Beyond The Stars

It’s only been a few months since the Khanthraities came to our little blue planet.  Pictures on the news of their enormous spacecraft hovering over Earth's atmosphere like a dark shadow.   Their little ships invading our cities as they mingled within our own people like they have always belonged.  It’s scary how similar they are to us, not just their looks but as we learn early on, their anatomy as well.  And then there’s that fanciful story of one of their own ships arriving or maybe crash landing, on our planet centuries ago.  Could those lost Khanthraities from long ago really have blended into our society so well that we never realized it.  Were the conspiracy theorists correct in saying that the aliens wouldn’t arrive because they were already here.  Kwen takes a deep breath, “Aliens really living among us!  I can’t see how it’s even possible”.  And now they are wanting to conduct tests to see if the human race could actually be caring alien DNA.  People lining up waiting around the block to be tested, wanting and hoping that they are part Khanthra.  Which brings me to my current dilemma.  Finding my nephew and stopping him from being tested himself.  I can’t believe that he and his friends actually want to be tested.

Kwen finally finds the location of the testing center making her way through the crowd.  She scans the room and finally finds who she is looking for.  “Travis”, she shouts out but he doesn’t turn around.  She walks closer and starts to yell out his name again when the doors to the back of the hall open and a group of humans and aliens come walking through.  Kwen looks at this group realizing that on the surface they all look the same but what lies beneath is probably a world of difference.  She quickly walks closer to her nephew, finally grabbing him by his arm.  “It’s time to go home”, she whispers in his ear.  But Travis has already made up his mind and turns to her, “Sorry Aunt Kwen but I’m not leaving”.   And he pulls away from her grasp and moves up the line. Kwen isn’t sure what to do.  He’s over age so she really can’t stop him but she feels this could be a mistake.  “Travis, please think this through.  What do you know about this alien race?”, Kwen grabbed his arm again.  Travis turns around looking at her and for the first time she sees it.  His need to be accepted.  She lets go and he moves closer to the front.  He knows that she finally understands . 

Kwen watches as her nephew walks up to the two aliens conducting the testing.  One of them is holding a tray that has five stones laying on it.  They are breathtaking, red, blue, yellow, green, and white.  She thinks that the colors look familiar but her attention is moved away from them to her nephew.  The female alien, able to speak English, introduces herself as Gia and tells Travis to hold one of his hands out, palm down, and slowly move it from one side to the other over the stones.  Travis begins moving his hand across the tray first the red one, then the blue one, and as he starts to cross over the yellow one it begins to glow.  He finishes by moving his hand over the last two, green and white and looks over at the alien female again.  She smiles as she looks at the yellow stone’s beautiful glowing light and she looks at Travis saying, “And the Earth is strong within you”.  She gives the stone to Travis and ushers him to the side so the next person can have their turn.  Kwen can;t believe what she just witnessed.  That yellow stone seemed to come alive as soon as Travis’ hand waved across it.  It’s impossible but she saw it with her own eyes.  She starts making her way through the people and stops when she gets to Travis’ side.  Gia notices that the other set of stones on her tray were vibrating.  “How could this be”, she thinks to herself.  The other set only glowed for that young man and there was no vibration.  She looks at the human female, “It couldn’t be”. She was going to say something but Quinn began speaking first,  “So what happens now”, she turns to the military doctor standing next to the female alien.  As he was getting ready to say something suddenly a loud crash came from behind Kwen and she grabs Travis and pushes him down to the ground in a motherly protective way.  She looks up and through the smoke and rubble come a group of men dressed in militia style clothes waving their AR15’s around.  People are screaming and running and these men are pushing and pulling people as they head in our direction.  Kwen realizes that they are after the aliens and possibly trying to take control of this center.  She grabs Travis telling him to get up and run but the men are already in their space.  She pulls Travis behind her but see’s the men are looking at the female alien a few feet from her.  Kwen always the rescuer reaches over and grabs Gia by the arm and pulls her toward Travis.  One of the men aims his gun at all three of them, “Move out of the way.  We aren’t here for you or him, just that alien.”  Kwen is not sure how to handle this but knows she can’t let them take her away,  “Sorry but she’s with me and I won’t give her up”.  

Maxium has been standing by watching this all unfold.  Not sure what to make of it.  He realizes that this female human resembles Selene.  One of the original members of his warrior squad.  She was on the ship that was lost all those centuries ago.  She and another member of the squad were there to protect the ship's passengers.  They were supposed to go only halfway and then return but they were never heard from again.  And now he is watching this human take on a group of other humans trying to protect one of his own.

Gia remembers that she has the other set of stones on her tray.  Without thinking she throws the stones in the air hoping that they would choose their owner or at least distract those bad humans.  But then she witnesses something amazing.  The stones stop in midair forming a five pointed star.  All five of them are glowing brightly and they fly through the air coming to rest right in front of Kwen.  She’s not sure what to make of this and those guys are looking at each other in complete shock.  The stones begin to pulsate as they get brighter.  Kwen, feeling something is about to happen starts to back up but it’s too late.  The stones rush towards her and disappear into her body.  One right between her eyes, one each into her hands and feet.  She can feel them melt into her skin and her body feels like it’s on fire.  She feels her body rise as it is lifted into the air and then the images start forming in her mind.  Like a moving picture show one image right after another faster and faster until she completely succumbs to the dizziness and passes out.  Those guys are standing there watching this crazy scene unfold and the one who seems to be incharge yells, “attack” and they all start moving toward Travis and Gia.  Tyler, not sure what the hell is happening, screams to his aunt, “Kwen...Kwen”, as he sees her floating in midair.  

Kwen can see all these images moving around her.  She’s not sure what has happened or where she is but it looks like a spaceship.  People are screaming and running.  She turns to her left and see’s two people standing there talking.  “It’s too late we will have to jump or the ship will blow apart” the female says to the other. “Selene, if we do that we may never get back to Khanthra or our families”, the other says.  “If we don’t help them then what will it matter to go back”, she responds.  And they both walk off fast until they disappear into the smoke.  Suddenly Kwen is transported to another part of the ship.  It looks like the control room.  There are several officers and those two from earlier are there.  The captain tells them to brace for the jump and Kwen feels dizzy as the scene starts to fade into blackness.  She can hear screaming again and she opens her eyes seeing her nephew and the alien female, Gia backing up with a few of those men moving forward towards them.  People running and screaming trying to get away from the flying bullets.  Kwen knows she has to stop this before more people are hurt which includes her nephew.  She can feel the power inside of her.  It’s like it’s been set free.  She finally realizes she is floating in midair.  Moving her body she starts gliding down and her feet hit the floor and the power grows.  “No…don’t”, a familiar voice in her ears and she eyes two of those assholes grabbing her nephew and Gia.  She runs over to them and grabs the arm of the guy who is holding on to her nephew.  “Let go of my nephew”, Kwen squeezes the guy's arm and he releases Travis  as he screams from the pain.  She pulls him towards her and his eyes grow wide as he sees something incredible.  Her eyes are glowing and she’s lifting him off the floor and in one quick move she throws him across the room, into the wall on the other side.  Kwen is not sure but it’s like her body already knows what to do before she can think about it.  Some of that scumbag’s friends run over and check on him.  He passed out.  They look over at Kwen and you can see exactly what they want to do from the expressions on their faces.  One by one they start moving toward Kwen attacking her.  And with each one that advances toward her she quickly takes care of him.  The one in charge takes notice of what is happening from his spot and yells to the rest to deal with her.  Kwen backs up a little and makes her stand.  She feels the power growing again and suddenly something forms in her right hand.  She looks down and is shocked, she’s holding a fighting staff.  No time to think she is ready to do battle and as those jackasses get ready to attack her a group of those aliens jump forward and get in front of her.  Their weapons are drawn and those assholes stop in their tracks.  Kwen looks at them realizing they seem different from the first aliens that came to the planet.  They are more warrior-like and remind her of those two she saw in her vision.  Kwen is angry and moves forward taking her stand in front of those warrior aliens.  Looking straight at the asshole in charge she smiles, “You want more?”.  The guy thinks about it and decides to back off. He and the other’s back up and run off.  Kwen stares at them as they run away and remembers the staff in her hand.  She looks down at it with amazement in her eyes looking at it for a few moments.  It’s beautifully handcrafted with unusual markings all over it.  Some of the markings look familiar and remind her of Pagan symbols but could that be possible.  She is so focused on the staff she forgets about those aliens standing behind her.  One of them moves forward and she comes back to life when she sees movement from the corner of her eye. She turns around quickly, moving the staff behind her in a warrior pose ready to attack.  But the alien moves his hands up in a surrendering pose and drops his own staff to the ground.  “No one wants to hurt you”, he says.  Kwen looks at him startled that she can understand him.  Maybe he can speak the human language like the other alien, but even that alien’s English was broken.  She can understand him completely.  She just stands there staring at this alien man not sure what to do next.  Then suddenly the other warrior aliens drop their fighting staffs to their sides and get down on one knee bowing their heads.  And at that moment the Khalings are born!