Chapter 7 - The Song of the Earth
The soldiers landed with a heavy thud,
their red laser sights dancing across the ancient murals.
"Move away from the sphere!"
their leader commanded,
his voice distorted by a gas mask.
Khalid stepped in front of me,
his gun raised,
but he was outnumbered ten to one.
"You don't know what you're doing,"
Khalid shouted.
"This isn't just gold or records,"
he explained,
"it's the foundation of our identity."
The leader laughed,
a cold,
mechanical sound.
"Identity is for the weak,"
he sneered.
"Our employers want the technology behind the resonance."
"They want the weapon,"
he added.
I looked at the crystal sphere,
it wasn't a weapon,
it was a heartbeat.
I closed my eyes,
blocking out the shouting and the sound of safeties being clicked off.
I searched for the sound my grandfather had played on his old flute.
It was a melody that mimicked the heartbeat of a sleeping mother.
I began to hum,
the sound low at first,
then rising in volume.
The soldiers paused,
looking around in confusion as the walls began to glow.
The blue light from the sphere intensified,
becoming so bright it blinded everyone in the room.
"Stop her!"
the leader yelled,
aiming his rifle at me.
Khalid fired first,
taking out the light on the leader's helmet.
I didn't stop humming,
I added words to the melody,
the forgotten Arabic flowing out of me like a river.
The air in the room grew thick,
as if the oxygen were being replaced by pure energy.
The soldiers fell to their knees,
clutching their chests as the frequency vibrated through their bones.
It wasn't painful,
but it was overwhelming,
like being submerged in a warm ocean.
The stone floor began to ripple,
and the sand that had leaked in started to form shapes.
Sentinels made of dust and light rose from the ground,
towering over the intruders.
They didn't attack,
they simply stood there,
radiating an ancient authority.
The soldiers scrambled back,
their courage failing them in the face of the impossible.
"Get out,"
I whispered in the old tongue.
My voice carried the weight of a thousand years,
and the men fled,
clambering back up their ropes in a panic.
The sentinels faded back into dust,
and the room grew quiet once more.
The sphere was now pulsing softly,
synced with my own heart.
Khalid looked at me,
his face pale with shock.
"You didn't just wake it up,"
May you like
he whispered.
"You became its master."
