Jazmay frowned — she still couldn’t comprehend a word he was saying.
Jahan held a hand to his mouth and then drew it away, so that she might understand the request.
‘My name is Jazmay Cordea,’ she stated as clearly as she was able, and Jahan nodded to confirm he was understanding her.
‘Did you have something to do with this attack?’ he replied, and when the device translated his words in her own language, she was thrilled they’d broken through the communication barrier.
‘No, Jahan, I did not,’ Jazmay replied, and Jahan was disturbed that she knew his name. ‘I am part of a team sent here to warn your governor about this attack.’
‘Sent by whom?’ he queried.
‘Your governor.’
‘Our governor sent you to warn himself?’ Jahan wondered if the translator was working properly. ‘That makes no sense.’
‘If you can move through time, it does.’
Jahan was surprised by Jazmay’s claim. ‘No one can move through time, not even En Noah.’
En Noah was the historian among the Chosen and was considered the wisest among them — even the governor sought his advice.
‘I know time travel is not a developed talent among your people, and only very few of my people have mastered the art … I am one of a handful,’ she concluded calmly, but Jahan was angered.
‘Well, it would seem you’ve missed the mark!’ He motioned to the attack taking place on the screens in front of him. ‘I don’t understand how my kindred are being overpowered by these … creatures? Why aren’t they fighting back, or even trying to flee?’
‘One of my people mentioned that the lizards use a mind invasion technique to communicate with their victims,’ Jazmay said. ‘Perhaps they are able to influence the actions of their victims as well?’
Jahan couldn’t take his eyes off the screen, but his weapon was still pointed at her. ‘But, it’s like —’
‘— they’ve lost their immortality?’ Jazmay stated the obvious. ‘That is exactly what has happened.’
‘That’s impossible.’ Jahan was thrown into inner conflict. Jazmay suspected that he didn’t want to believe the claim, nor did he want to believe she was his enemy and lying to him. ‘Explain how that could be possible,’ he challenged, in a not so threatening tone of voice.
‘They have a weapon that unbraids DNA, harmless to mortals but —’
‘— it would regress my kindred back hundreds of incarnations!’ Jahan found the concept unfathomable, yet it explained the easy defeat he was viewing.
‘In the last time line, this all played out very differently.’ Jazmay looked to the horror unfolding on the screens. ‘The enemy only had a handheld prototype of the weapon in question; now they have developed a prototype large enough to regress an entire a city! That’s the trouble with attempting to change the past. The more stabs you have at it, the more difficult and complicated circumstances become, and the harder it is to resolve the situation in your favour.’
Jahan had gone very pale upon realising that the fate of many other planets lay in his hands. ‘I need to warn Nugia, Numan, Lura, Tarazean, Kaleashian! These are other planets allied to Kila,’ he explained to disperse Jazmay’s quizzical frown.
‘You are alone here then?’ Jazmay wondered if anyone else had escaped the attack.
‘When the unidentified craft appeared on our radar, my superiors were all called to a meeting in the city, but some of my kindred are on the allied planets. I have to warn them.’
‘Can you establish direct contact with those planets from here?’ Jazmay queried, hoping to prevent Jahan going into shock.
Jahan shook his head. ‘All the interplanetary communications are in Chailida —’
‘Jazmay!’ Ringbalin came charging through the doors.
‘En Noah!’ Jahan exclaimed upon setting eyes on the young botanist. ‘Have you gone back in time too?’ He noted how young his kinsman appeared.
‘Yasper!’ Ringbalin was equally shocked to see a man he recognised and they eyed each other curiously. ‘I’ve only crossed into another universe as far as I know.’
‘Come again?’ Jahan queried.
‘What is the emergency?’ Jazmay asked her young crewmate, to remind him he’d been panicked about something, and Ringbalin immediately resumed his panicked state.
‘Kestler is trying to kill Khalid!’
‘Then why didn’t you stun him?’ Jazmay, frustrated, took the weapon from Ringbalin and ran toward the exit door into the corridor.
‘I tried, and the charge just bounced straight off him and nearly hit me!’ Ringbalin defended, as Khalid came rushing up the corridor.
‘He’s a fucking lizard!’ Khalid ran past Jazmay into the room, blood streaming down one side of his face from large scratches on his cheek. ‘Lock the doors!’
‘There are no locks!’ Jahan countered.
‘We’re fucked!’ Khalid threw up his hands.
‘You brought one of those things here?’ Jahan was furious, as he looked to Jazmay for answers. ‘The one outpost they wouldn’t know about?’
The Orions are shape-shifters too. Her recollection was an epiphany; she’d forgotten all about that little fact. ‘It will not leave to tell,’ Jazmay assured him, staying her course.
‘Do you mean live to tell?’ Ringbalin queried her intention.
‘Only if it is mortal?’ she said, and Ringbalin gasped at the thought that they might be dealing with an immortal foe.
No sooner had the glass doors closed behind her, than her assailant dropped from the ceiling above to land directly on top of her. Its long claws cut deep into the flesh of her shoulders and upper back.
‘Holy shit!’ Jahan made a move to assist, raising his weapon to fire, but Ringbalin knocked his arms to throw off his aim.
‘You might hit her.’ He urged caution. ‘If she cannot vanquish it, no one can.’
As Jazmay absorbed her foe’s DNA, she felt the evil creature’s imprint ripple through her being in a cold prickly wave. It intended to telepathically subdue her into submission, where it would horrify her with its appearance and torture her to the threshold of her endurance. It carried a device that could drain all the fear-filled pineal fluid from her brain — which, to its kind, was the water of life. Unfortunately for the reptilian, until it had completed its conquest, it could not absorb her DNA, so Jazmay had the upper hand. Drinking the vital fluids of other living things kept these creatures alive indefinitely, as long as they fed they lived, but they were not immortal.
With a thought she cast the creature off. ‘Freeze!’ she demanded, and it did so, although its yellow-within-red eyes glared at her in challenge. She raised her weapon to aim it at the creature’s head.
‘No, stop!’ Jahan appealed. ‘We need information —’
‘I have all the information we’re going to get out of this one.’ She fired and its head splattered deep blue blood and pale green flesh all over the wall.
‘Good show!’ Khalid applauded.
‘Why kill it?’ Jahan was appalled — he’d never seen anything murdered before.
Jazmay flashed her bleeding wounds Jahan’s way.
‘Yes, I realise it was dangerous, but you clearly had it restrained —’
He mistook her reason, so Jazmay felt the easiest way to explain was with a demonstration. Drawing on the genetic information she’d just absorbed from her attacker, Jazmay transformed into the creature she’d just killed.
‘You’re one of them.’ Jahan took aim at her once again.
Ringbalin forced Jahan’s aim toward the floor once again. ‘No, she’s a shape-shifter.’
‘I am so very glad I haven’t run into you before today.’ Khalid was clearly impressed by her array of skills.
‘And I am not the most powerful of us,’ Jazmay said menacingly to Khalid, who immediately stopped enjoying himself. As she looked back to Jahan, Jazmay resumed her true form. ‘The lizards are withdrawing from the city.’
&nb
sp; Everyone looked at the screens to find the bloodied streets of Kila now seemed to be deserted — there wasn’t a dead body to be seen.
‘You’re right.’ Jahan looked back to her, a wary frown upon his face.
‘These lizards have a hive mind and now I can link to the hive.’ She shuddered in the wake of doing this, as brief as that link had been.
‘Where are all the Chosen?’ Jahan wanted to know.
Jazmay did not want to enlighten him. ‘These lizards do not kill for sport … this was not a conquest, it was a hunt.’
‘They’re to be food!’ The news was sickening. ‘We cannot let that happen!’
‘It has happened!’ Jazmay was sorry to say. ‘And without a means to combat them, we’ll be rounded up as well and there will be no one left to right this.’
‘Right this!’ Jahan snapped. ‘There is no righting this!’
‘If the boss can figure out how to return an entire planet, sucked into another universe, back to its rightful time and place, we can certainly fix this,’ Jazmay insisted.
‘Are you talking about the governor?’ Jahan speculated.
‘No.’ Jazmay realised this news conflicted with what she’d told him already.
‘Then who is your boss?’ Jahan was wary once again.
‘That’s what I’d like to know.’ Khalid raised both eyebrows, most interested.
Jazmay knew anything Khalid found out about Taren here, he would not remember back in the past they were to return to; he’d lost all his psychic power and could not time travel. ‘Her name is Taren Gervaise —’
‘I knew it,’ Khalid snarled.
‘But you knew her,’ Jazmay stayed focused on Jahan, ‘as Tory Alexander.’
‘What!’ Of all the claims Jazmay had made this day, this one rocked Jahan the most. ‘That’s impossible!’
Jazmay forced a smile to reassure him. ‘You keep saying that, but I assure you anything is possible. The Dragon is with her, Brian and Taliesin too. These were the names that the Chosen incarnations of her captain, Zeven and Telmo had been known by.’
Jahan stopped breathing a moment, he was so stunned. When he did draw breath, it was one of great relief. ‘Well, where are they?’ Jahan asked, clearly inspired by the news.
‘That’s what we need to find out,’ Jazmay concluded, as a tone sounded from the control station beside them.
‘It’s an incoming call from an unregistered user location in the city.’ Jahan finally put the gun down to take a seat at the mission control station. ‘I didn’t realise we had any unregistered government lines in the city.’ He hesitated to accept the call. ‘Could be a trick.’
‘As we’ve just learnt from Kestler, these creatures can assume the identity of the people they have fed on,’ Jazmay stated. ‘And if they are anything like me they can then access the memories of that person.’
‘Could be Taren calling?’ Ringbalin suggested a not-so-horrible alternative.
‘Someone could have survived,’ Jahan conceded. ‘But if these monsters can assume the form of those they have fed on, how could I ever identify who is my kindred and who is not?’
‘Any of us could be one.’ Khalid took a few steps away from them all.
Jazmay rolled her eyes. ‘I’ll personally shake the claw of the lizard who takes you off my hands.’
The tone of the incoming call continued to taunt them with its relentless alert.
‘If I’m the only one of the Chosen left, then what have I got to lose?’ Jahan put it to his company.
‘Never mind about us?’ Khalid protested, and both Jazmay and Ringbalin were compelled to give Jahan a nod of support.
‘Standby.’ Jahan placed his hand on the telepathic control panel and gave the mental command to accept the call.
17
SHI ZHOU BAI RÈN
There was no beautiful underwater bedroom view to welcome Taren back to the Universe Parallel this time; she awoke to see the very unattractive ceiling of their recon vessel. ‘That’s frightfully disappointing,’ she muttered, wondering if they’d made the quantum leap to Kila’s universal scheme or not.
‘Don’t tell me someone else is finally awake?’ Just hearing Zeven’s voice made her feel instantly safe.
‘How long have you been up?’ Taren shook Lucian gently, and as he was non-responsive, she moved forward to speak with Zeven. Telmo was still stacking Zs too. Only the universe knew how long they’d been unconscious for, but she was starving.
‘About twenty-six US standard hours or thereabouts,’ he advised with a glance at his watch.
Taren checked her Juju stone to find it was still functioning as well as before. She had figured this would be the case as they were still occupying the same universal scheme as their soul-mind. ‘Why didn’t you wake us?’
‘No need,’ he shrugged, ‘until we reach our destination.’
Taren thought up a bunch of bread rolls and juice, and handed one to Zeven.
‘Cheers!’ He hoed into the food and so did she. ‘I did manage to track our target.’ He pointed to the large aquamarine planet below.
Taren smiled as she saw the distinctive orb, and a flood of warm memories came back to excite her. ‘I can hardly wait to see Rhun and Avery and En Noah!’
‘Ibis-Swan.’ Zeven grinned as his fondest memory came to mind, and Taren gave him a punch.
‘You be good,’ she warned.
‘Taren, there must have been some woman you were friendly with on Kila.’ Lucian nudged his wife’s leg as he stretched out, and taking in their surrounds he looked disappointed. ‘Hey, where’s the bedroom we ordered, with the underwater views?’
‘That’s what I want to know.’ In any case Taren leant down and gave him a kiss to welcome him back to consciousness.
‘Aw, please,’ Zeven grumbled. ‘I’d forgotten how much I hate travelling with you two.’
‘Three,’ Telmo spoke up, although he still hadn’t parted his eyelids. ‘Are we there yet?’
‘Yes,’ Zeven replied, reaching across to give the kid a shake.
‘Am I still blue?’ Telmo resisted opening his eyes.
‘No … you’re purple now.’ Zeven’s comment served to get Telmo’s eyes open.
‘What?’ Telmo looked himself over and then calmed to the sound of Zeven chuckling.
‘Genius, my arse.’ The pilot ruffled Telmo’s hair.
‘Hey.’ Telmo slapped him away. ‘I know an incantation that can turn you to stone,’ he threatened in all seriousness, and then grinned. ‘But you’re already thick as two bricks, so …’ He shrugged and Zeven took a swipe at him. Telmo leant close to his side window to escape it, when out of the corner of his eye he spied something. ‘What’s that smoke?’
The sight already had Zeven’s full attention. ‘I was just asking myself the same question. And if I’m not mistaken —’ he watched his system calculate the latitude and longitude of the anomaly on the surface of the planet, ‘— it’s coming from Chailida city.’
‘No.’ Taren’s heart skipped a beat as she stared down at the dark billowing clouds rising from the surface.
‘Shall I take us down?’ Zeven inquired.
Taren drew a deep uneasy breath as Lucian joined them to see for himself. ‘What do you think?’
‘Are there any spacecraft in the area?’ the captain asked Zeven.
‘Not according to my radar,’ Zeven replied. ‘There’s nothing moving in the vicinity.’ This was very odd indeed, as Kila’s spaceport was usually quite busy.
‘Looks more like an aftermath than a raging warzone.’ Lucian nodded to confirm they should investigate. ‘We should gear up.’ They had packed weapons, but had not expected to have to use them.
‘How fortunate you have such foresight, boss.’ Telmo cast a knowing smile at Taren, who couldn’t even force a smile in return; her guts were in a knot.
Zeven landed in what had once been Chailida’s central park. The city’s spaceport had been completely destroyed, and the governor’s p
rivate landing pad lay under the ruins of Government House and the partly collapsed Healing Temple. The metropolis had been decimated — central park was the only clear landing place in sight.
‘What happened here?’ Taren felt tears welling as she stepped out of their vehicle, mourning the beautiful civilisation that was no more.
‘Orions?’ Lucian jumped out of the recon vessel behind her.
‘I didn’t think they had this kind of firepower?’ Taren commented. ‘That’s part of the reason they sought to ally themselves with Maladaan the last time around.’
‘What was the other part of the reason?’ Zeven wondered, climbing out to survey the bleak scene at ground zero.
‘Orions like to scare the shit out of humans, drain them of their pineal juices and then eat the meaty flesh.’ Telmo crouched down inside the exit door to peer around. Since being given his Juju stone, Telmo’s akashic memory was growing much stronger.
‘Nice.’ Zeven pulled his weapon, feeling a little uneasy about that information. ‘I hope that does not explain where everybody is.’
There wasn’t a soul to be seen anywhere amid the rubble — there were bloodstains, but no bodies.
‘Um, before we jumped universes,’ Telmo recollected, ‘around the time we started turning blue and so forth … didn’t we spot —’
‘Khalid’s ship!’ Taren gasped. Suddenly the large scale devastation could be explained. ‘He’s got a US battle cruiser!’
‘Its cloaking device would prevent it showing on our radar.’ Zeven upped his guard.
Dear universe please no — The thought was too horrible, so Taren didn’t voice it.
‘If you put Khalid’s technology and firepower with the Orions’ scientific know-how …’ Telmo spoke her very thought.
‘You’d probably end up with something that looks very much like this,’ Zeven concluded. ‘But where are they now? The place is so quiet it’s giving me the creeps.’