Chapter Thirty One–UNIVERSE LOST
The black zone of the unconscious claimed Arius. From its depths, he felt something warm and wet on his face. Whatever it was rubbed rhythmically up his cheek, over and over again. Waves lapping through the cove. The purring breath of salt air. That was true only in his dreams.
A meaty, fleshy aroma of foul breath reached him. He stirred, struggling to rouse himself. He was able to move his hands before he could open his eyes. Soft fur slid under his palms. It was the smilodon. Its huge tongue licked him as if he were a newborn cub being massaged to come to dinner.
Ari patted the smilodon, “Thank you.”
He pulled his aquamarine eyes open and struggled to sit up. Drom and his two friends lie in crumpled heaps, seemingly drained of life. The ship was obviously malfunctioning seriously for their restraints to have opened. Ari wanted to take Drom’s hand and check her and his friends for vital signs. He couldn’t. He knew that if the ship died, they would all die. Instead of offering them the balm of restoration, he forced himself to check the condition of his craft.
Life support was normal. The sensors showed no immediate threats in the area. The walls of the ship were intact. He took in the rest of the information from the intermitting visual displays and turned stoically to help his friends.
The great cat was licking Drom’s face. Ari saw her frail lashes flutter. “Did we make it?”
Ari scanned Yu. “At least two of us did. Yu’s skull cap is scorched, my protector could be gone!”
Drom hugged the cat then slowly moved to Yu’s lifeless body shaking her head as she looked at her.
Ari not wanting to acknowledge the passing checked Face. “He’ll be ok.”
Drom with a weakened voice lightly letting go of Yu’s head. “Will we make it to the fleet rendezvous?”
Ari answered. “We’re a bit off course.”
Drom sensed he was understating their situation. “How big a bit?”
“Oh, a shadow rift or two.”
“Could you be more specific?”
Ari configured seats for Drom and Face to soothe their injuries and aid their recovery. Then he answered her unflinchingly. “Somehow a temporal aperture opened. We were flung completely out of the gravity matrix. We’re 250 million light years away from our new home planet.”
--
“We’re stranded in the middle of nowhere.” Drom assessed, as soon as she could think clearly.
“Not quite,” Ari corrected. “We still have power. We aren’t completely stuck here.”
“Look!” Drom guided their attention to Face. “His glow changed pattern.”
Drom monitored Face. “He’s coming to.”
“Thank You!” Drom exclaimed. “He can help us figure this out.”
“Holy K’altun! That was some celestrial celebration!”
They begrudgedly laughed in recognition. All of them had felt hung over as they emerged from the concussion.
“I’ve never felt my bones ache, I should this time!” Face cradled his skull in his hands.
“I didn’t think we’d so literally be The Fallen,” Ari observed.
“The prophets’ prediction of a false final demise appears fulfilled,” Drom added.
--
Ari was devastated. “As far as I can see, Yu is no longer with us, I believe she surrounded our ship with her force field her headgear has burn marks. She saved us her all. The most I can do is griev later, we must survive!”
Face tapped into the ship’s SIC as soon as it was alert. “It’s verified, the plasma ball and the comet fragment joined forces just as the ship engaged. The wall of flamed hurled us through an erratic portal into space-time. The only way we could have escaped was with luck and Yu’s protection.”
Drom brushed tiny grass-like ferns off her feet. “They hitched a ride. I feel guilty. As if I deserted our home.”
“We have to put desolation and grive behind us, so that we can go on.” Ari soothed.
Face’s glow changed so strongly that the light caught their attention. He turned away from them in a futile attempt to camouflage another truth.
“Face, you can’t hide from us,” Ari chided. “You’re good and honest to the crystal. The truth has nowhere to hide in you.”
“Perhaps I should choose a less transparent form.”
Ari put his hand on Face’s arm. “What is it old friend?”
“The stars. Look at the stars.”
“They seem nearer than at home,” Drom observed. “There are fewer of them.”
Face tried to reduce the shock, by telling this hard truth a little at a time. “There are as many as before. They are just farther apart.”
“We’re in a different part of the galaxy. At the edges of the spiral, the stars are spread out more.” Drom guessed having a passion for quantum-astronomy.
“Our SIC has extrapolated the data for that.”
“Do I have to order you to tell us?” Ari’s tone gave the command.
“We haven’t just traveled in known space. We’ve arrived at somewhere beyond even the extrapolated data.”
Ari studied the stars through the wide window. “How far away are we?”
“Billions of light years.”
“Are you saying we’re lost?”
“Just away from where we started.”
“We can’t be too lost,” Ari concluded. “We aren’t alone. I can feel the traitors. We’re safe for now, but we have to find a new iridium crystal.”
“That could be a long search. You know how rare iridium is. And we haven’t contact with the fleet yet.” Drom’s voice wavered.
Ari spoke with the certainty of the Shield Bearer. “I believe our loved ones are 250 million light years away, but we’ll find what we need and get back to them. When we do, our quest for a new world will be abiding. There's no turning back. Our lives are changed forever.”
“It sounds lovely, and you convinced me we can do the impossible,” Drom commented.
“We survived passing through the fires of the planar gate. I know the worst is yet to come, but I’m confident that we’ll make the journey and survive it.” Ari smoothed his red vest and then took Drom’s hand. “I have your love. With you and Face we are joined in limitless bonds of friendship. That will surely last through a journey of 250 million light years.”
Ari reached for a Dimensional Crystal and activated a virtual stellar map. He pointed to a distant set of coordinates. “Set a course here.”
“We aren’t even within the mapped galaxy!” Drom exclaimed. “Look at that planet below. It looks like home but the continents don’t match the placement of our land masses anywhere.”
The four gazed through the wide view of the windows at a blue planet spinning beneath them.
“It is a lot like home,” Drom sighed.
Ari commanded, “Maybe we should explore it for iridium or find another power source. A planet has many treasures.”
Face demurred, impressed with Ari’s decisive leadership. “If we take any extra time, we’ll miss the fleets’ signature. Possibly forever. The Captain has given an order.”
Ari’s voice was ripe with authority. “We who have forsaken time will triumph.” Once spoken, those words forced him into a conceptual quantum leap that made the old paradigms of time and space disintegrate, as instantly as Atlantis had.
“Halt!” Ari shouted just as Face was executing his order to land on the planet below.
Stunned, the two stared at him.
Ari materialized a new map to explain. The planet within their sight bore the familiar configuration of home. They watched astonished as the image morphed. Whole continents broke and drifted. The vast blue of the sea submerged existing continents. The southern piece of the world split from its mainland and shifted to the South Pole. The SES calculated the consequent climatic shift and portrayed it frozen in an eternal white of snow and ice. As if to balance it, a polar ice cap formed at the northern pole. Simultaneously, a third of the remaining continents shifted to fill in the side of the planet that had once been landless. The freshly sheared southern shores moved away from the central land mass and pulled an entire continent with them.
Ahead of them in this paradigm shift, Ari proclaimed what came to light. He stared at the planet below. “That is home. We don’t need to go anywhere. We are already here.”
“But the fleet!” Drom exclaimed, her voice palpitating with a little stress.
“It is long gone.” Ari had to confess the terrible truth he had deduced. “It took eons for those continents to divide.”
Face caught up to his leader before Drom could answer. “So, it isn’t a question of where we are, but when.”
“Friends,” Ari’s voice carried an echo of Nor, “What you see is Atlantis without Atlantians. What you see is Atlantis after the Dark Heart. What you see is Atlantis in the distant future, which has become our present.”
--
“Memory matrix, end recording,” Ari’s voice resonated, eyes fixed on the planet below, and finally accepting Yu’s sacrifice. “Our circle of life closes a doorway only to open another; our journey of rebirth has only begun!”
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