The Dream of an Ancient God by Scott Reeves

Author:Scott Reeves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: metaphysical science fiction, space opera, first contact, science fiction, space battle, alien contact, alien invasion, sci fi, sci fi romance, unlimited power, galactic empire
Publisher: Scott Reeves
Published: 2014-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine - Escape

GOTHAN JISWA WALKED through the hallways of the Fassara, seething with conflicted emotions. On the one hand, he was elated. The One had definitely been found! Yet at the same time, he was disgusted at that poor girl’s torture, and his part in it.

But he put the disgust out of his mind. What’s done was done, and he had done far worse in his time, to keep his true allegiance secret. Each side was seeking the One, but for opposite reasons. No atrocity he was ordered to commit while in his present position of power was too high a price to pay, if performing those atrocities allayed suspicion and would ultimately allow him to keep the One out of the Empire’s hands.

On his way to Samuel Walker’s—the One!—cell, Gothan stopped at a comm unit. He opened a line to the hangar deck. “This is Vice-Captain Jiswa,” he told the flight crewman who answered. “Prepare a shuttle for me. I will be visiting the surface shortly.”

“Yes, sir,” the crewman said.

Gothan closed the connection. He looked up and down the corridor. No one was in sight. Reaching underneath his shirt, to an inner pocket, he pulled forth the small, black statuette that every one of his faith carried. He continued casting surreptitious glances up and down the corridor; if he was caught with this idol, he’d be stripped of his rank and executed. He held the statuette so that his forefinger was on the head, his thumb on the bottom, and tried to bring each finger together, as though crushing the statuette. The head depressed slightly, like a button, and the flattened bottom sank upward slightly. In response, the four eyes in the head began blinking green.

The signal was going out to the faithful.

Gothan smiled. How often had he dreamed he would be the one blessed to send the signal? And how often had he worried that he wouldn’t, that not even another would give the signal, and he would die never having seen the universe transformed by the One?

He quickly replaced the statuette in its pocket. A few crewmen had just rounded a nearby corner and were approaching, but they had seen nothing, just their commander apparently making a routine use of a comm station.

Gothan gave a dignified tug to straighten his uniform, and continued on his way.

A few moments later he arrived at the detention block. The four guards slouching against the walls, looking bored, snapped to attention at his approach. They saluted him, and he nodded in acknowledgment. He stopped outside the door to Samuel Walker’s cell and waved off offers of assistance.

He reached for the door’s control panel.

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