by S V Hurn
Patsup recoiled. “They are the ones that brought us out of the darkest years, and we have prospered from their involvement!”
“Involvement. Is that what you are calling it? Control seems to be a far more accurate term!”
Brenda walked in. “Enough with the shouting and bickering, you could wake the dead with it!” She leaned into Dimitri. I ran some tests on Dora—you’re right, and by the looks of it her uncoded DNA is restructuring itself. Dim you might want to look at the data.”
Dimitri stood stretching his back, “I will put it up here so we can all get a look at it.” Dimitri strode to the console and pulled up a holographic image. Magnus raised an eyebrow as the image came into focus. Dimitri shook his head in astonishment. “Unbelievable. Her genetic code is realigning itself with her un-coded DNA.
“The question is,” Magnus said, thinking out loud, “what does it all mean?”
Jobar sat with his hands on top of his head, eyes glazed over. “What this means, is that Dora can get us to the other side . . . given the fact that we are able to find the answer to the puzzle, and according to legend find this crystal capstone she saw depicted on the wall of the cave.”
Patsup slowly registered what his older brother had just said and moments later, when the fog lifted from his mind, he suddenly stood up, knocking his chair to the floor. His eyes wide, his brain trying to recall the image of Prime Minister Athanatos on the flight field that day. “Yes!” Yes of course, he shouted. “yes, it all makes sense!”
Jobar said, with a more than usual annoyed look on his face, “Now what are you carrying on about, can’t you see we are discussing something very important!”
“For once!” Patsup yelled, spitting his words, “Why won’t you regard me as you regard him!” He pointed to Coolie.
“Because he isn’t a self-righteous narcissistic fool!”
“So now your true feelings come out!” Patsup kicked his brother in the knee as Jobar buckled in pain. Jobar, holding his leg gritting his teeth in anger said, “It was your big illusions of grandeur that got us in this predicament!”
“Whoa. You two need to corral that shit . . . this isn’t the time or the place.” Henry said as he helped Jobar into a chair. “And you go sit over there.” Henry pointed to Patsup.
“You can’t tell me what to do!”
Henry rolled his eyes and stood leering down at Patsup, standing a good meter shorter than him. “Sit . . . down . . . now.”
Brenda shook her head and had to laugh, as the rest of the group were holding back tears. “Now, now, children . . . we need to play nice.” Brenda spoke in her usual soothing voice that was always reserved for when she wanted to get her way. “Now Patsup, please tell us what you were about to say . . . something pertaining to the crystal capstone.”
Patsup looked into Brenda’s eyes as if it were the first time, a flash of recognition appearing that had been hidden away beneath a veil of uncertainty. My God, he thought, the resemblance is uncanny. He sat in his chair scowling like a pouting child who had been sent to the corner. “As I was saying . . . before being rudely interrupted, our Prime Minister wore such a thing as you describe on a heavy chain around her neck. It flung itself out of her uniform as she un-buttoned her collar, yelling something about the heat. I remember it because the substance inside glows as this ship does.”
All eyes were on Patsup now, who was feeling vindicated with his chin held high, arms crossed tightly over his chest.
Henry sat back for once in the normal sitting position. “Well that certainly puts a new twist on things.”
Dimitri grabbed a chair and propped his feet up on the console. “How do you say . . . the shit is hitting the fan?”
“Precisely the words I was thinking, my Russian friend,” Manus said, rubbing the stubble on his chin.
Henry stated the obvious, “The one person we were trying to avoid, has now become the person we aim to seek. How and why the hell would she have such an item?”
Coolie recalled from memory all the seemingly useless information. “I believe she is in fact one of the direct descendants from your New World Order and if that is the case, she has a great interest in all of us as well . . . now that she has seen your ship, she has no doubt started to connect the dots.”
“Yes . . . I’m sure she has, Henry said. “Time for us to devise a plan . . . considering the facts surrounding the evidence are accurate.”
Patsup scowled back. “I’m sure of it!”
Dorathy slowly padded into the room. Henry rushed over to her. “How you doing kiddo?
“Drugged . . . I feel . . . I don’t know . . . exhausted . . . and hungry. Brenda immediately got her something to eat and Dimitri gave her a shot of what was left of Coolie’s moonshine.
Jobar could barely contain himself. “Please Dora, tell us of the message you found on the planet! Can you describe it to us, because it is very important to know precisely what it said?”
Henry loomed over her. “Give her some space, guys.”
Dorathy rubbed her eyes trying to focus. “I’m fine,” as she waved him off. She took the plate Brenda handed her and said with a mouthful, “Give me something to draw with.”
Magnus punched a series of keys on the console and handed her a blank pad. “Here you go Dora.”
She immediately started to draw the pictogram from memory, paying close attention to every detail. With every stroke a large image filled the room with ever-growing detail. Dorathy smiled and said, as she could feel the tension building, “Good thing I got my mother’s talent for painting.”
When she was done Patsup gasped, Jobar and Coolie exchanged knowing glances, and the rest of the crew knew what needed to be done. So, what’s the verdict, because from your expressions, I may have missed something while I was snoozing?”
“Yeah, you did,” Henry said reluctantly.
“Dora, hold up your hand and look at your fingers.”
She did as she was asked with a puzzled look on her face. She didn’t see it at first but slowly she noticed. “I’m . . . glowing?” Dorathy became faint and steadied herself. “Please someone tell me what’s going on!”
Dimitri brought up the image of her DNA. “Dora, you seem to be evolving at a high rate.”
She buried her face in her hands reeling from the past events. “What else . . . the looks on your faces tells me there’s more.”
Jobar cleared his throat and with a heavy sigh said, “We need to find our Prime Minister, she has the crystal amulet that she wears around her neck, and it is the capstone that has the power to open the portal.”
Dorathy leaned back in her seat feeling queasy. “When is this going to end, can someone please tell me when this is going to be over?”
The silence that filled the room was deafening. “Dora, look at me,” Henry said, kneeling in front of her. “We have to get this from her. Once she realizes its power and how to wield it, the dynamics will change. She will stop at nothing to find us . . . to find you. I that happens there will be a breakdown in their civilization knowing they can travel back and forth between here and the other side.”
Dorathy sobbed, “Who are we to say who should have the power and who shouldn’t’?” Henry held her glowing hand. “Dora you have the power and you need to protect it, and
I believe that was the sole purpose of you being here.”
She looked back at Henry with weary eyes knowing he was right. “I’m exhausted Henry.”
Henry kissed her capable hands. “I know . . . trust me I know.”
Jobar bravely approached. “I owe you an apology Dora, if not for my absentmindedness you would not have been abducted and for that I’m truly sorry.
Dorathy didn’t have a clue what he was talking about but simply looked at him and shone a weary smile. She neither had the words nor the strength.
CHAPTER 45
Kore sat in the dark staring at her amulet scattering a rainbow of colors, as it twirled from its chain in the glow of the firelig
ht. It filled her small room with millions of pinpoints shining like the vastness of space. She sat contemplating her next move, knowing the power she had fitting in the palm of her hand, but not knowing its purpose. She rolled over in her mind what the missing piece might be. The planets, the ship, what was Simms not telling her.
Kore knew what she needed to do as she drifted off to sleep tightly clutching her crystal pyramid. Whispering to the darkness, I need to find that ship.
The next morning she arranged for Silas to take her to the planet she dreaded the most, with its hot swamps and annoying inhabitants. She stood in the cold airfield waiting for him to arrive, the wind whipping her cloak around her ankles. Breathing deeply, she could see his approach over the jagged mountain peaks, causing a flurry of snow as the ship sped past. In the distance she could hear the roll of thunder with an advancing storm.
Silas, showing off his expertise, slowed her ship to a hover with landing struts extended, gracefully swinging the tail section around and hitting the ground softly. Kore climbed up the ramp, moving with a purpose. “I trust my assistant has sent you the logs.”
“Yes ma’am.” Silas was not eager to make yet another trip back to the hot swamps of Alger but was growing impatient and wanted answers.
Hours seemed to pass like days in the presence of Kore and Silas was happy to comply with her demands and stay on the ship; this would give him plenty of time to do his own investigative work. She hissed as she left, “I will return shortly . . . be on stand-by for immediate departure.”
Silas nodded and lowered the ramp, feeling the hot steamy air filling the cabin. Kore’s joints froze immediately from the humidity and the increased gravity. Her escort from the local office of Space and Flight Administration was waiting for her on the busy space port as arranged. Entering the vehicle she scowled, “Lower the temperature at once before I melt!” He dutifully did as instructed, punching the air control hard with his fist.
Officer Gred was a squat, ill-mannered individual with very little patience for redundancy. “So Prime Minister Athanatos, what’s so damned important that I get called out for checking some poor shmuck for a minor infraction of not logging all flights; you know everyone does it around these parts. They’re all a bunch of hard-working miners who are too damned tired to be constantly logging in and out every time they have to take a crap!”
She glared at him with eyes of steel. “Why I am actually here is none of your concern . . .”
Gred cut her off sharply. “It is my concern if I’m forced to cart you around on my time, lady!”
“You would be wise to re-evaluate the situation, or you will be left with nothing but time,” she said, giving him a knowing glance that she was not in the mood for his insubordinate behavior.
Gred just rolled his eyes, knowing when to quit as they rode in silence through the marsh lands that resembled a place where time forgot, with its boiling mud pits and steamy water vapor so thick you could cut it with a knife.
They came to an abrupt stop in front of Jobar’s home, saying, “Out of the homes searched of the three family members of this clan, this was the one that had been entered and by the looks of it ransacked in a hurry. The officers on duty said, they went out the back and took off before they could apprehend them for questioning.”
Kore knew all the details as she put the alert on Patsup and his family members after he escaped her questioning. Digging through his files was when she realized the ship in question was no other than his own brother’s. Once authorities questioned their sister Mares, she had unwittingly contributed the information of Jobar’s interest in Portal Seeking and his occasional mention of transient friends. Seeing that bit of information Kore immediately made the connection.
Kore entered the home knowing she would be the only one who could find the relevance of what may have been left behind. She peered into the office with Gred on her heels. He showed her a few random papers that had been collected that had been dropped along the way. “You coming here was a waste of our time,” he said as he handed her the small pile.
She snatched the papers from him, staring him down her long nose. “I will be the judge of that”! She shuffled through the papers that included a drawing and knew immediately she was on the right track. “I want all information about Mr. Jobar and his ship sent directly to my office.” She looked around the room to see if anything had been missed but she knew she had found what she was looking for. “Take me back to my ship,” she demanded. Gred shrugged his shoulders and was only too happy to comply.
After a long day she sat in her large chair in the dark as she had for so many years. She rolled around all the questions in her head but was never able to find the answers she was looking for. The one thing she knew for certain was that they needed the one thing that only she possessed. She knew they would be coming for her as she looked around her small fortress. “I will be the bait and you will step right into my web.”
Henry said as he stood, “Okay guys we know what we need to do, now we just need to figure out how we’re going to do it.” Everyone sat and looked at each other as they thought.
Magnus said abruptly, “If we plan on taking the amulet from her, we need to find the path of the least resistance: I think that would be where she resides.”
Jobar turning a paler green. “How are we going to find that information, we can’t just ask someone for directions!”
Magnus smiled. “No, but we can take that information, all we have to do is extract it.”
“From where?” Jobar asked afraid he already knew the answer.
Henry knew he was right. “Sounds like that’s right up your alley. We just need to figure out how we can get into the building.”
Jobar shook his head trembling, “You can’t be serious, and we can’t break into the NWO headquarters, that’s insane! It’s suicide!”
Magnus thought back at all the places he had managed to escape from and all the mainframes he had hacked into, for the many diabolical fiends whom he called clients. “Piece of cake,” Magnus said confidently.
Jobar looked at Coolie for help and all he got from his friend was a shrug. “But what if we get caught,” he cried.
Henry strode over and slapped him hard on the back. “We won’t.”
“We won’t? Really, that’s all you have to say, that’s not very reassuring you know.”
Henry was already devising the plan as he sat at the console pulling up all the information they had acquired over the years about the Capitol City and its grand palatial centerpiece. “Okay let’s do this.”
After a few hours they had their plan. Henry said with a new-found enthusiasm in his voice, “We all have our assignments, now let’s get some rest and then we head out.” Jobar still had his doubts of them succeeding and let his opinion be known. Henry laughed. “Hey, I hear they serve good meals in prison.”
Jobar did not find him amusing. “Not the way I want to spend my retirement years,” was all Jobar could say.
Hours later in the blackness of night they approached the Capitol City in silence, running low and fast, the starlight reflecting off the ship’s hull like a mirror, making them almost completely invisible. The air was cold and dry, still with barely a leaf fluttering as the ship came to hover over the top of the building that soared hundreds of feet into the air. Its middle column was the tallest with its winged head on the top level. At either side, two shorter buildings with a base on each in the shape of clawed feet made the structure look like a majestic bird with its long slender neck in the sitting position, surveying its territory and ready to attack.
Their ship, understanding the importance of a stealthy approach, had almost made itself completely undetectable by the naked eye or any other device that might be looking. It hovered silently inches away from the building as Magnus and Dimitri strode over onto the rooftop, clearing the abyss that faded off into darkness below. Henry, peering out the cockpit, watched them disappear as he maneuvered the ship slowly down the building’s
reflective walls to the courtyard below. Henry glanced at Dorathy sitting beside him, her tense posture reflecting what the rest of the group was experiencing with the mission at hand.
Over the years they had accumulated data about the security measures that were in place. Hoping nothing had changed, Magnus and Dimitri removed a panel that opened to the service elevator shaft. Once inside, they maneuvered into position below the compartment. They knew they only needed to use their personal antigrav packs down the center of the shaft to ground level. The supercomputer that kept tabs on every individual, on every planet, in all sectors that the NWO controlled, was kept in a highly secure facility in the sub-basements of this immense structure.
After squeezing themselves between the outer wall and the compartment, they peered down the shaft with head lamps but were only able to illuminate several meters down into the darkness. Magnus nodded to Dimitri as he jumped into the shaft, free-falling into the depths. A moment later Dimitri reluctantly followed suit. He looked at his readout and could see the glow of Magnus’s head light below him and fired up his pack. Only a moment later they slowed as the bottom was rushing towards them.
After a slow descent the ship came to land in front of the grand staircase. The gothic- looking courtyard was built around a huge fountain that reflected an ever-changing rainbow of colors as it sent cascading water dozens of meters into the air with a loud thunderous roar.
Henry unstrapped himself, and turned to look at his nervous crew, and said, “Come on guys get your weapons ready and make sure they are set on stun; the night guards will be back around shortly.”
Dorathy, Jobar, Coolie, and Henry exited, weapons aimed high, leaving Brenda and Patsup to guard the ship. Dorathy and Jobar flanked left while Coolie and Henry went right. There were four guards patrolling the grand entrance: two to the west and two to the east. One was above each staircase and one below, patrolling from front to back.
