The Earthians
A Webnovel by Miko Wu
Chapter 2: Sector Zero
“Lady Jandi,” the android robotically echoed, “you have a new assignment.”
“Report,” Jandi uttered.
“You are to leave for Mulzafar in South Pakistan,” it demanded. “Our Intel discovered an Earthian operation in the area. They fear that the Earthians will interfere in Operation Poseidon. Their interference will impede the Council's plans. You are tasked to spy on them; if they are indeed going to interfere with our Pakistani deal, you must stop them at all cost. End of report. If you have any questions, please inquire.”
“I have none. You may withdraw Derrick.”
Jandi eyed the Android as it left the room. The mechanical door swooshed with great vigor then closed as if briefly but desperately gasping for air. Jandi let out a sigh and smirked, “name-tags for robots, huh, that never gets old.” Shrugging the distraction, she returned to her meditation in the white and sterile room.
It was a custom for Sector Zero, the Council of Eight's headquarters, as the unknown designers of the institution were madly obsessed with monotonous white and eerie gray colors. Furthermore, all of the text was styled in SimSun font as if nothing else was left to the most boring person in the world to use but utter dullness for design principles. Because of this, Jandi always felt unsure and anxious when being in headquarters and would constantly meditate to keep her calm. She was the total contrast of everything and everyone in Sector Zero or SZ as the androids independently abbreviated. She was born in the streets of Shang Hai—the marbled and westernized front of the Quasi-Com. She grew up poor and dirty. Her parents were street vendors killed by the Wan-Li-Tan triad. After the loss, she then traveled to the Himalayas where Shang monks held a refuge for those who flee from the grasp of the Quasi-Com. There, she mastered the forces of martial arts under the teachings of the monks. However, when the Quasi-Com found out about the refuge, everything was destroyed into oblivion leaving Jandi the only survivor who left the cold and harsh Himalayan Mountains to seek revenge. And in her struggle to survive, by the twisted hands of fate, Jandi became the eighth and last to awake to the prophecy.
Swoosh!
Jandi turned around and saw a familiar face.
“Shira!” Jandi exclaimed, “You have returned, my friend.”
“Yes Jandi,” the prolific and towering historian, in both physical and academic stature, responded, “I’m glad to be back. I hear the Earthians are on the move.”
“Hardly,” Jandi smirked, “they do not even know that we exist. They have no information about what truly is going on. I still do not understand why the First fears their existence.”
“Lord Wu is a cautious man, Jandi. I have to leave tomorrow with Lilly and Lord Veil to Brussels. It seems that Quasi-Com is planning yet another attack on the EU.”
“The Quasi-Com is weak. I doubt that they will be able to make much of an advance.”
“That maybe so, but they are getting more and more aggressive by the day. The Quasi-Com will substantially derail our vision of peace and unity. We must remain vigilant and proactive. Further divisions in this world will be costly to all.”
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“Of course.”
“Good bye Jandi.”
“See you later Shira,” Jandi muttered.
She then turned back to meditation, she softly closed her eyes, and as her brows clasped each other, she remembered images of her childhood. She crossed the Himalayas towards the northwestern point of India nearing Pakistan blaming herself, thinking that she was a harbinger of doom. Her parents died protecting her, and now the monks’ refuge had been destroyed. She was scared. She did not know where to go in the vast and empty snow terrain.
As she struggled through the daunting landscape, it seemed to her as if every shadow reeked of nasal-flushing white flowers that poured cold water into her bloodstream that rushed towards her head. It was comforting yet painful. Soft yet harsh. Then the cold chill of the Himalayas bit every single inch of her body till the warmth eventually left her soul. Her strength wavered with her yielding mind. Pile and pile of cold snow were all that she saw. Still, she walked and walked for days. Suns fell, and moons rose. Mists of clouds and clouds of mists formed and flew and flew and formed. There would be wallowing of shrieks and shrieks of wallowing around her. But she continued, for hunger and desperation overcame her fears. She searched for food but did not find much. She devoured the resilient fauna that survived the crevices of the cold. She ate the life that so desperately tried to survive. Then she searched and searched for anything, but there was nothing. Then suddenly, everywhere was pure white emptiness.
As days gone by, her heart became as empty as her stomach. Being in the white and coal-black-creviced void, she turned into an empty shell. She did not know what she was doing; it seemed as if she just walked and walked for no apparent reason.
And finally, fatigued and famished, she fell down on the cold snow. Slowly, she turned supine towards the blue sky. She laid still for hours and hours till night replaced day while gravity pulled and sank her deeper and deeper into the snow. Uncontrollable tears streamed from her eyes melting the little frostbites on her cheek. She looked at the stars and screamed in her head as her mouth could not, “Why? Why is this happening to me—of all people, why me?” But there was no reply. She was alone.
She stared at the sky. She could not be lulled to sleep. The sky unhurriedly moved without her. Stars grew brighter, then fainter, and then a slow brisk yellow-orange stroke enveloped the sky as if an artist meticulously brushed it on. She then saw some birds fly away. The sun rose. She was staring at it with her fragile eyes.
Her back felt mushy and cold, her feet paralyzed, and her face tingled in pain as if a thousand needles were poking it. Eventually, the sensations faded, and she felt nothing. Her eyes slowly closed and she could do nothing to keep them open. But before she reached the deepest darkness, despair, and emptiness, before she achieved the peace of death, before the last glimmer of pixie light vanished, a sublime brightness and a loving warmth burst out of nothingness.
She was awakening.
END OF CHAPTER 2
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