Chapter Two

City of Virgo,

Meridian

March 26th, 2548, 1800 hours

Ethan’s eyes were blurry, he felt tears stream down his face as he began to panic and sit up. “It’s ok son.” His father voice came from his side followed by a hand placed on his chest. He relaxed, blinked a few times, each time he was seeing more clearly until he eventually could see almost perfectly. To his right was his parents, their faces lit up as Ethan recognized them. “Where am I” He asked but only groans came out.

“You’re at the Virgo Insta-care Research Hospital in Virgo. My name is Dr. Green.” The doctor said to his right.

“You had a traumatic experience today, Ethan. Are you aware of what a seizure is?” he asked. Ethan nodded, knowing he couldn’t speak correctly. The doctor pulled up a chair and sat down. “Ok. Can you speak for me? Slowly, don’t hurt strain yourself” Ethan opened his mouth, nothing came out. He cleared his throat feeling the oxygen tube air reach his lungs better. “Yes, I can talk” His voice was jagged and sounded aged. The doctor nodded and looked up at his parents, hopeful. “Ok. Thank you bud.” He said as he patted Ethan’s foot. “One more question, though. During your episode, you were speaking.” He cleared his throat. “You kept repeating the same phrase over again. Are you able to recall anything?” Ethan was confused, sore, and exhausted. When he tried to think he got snip bits of light and metal but nothing coherent. Immediately his thoughts were followed by a sharp pain in his head as if he had been penetrated. “AAAH” He screamed and grabbed his head. “That’s enough.” His father said panicky, holding Ethan as he did so. “Doctor.” He said nodding to him. The doctor nodded back and left the room. Ethan’s father loosened his arms and sat back down. “Are you hurt?” His mother asked, her eyes swollen like she had been crying for hours. Ethan looked around and noticed the time. He had been out for over six hours. What happened? He asked himself but couldn’t think without it hurting. Then a name popped in his head. At first it was clear as day and then it started to fade.

“Luminary.” He said softly, remembering hearing the name not from his voice but someone else, someone foreign, alien.

“What?” His parents asked simultaneously.

“What is Luminary?” Said his father.

The door shut loudly. A man dressed in all black and grey attire stood in front of the door. His face was pale and stern, no wrinkles but seemed old enough to be Ethan’s father. His hair was slicked back, and his glasses were tinted. On his left breast bore a symbol of triangle with a sphere settling at its center. His father seemed to recognize it by the way he stood next to Ethan.

“What is this about?” He asked grasping Ethan’s arm.

The man touched his glasses and the tint retracted. He sighed and walked to the doctor’s chair then sat down. Opening his bag and pulling out a few papers, he gathered together incidents that looked like something Sierra had on the bus earlier in the day. “Do you recognize these?” He asked calmly handing them to Ethan.

“Don’t touch them.” His father ordered. The man sighed and stood formally introducing himself. “My name is Kyle Mathew Toland, I work for the Director of Operations throughout all of Meridian.”

“Director of Operations, you’re an Agent?” Ethan’s father replied. “the Office of Naval Intelligence has no need of my son. Now if you’ll leave us be that would be great.” He said gesturing toward the door.

“Actually, we do” Agent Toland stated firmly. “Allen Foster, your child has been experiencing premonitions for quite some time. Now if you will let me continue.” He turned his attention toward Ethan. “How long have you had these dreams?” Agent Toland asked him, sitting down. Ethan swallowed. “About a year now.” His voice still broken up.

Toland nodded. “And these dreams are consistent with catastrophes—that have yet come to past.”

“What is this?” Allen stood up. “He has nightmares.”

“2530, a child dreams of her planet being “taken away by the Aliens”.” Toland began. Allen stood still. “She tells her parents and they report it to her school district, concerned. After a few weeks, it circulates and the UNSC eventually catch wind of it. Its documented but of course a lot of people were worried their planet was next, so it would only seem natural people would dream about it. Four days later, Groombridge was assaulted by the Covenant and glassed within a few days.”

This hovered heavily over Ethan’s parents, primarily his mother who was beginning to shake. Ethan listened intently.

“2531, another child is reported having dreams of their planet being glassed. The dreams get so bad she starts sleep waking and speaking. She ends up in the ICU, experiencing seizures and is put into an induced coma. When she wakes several weeks later she speaks of planets--plural, being glassed by the Covenant.” Toland lifted a picture off his lap, the same one Sierra had showed him earlier. The photo was of a girl in a hospital drawing pictures of her dreams. Each one was of a planet with distinct planetary terrain being glassed by the Covenant. Listed beneath it was “Luminary”.

Allen sat down as Toland continued. “A week later, Victoria fell followed by Verent and New Harmony. While those colonies were never actually listed “glassed” one could only imagine. The dreams continued until New Llanelli was glassed in 2546; two years ago.” Toland wiped his forehead. “I shouldn’t be telling you any of this, its classified but, Ethan dreamed about a planet being glassed last year, you never took him to get looked at or studied even when Skopje was glassed no more than 2 months later. It was documented by his teacher Mrs. Lambridge. I found this out when it came through.” The family just stared at Toland. “And here we are; Ethan is having these dreams again and now has experienced seizures which I believe are linked so yes, Mr. Foster, ONI is very interested in what your child has to say.” His voiced seemed to echo. Ethan moved his head to look at his parents. His father made eye contact for a moment and looked away in shame. He stepped past his wife and leaned against the window seal.

“How was I supposed to know this was real.”

“You weren’t but turning me down could possibly be the end of Meridian.”

Allen looked back angrily. “So, you think you can stop them if we know ahead of time?”

“Not necessarily but we can hold them off. Plenty time for you and many other families, if not everyone on this planet to make it off alive.”

“Why? They’ll just follow us and kill everyone there.” Allen yelled. The room was silent for a moment. Toland just stared at Allen tapping his fingers on his boot. “Your son might just hold the key to ending this war.”

“How?”

“I’m not at liberty to discuss that”

“Really?” Allen moved away from the window. “You just gave us all a history lesson about how we’re losing this war because we’re not listening to the children who can see it happen before it does.”

“One of those children is in this room, he is your son.” Toland stood. “Mr. Foster.” Allen looked back at Ethan. He sighed and rubbed his face. He turned to face his wife and knelt.

“Emily, what do you want to do?” he whispered. She looked at Toland and then Ethan, which she smiled at and finally back to Allen.

“Let him do his job and we can go home.” She spoke softly, seeming like she had given up. Allen bobbed his head thinking hard about his next words. After a few moments he stood, nodded at Toland and sat down. “Proceed, Agent Toland.”

Toland sighed. “I very much appreciate this visit.” He sat down. “These photos are classified but necessary for this study. They may be disturbing but by knowing what dreams you have I’d imagine it’s not a problem.” He said as he handed the photos and reports to Ethan.

He looked through the reports and then the photos seeing planets and the children corresponding with the planet that perished soon after their dream. Each planet was glassed with intricate design, a symbol. The drawings the girl had were detailed describing a certain area of which she must have seen in the dream. The image was at the base of a cliff and just below it, reaching out to the horizons was large curve identical to same arch of a symbol found on Jericho VII. Toland interrupted him by giving him other pictures of planets. Ethan scrolled through them, each one of a city or land mark. His head began to sweat, and he blinked several times. He used his blanket to wipe the sweat, but his eyes had begun to water which made it useless. At last Ethan noticed something, a city. It was at the edge of a lake much like Virgo but was sitting next to a range of mountains as well. Ethan pictured the structures destroyed and noticed near the city was a UNSC base. He recognized it but couldn’t pin it. He focused as hard as he could as he began seeing flashes of the city destroyed and then a Covenant Cruiser glassing the plains just outside the city. Blood rushed down from his nose and he began to scream. His heart rate rose erratically, and the alarm sounded. Allen and Toland reached for Ethan and attempted to tear the pictures away.

“Luminary, this is where the Luminary is.” He shouted grinding his teeth.

Blood began to rush from both nostrils and his head whipped backward. Ethan screamed again. “Arbiter, Holy One, Luminary” Toland slowly moved away from Ethan. He rolled up his sleeve revealing a device strapped on his arm. “Record” He said. The display opened to a series of bars representing sound volumes that raised and lowered in sync with Ethan’s words. The doctor and nurse rushed through the door, moving Toland aside who wasn’t bothered; he received exactly what he needed to. Ethan’s screams stopped as he became unconscious. Security rushed through the door and removed Toland and Ethan’s family. The door closed behind them and the hallway was left silent. Toland rolled down his sleeve and threw his bag over his shoulder. He went to leave but realized Allen and Emily were obviously in shock.

“I apologize-“He began but was interrupted. “Leave, Agent.” Allen turned toward Toland, a tear streamed down his face. “You obviously got what you came for. Just leave.” Toland nodded and walked away. He knew what he did was wrong and that the Colonel won’t be happy to hear about the current situation but everything that Ethan just said told Toland one thing; The Covenant were headed to Meridian. Finally. He thought to himself. We have a head start.