The Revolutionary
Zenna started explaining directly:
“You know from my file that I liked to get in kickboxing matches.”
“And your rich parents didn't let you leave the house, so you ran away.”
“Actually, they were my adoptive parents. Yes, they were afraid to let me get out too often. They thought I was always getting myself in trouble.”
“Like now.”
She laughed.
“No, much worse. I was getting into fights and breaking people's bones a lot.”
“That sounds like an active childhood.”
“Yes, go ahead and joke about it. I'm aware I wasn't very easy to get along with. But I improved a lot since then.”
“So why are you here now?”
“I want you to help me find my family.”
“You mean your rich parents. I think they already handed you to the rehabilitation institution and they're of on the satellite.”
“No, I mean my real parents.”
“How am I going to do that? I'm on a mission to another galaxy. You're on the wrong ship.”
“Sheena said you can help me.”
“I have no idea why.”
Zenna became more serious.
Rony felt sorry for the disoriented girl who needed his approval and his solution to a situation he knew nothing about.
“What do you know about your real parents?” he asked her.
“My mother is said to have been a top secret agent and I was taken from her at birth because it was dangerous place and time, she was on a diplomatic mission then. Soon after that I was given for adoption and she lost track of me. I think her memory was changed through the Alpha collision.”
“Do you know her name?”
“No.”
“What about your father?”
“I heard he was a pilot – like you.”
She smiled at him. He looked at her not knowing how to interpret her words.
He had noticed the girl was seeking his approval and admired him somehow, but it hadn't crossed his mind to be a father figure to her. He could easily think of Joey or Buddy being like sons he would have liked to have, but the warrior girl had taken him by surprise. He realized she had qualities that would have made any parent proud. She was assertive, determined and strong. She was also resourceful and courageous, honest and friendly.
“I don't remember having any daughter, but I wouldn't have given you up if that were so.”
“I didn't say it's you. It would be such a coincidence if you were my daddy, but I don't have that information about you. I just know Sheena said you could help me.”
“I'm honored that you and Sheena chose me to find your parents”, he told her.
“They would be happy to see how you've grown up to be so independent and smart.”
She giggled.
“That's nice of you to say.”
He wondered if she could have been his and Vera's daughter. He suspected she had made the whole story up just to have a reason to come along on his ship.
“How old are you... fifteen?”
“Yes.”
He tried to remember what he was doing fifteen years ago. He was twenty-one at the time, just starting on his first long journey across the galaxy, as co-pilot to a big ship. “There's no way I am this girl's father”, he thought. And yet, something about her was making him doubt his own past. He was aware that many memories of the time when he'd been with the tower agent a hundred thousand years ago in another universe were inaccessible to him. What if memories could be lost just by passing through the portal that erased time and space? Nothing was impossible in the Alpha State and age was also irrelevant for any life arriving in the light zone centre of galaxies that merged and rearranged everything into something new. What if the teenager hadn't been randomly chosen to be on his camp on Asterius? And if Sheena had facilitated Zenna's access to that ship, he knew she must have had an important justification. Maybe the fact that the girl was looking up to him was enough. Rony kept thinking about it. He wasn't sure of anything anymore: he knew he'd had another life in another time and another universe – and Vera was a part of it. Zenna might have been as well.
“What's that light blinking?” Zenna pointed to the transmitter.
“There's a message coming through”, he said and switched it on.
“Hey Rony”, Yuri's face appeared on a small screen on the panel. “I have bad news for you: one of the girls ran away.”
“I know. She's right here with me.”
“What?”
Zenna got in front of the screen, waving cheerfully.
“Can you see me?”
“Yes, what are you doing there?”
“Having a good time! How's everyone on the camp?”
“You should get back here. Martin wanted to take over the leadership again.
Evgheni and I had to confine him to his tent because he was getting out of control.
We'll send him back to rehabilitation on the first ship that goes to the satellite. And Buddy got lost two times but Joey found him and brought him back to the base.”
“Great! I see you guys are doing fine without me.”
“It's not a joke. You're needed here, you should return.”
“I'll return when Rony does”, Zenna answered and switched the screen of.
Rony looked at her perplexed.
“What did you do that for?”
“He was getting annoying. Are you hungry?” she changed the subject as if nothing had happened. “What can we eat around here?”
Rony got up and showed her the food supplies. She heated two portions in the microwave and set the table.
“How long before we reach that planet?” she asked, gulping down the food.
“Long enough. I see you have a healthy appetite. Slow down, you'll choke on that.”
“Don't worry. I was starving in that cargo chamber for many hours. So is there any life on that planet?”
“I don't think so, not yet.”
“Are these plants going to sustain the future?”
“I hope so.”
They finished eating and Zenna gathered the dishes from the table.
“You don't have to do that”, Rony told her.
“I want to.”
He watched her clearing the table. Something about the girl's direct determination was familiar to his observant eyes. And yet he couldn't be sure.
Zenna was tired, so she went to sleep in another room.
Rony remained awake to pilot the ship. Soon after midnight he suddenly noticed a spiral of light in the distance, a vortex that was accelerating the ship's speed with a gravitational force. He wondered if the course was wrong and realized the direction was taking them directly into the vortex: they were actually following the Alpha cluster and would be engulfed by it.
He was alarmed and immediately tried to establish contact with Sheena at the camp. The laptop in her tent responded and her face appeared on the screen, smiling subtly.
“Yes Rony. Is everything alright?”
“You tell me. Where am I going and why is Zenna on this ship?”
Her smile gained more self assurance. She seemed to have expected his questions.
“It's an elaborate plan, but it's going very well so far.”
“You think so? You might be the chief of the control tower, but this time I think you defied your own principles.”
“I'm not the chief of the control tower, I'm just temporarily making sure things develop well and we reach the evolution we're meant for. Our full potential has been concealed and it needs to be revealed somehow. I'm not some authority that wants absurd rules, Rony. There's a higher energy above me and I try to be in harmony with it. I know what you wish for, it's what everyone wants: happiness. But in order to achieve that we must do our best to get higher on the spiral of evolution.”
“These words sound very nice, but you still haven't explained why you're sending me and Zenna back into Alpha cluster, just after it passed by Asterius.”
“I'm not sending you back, I'm sending you forward.”
“How is that going forward?”
“You'll see...”
The menacing vortex was beginning to look brighter, getting closer and bigger by the minute.
Rony had one more question to ask.
“Is Zenna my daughter?”
“Not exactly. If anything, she's mine.”
“Yours?”
Sheena nodded.
“In a manner of speaking, not in the traditional way. She's not an ordinary child. She was born in the Alpha cluster and was lost after that. I knew from the start that her destiny would be a great one as a leader. I recently found her and facilitated her arrival on Asterius.”
“Why didn't you tell her the truth about her parents? You lied to her and you sent her away with me.”
“I didn't send her away, I'm helping her achieve her full powers. She'll discover the truth by herself. I told you, I'm not her physical mother, she wasn't born the same way as children usually are. She was created from the particles of light and energy from inside Alpha State. In a way, she's the child of the vortex. I was wishing for a child and could not have one for a long time. And inside the Alpha cluster you know how easily wishes come true. She appeared as a result of my wish. Remember the ancient gods? They were real just like you and I, only they lived in Alpha State, so they were more powerful because they were higher up on the spiral of evolution.
Athena, for example, was born out of her father's head, like light of evolution coming into the world by one strike. The moment she was born, snow and gold fell on the earth's surface. What do you think that gold was? Alpha particles of pure energy. Another goddess, Aphrodite, was born from the bright foam of the sea. And she was the goddess of love. In Alpha State anything is possible. It is the same with Zenna: she's my daughter because she is the creation of my deep desire to have a child. I saw her appear but I didn't get to keep her and now I want to make up for lost time.”
“By sending her into the vortex?”
“I'm sending her into the past and the future at the same time. If you want to change the past you must go towards the future to erase it and if you want to improve the future you have to reach into the past to create something new. Alpha cluster is where the beginning and the ending meet, because time doesn't really exist, it's a linear illusion of an actually spheric existence.”
“It still sounds complicated to me. What are we going to do in the Alpha vortex?”
“You're going to change the world. You will leave the plants to grow and she will find her destiny of becoming the leader of Asterius. Because she's had a difficult childhood, deprived of affection, she knows the value of it and how its absence can damage life, so she'll bring a new approach that will remind people how love and positive emotions are important for their evolution. I trust her to be able to do that for the world. It's important to understand life prospers with that truth. If we want happiness we must become positive. Negative attitudes can only bring obstacles to the spiral way of light. Instead, focusing on what is good increases everyone's potential of becoming better. I see a bright future if Zenna understands her contribution to it.”
“Why didn't she get what she needed when the galaxies collided? Why are we going into the vortex now?”
“She needs to get to the center of it. When Alpha cluster passed by Asterius, she didn't get access to the core of light. I had to send a ship to take her in that direction.”
The ship started to tremble, shaking as if it was going to be torn apart by the intensity of the vortex getting closer, spinning its spirals wider like a spider web, loops and released beams of light flowing around everywhere. The screen was blurred and Sheena disappeared. The transmission was interrupted. At that moment Zenna came into the room, rubbing her sleepy eyes and yawning.
“What's happening?” she asked confused, but fearless anyway.
“We're going back to the fun zone”, he told her. “It seems that's where you'll find your family.”
“You're kidding, right?”
“Nope.”
“How are we gonna come back from that abyss?”
“We'll figure it out once we're there.”
“Can we turn the ship around?”
“Absolutely out of the question now.”
“What are we going to do about it?”
“Be ourselves and believe we can.”