When Aquilla’s eyes parted to view the Dragon, she smiled broadly. ‘You came for me … I knew you would.’
Maelgwn gave her a reassuring smile in return, and assisted her to a seated position. ‘I need you to tell me what has happened.’
‘Don’t listen to her.’ The Leonine female struggled to move more than just her head and found the goal impossible.
‘Hey,’ Maelgwn cautioned her. ‘If you want to keep your only mobile body part, I’d be quiet if I were you.’ The Leonine rolled her eyes and collapsed her head back into its headrest, whereupon Maelgwn looked back to Aquilla.
‘After I spoke with you,’ she began retracing her steps in her mind, ‘I decided to get the chariot ready to transport —’
‘Do you have the crystal?’ Maelgwn interrupted.
Aquilla shook her head. ‘You took it from me, remember?’ She frowned, concerned for her precious component.
‘So I did.’ Maelgwn was quick to flatten her fear. ‘What happened next?’
‘I’ll tell you what happened next.’
Maelgwn turned to find Zerrah pointing a pulse blaster at him.
‘Zerrah, what are you doing?’ Uriah begged to know as he awoke into the tense situation.
‘Who cares!’ Inanna’s male official cried. ‘Just shoot the bastard.’
‘Butt out,’ Zerrah warned the Leonine, remaining focused on Maelgwn. ‘The Dragon is behind the whole affair.’
‘How do you know?’ Aquilla appealed.
‘Because I awoke as he was putting me into stasis,’ he advised, whereby Aquilla shot a strange look in Uriah’s direction, before looking back to Zerrah.
‘So what does that prove?’ Aquilla reserved her judgment.
‘Let me put it to you this way … if neither you nor I let these two officials out of stasis back on Mazua,’ Zerrah motioned to the two Leonines, ‘and Uriah does not have that kind of security clearance —’
‘Actually, since Cornelin’s passing, I do have such clearance,’ Uriah admitted openly. ‘But Aquilla has interrogated me and cleared me of involvement in this affair, and I have also cleared her.’
With this, everyone looked to Maelgwn, questioning his innocence, even Aquilla.
‘Who else could have freed them?’ Zerrah deduced.
Before Maelgwn could say anything in his own defence, Zerrah fired at him and rendered him immobile from the neck down.
‘Good show!’ cried the Leonine, as Maelgwn toppled over and landed face down with a thud on the floor.
‘Zerrah, you fool!’ Aquilla hurried out of the stasis tube to see how the Dragon fared. ‘Have you lost your mind?’
‘Leave him.’ Zerrah grabbed hold of his sister’s arm and dragged her out into the flight lounge. ‘You too,’ Zerrah motioned Uriah to follow him.
‘Uriah.’ Maelgwn struggled to raise his head to view the lad. ‘Zerrah has got it wrong.’
‘I believe you, Dragon,’ he whispered back to the hindered warrior, so that Zerrah would not hear him. ‘Never fear, I’ll reason with him,’ Uriah assured as he departed, the door to the lounge locking closed behind him.
15
The She Devil
It wasn’t too long before the effects of the sonic pulse bullet began to wear off and Maelgwn found he was able to wiggle himself free of its effects.
When he raised himself to his feet, the male Leonine objected to the swift recovery. ‘Hey, how did you do that?’
‘Mind over matter,’ Maelgwn explained.
Both of the officials began to concentrate on breaking loose of their impediment, which amused Maelgwn greatly. ‘It requires a lifetime of practise,’ he advised to regain their attention. ‘I’m afraid you two will be laid out for some time yet.’
‘Marvellous!’ the Leonine male grumbled. ‘Who are you, man? What are you?’ he concluded with distaste.
‘He’s one of those ape men,’ the female informed, sounding rather intrigued herself. ‘From that primitive little out-of-the-way system where Inanna’s beloved was lost.’
‘I go by the name of Dragon at present,’ Maelgwn informed. ‘And you are?’
‘Serena.’ The female offered up information first. ‘Attaché to the Goddess Inanna.’
‘Don’t tell him anything,’ her accomplice snapped. ‘You don’t know who he is.’
‘The paranoid pussy is Barnabus,’ she added, still observing Maelgwn in an amiable fashion.
Her loose tongue was much to Barnabus’ frustration. ‘Serena! Stop thinking from between your legs and use your brain for a change.’
‘Tell me how you got out of stasis back on Mazua?’ Maelgwn demanded, to put an end to their bickering.
‘How did you get on board this vessel?’ Barnabus asked the question that he found far more perplexing.
‘I stowed away,’ Maelgwn lied, reaching for his EMS Wand.
‘But this ship is equipped to detect any additional life forms on board.’ Barnabus rejected the claim.
‘Are you going to answer my question, or shall I dismember you piece by piece?’ Maelgwn activated his weapon.
‘He’s afraid to tell you,’ Serena spoke up. ‘His life is already under threat, and as it is plainly obvious that you are not going to be susceptible to the truth —’
‘What do you mean by that?’ Maelgwn interjected, dispensing with his weapon.
‘Serena?’ Barnabus frowned in warning and shook his head.
‘Don’t fret, my pet.’ Serena looked back to Maelgwn. ‘There is no way he will believe us. Why should he?’
‘It is hardly worth mentioning then,’ Barnabus stressed.
‘Oh … don’t you want to see him tormented?’ Serena posed the question to her companion, although her sights were still fixed firmly upon Maelgwn.
‘We’ll be on Laarsa soon and then Inanna will straighten out this whole mess.’ Barnabus sounded very sure about that.
‘I think you’ll find that Zerrah will head us back to Mazua,’ Maelgwn commented.
Serena burst into laughter. ‘See,’ she said aside to Barnabus, ‘no idea.’ Barnabus agreed with her on this point. ‘Zerrah’s not in control out there, honey,’ she told Maelgwn. ‘This is not a large vessel — if we’d changed course we would have felt it.’
This was true enough. ‘Who is in charge, then?’ Maelgwn approached Serena to implore her to answer. ‘Is there someone else on board that I don’t know about?’
‘Serena,’ Barnabus cautioned her, ‘you’ve said enough already. Leave it alone.’
‘What harm can it do us to enlighten him?’ she appealed to Barnabus. ‘He’s locked in here all the way to Laarsa, just as we are.’ Serena looked back to Maelgwn, interested to see what kind of a reaction the news would fetch. ‘Your girlfriend has assumed control of our mission.’
‘That’s absurd!’ Maelgwn rejected the idea completely and backed away from the Leonines. ‘Aquilla has no motive.’
‘What if Inanna was holding her mate to ransom, a Delphinus male who could be your twin?’ Serena added a little fertiliser to the seed of suspicion already taking root in the Dragon’s mind.
The information came as a rude awakening and Maelgwn’s etheric vision of Durak came back to haunt him.
At the point in time and space where you stand, I still dwell among the living.
‘Durak,’ he mumbled in conclusion.
‘That’s him,’ Serena confirmed, gratified by the look of betrayal on Maelgwn’s face. ‘I think you’ve been had, sweet thing.’
‘Ha!’ Barnabus thought justice had been done. ‘That’s what you get for treating innocent officials in this manner.’
‘I can’t imagine that any official of Inanna’s would be totally innocent,’ Maelgwn scoffed.
Serena considered his comeback showed considerable insight and she winked to give the Dragon credit. ‘You got that right.’
With no further questions at this time, Maelgwn raised his sonic pulse blaster.
‘Awe, come on!’ Barna
bus pleaded.
‘And we were just getting along so well,’ added Serena, pouting with regret.
‘Sleep,’ Maelgwn instructed, blasting both the Leonines into an unconscious state.
With peace established, he thought over Serena’s claim. Aquilla was the only person who could have stolen Gibal’s detection device or, indeed, the quasi-crystal. In the frenzy of disrobing during their heated encounter in the control room, devices had been flying everywhere. She could easily have swiped them then.
But how could she have known about the detection device in the first place?
In addition, Uriah had cleared Aquilla of involvement in the affair, which seemed to indicate that the Leonine’s were toying with him.
Maelgwn closed his eyes to will himself to the cargo hold, which would be devoid of people, when the sound of the lock mechanism in the door disengaging stopped him.
‘You can come out now, Dragon.’
Maelgwn opened his eyes to find Uriah in the doorway. ‘I spoke to Zerrah but,’ he shrugged, motioning for Maelgwn to come and see.
Zerrah was unconscious on the flight deck floor and Aquilla was in tears on the lounge.
‘He’s not dead, is he?’ Maelgwn feared the worst and although Aquilla shook her head to the negative, he checked for himself all the same.
‘He’s just unconscious,’ said Uriah, very matter of factly.
When Maelgwn found Zerrah breathing, he had to wonder why Aquilla was so upset. He left the young captain to approach Aquilla, but Uriah intercepted.
‘There’s something else you should know,’ Uriah warned.
Maelgwn wasn’t listening; his attention was fixed on Aquilla who was shaking her head apologetically. The thought wave neutraliser fell from his right wrist unexpectedly, and was replaced by the NERGUZ. Maelgwn knew it was the NERGUZ before he even viewed the device, the control mechanism had a tiny needle that pierced the skin and he felt this spike sink into his flesh.
‘Gotcha!’ Uriah cried with glee.
This utterance became the code word that locked the device onto Maelgwn’s wrist — only this word would remove the NERGUZ, and only if Uriah spoke it.
‘You will not retaliate,’ the young official instructed as Maelgwn reached for a weapon. ‘You will discard all your weapons, and take a seat.’
Despite his own will, Maelgwn did as he was instructed.
‘See Aquilla, extra credit.’ Uriah motioned to Maelgwn. ‘Inanna is sure to be appeased.’
‘But killing my brother for the sake of saving yours was never part of the deal.’ Aquilla stood enraged, and stormed over to confront Uriah. ‘You were supposed to put him in stasis.’
‘Do you want Durak back or not?’ Uriah snapped.
‘Yes,’ cried Aquilla, ‘of course I do, but —’
‘So do I,’ Uriah concluded. ‘We can leave Zerrah on the ship, Inanna need never even know he’s here. I don’t plan on hanging around long — we make the exchange and we leave. Agreed?’
‘Agreed.’ Aquilla gave in, as arguing would obviously get her nowhere.
Maelgwn sat on one of the control deck chairs taking in every word. It was hard to believe that the two people he’d always trusted most were betraying him. Still, in his life as Durak, these two were risking their lives to save him as they always had.
Aquilla crouched down in front of Maelgwn with a look of pity upon her face. ‘You shouldn’t have come.’ She appeared to want to say more, but decided that really summed it up.
‘Nevertheless, you knew I would.’ His words caused a lump to form in his throat. The fact that they had trapped him with the NERGUZ meant that Aquilla remembered he was immortal.
She nodded her head slowly, daring to be truthful with the Dragon for the first time since they’d met. ‘I knew everything about you before you’d even set foot on Lura,’ she informed. ‘I recorded the information on a thought recorder and have been using the data as a reference ever since.’
‘That’s how you knew about the NERGUZ.’ All the pieces of the puzzle fell neatly into place. ‘You stole Gibal’s detector from me in the control room,’ Maelgwn posed.
‘And my crystal,’ she cut in to inform.
‘But how did —’
‘I know about the detector?’ Aquilla forced a smile. ‘I was the one Gibal entrusted to insert the homing beacon in his neck in the first place.’
‘And where is Gibal now?’ Maelgwn felt he was pushing his luck in asking.
‘He’s in the cases out the back.’ Uriah smirked as he announced.
‘You dismembered him?’ Maelgwn’s stomach turned at the idea of being butchered in a living state.
‘Yes, I dismembered him,’ Uriah stated proudly, ‘and I would do the same to all of his kind if given the chance for it is the only way to be rid of them.’
Not the only way, thought Maelgwn, but he did not interrupt Uriah as he seemed to be on a roll.
‘I am sick of their games, sick of bending to the will of the Nefilim for fear of my life and the lives of those I care about. Once I have my brother back, I will serve them no more! I intend to do everything within my power to rebel against them. And your kind too, if need be.’ Uriah sparked on a topic he thought worthy of conversation. ‘Tell me about the Chosen Ones, Dragon. Or should I call you Maelgwn?’
Uriah let it be known that he had also been referencing the information Aquilla had obtained from him en route to Lura.
‘You are not a Nefilim and yet you are superhuman,’ Uriah said warily. ‘So what is your role in all of this?’
‘The Chosen Ones have been created to put an end to Nefilim rule,’ Maelgwn replied honestly, as the NERGUZ bound him to do.
‘Replace them, you mean?’ Uriah was disgruntled by the notion of a new breed of immortals to contend with. The Nefilim numbered but a few, thus his goal to destroy them was achievable.
‘There is an old Nefilim legend,’ Aquilla began, ‘that is not widely known as it relates to one of the prophecies of Enki. Enki’s doctrines were banned after he aided the Homo sapiens of the Dragon’s home planet to survive a great deluge. Enki’s brother and head of the Pantheon at the time, Enlil, had wanted Homo sapiens eradicated as he considered their particular breed too wilful to be of service to the Nefilim. Enki was appalled by his older brother’s ruling, and swore he would create a race of Chosen Ones … beings so spiritually, mentally and physically aware that they would bring an end to the Nefilim dictatorship of the civilised galaxy.’
‘How did you come to hear of this prophecy?’ Maelgwn was curious.
Aquilla’s expression became rather stormy. ‘It was the topic of my discussion with Durak at the time of his death.’
‘Is that what Durak was seeking? Ancient texts written by the Lord Enki?’ Maelgwn almost pleaded as he considered such an insight would be a rare and priceless treasure indeed.
Aquilla stared at him coldly and Maelgwn did not expect to get an answer. ‘Text was not what he found —’
‘We are the abductors, he is the captive.’ Uriah became disgruntled with obliging their prisoner’s curiosities. ‘How many of these Chosen are there?’ He moved in to monopolise Maelgwn’s attention.
‘I honestly don’t know,’ he replied, ‘perhaps thousands, perhaps more. We can assist you to free Durak —’
‘You’re already going to be of great assistance in that regard.’ Uriah cut him off, choosing to ignore his warning. ‘Thanks all the same.’ As Maelgwn opened his mouth to make an appeal, Uriah fixed his determined sights on the Dragon. ‘You don’t speak, you don’t move, you don’t breathe unless I say so.’
Maelgwn was thankful that Uriah hadn’t forbade him to think as he ceased to move or take in breath.
‘No Uriah, please allow him to breathe,’ Aquilla begged.
‘His sort don’t need to.’ Uriah waved off her request.
‘All the same.’ Aquilla tried another tack. ‘I feel Inanna shall find him more attractive if he’s still pink … she already ha
s the blue version.’
‘Fair enough,’ Uriah conceded. ‘Dragon, you have my permission to breathe.’
As Maelgwn’s capacity to draw breath was restored, he realised that his worse nightmare had come into being. The device would fall into the hands of someone with evil intent and he would be completely at their mercy. Without a thought wave neutraliser to protect what he knew, it wouldn’t be long before Inanna was fully aware of all the Chosen Ones. Here was a whole army of immortal warriors at her disposal, which would be hers to control with the technology he wore on his wrist. Maelgwn saw the test so clearly now that it had passed, and he’d failed miserably. The trial was over, bar enduring the punishment for being blinded to the truth by desire.
Laarsa appeared mauve in colour — the red light of the sun shaded the blue atmosphere of the water planet the lovely pastel shade. Unlike Lura, Laarsa’s surface was not liquid but ice. Most of the globe was plagued by horrendous storms, and so remained largely unoccupied. There was only one pocket of civilisation on this forbidding ball of ice, and that was Inanna’s city, Elima — the ‘house of glittering waters’. Elima was located in a huge crater atop a sheer mountain range which rose above most of the storm activity. This mountain range stretched the length of the planet’s temperate zone, which kept conditions in Elima cold, but hospitable. The city itself was true to its name, appearing to be made of ice, which glittered pale pink as it reflected the red rays of the sun.
As the vessel they were arriving in was one of Inanna’s official fleet, Uriah had no trouble gaining clearance to land at the Goddess’ private docking bay.
Ordered to follow Uriah and Aquilla out to the dock, that was exactly what Maelgwn did. It was like being trapped inside some alien thing having no control of his body. Thankfully Uriah hadn’t started toying with his mind yet. Perhaps he was saving that abuse for Inanna.
‘Where are En Barnabus and Nin Serena?’ A Leonine official met Uriah and his party as they disembarked, and he seemed most alarmed to find his colleagues absent.
‘They are still sleeping in stasis. No harm has befallen them,’ Uriah advised. ‘We are here with a great bounty to offer the Goddess Inanna in exchange for my brother, Durak. It is of the utmost urgency that I speak with Inanna at once.’
Chronicle of Ages Page 29