Eternity Gate

by Traci Harding

  The magnitude of what he was attempting finally hit Gadriel and he backed up a few paces. ‘Well, I don’t know that I’m quite ready to face the emperor just yet.’

  ‘No pressure.’ Sammael grabbed one of Gadriel’s arms to drag him to the commander’s office. ‘If you can’t be convincing, he’ll just blow us up.’

  Bezaliel raised himself to help push Gadriel to his post.

  ‘Armaros?’ My stand-in appealed to him to show some mercy.

  ‘You’ll have plenty of aid, trust me.’

  With the word of the scholar, Gadriel ripped himself away from his escort. ‘Back off!’ he barked at Bezaliel who flinched again at the sound of his commander’s reprimand and Gadriel had a chuckle, feeling more confident. ‘Actually, this is kind of fun.’ He moved out of the room of his own accord.

  In my command office within Leviathan, Gadriel took my seat, appearing chuffed and yet awkward about the situation.

  ‘Now no mucking about,’ Penemue warned, as he fitted the receiver in Gadriel’s ear. ‘This is our last chance to escape this universe with our minds intact, so don’t blow it for us.’

  Normally one would not have to stress the severity of such a situation, but in Gadriel’s case I understood Penemue’s caution, as our shapeshifter had difficulty being serious at the best of times.

  ‘Everyone is depending on me … I get it,’ he confirmed and then was distracted by his reflection in the blacked-out soft screen in front of him, and started combing his fingers through his hair.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Sammael appealed, as he looked on. ‘You look like shit, deal with it!’

  ‘He’s quite right,’ Armaros stepped in to advise my stand-in. ‘Leave yourself alone until you are done here, the commander never fusses about his appearance, he doesn’t joke, especially where Samyaza is concerned, and that mind-eater is completely emotionless and entirely devoted to the emperor, so show all the respect you can muster.’

  ‘Got it!’ Gadriel heeded the instruction from the scholar, who, like Araqiel and Azazèl was unanimously respected by every Grigori.

  ‘Go ahead, Sariel,’ Armaros spoke into the comm-link in his hand.

  Gadriel nodded and gave two thumbs up. ‘Affirmative, we are go.’

  Armaros gave a satisfied smile, along with the rest of those in the room. ‘Now we wait.’ He looked to the window, where the only brilliant light in their universe was growing larger as they neared. ‘The emperor will make contact just prior to reaching the gate. Come,’ he waved everyone else towards the exit doors, ‘we can listen in from the flight deck.’

  Sariel was in the tech room by himself to ensure our mental communications were as clear as possible.

  ‘C-c-can you hear me S-S-Sariel?’ I tested.

  ‘It was you I heard earlier. I am so annoyed I did not listen.’ His eyes remained glued to the soft-light screen in front of him which was monitoring Gadriel in my command room and granted a clear view of the screen in front of Gabriel.

  ‘It w-w-was a lot f-f-for me to exp-p-pect from you.’ I wanted to set him at ease. ‘Even I w-w-would question a c-c-command c-c-coming from an ent-t-tity I c-could n-not see!’

  ‘What I wouldn’t have given for a little of your talent at that moment, Commander,’ he confessed. ‘I hope you make it back to us, because we need you.’

  ‘W-w-well I am here, if on-l-l-ly in spirit.’

  The door to the tech room vanished and Armaros stepped in to brief us. ‘We’re good to go. Everything good here?’

  ‘Snug as two bugs in a rug,’ Sariel confirmed.

  ‘Then I shall depart —’

  As Armaros stepped back into the corridor, the engines cut out and the ship slowed.

  ‘Why are we stopping?’

  Sariel pulled up a second soft-light screen, and data was sorted at his mental command, before he concluded. ‘The order to shut down did not come from us,’ he glanced to the scholar to advise. ‘We’ve been shut down from Tartarus.’

  ‘This could be it then,’ Armaros assumed. ‘May this all prove serendipitous.’ The door closed, and we looked back to Gadriel on the screen, who was squirming about in his chair.

  ‘T-t-tell him to r-r-relax,’ I suggested.

  ‘Relax, Commander,’ Sariel conveyed through the mouthpiece of the headset he wore. ‘This is what we were expecting.’

  Gadriel pulled himself together and put on his poker face.

  ‘Just listen to my voice, and act like your only intention is to please Samyaza.’ Sariel advised, as the screen before Gadriel was filled with an image of the emperor.

  ‘Azazèl,’ the emperor acknowledged to open the transmission.

  ‘My liege,’ Gadriel ad-libbed, before I had a chance to advise.

  Sariel rolled his eyes, annoyed.

  ‘Is phase one of our plan complete?’ Samyaza queried.

  ‘Of course,’ Gadriel said to stall for time while he awaited a more detailed response.

  ‘And phase one of our plan was?’ The emperor was being cautious before proceeding.

  I had been keeping fairly close tabs on what my body had been doing since it had been infected, and at no point had it met with the emperor to discuss splitting this mission into phases. Maybe I was wrong about the emperor requesting we be put in stasis. If all the information required to summon the Fallen into the next universe was programmed into the virus, then perhaps this entire mission had also been programmed in there. That would certainly explain why Samyaza did not question how his instrument planned to pacify the Grigori for this trip — the emperor already knew its intention.

  ‘All the G-G-Grigori are in st-st-stasis and cannot hind-d-der us,’ I suggested as a reply.

  Gadriel repeated it surely.

  ‘Then go ahead and summon us on board,’ he instructed, ‘I will see you presently.’

  ‘As you wish, my liege.’ Gadriel bowed his head in closing, and when he ventured to look up again the screen was blank. ‘Well …’ He hadn’t been exposed or blown up, so he considered that mission accomplished. ‘That was not so bad.’

  ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ Sariel removed his headset, and ran his hands through his cropped short hair.

  ‘F-f-fear not,’ I encouraged. ‘Th-th-there is an adv-v-vantage to be seized f-f-from every adv-v-versity, and I b-b-believe there is one p-p-presenting itself here t-t-too.’

  ‘What the hell?’ Sammael and Bezaliel were protesting the emperor’s instruction on the flight deck, having seen the transmission.

  ‘We cannot bring them on board! None of us will make it through,’ Bezaliel concluded, as Sariel joined them with me in tow.

  ‘What is going to happen if they check and find we are not contained?’ Sammael added.

  ‘The mind-eater was bluffing you on that count,’ Armaros advised. ‘There is no means to monitor the individual modules in cryogen from base, pre the ship docking in Tartarus.’

  ‘The commander would like to say a few words.’ Sariel spoke up on my behalf, and everyone hushed and gave him their attention. ‘He believes that the mind-eater within his form was pre-programmed with its mission and with all the knowledge required to summon Samyaza and his minions. Fortunately we already know the summons and seals required to accomplish this —’

  ‘But we would never use them!’ Sammael objected.

  ‘Not even to save Araqiel?’ Sariel posed and Sammael conceded he was wrong.

  ‘How?’ he appealed to be enlightened.

  ‘There is only one possible way that summoning the emperor and his minions on board this vessel before we pass through the gate could conceivably work without stripping the Elohim of their power or having us all rejected, and that would be if they were dormant and unarmed; then they might go undetected and be smuggled through.’

  ‘You think they intend to have the virus freeze them also?’ Armaros concluded.

  ‘Precisely,’ Sariel conveyed. ‘The plan would be that the virus would awaken them afterwards and leave the G
rigori trapped.’

  Sammael resented the intent, as did everyone. ‘So where does saving Araqiel come into this?’

  ‘If Samyaza and his henchmen are frozen in cryogenics then there will be no one of equal power to stop us retrieving our brother.’ Sariel put forward.

  ‘You can’t mean to bring them along with us?’ Penemue was concerned. ‘Surely the creator that Samyaza means to outsmart will not be happy with us for attempting to break his condemned out of prison?’

  Sariel observed them, as if they underestimated their commander. ‘Did I say we should summon them on board this vessel?’

  There were raised brows all round as my brothers realised I had other plans.

  Sammael and Bezaliel led one team of Grigori to teleport back to Tartarus to another vessel housed in a hangar bay there, which also hosted a cryogenics unit. Each member of the seventy-two strong task force had been assigned one of the Fallen to summon; they all chose a module and drew the insignia of the individual they meant to call forth on the floor within it. These would then be closed and locked off ahead of summoning their target forth into the containment and activating the cryogenic process — effectively trapping the Fallen Elohim whilst the Grigori made a clean getaway.

  Once word reached us that the task force were in place and ready to summon their targets, I took a fifty-strong group to seek out our brother held hostage in the emperor’s throne room. Among this rescue crew was Armaros, who had a healing touch, for I feared Araqiel’s physical and psychic powers might still be sedated. Sariel, Gadriel, Penemue and the other seventy-odd Grigori remained on board our vessel.

  The throne room of Tartarus had been abandoned — Araqiel was the sole occupant.

  Clearly our brother was still under the influence of the device that had hit him, for his body was a mass of wounds and bruising that had not healed as they should have.

  When Araqiel saw his brothers appear he was angered. ‘I told you not to come! It is a trap, shield yourselves!’

  Round the outer wall of the chamber, small panels slid aside and the emperor’s new weapons began firing the large, bladed sedation orbs into the room. Some of the Grigori were not fast enough to employ their psychokinetic defences to deflect the attack, and dropped to the ground, disabled.

  ‘Take up your brothers and leave now!’ Araqiel exhorted.

  ‘Not without you.’ Armaros and Sacha strode towards their target, whilst the rest of the team gathered around their downed team members to prevent them from further attack and remove the hindering devices. Yet the deflected orbs were drawn back into their weapons and fired again.

  ‘There is no time!’ Araqiel stressed. ‘This chamber will be filled full of the emperor’s latest virus any moment!’

  ‘Leave now!’ Sacha called back to the task force. As there would obviously be no Fallen Elohim daring to enter this chamber and oppose them, he grabbed hold of Armaros and used his ability to levitate them up to where Araqiel was bolted and hung on a frame.

  As Araqiel opened his mouth to protest their truculence, Armaros told him, ‘Save your breath.’ He laid his hands on their ailing brother, of the mind to teleport him back to their vessel and finish the healing there.

  ‘What is the hold-up?’ Sacha noted the sound of machinery engaging and he guessed it was a prelude to infection.

  ‘That’s what I am trying to tell you. I’ve not just been sedated, my entire genetic code has been downgraded. My spirit is trapped in here.’

  ‘You’re mortal!’ Sacha was shocked.

  ‘Worse,’ he stressed, ‘I’ve been damned, like the Elohim!’ Samyaza and his minions could not teleport, or be teleported by the Grigori.

  ‘Can you fix that?’ Sacha was beginning to stress also.

  ‘If it’s not dead, I can fix it, just give me a moment.’

  ‘I don’t think we have that long,’ Sacha muttered to himself, as Armaros continued to focus his healing intent on his subject.

  A sudden burst of current through the metal frame to which Araqiel was bolted, threw them both backwards and caused their brother to screech in agony. ‘GO!’ His body reverberated from the current running through it and blood trickled from his mouth, nose, eyes and ears.

  Their own psychokinesis shields had protected them from being harmed by the force, but their brother was being fried alive from the inside.

  ‘We’re going,’ Sacha made the sad call.

  ‘Not yet!’ Armaros held his hands together and focused on rousing all his healing powers within them. A ball of energy and light began welling in his hands. He moved them in closer to their brother once again and placing his hands over Araqiel’s heart, Armaros’ energy ball disappeared inside him.

  Araqiel’s head flopped forward, and his body fell limp as it began to turn brown and crisp, still jittering from the current running through him.

  Sacha was amazed, for Armaros had never used his powers to such an extent before. ‘Is he dead?’ None of the Grigori had ever been killed before.

  ‘I believe so.’ Armaros was traumatised. ‘But hopefully he made it to Lux first,’ he mumbled, weary from exertion. Armaros was close to passing out himself when a mechanism in the ceiling was heard to click open, and a hissing sound heralded the release of the virus into the chamber.

  Sacha was quick to turn his focus and will to returning them to their vessel, and seeing them gone, I turned my intention to reaching Lux.

  It was a great relief to see Araqiel in the great light-fields. ‘You escaped.’

  ‘A small mercy.’ He waved off his deliverance. ‘I must warn you that Samyaza and his primaries plan to stow themselves away on board our vessel!’

  ‘Calm yourself,’ I attempted to allay his panic. ‘We foresaw this and are at present summoning them into cryogenics on board another vessel, still in dock in Tartarus.’

  ‘Did you have the foresight to have their insignia engraved upon the appropriate metals?’ he quizzed and I frowned.

  ‘The metals are for the protection of the summoner, to contain the Fallen,’ I explained my understanding, ‘but we have cryogenic chambers to contain the Fallen in.’

  ‘The metal also acts as a conduit,’ Araqiel argued, ‘which has a stronger lure than, say, a drawn insignia might.’

  As I grasped his inference I began to share his panic.

  Gadriel was donning a new form now, not mine or his own, but that of the emperor himself. Sariel had put through a transmission request to the space traffic control tower in Tartarus and once given the order to release the ship by the emperor, our vessel began its movement towards the Eternity Gate once more.

  ‘Good job!’ Penemue awarded, as Gadriel assumed his own form and admired his reflection in the blacked-out screen before him.

  ‘Ah … much better.’ He looked to Penemue. ‘Any other fraud you wish to commit today?’

  ‘I think we’re good.’ He turned to leave the command office as Sariel entered in a panic.

  ‘I’ve just got word from the commander,’ he advised them. ‘We need every Grigori on board down to cryogenics, we have a problem.’

  Sammael’s team each had their hands placed on a different closed module in cryogenics, repeating quietly and intensely the individual summons for the Elohim they were seeking to entrap. They repeated their directive several times over before they realised something was amiss.

  ‘Where the hell are they?’ Bezaliel got agitated first. ‘They should have been invoked by now!’

  ‘You’re right,’ Sammael pushed himself away from the module he was focused on, unhinged by their failure to complete this vital part of the mission.

  ‘Maybe they are wise to us?’ Bezaliel was more concerned than annoyed now.

  ‘Even if they were, they could not ignore our command to manifest. The only thing that would prevent them attending —’ Sammael gasped and gripped Bezaliel’s arm in a panic ‘— is if a stronger channel was drawing them elsewhere!’

  ‘We need to get back to base,’ they con
cluded in unison.

  ‘Cryogenics on the Leviathan, now!’ Sammael spurred the rest of his task force to take action, and all the Grigori complied with his demand at once.

  The scene that awaited the Grigori led by Penemue, Sariel and Gadriel in cryogenics was an ordeal the like of which the Grigori had never before seen. All seventy-two of the highest ranking Fallen Elohim were loose in the chamber, donning not their beauteous forms but the grotesque manifestations they reserved for display before those they wished to terrorise, kill and possess.

  Never had the Grigori come up against the emperor and his minions in battle, and this confrontation was unexpected on both sides.

  ‘Unite brothers, shun fear and bring all your p-p-powers to bear,’ I advised Sariel, my conviction suppressing my urge to shiver. Our telepath sent out the mental command to his brothers as Samyaza observed the module in which my form was frozen.

  Wise to the fact that his plan had gone awry, he turned his displeasure towards the amassing Grigori at the entrance of the chamber. ‘This is treason against your emperor!’ He pointed one of his clawed digits at my brothers.

  ‘You are the only Satan here, Samyaza!’ Sariel echoed my words out loud for all to hear. ‘And the time of your reckoning is nigh.’

  ‘Bring it on!’ the emperor’s right hand, Bael, invited. ‘And we’ll see who gets damned for all eternity!’

  The Grigori sprang into action, and even though we outnumbered the Fallen, our greatest warriors were still absent, and the sheer size of their hideous forms made them difficult to overpower and contain. That was until Sammael arrived and brought his psychokinetic powers to bear on the situation.

  ‘Desist!’ He held both his hands out before him to enforce his will and every one of the Fallen froze. He strained against the force of their resistance. ‘I won’t be able to hold them long!’

  ‘Everyone, find the modules containing seals,’ Bezaliel stepped up to instruct the task force. ‘Match each of the Fallen to their insignia.’

  There were thousands of modules, and only seventy-two seals to find.

  ‘This is really starting to hurt!’ Sammael warned his brothers.

  I too had psychokinesis, but without my vessel to serve as a channel I could not employ that talent.