AWOL

by Traci Harding

  ‘Vault guard, Captain Vishketah.’

  Their attention diverted to a member of the Valourean guard, speaking into her headset. ‘General Prochazka?’ She looked to Telmo with daggers in her eyes, and was already running towards the door, which was not closing fast enough!

  With a wave of his hand Telmo gave the doors a psychic nudge. The Valourean pulled her weapon and managed to get a shot off, which missed Telmo by a hair’s breadth. Jalila was not so fortunate; she hit the ground as the doors slammed closed, locking the Qusay’s guard out.

  ‘That will hold them until Prochazka gets here with the real key,’ he advised Kalayna, who was gripping him rather tightly around the waist from behind.

  ‘Sorry.’ She released him, as their attention turned to their downed team member.

  ‘The captain obviously didn’t have time to change the function on her gun,’ Reggie advised via Trance, who was down on one knee checking Jalila’s vital signs. ‘She’s unconscious, is all.’ He gathered her up in his arms and, with some effort, rose to standing. ‘I’ll take her; you guys get the door.’ He turned and wandered towards the similar set of metal doors at the far end of the passage.

  ‘So much for having a guide.’ Telmo looked up to observe the imposing architecture of the ceiling in the corridor. ‘Quite impressive though?’

  ‘I’ll say,’ Kalayna concurred, and Telmo glanced aside to find her eyes were fixed on him. ‘You sure know how to woo a girl.’ She smiled winningly as she pulled a socket wrench from her belt and wandered over to take a look at the bolts on the door mechanism.

  ‘I remember wanting to woo you, very much,’ Telmo admitted. ‘But you were never very interested … you were still pining for some Kale guy?’ It was easy to joke about it now, with umpteen years of experience between him and then. ‘But besides being a little bit dense now and then, Zeven is a remarkable person, so I understand the attraction.’

  ‘Ah!’ She waved that off. ‘Over that, long time. My disinterest might have had a bit more to do with your reputation for seducing your colleagues.’ Kalayna attached the socket to her ratchet and got to work on the door mechanism.

  ‘I slept with a female professor at my university who stole my ideas to further her own career; she got me into the space program in exchange for me not exposing her as a fraud! At the time, I thought that rather chivalrous.’ Which, in retrospect it clearly wasn’t. ‘She did make a fortune from my power converter.’

  ‘So you forgot me during your travels. Did you find yourself someone special out there?’ She pretended to be more interested in her work than the answer to her question.

  ‘I didn’t forget you. I just stopped caring about impressing you,’ he confessed. ‘And started trying to impress myself instead.’

  ‘That seems to be working for you.’ Kalayna served him a cheeky grin as she dropped the last of the bolts on the ground and removed the cover to the circuit wiring for the door. ‘This doesn’t look so alien,’ she remarked, snipping a few wires.

  ‘This is just the outer defences.’ Telmo smiled as he watched her work; he’d missed this every day since he’d been conned into universe jumping with the timekeeper. He and Kalayna had been lovers, but that reality had been voided when he’d followed Zeven and gone AWOL in this timeline.

  ‘Even with the key, they aren’t getting this door open now.’ Kalayna holstered her tools. ‘They’ll have to pry it apart.’

  ‘Good job. That buys us some time.’ Telmo headed off after Trance, who was halfway down the hall and chatting away to himself.

  ‘Who is he talking to?’ Kalayna caught up to Telmo.

  ‘The souls of all the ladies whose lives we are aiming to protect, I expect. As a spirit being himself, Reggie sees them all clearly; to me they appear as tiny spheres of light, at least they do on this level of demonstration.’

  ‘But I thought they were all trapped in some celestial city and couldn’t be freed until after the curse of the Phemoray is lifted?’ Kalayna was stunned to learn this.

  ‘That’s what everybody thinks,’ he concurred.

  ‘But why didn’t you tell Taren or the captain?’ Kalayna queried his secrecy.

  ‘Because I was instructed not to.’

  ‘Instructed by whom?’ Kalayna obviously couldn’t think of a higher authority than the captain and his wife.

  ‘By the Old Ones.’

  His claim stopped the interrogation for a moment, as Kalayna processed. ‘As in the beings who built the inter-system gateways!’ She could barely breathe for her excitement.

  ‘Yes,’ Telmo granted, knowing just how envious that was going to make her.

  ‘You met them?’ she asked and thumped his shoulder at once. ‘Why didn’t you take me with you?’

  He blocked her strike this time and gripped her arm gently. ‘I didn’t say I was never going back to Karmandi.’

  Kalayna’s eyes grew wide in awe, and he could see the questions fighting for precedence in her mind — the Kalayna from this timeline was seeing him in a very different light now and he couldn’t deny that was delightful. It was a shame that she could not remember their romantic attachment any more, but he did enjoy getting to tease her interest all over again.

  ‘Is that like a city?’ she asked as he let her go and kept walking.

  ‘Like a city, yes.’

  ‘If not a city, then what?’ Kalayna hounded him, more playful than ever he’d seen her.

  When they’d worked alone together on repairing the defunct inter-system gateway, she’d always kept their relationship very professional. It just figured that she’d pick the middle of a disaster to decide to be amicable.

  ‘Will you take me there?’ Kalayna pleaded.

  ‘Being the amazing soul you are, you are bound to be drawn to Karmandi all by yourself,’ he teased, eyeing up the door before them that appeared to open in the same fashion as the first.

  Kalayna appeared torn between feeling flattered and rejected.

  ‘Can we hurry this along,’ Reggie droned. ‘Trance is not really built for carrying Phemorians around.’

  ‘So where’s all the alien technology you were boasting ab—’ Kalayna froze in awe as the massive doors parted onto a high balcony overlooking an expansive underground cavity, where towering racks of stasis pods hung in seemingly endless rows. All the light-beings who were accompanying them, raced out into the vast space in search of their own pods.

  Despite the overawing sight, Telmo was more preoccupied with how they were to get down into the complex. There were no doors or stairs leading from the balcony.

  ‘What’s the bet the control room is at the other end of this compound?’ Telmo wandered over to one of the smaller balconies that annexed off the main one.

  ‘Absolutely correct, I’ve seen the layout,’ Reggie confirmed.

  ‘So how do we get there, if we don’t know what it looks like?’ Kalayna was eyeing off the ceiling that was shrouded by darkness; most of the lighting streamed from the rows of pods and there was light at the far end, which was too far away to see the source.

  The plate in the middle of the little annex balcony drew Telmo’s attention and when he placed a hand upon it, the plate lit up. ‘Ha ha, very clever, this is like Nefilim technology,’ he commented to himself, ‘but of course it would be.’

  ‘Who are the Nefilim?’ Kalayna neared to see what the fascination was.

  ‘A race of beings that parented humanity in the last universal scheme, much as the Dropa parented humanity in this one.’ Telmo sat to remove his boots.

  ‘The Dropa?’ Kalayna quizzed.

  ‘The Old Ones,’ Telmo clarified. ‘I suspect there might be a soul connection there. Even though the Dropa and the Nefilim occupied the same space/time back in that universe, time is really a simultaneous event, and as we are ultimately all one, that really has to be the case, now, doesn’t it?’ He looked to Kalayna, whose expression was somewhere between admiration and utter bewilderment.

  ‘I have no idea wh
at you just said,’ Kalayna admitted.

  ‘Just thinking out loud.’ He smiled to assure her she wasn’t expected to understand. ‘The question was rhetorical.’ Telmo tossed his shoes under the bench in the small annex balcony, and directed Kalayna in the same direction. ‘Hop on.’

  ‘You say that like we are going for a ride.’ The instruction made Kalayna appear wary, as she looked over the edge to see it was a long way down.

  ‘Trust me,’ he suggested, looking to Trance. ‘Are you coming?’

  ‘Sure, I got nothing to lose, I’m already dead.’ Reggie lumbered over with his load. ‘And Trance could use a seat!’

  ‘Thanks for that vote of confidence, team.’ Telmo waited for them to settle on the seats provided around the back half of the annex, before stepping onto the central plate, which lit up again under his feet.

  ‘Whoa!’ Both his passengers panicked as the annex detached from the main balcony and hovered in midair.

  Telmo’s next thought turned the craft around, so he could see where he was headed. ‘Well, this sure beats walking.’ Telmo was enjoying the the experience, but his passengers were a little more wary.

  ‘Just don’t lose your concentration.’ Kalayna was trying not to look down.

  Trance was gazing out at all the pods before them, with a mournful look on his face. ‘Of all the horrid things done in the name of the Phemoray, this must be the worst. So many beautiful women with lives in limbo.’ His eyes turned to the woman in his arms.

  ‘It is time for a huge wake up call on Phemoria,’ Telmo agreed.

  ‘And we’re the alarm.’ Reggie grinned as Telmo focused his will on moving forwards and their hovercraft began moving at speed.

  ‘Speaking of alarm! AHHHH!’ Kalayna’s shriek echoed through the chamber as they were whooshed towards the light at the distant end.

  In the Qusay’s room of court, the Valoureans guarding the chamber pointed all their weapons in their direction — Taren was pleased to note that none of them appeared to be of the same design as Kalayna’s weapon — but upon spotting the lieutenant they lowered their guard.

  She was of the mind to use her PK and just freeze the entire guard where they stood.

  ‘Lieutenant Paturi,’ the Valourean in charge acknowledged her.

  ‘Captain Vudil,’ the lieutenant began. ‘I’m here —’

  ‘I know why you are here,’ the captain confirmed. ‘The general has already advised us of your orders. We are required elsewhere, so we are to leave you to your clean up.’

  The lieutenant gave a firm nod, and the Valoureans filed out of the room, closing the doors behind them.

  ‘Unbelievable!’ Jazmay mentally commanded all the locks to close in their wake to secure the room, even though many of the Valoureans had been given Satomi’s ability to teleport now.

  ‘My thoughts exactly …’ said Taren. ‘Maybe I should have restrained them all while we had the chance, but why risk raising the alarm if we don’t have to?’ The ease of taking the chamber was unnerving, as the men of the crew ventured through the doors at the back of the room to join them.

  ‘What just happened?’ Lucian sounded as wary as she felt.

  ‘It’s either a miracle or a trap.’ Taren frowned and shook her head, unsure.

  ‘I should have come back.’ Mythric collapsed to his knees at Satomi’s head, no doubt reliving the last time he’d found her thus. Fortunately Khalid had not entered the court chamber with everyone else as Mythric’s grief would have surely been let loose upon him.

  ‘The Qusay refused you an audience; you didn’t have much choice.’ Aurora placed a hand on Mythric’s shoulder in comfort and crouched beside him.

  ‘I should have snuck in,’ Mythric cursed himself in retrospect. ‘Why did I bring her back … not for this misery! Should I restore her life now?’ Mythric hated to query what he wanted, knowing it would be easier on everyone if they didn’t.

  ‘Satomi’s spirit is here,’ the captain felt compelled to advise Mythric, who was both relieved and wary to learn this. ‘She wants you to know she never intended to remain Qusay, she did this to save the family from Khalid’s delusion, but —’ the captain paused to hear the rest. ‘But she can see now that she was the one deluded, and Zeven was right.’

  The news came as a great relief. ‘Do it,’ Mythric urged Swithin and Ringbalin who were both close by, awaiting his word.

  ‘She feels she is not worthy,’ Lucian forestalled them.

  ‘That is not the question here,’ the captain told her. ‘The question is, do you wish to come back?’

  No one drew a breath as they awaited the answer, and Taren’s heart went out to Mythric, who’d had such a rough trot with loving this woman — she hoped Satomi appreciated that.

  ‘More than words can express,’ Lucian relayed her answer, and everyone began breathing once more, the rescue team springing into action.

  ‘Don’t move her,’ Swithin warned the grieving husband, as he went down on one knee beside her, and Ringbalin positioned himself on the other side of her. ‘Together?’ Swithin suggested, and Ringbalin gave an encouraging nod.

  Zeven was standing back, out of the way, when he noticed the kitten go scampering past him, heading for Jazmay. Some meowing got her retrieved from the floor, but no sooner had the shifter taken the wee animal in hand than Thurraya had transformed back into her true form.

  ‘Thanks, Jaz!’ she said, breaking free of her hold, then racing back towards her father. ‘You have to come!’ She dragged him back towards the Qusay’s private chambers.

  ‘I can’t just —’ Zeven motioned back to his dead mother, upon whom everyone else’s attention was focused at this time.

  ‘You must!’ she implored, still dragging him away with all her six-year-old might.

  ‘Okay.’ He grabbed her up and ran with her into the room.

  ‘Oh no, he’s already gone?’ She jumped from her father’s arms, and looked about the room to be sure, spotting Fari heading out a servant’s entrance. ‘Khalid left?’

  ‘Yep, just vanished,’ Fari shrugged.

  ‘Where do you think you are going?’ Zeven queried.

  ‘General Prochazka just ordered the vault doors to be welded shut!’ Fari pointed to the monitor as his source.

  ‘How do you know?’ Zeven rushed over to see for himself. ‘This is a closed Valourean security network! How did you get in here?’

  ‘I guess I didn’t spend all my time with Sovee doing homework.’ The lad grinned mischievously.

  ‘We have people in there.’ Zeven looked back to the screen and by the time he looked up from reading the order, the boy was gone.

  ‘You have to take me to the Pit of the Obstinate right now!’ Thurraya neared to grab his hand.

  ‘I have to find Fari,’ Zeven emphasised.

  ‘I probably have enough charge already to take myself,’ she considered.

  ‘No, baby, please —’ Zeven waylaid her, gripping hold of her wrist — at least if she went somewhere he’d go too. ‘Just tell me why.’

  ‘Khalid is going to face Prochazka and the curses, and I am the only one who can protect him!’ she insisted.

  Zeven was horrified, and yet from his own experience he knew Thurraya was integral to neutralising the curses.

  ‘I am the adaptor, the only one, do you see? This is why I came into this world.’

  ‘One of many reasons,’ he corrected, also remembering what the Dropa had said about his daughter. ‘But yes, I see.’ He glanced back to the door leading to the room of court, feeling that he should really consult Aurora on this one.

  ‘She will only be distressed,’ Thurraya guessed his hesitation. ‘We must go now!’

  Before Satomi’s eyes had opened, Mythric had dispersed all the blood from the scene, not wanting her to awaken to the grizzly sight. Her wounds had vanished during resurrection, the colour had returned to her flesh, and now that she was breathing peacefully, Swithin and Ringbalin sat back to admire their work.

/>   ‘She’s all yours,’ Swithin advised with a wink.

  Mythric took Swithin’s place by her side as Satomi awoke with a start and a gasp.

  ‘Spyridon.’ She was relieved to see him and gripped his shirt in panic. ‘I was deceived,’ she rasped.

  ‘I know,’ he concurred in a forgiving tone.

  ‘Clarona!’ She panicked. ‘The vault.’

  ‘We are on it,’ he assured, stroking her head.

  ‘This coup was to protect Thurraya, and I only exposed her to more danger!’ Satomi was frustrated by her misjudgement.

  ‘She’s safe, we have her,’ he said.

  Aurora looked away from the intimate scene to note her husband missing. ‘Where is Zeven?’ She wandered back towards the rear chamber doors as the lieutenant hushed everyone to silence, pointing to her headset. ‘General Prochazka,’ she spoke into the mouthpiece as the room hushed, and Taren moved in close to listen in on the transmission.

  ‘Are you in the room of court?’

  ‘Yes, General,’ she replied.

  ‘Any sign of the AMIE crew?’

  ‘No, General. All is as it should be here.’

  ‘Is it?’

  The comment alarmed both Taren and the lieutenant, who looked to each other wide-eyed and wary.

  It was at that moment Taren noted the new steel plate set in the middle of the chamber. ‘What is that?’

  The doors to the back room closed in front of Aurora and trapped her in the room of court with the others. ‘No!’ She slammed the door with her hands in protest and tugged at the knobs that were now firmly fixed in place and would not turn.

  ‘I cannot abide disloyalty, Lieutenant.’

  ‘Uh-oh!’ the Valourean mouthed in trepidation, pointing to the camera on the wall through which they had been viewing this room, and Taren backed up to hear.

  ‘I was going to ensure you were out of range, but now I shan’t bother.’

  ‘Out of range … of what?’

  A beam of light shot down from the ceiling in the centre of the room and a blast of force bounced off the metallic plate and exploded outward, sending everyone flying into the walls. Taren cracked her head, and blacked out as she slid to the floor.