Chronicles of the Aeons War Read online

  Where the Priests and Priestesses and the followers of The Way had faith, where they had religion, the El-Ahur, had knowledge. They had been in the Queen’s presence and they had studied the true meaning of the Prophecies. They were born of or had borne witness to the Queen’s strange powers and they knew the secrets that lay behind the myth and dogma of the Way. Over time followers of the Way began to consider the El-Ahur to be angelic beings. It wasn’t long after that the El-Ahur themselves went into seclusion.

  The Shekhina Mehdi had promised to return to see them through the worst. But after more than a thousand years Decker couldn’t help but wonder: what if the Queen had not simply gone to sleep? What if the Queen was dead? What if that was the reason that the Rai’Ha left Midian with Gabrielle so many long years ago? And if so where were they now? Where had Rai’Ha taken his daughter? The El-Ahur had knowledge where most men and women of Midian had faith...but in matters of the return of the Queen of Light and Sorrow, it was all faith and faith’s equal opposite, doubt. And if the El-Ahur were angels to the men and women of Midian, then surely the Queen, the Rai’Ha and Gabrielle were gods in the hearts of the El-Ahur.

  All this weighed heavily on Decker’s heart this morning after last night’s Gathering of the Dream. The El-Ahur could communicate telepathically, but it usually required a great deal of concentration for them to do so. For that reason the Queen had taught them what she called Gathering of the Dream. By entering into and maintaining the meditative state used for telepathy just before falling asleep the El-Ahur could come together in a shared psychic experience, essentially group lucid dreaming.

  Decker always entered into the dream-state the same way. He envisioned himself flying away from Midian and up into space, eventually to Thalia Station. Midian was one of Heruba’s nine moons; Thalia was one of Midian’s two moons, the other being Melete. Midian had captured its moons even as Heruba had captured Midian. The stable yet exotic orbital relations between Thalia, Melete, Midian and the other Heruban bodies helped propel Humankind’s home so quickly around the supermassive gas giant. They also contributed to the unusual axial spin that gave Midian its strange, tumbling rotation.

  Melete was nearly three times the size of Thalia and still considerably smaller than Midian. Melete had its own atmosphere, which appeared hazy and green from Midian. Beneath the gray-green clouds of atmosphere Melete was a cold, toxic world. The El-Ahur had nevertheless discovered primitive forms of life already fighting to survive in the shallow poison mires that covered the planet’s surface.

  Thalia, the smaller of Midian’s two moons, was the base of operations for the Phenex El-Ahur; home of their training grounds and space command. Thalia’s atmosphere was artificially generated, covering only Castaneda Base, a small area at the bottom of the meteoric impact crater named for Castaneda Nadia, who had discovered it over thirteen hundred years before. The rest of Thalia Station was buried deep within the moon’s core. In the north-western hemisphere of the moon, Castaneda Base was forever turned away from Midian, looking out into space. Castaneda Crater was hundreds of kilometres wide. Its atmosphere and Human-normal gravity were generated by systems adapted from Old Ship technology that had come with their ancestors during the landing on Midian.

  Anuket, the sister-star to Heket, shone in distant brilliance less than half a light-year away. It was the third-brightest object in the sky, only slightly dimmer than Heket. Anuket was home of the El-Ahur’s naval yards, their jumping-off point into deep space. Decker Marius had, unlike his father, chosen to serve in the Infantry. Decker Matthew had served in the naval forces of the Old Earth and aboard the Old Ship. Decker Marius had chosen to serve the Queen on Midian, watching, protecting the world of their birth. He was uncomfortable in space; his father had had vivid recollections of life aboard the Old Ship. His mother had only survived that first Zohor attack by virtue of the Shekhina Mehdi’s healing. Decker Marius grew to fear going into space and what awaited them out there. The Old Ship had been nearly destroyed by the Zohor attack and ultimately it was destroyed in order to protect Midian from the Zohor.

  Over the years the El-Ahur Starfleet had patrolled space around the twin systems of Heket and Anuket and the deeper space of the sector the two stars populated. There were ships on longer missions out in deep space, forever exploring and guarding against the Zohor. Regular reports from Thalia kept Decker and his comrades updated on Zohor sightings and occasional engagements against the enemy. The Zohor weren’t, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, actively looking for Midian or its defenders, but there was never any doubt that the Zohor were aware that they were out there.

  When in the dreamstate Decker at last reached Thalia Station and the Great Chamber that was there both in the Gathering and in real life, only few other El-Ahur were already there. Soon more and more began arriving, fading into existence as they, too entered the Gathering of the Dream. The Chamber was distorted in a haze of half-remembered detail from the numerous minds that formed the Gathering. In real life Decker had only been to Thalia Station a few times, many, many long years ago. Few of the Suphia El-Ahur stationed on Midian had been to Castaneda Base; their Marshalls and Chiefs to be sure; and of course the ship’s Commanders and Fleet Captains of the Phenex El-Ahur. Decker was surprised to see that so many members of the Phenex El-Ahur in their distinctive vestments were here. Normally Gatherings in the Dream held in Thalia Station’s Great Chamber were exclusive to the Suphia El-Ahur; if the Phenex were here, then it meant the news was dire.

  When the masses had assembled, the speakers stepped to the elevated dais at the far end of the Dreaming version of the Great Chamber. Decker was shocked when he saw who was about to address the assembly. Normally, one of the twenty-five Chiefs or perhaps one of five Marshalls would address them, but tonight both Thrask Kuno, Supreme Marshall of the Suphia El-Ahur and Grand Fleetmistress Kaplan Helena were coming onto the stage.

  “Brothers and Sisters of the El-Ahur,” Thrask said, his voice reaching every ear in the Chamber, “Brothers and Sisters, you have been summoned here tonight because we have learned the gravest of news. Fleetmistress Kaplan has informed us that approximately twelve hours ago the Phenex El-Ahur received a broadcast from the Flagship, the Queen’s Heart, on patrol along the frontier in sector Proxima Zeta. The ship’s commander reported sensor contact with a large group of unknown objects. The Queen’s Heart went en route to an observational vantage closer to the cluster of objects. When they made their next set of observations, they were able to identify a fleet of Zohor ships.” Marshal Thrask paused to transmit a visual from his mind into theirs, along the link of the Gathering of the Dream.

  Decker Marius beheld a vast swatch of blackness, bisected by a map grid and menu, identifying the sector as Proxima Zeta. In the center was a cluster of bright objects, blurred together from the distance. The vision grew larger until the objects resolved into thousands of long, white slivers, travelling in formation.

  Thrask continued, “The Queen’s Heart was ordered to track the ships and maintain Comm silence until their next scheduled transmission. We did not receive any further broadcast from the Queen’s Heart. Just over three hours ago the Flagship Spear of Destiny found a debris field near the Queen’s Heart’s last known location. Composition and mass of the debris was consistent with that of a ship the size of the Queen’s Heart. The Spear was able to locate the Zohor fleet and track their heading. Brothers and Sisters, that trajectory will take the fleet to within a light-year of Midian. There is no doubt, based on the size of the fleet and their course that they are coming here. Given their current position and heading, it is estimated that they will arrive in less than eighty-six standard hours.”

  Fleetmistress Kaplan appeared beside Thrask and took his place at the podium. “I have ordered the bulk of our Fleet redeployed,” she said, “Our patrol Fleet on the Far Frontier will remain in place while the other four Fleets will regroup, forming two lines. The first line will be at the perimeter of the Home Sector Beta Aleph, under the
command of the Spear of Destiny where they will attempt to blockade the Zohor at Anuket Station. The remaining half of our armada will set up a defence perimeter at Thalia Station under the command of the Flagship Caliburn and wait for the Zohor. One third of the ships from the Thalia Line will take station in orbit above Midian and coordinate the evacuation with the Suphia El-Ahur on the ground. Once the evacuation is as complete as possible, the perimeter ships will guard their retreat. Any surviving ships will then rendezvous with and escort the evacuation fleet. Make no mistake: we have never encountered a Zohor armada this large and we do not expect to be able to stop them either at Beta Aleph or Thalia. The Phenex El-Ahur will pay for the evacuation of Midian with our lives, though a far greater price will be paid by those we will be forced to leave behind.”

  Kaplan paused as a buzz of conversation rippled through the Chamber. Twenty-five hundred ships wouldn’t be enough to evacuate the two billion men, women and children who lived on Midian; everyone knew it, and they likewise knew that most of them would be dead before the Exodus resumed – either killed in battle at either of the two lines or dead on Midian with those unable to make the evacuation.

  Thrask returned to the podium. “The Suphia will coordinate the evacuation from Midian up to the fleet,” he said, “The evacuation will commence two hours before the Zohor are expected to breach the perimeter of sector Beta Tau, giving the evacuation about sixty hours to complete their mission. In that time we estimate we will only be able to evacuate between two and two and a half million people. Once the evacuation is complete all surviving ships from both lines and Midian are to redeploy to Khuna Nu, from where we will rendezvous with our patrol fleet on the Far Frontier and plot the next phase of our escape.”

  Thrask stopped, letting the implications of his words sink in: Hundreds of millions of people were going to be left on Midian to die.

  “The Five Marshalls and the Five Fleetmasters have met,” Thrask continued, “And we are all in agreement: this is the time foretold in Prophecy. While the evacuation goes ahead, we have decided to deploy a garrison into the Blue Mountains, to the Queen’s Keep. The time has come to seek out the Sleeping Queen, Brothers and Sisters. The Zohor are coming and the Shekhina Mehdi must be awoken.”

  ONE

  HOMECOMING

  Midian tumbled on its uneven axis, making one complete, cartwheeling spin every fifteen hours. Once every thirty hours Midian finished its circuit around the gas giant Heruba. Heruba, Midian’s parent world, took two standard years to complete an orbit around distant Heket. During those two years Midian’s central regions went through six seasons: Wet Spring, the warm, humid months when the rains of Winter stopped and the clouds began trapping heat; True Spring, when the clouds dissipated and the earth began to warm and dry out as it produced its new crops; Summer, the hot, dry months; Autumn, when plants either went to seed or were harvested; Warm Winter when the rains began again and Cold Winter when the clouds turned dark and the rain became chilly storms. The only exception to the central weather system of Midian was the Blue Mountains, which were covered with snow during Autumn, Warm Winter, Cold Winter and Wet Spring.

  In the South, Sinai spent half the year in a cold, damp and rainy darkness with Heruba dominating the sky when the clouds did not. The rest of the year the island nation roasted in hot, dry, still air. During the summer months it was the coastal cities of New Jerusalem, New Bethlehem and Barat El Mecca that saw the most activity, as the people fished in the ocean or farmed in the salt marshes near the shore. Whether the cold or the warm months, the Jericho Desert in Sinai’s interior existed in a cold, perpetual twilight, as did the Twilight Sea on the far side of Midian’s globe.

  In the Northern Tropical region, Tear experienced hot, humid weather with heavy rains from night until the early morning for most of the year. During its brief winter season, Tear was prone to being struck by violent rain storms coming off Boreal Ocean into the Sea of Taiga; nothing like the hurricanes of the South, but enough to close the ports to shipping and sometimes raise the tide to the flood point. But winter in Tear was done and the weather was turning sensually warm and humid again.

  Cold Winter was just ending in Terra Nova, Wet Spring taking hold. In Sinai the rains would be beginning as well, the Southern hurricane season sending boats ashore and traders inland across the Jericho Desert to the Central Kingdom city of New Rome. Those that could headed inland with the caravans to escape the miserable weather to the warmth and comfort of the Central Kingdom’s idyllic climate. The Kingdoms of Sinai, the coastal cities on the West and East banks became embedded positions, shutters closed, doors locked against the gale winds and torrential freezing rain. To the far North in Tear, the Sea of Taiga would be warming as the clouds surrendered the last of their rains. It was sunny through most of mainland Tear and would remain so for several weeks as the clouds slowly regrouped out in the center of the Harbour Sea, fattening for their assault at the end of Summer.

  Across the world, no matter where, no matter the season and no matter which people or which culture was marking the days, this season meant Festival. The Landing Day Festival was the only commonality that Midian’s Five Nations shared. Every two years as Wet Spring began they celebrated Landing on Midian. Every two years they would offer prayers for those who had died to carry the men and women of the Old Ship to this world. They would fast from sunset to sunrise every day for twelve days, in memory of the First Settlers who likewise only ate once a day, at sunrise for the first twelve days they were on Landing. On the Thirteenth Day the Great Feast would be held: a celebration that lasted for another twelve days and nights, culminating in celebrations religious and secular, carnal and aesthetic, contemplative and ecstatic. It was, in spite of or perhaps because of her rejection of the traditions and teachings of the Way, a time of year that Yeung Acshah had almost always enjoyed.

  When Acshah was a little girl she always imagined herself joining the Priesthood like her brothers and sisters, like Father and Mother. Besides being High Priestess of the Shrine of the Rose, one of the Five Shrines of the Way of Light and Sorrow, Mother was also Matriarch of Family Yeung and the Intended Chair of House Cole once Mother’s Aunt abdicated. Father was the First Adjutant to the High Priest of the Shrine of Stone. Her brothers and sisters back then were already either Acolytes in the Priesthood or Novices in the Way.

  But as she grew older, Yeung Acshah found herself wondering about the world beyond the Temple Families and following the Rites and practices of the Way of Light and Sorrow. She began to understand just how cloistered a world she lived in and began to question how other people lived. And as she learned of the world outside of the Priesthood of the Way, as she learned more about the lives and cultures around Midian, the more she realized that she didn’t want to be part of the Priesthood. But by then she was enrolled as a Novice in the Temple School.

  Father and Gray Michael, her eldest brother, were angered by her rejection of Family tradition and Mother refused to allow her to unenrol from Temple School. The petulant girl demanded answers of her mother. Mother smiled and replied, “Before you can accept a thing, before you can reject it, you must first know what it is. When you have learned what it is to be a Priestess in the Way of Light and Sorrow, when you have learned the teachings and history, the customs and beliefs of that which you would now reject, then—and only then—will you be allowed to decide what path you will follow.”

  Acshah was angry, defiant. “I won’t change my mind!”

  Mother smiled and took her hand. “Acshah, unlike your father and brother, I don’t care to change your mind, only to fill it with knowledge. You can make your own choices, but only if you do so fully informed. Know a thing before you judge it and you will always be true to yourself.”

  And so Yeung Acshah continued to be taught by the Priests and Priestesses in the Temple. She continued her training as a Novice, serving during Prayers and Ceremonies with the other Novices, studying the meaning form and purpose of each of the Shrines and
their respective duties within the Temple. And she continued to defiantly question every Teacher, every Lesson. She demanded proof to the claim that the Queen of Light and Sorrow had survived all the things that She supposedly did. She questioned time and again why the term Shekhina Mehdi was considered blasphemous among the Abrahamics. Yeung was frequently disciplined for her petulance by the same Teachers who would then praise her work and studies. Acshah learned her lessons well and demonstrated knowledge in all subjects, secular and religious, in which she received instruction.