‘There is only one way of getting everyone back to where they rightfully should be,’ Telmo stated. ‘We must all, bar Avery, do a body jump.’
‘Are you suggesting we leave these bodies behind?’ Rhun motioned to his form.
‘And jump back into the same body just before you went back to ancient Zhou? The same goes for Noah. Avery will be fine to just return to the Otherworld and be summoned forth again, as he is not bound by the same physical rules as the rest of us. If all is well, as we hope, Kila will not be attacked by reptilians this time around, but regardless you must take the chariot back to Zhou, to the safety of the crystal cavern that served as a meeting place for you and Avery last time around.’
‘Check.’ Rhun got the picture. ‘If there is no Dragonface, there is no chance of him stealing the chariot and starting the entire mess again.’
‘Exactly,’ Telmo agreed.
‘The four of us,’ Telmo referred to Zeven, Jazmay, Taren and himself, ‘will return directly to our Zhou incarnations just prior to our gathering and deliverance to the Dropa base there.’
‘And what is to be done with the Dropa this time around?’ Rhun posed to them all.
‘Let us gauge how the situation stands now, before making any firm plans in that regard,’ Telmo suggested.
‘And where does that leave me?’ Lucian was curious to know.
‘Oh, you’ll still be there,’ Telmo assured.
‘But I won’t remember this,’ Lucian realised.
‘Not until you get back here to AMIE, but you will remember,’ Telmo reassured. ‘In Zhou however, you, Ji Shi and Fen Gong will be the only ones who shall consciously remember the new history we have created, which is going to be vital to our decision-making process going forward.’
Lucian looked to Taren and the look on his face implied that he saw the reasoning, but at the same time hated that he did.
‘It will all work out in the end,’ Taren imparted the hope that she was clinging to, and Lucian nodded to accept their plight.
‘And what shall become of the bodies we leave behind?’ Noah clearly felt odd about his impending time/body jump.
‘I shall carry them to the Otherworld with me,’ Avery offered. ‘You never know when having a spare body might come in handy.’
‘Don’t looked so freaked out,’ Zeven slapped a hand down on Noah’s shoulder. ‘I’ve body jumped a few times now, and it hasn’t done me any damage.’
Noah did not look reassured. ‘What if we forget everything? Including going back to Zhou. There is no one waiting on Kila to awaken the timekeepers within us.’
Telmo was already shaking his head to assure they would remember. ‘That is more likely when you are jumping into a past life incarnation, rather than your present incarnation.’
‘That was true for those of us who returned to AMIE,’ Taren pointed out.
‘Thank heavens for that,’ Zeven breathed a sign of relief, for that was not an instance he’d factored into his plan of attack.
‘No offence, short man,’ Jazmay laughed, ‘but I think your defeat of Dragonface was a sheer stroke of luck!’
Zeven opened his mouth to retort, but Telmo assumed control of the proceedings. ‘If we clear the room,’ he suggested, ‘I can run Rhun and Noah through the consciousness projection process, and see the team from Kila returned to their rightful place.’
‘That would be a good start,’ the captain concurred. Zeven and Jazmay rose to make an exit.
‘What about the rest of us?’ Zeven sought to know when they should make their move.
‘Well,’ Telmo noted the time on the wall clock in the conference room. ‘It’s just about bedtime, so I suggest you go to bed as per normal and do the jump then.’
‘So, does this mean that half my crew may not wake up tomorrow?’ Lucian posed. ‘How is their body jump different to the one that Rhun and Noah are about to make?’
‘A very good question,’ Telmo awarded. ‘What we have going on here is more like what happens when your spirit inhabits the body of another: the consciousness of that body is suppressed while the invading consciousness dominates. Once that invading consciousness leaves, so will the other return. Rhun and Noah brought their bodies with them, rather than just their consciousness, thus it is that we have an excess body count.’
‘Don’t say that,’ Rhun objected, ‘makes me feel like a walking corpse.’
‘As are we all, really,’ Telmo allowed.
‘So, what you are saying is that none of the crew involved are going to remember what happened this day?’ Lucian glanced at Taren, not thrilled about that premise, and she smiled awkwardly.
‘Most likely not … only you and Leal will remember, until we return here with our current conscious knowledge.’ Telmo advised. ‘Unless we choose to return to the exact moment we left on this occasion. But the original plan was to return closer to D-day.’
‘Fabulous,’ Lucian shook his head, hating that his personal feelings paled in comparison to the outcome of the big picture in this instance. ‘Well, without my complete recall, I can hardly argue the point.’
‘Trust me, Captain,’ Telmo appealed, ‘this is the only way we might succeed in setting history to rights.’
‘Which includes our child never existing.’ Lucian brought everyone’s attention to the elephant in the room that they were all ignoring, and everyone looked guilty, until Telmo spoke up to solve the matter.
‘Even if Ji Dan and Jiang Hudan had wed, which according to history before we screwed with it, they never did,’ Telmo clarified, ‘Jiang Hudan died the day after, and so would the child have died with her, because fate decreed it was not that soul’s time.’
‘He speaks the truth,’ Jazmay assured Lucian, who looked to Taren, who also nodded to confirm.
‘That is why I say that soul cannot figure into the equation,’ Taren concluded gently, but as she approached Lucian he backed up an equal distance.
‘Well then, proceed,’ he gave Telmo leave to organise the exodus. ‘I’ll be in my office if there are any problems.’
‘Yes Captain,’ Telmo affirmed.
‘Happy travels, gentlemen,’ he bid farewell to their visitors from Kila, shaking the hand of Avery, Noah and Rhun in turn.
‘Thank you, for your assistance, Captain.’ Rhun gripped his hand and held it fast. ‘Past and present.’
Lucian forced a grin to graciously accept his gratitude, and departing to his adjoining office, the door closed in his wake.
The captain’s moody exit left a heavy silence in the room which Zeven broke with a clap of his hands. ‘Well then,’ he approached and shook hands with the Kila crew in parting also. ‘I’ll see you back there,’ he aimed the comment at Rhun, who was the key to their success now.
‘Yes, you will,’ the governor assured.
‘We’re going to finish this,’ Zeven assured the Governor of Kila, who nodded firmly in agreement with his incarnated long-time ally.
‘You had all better hope my child has not been lost in the timelines,’ Avery was restless and eager to move forward.
‘We’ll get out of your hair then,’ Taren aided to speed the process along, waving her people towards the exit door that led to the reception office, and once Jazmay and Zeven had waved farewell and left, she turned back to those team members remaining to add: ‘May the Grigori be with us on this one.’
‘And always,’ Noah granted.
‘Goodbye, Mother,’ Avery found his humour as she turned to depart, but Rhun thought the comment was in poor taste.
‘Considering what has just gone down with the captain, you would bring that up now?’ Rhun lectured his little brother.
‘What, she’s the splitting image of Mother in this body,’ Avery pointed out. ‘I only meant —’
‘Guys!’ Taren spoke up to end the argument — it was just a private joke Avery had with Hudan and she’d understood his intent. ‘Make me proud,’ she decided to play along with the joke, and with a smile, left them to
it.
As the door closed behind her, she realised she was already proud of them, and although she had not given birth to the pair in this lifetime, she still felt a tweak of hurt upon being parted from them.
‘Well then,’ Zeven was suddenly up and away. ‘I’m off to bed.’ He slapped his hands together and rubbed them, in eager anticipation of the event. ‘As soon as I track down my wife.’
‘I see you’ve learned to make the most of these little sidetracks,’ Taren commented.
‘Yes indeed,’ he grinned and nodded to give Taren her due. ‘I learned from a master of the art.’
Taren’s grin contorted, recalling a precarious situation involving Zeven, a shower, and a mistimed backtrack teleportation event, where he’d busted her for dwelling in a timeline longer than she should have, because Lucian seduced her into the distraction.
Her discomfort must have satisfied Zeven’s desire for a reaction, for he waved and departed. ‘See you in Zhou.’
‘What was that all about?’ Jazmay had obviously noted the awkwardness of the moment.
‘Zeven’s ego,’ Taren replied dryly, ‘what else?’
Jazmay knew there was more to it, but shrugged. ‘Well, I think I’m learning a lot.’
Taren was alarmed, hoping she hadn’t got the wrong impression. ‘Hey, we were talking about something that happened before either Zeven or I were attached.’
‘I wasn’t implying there was anything going on between you and short man,’ Jazmay laughed, even more enlightened and curious now. ‘I meant about seeking my husband out before I leave.’
Taren covered her embarrassed grin with both her hands and then lowered them as she blew off her own betrayal. ‘Oh yes … good move, considering how old you’ll be when you return to Zhou.’
‘Not looking forward to that,’ Jazmay mused, ‘but then we have the Dropa to make us young and useful again.’
Taren nodded and grinned.
‘It’s all right for you, you die young,’ Jazmay poked her for her mirth.
‘Yeah … your bad, for having a long, blissfully happy life with your beloved and all your offspring,’ Taren retorted sarcastically.
‘There was that,’ Jazmay dwelt upon the time fondly for a moment. ‘I’ll be off then, to enjoy my youth … before old age comes around in the morning to bite me in the arse.’
Taren laughed at her reasoning.
‘What are you going to do?’ Jazmay glanced at the closed door of the captain’s office and then back to Taren.
‘I’m not too sure there’s much I can do.’ Taren eyed the door warily.
Jazmay raised both eyebrows, as she backed up. ‘Even though you’ll be Jiang Hudan in the morning, you could spare Taren Lennox a lot of confusion and worry tomorrow by preventing her husband from waking up mad at her, for no apparent reason.’ Jazmay held her hands up to wave off any further comment and leave the decision in Taren’s hands. ‘See you when I’m old and grey.’ She turned about and left.
Taren took a seat in reception to ponder her predicament, feeling decidedly wrung out; it seemed the Ringbalin effect was wearing off, and she needed some real rest.
The sound of a door sliding open drew her attention, and Taren was a little disappointed to find it was Telmo emerging from the conference room, and not Lucian exiting his office. ‘That was quick.’ Through the open doors she could see the room beyond was now empty.
‘Fast learners, the Chosen,’ he commented. ‘Always were.’ His smile seemed more to uplift her than to convey his satisfaction. ‘You look tired.’
Taren gave a wry grin, not surprised the fatigue was showing. ‘You get that, in our line of work.’
‘Only if you allow yourself to become a slave to the lifestyle, rather than allowing the lifestyle to work for you.’ He winked as he plonked himself in the seat alongside hers.
This was curious. ‘How is it that you are still so chipper?’
‘I came back here a few days early,’ he admitted, ‘got myself some rest.’
Taren’s jaw waned. ‘You cheat!’
‘Well, the universe is not going to schedule any down time, we have to make time ourselves. Why don’t you take a couple of days to do the same, and patch things up here?’ He ticked his head towards the captain’s office. ‘No one will miss you in ancient Zhou. You’ll arrive promptly at your destination, no matter when you choose to depart for it … but you know that.’
‘I rather thought that was breaking the rules,’ Taren didn’t know if she was horrified or overjoyed by the suggestion.
‘What rules?’ Telmo laughed. ‘If there was a rule book, you would be the author.’
‘Or you,’ she granted, as technically he’d perfected the art in the last universe, long before she had ever got a grip on the practice.
‘But dwell too long here …’ Telmo warned, ‘and you might forget the details of the mission.’
‘But,’ Taren frowned, ‘what effect might that have on the outcome of this universal timeline?’
‘You’re a timekeeper! If you spend every minute of every lifetime pondering whether you should go this way or that, you’ll spend all your time attempting to figure outcomes to moves you are too afraid to make,’ Telmo said. ‘I have been a time lord and a sage, and as far as I can tell, the theory that within a time-travel paradigm the slightest thing you do might have a profound effect on the future, is bullshit … in so far as that is true for every instance outside the time-travel paradigm as well. In my experience, whether you go this way or that, you’ll always end up exactly where you are meant to be, exactly when you are meant to be there.’
Taren wasn’t sure she fully fathomed his wisdom, being that her brain felt fit to explode from an overdose of esoteric theory this day, but she was rather comforted by it nonetheless.
‘Just something to think about.’ He stood. ‘Me personally, I cannot wait to get back to Zhou and see what has eventuated. I’ll give you a full report when you reach Bayan Har Shan.’ Telmo moved to depart.
‘I’ll be right behind you,’ Taren assured.
‘What have I just been saying?’ He did a twirl, waving in the process and departed.
Taren leaned back in her chair and looked over to the closed door. She too was curious to see the outcome of their efforts in ancient China, and the thought of talking through Lucian’s grievances with her at present, was not an inviting one. By the time she returned here to AMIE it would be nearly a year from now and this instance would be nothing but a long faded memory. Could she simply trust that her husband would forgive her? She wanted to think so. Or would she return from this mission and discover them estranged from one another? She mulled over Telmo’s advice to not do exactly what she was now doing — trying to fathom the best outcome — and just do what her gut told her was the right thing to do.
15
RETURN TO KILA — PART 1
Consciousness dawned and Rhun’s eyes parted to behold the most exquisite cleavage in his face — his wife, Sybil, was leaning over him to grab her dressing gown off the bed.
‘Rhun, we’ll be late —’ she was saying, before he grabbed hold of her and she collapsed on top of him. ‘Stop it,’ she insisted, her amusement contradicting her instruction. ‘Did you not hear what I just said?’
‘Nope.’ He smothered her neck in kisses.
‘I said —’
Rhun planted a kiss on her lips to silence her, and rolled on top of her to gain control of the negotiations. ‘Is the world coming to an end?’ he queried, gripping her hands in his and stretching them up above her head to hold her down.
‘No,’ she admitted, ‘but —’
‘Everything else can wait,’ he decided, planting his lips in the cleavage he’d been admiring and freeing her hands.
‘But you do have an early meeting scheduled with En Noah,’ Sybil informed, stroking his dark hair, ‘about extending the curriculum at the Immortal Institute to include the Grigori and the Dark Universe,’ she concluded, sounding rather baf
fled by the agenda.
All the events preceding his arrival in this moment came flooding back in a rush and with a pained groan, Rhun rolled off his wife. ‘Bastard came back early,’ Rhun realised. ‘Can I not even have a few hours’ grace?’ he appealed to the heavens above.
‘There is always this evening.’ Sybil kissed him briefly in consolation and clambered off the bed to ready herself for the office.
‘This evening could be years away,’ Rhun mumbled, exasperated; yet he was grateful to discover that his capital city on Kila was not waking to the threat of an alien invasion. ‘That’s something, I guess,’ he decided and reached for his trousers, preparing to launch into the day.
In the reception area outside the governor’s chamber En Noah waited to greet them. ‘Governor,’ he acknowledged Rhun’s presence with a grin. ‘Nin Sybil,’ Noah nodded to wish her good morning also.
‘En Noah.’ She returned his smile as she took a seat behind her reception desk, and brought up her soft screen to check on the day’s agenda.
‘I understand your reasons for this meeting,’ Rhun stated, showing Noah to the door of his office. ‘But did you have to make this appointment so damn early in the day?’
‘Apologies,’ he replied, ‘but I feel we should move on this quickly, and I know how easily you can be distracted.’ Noah eyes darted aside to Sybil, as he grinned and entered the office at Rhun’s prompting.
‘See that we are not interrupted,’ Rhun advised his wife.
‘Shall I bring tea?’ she queried.
‘Ah … yes,’ Rhun decided, before Noah stuck his head back out the door.
‘Ah, not for me,’ he countered. ‘We might need to go for a wee stroll in a moment, as there is something I wish the governor to look at.’
‘After perhaps?’ she suggested.
‘Splendid,’ Noah agreed, disappearing back inside.
‘I have a feeling that after … I’m going to need something a lot stronger than tea,’ Rhun commented under his breath, as he trailed Noah into the office and the door materialised behind them to close them inside.
‘So how long ago did you get back?’ Rhun delved straight into the matter, taking a seat in the lounge area and not behind his desk.
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