Destin's Hold (The Alliance #5)(64)

“The video is currently running,” a robotic voice stated.

“What? Oi! People of Earth…,” Jon Paul began before he was interrupted when another man stepped into view and waved his hands in the air.

“Non! Non! If you say it like that they will think they are doomed. You must give them hope, Jon Paul. Not make them believe they are about to encounter the War of the Worlds! Oi! You must say it like this… My friends, there are very bad aliens coming on…. What is the date again, IQ?” Destin listened in disbelief when a voice called out the date. “Oui, yes, they are coming. We cannot tell you more for fear our uptight friend will eject us into space, but we felt a need to share with you the dangers. And now, we must go.”

“Luc, you believe that is supposed to be a better transmission than telling them that a species called the Drethulans are coming?” Jon Paul stated, looking at the other man in disbelief as the vidcom faded.

Destin sat staring at the center of the table. He glanced up, frowning back at the others sitting around the table before his gaze focused on Cutter. He returned Destin’s look with a grim one of his own.

“That’s today… If the video is for real,” Destin said.

“We are currently accepting that it is,” General Baker stated.

“Why?” Mason asked with a puzzled frown. “It looked like a couple of Frenchmen who’ve had a bit too much wine to me.”

General Baker glanced at Mason, then around the room. “That video was placed in the alien archives nearly a century ago. It was programmed to arrive in our mainframe and automatically play today,” he replied in a quiet tone.

“When I search the properties of the transmission, I discovered the same thing. It was placed in the Trivator archives and set to automatically transmit on the Star Raider. The Star Raider was not part of the fleet until shortly before we were ordered to this planet,” Jag stated.

“I received a transmission, but it was fleeting,” a soft voice stated from the doorway.

Destin turned in his seat and rose. Sula stood in the doorway with Chelsea standing slightly behind her. His breath caught when he saw her long hair was braided over her good shoulder. She was wearing a soft, button-up red plaid shirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of black tennis shoes. She was pale, but composed.

“What did the transmission say?” General Baker asked.

Sula shook her head. “There was no audio, just a brief visual. It was so fast that I thought I had imagined it,” she said.

“What was the image?” Destin asked, stepping around the chair to walk over to her.

He grasped Sula’s hand when she lifted it toward him. He could feel the tremble in it. Her eyes were dark and shadows appeared under them.

“I saw the tower where we live in flames and the city burning,” she replied, closing her eyes for a moment, trying to remember every detail. “It was so fleeting. I didn’t recognize the city at first.” She opened her eyes and looked at the small, portal vidcom Jag had placed on the table. A frown creased her brow as she remembered what she had seen. “I dreamed about it last night and it dawned on me that the tower and the city looked eerily familiar. The transmission reminded me of it.”

“Last night you were searching for something. What was it?” Cutter asked.

Sula turned to look at Cutter. “I’ve been searching for more information about the missing women. I found a cache of Badrick’s files that had not been deleted. It took a while, but I was finally able to access them. I discovered that Badrick compiled video documentation of most of his encounters. There was one with Destin in particular that drew my curiosity.”

“What was it?” Destin asked with a frown.

“I noticed Badrick was wearing a ring with an unusual blood red crystal in it,” she said. “I have seen the ring before, but I could not remember where. I sent a message to my brother, Andric. He replied shortly before I came in here. Many years ago, Andric left Usoleum on a quest of self-discovery. He traveled to many different worlds, some unknown to us at the time. One world was called Elpidios. I have the message.”

Sula pulled the small disk out of her pocket and held it out to Jag to place in the vidcom.



* * *



..*





* * *



Sula, I do not know where you found this ring, but it is the one stolen from me many years ago. The ring was given to me as a gift by a tribal leader on a distant world called Elpidios. It is a desolate world that appeared to be dying when I was there.

I landed in a desert not far from a range of mountains. I had been exposed to radiation poisoning when one of the power modules failed on my ship and was deathly ill. I ejected the module into space, but I knew I could go no further. Elpidios was the nearest habitable planet. In truth, I expected to die on that inhospitable world.

I abandoned my spaceship and set out across the sands. On the third night, a small group of native inhabitants came upon my camp. They could not understand me nor I them. While our skin was similar in color, my eyes and hair were a novelty to them. I was finally able to configure my translator to decipher a portion of their language. The group led me back to their elders, where they placed stones similar to that of the ring around me and over my body. Over the course of several days, I began to feel better. I stayed with them for nearly a full lunar cycle before I explained I had to leave.