The Light-Field (49 page)

‘Cannot
physically
see,' Telmo stipulated.

‘Lucian.' Taren reached for her communicator.

‘I'll get Leal.' Telmo got on his communicator, as telepathic control was faster than the data driven instruction.

 

With Leal mentally commanding the hexagon's cameras, their response time was instantaneous.

‘Zoom in as much as you can to the end of that wisping,' Taren instructed, and as Leal zoomed their picture in, she looked back to Lucian. ‘Can you see anything?'

‘Hard to tell against space.' Lucian frowned. ‘Can we come in at an angle that will silhouette our target against the light of the planet?'

‘Sure thing.' Leal directed the camera to do a quick orbit backward and then zoomed in from the requested angle.

‘I see a shadow,' Lucian confirmed.

‘Switching collision deflect censors on,' Telmo advised. ‘If we get too close to the vessel the camera will alter its course to avoid contact … I don't want to lose another camera today.'

As they zoomed in closer to the ship, Lucian stared intently at the screen, although Taren saw no evidence of a vessel at all.

‘Slow down,' Lucian instructed. ‘Slower.'

‘What do you see?' Taren was dying to know.

‘I can see a shadowy imprint of the ship's surface beneath the shadow, but I cannot see through the walls, not via the camera anyway.' Lucian scrutinised the surface. ‘I didn't expect it would be a problem.' He gripped the top of his nose and rubbed his tear ducts.

‘Our soul-mind is under stress and so are we.' Taren was worried — what if she didn't have the psychic strength to will all the Juju stones
back to whence they came? Everyone on board AMIE would end up in Kila's universe! ‘This is a disaster.'

‘The sensor on the camera indicates that it's still some distance from the ship's surface,' Telmo advised.

‘Do you think we can get a camera inside?' Taren queried.

‘Unlikely, every vent will be sealed. However, we may not have to … if we venture in a little closer —'

‘Ah-huh,' Leal and Lucian chimed at once as the camera dropped below the field of the cloaking device and the US base cruiser suddenly appeared before them.

Their camera skimmed the surface. Up ahead there was a lot of light, and they passed over a metal-reinforced glass-domed area. Inside there was enough hardware and equipment to put the Esponisa University science department to shame.

‘How far can we close in on that chamber there?' Leal zoomed in on the area Taren pointed out.

Telmo gasped. ‘That looks a lot like an —'

‘— antimatter accumulator.' Taren's mind went into overdrive, as did Telmo's — they both knew what this meant.

In another large bio-containment tank, a colourful gaseous substance was being compressed. Between the antimatter chamber and the bio-containment tank was a third structure, with feeds running into the flanking tanks, which Taren guessed to be a collision cylinder. ‘Khalid is not just planning to trap Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi —'

‘— he's planning to eradicate it altogether.' Telmo went pale. ‘Mix antimatter and matter, even in gaseous form, and they will annihilate each other! The resulting explosion will be massive and leave Oceane permanently scarred.'

‘Not to mention what it will do to us?' Taren couldn't fathom the consequences; failure to stop this was just not an option.

 

An emergency meeting was held and it was clear that their soul-mind's incarceration was getting to everyone, so they had no time to waste. The more of the gaseous substance that disappeared into Khalid's ship the weaker their Powers became.

Taren felt she'd be lucky to get herself there and back, so taking Lucian with her this time would be an unnecessary risk. She needed him in their recon vessel so that when she had finished with Khalid's little science project, she could teleport herself back to Lucian and know that wherever she landed, she'd still be on track to get to Kila.

Hence Lucian agreed to fly the recon vessel for the Kila mission, and allow Zeven to accompany Taren, as the pilot was insisting on doing. Jazmay and Mythric were charged with getting AMIE as far from Oceane as possible and making sure the Juju stones, including the large one protecting their craft, were no longer on board before Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi departed. ‘I don't care if you have to resort to jettisoning them out of a garbage chute, make sure there are none on board.'

‘You got it,' Jazmay assured her, appearing rather solemn.

‘Now don't get mushy on me,' Taren warned her and everybody else. ‘I'll be back this morning and all of this will be just a bad dream.'

‘That we'll have to deal with it all over again,' Zeven realised. ‘That's what sucks about time travel.' He moved to kiss his wife and daughter goodbye.

‘But the good thing is that we'll already know in advance how to stop this bastard,' Taren countered then turned to Lucian, feeling she should depart while she was still able.

‘Don't make me go to Kila without you.' Lucian kissed her.

‘I wouldn't miss it for anything,' Taren assured him, as he let her go.

‘Don't I know it.' He tried not to sound bitter.

‘The life you are desiring is really only a day away,' she reminded him.

‘Taren.' Her mother and father came forward.

‘Please, don't make a fuss,' Taren implored them.

‘How can we not?' the Qusay-Sabah Clarona rejoined. ‘With all that you have accomplished to the benefit of the entire United Systems!'

‘Oh dear.' Taren didn't like the sound of this; she didn't expect any thanks and praise for trying to put right what she had had a hand in putting wrong in the first place.

‘We are fairly sure,' Anselm cut in, ‘that no one has ever really had the opportunity to thank you, and all your colleagues, for the amazing job you have done. So, on behalf of the entire United Systems, we thank you.' Her father kissed her forehead and everyone present broke into a round of applause. Taren lost her breath and tears of joy welled in her eyes, which she quickly brushed away.

‘It's been the most incredible journey we've all taken together these last ten years and beyond.' Taren looked around at the faces of her nearest and dearest, and their smiles warmed her soul. ‘None of you had to take this road, horrifying and wondrous, with me … but I am so grateful that you did, because there is no way I would have gotten this far without each and every one of you.'

‘Aw.' Everyone sighed as Taren brushed away a few more tears.

‘I told you not to get all mushy!' she joked away her emotional state, and there were hugs all round.

‘Right, if you're quite done making me cry, we should fly.' Taren stepped back to join Zeven, who was memorising their destination from a photograph Telmo had given him.

‘Well, then,' Zeven put the paper down and clapped his hands together to suggest they depart. ‘Let's —'

‘Wait.' Kalayna stopped them. ‘This might come in handy.' She gave Zeven a handheld psychic neutraliser.

‘Kalayna.' Taren was annoyed and yet delighted. ‘You made another one?'

She shrugged, guilty as charged. ‘I figured Khalid would have given up on looking for it years ago, and today of all days, I thought it might come in handy.'

‘Good call.' Zeven felt safer already.

‘Keep it hidden,' Taren advised, and Zeven tucked it deep into a pocket.

‘If Khalid is still on board, it won't take long for his ghostly guards to report we're there.' Zeven held out his hand to her, and clasping his hand, Taren cast her mind forth to Khalid's science lab.

 

Upon their arrival, Taren felt completely zapped. She hadn't even taken a step when she fell on her behind, having been tripped up by a dead body.

‘Shit,' Zeven uttered under his breath, as he cast his eyes about the lab — there were dead scientists everywhere.

Taren drew a deep breath to regain her equilibrium and, as Zeven helped her to her feet, they both froze upon hearing Khalid's threatening voice in the distance. ‘Type in the command to fire up the collision chamber, or I shall burst every organ in your body!'

Zeven and Taren snuck around the mounds of scientific hardware to get a closer look.

‘I won't do it,' the old scientist insisted, a trickle of blood running from his nose, and Taren was heartbroken to recognise the scientist being exploited.
Professor Kestler!
The fact sent a shock wave through her being. Although she wanted to go to Kestler's defence, she was barely able to stand on her own two feet at present.

A pulse bullet from Kalayna's weapon shot past Taren and toward Khalid, just as he leant forward to threaten Kestler again. The shot skimmed over his back, but he still sensed it.

‘Fuck!' Khalid objected, knowing exactly what had happened. He looked to where the pulse bullet had come from, and reaching out he commanded the weapon into his possession. As Zeven was weaker than usual, Khalid's will won. ‘Thank you.' He shot back at them and they both ducked out of the way. ‘I do like to collect little trinkets to remind me of my conquests.'

‘Ah!' They heard the old professor moan as he was cracked over the head.

‘I'll do it myself,' resolved Khalid.

When Zeven and Taren dared to take a peek, the old professor was laid over the desk and Khalid was nowhere to be seen.

Taren attempted to will Kalayna's weapon back to them, but obviously Khalid was keeping a tight psychic grip on it at present.

Then there was a loud metallic crunching sound as the collision chamber was heard to activate.

‘That can't be good,' Zeven said.

‘Fortunately for us, it will take about half an hour to get up to speed.' Taren ventured over to check on the professor. ‘He's still alive.' She attempted to bring him around, but no luck. ‘Come on, professor, we could really use you right now.'

‘Just letting you know I'll be off now,' Khalid's voice came over the loudspeakers in the laboratory. ‘But I shall be watching the fireworks from not too far away. See you all in oblivion.'

Zeven served Khalid the finger, but didn't waste his breath cursing him. ‘We need Ringbalin.' Zeven shook his head — the thought of teleporting again was just too exhausting to consider. ‘I don't know if I'd make it.'

‘Me neither,' Taren was sorry to admit — they were running out of time and options. ‘Maybe there's some manual override to reverse the flow of the bio-containment tank?'

She dragged her body into action. The area was huge, as was each tank in the deadly array — and in all seriousness, she didn't feel she had a hope of figuring out the technology, with no Powers to aid her past security codes. A whistle brought her laboured sprint to a halt, and she turned to find Mythric and Ringbalin waving at her! ‘Aurora,' Taren murmured, guessing who their saviour had been. ‘I'm so thrilled to see you guys.' She ran back faster.

‘Not so thrilled to be here.' Mythric appeared completely stuffed.

‘How are you doing, Ringbalin?' Taren asked as he looked over their patient.

‘I think I still have a little of the good stuff in me.' His grin was
reassuring and, placing his hands on Kestler's wound, he channelled all the energy he had left into healing the scientist.

‘Well done,' Taren commended Ringbalin, as Kestler began to stir, but Ringbalin was so light-headed following the energy transference that he fainted.

‘Ringbalin?' Taren dropped beside him to check his head, which he had cracked pretty hard upon falling.

‘Never mind about him.' Zeven diverted Taren's attention to the waking scientist.

‘Professor Kestler?' Taren addressed him. ‘We need you to reverse the flow on the bio-containment chamber, or this whole place is going to blow.'

The professor's ears pricked up when he noted the sound of the collision chamber winding up. ‘Yes, that's exactly what we need to do.'

He began typing into his work station, but all access had been blocked. ‘I knew this would happen.' Kestler was furious. ‘Khalid is insane!'

‘Yes, we realise,' Taren said. ‘Is there any other way to reverse the flow.'

‘Of course there is.' Kestler gave a cheeky grin, as he typed,
install backup program
. ‘I do my best not to comply to the will of madmen.'

The wait for the program to upload seemed endless, although Kestler's work station assured them it was only taking ten minutes.

‘How did you good people find us, or rather …' Kestler looked at all his dead companions. ‘Me.'

‘We suspected Khalid was up to something. He did all this to get back at us.' Taren eyed over the huge setup. ‘But believe me, professor, what is in that bio-containment cell is far more than just a gas. It is a light-being beyond anything Khalid or any of us can possibly understand. It has been our life mission to ensure something like this would never happen.'

‘Well, then.' The professor looked back to his screen as the system booted up. ‘Let's see if I can't save my saviours then.'

Taren gave him an encouraging nod, but what she really wanted was to lay down next to Ringbalin and sleep through the entire thing.

‘How much longer is this going to take?' Zeven yawned.

‘Not long.' The scientist continued typing madly, as Zeven turned about and took a seat on the floor next to his father. ‘That's good, 'cause —' He yawned again, but a very loud metallic clang followed by a loud whooshing sound made him pause mid-yawn.

Taren's head shot up. ‘What was that?'

‘That's the sound of your success.' Kestler smiled. ‘All the substance in bio-containment has been released.'

Taren caught her breath; it was too good to be true. ‘What about the collision cylinder?' It was still running.