Chronicle of Ages

  That could be fun, she admitted, as she transformed into Tory once again.

  The Nefilim could assume any form they chose, just as the Chosen could, and Inanna now knew what Tory looked like — she didn’t need will-crushing devices to maintain the deception.

  How long will you be with my NERGUZ? Inanna turned to face Maelgwn, and allowed her brother to expose her breasts and fondle them. We wouldn’t want him recovering and disappearing on us.

  As Maelgwn watched Tory seducing Shamash, he took great comfort in knowing his real wife was safe back on Gaia. Still, if he didn’t think of some way of reversing this calamity soon, the horrid illusion he witnessed at present might well become a reality.

  I’ll only need your precious toy a few hours. Shamash held his opened hand out towards Maelgwn.

  The NERGUZ and the laser knife tore through the organic fibre of Maelgwn’s jacket pocket and flew straight into the Lord’s clutch. Still, I don’t know why you bother with this one. He’ll never give you what you want.

  He has already impregnated one infertile woman, Inanna enlightened them all. Why not two?

  ‘Aquilla.’ The news hit Maelgwn like a bullet in the brain.

  Oh, don’t worry, Inanna said from behind the guise of his wife. I did you a favour and terminated it. Now no one need ever know about your little indiscretion.

  Maelgwn’s blood began to boil, and he realised Inanna felt his rage and thrived on it, but it was beyond his feeble skills to refrain from lashing out.

  Before Maelgwn had covered half the ground between the goddess and himself, Shamash willed a change of course for the Dragon, setting him on a breakneck collision with the reinforced metal wall. The velocity of the impact proved sufficient to knock Maelgwn out cold.

  Pain propelled Maelgwn back to consciousness. He awoke chained up in the middle of an icy torture chamber, shivering violently as four large Leonine warriors beat him to a pulp. Stripped of his jacket and boots, the organic fibre of his trousers kept Maelgwn’s legs as warm as toast, but his upper body and his feet were frozen.

  Wake up, lover. Tory, all rugged up to endure the cold, smiled at him warmly. It’s decision time.

  Inanna. Maelgwn acknowledged the deception to himself, unable to verbalise it, as his face was flattened by yet another blinding blow.

  The guards ceased their sport and backed off to give their ruler some room to work. As Inanna moved to circle the Dragon, she revealed two figures cowering on the ice behind her. Maelgwn strained his swollen eyes to make out Uriah and Durak shivering with cold, for they too had been stripped to their trousers.

  There have been a few developments while you were out, Inanna advised. My brother is yet to return with your restraint, and I find I must evacuate the city. I am headed for Gaia, she announced casually and was gratified by the dread that the notion stirred in Maelgwn. I know you have loved ones there and I would dearly love to take you with me …

  ‘But?’ Maelgwn spat out the word, blood along with it; he was so badly beaten that his genetic structure was taking some time to repair all the damage.

  But … you must devote yourself to me, the Goddess stated her terms. Worship my personage and my cause only.

  Maelgwn began to laugh, which must have been a nervous reaction. Still, the resolute defiance that accompanied his laughter filled him with inner strength. ‘Not of my own free will, Inanna. That will never happen.’

  But very soon this entire planet is going to be scattered to the four ends of the universe, my sweet, she clarified.

  Maelgwn raised himself up to look the Goddess in the eye. What have you done with Aquilla?

  Inanna backed away, immediately infuriated by the mention of another woman and her guards moved in to freshen up the prisoner’s injuries.

  Enough! She ordered her thugs back out of the way. Join us, Dragon. Inanna’s annoyance distorted her voice to the point where it was so harsh and spiteful that one could not define if it belonged to a male or a female.

  Maelgwn, barely able to hold himself upright, shook his head.

  Join us, or die.

  He raised his dark sights to view his tormentor. ‘Then I choose death.’

  Stubborn fool!

  Energy shot like lightning from Inanna’s fingertips, inflicting Maelgwn with grievous pain. Only when his body hung limp in the restraints did Inanna cease her assault.

  Stay here then, and die with the fish. There are plenty more immortal genes where you came from.

  Inanna turned to exit the torture chamber, but turned back to add: And as this immortal ape woman you are so fond of will now be without a significant other, I shall be sure and put her out of her misery. After my brother and I toy with her awhile, of course. It might be interesting to walk around in her skin.

  Maybe Maelgwn had just been belted one time too many, but he wasn’t following Inanna’s meaning. He managed to raise his head, and if he’d been able to see the Goddess more clearly he would have looked her in the eye.

  So, even if you do surprise me and survive this day, when you are again joined with your beloved wife, remember to look deep into her eyes, Dragon, for you might just find me there.

  Maelgwn gave a muffled cry of protest as Inanna finally departed, her guards falling in behind her.

  ‘Dragon?’ It pained Uriah to move his frozen limbs, but he managed to crawl over to where the warrior hung, and cowered at his feet. ‘This is all my fault.’ He shivered violently as he spoke. ‘I didn’t realise the implications … I never suspected the Nefilim were so powerful.’

  ‘If you are looking for absolution, Uriah,’ Maelgwn strained to speak as his throat was swollen and sore, ‘I cannot give it. But I don’t blame you for wanting to free your brother.’

  Uriah looked up into Maelgwn’s face to find it healing rapidly.

  ‘Still, if we don’t get Durak up and mobile soon, he’s going to freeze to death and then this has all been for naught.’

  Uriah looked back to find Durak keeled over on the ice. ‘Oh, no.’

  As his pain subsided, Maelgwn stood up and tugged on his restraints. ‘You are going to have to do it on your own.’ Maelgwn decided that his bonds weren’t going to give. ‘Get up, Uriah,’ he encouraged him. ‘My jacket and boots.’ Maelgwn pointed to where they’d been discarded on the ice. ‘Put them on.’

  ‘But I am completely numb,’ he shivered. ‘Nothing will respond.’

  ‘Your brother is dying!’ Maelgwn yelled to get him motivated.

  ‘I know!’ Uriah cried as he pulled himself across the frozen surface towards the clothing.

  ‘No,’ Maelgwn insisted, ‘you have to get up off the ice.’

  ‘I can’t!’ Uriah began to sob as he struggled to raise himself.

  ‘Rubbish!’ Maelgwn roared. ‘You got us all into this mess, so you can bloody well get up off your behind and get us out of it!’ He didn’t really mean what he said, but the abuse riled the lad and Uriah was motivated to raise himself.

  Once the boots were on, Uriah’s feet and lower legs started working and he ran to put the jacket on his brother. ‘Durak!’ He fell to his knees and pulled him into his lap. Uriah wrapped the jacket about his brother and held him tight. ‘Please don’t die now.’ His teeth chattered as he spoke, yet Uriah felt the warmth of the other body slowly thawing his own. ‘You’ve survived so much.’

  Durak’s eyes fluttered open and slowly turned to view Maelgwn. ‘You are one of the Lord Enki’s Chosen Ones?’

  Maelgwn nodded. ‘Aquilla told me you found Enki’s doctrine.’ He invited Durak to expand on the subject.

  The dying man seemed to be preoccupied with other thoughts, however. ‘You are my perfect embodiment?’

  ‘I am,’ Maelgwn assured him.

  ‘Then you must find another of the stations Enki built in secret,’ Durak mumbled, desperate to impart the nature of his life’s work to his Chosen incarnation in the few minutes of life he had left. ‘The station I found was destroyed by Inanna, but there are othe
rs.’

  The look on the Delphinus archaeologist’s face was one of utter hopelessness. Maelgwn wasn’t following his meaning but it mattered not. ‘Save your breath, my friend, we are one, you and I. I can recall thy entire life, for indeed it was my own. I shall see to thy dying wish, Durak, fear not.’

  The dying archaeologist smiled at this. ‘The light of the Logos is with you. The prophecy is —’

  As his brother suddenly sank from his embrace, Uriah tried to revive him by shaking him awake, but Durak did not respond. ‘No, you have to live!’ He gathered up the lifeless body and wept bitterly.

  ‘Damn.’ Maelgwn didn’t know how to feel upon witnessing one of his own deaths. Still, he knew he must have been of great comfort to himself in those final moments. Right now, he had to worry about this incarnation being dispersed into the universe in all directions for eternity — this was not how he envisaged his future. ‘Put the jacket on, Uriah,’ he instructed, but the lad was despondent with grief. ‘Durak’s immortal self is right here! Don’t you dare give up on us now,’ he roared, and the lad looked up to meet his stare.

  Maelgwn felt the Dragon come over him, as it only did in times of severe crisis. He observed the outline of his shadow on the ice — it was the silhouette of the beast, Rufus, that he saw there. The Dragon was no longer bound to manifest on the physical plane of existence, but his command, courage and inspiration were always welcome attributes to possess when trying to win someone around to your way of thinking.

  Uriah also noticed the shadow of the beast on the ice, and the commanding presence that emanated from Maelgwn. ‘What are you, really?’ He sat upright as his wonder overtook his pain. ‘I have come to hate the Nefilim Gods, both for their debauched behaviour and the Pantheon’s complacency over anything to do with the plight of the human races. These Gods’ glow with the enlightenment of divine beings, and yet they have no basic concept of love. And then there is you, whose compassion seems never-ending. I mean, what does it take to get on your bad side? Do you have one?’

  Maelgwn shrugged. He was the way he was because he knew no other way, his teachers and advisors had done their job well. ‘Even I do not understand the full purpose of my existence. But I have known you as a Homo sapiens, Uriah. I know that you will one day be what I am. I know that together we shall somehow put an end to the Nefilim rule, for that is a large part of the reason we, the Chosen, have been created. I know you have had more success with winning battles with your intellect than with weapons … and I would strongly suggest a written form of revolutionary action next time.’ Maelgwn made a joke of their sad predicament and how badly they’d both handled it.

  The shadow of the Dragon backed away as the lad lifted the jacket from his brother’s corpse and slid himself inside it. He was wearing the most peculiar look on his face. ‘I’ve always had aspirations to write,’ he said, intrigued by what the Dragon had told him. The fibre immediately adjusted to fit his form and expanded to the required thickness to thaw his frozen body. ‘Oh Goddess, that feels amazing.’ His teeth stopped chattering as he flipped up the collar and the ends of his sleeves extended to swathe his freezing hands. ‘Sorry, Dragon.’ He moved over to see if he could assist to free him from his bonds. ‘Do you feel the cold?’

  ‘Unfortunately, yes,’ Maelgwn chattered. ‘Were I not psychically disabled at present, I could rise above its effects —’

  ‘But you are not wearing the Nerguz?’ Uriah pointed out.

  ‘It has a few side effects it would seem.’ Maelgwn didn’t know how long he’d been passed out and as his PSI might have restored itself, he tried willing himself out of the restraints.

  ‘How do you think Inanna knows that this planet is going to self-destruct?’ Uriah asked, as the Dragon had gone quiet.

  ‘She didn’t say it would self-destruct.’ With a heavy sigh, Maelgwn gave up on his psychic skills. ‘She said it would be scattered to the four ends of the universe.’

  ‘You think she means to blow it up!’ Uriah gasped. ‘But how?’

  Their attention was drawn to the door of the ice chamber as it opened.

  ‘Zerrah!’ Uriah thanked his lucky stars to see the captain with several weapons in hand. ‘I thought they must have captured you. How did you find us?’

  ‘I came for you,’ Zerrah informed Uriah, observing the Dragon dubiously as always.

  Zerrah obviously still suspected that the Dragon was responsible for shooting him unconscious back on the ship. Uriah had attacked from behind so he would be none the wiser.

  ‘It’s time to tell the truth, Uriah,’ Maelgwn urged. ‘We can still salvage this situation.’

  Uriah took a moment to consider his options and all that he had learned from this experience. ‘The Dragon is not the man you’ve been hunting, Zerrah.’ The young diplomat looked to the captain to set him straight. ‘It was me … me, and Aquilla.’

  ‘What?’ Zerrah approached Uriah, unable to believe what he was being told. ‘Why?’

  ‘I never told you that Durak was my older brother,’ Uriah enlightened him, and motioned to the corpse laying on the ice. ‘He was not killed as everyone was told, but kidnapped.’

  Zerrah moved to inspect the body, without interrupting Uriah’s confession.

  ‘When Inanna found out that Gibal had granted someone access to his precious lab, she decided she must control that someone. Durak was the best way to get to Aquilla. Your sister confided in me, unable to let me go on believing my brother was dead. I joined her cause and there you have it.’

  Zerrah appeared stunned by the news, but the motive did hold water. ‘So why have I not picked up on your involvement telepathically?’

  ‘Aquilla and myself have mini thought wave neutralisers that are implanted under our skin so as to be undetectable … courtesy of Shamash technologies.’ Uriah stretched out his right wrist to show Zerrah the device that could be vaguely seen beneath the skin there.

  The young captain had gone rather pale, but he said nothing as he rose from ascertaining that Durak was definitely dead this time.

  ‘We have been biding our time in Gibal’s service, waiting for a prize that would appease Inanna. When Aquilla stumbled upon the Dragon and found out about the device that he was being sent to protect, we decided to steal the technology to buy back Durak.’

  ‘Hold on.’ Zerrah found a glitch in the story. ‘How could Aquilla have telepathically probed the Dragon for information. A thought wave neutraliser would prevent that?’

  ‘Cornelin did the probing at Aquilla’s suggestion and she recorded Cornelin’s observations. He thought it was just a bit of a laugh at the time. Or that’s what we thought he thought.’ Uriah shook his head slowly, stunned and remorseful at his own brutality; he’d very much liked Cornelin, but killing him had seemed the only option in the heat of the moment. ‘After Aquilla committed the theft, Cornelin got wise to us and threatened to turn us in if we didn’t return the NERGUZ.’

  ‘So long, Cornelin.’ Zerrah gave Uriah a sideways look, having never suspected him of being capable of murder.

  ‘I entrapped Gibal with the NERGUZ long enough to dismember him and load him into cases.’ Uriah appalled the young captain further. ‘Aquilla seduced the Dragon, to steal the back-up detection device Gibal gave him —’

  ‘You had sexual relations with my sister?’ Zerrah was enraged, and without a second’s hesitation, slugged Maelgwn’s newly repaired face.

  ‘Aquilla planted the devices in the room of the Leonine officials to throw you off the scent, whilst I loaded the ship.’ Uriah spoke up to distract the captain from seeking further retribution. ‘I was the one who left you for dead in the cargo hold. The Dragon saved your life by putting you into stasis.’

  Zerrah calmed and frowned as he absorbed the information. He looked to the Dragon, who nodded to confirm Uriah’s story. ‘My mistake. I apologise for accusing you,’ Zerrah conceded. ‘But that doesn’t excuse you for Aquilla.’

  ‘I realise that,’ Maelgwn stammered. ??
?Look at where it landed me.’

  Zerrah broke into a smile, realising he had no further gripe with the foreign warrior. ‘Say, Dragon, you’re looking a little blue around the gills … your skin is nearly the same colour as mine. It might be a bright idea if we got you out of here.’ He blasted Maelgwn free of his chains, leaving the lightweight charichalum shackles dangling around his wrists and ankles. ‘Where is Aquilla?’

  Maelgwn was jumping up and down and shaking himself to get his circulation going, but he stopped still to answer. ‘Last we heard she was in Inanna’s laboratory.’

  ‘Inanna’s laboratory?’ Zerrah didn’t understand. ‘Why there and not a prison cell?’

  ‘Aquilla was with child,’ Maelgwn confessed, clenching his jaw to curb his anger. ‘Now she isn’t.’

  The young captain’s jaw fell in the wake of this news, and just for a moment words escaped him. ‘We had best go get her.’

  ‘We’ll be spotted!’ Uriah was clearly not too keen on the idea.

  ‘I doubt it,’ Zerrah scoffed, as he tossed Uriah and Maelgwn a pulse blaster each. ‘The city is deserted.’

  ‘That was quick,’ Uriah said, horrified, as he knew why it had been vacated so abruptly.

  ‘If Inanna has control of the planet’s destruction,’ Maelgwn mused as he exited the ice chamber with Uriah and Zerrah on his heels, ‘then why does it feel like she’s running away from something?’

  Zerrah caught Maelgwn up to interrupt. ‘What do you mean by “the planet’s destruction”?’

  ‘Just that,’ said Maelgwn.

  ‘When?’ Zerrah began to panic.

  ‘We don’t know when … soon!’ Maelgwn was agitated by the questions as he was trying to think.

  They had entered Inanna’s main prison complex and were astonished to find all the cells empty.

  ‘Deserted is right,’ Uriah commented, spying the abandoned security station and the PKA database terminal therein. ‘Hey, we can find out where the lab is.’ He motioned his companions to follow.