The Light-Field

  AMIE had decided it was best to steer their vessel clear of Oceane, as sightings of their vessel were often reported in the press, just in case Khalid was following their movements. They did not want him to think they had the slightest interest in the Oceane system. They didn’t need to use the inter-system gateway to get their vessel to Oceane — any one of the crew with PK who had visited Oceane could shift AMIE and the crew to the vicinity of the ocean planet with a thought. The remote satellite camera system Telmo and Kalayna were about to launch was a far smaller, lighter package than AMIE, and would take six months to reach Oceane taking the long way around. For any other vessel it would take nearly three years. Fortunately having PK meant that Taren could position the camera system around Oceane herself and save any delay. So unless Khalid had somehow gotten a picture of the destination he was looking for, it would take him at least three years to find it. Even if he did, the source of their Juju was not merely some rock formation that Khalid could blast to dust as he expected.

  ‘We should be ready to launch the cameras in two days?’ Telmo looked to Kalayna to confirm.

  ‘If that,’ she said, holding both thumbs up.

  ‘Excellent.’ Taren clapped her hands together. ‘Good job!’

  Once the photon-camera problem on Maladaan was dealt with and the satellite monitoring system was in place on Oceane, Taren and all the crew of AMIE expected to be able to rest easy for quite some time to come.

  In the years leading up to departure day for Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi, there was not a peep heard from Khalid Mansur. But AMIE knew he was still actively plotting against them, as several leading scientists, physicists, electro-mechanical design engineers and other highly specialised technical personnel, had mysteriously vanished from Maladaan without a trace — including Lucian’s old mentor, Professor Eleazar Kestler. Taren felt she really should have predicted this, as the professor had become involved in their dispute with Khalid before.

  Still, as it had been years since the last scientist had gone missing and AMIE’s satellite cameras, that were constantly monitoring Oceane, showed no sign of anything in the area, Khalid had been all but forgotten for the moment.

  With only ten days until D-day, the growing concern for AMIE was not if Khalid would find Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi, but what was to be done about Kila, for the gaseous entity that was their soul-mind held the only ticket back to that other universe.

  Zeven was just on his way to a crew meeting about this contentious topic, when he noticed his daughter, Ray, strutting very proudly toward him. There was something different about her today; she looked more mature suddenly.

  ‘Morning, Father.’ She waved and turned around and that’s when it hit Zeven.

  ‘Are you wearing a bra?’ he squeaked, horrified — she was only ten years old!

  ‘Excellent.’ She clapped, excited. ‘You noticed, that means everybody will.’

  ‘But you’re only ten, you don’t have breasts?’ Zeven protested.

  ‘Yes, I do.’ She pulled up her shirt to show him how well she filled it.

  ‘Honey!’ Zeven covered his eyes, unsure if he was more discomfited by his daughter flashing her lacy underwear, or the fact Thurayya was developing breasts. ‘Please don’t do that …’ He frowned, as she laughed at how prudish he was. ‘And especially not around Fari.’

  ‘I can handle Fari, Father.’ She dropped her top and gave him a kiss on the cheek. ‘Later. I’m going to show Kalayna.’ Ray continued on her merry way.

  ‘Zeven?’ Aurora came up from behind, and startled him.

  ‘Our daughter is wearing a bra?’

  Aurora took Zeven by the arm to walk with him. ‘Well, she has breasts, honey, she needs one.’

  ‘When did that happen?’

  Aurora laughed; he looked so devastated. ‘Yep, blink and you’ll miss something. We could always try for another child, a boy perhaps?’

  Zeven wanted more children, but Aurora’s timing in bringing this up right before this particular meeting, was no coincidence. ‘You don’t want me to go back to Kila?’

  Aurora shrugged. ‘We’d miss you.’

  ‘No, you wouldn’t,’ Zeven argued. ‘I could come back to this morning, and you’d never know I’d been.’

  ‘Have you been?’ she quizzed playfully.

  Zeven grinned, and Aurora halted and caught her breath. ‘No,’ he relieved her worry. ‘I would never go without you knowing, even though you wouldn’t remember me asking you before I went.’

  ‘I don’t remember you asking?’ Aurora semi-accused him, in jest.

  Zeven smiled, as he took hold of both Rory’s hands. ‘If Taren needs me to go to Kila, would it be all right with you if I went?’

  Aurora took a deep breath; it was a hard call, but one that had ultimately driven them apart in another life. In that instance Aurora had asked Zeven to stay. ‘You may go …’

  ‘Yes!’

  ‘… only if you are needed,’ she stipulated, and received a long kiss in appreciation.

  ‘It’s amazing we don’t have more children on this vessel!’ Mythric commented to Leal as they headed past the couple to the meeting.

  ‘It won’t be too long, I reckon,’ Zeven said as their kiss was interrupted and Aurora smiled to confirm that.

  In the meeting, Taren proposed that, ‘As I am the one carrying the information that Kila will need to defend itself against the Orions, obviously I am going to have to go, but there is no need for anyone else to risk themselves —’

  ‘If there is any risk, I’m going,’ Lucian interjected.

  ‘But you cannot teleport back in time, you won’t remember going,’ Taren reasoned.

  ‘That doesn’t matter,’ Lucian countered.

  ‘I’m going too.’ Zeven put his hand up.

  ‘Zeven,’ Aurora protested. ‘I said if you are needed.’

  ‘I am needed,’ he insisted. ‘I can come back and I will remember all that transpired, and that came in real handy last time around, if I recall.’

  Taren couldn’t deny that and so looked to Jazmay, who could also time shift. ‘What about you, Jazmay?’

  Ironically, Jazmay had been the one who’d begun the return to Maladaan campaign, to find a lover she’d left there. However, as she had found that lover here in Yasper, she shook her head. ‘I will stay, if it is all the same to you.’

  ‘I’ll come.’ Telmo stood up. ‘A bit of genius might come in handy and besides, I rather feel obliged to go.’

  ‘Then I’ll come too.’ Kalayna stood, but Taren was adamant, having wanted to go alone.

  ‘Four of us is more than enough to handle this.’ She declined any more volunteers. ‘All we have to do is meet with Kila’s governor and then we’ll be returning to the morning we left so … you won’t even notice us missing. The next time around, we’ll return all the Juju stones to Oceane and allow our soul-mind to depart freely without us. Then we’ll be at liberty to find and deal with Khalid.’

  ‘Sounds easy,’ Zeven said, knowing deep down that the situations they planned for never turned out to be quite so simple.

  ‘Those of us going back to Kila will leave our Juju stones on and take a recon vessel off this ship. I’ll return the ship’s amulet and all the rest of the crew’s Juju stones to Oceane before we depart. Only those of us still in contact with the stones and Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi will be transported back to Kila’s system.’

  ‘But we will no longer have the protection of the Juju stones when it comes time to deal with Khalid?’ Aurora voiced her worry.

  ‘We should no longer need them … you should all generate enough of your own light to deflect Khalid’s spooks,’ Taren advised. ‘The most important thing is that Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi gets away safely and Maladaan remains in this universe where it should be.’

  ‘Thankfully that disaster has already been averted.’ Lucian grinned. There wasn’t time now for someone to find Oceane, take a sample and return it to Maladaan — only Khalid was
capable and he had no ties to the MSS anymore.

  ‘It would seem so,’ Taren was happy to concede. ‘But still, everyone please remain vigilant.’

  All present nodded in agreement and the meeting was dismissed.

  Nine days later they had shifted AMIE from where she’d been stationed off Phemoria to the Oceane system. Zeven was systematically packing the recon vessel that he’d be flying into another universe later today, when Taren arrived with a couple of bags of equipment to throw on board. ‘You can’t bring any of that back, you realise?’

  ‘No matter, it’s nothing I can’t replace,’ Taren assured him. ‘Just better to be safe than sorry.’ She loaded the bags on board and then gave a great sigh, leaning against the craft a moment. ‘I feel really depleted today.’

  ‘Yeah, me too,’ Zeven concurred, stopping to lean on the craft beside her.

  ‘Maybe we are more anxious about this then we realise?’ Taren suggested, and he cocked an eyebrow to consider this.

  ‘Taren, could you please report to reception,’ Aurora called over the ship intercom. ‘Your parents are here to see you.’

  ‘My parents!’ Taren cringed. ‘Oh shoot … I thought I was going to be able to sneak off and do our little universe jump without a lecture.’

  ‘Obviously not.’ Zeven waved her goodbye as she headed for the flight deck to take the lift to Module A.

  When Taren entered reception to greet her parents, she was flustered. ‘We’ve got a lot going down today, what are you doing here?’ she asked, as if she didn’t know.

  ‘Tell me about Kila?’ Anselm stated.

  ‘How do you even know about that?’ Taren noted her father’s gaze on Lucian’s office door. ‘The captain mentioned it to me the day we banished the Phemoray.’

  ‘Father that was five years ago, and you wait until now to bring this up?’ She was unusually agitated and seemed to have no patience whatsoever.

  ‘There’s no need to get hostile.’ Her mother rose to calm her. ‘We’re not here to stop you, we’d just rather know your plans.’

  ‘Look, I’ve done this before,’ Taren pointed out. ‘You won’t even know I’ve gone … you didn’t last time!’

  ‘Boss.’ Telmo came rushing in.

  ‘Yes, Telmo.’ Exasperated, Taren turned his way, then attempted to reel in her mood.

  ‘Are you feeling a little cagey today?’ he asked.

  ‘Is it that obvious?’

  ‘No, we all are,’ Telmo stated, ‘and I think I know why. Follow me.’

  Taren looked back to her parents, who waved her on.

  ‘We’ll wait,’ Anselm assured her, a little exasperated.

  ‘No need.’ Taren directed them to the captain’s office. ‘Lucian can give you the details.’

  ‘I want to be here, to bid you farewell,’ her mother added.

  ‘You won’t notice I’ve gone!’ Taren couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. ‘Don’t you both have planets to run?’

  ‘Not today.’ Her mother got more comfortable on the reception lounge. Phemoria had established its own parliamentary government five years ago, but had voted to maintain the queen as their sovereign. Her responsibilities had been greatly diminished, however, and she focused more on diplomatic relations and protocol.

  ‘Fine.’ Taren threw her hands up and headed after Telmo, who led her to maintenance, where the large hexagon therein was monitoring the gaseous entity enshrouding part of Oceane’s surface.

  ‘Question,’ he said, as he walked in the door. ‘When our friend departed this universe last time around, did it gradually reduce in size until it was gone?’ Telmo motioned to Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi on the screen facing them.

  ‘No.’ Taren frowned. ‘It detached from the planet, formed an orb and then imploded in a blaze of blue-white light. Why do you ask?’

  Telmo grabbed her hand and lead her around to the next screen of the hexagon. ‘This was a snapshot of our friend from the same distance two days go.’ He guided her back to the live feed today. ‘This is now.’

  The gaseous mass had reduced to half the size.

  ‘It’s shrinking!’ Taren freaked.

  ‘Or being siphoned.’ Telmo put forward the more likely option. ‘One of my cameras hit something right in this vicinity.’ He pointed to a section of the shot on screen where part of the bright-coloured gas cloud appeared to be wisping out a little.

  ‘A US base cruiser went missing without trace a few years back, I guess we just found it,’ Taren said. ‘They’re the only transport with complete cloaking capability. Damn it all … one more day and we would have been home free! If that is Khalid —’

  ‘If?’ Telmo queried her doubt and she realised there was none.

  ‘I cannot allow Khalid to be swept into Kila’s universe! We have to release Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi or that’s exactly what will happen! Kila has enough problems without Khalid.’ Taren looked back to the screen. ‘But how are we going to get on board a craft we cannot see?’

  ‘Cannot physically see,’ Telmo stipulated.

  ‘Lucian.’ Taren reached for her communicator.

  ‘I’ll get Leal.’ Telmo got on his communicator, as telepathic control was faster than the data driven instruction.

  With Leal mentally commanding the hexagon’s cameras, their response time was instantaneous.

  ‘Zoom in as much as you can to the end of that wisping,’ Taren instructed, and as Leal zoomed their picture in, she looked back to Lucian. ‘Can you see anything?’

  ‘Hard to tell against space.’ Lucian frowned. ‘Can we come in at an angle that will silhouette our target against the light of the planet?’

  ‘Sure thing.’ Leal directed the camera to do a quick orbit backward and then zoomed in from the requested angle.

  ‘I see a shadow,’ Lucian confirmed.

  ‘Switching collision deflect censors on,’ Telmo advised. ‘If we get too close to the vessel the camera will alter its course to avoid contact … I don’t want to lose another camera today.’

  As they zoomed in closer to the ship, Lucian stared intently at the screen, although Taren saw no evidence of a vessel at all.

  ‘Slow down,’ Lucian instructed. ‘Slower.’

  ‘What do you see?’ Taren was dying to know.

  ‘I can see a shadowy imprint of the ship’s surface beneath the shadow, but I cannot see through the walls, not via the camera anyway.’ Lucian scrutinised the surface. ‘I didn’t expect it would be a problem.’ He gripped the top of his nose and rubbed his tear ducts.

  ‘Our soul-mind is under stress and so are we.’ Taren was worried — what if she didn’t have the psychic strength to will all the Juju stones back to whence they came? Everyone on board AMIE would end up in Kila’s universe! ‘This is a disaster.’

  ‘The sensor on the camera indicates that it’s still some distance from the ship’s surface,’ Telmo advised.

  ‘Do you think we can get a camera inside?’ Taren queried.

  ‘Unlikely, every vent will be sealed. However, we may not have to … if we venture in a little closer —’

  ‘Ah-huh,’ Leal and Lucian chimed at once as the camera dropped below the field of the cloaking device and the US base cruiser suddenly appeared before them.

  Their camera skimmed the surface. Up ahead there was a lot of light, and they passed over a metal-reinforced glass-domed area. Inside there was enough hardware and equipment to put the Esponisa University science department to shame.

  ‘How far can we close in on that chamber there?’ Leal zoomed in on the area Taren pointed out.

  Telmo gasped. ‘That looks a lot like an —’

  ‘— antimatter accumulator.’ Taren’s mind went into overdrive, as did Telmo’s — they both knew what this meant.

  In another large bio-containment tank, a colourful gaseous substance was being compressed. Between the antimatter chamber and the bio-containment tank was a third structure, with feeds running into the flanking tanks, which Taren gue
ssed to be a collision cylinder. ‘Khalid is not just planning to trap Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi —’

  ‘— he’s planning to eradicate it altogether.’ Telmo went pale. ‘Mix antimatter and matter, even in gaseous form, and they will annihilate each other! The resulting explosion will be massive and leave Oceane permanently scarred.’

  ‘Not to mention what it will do to us?’ Taren couldn’t fathom the consequences; failure to stop this was just not an option.

  An emergency meeting was held and it was clear that their soul-mind’s incarceration was getting to everyone, so they had no time to waste. The more of the gaseous substance that disappeared into Khalid’s ship the weaker their Powers became.

  Taren felt she’d be lucky to get herself there and back, so taking Lucian with her this time would be an unnecessary risk. She needed him in their recon vessel so that when she had finished with Khalid’s little science project, she could teleport herself back to Lucian and know that wherever she landed, she’d still be on track to get to Kila.

  Hence Lucian agreed to fly the recon vessel for the Kila mission, and allow Zeven to accompany Taren, as the pilot was insisting on doing. Jazmay and Mythric were charged with getting AMIE as far from Oceane as possible and making sure the Juju stones, including the large one protecting their craft, were no longer on board before Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi departed. ‘I don’t care if you have to resort to jettisoning them out of a garbage chute, make sure there are none on board.’

  ‘You got it,’ Jazmay assured her, appearing rather solemn.

  ‘Now don’t get mushy on me,’ Taren warned her and everybody else. ‘I’ll be back this morning and all of this will be just a bad dream.’

  ‘That we’ll have to deal with it all over again,’ Zeven realised. ‘That’s what sucks about time travel.’ He moved to kiss his wife and daughter goodbye.

  ‘But the good thing is that we’ll already know in advance how to stop this bastard,’ Taren countered then turned to Lucian, feeling she should depart while she was still able.

  ‘Don’t make me go to Kila without you.’ Lucian kissed her.