Chapter 2: Eden's Bounty

His breathing was hard as tried to outrun his pursuers. Since his discovery in the mountains, he had been chased relentlessly by Bracus and Death for almost two weeks. They came close once, almost trapping him at the mouth of a small river, but since then he remained one step ahead of them. He could not use his power since the humans here had learned how to detect its use and the power source of his armour had depleted so he could not cloak. He discarded it for the sake of speed.

Two shots rang out, the bullets whizzed past his face. If they were that close to fire on him, perhaps it is time to stand and fight. Running another mile, he spun on his heel and tried to summon his power, throwing caution to the wind and found he couldn’t. Perplexed, the lapse in concentration allowed Death to put a round into his left shoulder. He hit the ground heavily, struggling to quickly find his feet.

“Halt Pericles!” Bracus yelled the order at him. Getting up, again he tried to summon his power, but the result was the same. He heard a twig snap behind him. He whipped around, staring down the barrel of Hanson’s rifle, Jason by his side.

“Give me a reason to shoot you, please.” Hanson issued the challenge at Pericles. His eyes darted towards Jason, who was channelling. Pericles lifted his hands in surrender. He was wounded and defeated.

“I take it you are the reason I cannot channel?” He asked Jason. Jason just smiled at Pericles’ attempt at breaking his concentration.

“You humans are wily little sneaks. I thought only these two were chasing me.” Pericles congratulated them while pointing at Bracus and Death as they approached to cuff him.

Pericles grimaced as Death roughly bound his arms behind his back as Bracus cuffed him. Hanson took a quick look at Pericles’ wound.

“I am not familiar with your physiology. Are you in any danger of dying?” Hanson asked him gruffly. Pericles shook his head in the negative. Hanson proceeded to ram the butt of his rifle into Pericles’ diaphragm, slightly winding him. Jason turned around and gave Hanson a derisive look.

“What?” Hanson innocently asked, shrugging his shoulder as he moved away from Pericles, who gave him a hateful glare. Bracus pressed his earpiece.

“D’Nak, we have him.” Bracus reported.

“Acknowledged Bracus. We have a transport routed to your position. Arrival in three minutes.” D’Nak replied.

“So, do we have enough time for a game of go-fish?” Hanson jovially asked as his hand moved to the deck of cards he always carried with him in one of his ammo pouches.

“No, the transport will be here shortly. Three minutes.” Bracus flatly reported. Hanson’s face fell a little as he shoved the deck back into his pocket.

“Man, you guys suck the joy out of this job.” Hanson grumbled.

True to his word, three minutes later, an elliptical golden orb hung over the group. A bright cone of light enveloped Pericles and his body got sucked up into the orb, being broken down into chunk-sized, voxel-like shapes until he was completely reduced to nothing.

“Bio-data transfer completed.” D’Nak radioed to Bracus as the ship sped off. The group stared at each other in confusion. Again Bracus touched his earpiece.

“Uhm...D’Nak? Forgetting something here?” Bracus radioed in.

“Apologies Bracus. We will send another transport for you and your team. Expect arrival in sixty minutes.” D’Nak replied over the vox. Bracus swore under his breath as he removed his earpiece.

“Sometimes I think our new allies couldn’t be bothered about us.” Death said as he removed his pack and sat down in the dirt.

Bracus looked over to Hanson, who had the cards out again, smiling and nodding yes to Bracus.

“Yes damn you, give those here.” He said as Bracus grabbed the cards from him and proceeded to deal everyone in.

It took longer than an hour for a transport to pick up Bracus and his team and Death did not censor himself as he voiced his displeasure. David was there to greet them upon their arrival at the newly built port in Aegis Prime, formerly known as Australia, the home base of the Athenai.

“Welcome back gentlemen, I just heard about Pericles’ capture. I believe congratulations are in order.” David greeted them as they disembarked from the ship.

“Yeah, we had a jolly old time, camping out in the wild.” Hanson sarcastically replied.

“And in our own filth...two friggin weeks!” Death moaned.

“Maybe David can ask the new president to spring us for better accommodations next time.” Jason added, stirring the pot. Death just gave him a snort of derision.

“Have any of you met the new guy yet?” Jason asked as he heaved his pack off the transport.

“I don’t give a flying f...” Death started to say, but Bracus slapped him upside his head.

“Hey, I was going to say...fig.” Death said with a devilish grin.

“Well, I have...sort of. I was part of the honour guard at his inauguration two years ago.” Hanson said as nonchalantly as he could. He continued as he started unloading his gear.

“He is a Japanese national by the name of Hoshi Keido. But if you guys want more info, ask David. He has been working with the guy for a while now.” Hanson finished, nodding towards David.

Bracus approached David with his pack slung over his shoulder.

“How do you measure the man David?” Bracus asked. David rolled his eyes.

“In my opinion he is an Athenai lobbyist with less political acumen than a snail. If it wasn’t for George’s diabolical schemes, we were probably better off with him.” David concluded, looking around guiltily. The group laughed.

“Safe space my friend.” Hanson said slapping David on the shoulder so hard his glasses almost launched from his face.

“Any of you seen my coin?” Jason asked while furiously rummaging through his bag.

“Didn’t you loan it to Diane?” Hanson asked Jason with a puzzled look on his face.

Jason is usually on point with most things. Even his memory was nothing to sniff at. For him to forget what he did with one of his most precious possessions worried Hanson.

This little cadre of warriors has worked together for the last two years and has become fast friends. Even Death and Bracus refuse to kill each other these days. Just dirty looks and grunts mostly. Diane was now one of the new heads of the combined task force of Human and Athenai research and development, to help mankind get to a point where they would never need a species like the Athenai ever again.

David also had the post as the scientific advisor to the President. Earth itself went through a lot of changes through Athenai assistance. Transportation is easy now using the bio-transfer method. You could now just step onto a platform and zap yourself to Hawaii if you felt like it if you had the correct permits for it of course. Medicine also took giant leaps forward, with gene therapy and other advances brought with their saviours, the human life span will now be tripled according to David. All engineering sectors, education and even agricultural sectors received a massive boost from the technology brought from the Athenai. In the last two years, disease and famine had been completely eradicated from the Earth. Since everyone now lives in an era of plenty, all wars have ceased. For the first time in a hundred and fifty thousand years, the human race is now thriving and at peace.

But all these advances came at a price. The Athenai required a lot of living space as ship after ship keeps on landing with more of their people daily. The people of Australia gladly gave up their country so that they could settle there and were swiftly relocated and integrated into other countries. In no time at all, Australia was colonized and it quickly became their bastion. They even renamed it. Australia was now known as Aegis Prime.

They also demanded an equal say in Earth's government and politics, which most humans readily agreed to. They were humanity’s partner after all. But through all these positive effects the aliens brought with them, some problems did arise. Human cloning, at the Athenai’s request, was abolished. That decision was met with huge resistance, but the humans were quickly placated with a fleet of worker drones. Also when the aliens received equal say in the government a large portion of the human caucus and their constituents broke away and went into hiding, vowing that this was a mistake and that humanity should have learned to stand on its own. Named them The Sons of Adam. They were quickly branded as a terrorist group and are now mercilessly hunted by the combined forces of the Human and Athenai coalition. But now after all is said and done, the Earth is now protected by an armada of Athenai ships, with human ones now being built in orbit. The arms race has ended and humans are now enjoying an era of peace and prosperity.

A veritable Eden.

---

She stood atop the silver spire, looking down upon Aegis Prime. It has been months since she stood here, her duties often taking her far away from this place, but it was still her favourite place in this gleaming city. She looked up at the night sky. With almost no pollution and the Athenai’s effort to reverse what humans did to the atmosphere, the number of stars you could see was staggering. She looked to Mars. A smile crept across her face. Her life changed the day she held the skull of Remus in her hands. A door opened behind her. It was David.

“It’s nice out here. This high up, we don’t even feel the heat.” David observed as he approached her.

“It is.” She replied her gaze still fixed upon Mars.

“We haven’t seen much of each other as I would like. Our new duties take us far away from each other.” David said taking her hands in his. She slowly pulled away, taking a step closer to the balustrade.

“What’s wrong?” David asked although he knew the answer. It was Remus. It was always Remus. Diane struggled to come to terms with his end and her feelings for the spirit she carried.

“You miss him don’t you?” He said, giving voice to his worst fear.

“I do.” She whimpered, a solitary tear rolling down her cheek.

In the last two years they were together David fell madly in love with her and yet, every day, it felt like her feelings for him were fading away. Day by day it felt like he was losing her. It was maddening. Frustrating and the worst of all is that the only way he felt he could keep her was for her to hold onto his memory of the time they shared, however brief it was. He sighed and pulled away. He reached into his pocket and took out a pack of cigarettes.

“Since when do you smoke?” She asked, pointing at the pack.

“Since the day I found out that this relationship meant more to me than it did to you. I would drink, but I cannot stand the taste of anything fermented or distilled.” David said as he lit the smoke.

“I deserve that.” She said, toying with her hair. David took a long drag and slowly let the smoke billow out.

“Help me understand Diane. I did everything you asked and more. We were so close before, and now, it’s like I don’t even know you. I am competing with a ghost, a damn ghost.” David said before taking another drag.

“I know and you don’t deserve this. I know I have been pulling away for a while now. You have to understand...” David held up his hand to interrupt her, but she soldiered on.

“...me and Remus shared more than just my body. We were closer than lovers, and at the same time we weren’t. He knew my heart and I knew his. We both had no secrets from each other as both our entire lives were laid bare for each of us to see. I have never been that close to anyone living.” She finished wiping at her eyes.

“Not even me?” David asked, flicking away his cigarette butt. She shook her head in the negative.

“I am so sorry.” She said as fresh sobs threatened to overwhelm her. He gathered her up in, what felt to him, a final embrace and tenderly kissed her forehead.

“I will always love you.” He told her, smiling.

“I know it’s not fair, I know it’s not ideal. But friendship is all I can offer you.” She replied. After they broke the embrace, only then did she notice his satchel. She quizzically pointed to the bag.

“I was hoping I would never have to give you this. I had it for almost a week. Found it with all the other things that were brought back from Mars.” He said morosely, as he pulled the object from the satchel. It was a human skull.

“Is this...?” She gasped, noticing the familiar scorch mark on it.

“The skull of Remus from the house of Roma.” David said as she carefully took it out.

“Why are you giving me this?” She asked, her eyes transfixed onto the empty hollow sockets.

“You remember when George ordered the orbital strike on the Seven’s fortress?” David asked. She nodded.

“Well, one of the cloning vats survived the attack.” David said, waiting for his meaning to dawn on her.

Her eyes brightened up as she held her breath. This meant Remus could come back!

“Where is it?” She asked in a hushed voice.

Since the Athenai had a say in Earth’s governance, cloning was abolished. He pointed to the Athenai command tower to the east.

“Please Diane, I am giving it to you and hope to God you do not resurrect him. If you get caught…” He pleaded, but stopped short, knowing it was pointless. He tried resisting the urge to hand it over.

“Give it to her!” A voice boomed inside his skull. He felt his body obey and handed her Remus’ skull. And without a word, turned and walked away.

---

David entered his quarters, sweating profusely, trying to get to the bathroom. Grabbing hold of the toilet bowl he voided the contents of his stomach violently. He embraced the porcelain receptacle until nothing but dry heaves remained. He weakly got up and walked towards the basin and quickly washed his face. He stared at the mirror and contemplated the horror of what he had just committed. It was getting worse. At first, it felt like he made these little choices on his own. But since the defeat of the Creators on Mars, there was a voice inside his head, commanding him to do things. Terrible things.

Last night he sat down to dinner, opened a bottle of wine and proceeded to dine on rats. Rotten, decaying rats. It told him to go down into the sewers and catch them, kill them and let them rot for a week before the voice made him eat them. He tried shrinks and all sorts of medication to drown it out, but no matter how hard he tried, it always woke him up, took command of his senses and made him do the most depraved things imaginable. And the nightmares. God the nightmares were worse than eating rotten rats. The most vivid one, he was in a dark room being eaten alive by maggots. Giant, fat maggots burrowing and worming their way through his soft tissues.

That same night he put a gun in his mouth, wanting to end it all, but the voice would not let him. He felt like a hamster on a wheel.

“An interesting choice my pet, comparing yourself to a hamster.” The voice rattled inside his skull.

“Get out of my head, you psychotic bastard!” David roared, looking like a deranged idiot swinging at nothing but air.

“Ah, but a hamster is a fine pet to have. Like you are to me. If you would just stop resisting me, you will know nothing but bliss. No guilt. No remorse. And the consumption of rats will cease.” The voice said. David could almost hear him smiling.

He sank to the floor, whimpering like a little child, wishing for death, hoping that this was all just a dream.

“Look at me!” The command was whipped at him. His muscles obeyed and stood up, walking to the mirror.

“Look past the mirror, use those gelatinous orbs you use for vision and look…at…me!” It hissed.

Two bright pinpricks of white lights appeared in the mirror that resembled eyes, the faint outline of a face and mouth. Yet no nose. In the back of his fear-addled mind, David wondered how it could smell things. He actually considered this manifestation to be a product of post-traumatic stress, but this was way too specific. All the tasks this entity had given him the last two years were leading toward something.

As insignificant as all these little tasks appeared to him at the time he was starting to see a purpose to them. Well, a glimmer of purpose. When he gave Diane Remus’ skull tonight he almost sensed pleasure from this being. Like it wanted Remus to be reborn. Like most things, it asked of him the last two years. Looking over this guard’s shoulder to see a password. Or memorizing a map of the current human population density across the globe. Most of these things asked he could remember, but other things the voice made him forget. Sometimes there were moments when it would take complete control of his brain and nervous system and he would just be a spectator inside his own body, watching this…thing use his body, doing what he thought might seem inconsequential at the time. Even talking to his companions, mimicking his very personality. Whatever this thing is it is not a figment of a fractured mind. This is a sentient being that now inhabits his body, and try as he might, he cannot get rid of him.