Chapter 16

He watched the waves batter the sand beneath his feet. The smell of ocean thick in the air.

Horizon was slowly changing as the sun started to rise bringing life to the murky landscape. His nightmares kept him up. Sleep was elusive and for a while he couldn’t see himself ever sleeping again. The issue weren’t the dreams, but the fact that he couldn’t remember them. He tried to recall some of them, however the thoughts were soon a jumbled mess leaving only confusion and terror behind.

He felt someone approaching behind his back. Soon soft hands circled around his broad chest gently caressing him, “You weren’t in bed” The woman whispered.

“I couldn’t sleep.” He returned.

A blatant lie. He was plagued by nightmares. Voices from the unknown calling out to him. He didn’t had proper sleep for months.

He heard her sigh, “Nightmares again?” She kissed his back. He almost gasped. Ericha sometimes knew more than he did.

Lucian remained silent, only nodding in affirmation as he watched the yellow ball of flame slowly rise to announce the dawn of the new day. Thinking about days gone by.

They remained in silence. The ambient noise relaxing them. He was back where he felt at ease. Nature of his home world did something to ease his every climbing worries. Earth was finally beneath his feet. Lucian felt strange, nothing how homecoming should’ve been once he returned. After few days of hundred different emotions, he now felt nothing. Not in a bad way. Just something about smelling the earth air.

“Today is the day.” Ericha spoke.

“Yes my love.” Ericha smiled at his endearing words.

The way they bonded so quickly made his body shiver. Occasionally he would be plagued by thoughts of her ulterior motives. Shaking his head he focused on the events of the new day.

“They are coming for me. I assume they want someone for bunch of tests.” He guessed.

“Afraid?” Ericha watched his back.

“Always,” She felt him shiver, “yet you, Liza and Lindsay make it so much easier.” He pointed out.

He felt himself reacting in different ways while he was surrounded by those he loved. Lucian thought about the life so far while watching the ocean waves.

Liza and Ericha had different personalities. Their love for him manifested in different ways as well, some of them he couldn’t predict happening few years in the past. What would happen to him once that safety barrier disappeared? He dreaded the thought. However the mere idea of it happening was easily forming in recesses of his mind.

Liza often said that Amorans showed love to their life long mates in different ways. In the past few months, since he returned, he became closely acquainted with some of them. A grin formed was slowly forming on his face as he was recalling how sweet her lovemaking was.

The Amoran was currently standing behind them silently watching with a contended smile. She had tears in her eyes as her hands gently encircled her for warm comfort.

Lindsay. His own sister. What he felt about her was starting to send alarms to his brain, a part of it at least willing to listen. Most of it was still craving for those few moments of satisfaction. Lucian took a deep breath. Sometimes life is not easy.

In the distance he started to hear the distinct sound of helicopters blades cutting through the air.

He swallowed “I guess the waiting has come to an end.” Lucian tried to smile, yet he started to shiver. Warm air had nothing to do with it.

Ericha noticed. Her grip became tighter.

The beach has becoming warm. The island was slowly becoming brighter. He watched the birds fly away, the sound making them search for different perch they could spy out of.

The two aircraft kicked up wind as they slowly sat on the ground. Their blades nowhere to be seen. A strange sight to behold for someone that was accustomed to aircraft that should’ve landed in front of them.

Several men in black walked briskly toward Lucian. The rest of the men, from the second aircraft, exited as well. They wore bright green military outfits. Weapons draped over their shoulders. One of them clearly scanned the surrounding area. The island’s jungle was brisk with invisible dangers and they were about to escort one of them. The rest took positions to both sides and started slowly advancing through the warm sand.

Lucian noted a man’s gaze stopped several times on his bionic limb.

The fat man watched carefully as the men he was tasked with protecting moved across the warming sand.

As with the jungle in front of them, the 3 people on the beach were unnerving him in many ways. The human looking one was hot, but the purple one made him sick to his stomach. The muscles on his broad frame twitched. He remained silent. Watching and hoping they would give him any excuse to start shooting.

He grimaced, “Strict orders!” his superior shouted over the headpiece bringing him back to present.

“Fine.”, was all he said before almost crushing the gun stock in his hand. His time will come. Eventually. One wrong move and he’ll start killing. He licked his lips in anticipation.

A cold wave hit his body, almost making him retch all over the place. Shivers ran through his body as his senses started to scream. He felt the same sensation countless times in combat. A killer was lying in wait. Somewhere.

He felt chills on his back. Something was threatening him. Very few times in life a man comes to know fear. A true terror. Someone or something was watching him and he couldn’t see them. He knew they were out there, watching his every move.

The jungle was quiet, too quiet. Even for their aircraft. There was not a single bird or a monkey making noise. Announcing their presence or warning them. A tiny strand of sweat dripped across his face.

They needed to hurry.

He met his eyes with Lucian’s. The slight grin on Lucian’s face told the man he had seen through his desires. He swallowed deeply and tried not too seem too obvious.

Relax. Breathe in. He said to himself.

Yet he felt a giant marker on his body. Like he was the only one on a desert island.

The men in black slowly approached. The wind of the aircraft thrusters rustled their black suits.

Lucian’s bionic arm started to twitch nervously.

He remembered the words of his doctors. Too many to remember their faces. However he remembered what they said about his strange new limb.

As he was rescued from his captors eventually he was rushed to the nearest doctor that could return some resemblance to his old life. The space station was close to VenuuX, the doctors and engineers on board the military section of the space station told him it would sometimes exhibit phantom pain, movement and even the feeling like it wasn’t there.

It felt odd.

“What’s the point then?” he asked his doctor.

He remembered regretting the tone of his voice, however his doctor was full of understanding and compassion. He took the time to explain to Lucian in great detail.

During the times when his emotions ran wild his bionic limb would misbehave. New connections were being made where the older ones were so violently severed. The process was long and painful.

The men finally stopped near them. Lucian was pulled out of his remembrance. Focusing on the situation at hand.

The men waited patiently. Gazing at him like he was the answer to all of their asking questions.

Both stood few feet apart. As they inspected Lucian they noticed the women. One of the women gently caressing his chest and the other few feet behind them, his partner audibly gasped as he identified who the woman truly was. An alien. The man corrected himself and started to speak as if nothing had happened.

“Lucian Deca? Good morning.” They shook hands, “My name is Special Agent Monahan, and this is my partner Agent Whey. We’re here to escort you.”

“To where?” Lucian said with more venom in his voice than he wanted.

Agent Monahan ignored the jibe, “Some important people want to speak to you.” He said pointing to the waiting chopper.

“That still didn’t answer the question.” Ericha growled.

Lucian swallowed. Turned in Ericha’s arms and planted a brief kiss on her lips. Ericha was getting cagey. Not good if they wanted peace on this island.

After some time their lips parted. She sighed. “Come back to us.”

The look in his eyes told her everything she needed to know. Her protective instincts were flaring up, yet she remained calm.

“Calm yourself, my love.” Lucian whispered.

Liza still had tears in her eyes. Lucian approached her with caution. Wrapping her in a gentle hug and whispering, “I’ll see you later my gorgeous Amoran.” He felt her shiver as he cupped her cheeks and started a slow and methodical kiss.

He smiled as they parted. He glanced towards the jungle, he held a brief smile and resumed kissing and holding the anxious woman in his arms.

“Say hello to Lindsay for me.” He whispered.

Liza nodded, again he smiled and kissed her forehead. Between her bent antennae. He felt them anxiously caress his skin.

He was interrupted by someone coughing behind him. Right the meeting. He sighed and caressed Liza’s cheek.

Agent Monahan watched the man turn and walk towards them. Small smile on his lips. As Lucian turned he gestured and they started walking. His bionic arm started to twitch as he boarded one of the aircraft.

“Let’s roll.” He heard behind him. Doors slowly closed as they lifted from the ground. One final wave before the door broke his view of his beloved women.

He turned around and started searching for a place to sit. The inside was cramped but not impossible to move. The helicopter moved with grace and the sound of the engines were too much to hear the directions of the sergeant directing him to an empty seat.

He was handed a headset and after he placed it on over his ears he heard, “Mister Deca,” He noticed a man across from him softly smiling at him.

The older was addressing him. He wore a full dress uniform, with all of his medals proudly displayed. His peaked cap was gently slanted on his head. “My name is General Andrew.”

“Nice to meet you General.” Lucian nodded.

He smiled again. “I’d want to say no need for formalities, but protocol demands some semblance of authority.”

“Well, general, it’s very nice to meet you. I assume you are the one who wanted to meet me.” Lucian watched the older man carefully for any signs if deception.

General Andrew’s smile grew. “No, no. Well, you’re partially right. I’m here to meet you. However, I’ll talk to you a bit later about several things. For now we’re heading to our fleet just outside the island you were residing.”

Lucian’s eyebrows rose as he watched the older man’s excitement rise. “How long do we have to travel?”

“Few minutes, ten at most. Did you honestly thought we didn’t notice you coming?” General Andrew’s grinned.

Lucian just smiled. “Well, didn’t hurt to ask.”

Lucian scanned the interior of the aircraft, “I’ve never seen one of these models. New?”

General Andrew smiled, “Brand new. We made several leaps in technology after the attack. We liberated what we could from the aircrafts we managed to defeat. Still, the noise is too much. Nothing like its parents. However with time we’ll get there.”

Lucian noticed several men taking anxious glances towards his limb. He chose to ignore them and thought how different all of it must be for them. However, he placed his hand between his knees in an attempt to hide his mechanical companion.

“I didn’t know we had the ability to do so.” Lucian noticed.

General shook his head, “I was leading a charge at that time. We managed to ambush one of their smaller ships. Transports, we think, while they were busy butchering and collecting our people. We sneaked in and executed the lot.” He slowly growled.

Lucian listened, “I’m assuming they didn’t go down without a fight.”

“God damn fucks costed a lot of fine men.” General grimaced.

His attention was soon drawn to the window by an agent by his side. The man pointed toward the wide blue ocean. And there it was. Fleet of ships slowly drifting. To an untrained eye it would seem the lot was moored on top of the sea.

One of them looked truly different from all of the other sea fearing ships Lucian remembered. “What’s that?” Lucian gasped.

“One of our other leaps. Our pride of the fleet. Newest battleship.” General smiled.

The ship looked alien in design. There were no guns to be seen as the rest of the ships in the fleet. There were no traces of big hulking cannons like Lucian saw few times on movies and pictures. Just sleek design that silently drifted on the sea. The ship seemed to sail faster than those around it and Lucian speculated that it was probably much more powerful. Ocean waves ignored it as the giant vessel plowed through every one of them with grace and mobility.

“How?” He asked.

General smiled knowingly, “After that cowardly attack we spent some time overhauling some of our war machine. Pretty impressive right?”

General proudly stated, “We’re tightly working with all branches of the military. Fleet Admiral will be happy to meet you.”

Lucian turned towards the General, “Is that...” Lucian pointed towards bow of the ship.

General laughed, “All in good time my lad.”

The front of the ship had a strange protrusion, large in diameter and hollow. Lucian asked the man about it but the man just smiled.

“We’re allowed some secrets.” General laughed and patted Lucian on his back.

Lucian smiled. It surprised him how much time has passed since he felt at ease. Happy and smiling. And it took just few words from this old, grizzled veteran. Seeing a fellow human happy and smiling did wonders to his wounded body and soul. Still, amongst all of this there was a sliver of doubt.

The aircraft spun in the air to adjust their trajectory and landed on the wide landing pad on the carrier. Doors slowly opened. He inhaled deeply and enjoyed the scent of the sea in the air. The agents hopped off the aircraft, followed by General and lastly by Lucian.

The mix of activity and noise didn’t stop as Lucian watched every man and woman on the carrier turn his way.

Suddenly everything stood still. The only noise was coming from the engines of the aircraft as they ripped through the morning air.

General Andrew led the way through the men and women that were busy working around the carrier. He felt some strange eyes on him but decided to bulldoze through. Lucian’s strange emotions hidden deep beneath.

The colorful group made its way through the ship and finally entered a dark dingy room. Lucian felt few men and women glancing towards his bionic limb. He felt his fist clench as he saw many eyes burrowing through.

“Please remain here until further notice.” General suddenly spoke and moved to another direction.

Lucian was left alone with two tall agents silently watching his every move, “So, how long have you been here?”

Silence. Lucian figured as much. Agents looked at him without saying a single word. He sighed. Sat on the nearest chair and lifted his feet on the nearest desk.

“You know, I wanted to relax. Just relax and play games, but not even on a desert island I’m allowed to have fun on my own.” Lucian pondered.

“Can you tell me who wants to meet me?” He asked again.

Agents looked at one another then the one closest to him, Monahan, spoke “Just relax, you’ll have your answers very soon.”

As if on command the door flew open. A soldier stood in front of them, “Come with me. They’re ready to meet you.”

It felt he was being ordered more than asked. Shrugging he stood from his chair and followed the soldier that seemed he was annoyed by the task he was given.

Lucian was led along the corridors. The interior of the aircraft carrier was compact. Enough so two people could walk through its halls side by side. Finally after few moments, twists and turns, they were in front of wide doors. He waited. The doors slowly opened.

He noticed he was filled with anticipation. Fear from the unknown was strangely absent. What could they do to him that wasn’t already done?

A brief look at his bionic limb and he pushed the doors wide open.

Strange white room opened in front of him. First thing that caught his eye was a round desk neatly decorating the middle. Despite his guesses the room was well lit revealing everyone’s faces. There were at least fifteen people inside the room. Men and women. All of them sat in chairs around the table.

“Ah, Ladies and Gentlemen I want to introduce the hero of Earth. Lucian Deca.” The woman’s voice carried over the table, however it took Lucian few moments to notice the choice of her words.

Her mellow voice was filled with calm. She looked as she was just finishing some important discussion before the doors opened.

“Hero?” Lucian’s eyebrows rose, finally the words registering.

“Yes. A hero we desperately need.” The woman’s smile was positively breathtaking.

The room was in a buzz. People conversed between themselves, one stood up and shouted, “That’s insane. You want to leave our fate to this alien fucker.” The man pointed a shaky finger towards the stunned Lucian.

Lucian took few steps inside and stopped near the table, “I don’t remember doing anything to be called that.”

He glared towards the man that shook with disgust. He didn’t see anything wrong with his wording, yet he still firmly held his gaze with his.

“All in due time. Sit down friend, please.” The woman finally spoke breaking Lucian’s intense stare.

The woman rose from her chair and glided towards Lucian, “Please.”

A gentle push on his shoulders reminded him that they weren’t alone. Lucian finally relented and allowed to be pushed towards an empty chair. He sat and patiently waited.

The offended person watched and huffed for few moments before looking towards the woman, “Friend?! This piece of shit is furthest thing from a friend I want. Get that thing away from here.”

He waved his hand away in disgust.

The vile in his voice was almost palpable.

“Senator Reynolds, I want to extend a helping hand to everyone. This time we’re the ones that need help the most. This person is crucial in my future plans.” The woman smiled.

The smile slightly unnerved Lucian. It seemed that they were expecting him to do something, and Lucian felt strangely pensive about it.

The woman returned and sat, with grace that Lucian never saw, before starting to speak, “I want to reiterate. Ladies and Gentlemen I want to reintroduce you to Lucian Deca. Soon to be Hero of Earth.”

At long last Lucian could finally take a long look at the woman across the table from him. She was truly beautiful. Short cropped black hair. Pitch black eyes. In essence everything a man would love to see in a woman. A true beauty.

Personally he was drawn back to her eyes. He wondered if she was even human. It seemed mere moments passed while he was gazing around the table, looking at different sets of people sitting around him.

She smiled, “Lucian can we get your opinion?”

He shook his head, “Excuse me, on what?”

Her smile grew, “Seems reintroductions, again, are in order.” She glided through his faux pas. Confidently guiding their conversation.

“My name is Kanata Nyong’o. President of New Unified Earth, or just New Earth. These are my council members and leaders of the 7 United Continents.” The men and women around the round table glanced toward Lucian and briefly nodded.

The senator named Reynolds grimaced towards Lucian. Action that wasn’t lost on the lady president.

“Wait, New Earth?” Lucian was confused.

Kanata smiled looking satisfied at his question.

“I’ll explain.” One of the women around the table softly spoke.

“My name is Adhira. I’m representative of the state of New Delhi.” She introduced herself.

Elegant dark skinned beauty wore a beautiful blue sari that enhanced her attractiveness even more.

“During the Great Attack we endured massive loses. Some due to abductions but we lost most of our population in the initial attacks. We tried to fight back. Needlessly. They kept coming for more in following months. Close to 40% of world population was lost.” Adhira shook her head.

“After the attack we wanted to understand what had happened. We understood the main points. Higher technology won in the end. Yet even though we had the world’s best weapons at hand we did nothing to them.” The woman shook her head sadly.

The general was about to protest, however Kanata quietly held her hand to allow Adhira to continue.

She looked at her clenched fists, “You know, people made countless movies and TV shows on the topic. We get invaded by aliens. 90% of the people think ‘big deal’, but then it happens and you’re unable to do anything. Just die. Watch helplessly as beings invade and take what they want, kill who they want and you don’t have much say in the matter.”

She gave herself a brief shake, “We understood that there was a huge gap between us. Technology matters, but we have intellect as well. Are we behind that as well? Many would argue against what we’re about to propose. However, we have no choice. Families, loved ones are missing. We need answers.” Finally surmising her thoughts she ended.

Suddenly the entire room felt quiet. The sounds of ocean waves rumbling were deafening. Lucian could see in some of their faces that they were still hurt.

Others showed vexed expressions.

“Before I can do anything, I need to know how you know about me.” Lucian asked.

Kanata sighed taking over the narative, “Currently there are satellites in orbit acting as a protection net around Earth. We managed to track your space craft land on that island few days ago. Few days of surveillance and we managed to get most of your background.” She glanced towards one of the men standing neatly alongside the wall.

One man was holding a piece of paper, and he approached the table.

“Name, age and occupation was easily acquired,” He spoke, “The fact that you went missing approximately five years ago and came back recently led us to believe that you managed to obtain some allies out there.” He waved his hand.

“My parents are gone, who --” He started asking, but he was gently interrupted by the same man.

“Companies sent everything to a local database.” The man grabbed another piece of paper and presented it to Lucian.

“They kept collecting information on all of the people missing or dead. They didn’t know. They just followed our new -- edict; if you will.” He added with a smile.

Lucian stared at the presented paper with a sad look in his eyes. Apart from his occupation, name, date of birth and former address there was nothing else. Beside the large picture, nothing. No interests, nothing that let him know people knew who he really is. A bitter reality of the past came crashing forth. To most he was an enigma.

He gave his head a shake before focusing on task at hand.

The man sighed, “Currently there’re more people missing than we can count. The online page we set up for people to easily track and find if their loved ones showed close to 4 billion individuals missing. This number is skewed a little since some of them might be dead, yet we have reports that the number has stopped growing - for now.” The man ended with a sour note.

He looked broken, “Even after this happened economy moved forward. Some people locked themselves in their homes. Others decided to end it all. I can say that current situation for human population is grim.”

Kanata Nyong’o took over after the man looked he might collapse any second, “This is my personal assistant, he’s in charge of an organization that maintains the number of people on New Earth.”

She continued, “Basically if no loved one approached then we gathered the data from the companies that individuals worked for, like you, eventually we made a system that took some time to adapt and it provided us with necessary information.”

The man recuperated enough to say, “There are some flaws, but the system works. As best as we could hope for.”

Lucian took a deep breath, “How many people have returned?”

Kanata looked down at the table before saying, “You’re the first.”

General Andrew approached the table from its side and leaned his palms on top of it, “We need to know about military tactics of our enemies.”

“No!” Adhira interrupted.

“Why not?!” General asked.

She looked aghast, “Have you forgotten what violence can do?!”

General Andrew laughed, “God no. That’s why I want it. To prevent the past from happening again.”

The arguments kept escalating. The man and the woman seemed locked in an ageless argument of peace and violence.

The arguments were only broken by Lucian’s question, “Why?”

Come to me.

A sudden echo resounded through the room. The voice, but a whisper in his mind, yet he could clearly hear the words it tried to say. Others seemed immune to it. Unhearing the clear summons in its voice.

Not now! He shook his head.

While the general and Adhira had their argument interrupted Lucian’s fists clenched beneath the table.

“Are you ok?” A sudden question from the man roused Lucian from his troubling thoughts.

“Yes.” Lucian smiled, “But on to elaborate my previous point; why do you need military tactics?” Lucian asked.

His left arm twitched.

General Andrew watched Lucian for few moments before answering, “You’re seriously asking that when you saw how they assaulted us and took every little bit of dignity we had. Pecking away like vultures.”

Come to me!!!

The voice was clearer. The whisper deafening. Echoing throughout the room. Lucian’s eyes went wide with terror for just a moment. The people in the room noticing his genuine unease.

“Are you ok?” Kanata worriedly asked.

Lucian still unnerved by the ghastly voice echoing through the confines of his head, he managed to nod his head slowly. As if waiting for the voice to continue its barrage.

He focused his attention to the people inside the room patiently waiting for his response. Some of them worriedly watching his every movement.

“I don’t get it. What do you want me to do about it?” His head was starting to ache.

Another woman in a business suit cleared her throat, “Let me ask you this. How did you escape?”

Lucian focused on the new voice and inspected her features. The headache abated. For now.

She was most likely in her late forties, brown skin, brown eyes and a surprisingly worried expression on her face. Her black suit and a tie stood out from other formal wear, yet still held a certain charm to it.

The topic was getting all over the place. He grabbed the bridge of his nose. His mechanical limb nervously twitching away beneath the table.

“Why do you want to know about that?” Lucian asked genuinely curious.

“Indulge me.” She answered smiling, crossing her arms beneath her chest. Her feminine features hidden away beneath the dark fabric.

He could see she was waiting patiently, the rest of the room suddenly lost all noise, focusing all of their attention to him and his next words. The woman still managed to project her femininity, though she wore a business suit.

Next several hours were spent in describing his four plus years in space. Most of it in captivity. In servitude to the unseen masters. The story flowed, how he escaped, people who helped him and his eventual recapture and torture. By the end of it he was emotionally drained. Exhausted from reliving his torturous nightmares. The chair embracing his exhausted body.

The world leaders inside the room remained silent. Lucian couldn’t gather strength to look up, but felt their gazes travel across his body.

“You poor soul.” A caring voice reached his ears.

“The pain you went through, I’m surprised you remained sane.” Another chimed in this time more delicate.

Lucian smiled, “That’s debatable.”

“What do you mean?” A man’s voice asked.

Lucian looked up and watched as all eyes watched closely with awe.

Their entourages finally inside the room, during the arduous tale, one by one, they entered the room and silently listened to his harrowing experience. Several of them took notes on specific parts that he was describing, however everyone remained silent.

The man looked European, Scandinavian as far as Lucian could guess and he figured he might be the European representative, but to be on safe side he politely asked, “I don’t believe we were introduced.”

The man looked surprised, “Certainly sir, my name is Gunner Erik Larson I’m the European representative in the New Earth and I help the President with various tasks around the world.” He ended with a smile.

The man was genuinely glad to speak about his credentials. Lucian was all too glad to divert the attention.

Lucian nodded, “Very nice to meet you. To answer your question; during my abduction and recapture I seem to have developed a coping mechanism of sorts.” Lucian pointed to his head,