Goddess by David Wind

Author:David Wind
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Action & Adventure, Alien Contact, Hard Science Fiction, science fiction romance, First Contact Science Fiction eBooks, Alien Invasion Science Fiction, Colonization Science Fiction, First Contact Science Fiction, Sci-Fi romance, Colonization Science Fiction eBooks, Alien Lover science fiction, Galactic Empire, Romance with an alien, Alien lover, Space Exploration Science Fiction eBooks, Science Fiction Adventure
Publisher: David Wind
Published: 2023-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-TWO

HIS SKIN WAS ON FIRE; a thousand insects dug their mandibles into his skin, tearing at his flesh. He reached for the button to open and pull the suit off when a thunderous two-word command blasted its way into his ears. “Control yourself!”

His hands froze. He opened his eyes. The colors were gone, everything was normal, except for the man sitting across from him.

“Tsé nil-ta,” his grandfather said. “Stubborn Rock, when will you learn?”

“Learn what, Acheii?”

“To know yourself well enough to control yourself.”

“I do.”

“Then why are you talking to me?”

“You spoke first.”

“How could I do so? I am dead.”

He stared at him. He wasn’t dead, he was talking to him. “No, you are here.”

His grandfather laughed. “In your mind only, Roke. I am here because you need me.”

“Why do I need you?”

“Where are you?” His grandfather’s white eyebrows formed twin question marks above deep ebony eyes.

Roke pushed away the tendrils of fog doing their best to confuse him. “I ... I am on ... on ... Anadi,” he finally said.

“Good; why are you here?”

“I am a first-in scout. I am preparing for the colonists.”

“No! Why are you here?” he asked again, waving a deeply tanned, and wrinkled blue veined hand. “Why are you in this place, at this moment? What is wrong with you? What is happening to you?”

“I ...” He gazed at his grandfather, struggling for the words. He looked deep into his grandfather’s eyes. “I am here, in this place, running from a ... tłʼiishtsoh, a dragon, an alien. I ...” His throat closed, he tried to catch his breath.

His grandfather now floated a few inches above ground. He pointed up into the sky, where a magnificent golden eagle flew. His grandfather’s eyes bored into him. “Tell me, Roke, why would an eagle give up her wings?”

He watched the eagle, knowing its breed had died out on Old Earth centuries ago. “I don’t understand. There are no more eagles.”

He managed three short breaths, and when he exhaled the third, he lowered his eyelids and sought the place within him, the center of his core. A place he’d discovered years ago, where he could ground himself, and shut out all distraction at the same time. It wasn’t meditation; rather, it was different, a process he couldn’t explain.

Now, realizing what he must do, he stayed in his mental center, and willed himself to feel nothing. It took three minutes for the first of the stinging and biting sensations to ease. Another ten minutes passed before the sensations stopped. The moment the stinging ended he opened his eyes.

His grandfather was gone, and with him, the hallucinations. Whatever poison had infiltrated his system, had caused the hallucinations; but the last one, his grandfather, was his own mind fighting for control over the whatever it was. It was the manifestation of his grandfather that led him to regain control of his mind. “Thank you, Acheii, for always being a part of me.”

Looking at the chrono, he discovered he’d been down and out for almost five hours; at least the suit was fully charged.

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