“Samuel wasn’t the same, he seemed to have changed completely. I’d never had the best of relationships with him, but he was tolerable, reasonable and at least communicated. But when he returned he seemed to be somewhere else, lost in himself. He spent most of his time building the facility you see now and doing god knows what else behind closed doors.”
“And Ma’am?”
“Hmmm, she was not the same either, but sometimes a flicker of the old fire that was Luci burned again. We were the closest of friends once, but as time grew in the facility, so did our distance. Samuel put her in charge of operations once the facility was built, but she was never the same. I don’t know what happened to her, but she used to be such a lovely woman. That night changed her, and I have no idea why.”
Marion reached over and touched Catlin’s hand. “We all succumbed to our greed my dear. Suni and I may not have been responsible for the disappearance of the man named Smith but we surely forgot about him once we were seduced by the mysteries the thread unlocked. We are just as guilty for partaking. When Lucinda showed me the thread the first time in the shaft, I was amazed, I was hooked instantly and my greed for knowledge of it made me ignorant of the truth.”
“I wish I had of done what Alison did and left, I wish I had a little pride.”
Marion went silent during her reflection, Ursula panicked after a minute and shook her suddenly. “Mum? Mum, are you awake!”
“Yes, of course I am.”
“You weren’t moving, I thought …”
“Just thinking back my dear …” she exhaled deeply. “Anyway, Suni escaped some years later after an altercation with Lucinda. I guess she found the secret entrance as well. Would have been nice if she told me about it before she left!”
“Regardless,” she continued. “We’d spoken often about the transformation with Lucinda and Samuel, more so in Samuel though. It was if he’d had a personality makeover, he was just so different. Suni had joked once perhaps he was possessed by the devil, I had laughed with her about it at the time but now I am not so sure.”
“Why?” Ursula asked.
“I remember what the foreman, Smith, kept saying about the thread. That it was evil, it didn’t belong here and it had infected man, causing him to ruin Earth. I often wondered if it had infected Samuel, causing him to change so rapidly.”
“Smith hey?” Catlin mused aloud, holding the newspaper.
“You know, I thought that they’d killed him that night. But I guess I was wrong, for here he is, front page of the newspaper!”
“Go and see a man about a dog …” Catlin whispered.
“Huh?” Ursula replied.
“Your mum, before we left the facility she said …”
“I know, I remember!”
“Well, Marion, that’s what you want us to do right?”
“You have to find him, it’s the only option left to us,” Marion confirmed. “He’ll help you to understand what happened that night, he’ll also tell you what to do about my little discovery.”
“Discovery?”
“The last journal in the thread line, I found something and I think it’s what caused all the deaths and why the thread is no longer here.”
“What did you find?”
“I setup the system so it logs everything, including energy transfers.”
“Right.”
“Ursula will understand what this means better but Catlin, on the odd occasion when someone down there decides to play god they do what we call an energy transfer. Whether it be to revive a dying life and replenish their energy with another or if it’s to do the opposite …”
“You mean kill someone, like Peter?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “Then it’s recorded in the log, which I setup. Usually it is shown as two ones separated by a colon, as in one life for one life, understand?”
“Yes. One life for one life, I remember you showing me.”
“Well,” she gulped. “The last entry in the log is listed numerically as one hundred and seventy million to one.”
The girls were silent, both looked at each other confused.
“Marion? What are you trying to say?”
“How many people died, roughly, in the big incident after Destiny went into chaos?”
“Oh my God!” The two girls exclaimed, suddenly realising what she meant.
“Hmmm, oh my god indeed!”
- -
Lucinda
She knew she shouldn’t be spending time out in the open, in the streets where there were infinite ways for her to be caught. Even though she’d taken precautions by altering her appearance, she knew eventually, if she stayed within sight long enough, someone would recognise her.
She was a wanted woman.
She took to the streets wearing a hooded jacket and shawl to cover her head, hopeful it was enough to hide her face, hopeful nobody at Destiny was manning the surveillance stations and watching her every move.
She’d already survived a brush with a gang of bikers and didn’t want to run the risk of having anything similar happen again, so she did something even crazier, she went to the closest aid station as the soldiers had advised her earlier.
After her meeting with the pretty boy, Lucinda found herself rescuing the very kid she’d been trying to capture back at the Destiny facility. Ironic as it may have been, this in turn led to her meeting with the man who called himself Smith, to which she was unsure of her usefulness.
Perhaps she was only the conduit of information for him and given his apparent inability to retain memories, she considered it a possibility. She remembered what he’d said to her that night and he had repeated it back at Avalon airport. Confusing as it was, it was his mystery and not hers.
Thirty years had separated the two, thirty years she’d endured as he had foretold. Now she was set on her path, to help bring balance back. She felt redemption was her calling now, redemption for all the wrongs she’d done.
For the next part of her journey she knew she needed supplies but also knew she was limited by what she could find in the street. Knowing her best possibility of finding suitable goods was at an aid station, she made the decision to head there straight after meeting with Smith.
Thankful for a warm cup of coffee once she got there, Lucinda found herself sitting in cafeteria with a large group of people watching the endless streaming from the A.B.C on the fallout of the event. It was the only channel still running, albeit in emergency mode. This was true live television; all other media outlets had been abandoned.
She sat fascinated watching the reports, especially when a story came up about a secret intelligence installation that had been found in the mountains of New South Wales. The station reported the Australian government had discovered and commandeered a secret facility known only as Destiny.
Lucinda tried not to pay too much attention to the newscast, it being news, but seeing images of her former residence tugged at her emotions. To what purpose did the government have in taking control of Destiny? And how had they discovered it?
The government had never even known about the second installation underground, she had ensured this many times, even resorting to the thread on occasion. Thanks to her efforts they only believed there was the facility above ground who dealt with intelligence. Now the news was reporting the Destiny facility may have been linked to the event.
At this point in the telecast she noticed her image come up on screen, along with Samuel’s, as the main culprits and a reward was offered for information leading to their capture. Instinctively she pulled the jacket low over her face and sunk into her seat.
What had become of Samuel she wondered?
Her concern wasn’t too strong though, for she knew the real power of Destiny was no longer there, it had been returned to its master, who now walked the streets as if a man. The danger was no
w roaming free and she had no idea where he was or what he had planned.
The government may claimed to have had the facility, but it held no real power, it couldn’t wield danger anymore.
Destiny to them was useless.
But they didn’t know everything.
Her concerns did fall to the people who remained at the facility though, especially one person. She had watched numerous reports in the hopes of catching a glimpse of her on the television, but she never showed up, neither did Marion and her daughter Ursula.
Lucinda only hoped they’d found a way out, or a way to keep them out.
She felt a torn woman of late, a part of her still craved information on Destiny, for it was something she’d spent an extensive amount of time developing. In fact, the better part of her life had been spent up in those hills, cultivating the seed she helped discover all those years ago.
On the other hand, it had almost singlehandedly destroyed her spirit. Through a succession of wrong decisions over the years she’d almost lost herself and who she was, such was her entanglement in Destiny. The only silver lining the past few years had been her complete obsession with protecting her. It had kept Lucinda from going completely insane.
Whether she was aware of it or not it didn’t matter, for it was a bright beacon in the mind of Lucinda Caradoc. For almost six years she had painstakingly followed every event in her life in order to keep her safe.
The girl had never made it easy, for she seemed to always be near danger in the pursuits she had. Lucinda had wondered what on earth had possessed her to go chasing all the adrenaline fuelled adventures she’d been on, for Lucinda was quite the opposite.
Lucinda recalled a heart stopping episode years ago when her girl was aboard the Sea Shepherd, an anti-whaling vessel on patrol off the coast of Tasmania.
Lucinda had been following a fight that broke out with her and her then boyfriend Peter, the two of them disagreeing about something menial.
She had fled her cabin and gone out on deck to get away from him to clear her mind. She decided to do this regardless of the high wind and swells, consequently she had flipped over the railing and into the freezing cold ocean.
Lucinda’s heart had jumped at the time as she sat watching late at night in the Destiny facility. The vessel itself had been preoccupied with coping during the heavy swells and nobody aboard had even noticed her go overboard.
Lucinda didn’t wait to see what happened, she launched straight away into anarchy mode, quickly sending an untraceable message directly to the Sea Shepherd that simply read, “Woman Overboard.”
She kept sending the message, repeatedly, until eventually she was found, floating in the water. She subsequently survived the ordeal, just as she had many others like it. And it was only a day later she was back out on deck, seemingly unaffected by the ordeal and back up to more mischief.
Lucinda wiped away a tear as she recalled the memory, for she loved her very much. She may not have been there to raise her, but she’d always been there, somewhere in the background, protecting her from within the facility.
Sitting in the tent, she suddenly felt alone and empty now that she’d lost that behind the scenes contact with her. She couldn’t send out a team to help her, she couldn’t send a message to someone nearby to help and she didn’t have the Viper watching over her from behind the scenes. Lucinda fretted as she realised the girl was now completely alone.
“Rough day Ma’am?” a voice called out behind her, rousing her from her thoughts.
In a world of her own she didn’t even pay the man standing by her any heed, until he took a seat beside her, brushing up against her as he sat.
This provoked a reaction from Lucinda, who protested with a “Hey!” to a man shoving his way into her little area.
“My deepest apologies Ma’am,” the man replied, tipping his rounded hat and emphasising the word Ma’am a little clearer this time. It was enough to grab Lucinda’s attention and she looked up at the man cautiously.
“You again!” she said incredulously as she recognised him. Quickly, she turned away from him so nobody noticed they were talking. “I should have realised you were here, I can smell your bloody perfume a mile away.”
“Someone has to keep their eyes on you,” he replied, taking his hat off and winking to her, his polished smile radiating across his face.
She didn’t resist him like she did last time, he was not her foe and was only acting last time at the behest of Smith. Lucinda assumed he’d come to see her at his request again.
“I told him I couldn’t go with him.”
“Who?” he replied, taking a moment to remove a handkerchief from his pocket and wipe the sweat from him face.
“You know who.”
“Ah, but he is gone already.”
“Yes, to find your friend.”
“Excellent,” he said, gleefully.
“You never told me your name last time we met.”
“You never asked, I believe you asked me who I was,” he said, smiling.
She had to laugh, he was a cheeky, coy little bugger.
“You can call me Yonas,” he smiled, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.
“Lucinda Caradoc, but you knew that already.”
“Yes … yes I did, I only ask questions of people if I don’t know the answer and want to know what it is.”
“Well I can’t imagine there are many things that you don’t know.”
“There’s always something to learn, no matter how great and important you think you are. They say the greatest wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing. But …” He held up his finger, “I would say I know a lot.”
“May I ask you some questions then?”
“You may,” he replied, wiping away a lock of golden hair from his eyes and dubbing at his forehead with his handkerchief.
“Smith ... are you and him the same?”
“Ha … no, no, no … he and I are very different.”
“And what about this other guy?”
“You mean the one you brought back?”
Lucinda sighed. “Yes. The one I brought back, Fahwad.”
“Fahwad is the same as me, but he is much more dangerous. Where I come from he did a great many bad things, strange things to our world.”
“Is that why he left?”
“He was sentenced for a crime but escaped the punishment. He fled here and so we followed.”
“With Smith too?”
“No, he was not among our crew.”
“So, Smith is not your kind, but you serve him?”
“He and I share a common goal. I do not serve him, nor he I.”
“The threads!” Lucinda realised aloud.
“Excuse me?”
“Smith, years ago he ...” she lost her voice and looked over at Yonas guiltily, but he gave away no indication he knew of the incidents which took place many years ago.
“He told us the light, that it didn’t belong here. What did he mean?”
“He told you many things and yet you betrayed him?”
She hung her head. “I never made any pacts with that man. He only told me to remain steadfast.”
“Yet you sit and feel guilt.”
“I do.”
“And what does this mean?”
“I don’t even know anymore.”
Yonas didn’t say anything, he sat quietly and allowed the moments and memories to tick over in her head.
“You need me for something, don’t you?” Lucinda eventually said.
“Everybody needs something Lucinda, but do they really know what it is that they need?”
“Or are they only thinking that’s what they need,” she mused to herself softly and paused for a long moment before continuing. “Need is an expendable word, altered by the possessor for selfish pu
rposes. But true need serves the truth.”
“And what is the truth?”
“You do not belong here.”
Yonas winked at her in response.
“What is it you need me to do, track Samuel and his friend?”
“You cannot track Fahwad unless he wants you to. No, what we need is for you to find a friend and help bring her back to us.”
“We?”
“Yes,” Yonas replied.
“You mean you and Smith?”
“No, I speak on behalf of all of us.”
“Right,” Lucinda rolled her eyes.
“I am getting the team back together and I would like your help.”
“You’re talking about Sera aren’t you?”
“Sera? What? You know of her?” He stared agape, unaccustomed to not being in the know.
“I do, of course I do.”
“How?”
“I found her.”
“You’ve found her already? Where?”
“Of course I found her. She was so close to him. How could I have missed her?”
“Oh, this is good news, very good news. I had no idea you knew of her, Alison she will be very happy.”
“So?”
“So, what?”
“So, I don’t even know what to do about it.”
“You said you spoke to Sera?”
“And?”
“And didn’t she tell you?”
“Well, yes, but I don’t know how to do that. Fahwad was different, his time here on Earth was before Sera came.”
“You brought Fahwad back did you not?”
“Yes, but Samuel drove that, he organised everything. I just pushed the buttons in the end to make the transfer.”
“And now Fahwad walks the earth, just as I do …” he looked at her wide eyed. “You have everything you need there, it all still remains. This is great news, Sera … wow.”
“But I need a vessel, a body.”
“You already have one,” he nodded towards her.
“Me?” she stammered, “How can I possibly be suited for that, I can’t …”
“Ah,” he exclaimed. “But you’ve already done this before have you not? You have given yourself great strength by absorbing power from the thread.”
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