The next day Taren called a meeting with the team she’d taken to Maladaan. The governor, En Noah and the Lord of the Otherworld were also present in the small, domed amphitheatre that Cadfan used for lecturing visiting healers.
Taren stood to explain what had happened during the mission while her audience sat about on the smooth marble stairs. She took the opportunity to apologise to Jazmay for killing her the day before, but the revelation of Taren’s time-travel ability caused much more of a stir than her killer instinct.
‘You went back in time?’ Jazmay was stunned by the premise, her jaw gaping open. ‘That’s unprecedented.’
‘None among the Chosen are so powerful,’ Avery noted, ‘not even me. It’s like the Great Watchers are compensating for the extreme evils operating inside your universe and have given you additional power with which to combat them.’
Noah nodded in agreement with the theory.
‘Do you plan on going back in time and preventing Maladaan from shifting universes?’ Telmo queried, saddened by the premise. ‘If you do, I’ll find myself back in the labs at Maladaan, unaware of this amazing place or that any of you fine people exist at all.’
‘No,’ Jazmay chimed in with her objection, now that the cat was out of the bag. ‘I’ll be back in prison, and I shall never meet —’ She gasped before she could say her lover’s name, not prepared to accept the fate.
‘I will get you and Fari out,’ Taren promised, but clearly Jazmay didn’t want to hear it.
‘I am happy for the first time in my miserable life —’ the Phemorian stood, ‘— and you want me to give that up?’
‘You think this is what I want?’ Taren challenged. ‘You don’t know the half of what I stand to lose, and what’s more, this may never happen as I have been unable to repeat the feat, yet. But this planet that you say you love so much, is under a very real threat and if I can prevent a disaster here, I will, despite the personal cost to me.’
Jazmay was still fuming, but breathed deeply a few times before nodding to accept what Taren was saying. ‘I will go along with whatever the governor decides is best.’ She backed up a few paces.
‘Jazmay, please, hear me out,’ Taren appealed, empathising completely with how she must feel.
‘What’s the point?’ Jazmay replied coolly. ‘What will it change? I’m going to be with the one I love, while I still can, for nothing you can do back in the past will bring him back to me.’
‘I’m sorry, Jazmay,’ Taren said before she left, ‘I truly am.’
Jazmay nodded to accept her condolences, before she turned and left the room.
Zeven wasn’t thrilled about the idea either. ‘Look, Taren, I hate to object, but I’ll have no hope of getting my Power back then, I won’t even remember that I ever had a Power!’
‘I know,’ Taren sympathised and looked to Ringbalin who was smiling.
‘Ayliscia will still be alive,’ the botanist explained his delight. ‘And I shall have my greenhouse in Module C back.’
‘We’ll never have a reason to become friends.’ Zeven looked to Ringbalin, who’d become his best friend during the Maladaan debacle.
‘I’m sure we’ll find one.’ Ringbalin smiled to reassure him, although they both knew that was wishful thinking — they’d been on AMIE for five years prior to that and never said two words to each other. ‘The important thing is that Maladaan would be back where it should be.’
‘You’ll have your career back.’ Taren offered an upside.
Zeven reluctantly nodded. ‘Still, I kind of liked being an outlaw.’
‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Stop apologising to everyone,’ Zeven insisted, ‘this isn’t your fault.’
‘I’ve been dwelling on your failure to repeat the experiment,’ Noah piped up. ‘And I believe it might be more than a conflict of interest holding you back.’
‘Go on.’ Taren urged him to speak his mind, despite her fear that the scholar might solve her failure to launch.
‘In the instance when you saved Jazmay, you willed yourself from a conscious state back into an unconscious state, but when you attempted to repeat the feat at the lake house, I am guessing you tried to go from a conscious state back to another —’
‘— conscious state!’ Taren was struck by the revelation, for the claim was perfectly true; could the solution be so simple?
‘So perhaps you should try willing yourself back to your last unconscious state?’ Noah suggested.
‘Like before I woke up this morning.’ Taren mulled this over but a second, before her curiosity took over and her will kicked in, plunging her surrounds into darkness.
Awareness loomed amid the comfort and warmth of her sleep state, and the first thing Taren realised upon stirring was that she had confirmed her experiment. En Noah was right! She woke with a gasp, next to Lucian, and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I did it again.
Taren slid out of bed, threw on some clothes, and left the room. ‘Oh shoot!’ she gasped quietly as she entered the corridor and headed for the closest common room — the gym — which was empty at this early hour. ‘Now I have no more excuses,’ she told herself as she took a seat on a weight bench.
The fact that Taren had to will herself backwards to an unconscious state meant that her precise destination in the past was now crystal clear — the day she first awoke from stasis on board AMIE.
‘Damn it!’ Taren stood and hit a punching bag and it felt so good that she did it again, and again. Then she kicked it, then she spun around in the air and kicked it harder.
‘Holy shit, Taren!’ Zeven wandered into the gym, amazed by what he’d just seen. ‘When did you become a street fighter?’
‘Yesterday.’ She grinned and approached him, eager to see how fast she really was. ‘Hit me,’ she invited.
‘I don’t hit girls,’ he declined, whereupon she kicked him in the upper leg and he retaliated with a strike, which she blocked.
‘Again.’ She beckoned him on with all eight of her fingers.
‘All right then, my cocky miss.’ Zeven backed up to the large sparring mat in the middle of the room, beckoning her forth with his fingers. ‘I’ll fight you, but if I win you have to give me a quick lift back to AMIE, agreed?’
‘Sure,’ Taren concurred. ‘Why do you want to go back to AMIE?’
Zeven came straight at her, and she avoided his punch to grab his attacking arm, twist him around, trip him over and wrestle him to a hold on the ground.
‘I was just being easy on you,’ he grumbled.
‘Well don’t.’ She let him go. ‘I want you to really go for it.’
‘I can assist.’ Taren looked to find the governor had entered the gym. ‘I used to spar with my parents all the time.’
‘Excellent.’ Taren beckoned him in.
‘Hey, what about our deal?’ Zeven protested to being ousted as a sparring partner.
‘Did I say you couldn’t play?’ Taren pointed out.
‘What … you think you can take on the both of us at once!’ Zeven scoffed as he got to his feet.
‘I wouldn’t doubt that for a second, if I were you,’ Rhun advised Zeven, as he stripped down to his trousers and kicked off his shoes.
Taren smiled, and it wasn’t just the heavenly male bodies she was about to beat into that had her so delighted, but a sense of the familiar — in the past she’d sparred with men a lot and she enjoyed it.
When Lucian awoke alone in Taren’s chamber, he was panicked, and rose to dress and find her. By the time Lucian entered the corridor, he was more awake and had calmed a little, having recalled Taren’s vow to him the night before, that she would not go anywhere without telling him first.
‘Good morning,’ said Lucian, noting Telmo and Ringbalin were both peering through the windows into the gym, but his greeting seemed to startle them.
‘Captain.’ Ringbalin found his smile. ‘I was just going to come and find you,’ he explained, with one finger pointing to the window he’d been peering through.
Lucian was curious enough to take a look for himself and could only marvel at the sight of Taren easily fending off the two incredibly fit men combating her. ‘Not much of a fighter, ha!’ Lucian had to grin at the statement he’d made only yesterday morning.
‘What a difference a day makes,’ Ringbalin bantered, as his captain made a move inside to get a better view.
As he watched the spectacle, Lucian observed a side to Taren that he’d only ever seen on Noah’s chronicles; she was more akin to Tory Alexander than either of them could possibly have imagined, and now it appeared she was more powerful and highly trained than she’d been in any incarnation!
But where was the warrior he was in that past life? He would have been of real benefit to Taren in her cause, but as it was, once she went back in time and changed the past, he felt he’d be of no use to her whatsoever.
‘I’m done!’ Zeven tried to pick himself up off the floor for the umpteenth time, but halfway to his feet, he decided it would be easier to crawl to the closest seat.
Taren was turning about to address Rhun, when she spotted her lover leaning against a column watching her. ‘Lucian?’ She’d barely got the word out when a punch to the gut caused her to keel over.
‘Dr Lennox, are you all right?’ Rhun was most apologetic.
‘My bad,’ Taren admitted. ‘I got distracted.’ With a few deep breaths, she straightened up again. ‘Thanks for the workout.’ Taren groaned in conclusion. She may have had the moves, but she sure needed to build up her body muscle again! She had just discovered that she could also employ her psychic will to make herself faster, more accurate and resistant to attack, but only when she was fully focused on what she was doing. Still, she did feel more confident in her own ability than she had in some time. ‘I need to call a meeting,’ she advised the governor.
‘You certainly do,’ Rhun concurred, pleased that she now felt ready to discuss their next move.
For Taren the meeting played out pretty much as it had the first time. Telmo guessed her intention, Jazmay protested strongly and left, Zeven was further depressed and Ringbalin was rather pleased.
‘I’ve been dwelling on your failure to repeat the experiment, and I believe it might be more than a conflict of interest holding you back,’ Noah piped up.
‘I know about your theory, En Noah,’ Taren interrupted, ‘you told me last time we had this meeting.’
‘Last time?’ Zeven was lost. ‘Are you saying we’ve had this meeting before?
‘You suggested I try willing myself back to my last unconscious state and I did,’ Taren explained to Noah, ignoring Zeven for the moment, ‘whereupon I awoke at this morning once again.’
The news raised a round of gasps from her audience.
‘So what happened to the me that was in the last meeting?’ Zeven was baffled by the premise.
Taren looked to him. ‘Well, nothing bad, you’re still here.’
‘So you are confident that you can do this?’ Rhun ventured to get a confirmation from Taren.
As much as it pained her to admit it, Taren nodded. ‘I know exactly when I need to aim for, so I guess it’s just a matter of when you want it done.’
The governor knew the event meant major life changes and sacrifice for all the AMIE crew. ‘I think you should all take a few days off, and then we’ll discuss the finer details.’
‘Agreed then.’ Taren was slowly coming to accept her destiny. ‘A few more days, to appreciate what we managed to achieve in this timeline, would be greatly appreciated.’
‘You’re welcome to the lake house,’ Noah offered. ‘I won’t be going back there until next summer.’
Taren looked to Lucian who gave a decided nod as Floyd appeared alongside the governor, Kestler with him.
‘That’s really something, isn’t it?’ Kestler had to say; he’d once been rather fearful of psychic power, but now he was embracing such new experiences as teleportation.
‘Professor Kestler …’ Lucian walked over to shake the man’s hand. ‘I felt like I’d lost my father when I learnt your pod had gone missing. It is a great relief to see you again.’
‘Lucian, my good man.’ Kestler was pleased to see him also. ‘Sorry about the right mess my research made of your project, and of our solar system for that matter.’
‘We were all equally naive, but not to blame, Professor.’ Lucian reassured him.
As Floyd had the weapon in his hands that had stripped both Zeven and Avery of their power, Zeven stood, eager to hear any news. ‘Have you learnt something of the weapon?’
‘We certainly have,’ Floyd assured him. ‘It’s a cation linac particle accelerator,’ he informed.
‘So it is charged with a plasma of positive ions,’ Telmo said as he came forward to join the huddle.
‘That is correct,’ Floyd concurred, and Kestler gave a nod. ‘The beam is designed to interfere with the signal transduction of our higher vibrational intracellular cosmic light receptors, causing our excess DNA strands to unbraid.’
‘Well we know that,’ Zeven stated. ‘How long will the effect last?’
Floyd was honest. ‘Hard to say. But negative ion therapy will surely speed the healing process.’
‘Well, that’s good news.’ Avery was tired of being mortal — it was just so damn tiring!
‘More importantly,’ the governor cut in, ‘what is the range on this beam, and how do we defend against it?’
‘We predict —’ Kestler motioned to Floyd, ‘— that the pulsed particle beam emitted by this weapon may contain up to sixty gigajoules of kenetic energy or more, at full power.’
Telmo whistled, rather impressed. ‘That’s about the same amount of chemical energy behind ten barrels of oil.’
The frowns in the faces of all deepened.
‘So,’ Kestler resumed his tutorial. ‘The beam has light speed and, in combination with the energy created by the weapon, negates any realistic means of defending yourself against a blast. So long as the beam is at full power, and no matter how magnified the weapon’s targeting scope is, if the gunman has a direct line of sight on you, the beam will be effective.’
‘Damn.’ Rhun found the news most discouraging.
‘Unless, of course, you were protected by a shield of negatively changed ions, an “anion suit”, as it were.’ Kestler grinned. ‘Your organic fibre suits would be perfect to adapt into such a shield.’
‘Very impressive, gentlemen.’ Rhun smiled, relieved to have a back-up plan to protect his people should Taren’s plan fail. ‘How long would it take to adapt the suit?’
‘Not long,’ Kestler assured. ‘And to save time with manufacture, we are developing an anion spray adhesive.’
‘That’s completely brilliant!’ Telmo exclaimed, mind-blown by their solution.
‘Our real concern is that the Orions and MSS will manage to amplify the output of the weapon from sixty gigajoules to sixty terejoules,’ Floyd cautioned. ‘Firing such a weapon on our city would be as spiritually devastating to our people as the atomic bomb was physically damaging to human beings of Hiroshima … there would be no escape for anyone.’
Everyone present fell silent to digest that fact; even those who had no idea what the Hiroshima bomb was figured that the news was not good.
Avery spoke. ‘There is one other thing that worries me,’
‘Only one thing, sheesh!’ Zeven thought this an understatement, he had quite a few more concerns.
‘What’s that?’ Rhun queried his younger brother.
‘If Taren does manage to put Maladaan back where it belongs, the Orions will be unable to ally with them,’ Avery noted. ‘However, the Orions will still be hanging around our system somewhere and we will not have a catalyst to accidentally make us aware of their intentions the next time around. Nor will we have possession of the weapon to be used against us to be able to analyse it.’
Rhun raised both brows, agreeing this was a worry.
‘If you gentlemen —’ Avery looked to Floyd and Kestler, ‘— would record all your discoveries and solutions onto a thought band recorder … and, Governor, you might care to record a memo to yourself about the Orion threat also. Then I shall have Fallon memorise the recordings and retreat into the Otherworld until the time shift has passed, at which point she can return to warn us.’
‘That could work.’ Rhun’s frown seemed to indicate that he was not entirely convinced.
Taren suspected that she knew what the governor’s fear was. ‘Is your woman a scientist, my Lord?’ Taren’s commonsense told her there was no physical means to record information that you could take back with you into the Otherworld; as with moving through time, your memory was all you got to take.
‘No,’ Avery granted, a little doubtful of Fallon’s ability to retain the more scientific data.
‘Then your wife may be able to warn you about the threat, but if she does not understand scientific formulae and engineering schematics, she is going to have difficulty reproducing them without error,’ Taren explained.
‘There is a good chance you are right about that,’ Avery conceded — Fallon was not as cosmically connected as he was, and she could not be expected to have his exceptional comprehension. ‘If only I had listened.’ The Lord was mad at himself again, knowing he surely would have been able to complete the task that now, with his mortal understanding, he would find impossible to fathom.
‘Give me the specs for your anion spray adhesive and the Orion weapon, and I shall ensure they find their way back into Floyd’s hands,’ Taren volunteered, and the thought of returning to Kila one day brought the smile back to her face.
Rhun was grateful for her offer, but at the same time reluctant to accept it. ‘Do you not think you have enough on your agenda to attend to without adding us to your list?’
Taren shook her head. ‘I should never be content unless I know that you have all been delivered from the ancient predators that will certainly descend upon you if I succeed with my own quest.’
‘In that case, I accept. Kila will be greatly indebted to you, as we are already, to all of you.’ Rhun cast his sights over the rest of the crew, who were all rather bewildered about their uncertain future.
‘It is we who are beholden to you,’ Taren assured the governor, shaking his hand to seal their deal. ‘No matter what unfolds in the future, or the past, you may rest assured that I will not forget our debt to the Chosen.’
Rhun was also a mite bewildered by their circumstances. ‘I shall forget.’ He smiled meekly. ‘But I do look forward to you bringing me up to speed in the near future.’
‘Hear, hear!’ seconded Floyd, Avery and Noah in accord.
In Jahan’s apartment in Chailida, Jazmay broke the bad news to Jahan and he found it a little hard to digest, despite the fact that he’d known all along their romance was never meant to be. ‘Surely there is a way around this?’ Jahan had not been much of a scholar, especially when it came to things like science and history, both of which might have provided an answer to their dilemma, if he’d only paid attention.
‘Not without committing high treason,’ Jazmay replied, sounding almost willing to do so.
‘I do not have it in me to betray my kin —’ Jahan insisted and Jazmay smiled.
‘That is one of the things I love about you.’ She respected his ruling on the matter.
‘Ah!’ He had a thought. ‘I know for certain that the Otherworld is timeless, if you were there when Taren made the time shift happen, you would remain here … I think.’
Jazmay’s sombre mood lifted. ‘Would the Lord of the Otherworld help us?’
‘Hard to say if he is even capable at present,’ Jahan pondered, ‘but he might be able to pose a solution. I’ll see if I can get an audience.’ He kissed Jazmay and stood to depart, but she gripped his hand.
‘Let me come —’
‘It would be better if I go alone,’ Jahan suggested, ‘trust me.’
‘I do.’ Jazmay let him go. ‘I’ll be here.’
‘I’ll be back.’ He winked to rouse a smile from her, and vanished once she obliged.
When Jahan arrived at the healing temple he was granted an audience with the Lord of the Otherworld, and shown through into the governor’s complex. As he approached the stairs to the upper level, he noted a fellow sitting on them who looked rather familiar.
‘Hey there.’ He waved. ‘Are you one of the locals?’
It took a moment for Jahan’s brain to see through the dark hair, mo and tuft of a beard, to recognise the face of Kila’s last governor. ‘You’re —’
‘— in a spot of bother, and I could really use the help of someone who knows how to teleport.’ Zeven cut to the chase. ‘Do you fit the bill?’
‘I’m just on my way to a meeting.’ Jahan pointed up towards Avery’s rooms.
‘That’s okay, I’ll wait.’ Zeven gave him a smile and sat back down.
‘Okay.’ Seeing no reason to decline, Jahan agreed to help, and as it was his departed forefather he was speaking with, he asked, ‘Is this some sort of test?’
‘Absolutely,’ replied Zeven, ‘so don’t fail me.’
‘I won’t,’ Jahan affirmed, twice as perplexed as he made haste to his meeting.
When he entered the Lord’s quarters he was a little surprised to find Nin Sybil, the governor’s wife, keeping Avery company.
‘Have a seat.’ The Lord motioned to a free chair from his bed, on which he was seated, cross-legged. ‘I thought I might see you before long.’
‘I hoped we might have a private meeting.’ Jahan was slow to be seated, in case he needed to come back. ‘No offence to you, Nin Sybil.’
‘None taken.’ She smiled sweetly, not budging from the chair, where she was hand-sewing a baby garment.
‘I see no point in asking Nin Sybil to leave when she already knows what you are going to say,’ Avery pointed out. Jahan looked to Sybil and she raised both brows, smiled and gave a nod to confirm. ‘And, as I know what you are going to say also, there’s no point in beating around the bush … I cannot help you, Jahan,’ Avery said plainly. ‘Right now, I cannot get myself back to the Otherworld, let alone anyone else.’
‘Fallon, then?’ Jahan requested they enlist the help of the Lord’s wife.
‘She will not agree,’ Avery told him, ‘she will say, as I do, that, like the rest of us, you must trust that what is meant to be will be and what isn’t won’t.’
Jahan had feared this ancient philosophy would get thrown in his way. ‘What about creating your own reality? That’s what I am trying to do here.’
‘And if you are meant to get your way, you shall,’ Avery replied, ‘but the Otherworld will not help you defy cosmic will.’
‘I know it’s impossible, but I feel I am meant to be with this woman.’ Jahan sighed, not expecting any support.
‘Yes, you are,’ said Sybil, ‘Jazmay is an incarnation of your Chosen other —’
‘What?’ Jahan was exhilarated and vindicated by the news. ‘Yes!’
‘But she is not her,’ Sybil put a dampener on the proceedings. ‘And by keeping her here, you are denying some other incarnation of you the pleasure of a life with her.’
Jahan had not considered the big picture. ‘I never was very good at cosmology,’ he admitted. ‘Forgive me, Nin Sybil, I am not questioning your sight but —’
‘How do I know she is your Chosen other?’ She guessed his query, and when he nodded she shook her head. ‘Obviously you weren’t very conscientious with history either.’ She scowled. ‘If you were you would have recognised Jazmay as Brimesent, Princess of York, who stole the heart of Aurelius Urien of Gwent, your incarnation during Rhun’s time as High King of Britain.’
‘That’s why Jazmay was viewing that chronicle,’ Jahan realised. ‘And it was long ago that I viewed it,’ he pondered. ‘Are you sure you recall correctly?’
Sybil nodded. ‘I’m positive, I was your half-sister at the time, after all.’
‘That you were, Nin.’ Jahan grinned at the pleasing memories that began to flood his mind, along with more conscious recall of that era than he’d perceived from Noah’s chronicles. ‘Oh, my Goddess, yes, I see her now.’ Jahan’s eyes were wide open, he was no longer seeing the room around him but a string of lifetimes that he had spent with this woman at his side.
‘That would be your immortal memory kicking in,’ Sybil commented, ‘have you told your parents about your recent demise?’
Jahan snapped out of his wondrous state at the mention of his parents. ‘My death was a complete accident,’ he defended.
‘We know,’ Avery assured.
Jahan was uncomfortable suddenly; everything had seemed so clear to him when he’d walked in here, and now everything was a muddle.
‘So, what do you propose to do now?’ Sybil asked the young man.
There was only one answer. ‘Trust?’ Jahan had just argued himself into taking the advice they had given him in the first place.
‘There you go.’ Sybil tied off her thread, and held up the little blue jumpsuit she was working on to admire. ‘Lovely,’ she decided, folding the suit and placing it on the sideboard beside her, whereupon she rose. ‘Well then, I’ll be going.’
‘Don’t forget your sewing.’ Jahan waylaid the secretary of state from vanishing, having never known the seer to forget anything.
‘Silly me,’ Sybil turned her mischievous grin to the Lord of the Otherworld. ‘Do pass this on to Fallon with my love, won’t you?’ She served Avery a wink and was gone.
The Lord appeared a little stunned for a moment and then burst into a huge smile, as he stood to grab the little blue garment. ‘Do you know what this means?’
Jahan seemed a mite discomforted by the Lord’s sudden burst of excitement. ‘I think I can guess?’
‘Yes!’ Avery held the little blue suit to his chest and hugged it like the precious omen it was.
Jahan assumed this was the seer’s way of telling Avery that his wife was expecting their first child — a boy, if her choice of blue fabric was anything to go by. ‘Congratulations, Lord,’ said Jahan, a little uncomfortable with the situation, for clearly the Lord was not taking into consideration the fact that they were just about to alter the recent past! Just as Jahan stood to lose his lover in the pending reality shift, so too did the Lord of the Otherworld now stand to lose his first shot at fatherhood in over a century!
Avery looked to him, his joyful face filling with worry as reality set in. ‘I need to find the little woman.’
Zeven sat on the stairs waiting for his ride to AMIE to get out of his meeting, and his stomach was in knots as he pondered his psychic future — or lack thereof.
He was no scientist, but from what he had learnt this day Zeven suspected that the tundrell from Oceane, still growing in the bio-lab on AMIE, not so much emitted massive amounts of negative ions as required massive amounts of negative ions to thrive. Kestler had said that humid waterfalls and beaches were places in the natural world where negative ions abounded, which explained why humans found these places so inspiring and uplifting. But if one did not have such a natural wonder at one’s disposal, then a shower was a great substitute ioniser — the weather on Oceane had been like standing in one huge warm shower!
Gaze fixed on the shiny marble floor before him, Zeven became aware that someone had entered the temple and was walking towards him. Zeven was shocked to raise his sights and see Ibis coming his way. ‘Princess!’ He stood to address her.
‘When you never came, I thought you might have left.’ She stopped in her tracks some distance from him, to hear why he’d been avoiding her.
‘I lost my Power.’ He was mournful to admit it, whereupon Ibis melted into sympathy for him.
‘But how?’ She came closer.
‘I’m not permitted to say.’ He shrugged apologetically.
‘So, that’s why I haven’t seen you?’ she asked timidly — a little fearful of the answer.
Zeven had to shake his head and be honest. ‘There is a lot going on in my world right now and I’ve had more urgent matters to attend to.’
‘Oh, I see.’ She sounded disappointed. ‘I rather got the impression that I was an urgent matter.’ She tried a more seductive approach.
‘Sometimes you just have to choose the greater good over your own personal desire,’ Zeven argued his position with Taren’s logic, having difficultly sounding committed to the resolve.
‘You sound like my father.’ Ibis picked up on his lack of conviction and sought to exploit it. ‘You could belong,’ she invited and, now that they were finally arm’s length from each other, she took hold of Zeven’s hands. ‘I swear to you I have never met anyone who affected me so deeply, so quickly, as you,’ she whispered, leaning forward to a breath away from kissing him. ‘Play with me for a while, Starman, and I shall ensure you never want to leave.’
It was a very tempting offer, but Zeven knew that time was a precious commodity that he did not have to spare right now. Even an hour might risk his chances of being able to regain his Power; he needed to get back to AMIE. Hence Zeven felt he had to discourage Ibis quickly, lest he be distracted from his destiny and miss it yet again. ‘It’s all about you, isn’t it? You really are a princess.’ Zeven was surprised by his own ability to be cutting, as he gripped both her wrists and urged her back. ‘Believe me, I’ve been at this crossroads before, and if I choose you over my destiny, we will both regret it.’
Ibis frowned. ‘I will not regret our time together, never,’ she insisted, backing away of her own accord.
‘I am not your Chosen other.’ He thought he’d give her some extra incentive to forget him. ‘Cadfan said so.’
‘What? He said that?’ Ibis was stunned to a standstill.
‘In not so many words … but yes, he did,’ Zeven insisted, wanting to say something kind and comforting, but he knew he’d only cause more damage. ‘Sorry.’ He shrugged in conclusion.
‘Didn’t you have your meeting with Cadfan before our afternoon out?’ The princess gulped back her hurt.
He wasn’t proud of the fact, but Zeven nodded to admit that was true.
‘You … really are a bastard.’
‘Never regretting me came mighty quick, didn’t it?’ he spat, whereupon Ibis fled as fast as she was able — the princess would not remember him fondly, and that was for the best. Now please learn your bloody lesson and leave that poor girl alone, he scolded himself, as the Lord Avery came shooting down the stairs and passed him, waving a blue garment around in the air.
‘I’m going to be a father!’ Lord Avery explained his excitement and, in a rush, did not even stop to be congratulated.
Zeven looked up to see his lift coming down the stairs and so moved to confront him, eager to put some distance between himself and Kila. ‘Ready to go?’
‘I’m not in any real hurry to get home.’ Jahan appeared to be dreading it, in fact.
‘Your meeting did not go as planned?’ Zeven sympathised.
‘Not really.’ Jahan grimaced.
‘A short delay will be welcome then?’ Zeven was upbeat, hoping to inspire his cohort to action.
‘Where do you want to go?’ Jahan asked.
‘If I create a mental image —’
‘No problem.’ Jahan gripped Zeven’s wrist, and the pilot brought to mind the image of the captain’s bridge on AMIE.
‘We’re there,’ Jahan advised and willed them both where directed.
When Zeven saw the bridge of the AMIE, he was in heaven. ‘I’m home!’ He moved quickly to check all the backup systems were still operating, particularly those in bio-containment. ‘Yes!’
‘You live here now?’ Jahan was perplexed; this was not what he thought the afterlife would look like. ‘You’re not Brian Alexander, are you?’
‘I was, apparently.’ Zeven shrugged and then held out a hand to shake Jahan’s. ‘Zeven Gudrun.’
‘Jahan.’
‘So you’re Jahan?’ Zeven recalled Ibis speaking of him.
‘Yes,’ Jahan confirmed, as he released Zeven’s hand, appearing curious.
Zeven thought better of mentioning anything more about his connection to Ibis — better to go while the going was good. ‘Well, nice meeting you.’ He began to back up towards bio-containment. ‘Thanks for the hand.’
Jahan had to laugh. ‘I can’t just leave you here.’
‘Sure you can, I’ll be fine,’ Zeven insisted.
‘But how will you get back?’
‘I don’t need to.’
Jahan, considering what Jazmay had mentioned of the plan to alter the past, understood and stopped insisting. ‘Have it your way, then.’
‘That would be a nice change of pace for me,’ Zeven concurred, with a wave, as he wandered off down the corridor. ‘Have a great life.’
Jahan stood there a moment, staring out at the planet in the distance that was causing him so much grief. ‘Maladaan,’ he uttered the name. ‘Why couldn’t I have been born there?’ Or had he been? Of course his Chosen memory was of no aid to him, for it only contained the memories of his lifetimes in this universe. Could he trust that what Nin Sybil had told him was true, that he would find his Chosen love one day and that he needed to let Jazmay go to find the incarnation of him that she was meant to be with in this life? ‘It’s a hard ask,’ he decided, but, short of betraying his kindred, he had no choice but to accept the will of fate in this case.
Although the Lord of the Otherworld was a mere mortal at present, he still attracted nature elementals like bees to honey. He might not have been able to see them or hear them, but he knew his dominions were always watching him and listening to his inner voice.
In the healing temple garden, Avery sat upon the grass to dangle his feet in the warm water of the pool. He welcomed the wind in his face and the sun upon his being. Once he’d filled his senses with the life force of nature, the Lord thought about his want to see his wife.
There was a rush of bubbles over his feet, and Avery felt his ankles clutched as Fallon drew herself up out of the water and between Avery’s legs, to land in his arms. Her soaking form immediately dried, her long wet hair springing into large locks, as she smiled and kissed her husband. ‘Is there something you need, my love?’ She noted the blue jumpsuit in his hand. ‘What is that?’
‘It is a gift, to you from Nin Sybil.’ He handed the jumpsuit over.
Fallon gasped in joy as she viewed it. ‘She is certain?’
Avery cocked his head to one side as if that were a stupid question, and was overpowered with a hug and many kisses. ‘But there is peril,’ he uttered to calm his wife, and her excitement ebbed.
‘What do you mean?’ She pulled away from him to look him in the eyes.
‘The past is about to be altered by Taren Lennox and all that has unfolded since Maladaan’s arrival in our universe will be undone,’ he explained.
The news made Fallon gasp again, and grasp her flat belly. ‘Is your mother’s most recent manifestation truly so powerful?’ Not even Avery could screw around with time.
‘The Grigori are behind her,’ Avery stated by way of an explanation, thus Fallon would realise that they could not appeal against the course of action, as it was undisputedly for the higher good.
‘How could circumstances be so cruel?’ Fallon was bewildered a moment. ‘We cannot allow —’
‘I agree,’ Avery cut short her protest. ‘Which is why you must retreat into the Otherworld, until the time shift has taken place.’
‘Without you.’ Fallon knew her husband could not come with her, she was just stating the fact out loud.
‘I’m still going to be here when you get back … and it will only be my memory of the past few months that will be affected, it’s not as if I am going to forget you.’ Avery reasoned her to a more positive frame of mind, whereupon Fallon smiled.
‘Then I’ll get to tell you about our good news first.’ Fallon liked that idea and became amorous once more.
‘Our governor has alternative reasons for sending you to an Otherworldly retreat —’ Avery got a word in, but Fallon had already reasoned the governor’s cause.
‘If Maladaan never shifts here, we won’t know about the Orions and their weapon.’ Fallon realised the implications and then groaned. ‘I always loathed science.’
Avery chuckled at her woe. ‘Don’t stress, you will have back up.’
There was only one other soul who would escape the reality shift. ‘The time traveller,’ Fallon concluded and he nodded to concur.
‘The governor will call a meeting in a few days’ time, before the shift takes place.’
Fallon nodded to confirm the summons, clearly awash in a sea of different emotions.
‘There’s absolutely nothing to worry about.’ Avery took hold of both her shoulders to instil confidence in her, and she summoned a smile to reassure him she had faith. Even without his psychic senses Avery could tell Fallon was far from convinced, and if he was honest, so was he.
A stay at the lake house, alone, was a dream come true for Lucian and Taren. For the few days it lasted, they got to live their dream — knowing a world of trouble lay between them and this idyllic arrangement happening again.
‘I think we should work on the process of freezing time,’ Lucian suggested, as he placed a cup of tea in front of Taren, and sat down beside her with his coffee, in the morning sunshine on the back deck.
‘I’ve made a list.’ Taren finished penning a sentence on her notebook screen. ‘Tell me if you think I have forgotten anything?’
‘A list of what?’ Lucian accepted it from her.
‘Things I have to do when I get back to the past,’ she explained as though she was handing over a shopping list.
‘You sound like you are almost looking forward to it,’ Lucian noted.
‘Well, there’s no use complaining about it, is there? Best to be constructive.’ She referred him back to her list.
‘Number one, stop AMIE taking the sample from Oceane.’ He nodded. ‘Number two, wake Lucian up to Amie and Swithin … what? No.’ Lucian shook his head. ‘Give me the pen,’ he took it from her, and crossed out a few words. ‘This should read, seduce Lucian away from Amie and Swithin.’ He grinned, and made her laugh.
Swithin was Lucian’s older brother who’d been having an affair with Amie, Lucian’s wife, since before Lucian married her, and the captain didn’t wish to make that same mistake twice. ‘Promise me,’ he insisted. ‘I want you to seduce me. I swear to you that you’ll get away with it.’
‘I already did.’ Taren kissed him and it was several hours before they got back to her list; by the time they did, they were comfortably reclining in the upstairs bedroom.
Points three to seven on the list involved Taren’s parents, her uncle, freeing Fari and Jazmay, and coming back to Kila to warn the governor about the Orion threat. It wasn’t until they got to the last item on the list that they had a minor disagreement.
‘Number eight,’ Lucian read, ‘prevent Yasper’s demise.’
‘I can’t lie about that.’ Taren shrugged. ‘I would love to do it.’
‘Yasper … was that his name?’ Lucian queried, trying desperately not to sound jealous of a dead man, but then if Taren saved him from a bullet, he would no longer be dead. ‘Was he an agent, like you?’
Taren nodded. ‘You might note, however, that I have a question mark next to that one. The event is further back in time than the moment I am aiming for, so I doubt I’ll be able to fulfil that wish.’
‘Then why put it on the list?’ Lucian asked.
‘To bring the topic out in the open with you,’ she confessed, taking the notebook from him. ‘Yasper was the entire reason I began studying the possibility of travelling backwards in time. He was a damn fine assassin and had a rather brilliant mind, for a killer. He was also the one man I should never have had an affair with as he was Chief Ronan’s only son.’
‘Hence your dislike of the chief and all things MSS, I suspect?’ Lucian concluded, feeling more at ease with the subject matter.
‘I did not love Yasper as I love you.’ Taren looked him square in the eyes so that he might see she spoke the truth. ‘I admired him, I desired him,’ she admitted shyly, ‘and he was a very good friend.’ She drew a sudden deep breath to keep her emotions stable. ‘For those reasons I would love to save him, but unfortunately, I have bigger fish to fry now. If I were to go back and save Yasper, it would undo anything I manage to do once I get back to AMIE, and I’d be faced with resolving this entire list again.’
‘If Yasper is as proficient an agent as you, it seems to me he’d be far more helpful to your cause than me.’ Lucian had to say it, for he felt it was true.
Taren was shocked by his reasoning, and climbed on top of him to instil her view. ‘How can you say that after viewing Noah’s chronicles?’
‘I was a warrior then and —’
‘Maelgwn was a warrior, yes,’ Taren agreed, ‘but that was not what he was famed for. He was famed for his diplomatic skills, which managed, on numerous occasions, to keep his overzealous wife from getting herself killed.’ Lucian couldn’t argue with her reasoning. ‘And that is just as true of this life.’
‘I don’t want to go back to being strangers.’ He pulled her naked form down to hug his own. ‘I don’t want to go back to being ignorant and used.’
‘Stop worrying about your marriage, I’ll destroy it, I swear to you!’ Taren kissed him to seal the deal, although she still wondered if seduction would be her means, or whether good old exposure would be the best course of action for everyone involved. The last thing she wanted was to attend another memorial service of one of her lovers; please, universe, find me a safe way for us to be together. She wanted that wish more than anything in her life to date, but in her own experience life seldom gave her that which she desired most.
For the past ten years Taren had believed that anything was possible and that she controlled her own destiny, when in fact nothing could have been further from the truth! Now, however, she truly did control her destiny and that of everybody she’d ever known or cared about, and bearing that in mind she would do whatever it took to keep Lucian and the AMIE project out of the line of fire.
‘You left something off your list,’ Lucian whispered as he held her close. ‘Marry me.’
Tears of desire choked Taren at the suggestion, and she clung tighter to him.
‘Why are you crying?’ Lucian asked. ‘Is the idea of marrying me so awful?’
‘No, you know I want that more than anything.’ Taren sat up to regain her senses. ‘It’s just so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel on that one.’
‘I know.’ Lucian sat up. ‘There’s a million obstacles and things that could go wrong, between here and our ultimate happiness, but you have to believe that the longer the darkness, the more vibrant our dreams will be.’
The premise made Taren smile. ‘This is what I am really going to miss, your company and wise counsel.’
He kissed her forehead, appreciating her sentiment. ‘It will never be far away.’
Taren closed her eyes to pray to the universe that was true.
D-day came all too soon, whereby Lucian and Taren returned to the healing temple to meet with the governor and the others involved in the Maladaan assignment.
Taren was surprised to find Jazmay present, and the Phemorian asked to speak with her alone, before the meeting, and so they wandered out into the courtyard.
‘I wanted to apologise for yesterday,’ Jazmay began, ‘I know this is not your fault and it was very selfish of me —’
‘No, Jazmay, it is my fault,’ Taren admitted. ‘If I had not allowed AMIE to take that sample from Oceane, none of this would have happened.’
‘But then I would never have known this happiness, and I would still be rotting in prison,’ Jazmay had realised. ‘I know now that this was but a stolen season in paradise and that I have you to thank for it.’
‘I will get you out,’ Taren vowed.
Jazmay nodded, far more accepting than she had been yesterday. ‘When shall I expect you?’
Her comeback made Taren smile. ‘Around the same time Maladaan made the shift, I expect.’
‘So you will return to Maladaan?’ she asked.
Taren grinned. ‘With the connections I have, I won’t have to.’
‘Farewell then.’ Jazmay stood. ‘I won’t stay for the meeting, I don’t need to know all the gory details; better to make the best of however long I still have here.’
As that was probably no more than a few hours, Taren nodded to grant her leave. ‘Thank you for giving me my memory back.’
Jazmay gave a twisted smile in leaving. ‘We all make mistakes.’