Heart of Stone

by Arwen Jayne

  Thex gave Simon a high five, slapping their palms together in glee. As the ship gave up its struggle and everything quietened he picked up the hailer again. He thought it might be best if he didn’t goad them right now with an I-told-you-so. “Come out unarmed and surrender. Those of you who fight will be doomed to the lower worlds, surrender and you will not be harmed.”

  Their answer came as blast of weapons fire from the ship took out part of the field’s spectators’ stand.

  Michael, on top of the fire station, saw where the weapons fire had come from. He aimed and fired his grenade launcher, scoring a direct hit.

  Thex yelled into his two way radio. “Rob, shoot a warning shot across their bow, lets give them something to think about.”

  Melissa steered the truck to aim the cannon and Rob lit the fuse. Surprisingly, the cannon after its years of ornamental disuse, fired. The truck nearly shook itself to pieces as the ball shot into the sky. Wisely Melissa had dived out of the cab in case the cannon came back with the blast. The shot landed near the hull of the ship, shaking the ground beneath it. Rob yelled into the two-way. “They must have felt that one but I think the truck will only stand us shooting one more.”

  “Make for cover, we’ll keep it in reserve”

  At that moment the hatch on the side of the ship opened and two heavily armed Din stormed out only to be shot by sniper fire from George. The Din disappeared in a puff of smoke as they were banished to the lower worlds. The ship turned a weapon and opened up on the old church tower. Sandstone blocks falling like meteorites.

  Simon grimaced and whispered to himself. “You’d better have followed orders and got out old mate.”

  Another grenade from the fire station rained down on the ship. It didn’t knock out the other weapon but it seemed to damage it as it appeared stuck in its current position.

  Thex yelled into his radio “Now would be a good time Major. What’s your status?”

  The Major’s projected double looked around the command deck of the ship, Din were screaming and yelling at him, trying to claw him, hit him and shoot him with everything they got. It all passed straight through him. Calmly he directed a look at the weapons console and it started to sizzle, smoke and flames began pouring out of it. The Din redirected their efforts to putting the fire out. Back in the Simon’s house his body picked up the two-way radio. “I’ve disabled their weapons. Including the two you guys just banished I count a dozen Din. I can keep them distracted this end if you want to take the ship.”

  “Michael, George if you’re still there, we’re going in.”

  “We’ve got your backs”, came Michael's voice over the transceiver.

  “Ditto” came a reply from George that caused a great sigh of relief from Simon.

  Thex gathered up Simon, Yan and Suzukisan and they headed to the ship. “We clear at the entrance Major?”

  “All clear. They’re too busy in here dealing with multiple systems failures.”

  “Just don’t destroy the engine room John, I want that ship in going order”

  The Major laughed back at him. “I’ll see if I can restrain myself.”

  Thex entered the ship.

  “Two coming your way Commander,” came the Major’s warning.

  “Got it” Thex whispered back. “Keep your voice down now Major, we’re inside.”

  Two Din appeared in the passageway. Thex and Simon opened up with two of Uncle Jack’s old SPAS 12 combat shotguns. The guns were ugly as sin but with the bespelled polycore rounds were well up to taking out the Din with a single shot each to the chest. The Din evaporated “Two down, eight to go. Which way to the command deck Major?”

  “About ten metres ahead of you turn right and follow the corridor, it’s at the end.”

  “Is there a second entrance to it?”

  “Yes there is.” The Major duly explained the second route to Simon and Suzukisan , the later looking formidable with his two Samurai swords. They headed off in that direction.

  Thex and Yan took out two more Din on the way. “Hope you’re counting six on the flight deck Major?”

  “Six it is.”

  Thex turned to Yan beside him. “Hold back behind me until the last minute, let them have a moment’s false confidence.”

  Yan smiled and nodded. He was more than adequately armed with a Heckler and Koch semi-automatic but he had his knives within easy reach as well.

  Thex stormed the flight deck, “Surrender now!”

  Two Din went for their weapons. Thex took out one and Yan, appearing out of nowhere, took the other. The sound of a loaded barrel being cocked behind them had the rest turning and raising their hands, um claws, as Simon and Suzukisan entered from the other side.

  The remaining four Din were marched out of the ship where they were met by Michael, George, Thomas and Tyra. Tyra and Thomas were feeling a bit like good cop, bad cop. Tyra, armed with a tranquilizer gun just in case, explained the deal “You’ve got two options, or actually two and a half really. Thomas here can banish you directly to the lower worlds or you can accept the mercy of the Goddess.”

  One of the Din eyed her with suspicion. “What is this mercy you speak of?”

  “The Goddess can make it so that you experience in a moment of time the pain and suffering of all you have done. You will see in very fast forward all the harm you have done and the consequences stemming from it. Purged in this way you may either then choose to die and be reincarnated into a human life on this planet or, and this is the two and half option, you can swear to serve the Goddess in which case she will gift you with a corporeal form that can shapeshift between human and Din. If you break your vow to the Goddess all bets are off and you will be instantly banished to the lower worlds.You can have sixty seconds to think about, then Thomas banishes you.”

  The Din discussed it amongst themselves then two stepped forward. “We will test this mercy while the others watch to see what happens to us.”

  “Then kneel.” Tyra stepped forward and placed her palms, one on each Din’s forehead. “By the grace of the Goddess, be redeemed!”

  Both Din instantly fell to the ground in a heart piercing scream then collapsed into unconsciousness. After a moment, with tears streaming down from their reptilian eyes they sat up and bent their heads to Tyra. “We will make amends and serve the Goddess.”

  One of the other Din growled in disgust. “What slavery is this, you have bespelled them witch.”

  The one next to him struggled against his restraints and spat at his captors. “I will not be party to this mercy.”

  Thomas took the gun Thex offered to him and shot them. They disappeared in a puff of smoke.

  Simon was bemused. “I thought you were going to say some fancy words.”

  Thomas sneered at him. “Would be a waste of a good spell when I’d already bespelled the bullets. Magicians don’t waste their energy.”

  Tyra turned her attention back to the other Din on the ground only to find two humans in their place. Both were of moderate build but muscular, dark haired but with the strangest orange eyes. “Hi guys, so who are you?”

  One looked up to peer at her. “I am Mendal, the ship’s engineer and this is Upal, our chief scientist and inventor of the stone fire.”

  Thex swore. “Blood’s oath, so you’re the inventor of that damn dark light stuff?”

  Upal shrugged nonchalantly. “I’m a scientist. I just invent the stuff, not my fault where it gets pointed. So I guess I die now?”

  Thex near snarled. “No you don’t die. As long as you hold true to your word to serve the Goddess you’re on our side.” Then he stormed off.

  Upal mused. “Don’t think that one likes me.”

  Simon gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “He’ll get over it. Especially if you can find a way to help us free the rest of his team. Most of all, he’s honourable to his word.”

  Michael ambled over looking with annoyance at the spaceship illegally parked on his town’s football field. “And what a
re we going to do with that damn thing? It better be moved by dawn!”

  Epilogue

  Oscar was propped up on the vet’s examining table, licking Sally’s finger and looking pleased with himself.

  Sally stroked his soft fur with her other hand. Oscar had normal grey tabby colouring but it shone with a kind of metallic sheen. “Well he seems to be growing fast. What are you feeding him?”

  Tyra looked guiltily at Sally “um, actually, he eats what we do. We tried putting out cat food for him a few times but he usually glares at us, hisses and generally gives us what-o if we try. Even swatted the tin right out of Thex’s hand one day”.

  “So what are you saying, the cat’s vegetarian?”

  “Fraid so. We mix yogurt in with his milk to enrich it, he likes a feed of that too.”

  “Hmm, strictly speaking cats are carnivores. There’s lots of vitamins like B12 and amino acids that they can’t get except from meat. I’ll prescribe him a pet vitamin, it comes in liquid form, just give him a few drops a day as indicated on the packet. We’ll see how he goes on your food. You can buy vegan pet food these days but if he’s thriving and happy let’s keep with what you’re doing.” She gently pulled the hairs under Oscar’s chin. “All right with you fella?”

  “Rrraw!”

  “I’d swear he understands my every word”

  “Ah, actually he does. He’d speak but cat vocal chords don’t allow it. Most of the time the three of us communicate with him in mental pictures. Oscar’s really a merged being, part of him is the kitten we saved but the other part is a bit of Simon.”

  Sally was impressed but her brow furrowed in concern. “Wow. Um, but isn’t that a bit like how the Din attach on to human auras?”

  Tyra shook her head: a head these days sporting a crop of nearly shoulder length hair the colour of burnished bronze. “No this is different. The bit that is from Simon is fully integrated into Oscar. It’s the same for me. I can’t really imagine a completely separate Tyra any more, nor would I even want to.”

  Sally looked at her friend hopefully. “So I guess you’re not going back to your job in the city then.”

  “Oh no, I resigned that long ago. Anyway Simon’s got me, with Mendal’s help, researching everything I can about the Din, their history, their strengths and weakness and the current extent of their global operations.”

  “And Simon, he’s going to make enough from the security business?”

  “Simon has plenty invested, enough none of us really need to work but the Security business is a good cover for us. A lot of the fishing shacks around the lakes are vacant in the off-season so we’ll get enough work protecting those to keep the business legit. Plus your brother now considers us to be the unofficial neighbourhood watch.”

  “I think Michael’s glad that you guys have got his back. It’s always tough being the lone cop in these small country towns. Do you think the Din will leave us alone now?”

  “Hard to say. They know we mean to rescue the others. I’ll expect they’ll be watching us but it will be hard for them to move into the vicinity undetected. Nothing much will get past the Major’s spidery senses now he’s based himself here.”

  “Speaking of which, I assume the Major passed you lot on your licences?”

  “Not only that but he also passed Thex, even though Thex didn’t do the training.” Tyra sounded a little miffed at that. “Some technicality in the training world, the Major called it recognition of prior learning. It was apparently a lot of paperwork for the Major to process but he said it would have been a complete waste of his time to train Thex. He just spent an afternoon with him going over the regulations and a few bits of procedural stuff. Thex and the Major are thinking of setting up a survival training camp out at Jack’s old cabin. They’ve got to build some more facilities out there first though.”

  Sally still didn’t understand something. “But Thex doesn’t even exist as far as the authorities are concerned. How can he even get a license?”

  “Ah,” Tyra paused, looking for the right words to say without giving away too many of the Major’s secrets. “I think the Major has contacts in very high places. Somethings are better not to ask.”

  Sally took the hint. “Well as long as one of the Major’s secrets doesn’t include a wife or girlfriend we don’t know about.”

  “Sally? You got the hots for the Major?”

  “Yeah I know, he must be about fifteen years older than me.”

  “I’d be the last one to ever say that age was a problem, wouldn’t I? You know Simon and I are starting up some classes in Tantra at the youth club, adults only of course. Why don’t you invite him along?”

  Sally turned bright red and had a coughing fit.

  Simon and Annie sat on the glassed in verandah enjoying a hot cup of tulsi in the morning sun. Annie had turned up on quick visit. She’d been talking plenty to her daughter on the phone but it had been since Jack’s death that she’d seen her.

  “So Annie, did you ever tell Tyra who her dad was?”

  Annie heaved a huge sigh. “No, I thought it best at the time if everyone thought I didn’t know who the father was. Proved to be a risky strategy as the authorities nearly took Tyra off me, what with all the prejudice against unwed mothers back then. Fortunately dad used his legal clout to formally adopt Tyra but I raised her. I guess one day I should tell her she’s my adopted sister as well as being my daughter, just I never wanted to raise the whole subject and Tyra respected my privacy on it.”

  “You know, he misses you.”

  “What? I’ve never seen him since. Anyway he must have found someone else by now. What would he want with an old woman?”

  “He stayed away from you both to keep you safe, he didn’t want to, I assure you. Why don’t you go and find him.”

  “I wouldn’t know where to look.”

  “I might. Jnarn stayed on this plane of existence. He’s been working with Japanese geneticists to try and figure out how Din engineered viruses have affected human DNA. They’re looking at ways to reactivate parts of the code that have been switched off and identify any reptilian DNA they might have grafted in.

  Annie beamed, her heart fluttered as her mind went back the brief and intense love affair she’d had. “Oh”, then she remembered her age, “but...”

  “Apparently you just need to swallow his cum Annie.”

  Annie sputtered. “What!”

  “The essence he gave you when you made love was just enough to create Tyra, otherwise you’d now be immortal.”

  Just at that moment Tyra walked in with Oscar in her arms. “Oh, Hi Mum, I didn’t know you were coming to visit.” She bent down to put Oscar on the floor so she could go and give her mum a hug.

  Annie stared at the young woman, there was some resemblance to Tyra but her daughter had never looked quite that good even in her twenties. Tyra had only ever had those eyes of clear pale blue when she was a newborn. “Who are you?”

  Tyra hugged her mum laughing, “Oh Mum, you always say the nicest things.”

  Simon coughed and looked meaningfully at Annie. “You know what we were talking about just now...”

  Annie went wide eyed and looked at her daughter again, understanding gelled. “Oh my, you’re immortal!”, then she hugged her daughter right back.

  Later that day, after Annie had left, Thex, Simon and Tyra meandered down to their playroom which Simon had moved from the lounge down into their recently refurbished basement. Simon had said it was time the ‘bordello’ got moved now that it was no longer his business.

  “I still don’t know how you and Mendal managed to get the ship moved before dawn came that day.”

  “Ally, the local electrician was a big help, she and Upal worked on the wiring while Mendal, George and I readied the rest of the ship. George and Mendal make a fearsome engineering team. Anyway we managed to get enough of the ships systems back up and we parked her at the bottom of the deepest lake around here, Lake Shannon. We used a transporter, which is
now parked in the other bay of the volunteer fire station, to get back here before dawn. There were a few out of town reports of sightings of a Southern Lights aurora but it was all put down to the meteorite strike that the football club claim hit their grounds in the middle of the night. The insurance company is taking a while paying up on that one but it should come through.”

  Tyra positively cackled with glee. “And Ally’s tower?”

  “Oh well that’s classified as an historic monument, she’s getting a government grant to get the stonework refurbished.”

  Tyra shook her head, it was always a mystery to her how taxpayers dollars got spent. “We can’t get money for the youth club but we can get a disused church fixed? I’m happy for Ally though. What about Steven, has anyone seen him?”

  Simon began removing his clothes, watching Tyra like a predator about to get a meal. “We think that once he lost his guardian demon, so to speak, he high-tailed it out of the area. No one’s seen him and the Major should pick him up on his psychic radar if he comes near the town again.”

  Thex followed Simon’s lead and shed his clothes and began walking towards Tyra edging her backwards towards the whipping frame.

  Tyra looked around nervously when she noticed where they were heading her. “Now...what are you guys up to?”

  Thex began undressing her then gently planted soft kisses down her torso, distracting her while Simon cuffed her to the frame. He rose back up to his full height, a vision of some ancient god, leaning in he took her mouth prisoner.

  Simon stepped up behind her and whispered in her ear. “Annie told us why she came today. Apparently it’s someone’s birthday. We thought we’d take you out to dinner at the pub to celebrate but then we had second thoughts. We thought we’d eat in instead.”

  Tyra gulped, she’d get revenge back on her mother later for dobbing her in. “Um, what’s on the menu guys?” As if she didn’t already know.

  In answer Simon kneeled and nuzzled between her legs, his tongue seeking her inner warmth. Thex’s incisors lengthened as his mind found the right image to create them. He nudged Tyra’s neck as if asking for permission. “I want your essence too Tyra, I want part of you to be part of me. We both love you, we accept you, we are one.”