‘See you at breakfast,’ Ray instructed, suspecting he might just return to bed. ‘If you’re not in the mess by the time I finish my cereal, I’m coming looking for you.’
‘Message received and understood,’ he assured her. ‘You are the best alarm clock ever.’
‘The prettiest too,’ Ray grinned, on her way out the door.
In the bathroom Zeven did a double take in the mirror, and stopped to stare at himself returned to his own body. ‘Man, it’s good to see you,’ he told his reflection. ‘I honestly thought I’d never lay eyes on you again!’ He’d left this body back on Kila, what seemed like an eon ago. ‘Home, sweet home.’ He whipped off the clothes he’d fallen asleep in, and stepped into the shower.
The hot water pelting down upon him brought Zeven fully to his senses. His reasons for returning to AMIE were foremost in his mind, but it was the first occasion since his dying day in ancient Zhou that time was on his side and he stole the opportunity to relax. His body was so used to being on alert every waking second, it felt unbelievably good to just take a breath.
Recollections of all that had happened since leaving AMIE played through his thoughts, and it was exhausting just thinking about it.
‘No one said this timekeeper shit would be easy,’ he reminded himself.
Yet, at the same time, he wouldn’t have missed out on his experience in the other universe for all the tea in China. If I hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t even remember that China existed … or Kila, or the Otherworld either! The premise made him smile, and he was glad and proud to be who he was: timekeeper, Chosen, Grigori! Psychic may still have been largely a dirty word in this universe, and there was a time when he had dreaded his own developing powers, but now, Zeven never wanted to go back to being an average, naive citizen of the United Star Systems again. He’d had a glimpse of the big picture, and he loved being one of the artists who had developed the ability to consciously paint that canvas. Most just saw the universe as a finished work, created by another for them to admire on their way through life, but he knew that it was a continual work in progress, actively moulded to perfection by those with the will to turn their existence into great art.
Time to begin drafting my current part of the masterpiece, he resolved, switching off the shower to get to it.
Walking the long curving corridors of the AMIE craft again was very consoling for Zeven, even though the place was like a ghost ship this morning. In the mess hall, Ray sat by herself eating breakfast, and he gave his daughter a wave upon entering.
‘You only just made it.’ She finished her last spoonful and got up to return her plate to the dish disposal at the end of the service counter.
‘I thought we were eating together?’ Zeven queried after Ray hugged him and headed for the door.
‘It’s a school day.’ She noted the time on the clock on the wall. ‘And first period is starting already. Later, Dad.’ She waved and ran out the door.
As Zeven’s stomach was not feeling particularly disposed towards eating this morning, he was about depart the cafeteria when he heard someone clanking about in the kitchen.
Upon investigation, he found Ringbalin stocking the fridge with fresh produce from his greenhouse.
The AMIE craft was comprised of six different modules, one of which, Module C, was entirely devoted to horticulture, and was the largest and most successful greenhouse ever to be launched into space. The reason for the success of AMIE’s botany experiment was entirely due to the work of the man before him — Ringbalin Malachi, whom he’d known as Fen Gong in ancient Zhou, and as En Noah on Kila.
‘Balin!’ Zeven startled the botanist.
‘Oh, hey, Starman,’ Ringbalin replied after he recovered from the fright, and returned to his chore. ‘I didn’t expect to see you up this early.’
‘Starman,’ Zeven grinned upon hearing the name, ‘it seems an age since anyone called me that.’
‘Well, you have so many names these days,’ Ringbalin explained. ‘The royal name you were born with, the name your adoptive parents gave you, the name you got given while you were living on Frujia … I never know what to call you. Your nickname is the only constant.’
The botanist’s view made Zeven laugh. ‘You don’t know the half of it.’ The statement was a joke, but it caught in Zeven’s throat and made it ache. Ringbalin didn’t recall their time in ancient Zhou or on Kila because Fen had been brutally killed by Dragonface before he’d been given the chance to return his soul-mind here with his multi-universal memory still functioning.
‘Song?’
Zeven swung around to find Taren with a questioning look on her face. ‘Hudan,’ he replied, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Not another name?’ Ringbalin jeered, as he carted his empty trays past them, and was surprised when the captain’s wife unexpectedly became teary eyed upon sighting him. ‘Is something the matter, Doc?’
‘Not at all,’ Taren gasped back her emotion and smiled. ‘It’s just so good to see you.’
‘Okay …’ Ringbalin found this perplexing as she saw him every day and never reacted like this.
‘Don’t mind her,’ Zeven moved in close to Ringbalin to whisper, ‘she’s probably still tripping from all the mescaline we consumed last night.’
Taren whacked Zeven’s shoulder for being so forthcoming.
‘What?’ Zeven defended and then stressed, ‘You’re the one acting strange.’
‘Well, it’s a strange kind of day,’ she retorted.
‘Sure is,’ Ringbalin decided he was heading back to the isolation and safety of his greenhouse.
‘Now, do you want to tell me why I abandoned my unborn child in another universe?’ Taren queried in a whisper once they were left alone.
‘You’ve slept on Kila now,’ Zeven explained, as he led her towards the table furthest from the door. ‘So you can go back to any morning prior to our leaving, and rejoin Dan and your unborn child, and both shall be alive and well.’
‘Of course they will,’ she was excited to realise, so excited she kissed Zeven’s cheek.
This was one of the few setbacks of time hopping — you could only jump into a body during its last unconscious state prior to your target day. Once you had slept, or been knocked unconscious, you could return to that moment in time.
‘Control yourself, woman,’ he eased her back, pretending he didn’t appreciate her adoration, and Taren withdrew and folded her arms to hear him out. ‘Vugar said there was no place in that universe where you would be safe from him, which made me realise the virus has never been in this universe and cannot trace us or your memory here, and even if it could, it would have to have an incarnation living here to get to us. So, here seemed the best place to regroup and base this operation from.’
Taren grinned; she was fairly impressed with him, Zeven could tell.
‘You can say it,’ he prompted, smiling, pleased with himself, as they both took a seat.
‘Say what?’ She fobbed off the offer. ‘You haven’t told me how you plan to rid that universe of the virus yet.’
‘Am I late?’ Jazmay wandered into the mess, holding her head and wearing very dark shades over her eyes.
‘Huxin?’ Zeven checked her status.
‘Sorry?’ she rasped, heading for the water dispenser to pour herself a cup. ‘Are you still tripping, short-man?’
‘That’s Starman, Jaz,’ he corrected.
‘Not from where I am standing.’ She hazarded a laugh, but decided it hurt too much. Still, it was true, Jazmay was taller than most of the men on board AMIE of whom Zeven was the shortest.
‘She didn’t make it.’ Taren was devastated, as Jazmay had been time-hopping with her as long as Zeven had.
‘Make what?’ She approached and collapsed into a chair at their table.
‘Nothing,’ Taren forced a smile to downplay the tragedy. ‘It’s no matter.’
‘So then,’ Jazmay placed her crossed feet up on the table. ‘What are we going to do about Dragonfa
ce?’
‘Aww!’ Taren hit her feet, annoyed by the scare.
‘Really, Jaz … are you trying to give me a fucking heart attack?’ Zeven grumbled, as he stopped trying to figure out how he would manage what he had to without her.
‘You were both so sucked in!’ Jazmay chuckled despite the obvious pain it caused her.
‘This is serious!’ Taren stressed, having nearly had heart failure herself.
‘No,’ Jaz corrected, ‘this is paradise, not having that bloody virus breathing down our necks.’
‘Hear, hear,’ Zeven granted.
‘You’re pretty smart, short-man,’ she warranted.
‘You’re pretty brave to keep calling me that,’ he retorted, and Jazmay, being the stunning Phemorian beauty that she was, just served him a huge smile.
‘So what’s the plan, Starman?’
‘We go back to when we first came through the Eternity Gate and stop Ninharsag ever injecting the virus into the reptilian line.’
‘I think I’ve missed something?’ Jazmay sat forward.
‘You were there,’ Zeven assured her, ‘your Grigori name is Gadriel. And there were others on this crew like Leal and Swithin who could also be of aid if we can teach them how to regress into their past lives as we have learned to do.’
Taren frowned, unsure if dragging more of the crew into this disaster was really a good idea.
‘And I can fetch Lord Avery, Rhun and Noah from where they await my summons in the Otherworld, as they were there also,’ Zeven summed up.
‘Correct me if I am wrong,’ Taren cut in, ‘but I was without a working body throughout the entire time of which you speak.’
Zeven grimaced. ‘Yeah, it’s true, you’ll have to sit this mission out.’
‘Damn,’ Taren hated the sound of that. ‘So say you stop Ninharsag injecting the virus into the reptilians,’ she challenged, ‘then what do you plan to do with it? Fly it back through the Eternity Gate and into the dark universe?’
‘Whoa!’ Jazmay was a little alarmed by what she was hearing.
‘If I have to,’ Zeven boasted. ‘We have no use for the Leviathan after that and it could be a good way to dispose of those seals for good, too.’
‘Okay, that would mean the virus won’t be in the reptilian race, so how do you think that will affect the situation that the Ji family find upon occupying the Yin capital in ancient Zhou?’
‘We’ll have to return to ancient China to find out —’ Zeven began.
‘No, I couldn’t go through all that again,’ Taren refused.
‘Not all,’ Zeven advised, ‘just go back to a few days before Jiang Hudan died to, say … the day before Hudan married Ji Dan and got herself pregnant.’
‘Jiang Hudan and Ji Dan never married.’ Taren gasped on the revelation — she could not count the amount of times she’d been told that and did not listen. ‘If I never got pregnant there would be no impediment to prevent me returning here once we straighten out this mess.’
Zeven served her a knowing wink. ‘We need to take out the virus before we venture back to Zhou to check out the reptilian situation at the end of Song’s reign. But with any luck the events that lead to the destruction of the Dropa craft will play out very differently to the last two times that that situation at Bayan Har Shan has been revisited by one of the Chosen.’
Taren raised both eyebrows, her mind boggling at the scope of his vision and at the million things that could go horribly wrong with screwing around with events so vastly spread out through time. ‘You know the risk you run when you attempt to rework one instance in time too often?’ Taren cautioned.
Zeven nodded and shrugged. ‘It’s the only way through that I figure will get that virus off our tail, and set things to rights on Earth and Kila.’
‘I hate to put a fly in the ointment, but there is a flaw that you may not have considered,’ Taren winced.
‘What’s that?’ Zeven challenged, feeling that he’d thought everything well through.
‘What if you go back to your Grigori existence and forget everything that has gone before, as we did in ancient Zhou?’
‘Shit, she’s right,’ Jazmay realised. ‘Then we’d have to live our lifetimes over in that universe.’
‘Lucian is tapped into the Akashic memory,’ Taren pointed out. ‘And even then it took him half his life as Ji Dan to tap into the talent! The only one of us who retained all memory during our time in ancient Zhou was our Shifu.’
‘Telmo!’ Zeven wanted to kick himself for leaving him behind now.
‘Did I hear someone call my name?’ Telmo entered right on cue, yet despite the coincidence, chances were he remembered nothing of their latest mission.
‘If I didn’t know better,’ Taren ventured to say, ‘I would think you were just waiting to hear your name called?’
‘Well, it was either come back here, or be eaten by a bunch of reptilians, so I opted for here.’ Telmo came and took a seat.
‘What about the others? Wu Geng, Aysel, Jahan?’ Jazmay asked even though she knew the answer.
‘It matters not,’ Telmo forced a grin to avoid the unpleasant topic. ‘I’m guessing we are just about to change all that.’ He looked to Zeven, wearing an expression that begged for an apology.
Zeven felt he owed Telmo an explanation. ‘The only reason I didn’t want you on board on this mission was because —’
‘I was one of the Nefilim at the time.’ Telmo knew why.
‘You remember?’ Zeven was surprised, as Telmo surely couldn’t have had time to view the orb, and could not have brought it wih him when time-hopping.
‘Of course I remember, I was there,’ Telmo emphasised. ‘I am the only one among you that is fully plugging into the Akashic memory. You have realised that you need me for this mission. Thus, here I am. Sorry to have defied your order … but then again, I’m not really.’
‘Whatever … yes, we need you,’ Zeven corroborated.
‘I know,’ Telmo concluded and Taren shook her head in wonder.
‘You get more and more like Taliesin every day,’ she noted, sounding unsure if that was a good thing.
Telmo looked her way and grinned. ‘Let’s not bring the dark ages into this; it’s confusing enough already.’
‘I second that motion,’ Jaz held a hand up. ‘I need coffee.’ She picked herself up and flounced towards the machine that would supply her with a cup of the said brew.
‘Not only can I awaken your timekeeper memory in your Grigorian counterparts, but I can also train up Leal and Swithin, as I did all of you back on Kila,’ he concluded.
Zeven was frowning. ‘How long have you been listening in on our conversation?’ Zeven had thought they were keeping their voices down.
‘I wasn’t,’ Telmo claimed, ‘it is just an elementary conclusion that you’d want to utilise them. You are not the only one with a brain, you realise?’
‘Well, at least you are admitting I have a brain now,’ Zeven bantered, ‘so I guess that’s a step in the right direction.’
‘You did great, Starman,’ Taren finally awarded him his due, as she gripped his arm across the table. ‘I for one am very grateful, just to be able to eat breakfast and not want to throw up.’
‘I want to throw up,’ Jaz rejoined them at the table, with her beverage in hand.
‘Actually,’ Taren thought about eating something and decided she did feel a bit seedy, ‘maybe tomorrow.’
‘Shitty morning, all,’ Lucian entered the mess and, with a meek wave in their direction, headed straight for the coffee machine. Thankfully, the captain did not notice how petrified his crew were to see him.
‘What do we tell the captain?’ Zeven queried in a whisper and all at the table leaned into a huddle to discuss the vital matter.
‘We have to tell him everything … especially if you want to get other crew involved,’ Taren insisted on the quiet.
‘That’s a lot of explaining,’ Zeven stressed.
‘I can retrain the
captain in past life recall, then we don’t have to explain it, he’ll just remember?’ Telmo proffered.
‘But he won’t let you regress him unless he understands why,’ Taren pointed out.
‘Are you all whispering to be considerate,’ Lucian asked as he approached, ‘or did I miss something?’
‘Ah. Funny you should ask …’ Taren stood to ’fess up.
‘Oh dear.’ Lucian was wary, because he knew his wife well! Clearly he was already regretting getting up this morning.
‘Perhaps you should sit down,’ Taren suggested, ‘it’s rather a long story.’
After an hour of playing fill in the blanks over breakfast, Lucian had heard enough. ‘Khalid is on our side now?’ He had to laugh.
‘No, seriously,’ Taren backed up what Telmo had been saying.
Lucian smothered his mirth, and frowned in an attempt to give them the benefit of the doubt. ‘Can any of you give me some proof of all this?’ Clearly, he suspected that their story was an elaborate hoax to catch him out in his hungover state.
‘I plan to summon forth the Lord Avery, his brother Rhun and En Noah to aid us in this mission,’ Zeven advised.
Lucian sat forward in his chair, unsure if he had heard correctly. ‘From Kila?’
Some of their crew, including Lucian himself, had visited the universe parallel before, so he knew they weren’t inventing the other universe of which they spoke. He knew his wife had made a vow to the governor of Kila to return there to warn him of the reptilian threat at some point in the future; he was just finding it hard to believe they had already done this, and so much more.
‘I’m summoning them from the Otherworld, actually,’ Zeven corrected. ‘That’s where they are, right now, waiting for me to call them to strategise.’
Lucian gazed about at the nodding heads, confirming their pilot’s words. ‘Is anyone else on the crew aware of this?’
All present shook their heads in accord, and Lucian quietly considered how best to proceed.
‘From what you’ve said, I assume time is not a major factor in this mission at present?’ the captain put to them, and again they all shook their heads in response.