ETERNAL FAMILY

CHAPTER FOUR

The next day...

The ship landed itself on a wide flat area that had probably been built ages ago just for that. A massive hole in the middle of a crude made wall was out only way forward as there was no other entrance visible. Architecture wasn’t one of the Celestial skills. We looked at each other without a word for a second. We had been expecting some kind of a speech even if it wouldn’t have been a welcoming one. The eerily silent was somehow a lot worse.

The lack of atmosphere didn't seem to be a problem for us. The different gravity either. We weren't human that had been clear from the very beginning. Obviously. Our whole background story was us coming from Olympia and going to Earth to eradicate the Deviants so the humans could thrive. And that had been fine. We had been proud of it even. Now to think about it, this was yet another thing we never questioned.
We didn't have any reason to.

We were just robots like Arishem had shown Sersi.

Me and the others had walked along a long corridor without any decoration or even signs of somebody living there. We weren't expecting any of that at that point. Dim light was coming from somewhere yet we just couldn’t see the source of it. Dusty footprints were like little crumbs behind us.

Arishem was surely not the kind to entertain guests or just even do a bit of cleaning here and there.

We walked for quite a long time still in that same gallery. Everything there was in excess. Too high, too wide, too big. Finally, a big door was at the end of the road. Solid reddish wood was making the main panels. Black metallic hinges and locks were holding it all together.  I think Thena had seen doors like that in the past, around Earth's dark ages. It looked almost out of place but it managed to set some kind of a mood that didn’t scream rainbow and fairy tales. Or only a very dark version of them. After all, these stories had been written to scare the children about the real monsters in their lives. Makkari, Druig Thena, and I were the children in a red hood about to meet the big bad wolf.

The room we stepped in looked as different as could be from the rest of the building we had seen so far. Everything looked squeaky cleaned, almost obsessively so. Big floor lamps were providing a very strong light on what looked like medical stainless tables or marble surfaces. The wall and floor were white and clinical. The whole room looked every bit like an operation room in a hospital back home.

Arishem had quite a collection of weird instruments at his disposal. There was no blood or bodily fluid but really, it looked like the worst horror flick set ever. Even though the room was empty, the Celestial’s message was clear. Crystal clear. Arishem was telling us what he had planned for us in the very near future. The celestial had probably arranged for us to go this path just to make a point.

"At least, let's not say anything before we know how the other three are doing. Plus, if you guys keep on distracting Arishem, I will be able to sneak past him and find whatever he is hiding. Maybe a way to get rid of him."

Just great. Why on Earth would Eros words came to my mind? Urgh!

We carried on, not lingering too much in that room. Another mile long corridor. We finally ended up in the throne room. Torches attached to the one side of each column lighted up the centre part of the hall, carrying on with that medieval feeling. In between each pillar, a statue of the previous Celestials was looking down on us, which it was a little creepy for me. An out-of-place dark rug ran down from the door to the stone throne. Other than that the floor was bare. There wasn’t any window. The sky could be seen through, in the absence of a roof. The ones seeking Arishem's wisdom couldn’t find any place to sit down. The Celestial was waiting for us, regal on his high chair. The throne itself was squarrish and made of stone. Nothing fancy.