‘Now I remember …’ The pilot frowned, caught up in the recognition of being governor of Kila himself once.
‘But not to worry, there is only a secure boardroom beyond; the grand security measure is just a decoy.’
‘So it is,’ Zeven mumbled, still preoccupied with his thoughts, as Lucian turned about in front of the doors and began counting the large panelled sections of the floor as he moved past Taren and Jazmay back up the corridor.
Taren was amused. ‘Nothing wrong with your memory —’
But Lucian held up a finger to beg her silence, not wanting to break from his count. ‘Twenty-seven, twenty-eight! Here we are,’ he announced, facing the tunnel wall on his right. ‘Okay,’ he felt a little silly addressing a wall, but his super-conscious memory urged him on. ‘Open.’ When a section of the wall disappeared to reveal a transporter plate, Lucian froze in shock.
‘It’s all good, captain.’ Zeven slapped Lucian’s shoulder and gave a laugh to end his shock.
‘It’s all true,’ Lucian said in astonishment, as if he were only now waking up to the fact that he had once been one of the Chosen Ones.
‘You didn’t think the Chosen had been lying to us?’ Taren followed Zeven onto the transporter plate. ‘And that this was all just a big cosmic coincidence?’
‘No.’ Lucian knew the Chosen were honourable in all regards. ‘I just thought I might have been remembering what I learnt from Noah’s historic orbs the last time we were here. But being granted access to this,’ he referred to the entrance to the top secret government bunker, ‘could be no accident.’
Jazmay forced a grin of comfort as she passed the captain and entered the annex to join the others.
‘So if I remember this correctly …’ Zeven looked to Lucian as the captain stepped onto the transporter plate and the annex sealed closed, leaving only the light coming from the iridescent plate at their feet. ‘We just request to be taken —’
‘— to the pit,’ Lucian and Taren chimed in with Zeven, whereupon the small annex filled with light and they were all teleported deeper into the complex.
The operations base located beneath Chaliada’s city centre was not just a bunker, but a major communications, research and defence complex. The control centre, or ‘the pit’ as the Chosen had dubbed it, housed a multitude of inactive psychokinetic databases, all of which were switched off at present — the place appeared to be running on minimum power and lighting. The ceiling of the control centre was several levels high, and there were windows overlooking the command centre on the upper levels.
‘If I were hiding out,’ Zeven whispered to his colleagues, as they huddled against a wall in the darkness on the outer rim of the room. ‘I’d be up there somewhere.’
‘Well, if it isn’t my lofty parents.’ Rhun’s voice came over the loud speaker and startled them all. ‘Finally, you arrive. Avery has been foretelling of your return for weeks!’
‘Oh, shit. Sounds like Azazèl has been doing some communicating on our behalf again,’ Taren muttered under her breath. The governor was as angst-ridden as Noah had been when they’d first encountered him, but where Noah was a scholar, Rhun had always been more comfortable as a warrior than a diplomat. ‘He sounds really pissed at us … not that I blame him.’ Taren knew how circumstances must appear to the defeated ruler.
‘Well, fortunately he’s wearing a communicator and we’ve established that he is alive and in here somewhere,’ Lucian commented. ‘Now that we are inside the bunker, you should be able to will yourself to him directly.’
Taren, Zeven and Jazmay all attempted to teleport themselves to the governor and were all equally unsuccessful.
‘Nope.’ Taren looked to Zeven and Jazmay, who were also baffled.
‘Maybe it’s not really Rhun?’ Zeven offered up an explanation.
‘Well, we’ll just have to find whoever it is the old-fashioned way,’ Taren said, resigned.
‘There’s only one surveillance camera in this room, so I doubt he can see us in this dim light,’ Lucian observed quietly. ‘He’s most likely been monitoring us en route to here.’
‘Security station?’ Zeven and Jazmay both suggested where the governor might be basing himself.
‘What? No response?’ Rhun queried. ‘No, “sorry we left you lowly incarnates to be annihilated by Orions”! Azazèl told Avery you knew of a forthcoming threat to the Chosen, that you were coming to counter the menace. Well … you’re a bit fucking late!’
Taren was shocked that the being that was Lucian’s and her higher self, would give the Chosen false comfort — unless the claim were true. Maybe there was still a way to counter this event? ‘I’m going to try to draw his attention.’ Taren gave her happy gun to Lucian. ‘You guys split up and find him.’
‘Be careful …’ Lucian stopped her from stepping into the subtle light at the centre of the room. ‘Whatever the case is, he’s not himself.’ Taren nodded, agreeing completely.
‘Or,’ Rhun continued, ‘are you just a lizard trick, sucked from the minds of my murdered kindred?’
‘Rhun?’ Taren turned circles as she entered the light. ‘Orions can only assume the form of someone they have killed — our souls moved on from Kila a long time ago.’ She spotted the surveillance camera mounted on the wall and addressed it directly. ‘We got here as soon as we possibly could, and we may still be able to salvage —’
‘There’s nothing left!’ Rhun contested her optimism.
Taren understood he was angry and disabled in the imagination department at this time. ‘So we were defeated in this instance, when has that ever stopped us righting a situation before?’ Taren argued without saying too much, in case this was an Orion trick.
There followed a long silence.
‘What? No response?’ Taren prompted. ‘Perhaps you are the one who is not who you say you are?’
‘After what I have been forced to witness these past few days, I will never be who I was,’ he replied bitterly.
‘You’re wrong about that. Time heals all wounds,’ she hinted. ‘You know what is possible.’
‘Fuck that! Fuck you! I want out! I’m sick to death of having the weight of the world upon my shoulders! I just want to be nobody, somewhere I have no responsibility for anyone but me.’
Taren was so in touch with his emotional state right now; she’d wished the same thing many times herself. ‘Rhun, I know you’re hurting,’ Taren implored, ‘but you’re not on your own anymore! We’re here to help.’ There was a long silence once again. ‘Please say something.’
Lucian, Jazmay and Zeven returned to the pit, having swept through the base.
‘No sign of him,’ Lucian reported.
‘I even checked all the meditation chambers,’ Zeven assured her.
‘He wasn’t in the security station either.’ Jazmay shrugged.
‘So where else could he possibly monitor us from?’ Taren voiced the poignant question.
Lucian’s eyes turned upward as he had a thought. ‘What if this complex is the decoy in this instance?’
They hadn’t bothered attempting to open the Charichalum doors at the end of the entrance tunnel, and feeling Lucian’s hunch was correct, they all headed for the teleporter plate.
Back in the underground entrance tunnel the large dark metal doors were still closed tight.
‘Now we just have the problem of how we are going to get these to open.’ Zeven had already attempted to do this psychokinetically and failed.
Lucian tried a vocal command that Maelgwn had employed during his time as governor, but the door did not open upon his request. ‘Rhun must have reprogrammed the system.’
‘Something isn’t right.’ Taren was edgy. ‘If Rhun was in this room, waiting for us to unblock the entrance and descend to the pit to leave him a clean route out of here, I’m betting he’s not even in there anymore.’
‘So where would he go?’ Lucian asked.
‘Somewhere I can be nobody and have no responsibility for anyone
but me.’ Taren cited Rhun’s last words to her.
‘That sure isn’t anywhere local,’ Zeven stated, ‘everybody knows him here and on the other allied planets.’
‘Hello?’ Ringbalin’s voice echoed down the entrance stairs and into the tunnel.
Taren projected herself forth to the stairs to see what the matter was. Her team mates followed suit; Jazmay hauled the captain along with her so that he was not left behind.
‘What’s up, Ringbalin?’ Taren raced up the stairs to meet him.
‘If you are all still looking for the governor, he left here on foot just before and is headed toward the Institute of Immortal History. Telmo has gone after him.’
‘Why there?’ Taren struggled to recall what the inside of the institute even looked like. ‘Lucian?’ He had a better psychic memory of this universe than she did.
‘Oh no,’ he said, having mulled over the notion for a moment. ‘I think Zeven’s right. Rhun wants off this planet … he’s going back to Earth.’
‘Earth! How?’ Taren panicked, and then in a flash it dawned on her. ‘The Chariot of Arianrod.’
This time-hopping transport had been fashioned at the height of the Atlantean period back on Earth, and had been left in the safekeeping of Taliesin for many ages, before En Noah had become its guardian.
‘Oh … that chariot.’ Zeven had a recollection of his own.
‘Forgive my ignorance,’ Jazmay butted in.
‘The Chariot of Arianrod was famed for taking one quickly to the place of one’s desire,’ Taren filled her in, ‘any time, any place.’
‘We could really use one of those right now, go back a couple of days.’ Jazmay shrugged and all three of her crewmates were stunned.
‘That’s a brilliant idea!’ Zeven awarded.
‘But I don’t think that’s what Rhun is in the mood for right now,’ Taren feared.
‘Do you remember the secret chamber where Noah housed the chariot?’ Lucian grabbed Taren’s hand, as she nodded and vanished with him.
Zeven and Jazmay needed only to follow her lead.
Telmo had managed to trail the governor through the partly collapsed institute without being seen — the man was in such a hurry he barely glanced behind.
In the basement Rhun opened a secret passage in the wall, and as he didn’t break his stride upon entering, Telmo managed to slip through into the passage before the entrance closed.
The pursuit through the concealed depths of the historic institute ended at a large vault, which was now open.
Only two people ever knew the code to this chamber, En Noah and whoever was governor of Kila.
Inside the vault, Telmo spied something that brought a whole string of Earthly memories back to him — memories of travelling through time as Taliesin Pen Beirdd. ‘My chariot!’
His claim shocked Rhun into turning about abruptly. ‘My chariot,’ the governor insisted, not recognising the young man. ‘Who the fuck are you?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. Rhun just pulled a weapon and started firing. Telmo dived for cover behind the vault door.
‘I believe you knew me as Taliesin,’ Telmo yelled over the fire.
‘Taliesin!’ Rhun burst out laughing. ‘He was never that young! Nor would he be stupid enough to come back to the fucked-up existence that is the Earth plane.’
When the bullets stopped and Telmo dared peek into the vault, Rhun was climbing into the chariot. When he was seated in the transport, he looked Telmo’s way and immediately began firing again. That’s when Telmo realised that the captain, Taren, Zeven and Jazmay had just arrived, and they all ducked for cover behind the vault door with him.
‘Rhun, please tell me that you are going to use that chariot to go back and prevent all this?’ Taren appealed.
‘Why would I want to go through this, or any other damned intergalactic crisis, again?’ He engaged the drive system. ‘When anywhere back in Earth’s past, this will never have happened … and as I am no longer Chosen, I never have to be responsible for it again! I’ll die back in some remote place in prehistory and some other poor sucker will be plucked out of the time continuum by the Nefilim to deal with this destiny.’
‘You know no matter where you go, you cannot hide from your own Logos, Rhun.’ Telmo spoke Taliesin’s truth and universal understanding. ‘You’ll still be born as Rhun, Prince of Gwynedd and go through your entire destiny again.’
‘Yeah?’ Rhun challenged, like a spoilt teenager. ‘Then I’ll look forward to this point in my life next time around, when I can escape all over again.’
Before Taren could respond, Zeven fired and hit Rhun several times before the chariot vanished.
‘Shit!’ Taren was momentarily defeated.
‘What’s wrong with you?’ Zeven challenged the way they’d handled the situation. ‘Shoot first, then talk.’
Taren shrugged. ‘Hopefully the hits you got in will bring Rhun back to his senses, like En Noah, and he’ll bring the chariot back.’
‘It’ll just put him in a better mood once he reaches his happy place, most likely.’ Zeven was disappointed, and yet glad to know his father’s soul would be partying hard somewhere in time and space.
‘There are other planets in Kila’s alliance that we should warn,’ Jazmay advised. ‘That’s the other part of the reason Jahan wanted to return to the city, to send out an alert.’
‘We should see to that,’ Lucian agreed.
‘And what are we to recommend they do?’ Taren hated to be negative, but they had no defence against the Orions. The Chosen had always been the first line of defence against extraterrestrial invasion or threat and now they were gone.
‘One step at a time,’ Lucian suggested. ‘Let’s return to the pit and base ourselves there, while we brainstorm.’
En Noah and Jahan had started sending out a warning transmission to the other planets in Kila’s alliance when the crew of AMIE arrived back in the pit. The pair had taken a seat and, huddled in front of one of the psychokinetic databases, Jahan was in the process of sending out a transmission En Noah had prepared.
‘What are you telling them?’ Taren felt awful not having any constructive defence advice to impart.
‘I’ve told them what happened here, and as much about the enemy as we know.’ Noah was completely drained. ‘I advised them to stay in touch with each other and try to work out an allied defensive, involving locating and taking out the ship carrying the primary weapon, although this seems a hopeless task, considering it didn’t show on our radar until moments before the attack. The only way we knew we were under threat was due to a premonition Lord Avery had! All on Kila’s council were waiting for the Lord Avery to come and brief us on his suspicion, when the blast struck us all and we became completely unreasonable.’
‘So Lord Avery may not have been affected by the blast?’ Taren was inspired to hear this, as Avery was more than immortal. He was lord of what the Chosen called the Otherworld, and thus he took on a semi-etheric state of being.
‘It’s possible, but as I have not had any contact with him, I can only hope he survived. Lord Avery’s kingdom spans far beyond this little planet, and his elemental minions can become very erratic without leadership.’ Noah shuddered at the premise. ‘Still, if the Lord of the Otherworld did survive, he may not be able to enter the city. You may have noted the negative atmosphere left in the wake of the blast?’
Taren, Lucian and Telmo all nodded to confirm they had sensed the oppressive energy.
‘The elementals will have fled,’ Noah advised, ‘and may have locked their lord and his lady in the Otherworld for their own protection.’
‘Perhaps if we ventured into Kila’s deep wilderness, the elementals would grant us an audience?’ Taren suggested.
‘Possibly,’ Noah granted, although clearly he was going to have trouble just raising himself from his chair.
‘Where is the governor?’ Noah queried, not knowing the outcome of their pursuit.
Taren shook her head.
&nb
sp; ‘He took the chariot.’ Noah guessed Rhun’s intention, devastated.
‘I don’t know where,’ Taren was sorry to add. ‘He said something about prehistory.’
Noah nodded, empathetic. ‘I can’t say the thought hadn’t crossed my mind in the past few days,’ the historian confessed with a resigned sigh. ‘At least the Orions didn’t find the treasure in the attack.’
‘In this instance, perhaps,’ Lucian granted, ‘but didn’t we establish that these creatures stemmed from Earth’s past?’
‘That’s absolutely correct, Captain,’ commented Telmo, who’d been the source of that information. ‘Interesting.’
‘Interesting?’ Taren was horrified. ‘Now that the chariot is at large in Earth’s history once again, who is to say the Orions won’t find it?’
Zeven was distracted from the conversation, immediately enraged to see Khalid sitting in a chair listening intently to everything they said. ‘You killed him, didn’t you?’ Zeven vented his suspicion. ‘Everyone has carefully avoided explaining how Mythric died, but I know it was you.’ Zeven was in Khalid’s face, and Khalid stared at him with not an inkling of defiance or remorse.
‘I thought I had,’ he replied, ‘until I saw him walking around a short while ago, looking fitter and younger than ever.’ He raised his brow in question.
Zeven backed off to avoid explaining, but Khalid had drawn his own conclusions.
‘Who would have thought that you all had dual lives going on in a parallel universe?’ He gave a sarcastic grin. ‘I mean, I suspected you so-called Zagriata were powerful, but … I really had no idea.’
‘We should just kill him,’ Zeven suggested, ‘before he figures out a way to screw us again!’
‘I agree,’ Jazmay stated for the record.
‘Me too,’ Khalid said. ‘Clearly you believe I am useless to you, so please stop with the threats and get it over with.’
‘I’m not sure I agree,’ Taren ventured to say. ‘If we kill him, what makes us any different from the Orions?’