“Perhaps he wants a hostage for some reason; maybe as a bargaining chip.”
Two minutes later, the ship began its ascent. Leila and the soldiers crouched low behind the rocks to protect themselves from the dust and small stones kicked up and blown by the massive engines.
As soon as the dust had settled and she could no longer see the craft, Leila excused herself and prepared to walk off alone into the arid desert. “I will return in the morning,” she said.
“But you need protection from the Prehistorics and other savages that roam this land; not to mention wild animals that we know nothing about. Let me, or one of my men accompany you.”
“No, this is something I must do alone. I will keep vigilant, and use my gnaris to keep watch for any hidden dangers. You and your men must set up camp here and wait for me. I will return at first light; then we will decide what to do next.”
“But ”
“Sergeant Wardrow, you will do as I say. I am the leader of this group now. Do not worry and do not try to have me followed.”
Leila walked until the sun had set. She felt more confident once darkness prevailed, and she could remove her goggles. Then she found a space between two boulders where she planned to spend the night. She waited until some animal in the distance stopped howling, and nothing else disturbed the silence or distracted her from the task ahead.
She was alone. In fact, she had never felt so alone or so helpless, abandoned on a strange planet with only a handful of soldiers to help her. Barrow, the mighty Great Savant, whose power could rival that of any on Ziemia, and Elena were many miles away. She had no news of Forster and Lolena. They could be dead for all she knew. And the person she most relied upon, Kuthrow, had been taken prisoner by one she had trusted. The ship’s co-pilot had turned traitor.
Stripped of her last vestige of hope, Leila slipped into despair. She put her head in her hands and wept. She remained in a state of disillusionment and grief throughout the night. She did not sleep, or eat or drink. Thoughts of how she and the others might get off of the planet tormented her. With no friend to comfort her or give her counsel, she had nowhere to turn.
She reflected on the gods, but wasn’t sure whether they would hear her prayer in this remote place, but it was worth a try.
“Mighty gods,” she intoned, “hear me from across the great darkness. You dwell far away in another galaxy, which is our home. We are waiting for the day you come to claim the Milky Way. Our main purpose, our only purpose is to establish an empire in the Milky Way ready for your arrival. I am here alone on an alien planet and need your help. Help me as I try to reach out to Barrow.”
She reached out with her gnaris, with little hope that it would do any good. She was not a powerful Karavec like the Great Savant and the members of the Council; but her grief and desolation attained a level of such desperation that another more powerful than she was disturbed from his sleep and felt her reaching out to him.
In the distant city called Washington, Barrow said to Forster, “Something is wrong, I know it is. Leila and the other Karavec are in trouble.”
* * * * *
Joodrow’s attack so surprised Kuthrow that he had no chance to fight back. The co-pilot threw him to the floor of the spacecraft, and thrust a ray gun into the side of his head.
“Get up.” The traitor shook with rage.”Why did you and the others return? I had everything planned.”
Kuthrow was surprised to see the face of the chief embryculturalist of the Regional Embrycultural Centre on Arion. “Jethrow! Is that you?”
“I am not Jethrow. He is my twin. We were separated when we were still very young. I am Joodrow. I am co-pilot of this ship.”
“Joodrow, what’s going on?”
“You fool, don’t you know? Just take a look around you.”
Kuthrow looked up and noticed something that made his heart leap with sadness. In the corner of the cabin he saw a crate containing several vials of a green liquid.
“Is that Karavec bl ”
“Yes.”
“Whose?”
“It belonged to the soldiers and crew you left behind on the ship. They didn’t do a very good job at guarding the ship, did they?” An evil grin replaced the smirk on Joodrow’s face.
“Joodrow, what have you done? Are you the one who murdered the Karavec embryos?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Why don’t you kill me too?”
“The Saviour told me that you are to be spared. Maybe you are too old and your blood is not fresh enough. The Saviour will decide your fate.”
“The Saviour?”
“The Saviour is the one I work for. The Saviour will be glad of a hostage, and you may even escape death if you’re lucky.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“We are on our way into orbit around Ziemia; we will land again on another part of the planet.”
“But that will use too much fuel. We will not have enough fuel left to return to Hikon, unless we can find the right fuel somewhere on this primitive planet.”
“The Saviour has already located the fuel.”
“What about Leila and my men? Are you going to abandon them in the desert? How will they get home?”
“That’s their problem. Now, sit in that seat.”
Joodrow pointed towards a seat at the front of the passenger cabin. When Kuthrow was seated, the ship’s co-pilot handcuffed him and tied his legs with rope.
After two days in orbit, Joodrow judged the right time had come for him to land the craft again. He engaged the booster rockets and the ship began its descent towards the planet’s surface.
“Where are we heading?” Kuthrow asked.
“We are going to land just outside the city of Jerusalem in a state the Ziemians have named Israel.”
After the ship had landed, Joodrow looked out of the window and smiled when he saw a large group of people surrounding the unmistakable figure of the Saviour.
When he opened the door, the people cheered and cleared a path for the Saviour to approach. They waved palm fronds, and shouted praises to the Saviour who rode on a strange animal, similar to but smaller and less aggressive than the horses that Jesse and his men had ridden.
“Lord Saviour, I am here,” Joodrow yelled above the hubbub of the crowd. “I have more blood.”
The Saviour waved in the direction of Joodrow’s voice, and shouted, “Do you have my son?”
“Your son?”
“Kuthrow, do you have him?”
“He is your son? Yes, Lord, he is here. I also have the rifles you requested. Jesse and his gang were only too willing to supply me with a large number of rifles in exchange for gold.”
Joodrow disappeared inside the craft and re-emerged a few seconds later, leading Kuthrow, his hands still handcuffed. They descended the steps onto the dusty ground, and approached the Saviour.
The Saviour reached out and touched Kuthrow, saying, “My son, you have made me very proud, rising to be a commander of the Savant’s warriors.”
Not resisting a smile, the Saviour turned to Joodrow. “Release him.”
Kuthrow glowered. “It’s you. You are the Saviour?”
Yes, but because you are my son, I ordered Joodrow to spare your life and to bring you here to me so that you can share in my glory.”
“You are wrong. You will never win this battle. Barrow has greater powers than you.”
“Barrow is already defeated. I am now the Great Savant of the Karavec.”
Chapter 16 – Jerusalem
“Other religions are abhorrence to the gods, and should be quashed.”
The Book of Karavec (35, 63)
Barrow called a meeting with Forster, Lolena and Elena.
“Leila and the others are in trouble,” he said. I have detected a cry for help from her gnaris.”
“Does she possess the power?” Lolena asked.
“No, she cannot use her gnaris to communicate directly with me. As you know, only the m
embers of the Council have such powers.”
“So how did she communicate?”
“I could sense her gnaris. I can tell from the substance of the gnaris that she is distressed, but I am unable to comprehend the actual message; the reason for her distress, or why she is calling out. But it must be something serious.”
“One of us must return to the ship,” said Lolena. “Can you ask President Kowalski if his man, what’s his name, Don ”
“Donahue.”
“ if Donahue could take me back to the ship in his flying machine. What did they call that machine?”
“It’s a helicopter,” said Elena.
“I cannot allow you to go,” said Barrow. “We are going to Jerusalem to try to confront this Karavec who calls himself Saviour. If he truly possesses the powers that they say he does, then he can only be ”
“ a member of the Council!” Lolena’s suggestion sent shockwaves through them all.
“I must concede that you are right, Lolena. That is why you must accompany me to Jerusalem. It may require the combined powers of the two of us to overcome this traitor. I cannot spare Forster. He is leading the investigation into this murder case, and we need Elena as our interpreter. We have no choice. All four of us must go. We will have to ask President Kowalski to send some of his military to our ship. If Leila and the Karavec soldiers are really in trouble, they may have a fight on their hands.”
“How could anyone from this planet have overcome the Karavec warriors?” asked Lolena. “These people do not possess the technology.”
“Maybe it’s the Saviour himself,” suggested Forster.
A few moments silence ensued before Barrow replied. “Unlikely,” he said. “According to what the president told us, this Saviour is at the moment concentrating his efforts on the people of Jerusalem. We do not know what his intentions may be, but I think it unlikely that he would come here. No, it’s a mystery what has happened to Leila and the others; but I have to put my trust in Kowalski’s men to deal with this problem.”
Lolena had another shocking suggestion. “Could it be Saivrow? He is a member of the Council, and his name is similar to Saviour.”
“That is hard to believe,” said the Great Savant, “but, then it would also be hard to accept that Henrow or Velena might be the traitor. Lolena, I think you might be right. There is further evidence against Saivrow.”
“What?”
“Forster believes that the perpetrator of the crime may be one of a pair of conjoined twins; and the other twin, the one who is innocent of any crime, works at one of the centres. It is the only way that the murderer might have gained access to the Embryological Centres, since the retinas of conjoined twins are identical.”
“You think Saivrow has a twin?”
“No, Lolena; but his accomplice may have. Saivrow is Chief Statistician. He could have changed the records, and that would explain why Forster failed in his search to identify any employee who might be a twin. What if Saivrow tampered with the database that keeps a record of all Karavec hatchings? He certainly had the opportunity, and no one who works under him would have questioned his authority to access the database.”
“You are right,” said Forster. “I think you have solved the mystery of how the culprit got inside the centres.”
Barrow weighed up in his mind the unknown threat to Leila and the Karavec soldiers against the even greater threat posed by the Saviour.
“We must go to Jerusalem and apprehend Saivrow and his accomplice,” he said. “The four of us will depart for Jerusalem as planned tomorrow. In the meantime, I will talk to the president.”
* * * * *
The president agreed to send Donahue with soldiers to the Gnaris Voyager to find out what had happened to Leila and the others.
“Take care,” the Great Savant said to Donahue. “We do not know what you will find there, but you are also a stranger to Leila and my men. Take this.”
Barrow removed a pendant hanging by a chain from his neck. “This pendant bears my seal. It will protect you from the ray guns of the Karavec, and will identify to them that you are a trusted friend. They will know that you could not have removed this from my neck. No Karavec, and certainly no alien, has the power to remove it.”
“Tell Sirrow, the ship’s captain, to contact Hikon and warn them about Saivrow. If he is still there, then he must be apprehended and prevented from leaving Hikon.”
“How do I know they will believe me? After all, if Saivrow is a member of the Council, he will find a way to persuade those on Hikon that I am lying.”
“I will also provide you with a sealed letter addressed to Sirrow, and I will give him details of the secret frequency he must use to contact Mallow, my deputy on Hikon.”
* * * * *
The flight from Washington to Tel Aviv provided a new experience for the three Karavec who were accustomed to interplanetary travel, but unused to air travel.
“We do not have much use for planes,” Elena explained to Forster. “We don’t travel much between destinations on our home planets and, when we do, we prefer to travel by rail. Planes are used on Karavec worlds other than Hikon, but they are mainly used for the transportation of cargo.”
“Planes are not used much on Earth either,” Forster replied. “I have only been on a plane once before.”
So they all enjoyed the spectacle of viewing or experiencing the land and oceans of Ziemia from ten thousand metres. Lolena was unable to see the stunning vistas, but she tasted the splendour by using her gnaris, accompanied by vivid descriptions from Barrow and Elena.
After nearly five hours of darkness while they crossed a vast ocean, they awoke to a bright sunrise and the sighting of land.
Elena took a quick peek out of the window. “I can see a group of tiny islands,” she said.
“What else can you see?” Lolena asked.
“In the distance there’s a large continent.”
When they got closer, she added, “There’s a city down there. I can see its lights.”
She turned to Forster. “Look.”
“It must be one of the modern cities that the president spoke about,” said Forster.
“That’s London.”
Forster looked up to see the smiling face of the president’s aide who accompanied them on their journey.
“Is it a big city?”
“One of the biggest on Ziemia. It is an exact replica of a city on Earth by the same name.”
London was situated on a small island separated from the continent by a narrow stretch of water. After leaving the island behind, and crossing the channel, the remainder of the flight took them for the most part across land.
“We are flying over a high mountain range,” Elena told Lolena a few minutes later, “and there are many rivers flowing from the mountains towards the seas.”
After another two hours, the plane began its descent and approached its destination from the west, flying low over another sea, much smaller than the vast ocean they had crossed a few hours earlier.
Because they arrived on the president’s private jet, the authorities in Tel Aviv gave the plane preferential treatment. After it had landed, flight control gave the pilot clearance to taxi to a terminal that was used by VIP’s. The president’s aide then escorted his guests through immigration without having to undergo the usual formalities.
They received some strange looks from the staff working there, but the immigration officials had been forewarned of their arrival. They had also heard many stories about the Saviour in Jerusalem, so had an inkling of what a Karavec would look like.
“They have no passports,” the aide explained to the immigration officials, “but President Kowalski has allowed them to travel to Jerusalem. They have come here to investigate the strange activities of the Saviour. I have a letter endorsed with the president’s seal.”
They were ushered through Immigration, and the aide hustled them outside the terminal building and into a waiting jeep.
“Take them to the outskirts of Jerusalem,” he told the jeep driver. “As near as you can safely go.”
He turned to Forster. “I will wait here at Tel Aviv on board the president’s jet until you are ready to fly back to Washington. Moses will look after you.”
A middle-aged man with a light brown complexion and a bushy black beard, and wearing a small skull cap covering the top part of his head, welcomed them into the vehicle.
After they had pulled away, he spoke to Lolena who sat next to him. “Do you speak English?”
Forster interrupted. “The lady does not speak the language, but I do, and so does the other lady.”
Forster then introduced himself and the three Karavec.
“How long will the journey take?” he asked.
“An hour by jeep, but once we leave the safety of the city of Tel Aviv and pass through the eastern gate, we will have to take great care. The city is surrounded by a fence that protects its citizens from the inhospitable Prehistorics that still roam the countryside; and from the Romans, of course. They cannot do us great harm unless we stop, but they do possess weapons. The Ancients have spears and slingshots and even catapults.”
“What are catapults?” Forster asked.
“They are a crude kind of weapon that uses the force of tension in elastic to propel rocks at the enemy. They are quite effective, and could even destroy this jeep, but are not really a threat to a fast moving target; so, as long as we keep moving, we should be safe enough.
After an hour travelling across a flat area of terrain, they arrived at a hilly region.
“We need to abandon the jeep now,” Moses said, “and travel the rest of the way by foot. It will take us another hour or so. The president’s aide explained to me why you are here, and everyone in this area knows about the Saviour; however, it would be best if you enter the city in disguise. It will stir up too much trouble if there are suddenly three more saviours!”
Moses opened the back of the jeep, and pulled out four sets of clothing, each consisting of a white cotton robe, belted at the waist, a white cotton headwear kept in place with a headrope tied around the forehead, a face mask, and sandals for the feet.
The Power of Gnaris Page 14
