23. A Storm Is Going To Come
Chapter twenty-three
A Storm Is Going To Come
Several Years Ago, later that night.
Stathos-1 paced in his room. He had just gotten home from dinner at Talia’s parent’s house and thought about the warning that Stathos-2 had given him. She was wrong, he was sure of it. Stathos-6 was going to be thrilled that he was giving up the fight for Earth, to finally have peace. It didn’t take long for him to make up his mind. He was going back to the mothership. He would tell Stathos-6 goodbye, that he was going to live his last life on Earth, with Talia.
Lucky for him, Sebastian’s parents were rarely home. They never noticed that their son had frequent alien abductions.
He laughed to himself, shaking his head.
Alien abductions.
Stathos-1 opened his hive mind, he reached for the mothership, for Stathos-6. He found the mental thread and tugged on it. “We need to talk, pull me up.”
A green light enveloped him, and he slowly lifted and disappeared, only to reappear slowly on the mothership.
Stathos-1 was in his preferred type of body, young adult Caucasian males. He was currently in between missions, waiting to see how things played out with The Speaker. He greeted Stathos-1 with a smile. “How’d dinner go?”
“Great! I’ll be part of the family business in no time.” He hesitated and gulped. “About that though, there’s been a change of plans.”
Stathos-6 raised a brow. “Oh? How so?”
Stathos-1 looked toward the observation deck. Stathos-6 had a visual of the whirlpool galaxy pulled up on the wall of the ship. Exquisite sprays of purple stars spread out like sparks from a flame swirling together like magic stardust. Part of his heart missed exploring the universe, discovering new galaxies. But the stronger pull was his love for Talia. He finally found a home, with her, and he’d be damned if he was going to let her go.
He looked at Stathos-6 and saw him stiffen.
Shit.
Stathos-6 clenched his jaw. “If you’re about to say what I think you’re going to say- don’t .”
Stathos-1 held his hands out, pleading. “You’ve been right-all this time, I should have been the one following you, on your journey for peace and co-habitancy on this planet, for me, for us, for our kind.” He paused, gulping for breath as the air was sucked from the room. “I’m not leaving you, we’ll always be-”
Stathos-6 held a hand up and turned his face away. “The things I have done for you, for the mission - and one human girl is going to make you abandon it all, abandon me ?” He began to pace. “I won’t let you do it, I WON’T LET YOU LEAVE ME!”
His sudden shouting jolted Stathos-1 out of his euphoric hopeful bubble of love. The hairs on his arms raised, the feel of spider legs crawled up his neck and burrowed in his scalp. Then the anger bubbled up from his toes until his face was hot with self-justifying indignation.
“YOU FORGET YOUR PLACE!” Stathos-1 clenched his fists. “ You -” he pointed , “would be nothing more than a thought, a spec, a miniscule cell on the origin ship without me !” He stalked the room back and forth. “ I was the one who woke you. I was the one who gave you a life!”
Without warning Stathos-6 rushed forward and pushed Stathos-1 so hard he flew back, hitting his head against the wall with a hard smack. Stathos-6 shouted. “AND now you would take it away!? Just as easily as it was given, you would end my life?”
Stathos-1 felt behind his head and his fingers pulled away covered in thick crimson. He struggled to form the word with his tongue. “I am not taking your life. I’m simply giving you the chance to live one of your own, independent of me.” The tremors in his hands came slowly, thick emotion balled up in his throat. “I’m giving you your freedom.”
“KEEP YOUR FREEDOM!”
In two swift steps he reached for Stathos-1’s throat. He clamped on tight and lifted him off his feet as he spat the words. “You will be with me, or no one .” He dragged Stathos-1 to the next room.
Stathos-1 knew he should fight back, his pulse raced and his teeth ground together in frustration at the weakness of this human body. Hot blood trickled behind his ears and down his back as his toes barely scraped against the floor while he was dragged.
Stathos-6 slammed him up and onto the cold metal slab that stood raised in the middle of the room. He strapped Stathos-1 down tightly and shoved an organic tube up his nose. Stathos-6 could feel the tube wiggle on its own accord, up, and up, until it spread its spindly vines out and around his brain, clamping on tight.
His back curved up in pain, leg muscles taught, as tears sprang to his eyes.
Stathos-6 stood over him, a cruel smile spread across his lips. “I’ve been experimenting , don’t worry, you won’t remember this.”
Stathos-6 drifted in the background, Stathos-1 could vaguely see what looked like a large syringe full of pink goo.
Stathos-6’s voice crawled with malice. “You and I will have a new mission.” He stared him down, his cold eyes darkened black. The Stathos-6 he knew was gone, broken. He felt a prick in his neck followed by fire pouring through his veins. “ We are going to find out how our family is leaving us, and we’re going to get them all back, so that no one can ever leave us again.”
The room blurred no matter how hard Stathos-1 fought for consciousness, Stathos-6’s voice was fading, the last words he heard...
“We’ll be together forever.”
Then, darkness.