The Royal Pursuit (13 page)

“
Obviously, the six people
we keep seeing were the primary leaders in Atlantis,” Kent
commented, though the observation wasn’t necessary.

Stephen took pictures of what he
found.

“
Should we check out the
next room?” she asked.

They nodded.

The next room was similar to the one
they just saw except the furniture was red. There were pictures of
the same six people, but the picture behind the desk was of a black
haired good looking thirty-year-old man who had a serious look on
his face. Below his picture was the name “Ares.”

She turned to Kent. “Do any of these
names seem familiar to you?”

He frowned as he walked over to the
picture. “Actually, they do. I think I’ve heard them before, but I
can’t remember where.”

She sighed, disappointed. “I keep
thinking that I should recognize this name. The others aren’t so
obvious, except for Zeus. That sounds familiar, too.”

“
I hate to break this up,
but we’re supposed to meet Reed and Mark outside,” Stephen
interrupted them.

“
Is anyone else bothered by
Captain Reed?” Kent asked.

“
Yeah. He makes me
nervous,” she confessed, afraid to voice her opinion aloud. It
seemed wrong to criticize their group member.

“
That’s because we didn’t
know him before we started this trip,” Stephen reasoned as he
studied his camera to make sure all the pictures he took were
there. “We’ve known each other for years.”

“
That must be it,” Kent
agreed.

She glanced at Kent. She knew him well
enough to know when he didn’t trust someone, and he didn’t trust
their captain.

They walked outside the building and
met Captain Reed and Mark. They compared their findings and
discovered that the other side of the arc was the same as the one
they had explored.

“
The only difference is
that the rooms we checked out featured a picture of a woman behind
each desk,” Mark said. “Look at how beautiful these women
were.”

He handed Stephen his camera so they
could see the three pictures he had taken.

“
We only got to check three
rooms. I’m sure the other rooms are just like those,” Mark
added.

Stacey grudgingly admitted that the
women were extremely beautiful.

“
Were all these women
models?” Kent asked.

She nudged him in the side.

“
Oh, like you didn’t think
Ares was gorgeous,” he replied.

“
At least I didn’t say it
aloud.”

“
Lover’s quarrel. We better
get out of their way,” Mark teased.

“
Seriously though, women
don’t look like this unless they’ve had cosmetic surgery and a
professional do their hair and makeup. This is unrealistic,” Kent
said. “As was Mr. Handsome back there.”

She secretly agreed with him. They
resembled perfect dolls. They didn’t have any flaws. It was
unrealistic.

“
I don’t care,” Mark said.
“I’m going to put the blond on my screen saver when I get back
home. Her name was Aphrodite.”

Again, Stacey had an uneasy feeling
that she should recognize the name.

“
We need to get back to the
submarine,” Captain Reed interrupted. “I need to report our
findings to our benefactor.”

As they walked back to the submarine,
she couldn’t help but wonder, for the millionth time, who their
benefactor was and why he kept his identity a secret.

Chapter
Eleven

Heading to the Lake

Planet: Lone

The man in white didn’t wait for
morning to lead Athen, Dour, and Optima into the wilderness. He
pressed them all to go through the night. He had a mission, and now
that the queen was free, he didn’t have time to spare. He recalled
the future he had witnessed, and he had to get her before she got
him. If she was pregnant, he must kill her. It would be a shame to
kill her. She was beautiful. She didn’t have the striking beauty he
was accustomed to. Her beauty was quiet and subtle, yet it was
intriguing and drew him toward her.

He hoped it was simply a matter of
sterilizing her so that she would not be able to conceive. Then she
would live and be free to be with him.

“
Where are we going?” Ruler
Dour asked.

“
To Lake Solitaire,” the
man replied.

Dour frowned. “Why? Shouldn’t we be
looking for the queen in the forest? Surely, she would not go to
the lake. There aren’t any trees around it for a mile. She will be
too exposed. She must be hiding in the trees.”

“
She will go to the lake.
She is meant to go there.” He could see the question in Dour’s
face, so he quickly explained, “She will follow us to get her magic
back.” He held up the stone they had used to capture her
magic.

Dour seemed ready to reply but decided
not to.

The man grinned as he slipped the
stone back into his pocket. It was better for Dour to remain quiet.
The less he knew, the better off he would be.

The man glanced over at Athen who
hadn’t said anything during their walk through the trees. “Don’t
worry about your queen. I know how to deal with her.”

Athen gave him a sharp look but held
back his reply.

The man chuckled. “I have a bargain to
make with her. I’m sure Raz could benefit from such a
deal.”

“
You talk but you don’t
make sense,” Athen finally responded, his voice stiff.

The man shrugged. “Keep them in
suspense. That’s always been my motto.”

Athen shook his head.

“
Perhaps we should take the
chains off of him,” Optima said.

“
Why?” the man
asked.

“
It will be easier for us
to get to the lake if he can carry his own flashlight. As it is, he
trips over the tree roots, and it’s been delaying our
progress.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “I see your
point. Very well. Release him. But, Dour will keep this Paler gun
pointed at him. We remember how well you handled the gun when you
had to watch the queen, Optima.”

His biting remark was meant to hurt
her, and by the startled look on her face, he knew he had
succeeded.

“
I won’t let him get away,”
Dour assured him as he took the gun. “Besides, I am sure he
wouldn’t want to risk the same punishment the queen will suffer for
escaping.”

“
No, I won’t,” Athen
said.

“
We will see, won’t we?”
the man remarked.

Optima released his chains.

Athen looked relieved.

“
Now that everyone is
comfortable, can we continue our journey?” the man
asked.

They nodded.

As they walked, Dour spoke up. “Are we
allowed to know your name?”

“
Names don’t mean
anything,” the man replied.

“
Perhaps not to you, but we
like to call people by name.”

“
Yes, but not everyone
shares your enthusiasm for such things.”

“
That hardly seems fair,
considering you know our names,” Athen argued.

The man stopped and put his cane up to
Athen’s neck. “Did I ask for your opinion?”

Athen pushed his cane away. “I’m not
afraid of you.”

“
You should be.”

Athen rolled his eyes. “Whatever you
intend to do to any of us is of little concern. The queen is free,
and she will destroy you.”

He chuckled. “Can you see into the
future to reveal such a thing?”

“
No. But your fear speaks
loudly.”

“
Fear? I do not fear
her.”

“
Then why do you pursue her
when the Nicals are safe?”

Athen’s question bothered the man. The
man shivered despite the warm air. He turned his eyes away from the
Razian. Forcing aside his unease, he motioned for the others to
follow him.

They walked on in silence as the
insects buzzed in the night.

***

Back at the Austere Complex, Xan
walked over to the two Palers. “Can we trust you to stay here if we
unchain you?”

Jaz glanced at Falon. When she saw him
nod, she said, “Yes.”

Xan freed them from their chairs and
gave them some water to drink. “We do not wish to harm you or the
Razians. We only wanted to survive. We had no idea we stole the
Olympians’ immortal power. That is why you came? To get the stone
from us?”

“
Yes, it is,” Jaz
said.

She studied the room. Some Nicals
stood up. Others were sitting around the table. It suddenly
occurred to her they were a very close group, and she saw the same
desperation in their faces that she’d seen in Palers who’d been
condemned to the Great Prison during Omin’s reign. It was a
terrible time.

It was time to give the Nicals the
benefit of the doubt. “Why did you wish to be immortal?”

“
You will let us explain?”
Xan asked, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

“
Of course. Things aren’t
always as they seem.”

“
No. They certainly are
not.”

The other Nicals’ expressions turned
hopeful.

Xan cleared his throat then began, “At
one time, we were a prosperous civilization. Life grew in
abundance. By ‘life,’ I mean our lives. We used to be about five
million in number. Then we lost our ability to reproduce. You will
notice that everyone in this room is an adult. The youngest person
here is twenty-four. He was the last one born. A genetic mutation
caused us to be sterile. It was one of those things that could not
have been avoided. But we had hoped for a solution. We ran many
experiments. One experiment seemed promising. Colan was able to
insert a base pair into our DNA that would tell the males to
produce sperm and the females to produce and release eggs. That
way, our ability to reproduce would be restored, so we would not
face the extinction we feared.

“
The first couple to test
his experiment was successful. After several injections, their DNA
changed, and they did conceive. Nine months later, they gave birth
to a normal baby girl. We were greatly encouraged by this outcome.
The couple and baby were healthy. More people volunteered for the
injections, and more babies were born. We thought we had preserved
our species. Unfortunately, one of the men had a negative reaction
to the injections. His body produced a virus we later called the
Eradicator because of its 100% mortality rate. No one survives
it.

“
That was two years ago. We
didn’t notice the virus at first, which is why we did not isolate
it in time, and by the time we realized what was going on, two
thousand people were infected. The elderly, pregnant women, and
babies were the first to die. Transmission was rampant and easy. A
simple sneeze or cough was enough to infect an entire room. We
quickly quarantined everyone who was sick or came into contact with
a sick individual. It did little good. We thought we had succeeded
in eliminating the virus when it mutated again, which made it even
easier to transmit. All we had to do was breathe as the virus
traveled through the air. This virus does not cross species, so you
will not be affected by it. Nicals are the only ones who get the
virus. This also explains why our animal, insect, and plant life
still thrive on Lone, though we do not.”

He paused. Jaz noted the heavy silence
in the room. Perhaps the Nicals were taking a moment to remember
their lost loved ones, which would be understandable.

“
Those of us who are still
alive,” Xan continued, “are the remaining members of our species,
and we were getting sick as well. We had to do something to save
ourselves. We were desperate. Optima read of the Olympians and
their stone of immortality. Our intention was to copy their
immortal ability. We never wanted to steal their immortality from
them.”

“
Did you even think to ask
the Olympians if you could copy their power?” Jaz asked.

“
We didn’t have time,” he
replied. “The Olympians take forever to get anything done. Our
request to copy their immortality would have been discussed for
weeks.”

Jaz felt sick to her stomach after
learning of their plight. Wouldn’t Palers have done the same thing
if this happened to them? She recalled how much time the Olympians
took when she had to seek their help in getting Queen Ann back to
Raz. They weren’t in any hurry to listen to her.

“
We should give them their
ability back,” Xan said. “They will die if we don’t. It is not
right to steal so that we can live.”

“
There has to be a
compromise,” Falon spoke up. “There can’t only be one solution. Why
can’t both the Olympians and Nicals live?”

“
I agree,” Jaz replied.
“Most of the time, it is a matter of looking at things from a
different perspective.”

“
We would gladly accept the
cure for the virus,” Xan said. “If we could find a cure, then we
could live long enough to reproduce. Our life expectancy before the
virus developed was eighty years. We would gladly accept that
again. We don’t need to be immortal to be happy.”