Slave Empire - Prophecy (14 page)

Tallyn
replied, "Seismic activity has levelled just about everything. The
pyramids have survived, and the sphinx. Parts of the Great Wall of
China are standing, but everything else is gone."

The probe flew
through huge, alien canyons. "That's the sea bed; there's not much
left of it. Most of the water is now in the clouds."

A crewman
interjected, "Temperature two hundred and ten degrees."

"All gone,"
Rayne murmured. "All those millions of people. An entire
civilisation wiped out." She turned away as a drunkenly leaning Big
Ben came into view, unable to watch anymore, and sank into a chair.
Rawn continued to stare at the screen, which had reverted to the
picture of a distant Earth.

Tallyn winced,
as if he had sampled her unguarded thoughts. "Okay, Marcon, switch
it off. Run all the usual tests." He glanced around in surprise as
Marcon announced, "Our long-range proximity repellers are reacting
to an approaching mass, sir."

"What is
it?"

"Its density
indicates it's a ship."

"Can we focus
a viewer on it?"

Marcon touched
a crystal on his console, and an empty star field filled the
screen. He touched more crystals, and the stars swelled, but
remained enigmatic.

Tallyn
demanded, "Are you sure the repellers reacted?"

"Yes, sir.
They still are."

Rayne gazed at
the screen, the excitement a welcome distraction. A star vanished
near the centre of it, then another. She jumped up, pointing.
"There is something there, look!"

Tallyn nodded
as another star vanished. "I see it. Marcon?"

"Activating
the laser pulse sensory array." He touched more crystals, studying
a hologram that scrolled up before him. "We're getting a very mushy
reading, sir, but it seems to be coming closer. The pulses are not
being reflected, but absorbed. Time lapse indicates it's still
quite distant, three light seconds. Initiating broad laser
sweep."

One of the
other officers looked up with a worried expression. "It appears to
be enormous, sir."

"Elaborate,"
Tallyn said, frowning.

"At least five
times the size of Vengeance. Maybe bigger."

Tallyn swung
around. "Battle stations. Red alert."

Distant alarms
sounded, and the bridge doors slid shut with an ominous hiss,
cutting off the howling.

Tallyn turned
to Marcon. "Try to contact it."

"Yes sir."

A few tense
seconds passed, the Marcon said, "No response to laser link, trying
radio... nothing. Microwave... nothing."

Tallyn glared
at the screen. "All right, initiate Net link, power up energy
conduits and shell."

Marcon's hands
flew over the crystals before him. Vengeance lurched, making Tallyn
stagger and grip a console. He frowned at his luckless lieutenant,
who spoke calmly.

"Attractors,
sir. Our orbit has been broken."

"Are we linked
to the Net?"

"Yes."

"Charge the
repellers."

A crewman's
hands danced across his console, and Marcon watched his readouts
with a frown. "There's no effect."

"Still no
reply?" Tallyn glanced at his second-in-command, who shook his
head.

"None."

The huge ship
blotted out all the stars on the screen, filling it with a
featureless blackness. The crewman who monitored the distance
between the ships was down to thousands of kilometres now, the
proximity becoming dangerous. Several officers showed symptoms of
stress, their brows sheened with nervous sweat and their eyes wide.
Tallyn and Marcon remained calm, their expressions set in rigid
lines.

Tallyn said,
"Fire energy weapons."

An officer
touched a crystal, and a point of golden brilliance that rivalled
the sun appeared on the screen, winking out as the black ship
absorbed it.

"No hit, sir."
Marcon stared at his hologram in disbelief.

"Impossible.
We couldn't miss at this range."

"We didn't
miss. It had no effect."

Tallyn's brows
knitted. "Fire the anti-matter cannon."

The officer
touched another crystal, and a distant boom shivered through the
ship. The blackness on the screen remained unaffected.

"No effect,
sir," Marcon stated with chilling calm.

"By the
Olban," breathed Tallyn. "What is that?"

"I am the
Guardian."

The voice came
from all around them, as if the air itself had spoken. Tallyn swung
around, his eyes snapping about the bridge, seeking an enemy.

"Who are you?
What do you want?"

"I am the
Guardian."

Tallyn stared
at the black screen. "Why do you hold us? We have no quarrel with
you."

"I have come
to greet the Golden Child."

Everyone swung
to stare at Rayne, who gaped at the screen, stunned. Tallyn
muttered, "I knew it."

Rayne glanced
at Rawn, who met her eyes with a look of mingled awe and disbelief.
She wanted to run, but the door was closed, and she turned back to
the screen, trying to ignore the crew's stares. Embarrassed by the
sudden attention, she cleared her throat. "How do you know I'm the
Golden Child?"

"I am your
guide, Golden Child. Do not fear, your destiny will be revealed to
you in due course."

She swallowed
hard, wishing she could vanish like Mindra.

Tallyn frowned
at the great ship. "What must she do?"

"That will be
revealed only to her."

He nodded.
"Why have you chosen to greet the Golden Child here, now?"

"I came to the
place of her birth to await her, knowing she would return."

"You didn't
know where she was?"

"I knew."

"Is the time
of the prophecy approaching?"

"As it has
been for millennia."

Tallyn
snorted. "Why do you call yourself the Guardian?"

"I am the
Guardian of my people, entrusted to keep them safe until they
awaken. This place was one of their creations. More than that, you
have no need to know."

"This place?
What do you mean?"

A
semi-transparent image of a blue planet appeared in the middle of
the control room, making many of the crew jump up in
consternation.

"A projection,
sir," Marcon said. The planet rotated, its glowing blue seas
patterned with snowy clouds within the clear bubble of its
atmosphere.

"That's
Earth," Rawn muttered.

Tallyn looked
disbelieving.

"Ignorance and
greed have destroyed it, just as they destroy everything they
touch." The voice sounded sad, and the image of Earth vanished.

"How did you
create it?" Tallyn demanded.

"My people
did, not I. Such order does not easily come from chaos. My people
created many habitable planets."

Rayne dragged
her reeling mind from the morass of shock, the questions that
hammered at her brain demanding answers. "If your people created
it, can you save it?"

"There is
nothing left to save. It has reverted to its former state, and my
people are no longer here."

"Where are
they?"

"In a safe
place."

"Would that be
Quadrant Forty-Four, by any chance?"

"Farewell,
Golden Child, until we meet again."

The blackness
vanished, and stars shone on the screen again. Rayne sank into a
chair as her knees gave way. The crew stared at their readouts,
their hands skipping over the lighted crystals that covered the
consoles like jewels.

"We've been
released, sir," a crewman announced.

"No sign of
anything nearby, not even on the long-range repellers. I never saw
anything move so fast," Marcon sounded amazed.

Tallyn's
expression was inscrutable. "Send a message to Atlan. And try to
identify that ship. Analyse the recordings of the voice. I want to
know who or what that was, and where it came from."

"Yes,
sir."

Marcon touched
crystals, and other consoles lighted with his messages, their
operators responding by touching other crystals or sensor pads. The
alarm was cancelled and the bridge doors opened, allowing several
new men to enter and take up unoccupied stations. The bridge became
a hive of activity as crew members in other parts of the ship
demanded orders through the consoles, and the officers replied.
Marcon sat before five holographic readouts, scanning the
displays.

Tallyn went
over to an empty station at the back of the bridge, where a curved
console deflected traffic. Rayne and Rawn followed, curious. He sat
in the contoured chair and ran his hands over the crystals.
Scorning the holograms, he directed the recorded image onto the
screen, which lighted with the empty blackness of the strange
ship's image. Tallyn tried to enhance the picture, but the scene
remained black.

"How can a
ship be so black it doesn't even reflect the stars?" he asked. "Why
did the energy weapons have no effect, or the anti-matter
cannon?"

Rawn stepped
up to stand behind Tallyn's chair. "If he's Rayne's guide, maybe he
has a super advanced ship."

"Yes, but who,
or what, is he?"

"I don't think
it matters."

"It's gone!"
Rayne pointed at the screen, where the stars had reappeared.
Tallyn's fingers darted over the console, crystals lighting in
their wake. The black image reappeared, and he stared at it, as did
Rayne and Rawn. This time he had slowed down the replay, and a haze
of gold covered the blackness for an instant, then the stars
returned.

"That's
impossible," Tallyn muttered.

"What?" Rawn
asked.

"It's a Net
ship! It used the transfer Net."

Rawn glanced
at Rayne. "So?"

"It went into
the Net." Tallyn turned to face them. "It used an energy shell and
went into the Net. That's impossible. It went into the energy
dimension. Nothing that big could go into the energy dimension and
survive. The shell it would have to generate would be
monstrous."

"But it did
it."

"Yes. Which
means its technology is far more advanced than ours. By the Olban.
That ship has instantaneous travel."

Tallyn stared
at the screen for several minutes, apparently deep in unpleasant
thoughts, then replayed the recording again before turning to
Rayne. He studied her with disconcerting intensity, making her
uncomfortable until he ran a hand over his hair and forced a
strained smile.

"So, you are
the Golden Child. I was right."

She glanced at
Rawn. "I don't find it a very appealing prospect, somehow. I'd
rather be nobody, given a choice."

Tallyn sighed.
"I understand. Your being special is what saved you, but such
things cut both ways. There's always a price to pay for being
different. And Rawn, although he's not the Golden Child, was also
saved because of you, so you shouldn't curse it too much."

"So what
happens next? Am I put out as bait, like a sacrifice to a
dragon?"

"No, nothing
like that. Fate will take its course, that's all."

Chapter Nine

Tallyn
traversed the long, pillared hall to the council's chamber, his
footsteps echoing. The council building was intended to intimidate,
but Tallyn had been here many times, and its grandeur had lost its
effect. He hated meetings with the council, which demanded detailed
explanations and endless reports. The novelty of discussing his
work with such august persons had worn off when he had become aware
of their weaknesses.

A quartet of
Draycon guards waited outside the doors, dressed in blood-red
uniforms and horned helmets that concealed their features. He
frowned, wishing his audience did not coincide with the Draycons'
visit, for he had a particular disliking for the much-despised
race. The council often did this to impress such visitors with its
busy schedule and important meetings, when, in truth, it had little
to occupy its time, and its members spent most of it bickering
amongst themselves. Atlan's efficient civil service made the
council all but obsolete, yet the grizzled oldsters who comprised
it refused to allow a modern government to replace them. This,
Tallyn reflected, was one of the disadvantages of Atlanteans'
lengthy lifespans; it slowed down progress.

The guards
stood aside for him, and he stopped just inside the doorway. Two
people addressed Vargon, their backs to the doors. After a few
minutes, Vargon looked up and signalled Tallyn to approach. As he
did so, the aliens turned to face him. Hiding the shock of
recognition behind a bland mask, he inclined his head and spoke the
required words of greeting.

The tall, thin
woman nodded in reply. Her bright green eyes spat venom in a
narrow, angular face. Ridges of raised grey scales ran down the
bridge of her nose, along her brows and around the edge of her jaw.
Her rough grey skin resembled sharkskin, and the long, feather-like
scales atop her head rattled when she moved. Although her form was
similar to an Atlantean's, her hands, which rested on a pair of
curved daggers in her belt, were more like claws; three long
fingers flanked by a short thumb and a vestigial fourth finger
above the wrist. A suit of finely woven red metallic cloth, rather
like chain mail, sheathed her mannish figure. A gold chain
encircled her waist and more were looped under her armpits,
attached to the beading on her broad shoulders. Her coat hung to
mid-thigh, and thick-soled black boots shod her feet. The male who
stood beside her was almost identical in appearance and dress, but
a little shorter and less imposing.

Tallyn met the
woman's cold eyes. "Drevina, how nice of you to visit. We're always
pleased to see you. At least that way we know what you're up
to."

Drevina's lips
drew back to reveal pink teeth. "Tallyn, your wits are as sharp as
ever. Pity you don't put them to better use."

He bowed
mockingly. "I can think of no greater challenge than to pit them
against yours, and your delightful brother, of course. Is he potty
trained yet? Mertar, it's good to see you."