Chapter 10

Something was troubling David and he walked slowly towards the temple to find a quiet spot so that he could think and perhaps pray for guidance. He had been unsettled for days now, as something was troubling him. The bright lights high up in the sky several nights before were almost like a warning from God that something awful, something disastrous was going to happen.

The attack by Adam and his men had also come as a shock after thirty years of peace, thirty years of joy at being with Beckie. The attack brought back all of the pain, the feelings of isolation, the feelings of persecution.

He found a corner inside the temple and knelt down on the marble floor. The stone felt cool and that was a relief from the intense heat of the day outside. The serenity of the temple settled him a little, but his memories were crowding in, demanding that he feel again the ache of being alone, of being picked on by the twins, of being blamed and banished.

"They fed off of one another. I was the scapegoat; I was the odd one out that everyone else could treat with scorn and ridicule. Hannah acts like a slut? Blame David. Elizabeth burns the meat for dinner? Blame David! No, the twins had to stick together. I was regarded as the threat to their cosy existence. And what now? After thirty years they've returned to start it all over again."

"Oh Lord, what am I to do? All I ask for is peace and to be left alone so that Beckie and I can continue to build a tribe worthy of worshipping you. I'm not stupid, I know what Adam's attack heralds. The twins have had a massive advantage over me. Six of them versus Beckie and me. Beckie was twelve going on thirteen before she gave birth to our first twins, by then the others would have spawned many more."

David paused as he performed some quick mental arithmetic. He realised that the twins' community could well be over four hundred people — possibly even as high as five hundred. Admittedly many of them would be too young to fight, but nonetheless, the Celestialites were outnumbered by as much as ten to one. He didn't like the odds, he didn't like them one little bit.

"What will they do, God? What will they do with their superior numbers? What they have always done! When it was six against one they bullied me. They picked on the easy target without a thought or a care. Will things be any different now? No! You know what is bothering me Lord — you see all things. They will return, won't they? They'll be back and the next time there will be even more of them."

This was the fact that had been troubling him. He remembered how cruel the twins could be, how they had hated him and how he had become the focus for their little games. He had no doubt that they would try to attack his tribe again. The twins were showing their true colours once more and he couldn't expect them to have learned any differently over the past thirty years.

Sitting quietly in the cool of the temple, David decided what he had to do. He wasn't going to be the victim. When he thought back to how he had reacted all those years ago, he despised himself for being so weak. Not this time, this time would be different.

"Thank you for your guidance, God. I can see the path clearly now, it is the only way for the Celestialites. I pray that you grant us the courage and strength to see it through. Praise be to God, he is the power and the glory."

Rising from his knees, David walked quickly from the temple. The heat of the afternoon sun hit him like a physical blow when he emerged outside, but he ignored it and went in search of Beckie.

He found his mate just as she was finishing up a practice session on the rifle range. Beckie was laughing and joking with the others who were waiting their turn, but that stopped when she saw the expression on David's face. She quickly put the safety on her rifle and grabbed her things so she could join him.

"Has something happened?" she whispered, as she hugged him. The last thing she wanted to do was alarm others if there was potential danger around.

"We need to talk, my love. I've been burying my head in the sand for the past few days, refusing to accept reality. It would be a huge mistake to carry on doing that any longer. Come, let's go home and talk."

They walked back up the hill, taking their time in the heat, and when they entered their house, Beckie quickly replicated some cool drinks. She joined David on the sofa and focused on what he wanted to discuss.

"You were too young when you left the caves to remember very much weren't you?" he started.

"I remember bits and pieces," she replied. "I remember Mom and Dad and my twin, Isaac. I can remember that there were lots of other children too."

"That's one of the things I've been trying to forget about. Originally there were four sets of twins. There was myself and Rebecca — who I named you after. Then there was your mother and father — Adam and Hannah. There was also Ben and Sarah and Thomas and Elizabeth. That's why there were so many other children.

"Think about this for a minute. While you were growing up, while you and I were starting to build this place, the twins would have continued to have more children. You had our first twins when you were nearly thirteen, but by then the other twins would have had another ten years of raising children.

"When you had our first children, the twins were probably having their first grand children. And they will have been multiplying at an increasing rate ever since."

David could see Beckie's eyes grow wide as she realised the point he was making. She showed that her mental arithmetic was just as good as his by quickly rattling off the possible numbers.

"Oh Lord, there could be four or five hundred of them by now! So many, so very, very many," she said.

"One of the things I've never really talked to you about was how the other twins treated me back then. It's not something I'm proud of, because to an extent I was as much to blame as they were. I let it happen, didn't stand up for myself strongly enough and so I became a 'victim'.

"The important point is that the twins are bullies. They thought nothing of picking on me, of six of them ganging up on me for their own amusement. Every little thing that went wrong was blamed on me — I was an easy target and they liked nothing better than singling me out and making me squirm.

"I somehow don't think that they will have changed very much. I'm willing to bet that even now Adam will be blaming me for anything and everything. If it's raining where he is — that will be my fault. If someone loses a button — it will be down to David. That's what they're like you see."

Beckie could see where David was going. Her heart was breaking at the description he had just given of his early years. She could see the pain of it etched now in his face and she moved to hug him tightly.

"Oh David, my poor, poor David," she crooned.

"STOP IT!" he snapped, pulling away from her violently. "That's just the kind of reaction we need to reject! Can't you see? That's just how I used to speak to myself back then, how I used to feel sorry for myself. Well, now I know better, now I don't want pity — least of all your pity. I want your respect! Now I know that the only thing to do is to stand up for myself, to be strong. I refuse to be a victim this time; I refuse to let them bully me anymore!"

Beckie was stunned at his reaction for a moment, but then it dawned on her what David was getting at and her own expression hardened.

"Maybe that's why I've always had this fascination for weapons? Maybe I've known all along that a time of reckoning would come and that I had to be ready for it? It's no coincidence that all of our tribe have been taught to love their weapons Beckie, no coincidence at all."

"They're going to come for us, aren't they?" she asked now. "They're going to come in huge numbers to try to bully you again. That's what you're saying, isn't it?" she said quietly.

"Yes. I'm pretty sure that's what's going to happen. But this time things will be different. This time their target isn't going to just stand and take their abuse, this time they're going to be in for a shock!"

"What are you going to do?" Beckie asked.

"God has helped me see the path," David replied.

"He's spoken to you again? He's warned you that they're coming?" Beckie gasped.

"No, he didn't speak to me as such, but when I prayed for his guidance he removed the fog from my mind, the fog that has refused to let me see the truth of the situation these past few days.

"God has helped me see that we need to do two things. We need to take the fight to them. Let them feel like the victims for a change. Let's see how they like it when someone strikes out at them. I want to take a hand-picked squad and attack them."

Beckie nodded to show that she understood David's thinking. The twins wouldn't be expecting an attack from the much smaller tribe of Celestialites and it could potentially have a devastating effect on them. Even a squad of four could do terrible damage if they used the element of surprise effectively. She felt her own adrenaline beginning to flow at the thought of it.

"We are a warrior tribe; we will not sit idly by and let others threaten our existence. I will give my last drop of blood before I will be a helpless victim again," said David, fire in his eyes.

"I will stand by your side," Beckie agreed.

"The second thing we need to do is to build some of the weapons I've always dreamed about. So far all we've made are newer and better personal weapons. If we are ever going to prevail against their superior numbers, we need to make things on a much bigger scale. We need to take to the air and attack them from there. We need ordnance and armoured weapons that will let us strike them with mighty blows!"

"Why not from space? We should build space craft and attack them from above the planet. They'll never see it coming and demonstrating just how powerful we've become might be enough to make them think again about attacking us!" Beckie responded with the dame enthusiasm now in her voice.

"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!" David exclaimed. "We'll impress them with just how powerful we are, make them see that we are not to be messed with!"

"You must tell our people, David. You need to explain this other part of their history, this sordid part of how we ended up here and why we are in danger. Explain about the nature of the twins — hold them up as the bullies they really are!

"Tell the tribe, explain how you were treated and why we all love weapons so much. Spell out the nature of these people that are hell bent on attacking us and tell our people that God is with us! Inspire them to be the warriors they can be, encourage them to stand up and refuse to be victims, give them your vision of being strong to survive and let them feel it in their bellies!" urged Beckie.

"You're right! It's also exactly the kind of motivation they'll need to build our weapons of war as quickly as possible," agreed David.

And there you have it. Less than fifty years after men and women had walked on the surface of the new planet, a new race had started. The deadliest of races, an arms race.

The Stellarites were already working on space craft so that they could attack and annihilate the Celestialites. Now the Celestialites were gearing up to build their own weapons of destruction.

Neither tribe was aware that another threat was heading swiftly towards them however, in the shape of the Woden space craft.

The WS Scout was far more powerful than Simeone's WS Clarion and already the distance between them had narrowed significantly. In fact, it had narrowed to the point where Simeone was on the very edge of the Scout's scanners.

"Captain, I'm picking up a ship ahead of us, just within range of my scanners and no more. It's ghosting in and out of my readings, so I've not been able to identify who or what it is yet," said the Navigator.

"Hansa, try to raise the ship if you can," Marlon ordered his Communications Officer.