It was a long time since the field had been ploughed and planted the previous autumn, so the ground was hard-packed and easy to walk on after several dry days. Carrying all their heavy gear they hunkered down and toiled against the rise of the ground to the far corner of the field. The hedgerows were low and they could see over and across to the same terrain and crop in the very large field next to the one they were walking in. They continued up the slope, mildly moist now as the waterproof outer clothing worked against the warmth of the day and their personal hygiene. Midges pestered around the neck of their clothing where the humid air escaped from the depths of their gear. They struggled on to the top, aware they could have dressed more lightly and comfortably for the warm walk, which however would not have been entirely appropriate attire for the great outdoors.
*
In the set-aside land on the other side of the field margin there was some consternation in the Jarlankan spacecraft at the approach of the strange couple. The Jarlankans had a very good view of the ‘threat’ perched invisibly on the high legs of their craft among the trees of the tangled copse. The duty officer on watch had called his superior, Commander Makhtarian, after tracking the couple leaving their land vehicle and making straight towards the Jarlankans by the hedge around this agricultural land.
Ivanka Makhtarian gathered behind the officer and considered the Earth humans bumbling up the field edge towards them. Most peculiar and inoffensive looking, she thought, but she had to call it in to Rakul in the ship adjacent.
Rakul took a seat and turned it towards the couple approaching in the adjacent field. A large viewing screen opened on the fuselage in that direction. Ivanka and Rakul watched the couple from their separate ships as they headed slowly but purposefully directly towards them. It was hard to believe they were not being drawn to the Jarlankans; what else could they be seeking so purposefully? Ivanka and Rakul stared deeper into their screens, which obligingly magnified the view of the oncoming Tom and Mavis. Tom was blowing at tiny flying organisms and Mavis loosened her collar against the unseemly perspiration caused by the vigour of the hike.
“Strange people,” Rakul mused on the open channel to Ivanka. “They are so unremarkable and yet seem so motivated to reach us.”
“Shall I put a hunting party out in case they become troublesome, your Excellency?” Ivanka offered without offering additional assessments of her own.
“That would be expedient, Commander.” Rakul considered Ivanka’s image in the adjacent communications screen. She was an athletically built woman with striking plaits of russet hair sprouting in thick ropes high on her cranium. The sides of her head around her ears were shaved to display a thin line of runes and service honours. “Would you consider these people dangerous in any way, Commander?”
In the screen Rakul saw Ivanka turn to consider her own view of the approaching human couple. She has a very fine profile, Rakul considered, a noble brow above wide tawny eyes. Fine nose and lips. She was engrossed in the screen before speaking. “Perhaps their idiotic appearance is just misdirection, your Excellency. They could even be a local version of our own Aged Berserkersiii. In any event, we should take precautions.”
Rakul considered the labouring couple, who had reached the low hedgerow leading to the scrub and were squatting down to observe the very space his fleet were occupying. They were naive in the extreme if they were indeed Berserkers capable of attacking the Jarlankan positions in a fury of aged sacrifice. Despite that, the maxim was not to make any assumptions about anything on an alien world. The couple were indeed deploying some primitive surveillance equipment and scanning the ground of the hidden Jarlankan battle group (with their binoculars, seeking the pair of nesting owls). “Agreed, Commander, please deploy your hunters.”
Ivanka turned away to brief a small group trained in abduction and light skirmish skills. They suited up rapidly, donned their hazmat helms and armed themselves with pacifying ixwas, each Spargar stave armed with nerve agents and electrical stunners. A landing ramp detached from the keel of Ivanka’s spacecraft to allow the hunting party to deplane and spread out across the copse below.
*
Tom and Mavis scanned the untended scrub and trees with their binoculars. They regarded the hole in the oak tree where they knew the tawny owl pair were raising their brood.“Not much chance of seeing or hearing the owls calling in daylight today, Mavis. Now they have owlets they will keep a low profile.”
Mavis was regarding the bold shape of a jay on a high bough, resplendent in pink and electric blue. “If you do hear one it’s more likely to be a jay mimicking,” Mavis observed.
Tom turned his binocular view toward where Mavis was looking at the jay. He jumped back in shock as a black head with large wide-set eyes appeared in the full view of his binoculars, right in front of him. “Mavis!” he shouted and dropped the binoculars. On the other side of the hedge were several big men dressed in black with futuristic helmets, like a group of motor bikers separated from their bikes and lost in the country.
The Jarlankans thrust their ixwas through holes in the hedge and penetrated the drab coats of the strange humans with hypodermic points. Tom and Mavis felt these sharp jabs penetrating them before they passed out on the soft banks of the hedgerow. The dark-suited Jarlankans scampered around the hedge to the recumbent birdwatchers. A telescopic grappling arm deployed from the loading bay of their spacecraft and extended over the hedge, dropping supporting legs to the ground at intervals. The Jarlankans arranged slings from the grappling arm beneath Mavis’s prone form. She was raised up and transported back to the craft like a baby carried in a sling held in the beak of a stork. Once Mavis had been released and carried into the examination bay of Ivanka’s ship the arm extended once more and Tom was collected in the same manner.
*
A short time later Rakul joined Ivanka and they visited the examination bay to review the examinations of the two humans. Tom and Mavis lay naked on their backs on two of twenty light alloy surgical tables. The other eighteen tables were empty. Both humans were strapped down at the ankles and wrists. Tubes were inserted into all their orifices. A hundred long fine electrodes stood trembling a metre out of their bodies, inserted into major nerve ganglia and around skull plates into the surface of their brains. Their eyelids were clipped open, their eyeballs stationary and effectively blind due to the nerve agent that had been administered. That could not stop the two humans generating nightmarish visions in their memory, but without the clarity of conscious wakefulness or functioning eyesight. Medical orderlies worked on both bodies, testing, analysing, recording, introducing tracking chips and all the normal procedures.
“It is hard to believe these bloated bodies present any threat to our ships,” Rakul observed, staring with distaste at the flabby torsos and slack limbs of the human couple like cadavers on their slabs.
Ivanka thought that the finest warriors would struggle to look impressive in such degraded straits but did not voice it. “Mere precautions, Excellency. These are standard procedures that will reveal any military training or memory, and search for any recent interactions relating to our mission.”
“I think we are wasting our time here, Commander. Clear their memory and get rid of them. Meanwhile I want to see these operating tables occupied by persons of real interest from our Gayan rivals and any local people who were a witness to the capture of the Omeyn in question. This must be done with all speed; I need to know where She is as top priority. Take any shortcuts you need and don’t pause in reference to regulations.”
“Yes, Excellency,” Ivanka replied and turned to instruct her staff.
*
Later that same afternoon Tom awoke at the wheel of their car parked in a deserted country lane close to a small village. His body was stiff and he had a nagging headache. He shook Mavis’s arm in the passenger seat alongside. They both felt the same weakness and aches in their joints like the onset of influenza. T
hey shared a pervading sense of dread with no obvious reason or memory to cause it. Fearful images hovered outside their conscious grasp like waking from, and losing touch with, frightening details of a recent nightmare.
They could both recall leaving on a nature expedition that morning, but not how they had come to be parked in this remote lane. Tom checked his watch. It was 4.30 in the afternoon. The last time he had looked it was 11.00 in the morning. The couple had no idea where the day had gone.
SEVEN
On board the Gayan starship Maria, stationed eighty feet deep in the dark water of Rutland Water, the Cavallos Rafaello and Umberto were very busy. Reports had been coming in all night from Gayan monitoring systems and earthly news feeds relating to a spate of UFO sightings. A Very Large UFO (VLUFO) had been seen by many witnesses over Thetford. The Gayans had noted such a craft arriving in the Solar System and bypassing the Spargar station off Saturn before journeying on to Earth. It was that craft that had arrived in the East of England and accidentally or deliberately revealed itself over Thetford before disappearing. The Cavallos were assembling all the data to figure out the plan behind their enemy’s incursion.
Rafaello contacted Charlotte and Daniel simultaneously with the news. They both returned to their student rooms to take the call in private.
“We have significant Spargar activity these last few hours, my friends,” Rafaello’s bass voice sounded most serious. “A five up Spargar transport arrived your location this evening, as many as a thousand troops could be aboard. We have not seen anything that large from them in over ten years.”
Charlotte and Daniel understood immediately the import of such a brazenly open arrival. “Well, we knew there would be a response to them losing the battle and their local Omeyn in Thetford Forest,” Daniel said.
“It seems that we can expect a lot of interference now; maybe they will go overt if a group that size starts field operations,” said Charlotte. “Trust Joe to make such a big deal of taking the Omeyn and stranding her and her agents after we defeated the Spargar at the field study site. Now we have the obvious Spargar reaction to deal with and no specific plans from Joe to get us out of this as yet.”
“Our new friend Brigadier Harrier will also be knowing all about the sightings over Thetford and wanting to understand what is occurring. He will be seeing all the eyewitness reports and maybe military feedback from the airbases,” Rafaello observed. “I am thinking that we need to meet him with Professor Kitteridge soonest to explain the threat and to make plans.”
“Agreed on that, Rafaello,” said Daniel. “We will contact the Cambridge group first thing in the morning and then reach out to the Brigadier. I suggest you join us in Cambridge. The professor is the least mobile in this group so let’s use the Cosmology Department meeting room, as we did for the Prime Minister’s meeting?”
“That is good with us. Umberto and I will be visiting academics – from Florence maybe. Meanwhile be specially vigilant and tell our friends in Cambridge to be the same. We don’t think they will come after you openly in the centre of a town as yet, but these are special circumstances and we should expect anything.”
*
The following morning, Rafaello and Umberto slid Maria out of Rutland Water and headed to Cambridge. They landed and covered their ship Maria in a small meadow of unruly marshland at a fork of the River Cam close to the Trumpington car park-and-ride facility, south of the city centre. They emerged from Maria’s cloaked landing stage in oversized sports jackets, pale slacks and shiny shoes. They both wore designer sunglasses in a Wayfarer style. They looked back across the little tributary of the river to the V of swampy ground with high grasses, sedge and naturalised elephant ear plants where Maria was hiding. They noted that Maria had not disturbed the local flora as usual when sliding below the ground surface to await the Pantucci brothers’ return. They strolled along a dry cinder path that for some unknown reason ran to this spot around a small field to a footbridge over the dual carriageway of the M11 motorway. From there it was a short walk from the fan of car parking to the shuttle bus stop at its focus. Rafaello and Umberto chatted with interest about the small details of the locale, its birds and flowers, as was their custom when travelling on foot at leisure. They joined a small line of shoppers queuing by a smart brick and tin roof arrangement of bike sheds and pedestrian waiting rooms. A motley group of local people in line cast a quick glance over the two tanned foreigners but that was all. They were disinterested in just another two tourists finding their way into the cosmopolitan Cambridge city centre.
A short single-deck bus arrived, swung around the turning circle and pulled up against the rank with a whoosh of pressurised air opening the doors. Several of the people in line, old and young, presented cards to gain entry; the Pantuccis presented ham fists full of the metal disc tokens locals used for currency and the driver helped herself, picking through the coins to select the appropriate number. The Pantuccis smiled as they were given tickets and walked on taking a two-person bench seat each to accommodate their broad frames. A short while later they arrived at the shoppers’ bus stop by the Grand Arcade in the centre of Cambridge. They emerged and turned left onto St Andrew’s Street with the mellow ochre facade of Emmanuel College directly opposite.
They trod the busy main streets northwards with an eclectic mix of students and tourists around colleges and stores towards Magdalene Bridge and then on to the Cosmology Laboratory that would be an appropriate meeting point for these visiting Florentine academics to meet with Professor Kitteridge. When they arrived they were pleased that Charlotte came out to greet them. The receptionist wondered whether she had developed the relationship with the Italian academics through her language skills, or did Professor Kitteridge ask her to greet the visitors because of her bubbly personality? The others could only speculate but the department in general were completely unaware that Charlotte and the Pantuccis were acquainted over many reincarnations covering hundreds of years. Soul to soul, the Gayan Cavallos and Pointer welcomed each other effusively, although outwardly they displayed a stiff reserve more akin to scientists meeting awkwardly as Charlotte showed the two Italians into the meeting room. They shook hands formally with Daniel, Joe and Christopher before bending over the infirm form of the Professor and clasping his hand gently as if holding a nervous pigeon, afraid of bending his infirm bones. The spirit form of Duncan was also present, meaning there was a swift transfer of welcomes and information on Rakul’s arrival soul to soul amongst the Gayans while they were outwardly explaining for the benefit of the earthly human beings, transferring information vocally at a much slower rate.
“It is very good to see you again, my dear friends,” Professor Kitteridge greeted the Pantuccis before waving them to chairs on his right hand side, eyes sparkling behind the multiple meniscuses of his thick glasses.
“The pleasure is all ours, naturally,” Rafaello replied for them both with exaggerated charm. “It is good for you to see us all at such short notice.”
Charlotte closed the meeting room door against inquisitive ears and served coffees and biscuits with Christopher’s help.
“Now we are in private I think I can invite Rafaello to bring us up to speed on the situation,” said Professor Kitteridge.
Rafaello summarised the scale, timing and approach of the Jarlankan battle group. The accidental-on-purpose slow flight over Thetford indicated a commander on board the massive craft capable of making decisions at Omeyn level, ignoring the consequences of flaunting galactic flight procedures. Only a Rakul or other Omeyn equivalent would be this powerful but an Omeyn would not likely break the rules laid down by her own Conclave. This meant that the likelihood was that a Rakul was in command of the rogue spaceship.
“We seldom come across a Rakul in historical terms; the Omeyns would only deploy one in extreme circumstance as they would see it as a weakness in their command as well as an obvious danger to the ones in a Rakul’s way. The manifes
tation of a Rakul takes reflected power from the Omeyns and its very nature is unpredictable and difficult to control. We must assume this is what we are now facing and deal with it accordingly,” Rafaello stated.
“What caused this Rakul to arrive now?” Charlotte asked.
“Probably several things,” Rafaello replied. “Definitely the current fine balance of influence of Spargar versus us on Earth is a factor. The imminent end of our campaigns on Earth could have been a trigger. And finally your success in the skirmish in Thetford Forest and the disappearance of their Omeyn. That indignity would be intolerable to the Conclave of the Omeyns.”
“So you could say that we brought this on ourselves?” Charlotte pushed on. Joe swallowed uncomfortably and shifted in his seat.
Rafaello laughed openly. “You could say that in any campaign for a world where we are in competition with Spargar. Only the peaceful worlds under our sole influence join us in a straightforward manner. Planet Earth, so close to the Hyades and planet Spargan, was never going to be an easy campaign!”
Duncan was motivating Rafaello to describe the kinds of actions that the group could expect if indeed a Rakul was close. There was personal danger, especially to those humans of earthly origin, Christopher and Professor Kitteridge.
“We can expect typical Spargar activity where there is a hotspot of interest for them. There will be the usual kidnappings to drain the minds of key individuals until Spargar feel they understand the situation,” Rafaello said. “That risk applies to all the people in this room and any others that have come to Spargar attention. Beyond normal actions we get into the unpredictable side of facing up to a Rakul in command of their forces. He has already stirred up the local military and made our jobs more difficult. We will need to accelerate our plans to take a leadership position before Rakul tries it himself. If that were to happen then the local authorities may decide that all aliens are equally to blame for any mayhem and turn against us too.”
Edge of Revelation Page 14