The Light-Field (56 page)

‘Back further,' Noah hinted. ‘And not on Kila.'

The notion of time travel in another universe was attractive to Lucian, but this was not one of his talents — was he about to get left behind on this mission? As Zeven had pointed out earlier, there were only three timekeepers on their crew and he was not one of them.

‘You're back,' Telmo exclaimed from the doorway, upon seeing Noah and Ringbalin conscious. ‘Excellent! Are we ready to put our plan into action then?' He slapped his hands together, appearing most eager.

‘I haven't had the chance to explain it yet,' Noah said to account for all the baffled faces.

‘So you haven't told them where we are headed?' Telmo was upbeat and clearly enthusiastic.

‘No,' Taren got to her feet. ‘Where are we headed?'

‘Clearly, in order to combat our enemy,' Telmo outlined their reasoning, ‘we need to find another point in this universe's time continuum when we were all incarnate in roughly the same geographical location and era, and which Yahweh Shyamal and his Orion buddies have frequented.'

‘And is there such a transverse?' Lucian queried, eager and anxious at once.

‘Yes, there is.' Telmo raised both brows to emphasise his amazement. ‘Over three thousand Earth years ago.'

‘Three thousand years!' Zeven, Taren and Lucian gasped in unison.

‘However,' Telmo held up a finger to reassure them all, ‘I have to tell you, it was a most extraordinary period, one of my personal favourites in all of Earth's history!'

‘Hey, boss.' Jazmay leant over Telmo's shoulder to interrupt the proceedings. ‘The chariot is back.'

‘Rhun has returned?' Taren was stunned.

Jazmay frowned at the query. ‘Hard to say? Best you come see.'

 

In the control room, Jahan was appearing far more spritely than he had done ten minutes ago.

‘You gave me quite a scare.' Lucian was slightly perturbed.

‘Sorry, captain, but I was running out of puff. I promise I won't lose my head again though.' Jahan grinned and Lucian responded in kind.

On the database soft screen before them, Jahan brought up the footage of the chariot returning.

The passenger who had materialised along with the time-hopping transport was so heavily clad in fur, armour and leather it was hard to see him, and his hair and facial hair were so long and matted that you couldn't see his face.

‘Good Goddess,' uttered Noah upon sighting the visitor. ‘The armour he's wearing is Chinese!' Noah looked to Telmo.

Telmo had both brows raised in expectation. ‘Early Zhou Dynasty by the look of it.' Taliesin, being a Time Lord, had collected ancient armour among other things and was something of an expert.

‘That's quite a coincidence.' Noah appeared a little spooked.

‘Why a coincidence?' Taren's curiosity overcame her. ‘What are you two up to?'

‘The armour our friend is wearing stems from the same Earth era and civilisation that marks the transverse in time we were considering.'

‘Whoa.' Taren looked back to the warrior with some trepidation. ‘Are you serious?'

‘It's the only past transverse besides Atlantis, and I'm fairly sure none of us wish to endure that disaster again.'

Anyone present who held a memory of the last days of Atlantis shook their heads to agree.

Zeven took a good look at the fellow on-screen, who ran off through the secret passage and out of sight. ‘I'll go fetch him.'

‘I'll come with you.' Jazmay vanished along with Zeven.

‘I don't even know what Chinese
means
,
is
.' Taren shrugged. ‘And you expect me to teleport back to a life there?'

‘You don't consciously remember the life in question because Tory Alexander never consciously lived it — it was a past-life incarnation for both of you,' Telmo explained. ‘But as it was a very pertinent life and era for most of us here, I believe the memory will resurface with the appropriate prompting and once you remember, you can go.'

‘Was I incarnate at the time in question?' Lucian had been quietly following the conversation, but this point was obviously of great interest to him.

‘Yes, of course,' Telmo granted, with a smile of encouragement.

‘And can I be taught to remember?' the captain asked.

‘Indeed,' Telmo concurred, as Lucian's grin grew.

‘But you cannot teleport?' Taren didn't want to put a dampener on his hopes, but it was a very important point.

‘Of course he can,' Telmo insisted, surely. ‘He was Maelgwn Gwynedd, was he not?'

‘So they tell me,' Lucian replied modestly.

‘That's not very confident, captain.' Telmo was frank. ‘The key to mastering any ability is first believing that you can,
knowing
that the
power lies within you! So, is it really that people tell you that you are the Dragon, or is the truth more that, somewhere deep inside yourself, you
know
that you are the Dragon incarnate?'

Lucian was dumbstruck; this moment felt like an all too familiar scene between student and teacher — between Maelgwn Gwynedd and Taliesin Pen Beirdd. ‘I've felt stirrings of the Dragon ever since I got here,' he replied more honestly. ‘I know our connection runs much deeper and clearer than I had imagined.'

‘Better.' Telmo smiled, gratified. ‘In truth, you probably have a far better chance of retaining your memory of these events than Taren does, being that you seem to be exhibiting some of my talent for connecting to the Akashic memory of
this
universe.'

‘What —' Taren wanted to pursue the issue, but Zeven and Jazmay arrived, each clutching an arm of the ancient Chinese warrior between them. His head was lowered and thus nothing could be seen of him below his fur-trimmed hood. ‘Hostile?' Taren assumed.

‘Very!' No sooner had Zeven replied than the warrior began to holler and broke free from his captors, startling everyone, until he threw his hands up and broke into laugher.

When Taren's heart started beating again, she flicked back the fur hood and looked past the long matted hair to see a man who was the spitting image of Mythric. Taren assumed this had to be the governor of Kila, aged some years. ‘Rhun?'

He stood gazing at her with a large smile on his face, but did not respond beyond that.

‘Of course.' She rolled her eyes at her own stupidity — if Rhun had aged, he was not immortal. If he was not immortal he didn't have the same ear for languages. Taren was just about to manifest a communicator in her hands, when the warrior pulled one from inside his robes. The item was damaged and near falling apart, but as he placed it on his head, Taren tried again. ‘Rhun?'

There was still no response from the man.

‘Rhun!' She startled him into speaking.

‘Yes, sorry … I am he,' he conceded and then explained, ‘For the last twenty years I've been answering to Shi Zhou Bai Rèn, hence Rhun took a second to register.'

‘Shi Zhou Bai Rèn,' Taren echoed. ‘Does the name have meaning?'

‘White guy with a time boat,' Rhun replied, and Taren smiled.

‘How appropriate.'

‘I can't get over how much you look like my father,' Zeven chuckled at Rhun's primitive attire.

‘Your father!' Rhun cursed the thought. ‘You're my uncle!' The warrior's eyes turned back to Taren. ‘And you're my —' He couldn't bring himself to say it, instead he backed up to where En Noah was standing. ‘En Noah, who are these people?'

‘They are incarnations of the people you think they are.' En Noah attempted to clarify. ‘They've come from another time line and via another universe to warn us about the attack.'

‘We're working with the Grigori,' Taren clarified, using a term they all recognised.

‘Last time I heard you were Grigori,' Rhun quizzed, ‘who were never again to incarnate on the Earth plane?'

‘In
this
universal scheme,' Telmo pointed out.

Rhun stared hard at Telmo a moment, and then his face lit up with recognition.
‘Taliesin?'
He burst out laughing.
‘He's a kid!'
He explained his amusement, and Telmo rolled his eyes.

‘And you've aged twenty years in a few hours,' Telmo responded, ‘but I'm not mocking you for being old and smelly.'

‘Smelly?' Rhun took offence, until he noted everyone nodding in agreement with Telmo's observation.

‘You smell like you've not bathed in a year,' Taren advised.

‘Come to think of it,' Rhun mumbled, ‘I don't think I have bathed in a year.'

‘It's time.' Lucian directed the governor toward the meditation chambers that all had amenities attached. ‘Our conversation can wait.'

‘Actually, you're right, it can,' Rhun decided as he backed away from his company. ‘We have all the time in world.' He grinned broadly.

‘You know something?' Taren observed his cheeky demeanour, which usually meant that he was one up on everybody else.

‘I know how the Orions found out about Kila …' Rhun stated more somberly. ‘… I accidentally made them aware.'

Everyone gasped at the claim.

‘You ran into them in ancient China,' Telmo stated rather than queried.

‘I must have had Orions on the brain when I made my jump back in time.' Rhun regretted the fact now. ‘I went straight to them, and spent twenty years trying to get the chariot back, so I could return here and tell you all how and when we can defeat those bastards, before they get anywhere near this planet.' Rhun gave a firm nod and left the room, leaving most of those present in complete shock, but not Telmo.

‘Way ahead of you, governor,' he called after him, before turning back to address Noah's earlier claim. ‘See, not a coincidence at all. There are no coincidences.'

‘Besides those
we
create,' Taren amended, overwhelmed by what the future held in store.

Whilst the governor refreshed himself, the mortals among those remaining decided it was high time they ate. They let Khalid out of solitary long enough to fill a plate with food.

‘I'd really rather die quickly than starve to death,' Khalid stated, as Jazmay led him into the boardroom. The crew of AMIE were there enjoying some of the local cuisine that En Noah had conjured forth.

‘Tell someone who gives a —'

‘Zeven.' Taren prevented the pilot causing another scene. ‘Our hosts are not accustomed to abuse of
any
kind.'

With a roll of his eyes, Zeven was set to rebel, when he spied Rhun in the doorway — hair cut, clean shaven and the spitting image of his father. ‘Mythric,' he whispered.

‘It is too.' Taren was struck by the extraordinary resemblance that now existed.

‘See!' Khalid pointed to Rhun in his own defence. ‘Not dead.'

It was Ringbalin who rose from the table, quietly fuming from being so tolerant of his friend's murder until now. ‘We both know what you did, and if you mock that tragic instance, or deny it happened once more, I'll —'

‘Kill me?' Khalid challenged. ‘Go right ahead.'

‘I'll
dis-ease
you,' Ringbalin delivered his threat with verve. ‘And you can die a slow, painful,
natural
death.'

‘What lively dinner conversation.' Rhun made light of the tension in the air, as he took a seat at the table. ‘You don't seem very popular.' He looked to Khalid and then frowned. ‘You seem familiar, though. Have we met?'

‘In another universe,' Khalid replied flatly. ‘It didn't end happily for you.' He immediately looked back to Ringbalin to verify. ‘No disrespect intended.'

Ringbalin, who was a peaceful soul by nature, was really struggling to show restraint, so to help him out, Zeven got to his feet.

‘Just get your food and go,' Zeven demanded of Khalid. ‘Or it will be a nice bout of plague for you.'

‘I was just answering the question.' The prisoner continued to pile food on his plate, and when Jazmay could take the tension no more, she grabbed hold of Khalid.

‘You've got enough.' She hauled him toward the door.

‘Thanks for the life rope, boss.' Khalid tipped his head to Taren as he was lead out the door.

‘Only the universe knows how much I hate that man.' Zeven was seated again and all agitated. He pushed his plate away, no longer hungry.

‘Because he killed me?' Rhun was touched, in a light-hearted manner.

‘
You
,
my mother
, and nearly
me
as a baby.' Zeven was not giving up his anger. ‘If not for Ringbalin,' Zeven motioned to his adopted brother and best friend, ‘I would not be alive to fulfil the prophecy of being the death of Khalid.'

‘I'm sorry.' Rhun treated Zeven's sentiment more seriously. ‘But in my experience, prophesied events never turn out exactly the way you think they will. And an enemy is someone who pushes you to achieve things that you never thought possible, or perish. In the end, you cannot really despise someone who exposes you to your true potential for greatness.'

‘Well said,' Telmo granted.

‘You don't hate the Orions for what they've done to your people?' Zeven appealed for Rhun to be honest.

‘Not while I can still travel back in time and kick their arse.' Rhun grinned sweetly.

‘There is that I guess.' The thought put a smile back on Zeven's face and he found his appetite.

‘Governor, I have a question.' Taren thought she'd hijack the conversation. ‘Do you know what has become of your brother, the Lord Avery?'

‘Funny you should ask that —' Rhun's train of thought was sidetracked when he noticed En Noah was not eating. ‘Not hungry, En Noah?'

The historian shook his head and grinned broadly — his governor didn't miss a thing.

‘You've got it back, haven't you?' Rhun's eyes narrowed and at Noah's nod, he was up on his feet again. ‘How did you do it?' He was excited and desperate at once.

‘I created an antidote weapon,' Taren advised, ‘that reverses the effect of the Orions' cation linac particle accelerator.'

‘That's what you hit me with before I left!' Rhun backed up when he realised.

‘If you were shaking like a mother-f —'

‘Zeven,' Taren objected.

‘— leaf,' the pilot corrected, ‘when you arrived in the past … our happy gun does tend to have that side effect.'

‘I had to experience a physical death again,' Noah added, ‘but immortal I am.'

‘Well for Goddess' sakes, shoot me!' Rhun insisted. ‘Now! With my immortality and Powers restored, I'll return to Zhou and eliminate Yahweh Shyamal —'

‘Hold on.' Lucian urged him to take a breath. ‘I think you have a few things to sort out here before you go charging off anywhere. Could we just sit, eat and talk for a moment, without jumping through time or killing anyone … please.'

‘Hear, hear,' Ringbalin seconded that motion.

‘You were all there,' Rhun sat back down, ‘your soul-minds in any
case … I should have known no matter where I went in time and space we'd all be drawn together.'

‘Fascinating.' Taren was excited. ‘Tell us about ourselves.'

‘I dare not,' Rhun backpedalled. ‘The truth is, events did not go entirely to plan the last time around, hence my return here for help. But if you can give me my immortality back, I will return to Zhou with a great advantage and —'

‘And risk losing the chariot again?' En Noah asked. ‘From what you've told us, I can only assume that your last visit to ancient China caused all this.' En Noah threw his hands open, referring to the Kila disaster. ‘Are you sure you wouldn't like a little help this time?'

‘How?' Rhun objected. ‘We can't all take the chariot? And besides, you did all help me … eventually.'

‘We're going to teleport back through time to our incarnations existing at that time,' Telmo said.

‘And if anything goes horribly wrong there's always the Aten.' Noah hesitated to mention it. ‘But only as a last resort.'

‘Bad idea,' Rhun insisted. ‘And besides, the Smart Rock that used to power the Aten's time-drive was decommissioned … you'll never persuade Eli to get back into that hot seat again.'

‘Hold on … Eli is a rock you have to reason with?' Zeven queried.

‘A psychically gifted crystal actually,' Rhun clarified, ‘and he's very unreasonable on that particular topic. Kila's previous governor, Brian, left it to Eli to hide the Aten and never allow anyone to recommission it. And quite apart from all that, if you are cautious about me taking the chariot, we'd have to be insane to take the Aten.'

‘You were going to tell us about Lord Avery,' Taren reminded the governor. ‘Were the lord and his lady affected by the blast and if not, are they contactable?'

‘No,' Rhun stated, ‘they were not affected by the blast, but are being prevented by their own elemental dominions from coming anywhere near the allied systems that are now at risk of attack. They
are only being permitted to exit their otherworldly realm via the portholes on Earth.'

‘You saw him in the past then?' Noah was intrigued. ‘I wasn't aware Avery could time travel.'

‘He doesn't time travel exactly, not like we do, as in the Otherworld there is no time. But he does exit the Otherworld, where or whenever he is summoned forth to the physical world,' Rhun explained. ‘Fortunately in my darkest hour back there, I thought about my brother and, in wishing he was there to aid me, I inadvertently summoned him to me. If not for him I would never have made it back here.'

‘Excellent!' Telmo was pleased. ‘So the Lord of the Otherworld is already at our desired destination. Now all we have to do is figure out how the rest of us are going to get there.'

‘Question?' Taren had many. ‘If we leave our bodies here and project our consciousnesses into a past-life incarnation, and then we manage to change this future, how shall we be reunited with our true bodies?'

‘Once our mission in the past is over, you can project your consciousness back to the morning before you crossed into this universe, just as we originally planned,' Telmo explained, but Taren was still frowning.

‘But what if my past-life incarnation does not have my power of teleportation?' she reasoned.

‘As one of the Wu, you are very powerful —' Rhun prevented himself saying more.

‘The Wu?' Taren cut in, and Rhun shied from the query.

‘I will ensure,' Telmo cut in, ‘you have that gift by the time you need to make that quantum leap. Your soul-mind has the ability, every soul-mind has — it's like riding a bike; once you learn you never forget.'

‘But if I do not carry my conscious memory with me into this ancient world, then how am I to remember any of this?' Taren was starting to panic. ‘There's no way I'm going to believe a distant planet in the future is relying on me to save it.'

‘You won't be alone.' Lucian stepped in to calm her. He'd been feeling more confident since Telmo told him he stood a chance of retaining his memory, provided he proved able to make the quantum leap into a past life.

‘That's right,' Telmo concurred. ‘But I can subliminally implant a trigger word in your subconscious that will bring your memory back.'

‘Just like the MSS implant trigger words in their sleeper agents.' Taren calmed a little. ‘Will that work, across time and incarnations?'

‘Trust me …' Telmo appealed, ‘… and even if you can't, trust that the Grigori are not going anywhere. They are always with us, no matter where we are, or what body we are in.'

‘Speaking of bodies,' Noah interjected, ‘obviously, Ringbalin and I cannot both regress back into our past-life incarnation, or we'll end up in the same form! One of the Chosen needs to stay behind to advise our allies and monitor the situation unfolding in this time line, for as long as it continues to be a reality. Hence, I shall stay here and watch your progress remotely.'

‘You can remote view into the past?' Taren was impressed.

‘Of course I can! It's called past-life regression,' Noah advised with a smile. ‘Something you'll know all about by the end of the day, I expect.'

‘You think I am going back into your history?' Ringbalin scoffed, in shock.

‘You were there,' Rhun confirmed, his eyes darting from Ringbalin to Noah and back again, unable to keep the grin from his face.

‘Why should that fact be so amusing to you?' Ringbalin found the governor's mirth most unnerving.

‘No reason,' Rhun insisted unconvincingly. ‘Really, you're in great shape, surrounded by beautiful women …'

‘Really?' Ringbalin considered that didn't sound too terrible.

‘I swear to you.' Rhun held a hand to his heart.

‘Who else do you recall seeing back there?' Lucian found the subject matter most curious.

‘Well, none of you really appear as you do now, obviously, as you're Chinese back there,' Rhun began. ‘It was your talents, mannerisms, passions and so forth that I recognised … your spirit. As I said, these two were there.' The governor motioned toward Taren and Ringbalin. ‘You captain, your pilot —'

‘I hope I was there.' Jazmay drew the governor's attention as she returned to the room without the prisoner.

‘Well, I don't really know you very well and so I wasn't really looking out for you.' Rhun was sorry to have to disappoint the tall beauty. ‘Still, I feel sure I would have remembered you, if you had been there.'

‘There were no shape-shifters back then?' Jazmay posed.

Rhun gasped with sudden recollection. ‘I believe there were,' he confirmed with a nod and a smile.

Jazmay waved her fingers. ‘That would be me.' She claimed her place on the mission with a grin.

‘Don't tell them too much,' Telmo requested. ‘I want to see how much they remember on their own.'

‘Pardon me, governor.' Jahan was feeling rather left out. ‘What role am I to play in all this? Was I there, in the past?' Jahan looked to the governor hopefully — clearly he wanted to embark on the past-life adventure with the AMIE crew.

‘Oh, you were there …' Rhun advised. ‘You were one of my brothers.'

‘Excellent.' Jahan clapped his hands together, unable to keep his happy gaze from drifting to Jazmay, who smiled warmly to encourage his participation.

‘You ran into yourself there?' Taren quizzed Rhun.

‘Ji Fa.' Rhun took a bow. ‘I didn't really have much of a chance to get to know myself, however, as I was dying at the time. So there is no point in me trying to aid this mission that way, I have to take the chariot back. If none of you remember our mission, I will.'

‘I will remember.' Telmo was lost in his recollection and smiling. ‘And I will rally you together.'

‘I don't recall running into you back there.' Rhun looked to Telmo, curious about that point.

‘I assure you I was there.' Telmo smiled confidently. ‘And I played an integral role in the rise to power of the Zhou.'

Rhun appeared both amused and intrigued. ‘Just like you to keep your role in the affair shrouded in mystery.'

‘That observation might help you answer your own query,' Telmo teased, sparking in Rhun a rush of insight, but then shook his head.

‘No, you couldn't have been —'

‘Ah!' Taren raised a finger to pose her concern. ‘What happens if we die whilst upon this little jaunt into the past?'

‘A very good question,' Zeven agreed, as all eyes turned back to Telmo.

‘A slow death is no problem; just think back to the morning before you crossed into this universe and you shall awaken there,' said Telmo.

‘And a fast death?' Zeven cringed as he asked.