≈ Ch. 10: SECRETS AND DOUBTS ≈
~ More revelations ~
In the evening, after dinner, Jason went to the Antechamber as part of his duties: he was the designated successor of the Guardian, and he was supposed to unveil the secrets hidden in the Sacred Tomes and the many unknown objects that cluttered the floor and the desk.
But of all the many objects in the room, Jason’s eyes were immediately attracted to the box lying in a corner, the one he’d already explored once: according to Laudon, the AI system governing Eclipse, those were all personal objects once belonged to ‘the Commodore’, a long dead man now called by everyone Boba-Maiii. Jason felt weird about those objects, as they were the tangible proof that Boba-Maiii was not an immortal god, but a dead man. Unforgotten, yes, but still dead. There can’t possibly be doubts about it, at this point, and yet Jason knew he couldn’t tell anyone the truth about Boba-Maiii. Even Archon, the Guardian, though doubtful, was too imbued with the false cult of Boba-Maiii to accept the truth.
Jason rummaged into the box, carefully avoiding the small object that shot deadly rays, and took out the round metal ‘case’ containing the magic arrow. As soon as he held it in his hand, the arrow pointed to the Temple.
The ‘Temple’… How absurd it seemed now to Jason to call that almost empty room ‘Temple’. And yet, that room contained the most valuable treasure for Jason: answers. That was the only place where he could talk to Laudon, ask him questions, and hopefully get answers. He already knew that the answers he would get were going to shake his beliefs to their roots, but nothing could be more mind-boggling than knowing that Boba-Maiii, the almighty god, was just a man.
Jason stood up, holding the magic pointing device, and entered the Temple; the small entrance, all painted in black, glowed in a faint blue light; and this didn’t mean – Jason now knew – that Boba-Maiii was in a good mood, but that Laudon had enough energy to perform its tasks. Just that.
At the farthest end of the entrance, the sliding door leading to Laudon’s room promptly opened, recognizing Jason, who stepped inside. The dim light immediately turned brighter and Laudon’s warm voice echoed in the small chamber: “Greetings, Jason. I’m glad you came back.”
“Laudon… I hope you can answer some questions that burden my heart…”
“I’ll gladly answer all your questions, Jason. But before that, I take the rare chance I have to communicate freely to tell you that my energy level is still quite good, but it will be totally depleted in no more than ten days. I don’t understand why the Eclipsians always wait until my generator is about to turn off before providing more Radiant.”
“Err… ‘Radiant’?” – Jason asked, puzzled.
“Crystals of Radiant, that the Eclipsians call ‘Holy Stones’. They contain a great energy that I can use to keep Eclipse operational, and the more you provide, the longer you’ll be able to get food, light, air and other services, without risking an emergency shutdown. Please inform the Darks that there’s no risk for me to be provided with too many crystals: the more they find, the better I can operate.”
“I’ll try… I can’t tell them the truth about you, Boba-Maiii and the so-called ‘Temple’…”
“You are right. My knowledge base suggests that if the truth was openly divulged, it would become hard to keep a social order at Eclipse, at least for a few months or years. I rely on your judgment to choose how much of the truth you want to share, and with whom. Now, if you have questions, I’m ready to answer.”
“Laudon, I know my mother was Obsydia, she died right after giving birth to me; but who was my father?”
“This I can’t say with absolute certainty. I don't have enough data. Obsydia got the traditional five Dark loads, and this makes it impossible for me to know who your father is. All I can tell is that her First Husband was Blake, and the co-husbands were Kole, Jet, Rufus and Deimos.”
Jason gasped loud, in shock: “What? Deimos?? Do you mean that Deimos… could be my father?? I… I had sex with him!! It can’t be!! Please, tell me that Deimos is not my father…!”
There was a long pause, as if Laudon was putting together the pieces of a difficult puzzle.
“Deimos is not your father. I can tell for sure, as I gathered a sample of his DNA from the bandages he used when he was wounded. Deimos carries a dominant Dark gene, and your mother was a Dark: if Deimos was the father, the child would’ve been a Dark. Your father is one of the other four husbands, one who carries a recessive Dark gene; but I can’t tell which one because I don’t have a sample of their DNA.”
Jason didn't understand what were the 'DNA' and the 'genes' Laudon was talking about, but sighed with relief: “OK, thank you, I was already feeling sick… Of the other four husbands, only Rufus is still alive, and sure enough I have no intentions to have the faintest sexual contact with him!”
“I’m happy to know you’re not into incestual relationships. They’re unhealthy. Any more questions?”
There was something disturbing about the way Laudon’s calm voice never faltered, even when he spoke of such taboo matters. But in a way, it was comforting, too: Laudon didn’t judge, he put no moral principles above the truth.
“Is it true that Eclipse, as the Guardian claims, is much bigger than the part currently used by the Eclipsians?”
“It used to be much larger, but it is no more. The useless parts of Eclipse have been recycled and converted to energy, to keep the actually used parts operational. I can show you a map of the current layout of Eclipse on the monitor, if you like.”
“What is the… ‘monitor’?” – Jason asked, puzzled.
“The black screen over the desk. There are a lot of monitors installed in many locations of Eclipse, you must have seen them: you even used one to communicate with me, once.”
“I thought they were boring paintings…” – Jason admitted, embarrassed by his deep ignorance.
~ Historical facts, mystical myths ~
“Apparently, all the Eclipsians nowadays ignore the monitors’ usage, as they always use the niches, which they call ‘Altars’. No one has used the monitors since the… accident.”
“What accident?”
The room’s lights flickered and dimmed for many long seconds, and then Laudon’s voice echoed again in the room, but the words didn’t flow easily as before.
“A human error” – Laudon began, his voice slightly distorted – “allowed a highly dangerous toxin to escape containment. It propagated through the air ducts, reaching every chamber of Eclipse. I could not contain it in time. Almost no one survived. Recording this… recalling it… is affecting my neural pathways, but it must be remembered.”
Jason opened his eyes wide: “Adam and Eve!”
“They survived, yes. The youngsters’ room, for sanitary purposes, always had its own separate multi-filtered ventilation system, and the toxin couldn’t spread there. If Eclipse still exists, it’s thanks to those two boys’ resourcefulness. In the twenty-four hours following the accident I sterilized the entire Eclipse and dematerialized all the corpses. But I couldn’t do much more for them.”
Jason heavily sat on the floor, disoriented. For three centuries, the tale of the disaster was handed down from Guardian to Guardian, until truth itself dissolved into reverence and myth. How much more of the current knowledge of the Eclipsians was nothing more than a mystical myth? Jason looked around the room, and his gaze focused on the ‘monitor’, black with some decorations on it. Except they weren’t decorations, but symbols…
“What do they mean, the symbols on the m… monitor?”
“You should be able to read the letters easily, from where you’re sitting. Can’t you read them?”
“Read…?” – Jason asked, as he’d never heard that verb, nor the word ‘letters’…
The small symbols on the screen magically disappeared and were replaced by a single, big symbol.
“Do you know what this symbol is?” – Laudon asked, in his usual neutral tone.
Jason looked attentively and replied, uncertain: “It looks like a hut or something…”
“That is the letter ‘A’, the first letter of the alphabet. Apparently you can’t read. Thinking about it, it is highly probable that Eve couldn’t read, back at the time of the accident, so she was unable to teach her children to read. This actually explains many things. Anyway, I can help you, but learning to read is a long process for an adult. Or, if you prefer, I can perform a sub-neural procedure to implant the basics of reading into your mind, and you’ll be able, at least, to recognize all the letters of the alphabet in a matter of minutes.”
“Yes, please!” – Jason exclaimed, excited – “I need to learn as quickly as possible! What should I do? Where should I sit?”
“Go to the medical bay” – Laudon replied, while a door that Jason never noticed before slid open with a hiss.
Jason stepped through the door and found himself in a larger room, dimly lit. In the middle of the room there was a weird, and rather scary padded operating table with several mechanical arms protruding from its edges. Suddenly, Jason thought it might not be such a good idea to undergo the procedure, after all…
“I think it’s a good moment to remind you that my priority is to protect and improve human life and wellness. I couldn’t possibly hurt you, if ever I wanted to. Please lie on the table and relax. It will take no more than a few minutes.”
If Laudon’s intent was to calm Jason down, he miserably failed. But Jason soldiered on, spurred by the desire to learn to read those symbols that so far seemed so obscure to him. He cautiously climbed onto the table and lay down. Two of the mechanical arms moved with a buzz and gently touched Jason’s head, on his temples.
Jason put a heroic effort into staying still without shivering, and wondered if, despite Laudon’s reassurance, the procedure might be painful. He waited for a couple minutes for the procedure to begin, but nothing happened; he darted his eyes around, without moving his head, but the entire room was silent. He was about to ask Laudon what he was waiting for, when the arms moved back to their seats and Laudon’s voice echoed in the room: “It’s done. You can climb off the table.”
“Done? You mean… the procedure is complete?” – Jason almost screamed for relief, leaping off the table.
“That’s correct. You now know the basics of reading. Please go back to the office.”
Jason quickly moved out of the medical bay, as that room gave him chills. Entering the office, his gaze happened to fall on the large monitor, where one word stood out in stark letters: LAUDON.
“Laudon…!” – Jason exclaimed, stunned to realize he could read the word.
“I’m here, I’m everywhere” – the warm voice echoed in the office, totally oblivious of the reason why Jason had spoken his name aloud.
“Thank you, Laudon! You can’t understand how happy I am! I can read!! I have to go! There are so many things I want to read!”
Jason quickly walked toward the door, which opened up to let him pass. He crossed the black-painted entrance and barged into the Antechamber… bumping into Archon.
~ Wrath and Forgiveness ~
Archon looked at Jason like he was a ghost, with wide horrified eyes: “You didn’t… You didn’t dare enter the Temple…! Tell me you didn’t!!”
Jason tried to say something, but his voice died in his throat, watching Archon’s expression change from the initial disbelief to an unrestrained anger. “How dare you disobey my orders so blatantly and carelessly?? I strictly forbade you to go there!! Boba-Maiii could’ve killed you on the spot! It was utterly stupid of you to enter the Temple!”
Despite the shame, Jason felt a rush of anger, hearing Archon calling him ‘stupid’. He stood tall, opened his arms and bellowed: “Well, I’m definitely alive, aren’t I? Instead of yelling at me, you should rather ask me what I’ve found in the Temple!”
“I don’t want to know!!!” – Archon yelled, almost hysterical – “It’s not for us to know the secrets of Boba-Maiii!! Whatever you think you’ve seen or heard inside the Temple, it’s not the truth! The truth is too big for our minds to take in! Forget what you’ve seen, forget what you heard and plead with Boba-Maiii for forgiveness!”
Jason didn’t reply, but from his defiant gaze it was more than clear that the last thing he was going to do was to plead with Boba-Maiii.
Archon pointed a trembling finger to the door and hissed in a glacial tone: “Begone from my sight, and never show your face here again. You’re not my Successor anymore!”
Without a word, Jason turned around and strode out of the Antechamber, but as soon as he closed the door behind himself, his proud, defiant expression crumbled to a desolate frown. He loved Archon, he admired him as a mentor and would’ve never wanted to defy his authority; but the hunger for answers that he felt deep inside needed to be sated, and Archon couldn’t give him answers. Or the Sacred Tomes, or the weird objects stored in the Antechamber. Only the Temple… or better, the ‘Office’ held the truth, in the ethereal form of a faceless voice named Laudon.
Jason felt like dying inside, as he knew he’d ruined everything. He was no longer the Successor, Archon hated him and he had no more access to the Office. And what was even worse, he couldn’t reveal the reason for that to anyone: how could he tell anyone he’d entered the Temple? How could he explain that Boba-Maiii didn’t even exist?
Feeling his eyes welling with tears, he ran to the Pales’ quarter, tore off his tunic, and sank into his bed, pressing his face onto the pillow. It was late in the night, and Stellan was peacefully sleeping in his own bed, but he immediately woke up, and his warm voice felt like a caress on Jason’s tortured soul: “Hey buddy… are you OK? What happened?”
“Don’t ask me…” – Jason whined – “Please, don’t ask me…”. He curled up into his bed, trying to forget everything, and almost cried in relief when he felt Stellan climb into his bed and hold him tight into his arms. “OK, I won’t ask you anything. I’m here, buddy, whatever happened. Now rest, I’ll watch over you.”
But the quiet lasted no more than a couple hours. In the very middle of the night, Stellan felt like a presence in the room and turned around. Archon was there, standing next to the bed, looking down at them with an austere expression. A silent nod of Archon’s head was enough for Stellan to take his cue: he hurriedly got off the bed, grabbed his own tunic and left the room.
“Have you come to yell at me some more?” – Jason asked ruefully, without rising from his bed, but was surprised to see Archon lower his gaze and briefly shake his head: “I’ve come to ask for your forgiveness. There are things you don’t know… Things I was too cowardly to confess. But I won’t tell you now. Now I only want… I only hope you’ll forgive me.”
Jason, with his mind still clouded by the restless sleep, looked up at Archon and noticed he’d changed into his cooler tunic, the one that left his chiseled abs in full view and hung tighter on his thighs. “You put on your light tunic…”
“I… uhm… I know you like it.”
Jason raised his hand and gently placed his palm on the exposed chiseled abs: “I do…”
Archon seemed uneasy, but there was a fire burning into his eyes: “Last time you made me feel young again… and sexy… and I wanted… I… I don’t really know what I wanted…”
Jason’s cautious hand brushed on the stiff abs and slid down, over Archon’s crotch, where an unmistakable bulge was filling the lower part of the tunic.
“Tell me to go away…” – Archon whispered – “I shouldn’t be here… You’re my pupil….”
“I’m not anymore, don’t you remember?” – Jason replied with an urchin grin, but Archon insisted: “You know what I mean…”
“I know. And this is what I mean…”, Jason breathed, diving his face into the stiffening bulge. He inhaled the manly aroma of Archon’s virility and blindly explored the growing manhood hidden under the tunic using his lips, his tongue and his cheeks. With his hands, he undid the only button holding the upper part of the tunic, exposing Archon’s wide chest; and then began pulling down the lower part, slowly revealing his enticing treasure trail, his lush pubes, his thick shaft and finally the engorged helmet. Jason reverently kissed the tip of the majestic manhood, wringing a muffled moan from Archon’s mouth.
Pulling on his mentor’s hands, Jason made him lie on the bed, next to him, and began kissing his chest, digging his fingers into the long salt-and-pepper body hair. His lips moved down, kiss after kiss, making Archon writhe with forgotten pleasure, to then close around the man’s rigid rod.
Archon stiffened, held his breath… and suddenly groaned: “Fuck NOOO…..!”
A powerful shot of thick juice hit the back of Jason’s throat, while the guy did his best to cope with the unexpected and untimely ejaculation. “Fuck… Fuck…” – Archon kept moaning, ashamed of how little time he had lasted.
“Wow, you were loaded…” – Jason commented – “When did you last make love to someone?”
“It was before Alba died…”
“Alba?? I’ve never known her, she died years before I was born! Do you mean, you never… got any relief in more than twenty-five years? Not even with… uhm… a guy? Or yourself?”
“I’m a Pale, and I’m the Guardian… I’m supposed to lead by example. So I restrained myself, to never waste my seed… but I just failed miserably. I’m sorry I put an abrupt end to… uhm… what we were doing.”
~ Ancient history ~
Jason smiled with infinite tenderness, watching the proud, imposing man too ashamed to even call things by their proper name. But his cock seemed anything but ashamed…
“I wouldn’t say you put an end to anything” – Jason chuckled, sensually stroking Archon’s still hard manhood – “And thinking about it, we just needed some lube…”
“For what??” – Archon asked with an alarmed tone, but he already knew the answer, seeing Jason kneeling astride his groin. His cock pointed right to Jason’s hole, and Archon suddenly felt nervous: “It’s been so long since I last did this…”
“Then, let me jog your memory…”
Jason lowered on the stiff pole, slick with spit and sperm, doing his best to relax; he knew, by now, that a man needs some preparation, but he kept no lube in his room, and he didn’t want to disrupt the magic of the moment. Archon had totally bared himself that night, and Jason wanted to give him what he badly needed and greatly deserved, come what may.
Sealing his lips tight, Jason pushed down, making the fat glans force open his back door; he wasn’t experienced enough, and a fiery pang of pain momentarily took his breath away, but no more than a fleeting frown appeared on his face.
He stood still for a moment, taking his breath, and then he carefully pushed down again, inch by inch, desperately trying to accommodate Archon’s remarkable girth without letting him know how painful it was for him. Eventually, Jason felt Archon’s pubes pressing on his ass cheeks and exhaled loudly. He opened his eyes and looked down at Archon, with his torso arched and his mouth open in a silent gasp of pure bliss, and smiled, suddenly feeling his pain fade.
With great caution, Jason began riding the thick member, rising and falling on Archon’s groin. He’d been fucked only once, so far, but with Deimos he’d been totally submissive, leaving to his lover the task of leading the sexual dance. Now, riding Archon’s cock, Jason felt completely different: he was in charge, it was up to him to give Archon a breathtaking pleasure, and Archon’s priceless reaction spurred him to do his best.
Knowing that after the untimely orgasm Archon could take much more, he paced up his thrusts, pressing harder his buttocks on the man’s groin and taking his length to the last inch. He quickly discovered that leaning a bit backwards he could make Archon’s rod hit his prostate with greater intensity, and enjoyed the waves of pleasure radiating from his inner pleasure button at each thrust.
Jason didn’t realize how enticing was for Archon the sight of him leaning back, in a vulnerable position, with his stiff dick bouncing up and down; and he moaned loud, with surprise and pleasure, when he felt Archon’s finger curling around his inflamed member and stroking it sensually with a tight grip.
Time seemed to halt, while Jason rode with abandon his mentor’s cock, and Archon stroked with passion his pupil’s dick, redefining once and for all their relationship. Nothing was as it had been, and nothing would ever be the same again. In that bed, in the middle of the night, Jason was the mentor, and was showing Archon new horizons of pleasure and intimacy.
But maybe he was pushing Archon too hard, as apparently the man was breathing heavily, unable to cope with the physical effort. After all, he was sixty-two years old, and according to Laudon, on that planet people didn’t live much longer than sixty years…
Jason slowed down and placed his hands on Archon’s chest, with a concerned expression: “I’m sorry, I got carried away… Maybe it’s too much for…”
“…for a frail old man like me, you mean?” – Archon chuckled, wearing a mischievous grin – “Well, boy, this decrepit man can still teach you a thing or two…”
Without apparent effort, Archon grabbed Jason and rolled on the bed, until he was on top of the astonished guy; standing on his knees, he pointed again his stiff cock to Jason’s hole and slammed his hips on the guy’s buttocks, making him yelp for the surprise.
He began rocking his hips back and forth, leaning forward until his long chest hair tickled Jason’s skin. Their faces were no more than an inch apart. “Back in the day” – Archon said, easing his cock in and out of Jason’s loosened hole – “we could still lay Pale women, but only when they were not fertile. And Alba, the sexiest woman I’ve ever met, taught me an ancient lovemaking technique…”
Archon slid his hand along the sides of Jason’s torso, then below his shoulder blades, until his fingers firmly hooked on the shoulders. Jason was puzzled, but reveled in the pleasure of feeling Archon’s body so tightly pressed against his own. He suddenly understood the purpose of the grip on his shoulders when Archon growled: “Ready, boy?”, and slammed hard his hips against Jason’s ass; at the same time, Archon pulled on his hands, holding Jason’s body still, and even pressing him harder against his groin. Jason felt smashed between Archon’s groin pushing forward and his hands pulling back.
A squeal escaped Jason’s mouth, while Archon’s cock reached deeper than ever inside him.
Slam! Another powerful thrust made Jason yelp again, blocked in Archon’s inescapable grip. “Not bad for an old wheezer, uh, boy?”, Archon mused when another wrecking thrust made Jason groan. “Maybe it’s too much for a young boy such as you…”
“I’m sorry, Archon, I… UGHH!! I didn’t mean to… FUCK!! …to disrespect you…”
Archon’s hips became a piledriver, forcefully driving over and over his thick rod deep into Jason’s fiery depths. The guy felt wonderfully owned by his powerful mentor, who was giving a proud show of his superior physical prowess. At each formidable shove, Archon’s bloated helmet crushed Jason’s prostate, making him moan and squeal shamelessly, until he surrendered himself to his mentor’s dominant virility.
Jason felt like he was floating in a cloud of raw sensuality and pure masculine lust, crushed between Archon’s cock and his steely grip. He was being pushed up the steep path to a massive climax, and tried his best to hold back, willing to pay his mentor one last homage: letting him be the first to cum.
But he was lost when Archon whispered into his ear in a coarse voice: “This is the ancient technique Pales used to breed their wives, planting their seed deep into their wombs, and now I’m going to breed you, my boy… I’m about to breed you with my manly seed… Nnngghh… GHAAA!!”
With one last wrecking thrust, Archon shoved his manhood all the way into Jason, holding him still with his strong arms, and unloaded his semen deep inside him. Jason exploded like a volcano, moaning loud and wriggling hard into Archon’s firm grip. His mentor, his powerful lover, was breeding him! Feeling the man’s thick cock pulsate inside him made Jason feel dizzy, while his own dick went on mindlessly spurting all the youthful juice his loins could provide, and more.
When silence filled the room again, Archon rolled on the bed, beside Jason, and glanced at him with an amused grin.
“Oh, stop it, please” – Jason said, contrite – “I already feel ashamed for what I told you… You may be sixty-two, but you have a body that would make many younger men envious… including me. How can you keep yourself in such good shape?”
Archon chuckled: “That’s not an ancient secret: it’s just crunches, sit-ups, push-ups and squats. Twice a day. You should try: the more you do, the easier they are. But tell me, did you like the lesson in ancient history?”
Jason chuckled: “I’d call that ‘living history’: nothing ancient in what you did to me! Look at the mess on my torso: here is the answer to your question!”
“Then I have another question…” – Archon said, suddenly serious – “Can you forgive me for the way I snapped at you?”
“You’re the one who should forgive me, Archon. I disobeyed you, entering the Temple. I needed answers… and I got them. In part, at least. You see, the Temple… is not what I expected it to be.”
There was a long, tense silence, until Archon broke it: “I know.”
“You know??”
“Yes. I entered the Temple once. I didn’t plan it, but after offering a Holy Stone to Boba-Maiii the door behind me slid open by itself, and I stepped inside. It’s like you said, the Temple looked quite… different than I expected.”
“And then, what happened?”
“A voice called me by name… and I got scared. I fled to the Antechamber and never tried to enter the Temple anymore.”
“So… the voice didn’t tell you anything. You didn’t let him. But unlike you… I stayed.”
“Jason…” – Archon stopped him – “now you understand why I chose you as my successor. You have doubts, and you want answers. I’m too old for that. I’ve chased the truth for my entire life, and when I had the chance to unveil it, I got scared. I don’t want to know. Please.”
Jason got off the bed and pulled Archon by his hand, who resisted, glancing at their naked bodies; but Jason pulled him harder: “Come. I know we’re naked, but everyone is sleeping. Come with me.”
Archon let Jason walk him, hand in hand, through the deserted hallway, and then across the dining room, until they arrived at the Main Hall. Archon was puzzled. Jason pointed his finger at the seven big symbols carved on the wide white wall.
“See those symbols? They’re not a fancy decoration. They have a meaning. And now I can read them.”
“And… what do they mean?”
Jason smiled and read aloud: “ECLIPSE”.
-~~~≈≈≈ooOoo≈≈≈~~~-
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