GeneSys

GeneSys Page 8

by Roger Carter

Forty One

  Although Dawn visited Donna that morning in Crocodile Bay to let her know that she was safe and that the aliens were friendly, it was a most unsatisfactory encounter. Donna could only respond by waggling her fins and nodding her beak, and it wasn’t until several hours later, in Eden, that they were able to properly discuss Dawn’s encounter with the alien fleet and the dragon. As usual, they met up in Donna’s room after the temple service, and this time Clara joined them.

  “You’re certain these aliens are friendly?” Clara asked when Dawn had finished her tale.

  “That dragon was genuine, that’s for sure. He wouldn’t have been able to breathe fire otherwise. I think he was a representative of the galactic federation.”

  “And you say those wasps deceived COBRA into thinking they were part of that federation?”

  “That’s right. The dragon told me that the wasps once belonged to the federation, and so they were easily able to copy the federation’s ships and pretend to be part of that organisation. Anderson must have got his ideas about the federation from them.”

  “And by now he knows that you’ve made contact with the ships and that you’ve returned safely,” Donna added grimly. “Clare will have told him. And the mere fact that you’re back will tell him that the aliens are friendly, so he’s sure to set in motion whatever he’s planning to convince them that he’s Earth’s representative.”

  Dawn nodded. “I know.”

  “Will you take the same precautions as before?” Clara asked. “Restrict the numbers of dolphins in a trance to 100?”

  “I don’t think so. We’ve got nothing to fear from the aliens, and I’m sure Anderson doesn’t intend to harm the dolphins. To do that would gain him nothing, and it would alienate him from the aliens and everyone else as well. He’s aiming to somehow use the Mind for his own purposes, presumably by taking it over, and the more dolphins present in Eden the harder that will be for him. Besides, the aliens want to see my Passion play, and I need the full resources of the Mind for that.”

  “In which case the only ones at risk are you and Donna, as you’re the only ones who can foil his plans.”

  “That’s right. Hopefully he knows nothing about Donna, but to be on the safe side I’d like you to guard her body in Crocodile Bay while she’s in her trance. To do that you’ll have to avoid eating those psychoactive fish, of course.”

  “Of course. I’ll guard her against an underwater attack, but I won’t be able to stop an attack from above the surface.”

  “You needn’t worry about that. Mort will be there, and apparently he’s good with guns.”

  “Mort’s coming?” Donna squawked. “To Honiara?”

  “Yes,” Dawn said heavily, “he’s coming to Honiara. And he’ll have Karen in tow, so you’ll be able to cuddle up to him every evening. Angela’s coming as well. He booked the flight this morning, and they’re staying at our house.”

  “Wow! That means that when I take over Karen we’ll all be able to have supper together and play Monopoly before we go to bed. There is a double bed in your spare room, isn’t there?”

  Dawn closed her eyes and groaned. “Do try to curb your enthusiasm, Donna, at least for tonight. I’m very tired and I don’t want to be disturbed. Karen’s looking pretty shattered too, and I should think Mort’s absolutely exhausted. He’s not a young man any more. Why don’t you have the night off?”

  “I suppose I could,” Donna replied, disgruntled. Then she brightened. “Tomorrow’s Wednesday, isn’t it? That’s when you and Rick have your candlelit supper and everything. You could cook double portions – I’ll help you – and we’ll have supper together and play Monopoly and I’ll bankrupt you all. And afterwards I can be as romantic as I like, ‘cos it’s Wednesday.” She folded her arms in satisfaction, a happy smile on her face.

  “OK,” Dawn sighed, accepting the inevitable, “That’s what we’ll do tomorrow. Assuming Anderson hasn’t wiped us all out by then.”

  “So what precautions are you taking to protect yourselves?” Clara asked, turning the conversation back to important matters. “Apart from getting me and Mort to guard Donna’s sleeping body, that is.”

  “Rick will have boats standing by in Crocodile Bay, like last time, ready to inject the dolphins with a wake-up drug if that becomes necessary. If anything untoward happens Clare will be able to contact him by phone, alternatively I’ll nip back in spirit and take over Angela and contact him that way – I’ll arrange for her to be at Crocodile Bay with Mort. Karen will remain at my house, guarding my body.”

  “Meanwhile the aliens will be assembling here,” Donna said. “And presumably you’ll entertain them with your Passion play.”

  “Something like that,” Dawn agreed. “That’s what they’re expecting.”

  “Except that John Anderson will be trying steal your thunder. He’ll be putting on some kind of show of his own.”

  “He’ll have to use the resources of the Mind for that, and I’ve told Clare to make sure he doesn’t go into a trance. Provided he remains in the real world, there’s nothing he can do. He won’t be able to contact either the Mind or the aliens.”

  Clara nodded slowly, then she frowned. “What are you going tell the dolphin community? They need to be warned. The aliens will be here in 24 hours, and they don’t even know they’re coming, let alone any of your plans.”

  “Donna will tell them during the temple service, as she did before. But this time, Donna, you need to let them know that there will be a number of different species, and that I’m going to be performing my Passion play for them. Tell them that the temple forecourt will be packed with visitors from space, so they’ll probably have to remain in the temple.”

  Clara was still looking worried. “What about Jonah? He’ll have to be excluded again, I suppose.”

  “I’m afraid so. We don’t know what Anderson might have squirreled away in his brain. Which means he’ll have to be isolated from the other dolphins tomorrow, to keep him away from those psychoactive fish.”

  “I’d better go and tell him,” Clara said, jumping up. “He told me he was going to take a walk by the river. I’ll join him – unless there’s anything else you need to tell me?”

  “Just make sure Jonah goes into the isolation tank before feeding time, and that he stays there. It’s crucial that he does.”

  “Don’t worry. I know what’s at stake.” Clara went to the door, then paused. “I won’t be here tomorrow either, ‘cos I’ll be guarding Donna’s body along with your Mort. You two watch yourselves – those aliens may not be as benign as you think!”

  “One other thing, Clara. I’m thinking of getting Rick to feed the dolphins with extra psychoactive fish, so that they remain in their trance longer, maybe an hour longer. It will give us more time to for my Passion play and to talk to our visitors afterwards, and to cope with any hitches. So don’t worry when they don’t wake up at the usual time.”

  “Good idea,” Clara said, then hurried out for her tryst with Jonah.

  That evening, at around 8 o’clock, Dawn and Rick collected Mort, Karen and Angela from Honiara airport. Clare had phoned earlier from Adelaide to say that she was about to join John Anderson and his Watchers on their chartered flight. Anderson had been greatly buoyed up by Dawn’s safe return, she said, and was taking almost 100 Watchers with him to Eden this time. Dawn didn’t know whether to be alarmed by that or not.

  When the hugs and greetings at the airport were over and Dawn had told them Clare’s news, it was Angela who voiced the question that was on all three visitors’ minds. “Have you brought Hotpants along?”

  “Do you really think I could keep her away?” Dawn replied as she led them out of the airport building towards the car. “She’s sitting inside me right now.”

  “She’s unusually well-behaved, then,” Karen observed. “She’s not clamouring to get into me.”

  “I had a few words with her this morning. No high jinks, I said, ‘cos we all need an early night and plenty
of rest.”

  “She can take over my body as soon as we’re in the car,” Karen said. “It’ll give her the chance for a cuddle on the back seat.”

  “That’s very considerate of you, Karen,” Mort murmured. “Don’t you want to chat to Rick and Dawn first?”

  “My body’s absolutely shattered. Donna’s welcome to it.”

  A few minutes later they were driving along the coast road towards the town and Donna was snuggling up to Mort on the back seat and chattering excitedly about all the things they were going to do together during his short stay here. “It’s going to be our practice honeymoon,” she whispered.

  When they arrived home Donna insisted on making everyone cups of tea and handing out biscuits and cakes. She had persuaded Dawn to show her where everything was before they left for the airport, and she wanted to prove to all and sundry what a splendid wife she would be.

  When they’d had their tea and biscuits she cleared everything away while Dawn and Rick showed Mort and Angela around the house. That done, she helped Mort carry his bags to his bedroom. He had a double bed, she noted.

  “Where’s Karen’s room?” she asked him.

  “She’ll be in here with me.”

  “You mean – you and Karen will be sleeping together?”

  Mort stared at her blankly. “We’re getting married.”

  “But … but … without me?”

  “You can’t be with me all the time, my dear. Your dolphin body would atrophy.”

  “But … it’s not right.”

  “Don’t be silly. Married couples always sleep together.”

  She glared at him. “Don’t make love to her, that’s all. Not when I’m not inside her skin.”

  He laughed. “Of course I won’t. It’s you I love, you know that.” He folded his arms around her and kissed her on the cheek.

  “Well, that’s all right then,” she said, mollified, and kissed him back. He was obviously sincere in his intentions.

  But having recently lost Jonah to Clara’s charms, she couldn’t help feeling suspicious of Karen – especially as Mort had given no hint that Karen was in any way averse to the idea of spending the entire night in his bed. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just this one night, but it was going to be every night that they were here. Moreover, since Mort was obviously perfectly comfortable with the idea, it seemed almost certain that they would continue to sleep together on their return home to Adelaide.

  Mort was gently stroking her back and shoulders, and she put her arms round his neck and squeezed herself to him. Karen could never be a serious contender for his affections, she told herself. She didn’t like board games, she wasn’t keen on cooking, and, most importantly of all, she would never be able to give him those amazing love-goddess kisses.

  The closeness of his body and the thought of those kisses filled her with desire, and she lifted her lips to his. But then she became aware of waves lapping around her sleek grey body and the starlit heavens above, and she realised what a disaster it would be if she suddenly departed this body during the bodice-ripping aftermath of one of those kisses.

  “I’m slipping out of my trance,” she breathed. “There will be no love-goddess kisses tonight, my darling. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m sorry too,” he murmured, giving her a final squeeze.

  Her awareness of her real dolphin body grew stronger, and her control over Karen’s human body started to slip away. Mort’s image broke up and disappeared, and the last thing she heard was Karen saying, as if from a great distance, “That makes three of us. I’m sorry as well, really sorry. Those kisses of hers…”

  As her voice faded away it dawned on Donna that she had two lovers, not one. She had no reason, no reason at all, to feel jealous of lesbian Karen.

  Forty Two

  The next morning Dawn took her visitors to Crocodile Bay, to meet Donna in the flesh. Crocodile Bay was an artificial lagoon lying a ten-minute drive to the west of Honiara, and it covered an area of several square miles. It had to be that large, for it was home to over a thousand dolphins as well as being a tourist destination. Paths meandered through the natural bush surrounding the bay to the various piers and viewing platforms that jutted out into the water.

  The site opened to the public at 9.00 am, and they were the first visitors. As they drove up to the gates Mort noted the high wire fence and surveillance cameras surrounding the site. These would certainly be enough to deter the casual intruder, but they wouldn’t stop a determined attack. Within the enclosure everything appeared calm and peaceful, for no one here knew that an alien armada was hurtling towards Earth.

  Things were far from normal in the underwater dolphin world, however. Donna had told the other dolphins, using their whistle language, that she had some very special human visitors, and that on no account was anyone to go near the viewing platform at the visitor centre, because she was going to give a display there. Everyone was most intrigued by this, and all kinds of rumours were flying backwards and forwards.

  Right on time, just as the digits on the large clock above the visitor centre reached 9.15, Dawn and the others emerged from the centre and took their seats near the front of the platform, in the shade of some awning. Donna, who had been watching out for them from the middle of the bay, immediately dived deep beneath the surface and streaked in their direction. Just a few metres from the edge of the platform she turned sharply upwards, and, hurling herself high into the air, performed a spectacular somersault. She heard their stunned gasps, and as she descended into the water, rolling her magnificent body over and over, there was no doubting the enthusiasm of their clapping and cheers.

  Donna spent the next five minutes showing off her incredible mastery over her aquatic environment. Wild dolphins are good, but GM dolphins, with their near-human brains, are astounding. As the leader of the GM dolphin community she had practised assiduously for years, and now she could perform acrobatic feats that to a human audience would seem impossible.

  When she had finished her breath-taking display, she swam over to her visitors and pushed herself up against the edge of the platform so that they could make a fuss of her. But they seemed totally bemused, and sat there gazing at her with awestruck expressions.

  Dawn, who was sitting to one side, glanced at Mort and the others and laughed. “She’s quite tame,” she said. “I promise she won’t bite.”

  To prove her point she jumped up and ran over to the dolphin, kneeling to stroke her beak and pat her head.

  “Kiss her, Dad,” Angela told her father. “You know that’s what she wants.”

  Mort came forward and knelt down beside the magnificent grey head of the dolphin and did just that. Donna, gazing up at him, couldn’t help noticing that his eyes were glistening with damp – though this may have been caused by the spray she had thrown off during her acrobatics.

  On the way here, Mort had told Dawn that he wanted more than anything else to go for a ride on Donna’s back, and now he stood up and proceeded to strip off his clothes to reveal that he was wearing a swimsuit. He looked very nice in it, Donna thought, even to her dolphin eyes. Dawn told him to jump into the water, and he immediately did so. Realising what he wanted, Donna dropped beneath him and then surfaced, catching him on the lower part of her body, near her tail and forcing him to grab her dorsal fin to stop himself slipping off.

  “Tell her when you’re ready,” Dawn called out to him. Donna felt him wriggle himself into position, wrapping his legs round her. “Hold on to the fin to steady yourself, and don’t press your legs into her too hard,” Dawn warned him. “It’s best to stretch them out across her back, otherwise you might crack a bone.”

  “OK, I’m ready!” he shouted back.

  Donna flapped her tail in a vigorous up-and-down motion, and her body surged forward through the water. In spite of the additional weight of Mort’s body, she was able to achieve a respectable speed, and she headed off towards the reef that cut off the bay from the open sea. Two other dolphins joined th
em, swimming on each side of her, and she recognised Clara and Jonah. They accompanied her as she travelled the length of the reef, then followed as she turned inland to circumnavigate the bay. Although Donna herself couldn’t manage more than a steady swim, and anything else would in any case dislodge Mort, they were able to add to the excitement by leaping in the air and performing somersaults and other stunts.

  And then she was back at the viewing platform, and Mort slithered off her into the water. Before clambering up the ladder onto the platform he swam around her for a few moments, in his clumsy human way, at the same time trying to stroke her body and pat her beak. “That was wonderful, Donna,” he gasped. “The best trip of my life.” Then he swam to the ladder at the side of the viewing platform and clambered up it.

  It turned out that Angela and Karen had also brought swimsuits along, and they wanted to ride on her too. So, after further warnings from Dawn about not pressing into Donna’s body too tightly, she took first Angela for a trip around the bay, and then Karen lowered herself into the water for her turn.

  As she watched her, Donna couldn’t help remembering Karen’s previous visit to the Bay, when she had not wanted anything at all to do with the dolphins. Then she had seemed very prim and uptight, and Donna reflected that the firestorm in her brain a week ago hadn’t been such a bad thing. It seemed to have wiped away a veneer of sophistication to reveal her true personality.

  Once more Donna sank beneath the surface and rose up beneath her human rider. Copying what the others had done, Karen stretched her legs across Donna’s lower back and, holding onto her dorsal fin, wriggled herself into a comfortable position. Unlike the others, though, she stroked Donna’s smooth sides with hands and whispered, so quietly that only the dolphin could hear: “I love you, Donna.”

  Donna flicked her tail and drove herself through the water. Karen’s slim body was lighter than the others, and Donna was able to travel quite fast. In fact she went so fast that the spray lashed against Karen’s body and she screamed out in excitement, while Clara and Jonah raced alongside, performing their leaps and somersaults. Eventually they were back at the viewing platform, and Karen slid into the water and then swam up to Donna’s beak and cuddled it.

  “Thanks, Donna,” she whispered. “For everything.” Then, with a quick kiss on the end of her beak, Karen swam to the ladder at the side of the viewing platform.

  Dawn remained at Crocodile Bay with her visitors for another couple of hours. They wandered around the displays in the visitor centre, walked around the bay to watch the dolphins playing, and finally watched the dolphins being fed their psychoactive fish. This turned out to be a very organised affair, as each dolphin had to receive a precisely measured quantity of the fish, and there were a large number of dolphins to feed. Rick had explained that today’s dosage was increased, to allow the dolphins to remain longer in their trance. In practice this meant that each dolphin was fed three fish instead of two. When Mort had pointed at this was a very meagre meal for such large animals, Rick had told him that it wasn’t their main meal of the day, merely a midday snack.

  The entire operation was mechanised, with a large number of feeding tubes leading vertically into the lagoon from a large building at the water’s edge in which the fresh fish were stored. The dolphins formed orderly queues at the base of these tubes, each one pushing their snout against a lever to receive its portion of fish. Rick explained that the fish themselves were reared in a large fish farm a little further up the coast.

  Well before feeding time Clara and Donna shepherded Jonah into the isolation cage near the medical facilities, then Clara remained until Rick arrived to instruct the person in charge of the feeding arrangements that Jonah was to be fed ordinary fish. She was unable to check whether that command was carried out, but she supposed that Rick would check up on Jonah later, and she would certainly take it upon herself to make an underwater trip to his cage to make sure he wasn’t in a trance. Nobody, not even Jonah himself, knew what commands John Anderson might have secreted in his brain.

  Crocodile Bay was always closed to visitors during the hottest part of the day, for it was then that the dolphins were in their trance. Dawn had departed with Karen well before midday, for she had to get home and have something to eat before she too went into a trance. Mort and Angela remained on the site, to watch over Donna.

  Clara was careful not to eat any of the psychoactive fish herself, instead Rick fed her some ordinary fish from the store. Mort and Angela, who were with him, also threw her some fish, and Rick introduced them to her. Mort patted Clara’s head, confessing: “They all look the same to me.”

  “If you were with them all the time, like I am, you would be able to tell them apart,” Rick told him.

  “You’d better call Donna over,” Mort told him. “We’d never hear the last of it if I stood guard over the wrong dolphin!”

  Rick laughed. “Don’t worry, Clara will put you right. I’ve told Donna to make sure she sleeps alongside the viewing platform. You can watch her in comfort from there. You’ll be able to sit in the shade.” He lowered his voice. “You’ve got that gun?”

  Mort nodded and patted the side of his shorts. “I’ll wander over there now with Angela.”

  Before he left, he glanced down at Clara, who was swallowing the remains of her fish. “We’ll see you in a minute, Clara,” he called out, and Clara nodded her beak at him in reply.

  Mort remained for a moment, watching her. He still couldn’t get used to the idea that these creatures understood human speech perfectly. And he certainly couldn’t get used to the idea that he was about to marry one of them.

  It was about 15 minutes later that Mort realised something was amiss. He was sitting next to Angela under the awning of the viewing platform, sipping a cold drink, with Donna’s sleeping body floating nearby. Rick was a couple of hundred metres away, organizing a group of men with boats. They were making preparations in case a phone call came from Clare on the other side of the world to inject the dolphins with wake-up drugs.

  He had noticed a movement in the bushes a little way from Rick’s party a few minutes earlier, but then a couple of birds had flown out and all was still. But now the bushes were moving again, and he was certain that someone was moving through them.

  “Rick!” he yelled, standing up and waving his arms. “In the bushes behind you!”

  Rick turned, and at that moment four armed men in combat fatigues and dark visors over their faces emerged from the undergrowth, guns at the ready. They ran forward, fanning out around Rick and his workers.

  “Angela, get down!” Mort hissed, throwing himself to the ground and reaching for his gun. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but somehow he and Angela had to get off that platform and hide. Then perhaps he might be able to creep around behind the attackers.

  “Drop that gun!” The command came from behind him, and Mort glanced round. Another man in fatigues and visor was crouched near the entrance to the centre, pointing a rifle menacingly at him. Mort let go of his weapon and it clattered onto the wooden planking beside him.

  “Throw it towards me,” the man commanded. Mort did so.

  “Good. Now both of you stand up slowly and sit down where you were before, facing away from me and towards the water.”

  Mort and Angela did as he said and returned to their seats. Angela was shaking slightly and was obviously very frightened, but she managed not to panic. Mort took her hand and patted it reassuringly. 200 metres away Rick and his team were being forced to sit on the ground in the shade of a large tree, some distance from their boats, and Mort could see that several other armed men had appeared and taken up positions further around the lagoon. He counted 16 of them in total.

  “What’s this about?” he rasped. He was careful not to turn his head to look at the man. “What do you people want?”

  “Don’t worry,” the smooth reply came back. The man had an English accent, Mort noticed. “Behave yourselves and no one gets hurt.”

&nb
sp; Mort repeated his question. “What do you want?”

  “We’re here to make sure your dolphins remain in their trance, that’s all. To stop them being given wake-up drugs.”

  “You’re Watchers, aren’t you,” Mort said contemptuously. “You’re acting under John Anderson’s orders.”

  The man laughed briefly. “We’re not Watchers, we’ve been hired for this job. We’re professionals – so don’t try anything. In a couple of hours we’ll be gone.”

  “Don’t you realise what’s at stake?” Mort asked. “At this moment aliens from across the galaxy are landing on Earth. Anderson wants them to think he’s mankind’s leader. You’re playing into his hands.”

  “Tell me another!” the man sneered. “You sound like those crazy Watchers yourself. Now just relax. All we want is for those dolphins to enjoy their midday nap, then we collect our money. So let’s have a nice clean job with no one hurt, OK?”

  Mort sighed and picked up his drink and gazed around the lagoon. The guards dotted around it were all sitting down in whatever shade they could find, and Rick’s people looked like they were dozing off on the sand beneath the tree. He could scarcely imagine a more peaceful scene. As the man said, all they had to do was relax and sit out the next two hours.

  He wondered what was happening to Donna and Dawn in Eden. He was sure that, whatever it was, it wouldn’t be as quiet and relaxing as this.

  Forty Three

  About 20 minutes before the ambush at Crocodile Bay, Dawn was hurtling through the night in her red VW Beetle. Below her were the snow-capped peaks of the Tienshan Mountains, and somewhere in the darkness ahead was the valley in which Eden would shortly materialise. She wanted to arrive before that happened, to check up on Anderson and his Watchers. She was certain they were up to something. As always, her satnav delivered her to roughly the right spot, and moments later she was descending towards the grassy area where the small township with its temple and forecourt would shortly appear.

  She didn’t land, for that could put her in danger, instead she transformed herself into her dragon body and hovered about 80 metres above the ground. Although it was still dark, she could just make out a large group of human spirits standing immediately below. These must be the Watchers, already in their trance. Clare had told her that Anderson was bringing 100 of them here. A little way from them she could make out the hazy glimmer of a real-world lantern that had been set up on a pole. It cast its pale light over the fuzzy outlines of the Watchers’ physical bodies, lying on the grass in a state of trance.

  Dawn could also make out the ghostly form of a woman standing near the lantern, with a man sitting beside her: Clare and John Anderson, she supposed. Although the imagery was fuzzy, Dawn could tell that Clare was holding Baby and pointing it upwards towards her. Dawn waved, and Clare, who must have been watching her in Baby’s screen, waved back and beckoned her down. Reassured by this, Dawn cautiously fluttered to the ground and landed about 30 metres from them.

  The spirits of the Watchers saw her descend, but they made no move to approach her. The fuzzy form of John Anderson also remained motionless in his chair. Clare didn’t pass him the spirit detector, and he gave no indication that he wanted to see what was showing on its screen.

  The sky above the eastern peaks was turning from black to deep blue, signalling the approach of the new day. Dawn glanced around, aware that at any moment the Mind and Eden would spring into existence, together with all of its inhabitants. Sure enough, exactly on cue, the temple forecourt appeared to one side of her, and then the roofs of several houses formed beyond it. Beyond the emerging township, the communal mind would also be conjuring up the countryside and the farms, the castle further up the valley, and, at the head of the valley, glacier and the river Chilik flowing from its base.

  Suddenly, in front of her, the great altar materialised, hiding Clare and Anderson from her view. Then a temple wall sprang up right by her, and she jumped back in alarm. If she had been any closer she would have been knocked aside by the structure. She was still in her dragon form, and to avoid any further such surprises she leapt into the air and flew rapidly upwards, clear of the emerging masonry.

  The temple roof hadn’t yet formed, and she was able to fly over the top of the wall and into the temple interior. The pillars had appeared, and some of the high arches, and she fluttered behind one of these, so that she couldn’t be seen by the Watchers on the ground, who were now enclosed by the structure. Peering cautiously round the pillar, she saw that the Watchers had begun spreading out around the great altar. She could also see the ghostly image of Clare, still standing behind it and still illuminated by the lantern.

  The place was suddenly thrown into complete darkness. Glancing up, she saw that the roof of the temple had now formed, cutting out the dawn sky. Able now to leave her hiding place without being seen, she glided down towards the Watchers and hovered high above the altar.

  Below her, Clare was placing Baby on the ground. Then she picked up something which she appeared to clamp around her ankles. Dawn watched curiously, but she was too high and the imagery was too hazy to see her properly. She glided a little lower, and now she could see that the clamps on Clare’s ankles were attached to a thick chain. Clare proceeded to clamp this to her wrists as well, and then she sat down on the ground.

  Dawn couldn’t believe her eyes. Her first thought was that her brain must be misinterpreting the imagery she was receiving from the real world, for what Clare was doing made no sense at all. What could possibly induce her to shackle herself?

  And then something bright and clear started to emerge from Clare’s fuzzy head. A spirit! Dawn’s dragon heart sank into the pit of her belly. Clare had been possessed, that was why she was acting so strangely! The spirit, Dawn saw, was wearing a golden robe, and it had a crown on its head, and then it turned its head and she had a clear view of its face. It was Jonah!

  No, this spirit couldn’t possibly be Jonah. Jonah hadn’t been fed those psychoactive fish, and in any case Clare must have been possessed before Eden materialised. This had to be Jonah’s mentor and look-alike, John Anderson, and he was wearing that crown to signify his power and authority.

  She glanced at Anderson’s physical body, still sitting motionless in that chair, and it dawned on her that he was in a trance like the other Watchers. The simple act of possessing Clare had allowed him first to deceive Dawn and then to put Clare in chains. Dawn imagined that Anderson had taken control of Clare on the flight here. It would have been easy enough to do, he merely had to slip something into her food or her drink to make her drowsy, and then he could put himself into a trance and invade her.

  With Anderson’s spirit gone, Clare was now back in control of her body. Dawn watched as she stood up and began tugging desperately at her chains. They were attached to a thick metal stake driven into the ground, and it seemed impossible that she would ever be able to set herself free. Clare seemed to reach that conclusion for herself, and she stopped tugging and instead tried to reach Anderson’s seated body, presumably to get the key to the clamps. She stretched out the short length of chain to its fullest extent, and stretched out her arms as well, but the tips of her fingers were several metres from him. This course of action was clearly impossible, and she abandoned the effort and resumed her ineffectual attempts to pull off the chains.

  There was nothing Dawn could do to help, for she was an insubstantial spirit and unable to influence real-world objects. Then it occurred to her that she should be able to take over Anderson’s sleeping body, in which case she could make it stand up and walk to Clare and, perhaps, unlock her chains.

  She was about to swoop down to him when she noticed that the Watchers had formed a semicircle around the great altar, and that they were kneeling in an attitude of prayer. They must, she thought, be praying to the Mind. Contrary to everything that John Anderson had told her and Karen, they must be attempting to take control of it!

  She would have to delay any efforts to release Clare. H
er most urgent task was to fly onto the altar and take control of the Mind herself, pre-empting these attempts by the Watchers. But just as she was about to do that, a strange brightness appeared in the air in front of the altar and suddenly a second golden altar flickered into existence. The Watchers, she realised with relief, weren’t attempting to take over the Mind, instead they were only doing what they always did in their trance gatherings, which was to create their own altar and temple!

  Still hovering high above this drama, she glanced around the temple, and sure enough it had subtly changed. The pillars and arches were different, and the murals had changed too. She wondered if there might be something evil about these alterations, but as she looked around it seemed to her that everything was perfectly innocent. It was just that this was no longer her old familiar temple.

  She twisted her head upwards and glanced at the ceiling, and this too had changed. Specifically, it was the picture of the heavens painted on it that had changed. Whereas before the stars had made a random pattern, now they formed the distinct image of a human face. And as she gazed the pattern grew clearer, as though the image was still being conjured up, and suddenly she saw whose face it was: John Anderson!

  There was a further coalescing of the stars forming the eyes, and now they were clear and bright and perfectly formed. They were strangely piercing, just like the eyes of John Anderson, and they were staring directly down at the great altar.

  She returned her gaze to the Watchers’ new altar, which was immediately in front of the great altar. This magnificent object was even larger than the great altar, and it was also more ornate, and she couldn’t help but admire it. There was a complicated pattern engraved on it, but she was too far above it to make it out clearly, and in any case this altar was still flickering slightly as though it hadn’t fully formed.

  Then she saw it wasn’t just flickering, it was moving around in space. As she watched it slowly moved towards the great altar and began to embrace it, and then it was superimposed on it so that the great altar could no longer be seen. It was as though the great altar of the Mind had been swallowed up!

  Dawn stared down aghast, struggling to grasp the implications of what she was seeing. John Anderson hadn’t actually taken over the Mind – to that extent he hadn’t lied – but he had certainly acted in an underhand way. He had superimposed his Watchers’ vision of paradise on the dolphin’s Eden, and by swallowing up the great altar in a neurospace structure of his own making he had blocked off her own access to it, ensuring that she wouldn’t be able to take over the Mind either. And that meant that she wouldn’t be able to perform her Passion play.

  But putting a stop to her Passion play was only part of Anderson’s strategy. Indeed, when he’d hatched his plan he wouldn’t have been aware that this was her intention, and indeed he might not be aware of it now – she was unsure exactly what Clare had told him. His main aim was to ensure that she wouldn’t be able to take over the Mind to undo the changes he had made to the temple structure and that pattern of stars in the temple ceiling. The alien visitors, seeing his face in those stars, would undoubtedly recognise him as Earth’s leader. Dawn fluttered back up into the shadows near the temple ceiling and wondered what she should do.

  Fortunately she still hadn’t been spotted, so none of the Watchers knew that she had witnessed these preparations. They believed their deceit had passed unnoticed, which meant that they wouldn’t expect any counterattack. She pondered her options. One option was to try to release Clare so that she could inject the Watchers’ bodies with wake-up drugs, so ejecting them from their trance and thereby eliminate the false altar and all the other changes to the temple that they had conjured up. A second option was to fly back to Honiara and get Rick to do the same to the dolphins, and so bring this dream and Eden to an end.

  Her third option, which she rejected immediately, was to destroy the Watchers’ altar with her fire. That would inevitably damage the great altar, and she had no idea what the consequences of that might be. It would, she supposed, damage the Mind, which meant damaging that the physical brains of the dolphin community. The Mind and the community had to be protected at all costs.

  And her fourth option, which she also rejected outright, was to kill John Anderson and all the Watchers. That would put an immediate end to all this nonsense. But that seemed altogether too extreme and would in any case contravene what she believed were the dragons’ rules of engagement, for they had done nothing so far that posed a threat to her life or the dolphins or, indeed, to the Mind.

  The first option was the clear winner: she would try to take over Anderson’s body and release Claire. Still keeping to the shadows, she flew around the temple, hugging the walls, until she was above the fuzzy form of his body, seated behind the false altar. The sleeping bodies of the Watchers were lying on the ground round about, and she supposed that somewhere nearby must be bags filled with syringes of wake-up drugs. The Watchers’ spirits were still kneeling in a large semicircle at the front of their altar.

  She dropped to the ground behind the altar, to Anderson’s sleeping form, and entered his skull. She encountered no resistance, for Anderson’s spirit was elsewhere, and moments later she was in control of his body.

  She didn’t immediately open his eyes. She was afraid his spirit might have sensed this invasion of his body, in which case he would return to it and try to eject her. But nothing happened, so she opened them and looked around.

  Looking through Anderson’s physical eyes she could no longer see the neurospace world of Eden with its temple and altar, instead her only awareness was of the brightening dawn sky, the tree-lined mountain slopes surrounding the valley and the copses and grassy hillocks round about – and, lying on the grass nearby, the sleeping bodies of the Watchers. Clare was sitting mournfully a few metres away, chained by her ankles and wrists to a stout metal post.

  Without moving her new body, Dawn surreptitiously moved her hands to the pockets of Anderson’s jacket and then his trousers. She was feeling for his keys. Although his body would appear as no more than a diaphanous ghost to the Watchers’ spirits, it was possible that any sudden movement might attract their attention. Her probing fingers felt what was obviously a handkerchief and a notebook and pencil, but no keys. She glanced around at the grass near he was sitting, but there were no keys there or any bag or briefcase that might contain them. She glanced across at Clare, who was watching her with some surprise.

  “It’s me – Dawn,” she hissed. “I’ve taken over Anderson’s body. Where’s the key to that padlock?”

  “I don’t know,” Clare whispered back. “I never saw it.”

  “So how can I release you?”

  “I don’t know. You can’t.”

  “The wake-up drugs – where are they?”

  “I don’t know. I never saw those either. I don’t think they brought any.”

  “So we can’t pull those Watchers out of their trance! Not quickly, at any rate!”

  “That damn Anderson has made fools of all of us,” Clare muttered bitterly. “He must have guessed you would try to use his body to release me. Your best bet is to get back to Honiara and tell Rick to wake up the dolphins. Bring this fiasco to an end that way. Then tell the aliens to put off their visit till tomorrow.”

  “I agree. It’s the only thing to do. I’ll get Rick to contact Dr Song so she knows what’s happened to you. I guess she’ll fly in some help.”

  “Yeah, I guess, though it’s too late for that. Thanks, Dawn. And good luck.”

  Dawn withdrew from Anderson’s mind and found herself once more in the temple, standing behind the altar next to his ghostly sleeping body. So that she wouldn’t be seen by the Watchers, she’d put herself into her human form, and since it was still quite dark she figured that by keeping to the walls she would be able to make her way to the temple entrance without anyone spotting her.

  And then she saw someone standing in the shadows by a nearby pillar, watching her. It was John Anderson’s sp
irit, rigged out in that golden robe and crown. She could see him more clearly than before, and she noticed that the stump of his horn, which had been protruding from his forehead when she’d encountered him in Angela’s brain, was still there, but it was masked by the crown so that it appeared to be part of that symbol of his authority. She couldn’t see his shrivelled wings either, for they were hidden beneath his robe. All evidence of his past relationship with demons had been covered up.

  She supposed he had sensed her intrusion into his body but had reckoned that his safest course was to take no action, apart from checking what she was up to. No doubt he had overheard her whispered conversation with Clare, but it would have been fuzzy like everything else in the real world and probably incomprehensible to him.

  There was no point trying to hide herself in the shadows now. She instantly turned into a dragon and leapt into the air, and, flapping her wings vigorously, headed out over the false altar and the upturned faces of the Watchers to the temple entrance. Once outside, she transformed herself into her rocket-powered Beetle, pushed her foot down hard on the accelerator, and hurtled southeast into the dawn.

  Forty Four

  Donna stood on her balcony, overlooking the temple precincts, and scanned the dawn sky. She was looking for those alien ships, but all she could see were the faint images of fuzzy stars.

  She was sure the armada would soon appear, and she couldn’t help smiling to herself as she turned away and went back inside. Her dolphin friends would get the surprise of their lives when they saw those gleaming silver vessels descending from the heavens, and an even greater surprise when hundreds of aliens of all shapes and sizes from more than a dozen worlds gathered on the temple forecourt. No one knew what the outcome of this visit would be, but one thing seemed certain: whatever it was, she would play a prominent role.

  So what should she wear on this most auspicious of days? Donna went over to her wardrobe and carefully considered the matter. Eventually she decided on her hot red outfit. She wanted to look striking, and in any case this garment was definitely the most appropriate for someone who could turn herself into a red fire-breathing dragon.

  She put on the dress and those matching high-heeled shoes, then carefully did her hair and made up her face. Dawn sometimes teased her about the trouble she took over her appearance, but in the last few days those efforts had paid off handsomely. She’d found no difficulty at all in tarting up Karen’s good looks, with the result that bagging Mort had been a pushover. He’d even confessed that he’d been unable to believe his luck in landing such a dishy female, which had made Donna feel very pleased with herself.

  She had just finished applying some eyeliner when the door burst open and Dawn rushed in. Donna had never seen her so distraught.

  “It’s a disaster! Anderson’s blocked my access to the Mind, so I can’t give my puppet show! I flew back to Crocodile Bay, to cancel Eden, but Anderson’s people have taken over that too. Poor Rick and Mort and everyone else are being held at gunpoint!”

  Mort held at gunpoint? Donna gaped at her, horrified. But she managed not to panic, and she sat Dawn down on the settee and got her to tell the full story.

  “Anderson’s walked all over us,” Dawn concluded, clasping and unclasping her hands fretfully. “I can’t get into the Mind, Clare’s in chains so she can’t get to Anderson’s body to force him awake, and Rick and his team can’t inject the dolphins with wake-up drugs to close Eden down. I’ve really blown it this time.”

  “At least Rick and Mort and the others don’t seem to be in any immediate danger,” Donna pointed out, trying to calm her, “and I’m sure we can sort out the little difficulty here. After all, we’re the most powerful creatures in the universe – or at least in the top one percent of most powerful creatures – so there’s no way a pathetic human like Anderson can stop us. How do you know that you can’t get into the Mind? I bet you can wriggle your way in somehow. Why don’t we go over to the temple now and try?”

  “It’s a waste of time,” Dawn wailed. “I know it is.”

  “Let’s at least try. You might find a way in. And then you’ll be able to perform your Passion play, and I’ll be on hand to sort out those Watchers if they try anything.”

  Dawn gave a forlorn nod. “You’re right. I ought to try.”

  “That’s the spirit! And if you can’t get in, there’s a very simple solution. We turn ourselves into fire-breathing dragons and slaughter Anderson and his silly Watchers. When they disappear, their false altar disappears too.”

  Dawn shook her head. “We can’t do that. Our lives aren’t actually at risk, nor are the dolphins.”

  “I’ll do the slaughtering if you like.” Donna said enthusiastically. “Come on, let’s do it!”

  “You know we can’t kill them unless we’re threatened. The rest of the dragon race would disown us. In any case, we might damage the Mind if we use our fire inside the temple – and that means we might harm the minds of all the dolphins.”

  Donna refused to be discouraged. “Well, let’s see what happens when we face up to those Watchers in the temple. With a bit of luck they’ll try to kill us, and then there’s nothing to stop us wiping them out. We’ll drive them out into the forecourt and slaughter them there!”

  The two women hurried out outside, crossed the forecourt, and cautiously entered the temple. Although it was still early and barely light, several of the other inhabitants of the town had already arrived and were standing just inside, looking around with bemused expressions at the alterations that John Anderson had made.

  Dawn was also bemused as she looked around, though for a different reason. She had expected see the Watchers sitting at the front, but the place was empty.

  “They’ve gone!” she whispered to Donna. “The Watchers have disappeared!”

  “They can’t have,” Donna whispered back. “It’s too dark to see properly, they must be hiding somewhere. Clara isn’t here to light the candles, so it’s easy to hide in the shadows. They’re probably in one of the side chapels.”

  Donna quickly found a couple of candles and lit them, and the two women walked around the side chapels, peering everywhere, but they were deserted. Only the fuzzy images of the Watchers’ physical bodies remained, sleeping behind the altar, with Anderson’s limp body still propped up in his chair and the hazy form of Clare sitting dolefully on the ground a short distance away.

  “Anderson knows you saw everything,” Donna said grimly. “He must have guessed that you’d contact Rick to wake up the dolphins, and he knew that when that failed you’d come back here to sort him out. So he and his Watchers have hidden themselves among the ordinary people in the town.”

  “In which case we’ll never be able to find them before the aliens arrive. It’s hopeless.”

  “It isn’t hopeless,” Donna said stoically. She’d never seen Dawn so dejected. “Let’s take a look at that false altar. If we turned ourselves into dragons we might be able to tear it apart, and then you could get to the real altar and take over the Mind.”

  They walked over to the huge gleaming centrepiece of the temple. Like the true altar, it was made of gold, and it was studded with precious stones. Donna examined it critically. Like all the GM dolphins, her knowledge of metallic structures was derived not from practical experience but from her excellent education.

  “Gold’s a soft metal,” she said. “We should be able to cut it open with our dragon claws. If necessary we could soften it further with a tiny amount of fire.”

  “It’s worth a try,” Dawn agreed. “But lay off the fire. I don’t know what would happen to the Mind if we damaged the great altar.”

  Then she added: “You stay in your human form, Donna. We don’t want people to know that you can become a dragon too. In any case, you need to tell everyone what’s happening.”

  While Donna watched, Dawn transformed herself and squatted down in front of the false altar. She tapped its gleaming surface with a claw, and a dull thud rang out. It sounded hol
low – indeed it had to be hollow, for it was no more than a sarcophagus within which the true altar was entombed.

  She raised her right forelimb above her head, extended her claws, and brought her forelimb down as hard as she could, striking the false altar with a vicious blow. A loud crack echoed around the temple, and she gasped with pain. The tip of one of her claws had broken off.

  She examined the surface of the altar, where she had struck it. Instead of the deep incision that she was expecting there was just tiny scratch, and beneath the scratch was the sheen of something much darker and stronger than gold.

  Dawn turned herself back into her human form and stood up, rubbing her smarting finger. The nail was broken. “It’s not gold, it’s covered with gold leaf. Whatever’s underneath is very, very hard.”

  Donna’s confidence in their ultimate victory was beginning to wane. “So what do we do now? Those aliens could be here at any moment. Somehow we’ve got to remove those Watchers, or at least get rid of their altar.”

  “Anderson’s thought this out very carefully. He knows all about this temple and what’s in it, he implanted the design in Jonah’s mind. That’s how he’s been able to make all these changes to it. Everything we’ve tried has failed. I should have killed them when I had the chance, when they were all here. I was too squeamish, I can see that now.”

  “But there must be something we can do. He can’t know everything, there must be something he’s missed. He’s not some all-knowing god. He doesn’t know about my powers, for instance.”

  The inhabitants of Eden were streaming into the temple now, and the front rows were filling up. Some of the Watchers would be among them, but with so many people it was impossible to pick them out in the dim light. Even John Anderson, dressed as he was in that golden robe, could slip in, probably with his crown hidden under his robe.

  Helena had arrived and was putting up the hymn numbers. “I’ll have to start the service soon,” Donna whispered in Dawn’s ear. “Isn’t there anything we can do to get rid of the Watchers? We need to think laterally.”

  Dawn sighed. “Laterally is so last century. I don’t even know what it means anymore.”

  “Well, it means approaching the problem from a different direction,” Donna told her, reciting what she’d learned. “We’ve got all those Watchers scattered among the rest of the population. What is there that’s different about them, that would allow us to flush them out?”

  “The difference, I suppose, is that their physical bodies are human, and everyone else is a dolphin. They live on land and dolphins live in the sea.”

  Dawn gripped Donna’s arm, suddenly excited. “That’s it!” she hissed. “We literally flush them out. With water!”

  “What?”

  “Don’t you see? We flood Eden! The dolphins will be OK, ‘cos they’re perfectly at home in water, and they’ll simply take on their normal form. But the humans won’t be able to do that, they’ll remain as humans, and then they’ll be swept away. Or drown. And then the false altar and all the other changes they’ve made to the temple will disappear.”

  “But … but … how do we flood Eden?”

  “It’s simple! We use our fire to melt the glacier at the head of the valley. It’s part of Eden, so it’ll feel our fire. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes, and it’ll turn to water and engulf the town.”

  Donna looked doubtful. “Are you sure that would work?”

  “Of course it will work. I’m surprised you didn’t think of it yourself. You run Bible study classes here – what happened after Eden in the Bible story?”

  “Evil arose on the earth, and a flood wiped it out.”

  “Exactly. And that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to wipe out evil with a flood. Now, listen carefully…”

  Forty Five

  The last people to make their way to the temple service that morning were treated to the sight of two automobiles, one a clunky vintage VW and the other a much swishier Aston Martin, rising up from the temple forecourt into the dawn sky. When they were about one hundred metres above the town there was a loud roar as their engines revved up, fire and black smoke belched from their rears, and they streaked off in opposite directions.

  A few seconds later Donna was circling above the fissure in the mountains at the southern end of the valley. It marked the boundary of Eden, and here the river Chilik tumbled through and disappeared into a huge hole. Her job was to block the fissure, so forming a dam to hold back the flood waters: the last thing they wanted was for any hapless dolphins to be swept through here and smashed against the rocks.

  Transforming herself into a dragon, she stretched out her wings to keep herself aloft and gulped in air. Then she opened her jaws wide and took aim at a rock face at the edge of the fissure. A huge jet of incandescence roared from her, engulfing the rock. Clouds of steam and smoke billowed from it, there were several loud cracking noises, and suddenly there was an enormous explosion as a huge area of granite split apart and a mass of jagged boulders crashed down into the river below.

  Donna quenched her fire and swooped above the smoking wreckage. Dust filled the air, but she could see that rock and debris was strewn everywhere, blocking the river, and as she watched more slabs of rock tumbled down.

  However, more rock was needed to create a proper dam, and she turned to the rock face on the opposite side of the fissure. Gulping in more air, she let another huge blast of fire pour out of her, and few moments later the air was filled with loud explosions as more jagged boulders exploded outwards, then the entire rock face started to peel away. She cut her fire, the noise died down, and then there was a huge roar as an avalanche of granite crashed onto the rocks below.

  Donna soared above the huge cloud of dust and smoke, waiting for the air to clear. After a couple of minutes she could make out the outline of a huge pile of rubble, stretching right across the fissure to a height of about ten metres, more in places. At its foot, the river was already starting to overflow its banks. Her dam was ready.

  Donna hovered above the scene a few minutes more, waiting for the dust to settle. Then she flew all over the scene of destruction, surveying her handiwork. She felt sure that even Noah would be impressed, for without a doubt it would hold back the coming flood. Satisfied, she turned herself back into her human form, encased herself in her car, and flew slowly back up the valley towards the town. There was no point hurrying, or she would arrive before the flood.

  Far to the north a billowing white cloud of steam was rising high into the sky, evidence that Dawn was at work melting the massive glacier at the other end of Eden. She wouldn’t melt all of it, for it covered a wide area and was more than a kilometre thick in places, but enough to flood the valley to a depth of several metres.

  As she continued her journey up the valley, Donna became aware of a low rumbling. It was like the sound of waves crashing on the reef at Crocodile Bay, except it was continuous. Thinking that it must be the alien fleet arriving, she pressed a button on the dashboard and the entire roof of her car slid back, allowing her to survey the sky. There was no sign of any ships. She glanced all around, but everything was still and peaceful.

  Mystified, she flew on. The roaring became louder and louder, and then she saw what it was. A wall of water, like a tsunami, was sweeping down the valley. She spotted Dawn’s red VW Beetle flying above it, and turned her own vehicle to join her. Together they followed the advancing wall of water as it reached the township, then circled around as it washed over it, swirling through the streets and alleyways and rising up the wall of the houses. This wasn’t a physical flood, for like everything else in Eden it existed only in neurospace; Clare, sitting on the grass in the early morning sunlight and gazing at the world through her physical eyes, would be unaware of it.

  But to the spirits of the dolphins and the spirits of the Watchers and, if they were watching from space, the spirits of the aliens, it was more real than the ghostly outline of the massive Tienshan mountains surrounding
the valley. Some black shapes appeared on the surface of the swirling torrent, and Donna saw that they were dolphins. They frolicked together, enjoying the unexpected deluge, and were soon joined by dozens and then hundreds more. She wondered what these friends of hers were making of this sudden transformation of their dreamworld home.

  The water had now reached the tops of the smaller dwellings, so that only their roofs were visible. But the dome of the temple remained above the flood, and she saw that her room, which was on the first floor of a building nearby, had also escaped. The water wasn’t even lapping her balcony.

  Dawn had miscalculated! She hadn’t melted nearly enough of the glacier. The Watchers inside the temple would be protected by its walls from the full force of the advancing wave and so would not be swept away, and since the water level was well below the temple ceiling most would be able to swim to the surface and float there until the water subsided. And any Watcher caught in the flood outside the temple might be able to escape onto a roof.

  Sure enough, as she surveyed the scene below, two people did manage to reach a roof and haul themselves onto it. She immediately flew down for a closer look. It was a man and a woman, and they were wet and shivering and they looked terrified.

  She flew back to Dawn, and as she drew alongside she signalled her to wind down her window.

  “It’s a couple of Watchers,” she called out, pointing in their direction. “I’ll fly down and finish them off, you keep an eye out for any others.”

  “No! We should check out the altar first. If Anderson’s altar has gone, then we’ve won, and we can spare their lives. Turn yourself into a dolphin and dive into the temple to check.”

  “Fair enough,” Donna called back. “But if that altar’s not gone, I’ll slaughter any Watchers I find!”

  She tilted the nose of her vehicle towards the temple dome and flew down to it. Just before she hit the water above where the temple forecourt would be she transformed herself into her dolphin form and splashed down. The water was freezing cold – it would be, of course, having come from that glacier – but her dolphin body was able to cope with that.

  But humans wouldn’t cope. No wonder those two who had escaped onto the roof looked frozen! A minute or two more and they would die of hyperthermia. But could spirits die of cold? They would die from lack of oxygen and therefore from drowning in the flood, and they would certainly die from the heat of her fire, but would cold kill them? Well, she would soon find out.

  She swam quickly through the cold water to where she knew the temple entrance would be, and with a flick of her tail was through it and into the dark interior. A number of dolphins were swimming and splashing around, but she ignored them and headed straight for the altar.

  It was just as Dawn had hoped. The Watchers’ false altar had disappeared, leaving the great altar exposed and unharmed. That meant that the Watchers’ minds, which were needed to keep their imagery going, were no more. She swam all round the altar, and everything was just as it should be. The she swam up to the surface, below the temple dome, and looked around. There was no sign of any human survivors, so any that hadn’t drowned must have succumbed to the cold. She looked up at the ceiling, and this too had been restored: John Anderson’s face was no longer displayed in that pattern of stars.

  Satisfied, Donna dived back down and swam quickly out of the temple entrance and back to the surface above the forecourt. Transforming herself into her human form, she conjured up her car, then flew back to her companion.

  “We’ve done it!” she called out. “The great altar and everything else is back to normal.”

  “Great! So there’s nothing to stop me now taking over the mind and doing my Passion play.”

  “Apart from all this water.”

  “It’s already draining away. Look, you can see more of the houses now!”

  Donna looked down, and sure enough he water was visibly receding. “So all we do now is wait for the aliens to turn up, and then you can begin your show.”

  Dawn glanced up. The rising sun was now shining brightly over the top of eastern mountains, and the sky was a brilliant blue, but there was no sign of approaching ships. “I wonder how long they will be.”

  “My room didn’t get flooded, why don’t we wait there? I’ll make you a nice cup of tea.”

  Dawn nodded. “We’d better turn into dragons and fly down. I won’t be able to land my car on that water, and certainly not on your balcony!”

  A few minutes later Donna was busy at her stove. “I wonder what Anderson was planning to do when the aliens arrived. It must have been something pretty impressive.”

  “Some kind of show, I suppose, to replace my show. It would involve his temple and his altar and his image in the temple ceiling. Now that he’s gone, we’ll never know.”

  “We could ask those two Watchers who escaped.” Donna carried the tea tray over to the small table, then went over to the window and stared up at the sky. There was still no sign of those ships.

  “Those aliens had better hurry up, or it will be too late,” she observed. “You won’t have enough time for your Passion play before Eden comes to an end.”

  “Don’t worry, you dolphins are in a longer trance today. Had you forgotten? Anyway, I’m sure those aliens know what they’re doing. They’ve been monitoring our telepathic transmissions for years. Perhaps–” Dawn suddenly gasped.

  Donna turned to her in alarm. “What’s the matter?”

  “Something’s happening at home! I can feel my body being shaken! Karen must be trying to wake me up!”

  “What? You can’t possibly go now! Look, they’re here!” Donna pointed up at the sky, where a cluster of bright points of light had suddenly appeared. As she watched, the points fanned out across the sky, and she realised they must be approaching Eden very fast indeed. Then they expanded to become gleaming discs, and moments later the sky was filled with a mass of huge flying saucers.

  Donna did a quick count. “There are 12 of them. I expect hundreds and hundreds of aliens are spilling out of those portals and rushing to the windows to take a look at us. I bet they didn’t expect to see so much water.”

  But Dawn wasn’t listening. “Karen’s still trying to wake me up,” she wailed. “You’ll have to go home, Donna. Go into my body, do anything to stop Karen shaking it. I’ve got to stay in my trance!”

  “OK, OK, I’m on my way. I’ll get back as quickly as I can. I don’t want to miss anything.”

  Donna rushed out of her door and clattered down the steps onto the temple forecourt, which was now covered with only a few inches of water, and conjured up her car. Moments later she was rising above the temple, and then she hit the accelerator and with a mighty roar disappeared over the mountain peaks.

  Meanwhile Dawn was stumbling towards the temple entrance. The imagery of Eden kept breaking up before her eyes and merging into Karen’s face, who was desperately trying to say something to her, and all the while she was having to fight against being pulled back into her physical body. She managed to get through the entrance and into the interior of the temple, but then the imagery of neurospace broke up again.

  Mixed in with Karen’s face and the ceiling and walls of her bedroom at home was the golden altar, now immediately in front of her. She concentrated hard on it and stumbled towards it, trying desperately to push the bedroom imagery aside. She knew that if she could hold on for a few seconds then this inner battle would be over, for Donna must surely have reached Honiara by now and be swooping down towards the house and Dawn’s body.

  What on earth could be happening back there? Judging by Karen’s desperation, it was something terrible. Whatever it was, Donna would hopefully be able to deal with it. She was certainly resourceful, as she had proved in that battle with the wasps. And what on earth was happening in Crocodile Bay? She had managed to keep the full extent of her concerns from Donna, but she was worried sick about Rick, sat there with a gun trained on him, and also about Mort and Angela, with a gun trained on the
m too. They all had enough sense not to try anything, so she guessed they were OK.

  The temple imagery suddenly stabilized. Donna must have arrived, and had managed to stop Karen from shaking her. With a sigh of relief, Dawn transformed herself into a dragon, leapt into the air, and with a mad flapping of wings fluttered down onto the altar. As she descended onto it she felt herself sucked into it as the Mind accepted her presence and her command over it. And as her consciousness became merged with that of the Mind, the thought came to her that Karen’s desperate attempts to wake her must have something to do with the dire situation at Crocodile Bay.

  It so happened that at that very moment, at Crocodile Bay, Mort was disturbed by the sound of a chair scraping on the wooden decking behind him. He had been sitting alongside Angela on the viewing platform, half-asleep in the mid-day heat and gazing though half-closed eyes at the still waters of the lagoon, listening to the distant rhythm of the waves crashing against the reef. He opened his eyes wide but didn’t turn his head – the armed guard sitting behind him had warned him against that – but he listened intently. He heard the man walk forward, and out of the corner of his eye saw him stand right at the edge of the viewing platform, just inches from the lagoon.

  The man stared down at Donna’s sleeping body. And then, without any warning and for no apparent reason, he raised his gun, aimed it carefully at Donna’s head, and slowly and deliberately squeezed the trigger.

  “No!” Mort screamed.

  Forty Six

  Donna had no difficulty getting inside Dawn’s head and taking over her body. She blinked her eyes a couple of times and Karen’s tear-stained face swam into view.

  “Dawn! You’re awake! It’s terrible!”

  Donna yawned and rubbed her eyes and shook Dawn’s sleep-filled head to clear it. “It’s not Dawn, I’m Donna. What on earth’s happened?”

  “Donna!” Karen almost fell upon her, and clung to her, sobbing. “John Anderson has been here,” she wailed. “He’s going to kill you!”

  “What? You’re dreaming! He can’t be, he’s thousands of miles away, in Eden. And he’s dead.”

  “He isn’t dead! He came here on a spirit journey. He invaded my mind, I couldn’t stop him. He gave me a picture of the flood you made, and he showed me the Watchers drowning. He’s gone crazy, Donna, he’s going to kill you!”

  “Why do you think he’s going to kill me? He doesn’t know anything about me, it must be someone else he’s after.”

  “He does know about you,” Karen sobbed. “He came into my mind and saw everything. It made him mad. He’s going to invade someone at Crocodile Bay and shoot you – he showed me a picture of what he intends to do. It was awful. And afterwards he’s coming back here to kill Dawn. There was something horribly evil about him, much worse than those wasps. You’ve got to stop him, Donna! Go to Crocodile Bay, go now!”

  “OK, I’m going. But please don’t wake up Dawn. The aliens are here, she has to remain in her trance!”

  Karen nodded tearfully, and Donna withdrew from Dawn’s body. She remained for a few seconds outside it, watching while Karen’s fuzzy form moved away from Dawn’s sleeping form sat down on the chair by the bed. Satisfied that she wouldn’t try any more of that shaking, she transformed herself into her dragon form, flew through the bedroom wall into the sunlight, then headed across the roofs of Honiara towards Crocodile Bay.

  The scene would be forever engraved on Mort’s memory. The hot sun was directly overhead, beating down on the lagoon and on the dark shapes of the sleeping dolphins. About 500 metres away lay the line of greenery that marked the opposite shore of the bay, curving round towards the visitor centre and the viewing platform where he was sitting. At the V-shaped neck of the curve of the beach, at the furthest point from the reef and several hundred metres from where Mort was sitting, were Rick and his team together with their guards, sitting in the shade of a couple of large trees.

  Then Mort’s own guard walked forward to the edge of the viewing platform, raised his rifle to his shoulder, and took aim at Donna’s head. “No!” Mort screamed as the man squeezed the trigger. At the same instant the huge grey body of a dolphin rose out of the water and locked its jaws on the man’s arm. There was a loud report as the gun went off, and the dolphin fell back into the water, dragging the man beneath the surface.

  Mort and Angela leapt to their feet and rushed to the edge of the platform. They stared first at Donna’s body – there was no sign of a bullet wound or any blood – and then into the dark swirling water immediately below. The dolphin and its prey had disappeared, but where they had been was a red cloud of blood, spreading slowly up through the water. They continued peering into the depths, and a few moments later they were able to make out the shape of a man’s torso floating upwards. Of the attacking dolphin there was no sign.

  “Thanks, Clara,” Mort whispered at the water. He had no doubt that it was she who had saved the day. It was Clara who had been guarding Donna’s sleeping body, and no doubt she would be prowling below it now, watching out for any further trouble.

  Rick and the others must have heard the shot and witnessed Clara’s attack. Mort glanced in their direction. Several of them were on their feet staring in his direction and gesticulating, and one of the guards was racing along the shore towards the visitor centre and the platform.

  Angela suddenly grabbed Mort’s arm. “Daddy!” she whispered. “I can feel Donna! She wants to come into me.”

  “What?” He turned to his daughter in surprise, then folded his arms around her. “Let her in! I’ll hold on to you.”

  Angela closed her eyes, and her body went limp. Moments later she opened them again.

  “It’s me,” Donna whispered, kissing him lightly on the lips. “What’s happened?”

  He quickly explained.

  “John Anderson came here to kill me,” she told him, extricating herself from his arms. “Karen managed to warn us. He must have entered that guard’s mind and possessed him. He’s obviously got considerable spirit powers.”

  She stepped to the edge of the viewing platform and looked down at the man’s torso, which was now floating in an expanding circle of bloody water.

  “Wow!” she gasped admiringly. She couldn’t have done a better job herself. Both his arms and one of his legs had been torn from his body and were nowhere to be seen, his clothes were in tatters, and his stomach had been ripped open and partially devoured. She’d always wondered what humans tasted like, and made a mental note to ask Clara.

  “What the hell’s going on?” The guard who had been racing towards them had arrived, breathing heavily and pointing his gun at them. He had removed his visor and was perspiring profusely.

  Mort pointed down to the floating body. “A dolphin took him,” he said simply.

  The guard approached the edge of the platform and gazed down in horror. “Christ!” he muttered. Donna noticed with interest that although he was still perspiring his face had gone quite white.

  “Don’t stand too close!” Mort warned. “You might be next.”

  The man jumped back. “I thought those damn dolphins were asleep!”

  “They are. One of them was left awake to patrol the lagoon. You’d better tell your men to keep away from the water.”

  The man grunted something and glanced at his watch. “We’re leaving in less than an hour, thank God.”

  He took a mobile phone from his belt and spoke a name into it. Then he moved a short distance away from Mort and Angela and had a muttered conversation.

  “Donna!” Mort whispered urgently. “Look! Your body’s waking up!”

  Donna stared at her dolphin body, and sure enough it was rolling slightly from side to side and her flippers were moving jerkily. “It’s Anderson! He’s jumped out of that dead man into me!”

  “He’ll kill you! You’ve got to go after him. Now!” Mort put his strong arms round his daughter’s body to support her, and once again her eyes closed and she went limp.

  A mome
nt later Angela was struggling to free herself. “It’s OK, Dad, she’s gone.”

  “Move away from the water,” Mort whispered to her. “Don’t look at Donna. If that guard follows your gaze he’ll see her moving and then he’ll think she’s the one who killed his friend.”

  They turned and walked slowly towards the entrance to the visitor centre.

  “You two! Where the hell d’you think you’re going?” They stopped and turned. The guard was pointing his gun at them and glowering.

  Mort shrugged and sat down on a nearby seat facing the guard, and Angela sat down beside him. “We just wanted to get away from the lagoon,” he explained. Behind the guard, in the water, he could see that Donna’s body had started to edge forward. He had the nasty feeling that Anderson was about to stage an attack on the guard, in order to get his dolphin body shot.

  Donna dived straight into her own head. There was a kaleidoscope of shifting shapes and colours, and then the imagery stabilized and she was standing in the cathedral of her mind, staring down the long dark nave towards the stained-glass window and the altar at the far end. Her dolphin eyes were obviously open, for there was a bright image in the window of the blue sky and in the foreground the viewing platform and the guard standing on it with his back to her. And all about her was a sense of evil.

  She immediately became a dragon and crouched with her claws outstretched, ready for an attack. There was none, and glancing quickly around she saw that the nave was empty. She had expected that, for Anderson must already have mounted the altar and be inside her, trying to control her unfamiliar dolphin body.

  Donna leapt into the air, flapped her wings furiously, and flew down the nave towards the altar. As she approached it, she became aware of Anderson’s malign presence. She sensed his raging anger, and his lust for revenge, and permeating these was a sense of unutterable evil. Although she had no personal experience of demons, it struck her that there was something that was more than human in the foul emotions that swept over her.

  She dived into the altar and was swallowed up by it, and was at once aware of her body floating in the water, and of her fins and tail moving in jerky spasms. At the same time she felt herself being punched and kicked as Anderson sensed her presence, and then she was pushed upwards as he tried to eject her from the altar.

  She extended her claws and struck back furiously, though she could no more ‘see’ what she was fighting any more than he could ‘see’ her. They were simply disembodied presences fighting with the force of their imaginations. Donna pictured herself lashing out with her claws and her barbed tail and her vicious jaws, and in a very short while Anderson’s blows became weaker and suddenly he was gone and she was in full control of her dolphin body.

  She breathed a sigh of relief. Then she closed her eyes and withdrew herself first from her tail and then her fins and then from every other part of herself. Her sense of the water all around grew more distant, and then she was once more in the nave, crouching before the altar. Now the stained-glass window was in darkness, and she peered around in the gloom, searching for her attacker. But there was no sign of him, and all sense of his evil presence had gone.

  Her relief was short-lived, for almost immediately a horrifying thought struck her. If Anderson wasn’t attacking her, then he must be attacking someone else. She flew out of her head and about 20 metres into the air and gazed around.

  The fuzzy images of Mort and Angela were sitting calmly on the viewing platform, and the guard was now also sitting a few metres from them, his gun resting across his lap. Further along the shoreline were Rick and his people, also now sitting down, with their guards seated a little way off. There was no sign of any disturbance at all upon land, and nor was there any in the water. All the dolphins were sleeping peacefully, and with Clara patrolling invisibly below.

  So where had Anderson gone? There could only be one place, she realised suddenly: Dawn’s house. He wanted to kill Dawn as much as he wanted to kill her. He could do that easily, if he could take over Karen. And from what Karen had told her earlier, he could do that without any difficulty at all.

  Kicking herself mentally for being so slow on the uptake, Donna transformed herself into her flying car, roared across the lagoon, and moments later was descending towards the roof of the house. She changed back into a dragon, flew into the house, and quickly located Dawn’s bedroom.

  She could make out Dawn’s body, still lying on the bed, but Karen was nowhere to be seen. Donna charged out through the doorway and into the hall, and immediately spotted her coming out from the kitchen. Although the imagery was fuzzy, she could tell that Karen was holding what looked like a knife. Donna didn’t hesitate, but flew straight into her head.

  It took a few moments for the shifting shapes and colours to stabilize, and when it did so Donna found herself in the cathedral of Karen’s mind, gazing along the nave at the altar and the stained-glass window above it. The image in the window told her that Karen was walking through the bedroom doorway, and then she saw Dawn’s helpless body in front of her, lying on the bed.

  She sprang up and flapped her wings and hurtled down the nave towards the altar. Karen was striding up to the sleeping body, and now Donna could clearly see the knife. It was one of those ultra-sharp steel knives, and Karen was raising it up to plunge into Dawn’s chest. Or perhaps into her throat. Or perhaps both.

  Donna could clearly sense Anderson’s foul presence. She was aware of his murderous desires and his great satisfaction because in moments the deed would done and nothing could stop him now. She reached the altar just as the image in the window showed that Karen had reached Dawn’s bedside and was raising the knife to strike.

  It was at that moment that Donna realised she was too late. She would never be able to take over Karen’s body in time. She fluttered above the altar, gazing in horror at the image in the stained-glass window. The knife in Karen’s hand was plunging down towards Dawn’s throat.

  Forty Seven

  Dawn opened her eyes and instantly rolled out of the way. The blade buried itself harmlessly in the pillow.

  Inside the cathedral of Karen’s mind, Donna sensed Anderson’s astonishment. She was astonished too, but her reactions were faster. She dived onto the altar, and as she did so she felt Karen’s welcoming embrace pulling her down into her mind, and before Anderson could stop her she was jostling him for control.

  Suddenly Anderson was fighting back in a furious rage, and it was all she could do to hold her own. Then she sensed Karen join the struggle, with surprising vigour, and the two of the acting together were eventually able to get the better of him. Donna felt him pull away from them, moments later she was in control of Karen’s body.

  Dawn had grabbed the knife and was sitting up and pointing the blade at her. “It’s OK,” Donna gasped, collapsing onto the bed beside her. “I’ve kicked Anderson out, now I’m going after him.”

  She withdrew herself from Karen’s feet and legs and hands and arms, pulling herself back into her head, and then she was a dragon once more, crouching before the altar in the cathedral of Karen’s mind.

  She peered up the length of the nave, searching for her adversary. She was determined to catch him this time, before he attempted anything else. But there was no sign of him or any sense of his presence, and she realised, to her chagrin, that he had eluded her again.

  She immediately flew out of Karen’s head, back into the bedroom, to be confronted by the most extraordinary sight. John Anderson was crouching at the foot of the bed, and facing him was a large red dragon. She had never before seen Anderson as a spirit, but it was clearly him, for he looked like Jonah. He was no longer wearing the golden crown that Dawn had described nor a golden robe, instead, he was wearing a white tunic.

  But most striking of all was the long sharp horn that protruded from his forehead and the wings that were folded down his back. Dawn had told her that his spirit had a stump of a horn and shrivelled wings, but there was nothing stump-like or shrivelled about
them now. He was just like those golden angels that Dawn had seen on the COBRA flying saucer, and that meant only one thing: he was possessed by a demon. He must have called it up and given himself over to its power when he when he realised that his human plans had failed.

  Donna felt very glad that she did not have to face the creature that he had become alone. The other dragon was Dawn, she presumed. A quick glance at Dawn’s fuzzy body on the bed told her that it was no longer sitting up but had slumped back, unconscious. Karen, unaware of the drama unfolding at the foot of the bed, was leaning over the body, trying to make it comfortable.

  Suddenly Anderson leapt up. Confronted by two dragons, Donna expected him to turn tail and fly through the bedroom wall, but he didn’t. Instead he transformed himself into a third dragon, though not red but golden, and still with that horn protruded from his head. At once he was lashing out with vicious claws at the dragon facing him, and at the same time swinging his huge barbed tail at Donna.

  This must be a false dragon, for a true dragon would have spat fire. Perhaps what possessed him now had once been a true dragon but had fallen. But there was no time to speculate, for a creature such as this could despatch both of his opponents with a couple of well-aimed blows. There wasn’t even time to gulp in air and ignite her fires.

  She jumped clear of his swinging tail. The other dragon jumped back too, but not fast enough, and one of Anderson’s claws connected with the side of its neck, slicing through some scales and drawing blood. Anderson immediately struck again, but this time the other dragon was ready and leapt backwards, out of the way.

  At the same moment Donna lunged out at him, slashing down with her claws. She felt them rip open Anderson’s side, and he screamed and twisted away. She leapt forward and lashed out again, this time opening up a huge gash in his neck.

  Anderson collapsed backwards, squealing in agony. He flailed the air with his claws and swung his tail frantically from side to side, but the other dragon promptly sprang onto it, pinning it down and tearing at it with its jaws.

  Instantly Donna jumped onto Anderson’s head and started tearing at his neck. He writhed in agony and squealed piteously, but she was without mercy and clamped her jaws tightly about his throat and yanked at it with all her might. She was rewarded with the sound of tearing flesh, and almost at once the squealing died away and then his body went limp. She had completely dissected his neck, severing his head from his body.

  Suddenly a round silver disc emerged from the disembodied head. It had leering eyes and a sword-like horn protruding from its nose should be, and insect-like wings that whirred menacingly, and the sense of evil emanating from it was like a foul stench. It was, she knew, a demon. She gulped in air to ignite her fires, and the other dragon did likewise, but the demon knew what was coming and sped away and disappeared through the wall of the bedroom. At once all sense of evil was gone.

  With an immense feeling of relief, Donna opened her jaws and shook them vigorously from side to side, scattering bits of golden dragon flesh, then stepped back and surveyed her handiwork. John Anderson was unquestionably dead. But there was no blood, she noticed. Well, there wouldn’t be, of course, for he wasn’t a true dragon.

  With a satisfied grunt, she licked her lips and raised her eyes to the other red dragon. Now that she had time to study the creature’s appearance, she could tell that this was not Dawn. And certainly Dawn would have acted more aggressively. Although this dragon hadn’t flinched and had immobilized the false dragon’s deadly tail, it hadn’t gone for the kill, it had left that to her. Dawn wouldn’t have hesitated.

  The other dragon stared back at her. “I’m not Dawn,” it explained apologetically. That, at least, was the interpretation Donna’s brain put on the mixture of grunts, snorts, and clicks that came from its jaws.

  Dawn had told her about dragons’ ability to speak, and in preparation for using her unfamiliar vocal chords Donna cleared her throat, just as Dawn had done. A great cloud of superheated steam peppered with black sooty particles spurted from her nostrils. The other dragon looked impressed.

  “Are you the dragon Dawn met in space?” she asked, forming the words carefully. “Zapfyre?”

  “I am. And you must be the leader of the dolphins.”

  She stared at him in surprise. How did he know anything about the GM dolphins, or indeed that its leader was a dragon?

  He seemed to understand her puzzlement, for he added: “That was what Dawn’s play was about. She showed us the story of you and the dolphins.”

  Donna’s heart leapt within her. She was the star of the show! Wow! Soon she would be a galactic celebrity! Dawn had given no hint that she intended to tell her story, but it was blindingly obvious, now that Donna thought about, that she would tell that story, in this the most important of her Passion plays. Earth had been cut off from the rest of the galaxy, and this was the ideal opportunity to tell the great galactic community about its dramatic entry into the parallel universe of neurospace. It made Donna feel very proud.

  And then a ghastly thought struck her. What if Dawn had told them about her and Mort? Details of her love live would be plastered across the universe, and she would never be able to live it down. She would die of embarrassment!

  The other dragon seemed to sense her misgivings, for he added: “Mostly it was about the battle with the wasps.” She sighed with relief.

  “The name’s Donna,” she told him proudly. “I’m the dragon who slaughtered the wasps and wiped out their queen.”

  “I’m impressed.”

  “You’re a pretty good dragon, too,” Donna said generously. “You saved Dawn’s life. Thank you.”

  “I gathered from Dawn’s play that you’ve had a lot opposition, and that her body might be in danger, so I thought I should check. It was the least I could do.”

  “So how did you locate her body?” Donna asked him curiously.

  She sensed his surprise at her question. “I followed the mental connection. The spirit is joined to the body – unless the connection is severed, as happens on interstellar flights.”

  “I think I’ve got a lot to learn,” Donna admitted. “Perhaps I’ll be able to meet lots of other dragons now, and learn from them.”

  “Perhaps.”

  Which was a most unsatisfactory answer. She’d hoped he might be falling over himself to welcome a great warrior like her into the galactic union of peoples and dragons. She would have to try another tack.

  “Are there many of us dragons? Genuine fire-breathing dragons, I mean.”

  “The universe is a big place, it is impossible to know how many there are. But our galaxy is divided into 12 sectors, and there are 12 communities of worlds in this sector, and each community is made up of 12 planets inhabited by intelligent life, and each planet is represented by a single dragon. A ship from each community in our sector of the galaxy has travelled here. So 12 ships have come, and there are 12 dragons to each ship, which makes 144 dragons in total representing this sector. Except that for my ship there are only 11 dragons, making 143 dragons. However, now that we have linked up with Earth, we have our full complement of dragons once more. So for our sector of the galaxy, 144 dragons is the answer, and for the galaxy as a whole there are 1728 dragons.”

  “I might only be a dolphin, but I can do my sums. I know my 12 times table.”

  “Most intelligent beings can do their sums,” Zapfyre replied mildly. “Understanding the significance of numbers is much harder. What’s the significance of the number 12, do you think?”

  Donna blinked in surprise at the question. The significance of numbers? This alien obviously had a very unusual slant on things. Or perhaps it was humans with their mechanistic outlook who were unusual. “The number 12? Well, it’s a religious kind of number. That is, it’s important in the Bible as well as in some other religions.”

  “12 is the number of perfect government. With you added, our little community of worlds is complete.”

  “I see,” Donna said, nodding
her dragon head as if the dragon’s words made perfect sense. “But there are two dragons on Earth, me and Dawn. That makes thirteen in total – a most inauspicious number, I suspect.”

  “Each world can be represented by only one dragon. The number in a community will be 12.” The dragon spoke with an air of finality. “And there are 12 communities in our sector, and 12 sectors in our galaxy, and each community as has one representative on the galactic council.”

  Donna digested all this, and then she asked: “So who will represent Earth in our community? Me or Dawn?”

  “We cannot tell. You will know when the time comes.”

  Donna gazed at the creature in frustration. It was like a Delphic oracle, answering her questions with riddles. Because of some weird notion of perfect government, only one dragon from Earth could join the community? It was crazy. But if only one dragon could represent Earth, then it would have to be Dawn. For she was human.

  Although Donna didn’t begrudge Dawn this opportunity, she felt very sad that she would have no part in the exciting events that were about to unfold.

  “It’s really important that the number is exactly 12?” she asked.

  “We think it is.”

  “You think it is? You mean you’re not certain?”

  “We have few certainties. We have a small number of universal truths that are common to all intelligent species, but that’s all.”

  “You mean universal constants, like the speed of light?”

  “I said truths, not facts. Don’t confuse the two. Facts are to do with the nature of things, truths are to do with their purpose. Facts tell you how, truths tell you why. Our quest is not to discover how the universe works, but why it is as it is. It is for this reason we have visited you.”

  “Oh. We thought it might be because you wanted to see Dawn’s Passion play. And because you want us to join this union of yours.”

  “Don’t you understand? That is what we want. Dawn’s plays help explain why things are as they are. And of course we want you to join us in our quest, because it’s your quest too.”

  Donna gazed at him sadly. “Humanity’s quest, you mean. I don’t suppose genetically-modified dolphins like me count for much in the galactic order. I guess you know we’re laboratory freaks, created by man for man’s benefit. It’ll be Dawn, not me, who represents Earth.”

  “We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you dolphins,” Zapfyre replied gently. “Earth is right at the edge of our sector of the galaxy, and without the power of your communal mind we would never have picked up Dawn’s Passion play. Of course we want you dolphins to join us.”

  Donna immediately perked up. Perhaps she would get to represent Earth after all. “That’s all right then,” she said brightly. “I’m in charge of the dolphin community, so I reckon I can accept your invitation on behalf of everyone else. I’ll have to talk it through with the others, of course, but I’m sure I’ll be able to convince them. A few good sermons should do the trick. That’s the great thing about being the high priest, people think you’re infallible.” Then she added modestly: “I may not actually be infallible, but I’m usually right.”

  She sensed amusement flickering through Zapfyre’s mind. “You’re certainly correct on this occasion: you’re not infallible. You see, there is no invitation to join us, you already belong. It’s part of your purpose.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Certain species on certain planets belong, others don’t. It’s as simple as that.”

  “That doesn’t sound very simple to me. How do you recognise those who belong?”

  “It’s easy. They are able to go on spirit journeys, and they have dragons. Usually just one dragon.”

  Donna thought about that. Then she asked: “Those giant wasps came here on a spirit journey – did they also have a dragon?”

  “They did, many years ago, but their dragon used its fire for its own ends, to gain mastery over others. One day it lost its power, and now they are no longer part of us.”

  “So you were 12 when they belonged, and then you were 11.”

  “And soon we will be 12 again.”

  Donna nodded. Then she asked: “Why haven’t you destroyed those wasps? They are very evil.”

  “We hoped they might change and make us complete again.”

  “So that’s why you left Earth to its own devices for so long? Because you hoped the wasps would make up your full complement of worlds?”

  “That was a vain hope,” Zapfyre admitted. “We know now that they will never change. But still … it is a very terrible thing to destroy an entire world. We would find that very difficult. Perhaps when you join us…”

  Donna squared her dragon shoulders proudly. “You can leave those wasps to us. Humans are pretty good at killing, but dolphins are brilliant. Plus we’re not at all squeamish. You should have been present when those wasps invaded us. There were hundreds of them against one of me, but I wiped out the lot. It was great.”

  Zapfyre eyed her silently, and she felt his awe.

  “Dawn’s Passion plays portray her as a very ferocious dragon,” the creature murmured. “It seems that you’re even better. Or worse, depending on your point of view.”

  “Better if you’re a friend, worse if you’re an enemy. We’ll make a great addition to your union. You won’t know what’s hit you.”

  “Well, I really must be going,” Zapfyre said. “I’m missing Dawn’s Passion play.”

  “But you’ve only just got here,” Donna protested. “You’ve told me hardly anything. Like what are the rules of this union of worlds, how do we get to meet up, what’s the food like up there, that kind of thing.”

  Dawn’s body waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t worry about that. It will all become clear. You’ll see.”

  “But … but … how long are you staying? Will I talk to you again?”

  “We’re leaving immediately after Dawn’s performance. As I told you, all will become clear.”

  “You can’t leave just like that! At least tell me one thing, I’ve got to know, and Dawn needs to know too. Those demons – where are they from, how can we wipe them out? Dawn says they seem to be specially adapted to fight dragons.

  “They’re as much a mystery to us as they are to you. They come from the black hole at the centre of the galaxy, that’s all we know. Since you’re such a great dragon, maybe you’re the one to take them on. Defeat them, and you really would be a hit.”

  With those encouraging words, Zapfyre vanished.

  Donna glanced around the room. Everything was ghostly to her spirit eyes, but she could make out the bed with Dawn’s body lying prone on it, and Karen sitting beside her, watching over her. She would have no knowledge of the battle and subsequent conversation that had taken place in neurospace just a few feet away. The only way to bring her up to date was to use Dawn’s body. She really wanted to get back to Crocodile Bay to check the situation there and assure Mort that she was OK, and then she wanted to hurry back to Eden to meet all the aliens, but Karen would never forgive her if she left her out, and that might jeopardise her future happiness.

  Flapping her wings, she leapt into the air, swooped over the bed, then plunged into Dawn’s skull. A few moments later she opened Dawn’s eyes and sat up. The knife that Anderson had used in his attack had disappeared, she noted.

  “Dawn!” Karen exclaimed. “Are you OK?”

  “It’s Donna,” she replied. “Everything’s fine, Anderson’s dead.”

  “Thank God for that! I was so worried.” Flinging her arms round her, Karen burst into tears.

  Donna bit her lip in frustration. Earth’s future was being determined on the other side of the world, and she had to waste time here comforting Karen. In less than an hour those visitors from the stars would be gone.

  As it happened, Karen’s tears quickly passed, and she sat upright on the bed and dried her eyes. “I’m sorry about that, Donna. I couldn’t help myself. First of all those wasps, and then John Anderso
n.” She shuddered.

  Donna took her hand. “That’s OK, Karen. It must have been horrible being taken over like that. Anyway, it’s all over now.”

  Karen sat silently for a moment. Then she said, her voice almost a whisper, “I’ve wanted to talk to you alone, Donna. I hardly ever get the chance.”

  Donna’s heart sank. Karen must be about to make a profession of love for her. Why on earth did humans have to be so complicated?

  “I suppose we are rather like ships passing in the night,” Donna replied heartily. “I take over your body in the evening, beat Mort at Monopoly and take him to bed, and then I’m off again.”

  “That’s what I want to talk to you about, Donna. I’m really pleased that you and Mort are so happy together, and I really enjoy those kisses of yours and everything, but … but it doesn’t satisfy me. I want something more.”

  Donna dreaded to think what that ‘more’ might be. “What about some retail therapy?” she asked hopefully. “I thought human females found shopping very satisfying.”

  “It used to satisfy me, before … that business with the wasps. Shopping doesn’t seem to matter much now.”

  “So what do you want, then?” Donna felt her stomach go cold inside as she waited for the answer. Karen was staring down at the floor, twisting her fingers nervously around each other. Finally she took a deep breath and managed to look up. Her eyes were moist, Donna noticed.

  “I … I want a baby,” she whispered.

  “What?” Donna almost fell off the bed. “A baby? A baby!”

  “I’ll look after him and everything,” Karen blurted out hastily, completely misinterpreting Donna’s reaction. “You won’t have to change nappies or anything like that. Will you ask Mort for me? Please ask him Donna, he’ll listen to you.”

  Forty Eight

  Donna stared at Karen across the bed, her mind awhirl. This was not the manageable kind of whirl that happens to everyone occasionally, when you batten down the mental hatches for a while and then it’s over and life returns to normal. This was an absolute whirlwind of a whirl, with dust and debris and scattered thoughts flying everywhere and all those hatches blown clean off their hinges.

  Although Donna had often dreamed of human romance, she had never once considered the biological consequences of that blessed state. This was not due to any ignorance or emotional blockage on her part, for she had on several occasions contemplated the possibility of bearing Jonah’s dolphin offspring. But as for bearing Mort’s children, for some reason that had never entered her head. Perhaps it was because he already had a grown-up daughter who would soon be embarking on romantic and child-bearing adventures of her own.

  But as the flying mental debris began to settle, it struck her as entirely right that this should be the outcome of her union with Mort. She didn’t exactly know why she was so certain of the rightness of it, but somehow she was. Perhaps it was akin to that alien dragon somehow knowing that the number of dragons in his little community of worlds had to be 12. To have such an inner assurance was very mystifying, and she wondered if it could be part of her dragonness. Or perhaps it was something that had its origin in the Mind.

  She smiled at Karen. “Of course I’ll ask Mort,” she said. “I’m sure he’ll agree.”

  Tears welled up in Karen’s eyes once more, and once more she reached out to Donna and threw her arms round her neck and warm dampness was dribbling everywhere.

  “I’m sorry, Donna,” she sobbed. “I can’t help it. Ever since you destroyed those wasps inside my head I’ve been so emotional. It’s like you burnt out something adult in me and turned me into a teenager again. Emotionally, I mean. And now all I want is a baby.”

  If Donna had been in her dolphin body she would have tried to comfort Karen by rubbing against her. Instead she did what she knew to be the human equivalent, which was to put her arms round Karen’s shoulders and cuddle her. For there were welling up within her some very odd emotions towards Karen. A few weeks ago she hadn’t liked her at all, now she was feeling very possessive and very caring towards this human female, like she was her parent or her guardian or perhaps even her guardian angel. And this was in spite of the fact that Karen was much older than she was. It must be because for the past week she had been taking over Karen’s body for several hours each day and was beginning to look upon it as her own.

  “It’s OK,” she murmured as she stroked Karen’s back and shoulders. “Cry all you want. The thing is, I’d like a baby too.”

  Karen lifted her head up and smiled at Donna through wet eyes. “You’re teasing me. You don’t really want a human baby. You want a dolphin pup.”

  “No, Karen, I don’t. You might be surprised to learn that you’re not nearly as mixed up inside as I am. I might have a dolphin body, but my desires are entirely human. That’s why I’ve fallen in love with Mort and why I want to share your body with you, and it’s why I want a human baby too. The real me is as human as you.”

  Mort and Angela watched as two trucks drew up near the visitor centre and the armed men piled into them. They were leaving early, before the dolphins had even started to stir. The gruesome death had unnerved several of them, and Rick had managed to persuade them that he had no intention of waking up the dolphins early, and that in any case they would wake up by themselves within the next 30 minutes, so there was no reason for them to stay.

  Earlier, they had forced several of Rick’s men into one of the boats at gunpoint and had them fish the dead man out of the sea. Clara, wisely, had stayed out of sight. The dismembered body had been dumped by the roadside, and now those able to stomach the sight were heaving it into the back of one of the trucks.

  Mort had half-expected them to cut all means of communication from the visitor centre and confiscate everyone’s mobile phone, but they hadn’t even done that. Perhaps this was because it would be impossible to locate every mobile, or because in this remote and lightly-policed part of the world they would have no difficulty in evading capture. By the time the police arrived they would have left the island in a high-speed boat or perhaps even a helicopter, and with no one hurt and nothing stolen there would be little incentive to pursue them.

  The trucks moved away towards the entrance to the site and the open road beyond. Mort glanced in Rick’s direction, and he saw that he was already speaking into his wristphone, no doubt to the police. Mort pulled out his mobile, not to contact the police but Karen.

  He was worried sick about Donna. He’d hardly been able to take his eyes off her dolphin body ever since Anderson had attacked it, and it hadn’t moved or shown any signs of life since Donna’s spirit had left it to pursue him. At first Mort had been immensely relieved, but as the minutes passed and Donna didn’t return to Angela’s body, he’d grown more and more concerned. It was now half an hour since she’d left, and he was very much afraid that she might now be dead.

  He spoke Dawn’s name into the phone, and her home phone number appeared on the display. He pressed Call.

  “Donna’s back!” Angela suddenly exclaimed, grabbing his arm.

  “Thank God!”

  Mort put his arms round her waist, and she closed her eyes and went limp against him. Moments later her eyes opened and Donna glanced quickly around and saw that the armed men had left. She breathed a sigh of relief and cuddled up to him.

  “Is my favourite man OK?”

  “Are you OK? Did you get Anderson?”

  “You bet I did. I tore his throat out and cut of his head. I’ll tell you all about it over the meal tonight, it should really whet your appetite. Now I must get back to Eden, my darling biped, before those many-legged aliens depart.”

  “Is that you, Mort?” The faint voice of Karen sounded from Mort’s mobile.

  He put the phone to his ear and told her briefly why he’d called. “Donna’s just arrived, ” he added, “I’ll come back to the house when she’s gone. I need to talk to her.”

  “Give her my love. I’m sure she’s got lots to tell you. See you s
oon.”

  “Karen’s remarkably cooperative,” he observed as he put the phone away. “She seems very happy with our arrangement.”

  “Yes. She is. What did you want to talk to me about, Mort?”

  “Perhaps we should discuss it later. You want to get back to Eden now.”

  Donna did indeed want to get back, but her curiosity was getting the better of her. “Tell me quickly.”

  “Well, I’ve been sitting here with Angela for over an hour, doing nothing, and I guess she was getting bored. She started pestering me about having a baby.”

  Donna stared at him in amazement. This was too good to be true.

  “She needs to get a boyfriend first,” she replied, pretending to misunderstand. “And to marry.”

  “No, she wants me to have a baby. Or Karen, rather. She said that since Karen is only 30 she ought to have a baby. I told her not to be silly, Karen isn’t the kind of person who would want to mess around with babies, and wouldn’t a dog be better? But Angela wouldn’t budge. She said she would help, ‘cos she adores babies, and then she went on and on about how it would be really good for me. Anyway, in the end I agreed that I would talk to you about it. I told her that you were the most important person to me in the world, and that having a baby would affect you as much as anyone else. I thought that would get me off the hook – I hardly think that you would be interested in having a human child.”

  “Well…” Donna hesitated for a carefully timed amount of time. “I suppose it would be rather nice to have a third person to play games with. Some games are better with three players, you know. Monopoly certainly would be.”

  He laughed. “There are other rather more weighty considerations than Monopoly to be borne in mind.”

  She frowned. “I find that hard to believe. Name some.”

  “There’s potty training, buying them clothes, ferrying them around to visit their friends, education, stopping them watching too much television and eating too many sweets, the list goes on and on.”

  “Those aren’t weighty! Good grief, Mort, think what other species have to put up with. Predators everywhere, unpredictable food supplies, zero healthcare, not to mention human exploitation. Compared to that, having a human baby is a piece of cake. Let’s go for it. In fact, let’s have lots of babies. Then we can have whist drives and bridge competitions and play all kinds of interesting games.”

  He kissed her on the end of her nose. “You’re very sweet, and your naivety is charming, but take it from me there are far easier ways of mustering up a few people to play whist or bridge. We could even join a club.”

  She took his hand and patted it. “It’s OK, Mort, I understand. You’ve had a terrible ordeal with Angela, what with her being abducted and everything, so you really don’t want to have any more children. Besides, you’re not so young now, you’d find it difficult to cope.”

  “Of course I can cope! If you must know, I quite like the idea of another child. It’s like I said to Angela, Karen isn’t the kind of person who would want to have a baby.”

  She sighed and snuggled up to him. “Perhaps you’re right, she wouldn’t want one. Still, there would be no harm asking her.”

  “I couldn’t do that. She would feel pressured. She’d go along with the idea just to please me, and that would be awful.”

  “That’s true. Though perhaps you could try a different approach. How about taking her round one of those big stores that sell everything, and by accident go through the baby department. See how she reacts. She might go all doe-eyed and sloppy, and then you’ve got her.”

  “Use subterfuge, you mean? The kind of tactics that women use on men?”

  “Exactly. I’m sure that’s what she’d do to you if she wanted to persuade you to buy her something.”

  He nodded. “OK, subterfuge it is.”

  She smiled up at him and nestled her head on his shoulder, and he responded by gently kissing the top of her head. It was a tender gesture, but it was rather lacking in passion. She frowned.

  “That’s what I like about you, Donna,” he was saying. “There’s no subterfuge with you, in fact no female guile at all. I guess it’s because you’re a dolphin. Everything’s above-board. If you wanted anything, you’d be straight out with it, whereas most women would be really devious.”

  Her frown deepened. How on earth could she reply to that without piling on even more female guile, deviousness, and subterfuge. Fortunately he didn’t seem to expect her to say anything, instead he went on to ask how she would feel if Karen did in fact want a baby. “It’ll be years before it’s old enough to play Monopoly.”

  She pretended to hesitate. “I won’t mind,” she said finally, “provided you make a big fuss over me. Buy me flowers, that kind of thing. Karen can share them, of course, so it’ll be a good investment for you.”

  “So if she doesn’t want a baby, then I needn’t make a fuss of you,” he countered.

  What was the matter with him, she wondered? A few days ago the merest hint that he should make a fuss of her would have brought forth an avalanche of kisses and squeezes and gasps and squeals.

  She pinched him firmly on the bottom. Perhaps that would get him going. “No, it doesn’t mean you needn’t make a fuss of me. It definitely doesn’t mean that.”

  He grabbed her hand to prevent any further pinching. “But that’s the logical implication of your words.”

  “No it isn’t. I said that I won’t mind if Karen wants a baby, provided you make a big fuss of me. That has no bearing whatsoever on how I’d feel if Karen doesn’t want a baby. The fact is that I won’t mind that either, provided you make a big fuss of me. Ergo you have to make a big fuss of me whatever she decides.”

  “You’re sounding like a human woman now. Before long you’ll be manifesting those other female traits I mentioned.”

  She sighed, and then she tried to inject an appealing look into her eyes. “Is it so difficult to make a fuss of me, Mort?”

  He gazed down at her and smiled. “Yes, of course it is. It’s impossible to make a fuss of you – when you’re in my daughter’s body!”

  She stared back at him. She couldn’t believe how stupid she’d been. No wonder he was being so undemonstrative.

  But then he did give her a little squeeze on the bottom and whispered, imagining perhaps that Angela wouldn’t hear: “But just you wait till tonight, when you’re in Karen’s dishy body…”

  Forty Nine

  A few minutes later Donna was descending towards Eden in her James Bond car. Her delight at the prospect of the pleasures awaiting her in Mort’s arms quickly gave way to chagrin when she discovered that she had spent so long chatting to that alien dragon and to Karen and finally to Mort that she had missed all the action here. There was no sign of the alien ships, not on the ground nor in the sky. As she screeched to a halt on the damp cobbles of the temple forecourt she heard the temple bell toll. The Mind had sensed that that the dolphins would soon emerge from their trance and that Eden would disappear.

  With the flood gone the dolphins had all turned back into their human forms, and a number of them were standing around in the forecourt, chatting excitedly in small groups. They weren’t excited at all by the sight of her car arriving, they were too full of all that had happened that morning. She walked over to a friend and asked him if he had seen Dawn’s show.

  “You missed it, Donna?” he asked, startled. “It was the best ever, an amazing performance, about a fire-breathing dragon and giant wasps and loads of other stuff. It was much longer than any of her other Passion plays. I suppose she did it for those people who came in the flying saucers.”

  “Did you see any of them? The aliens, I mean.”

  “We saw their faces in the windows, that’s all. Their ships hovered around” – he waved vaguely around at the rooftops – “watching the show. It was great, really great.”

  “So where’s Dawn now?”

  The man shrugged. “No idea. Waiting in your room, perhaps?”


  Donna glanced up. Sure enough, Dawn was there, standing on the small balcony. They waved to each other, and Donna raced across the forecourt and bounded up the steps.

  “What happened?” she gasped when she reached the top.

  “Tell me your news first. Are Rick and Mort and the others OK?”

  Donna gave her a quick résumé. “I killed John Anderson – it was either him or us. He was possessed by a demon, but the demon got away. One of the aliens, a dragon, came to help me. He was the dragon you met, and he was very nice.”

  “You got to talk to him?”

  “He said they were leaving after your show, and that we – that’s humans and dolphins – were going to be part of their community of worlds. But only one dragon can represent Earth, and he didn’t know which of us it would be. He said we would know when the time came. Oh, and he told me that demons come from the black hole at the centre of the galaxy. What did the aliens say to you?”

  “Nothing at all. I gave my show and then they flew off.”

  “What? No applause, standing ovations, speeches?”

  “I could sense their emotions easily while I was within the Mind: there was pleasure, awe, gratitude, etc. They certainly appreciated it. But no actual contact.”

  Donna stared at her in amazement. “How weird!”

  “Perhaps they thought that their contact with you was sufficient.”

  “It was nothing much. A five-minute chat, that’s all.”

  “Perhaps that’s the way they do things.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised. Their attitudes to things are quite different from ours. Their big mission isn’t to unravel how the universe works, but to discover why things are as they are. It was almost mystical the way he talked – the significance of different numbers, stuff like that. The number 12 is important, which is why only one of us can represent Earth. Then the number of dragons in his little community will be 12, which he said is the number of perfect government. And there are 12 such communities in this sector of the galaxy, and 12 sectors. You get the picture.”

  Dawn pulled at her hair thoughtfully. “I can see we’ve got a lot to learn.”

  “The thing is, how are we going to learn it? When are we going to hear from then again?”

  “Perhaps they’ve left something behind for us.”

  “One of their portals, you mean? So we can travel to their worlds?”

  “That’s what I’m wondering. Thirteen years ago those wasps left a portal for COBRA to use, surely these visitors would have done the same for us.”

  Donna looked at her dubiously. “I didn’t see a portal lying around when I flew over Eden a few moments ago.”

  “If they wanted to leave us anything they would put it in the temple.” Dawn stood up. “Let’s take a look. We’ve got a few minutes before Eden disappears.”

  The two women hurried down the steps and across the forecourt and into the temple. But there was nothing out of the ordinary to be seen in there. They walked by each of the five walls, examining the murals, they glanced into the side chapels, and they walked twice around the great altar.

  They stared at each other blankly. “Are you sure you saw nothing unusual when you flew over Eden in your car just now?” Dawn asked.

  “Take a look for yourself. While you’re doing that, I’ll check the chapels again.”

  Dawn nodded, then transformed herself into a dragon. Flying out of the temple, she ascended above the township, searching below for any sign of a portal or any other unusual feature. Inside the temple, Donna carefully examined each of the five recessed chapels, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. The only unusual feature was the ghostly image of Clare, still sitting near the altar with the prone bodies of the Watchers nearby.

  A few minutes later Dawn flew back in and turned herself back into her human form.

  “Did you see anything?” Donna asked.

  Dawn shook her head. “How about you?”

  “Nothing. Apart from Clare. She’s still chained up and sitting on the grass in the real world. I forgot to tell Rick to phone Dr Song about her.”

  Dawn shrugged. “It’ll be good for her to suffer a bit. Suffering maketh perfect, as the good book says. She should be grateful to you for prolonging it.”

  “The trouble is, it’s going to take an awful lot of suffering to get rid of all Clare’s imperfections. To do any good at all she’ll need to be chained up for years.”

  Dawn stared around gloomily. Surely those aliens had left something. Her eyes moved higher and higher up the pentagonal structure, taking in the pillars and their carvings, then the arches, until finally they rested on the pattern of stars on the domed ceiling.

  “They’re different,” she murmured in a puzzled voice.

  “What’s different?”

  “Those stars. Look!”

  Donna looked up at the pattern of stars painted on the temple ceiling. Sure enough, they were different. “I bet there’s another face hidden there!” she exclaimed. “I bet it’s either your face or my face. It’s a message, telling us which one is to represent Earth in the galactic federation!”

  Dawn stared at her blankly. “But we both look the same. You’ve got my face.”

  “No, my dolphin face, Silly!”

  Dawn still looked puzzled. “But if it’s a message, it can’t be from the aliens. That pattern of stars comes from the Mind, like everything else here."

  Donna looked crestfallen. “I guess you’re right. It was Anderson’s face before, which I suppose it had picked up from Jonah’s mind. Now it’s picking up something else from our minds.”

  “It doesn’t matter whose mind it comes from. The point is that the Mind is immensely powerful, and if it’s chosen to display something like that then it’s important and we need to pay attention to it.”

  Donna sat down on a nearby chair and leaned back and squinted up at the ceiling. “I can’t make out anything at all in those stars. They’re just a scattering of thousands of bright points.”

  “If we wait until Eden starts to disappear, maybe the stars will thin out and the pattern will be revealed.”

  They only had a wait a few minutes. The dolphins were emerging from their trance, so the people were vanishing from Eden, and many of the shops and houses in the township had disappeared too. As Dawn and Donna watched, many of the temple murals winked out of existence, and then an entire wall vanished. Soon all that was left was the great altar together with some pillars and the ceiling.

  Dawn glanced down at her young protégé, who was staring fixedly up at the ceiling. “Have you spotted anything?”

  “The stars are going out – look!”

  Dawn looked. Sure enough the stars decorating the ceiling were thinning out, and suddenly she could make out the outline of a face, with the crescent moon suspended above the face like a crown. As she watched, more and more of the tiny golden points winked out, and those that were left formed the mouth, the nose, the eyes, the eyebrows, and the hair.

  “Can you tell who it is?” she asked.

  “No,” Donna replied. “But it certainly isn’t John Anderson.” Suddenly she wailed: “Oh no, I’m slipping out of my trance! I can feel water all around me!”

  Dawn grabbed her shoulder. “Don’t leave now! Look, the picture’s getting clearer. It’s a woman’s face, I can tell from the hair. And she’s gazing down at the great altar, just like that image of John Anderson’s face did.”

  “It’s Karen!” Donna gasped. “It’s Karen!”

  “You’re right! But what on earth is she doing up there?”

  Fifty

  Dawn repeated her question. “What on earth is Karen’s face doing up there, among the stars? Look, the crescent moon is just above her head, looking like a crown. It’s as if she’s the queen of heaven!”

  There was no reply, and Dawn glanced round. But Donna had vanished, having awoken from her trance and back in her dolphin body in Crocodile Bay. Then the ceiling disappeared too and with it went that image o
f Karen’s face, and moments after that everything else of Eden winked out of existence also. Dawn was left alone, staring at the fuzzy landscape of the real world: a remote valley in the Tienshan Mountains of Kazakhstan.

  Not far away were the ghostly bodies of the dead Watchers, lying in rows on the grass, and a short distance from them was the faint image of Clare, sitting on the ground and chained to that post. Although Dawn couldn’t see her clearly, the posture of her body suggested that she was utterly dejected. She would of course have seen nothing of the epic events of the last couple of hours, and she would be unaware of Dawn’s spirit presence now.

  Dawn knew that she ought to return immediately to Honiara, to her body, because she could then get on the phone to Dr Song to organise Clare’s rescue, but she was too upset by that image of Karen’s face on the temple ceiling. It didn’t make any sense at all. She sat down near Clare’s fuzzy form and tried to think things out.

  She had expected her own face to be revealed in that pattern of stars, or possibly Donna’s dolphin face, but certainly not Karen. Never in a thousand years would she have expected that. But Karen was there, and that meant that the Mind had analysed the contents of Donna’s mind – for she was the only one of the dolphins who knew Karen – and it had concluded that she would one day be the most important person on this planet.

  That would have made some sense a few weeks ago, when Karen was an influential member of the Watchers and determined to play a part in the galactic federation, but not now. Karen was now a rather pathetic soul, dependent on Mort to look after her and content for Donna to occupy her body every evening for fun and games with Mort.

  Dawn shook her head in frustration. The more she thought about that face up there in stars, gazing down at the great altar, the more ridiculous it seemed. Well, the answer had to lie somewhere in Donna’s brain, for she was the source of that imagery, and so it should be possible to extract it.

  Something stirred nearby, and Dawn glanced round. Two of the dead Watchers had come to life and were sitting up. Dawn stared at them, unable to believe her eyes. Then she remembered the two people she had seen clinging to the roof of that house above the floodwaters. They had obviously survived their ordeal, and were now emerging from their trance. She wondered what they would do when they realised that John Anderson and the rest of the Watchers were dead. They might well take revenge on Clare.

  It occurred to her that if she acted swiftly, while they were still drowsy, she should be able to take over one of them and effect Clare’s release. Clambering to her feet, she transformed herself into her dragon form, then flew into the head of one of them. She sensed his maleness as she entered the cathedral of his mind and gazed down the length of the nave at the clear view of the real world in that stained-glass window. Now she could see clearly the bodies of the Watchers lying all around, and she could see Anderson’s body too. Just beyond him was Clare. She had risen to her feet and staring directly at her.

  Dawn flapped her wings and flew down the nave towards the altar. Alighting on it, she found, as she had hoped, that she had no difficulty at all in displacing the drowsy Watcher and taking over his body.

  “Clare! It’s me, Dawn!”

  Clare’s relief was palpable. She even managed a smile. “What kept you?”

  “Oh, this and that. Wiping out the Watchers, entertaining aliens, joining the galactic federation, that kind of thing.” She stood up and stepped over the dead bodies to reach open ground, then walked over to Clare. “Let’s see if we can unlock those clasps.”

  Clare glanced doubtfully at Anderson’s body. “You searched his pockets before.”

  Dawn glanced around at the second Watcher, a woman, who was pushing herself to her feet. “Where did John Anderson put his keys?” she called out.

  The woman gazed at her blankly. “I don’t know,” she replied groggily. “Perhaps in his bag.” She pointed to a small bag lying on the ground amongst the bodies.

  Dawn hadn’t noticed the bag before, for it had been hidden by the bodies, and she quickly went over to it and rummaged inside. There were a number of objects inside, including a gun, and then she found what she was looking for.

  “A bunch of keys,” she called out, holding it up so that Clare could see. “Let’s see if one of them fits.”

  She returned to Clare with the bag and handed her the gun, which Clare promptly pocketed, then she picked a likely-looking key and inserted it in the keyhole of one of the clasps. There was a click, and the clasp snapped open and fell away.

  “It’s our lucky day!” she murmured, and proceeded to unlock the other three clasps to release the chains.

  “I’ve had better lucky days,” Clare muttered, rubbing her wrists and ankles. She glanced round at the second Watcher, who was now picking her way over the bodies towards them. “Are all the rest dead?” she whispered to Dawn.

  “I think so.”

  “Then let’s chain this woman up, and the body you’re in as well. I’ll feel much safer then.”

  “Good idea.” Dawn handed Clare the bunch of keys. They watched the woman as she shuffled sleepily towards them.

  “When will everyone else wake up?” the woman asked when she reached them.

  “I don’t know,” Dawn replied. “Come and sit by me.”

  “OK, Jim.” The woman gave her a wan smile and sat down heavily. Dawn immediately reached over and put a clasp round one of her ankles and clamped it shut, then did the same with the other ankle. She repeated this with her own ankles.

  The woman stared at the clasps uncomprehendingly. “What are you doing?”

  “Chaining us up, of course,” Dawn replied cheerfully. “I’m not Jim, you see. I’ve pulled the same trick on him as Anderson pulled on Clare – I’ve borrowed his body.”

  The woman gasped as understanding dawned. “Damn you! You’re that Dawn, aren’t you?”

  “’Fraid so. I’m also afraid that the rest of your people are dead.”

  The woman glanced around at all the lifeless bodies, and her face turned ashen. “You murderer! You despicable murderer!”

  “They drowned in that flood,” Dawn replied. “Anyway, I’m not a despicable murderer. If I was I would have killed you and your friend Jim too.”

  “But you caused the flood. It must have been you!”

  “You people tried to set yourselves up as the kings of the earth, the representatives of humanity on the galactic councils. You were trying to take something that was not yours to take, and you paid the price. Just be glad that your life has been spared.”

  The woman glowered but said nothing.

  Clare meanwhile had retrieved her own bag, which had been lying on the ground by Anderson’s body, and pulled her mobile phone from it. “I’m going to call Dr Song,” she explained.

  Dawn clanked her chains. “I can’t move. Check my spirit detector first, will you? See that it’s OK.”

  Clare nodded. Baby was still lying in the grass, a few metres away, where it had been placed earlier, and Clare went over to it and picked up.

  “It looks OK,” she said, turning the screen towards Dawn. It was alight and showed a fuzzy spirit-world image of the world. “It’s fine,” Dawn confirmed.

  Dawn waited while Clare made her call. “They’re going to organise a helicopter,” Clare announced when she’d finished. “They should be here in about an hour.”

  “In that case I’ll leave you. I need to get back to everyone. Ring me if you want to talk.”

  “Yeah. Thanks. By the way, Paul and I have been invited to the wedding.”

  Dawn stared at her blankly. “What wedding?”

  “Karen and Mort’s wedding, of course. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”

  “Oh yes. Donna’s wedding.”

  “That damn dolphin – she gets into everything! Anyway, the invitation said they didn’t want presents, but we want to give them something. We don’t know what.”

  “No problem. Give them a Monopoly set. A really fancy one.”
/>
  “Monopoly?” Clare looked bemused. “For a wedding present?”

  “They’d be delighted. Their old set is worn out. Donna told me the banknotes are falling to bits.”

  “I’m not surprised. I’ve seen her play – she gets very excited.”

  “She likes to win.”

  “I’ve noticed.” Clare glanced at the sea of dead bodies. “And woe betide anyone who gets in her way.”

  Donna floated in the warm waters of Crocodile Bay. She ought to search out Clara and thank her for saving her life, but she was too troubled by that image of Karen set in the stars of the temple ceiling. She just couldn’t accept its implications. Incomprehensibly it was Karen, not Donna and not Dawn, who was to be the representative of Earth in the community of stars. The future belonged to her.

  Or to be more precise, the Mind had calculated, from the information in Donna’s brain, that Karen was to be the future representative of Earth. So what had the Mind seen there that had caused it to come to that extraordinary conclusion? What was there about Karen that Donna had missed? She vainly searched her memories for some snippet of information that might give a clue.

  Perhaps it wasn’t Karen at all, but someone who looked like Karen. After all, Donna herself looked like Karen when she occupied Karen’s body – perhaps this was the Mind’s way of saying that she, Donna, was to be the one. No, it couldn’t be that, it was too obtuse. If the Mind had intended to portray Donna, it would have done so clearly.

  And yet it couldn’t possibly be Karen, for that didn’t make any sense at all. So why had it displayed her image on the temple ceiling, crowned with the crescent moon? There must be something about her, something locked up in Donna’s brain, which had caused it to do that. There were only two things that she knew about Karen that were significant. The first was that she was more than happy for Donna to borrow her body to be with Mort, and the second was that she desperately wanted a baby.

  That was it! She wanted to have a baby! That picture in the temple ceiling wasn’t Karen at all, it was Karen’s baby! Or rather, it was Karen’s baby many years from now, when it had grown up. It wouldn’t look exactly like Karen, of course, for half of its genes would come from Mort, and it might be a boy and not a girl, but the mind had used the information at its disposal and arrived at the inevitable conclusion: the fruit of Karen’s womb would one day be the most important person on this planet.

  Full of joy at this stupendous revelation, Donna flicked her tail and surged through the water. Picking up speed, she dived and then leapt into the air and performed a magnificent somersault. For this child was not just Karen’s baby or Mort’s baby, it was her baby. Not physically hers, of course, but hers in another and far more wonderful sense. It would be her baby in the same marvellous sense that she herself was Dawn’s progeny.

  Thirteen years ago, on the day of Donna’s conception, Dawn had gone on a spirit journey into the womb of Donna’s dolphin mother, and there she had breathed the essence of her dragon nature into the genes of that fertilized egg. And now, sometime soon, Donna would repeat that process for the fertilized egg in Karen’s body that would become their child, and in so doing she would continue the line of magical beings who were gifted with the power of fire.

  That was the message of the image on the temple ceiling. It would not be Dawn or Donna who would one day represent Earth in the galactic councils, it would be this little one.

  But how would this child reach the stars without a portal? Donna really couldn’t understand why the extra-terrestrials had departed without leaving one. That was the strangest thing of all in this entire weird saga. COBRA had been left a portal by the wasps all those years ago, so surely these aliens, who Dawn had so royally entertained, would have done the same? It was totally mystifying.

  But then, out of the blue, something Clare had said during their first encounter in that restaurant in Adelaide sprang into Donna’s mind, and the final piece of the jigsaw dropped into place. The alien visitors hadn’t given them a portal because there was one here already: the temple!

  Clare had suggested that John Anderson had used his knowledge of the COBRA portal to impose its features on the Eden temple, via the information he had secreted in Jonah’s brain. The temple was even pentagonal, just like that portal. And when today he had imposed his own image in the pattern of stars on the temple ceiling, he was proclaiming himself to be the one destined to use this gateway to the distant worlds of the galactic federation. That was his great master plan. It was never to take over the Mind, as Dawn had feared, but to use its powers to reach the stars.

  But John Anderson had been destroyed, and the Mind had chosen instead to portray in those stars the offspring of Donna’s union with Mort and Karen. It meant that one day, many years in the future, this precious child would visit Eden and enter the temple, and the Mind would recognise him and open up to him the gateway to the stars.

  At peace at last with herself and the world, Donna basked in the sunlight and gazed lazily at the artificial reef stretched across the mouth of Crocodile Bay, cutting it off from the open sea, and listened to the distant waves crashing against its far side. Several of her fellow dolphins were frolicking nearby, leaping in and out of the water.

  They and all the other GM dolphins had been created in the GeneSys laboratories in Honiara. They had been carefully reared and educated by Rick and his staff, and they had been watched over and loved by Dawn. Now they were adult, and soon many of them would be released into the open sea, where they would prosper and multiply and one day fill the oceans with their kind.

  It was a breath-taking project, engineered by man to farm the seas. But man had not foreseen that she, Donna, would inherit strange powers from beyond the sky and use those powers to save the planet, and that she would be loved by a man and a woman and bequeath those powers to their child, and that this one would become Earth’s galactic ambassador.

  She tried to imagine what great adventures awaited her little one on the exotic worlds that circled those distant stars. Perhaps he would be the one to venture into the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy and take on the demons. But whatever might await him there, or indeed anywhere else in the galaxy, defeated even her fertile imagination. Instead her thoughts returned to the immediate future, to her wedding night when, she was sure, Karen would stop using contraceptives. Shortly afterwards, driven by some unearthly instinct, Donna would enter Karen’s womb and breath into the new life within her that miraculous dragon fire.

  She wondered what Mort and Karen were doing at that moment. No doubt they were shopping. No doubt they were strolling around a large store in town, wandering past some baby clothes, and Karen was loitering and touching them, and, taking his cue from this, Mort was saying how utterly amazing Donna’s love-goddess kisses were, so amazing in fact that they must have some ultimate purpose…

 

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