"Eternal Journey "

Eternal Journey

Chapter 1

By Isabel

Earth turned slowly on it’s slightly tilted axis, the yellow blazing sun just wrapping its warm, loving fingers of light around the small blue and green sphere. Stray rays of light streaked off across the barren landscape of space, becoming lost in the midnight blackness of the vacuum. Within it’s fathomless depths two pinpricks of light moved quickly across the lightless backdrop.

A small space-craft of unknown origin streaked by a small blossoming star, on its ion trail was a slightly larger craft bristling heavily with armaments. The smaller spacecraft veered off sharply, ricocheting around a large planet, which would later be identified as Jupiter, then rockets towards the small planet known only as Earth.

Its haul is jade green, glowing eerily in the faint rays of the yellow sun. It’s nose is small and pointed, a dorsal fin flares atop it’s back, a small transmitter antennae perches atop the fin, it’s broad satellite dish pointed towards the depths of space. Two things that could only be called ‘wings’ gracefully flow from its sides, like the wings from one of Earth’s jet planes. A view screen looks out from what can only be called the bridge. It’s a small craft, made only for short flights, apparently its occupants hadn’t planned on coming this far from their home world. Letters, unlike any ever seen on Earth, adorn the side of the ship, glowing a glittery golden-silver. A family crest perhaps, or the name of their home planet?

The larger craft accelerates and fires a barrage of volatile energy missiles at the smaller craft. Its haul is blood red, with spikes like war weapons angling out from its massive frame. Its ‘wings’ are transparent, reminding one of dragons’ wings, and the craft is stocky, unlike the small vessel it’s now chasing. Along its dorsal fin are letters that are etched into the metal, just like the other strange craft, they are like nothing seen on Earth before.

The smaller craft veers off to the left, trying to avoid the energy missiles. A small asteroid glances off of its shields, braking into a thousand little pieces. "More power to the shields!" It’s captain yells, frantically pushing buttons and pulling levers built into his captain‘s chair. A young girl to his left pulls on a transparent sphere, the insides of it begin to glow a bright azure blue. "Come on Anori, more power to the shields! Those Santorians are going to blow us to bits in a few nanoseconds if you don’t hurry up with those shields!" The Captain yells at the young girl, his fierce silver eyes never leaving the view screen.

The young girl turns her bright silver eyes towards her captain and pulls even more severely on the sphere. It goes from the bright blue to a brilliant crimson red. "Shields are at full power fa-er captain." The young girl says, returning her gaze to the large view screen. A sudden flash of red light bursts across the viewscreen, Anori throws an arm across her face shielding her eyes from its intensity. "What was that?" She asks as a sudden shudder vibrates through the small ship.

"We’ve been hit," the Captain said, "Evasive maneuvers, bring us around to face them and prepare the quad laser guns. We’re not going out without a fight!" The captain glances at his young charge. "Target their aft shield generator, try taking that off-line if you can. If you can’t get a clear shot at that aim for their starfighter bays. We’ll make sure they can’t send any of their snub-nosed fighters after us. "

Anori silently nodded her black/silver head, "Targeting main shield generator now sir." As she pushed a button off to the left of the translucent sphere, crosshairs lined up with the strange warcraft on the viewscreen. The crosshairs went from blinking green to solid red, "Aft generator targeted and locked sir, waiting orders to fire."

The captain nodded his head, "Just a few more seconds Anori, just wait a few more seconds." The warcraft drew nearer, the crimson red haul almost taking up most of the small viewscreen. "Now!" The captain shouted. "Fire now!"

Bright blue laser beams flared to life in the distance between the two ships and a small bundle of circuits and conduits on the warcraft sizzled then melted into a rat’s nest of fused circuitry. A fire quickly erupted in the vacuum of space and just as quickly killed itself, but in its brief intensity it fried the control box for the aft shield generator and the communications relay for the space comm. Anori left out a whoop of triumph but a quick glare from her captain brought a faint blush to her cheeks. "Sorry sir," she said softly.

A bright red glare penetrated the darkness of space lighting up the bridge on the small ship. A claxon alarm began sounding and Anori franticly looked around, her bright silver eyes opening wide in fright. "What happened? What’s going on?"

"They hit the port stabilizer. We’re in an uncontrolled freefall. See if you can pinpoint our point of impact." The captain said, turning to look at Anori "And find out if your mother is still asleep in our quarters."

"Yes sir," Anori said, grabbing hold of the translucent sphere again she closed her eyes and concentrated murmuring, "I don‘t see how anyone can sleep through that noise." The sphere began to pulse a light lilac purple beneath her hand. Up on the view screen strange symbols and characters appeared and one small dimensional ball began to blink. It was the third planet orbiting around the medium sized yellow sun, and it supported life, intelligent life. "They call it Earth." Anori said, looking over at her father. "I’m trying to get a hold of mother right now." Her hand gripped the sphere tighter, her knuckles turning white; the sphere went from a light purple to a dark golden yellow.

"She’s on her way to the bridge," Anori said, once again turning to look at her father. "She’s not in your rooms."

"Good, I’ll need her help trying to land safely." The old Mystic male turned to look at his only child, the crowned princess of the Mystic people. "I want you to go to your room Anori-" She began to speak, preparing to argue the point. "Please don’t argue with me daughter, your mother and I will be able to get things done easier if we don’t have you up here to worry about."

The door to the back of the bridge whooshed open and a tall elegantly dressed woman walked through it. Her silver hair was piled atop her head and cascaded down the back of her neck like a moonlit waterfall. Anori looked at her, "Mother, Father won’t allow me to stay here on the bridge and help. I don’t want to go to my room. I want to stay here with you, I want to help!" Anori begged, looking into her mother’s light silver eyes, eyes that glowed like the light from a full moon.

"Anori, my child, my darling daughter, please do not argue with your Father right now. Go to your room, you’ll be safe there if anything should go wrong." Her mother said, stepping fully out onto the bridge.

Anori bowed her head, "Yes mother," she said as she walked past her father towards the turbolift that had just brought her mother to the bridge. Her father grabbed hold of her as she passed, she looked up into his eyes. "Yes?" She asked, hoping against hope that he had changed his mind and had decided to allow her to stay on the bridge with them.

"I love you Anori." He said, suddenly hugging her to him. Her mother walked over to them and embraced her only child. "We both love you very much daughter." Her father said, looking up at his wife.

"Now go so that we will know you are safe." Her mother said kissing her on her forehead. "We will see you once we have landed safely."

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Goten glared at Trunks, Gohan was in the background laughing his ass off. "Did it backfire on you Goten?" Gohan asked, stopping laughing long enough to look at his brother who was covered in blue ink and chicken feathers. Then he burst out laughing all over again.

Goten had planned on dumping the blue ink and chicken feathers on Trunks when he came over to play, but somehow Trunks had managed to turn the prank around and it was Goten that had gotten the ink and feathers dumped on him. Goten glanced back up at the door where the bucket still hung, blue ink still dripping from it. Next to it was a ripped open pillow, *Mom’s gonna kill me once she finds out that I ruined on of her good pillows!* Goten thought to himself.

Gohan was rolling on the floor holding his stomach, tears rolling down his face. "Wait till Mom sees this mess, your gonna get it!" Gohan continued to laugh. Trunks joined in.

"Blue really is your color, but the white chicken feathers just really aren’t you!" Trunks hollered, his face turning bright red. He stopped laughing for a second as a thought occurred to him, "On second thought maybe chicken feathers really are you! You are a chicken after all!" Trunks had to dodge the wad of blue ink and chicken feathers that came barreling his way. He continued laughing after that.

"We better get this mess cleaned up before Mom gets home. If she sees it she’ll have all three of our hides." Gohan said, surveying the damage to the floor and the walls.

"Hey, I had nothing to do with it!" Trunks said glaring at Goten. "It was all his idea, I knew nothing about it!"

"I don’t care who’s fault it was or wasn’t, your both gonna help clean up the mess. Goten because you made it and Trunks because this is something you would do. And me just because I’m here and it’s the brotherly thing to do, not to mention your gonna owe me big time for not telling Mom about this Goten…say like letting me and Videl alone sometime." Gohan said, looking at his younger brother. "You don’t always have to tag along with us, you know?"

Goten put on a hurt face, "Aw, you mean you don’t like spending time with your little brother?" He whined.

Gohan glared at him. "Come on, let’s get you outside so we can get you cleaned up then start working on this room." He sighed as he grabbed hold of his brother by the collar of his shirt and just as quickly let go, "Yuck!" He exclaimed looking down at his hand that was now covered with blue ink and white chicken feathers. "Come on, next time do you think you could use something that won’t be so messy?"

Goten smiled innocently at his brother and walked through the door out into the kitchen. "Maybe, if you’re lucky." He said once he was out of hands reach.

"What’s that mean?" Gohan asked, walking out of the door just behind Trunks. Trunks quickly turned around and threw something at Gohan. A wet ball of something hit him squarely in the forehead and dribbled down over his nose. Gohan swore softly and broke into a run racing after the two misfits.

Goten and Trunks laughter could be heard as they darted out the door and outside to relative safety. "What the?" Goten’s voice carried to Gohan who was still in the house trying to wash the goo off of his face. "What in the world is that thing?"

"I don’t know…it’s some sort of ship I think. It’s going to crash near here!" Trunks voice sounded just a bit scared mixed with awe.

Gohan debated whether or not he wanted to run out to see what they were watching, not knowing whether or not it was a trick or if they really had seen something. Curiosity got the best of him and he walked out to where his brother and Trunks stood gawking up at the sky. What caught his eye was both a marvelous and a tragic sight. A ship caught in its death throws was spiraling out of control towards Earth, a bright fiery trail like a raging river, flowing behind it. Within moments the craft was lost to sight behind the mountains within the near distance and just seconds later a big crash reverberated through the silent evening night.

Gohan looked down at Goten and Trunks, "What…what in the world was that?" He asked, looking once more up at the deserted, darkening sky.