Chronicle of Ages (33 page)

Maelgwn felt the Dragon come over him, as it only did in times of severe crisis. He observed the outline of his shadow on the ice — it was the silhouette of the beast, Rufus, that he saw there. The Dragon was no longer bound to manifest on the physical plane of existence, but his command, courage and inspiration were always welcome attributes to possess when trying to win someone around to your way of thinking.

Uriah also noticed the shadow of the beast on the ice, and the commanding presence that emanated from Maelgwn. ‘What are you, really?' He sat upright as his wonder overtook his pain. ‘I have come to hate the Nefilim Gods, both for their debauched behaviour and the Pantheon's complacency over anything to do with
the plight of the human races. These Gods' glow with the enlightenment of divine beings, and yet they have no basic concept of love. And then there is you, whose compassion seems never-ending. I mean, what does it take to get on your bad side? Do you have one?'

Maelgwn shrugged. He was the way he was because he knew no other way, his teachers and advisors had done their job well. ‘Even I do not understand the full purpose of my existence. But I have known you as a Homo sapiens, Uriah. I know that you will one day be what I am. I know that together we shall somehow put an end to the Nefilim rule, for that is a large part of the reason we, the Chosen, have been created. I know you have had more success with winning battles with your intellect than with weapons … and I would strongly suggest a written form of revolutionary action next time.' Maelgwn made a joke of their sad predicament and how badly they'd both handled it.

The shadow of the Dragon backed away as the lad lifted the jacket from his brother's corpse and slid himself inside it. He was wearing the most peculiar look on his face. ‘I've always had aspirations to write,' he said, intrigued by what the Dragon had told him. The fibre immediately adjusted to fit his form and expanded to the required thickness to thaw his frozen body. ‘Oh Goddess, that feels amazing.' His teeth stopped chattering as he flipped up the collar and the ends of his sleeves extended to swathe his freezing hands. ‘Sorry, Dragon.' He moved over to see if he could assist to free him from his bonds. ‘Do you feel the cold?'

‘Unfortunately, yes,' Maelgwn chattered. ‘Were I not psychically disabled at present, I could rise above its effects —'

‘But you are not wearing the Nerguz?' Uriah pointed out.

‘It has a few side effects it would seem.' Maelgwn didn't know how long he'd been passed out and as his PSI might have restored itself, he tried willing himself out of the restraints.

‘How do you think Inanna knows that this planet is going to self-destruct?' Uriah asked, as the Dragon had gone quiet.

‘She didn't say it would self-destruct.' With a heavy sigh, Maelgwn gave up on his psychic skills. ‘She said it would be scattered to the four ends of the universe.'

‘You think she means to blow it up!' Uriah gasped. ‘But how?'

Their attention was drawn to the door of the ice chamber as it opened.

‘Zerrah!' Uriah thanked his lucky stars to see the captain with several weapons in hand. ‘I thought they must have captured you. How did you find us?'

‘I came for you,' Zerrah informed Uriah, observing the Dragon dubiously as always.

Zerrah obviously still suspected that the Dragon was responsible for shooting him unconscious back on the ship. Uriah had attacked from behind so he would be none the wiser.

‘It's time to tell the truth, Uriah,' Maelgwn urged. ‘We can still salvage this situation.'

Uriah took a moment to consider his options and all that he had learned from this experience. ‘The Dragon is not the man you've been hunting, Zerrah.' The young diplomat looked to the captain to set him straight. ‘It was me … me, and Aquilla.'

‘What?' Zerrah approached Uriah, unable to believe what he was being told. ‘Why?'

‘I never told you that Durak was my older brother,' Uriah enlightened him, and motioned to the corpse laying on the ice. ‘He was not killed as everyone was told, but kidnapped.'

Zerrah moved to inspect the body, without interrupting Uriah's confession.

‘When Inanna found out that Gibal had granted someone access to his precious lab, she decided she must control that someone. Durak was the best way to get to Aquilla. Your sister confided in me, unable to let me go on believing my brother was dead. I joined her cause and there you have it.'

Zerrah appeared stunned by the news, but the motive did hold water. ‘So why have I not picked up on your involvement telepathically?'

‘Aquilla and myself have mini thought wave neutralisers that are implanted under our skin so as to be undetectable … courtesy of Shamash technologies.' Uriah stretched out his right wrist to show Zerrah the device that could be vaguely seen beneath the skin there.

The young captain had gone rather pale, but he said nothing as he rose from ascertaining that Durak was definitely dead this time.

‘We have been biding our time in Gibal's service, waiting for a prize that would appease Inanna. When Aquilla stumbled upon the Dragon and found out about the device that he was being sent to protect, we decided to steal the technology to buy back Durak.'

‘Hold on.' Zerrah found a glitch in the story. ‘How could Aquilla have telepathically probed the Dragon for information. A thought wave neutraliser would prevent that?'

‘Cornelin did the probing at Aquilla's suggestion and she recorded Cornelin's observations. He thought it was just a bit of a laugh at the time. Or that's what we thought he thought.' Uriah shook his head slowly, stunned and remorseful at his own brutality; he'd very much liked Cornelin, but killing him had seemed the only option in the heat of the moment. ‘After Aquilla committed the theft, Cornelin got wise to us and threatened to turn us in if we didn't return the NERGUZ.'

‘So long, Cornelin.' Zerrah gave Uriah a sideways look, having never suspected him of being capable of murder.

‘I entrapped Gibal with the NERGUZ long enough to dismember him and load him into cases.' Uriah appalled the young captain further. ‘Aquilla seduced the Dragon, to steal the back-up detection device Gibal gave him —'

‘You had sexual relations with my sister?' Zerrah was enraged, and without a second's hesitation, slugged Maelgwn's newly repaired face.

‘Aquilla planted the devices in the room of the
Leonine officials to throw you off the scent, whilst I loaded the ship.' Uriah spoke up to distract the captain from seeking further retribution. ‘I was the one who left you for dead in the cargo hold. The Dragon saved your life by putting you into stasis.'

Zerrah calmed and frowned as he absorbed the information. He looked to the Dragon, who nodded to confirm Uriah's story. ‘My mistake. I apologise for accusing you,' Zerrah conceded. ‘But that doesn't excuse you for Aquilla.'

‘I realise that,' Maelgwn stammered. ‘Look at where it landed me.'

Zerrah broke into a smile, realising he had no further gripe with the foreign warrior. ‘Say, Dragon, you're looking a little blue around the gills … your skin is nearly the same colour as mine. It might be a bright idea if we got you out of here.' He blasted Maelgwn free of his chains, leaving the lightweight charichalum shackles dangling around his wrists and ankles. ‘Where is Aquilla?'

Maelgwn was jumping up and down and shaking himself to get his circulation going, but he stopped still to answer. ‘Last we heard she was in Inanna's laboratory.'

‘Inanna's laboratory?' Zerrah didn't understand. ‘Why there and not a prison cell?'

‘Aquilla was with child,' Maelgwn confessed, clenching his jaw to curb his anger. ‘Now she isn't.'

The young captain's jaw fell in the wake of this news, and just for a moment words escaped him. ‘We had best go get her.'

‘We'll be spotted!' Uriah was clearly not too keen on the idea.

‘I doubt it,' Zerrah scoffed, as he tossed Uriah and Maelgwn a pulse blaster each. ‘The city is deserted.'

‘That
was
quick,' Uriah said, horrified, as he knew why it had been vacated so abruptly.

‘If Inanna has control of the planet's destruction,' Maelgwn mused as he exited the ice chamber with Uriah and Zerrah on his heels, ‘then why does it feel like she's running away from something?'

Zerrah caught Maelgwn up to interrupt. ‘What do you mean by “the planet's destruction”?'

‘Just that,' said Maelgwn.

‘When?' Zerrah began to panic.

‘We don't know when … soon!' Maelgwn was agitated by the questions as he was trying to think.

They had entered Inanna's main prison complex and were astonished to find all the cells empty.

‘Deserted is right,' Uriah commented, spying the abandoned security station and the PKA database terminal therein. ‘Hey, we can find out where the lab is.' He motioned his companions to follow.

The information Uriah sought was minimum level security and fully accessible to anybody within the city. The location map that showed the way to the lab displayed itself in brilliant colour on the invisible screen. This stood perpendicular in the middle of the round table that hosted the small PKA plate that drove the system — on this, Uriah's hand was placed.

‘Excellent,' commented Zerrah as he viewed the layout. ‘The lab is practically next door.' He made a move in that direction.

‘Could we check for approaching craft within this
star system from this terminal?' Maelgwn delayed Uriah from rising.

‘Sure,' he requested the information, whereupon data filled the screen. ‘Most of the craft are departing … hold on, there is one large craft headed towards Laarsa.'

‘Identification,' Maelgwn prompted.

‘City central intelligence advises,' Uriah looked to the Dragon, ‘it is Mazua.'

‘Oh dear.' Maelgwn winced. ‘What if the
Aten
's still towing the city, and we're not picking her up because she's cloaked.'

‘Maybe Inanna is running from the Mazua, believing that they are coming to accuse her of their Lord's disappearance,' Uriah suggested. ‘In which case, she may not have detected the
Aten
.'

‘Either way she's got a target,' Maelgwn frowned.

‘Good point,' Uriah granted.

Maelgwn's mind was mulling over scenarios. ‘If there was an explosive device planted within the city limits, the security systems would have detected it and set of the alarms, am I right?'

Uriah nodded and, following the Dragon's train of thought, called up more information from the database. ‘Even if the alarm had been shut off, the system would still be registering the explosive device and,' he shook his head as he looked from the screen to Maelgwn, ‘it isn't.'

‘What about a natural anomaly, like a pending earthquake, asteroid, or meteor shower?'

Uriah shrugged. ‘Same deal.'

‘She must have a weapon,' Maelgwn concluded. ‘And if Inanna has a device capable of destroying this
entire planet, it would finish off the
Aten
and the Mazua fairly efficiently. Can you contact the Mazua from here?'

‘I don't see why not.'

‘Tell them —'

‘They are not going to listen to me,' Uriah declined, already issuing the contact demand into the database via the palm of his right hand. In his left hand Uriah held a headset which he passed to the Dragon.

‘I'm getting something now,' Uriah advised, switching on the optional speakers so he could listen in.

‘This is Dragon command to the Mazua. Are you receiving me, please respond.' Maelgwn closed his eyes and prayed for a friendly voice.

‘Reading you loud and clear, Commander,' Candace responded, with the sound of a rowdy cheering crowd behind her. ‘You had us real worried, I can tell you.'

Maelgwn guessed the entire squad was present and he hated that he'd let them all down. ‘You have bigger concerns, I'm sorry to say,' he began. ‘You must take your vessel back from whence it came. Inanna intends to destroy Laarsa. Please confirm.'

‘Dragon, you are to return to base without delay.' Candace relayed the order. ‘Confirm.'

‘You can't just leave us here,' Uriah objected. ‘You're the only hope we've got.'

‘Uriah, please,' Maelgwn said aside to the lad, ‘there is no question of that … believe me,' he mumbled to himself, trying to figure how best to explain his situation to mission control. ‘Negative that, Mazua. I am disarmed and disabled, conditions are unfavourable. Do not, I repeat, do not send reconnaissance. The city has been
evacuated and Laarsa could blow at any moment. Inanna and Shamash have the merchandise, and are headed towards Gaia. They know about the Chosen. I expect that Inanna's forces will be headed your way before long and advise that you withdraw without delay. Beat our foe to Gaia and head off this catastrophe. May the Goddess be with you all. Over and out.' Maelgwn ripped off the headset and cast it on the table. ‘Terminate the transmission,' he ordered and Uriah obliged.

‘No, Dragon —'

‘You do have a plan to get us off this rock, don't you?' Uriah found Maelgwn's report to base a bit discouraging.

‘The universe will provide.' Maelgwn forced a smile as he headed out of the security station to find the lab and Aquilla.

 

Once they entered the adjoining laboratories it wasn't hard to find Aquilla; they just followed the sound of the weeping woman. Her sorrowful sobs led to an observation room where Zerrah sat close up to the glass division, speaking quietly with his distraught sister who was locked in the laboratory beyond.

‘Oh no,' Uriah uttered as he viewed the set-up, ‘it's a bio containment lab.'

‘So?' Maelgwn hauled Uriah back out into the corridor.

‘The Nefilim use them to contain potentially obnoxious life forms.' Uriah's knowledge flustered him. He didn't want to convey the sad news.