GeneSix (24 page)

Akila felt tingles begin at her feet and work their way up, as the courtyard with its stone buildings faded from view, to be replaced by a grassy field.

A breeze starkly cooler than the desert winds of her homeland touched her face and moved her hair. She found herself thinking maybe she should not have discarded her robe.

Hasani said, “If I have estimated our location correctly, we are currently on the north side of the Great Sea.”

The Great Sea, which bordered their home country, the Black Land. Their country gained its name from the color of the fertile soil created by the yearly overflowing of the Great River.

Hasani continued, “Based on the studies conducted by Antula, this section of the continent should be largely unpopulated in this time. And as such, should give us a good chance of not polluting the time line by our presence.”

Kontar said, “Are we close enough that we can observe the descent of the Great Stone as it falls earthward?”

“According to Antula, we should be. He theorizes it should strike on the other side of the world, and create a cataclysmic explosion. As far away as we are, we are as close as we dare be. But according to legend, the stone struck during the night, so we should be able to see at least part of its fiery descent from here.”

“So,” Akila said, “how long must we wait?”

Hasani smiled. “To part the threads of time and step through is not an exact science. Hopefully not more than a few days. A few weeks at the most.”

“Then,” Kontar said, “the first priority should be to scout about the immediate vicinity. Search for signs of any roving bands of humans and make certain we avoid all contact with them. And to find a suitable place to build a camp.”

Akila said, “I think we should travel together. We will cover less ground, but until we know the area we should proceed with caution.”

Kontar bowed his head toward her. “You are along as our guard. I bow to your judgment.”

Hasani said, “Let us walk west.”

Akila took the lead, with Hasani behind her and Kontar in the rear.

Hasani said, “I must admit, I would feel safer had you brought along more weapons. A bow and arrows. A spear. You are unrivaled in your ability with either, and we will need meat if we have to survive in this time for a few weeks.”

“I am hindered by them. I have my blade. This is all I need. For fighting or hunting.”

They had not walked long when she suddenly stopped. “There, in the sky. Ahead of us.”

Hasani followed her gaze. He could see four objects flying above the trees. They had to be birds, he thought. Though they seemed to have no wings. As they drew closer, he saw they appeared to be shaped like humans.

Kontar said, “I see them.”

“What could they be?” Hasani said. “They look to be people.”

“People like us, maybe,” Akila said. “People with abilities. I see no other way a person could fly.”

Kontar said, “Stand ready. Let us allow them to make the first move.”

Hasani stood behind Akila. Though he was fairly adept at hand-to-hand combat, he was no match for her skills. He had met only three whose combat skills were of such high degree they were awarded the snake tattoo – Akila’s teacher and two others – and even they were no match for her.

Kontar stood at the other side of Akila. With his ability to throw lightning, he himself could be a formidable weapon.

The four approaching from the sky came to a light landing a few yards ahead of Akila and the others. All four were covered from the neck to their feet. Akila had never seen anyone clothed as such. She could not even guess at the material. Not linen and clearly not leather.

“What outlandish costumes,” she said.

The one standing in front of the others, who appeared to be in charge, held out his hand.

“Apparently an overture of friendship,” she said.

“Apparently,” Kontar said.

“Proceed with caution.”

Kontar returned the gesture.

Akila found herself glancing at one of them. He had dark hair and wore a body-enveloping garment of black and dark blue. There was something about the way he stood, with a sort of power and confidence as though the very gods themselves posed no threat to him, that created a tingle inside her not dissimilar to Hasani’s time-travel affect.

He smiled at her, and she found herself beginning to return the smile when she caught herself. She was here as guard to Hasani and Kontar. She could not allow herself to begin flirting with any of these strangers. Especially since their power seemed to be great, and their intentions unknown. She forced herself to focus her attention on Kontar and the communication he was attempting with the leader of the strangers - the bearded one in the gray clothing.

Words were then exchanged between the strangers. Akila found their tongue to be a little awkward, and yet the works slipped out of their mouths quickly and effortlessly.

The man in blue and black now smiled openly at her, and she found herself having to forcibly resist the impulse to return the smile. She began to feel a little warm in the face, and hoped to the gods she was not blushing. You cannot be taken seriously as a warrior if you are blushing.

Then the belt of the one with the beard began making a short chirping sound, not unlike a bird might make. He began looking to a strange device he held in one hand.

Hasani said, “Their devices are more technologically developed than ours. The little box in his hand seems to have an independent power source. Mighty impressive.”

“They can’t come from this land,” Akila said. “Or this time.”

“Most likely not.”

The strangers then began looking skyward.

“The Great Stone,” Kontar said. “They are aware of it.”

Akila said, “They appear alarmed. Maybe they were not expecting it.”

Then the one in blue and black, the one who Akila had been trying so hard not to smile at, leapt into the air. What an impressive sight, Akila thought. A man flying through the air as though the world’s gravity had no affect on him. The power of these strangers was indeed immense.

“He goes to stop the Great Stone,” Kontar said.

Akila looked at him curiously. “How can you be sure? We cannot understand their words. Besides, how can any one person stop something like the Great Stone?”

“Why else would he take to the sky with such a look of urgency on his face? He must be stopped!”

“Hasani,” Akila said, “what are your thoughts on this?”

Hasani said, “I am not sure. Considering the apparent power of these strangers, and the fact that we cannot understand their words, we risk great problems if we leap to the wrong conclusion.”

Kontar said, “Leap to your own conclusions. I am not going to let the Great Stone be interrupted. It must complete its journey.”

Kontar raised his hands toward the stranger.

“Kontar!” Akila shouted. “No!”

Though, she had to admit, she was not sure if she was more concerned that Kontar might be acting on an incorrect conclusion, or if she simply wanted no harm to come to the man she wanted so badly to flirt with.

Kontar fired his static electricity.

Akila stared in horror as the blasts struck the man in the air. She fully expected him to fall back to the earth, ashen and smoking. And yet, he continued on, as though he had not even felt the touch of Kontar’s electricity.

Impressive, she thought, staring as the man grew small in the distance above them.

The others then attacked, which Akila could have predicted were she not so taken with the man in the air. She would have too, in their place

One of them, dressed in orange, moved as though in the blink of an eye, and was knocking Kontar to the ground. Kontar had been about to release another blast toward the man in the sky, but instead found himself enveloped in his own electricity. He screamed and writhed as the current shot through his body. The speedster would have been caught in the electrical wave also, but his momentum carried him beyond Kontar and out of range.

“Kontar!” Akila screamed.

Kontar fell to the ground to lie twitching, smoke drifting from his body.

Akila could not afford to allow herself to fall into inaction. Kontar might be dead, but Hasani was here and he had to be protected. Guarding these people was her duty. She had been unable to save Kontar, but she was not going to let Hasani go down in battle. The time would come later to debate Kontar’s actions. Right now she had to act.

The best way to neutralize a snake was to take off its head, and this was the course of action Akila took. Without even taking the time to draw her sword, she sprang not toward the speedster, but at their leader, leaping into the air and planting both feet on his chest. With a huff, the man dressed in gray went flying backward.

The girl who was with them then, impossibly, disappeared into a flash of light, and then suddenly materialized in front of Akila. The girl struck at her with a fist, but Akila easily brushed the punch away with an open hand and delivered and palm strike, catching the girl on a cheekbone, and the girl staggered back.

The girl then disappeared in another flash of light, this one much more intense than the first. Akila found herself blinded by the intensity of the flash, and felt the heat on her face. With a scream at the pain in her eyes at the flash of light, she fell backward to the grass.

Time to get out of here, Hasani thought. Their two strongest had been dispatched this easily. He was not going to be taken prisoner.

He was not close enough to help Kontar. Regrettably, his old friend was probably dead, anyway. Instead, he ran toward where Akila lay on the ground, her hands over her eyes. He had no time to prepare for this jump, or to concentrate on the time period he wanted. He didn’t have enough time to expand his time-travel field properly, so he grabbed her by the shoulder to make certain she was pulled along with him. And then they were gone, away and through the strands of time.

Scott Tempest scrambled to his feet, gasping for breath from having just taken a two-footed drop kick in the chest. That girl had moved fast – he hadn’t time to even engage his force field.

He watched as the bare-chested one grabbed the girl by the shoulder, and the two simply disappeared.

The one with the long beard was lying in the grass, no longer moving, his body charred and smoking. Scott had dropped the tricorder when he had been kicked, so he now retrieved it from where it had landed in the grass. He focused it on the man lying on the ground, looking for life signs. There were none.

He said, “The man’s dead.”

“What now, fearless leader?” Rick asked.

Scott looked skyward. “We wait for Jake to return.”

Jake continued to power-up as he ascended into the stratosphere. There was no longer enough oxygen to breathe, but he had already powered-up to the degree that he no longer needed oxygen. Even the icy coldness of this altitude had no affect on him.

He increased his speed. The flight controls of his suit were attuned to his brainwaves, so he simply thought the word
faster
and his speed accelerated.

He suddenly broke free of the planet’s gravitational field, and he felt himself sort of shoot off into space.

Unbelievable
, Jake thought, Scott’s theories were right. Jake was flying without an environmental suit in the empty void of space. He felt no discomfort at all as the vacuum of space touched his skin. The cold would have frozen a normal human solid within seconds. And in an absolute vacuum like this, a non-powered human would have exploded if they did not freeze to death first.

He allowed himself a backward glance at the Earth. Amazing. The blue orb, with clouds swirling over the surface, was falling away behind him.

Scott’s flight technology didn’t involve any sort of actual propulsion, but rather a manipulation of gravitational fields. In reality, Jake was simply falling through space. To increase his speed, all he had to do was increase the rate of his descent.

He found himself smiling. For once, for perhaps the first time, he realized he was enjoying the abilities given him by the reactor explosion he had been caught in. For the first time, being the so-called Captain Courageous didn’t seem like such a curse to him.

Sure, he would occasionally joy ride through the skies above the mountain hideaway he now called home, but he could do that simply with a battle suit. He didn’t need his zeta powers for that. But to fly through space with no protective suit, to feel the touch of the empty vacuum of space against his skin, required the unique abilities that were his.

He wanted to check this out further, to see what he could do. He wanted to stand on the surface of the moon. Hell, forget the moon, he wanted to go to Mars.

Yet his thoughts returned to his actual reason for being out here in space. There was an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth of this alternate reality. Even though it was not his Earth, there were still lives to be saved. And what was the point of him having these abilities if it was not to save lives?

He suddenly felt he was having some sort of epiphany. As he flew through the empty void of space, with no protection of a ship or an environmental suit, with the stars shining above and below him, a sudden awareness seemed to come over him. A feeling of maybe connecting somehow with the universe. Of connecting with destiny.