43 Chapter 43: We're back in the Blackness of Space!

Thinking

"Talking"

[System]

--------------------------------------------------------------

- 3 Weeks after the Defeat of Mount Weather and the Crowning of King Arthur | The Ark | The Ring otherwise known as the Government & Science Station -

- Thelonious Jaha -

Tired. I felt so very tired. Every day, or at least what I thought was every day, was spent trying to get in contact with my people on the ground. It had been a little over a month since they had fallen from this orbital crypt and back into life. After the first few minutes of radio contact, I had with them, it all went silent. The Government & Science Station, otherwise known as Go-Sci was on its last legs. The lights and 4% oxygen were all that was left. I was tempted to give up, turn off the power and fall asleep...permanently.

Then the radio twitched almost as if it was a sign from God himself to pick it back up and try it just one more time. And so, I did.

"This is Thelonious Jaha, and this will be my 38th attempt at contact with you people on the ground. Sinclair, or anyone else on the ground, if you can hear me and can't respond it has been...honestly, I don't really know how long it has been since all of you first went down. But I hope that whatever life you have for yourselves down there is a hell of a lot better than the lives you had up here." He paused for a second and let his head droop. Hitting the monitor in front of him. "The air up here is down to its last 4% and is holding up better than I am. I've come to the hard conclusion that I won't be able to help you anymore... our people... anymore." Jaha paused for a moment as he sat back up and shakily wiped away his tears. "My job is finally over. I am so tired. Keeping you people alive by having to make the tough decisions day after day wreaked havoc upon not only my soul but all of yours as well. Telling on your neighbor and never seeing them again. What you thought they would get a slap on the wrist for, turned out getting them killed. I know I am rambling at this point, but the fact that I may never see your faces or hear your voices again hurts." For a few seconds, Jaha went deathly quiet before speaking back up, "As long as our people work together, everything will be okay. You remind Kane and Abby of that for me, please." Jaha paused once again and stared into the vast open room of the busted-up Ark monitoring station. "Jaha out."

After setting the earpiece down and out of the way, he moved to stand but as his gaze hovered over the room, he became stuck in place. There in the middle of one of the many screens that dominated the monitoring station was the profile of Wells Jaha. "I'm sorry my son. May we meet again."

After saying his final goodbyes, he lowered the power generation of the station to 0. One by one the screens and lights shut off, completely submerging the room in absolute darkness. Instead of freaking out, Jaha reached down and picked up the small handheld lantern he had brought with him, and with a flick of a switch, it turned on. The room was relit by the dull white light as Jaha stood up and began to walk away from the center console. He exited out of the previously broken doors and down the hall toward the Chancellor's office. His office. Walking down the familiar hallways reminded him of when times were, well at least for him, easier. When he was the newly elected chancellor and how he was going to make a change, stop the floating's and set humanity back on the right track. So much for that. He thought as he walked through the door and into his office.

He sat down in the old leather chair behind the metallic desk and pulled a small square-shaped key out of his pocket. Inserted it into the top drawer's lock and twisted. The drawer unlocked with a satisfying click, and he pulled the key back, opening the drawer. Sat in the drawer was a shiny nickel-plated Colt Python .357 Magnum Revolver with a 6" Barrel. He reached in and pulled the heavy revolver out of the drawer and set it down on the desk. Pulling out the surprisingly large box of .357 caliber bullets, he set it down next to the gun, opened it up, and began to feed the bullets into the cylinder of the gun. After smacking the cylinder back into place, he pulled the hammer back and shakily raised the gun up to the side of his head. In peace may you all find the shore. In love, may you find the one. Safe passage on all your travels. On your adventure on the ground. May we meet again. He recounted and altered the Traveler's blessing. His finger putting ever-increasing pressure on the trigger of the gun.

"WAAH!"

"What?" He whispered in shock. "Was that...?" Jaha trailed off as the gun lowered from the side of his head until it hung loosely by his side.

"WAAH!"

Jaha bolted up in his chair and dashed out of the room back toward the monitoring station. When he arrived back at the monitoring station he bolted over to the dimly lit console and raised the power generation level back up. He raised his head up and waited with bated breath for the next wail.

"…WAAH!"

Jaha sprinted out of the monitoring station and down the hall to the right. Dropping the lantern in favor of a brighter flashlight along the way. Eventually, after a minute of running, he came to a fork and unsure of which way to go jogged down the left hallway checking every room he could. When he got to the end of the hallway, he saw that there was one room left. Jaha sprinted into the room and began to search around for the baby franticly. A small dresser, underneath the blankets on the bed, the vents up above him, before finally landing on a storage space on the far wall. He grabbed onto the handle and began to pull with all his might, it took a few tries but eventually the space burst open revealing a crying African American baby that was wrapped in a small blue blanket.

Jaha took the baby in his arms immediately. Looking around for the nearest air vent, he carried the baby over and held him up near the vent. The baby continued to cry as Jaha rocked him back and forth. "I know little guy. The air's not that great, but that's all we got left." Jaha took his gaze off the baby and scanned the room. "We're in a fine mess now, aren't we?" The baby giggled. "I can't let you die up here with me." The baby blabbed in response. "Yes, I suppose we should make our way back, shouldn't we?"

One long walk later and he was now back in monitoring station with one baby in tow. "I guess we better find a way to get you to the ground, huh? Yeah, you like that idea, don't you?" The smile that graced Jaha's face caused the baby to giggle and babble. "Okay, come on." He spoke to the baby as he made his way toward the center console. "Okay then. Okay." Jaha sat down and began to scroll and search for any possible way left for him and this unknown baby to get to the ground. "Let's see what we have left up here that can save us."

--------------------------------------------------------------

- An Hour Later -

Thelonious looked down at the baby that continued to babble as he searched through all information that could be vital in their escape. But after an hour of searching, it seemed that they may be shit out of luck. "We may be out of luck, little man. I don't see anything-… What do you have in your hand there?" Jaha said, grabbing the object out of the baby's hand. "A chess piece? Where'd you get that?" He asked, twirling the knight piece in between his fingers. "Maybe I'll teach you to play someday." Jaha said with a small smile on his face before handing the piece back to the baby.

Then out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something on the monitor. He quickly tapped the file and opened it, revealing an MC-517-7 Ship-to-Ground Missile. There were four capable options, 1. Select Target, 2. Disarm Warhead, 3. Prepare for technician access, and 4. Commence Launch Sequence. Jaha pressed on the prepare for technician access button and said to himself, "Ship-to-ground. It can't be that crazy?" Jaha pulled up the schematics for the missile and began to analyze them in depth. After analyzing and memorizing the overall design and layout of the rocket, Jaha picked the baby boy back up into his arms and set off. "Let's go find that missile, shall we?" He said as he rocked the baby in his arms.

A few minutes later Jaha and the baby arrived at one of the few windows on Go-Sci station that allowed them to look down towards the Earth. Jaha pointed to the window and said, "You see that white door over there? That's called an Airlock. And our ride is on the other side. It's Ironic, huh? Our ancestors used them to destroy the world. We're gonna use one to get back to it. And that's the good news." As Jaha continued, the baby boy looked around in wonder at the space in front of him as he bit down and sucked on his thumb. "The bad news is... we can't get to it unless we go outside. But I may have a way to fix that issue."

Jaha traveled back to the monitoring station and with the baby in hand began to search for any airlocks on this side of the ring. "There you are." With a grin on his face, he clicked on the airlock and saw that it was only a small walk away from the monitoring station. It also had a fully functional and operational space suit. "Alright, little man let's go for a spacewalk." After setting up the missile and its countdown timer, Jaha and the baby made their way down to the airlock, arriving there in under a minute.

*Chancellor Code Accepted*

*Missile Bay Airlock Open*

*Automated Missile-Launch Sequence Commencing*

As the overhead PA system says this, Jaha tears off some material covering a pipe and wraps it around himself. This creates a pocket and a perfect place for the baby to go. "Come on, we don't want to miss our ride now, little man." Jaha picks up the still-wrapped-up baby in his hands and places him inside the wrap, just up against his chest.

*Missile Launch in T-minus Fifteen Minutes*

*Override Lockout*

Jaha then slips his arms into the space suit and makes sure the baby is nice and snug before zipping it up and reaching for the oxygen pack. "Don't worry. This O2 feeds the whole suit." He said as he swung the pack containing the oxygen tank over his shoulders. When Jaha went to grab the helmet, he noticed something detrimental, there was a crack in the visor. He began to examine it frantically, glancing back towards the now open airlock on the other side of the Ark with worry evident on his face.

"Waah ah waah!" Weirdly the baby began to cry, almost as if it could tell what was going on and how Jaha felt.

"I know how you feel, little man." He then rubbed the crack a few times. Placed the Astronaut space helmet on his head and sealed it tight. He made sure to deactivate the automatic O2 system for now as he didn't want to waste the little amount of oxygen he had left.

Jaha then walked over to the small control console and typed in the override passcode. The red light at the top of the control panel turned green and Jaha pressed down on one of the dozen buttons. While the airlock leading to space remained closed the second airlock that was open and acted as a second line of defense hissed and locked shut behind him.

*Missile Launch in T-minus Seven Minutes and Counting*

Jaha tightened and sealed any remaining seems on his suit before walking over to the first airlock. He looked out into the open vacuum of space and over toward the airlock on the other side of the Ark. "We have seven minutes, little man. Seven minutes. I fly across the ring, stick the landing and then climb into the missile before it launches… No problem." Jaha continued to stare off into space for a few moments before reaching over and flicking a series of switches. His hand hovered above the big red button for a second before slamming down on it. "Hold on, little man." Seconds went by and all remained silent until the doors retracted, and Jaha was sucked into space.

Due to the airlocks being directly across from one another Jaha didn't' have much to do besides sit there and watch as the crack on his visor slowly expanded. It spread from the bottom right of his visor all the way to the top left. When he was only a few yards away from the other airlock the visor broke. Thankfully, when the glass shattered it shot out into space, away from Jaha instead of going into his eyes. Despite the pain he was feeling Jaha kept his eyes open and grabbed onto the rim of airlock, throwing himself inside and slamming the red button closing the airlock behind him.

He sat there coughed and gasped for breath as the searing pain slowly faded. Unlatching the astronaut helmet, Jaha threw it a good few feet away from him and began to open up the suit. "Little man, let's never do that again." However, when Jaha looked inside his suit the baby was gone, all that remained was the sash and the blue baby blanket. "No. No!"

*Missile Launch in T-minus Four Minutes and Counting*

Jaha jumped up and began to look around erratically. "No. No. No!" He tore the blue blanket out from his suit and shook it in his hands as he yelled with all his might. Then, as if all of the energy within his body was sucked out of him, he collapsed to his knees and held his head in his hands.

"WAAH!" A baby's wail once again filled Jaha's ear. Followed by the voice of a person long dead, a person close to Jaha, the person he missed the most in the world, and Jaha's biggest regret. His son.

"Dad." Jaha's breathing seemed to stop completely. His hands fell from his face, and he staggered to his feet. Turning around brought him face to face with his lost son. In his hands was the same knight chess piece that was in the baby's hands.

"My son." Escaped Jaha's lips before he once again fell back down to his knees. His breathing increased wasting twice as much oxygen as he normally would. "Oxygen deprivation. It has to be." Jaha reasoned aloud.

"Stand up." Wells said firmly.

"No." Jaha replied with sorrow beginning to fill his voice.

"You're not done yet. Stand up."

"I am done. I am!" Jaha shouted, tears streaming down his face.

Wells walked forward and kneeled in front of his father, "No. Our people still need you."

"I got them to the ground. I did my job."

Wells nodded in agreement before saying, "What would you tell me to do?"

"That's not fair."

"You would tell me to live. You've sacrificed so much. Your life can be more than just impossible decisions and a tragic end. You can choose to live." Wells spoke with passion, trying to light a fire under his father.

"I miss you so much, son. Every day." Jaha cried.

"I'm always with you dad. Maybe not literally, but I'm in here." Wells said poking his father's chest where his heart would be. "Now, get up. You can do this."

*Missile Launch in T-minus Two Minutes and Counting*

While Jaha glanced up toward the speaker, Wells stood up and took a step back. And in Jaha's voice spoke, "Disarm the Warhead."

"Check the missile's parachute."

"Confirm the hard seal. Don't forget your air tank." Wells extended his hand down to his father, grasping Jaha's hand firmly and pulling him to his feet.

"Thank you, my son." Jaha said as Wells slowly began to fade away.

"Remember dad, I'm here with you. Always." Wells pointed at Jaha's heart once again before fading away into nothingness.

Jaha shakily stood back up on his own two legs and walked over to the missile bay. Looking through the foggy glass revealed four missiles in total as well as a small section filled with astronaut space suits.

"Time to go home." He said resolutely.

For the next minute and a half, Jaha got to work on extracting the nuclear warhead and securing it in a safe location, outer space. Afterward, Jaha opened a panel and squeezed himself inside. As he started to retighten the screws from the inside, he heard over the PA system that he had 27 seconds left. He finished quickly and got himself ready for the ride to the ground. After what felt like an hour of waiting, Jaha felt the missile lurch forward before shooting itself out of the Ark missile bay and toward the ground. Jaha was knocked out cold a few seconds later.

- Several Hours Later –

Jaha awoke with a jump, momentarily forgetting where he was and almost bumping his head into the ceiling of the missile. Upon remembering where he was and how he got there, he reached down and grabbed the small red compact drill. He used the drill on the four corner screws that held the upper panel in place, after removing the final screw Jaha dropped the drill and pushed the panel up. The panel detached with ease and was thrown from the missile, landing in the sand a few feet away.

Jaha ripped the astronaut helmet off his head and hauled himself up and out of the missile. He started to laugh hysterically as he fell to his knees. Grabbing a fist full of sand, he brought it up to his nose and gave it a sniff, causing him to sneeze. He looked up toward the stars and said, "May we meet again."

- Several Days Later -

"So hungry… So thirsty…So…Tired…" Jaha muttered before collapsing to the ground. "Must…get up. Must keep… going. Need to make it… to my people." He struggled to get back up, only to fall back down.

As he lay there face down in the sand a thought coursed through Jaha's brain that traveled all the way through his chest, arms, and legs. I'm going to die here. It wasn't a guess; it was a fact. If he didn't find someone soon, he would die.

*Growl*

Jaha shifted his head and looked up to his left, and to his horror, standing there staring at him was a large quadrupedal, white-scaled beast with golden stripes. From what he could see the beast had no actual eyes, instead a large mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. Its entire body was covered in scales acting as a sort of armor and on the end of its tail was a large club. Along with its razor-sharp teeth were its banana-sized claws on its feet that could easily tear him to shreds.

{Image of Monster}

Ignoring the fatigue of his body, Jaha shot up into a sitting position and began to frantically crawl away. The beast knew what Jaha was doing and instead of charging forward and ending him, stalked forward and growled. Jaha's level of fear skyrocketed, but as he went to push himself to his feet so he could run away he saw a small pool of sand gathering underneath the monster.

Suddenly, the sand underneath the monster split apart and the monster collapsed into the sand. The monster immediately began to growl and release a series of disturbing yips and yaps, but no matter how hard it struggled it remained trapped within the sand. The club on the back of the monster's tail slammed into the sand thunderously to no avail.

"What the hell?" Jaha muttered, ignoring the pain in his throat as he spoke.

"Miya snap!" He heard a voice shout. (Come quickly!)

Jaha's head snapped to where the voice was and saw a man dressed in a long white and turquoise robe that reached up and wrapped around his head like a headscarf. On both hands were many rings, and in his right hand was a beautifully crafted scimitar. Following behind him from over the hill was another dozen if not more men, all wearing white robes with some other color. Each one had weapons in their hands. Most of them had scimitars but a few of them had dual daggers or even a bow.

"Hon em daun!" The man shouted as he shifted the sand underneath his feet and began to glide towards the monster as if he was on water. (Hunt it down!)

One of the robe-wearing men with a bow shot an arrow as the monster let out an eardrum-rattling screech. The arrow flew in between the monster's teeth and pierced through its tongue. The monster yelped out in pain allowing the man that was speeding towards it to gain the upper hand. While the monster was focused on the pain in its mouth even its keen senses failed to alert it of the man speeding towards its tail, and by the time it did it was already too late. With a clean swing of his scimitar, the monster's scaled tail detached and fell to the ground lifelessly. By the time the monster finally gave in, it was pelted with arrows and had thick red blood leaking out of dozens of different slash and stab wounds. Afterward, with a quick flick of the man's hand, the sand that had held the monster in place softened and resumed its normal state allowing many of the robed men to begin cutting it up. The leader of them, the one with the white and turquoise robe gestured to one of his men and then pointed at Jaha. A man with a white and red robe came and kneeled next to Jaha and grabbed the flask off his belt.

"Hir drein daun." The man said as he held out the flask for Jaha to take. (Here drink)

Jaha looked at the man confused for a second before grabbing the flask out of the man's hand and gulping it down wildly. The man looked on startled at Jaha's erratic actions but waited until he was done before extending his hand back out in askance for the flask.

"Thank you." Jaha said, wiping his lips of any leftover moisture.

All of the robed men looked shocked at his words. The leader waved over the man that had given Jaha the flask and spoke with him quietly for a few minutes. While they did this the group continued to farm the monster of its materials, sometimes shifting their glances toward Jaha as if worried that he may try something. Eventually, the two men stopped, and both stared at Jaha for a few seconds before the one in the white and red robes walked off back over the hill. When he came back over the hill, behind him was a brown stallion with a pitch-black mane.

The man ushered Jaha on the back of the horse, after which the man himself jumped on and raised the reins of the horse and lowered them fast, like a whip. A sharp crack sounded out and the horse broke out in a gentle gallop across the sands. Jaha didn't know where this man was taking him, but he hoped it was some sort of civilization, otherwise, he was dead.

- A Few Hours Later | Sangedakru Capital Neuma -

{Image of the Sangedakru Capital}

As the horse slowly galloped into the city, Jaha was struck by a sense of awe. There were dozens of circular-shaped buildings that were stuck together forming super buildings. They all had circular-shaped windows and large thatch roofs. Long red cloth was strung up between each building, and up on a hill near the back of the city was a tall spire that Jaha had seen miles away. People dressed in multicolored robes walked over sand and small patches of grass that sprouted up out of cracked rock. However, what caught Jaha's eye was the abundant amount of people gathered in what he assumed was the central plaza. There had to be around a hundred if not more standing around and gawking at something that was going on in the middle of the plaza.

"What's going on?" Jaha murmured to himself as the horse slowed itself down to a walk.

Jaha's question was soon answered when the man guiding the horse jumped off and tied it to a post. Jaha followed behind the man allowing him to push through the crowd for him, and when they arrived at the center of the large gathering Jaha was struck with fear. There standing in the middle of the plaza were two men. One was shirtless, only wearing a black headscarf that covered the lower half of his face and a set of pants. The man next to him struck Jaha as the leader, he was a tall man with obvious muscles who has fiery red hair and amber-colored eyes. What struck Jaha with fear was not how they looked but what they were doing.

In the hands of the man with the black headscarf was a whip, and in front of him was a man nailed to a cross. The man pinned on the cross had scars across his body from previous injuries but currently had a black eye as well as dozens of lashes across his chest that were leaking blood. Through the blood seeping down his chest, Jaha spotted the faint symbol of a black hand.

"Yu na chichplei, natrona" The man with the fiery red hair said. (You will talk, traitor.)

"Nou na." The man pinned on the cross said before coughing up a bit of blood. (Never.)

The fiery-haired man stared at him for a few seconds before nodding toward the man with the whip. The man's arm extended backward before shooting back, causing the whip to release a loud audible crack as it impacted against the pinned man's flesh.

"Heda Agni." The man next to Jaha said in greeting toward the man with fiery hair. (In this context it's Lord, Agni.)

The man known as Agni turned at the mention of his name. He saw past the man and immediately locked eyes with Jaha.

"Skairkru?" Agni asked befuddled. (Sky person?)

"Sha." The man next to Jaha responded.

"Welcome to the Sangedakru Capital Neuma sky person." He said in English surprising Jaha.

"Hello, there." Jaha responded tensely.

"No worries, this won't happen to you. This man is a traitor to our clan and a spy for Azgeda." Agni said motioning towards the man pinned to the cross that was currently being whipped.

"Yes, well I was wondering if you can help me get back to my people. I would love to be reunited with them."

"Why of course!" He yelled out before turning and talking to a man with brown hair and brown eyes. "Lash keep interrogating this traitor, it seems it's time for me to make a trip to the renowned Arkadian Kingdom and visit my buddy, Arthur."

"Yes, my lord. I knew you were friendly with Arthur, but are you sure you're buddies?" Lash questioned.

"Of course! Now, sky person what is your name? Oh, and someone fetch the horses." Agni shouted out.

"Yes, my lord." A warrior dressed in robed with a pair of daggers sheathed by their sides replied.

"My name is Thelonious Jaha. I am... I was the chancellor of the Ark."

Agni and a few of his soldiers led Thelonious away from the mass group of civilians and toward the Horse stables. After which Jaha was placed on the back of one of the horses allowing one of the normal-robed soldiers to grab the reigns and direct the horse. Their group consisted of Agni, twenty swordsmen, eight men wielding daggers, and six bowmen.

Thelonious in his mind couldn't wait to be reunited with his people again, and get a second chance at leading them. What Thelonious didn't make mention of however was the fact that the Ark was no longer the Ark, instead, it was now the Kingdom of Arkadia.

--------------------------------------------------------------

{P.S: I'm Back! Also, this is just a one-off chapter. Next chapter we'll be going back to the present time and boy will you guys be surprised; well, I hope you are. Anyway, have a great day!}