Tablet of Destinies

by Traci Harding

  Tory opened her mouth to respond and found herself at a loss. ‘Well, how do you like that?’ She racked her brain, but still it did not come. ‘I have no idea.’

  As she was beginning to sound distressed, Hawk decided to leave any more questions for a few days. ‘Then we shall have to make one up for you, until you remember your own,’ he advised, confidently.

  It was customary for those of his breed to be named after birds. Hawk looked at Tory while he considered what bird she was most akin to.

  ‘How about …’ he grinned as the right name dawned on him, ‘Swan … because —’

  ‘Because I am beautiful, long and graceful,’ Tory had stated the reason before she even realised she knew it.

  ‘My thoughts exactly.’ Hawk was impressed. ‘How did you do that?’

  Tory shook her head. ‘I wish I knew. What’s this?’ She held up her right wrist around which a metallic band had been placed. She looked Hawk over, and noted several devices secured to his person in one place or another.

  ‘Oh that.’ Hawk was a little uncomfortable about the query. ‘It’s a … monitoring your vital signs. Seagull wants you to wear it for a while so he can keep an eye on you. He said you’re not to take if off until he says it’s okay.’

  ‘Seagull?’ Tory didn’t recall being introduced to anyone of that name.

  ‘The big, old blue guy,’ Hawk said, and Tory nodded in recognition.

  ‘The cook. What’s his story?’ She hoped Hawk didn’t mind her prying. ‘He’s not like the rest of you.’

  ‘His story is quite a bit like yours in many ways.’ Hawk took a seat on the bed, but maintained a comfortable distance between them. ‘We found him adrift in space, half dead … of course, he was in a spacecraft when we found him,’ he joked, without thinking.

  ‘And I wasn’t?’ Tory queried, a little disturbed.

  Hawk realised he was on shaky ground with her again. ‘No,’ he replied simply.

  ‘And that’s not normal?’ She could tell by his tone that it wasn’t.

  Hawk placed a hand on hers to calm her, sensing that she was on the verge of going into shock. ‘It is not normal for those of my species, but I understand it is possible for those of yours.’

  ‘We’re a completely different species?’ Tory couldn’t accept this. ‘We look so much alike.’

  Hawk shook his head, realising he wasn’t explaining this very well. ‘We are both human beings, but of very different tribes.’

  Tory detected something else in his manner; a prejudice. ‘Your people have some cause to despise mine then?’ She dug deeper.

  Hawk was surprised at her perceptiveness. ‘In the past. But lately, Swan, I feel just the opposite is true. You are safe here.’ He wanted to make that clear to her. ‘As safe as we are, anyway.’

  Tory smiled, feeling he was making a joke. ‘Why … what is it you do on board the Bil-me?’

  ‘Captain.’ Chook swung the door open. ‘We’ve got company.’

  Raven was in the pilot’s seat pulling some fairly fancy manoeuvres, when Hawk arrived. ‘What’s the problem?’

  ‘We’re being tailed, at a good distance at present, but they’re following us alright,’ Raven briefed him, as Hawk jumped into the co-pilot’s seat.

  ‘What’s wrong with our cloaking system?’ he demanded to know, thinking Chook had let them down.

  ‘Nothing’s wrong with it,’ Raven barked. ‘It’s on!’

  ‘Then how the hell are they still tracking us?’

  ‘Search me.’ Raven steered clear of a large, whirling rock. ‘But as it is a rather large vessel, it has to be one of the Pantheon’s. I suggest we find ourselves a new system to hide out in for a while. Take the controls, I’ll map us a course.’

  ‘They’ve got to be mad bringing anything but a Bil-me in here.’ Hawk didn’t think that any of them were really worth someone taking such a risk.

  ‘I’ll bet they’re after your girlfriend.’ Crow, who’d been standing back observing the scene as it unfolded, came forward to offer his expert opinion.

  ‘Are you still here?’ Hawk snapped, not interested in anything his brother had to say.

  ‘I’ll warrant they’re tracking her,’ he persisted.

  ‘I thought you said that that band she’s wearing would prevent them tracking her.’ Hawk struggled to concentrate on the controls, shooting and the conversation all at the same time.

  Raven had taken the controls off automatic to make better speed. Chook was in the cockpit below the vessel manning the pulse lasers underneath the vessel, to fend off debris that could not be readily seen from the flight deck.

  ‘What I said,’ Crow jogged his brother’s memory, ‘was that it would prevent any super-being finding her telepathically.’

  ‘Is there a difference?’ Hawk urged him to get to the point.

  ‘On second thoughts,’ Raven cut in, ‘why don’t I take the controls, before your brotherly love gets us all killed.’

  Hawk gave up his duty reluctantly, and rose from his seat to confront his brother, who backed up a few paces. ‘Explain to me how you track a naked woman, hey?’

  ‘She wasn’t completely naked,’ Crow remembered. ‘What about that charm on the chain around her neck?’

  Hawk shuddered as his brother brought up the subject. As Raven and Hawk dressed the woman, they had tried several times to touch the charm and chain in question, for it was an amazing piece of jewellery. Each time, their fingers had passed right through the jewel, as if it were only an illusion.

  ‘I cannot ask her to part with the only link to her past that she has,’ Hawk protested.

  Crow threw a sideways glance at Raven. ‘Are they still following us?’

  ‘Yep!’ the pilot replied. ‘Every little twist and turn.’

  Crow looked back to his brother with an apologetic look on his face. ‘I told you she’d be trouble.’

  ‘Here.’

  Crow and Hawk were both stunned to discover Tory was present. They had no idea how long she’d been standing there.

  Tory removed the pendant from around her neck and held it out to Hawk. ‘I cannot get you all into trouble after you saved my life.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Swan.’ The pirate was touched by her kindness. ‘The truth is, we’re all outlaws.’

  ‘I figured.’ She shrugged off the unfortunate truth and again urged him to take her necklace.

  Due to his prior experience with the jewel, Hawk was hesitant, but roused the courage to reach out and accept the jewellery from her. He was rather surprised when it fell into his hand.

  ‘Wow,’ he drooled, examining the piece more closely. ‘I can’t let you cast something like this into oblivion. This would fetch enough wealth to set you up for life.’

  ‘Thanks to you and your crew I have a life.’ She stepped back, refusing to take it back.

  ‘We’re all very touched,’ Crow grumbled, as he moved to grab the jewel and jettison it out the garbage shute. ‘Let’s just get rid of the bloody thing.’ His fingers passed right through the jewel. ‘What gives?’ Crow tried repeatedly to retrieve the item without success.

  Hawk looked to his mysterious guest. ‘How is this possible?’

  Tory gave an amused sigh. ‘Alas.’ She shook her head and shrugged. ‘Another enigma.’

  ‘Your whole existence is an enigma, if you ask me,’ Crow muttered under his breath, disgruntled that he was not able to hold the jewel and his brother was. ‘Will you please do the honours then?’ he urged Hawk.

  Tory nodded to Hawk to encourage him to comply with his brother’s wish. ‘It’s just a pendant, Captain.’

  Her mind focused on perceiving the Tablet of Destinies, Psyche steered their large craft according to her perception of the ancient divining tool’s whereabouts.

  Maelgwn was rather uncomfortable about taking a deep space vessel into the treacherous region known as AN-TU-IM or ‘Heaven of Storms’. Only an idiot would venture into an asteroid field driving anything other than a Bil-me
and even then you’d be considered insane. But the Devas had grown to adulthood in the last few days and with their increased strength were capable of feats far beyond Maelgwn’s current imagination.

  While his sister guided them forth, Sacha fended off all external obstacles, willing away asteroids the size of small moons that were coming at them from all directions at once. The Deva accomplished this feat from the middle of the flight lounge. He wasn’t utilising any of the ship’s power; he wasn’t even looking out the windows or at any of the monitors.

  There are electronic games such as this back on Kila. Sacha conversed with Maelgwn, although his eyes remained closed to focus on his task, but there’s really nothing like the real deal.

  In the face of such chaos, Maelgwn found it hard to believe how cool and collected the lad was. ‘Well, just remember you don’t get three turns in this game.’

  I’ve never needed more than one. Sacha gave a cocky smile.

  ‘Why do I believe you?’ Maelgwn raised his eyebrows. He had a long way to go with his own psychic training, and these two Devas were proving highly inspirational.

  I can’t believe the slipstreams of the asteroid field are this turbulent … the Tablet is ducking and weaving all over the place. Psyche’s thoughts were those of an aggravated person, and yet she looked as serene as if she were in a deep meditative state. Hold everything … it’s stopped still.

  Maelgwn rushed forward to see if the sensors were picking up any external life readings — they weren’t. ‘There’s nothing alive out there. Are you sure?’

  I’m sure, she confirmed.

  I second that, Sacha said, without stirring.

  I’ve got a fix on it, I’ll bring us in close.

  After a time, the glowing female Deva slowed their vessel to a stop. The sensors still weren’t registering anything, and in the inky blackness of space, beyond the lights of their craft, Maelgwn could see nothing. ‘I’m going out there.’

  Allow me, Sacha offered, whereupon all the activity of the whirling rock storm outside ceased. Be right back.

  Maelgwn could do little but watch, dumbstruck, as Sacha floated out through the forward shield window of their vessel and into open space.

  Once they’d got rid of the suspected tracking device the Bil-me had turned tail to escape their pursuers, when everything around them suddenly stopped dead — their craft included.

  ‘What the —’ Raven looked up from his frozen controls and out of the forward shield window, where the rock he was aiming to avoid now spun on the spot in close proximity — ‘Ah … reality check, someone?’ he appealed, upon realising the entire asteroid field was poised in time and space.

  ‘Yeah, we’re with you buddy,’ Hawk assured him. ‘You haven’t gone nuts. But be buggered if I can explain this.’

  ‘Maybe it’s a new space phenomenon,’ Raven ventured. ‘Not a white hole spewing time, or a black hole sucking it in, but rather, a kind of grey hole that just suspends matter?’

  ‘You’d better be prepared for it to end.’ Crow wanted Raven to concentrate. ‘That boulder is going to annihilate us as soon as whatever this is ends.’

  ‘If it ends.’ Raven settled in his seat to keep his wits about him until the standoff was over. ‘I’ve been in space since I was a kid and I’ve never witnessed anything like this.’

  ‘Have you?’ Hawk looked at Tory, who was standing back out of the way.

  ‘Total atomic manipulation? No.’ Tory shook her head. ‘Only an ascended Master would be capable of such a feat and few such entities are concerned with this place.’

  ‘This system, you mean?’ Hawk questioned.

  ‘The physical plane of existence,’ she clarified, and Hawk marvelled at her words.

  ‘For someone who doesn’t remember anything, you sure seem to know a lot,’ Crow commented warily. Either she really didn’t recall him being her abductor or she was doing a fine job of disguising the fact — not knowing made Crow very uneasy.

  ‘There is conscious memory, and there is superconscious memory,’ explained Tory, in a congenial fashion. ‘I seem to have retained the latter.’

  Tory sensed that Crow had a chip on his shoulder where she was concerned, but was it her sex, her race, or just her that he despised?

  ‘Is this the Apocalypse?’ Chook rushed onto the flight deck, with Seagull hot on his heels.

  ‘Yeah,’ jeered Crow, ‘and I’m the Virgin Mary. I think it’s more likely to be some new form of weapon.’

  ‘You would.’ Hawk looked to the soft-light screen that was visually monitoring the rear of the Bil-me and the large uncloaked craft from which they were fleeing. ‘What the hell is that?’

  Everyone rushed to view the screen Hawk was gazing at, except Raven, who was stuck in a stare-out with the large revolving asteroid ahead.

  ‘What’s what?’ the pilot pleaded to be informed.

  ‘Looks like an angel,’ Chook told him.

  ‘Don’t think this supports your “end of the universe” theory,’ Crow quipped, at a complete loss to explain it himself.

  As Tory viewed the glowing being, the strange occurrence they were experiencing began to make sense. ‘There’s your ascended Master. Chook was right. It is an angel of low order.’

  ‘Well, it seems to be after your necklace, princess,’ Crow observed, accusation in his voice.

  ‘Zoom in, Hawk,’ Chook encouraged.

  As he did so and they saw that it had retrieved the pendant, the celestial being turned and looked straight down the lens at them.

  ‘Oh shit!’ Crow jumped back, startling his crewmates into doing likewise.

  ‘It knows we’re here,’ Chook said, spooked.

  ‘Perhaps I should go to it,’ Tory offered. ‘It’s obvious they’re after me, not you.’

  ‘Good idea.’ Crow, for once, agreed with her.

  Hawk served his brother a dirty look, but by the time his gaze had shifted to Tory his expression was one of concern. ‘And how do we know this being is not working for the Pantheon?’ he argued.

  ‘Who are the Pantheon?’ Tory queried, and every man present rolled his eyes, bar Hawk.

  ‘The enemy,’ Hawk said simply.

  ‘Along with your lot,’ Crow added, ‘who are in real tight with them.’

  ‘Were in with them,’ Hawk corrected. ‘Now even your people, Swan, are rebelling against the Nefilim.’

  ‘This being could never side with an evil entity.’ Tory endeavoured to put all their fears to rest. ‘Therefore there can be no danger to me. I should —’

  ‘The angel’s returning to its ship,’ Chook told them. His eyes were still glued to the screen.

  The angel glanced back to their ship, and made a sweeping movement with his hand.

  ‘It’s moving away,’ Raven called, referring to the rock that had threatened to pound their ship once reality returned.

  On the screen the angel smiled and then returned to his vessel with the pendant.

  ‘If it is after you and it knows you’re here,’ Hawk speculated, ‘why did it not come for you?’

  ‘Perhaps it doesn’t think it’s safe to contact you,’ Chook suggested.

  Tory shrugged, unsure what to make of it all. ‘Maybe it only wanted the jewel.’

  But the jewel is still here, Hawk wanted to say to Tory, but with his entire crew present, he thought better of it.

  As they watched the screen, they saw the being disappear back through the hull of the pursuit craft, and, instantly, the surrounding system was thrown back into chaos.

  ‘Shit!’ Raven was startled into action, for, although the large asteroid had been removed from their path, there was plenty of other debris to contend with. ‘I’m on it,’ he assured everyone. ‘Stuff this for a joke. I’m heading us into open space.’

  When Sacha returned alone, with the Tablet, Maelgwn was devastated. He had not entertained the notion that they would not find his wife. If the Tablet had reformed, then so had Tory and if the sacred tool was here then she h
ad to be nearby.

  No, Father. Psyche picked up on his intent to will himself to his wife and urged against it. You don’t know where she is.

  ‘She is where I wish to be.’ He disregarded Psyche’s caution, and conjuring an image of the woman he loved, he willed himself to her side.

  Physical teleportation was not a talent that required any great amount of effort on Maelgwn’s part anymore, unless he was also transporting someone else. Then, it was a draining experience, but never unsuccessful. When Maelgwn opened his eyes to find he hadn’t moved, there was only one conclusion to be reached.

  ‘The Nefilim have got to her first.’ It seemed the only explanation. ‘I thought all the NERGUZ modules had been destroyed, but obviously not.’

  Sacha and Psyche both nodded in accordance with his reasoning, like a couple of psychoanalysts assessing a patient, and allowed Maelgwn to draw all his own conclusions.

  ‘But why would any of the Pantheon leave this treasure behind?’ Maelgwn’s eyes narrowed, as he grew frustrated with speculating. ‘I want some answers, damn it! And I’m going straight to Nergal to get them.’

  Good idea! Sacha seconded the motion, saying nothing about sensing Tory in near proximity.

  Maelgwn looked at Psyche to see that the young woman was not as excited about their course of action. What must be done, must be done, and it is not ours to question.

  Then don’t. Sacha nudged his sister. This is but a momentary sadness, a fair exchange for the greater happiness of all.

  The corners of Psyche’s mouth turned down in a vague attempt to smile.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ Maelgwn sensed he wasn’t being told the whole story.

  Nothing, Sacha was quick to assure. We feel your hurt and it is very disturbing to us.

  Maelgwn frowned, bothered by the circumstances and worried that he still wasn’t being told all the facts. ‘For your perception, I am sorry. To take all our minds off this sad turn of events, let us talk about your agenda.’

  Our agenda is your agenda, Father, Sacha pronounced, fastening the Tablet of Destinies around his own neck. For safekeeping, he explained.