| TWO WORLDS COLLIDE By Kelley Wood NOTE: DO NOT REPRODUCE THIS STORY IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM KELLEY WOOD aka HOPEINJESUS1995 This story was posted 30 March 2005 upon this web page |
| 2667 in the time of the Iyemiu (2025 AD) The burning red sun rose, at it did every morning, through the mount of Tarnrimi. Yuijresh, the monster, greeted it as he always did from his perch high atop the mountain, at the highest point, where he was doomed to sit for all eternity. A loud, anguished howl rose deep from within his evil-filled soul as the sun raked his body with many hot coals, searing his disfigured body as it did every morning. The sun continued to rise from its slumber, its intense heat scorching Mount Tarnrimi yet again. Rays of light bounced away from the blackened earth, where huddled masses of shapeless creatures sought refuge from the heat in dark caverns, fearful that life would touch the sanctuary of their deadened world. The sun rose higher, greeting the pale yellow sky that rushed forward happily to meet it. Light was cast into all of the hills, valleys, and mountains that had become dark with the night only hours before. Trees of white bared their orange and red leaves towards the light, collecting life from its illustrious rays. The flowers that slashed the valleys with beautiful colors turned their heads to the sun to drink of its existence, much like baby birds that open their beaks, waiting for their mother to feed them. Crystalline rivers danced over the rocks and pebbles that lay in their beds, sparkling like jewels in the sun�s illumination. The waters laughed joyfully as they slapped the banks and splashed over waterfalls in the mountainous terrain. The valleys suddenly came alive with animal life. Large, colorless elpha took to the yellow sky, stretching their wings fearlessly into the wind that carries them soaring high above the trees and into the warmth of the sun. A small jevan cocked its long ears, allowing them to rotate around its head as it listened for any sounds of danger and then herded its small gaggle of offspring through the flowers to drink at the river. It stopped every so often and allowed its blue flock to pass, seemingly counting each of the members to make sure it hadn�t left one behind. A cry was heard from behind it and it turned to collect the smallest jevan, who had tired, picking it up gently with its large front teeth and scampering to catch up with the gaggle. Beautiful passioa leapt from their sleeping places amongst the lower trees and stretched out their long legs, walking gracefully to the lower branches the munch on a breakfast of tree leaves. Their white bodies, with colorful markings, were camouflaged perfectly with the surrounding terrain, and they feared no danger from the tiger-like leodenor. The city of Javatrataz came alive with activity as soon as there was enough light. Imbarumbav rushed out of their conical houses, eager to begin the new day. Their jewel-colored eyes and copper skin glistened as reflections of the sun. Brightly colored capes and tunics painted the streets of the mountainous city like flowers painted the white hills of the countryside. Cejac Torpav awoke early, before the howl of Yuijresh was sounded, as he did every morning. He dressed quickly, in a green tunic and shimmering bronze pants. He fastened his bronze belt, a gift from the king, Urisalys, about his waist and smoothed the plain brown hair that covered his head and fell across the copper-skinned brow. He reached for his black cloak, but decided to leave it on its hook near his bed, for he knew the day would be warm. He slipped quietly out of his room, as to not wake his sleeping children, who lay in their beds in the other two sleeping quarters on that floor, and hastened down the ladder to his study. He made not a sound, for his housekeeper, who was a light sleeper, slept not far away in her own sleeping quarters. Cejac knew she enjoyed a good slumber, and it was an indulgence he was going to allow her, for she deserved it today. He walked around the house, through the eating quarters, the kitchen, and across the entry room to the large, elliptical door that led to the outdoors. He opened it and steeped outside, onto the stone slab that served as his front patio, just as Yuijresh�s howl sounded from the west. His pale blue eyes looked out across the city of Javatrataz, for he lived in its heart, not far from the great court where the affairs of the kingdom took place. His eyes rose up the horizon and lit upon the great mountain to the west, the Mount of Tarnrimi, as black as ever in a fog of darkness while the rest of the world shimmered with light from the rising sun. A muffled yawn was heard from behind him, and he turned around. His son stood in the doorway, still dressed in his sleeping garments, his thin, copper feet poking out of the pant legs. His black hair, worn in the same style of his father�s, was disheveled, and locks of it stuck up in the air at various angles. Sleep still hung in his bronze eyes as he stretched his arms up towards the sky. The young Imbarumb, though only esai at twenty-two years of age, was almost as tall as his father. Already he came to his father�s shoulders, and it would be a matter of time before he would pass him in height. Cejac peered into his son�s face, and a wistful look came across his face. How much the esai Imbarumb looked like his mother. His face, his eyes, his emotions all reminded Cejac of the lovely Imbarumb he had met and married so long ago. Could it really be sixteen years to the day since Bijcura had gone on to live on the other side of the sun in the house of the Iyemiu with their elder son Cejum? Cejac couldn�t believe how fast time flew. �Good sun�s awakening, Vtizep,� Cejac said, embracing his son. Vtizep returned the embrace. �Good sun�s awakening to you too, father,� he replied, ending his sentence with a hearty yawn. The elder Imbarumb smiled. �I take it you slept well, my son.� He nodded. �I had a terrific sleep, Father. In fact, it was so terrific that I didn�t wish to wake.� Cejac chuckled. �That good, then?� �Yes.� A bell tolled in the distance, calling all young Imbarumbav to classes. Cejac looked at his son. �You best run and change, Vtizep. I don�t think you should want to go to your classes in your sleeping garments.� Vtizep smiled, yawning yet again before sauntering back into the house. The young housekeeper, who had finally wakened, gave a cheery greeting to the Imbarumb as he headed towards the ladder to the second floor. She held in her hand a flask full of freshly made, hot honey drink, which she then carried out to Cejac. �Good sun�s awakening to you, Torpav!� she called happily as she handed him the flask. �To you too, Ziuca. Did you sleep well?� he asked with a grin. She looked at him with laughter deep in her silver eyes and fingered the beautiful medallion that hung around her neck. �Oh yes,� she said, blushing, �though I do not know how I ever could sleep after all of the excitement of last sun�s slumber!� Cejac grinned as he caught the blush. It was the same look Bijcura had on her face when he presented her with his medallion and asked her to unite her life with his forty years prior. He leaned over to kiss the cheek of his housekeeper. �What was that for?� Ziuca asked, touching the spot with her hand. A pleasant look of surprise came over her face. Cejac smiled. �That was to tell you congratulations, for I did not get the chance to do so last sun�s slumber at the party. I am very happy for you and Nior both.� She smiled. �Then I thank you, Torpav.� �Is my daughter still slumbering?� Cejac asked. The housekeeper shook her head. �Why no. I thought she already had been down, for she is not in her quarters. You haven�t seen her this sun�s awakening?� Cejac shook his head. �Then I wonder where she could be.� He sipped from the flask as he lifted his eyes to the east, where the countryside lay past the city walls. �I know already where she is,� he said certainly. ******************** Tena lay on her back on one of the hills and stared up into the clouds in the pale yellow sky. Her ice blue eyes shone with joy and sparkled like diamonds as she tried to pick out shapes amongst the blue, wispy clouds. She spread her long limbs out among the brightly colored flowers that sprang from white-green stems and sighed contently. The wind whistled through the flowers and the branches of the trees and it pushed the clouds across the sky, singing a merry little tune as it did its work. A few locks of Tena�s ebony hair danced in the wind, teasing the breezes as they fluttered up and down and across her face, but they didn�t seem to bother Tena. Nor did the dust that covered the pale blue tunic upset her, nor the rip in the knee of her darker blue pants, the one that she had received from climbing the city wall early that morning. She had also been running in the fields, as evident by the rosy blush in her copper cheeks. She hated having to sneak out of her house in the dead of night, but she just had to get away from the boredom of her studies. She loved to learn, make no mistake about it, but she hated being inside. The outdoors, especially the country hills of Caxarivuem, were a far better place for learning, in her opinion. She stared up as the sun as it rose to its perch in the highest part of the sky, watching it as it gracefully glided to its place. She listened to the wind, as it whispered in her ear, closed her eyes, and recited a poem she had read only the day before: The Imbarumb, esai was he Looked up to the sky and sighed �The Iyemiu, who knows all things Why must there whisper, instead of sing?� The Iyemiu peered from the home in the sun And smiled a thousand rays. �My esai, my child,� the Iyemiu whispered �Why must you ask? How much you Do not know. For to whisper Is to sing. �Quite a lovely poem, no?� a voice called out from the bottom of the hill. �I�ve always thought that it was a perfect explanation of the whisper of the Iyemiu!� Tena sat up and looked in the voice of the direction. An older Imbarumb, dressed in a silver cape, purple tunic, and gray pants, walked up the hill, a smile on his face. A bronze crown, bedecked with the name of the king and a center amethyst that glistened a gorgeous violet hue, crowned his head. His bronze eyes danced with mirth as he looked at the Imbarumb lying peacefully in the flowers, acting as if there were not a care in the world. �Uncle Urisalys!� Tena cried, jumping up to greet him with a hug. �What are you doing out here in the hills? Your father will be looking for you. What on the mountain would he say if he discovered you were not at you studies?� Tena grinned. �He would wonder if anything else was new.� Urisalys Upciar laughed. �And what�s this? Playing in the fields like niciv or esai? I thought you were mejin, my dear niece.� �I am, uncle. I just cannot fathom why anyone would want to stay indoors and suffer thorough learning that way when just as much can be learned out here.� �Ah, you have too much of an independent spirit in you, Tena Torpav, just like your mother.� �And what is wrong with that, Uncle Urisalys?� Tena asked, tucking wisps of unruly hair back behind her pointed ears. He smiled again. �There is nothing wrong with it, Tena. Do not get so upset. It just means that the Iyemiu whispered into you a spirit of stubbornness when you were created. It means that you are destined to do great things.� She ducked her head, embarrassed by the praise lavished on her by her uncle. Many had told her that she would do something great ever since she was niciv. She had often wondered what great things she would have to do, but could never bring herself to ask anyone. Her uncle touched her cheek with a slender finger. �Learn the ways of the planet, my child, and listen to what the Iyemiu whispers to you, for both will help you in the times to come, when the things will come.� She gathered her courage and finally asked. �What things, uncle? What are these things that I have heard about my entire life?� The fiery bronze eyes held her gaze fiercely as they showed a touch of fear. �I do not know, Tena, but I fear that they are coming soon.� **************************** Deep across the great divide, four American astronauts were being prepared for the latest outer space mission, an exploration that needed the wisdom of human beings, and a task no satellite could accomplish. It would be a risky endeavor, perhaps even life costing, for which four men were especially chosen. The four men were chosen because they had no immediate ties to family, a reason that wasn�t so much hard-hearted on the part of NASA as it was practical, for then they did not have to explain why they had to undertake this top secret mission. The commander of the mission would be Air Force Major William P. Cunningham, a hard-as-nails, thirty-seven-year-old two-time divorcee. He suited up for the mission with a hardened look in his steel gray eyes. His light brown hair was closely shaved in the regulation crew cut style. A tattoo graced his right bicep, a tattoo with only one word: determined. He would run this mission with the determination, efficiency, and power of a drill-sergeant. Lieutenant Alexander Lewis was the youngest man in the mission at age twenty-four. He had a dogged determination of his own; he wanted to be the best astronaut he could be, as to fulfill the promise he had made to his dying grandfather, who had raised him from early childhood. His blond hair, though completely shaved so that nothing but fuzz remained, glistened in the early morning sun as he prayed his morning prayer. His green eyes were full of excitement, as this would be his first mission as pilot. Mission Specialist John Patterson pulled on the standard issue suit over his jumpsuit, still wondering why he was chosen for this mission. His blue-green eyes were clouded with frustration as he thought of his stepfather�s exertion over him to join the space program, and his mother�s weakness in letting her second husband control her only surviving son. He had joined only because it was the only thing that would get his stepfather off his back, and while he turned out to be an excellent specialist, he hated his work. He wondered what his father would have said, had he not died when John was so young. The last of the crew was communications specialist Jonas Bradbury, who was added onto the mission at the last minute as a replacement for the previous man, who backed out because of the danger of the mission. His thin, short body shook with fear as they fitted him with his gear. He was afraid, afraid of the unknown, and the mission was going to go out deep into the unknown. The four would be traveling farther than any human being had ever thought possible, at speeds far faster than previously made. They would be making history. They manned the four-person exploration vessel, called the Exploration III and performed one final check of all operating, recording, and communications systems before the lift-off sequence was initiated. As the ten seconds countdown was nearing its final seconds, all eyes in the command post were tensely glued to the huge screens that projected the image of the launch pad. As the craft, powered by two large rockets, began its ascent out of the atmosphere surrounding Earth, not a sound was emitted from a human being, and no one in the control room would say anything until after the craft was safely out of the atmosphere and on its way. The planned course would allow the men six months to race through unknown regions of the universe, some of which were only visible to humankind through the use of high powered telescoped, and others not even seen by the likes of those on Earth. The craft would be tried in deep outer space for the first time, and no one knew if it would really perform as well as tests had indicated. There was the risk that the crew may not make it home alive, if at all. Two months into the course, the craft began to receive strange signals. They were unlike any frequency emitted by anything made by man, and the equipment aboard the Exploration III could barely intercept it. In fact, it was several days before the crew realized that it was a signal. It was Bradbury who realized this, and he did not know what to make of the strange signal. �What do we do, Commander? Should we try to radio back to Houston� he asked. �What could the signal be, Bradbury?� �It could be a satellite gone wrong,� �Out here in the middle of nowhere?� the major said, sarcastically. �It could have veered too far of course, or have been thrown by the gravitational pull of a planet or star. Then there�s the other option.� �Which is?� asked Patterson, who was trying to weigh the possibility that a satellite could�ve been thrown that far into space. �It�s a signal sent by an alien being.� Lewis let out a chuckle. �By all means, let�s investigate it, Commander. The men in Washington have been telling us for years now that alien life forms don�t exist. Here�s our chance to prove them wrong once and for all.� John Patterson held up his hand. �But what if the signal is another craft from Earth or a satellite, like Bradbury said? The EU lost one of their crafts just last year when the signal was disconnected. What if that is the craft?� The young lieutenant�s eyes flashed with an excited look. �Then we will have found the craft and can radio back to Houston telling them so. We�ll be heroes. I can see it now. �American Astronauts find missing European Satellite.� Wouldn�t that be something?� �Enough!� Cunningham barked, glaring at Lewis with a harsh look of malice in his eye. He stood face to face with the young lieutenant. �Since when did you become commander of this vessel, Lieutenant? I don�t recall receiving a signal declaring this to be true, and until I do, I will make the decisions. Do I make myself clear?� Lewis saluted. �Yes sir!� he shouted. Bradbury, who had decided to stay out of the discussion once he gave his possibilities, was staring at the vast emptiness of space as it rushed by the small octagonal window. Something in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned to look at it. He suddenly froze. A dark blue orb was heading right for the Exploration. The shapeless mass looked almost like space dust, and it would have not caused the crewmember any alarm were it not for the fact that it was moving at an extremely rapid pace towards the smaller craft. �Um, um, uh, Commander? I don�t want to interrupt your speech and all, but�but�but I think you might want to have a look at this,� he stammered. The major leaned over and took one look out of the portal window and shot up. �Evasive maneuvers immediately!� he ordered. But the command came too late. The orb, moving even faster now, slammed itself into the side of the vessel, causing its inhabitants to go careening into the wall on the other side. It proceeded to swallow the craft up, covering the entire vessel to be coated in a fog of dark, almost immense, blue fog. Suddenly the vessel went spiraling out of control, heading down, down, down into a deep abyss. The men clung in fear to whatever they could for comfort, the forces of the rotating motion holding them virtually prisoners on the floor, unable to move. Lewis closed his eyes and prayed over and over again in a quiet litany the only prayer he could remember at the moment. �Our Father, who is in heaven, holy be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Don�t lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Our Father, who is in heaven�.� |
| Chapter one |