by C. M. Kane
The shimmering golden haze of a force field shrouded the plain grey of its Hull. Multi-directional pulse cannons bristled along the top and bottom at the bow and stern. Each one was capable of leveling a large building with just one shot. Interspersed over the rest of the ship were smaller laser weapons, along with the sensors and communication arrays. This was a war ship, Khopesh class. Smaller than the Orion class that some of the gods used, but obviously more maneuverable and, she would hazard a guess, incredibly lethal. She watched its slow descent. When it reached an altitude of around two thousand meters above the volcano it stopped abruptly then started to rise, but it was too late. The side of the volcano blew out and up with horrendous force, straight into the rapidly rising ship, quickly followed by a deafening roar.
Tae jumped in shock, she watched in mounting horror as the huge ship slowly lurched up and onto its side, until it finally reached a tipping point. It seemed to balance there for the longest moment, before finally giving into the tremendous forces pummeling it, and continuing its death roll onto its back. The force field and its height were the only thing that had saved it from immediate and total annihilation. Tae now saw that only one of the two massive engines at the rear of the ship seemed to have power before, as if in slow motion, the ship fell. It hit what was left of the mountain with a deafening crunching sound, before it begun a short graceful slide down a gently sloping valley that stretched alongside the Volcano. Its force field flickered in earnest as massive boulders and lava bombs continued to rain down on it from the now violently erupting volcano.
The power of the explosion had been awe inspiring, as evidenced by the enormous mushroom shaped cloud forming above a fiery lava fountain. Tae watched helplessly as the force field that surrounded the ship shimmered briefly one last time, before it failed completely. The massive ship dropped to the ground with a loud thump as it continued its descent into the valley. It finally stopped its short slide along the ground in a hail of rock and screeching metal. It bucked upwards once, as if exhaling, and then settled onto the ground with a low groan. Just as a thick river of lava neared the ship, the vid ended.
Tae sat glued to her seat in horror. She had heard about it of course, and she had read what had happened that day, but to see it, to hear it as if she was there! She shook her head, feeling a little shell-shocked, and her mind returned immediately to those clever black eyes. She glanced around quickly to see if anyone had noticed her gasp and saw that her best friend, Soola, was watching her curiously. She lifted her hand, giving her a wink and a brief smile to reassure her she was fine. Soola grinned back, signaling that they would talk after school. When Tae nodded, Soola returned to her own work.
Okay, Tae, she thought. Pull yourself together, you know what your warrior mentor Master Brohan says, feelings are the enemy where logic demands your attention. Put all emotions aside and solve the immediate problem first, then work from there. Feelings cloud logic and can ensure death, never allow them to compromise you in battle. She had taken this sage advice on as her own personal armor. It had proved to be particularly useful against her father’s cruel indifference.
She called up the vid once again, now feeling pity for the sexy god with the wicked black eyes, as well as for all those onboard. They had never stood a chance without the force field to protect them. No wonder the gods had decimated the Ancestors after Loki’s death. Always deal brutality with brutality of your own, and always make sure yours is a lot worse, in order to make the lesson stick. It was the basis of the Warrior’s code. And that’s exactly what the gods had done, they’d almost annihilated Earth’s entire population.
Now that her initial shock was gone she replayed the vid again, this time making sure she watched it far more dispassionately. She now focused on the unfolding events more closely, mainly to see if she would have done anything differently. It was just as it ended that a small flash caught her eye. She frowned and called up the last five seconds of the vid again, this time slowing it down to frame by frame. On the second last frame she saw it. In the top left corner of the ship there was a tiny flicker of light.
She froze the frame and zoomed in staring at it intently, not believing what she was seeing at first. To her, it looked like the emergency field generator kicking in, it looked like the flash came from the emergency force field conductors. In the unlikely event of the main field generators being incapacitated in some way, they were a last line of back-up.
She and Jason had once had studied ships for a tactics quiz about airborne battles, and she was sure she was right. The flash of light could have been the force field kicking back into life. She knew all the gods’ larger ships had similar basic designs. The main differences were in the size of the ships, along with what armaments they carried. She frowned in confusion, if the back-up generators had kicked in, the force field would have been up and running before the main river of lava reached the ship. Puzzled, she began studying the ship itself more carefully, the explosion and crash were horrendous at first glance but, on closer inspection, the ship actually appeared salvageable.
Tae chewed on her bottom lip absently. Not many ships of that size could withstand such a blast, they had just been very lucky they were ascending when it hit, any lower and she thought they probably would have been pulverized. By the looks of it, in the ships current condition, if someone had thought quickly enough the power might have been rerouted to the life support systems after the back-up generators kicked in. Then theoretically all they would have had to do was wait around until someone dug them out of the lava.
As Loki’s ship would have also been equipped with several sleeper pods there was strong a possibility that Loki and some of the crew could still be alive, even now, after all this time.
The rest of the crew would be long dead of course, and she certainly didn’t want to speculate on how they would have died. But why wouldn’t the gods have checked? The history books had said that the god Pan was first on the scene and had reported no survivors. As far as Tae could see that mightn’t have been quite true, and if there was a possibility that there were survivors, then why treat Loki and his crew as dead? Why leave them buried under a couple hundred feet of what was now solid rock?
The hair on the back of her neck rose as she had a more disturbing thought. Perhaps Pan, or more likely someone he followed, hadn’t wanted to rescue any survivors. Maybe they needed Loki dead or out of the way for some reason. She doubted any survivors could have contacted anyone, the computer systems would have been fried by the electromagnetic pulse from the large nuclear bomb the Ancestors had used to set off the volcano. Only systems working from crystals like the force field, life support and weapons would have been operable. And that was only if any of the large power crystals had survived unbroken.
After the war had ended the gods had made the large island out of bounds to almost everyone. It had no name now, it was simply known as the Island. She quickly realized one or more of the gods had to have been involved in this. From what little she knew of Pan she didn’t think he would have the guts to take out Loki without permission. Pan was one of the lesser gods, and certainly didn’t have the power or worshippers of someone like Zeus, Yama or Gautama Buddha. As far as she knew, Pan answered to them. But that thought brought up another question.
What if Pan’s promotion to the head of the WLE had been a reward for saying Loki was dead? There were simply too many unanswered questions. Tae’s mind flitted from question to question, while every instinct screamed at her that there was far more involved in this than what was on the surface.
No matter what personal horror or outrage she felt, this was way out of her league and she knew it. She ordered her nanites to delete the access information from the WLE server. No-one must ever know that the vid had been seen. She finished by wiping all new accounts of Loki from the school mainframe. Better safe than sorry, she thought. She was confident it would be enough. Scared, but happy that she had done all she could to cover her tracks, she finally relaxed. She dec
ided on a far safer topic for her essay and called up information on Hera.
***
Pan looked up from the display on the com-pad he was reading as his chief of security, Commander Jalek, entered the room.
‘You forget yourself,’ Pan said irritably. ‘You will knock and announce your desire to speak with me before you enter a room where I abide, Jalek.’
‘My sincerest apologies, my lord,’ Jalek said. ‘I thought you should be informed that we have just had an alert. A file, personally encrypted by you and kept at WLE Headquarters on Terra has just been accessed. The source is being traced as we speak.’
Pan’s head lifted and he found Jalek watching his reaction intently. ‘Which one?’ he asked, trying to sound only vaguely interested.
‘A file titled Ultimate Protection, my lord. I had not heard of it before today’s alert. I still cannot access it.’
Pan paled noticeably at his words. ‘Nor will you,’ he snapped. ‘Not if you want to keep your head on your shoulders. You will take your brother and go to Terra,’ he said. ‘Find out exactly who accessed it and bring them to me … without questioning them.’ He stopped and looked at Jalek suspiciously before continuing.
‘Actually, knock them out and put them in a sleeper as soon as you apprehend them. I will speak to them when I’m able. I warn you, Jalek, follow my orders to the letter or you will find yourself facing my wrath. And for all our sakes make sure you’re discreet. I want to find out …’ he stopped himself at Jalek’s interested look. ‘Just make sure no-one knows we have them.
I want this done quietly, no arrests, just bring me the perpetrator and any accomplices they might have. Do you think your much vaunted skills are up to that?’
Jalek nodded and bowed low to hide his anger. ‘No-one will suspect a thing, my lord, it will be as if we were never there.’
‘Go then. I will be away touring Thall’s and Chem’s WLE facilities for the next three weeks. As I haven’t watched the Terrans Island for a while I will meet you back at Terra, before I go to the pavilion.’
Jalek nodded, bowed low, and then strode from the room, wondering what it was that Pan was hiding.
CHAPTER 2
‘C’mon, Tae, we’ll be late.’ Jason called out as he waited impatiently for her to finish up.
She quickly saved her work and set her password to lock her machine, then grabbing her bag, she headed out the door to join her brother and Soola.
‘I can’t come today.’ Soola said brushing her long brown hair behind her ear and looking at Jason with poorly concealed adoration.
Tae knew her friend had a crush on her brother, even though she hadn’t confided in her as yet. It’s the only reason she ever comes to warrior practice, to watch Jase flex his puny muscles … and cop a pounding from me. On Jason’s second week of basic warrior training, Master Brohan, a retired warrior and his teacher, was showing the basic fighting stances to a small group. He had been short a person for Jason to practice with for hand-to-hand bouts. Seeing this, Tae had hopped down from the fence where she’d been sitting and joined him, whether he liked it or not. Brohan had narrowed his eyes and stared at her hard for a moment, his mouth opening slightly as if he were about to say something.
Tae knew he was annoyed at her for interrupting the session, and she would have apologized, but his intimidating stare reminded her of the look her father seemed to reserve especially for her. Instinctively she straightened her spine, raised her chin, and stared right back at him, never lowering her eyes for a moment. It had been a long time since she’d let her father see her real feelings and, despite being only twelve years old, she’d be damned if she’d let this old man cower her. To her surprise Brohan had simply turned back and continued the lesson.
It was then that Tae discovered her true calling, she absolutely loved anything to do with battles. She had learnt quickly and, as with everything else she liked, she had thrown herself into it with a vengeance. Jason had been surprised at how quickly she adapted, and how pitiless she could be with anyone she was pitted against.
For five years she had never had a moment’s regret. She discovered a pride and fierceness in herself that she had never known she possessed, and along with that pride came a burgeoning self-belief. Tae looked at both her brother and her friend. Jason, of course, was totally oblivious to Soola’s feelings. He really could be incredibly dense at times, and although they had never discussed their love life’s with each other – or in her case, the lack there of – she had a pretty shrewd idea as to which direction her brothers’ feelings went. Tae was pretty sure they were more likely directed at one of his male sparring partners in Warrior training than at any of the girls at school.
Jason smiled at Soola. ‘No problem, I think it’s just battle tactics again today.’ He turned and jogged over to his friends, Dillon, who was a year behind them, and Trevor, who were both in training with Master Brohan. They walked away to the training field, their heads together in discussion.
Soola sighed softly in disappointment at his casual disregard. Tae frowned and rested her hand lightly on Soola’s shoulder in sympathy. ‘Don’t worry Soola, he does it to everyone, apart from being a giant knob he’s also utterly clueless.’ Soola’s brown eyes widened as she turned to her. ‘You know?’ she whispered, mortified.
‘I guessed,’ she said, ‘and if Jase falls in love with anyone, I really hope it’s you. It’s just that he has so much going on at the moment. I mean, the Gathering is nearly here. I just don’t think he’s considering anything romantic, with anyone. Besides, we’ve got each other so bugger the boys, soon they will be but slaves at our feet … or I’ll kick their arses.’
Soola grinned at her. ‘They won’t know what hit them.’
‘C’mon,’ Tae said. ‘If its tactics today we’re gonna blow this dump. It’s hot and I hear some music and the swimming hole calling to me. What do you say?’
Soola laughed, forgetting her problems with Jason in the face of her smiling friend. ‘Sorry, no can do Tae. I gotta go. I’ve got the parent–teacher talk remember. Miss Bayfour is telling mum what job she thinks I might be suitable for. I’m just hoping she doesn’t say pleasure giver,’ she said morosely. ‘I think I’d take the Island if she does.’
‘No chance,’ said Tae. ‘You’ve been scoring really well on your tests these last couple of years. I think you could easily become a computer tech in the worker class, maybe even in the WLE,’ she added. Tae knew Soola didn’t want to be a pleasure giver like her mother, not even for one of the great houses like the House of Aphrodite in Thortown itself, so Tae actively encouraged her in her real dreams every chance she got. ‘Don’t back down Soola,’ she said. ‘Speak up and tell them what you want. There are no prizes for keeping your dreams to yourself, just brace yourself and do it.’
Soola pushed her shoulders back firmly ‘I will. I’ll see you tomorrow and we’ll discuss my new career.’ Then she winked at her and walked back up to the school.
Tae headed straight to the river. It was rare she ever skipped a class, but after the day’s harrowing events the last thing she needed to think about was battle tactics, not with that vid still replaying in her mind. She needed to try to forget what she saw, she needed to relax. A warm breeze lifted the hair from around her face, she could almost feel her favorite shady spot beckoning to her.
Fifteen minutes later she was sitting under an old river gum, gazing with half closed eyelids at the slow-moving river in front of her. She picked a blade of grass and began chewing it idly as she thought about how both herself and Soola would be choosing fields of endeavor that no-one in this town would have suspected, given their mothers occupations. Tae smiled ruefully as she remembered her own mother’s attempts at educating her.
After turning twelve and beginning warrior practice, her mother had decided it was also time to begin her education on a far different path. She began teaching her the basic arts of a pleasure giver. Sex of any form was looked upon as just another part of the natu
ral cycle of life. Children learnt the basics of sex between any two people from the time they started school, more detailed instruction usually didn’t begin until each child had turned twelve.
These sporadic lessons usually lasted an agonizing hour. Tae really did try to learn how to dress, walk, and behave in ways that were supposed to seduce and entice. Her mother was rumored to have been very good at her job, after all not everyone got to work at the prestigious House of Aphrodite in Australia’s - or New Aus as everyone now called it - capital city, Thortown. She was still greatly admired by their local community.
But for the first time in Tae’s life, no matter how hard she tried, seduction was simply something she wasn’t any good at. She became increasingly frustrated by her inability to even achieve some semblance of what her mother wanted. She wasn’t used to failing at things, not if she really set her mind to them. Unfortunately her clever logical mind, which could work out the intricacies in complex battle strategies with comparative ease, now refused point blank to accept that men and women would be stupid enough to fall for blatantly obvious flattery and lowered eyes. Or worse, a low cut top or mysteriously undone buttons.
Then there was the now infamous first time her mother had made her try walking in heels. Tae had lurched about like a drunkard until she had finally twisted her ankle and fallen head-first into their kitchen table, nearly knocking herself out. Jason, who had been watching her lesson, had thought this absolutely hilarious and, years later, still hadn’t stopped teasing her about her ungainly display. The only reason he had stopped calling her Lurch was she made sure he paid for it in their bi-weekly warrior practice with Master Brohan.
When the lump on her bruised forehead had finally gone down her mother had made her continue practicing. She had improved gradually, but she knew she would never have an ounce of the grace her mother possessed. Now combat, that she understood, it had rhythm and flow, a move and a countermove.
