Boundless

  Chapter Eight

  2112 AD, in the Constellation Eridanus

  Looking up, I gasped.

  ‘Where am I?’ I asked puzzled. My goodness! I exclaimed staring in awe. I was in another world. An entirely different world, not like I had seen in sci-fi movies, no. This was for real. The sky was a deep blue, filled with hundreds of strange moon-like objects, some grey like our own moon but many times bigger. Others were yellow, pink and black in color. The largest of these strange objects was a yellowish-red sun like object. It was massive, bright, but not as bright as our own sun, it appeared very close although I felt no heat on my skin.

  The air was cold and smelt sharp. In the air all about me were tiny frozen grayish debris. The ground was all grey and there was no animal, tree or plant in site.

  ‘Oh my God!’ It was Doctor Lynn.

  ‘Unbelievable!’ Uncle Henry interjected, ‘what is this place?'

  Eel turned to him and said.

  'Welcome to future Earth. Twenty one twelve. We are in the Constellation Eridanus. Is everybody okay?’

  No one replied. No one could.

  ‘We can’t stay out here for long; the air is very thin and will turn toxic at any moment. If you happen to inhale one of these,’ He said pointing to the cushion like fragments suspended in midair, 'you’ll be dead in no time.'

  ‘What are they?’ someone asked, I don’t recall who it was exactly.

  ‘Living Fungi.’ Eel answered, 'hibernating, waiting for a host body to inhabit, take nutrients from, grow in and reproduce. Follow me.’

  Eel led us to a cave-like structure. It looked more like the base of a mountain passage with a thick steel door which at the press of a few buttons on the right, unhinged itself from the ground up letting us into stale darkness. Lights came on and what I saw next was astonishing.

  ‘Gents, Lady, welcome to Nevada.' Eel announced. 'A few decades ago, this place was known as paradise ranch or more popularly, area fifty one. But I call it home.’

  ‘Is that a spacecraft?’ I asked pointing at the strangely shaped air craft, black in color. It kind of looked like a huge missile with glass windows attached to it.

  ‘It’s a probe actually,’ replied Eel, ‘old though, made an emergency landing on earth in nineteen forty two or thereabout after surviving an ambush by the Qamiazs, a frog like race from a star system known as Omorulis.'

  'Wow!' I exclaimed. This thing looked amazing. 'Who are the Qamiazs?'

  'The Qamiazs are one of Xuryae’s many sworn enemies. Xuryae and his forces once stole a star belonging to the Qamiazs and traded it to another race in the same galaxy. An unforgivable act in those parts, but, it was this spacecraft’s passenger the US government at the time coveted the most.'

  'Why.' Uncle Henry inquired.

  ‘Numerous tests were carried out on him, some unbelievably gruesome.’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘For technological, military and software advancements mostly.’

  ‘Who was the passenger?’ Uncle Henry, it seems he was very intrigued.

  ‘His name was Eel. He lives in me now.’ The man called Eel replied.

  A chill run through my veins and I felt eerie. I could see Uncle Henry and Doctor Lynn's' frightened expressions flash across their faces. I couldn’t believe we were locked up inside this facility with an alien. Before that moment, it hadn’t really occurred to me that he could be an alien. I saw him more like a magician.

  ‘You all look petrified.' Eel said calmly, 'I won’t hurt you. Actually am here to help you.’

  It was I who spoke first.

  ‘When you sent me that first email, how were you able to communicate with me?’

  ‘My race DS,’ he began, ‘has telepathic ability to communicate. Am a Roti, same as Xuryae, we come from a six star system called infinity some four thousand light years from here, in the constellation Nedhiyu. But, our home was invaded and destroyed by another race and all our stars taken. We, the few survivors, two million in total, under the leadership of Xuryae, became galactic scavengers with no home, roaming the skies in search for our lost stars and one by one, we discovered that our stars had been traded to other races with dying stars in their solar systems. We fought these races, destroying their planets and rescued some of our stars. However, it made no sense keeping these stars when our planet Ericus Herculis, our once glorious planet which all six stars had once brightened and orbited was now a ball of gas, nebulae. So, instead we chose to trade these rescued stars to other races at a profit of course. Soon, the demand for white dwarf stars like your own sun grew in demand across the entire universe.’

  ‘So you decided to come and take our sun forcefully.' Doctor Lynn interjected, 'just like your own suns were taken from you, without a care what would become of us who depend on it for light and life.'

  'Yes.' Eel replied. 'But that was until I lived amongst you. Though mistreated, I discovered that your race had a heart and soul, and, that not all of you were savages or animals. I saw that though your intellect and civilizations were backward and rudimental, you cared for your own. But Xuryae doesn’t see it that way. He's still bitter and I don’t blame him for feeling that way. He lost everything when our suns were taken, his home, his family and it eats at his very core. When we first set out, all he wanted was to seek justice, but soon, he began to change when lesser civilizations called him a god. He became obsessed with this notion. Not long, he was plundering entire planets of their resources, trading them across galaxies, and then he demanded they worship him. Everywhere, alters were built in his honor. On earth, he forced the Pharaohs to construct pyramids in his honor, the Mayans of Colombia built Uxmal and later the Inca built Machu Piccu in Peru. He also demanded human sacrifices be offered him or he would take the sun away. The Aztecs of México did just that, fifty thousand beheading a month. He shows no pity to those who resist him, ask the peoples of Pompeii whom he charred when he blasted Mount Vesuvius in their midst. Xuryae feels nothing for any race in the universe and will stop at nothing unless you stop him.’

  ‘It’s a bit confusing for me,’ interjected Uncle Henry, ‘standing here in this room and you telling us you’re an alien but you’re clothed in human flesh.’

  How I wish Uncle Henry hadn’t made that utterance. The man who went by the name Eel transformed before our very eyes. His arms and legs became elongated and his Arabian outfit got swallowed up within his skin. Segments of scales appeared in shades of blue, black and green all over his skin. His head took on a cylindrical shape with antennae tip shaped ears forming, and his now two huge black eyes with yellow dots on the inside glared at us.

  My heart had never beaten that hard before. I thought this creature was about to eat me up alive limb by limb. All three of us found ourselves clinging tightly onto each other as the creature examined us with mundane curiosity. Almost immediately, he turned back to human form, fully clothed.

  ‘Satisfied?’ He asked.

  We stood, motionless, our mouths gaping.

  ‘Okay, with that small matter settled, you might want to know how am able to do what I just did.’ he said grinning.

  ‘Our government scientists after carrying out extensive experiments on Eel’s body finally came up with a plan, to merge our species with that of the Roti. They had to find someone with the same rare blood group though.’

  ‘Forgive me for interrupting.’ Doctor Lynn said having recovered from the horror, 'which part of you is Eel and which part is human? You keep referring to Eel as someone else and you, who are you? Really?’ she asked.

  ‘My name is Doug, Douglas Snow. DS over here is my paternal Grandson, which makes Professor Bradford right over there, my Nephew.’

  The ground shook suddenly and I found myself floating in midair before falling painfully back onto the concrete floor.

  ‘What was that?’ Uncle Henry asked looking terrified.

  ‘Our sun now,' the man now going by the names Douglas Snow said. 'The Epilson Eridanus is very unstable. Its st
rong gravity keeps pulling onto the earth’s, hence, the occasional tremors and the gravitational suspense that follows.’

  ‘How often does this occur?’ Doctor Lynn asked.

  ‘Every forty five minutes, sometimes less, sometimes more. You can never be too sure.’ Eel or Doug, whoever he was, answered in reply.

  ‘I was studying the same gravitational pull on orbiting planets by brown dwarfs back in my Lab but I hadn’t considered the gravitational suspense theorem, this however, explains it all.’ the now excited Doctor Lynn said.

  ‘Thank you Doctor,’ I interjected, ‘but we are in the middle of something serious, here. I am getting irritated with all the science stuff you guys are discoursing and yet this alien or human standing right in front of me just said he's my grandfather. I’m only seventeen years old and this is all freaking odd, can’t you see that?’ I was angry and felt like crying.

  ‘Hey, Danny my boy,’ Uncle Henry said softly. ‘Am so sorry, look, this is a bit overwhelming on all of us, and I think its best we all take a moment to cool off and rest. Am kind of tired myself from all the running and crisscrossing from one century to the next, like you can see, and now crossing through star systems. Come here, get some rest, for all I know, from my little research back in Peru, there is no night time here, days last seven years and when night comes, it too lasts seven years. So get some sleep will you.’

  ‘Uncle, I’m fine.’ I said facing the opposite direction. I wasn’t in the mood for a pep talk. I found myself a corner to rest my tired limbs. Placing my weary head against the back pack, I tried to catch some sleep.

  My dreams, when they finally came, were filled with aliens and space.