The Ocoda Chronicles Book 4 Present Future Past Read online

  The Ocoda Chronicles Book 4 Present Future Past

  Daniel O’Connell

  Copyright © 2014 Daniel O'Connell

  All rights reserved

  ISBN-13: 978-1494362300

  ISBN-10: 1494362309

  Dedication

  To my extremely patient and maganda Asawa

  Yovemyl

  We traverse all things in our lives, expecting one result and often receiving another, yet in that time. The time that we are born and we die, we affect the universe in a small way.

  We create a wave in time and we move reality. Each action we do has inevitable consequences to the universe. Imagine if you could change a past mistake. Undo an error in judgment. How far would you go, what would you sacrifice to correct your mistake?

  This is not a question of how or what, but of when. Time is a delicate mystery of our universe, and if we move through time, we may cause untold damage. This is why the X'ena have forbidden any form of time travel. Caleb, however, has no other choice. He must return to his time and prevent the horrifying future he has witnessed. However, that future is not ready to die.

  CHAPTER ONE

  PERSPECTIVE

  The year is three hundred and seventy-four A D. and we travel to the far side of our own galaxy, narrowing our vision to a solar system with six gas giants, one being in the habitable zone. This planet has seven moons, for which six are able to support human life naturally. The seventh moon is covered completely with artificial domed cities, allowing that moon to support human life.

  We tighten our vision further on one of those moons. It's the smallest and newest colonized moon in the system. This moon is called Whitefeather. Now, as we move in closer, through the outer atmosphere descending to the moon’s surface, we narrow our view one last time, focusing on an elderly woman who is sitting on a large boulder, nestled at the edge of a cliff, overlooking a majestic ocean. Her name is Rachel ‘Cooley’ Whitefeather.

  She is surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of her family and friends, several generations of her family in fact. She grins as she takes in the magnificent view, relishing in the sheer beauty of everything, as she looks out over the majestic ocean, she knows this to be the last day she will ever enjoy it. Long ago, Cooley was given a gift, a gift she received over three hundred years ago, and this gift allowed her to see every detail of her future up and until the day, she would die. A day she has foreseen for hundreds of years.

  Rachel closes her eyes, as she recalls her life and all those that have passed before her. Rachel has outlived all the other first ones. The original survivors who colonized these moons almost three hundred years ago and she is one of the last, except for Gabriel Benton, and Caleb. Rachel breathes out, as she dreads what comes for her this day. Nonetheless, she knows her time is ending.

  A small child approaches the rock, which she rests upon. Speaking softly, the small child speaks, “Grandma Rachel, Papa told me to tell you that Caleb and Uncle Gabe are on the way.”

  Rachel smiles as she closes her eyes again and replies, “I know luv, and they will make it before the end comes.”

  The small child unaware of what is going to happen, asks, “Grandma Rachel, are you really the oldest human alive?”

  Rachel giggles, as she replies, “No luv, your uncle Gabe and Caleb are both older, but I guess neither one of them is really human anymore.”

  Other children start to swarm around Rachel, as the same little girl now asks, “Grandma Rachel, can you tell us again how the Paladonians began.”

  Rachel looks out over the growing crowd of children, all of whom are her descendants. She beams, as she realizes that her life was not only full of adventure, but also full of love and happiness. She looks down to her great-granddaughter who asked her to tell the history of them all. She grins, saying, “Well luv, I’ll try, but you have to know I may not remember everything exactly as it happened, but I’ll do my best.”

  Rachel begins her tale, starting at its very beginning, as all of the multiple generations of her family quickly gather round to hear the tale of their origin. As we now travel to the future, almost seventeen hundred years. Fortunately, for Rachel, her mind can recall these memories as if it was just yesterday. Every detail is embedded within her mind as vividly as if it were just happening, another unforeseen side effect of her gift. She closes her eyes as the events come forth, and she begins to speak.

  “Cale, I have Jacks on the holocom.” Cooley announces.

  Caleb comes over to the holocom, saying, "Jacks, I’m sending the coordinates of where my crew is. You need to get them as soon as you break out. I’ll block the gateway for as long as I can, but the second I do, you will need to hit hyperspace and exit through the opening I created. You will only have a few seconds."

  Jackson confused, asks, "Your crew? What the hell are you talking about Cale? How the hell can you unload seventeen hundred people so fast? It’s only been a few minutes?"

  Caleb replies, "I only have one hundred people left on board. You are in the gravitational field of a black hole, and its distorting time my friend. It has been over an hour, and we are running out of time fast. The T-Challa will regroup in just a few moments."

  Jackson realizes why Caleb must have evacuated his ship asks, "Cale, what the hell are you going to do?"

  Caleb answers, "As soon as I get to the gateway, I’m going to use my superior shield system to temporarily block the gateway. It will only work at best for a brief few moments, but it should be long enough for you to get the fleet out of here."

  Jackson, realizing the situation asks, "Caleb, how are you going to get away?" Damn you Cale.

  Caleb smiles, and says humbly, "Jacks, protect my daughter." Goodbye my friend.

  White, who is at the helm, turns to Caleb reporting, “Cale, we have multiple incoming torpedoes and plasma charges.”

  Caleb unconcerned of the pending assault asks, “Has the fleet escaped yet?”

  Paladin replies, “The last ship has just escaped the sector Caleb.”

  Benton, who is studying the incoming volley on weapons screens says, “We better move the shields back to defend against this barrage Cale.” Benton then notices, “Oh hell, I can’t even power up the light cannons.”

  Caleb lowers his head asking Paladin telepathically, “What are our chances of getting out of this one my friend?”

  Paladin replies, “I think you have an Earth expression that Gabriel often uses. ‘Fat Chance’ I believe is the phrase he is so fond of.”

  Caleb sighs, as he raises his head and stands up from his command chair ordering, “Ok, ready the nuke, redirect the shields.”

  Unfortunately, several torpedoes strike Paladin before the shields can deflect most of the salvo.

  Caleb drops to a knee in agony, as the torpedo’s destruction is directly transferred to him from the ship. Ah hell, that’s gonna leave a mark

  Paladin announces, “Shields down to forty percent, and we are now being pulled into the gateway.”

  Cooley, seeing Caleb down on a knee, asks, “Cale are you going to be ok?”

  Caleb smirks, as he tries to bring some levity to the situation, replying, “I didn’t know if I was ever right to start with Rachel.”

  Paladin announces, “The entire T-Challa fleet is currently in the range of the gateway’s effect.”

  Cooley is suddenly distracted, as she starts receiving an anomalous transmission on her com. She becomes mesmerized by it, as it seems to be calling directly to her, causing her to be completely unaware of everything else, as she focuses all her attention on the signal.

  Caleb takes in a deep breath and closes his eyes, f
ocusing for a brief moment on Emily. He is brought into his own private world, a world in which his mind is able to create and reflect on past events, and if he so chooses, relive them. He can choose to live in that moment just as if it was actually occurring. This is an offshoot ability, which Caleb has gained from his symbiotic connection to Paladin and over the years, he has been able to develop this ability to help bring him solace. He enters this world to watch the love of his life Emily his wife, he watches as she dances all around in his mind, he can almost reach out and touch her. It is in that moment, he feels a calm build inside him, and he smiles ever so briefly. Realizing that this may be the very last memory he may ever have, Caleb lowers his head in despair, painfully aware that he has a mission to complete. Snapping back to reality, he yells, “Gabe, launch the nuke! Reggie, head us into the gateway.”

  White, who is still at the helm hastily heads Paladin directly into the gateway, as Benton, who is handling Anders weapons station quickly launches the nuclear torpedo. Paladin is thrown wildly into the gateway, just as the nuke detonates. The resulting explosion destroys the T-Challa gateway, as well as the approaching T-Challa fleet. However, an unforeseen event happens to Paladin. By destroying the gateway directly after they entered it, a slingshot effect occurs, causing the gateway conduit, to tear a hole in space and time. Creating a time conduit, which thus hurls Paladin not only across multiple galaxies, but across time as well, over three thousand years into the future.

  The year is five thousand, one hundred and sixty-six. Paladin appears from the conduit heavily damaged. The cause of the T-Challa assault combined with the effects of being ripped through time have nearly crippled Paladin.

  Caleb and everyone on board lay unconscious, as a result from the stress of traveling through the conduit, the once powerful ship floats lifeless in space. Fortunately, for the remaining crew life support and several secondary systems still function.

  Paladin has been thrown to the far side of the Andromeda galaxy. Alone and over a year’s travel for home. However, they are about to find out that even though they may be so far from home, they are far from alone.

  Benton is the first to wake. Groggy, he opens his eyes, he looks out the forward view port seeing empty space in front of him. Astonished that he is still alive, he yells, “Hey, we ain’t dead!”

  Benton’s yelling quickly wakes the rest of the bridge crew, with the exception of Caleb, who remains unconscious laying on the deck.

  Cooley wakes feeling odd. She no longer can hear anything on her com, let alone the strange signal that had completely mesmerized her just moments before entering the T-Challa gateway. She looks over at Kitanna’s sensor console, and studies it for a moment and sees the damage reports. She states, “We have multiple hull breaches all over the ship, and we are on emergency backup power.”

  White groans, as he looks over the helm, saying, “Well, I don’t know where we are, but this definitely ain't Kansas.”

  The internal holocom suddenly activates, as Onatof appears. Alarmed, he yells, “I need help in engineering quickly!”

  White addresses Onatof, asking, “I’ll send who we can Doc, what’s the issue?

  As White deals with Onatof, Cooley, feeling very sore struggles as she gets up from her seat and tries to wake Caleb,”

  Onatof overly excited replies, “We have a crack in the main power conduit, and it's live!”

  Cooley, reaches over to wake Caleb, but gets no response. She alerts White, saying, “Reg, I can’t wake Cale. He looks pretty bad luv.”

  White groans in frustration, he immediately refocuses on the moment. Realizing his choices are limited, he says, “Shut down the power core Doc.”

  Benton surprised, says to White, “We do that Reg, and we’re a sitting duck for any T-Challa ship that may show up!”

  White exasperated looks out across the heavily damaged ship, saying, “Well, if we don’t shut it down, we’re still a sitting duck.” What am I supposed to do now?

  Onatof now very annoyed, says, “Commander White, I have already considered shutting the power core down, but I’m trapped in engineering. You will need to do it from the bridge.”

  White looks around the multiple bridge controls and says, “Yeah Doc, well Caleb is out of commission and I haven’t a clue how to do that.”

  Onatof sighs, replying, “Commander, look over at the engineering console on the bridge. There is a big red button, which is clearly labeled, ‘emergency shutdown protocol’. Just activate it Commander.”

  White asks, “Doc, if I shut it down what will happen to the ship?”

  Onatof grumbles as he replies, “All non-essential systems will shut down. You will only have battery powered backup systems operational. They should sustain life support and a few basic systems for a few weeks.”

  White quickly races over to the engineering console and sees the emergency shutdown protocol described by Onatof. He hastily activates it, and shuts down the power core.

  The action saves the ship, but also has an unforeseen consequence. Caleb instantaneously wakes for a very brief moment, as he feels the loss of power. Screaming aloud he yells, “CARLA!” Caleb then falls back unconscious.

  Cooley alarmed looks up to Reg, saying, “Oh boy luv, I don’t know much about Caleb’s abilities, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t a good thing.”

  Benton shakes his head, annoyed, he looks out the main view portal and sees a large section of the ship’s hull, floating pass the observation port, saying, “Ah crap, we have damage all over the place. This ship is a freaking mess.”

  White walks over next to Benton at the forward observation window inspecting the damage, as yet another huge piece of the ship floats pass the view port.

  White lets out a long breath of despair as he tries to wrap his head around the importance of everything. A moment later, he activates the com announcing, “All hands, report to damage control stations now!”

  Benton stands up, saying, “I’ll go help the Doc get that power conduit fixed so we can power the core back up.”

  Benton runs over to the lift, but as he quickly realizes it does not work.

  Cooley, who is holding Caleb’s head in her lap says, “Luv, we have no power all we have is life support. You’ll have to use the stairs.”

  Benton sighs, saying, “Yeah, I kinda figured that out for myself Beauty Queen.” Benton rushes off the bridge using the stairs, racing down to engineering.

  Cooley looks up and calls out to White, “Reggie, give me a hand getting Cale down to med-bay.”

  White walks over, saying, “Rachel, we don’t have anyone in med-bay.”

  Cooley smirks, saying, “Doesn’t matter anyways luv, we can’t fix him in there anyways.” She points out towards the view screen, as several pieces of the ship float by, saying, “We have to go out there and repair the ship, to fix him. Besides luv we just can’t leave him here.”

  White smiles as he lifts Caleb up and helps bring him down to the med-bay.

  Regrettably, for Caleb his condition is not just a result of the damage to the ship, for what has happened to Caleb is a far more tragic fate. A fate that will expose a tragedy that Caleb could never have imagined or Paladin could have predicted.

  Caleb finally wakes not in his body, but in the psychic plane. Confused, he quickly asks Paladin, “Hey Pal, what’s happening, where are we?”

  Paladin, equally confused replies, “Cale, from my limited knowledge, it appears that we're in the psychic plane, but in a part of that plane which is, eerily similar to the one you shared with your daughter. Paladin realizes as he announces, “Cale, I don’t understand how, but we seem to be severed from our connection to the ship.”

  Caleb still confused calls out asking aloud, “Carla! Can you hear me?”

  A child’s voice speaks from out of nowhere, saying, “Be quiet, or she may hear you.”

  Paladin confused reports, “Cale, I’m detecting this voice is part of Carla’s symbiot.”

  Caleb also confused asks, �
��Part of her symbiot, what do you mean?”

  The unseen voice becomes annoyed, replying, “You don’t know what be quiet means do you? It takes all my ability to hide you from her and you’re not helping by yelling.” The symbiot pauses for a moment as it checks to make sure they are safe, it continues, stating, “I will transfer my knowledge to you in a moment, just be quiet.”

  With that, an image of a young Carla appears directly before Caleb. She appears to be no more than ten years old. She slowly reaches her arm out and places her hand in Caleb’s hand. Caleb is immediately engulfed with a massive bombardment of knowledge.

  Paladin hastily evaluates the information. It is taken by surprise, saying, “Cale, we have somehow traveled over three thousand years into the future, and it appears your daughter may be at the center of a major tragedy for your race.”

  Caleb is stunned, as he slowly absorbs the information, asking, “This is beyond belief, Carla enslaved humankind?”

  The symbiot replies, “It happened after she killed the T-Challa Queen. She was so like totally awesome fighting that creepy looking thing. Then she started to get all weird and junk, and started talking to herself and getting real mean.”

  Caleb now very curious as to how the symbiot is acting asks, “Excuse me, but your actions are very childlike? “

  Paladin, now aware of what may have occurred responds, “Cale, this is only part of Carla’s symbiot, a part that has taken an impression of Carla’s psyche. The symbiot has molded itself to be just like Carla at the time of its separation.”

  The symbiot switches back and forth from an adolescent child to highly intelligent being, stating, “She was afraid of us, and split us apart, I had hoped you’d have returned earlier in her development to correct this, but you never came back. You left us alone, and we got scared, so we hid ourselves deep inside her, waiting until you returned. Why did you take so long to return? Why?”

  Caleb confused by everything states, “To you it has been thousands of years, but for us it’s only been a few moments since last we saw you.”