The Cosmic Logos (7 page)

Brian kissed his wife's cheek. ‘Beautiful and
brilliant
.'

Noah stepped out of the chariot. ‘But once I get to the Aten, how am I to search it? The security system has probably been altered to suit the thieves, so if I attempt to open any doors, they're going to be alerted to my presence. We need to send someone who is intimately familiar with the control centre of the station.' Noah's eyes came to rest on Candace. ‘Someone who can will themselves from place to place to avoid detection.'

Candace couldn't contain her smile when she realised the scholar was right.

‘No way!' Brian put his foot down. ‘No way.'

‘We have no choice.' Candace ignored her husband and began willing forth a few essential weapons to take with her, just in case she ran into trouble.

‘Then I'm coming with you,' Brian insisted.

‘No way!' insisted everybody else.

‘Shit!' he protested loudly, having predicted the objection. ‘Why did I turn out to be Lahmu?' he whined, feeling that he was never permitted to do anything exciting any more.

‘Oh, do stop complaining!' Candace calmed Brian with a kiss and then informed him, ‘Noah shall go with me.' She nudged the grinning historian back towards their transport. ‘Let's go.'

 

Arriving in the large abandoned laboratory on board the missing space station, Noah removed the crystal that was the heart of the chariot's drive system, and Candace
found a large dust cover that was draped over one of the many incomplete inventions lying about and threw it over their transport.

‘I'd say that's pretty secure.' Noah felt confident about leaving his precious treasure here.

Candace nodded. ‘Now, it's my guess that our foes are all going to be hanging out in the Star Chamber and its affiliated chambers.' It was far too risky to teleport them straight into the high-security areas without knowing the number of thieves they were dealing with. ‘The dock … too far away,' she mumbled, as she assessed the possibilities and then startled Noah when she clapped her hands. ‘I've got it … the security station.' She pulled the two PKA sonic pulse blasters from her belt and, setting them to stun, handed one to Noah, who looked a mite overwhelmed by the notion of a shoot-out. ‘There will be two guards at most,' she informed him in a routine fashion. She extended her left hand to Noah, as he needed to capture her memory of their destination in order to be teleported along with her.

He took hold with his left hand, gripping his weapon in his right and preparing to fire upon arrival.

In a dance-like motion they turned outwards, to defend each other's backs.

‘Ready, friend?' Candace gave notice of their departure.

‘I was reborn ready.' Noah picked up on Candace's mental image of the security station, and the laboratory in which they stood became saturated with the blue-white etheric light of their passage.

 

As Candace had predicted, there were only two guards in the security station, both of which the Governess managed to blast into unconsciousness before they even knew they had company.

‘These are Dumuzi's offspring all right.' Candace noticed the vague Nefilim genetic traits in their physical appearance as she hoisted them out of the control seats.

Their eyes were larger and more almond-shaped than those of humankind, their features were a little pixie-like and they were tall and slim of stature. The Chosen Ones had not inherited Marduk's Nefilim features as he'd always assumed a human form, right down to a cellular level, when spreading his seed among humanity. The only genetic difference Marduk maintained during his intercourse with humanity was that of his God gene, to ensure that his immortality was passed on to the Chosen Ones, but his genetic features were not. This ensured Marduk's offspring remained outwardly undetectable from any human being. Dumuzi had not bothered taking any such precautions.

Candace concealed their victims in a storage cupboard before taking a seat in front of the wall of soft-light screens that were monitoring the interior of the Aten. To her surprise the Star Chamber that contained the quartz throne, the command seat of the vessel, was currently empty. ‘Damn it!' She'd felt so confident of learning the identity of their major adversary. ‘Where's the ringleader?'

As Noah was viewing the screens monitoring the exterior of the vessel, he had other concerns. ‘Holy cow,
that's Gaia.' He vaguely motioned to the monitor displaying the image. ‘We're parked in orbit around her.'

Candace willed her hover seat closer to the external monitors to take a look for herself.

‘Oh, Goddess!' Noah startled himself as he noted that there were no city lights illumating the darkness on the night side of the planet and the same was true of the dark side of the moon. ‘No cities, no moon colonies … when on earth are we?'

‘Maybe …' Candace searched for another explanation, ‘the power grid is down.'

‘Where is the orbiting power station, and all of earth's satellites?'

All they observed on the monitors was virgin atmosphere, uncluttered by human space debris.

‘My husband told us not to get sidetracked.' Candace brushed off her curiosity and returned to her search of the interior. ‘We have to locate Cordella.'

She was right, of course, and Noah joined her in front of the screens to help with the search, until he came up with another idea.

Dragging one of the unconscious thieves — they were both a Falcon-Nefilim mix — from the storage cupboard, Noah placed the unconscious man's hand on the PKA control plate of the security database and then placed his own hand over the top, being sure not to touch the control plate himself.

‘Will that work?' His lateral thinking amused Candace.

‘There is a chance it won't, I guess.' Noah hesitated, even though he felt they were pressed for time. ‘I've
never tried projecting my will through somebody else's body before. Do you want me to refrain?'

Candace shook her head. ‘Continue.' She rose from her seat and drew her weapon. ‘If we set the alarm off, head straight back to the chariot.'

Noah instructed the database that he wished to be advised of the location of Cordella, Governess of Lura.

‘Excellent.' Candace understood the garble of information the database spat forth onto the soft-light screen. ‘They've got her in a cell on the prison levels. Request a visual on security camera PL5–92.'

Noah did as Candace bade him and they both smiled broadly upon seeing Cordella pacing her prison cell alone.

Candace pulled an Enzu-Guz from her toolbelt. This handy little device had been developed for the removal of NERGUZ modules back on Gaia, when the psychic restraining device had first been introduced as a weapon. The NERGUZ had a tiny needle on the inside of the wrist module which penetrated the skin of the prisoner; the Enzu-Guz severed this pin and freed one from the NERGUZ's restraint. Candace had not had to use an Enzu-Guz since the time of the great Gathering on Gaia, which was over seventy years past.

‘I'm going to get her,' Candace instructed. ‘You keep watch until I return and then we'll all head to the chariot together.'

Noah served her a reassuring nod, quietly formulating another plan.

Candace left his presence and reappeared on the soft-light screen. He observed the two women as they
briefly embraced. Candace cut the Delphinus Governess loose of the device that was restraining her and immediately teleported them forth from the cell to appear before him.

‘En Noah,' Cordella gasped, when she saw the great Sage. ‘I am so indebted to you both.'

‘Thank him later.' Candace gave Noah the nod to proceed to the chariot.

 

‘May I have the NERGUZ you cut off, Cordella?' Noah asked upon their arrival in the laboratory.

‘Why?' Candace frowned, as she ushered Cordella into the chariot ahead of her.

Noah's physical form transformed into that of the Delphinus Governess. ‘I'm going to stay with the Aten and keep track of the time hopping adventures of our foe. If I replace Cordella, then there's a good chance our foe won't even know we've been here.'

Candace's jaw dropped. She wanted to forbid it, but she could not when it was actually the sensible thing to do. She handed over the deactivated NERGUZ, which looked untampered with once it was snapped back onto Noah's wrist.

Cordella was speechless as she watched the Sage conceal his weapon under the long skirt of the dress he now wore; her dress, in fact, on her body! ‘Thank you for getting me out, En Noah,' she finally found her voice. ‘But I fear you should come back with us. My kindred hold no love for me any more. You will be in grave danger.'

‘I'll be fine, Nin,' he assured the Delphinus ruler, as Candace joined her in the chariot. ‘Give my love to my
wife.' He stepped away from the transport, eager to see the women depart for home.

‘Take good care, Noah. I'll send the chariot back to you,' Candace advised, fearful of the historian becoming lost in time.

Noah nodded in appreciation as he waved them farewell.

 

Maelgwn entered the vault beneath the Institute of Immortal History, and was not surprised to find the Governor, Vice-Governor and Tory already present. ‘You thought of the chariots already. I suspected that you might have.'

Zabeel entered close behind his father and was momentarily relieved to find his relatives on the case. ‘Have you had any luck tracking the Aten down?' He was desperate for some good news, as Floyd had yet to get the tracking system for the Aten up and running, and so the technologist had stayed on Lura to persevere with this quest.

Brian motioned to the empty space beside the high-tech chariot before them. ‘Well, one of the chariots has gone somewhere, so I guess you could say we've made some progress.'

‘Who has gone after Cordella?' Maelgwn was surprised to find his wife still present.

‘Candace and Noah went after her.' Brian felt vexed by this fact, in retrospect. ‘If I'd stalled her a couple of minutes, you could have gone.'

‘How long have they been absent?' Zabeel implored, obviously worried out of his mind.

‘They went a good couple of seconds before you got here.' Rhun stepped in to calm his younger half-brother. ‘And I'll bet you that they're back within the count of twenty.'

Tory had to smile. She could tell Zabeel had started to count in his head and in so doing, he unconsciously relaxed a little — all her children had so much faith in their oldest brother that his word was almost gospel.

‘See, what did I tell you?' Rhun announced as the chariot manifested and he won his bet. But Zabeel was already lost in an embrace with his wife, as was Brian. ‘I would have brought the little woman if I'd known it was going to be this kind of an affair,' Rhun jested, turning back to his parents.

‘Where's Noah?' Tory was alarmed by her dear friend's absence.

Candace left her husband to return to the chariot, and placing her hand upon it, it vanished back to Gibal's laboratory.

When she saw the chariot depart, Tory was relieved. ‘So Noah is coming back?'

‘Eventually.' Candace broke the news gently. ‘We have reason to suspect our foe may intend to alter the past. How or when, we don't know. Noah has assumed Cordella's form to discover what the children of Dumuzi have in mind.'

‘Your foe has a name …' Cordella spoke up to enlighten them all, ‘… and his name is Viper. He found Dumuzi's secret stash of Orme and has been using it to maintain an immortal state.'

‘But why should he have to maintain an immortal state?' Brian wondered. ‘Once the gene is activated he should just remain immortal.'

‘Not if his soul-mind has dark aspirations,' Maelgwn clarified and Cordella nodded to confirm this.

‘Viper is searching for an incantation spell.' Cordella hesitated to say more as Viper's claims had sounded rather fantastic when he'd conveyed them to her.

Tory felt suddenly ill; in her gut she knew what the spell was for. ‘Is this incantation used to summon an evil spirit?'

Cordella's emerald green eyes parted wide with horror. ‘A crone he called it.'

‘But Mahaud is no longer able to wield any power in the physical world,' Brian voiced his understanding of the situation, knowing what his sister feared.

‘In the present that is true,' Tory mused, and then frowned. ‘But in the past?' She shrugged. ‘I think that could be problematic.'

‘Problematic!' Brian boomed. ‘If Mahaud latches onto an immortal, it will be a bloody disaster!'

‘Viper is very smart.' Cordella's gaze fell on Tory. ‘Much like Avery.'

‘Like Avery?' Tory frowned. ‘Why this comparison?'

Cordella appeared afraid to voice what she knew, but it had to be said. ‘I believe Viper is a Nefilim-Falcon reincarnation of the pending Lord of the Otherworld.'

‘What!' Tory gasped, her mind boggling at the implications of having two immortal incarnations of the same soul-mind running around — this was a cosmic first so far as she knew.

Maelgwn, however, was slowly nodding his head. ‘This information explains a great many things.' He looked to Brian and Candace. ‘I don't want to alarm you two, but I suspect that our foe may have already contacted your daughter, Fallon, disguised as my son.'

‘Oh my Goddess!' Candace was horrified. ‘Did he hurt her?'

‘Well, no …' Maelgwn proceeded cautiously. ‘I have a feeling he might have taken a liking to her.' Brian was silently turning red with rage and Maelgwn was beginning to wish he hadn't mentioned it. ‘I just thought I should make you aware.'

‘And how long have you know about this?' Brian queried, supressing his urge to start yelling.

Maelgwn could see he was walking a razor's edge here. ‘Up until a second ago I thought Avery might have been drunk and forgotten about their …' He was going to say encounter, but thought better of it.