“Yo. Nice to see you again. I was getting a
bit bored here on cloud nine.” If Dutch hadn’t told me about the whiteness I
would have been on the lookout for St Peter and the pearly gates up here. It
was a relief to see her walking towards me.
“Hi,” she says, looking
around her. “You didn’t see a little bat thing come flying by, did you?”
“No.”
“Any sign of the others?
Sweet Mary?” she asks.
“No,” I say. “Last thing
I remember is the flying saucer tipping and being crushed to death by a million
Ahram.”
“Yeah, but I should warn
you; this place can mess with your head. I became very obnoxious the last time
I was here,” she says. I can believe that.
“But what’s with the
shepherd’s crook?”
“Crozier. Took it off
the Rider. Long story. The Seesh also has one. But I can’t make it……shine like
he does. He can do some awesome things with his.”
For a while we stand and
look at the whiteness around us. Then I notice something in my peripheral
vision, but when I turn to look at it, it disappears. I turn away again and
there it is. A shimmering, moving blob of orange at the corner of my eye.
“I got something,” I
say. “Three ‘o clock. Something warm.”
“Okay. Let’s go.” Dutch
is obviously keen to find her friend again.
“I noticed a big black
guy riding with you on the saucer. Where the hell did you pick him up?”
“’The Prophet?” she
shrugs. “He came with us. But look. Can we walk and talk. I’m kinda keen to
find Sweet Mary.”
“Sure.” And we set off
following the heat signature, hands held out in front of us like a couple of
blind guys.
“He’s blind ain’t he? He
must feel right at home here. I can’t see a bloody thing.” I gotta watch that
swearing. I got out of the habit being around Gennetta, but something about
being around humans makes me want to swear again. Showing off I suppose. No
point in showing off to Gennetta. She can beat me hands down at most
everything. I turn my head sideways just to make sure the orange glow is still
there.
“How’s your…skin thing?”
says Dutch.
“Strangely enough it’s
alright in here. Still itches like hell but it doesn’t hurt anymore. Did you
see that explosion? The mountain? Nearly got all of us.” My scalp is still
crawling with the memory of seeing the Tartarus. I just hope my eyes were
playing tricks on me.
“I saw it. Okay I got a
wall here,” says Dutch, coming to an abrupt halt. “I’ll go left, you go right.”
I can see she’s real
used to giving orders. I was kinda keen on asking her about the Tartarus but
she had more pressing things on her mind. I move off to the right, feeling with
my hands along the wall. I turn my head to try and pick up the heat-signature
again but it has disappeared.
“Anything there?” I ask
but there’s no answer. I keep shimmying on and get the fright of my life by bumping
into Dutch on my right. Both of us stand and stare for a while.
“Strangest damn place I
ever saw,” I say. Then a warm sea-breeze sweeps over us and the wall before us
falls away. “A swimming pool? You got to be kidding me.”
Yet there it was - a
full size swimming pool with sun loungers and bathing towels dotted around the
edge. We walk up closer and I notice the name ‘Cantave Cruises’ embroidered in
red and gold upon the towels.
“Do you think we’re imagining
this?” I say.
“Probably not,” says
Dutch. “This fits with the Seesh’s sick sense of humour.” The water is blue
against the white tiles of the pool and I wonder for a moment what gives it
this colour. The only thing I remember is that the speed of light through water
is nearly a third slower than through a vacuum like outer space.
We walk over to the
water’s edge and immediately see the reflections of Sweet Mary and Righteous
high above us. They hang limply in mid-air, facing each other and circling
around like two chickens on a rotisserie grill.
Sparks begin to flare
from Dutch’s crook as she looks upwards.
“I told you they were hanging around somewhere,”
says a voice from nowhere.
“Why don’t you show yourself, you coward?” says
Dutch.
“That’s such an effort. But
if you insist.”
And there he stands, on
the opposite side of the pool, in all his flaming glory, a kind of ghastly,
ghostly, other-worldly Ahram of immense size. It is hard to look directly at
him. He seems to be composed of jagged lines of energy leaking through from
another dimension. He is there, but not quite there…and definitely not made of
flesh and bone. His crozier virtually howls with power - a silent noise that
makes my ears ache - a bristling brand of absolute might in his right hand.
“So, Eric. Pleased to
meet you at last. How’s the eczema?”
“s’alright. Long as I
don’t scratch,” I say.
“Glad to see you have a
sense of humour. You’re going to need it. From what I hear you’ve been indulging
in a little intra-species hanky-panky. Probably where you picked up that itch.”
I don’t say anything. I
really don’t want to listen to him anymore because I can see where this is
going.
“Nice girl Gennetta.” He
says her name with relish. “You were
planning to marry her weren’t you? Ha, ha, ha. Do the honourable thing. I must
admit I’m just a bit put out because you didn’t ask my permission. The women of
course all belong to me, you may have heard. No matter. Neither of us shall
have her now. I have already sent my envoy - Dutch knows him very well - Willy
the worm, to take care of Gennetta and the rest of your friends; and this time
there will be no mistake. They should be making contact somewhere in the
forbidden zone round about now.”
I look at Dutch to see
how bad this news is, and whether he’s just bullshitting me, but her face is
stony and her eyes are glued to Sweet Mary.
“Look,” he says,
indicating the pool. I look. Stirring in the depths I see a scene begin to
emerge.
Sand.
I see sand.
Lots of sand.
And sand dunes.
And then there’s
Gennetta, lying lifeless on the ground, or so it seems, amidst the wreckage of
a spaceship.
“Gennetta!” I lean over
the pool and call her name, but the scene disappears before I can see if she’s
breathing or not.
“Now see what you’ve
done,” he says. “I was looking forward to that. Oh well. I suppose it’s just as
well. I have so many last minute preparations to make. You know how it is when
you go on holiday. Ha, ha. ‘What larks’. We shall all look back on this one day
and say…‘what larks’.”
I have no idea what he
is talking about, but I can tell he’s enjoying himself. Dutch is grinding her
teeth in impotence. All I can think of is Gennetta’s prone and lifeless looking
body lying on the desert sands.
“And of course, you
Dutch will get to see your girlfriend killed before your very eyes. Oops, did I
say ‘girlfriend’? I forgot that you haven’t ‘come out’ yet, so I won’t mention
the ‘L’ word. But that’s why ya beat her. ‘Cause ya can’t love her,” he says
with an Amerigues accent. “Suffice it to say you’re probably more ‘man’ than
your friend Eric over there, even if he is half lizard.”
I swear I can see steam
coming out of Dutch’s ears. It is fascinating to watch her face as it changes
tone and colour with her emotions. The skin moves and smoothes out, stretching
over her bones, her nostrils flaring open and closed alternately. It’s like
reading a book. A murder mystery….except I know already who’s gonna do it if
she gets her hands on him. She was right. He certainly likes messing with
people.
“But your secret’s safe
with me. You and Sweet Mary, all those long nights together in lockup. But soon
there’ll be no one left to tell your secrets to anyway. Ha, ha, ha, and you’ll
never get to caress those round, smooth…..”
All hell breaks out next
to me as Dutch lets loose with her magicians crook and an invisible hand smacks
me sideways. I manage to catch a glimpse of the bolt of energy as it tears a
path through the air across the pool and detonates against a beam of black energy
coming from the Seesh who is about the quickest draw with a crozier I’ve ever
seen.
White power versus black
power meets head on and melts together in a conflagration of energy. Dutch and
the Seesh stand and hurl everything they’ve got at each other. I put my hand up
to shade my eyes from the heat and back away as far as I can. All the towels
have caught fire already and I’m trying to protect what’s left of my hair. It’s
hard to see what’s going on exactly because everything is just a whirlwind of
heat and energy.
Eventually my eyes
readjust and I see the beginnings of hell in the making. A river of molten
quicksilver, mixed with something that can only be described as liquid darkness,
begins to run down from the conjunction of these two streams of energy into the
swimming pool; neither silver nor black, but a continuous juxtaposition of both,
as if each were fighting for dominance. The contaminated water in the swimming
pool heaves and undulates like some creature trying to take shape.
“I don’t like the look
of this,” I shout to Dutch but she is locked in battle, way beyond where mere
words can reach. “You gotta stop.” I shout and as if at my command the croziers
shut off and Dutch crashes to the floor unconscious.
“So typical of a woman
to feint at the crucial moment.”
I run over to her and
kneel by her still body. “Please don’t be dead,” I say and start to rub her
wrists. But that’s as far as I get before she moans and starts waking up.
Automatically she grabs for her crozier but the thing is dead in her hand. It
seems as if all her life-force has been depleted.
“Well, that was a nice
pick-me-up,” says the Seesh in his chatty manner. “Just what I needed. Actually
I am glad the two of you made it in time for the big send off. You two of all
people will be able to appreciate the event, being pilots and all and well used
to the problems of space travel. You will be able to appreciate the grandeur
and beauty of what I have constructed. Probably the biggest spaceship ever, and
certainly the most powerful and deadly, and you’ll have front-row seats to the
complete annihilation of your species. Shall I tell you how it will work? I
don’t think it matters now if you know…anyway I love showing off. What’s the
point of inventing something if you can’t show it off? Are you ready? Then I’ll
begin.”
The Seesh waves his crozier
over the heaving surface of the pool and slowly a black and silver waterspout, like
a unicorn’s horn, begins to emerge and rise up from the centre. I was almost
expecting a unicorn’s body to appear next. This place is that weird. But it doesn’t.
The horn just keeps growing larger and larger, twirling around higher and
higher. Soon it is metres thick and surging into the air past Righteous and
Sweet Mary who continue to rotate around it, their distorted images now reflected
in the fluid of the funnel, as if they were trapped in its surface.
“And that is my ‘secret
weapon’,” says the Seesh rather proudly. “And thank you Dutch for helping me to
create it. You see it needed both croziers to get it started. I knew I could
count on your uncontrollable temper to supply me with the right kind of power.
And just look what you’ve done,” the Seesh points at the swirling spout of
liquid. “I’ll be sure to give you a mention in the guide book.” Dutch stares helplessly
from him to Sweet Mary.
“It’s an anomaly,”
continues the Seesh. “An event horizon if you will, and once it reaches the
roof up there, the spire at the very top - and that won’t be too long now – this
entire structure will be propelled into outer space…through the wormhole…and
finally, into Earth’s solar system. And that’s where the fun begins. Once there
my work is over. I don’t have to do a thing. I just sit back and watch the
human race destroy itself. How do I do that, I hear you ask? Well. It works like
this. I don’t shoot at them. No, I merely activate my ‘secret weapon’ and every
time they fire at me…they
blow up…instantly. And fire at me they will. I know how much you humans love
shooting things. They won’t be able to resist. It’s so elegant it makes me want
to cry. This…water-spout for want of a better word, merely opens up an anomaly
right in front of any weapon that opens fire on me, and the discharge comes
right back at them. Boom. Ha, ha. But that’s enough for now. I am afraid I am
going to have to leave you here. I still have some packing to do you
understand. But who knows, maybe we can have a drink together in some afterlife
or other. That would be nice.”
And then there is
silence, except for the ringing sound of the swirling waterspout, reminding us
of what’s to come. Safe to say, things aren’t looking rosy, and there’s not a
damn thing we can do about it.
