Delta Scorpii Twelve quickly shrunk in size as they departed the Delta system. Drakes and Diyra looked at a rear screen as they watched their home disappear behind them like a fading memory.
The two hugged each other and wiped a slimy looking tear from their eye stalks.
“It’s okay, Diyra,” Drakes said in a comforting tone. “This is for the best.” He said slightly choking back his emotion. He fully knew they would never see their home or others like them again.
“I know…” she replied, “I made a vow to watch over him just as you did… I did it by free will Drakes… you didn’t have to worry that I wouldn’t fulfill our destiny.”
The two looked over at the crew watching them. They separated and turned to face their new friends.
Kate gave Jhahnahkan a big welcome hug and kissed him on the cheek making Diyra turn a purple color on her face as she giggled.
“My dear,” Drakes smiled, “I do believe you made Diyra blush.” He said addressing Kate.
“Excuse my rudeness,” Jhahnahkan began, “let me introduce Drakes and Diyra from Delta Scorpii Twelve.”
The two bowed to their hosts in a submissive fashion.
“They were my grandfather’s care takers… there is much I must tell you all.”
Lanatek stepped up and interrupted his captain, “I believe we have a few things we must tell you, too.”
“Did my plan work?” Jhahnahkan asked Luanren. “And where is Helen?”
Luanren stepped over to Jhahnahkan making him step backward and sat him in his chair, “We shall get to your adventures soon enough my son…”
Jhahnahkan interrupted his mother. “You don’t understand…”
“… No, you do not understand…”
“What could possibl…”
“Helen is gone,” Luanren finally said.
Jhahnahkan froze in his command chair and stared back at his mother. “What!?!”
“It’s true captain,” Tim reported from behind them. “I saw it with my own eyes… Tamika came to Jhovahkan’s cell and took Helen through a vortex…”
“Say it isn’t true…” Jhahnahkan said with despair.
“And it seemed that she went willingly…” Tim finished as he hung his head in gloom.
“Sir, you really need to see this,” Rex said with as much urgency as his captain.
“What do you have there Rex?”
“I found a message from Helen in the computer files… strangest thing too, I was browsing for information and one moment the file was not there and the next moment it was.”
“Are you sure you didn’t just miss it before?”
“No, sir,” Rex said as he punched some buttons to bring the message on the view screen. “And the date of the file is all wrong too… if the computer calculated this correctly, this message was created over a thousand years from now.”
The view screen came to life and promptly displayed a question that Jhahnahkan would have to answer.
Rex spoke the screen text out loud, “In order to access this file, complete this phrase; ‘Simple questions’. That’s it.”
“Get simple answers!” Jhahnahkan exclaimed.
The screen turned red and new text replaced the old… ‘One of three attempts failed… ‘Simple questions…’ was repeated.
Jhahnahkan now thinking of what would be the secret phrase he blurted out again, “Get… simple… answers…” he said with confidence. “Maybe it didn’t hear me right the first time.” He shrugged.
The screen again returned red and displayed the following text, ‘Two of three attempts failed… Simple questions…’
Drakes stepped over to Jhahnahkan and poked at his side, “The parchment… read the parchment…”
He removed the tied thousand-year-old document and unrolled it on his lap. On the ancient paper was a map of what appeared to be the crystal caverns in a very detailed course to follow. The path on the map appeared to lead down to the deepest depths of the caverns.
“This must lead to the crystal forge!” He exclaimed.
Kate pointed at some letters that were hand written on the edge of the parchment that had nearly worn out.
Jhahnahkan turned the map sideways and read the word very carefully, “Complex” he said under his breath.
Then with resolve he stood and faced the view screen confident he knew the answer: “Get complex answers.”
The screen returned the text; ‘thee of three attempts… passed Simple questions get complex answers… access granted…’
Helen appeared on the screen and the recording began, “If you are seeing this, you are well on your way to completing the mission my grandson… I cannot say much or it could alter your course of action… I was taken by Tamika and transported one thousand years in our future… I foresaw it… I have been here before… when I watched the destruction occur… now the timeline has been damaged and if you do not succeed in restoring the original timeline… well,
I am sure Roth’stavous told you what would happen… Tamika, your sister, was able to fight the Rune infection off… or suppress it enough… to try to do something to help you correct the fractures that she was not able to stop… she said the Rune is very powerful and is very hard to fight… she wanted you to believe that there was still some good in her… She had me perform a mind block on her memory of her taking me here… I do not know if I was completely successful… she lost control and had to travel back before it was too late… I was brought here to meet with you… to give you some instructions… Just know that if you are seeing this… you succeeded with my instructions, equipped with the map, you will be able to find the crystal forge. The last ancient one that remains will know what you must do. Find him. This time I am in now has not been altered by the rift. I cannot return to you. Just know that I am with you all. Remember circular time and linier time are interconnected, my existence is constant just as yours is in your time now. Farewell, my grandson. I will see you in about one thousand years. Just remember, simple questions sometimes do get complex answers.”
Helen finished with a smile as she turned off the recording. The screen when blank and returned static until Rex clicked off the volume.
The com system came alive with the doctor’s voice in distress. “Jhahnahkan, it’s your brother” he gasped, “He took the crystal. He’s heading to the landing bay.”
“Security!” Jhahnahkan ordered, “Stop him! Stop him at all costs.”
* * *
High Council Palace
Year: 3983
“Helen?” Jhahnahkan said with a question.
“Yes my grandson… it is I.”
He ran over to his grandmother and gave her a hug. “I haven’t seen you for almost a thousand years…” he said with tears in his eyes.
She pushed him away after exchanging the warm greeting, “There is no time for this now…” she said sharply.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m afraid some of the time fracture is my fault.” She said in disgust with herself.
“What do you mean? Time fracture? What are you talking about?”
“I keep forgetting…” Helen laughed slightly. “You do not know about the time fracture yet… that timeline has not arrived here as yet… that is why Tamika dropped me off at this time.” She said nodding her head to herself.
Jhahnahkan only stood staring at his grandmother still not believing his eyes that she was still alive. She had vanished and no one had seen her since.
“I still don’t understand…” he looked around his left shoulder and pointed with his eyes, “Tamika’s quarters are just over there… I saw her just a few hours ago… she was retiring for the evening.”
“Bah!” Helen said with a gruff, “We do not have time for this… here.” She held out her hand and touched Jhahnahkan’s left temple and began a memory transference.
Jhahnahkan stepped back and winced as the flood of information streamed into his mind all at once.
She grabbed th
e back of his neck with her free hand and held him with overwhelming strength, keeping him from pulling away. With her gaze into his eyes they connected telepathically. The memories began to sort themselves out in his mind as she terminated their link.
He stumbled backward and caught himself and then sat on the cement bench holding his hands on his head as he absorbed and sorted out the memories. He slowly looked up at his grandmother. She now had tears in her eyes as she knew the pain that the memory transfer can cause.
“How is it you think you helped in fracturing the timeline?” he somberly asked.
“I just was not thinking…” she paused, and then continued. “I reached out to Tamika… I thought I could combat the Rune and bring her back… I know now that was foolish… Then I offered to give her Jhovahkan if she would keep him out of the picture. I did not want him to escape to the North faction and cause more time fractures… I told her what the transport schedule was and when the best time would be to take him.”
Jhahnahkan shook his head in disbelief at what his grandmother had done, but said nothing. He knew she had the good of the cause in her best interest, but kept silent.
“I made her promise that she would take him out of the picture, but did not think she would return him… Then the Rune took over again and she went and sent him back to you on the Leif Erikson.”
“The Leif what?”
“Your ship in that timeline…” Helen said, “those memories haven’t sorted out just yet… give it a few more minutes… the Leif Erikson is the ship you will take back to the past and plant it on Earth… at the planets polar ice cap… on the way to Earth, you will stop at the outer rim and meet your grandfather, Roth’stavous. This will be your first meeting with him… you will tell him the secret of the crystal… you will share this secret with him, because on your second visit, you will be told of the secret and then your mind will be locked… you will give Roth’stavous a parchment… a map… that I will help you make to give to him. He in turn, will give it to you on the third visit… the timeline fracture has made it necessary to interfere with the timeline in order to attempt to set it all right… If you are going to defeat the Rune we will need to have all the tools. The ship will be equipped with all the necessary medical devices we have in this time, and the advancements on this time in weapons… we must make ready, you have a long journey ahead of you.”
“What is this… this… secret of the crystal?”
“The Crystal Forge,” she said hurriedly, “forget that for now, we must make the map.”
“What is this map going to be of?”
“The way to the crystal forge, of course,” she said. “I am the only one that knows how to find it you see… I discovered it when I fled the council when the Rune infection came to Ackturra the first time… I never told anyone… the ancient one and I connected once… when I was at the lowest level in the caverns trying to find my way through the passages to the surface… he was very lonely… he had been in solitude for eons… long forgotten… he said all he wanted was some company for a time.”
Jhahnahkan and Helen walked inside as they talked and went to a storage room and obtained some parchment and drawing pens. He rolled out and cut off a large piece and laid it flat on the table that was in the room. Helen began drawing the layout of the caves and labeling each turn and junction.
“Ok,” he said now finally beginning to comprehend and sort out all the memories from Helen. “…So the Crystal Forge was created by the ancients of Ackturra… they rose to a higher consciousness and no longer needed organic bodies. Eventually, when their bodies did begin to wear out, they devised a way preserve their lives. Their knowledge would be forever preserved as one mind when they passed through the silver pool of purification. The pool would dissolve their flesh and through the pools fountains, their essence would be passed through the air and into the breeding ground of the crystal caverns. Each crystal that forms bears the essence of the ancients of Ackturra. Different minerals within the crystal cavern beds would yield the different abilities that the crystal possesses. They knew by their own higher awareness that one day someone would find their crystals that they made. Their desire to help and assist others future civilizations were their main objective.”
Jhahnahkan stopped for a moment to study the map that Helen had drawn. She took a different colored marker and scribbled some letters on the edge of the map.
Jhahnahkan looked sideways from his angle and read what she wrote, “Complex”.
“This is the only way I can ensure that you are the only one that can access the file I will put on the ship. If it fell into the wrong hands… well… it really would not matter after that…” she said with a sigh.
“A password?”
“Sort of,” she answered… “You must at all cost reach Roth’stavous and give him this map and these instructions.”
Her voice cracked slightly showing emotion of the severity of the mission. Helen and Jhahnahkan continued to talk all night as she helped him with the plans of the ship he would have built; solely for this purpose. She helped him put together a list of devices that would have to be made in this century that would be installed in the ship. Helen instructed him to not deviate from this plan.
She also said that the ship name was not important, but a new friend that you meet in the past…”
“Rex…” he said, looking up.
“Yes, your memory has stabilized… even though you have never met Rex in this timeline, you will learn to trust what he is and what he is there for…”
Helen interrupted herself mid-sentence and abruptly changed the subject. Jhahnahkan glanced at Helen and could see in her eyes that she was hiding something from him.
“Come on,” he said. “Out with it.”
“I do not know what you mean my grandson,” she said as she made busy at the computer terminal finishing the list of supplies for the build.
“You’re not telling me something… I can see it in you… do not let me probe you for it.”
Helen rested her hands on the table and looked up at Jhahnahkan with sobering eyes and said, “No Jhahnahkan… you cannot know this yet… it is something that you must come to know on your own… Something you must face… I’ve already said too much…”
She stood and rested the palm of her hand on his shoulder as she held her crooked cane the best she could without dropping it.
“Trust me… know that you will know it when the time comes… you must trust your judgment.”
The next several months Jhahnahkan successfully had a ship built to all of Helen’s specifications and had stocked it for his departure.
“Helen,” Jhahnahkan said as he entered the staging room.
Helen was busy with the supply inventory and seemed slightly annoyed at her grandson’s interruption.
“The ship is ready to disembark…” he said motioning to the cargo. “If this is the last of it, then we need to get it loaded on the shuttle. We will depart in one hour for the outer rim.”
“We…” Helen said, setting her hands on her hips. “There is no ‘we’ in this voyage…”
“You are not coming with me?”
“No… I need to stay here.”
“But we have just reunited… after not seeing you for so many long years… to leave you behind breaks my heart.”
“A time paradox will surely occur if I go with you.”
“I thought Tamika instructed you to not go back to that time.”
“She did.” Helen said as a matter of fact.
“You’re going back then…” he said shaking his head.
“Yes, but not to that time… I have to go back to the time when you came to Earth the second time.”
“I’m not even going to ask…” he said smiling.
“Good thing… remember, ‘Simple questions get Complex answers’.”
“I’ll remember that.”
They finished loading the last of the cargo and Jhahnahkan flew the shuttle to his new ship. Ther
e would be no crew to accompany him on this voyage. The computer would be quite capable of replacing over seventy-five crewmembers functions and would be companion to him for the six year journey.
Jhahnahkan landed the shuttle as he remembered one of the last things Helen had explained to him. “Roth’stavous,” he heard her voice in his head, “Make sure you ask Roth’stavous where to find Earth… he will know it as Terra Firma… Terra Firma… Terra Firma…” her voice echoed over and over in his mind.
The landing bay doors closed as he set down and instructed the computer to engage course programing and enter slip stream as quickly as possible.
The sleek ship departed Ackturra passing its two moons, Ziton and Minos, and soon vanished out of sight as this state of the art vessel began to spark and glow out before its path with the familiar bluish green color as Jhahnahkan entered into slipstream velocity.
* * *
Leif Erickson
Year: 2983
Jhahnahkan and his security team rushed down the narrow corridors making their way to the shuttle bay as quick as they could.
Jhahnahkan spoke to the computer to seal off the landing bay access as he made his way to try and stop what his brother was up to.
“Landing bay access has been secured,” the computer responded.
By the time they reached the outer doors to the shuttle bay, his brother was at the end of the corridor with his power crystal aiming it straight at them. A bolt of orange colored energy fired from the tip of the crystal as Jhovahkan pointed it at the security crew approaching.
Jhahnahkan hit the deck and rolled to one side allowing the beam to miss him. He jumped up to his feet and held out his arms as if he was a catcher on a baseball team. The beam hit the deck and reflected at just the perfect angle to hit one of the security detail.
As the beam came in contact with its target, the crewman fell to the ground and lay unconscious.
He fired his crystal once more aiming right at his brother. Another beam discharged and came in contact with Jhahnahkan’s hands which then turned to an electrified blue color with sparks emanating all around his now glowing hands. The energy had been absorbed by the energy field around Jhahnahkan’s hands. He then took that energy and thrust it back at his brother causing Jhovahkan to be pushed back against the shuttle doors behind him. The impact slightly stunned him as he slid down to the floor.
Secret of the Crystal - Omnibus Edition Books 1-3 (Time Travel Adventure) Page 40
