Gift of the Gods -Prologue

 

 

" Lieutenant Anderson, I hereby place you under arrest. Your charged with the crime of treason, you will be placed in hypersleep until such time as a proper court martial can be held." Captain Mathers, commander of the W.A.S.A freighter, 0the Firestorm, read the decree to his former navigator.

" It is not I who has committed treason here. It is you, Captain Mathers.And I will personally see to it that youlose your command for this." the accused, Lieutenant Joseph Anderson, spoke out against his former commander.

" Gag this traitor, and put in the hyper-chamber now. It makes me sick to lay eyes on such a poor excuse for an officer." Mathers growled at the two men who were presently holding Anderson back, just in case Anderson tried to lash out at the captain of the ship.

As they were leading Anderson down the long corridor that led to the hyper-chamber bay, Joseph suddenly realized that he was never going to make it back to Earth for trial. Mathers had too much to lose by taking him back. Earlier thatday, Mathers had caught him in the cargo bay snooping around.

Joseph was completely taken by surprise at what they're cargo really was. The log record said that the Firestorm was delivering technical supplies to the Mars colony, but, what he found back there was a completely different story.

The entire cargo bay was filled to capacity with military hard wear. Choppers, interceptor jet fighters, a long range tactical bomber, several attack shuttles, crates and crates of laser rifles, eight heavy battle cannons, and enough ammunition to start a war.

Now he was at the entrance to the cyro-chamber bay. The two men who were leading him to the icy prison that he was going to be forced into, had only yesterday been his comrades-in-arms. But now they were his sworn enemies, they had sided up with the corrupt Captain Mathers.

" Take it easy, just go in easy. I don't want to haveto bash you one before you go in." Lieutenant JG Marcus Hawthorn sneered at Joseph." Good Night, you little bastard !"

Anderson's last thoughts before sleep finally over took him were of his wife back on Earth, and how he would never see her again. With a final deep sigh, Joseph succumbed tothe numbing, sleep inducing effects of cyro-sleep.

" I want you to go down there, after your shift, of course, and eject that little bastard out into deep space."Mathers commanded Hawthorn in hushed tones, so as not to voice his intentions to prying ears.

" What about my cut of the profits, surely if you want him dead this badly you'd be willing to increase my share, hem ?" Hawthorn returned, his voice taking on almost a snarl as he spoke.

" Let me put it this way, you will be a very rich man at the end of this endeavor if you do me this little favor. " The captain of the Firestorm hinted to Hawthorn, his new first officer.

But before either of them could finish they're convers-ation, alarms started in go off all over the bridge of theship." What the hell is going on ?" Mathers screamed at hisfirst officer, trying to make his voice to be heard over the blaring sound of the alarms.

" I don't know." Hawthorn bellowed back at his commander. As Hawthorn looked down at the main control board of the bridge, he noticed that the ship's sub-light speed indicatorwas showing that the ship was rapidly increasing in speed. With a look of awe on his face, Hawthorn noticed that the ship was on the brink of passing light speed.

Alarm showing clearly in his eyes, Captain Mathers staggered forward, to stand beside his first officer." Exactlyhow fast are we now going ?" Mathers questioned Hawthorn, fear showing clearly in his deep brown eyes.

" We just past light speed about ten seconds ago." the lieutenant answered.

With a sudden lurch, the freighter started to drop in speed. With the sudden stop came another problem, electrical fires were erupting all over the bridge. On the main view screen of the Firestorm, a planet was now coming into view, it definitely wasn't Mars. But from the looks of it, it most definitely contained life, and if things were living there, that meant that it's air was breathable.

Captain Mathers, now had but only one chose, land on the planet or watch as his ship blossomed around him into a super nova in the cold depths of space.

" We don't have any choose, we've got to land." Mathers spoke softly to his first officer as he started to guide his massive freighter into the upper atmosphere of a world that looked vaguely like Earth.
Urgency seeping into his deep voice " I'll be back.", Hawthorn sped off of the bridge.He had a small personalmatter to resolve.

" Anderson, I honestly can't say that I ever liked you. Happy trails, traitor !" Hawthorn spat his final words at the frosted hyper-chamber that was Joseph Anderson's icy prison.

With cool deliberateness, Marcus Hawthorn pulled back the lever that would eject a helpless Anderson out of theship and into the atmosphere of a new and alien world that his ship was going to crash land onto.
Chuckling to himself maliciously, Hawthorn turned backfrom the now vacant space where Anderson's hyper-chamber had been, and headed back to the bridge.

Tumbling end over end through the frigid upper layers of the planet's atmosphere, Anderson's hyper-chamber contin-ued its decent to the planet.


By some unknown power or an act of god, Anderson's frozen prison's decent began to slow the farther down throughthe atmosphere it went. Finally, with a slowness that seemed almost fantastical, Joseph's chamber floated gently onto the ground. To lay finally in the middle of an eminence plain of flowing green grass.
" It is a sign from the gods. Hurry, take hold of the ends of this gift from the gods. The followers of Tarthon have most surely seen it's arrival. We must take it back to the tower." the gray bearded man in flowing deep purple robe surged the other similarly clad men, a look of intense awe and wonder on his face.

Quickly, each of the men took hold of a corner and lifted the strange rectangular object from off the ground, the old man in the purple robes leading. They headed toward the east, their unusual load resting on their shoulders.

Carrying their strange cargo to a place only they and others of their order knew of, a place called the Tower of the Magi.