HAVEN STORIES

Inevitable

"You cannot escape your fate..."

The whispers come back, echoing in a space that does not hold words, only thoughts.

"You cheated your death. You cannot escape now..."

As I sit here in the safest chamber of all Human civilization, I am hounded by dreams and visions.

"You will die. You are dying. You have died already. You will always be dying..."

Here, now, when I remain isolated in my Room of Dreams, I see many people come and go.

They are my advisors, my generals, my friends and sometimes... My enemies.

Most have never met each other, only in reading the histories I have left behind... No..

...That I am still writing.

They inquire about counsel for conflicts that sometimes span thousands of years from each other. They are people I have met and will meet. It is all the same now. They come and go, isolated events, deeply personal from their perspective. However, for me, they melt into each other.

For them it is an occurrence on a linear progression, but for me, they are snapshots strewn together on a fully viewable album. Is it possible to have memories of events that had not happened yet? No... They are not memories, they are all happening NOW.

A friend confides in me their secret fears, while the next moment his descendent, hundreds of years removed, asks me about their ancestors. The uniforms of the military change, but the same symbol remains gilded upon their shoulders:

A hand reaching up to grasp a star.

Havenculus, now Havenus, now Haven, now Earth, changes hands from one generation to the next. Perhaps, they never really let go of their hold, forever grasping society from their graves. Building tradition upon the evolutionary instincts of all Humanity that spans the full genetic family tree.

I wish I could control it, the visions. If only I could recall those who I confided my secrets in. Those who I cherished and gladly fought alongside to build what we have now... Or will have.

These people, they have devolved into images, both from my perspective and in their own right. Masks upon their very souls as they flow through the river of life, believing they hold dominion over the current and that the water moves at their will. Such a sham, to think with all their technology and knowledge that they would lose what made them more than the insects that crawl in the mud.

There is always hope. I must keep believing. I have the Dream. One day, the right vision will visit me while I remain in this chamber, and they will give me the answer. I pray to Jod they find me soon. Perhaps there is an image in this album of time that I have overlooked...

"You should have died. You must die..."

The whispers, they are an ever-present threat. Maybe even a fear.

"Sire, the Order requests an emergency session!"

All images folded back into one and in an instant I descend back to lower-order cognizance.

"Sire, the Deres Generalis, the one from your time of Old. He has returned. He is transmitting a global message demanding our complete subjugation. It's madness!"

He must have the Sphere. That is why I was removed from my Dream Search. I smile as I realize that at least for a while, I am confined to the linear progression of time like a normal human.

"Ready the press room. I have a message for the Universe about this returned nightmare of the Past."

Yet, in all this exhilaration and adrenaline, I can still faintly hear the whispers.

Perhaps, the Generalis was right that day, one thousand years ago.

My end is inevitable...

But there is always hope.

Hope that my legacy will live on.