by Rudi James
‘Many of my ancestors perished. The rest assembled themselves in the newly-constructed outposts, of which there were hundreds of thousands, and began their vigil against the runaway.’
Seggim paused again, but before he could continue he was interrupted by Drum.
‘You were going to tell us more about the crystals and your relationship with Shanglo.’
‘Patience Drummy, I'm coming to that,’ replied Seggim. ‘As I was saying, hundreds of thousands of outposts like this began their vigil.’
He took a deep breath and sighed. ‘We have been doing so ever since. Our science and technology were only just capable of coping with the phenomenon to prevent further catastrophe. There are now many millions of stations like this one, at strategic points around the circumference of the developed universe. That is our sole purpose in life, to prevent others from suffering the same fate. We no longer have our own star system, but at least we still exist as a race.’
Seggim pointed to the amulet that Drum was still wearing. ‘That amulet, Drummy, is actually Shanglo’s brainchild. That engraving next to the Earth’s solar system was our system and our home of long ago. You see, although we were very well advanced, technologically, at the time of the cosmic runaway, we were worried that our resources were not advanced enough. We were eager to contact any other civilisation that was sufficiently developed, to assist us. We scanned and scoured the entire universe and to our surprise our sensors discovered Shanglo. A lone scientist, so far ahead with his knowledge that even I have difficulty in understanding it.
‘So without any delay,’ continued Seggim, ‘I personally made the journey to your realm, using our own method of advanced space travel, and introduced myself to Shanglo, who fortunately was a very good listener. He came back here with me and together we created the amulets so that Shanglo would have a means of contacting us and making any journey here that might be necessary.’
He looked at Drum. ‘I gave one of the amulets to Shirrac, who is your undoubted leader, and the other to you, Drummy. On my last visit to you, remember. You are widely held to be your realm’s master traveller.’
At this remark, Drum puffed out his chest and drew himself up to his full height. It was an involuntary reflex, but he nevertheless felt some justifiable pride.
Seggim carried on with his story. ‘Shanglo revealed to me that he was on the verge of creating some very special crystals with some very, very special properties. He was worried about them falling into the wrong hands, because of the power they had. He wanted them to be kept in a safe place until your people were ready and able to cope with them. He told me that they were even more powerful than he had at first envisaged and that they would undoubtedly help us in our quest to control the runaway. When he told me of their properties, I at first didn’t believe him. That is until he sacrificed himself in that lightning storm. He agreed to let us use them for whatever purpose we needed, providing we kept them safe from the wrong hands.’
Seggim looked sad at this point. ‘He contacted me and said one of his close aides would have something for me and could I pay a visit to collect it. I returned to your realm and was given the crystals to take back with me for safe keeping and for whatever use I could make of them. The powders, as you know, are a very beneficial by-product of the crystals. I don’t think Shanglo had intended the crystals to leave his realm. Not until he heard my story and realised the deadly danger that the entire universe was in. The crystals have proved to be invaluable to our quest. Having them here has also proved to be ideal for their safe keeping, particularly as Droch wants to lay his hands on them.’
Seggim stroked his chin thoughtfully. ‘As you also know, the crystals are self-replicating and if one is removed from the pyramid, another one takes its place in a very short time. A matter of minutes, and I still don’t know how he achieved that. It’s quite remarkable.’
‘Magic springs to mind.’ Alex heard himself interrupt, without really intending to. He had been so engrossed in Seggim’s tale that he almost felt a part of it.
Seggim smiled his huge smile and shook his head. ‘No, it is science pure and simple.’
‘But if you met Shanglo,’ said Drum incredulously, ‘you must have an immense life span. Probably longer, even, than ours. Shanglo’s been dead for hundreds of years.’
Seggim smiled again, but said nothing.
Now, back on the floor of the dome, Seggim pointed to the plasma lights.
‘As you can guess, a project such as this requires immense quantities of data. Well, those pulsing globules of light that you all seem so fascinated by have the purpose of collecting that data. Each globule contains countless trillions of bits of information. Data gathered from every part of my segment of the universe. Information is also shared between stations, each with its own segment of the stars to monitor.’
He pointed in the direction the plasma lights were travelling. ‘They are devoured and analysed by super-fast, super-powerful computers with millions of times more memory than all the Earth’s computers combined; and thousands of times faster. I speak about the computers in Alex’s realm of course. There is more I could tell you, but I can see that Drum is impatient to leave. Under the circumstances I can’t blame him. Let me tell you, however, that the crystals have one more extremely important and valuable property. Unfortunately I am not in a position to explain it to you. I have been sworn to secrecy and no doubt Shirrac will tell all when he thinks you, Drummy, and your people, are ready for it. Suffice it to say that Droch must never know.’
Drum nodded in agreement about wanting to leave and adjusted the amulet around his neck, looking puzzled about Seggim’s last remark concerning the crystals. He did not, however, push the matter any further. Seggim had made it plain it had to remain a secret for now.
‘Thank you for being such a good host,’ he said to Seggim. ‘Thank Adrena. I hope we meet again soon.’
‘I'm sure we shall,’ replied Seggim. ‘But for now it must be farewell. Most pleasant to meet all of you.’
They had linked hands once more and Alex began to feel apprehensive again. Drum was already rubbing the amulet.
Once again, the horrendous rushing sound, once again the inky blackness followed by the dim twilight. Then, as before, the immense wall of light and suddenly they were back outside Drum’s cottage.
They all blinked in the bright sunlight and heaved sighs of relief.
Alex spoke first, more out of tension and stress than anything else. ‘Wh . . . what is Seggim's race known as? He never mentioned it.’ he asked Drum.
‘I don't actually know what they’re called, but quite logically we call them The Sentinels.’
Chapter eleven
Face to Face With Droch
The four of them took some moments to recover from their return journey and then began to look around for signs of life.
Shanglo’s Haven was in total silence and there wasn’t a soul anywhere.
‘I don't like the look of this, it’s too quiet. Surely they can’t all be indoors,’ remarked Drum. He was pondering Shirrac’s last remark, just before they parted company. ‘I hope Shirrac had more luck than us in his rescue attempt.’
Hogarth nodded in agreement.
They remained silent for some moments, feeling very uneasy. They had a feeling that Shirrac had not been successful in any rescue of the hostages.
A sudden commotion in the distance, from the direction of the banquet area, confirmed their worst fears. From out of the forest about two dozen of the Realm People, led by Shirrac, came stampeding towards them at great speed. Shirrac was the first to reach them, panting heavily.
‘Droch is coming with dozens of Sand Dwellers,’ he gasped. ‘All armed with those infernal lances. Our attempt to free the others failed because the powders we used to attack the Sand Dwellers didn’t respond to our commands.’
Shirrac bent over double in an attempt to regain his breath. By that time the others, including Jorash and Bremmish, arrived equally breathless.
&n
bsp; ‘We used almost all our powders in a useless attack and only had the running ones left. It will be some hours before the other powders have time to replenish themselves,’ Shirrac wheezed.
By this time everyone was milling around. An atmosphere of near panic surrounded them.
‘Has anyone any ideas?’ asked Shirrac desperately. ‘We have no weapons and the powders have failed us. I suspect we have about fifteen minutes before the Sand Dwellers arrive, headed by Droch himself.’
Drum, Hogarth, Alex and Boris stood rooted to the spot and for the first time since arriving in the realm Alex felt a real sense of danger.
Drum was the first to recover from the shocking news. ‘Don't panic!’ he shouted, ‘Hogarth and I have some invisibility powders and some for flying. We have to face Droch somehow.’
Alex, initially immobilised with fear, now found his mind racing to come up with an idea. The adrenalin was pumping through his veins at a high rate.
‘I have it!’ he said. ‘We do have a weapon. We might be able to put them off enough to steal their fire lances.’
The rest of them stared at him incredulously.
‘What weapon?’ Drum asked the question with a look of bewilderment on his face.
‘The one you have in your archives,’ replied Alex. ‘The cannon.’ He frowned momentarily. ‘I only hope you have some gunpowder with it, to fire those cannonballs.’
Shirrac and Drum looked at Alex, mouths agape. Drum spoke first.
‘I do believe there’s some gunpowder stashed alongside the cannon itself, but the cannon will take some manhandling.’
‘Only out of the archives,’ said Alex, ‘Then we could surely use the flying powder to bring it to where we need it.’
‘Do you know,’ remarked Shirrac, ‘I do believe there's a possibility it could work.’
‘But for one thing,’ interrupted Drum, ‘I'm not sure it will fire. Remember it’s only a replica from another time zone and don't forget the problems we had when we first brought an actual object from another time zone into our realm. It played havoc with our time lines.’
Drum turned to Alex. ‘You may remember, I mentioned to you about the problems of bringing in actual objects from another realm. That’s when I first came in contact with Seggim Tome. He saw some time disturbances that could later on have had horrendous effects. He came to warn us about them.’
‘Then how did you manage to obtain a replica? You never mentioned it before,’ asked Alex, looking puzzled. ‘And Seeing as I'm from another realm, how come I don't play havoc with your er . . . time lines. Or do I?’
‘I obtain replicas with this,’ replied Drum, holding up the amulet around his neck. But as Seggim explained to me, only solid objects, because they don’t move around, affect our time lines. A living being is constantly moving around. Disturbances therefore tend to average out and oppose each other to the point of cancelling out the effect. Replicas on the other hand don’t have an effect as long as the replicating is done in this realm. I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t want to overload you with too much information. Non of the artefacts you saw were original. All of them were reproduced here. All except the drum. Seggim said that the disturbance the drum caused, although it was enough to alert him, was too small to bring any significant change and it would not be necessary to return it. But we’re running out of time. We should make haste to the archives and try out your idea Alex. I’ll explain about the replicas, and the amulets, more fully some other time.’
‘Agreed,’ said Shirrac. ‘I suggest you and Hogarth use your remaining green flight powders to get to the archives fast. Perhaps Alex and Boris wouldn’t mind going with you to help.’
Alex and Boris both nodded their agreement. ‘Good!’ exclaimed Shirrac. ‘In the meantime we’ll stay here and face Droch and try to delay him, but please hurry. I have a shrewd idea that my evil brother will try and force me to show him how to use the amulet. He knows it’s linked to the locality of the crystals.’
Drum and Hogarth tossed up a handful of yellow powder each and Alex and Boris joined them inside the perimeters of the two yellow circles of light that descended. Once the four of them had become invisible, the flight powders were used to whisk them up into the air and take them to the archive.
Meanwhile, Shirrac, Bremmish, Jorash and the rest waited tensely and with some degree of fear for the arrival of Droch. They knew that they would be completely at his mercy and that the only bargaining tool they had was the fact that Shirrac was the only one who could use the amulet.
They didn’t have to wait long. The edge of the forest near the banquet area suddenly erupted into a cacophony of noise as dozens of Sand Dwellers appeared and made their way towards Shirrac’s group.
The Sand Dwellers all carried fire lances which they used to prod and poke their hostages, whom they had brought with them, in order to drive them forward.
At the head of this mob strutted Droch, together with the renegade Realm People. He and his followers looked incongruous, marching ahead of the giant Sand Dwellers.
Droch was dressed in a black robe that stretched all the way to the ground, his long wispy grey hair billowing out behind him and his equally grey beard hanging limply from his chin as he strode along.
Shirrac and his men waited tensely as their enemy approached. Shirrac held out his arms horizontally and bade his group to stand firm. ‘If only we hadn’t dismantled that fire lance. At least we would have had something to fight back with. But then what use would it have been, against all those? If I can keep Droch talking long enough,’ he whispered. ‘We may stand a chance. He won't do anything to us just yet, because then he wouldn't have anyone who can control the amulet.’
Finally, Droch stood before Shirrac and his men.
‘Well brother,’ he said sarcastically, ‘we meet again.’ He held out Shirrac’s amulet. ‘I believe this belongs to you. You know, you should really take more care of your belongings, you never know what thieving cut-throats are around.’
‘You should know all about cut-throats,’ retorted Shirrac, ‘and I'm no longer a brother of yours.’
Droch's face became a twisted mask of hatred as he pointed a bony finger directly at Shirrac.
‘YOU have something I need,’ he declared loudly. ‘And I have something you want,’ he said, jerking a thumb directly behind him at the hostages.
‘What do I have that you could possibly need?’ Shirrac’s tone was mocking.
‘I think you know very well,’ replied Droch, equally mocking. ‘In return for your services you can have back your rabble.’
‘And if I refuse?’ quizzed Shirrac.
Droch gave an evil chuckle. ‘I think you know the answer to that. Some of the rabble begin to die and they will continue to die until I have what I want.’
‘I need to think this through,’ declared Shirrac.
‘Go ahead; take all the time you need. I have all the time in the world,’ replied Droch in mock cooperation. ‘You've got five minutes,’ he added gruffly.
Total silence descended as Shirrac stood completely motionless and without uttering another word. He was taking Droch’s five-minute offer at face value hoping that, evil as he was, even he would stick to his word.
When one of the Sand Dwellers began to speak, Droch whirled round, glared at him and raised a gnarled and skinny finger to his lips to demand silence.
Shirrac hoped that five minutes would be enough.
Chapter twelve
Secret Weapon
Drum and his team took only a very short time to arrive at the archives, but then their troubles began. The cannon was large, heavy and unwieldy. Even with Boris’s hulking strength they struggled and strained to get the device out of the chamber.
For a full ten minutes Alex, Drum and Hogarth pushed the cannon from behind, at the same time trying to turn the wheels.
Boris pulled mightily on ropes that had been attached to the front. It was only Boris’s great strength that gave them any chanc
e of success.
They heaved and pushed and pulled until at last the gun was outside. Quickly, they dashed back into the archive chamber and brought out as many cannonballs as they could manage, for they too were heavy in relation to their size. Hogarth and Drum took one each, Alex managed two and Boris took five. Drum dived back to fetch out a medium-sized sack of gunpowder and a ramrod that had been lying alongside the cannon. The gunpowder seemed a little damp and they hoped against hope that they would be able to persuade it to burn when the time came. They were fortunate enough to have matches and rags that they soaked in the oil of one of the lamps in the chamber.
‘Right!’ exclaimed Drum. ‘Let’s get back as quickly as possible. Everyone gather round the cannon.’
When they were all assembled he tossed some yellow powder in the air. ‘First invisible,’ he said, as the ring of light surrounded them.
Satisfied that they and the cannon could not be seen, Drum threw some green powder skywards. ‘Now for lift-off.’
The green ring of light encircled them and Drum concentrated on getting them off the ground. At first nothing happened.
‘Oh dear! Surely the cannon is not too heavy. Weight shouldn’t really make any difference.’
He thought for a moment.
‘I must be doing something wrong. I've never done this before.’
He tried again and to everyone's relief they rose gently into the air and began their journey back to Shanglo’s Haven.
‘I have it now,’ remarked Drum triumphantly.
‘I have to picture, in my mind, everything in the circle at the same time and not just lifting off.’
As they made their way back, Drum laid out a plan of action.
‘When we arrive, we stay invisible and then land in the most favourable position we can. We want to direct our fire only at the enemy and not accidentally at our own people. A cannonball coming out of thin air should surprise them mightily. If it causes enough confusion some of the Sand Dwellers may drop their lances, as you pointed out, Alex. Hopefully our people will take advantage of that. This is one occasion when I will be only too glad to use offensive tactics.’
