Sybaritical Stories

    I was just stepping out of the shower when they appeared. I'd felt something. I couldn't define it but it was odd. I have learned to trust my instincts so I rushed out into the bedroom with wet hair clutching a towel around me. I was just in time to see a Roman arch made of golden light form out of midair and three people walk out of it.

"Who, are you people ?" I didn't know why but I wasn't shocked or even incredulous. I can't even say I was too surprised except by how calmly I was taking there entrance.

"Sorry we caught you in the shower but we had to come get you as soon as we located you." That was the guy in the group. He was tall and dark skinned with black curly hair and vivid green eyes. Two women flanked him but I concentrated on the man first.

"Locate? Why and how did you locate me?"

"Two good questions. Both have the same answer." He took a deep breath as if to start a long explanation but he was interrupted.

"It's because you're one of us. A Diaboli." That was the woman on his right. Now that I was looking at her I noticed she was Irish as I was with milk pale skin, bright red hair and eyes the exact same shade of green as mine.Or as the man come to think of it.

I rolled my eyes, "Right. Because I always enter strange bedrooms through an arch of light and start spouting nonsense at people."

My sarcasm just made them all grin. The leader actually chuckled. "Well if we had any doubt about it the fact that you saw the arch would have proved it to me. Even without the green eyes."

"Hey, just because I'm not screaming in fear don't think I buy your BS story. I'm about this far from calling the police on all your asses." I held up thumb and finger an appropiate distance apart. "I'm an officer of the court you know. If you want to avoid trouble you'd better give a much better reason than the fact that we all have green eyes." I dragged the towel tighter around me and started marching towards the phone by the bed. It was strange that we all had the exact same shade of green though. Also although green eyed redheads aren't all THAT rare, the two with the guy looked enough like me to be my twins.

"Yes." The women on the left said,"We are your sisters in every sense. We can prove it if you like and we can tell you why we were all put up for adoption separately."

"Show me!" I demanded. I was outwardly calm. I had learned to put a good front long ago. Still I was like every adopted kid. I wanted badly to know my family and why they put me up for adoption. With all that was happening I felt like I was on the world’s biggest rollercoaster ride but I calmly sat on the bed and drew my legs up under the towel. I'd have to get dressed eventually but I couldn't do it with them in the room and I didn't want them to go until they had explained.

"We can but let me introduce us first." He pointed to himself, "I am Luis. To my left is Deirdre and to my right is Maeve."

"I'm Colleen." I said and cautiously extended a hand. They all shook it and smiled.

"Now let us get to that proof." Maeve said, "First can you see this?" and held her hands out palms facing each other about a foot apart. Between her palms twisted and flowed ... something hard to describe. It was a field of energy, a band of color not in the normal spectrum, something vastly different. As I struggled to sort out what I saw I realized I wasn't actually seeing. The only way I can explain it in words is to say my brain perceived it without using any physical sense organ. It was an incredibly odd sensation.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Proof that you are one of us. Only we can perceive this energy directly. You are Diaboli." She shook her hands and the energy dissipated. "Second here are doctor's reports on the birth of triplets and paperwork on us being put up for adoption, including three birth certificates listing the same mother and father for all of us." She was pulling document out of the bag on her shoulder and laying them on the bed.

I was in shock. Triplets? That would explain some things. Many parents who want to adopt only want one child. Triplets are a lot more expense and trouble. I'd seen that in my work for the court. It didn't explain everything though. Still I snatched the Birth Certificates from her hand and stared at them. They were either genuine or really great forgeries. I started to read through the other documents when the man's nervous voice broke into my concentration.

"We'll show you everything and explain everything back at base." Luis was glancing out the windows and at the front door nervously. "We should go soon. We are a hidden society for a reason. We as a group attempt to protect humanity from a murderous group of people who call themselves Homo Supremis. They interfere in the lives and destinies of Earth humans and all too often cause the deaths of innocent bystanders. We have powers to use against them and so do you. However while we'll be happy to teach you how to use your powers we can't stay here much longer. One of THEM is looking for you and she will eventually find this apartment. We can defeat them but we generally need to have both surprise and numbers on our side. Please come with us. You'll be safe, and you'll learn about your family's legacy."

"There's no immediate danger we can stay long enough for her to convince herself of our identity and to pack an overnight bag or at least get dressed." That was Maeve; she seemed more talkative than Deirdre.

"Just because we didn't detect anyone doesn't mean they can't show up suddenly!" Luis was definitely nervous. "You know how fast they travel."

"Yeah but they are still far behind on the trail. They aren't known for their brains..." Maeve started to say but was interrupted.

"No, but they do have brains and those brains work well enough. Most of them." Luis smiled briefly then became serious again. The other two both snorted.

I interrupted, "Do we need to leave? If hordes of bad guys are going to be attacking the building then I'll just throw something on and we can talk elsewhere. I'd hate to get my neighbors killed just because I took too long to decide something."

I wasn’t sure I believed them but there was definitely something very unusual going on and if it was possible that staying here would endanger my entire apartment complex then I would leave. I had already decided against calling the authorities. After all what could even New York’s Finest do against people that can appear out of thin air? Also I considered the fact that they could have just grabbed me and taken me someplace but instead they were trying to convince me to go with them willingly. Therefore I figured I was safe enough with them for the present.

The response I got to my question was pretty jumbled but I sifted the following facts out the tangle. Whether or not the enemy came and how soon depended on following a convoluted trail. I knew how difficult that could be since I tried to trace my own origins once and got nowhere. Part of that failure was apparently due to my sisters swiping every document on my earliest days they could get their hot little hands on. Still the enemy had more resources than most and might still find me and apparently that would be really bad. I decided I at least had enough time to get dressed and I wasn't worried about them disappearing and leaving me in the dark so I shooed them all out of my bedroom and dressed. As I left I saw Luis still nervously watching the door and windows while Deirdre and Maeve were looking through my bookshelf and smiling.

"I'm ready now." I was carrying all the documents Maeve had left on my bed. I walked over to her and handed them back. "I'll finish reading them later. For now I believe you. One thing disturbs me though. You say that just one of them could kill all four of us? I mean that’s pretty bad odds. I mean it’s like telling somebody they've been drafted by the losing side in a war."

Luis looked sheepish, "That’s the usual ratio. Four of us to take down one of them. We now have almost 4 times as many of us now so I'd say we are about even generally. We are not asking you to join a forlorn hope. Still if we are all caught by surprise here we could all die before we knew we were under attack."

"Yeah but we have you to let us know when she is coming and we are better off than most Diaboli in the power department. Once we get Colleen trained we're gonna kick major ass." Maeve said and Deirdre agreed with a fierce, "Yes!" and a fist pumped into the air.

"Maybe. In fact I hope so. But she's not trained yet and I make a better bloodhound than fighter." His dark face colored in a blush.

Deirdre mussed his hair and smiled, "You might be a hound but you're our hound and we like you just the way you are."

"Yeah. You are great at long range detection but you worry too much. They try to keep a low profile and the blondes at least usually try not to kill bystanders. So I don't think they'll attack the building as a whole. Not that overkill isn't still their middle name but I don't think they'd kill anybody but us."

"It's us I'm worried about!" Luis protested. "Besides how do we know which side will get here first?"

"You've got a point there but I still don't think we're in great danger." Maeve didn't look as confident as she had so I interrupted.

"Is there a better than 5% chance of us getting killed if we talk about here as opposed to there. Wherever there is?" I asked.

"Yes, at least that." They all nodded.

"Then let’s go."

Chapter Two

Maeve and Deirdre joined hands, looked each other in the eye and started a chant. At first they were a little off. Not quite in sync with each other, but soon their chants merged into unison and the stopped speaking and turned, breaking contact to stand on either side of the bedroom doorway. They extended both hands and I felt them draw in the energy Maeve had shown me. After a long moment they nodded together and energy poured forth from their outstretched hands. It poured out in torrents and seemed to vanish into thin air. They took no notice and poured it forth in a steady even stream. I looked to Luis for explanation. He was looking out the window again so I tapped his shoulder.

"Yes." he said before I asked. "I know what they are doing." He didn't turn towards me but kept on nervously scanning the skies. Since I was pretty sure it wasn't his eyes he was mainly using to look for attackers I put that down to nervousness. He continued, "They are building a Quantum Tunnel to our home base. It takes lots of energy but once open it's extremely speedy. Effectively instantaneous transport limited only by energy availability. It's not easy to create though. It takes math that makes calculus look easy as well as a bodacious capacity for using interdimensional energies. Don't worry, they know what they are doing but it will be quite awhile before you can do it too. Home Base is very comfortable as well as safe. I think you'll like it. Once there we'll explain more fully, and if you join us we'll train you to use whatever abilities you have to their fullest extent. I just hope we get there before some homicidal wench finds us."

I started looking out the window too. "I sure hope so. I hate when that happens." When he turned to look at me in surprise I grinned. None of it felt real to me just then so I was incapable of worrying. My curiosity and sense of wonder had totally overwhelmed any part of me that might have been afraid. I pinched his shoulder and told him to look on the bright side. "You probably think I'm crazy right now but I'm just dealing with the shock. Better confidence or even mania than hiding under the covers and wishing it would all go away right? Well I think so anyway."

They finished without us being found or attacked. A glowing golden arch appeared in my bedroom doorway. "All aboard!" They called out giggling and still in unison. Luis offered me his hand and I took it. We walked into the archway and were gone. The trip, well the best I can say about it that it sort of looked like a Sci-fi special effect but better, way better. We arrived in ... another bedroom.

"Hey! I was expecting all sorts of cool tech stuff or maybe dark stone corridors? This looks like a normal bedroom."

"It is a normal bedroom." Maeve said from behind me, "It's my bedroom."

"Nothing about you is normal sis." Deirdre said.

I turned to look and the arch was gone.

"Ok. Now that we are here safely let's have those explanations and don't leave out a thing."

"Well now that you are here you can see the presentation we usually show new people. We were ready to give the highlights personally because you're our sister but I guess it's better for you to see the whole thing. If you have any questions afterward we'll gladly answer them."

Luis headed for the door, "I'll go report our successful return." He smiled, "If you think you can handle the rest without me?"

Both of then chuckled, and Maeve answered. "Need you? For what? Go and deal with the paperwork we'll handle the fun parts."

Before we went anywhere I had to ask, "Ok what is his relationship with you two? I'm not up for anything kinky."

They started laughing so hard it took them awhile to speak. If we really were triplets then they got all of the giggle DNA. Finally Deirdre answered.

"He's dating Maeve and her only. He'll occasionally hug me and pretend to be surprised when I say I'm me but he'd never really try anything."

"Yeah he knows better than to cheat on me." Maeve asserted. "You can't hide things from a telepathic lover." She walked to the door and held it open. "Now let’s get you to Orientation. We'll be the only ones there in case you wondered."

The orientation room didn't seem to have much. Four comfortable reclining chairs and a locked cabinet. Maeve speaks, "Sit anywhere and we'll give you the notebook and let you read at your own pace. If you have questions we'll do our best to answer. As far as I know it’s all true but feel free to male your own decisions on whether to believe it. Once you’re finished and have asked any questions you may have we'll give you a tour and introduce you to the important people around here."

"You mean the bosses?" I replied as I sat down."

"I mean those who get the most done and those who manage to keep all of us going in more or less the same direction." She stops and grins, "Most of the time."

While I was talking to her I saw Deirdre go to the locked cabinet and input a really long Prime number. How did I know it was Prime? I recognized it, part of a spooky math ability I've always had. Maybe here I'd get the answer to why I had it along with more necessary answers. Once the cabinet was open Deirdre removed a leather bound book.

"That’s it? Orientation is in the form of a notebook?"

"Yes. It was written a long time ago and has been recopied as languages changed. We still have the original in Latin if you want to read that. It does not deteriorate as a normal book does." She made a visible effort not to go off on a tangent and I was thankful for that. "As for why we haven't used anything more sophisticated...well a book can't be hacked. Nor can it be accessed by remote or intercepted between two parties without their knowledge. We consider it safer as long as it stays underground here. You can take as long as you need to read it but we never remove it from this room."

Deirdre hand it the book in her hands to me. "The English version ok?"

"Yes," I managed to say. I took the book and started to read.

They were two ancient races in the dim mists of time several millennia ago and while they were not the first to become self aware or even the first two to fare across the galaxies they might have the first two to take an implacable dislike to one another. No peace was considered. No truce possible. It was hate at first meeting and escalated to genocide as they each attempted to annihilate the others species from the galaxy.

I stopped and looked up, "How does the story of two ancient warmongers tell me why I was adopted?"

Deirdre answered, "Because their battle is still being fought if not by them and our parents were a casualty of that war."

Maeve nodded, "They were in deep cover when they were exposed and killed. We were infants then. The police took us from the crime scene and were eventually sent to an orphanage where we were adopted by three different people. By the time someone could get to the orphanage you had already been adopted. They tried to trace you but couldn’t until we got old enough to do it ourselves. The two of us have been together since we turned twelve and have been looking for you since we were fourteen." She grabbed Deirdre’s hand, "We weren’t going to stop until we found you and I’m glad we did."

Deirdre squeezed Maeve’s hand back, "Me too. I hope we can convince you."

"I’m starting to believe. We do look uncannily alike. There are still lots of questions I have though."

"Then keep reading and ask whatever questions come to your mind."

I kept on reading. The notebook said that one of these races called themselves the Galen and the other as the Elders. Their battles raged across the backdrop of the galaxy and stars shuddered in the wake of their weapons. No battle was ever decisive but eventually the Elders, who were never numerous and were distinctly outnumbered by the Galen, decided that this was a war that would be settled only by attrition and therefore was one they destined to lose. They put much thought into how they could avoid this fate. They poured resources into new weapons of war but the Galen were truly their equals in everything but outlook and the long deadlock continued with small but equal numbers dying on each side. They did think of one stratagem that would deprive the Galen of all females of their race but needed special circumstance to put that into action and if anything went wrong their race would be annihilated in the process.

Further thought on this stratagem showed that if they had allies of even a few percent of their power the odds would tip in their favor. However this posed its own problem for though there were other species that had evolved intelligence none were at their level and most were still living as primitive tribesmen on their home planets. So if the elders needed allies they would need to find an alien race, train it well and then convince them to undertake a suicide mission. This seemed unlikely on the face of it but a group was put together to consider all the possibilities and eventually they decided on a race and a gambit they hoped would lead to their victims willingly dying for the Elders.

"The race they picked was us? Humanity?" I asked.

"Yes," Maeve nodded. "We were the ones chosen. In fact we three are descended from those chosen. That’s what makes us who we are."

I read on and discovered that the species chosen was indeed humanity and the gambit was appearing to ancient races and pretending to be gods. With their abilities and millennia long lifespans it was not hard for them to convince the primitive humans that they were gods. Once the belief was firm and they thought the natives were ready, the Elders transported them to other planets. Then the Elders proceeded to try to bring out latent abilities inherent in humans as well as teach them abilities that none other than the Elders had ever had. They were not trying to create equals though just shock troops.

The training went well. In fact it went better than expected. However they had underestimated humanity and all but one planet saw through their deceptions and refused to go with them on their last attack on the Galen. Those that did go were enough to allow them to use their stratagem and the Galen were reduced by 50% and left with no natural way of continuing their species. However the low numbers of willing cannon fodder took its toll on their own number. They were not quite annihilated but they lost 99% of their race in that single blow. There have been no reliable sightings of an Elder since shortly after that but the Galen continued to be a factor for awhile.

I put the book down and asked, "So are the Elders gone then? Are they extinct?"

Maeve replied, "We have no way of knowing. Some survived after the climactic battle and they had no enemies strong enough to kill them in the normal course of things. They may have died out but they may just be in hiding. I doubt they will be too active while some Galen still exist but there have been unconfirmed reports of them meddling in our affairs and starting a black lodge in the American Northwest. I believe that wasn’t them though. There is enough bad in people to explain what was reported without resorting to such extremes."

Deirdre poked her, "Hey don’t get her all confused now." She turned to Colleen, "She tends to digress a lot. All you need to know at present is that they may still be alive but there is less evidence for them still being active than there is for Bigfoot to be scaring campers."

I continued reading to find that the Galen had also been fiddling with humans but only as a science project of sorts. They were pretty close to humanity in appearance though so after they lost all their females they concentrated their efforts in one direction and created a subspecies of humanity they hoped would be able to breed with them. They got it partly right. The union became physically possible and produced offspring but the offspring bred true to the mother's type not the father's. They abandoned the first group and created a second with whom they had more success. Of this second group not much is known since they seem to be very insular. The first group, the mistake, is very definitely not insular. They, deprived of their original purpose by their creators, and no longer able to blend back into the normal human population struggled to find a niche for themselves.

Along the way they christened themselves Homo Supremis to show how far from normal people the Galen had brought them. They also split into two groups. One is unabashedly militaristic and elitist and calls itself the Arion Empire. The other calls itself the Enlightenment but is an old fashioned "father knows best" patriarchy despite the fact that its most capable warriors are female. They must be wary of this situation for their "Protectors" are not let back home once they are sent out to fight. This is sad as for many of them their lives are exceedingly lonely and some spend their whole lifetime battling their brethren in the Empire. Such battles are never kind to innocent bystanders and sometimes even the cities in which they take place are leveled before there is a winner. Both sides are supremely confident in being on the right side and attack each other without hesitation and with all the power contained within them. Later you will see just how puissant they are. For now I only give the bare bones in order to show you where you come in. You are neither of these Galen creations. They are in fact the people we fight as we must. Those of the Empire have an order to destroy us wherever and whenever they can. The "Protectors" have no such order but little compassion and much suspicion. They kill too at times, and even when they do not we here on Earth fight them so as to prevent the collateral damage that could so easily kill so many of our fellow earthlings.

You are descended from those who saw through the deceptions of the Elders and were christened Diaboli by them. This was originally in their language but we were also christened with the same name upon our return to Earth as we were rightfully skeptical or the church's hold on Europe and the label has stuck. But do not feel shame fellow Diaboli, you are not evil. You are a force for freedom and knowledge. We oppose all tyrants and seek to protect our home world from those who would enslave it or wantonly wreck it in pursuit of ancient vendettas.