Izikiel (11 page)

Izikiel found himself drawn in by the
unknown woman’s beauty. There was something mesmerizing about her that prevented him from looking away. Staring at her incredible blue eyes, he experienced a strange sense of weightlessness. It was almost as if he had established contact with the Eternal Flame. The sensation evaporated when he felt Te’Anne’s elbow in his ribs. Coughing slightly, he turned his attention to the little girl.

‘
Are you ok?’ he asked her.

She slowly nodded her head as her eyes stared straight through him.
Seeing her again brought back that sense of familiarity. It also put him at ease as he realised that he had been truly worried about her. Satisfied that she was safe for the moment, Izikiel looked over at the man in the black shawl.

‘
Are you Vorn?’ he asked.

‘
Yes,’ the man replied in a calm, steady voice. His eyes never left Izikiel.

‘
It seems this is the second time that we’ve run into each other.’

‘
It would seem that way, yes.’

‘
I understand that you are a freighter captain?’

‘
You understand correctly.’

‘
Can you offer us passage off the planet?’

The
man’s steel grey eyes hardened as he took in Xavier and Jonas’ appearance. Leaning forward, his voice took on a dangerous edge as he said, ‘I don’t do business with security officers.’

‘
Now that’s not a very neighbourly attitude,’ Jonas said, looking at Xavier. The other man simply shrugged his shoulders.

‘
Could you two wait outside for a moment?’ Izikiel asked.

Xavier and Jonas looked
about to argue but then they looked over at the freighter captain and his female companion. Seemingly reaching a decision, they turned and walked back through the shimmering curtain. Once he was satisfied that they had left, Vorn continued as if nothing had happened.

‘
What can you offer as payment?’

Te’Anne stepped forward and opened her brown pack. The diamonds inside sparkled with an inner fire as
they reflected the light inside the blue vestibule. The red haired woman let out a low whistle as her blue eyes widened in surprise. Te’Anne cast her a smouldering look as her hand moved down to her weapon. The red haired woman ran her tongue across her lips in response.

‘
Impressive,’ Vorn said. ‘You have good collateral. So where do you want to go?’

‘
Aurora
,’ Izikiel replied without hesitation.

The freighter captain leaned back, his hand rubbing the stubble on his face as he considered what he had been told.
After a moment, he slowly shook his head.

‘
I don’t know why anyone would want to travel to
Aurora
by choice but you can certainly afford it. We leave immediately.’

Vorn stood up, an action mirrored by the red haired woman. Izikiel tried not stare at her again as
she was introduced to them.

‘
This is Cassandra, my co-pilot.’

‘
And you are…?’ Cassandra asked in a silky voice as her blue eyes locked onto his.

Izikiel swallowed w
ith difficulty before replying.

‘
My name is Izikiel and this is Te’Anne.’

Te’Anne’s greeting was less than civil. Vorn laughed
as he said to Izikiel, ‘I can see that these two are going to get along great.’

Izikiel grinned back at him. He decided
that he liked the mysterious freighter captain. He didn’t trust him of course. But he liked him.

Xavier and Jonas cast a suspicious look at
Vorn as they walked back into the private room. The freighter captain returned their gaze with an unwavering look of distaste. Before either of them could say anything, Izikiel said, ‘Vorn has agreed to take us. We leave straight away.’

‘
Alright but we’ll need to stop by the safe house and get some more equipment,’ Jonas said.

‘
If you leave now then our deal is off. Didn’t you notice what was happening out in the streets? The star port is tearing itself apart. We’ll be lucky to get to the platform at all,’ Vorn said. ‘Our best bet is if we head out through the back alley and try to reach the platform through the service walkway.’

‘
Great. So we leave with nothing but what we’ve got?’ Jonas asked.

‘
I’m sorry, Jonas but as much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree with him. The streets are in a state of chaos. We’d never make it,’ Xavier said.

‘
Alright, let’s go then,’ Izikiel said.

He had begun to sense a growing darkness approaching the star port. His mind recalled the sight of the three Void Lord citadels hurtling towards them. That sense of helplessness which had
overwhelmed him earlier returned.

H
e was suddenly no longer inside
The
Sargon
.

Space unfolded in front of him as three plumes of anti-matter scarred the cosmos. They were so close now
that Izikiel could clearly make out the shimmering black surfaces with their enormous archways and bulkheads. Spires connected by narrow bridges stretched out towards their veiled heights. The bottom of the structures swirled with a constant churning of the dark anti-matter which Izikiel deduced had to be the structures’ propulsion system. All three citadels had slowed considerably as they entered the star system. Even at this distance, he could sense the darkness contained within the incredible effigies to the Void. But there was something else. He could
feel
the darkness almost upon him.

Frowning
, Izikiel looked around. There was nothing near him. Then he looked down. What he saw sent a shiver through him. Dark shapes were flowing across the ground towards the New Babylon star port at incredible speed. He could see them emerging not far from the dome. He realised that the void spawn had followed them through the geo-planetary elevator. Closing his eyes, Izikiel returned to the star port.

‘
Izikiel,’ Te’Anne repeated with some urgency.

Opening his eyes
, he looked at her.

‘
They’re coming. We need to go, now.’

‘
Who’s coming?’ Vorn asked, his hand dropping to one of the weapons holstered at his side. Cassandra’s blue eyes flashed slightly as she focused on the entrance. She held her hands out to either side of her body in anticipation.

‘
I can’t tell you. Please, just trust me on this. We need to go,’ Izikiel said. He could see that they were hesitating, trying to decide whether to believe him or not. Instinct told him that there was only one way of getting these people to do what he wanted.

‘
Te’Anne, give them the diamonds.’

‘
Say what?’

‘
Just do it,’ Izikiel insisted as Te’Anne reluctantly handed over her pack to Vorn. Seeing the freighter captain raise his eyebrows in surprise, Izikiel explained.

‘
Now we have as much to lose as you do.’

Vorn slowly nodded his head.

‘I like your style, Izikiel. Alright, follow me. There’s a back way which leads directly onto the service walkway.’

They moved
quickly through the shimmering curtain and into the narrow corridor outside. Instead of returning to the main room, Vorn led them down a dimly lit side corridor. After a while they emerged inside a larger room filled with pipes and electrical conduits. The sound of air being forced through the pipes at high velocity filled the room. It was like a howling wind.

‘
Where are we?’ Izikiel asked.

‘
This is a service corridor located at the base of the platform. We can make our way to the top through the maintenance ducts along the walkway. There shouldn’t be anyone in here,’ Vorn replied.

‘
What about once we get to the top?’ Izikiel asked.

‘
That’s when it gets interesting,’ Vorn replied, his hand resting on the weapon on his right leg.

‘
Lead the way then.’

They made their way through the
narrow maintenance corridors filled with piping, conduits and the occasional monitor showing a series of numerical readouts. As they moved deeper into the structure, the corridor became steeper. The lack of any contact with the outside made Izikiel feel constrained as he struggled to breathe in the artificial environment. Dark shapes began to float before his eyes as he felt that the world was contracting around him. Just as he felt that he would lose consciousness, they emerged into daylight.

‘
Oh, great,’ Jonas said.

They had
exited the service corridor at the top of the space platform. Several small grey structures jutted out of the metallic surface. Pipes and electrical connections were spaced out at regular intervals, denoting ship landing bays. Three dark metallic ships currently occupied the most distant bays from where they stood. Between them and the last remaining ships on the planet was a writhing mass of people.

‘How are we going to get past that?’ Izikiel asked.

The noise from the crowd of star port citizens crashed over them like a wave. People of all ages pushed and shoved to try and reach one of the ships. Groups of grey uniformed security officers guarded the space craft. They were barely managing to keep the crowd at bay. It was a situation that could disintegrate into complete chaos at any moment.

‘
Now what?’ Te’Anne asked.

‘
I’m open to suggestions,’ Jonas said.

H
e scanned the crowd from side to side. Xavier stood next to him doing the same. There appeared to be no opening, no way of getting past them.

‘
My ship, the
Valiant Crusader
, is the one on the left. They won’t be able to get inside without the proper codes,’ Vorn said. ‘Although that won’t do us much good since we can’t get to it either.’

‘
We could try forcing our way through,’ Cassandra said.

H
er eyes sparkled with a strange inner fire as she flexed her fingers outwards.

‘
There’s too many of them. Besides we’ve got the little girl to consider,’ Jonas said. Looking over Cassandra’s lithe body, he added, ‘I’m also not exactly sure how you could help us in a combat situation.’

Cassandra’s eyes flashed dangerously as she moved closer to
him. Her lips parted in a smile as she asked, ‘Would you like to find out?’

‘
Probably not,’ Jonas replied, grinning. ‘But it still won’t be enough. There must be over a thousand people and some of them will be armed. We can’t risk getting into an all out fire fight.’

‘
Izikiel?’ Te’Anne asked.

‘
I’m not exactly sure what I can do. I don’t want to hurt these people.’

‘
I know. But if we don’t get to that ship then it’s all over.’

Izikiel let out a slow breath as
he nodded his head reluctantly.

‘
Alright, give me a moment.’

Closing his eyes
, he concentrated. The sound of the crowd receded to a dull roar as he became aware of the rest of his surroundings. He could feel the power pulsing within the metallic structure beneath him. The energy being channelled into the waiting ships, the air being pumped into their life support systems through the vast network of pipes underneath their feet.
That’s it!
Izikiel concentrated on the air being funnelled into the ships as the word formed in his mind. Opening his eyes, he looked at those standing next to him.

‘
Better hold onto something.’

Te’Anne and Xavier nodded as they instructed the others to
grab onto the sides of the maintenance tunnel. Izikiel turned his attention back to the conduits. He could feel the air moving through them, flowing with incredible speed along the dense network of pipes. His mind poised, he opened a link to the Eternal Flame and spoke a single word in the ancient language.

‘
Aquilo
’

A dozen pipes exploded at once as the air rushed out of them. Such was the force of the compressed air that it was visible
to the naked eye as vapour. Izikiel could feel the heat building within him as he moulded the air into the shape that he required. He could feel it responding as the heat increased. Air from one pipe joined with another, spinning faster and faster. On the other side of the platform, Izikiel combined the air from two other pipes. Then another and another. Soon eight powerful twisters hung suspended above the metallic surface. The heat within him had reached a scalding temperature as he directed the highly concentrated twisters into the centre of the crowd.

One by one
, people were swept aside. Izikiel was distantly aware of their cries of surprise and bewilderment as they were flung to the sides of the platform. After a few moments, Izikiel had managed to position the twisters to form a narrow pathway to Vorn’s star ship. The heat within him was now such that his eyes were watering and his skin felt like it was on fire. Gritting his teeth, he turned to Te’Anne.

‘
Hurry, I can’t hold it for long!’

Te’Anne motioned for the others to follow her.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ Jonas protested.

He continued to grip the side
s of the maintenance tunnel with his right hand as he looked at the invisible passage.

‘
It’s ok. Trust me. Now come on!’ Te’Anne urged him on as she moved out into the centre of the space platform.

Reluctantly
, Jonas let go and followed her. Vorn and Cassandra looked sceptical as well but chose not to voice their concerns. Xavier and the little girl were already moving through the invisible path created by the twisters.

‘
Izikiel, come on!’ Te’Anne called out.

T
hey were almost to the star ship. Izikiel could see several people slowly getting to their feet on either side of the wind funnels. He could hear their angry shouts over the sound of the twisters. Realising that he had little time, Izikiel ran towards the ship. The strain of channelling the Eternal Flame’s power to maintain the twisters was becoming too much. The temperature had risen to such a level that he could barely see any more as his skin seared from the heat and his head felt like it was going to explode. His steps began to slow.

Looking through the haze of pain
, he could see the star ship was just in front of him.
Just a few more steps
, he told himself. His connection to the Eternal Flame suddenly vanished. The twisters spun harmlessly off into the sky. A numbing cold replaced the feeling of heat as he dropped to his knees. Struggling to comprehend what had happened, Izikiel was distantly aware of people rushing towards him. As he struggled to stand up he felt a pair of arms lifting him up. Turning his head from side to side, he saw two people in armoured suits carrying him towards the waiting star ship. Rushing up an open walkway, they deposited him on a padded couch.

‘
Close it!’ a male voice ordered as Izikiel slumped backwards.

‘
Izikiel, what’s wrong?’ a voice asked.

He tried to focus on the speaker but the cold was such that he couldn’t move. Dark shapes swam before his eyes as he felt himself slipping away from consciousness.
No. I am stronger than this. I am the last disciple. The last chance these people have. I must find the strength.

Slowly, without knowing how, Izikiel managed to fight down the feeling
s of despair rising up within him. Opening his eyes, he looked around. He was inside a low compartment, with a central couch and benches around the sides. A viewport dominated one wall, while metallic doorways punctuated the other three sides. Te’Anne sat next to him on the dark blue couch. She had a concerned expression on her face.

‘
You ok?’ she asked.

‘
Yes,’ he replied. ‘I am now.’

Vorn’s voice came drifting i
n from another part of the ship as Izikiel felt a surge of power beneath his feet.

‘
Hold onto something, we’re out of here!’