Jake's Fortune Ch. 13

Born in light,
He shall come,
Shining bright,
He'll overcome,
Wrongs he'll right,
With fists that thrum,
Loved on sight,
And feared by some

Two weeks later, Hannah gave birth.

Nurse Ruiz was mesmerised when she held the baby. It was emanating a faint blue light, and it was the most beautiful little boy they'd ever laid eyes upon, of that they were certain.

He looked at his father with big eyes, and when his father held him, he could feel raw emotions coming off the baby.

There was confusion, there was fear, but mostly there was love. The fear and confusion dissipated when his father held him close.

They decided to name him after Jake's father: Jaden.

Hannah was in good health, although she looked beat. Oddly, giving birth in zero gravity was not easier than normal birth. Jake hugged her and held the baby to her. She cried with tears of joy and relief.

When his grand-uncle held him he almost had a stroke.

Jake went to visit the doctor, something wasn't sitting right with him.

When he scanned him, Doctor Lev insisted to take a sample from his bones. Most of the crystals in his bloodstream had settled there.

"This is fascinating." he said as he watched the scan results.

"I can detect a trace of it in your blood. It appears to be symbiotic in nature. Its presence is not agitating your white blood cells. On the contrary, it's bonding to your DNA."

When he made an incision to extract the sample, the skin regenerated almost instantly. A stunned doctor observed the process in complete silence.

"Thismustbe studied." the doctor said.

"Don't you know what happened the last time someone tried to study me?"

"I do. But still..." Doctor Lev started.

"No more experiments doctor, not until humanity is ready." he interjected.

"You don't understand. This could cure illness! This could make the disabled walk again!" the doctor said heatedly.

"And this could be used to create a breed of deadly soldiers that can't be defeated." he shot back.

"Jake, the crystals you consumed could be affecting your behaviour. We don't know what..."

"Exactly. We don't know, and I intend to keep it that way."

Jake was elated, he'd just witness the birth of his firstborn with his own eyes. He momentarily forgot his concerns and anxiety about what to come.

But now it was time to execute his plan.

He touched the broadcasting gear and Siren got to work. She began overriding protocols and started deep packet analysis. When she was satisfied she signalled him to begin.

He stood in front of the cameras and took a deep breath.

"People of Tansa, the UEF, and surrounding systems." he began.

"My name is Jake Evans, and this is Brigadier General Michael Cromwell." he nodded at Michael.

"Your governments are pursing us for different reasons, but both lead to the same goal."

"That goal is the genocide of a sapient race: The C'Nosi, or as they refer to them: The Progenitors."

"They want my abilities to combat them, to exterminate them." he said as his eyes glowed again.

"General Michael Cromwell and his men are wanted for desertion. For refusing to commit genocide against a peaceful race that did nothing to deserve it."

The camera panned and the C'Nosi cruiser came into view. It was moving inside the asteroid with the grace of a maritime creature in its natural habitat. The sight was breathtaking.

"What you see before you is not a space ship, it is a living being that deserves better from us. I can speak to it. No other human can. Your governments failed to communicate with them, and so they decided to exterminate them and occupy their worlds. Some of which you are standing upon right now."

The camera panned back to him and General Cromwell.

"And so, I plead with you. I appeal to your conscience. Let that change. Let us show them that humans are good natured beings that wish for a peaceful coexistence with our fellow intelligent species of the universe."

"The C'Nosi have appointed me as their ambassador to humanity." Jake said.

"As a member of humanity, I step forward, and I welcome this honour with open arms."

The resulting uproar was monumental.

Every news broadcast in every human star system ran the message for weeks. Protests in the streets reached their peak in history, and resignations from world governments were at an all time high.

This did not come without price, however.

The Republic of Tansa had managed to pinpoint their exact location and were mobilising for an assault. Jake decided to spare the lives of the crew and base occupants, and give them what they wanted the most: himself. His uncle and wife tried to stop him but he didn't listen.

He made sure he broadcast his position and intent over all frequencies, and he rode with the C'Nosi to Tansa.

He could see through its eyes, feel its thoughts, and they were one. He saw odd lights and bands of colours he'd never imagined. But he couldn't focus on the scenery, something else had his full attention.

The fleet that greeted him was colossal in proportions. Three battleships and four carriers, with full wings of escorts awaited him in orbit.

"Jake, be careful." Siren whispered.

They started firing as soon as he got in range.

Missiles streaked and particle cannons raged with their military might, and his eyes glowed.

The C'Nosi shone brightly as it released an EMP burst so powerful it knocked out all of their control systems and fried their weapons. What was left was a cloud of hulking debris and some dead missiles that it dodged gracefully.

All of this was captured by civilian sensors and broadcast to news networks all over the settled universe.

When he landed on Tansa, he could feel the crushing g-force impacting him, but he pressed on.

"You can survive this." Siren whispered to him.

Militia forces surrounded him, and they poured fire his way. Armour piercing bullets left holes in his armour as his body mended itself and regenerated at an astounding rate. He moved towards them and took their punishment in stride.

When his fists sparked with electricity and he started dropping their vanguard, their lines broke and there was a rout. He watched with determination as his opponents fled away.

With purpose he moved on, and to the capitol building he marched.

When he reached his destination, he was met with fierce resistance. His fists glowed as he flattened the fortifications and turrets planted in his path. Tanks were reduced to inert objects as he released enough EMP bursts to fry half of the city's electronics.

People fled the building as he entered, and inside he disappeared.

"Impressive." said Vice President Eva Dontos with confidence she didn't feel.

"Let's take a walk." he told her.

"I think I'd rather stay here." she responded.

"I'm not in the habit of repeating myself twice."

She moved towards him and they walked side by side.

"You've put us in a very difficult position." she remarked.

"I think you and I both know that you've put yourself in this situation."

"So, how do you want this to go?" he asked her.

"We walk outside and smile to the cameras, and we say that we both reached an agreement that satisfies both parties."

"We'll do that, on two conditions."

"The first is the immediate cession of all hostilities against the C'Nosi or what's otherwise called The Progenitors for now and in the future."

"The second is granting Tansa citizenship, the right of asylum, and diplomatic immunity to all occupants of Ita, the base you were about to assault, effective immediately."

"You surely can't expect all of that to happen."

"I surely expect anything and everything I request to happen right now."

"Or else?"

"Or else it will be biblical. Iwillraze the entire government. Iwillleave you to total anarchy, and I'll hope for a more reasonable government to rise out of the rubble." he said with force.

"Very well, Mr. Evans. You convinced me." she said as they exited the building and were met with the crowd's roar.

The surviving news cameras panned and zoomed at the vice president and him. The crowds scattered a little as the C'Nosi came flying and settled besides him.

Out of nowhere, a dozen microphones were thrust at him, demanding that he speaks to the billions watching him here and elsewhere in the universe.

"Mr. Evans, why did you bring war and destruction to our planet?" asked a reporter.

"I did not come here to start a war! I came here to end one!" he bellowed.

"Your governments massacred a peaceful species, and stole their planets."

"I came here to stop this! I came here to bring this to an end, but they wouldn't talk. They attacked me as soon as I approached in orbit. You all saw it." he flashed an accusatory look at the vice president.

Vice President Eva approached the microphones. She was about to speak when the crowds erupted in a low chant that gradually picked up. They were chanting his name.

Jake was surprised. He thought they'd hate him for all the destruction he brought, but the crowds proved him wrong.

When he approached the microphones again the chants quieted down.

"My C'Nosi friend would like to address you on behalf of its race." Jake said.

Everybody perked up at the mention of the C'Nosi.

"We are the C'Nosi." Jake began relaying its words.

"We wish we could speak to you freely, but we are young."

"This is our only friend." Jake said as it patted him gently with its wing.

"Only he has a Ta'naan in his head."

"Is that what your race is called?" he asked Siren.

"It's what they call us." she replied.

"Only he can speak for us." Jake began relaying its words again.

"We wish your kind had more Ta'naan, but only he can talk."

"Your race has brought us pain and destruction. Our young die."

"We wish for this to end."

"The universe is vast enough. Why kill the young?"

"Your armies are killing our young, and stealing what is ours."

"You can keep the worlds you have taken, but leave us in peace."

"We only came here because we wish for peace."

"Your race is young, but you have accomplished much in your short life."

"We observed."

"If there is peace then we will help you."

"We can accomplish much together."

"Now you must reach a decision, and we must leave." it said as it scooped Jake and swallowed him whole.

On his way back to Ita, Jake was fatigued. He'd never felt this frail.

They put him in quarantine as soon as he arrived. He started to vomit and bleed through the nose almost instantly.

They removed his battered armour, put him into a critical care unit, and started hooking him up to various machines.

His immune system was in shock.

The space-born couldn't handle any of the pathogens normally found in a planet's atmosphere. Their bodies rarely experienced illness because of their isolation in a sanitary environment. The ventilation systems on space ships and stations filtered out any foreign objects and they practically lived in a bubble for their entire lives. Even on his brief visits to Luna they had to give him shots that helped him withstand trivial pathogens that normal human bodies shrugged off on a day-to-day basis.

What complicated things further was the damage his body took. While the wounds regenerated almost instantly thanks to the crystals bonded to his cells, they didn't prevent the airborne pathogens from reaching his bloodstream.

The doctors were astounded. The crystals looked like any regular crystals under a microscope, until they came into contact with a protein. They instantly transformed and attached themselves to the binding sites and started replicating its functionality. It was almost as if the crystals were learning how the proteins functioned and moving on after constructing a template. They constantly drove his cells to better themselves.

His bones were also damaged, all thanks to the crushing g-force of Tansa. The crystals instantly mended his skeletal structure wherever it was damaged. They self-replicated at an astounding rate and were apparently even stronger than human bones.

The doctors helped him along by injecting nanobots constructed especially to help his body fight the pathogens using the medical fabricators, and hoped for the best.

His body stabilised in two days, and he could move again in a week.

His family and friends were worried sick about him, but they wouldn't let them visit him at all for the first week, and when they finally did, they only allowed them to see him through a transparent barrier.

When he went to sleep that night, Siren was waiting for him.

They stood in the vast crystalline cave. She looked at her surroundings with a bemused expression.

"Well, this is new." she said.

"Like you said, I can't control my subconscious." he replied.

"Or your conscience. Jake, I know it's eating at you."

"And what's eating at me exactly?"

"What you did at Tansa."

He paused and looked at her intently.

"What could I do? They attacked me first."

"Yes, and they would have killed or captured you and everybody at Ita, and who knows what they would have done to your child."

"But it still doesn't feel right. Those soldiers had families. They were doing what their duty demanded."

"Jake, you don't have to lament them. It was a fair fight. It was you against all of them."

"No, it wasn't fair. I have all of these powers." he said as electricity sparked between his fingertips, "And they don't."

"They have weapons."

"Weapons that couldn't affect me."

"Oh, but they did. You're not in quarantine because you breathed their air. You're here because they did, in fact, wound you."

"And my wounds healed unnaturally, and immediately."

"Yes, but you saved a lot of lives with what you did."

"C'Nosi lives."

"And human lives, too. Don't you think those soldiers would have died fighting the C'Nosi if not fighting you? Don't you know that most of the survivors of this battle would have died fighting them anyway?"

"The C'Nosi are not my race. I can't help feeling like a traitor."

"We are." the C'Nosi interjected.

"What?" he turned around to look for the C'Nosi addressing him but found none.

"We are your brother-race. You are C'Nosi." it said.

"No, I'm not. I barely know you."

"You joined us when you consumed our crystals. You know of our suffering and have witnessed it like you were there. You share our burden. You are a kindred spirit. You seek peace, and so do we."

"You are C'Nosi, and we can prove it."

He felt the pain and shuddered in disbelief as four crystalline wings sprouted out of his back. They had glowing blue veins and very fine edges, and they shimmered in the faint light.

"Only the Nos can do that, and it will do your bidding." it said.

When he woke up, the wings were gone, but the pain was still there.