Novelas:Sun of Zartha

………

In the infinite universe there are many potential possibilities for intelligent life. Or should I say, infinite possibilities. That’s common knowledge. At one time, I was of the impression that alien life was just that – alien. Different. Unlike myself. But the love of a woman, a very special woman, matched with memories...memories I forgot I even had - memories of another very special woman, a mother that I gave up for dead, said something totally different to me.

When I lost Laura, I thought I lost everything. But that loss was nothing more than the catalyst - the very thing that opened everything up. Losing Laura turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.

………

July 2002

12:18am Saturday

Through the starry void, an egg shaped transport was flowing, no, streaking, from New York City on its way to an alien planet. The young woman inside was both bewildered and sad. She was crying. She was forced by circumstance to leave the only man in her life she had ever really loved (even though she basically just met the man). Just a few hours earlier she was flipping through Bride’s Magazine for the first time in months, and a huge smile erupted from deep within her.

Now she learns she is destined to be a queen, with the power to blow up the Earth with her very essence.



This is not fair, she thought to herself. I want Jay. I want Jay. Somehow I will get him back. Somehow. I have to. I have to.

After flying through outer space for what seemed like an eternity, Laura saw a huge green planet loom in front of her. With a dull red glow all around, the silvery transport came down lower and lower into the airspace of this planet, until it reached the twinkling late night lights of what looked like a small town or village below.

Meanwhile, on the planet of Zartha, the chief ambassador was on a cell phone talking to the queen.

"Yeah, she just entered Zarthan airspace", the woman said. "I'm going outside to meet her right now. I'll call you back after she goes to bed. Yeah. All right. Jay's probably takin' it real hard...I know, Angie...OK, Angie...Yes, Angie...OK, Angie, I'll handle it, all right?...OK. Bye, Angie." Click.

Then the spaceship glided waftily upon a huge lawn. It was a humid yet cool night. Clouds were forming overhead.

Laura got out of the ship, and small sprinkly droplets of rain immediately began to fall. Facing her was a magnificent palace, the likes of which she had never seen in person. It looked like maybe Buckingham Palace or Versailles, but much weirder, almost Seussian in its eccentric opulence. The light from inside of this palace blazed out of the windows, illuminating the expansive stone patio before it with a crystalline silvery bluish-whiteness. These windows were larger, the spires more intricate, than Buckingham Palace, Versailles, or any of the grandest royal mansions anywhere on Earth.

On this large patio, in front of a massive stone fountain, bigger even than the one in "Friends", stood a young, large-boned medium-skinned Black woman in her mid 20’s, her red hair in intricate braids, wearing sunglasses exactly like the ones Jay wore (at night?), on which the sprinkles of rain were gathering, so after she put a cell phone in the pocket of her Nike shorts, she took the sunglasses off. She was wearing a jumbo-sized New Orleans Saints hockey-style jersey and had a strange necklace on, a necklace made of silvery-gray rock beads and a stone-gray metallic round medallion, which looked like a sun design with snakily undulating rays coming out of the center, with bumpy circles on the rays, similar to fractal designs.

Standing behind her were several attendants wearing elaborate Edwardian clothes.

“Laura Vasquez,” she called out in a honey-rich voice. Her smile was reserved yet warmly self-confident.

Laura walked slowly towards the woman, still in a state of ontological shock.

“Welcome home, your highness,” the woman continued. “Welcome to the land of Zartha.

“My name is Shakita. I’m your boyfriend’s cousin.”

“Cousin?...OK...ummm...Is Jay an…alien?” Laura asked with the most puzzled and bewildered look.

Shakita cocked a jaunty, wide-eyed, toothy grin. “Girl, you mean like YOU? The answer to that is…yeah!

“Our family comes from a Zartha person who traveled to the Earth centuries ago. Come on inside before we get all wet.”

The palace was brilliant. Everything inside was massive and opulent and a pervasive crystalline light seemed to illuminate the considerably vast halls. The palace seemed to be very, very old, but there were items inside that were clearly of a highly advanced technological design. Everything, from the walls to the windows to the furniture, seemed to be designed in spheres or circles.

“Oh, my God,” Laura marveled, “this place is so beautiful...” Then she saw it. On an elaborate small wooden table, were several pictures of Jay in his MIB uniforms. One of them caught Laura’s eye and she became tremendously animated.

It was a picture of Laura and Jay, arms around each other and smiling for the camera. Jay was in his black suit, and Laura was in the same clothes she had on right now.

“That picture on that table!" she said, pointing and shaking her finger at the 8" x 10" picture, sitting in an ornate silver frame, in which Shakita had placed the photo about an hour before. "That’s me and Jay! Oh, my God! Kay just took that picture TONIGHT! In New York! On his cell phone! Just - just a few hours ago at, at this apartment building where these worms live!!!

Laura then looked at Shakita with an incredulous staring frown. "How the hell did that get up HERE?”

Shakita smiled and said, “I’ll get to that. Come on, down this hallway.”

After walking down a long, long, long corridor, they went into another large room with a lavish round bed. “This is where you will sleep. Have a seat.”

As she sat down on the luxurious satiny sheets, Laura continued excitedly, “All right, please, pleeeeze tell me what the hell is going on here. It's bad enough I find out my boss is an alien - was an alien, and now I'M an alien and I have to leave New York on a spaceship. And how the hell are Jay’s people from this planet? Why is that important? Why the hell am I even here? He was all trying to find this Light of Zartha – and it turns out that I’m it? Why is that?"

Laura began to cry a little bit at this point. The rain outside began to fall just a little bit harder.

Shakita glanced at the rain falling outside, then smiled, took Laura's hand and said, “Hold up, calm, down, let’s back up and start from the beginning. A little background might make you understand everything that’s been happening to you the last few days. It may even help you understand what’s happened to you your whole LIFE. Listen up.

“In the beginning of time - "

"Whoa," Laura said. "The beginning of time? Do we really have to go back THAT far?"

Shakita gave Laura a smirkly, slightly exasperated look. "Yeah, we do. I have to."

"Sorry," Laura said, looking down for a second. "Go on."

Shakita continued. "In the beginning of time the universe decided to express itself by making things, planets and stars and all that stuff. One of those planets was Zartha. Now Zartha was uninhabited for millions of years, but about 2000 years ago there was another big explosion of energy. Pieces of that energy landed on Zartha and became animated beings of light. Beings that could think, feel, communicate, love, all that stuff.

"These light beings are the S’aa. They started families by marrying other, more dense life forms. Your mother is a part of one of those families. So are you. You are of the house of the S’aa. You are a being of pure cosmic Light wrapped all up inside of a human body.”

“But – but… I have…insides.”

“Sure you do, baby…and they work just like a human’s insides do…with a few exceptions. It’s ALL made of light. That’s what’s so cool about it.”

“How do I know all of this is even real?”

“How did you know the Men In Black were real, before last night?” Shakita said, with a patient smile.

“I guess you have a point…but why…I mean…why ME?”

“You are the latest in the line of the S’aa, born of a mother from right here on the homeworld, to come along at the same time the Sun of Zartha came along.”

“So, me and this Sun of Zartha have some connection? What IS the Sun of Zartha?”

Shakita gave a laugh. “Connection? Girl, the two of y’all have a LOVE connection!” She gave the “two and two” sign from the Chuck Woolery series. Laura showed mild amusement.

“Just like royalty to act like that, girl…Let me continue…And, by the way, the question you need to be asking is not ‘what’ is the Sun of Zartha, but ‘who’ the Sun of Zartha really is.”

“Now listen to my story…

“About 1000 years ago there was a massive solar explosion, a solar gamma ray superwave, which reached our planet. It was a big-time destructive cataclysm. It was so strong the solar flares actually came down and burned a lot of us up. The electromagnetic energy here was so strong and so charged up, one of those solar flares formed itself out of a mass of cosmic solar dust, and became a living humanoid being, just like the light did. That being was T'ola'an.

"T'ola'an stayed to help fix the damage he caused, and the people accepted him as a mighty sun god and king. He liked it here, but he became lonely and wanted to look for other people in the universe who liked him, since he wanted a wife. So he went on a little expedition. He went to Earth in his sun chariot. He went to the continent they call…Africa.“

“This is getting weird,” Laura mused.

“Wait, honey, it gets better.”

“Lord T'ola'an took a wife in Africa. West Africa. He took a few wives, as a matter of fact. These wives took on some of the powers and abilities of their husband by being intimate with him; he transferred his DNA to them. The children had even greater powers.

"The families continued along, all down through the centuries. Some of them were taken away as slaves. Jay and I are the descendants of those people. We are T’ola'a. We are the Sun People, the children of the great Lord of the Sun. Look…”

Shakita produced a Louisiana driver’s license with her personal information printed right on it. Laura found that itself out of place on a planet several million light years away, but then she saw the name:

Shakita Angelique Tolan

“Your last name… it’s…”

“Tolan. It’s really T'ola'an but spelled differently over the years. We kept our family identity throughout the centuries. Even during slavery.

Shakita then imagined herself earlier that day driving down I-10 in New Orleans in her red Chrysler 300. “Down in New Orleans our family lives in secret. We sorta kinda blended in to regular human ‘Earth’ society but we still practice our knowledge and our special rituals and prayers in secret. We teach each other how to make the sun rise strong in us, to know the power and the awesome energy of the solar flare that we are born with. And we make floats for Mardi Gras!

"Here on Zartha they consider us a founding family, a ruling family, for obvious reasons. Anyone in our family, anyone who is T’ola'a, can come up here, anytime they want to, move here and live here permanently, no hassles. The respect for our people up here is that strong, girl.

"The sun is in our BLOOD. It’s who we are.”

When Shakita said that, Laura thought she saw her eyes light up with a dull coal-red glow. What she did not know is that her own eyes began to light up with a pale whitish-green glow at that moment.

Shakita noticed that but said nothing, just smiled knowingly.

“And Laura...the Light is in YOUR blood, girl. It’s who YOU are.”

Laura shook her head, still a little overwhelmed at it all. She stared for another moment at this strange young woman and began to speak again.

“You know, I feel like I’ve known Jay my entire life. I felt so comfortable around him, so safe and protected...he was so sad to see me go tonight. He looked like he was about to cry. I told him it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that we were falling in love so soon, and having so much fun together. I mean I was in his world, with his boss and all his little alien buddies - especially those worms! They cracked me up, they were so sweet…” here she began to weep a little bit.

“I can’t believe this! I’ve only been with him for a few hours...and I love him…I love that man!” She began to cry harder. The medallion around Shakita began to glow red.

“Shakita, I HAVE to have that man in my life. I’ll just DIE if I can’t be with him!”

“Girlfriend, you see… you don’t know how right you are about that. You DO need to have Jay in your life, Laura! That’s the whole POINT. That’s the WHOLE, entire reason why you’re up here on this planet. Because you DO love Jay, and Jay loves you. Don’t you see, girl? That’s why you’re here.”

“See, Jason – that’s his real name – his mom is pretty damn close to pure blood Zarthan. In order for the prophecy of the Light of Zartha to be fulfilled, a male child – a boy—had to be born to a female in the divine royal bloodline of our family so he could grow up, become a sun god, marry the Light and have a son, a prince..the Son of the Light. You followin’ me?”

“I think so, Shakita.”

“Jason was that child. Jason was that boy. We believe he is the reincarnation of our great Lord T'ola'an himself.

So, therefore, Jay IS the Sun of Zartha.”

“whoa…” Laura mused.

“That’s right, your boyfriend, my cousin, Jason LeRoi Tolan Edwards, is royalty to this planet, Laura. His mother is the Queen of Zartha, and I'm the chief ambassador. I'm the connection between here on homeworld and the family’s operations in New Orleans.”

“whoa…” Laura mused again. “JAY is royalty? But...he’s an agent...a - COP!…”

"Well he ain’t gonna be a cop for much longer. He IS a sun god, Laura. I'm serious. A sun-god. Like in the comic books. He can do all the things we can do and more. He has the power of, what is it, somethin' like 5 or 6,000 high-intensity solar gamma ray bursts just waitin’ to come out of him RIGHT NOW. Each one of those bursts ALONE is capable of puttin’ out 30 times more energy in one second than the sun back in Earth’s galaxy puts out in 100,000 years.”

Laura gasped. “Well, if I’m the Light of Zartha, then...what power do I have?” she asked with some trepidation and hesitation.

“Way the hell more than that,” Shakita said with a serious grin. Laura gasped again, shocked. “Trust me girl, you DO.

"So now that you’re up here safely on Zartha - thanks in large part to some excellent detective work by Jay, now HE needs to get up here too. Because really Jay’s the one who needs to be up here just as much as you do - if not MORE so.

“And he needs to get up here pretty soon or his power will get too much for the Earth to handle. He needs to come up here and marry you, be the leader of his people that he was BORN to be...that means to rule right up alongside you as king of this planet and help you give birth to the Son of the Light.”

Laura could not believe what she was hearing. “I’m supposed to be queen? But I’m going to film school...I have plans for my life, Shakita. I want a career in Hollywood. I want to make films.”

“Films? Girl, you will go through enough drama just being queen. And Jason will have enough drama being king. Enough for a million movies.

"Look, Laura, I’m tellin’ you, girl, the plan for your life has changed. Big time. All the knowledge of the entire universe is already IN you. There’s no need for you to even go to college. And you can forget about going back to that pizza place you were working at. That’s OVER.

“Laura, you got the power to create entire PLANETS - even galaxies! Why would you want to fool around with making movies? Why would you want to fool around with making PIZZA?”

Laura looked disappointed for a second.

Shakita continued. “Let it go, girl, just let it GO. You and Jay have a destiny to fulfill. You have to get Jay up here to Zartha to help you rule his people. They already know who he is. They consider him a divine prince. They love that man, Laura.”

“All right, let me get all this straight," Laura said. "You mean to tell me that Jay is a Zarthan, these people are HIS people, and he’s SUPPOSED to be up HERE, too, with ME?”

Shakita smiled a bright smile of confirmation. Laura’s disappointment melted into a deep smile of joy that rose up from within her. This night, which just an hour before was the saddest of all nights, was turning out to be one of the happiest in her entire life.

The rain outside let up a little bit.

But Laura had some further questions.

“Shakita, how will Jay know all this? Does Jay even know? Is he even aware of what he is?”

“No, baby, Jay does not know. His bosses have kept the truth about his heritage, his identity, from him all these years, since he was a little kid. But we in the family knew. Our mothers, and that includes YOUR mother, too, Laura...they wanted to bring him up, to raise him up the right way, to teach him that he was really Lord T'ola'an, but the MIB got scared. They thought Jay might grow up and abuse his power and try and take over the universe. The MIB took Jay from his mother and forced her to go into exile. They threw her in JAIL, girl. She really kinda agreed to it...there was a lot of internal drama goin’ on here on Zartha at the time and she didn’t have full control of the government...

“They wanted to keep him from being initiated into the secrets, the rituals.., So we had to wait. We were forced to allow him to be taken from the family and grow up outside of our love, our influence…We were just waiting for the right time. And that time is pretty much right about now.

“What’s more, you SHOULD feel like you’ve known him your whole life - because you HAVE.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“We made sure to MAKE you and Jay to fall in love.”

“Say what?” Laura had an incredulous smile on her face.

“Yeah, girl, when you were a baby, the High Command sneaked you down to New Orleans. Jay’s mother made him hold you in his own arms.”

“Oh, my God…Is that true?” An excited grin flashed on Laura’s face. Jay KNEW me when I was a BABY?

At that moment a wave of mental activity immediately hit Laura like a subway train. Images flooded her mind that had not been to the surface in twenty-five years. She gasped hard and stared at Shakita, who only responded with another giggle, which suggested she actually knew what was happening inside Laura’s brain.

“oh my GOD. I think I actually remember that. Oh, my GOD. That little boy I played with…that was JAY!. I think I remember that. Oh, my God.

“Why, Shakita? Why was I playing with Jay when I was a baby?”

“To get the Knowing started - W’aa s’ala’ack.”

“What’s that?” Laura asked.

“The Knowing is when two people with Zarthan blood meet up and all kinds of special changes happen in them, romance changes, spiritual changes, hormone changes, body changes, the whole nine yards. Changes that bind one to another in love and matrimony. When the Knowing begins, it NEVER ends, until their spirits join with one another and return to the infinite stars from which they came.

“The Earth can’t handle two people of high blood having the Knowing. The electromagnetic field on Earth ain’t strong enough to handle it. The love energy is way too damn intense. It’s like an electromagnetic superwave. It messes with all the ionic charges in the atmosphere, the ozone layer and all that stuff, and causes rains and floods and earthquakes and stuff like that. That’s why you had to leave ASAP, and that’s why Jay has to leave as well.”

“So Jay and I were meant to be together…” Laura’s eyes began to glow again and there was a deep, delicate smile.

“From jump, my sister.”

“Well, I guess this beats getting into NYU. This is the greatest night of my life. So what do we do now?”

“We have to wait a couple of days. Let him miss you a little bit, let him cry a little bit, so the Knowing gets stronger and stronger inside him and he can’t stand to be without you one more day. Jay will begin to remember who he REALLY is, slowly, little by little, and he will freak out about that.

"Now also, it’ll let you get used to things up here. You have a lot of training to go through yet. We need to start activating all YOUR powers. When the time is right, YOU have to actually send for Jason. YOU have to send for him. Send that same car down there you came up here in. You’re the only one on this whole planet with the authority to do it. You’re the queen-elect, the bride-to-be. I can’t do it, not even Jay’s mom can do it, and she’s the queen.

“Then the Men in Black MUST tell him about his heritage, they’ll see that his energy is off the damn charts and they HAVE to let him come up here. They have to let him come home.”

Laura showed a bit of caution here.” But what if they try to resist? What if they don’t tell him I sent for him? What if they don’t let him come here? What if they try to keep him in that...police job?”

“Girlfriend, look,” and Shakita gave one of those sister-to-sister looks. “They HAVE to let him come up here. It’s part of the intergalactic treaty we have with Earth, so they can’t break protocol like that. We have priority with him. We were on earth hundreds of years before they even got started. No, no, no. I do NOT think they want to deal with 2,133 angry Black women or a planet full of 3 and-a-half-million people who have better technology and more power than ANYTHING any aliens from any planet let those people have. OKAY?

“Your man WILL be up here by this time next week. That’s BOND.”

Laura seemed comforted by this but began to wonder…”Shakita, I’m real curious…If Jay is really in love with me, and we’re…bonded, is he making it rain?”

“Girl, the Knowing always changes the ions and shit in the atmosphere, big time. It's probably raining cats and dogs in Brooklyn right now.”

- end of chapter -

go to Jay Makes it Rain and has a Weird Dream

back to The Sun of Zartha

back to Men In Black

Sure enough, at that very moment, in Brooklyn, it was indeed raining cats and dogs. Jay was walking alone with no umbrella down the rain-slick street of brownstones (Adelphia Street, to be exact) to his (MIB-owned) apartment. After filing his final reports about the very busy evening and some conversation with Kay and Zed, Jay elected to leave his car at MIB headquarters and took buses home from there. He was usually very fastidious about his appearance, but he didn’t care about that now; all he wanted was Laura. Why did she have to leave? Why her? Why so soon? They were just getting a good thing started. He was REALLY beginning to like her. He was starting to feel very comfortable around her (which was weird after all the excitement and turmoil surrounding their initial encounter - a murder investigation, of all things), and he hadn’t felt that way about any female - not even Elle, with the possible exception of his mom back in Louisiana.

Now, almost two hours later, he was faced with the most incredible sense of loss he had ever known. He put up a pretty good front for Jay, Zed, Frank and the fellas back at headquarters, but inside he was absolutely devastated. It was almost as if Laura had died.

He entered the apartment and didn’t even bother to turn on the light. Remember, he had no umbrella, and the downpour was quite sudden. Rain was not in the forecast.

His black MIB issued suit was drenched. Now, this was technically impossible because all MIB suits were waterproof in most cases (the rainwater falling now had a different chemical composition which rendered the super-threads in the suit useless). But Jay was so sad at this point this fact didn't even occur to him, nor did he even care. The rainwater hid several tears, which were also streaming down his face. Jay was really starting to miss this lady big time. He longed to hold her in his arms, badly. He walked up the stairs to his bedroom, water dripping along as he clambered upwards.

He peeled off his sodden suit and simply left the clump of clothing on the bedroom carpet. Jay owned about 10 of these suits and got a new one every 3 months, so the loss of one to the rain was no big.

He walked into the bathroom to take a shower. He unhooked his holster and set his cricket gun down on the white granite counter next to the Edge Gel and the Right Guard (product placement is such a beautiful thing). He stared into the mirror. His eyes were red from the rain and his tears.

“Well, Jay, another fine girl. Gone…just like that...” and with this he snapped his fingers sarcastically.

Jay’s heart ached hard. Laura now clearly meant a hell of a lot more to him than just a “witness to a crime”. This was the single most beautiful woman he had EVER, EVER seen in his LIFE outside of his mother, and the nicest, too. Her personality hooked him like a fish being caught off Carnarsie Pier.

This “witness to a crime” might very well be the soulmate Jay was always looking for. Was she Cuban? Puerto Rican? Dominican? Blaxican?

No, she’s a Damn Alien.

Jay imagined her luminescent face on the roof of the office building where the transport was found. “…It’s not fair…”

“No. It’s not fair. Not one damn bit fair.” His stare in the mirror was intense for a second and he cast his head down in melancholy. If he was really paying attention, he would have noticed the slight change in color happening in his eyes.

Why do all the GOOD ones have to be ALIENS? he thought to himself.

As he and Kay were blasting Serleena out of the sky, Jay had asked Kay what it was like living on the "outside".

For several months now, Jay was getting very tired of performing all manner of gallant deeds, including helping beautiful alien princesses get back home, and no one, especially some potential wife, even knowing he was alive. And after THIS affair, it was almost the last straw. Maybe NOW it was time to seriously think about getting out of MIB, getting a civilian job, getting a civilian girl, having a civilian wedding, civilian kids, a civilian Dodge or Mercedes SUV, and actually living the life of a normal civilian guy, which, since he was career military, career police and career secret agent, was something he actually had never done in his adult life...

And at that moment, almost as a response to Jay's even entertaining the notion of possibly leaving MIB and getting permanently neuralyzed, Jay thought he heard his name ring in his head faintly. He cocked his head back, wondered about that for a second, but dismissed it as fatigue. He wanted to use his new 100 percent cotton terry towels he just bought the previous weekend from Restoration Hardware, but he decided he was too sad to shower.

Jay walked inside the bedroom, over to his dresser. On it were several little items including a necklace made of silvery-gray rock beads and a stone-gray metallic round medallion, which looked like a sun design with snakily undulating rays coming out of the center, with bumpy circles on the rays, similar to fractal designs. It had belonged to his mother.

Then Jay remembered. He stepped back over to his sodden suit, knelt down and reached inside the lapel pocket of the suit jacket, to get a 5x7 glossy digital printout. Kay had handed it to him just before he left headquarters tonight.

It was the exact same photo Laura saw in the royal palace on the planet Zartha. Kay had taken it of him and Laura just hours before on Kay's cellphone, right before they all entered the brownstone where the Worm Guys lived. Jay and Laura were smiling and Jay had his arm around her.

Jay just stood there for a second, staring at this picture, and then the sobs really hit. They hit him like a blast of Arctic air down Madison Avenue in January. Uncontainable heaves of pain and loss, tears flowing down his face like the rain, which was slamming furiously down on the dark and dankly depressing windows of the bedroom. In the back of his mind, he was shocked at his sadness, this was a way different experience for him. Jay didn't have many girlfriends, especially in the years he was an agent. Yes, Jay had been "in love' before - or so he thought. But this was different. In all of his 30 years he NEVER wanted ANY woman the way he wanted Laura at this very moment. And boy, did he ever want Laura. He almost felt like he would die right there in that bedroom if he couldn't be with her.

And all this, for a woman he just met!

So Jay couldn't take it anymore. He kicked the soggy suit into the bathroom with the force of a place kicker, kicked the baseboard of his bed, and then flung his six-foot-one inch body (still damp from the rain) frustratedly on it with Herculean force and continued his child-like wailing sobs. The wails were definitely audible and clearly did NOT reflect his training as a cop or as an MIB agent. He hadn’t cried this hard since he was seven, when his mom had yelled at him for not cleaning his room, about a month before she died.

Jay stopped sobbing long enough to pray out loud. To whom, he was not really sure.

“…if I could do anything to be with Laura Vasquez again, I’ll do it. Even if it means I have to get out of MIB to do it. I love her. I love her. I love you, baby. I love you…WHY’d you have to GO, baby? Why the hell did you have to go?”

A clap of thunder rocked the building. The rain grew even more intent on flooding the street below.

At that moment, almost as if the impulse was broadcast into his soul, Jay began suddenly to think of Momma back in New Orleans, how kind and warm and loving she was to him. The way Laura was acting. It was the same energy, a pervasive, all encompassing love.

“Momma, WHY in God’s NAME do I FEEL like this? Why the hell do I love Laura so damn much?”

Jay sat up on his bed and sighed heavily. “Momma, can you even hear me?...”

“Yes, baby, I can hear you just fine…” It sounded like his late mother was in the room right next to him. NYPD instincts took over for a second and he snapped his head to his left. No one was there. The sobbing and wailing abruptly stopped.

As a result, a pang of fright shot through Jay like the bolt of lightning that had rang out a moment earlier. This sadness, this fatigue, it’s taking its toll…maybe if I try and go to sleep I’ll feel better, at least better enough to go to work. I'm off duty this weekend, but I have to go in at least to hit the gym, maybe check up on Forensics and see how that rookie's doin'...I wish this damn rain would stop. This damn rain just don't want to let the hell up.

Jay laid down and pulled the Wamsutta 300-thread-count sheets (made of 100 percent extra-long-staple Pima cotton) over his head. He began to close his eyes to sleep, and fell asleep rather quickly. All he could think about was Laura. Laura at the pizza parlor, Laura in the park, Laura walking down the street.

He then imagined himself and Laura in a very strange manner:

Jay and Laura were in the middle of MIB headquarters, dancing - no, tap dancing, clapping their hands, slapping their thighs, raising their hands up in the air and back down again, and singing all over the floor, in time with some very loud and brassy big-band era swing music. Jay was leading a bunch of suit-clad agents and Laura was leading a bunch of pizza delivery people, every one dancing and swinging with huge smiles on their faces like they were in some old movie musical from the Golden Age of Hollywood. (Jay had several DVD's of old movies, including several MGM musicals, a fact he shared with absolutely no one back at HQ).

Then the dancing stopped and the room went dark. The next moment, Jay saw Laura in a colossal, intricately decorated bedroom furnished with a very ornate, round bed, sitting up, looking outside a massive round window up at the stars overlooking some kind of palace gardens.

Then Laura turned towards him. "Hey," she said.

"Hey...hey girl, what's up," Jay replied, sweating and trying to catch his breath. "How ya feelin'?"

"A little better, I guess," Laura answered with a slightly embarrased smile.

"I didn't know you could dance like that," Jay chuckled.

Laura giggled slightly. "I didn't know you were into old movies."

Jay blushed and looked down with an embarrassed grin. "Well, I kind of watch 'em for all the dance moves more than anything else. You know how many hours it took to get that shit rehearsed? The logistics involved in all of that? Those dudes did some amazing shit. Incredible."

"I was on the cheer squad in high school freshman year, I know a little bit about that," Laura replied.

"Well, it shows. You got talent, kid." Laura blushed herself at this. Her smile was utterly radiant and Jay liked seeing that smile very much right now.

"So, tell, me," Laura asked, getting up and walking towards him, "who's your favorite? Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly?"

Jay looked up for a moment and thought about his answer. The two walked back to Laura's bed and sat down. "Well, I've actually leaned more towards Kelly for his athleticism. You know he danced with the Nicholas Brothers in one of those movies."

"For real?" Laura asked.

"Yeah, "The Pirate". 1948. Judy Garland was in it too."

"Judy Garland is one of my favorites," Laura replied. "Ben and I used to watch 'The Wizard of Oz' together sometimes after work."

Jay looked into Laura's eyes. Something about them was drawing him to her, strongly...and this also happened to him when they were eating pie in the diner the other night, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was yet. "You must really miss him," he said.

"He was a huge part of my life. It was almost like he was my dad, Jay."

"Well, I hope... I was able to be, you know...of some help to you." Jay's heart began to race a little bit.

Laura took Jay's hand. "Don't worry Jay, believe me, you were a huge help. Thank you."

"Don't mention it. That's my job," Jay said, and looked straight ahead. This sure is one weird looking bedroom, Jay thought. Was this really the royal palace on Zartha?

“Jay,” she continued, “Look, umm, that's kind of what I need to talk to you about. Your helping me out, my being up here on Zartha, and...your job."

Jay got a little puzzled and raised an eyebrow. "OK..."

Laura looked down for a second and looked back up at him. Her eyes were so damn big and so damn cute. "Well...Look, Jay, umm...I know we’ve only been together just a short time, but I feel like I’ve known you my whole life. And when I got up here I was told that we HAVE known each other, a long time ago. We have a history together, Jay, and it’s from BEFORE we met at Ben’s Famous Pizza.”

Jay's heart rate began to kick in a little bit more. “Damn, I wish that were true, baby...” He stared at the luminescent face. This was one HELL of a dream.

“I love you. I love you so much," Laura continued. "I know this is real hard for you, my having to go away so suddenly. But they tell me it’s all for a good reason. I know we will be together. I’m supposed to call you. I’m supposed to send for you when the time is right.

Laura suddenly took both of Jay's hands in hers. The tight grip was a surprise to Jay. Laura's expression was earnest, almost to the point of being frantic, pleading. “They say you must come up here to Zartha with me. Come HOME, Jay. Come up here with me. This is your home. This is where you rightfully belong. I need you here by my side…”

Laura's franticness told Jay that he had to let he know exactly how he really felt, and he had to let her know right this second. “I need you too, Laura. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, baby, I’m sorry I didn’t take the chance before you left,” Jay said with a mixture of nervousness and passionate resolve, thinking Laura, in reality, could not possibly hear him. But she did. Loud and clear. Jay and Laura were together just as plain as when they were having pie in the Empire Diner in Tribeca on Wednesday night, for this whole "dream" the two were having was much more than a dream, it was a miracle - an out of body experience in which their souls instantly traveled the distance of millions of light years of time and space - and came together.

Jay said, “What I’m trying to say, baby - I really want to say, well - this is hard for me...I love you, Laura Vasquez. Damn it, girl, I love you! I love you more than any other woman I have ever known, and this is weird, because I just met you, and I feel this way. I feel like...I finally found...well...I guess what I'm trying to say is that I’ll do anything to be with you, baby. ANYTHING.”

Laura’s face blossomed immediately into an intense beaming smile. “Jay, I love you so much too, baby…I want to be with you more than anything else…”

Laura moved closer to Jay. Her huge Afro-Latin eyes seemed to sparkle in the crystalline light coming from the bedside lamp. Jay was slammed now with massive waves of love and desire. Their faces moved slowly together and melded into a hard, strong, long kiss. This was the first real deep, passionate lovers' kiss Jay and Laura ever shared.

“Listen to me baby,” she continued in a soft, low voice, as if she knew he were sitting right there with him. “I found out some things about you. Things you don’t know.”

“What sort of things, Laura?” Jay looked a little puzzled.

“You are not who you think you are, baby.”

“What do you mean?”

“OK...remember tonight, how Kay said I have to go and lead my people on Zartha? Well, it turns out that the people of Zartha are YOUR people too.

You see, baby, the agency erased your memories. You’re an ALIEN like I am. The Men In Black kept that a secret from you your whole life. Your ancestors can be traced here to this planet, Jay. You are a Zarthan.”

Jay was slightly taken aback by this strange twist in his “dream”, but he decided to go with the flow as best he could.

“Umm...That sounds a little strange, Laura. You know, I wish that were true. I wish this whole dream were true. All I know is that I love you. I always told myself that if I ever found a woman who made me feel as good as my MOMMA made me feel as a kid…I would marry her. So...I guess that means somehow I’m gonna marry you, Laura.”

Laura's eyes widened immediately and a huge smile came on her face. "Oh my god, Jay, is that a proposal?" Laura hugged Jay and started to jump up and down on the bed. Jay tried to control her. "Hey, hey...whoa!...come on now, wait a minute...I said somehow I'm gonna marry you...but I didn't pop the question! Look, baby...I just MET you! We haven't even gone on a real DATE yet! Come on..."

“Well I'm NOT worried 'cause I KNOW I will marry YOU, Jason Edwards. You don't understand, but it's a done deal! Our marriage has already been arranged.” Jay was so into the moment he did not even notice that Laura called him by his real name – up to the point when she left she only addressed him as Jay.

They moved close in for another kiss. Now he noticed something. Her eyes sure had a different color than he was used to…a radiant pale whitish-green. It was weird but kind of pretty. Real pretty. He was drawn to those eyes…That color, that brightness…it gave off an energy that Jay suddenly began to crave like it was food. He HAD to have what was coming out of Laura’s eyes!

Then the room went completely dark. And just like that, his love was gone. What a dream that was. If there were only a way to get up to Zartha, just to look into those eyes again, he could go in the strike cruiser, maybe Kay would authorize a special mission, he could have Zed work it out with the Zarthan authorities...whoever they were...



Jay stood up, and the room became slightly bright again. Rain was hitting a window. The slightly musty smell of hardwoods told him, with a shock of realization, that he was no longer on Zartha, but back in his own mother’s house.

The house was in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was a red brick bungalow on North Gayoso Street, in the heart of the historic Bayou St. John neighborhood.

Jay's childhood memories, at least the strongest ones, were magically getting deneuralyzed, at that very moment. Without the need for any specialized equipment.

“Oh, my God, I’m home,” he exclaimed, with shocked wonder.

Jay tried to go to his old room. But he tripped over an ottoman in the darkness of the house. As he grimaced in a flash of pain, his eyes flashed a flaming reddish orange in the dark room.

Just then a voice came up through the kitchen from the basement of the bungalow.

“Jason!” It was a loud, motherly call to action.

His mom’s voice. Again. Why is Momma calling me from the dead? Why NOW?

“Jason. Come on down here, baby and help me do the wash.”

Jason was visibly puzzled.

“Momma?” he called out, walking through the dark kitchen, past the GE refrigerator and the O’Keefe and Merritt gas stove. He could smell the lingering essence of decades of jambalaya, gumbo, boiled crawfish his dad would bring in, cornbread, grits, black coffee and beignets - he could even smell Nana’s king cake, which was the best he ever had in his life...

“Jason, come on down, baby.”

Jay opened the basement door. He felt the dark, damp coolness.

“Make me some of those beignets, Momma, since I’m here,” Jay said with a grin, and started down the stairs. He still believed he was in a dream. And he was - well, sort of.

As Jay clumped down the wooden steps, the acridly beautiful smell of All-Tempa Cheer and Clorox bleach told him it was indeed his own basement in New Orleans circa 1978.

Jay did not even notice that he had shapeshifted from a 30-year-old policeman-turned-secret agent into a seven year old child.

He immediately looked to his right as he was in the back of the basement.

A brown cat with dark brown stripes immediately ran up to Jay to be petted, which gave him another shock of great, joyful excitement.

"Bruno!" Jay exclaimed with a deep smile.

"Do you miss your old cat, Jason?" Momma asked.

"Yeah, I haven't seen him in forever, momma!", he said, picking the cat up and scratching it behind the ears.

"He's been living in New York at Ben's Famous Pizza," his mother replied.

"Oh," the boy said, not for a second wondering why his mother would be at all aware of the crime scene in SoHo he was investigating a few hours ago - or why his cat was living there.

Then Jason looked to his right. There was his own little play area. He rushed over to his toys. He had a lot of them in a large cardboard box. Fisher-Price toys, Hot Wheels cars, Tonka trucks, a Mattel Electronics LED football game he had just got the previous Christmas. He especially liked all the Star Wars action figures his mother was ALWAYS buying for him every chance she got, and he would place Han Solo and C3PO in his big red Nylint truck, made of metal with the heavy duty plastic wheels. And yes, he did have a Millennium Falcon. It was sitting on top of the pile of toys.

Jay’s mother was at the 1969 white Sears Kenmore washer and dryer, preparing the week’s laundry. Jay’s mother was a tall, strong woman of light complexion, her shoulder length black wavy hair pulled back into a ponytail, showing slightly elfin ears, and (save for the elfin ears) unmistakably West African bone structure. Her powerfully built 5’ 9” body reflected her previous life as a 400 meter runner at Grambling State University. She was also a classically trained signer (there was an upright piano upstairs that Nana loved to play, she even taught Jay how to play a couple of little songs when he was three), and Momma could have been an Olympian - or a mezzo, performing on the Lincoln Center stage - if other more important duties had not taken over. Her large, round eyes looked down at her son, delighted to be back in his home after so many years. He wanted to tell Laura as soon as possible.

“Momma,” he said, in a quiet, little boy voice tinged with quiet, little boy sadness, “why did Laura have to go away?”

“Laura has things to do, baby," Angelique said matter of factly, sorting whites from colors and placing Jay’s little underwear in the Kenmore agitator. She looked at him with the warm smile she often flashed at him.

“What kind of things?”

“Laura has to get ready for you, Jason. Your wedding is in three weeks,” Momma replied.

“Me? Wedding? Does Laura know I want to go up there to see her?”

“She most certainly does, baby. And you will go, Jason. You HAVE to go, baby. You have to go home.”

“Why, Momma?”

“You are the Sun of Zartha, Jason. You are very, very, very important to us.”

Jay looked puzzled. “Who’s US? And why is that place home? I’m home right NOW.”

Angelique looked at him with a little grin. “Do you remember the prayer time we used to have with my necklace?”

“I think so.”

“I think we need to have that prayer time right now. So you can remember. Come here.”

Jason sprang to his little feet, which were clad in some black canvas Keds, and ran to the dryer. He was starting to remember the ritual now. They did it every day.

Angelique picked her only child up and sat him down on top of the dryer. She lifted the Garanimals shirt off him so his skinny chest showed bare.

“Now let me put this on you.” Momma took a necklace from around her neck. It was made of silvery-gray rock beads and a stone-gray metallic round medallion, which looked like a sun design with snakily undulating rays coming out of the center, with bumpy circles on the rays, similar to fractal designs.

She placed it around Jason’s neck. The medallion felt a little heavy around him but it made him feel safe and secure.

Angelique shot a quick smile at him and her eyes seemed like a dull red color flashed in them for a second, like a reflection in a color photograph. “Look at me, Jason. Look into my eyes. Listen to what I am saying. My words are kind of weird, baby, but they mean a lot.

She began to chant. “Tow-lah-AHH. Sah-AHH. Tow-lah-AHH. Sah-AHH. Tow-lah-AHH. Sah-AHH. Say it with me, Jason.”

The little boy chanted too. “Tow-lah-AHH. Sah-AHH. Tow-lah-AHH. Sah-AHH. Tow-lah-AHH. Sah-AHH….”

“Keep looking at me, Jason," Momma said. "Keep looking into my eyes. Don’t look away, baby.”

Jason obeyed. He couldn’t help but to do so. Angelique was sending dangerously high levels of radioactive energy into Jay through her flashing, now neon-red eyes. But the boy Jay was in no danger. He was genetically capable of absorbing and retaining the massive radiation being sent into him. Jay was mesmerized by the brilliant, deep, intense red glow of those eyes. He could not resist looking deep into them. They held his attention like a magnet.

The both of them kept the chant up. “Tow-lah-AHH. Sah-AHH. Tow-lah-AHH. Sah-AHH. Tow-lah-AHH. Sah-AHH….” Jason began to sweat, profusely. Thick beads of sweat were rapidly forming on the faces and arms of both mother and child as they continued chanting. This went on for five full minutes.

“Now I need you to close your eyes, Jason. Feel the sun rise inside of you.”

Jason felt very warm and happy inside. The feeling got stronger and stronger. He felt like he had power, like electric fire was dancing and tingling inside of him, all over.

He also felt a hot feeling deep in his stomach. He always did when they did the necklace prayer. The heat, that tingling, electric fire, moved all over his body and made him sweat even more. But Jason was not uncomfortable. He actually LIKED feeling hot like this. He WANTED the sun to rise in him. He wanted to please his momma, but more than that he wanted to please this Tow-Lah-Ahh they were praying to, whoever he was. He wanted to BE Tow-lah-Ahh.

They stopped chanting for a second. “How do you feel, baby?” Angelique asked.

“I feel like Tow-lah-ahh, Momma. I feel like I can do anything he can do.”

“Good, Jason. That’s just what the T’ola'a energy wants from you.”

“Why, Momma?" the boy asked.

“Baby, you ARE T’ola'a.”

“How can THAT be, Momma?”

“It just is, Jason. That’s how you and I were born. Open your eyes.”

Jason did so and noticed that the medallion was glowing a bright orange. It was leaving a slight blister on his chest but he felt no pain at all. His skin color seemed a little darker, like it had turned reddish. Sweat was dripping all over the dryer and the floor.

Angelique took one of the towels from the hamper and slowly, lovingly patted his face with it. “You see, Jason, our family is very special. We are the people of T’ola'a. The Sun People. Laura’s family is part of the Light People, the S’aa.

“Laura’s mommy was a great S’aa princess, and she was born right here in New Orleans. Her family owns the Chinese take out place on Claiborne."

"Oh, yeah, I remember Lauranna, Momma," Jason said.

"Yes, baby. Lauranna was my best friend in college. When I went to Grambling, Lauranna went to LSU. We ran track and hung out together. We always knew we would have kids and that they would be friends.

“You and Laura were supposed to be long married by now. You and Laura were supposed to be King and Queen of Zartha, but the Men In Black got scared and took you away from me before we could initiate you into the secrets of T’ola'an.” Angelique was trying to craft her language now to talk to the thirty-year-old the child represented.

“Your destiny, baby, is to return home to Zartha. Your destiny is to marry Laura, so the Sun People and the Light People can be unified as one family. The kids you're gonna have together will bring peace and love to the whole universe. Your destiny is to be what I named you. T’Va'an S’Vasa'an T’ola'an.

“What’s THAT?” Jay had a puzzled frown on his face.

Angelique gave a slight giggle and patted his head. “That’s your Zarthan name, baby. It means King whose mother is Queen in the family of the Lord of the All-Powerful Sun. You see, baby, Zartha is the home planet for us.“

“We COME from Zartha?” Jay asked.

“Yes, in a roundabout way, Jason.

“Our ancestors are the children of lord T’ola'an. See, baby, he was a solar cataclysm, a massive, destructive solar flare - the scientists call it a superwave, actually come to life. He was the first King of the planet of Zartha and he helped the all Zarthan beings learn how to take care of themselves and rebuild their world at a time when they really, really needed the help.”

“Why did he need to help rebuild Zartha?” Jason asked.

“Well, baby, T’ola'an’s superwave energy destroyed Zartha at the worst possible time - right when it was just created and getting started. T’ola'an felt real, real sorry for what his power caused and spent a long, long, long time making things right again. He learned a very big lesson, baby. T’ola'an learned how to have love and compassion for other living things. He learned to respect life, and protect and nurture it, not to use his power to destroy things.

“That’s very important knowledge for any king to have, Jason.”

“whoa…” the boy mused. Angelique beamed. She was pleased at his interest and continued her story.

“Later on, when Zartha was back on its feet again, T’ola'an wanted to go out and meet other kinds of people in the universe. He wanted to meet other beings that lived in harmony with the energy of the sun, who really loved the sun. So he went in his spaceship and traveled far, far, far away, through one of the big blue wormholes that makes it quicker to go from galaxy to galaxy.

"T'ola'an eventually went to a little village in West Africa. T'ola'an's sources told him that the ancestors of the people in that village migrated there all the way from ancient Egypt, hundreds of years before. And because of that, Jason, they worshipped the sun and the moon as if they were gods. T'ola'an felt real, real, comfortable with that.

"So he went down and made friends with the local priests. The priests loved T'ola'an and made him king of the entire village. They brought seven young women to him. Those seven human women became T'ola'an's seven wives. Now remember, Jason, before T'ola'an got there, these people prayed to the sun and to the moon. They grew up believing in the power of nature. And they grew up believing something else was out there in the universe, so when T'ola'an came to the village they weren't scared like people would get now - they were actually happy that T'ola'an came...they appreciated the fact that T’ola'an was the energy of the sun come to life, and came all the way from outer space just to be with them! Wasn’t that special, baby?”

“Yeah,” said an awed Jason, who was enraptured by the adventure.

“Now T’ola'an passed his DNA, his magical sun-god blood, down to us through those seven wives in Africa. The sun-god blood changed those wives, Jason. Once his blood was inside of them, they could now do some of the magical alien things T'ola'an could do. And when those wives had kids - the kids could do those magical things, too.

"Why did T'ola'an do a thing like that?" the boy asked.

"T'ola'an did that out of LOVE, Jason. He did that so that WE can know what it’s like to BE pure sun energy. He didn't think it was right that he could have the all power of the sun, the power of Light, just for himself, and not let humans have the chance to feel that energy too. He knew that back when humans were first made, some of the magical stuff was left out of them on purpose. He didn't think that was fair.

“So because we are the children of Lord T’ola'an, and because he gave us his magic blood of fire and Light... we can claim Zartha as our home, Jason. The people of Zartha know that we are a ruling family and most of 'em respect us for that. And YOU, Jason Edwards, T’Va'an S’Vasa'an T’ola'an, are very, VERY special to all the people back on Zartha because you are a manchild born to me. The first male in my bloodline in a couple of centuries. They really want you to go back home to Zartha right away so you can be the new King.”

“Why didn’t I know all of this before, Momma?”

“The Men In Black are afraid of you, Jason. They wanted to hide all of this information from you, baby. They know that because you are my son, you have the power to make a lot of things happen with the weather, with electrical energy, all sorts of things.”

“I can bend a metal spoon, momma!”

Angelique grinned and the red glow in her eyes became a little brighter. She gave Jay an immediate hug. “I know, Jason. I know. That’s part of the Zartha power that’s always been inside you. The power they call alien.

“Wow...” Jason’s eyes widened with wonder. If one could see them, they would notice a persistent dull reddish glow.

“The Earth people are so scared of that, Jason. They shouldn’t be, but they are. They took you away from me and erased all your memories and made you think I was dead.”

Jason became surprised. “You’re alive, Momma?”

“I most certainly am, baby.”

A pang of cold shock slammed into Jay. “Where ARE you?" he asked. "I thought you were a ghost!”

“I’m in jail, Jason. The Men In Black put me there.”

Jason was not happy about this and started to cry. Angelique tried to explain what happened.

“They needed me to go into exile, baby. Another race of aliens - Serleena’s people - wanted to get rid of Zartha and the Earth and take over the rest of the universe. And there were some people back on Zartha who really, really, did not like the fact that their queen - and their son - were born on Earth and were part human. They don't much like humans, Jason. So the Men In Black were trying to look out for everybody.

“Where is the jail, Momma?” Jason asked, his face now stained with tears.

“The jail is in Louisiana. Right now I’m really in my cell, fast asleep. You’re still in your bed in Brooklyn. You and I are in the same dream right now. I made this dream so you could be in it tonight.”

“But Momma? Why did the Men In Black put you in JAIL?” Jason seemed hurt that his friends would do such a mean thing. He began to cry again.

“Don’t cry, baby. They did what they had to do.”

“Were you mad at them?”

“Yes, baby, at first. I almost commanded Zartha go to war with the Earth because of what they wanted to do to you, how they planned on taking you away from me. Yeah, I was real, real upset with them.”

“We almost had a WAR over ME?” Jason asked quietly. His teary eyes got very wide with incredulous surprise.

Angelique gave a motherly smile and a giggle. “Yeah, baby, a real war with real spaceships – battle cruisers and everything. I’m the queen of Zartha, baby. I could have started a war so easily.

“But I knew that blowing this planet up, even though I was so upset about losing you, that wouldn’t help matters one single bit, Jason. ‘Cause Zartha was heading for a civil war at the time and I had to deal with all of THAT mess.

“The Kylothians would have STILL been right there for me to deal with - we would have kicked their butts, but it would have been a real pain. And so many thousands of innocent people here on Earth who don’t even BELIEVE in aliens would have died, just because I got mad.”

“Ain’t that stupid, baby?” Angelique asked, and there was a hint of an embarrassed smile.

“I guess so, Momma.”

“And that’s definitely not T’ola'an’s way, either. So I decided just to let it go.” Angelique looked off to the side and her look became slightly vacant. She sighed. “I had to give you up, in a sense, like a mother has to give her child up for adoption sometimes. I knew I could help you remember everything when the time was right. And now, the time is right. I forgave the Men In Black a long time ago. They had a good reason for doing what they did. Now you have to forgive them too.”

“But Momma, I’m MAD at those guys! They LIED to me!” Jason’s eyes flashed a bright neon red now and he began to sweat again.

“Jason, Jason.” Angelique looked down with those big, loving eyes and grinned softly at the sobbing, angry child and kissed his forehead. She then gave him a nice warm hug, as all mothers do when their kids are real sad.

“Écoutez et souviens, Jason. Le roi du soleil vivra longtemps, toujours, baby. Vous êtes le roi du soleil, Jason. Vous êtes le T’olaan.”

Jay was startled by this statement. Momma ALWAYS said this to him before she kissed him good night - and she never explained what it meant. Now, Jay knew a bit of French and the meaning was now more clear.

“Whoa...” the child was stunned. His teary face was frozen in wonder. Angelique gave him her warmest, most earnest look, her most sincere smile.

“Jason, baby, I know you don’t understand what’s happening right now, but you have to put your mad feelings off to the side right now. You are special. You always have been. Always remember that, Jason. I told you when I had to go away, so many years ago now, that I would come back for you. Well, in a way, I have, baby. Just like I promised.

“Now there’s a LOT of work you have to do. You must get ready to go to Zartha. You need to start packing your things. You also have to go back to work. Let the Men in Black tell you themselves what I have said. Then you will know this is not a dream – it’s all true, baby.

Then Angelique leaned in and gave Jay that serious mom look. “Listen to me, Jason. If you remain here on Earth past the middle of the week, the Earth will be destroyed. YOU will generate an electromagnetic pulse, strong enough to blow up this entire planet, baby. So you HAVE to get off this planet and get your ass back home.”

“Oh...” Jason’s eyes grew even wider. “OK, Momma.”

“Good, baby. Now Laura will send for you in a couple of days. Go to Zartha and be with her, Jason. Laura was created specifically for you. That is why she was conceived - to be your wife.

“Your marriage has been ordained by the sacred ancestral spirits of T’olaa and S’aa. You are now a political and a religious figure, baby. You must go and take your place alongside Laura and become King of our homeworld. You must go and be the leader of the Zarthan people. They have been waiting for you, baby. My time for being Queen is almost over.

When you and Laura are married, the Golden Age of Light will begin.”

“Will I ever see you again, Momma?”

“Yes, baby. Sooner than you might think.”

Jason immediately found himself awake in his bed in Brooklyn. The rain was still going on, a little softer now. For about three minutes he reflected on his dream. Could all this be true? What if Momma really WAS still alive? What if he HAD been lied to all these years? Could he actually have been neuralyzed to forget his entire childhood? Who the hell is T’ola'an?

Then Jay noticed that he was wearing the necklace. Right there in the bed.

It was a wonder he didn’t set the apartment on fire, because the medallion was very, very hot.

He did not remember putting it on before he went to sleep. He could see the glow.

Jay sprang to his feet and snatched the necklace off his neck. He dropped it on his bare foot and expected to feel a dreaded twinge of pain, but there was no pain. None whatsoever. His skin was absorbing the heat. He looked at his watch, which he always wore to bed. 2:23 AM. But the clock radio on his dresser said 3:23. Jay was puzzled - until he remembered that New Orleans is in the Central Time zone - one hour behind New York.

And then he got puzzled all over again.

Jay stumbled over to the mirror. The room was dark save for the glow of the medallion.

What Jay saw shocked him to his core. His eyes were glowing a dull red.

He stood there with his mouth wide open for a full five or six minutes. His body was dripping with sweat. He closed his eyes and walked fast to the bathroom. He turned on the light. His reflection in the mirror showed that his eyes were still glowing.

“Momma, what the hell is going on?” His prayer was frantic and audible.

“You are remembering, Jason. You are activating, baby. Your body is remembering what you are, your mind, your soul...” The voice was again strong and clear, as if she was in the room.

“You are blood of my blood, T’Va'an, my son. Fruit of my womb. You are the Sun of Zartha. You are soon to be king. The time is right.

Jay stared out into his glowing eyes. His ontological shock was massive.

"That's it. I'm going crazy. I'm hearing voices. I'm seeing things."

Jay blinked his eyes. He turned the light in the bathroom off and looked in the mirror.

The red glow in his eyes was still there and was getting brighter.

"Jason," he heard again.

"Momma? Are you really talking to me???? What is this??? What the hell is happening to me????" Jay yelled.

"The connection has been re-established, Jason. I always knew your feelings, I always knew your soul. Now you know mine. Just like it was when you were little, Jason. You are blood of my blood. We are connected by the energy of fire. The energy of Light. Believe it Jason."

Jay stopped and cocked his head quietly. He could have sworn his mother was in the room with him right now. He could almost smell the Windsong perfume she wore each day.

But Angie was not visible to Jay. He could only hear and feel her angelic presence. That presence filled the apartment now. It was like a strong wave of electromagnetic energy was filling the bedroom and bathroom with a tingly, sparkly feeling.

“I always thought my name was James," Jay said to the energy he felt.

“Your name was changed, Jason. MIB changed your name. It was part of the deal.”

Jay was stunned. “Deal? What deal? They better not have. Those sons of...”

At this moment, the rain was still going on, but it was more of a light sprinkle. Jay wondered...if he was an alien, he would most certainly be in the large database of aliens that the MIB kept, on each and every alien being that landed on Earth or was born on Earth to alien parents the past 40 years.

Jay flew downstairs to his iMac. He would simply log on to the MIB database and find out for himself. If they encrypted the data specifically on him, he’d just hack his way through the mainframe until he found it. Jay had Level II clearance but he always hacked into the most secure top-secret files as a standard way to work on his cases. Zed always found out and got mad each time, but many a tough, baffling case was solved that way.

On the iMac Jay now had just gotten past Level One security. He spent about 45 seconds wading through lots of file folders. Then he ran a search for “Zartha”. After about three seconds, there it was. A lone file folder called “Zartha Level Z”.

Jay smiled a sneaky smile. He had heard rumors about Level Z, which basically meant for Zed’s eyes only.

“Why that sneaky son of a bitch. Well, boss, I WILL know the TRUTH about myself! Yeah!” Jay tried to double-click on the folder. A dialog box came up.

“Access denied”. Damn, Jay said to himself. He opened up a folder on his desktop which read “The Big Gun”. Inside was a decryption application. Jay entered some figures in the program and clicked the Go button. A timer came up. “Decoding in 45 seconds.”

The thunder outside was rolling. The rain was pounding harder on the street outside.

“Come on, power, stay on for me, please,” Jay said, not realizing the energy of his own anxiety was making it rain harder.

Then it happened. A lightning strike hit a transformer a couple of blocks down. All the power in the neighborhood went right out.

“NOOOOOOO!” Jay slammed his fists down on the table and slammed his head down on the keyboard. “I KNEW I should have swiped that backup surge protector from Tee’s cubicle!”

Jay’s discovery would have to wait.

Feeling defeated again, Jay clumped back upstairs and went back to sleep.

Angie's energy comforted her son. Her energy melded with his, as it always did, even as Jason was growing inside Angie so many years ago. The two soul forces were giving, taking, creating the force of Light in the eternal bond that is the Knowing between mother and child.

Angie had almost forgotten how good it felt to be a part of her child and have her child be a part of her.

As for Jay, he wasn't consciously thinking about Momma. He was trying to figure out why Zed and Kay lied to him about Momma.

Jay started dreaming again. This time he began to find himself in a huge, thick, dense humidly green jungle. He tried to wade his way through the brush. He was wearing khaki shorts, his beige Timbos and his NYPD issue t-shirt and cap. He suddenly realized he had no weapons of any kind on him - not even a neuralyzer.

“Holy shit,” Jay thought.

“Don’t worry baby, where you’re going you don’t need any weapons. The creatures know you’re here. They like you.” Jay recognized Laura’s voice.

“LAURA!” Jay yelled out. “LAURA!”

---

next chapter: Beignets in the Break Room | The Sun of Zartha

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Suddenly, as if to answer his call, Jay saw what looked like several fireflies appear in the darkened foliage. They darted and danced before him with their greenish-white glow. They moved forward a bit, and then they stopped. Then they moved forward again.

Jay was mesmerized by the fireflies’ light, the same way he was by his mother’s eyes.

“Jay, follow the fireflies. Follow the light, baby,” he heard Laura say in his head.



Jay proceeded forward and followed the fireflies. They led him to a clearing. He was now on the banks of a river, languid and shimmering. Jay followed this bank for about 20 minutes.

“Laura, where are you, girl?”

“Keep going, baby. Just keep going.”

After a while Jay came to a bend in the river. Around this bend was a lagoon with a waterfall. A female figure was bathing in this lagoon.

“Laura!” Jay yelled, and he took off on a dead run down the bank.

“Over here, baby! Come on!” Laura yelled back.

Damn, I hope this ain’t a mirage, Jay thought. He stopped at the bank. Laura was in an NYU t-shirt and she was waist deep in the water.

“I like this dream, baby,” Jay said.

“I was kinda hoping you would,” Laura replied with a smile. “Get your butt in this water.”

Jay took off his shoes and waded into the river.

“Damn, I’m glad to see you again,” he said with a huge grin.

“It wasn’t THAT long ago, Jay.” A giggle erupted from Laura’s lips.

They embraced and shared a long, deep kiss in the cold water.

After that, Jay said, “Where are we?”

Laura giggled. “In your dreams.

“Technically, we’re on Zartha. This is the river Wu’suu’bo. The Zarthan natives bathe in this river to purify themselves.”

“That’s kind of cool,” Jay replied, and his stare off into the mist became a little vacant.

“Are you pissed?” Laura asked, a pang of concern rising within her.

“Pissed about what?”

“I felt some angry energy from you before you went back to sleep just now.”

“Oh, that...well, the power in my crib went out on me, just as I was hacking into Zed’s secret files on Zartha,” Jay said with a slightly embarrased grin.

“Why were you trying to do that for?”

Jay looked away for a second, then back into Laura’s eyes. He sighed and said, “Laura, I need to know for sure about all this. These dreams are beautiful, but I want confirmation. If I AM an alien, there most definitely will be a file on me. And on you as well. I need to see it with my own eyes.”

“Well, trust me, Jay, you will.”

Jay gave a slight smirking frown. “Are you psychic?”

“Yeah,” Laura said matter-of-factly, as if Jay had asked her if she liked Mountain Dew.

Jay was intrigued by this and this made him desire Laura more. Laura sensed this and smiled a sly smirkly smile. “You like psychic girls?” She caressed the back of his head.

“Yeah,” said Jay, who was in a daze. “You are the most beautiful thing I have EVER seen, Laura.”

“And you’re not too damn ugly yourself.” Laura’s smile was deep and sincere.

Jay embraced Laura and the pair moved in for another kiss. It was like their faces were slowly drawn together like a magnet to iron. This kiss was deeper, more forceful and longer. Then they looked into each other's eyes.

“Where in the hell were you all my life, Laura?” Jay asked with a deep, warm smile. He caressed her head in his hands.

“Wondering where the hell you were.” Laura reached up and took his wrist and kissed it softly.

Jay spoke again after several seconds of blissful silence. “What do I do now, baby? I gather you have instructions from my mom.”

“Now you’re using YOUR psychic ability. Good job!” Laura giggled again. “And the answer would be yes. Angie says you need to start packing all your stuff in your apartment in Brooklyn when you wake up. It will take you all day but you need to pack everything.

“The royal court will send a team to come get them and move them up here.”

Jay’s eyes filled with wonder. “Angie...Yeah, Angie. That’s what everybody called Momma...I remember that now, Laura.”

Suddenly, Laura’s eyes flashed bright white. “Uh-oh, this ballgame is over, baby. The sun is coming up in New York. The sunlight is hitting your eyes in your bed. I can feel it.”

A pang of disappointment shot through Jay like a blast from a cricket gun.

“I don’t want to wake up, Laura. I don’t want this dream to end.”

“This is only the beginning, Jason. And it’s never going to end. Kiss me and have a wonderful day, baby.”

They moved in to kiss. In the middle of the kiss Jay awoke. Massive sunlight was indeed pouring through the bedroom window.

Jay heard another voice ring again in his head. “Start packing, Jason.”

“Momma, are you really the Queen of Zartha? Am I really a prince? Are you really still alive?”

No response.

“Well, I guess I’ll find out soon enough.” The power in the apartment was still out.

He went downstairs. He was shocked to find about 10 or 12 cardboard boxes in the middle of his living room. The floor was largely empty just four hours before. The boxes were marked in thick black marker ink: “Jay’s Stuff: NYC.” Underneath were written some strange pictorial symbols - actually the exact same thing, “Jay’s Stuff: NYC,” in Zarthan.

Jay was shocked. He bolted upstairs and grabbed his cricket gun. He then did a police-style sweep of his whole apartment. He was surprised and thought someone broke into the apartment, but no one did.

Jay sighed. “Momma, you sure do know how to freak your son out.”

Jay began to pack his stuff to go to Zartha.

Jay spent the rest of Saturday and part of Sunday packing his things. He packed his clothing, his kitchen stuff, his video games, his computer, his sheets, his towels.

He still wasn't quite sure that what he was doing would have any real effect. This whole affair was surreal, like a dream - well, it was a dream. A couple of beautiful dreams...and Laura, damn what a fyyyne ass woman she is...but was everything in those dreams real, or were they just hs imagination, just wishful thinking?

Jay sat down on the floor and wrung his head in his hands. What if Momma really is still alive?

What if I am an alien?

I don't feel like an alien.

Jay went back upstairs to finish packing his bedroom and bathroom things. In the darkened bathroom, Jay looked at himself in the mirror as he was gathering his shaving cream and his mirror and his combs and brushes and putting them into his Dopp kit that he got back in Basic.

His eyes looked normal. They didn't glow.

I'm a human. I've gotta be. I eat, sleep, pee...the whole nine yards...but what is Laura...and what is Momma??? And if Momma really is from this Zartha then that means I'm...nah...I CAN'T be an alien. If I were an alien Zed would have told me. I hope he would have told me.

Jay went downstairs and went into his small kitchen. He had little food in his refrigerator: there was a jar of mayo which was almost all gone, a Subway bag with nothing in it but a crumpled napkin, and a shriveled-up orange. It was a good thing, because since the power was still out in the neighborhood as of 3pm Sunday afternoon, any food would have started going bad by now.

Jay threw all these into his garbage can and took it out the back door to the dumpster at the bottom of the stairs.

Jay frowned at the orange, which he could see through the white plastic of the bag. He watched as he tossed the bag into the dumpster. Do aliens eat this stuff? I never really thought about what those bastards eat.

Jay walked through the alley onto his street. The rustle of traffic on the BQE could be faintly heard in the distance. The tree-lined block of brownstones was quiet except for a couple of the neighbors commenting on how slow the ConEd crews were in coming out to turn the power back on (there was a reason for the slow response, and Zed was behind it).

There were massive puddles still in the street, making the already hot air even more unbearable.

Jay then thought to himself: The A/C hasn't been on all weekend. Usually it gets too hot in the crib...but it's not hot in there.

Jay went back inside and looked at the thermostat on the living room wall.

It read 89 degrees.

Jay frowned, as he felt perfectly dry and comfortable. But the apartment was quiet.

Jay put his hand over an air register. No air was coming out.

Jay tried to come up with a rational explanation in his mind about this, but nothing came into his mind.

...on Monday he would surely go back to headquarters and everything would be somewhat normal...but then there was that folder. That damn folder. What the hell was in that folder? And why would Zed keep it a secret? What the hell did he have to hide? Jay was trustworthy. Jay was competent and capable. Zed had no reason to withhold anything from him.

Jay packed all of his stuff in the cardboard boxes and by about 10pm Sunday night he was finished.

"I still don't know what all this is about..." Jay thought to himself as he taped up the last of the boxes in the middle of his living room floor. Then he began to remember, slowly, the way things were in the old house in New Orleans when he was a kid.

"I guess I had it pretty good there, Momma." Jay smiled and shook his head.

After Jay went to sleep, both Laura and Angie appeared in separate dreams, and in one of these dreams Jay remembered more bits and pieces of his childhood in New Orleans - he remembered being placed in a car seat in his mother's car, a white 1966 Volkswagen Bug and a strange looking brunette with almond eyes, who was Momma's friend Lauranna, a girl she knew from college, riding shotgun. Lauranna liked to play peekaboo with Jason and she was always tickling him - she always made him laugh. Her eyes had grayish-white flashes and sparkles all the time that mesmerized Jason.

Then Jay dreamed of the day he was taken.

Jason walked home alone from school, as he did every day this year. He was in the second grade. The school was only four blocks from his house, and no one in the neighborhood would even think of doing something bad to the crown prince of Zartha - or allowing anything to happen to him.

That is, unless a secret deal was made with a secret organization that monitors and polices alien activity on planet Earth. Which was exactly what happened.

There were several black Ford LTD sedans parked on Gayoso Street. Momma didn't mention anyone passing away, so Jason thought this was weird. When he came to the door, it was open. He walked inside.

The house was completely empty. Not a single piece of furniture was there. Two men in clean suits were taking readings in the barren hallway, with equipment Jay would learn how to use many, many years afterward.

Other tall men with black suits and black ties were in the kitchen talking. More of these men were walking up the steps to enter the house.

Jason began to panic. The panic woke him up from his dream. And Jay was pissed.

"Those goddamn sons of bitches," Jay muttered. "That better not be how the f*** it happened."

Jay looked at the clock on his dresser. It was 4:27 am, Monday. Jay always got up at 4:30am.

After his shower and shave, Jay dressed in a clean, dry and pressed black suit. He left his apartment and locked the door behind him.

This would be the last time Jay would see his apartment for the next eighteen months. The next time he would see this brownstone building, Laura would be with him and he would be on a different kind of mission for a different kind of "employer".

Jay walked up the dark, still, quiet street, under the BQE and towards his usual bus stop (on the days he didn't feel like driving) on Flushing Avenue alongside the old Navy Yard. His bus came on time at 4:51am. It was packed with commuters of all shapes and sizes.

As Jay stood, he could see that many of the streets still had a lot of standing water. Some of them were barricaded.

The bus went westbound through the neighborhood and in about 10 minutes was across the East River over the legendary Manhattan Bridge into Manhattan. His commute using the bus was 20 minutes shorter than his drive - but he loved that Mercedes.

This would be the last time Jay would ride an MTA bus for the next eighteen months. Zed already had the motor pool guys put the Mercedes in storage.

Jay, his mind running a million miles an hour in deep thought at this point, arrived at headquarters after walking almost another two blocks out of his way to avoid getting splashed by trucks and taxis going through the massive puddles.

He walked through the austere thick steel doors, past the guard reading his Weekly World News and onto the elevator. He then went into the break room for his usual morning cup of coffee - the bland stuff that always woke him up at 5:30 am after suffering through the stupidity that was always rush hour in Manhattan. But Jay was already wide awake this morning.

This was no ordinary Monday morning.

Today was going to be THE day. Yes, sir. Today he would hack into the database, and depending upon what was in that folder he found, he would march right into Zed’s office and DEMAND an explanation - for everything.



What greeted him was strange - but familiar. Right at Jay’s usual seat, at the folding table in the middle of the tiny, stark, fluorescently cold room, Jay saw a small ceramic plate. On this plate were three steaming warm, large, bulging fresh beignets, heavily dusted in the telltale powdered sugar, and a large stainless steel travel mug filled with steaming black French-style coffee.

The bag sitting next to this spread told Jay that both of these items were sent via FedEx earlier that morning from the Cafe Du Monde location right on Decatur Street in the French Market, the one with all the green and white awnings and the ceiling fans that went whirr-whirr-whirr - Jay remembered it like it was yesterday - the one that stays open 24 hours. The one he remembered going to at 3am with his momma and Momma's friend Lauranna, riding shotgun in the VW, when he was three years old. Angie ALWAYS took her coffee black.

Next to the ceramic plate, Jay saw a note. When Jay read this note, another pang of fright shot through him like a laser. Then tears began to trickle down his face.

The note read:

“I couldn’t make you beignets from prison, but I had some sent to you. I really enjoyed seeing you again, even if it was only a dream - or was it, baby?

Je me souviens. I love you. Blood of my blood.

Your momma, Angelique Tolan.

P.S. Tell Kay I said hey!”

Attached to the note was a recent mug shot of Angie. The only thing different about her was that she wore dreadlocks instead of the large Afro he remembered from the '70's. But she seemed just as young and radiant as she was when he was a kid.

So Momma IS alive, Jay thought. He could not stop his tears. He was crying so hard - or trying so hard not to cry in the break room - that he found it impossible to eat the beignets. At least for about 45 seconds. Then, with his cheeks stained with hot tears, he chomped on one. He had forgotten just how damn good these things tasted.

Just then, Kay walked in the break room. Kay saw the beignets. Kay’s face turned white with fear and shock. He knew that Cafe Du Monde beignets - sent here, to MIB headquarters could have only come from one person.

A person he was madly in love with...and also a person he feared. Kay feared very few creatures in the universe, but Angie was different. Angie almost destroyed the Earth over Jay.

“Those - those are Cafe Du Monde beignets, from New Orleans!” Kay looked like he had seen a ghost.

Jay looked up at Kay, coldly. His eyes were red with tears but also glowed red with the emotional energy that was his true genetic nature. “I’ve NEVER seen your face turn THAT white, Kay.”

There were only two people in the building Angie would dare send beignets to. Both of them were in the break room right now.

Kay also knew that this, this tender moment he was seeing unfold before him, was a moment he always knew would happen.

Jay looked up at Kay slowly, with tears in his eyes and powdered sugar on the edges of his lips. He softly said, “Kay, we need to talk. There are some things about me I think you know. And I DON'T think I need to deneuralyze you about this.” He held up the note. Kay took it and looked at it, and looked at Jay. Kay's stare was surprisingly tense, as if he was mortally frightened of Jay at this moment.

Kay replied, “You're right, sport, not about these. This is...well, this is pretty damn critical. Meet me in Zed’s office in 15 minutes.” Kay walked quickly out of the break room.

Jay hung his head down. What was going to happen now?

- end of chapter -

Disclosure | The Sun of Zartha

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