The Triad

    A deep black triangle hovered above her and she knelt in the cool grass frozen in fear. One moment she was walking in the moonlight back towards the house and the next she is kneeling under something so large it made her entire body compress into itself. It felt as if the blackness was going to crush her where she knelt, she moaned, ducking her head. It was a solid mass, blocking out the stars and the silence was deafening.



  After a moment she craned her head back slowly, worried that any sudden motions could make it attack, maybe a beam of light would come out and steal her. Oh god, what the hell was this thing. She could see where it ended a long way off to her right and then she looked to her left. Looking closer, trying to discern recognizable feature on the underside of the craft but nothing stood out. A soft glow of violet began to illuminate the underside if the ship and with a cry of fear she shrank back.



In her mind she heard a voice; Mind, listen, watch.



The violet light began to swirl in a circle on the blackness of the triangle, more colors coming into play; green, red, yellow. A picture formed and she gasped when she saw it was Earth as seen from space.



“Watch, Mind.” The voice said gently to her.



The Earth such a beautiful marble of life swirling there so serene. The picture shifted to show the Earth again but surrounded by large pyramid shaped ships with a few ovals scattered here and there. Another shift to the picture and there were dark, spiky ships now facing the triangles, ovals and pyramids. Earth remained beautiful and swirling but there were lines of color crisscrossing everything in her view. Lines of every color imaginable. They hummed with power; she could feel the hair on her arms lift and stand straight.

The scene shifted again and she saw herself standing within a circle of stones that were anchoring these lines of color. She felt them under her feet, above her head and within her hands as she caressed them with loving attention. She was no longer crouching under the massive ship she was reaching toward it, toward the picture on its underside. She was aching to touch those lines of power, to know what it was like to fly.

The picture flashed quickly to another and the earth was dead. She cried out and fell back to the ground, her soul aching with pain of those who had died. A glance to the ship still above her showed the earth a dark hulk of what it used to be. It was surrounded by the spiky ships but none of the triangles, ovals or pyramids were to be seen. Somehow she knew that those spiky ships were responsible for the devastation on the earth and the other ships were the protectors.

Why did they leave to let this happen? Anger washed through her and strength that she never knew she has arose in her and soon she was standing screaming at the ship above her.



“Why did you leave us to die! You were here and then you left us to this!”

Tears fell from her, she stalked under the ship back and forth, shaking her fist at it screaming.

“You left us damn you!”



“Mind!”

The booming voice within her head sent her to her knees whimpering.



It was silent again and she peeked upward to see the ship, the picture of the devastated earth was gone and all was black again.



“Mind.”

The voice said again, gentler.

“It will not come to pass if the Mind finds the Voice and the Strength. Find them. You are the Mind; find the Voice and the Strength. Become one before all obstacles and prove your solidarity before us. You will know when. Do not let this be your fate.”



The blasted earth showed again on the underside of the ship and she gasped.



“This is your fate if you do not hear us. We will aid if the Triad is together. Show solidarity. Work together.”

The voice went silent and the ship began to rise upward.



She stood and screamed, “Who are the Voice and the Strength!”



Faintly the voice came to her, “Watch your dreams, step outside the lies of your lives and you will find one another.”



    The ship hovered a moment then in a blink it was shooting upward in the star filled night. She stood there watching where it had disappeared, frozen with indecision. Blinking slowly she felt a jolt as a cricket chirped next to her and the night sounds had all come back at once. A cool breeze brushed tendrils of hair against her cheek and a dog barked in the distance. She turned to see the back door light of her house in the distance and her mind tried to process what happened.

Suddenly the weight was back and she spun around to see if the ship had returned. But it was not the triangle; it was one of the spiky ships she had been shown in the pictures. She could feel the dark malevolence within and she shrank back in terror. It came closer not stopping; it was going to crush her.



  A scream echoed throughout her bedroom as she came out of the dream. In an instant she bounded from the bed to slam into the closet door and pressed herself to it tightly. Her eyes were wide as she stared upward at the ceiling. Her heart pounding within her chest she gasped for breath and her stomach roiled with nausea. Eyes darting around the room she realized she was alone, she was in her bedroom and she realized it had been a bad dream. Oh my god, a dream. She remembered every second of the dream and when she thought of the spiky black ship her stomach rolled. The nausea rose up and with a groan she ran to the bathroom where she threw up over and over. Tears sliding down her cheeks she slipped down onto her knees and trembled with fear. One thought came to her over and over; what if it wasn't a dream.