Sacrifice

“Commander, you, I do hope, clearly understand that you have been summoned here not by chance?” with these words the timeless leader of the Brotherhood looked over his subordinate, without interfering, however, with his psi-field. He clearly knew he would be able to read everything he desires only through facial expressions, and had no need for trained for the course of several thousands of years psionic skills. “The topic of this meeting will concern your last mission on the planet Earth.”

His subordinate, second-in-rank “Alpha” team commander, was well-known in the ranks of the Brotherhood as the founder of strategy and tactics school, as well as the commander with one of the highest fulfillment success rates of planetary missions in the Visible Worlds. But the Earth... the Earth turned out to be much more difficult than it seemed before their embodiment there. And recent mission on its lands became a superfluous confirmation of that fact.

Commander stood up straight just as by command, looking how golden-colored eyes of the Brotherhood’s leader were sliding through lines of the news bulletin, prepared by archivists following the results of their last assigned task. Lines in Another World’s language were highlighted in the air just before his eyes, sparkling with silvery shade in the ether that was filling a room, and then gently thawed, being forever dissolved to once again remain hidden in endless storages of registrars.

Another World - that’s how inhabitants of this world agreed to call it between themselves. Habitual for Visible Worlds laws of physics, chemistry, biology and a set of other so-called “sciences” didn’t work here as usual. For its inhabitants, the world was a mystery and a science in itself. Another World was a unique kind of a binding knot between all visible worlds - both an entry and exit point from them at the same time. A vast set of portals, representing the rarest rifts of the fabric of time and space, connecting Another World with other ones, were generously scattered on inside it by a hand of the maker. The entering of one of such portals became a birth in the linked visible world, and during so-called “death” a return could be made through rifts-portals back to Another World. Such a transition was always followed by the embodiment in the external physical form that was common for inhabitants of each of the visible worlds, and only by parting with this shell it was possible to return back to a native, multidimensional Another World through the functioning rift.

Once, at the beginning of this world’s exploration, when exact locations of these portals weren’t widely known, pioneers of discovery often became involuntary victims of different incidents, related to these rifts, due to imprudence being transferred - and, thus, being born - in one or the other of visible worlds. Time in Another World was flowing in its own pace with its own grace, and trips to other worlds, even the longest ones, generally took no more than a single year in Another World - but, despite it, even such a temporary lack of presence of any of Spirits could give a birth to a horde of different questions from those fellows who knew them in person. What would a wife of some humanoid from the Alpha Centaur star system say, for example, if her devoted husband came out to examine local surroundings, only to return back home a year later?

Inhabitants of Another World had no common for Visible Worlds divisions into social groups (otherwise the Brotherhood couldn’t be born), and they lived infinitely longer, but random wanderings through visible worlds often weren’t a part of their daily schedule. Therefore, after discovery and mapping of all currently found rifts, access to them was strictly limited only to members of the Brotherhood, Free Wanderers and representatives of the Supreme Council. And each such birth was associated with its own Mission.

“Regarding your last Mission on the planet Earth in the star system of the Milky Way galaxy, commander,” the leader of the Brotherhood continued, “as you, certainly, remember, we have sent another group together with your own, one of the members of which was your both earth and spiritual brother. And you had to...”

The Brotherhood was born as the answer to the evil, under which shuddered - sometimes to the very core - some of the visible worlds, and during several thousands of Another World’s years became widely known not only in its own but in some of the visible worlds as well. Some called it as the Brotherhood of Spirit, others - as the Brotherhood of Light, some as the Knights of Radiant Heart, and most respecting it admirers - even as the Angelic Brotherhood. By joining the Brotherhood, each Spirit of Another World undertook obligations to strictly follow its code and precepts that were based on goodness, honor, and justice. Service to the Brotherhood could take a various set of forms, based on developed skills and abilities of its member.

It contained, for example, the school of Psionics, whose members specialized in telepathy - the art of reading through thoughts and experiencing feelings of inhabitants of visible worlds - and, no reason to conceal that fact, inhabitants of Another World as well. This was an extremely useful skill, especially inside younger visible worlds - teams that were going on a mission there almost always included at least one psionic in their ranks.

The school of Creativity was yet another widely known one, whose adepts specialized in the mental visualization of objects and ideas. A thought, strengthened with a faith, was the basic construction element in Another World, and by means of increased concentration of thoughts it was possible to create not only individual new objects and filled with them spaces, but in some exceptional cases even to influence certain events and circumstances - both in Another World and visible ones. Visible worlds didn’t possess such a luxury, however - but even inside them adherents of Creativity school could demonstrate own gifts and talents in available to them forms - verbal, musical, art and a great number of others, depending on the level of civilization’s development, inside which they were to be born.

The school of strategy and tactics, commander’s creation, was well known as well. Members of this school specialized in fields of preliminary planning, assessment of possible risks, formation of structures of teams and other questions, related to preparations of teams for chosen by them missions as well as analyzing of tactical changes that could happen in case of emergency situations in the world where any such team has been involved.

Finally, the most prestigious and reputable school in the Brotherhood was the school of Prophets. Combining a set of skills - psionic, tactics and strategy, imagination and thoughts-creativity, healing of both souls and physical shapes - these best members of the Brotherhood took part only in the most important among campaigns and journeys, if these worlds were in danger of self-destruction due to excessively generated by its inhabitants amounts and forms of evil. Such ones were present in their recent mission on the Earth as well.

“...Preliminary mission planning in this visible world revealed a vast set of complexities, which were subsequently faced by a team that was assigned to it. I am talking not only of difficulties of local aspect, related to dispersion of physical entry points of the team that was traveling through the rift but complexities of world-outlook nature of inhabitants of the target visible world...”

Commander’s thoughts smoothly returned to recently occurred events. The Earth... his fifth birth on its soils. Humanoid inhabitants, reminding monkeys with their developed habits. Almost equal to zero psionic and thoughts-creativity skills among its populations, and at the same time - hypertrophied and torn off from spiritual bases science that was about to become the executioner of this civilization. “Complexity of world-outlook nature” was a rather soft formulation for a total absence of any serious spiritual basis without which a long-term, by standards of Another World, civilization building procedure was totally impossible.

“...Not all members of the team fully realized the challenges that were awaiting them. Not all liked the humanoid shape in which the Spirit of each of them was embodied upon entering a space-time rift...”

To tell the truth, not each and every physical shape was appealing to him, commander of the “Alpha” team. The greatest personal sympathy was formed between him and various cybernetic shapes, which were possessed by representatives of mechanized civilizations of the Visible - yet there were quite a few missions in such civilizations, partly because a part of them was now resting in peace only in historical chronicles shortly after the dawn of own birth. Silicon-based bodies were also quite satisfactory for tasks of counteracting of actions of harmful galactic representatives - and precisely such types of missions commander preferred to undertake most of his time. However, ether bodies of several civilizations of Illyuon constellation could be considered as being the most convenient and almost not demanding any additional adaptation - members of these civilizations already knew about the existence of Another World and rifts and were capable to feel the presence of its spirits in their own society. Biological forms - ones such as those that were possessed by inhabitants of aforementioned Earth - were considered by the commander as being the most fragile and unreliable. Whether it was his personal technical addiction or that very ambiguous experience of life inside a body of a huge butterfly in the civilization of Almaray planet - it’s hard to say for the commander. And regarding “not all liked the humanoid shape” - that was definitely about him.

“...Mistake, indirect consequences of which was a new world war, which has begun on their planet and is still going on by the present moment of our, so to say, dialogue.”

Yes, these madmen-monkeys have started a new, third world war, after all. And his support team was partly to blame for this disaster. Under-planning. Under-effort. Under-result. Too many “under”. The day when a blast wave from one of the bombs that were dropped on his city destroyed his physical shape and portal of Another World took his Spirit back, he couldn’t find any grain of peace from grief and melancholy. And now... a part of the team under his guidance, being physically eradicated from the Earth, was already staying with him in Another World, and part of it was still fighting on Earth’s soils. And he felt totally broken apart - to have no opportunity to help those remaining on the Earth and no reason to help those that have returned. The fact that he could be deprived of honor to be a part of the Brotherhood for a long-term - he no longer had worries about it.

“...Thereby stopping the most severe and dire potential destructions and having given us the chance of sending an additional team. In regard to current circumstances, we are obliged to honor his good memory due to his sacrifice through the Ceremony of Light-back-giving...”

“To honor... the memory?” commander perplexedly looked at his leader, as if having come up from own memoirs.

“Brother Lellian ended his life’s journey, as you probably already know,” leader looked silently and coldly at him.

“Yes, I am aware that his physical body was killed by a bullet of an American sniper, but after his return into Another World he...”

“You, apparently, haven’t fully understood me, commander,” and timeless leader of the Brotherhood fixedly looked into his eyes. “For the sake of saving of their world, he sacrificed himself in ours.”

11.12.2017