Chapter Nine
Mass Effect
We landed in the desert on a salt flat that once was an inland sea. The old plane had felt like it would be torn apart upon landing, but besides a few electrical shorts and one fire, everything was fine, as fine as it could get with such an old crate of a plane.
Talaric was leaving us behind at the plane while he, Eleanor and Ronan traveled two days across the drifting sand dunes before they slipped into any evidence of human habitation. They’d be back in several days Talaric had said, but in the meantime I was to take the benefit of the free time off by training.
Firearms training.
I’d been at it all morning and I was convinced that I was a hopeless failure at it. Cat had been set up as my instructor and her frustration with me seemed somewhat justified, even if her attitude towards me had me wanting to pull her hair out and throw her in a tar pit.
The dust puffed up a good four feet to the right of the target I had been aiming for. I lowered the 9mm pistol disgusted with myself.
“You’re completely hopeless! I give up!” Cat exclaimed before she strode away into the desert ostensibly to cool off, which was an oxymoron given how hot it was.
I had never seen or experienced anything like this desert before. I was used to endless green and more water than one knew what to do with. There was neither of those items in this hot desolate place.
Darn it!
I missed the target again! This time on the opposite side of the target by four feet. One thing was for sure, I wasn’t going to be of much help to anyone in a gunfight.
Titus stood leaning up against the shaded side of the Saratoga’s rusty fuselage. Sweat rolled off of him even standing in the shade as he was.
He watched Cat storm off leaving Eva to fend for herself. Cat hadn’t really been interested in seriously teaching Eva or she would have caught on to the fact that Eva simply didn’t have any depth perception. Or perhaps she had and she was tormenting the girl so that she would feel bad about herself. That sounded more like Cat to him.
Titus glanced to his left, as Sparky arrived to stand beside of him with two cases in his hands.
Sparky looked out at Eva for a moment and then up at Titus and in his slight Middle Eastern accent said, “It is time for an intervention I think, don’t you?”
Sparky walked away leaving the cases sitting on the desert sand. Titus shook his head having to agree with the little man on that point.
He didn’t relish having to go out into the hot sun at the hottest part of the day, but such is life. He bent down and grabbed a hold of both cases not even bothering to grab them by the handles and strode purposefully out to the makeshift firing range.
I went to pull the trigger and all that sounded was a click. The gun was empty again. Well at least I could load it. That was at least one thing I could reasonably manage to do.
“Put that popgun down girl and don’t waste no more time on it! It ain’t for you Miss Eva!”
I looked up surprised at the voice. Titus loomed close out of seemingly nowhere all of a sudden. He could move surprisingly quiet for such a big man. He set two cases on a rusty barrel top and looked over at me.
“And it ain’t your fault neither! It just is. Some people just can’t shoot at no tiny target and hope to hit it. I should know because I can’t myself! Wasn’t always that way. Just since I got my one eye messed up from an explosion a few years back.”
He opened the first case and pulled out a short rifle, only it didn’t have much of a stock on it for a rifle.
“Peoples like you and me, we’ez got to go for effect! Forget all that pretty target stuff!”
He loaded the short stubby weapon with seven large plastic looking shells that I recognized as shotgun shells. He handed the shotgun to me and then pointed out the safety features and how it worked to me.
I turned towards the target and tried to hold it up to sight down it like it was a rifle.
“Mercy no girl! That ain’t the way it’s done sister! Hold it down low, that’s more like it. Now just point it at that target and blow it to kingdom come.”
How did he expect me to hit anything by not even aiming? But then I wasn’t hitting anything by aiming anyway. Might as well try it, I pulled the trigger.
The gun did recoil some, but that wasn’t what got my attention. The target paper was completely gone, shredded into pieces and blowing across the sand dunes.
“Let that other old white piece of paper have it!” Titus said with a chuckle.
I shucked the spent shell out and pulled the trigger again with a similar result. I brought the gun in my arms up to study in further detail.
It was simply made, perhaps even crude, but I liked it. I fired it until it was empty.
“There you go! Now you getten the hang of it Missy! Load it up again so you get the feel of it. Ain’t it fun to blow stuff up?”
I nodded, openly smiling as all my frustration melted away.
“Now dat gun, while it’s mighty nice up close and personal, ain’t so good for distance. Try it. Aim for that target way out there.”
I did and while I kicked up dust all around the target I didn’t really hit anything on the target itself.
“See what I’ze mean! You want to use that gun for up close. Distances is what these babies are for!”
Titus opened the second case and revealed two odd looking larger pistols.
“I know, I know what’ze your gonna say, ‘Mister Titus I can’t hit anything I aim at with them small guns. Am I right?”
I nodded at him appreciating beyond words what he was doing for me.
“Well here is where you’re wrong. Look at this.”
He held up a bullet that was remarkably small.
“These bullets is tiny see and they’ze a lot of them too. Chances are with so many of these here tiny bullets flying around you’ll hit what you’re aiming at and then some. Wanna try?”
Oh boy did I ever! I practically tore the pistol out of his fingers causing him to laugh again.
“Now word of warning missy, as long as you pull dat trigger those guns is gonna purr like a kitty cat.”
I brought a pistol up in either hand to sight down. They were a little heavy, but I could manage it. I let my breath out and squeezed the triggers simultaneously sweeping the guns along the line of targets farther out as I did so.
Oh what a joy! There was hardly any kickback and I watched as the sand around the targets and the targets themselves were chewed to pieces.
The guns clicked empty and I knew a moment’s remorse that the fun was over, but I had the satisfaction of feeling confidence sweep through me.
I turned to Titus and with heartfelt gratitude I said, “Thank you Titus! This means a lot to me!”
He matched my seriousness, as his usual jovial mood took a backseat for a moment, “The ways I see’ze it is the Captain done for all of us for a lot of years now. It’s nice to see him doing something for his self for once. I’ze just glad to help it along.”
Titus started to leave.
“What do I do with these when I’m done?” I asked quickly.
He turned back, “Day’ze yours now Missy. I’ll show you how to clean them later. Number one rule of having a gun Miss Eva, don’t you ever let nobody and I mean nobody take it away from you without a fight! Do you hear me?”
I nodded my head humbled that these fine weapons were now mine. Where I came from, guns and the security they offered, were illegal.
I had never felt more free than I did now, when I felt the bulk of them in my hands and the percussions of them in my ears. It was like the sound of freedom.
“One more thing Miss Eva.”
I looked back up at Titus.
“Cut miss Cat a little slack. She don’t have it all figured out inside or better way of putting it is she can’t handle what’s inside. Makes her act all mean, because she’s afraid someone will see how fragile inside she is.”
I nodded having already arrived at pretty much the same conclusion of the girl, which is why I had given her so much slack already, letting her walk all over me.
Titus made his way back toward the plane and the shade that it offered. Glancing up he saw Sparky had set two chairs in the shade. Sparky was elegantly lounging in one chair with a chilled glass of wine in his hand.
Titus grinned big when he saw the three ice cold bottles of beer stuck into the sand beside the empty chair. Titus sank into the chair, which sank into the sand slightly under his bulk and gave a sigh of relief.
Plucking one of the bottles from the sand he twisted the top off and then reached out to clink it off Sparky’s glass of wine in a silent toast to themselves.
“What do you think of her Titus? Will she do?” Sparky asked speculatively, as he watched Eva switch back to the shotgun in the distance.
Titus finished the first beer off and tossed the bottle off to the side before grabbing another. He considered the question for a moment as he too, watched Eva.
He glanced over at Sparky, “Dat girl was born to pull the trigger. She just never had anything to pull the trigger of before. But now! Woowee! That girl ready for trouble and loaded for bear! Captain done well for himself to land the likes of her as a mate!”
Sparky nodded slightly and took a sip of his chilled wine. That had been pretty much his conclusion as well. Eva started packing up her newfound possessions in the cases.
Titus’s face creased into a frown, “What do you think it all means? This ain’t no ordinary mission we’re on. I can feel it. I feel it in my bones. What do yeah think the captains up to?”
Sparky looked at the horizon shimmering in the distance.
“End of the road my friend and perhaps a new beginning for some, not for us though I think.”
Titus nodded, “It’s been a long time in coming, but I ain’t going out quiet like! No sir, not me!”
A moment of silence passed, as they watched Eva walk back toward them.
“They’ze going to make mighty fine looking children together they is!”
“Indeed.” Sparky quietly intoned, as he set his still half full glass of wine down on the chair arm. He rose, as Eva drew close to them.
I was excited, but I was also sweating and I was looking forward to laying down for a while in the shade. As I approached the plane I studied the odd couple sitting in the sand, who seemed to be likewise studying me. Titus with his beer and Sparky with his, no doubt expensive, glass of wine.
It hadn’t been so long ago that I had finally encountered a truly good man, but these two men before me I had quickly added to the growing list. Both of them were older men and they had adopted a fatherly attitude towards me during the long flight and I appreciated both of them greatly.
Sparky stood up as I neared them. Sparky was such an odd name for him, as there appeared to be nothing even remotely sparky about him.
He was the picture of elegant reserve, slipping around quietly almost imperceptible in his existence. He was a hard man to read and most of the time I felt like he could read my every thought even before I did. It was a surprise when I drew near to them that he started to clap softly.
“Superb my dear! Very well done!”
I blushed at his praise of me, because I knew he wasn’t the sort to give out praise lightly.
“Now that my friend here has given you teeth, with which to leave a nasty bite, please allow me to complete your ensemble by providing the claws you will need to rend the enemy and the finesse with which to use them properly with the greatest effect. Follow me and we shall unveil the tigress within. I have a feeling that you will be one of my greatest creations yet!”
The little man disappeared into the darkened plane and I looked at Titus in consternation, as to what to do. I didn’t know what to make of the little man’s words.
Unveil the tigress within?
Titus gave me a big wink and a head nod indicating that I should follow Sparky, “Don’t you be letting his big words and fancy way of speaking scare you. You be in good hands there. He’s going to give you claws baby girl!” Titus said half laughing to himself.
I stepped into the plane not at all sure I liked the idea of claws being added to me, but if the guns were teeth then perhaps the claws would be useful too.
“Over here my dear.” I heard Sparky’s voice come from behind a curtained off part of the plane’s fuselage.
Cautiously I peeked around a blanket and then stepped into the enclosure. There were lots of trunks and boxes. Computers were everywhere, along with other gadgets.
There were two stools of which Sparky was sitting on one and he gestured for me to sit on the other. The stools were a little closer than I cared for, but I complied with the request more than curious, as to what the little man had in store for me. All right, so I was very curious.
“All right my dear let us start with the essentials. You are a very beautiful woman and yet you do nothing to showcase it. Why is that?”
My mouth was dry and I struggled for lack of an adequate response to his question. I didn’t want to reveal my past to him.
He cocked his head to the side slightly and asked softly, “Is it because of your past as a lady of the night so to speak?”
In shocked hurt I asked, “Talaric told you!”
He shook his head no, “I happened to be in Columbia several years back and the nature of my business was such that it was conducted in a place that you happened to be performing in. I forget very little of anything I see in life. I recognized you almost instantly.”
I let my head fall towards the floor in shame. Would I never escape the past?
His cool finger under my chin brought my head back up to meet his eyes. There was no sign of condemning judgment in them; instead all I saw was kindness and a deep understanding.
“All of us here have done things in life that we can be ashamed of, but if one has asked the Creator for forgiveness then there is no more shame and what we were guilty of is our cross to bear no more. The only shame we should have is after knowing the truth, if we should do again that which shamed us in the first place. Do you not agree?”
I nodded slightly, as several tears escaped from my eyes, which he quickly dabbed away with a white handkerchief.
“So then the question is why do you still punish yourself for something you have been forgiven for?”
I stared wordlessly at him.
“Is it because God’s open and freely given forgiveness seems to simple a thing to take at face value by you and so you feel that you must somehow continue to expunge the weaknesses of your past to wash away your sins on a daily personal level.”
I nodded my head.
He’d nailed it on the head.
“Do you not see the faulty consciousness of such reasoning? Continuing to punish yourself, and think less of yourself than you should, and hold onto the things already forgiven you is in effect to deny God’s sovereignty and the gift of freedom that He has so graciously bestowed upon you by the grace brought on by the death of His Son for you. You deny Him the honor that He rightly deserves by holding onto your past sins my dear.”
I fell apart as his words destroyed the fragile framework of control that I had been trying to construct over the past week. He let me cry against his shoulder for a while.
Rubbing my back softly he said, “You are a new creation my dear. The old has passed away and a new life has begun.”
He pushed me back and looking into my eyes said, “It’s time for you to become the woman that God intended for you to be from the beginning, yes?”
“Yes.” I said firmly, even as my voice still had tears in it.
“God created women to be beautiful and feminine; there is no shame in looking appealing. There is a fine line admittedly between being overly appealing and modestly appealing however, but I think we can find it, yes?”
“Yes.” I said loving the little man for his kindness and his correcting spirit.
“There is another reason why you need to change your current ways my dear. The relationship that I see budding like a beautiful spring rose between you and my Captain is a beautiful thing that I have no doubt will one day bloom into an everlasting union between the two of you.”
He paused and took my hand and looked even deeper into my eyes.
“For a long time my dear you have shared your beauty with the world and what was created for a holier purpose has been misused and abused. That time is over. You should not give any less of yourself to the man who holds your heart than you have already given to the world, in fact you should try to give him more of yourself than you have ever given before. There is no shame in what God created to be enjoyed between a man and a woman bound together in holy matrimony, so do not attach any to it despite whatever has taken place in your past. Do you agree?”
“Yes!” I said meaningfully.
“Good, now that we have that all out of the way we can get down to business.”
He picked up a pile of clothing and handed it to me and then gestured toward another curtained off area.
“Go wash and change and then come back and we will see what can be done to fashion you a new look. The clothes should fit. I made alterations to them last night. My father was a tailor, howbeit one that worked for crooks and crime lords. Some of his talents rubbed off on me, hopefully enough to do your beauty justice.”
I made my way to the area he had pointed at. I turned back to see him watching me.
“Thank you for everything!”
He shook his head, “Don’t thank me dear. I enjoy and derive my satisfaction out of being part of a bigger overall plan, whatever encouragement and help that I can give to others in need along the way is a small thing for me to give in comparison as to what I have already been given. If you would hear any more advice from me it would be this, give to others as freely as you have already been given. I would tell you to hurry so your bathwater did not get cold, but in these insufferable conditions I fear that even a cold bath would be a relief.”
I smiled and hurried into the screened off enclosure. My fingers ached to put the soft and silky textured clothes on after my bath.
The streets of the outskirts of Alexandria were quiet in the early hours of the morning as Talaric and Ronan made their way through the maze of mud brick dwellings headed toward an even older quarter of the city.
Like most ancient cities that have suffered damage and changed hands throughout the centuries from one empire to another there is more than just meets the eye. As cities such as Alexandria recover from past destruction the habit is to simply build over top of what was before, often in-tombing complete structures underneath the next generational shift of the city.
Layer after layer of the past is heaped up on top of each other. The layers are often connected by narrow passageways made through the layers by people who took advantage of the forgotten underground realms.
It was a good place to hide or keep something from being common knowledge and as a result their access points of the surface were extremely hard-to-find and often guarded by those protecting the secrets that had laid underground for centuries.
Somewhere on the rooftops above them was Eleanor, ghosting along in her usual gracefulness with a high-powered sniper rifle on her back. She was the best there was either flying or hitting her target whatever it may be.
It made Talaric feel better knowing that she was up there covering them, but she wouldn’t be able to help them once they were underground. Talaric had never been to their destination before and he hadn’t really ever wanted to risk venturing there, but now he had no choice. It was a race now to the finish line, if what the self-styled Orlandian Medusa woman, had said was true.
There would be others better equipped than him and far more numerous in number on the trail of solving an ancient pre-flood mystery. Hopefully they hadn’t come upon this place yet. He had learned of it through his own research over the past several years, as he had dug into the possible remnants of history of his people’s time on Earth.
His research had focused specifically on whether there was a way back home. When he had heard of this place he had decided not to go there unless he absolutely had to and now was that time.
On the lowest level there was a place that dated back practically to the founding of the city over two thousand years before. It was a collection or library if you will of ancient knowledge. It was even rumored that some of the scrolls had been saved from the fires that had consumed the library of Alexandria one of the seven great wonders of the ancient past.
There was an underground collective of priests that guarded their ancient treasures of knowledge. The order of priests were an offshoot cult of a much larger network of cults primarily, Masonic in nature.
Some in the greater network of worldwide darkness knew of this place and helped to keep its secrets. They thrived on having knowledge unknown to others at their fingertips, as it helped to lend an aura of credibility and mystical power to their cultic orders.
The sense of credibility helped to draw in often, hurting people, who were looking for something to believe in and fill the emptiness of their lives. These cults like their ancient forbearers the Orlandian’s at their heart held that knowledge equaled power, even if it was just the power to deceive.
Their thirst for new knowledge or even older knowledge could never be quenched. They believed that the further attainment of knowledge could give them a godlike status. It is not a new frailty of humanity, but can be dated back to the Garden of Eden when both Adam and Eve chose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so that they might know the things of God and be like Him instead of eating of the tree of life, which was freely open and available to them.
Thus man from the beginning destined himself to be at enmity with God, in the thirst to be as God, in place of a relationship with Him by which God imparts everlasting life and even the revealing of mysteries from the foundation of the world.
The cult at its most central element is a self replicating body of believers that denies the false pretences of its own existence by distorting the truth into a lie in order to gain a future of their own making that can only lead to their everlasting destruction in exchange for a momentary power and position of elevated status.
One of the reasons that Talaric had avoided the place for so long was that he didn’t want to potentially expose the truths and existence of galaxy travel not to mention the existence of other worlds should he be caught and the information taken from him.
Such a revealing tale could lead to an explosion in the growth of cults worldwide armed with such knowledge and the temptation that such opportunities offered. A thing he feared would happen anyway.
Now it was up to him to stop the Orlandian inspired movement before the bad seeds of discontentment and rebellion could bear any more bad fruit than they already had on other worlds, namely his own.
His thoughts came to a halt as they reached the small courtyard like plaza that he had been told of. Both he and Ronan scarcely even breathed, as they scanned the still moonlight scene of the plaza.
“Can’t see anything amiss Captain. It would appear that the coast is clear for our little rum run Sir.” Eleanor’s voice came through the little transmitter in Talaric’s ear.
Talaric stepped out into the ancient little courtyard toward the central well in the courtyard’s center. The feeling of walking across the deserted plaza was the very essence of the meaning of the word exposure. At any moment he expected to feel the impact of bullets through his flesh or the onrush of a sword wielding mob. Nothing happened though.
Talaric reached out and tested the strength of the well rope. It wasn’t the greatest but it would have to do. He got up on the edge of the well followed by Ronan and grabbed a hold of the rope.
Before he disappeared into the well he heard a hushed, “Good luck!” From Eleanor in his ear and then he was descending into the darkness followed closely by Ronan.
Down, down, down they went into the well. This access point to his knowledge wasn’t used or at least it hadn’t been in a very long time and he hoped that it wasn’t because the underground tunnels were caved in or something. Commonly used or not, it still might be guarded.
Talaric’s foot touched water and he clamped the rope between his knees and feet as he reached back and pulled a small oxygen tank and goggle breathing mask from his pack, which he then put on. He snapped the small tank to his belt.
He had enough air for twenty minutes, which wasn’t going to be enough if the underground passageways were completely flooded in this sector. He eased down into the water, not liking the cold dark feel of it. When he was completely submerged he turned his head lamp on, which brought the ancient stonework of the well into sharp relief.
All he could say was that he was grateful that he didn’t have to live here and drink this water. It was hard to say how many sewers this well was openly connected with.
Down they went, both of them searching the sides of the well shaft for some sign of an entrance off of it. Talaric felt it before he saw it. The stone archway of a door.
The door was made of wood and surprisingly it still appeared solid and whole, which was odd given its submerged location. There was no door handle and it didn’t budge, when he shoved against it. Ronan tapped his shoulder and he glanced up at what Ronan was pointing to.
In the keystone of the arch above the door was the image of a grinning human skull with a broad forehead. There were several deep interlaced cracks on the forehead that looked carved rather than natural. Talaric reached out and touch them. Pushing slightly he felt the center of the forehead depress slightly into the head of the skull and then he discovered that it could turn.
He swiveled the stone upside down and saw that the interlaced cracks formed the branches and trunk of a solitary and barren looking tree. There was an audible click and the doorway abruptly slid into the one side wall revealing a dark passage beyond. Talaric let go of the rope and swam through the opening followed by Ronan.
They were in a water filled room with an elevated doorway on the other side of it. There was an abrupt slam of stone and both men wheeled around to see that the door they had just come through had slammed shut. After hurriedly searching neither man could find a way of opening it from the inside and there probably wasn’t. All they could do was go on.
Swimming across the room Talaric saw Ronan point down and glancing down he saw a gruesome pile of skeletons. The last remains of those who no doubt had come down here in search of the secrets that this underworld held, only to find themselves in this watery room with no way out. It left one with an eerie feeling.
They swam up to the door the pile of skeletons was congregated under. It was also made of wood, but it was hinged and there was the face of a big lock on it that had six keyholes no doubt made for special keys that they did not have.
It was probably a combination lock that needed to be unlocked in a certain sequence of some kind. There could be thousands perhaps even millions of six key type configurations to go through before the right one was stumbled upon.
They didn’t have the oxygen for that lengthy ordeal. Thankfully they had been prepared for something like this. Talaric glanced at his watch as Ronan worked on the door. They had less than ten minutes left of air.
Ronan moved back some from the door and pushed a small keypad in his hand. The water gurgled and bubbled around the hinges and the lock, where small amounts of acid escaped the seals. The gurgling stopped and Ronan pushed the button again and there was a slight percussion that rippled through the water around them.
The door shook off its remaining supports and started to tip over and then fell toward the floor and the grisly remains littered on it. Talaric quickly went through the vacant doorway. He felt around with his hand, but all he could feel was the sides of the tunnel.
The light on his head did no good because of all the stirred up sediment in the water. It was as he had feared, the tunnels were flooded and they were running out of air. Feeling with their hands to find direction in the swirling darkness Talaric and Ronan swam with all they had through the darkness in a desperate fight ag