Secret of the Crystal - Omnibus Edition Books 1-3 (Time Travel Adventure)

by Larson, Brian K.

  The security crew fell back to the cover that their captain was offering at the moment. Jhahnahkan stood at a ready stance at the end of the corridor, which was about thirty feet from his brother. He watched as he shook his head and looked up.

  “I do not understand why you are treating me this way my brother.” Jhovahkan said with slowness in his voice.

  “You broke out of your cell…”

  “You did not have to imprison me…” Jhovahkan interrupted. “I gave you my word that I would help you… you turned on me after my generosity.”

  “How did you get out anyway?” Jhahnahkan said trying to defuse the situation.

  “I do not know… the field just terminated and I took the opportunity…”

  Jhahnahkan noticed that he was no longer wearing the special collar that had been customized for those infected with the Rune.

  “What happened to your collar?”

  “It must have fallen off in the medical bay when I went to retrieve my crystal… it is mine you know… Tamika helped me harvest it…”

  “Lower your crystal my brother…” Jhahnahkan said as he began to approach him from the long corridor.

  “Stay where you are…” Jhovahkan shouted with desperation. He raised his crystal and fired another blast at his brother. This time the blast lasted for twenty seconds. Jhahnahkan was able to withstand the power of the force and as Jhovahkan began to see he was going to lose this fight and be imprisoned once more, he said, “I will not be taken again!” He then directed the powerful beam and changed it into a vortex with a speed that surprised even Jhovahkan.

  Jhovahkan stood, looked at his brother and smiled as they began to see his eyes change back to the infected color produced by the Rune infection.

  “Sorry my brother… it is much too dangerous for me to stay here… guess you will have to find your own way back…” he stepped into the vortex as he finished his sentence.

  “No!” Jhahnahkan shouted as he raced toward the vortex before it closed.

  The vortex closed just before he leaped to enter the maelstrom and landed on the ground grabbing at the air as he hit.

  * * *

  Chapter 10

  Adrenaline Rush

  Crystal Caverns

  Year: 2983

  Tamika pulled herself up with her arms and shook her head slightly. Broken shards of crystals lay beneath her body. As she moved into an upright position, you could hear the crackle and popping of glass by her weight. She looked about her surroundings with confusion, not fully remembering what had just happened and how she got to where she was. In fact she couldn’t really remember what year she had just landed in for a few moments.

  The cave was fairly dim and it took several minutes for her eyes to adjust so she could identify what part of the caverns she was in. She felt a desperate pull on her mind to find the Rune. Her eyes looked about the cavern with that yellowish red glow about them. She got up on her arms and legs, walking primate like, and moved about the area almost illuminating the pathway with her eyes.

  Seeing something very familiar off in the distance, she carefully made her way down a slight embankment. She slid down the steep slope cutting her leg along the way, which caused blood to seep through her clothing and then drip down her thigh. She held her wound with one hand as she guided herself through the cavern floor. The ceiling began to get shorter as she progressed and remembered that she needed to crawl through a small shaft to get back to where she longed to be; in the comfort of the Rune. There was the sheer pleasure that the effect of the Rune gave her. It was like a drug pulling on an addict who would do anything for a fix.

  When she got to a place where she could no longer stand, Tamika inched herself on her belly through a slightly hidden passage leading through the rock and stone. She exited after a few grueling moments as she fought her way through.

  The cavern opened up and was illuminated by the massive crash site of the Rune. The cavern opening was about two hundred feet in diameter. There once was a shaft that ran up from the crashed Rune to the entry point in the mountains. Shortly after the Rune crashed, the tunnel that had been left behind collapsed on itself, sealing the cavern.

  She rested on her back as she leaned against the rocks at the edge of the cavern opening and removed her crystal from where she had it safely tucked away.

  She concentrated on the crystal with her mind trying to gain strength when her surroundings changed. She found herself standing in a yellowish-red colored sphere. The walls of the sphere looked as if white colored paint flowed like liquid lightning which inter mixed with the rest of the colors and then turning back to white and continue flowing all around. This eerie color pattern continued to cause Tamika to fixate on the changing patterns until she shook herself out of the trance she was beginning to enter.

  “Roth’stavous…” she said in a very harsh commanding tone. “Show yourself!”

  Tamika approached the center of the sphere in her mind trying to invoke the entity within the power crystal. The white color seemed to change in behavior the closer she came to the center. Then all at once, the white flowing color all gathered in one place on the sphere, just above Tamika. The color began to bleed from the top of the sphere and as it fell to the floor, it pooled up and formed a liquid looking being as it took human form.

  “It is I madam…” Roth’stavous weakly said.

  “I need energy…” Tamika said coldly.

  “I am afraid I cannot accommodate just yet,” he slowly said.

  “Well, why not!” she yelled back.

  “Time travel… and those distance transports… they have drained my power source… I need a few hours…”

  “Time travel?” she asked.

  “Yes… time travel…” Roth’stavous answered seeing that he could use her memory loss to his advantage. He wasn’t ready to give up fighting the Rune. For the time being the entity was in control. “You traveled several times to the crash site aftermath a thousand years ago.”

  “Yes, I remember doing that,” she said as she consumed from the entity as much energy as she could.

  Roth’stavous stood before Tamika now in full view and human form. At first, the entity startled her, but then she began to recognize the entity as her grandfather. For a moment her eyes turned completely normal. The Rune vanished from the present and Tamika, daughter of Qiaoshan of the house of Sö’, rose to the surface.

  Tamika looked at her grandfather’s image within the sphere and began to cry.

  “What have I done?” she sobbed.

  Roth’stavous reached out and took her by the shoulders and stared at her in her eyes. “Tamika… my granddaughter… you must listen to me…”

  She turned her head away in fear of what he was going to tell her. He reached out like a parent, grabbed her chin and swung her head back to his gaze.

  “Listen carefully…” he began, “I cannot hold you here much longer before the Rune takes over once more… Roth’stavous is dead now… since he communed with this crystal, he was connected… the Rune infection killed him and his essence is now completely within this crystal… I do not hold you responsible my dear… you still have time to reject the Rune… you must not fall to its beckoning call… you must gather all your strength and fight this thing within you… do not let it win…”

  Tamika’s eyes began to change back to the color of the infection and her countenance slowly faded away, leaving room once again for the Rune to rule.

  “My granddaughter… remember to fight… you will prevail…” he said as Tamika’s presence faded all together.

  “Why do you continue to fight the Rune Roth’stavous?” Tamika said in a sharp tone.

  “I will never fall to the Rune my dear,” he said slowly fading away into the white color light which evaporated and returned to the walls of the sphere.

  “Roth’stavous!” she called, “You cannot leave when you desire… you must return… I command you… return at once!”

  The entity remained silen
t and the sphere faded within her mind. She opened her eyes and looked about. She stood and limped the rest of the way over the broken shards of the once alive but now dead crystals. Tens of thousands of crystals littered the floor of the cavern. They had all perished when the Rune crashed on Ackturra. The immense power that the Raw Rune had on anything in a one hundred foot circumference of the cavern, ended up burned and charred as if it were a nuclear spill. The Rune started to glow brighter as she returned to her master.

  The power surged through her body as she pressed her hands on the surface of the fully exposed Rune material. Her eyes brightened and her open wound in her leg dried up. Yellow colored thick fluid flowed out of the wound and covered it over like a patch that completely protected the open sore giving it time to heal.

  She slowly panted as she pulled energy directly from the Rune. Her stance was that of an athlete performing stretches at a wall, one leg straight behind and one slightly bent and pressing forward with the rest of her body. She pressed in as hard as she could with her arms to try and enter as far into the Rune as she could. She could only bury her arms mid-way up her forearms. When she could no longer take the full exposure of the Rune, she yanked out her arms, stood straight up as tall as she could and raised her arms to the sky. She let out a mighty yell as she discharged a huge surge of energy upward lighting up the entire cavern room and then darkening down as the surge diminished. The bolt of energy surged toward the ceiling of the cavern, which caused several rocks to explode and fall in proximity of Tamika, but never striking her or the Rune almost as if they had been deflected by some type of force.

  She turned to her power crystal and muttered something about Roth’stavous and needing a bigger dose. Taking her crystal by both hands she plunged one end of the crystal into the Rune substance. She shoved the crystal down into the Rune as far as possible.

  She could hear a cry of pain within her mind so powerful and with so much emotion that it made her wince and she shut her eyes tight.

  The energy from the Rune entered the crystal causing sparks of yellow reddish lighting to discharge from what appeared to be within the crystal. The painful screams continued as they began to turn to battle cries. She quickly removed the crystal from the Rune in fear that Roth’stavous had begun to win the present war between the entity and the Rune.

  What’s the matter, madam? Roth’stavous said in her mind. We were afraid just now… truly afraid… afraid that I would win.

  “Stop it!” she demanded. “Just… stop it!” she cried out while maintaining her Rune posturing.

  This is very interesting madam… he finished as his voice faded from her mind.

  She quickly tucked away her crystal when she heard the unmistakable sound of crunching glass being stepped on.

  She slowly turned in each direction searching for the source when a figure stepped into the illumination, “My dear sister!” Jhovahkan said, “How are you these days?” he said with his usual evil grin.

  “My dear brother!” she sarcastically grinned back.

  “I did what you asked… now it is your turn,” Jhovahkan said, bowing to his sister.

  * * *

  Leif Erikson – Outer Rim

  Year: 2983

  Jhahnahkan rolled onto his back from landing face first after trying to intercept his brother. He failed at keeping is brother from entering the vortex, stranding them in the outer rim for a very long time. Without Jhovahkan’s power crystal, they would not be able to open the vortex to return to Ackturra.

  He writhed in pain from side to side as he continued to bear the energy blasts from his brother. His hands and forearms still glowed blue giving off a white lightning shower of sparks that dissipated off the surfaces of this hands.

  He held them out in front of him now, turning them from front to back. He fully realized what he had accomplished. He now knew that he didn’t just let his brother escape, he prevented him from doing anything further… “What is this new ability I possess?” He asked himself, “How could I thwart off those high powered energy blasts from my brother’s power crystal?”

  The blue glow gradually dissipated as well as the energy surging through his hands and arms ceased from sparking into the air.

  The hair on his head stood on end as the last of the energy surges left his body. The security detail helped him off the ground.

  “Are you alright sir?” one of them asked.

  “I’m fine…” he said as he recovered, “I think…”

  The com system opened with the sound of Kate’s voice, “What the hell is going on down there?”

  “Situation under control.” Jhahnahkan said, “Everyone return to your posts… secure from general quarters.”

  Jhahnahkan and his security team returned to the command center of the Leif Erikson. Kate turned and gave her husband a stare, “Enough with these close calls hun… I’m getting closer you know… just a few more months and this baby is going to arrive whether you are here or not.” She said turning back to her console, “I’d rather you were here.”

  The doctor rushed onto the bridge carrying a silver metal case and some collars in hand. “Here… let me have a look at you.” He said to his captain.

  He scanned his hands and arms, “I’m afraid you have moderate first degree burns on each of your palms… I ran the security footage back and saw what you did down there.” He exclaimed.

  Kate stood and turned to her husband. She took his hands in hers and closed her eyes. The red burns dissipated from his hands as swirls of energy traveled from his arms down into her hands and up into her arms. She released his hands and he held them out in front inspecting them.

  Sam scanned his hands again, “That is amazing I must say… no burns… just like that…”

  “That’s a pretty good trick you got there ma’am.” Rex said looking with amazement.

  “Pretty handy too,” Jhahnahkan said with a grin.

  “Very funny!” Kate said keeping a smirk to herself.

  Qiaoshan stepped forward and stood by his son. “We all saw what you did down there.”

  “We also saw your brother leave…” Luanren said entering into the discussion.

  “…With the only power crystal from here to Toledo…” Glenda said with nervousness.

  Jhahnahkan returned to his command chair and addressed his bridge crew with a more serious look on his face.

  “Crew,” he began, “I know you are all concerned about the fact that we just lost our only means of returning to Ackturrian space,” he paused for only a moment to gather his thoughts and then continued. “We have not come this far to accept failure. We shall find a way back to Ackturra. We shall succeed, we have to.” He finished somberly.

  Jhahnahkan stood and began to pace the bridge deck inspecting each console to ensure every setting was correct. Occasionally, he would point out perhaps a better setting and then move on.

  “Helm, maintain your course to the Touulug system. Full power to engines and prepare the slipstream drive…” he ordered.

  “Aye, sir,” Rex replied with confidence.

  He flipped switches and moved knobs ensuring his calculations were accurate before engaging the full onslaught of the slipstream drive. He verified that his course was set and punched the main thruster. The low hum of the ship’s engines began to increase in pitch as Rex gunned the Leif to maximum velocity.

  “My grandfather told me what I must do,” Jhahnahkan said, “I must find the crystal forge on Ackturra, deep beneath the crystal caverns to a depth in the planet no one knew existed.”

  Qiaoshan and Luanren looked at each other and shook their heads.

  “I did not know that this ‘crystal forge’ existed, my son,” Qiaoshan said.

  “Nor did I…” Luanren added.

  “This ‘ancient’ that Roth’stavous told me about, and also what Helen referenced in her recording, is the key to defeating the Rune.”

  “Sir,” Rex interrupted, “we’re approaching slipstream velocity threshold.”<
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  Jhahnahkan finished his bridge inspection and returned to the center of the command bridge. Standing behind Rex, he rested his hand on his shoulder. “Engage slipstream!”

  Rex pressed the final button sequence on the console, which was followed by several beeps and blips confirming the slipstream drive engine had been engaged.

  The Leif Erikson quickly crossed into slipstream on course to Ackturra.

  “What is our current ETA?” Jhahnahkan asked.

  “Final calculation…” Rex began. “Five years, seven months, nine days, six hours, seventeen minutes, and twenty one seconds…to be exact.”

  “Very good then,” Jhahnahkan said placing his hands on his hips.

  “Very good?” Kate said, turning to her husband.

  “Yes… do not worry…” he answered holding Kate close to him. “There will be a way that will present itself…”

  “But…” Kate tried to say.

  “…but nothing… just put those thoughts out of your head.” He turned to address his entire bridge crew. “That goes for everyone… put the thoughts out of your mind that we are stuck here… concentrate on our return.”

  Jhahnahkan turned and began to exit the command center, “I require some meditation… please do not disturb me for any reason… I shall return shortly and attempt to summon the

  vortex that will carry us back.”

  Kate ran over before he left the bridge completely and gave him a big kiss on his cheek, “I know you can do this… I believe in you,” she said with tears in her eyes. Kate turned and didn’t look back as her lover left to prepare for this seemingly impossible task.

  * * *

  Crystal Cavern – Rune Crash Site

  Year: 2983

  “I said it is your turn…” Jhovahkan repeated. “Fulfill your end of the bargain.”