Chapter 39

Visions, Angels, and Death

  Dreams are like the ultimate comfort food for the soul. Dreams have a way of making it, so everything finally makes sense. You see the past present and future all in multiple ways. You see them, all but they somehow all exist at the same time and not at all.

  I saw the white light of my life. This being the thirteenth time I realized it for what it was, my mind packaging my core memories of this life into one package that would be downloaded. The white light as they call it was just the insubstantial parts of my life being burned away. Sort of a searing of the edges, so the core component stays tightly woven.

  During this time, I saw a number of things that simultaneously made no sense and made perfect sense. I saw an angel coming to grab my body in space. She was so beautiful that words couldn’t describe her. Not only could I see her with my dwindling vision, but I could also feel her soul. She and her soul, both, were beautiful and warm to the touch, even in space.

  During this time my mind became unbound and felt like it could wander the cosmos. Suddenly in that one moment I felt very lost and alone. Not only was I far away from my home planet, but I was also in the completely wrong universe. My mind went to the new universe, where I saw many things.

  I saw Astria still fighting off the scourge for charity. I saw the way Endarians were fully integrating with the humans. I saw the way my brother had been assigned as an instructor for the academy.

  Wait, what?

  Even in a dream about my death, my mind was jarred by the sudden appearance of my brother. Then I saw the way his eyes feasted on a female soldier. At first, I thought it was Jess, but no. I was wrong, so wrong. In the vision he only had eyes for a War Wizard in his class. While the face was blurry, I still instinctively knew that the no-face image of a War Wizard cadet that my brother was making sex-eyes for was Mel. My Mel!

  Then a thought occurred to me, was she still my Mel?

  Time blurred forward. I saw how my parents all went to see a blurry faced Dr. Charleston. Then saw the predatory look as my brother too went to speak with the good doctor. Then with horror I saw the look on his face as radiant Mel came forward.

  There was an awkward pause by the two, as they met in the hallway.

  “You here to talk about my brother too?” He asked, his voice rippling with venom filled words.

  Radiant Mel just sparkled slightly, as I could tell she smiled. The whole room went slightly lighter. “Yes.”

  My brother’s face changed. Then I saw the malicious predatory gleam in his eyes as he went in for the kill. “Do you want to have dinner and talk about it?”

  As this was a dream sequence, I could see the power being used in very powerful, but subtle ways against Mel. I could almost see the moment her resolve broke. “Okay. But won’t you get in trouble?” She asked, clearly referring to the fact that he was now her instructor.

  “No, not for something like this.”

  The vision ended, or rather was over in that second. The angel that grabbed me began to flap her majestic wings.

  “Stop.” I cried, my voice a little raspy. I don’t know how long it had been, but my throat was dry. I knew I could do something to alleviate the pain, but my mind was still mush. All I could think of was that I wasn’t ready to go yet.

  “I’m not ready to die.” I said, as I pushed, or tried to push my way free of the angel’s grip.

  The angel stopped her motion, then turned her full attention on me. I felt something deep within my soul burn, as a part of me I never knew existed burned to life.

  “You better not die on me!” Suddenly like that, the vision induced fog that had been coating my mind vanished within an instant. In a second, I was awake and aware of my surroundings. We were still in the heart of a great battle. Hundreds and thousands of dead scourge lay rotting near us.

  Rayquel held me in her arms. After a second, I realized my mistake. As I suddenly realized she was the angel I had seen. The one I had very nearly fought with to try to get free, so I could stay alive longer. More importantly, I could feel it was her soul deep within me that was burning brightly with a fiery intensity to keep me alive and conscious.

  In a second, I realized my issue, my oxygen levels were low. With a focus I created oxygen directly into my lungs.

  “Hhhh.” My lungs made a pained sound, as they were forced wide open. Still, that didn’t matter as I could feel the oxygen slowly dissipating. I tried to look for the leak, but it was in one of the secondary or tertiary sealed containers. Ones that were connected to the reprocessing of oxygen to make it breathable again. Looking down, I saw that the third component, the cleansing fixture, was missing.

  “Oh wow?” I said, as I held up the two ends.

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  A moment of confusion flashed between our bond. “What is…” She trailed off as she realized what was happening. “Oh no.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m not that easy to kill.” I said as I fastened the two ends together. Then with a lot of concentration, I spent the next few minutes creating more and more lungful of air.

  During this time Rayquel was blessedly quiet, though I could see her accessing my suits screens every so often. I knew this, as the little light of someone accessing your suit came on. If I wanted, I could deny her access, but instead I just focused on creating more and more air to breathe.

  Finally, after a long couple of moments, the crisis was over, and I was at over fifty percent capacity. That was when the strain on my mind slowly lifted. Then with each subsequent percentage increase I felt that much more alive, that much more aware. Only once I was up to ninety percent, did I stop to check on Rayquel. She still held me tight. This was good, as it meant ships would only need to rescue one of us. It also meant, if need be, we could take turns alternating sleep and search patterns.

  Once I was done, I paused to look up at Rayquel.

  “I’m so sorry. I should have…”

  “Stop, we are both alive and that is the important part.” I said.

  I could feel her gratitude in our bond. She was clearly emotional. I figured I’d distract her by asking her important questions.

  “Any word on the rescue efforts?” I asked.

  She nodded. “They are aware of our status and our location. It appears we are now in what is being termed the clean sector. Rescue ships are on the way, but others who are in the different combat zones are deemed a higher priority.”

  Hearing that I nodded in agreement. It sucked, as it meant we would likely have to wait, but then I pointed out the good part. “Well that just means we are less likely to be set upon by space amoeba. Trust me this is way better than having their babies get injected into you and your last thoughts are of your body bursting as the babies you are incubating swell up and use your own biomass to fuel their rapid growth.”

  At that Rayquel shuddered. This caused a weird rippling sensation with her wings, one that looked oddly beautiful in the odd lighting of space.

  Seeing her wings floating freely, outside the confines of her specially crafted space suit I couldn’t help but look on in awe.

  “They really are beautiful.” I say, as I make to touch one of the wings, but then think better of it.

  She looks over her shoulder, then back to me. “I could say the same about you.”

  “My wings are gorgeous, I do agree.”

  “No, smart ass. Your eyes and hair. Did you know you are becoming an Endarian treasure?” She asks.

  “Wait, what?”

  “It’s true. Your playing of Endar Rising as we went to save seeds from the world tree. Then your subsequent blessing of the tree, and fertilization of her seeds. They were all signs that you had been chosen. Those videos of you, knowing our culture and being accepted by our people went a long way into ending the conflict between our people.”

  “You recorded that?” I asked. Then I realized these were the voyeuristic Endarians, of course they recorded every personal moment. Then I remembered the way I got sprayed by the world tree with its pollen, some of which I swear I still can’t get out of my clothes.

  “Of course, we did.”

  “Even the flight over to the planet?”

  “Especially that. Actually, that was live streamed. Though it was cut off when you first played Endar Rising, many thought that was a vulgar act.”

  I smile. Remembering how it was meant to be just that. How I had originally chosen it to mock the Endarian people. Thinking about it still brings a smile to my face. Then I realize something else about her statement.

  “Wait, so you are saying that it is no longer being seen as a vulgar act?” I ask, wanting clarification.

  “No, they see it for what it is now. For what you and your actions represent.”

  “What is that?” I have a feeling that I am about to be hit with some new-wave Endarian propaganda.

  “You represent the future we had once dreamed about when we first started exploring space. You represent that change that spark how our society can move forward.” I am listening to her and about to vomit from everything. Then looking at her helmet, I see the glowing red crystal shining brightly by her head.

  “We are being live streamed now, aren’t we?” I ask.

  She nods, not wanting to answer that.

  “Phew.” I say, as I make an exaggerated gesture.

  “What?” She asked.

  “Oh, for a second there I thought you had gone off the deep end there. Started drinking the Kool-Aid and all that.”

  She paused hearing my words, then realized our moment was over. Or rather her fake moment that she had been orchestrating. “Actually, while I have you here. What is this about drinking Kool-Aid?”

  “Oh, back before the turn of the millennium a cult came up and said that a comet raging past the Earth had the secrets to the universe. They just needed to slip their mortal shells and join the comet. In order to do that, they drank poison with their Kool-Aid and voila, instant idiom.”

  I pause for a second, then go on. “It didn’t help that many different groups took on similar practices over the centuries of using drink mixes to cover the taste of poisons. Those were also referred to as Kool-Aid, even though they were mostly different drink brands entirely.”

  She nodded, then asked. “Does this Kool-Aid still exist?”

  “I believe so.”

  “I would like to try some of this Kool-Aid to see if it could really conceal this poison that you speak of.”

  Space Elves, I think to myself before shaking my head. Though to be fair, if there was a similar drink the Endarians had, I might be tempted to try it as well.

  Silence.

  After a few minutes, we fell into a state of peaceful silence as we watched the wave of black death that was the scourge slowly get wiped out as more and more fleets arrived.

  There is a moment when a thought came to mind. One so odd that I had to know. I also figured this was the most appropriate time to ask, as Rayquel and I seemed to be sharing somewhat of moment here.

  “Can I ask you something?” I asked.

  She turned to look at me, her eyes hard to pinpoint in the visor of her helmet. “Sure.”

  “How did you know?” I ask.

  “How did I know what?”

  “Back there” I say pointing to the ruptured hive mind that took out thousands of the scourge all by her psychic infused death throes. “How did you know the leader of this whole thing was there?” I asked.

  She chuckled. “You are the most powerful Precognitive of this universe. When you had your moment of panic, I felt it in our bond. Then when you spoke of the dangers I knew. So, I tested. That is how I got the new coordinates. At first, I thought we could go around, but once you had an even worse reaction the second time, I knew that was the area we needed to go.”

  “You did that all on a feeling?” I asked, still somewhat confused.

  “No. I Did that based on your feelings.” She said.

  “Oh.” Was all I managed to say. I know, deeply meaningful moment to expand upon and I nailed it. But I was literally lost for words. With that I just turned my attention to the carnage around me. My arm wrapped around Rayquel as we watched the monsters of nightmares slowly get eradicated in space. The use of our arms to hold each other tightly was unnecessary, as we were fastened by three different sets of pair-cords now. But I still felt comfort from the touch. Even if we were protected by layers of space resistant fibers, I still felt a mental warmth from our proximity.

  Finally, it was her turn to ask a question. “When I first arrived. When you were fighting with me. Could I ask what you were thinking?”

  I paused but figured I would likely need to explain myself. “Well, I was suffering from oxygen deprivation, so my mind was wandering. Then when you grabbed me and I saw how beautiful you were, I thought you were a being from our, human, history.”

  “What being is that?”

  “I thought you were an angel who had come to whisk me away to my next life.”

  Hearing that she paused. “Well then, you did a good thing.”

  “What?”

  “Fighting me.”

  I just shook my head and laughed at the statement.

  Our conversations devolved from there. I got to learn a lot about Rayquel, and she in turn got to learn a lot about me. Over the next twenty hours we watched as the darkness of the space terrors slowly dwindled away. Then finally a rescue ship managed to come out and secure our safety.

  During that time, I had to refill both mine and Rayquel’s air and water twice. This apparently was what made our rescue take so long, as the medics went out to rescue those that were worse off first. Us being at full air and water, meant we could survive longer and were thus among the last to be picked up.

  We were out for so long, that I also used my healing magic on her, helping her mind stay awake and focused with me as we waited for our inevitable rescue.

  Tired and nearly delirious we got on the rescue ship, where I immediately stripped out of my suit. I took a quick shower and was about to pass out. When I did a quick check on Rayquel, only once I was certain she was safe did I manage to find an open bunk. Then before even asking permission, I dropped into the mattress, and I immediately passed out.