Calis nodded in total agreement on that front. “A fact I know all too well.”
“Of course.” the apparition said in return. “You are the repository of human knowledge dating back thousands of your years. I am simply an ex-Watcher from the Realm of Dreams. Our pact is one of exclusivity with virtually untapped benefits.”
The old man nodded again. “Some of which I do know about.” He reminded him at length. Then he returned to sanding out the holes for the next half hour.
Tarnek of course watched him work with the diligence and skill of a master craftsman. But if he was capable of any kind of human emotion, he would have been rather annoyed with the way Calis had been treating him since his initial appearance inside the open spaces of his workshop.
Looking behind him, the ex-Watcher regarded his newest project with transparent distaste.
“It hasn’t been more than two hundred of your years and you’re still building these destructive monstrosities?” He lamented. “I thought at the very least you had given up on them and gone onto something else more worthy of your time and skill level?”
Calis McGraff made no apologies of what he wanted to do with his life. Now that he had one again.
“Keeps me busy.” He told the ex-Watcher on even terms. “But it also gives me something to do between jobs.”
Tarnek digested this bit of news with a grain of salt. Then he said: “I thought you were still up in Stratos City?”
The old man checked his handiwork with a careful finger.
“I was. But I’m not anymore. I’m no longer associated with the Weapons and Technology Division. After a recent accident which claimed the life of someone that I knew and cared deeply about, I decided being up there wasn’t for me anymore.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Tarnek answered in a soft voice. “I never realized all this time that you were involved with someone up at the space complex.”
Calis nodded somberly. “It’s something I don’t like going into grave detail on. Suffice to say, I still treasure her memory and her life every year on the anniversary of her untimely death. It’s the least I could do for her.”
“Did she have a name?” Tarnek pressed gently.
“Gina.” The old man responded with a slightly pained look. “Gina Louise Bateman. And that‘s all I‘m going to say on the matter.”
“Fair enough.” The ex-Watcher replied neutrally. “Have you had any success in finding any clues or whereabouts to the Source of Chaos?”
Calis shook his head in grand disappointment. “That was a wild goose chase in itself. I spent fifty years looking for it. In every conceivable area within the massive space complex itself. I never found one trace of it anywhere’s. So thanks for that plum assignment. That was a giant waste of time.”
“That’s unfortunate news in itself. And most troubling.” Tarnek rumbled with genuine worry in his voice. “Your report indicates that while it remains lost to the vastness of both time and space, it means that nobody else has gotten a hold of it either. And there‘s no telling if and when it will come to light or even resurface.”
Calis snorted softly.
“Well, whenever you decide to go back to the Realm of Dreams, you can personally tell the Ancient Ones–from me–that they suck at keeping tabs on their cosmic garbage.”
Tarnek almost smiled at that implied barb.
“As it stands, you no longer have to worry about that being a possibility anymore, my old friend.” Tarnek shared with him up front.
Calis looked at him with false hope.
“Does that mean you’re finally leaving me? That I can finally die in peace on my own terms and not yours?” He blurted out with heavy sarcasm.
Immortality held many advantages for the ex-Watcher. Patience being one of them.
“You know the deal by which we struck so long ago after the Fall of Man.” He secretly hinted at.
Calis sighed in defeat. “Yeah, but that was ten thousand years ago. I was hoping things had changed greatly since then.”
“As do I.” Tarnek said. “As do I. But that hadn’t come to pass. I am now in possession of some new information you may find extremely helpful to our search for the Source.”
“I’m all ears. What did you find?”
“The Source of Chaos is here. Right now.”
The old man stared at him in disbelief.
“Here? Now? Right…!” He scoffed. “I find that highly unlikely.”
“Why not? Do you doubt me?”
“It’s not a matter of doubting Tarnek. It’s the plain fact that I spent too much time looking for it and finding nothing and you did just…what again? Stumbled upon it out of the blue? Even you couldn‘t be that lucky.”
Tarnek remained unmoved by his old friend’s outburst.
“A piece of it surfaced just three days ago in an undisclosed area of Stratos City. I wouldn’t have believed it myself, but it contains the core consciousness of the Source and someone else who I believe is familiar to me in past association. But…I cannot be sure as of yet. However, it started sending out what you would call ‘feelers’ for deities like myself, but went strangely silent only the day before yesterday. I have been unsuccessful in making contact. So I was hoping you might be available for a mission up to the space complex.” He explained in hopeful detail.
Instead of jumping at the chance for absolution, Calis went back to what he was doing instead and ignored the ex-Watcher entirely.
Tarnek waited for him to respond to his personal plea. But it was another five minutes before the old man said anything on his behalf.
“Well, you can forget about asking me to go get it. I have enough to do around here as it is. A side trip is out of the question.” He virtually dismissed right off the bat.
“Calis, you know what will happen if you don’t retrieve the Source of Chaos. Even if a shard of its original body is intact, it could spell disaster for us all. Including you I might add.” The apparition reminded him then.
Calis snorted derisively.
“The God of Insanity already blew away most of Earth’s entire population once before in a heartbeat. He only stopped because something made Him stop. But He would have no interest in coming back here. There is literally nothing left for Him to destroy or even take as possible spoils.”
Tarnek strongly disagreed with that statement–even if it was the naked truth.
“He would come back for the shard and obliterate everything in
His path in doing so. That would mean the complete end of your world as you know it and its remaining people. Your future would end right here. Right now. You would be annihilated right out of existence in the blink of an eye. Just like you were during the Fall.” Tarnek emphasized gravely.
“Is that something you wish or desire for yourselves? Or all of humanity for that matter?”
Calis continued his sanding job while they talked–getting two of the holes down to a mirror smooth finish.
“Normally, I wouldn’t be in disagreement over this matter. But as I’ve said before…? I’m not going to put my life on hold so I can go on another one of your wild goose chases. Once was enough.”
“You don’t have a choice, old friend. You have to go.”
“I refuse on material grounds.” Calis rejected easily enough. “And that’s all I’m going to say on this matter. Your free to go if you wish though. Nobody here is going to stop you. I know I won‘t.”
“You know that’s impossible.” The ex-Watcher informed him flatly.
“Well then, it shouldn’t be that hard to go find someone else to do your dirty work then. There are thousands of candidates on this world and in the space complex itself that would be willing to sub in for me. But I am simply too old for this shit. I‘ve had more than enough, Tarnek.”
Silence befell the two of them before Tarnek suggested a possible compromise.
“What about your young charge? The girl that you have under your wing as your student and protégé?”
Calis was surprised by the suggestion.
“Isis? What do you even know about her, Tarnek?”
Tarnek tapped the floor with his staff. A sphere sprang up between them that contained ghostly memories of Calis’s life experiences here on the planet and with Isis McGowan and her family. A lot of the scenes were very familiar to the old man. Some…were even personal.
“We are linked, old friend. There isn’t much I don’t know about you. Or her, for that matter.” He said matter-of-factly.
Calis stepped forward and interrupted the display with a wave of his hand. It vanished into the cold darkness of his work space.
“Don’t ever do that to me again.” He warned in disgust–feeling violated by his rights to personal privacy. And that of his young charge’s.
“I’m sorry. But I have no other way, Calis. Something must be done. And done soon. Or all will be lost.”
“She won’t do it. I know for fact that she won’t. One, she’s a surface dweller. And second, she’s completely inexperienced. She’s never been up to the space complex in her entire short life.”
“That shouldn’t even matter, old friend. You have an option now. I would suggest that you use it.”
“I won’t risk it, Tarnek.” Calis told him. “Not even for her.”
“What if you don’t tell her the specifics of the mission objective at hand? Would that make things go easier for the two of you?”
The old man was at a serious loss. And at a disadvantage as well.
But in the end, all he could really do is shrug helplessly in response to Tarnek‘s brilliant–if not shrewd--tactical maneuvering.
“I’m not so sure it’s a good idea, Tarnek.” He said in ways of a devout apology to the spirit deity. “As you already know from my memories and life experiences, Isis and I are pretty close. In the absence of her father, she’s like the daughter that I never had. But as her mentor and teacher, I don’t think it would be right to send her into a situation that is both dangerous and deadly–especially considering her lack of experience in the matter.”
“I understand your concerns old friend. But you do not have that many options left.”
Calis nodded regardless. “I can’t very well lie to her either.” He pointed out for his sake.
“You can’t do any worse by not simply asking her. She may surprise you by saying yes.” The ex-Watcher said. “But at this point, what more do you have to lose in the end–if it means getting back what has been lost to the cosmos?”
The old man nodded in agreement–knowing what was being requested of him. If it was anyone else, he would have said no and be done with it.
But Tarnek was still a vital part of him and his continued existence. And he owed the ex-Watcher so much since that fateful day. It would be unwise to refuse him even in light of this new discovery.
Nodding some more, he said: “Fine. I‘ll ask when she gets here.”
If she gets here.
~4~
The gusting winds chewing into my bike’s wake was telling me that this storm was not only a monster, but also not fucking around either.
Several times over the last hour, I had to keep increasing speed gradually–trying to see if I could outrun this thing–but I couldn’t keep my ride stabilized for more than a minute before I had to try something else that wouldn’t have me spread out across the landscape in a flurry of broken limbs and mangled bike pieces.
Christ on a crutch! I swore in the Old Language, feeling my physical self lift up even more as my bike hit the crest of a sand dune and roared across another flat valley of sand and rock.
This would be so much more fun if Mother Nature wasn’t too busy being pissed off at us mere mortals on an every day basis–but ever since the Fall of Man, humanity’s struggle for world dominance upon returning five thousand years ago had ran into a few noticeable hitches along the way.
But I couldn’t think of the fucking distance–even as I continued to worry that I wasn’t going to make it in time. But Lady Luck was with me in that moment when I spotted what I thought was an all too familiar bowl shaped depression ahead of and sitting just to the left of me.
That gave me hope all right. It meant that I was much closer to my original goal than I was more than forty-five minutes ago when I was too busy skimming the edge of River Gorge and trying to keep myself from falling off my ride in the process.
Of course, that depression formation meant something else to me personally too. It was the annual location for the famous Desert Storm racing event which was held every year for auto-frame pilots like myself.
But presently, half the depression was being swallowed up by enormous clouds of sand and dirt from the storm’s leading edge and that made me shudder sympathetically in response.
There was no way I was going to fucking avoid this mess! I reflected miserably. That was for sure!
But there was a small silver lining for me on top of this new revelation too: Shark’s Bay itself was situation on the race track’s southern flank–near a cliff drop off really–but smoothed out nicely by both time and Mother Nature’s ever loving embrace.
Bitch. I thought in a foul mood at that point. You just had to go and ruin my fucking day again–didn’t you?
My bike drifted to the right again in response, forcing me to make a small course correction. But as luck would have it, I also spotted the now familiar road that would lead into the settlement.
I aimed my bike towards what amounted to a steep incline right in front of me–knowing full well that could result in a suicidal freefall of epic proportions.
But if I nailed the landing on the return flight, it would level out like it always did an then open up into a small clearing that ran three miles in either direction and then onto yet another less than maintained road on top of that.
But the storm wasn’t cutting me any slack even still. It desperately wanted to swallow my stupid ass up in all its wonderful power and glory.
Not today world! I threw out in direct challenge to the racing storm and myself.
My tied back hair whipped around constantly in a painful frenzy and that was going to be equally embarrassing remainder when I finally pulled into town and had to explain to the old man himself why I looked like I took another dip in a bathtub full of glittering sand and grit.
Not bothering to look at myself for more than a few seconds at a time, I kept my attention on the road ahead–knowing that what was going on all around me wasn’t going to bode well for the journey back home.
But in layman’s terms, there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it. I was seriously fucked in so many ways it wasn‘t even funny!
“Oh my god…” I whispered in cold dread at that point. But there was nothing I could do. I had to keep pushing on. Push forth!
That’s all I could really do in the meantime.
I opened the throttle a bit more and gunned the engine in response to my next desperately laid plan of the day–hitting that hill in front of me for all it was worth and hoping for the best.
Then my bike’s nose angled down sharply once I got to the top of the crest and turned into a bit of a freefall on the return flight which lasted a span of about fifty feet.
Until the next hill. And that one looked enormous!
Pouring on more speed, I raced up the sharp incline as quickly as possible, gritting my teeth in the process and trying my best to gauge when to do my next trick of the day.
My machine roared in response as I launched it into the air just at the right time as I reached my intended target–suspending me in the air for those brief few seconds.
I yelled out something completely incomprehensible at that point. I didn’t fucking care! I was having the time of my life despite the possible dangers around me, but at this moment, I was in my element and in control of the situation.
Then I started to…fall. But with all the grace and tact of a rock.
More screaming from me followed suit. Total exhilaration!
T
he bike’s front thruster assembly dipped like a wounded bird in flight–which made its rear pitch forward and up at the same time.
I quickly added more power to prevent myself from flipping completely over, but right at this point in time, I was in a complete nose dive and rapidly coming up to the bottom of the incline at a nightmarish pace.
I pulled up at the last possible second–angling my body and my bike–and struck the lip of it hard as a result.
An explosion of sand blew up in my face as I was momentarily blinded and coughing up my lungs in the process. But I kept myself on the level throughout the experience–not even daring to change course or anything else.
I stayed true to the end–picking up a bonus burst of speed in return.
I didn’t even think to add the bike’s boosters to the mix because I was already traveling at a pretty good clip and right now, I wasn’t sure that was going to be a good idea.
Not until I finished wiping the sand out of my eyes with the back of my jacket sleeve.
Then I saw where I was heading next and decided to throw caution to the wind. I flipped a covered toggle on the bike’s display panel and opened up the rear jet boosters for effect.
Boom.
Just like that.
My ride exploded forth with a renewed sense of urgency that had me screaming the entire way for the next twenty seconds–with every speed indicator maxing itself out.
And while I was doing this, the storm behind me was redoubling its efforts to finally catch up.
But I thought I was further ahead of events than I originally believed–even as I raced along after cutting the boosters–and thinking that nothing could touch or even harm me at this time.
No matter what, the weather was just as unpredictable. And as an experienced rider, it was always ill-advised to start second guessing its most pivotal nature.
Looking back behind me, I caught a real good glimpse of the raw power and display of Mother Nature in motion–seeing the hurricane force winds play with the clouds of sand that had already been sucked up by the storm’s awesome power.
This was more than enough for me. I didn’t want to be caught dead in the middle of this chaos no matter what befell me.
The Starchild Page 3