‘Something tells me things just got worse.’
‘If we don’t know enough to free the souls trapped here, we certainly don’t know enough to deal with that one.’ Yasper agreed.
‘Then we had better get to Telmo before it does,’ Taren advised, suggesting they return to AMIE to regroup.
‘Best idea I’ve heard all day.’ Swithin tiptoed in to join them. ‘I’m real sorry about that.’
‘It may not be an entirely bad thing,’ Lucian commented. ‘The spirits here say that was Chironjivi, Khalid’s father, who was trapped in Khalid’s body during their time in prison.’
‘So, Khalid was probably the one who entrapped the spirit of the last prince of Phemoria,’ Zeven theorised and then grinned. ‘Boy oh boy, is Khalid in trouble.’
‘And so is any other living thing in his vicinity.’ Taren gripped Lucian and Swithin, and Zeven grabbed Yasper, and they all returned to the conference room next to the captain’s office.
The reality of being a hostage on this vessel was a nightmare for Kalayna. She didn’t feel safe sleeping or showering — even going to the toilet freaked her out, as she felt the eyes of all the dead and deprived men of the crew constantly upon her. When she was in Telmo’s company it was not so intense. However, if they showed intimacy toward one another, she would immediately get the intense chills that she’d only begun feeling since being brought on board the Insurrecto.
Obviously none of the ghosts were technically capable enough to follow the work she hadn’t been doing for Khalid, or they would have reported her covert activities by now.
Only hours after he had tortured information out of them, Khalid had visited Kalayna and Telmo again and handed them their first assignment. He wanted them to build and install a huge photon-camera on his ship. Kalayna had thought this an odd request, as he was hardly going to spot any psychics out in space! Telmo asked why Khalid, with his PK, needed them to build the camera. Why could he not just whip one out of thin air? Khalid did not like being questioned about his skills, but for the sake of getting on with it, he explained that if such a camera had already been in existence, no problem. But because the camera needed to be redesigned to suit his purpose, he could not just ‘whip one up’. Kalayna, however, did not ask questions, as his request gave them full run of the ship — bar the bridge and control deck. Khalid figured they couldn’t hide anywhere on board that his ghosts could not find them, and the best thing about the commission was that it gave them an excuse to tinker.
In what little sleep Kalayna had managed to secure, she’d dreamt her way around the circuitry of a psychic neutraliser band — a device she’d never even seen! Admittedly, before she’d drifted off to sleep, she’d desired to know how to construct one of the Maladaanian devices, so she could take out their captor. It was stunning that her request for information had been met so swiftly. As she now understood how the neutraliser worked, she conceived of how the technology could be transformed into a handheld weapon — and that was very exciting!
So whilst Telmo got started on the photon-camera for Khalid, she pretended to be making components — all the while constructing her weapon right under her captor’s nose. It had only taken a couple of days to construct the handheld device, but the scary thing was there was no way of testing it.
‘How are you doing?’ Telmo was keeping a constant check on her progress.
‘Just the outer casing screws to drill and fit and I’m done.’ She briefly looked up from her work to flash him an encouraging smile. ‘How are you doing?’
‘Not so good.’ He gave a heavy sigh.
‘You stuck on something?’ Kalayna offered to help.
‘No, it’s all pretty straightforward, seeing as we have a copy of the original MSS designed blueprints.’ He was rather concerned to be working off stolen government documents. ‘No, what is annoying me, is that the design for this weapon was inspired by a breakthrough scientific invention by the very great Dr Taren Lennox. Which basically means the MSS ripped off her brilliant work and put it to the worse use possible.’ He shook his head in disgust.
‘What do you think Khalid wants with it?’ Kalayna queried in an attempt to defuse his anger.
‘Whatever it is, you can guarantee it’s not good. Ah!’ Telmo threw his tools down, suddenly.
‘What’s wrong?’ Kalayna put her screwdriver down and actually looked at Telmo. A grey haze appeared to hang about him, but perhaps her eyes were strained from the intricate work she’d been doing under light?
‘I’ve got some grit in my eye.’ Telmo moved quickly to the door to go the bathroom down the hall and wash the offending particle out. The strange grey haze followed him out of the room.
Kalayna shrugged off the sighting — she’d seen and felt loads of strange things since she’d been brought on board. She was learning very quickly that the more fearful she was, the more she attracted the spooks’ attention and the worse the episodes were. If she ignored the ghostly creeps and didn’t react to their attempts to frighten her by moving things or blowing her hair about, they tended to get bored and go away.
When Telmo returned to the lab, he just stopped inside the doors and stared at her for the longest time, his smile slowly broadening. The grey haze was no longer pursuing him, but he looked to be covered in soot.
‘Telmo?’ Kalayna quizzed his odd behaviour with an uncomfortable grin.
‘A woman,’ he said, his voice as harsh as sandpaper, as he stumbled toward her like he’d only just learnt how to walk.
‘Are you drunk?’ She stood and backed away, her untested weapon in one hand and a small screwdriver in the other.
‘I will be,’ he said ominously, ‘on the blood of your dead body.’
Not the Telmo I know and love, she thought, trying to suppress her fear and prevent herself squealing. She darted away and put a work bench between them. ‘Stay back.’ She aimed the flattened cigar-shaped object in her hand at her pursuer.
‘What are you going to do … throw it at me?’ he sneered.
‘Telmo knows what this is capable of.’ She questioned his ignorance.
‘I’m not Telmo,’ he admitted with a broad grin.
‘No, you’re not.’ She fired her weapon, and as the magnetic pulse struck Telmo’s body the soot was shocked right off of him. The grey mist reformed quickly into a large face, which snarled at Kalayna, but when she threatened to fire at it again, it fled the room.
‘What the?’ Telmo was left quivering in the wake of the episode and Kalayna rushed to catch him up and steady him on his feet. He looked to her whereupon his confusion turned to hope. ‘It works.’
‘Well, it does something they don’t like too much,’ Kalayna agreed, feeling empowered to have a weapon to use against her invisible assailants.
Telmo looked to the large-scale photon-camera he’d been working on. ‘Speaking of not being liked too much, Khalid is going to be back to check up on us soon, and just in case your weapon doesn’t do what we think it does —’
‘— better get cracking on his commission,’ Kalayna agreed. Now that she’d completed her task, she could give Telmo a hand.
In the conference room, those involved with this particular mission had gathered to brainstorm penetrating Khalid’s ship. Swithin had bowed out of the pursuit for the moment, fearing he’d create another demon to battle, but was on call if needed. Zeven and Yasper, who, having seen a kindred spirit in each other, were fast becoming firm friends, and were as eager as ever to take off and complete the mission. Lucian and Taren felt that a little more caution and planning was required in this instance.
‘Okay, how are we going to do this?’ Aurora asked, eager to be of service, but at the same time wary of the destination of the journey she was about to take.
Since she had been recruited and trained by Anselm and the Sermetic secret service, Aurora had developed her Power beyond simple remote viewing. She now had full astral projection capability. This meant she could not only seek out a target and view t
hem from a distance, she could project her light-body to their location. This allowed her to explore environments she might not otherwise have been able or willing to take her physical form into, and her target was usually none the wiser. In this case, however, Aurora could not find Khalid or his ship directly, as he had them shielded by his dark forces. They had to use a few psychic backdoors to penetrate his defences.
‘Zeven, Lucian and myself all know what the officers’ lounge of the Insurrecto looks like,’ Taren began. ‘But Khalid will not be keeping Kalayna and Telmo there —’
‘You need me to locate them on the ship.’ Aurora got her drift.
‘That would be good,’ Taren concurred. ‘The longer it takes us to locate them, the more chance Khalid has of whisking them away somewhere else. Once he realises we can find his ship, he’ll modify it until it is unrecognisable and hide our targets with dark amulets. Then we’ll have no chance of finding them.’
‘So this could be our only shot at this?’ Yasper summarised, and Taren nodded to concur.
‘There is a good chance Khalid’s ghosts will spot my astral form.’ Aurora was concerned about that.
‘The amount of light we exude is blinding to them and quite repulsive,’ Taren assured her. ‘So whilst they will be able to see your light, they won’t be able to tolerate getting too close.’
‘You think?’
‘That’s the theory. But one thing is certain — the more you fear Khalid’s ghost crew, the more power you give them.’
‘Got you.’ Aurora took a deep breath, and gave a nod to confirm she was ready.
‘I’ll get Leal,’ Taren began, as he was the telepath on duty this morning, ‘to transfer an image of the officers’ lounge —’
‘Cleant of debris,’ Zeven suggested. ‘Khalid has cleant house a bit since we’ve been there, as the bones we found at Dead Man Downs attest.’
‘Good call.’ Taren imagined the scary remains out of her mental image as she stepped up to Leal, who placed a hand upon her forehead to take a snapshot of her mental picture.
‘Okay.’ Leal turned to Aurora, who was seated at the end of the conference table; everyone else present was too hyped up to sit still. ‘Are you ready?’ He took a seat near her.
Aurora nodded and Leal placed his palm over Aurora’s forehead to telepathically imprint the image on her psyche.
‘Can I speak with you a second?’ Zeven sidled up to Taren to quietly ask.
‘Now?’
‘I think I have information that is import —’
‘I really need to focus to do this.’ Aurora shot a displeased look in Zeven’s direction.
‘Please?’ he persisted, and Taren relented.
‘Start without us,’ Taren instructed Aurora, Leal, Yasper and Lucian. ‘Can we borrow your office?’
Lucian gave Zeven a look that implied he’d better not be mucking about. ‘What’s mine is yours.’ The captain smiled at his wife.
‘What is so urgent?’ Taren wanted to know, as soon as the door was closed.
‘This is the first time you are going to meet Telmo Dacre in this time line, right?’ Zeven verified.
‘Well, yes,’ Taren concurred.
‘Back on Kila, Telmo told me and Ringbalin that he had already foreseen meeting you in some alternative future reality,’ he outlined. ‘This was an instance in which he had yet to meet you and knew you by reputation only.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me this before?’ Taren was rather startled and excited by the news. ‘That would seem to indicate that we do find them.’
‘Yeah.’ Zeven wasn’t as excited about what came next. ‘It might be a good idea to leave the captain at home on this one.’
‘Why so?’ Taren was immediately wary.
‘Because, Telmo claimed that the first thing you did, after apologising for being in a rush, was …’ Zeven paused, looking worried.
Taren raised both brows, eager to get to the punch line.
‘You kissed him,’ Zeven concluded and Taren was immediately enraged.
‘I what?’ Was Zeven trying to make waves here, or was he serious? ‘If you’re bullshitting —’
Zeven forced a smiled and shook his head. ‘I knew you’d immediately jump to that conclusion … and then you’d ask me why I didn’t tell you sooner? Besides I did mention it to you, right before we left AMIE in Kila’s universe.’
Taren dwelt on this, but couldn’t recall.
‘I’m serious,’ Zeven insisted. ‘Do you think I want to screw with Kalayna’s life, or Telmo’s for that matter?’
‘No.’ Taren realised what a rash judgement that had been, but she wasn’t used to Zeven being responsible. ‘I’m sorry —’
‘I know you’re under pressure.’ He waved it off.
‘Did Telmo say why I kissed him?’ Taren rolled with the information.
‘He said your kiss woke him up to his Power,’ Zeven advised. ‘And we both know that we can do that, now, but at the time Telmo made this prediction, we did not have that ability. That’s why I figured that the information could be important.’
Taren took a deep breath and nodded before she gave a huge exhale. ‘Telmo was more in touch with his super-conscious on Kila, and if that’s a prediction it spat forward, who am I to argue?’ She looked to Zeven, her eyes pleading to be reassured that she could trust him on this.
‘Come on,’ Zeven appealed again. ‘You know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t lie about something like this!’ Zeven was still overzealous these days, but he was not mischievous.
‘It might be best not to take Lucian on this one anyway — he’s too easily recognisable. Plus he cannot make himself invisible without our aid, and I’m going to need to be focused on covering my own arse.’ Taren wasn’t going to make a drama out of this. ‘Still, without Lucian, we can’t see the invisible bastards coming. They can’t hurt us, as our Juju protects us. It’s Kalayna and Telmo, I’m worried about.’
‘We’d better be real quick then,’ said Zeven.
As they re-entered the conference room, everyone raised a finger to their lips in warning and they crept back inside.
The top half of Aurora’s body was laid over the table, like she had fallen asleep during the meeting. Leal had a hand on her shoulder and was monitoring her astral movements telepathically, whilst quietly relaying her situation to the captain.
‘Rory doesn’t usually shake like that,’ Zeven noted.
‘It’s unusually cold inside the vessel,’ Leal advised. ‘There is dark mist everywhere, and it’s like trying to see through a muddy windscreen, but Aurora is not perturbed.’
In her astral form Aurora was not affected by the elements, so when she projected her subtle body elsewhere, temperature was not usually a factor. In the officers’ lounge of the Insurrecto, however, she was painfully aware of how cold the atmosphere around her was and that was very disconcerting. A dark mist filled the inside of the craft, obscuring her visibility as well, and she felt these shadows were the source of the extreme cold.
In the distance, Aurora could hear Leal relaying her movements to the rest of the crew. It was comforting to hear his voice and have his hand upon her shoulder, as it made her feel she wasn’t alone. As she moved out of the officers’ lounge and into the corridor, the dark mist cleared out of her path as she moved, however, remained closed around her at a distance, which proved Taren’s theory was correct.
‘The shadows are keeping their distance. She’s moving down the corridor toward some signage …’ Aurora heard Leal say.
She was in luck — there was a floor plan of the Insurrecto on the wall. Probably for the benefit of the officers staggering drunk out of the bar, just in case they couldn’t remember where they were going, she thought to amuse herself, as she looked it over.
I’ve always found a floor plan helpful after a heavy night out, Leal thought her back, and Aurora smiled inside, as she spotted the technology labs on the floor plan.
‘The labs are two floors belo
w.’ Leal conveyed what he saw to the others.
Going down, Aurora mentally warned Leal, as she spun around and floated down two levels.
‘Whoa.’ Leal clearly felt woozy, as the event felt rather like being in a spinning elevator going down very fast.
Sorry. Aurora came to a standstill to get her bearings. She was in another corridor, which was exactly where she had expected to land.
In the direction she faced there were several doors before the corridor turned a corner. As she spun around to face the other direction, Aurora spied a large glassed-off room at the end, where the lights were on. I’ve found it.
‘She’s approaching the lab now …’ Leal relayed.
Aurora proceeded toward the lab, thrilled to see Kalayna in there, working closely with Telmo Dacre, whom she recognised from the news report.
The corridor rounded into another, which led along in front of the large glass lab, to the entrance doors further down. Aurora didn’t need a door, however, and headed straight into the lab.
Out of the corridor before her, an agitated mass of ash moved into Aurora’s path and formed a large angry face.
This brought Aurora to a grinding halt, just short of reaching her target. Chironjivi? She sent Leal her guess as the large head appeared to draw a deep breath. With its exhale, Aurora was blasted by a jet of freezing air that sent her toppling arse over head back up the corridor.
Abort, right now, Leal advised. You’ve got us close enough.
Aurora looked back in the direction she had come from to find the entity racing toward her, and the image of his evil face stunned her.
Then a sensation of pressure on her third eye that moved down her nose in a firm stroke, drew her away from the pending confrontation and back to her physical form.
‘Ah!’ Aurora woke with a flinch, and sat up to find Leal’s much friendlier face smiling back at her. ‘Did you get a good picture of the lab?’