‘I would greatly appreciate that,’ Fen said civilly, despite his inner panic.
‘Please be at peace,’ she encouraged him. ‘I’m sure our governor shall have an answer to your dilema, so right now you should take it easy.’
‘Do you not recall your life as Ling Hu?’ Fen queried Rebecca curiously.
‘I have not actually explored my past-life incarnations in an animal form.’ She seemed a little embarrassed. ‘Which is rather shameful, now I come to think of it, being that I work for the environmental protection agency here on Kila.’
‘But Ling Hu is —’ Fen stopped short of spilling his lover’s greatest secret.
‘She is …?’ Rebecca encouraged him to finish the sentence.
Fen merely grinned to cover his slip of the tongue. ‘She is a really extraordinary being.’
Rebecca smiled, perhaps flattered by his view. ‘As is your partner back on AMIE, I’m certain. Sadly, my past-life memory does not extend beyond my lifetimes in this universe.’
A memory of the beautiful Phemorian lover that he had left behind on AMIE brought a smile to his face. ‘That she is.’ Fen nodded to confirm. ‘Is it all right if I get up and take a look?’ He pointed to a set of doors that led out onto the balcony.
‘If you feel up to it.’ She took a step towards him. ‘Shall I give you a hand?’
‘No,’ he assured, wanting to see the governor as soon as possible. ‘I’ll take my time, I promise.’
‘Very good.’ She grinned, backing up. ‘See that you do.’ She approached the exit door and rather than having to reach out to open it, the barrier simply vanished on approach and reconstituted in her wake.
Once alone, Fen slapped his hands together to try and conjure some chi and heal himself, but the anaesthetic must have been having a hangover effect as he couldn’t seem to conjure enough chi to fix a broken fingernail.
‘Hmm.’ Fen looked to the balcony doors wondering if he had the strength to stagger over there. The shutters on the tall, slender arched windows were open, and the sky beyond was a beautiful deep shade of aquamarine. The high arches and domed tops of some of the neighbouring buildings were most impressive, and he was compelled to go and view Chailida city as it was before the reptilians destroyed it.
The shutters on the door didn’t vanish but opened with a gentle nudge, and the expansive cityscape of Chailida spread out before him like the holy city of some ancient highly advanced utopian civilisation. Absent was the usual noise that you would expect from such a metropolis, for there were no transports within the central city. All the buildings were curved, as were the pathways that wove through the central park opposite the healing temple. People moved at a leisurely pace, and spoke quietly to each other — no yelling or hostility.
‘Fen?’
The query startled Fen into turning about to greet one of the locals from Kila he’d not seen in a long time. Jahan was exiting onto the balcony from the room next door to his.
‘It is Fen, right?’ the strapping blond fellow queried.
What was most shocking to Fen was the fact that his companion was conversing with him in the native tongue of ancient Zhou, just as Rebecca had been. This was possible for any of the Chosen of Kila, as they understood all languages: it was part and parcel of being immortal. But the Chosen were not born immortal, their immortal gene activated only once they’d died. This was the case with Rebecca, but Fen knew the man before him had yet to experience physical death, so how was he conversing without a communicator? ‘Yes, I am he. Sorry … I just —’
‘I know what you’re thinking …’ Jahan pre-empted. ‘It must be strange conversing with me, when you just saw me murdered.’
‘You were murdered?’ Fen was astounded. ‘I mean, Shi was murdered?’ he corrected.
‘You didn’t know?’ Jahan clearly felt bad about his assumption. ‘I’m so sorry, I was hoping to lighten the moment, instead I must have just come off as callous.’
Fen shook his head. ‘You are the one who was killed!’ He frowned, curious. ‘But if you were murdered then how do you still carry Shi’s memory?’
Jahan smiled broadly as Fen hit on the very point he was trying to raise in the first place. ‘I saw death coming and willed my soul-mind to return to my place of origin as advised prior to our mission in Zhou.’
‘But you could have returned to nothing if our mission had failed.’ Fen thought the man’s split-second decision rather audacious. ‘Which, obviously,’ he turned and motioned to the pristine city, ‘it didn’t.’
‘I trusted my wife and my governor would come through for us.’ Jahan admired the city also.
‘Can I ask …?’ Fen ventured.
‘How I died?’ Jahan guessed.
‘If it isn’t too painful?’
Jahan shrugged. ‘Well, I wasn’t there for the painful bit, but I’m fairly sure I ended up impaled on a stalagmite.’
‘Oh, damn,’ Fen covered his mouth. He was feeling a little ill and rather sorry he’d asked. ‘How on Earth …?’
‘Dragonface,’ Jahan replied.
‘What?’ This tale just got more horrifying by the minute. ‘How did he find us?’
‘Huxin was compelled to shift into reptilian form during the siege on the Dropa ship —’
‘The creature read her mind.’ Fen began to panic. ‘It will know everything about us.’
‘Relax,’ Jahan emphasised, ‘we’ve jumped over three thousand years into the future, he won’t find us here.’
‘It didn’t stop the creature last time.’ Fen was still wary, but the prospect of danger begged another line of questioning. ‘Have you seen Ling Hu?’
‘No,’ Jahan replied. ‘But then most of the wildlife are out on the city’s third island ring.’ He pointed off into the distance to a landmass that lay beyond several water channels that encircled the city. ‘We’re on the central island here.’
Fen relaxed a little. ‘So why didn’t the captain wake me after the mission?’
‘I couldn’t tell you, I was dead at the time,’ Jahan replied dryly. ‘But I’m sure they had a good reason. I am still waiting for Huxin to awaken, and Wu Geng is still out cold too, at last report.’
Fen’s frown deepened once more. ‘Well, Wu Geng I understand,’ Fen stated, ‘but Huxin was never meant to be sedated.’
‘Apparently, she was a bit upset by my death.’ Jahan repeated what he’d been told.
‘Oh, I see,’ Fen conceded. ‘It still does not explain why I wasn’t revived.’
‘I think I can explain.’ Rhun came onto the balcony from Fen’s room.
‘Governor.’ Jahan nodded his head in greeting, and backed up towards the doors he’d emerged from. ‘I’ll get back to my vigil.’ He entered the room and closed the doors.
‘Where is Ling Hu?’ Fen didn’t bother with a greeting — he was concerned and meant no disrespect. The look of woe on Rhun’s face was not the slightest bit comforting.
‘That is what I am here to talk to you about,’ he began soberly.
The news of Ling Hu’s abduction by Dragonface was every bit as harrowing to Fen as his team mates had anticipated.
‘She will have been expecting me to rescue her,’ Fen agonised through his streaming tears. ‘And I will never come.’
Rhun was clearly finding words difficult. ‘I know Ling Hu was an exceptional animal, but surely she’s not worth risking —’
‘She was not just an animal!’ Fen yelled out his frustration.
Rhun held both hands up in truce and Fen released his anger and slouched in his stance.
He could not blame the governor; he didn’t know the truth, no one did. ‘Ling Hu could assume a human form.’ Fen collapsed into a seat to confess the secret he’d kept from everyone. His head was bowed; he was not ashamed of their love, more concerned of how his peers might react to the news.
‘She was your lover?’ Rhun assumed.
Fen didn’t look up as he nodded. ‘I expect that is rather hard to fathom???
?
‘Not really,’ the governor replied.
Fen finally looked up to find his company appearing sympathetic.
‘I hung out with the Leonine tribes for a bit, those cat women are pretty damn sultry.’
‘The Leonine tribes?’ Fen frowned, intrigued.
‘I keep forgetting you haven’t really seen much of our civilisation,’ Rhun explained. ‘And unfortunately you won’t really get the chance to, as the timekeepers plan on leaving as soon as you are all coherent.’
‘I can’t just leave Ling Hu at the mercy of that creature.’ Fen appealed for more time.
‘It is done, Fen Gong, it was done three thousand years ago.’ Rhun kept speaking to quell his protest. ‘Dragonface may have read Huxin’s mind, but she came to Kila by accident, and has no idea where this planet is located in this galaxy, so Dragonface cannot find us via her memory. And now that the timelines have altered and he has never been here, the chances are he will never happen upon us again.’
‘Even if Dragonface escaped death after he discovered our whereabouts from Huxin, how did he reach us in the crystal cave? He does not have psychokinesis,’ Fen posed. ‘How did he withstand the healing energy within the cave long enough to kill Shi?’
‘Dragonface has a very great knowledge of the dark arts,’ Rhun advised. ‘He called upon lower etheric entities to prevent Avery being able to rescue Dorje Pema the first time I screwed up the history of ancient China, and again to prevent Huxin from doing the same on our last mission. I can only assume he used the same kind of demonic force to project himself to our secret cavern and protect him while he was there.’
Fen shook his head. ‘But how did any creature, of this world or the sub-planes, escape that blast?’
‘That is what the rest of the crew are discussing at En Noah’s lake house,’ Rhun assured him. ‘I may not have all the answers yet, but we are working on it.’
To keep a lid on the timekeepers’ presence on Kila, Rhun had all those timekeepers who were conscious staying out at En Noah’s private lake house, as it was located on the remote outskirts of Chailida city. No one ever went there beside En Noah and his spouse, although a lot of their secret dealings with the timekeepers in the past had transpired at this location. The rounded structure looked rather like an elegant flying saucer half submerged into the lake’s surface at the end of a long jetty. This structure could be completely sealed and submerged beneath the lake, which made it the perfect base for any covert operations that the governor and his chief advisor wished to keep under wraps.
When Rebecca had arrived to alert the governor to Fen’s awakening, she had remained at the lake house to brainstorm with En Noah — advisor to the governor — and the mysterious timekeepers that Rhun had brought back with him from his quest in Earth’s distant past.
‘I think we should consider the possibility that Dragonface didn’t escape death at all,’ Telmo, the technologist, was saying. ‘He claimed that death was a fast ticket for his soul-mind to rejoin the next appropriate body existing back on his planet of origin. What if he managed to do just that?’
‘But then how could Dragonface have got from some distant point in the galaxy and back to Earth in time to kill Shi?’ Dan queried. ‘The destruction of the Dropa ship and the event of Shi’s murder were almost simultaneous.’
‘The premise screams time travel,’ Hudan verbalised the only logical conclusion. ‘Could he have got hold of the chariot again somehow?’
‘Not with the new security measures we’ve installed,’ Song defended Telmo’s design. ‘If the chariot does not recognise an etheric signature as authorised it won’t fire up. So any of our incarnations could use it, but not an intruder.’
‘And Dragonface could not have anticipated this instance when he originally stole the chariot from Rhun as it hadn’t taken place yet,’ Telmo added. ‘So that rules out that possibility.’
‘I think I know of a way that you might know for certain how this creature accomplished the feat,’ Rebecca spoke up and the entire room looked to her. ‘Something Fen asked gave me the idea.’
‘What did I —’ Noah rolled his eyes at his error and corrected, ‘sorry, what did Fen ask?’
‘He asked if I remembered my past life as Ling Hu,’ she told them.
‘He thought the tiger was his soul mate?’ Song looked very disturbed by the notion, whilst the captain rolled his eyes.
‘Of course!’ Dan appeared to want to beat himself around the head.
‘What is it?’ Hudan was intrigued by his reaction.
‘I saw Ling Hu take human form,’ he replied, and many a jaw in the room dropped. ‘Her love for Fen enabled her to make the transformation for brief intervals.’
‘Damn,’ Song became most discomforted by the news. ‘I sure hope that does not imply what I think —’ The pilot looked at Telmo who was chuckling away to himself.
‘No wonder Fen got so jealous of my affection for Ling Hu,’ he explained his amusement, as his eyes fell to Rebecca. ‘So you are volunteering to do some past life regression into her disappearance.’
Rebecca nodded, solemnly — for the notion was not an enticing one. ‘If the creature took the tigress with it, then her memory may tell us much.’
‘Brilliant!’ Noah awarded, with a proud, encouraging smile. ‘We can use the isolation chamber downstairs in my office.’
‘It’s always the quiet ones.’ Song was shaking his head still mind-blown by Fen’s love life and emerged from his fascination to find everyone staring at him. ‘What? You all don’t find that kinda kinky?’ He queried their frowns, and then realised that the two soul-minds in question were present. ‘Ah … no offence or anything,’ he back-pedalled. ‘Whatever floats your boat.’
Telmo manifested a tiny device in his hand and when he touched it against Song’s shoulder, the pilot dropped to the floor unconscious. ‘If there isn’t a battle going on, he’s useless anyway.’ Telmo explained his resolve to his company, who all nodded to agree that pilot could sit this part of the investigation out.
Once Rebecca was comfortable inside the isolation chamber, Telmo spoke to her through the intercom. ‘Would you like me to guide you back?’
Rebecca had a chuckle. ‘No need, here on Kila we are taught past life regression in High School. I have the name of the Earth incarnation I am looking for, all I need is the year and I’ll be able to skim through my superconscious to find the instance of interest to us.’
‘The year was one thousand and two, BCE,’ Telmo advised, ‘and we were in the area of B—’
‘No need for details,’ Rebecca cut him off, eager to get this over with. ‘Leave it with me.’
‘We’ll wait on your word,’ her husband, Noah, said to close the conversation.
‘Much appreciated, I’m out,’ Rebecca confirmed.
Left in complete darkness and silence, she breathed deep to cement her nerve.
Rebecca had been able to sympathise with Fen’s plight, as she had recalled her life in ancient Zhou as He Nuan, and her death at the hands of Dragonface, many years ago when she had first learned the art of past-life regression. So she was not entering this exercise blindly, she was well aware that the creature was without mercy or compassion; it had no moral code and a lust for power that was second only to its Nefilim creators — only the universe knew what it had done with Ling Hu.
A feeling of anguish made her gut churn and, noting how unnerved she was, she breathed deeply once more, to draw upon the inner strength of her current personification. She was not an innocent animal any more, she was a defender of every defenceless animal on this planet! She had locked up every poacher to ever break KEPA law, and this predator would prove no different. This Orion was about to get a taste of what it was like to become prey.
‘Right then,’ she grinned, feeling considerably more empowered. In the year one thousand and two BC, Ling Hu met Dragonface; she formulated the mantra that would hone her into her target era fastest, and silently repeated the sug
gestion over and over. In her mind’s eye she visualised herself approaching a bridge and as her consciousness crossed over it into the misty darkness on the far side, she felt herself sedated.
Her entire body gave a huge jolt as she was snatched from her unconscious state. Her form felt weighted and lethargic — she could barely bring herself to open her eyes.
‘Up you get, little kitten,’ a sinister voice snarled, and it was only when she was yanked by her neck clear off the plinth she’d been sedated on that the tigress became aware of the metal collar and chain around her neck.
Despite the shock and pain, she sprang to her feet snarling, ready to tear to shreds whoever had hold of the leash.
The eight-foot-tall lizard standing upright before her was completely shrouded in shadow, which concentrated around him like a swarm of flies clinging to a dead carcass. Ling Hu did not even need to employ her third-eye vision to see this — the shadow was in plain sight. The tigress didn’t fear anything in the natural world, but this was an abomination. She’d not ever seen or felt anything so repulsive, and her instinct was to pull away.
‘Don’t like me, do you, kitten?’ The creature’s sinister tone made her uneasy. ‘Yet, look what I have done for you.’ It pointed aside with a claw.
At the same moment, her sense of smell got beyond the stench of the monster in front of her, to pick up on the scent of blood — her father’s. The sight of Shi’s impaled body produced a howl of agony from the tigress until the lizard yanked her chain, and choked her to silence.
‘They don’t care about the likes of you or I, we’re not human enough to warrant the same consideration in the great scheme of things,’ he told her.
Ling Hu was snarling, her anger welling in her heart as she prepared to shift into spirit form and free herself from bondage.
‘Of course, you don’t believe me. Which is why I have to prove the fact to you.’
The tigress sprang forward, but her transformation failed. Dragonface belted her aside and sent her flying backwards into the jarring chokehold of her metal collar once more, which drew blood as it cut into her neck.