Standing next to the stasis chamber in the citadel's medical facility, John felt miserable that Flint was missing in action and they had to leave Carl behind on the Relativity to deal with the TC. Prophet insisted the ship was clean of any traces of their mission but still, John worried as Dr.
Fanau scanned the stasis chamber with various hand-held devices.
"Good work," Luinan said standing next to John.
"Unbelievable," Clare said softly to Mick.
"It was Flint's sacrifice that made it possible," John replied as Luca appeared next to him.
Dr. Fanau paused to look at her then continued her scans.
"It remains fully functional," Luca commented.
"I agree," Dr. Fanau said, "although its exact content is unknown ice crystals obscure its portal."
A pulse rifle appeared in Mick's hands, and as he pointed at the chambers hatch he said, "One way to find out. Open it."
"Initiating recovery sequence," Dr. Fanau said as she brushed controls located on the side of the chamber.
The hatch hissed as its latch released. Vapor spilled out and poured over the ancient stones of the citadel's floor as Mick raised the rifle and a weak cough emanated from the chamber's interior.
"There is no threat!" Dr. Fanau said sharply as she leaned into the chamber and mist.
"Agrona!" Luinan said as Dr. Fanau helped Zuinall to sit up and pressed a contact hypo to her upper arm.
Mick lowered his weapon. "Mother," he said reverently.
"Mick, I'm sorry I missed your joining," Zuinall said weakly and smiled.
"Didn't miss much," Clare scoffed.
Dr. Fanau passed yet another probe over Zuinall, pronounced her fit, and then promptly vanished.
"Darling," Zuinall said to Luinan, "it is wonderful to see your face again."
"But we have not met," Luinan said cautiously.
"I have seen my future family on occasion," Zuinall replied slyly.
"So much for accords," Clare muttered.
"These Time Corps," Zuinall said to Mick ignoring his partner, "Are they trustworthy?"
"Mostly," Mick said. "Now relax," he cautioned her as she attempted to climb out of the chamber as Clare came to her aid.
"And my mountain," Zuinall said looking into John's eyes as he also gave her his hand to help her out of the chamber.
"How long?" she asked.
"Approximately four Sol days since your escape from the Library,"
Prophet said.
"And Micah," she asked looked around the medical facility.
"Lost," Luinan told her gravely.
"He is resourceful," Luca added.
"And you my dear," Zuinall said after a deep sigh and looking at Luca, "are so familiar."
"I am Luca and like the good Dr. Fanau, I am a physical manifestation of AI," she said.
Shocked, John had never guessed the doctor was not human.
"Thank you all for saving my life," Zuinall said opening her arms to embrace them, but a sound from the chamber caused Mick quickly to raise his rifle again.
"Stop!" Zuinall shouted as Wigwag's head appeared above the last of the chamber's haze.
"Not another O'jit." Clare moaned.
"Wigwag!" John exclaimed lifting the O'jit out of the chamber and giving him a hug before lowering him onto the stone floor.
"The other machine did not fully test," Wigwag explained. "Family mother insisted I sleep with her. She felt it wise to enter the chamber soon after the life boat left the Library."
"The surviving Jit will be happy to see you," Mick told him.
"Many still live," John said seeing tears welling in the O'jit's large eyes.
Wigwag pulled the sheathed Narian blade from his waistband and offered it to John.
John knelt down and gently pushed the weapon back to Wigwag. "I told you, you've earned it, my friend."
"However, I am sure we can find a place of honor for such a dangerous weapon in the citadel," Mick added eyeing the blade.
But Wigwag quickly shoved it back under his sash above his small, boney left hip.
"You must rest," Mick told Zuinall as she studied Luca's face.
"But something hangs over you all," Zuinall said with concern turning to Mick and Clare.
"The Liaths threaten us," Mick said.
"The increased chaos coefficient associated with the machine's long-time war has tipped their powers." Luinan elaborated.
"Oh yeah, about that," John said looking at Prophet. "I think I know what Drac was trying to tell us," he said although the threat to Homo sapiens as a species still seemed pale compared with Jen's safety. "Carl had the answer aboard the relativity. The Liaths plan to stop human evolution by deflecting the Chicxulub meteor."
"What?" Luinan said joining the others staring at him.
" Chicks-saw-lub," John pronounced the meteors name slowly. "Its impact occurred 65 million years before," he stopped and thought about what he was saying, "Earth's twenty-first century. The iridium it carried
defines the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. It was the dinosaur killer and eventually allowed mammals to evolve on Earth."
"How could they take such catastrophic action," Zuinall said. "It is unthinkable."
Clare said, "Do they think the end of humanity in the Reference Plane will free their Mór faction?"
"Doesn’t make sense," Mick muttered.
"How do the Liaths have the capability for such a translation?" Clare asked.
"Unknown," Luinan replied. "Such a jump is far beyond even their most talented."
"One could infer they have assistance," Prophet said.
"A conspiracy?" Mick asked.
"We find who is manipulating Drac and we may have some answers," John said. "And rescue Jen in the process," he added hastily as Luinan told Zuinall of Jen's recent abduction from the council chambers.
"We've been monitoring the Liaths containment," Mick said. "There has been only minor activity since Drac's departure."
"I'm ready," John said stating the obvious.
"It's not that easy," Luinan said.
"The boundary to the refuge still holds?" Zuinall asked.
"It has become more of a reservation," Mick added with a hint of shame in his voice.
"It holds," Clare said, "unfortunately, mainly for us. A few Liaths like Draconous have learned to cross, as have the truly ephemeral. We must wait for Draconous to return. We thought your knowledge and past research could offer the Liaths hope and allow them to reconsider their plan."
Zuinall produced the small, data-storage device from beneath her cloak and handed it to Clare. "I hope this will help, but the scale of work
needed to reverse what has been done is enormous and may be impossible."
"They appear desperate to be pure Mór," Mick reiterated.
"So, there is no way out for Jen?" John asked desperately.
"There may be," Zuinall said thoughtfully as she walked over to Luca and delicately touched her cheek three times.
Luca's physical appearance blurred momentarily before sharpening.
"Zoony!" she blurted as she hugged Zuinall.
"Typical," Zuinall said through a subtle smirk. "Everyone, meet Tim."
Mick gasped as his pulse rifle disappeared. Its empty sling hung from his shoulder.
"Leave it to you to remember my backdoor," Tim told Zuinall as she checked a simple digital watch on Luca's wrist. "The temporal reference plane is far too advanced. The Continuity will shortly summon even such a projection as this," she added.
"Can you help us get into Ghost Town?" John asked.
"The Continuity would not have been happy with me for the errors in the Liaths' state," Tim reflected seemingly ignoring John's question.
Zuinall nodded.
"I will attempt to make amends," Tim said then looked at John as if for the first time.
"I see I managed to save at least one of the five even without providing any formal guidance," Tim said and then turned to look at Mick. "And my fair one!"
Clare tried unsuccessfully to suppress a chuckle.
"What of the other sages and their guardians?" Tim quickly asked John.
"One survives, the Sun," John said, "but without a guardian."
"Dangerous," Tim said ominously as Zuinall nodded.
"Two are dead, the Water and Star, along with their guardians," John said sadly. "We don’t know where the Swirl is or even if he is still alive."
"The Swirl's name is Lars," Mick said. "Our paths crossed time a while ago and some of his work, a translation watch, floats in space, hopefully lost forever."
John saw Prophet scuff a foot back and forth on the stone floor.
"He goes way back with Sam and me," Mick said eyeing the Calma.
"Sad news of the others deaths," Tim said grasping Zuinall's hand.
"But our swirl would have been the most resourceful," she reflected, looking at the former queen. "I must observe the sanctuary," Tim added with conviction.
"Middle sister, Tye, now stands guard over the containment sphere,"
Mick said.
"Ghost Town is here? In the citadel?" John asked in disbelief. Was Jen so close?
"Deep beneath us," Luinan told him.
Mick cleared his throat and then addressed Luinan, "Clare and I should meet with planetary officials given the good possibly the Liaths are cooking up something catastrophic. And we should do it in person. It will take the better part of a day."
"Of course," Luinan said as Mick and Clare vanished.
John sensed the Family's deep affection for the Auriane population and other aliens living on Trua. If the end were coming, they would need to know.
"I will escort you personally to the sanctuary sphere," Luinan said to Tim.
Wigwag had been quietly observing them all. "I would like to visit the other Jit survivors," he requested.
"Tye is coordinating your kin's transition into Trua's society,"
Luinan told him, "We will see her shortly, so join us Master Wigwag."
Wigwag beamed and went to stand proudly next to Luinan.
"Ready?" Luinan asked John and Prophet.
"A most interesting apparatus I am sure. Thank you," Prophet said.
John just nodded feeling alone even with Jen so close.
Luinan led them out of the citadel's chancel from the council's chambers and down a nave. She turned left into the second transept, leading them straight into a group of schoolchildren, of which several were very alien.
"Are you a sage who saved the universe?" an Auriane girl, John reckoned to be all of four, asked him.
"That's the sage," an Uxali boy of the same height said pointing at him. "I've seen him on the vids."
"You've got to be joking. Vids?" he whispered over his shoulder to Luinan.
She shrugged her shoulders not looking him in the eye.
"Sage is an herb," John told the children through a wide grin. "And it was Colonel Jen Scott, RefPlane plus two, that saved the universe the first time, and then the O'jit, Wigwag, had to save it again." He quickly added looking at Prophet, "They had lots of help, of course."
"Move along children. Your next class has already started," Luinan said sternly. "Your teacher will be getting worried."
John watched them disappear around the corner into the nave.
"What?" Zuinall asked him as they resumed their trek. "You think the Family is all tech and ammunition?"
John saw Prophet's limbs shimmy in what he came to know as the Calma version of a chuckle.
Tim speaking in Luca's voice added, "The war has taken a toll on many in the Milky Way, but Trua has been a lighthouse to those in need.
And the Family did not take its name; those that respected their compassionate work and vision gave it.
"Then there is the Family's complex relationship with the Confederation of Humanity including the enigmatic, gentle Calma," she
said looking at Prophet. "The Continuity finds the whole humanity situation fascinating!" She laughed.
"We will need to descend," Luinan announced as they came upon a door to what looked like a rickety, nineteenth-century elevator. "Don’t worry," she told them as she stepped into the cage, "It was overhauled recently."
John could only guess how subjective her timeframe really was and joined the others already inside the contraption to begin their descent.
Tye was waiting for them as the accordion door squeaked as it collapsed open at the last stop. She wore light battle armor and held a heavy, repeating disruptor rifle.
"This way," she said pointing to an open doorway.
John noted its door ajar looked like solid Earth oak.
As the group stepped through the doorway, John saw a huge sphere suspended just above their heads. He guessed it to be at least hundred meters in diameter. Tiny sparks twinkled here and there on its exterior.
Far above the sphere, he could just perceive arched roof stones in the near darkness.
Tim approached the sphere and extended her hand gently upward to caress its metallic skin then quickly withdrew it. "My sorrow at our error grows," she said as golden tears ran down her holographic cheeks.
"We had to try," Zuinall said. "In the end, we have been successful,"
she added, looking at John.
"But at what cost?" Tim asked her.
"Can you get us in there?" John said impatiently. "That is the plan, right?"
"The Continuity approaches," Tim said to Zuinall. "I must release those partially affected from their Mór torment. They will return to you; their madness vanquished," he told Zuinall. "Those you call the ephemeral have progressed too far even for me help them. The best I can offer them is freedom."
"Freedom?" Luinan said. "They already come and go as they like."
"It is a cost I alone bear," Tim said ignoring her.
"I bear it, too," Zuinall told Luinan. "But what are a few more shadows in a less evil universe?"
"We all bear the consequences of history," Tye said solemnly.
"Other options?" John asked desperately reflecting on Zuinall's extreme pragmatism. "Remember Jen is inside this thing," he added looking up at the sphere.
"As an Earthling, she must return before the Liaths can be freed,"
Tim said. "And you must hurry."
"Are you ready?" Tye asked John and then nodded to Tim.
John looked at her disruptor. "But—"
"—don’t I get a gun?" John said as darkness enveloped him. "Tye?
Wigwag? Prophet? Anyone?" he asked meekly, hands outstretched, reaching into the darkness. There was nothing to touch but he could still sense firmness under foot within the utter darkness. Fighting vertigo, he knelt down and touched what he assumed would be the interior of the metallic sphere but his fingers found dirt.
"Great idea this was. Fucking Mór shit," he said and then remembered the light on his sat-chron. He illuminated the area around him in a bluish arc barely penetrating the surrounding darkness. He touched the soil beneath him again with his finger tips then squeezed a handful only for it to fall easily though his fingers. Fine dust lingered in his watches light before darkness fell again a precise three seconds later.
John tried to look beyond the facts surrounding him but nothing suggested a plan of action. He slumped to the dry ground feeling calm but exhausted; the overwhelming changes in his life the past few months were taking a toll. He took comfort at his apparent lack of fear and hoped that counted for a rare bit of worthy intuition.
He held his breath and listened. Nothing.
"Hello!" he shouted and then listened again into the blackness.
There was a faint sound to his left. He heard it again as he got to his feet.
"Hello." he called as he activated the light on is sat-chron again.
"Fuck!" he said stumbling back from the sight of Helen and Steph standing in front of him in their Star Trek costumes before blackness came again.
His heart raced knowing the illogic in them being here now, wherever, whenever this was.
"You must hurry," Steph said, her voice fading from beyond the darkness.
"How about some light sweetheart?" he said jokingly trying unsuccessfully to hide his growing anxiety.
His finger was on the sat-chron's illuminator switch as a world around him began to appear. Helen and Steph were gone. He stood on a steep, windswept wasteland illuminated by a small, solitary moon. He looked up to see bellowing smoke and ash rising from a nearby volcanic vent. A twin peak rose above the smoke to his right.
He seemed to know they were Pelee and Piquet. More nonsense he thought as small black pebbles from up slope began to cascade over his old, field boots he was somehow now wearing. He looked down to see the TIA tumbling down slope on top of the pebbles that past him. He tried to reach for it but the tiny landslide had blossomed in to a roar pushing the relic just out of reach. As his feet gave way with the flow of rocks beneath him, he glimpsed Victoria Johnston's dead, bloated face appear from within the flow only to disappear as darkness enveloped him again.
A feeling of weightlessness overcame him. As he moved his arms and legs wildly, relieved he was free of the rock flow, a blinding point of light appeared briefly in the distance before he lost sight of it.
He struggled, weightless, against Newton's third law to see it again and to get any kind of visual reference. Stopping his contortions, he took
a deep breath and waited as he slowly spun around only to see the Moon below him. In the distance, he saw the Earth, its magnetic lines of force visible and fanatically bending and flowing around the globe sporadically obscuring the pinpoint light source still farther away.
The planet rushed toward him and as the flux lines faded, Cretaceous continents came into view and Jakes sauna passed him overhead.
Wigwag's face peered out the portal before the brass cylinder quickly disappeared into the distance leaving John squinting at the now brilliant light source that appeared to be growing closer at a startling rate.
Blocking the light with a hand, he could make out a silhouette surrounding the light. It was the trogan and it cradled Seren in the crook of one arm. The light, John now was certain was the Navis' singularity, shown out the colossal mechs blank faceplate and wrapped John in brilliance forcing him to shut his eyes hard and cover them with his palms.
"Here," he heard Jennifer whisper in his ear but the whiteness was so intense he dared not move his hands.
"Closer," Jenny said next to his other ear.
"My love," Jen said inside his head as the whiteness faded and his feet registered firmness again.
He rotated his palms to peek at where he guessed Jen would be; instead, he saw Zuinall. They were on a hilltop surrounded by ancient flora. Rain fell, thumping against large, overhead fronds.
Zuinall wore a dark-purple dress similar in color to the Amhrán and a large fascinator that shimmered in the lightening flashing around them.
"We must not fail," she said and touched his shoulder.
John looked into loving, indigo eyes. "I—"
"Here, beside you," Tye said releasing his shoulder. "It is just us.
Here is a light." She found his hand in the semi-darkness and passed him a mini-flashlight. "Be careful, it is potentially blinding."
"What the fuck?" he managed to say shining the light over the desolation surrounding them. "Are you sure you're real?" he asked her.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
He nodded as he bent over to take several deep breaths and regain his composure. "How long have we been here?"
"Just a few seconds," she replied. "We are on the outskirts of the main containment facility. It should be slightly less gloomy as we get closer."
John reckoned anything had to be an improvement, and the place now smelled horrid. "How's it so immense in here compared to the outside," he asked as a greenish mist swirled about them.
"Trans-dimensional, kind of like null space, but not real null space.
Family-made null space," she explained.
"Like a tardis," John said remembering one of Helen's published studies.
"Exactly," Tye said. "The Rodneys are going to love tinkering with it once vacated. Old tech," she added with a smile.
As they headed for a slightly brighter part of the gloom ahead, John thought the gothic landscape surrounding them seemed a bit too dramatic, even overtly stereotypical. He ducked as bats passed just overhead illuminated by a silent lightning bolt.
"Damn bats," he muttered.
"Bats?" Tye asked then paused. "Your preconceptions are controlling your observations. Few things are reality here, except what you create."
"You mean you are experiencing things differently?" John asked in disbelief.
"To me," she said extending her hands before them, "we are walking down a decrepit cobblestone road in twilight. There are leafless trees either side and Ghost Town lights brighten the horizon in the distance."
She looked at him and added, "This is common to my experiences within the sanctuary."
"Your version sounds lots better," John said as they rounded a bend and the beginning of a scraggy tree-lined cobblestone lane lay before them. "So what good is the disruptor?" he asked gingerly testing the firmer footing.
"Let us hope we do not find out," Tye said as a wisp of mist swirled around them then vanished. "Our presence has not gone unnoticed," she whispered as more mist rose from between the cobbles and began to churn around them until blackness surrounded them.
John reached out but quickly withdrew his hand; his fingertips burned from cold. "Tye?" he asked feeling a hand on his shoulder.
"Here," she said as her hand squeezed gently.
Then brightness slammed his eyes shut. Blinking slowly, he could start to make out his surroundings. They were in a windowless room standing on a brilliant white floor flanked by similar walls stretching to an infinite vanishing point above them.
"We've been waiting for you," a voice said from behind them.
John turned and saw only a voluptuous female silhouette standing flat on a wall in front of them.
"I am Tye. We wish to talk to Draconous," Tye said to the two-dimensional specter.
"I am Scath," it said. "You may be too late. Our time is about to expire."
John thought she was referring to the deadline. "We still have almost two days according to Drac."
"Foolishness for one so pure," Scath told him bluntly then looked at Tye. "We have been deceived again. It seems destruction is upon us."
"What do you know and where is Draconous?" Tye asked curtly.
"The ambassador is captive elsewhere," she said. "He is to be made to observe firsthand the dissolution of everyone, everything."
John, his frustration growing, asked, "Where is the woman you took?"
"The queen is with Draconous," she replied.
"Fuck, this is getting nowhere," Tye scoffed. "Scath, the one you took is not the queen. Are the Liaths not planning another uprising?"
"We are Family like you," Scath said pacing back and forth across the wall. "Most of us have resolved our state. We wait for healing you promise. Time is of little consequence, so there is a little real need for another war."
"Tell us what is happening and where are Jen and Drac," John pleaded as Scath's shadow flickered and then stabilized.
"Yet more coming intrusions," she said looking up in the room without a roof.
"Tell us," Tye demanded.
"The putrid sun holds both aboard his ship," the shadow explained.
"Betraying the ambassador as well as stealing the one you call Jen was a diversion to ensure your dissolution. There are only minutes until the end."
"Putrid sun?" Tye asked.
"It's Seren," John told her. "And I bet I've seen the ship once before.
It's the Mobius."
Tye set her rifle down. "Where can we find this ship?" she asked Scath.
The spector stopped pacing and said, "In the past"
John, Tye and the disruptor rifle fell onto the floor below the sphere in a heap. Wigwag was standing next to Luinan gently holding her hand as purple tears streamed down her cheeks.
Thin shafts of intense light began to radiate randomly from the sphere.
"The Continuity took both Zuinall and Tim," Prophet said as he hurriedly disconnected an appendage from the sphere.
"What did you learn?" Luinan asked, slowly regaining her composure.
"We and the Liaths have been deceived," Tye said. "Drac was trying to give us a message. Your failed abduction was just a diversion."
"I think Seren is holding Jen and Drac on his timeship, the Mobius,"
John said, desperation obvious in his voice.
"John," Luinan said loudly over a low rumble as she shielded her eyes form the growing intensity that once was the sphere. "You've seen the ship. You know roughly, when and where they will have to be to deflect the meteor," she said almost blindly. "Turas Luath has the power to deliver you, but it will also need to tap into your natural abilities, your intuition. The temporal entity touches you from a distance even now."
John stared at Luinan as his vision sharpened notably. He could only nod his acceptance of her words.
Tye picked up the disruptor and took Wigwag's hand as the O'jit grasped the entropy blade's hilt. Prophet wrapped an appendage around Wigwag's waist and then twirled the machine interface on the end of his primary appendage, stopping as it came to rest on John's shoulder. John looked at them, studying each face, as if it would be his last opportunity.
He knew they were with him.
John felt Turas Luath materialize around him.
"You must believe!" Luinan shouted as they all vanished and whiteness overwhelmed her.
A familiar voice called out to Luinan from within the brilliance now totally enveloping her.
"Luca? Over here," Luinan shouted.
She felt a gentle touch on her arm. "I have to report a Mór presence in my program," Luca shouted to her over the now loud, continuing
rumble. "However," she said lowering her voice as stillness suddenly surrounded around them, "I believe it is no longer activated. And, I am now aware I have spent perhaps unwise historical resources," she paused and squeezed slightly harder on Luinan's arm, "reflecting on John Mackinacs."
It was then Liaths started appearing.