I, Propitiator: "Chapter 16"

Chapter 16

“Love does not take into account a wrong suffered… [Love] rejoices with the truth… Love never fails.” –Paul of Tarsus

In all my days seeing Oliver and David interact, my eyes have never beheld such rapid succession of accidental mistakes that David performed which should cause Oliver grief. As soon as Oliver had evaded Zurui by hiding at the safe house, in less than a month’s time, Oliver now had to deal with our Terran cousins that were on his new spaceship. If we failed here, Terra Lapsa could be lost as a result of some simple mistake. However Gabriela’s words came back to Oliver as David entered the room. In that moment, my ears then heard the most endearing words between the two of them spoken, “David, no longer worry about the Terran infiltration. You don’t have to prove yourself to me. Nothing you do could weaken the love my heart pours over you, my brother.”

David stood there, confused, and then seemed to relax and shrug off what Oliver said all in one motion. After David had explained what had happened and what was taking place as they spoke, Oliver said, “It seems most sensible to me to take try to maximize the situation. If they don’t become Ies, they can’t leave this ship anyways, so we minus well tell them what’s really happening so they can have the best shot at becoming an I an leaving their Terran state behind.”

David’s sense seemed to return to him as he offered, “Perhaps we should break up who’s talking to who dependent on the level of connection previously established.”

Oliver nodded in agreement, and then said, “Mom can talk to Auntie, Seraphina can talk to Cheyenne, and you can talk to Brooke, leaving me with Tamara.”

“Um… ok…”

By this time, Daedalus had dropped me off back at the safe house, so with that Oliver teleported each I to their room with the Terran they were supposed to attempt to bring to actualization. If this could be done, it would greatly increase the strength of the Ies in this region of Terra Lapsa, yet if it was met with failure, we could reach a lot of problems in the long run.

Cassandra was in furious rage as Mom entered her own room. Cassandra shouted at Mom, “Where on blessed Terra am I?”

Mom paused, and then said, “Well as you aren’t on Terra Lapsa, you may want to ask a different question.”

Cassandra grew in rage, but changed her tone, “What is going on?”

“Our nephew decided to save you from the alien that was shooting fireballs all over my house by teleporting all of us back to Oliver’s ship here.”

“I thought you said we weren’t on the planet?”

Mom pursed her lips before softly saying, “This is a spaceship.”

Cheyenne looked around my room with the sort of curiosity you Terrans say kills cats. As she became bored with the setting looking much like my room back on Terra Lapsa but with a few changes like more technology and things of the like, she asked, “Was I right about Oliver?”

Nodding my head, my mind raced for a more elaborative answer, but Cheyenne asked another question before my mouth could utter a word. She inquired, “Are you one too?”

“Well sort of, my role is what called ‘membership’ so they don’t give me an exact rank like they do for Oliver, because it’s not expected that all protocol is held in my mind. This allows me to dodge procedure, but also means if any soldier gives me an order, it is expected that no questions are asked unless it seems immoral or something like that.”

“So does Oliver work for the International Defense Administration or something?”

“No… He’s part of the Arashad Resistance, which defends Terra Lapsa from bad aliens.”

Cheyenne’s eyes widened as she said, “Woah… Cool! So what does that mean? Do I get special toys now that I know so that people don’t hurt me?”

“Um... no… Oliver may hold the rank of commander, but he isn’t just going to give a Terran a tipir or something like that…”

“What’s a Terran? No, what’s a tipir? Actually, what are bad aliens? Um… yeah…”

“You’re a Terran; a tipir is a special weapon used by the Ies; bad aliens as in aliens that are part of the Arashad Regime.”

Cheyenne tilted her little head, perplexed by all the things she had just been told. As we continued to talk, it became quite clear there was a lot to explain to her despite her young age.

Brooke held her head in her hands. She wasn’t so hyper without Cheyenne around. In fact, David believed she was more like him than any of his other cousins when she was by herself: logical (mostly,) a hint of insanity, but suppressed by the calm demeanor formed by the logic. Brooke looked up at David, the youngest of all his cousins had just entered space and knew enough about hyper-physics to realize she was no longer on Terra Lapsa. She carefully asked, “David, are you who I’ve known you to be?”

David’s heart sank as her little voice carried proof of a mind so far advance beyond her peers that she could be teleported a few times, never see a single star, yet give enough of a hint that he could telepathically see she knew part of what was happening around her. So he also chose his words carefully, saying, “What you have known is only a portion of me, there are parts you have yet to know.”

She realized he was following quite well so her next question was much bolder, “Are we aliens?”

David felt like a frog jumped in his throat as he croaked, “Yes Brooke, we are.”

Tamara tossed her phone on Oliver’s bed clearly frustrated that she could not get a single text message to go through. Of course if she realized she was in space but had no knowledge of the universal phone network, she would have never bothered. However, as this was not the case, she sank to the floor, terrified by suddenly being in a place with no one she knew. Oliver walked in the room, having set the teleporter to teleport him outside his room to avoid further shock. Then he offered, “Well it is true that my rank is a commander for the Arashad Resistance.”

“Since when did you become a soldier?” Tamara asked, still very confused.

“When my biological age reached the 4^th prime number,” Oliver wittily replied.

“So you’ve been enlisted for twelve years?”

“Well technically only six years as the rank of ensign and higher is an officer rank not one of the enlisted. However, my service record does show twelve years as you’ve deduced.”

Tamara reasoned that Oliver was really the only one she could talk to right now that had a clue of what was really happening, so she asked, “What is the Arashad Resistance?”

“It’s the organization defending Terra Lapsa from being conquered by a tyrannical alien government called the Arashad Regime.”

“Wait, aliens? Do you mean to say there are other life-forms in space besides us?”

“Correction, besides you, my own form is not the same as yours, only in appearance.”

Tamara seemed to be questioning the heavens why she was in such a weird family, and then she inquired, “Well what kind of alien are you? There are multiple kinds right?”

“There are perhaps thousands of aliens, but you would call me an I. around here, you’ll see Ies, Cyafs, Vytor, and 15s. Well there’s also you Terrans, but you already knew that.”

“How are you an I if I’m a Terran?”

“Well you just said part of it. When my lips speak, the word of my race is not mentioned so casually, instead it is held with a certain reverence, but from a biological perspective, you are an I as well, yours is just suppressed because you do not believe.”

Tamara took a moment to think, she had to reason for herself whether what Oliver was saying made sense. Perhaps she could just keep Oliver talking and the information would make more sense, so she stated, “Tell me what’s really going on.”

Oliver hesitated, after collecting his thoughts, he began, “Terra Lapsa is one of many planets that have life on them, but aliens either want to conquer Terra Lapsa or defend them from the people that want to conquer it, so there is an entire stealth effort so Terra Lapsa knows not of what’s really happening in the universe. Certain members of your extended family are actually aliens themselves, working to defend people like you. We work behind the scenes, undercover, unknown by any portion of the Terran population. That entity that came out of our guest room and started shooting fire all over the place was part of the aliens trying to conquer Terra Lapsa, called the Arashad Regime. That particular one was a 15, possibly the most powerful type of alien in this sector of space. David teleported all of us up here to protect you all, but that leaves us with the difficult task of helping you realize for yourselves that you are also an I. Once that is done, in all probability we can return to life with a few new changes and no negative consequences from this unusual circumstance. It’d be to my pleasure if you would join the Arashad Resistance and help us defend Terra Lapsa. The Prime I who leads us would like nothing other than that. It is his heart that pours over this planet and has stopped the regime to conquering it countless times. Please, realize who you are and stand up for those who do not know him.”

Tamara looked away momentarily, then looked Oliver in the eye, inquiring, “What about my boyfriend Jeremy? Is he an I? Could he ever learn of this part of me if I choose to accept it?”

Oliver bit his lip. He didn’t know much about Jeremy, all he could reason was that Jeremy was not an actualized I. Beyond that, he knew almost nothing about him, so Oliver said, “It is beyond my knowledge whether Jeremy can become an I, but this much is clear: if you become an I, you will have better means to help him if it becomes necessary.”

Tamara nodded as her mind suddenly formed a new connection that allowed her to telepathically communicate with Oliver. In that instant, she went from being a simple Terran to an actualized I. Her physiology began to undergo a rebirth as the connection caused a whole new set of hormones to sweep through her veins. This all overwhelmed her, consuming what she once knew and restructuring it with the truth of the universe around her. As Tamara slept, Oliver slipped a staff into her hand, which began to glow various colors, searching for her exact energy type. Eventually, she was fully transformed by the simple shift in her mind, no longer mentally resembling a Terran, but rather she held the essence of the Prime I himself.