Chapter 32

"The one thing we know about torture is that it was never designed in the first place to get at the actual truth of anything; it was designed in the darkest days of human history to produce false confessions in order to annihilate political and religious dissidents. And that is how it always works: it gets confessions regardless of their accuracy."

~ Andrew Sullivan

“Memi, try this sequence,” he heard himself say while inputting a string of unfamiliar yet familiar calculations in the computer.

As he looked around, he knew this place. The familiar sight of the lab on the strange, abandoned planet dominated the surroundings.

“Damnit!” screamed a woman, who he somehow knew as ‘Memi.’

“It didn’t work; I can’t get the genetic sequence to hold.”

“Maybe if we added those proteins,” he said. How would he have known to say that? This was a dream. Or was it? It was getting harder to tell.

Before she could respond, a voice boomed over the lab’s speakers.

“All Military personnel, Battle stations. Alliance forces have orbited the planet.”

He looked at Memi as she returned his stare with a look of horror.

“How the hell did they find us?” she yelled as she frantically pulled up some files on her computer.

“We don’t have time! We have to launch now!” he said.

“Without the upgrades?” Memi replied, while alarms were going off all around her.

“Memi, look, we have already lost 75 percent of the fleet, the military cannot hold this planet!”

She looked at him, tears flowing out of her eyes. She just nodded.

He knew what to do, as did she.

“Seventeen million genetic samples loaded; all are unmodified,” Memi yelled out.

“Target destination set, Sol System, fourth planet,” he added.

“I thought the Rytarans wouldn’t allow us to seed their system? Let alone their planet?”

“We don’t have a choice! I'll set it to the Third Planet, it will take longer to develop, but at least it’s no occupied!” he said as the computer satisfied him with a “Destination Locked, Seed ship Prepped.”

They both looked at each other and nodded.

Green “Launch” Button was illuminated, he pressed it.

Loud explosions were heard as a gigantic ship launched from the facility headed to its destination.

Only seconds passed when Mordechai and Minmoran Marines flooded the lab, instructing everyone to surrender.

“It’s over.” A voice was heard. Another familiar voice. Queen Lithanul. How?

“You failed, your grace,” he said as he turned around quickly, holding a datapad. With a smile on his face, he pushed a Red Button.

Radiation flooded the room, vaporizing every biological matter on the planet.

“Arrrrhhhhh!!!” John screamed as he flew up, awake from another of his more frequent nightmares. The sudden movement of his torn and battered body shot wave after wave of intense pain that he couldn’t process until it became unbearable and he collapsed in the arms of his tactical officer.

“Sir, it's ok, it's ok!” Heidi said to try to calm her commander.

“What the hell!” John screamed as the realization of reality, plus his dream, came to him all at once.

“Sir? Are you alright?” Doctor Samantha Lee said as she quickly came to examine her commanding officer.

“Sitrep, lieutenant,” is all John could muster while rubbing his eyes, attempting to wash away a enormous headache, something the good doctor noticed.

“Sir, all crew members are accounted for, the Ex-O is still unconscious. He suffered a lot.”

“How long have I been out?” John asked to no particular person.

“About two days,” Doctor Lee replied while resorting to old techniques of medicine to examine the captain. John was out cold for two days after the brutal torture the alien Queen performed on him. The crew had been imprisoned for over three weeks at this point. No one was able to keep track of time, though, as their cells gave no hints to the passage of time.

Heidi attempted to finish her report. “Sir, we also took a trip through hyperspace, and I believe we are at the abandoned planet.”

“How do you know that?”

“I overheard one of the lizard officers say something along the lines of, ‘We can finally unlock the ancient secrets of the lost library.’”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” John asked curiously, hoping to find Enki. However, deep down inside him was a familiar feeling. He somehow knew what the lizards were referring to.

“Nothing to you, your pulse is elevated,” Doctor Lee said while timing John’s pulse on his wrist. “You need to relax and get some rest.”

“I can’t get much rest in here, doc, maybe after we get out of here.” He shot her a bit of a look of disbelief, unable to comprehend sleep and rest when his crew was in constant danger. It was his responsibility to ensure the safety of each one of them. A greater threat was looming in his head, and no one had mentioned it. The Antimatter reactor with the F.T.L. Drive. According to Enki, that method of travel is unique to the galaxy; anyone who knew about it would do anything to achieve the ability. Fortunately for the crew, it did not appear the aliens knew about the drive yet.

“Captain.” The Sumerian admiral surprised John as he approached him from behind.

“Admiral, are you alright?”

“I am fine; they have not taken me yet.”

“They seemed to have taken everyone else,” Doctor Lee interrupted while finishing her exam. “You’re fine for now, but we need to get you to sickbay as soon as possible.”

“Doc, really?” John shot her a look.

“Don’t patronize me, John, I understand the situation we are in. I’m just doing my job in making sure you are healthy enough to lead us out of here. Now, cut the shit, cut the stress, and you’ll be fine.” She walked away, satisfied with her treatment for the time being.

Looking right at Enki, John turned to the one person he had hoped to provide answers. “Tell me what you can about these people.”

Enki was a member of the advanced civilization known as the Sumerians. The species has survived millions of years and is the most technologically advanced species currently in the galaxy. To the Sumerians, humans were a primitive group who had just recently discovered fire. Enki had a moral debate on what to tell John.

“I do not know why; the Alliance has always been a fear-mongering group. Initially formed by the revered Anunnaki, the more sadistic Almorians took over after the Anunnaki had vanished.”

“Who are the Almorian?” John interrupted, trying to get a grasp on a new concept: Galactic Politics.

“They are the Monarch of the Alliance. The ‘Queen’ you had seen is their leader. Queen Lithanul has been the Monarch since Edan Prime assumed the Throne of the Alliance some five million of your Earth years ago.”

Five million years? John's head started to ache at even the thought of living that long. The concept of living longer than 200 years drives him insane thinking about it. With advancing medical technologies, humans had gained the ability to live a longer than average life span. Guinness Book of Records had recorded the longest living human to be 215 years old, with the average lifespan being 195 years old. Living any longer, John had thought, would explain why this Queen was such a bitch. Unlimited life would create insanity.

“How the hell…” John had to cut his sentence short as a pair of lizard guards walked past the cell and gave a very mean, very audible “Hiss” towards the Sumerian. Looking straight at Enki, he continued “…How the hell can they live that long?”

“Almorians are one of four races that had developed advanced genetic manipulation in some way. Of the four, only two currently live in the galaxy. Edan Prime, and Sumeria,” Enki began to explain what he could to the human. “The Almorians have formulated the ability of true immortal life. However, they have lost the ability to reproduce. They are incapable of falling ill from disease or cellular decay. They can still be killed by conventional means. Blunt trauma, explosions all of that.” John was amazed at the prospect of immortal life, but at what cost? Unable to reproduce? He could never imagine living in a society where everyone currently alive would be the only one of your species ever. Once one would die, there would be no replacement. John could understand why they were so violent and wanted to be the dominating force in the galaxy. If no one could oppose them, they would survive.

“They can’t clone themselves?” John asked, intrigued.

“They cannot. The technology required to clone is incompatible with their current D.N.A. Even our scientists have tried it to attempt to save them.”

John felt sorry for the hateful blue aliens, that was not an easy life to live. “So, you? How old are you?”

“At last check, I was five hundred eighty-seven. We measure our age by clones. Our genetic manipulation technique is the ability to transfer our consciousness from one clone body to another. Our clones usually live around fifteen thousand of your earth years.”

“That is amazing!” John replied, straining hard to do the math in his head. “That makes you, a little over eight million years old.”

“That is correct,” Enki replied.

“Who were the other two races that are no longer around?”

Enki was hoping to avoid answering this question, hoping John would not ask. “The Anunnaki were one, and the other haven’t been heard of for millennia.”

John had heard of the Anunnaki before, in Earth’s history, but they were always depicted as a myth.

“And the other?” John kept pestering.

Before Enki had a chance to answer, a Lizard officer hissed for Enki to go with them. “Bring me the traitor!”

“Captain, no matter what happens, you must know, get to the surface. Go back to where you found us. The answers you seek are in that lab!” Enki grabbed John’s hand as he was pulled away by one of the beast guards.