Chapter 17 Eva

I feel that we’re not done here. This is what I think when we cross the threshold of my grandfather’s ship. I can’t let go of this thought even when too much is going on as it is. Sada is pale, and it looks like someone is trying to strangle her. The ghostly woman holds her hands over the old woman’s head. I can see Sada’s gray hair right through the woman’s hands.

Henessada gasps for air, screams, the woman brings her hands closer to make her feel better, but soon the attack starts again.

“I can’t hold him back much longer!” The woman says. “We must go!”

Right at this moment there is a sound of hoofs on the ramp, and three horses, lead by Sarji rush into the ship, almost knocking us over.

I know what I was waiting for. And I knew he’d escape the first chance he got.

“Now we can go.”

The door slides close and we take off. We actually take off, really fast directly upwards, and then stop. I imagine we’re now way above the cloud line, and I wonder how is that possible, when the crashed ship was underground for a hundred years, and it was inoperable to begin with.

I look at Sarji. He fell during the lift off, and now he is sitting on his butt, blinking and looking bewildered, but not for long. He gets up and walks towards one of the doors in the wall, pushes it open with his nose and walks inside to investigate.

It would be funny if I did not have to take care of my ailing friend. We carry Sada into the ship’s bridge with screens all over the walls. Just like I remember it from the visions. There is no control panel like the one on Kallitris’s ship. All Leot’s spacecraft is controlled by the thought and is fueled by the psychic energy, the cleanest fuel in the Universe.

Everything here is penetrated with Ari’s spirit. I touch the surface of the main console, it’s smooth and of light gray color. The screens show the dark sky with multitude of stars on it.

“Welcome, Ari’s descendant.” Says the woman. She looks just like the day I saw her dead in one of ship’s rooms. Just as beautiful, but without the horrible dark spots all over her face.

“Meet Eva, Ari’s girlfriend.” I introduce her to Baron Leo and Sada.

The prophet gets up from the floor. Up here she is feeling much better.

“Pleasure!” She says to Eva. Surprisingly, their eyes sparkle with warmth and love for each other. They obviously have met before.

“It was as courageous as it was stupid to take up such a potentially devastating enemy as Kallitris. He could’ve killed you.” Eva rebukes Sada, as they approach one of the screens.

The ghostly woman touches the surface of the screen and it lights up with Ari’s face. It is one of his recorded medical lectures. Apparently Eva never left the ship and entertains herself, watching Ari’s old tapes, and sitting among his stuff. She is stuck in the past. What a waste of intellect, when she could have reincarnated by now.

“I had no choice. I’m running out of time, and Demi is of no help.”

I remember Sada’s vilolent attack, and wonder what’s that all about. Is it what I think it is?! There is no way!

“Kallitris, you need to stop assaulting Henessada!” I think, knowing that he can hear me.

“She needs to stop meddling in our relationship.” Is the answer. This answer comes immediately, and it is cold. Very, very cold. I get shivers down my spine from this voice in my head.

“There is a number of unexplainable things taking place with you guys.” Eva sighs, and switches the screen back to dark sky.

“I’ll say!” Quips Leo, looking around.

I feel the ship moving. The screens show mountains of clouds, looking huge and formidable, but we fly straight through, faster and faster. We must be going to Tustridge.

“So how do you think my ship can help you stop the war?” Ari’s girlfriend, who also was a second crew doctor, turns to Sada.

“The war is unavoidable, Eva. I did not realize it when I contacted you first. But there is something in Demi’s programming, powerful enough to help us win it. Kallitris knows about it. He is using it for is purposes.”

Iris comes up to me, and we hold hands. The sky on the screens becomes pale, then pink. The sun is about to rise, and we fly directly east, to greet it, to be warmed by its eternal rays. Whatever is waiting for us in the capital is no longer that scary. I’ve got friends. I’ve met sweet sad Eva, with her ghostly presence, but very real love for Ari.

“Kallitris is a known criminal. He’s been wanted by the intergalactic tribunal for a millennia now. So, I figure, whatever he is doing to Demi’s programming must be illegal.” Eva is tense and pensive.

“You guys need to stop trashing my friend. He loves me, and we’re doing nothing wrong!” I get progressively upset at hearing this conversation.

Sada shakes her head, and never answers. I’m missing something obvious, and no one wants to hurt my feelings by telling me upfront.

The ship is going down and the patchy ground can be seen on the screens. I have nauseous flashbacks to the visions of Ari’s crash-landing, but this time everything goes without a hitch. The spacecraft feels all-powerful and defiant in the face of its injury.

The ground is ever closer, I can see massive green spots of forests to the west, as we land on a relatively small field, barely missing a grove of trees. A couple of them do get scratched by the right side of the ship, and one even fall with a deafening crack.

“Ups. My bad. I haven’t driven it in ninety years!” Eva smiles, and she is so stunningly beautiful. Her eyes are of strange, rare color, bringing the thoughts of all the alien genes that went into the mixture to create a species that only resembles a human being, but in fact is something else completely.

The ship shakes and leans on one side, but then gets steady and comes to a halt on the ground.

Baron Leo breathes a sigh of relief, and kisses me passionately. I embrace him, noticing his irresistible, attractive appearance, and give in to his love and strength. There is nothing that can break us apart. Not even Kallitris.

“I hope you don’t mind.” Sada comes up to me, puts a sticky piece of paper on my skin, and rips it off quite painfully.

“Ouch!” I yell, and look at her angrily.

“Now put it here.” Eva directs Sada, and the latter puts the piece of paper into an opening in the wall.

“We are going to test your tissues to see if my theory is correct. I do believe Kallitris has been injecting more than neurotoxin into your system. And I’ll find out why!” Says Sada with a stern expression on her face.

Its hard to imagine her vast psychic abilities. From the time she met me in Deikeren when I was eleven years old she found out everything about my past, more about Kallitris than I cared to know, and got a hold of sympathetic Eva – all to see if an abandoned alien child could be of use to her and her master’s empire.

I am of use. Maybe I’m just being used by both sides. That feels foolish. What is left? Well, love. I grab Iris’s hand to feel him, to know he is there for me, and he responds with a firm grip. This man will not let me go, and that’s the most important thing.

We leave the ship. Parting with Eva is bitter-sweet. She promises to watch over as, because she has a connection with Sada. As we walk off the ramp, Sarji breaks into a run, good and refreshing for both of us. The fall is in the air, and the sky looks like a watercolor painting of a very talented artist. It has an appearance of a pearly shell, translucent, with white and bluish colors.