Chapter 4-Return of a Friend

-Half a year later

It was a stormy night. The dark clouds loomed over the Houston colony. Loud claps of lightening pierced the night and illuminated the world for an instant, then left it in pitch black. The rain fell relentlessly, and created large puddles on the earth that, in most places, reached up to the knee. Cale and Akima were grateful that the Phoenix was situated vertically on high ground. They sat near a window watching the torrents of rain endlessly fall for they didn't have any other form of entertainment and it was also strange to them. She was sitting in his lap and whenever a flash shot by the window, she nearly jumped out of his arms. He held her though and gave her a sense of security.

"This has to be the worst storm I've ever seen." Cale said while embracing Akima from behind. "It's kinda cool though, we would have never seen storms like these out in space. You need a planet for one of these." he continued. She cuddled closer to him and laid her head back onto his shoulder, next to his face.

"I wonder which earth was more beautiful." Akima wondered. She was only four when her family and she evacuated the original earth. She had only stories and verbal descriptions that filled her mind. This earth was somewhat different than the other. For one, the older one had a moon that the elders had talked about while this new one didn't have one. The first earth didn't seem to have as much water or oceans as this. The land on earth was closer and vast continents were created whereas the new earth's continents were more sparse and diffused.

"I don't know," Cale answered while putting his head over her shoulder, "but this one will do all right. I mean, we'll just have to make do with what we have." They both actually had no clue as to what the first earth looked like. They had been gone too long and had forgotten. They appreciated any planet they could live on.

Another flash lit the sky, this time Akima didn't jump. She warmly sat in his arms. Cale smiled and gave Akima a small kiss on the cheek. She smiled tenderly in response to his intimacy. Cale had done his best to keep his commitment to being intimate with her. It was sort of easy: they didn't have any television, radio, or sports equipment. All that seemed to die with the first earth. Then, she gave a small moan. "Are you feeling sick again?" he asked while stroking her arm to give her a comforting feeling.

"No, I'm all right. Just a bit tired." she said while holding his hand. They sat there and continued watching the storm from the window. Then, some pounding sounds could be heard. They were in groups of three and had about five seconds between them. Akima was startled and made an attempt to get up, but Cale spoke first.

"Akima, I'll go see what it is." he said as she got up off of him. He ran over to the door and opened it slightly. Nothing could be seen due to the darkness, but when lightening struck it gave a quick silhouette of a figure in a long cloak. His face wasn't seen and he stood there not making a sound. "Who are you?" Cale asked impatiently with a distrustful countenance.

"I don't know," the character said, "I remember you, though, Cale. Can I come in." Cale still held the door open enough for the man to see his face, but wasn't quick to let him in. "Sure," he said as he slowly opened the door and let the man in. His cloak ended at his ankles and revealed his black shoes. He did have a hood over his head that covered his face in the darkness. As he walked in, he took off his hood. Both Cale and Akima's eyes grew large as they began to slowly step back in disbelief.

"Korso?" Cale said with an uncertain look. Korso stood there silently and gave them enough time to compose themselves. "Hi, kid." he said almost without emotion. He then turned to Akima. "Akima," he said in an acknowledging way. Both Cale and Akima never would have thought that he would come back. Of course they wouldn't, he died. But here he was standing in their house, all dripping wet from the rain.

"How did you-" Akima began, but couldn't find the words to finish the sentence for she was much too stunned.

"Survive," Korso finished her question, "Actually, I didn't. I was told that I am a construct, a double, a clone. I found myself in a laboratory in a tube when I awoke. I was surrounded by doctors. I was just as surprised to be alive as you are. I don't know how I can remember things from the other Korso, I just have his memories." he said while taking off his cloak which revealed the black shirt with the white stripe on the shoulder that Korso had worn. "The whole reason they had cloned me was very simple: interrogation. They wanted to know things about what happened and why I died. Once I proved to them that I could display human qualities, such as reasoning, they decided to let me go." he then walked across the room toward Cale. "Cale," he said with his hand on Cale's shoulder, "I can remember you father and your mother. I remember earth being destroyed. I remember the Titan. I remember my death." he took his hand off of Cale and turned toward Akima. "That never happened to me though."

Suddenly, lightening cracked at the end of Korso's explanation. Cale and Akima were both speechless. This was very strange to see someone come back from the dead, even if he was a clone. Korso thought a little while, trying to find some topic worthy of breaking the silence.

"So, what's happened since I was gone?" Korso asked.

"Well, New Earth was made-" Cale began.

"I can see that!" Korso said sarcastically.

"Akima and I got married," Cale said while holding up the back of his hand to show Korso his wedding band, "you should have been there, man. If we had known that, uh, that you were being cloned, we would have postponed it, right baby?" Akima, who was sitting with her legs folded underneath on the bed, shrugged in response to Cale's question.

"Nice one," Korso said with a wink.

"We live here, now, in the Phoenix." Cale said with his hands beholding the interior of the ship, "We converted it into a home." Akima began to get a bit curious.

"So, why are you here? To drop by and say, 'hi'?" Akima questioned while standing up off the bed. She had a disturbed expression on her face. Korso nodded his head and sat down on a nearby box next to a wall. This gesture told Cale and Akima that this could be quite a long story. They went right back to the bed, sat down side-by-side, and held hands.

"You know, I was on a science facility for a while so, I picked up on some news. I'm sorry to say, but the Drej are back," Cale and Akima both gave a slight gasp.

"What do you mean they're back?" Cale asked.

"When we defeated the Drej, we only took out one ship. Their entire race couldn't be supported on just one ship, now do ya? No, that was their only ship with enough fire power to destroy a planet. These Drej come from a star. Their energy comes from there and doesn't it seem right that pure energy beings would come from a star?"

"Yeah," Akima replied.

"It was a rhetorical question. Drej history goes like this: they evolved from inferior beings to what they are today. They had, at one time, three queens meaning three Orbs. Now these queens were empowered by something called the Orb. These things can make any normal Drej a queen by simply beating the current queen and ingesting the Orb. The only prime importance of that was that the Drej used to reproduce through the queen. When they came upon the star, they found all the energy they would ever need. They eventually harnessed this energy in order to make thousands of Drej. That's called the Lanoor. The energy from this star was then used in their ship, the Alahenena, to destroy earth.

"When you used the energy from their ship, Cale, you also absorbed the Orb along with it. At that time, that Orb meant everything to the Drej; almost as much as destroying earth did. You see, they only had the one Orb. One was destroyed, the second was absorbed and a third was captured by my team."

"What do you mean, 'your team'?" Akima asked. She displayed a mixed character.

"My team included Cale's mother and a D'amaran pilot, his name escapes me for the moment. We were on a small mission to infiltrate them, which started the whole war, and along the way, we managed to steal one of their Orbs. We dropped it off at a human military drifter colony. I can't remember the name of it or where it was. Anyway, that's the only Orb that's left; they have no other and it's against their code to make a fourth. That's basically why I'm here. I want you two to come with me on another little search."

"Why would we need to search for this now? Couldn't it wait?" Cale asked. He wasn't really eager to go out on another 'quest for humanity'. He'd had all the popularity he could stand from people about being the one to create the new planet. The people even made a statue of Akima and him. It was a life-sized silver statue that had Cale in a pioneering pose with Akima at his side. He only wanted to wind things down and live with Akima.

"Cale, the Drej have started to become hostile," Korso explained while standing up from his seat, "they have already attacked D'amara in search for the Orb. Who knows what they'll do to New Earth when they can't find it. If we destroy this thing before they get a hold of it, they'll be stuck without a queen. No one will be there to keep the Drej species together. They became too powerful once," he said, then turned his face to look out the window, past the looming, dark clouds to the night sky, "I'll see to it that that never happens again."

"Cale, why can't we go with Korso?" Akima logically asked. "Humanity could depend on it. You know the first place they'd attack would be earth if they found it." She stood and turned around in front of him.

Cale didn't want to upset Akima so with a little thought he came around with an answer.

"All right, let's do it, but not for humanity, Akima, for us." Cale said as he jumped up from the bed. This put a smile on Akima's face and she ran up to hug him around the neck. Cale hoped he had made the right decision. For him, this was enough of a reason to go out on this venture. "When do we leave?" Cale asked as he tried to pry his head from Akima's grip to look at Korso. He stood there with his fists on his hips as usual.

"I'm gonna stock up on some supplies before we leave, so it'll be just a little while," Korso explained while taking a few steps in their direction, "don't start packing, though; it might be a while."

"We can take you to Stith and Gune. We still have contact." Cale suggested to Korso as he held on to his embrace loosely with Akima. They swayed very slowly there for a while.

Cale invited Korso to stay with them until he was able to get his own place. Korso talked with them on through the night trying to catch up fully on what all had happened. He asked about the Titan, the new earth, Cale and Akima's wedding, and what had happened to them since then.