Seeds

By Jennifer Ruth

For thousands of years, mankind has been driven into a destructive direction of war, wealth and power. And for thousands of years, humanity has been used as the ultimate weapon of revenge. Banished to live forever on an undeveloped alien planet, Lotus has used his time efficiently. He's pushed mankind's progress to the breaking point and put the world on the verge of self-annihilation. For thousands of years, he has fought and tolerated the human species and one thought has kept him going: Revenge on his planet, his enemies and most of all, his brother, Artimus.
Artimus has become his brother's keeper. Looming high above the planet and out of sight, he waits with his army of peacekeepers - watching as they have for thousands of years. Their primary goal has been to keep Lotus and his followers imprisoned on Earth but Lotus has out-witted them and now they have to find a peaceful way to stop Lotus, or, end Earth's existence in order to protect their own planet.
Blood IS thicker than water and it's also a powerful weapon. Artimus has found the perfect tool to aid him in his efforts to save his brother and the alien planet ... the seeds of his planet bring with them unspoken power and strength, but they also bear the burden of secrets that are unwelcomed by all.
The goal: Achieve peace by all means ... why not bring it in the same fashion that has led the inhabitants of Earth: Faith. "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and yearling together, and a child will lead them." - Isaiah 11:6
The result: Lotus' madness can only end in one of two ways: Peace or destruction and Artimus is willing to do whatever he can to bring his brother down peacefully ... otherwise, the world will be faced with a true Revelation: "I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death and Hades was following close behind. They were given a power over a fourth of the Earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, And by the wild beasts of the Earth." -Revelation: 6:1-7

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jennifer Ruth
• Release date: May 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781773020105

Book preview

Dedication

To my husband David ... Thank you for loving my quirkiness and for taking part in the creation of my story. To my daughters Ilana and Kaitlyn, thank you for being my kindred spirits, I love you so much! Finally. To my Mother and Father, family, friends and to all those who believed in me.

For Angel

CHAPTER 1

Through the microscope, cells were dividing rapidly, much faster than their first attempts. It was something they hadn’t seen before. After years of experimenting, they were so close to achieving their goals that it almost seemed unbearable to watch - tiny cells were working effortlessly to come together to create a higher calling. The children would know early in the womb that they were meant for something greater than what was considered normal. Their awareness would be at a level that would take their sense of knowing to a level that was found in less than one percent of most humans. This connection would bring them together and it would also keep the two species in contact. Their survival meant the survival of all life in existence.

Combining the two species had been attempted before, but the results had not been successful. Once the incubation period had passed, and the eggs implanted into their mothers, the subjects had proven to be too human with little or no trace of their unique biological qualities present. The human DNA was strong and had overtaken the alien cells and absorbed them as nourishment instead of joining with them. The process had been done thousands of times. Before the births, they knew there was no connection and had abandoned the infants with their human parents. The children had been left with their mothers and with years of observation, had distributed no changes. This time would be different. It had to be. Both races’ future depended on it.

The subjects that had been chosen this time had both showed signs of psychic intuition, a quality needed to join the two species successfully. Two women had been chosen and they had manipulated numerous areas in their lives to bring them closer together. The aliens could do that much. They were very good at manipulating the minds of humans. They were very easy to control in small numbers, which made it possible for them to hide in the populous. These women would carry the future of all mankind and all Paxians as well.

Paxians had been watching over Earth for ten millennia. Earth in its early stages had been a primitive place. Its people were savages with no language or knowledge, other than being hunters and gatherers. The Paxians had made it their mission to help them advance themselves with the very instruments that could be found on their own grounds. The rule of sharing technology had remained the same: no primitive species could ever be allowed access to the Paxians’ technology. Their race used technology as a learning tool, for exploration and educational advancement. It had been that way for thousands of years. Their planet had been a place of peace and harmony. The true Utopia in the universe and to their amazement, other advanced civilizations had followed their example. But there were those who were still overcome with their inadequate feelings of jealousy and hunger for power and control. They were the ones who had inhabited the tiny planet of Earth using it as a refuge and had made it into the world it was today: a destructive one bent on space exploration and, in silent circles, domination of the universe itself.

Paxians had been devoted to their primary directive of not interfering. Those who lived among the humans had done so under banishment. After showing signs of violence and aggression, they had been sent away and forced to find another world to live. That was thousands of years ago, and it was a decision that the Paxians now regretted. After banishing less than 100 of its own people from their planet, it had been discovered many years later that they had not only left with their own knowledge and education of the universe, but they had also left with a few stolen plans of weapons, which they had not been able to manufacture until now.

The beginning of the Industrial Revolution was the first sign that the exiled Paxians had made their move to creating their weapons. It had taken more than a hundred years, but with the help of mankind’s most ruthless leaders, the journey had been completed. The waiting was over along with the hope that someday their long lost brothers and sisters would finally embrace the true ideas and values of peace and come back home. It was all too relevant that they were more interested in obtaining what they had lost with force, not peace. Earth was facing annihilation and humans were getting closer and closer to space exploration outside of their solar system. The time to act was now. Before it was too late.

CHAPTER 2

Bristol, Connecticut

1972

Margaret woke up very groggy that morning. She had been feeling tired and ill for days and she was beginning to accept the fact that it wasn’t just a coincidence that she was feeling like that. After having two children, she was well aware of the signs. She was pregnant, again. Time would tell and she would make it a point to call the doctor as soon as she was sure. She hadn’t even missed a period yet, but she knew she was pregnant. She’d keep quiet about it though. She’d rather not say anything until she knew for sure. Maybe it was just the flu. For the last week she’d been having very strange dreams about UFOs and space and some scary dreams about war and natural disasters. She sort of thought maybe it was the LSD she had taken a month ago. That stuff was known to have lasting side effects, but she doubted that was it. No. She was pretty sure she was pregnant. How to tell her husband was the next question. It was no secret that they weren’t avoiding getting pregnant. It was the 70s. No one used condoms and if you were married, you just practiced the pull-out method, which was dumb because most men just didn’t bother doing it and then when their wives did get pregnant, they would be upset because that was one more mouth to feed. Oh well, she knew she didn’t get pregnant by herself, so to hell with what he thought. Maybe she’d have the son they had tried to have the first two times. That is what he wanted more than anything in the world. If it was a girl, there would be hell to pay. All she could do was wait and see, but she promised herself that she would not tell anyone. At least not yet.

The projects were full of low-income families just looking for a cheap place to live. This one wasn’t too bad. It had its gangs and drugs and crime, but the people who lived there were protected and the gangs running the streets had not kept it a secret that anyone coming into their territory would be dealt with harshly, maybe even killed. This was one place where their families would be safe too.

Every day children ran up and down the sidewalks, squealing and laughing as children should be. They could be spotted in groups, gathered around a shallow hole moulded out of the dirt, marbles rolling along. The lucky winner walked away with a fortune in cat’s eyes and boulders.

Across the street, amidst the air of childhood innocence, the latest drug was being peddled and traded as dealers held up the walls of the old brick buildings that lined the decrepit streets. To the naked eye, it went unnoticed and it all seemed to be just a part of the world of living in the projects.

Gail didn’t see it like that. She never liked being here. It gave her an eerie feeling to be around these people. She hated the crime, but most of all, she hated the country. She had moved to Connecticut with her first husband and their four kids. At the age of 18, Gail had given birth to her first child, a son, Martin. Another 18 months later, her daughter, Angel, followed by another son, Richard and another daughter, Flora. She was 23 and had no time to spare for anyone, least of all herself, and after years of abuse and neglect by her husband, she had finally gotten the strength to leave. She left and moved back to Maine with her kids and that’s where she met Herb. It was a chance meeting. He had just separated from his wife and had gone back to the small town of Houlton, Maine to celebrate the July 4th festivities in his hometown.

Houlton was a small town, much like the one she had grown up in. In fact, it settled just across the border, a mere 10 minutes drive from where her mother and father still lived in New Brunswick.

Downtown Houlton had been crowded with hundreds of onlookers eager to take part in the Independence Day events. Market Square was packed. Besides the crowd of people, all that stood out were the tall brick buildings, a reminder of the prominent town and its people, making Houlton a place of opportunity for many.

It had been a long time since Herb had enjoyed being home. Market Square had been decorated to the nines, celebrating its 150th anniversary. Herb looked across the square and remembered his late mother, Millicent, or as friends and neighbours called her, Millie; and drowned in the vision of his mothers excitement over the events. Herb’s youth had been filled with a family of drinkers and poverty, but when his mother sobered and his parents divorced, you couldn’t have asked for nicer people. His fathers family was part of a long line of original settlers in Houlton, and being Irish, most of his people eventually moved into town and formed what is now referred to today as Paddy’s Hollar. The Irish prejudice was still at its peak and anyone who was Irish was a Paddy.

Houlton was a very successful town during the 50s and 60s. It boomed twice the population it now had. Just as randomly as it had begun, Houlton’s richest families just up and left and never returned. Even its founder’s family cut tail and ran for it. It was like watching the stockmarket crash of 1929. The town’s businesses dried up, poverty took over, crime began to take over and that was when Herb had decided he was done with his hometown. Little did he know, his decisions were not being made by him, but by the Paxians. The death of a small towns’ business boom was just a small example of what the Paxians could do from the backgrounds. They held great power by being able to control minds and Houlton was another example.

The two ran into each other, and after only two weeks, were living together and Gail found herself back in Connecticut. Herb worked for the Pepsi Cola factory there and it was a good job, so she had agreed to go with him. He was good to her and her four kids. They all considered him dad and he was a good dad.

They lived in a two-storey duplex within the projects. On one side of them lived Joan and her delinquent boys. On more than one occasion, her sons had been the centre of conflict as the neighbourhood’s well-known bullies. It was their aggression that ended any hope of being friendly neighbours.

Joan’s oldest son Brian approached Angel one day and pushed down her other sister Flora. Angel couldn’t have weighed more than 50 pounds soaking wet, but she had a temper and that temper landed her in hot water after nearly beating Brian’s head into a bloody pulp on the sidewalk outside of their house. It was the last time the boys ever messed with them again, but it sparked a feud between the two households that would last long after the day they had left the dirty city.

From that moment on, Joan was popular for calling the police, accusing Gail’s children of disturbing the peace and assault. She was becoming known as a nuisance to the police, but what she was best-known for was her sun-bathing in the nude. The men used to gather in Herb’s bedroom to watch her from their window. Perverts. She was also known for her night work, as some of the neighbours would refer to it. It was no secret that Joan was a prostitute and Gail wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see how many of her neighbours had paid Joan a visit.

On the other side of Gail’s duplex lived Margaret and her family. She was married to Will Sr. and they had two daughters; Mary and Willow. She felt like she had a lot in common with Margaret. They were like kindred spirits. She shared a quality with her that few people knew about: her ability to know when things would happen. It was something she had lived with all her life, but growing up in rural Woodstock, New Brunswick, it wasn’t something you advertised. No. Gail knew she would never be able to share that with anyone, but here was a perfect stranger who she could relate to, wholly. It was pure coincidence that they had moved right beside each other, but in the projects, people were coming and going all the time. But deep down inside, Gail felt there was more to it than that. Fate? Who knew, but what she did know was that were it not for Margaret, she would have been very unhappy in this place.

It was no surprise to her when she woke up that morning feeling sickness and dizziness. She hadn’t been well for a long time, but this time she was feeling much worse than before. She had been struck with illnesses over the years, and with her last child she had been told she probably wouldn’t be able to have anymore. She had been diagnosed with Endometriosis. For years she had shown symptoms, but had chalked it up to the abuse she was getting from her ex-husband. She had experienced the pain during sex, which was typically forced, fatigue, pain with urinating, as well as other gastrointestinal complications, all symptoms she thought were just part of her depression and stress. A year earlier she had nearly died during one of her menstrual cycles. Her bleeding was so profuse that the only way she could leave the house to get to the hospital was by holding two towels between her legs to collect the blood that was flowing, rather, gushing out of her uterus. She had nearly bled to death and barely made it to the emergency room conscious. The doctors had thought that maybe she was experiencing a miscarriage, but further tests showed that she had not been pregnant at all. She was haemorrhaging and they had told her that she would probably only have a year before she would have to have a total hysterectomy. That was good news to her because the last thing she wanted was another baby. She already had four. She thought that was enough. The doctors told her that she would never have children again, but surgery was still inevitable. Sooner or later, it would have to happen. Her body could not sustain the diseased organs for much longer.

Gail had battled sicknesses of various kinds for most of her life. She’d been cursed with an abusive father, mental illness, terrible periods, and in her younger years, not much was discussed if it was considered personal or private.

So when she woke up feeling sick, she dismissed it as symptoms from the disease. Maybe it was time to call the doctor and make an appointment to get the surgery. She would do that this morning.

The thought of being pregnant never entered her mind, but the Paxians knew that their second implant had taken effect and they knew Gail was the perfect vessel for their second seed. This seed would need all the extra nourishment that her disease offered. For humans, the combination of the symptoms that Endometriosis displayed was debilitating to them, but offered the perfect environment for a female Paxian to grow. The scientists were sure that this would be a successful attempt.

A female seed is special because she holds the ability to reproduce future Paxians. This seed, when combined with human DNA, would need special circumstances in order to survive the developmental process. She would be fertile and when combined with her mate, the two would provide the Paxians with the final piece of the puzzle: the strongest one of both their kinds. Strong enough to win over the human race and defeat the criminal Paxians. At this stage, the exiles could not be reasoned with. Their only goal and thought was to get back to their home planet and annialate everyone. Peace could only be achieved through