The Children of Time (The Children of Time Trilogy Book 1) (13 page)

“Commander Merko, is everything going well in the earthling’s
surgery?”

“Yes sir, Counselor Mirov. In a while, I’ll personally explain the
details of the operation for you. Wait for me.”

“I’ll call the captain of the royal guard, Fizard. He’s also in my
team. I promised him the post of commander of planetary troops when I’m the new
monarch, and now I need to ask for his support.”
Mirov thought.

“Captain, something happened to my servant, Radof, because he doesn’t
communicate with me.” Mirov told captain Fizard. “I want you to discover and
report to me how things are in the hospital. Don’t forget that you will be my
commander when I’m the new king.”

“If something goes wrong with the original plan, I’ll try to harm
the girl’s recovery after surgery. Maybe a poison... I need to find an
alternative.”
Mirov thought.

***

Meanwhile, Zara was worried in one of the waiting rooms of the
hospital. She tried to communicate with everyone, but they asked her to wait,
because they were committed to preserve the safety of Nicolas and the Princess.

 Sivoc didn’t want her to be bored because of her pregnancy and
wanted her to wait until the end of surgery.

“I do not understand why so many secrets. Is something serious
happening? But Sivoc knows what he does. I’ll keep waiting for more
information. I must remain calm!” She thought, as she tried to keep her
emotions under control.

Once again, Drako had recorded the entire conversation with his
robot-bird. The evidence against Mirov began to accumulate.

“Commander Sivoc, we managed to intercept another communication
between Mirov and captain Fizard. They are planning to harm the princess and
take the power. I have the recordings here with me.” Drako said.

“Thank you, Drako. Great work. I knew that Counselor Mirov had
someone else collaborating with his plan. Fizard? I believed he was a good man,
but I see he’s ambitious.”

Sivoc immediately delivered the recording to Counselor Kenan and they
took it to the king Zador II.

“How can it be? I know Mirov for so many years and believed in his
loyalty. Now I understand that the suggestion to send a second ship for the
mission was part of his interest in harming the success of the surgery. He
wanted to, somehow, intervene with dark purposes.”

“Yes, your majesty. His will to take power and harm the princess was
the heart of all the confusion created on planet Earth and orchestrated by the
Counselor Mirov.”

The king, furious, ordered to arrest Mirov and the captain Fizard,
who had prepared an escape if the counselor was arrested.

***

A friend of Radof, Croiff, who worked in the royal service, heard
the conversation between the king and the Counselor Kenan, so he knew about the
order to arrest Counselor Mirov and the captain Fizard. He immediately warned them.
Without hesitating, Mirov used one of the secret exits of the palace to try to
escape.

Beneath the floor of the royal file room, there was a trap door where
a staircase led to a tunnel that trespassed the entire palace and the capital,
and led to a forest on the north side of the planet. Mirov found the escape
route as a kid and used to play hide and seek with the brothers of the king
Zador II. There was a picture on the wall with a portrait of the father of King
Zador II, King Zador I, and the button that opened the trapdoor was located in
his right eye.

The place where he arrived was called Mutant Forest, because the
plants, trees and animals that lived there suffered mutations that turned them into
murderous vegetation. All the results of genetic experiments, which were
unsuccessful, were sent there, because it was not allowed to kill living beings
on the planet, even if they were consequences of such experiences.

Few people managed to escape from this place.

“It was very easy to escape. Few people know this escape route.”
Mirov thought.
“This forest is very dangerous. I have to be
careful. But what about the captain Fizard? Where is he? I need get in touch with
him to take me to a safer place.”

Suddenly, a dark shadow covered him and he looked above, terrified. A
teleporting red ray hit him and when he noticed, he was inside a cell in Merko’s
ship.

“Where did you intend to go, sir?” Asked the commander. “You came to
the place where I like to train my soldiers: the Mutant Forest. I know all the palace’s
routes of escape and put my men to search for you in all of them as soon as I
learned about your escape. Consider yourself a prisoner of the King Zador II. You’ll
be judged for betrayal and will certainly rot in prison.”

“You, Merko, work for me and has no right to arrest me.”

“Mr. Mirov, I must warn you that from now on you lost your job as
counselor. Consider yourself arrested by the royal guard. You and your servant,
Radof, will be imprisoned in the building of the Penitentiary of Custody and
Rehabilitation. I believe you already know it, but just to remind you that the cells
are protected with laser beams and it’s impossible to escape. You’ll pay, Mirov,
for having conspired against the king Zador II.”

***

Captain Fizard, saw movement in the royal palace, and fled as far as
possible, helped by some military friends.

He intended to stay hidden until things settle down in the kingdom
of Zador II. For this, he gathered some men he trusted and decided to create a
small army of renegades within the Mutant Forest, in Sector 13. Merko himself
had trained them and he knew very well the ways to survive in that jungle.

Captain Fizard and his men reached the desired point within the
Mutant Forest with his escape ship. Bionic robots, half human and half machine
looked above seeing the arrival of the new residents who fled and rushed to
attack them.

“Captain, I see some points moving in our pursuit in the holographic
radar.” He warned the pilot of the ship to escape. “Will it be Merko and his
men?”

“I don’t believe so, certainly they are still working on the capture
of Counselor Mirov. He is the primary target. Analyze the coordinates of the
objects that are in motion and show me in the main screen.”

Fizard could see five killers’ beings pursuing their ship. He
focused them and realized they were monstrous.

One of them jumped up and grabbed the ship, destabilizing it.

“Prepare the ship’s shield of protection and create a field of sound
waves to drive them away.” Ordered the captain to Dargan, a soldier trained by
Merko who has joined the fugitive.

Once the field of sound waves was turned on, the creature fell off
the ship putting its hands over its ears, trying to protect itself from the
deafening vibrations.

“Lord, can I eliminate them with the laser beams of the ship?” Asked
Dargan.

“It won’t be necessary. The vibratory sound field is enough. They’ll
take long time to recover. Maybe they can be useful in the future.”

Deep in the forest, there was a military base built underneath the
ground, with three floors, which was abandoned. There, the captain Fizard and seven
trained soldiers who had fled with him were settled. They were waiting for an
opportunity to return to their families. For now, they needed to wait. What
mattered now was survival.

***

When Merko returned from his mission, Sivoc came to him and asked:

“Merko, did you managed to capture Captain Fizard or have any clue
that may lead us to him?”

“No, Sivoc. Probably he and his cronies fled to the worst part of
the Mutant Forest, where I trained them. We can’t find them, because I was the
one who taught them to survive and hide in that barren place. However, we can
consider that the fugitives are already stuck where they are. It is not easy to
survive there and they’ll go through some bad times. We can go after them when
everything is calmer here. Now we need to focus on the main purpose, which is
to save the princess.”

“Let’s check if everything went well with Nicolas and Isadora.”

“No doubt. I have many reasons for wanting them both to be well.”
Answered Merko following Sivoc to Nicolas’ room.

After a few weeks, the Princess Isadora began to regain her health,
and the doctors protected her from any contact, until her immune system was
fully restored. It seemed that the surgery had been a success and that the
princess was safe.

Nicolas also recovered from his surgery, and Zara went to visit him
in the hospital.

When she entered his room, Zara asked the nurses to leave them
alone. As she was a doctor, they all agreed. There were still a few guards in
the corridor to protect him and fulfill the promise of the King to get him safely
to Earth. Mirov and Radof have been arrested, but the captain Fizard was still
missing and was considered a threat. Although he was a bit weak, he touched
Zara’s face. She approached and kissed him.

“How’s the princess?” He asked. “Did we succeed?”

“Yes. Thanks to you, she is safe and sound. Thank you, my dear, for
coming here to do good for a girl you didn’t know.”

“I’m very glad that everything went well. I’d do it for anyone, especially
for a sick girl and to attend your request. What about our daughter? Is she
okay? And you?”

“We’re good. I decided to take you personally to Earth. After
arriving there, I’ll find an excuse for us to be together forever. I’ll say
goodbye to my relatives here on planet Vida, but I want to come back some day
to visit them. Our daughter will be born on your planet. If she is born here, they’ll
find out that you are the father and I’ll be punished. Counselor Kenan will
help us because he planned everything and knew the risks. My belly still can’t
be seen and I gained a little weight to disguise. Did you notice?”

She turned aside so Nicolas could look at her. He examined her
completely and said:

“I love you anyway. You are the most beautiful mother of this planet
and of the Earth. I’ll take care of you every day and I’ll be a great dad. I
promise!”

His life made sense now, and the passion for Zara added to his
parental love filled his heart.

***

After another week, they were greeted at the Royal Palace with a
feast provided by the king and his daughter. Zador II was happy with the
recovery of Isadora and could make plans to his reign and his daughter’s again.

Merko met Nicolas at the party:

“Young earthling, how are you? You recovered very well from surgery,
as I see.”

“I’m fine, Mr. Commander. The surgery was a success and it wasn’t
necessary to kidnap me from Sivoc’s team. Besides, they are far more polite
than you.” Nicolas replied, still angry at Merko’s methods.

“I’m sorry, young man. I have this military way of being and I will
try to improve my attitude. I hope you forgive me.” He replied.

“What about the people you killed in your missions? Will you also
apologize to their families?” Nicolas asked.

“In war, it is “do or die”. I am trained for defense and attack, but
I’m retiring. You don’t need to worry about it. But... I need to tell you a
secret.”

“A secret?” Nicolas was quite curious. “You can talk, sir. I’m
listening.”

“I met your mother, Lorena, during one of my missions on Earth and
we had a relationship during this period. This happened 23 years ago. And...”

“What are you trying to say with this? You look nervous.” Nicolas
interrupted.

“I am your father. Ok, I said!”

The two became silent for a moment, and the boy simply didn’t
believe.
“That’s impossible.”
He thought.

“Your lymphocytes X are the result of the interbreeding of our
genes.” Merko began to explain. “There was a recombination between the future
and the past. Your chain of DNA is the same as mine. I discovered it during his
surgery, because I know very well my chromosomal strain of defense cells and,
when I saw them in the holography, I could be sure that it’s identical to
yours.”

“I...” The earthling was speechless before such revelation.

“This also explains the telekinesis. I saw personally when you used
your power in my ship, Nicolas. Let me take you to a place on the planet Vida
where I can show you something very interesting.”

Merko held Nicolas’ watch with his left hand, and with the right he
synchronized the teleport with his own watch.

“You press the button of your watch, son. Can I call you like this?”

It still sounded a bit strange to Nicolas to hear Merko calling him
this way. He didn’t answer the question, but pressed the button curious. Then,
father and son reached a distant place from the capital. Nicolas looked around
and there was nobody there, only a forest with few trees and plants. Merko climbed
next to a mountain.

The boy was worried and didn’t know what to expect from that man who
seemed to be mysterious; whose reputation and past actions didn’t make him
reliable. Then, Merko raised his hands slightly pointing to the sky and pulled
the cosmic energy, directing it to the mountain.

Nicolas was amazed watching a ray of blue colorcast by his father,
who blew up a portion of the top of the mountain with more than one meter of
diameter with tremendous force. Witnessing Merko’s power, the boy could feel
that all the things said about the commander were true.

“Did you understand what the telekinetic energy is and why you own
it? We can control the cosmic energy, move objects and control the
gravitational fields around them. I’ll teach you to use this strength and
dominate it.” Merko said, approaching to Nicolas. “Can I give you a hug, son? As
a father...”

“No problem, although I feel confused about it. I thought my father
was...”

Merko and the earthling hugged each other for a few minutes in a
deep and touching silence.

The father felt a new emotion, a feeling of having done something
good in his life, and Nicolas felt protected by a strong father and a figure he
had never known. Merko omitted the circumstances of how he met Lorena, because
Nicolas would never understand his means to achieve the objectives of the mission.

“I’d like to see your mother again. I’ve never felt something so
true for a person as I felt for her.”

“She lives with my sister. But I don’t think she’ll be interested in
you, especially after so many years. And you are an alien!” Nicolas answered.

“We’ll see. You know I can turn myself into the earthling I want. About
being alien, you know I’m a human from the future and you’re also a hybrid of a
human from the past with one from the future, I mean, you are also half alien.
But it seems to me that I have a jealous son.”

Merko and Nicolas became good friends, and when he knew about
Nicolas’ return to the planet Earth with Zara, he decided to help, escorting
them. However, what he really wanted was to see Lorena again and remember the
best moments with a woman in his life. He also wanted to stay on the planet Earth,
conquer the woman of his life and try to be happy with her.

***

On the day of Nicolas’ departure, again the king insisted on having
a party in tribute to their heroes. Merko and Zara, as a request of Kenan, were
chosen to escort the earthling back to Earth. The palace was adorned with the
most beautiful flowers of the season, and the guests came from the uttermost
parts of the planet Vida. The food was plentiful and tasty, prepared by the
great masters of the royal cooking. Princess Isadora was smiling and happy to have
her health back and to live like a normal child. She was very grateful to the earthling
who had given her what was most precious in her life: health.

The king Zador II gifted Nicolas with a ring of communication by
high power radio, so he could ask for help if he ever needed. A channel would
be opened so they could talk and they’d be able keep their friendship. Nobody
imagined that Merko and Zara were planning to stay there and live as ordinary
human beings.

However, Sivoc, Tibor and Drako suspected that maybe they’d never
see them again. It was a good chance for the two extraterrestrial beings to
travel and remain on the planet that once had belonged to their ancestors.

Sivoc, instead of communicating the fact to the Council, preferred
to keep the secret with his team, in which he really trusted. When he returned
to Earth, in any other mission, if possible, he certainly would visit them, for
old times’ sake.

Everyone on the planet treated them as heroes for saving the life of
Princess Isadora.

After the party, they said goodbye. Sivoc, Drako and Tibor hugged
Zara and Nicolas for a long time. The doctor cried and told everyone that she
would miss the missions that her team performed on other planets.

Nicolas thanked his new friends for the protection on the planet Earth
and also on planet Vida, during his surgery. Tibor approached Merko, shook his
hand and said:

“Take good care of the earthling and Zara. Maybe one day we’ll visit
you on your new planet. We are always here if you need some help.”

“I’d like to execute some mission by your side, Tibor. Everyone
always told me a lot of good things about you, and certainly we would succeed
if we work together. But now I’m retiring to take care of my new family. Don’t
worry! You have a friend now.”

Merko shook hands with Sivoc and Drako. The king and the princess
thanked Nicolas again for his help. Kenan took Nicolas’ and Zara’s hands and
blessed them, saying:

“I trusted you with this mission knowing that the doctor was
competent. Take the earthling safely and protect him so he won’t be in danger
on his planet. Keep our secret well and Merko will also protect you. Hope to
see you soon.”

They all accompanied them to the ship Challenge I and, with sad
eyes, they finally saw the ship take off, knowing that they would miss them.

They traveled with Merko’s ship, entering the space-time gap, and
returned to Earth.