Bonz's joy was indescribable. He was free. No more earthly worries, no more earthly pain. The nightmare that had haunted him for fifty years was gone. Suddenly washed away. He was in Paradise. He could feel it, inside and all around him. Total beauty. No hate. Just peace. Peace and harmony, forever.
They all lay back, arms around each other, neither wife nor daughters wanting to let him go. The warm sun fell on his face. The wind sounded like music. He breathed in deeply and again it felt like he would burst, there was so much happiness going through him.
"Thank you, God," he whispered. "Thank you."
They stayed like this for what seemed a very long while— hours even — it was hard to tell. He was kissing his wife, hugging his kids. He asked his wife what had happened in all the time they'd been apart.
She told him that it didn't seem like any time had passed at all. That they had found themselves here, and that all their deceased family and friends were here, too, and that everything was perfect and good and eternal.
There were other individuals walking past them, some climbing up or down the hill, some suddenly appearing from nowhere. They were all wearing long white gowns and had a certain glow about them.
They were all smiles and laughing, and they shared a bit of his joy as they passed by. The top of the hill was covered with emerald grass and many flowers, and below them were miles of fields and blossoming trees and trickling streams. It looked like Paradise, just as Bonz had always imagined it.
In between more hugs and kisses, Bonz noticed an elderly man climbing up the hill. He was not wearing a white gown; rather his was colored deep gold. He walked past their spot, nodding and smiling, but then stopped and turned around.
"Excuse me, isn't that a Space Forces uniform?" he asked Bonz.
Bonz looked down at his clothes and realized he was still wearing his SF one-piece, the inside liner for his combat suit. He suddenly felt foolish in it. Everyone but him was dressed in more heavenly clothes.
"Yes, I'm afraid it is," he replied.
"Interesting," the old man said.
Bonz shaded his eyes to see the old man better. He had long white hair, a long white beard, and a slightly bemused look to his wrinkled features. He seemed almost too old to be here in Heaven; for a split second, Bonz thought he was the Almighty Himself.
But then, incredibly, he recognized this man.
It wasn't God. It was Vanex, the Imperial Custodian, the man who had disappeared without a trace along with Princess Xara about a month ago.
Bonz couldn't believe it. He scrambled to his feet.
"Captain Vanex? Is it really you?"
The old man looked him up and down and then nodded. "Yes, it is I," he said. "And you are?"
"Captain Gym Bonz, SF3—"
"Oh, so you're a spy, then?"
"I was," Bonz replied slowly. "And it is strange that I should meet you. Very strange…"
"How so, my son?"
Bonz just shook his head. "Because you're one of the people I was sent to look for on my last mission. In fact, the entire Galaxy is looking for you. You, and Princess Xara."
Vanex stared at him for a long moment. He didn't seem too surprised by this news.
"How is it you died?" he asked Bonz
"At the hands of the Solar Guards," Bonz replied simply.
Vanex's jaw dropped. It was as if he'd suddenly woke up from a stupor. "The Solar Guards… killed you?" he asked, astonished.
"Yes."
"But how? And why?"
Bonz told him the whole story, starting with his mission to the No-Fly Zone to look for the missing invading ships, and for Xara and Vanex himself, then his finding the forbidden area virtually empty, his landing on Doomsday 212, and his subsequent execution by the SG. He concluded with his account of the battle between the SF and SG that his murder had brought about.
By the end of it, Vanex was shaking his head in disbelief. "The Space Forces and the Solar Guards are actually fighting each other?"
"Yes, they are," Bonz replied, wanting more than anything else to get back to his family. "And I would guess that they will go on fighting each other. That's how bad the situation was before I… well, left the scene."
"This is very disturbing," Vanex was saying now, dithering as if he wasn't sure what to do next. "I just went out for a walk, that's all — and I suddenly find you here. And the fact that you arrived at this very spot, after all this time, carrying this news… it must mean something."
Bonz was a bit confused, but then he just shrugged. "Well, it doesn't mean anything to me," he said blithely. "Not anymore—"
Suddenly Vanex began pulling him back down the hill with him. "You must come with me. That's an order."
Bonz was dumbfounded; he resisted the old man.
"Come with you?" he said. "Why? For what?"
"Just do what I say," Vanex demanded. "It's important."
"More important than being reunited with my family?" Bonz demanded to know.
Vanex replied very sternly, "At the moment, yes. I have to say it is."
Bonz finally relented. With his family patiently in tow, he followed Vanex down the hill and up another, much higher one.
On the other side of this rise was a deep valley. It made for a magnificent view. Miles of emerald grass. Brightly colored flowers were in bloom everywhere. Rivers and streams and ponds. A soft wind was blowing above it all. And beyond this valley, over a line of gently rolling hills, was another valley just like it. And beyond that, still another valley — and another, and another. And then came a range of small mountains, and undoubtedly, over them, more beautiful places. The scene was so peaceful and serene, it reminded Bonz of the holographic religious cards priests sometimes distributed at space-church services.
Directly below, Bonz could see thousands of men and women, in groups big and small, stretched out in the warm sun, along the banks of a long, winding, gently flowing river. These people appeared totally at peace; they seemed to be radiating happiness.
There was just one thing odd about them. They were all wearing combat uniforms, specifically camouflaged tan with red and black blotches on them.
" Those are the people you were really looking for," Vanex told Bonz simply. "The people who invaded the Two Arm."
Bonz needed a moment for this to sink in. Then he just laughed.
"So the SG was telling the truth all along," he concluded. "Everyone in the invasion fleet was killed—"
But Vanex was shaking his head. "No, my friend, just the opposite, in fact."
"Just the opposite?" Bonz asked. "What do you mean?"
"I must tell you a very deep secret," Vanex replied. "The SG's story was a lie. No one on the other side has any idea what happened to these people. The Solar Guards saw their ships on their sensor screens one moment, and in the next, they were gone. That's what happened. They weren't killed. They are just simply here, like you and me."
"In Heaven?"
"Yes."
"But how?" Bonz asked him. "How can they be here if they aren't dead? As dead as you and I?"
Vanex put his hand on Bonz's shoulder. "My friend, this will be the biggest shock of all," he said slowly. "And I don't expect you to believe it right away… but I'm not dead. Neither are the people you see below."
Bonz just stared back at him. "You're not dead? How can that be? If this really is Heaven, and you're here, then…"
Vanex replied carefully, "I guess you can say I came in through the back door. As did they."