Enceladus 4: The Invasion

It was the day we were leaving for Earth. Space Enforcement’s shuttles were already docked on our planet at the dock, just sixteen kilometers from the palace, waiting for us. Cassiopeia had ordered everyone, at least the people that were going, to pile on the shuttles. They royal family was to be last.

Some of the other planets were already on their way to Earth since some were farther away. Not all of them used wormhole travel like Enceladus did. I knew that Lord Mel’s planet did. He had told me in his email. I was somewhat excited to see him. We had become good friends and I really hoped that once he saw what I could do, he wouldn’t run the other way. I needed friends now days.

Once the 200,000 some citizens and guards were aboard the several ships, my family and I boarded the last ship. We set off for Earth and possibly the biggest battle of our lives.

While on the large ship that we had switched to for the journey, many of us took to sparring. We wanted to be as ready as we could. I fought with a bunch of citizens and even some guards. And I always won. It got to the point where no one would go against me. It finally came down to those I loved. First up was Caelum. We decided to fight with no weapons, no powers, just fists.

He smiled mischievously and raised his balled hands. He was too sure he’d win.

The last time Cal and I fought, he almost knocked me unconscious.

He advanced and swung at me. I ducked under his arm and found myself behind him. I punched him in the back where his kidney was. He whipped around quickly and punched me in the jaw.

I retaliated by hitting Caelum in the stomach. He doubled over slightly but when he straightened, his fist came flying at me. I caught it in my own hand and twisted. His face contorted in pain but then he smiled as if he was having the time of his life.

I was still grasping his closed fist when he shoved me with it. I fell and he pressed his boot lightly to my throat as a way of saying he won. But he didn’t. I grabbed his ankle and brought him down hard on the mat. He landed with a thud and I scrambled to get on top of him. I wasn’t fast enough.

He jumped up. His next move was a jab to my side. I grunted and circled him. I moved forward to hit him and he blocked. I hit him in the gut before he could stop me. Then I hit him again. And again. The last hit was so hard, he fell.

Cal laid on the ground, panting and grinning. Only then did I put my foot on his chest.

“I won,” I said smugly.

His smile didn’t waver and for a second I thought I saw pride in his gaze. I moved my foot and helped him up. I rubbed at my jaw where he hit me and I noticed his hand was on his stomach.

“Maybe we shouldn’t fight so hard next time,” I muttered. My cheek didn’t hurt but I was willing to guess Caelum’s torso did.

He chuckled and swung his arm around my shoulders “Let’s go eat.” I walked to the cafeteria with him, not mentioning that I didn’t need physical food anymore.

The next couple of days on the ship were filled with me and my siblings sparring. I even went a few rounds with Alexander. He was a very skilled fighter. He won the second time.

Eventually we could see the Earth through the windows. My stomach grew queasy. It was too soon. I didn’t want to become the Destroyer. I wouldn’t. I hadn’t heard the voice in weeks so maybe that meant she wouldn’t make a guest appearance on Earth.

I remembered how my mother was living on Earth. I wondered if she’d come out of hiding and help us save the humans or continue to be the coward that she was.

All of the citizens piled onto several of the shuttles that were located in the “basement” of the gigantic ship. The ship was more like a space station.

As we strapped ourselves into the chairs in the shuttle, Talia reached over and grabbed my hand. She knew I was scared about Stacia coming out. I was sure she was scared herself. If I went dark, I would surely kill anyone in my way. If I went dark, there would be nothing stopping me from summoning the Devil.

I mentally smacked myself. Last year, I had been so desperate to bring back Alexander for my brother that I had asked the Devil how to summon him. Now my other half could summon him with no problems.

We hurtled into the atmosphere. John was piloting our shuttle and was even more skilled than Delphinus or Cassiopeia. And Delphinus had done well under the pressure when our ship malfunctioned. I was glad she wasn’t here though.

Soon we were landing in the U.S., somewhere in Washington D.C. I wasn’t sure why the council wanted us here if we weren’t able to contact the government.

We landed in a secluded area with the biggest warehouse I had ever seen. Then I realized I’d never seen a warehouse in person. It was an airplane hangar, I confirmed once we were closer.

I spotted other SE shuttles nestled inside the warehouse along with thousands of people. Well, aliens.

The people in my shuttle plus the rest of the Enceladians climbed out of the shuttles once they were neatly in line with the others. We all had duffle bags filled with clothes and small weapons. We left our armor on the shuttles for now.

“Princess!”

I looked around to see Lord Mel and a gorgeous brown-haired female heading toward me. They looked alike. I wondered if that was his sister he told me about through email. They both wore elegant deep red robes and Mel held a scepter of sorts.

“Mel!” As soon as he reached me, I hugged him. I wasn’t sure why. Then I stepped back lighting fast, wondering if I had disrespected his customs. We hadn’t had the chance to talk about our customs through email. But all he did was smile. “It’s good to see you again,” I said, fighting a blush. I was an idiot.

“You, as well.” He didn’t stop smiling, his golden eyes sparkling. “This is my sister, Adina. Adina, this is Princess Amelia of Enceladus.”

She stuck her hand out to me and it seemed forced. They must not shake hands on their planet. But her smile was genuine. Her eyes were just as brilliant as his, no pupils either. I wondered if it was an Iapetian thing or just a royal family thing. Her robe wasn’t actually a robe but a gown with hints of gold. That must be their royal garb. I felt underdressed next to them in pants and a thin jacket. “It’s a pleasure, Princess. My brother hasn’t stopped talking about you.”

I blushed harder and Mel’s smile vanished as he elbowed his sister. I hoped Mel wasn’t infatuated with me. Infatuated?

“Excuse her, Amelia. She likes to talk.”

“That’s okay.” Talia came up to us and I grabbed her hand. “I don’t think you’ve officially met Talia. Mel, this is my girlfriend, Talia Durand. Talia, this is Lord Mel and his sister, Adina.”

Talia adorably curtseyed. “Nice to meet you both.”

They both bowed back to her. “I’ll be back,” Adina said. “Pleasure, once again.” She wandered off.

“Do not mind her,” Mel told us. “She sometimes leaves conversations when there’s too much . . . emotion. She is an empath.”

Too much emotion?

“No problem.” I conjured up a smile although I felt like doing anything but.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t meet under better circumstances,” he said.

I nodded and looked around. I couldn’t count the number of bodies in the large, airy warehouse. I saw some people from Tarvos speaking with the people of Hyperion. All the women of Tarvos wore a type of helmet on their heads. They must’ve not been able to breathe in Earth’s atmosphere. Though there weren’t very many Tarvians. I briefly recalled that only one thousand of Queen Eciri’s people had agreed to fight. Another thing I noticed was that the people of Iapetus and Janus stayed very far away from each other. They must have had problems in the past like Tethys and Enceladus.

“Attention people of Tarvos, Iapetus, Janus, Enceladus and Hyperion!” An SE agent from Hyperion called. He was tiny. He was standing on top of one of the shuttles, holding something that projected his voice. “My name is Agent Aaric and you will come to me with any questions or concerns you have.”

I found it sort of comical that SE had put this little guy in charge. Seriously, he couldn’t be any taller than 4’5”, which was why he was standing on a shuttle.

“For the next few days, we will be waiting. Behind this warehouse are two others with living quarters and dining quarters. Once we get word that the other planets are here, we will meet them and hopefully save Earth. I encourage you all to spar with each other, not just within your own species, because it could help with the oncoming battle.” Aaric paused. “We will be in tight quarters for a few days. I encourage you all to keep a level head. We don’t want to start a war between the people who are protecting Earth.” I saw him make eye contact with Lord Mel and King Peidax who was close to the shuttle Aaric was standing on.

“If there are any questions, I will be in this shuttle. There are also one hundred Space Enforcement agents wandering about. I suggest you all settle into the living quarters. There are assigned sections for each of your planets. There are also washrooms. I want to lay down the rules before we disperse. There will be absolutely no contact with the humans. Any violation of that will be considered treason. Rule number two is no one can leave these warehouses until the battle. The last rule is to not fight with one another. We need to present a united front.”

There went the Council with their restrictions again.

“One last thing. I wanted to thank you all for being so brave and coming to the humans’ aid. Even though they don’t know what is about to happen, they will be grateful someone is looking out for them.”

With that, everyone shuffled out and to the living warehouse.

I had to find a way to contact Lainie. Lynx made eye contact with me and it seemed like he realized the same thing. Suddenly I heard his thoughts. “Damn, we need to tell Lainie. Amy would hate if she got hurt.”

I gaped. It came so easily. I wasn’t even trying to hear his mind. I snapped my mouth shut. I didn’t want anyone to know.

“You okay?” Talia asked me, placing a kiss under my eye on my cheek bone probably because she couldn’t reach my forehead.

“Sort of.” I looked down at her. Her hazel eyes held so much worry and love I was almost drowning in it. “I love you too.” I kissed her passionately. I ran my hands down her sides before I realized this wasn’t the time or place for such desire.

Cassiopeia, John, Caelum, Golda, Lynx, Alexander, Talia, and I left the warehouse to find the living quarters.

“Living” wasn’t the right word. “Living” was an exaggeration. There were simply thousands of cots scattered around the large warehouse. There were five sections of beds, all separated by short makeshift walls.

My siblings and I put our bags down on beds in all close to each other. Cassiopeia’s six guards claimed beds that flanked ours.

“Want to find the find the dining warehouse?” Talia asked me.

I nodded and intertwined my hand with hers. Lynx and Alexander followed us.

The eating quarters, as Aaric had called it, was aptly named. There were tens of dozens of cafeteria tables. I didn’t see a kitchen but there were people eating food. Well, again, “food” was an exaggeration. They were eating packets of space food.

“Come on,” said Lynx. He pointed to the back where there was in fact a kitchen.

“I’ll get us a table,” I said.

Talia looked at me. “You’re not hungry?”

I shook my head. “Space sickness,” I lied.

She smirked. It had been extremely hard to keep from her that I wasn’t eating. I was surprised she hadn’t noticed yet.

I looked for a table. There were plenty empty ones. I debated sitting with some other Enceladians but I didn’t want to deal with their condescending or terrified expressions. So, I sat with a few Hyperions.

“Hi, I’m Amelia from Enceladus,” I said.

The four women, or girls, turned their head my way. The one closest to me smiled. “Hi, I’m Hamaza. Nice to meet you, Amelia.” The way my name rolled off her tongue was oddly the most beautiful sound. I didn’t know a lot about the nymphs on Hyperion.

“Nice to meet you too.”

“These are my sisters.” She didn’t offer up their names. All her sisters were small and skinny. They looked no older than sixteen. They all had pale skin, grayish brown horns, and pointy ears. One girl had wings the same color as her horns.

I smiled politely at them all.

“So, I understand that on your planet everyone possesses all four elements,” Hamaza said.

I nodded. “That’s right.”

Hamaza’s sister suddenly broke out in whispers in their own language. “I apologize for them.” Hamaza laughed. “It’s just it’s so interesting and very powerful. You see, on Hyperion everyone is born into one element. No single nymph has all four elements. I am a water nymph.” She raised her hand and out of nowhere, a floating stream of water wiggled through the air.

“Wow,” I said. “So, everyone is born with one random element?”

She bobbed her head. “Usually, it depends on the parents. If they are both air nymphs, then their offspring will be too. But if one parent is a fire and one is a water, fire will win. Fire is dominant over all the rest.”

“That’s so cool.” Just then Talia, Lynx and Alexander came back. I made introductions as they sat down.

Hamaza leaned into me as if she had a secret. “And being a water nymph, I can breathe under water.”

“No way!” I exclaimed.

She raised her eyebrows.

“It’s an Earth expression meaning ‘that’s so awesome, I can hardly believe it’.”

“Oh, yes that makes more sense.” She smiled. “And for fire nymphs, their skin is unsusceptible to fire. It cannot burn them.”

“That is really neat.”

We spent the rest of the time talking about our abilities and planets.