‘Yes, Captain.’ She was stunned and a little heartbroken by the sudden turn of events, but moved to the control panel for the bio-containment lab. ‘Before you go…’ She looked at Kassa, who turned to give Taren her undivided attention, and the way the being stared at her was a little off-putting. ‘Do you have a name?’
‘Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi,’ it replied.
‘My name is Taren Lennox and it has been my greatest honour to meet you.’
Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi observed her a moment. ‘We know you. You are special, Taren-lennox. A twelve-tone organism is a very rare find in a physical dimension, so the honour is ours.’
Kassa bowed low, which so overwhelmed Taren that tears streamed down her face. Once Kassa straightened up, she smiled, closed her eyes, and collapsed on the floor.
Lucian ran to her aid. ‘Release it!’ he commanded. The close encounter had him spooked.
Taren turned to view the contained part of the mighty being one last time, wishing she had the grace to ask it what a twelve-tone organism was. ‘Peace go with you, Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi,’ she said, hitting the release button on the vacuum trap that kept the sample contained.
The coloured gas drifted out into the bio-containment area, spreading out and shimmering more brightly—clearly it was joyful.
And also with you, Taren-lennox.
Taren’s eyes sprang open when she heard the being’s voice in her mind. Telepathy!
How many Powers are there? the being asked.
But my question was, what did you mean, I am twelve-toned? She attempted to mentally convey this and as an answer was forthcoming, Taren assumed that the being heard her.
I understood your query.
Her delay in jettisoning the sample caused Lucian to spring to his feet and do it for her. Everything inside the containment area was immediately ejected into space and Lucian closed the exit hatch doors.
‘Are you all right?’ he inquired of Taren.
‘Yes,’ she replied, shaking like a leaf.
‘You don’t look all right.’ He guided her to a seat.
‘Is Kassa hurt?’ Taren saw her on the floor and snapped out of her trance-like state.
‘By all appearances, no,’ Lucian replied. ‘But I should get her down to sick bay.’
‘I’ll help.’
‘No, you rest,’ Lucian ordered.
‘Have you had any rest, Captain?’ Taren thought to ask, although he didn’t look at all weary.
‘Given the number of times my world has spun around today, I don’t think I’ll ever sleep again!’ He squatted down next to Kassa.
‘I’m so very sorry to have brought all this—’
Lucian held up a hand to stop Taren apologising and stood. ‘I made some unfounded accusations earlier and I couldn’t have been more off the mark. You didn’t bring this trouble upon us. You’ve weeded out the trouble that was already here and I could not be more grateful.’ Lucian nearly broke down, but managed to hold himself together. ‘And there is still more to deal with.’ He drew a deep breath, boggling at the enormity of the task.
‘Anything you need from me, just ask.’ Taren’s heart went out to him. She suspected Lucian had seen more misfortune and sadness in the past few days than he had in his one-hundred-year career!
Lucian lifted Kassa up. ‘I most certainly will do that. Until then, you are on R and R. I’ll have Aurora introduce you to the recreation module and—’
‘I’m sure she has work to do. I can find it on my own.’ Taren recalled that the last time she’d seen Aurora, the woman had not seemed very well disposed towards her.
‘I insist,’ said Lucian. ‘Some of the rec equipment is a little hard to figure out how to operate.’
‘Okay.’ Taren resigned herself to the confrontation. Perhaps it was for the best. She really liked Rory and didn’t want to be off-side with her or anyone on board—a task that seemed to be becoming increasingly difficult. Still, she did seem to be back on-side with Lucian, which was a huge step in the right direction. If she could just figure out how to get Zeven uninterested, she’d be home free.
Taren arrived in the lovely foyer-cum-waiting room area of Module D ahead of Aurora, and was thankful to be able to collapse onto a lounge and take a deep, quiet pause for a moment. There was some wonderful relaxing, watery-sounding music wafting through the room, which was decorated in earth and sea shades: lovely calming blues and greens.
The rollercoaster had finally stopped! The magnificent being who had briefly entered her life was now gone, and she mourned the lost opportunities to learn from the inter-dimensional intelligence. I thought I had more time, she rationalised her non-action. And with the thief, a murder, and getting stranded on an alien planet…is it any wonder I got sidetracked?
The double entrance doors to Module D slid open and Aurora thudded in, wearing an attitude and chewing gum very loudly.
‘Do you want to eat first?’ she queried Taren without looking at her, then headed straight over to the other set of double doors that gave entry into the large recreation area.
‘Rory?’ Taren appealed. ‘Stop.’
Aurora turned around, rolling her eyes in the process.
‘You’re angry at me because you think something happened down there on Oceane.’
‘Well, did it?’ Aurora shot back, her anger still evident.
Taren didn’t like her tone, as it was really none of her business. ‘I’ll be happy to give you a full account of what happened, if you will calm down and reserve judgment until I’ve finished. Deal?’
Rory took a deep breath, not ready to give up her fury. ‘If you are just going to tell me how much you love him, then—’
‘I’m not,’ Taren interrupted.
Rory’s clenched jaw finally loosened up a little. ‘In that case…I’ll listen,’ she growled, plonking herself on the lounge.
Taren started with the crash, with Zeven unconscious and having to brave the outside believing it was up to her to get them home. ‘So when Zeven woke, I was just so glad to see him that, well…things got a little out of hand—’
Rory gasped, horrified.
‘In a clothes-on kind of way,’ Taren added, to take the sting out of it. ‘And the encounter was brief and, as it turns out it, not entirely our fault.’
‘What!’ Rory was upset again.
‘The atmosphere of Oceane is like breathing a pure aphrodisiac. Ringbalin tested it.’ Taren smiled to reassure Rory. ‘I am truly not attracted to Zeven. He’s a lovely guy and very heroic, but just a little too wild for my taste.’
‘Not mine,’ Aurora grinned and sulked at the same time. ‘He’s been making goo-goo eyes at you since you got here,’ she grumbled. ‘He’s got a thing for older women.’ She began to blow a bubble with her gum.
‘Do you want my advice?’ Taren queried, though she thought the girl was probably not going to like it.
Aurora nodded, her bubble growing bigger.
‘Well, if you really want him, I suggest you get with the program, Rory, and grow up.’
Aurora’s bubble burst.
‘He’s looking for a sensual woman, not a rebellious chick,’ Taren explained.
‘It doesn’t matter how grown up I try to be, Zeven still sees me like a little sister or something.’
‘Rory…’ Taren looked over the girl’s hairdo of the day. ‘Your hair is bright pink, right?’
‘So? Your hair has a couple of purple stripes,’ she retorted.
‘But if I let my hair down, you can hardly see them at all…so I can be conservative or a little wilder, depending on circumstances.’
‘But I like standing out,’ Rory brooded. ‘I want him to like me the way I am.’
‘I don’t think this is really you,’ Taren replied. ‘I think it’s a bit of a performance because you are afraid that the real you might be boring, or go unseen.’ The look on Aurora’s face told Taren she was on the right track. ‘The simple truth is, the true you is far more likel
y to attract your true love.’
‘Wow,’ Aurora choked out, holding back her tears, ‘that’s pretty profound, Doctor.’
‘Well, often it’s easier said than done,’ Taren confessed, thinking about the psychic skills she kept hidden because of what society thought.
Aurora pulled out a tissue and wiped her already red nose and then sniffled. ‘I’ve been pouring energy into being Rory for so long, I don’t know that I’ll be able to find the true Aurora…she’s been well buried!’ She forced a laugh, and wiped her nose once more. ‘Would you help me?’
‘Ha! I’m hardly a fashion guru,’ Taren said in amusement, but when she saw Aurora’s downcast appearance, changed her tune. ‘Look, when we get back to Maladaan, we’ll go shopping, and maybe we can help each other out?’
Aurora’s face lit up at the suggestion. ‘That would be wicked.’
Taren could see that Aurora was going to need to change in more ways than just her dress sense. ‘That would be wonderful, marvellous, splendid, lovely, or even sensational, but not wicked, rockin’, killer or neat.’
‘Awesome?’ Rory attempted to find the middle ground and Taren cringed a little. ‘Superb,’ Aurora put on a posh voice and sat up straight.
Taren winked. ‘Now that’s more like it.’
Lucian was really not looking forward to having this conversation. He had no real proof of his brother’s involvement in any of this, only the word of Dr Lennox, who he barely knew but greatly admired. With all he’d seen of her in the past few days, he was inclined to believe Dr Lennox was an innocent victim, but maybe she was far more powerful than she was letting on—their inter-dimensional guest had seemed to think a lot of her?
Swithin, however, was another story altogether. His brother had been something of a wheeler-dealer in his time, but since he’d become interested in exploration and they had started this project together, Swithin appeared to have put his hustling ways behind him—until yesterday. Still, Lucian wasn’t going to jump to conclusions. Amie could have been working for the MSS when Lucian had met her, and both he and Swithin may have been deceived by her from the start.
His heart ached a moment as Amie came to mind, although not as it had when he’d first learned of her death and seen her mutilated body. At that time it had felt like he’d taken a dagger straight in the back and through his chest that could not be withdrawn. Now that he knew the truth about his wife, it felt as if his heart had been cut right out, and there was only a heavy, painful emptiness left in the wake of what he’d thought was the love of his life.
As he sat down at his desk to place a request for an audio-visual link-up to base, he thrust his personal feelings and suspicions aside. He had no proof; he could not accuse Swithin, he could only relay some of what had unfolded here and see what kind of a reaction it fetched.
‘Lucian, you inconsiderate bastard.’ Swithin appeared on the screen at Lucian’s workstation, wiping the sleep from his eyes. ‘You know it’s the middle of the night here, right? You did check the time difference before—’
‘Amie has been murdered, Swithin.’
The news served to grab his attention. ‘What? Are you kidding?’
‘Her throat was cut,’ Lucian told him, unwillingly taken back into some of the emotions he’d felt when he first discovered that the woman he adored had been taken from him.
‘Damn…that’s bad.’ Swithin put his head down, hiding his initial reaction, which could be seen as grief at the loss of a close friend and business partner. When he looked up, his eyes were moist with tears. ‘I can’t believe it.’ His tears overflowed. ‘Do you know what happened?’
‘She was killed by an MSS sleeper agent,’ Lucian informed him coolly, and his brother looked startled.
‘Dr Lennox?’
‘You know about her MSS history?’ Lucian found this most interesting.
‘Well, yes, I know it,’ Swithin confessed. ‘I sent her up there to discover our leak!’
‘You know how I feel about the MSS?’ Lucian lectured.
‘Yes, yes. I also know how you feel about having our research stolen…so shoot me!’ he said, and winced. ‘But I didn’t expect this!’
‘The really bad news is that there is a highly explosive gas sample traveling back to you on Kestler’s pod.’
Swithin was stunned again.
‘It’s a secret delivery for the MSS, who have no idea what they are dealing with. You must get the sample before they do and release it immediately, or the entire planet is in jeopardy.’
‘What kind of jeopardy?’ He was curious.
‘The kind that we do not want to be accountable for, understand me?’ Lucian wished he’d asked the entity to be more specific about what would happen if they failed, but the encounter had been so intense and unexpected he hadn’t been thinking straight. ‘We are on our way back to you as we speak, but have no chance of catching the pod within ten days, which is when this sample will become very volatile. So make sure the pod’s arrival is not delayed for any reason.’
‘I’ll take care of it,’ Swithin said vehemently.
‘I stress again, release it immediately.’ Lucian emphasised the point, so that whether or not his brother was working with the MSS he knew the score.
‘I got it.’ Swithin gave Lucian a stare that entreated him to have a little faith.
CHAPTER 8
HOMEWARD-BOUND
During the ten days that followed, Taren managed to get some of her own research done, whilst keeping an eye on the images of Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi that their satellites on Oceane were relaying back to AMIE. At present, the being overshadowing over a third of Oceane’s surface area seemed just as it always had, but Taren expected that would change soon, as the entity was due to depart in the next few days.
As far as her own research went, the first series of experiments she intended to run was to see if space and distance affected an individual’s ability to alter the past.
Taren had already proven that time was not the one-way forwardmoving procession that humans had always believed it to be—debunking the old myth that cause must always precede effect. She had done this in a study of people with incurable tumours, who received remote healing intentions for a six-month period. Their tumours were then compared to those of other patients with similar-sized growths who had not received healing. Taren had discovered that those who received the healing maintained a stronger resistance to their disease, and some subjects had even gone into remission—against all medical probability.
What this had to do with changing the past was that Taren had actually sent the healing to her subjects four years after the final analysis on the patients involved had been completed.
This discovery had gone down like a lead balloon on Maladaan, and although the institute had kept this research under wraps they had not discouraged her from continuing her work.
Taren was not a psychic healer as such, but as a psychic she had proven adept at focusing and sustaining an intention to heal, much as any well-trained mind could. As any psychic kept themselves well hidden on Maladaan, she had been forced to utilise the only psychic she’d known at the time—herself.
Since the day she had left the planet, there were students in her labs on Maladaan who were monitoring subjects that she would be working with from space. And as before, her students were comparing rates of recovery in this group with other test subjects who would not be receiving the healing intentions that Taren would begin sending this week. They were limiting the trial to a one-month period, and she could hardly wait to discover if her patients had shown any improvement yet. Taren had planned to be in distant space while sending her healing intentions, so it would be interesting to see if the decreasing distance between their craft and Maladaan was having any impact on the results.
Taren’s assigned students were not as excited about her work as she was—they worked with her under sufferance until they earned their way into the labs of more respected and renowned scientists, but she
knew they were conscientious and would be diligent in recording information.
Taren placed a request for an audio-visual link-up from her office to her labs back on Maladaan, and waited to be patched through by Aurora.
After releasing their inter-dimensional guest from the craft, Taren had switched over to the day shift, not that one could really tell the difference in space. It was only day in so far as it was daytime back in their capital city, Esponisa on Maladaan.
This meant Taren had been successful in avoiding Zeven, as they were now on different shifts and inhabiting different parts of the vessel. Taren had also been learning her way around AMIE and found there was no need to go anywhere near the bridge. The pilot left a couple of messages for her, and she had tried to return the calls only to get his message service. With every day that passed, time was putting a greater distance between them and their misadventure on Oceane and this was a relief to Taren. She really didn’t need any personal dramas right now.
‘Patching you through,’ Aurora advised from the monitor of Taren’s workstation. Another window appeared in which Taren’s senior student was waiting to speak with her.
‘Greetings from space,’ Taren gloated, knowing how jealous people had been of her assignment to AMIE. ‘What’s new?’
‘What’s new!’ exclaimed Frank, her normally reserved and sceptical colleague. ‘You’ve cured them all!’
‘What do you mean, I cured them all?’ He had to be pulling her leg. ‘Don’t mess with me, Frank, or you can kiss that PhD goodbye.’
‘Hey, I’m the cynic, remember! You want me to show you all your terminally ill patients bouncing around like teenagers?’
‘Yes,’ Taren replied, her excitement mounting.
‘No trust!’ He rolled his eyes as he picked up his communication station and walked with it into the study rooms.
All her positive-healing test group were up and walking about, smiling, looking healthy. When they noticed Taren on the monitor, they all wanted to speak with her at once.
‘I’ve never believed in psychics,’ laughed one of her older male patients, ‘but I am a living testament to your work, Dr Lennox.’