‘Good morning,’ said Lucian, noting Telmo and Ringbalin were both peering through the windows into the gym, but his greeting seemed to startle them.
‘Captain.’ Ringbalin found his smile. ‘I was just going to come and find you,’ he explained, with one finger pointing to the window he’d been peering through.
Lucian was curious enough to take a look for himself and could only marvel at the sight of Taren easily fending off the two incredibly fit men combating her. ‘Not much of a fighter, ha!’ Lucian had to grin at the statement he’d made only yesterday morning.
‘What a difference a day makes,’ Ringbalin bantered, as his captain made a move inside to get a better view.
As he watched the spectacle, Lucian observed a side to Taren that he’d only ever seen on Noah’s chronicles; she was more akin to Tory Alexander than either of them could possibly have imagined, and now it appeared she was more powerful and highly trained than she’d been in any incarnation!
But where was the warrior he was in that past life? He would have been of real benefit to Taren in her cause, but as it was, once she went back in time and changed the past, he felt he’d be of no use to her whatsoever.
‘I’m done!’ Zeven tried to pick himself up off the floor for the umpteenth time, but halfway to his feet, he decided it would be easier to crawl to the closest seat.
Taren was turning about to address Rhun, when she spotted her lover leaning against a column watching her. ‘Lucian?’ She’d barely got the word out when a punch to the gut caused her to keel over.
‘Dr Lennox, are you all right?’ Rhun was most apologetic.
‘My bad,’ Taren admitted. ‘I got distracted.’ With a few deep breaths, she straightened up again. ‘Thanks for the workout.’ Taren groaned in conclusion. She may have had the moves, but she sure needed to build up her body muscle again! She had just discovered that she could also employ her psychic will to make herself faster, more accurate and resistant to attack, but only when she was fully focused on what she was doing. Still, she did feel more confident in her own ability than she had in some time. ‘I need to call a meeting,’ she advised the governor.
‘You certainly do,’ Rhun concurred, pleased that she now felt ready to discuss their next move.
For Taren the meeting played out pretty much as it had the first time. Telmo guessed her intention, Jazmay protested strongly and left, Zeven was further depressed and Ringbalin was rather pleased.
‘I’ve been dwelling on your failure to repeat the experiment, and I believe it might be more than a conflict of interest holding you back,’ Noah piped up.
‘I know about your theory, En Noah,’ Taren interrupted, ‘you told me last time we had this meeting.’
‘Last time?’ Zeven was lost. ‘Are you saying we’ve had this meeting before?
‘You suggested I try willing myself back to my last unconscious state and I did,’ Taren explained to Noah, ignoring Zeven for the moment, ‘whereupon I awoke at this morning once again.’
The news raised a round of gasps from her audience.
‘So what happened to the me that was in the last meeting?’ Zeven was baffled by the premise.
Taren looked to him. ‘Well, nothing bad, you’re still here.’
‘So you are confident that you can do this?’ Rhun ventured to get a confirmation from Taren.
As much as it pained her to admit it, Taren nodded. ‘I know exactly when I need to aim for, so I guess it’s just a matter of when you want it done.’
The governor knew the event meant major life changes and sacrifice for all the AMIE crew. ‘I think you should all take a few days off, and then we’ll discuss the finer details.’
‘Agreed then.’ Taren was slowly coming to accept her destiny. ‘A few more days, to appreciate what we managed to achieve in this timeline, would be greatly appreciated.’
‘You’re welcome to the lake house,’ Noah offered. ‘I won’t be going back there until next summer.’
Taren looked to Lucian who gave a decided nod as Floyd appeared alongside the governor, Kestler with him.
‘That’s really something, isn’t it?’ Kestler had to say; he’d once been rather fearful of psychic power, but now he was embracing such new experiences as teleportation.
‘Professor Kestler …’ Lucian walked over to shake the man’s hand. ‘I felt like I’d lost my father when I learnt your pod had gone missing. It is a great relief to see you again.’
‘Lucian, my good man.’ Kestler was pleased to see him also. ‘Sorry about the right mess my research made of your project, and of our solar system for that matter.’
‘We were all equally naive, but not to blame, Professor.’ Lucian reassured him.
As Floyd had the weapon in his hands that had stripped both Zeven and Avery of their power, Zeven stood, eager to hear any news. ‘Have you learnt something of the weapon?’
‘We certainly have,’ Floyd assured him. ‘It’s a cation linac particle accelerator,’ he informed.
‘So it is charged with a plasma of positive ions,’ Telmo said as he came forward to join the huddle.
‘That is correct,’ Floyd concurred, and Kestler gave a nod. ‘The beam is designed to interfere with the signal transduction of our higher vibrational intracellular cosmic light receptors, causing our excess DNA strands to unbraid.’
‘Well we know that,’ Zeven stated. ‘How long will the effect last?’
Floyd was honest. ‘Hard to say. But negative ion therapy will surely speed the healing process.’
‘Well, that’s good news.’ Avery was tired of being mortal — it was just so damn tiring!
‘More importantly,’ the governor cut in, ‘what is the range on this beam, and how do we defend against it?’
‘We predict —’ Kestler motioned to Floyd, ‘— that the pulsed particle beam emitted by this weapon may contain up to sixty gigajoules of kenetic energy or more, at full power.’
Telmo whistled, rather impressed. ‘That’s about the same amount of chemical energy behind ten barrels of oil.’
The frowns in the faces of all deepened.
‘So,’ Kestler resumed his tutorial. ‘The beam has light speed and, in combination with the energy created by the weapon, negates any realistic means of defending yourself against a blast. So long as the beam is at full power, and no matter how magnified the weapon’s targeting scope is, if the gunman has a direct line of sight on you, the beam will be effective.’
‘Damn.’ Rhun found the news most discouraging.
‘Unless, of course, you were protected by a shield of negatively changed ions, an “anion suit”, as it were.’ Kestler grinned. ‘Your organic fibre suits would be perfect to adapt into such a shield.’
‘Very impressive, gentlemen.’ Rhun smiled, relieved to have a back-up plan to protect his people should Taren’s plan fail. ‘How long would it take to adapt the suit?’
‘Not long,’ Kestler assured. ‘And to save time with manufacture, we are developing an anion spray adhesive.’
‘That’s completely brilliant!’ Telmo exclaimed, mind-blown by their solution.
‘Our real concern is that the Orions and MSS will manage to amplify the output of the weapon from sixty gigajoules to sixty terejoules,’ Floyd cautioned. ‘Firing such a weapon on our city would be as spiritually devastating to our people as the atomic bomb was physically damaging to human beings of Hiroshima … there would be no escape for anyone.’
Everyone present fell silent to digest that fact; even those who had no idea what the Hiroshima bomb was figured that the news was not good.
Avery spoke. ‘There is one other thing that worries me,’
‘Only one thing, sheesh!’ Zeven thought this an understatement, he had quite a few more concerns.
‘What’s that?’ Rhun queried his younger brother.
‘If Taren does manage to put Maladaan back where it belongs, the Orions will be unable to ally with them,’ Avery noted. ‘However, the Orions will still be han
ging around our system somewhere and we will not have a catalyst to accidentally make us aware of their intentions the next time around. Nor will we have possession of the weapon to be used against us to be able to analyse it.’
Rhun raised both brows, agreeing this was a worry.
‘If you gentlemen —’ Avery looked to Floyd and Kestler, ‘— would record all your discoveries and solutions onto a thought band recorder … and, Governor, you might care to record a memo to yourself about the Orion threat also. Then I shall have Fallon memorise the recordings and retreat into the Otherworld until the time shift has passed, at which point she can return to warn us.’
‘That could work.’ Rhun’s frown seemed to indicate that he was not entirely convinced.
Taren suspected that she knew what the governor’s fear was. ‘Is your woman a scientist, my Lord?’ Taren’s commonsense told her there was no physical means to record information that you could take back with you into the Otherworld; as with moving through time, your memory was all you got to take.
‘No,’ Avery granted, a little doubtful of Fallon’s ability to retain the more scientific data.
‘Then your wife may be able to warn you about the threat, but if she does not understand scientific formulae and engineering schematics, she is going to have difficulty reproducing them without error,’ Taren explained.
‘There is a good chance you are right about that,’ Avery conceded — Fallon was not as cosmically connected as he was, and she could not be expected to have his exceptional comprehension. ‘If only I had listened.’ The Lord was mad at himself again, knowing he surely would have been able to complete the task that now, with his mortal understanding, he would find impossible to fathom.
‘Give me the specs for your anion spray adhesive and the Orion weapon, and I shall ensure they find their way back into Floyd’s hands,’ Taren volunteered, and the thought of returning to Kila one day brought the smile back to her face.
Rhun was grateful for her offer, but at the same time reluctant to accept it. ‘Do you not think you have enough on your agenda to attend to without adding us to your list?’
Taren shook her head. ‘I should never be content unless I know that you have all been delivered from the ancient predators that will certainly descend upon you if I succeed with my own quest.’
‘In that case, I accept. Kila will be greatly indebted to you, as we are already, to all of you.’ Rhun cast his sights over the rest of the crew, who were all rather bewildered about their uncertain future.
‘It is we who are beholden to you,’ Taren assured the governor, shaking his hand to seal their deal. ‘No matter what unfolds in the future, or the past, you may rest assured that I will not forget our debt to the Chosen.’
Rhun was also a mite bewildered by their circumstances. ‘I shall forget.’ He smiled meekly. ‘But I do look forward to you bringing me up to speed in the near future.’
‘Hear, hear!’ seconded Floyd, Avery and Noah in accord.
In Jahan’s apartment in Chailida, Jazmay broke the bad news to Jahan and he found it a little hard to digest, despite the fact that he’d known all along their romance was never meant to be. ‘Surely there is a way around this?’ Jahan had not been much of a scholar, especially when it came to things like science and history, both of which might have provided an answer to their dilemma, if he’d only paid attention.
‘Not without committing high treason,’ Jazmay replied, sounding almost willing to do so.
‘I do not have it in me to betray my kin —’ Jahan insisted and Jazmay smiled.
‘That is one of the things I love about you.’ She respected his ruling on the matter.
‘Ah!’ He had a thought. ‘I know for certain that the Otherworld is timeless, if you were there when Taren made the time shift happen, you would remain here … I think.’
Jazmay’s sombre mood lifted. ‘Would the Lord of the Otherworld help us?’
‘Hard to say if he is even capable at present,’ Jahan pondered, ‘but he might be able to pose a solution. I’ll see if I can get an audience.’ He kissed Jazmay and stood to depart, but she gripped his hand.
‘Let me come —’
‘It would be better if I go alone,’ Jahan suggested, ‘trust me.’
‘I do.’ Jazmay let him go. ‘I’ll be here.’
‘I’ll be back.’ He winked to rouse a smile from her, and vanished once she obliged.
When Jahan arrived at the healing temple he was granted an audience with the Lord of the Otherworld, and shown through into the governor’s complex. As he approached the stairs to the upper level, he noted a fellow sitting on them who looked rather familiar.
‘Hey there.’ He waved. ‘Are you one of the locals?’
It took a moment for Jahan’s brain to see through the dark hair, mo and tuft of a beard, to recognise the face of Kila’s last governor. ‘You’re —’
‘— in a spot of bother, and I could really use the help of someone who knows how to teleport.’ Zeven cut to the chase. ‘Do you fit the bill?’
‘I’m just on my way to a meeting.’ Jahan pointed up towards Avery’s rooms.
‘That’s okay, I’ll wait.’ Zeven gave him a smile and sat back down.
‘Okay.’ Seeing no reason to decline, Jahan agreed to help, and as it was his departed forefather he was speaking with, he asked, ‘Is this some sort of test?’
‘Absolutely,’ replied Zeven, ‘so don’t fail me.’
‘I won’t,’ Jahan affirmed, twice as perplexed as he made haste to his meeting.
When he entered the Lord’s quarters he was a little surprised to find Nin Sybil, the governor’s wife, keeping Avery company.
‘Have a seat.’ The Lord motioned to a free chair from his bed, on which he was seated, cross-legged. ‘I thought I might see you before long.’
‘I hoped we might have a private meeting.’ Jahan was slow to be seated, in case he needed to come back. ‘No offence to you, Nin Sybil.’
‘None taken.’ She smiled sweetly, not budging from the chair, where she was hand-sewing a baby garment.
‘I see no point in asking Nin Sybil to leave when she already knows what you are going to say,’ Avery pointed out. Jahan looked to Sybil and she raised both brows, smiled and gave a nod to confirm. ‘And, as I know what you are going to say also, there’s no point in beating around the bush … I cannot help you, Jahan,’ Avery said plainly. ‘Right now, I cannot get myself back to the Otherworld, let alone anyone else.’
‘Fallon, then?’ Jahan requested they enlist the help of the Lord’s wife.
‘She will not agree,’ Avery told him, ‘she will say, as I do, that, like the rest of us, you must trust that what is meant to be will be and what isn’t won’t.’
Jahan had feared this ancient philosophy would get thrown in his way. ‘What about creating your own reality? That’s what I am trying to do here.’
‘And if you are meant to get your way, you shall,’ Avery replied, ‘but the Otherworld will not help you defy cosmic will.’
‘I know it’s impossible, but I feel I am meant to be with this woman.’ Jahan sighed, not expecting any support.
‘Yes, you are,’ said Sybil, ‘Jazmay is an incarnation of your Chosen other —’
‘What?’ Jahan was exhilarated and vindicated by the news. ‘Yes!’
‘But she is not her,’ Sybil put a dampener on the proceedings. ‘And by keeping her here, you are denying some other incarnation of you the pleasure of a life with her.’
Jahan had not considered the big picture. ‘I never was very good at cosmology,’ he admitted. ‘Forgive me, Nin Sybil, I am not questioning your sight but —’
‘How do I know she is your Chosen other?’ She guessed his query, and when he nodded she shook her head. ‘Obviously you weren’t very conscientious with history either.’ She scowled. ‘If you were you would have recognised Jazmay as Brimesent, Princess of York, who stole the heart of Aurelius Urien of Gwent, your incarnation during Rhun’s tim
e as High King of Britain.’
‘That’s why Jazmay was viewing that chronicle,’ Jahan realised. ‘And it was long ago that I viewed it,’ he pondered. ‘Are you sure you recall correctly?’
Sybil nodded. ‘I’m positive, I was your half-sister at the time, after all.’
‘That you were, Nin.’ Jahan grinned at the pleasing memories that began to flood his mind, along with more conscious recall of that era than he’d perceived from Noah’s chronicles. ‘Oh, my Goddess, yes, I see her now.’ Jahan’s eyes were wide open, he was no longer seeing the room around him but a string of lifetimes that he had spent with this woman at his side.
‘That would be your immortal memory kicking in,’ Sybil commented, ‘have you told your parents about your recent demise?’
Jahan snapped out of his wondrous state at the mention of his parents. ‘My death was a complete accident,’ he defended.
‘We know,’ Avery assured.
Jahan was uncomfortable suddenly; everything had seemed so clear to him when he’d walked in here, and now everything was a muddle.
‘So, what do you propose to do now?’ Sybil asked the young man.
There was only one answer. ‘Trust?’ Jahan had just argued himself into taking the advice they had given him in the first place.
‘There you go.’ Sybil tied off her thread, and held up the little blue jumpsuit she was working on to admire. ‘Lovely,’ she decided, folding the suit and placing it on the sideboard beside her, whereupon she rose. ‘Well then, I’ll be going.’
‘Don’t forget your sewing.’ Jahan waylaid the secretary of state from vanishing, having never known the seer to forget anything.
‘Silly me,’ Sybil turned her mischievous grin to the Lord of the Otherworld. ‘Do pass this on to Fallon with my love, won’t you?’ She served Avery a wink and was gone.
The Lord appeared a little stunned for a moment and then burst into a huge smile, as he stood to grab the little blue garment. ‘Do you know what this means?’
Jahan seemed a mite discomforted by the Lord’s sudden burst of excitement. ‘I think I can guess?’