Chapter 24-Sanctuary Ice Base
We are once again on the lightship, and in our Tourgen bodies. I now felt even closer to Reeas. The image on the screen was of a planet similar to Earth, but of course, it had different continents. The planet itself was smaller than Earth, and I could already see the destruction that the war between the Tourgens and the Dresdans had done. We were in camouflage mode so we weren`t seen as we headed for the Northern ice cap. I knew we could enter the base through the underwater entrance as we plunged into the icy water. There was an abundance of life in the water, too much to relate to you at this time. There were also giant squid like creatures many times larger than on Earth. I didn`t want to relay a message to the Santine as I wasn`t sure whether It would have been intercepted but I needn`t have worried as a message came through on the screen, it said ‘Your ship has been expected, this message is secure, welcome, please enter the gateway in two-minutes.’
The inner gateway was huge; it reminded me of the cathedral like building which was underground at Far-Station or Yalton. We came to rest in a sort of dry dock. I was surprised to see a greeting party of dozens of people who were dressed in long orange robes similar to the ones used by Buddhist monks on Earth. The Santine were totally bald and didn`t have any hair anywhere on their bodies. As we stepped out of the ship I could see the expression of fear on their faces as they viewed us, after all, they had been abused by beings like us for a long time.
‘Forgive our fear.’ said one of the Santine inching forward. ‘We are not accustomed to greeting Tourgen’s such as yourselves, I am Thalo and I will be your guide here.’
‘We are not really Tourgen.’ I said, ‘We have temporarily taken on this form to complete a mission.’
‘We will retire to the meeting hall were you can rest and replenish yourselves.’ Thalo replied.
‘I must say you have a highly evolved culture here!’
‘Yes, we were on the brink of total control of the senses, and we had a planetary security system which could repel any invaders, but it was destroyed by Kallo, He then brought the invaders here, and so started the Great Sadness. Most of our people have gone into exile to other planets. But now you are here! Today is the start of our redemption.’
I felt like I did on Yalton, a cross between a hero and a beast. I had to be positive, I thought.
‘Do you know anything about a container of deadly material? Or anything about any new developments in the way the war is progressing?’
‘There has been news of a secret weapon that the Tourgens have but we don`t know any more than that, at the moment.’
‘Would you happen to know where the weapon might be?’
‘No, but it might be at the Tourgen base.’
Deria said she would go there in her light body to check it out as she was less likely to be noticed.
‘I`m getting a message from Sionn,’ Deria said.
‘I thought he couldn`t contact us here?’ I said.
‘Normally he wouldn`t, but the frequency has now been checked out safe, but only for me. It would be too risky to contact you or Reeas.’ I didn`t really understand but I accepted it. I was beginning to realize that Deria was an asset I would not want to be without.
She said, ‘Sionn has confirmed that there are four agents on Antarra, one has been identified as ‘Melion3; he is a Santine.’ The reaction was immediate; all eyes turned to a person who was in the hall as he tried to escape, but was stopped by two guards at the entrance.
He shouted, ‘There is nothing you can do! If you don`t release Kallo in two days we will destroy Antarra and all the higher worlds in this part of the Universe!’
I said, ‘you do realize that you and everybody else will die, don`t you!’
‘Yes, but we will reincarnate on the lower planets, where Kallo will be the Ruler of this section of the Universe!’
I said, ‘Kallo won`t be allowed to escape, he will be placed in a monitored high security cell.’
‘Yes,’ He shouted. ‘But Kallo will eventually escape and rule, simply because the higher worlds will fall due to their being no physical planets to incarnate to. We know that Sionn won’t allow that and Kallo will be released. I will become a higher apprentice. But we are prepared to die.’
I couldn`t believe what I was hearing!
Thalo said, ‘We never imagined that one of our own people could betray us. He will be punished.’
‘There are still three agents on Antarra.’ I said, ‘What sort of people will they be? Could they be beings of a different race from Tourgen or Dresden?’
‘There are several races besides Tourgen on Antarra; they are mainly mercenaries brought in to create even more destruction. The weapons they use now are very crude as they don`t have the technology to replace the blasters and laser cannons they once had. Kallo will almost certainly have done the same with other highly evolved planets. We thought we were safe from invasion with our defense system but we weren`t, also we decommissioned most of our weapons many years before the war started.’
Deria said, ‘I will go to the Tourgen base now, I will send my thought messages to the ship, they won’t be intercepted, but you mustn`t send any to me.’
‘I understand,’ I said.
Once Deria had gone, I started to think deeply about the problem we had, we only had a short period of time to locate the container, or containers. We didn`t know where they were, we didn`t know where the agents were. I was feeling pretty low, but knew I had the most powerful beings in the Universe on my side. I was a simple type of person on Earth, a retired history teacher with a simple life. The things that have happened to me over a relatively short time have stunned me. I can`t really comprehend it but I know I have to move Heaven and Antarra to bring my part of the story to an end.