A New Divide

“Daddy!”

“Oh thank God, Kevin!”

I couldn’t help but smile as Mick returned the child to his parents, but I was getting very impatient. We only had an hour before we would plunge to the surface.

“Thank you, oh thank you so much. You are a godsend.”

“I couldn’t leave him alone.”

“You two have to get out of here; this place is falling.”

“Trust me, pops, we know” I replied.

“Follow me, boys, the escape pods are filling up fast.”

We made our way through the crowd-infested atrium, above you could see the light of one of the suns and the incredible warzone that Raydenite space had become. We waited to enter an escape shuttle for about fifteen minutes, and when it finally got to be our turn, there were no more seats.

“What do you mean?”

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached full capacity! Please take an oxygen mask and head to Vault 4! We will evacuate everyone in an orderly manner.”

“This is madness! You’re just going to leave us here to die?” one of the frantic citizens shouted.

“Sir! Head to Vault 4! There is no time to argue!”

It was chaos, in a matter of minutes, the crusader fleet had already won the battle, by striking fear into the hearts of their victims, my people. “Sir, please step back! We are at full capacity. We can fit two more, that’s it. You, sir! You and your child go on through.”

“No,” the father replied as he gazed into my eyes.

“Sir, there is no time.”

The father of the child then turned to me smiling. “I want to give my seat to Collin King, on the condition he takes my son.”

“Oh my god, that’s Collin King!”

“Please, Collin, take my seat.”

That moment was incredible. I never realized how much the ordinary people in this world revered their PGL athletes, then again, I had never been in a catastrophic situation such as this. I often forget that we are the face of peace, for the people, we fight for, and people admire that, they respect it, and they believe in that. People will die for what they believe in, and they believed in me. I will never understand why that notion is so easy to forget.

I was about to step across that threshold when Mick blocked me.

“Don’t you do this, Collin.”

“You could come too; somebody would happily give up their seat for you—”

“I can’t accept that. I refuse to trade a stranger’s life for my own.”

“Mick. Come on, man,” I whispered anxiously to him as the Rayden One guard shouted to us.

“You have five seconds to decide, and we are ejecting the pod!”

“Go on through, mister, take your child to safety,” Mick said.

“Thank you, Mick, thank you, Collin. Good luck, you two.”

My face then became blood red; the situation angered me. We had a chance out, and Mick destroyed it, but at the time I couldn’t see the bigger picture—that was the selfishness inside me. So when Mick slammed me against the blast doors and scolded me after the shuttle had ejected, I was just angry, and I wasn’t willing to understand.

“What the hell was that, Mick? We had a chance to escape! You’ve killed us!”

“You seriously think your life is more valuable than any of theirs?”

“Of course it is, Mick, we’re PGL champions!”

“So what? You take that away and then what are you? HUH?”

My lip began to quiver; he had me. I had no answer. “You’re nothing without that, Collin, and neither am I. We are just men, that’s all. But we can be better than that, better than these bastards that are burning our worlds and murdering our people. You said we’re gravball players, right? Well then, let’s do what we do best.”

“Which is?”

“Call the ball.”

Then came the cracking steel collisions of the hull, I heard it above us, then I heard nothing. There we were all over again.

The impact of a dead ship colliding against the atrium ceiling was devastating. What was worse was that there was no warning, no hint, and when the ship peeled away the pressure glass, the people left over were dragged out into space. It was a terrifying spectacle, and there would be no shutter, or blast door, to contain the pressure thanks to the carcass of a dead Raydenite Warship.

I flew towards the hole along with the rest of the innocents, but in the darkest of moments my gravball skill set came in handy.

Quick responses, never lose the edge, never lose your focus. That is what they teach you. I snatched a metal frame piece protruding from the warship. The mass of which was enough to save my life, and Mickey’s, when he crashed into me. I tried to talk to him but the oxygen was escaping my lungs, I was beginning to fade.

Always as I begin to fade, I become moved, and I was moved to tears looking out of the breach, to which I could barely tograsp.

It is incredible how sound cannot travel through space and thank the stars because I could see it, and that was enough. Seeing the extermination that was unfolding, and observing the stained pieces of what had remained. At that moment I began to lose hope, I couldn’t believe what was happening. Why can’t we ever have peace?

“Collin! You hear me?” Mickey asked as he switched on the com-interface on our oxygen masks, after quickly fastening the rebreather to my face and attaching a safety cord to our waists. I gasped for air and was quick to respond.

“Wha . . . what do we do?”

“Well, we got the boots! The only way to the hangar is down there!”

Mickey pointed to a hole in the hull roughly 1,500 meters from where we peered out of the breach. It was close, but there were many obstacles before us.

“That’s suicide! We should have taken the shuttle, you dumbass!”

“Ha! Survival favors the bold, I guess! In five seconds I’m going to launch off of you! Make sure that cord is attached, or we’ll fall to our deaths! We’re about to enter the atmosphere! You ready?”

I took a deep breath and exhaled trying not to think of the millions of things that could go wrong. It was 1,500 meters to the hangar bay and with nothing to hold onto, a gravity-propelled freefall to safety.

“Yeah! I’m good!”

“All right! Five. Four. Three. Two . . .”

One. He clicked the heel trigger on the metal frame behind us, and we violently ejected out over the hull of the ship.

“How did I let you talk me into this!” I exclaimed as we nearly dodged a flaming ship, gliding across the smoldering and sparkling hull of Rayden One.

We flew across the hull traveling over 300 kph, about twice the speed Rayden One was falling and dodging every single piece of shrapnel, and fissures, that had twisted the hull of Rayden One.

Then the sound began to return gradually, and we were picking up speed, quickly. But it was still so silent; it gave us that chance to focus. “Collin! We have to dump our speed! See anything we can use?”

There is only one way to dump speed in a gravity free fall, and that is to bounce off something else, virtually no brakes, just a crash.

“Mick! We are clear below!”

“Ready!”

Having about five seconds before we passed our mark, and facing certain death, we had no choice but to try and use the surface of the hull. We turned ourselves around, clicked our shock absorbers on, and planted our feet.

We hit, and when we hit, we hit hard, so hard we completely lost control of our trajectory and flew like rag dolls across the empty hangar bay, barely entering the hole caused by a stray crusader shell. We sped through the starport faster than we could come to terms with our surroundings, and we crashed into a glass pane.

Five minutes earlier this wouldn’t have been a problem, but Rayden One had dipped into Minerva’s atmosphere, we were in the gravity well.

The cord that he had attached to me launched me straight towards the pane. I spread my arms and caught both sides of the shattered pane, halting us in position. But I was losing my grip. Mickey could see the blood pouring from my palms while I tried desperately to hold him in place.

“Collin.”

“Mick! You have to climb!”

“I can’t. You won’t be able to hold me.”

“Bullshit! I’ve blocked for you how many times?”

“Collin, you need to learn to let go!”

“I can’t, damn it! We’re in this together! What did you just tell me? My life is no more valuable than yours, right?”

“You can’t always have what you want, brother; you will always have to choose between the two. I’m going to cut myself loose.”

“Like hell you are!”

Just as Mickey was about to cut himself loose, we were pulled back into the hangar. I’m sure that we made quite a scene when we rocketed through the hangar. My people, we look out for one another—no matter what happens. I wiped my eyes and saw General Wright holding the unconscious body of Coach Cado. I ever thought I’d ever be happy to see him again.

“Coach!”

But he didn’t respond. Not a word, which I should have expected when I took another look at him; he was missing one-third of his body. “He’s out, Collin. We managed to stop the bleeding.”

“Is he all right? Will he live?”

“It’s doubtful. At least we can bury him on Rayden.”

“Where are you all going?” Mickey inquired.

“To Rayden, brother, but first we must override the security doors so we can leave. What are the odds that we showed up just as you two were about to fall? Luck be a lady tonight, gentlemen. Here.”

Wright threw Mickey an ignition card and looked up at us with that same smile. That one, amazing how some people can keep so calm under absolute chaos. “The keys to my private shuttle!”

“You’re sure?”

“We’ll need a larger one! There are more of us behind the blast doors! I still have a favor to ask of you, Collin!”

“Not a very good time!”

“Ha! Soon then. I will see you both on Rayden! Good luck!”

“Thank you, sir!”

We made our way to Wright’s personal shuttle. We entered the cockpit and Mickey released the door to the hangar. The bay doors began to open, and we could finally see the surface. Our entire world was on fire, burning like a star, and crumbling into nothing.

“All right, Collin, ETA to Rayden is about forty-five minutes with the half-light drive engaged.”

We unhooked and shot out of Rayden One, which was predicted to collide with the surface in one hour. Even 150 kilometers above the earth I still couldn’t see any sign of life; it was all fire and smoke.

Sure we were trained to fight in sport, but not in war. They broke the peace and no matter what we could have never prepared for this. We never deserved this. Sure we were wild, we were sinners, gamblers, drug addicts, and criminals, but we choose to be that way. This was removing the choice altogether; it was a message that I had yet to discover.

(Klaxon wailing) “Thirty-five hundred meters till impact.”

“We’ve got incoming! Bogies at eleven and three o’clock high!”

I awoke an hour later, bewildered I was still alive. I no longer had anything to tell the time, or to detail the extent of my injuries. My damned holoband exploded when we went flying out of the wreckage, and the smoke blocked out the sunlight when the crusader fleet set our home world aflame.

Despite all of this, I knew it had been an hour, because Rayden One had fallen from its orbit, and had impaled itself into the city below. There was something about that moment. I never once gazed at that sight of that city in the sky falling to earth. My focus became diverted from the incredible spectacle of destruction by the man who brought that devastation upon us.

“Your desire to live showed me something significant—now you have captured my attention. That will to live of yours brought us to this intervention. This revelation must be quite a feeling, my friend.”

I stared blankly at the man, unable to see his face. The light reflecting off his golden shoulder arcs was blinding me. My world began to, slowly, come back to focus.

“I am not your friend, asshole,” I replied as I tried to move my limp body.

“But you are, Collin. When this war expands across this solar system, I will be the only person who can help you.”

“War is dead! It has been dead for centuries!”

“My history beckoned me to bring it back to life. War is the only way humanity will understand my resolve.”

“Why? Why us? What have we ever done to you?” My face became blood red as I trembled in not fear, but anger. He saw this, and all he could do was smile, as he leaned towards me and extended his hand.

“To be great, you have to be willing to be misunderstood. People fear what they do not understand, Collin, and when they find out what you are, they will fear you as they do me. You and I are of like kind. So take my hand, and I will show you what desire can accomplish.”

I was so confused at that moment as he had so eloquently put it. I tried to speak, but he was right. I had nothing but questions. How did we survive the impact of that missile? Who was this arrogant prick talking to me? And just what the hell was that light that blinded me before I blacked out?

“Collin! Collin, don’t listen to him! He is a master manipulator! Arcoh! Listen to me! You have won, you have destroyed everything! Please show mercy—”

“Mick!” A soldier then jammed the butt of his rifle into the back of Mickey’s head. He had been conscious the entire time just waiting for me to wake up and smell the ashes of our world. Mickey fell to the ground, and the man in the flashy suit signaled his subordinate to bring him over to us. Even as Rayden One collided with the field off in the distance, the minute I heard that name, my attention was devoted to him.

“You . . . you are Arcoh the Eminent?” I stammered.

“Your friend, this Mick, is wrong. This was never about winning. This was about never finishing a conflict. This was, and will always be about creation. The Great Crusade is only the beginning of things to come.”

“Collin—” Mickey coughed up blood upon the fire-stained ground and caught eyes with me.

“Mick, what is going on?”

“You don’t remember?”

“The only thing I remember is winning the Olympic Cup, Rayden One under attack, and that light, that blinding light.”

“They broke the peace, Collin. They are here for one reason: to kill every last one of us.” Mickey shot a look of disgust over to Arcoh as he once again spat upon the ground.

“But what should I expect from a man who slept for over a thousand years before he arrived here? Arcoh! You are a man living one thousand years in the past! This future you want, maybe it could have existed on Mother Earth, but not here, not in this system. Everyone in Eden will devour you!”

“How dare you speak to His Grace in such a manner!”

“Ivan, holster that sidearm and calm down. I would like to offer Mr. King the burden of choice.”

Ivan jabbed his foot into Mickey’s leg, and he dropped to his knees. Mickey groaned in agony as Ivan drew his sidearm, pressing the cold barrel against the back of Mickey’s head.

“When I get my hands on you I will—”

“Enough! I offer you one chance to spare your friend’s life.” Arcoh had this kind of gesture he performed when he was feeling anxious. He would massage his ring finger of his left hand with the thumb and middle finger of his right hand, and he would smile, psychotically, as he did it. From that moment on, he created flames of hatred that would burn forever in my heart.

“We orbit around a primary world on this moon. The remainder of your people fled to the hostile surface of the planet your race holds so dear, Rayden. I know that you know where they are licking their wounds.”

“You expect me to give up my own people? You really are as stupid as you look.” When I said this, Ivan responded by pulling the hammer back on his sidearm, and pushing Mickey’s face to the ground.

“MICKEY!”

“Look at me, Collin! LOOK AT ME! He will kill him! Tell me where they are! Now choose! CHOOSE! Me or them! ME? OR THEM?” I looked over to Mickey, and I trembled in fear as Arcoh pounded his chest demanding an answer from me.

“Collin?” Mickey inquired.

“I can’t, Mickey. I just can’t.”

“I know, Collin, I know. It’s okay, it’s okay, my friend.”

“I CHOOSE THEM!”

Arcoh walked up to Mickey and waved Ivan aside. Mickey struggled to talk as Arcoh drew his diamond-tipped sword to my best friend’s throat.

“Never give up hope, it is all you have now, brother.”

Before I even had a chance to say goodbye the blade tore his skin, and his blood sprayed across my face, I felt so weak, so helpless, and angry. Arcoh then walked up to me as he whipped his sword, freeing the diamond-edged blade of the blood belonging to my best friend.

“The freedom of choice comes with a great consequence, Mr. King.”

“Just do it. I want all to end.”

But he just smiled, and even began to laugh, as he holstered his sword and bent down to me.

“Why have you done this? You have taken everything! I have nothing left to live for!”

“You know nothing of life, Collin! You have everything to live for; it is only when a man loses everything below him that he can find the courage to discover all that can lie above him.”

“You’re not going to kill me?”

Ivan then lifted me to my feet, and I stared directly into Arcoh’s eyes, as he spoke his twisted words of reason.

“Kill you? How could I kill you when there is so much left for you to witness?”

In my attempt to tackle Arcoh I passed out from the pain. My sight faded from me when I noticed the life had already fled away from Mickey’s eyes. There was something else there, in the sky above us, where Rayden One was situated before it fell to earth.

It was a ship, a single massive ship that was raining down hell onto the surface below. Expelling rivers of artillery and fire, seemingly unending, it was setting our entire world aflame, not one square meter of Minerva would be left intact. To Arcoh and his kingdom, all of it had to burn, until all that was left were ashes.