‘Leal has already left and won’t be back for another ten minutes or so,’ he stated in his own defence. ‘And I needed a shower, how about you?’ He moved closer and she held him at bay.
‘I have my own shower.’
‘You know, at this moment in time, Lucian is a married man.’ Zeven backed Taren up against the side of the tube, admiring how fine she looked all wet. ‘And you’re a free agent.’
Taren was amused by his premise, but could not agree. ‘Look, I just left Lucian’s company, so this is kind of weird for me.’
‘You seduced Lucian after I left?’ Zeven backed off, surprised for several reasons.
When Taren nodded, Zeven switched off the shower and grabbed his towel.
‘What a smooth operator you are turning out to be!’
‘It wasn’t like that,’ Taren said. ‘Lucian guessed my motive for warning him and well … I still managed to get back here six hours early so you can’t complain.’ Zeven opened the shower tube, reached for a spare towel and threw it at Taren.
‘I’m not complaining,’ Zeven stated coolly. ‘If you can seduce someone while your good friend lies dead in the morgue, then good luck to you.’ He walked out into his bedroom to change and Taren was angered that he was trying to make her feel guilty.
‘You just tried to seduce me,’ Taren pointed out, remaining where she was, ‘so what’s the difference?’
‘Leal is not dead at present,’ he called back.
‘Zeven, I already knew I was coming back to prevent his death.’ Taren wondered why she was arguing about this, when it was not the real bone of contention here. ‘Look, I am really sorry if my love for Lucian is offensive to you, but I am warning you now, I will be with him whenever and wherever I am given the chance. I didn’t ask for this destiny, but I bloody well intend to make the most of it.’
‘All right, already.’ Zeven wandered back in through the bathroom doorway, wearing pants now, and carrying a T-shirt that he would put on after he’d showed off his fabulous body sufficiently. ‘My bad. I admit I was jealous and am in dire need of getting laid.’
‘Well, Aurora is around here somewhere.’
Zeven shook his head at the suggestion. ‘I already know how it’s going to end. I’ll want to go in search of action and adventure and Aurora will kiss me goodbye and leave me to it. That’s why I am here with you, instead of there with her. If only there were two of you!’
Taren’s eyes opened wide with horror as a premise jelled in her mind. ‘There are two of me.’
‘Jazmay.’ Zeven was following and smiled — the beautiful Phemorian was just his type, nemesis or not.
‘Jazmay has my memory … so she would have known all that I knew about the sample Amie stole from the lab,’ Taren gasped.
‘So?’ Zeven was disappointed that the gist of the conversation had taken a stark jump away from the subject of his love life.
‘So? What if Amie was Leal’s decoy because Jazmay had actually extracted another sample of gas earlier on in the piece, perhaps when it first arrived on board?’ Taren suggested. ‘As that event was not in the past, we are not looking out for it and therefore it would pass right under our radar. We need to watch that sample from the second it arrives on board,’ Taren concluded and Zeven scoffed.
‘What is this we shit? You’re still confined to quarters, are you not? Unless you think you can seduce permission out of the captain at this early stage of the game?’
Taren forced a smile at his attempt at humour. ‘Shit.’ Her confinement was a problem.
‘I’ll take that as a no,’ Zeven said. ‘On the other hand, you could just make yourself invisible?’
Taren was a little stunned by the suggestion; she’d never thought to try that.
‘I’ve done it before,’ he told her, ‘that time I rescued Aurora from Swithin and the secret service. As with all our skills, invisibility is triggered by visualisation. Imagine you are doing it …’ Zeven advised as Taren faded from his view, ‘… and you are.’
‘Holy shit, Starman!’ Taren had wandered over to the closest mirror and, not being able to see herself, was startled and reappeared. ‘Damn.’ She frowned at how easily she lost her concentration.
‘I did that the first time, too,’ Zeven laughed.
‘More focus?’ Taren concluded.
‘Exactly.’
Taren looked to the mirror and began to turn transparent until she could no longer be seen at all. Then, curious to know the extent of this Power, she picked up a comb from the bench and it also vanished. ‘Interesting,’ she commented, replacing the comb on the bench where it appeared once more.
‘Shall we spy?’ Zeven held out his hand to her.
‘Absolutely.’
When Taren took hold, Zeven vanished and she followed the tug on her hand to the door. ‘Whoa, this is weird.’
Zeven agreed with a chuckle. ‘Just imagine the potential for s—’
‘Let’s not.’
‘Just kidding.’ Zeven squeezed her hand as he opened the door before him, it slid aside and they moved into the corridor and took the fastest route to the launch bay in Module F.
The recon vessel had powered down when Taren and Zeven arrived, as Leal was exiting the craft to supervise the unloading of his cargo.
‘We’ll take it from here,’ Colbers advised the pilot, as Leal waited around for the trap containing the unidentified gas to be placed in the portable quarantine trolley.
‘The captain asked that I see this sample to the quarantine lab, before I report to him for debrief,’ Leal advised.
‘Suit yourself.’ Colbers shrugged. ‘You’re the one who is unprotected.’ He referred to the bio-suits he and his men were wearing to move the unidentified substance.
‘I’ll take my chances.’ Leal grinned — Taren had already informed him that the substance in question only enhanced psychic power, which he already had.
As Zeven led Taren closer to the action, they visually scoured the room — Taren had felt sure Jazmay would be waiting in the wings to make her move.
Where are you, Miss Cardea? Taren wondered, whereupon Leal turned about and looked straight at her.
When he saw no one, he suppressed a smile and looked back to Colbers, who was locking the trap into the bio-trolley.
‘Okay, boys, nice and slow,’ Bonar instructed the three-man crew, who were to help him guide the hovering trolley towards the bio-lab close by.
Leal was frowning and observing the trolley warily as the crew got it moving at a snail’s pace.
The hairs on the back of Taren’s neck began to stand on end and she felt in her gut that something wasn’t right. Colbers had not been this precious about moving the gas last time. Had her caution to the captain been passed down the ranks or was the tech up to something?
Taren let go of Zeven’s hand and quietly tiptoed into a position where she could view the readouts on the substance contained within the trolley. For some strange reason the volume of the sample within was diminishing slightly. It’s being syphoned! she realised. Jazmay’s invisible! The revelation hit Taren like a brick in the face. She backed quickly away from the trolley, in order to avoid the crew, and moved around to the opposite side where the sample extraction point was located.
No one witnessed Taren crash-tackle Jazmay, although they heard the collision and all eyes looked towards the kerfuffle. As both women landed on the floor the impact rendered them visible.
‘Fancy seeing you here.’ Taren grabbed the taller woman by both wrists and pulled her to her feet.
‘Dr Cardea?’ Leal seemed not entirely surprised by her presence — his telepathic talent had no doubt already let him know she was in his proximity even though she could not be seen.
‘Dr Lennox.’ Jazmay forced a smile. ‘I was wondering when we’d bump into each other.’ The one-time Valourean head-butted Taren into letting go and sent her stumbling backwards across the room.
‘Mine,’ Zeven commanded, as the sample extraction
device in Jazmay’s hand flew into his possession and he became visible to catch it. ‘Yah!’ He punched the air with an open palm strike in Jazmay’s direction and sent her flying backwards into the wall.
‘Watch out!’ Taren yelled in warning as she spied Colbers pull a weapon, and went racing towards Leal to prevent him from becoming a target. ‘Get down!’ She wrenched him backwards out of the way, as Zeven reached out to will Colbers’s weapon to him.
The gun left Colbers’s hand briefly, but bounced back into the sleeper agent’s possession — the weapon was attached to his wrist — Jazmay had obviously warned him about Taren’s talents in advance. ‘Nice try.’ Colbers pulled the trigger and Zeven went down.
In that split second Taren’s emotions threatened to be her undoing. Zeven lay on the ground, blood spurting from his abdomen. She thought to retrieve the bullet, but feared the bullet would do Zeven more damage on its way back out.
‘Fuck!’ Zeven protested to being hit, and was clearly stunned, but looking to Taren he urged her to pay attention to their foe. ‘I’ll live.’
Jazmay had found her feet and Colbers turned his weapon in Taren’s direction as his three-man crew ducked for cover. The sleeper agent was rather stunned when, against his own will, Colbers turned his weapon on Jazmay, and was relieved when she vanished before he could fire.
Amid the confusion, Leal crawled across the floor and dragged Zeven behind a large metal pillar out of the firing line.
As her target had vanished, Taren willed Colbers to crack himself in the head with the metal handgun and he dropped like a stone.
‘Ta!’ Jazmay reappeared in a crouching position by Leal and Zeven, to snatch her precious sampling device from Zeven’s hand, and back quickly away.
‘Enough of this foolishness!’ Taren decreed, having had a gutful of this fight.
At her wilful command, both the trolley containing the sample from Oceane, and the glass chamber inside the extraction device in Jazmay’s hand, shattered, and everybody ducked for cover as the gas escaped into the launch bay — only Taren stood her ground.
‘I know your motive, Jazmay,’ she told her nemesis, ‘but this will endanger his life and all his people, you know that!’
‘Wrong!’ Jazmay shouted, as the shattered pieces of glass tube of her extraction device came back together, drawing in the small gas sample to once again contain it. ‘The Orion threat will still be forthcoming and I have the ability to protect him and all the Chosen, thanks to you. But without the tear between universes, I cannot will myself to them … I have tried many times. This disaster must happen or we will never be able to get the information pertaining to the Orion’s weapons to the governor.’
‘What?’ This was something Taren had not considered, and it was a worry. ‘There must be another way, Jazmay, let us work together to achieve our goals.’ Taren took a few steps towards her nemesis, and Jazmay took a few steps back.
‘So that you can make all the decisions for us? Like you did last time?’ Jazmay shook her head. ‘No thanks, I work alone.’
Taren willed herself to Jazmay and gripped her so that she would not attempt to teleport herself anywhere. ‘Do you still consider yourself a Valourean?’
The Phemorian looked deep into Taren’s eyes. ‘Phemoria has cared for me about as much as the MSS have. I serve myself and Kila, princess, so any royal command will fall on deaf ears. My will is every bit as strong as yours, and I have one talent you don’t,’ she warned. ‘So, I would let go if I were you, before I turn into a Phemorian water viper … with a deadly bite for which there is no anti-venom.’
A moan from Zeven in the background urged Taren to back off and postpone this fight for another day — she still had two weeks up her sleeve to release the sample Jazmay would steal this day.
‘This is not the end, Jazmay, I will find you and the sample.’ Taren let go.
‘And then you will die.’ The Phemorian vanished with the sample, most likely straight to Ronan’s office on Maladaan.
Taren went scurrying back to Zeven’s side. ‘Get Kassa!’ She ordered one of the cowering technical crew to the closest intercom, as she went down on both knees beside Zeven. ‘Why didn’t you deflect the shot?’ she appealed, close to tears.
‘It happened too fast.’ Zeven winced. ‘I’ve tried to will the bullet back out, but it seems my body is in shock and my psychic talent has stalled, you’ll have to do it.’
Taren looked up to see Kassa enter the launch bay. ‘Let’s leave it to the expert, shall we?’
‘You should go after Jazmay.’ Zeven was reluctant to urge Taren forth in their quest without him.
Taren shook her head. ‘Not without my travel buddy.’ She grinned, although a tear escaped her eye. ‘She’ll probably have gone straight into a secret service safe room and they’ll be expecting me to pursue,’ Taren added so that he wouldn’t argue her decision. ‘Better that we wait until they are off-guard once more.’
‘Clear,’ Kassa ordered everyone out of the way, so that she could inspect the wound. ‘On the stretcher, now!’
As Taren gave a hand to lift Zeven onto the stretcher, he was slightly delirious and more concerned for her than himself. ‘I’m sorry I made you come back and do this again … with the gas sample gone, how are you going to prove Amie’s treachery?’
Both Leal and Kassa overheard the comment and were equally shocked.
‘You know about Amie?’ Kassa asked Taren, who nodded. ‘We must talk, later,’ said the doctor as she led the floating stretcher away to her surgery.
Leal looked to their head systems tech, unconscious on the floor. ‘Lock him in bio-containment,’ he instructed the rest of the technical crew, figuring it would take at least the three of them to move Colbers. He then ran to catch up with Taren, who was following the stretcher into the elevator.
Once the doors parted at mid-deck and everyone exited, Leal pulled Taren aside. ‘I might be able to help you with your spy disclosure problem, so be sure and invite me to your little tête-à-tête.’
Kassa and her stretcher went one way towards the medical rooms and Leal turned and went the other.
‘Are you going to report to the captain?’ Taren was unsure of who to pursue.
‘Yes,’ Leal said.
‘Should I come?’
Leal considered. ‘Best not. Perhaps you should return to the quarters to which you are supposed to be confined, so that the captain knows where to find you when he does wish to speak with you … I am fairly sure he will want a word.’
‘What’s going on?’ Aurora came rushing down the corridor from the direction Leal was headed, and when she saw Zeven being taken into surgery on a stretcher she freaked. ‘How? What happened?’ She looked to Taren for an answer and then frowned. ‘Why aren’t you in confinement?’
‘I’m sorry, Rory, no time to explain.’ Taren backed away from her. ‘I have to find Balin.’
With the thought of him Taren began to shift location, to the sound of Aurora gasping with shock in her wake.
This time when Taren arrived in Module C, she found herself in the botanist’s private quarters looking down upon him still in his dirty work overalls, fast asleep. Ringbalin looked too angelic to be a male of this world, despite the dirt on his fair skin and all through his long fair hair. Taren hated to wake him as he looked so at peace.
‘Ringbalin?’ Taren quietly requested his attention and startled the poor man awake.
‘What’s going on?’ He reached for his glasses and once he’d put them on he smiled and sat up, recognising his guest. ‘You are Dr Taren Lennox?’
‘I am.’ Taren went to shake his hand, but just as before Ringbalin kept his arms folded at his chest. ‘I’m sorry, but my hands are very dirty,’ he explained.
‘I know why you hesitate to touch any human being, and dirt is not the reason,’ Taren told him as she took a seat on his bed. ‘I am a pre-cog, do you know what that means?’
‘You can see into the future,’ Ringbalin replied
, somewhat uncomfortably.
Taren nodded. ‘I have spent time with you in one possible future, where I learnt certain secrets about you.’
Ringbalin sat back, rather more concerned.
‘I am not MSS …’ Taren said sincerely, hoping to ward off his panic, ‘… quite the opposite. I am here trying to prevent what might be a disastrous event for the AMIE project, but in the process of doing this, one of our crew, Zeven Gudrun, has been badly injured —’
‘He’s one of our best pilots, isn’t he?’ Ringbalin asked — his inner turmoil evident on his face.
‘The best … and a dear, dear friend to me. In the future I left behind, in order to come back here and prevent this disaster, you told me that no matter what reality we were in, you would always be disposed towards helping me,’ Taren ventured. ‘I realise you don’t know me as you did once, and I know it is a lot to ask, as it may mean exposing your gift, but —’
‘Where is Gudrun now?’ Ringbalin knew what the doctor was asking.
‘I can teleport you directly to him. But I must be touching you in order to do so.’ Taren held out a hand in offering.
‘Whoa, really?’ Ringbalin was stunned by her claim, but curious to see her prove it. ‘Okay then.’ He took a deep breath to calm himself from his shock awakening and call to duty. ‘I’m good.’ Ringbalin placed his hand upon hers, whereupon she teleported them both directly into Kassa’s surgery.
Doctor Madri nearly had a fit when she saw the pair arrive in her surgery, as she was up to her elbows in Zeven’s blood and guts, as was her electronic aid. ‘Stop doing that!’ she ordered Taren, as she dropped the bullet she’d removed from Zeven’s stomach into a metal dish. ‘I just had Aurora in hysterics!’
‘Dear heavens, that was incredible.’ Ringbalin stumbled about as he found his feet — he’d just been sitting down in his room and now he was standing in another part of the ship!
‘You cannot be in here right now.’ Kassa looked to Balin, horrified. ‘He’s absolutely filthy!’
‘It won’t matter,’ Taren assured her, urging Balin closer to the patient, despite the surgeon’s protests.
The Universe Parallel Page 32