’t exaggerated by the artist who made it. But seeing her in person was different; her presence was both imposing and calming at the same time. She exuded a radiant sexual energy with her demeanour and choice of clothing, yet she obviously held sway with the Council. It was no secret that she was truly in charge of the Empire even though she let the Council think they ran it. In a sense, Aen thought she was the perfect leader for such a Galactic
community.

Then there was the other woman, Council Lyxia. It was her eyes—her face—that was permanently etched into his most vivid memories. Not since his wife had a woman had an effect on him such as this! She was strong, confident, and unafraid to buck the system. She was the one coming to save them; it would be her written as the hero of the coming
days.

Slowly opening his eyes, Aen looked around the empty deck. He watched calmly as Caretaker scurried back and forth, accessing system after system in an effort to stabilize the long dormant ship’s computers. The movement was mesmerizing; he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep as the spectre of the coming horrors faded away, replaced with thoughts of the blue haired Council Lyxia haunting his
dreams.

TEN

Lyarran Vessel Amarra, Southern Pacific Ocean Floor -
Five Months and Twenty Eight Days until Arrival

Sorting through the incoming data was tedious, so much so that Aen’s patience was beginning to wear thin. Unlike his AI “friend,” this wasn’t his forte and he longed to be elsewhere. His thoughts kept going back to the day before and his awakening to how big the galactic community truly was. He had tried counting the different species in the chambers, but that idea had come to a complete stop when his eyes found
her—Lyxia.

His sleep had been intermittent afterwards, his body had been taxed far beyond any of his little skirmishes with the mad General Taylor. Rest had come, but his dreams were filled with the blue-eyed creature. For the first time since this whole ordeal started, he felt something other than searing pain in his soul. All it had been between them was a gaze and a smile from her, but it was enough to kick start something inside. For a moment, Aen began to ponder possibilities of a relationship, but was soon brought back to reality by Caretaker’s droning
voice.

“These are the best images I can get for you on the Husk marauder, but they are blurred by their entry to the Oort Cloud.”
Caretaker spoke as Aen snapped out of his
dreamland.

Focussing on the image, Aen made out a massive vessel that looked more like a horizontal pine cone, narrow at the bow and wide at the stern, with open segments like the tree seed itself—but very blurry, enough that he could not discern any other details. But the message was clear, they were coming and now Aen had to figure out
when.

“At your best estimates of their speed, what kind of time frame do we
have?”

“Taking into effect the images we have and using the references of the objects in the ice cloud moving past it, as well as taking into consideration the rotation and orbit of the planets, I estimate that the vessel should breach lunar orbit just inside six months from now.”
It
replied.

Under six months, not the time frame Aen was hoping for. The incoming Imperial ship would be at or just over six months away, so the gap in timelines was worrisome. The Earth was ill prepared to fight off any type of advanced invaders, but the fear these creatures instilled in the faces of those in the Council made Aen truly wonder what kind of chance humanity
had.

“It’s not enough time. We aren’t ready.” He said
quietly.

“Is anyone truly ready when they face such events? I find that throughout your history, such times produce great heroes that are written about for all eternity. Maybe this is why you were born; maybe it is you that makes the
difference.”

“I am not a soldier.” Aen replied with a look of scorn on his
face.

“No Harbinger, you are something much
more.”

Bristol County, Massachusetts –
Five Months and Twenty Three Days until Arrival

It was the worst blizzard in the last three years, and Sara was frozen to the core as she rushed from her car to her house. Snow and ice poured down from the heavens as if to punish the East coast for something unknown. At last measurement, almost a foot of snow had settled on the ground and by the looks of it another foot was well within reason to be
expected.

Sara swore as she reached the back door—a three-foot snow drift awaited her as it climbed up the side of the building and blocked her entry to her warm suite below. She had converted the basement into a full-on suite, making it her home alone while still with and near to her mom. She hoped her mom was okay, as she hadn’t seen her car in the driveway when she came home. According to the news, the storm had stranded many people at work, or worse in their cars on the
roads.

As she was without a shovel, Sara kicked at the snow bank until she had worn down a path through it, to the door. With her frozen fingers she fumbled with her keys and after a few tries, gained entry to the house. Sara slammed the door then rested back on it as the warmth from the house furnace began to thaw her cold
form.

Once she had warmed herself in the entrance, she opened the door to the basement suite and ambled down the stairs as she began to shuck off her winter coat and boots. Focused on getting free of the extra clothing to ready a nice, hot bath, she was not paying attention as she finished her descent and came face to face with the last person Sara ever expected to see here:
Aen.

A shriek of surprise slipped free of her usual calm self as there was no way he could have gotten in the house without a trail of some kind. The snow bank was untouched and the door unopened since Sara left for work. But here he was, his black eyes tearing through her as he waited for her to calm
down.

“How the fuck did you get in here asshole?” her anger was driving her at the moment. “I should call the cops to come and get you. Why the hell would you dare to break in
here?”

“And what would you say to them, dear Sara?” Aen asked, not showing the slightest concern for her threat. “Help, there’s an alien in my house? They would send the ambulance to take you to the nuthouse after the snow had been
cleared.”

Now Sara was furious. This man was right, she was trapped here with him and had no way of getting him to leave, but she needed to know why the intrusion. Usually he had been content to keep his small visits reserved to the graveyard. She calmed herself a bit and hung her coat up and walked over to her coffee maker to brew a cup to help her warm up further; her bath would obviously have to
wait.

“So, why the intrusion then?” she asked after a few silent
minutes.

“I needed to show you something, I needed to keep my
promise.”

Something had changed in him. Every time she had seen him over the past few months his face had shown much sorrow, but now his face and eyes were unreadable. Only a perfect poker face revealed nothing to help her discover what he was up to. It was then that she noticed he had been rummaging through her paperwork that had been collected over the years on the case of her dad. Her anger once again
rose.

“They tried to stop you from finding out the truth.” He said, with the formal letter of warning in his hand. “But you would never stop looking, even though you tried to make them think you had. That is why the military made the threats and that is why you have every right to be scared by those
threats.”

“It wasn’t Homeland
Security?”

“No, that was just a front to make it look better. The real reason they wanted you to stop is what brings me here
today.”

“The truth, because I think I am really close to getting to it?” she asked
excitedly.

“No,” Aen said calmly. “I am what they were afraid of. Me and what I was made for; the war yet to come that will
change…..everything.”

“War, what war? What is going on here?” She was becoming aware of the temperature in the room, it was warmer than it should be. Her furnace wasn’t turned up this high, she had left it lower to save on energy while she was at work. Then it hit her—it was him. He was radiating heat like
crazy.

Aen threw a few pictures on the counter beside her. They were high resolution pictures of something out in space, not unlike those she had seen from probes on T.V. Sara leaned in closer to better inspect them, slowly looking at every detail and letting her instincts as a reporter to guide her. It was an ice field pictured; large and expansive with something just inside the outer edge of it travelling
through.

“Is this that….that Oort Cloud
thingie?”

Aen nodded his head in
agreement.

“So what the hell is that?” she asked, with her finger touching the greyish object in the
pictures.

“That is the end of everything you know to be true.” Aen replied. “That is hell on
Earth.”

While he was evading the exact question, the message of what it meant was clear. Sara took a deep breath to absorb this and focused her eyes back on the pictures as she scanned them over and
over.

“An
asteroid?”

“If only it was—that could be stopped and this cannot.” Aen said
grimly.

Sara returned to the pictures, her eyes frantic to find what this thing truly was. Then she saw it—the third picture was showing more of the rear of the object and there was a massive engine glowing as it propelled the object! Fear gripped her and she looked up quickly to
Aen.

“Your people I hope?” she said, knowing the look on his face meant it
wasn’t.

“They are called many things throughout the galaxy, but most common is the Husk. From what I have been able to find out, they are as old as time itself and at some point became the pirates of the galactic ocean, finding worlds and enslaving the inhabitants before stripping the planet of its resources and leaving a dead
husk.”

Sara almost fainted and she struggled to find a stool at the kitchen bar to sit down as dizziness overtook her. Her world was just starting to resemble something normal as of late and now it was being knocked down again. Had it been only an asteroid or comet she could have lived with the fact it was all going to end. But this, invasion and slavery, was too hard to comprehend. Aen was right the Earth was facing the
end.

“Can your people help?” she asked in desperation as the fog of shock drifted
away.

“My people? Child, I have no people. The world doesn’t know what to do with just one of me never mind an entire
race.”

“Then we are on our
own.”

“Help is coming, but it may not be in time and that is the true reason for my
visit.”

“What do you mean? I don’t
understand.”

For the first time, she saw concern in the man’s face as she noted his eyes gave away little in their very alien appearance. She watched him closely as he sat down in a chair rather uncomfortably; it was like he didn’t know how to relax
anymore.

“Our last conversation—what do you remember about it?” he asked
calmly.

Sara thought back to last week when she had seen him last. She remembered the cold and wind almost disappearing when he was there, only to return as he left. She remembered the look of his suit of armour as it appeared to be alive as it shifted color and texture in the falling snow and scattered sunlight. And she remembered his promise, to make those bastards who took her father
pay.

“I remember a lot of unanswered questions and a tale half-told.” She said with a clever grin. She had moved her chips all in to see if her cleverness would pull the truth from this strange character once and for all. “You stopped short of telling me who was helping you adjust to…..to being
you.”

Aen smiled. It was easy to see through her desperate need for the truth and he had no intention of keeping it from her, at least to a point. There could be no good to come of the fact of revealing that he was once her father, only pain and crushing sadness and there was no time for that. He was here to ensure her safety, not break her heart any
further.

“Call it learning on the fly, because by the time I woke up to face my new life my hosts had long passed. I had little to do but focus on revenge, and with that task nearly complete I will turn to this new...challenge.” he
said.

Sara knew he wasn’t telling her what she wanted to know, but she could tell by the pain in his voice that he wasn’t ready to share these hidden secrets with anyone. She thought of the saying “time heals all wounds,” and wondered how long it would take for such severe pain to pass. She returned to the point about his true intent of his visit and began to poke for answers
there.

“So why tell me? What makes me so important that I get to know this before the whole world?” she asked. “Am I supposed to take these pictures and go public with the biggest story of all time or sit on it as the world goes on
unawares?”

Without answering, Aen got up from his chair and slowly moved towards her. For a moment, Sara felt scared, as he was intimidating to look at in his color-shifting armour and his burning black eyes. Stopping a foot away from her, he produced an envelope from beneath his jacket and tossed it on the counter behind her; two airline tickets spilled out as they slid to a stop on the
granite.

“Tibet?” she asked as she looked at the destination on the
stubs.

“I am here to tell you to run to the safest place I know of, to where you won’t be in danger from the coming attack. If you check the other documents in the envelope, there are directions and arrangements made to get you to your final destination up the mountain. There are good people there, and once you and your mother arrive you will be in the best of
hands.”

“Thank you,
but...”

“No buts—this is not a request! If you want to survive any of this, you will pack what you need and leave immediately! If you don’t, I can’t help you and I fail to fulfill a promise that I have worked very hard to keep. I have little left to hold on to, please don’t rob me of
this.”

There was sadness written on his face, along with a determination she had seen before. She tried to put herself in his shoes—to lose everything and be left with so little could have shattered a lesser person. But here he stood, broken but still standing, and who was she to turn down such an offer of amnesty. If the end was near, Sara would welcome a safe haven and she was doubly sure her mother would to. The trick came to explaining all this to
her.

“You wouldn’t want to help run all this by Mom, would you?” she asked with a sly
grin.