Chapter VI: Reality Twisted
“I have met the son of Alan Bradley and he can not be more than twenty years in the reckoning of the humans.”
“Oh, very observant, Lord Vega. Then, you have met my grandfather Michael.” Vega’s shallow breathing and quizzical look at me were in some way a bit unnerving but I rationalized it as a result to shock.
I took a step closer. “Do you know that I wasn’t always called by this name? It means ‘The Man Alone in the Noble Shadow’, Eleysa gave it to me when I was put in charge of the Council. But my real name, one that I haven’t used in ten years, that no one in this galaxy has even heard in whispers…that name is William Alan Bradley. I am the great-grandson of President Alan Bradley and the grandson of Michael Bradley and Eleys Mue. Quite a heritage for me to live up to, though I think I’ve managed quite well.”
“But how? Why are you here, conquering this galaxy, from your ancestors?”
“Ahhh, the crux of the matter. Actually, we came here only to stop three races, that in my time are known as the Triumvirate. You know them as the Thalans, Yor, and Korath. You see, the Thalans are actually like us, time-travelers that came back in time to stop some horrific event from happening. They had good intentions. What they didn’t take into account however, is that they traveled back in time from another dimension. This caused a rip in the very fabric of space-time that meant at the exact moment they left their time and dimension, a wave of dark energy swept through every dimension and every reality in my time and destroyed almost all life. Instead of billions of stars and planets and peoples, we have a sky that is filled with less than hundreds of stars and worlds formerly paradises that are completely barren, unable to support life.
You see, in a few years, the Thalans decided to take even more extreme measures in preventing the Terrans from committing some terrible act. Using their technology from the future they became the masters of the Yor and used them much like the Dread Lords had millennia ago, to destroy their enemies. Kindar, of the Korath, somehow manipulated his way into an alliance with the Thalan-Yor and the Triumvirate was created. For ten years war raged across the galaxy as the Allied races worked tirelessly against the Triumvirate, losing at every turn.
Then the event that the Thalans had come to stop occurred. But it wasn’t the Terrans who caused it…well not in its entirety. The Korath had long been mesmerizedd by the Dread Lords, unbeknownst to the Thalans. On that day, a fleet of ragtag Allied ships, led by the Terrans, learned that the Korath were about to perform a ritual using ancient technology to call forth the entire power of the banished Dread Lords for their own use. After managing to get a strike team to the Temple, the Terran soldiers fought heavily to get to the ritual room where they managed to stop the Korath…but instead they were struck by the dark energies released, and that reverberated through the entire human race, twisting them and making them evil beings bent on control and power.”
“But you….are you not human?”
“My grandmother was Eleys Mue remember? I’m three-quarters Altarian actually. But of everyone alive in my time, I am the most ‘human’, thus my name as ‘Man Alone’.
I began to pace and my speaking became quicker. “It was actually those dark energies released then, that made the Thalans first aware of the threat that the humans now poised. So for another fourty years war raged as the powerful inter-dimensional Thalan fought the dark energy Terrans, but it was but a slow death, as the Terrans were wining. It was as defeat loomed that they put their plan in place. And in one day, the universe, my universe, was destroyed. Not by the Dread Lords or by twisted humans, but by the Thalan who, by going back in time, actually put in place the cause for their doom.”
Lord Vega seemed to grasping all this remarkably well, but the Arceans were a very intelligent species, as I well knew. I was still pacing.
“So you see Lord Vega, we had to come back in time to stop the Triumvirate from ever forming, and more importantly to stop the Thalan from interfering.”
“But, that is exactly what you are doing! You have come to conquer us, to make a galaxy of your own choosing!”
I stopped and spun on Vega. “NO! I have come to protect ALL of our futures. If the Thalan don’t succeed in forming the Triumvirate, the Korath will fail in learning of the dark ritual, and the Terrans will never be hit with the energy that changes them. And unlike the Thalan, my coming here to this time is a death sentence. When the time comes in about fifty years that Thalans would have left their dimension, every member of the Dominion that came from my time will cease to exist since that future will no longer be happening. The Thalan shouldn’t be here at all!!! And if we manage to stop them, they will not have to go back in time and everything will be reset and no one will ever know what could have happened.”
Lord Vega was quiet for a few moments. “Very well, Master Ardae, I will stop the destruction of this world. And I will have my people bow to your control, for the betterment of the galaxy and our future.”
My assistant called to me. “Master, I don’t know the who or how or what but the reaction has stopped. We are no longer in danger sir.”
I looked back at Lord Vega, smiled, and bowed. “Thank you, Lord Vega for your cooperation, and I must ask for your forgiveness for what I am about to do.”
The fear, a rare site in an Arcean’s face, returned. “And…what is that?”
I turned to my closest guard. “I am afraid I must kill you now.”
“NO! wait, I beg…”
And the hulking form of what used to be Lord Vega fell to the floor as the laser blast him.
Not looking at anyone in particular I spoke aloud. “I only hope Vegali will understand my actions.”
