The ship was unlike any normal space ship that was socially acceptable in the modern age post the never ending war. It had wings that flopped like a contraption from a kids novel. Its eyes glowed like a living creature, it shined as bright as a dying star as they glided through space, asteroid belts and junk heaps. Lord V was in the head of the sparrow and it used a wheel and stick that he would move occasionally, the ship felt like a relic and it left Arias feeling sick. Arias leaned his head on the cold metal walls of the ship as he looked over at Solomon…Solomon had spent a lot of time knocked out recently and it made Arias worried because that can’t be good for you, Arias went over to Solomon and dropped some water from a bottle onto his face and he jerked awake and grabbed Arias arm in panic. Arias shrieked in pain as Solomon tightened his grip before swiftly learning he wasn’t in danger anymore and letting his arm go.

  “No..you can’t be serious Arias…” Solomon looked at Lord V in the cockpit of the ship looking like he was having the most fun he has had in years.

  “Solomon! Can you believe Arias doesn’t think this pinnacle of a machine can go just as fast as his cruiser!!” Lord V flipped a switch on the console to his right and the metal wings of the bird began to flap faster and it made a horrible creaking sound that felt like a foreshadowing of immediate death. Arias’ face turned pale as laid back down on the ground and put his head back on the cold metal.

  “It’s…it’s my turn to pass out…spend some time with Lord V would ya…I’m gonna fucking die” Arias said tucking his knees in his arms. Solomon sprung up from the chair that he was sitting in. He walked over to Lord V to just take in everything that was happening..Lord V never left the church…or he didn’t often in the last century.

  “My dear boy, I hate to tell you this but I need you to get in touch with Amelia and find out where she’s at” Lord V said wiping dust off of his goggles that kept getting caked on from a valve that was spitting smoke almost directly in his face. Solomon froze

  “How do you know of Amelia?” Solomon stepped back a few steps

  “You stupid idiots, you think I’m dumb? I’m deaf. You two are dumb thinking I’m deafer than I am” Lord V said with a chuckle.

  “You don’t think I knew Arias thought I was incompetent and old? Arias speaks his mind too much, he doesn’t realize that word gets around. I knew he was the best at everything, including avoiding me and shit talking” Lord V turned to Solomon

  “So yeah, if you could just sent out a message ask her to meet us at the Planet Sampesh”

  Sampesh was a desert planet with one huge Tower that the monks would use as a yearly pilgrimage. The tower had 42 stories representing the original 42 books in the library. The tower was light stone and it had several fountains that had very cold pure water. The monks would fast for 42 days and celebrate all the new books and knowledge brought forth to the library over the year. Arias loved it because it gave them all an excuse to relax and unwind while the contractors hung back at the church and protected it while the monks were at the Tower. As the clunky contraption of a Ship entered the atmosphere of Sampesh it began to shake and rattle and Arias couldn’t handle it. He grabbed the handle of a chair in the cockpit of the ship and he lost his lunch all over the floor.

  “You know when I was coming up we enjoyed this part!” Lord V looked at Arias with one eyebrow raised. The ship landed on a giant stone area that was beneath the Tower. The Sparrow tucked it’s wings and Solomon helped Arias come off the ships stairs. The three men with Lord V walking in front of Solomon and Arias began to walk into the tower, a giant half circle completely open greeted them. They all walked into the center, a giant circle of red brick with a green brick in the middle. Lord V tapped on the green brick and the Stone began to lift into the air into the first floor.

  “Pretty neat eh?” Lord V looked at Solomon, trying to make him feel included since this was the first time Solomon had ever visited the Tower, and he was within the right of the church to do so now since he was now a Monk.

  “I am proud to call you a Monk, Solomon. You truly are going to great with helping us find the ultimate knowledge of the universe and preserve information for many in the years to come.” Lord V had a twinkle in his eyes. Arias wanted to lay into the conversation knowing that Lord V just liked Solomon more than him. Arias felt like even know with his new rank and status, Lord V still saw him as an outcast who was only good for doing what the other Monks wouldn’t. Arias knew this moment was special to Solomon and he loved Solomon more than his want to lay into Lord V.

  “No really, good job Solomon..” Arias said, putting his hand on Solomon's shoulder. The three made their way to a small circle pit where the Monks would often meditate and drink tea off to the side. They laid out bedrolls and began to get ready for sleep. Amelia had communicated that she was in a very far corner of the Universe and that it may take her and Howard some time to meet them at Sampesh. Lord V pulled out a green cube and snapped his finger and it drew a flame that lit in the middle of where the three had put their bed rolls in almost a circle formation. They all three sat up not speaking much to one another and just staring at the flame. Arias would occasionally pull out a small metal canteen filled with Fermented Root Mead that he drank when it was either a rough or special occasion. It was made out of a bugs nectar from the planet Sugen and Roots. Which was actually the reason Arias and Solomon had met so many years ago was because of a Nectar and Root run Arias had made to Sugen.

  “So..what are we doing when they get here?” Arias finally asked impatient with how things had seemed to turn with no communication among anyone.

  “Well when Howard and Amelia get here, we’re going to devise a plan to destroy Emus and his red shard mining operation. It needs to be done. We just need to find out how he's mining it.”

  “Red shards?” Arias said, looking at Lord V across the cube. The green flames made Arias’ beard look almost bright red. Almost as red as Solomon's ponytail peeking out of his sleeping cap.

  “Yeah it’s an unknown mineral to normal individuals as you and I. It essentially is a way to tie into the Spectral world and it allows you to see matter that isn’t destroyed or reassembled rather..since that whole thing we can’t be destroyed..we just change into energy that keeps most of our thoughts and feelings” Lord V, speaking in a voice that Arias hasn’t often heard. One where Lord V was teaching and not making demands.

  “Okay, so Emus is creating goggles and enslaving the wraiths, we’re that far…but why? Why does he do it?” Arias locking eyes with Lord V, trying to show that he was engaged in the conversation.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Well I don’t know Arias!” Lord V stood up and started waving his hands around

  “If you had access to a mineral that let you create something the could enslave a never ending amount of servants for your bidding, in your plot to destroy the world…to say oh I don’t know create more…”energy” then why wouldn’t you? He’s trying to use Howard as a weapon of mass destruction and he’s going to kill and enslave us all after out Matter is sent to the afterlife” Lord V sat back down on his bed roll and gestured at Arias for his metal canteen of mead. After taking a big swig Lord V said in the most dark deep down he could muster

  “We have a chance to stop him. But he has a greater chance to stop us first.” Lord V laid on his side and snapped his fingers and the flame went out. Arias and Solomon both settled in for the night on their bed rolls preparing for hopefully new day tomorrow.

  ___________

  Solomon and Arias both felt themselves swaying back and forth as if they were on a Ship in an asteroid field the swayed slowly back and forth. Solomon was the first to peep his open. He was off the ground about 10 feet.

  “AHHH” Solomon began to flail his arms around suspended in the air until he realized it was just Howard. Arias woke up with Solomon's scream, but Arias didn’t react and just laid limp floating in the air.

  “Hello Friends” Howard pressed into their minds.

  “Hey, do you mind letting us down?” Arias said in a monotone voice already over being used as a toy.

  “If you want” Howard laid them both down gently.

  Amelia walked from one of the door ways and ran to hug Arias.

  “It’s so good to see you! I thought you were going to die..” Amelia said, pressing her face into Arias’ neck. Arias put his arms around Amelia and squeezed tightly and put his face into her neck. Howard floated around the room and seemed to be making note of things. Solomon started playing with a rock with his telekinesis and started skipping it around the room making it whip from one side of the room to the other. Howard noticed Solomon playing this game and proceeded to catch the rock in mid air and would tell Solomon.

  “Push harder. Make the rock be free of my grasp” Solomon would then reach his hand out and try as hard as he could to get the rock to move out of the blue aura that was Howards grasp. It would budge occasionally but Solomon grew tired of it and couldn’t make it budge after a few minutes of playing with Howard.

  “One day you will have powers as great as mine if you keep practising, maybe you’ll even be able to pry into people's minds like I do.” Howard is optimistic in the thought of Solomon honing his rare abilities.

  “Very few people have these abilities. Ever since the war and the new age of evolution on humans, scientists from before the end of the never ending war thought we’d all be able to non verbally communicate and levitate, even stating we may lose function of our legs, of course that never happened.” Lord V sitting up on his bed roll scrolling on his huge Tablet reading what Arias would only guess as information of planets that are good for hunting rare space animals and fishing rare space fish species.

  “I’ve only ever met Solomon who has any power akin to mine” Howard pressed into everyone's mind.

  “Except my brother..my brother is more powerful than I..” Howard only pressed this into the mind of Solomon

  “Don’t tell the other Solomon, but Emus is a bigger threat to us than we know..I sense that everyone has an idea of him…his enslavement of the wraith world, he leads the church of zona and he has ruled the engulfed planet forever…but he plans on completing a prophecy..He’s going to unseal me and he will enslave me like his wraiths…but I’m tied to the physical plane with the Blooze.”

  Solomon said out loud not even realizing “Blooze? What’s blooze” Howard grew annoyed immediately and a visible wave came off of him and Lord V, Arias and Amelia all became unconscious and slumped over where they were sitting.

  “Silence you pestilent Bastard. I am talking to you, You mustn’t talk to the room. You have the ability to speak back to me silently with your mind. Do so”

  Solomon stood up and backwards walked a couple of paces away from Howard concerned with what had happened to his party.

  “Howard…please don’t hurt anyone” Solomon worked hard to send to Howard. Solomon needed to expend more energy than Howard to communicate in this way.

  “Good. Keep practicing Solomon…the task at hand. We need to make sure Lord V. Arias and Amelia are on the same page of creating an army to destroy the mining operation Emus has made on the planet of Zona…it won’t be easy and his power his untold. But if anyone can do it, it’s the Monks” Howard pressed again into Solomons mind, and shortly after the words finished ringing in Solomons head another vibration came off of Howards Jar and the three who were knocked out were up and talking again with no recollection of even being knocked out.

  Lord V put his tablet down and decided that now was as good a time as any to bring up the impending doom looming on the horizon.

  “So, Howard may not know this but his Brother Emus is planning an attack on humanity in the universe as we know it, and we need to band the monks together and lay siege upon the engulfed church of Zona.” Lord V looked at Howard and chuckled

  “Howard told Solomon my very plan in secret. Howard didn’t realize that I’d been planning this all along, I even brought out the old Copper Sparrow” Lord V pushing himself off the ground.

  “What the hell old man. You were unconscious” Howard pressed into the mind of Lord V

  “You may be ancient for a fetus, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve boy and you better respect my judgment and not try to plot against the will of the Church of the Sparrow. We will help you, but we will not bend to your will” Lord V, in a loud voice chimed into the recesses of Howards brain, louder than Howard had heard someone talk into his brain before.

  “I see, Solomon and I aren’t alone” Howard surprised at Lord V

  Arias was staring at Howard, Solomon and Lord V all silently looking at each other in a circle, and then he finally realized that they were having a physic party of the minds.

  “Well if you’re going to plot, can you at least give Amelia and I an abridged version” Arias said as the three locked in a stance all turned toward him.

  “Oh yes, I apologize” Lord V said, stroking his long white beard into a point.

  “We need your fathers expertise, how good is he with old relics like the Copper Sparrow” Lord V said, foreshadowing the preparations they would need for the oncoming onslaught.

  “My father could nail a blaster to a tree trunk and it’d fly to the opposite side of the universe and back, what do you need?” Arias said, raising his eyebrows.

  “We’re going to need to rally the Monks and we’re going to need weapons, and the sparrow needs to be upgraded.”

  “I guess we’re going to Gluten again..”

  The Party packed their supplies up, Amelia who had brought her Ship moved it into a lower level of the tower where Ships could be stored without getting harmed from the Acidic rain storms of Sampesh. The planet was mostly inhabitable but the monks enjoyed the humidity of it to help relieve their dried out sinus cavities from space traveling so often.

  The five gathered their weapons and supplies. And boarded onto the Sparrow.

  “Is this..a bird?” Howard wondered how such an old relic was going to accomplish what Lord V seemed confident in doing.

  “This isn’t a bird, this is the beginning to end the spiritual wars.” Lord V snapped goggles and fingerless gloves gloves on as he began to make the birds wings flap and begin to take off heading straight for Gluten.