The Light-Field (52 page)

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.'

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.

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 private 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
.'

‘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.