by Jack Castle
The Tripod paused, looking confused.
“You might want to check with them first.” Harry pointed behind the Tripod.
The Tripod’s confident demeanor turned to one of pure fright when he heard twin lion-like roars behind him.
Mac peeked out from behind Harry’s shoulder and saw yeti-looking behemoths standing directly behind the Tripod guard. Their muzzled heads scraped the ceiling, and their shoulders brushed both sides of the corridor.
“Awumpai!” she breathed. She recognized the enormous beasts from passages in Harry’s journal.
As the Awumpai crouched like tigers, ready to strike, Harry turned back toward her. “You might wanna look away for this,” he said.
Mac took Harry’s advice, and although she looked away, she still heard ripping sounds and what sounded like buckets of liquid splattering the walls.
When she looked up again, Harry was lifting the key ring from the pulpy mess and severed limbs that remained of the Tripod. After several attempts, he opened the cell door.
He freed her of her shackles and motioned for her to enter the cell. He held the door for her while he watched the entryway for guards.
Taking the keys, Mac stepped inside the cell. Tae lifted his head, and his eyes went wide when they saw her.
“Mac!” Tae beamed. “I’m sure glad to see you two,” he added as Mac unlocked his manacles, and Harry entered the cell behind her.
“It’s good to see you, too,” she said. She moved over to Leo. “Leo, wake up. You okay?”
Leo groaned in response. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked Tae.
“I think he’s finally hung over from sampling all that god nectar.”
“C’mon, Lieutenant.” She slapped him. “It’s time to go.”
“Aw, Mom, but I don’t want to go to school,” Leo said groggily.
“Nice to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor, Lieutenant,” Mac shot back while freeing him.
As Mac led them to the door, one of the Awumpai, the bald one, stepped inside the tiny cell. He had to duck his head to get in through the eight-foot doorway.
“Whoa, what the hell is that?” Leo asked. He and Tae, with eyes as big as saucers, backed away as quickly as possible.
“That, my friends,” Mac said, gesturing to Fu-Mar, “is an Awumpai.”
“Looks more like a yeti to me,” Leo replied. He eyed the creature with trepidation.
“C’mon, we might not have much time,” Harry said while ushering them toward the door. He had to push Leo and Tae past the Awumpai.
Mac led them into the corridor and nearly slipped on the Tripod remains that littered the floor. Nearby, Hu-Nan smiled happily while he chewed a large Tripod drumstick.
Harry introduced the two of them. “Mac, Hu-Nan. Hu-Nan, Mac.”
“Hi,” she managed. She stared at the enormous Awumpai, whose head towered over her even though he sat on his haunches. The Awumpai merely grunted and continued to eat.
“What? He’s hungry,” Harry said in Hu-Nan’s defense.
“What are you doing?” said an old man’s voice behind the big red Awumpai. It was Enoch. Mac smiled as he tried to maneuver around Hu-Nan and slipped on the Tripod’s insides. Regaining his feet, he said nervously, “This is not the time for introductions. We’ve got to get all of you out of here before Lahmu’s Tripods realize you’ve escaped.”
“Enoch,” Mac said, “what are you doing here?”
“I thought you could use some help.” Enoch squeezed past Hu-Nan and made his way to Harry. “Harry, my old friend,” he said, hugging him.
“I’m old but not as ancient as you, old man,” Harry quipped. The greeting confirmed Mac’s theory that the two had become friends during Harry’s imprisonment.
The prophet turned to Mac, and a look of concern washed over his face. “Are you hurt?” he asked.
“I’ll be fine, Enoch, but why are you helping us? Won’t you get in trouble?”
“I was wrong about everything. These foul creatures are not the God of my ancestors. I know that now.”
“What changed your mind?”
Enoch struggled to remove something from his robe. When he finally did, Mac saw that it was a small, tattered book that was stained with blood.
“I found your journal. You left it in your bedroom. We have much to discuss. Now come. My personal chariot awaits.”
They made their way to the landing bay unchallenged, thanks to Enoch’s assistance.
#
Enoch was about to enter the chariot when his Mook servant appeared. Enoch motioned for the others to board the chariot, and he turned to converse with his servant.
“Listen to me, my friend,” Enoch said in ancient Hebrew. “Now is the time we discussed. Do you understand?”
The Mook nodded his head vigorously in reply. He took Enoch’s hand and laid it upon his head.
“Bless you, child. The one true God blesses you,” Enoch said. He patted the Mook gently before boarding the vessel.
Before Enoch took his seat, he grabbed Harry by the shoulders. “Listen to me, Harry. Before I die, I must tell you something very important.”
#
On her way to the front seats, Mac paused as she heard Enoch’s words behind her. She turned to glance at Harry.
Harry shook his head. “What are you talking about, old man? You’ve lived for over a century. You’re not about to kick the bucket now.”
But even Mac saw the knowing look that Enoch was giving him. It was the same one Mac used to give Emma when she was a child. Enoch knew something about the future. Mac guessed it was something he had read about in the journal.
“You are probably right,” Enoch said, patronizing him, “but I must warn you — warn you all…”
“What is it?” Mac asked, concerned. Tae joined them while Leo began preflight.
“Atum-Khaos plans to return to the place of our birth and destroy everyone.”
“He must be planning on using the wormhole,” Mac said.
“And we opened it right up for him,” Tae added. “Or rather, Leo did.”
“Hey, how was I supposed to know?” Leo shot back from the helm.
“Anyone that survives the initial attack will be turned into mindless slaves, just like on this world.”
“How is that possible?” Tae asked. “Sure this place is impressive, but he’s only one guy.”
“The palace is only his personal yacht. Khaos has an entire fleet of warships at his disposal.”
“Not only that, but he’s also capable of manipulating people’s minds so they become his willing followers,” Harry said. “You saw them in the audience chamber; they’d do anything for him.”
“So let me get this straight,” Mac said. “Khaos will attack Earth and then pass himself off as some kind of messiah? I don’t know. Even with his fleet of warships and the ability to brainwash his followers, I still have a hard time believing he’s capable of enslaving everyone on Earth.”
The prophet stepped close to her and looked directly into her eyes. “Why not, little songbird? He has already done so on hundreds of worlds. Why not one more?”
Mac held the old prophet’s gaze a moment longer and then heard the engines winding up.
“Hey,” Leo shouted from the helm, “can we discuss this later and get out of here now, please?”
Mac took her seat beside him and ordered, “Punch it, Leo.”
#
Left behind on the docks, Enoch’s Mook servant watched his master depart in the flying chariot. When the chariot had cleared the palace, the small slave abruptly tore the clothes from his body. He then knelt down and dipped his fingers in a nearby greasy puddle and smeared the substance on his face, like war paint, before he ran off to do his master’s bidding one last time.
#
Nearl
y a mile overhead in the palace, Lahmu, Khaos’s aide, entered the inner sanctum and waited for his master’s acknowledgment. At the moment, Khaos stood in a small alcove that served as his sacrificial chamber. It contained a beautifully carved granite altar that was lit by four torches, one at each corner.
Four robed hybrid priests, all of royal bloodlines, held down a Mukarian female on the altar. At first, she had been a willing sacrificial victim, but when she saw Atum’s chest crack down the center and open, she screamed. She struggled against her captors when the turbulent, churning ball of energy within Atum’s chest began sucking the life force from her body like a vampiric succubus. The female’s eyes turned black, like those of Atum and the other royals, and then her skin rapidly aged, and her hair turned white.
When Khaos finally took notice of the aide, Lahmu said, “My Atum, the Adamah have escaped. A disemboweled Tripod was found outside their cell door.”
“ENOCH?” Khaos asked knowingly in his thunderous voice.
“He’s nowhere to be found. It is my belief that he assisted with their escape.”
Just then, a hover chariot flew by the open balcony window. Recognizing the sound of Enoch’s personal chariot, Khaos glanced at his aide, but the aide was already in communication with palace defenses.
“Atum, somehow all palace defenses have been disabled,” the aide reported in disbelief.
With tension on his face, Khaos walked to his throne and removed his scepter from the armrest. He carried it out of the inner sanctum, through the main audience chamber, and onto the balcony. His eyes reflected the white hot light from the lantern portion of his staff as he formed a kinetic ball of energy. “I DAMN YOU, ENOCH! I DAMN YOU TO DWELL IN DARKNESS FOR ETERNITY!”
Khaos hurled the ball of energy at the fleeing ship. The blast pursued the small craft like a guided missile and finally struck it solidly.
A devilish smirk graced the deity’s broad face when the smoking vehicle hobbled for a moment and threatened to fall. But when the tiny craft recovered and resumed its course, the smile faded from his lips.
#
The lightning bolt struck the right rear of the chariot’s passenger compartment and blew a huge hole in the hull. Only twisted and melted crossbeams remained in that section of the chariot. The jagged edge of the hole glowed with white hot energy.
Enoch had been sitting on a bench near the aft section of the ship and was severely injured by the blow. Mac helped Harry lay the prophet’s burned and trembling body on the deck. She was bitterly reminded of how Joan had died in her arms back in the temple, which had set everything in motion. If only I had listened, Mac thought. If only I had read the journal, no one in my crew would have died, and no one on Earth, especially sweet, sweet Emma, would be in danger.
“Harry,” Enoch said nearly inaudibly. “Harry!”
“How you doin’ there old timer?” Despite his attempt at a cheerful tone, Harry’s eyes betrayed his realization that his friend was about to die. “You just hold on there.”
“No, my friend. I am sorry to say it, but I cannot go with you. I go to be with my fathers and my sons.”
“No, Enoch. You can’t die,” Harry said. He held Enoch’s ruined hand in both of his own.
“Release the SongBird Goddess from her prison,” Enoch said while tapping Harry’s hand gently with his one good hand. “Release her, and Khaos will fall. Balance will be restored to the universe.”
“But I don’t even know where she is.”
“Throne.” The prophet coughed, then shivered more heavily than before. “Find the doorway behind the throne.” With these words, Enoch went the way of his fathers and departed this world for the next.
“Oh my gosh, the book!” Mac shouted. The Europa journal was stuck on one of the damaged girders, and its pages had started to burn. The wind threatened to whisk the journal out the gaping hole at any moment. Mac lunged for the book, but the wind was too strong for her to approach the breached hull. Looking around, she grabbed some cable sticking out of the ruined compartment and, after a few practice tugs, tied the loose part expertly around her waist.
“What are you doing?” Harry asked.
“What do you mean, what am I doing? I’m going to grab your journal before it blows out the damn hole.” Mac made sure the knot was tight and began making her way toward the hull breach.
“Why don’t you just let it go?” Harry called after her, but she could barely hear him above the howling wind.
“I can almost reach it,” she said. Her fingers were within inches of the book when the cord began to rip out of the wall. Mac fell to her knees and would have been swept out the hole had Harry and Tae not dived on the broken end as it ran the length of the fuselage.
“Let it go! It’s not worth your life!” Harry shouted. He and Tae strained to hold her inside the ship.
“I’ve almost got it!” Mac stood and fought against the torrents of wind, but the wind whisked the burning book out the hole just ahead of her grasp. Mac thought she saw the book flash into a small fireball as it departed the chariot.
“Pull her in” she heard Harry say and felt the line tug on her waist. They didn’t stop until she was back in Harry’s arms.
“You okay?” Harry asked her. Tae began untying her makeshift harness.
“I lost the book,” she said matter-of-factly. She looked up at him through her bangs, which now covered her eyes.
Harry pushed her bangs off her forehead. “Maybe it’s for the best.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, everyone who has ever read that damn book has died.” Looking deep into her eyes, he added, “And I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you, too.”
But she could still see that he was wondering what he had written in the book that should never have been read.
Chapter 27
Angle of Attack
Mac was thankful that only one of the three moons was visible in the partly cloudy sky that evening. The sun had just set on the horizon in the direction she called west, but with the spinning compasses aboard the Avengers, there was no way to be sure.
The hover chariot had landed back in the slave quarter, and they were now safely hidden amongst the ruins. Joppa-Cal seemed to be northeast of them; the river, southwest. They were somewhere smack in the middle.
Mac shoved her hands into her jacket pockets. Now that the sun had set, a brisk wind from the ocean swept across the abandoned city streets. It chilled her to the core.
Once again, she and her crew had managed to evade any pursuers. How many escapes had she been through in the past two weeks? She mentally ticked them off in her head: the underwater Beta Base, where they had nearly drowned; the Alpha Base, which had collapsed into a wormhole; the crash landing that had brought them here; the Mook attack, not once but twice; and the angry deity’s fireball. Mac shivered at that last one. The memory of Khaos’s demonic smile was still fresh in her mind.
Other hover chariots, troop transports, and small fighter-like crafts had zoomed overhead, but so far, they had not been detected. Tae theorized that the magnetic ore around them that made their compasses spin was also probably interfering with the ‘gods’ more efficient sensors. Mac decided it was either their first lucky break or just plain dumb luck. Either way, she figured they were overdue for some luck.
Once they were sure that they were free of any pursuers, their first order of business had been to bury Enoch. The old prophet’s death hit Harry particularly hard. Next, they had prepped the planes for immediate takeoff, should the need arise.
They had been so busy doing what needed to be done that they hadn’t come up with any sort of a plan. Mac suspected that Harry would suggest leaving in the morning and putting as much distance between them and the ‘gods’ as possible. Harry had been right when he’d advised her not to meet with the phony ‘gods’; her decision to do so had cost anoth
er crew member his life.
Knowing what they were up against, she wouldn’t blame Harry for wanting to leave, but she had a duty to protect the billions of humans in the solar system on the other side of the wormhole. And it wasn’t a question really. With her daughter being one of those billion, whatever the opposition, they had to stop Khaos from entering that wormhole.
Mac shivered again and pulled her jacket tighter around her small frame. This time, it wasn’t from the cold.
Tae, Leo, and the red-haired Awumpai were putting together something she hoped would pass for dinner. They had made a campfire in one of the surrounding hovels. Mac saw the smoke rise up through the broken roof, but it was barely visible in the moonlight, and she doubted any passing patrols would spot it.
Wondering where Harry was, she heard a flapping noise on the wind. Movement overhead caught her eye, and she saw a beautiful red bird land on Fu-Mar’s outstretched arm. Harry stood next to the Awumpai on the roof of a nearby hovel. The large bird seemed to be talking to the big Awumpai.
Curious, she climbed the stairs on the side of the small house and joined them on the roof.
The bird had just finished reciting something to Fu-Mar when she arrived. The big Awumpai then launched the bird into the air, assisting its takeoff. Mac only got a glimpse of the beautiful bird and was sorry she didn’t have time to take a closer look at the strange, yet wonderful, creature.
“Hi Harry,” she said when Harry and Fu-Mar turned to look at her. Mac got the feeling that her presence wasn’t exactly wanted. “Am I interrupting?”
“No, not at all,” Harry replied and smiled at her.
Ever since he had rescued her from the palace, he had seemed different somehow. Mac couldn’t put her finger on it, but he seemed more at peace.
Fu-Mar grunted in greeting and went down the stairs.
“I saw the bird, and I was wondering what you two were doing up here,” she said.
“Oh, just checking the mail.”
“Checking the mail,” Mac repeated dryly.
Pushing a hand through his hair, Harry said, “Fu-Mar’s people aren’t coming. Fu-Mar says the Awumpai are sympathetic to our cause, but even with ore-ships, there is no way they can possibly reach us before Khaos’s palace lifts off.”
