Tablet of Destinies

by Traci Harding

  ‘And what about Tory?’ Maelgwn turned his attention to Psyche for an answer. ‘She’s out there naked, with no memory, no identity. If the Nefilim have her, then only the Goddess knows what lies she’s being fed.’

  The girl looked from Maelgwn to her brother, who wore a stern look of warning on his face. Mother is with the other soul you seek, your Delphinus son, Zabeel. She looked back to Maelgwn to enlighten him.

  Psyche! Sacha was disgruntled at her saying more than she had to.

  Zabeel is not seeking revenge through her. The female Deva caught Maelgwn’s concern and dismissed it. In fact, they’re not even aware of each other’s true identity.

  ‘So where shall I find them both?’ Maelgwn asked, momentarily excited that his investigations were finally taking a leap forward. The two Devas only shrugged.

  Where, is not the question, Psyche advised him. How, is the question, to which you already know the answer.

  Maelgwn took a deep breath, realising no more information would be forthcoming. At this stage, what other choice did he have than to believe that these beings knew the best course of action? ‘To Nergal then.’

  Sacha nodded. All the fallen must be tested, before the day of Anu’s Judgement is upon us.

  Maelgwn was frowning again. ‘Are you saying the star, Anu, is going to collapse in the near future?’

  Both the Devas nodded, indifferent to the fact.

  ‘But Nibiru will be devastated, millions of lives will be lost!’ Maelgwn gripped his head in both hands. ‘Tell me Tory is not there,’ Maelgwn pleaded.

  We can’t tell you where she is now, Psyche told him honestly, and no mortal soul need be lost if we play our cards right. Trust us, Dragon, for we know what we do.

  13

  FLIRTING WITH THE

  FORBIDDEN

  Kila’s neighbouring planet, SUTI-MASHUM, or ‘planet of green storms’, had an atmosphere saturated in poisonous gases that were fatal to mortal beings. Thus, the planet had never been settled, patrolled or monitored by the Pantheon. During Maelgwn’s reign as Governor, he’d insisted that all of Kila’s Government officials made at least one visit to the deadly green planet to inform themselves about the place. It was only now that the foresight behind this directive became plain, for physical teleportation was only possible to a destination or person with which you were familiar already. Under siege on their own planet and in need of a remote launching pad, Suti-mashum had been just the ticket for the secret task force from Kila.

  The departure of the Governor’s party from the stormy, green planet had been entirely uneventful, for, as suspected, none of Nergal’s forces were stationed beyond the outer atmosphere of Kila. Until now, the Pantheon had only ever needed to cope with one or two immortal rebels at a time and their present defence strategy was still based on previous experience. The Nefilim were vain, and could not entertain the notion that the Chosen were clever. In Nefilim company, the Chosen had always done their best not to flaunt their expertise. As the Lord Nergal currently had half his force combing Kila for his stolen supplies of toxic gas, he was fast finding out what an army of immortal warriors were capable of. The Lord would never find his missing stores, as they were now safely locked away in the underground HQ of the Chosen.

  ‘The luck of the Logos is with us,’ Noah commented, as he was freed from the strange effects of the wormhole from which their craft shot forth into a twin-sun system where Nugia and its moon were to be found. ‘No etheric leakage. Our passage seemed very swift.’

  His crewmates nodded to agree.

  ‘We’ve made good time, alright,’ Cadwell stated, as if it were to be expected. ‘After all, I am the pilot and I made the shot.’ Cadwell had fired the wormhole stabiliser, which, for a medium-sized craft such as this, created a tunnel barely big enough for the ship to pass through. The passage then collapsed in the craft’s wake, so there was no turning back.

  ‘Whoever said ego is not a dirty word, obviously never met you.’ As Cadwell’s father, Rhun felt he should chastise his son on everyone’s behalf.

  ‘How long until we reach Caimah?’ Noah questioned, eager to unlock the secrets of the ages.

  ‘A few hours.’ Cadwell pointed off towards a tiny black dot, barely visible, orbiting the planet Nugia, which was, in turn, orbiting the revolving twin suns far off in distant space.

  ‘I couldn’t find any references to Caimah anywhere. No pictures, nothing!’ Noah told Cadwell. ‘Any idea what the conditions are like there?’

  ‘Conditions, what conditions? It’s dead is what it is,’ Cadwell enlightened the scholar. ‘No one has bothered documenting it, because there is nothing there worth documenting!’

  ‘Just the way we like it.’ Rebecca winked at her husband to boost his spirits. ‘The two of us, alone in the middle of nowhere.’ She made it sound like a treat.

  ‘Could be better than what we’ve got planned.’ Brian gave voice to his misgivings.

  ‘Rubbish.’ Rhun affectionately punched his uncle’s shoulder. ‘You’ve always enjoyed stirring up trouble as much as the rest of us.’

  ‘True,’ Brian conceded graciously, maintaining a serious face. ‘But, as Governor, I feel we should bear in mind that this mission has been brought about by most grievous circumstances, and our actions henceforth shall have far-reaching implications for the future. My hand in this affair has been forced, and therefore I take no pleasure in doing whatever I must to bring all of the Nefilim’s slave industry to a grinding holt.’ He grinned, whereupon his band of warriors began cheering and whistling, now assured that their leader was as excited as they were.

  On the inside, however, Brian was praying he was up to a showdown. Somehow, ruler of the galaxy seemed an unlikely vocation for a guy born and bred on the north shore of Sydney, Australia. However, he was the son of Myrddin, High Merlin and Druid, so Brian felt that at least he had something going for him. His sister had become a legend of time: was it any more unlikely that he would become a legend of space? After all, he must have been born into his extraordinary family for some reason known only to the cosmos. He had to ask himself the question: was he prepared to accept that that reason was to fulfil the legend of Lahmu?

  You’ve never felt inferior in your life, son, now is no time to discover self-doubt.

  Brian thought he heard his father speaking in his mind. But then he decided it was more likely that he was imagining what he needed to hear, coming from the mouth of someone whose opinion he respected.

  You are deluded. When did you ever respect my opinion?

  Brian’s eyes opened wide, feeling these comments had not sprung from his own imagination.

  ‘Are you all right, Governor?’ Thais queried. As if already knowing the answer, he added: ‘Perhaps you should retreat to quieter quarters for a spell, hey?’

  ‘Yes,’ Brian nodded and rose to leave. ‘I need to think for a bit,’ he explained to the others. Brian wondered if the Head of Mind Sciences had aided his exit purely by coincidence, or had Myrddin been having a quiet word in Thais’ ear too? Either way Brian was grateful and made swiftly for his onboard office.

  Closing the door for privacy, Brian whispered, ‘Dad?’ He looked about frantically for his parent.

  Oh, Myrddin groaned, you’re not going to make me manifest, are you?

  ‘You’d bloody well better manifest,’ Brian hissed, ‘unless you want me to think I’ve gone completely around the twist!’

  And I thought your sister was a drama queen.

  A small pinprick of light appeared in the centre of the cabin. From this light, a bright celestial presence burst forth, blinding Brian for a second. The being’s body could only just be seen within the outline of its iridescent white aura. The features of the face were well enough defined though.

  ‘Dad?’ Brian finally spoke, confounded by Myrddin’s new angelic personification.

  If you don’t remember me, then why did you insist that I manifest?

  ‘I do remember you,’ Brian was quick to repl
y. ‘I just don’t remember you ever looking quite like … this.’

  I remember you appearing as I am now. His father smiled a cheeky smile, knowing Brian would find the notion perplexing. Brian did. However, might I suggest we concentrate on your current life and explore this reluctance you have to commit to a cause.

  Brian’s awe of his father quickly disappeared. ‘Are you talking about the plight of the human races or this legend business?’

  It is the same … to free the tribes is Lahmu’s cause.

  ‘Am I Lahmu?’ Brian asked straight out.

  A man chooses a destiny. A destiny does not choose a man.

  ‘Well, according to my experience, I would have to disagree with you there, Pop.’

  Fate has brought you and this destiny together. Embrace it, or fate will take this destiny and introduce it elsewhere.

  ‘Come on, Dad!’ Brian protested that the cosmos could put him on the spot like this. ‘It is a bit much to embrace without some hesitation, don’t you think? If only we had a full copy of the legend, that would be something. I mean, what the hell am I supposed to be doing?’

  As soon as Brian asked the question, Myrddin withdrew into the tiny pinprick of light. It vanished in a burst of silver sparks.

  ‘Don’t disappear in the middle of a goddamn conversation!’ he yelled to the empty cabin. ‘It’s great to know I can still rely on you for help!’

  On a planet of Lions the fight will start. A victory of vision and a caring heart. Defying the most rigid law of the age …

  ‘Yes,’ Brian urged, waiting with great expectation to learn the missing line of the prophecy.

  Lahmu will … plant his seed in the feline’s cage.

  ‘Lahmu will what?’

  As uncomfortable as Brian felt about discussing his father’s recent visitation with someone else, he paged Noah to join him in his office.

  Quickly skimming over how he had acquired the information, the Governor told the historian that he knew the missing sentence that completed the part of the prophecy that Micah had given them.

  Wide-eyed, Noah waited to be told more, but when Brian remained tight-lipped, he thought he’d coax the information out of the Governor. ‘And how goes all with Master Myrddin these days?’ Noah asked, not at all sceptical about the source. ‘I had the privilege of being visited by Taliesin last year.’

  ‘Really?’ The Governor’s peculiar mood softened a little.

  ‘When an important occasion is at hand, an Ascendant Master is always close by to counsel the key players,’ Noah concluded, and fell silent, hoping the Governor would be forthcoming with the mystery sentence.

  Brian sat back in his seat and breathed a deep sigh. ‘Defying the most rigid law of the age, Lahmu will plant his seed in the feline’s cage,’ he said, feeling ridiculous.

  Noah’s jaw dropped, as it was pretty clear what the prophecy meant.

  ‘You realise what it is saying that I should do?’ Brian felt very peculiar about spelling it out.

  For the past fifty years, Brian had been well aware of the law forbidding the Chosen from sexual relations with any of the mortal human tribes. This law was not without good reason, as one bad seed in the ranks of the Chosen could cause no end of damage.

  Noah took a moment before responding. ‘When you think about the big picture, Governor, the course of action the prophecy suggests is the only true way to ensure the equality and survival of all the human tribes.’

  ‘Yes,’ Brian agreed, ‘but why was this destiny given to a single man? Am I to plant my seed in every different human tribe? I think Candace shall dismember me before the Nefilim do.’

  ‘It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be unfaithful to your wife in order to fulfil your role. The prophecy says “plant your seed”, which could equally as well mean genetically plant. This isn’t the Dark Ages, you know. We do have the technology for artificial insemination.’

  ‘Praise the universe. You’re right. Thanks, Noah.’ Brian breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Even so, I don’t think I’m really qualified to judge who would best mother a Chosen child … I am not Marduk by a long shot.’

  ‘If you are Lahmu, then you will know,’ Noah assured him, manifesting in his hand a PKA thought-recorder. ‘I feel, circumstances being what they are, that the Dragon would want me to give you this.’

  ‘What is it?’ Brian was intrigued as he took the orb in hand.

  ‘It is a copy of a highly controversial chronicle that Maelgwn recorded for me last year. We decided that the information contained on this orb should be withheld from public knowledge, for reasons I’m sure you can figure out. But I believe it might hold a revelation or two that will aid your current quest.’

  The Governor sat, staring at the orb with a funny smile on his face. ‘It’s funny how Maelgwn can be absent and still manage to aid me at every turn of this disaster. The base, that rock he gave you, his insistence about visiting Suti-mashum, and now this!’

  Noah raised a brow and grinned, considering the viewing Brian had in store. ‘The orb will explain why the Dragon has seemingly had such amazing foresight in this affair.’

  ‘Excellent!’ Brian exclaimed, hopefully. ‘I could use a bit of insight at present.’ He paused and then smiled. ‘But then, Maelgwn knew that.’

  Caimah’s surface was a vast, rocky flat, broken here and there by sheer cliffs that dropped into deep canyons and huge ancient craters. The theory was that the largest of these impacts, aeons ago, had caused the unusual tilt of Ciamah’s axis. The small satellite spun like a top with its southern pole facing Nugia and the moon’s northern pole was never seen from the surface of the planet around which it revolved.

  ‘If I needed to build on that boulder, without anyone finding out, I know the location I’d pick,’ commented Rebecca, who was piloting the two-man craft transporting Noah and herself to the surface of the moon.

  ‘I agree,’ Noah affirmed her hunch. ‘Head for the unseen region.’

  ‘According to my scanners, the terrain is pretty cavernous around there,’ she advised, ‘but I’ll get us as close as I can.’

  Fortunately, the area of the moon they sought had just entered its daylight hours and the topography of the landscape was well lit.

  ‘Holy moley!’ Noah boggled at the labyrinth of sheer cliffs and caverns below. ‘It seems a rather precarious landscape to build a crystal city in.’

  Rebecca had foreseen that they would discover a crystal city containing a learning device unlike anything she’d ever seen before. As her premonition had pretty well described one of the Lord Master Enki’s Creation Stations, Noah had to figure that her vision and his quest had not been sheer coincidence.

  ‘It is sure not what I envisioned.’ Rebecca was starting to doubt her own prophecy.

  Noah, sitting behind Rebecca, leant forward to pat his wife’s shoulder in reassurance. ‘Things aren’t always what they seem … I’m still game.’

  ‘That’s the spirit,’ Rebecca responded lightheartedly. ‘Still, that canyon sure looks uninviting.’

  ‘Just as it should,’ Noah surmised, as they descended towards the flat, rocky desert that bordered the forbidding maze.

  On the ground, conditions were pleasant enough for an immortal.

  Rebecca brought their vehicle to rest near one of the many precarious routes that nature had provided for descent into the canyon. Equipment was quickly unloaded, and Rebecca then reduced their craft to its finest particles and returned it to the fighter module that she wore on her wrist.

  The black organic fibre of their suits turned to beige as it thinned and loosened from the body in response to the intense heat on the surface of the planet. Their boots automatically adjusted in weight to allow for the lack of gravity, to keep their wearers comfortably earthed. The unbearable heat drove them to make haste into the shade of the nearest cavern.

  The way down into the shadowy abyss was wide at first, but the further they followed the rocky road, the wider the canyon became and the
narrower and steeper the path.

  ‘This is going to take forever.’ Rebecca reached down and picked up a good-sized rock. ‘If there’s anything to be found here, it’s going to be on the canyon floor, right?’

  ‘If there is a floor,’ Noah replied.

  Rebecca tossed the rock into the void below, and it began to slowly float downwards. ‘I’m all for taking the direct route.’ She smiled a cocky smile.

  Noah’s mouth curved into a lopsided grin, for he admired her guts. ‘We’re a lot heavier than that rock and will have far greater momentum. What if —’

  To prevent a long debate, Rebecca stepped to the edge of the path and launched herself into the chasm.

  ‘Becky. No!’ Noah rushed to the edge, and nearly overbalanced. As he righted himself he saw that Rebecca was slowly floating downward and enjoying the experience immensely. ‘What if there is no floor?’ He knelt to argue with her. ‘Wait on, I’ll throw you a line,’ he decided, dashing over to their supplies to find one.

  ‘I don’t need one.’

  Rebecca’s response startled Noah as he looked up and found his wife floating above him, out in the middle of no man’s land.

  ‘Strong up-currents?’ he asked, more than a little overcome by the possibilities this represented.

  Rebecca shook her head and smiled at her scholar. ‘Strong will,’ she explained. ‘’Twas my own invention.’

  In a split second, Noah’s comprehension of his own potential took a giant leap forward. ‘Well, I could go so far as to say that your will staggers the imagination.’ Noah retrieved their equipment and threw a couple of bags to his wife, which she simply let drop. Following her example, Noah tossed the rest of the stuff over the edge too.

  ‘Now you’re learning.’ Rebecca beckoned with her index finger for him to join her. ‘Going down?’ she suggested in a saucy fashion.

  Noah sprang off the ledge towards his lover, but falling short of his intended destination, he began plummeting aimlessly into the darkness below. ‘W…h…o…a!’