The Beyond

by Thomas R. Willits

Table of Contents
Part 5 appears
in this issue.

conclusion

Norian looked at the others in dismay. The director was obviously acting out in rage with Ethan, not considering the reality of their situation or the lives of others. “I won’t be part of this,” Norian said firmly. “I am getting off. Are you guys coming?”

He looked at Merrill and Renato but they sat down at their stations, willing to let Droverson decide their fate. Merrill looked at Droverson and then back at Norian. “I’m staying. I still want to go.”

Renato gave him a shrug and smiled.

“Well, I may as well go, too. He’ll need all the help he can get now that the flight plan’s gone.”

“There you have it, “ Droverson said. “Now get off before I throw you off. You’re finished here. Done. I want your things out before I return.”

Norian turned and headed for the door, and Droverson began starting up all systems. He wanted to stay to see things through, but Droverson was insane. He would get them all killed. He pushed the exit button and the hatch began to open. He turned a final time seeing the others busy with takeoff tasks and stepped off the Aeon.

“Good luck, Ethan,” Norian said as the ship’s door closed. “I wish I could help you.”

But his heart told him he would never see Ethan Santari again.

* * *

Ethan looked ahead through the ship’s forward window and saw the barrier. He had been this close before, even closer on a few missions, but none had taken him as far as he would go today. The barrier’s red glow shone through the ship’s windows. Ethan noticed how it looked almost like an ocean. He could see no end to it. Was there an end?

The ship passed into the barrier. The clouds were light here, and through the ship’s reverse angle he could see Mirano clearly. Further in, it would be impossible to see anything behind or ahead. He would have to rely on ship’s navigation. Before he turned his attention back to the main screen something caught his eye.

Quickly, he armed the main shield and steered hard to port, just in time as two red parallel beams moved through the path he was just in. The two beams disappeared into the barrier, missing his ship. He checked his reverse angle again and saw a ship closing in behind him. The Aeon. Droverson. Somehow he had found Ethan’s location and was following him in. Suddenly his communicator was alerting a call coming through.

Ethan flipped the button and heard a static voice. “I want you out of the barrier,” Droverson yelled loudly. Almost too loud as the voice was cracked and distorted. “This is my mission, Ethan. Mine.”

“You’re insane, director,” Ethan moved the ship straight again, resuming his course. “You should turn back. It’s not safe in here.”

“We are prepared for this,” Droverson said not as loud as before. “All except Norian. He wasn’t ready for this challenge. I left him on Mirano. But the three of us. We will breach the barrier.”

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Ethan protested, relieved Norian wasn’t on board. Too bad the others had remained. “You’ll get yourself killed. You’ll kill Merril and Renato. Turn back.”

“I will not take orders from you, Ethan. Now get out of my way or I will destroy you.”

Droverson pushed the ship faster, closing the distance between the Hermes as if attempting to ram her. Ethan moved port again and slowed, watching for Droverson’s attack. But there was none. The Aeon moved past Ethan. Ethan felt a little better with their positions reversed: Droverson in front and no longer the opportunity to fire on the Hermes. Ethan moved back into position and followed the Aeon. This proved to be a bit difficult since the Aeon was moving at maximum speed. Ethan kept the Hermes back a good distance, watching for a surprise attack. But Ethan suspected Droverson would make none now. He was in front, where he wanted to be. The first through the barrier.

“Fine,” he said.

It was happening just like his dream. The two ships moved deeper into the barrier and it became harder to see. The clouds were thickening and the light intensifying. They were in deep now. Dangerously deep. Just as Ethan saw a light flicker off the starboard side of the Aeon, light came bursting to his left. It was happening. The storm. Only a few at first then more. They were quick, with enormous energy.

Ethan looked at the Aeon and saw it was still there, moving ahead on its same course and speed. Ethan looked around the gaseous barrier and saw nothing important. Clouds and this light. Flashes all around. Ethan remembered his dream. The morning he had awakened and discovered it all not to be real. It was real now, though. This was happening.

Ethan saw the Aeon almost completely surrounded with the flashes, still moving ahead untouched. Ethan looked at the screen below. Mirano was back there, faint but still noticeable. Ethan felt this was wrong. He thought he would be through it by now. All his life he had waited for this chance. This moment. But was determination enough? He wasn’t sure. If it hadn’t been for the brilliant flashes that were striking around the ships he wouldn’t have seen the Aeon in front of him as he passed her by. He swung the Hermes to starboard, barely missing the Aeon’s hull and pushed the Hermes forward. The Aeon was engulfed in light, almost as if the light were one constant source.

On board the Aeon, Droverson had ordered the ship to a halt. “We can’t get through,” he yelled with great anxiety and frustration. “There is no end to this. I’m turning this ship around before —”

Merril jumped out of her chair as Droverson spoke, half mad. She looked at the main screen and could make out the Hermes passing by on to starboard. The screen was almost totally white. She could see something different about it, though.

“Look!” She gasped, the light now very painful. “He’s passed us. What’s happening to his ship?”

All three aboard the Aeon watched as the light grew dimmer around the Hermes. And then suddenly the ship disappeared as if under a blanket. The flashing was gone. And so was the Hermes. So was Ethan.

“He’s gone,” Merril said frantically. However, the light was still flashing faster and faster around them. “He made it. He made it through. Wait... I know why —”

Merill’s words were lost as the flashing light engulfed the ship. It was inside. It was everywhere. Droverson stood up and looked around. Not being able to see Merril or Renato and hating the confusion. The light was pulsing at an incredible speed. “What’s happening to us?”

Suddenly the Aeon’s hull breached as a flash of light tore through her midsection. A ball of flame erupted and the light ceased to flash. The Aeon was no more. Only drifting debris.

* * *

Ethan’s eye’s flickered open from their deep trance. He had the feeling of being asleep for hours. At first he couldn’t even remember who he was. He looked at the chair he was sitting in. It was a little different than before. He rubbed his eyes open quickly wanting to see what was happening. The barrier. The flashes. He had been trying to go through. He remembered it all. Up until the point where he saw a hole forming in front of him.

He stood up from the strange seat. It was not his chair. It was somehow alien to him. The objects in this room were different too. Nothing was the same. He then discovered he was not alone. There were others here and watching him. He began to speak: “Where am I?” but was cut off.

One of the strangers moved forward and spoke his language clearly.

“You are the first.”

Ethan gave a questioned look and shook his head confused. “I was aboard the Hermes just now. I was moving through the Beyond.”

“The barrier formed long ago,” the stranger spoke again. “It was a natural phenomenon. No doubt by now you have learned its secret...”

The stranger paused for a minute and Ethan remembered the Aeon. It had slowed and stopped as the light grew around it. But Ethan had continued on, not stopping. He hauntingly remembered his dream. He had stopped his ship too. He suddenly realized the mistake Droverson made. And the others had suffered the same fate. If they had only kept going...

The stranger continued. “It was for our protection. Thousands of years ago we were forced to flee our planet and take refuge here. It provided natural protection from the invaders that forced us to move.”

Ethan began to picture it all. Years of confusion and speculation on Mirano about what the barrier was and what lay beyond it. There was finally an answer. The barrier was there to keep them safe. Someone had discovered this planet, and their people had fled here from some great enemy determined to destroy them.

He asked, “Who are you people?”

The stranger in front seemed unaffected by the question and continued. “You will want to discover your true home, no doubt. In time you will visit our home world. What’s left of it.”

“Wait,” Ethan moved forward. “I have questions.”

He grabbed for the stranger in front of him to stop him. He wanted the real questions first. There was so much he wanted to know. So much to understand. He had to bring them back to tell the others. His hands moved to the stranger’s shoulders and started to make their grasp.

They, however, grasped nothing, but passed through the man standing there. Light rearranged itself where his hands were. He pulled them back quickly and then touched the stranger again. They passed through as before.

“You’re photo-electric,” Ethan said looking at them puzzled. “A hologram.”

All this was an illusion. His ship was here but it was transformed. He moved around and touched the hull and computer consoles. His hands passed through some things and others they did not. The real ship was somewhere beneath this fantasy.

The stranger kept speaking as Ethan moved back to his chair. He spoke about their history and their enemy and the fortunate luck they had discovering Mirano. Ethan understood it all. They were his ancestors. His own people, just from long ago. The stranger told him they left a probe just outside the barrier for when the day came to leave Mirano, this message would appear.

The hologram went on. “You will one day travel the galaxy as we once did. Your time here on Mirano was necessary. Time to grow. Something we stopped doing long ago. A mistake we made, and we hope we won’t forget again. Never forget. Never stop.“

Ethan looked around him and the strangers were now gone and so was the false background. He was aboard the Hermes and had been the whole time. He moved to the forward window seeing something really amazing out there. His heart was ready to burst as he was overwhelmed.

Far off, distant, but bright and brilliant, was a sun. The light here was so much different than from the other side of the barrier. Ethan had no names for such a cosmic beauty. Glowing bright yellow light towards him he could see what he had often mistaken for as light of the barrier. But it was from beyond the barrier. And there were others too, small and even more distant. He knew no names for such beauty.

They were the sun and stars they had once taken for granted and were now long forgotten. Ethan looked at it all and gave an uncontrollable laugh not sure if he could stand the joy he felt. But it felt welcomed. All the worries he had considered on Mirano were now lost in his joy and laughter. He remembered the stranger’s words... Never stop... Ethan placed his hands on the glass and gazed out the ship’s window toward the endless beyond.

“I never will.”