Distant Reality Chapter Twenty Two
GRID Traveler Trinity: Distant Reality
Author: J Carrell Jones
Table of Content
Chapter 22
There are two types of salvation: Salvation through asking for forgiveness and Salvation through forgiveness. Each type has its own price to pay. One is paid by loss of dignity, control, power and influence. The second is paid by loss of influence, control, power and dignity. The difference between the two types is the order of what is important.
Chapter 22
Sean walked up to a coffin and stared deeply into it. It was absolutely unbelievable. His inner core being screamed that it was all a lie. It had to be a lie. And that this was a dream and that he would wake up in just a little bit because this place was just a construct of his subconsciousness. But he looked deeper in the face behind the glass cover. It was not a dream and this was a person. Damn!
Reality could be a hard slap to the face. He looked up to Loggar.
“Now what?”
“W-W-What do you mean?” She stammered.
He stared at Robin and the others and simply added, “What do we do from here?” Sean wheeled around looking at the door. His anger building up. In one surge he turned back around and let it all come out. “I trusted you! I let you come into my life. I let you use me. I let you blindfold me into this Wicca thing and where has it gotten me! Where!” He screamed. “We got monsters behinds us and dead folk before us. Now I’m just asking you for a simple solution to all this. You people with all the answers.” And in a flash his anger was gone.
Milkens cleared his throat. “Umm, Commander, they are not dead.”
Sean shot him a look.
Milkens visibly cringed, but recovered fast enough to restore some bit of dignity.
“Come again?” Sean said.
Milkens cleared his throat. Herb had known Milkens for more than a decade and he knew he was a very withdrawn and shy guy. In a conversation, Milkens admitted to be very intimidated by the man. Randals he laughed at, Loggar he respected, like all the other high officials in the Most High, though Robin was a captain in the service and commanded a GRID ship she was Most High and very beautiful. But Blakemore, he said, was a true honest to goodness Battlecruiser commander, he was a hero who rescued people and fought the SI war. This man commanded loyalty and respect and authority and the glamorous and not so glamorous things in the Service. This man frightened him. Milkens told a deep breath. “The Necronians are alive.”
Sean blinked. “I thought that’s what you said.”
Milkens nodded and continued. “They are in suspended animation, just waiting for something or someone to awaken them.”
This was madness Sean thought. “What kind of people would purposely put themselves asleep for who knows how long, just to be awaken at the ‘right’ time?”
Kurp stepped up and said, “Because they were probably bored. Think about it. You can do anything you want just by waving your arms and uttering a few words and presto! Something happens. That kind of ability can get old. These people lived it from birth and they probably lived decades, maybe centuries before they started to age. Living in a place where one’s ability to utter the right words probably got very and understandably trite.”
Sean looked around and saw the others nodding.
“But you guys try and practice it all the time.”
Loggar chanced a touch on Sean’s shoulder. “Yes we do, but we never get there. We, mainly, speak the words and go through the rituals to bring the group into a sense of purpose. We really do want to do Magick, but we know we can’t. Rituals just basically heighten our sense of our surroundings and focus us as a group. Our philosophy gets us through the day. We are Witches.”
Kurp grabbed the moment and said, “And if we were Necronians we would probably be here, lying in wait for something to happen.”
Sean suddenly looked tired. He shook his head several times and pressed his lips tight. He looked for a place to sit but found none, so he decided he was going to sit on a ‘coffin.’ The thought made him ill to the stomach. Milkens said these folks were alive, but still, they looked too still for his liking. Maybe they weren’t dead. Maybe these people could help them. Maybe not. “How long have they been here?”
Milkens spoke, “Maybe several decades, maybe several centuries, maybe even longer, hard to tell really. We do know that Necron was abandoned, at the very least, maybe a hundred years ago.”
Sean paced amongst several coffins. One older male in his sixties, a child in their teens, a woman in her forties. He peered in a ‘coffin,’ the person was a young woman about 30 something. Sean smiled at his attempt to guess her age. She was probably 300, maybe 3,000 or 30,000! Good Goddess this was bizarre. She had light brown skin and long black hair. Beautiful was an understatement. He touched the glass and suddenly felt dizzy. He had to sit down so he placed himself at the edge of the ‘coffin.’
“Okay, my question still stands. Now what?” Sean said.
He suddenly had this feeling that something was happening. He couldn’t place his finger on it, but something was indeed happening. He looked over to the light in the distance. “Any idea what that is?” He asked no one in particular.
Herb said, “Good question. Since I think we are safe in here I was going to suggest we walk there . . . umm, did you lock the doors?”
Sean shot him a look, “I don’t know, did I?”
“Maybe we should make sure. I think you should touch the door again.”
Sean shrugged, “Whatever, I’m just a resident tool here.”
He didn’t look at Loggar but he knew she had a pained look on her face.
The group walked over to the door and stood there.
Sean, just to see if he was still connected with the doors spread his arms wide. The door opened and he saw Randals, Agegi and a handful of minions. Two of them broke from the group and raced toward the opening. Sean waited until they were dead center then he closed his arms. The doors slammed shut crushing the minions. He walked over to one of the doors and touched it. The group heard internal mechanisms clicking, then silence. Sean stepped back and swept his arms open. The door remained closed. That was the best thing that has happened thus far he thought.
Agegi stepped toward the door. It opened and he saw Sean with his arms open wide. He told two of his slaves to stop him, but as they crossed the threshold Sean dropped his arms and effectively killed that plan. Then Agegi heard the doors lock. Randals was next to him when Agegi turned around. He looked down and said, “We have to find a way to wake the others.”
Randals bowed his head once and said, “Yes, Master. Might I suggest these?” And he held out his hand. Randals had two prototype sniffer maskers that Milkens and Herb had been working on.
“Do they work?” Agegi demanded.
Randals smiled, “Perfectly, Master.”
Sean turned around and dropped to his knees. The others rushed to his side.
Robin was the first to reach him. “Sean, are you okay?”
Sean, for a split second had this feeling that life was being drained from him. His head throbbed and he felt like his heart was about to burst. His muscles in his legs and arms didn’t seem like they wanted to work. So, he dropped to his knees and started to shake violently. After a few seconds he said, “Damn that was strange. I felt like I was dying for a moment.”
Loggar reached Sean a second after Robin and muscled her way between the both of them. She said, “Oh, Sean, I am so sorry. Please forgive me. I didn’t know. This is all my fault and I don’t know how to solve this one. I’m scared and I’m afraid this is not going to turn out okay for any of us! I just wanted all this to work out. It would hurt me forever to know that you hate me, but I would understand. I just want to tell you that I love you and I am so, so, sorry. And I ask only for your forgiveness.”
Sean stared into her eyes for a moment. He really didn’t have a reason to be mad at her, at least none he could think of, and she really seemed to be sincere about her feelings and he did have strong feelings for her and she was asking for his forgiveness. Here was this prominent scientist, the leader of a religious group, and a strong power within GRID asking him for forgiveness, and asking it in front of Robin. That had to mean something, really. Kathy came to Sean when he was at his worst and she helped him to get out of his hole. He was used, but it didn’t matter. The GRID has and will continue to use all for its purpose, so what was Loggar’s crime? She included him into a secret world that was very powerful. Sean hugged her and whispered in her ear, “Don’t worry, I love you and we’ll talk when this is over and done with, okay?”
She looked at Sean and wiped away her tears. She was very embarrassed to be crying in front of the others. She couldn’t help it. She loved Sean and terribly needed his forgiveness. This whole mess was her fault. No amount of justifying would alter the fact that she played into Agegi’s agenda. It was her fault that Sean had to kill four good men. It was her fault that Randals and others were turned into monsters. And if they died tonight or were turned into those horrible abominations it was again her fault. She cried a little bit more. Red eyed she looked at the others. Damn them for thinking she was weak, but when she looked at Herb and Milkens and Kurp, all three had tears welled up in their eyes as well. They smiled at her and walked over and hugged her. They understood because they too claimed some responsibility over this whole thing.
Robin, however, was stone faced with military discipline. She resented Loggar for pushing her away from Sean. And when Loggar started crying, that dropped her a dozen notches in her book. Robin resented the fact that Loggar played her like some background instrument in a full orchestra.
They all heard a noise behind them and looked up.
Every single one of them paled with surprise, shock and fear.
Sean was the first to recognize her. He sat on her coffin moments again. She was the beautiful woman with the long dark hair and the light brown skin. Now she stood in front of them, standing, breathing, alive and naked! Sean blinked several times. Was this a dream? A nightmare? Was he dying and this was the angel coming down to help him cross over?
She said, “I think I can help you out of this.”