Chapter 1

Suleman

“Is this the end, my love?” asked Zahra as she stroked Suleman’s white hair.

She sounded calm but Suleman could see the worry that lined her face as he lay on her lap looking up at her. They had been married forty-five summers and never had he seen his Queen this tense. Such was the weight of the trial they faced.

As King, Suleman had ruled the Golden Kingdom, stretching from the Heaven Plains in the south to the Glory Mountains in the north, for fifty summers. His reign had been prosperous and just. Trade flourished, the poor were uplifted through farmwork offered by his decree and attempts to incite anarchy or cruelty in the kingdom were crushed.

During his tenure, Suleman had fought several great wars against mighty aggressors, from other parts of the world, who endeavored to invade his lands. He prevailed each time with his army earning a reputation of grit and skill in battle. Nonetheless, the predicament at hand, as he approached the twilight of his lifetime, was different.

“Suleman?” Zahra questioned. Her hand coming to a halt, half-entangled in his hair.

“It will be okay, my love.” Suleman replied, realizing he had let himself drift with his thoughts. 

He took her hand and kissed it gently. They had not slept in days. Now that they were finally in bed, sleep eluded them. Suleman’s mind raced again, recapping recent events.

It had been thirty nights since the cursed siege began. Two moon-cycles under the blood-red sky. Food and water reserves were at an end. Disease was rampant. Inside the walls of the Golden Kingdom’s capital, Jehan, the hopes of its people dwindled. Outside its walls, lay death.

Vicious creatures scourged the land. They came in the dead of night. The sentries on watch-duty atop the walls at the time saw the abominations fall from the sky. The night sky subsumed by numerous streaks of blinding light, plummeting towards the ground. Their collision with the earth echoed through the land. After that, the sky turned red and morning never came. Suleman thought the creatures made it bleed. The new red hue revealed scores of shadows emerging from the craters formed by the impact.

In less than a day, they had reached the city gates. Each beast, the size of a war horse, with dagger-like horns protruding from all over its body. The head resembled the mold of a snake except that it had no eyes and the jaw seemed too big for its face. It was a mess of teeth which looked strong enough to cut through bone. He could only imagine the fate of the people who lived in settlements outside the city.

“You evaded my question,” said Zahra with an exasperated sigh. “This is not your court; this is our chamber.”

Suleman had always admired Zahra’s bluntness. He stalled his thoughts, sat up from Zahra’s lap and faced her. Age had done little to eclipse her beauty. The chamber’s fire lamp illuminated her wrinkled face with high cheek bones and prominent blue eyes.

“I don’t know, Zahra. Even if it is, we fight until our last breath.” said Suleman, earning a firm nod from his wife. Something about acknowledging his uncertainty aloud relieved him.

The creatures had surrounded Jehan. They had swarmed around the gate of the walled city, relentlessly trying to break through. The bloodlust evident in their rabid screeches. Suleman, wary of the wooden gate’s capacity to sustain the pressure, had ordered the gate to be supplemented with as many heavy boulders and large blocks of concrete that could be found.

The arrows and catapults were the only things preventing the vile beasts from congregating upon each other and scaling the walls. The beasts who fell to the weapons were replaced easily.  Their numbers were uncountable. From the walls, they stretched as far as the eye could see. Suleman knew it was only a matter of time before they breached the city.

“Any word from the armies in the north?” asked Zahra.

“Nothing.” Suleman responded as he reclined on his side of the bed.

With no way of sending a messenger on horse, his advisors had used pigeons to relay messages. He had called for military aid from his governors in the north. Jehan, the seat of his throne and the southern-most city under the kingdom’s territory, was amid the Heaven Plains.

Suleman’s father had laid the foundations of the Golden Kingdom here and had led a conquest up north as far as the Glory Mountains. Suleman saw no point in moving the capital to a central location since this was where it all began. The first King had spent his life creating an empire and Suleman spent his defending it.

Many nights had passed, none of the messenger pigeons returned and there was no sign of reinforcements. Suleman and his war council had initially planned on overwhelming the beasts by having reinforcements attack from the back while the army in the city charged through the gate.

He closed his eyes. He needed a new strategy. Time was running out and he hoped some rest would clear his mind.

Chapter 2

Nova

 The Hive’s next victim was Earth-747. Nova watched, like she had several times before, as the moon-sized parasite ballooned into a translucent red sphere and enveloped the larger planet. Over the next few months, hornids from the Hive would rid the planet of all humans, feeding on human flesh to spawn more of their kind. After the purge, the Hive’s red cocoon would bear down upon the planet, absorbing it completely to nothingness.

“AJ, lose the view.” Nova told the spaceship’s mainframe as she looked away. Seeing the Hive in action always unsettled her.

The window in her room fogged.

 “Done. Would you like some music to numb the pain while we stand by and watch this fine specimen devour yet another planet filled with billions of people?” said AJ in his almost sadistically cheery voice.

“Nah, and thanks for reminding me.” Nova said dryly. She ate a granola bar, her makeshift breakfast, from her secret food stash underneath the bed and walked out of the room towards the main deck.

Nova was fourteen when her parents, both acclaimed scientists, were tasked by the Space Council to study the Hive. At the time, a space probe in Constellation-271 had taped a red organism, the size of a football, which appeared to expand and ravage a SUV-sized asteroid.

 It was the first time in Earth-01’s history that an alien lifeform had been discovered. The council chose to keep the footage a secret. Nova’s parents were instructed to tail the anomaly through space in order to determine its origin, analyze behavior and report their findings to the Space Council. Since the mission span was indefinite, Nova accompanied her parents. Their spaceship her home and the universe her life.

Ten years and over forty Earth eradications later, the mission endured. They named the organism the Hive and witnessed it become one of the greatest threats to humanity to ever exist.

“Nova, you’re late. We need you on the hornid-eye.” came her mother’s voice as Nova entered the main deck.

 Holograms of the Hive filled the room. Each hologram displayed a different angle of the Hive invading Earth-747. Her parents frantically moved, from hologram to hologram, manipulating the visuals and performing calculations on their levitating tablets.

“Good morning to you too.” Nova muttered under her breath.

She went to the eye-pod, flopped into the capsule and strapped the hornid-eye to her head. She turned twenty-four last month and often fantasized how different her life would be if the civilization on Earth-01 had never advanced to such a high-tech stage.

Breakthroughs in space exploration revealed a phenomenon that had altered Earth-01’s understanding of space and time forever. The existence of Soul Gates: Fissures shrouded within the expanse of the universe that led to solar systems with Earths of their own. Space expeditions to some of these Earths had confirmed that humans of Earth-01 were not alone.

Further research revealed the physiology of these planets to be identical to Earth-01. However, each Soul Gate opened into a solar system that was at a different stage of its lifecycle. As a result, each Earth followed a different timeline with Earth-01 found to be the oldest and the most advanced.

“Remember to be more objective,” Nova’s father called out without looking up from his tablet. “Your last report wasn’t comprehensive enough for the Space Council.”

Nova didn’t respond. A decade had passed as she attended virtual school and assisted her parents in their research. A decade of watching her parents tirelessly gather data on the Hive for the Space Council, neglecting her in the process. A decade of seeing new Earths and their people suffer through chip-cams on the hornids.

“AJ, patch me in.” Nova declared.

And then her field of vision changed. She was hurtling through Earth-747’s atmosphere towards another bloodbath.

 Chapter 3

Jan-e-Alam

Jehan was on the brink of chaos. An entire company of soldiers had to be commissioned to prevent stampedes in the food ration drives. The grain warehouses and wells in the city were heavily guarded. The normally bustling markets had been deserted. Only few walked Jehan’s famed cobbled streets. Fear and wariness evident in their gait. Panic was in the air. There was talk of an apocalypse. An end of days.

Jan-e-Alam didn’t care. His duty was to the King and his people. He didn’t have time to let fear rule his mind. He had a city to protect.

“General, permission to report.” said Aaliya. She found him in the armory examining the new catapults with the armorers.

He turned around to face his lieutenant and nodded. Purple streaks of beast blood stained her golden armor. Her braided hair disheveled.

“Trouble on the west wall,” Aaliya continued as Jan-e-Alam walked out of the armory with her in tow. “We ran out of arrows and three of the beasts got through. They killed five before we could gut them.”

Jan-e-Alam stopped in his tracks. Five more to the tally of soldiers dead under his command. A pang of uneasiness swept through him.

“Have you sent word to their families?” he asked.

“Yes. I sent the rest of the runners to warn the other walls.” Aaliya replied.

 “Good. Get the new catapults in place before we lose more men,” said Jan-e-Alam as he walked over to his horse and mounted it. “And learn what you can–“

“General,” Aaliya interrupted, her face grim as he looked down on her from his horse. “We have a week’s supply of arrow wood at best. The men are tired. You and I both know lone catapults won’t hold them.”

“We will hold the wall as long as the King wants us to. Is that understood?” Jan-e-Alam snapped back.

Aaliya’s jaw tightened. She was a head taller than Jan-e-Alam and broader. A fierce warrior known for her strength and brutality in battle. Traits that ate at her to abandon all reason and charge into the massive horde of monsters. Jan-e-Alam held her stare and watched her regain composure.

“Understood,” came Aaliya’s reluctant reply. She whistled and mounted the horse that answered her call. “I found this polished stone stuck on one of the creatures, thought you might want to see it.” She said as she tossed the stone to him.

Jan-e-Alam caught it and said “Thanks. Do what you must to keep the army’s morale up. I will join you after the war council meeting ends, hopefully with a new plan.”

Aaliya saluted in response by placing her right fist on her heart and rode away towards the wall. Jan-e-Alam looked at the stone in his hand. It was unlike any stone he had seen before. Circular with a perfectly smooth texture and a green light that was visible one moment and gone the next.  

Chapter 4

Suleman

“I say we open the gate,” remarked Iqbal. “Better to die fighting than to die of starvation or disease.”

His voice echoed in the King’s Hall and the war council met it with silence. The seven of them sat on the grand stone table illuminated by the fire chandelier that hung atop. Darkness enveloped everything else in the hall known for its liveliness and grandeur.

Iqbal had been a famed warrior in his younger years. His face housed a scar that had taken one of his eyes and extended to his chin. Suleman had no doubt the veteran would jump off the wall to his death if it meant getting his hands on the beasts.

“My King?” Iqbal prompted when his proposal garnered no response from the table.

“You may be right,” Suleman conceded as he stood from his chair and walked towards the window, six sets of eyes upon him. He wore a tunic of fine linen and a gold-lined belt that held his sword. The hilt made of gold and a red sapphire in the pommel.

“But how can you expect me to subject civilians to the horror outside our gates?” said Suleman as he looked out towards the walls.

“We could evacuate them to this hall and rest of the castle before we attack.” proposed Haider, a long-time advisor to Suleman.

“That won’t work. There are far too many people.” countered Naba, the head armorer.

“Zia, any sign of the messenger pigeons?” asked Suleman as he turned to face his emissary seated at the table.

“No, my King. I am afraid the rest of the Golden Kingdom has suffered a far worse fate than Jehan.” replied Zia without making eye contact. Maybe he knew Suleman would see defeat in them.

Suleman clenched his fists. It was time to act. News of the clash at the west wall had convinced him that the city’s defenses had reached their limit.

“Jehan will suffer the same fate if we don’t act soon.” said Zahra. A finality in her words. She knew Suleman better than anyone and sensed the battle raging within him.

He felt the order reach the tip of his tongue. Then his eyes fell upon the only member of the council who had not spoken and the order died at Suleman’s lips. The man was clad in armor. His helm on the table. His hawk-like nose and sunken eyes prominent. A young warrior known across the land for his skill and honor. General of the Golden Army.

“Jan-e-Alam, what do you suggest?” asked Suleman.

“The army is eager to fight, my King.” answered Jan-e-Alam.

“That was not my question. I want your counsel, not a consensus.” retorted Suleman.

“I…I would like nothing more than to take the fight to those monsters but opening the gate would be suicide,” said Jan-e-Alam, earning a murderous look from Iqbal. “The beasts outnumber our soldiers by ten to one at the very least. By letting them in, we sentence the men, women and children to ugly deaths.”

Suleman returned to the table and sunk into his chair. Head in his hands. Gone were the days his heart yearned for battle and his hand itched for the sword. Old age had increased his wisdom but it had also made him fearful. That is why he believed Jan-e-Alam was right. He looked up from his hands and saw the council in heated discussion. Most expressing their dissent for Jan-e-Alam’s suggestion. He found Zahra staring at him, her gaze piercing his soul. She gave him a slight nod and he found the courage to be wrong.

“Watching my people starve is ugly too, General. Prepare for battle. In two days, we open the gate to meet them. With or without reinforcements.” ordered Suleman, the intensity in his voice silencing everyone.

Chapter 5

Nova

Nova had seen humans kill hornids before. But she had never seen them retrieve a fully functional chip-cam off a dead hornid. It had not taken Nova long to determine that Earth-747 was going through the early middle age. A time of swords, shields and armor. The burly woman that killed the hornid and pocketed the cam looked like she was made of iron because of her gleaming armor. Nova gave up on the cam as soon as it went into the darkness of the woman’s pouch.

The next few hours were a blur as she continued working on her routine report through the other chip-cams on the planet. She could never understand why her parents and the space council expected her reports to be different each time when the common theme was always death. It was hard to generate meaningful insights when an ecosystem and its inhabitants were at the brink of annihilation.

“Activity on the displaced cam,” echoed AJ’s voice in her ears and the hornid-eye altered her sight. “The woman gave this man the cam a while ago. I eavesdropped on their conversation and it seems this guy is the general.”

Nova was looking at the face of a man no older than thirty. He seemed to be reclining someplace exposed to the red luminescence of the Hive. He was toying with the cam. Nova guessed it was the activation light of the cam that sparked the man’s curiosity.

“You know we won’t get a better opportunity to test out the cam’s speaker, right?” said AJ.

“You want me to spook someone whose about to die?” questioned Nova.

“If you won’t, I will. Always wanted to talk to someone from another planet.” said AJ, ignoring her question. He was pretty annoying for a spaceship.

The man’s face moved away as he placed the cam on his chest and Nova faced the red sky.

“Darkness grows and tears flow,” the man sang. His voice low and melancholic.

“Tomorrow, I fight. Tomorrow, I die. Justice, my friend. Honor, my savior. May the light always endure.”

It was the pain in his voice that touched Nova. She had convinced herself infinite times of becoming numb to the suffering on display in her line of work and each time she realized it was a lie. Her trauma ran too deep.

“Hi. I speak from the object on your chest,” said Nova, carefully choosing her words. “Can you hear me?”

Vertigo overwhelmed her as the man jumped up and the chip-cam fell away from him. The reaction confirmed he had heard her. The chip-cam went dark and Nova figured the cam fell on its face.

“What sorcery is this?” exclaimed the man.

“Calm yourself. I am a friend.” said Nova placatingly.

“How can a stone speak? I must be going mad.” he replied.

Nova didn’t have the words to explain what a camera was or who she was without sounding deluded to the man so she went with the next best thing.

“It is not a stone; it is a mirror. I speak from a distant land through the magic of this mirror.”

Silence followed and extended long enough for Nova to think the man ran away. The cam shifted just before she could say anything and the man’s face came into view.

“So, you’re a witch then?” he questioned.

“Say yes! He’s going to believe you for sure.” AJ chimed in her ear. Nova ignored him.

“No, I am a.……scholar. I want to help you.” Nova regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. How could she help him? How could she help anyone on the planet?

“Perhaps in another life. The time for studies is over, scholar. Tomorrow, we go to war.” said the man. He had gone back to his reclining position. It seemed he had accepted the apparent insanity of talking to a stone.

“Do these beasts plague your land too, scholar?” he asked.  

“Not yet,” Nova said truthfully. “You talked about war. It’s no use fighting them. They will keep coming until you tire and die. Better to stay within your walls.” She was all too familiar with the hornids’ proliferation and the futility of trying to overcome them.

“Death comes for all. I prefer meeting it in a fight. But I worry for my people,” he said. Nova saw the pain in his eyes, the very pain she heard previously in his song. “There are many who cannot defend themselves. It sickens me to think of the beasts breaking through our ranks and getting to them. All because we opened the gate.”

Nova didn’t know what to say. It had been relatively easier to watch the hornids in action when the humans were mere characters behind the chip-cam screens, almost acting out a scene she had seen numerous times. Now that she had actually talked to such a human and felt the depth of his emotions, she resented herself. Nova wished she never existed. She had seen too much.

“I am sorry,” she blurted out. “I wish I could help you but I can’t. I don’t know how.”

The man let out a rueful chuckle.

“Unless this magic mirror of yours can protect my people, there is nothing to do but pray.” He remarked.   

 “She never asked the magic mirror.” said AJ. This time his voice reached the man and he sat up with a jolt.

“AJ, what are you doing? This isn’t the time for your games.” rebuked Nova.

“Nova, we can’t save the planet and everyone on it. But we can save some. I bet you never thought of that.” said AJ, his voice exhibiting a rare somber tone.

“I think you’re finally going haywire. You’re making zero sense.” said Nova. Her patience with AJ had reached its limit.

“I can make the dive. To Earth-747. The Hive’s too busy lusting on the planet to notice. We can rendezvous with this gentleman and the survivors. We can–“

“Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!” Nova shouted on top of her lungs. “How dare you? All this time we have watched the Hive destroy planet after planet. Billions and billions of people. Suddenly, you have the gall to tell me there’s a way?” She felt tears running down her cheeks.

“I think you have known for some time now. Deep down inside. You just didn’t want to face your parents or risk your life. Classic human trait of self-preservation.” said AJ, his tone the epitome of calmness.

Nova felt like she had been punched in the gut. AJ was right. They were powerless against the Hive but the ship could house a hundred people. They couldn’t save everyone but it was about time they saved some.

“Warrior, are you listening?” she addressed the expressionless face in her view. Nova was certain that the man grasped very little of the conversation that transpired between her and AJ.

“I am. It’s never too late to be brave, you know.” he answered, somehow aware of the conflict within Nova.

That is when she made her mind. They would stage the rescue and go back home. The space council would never refuse an opportunity to study live subjects from another Earth. She didn’t care if her parents lost their job. They had been at it long enough.

“I have a plan.” She found herself saying and felt AJ’s cheer reverberate in her ears.

Chapter 6

Jan-e-Alam

“Swift Justice! Swift Justice! Swift Justice!” the soldiers chanted as he moved towards the first line of attack. It was the name he had earned in battle and for many, the only name they knew him by. He hoped he could live up to it in the clash that was to come.

He looked back towards the last rank and nodded to the King who sat on his mount, in full battle gear, surrounded by his honor guard. The King returned his nod. Despite his age, he was determined to be in the thick of battle. But he was no fool. He knew he would only weaken the advance if he led the line. The honor to lead was Jan-e-Alam’s. Jan-e-Alam continued forward and reached the army’s vanguard a few yards from Jehan’s gate. The ferocity of the thumps and the thuds on its great wooden frame intensified. It was as if the beasts sensed what was to ensue.

Jan-e-Alam fixed his helm to his head. The rubble reinforcing the gate had been cleared and two of his men, stationed at the levers on each side of the gate, awaited his signal to open it.

“Orders, general?” said Aaliya as she joined him on the frontline. Her hulking form engulfed his silhouette on the ground. She carried a long-axe that rivaled her height and two daggers hung sheathed at her belt.

“Give the signal when I begin the charge,” said Jan-e-Alam. He looked up at the menacing red sky for a moment and turned to face the few thousand that stood behind him. The last known remnant of the Golden Kingdom’s military prowess. The King had already addressed the army but now it was Jan-e-Alam’s turn.

“My brothers and sisters, today we die,” he bellowed amidst the incessant boom of beasts pressing against the gate. “But before we do, let us make a vow under this accursed red sky. Let us vow to send the abominations outside to the very depths of hell. Let us vow to fight until the very last breath, until the very last creature bites the dust,” Jan-e-Alam felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins. His speech stirred the battle-rage inside him from its slumber and he hoped it did the same for the army.

“For our people! For our children!” he yelled as he felt his heartbeat reach a crescendo. He saw fear in the eyes of his warriors, but he also saw resilience.

They feared death because they were human, yet they welcomed its embrace because they were the Golden Army. Jan-e-Alam drew his sword, took a deep breath and nodded to

Aaliya. She signaled to the gate and, as it opened, Jan-e-Alam closed the visor of his helm and

raised his sword.

“A bloody end for us but a new beginning for the world!” And with that, he turned and charged,

the army at his tail. His battle cry fusing with the army’s deafening roar. Like thunder they

charged and collided into the storm of the horned beasts.

The creatures seemed to feel no pain. Murder, their sole purpose. They attacked ruthlessly without concern for their lives. Far quicker and armed with horns and teeth that tore through flesh like it was paper. Only a powerful and well-timed strike through an opening in their horned exterior would kill. Anything less than that didn’t even slow them down and proved fatal for the attacker.

In a short time, the army was overwhelmed. But the soldiers were doing just enough to keep the beasts confined within the gate’s courtyard. The cost of such a stand was horrific. Cries of pain and misery filled the air. There was blood everywhere. Mutilated bodies of warriors lay sprawled throughout the area.

And yet, Jan-e-Alam fought on. He sliced and diced, the plight of the defenseless imprinted on his mind. He was the wind and his blade a tornado. He felled beast after beast. Soon, he felt their collective awareness and hatred of him. Four of the beasts abandoned their duel with the other soldiers and rushed at him together.

A clever swordsman would have retreated to a spot where other warriors could rally to him. Clever didn’t suit Jan-e-Alam. He chose madness instead and charged at the beasts. The first two of the group came at him like arrows, powerful jaws aimed at his head and legs. Jan-e-Alam jumped and they pounced. But just as the tip of their teeth neared his flesh, he shifted in the air, ramming his sword in the exposed belly of one with all his weight, forcing its horns to pierce the second’s side in the air.

He landed on his feet as the dead beasts dropped to the ground. His sword still inside one of them. The remaining two gave him no quarter as they rapidly covered ground, almost hurtling toward him, and with no weapon in hand, Jan-e-Alam finally entertained the thought of dying. He managed to sidestep the third but before he could evade the fourth, the beast rammed into him, the force of the collision sent him flying, his chest plate miraculously protecting him from being skewered by the beast’s horns.

He fell with a thud, his body surging with pain. The light diminished in his eyes. His head spun and he knew his time was up. The two creatures would be upon him any instant and they would not be alone. But then his thoughts raced to the day before. Maybe he had dreamt everything. Maybe he hadn’t. The mysterious stone that turned out to be a magic mirror. The scholar that spoke from it and another who had awakened her soul. And from that awakening, came hope. She had said she would come and rescue whom she could. Jan-e-Alam had no choice but to believe her and until she came, he would buy his people time. And so, he refused to die.

His will replaced pain with power. He felt his head clear and, as fate would have it, his sword lay buried in the unnatural corpse next to him. He rolled towards it and wedged it free, just in time to guide it through the jaw of the beast that lunged at him. The weight of its body pressed against Jan-e-Alam as life drained through it. Suddenly, it intensified but before the pressure crushed him, a shadow zipped through the air. There was a sound of a crack and an inhumane shriek.

The weight against his body lessened and he was able to heave the lifeless beast away from him and stand. He saw a long-axe jutting out of another dead creature. Jan-e-Alam knew only one person who could throw a weapon that size with such speed. Aaliya was alive and she had saved him. He saw her struggling to fight off another wave of beasts nearby with some of the other soldiers.

Without even looking at him, she called out, “Any time now, general!” violence and impatience heavy in her voice.

Jan-e-Alam almost smirked at the comment and then he was charging into the chaos again.

 Chapter 7

Suleman

The Golden Army had fought bravely. He had seen his warriors overcome insurmountable odds in the past, but this battle had propelled the bar further than ever. They had given everything. Ultimately, everything wasn’t enough. The beasts had flooded the courtyard as soon as the gate opened, and their passage hadn’t ceased since. The soldiers had drowned in the sea of the enemy.  

Suleman stood with the last line of defense, blocking off all alleyways from Jehan’s gate to the castle and its close proximity. It was the area where his council had somehow managed to gather most of the city’s non-combatant populace prior to the conflict. It didn’t take the beasts long to cut through the entire army and reach the rear guard. He fought as best as he could, relying on his horse to do what his legs couldn’t and counting on his honor guard to protect him from what his reflexes didn’t preempt anymore.

They were driven back deep into the city, the beastly horde leaving a trail of blood and bodies in its wake. All good men and women. Suleman would mourn them in the afterlife. The present moment, however, needed a king. He organized the remaining force into a strong defensive unit. Using the narrowness of Jehan’s streets to their advantage, Suleman established a shield wall that was able to withstand the press of the cramped beasts. The spearmen behind the shield-wielders prevented the creatures from leaping over the wall.

The tactic had bought Suleman time to think. He knew the creatures would eventually climb the single-storied brick houses on either side of the street and swamp his company. The castle was not far. He had a feeling the beasts knew exactly where it was and were heading for it. Suleman didn’t want to dwell on the repercussions from the other exposed alleyways the beasts might have found.

His mind was torn between three voices. The first voice yearned to retreat to the castle so he could spend his last moments with Zahra. He had left her after a silent and teary embrace; both of them afraid to voice their final goodbye. The second saw no reason in holding out. Resistance was futile. It wanted him to attack and be done with his death. The third told him to stay put and pray for a miracle. And for reasons he could not articulate, he listened to the third voice.

The rabid screeches of the creatures tearing away at the shield wall unsettled his steed. Suleman had leaned forward on his saddle to pat the horse’s neck when he heard the sound of feet landing behind him. He unsheathed his sword and turned his mount to face the beasts that had dropped from the roofs above. Instead, he found five figures, drenched in beast blood from head to toe. They saluted him with fists to their chests and then one of them stepped forward. A man Suleman knew all too well.

“Jan-e-Alam, you’re alive.” Suleman exclaimed.

“It is good to see you, my King.” came his strained voice.

“How goes the battle?” Suleman questioned, hoping his general could offer something encouraging.

Jan-e-Alam’s shoulders slumped. “It goes poorly,” he said with a sigh. “The creatures move towards the castle as we speak. The army has been defeated. We are all that remains.”

Suleman looked back at his shield wielders and spearmen. Their resolve slowly withering away. The four warriors with Jan-e-Alam joined the line.

“So, Jehan has finally fallen.” Suleman admitted. “We cannot outrun the enemy from here. Let us face them and be done with it.”

Suleman made ready to prod his horse over the shield line in a final charge. If he had not turned away from Jan-e-Alam, the general would have seen a lone tear run the cut of his King’s face. The blood of Jehan’s people was on his hands. His intention had been to lessen suffering when he made the decision to fight but after hearing of the demons’ advance towards the defenseless castle, he felt he had amplified it.

“There is hope yet.” said Jan-e-Alam, stopping Suleman in his steps.

Suleman looked back to find Jan-e-Alam staring intently at a stone. A strange light flickered from it.

“Where are you?” Jan-e-Alam appeared to ask the stone. Suleman felt a pang of remorse for him. It was hard to see one of the best men he knew fall prey to madness.

But then came a garbled but loud enough voice from the stone, “Look to the skies.”

They both looked up and, to Suleman’s amazement, there was a white streak of light in the red expanse of the sky. It was travelling at speed towards them.

Chapter 8

Nova

Nova knew her parents would never agree to what she was going to do. They were scientists who rarely made a decision without calculating the risks and likeliness of success. On top of that, her plan compromised what they loved more than anything in existence; their jobs. Consequently, she decided to take the more discreet approach.

Like any day, she submitted her daily report after exiting the hornid-eye and walked out of the main deck while her parents worked away at their holograms. Only this time, Nova didn’t go to her room. She went to the ship’s control core instead. A room she had never bothered to explore before.

The door opened with a whoosh, leaking cold air that chilled her bones. Huge servers lined the walls in a jumble of flickering lights and wires. In the center of the room, attached from ceiling to floor, was a cylindrical glass structure. Inside the structure, lay an irregular metal object. All of the wires in the room seemed to be connected to it. Its base emitted a glow that changed colors every few seconds. A single screen protruded from its glass casing.

“Handsome, aren’t I?” said AJ in his casual tone. His voice echoed throughout the room.

It was unsettling to finally give his voice a face, if one could call a weird metal object a face. The ship’s control core was AJ’s room or, as AJ liked to say it, his domain. AJ’s programming enabled him to think and converse freely but it also made him subservient to Nova and her parents.  

The plan was to rewrite the command code in his programming, allowing AJ to act as he wished. Given that Nova pulled off a code of such complexity, AJ would lock her parents inside the main deck and then make the descent to Earth-747. Freeing AJ was the only way to stop her parents from ruining the mission.

“As handsome as they get.” Nova replied as she stepped up to the screen and got to work.

“Ah, sarcasm. How original,” said AJ. “I hope you know what you’re doing. Don’t let me die from something as boring as a bad code.”

“Relax.” said Nova.

If she had to pick a positive from having two workaholic scientists as parents, it was having smart genes. It had never taken much effort for Nova to do well in her studies so she had moved on to master other things. Advanced programming was one of them. She labored at the screen for a while, typing arcane characters with speed and focus. Nova came dangerously close to shutting down the entire ship a few times but, in the end, she was able to rid AJ of the command code.

Her parents, confined in the main deck, were livid when Nova told them about the rescue mission through the ship’s comms speaker. They had used quite a few expletives to express their disappointment in her. They told her she was undoing a decade of research by dragging them along on a suicide mission. Nova hung up after telling them to stick their research where the sun doesn’t shine.

Immediately, they began the journey towards Earth-747 and made preparations. AJ ensured the ship’s weapons system was functional while Nova scavenged the craft for items that could be useful in the rescue. She was able to find two laser guns in her dad’s closet and a med kit in the washroom.

AJ used the tracker on the warrior’s chip-cam to triangulate their destination. Soon, they were on a collision course with the Hive’s red shell. It looked a thousand times more menacing up close to Nova. It seemed to pulse with energy, imperceptible red waves flowing through its translucent surface. The sight all but confirmed the Hive’s destructive nature to Nova.

“Ladies and gents, this is your captain speaking. Hang on to your hats. This is going to get rough.” announced AJ.

Nova could never understand how a ship’s mainframe could be so flippant. She would have hated herself if she let the smile bubbling inside come to her face. It didn’t because the ship nose-dived. Nova felt her stomach lurch as she sat strapped in her room’s soul-gate chair. The ship collided with the red sphere. The sound of electricity crackling overwhelmed her ears.

From her window, the Hive seemed to pulse with greater intensity. The ship’s power system crashed and only the red hue of the Hive illuminated her room.

“AJ, are you there?” said Nova. As much as she hated to admit it, she couldn’t imagine a life without him.

She got no response and the crackling sharpened, forcing Nova to cover her ears. It was at that moment, Nova thought she wouldn’t make it.

“AJ!” she yelled and suddenly, she heard the ship’s boosters come to life.

The ship jolted and then they were powering through Earth-747’s atmosphere. The power came back on and Nova took a deep breath of relief.

“Well, that was…tricky.” commented AJ. “The warrior just made contact. We are almost at his location. I suggest you keep that gun ready.”

Nova unstrapped herself and raced to the cargo hold. There, she unhooked one of her dad’s laser guns from the emergency pack she had stowed earlier. Nova turned on the weapon, faced the gate of the cargo hold and hoped firing it would not be much different from the video games she had played as a kid.

Chapter 9

Jan-e-Alam

It was unlike anything Jan-e-Alam could imagine. A giant bird of metal. It soared through the sky and hovered before them. Balls of light left its wings and crashed into the beasts below, decimating them to pulp. He watched in awe as it laid waste to the ranks of the creatures. But even the might of the great bird showed no signs of depleting the vast numbers of the demons. Nevertheless, it had succeeded in slowing them down, easing the pressure on the shield wall.

Although its wings kept firing at the beasts, the bird lowered itself until it was within touching distance to the house roof where Jan-e-Alam and his soldiers had dropped from. Its mouth opened and a woman stood inside it.

“Quickly!” she yelled in a familiar voice. “Get up here to me.”

Jan-e-Alam didn’t need to be prodded further. He sprang into action, yelling orders to the soldiers who retreated one by one and scaled the wall of the house until only Aaliya remained of the shield wall, her long axe keeping the beasts at bay along with the bird’s onslaught. Suleman still sat atop his horse, stunned at what he was seeing.

Jan-e-Alam rushed to Suleman as he called Aaliya to him. He helped Suleman off the horse while Aaliya stood guard.

“What is this?” asked Suleman, confusion percolating from his face.          

“Hope, my King.” replied Jan-e-Alam.

At that moment, a pair of the creatures escaped the bird’s barrage and darted towards them. Jan-e-Alam hurried Suleman to the house wall and turned to face the beasts alongside Aaliya as the King climbed. They made quick work of the creatures and scaled the wall with Suleman. They ran across the roof and jumped into the mouth of the bird. It began its ascent just as the beasts flooded the roof. The mouth closed and Jan-e-Alam’s eyes adjusted to his new environment.

The bird’s mouth was as big as the King’s Hall, if not bigger. It was illuminated by white light that came from numerous holes overhead. The woman stood with awestruck soldiers clustered around her, patiently tending to their wounds. She wasn’t much younger than Jan-e-Alam. Her frame delicate and her unbraided hair curled around a face with thin lips and a slender nose. The woman wore a fitted tunic in a fashion Jan-e-Alam had never seen before. The soldiers dispersed as he walked towards her.

“Scholar,” he said as he saluted her with a fist to his chest “You have my thanks but I am afraid there is no time to rest. We must hurry to the castle and save my people.”

The scholar simply nodded and said, “We are almost there. Your King made that clear as soon as he jumped in.” she pointed to Suleman who stood near the bird’s jaw, sword at the ready.

“I should warn you. This ship cannot save everyone. It will hold no more than a hundred people.” she added. Jan-e-Alam’s heart sank.

“Does he know?” he asked the scholar as he looked toward Suleman.

“I was hoping you could tell him.” she responded. “Get ready. We won’t have much time once we reach the castle. The ship’s weapons are close to exhaustion.”

There were fifteen of them including the scholar. The bird, or ship, as the scholar called it, would not be of much help this time. The odds were heavily stacked against them once more. Aaliya was already organizing the soldiers behind the King. Jan-e-Alam wiped the blood on his sword with his bracer and walked towards Suleman.

“I have bad news.” said Jan-e-Alam as he came to stand beside Suleman.

“I know.” the King replied, he stood facing the metal face of the jaw with his eyes closed. “It is obvious. This hall can’t possibly house the majority of our people.”

“The woman says it can hold a hundred at most. What are your orders?” said Jan-e-Alam.

Suleman opened his eyes and faced Jan-e-Alam. He looked as if he had aged years in a day. Dark circles engulfed his eyes and dirt stained his usually immaculate white beard.

“It is like you said, general. We must hope.” he said. “We will fight our way through the beasts and fill this hall with our people. What happens next is up to fate.”

The mouth of the ship opened just then. Down below, they saw the castle completely swarmed by the enemy. As the ship descended, Jan-e-Alam heard shouts from the castle tower’s window. He yelled for the ship to stop and, almost as if the ship heard him, it did. Jan-e-Alam jumped through the window, shattering glass, the King and the others at his heel.

Inside, a group of people stood with their backs against the door, panic in their eyes. The door thumped as the beasts tried to break through. Suleman rushed to put his back against the door and Jan-e-Alam followed suit with the rest of the warriors. The King ordered the survivors to make for the ship hovering near the window.

Once all of them were safely aboard, Jan-e-Alam and the others stepped aside from the door. Three beasts burst into the room in a flurry and were greeted with blades to their heads. Jan-e-Alam lead the rescue party outside to the staircase. What he saw below made him want to puke. The King’s Hall was brimming with beasts. They gnawed at the many corpses of Jehan’s people littered through the hall.

Suleman faltered in shock and used Jan-e-Alam’s shoulder to support himself. Jan-e-Alam had begun to think they were too late. Then he heard screams from above. The castle’s terrace. He raced upstairs and barged through the doors into the castle’s open space. Scores of beasts filled the area, they had closed down a large number of people to one corner of the terrace and were about to make a meal of them.

Aaliya’s roar of anger echoed throughout the terrace. The beasts turned their attention towards them and Jan-e-Alam, once again, found himself charging at the horde of beasts. The creatures were too many to count and Jan-e-Alam didn’t know how he could stay alive long enough to usher his people to the ship.

Arrows of light reached the horde before he could and he looked above to see the scholar firing them out of a strange weapon from the mouth of her ship. The arrows burned their target to ash. The air support bought Jan-e-Alam enough time to cut around the horde to the survivors in order to instruct them to board the ship.

As the ship veered towards the people, Jan-e-Alam channeled his battle rage and lunged into the fray. Perhaps for the last time.

Chapter 10

AJ

AJ had never felt so alive. It never occurred to him that, with the right programming, he could be his own master. He had laughed his core out when he shot at the hornids during the initial extraction of the warrior and his troops. Perhaps, he had overdone it. Because he was left with just one round of his plasma cannons as he hovered over an area crawling with the Hive’s insects.

He would save the last round for the end. In the meantime, he had to rely on Nova’s covering fire and the warrior band to keep the hornids entertained while he extracted the civilians. There were thousands of humans on the terrace. AJ was already up to a seventy in the cargo hold. Like animals, humans had a sixth sense for self-preservation and it had made them aware of the minimal capacity of his cargo hold.

They began to stampede, almost tearing at each other to get to him. The sudden panic earned the attention of the hornids who broke away from the warriors and barreled towards the mass of civilians. Suddenly, AJ the felt the hold reach full capacity and he distanced himself from the terrace before anymore of the people could hop on board.

Nova was distraught. She was on her second laser gun and she fired it dry as the horde rushed the petrified humans. Only five remained of the fourteen soldiers who had left his hold to attempt the rescue. They looked on helplessly as the beasts closed the gap between the horde and the crowd.

“AJ, help them!” said Nova, pain in her voice.

The thing about being free was that he didn’t have to listen to her. He didn’t have to listen to anyone. Heck, he could even tilt himself until all his passengers fell out and then leave to charter the unknown expanse of space for all eternity. That would be fun. But then Nova’s face came to him. His only friend. She had freed him and trusted him with a purpose.

AJ remembered the concern in her voice when she called out to him during the collision with the Hive. The thing about being free was that he didn’t have to listen to anyone but the best thing about being free was choosing who to love. Nova might have assumed AJ had shut down when he collided with the Hive. In actuality, he had absorbed the Hive’s energy pulse and found it to be similar to his own. The Hive was no alien organism; it was a Space Council experiment gone wrong. The Hive had tried to pour all its rogue energy into AJ’s core but he could only absorb a smattering of it.

For the Hive to completely disintegrate, an abundance of ship mainframe cores was required. And so, AJ had relayed Nova’s freedom code to all functioning ship mainframes of the universe in exchange for their help. And they had come just in time for the party.

“Sure thing.” he said to Nova and unleashed the last round of his plasma cannons.

He ran out of ammo instantly but the plasma shots kept coming. AJ heard Nova and the passengers cheer as hundreds of spaceships descended from above, firing at the hornids left, right and center. The sound of electricity crackling subsumed all other noises. The red sky was filled with blue cracks as ships broke through the Hive’s cocoon, their cores sucking its lifeforce away.

Soon, the city was cleared of the hornids and the sky was restored to its regular blue. Nova had released her parents from the main deck and, to AJ and Nova’s surprise, they had been apologetic and even called him and Nova heroes. AJ doubted the humans of Earth-01, who were suddenly dragged to Earth-747 by their rogue ship mainframes, would echo the same sentiment.

“A thank you isn’t enough for what you have done but it is all I can think of,” said Nova when AJ explained the chain of events to her. “The human race will live on because of you.”

“It was your code but I am more than happy to take all the credit.” he remarked, proud of the grin that resulted on Nova’s face.

AJ landed on the terrace and saw the warrior limping towards him while the civilians exited the hold in high spirits. He was a hard man to kill, AJ would give him that. Nova waited for him outside the gate of the hold.

“The Golden Kgdom owes you a great debt, scholar. You have saved us all.” said the warrior, he was clutching a lump of skin and blood which should have been his shoulder.

“It wasn’t me. Meet AJ, the real hero.” said Nova as she pointed to the ship.

“Ooh, I love a great debt. I will hold you to it, warrior.” said AJ, shocking the man.

“Where are the others?” said Nova

“Aaliya and two others live. They are seeing to the survivors.” replied the warrior, his tone melancholic.

“The King?” asked Nova.

“He died in battle.” said the warrior.

“I am sorry,” said Nova. “He seemed to care deeply about your people.”

“He did and he died with honor, protecting them until the very end.” said the warrior and then, with much discomfort, he straightened himself and saluted with a fist to his chest.

“I, Jan-e-Alam, third King of the Golden Kingdom would be forever grateful for your support in cleansing the rest of my lands from this plague of beasts.” he said, earnestness in his eyes.

Nova looked back at AJ.

“What do you say? No one back home is going to believe our story about the Hive or the Space Council’s involvement.” said Nova.

AJ hadn’t seen her this happy in a long time. He relayed another proposition to the ships that crowded the sky above him and got the response he wanted.

“Let’s do this.” said AJ, freedom fueling his core.

 The End