Dark Universe & Forbidden Love (31 page)

When Mark left with Salmon, he
didn’t really have time to think about it. Now he wasn’t sure it was a good
idea to leave drug business. He needed money to pay John’s medical bill. Now he
and Salmon were just waiting at the colony on planet M74985. It was actually a
megacity stretching some 2000 kilometers along a river.

It was
the fourth day since they left the earth. Mark and Salmon was heading to a
coordinate located at the outskirt of the colony. When Mark and Salmon arrived,
they both wondered whether they got the address wrong. It was an old and
battered warehouse. They checked the perimeter and found nothing except some
fresh footprints. Following those footprints, they entered the building. The
inside was starkly empty. Beams of light passed through the cracks on the roof,
casting on the dusty ground.

Mark and
Salmon walked around carefully. Suddenly, the entire floor started to sink.
They were entering into a steel structure like an underground hangar. A man,
medium build, walked to Mark and Salmon leisurely. As he got closer, Mark was
shocked that it was Aron. Aron was surprised as well, but both of them acted
like they didn’t know each other.

“They
are waiting. This way.” Aron said coldly.

They
followed Aron into a room. There were two men and a Glycan sitting around a
table. One was Treton London, the chairman of Human defense department. He had
a small build, around 60, with a thin face and round eyes. The other man was
Cateon William, the chairman of Human treasury department. He was tall and fat
with thick grey hair, grey beard and a square face dotted with freckles. The
Glycan was dressed like a Human, but his long white hair gave his identity
away.

Mark had
seen the two men on media. He was very well aware of who they were. But he
couldn’t tell anything about the Glycan. He didn’t even know how old he could
be.

“I don’t
think we need to introduce ourselves. Am I right?” Treton joked as he glanced
over at Cateon.

“No. I
can tell they know us.” Cateon chuckled.

Both
Mark and Salmon nodded.

“You
must be wondering why a Glycan is sitting here with us. We will get to that.
First, we are happy to learn that you two have delivered the Glycans.”

“Thank
you, sir.” Mark and Salmon said simultaneously.

“The
reason for this meeting is to inform you the next stage of our plan. Lreque, do
you mind?” Treton said politely.

“My name
is Lreque. I figured that at least we should meet one time before we work
together.”

“Doesn’t
matter for me.” Mark said easily.

“You are
the one found the big Hylocan eyeball, right?” Lreque asked.

“Yes.”

“We are
not able to directly verify the intel you provided, so we are not sure.”

“Sure
about what?” Mark asked.

“If your
intel was correct, General Klizan might be up to something big.”

“My
intel is correct. That is what I saw.”

“Then
you should be able to find it again.”

“I don’t
know about that. I imagine we have this conversation because your people didn’t
find it in the past several months.” Mark said casually.

“That is
your new assignment. There might be something else on the side.” Lreque said
firmly.

“Given
the power Klizan had, I don’t think he even needs the eyeball for whatever he
was going to do.”

Cateon
and Lreque smiled silently.

Treton
gave Mark a blank stare and said, “Watch your manner. Remember who you are
talking to.”

“Sorry,
sir.” Mark said respectfully, casting his eyes down.

“We need
to find the eyeball.” Treton said to Mark.

“Yes,
sir.” Mark nodded.

“Salmon,
you will work with Aron. Any question?” Treton said with a straight face.

“Sir, we
get paid for this, right? I mean, like how much?” Mark asked cautiously.

“Better
than your previous job.” Cateon said firmly, and then motioned them to leave.

Mark,
Salmon and Aron left the room. Salmon and Aron had stuff to discuss, so Mark
excused himself and waited near the car. He knew soon Salmon and him would take
orders from that Glycan Lreque. He had a lot of questions, but he quitted
questioning and started to wonder how much money he could make and whether it
would be enough for John’s Phase II treatment.

Jason was sitting at the edge of
a rainbow like flower field, but he wasn’t in the mood to appreciate its
beauty. He didn’t know why he was still on this monstrous Hylocan vessel. He
understood that Lisania must had done something, or they should had killed him
five days ago. However, he didn’t understand if they didn’t want to kill him
then what they want from him. He thought about escaping, but given the fact
that Hylocan could read mind, he would fail before he even started.

Lisania
walked to Jason and scared him from behind. He was so lost in his thoughts that
he didn’t realise someone was behind him.

“Got
you, huh?” Lisania said as she sat next to Jason.

“Yea.”
Jason smiled reluctantly.

“Jason,
I need to tell you something.” Lisania said seriously.

“I am on
my ears.” Jason said easily. He knew this moment would come sooner or later.

“Jason,
you will leave here safely, but they will remove Hylocan and me from your
memory. I am sorry that is all I can do.” Lisania said sadly.

“In that
case, I will lose a friend.” Jason sighed.

Lisania
hugged Jason and cried.

Jason
didn’t know what to say. He was just as sad as her.

“I am
sorry. I am sorry.” Lisania said desperately, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“You
saved my life. Because of me, you had to come back here. I know you don’t like
here.” Jason said gently as he wiped tears off Lisania’s face.

“Jason,
after you go back, find the way to remove the bacteria from your body. There
must be other ways.” Lisania said caringly.

“I will.
I will find other solutions. Trust me. I will be fine.”

“I love
you.” Lisania said and buried her face in Jason’s chest.

After
several seconds, they slowly broke up.

“I love
you.” Lisania said emotionally with tearful eyes.

Right at
this moment, a guard appeared in the distance. Before he could get closer,
Lisania motioned him to go back. She knew it was the time.

Jason
and Lisania left the flower field and went to a compartment in the medical bay.
In the compartment, there was a chair surrounded by all kinds of equipment.
Several technician look Hylocans were busy with those equipment.

“So this
will only remove Hylocan and you from my memory?” Jason asked.

“Yes.”

Jason
paused there, lost in his thoughts.

A
general walked into the compartment and said, “We don’t have a whole day!”

Jason
nodded and sat on the chair.

Lisania
stood beside Jason and whispered, “Remember this.” She then kissed Jason on the
lips and put something in Jason’s pocket.

“That is
enough!” The general shouted as she dragged Lisania away from Jason.

“Start
the procedure!”

“Wait,
wait one second!” Jason yelled.

“What?”

“Can
you...” Jason was hesitating, his voice shaking, his eyes filled with tears.

“Can you
remove Gloria from my memory?” Jason said painfully as he gazed at Lisania.

Lisania
stared at Jason in confusion for several seconds. Then suddenly she understood
and nodded with tears in her eyes.

A
shining robotic snake slowly wrapped around Jason’s head. Then several
tentacles came out of the snake’s body and lifted Jason’s right eyelid. Another
tentacle dropped a glob of liquid on Jason’s right eyeball.

Jason
felt something was slowly seeping into his mind. He saw images about Hylocan
and Lisania popping out like crazy. Then he saw Gloria. She was beautiful as
always. Suddenly, his mind went blank. It was like someone turned off the light
and everything ditched into darkness.

When Jason woke up, he found
himself lying on a stretcher carried by two airborne robots. It was sunny and
warm.

A Human
and a Tizuee were walking beside him and looking at him kindly.

“Jason
Marton.” The Human said gently.

“Yes,
how do you know my name?” Jason said tiredly.

“We also
know you are a trainee in the Guardian Fleet training center.” The Tizuee said.

“Where
am I?”

“Right
now you are on planet Z17-M and we are taking you to the outpost station of
Guardian Fleet.” The Human said.

“Take it
easy. You somehow crash landed on this planet. But you are fine.” Tizuee said.

Several
hours later, Jason felt much better and he learned that he was found lying near
a lifeboat with his watch sending distress signal. He had no clue or memory how
he ended up on this planet. He called Erikon and realised that all his
teammates were looking for him for the past several days. Erikon told Jason
that Gloria had been worried to death and asked Jason to come to the Human
colony.

It took
Jason five hours to arrive at the Human colony. When he stepped out of the
public transport vessel, he saw Erikon and Lucis in the distance. He waved at
them. At the same time, he saw a girl rushing to him. She was wearing a big hat
and a white skirt. While Jason was thinking who she was, the girl rammed into
Jason. She held Jason’s face and said, “Jason, I miss you so much.”

Jason
smiled politely and winked at Erikon and Lucis for help. But they just smiled
at him.

“Excuse
me. Excuse me. I think you must mistake me for somebody else.” Jason said
gently. He hated to say things like this, because this girl was beautiful.

“I guess
my disguise really works.” Gloria said happily as she lifted her hat a little. 

“You are
Glycan!” Jason said in surprise.

“Jason,
don’t play dumb on me, OK? Do you know how worried I was?” Gloria said kindly.

“I am
sorry I really hope I am the one you are waiting for.” Jason said sadly.

“Jason,
what is going on?” Gloria said in confusion. She started to feel something was
wrong.

“That is
my question as well.” Jason chuckled.

“You
don’t know me?” Baffled and shocked, Gloria gazed at Jason.

“I
certainly hope I know you.” Jason said in a relaxed tone.

Just at
this moment, Lucis and Erikon walked to Jason and Gloria.

“Guys,
let’s do it in my place, all right?” Erikon said happily.

“Yea,
don’t have sex in public. That is wrong.” Lucis joked.

“There
is no law against it!” Erikon said confidently.

“Thank
you, Erikon. We just knew each other like 10 seconds ago, but I really appreciate
you guys arranging this for me.” Jason said easily.

Erikon
and Lucis looked at each other in confusion. Then they glanced over at Gloria,
but she had the same look.

“Jason,
you are fucking with us, right?” Lucis said uneasily.

Now
Jason was wearing a confused look.

Gloria
paused for several seconds and said, “I think I know what is going on.”

“Let’s
get out of here first.” Erikon said hastily. They headed out of the station and
went to Erikon’s hover car.

As soon
as they got in the car, Gloria took out a four inch long cylinder filled with
black liquid.

“Jason,
I know you couldn’t remember me. That is OK. But right now, you need to inject
this in your body to save your life.” Gloria said hastily as she handed over
the cylinder.

“What is
it?” Jason asked as he checked the jello like sticky liquid.

“Tiegotteen’s
blood.”

“How did
you get that?” Jason asked in surprise.

“We went
to planet Rioto, you and I.” Gloria said emotionally.

“I knew
about that, but only I was there. I also remember I got very sick.” Jason said
calmly.

“You
did. The bacteria almost kill you back then. You need to inject that to remove
the bacteria in your body.” Gloria said seriously, making it sound like it was
life or death.

“If I
got very sick because of the bacteria, how can I come back to see you guys?
Erikon, Lucis, you guys know this bacteria thing?” Jason asked.

“I heard
it from Gloria.” Erikon said.

Lucis
put on an innocent face and didn’t say a word.

“Jason,
trust me! I almost died for this!” Gloria said in a begging voice.

“Well,
it seems I don’t need it anymore, as you can see, I am fine.” Jason said
happily as he gave the cylinder back to Gloria.

Gloria
grabbed the cylinder and jumped on Jason, pushing the cylinder towards Jason’s
chest. But she couldn’t match Jason’s strength. Jason grasped both of her hands
and held her still on his lap.

It was
the aroma that ignited Jason’s memory. When Gloria hugged him back in the
station, he felt something familiar. Now he knew it was this aroma, but he didn’t
know why he had such memory.

“I think
I did know you, but I just don’t remember you.” Jason said in confusion.

Gloria
suddenly dived in and kissed Jason on his lips for several seconds. Then she
broke up and asked, “How about now?”

“If I
say yes, will you kiss me again?” Jason said in a teasing voice.

Gloria
let out a long sigh and said, “If you let me inject this, you can kiss me as
long as you want.”

“No,
thank you.” Jason chuckled as he gently pushed Gloria away.

Erikon
and Lucis were shocked at Gloria’s kiss. Erikon really hoped he was in Jason’s
shoes. If he was Jason, he would let Gloria do whatever she wanted. Lucis
looked at Jason jealously, wondering why Jason always had such good luck.

Soon the
hover car emerged from the underground tunnel, passed a huge gate guarded by
four robots and slowly stopped at the driveway in front of a three floor villa.

“Welcome
to my humble house!” Erikon said cheerfully.

They all
got off the car and marveled at the palace like villa. It took up the ground as
large as a football field. The white marble wall was accompanied by huge
windows. Numerous robot guards walked around leisurely, making it look like a
fortified castle.

“So you
finally got your own place.” Jason said easily.

“Yea, I
made a bet with my father. He thought I would be kicked out in the first
semester. This is what I won.” Erikon said proudly.

“It’s a
nice place!” Gloria said.

“Thank
you, Gloria. You compliment is very much appreciated.” Erikon said happily.

“Well.
It is impressive. However, Gloria, if you saw the place I live, you will see
the difference!” Lucis said confidently.

They
walked into the hall, followed by robots carrying their luggage.

“Oh,
Jason, just in case you don’t know, Gloria will stay with us for several days.”
Erikon said with a big grin on his face.

“I do
not know.” Jason emphasized on each word.

“Jason
and I will share the same room!” Gloria said firmly, gazing at Jason in a
lovely way.

“I see.
Jason, you are the man. I know you will nail it.” Erikon gave Jason an evil
smile.

“Nail
what? I am not sharing a room with her. She will stab me with that thing
whenever she gets a chance.” Jason said coldly.

“Jason,
if I were you, I will share with her, even if I know she will stab me.” Erikon
sighed.

Lucis
and Erikon looked at Gloria, waiting for her decision.

“Then I
will have a room right next to Jason.” Gloria said coldly as she rolled her
eyes at Jason.

After
they settled in their own rooms, they had a scrumptious dinner, and then they
discussed Jason’s situation. Jason wasn’t really in the mood for that, but he
did realize that he a lot of things didn’t add up. Gloria tried to persuade him
to take Tiegotteen’s blood, but Jason didn’t listen.