The Search for Gram (11 page)

“Efreet?” asked Captain Sheppard. “You mean, like the ones you fought with Quetzalcoatl?”

“Exactly,” replied Steropes. “The platoon fought them on Keppler 22 ‘b.’ They also appeared to shift in and out of our reality, although we were never able to determine where they went when they disappeared.”

“
You
have fought the Efreet?” asked Captain Nightsong, his voice full of disbelief. “And you survived?”

“Yes,” replied Calvin.  “We fought them once, and they were very hard to kill. They kept disappearing when we tried to hit them.”

“That is to be expected,” said Captain Nightsong; “they are not of our universe.”

“Not of our universe?” asked Captain Sheppard. “What does that mean?”

“Remember when I told you about Wayland and Beowulf? I only told you part of the story; I have never told the rest, not even to the Aesir, because I knew they would think I was crazy. If you have fought them, though, you may believe my story. The Efreet are a race of beings who live in a different universe that is parallel to ours, called the Jinn Universe. Unfortunately for life forms in our universe, many of the races in the Jinn Universe draw energy from creatures here, so they tend to congregate where life exists. As they draw most strongly from the psychic energy of sentient beings, most of the stronger types of Jinn live on planets that are the counterparts of inhabited planets in our universe. Some exist on the energy released at death, so cemeteries are also a common place to find them. As the energy released at death is random and chaotic, the cemetery Jinn also tend to be more chaotic in nature and are usually quite evil.”

“I believe it,” said Calvin. “Our experience seems to support that. My only question is, how do
you
know that?”

“I learned it from Wayland, who had more knowledge of them than anyone else I know. Remember Grendel and Grendel’s mother? Both were Shaitans, members of the Jinn Universe’s most powerful race. That is why they were so hard to kill. If you have fought them, then you can imagine how hard they would have been to fight at that time in your history. None of the warriors could hit them, and the monsters had free reign of the countryside.”

Captain Nightsong paused, and then said, “In order to answer your question fully, I have to give you a little more information on Wayland, including some things you will not hear from any other Aesir. When he first came to your planet, he lived in the center of your largest land mass, and he was part of the court of a man named King Solomon. There was near-constant warfare in that area, which made it easy for him to find minor heroes for his experiments. While he was there, a number of Efreet came through from the universe in which they lived.”

“How do you know the Efreet aren’t from our universe?” Captain Sheppard interrupted; “maybe they are just from another part of our universe, a long way away.”

“All the evidence points to a parallel universe,” replied Captain Nightsong, “with planets in the same place as the ones in this universe; however, the conditions on those planets are sometimes very different. According to Wayland, their prisons use some sort of energy field that somehow brings the two universes closer together and makes it easier for the Jinn to cross over from their universe to ours. Even though the Jinn can cross over, they still have to return to their universe periodically, or they will die.”

“So, the crews of
Asps 08
and
09
may still be alive...but trapped in the Jinn Universe, somewhere else, and unable to return?”

“It is certainly possible that they were inadvertently transported with the alien vessel when it shifted back to its universe,” said Captain Nightsong. “If they then flew outside the range of the effect when the ship transported back into our universe, they would be trapped there, unable to cross back.”

“We’ve got to get them back,” said Calvin. “How is this transport between universes accomplished?”

“The Jinn have devices which allow them to move back and forth. It is usually in the shape of a small rod, but can sometimes be in the form of a ring. Both of these will transport two to three Jinn at a time. While Wayland was at the court of King Solomon, a high-ranking Efreeti named Asmodeus came over from the Jinn universe. Wayland was able to incapacitate Asmodeus and take his control ring. Knowing Solomon would grant him any number of favors for control of the Jinni, he gave the ring to Solomon.”

“What did Solomon do with it?” asked Calvin.

“The ring gave Solomon power over the Jinn. He would transport with Wayland, capture Jinn and bring them back to your world. They had to do what he said, or he would keep them on your planet until they died. Asmodeus ended up helping King Solomon understand much of the Jinn society. He wrote all this information down in a grimoire called the Lemegeton, or Lesser Key of Solomon, which contained the instructions for evoking the 72 Jinn he was able to capture and interrogate with the ring. That ring became known as the ‘Seal of Solomon.’”

“Does it still exist?” asked Calvin. “Who has the ring now?”

“No,” replied Captain Nightsong. “The ring was later lost when Asmodeus tricked Solomon into giving it to him, and Asmodeus threw it into the sea…but only after going back to his universe to get one of the Efreeti control rods, which he used to escape.”

Calvin had seen Steropes use a ring which appeared to have power over two Jinn. He looked at the Psiclopes and raised an eyebrow, but Steropes shook his head, indicating he didn’t want to discuss it.

Captain Nightsong didn’t see the glance and continued, “Wayland killed seven of the Jinn to infuse their spirits into swords he made especially for that purpose, hoping to create swords of great power.”

“You’ve mentioned that before,” said Calvin. “How exactly did he capture a life essence and infuse it into a sword? Is this some sort of magic?”

“There’s no magic involved,” replied Captain Nightsong; “it’s science. You are aware, of course, that there is an animating force inside every living being, correct? If you look into someone’s eyes as he or she dies, you can see the light go out of them. That is the spirit leaving the body. We have long known this happens; Wayland figured out a way to use magnetic containment to trap these spirits and then infuse them into a sword. He felt that by doing this, you could use the knowledge the spirits gained in life to help a sword-wielder fight better.”

“Did it work?” asked Captain Sheppard.

“I don’t know,” replied Captain Nightsong. “He said it did, but the infused spirit had to be of the same moral outlook as the sword wielder. That is why he tried to capture a variety of Jinn. It was, of course, illegal and immoral to bind a soul against its wishes, so I never used any of the swords and wouldn’t know whether it was true or not. For that matter, I do not know if he actually succeeded in doing so…although he claimed he did.”

“Well, even if we had the ring or any of these swords,” Calvin said, “I don’t see how they would help us. We need something which will help us fight Jinn weapons and Jinn ships that can phase in and out of our universe. We need to figure out how to cross over and get my men back. And most importantly, we need to figure it out quickly, before we have to fight them again.” He stopped suddenly as an idea came to him. “You know what? I think I may know a couple of individuals who can help us.”

“Who are they?” asked Captain Sheppard.

“Some old friends of ours,” said Calvin. “They’re on Keppler-22 ‘b.’”

“I’m unfamiliar with that planet,” said Captain Nightsong. “Who are these friends, and why do you think they’ll be able to help us?”

Calvin smiled. “Their names are Sella and Trella,” he said; “they’re Jinn.”

The stars seemed to flash and jump as Lieutenant Pete ‘Rock’ Ayre pulled out of his firing run on the alien ship. “What the hell?” he asked. “Are we hit? My implants just died.”

“I don’t know what happened,” replied his WSO, Lieutenant Dan ‘K-Mart’ Knaus, “but it isn’t your implants. It’s the network; the entire implant network just went down. Mine are out too. I don’t think we were hit, but the ship we were fighting must have exploded. It’s gone.”

“I don’t know,” said Rock. “It kept disappearing; maybe it just did that again. We’ll set up a position here so we can pounce on it when it shows back up.”

The radio came to life with a call. “Asp 08
this is
Asp 09,” said its WSO, Lieutenant Mark ‘Chomper’ Melanson. “
We’ve lost comms with the
Gulf.
Can you contact them?
”

“
Stand by,
” replied K-Mart. He tried several times with the faster-than-light communications system, but was unable to raise the ship. “
That’s negative,
09,
we don’t have comms with Mom either.
” As the fighters were based on the
Vella Gulf
, it was their mother ship, or “Mom” for short.

“
They wouldn’t have gated out without us, would they?
” asked Chomper, who was new to the squadron.

“
I don’t think so,
” replied K-Mart. “
Besides, the
Gulf
was hours from the stargate. They wouldn’t have made
it to the gate yet. Stand by.
”

“This is strange,” said K-Mart. “The
Vella Gulf
wouldn’t have left without us. They wouldn’t. And even if they
had
to gate out, they would have at least said something.”

“Do you think they were destroyed?” asked Rock.

“No, I don’t think they were destroyed. The alien ship fired another one of those torpedo things, but I doubt the torpedo would have completely destroyed it. I can’t find the
Gulf
on any of my systems. Not radar, not radio, not even on the identification, friend or foe (IFF) system. Nothing. It’s as if they don’t exist anymore.”

“What about the giants?” asked Rock. “Maybe they had a cloaked ship that appeared and destroyed the
Gulf
while we were fighting the alien ship.”

“Maybe…” replied K-Mart, his voice betraying his skepticism. “Just a second; let me look and see what the Jotunn are doing.” He looked down at his instrumentation and changed the settings on his systems. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t find the giant ship…or anything else that had been in the system before the battle.

“Oh…fuck,” he said as the realization hit him.

“I don’t like the way you say that,” said Rock, with a tinge of concern in his voice. K-Mart was one of the few sailors he knew who didn’t curse like, well, like a sailor.  To hear him swear was unusual; for him to drop an F-bomb meant something was really,
really
wrong. “What? Are the giants heading our way?”

“No, they’re not. In fact, I can’t find
them
either.”

“Do you suppose they cloaked? I didn’t know they could cloak a ship that big. Maybe they’re behind a planet or something?”

“No, I don’t think that’s it.”

“Well, where did they go then?”

K-Mart turned in his seat so he could meet Rock’s eyes. “Remember how the alien ship kept disappearing, and we didn’t know where it went?”

“Yeah.”

“Remember how everything flashed while we were attacking the alien ship before it disappeared?”

“Yeah.”

“I think we got caught up in whatever gadget or effect the ship used to disappear. Then, when it jumped back to our system, we were too far away to get caught in the effect again.”

“What the hell does that mean?” asked Rock.

“It means that if you want to know where the alien ship went when it disappeared, look around. Go ahead and get used to it too. Not only are we in some new star system, or universe, or something,
we’ve got no way of going back home again!
”

“Okay, Steropes, give,” said Calvin. “What do you know that you aren’t telling?”

Steropes looked uncomfortable. “I misunderstood the nature and purpose of the ring. I had heard the stories of King Solomon and thought the ring gave you power over the Jinn; that if you had the ring, you could make them do what you wanted. I guess you can, but only under certain circumstances. Hmmm…that is why it didn’t work on Keppler-22 ‘b.’”

“Yeah, I understand that,” replied Calvin, “but that isn’t what you were worried about. Why did you really not want me to tell Captain Nightsong you had the ring?”

“I don’t know,” replied Steropes. “I thought I had the Seal of Solomon, but now I wonder if it’s something different. Until I figure out what I have, I thought it was probably better if we kept it quiet.”

“So you don’t know if you can go to the Jinn universe?” asked Calvin. “You never went there?”

Steropes shook his head. “All the information I had only said the ring was used to control Jinn. It didn’t say how it worked or that there was another universe. I thought you only had to put it on your finger for it to work. When I fought Quetzalcoatl on Earth, he had one of the rings. He would command his two Efreet to do things, and they would go and do them.”

“I wonder…”

“What?”

“I was wondering how they get their ship to cross over,” said Calvin. “If they have some sort of giant ring or rod they use. Why haven’t we seen them before? Why here? Why now?”

“All good questions,” said Steropes; “unfortunately, I don’t have any answers.”

“So, I guess we push on to Keppler-22 and hope the answers are there.”

“It would seem so.”