‘Which they are not going to do,’ he stressed.
‘But don’t you see, it is the perfect plan B … for if we fail to turn up the missing item, the missing Lord, and our mysterious player, we can use the chariot as a cover to sneak into Inanna’s stronghold. And,’ she spoke up as the Dragon opened his mouth to protest, ‘no one said the chariot has to be in working order when we deliver it. If this unknown person is working with Inanna’s representatives, then we want he or she to feel free to catch a ride back to her base with them. It will be considerably easier to search their transport than it will be to search this city.’
Maelgwn raised both brows, intrigued by the idea, as he could stow away on Inanna’s vessel, wait until everyone on board was in stasis and then search the ship unhindered.
‘Fair foresight, huh?’ Aquilla fished for a pat on the back.
‘Indeed,’ Maelgwn smiled. ‘I may just do as you advise.’
‘You mean we,’ Aquilla corrected, as she pulled Maelgwn to a stop. ‘I go with my machinery. Inanna will expect me to deliver the chariot and her blueprints to her.’
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ he advised as he resumed his course to the appointment. Unlike Tory, Aquilla was not an immortal warrior. Hence, there was no way he would allow her to accompany him on such a mission.
‘I want your word on it.’ Aquilla seemed to sense his true intent, even without telepathic access to his thoughts.
Maelgwn stepped onto the closest transporter plate and took his leave without further comment. Truth be known, he had a plan of his own, that he dared not discuss with anyone before he had the Lord Marduk’s consent to give it a try.
On the rooftop Maelgwn found the door to the tall tower that rose beyond Mazua’s transparent domed force field, to connect with the massive underbelly of the central module of the Aten. The exterior security plate scanned his hand and granted him entry. Through the door was a platform that, as soon as it was occupied, rose to the top of the tower. As Maelgwn sped towards the hatch door above, he became a little anxious that perhaps the platform was not going to stop short of squashing him like a pancake. At the last moment, the hatchway vanished, and Maelgwn was elevated all the way into the Aten where he was met by two security guards.
‘Welcome back, Dragon.’ Cadwallon greeted Maelgwn as he stepped off the platform into the small, enclosed security chamber.
‘We’ve missed you,’ Candace added with a smile.
‘Not as much as I’ve missed you,’ Maelgwn assured them both.
‘The Lord Marduk awaits you in the next chamber,’ Candace advised.
‘We’ll guard the hatch,’ Cadwallon added.
Maelgwn nodded in gratitude and made straight for his audience. He hoped the Lord would not ask him to remove the thought wave neutraliser he wore and pulled the sleeve of his suit down to conceal it from view.
Zerrah had teams of guards combing the city for the missing Lord, and was coordinating the search from the security quarters inside Gibal’s central building. The man Zerrah had put on the job of attempting to trace the destination of the mini-transporter was the only other person present.
‘Captain,’ he called for Zerrah’s attention. ‘I know why I can’t get a trace on this thing … it’s not a transporter at all. It’s a particle converter with no reverse function.’
‘What?’ Zerrah frowned. ‘But what good is that?’
‘That’s what I mean … either this is the smallest garbage disposal unit ever made, or it has been invented purely as a decoy.’
‘So the stolen item is still here,’ uttered Zerrah in conclusion, as he didn’t think it likely that someone would go to all the trouble of stealing this mysterious item, only to destroy it. That ought to put a smile on the Dragon’s face. He glanced back at a wall of invisible screens in the centre of the security quarters.
Each of these screens was allocated to each of the microscopic, mobile cameras that patrolled Mazua, and on the screen that supplied visual of this building’s docking bay, Zerrah spied his sister. What on earth is she up to? ‘Take over here, will you?’ he commented to the sole officer remaining as he went to investigate what Aquilla was doing in the main docking area.
Zerrah approached quietly, for his instinct told him to be cautious. It was not that he distrusted his sister, but there seemed to be an element of tension about her movements as she locked up a large case. The case was positioned close by the transport belonging to Inanna’s officials, and as the loading ramp to the cargo hold was down, it appeared as if the case was to be loaded on board.
When the case was secured Aquilla turned to spy her brother looming by one of the other transports in the dock. ‘Zerrah!’ Although she seemed stunned to see him, Aquilla kept her voice low, and her eyes darted about quickly, as if seeking a third party.
‘Is everything alright?’ He began to move toward her, curious as to her distressed state.
‘Shh!’ she urged, with tears in her eyes. ‘Get out of here,’ she whispered harshly, motioning with both hands for him to flee.
‘Tell me what’s going on?’ Although Zerrah held his ground, he dropped his voice.
Aquilla shook her head slowly and tears began to stream down her face. That’s when Zerrah noticed that his sister was focused, not on himself, but on someone just behind him.
He was not given the chance to confront his stalker as a sonic pulse bullet ploughed into his back and Zerrah blacked out.
It took some time to convey their current situation to Marduk, and the clues that had been uncovered so far. Somehow Maelgwn managed to explain his perplexing circumstance without even mentioning Aquilla. He referred to her only as Gibal’s assistant.
‘I realise it must appear that I have failed miserably in my mission,’ Maelgwn granted, thankful to have thought of a way to redeem himself. ‘But, I believe I have devised a means to recover both Gibal and the NERGUZ without need for a full-scale investigation.’
Marduk nodded, eager to hear the Dragon’s proposal.
‘Gibal’s assistant has been commissioned by Inanna to build a replica of the time shifting chariot created by myself in Atlantis, and left in the safekeeping of Myrddin and Taliesin back on Gaia.’
Inanna stole the chariot from Myrddin during one of his visits to ancient Egypt to see me, Marduk advised. My dear sister-in-law must have had the blueprints of the prototype drawn up before we managed to steal the chariot back. Which is no doubt what she plans to do with our NERGUZ.
‘It will not come to that.’ Maelgwn implored the Lord to hear him out. ‘It is my intention to use the chariot to go back to before the NERGUZ was stolen and avert the whole incident by insisting Gibal move his research centre under your protection sooner.’
But is that not what you were sent to do in the first place?
It was obvious the Lord knew he was not getting the full story. ‘Gibal’s reasons for staying put made sound sense at the time,’ he explained in his own defence.
Are you sure there wasn’t any other reason why you wished to be detained on Lura? Marduk queried. By all reports, it is a very pretty place.
‘I was sent to Gibal’s service and his wish was to remain on Lura,’ Maelgwn clarified.
I see. Marduk seemed dissatisfied with the response. Tell me, Dragon, why is it that you have failed to mention where you were at the time the NERGUZ went missing?
Maelgwn bowed his head, somewhat taken aback by the question. There was no more getting around the truth. He’d have to tell a bare-faced lie to avoid disclosing his private association with the female Delphinus. As spinning falsehoods was something he’d never been very good at, Maelgwn resigned himself to tell the truth. ‘I was at the —’
The door that led to the small audience chamber from the security dock opened, and Cadwallon entered to inform. ‘A small craft has been launched from the Mazua, Dragon, and is headed back towards the wormhole.’
Maelgwn’s first thought was that the unknown stalker was making a getaway. It
also occurred that Aquilla may be taking some rash action of her own concocting. Either way, he needed to get back onto Mazua at once. ‘Sorry, my Lord,’ he looked back to Marduk, ‘but I must go. I hope you can see your way clear to trusting me a while longer, so I can make amends for this mess.’
Marduk gave Maelgwn the nod, whereby the Dragon closed his eyes and willed himself to the small lab where Aquilla had housed the chariot.
When the chariot was discovered missing, Maelgwn’s worst fear was realised. He pressed his hand over his communicator to see if he could contact Aquilla and silently prayed that no harm had befallen her as he awaited a response. He summoned her several times, before giving up and contacting her brother instead. When Zerrah failed to answer his call, Maelgwn really started to panic.
Uriah, he tried as a last resort, but the young diplomat did not reply either.
‘Goddess preserve me!’ he cried, frustrated. ‘I’m surprised the whole of Mazua has not disappeared from under my nose. What has happened to me lately? I was smarter as a mortal!’ He stormed around the small lab on the verge of seriously losing his mind. ‘How is this terrorist managing to stay one step ahead … it’s like he knows my every move.’
There was certainly something he’d overlooked, but his situation did not allow time to sit and contemplate the evidence and events of these past few days. Maelgwn’s thoughts turned to Aquilla and although he risked disclosing his immortal nature once again, he willed himself to her side.
In the stasis chamber of the small moving craft, Maelgwn found four tubes in operation. Although he could not view the occupants, Maelgwn guessed that Aquilla, Uriah, Zerrah and the mysterious terrorist were contained therein. Still, as Maelgwn could do little about apprehending the guilty party at present, he thought it best to have a hunt around for the incriminating evidence.
The vessel itself was not very large. Beside the stasis chamber, there was a moderately-sized lounge area that was open to the flight deck to the front of the spacecraft. Out through the front window shield Maelgwn noted the vessel was only a short distance from entering the wormhole through to the Deneb system and so he made haste towards the cargo hold at the rear of the craft.
There were quite a few transport cases contained therein, the largest of which, Maelgwn guessed, contained the chariot. If he was right, then he could put an end to this whole disaster here and now. The latches around the top of the case were not locked and were easily unbolted. Lifting the lid to the huge container, Maelgwn found he was in luck, and with a great thrust he threw the lid of the case wide open to expose the time-shifting chariot.
As he raised himself up to climb into the container, Maelgwn heard a moan from someone close at hand, and so quietly lowered himself back down onto the floor.
Around the far side of the transport case Maelgwn was stunned to find a body laying in the shadows and, expecting to find Gibal, Maelgwn moved to investigate. It was not the missing Lord but Zerrah, who, as a mortal, had been left for dead. ‘Why, in the name of the Goddess, aren’t you in stasis?’ Maelgwn crouched beside the unconscious man and lifted him over his shoulder. ‘And if you aren’t in stasis, who else is?’ He strained under the dead weight of the warrior he carried into the flight lounge. The wormhole now filled the entire view out the front shield and the vessel was felt to speed up as it entered the wormhole’s field.
‘Mercy sakes!’ Maelgwn pressed on towards the stasis chamber, knowing he had only seconds remaining before the atoms of Zerrah’s body would be scattered to the four ends of the universe.
Upon entering the chamber Maelgwn threw Zerrah’s body in the closest available stasis tube. When he turned back from programming the activation sequence, Maelgwn found Zerrah wide awake and staring at him.
‘It was you,’ he uttered, as the tube closed up and constrained him in its hold.
The next moment their transport shot forth into the space tunnel and the atoms of every object around Maelgwn began their weird race to stay bound to their matter. A moment later, everything returned to normal.
Maelgwn moved out to the flight deck to behold the lovely blue planet of Lura out through the front shield window.
‘How odd.’
The trip had seemed dramatically shorter this time round, and Maelgwn could only assume that the tunnel must have been free of etheric leakage at present.
As the ship was veering away from Lura, Maelgwn sat himself down in the pilot’s seat to learn what their destination was. Although Maelgwn was not familiar with this particular model of spacecraft, its readouts were similar to other vessels that he did have knowledge of, hence it didn’t take him long to find the data he sought.
Their destination was a star system known as Dinara, meaning ‘bright red heaven’. This system was accessed via another smaller wormhole, which was to be found on the outer reaches of the Deneb system. The planet sought in Dinara was Laarsa — ‘seeing red light’. This was where Inanna’s stronghold was to be found.
As there was another wormhole to navigate, Maelgwn thought it a safe bet that the stasis tubes would remain sealed until after the second quantum leap of the journey was over.
‘Then this would seem to be the perfect time to delete this instance from existence,’ he concluded, raising himself to do just that.
Back in the cargo hold, Maelgwn climbed into the large transport case. The chariot was psychokinetically driven, so once Maelgwn was standing inside the transport, he closed his eyes and thought back to his time of arrival in Lura. A few moments after he’d departed from his first meeting with Gibal, seemed as good an instance as any to achieve his goal. And thus, Maelgwn willed this scenario to unfold in Gibal’s audience chamber.
Moment’s later, Maelgwn opened his eyes to discover he hadn’t moved — he was still in the cargo hold.
‘Aw, give me a break!’ he grumbled, manoeuvring himself around the top of the case to check the chariot’s drive system — which was not an easy task given how snug the chariot sat inside its transport case.
A quick glance was all that was required to find the problem — the crystal that was the heart of the drive system was missing.
‘My mistake.’ Maelgwn recalled confiscating the stone from Aquilla. When he checked the compartment in his belt where he’d stored the crystal, the item was no longer there. ‘What was I thinking?’ Too dismayed to be angered, he could easily have cried, but with a few deep breaths Maelgwn actually thought of an up side to this particular betrayal. He would never get to know Aquilla if he altered the past. The thought occurred that perhaps Aquilla had managed to swipe the stone back from him during one of their close encounters. So when she emerged from stasis, if she had the quasi-crystal with her, he would attempt his objective again.
Meanwhile, there were other transport cases in the cargo hold, so he climbed out of the chariot’s container to continue his search for Gibal and the NERGUZ.
The smaller transport cases were all moulded from charichalum, and had voice-coded locks. Maelgwn attempted shooting off one of the locks, which only succeeded in melting the mechanism that sealed the case closed.
‘Well, whatever is in these, it’s not what I’m looking for.’ Maelgwn gave up on them as they were all too small to contain Gibal, or too large to hold the NERGUZ. The way Maelgwn saw it, Gibal had to be the fifth person in stasis and the Lord was probably being restrained by his own invention. So until such time as the stasis tubes opened, he had little choice but to sit back and enjoy the ride.
The passage through the second, smaller wormhole was so instantaneous that the event was barely noticeable, although the star system to which it led was rather spectacular to the eye.
The largest star of the Dinara system gave off a red illumination, and Laarsa was one of the planets in orbit around it. But further off, in the not too distant recesses of space, was another star, blue in colour and one that shone yellow much like Gaia’s sun.
As he entered the stasis chamber, Maelgwn took his PKA sonic pulse blaster in
hand. Two of the tubes had opened to disclose the Leonine officials — one male, one female — that had been in Mazua on Inanna’s business.
The male was middle-aged and a little overweight, his face round and jolly-looking. The female was young and trim, with flaming red hair, as was the case with most of the Leonine breed. She was rather beautiful in a cosmetic, extravagant kind of way.
‘Paralyse, from the neck down.’ Maelgwn shot them both with the blaster before they’d even regained consciousness, wondering how the pair had come to be here and not in stasis in Mazua? The shock of the sonic pulse bullet served to wake them in a hurry.
‘What is going on?’ The male Leonine was alarmed when he could not raise himself, until he spotted Maelgwn and the weapon he sported. ‘Where in the heavens did you spring from?’
‘Where is Gibal?’ Maelgwn began his interrogation.
The Leonine frowned, as did his female companion. ‘Back on Mazua, I expect,’ she answered.
‘What do the smaller transport cases in your cargo hold contain?’ Maelgwn queried them further.
‘Are you a Pantheon official?’ The male Leonine looked panicked. ‘Because we have nothing to do with the contents of any of those cases. We are just the couriers, you understand.’
The female Leonine nodded to agree.
Maelgwn returned the PKA sonic pulse blaster to his thigh holster and pulled out his EMS Wand — this was set to the highest frequency of the electromagnetic light spectrum, ultra-violet. ‘What is in the cases?’ As he pushed for an answer, Maelgwn approached the male official so that the threat of the weapon he held seemed more intimate.
‘Munitions,’ the Leonine blurted out as Maelgwn got too close for comfort.
‘Then, why should you fear Pantheon detection?’ Maelgwn quizzed.
‘Perhaps I should have said illegal munitions.’ He forced a smile as his interrogator backed up and returned his weapon to his belt.
The remaining three stasis tubes opened to disclose Aquilla, Uriah and Zerrah, and this drew Maelgwn’s attention.
Chronicle of Ages Page 28
