by Terry Reid
“Won’t it fall and smash if you do that?” She asked, looking at the three door hatch in the ceiling.
“No, the emergency brakes will come on and catch it. It’ll only fall several feet. Then we can lower it down as normal.”
This information did not seem to quell her fears. “I hope you’re sure about this. I don’t fancy having to scrape your body off the floor”
“That’s why I’m checking everything so thoroughly.” He suddenly stopped and looked at her, a look of realisation spreading across his face.
“What?”
“Sorry to ask but if the brakes did fail...”
“You want me to catch it?”
He flushed with guilt. “I really do hate asking, sorry. Would you mind? I know you don’t have butter fingers.”
She waved away his embarrassment. “Don’t worry about it, its fine. I really don’t mind.” She walked over to the hatches. “How much does this thing weigh?”
“Just shy of two tonnes.”
Terry flexed her shoulders. “It sounds light enough, but it’s too big to grab with these arms.” She said, assessing the size of the hatch in the ceiling. There was no way she could wrap her arms around the full thing. There was a risk gravity would take over before she could get a proper hold and the free floating side of the tank would fall, causing it to strike the floor – the consequences of which would be disastrous.
“I know you’ll need to change.”
Terry looked up again. “You’ve got a very low ceiling in here Rufus.”
“I know, sorry, you’ll just have to put up with it and please try not to smash any of the equipment while you’re transforming.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Lyle asked, coming to his side.
Rufus shook his head. “No but thanks for the offer.” He did not look at the old general, fearful of how he might react. Rufus knew his offer had been out of courtesy, nothing more.
Terry sighed and assessed her surroundings, taking note of where everything lay. If she hit the wrong computer unit or monitor the result could leave the tank stuck in the ceiling and Rufus’s real body unreachable.
Lying on the ground, she began to change. Rufus watched nervously as her body shifted and rapidly expanded in size. Like all her kin, she liked to stretch and flex after the transformation but he was grateful to see that this time she reframed from such an action. She pulled her legs in and sat down; allowing her some extra headroom. Her large amber eyes darted to Rufus and she growled, urging him to get on with it. Arms outstretched, she fixed her gaze on the hatch in anticipation.
“Alright, here we go.” He said, hitting the final sequence of buttons.
Terry’s antennae twitched as a hollow boom sounded high above, followed by a series of dull clanks. The hatches soundlessly slid back into cavities hidden within the ceiling. A few moments later the tank fell free. Terry arched forward at high speed, grabbing it without any effort. Rufus slumped with relief.
“Good catch!” Lyle shouted.
Terry squeaked. She then gently sat the tank down, careful not to crack the glass with her large, curved claws. She curved her neck left and low, arching it around the tank so she could peer inside. Rufus’s body appeared lifeless in the blue liquid, giving his flesh a darker complexion than normal. His long wiry limbs hung limply, the eyelids drawn shut over his large, round, sapphire eyes. An air pipe ran from his mouth and vanished into the ceiling of the tank, along with several other wires that suspended him in the centre of the tank.
She sniffed at the tank and twisted her neck back to look at Rufus and growled, prompting him to get a move on once again.
Chapter 21
Acara Awakening
The soft skin covering Rufus’s eyes peeled open, revealing two large, glittering blue marbles in his orbits. They sparkled beneath the light, revealing the extraordinary detail of the Acara’s eyes. Lines of every shade of blue ran across and through them, growing darker the further in. The sapphires ringed two smaller but also large black irises. He blinked, his pupils dilating under the light directly above his head. Rufus’s gaze drifted to one of his hands. He gently flexed his spindly fingers, re-familiarising himself with his body.
Terry appeared in his field of vision. “Are you alright?” she asked He carefully sat up, swaying slightly as the blood rushed to his head. “Easy.” She said ready to catch him should he fall. But he managed.
“I’m fine thank you.” He replied, in gentle tones. His voice sounded alien to his ears, he had almost forgotten what it sounded like. It also didn’t sound quite right, slightly hoarse, he decided. He placed his long fingers to his throat and swallowed. Hit throat was raw. But he still smiled. “I forgot what my voice sounded like.” His hand fell to his side. He looked down at Terry. “It’s nice to be back in my own flesh again, it feels like I am whole once more. I think I have a better understanding of what you must experience when you transform back into your original body if you have not done so for a long time.”
Terry’s smile vanished. “Speak for yourself. That part of my mind is still locked away from me when I’m like this. I can barely remember what I get up to in my primeval form.”
Rufus’s expression grew sad, his large blue eyes sparkling even brighter. “Even after so many years? Your mind has still not completely repaired itself?”
She shook her head. “No, even half an hour again when I grabbed the tank. I remember it but it’s like a faded dream to me. It still feels like I’m living someone else’s life.”
At Lyle’s home, Jo sat on the edge of her seat. “What do you mean she was never the same?” she asked, hanging on to her husband’s every word.
Connor looked saddened. After visiting with Faye for a short time in her rooms, they had retired to the lounge. There Jo had asked more about the world where he had come from and about how he met Terry. In telling the story he had spoke of the Alchemists, of the other four races and of their fight with Edward years before to save both worlds.
Sighing, he continued. “It’s hard to explain unless you knew Terry back then. She was more like her own kind. And while over the last couple of years she has leant toward her heritage a little more, she still has never fully recovered.” He leant his head back against the recliner, exhausted. “Lyle once told me he thought it was the accident that made Terry except her exile so easily.” He shook his head. “There are a lot of things from her childhood that she can’t remember and he thinks she filled the gaps with her short term memories instead, the ones she got living here among humans for several months before her exile was imposed.” He smirked, but there was no humour to remembering the years he too had longed to be a human instead. He had understood her plight, in a small way, in his teens, but he had put such silly dreams behind him years ago. He knew who he was and what he was and accepted it. But Terry had never quite reached that stage. “She should never have got so close to Edward during the ambush. If she hadn’t he wouldn’t have got inside her head.”
Rufus stood, towering over the two Alchemists. “I am so sorry Terry. I always thought things would get better for you as you grew older. The Alchemists have powerful minds and metal. I thought the metal in your blood would have found a way to heal you eventually.”
“It’s fine.” She said, waving away the conversation. “Sorry to change the subject but there’s not much time. Do you still have the scanner?”
He gave a graceful nod, his large head tipping on his elongated blue neck. With a flick of his long fingers he said, “This way.” He appeared to glide across the room as he took one elegant stride after another on lean limbs toward the door.
Rufus had led them to another room in his home and had found the device they sought within moments. He now sat tinkering with it. His lanky fingers moved with a deft quickness that came from years of working even with the fiddly of technologies. Terry sat opposite him in one of the recliners while her uncle paced back and forth in front of the window impatiently. Rufus may have found the scan
ner without any difficulty but the device had failed to work when he had switched it on. He had blamed it on age and disuse and had set to it with a screwdriver and some other bits Terry did not recognise.
“I wish you had told us of this plan.” Rufus said, breaking the silence. Lyle stopped his pacing and looked across the lounge to the Acara curiously but the blue technician did not so much as offer a flicker of a large eye from his work.
Terry sighed. “I know I lied to them but if we had said anything there is a chance Edward would have known.”
Rufus lifted his head and his large eyes fell on her. What emotion they held she could not tell for galaxies swam threw them; his eyes containing as many stars within them as the sky. “I understand the reasons you did what you did, you do not have to repeat them. But the thought that either Connor or Faye could be possessed like this young man you mentioned troubles me. What if they are? What shall we do then?”
“We’ll get it out of them.” Lyle promptly replied but his eyes betrayed his anxiety.
Rufus knew the procedure of exorcism the Alchemist spoke of and he too did not take great stock in the method. It did work, but historically many possessed victims died at the ferocity of the treatment. The procedure was very invasive of the flesh.
“I don’t think either of them are.” Terry said. “They knew we were coming here to get the scanner. If Edward had possessed either of them they would have tried to stop us somehow if Edward had not tried himself.”
Lyle sighed. “I agree but we won’t know for sure until that thing is on.” he jabbed a finger in direction of the device Rufus tampered with in his long fingers.
Rufus returned his attention to the task at hand. “What time does your father arrive tomorrow?”
“Six am.”
“How many troops is he bringing with him?”
Terry shrugged. “I don’t know.” The thought unsettled her.
“Then it is a good thing that I have this fixed.” He announced, setting the screwdriver aside. Terry and Lyle gathered around him as he switched turned on. The blue screen lit up and a ripple shot out from the centre. Lines appeared on it, sketching out the local environment. Rufus turned a knob on the side of the scanner and the picture zoomed out, revealing more detail of the local geography. Rufus kept twisting it further, until its map scaled beyond that of the city. It bleeped.
“You have him?” Lyle asked, desperately hoping.
“Yes! He’s 34 miles south west of here.”
Terry’s eyes narrowed. “Cheeky sod, he’s been here the whole time!”
Lyle bolted for the door, his niece and Rufus not far behind.
Connor felt a vibration in his pocket. He and Jo were still sitting in the living room at Lyle’s mansion. He flipped it open. “Hello?”
“Connor! We’ve found Edward!” Terry shouted, as she hurried out the front door.
Connor shot up. “Where?”
“Just outside Edinburgh!”
Connor’s jaw dropped. He looked at his wife, shaking his head. “Son of a bitch!”
“My words exactly! Where are you?”
“At Lyle’s, where is he exactly? I’ll meet you there.” he said, running to the door.
“No, stay there, the mansion is on the way there. Get Faye and we’ll get you by the door. We’ll be around in a few minutes.”
“Okay, see you then.” He flipped the mobile shut. Every inch of him angled to run, to get Faye and to get Edward. But the worried look on his wife’s face stopped him in his tracks. “I have to go...”
She gave a slow nod, fighting back tears. “I know. Go.”
Scooping her into his arms they shared a desperate kiss. As he backed away, Connor cupped Jo’s cheeks in his hands and gazed deeply into her sable eyes. “I’ll come back, I promise.”
She nodded, too chocked-up to speak. Tearing himself away from her he raced out of the lounge, the weight of zero hour heavy upon him.
The silver car screeched as it did a one-eighty, sending gravel flying in all directions. Faye and Connor climbed in, Lyle putting his foot to the pedal before the fire elemental had even closed the door. Faye only spotted the two Alchemists in the driver and passenger seats. “Where’s Rufus?”
“In the boot.” Terry replied. She didn’t take her eyes off the scanner in her hands.
Faye and Connor exchanged a puzzled look. “Why is he in there?”
“Because he’s bright blue!” Lyle shouted back at her. There was no time for such questions.
The car sped down the long driveway, churning up a plume of dust in its wake.
******
Edward looked up as a familiar face stepped over the threshold. “We have two thousand Alchemists at your disposal.” She said with a pleased smirk on her face.
Edward’s gaze narrowed, the fractured, shimmering light of the portal throwing the angles of his face into deep shadow. It made him appear even more sinister. “I know, I can see with your eyes remember?” He raised a hand and she froze on the spot. “I can hear every word you say and everything you hear.” He walked toward her until they were face-to-face, all the while holding her, frozen in place. “And I’m very disappointed. You’ve have my power and you’ve had two days and that it all you have managed to raise? They have millions buried there.”
Her eyes fluttered as she chocked. “Please...” she choked.
“No.” He closed his fingers and she bent forward at the waist. Snap. He threw her lifeless body aside with no more care than a child throwing away an empty sweetie wrapper. He hurried back to the desk and scooped up the papers he had been looking over. He forced them into his pockets in handfuls as he hurried to the portal. Taking one last look at the dusty warehouse he stepped through. Moments later the portal closed, plunging the abandoned building into darkness.
The silent gloom was penetrated several minutes later. A clatter of metal and the warehouse door slowly ascended, allowing in a shaft of light. Terry and Lyle went in first, ducking under the door. Terry’s heart sank when she saw the deserted temporal device.
“Edward!” shouted Lyle, his colour rising. But the only reply he received was that of his own voice, ringing around the four walls.
“He’s gone.” Terry said.
Lyle looked at Connor as he ran in carrying the scanner. He shook his head. “She’s right, there’s no signal.”
“Damn it!” Lyle kicked an oil drum. The barrel fell, making a hollow boom as it made contact with the concrete floor. Lyle hurried to the portal machine. “He was just here!” he turned to Rufus. “Is there any way you can make it open where he went?”
Without a word the Acara stepped up to the controls. His fingers glided across the buttons at a rapid speed. After several moments he suddenly stopped. “The core memory unit is missing. It didn’t record the last co-ordinates.”
“Shit!” Lyle swore, running his fingers through his hair in disbelief. They had been so close...
“Is there nothing you can do?” Faye asked, walking up to Rufus’s side. He shook his head. “No, I’m afraid.”
Terry ran a hand down her face. “I can’t believe it...”
Connor turned off the scanner. “What do we do now?”
Lyle looked at him. “We return to the colony and gather the troops.”
The Pyrovite blinked at him blankly. “Why? We don’t know where he’s gone.”
Lyle shook his head. “No, that was always the plan. If we had not returned by tomorrow morning, Fallo was going to come through the portal with our soldiers and look for Edward here.”
Faye’s eyes widened. “What? Why? He could kill everyone!”
A flash of anger crossed the general’s face. He raised a finger. “Don’t Faye. Just don’t. You have no right to judge our King’s actions.”
“She’s right though.” Connor said, finding his voice. “If your brother came here he would likely kill everyone in the process of trying to find Edward.”
Lyle watched him from under a heavy brow. “
If you want to keep your head on your shoulders I suggest you don’t say another word.”
Connor was about to rebuke, but Terry cut him off. “Enough!” Everyone stared at her. “We didn’t tell you about my dad’s plans because we didn’t know if either of you had been possessed by Edward like Darius was. I’m sorry but until we had the scanner it was the only way we could be sure he wasn’t still spying on us.” She looked around them all. “And I wouldn’t have let my father come here anyway, regardless of whether we found Edward or not. I would have gone home tomorrow morning and stopped him.”
The warehouse lapsed into silence. Connor stared at Lyle while Faye and Rufus exchanged worried glances. Finally Rufus broke the quiet. “So what do we do?”
Terry nodded at the portal device. “Does it still work?”
“Yes.”
“Then take us to Cresswell. I think I know where Edward’s going.”
******
The street erupted into a blind flurry when the portal materialised. Those standing closest jumped back in fright, some retreating several paces. A sense of the danger it posed suddenly spurred the Alchemists into action and they all took up arms, organising themselves into a defensive position a short way from the portals threshold. The only ones who did not heed their fighting instinct were two mothers with their young children. They were quickly whisked away to a safe distance by their fellow citizens. The primeval Alchemists in the street also formed a defensive line. They called to one another, co-ordinating a ring around the floating portal. Some clambered up the sides of buildings, while others stood with their human-shaped brethren.
For a long minute nothing happened. Then a screaming Terry emerged – falling from the hole in the universe that had manifested several feet above the ground. She made contact with the rocky ground face-first. She rolled over and coughed, taking a hand to her aching chest. Then Faye landed on top of her and she screamed again, winded. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” Faye apologised, climbing off her. Terry winced and slowly sat up. “It’s ok...” she muttered, barely managing a whisper. The Alchemists had gathered around them now, hands offering help from every direction. Connor and the boys tumbled through, landing on top of some un-suspecting Alchemists who broke their fall.
