The Justiceers - Part Four: Chapter One
the next chapter in my forthcoming novel
The Justiceers
by Daphne Garrido
Part Three: The Will to Choose
Part Four: Prefinished Business
Part Four: Prefinished Business
4.1
The Artimus found itself under attack.
There had been no time to react by any means but the flowing grace of their leader, evil’s presurgence materializing instantaneously to their arrival in this time-space, dropping right on top of them, not providing opportunities for making additional preparations.
This war had come to meet them in the future.
A squadron of Noruki fighters streamed from the launch tubes, piercing the void of this systemless time-space they’d chosen as a their touchstone, connecting seamlessly to The Root through those intricate bonds of energetic connection developed methodically by the will of their leader; The Goddess.
No harm would come to this ship, nor its people, victory assured despite all surprise from this constantly evolving opposition.
The crew of The Artimus itself, its many souls and conscious minds alike, were not above anxiety, fear still to rear its head. Yet this would be used, becoming a tool for its sharpening blades of war, minds within ever swaying in the ebbs and flows of time, relying on their goddess to show them the way, herself unmoored in by its prison of momentum.
Miriam Halafax herself was now beyond the petty mechanizations of time.
The ways of The Artemis had been developed to perfection over eons. While Miriam’s body slept, spirit remained ever alive, thriving in her liege over these companions of fortune, claiming glory over her decimated enemy.
Never-ending, this war seemed to Miriam now, its ripples of flow moving both directions, ever changing structures calling on those most flexible tendencies of her soul — long-held ruthlessness, proven at last the divine gift she’d always known it to be — feeling her purpose now realized.
This was who Miriam had always been, why she’d felt the future calling so deeply; because she was already here. She’d been leading The Artimus back to her Arthur, and the time-space she belonged, where she’d last seen that beautiful man; the system of Yemi.
She would find her love again.
For him, this wouldn’t feel like any time at all. For Miriam, it was lifetimes spent moving backwards through time, fighting this menace in hope to earn passage back home. Knowing, this undertaking bestowed upon her most divine, she’d lead this force of righteousness back, and end the scourge of evil from this galaxy once and for all.
They were coming from the past, the enemy of enemies, born from the demons of this galaxy’s history — carrying forward a legacy of hatred and destruction — wiping out all who resisted becoming a part of its terrible machine.
Miriam had seen it; this had been that same evil which took Omirion. Her spirit felt it most deeply, intuition telling of truths, heart confirming what Miriam would rather not be the case; she’d not be going back that far.
This battle was for future of the galaxy.
It would happen in Yemi, with Arthur, beside Grammaton’s emerging being. When she was back home again at last, this would finally end.
Within these battles she’d had on her journey, warfare with remergence of time-space beyond Admanium’s abilities to determine, Miriam would always find new challenges created by the upgrades and tactics implemented from whatever place this menace came.
The Artimus was from the end of time, traveling back since long before Miriam had joined its cause and taken station as its Captain, singularity in the purpose of its design; end evil.
This terror they fought was unknown — out of grasp to define or name, to find — some mysterious haven of time-space a harbor for their wrath. Miriam would never find it.
Too much, and too great, was the breadth of time and space available within the flows of the cosmos. She’d tried long and hard to pin it down before Gary had shown her the calculations — the hopelessness of that endeavor.
The plan had come to her then; received.
They were meant to see this through in Yemi, back in her time, with God beside his Goddess once more, Grammaton’s power to bear upon the forces of evil itself. It was always meant to be this way. Miriam’s will born in this universe to forge its very happening, making it her call to end the ways of the devil, creating that greatest change so called for by our great light.
She’d come here without choice, never taught of this most extreme and trying stipulation of her return from beyond, to once again seek her way back to Arthur.
It was the universe itself exploiting Miriam’s love, taking the most from it possible, forcing her to forge most a powerful change imaginable. Recognized, was the strength of her heart, the power of her courage; it would be used.
Upon arrival to The Artimus — confused, lost — Miriam was never scared, she’d shed not a single tear. There’d been a reason she didn’t come forward, as was always to be the plan, until she had.
The healing found in her Arthur’s arms in orbit of Grammaton after he’d taken her home to The Nebberath II, so terribly far away from this space-time she found herself in now, had seen fear itself had burnt right out of her.
The reason was for this; Miriam was to lead with her fearlessness, and she was to make this galaxy clean again.
She found meaning through it at last — the horror befallen her soul upon Omirion. It was always meant to be this way for her, purpose constructed to bring a reckoning of spirit to those who’d lost their own, immolating evil itself through its own hateful reflection in her love for God.
Miriam had become a mirror — the Goddess — and the future itself.
