Chronicles of the Aeons War Read online

  THE OMNIVERSE: CHRONICLES OF THE AEONS WAR

  By Steve Karmazenuk

  Copyright © 2006 – 2014 by Steve Karmazenuk

  Smashwords edition, all rights reserved.

  ISBN 9781310968808

  All material within this document are protected by Canadian and International copyright law and cannot be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, manual, electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the author.

  All characters appearing in this work are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Steve Karmazenuk is an author, former music journalist and current freelance writer from Montreal, Canada. He also worked in post production in the Canadian film industry.

  His novels include

  The Omniverse Series:

  The Unearthing

  Through Darkness and Stars

  Chronicles of the Aeons War

  Other Works

  Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind.

  THE OMNIVERSE

  CHRONICLES OF THE AEONS WAR

  ALL FIVE VOLUMES OF THE AEONS WAR IN ONE EDITION!

  INCLUDES BONUS FEATURES NOT INCLUDED IN THE SERIAL RELEASE!

  The Aeons War has been waged for millions of years and decimated countless races across the cosmos. More than fifteen hundred years after the last survivors of Humankind were marooned by a dying Ship on the sanctuary world known as Midian, after nearly a millennium of peace, the people of Midian are about to face an ancient foe known as the Zohor, whose only goal is their annihilation.

  But Midian is not unprotected: A secret society of preternaturally gifted men and women known as the El-Ahur has kept watch over this world for a thousand years will stand against this enemy, while their agents on Midian seek the Shekhina Mehdi, a powerful, ancient being once known as Allison McQuire. Forces out of legend will join the El-Ahur and together they will fight across space and time in an attempt to defeat the Zohor and save themselves from immutable Prophecy.

  To my children

  Though we may not be able to see each other nearly enough

  know that you are ever and always in my thoughts, in my dreams and in my heart.

  I live for the times we are together. I die every time we are apart.

  Whatever the future holds, whatever happens, I need you to know that

  I will always love you forever and ever, without breaking.

  PART ONE: PARADISE LOST

  As Life is prolonged the Mind begins to expand and so does the civilization to which it belongs. Some Races evolve from biological to mechanical, others from matter into energy. Some Races become extinct and others simply continue to develop into wholly different Beings. But one truth is constant: At the beginning and end of all new stages of evolution the Sentient Races face a choice between extinction and salvation.

  SO IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING

  Once, the river that served as the source of freshwater in Landing had been kilometres south of the settlement’s boundaries. Long pipelines with automated pumps had been extended from the original encampment to the shore by the Old Ship’s surviving military engineers. Now the pipeline was a long-forgotten memory; buildings clustered along the river’s banks and bridges spanned the mighty Acoma. Once, the river had marked the southern boundary of Humankind’s incursion onto this world. Inevitably the city had grown and now sprawled in all directions: to the east, Landing skirted the edges of the Great Stone Plains that led to the ocean. Northwest Landing extended to Overlook Knoll, which rose to meet the great Shadowpine Forest. The city spanned the Acoma River, but strangely the city fell short of even the smallest foothills of the Blue Mountains. It seemed stopped against some invisible barrier, as though Humankind’s last descendants were somehow wary of drawing nearer to the mountain chain.

  The vast Blue Mountains stretched away south and west; hundreds of blue-stoned peaks reaching like fingers up into the clouds. Most were covered in the purple and russet colors of the native flora; only the taller peaks were bare stone or snow-capped. On clear days the summit of the Queen’s Mount was visible crowning the chain, almost twice as high as even its nearest rival. In all the time that people had been on this world, no one had ever succeeded in reaching the summit of the Queen’s Mount.

  Of course Decker Marius knew that the Queen for whom the mountain was named would not be found there but on Mount Umbra, her smaller sister peak. Decker Marius was the son of Decker Matthew, who had been an officer aboard the Old Ship when they were marooned on Midian. His father died long before Decker left for the mountains in search of the Queen of Light and Sorrow.

  The Midianites were last descendants of the Human Race, descended from those marooned on this world over thirteen hundred standard years before; more than fifteen hundred years by the Old Counting. They’d crossed the universe aboard an ancient vessel and been attacked by an enemy older than the ship that had carried them. The Zohor had nearly succeeded in destroying the Ship and its passengers. And then the Queen of Light and Sorrow interceded and saved them. After seeing the people to the sanctuary of Midian the Queen eventually left with Her teacher the Nai’Marak and Her attendant the Rai’Ha.

  Decker turned away from the city to look up at the mountains behind him. The sun was rising in the north as Midian circled Heruba, its parent world. Heket, their star, was a distant warm orange-white sun climbing slowly into the sky. The sanctuary moon wobbled along its polar orbit, tumbling as it spun on its axis so the sun described a strange, looping arc in the sky: rising in the north and tracing its way south before curving back northwards and setting only a few degrees off-axis from where it had started, at the end of the day. Night fell on Midian as its orbit took it around to the far side of Heruba, where the gas giant did a similar dance in Midian’s nighttime sky. But Heruba was closer and therefore appeared far larger in the night. When dawn came again, Midian turned its face slowly back to Heket, the eerie indigo and emerald luminescence of Heruba dropping away as the sky turned a pale silver-blue.

  The light played against the blue granite that gave the mountains their name, casting brilliant pink and gold reflections against the surfaces of stone and dropping others into deep shadows. During morning sunrise, the chain looked even larger and more foreboding than it was. On the Old Earth there had been a legendary mountain chain, the Himalayas. It was said that the Queen’s Mount rivalled even the great mountain of Old Earth, the mountain called Everest. Decker had only ever seen pictures of the Everest, and having lived on the Umbra for much of his life, was unimpressed by the legendary Old Earth mountain.

  Decker Marius was one of the El-Ahur; the secret protectors of the people of Midian. Known as the Hand of the Queen, the El-Ahur were sworn to protect the people of Midian. As part of the Suphia El-Ahur Decker Marius had stood guard over the city of Landing for nearly a thousand years. Whenever he could he would watch the sun rise from the vantage of the foothills outside the city limits. The El-Ahur were also known as the Firstborn; gifted children of some the original settlers on Midian. More specifically they were the children of the passengers and crew aboard the Old Ship who had been Healed by the Queen, the Shekhina Mehdi. Besides having been healed by the Queen of Light and Sorrow, they had also been changed; transformed into the New Blood: Human Beings whose lifespans were doubled, sometimes even tripled. They had been known as the New Blood and thus, their children were the Firstborn of the New Blood. The Queen had Healed Grayson Amanda, Decker’s mother, thereby granting her the boon of a very long life, and forever changing the destiny of the ch
ild in her womb. The Firstborn were even more radically transformed than their parents: they were like the Queen herself, nearly immortal.

  The first five generations of El-Ahur were born to the original settlers’ descendants. Then abruptly the number of El-Ahur born to the Midianites declined; sometimes only one or two a generation were born, if at all.

  Though nowhere near as powerful as the Queen of Light and Sorrow, the El-Ahur were stronger and faster than normal men and women. Like the Queen of Light and Sorrow, the El-Ahur lived indefinitely; but they evolved as they aged, becoming more and more sophisticated physically, physiologically and mentally. Eventually they might even become like the Queen of Light and Sorrow, Herself. The Queen had trained them to be the watchers and the guardians of the others. She had trained them to fight the Zohor and to await the fulfillment of the rest of the Nai’Marak’s prophecy. The El-Ahur had children, who were themselves El-Ahur. And sometimes, long lines of True Blood, descended from the strongest of the New Blood, had children who would themselves become El-Ahur.

  The El-Ahur were a people unto themselves and only rarely did they find new members among the Humans of the Old Blood. Not all the Firstborn had become El-Ahur and as such there were many long-lived Humans among the population. Those of the New Blood and the Old Blood had mingled, becoming the True Blood. Those Firstborn who had remained part of the general community and their families—New Blood, Old Blood and True Blood—tended to gravitate together, sequestering themselves for the most part. They became priestesses and priests; they became teachers and scholars, leaving the rest of Humankind alone, except when their interests coincided. The surviving Firstborn who knew of the El-Ahur had kept the secret for more than a thousand years.

  Over time, the line between the Old and the New Bloods blurred, as more and more men and women were born into the True Blood. And as was its nature, the ephemeral Old Blood eventually died out. The New Blood were all that remained of the old world and those that had survived illness and accident (and sometimes, deliberate design) became respected elders in their communities. Ironically, this was especially true in Sinai. The Abrahamic Faiths had always been gerontological in nature; their religions had always revered the elderly, their religious leaders only attaining their positions of authority after many long years of service. The True Blood gradually became predominant even among the Children of Abraham’s religions.

  Somewhere along the way, the people of Midian began to refer to themselves by their family names first and given names second. The El-Ahur adopted the practice and Marius Decker, son of Matthew Decker, became Decker Marius, son of Decker Matthew. His father had been the Captain of the Old Ship, appointed by Bloom Margaret, the leader of the Shipflight; she who had given her life so that others might live. Bloom had taken the Old Ship away from Midian, leading the ancient enemy Zohor into a trap. Bloom had destroyed the Old Ship and along with it herself and the entire Zohor fleet.

  Decker Marius had been born long after Bloom had died. Matthew, his father, had told him that he had been named in honour of Margaret Bloom; the name “Marius” had, by the time he was born, come to be used as a masculine form of “Margaret”. Many children of Decker’s generation and the generations since Landing were named Margaret or Marius. Bloom had become one of the legendary figures of Midian’s history, culture and in the religion of the Way. Santino and Santina, the masculine and feminine forms of the last name of the First Governor, Paul Santino were now also popular given names. Decker had always found it strange that Santino’s family name had become common as a given name and given names were used now as family names were used then.

  So many things had changed since his childhood. He had witnessed so much. When he’d been born Landing had been little more than a shantytown. One hundred and forty-four thousand men, women and children lived as far inland as they could, on the central continent of Midian. These people had come from the Old Earth and most of them had been of the Old Blood, dying off within a few short decades. They had been Human Beings at their most ephemeral; they lived between one hundred and one hundred and fifteen years. The New Blood were those who had been healed by Allison McQuire, transformed. They and the Firstborn could live almost indefinitely, barring illness or disease. Successive generations lived for longer and longer, until lifespans became immeasurable. The True Blood were a blending of the two, naturally born Human, but born with all the changes of their New Blood parents.

  On Midian followers of the Shekhina Mehdi belonged to the religion that had grown from the prophecies of the Nai’Marak and the historical accounts of the Queen of Light and Sorrow: of her life on the Old Earth, aboard the Old Ship and finally on Midian. The religion was called the Way of Light and Sorrow; the Way in common parlance. The followers of the Abrahamic Faiths, the three predominant religions of the Old Earth, stayed apart from the followers of the Way. The Abrahamics were Jews, Christians and Muslims and had been the first to leave the city of Landing and the continent of Terra Nova, the New Earth.

  The Schism happened less than a century after Mankind had first settled Midian. Decker remembered it well. He’d been training at Mount Umbra under the Queen for decades when it began. He left the Keep when news of the Schism reached them. Decker had not been able to bear the thought of violence in the city where he’d been born; he could not believe Landing on the brink of civil war. But it was and Decker had fought to keep Midian united, aligning himself with those who followed the Way and with the Hindus and Buddhists, who were all trying to convince the Abrahamics that everyone could peacefully co-exist. But the Abrahamics refused and violence inevitably followed. After years of conflict the Abrahamics left and went South through the Mountain Passages and into the Southlands. From the Southlands they later migrated across the Dark Sea to Midian’s southernmost continent: the chain of large islands that had become Sinai.

  The War of the Schism over, the people divided, Decker returned to Mount Umbra, disillusioned and defeated. But he never lost his love for the City of Landing; never thought of anywhere else as home. As time passed the cultures and civilizations of Midian grew away from the cultures and civilizations of Old Earth. As did culture so did the languages. The Abrahamics developed Habish, a common tongue of Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish and English extraction; the Boreals, as the people of Tear had come to be known, spoke a language combined from elements of Japanese, Urdu, Hindi, German and Persian called Ardha, while Laesh, a Greco-Italian-Anglo-Slavic hodgepodge, became the dominant language in Terra Nova.

  Twenty years after the War of the Schism explorers traveled to the ring-shaped continent that guarded the North Pole. The continent of Tear, so named because of its water-drop shape, curved around the Pole, guarding the Sea of Taiga. The Sea of Taiga was an immense saltwater lagoon hundreds of kilometres wide, fed by the Boreal Ocean. The people that migrated there from Landing tended to be of Asian descent, with some Scandinavian, Australian, Persian and Arabian heritage. Tragically, inevitably perhaps, Humankind was once more divided. Though there remained close ties between Terra Nova and Tear and between Sinai and the Southlands, there was no true unity across the world.

  During the first decades after the Queen had retreated to the Umbra the Firstborn began to gather and seek Her out. It was as though they were drawn to the Umbra, to Her; year after year, decade after decade, more and more El-Ahur left the settlements, towns and cities of Midian for the Blue Mountains. There the Shekhina Mehdi trained them to use the Gifts; the physical and mental abilities granted them through the Healing of their forebears. She charged them with the protection of Her subjects: the men and women who had been carried here aboard the Old Ship. She and Juan Carlos, called the Rai’Ha, taught them the prophecies of the Nai’Marak. After the Rai’Ha left the mountains with Gabrielle, his daughter by the Queen, the El-Ahur built the Queen’s Keep; a secret palace from which the Queen of Light and Sorrow completed their instruction.

  And then one day the Queen shut herself inside the Keep and never came out. She told them
that their training was complete, that they were to go out across Midian and into space to watch over Humankind and prepare to fight the Zohor. She told them she would sleep inside the Keep until she was needed again. She ordered them to leave the Umbra and return only when the Zohor found Midian.

  The Phenex El-Ahur were sent out into space to prepare a fleet to defend Midian and the Suphia El-Ahur were charged by the Queen to remain on Midian and guard Her people while She slept. Landing was one of a number of cities that had grown across the three continents of Midian in all the generations Humankind had been here. It was the first, however; the Original City. As such it was a place of political and religious significance on Midian. When Decker was assigned to the Legion that watched over Landing he had been honoured. Over the centuries he had watched the city grow; just as he had watched it burn in the War of the Schism and then watched it rebuild. He walked its streets, lived among its citizens; among them, but not one of them.

  In Terra Nova, twenty-five Houses and the five Estates of the True Blood were formed within the societal structure of those who followed the Way. Each Estate was made up of five Houses and each House was made up of five Families. The Patriarch and Matriarch of each Estate belonged to the High Priesthood; the Patriarch and Matriarch of each House were almost always members of the Priesthood and the heads of each Family were almost always members of the Order of the Way of Light and Sorrow. The Order was the primary means of communication between the High Priesthood and the El-Ahur. The High Priests and Priestesses were the only ones in the Order who knew of the El-Ahur’s existence and they often acted as their agents on Midian. Even the High Priests, however, did not fully understand the true nature of the El-Ahur.