Part 1 – ‘Reward’
Akira suddenly sat bolt upright in the bed with a stifled cry. The air conditioning was switched off and the air in the room was hot and dry but that wasn’t the cause of the sheen of sweat that now covered his body, it had been his nightmare, the memory of which was already fading. He could no longer remember what it was exactly that had been pursuing him other than everything about his pursuer had felt ‘wrong’, not just distorted or misshaped but unworldly and utterly petrifying somehow.
One of his curtains twitched for a second, blown by a small unexpected breeze rising up from the gardens and for some reason he instantly thought of a tattered, plain-coloured cloak before that thought was also swallowed up by his waking fugue.
He tried to calm his heart which felt as though it wanted to break free of his chest any second, and tried to remember what he had dreamt about, hoping that by confronting his fear he could dismiss its hold on his mind. Nope, only the fear of whatever it was, finally catching up with him, remained. He shuddered as he scratched at his right arm unconsciously; it itched.
He walked towards the balcony which overlooked the Royal Gardens and stopped as he passed the large, ornate mirror. The serpent mark on his forearm had become darker again and not only had the oval in the folds of its body reappeared as dark as ever, it was now joined by another, second oval in the next curve of its body. The serpent brand seemed to undulate slightly as he watched as though it had a life of its own and had one of the ovals pulsed? It had to be his imagination, surely?
For a moment he wanted to grab a set of scanner goggles and check it out for himself. Then the feeling of paranoia passed and for a moment he felt overwhelmed with anger. He was a hero, saving people protecting the innocent by all means possible. Why was he being marked in this way?
He again rubbed at his arm.
Then a thought hit him. When he’d called upon Ghorummaz, the Dragon within the Earth for the second time had he somehow expended more power that he should have been able to possess on his own? Could Ghorummaz somehow have used his mortal shell to pour additional mystical power into him?
He had to admit he felt more powerful, even now. Was this a side effect of that Gods’ decision to reward him, did this brand on his arm mark him as a conduit to the Powers Beyond, a chosen one?
He felt sure that he’d been chosen, selected to be a bearer of great power. For a second a smile crossed his lips as he realised that despite his modesty that he was sure he was right that he was being selected for greatness.
Heading back to bed, the feeling of fear had passed; he quickly fell asleep. Within minutes his eyelids began to rapidly twitch and his legs again began to move as though he was running away from something.
Part 2 – ‘Punishment’
Sam couldn’t sleep. He left his room and approached Annie as she stood on the balcony looking down on the courtyard. He’d been given his own room nearby and to his surprise Annie hadn’t said anything to stop it. Since he didn’t speak any Daku and hadn’t access to a translating commdot, he’d sort of hoped Annie would have forgiven him and welcomed him into her bed but instead she had remained silent as the Palace servants prepared a separate room for him.
“Annie?” Her back straightened slightly but she didn’t turn round. He said her name again but still she didn’t turn though she did reply. “Sam, I’m sorry I can’t discuss us just now. I’m not ready to deal with your worries and insecurities at the moment. I have my own concerns to deal with and the battle the other day showed me that I can no longer just ignore my father and his ‘business’ any longer.”
As she turned, there were tears in her eyes but Sam knew that they weren’t for him or them. Sam muttered, “Are you coming back with us?” She paused and then spoke softly, “I love you Sam but just now I’m not sure I actually like you very much. Yes I’m coming back with the team because I need to plan, to figure out how best to bring down my Dad and the Foundry. I need to track his financial trails and I need Frankie for that. Whether we ever get back together is really down to you…”
With that, she turned and walked to her room. He heard her door lock behind her leaving him alone on the balcony staring into the dark of the night.
Part 3 – ‘Revelations’
It was the following evening. The team were due to leave Dakata in a couple of days and Adam had been kept busy all day with Farasi and the Princess explaining his various gravitic improvements, using the shattered remains of the Raft’s propulsion system. Annie had joined them and seemed to be forming a close bond with the Princess in particular, going by the amount of giggling from the pair of them.
The rest of them had been unleashed to wander wherever they wanted (except revisiting the Shrine, much to Mary’s annoyance). The mines were opened up to them this time and they discovered that the whole mountain was really one big Daka crystal. This was a resource the Dakatans would not run out of anytime soon.
That evening Mace hypothesised that this had likely once been a meteorite that had impacted on the Earth millions of years before, though if that was the case the strike would likely have resulted in an extinction-level event equal to if not greater than the meteorite strike that had wiped out the dinosaurs. Mary discovered that there apparently had been several such events prior to that extinction.
Annie nodded in agreement and wondered out loud if this could have been responsible for the annihilation known as the Great Dying on the mega-continent of Pangaea 200 million years ago?
During their visit to the mines, they all had to wear face mask rebreathers similar to those worn by the miners and artisans so they didn’t inhale any toxic particles from the crystals. As they were leaving they then all had to undergo a sonic shower to remove any dust residues.
The level of mechanisation involved in the mines were breath-taking, especially given that some of the equipment was hundreds of years old yet were still more advanced that anything used anywhere else in the world.
As the whole group wound-down and caught-up with one another’s news at the end of the day, Mary seemed a little pre-occupied.
Eventually she said, “Maybe we shouldn’t be in too much of a rush to leave Dakata just yet. There’s maybe a few things of concern to us here still. Not least our Lady ‘R’, safely imprisoned by the King, available for questioning outside UK jurisdiction.” She cocked an eye-brow. “Seems to me we ought to try to find out just what it was she had against us, made her go to such great lengths – and who it was infected her with the brain-worm, because they’re still out there and maybe have some bigger scheme in mind that we won’t like. I know she won’t answer straight questions, but Akira, maybe you could do some viewing of the past? And perhaps we could try to ‘persuade’ her, somehow… ” she looks across to Sam “…to officially withdraw that contract she’s got out on us, otherwise those annoying assassin-teams are just going to keep on coming – they won’t know she’s out of play, and the promised reward is not on offer any more.”
She took a long draw on her pipe and let out a slow cloud of heavily-scented smoke. “And then, did anyone else notice, when we caught up with her Ladyship and her companions at the temple in the cliff – a figure down below, kind of cat-headed and thereby somewhat familiar, recalling a certain alien race we’ve crossed swords with? Lines up with the local belief, of course, but maybe we might know better what it is – and so ancient, so very old.”
She took another thoughtful puff. “Which makes me think about those splinters of Dakata crystals we saw at the mining-place; so like those that lined the cup the vampires are all upset about. We kind of know that in that cup they were the cause of hideous longevity – so maybe have something to do with that creature in the cave still being here after so many, many centuries?” She shrugs. “I just think there’s more we need to know before we leave…” She looked around at her companions.
Sam nodded, “Not sure how much of an extension they’d allow us or whether they would accept us accessing their prisoners but worth asking. Looks like you’ll need to request an audience with the King, Mary.”
Part 4 – ‘Request’
King M’Balla had been gracious enough to agree to a personal audience after his morning Council Meeting – just him and his white haired Shujaa Wa’Usiku, Imani M’Kusini or ‘Mercy’ as they called her (apparently she was also one of the King’s advisors) and the four team members.
He listened to their requests. When Mary asked about the alien in the cave, Mercy looked ready to attack but the King merely smiled and beckoned at her to calm down.
When she had finished, he signalled to Imani who reluctantly went over to a plinth and switched something on. A sparkling cone of energy surrounded the audience room, silencing off the rest of the world.
“What I am about to say is not for others ears. Yes, we are aware that the Goddess is an alien. We, the Royal family have known this for many centuries. She herself has said as much.
Millennia ago she and her clan was enslaved by another, more ancient race and brought to this world for what reason even S’Khmet does not know. She managed to escape, the only one of her people to do so, rescued by the beings we call Ngai and T’huti.” He held his hand up to silence their questions.
“Who they were is a question for another day. S’Khmet was injured and dying when she took refuge here in what would become Dakata, hiding deep within the Sacred Mountain of T’Katifu. Over time the Daka crystals changed her, healing her whilst making her stronger and apparently immortal.
She was our Prometheus, teaching our ancestors and protecting them. She also cast out those humans who had also been altered by the raw crystals, before they could kill those who remained unchanged.
You see the first of what you call Vampires were created here and it was S’Khmet that destroyed most of them and ensured that the rest were driven out and denied the power of the Daka in their blood.
The goblet you mention must, as you surmised, contain fragments of raw Daka crystal. We have subsequently learnt how to neutralise many of the crystal’s more unpredictable properties. We would try and remove this object from the world if we could but I fear any attempts to do so would create more problems. The life-changing properties of the raw crystals are fluid and capricious and once in their bloodstream it can change and alter people in a number of unpredictable ways. It likely also needs other substances added to neutralise its poisonous nature.
As for meeting the Goddess, she is weary after living for so many millennia; she no longer appreciates the company of others. I cannot agree to allow you an audience with her and any attempt to do so without her prior permission is likely to end with your death – at her hands or ours. Contact with her is restricted to the Royal family and even then only when she indicates that she wishes to initiate it, never the other way round. Some of my people would take any attempt by others to enter the Royal shrine as sacrilege and worthy of death.
As for your Lady ‘R’ – I will agree to allow you to interrogate her but in return I want a favour. We would ask that you transport Massai N’Ambo to Konza City in Kenya so she can face terrorism charges there. Her presence here is a continued invitation to the PAA to return to try to free her. By removing her to face charges for her actions in Kenya we remove the need for her husband and followers to undertake any further attacks on the Country, futile or not. Oh, and I will not allow you or your team to do anything that breaches this Lady ‘R’s’ human rights. Do we understand each other?”
The team nodded their agreement and it was agreed that in return for setting off the following day with Massai they would be allowed a couple of hours with their Lady ‘R’ in an interrogation Room but with Mercy also in attendance. Given the very strong possibility that the UK Government might yet elect to confirm her diplomatic immunity and request her return, everything had to be done by the book.
Part 5 – ‘Interrogation’
Mary was really angry. Lady Marjorie Rittingham was a nasty piece of work in her own right, even without that bloody parasite in her brain.
The why as to her attack on them was just down to her vengeful nature it seemed, admittedly the feeling had probably been enhanced by the worm’s influence. They had crossed her, caused the closure of the St. Kilda base and forced her to flee. Now she was free from the creature’s influence she still refused to recant the contact on them. Sam had tried using his influence on her but had been restrained from using full-blown persuasion by Mercy’s presence. ‘R’ was either extremely strong willed or was immune somehow. Their ‘request’ was rejected with a laugh.
Annie though had a weird smile on her face as she later examined ‘R’s’ possessions under Mercy’s ever-watchful eye.
Akira will be having nightmares for weeks after trying to read her past. This was one nasty bitch that enjoyed causing other people pain and suffering and those memories went back long before the infestation. There had apparently even been images of her and some of her cronies hunting down and killing prisoners as though they were the prey in some distorted fox hunt. The actual incident where she’d been infected was blurred in her memories but had obviously been a couple of years before.
Her memories were fuzzy but Akira was sure the Home Secretary was involved somehow. Harry Powers from AEGIS had said they had uncovered another infected person extremely high up in the Government – the Home secretary definitely fit that description and before it went completely rogue he would likely have had contact with P.I.S.C.E.S. as part of his workload.
There had also been memories of contact with people in what looked as though they had been wearing alien armour though it appeared that on those occasions the worm took control, leaving ‘R’s’ mind running on auto-pilot.
Overall it had been extremely frustrating, especially as ‘R’ was enjoying being uncooperative.
That night, long after the interview had ended Annie walked in to the main suite with a big smile on her face. Even Sam’s presence in the room didn’t dampen her enthusiasm. “Seems the contract the bitch-witch put out on you was all done electronically and guess who just managed to clone her phone and send out a redaction to the various black sites she’d posted to? I explained the book had been destroyed and was no longer available which should hopefully mean the assassins will not be paid. Hopefully it will be enough.”
Sam couldn’t help asking, “But how did you manage to clone her phone? Mercy was with you all the time and no electronics were allowed in with us?”
Annie glowered at him slightly but couldn’t keep it up for more than a few seconds. “My whole body is tech, Sam. I have a proximity terminal built into my hand so when I held and switched on the phone I was able to duplicate everything on it – it was heavily encrypted which is why it took me the rest of the day to decode it. Whoya, so who’s the Man now, eh?”
Part 6 – ‘Parting Gifts’
Rather reluctantly, the team prepared to transport Massai to Konza City as promised. It had been agreed they would stay overnight before returning to Dakata for another couple of days.
As Adam checked over the last of the upgrades to the Crate, Princess Tafari approached him and Mary. “You happy with the alterations?” He nodded, slightly hesitantly. “Just need to actually believe that the Zero Point Module you fitted is powerful enough to power a craft of this size. The catapult for Mace’s bike seems to work well and of course the stealth capability seems to work whilst on the ground though I’ll feel better once we’re in the air at speed and I can check it still works. Can the sound nullification actually cope with supersonic booms?” The Princess merely smiled.
She passed Mary a small package. “I’ve been in touch with the Challenger-Wildeman’s with my father’s permission, and we have agreed to manufacture enough of the scanners to ensure we can effectively scan the whole of the UN world leaders and advisers. It will take a few months but we’ll be ready for the December session. The extractors will take longer. I must admit I am amazed that a gravitic device can be made so small and of course our technicians have not had any experience with gravitics, until now.”
As she spoke Mary opened the parcel the Princess had passed to her. Inside were a dozen newly manufactured pairs of commdots. The separate stick that was the CPU and memory that powered the translation devices was not present.
Mary tried to interrupt the tech-speak conversation that was now ensuing between Adam and the Princess apparently to do with gravitic polarisation? “Ah, thank you for this, but ?” The Princess looked momentarily embarrassed, “We took a look at your translation devices and found a way to improve on the concept.” She explained, pausing for a moment before continuing, “The dots no longer require a separate memory storage device or processor to translate or store the languages and we’ve increased the capacity so each disk can hold up to ten languages consecutively and still do real-time translation. We are also working on a read-write heads-up display as well but it will be sometime before that is ready.
I have loaded in the most common languages in Kenya as well as Swahili already. Annie has been told how to change the default languages and upload new languages as required. We also took the liberty of incorporating in all the functions on your earpieces as well so the commdots can also act as phones and team communicators as well as accessing your internet if required. And as they use bone conductivity and subvocalising to speak and hear they are totally silent when used in the field.
It’s our way of saying thank you.”
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 