‘If this was the Orions, they won’t have left any of their prey behind,’ Telmo advised. ‘This is what they do, they hunt, terrorise, store food and move on.’
‘Please, Telmo.’ Taren was sickened to think that all the dear friends she’d made among the Chosen were now dead or suffering at the hands of carnivorous lizards. ‘What I want to know is how the Orions even knew that this planet was occupied by immortals? How did they get so informed and organised so quickly? We need to search this city from top to bottom — someone must have escaped capture.’
‘But if the lizards upped the ante of that DNA-destroying weapon they had,’ Zeven postulated, ‘the courteous, intelligent and reasonable folk we remember the Chosen as, could now be, well … complete arseholes.’
‘Good thing we brought the big guns then.’ Telmo disappeared into their transport and came back out toting one of Taren’s large equipment cases. The young technologist climbed out of the vehicle, laid the case on the ground, unlocked and opened it to reveal two very large pulse laser guns.
‘Now that’s what I’m talking about.’ Zeven put his pistol away, and took one of the large guns in hand. ‘Fire power!’ He liked the feel of it and he hadn’t even tried it yet. He took aim at the base of a crumpled statue and shot off a few bursts, which didn’t seem to have any impact on his target whatsoever. ‘That’s very disappointing.’
‘These won’t harm anything.’ Telmo chuckled. ‘Taren, Kalayna and I decided to try combining the specs from the Orion weapon that she’s been carrying around in her head for ten years, with the protective adhesive the Chosen devised, to shield them against the cation linac particle accelerator … and this is it, the happy gun.’
‘So it’s designed to do exactly the opposite to harm.’ Lucian grinned; now he understood Telmo praising Taren for her foresight earlier.
‘So what, it makes you feel better?’ Zeven jested.
‘Yeah.’ Telmo fired on Zeven without warning and at such close range that the shot knocked the pilot off his feet. ‘Sorry, we hadn’t tested it yet. How do you feel?’ the technologist queried, amused.
‘Wow!’ Zeven bounced straight back up to standing, a huge smile on his face. ‘I feel way better.’ The pilot looked set to charge off and conquer something.
‘Hence the name,’ Telmo told the captain, who nodded with a grin.
‘Please …’ Taren pulled her Field Fluctuation Recognition Device from her other bag — this was one of her inventions; it measured major positive or negative order in the usual constant chaos of the quantum world. ‘Stop mucking about, or you’ll mess with my reading.’
‘Sorry, boss.’ Telmo grinned, quietly amused to have been able to shoot Zeven and get away with it.
Taren really didn’t need to take a reading to know that there was a massive negative charge in the air. She had a foreboding that was almost immobilising — the effects of which Zeven now appeared completely oblivious to.
‘Can we get on with the search?’ Zeven grumbled about the delay.
The needle on the FFRD was moving deep into the negative register. ‘I haven’t seen a reading this bad since we first tried to take a sample of gas from Oceane,’ she said in all seriousness.
‘Then we can safely assume the Orions and Khalid have joined forces,’ Lucian added. ‘And that the locals will —’
‘Tory Alexander!’
The call drew the attention and weapons of all present.
‘— be hostile,’ Lucian finished his sentence.
Taren was the first to recognise the survivor, as he emerged from the cover of the rubble. ‘En Noah?’
‘Now you come?’
‘What is he saying?’ Taren frowned, panicked. ‘If he’s lost his immortal talent, he’ll not be able to comprehend our language to converse with us.’
‘Where were you yesterday, when all your kindred were being herded up like cattle?’ The blame he injected into his query hurt Taren, for clearly he was angry at her about something. Yet En Noah was normally the most noble of souls, who would never blame anyone for anything, even if it was their fault. ‘Just like you lot to show when the damage is already done!’
‘I can’t stand it,’ Taren uttered to Telmo.
‘Me either,’ he agreed, obviously recognising Taliesin’s prize pupil in the angry soul before him; the hatred on the man’s face seemed completely out of place.
‘Shoot him,’ they all concurred, whereupon the historian was bombarded by blasts from both weapons and was bowled over by the attack.
The entire team ran to assist En Noah, who was chuckling like a euphoric maniac, yet, at the same time, tears were streaming down his face.
‘Noah?’ Taren knelt beside him and placed a hand on each side of his face, trying to get him to focus. ‘Are you all right?’ She could feel his entire body trembling, perhaps from shock, the blast or sheer exhaustion.
‘What are you saying?’ He was shivering as if he was lying on an ice sheet.
‘I can’t understand a word.’ Taren was frustrated, but recalling how those of the Chosen who’d not assumed their immortal state dealt with this problem, she envisioned one of their translating devices. When it manifested in her hand, she placed it upon Noah’s head. ‘En Noah, are you all right?’
Noah smiled and gave her the thumbs up on understanding her. ‘If you are really here …’ he struggled to say, ‘… then I am on the mend. But how did you —?’
‘Later. We should get you to your lake house.’ Taren could clearly see that the man needed to rest.
‘We’ve got company.’ Zeven marked a small group of people approaching. ‘Jazmay? Balin!’ He recognised his AMIE crewmates, and was delighted to see them until he noted who was in their company. ‘Khalid.’ Zeven’s happy mood departed rapidly and he set off across the scorched grounds to confront them. ‘Why is he here?’ Zeven queried Jazmay, as he took aim at the cause of his anger.
‘He’s lost all his Powers.’
‘It’s true.’ Ringbalin met Zeven halfway to discourage him from firing.
‘I don’t care.’ Zeven took aim anyway.
‘Zeven, don’t,’ Taren called. ‘You’ll only make him feel better, and you might empower him in the bargain.’
‘You are not welcome.’ Zeven stared down his nemesis. ‘I am destined to kill you and fully intend to do so.’
‘How did you get here?’ Lucian had arrived on the scene to mediate.
‘I didn’t get us off Khalid’s ship fast enough,’ Jazmay was sorry to say. She noticed her captain’s sights had come to rest on the remaining member of her party and she introduced them. ‘Captain, you remember Jahan.’
‘I do.’ Lucian held out a hand to greet the young fellow.
‘Jahan meet my captain, Lucian Gervaise.’ Jahan was stunned by the sight of Lucian, noting the great resemblance this man held to the first governor of Kila, and the resemblance that the others in Lucian’s company had to his long ascended kindred.
‘It is true.’ Jahan smiled, relieved beyond belief to see them all. ‘The Dragon has returned.’
Lucian caught his drift; he was flattered by the comparison to Jahan’s legendary forefather and he forced a grin. ‘I’ll do my best.’
‘Hold on.’ Zeven was alarmed. ‘If those left on Khalid’s vessel were all transported here, then where is my father?’
Both Jazmay and Ringbalin winced as he asked the question, and Ringbalin placed a hand on Zeven arm in the hope of calming him. ‘He didn’t make it.’
‘What do you mean, he didn’t make it?’ Zeven pulled away from Ringbalin, not to be pacified, and his accusing glare rested on Khalid.
‘Back in our universal past, where we are going, Mythric is still alive, Zeven,’ Jazmay pointed out. ‘In fact, he’s still alive here … somewhere … I think?’ she added, less surely.
Taren had left Telmo with En Noah to join the huddle. ‘Are you talking about Rhun?’
Jazmay gave a nod.
‘The governor cont
acted us at the KEPA base,’ Jahan explained. ‘But he was very rattled and unreasonable, and wouldn’t tell us where he was.’
‘You couldn’t trace the call?’ Lucian wondered.
‘The trace kept coming back as an unregistered government line.’ Jahan shrugged. ‘I wasn’t even aware there were any unregistered communication lines in Chailida.’
‘I know where the governor is.’ Noah spoke up, raising himself to a seated position with Telmo’s aid. ‘There’s only one secret communications centre in Chailida and it was made for situations just like this one.’ Noah was clearly relieved to hear the governor had survived. ‘Was anyone else with our governor?’
‘En Noah.’ Jahan was pleased to note him present. He looked at Ringbalin, who was surprised by the sight of his shivering, older twin.
‘Woah,’ was all the botanist could master at first. ‘Jahan wasn’t kidding, you are like me.’
‘Always delighted to meet another incarnation.’ En Noah grinned to make light of the awkward moment. ‘And pleased to see I am still hanging out with the old crew.’
Ringbalin found the comment amusing, as did everyone else.
‘Can we all stay focused?’ Zeven objected. ‘The governor, was he alone?’
‘Yes. Part of the reason the governor was so unreasonable was that he’d not been able to save anyone else,’ Jahan advised. ‘I’ve never heard the governor swear or be so obnoxious.’
‘It’s the after effects of the initial blast that hit the city yesterday,’ Noah stated. ‘Our council, who have never failed to negotiate a crisis amicably, were at each other’s throats only minutes after the invisible force hit. Not only were we rendered mortal by the blast, but we were reduced to our most primal self-serving selves. Our governor, fed up with trying to bring his council into order, left the council chamber to get some air. I left soon after, wanting nothing more than to return to my lake house … I didn’t even wait for my wife —’
The historian was fit to burst into tears at this stage, and Ringbalin was rather stunned to learn En Noah was married.
Noah reined in his emotions to continue: ‘As I was mortal, I was none too happy about having to walk all the way home. Such feelings of hate, frustration and sheer selfishness, I have not experienced in hundreds of years. I couldn’t control my erratic emotions, or even remember how I’d once dealt with them. I got home, submerged the lake house and stayed there, seething and malcontent. When I received word from the university that Chailida was under attack, my only thought was to save my own skin —’ Noah’s guilt burst forth in a flood of tears. ‘I didn’t feel any attachment to anyone or anything,’ he attempted to explain why he’d not attempted to aid his kindred. ‘Divide and conquer,’ the historian concluded.
‘Well, the good news is you seem to have found your conscience,’ Telmo assured the man seated beside him. ‘Obviously our weapon works.’
Noah looked at the grazes on his hands, from when he’d fallen, which had yet to heal. ‘It works to a point.’ He noted his immortality had not been restored.
‘En Noah, you still haven’t explained where the governor is?’ Taren gently steered the conversation back on track, as Zeven was looking frustrated again.
‘Don’t you remember?’ Lucian prompted his wife, for she had viewed En Noah’s chronicles about their lives spent in this universe the last time she’d been on Kila. The captain let his gaze drift to the large amphitheatre that was located in the middle of central park.
‘The pit,’ Taren uttered, as her memories of the chronicles resurfaced. ‘The Chosen used it when Kila was attacked once before.’
Despite everything he’d suffered in the past two days, En Noah had to laugh. ‘I’m sorry,’ he suppressed his nervous amusement, ‘but I fear I’ve fallen asleep and I’m dreaming. How did you all get back to the Earth plane? Why? Because of this disaster?’
Everyone looked to Taren to respond. ‘Okay, here’s the quick version. We were born in another universe … and yes, we’re here because of this disaster, which we were made aware of when we visited Kila in another time line. Now, let’s go find Rhun, and see if we can figure out a way to reverse this.’
‘Wait a second.’ Noah prevented everyone leaving. ‘You can move through time? Across universes?’ he asked with a good serve of awe in his voice.
‘Some of us can move through time, others can see into the past or future,’ Taren clarified. ‘But to shift universes we require cosmic intervention.’
‘Look.’ Zeven passed Lucian the happy gun and retrieved his pistol from its holster. He aimed it at Khalid. ‘Either we go find my fath — I mean, the governor, or I’m just going to shoot this prick anyway.’
‘Fine.’ Khalid was calm in the face of the threat. ‘Get it over with.’
‘Zeven.’ Taren willed his pistol into her hand. ‘We’re going.’
Zeven willed his pistol back to himself. ‘Good!’ He holstered the weapon, retrieved his happy gun from the captain and headed off toward the amphitheatre in the centre of the park.
‘When did our great forefathers become so uncivil?’ Jahan queried En Noah, as he helped the historian to his feet.
‘I tend to rub people the wrong way,’ Khalid commented.
Taren shot a perturbed glare in Khalid’s direction. ‘Stay here.’ She looked back to En Noah. ‘You’re not up for this either.’
‘But —’ he tried to protest.
‘We know the way.’ She grinned to reassure him. ‘Jahan, would you stay and watch the prisoner?’ She emphasised Khalid’s status, as she handed Jahan her pulse laser weapon and set it to stun.
‘If you wish?’ He took the weapon in hand.
‘We’re in another universe,’ Khalid pointed out, ‘where am I going to go?’
‘I’m more worried about you killing somebody.’ Taren enlightened all present.
‘I never kill for sport, only for gain,’ Khalid stated, ‘and there’s nothing to gain here.’
‘Except revenge.’ Taren retrieved the other happy gun from Telmo and backed up to follow Lucian and Jazmay in pursuit of Zeven, who was now disappearing into the ruins of the amphitheatre.
Zeven had psychokinetically dispersed with all the fallen rubble preventing entry to the area beneath centre stage by the time Taren, Lucian and Jazmay caught him up. The many dressing rooms and storage areas located below the stage area appeared relatively unscathed by the attack.
‘This is all so familiar,’ Lucian muttered, leading the way. ‘I recognise more of this than I ever saw on Noah’s chronicles.’
‘I know what you mean,’ Taren concurred.
‘Ditto,’ Zeven added, ‘and I never even viewed the chronicles.’
‘Might have something to do with the fact that we are wearing our Juju stones this time around?’ Taren theorised.
‘Either that or I’m having the strongest déjà vu ever!’ Zeven bantered.
‘Now that’s just typical.’ Lucian’s memory had led them to a set of stage stairs, over which the cement roof had collapsed. It had crushed the stairs and blocked the concealed door beneath that granted entry to the secret bunker.
‘The governor is trapped in there,’ Zeven stated the obvious. ‘That explains why he called for help. But what I don’t understand …’ He restored the ceiling and staircase to a pristine state with a thought and a sweeping hand gesture. ‘… is why didn’t he want to tell you where he was.’ He aimed the query at Jazmay.
‘We informed the governor of our discovery that the lizards can assume the form of those they kill, at which time he resolved not to trust us. I guess he decided he’d rather die alone and trapped than become lizard fodder.’
There was a telepathic plate alongside the concealed door, which Lucian dusted off with his sleeve. ‘I wonder if the system will recognise me?’ The captain placed his hand on the plate and mentally commanded the door to open. When it did, he was startled. ‘I really didn’t expect that.’ He gazed a second at his hand in wonder. ‘Could
I be so like my past incarnation as to have the same hand print?’
‘The system is responding to your mental command,’ Taren corrected his thinking. ‘You share the same soul-mind.’
‘Now, that’s clever.’ Lucian awarded the Chosen respect, and then led down the steep stairway beyond.
At the base of the stairs, large sections of the ceiling in the long access tunnel were lit up with a subtle mauve light.
‘Impressive,’ Zeven commented, hot on the captain’s heels as he strode toward the far end.
‘How did you discover the Orions’ shape-shifting powers?’ Taren asked Jazmay as they followed the long corridor at a more leisurely pace.
Jazmay conveyed what had happened to Kestler, with the least amount of words and emotion. She carefully avoided mentioning what had happened to Mythric, in case Zeven overheard their conversation.
‘So the Orions killed Kestler.’ The news weighed heavily on Taren’s heart, but back in the past he was also still among the living.
‘My guess is that the creatures needed his knowledge to modify Khalid’s weapon.’ Jazmay was a realist and no doubt correct in her assessment. ‘But as these creatures can only overcome us humans in our fully mortal state, they will never be able to inherit our psychic talent … if that is any consolation.’
‘You can link to their hive mind, you said?’ The very idea made Taren’s skin crawl.
‘I can,’ Jazmay confirmed, ‘but I suspect that when I do, their leader must detect it, if not the entire hive.’
‘Best kept to a minimum then,’ Taren conceded.
‘I completely concur.’ Jazmay shook off the dread she felt every time she revisited the idea.
At the end of the corridor there was a double set of Charichalum doors — this lightweight black metal was the strongest and densest known substance in this universe.
Zeven was agog at the security measures, but put a hand out to command the doors open — he was startled when they held firm. ‘What the? I can’t penetrate them?’
‘The Chosen use Charichalum because it can’t be psychically manipulated,’ Lucian explained and Zeven nodded as the information rang true to him.