 
#  Beyond body, place and time

Arwen Jayne

Copyright © 2018 Arwen Jayne

All rights reserved

While reference has been made to some actual historical events or persons and some real locations all other names, characters and places are fictional; the product of the author's overly imaginative mind. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses or places is purely coincidental.

###  Disclaimer

This is a piece of fiction, enjoy it but if you're looking for science facts you might find it lacking. The story is purely a creation of my imagination.

###  Acknowledgements

To all my friends, fans and family for their ongoing encouragement. Jen for the long chats on metaphysics, editing and pushing me to always go one better. To my life partner who has not only built me avery fine writing area with a view over the garden but also gives me endless support and encouragement to "have a go."

###  Cover photo credit

Download free do whatever you want high-resolution photos from Sasha Freemind https://unsplash.com/photos/nXo2ZsKHTHg (Unsplash grants an irrevocable, nonexclusive, worldwide copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform and use photos from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing the photographer of Unsplash)

##  1

"Ticket Please. Welcome on board Ms Murdoch, row 15 on your right."

"Thank you." As if I couldn't work that out for herself. It was on the ticket. But it was part of the ritual. Easier just to play their games. I smiled sweetly and moved on up the aisle.

Two men were already seated on my side of row 15. I stashed my modest backpack in the overhead locker and then squeezed past the first man, clutching my small satchel of reading material and other bare essentials. "Excuse me."

The man didn't look up, just grunted, but he did tuck his legs in a bit and pulled his notebook closer to his chest. Going by the equations on the pages he was deep into working out some calculations. Engineer of mathematician? There was no way to tell from the well cut grey suit, receding hairline and rimless glasses. In his forties. Clean, trimmed fingernails. The man liked precision and that was all I could tell. There'd be no getting any interesting conversation out of him on this flight.

The other man, seated against the window, overlooking the wing of the plane, was someone else again. His obsidian black eyes shone with a radiance that suggested a strong spirit. Scrawny. Rugged. Below shoulder length hair. A touch of Asian ancestry perhaps. A uni student going overseas on a gap year? He was smiling broadly at me so after I settled myself in the annoyingly narrow economy middle seat I extended my hand. "I'm Emily. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you Emily. I'm Steve."

He didn't look like a Steve. "Nice to meet you Steve. On holiday?"

"A between semester break. Got myself accepted onto one of the archeological digs in Peru. Sounded like a fun way to spend the break, gain some experience relevant to my general studies degree and maybe meet some interesting people. What about you?"

"Spending my grandkids inheritance seeking out the spiritual and mystical. Last trip was a year in the Philippines studying with a psychic healer, as long as my visa would allow. This time I'm hoping to seek out one of the icaros, a Peruvian shaman, and see if he will take me on or at the very least give me a glimpse into their ways. After that I might head up to Mexico."

Steve sat up with interest. "You're hoping to experience an ayahuasca ceremony?"

"At the very least."

"Isn't that dangerous for..." Steve paused, obviously regretting that he'd started that sentence.

"For someone my age, is what you were thinking. Possibly but what the hell. I'm 84. I've had a good innings. If I start worrying about risks I may as well book myself into an old age home here and now."

"84?" Steve looked at me disbelieving. "You don't look a day over sixty."

"Now you're just being nice but I'm still the same person I've ever been up here," I tapped my skull. "Somedays I feel like a sixteen year old in the wrong container."

"If I look as good as you at 84 I'd be happy with the container. So, grandkids then..."

Just then the airline hostess interrupted. "Ms Murdoch. I was just wondering if you would like to move as this row is on an emergency exit..."

I didn't let her finish. "I'm sure Steve and I can operate the door if it comes to that."

"But..."

I rolled up a sleeve and flexed an arm muscle.

"Er.."

Obviously she'd never seen muscles on an octogenarian before and it didn't compute. Some people could never see what didn't fit their pre-existing models.

Steve pitched in, "We'll be fine miss."

The hostess studied us for a moment then shrugged her shoulders. "Well, if you're sure." She wandered off.

Steve and I gave each other a high five which caused a momentary raised eyebrow and a hint of amusement from mister equation. Steel blue eyes peered at us for half a second before he grunted again and went back to his work.

"Now, tell me more about this general studies degree of yours Steve."

"Well right up your alley actually. I'm researching the history of pre-Incan ritual and spiritual practices. I believe they possessed an advanced spirituality that gave them almost superhuman skills and abilities. Raw psychic power. Clairvoyance, telepathy, mind of matter and self-healing. Given the huge scope of what they did I've had to restrain myself from venturing into their sciences but it looks like they had an understanding of the laws of gravity, nature and astronomy that were unrivalled until the modern era."

It was equation man's turn to show interest. Carefully closing his notebook. "They were masters of straight line geometry on a grand scale and for that you have to have an underpinning knowledge of spherical geometry, to take into account the curvature of the earth."

We looked at him in interest. "Go on." Steve prompted.

"Well, for starters they managed to straighten a two mile section of the Urubamba River. Then there's the endless miles of super-highways that would have had Roman road builders salivating. They transformed cliff faces into terraced arable farm land."

Steve and I listened voraciously as Mr Aston Douglas, who turned out to be a construction engineer, outlined the extent of their building expertise, interrupted only by the serving of refreshments. Steve started taking notes, pausing to ask. "Do you know anything about their temple construction techniques?"

"Some. If you're referring to the Huaca Pucllana in Lima it was built around 500 AD by people who thrived there until climate change and warfare with neighbouring tribes forced them out. The pyramid is mostly built of bricks and sand, an attempt to capture the past glory of civilisations that preceded them. The earlier pyramids along the coast are more massive but because they were built from adobe, basically mud bricks, most are badly eroded. What really interests me more is the thick layer of mica used in the top level of the temple of the Sun Pyramid in Mexico. What I want to know is if such a layer lies hidden in the foundations of any of the Peruvian pyramids."

"I've read Colin Wilson", Steve commented. "The layer in the temple in Mexico is made of two sheets of mica, 90 foot square. Just how they transported the sheets, unbroken, from Brazil, beggars belief."

I certainly hadn't heard of this before. Brazil? "But what was its purpose?" I wondered.

"That's what I hope to work out. It's taken me two years to negotiate access to the guts of a few of the Peruvian temples to have a look," Aston commented.

"Aren't you heading in the wrong direction if most of the temples are along the coast? This plane lands at Iquitos not Lima."

Aston lowered his voice to a whisper. "I've heard rumour that the foundations of a far older temple lie beneath the jungle."

"Near Iquitos?" I whispered back.

"My lips are sealed. There are those who would plunder rather than preserve the past."

"If you're looking for mica layers you must have some theories about their uses?" I surmised.

"In modern applications mica is used in capacitors, thermostats and insulators. You see it acts as both an electrical insulator and a thermal conductor which is quite a curious combination. It's also possible that the mica may have been used as some kind of deflection plate, blocking subatomic particles."

"So the mica could have been protecting something below."

"Or stopping some kind of straight line radiation from an object below."

"What's you interest in this Aston? You don't come across to me like a student of forbidden history." More like a desk bound thinker than someone inclined to field work, but perhaps I was stereotyping him.

Aston laughed. "Hell no. I'm only interested in the practical applications. My company's doing a lot at the moment with conductive concrete as a means to construct buildings that can stand up to mini-ice ages or even EMP electromagnetic pulse attacks. If we can add other defensive measures all the better. EMP isn't the only attack weapon feared to be out there. Subatomic particle weapons are not inconceivable."

"But mica is so expensive, at least in the unbroken sizes you're talking about."

"Expense is not important when you're talking about protecting the world's data. Think big like banking systems, military installations, seed banks that you don't want irradiated. I can't give you any more examples than that though or I'll be in breach of company confidences."

"You think that's what the ancients South Americans were doing with it. Protecting things?"

Aston shrugged. "Why not? And not just them. Even the granite the Egyptians used for the inside of their pyramids is rich in mica, quartz and feldspar. I don't think that was by chance. They didn't cart those heavy stones in for no good reason. I don't believe in accidents."

Just then the plane hit some turbulence and the fasten seat belt signs came on.

"Please return your seats to the upright position and ensure all personal articles are stored securely under your seats." The overhead announcement ordered.

To our shared disappointment Aston put away not just his calculations but his detailed sketches of the structure of the Sun Pyramid. We'd all been engrossed. One thing I still wondered. "Aston, have you by any chance ever heard of the Emerald tablet?"

"The what?"

"It's a writing that is supposed to be traced back to ancient times. There's a passage in it. Let me see if I remember the gist of the bit I think will interest you. I closed my eyes and allowed my mind to empty, resting in stillness. It was my way of opening up to memories nearly long forgotten. _"The mighty pyramid uses power to overcome gravity. Deep within the pyramid is a containment chamber, a space which reaches to the summit where the crystal apex_ _resides_ _. Through it_ _is sent_ _a ray that connects with space-time and through it_ _is received_ _a connection with_ _the astral plane. Connecting the core with the galactic center of the universe, Amenti._ Er, that's not a word for word translation but that's how I understood it just now. I don't even know if that's just a lot of gobbledygook..."

Aston, stared at me. "That's brilliant. I need to run that past a physicist mate of mine. How long til we land in Iquitos?"

A loud bang answered him as a huge lightning bolt struck the wing outside.

A child in a nearby row started to cry.

Aston seemed unconcerned. "Airplanes take lightening bolts like that all the time."

Steve peered out the window in horror. "Um, aren't those blades on the engine meant to be turning?"

"What?" Aston starred in the direction Steve was looking. "That can't be." Then he shook himself as if to release the worry. "No matter, the plane can fly with one engine out. The computers up front can compensate."

Despite Aston's belief in the infallibility of the plane I had a sudden urge to grab my pack from the overhead locker. I pressed the call button on my arm rest.

It didn't take long for the now worried looking hostess to come over. "Can I help?"

"Would it be alright if I got some medication out of my pack. I'm feeling a little queasy," I lied.

"It would be best if you stay seated until we're through this storm. I'll pass it down to you." She rummaged in the overhead locker. "Which one is it?"

"The blue one with the gray sides."

"Ah yes, here it is." She handed it to me then looked around. Someone else was buzzing. "I'll come back."

I was going to say no need but she was already gone. I passed the pack to Steve. "Is there room under your seat?"

"Sure," he gave me a questioning glance but said nothing more.

"This is your captain speaking." The overhead speakers announced again. "Due to the storm we'll be diverting to a closer airport. We'll land briefly while some minor mechanical repairs are made and then we'll be on our way."

Steve muttered to himself. "He calls a blown engine minor?"

Lightning hit again, this time the front of the plane. The cabin lighting flickered leaving us in total darkness for a split second until the emergency floor lighting kicked in. Someone was screaming up the back of the plane, causing a flurry as two airline hostesses lurched in their direction to try and calm them.

"This is not happening," Aston chanted to himself like some kind of mantra but wishful thinking wasn't going to make the escalating situation go away.

"Listen to me you two. Whether we like it or not things are going to go South. I'm no doomsdayer, I just know. You're just going to have to trust me on this."

Steve studied me intently. "You're a psychic aren't you? I felt the familiar prickle in my head when you sat down next to me."

"A psychic," Aston spat, as if the word was a swear word. But just then the plane lurched into a nosedive, causing further commotion in the cabin and kind of making my point. That and the oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling. Never a good sign.

"Listen. We can survive this. I know it's not my time to die yet. There's something more the universe wants from me. You two can survive with me but you must do as I say."

Steve was attentive but Aston had a raised eyebrow.

"What you got to lose? Either what I ask will work or the alternative is you'll never know because you'll be dead."

That got Aston's attention. "Go on."

"I want you to hold my hand, to maintain a connection with me. I'm going to generate a protective psychic field around us."

"What do we need to do", Aston asked suspiciously?

"Nothing other than remain connected with me. If you can lend me your belief that we'll make this out alive. Collective belief and all that."

He looked at me blankly. I didn't have time to explain. I just hoped I was wrong about our situation and the pilot had just taken the plane into free fall to try and restart the failed engine but with the electricity out I was thinking the plane's problems were bigger than that. I grabbed hold of their hands and went into my inner space. I visualized and focused on our predicament, looking at it from all sides and then I went into it, right at its center and as I did it evaporated from my mind. A vast pool of light and sense of safety washed out from that center and wrapped around us. And I rested in it.

Somewhere that seemed at a far distance I heard an announcement "Brace for impact" and then came the bang. I was jarred sideways in my seat but Steve held me firm as the plane crumpled around us.

I woke from my trance with a strange sensation beating at my forehead. My third eye had opened wide. I took a second to connect with my heart and then grounded myself. Steadier. Less floaty.

Steve's arm still held me tight "You did it."

"I did nothing. Exactly that." I'd given the universe my intent then gotten out of its way so it could do its thing.

"You know what I mean."

Now wasn't the time to argue metaphysics. What concerned me was the limp hand on my other side. I extracted myself from Steve's grip and placed a finger to Aston's neck. "He's alive. Must have clobbered his head on the seat in front." I had to trust his injuries weren't worse than concussion. I glanced quickly around the rest of the plane. It was a mangled mess. People with their necks broken lay dead in their seats. The hostesses had been thrown down the aisle, bundled up against the entrance to pilots cockpit which had born the brunt of the impact. It was crushed beyond recognition. No-one bar Steve and me were moving. Urgency pushed at my center. "We need to get out of here."

Steve and I pulled the handle on the emergency hatch. I grabbed my stuff as well as Aston's and then helped Steve with pulling Aston out of the plane. If his back or neck was broken we were dooming him to a life in a wheelchair but the smoke ominously spewing from the cockpit boded worse problems.

Once we had Aston settled Steve made moves to go back to the plane. I grabbed his wrist to stop him. "It's too late."

"There might be some still alive. We need to check."

"It's going to blow Steve. What's the first aiders' number one law?"

"Make sure you're out of harm's way."

"Exactly. If those flames peter out then we'll go back in but, at the moment, for all we know toxic fumes are filling the cabin. And if she blows..."

The plane didn't wait for me to finish the sentence. It blew. Steve pushed me to the ground, partially covering Aston in the process, before the shockwave could reach us. Shrapnel flew in all directions but miraculously avoided us. What sounded like a million birds launched into the air as the fireball burst skyward.

##

##  2

"Get off me. I appreciate the save Steve but you're squashing me and Aston. I'm probably past being that sort of sandwich anyway."

Steve choked. Not sure he appreciated my joke. It was the worst of getting old. You didn't know what was politically correct anymore. But Steve didn't look the sort to worry about Ps and Qs. Just embarrassed. I chewed my bottom lip guiltily.

"No, please don't do that. You're making it worse. You're kind of cute when you do that and that is so inappropriate for me to be thinking."

"Well I'm flattered anyway. We'd best wake Aston if we can and get out of here before any predators start nosing around. The smell of blood and burnt flesh is bound to bring them."

"I so did not need those images in my head."

"But you must admit it pushed the other thoughts away."

"That it did."

I took Aston's pulse again. It was stronger this time. I squeezed his hand and that elicited a groan. "You're crushing my hand."

I rolled my eyes. "No I'm not" but I was glad he was back with us. "Can you move?"

"I think so. What happ....end." He took in the devastation as he sat up. "Er?"

"You must have hit your head on the seat in front. Steve and I pulled you out. We were the only survivors."

"And the plane?"

I guessed Aston meant the reason for the plane's current state. "Don't know. There was a fire getting going when we got out. Must have got near the fuel tanks."

Aston rubbed his head, troubled. "None of this adds up. None of this should have happened. Planes don't just fall out of the sky because a couple of bolts of lightning hit them."

His unease spread to Steve and me as we heard voices in the forest. It was Steve who voiced our collective thought. "Perhaps we should be cautious. See who they are before we announce ourselves."

Aston nodded. "They could be looters or worse they're after something specific."

I hated distrusting our wouldbe rescue party but a hunch said he was right. "Over there, the trees are thicker. We can watch but we should be still able to hear."

We each grabbed our stuff and made a hasty retreat.

With only seconds to spare we settled into our hidey-hole as three men, with AK47s at the ready, came into view.

"Aqui!" The first man to enter the clearing, who seemed to be their scout, called the others over then stepped to the side to keep guard.

"Joder!" That from a second man when he saw the strewn wreckage.

"Maldita sea!" Bossman was not pleased.

"No tenía intención de explotar."

"Er. Lo siento jefe."

"Idiota." The boss hit his lackey up the side of his head. "Vea si puede encontrar los papeles. Fila 15."

"Dónde?" The underling scanned the desolation meaningfully, "No vamos a encontrar nada, ¿verdad?"

"Buscar de todos modos."

The lackey did as he was told and looked, despite the near certainty that there was nothing left to find.

If our bare bones knowledge of Spanish wasn't enough the way the newcomers poked at the wreckage with their AK47s was sufficient to encourage us to make our retreat. I pointed skyward where an unusual pair of birds, an eagle and a condor, circled over head. Where to? I sent my mental question skyward. The birds stopped circling and headed in a direction. I started following the birds. Steve took my backpack off me and followed. Who was I to argue if he wanted to shoulder the load? I quietly nodded my thanks. Aston stared at us for a moment then shrugged his shoulders. He followed.

We walked in silence for some time, until we thought ourselves far enough away. Even then we kept it to a whisper in case there were others in the area.

"They were looking for my notes weren't they?" Aston finally voiced what had been troubling him.

"I think so. Steve's travelling light and the only papers I have on me are my passport and travel documents."

"Why my papers? What's so important about my research?"

"I guess you're in the best position to answer that."

"Tell us more about your theories," Steve suggested.

Aston winced, "Well, only if you promise not to tell anyone else. Not even the company I work for knows the oddest of my ideas."

"Which are?" I prompted.

"OK. I don't know if you've noticed but a lot of the sacred places around the world are built on much older foundations. Foundations that are built stronger and with greater precision than anything that followed. Being made of rock no-one's a hundred percent sure of the dating on those foundations."

"But you have an idea," Steve guessed.

"I have but I've voiced the idea to no-one. It would end my career"

"We're not judging you Aston," I pointed out.

He paused for a moment, frowning. The wrinkled look was kind of cute. It only added to his nerd appeal. Not that I was, um, looking.

"Let me guess," I offered. "They're older than 5,000 years."

Aston gasped, "Yes, how did you know."

Steve chuckled. "I can see we're going to have to give you a 101 introduction to forbidden archeology. What you're talking about is often called Civilisation One, wiped out about 12,800 years ago when a meteorite broke up in the atmosphere and fragments fell to earth causing tsunamis, craters and bush fires over at least ten percent of the planet. Most of the megafauna, giant herbivores and the like, disappeared at that time. Some say even some of the oxygen in the atmosphere was ripped away."

Aston listened intently. "So more than just a volcano in the mediterranean destroying an island, that mainstream historians think is the basis of the myth of Atlantis."

"Much, much more."

"Even so. I think some of the structures I've been studying are older than even that."

"How old?" I wondered. Now we were really stepping beyond even hypothetical prehistory.

"Try several tens of thousands of years. I have a contact in these parts. He was doing some aerial surveying when he spotted something in the jungle. A totally undocumented complex and its layout shows a high degree of sophistication."

"They've found large scale irrigation and field structures in Brazil, enough to have fed a population much larger than existed in South America before the Spaniards and Portuguese turned up," Steve commented. "The jungle covered them over. It's only with recent clearing that they were found."

I was curious now. "This contact of yours. Has he been to the site yet? He hasn't told anyone about the find has he?"

"Oh god I hope not."

The eagle above us let out an eerie cry that had me tuning within. Danger. "We're being followed. Quick, give me your satchel Aston."

"Why?" Aston frowned.

"I haven't time to explain. Do you want to save your notes or not?"

He handed me the satchel.

I emptied its contents, curled them into a tight roll and then secured them with a spare hairband I had in my pocket. "Turn around Steve. I need to hide these in the bottom of my pack."

I did that then pulled out a couple of my favorite novels I'd brought with me to keep me company on the trip. I mourned what I was about to do. I extracted the pages from their spines, put the covers back in my pack then stuffed the now loose pages in the empty satchel. It was a cheeky gamble but all the best bets were. "You owe me Aston, those were first editions."

"Of what? I saw the half dressed men on those covers."

"Each his own," I wasn't about to explain myself.

"You know us guys have a hard time measuring up to those fictional heros," Aston complained

"When I need a hero I'll let you know."

Steve, who was listening in, choked down a laugh.

We walked in silence a little further, listening. The condor high above called out. Footsteps in the undergrowth let us know the enemy was upon us. A man stepped forward from the shadows of jungle.

"Dame los papeles!"

"Y entonces?" I dared to ask a what then.

"Usted vive."

I looked to Aston, as if bargaining. "We have nothing to lose. He could shoot us anyway."

The man grew agitated. "Ahora!"

Aston feigned reluctance, grumbling, but handed the satchel over.

The man peaked inside and we collectively held out breath.

He closed the satchel, giving no indication whether he was satisfied or not. Then he raised his rifle in our direction.

"Por favor. No dispare!" I pleaded. "Prometiste," well no he hadn't actually promised not to shoot us. Only that we'd live. I didn't fancy a bullet in the foot that would make us ready prey for the predators in the jungle. Getting eaten alive wasn't on my list of preferred ways to go. I did my best to look like a harmless old woman, hoping that in some way I reminded him of his grandma.

"No sigas o morirás", the man grunted.

Yeah, I had no doubt, he'd kill us if we took one step in his direction. We watched him go.

"Shit that was close," Steve spoke what we were all thinking.

"You're not wrong. But I think we'd better get a move on. If he does get back to anyone who can read English it won't be good."

"Where to?" Aston asked.

"Keep following our aerial guides. I think they're leading us parallel to the river. Smart move. Each tributary in these parts merges into bigger tributaries. Eventually we'll reach a town. But in case those guys have paid townsfolk to keep an eye out for us we'd best stay on the outskirts."

"What about a drink? Can we go down to the river now? I'm thirsty."

"Predators roam the banks for animals not on their guard. We'll only go there if the need is desperate. I have a bottle in my pack and some iodine tablets with me we can use to clean more."

"And food?" The engineer in Aston was taking stock.

"I've got a few sealed packs of nuts and rice crackers with me, whatever I thought I could get through customs if I didn't eat it on the plane. But it won't go far." Truth be known I could eat a packet of those purple rice crackers in one sitting, they were that tasty, but we were going to have to ration them.

Steve was unworried. "I've been around these parts before. I can find us stuff that's safe to eat. For now though I need to look for a couple of specific plants to rub on us or come dusk we'll be food for every biting insect out here in the forest."

"It's not exactly the insects I'm worried about," Aston bemoaned, "but the much larger critters."

I knew exactly what he meant. If a jaguar came across our path we'd all become so much mince meat. Yet somehow I trusted our guardians in the sky had our back.

##

##  3

We walked on for a few more hours but as dusk approached our concerns grew. We were going to need somewhere to bed down for the night and to be perfectly honest some of the things we'd seen crawling around the forest floor, ants, giant centipedes, tarantulas, not to mention the occasional poisonous frog, well sleeping on the carpet of leaves beneath the trees didn't hold much appeal.

A call from one of our friends in the sky had me looking up towards the forest canopy. Part way up a tall tree was a wooden platform, almost a treehouse. It had a roof of sorts but little in the way of sides. The why of it had me mystified. Did some lost Amazonian tribe like the safety of the tree-tops? There had to be a way to get up there.

Steve knew what I was thinking. "It ain't going to be easy."

"No, but worth it," I mused.

"You've got to be kidding me," Aston stared at the structure, horrified. Possibly it wasn't up to his usual standard of construction.

"Look," Steve pointed. "That pole that's leaning against the tree has notches cut into it. All we have to do is climb up. The vines growing up the tree provide extra grab rails."

Aston paled.

"I'll go first," I offered, hoping to inspire Aston. The timber was damp and mouldy but solid enough. Don't look down, I reminded myself. I wasn't particularly frightened of heights but it wasn't every day I went climbing a tree either. I kept one hand firmly on the 'ladder' at all times. It was the longest ten minutes of my life. At least I didn't have to beat a timer like some reality TV obstacle course warrior. The hardest bit was the last, dragging my aging torso up onto the platform. I let out a strangled gasp and just lay there on the floor, regaining my breath.

"You alright Emily?" Steve yelled up from below.

"Tell me again why I just did that," I yelled back down.

"Because of the things that prowl in the night."

"Good point."

The comment about jaguars had Aston looking around nervously. "Okay, okay. If Emily can do it. I suppose I can."

Steve rewarded him with a smile of encouragement, knowing the man was being braver than must have been his norm. "I won't be far behind you. The sun'll be setting soon. Don't rush up the ladder, but don't dawdle either."

Aston, nodded. "Er, you alright with the pack?"

Steve, who was twenty years his junior, rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the concern. I'll be fine. Let's go. Time's a ticking."

They made it up the ladder. Just as the last rays of the sun faded into dark and the eerie sounds of the night-time forest replaced the bird calls. A light wind ruffled the very top of the canopy but at our level in the trees all was still. Like me Aston flaked out on the deck as soon as he got there, red faced and panting. His state worried me a little. I placed a finger on his wrist and took his pulse. It was pounding but it was strong. As I monitored him the pulse began to slow.

"I'm not going to die am I?" Aston asked.

"Not yet. Rest there for a bit then we'll eat."

But Aston went quickly from rest to deep sleep. Steve and I quietly shared a small ration of rice crackers, deciding to keep the remainder of our diminishing rations for breakfast. As Steve finished his tiny meal he turned his eyes skyward. I watched as his eyes studied the stars purposefully. "Any idea where we are?"

"Heading downstream like you thought. In an easterly direction. More than that I couldn't tell you without a few navigation tools. We should come across a village soon, maybe even a trail, or a road."

"That would be good. Although we can't be certain if we can trust the locals."

"Yeah, I know," Steve mused. "There could be lookouts."

"Let's sleep on it. Things will look better in the morning." Well I hoped they would. "I'll take first watch."

"You're still worried they'll catch back up with us?"

"Can't help to be vigilant. We'd be sorry if we weren't and they did."

Steve nodded in understanding, "Wake me when you've had enough."

I watched as he settled himself, his eyes closing and then a steady light breath as he descended into deep sleep. Then I did a little of my own staring at the stars. I mentally connected myself with the vastness of it all. Okay, yeah I know, I couldn't exactly touch the vastness. It was more a shift of perspective, away from focusing on the day's problems and events. A broadening of my awareness from the personal and mundane to the infinity of the universe that gave me home. I rested my mind in that connection and everything around sparkled and crackled with more life than I was sure most humans would ever see in their lifetime. A small spider swung through the air on a faintly visible trapeze of gossamer thread. A large owl flew almost silently through the treetops before swooping down to the forest floor to grab its prey and fly back to its nest. A mass of tiny bats cascaded through the night sky, leaving the daytime safety of their cave to forage among the myriad of moths and other flying insects out doing their thing under the pale light of a new moon. And the stars. If you watched them long enough you became aware of how they moved in relation to the tree-tops, outpacing the seemingly fixed planets that followed their own much slower path without twinkling like the stars.

Relaxed now, in my treetop haven, I took a moment to tune inward, to that part of me that connected with others, or at least to those as psychic as myself. Not surprisingly I found a thread of connection with Steve there. I'd known since the that first moment I'd sat down next to him that there was something more to him. Despite his deep sleep state I knew I could follow that thread if I wished and share his dreams but I felt that might be rude if I didn't warn him first.

Instead I followed the thread that would lead to my granddaughter Belinda, wherever she might be. I knew Belinda was on some kind of secret mission from which she might never return but in my heart I'd known her choice had been the right one for her and I'd told her so. Bless her heart, she'd worried if she left that I'd be lumbered with being my other grandchild Ben's full time babysitter for his kids. Since his wife had left him he had successfully sob storied Belinda into performing her aunty duties. And she was right. I'd have been next and I didn't trust myself that much to put my needs before his. Great grandmother duties and all that. So as soon as I knew Belinda's choice was made I'd quelled my conscience, switched off my phone, set my email to bounce and headed on the next plane to South America. Hopefully by the time I got back Ben would have worked out an alternative arrangement, which I knew he could afford. It was a coward's way out, doing a runner like that, but it had avoided a messy manipulative confrontation, at least for now. Didn't I love my great grandchildren? Of course I did, though perhaps not in the besotted way some did. There were other things that now held my interest, not child-rearing. My days of chasing after tantrum ridden toddlers should have been far behind me. The kids had suffered abandonment by their mother. They needed counselling and professional carers, not me. I'd spent my early years, before I'd married, nursing in the army. Then when my own daughter and son-in-law had died tragically in a car crash me and my late husband Robert had raised their kids as our own. We'd loved and cherished them with equal measure, or I wanted to believe we had. Yet it was the girl, Belinda, who had turned out to be soul-kin. Recurrent flashes of memories had us both believing that we had shared more than one life together before, part of the same soul grouping.

Belinda, I pushed her name out into the cosmos, knowing I wouldn't exactly get a verbal response but at least I'd get a sense of how she was. I was surprised then when I was regaled with pictures in my mind's eye. Belinda had suddenly and unexpectedly grown in psychic power. Where the hell was she?

A picture of the planet Mars floated in. Yeah?

I sent her a picture back of a hand pulling a leg.

A laughing emoji came back, then the same image of Mars followed by a tick symbol.

I sent her back wide eyes of surprise.

A moment passed then an image of a map and a compass came my way. Where was I?

I sent her back three question marks and an outline of South America, slowly zooming into the Amazon area with more question marks following. Should I tell her about how I got there? I didn't want her freaking. Yet I trusted this new level of communication between us enough that I could convince her I was alright. Well mostly alright. So I sent an image of a plane nose diving into forest then me and two men walking out of it before it burst into flames.

An image of a wide open mouth came straight back at me. I politely translated that as what the eff?

I shared an image of me and the guys walking through the forest.

A picture of a hand making the sign for okay followed by a question mark came at me.

For some reason I again trusted she wouldn't freak out on me so I sent her a hand making a so-so motion followed by an image of men with machine guns following us.

Our conversation continued on like this, a kind of cosmic sign language but we understood each other just fine. We finished off with me promising to give her regular updates and send her an email when I got somewhere safe. Apparently a phone call wouldn't work because of the time delay of signals getting from Earth to Mars via relay satellites.

A tap on my shoulder, almost startled me but I knew who it was. "Sorry Steve, I hope you weren't getting any spillover from my inner chatter."

Steve laughed. "Inner chatter, is that what you call it. Belinda seems nice but I gather she's so far away that I'll never get to meet her."

My mouth flapped for a minute. He'd picked up on that much?

"Get some sleep Emily. You're welcome to try and invade my dreams once Aston takes his turn on watch but I doubt you'll get through my shields."

My eyes brightened with mischief. A dare. "You're on."

##  4

My sleep was deep and dreamless until a couple of hours before the dawn. A lucid dreamer from way back I soon realised I was dreaming and sent my imagination to where I wanted to go. My favorite place. I don't know if it actually exists somewhere in the real world but in my dream world I imagine it to be somewhere in the Caribbean. Nope, never been there. Haven't got a clue what it's really like. So, free of any preconceptions, I gave my mind free reign.

The waters were of the clearest liquid green you occasionally see in a semi precious stone called calcite. A cave crystal that comes in all sorts of colours but my favorite was this green. Free from the constraints of real world limitations I imagined I could swim underwater as effortlessly as walking through air. Past tall forests of kelp peopled by a dazzling array of fish in all the brightest colors. The fish were at peace with my presence and let me pass on through. Onto the entrance of a mystical cavern. Yet even in the cavern there was light, as if from some unseen source.

I swam through the cavern and it opened out into a secret grotto, formed long ago by a sinkhole that had grown over with lush jungle that descended from above to the very water's edge. I burst through the surface and swam to the nearest rocky out crop. A ray of sunlight that danced its surface beckoned me.

I watched, enchanted, as a pair of swallows played tag, diving in and out of small openings in the cliff face above. This was my secret private place. Now to invite someone else in. I followed the mental thread I had felt earlier and gave it a tug. Suddenly he was there with me, sharing space on my rock.

"What the...?"

"Steve," I said simply in greeting.

"Do I know you?"

"Since today, yes," I waited for the penny to drop.

He studied me intently then gasped. "Emily?"

"In the flesh, well dream flesh anyway."

"But..."

"I'm younger. Yes. Did you think I go around with a mental image of myself as a mass of grey hair and wrinkles."

"So this is what you looked like in your mid-twenties?"

"Oh I doubt it. Back then I had all the worries on my shoulders any twenty something has. Would I find success in life? Would I find a place to call home? Would my life be worthwhile? In an age when few women worked I was a nurse on a warfront. And I had a boyfriend at home, waiting for my return. I managed to act enough confidence that I got up through the ranks in my job and got to be in charge of my own operating theatre. Hard work, knowledge and lots of bravado. I don't have to prove myself like that anymore. What you see is a more relaxed version of my younger self. The bravado's long been replaced by a quieter, steadier kind of confidence. That and a cunning born of wisdom. Welcome to my special place."

Steve glanced around the cavern. "It's breathtaking. Do you like to swim here?"

"Thought you'd never ask." I let the towel, that I'd conjured for myself, fall and dove in. The splash echoing around the rocky sides of the sinkhole.

Steve took my cue and ditched the jeans and T-shirt he'd been wearing. He swam out to where I floated on my back, resting on the waters. "You're at home here aren't you?"

"I've always felt at home in water. I guess I have a healthy second chakra. Doesn't matter how stressful a day's been, if I can soak in a bath, play in a river or dive into the ocean, I'm home.

"Even when you lost your daughter?"

"Even then, especially then." I allowed the pain that came with the memory of loss and let it be until it dissipated.

"Sorry. Curiosity got the better of me."

I smiled at him to let him know no harm was done. "I've learnt not to run from memories. They only chase after you if you do. When I lost Bob two years ago I allowed myself time to be with the grief, still do if it surfaces. Some people stay stuck in their grief, almost grabbing hold of it as if as long as they feel the pain they can still hold on to what they've lost. Others deny or run away from it but then it has a habit of festering deep in the subconscious mind, waiting for their weakest moment, to remind them and exact its own revenge for pushing it away, by plunging them into despair."

Steve listened intently which got him brownie points for being genuinely interested. "It sounds like water has taught you much. Flexibility, flow, going with the tide of, if not water, then your emotions"

"I guess so." He was intuitively exactly right, it was part of the innate strength I'd been able to nurture within myself over the years. "What about you? What's your strength?"

Steve tapped both his head and his heart. "I'm naturally inquisitive but rather than chase after all knowledge like some kind of addiction I let my heart lead me. If a topic gives me energy I sit up and take notice. If it sends me nodding off then I leave it for others to pursue."

"Which is why you ended up studying ancient mystical practices. How'd your parents take your academic choice?" I personally liked his choice but I was sure he'd had to stand his ground to pursue it.

"Don't have any family to worry. I'm an orphan, raised by the state. I guess it's the kind of background that destroys many but for me, learning to look after myself and survive in a world that only cared just so much, I learned to make my own choices and make them happen. Even if it means serving coffee to pay the bills." Steve moved closer and stretched out a hand to caress mine. "I know I'm going to feel conflicted about this when I wake but you're so damn beautiful."

I chuckled, "Didn't you just tell me you follow your heart. What we do here stays here."

"You can do that? Compartmentalize your dream reality and your life?"

"I don't think either of us has much choice do we? I'm hardly physically capable of doing in real life what I would do with you here."

"And what would you do with me here?" He asked with a mischievous gleam in his eye.

Dreams don't progress in linear fashion. Next I knew we were playing tag with each other, underwater, as if we were dolphins but still in human form. The dream didn't worry about the physics of breathing underwater. So we played.

You realize if I catch you I'm going to want to have you. You'd best let me know now if you don't want me to, he telepathed to me, having somewhere in the dream acquired the ability.

I swam past him, our naked bodies sliding against each other. Are you asking me if I want it rough?

I hadn't thought that far. I'm too young for any expertise you know. I was going for simple. He caught me by the foot to stop me swimming away out of reach.

I'm all for simple. Given time I'd teach him the finer arts of pleasure but I was getting ahead of myself. This was just a one off dream. I let him catch me.

Our bodies twined around each other in a way that is only possible in deep water. Beyond the physical I felt the dance of our energies caressing each other, testing, forging a connection. He turned me on my front and we faced each other. Are you ready for me Em?

The heat that pulsed in my core declared that a yes. Let's.

A moment's concern etched his face. How long has it been for you?

Don't pike out on me now. Dream world remember. I cupped his balls and stroked until I was sure he was back at full mast. Right at this moment I don't need a new age sensitive male Steve. I need you.

The corners of Steve's mouth twitched. Well then. He pressed his advantage, demanding entrance to my cunt.

I groaned at the feel of the hard ridge of vein on his cock nudging my clitoris. Do it.

Steve clasped me in a tight embrace as he made his play. He wasn't about to let me swim away now.

Near forgotten to memory the feel of his rigid thick flesh sliding all the way into my cunt threw me into an instant orgasm.

Steve chuckled. And I thought I was the newbie. He withdrew but not fully, watching my eyes intently as he plunged once more into my depths.

Gods. Steve. I couldn't say more but thankfully he understood. He was fully in my mind now. Maybe as a result of the shared dream, or what? I didn't know. My thought processes narrowed down to focus on that small area that embraced his cock, welcoming the hammering that was the trademark of youth. In, out. Tissues stretching and contracting. A dance as old as the universe. I felt myself falling into that eternity.

Steve swore to himself, battling an inner struggle I knew he was about to lose. No, not yet.

But I was as hungry as he was. Yes, yet.

Steve groaned, his whole body driving his cock into me now. Each thrust seeking deeper, to break down the last wall that lay between us.

I felt it build. That tight urgent need that bore down on me. A brewing volcano of fire threatening to engulf us. I met his thrusts, desperate desire meeting his. A pulse of energy ripped through my core, all the way to my third eye. Together we cried out in triumph and exaltation before whiting out.

##

##  5

We woke to swearing. "What the fuck! No give me that!"

I half opened my eyes, looking in the direction of the commotion. Aston was in an altercation with a... a sloth? "Some guard you are Aston," I teased.

Aston grumbled something I didn't quite make out. "Not that you two would know would you? The sounds you were both making it would be a wonder if the whole forest didn't know we're here."

Oh dear. I blushed. The sloth maneuvered past Aston as if he was nothing more than a tree in its way. Like an oncoming train in slow motion. Very slow motion. Slightly green from the algae growing on its fur and smelling of wet forest it made its way towards me, bearing its load, a bag that someone had slung over its shoulder. It stopped in front of me, sleepy but intelligent eyes studying me curiously. "May I?" I asked, indicating the bag.

The sloth dropped it's shoulder to let the bag slide down, then stepped out of it as if it had never been there. Duty done it ambled off. Someone's tame pet perhaps. I wondered what it had left us in the bag.

Steve yawned and sat up. "What we got?"

I carefully emptied the contents on the deck of the platform we presently called home "A bunch of bananas, three bottles of water, a sat phone and what looks like a mobile gps unit."

"Let me see," Aston snatched up the phone and hit some numbers he obviously knew off the top of his head. "Ramiriz. Damn it pick up. Ramiriz. This is Aston. Pick up."

Someone picked up but it wasn't Ramirez. "We have your friend Mr Douglas," a cold, unemotional voice announced over the speaker phone. We're feeding him to the fishes." An anguished scream echoing through the phone seemingly confirmed the threat. "If you want anything to be left of him you'd better hurry." The call ended.

"Shit, shit, shit," Aston raked what little hair he had in Anguish. "Why didn't we leave well enough alone?"

"Who's Ramiriz?" It seemed like the obvious question to ask. "Is he the guy that found the ancient site?"

"He's a grad student who interned with our company last summer. We had no job openings available when his internship ended so I arranged to keep him on a retainer. He's the one who found the site we've been researching."

Aston was obviously suffering anguish for the man, maybe even guilt for involving him.

"He found the site, not you Aston," I pointed out..

"But he knew what I was looking for."

Steve handed him a bottle of water and a banana. "We'd better eat and go." What he left unspoken was the fear that we wouldn't get to the man in time.

I looked over the edge of our platform in the trees and steeled myself for the downward climb.

Fifteen strangled minutes later and we were all down. "Where we heading?" I asked.

"A little village on the outskirts of Iquitos. We should be there by noon if this GPS is working right." Aston studied said device.

"They know roughly where we are and how long it will take us to get there. They'll wait. They won't want to lose their bargaining chip," Steve reassured.

Aston nodded in acknowledgement, "I hope you're right." He clipped the sat phone to his belt and kept the GPS in his hand. Steve picked up the pack. I followed and used the time to come up with some plans. If one didn't work the other might.

We found the village about 11.30am. We had hurried, though careful not to come to grief ourselves by falling in the forest.

"That's his house over there," Aston pointed out, careful not to reveal our location where we hid behind an abandoned petrol station. "I'll go and give them what they want and that can be the end of it."

He might be extremely intelligent but he wasn't rich on street smarts was he? I grabbed his arm before he could leave. "Sorry to disillusion you but they aren't going to want to leave any witnesses. They'll take your papers then they'll gift both you and Ramirez with a bullet to the head. They don't actually need your research, just the location of the site so they can raid it. Once they have the location neither of you have any value to them. You become a liability."

Astron heaved a deep sigh. "We didn't come this far for me just to leave him to his fate."

"Then we rescue him."

"How?"

"Either of you got a white handkerchief?"

Steve grew tense. "You're planning on walking in there. It's suicide."

"I'm trusting in the fact it's not my time to die and I'm also trusting in my friends up there," I pointed to the two birds that still circled high above us. "The question is do you trust me?"

"You know I do Em. Just... don't get hurt okay?"

I hugged him. "I'll be fine. You're the young strong one. I need you here to restrain Aston, keep him from rushing in and doing anything stupid will you?"

"Only if you promise to keep an open connection to my mind. If you don't want me to panic with worry. It would be better if I could see with your eyes."

I wasn't sure I could do what he asked but maybe we could do something close. We had connected in the dream we'd shared. It was worth a try. _You hear me?_

Steve's eyes widened with surprise. _Yes._ Frankly we were both surprised.

Give me the map from Aston's papers.

Steve retrieved the bundle and handed it to me. I extracted the map of the site and then tore it in half.

"Hey," Aston protested.

I handed him the other half. "That's my insurance. Hold onto it with your life because it will be keeping me and Ramirez alive."

"I see." He handed me a carefully folded crisp clean handkerchief from his pocket.

I knew he'd have one. I watched his consternation as I tied it to a stick I picked up off the ground.

"So you're just going to waltz on up there like I was going to."

"Puedes negociar en español?" I asked, testing his ability in the language of the locals.

"What?"

"I didn't think so. Look, I'm not going in there. Not unless they force the situation. I'm counting on them not shooting me until they've got what they want."

Unexpectedly he hugged me to him. "Take care."

"Uh." I took a second to process his sudden show of affection. "You bet." I followed a psychic thread to the birds above. _Going in_ , I let them know, not sure exactly why I was conversing with them. A sense of them having my back brushed my mind. It was the first time they'd replied to my idle chatter with them.

I walked towards the tiny ramshackle house with its green peeling paintwork and its leaning verandah. If we got through this I was going to lean on Aston to give Ramirez a bigger retainer.

As I climbed the front steps I held my hands high, showing the truce flag in one and the piece of paper in the other. I'd chosen to come to the front of the house, which fronted the main street, hoping the presence of bystanders would offer me some small safety. Hopefully I wasn't putting those same curious bystanders at risk. I noted the barrel of a gun sticking out through a window. "No dispare!" I pleaded with them not to shoot.

A man who swaggered with the slow confident gate of a bossman opened the door. He eyed the torn paper in my hand with a frown. "That's not all of it."

"It's half." I stated with all the bits of fading bravery I could cobble together but glad I didn't actually have to negotiate in Spanish. "The other half is yours when you release Ramirez to us, alive. No questions from us. We won't pursue the matter further. We just want our lives and his," I nodded towards the house.

Bossman leaned against the frame of the doorway, casual like but it was obvious it he hadn't expected this complication. "What's to stop me just taking you and your half and having two hostages to bargain for the rest?"

I played my hand. "Because you will lose your chance of having the map." The paper in my hand began to smoke ominously, just at the edges but enough to have bossman dropping his jaw. "You see, one of the many things I've learned in my travels is pyrokinesis. If you want this half of the map speak now or it goes up in flames. Even if I have to do it with my last dying breath," I added in the hope I wouldn't be shot to end the problem.

"Shit. Okay, okay. We agree. But if you cross us, if we hear one whisper you've mentioned anything about our operations we'll end you. Don't think we don't have the contacts, wherever it is you come from."

I neither agreed nor disagreed with him. I knew he'd take us out at the first chance. I drew the chi in the smoking paper back into my body. "Ramirez," I emphasised.

"Tráelo," bossman yelled to one of the others inside.

When I saw the state of the comatose man they dumped on the verandah I did my best not to throw up. There was no point asking what they had done to him. It was obvious that they had literally dangled one of his arms into piranha infested water. No doubt holding him down while they did it. The piranha would have only have bitten him if they'd cut him first. The fish were scavengers. They only went into a feeding frenzy at a certain time of the year and only in the presence of blood. I'd watched enough docos to know that. "I'll get the other half of the map for you."

"You do that. Best hurry though, before the flies get him."

That did it. I threw up into plant beside the stairs. I sent it a message of my remorse and asked for its forgiveness then hurried back to where Steve and Aston waited.

Steve was ready with a small packet of tissues. "In case you need to wipe your mouth."

I did and then accepted the bottle of water he handed me.

"Is he...?" Aston asked.

I shook my head, somewhat sadly, I was kind of thinking death might have been a relief for the poor bloke. "No. He's still alive but we'd best hurry. He needs help right away."

Steve handed me the other half of the map, worry creasing his brow. "Don't get shot."

I faked a smile. "I'll try not to," but the truth was I wasn't sure how any of us would get out of this without a bullet in the back.

No time for doubts now, Steve reminded me, wasn't it you who told me it wasn't time for you not to die yet?

He was right. I took a second to connect with the wider universe and give it my trust. Then I hurried back to the nightmare across the street but I didn't reach there before I heard shouts and yells coming from the house. A gunshot rang out. The growing number of bystanders ran back to the shelter of their homes, nothing was that interesting to be worth their lives. Actually that was probably for the best. I was thinking the gang wouldn't want this many spectators. Yet again, they probably owned the town which might explain for the fact the local law enforcement hadn't shown themselves yet. Wood splinted and glass shattered as a man was thrown through one of the front windows of the house. Cursing ensued, in Spanish, much of it unrepeatable. Then quiet. A moment later a tall athletic blonde woman stepped out of the house, brushing debris from her clothes. She spied me and smiled, "Здравствуйте!"

"Ah, hello to you too." Her greeting was the only word of Russian I knew so I was hoping she spoke English and hoping like hell she wasn't part of some opposing South American gang. Why Russian? She surely wasn't local."I'm..."

"Emily. Nice to meet you, you may call me Helena" the woman announced in a thick Russian accent. She looked meaningfully to the man who was already tending to Ramirez, "and this is Zex."

Zex looked up momentarily and smiled, "Hi," then returned to his first aid duties. The man looked somewhat alien yet seemed at home in the clothing of the locals.

"Nice to meet you both. And you would be?" I thought I knew but I had to ask.

Helena grinned. "Do you actually need to ask?"

I had a healthy suspicion but it did stretch the bounds of reason. "Not really, just appeasing what's left of my rational mind. You've been guiding us and watching us since we crashed."

"And sending you supplies this morning. Come on, say it out loud" Helena coaxed.

Damn, saying it would make it more real, "You're shapeshifters. You're the birds."

"See, you did understand. We knew you would," Helena held out a slightly scorched piece of paper. "This is yours I believe. One of the gang escaped. The boss I think. Hopefully he didn't have time to study it but we should go to the ancient site straight away, just in case."

"What about Ramirez?"

"You're the apprentice shaman, you tell me?"

Well, talk about putting me on the spot. I looked around the town but thankfully all the bystanders were still battened down in their homes. I knelt down beside Ramirez, on the other side from Zex who was busy cleaning the man of all the bits of blood and gore. Steve joined me by my side. He was still in my mind but he asked anyway, "What you reckon? Use chi energy or visualization?"

"A bit of both I think. Maybe with a strong intention thrown in. Couldn't help to ask for help from any nearby spirits either. Zex, could you put a cloth over his arm, the reality of it glaring in my face is battling my ability to see him as already healed."

"You can't heal that," Aston declared, starring for the first time at the mess of the man's arm and going grey at the gills.

"If you can't give me some belief in the possibility of healing him step away Aston."

Aston stayed put. "Okay, okay. You've proven yourself to me more than once Emily. I actually think if anyone could do something miraculous you could."

I nodded my thanks. It meant a lot that the man of logic would believe in me. I gave thanks for that small miracle and then reached out to all those who had ever taught me, asking and trusting them to help me now. I connected to the limitless core of the universe and asked it to channel healing love through my arms. Then I proceeded to form a chi ball, slowly circling my hands around an imaginary ball of energy. Imaginary yes, but then everything was a projection of the collective mind so being imaginary made it no less real. I took the ball of light and touched the man's brow. "Aston, you have a lot of earth element in you, could you grasp his ankles, it will help to ground him."

Aston silently compiled, watching what I was doing intently.

While I worked, moving the chi over Ramirez's body, Steve began to sing. A chant of sorts. Probably sung in some ancient Peruvian language. Though I didn't understand the words the melody touched me and amplified the chi I was working with. Time ceased to be as I worked. Slowly but surely I came to feel I had done all I could. Aston and Steve caught me as I sagged.

Zex passed a wet cloth to mop my brow. I hadn't used any force of concentration which would have been counterproductive but the focus I'd used had been intense. I'd been so in the zone. Steve continued to sing. The notes of his song meshing with the fibres of my being, lightening me, energizing me. It was time to get back to the world of matter. "What's his vital signs Zex?"

"Stable. And as for the arm see for yourself."

I sat up and looked where Zex lifted the towel. When I saw the arm I gave thanks.

Aston swore, uncharacteristically, "That's amazing. You can't see to the bone anymore. You wouldn't know he'd been fed on. It looks like nothing more than a second degree burn."

Zex gloved one hand and touched the flesh. "It's still in the process of healing. His body's taking over. I'll bandage this and give him some of Yaguar's special herbs. You might give him another treatment of chi before you remove the bandages but I believe the job is done."

All I could think of was "Who's Yaguar?" If he knew his herbs he might be someone else I could learn from.

"He's a local icaro and I think he would be as keen to learn from you and Steve as vice versa. I'm sure he would be happy to share the secret of the ayahuasca vine with you if that's what you came seeking."

Gods, just how much did these shapeshifters know about us? Yet I trusted them. Coming to someone's aid as they had kind of did that.

Ramirez gasped, his eyes fluttering open. "What happened? Who are all these people? Aston! You're here."

Helena yelled from the house. "For what it's worth, if you trust my cooking, lunch is served."

Fortunately Ramirez seemed to have stress induced memory loss. For his sake I hope it lasted. Rather than actually lie we simply said we'd found him on his verandah with a injured arm and patched him up. Downplaying his injury might also aid healing. At least his beliefs about it wouldn't counter what Steve and I had tried to do. He seemed dazed but happy to see his mentor, Aston.

We all got to know each other over lunch, A simple salad followed by Russian pancakes. They were served with a compote of local fruits; diced dragon fruit, pepino and cherimoya in a sauce made from lucuma that tasted like a cross between maple syrup and sweet potato. It wasn't your typical lunch but it was tasty and it did fill the hole in our stomachs.

Ramirez outlined what he knew of the ancient site, "The way there is not that hard but the final bit is up a steep incline, probably manmade. I'm thinking they built the city above the jungle's flood plain."

"Makes sense but why has nobody found it until now?" Aston wondered.

"The whole site is normally shrouded in thick mist. It was just a freak of nature that it cleared the day I flew over. I couldn't see a good place to land though so I went back later on foot, using the GPS coordinates I'd recorded in the plane. The locals stay away from the area saying it's haunted. There are legends of people going in there and never coming out. The few that do return are often disorientated and deemed crazy because of the stories they tell," Ramirez explained.

"But you returned," I couldn't help but point out the obvious. I wondered what was different about this man that the site had 'let him in', so to speak, and return to tell the tale. "What did you see there?"

"Marvels beyond the most experienced archaeologist's imagination. Pristine temples, aquatic gardens, a forest garden rich in edibles, simple but elegant dwellings, well preserved. There's canals and drainage channels, stone paved roads, pillared colonnades. You've got to see it to believe it."

"You didn't take any photos?" Aston asked.

Ramirez winced, "You're going to think me as the mad as the tales say. I did take photos but they all came out a blur. I don't know why." He went to a shelf to retrieve an envelope then handed it to Aston.

Aston pulled the photos out. They were indeed blurry, worse than the worst UFO or Loch Ness monster fuzzy photos. You could see vague shapes in the haze but that was all. Each photo bore the normal time and date stamp but also a GPS stamp. "Clever," Aston nodded in approval. There's no doubting you were there. And this wasn't the fog you mentioned?"

"No, it was a beautifully clear day."

"There must be some strange energy there. It's the only thing I can think of that would mess this much with the camera. You felt well at the time? No strange buzzing in the ears? Dizzy?"

"Perfectly fine then and after," Ramirez confirmed.

"Hmm. And the time and GPS stamps worked." Aston sank into deep thought, musing on the puzzle.

Steve shrugged. "Like Helena says, we go there ASAP. It's the only way to find out what else is at the site and beat the looters to it. I'm good with a sketch pad. I can document the site that way if a camera won't work. Aston can do the measurements. We could do with your back up though Helena, in case the looters do turn up while we're there."

"You have it. Irrespective of the fact that we've been tasked with watching out for you anyway."

"Why?" I wondered.

Helena smirked that I know a secret smirk. "I'm not at liberty to say yet, when I am I'll let you know."

Zex rolled his eyes. "That's a bit mean. Can't we at least tell them that they're important in the grand scheme of things."

"I think you just did," Helena glared meaningfully. She walked up to him and grabbed his hair, tilting his head back before scorching him with a kiss. "Don't forget our arrangement."

Zex caught his breath but gleamed mischief. "I don't forget."

I, like the others, watched their dynamic with keen interest. Aston had kind of frozen when he'd seen Zex sit quietly at Helena's feet. I wasn't sure if Aston was perplexed or intrigued. I didn't like the idea of Aston submitting to her. Steve picked up my inner growl and smirked at me. Over lunch Helena passed Zex the choicest pieces from the table and saw to his every comfort. Though a tussle of dominance it was evident that they mutually adored and enjoyed each other. There was a very obvious and seamless bond between them. One was always where the other needed. Zex played the submissive and maybe he was but I got the distinct impression everything he did was for her pleasure. I sensed I'd be mistaken if I thought him weak. He was evidently capable and resourceful. Quietly working behind the scenes engineering a pervasive peace and harmony. He was nobody's victim. On the other side of the equation Helena was definitely the warrior woman, an Amazonian queen if you will. It was clear that she watched everything and everyone so that no harm came to him. It was hard to tell if either of them had an upper hand in the relationship, it was more one of complementary equals.

Steve whispered in my mind, don't go getting any ideas.

Oh! Wouldn't you like me in high heels and black leathers?

Steve choked. I think I prefer you naked.

It was my turn to gasp.

Aston looked in our direction and frowned. "Emily, what was that healing energy you used on Ramirez? Chi you called it. Is it a force which can be harnessed? Can it be measured?"

I suspected Aston wanted to distract Steve and me from whatever unspoken conversation we were having. Did I sense a bit of jealousy. Interesting. But he did seem to have a genuine interest in the chi as well. "Some say its bioelectric but I don't think chi itself exists in the world of matter so in itself no and no. However, it can affect the electromagnetic field of all living things. The Russians, I believe," I looked to Helena for confirmation, "have undertaken scientific studies."

"Да, they have. Though some have used different names for it, like torsion fields and zero point energy. They've patented equipment to use with it. More famously they've photographed its effect on the human aura, what's called Kirlian photography. Then there's the Koreans who claim they've proven the existence of meridians, the transport system that chi uses to move around the body, but I haven't read the research paper. Before they imprisoned him for his work American William Reich called it orgone energy and is said to have developed some kind of device to accumulate it."

"Why'd they imprison him?" I wondered. "I expect some thought him strange but what was the harm?"

"Ah, well you see, they claimed it was a case of mistaken identity but I think it had more to do with the fact he'd broken the big taboo. He'd claimed to have developed a cure for cancer. You don't go making claims like that without the backing of the medical and drug authorities. Many brilliant doctors have ended their careers that way. Unfortunately in Reich's case he didn't help his cause when he started trying to tell people about UFOs, the other taboo subject of the time."

"It still is isn't it? The governments of the world have never admitted to their existence," I suggested.

"Yes, but the belief in aliens has gone mainstream these days. Their efforts to contain the idea that we are visited by UFOs has kind of failed."

"We're getting off track here," Aston prompted.

Helena eyed him assessingly. "Like a dog with a bone aren't you?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Suffice to say the Russians have been quite okay about openly studying stuff the West doesn't want to admit to. That's not to say others haven't studied it. Looking to weaponize it I suspect."

I sucked my breath in, shocked, "Can they do that?"

"You'd have to ask a friend of mine, Kit, about that. The Chinese Taoists have always frowned on using chi that way but I'm guessing the Japanese long ago learned how to direct it as a weapon. They hit particular points on the meridian system to harm people or knock them unconscious. Dim Mak they call it. Healers have a devil of a time healing some Dim Mak damage, I believe. Don't quote me. I'm just a geneticist."

I doubted that there was any 'just' about Helena.

"Shall we get moving?" Steve asked, pointedly looking out the window at the lengthening shadows.

##

##  6

We all clambered into Ramirez's truck. For some reason the others believed I was entitled to the passenger seat in front cab, age or something. I wisely kept my mouth shut and enjoyed the extra comfort. The others hung on as best they could on the tray of the ute. The road out of town was okay but as it continued into the jungle it soon narrowed. Seedlings from the forest were trying to grow up the middle of the track. Trees and vines overhung it. We soon had a sense that we were travelling through a tunnel of plants. And it was getting wetter. A few small puddles to begin with but soon the puddles became large holes. Too big for one lone vehicle with no backup. "Everyone out," Helena yelled. "We'll walk on from here."

The 'road' narrowed further, if that was even possible. We were reduced to walking single file through thick jungle, not unlike walking though some biblically parted Red Sea. At any moment the waves of jungle would crash in on us and we'd buried. Luckily Ramirez, wielding a slash hook rather than some pharaonic staff, seemed to know the way. "Not much further," he yelled back to us.

"Wait here a minute," Zex suggested. "I'll go scout it out in case the opposition has beaten us here." He launched himself into the air, transforming into a condor as he did.

Aston issued forth an expletive then he turned an accusing gaze on me and Steve. "You knew didn't you?"

"That Helena and Zex have been with us from the start? Well not who they were but that they were guarding us, yes. It was only when we all met up at Ramirez's place that I put two and two together," I confessed.

Ramirez was no less startled. "Who are you people?" he quizzed Helena.

"I am a physical incarnation of the blue ray goddess," as if that explained anything. "Zex is an ascended being who guards the last wilderness areas of South America."

Ramirez's jaw dropped and he stared at Helena, her explanation having stunned him more than the not knowing. "Madre de Dios," he crossed himself.

Helena scratched her head, puzzled. "Did he just call me the mother of god? I'm not you know. More a manifestation of the divine feminine. My soul group originates in Sirius. Sirians are masters of transformation, using truth and light to bring aid where it's needed. I was 'seeded' here to help with humanity's ascension at this time.

"And Zex? I wondered.

"He's a very old soul. Trapped on this planet for an exceedingly long time. He's free now but he stays to help those he cares about, particularly the lands and people around the Yungus."

"And he stays for you," Steve guessed.

Helena's eyes lit with joy. "Yes." End of discussion. Obviously whatever they had between them was private.

Zex returned, transforming back to humanoid form as he landed. "The coast is clear."

Not far up the path we met a wall of mist.

"I've got the GPS location from the last time I was here," Ramirez studied the device in his hand. "Just don't lose sight of me or you might be wandering around here for a very long time."

Somehow I knew Helena and Zex wouldn't let us get lost for long but I didn't say so. I didn't want to spoil Ramirez's moment.

Rays of sunlight lit up the mist, creating an intensely colored double rainbow. "Wow." It was like walking into some surreal, long forgotten, fairy land.

"Up ahead," Steve pointed. "Is that a...?"

"A pyramid," rising excitement coloured Aston's voice. He made to get past us, in a hurry to see it, but Helena grabbed his arm.

"Slow down boy-o! Stay with the group and stay alert!"

"Zex gave us the all clear," Aston pointed out, frustrated, vainly trying to shake off her vice-like grip.

"And what of collapsed underground structures? Fancy falling down a hole filled with snakes and tarantulas? Or perhaps you could be a meal for a stray jaguar. Stay in the group!" Helena said the last with emphasis, before releasing his arm.

Her words of caution had us all sticking to the path of worn cobbled stones, even as the mist cleared. Nobody was game to wander off. At least I wasn't. That vision of snakes and spiders still filled my head.

The pyramid was unlike any other South American pyramids I'd seen nor was it a stepped structure. I liked that it wasn't flat topped. Those were usually used for sacrifice, some of it human. This pyramid looked old, very old. It's smooth sides had been encased in something that in places glinted like a metal. A pinky gold? Yet most of its surface was covered in a thick layer of moss, ferns and bromeliads. It had a simpler, more elegant geometric design. It was less about grand porticos, stairways or staging areas for the elite and more about making a statement about the purity of its shape.

We walked around it for a bit, looking for a way in. Having no luck until Steve yelled out, "I've found some stairs going down, maybe beneath it."

Helena gave Zex a look which he must have interpreted or maybe they were telepathic because a split second later he transformed into a bat and went flying into the dark stairwell. He returned a few minutes later. "It's damp in places. Steps might be slippery but the passageway at the bottom is clear and dry. I can't find any fault with the structure. It seems intact."

Carefully we made our way down the moss and lichen covered stairs. The moss was squishy and soft to walk on, like some kind of emerald carpet.

We used our only torches sparingly, using only one to light our way. Our eyes adjusted to the dank gloom. I hoped like hell there were no nasty fungi down here, whose spores might invade our lungs and lead us to an untimely grave in a far more insidious way than looters, jaguars or falling down a shaft.

As if reading my mind Zex pointed up ahead. "The air gets better from there on. Some internal ventilation shafts, I think."

"It's so quiet," I noticed, "I thought it would by echoey."

Aston frowned as he noticed it too. He glanced at the walls of the corridor, studying them by holding a finger in front of him and looking down their length. "They've shaped the walls in such a way that neither wall is exactly parallel to the other any sound bouncing off them cancels out. The quality of their engineering suggests that the misalignment is intentional. "

"Clever." Whatever they'd done worked. I was impressed.

"Indeed. And see where some of the rocks protrude out from the surface. They dampen the sound."

"So they knew about acoustics," Steve surmised.

"You guys coming?" Zex called back to us.

We hurried along. An ever watchful Helena bringing up the rear. She didn't participate in our discussion of the architecture but I felt a thread her in my mind. She was there, listening and communicating with Zex on some frequency I couldn't tune into yet. Heads up Steve, I think our guardians are telepathic too.

I was wondering about that. I can't quite make out their chatter though.

Helena smirked to herself. She'd heard us alright.

The corridor opened out into a huge room with a vaulted ceiling. "Magnificent," I gasped as I took in its sheer majesty.

"What's that in the centre of the room?" Aston asked. "It's a raised platform yet too low to be a stage."

"I'm guessing its a raised platform," Steve joked, parroting the obvious.

But I sensed something more. I came forward to stand beside Aston then knelt down, as far as my octogenarian knees would allow, to touch the platform. "Energy," I whispered to nobody in particular as a buzz of vibration instantly connected with me. I stepped back uncertain and looked to Aston. "Could this be one of those areas where the ancients utilised quartz and mica like you talked about back on the plane?"

Aston's eyes lit with desire, turned on no doubt by the possibility of theory being fact. He took out a pocket knife and some gadget. "I need to analyze it."

Steve made to stand in front of him "Hey, it's an ancient treasure. You can't desecrate it."

I noticed a small piece of the platform that had fallen away from the main structure. I picked it up and handed it to Aston. "This any good?"

Steve glared but the piece was smaller than my finger nail. I'd have a hard time justifying to any archeologist that it wasn't critical to understanding the totality of the site but it was insignificantly small.

"Perfect," Aston as good as purred. "Ah, I don't suppose anyone has a small hammer of something similar I could crush this with?"

"Not me." I didn't go around carrying hammers.

Steve shrugged, likewise.

"Give it to Zex," Helena ordered. Well it didn't have the tone of a request.

Zex took the piece in his palm, closed his hand and eyes, murmured something then opened his hand. Fine dust had replace the small rock. "Is this what you wanted?"

Aston stared at him in awe. "I'm not going to ask. I'm not sure I want to know how you did that. Just pour it into here," he indicated a small tray in the device he was holding. Once filled he closed the tray of the pocket device and pressed a few buttons. An electronic display lit up. Aston studied the readings.

"Is that really a portable pocket sized mass spectrometer?" Helena asked. It was her turn to be impressed.

I was impressed that she knew what the gadget was.

Aston patted his gadget as if it was his favorite pet. "That it is. The company I work for helped in the development of this model. And it's confirming Emily's guess."

"My guess?"

"Yes, it is clear that there are particles of both quartz and mica in the platform. Although I can't tell you how the platform is constructed, what layering of the materials they have use. I'd need a sophisticated scanner for that. I can contact my company and bring in the gear I need."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves Aston. Remember that this place might not let you in again if it doesn't want you here."

"Oh come on Emily, that's just local superstition."

"Philistine!" Ramirez commented under his breath.

"Just let me try something will you Aston. We'll be camping here tonight anyway. Why don't you all go and set up our camp and get some food going while I go and have some quality time with the platform."

Aston looked at me, puzzled, "What do you want to do?"

"Go and sit on it and meditate a bit. It might reveal something of itself to me."

Aston rolled his eyes. "Be my guest. Let me know what you find," he added the last sarcastically.

Steve patted me on the shoulder, as if to say not to be hurt by Aston's doubt. "You want me to stay?"

"No, if you don't mind. I just need to be free of everyone's energies for a moment so I can get a clear sense of it."

Thankfully Steve understood and didn't take offence. "How do you have your tea?"

"I think Ramirez packed some green tea. I have it weak. No sugar or milk thanks."

"Will do."

##

##  7

I sat on the platform, positioning myself in its center. How to approach this? I thought about various rituals I knew from Western magick and kabbalah but in the end I went with simplicity. I emptied my mind and connected with that oceanic expanse that is always in existence beyond our thoughts of self. I identified with that and let my awareness go wider than its usual focus on thoughts, wide enough to encompass what I sat on. I felt it there again. A connection within my body. Like a million particles vibrating. Energy. Well no surprise there. Everything was energy. It was our five senses and how our brain interpreted them that gave everything the appearance of form. Yet the platform did have form. I was sitting on it. I allowed my consciousness to expand and explore it, to enter into its atomic structure. What are you? I asked.

A panorama of activity took form within my inner vision. Very tall humanoid beings coming and going, stepping onto the platform then disappearing. Others appearing on the platform then walking off to wherever they had to go. An airport? It was shades of some sci-fi show I'd once seen but without the lights, movement and sound effects. Nothing melodramatic here. Just a place. I suddenly felt uncertain of where I sat. I didn't want to suddenly disappear to gods know where, not that that would happen right? I came back into my relative identity, mortal Emily once more and quickly got myself off of the stone. I was left feeling mentally tight and constrained. The switch of perception from oceanic consciousness back to the ego self always seemed to do that.

I looked over to the doorway to the side room where the others had gone to set up a makeshift camp. Helena was waiting there. Watching me or guarding me, maybe both. "And?" she asked.

"It's a portal. To where I don't know. I wasn't keen on accidentally activating it."

"Coward," Helena teased, but she was smiling when she said it. "What if I told you it was safe?"

That peaked my curiosity. "You know something of it. Don't you?"

"I was briefed about this place when I took on this mission."

We were a mission? "You've been holding out on us."

"Why spoil the fun by denying you the thrill of exploration."

Good point. "Well, I've worked it out now. Where does it go?"

"Got your courage back now have you?" Helena eyed me up and down as if appraising my condition. "In your current form you need rest. So do the others. Come and eat. There'll be plenty of time tomorrow."

My current form? Was she nicely saying I was over the hill or did she mean something else? "What about the looters?"

"Zex and I will take turns keeping watch but I doubt we'll see trouble tonight."

What made her so sure I wondered? "If we all pitch in we can do a shift of a couple of hours each."

"Thanks for the offer but Zex and I don't need as much sleep as you guys do. Rest."

I sensed that last was an order. Well she was kind of our de-facto military commander. Who was I to be insubordinate when I really did need a rest. It had been a rather long and taxing day and my body was telling me so. I reminded myself to attend to my chi energy before I slept. First things first, there was a cup of green tea somewhere with my name on it. I went to find Steve.

It was probably a bit contrary, that a cup of green tea with its kick of inbuilt caffeine would make a good nightcap but for me it did. It warmed the belly and steadily seeped into every cell of my being, along the way helping me to digest the spicy black bean burritos Ramirez had managed to cook up on Steve's compact solid fuel hexi-stove.

"What else do you keep in that pack of yours?" I wondered.

Steve shrugged his shoulders, "Just the basics but I like to be prepared. I try to keep the weight of the pack down, not just for the airlines, but for ease of carrying so things as small and as versatile as this little hexamine stove are a bonus.

Aston patted his gut, seemingly happy for the first time today. "I'm bloody glad you did. And you're an excellent cook Ramirez."

"Thank you Señor Douglas."

"Please, just Aston."

"Then you must call me Julio."

"Okay," Aston looked puzzled, "And there I thought your first name was Ramirez."

"It is but Julio is my middle name. My friends call me that. I think after today you are all my friends. I'm not sure what happened back at my house and I'm equally sure I don't want to remember but I'm guessing it was more than me simply hurting my arm. I suspect those we are evading had something to do with it did they not?"

"Er..."

I understood Aston's hesitation. "We don't want to say anything that might trigger your memories Julio. Trust your hunch but leave the past in the past," I suggested.

I relaxed as Julio nodded his acceptance of my advice. "Your words are wise Ms Murdoch."

"Em," I corrected.

"Em," he acknowledged. "But I worry, if my hunch is right, wouldn't I be in danger if I returned home?"

Helena wandered over to claim a burrito and squatted on her haunches. Part of me figured she was ready at all times to pounce into action. "Julio. How would you like to live somewhere far away from the madness and greed of the modern world? Somewhere where food is ample, disease is unknown and everyone pitches in to help each other. The price is you'd be expected to pitch in for others too and regrettably say goodbye to your old home." She paused, letting him consider the offer.

Julio crossed himself, it seemed his instinctive reaction to most things. "It sounds like heaven."

"A heaven that has been made manifest on the physical plane, just not in the same time-space where we are now. A parallel dimension is what most sci-fiers would call it."

Julio considered, "And the people there, they would welcome me?"

"They have become an inquisitive and gregarious people, especially since they no longer have to worry about enslavement or loss of their lands to the local mining companies."

"Because the mining companies can't enter their dimension?" Julio surprised us all in his ready acceptance of Helena's explanation.

"Exactly. Only those of a certain frequency can enter there."

"Then I am honored and accept your offer. You are most kind."

Helena laughed. "Don't think for a moment our offer isn't to our benefit too. You'll have skills that you can share with us and benefit us."

"I can cook," Julio offered. "And I'm not bad a reconnaissance."

"Da, this is true," Helena seemed pleased, helping herself to another burrito.

Mercifully the underground chamber of the pyramid had a moderating effect on the temperature. It was neither stifling hot nor unduly humid. I settled down, lightly clothed, onto a lightweight compressible groundsheet, another, most welcome essential drawn from Steve's wonderous backpack. The ground was hard but it wasn't cold. Aston removed his shirt, carefully rolled up to serve as a pillow, and passed it to me.

"What about you?" I wondered.

Aston gave me one of his impenetrable looks. "Em, allow me this."

"Oh, okay." What I didn't realize was that my okay would mean he would lie down beside me. I felt Steve's grin in my mind

_Appears you've_ _acquired_ _yourself a knight in shining armour._

_You don't mind?_ I felt kind of awkward as Steve kind of had first dibs on me. Well not in the real world. I'm no cougar, I'm too old even for that.

_Nah,_ _perversely_ _I kind of like him. Don't know why. He's not the_ _kind of_ _person I'd_ _usually_ _hang out with._

_Neither am I_ , I guessed.

You're wrong about that. I think we'd form a friendship no matter what our age, we share too many interests in common not to. I agree the sexual side is awkward but hell, go to sleep. The sooner we dream...

I understood his meaning although I worried at what we were doing. Somewhere along the way our enormous difference in age was going to become a problem. But at the moment I agreed with Steve, to hell with it, the sooner I started dreaming...

Somewhere during the night I found myself in a vast library. Steve was beside me and amazingly Aston was in the library too, waving to get out attention. "Hey guys, come and look at this. This is remarkable."

"Where are we Aston?" I queried. Was this his dream or mine?

"I think it's some ancient repository of knowledge. Curiously I can read it perfectly okay."

Steve looked over his shoulder but shook his head. "I'm only seeing weird symbols. It's your dream Aston. What's it about?"

"It describes how the planets, indeed the whole solar system, move in relation to the galaxy, their positions and relationships to each other. No surprises there but it goes on to describe the frequency or resonance of each planet and its effect on the electromagnetism of the other planetary bodies in the vicinity. It goes into great length describing long cycles of time and how they affect, um, this is strange, the word looks like nursery. I think it's referring to Earth. There's screeds of information about the sun's cycles and its effects on everything from weather to earthquakes and volcanic activity. Apparently the sun's long duration movements follow a helical and spiral path. Fascinating. There's a brief mention of gravity but only as a by product of other forces..."

"Um," should we even interrupt? Aston was in his happy space. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news but unless you've mastered lucid dreaming you're unlikely to remember much of this when you wake up. What you do remember you'll have to keep fresh in your mind by writing it down or retelling us about it, as soon as you wake up."

I watched sadly as Aston's joy ebbed. "But this is earth shatteringly important."

It was Steve's turn to play devil's advocate, "I don't mean to sound ignorant Aston but isn't this stuff bleeding edge scientists are already working on?"

Aston shook his head vigorously. "No, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Look you two will remember won't you. How about if I tell you now?"

"But we're not scientists," I pleaded. "What if we misunderstand something?"

For the first time in the dream Aston seemed to really notice me, eyeing me up and down as he took in my younger state. Come to mention it he wasn't bad looking either and he had a fuller head of hair. But that was beside the matter. "Emily. Steve. I haven't got your skills in metaphysics. You both seem to be skilled dream walkers. You're all I've got. I have to bring this knowledge into the world. If there are gaps because of stuff you can't understand so be it. I don't mind a few holes in a jigsaw puzzle. Gives me a challenge."

What could either of us say after that. So we listened to him for what seemed nigh on an eternity as he expounded on the texts, til finally I'd had enough. "Look Aston, the night's for rest and recreation. We'll try and find a way to get you back here. There's no way we're going to take all this in in one night."

Steve agreed wholeheartedly. "I'm glad you said that Em. I wasn't game."

I rolled my eyes, "I'm going to have to teach you to be a bit more assertive, aren't I Steve?"

"You could be assertive with me," Aston mumbled so quietly I almost missed the comment.

Suddenly we were no longer in the grand porticoed library but on a large bed instead. I definitely wasn't in charge of this dream but I wasn't complaining one bit. This looked a lot more fun. Not that I didn't see the worth in what we'd just done but I had gone to sleep hoping to hook-up with Steve. What I hadn't expected was the senior nurse's uniform that Aston's dream was clothing me in, or, amusingly, Steve's white doctor's coat. "Aston, what are you up to?"

"I'm love sick," he moaned, clutching his nether region.

I raised an eyebrow, "Oh are you just? And you think I'm going to nurse you back to health do you?"

"Well you did say you were a nurse in the army," he commented hopefully.

"And who am I?" Steve asked, laughing, "Dr Chan I presume."

Finally I got to find out his surname, "Ah ha, so that's your surname." It did suit his exotic Asian looks.

Steve rolled his eyes, bemused. "You only had to ask you know. But changing the topic, Aston, aren't you being a bit presumptive. I mean I like you and all but I'm kind of a girl lover, if you get my drift."

"You think I'm any different?" Aston pouted. "Can't we share her?"

"Maybe that's a question you should be asking her?" Steve pointed out.

Glad someone was thinking of my opinion.

"But you had dibs on her first," Aston countered.

I guessed it was a guy thing. Working out territory. "Look Aston, I'll say the same thing to you I said to Steve. We can't have a relationship like this in real life so don't get all hung up on who's who's. What happens in the dreamworld stays in the dreamworld. Now if you two are willing to play, so am I. It's not like I get a lot of fun like this these days. Just remember I can't be anything other than what I am here. When we wake up I lose this twenty something body and go back to being an octogenarian, a healthy one I admit but an octogenarian nonetheless. My use-by-date's approaching." It was the gentlest way I could think of saying I might drop dead anytime soon. "Don't get attached. You guys have a lot of life ahead of you, don't let what we share here mess with that. There's no point getting serious over me okay?"

Aston looked at me adoringly. Steve looked like his eyes were moist, already thinking about my eventual loss. I groaned, "You guys are going to regret this you know." Although I had to admit my own heart was having opinions contrary to my head. I gave in, "Come here."

_What's the game plan?_ Steve whispered in my head.

_Aston's cast us both in medical roles. That speaks_ _to me_ _of a need for care and comfort._

Or he wants someone to exercise authority over him.

Hmm, he had been a tad fascinated by Helena and Zex's relationship. _Maybe_ _a bit of_ _both_. _But I've no desire to play dominatrix._

_You're mistaking being a dominatrix with being a bully. I'm no expert but I don't think_ _that_ _'s it. I_ _do_ _think you can be_ _something of_ _what Helena is._

_And what is that?_ I asked Steve, not sure I was comfortable where this conversation was going.

_A connection with_ _the divine feminine. Think about it. What does Aston_ _desperately_ _need?_

Hmm. I had an idea, not well thought out but I'd wing it. "Mr Douglas, we can hardly examine you unless you get undressed. You're wasting our time. Dr Chan and I have other patients to see you know."

Aston gasped in excitement as he realised the game was on. His clothes evaporated into thin air. "Sorry Nurse Murdoch, Doctor Chan."

He settled back on the bed in all his well muscled glory. This was how Aston saw himself. More than a nerd then. It was worth finding out more. I conjured up a noteboard and pencil. "We seem to be missing your patient history. Can I have your full name and age?"

Aston winced, "Er, Aston Martin Douglas, but don't hold that against me."

Steve, sorry Doctor Chan, nodded in understanding, "One of your parents was into cars."

"Mum actually. Dad liked Jags but mum had a thing for the Astons."

So mum had liked the spy thrillers had she or maybe she just liked the British make, no matter, "And your age?"

"Normally forty-five but here I'm as I remember myself at twenty-seven."

As precise as I'd expected him to be. "A good year was it?"

Aston blushed in a totally unexpected way. Remembering a girlfriend perhaps. It concerned me that I felt a moment's jealousy. I would have thought I'd be past worrying about any competition, especially when the competition had been eighteen years in the past. Time to focus on my plan instead. "I think Mr Douglas needs a wash before we examine him. A sponge bath, don't you think Dr Chan?"

Steve choked on a laugh which did little to help me keep a straight face, playing my part of a charge nurse, but I managed. The dream shifted to Aston lying on a waterproof sheet. Perfect. Steve passed me a bowl of warm water and a sponge. "Oh, I see. I'm supposed to do all the work," I muttered to myself.

"You're the nurse," Steve pointed out.

"Bugger that. I'm taking charge of this dream. Here," I handed him his own bowl and sponge. "Get to work."

"Er," Aston wasn't so sure now.

"Don't you go squirming about Mr Douglas or I'll have to restrain you. I don't want Dr Chan getting wet. He's an important man."

W _ho's helping you to wash a patient_ , Steve commented, rather bemused. _I thought you_ _were going to_ _teach me to be more assertive?_

_I am, watch and learn_.

Steve and I took a side each, washing each and every part of our patient. We were gentle and thorough but he was squirming. I shook my head in dismay. "I did warn you." Shackles instantly appeared at his ankles and wrists. "Spread your legs Mr Douglas."

"I, um..." He was trying desperately to work up the courage to resist me.

I stopped washing to bend down and whisper in his ear. "Your safe word is discharge. Do you understand what I mean by that?"

"You'll stop if I say the word discharge."

"I give my word."

"And Dr Chan?"

"I give you my word too," Steve readily agreed.

Calm rippled through Aston's body. He complied, spreading his legs. I attached the ropes that had appeared at the corners of the bed to the shackles on his extremities. Then I took the sponge again and washed his balls, mischievously avoiding the cock. He'd want that, my warm fingers sliding up and down his shaft, but I wasn't going to give it to him yet. "Please," he tentatively moaned but I ignored him. I didn't have to explain to Steve what I was doing because he was avoiding that whole area like the plague, attentively washing Aston's chest and legs instead.

I paused to indicate towels and a bottle of liniment on the side of the bed. Steve passed me one of the towels then set about drying Aston's other side. While he worked he nodded to the liniment, "Is that the new sensitising lotion I ordered for this patient?"

Hmm, now that had possibilities. I'd only thought of a simple massage but we could indeed take this a lot further. Could I do as Steve had suggested and truly help Aston to connect with the divine feminine? If I was I was going to have to undo him first. How much of an undoing could I effect in a single session without leaving Aston in melt down. I'd have to be cautious. "Indeed it is Dr Chan. Just as you prescribed. It should help Mr Douglas greatly."

"What?" Aston asked, possibly startled at the talk of prescriptions. Or maybe I had just paused too long to consider.

I raised an eyebrow at him, giving him my best haughty look. "Ah you questioning the doctor Mr Douglas?"

"No, er, no, not at all."

"We could discharge you if you don't wish to proceed with the treatment," I reminded him he had a safe word if he needed.

"No, ah, that's all right. Do what you're going to."

I heard curiosity in his voice. Curiosity that was winning out against any fear or doubts he might be having.

"Very well." I undid the cap on the lotion. "This is a special formulation. The hospital's labs have been working on it for some time. It is really good of you to volunteer to test it for us."

Aston frowned, "What exactly does it do?"

_Let me._ Steve prompted.

You're on.

"There's nothing to be afraid of Mr Douglas. The linament's simply been designed to increase body awareness. I think you'll enjoy this."

Oh well done Steve. That told him nothing and set him at ease all in one go. Are you going to conjure up another bottle?

You want me to massage him too?

_If you would_ _be so kind_ _._ I couldn't help pushing Steve a little past his comfort zone. I wasn't exactly asking him to do anything sexual, just intimate. I hoped that the experience of touch would help the two bond deeper, as friends and as my dream lovers.

Steve looked at me a moment, considering, then he shrugged.

We started at Aston's head and worked down. It seemed natural to start there since it was where Aston's sense of 'I' existed most of the time. I intended to drag that awareness down deeper into his being. My hands worked his muscles and caressed his skin as the idea of the 'sensitising' lotion did the rest. Never underestimate the power of suggestion.

Playfully I circled his nipples but refrained from giving them a tweak. The temptation was there but I wanted Aston to sink deeply into feeling so I continued on, tracing the outline of his ribs and on down to his six pack. Steve mirrored my actions on the other side, one eye on me and the other on 'the patient'.

We must have touched a particularly sensitive area as Aston moaned and tried in vain to arch his back but the restraints held him firm. "What are you doing to me?" he queried but it didn't sound like a complaint, well not exactly.

"Are you alright Mr Douglas?" I checked in with him.

"Mmm hmm," was all I got from him as he sank back into the world of sensation we were drawing him into.

His moans morphed into grumbles as I evaded his crotch, going instead to his feet to work my way back his legs. "You're so mean." But it sounded like he was drifting on some cloud.

As we neared Aston's sacred space once again Steve drew back. _He's all yours Em._

Steve lost the clothes and took his own cock in his hand as he stood apart to watch. Now that was going to be distracting but I said nothing. My vagina complained at me, spilling heat into my lower sacrum. I took a deep breath, reminding myself to focus. This wasn't about me. This was about Aston.

Very slowly and deliberately I dribbled the oil in the bottle down over Aston's penis. Instantly it rose to attention. I'd always been fascinated by the magic of men's anatomy. As a nurse I'd seen my share. Each man unique. Yeah so I'd looked. Stiff. Well Aston's was stiff. Everything I had done had led to this moment. Had the sensations and the anticipation been enough? I ran a single finger down the engorged vein on the underside of his shaft and he exploded in cum. Bloody effing beautiful.

Aston went limp, out to it. I conjured up some tissues and cleaned him up. Then Steve and I took a side each, a cradle of reassurance ready for him should he wake, within the dream, and realize what we'd done to him. Only time would tell if we had truly reconnected him with any sort of body-mind awareness.

The sound of screaming broke though into our dream. Instantly my adrenalin flowed, recalling me into my real world octogenarian body. I called out to Steve. "That's Julio. Damn. His subconscious must be remembering."

Aston had awoken to the sound too. He went from bleary eyed to alert in under a second, taking in his close proximity to both of us. He tensed for a moment then smiled.

I looked to Aston, pleading. "Sorry but Steve and I have to go."

"I know. Go. Help him."

I regretted leaving him after such emotionally intense play but he looked well, radiant even. Could you take ten years off someone with a dream?

"I can feel you in my head Em, not words, but you're there and you're conflicted. I'm fine. Go."

He could feel me in his head? Well that was unexpected but I didn't have time to delve further. I surprised both of us by kissing him passionately, before I realized what I was doing. "Oops, shit, sorry Aston. I forgot I'm not in our dream anymore." Hell what must it feel like being kissed by someone as wizened up as me. As I tried to make an escape Aston caught me by the shoulder and turned me to face him. "Em, I don't care. You're you at any age." He gently touched a finger to my lips. "I'll be waiting for our next dream."

So would I. Shaking myself back to reality I managed to remind him before Steve and I went, "Don't forget to write down what you remember from the library."

Helena was trying vainly to shake Julio out of it. She glanced at me with an uncharacteristic look of helplessness. "I can't wake him. What can we do for him?"

Steve was already beside me, kneeling and placing a palm on the man's forehead as he began to chant one of the songs of the Icaros.

I studied the Julio's aura and decided the best thing I could do was leave the mind healing to Steve while I cut through the spell of pain that held Julio firmly in its grasp. I drew energy from way above the crown of my head, channeled it down into my belly then radiated it back out through my arms, sending it slicing through any obstacles in the energy centres along his spine. With it I sent my wish for him to be well in mind, body and spirit. To heal the trauma done to him not only at a physical level but also on the non-physical level.

Eyes softly focused I watched as the dimmer parts of his aura lightened in color, yet too slowly for my liking. _I need help_ , I pleaded with the nameless force of the universe. It was Helena who responded, placing a hand on my back. I felt her own connection with the tao, its energy pouring into me, interweaving with my own to form one strong stream of love and compassion, directed into Julio's mind body and spirit.

Julio's eyes sprang open, clear and vibrant. "Que passe?"

Knowing the man's faith I chose to give an explanation I hoped would rest easy with him. "You were in a nightmare we couldn't wake you up from. So we prayed." Carefully I sidestepped any mention of universal healing energy, visualization, auras, chakras or anything else that he might be opposed to. Although he had taken the earlier healing on his arm in his stride.

Julio seemed to accept what I'd said, crossing himself as was his habit "Gracias a Dios."

"Breakfast," Zex called us over to a simple meal of rice flake porridge and herbal tea. Aston bitched about having no coffee but soon got over it. The drink made from roasted ramon nuts wasn't that bad.

I was facing the platform again, uncertain how to proceed.

"You were nearly there with it last night," Helena pointed out.

She was right. I guess I was just feeling nervous but not wanting Helena to call me a coward again I gathered up my courage. Then again, a little honesty never hurt, "Okay, listen up everyone. If I work this then there's a good chance I'll disappear from here and reappear somewhere else on the planet. Frankly I'm a little cautious about what I might find in that unknown place." Cautious was understating things a bit. A million what ifs were going through my head. What if I landed in hostile territory? What if I couldn't come back the same way. What if I landed in a different time altogether?

"Then we're coming with you," Steve stated as fact.

##

##  8

Letting go and trusting the universe had never failed me so I did it now. I stated my request. "Help to use this platform for the travel that was its intention. Deliver us all safely to a place where we can find all the answers we need."

Holding hands with the others I emptied my mind of all but the space within and my intention to travel to the best possible location that met our needs. I gave thanks as if it had already happened and as I did I fell into a whiteness of space I had never known before. Within it was sense of body, place or time, only awareness. And then we fell out, into some other place. We were underground, still, but the stonework was different. "Where are we?"

"Welcome to the kingdom of the Shang," a vaguely exotic looking older gentleman greeted us, "I am Silwa."

Getting off the platform as quickly as we could, lest it whisk us suddenly somewhere else, we went to introduce ourselves.

"It is good to meet you all, and Helena, it's been awhile," the man acknowledged our guardian. "How's the motorbike?"

"The Laverda is my pet tiger, all orange and full of the threat of danger at any moment. At time's I get up enough speed it damn near pins my ears back. And I wouldn't have it any other way."

Silwa beamed, "I'm glad. We found a box of spares that must have been left with it, if you're interested?"

Helena's eyes widened in astonishment, "Spare Laverda parts? Are you kidding. Do you know how many kinds of un-obtainium they are?"

Silwa laughed with delight, "I take that as a yes." He gave Helena directions where to find them and she took Zex and Julio to go and retrieve them. Then he turned his attention on us, asking us all kinds of questions but in a way that seemed to hint he already knew the answers and was testing us somehow. Seeing if we were ready for something but I couldn't tell what.

"And you Emily, why do you choose such an old form for your body?" Silwa asked.

Was he kidding? "I don't exactly have much choice in the matter do I?" I answered a bit more grumpily than was my norm for silly questions. My age was a bit of a sore point at the moment since it was limiting my romantic life to the realm of dreams.

Silwa smiled as if he'd just caught a fish on his line. He was up to something. "Yet you choose a younger form in your dreams do you not?"

Hell, how did he know that? "I do but that's from years of practice lucid dreaming. My dreams are my own. I can make my own choices there."

"And would you say your dreams are inside or outside of you?"

"Inside. They happen in my mind."

"It would be logical to think so. What about your shared dreams? Where do they happen?"

"Er...," I wasn't really sure. "I'm not certain."

"Yet you control how you look in a shared dream."

"Yes, just as easily."

"Even though others in your shared dream create their own bits in such a reality?"

"Yes." Where was he going with all this? Apart from the embarrassment over his seeming to know my innermost mind so well he now had me intrigued.

"So my question to you is how is that different to the reality of this moment?"

He had me thinking but the answer seemed obvious "Well for starters this is happening outside of me."

"Are you sure about that?" No derogatory or patronising tone. Just a simple question.

Was I sure? On what did I base my assumption? Could it be that reality was happening inside of me. Yet somehow I didn't think he meant inside my body-mind. "To be honest I'm not sure. I don't think I understand the nature of the universe enough to answer that question. Irrespective of that there is the other issue, I'm not in control here like I am in a dream."

"Why do you think that when you've seen miracles of healing from your own hands?"

I frowned. "But that was chi."

"What is chi except a concentrated flow of energy? What are you except a collection of vibrating particles of energy that your mind has interpreted to be a body of humanoid shape? How do Helena and Zex change into other creatures at will?"

"Whoa. You ask a lot of questions."

Silwa laughed. "Sorry, it is our way. We prefer to prompt others to come to their own answers rather than instruct. If I instructed you it is likely you would be limited to the extent of my own knowledge. However, if I guide you towards coming to your own answers it is possible you will discover some aspect I have missed, in the process adding to the pool of knowledge we all draw from, the akashic field."

Aston's curiosity piqued, "So you're saying the knowledge stored in the akashic is only as good as the sum total of all human experience."

"All experience, not just human, but yes."

"Is that anything to do with the fact that sometimes scientists who've never met invent the same thing on the same day?"

"Very much so. The unfolding of potential that we call the experience of the universe simply reaches a tipping point or threshold where such a discovery is possible."

As I listened with one ear to their conversation I had a moment to think about Silwa's questions. If, as I had come to believe in my later years, I was not my ego but a boundless, limitless entity experiencing myself as a myriad separate entities then, "Yes, reality is happening within me," I announced to no-one in particular.

Silwa turned from his conversation with Aston, pleased. "Then I return to my earlier question."

"Why am I masquerading as an old woman?"

"Exactly."

"I guess its what I believed fit my chronological age."

"Yet I am 375,427 of your earth years old."

My mind boggled, "Wow. And you've been here this whole time?"

"No. My kind were born elsewhere. My brethren were a spiritual order of monks on our own planet. A female of our kind took us to task for being too disconnected from the lives of those we thought we served. Indeed, we had come to think of ourselves as special, better than the rest of the population. The woman who challenged us did the unthinkable, she chose to die so that she could be born among the developing sentient species of the universe so she could coax them towards the same knowledge we had kept to ourselves. It was her firm belief that such knowledge should be available to all who are ready and interested, irrespective of age, gender or profession. In short she embarrassed us into seeing ourselves, how we had shut ourselves off as something elite."

I cast my glance over the catacombs we had come too, surely this was just as isolated.

"And you would be right," somewhat disturbingly Silwa answered my thought. "We live here, in this parallel dimension, for our own protection. There have long been forces on this planet opposed to us waking up the general population. We practice our beliefs here, sending out energies, not just to help the sentient species on Earth but also the life of the planet as a whole. And, more actively, we wander in disguise, teaching individuals and small groups as they are ready."

"Women as well?" I hoped.

Silwa laughed, "I think, how do you say? Adelaide would have had our guts for garters if we hadn't?"

Adelaide? Was that the name of the woman he had mentioned before?

Silwa easily picked my mind again, "It is. She is very much alive in this timeline and set up the Institute of metaphysics in Karpathia."

Good grief, I knew instantly who he meant. I'd seen her on TV. "The first lady of Karpathia is the woman who took the bodhisattva vow?"

"Precisely."

Hang on a minute, "You came to this planet all those years ago because you knew Adelaide would eventually be born here."

Silwa nodded, "You are very astute. Yes. We felt we owed it to her. That and her brother, who was with our order, insisted."

I naturally wondered what had happened to the brother.

Silwa looked a little wistful, "Khyen recently decided to explore life as a layman. He fell in love and married. He's teaching at his sister's institute."

That must have caused a stir amongst the monks. "So how do I reverse my age? Can you guide me through the process?" I sensed asking for help was important.

Silwa seemed to approve, "Close your eyes and imagine yourself as you appear in your dreams. Feel how it feels to be in that body. Feel the vibrancy, the zest to explore and enjoy life. Ask yourself how you think in this form. Are your beliefs or your behaviours different? In your younger dream form do you carry the baggage of a lifetime's experiences, your regrets, your losses and your gains or do you surrender those to another time?"

"I surrender them."

"Excellent. Now open your eyes," Silwa held a mirror out to me. I took it somewhat nervously. I looked. There was no obvious change. Damn, I felt cheated.

"Look at the roots of your hair," Silwa insisted.

I brushed my hair back and peered into the mirror. "Bloody hell! That's my old hair color."

Silwa shrugged his shoulders. "You can make it any color you want. You are only limited by your imagination. But..."

"I knew there had to be a but."

"It's not what you are thinking. There are no nasty side-effects from playing this way but there is a temptation to play god. It was the undoing of the Atlanteans. The Lemurians taught them the power of the mind but they turned it for personal gain so the Lemurians turned around and cursed them. They only recently got extracted from that."

Steve was curious, "What did the curse do?"

Silwa cringed, "It was pretty nasty really but in a way they were the makers of their own destruction. They could still create with a thought but it was any thought, not just those done with intention and awareness. The ramifications of the curse were such that if they had a fear that fear became real, sometimes eating them alive. The real bite to the curse was their reality only existed for them, as an individual, so no-one else saw what the other was running from or the piles of gold another thought they were accumulating."

Er, I was suddenly not so eager to mess around with power of the mind. "How do we avoid that curse?"

"By always checking in with your heart before you go creating with your mind. By staying connected with each other and not dividing the world into bits to pull apart and study," he looked meaningfully at Aston.

Aston shifted stance as if uncomfortable with the man's focused attention.

Silwa studied him as if peering into his soul, then relaxed, as if pleased with what he found. "Although your man here seems to have an unusually balanced soul for an Orion starseed."

"Hey!" Aston objected, "What the hell is that meant to mean? Starseeds, that's a lot of new-age bullshit. You guys have been watching too much sci-fi."

The wiseman seemed amused by Aston's comment. "I assure you we have no need of sci-fi here. We are living, breathing science fiction," with that his appearance shimmered and we were suddenly staring at a much younger, more alien yet still humanoid being with a conical shaped head and almond shaped eyes.

Aston's jaw dropped. As for me and Steve, we peered at him with interest. He had said he was from another planet but somehow this made it more real and exciting.

"Come now," Silwa chided. "I am not the first alien you have ever seen."

I thought of Zex but had to admit Zex looked a lot more human. "Well, one perhaps..."

"Oh way more than that. For example the Cephalopods came here long ago as did many other species, in comet debris that made it through this planet's ionosphere."

Cephalopods? I telepathed Steve.

Octopus and squid

Oh. "Surely any eggs of such animals would died in the cold of space or burn up on reentry."

"Not if they have especially hard casings to protect them. The cephalopods are a highly intelligent species who, on other planets, have often developed advanced civilisations. Whenever they think life on a planet is becoming untenable their females lay special eggs that can survive the vast distances and eons of time in space."

"Intelligent?" Aston queried. "How can you tell?"

"They have a sophisticated means of communication using skin colour changes. They didn't build an empire in the oceans of this planet as there were already other highly intelligent creatures living in its waters. But we are digressing. Suffice to say I am not the only being you have come across that had its start elsewhere in the cosmos."

"Okay, I'm game, what exactly is an Orion starseed," Aston quizzed.

"A starseed is a being from a higher dimension who has incarnated into the dense matter that holds sway on earth. They birth here with a purpose, sometimes a specific one but more usually with the aim of generally helping the beings on this planet at a particular time. Those from Orion are highly developed mentally. Skeptics to the nth degree they demand evidence to support beliefs. They are the bold and brave warriors of truth, holding it as their highest ideal. They have little time for untested concepts, criticising the ill conceived. You, Mr Douglas, seem to have a broader mind than most of your kind. You question, entertain possibilities, seek to observe and test them, filtering out the useless while harnessing valuable finds for the benefit of others."

"So can I test this process you just showed Em."

Silwa clapped his hands together in delight. "So Orion. Yes you can test it? But are you able to entertain the possibility?"

"It worked for Emily didn't it? I saw the result with my own eyes. I only need to replicate that result."

Silwa seemed pleased with Aston's response, "Then close your eyes and see yourself as you wish to be, maybe just one particular thing for starters. See it in your mind's eye as if it is already true. How does that reality feel. Sense it with your mind, your heart, your gut."

We all watched and waited with bated breath.

"Now open your eyes," Silwa instructed.

Aston did so and patted the bald patch on his head. "Bloody hell, I can feel hair."

Silwa nodded as if that had been fully expected, "Indeed. Now you've run that little experiment maybe you would like to speak to some of the mystics here who specialize in manipulating matter with sound."

Aston's eyes widened with delight and surprise. "Definitely."

Silwa turned his attention to Steve. "And you Mr Chan?"

"So that's why Aston had that dream last night. That was his pre-reading. Count me in."

As Aston and Steve left the room Silwa beckoned me, "He's very perceptive that one isn't he. Shall we take a walk?"

Whyever not, "Sure."

I followed him through beautifully painted, brightly coloured corridors. Each wall seemed to tell a story.

"They do," Silwa answered. "They document our history and the history of many of the enlightened beings who have chosen to reside on earth from time to time."

I casually studied the montages as we walked along, until I spied one that seemed out of context. I paused a moment to take a closer look. Maybe my eyes had been deceiving me. Three men and one woman. One man with a surfboard in one hand and a gun in the other, appearing to have the back of a taller imposing warrior of a man who wore his hair in long braids of blue black hair. The third man looked imposing too but he had a mischievous gleam in his eye. He cradled the woman in his arms like she was his most prized possession, although I got a sense from the other onlooking males that she was theirs as well. What disturbed me somewhat was the bondage attire that both the woman and the surfie wore. And the whip at their feet. "Um"

Silwa came to stand beside me. "Ah, yes, well, you have to remember that there is only one state of enlightenment but many paths to it. There have always been a number of left hand path practitioners among the enlightened. Although the brotherhood here do not partake of it themselves."

"Left hand path?" It sounded somewhat sinister, as in creepy but perhaps it was merely 'sinister' as in the old Latin for left.

Silwa pointed to the mischievous man in the picture. "This one particularly. His kind embrace both the dark and light of their nature turning both to the path. Not just accepting their quirks of nature but actively using them. While some avoid all the temptations and distractions that love of a partner, homemaking and even having children bring such practitioners embrace them as part of their spiritual practice."

I could understand that. "But the whip?"

"Ah, well, I am not the person to ask but I understand that used with love and care it can transport the recipient of the pain into a place called subspace. A short cut into that inner stillness and silence many seekers aspire to. Personally I prefer meditation, mantra and the vibratory sound of our music. Some use psychedelics. Others suspend themselves form ropes. Who am I to judge?"

"If not you then who?"

"Ah, I see, you think my great age makes me wise enough to judge others. No Emily, may I call you that, my kind don't judge. Our role on this planet is only to support and guide those who would receive our wisdom. Speaking of which, would you be averse to me asking you some challenging and personal questions?"

Er,"I guess that's okay? And yes, you can call me that."

Silwa looked at me intently, it felt like he was seeing into my soul. "Why are you still looking for enlightenment experiences Emily? You already received that from the master in the Philippines who you studied with."

Well duh, but I didn't say so, "It didn't last long and then I was back in the mundane world. I haven't found a way to maintain that connection with the infinite. I can get there with meditation but only for the duration of the meditation. I know it's there but when I need it most, when I'm afraid or challenged it seems so remote it's almost like I had never experienced it."

"And this ayahuasca experience you seek, do you think that will give you a permanent connection?" In his usual style it was not an accusation, only a question for me to consider.

I sighed, "No. But I'm open to suggestions," I added hopefully.

"Which brings us back to the question. Why? Why do you feel it is necessary to be enlightened?"

Hmm, so many things raced through my head. "To be a better, kinder person. To be what I need to be when times are tough. I guess there's even a hope of some kind of god like powers."

"Thank you for your honesty. Now tell me, do those desires block you from your goal?"

Oh shit. He was right. I'd broken that rule of not running from or towards anything.

"Indeed. Let go of the effort Emily. You're already everything you need to be. Be what you are, all of it, even the grouchy, soppy and cack-handed bits. Admit there are even bits you still don't know about yourself because you've gotten stuck in the familiar. All those behaviours, those ways of being that parents, school and society noticed you for or labelled you with. Embrace the unknown. Embrace the rest of you that you were never encouraged or allowed to be."

"But what if I find something I don't like?"

Silwa shrugged as if such an eventuality was of no consequence. "Just witness it. You don't need to let it control you, in fact if you take the time to notice and acknowledge it it's less likely to sabotage you through your subconscious."

Um, but "Shouldn't I be all, I don't know, buddha-like, if I'm enlightened?"

Silwa spat out a laugh. "Good grief, now what would that be?" Then he turned more serious, "As long as you chase after some unattainable goal you'll never attain it. Get it? Be you. Rest your consciousness in that and you will find you already have what you've been seeking. Now, shall we go watch the sunset?" He beckoned me to follow.

"Sunset? But it was only just morning."

"Where you came from yes, but here it is a different time of day."

Hell, where were we? The tunnel opened up onto a cliff top lookout. The view was stunning. I could see what surely must be the Himalayas in the distance. Rivers edged with ice and snow ambled through a flat and barren yet breathtakingly beautiful landscape. "Wow!" The sunset broke across the sky, initially in pastel hues of mauve and tangerine before turning vibrant, like someone had lit a fire and it had blazed to life. The eagle that cried out as it flew into the distant mountains only added to the scene. This was a sight worth living for.

"You think if you died you'd miss this don't you?"

"Hell Yes. I can't imagine sights like this in heaven."

"If you are brave, Emily, there is something I'd like to show you. Are you willing to face your death?"

I gulped, what exactly was he asking? "I'd like to think I have some courage. What is it you want me to do exactly?"

"Nothing at all. I merely wish to stop your heart for a moment. May I?"

Good grief. Did I really want to do this? Yet I had to admit death was a fear that nagged at the back of my mind, especially with my last remaining years slipping through my fingers. But if I couldn't trust this eons old wise man to help me who could I trust? I swallowed hard. "Do it."

In an instant I found myself in an unfamiliar expanse with a white light beckoning me but Silwa had a firm grasp on my arm. "Now is not the time to go walking into that. You don't need another rebirth."

Did he mean ever, or just now? I was too scared to ask. What would not being born again mean. "So," I wondered, "am I dead?"

"Only on the edge. I brought you here because I wanted to show you a different perspective on your life. And before you panic and ask I've already sent reassurances to those psychically linked to you that you are okay. May we begin?"

"With what?" I wondered.

"Roll tape," he joked as he waved a hand in what seemed like air and images of my life started to appear. "We haven't a long time here so I'll just fast forward to a few snippets if I may."

"Sure." I saw flashes of a few significant events of my life. My graduation, my marriage, getting a job, giving birth and so on, right through to losing my daughter, raising her children, losing Bob and more recently the plane crash.

Silwa patted my shoulder. "How you doing with all this?"

A bit gut wrenching but "Okay I guess. It doesn't seem so intense like this. It's like I'm a viewer of some story."

"A story you and the people around you created. That's what the world of matter is for. It's like a child's sandpit, a place to have fun, try out things and learn. A place to create things like that sunset."

"Are you saying that sunset put on its display for me?"

"Of course, or you wouldn't have been there at that point in time to see it."

"But if I hadn't have been there it would have still been as spectacular."

"Yes, but both you and the sunset gained joy from the interaction."

"But the sunset isn't a being. It isn't conscious," or was it?

"Everything emanates from the one state, bugs, sunsets, rocks, birds, plants, sentient beings."

Oh, "It's all consciousness."

"Consciousness playing in an ever changing dance of life and light." He tapped me on the place over my heart again.

I awoke, lying on solid earth. Silwa offered me a hand and helped me stand. He said nothing. Thinking on what he had said and shown me would not have added anything further to it. The understanding it gave me was implicit, analyzing it would have only muddied the waters. We walked back together to the room where we'd first met. The others were waiting.

##

##  9

Aston was frowning at me, arms crossed. "Don't you ever do that to me again. I felt cut off, cast adrift. I've never felt as connected with other people as these last couple of days, then you were gone in an instant."

I did the only thing I could think of, I went of and hugged him. Gradually he relaxed in my arms and drew me closer, like he was never going to let me go, ever again. Somehow I managed to extract myself. "I'm sorry."

Steve seemed less stressed. "So what are these grouchy, soppy, cack-handed bits of yourself I haven't got to know yet?"

I rolled my eyes, trust Steve to have listened in on me although I greatly doubted he'd have managed to maintain contact while I was out of it. He'd have known what we were doing but if it had been him I'd have found it a bit nerve wracking. I hugged him too. "It's a relief actually, to stop trying to be something, oh, I don't know what I imagined an enlightened personality to be. I'm not sure exactly what I was seeking. Something I would never have found, that's for sure."

"Em, you have a down to earth love of life, don't go throwing that away to try and be some kind of saint. It's you I'm falling in love with, not some abstract ideal."

What could I say to that. "Um. I feel the same about you and Aston. Is this where I allow myself to get all soppy."

Steve wiped a stray tear away, my damned eyes were leaking. "I'll make sure you get plenty of practice."

I leaned into him for a moment then steadied myself. I wandered over to the platform where we had arrived. Something stirred in my mind. I touched it again. The same images of people coming and going assailed me, but that wasn't it. I wanted to see further back in time. As if to oblige me the vision changed. Now the platform was a base for something electrifying, almost dangerous. I backed away from it and broke the connection. "This wasn't originally a portal. It was the base of a power plant."

"One of a vast network that surrounded the globe during the time of the Lemurians." Silwa explained. "They dismantled the system when they realized the Atlanteans were headed for a fall. Long after the Lemurians had disappeared into their hidden cities the Atlanteans adapted the network to help transport themselves around the planet. They were rapidly losing their teleportation abilities and for a time the old network, which was built on what some call ley lines, helped. Eventually the Atlanteans lost so much of their magic that even the network couldn't help them so they turned their backs on magic altogether, coming to hate anyone who claimed to still have the old powers. They called them charlatans and to be fair many were, trying to act out what they knew their ancestors had done"

"Which would explain the divide between scientists and mystics to this day."

"It's time that changed," Aston stated to no-one in particular.

"Indeed," Silwa mused. "Which brings us nicely to Helena's proposition. Helena."

Helena stepped away from the wall where she had been watching all, ever alert, a box of spare bike parts at her feet. "As you know Emily your grand daughter now resides on Mars. The thing is there is a desperate need for more humans on Mars. There's no nice way to say this so I'll just say it. There is a species up there who have been in stasis for a bloody long time. The only way we can bring them out of it is if we can feed them and they need fresh living blood and they need that on an ongoing regular basis."

"Shit," Aston swore.

Helena continued. "That said we are in particular need of humans up there who can work with the resident android species to help rebuild the planet and restore it to full health. They need to be brave souls because, at this point in time, there is no coming back to earth. There is a primitive but evolving lifeform there that, while seemingly benign, is best suited to that planet so we don't want to bring it back here. There's also the issue of the mining colony that's run by a collection of unsavory sods, humans who are possessed by shapeshifting demonic beings. Mostly they're after gold and other precious metals so if you don't stand between them and what they want they're usually not a problem. However they did enslave this planet and we only just ousted the majority of them so we don't want them enslaving Mars the same way."

"Interesting," Steve mused.

"Oh there's more," Helena continued. "There was another planet called Sanctuary that was blown apart when the evil first arrived in this solar system. It once was home to relations of the Martians, or Nova Lyreans as they call themselves, as well as highly evolved etheric beings who were the ancestors of what we on earth call faeries. We don't know if any survive on what is left of the planetoid, Ceres which is the largest chunk that still exists of the old planet."

"In the meteor belt," I assumed.

"Exactly. Zex, can you explain the bigger challenge."

There was a bigger challenge?

"We think there is a disharmony at the center of this galaxy. Theories are divided to date but it either gave rise to evil or fear gave rise to it. Either way it needs fixing. There's a long game in play to repair the damage already done across the galaxy but as soon as we put out one brushfire another arises. The high council believes that the only way to effect a permanent repair is raise the consciousness across the entire expanse so no being is left separate and disconnected from the whole."

"Isn't that what people like Silwa have already been trying to do?" I asked. It seemed obvious that it had been tried already.

"Yes, but the Shang, like Silwa, are few in number. Even ascended beings like the Malakim are too few in number. It is made worse by having a breakaway faction of Malakim called Deniers. They see no point in the material realm and couldn't care less what happened to it. We need more allies. So we're recruiting, looking for sentient beings who are psychic, compassionate and well along the path to joining our ranks anyway. Think of it as a kind of hurry up."

"So let me get this straight," I decided to sum up not just to get things clear in my head but for Steve and Aston's benefit as well. "You want us to volunteer to be food for some alien species, stop Mars 2.0 going the same way as Earth did and, if we have time after that, fix the galaxy."

Zex grinned, "Yep that about sums it up. Now you say it that way it doesn't exactly sound like a good job description. But you won't be on your own. Your lives will be full of interest and challenge. And in your case Emily, you'll get to see your grand-daughter again."

Damn, he knew what carrot to throw my way. But I wasn't just plain old Emily anymore. I mightn't have gone looking for complications in my life, but now I had acquired a responsibility for the two new people in my life. The fact was I was falling in love with them. Well, okay, I had fallen in love with them. It might be a transitory thing but I didn't think so. We kind of gelled in that way that I imagined five years from now we wouldn't even need telepathy, just a look and we'd know what the other was thinking. The boundaries between the three of us were already blurring. "What do you think guys?"

"I go where you go Em. I'll support whatever you choose. End of story," Steve stated, but it didn't exactly help my decision.

"Aston?" I asked with almost pleading in my voice. Here was my man of logic and facts, I was relying on him to either pull the rug from under this wild idea or give it his thumbs up.

"I think," Aston began in a carefully measured response, "that while the ancient pyramid and the skills of the acousticians here hold a lot of interest for me, odds are there's more to discover out there in the cosmos. I'm assuming if you are asking us, Zex, that you already have a means by which we can undertake this galactic travel and also a means for us to survive what's out in space, such as cosmic rays, planets without breathable atmospheres and so on."

Zex nodded. "We do. Mars now has a breathable atmosphere, thanks to our alliance with the planet's new life form. Oxygen, nitrogen and carbon levels have stabilized to something that approximates Earth's atmosphere, including pressure. As to getting there, we have a spaceship on call. Though the captain is a bit of a grump he is reliable."

"And apart from feeding a comatose alien of two, what is it you actually want us to do up there? You've been, pardon my abruptness, rather vague on that matter." Aston gave Zex a hard and assessing look.

I was glad Aston was asking for specifics. It was our lives on the line after all.

Silwa cleared his throat. "Zex, if I may?"

"Please," Zex looked to the wiseman hopefully.

"It is not a matter of doing anything in particular but being and allowing, bear with me," Silwa paused to close his hands together and when he reopened them there appeared what looked like a small rod attached to a spring on a base. He pushed the tip of the rod to the side and it sprung back. He pushed it again and did the same.

A simple child's toy but I might not be getting the point. "Once you release the pressure the rod returns to the upright position. So our role is not so much about applying pressure but on releasing."

"Exactly. What Mars needs, the galaxy, and, dare I say, the whole material cosmos needs is to be allowed to do its thing. Beings are the same," he looked at me meaningfully, "release all the internal effort and resistance and any being spontaneously awakens to the full potential of what they were meant to be."

"I get that," I murmured, as much to myself as anybody else, "But how does that help a planet?"

Aston followed up my question. "Anything on a planet like Mars is going to be a force vector, affecting the whole. You can't take those forces out of the equation without killing the planet."

Silwa continued to play with his toy, seeming to muse on it. "If left to their own devices those forces will automatically balance themselves." He pushed again on the rod of the toy and again it sprang back to place. "Even the so-called evil Din on Mars have been brought to their knees by giving them exactly what they wanted."

"And what was that?" I wondered.

"An endless supply of gold. We gave them a machine that will produce all they want. Their master is already realizing that no amount of gold will ever quench his thirst, that there is a gaping hole in his being that still demands to be satisfied. Of course that is not to say his epiphany will last. His habitual behaviour patterns are very strong. Strong enough to have terrorised this solar system and enslaved humanity in his pursuit for more wealth."

Aston, grinned a 'got him' look. "Wasn't that an intervention, an action to bring about change?"

Silwa laughed. "In away. The difference is the action was not so much an attempt to control the mining colony on Mars but to give them what they wanted, allowing them to be as they are. Yes, we did have a desired outcome, removing the need for the mining colony to expand and threaten the newly evolving ecosystem. It removed their need to invade adjacent areas but we did it without applying direct pressure on them. I agree it is a fine line but one I think the three of you are capable of treading."

Aston shook his head, not agreeing in the least. "And what happens if someone like the Din attacks us? Should we just stand where we are and allow ourselves to be killed?"

Silwa didn't seem fazed by the question. "Actually the choice is yours. On one hand not to defend yourself when threatened is unnatural, a resistance of a natural impulse. On the other hand, some say that since the material world is a dream, a projection of the cosmic mind, there is no enemy to fight or, indeed, a self who needs defending."

"Bloody hell," Aston swore, clearly not happy with the ambivalent answer.

Steve, who'd been sitting on the sidelines of the discussion, widened his eyes in comprehension. "I don't know how I know but I know what you're talking about. Two aspects of Wu Wei. On one level avoiding everything unnatural and contrived. On the other not participating in the games sentient beings play. Not striving or put even more simply 'going with the flow'."

"Well, why the hell didn't someone say say?" Aston let out an exasperated sigh.

Remembering my Tao Tê Ching I understood now as well, "act without effort, teach without using too many words, produce but don't hold onto the stuff you produce, create without getting all hung up on worrying about the result, grasp at nothing for there is nothing to lose."

Everyone in the room turned to stare at me as if I had declared something profound, I suppose I had. I shrugged my shoulders. "From something I read."

Silwa nodded in acknowledgement, "Indeed, a very modern paraphrase of the words of the Chinese master."

Helena stretched, standing straighter. "So does that mean they're ready?"

"Are we ready?" I asked Aston.

"Hmm..."

Gods, talk had gone on long enough. "Yes or no?"

Aston grinned. "Damn woman, I like it when you get all assertive. Okay yes. We go."

"About bloody time," Helena muttered as some technology I didn't understand encompassed my body, transporting it in much the same way as we had travelled via the ancient platform.

##

##  10

We reconstituted ourselves, our atoms having done whatever they needed to do to reappear elsewhere. I surely didn't understand the process.

We were now in a corridor, all streamlined and metallic. Up ahead, three very well armed and formidable looking women appeared to be waiting for us.

Aston seemed to be checking something, as he patted pockets and various, um, parts of his body, "What the hell are you doing Aston? Sheesh, not in front of the ladies."

"The standard check, aka 'spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch."

Steve burst out laughing. "But you don't wear spectacles or a watch Aston."

Aston shrugged. "It's just a reassuring ritual, like brushing your teeth."

"I didn't know you were into superstitious rituals, Aston," I commented. Now there was a red rag to a bull, naughty me.

"I don't think checking my goolies are still intact after a teleport is being superstitious," Aston growled.

"Goolies?" Steve asked, perplexed.

"His low hanging fruit."

Steve rolled his eyes. "If you mean his balls why don't you just say so. If you two are going to keep reverse aging you'd better modernize your language. You don't need to cover up your meaning."

One of the women waiting for us stepped forward. "I am Bixenta and these are Andere and Catalin." She laughed quietly to herself, "No one has ever called us ladies before."

Before I could ask why, we were ushered into following them. "This way, the captain's waiting for you."

Doors slid open onto a flight deck. Our guard stood at attention waiting for the captain to notice them. Probably he was an asshole of a boss who demanded absolute authority and everyone to kowtow to him..

A seven foot pale haired alien turned around and stared right at me. "What is it with you humans? Always with the 'asshole'. I make time out of our schedule to play taxi driver and this is what I get."

Oh shit, he'd read my mind. "I'm sorry, but I was wondering why your three guards felt they were unable to speak up and announce us."

"Announce you?" The alien wandered over to me. I bravely stood my ground, craning my head to look up at him. "Because we are all telepathic. I knew as soon as you entered the room, Princess whatever your name is."

Double shit. I'd really messed things up and made myself look haughty. "You can call me Em, just Em. I wasn't expecting any royal treatment, I just..."

"Worried for their rights and my treatment of them."

"Er, yes."

The alien looked around the room, "Anyone here feel put upon?"

Various shakes of the head and several "No Sir" and "No Captain Triglav" replies ensured, even one "No honey."

"Well, there you go. Now we have only seven minutes left before we arrive at your destination. Do you intend to spend that time discussing human rights or would you like a tour of the rest of the ship?"

Communications Officer Leigha showed us the ship. That she was chuckling quietly to herself did nothing for my feelings of embarrassment and foolishness.

Leigha patted me on the back, "Don't let it get to you. He likes to mess with newcomers and he especially likes playing the role of resident grump but he's a real sweetie once you get to know him."

I raised my eyebrows in disbelief which only had the result of renewing her laughter.

Presently we came to the engine room. "I thought Aston might like a look at the guts of the ship," Leigha explained.

"Indeed." Aston's interest lit up. "Can we go in there?"

"Only as far as the observation barrier."

The engine room was quieter than I expected. No revolving parts. No whirring noises. But it was all very big and very shiny.

Aston stared at it all in frustration. "Is there anyone here who can tell me how it all works?"

Leigha let out a shrill whistle, "Hey Carmen, got a moment?"

We left Aston there while Leigha took us on to see the medical bay which left most intensive care units looking third world. How I would have loved a field unit like this when I'd been nursing in the army.

"Impressive isn't it?" But coming from Leigha it sounded more like a statement than a question. She knew its worth.

"It is, but why do you need it? You all look so young and healthy. I doubt there's anyone here over twenty five."

"You might be surprised. Add a 100,000 years to Triglav's age and you might come closer. Our ship's engineer and our guards are Atlantean. Though they had been caught up in a space-time anomaly until recently you could say they are all over 12,000 years."

"And you Leigha?" she seemed more 'normal' than any of the others.

"Fifty-seven actually. But I am wondering why any of this is news to you. Have you not had the cure?"

"The what?" Steve asked. He'd been listening intently, in his own quiet way, and taking everything in.

Leigha defocused her eyes a moment then gasped. "Oh my, you're both mortal. I have to say for mortals you have astonishing auras. Why, I wonder, are the Malakim sending mortals to Mars?"

"Mortals?" Steve eloquently expressed my own confusion. "Are you saying you are all immortals."

Leigha shrugged her shoulders, "Well yes, in a manner of speaking. There are too many dangers out in the cosmos for the average mortal to survive long. She studied us again. "But neither of you is average. Aston is mortal too?"

"Yes." Steve was good with the one word answers when he wanted to be. I sensed he didn't want to waste time talking about us and instead wanted to know more about the immortals.

I asked the question for him. "Leigha, how did you become immortal? I'm assuming you weren't always that way."

Leigha hesitated. "Er, I'm a little different to the others. Triglav already carried the necessary retrovirus, having acquired it from a busy body journalist. When he gave me his blood he passed it on to me. For most humans it comes as either an injection or aerosol, sort of like an asthma spray. After you take it your body starts repairing years of genetic damage and lengthening telomeres, until you revert to peak condition, then it keeps you there."

"Telomeres?" Steve asked.

"A marker in your genes. The length of them shortens a bit every time your cells divide. Well in mortals anyway. For us our telomeres stay the same length."

The consequences of what she was telling us were enormous. The end of sickness, disability and death. But the ramifications for population growth were scary.

"Excuse me for reading your thoughts," Leigha apologised. "But we only exist in this dimension until we ascend, so there's no real fear of overpopulation, not in the long term anyway. It's just we don't have to go through the death process to do such a transformation. Honestly I thought you guys had had the cure and were in the process of aging backwards or I'd have started explaining all this from the start. I'm told, Emily, that you are 85 but without flattering you I have to say you don't look much over 60. Have you some other trick we don't know about?"

As we walked back to collect Aston Steve and I explained.

"You do it with your mind. Well now. That is impressive. Care to show me?"

I didn't mind. I closed my eyes and found my immortal authentic self within and rested in it for a moment. Then opened my eyes. "Probably nothing earth shatteringly different to look at but..."

"Oh no, you're wrong," Leigha interrupted. "I picked out a fine smile line wrinkle near your left eye. I watched with my own eyes as it disappeared. Wow, just wow."

Aston joined us and looked at me. "You've been at again."

"Well, catch up old man," I teased.

Aston sputtered. "Old? I'll have you..." He shut himself up and repeated the same technique I'd just done. Like Leigha, I picked out a faint wrinkle in his forehead and watched, fascinated, as it disappeared.

Leigha's jaw gaped. "So what's the essence of the technique?" She was genuinely curious.

"Rest in who you really are. Trust in that to do the rest. Don't try. Don't use effort. Just visualize and trust in it as already reality." Suddenly I sensed the ship had come to a stop. "I think it's time we were going." I offered Leigha my hand. "Thanks for the tour. Maybe we'll meet again."

Leigha looked thoughtful for a moment, "We'll all meet again one day, of that I'm sure."

But before we could say our final goodbyes Bixenta appeared. "There's a bit of an emergency at Scyth. Plumbing I believe. They've asked if the newcomers could be put down near the shoreline of the great ocean. It's the middle of the day and there's no storms about so it should be quite pleasant. The welcoming party will catch up with them in an hour or so."

"They could stay here for a bit longer," Leigha offered.

"Unfortunately no. We've just received word of an illegal Din settlement on Haras 5. The council's asked us to evict them or bribe them with one of the midas machines if necessary."

Leigha sighed. "Work calls."

"We'll be fine Leigha," I reassured myself as much as her. A stroll along the shoreline, even on an alien world, sounded nice.

"Very well. Just don't touch the ..." but we didn't hear the rest as someone on the ship decided that was the moment to transport us to the planet.

##

##  11

"It's a pretty bleak shoreline," Aston noted

It sure was. No seabirds, no shrubs or trees, not even any shellfish on the rocks. In the crevices among the rocks was a kind of slime or algae which seemed to be similar to the stuff floating in patches on the surface of the water. In the shallows it formed mounds, not unlike the ancient stromatolites I'd seen once on a trip to Hamelin Pool in Western Australia, some of the oldest living fossils on planet earth. They'd been one of those fortunate quirks of evolution as they had been pivotal in converting the noxious gases of early Earth into oxygen. Without them life on our planet might never have developed as it did. That they grew here was a good sign for the future of Mars but it was a pity there wasn't much variety in the life on the planet right now.

"Maybe we could fix that," Steve answered my thoughts.

"I'm not sure," Aston frowned. "Is it really our place to meddle? Humans don't exactly have a great track record for that."

"Not all humans but in ancient times, and even now, in the last wilderness places, shamans sing their songs of creation," Steve mused

"You want to sing to the slime mould?" Aston's eyes widened in surprise.

"Why not?"

Aston shrugged, "I guess it can't do any harm," for as Steve and I sensed, he didn't really believe a song could affect the life form. He was still our doubting Thomas but that made him valuable too. We needed his cool head and logic as much as we needed our mysticism.

We watched as Steve settled himself on a rock. "What can I do to help?" I wondered.

"Once I start up the chant you can come in with a harmony Em. Aston, if you feel like it you can clap along with the rhythm once you sense the beat."

"I can do that," Aston nodded.

"Great, now if you both just let me find the frequency, the resonance that works."

How would he know I wondered.

Steve started with a low pitched overtone that came deep from within his throat then he began to raise and lower the pitch. It sounded like he was using the full length of his air passages to play his body like and instrument. At one particularly high pitch the slime that had been stationary at the base of the rocks began to move. It formed small purple tendrils that waved as if in breeze but I guessed they were moving in time to the changes in Steve's tune.

I didn't know Tuvan throat singing or even overtone singing but I improvised anyway, adding to the melody with round of notes in the same key but pitched a third lower.

I saw Aston frown as he concentrated, lightly tapping his fingers to the beat until he got the rhythm. Then he began to clap. We had our orchestra. Well, a three piece band at least.

Steve was deep in trance but Aston and I watched in awe as the dancing slime began to take shapes, fractal like shapes. Rosettes, spirals and fern frond like patterns began to emerge. Before our eyes it began to diversify. First into mosses, then into ferns, followed by simple palm like plants. Unaware of all this Steve kept singing. Aston and I continued to accompany him. What would be next? The mould formed a chrysalis and from it burst forth a single butterfly, iridescent, with dark purple wings striped silver and gold. And it began to lay eggs. In the magic of fast forward grubs hatched from the eggs and began to munch on the mosses and plants. Before they could do too much carnage other small critters formed from the slime. A large carnivorous grasshopper, not unlike a New Zealand Weta pounced and caught a grub. Something that looked like a praying mantis took a chomp at a butterfly. I winced. Nature was nature. I thought that about now a bird might be good, to even up the odds.

Steve's slime friend had other ideas. A small rodent like creature, no bigger than my thumb, emerged into life and immediately made a play for the grasshopper: It obviously wasn't vegetarian nor afraid of its size. The little creature, should I call it a mammal, was ferocious for its size. The grasshopper wisely backed off. Free to roam the rodent ran, disappearing into the bushes. Whatever magic happened there I couldn't see but both Aston and I gasped as a dove-like bird burst forth from the burgeoning undergrowth.

Steve must have heard it because he stopped and opened his eyes, "What tha...?"

"Well that's the land 'fixed' as you say," Aston commented matter-of-factly, "But what about the ocean?"

Steve shrugged his shoulders. "If the planet's life is so amenable to song, why not? Fancy a paddle?"

We took off our pants and waded into the shallows, a little uncertain at first, feeling the alien ocean sands between our toes. Steve raised his hands to the sky in praise and he began again, looking for the frequency that the algae in the ocean would respond to.

A little more nervously this time, Aston and I watched as forms akin to starfish and sea urchins came forth from the coalescing slime that floated on top of the ocean. As they formed they sank to ocean floor, moving off in slow spirals, venturing ever outward. As more slime sank to the ocean floor seaweed like plants emerged, waving in time to Steve's tune. Egg shaped bubbles rose and hatched, releasing a myriad tiny fish in an infinite variety of shapes.

It was then that I wondered if any of the space travelling eggs of the cosmic cephalopods Silwa had told us about had ever landed on the planet and remained dormant. I sent the thought to Steve.

I'll try, was the only mental comment I got back. But I felt Steve putting the idea to the native life form. We held our collective breath waiting for its decision. Then it came as a simple "Yes," resounding in all our brains. Planet Mars was willing to accept a new alien life form.

There was no knowing if there were indeed any DNA fragments lying in stasis in the oceans but I felt Steve reach out with his mind and his song, seeking, nudging, coaxing. And there it was. Its song different. While the native life of the planet had prefered the notes of a pentatonic scale this more alien life form needed a full octave of notes to tempt it forth. This time the tiny bubbles that arose contained not fish but tiny, ever so tiny, perfectly formed baby octopi. "Wow!"

Steve and I high-fived and then we shared our joy with Aston in a group hug. Wet and starting to chill we waded back to sure to warm in the weak post noon sun. Frankly my day was entirely muddled. I'd woken in morning, watched a sunset in the high mountains and now I was sunning myself in the noon day sun, on an entirely different planet.

Steve's shoulders sagged as he sat back down on his preferred rock. "I don't know about you but I'm kind of running on empty after that."

As if in response to his comment three mushroom like shapes emerged from the burgeoning life around us.

"Er, do you think they're edible?" Aston wondered.

My hand hovered near one, the temptation to pick it.

"It seems to be offering them to us," Steve encouraged

"Is this what they didn't want us to touch?" Aston worried.

"I guess I'm about to find out." I'd already died once today. Dying no longer held the same fear it once had.

Steve winced as he read my thought but it was Aston who took the matter out of my hands, picking one. He examined the sap that oozed from it. "It bruises blue." He sniffed it, "It smells like dirty water?"

"Really?" Steve was suddenly very interested. He picked one and examined it just as Aston had. "Aston, I don't suppose you have another one of those white handkerchiefs of yours?"

Aston patted his back pocket, finding one crisply ironed one he reluctantly handed it to Steve.

Steve carefully removed the cap of the mushroom and placed it on the handkerchief. He gave it a gentle tap then picked the cap up. On the handkerchief was a pretty, radiating circle of purple-brown dots. Whatever Steve saw in those dots he was happy.

"You having a forensics moment?" Aston asked.

Steve nodded, "I think so." He went to take a bite of it but anticipating this act of foolhardiness I snatched it from his hand and bit into it.

"Hey!"

I mumbled as I chewed. "If anyone's going to die here it's the one who's had eighty plus years on the planet. Let's see if anything happens to me?"

"It could be days before we know its effects," Aston commented. "Some are perfectly fine until all your organs shut down three days later and you die a horrible death."

He was right of course, I should have been worried. What I'd done was reckless yet I found myself trusting the lifeform of the planet. It had been a pretty obvious 'oh you're tired, eat these' response. If we were going to live on this planet we were going to have to interact with it at some stage. If it had thoughts of its own it was probably frustrated with our dithering. "I feel good actually. More than good."

Steve watched me intently. "Your pupils are dilating. Any headaches, nausea?"

"None. I feel really well. Yes, it has a kind of earthy taste, but it seems wholesome."

"Famous last words," Aston mused but he took a bite out of his.

Steve picked the last one. "If we're going to die let's go together."

"You're nuts, you know?" I pointed out.

"Yeah, but the curiosity is killing me."

"And we know what that did to the cat," Aston reminded us but he seemed relaxed about it.

I suddenly felt a need to sit down before I fell. My world wobbled and suddenly all sense of self slipped away. "Oh holey moley!"

"What!" The guys asked in tandem.

"The edges of my world, my boundaries just fell away." I studied my companions with new eyes. "Oh my god, you are both so beautiful. And part of me." I waved my arms aimlessly. "All this is me."

"She's drunk," Aston rightly noted.

"Er," Steve sat down, "I think I'm following her lead. Wow, just wow."

Aston frowned, it hadn't hit him yet. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Ah yes, there. Aston's eyes widened in sudden surprise. "Far out." He lost balance but Steve caught him and eased him onto a rock.

"What now?" I briefly wondered but an urge rose in me that gave me answer. I needed to dance. Having adjusted to the world view the mushroom was showing me I found my legs, stood and pulled Aston and Steve to their feet as well. I led them away from the rocky shore, to a place of sand and dirt among the new plant life. And then I began to swirl. Arms out wide I turned faster and faster, capturing some unknown momentum. At any moment I thought I'd fly. Wouldn't I? I stopped turning and waited with wonder. The twist was my feet stayed firm on the ground as a thousand small birds burst forth from among the plant life. Laughing with delight I took first Steve in my arms, kissing him passionately. Then pulling Aston into a firm embrace. Steve began to sing again, in some language I had never heard before. I sensed it came from his heart. Aston and I entwined in dance. We rode the wave of ecstasy together. Finally the three of us fell in a heap, kissing passionately, stripping clothes off each other in a frenzied need for consummation. No boundaries, no labels, no constraints kept us apart. We were one and whole feeling the most intimate needs of each other.

In that mind I became aware of Aston's deep need to be touched. Like a dry plant needing water he thirsted for it. I had a sudden insight that that was why he liked to relinquish control. He was too afraid to ask for the love he so desperately needed. "Aston, you are so lovable," I declared as I bent down to lick my tongue along the inside of his leg.

Steve caught a chunk of Aston's hair in his hand and turned his head to face him. "You ARE lovable Aston."

Aston groaned at my attention and stared at Steve with shock written on his face, not fear, just shock and wonder. "But neither of us does guys Steve."

"I know, but that doesn't stop me loving you. You are me Aston. Em is me. Em is you. I am you. That's what the fungi is showing us."

Aston nodded his head slightly. "I get it."

All the talk was boring me. I quickened my licking into a frenzy being careful not to tickle. I worked my way up to Aston's nipples and sucked. I felt what he was feeling and knew it felt earth shatteringly good.

"Me too," Steve begged.

How could I refuse his need, his need was my own? I took his offered nipple in my mouth and sucked. Who knew guys enjoyed that too?

While I was distracted with Steve, Aston extracted himself from beneath me and came around from behind. "Take Steve's cock in your mouth Em. I want to see his face as he comes and I want him to see mine."

"Yours?"

But before I had time to wonder I felt Aston's fervent push against my dripping wet vagina. He slid himself into place like a key inserting a lock that only it would fit. Snug, tight, warm and very very firm. "Gah! Yes!"

Aston grunted and worked his way in deeper, thrusting with an excruciatingly slow and steady rhythm.

I moaned in frustration and need but Aston damn well knew my need and was going to stall my orgasm until he and Steve were good and ready. Steve. Right. Mind sort of in gear I took Steve's cock in my mouth and slurped my tongue up and around it's length, trying not to gag as he started rhythmically pushing back against my tongue drenched assaults.

A new wave of ecstasy washed over us, no longer sure if it was the mushroom or if our own desires had taken over. Who cared. I yielded to it, melting into a blur of synchronised flesh.

Sometime later, minutes, hours, who knew? Our welcoming party were looking for us.

"Callan told Harry they were around here somewhere."

"Tell him to be more specific next time Sam," a male voice complained.

"They can't have gone far, surely. Hey, look at the plant growth here Dec. Looks likes Callan's been trying out a few new life forms. Did you see that?"

"Uh huh, a butterfly. Oh this is not good."

Why ever weren't butterflies a good thing I wondered as I listened to their approach. I might be half out of it but I could hear well enough. With a groan I attempted to move a hand and wave it in the air. There, I'd done my bit.

"I saw movement over that way," the man named Dec announced.

"Bloody hell, are they naked?"

"Gran?" a firm but gentle hand shook me, "Is that really you?"

I knew that voice and winced. "Um. clothes?"

My grand-daughter handed me my shirt and jeans, grinning and blushing as she did. "What have you been doing?" She averted her gaze as the guys stood to retrieve their pants. Rather tentatively as we were all still feeling rather legless.

"Enjoying your Martian shoreline." Avoiding any further explanations for now I went for introductions. "Er, may I present Steve Chan and Aston Douglas. Steve, Aston, my grand-daughter Belinda."

Everyone started doing the rounds of hand shakes and introductions. Belinda's friends were Sam, short for Samantha, and Declan. A marine biologist and a paleontologist, go figure. They certainly had a good array of scientists up here.

"Don't suppose there's anywhere a bit warmer around here?" Aston asked, "It's getting a little on the chilly side."

Belinda looked worried. "You've probably lost body heat. Whatever were you thinking? We need to get you back to base quickly. Sam, could you call Russell and see if he'd mind giving them a lift."

No sooner had she expressed that wish a man appeared out of thin air. He took one all encompassing look over us, taking our measure and grinned. Then he saw the butterfly and winced. "Dec you better come and hold on too. If one of those butterflies beats us back to Scyth, well."

"Yeah, don't I know it."

Russell stretched out his arms, "All aboard that's coming aboard."

Um, what did that mean? But I saw the one named Declan take a hold on one of Russell's arms so I did the same. Steve and Aston followed suit. Then we everything went white before coming out the otherside inside some building. "Non-local travel," I guessed as I removed my hand hold on Russell's arm.

"You've done it before then?" Russell asked.

"Via an ancient stone platform in South America."

That caught Declan's interest "Really, you must tell me..." but a scream from another room distracted him.

"Get it off me. Get it off me."

"Oh shit," Declan rushed to the woman's aid.

I looked to Russell for answers, "Is there a problem?"

"Stace has mottephobia, a severely debilitating fear of moths and other flying insects."

"Shit, indeed." I suddenly had the guilts and I didn't know what to do about it.

"You go do some healing energy on her, I'll sing the butterfly to me," Steve offered.

"Good thinking." I hurried off to find the room the scream had come from. I found the woman in Dec's arms, crying and gibbering. Hell. Poor woman. I looked to Dec for permission to approach. He nodded. I watched him visibly relax as the butterfly followed Steve's song out of the room.

"It's gone Stace," he murmured into her hair. "I've got you."

His love and care for her took my breath away. No teasing, no telling her to toughen up, just all encompassing acceptance.

Tears in my eyes I opened my heart and channelled the energies of the cosmos; trust, safety, the infinite expanse of the great mother's womb. Her breathing slowed. Her crying ebbed. But how could I help her be okay with the planet's new life forms? Ones she would no doubt encounter again and again. Then I had a brainwave. No trained psychotherapist, I had no right to do what I was about to do, but one of my teachers in Bali had shown me an old version of the technique. How to alter my voice and keep it monotone? I wouldn't force her but I would offer it to her. "Stace, if you'd like to be free of this fear I think I can help you. Are you willing to let me hypnotize you?"

Stace looked up from Dec's tear soaked chest and she stared at me a moment. "Others have tried."

"Nevertheless, will you allow me?" I refrained from telling her I had the guilts because I was one of the trio who had called the creatures into being.

Stace's shoulders relaxed and shrugged. "Can't hurt. I'm kind of running out of planets to run to, unless I join Triglav's crew of misfits."

Declan hugged her more firmly, "Don't go Stace. We need you."

"I doubt it. I'm a gibbering mess,."

"For a few minutes, very rarely. The rest of the time you are one hell of a people organiser. Let her have her go Stace."

"Okay." She nodded.

"Good, first you need to get comfortable."

Declan took her to a nearby couch and nursed her in his lap. Hypnosis or not he wasn't letting any harm come to her.

I took a seat opposite them and found my voice. "Now I just want you to listen to my voice. Know that at all times you are in full control. I am only providing the path for you to follow. If you feel comfortable with doing so close your eyes and imagine the small child within you, the earliest age you can remember. Imagine her in a garden paradise where no harm can come to her."

"No flying things?" she murmured.

"No flying things. Imagine her as totally safe and protected. The light of all creation surrounds and protects her. And from it she can create anything she wishes for her garden. Flowers, trees, a bubbling brook, a small lake. She can create anything she wishes because all things come from the source of her own mind. She is in control. She makes all her own decisions." I paused for effect, trusting she felt empowered. "Now she has created her beautiful garden but she feels lonely. This powerful being, this enlightened child, wants some creatures to till the soil. She creates them." I paused and assessed her for any stress, none, good. "The little creek needs a few creatures of its own, perhaps some fish or frogs or freshwater crayfish. She decides. She creates. But she still feels a lack, a hole in her creation. There is nothing to pollinate the flowers. The plant life is sterile, no babies to provide the next generation. They are totally dependent on the creator to create more of their kind but she wishes her creation to be free and independent. What will she do? This all powerful creatrix, safe in the womb of her own cosmos. What will she do?" I waited for the answer.

"She creates bees and butterflies and ladybugs," Stace murmured in a trance.

"And for the flowers that bloom in the night?"

"Gentle, tame pet moths." Stace whispered. "They are her moths, hers to control." Her sentence ended in a snore.

I trusted to her subconscious mind to still be listening "When you awake you will realize the creatures that pollinate creation are your friends. Your own personal pets." In for a penny, in for a pound. "You will adore them."

Declan nodded his thanks then motioned me away. I left her to sleep in his lap. We'd know when she woke.

I tippy-toed back to the other room. I'd heard Belinda arrive and I knew I had some explaining to do.

##  12

"How is she?" Belinda asked with true concern as I returned to the main room.

I held up crossed fingers. I wasn't going to make any assertions one way or another, the universe had ears but I trusted it. Change the topic "Nice place you have here. This is part of the city of Scyth?"

Belinda shook her head. "No, this is just an outpost. We use it as a base from which to do our field work. For me meteorological observations. Others their own specialities. We'll take you to the city tomorrow but it's getting late in the day. The frost starts to set mid way through the afternoon. No one goes out after the big freeze starts."

"What of the emergency in the city?", the one they hadn't mentioned at all.

"Um, to tell the truth, the plumbing's sort of broken. The waste removal system was never designed to cope with humans."

"You mean the sewage."

"Er, yeah. It's a bit on the nose at the moment. When it started looking like they wouldn't get it fixed today we decided to bring you here instead. We're hoping for an update in the morning."

Aston laughed, "So the great big emergency is a break down in the sewage system. Is it an exclusion or processing system?"

Belinda looked at him blankly. "I haven't got the foggiest idea. You know about such things?"

Aston shrugged his shoulders, dismissing any importance to the knowledge. "I've designed one or two. Show me the blueprints of what you've got."

Belinda looked to Russell, "Mind giving him a lift to the city?"

"If he can fix the stench I'll take him anywhere in the galaxy he wants to go."

"Can I come too?" Steve asked enthusiastically but I knew he was more about giving me some quality catch up time with my granddaughter.

Steve and Aston gave me a quick hug then disappeared with Russell.

"Where'd you find your two toyboys?" Belinda wondered.

I so didn't like them being called that. How did I change her perception of the situation. Then I remembered what I'd learned from my mushroom experience. "I'd rather you didn't call me a toyboy."

"I didn't, I was referring to them."

"Same diff. They are me, I am them. One immortal being playing three mortal roles."

Belinda's jaw dropped as she thought about that. She frowned. "Er, how far do you go with that oneness?"

"You're part of it too, if that's what you're wondering."

"But, that would mean I'm..."

"An eighty-five year old woman, a forty-something engineer and a uni student. Yes. and everyone and everything else." I saw Belinda's eyes glaze over at that, too much too fast perhaps.

She changed topic, "I have to say, gran, you don't look that old anymore. No more than Aston looks in his forties. What have you been doing? Leigha contacted us to warn us that you hadn't had the genetic cure we'd thought they'd give you before you came."

"I guess they realized we didn't need it."

"But mortal, up here. You have no idea of the dangers here."

"Cosmic rays, massive dust storms, a barely viable atmosphere and a supply chain that depends on what you can find here or what a grumpy alien spaceship captain can deliver to your doorstep."

Belinda's eyes widened as she realised I was better informed than she thought. "Oh, yes. All that. Plus some of the other beings we share the planet with aren't entirely savory. At best they're only interested in themselves. At worst they want the resources that might lie beneath the ancient cities."

"The Din mining camp," I guessed.

"Them, and a particularly nasty one of them who most think died in the big earthquake we had here recently. We're not convinced. I think the other Din are starting to wonder too as a few of them have gone missing. And there's been some tell tale remains."

"How so?" I wondered. What tales did a dead body tell? I guess I was no forensic scientist.

"They've all been missing their penis," Belinda grimaced. "You see, if it's who we think it is he collects them, along with other body parts he prizes, like tongues, ears and eyeballs."

It was my turn to grimace. "Nice," not.

Belinda nodded, understanding my horror. "Anyway, coming back to you. When and how'd you get the new looks? If I didn't know you I'd say you were no older than late fifties. You haven't looked anywhere near this good since..."

"Bob died," I finished her sentence for her. It was a trait we both possessed, finishing each other's sentences. We were that psychically attuned to each other. "Grief does that. I'd recovered quite a bit since you saw me a year ago. My time in Bali and the Philippines renewed my soul. Gave me back purpose and interest. Then a couple of a days ago life and circumstance gave me Steve and Aston. Steve's openly psychic and I think Aston has latent abilities. He naturally intuits my needs. The three of us have," oh dear, I couldn't hold back the blush, "shared..."

"Dreams, ooh. Tell me more."

I laughed. "Back off, them's private. Anyway," I continued over Belinda's protests, "A wise man challenged me to use what I already knew. How to restore and replenish myself that is."

"And?" Belinda was more than curious.

"Basic self hypnosis 101 really. Imagine what you need or want as if it already is, visualize the feel of that, emotions, senses, etc. Then release it into the great expanse that gives all reality birth, giving thanks. The key is not to use effort because effort is a denial of reality. It pushes it away."

"But if you don't do anything, how do you make it happen?" Belinda was looking at the the dark roots of my hair.

"That's just it, you don't use any effort because it already is. There is nothing to do because it is already done."

Belinda considered this, "It's a matter of belief."

Was that it? "Sort of but not exactly, it's some combination of allowing, trusting and gratitude."

"Sounds a bit religious," Belinda mildly accused. She'd never been one for the mystical, even if she was psychic.

"Not at all. It's a full repeatable process. Do A, B and C you get result D."

"Show me!" Belinda liked her evidence based models for things.

"Okay, well get yourself a ruler and measure how much new hair growth I already have at the roots."

Belinda wandered off and returned with a ruler. I held up my hair and took her measurements, writing them down carefully. "Okay, do your thing."

Setting aside a mild upwelling of performance anxiety, I closed my eyes and visualized myself with a full head of brunette hair, healthy and silky soft. While I was at it I visited my face seeing it as I felt it to be, youthful and relaxed. I extended that to the rest of my body. If I was doing it I wasn't going to do it half hearted. I visualized the same being I saw myself as in my dreams, how that felt. The ease and fluidity of my muscles, the suppleness of my skin, the acuity of my hearing and eyesight. I rested in that being, enjoying it, giving thanks for it. Then I allowed my awareness to drift to the space around me. I shifted focus and knew I was that space, the ground of my being from which all realities arose. I gave thanks and fully let go into that.

When I finally opened my eyes Belinda was staring at me in awe. "Your whole aura blazed. It was amazing to watch."

It was my turn to be surprise. "Since when did you start seeing auras?" I watched as she retrieved her ruler and remeasured the length of my new brunette hair growth.

"Since I had the genetic cure, prior to coming here. It seems to be a natural ability for us repaired humans." She put down the ruler and went back to her notes. "I make that another 5 millimetres of hair growth. Amazing. Is that how you guys worked with Callen to stimulate all that new life out where we found you?"

"Callan?"

"The life form," she winced at something, "I'll explain later. Back to my question."

"No, whatever we did with Callan had more to do with finding the right vibrational frequencies. Steve sang to Callan." It felt strange giving the slime a name. "Actually Aston and Steve make a good pair. Aston understands the science of acoustics. Steve works with frequencies to heal. The two of them together, I'm guessing, could be truly amazing. I'm not sure even they know the extent of what they might do."

"And I'm feeling that with your visualization abilities, you act as their catalyst." Belinda observed.

"Really?" I hadn't thought of that.

##

##  13

Aston perused the blueprints of the city. "You're going to need some holding ponds. We can start small, add to them later. I'd put them here and here."

"Will that fix the smell."

"No, but it will shift the bulk of the problem away from your habitable areas. Ideally you add a treatment plant. One that aerates and breaks down the waste. The final product could be used as compost and water for irrigating a food production area."

"Brilliant," a woman who'd introduced herself as Karina approved. "We'll need to borrow an excavator from the mining camp," she looked at Russell hopefully.

"Hey, don't look at me. Sakla can't stand the sight of me. And even if he did, do we really want to be in his debt?"

"If it comes to that, he owes us for the help we gave after the quake, not that we wouldn't have helped anyway."

"He won't see it that way. It would be like being in debt to the mafia."

"Hmm, I see your point," Karina mused. "What about the city itself? Does it have any old earth moving equipment? They must have used something to develop the underground parts of the city."

"Long ago rusted," Rudol replied. "We didn't foresee an ongoing need for them so we didn't maintain them."

"Rats!" Karina swore. "I was hoping they might have been built of the same materials as you guys."

The man glanced around then scratched his head in imitation of a puzzled gesture he'd learned off the humans. "I see no rats. And no. We were the only beings our maker gifted with self repairing silicon nanotechnology."

Karina giggled at Rudol's rat comment.

Aston's eyes boggled at his other comment. "You're not human either."

Rudol took in the man's shocked expression. "How many non humans have you met?"

"A few in the last twenty four hours. So you're a..."

"Silicon lifeform, created by one of the Nova Lyrean's to protect and care for them after we put them in stasis. Your kind calls us androids but we prefer the term automated protectors or APs."

Karina was still thinking. "Back to the problem, we're going to have to find someway to build Aston's solution."

"I think I can help," Steve offered quietly from the background.

##

##  14

Belinda and I talked into the night and I learned much of the backstory about Mars and how it had gotten to this point. I wondered what the alternate historian and scientist Immanuel Velikovsky would have thought of the catastrophe that had befallen Mars and its neighbouring planet of Sanctuary. Sadly the later was no more, reduced to being pieces of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Although one chunk was a bit bigger than the others, Ceres. I wondered what evidence, if any survived, might be found there of the civilization that once was.

Later, in my dreams, I passed on all I had learned to Steve and Aston. In turn they briefed me about the city's plumbing problem and what Steve was thinking. It was an audacious plan but after seeing the results of what we had done by the shore of the great Martian ocean in the afternoon I couldn't easily dismiss it out of hand. It would take all of us, including Callan, to make it happen.

Callan, Belinda had explained, was the consciousness of a human the planet's sentient lifeform had incorporated into itself in order to save him. Since Callan had been a trained soil scientist and mycologist, student of fungi, both he and the life form had benefited from the partnership. I couldn't for one minute fathom how hard it would be to have lost your physical form but kept your consciousness intact as part of the rapidly evolving life on the planet. Belinda explained that the fact that Callan's best friend, Harry, and the nominal leader of the city of Scyth, Naira, had formed a strong bond had helped. The three of them communicated easily and were in essence, Callan's voice to the world. Callan also seemed to have a strong friendship with Russell, who'd we'd already met.

In the morning, refreshed from my nightly cavort with my two guys, I dressed in what I'd worn the day before and went looking for something to eat for breakfast.

Belinda was already in the lab's makeshift kitchenette, whipping us up something to eat, "It's not much I'm afraid. Just some fruits that Callan produces for us but they are tasty and sustain us. I think he purposely designed them to fulfill all our nutritional needs."

"Like he designed a few mushrooms yesterday," I mused.

"Hmm, I must get Harry to ask Callan what he did there." She looked at my clothes, "You didn't bring anything with you did you?"

"Only had what I survived the plane crash in, to be honest it's getting on the nose."

Belinda gave me a casual glance, up and down, "You're about my size. I'll find you something once we get to the city."

"A nice hot shower would be good too," I added hopefully.

"We've got those but all the plumbing's a bit out of whack until we fix this problem."

"Then we'd best fix that first. Steve and Aston want to meet up just outside the Northern perimeter of the city."

"You've already talked to them?"

I blushed, "Among other things."

"Gran!"

"I think you'd best get used to calling me Em, I hardly look like your grandmother anymore."

Belinda rolled her eyes, "I know you don't like titles and things but you'll always be my gran."

I raised an eyebrow, as much reprimand as I could muster on an issue that didn't really rate anyway. I'd cope.

"Oh no you don't. Don't you go giving me the eye. Okay, I'll try. Em."

"Thank you. I know you might forget sometimes, habits and all that, but thanks."

A large group of people, er, make that beings, had gathered on the North side of the city. Belinda dragged me forward to meet some. "This is Naira, spokesperson for the Nova Lyreans that still sleep beneath the city and inventor of the automated protectors. Androids," she added when I looked blankly. "Naira this is my grandmother Emily Murdoch."

The very tall pale skinned alien extended her hand, "Please to meet you Emily. On behalf of my race I thank you for coming to our aid." She turned to the very human male beside her. "May I present my companion and mate, Harry."

"Harry, Belinda's told me so much about you. You're a brave man indeed."

"Not as brave as Callan I fear. I could never have followed Seren into the desolation that was up here, not as easily as he did."

"But you came here with your sister to rescue him didn't you? Back when the planet had almost no atmosphere. I think that's both brave and loyal."

Harry shrugged his shoulders.

Naira laughed. "He's a little humble. Not a Lyrean trait I assure you."

Steve wandered over to join us. I knew immediately what was in his mind. "Harry, Naira, this is Steve one of my two companions," what did I call them, my lovers?

Steve and the couple exchanged greetings. "I was hoping I might borrow you two for what we are about to attempt. I gather you can talk to Callan. If I outline the plan can you communicate it to him."

"Sure thing. What exactly are you going to do anyway?" Harry wondered.

As Steve explained Harry's eyes widened in surprise.

Belinda brought out some chairs and a small table as a work area, "You may as well all be comfortable. How else can the rest of us help you?"

"No, that's fine," I assured her, "but once we start the others will need to be careful not to break our concentration."

"Of course."

Aston unfolded the blueprints onto the table in front of me. "This is what I need you to visualize Emily. See this old part of the system here. There's a blockage deep underground where the old tunnels go through solid rock. We think there might have been a cave in during the earthquake they had here. We'll need that cleared first. Then," his fingers traced some lines on the paper, "we need to extend the system. See over there," he pointed to a patch of ground not too distant from us. "There we need some holding ponds. The outflow pipes will need to extend into those. So I'm thinking we do the ponds second and then join on to the existing system. You with me Em?"

It was clear enough. "Understood. Then Callan will take over for the final bit. Okay, let's do this. I need you to keep a clear picture of this in your head Aston, I'm getting used to reading you. Steer me if I go off track."

"You can hear my thoughts like you can Steve's?" he asked in wonder.

"Pretty much, pictures mostly but your words come through when you focus or experience strong emotion."

"Well then, I'll stay focused."

I knew he would. For a guy who had never had any mindfulness training he could be pretty focused when something held his interest. "Steve?" I asked simply, I knew Steve could read me easy enough.

"Whenever you're ready," he took a seat and began a chant that would connect him with the rocks and ground around us, a deep earthy chant that hurt my throat just to listen to it.

I took a seat and closed my eyes, following the thread that led me to Aston's mind. From what was in his head and from my memory of what he had explained on the map, I formed a clear picture of our shared intent. I rested in that image and started to build the reality of it in my mind. I pictured the blockage clearing then imagined the ground where the ponds were already forming in my mind. I visualized dirt being flung out of the holes to form levy banks, imagining those banks compacting and forming sturdy barriers to any overflow. In my mind I could feel the dirt, hear the actual sounds of what was happening, sense the dust in my nostrils as the wind blew over the target site. Satisfied I turned my mind back to the older part of the city's system, extending the tunnels into the direction of the holding ponds. Where there was rock I imagined atoms giving way to space, a space that grew in length until it reached its destination.

Finally I surrounded my creation, in my mind's eye, in space and shifted the focus of my own being into that space. I knew that what I had imagined was a projection of my mind yet real enough in that dream we called reality. I gave thanks for the magic of it all, knowing it would be so, then I released it into the infinite, simultaneously letting go all effort as I surrendered to the sea of love and trust that was the ground of my being.

Deep in trance I was barely aware of Aston giving the order, "Now Harry!"

I allowed my consciousness to resurface and let my eyes gently open. I knew what Harry was asking Callan to do but it couldn't but help to send my love and trust so I directed that towards the ponds knowing that was where Callan was doing his thing.

Harry finally nodded, "It's done."

We all got up to go and inspect our work. The others came and joined us.

No it wasn't a pleasant smell but that might change in time as the bacteria Callan had evolved to compost the sewage multiplied and began to do their job. One of the attributes we had asked Callan to created in the bacteria was the ability to aerate the mixture as well, creating bubbles of oxygen and nitrogen that would go another tiny but incremental step to improving the planet's atmosphere.

"Well I don't know about you guys but I need a shower, and a change of clothes," I declared, hoping it might be possible for them to switch the city's plumbing system back on now.

Aston and Steve group hugged me. "We've earned it."

We turned to face the others who were looking at us in a kind of awe. It was Russell who spoke for them. "I'm supposed to be some uber evolved being and never in my wildest day dreams would I have thought of manipulating reality as you guys just did. You humble me. There is much you could teach me."

A being I took to be one of the APs that Belinda had told me about the previous night stepped forward to talk to us. She was a startling beauty with burgundy hair and eyes of midnight electric with tiny stars. "You are mortal humans, are you not? How is this possible?"

"It's possible once you understand the true nature of reality is a lot more pliable than you think it is. The rules of physics are a collective construct, powered by the belief of an almost infinite number of beings across the universe but if you free yourself from believing they are real anything becomes possible, or so a very wise man reminded me yesterday. It's easier when you have a group of people who can work together. But I'm digressing. Priority one, shower."

"I'm so sorry, my curiosity overwhelms me at times. Let me show you the way to the bathrooms we have recently renovated. They hadn't been used in millennia but Naira and the humans were most insistent we reinstate them. My name's Seren by the way."

##

##  15

The 'bathroom' was a large wet room that had been fitted with multiple shower nozzles. Frankly you could have several people in here at once, though modesty would be out the window. If they had plans of having more humans on the planet and waking up more Lyreans they were going to need more facilities, with private cubicles. Not that me and my guys minded.

Having begged and borrowed what we could for fresh clothes, we gladly ditched the jungle and days old sweat ridden stuff we were wearing. Aston looked mournfully at his once pristine suit. I felt for him. Of the three of us he had had to make the most adjustments. "We can shop online Seren tells me. Triglav drops off freight and mail when he's going past or one of the 'meta' beings like Russell picks it up," I hoped the thought might cheer him.

"What are we going to shop with? All my money's back on earth."

"Apparently the Alliance that recruited us will look after all that. They'll contact us in a day or so for authorisation then put everything we have into lucrative investments." Steve commented.

Aston wasn't buying it, "In the current stock market situation?"

Steve shrugged, "There are always some winners from any crisis. And I believe the Alliance has a seer."

Aston looked to the ceiling, shaking his head. Fortune telling was so not his thing.

"Belinda told me that some of the APs like Seren have some ability to see probable futures."

Aston paused, "Okay that I might believe. They're walking computers after all. They should be able to compute probable outcomes if you input enough variables into them."

As Belinda had explained it it was more that they read what was written in something either akin to the Akashic field or it was the Akashic field. I'd yet to corner Seren for an explanation. But I kept all this to myself.

"I can feel it you know. When you keep something to yourself," Aston complained. "And then there's that language of eyes thing you have going with Steve. I think I'm starting to understand it."

"I'm just trying not to rock the boat Aston. I know you prefer science and logic."

"Well it looks like I'm becoming rather close to you both, in different ways. I'd prefer we were all just upfront with each other. Otherwise I'm going to start feeling the odd man out."

Hell, I didn't want that. "Okay." So as we got the water running and adjusted the temperature I told him how Belinda had explained Seren's ability.

"Fair enough, it doesn't fit with science logic but I can see and accept that it fits with your metaphysical logic. If you think she's legit that's good enough for me."

Aston kept amazing me. I stood on tip toes and kissed him. "You floor me sometimes Aston."

"We each have our own strengths," he murmured as I began to wash his back, as Steve did mine.

Yeah, there was temptation to play but after we'd washed and rinsed each other under the shower's various pulse and pressure jets the simpler pleasures of life seemed to have taken prominence. We'd all had a good night's sleep, the first in a couple of days. We were now fed, clean and had new, well borrowed, clothes to put on. We had a roof over our heads to keep out the Martian dust and its night time freeze. Basic survival felt damn good. Our night's dreams had been good. More could wait. We went to find the city's sole awake vampire, sorry, Lyrean to find out what we might do in return.

Naira was waiting for us in the city's library come information center. It also doubled as her office. "I thought I'd call up the database of who's sleeping in the catacombs. I can enter search terms to sort them by occupation, gender etc but I'm guessing you'll want to know more than that."

Steve answered for us all. "Their personality is more important to us. If they're going to feed on us regularly it would be best if we all got on. Then there's the matter that we are already three. We're not keen to add too many to that mix and I understand from talking to others that you and Harry formed an instant and strong bond."

Naira frowned in worry, "Are you wanting to back out? I can perfectly understand if you do. And you have all already shown your worth to us here. There is no requirement that you do this."

I felt for Naira. Apart from those who had escaped to Earth after their planet's cataclysm she was the only one of her kind now awake. She'd yet to convince any of the scientists in the community to do the deed of becoming a food source for one of her fellow citizens. Beings who had evolved to drink blood in order to survive what had happened to them. "We want to help Naira but we want what's best for us too. How about we limit it to two Lyreans."

Naira's shoulders relaxed. "I would be most grateful. What personality preferences did you have in mind? I know many of these individuals quite well."

I looked to Aston and Steve. We'd spoken of this after the shower.

Steve took a seat next to Naira, a rough list of requirements in his hand. It was like the three of us were buying houses or something. "We met two people back on earth who had many of the attributes we are seeking. Warriors who had our back but weren't domineering bullies. Capable, practical, intelligent but with heart. They let us be to explore and sort our problems out until we really needed their help. What I'm saying is they didn't try to control us."

"They would let you walk into danger or make a mistake," Naira asked, obviously horrified by the thought.

I saw I needed to explain, "Only if the risks weren't great. I think they'd have soon intervened, before they did, if they seen us heading for real trouble." Even if my heart had been pounding as I'd walked up to the front of that shack where the bad guys had hung out. Yet in that moment I had found my reservoir of courage while trusting it wasn't my time to die. I'd come out of the encounter feeling empowered.

"So protective is okay but not if it impinges your free will. I can understand that though it's difficult since most Nova Lyrean, that is Martian Lyrean, males are over protective bastards, especially when it comes to women. You are a strong woman though Em. Somehow I doubt you'll take their shit anymore than I did. Anything else?" Naira asked.

Aston cleared his throat. I knew what he was going to ask but I knew it wouldn't be easy for him to explain. He wasn't used to asking for what he wanted. Somewhere in Aston's past he'd been robbed of thinking he deserved love and happiness. Steve and I had yet to uncover why but we'd been working on him, convincing him that he was lovable and had a right to have his needs met. "I, I don't know how familiar you are with some of the different forms of human sexuality. There are some desires, that on my planet are frowned upon, by some."

Naira's eyes lit knowingly, "like being held down and restrained while all your wildest pleasures are inflicted on you?"

Aston's breath hitched, "How did you...?

"I've spent much time in Harry's mind and learned a lot that I didn't understand I searched online for explanations. Most enlightening it was too."

I took mercy on Aston and stepped to the fore. "So what we need is at least one of the Lyreans to be a strong woman who might sexually dominate Aston while respecting that Steve and I might want a relationship that's one of equals. Best friends at least. I'm no more naturally bisexual than Steve but if we could explore and build intimate friendships with the Lyreans without stepping over our respective boundaries that would be okay. They would respect our boundaries wouldn't they?"

"They would be answerable to our new laws if they didn't. Laws I, the APs of the surviving cities, and the humans already here have drawn up to protect the rights of each of our citizens, including Callan. In the past the APs were looked down upon as servants of my kind. We want a society built on mutual respect, no matter what type of sentient they are. That's why we formed a council and made the laws before the any of the old council woke. We don't want the old ways."

"They're going to be pissed."

"Don't I know it. But if there's an existing government and body of law in existence before they wake then we will have legal precedent. We've had an international lawyer back on earth advising us. Also, the Lyreans in Karpathia have ratified the laws. My brother thought that they'd have a harder time arguing if he'd help signed in the new laws, him being male and the eldest son of one of the previous council members. That's as long as they don't still see him as a criminal for taking a group of refugees to Earth in one of our last functioning spacecraft."

"I'm so not liking your old government."

"We'll have to wake them eventually but we'll be damned sure we have the bulk of the population on our side before we do. Now, your second Lyrean? Could they be male?"

"That would be," I had a moment wondering how I was going to manage three males so intimately involved in my life. I'd have to make it work, "..... acceptable." I was trusting Naira that he wouldn't be an asshole like some on their previous government sounded.

"Well then," Naira typed in some data and searched through the database. "The woman is the hardest but I do know that we had one Sancturian visiting our planet when the so called comet hit Sanctuary and blew away our atmosphere in the process. She was sent here to coordinate with the local Nova Lyreans, keeping them informed about her own planet's evacuation as well as providing advice on preparation for the disaster here. Not that they listened to her as much as they should have. She is both a diplomat and a warrior. A rare combination. Being Sancturian she is strong on women's' rights, a point of difference between our two planet's cultures. I have to say that there are some that will later object to her having been awoken before some of this planet's VIP locals, but we'll wear it."

_They might be offended. Oh dear, how sad,_ I thought to myself.

Steve choked on a laugh but kept his focus, "And her name."

"Fionnalagh."

"Lovely," Aston murmured. "What's it mean?"

"White warrior in the language of the Sancturians, an antecedent to your planet's old Irish."

That had Steve's interest, "Really?"

I gave him a gentle kick in the shins. "Later. If we adopt her I'm sure she'll tell you all."

"Adoption, what a great way of thinking about it," Naira seemed amused. "Maybe I'll use that as part of my strategy to get more of your kind to do this for us. "Adopt a vampire!"

Wasn't that a cartoon. "Uh, I didn't think you'd like being called that. Not since you're more an alien species that evolved to live off blood, rather than the demonic evil monsters of our myths and legends."

Naira grinned as she retrieved a book from the bottom drawer of her office desk, passing it to me.

I studied the cover, "'The vampire president and the headmistress.' I haven't heard of that one."

"A journalist on Earth interviewed my brother aka the Karpathian president, his Colonel and his first lady about how the three of them met. They turned the story into a book. My point is your culture, and particularly the female side of your culture, currently thinks that vampires are hot, cuddly even, in a fang challenged way."

I spat out a laugh. "Fang challenged!"

Aston looked to the ceiling for a moment then when things had gone on long enough he intervened in the hilarity, "Getting back to why we're here. Will Fionnalagh be inclined to, you know, being what I need?"

Naira returned to her more serious composure. "You have to understand that many women are, how you say, dominant, in the Sancturian culture. Dominant, not domineering that is.

We understood and nodded for her to continue.

"So anyway, Sancturian women pride themselves on knowing what a man needs, and giving it to them, if they are inclined favourably towards the male in question. I am sure that, if Fionnalagh likes you and I see no reason why she won't, once she understands your needs, she will work to ensure your happiness, though on her terms. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can manipulate her to get what you want."

Fionnalagh was sounding very likeable. I hadn't much time myself for women who didn't know their own mind. "And the male?"

Naira looked down her short list, "I'm thinking this guy, Kjartlan, he's a warrior but he's also a damn fine pilot."

"Pilot?" I wondered, "What kind of pilot?"

"Mars isn't as big as earth but we always had long distances to cover between the five cities along the equator. When you can only really get around outside between mid morning and mid afternoon it rather limits how much time you have to get places. So we had short haul craft that would cart passengers and freight between the cities. The vehicles were sort of a cross between what you guys might call a light aircraft and a hovercar. Kjartlan often ran some of the more dangerous routes. Not sure he wasn't smuggling stuff under the noses of the elite half the time although I think it was a cover."

"Smuggling?" Now I was really intrigued. Aston and Steve were listening intently too.

Naira shrugged, "To be honest I'm not sure. I'd be guessing that electronic games would have been some of it. The elite had been trying to crack down on those. Time wasting they thought, corrupting the minds of the youth, that sort of thing. Then there was the trade in illegal pets, everyone always wanted some exotic critter that didn't roam their own back door step."

"So nothing really bad, drugs, sex slaves...?"

Naira eyes widened in shock, "Good grief no. You're talking organised crime, like the Din get involved in. Kjartlan's always had his own unique set of ethics but he does have them. Mostly he ran secret errands for the high council."

"Hmm," he sounded like he was black ops. Which could be okay or it could mean he was too secretive for the kind of relationship we were looking to have with him. Worse still he might be an arrogant, swaggering type like the pirates of old. "If he was working undercover for the old council what's to say he won't undermine your efforts to rework your society and bring back the members of the old government sooner?"

"Because as much as a rogue as he might appear on the outside, he understands chain of command well enough. I think once he meets the new council he'll have no problems working for us.

I hoped so.

Naira saw me waver. "He'll have your backs. But be aware though Em, you'll have to put your foot down from the start, or he'll have you stashed somewhere safe and cosy at all times."

"He'll have a battle then, I'm no homebody. He'll have to get used to that."

"We'll back you up Em. He'll have no chance if the three of us gang up on him. Fionnalagh might even help to keep him in line."

Naira laughed at that. "Oh, I'm sure she will."

##

##  16

Laz and Pira, Thallon and Seren, all APs tasked with protecting the Lyreans who were in stasis, brought the two life support capsules to the same room. A mobile power supply unit kept the units operational until everyone was ready.

While the capsules were readied for opening I sidled up to Seren, "You're a seer I'm told. Do you foresee any problems for the three of us and these two?"

Seren's ebony eyes sparkled like stars, I assumed it was some sort of electrical activity. It was like seeing through two windows into someone's thinking, "I think", she began, "that you will have some problems but when it does all sort out your little group will form a strong coherent unit."

"Coherent?" I was thinking it might mean we'd work out a fit but I wasn't sure.

"Thanks to a program Rudol designed and passed on to a few of us I've been able to see the universe in a novel way. At its base everything is vibration that can be viewed in terms of consonance, dissonance, noise and harmonics. Each being is a unique mix of those four. A musical piece, if you will, which is either jarring, ie diseased or melodic and healthy. When individuals such as you, Steve and Aston, connect those melodies blend, either forming a strongly cohesive whole or there is an underlying noise or dissonance that will eventually push you apart."

"We resonate."

"Yes, you do. Even though you come from different eras of earth's recent past and from different mindsets you complement each other well. I think that miracle has been possible because you each respect those differences. You don't ridicule each other for being different from yourselves."

"Hell no." A large part of the credit for that being Aston's accommodation of us, more so than the other way around. I think the novel and different were bread and butter for Steve and me.

Seren, looked to the two capsules as if seeing through to their contents, "These two have some history but nothing insurmountable. Your own challenge will be Kjartlan and good luck with that."

Oh great, how much of a challenge was I taking on? "Thanks, I think."

She patted me reassuringly. "You're a confident woman Em. If anyone can manage a male Nova Lyrean you can. We're all pinning our hopes on you setting the stage for the role of women in our new society."

So no expectations. Damn! "Aren't there any other women who've done this?"

"Only two I know of. The first lady of Karpathia is a human woman. I gather she used to be a headmistress."

"So not one to take any shit."

"Exactly, although it helps that her Lyrean mate Zakar has been on Earth long enough to learn your ways. Though that's not the case with Triglav. He's a bit unwieldy."

"So who's mated to him?"

"His psychologist."

I chuckled.

"What do I need to do?" Aston asked.

"We'll slide back the cover. All you have to do is hold your wrist under her nose." Then Seren remembered something. "You'd better have a cut in your wrist first. You need to be bleeding so she can smell the blood. Come here and I'll make the cut for you."

"Oh no you don't. Em's the ex-nurse. She can do it."

Seren rolled her eyes as if to say silly humans, "Very well but we must hurry, now she's out of her suspended state we need to feed her soon or she will die without ever waking.

Aston paled.

I found my pocket knife, "This isn't sterile Aston. I'm not sure it's any better than what Seren would do."

"Just make it quick," He closed his eyes and held his arm out to me.

I made a non-life-threatening cut which I willed to heal leaving no scar, once this was all over. Aston swore quietly to himself. Once the pain had ebbed I helped him with rolling up his sleeve to keep the blood off it. "It will stop bleeding soon so you'd better go do your thing. Good luck."

Aston steeled himself, "Thanks." He knelt down beside the capsule and hovered his bleeding arm just under Fionnalagh's nose. If that wouldn't wake her nothing would.

We held our collective breath as the Lyrean's eyes fluttered briefly. A deep inhale of the chest. Her nose twitched. The eyes of purest violet sprang open. An all encompassing stare took Aston's measure. Then she bit.

Aston groaned in what sounded more like ecstasy than pain, doubling over and nearly falling into the capsule with her.

It must have given Fionnalagh an idea as she said something rather adamantly, and in one frighteningly fast fluid movement rose from the capsule, grabbed Aston and had him on the ground, under her. Clothes began to fly.

The human scientists who'd come to watch made a hasty retreat from the room leaving me, Naira, Steve and the APs to watch, rather voyeuristically, what ensued. "What did she say before she took him?" I wondered.

"She spoke in the language of the Sancturians, mianach, something akin to 'mine'."

"Well she'd better get used to sharing because we're not giving him up." I sort in my mind for any psychic threads that might lead to the vampiress and found one. _You hear this Fionnalagh? Steve and I will share Aston with you but you don't have exclusive rights. Understand._

_Who are you?_ Give the woman credit, she didn't stop her ravaging of Aston but going by his moans he was more than willing. If he hadn't been we'd have stepped in pretty quick.

We're his lovers and his friends. You going to allow us to be your friends, close friends that is?

You will feed me?

Yes, you and one other of your kind.

_Then you are mine too. I honour your life-blood. Now leave me alone to finish this,_ she thrust me out of her head.

I watched breathlessly as Fionnalagh stripped her and Aston of the last of their clothes. She went down on him. Reversing the time tested missionary position, taking the top. I knew the exact moment that she slid herself over Aston's cock as I felt it in my core. We hadn't disconnected from each other altogether then.

Steve came and hugged me as we watched Aston meet Fionnalagh's thrust for thrust. Steve's sudden lick up the side of my neck helped me disengage from any psychic interference, otherwise I would have come from just watching. I couldn't do that if we were to help the other Lyrean. I'd need to have all my wits to deal with him.

Some, quite a few, minutes later Aston and Fionnalagh cried out in unison then she, at around seven foot the taller of the two, wrapped him in her arms, rolling both of them on their side and for all the world it looked like they'd just crashed out into a deep sleep.

Well that was satisfying. Not. I had sudden visions of being similarly ravaged by Kjartlan and I didn't like the idea one bit. Not that I minded the odd ravaging but if I let Kjartlan gain the upper hand at this early stage I'd have a devil of a time ever regaining it. I needed a plan.

"Thallon, can you lend me your weapon?"

"I cannot. If he starts to drain you dry I will kill him but if I was to let any harm come to him for any other reason I would be duty bound to self destruct. My whole purpose in being is to protect the Lyreans not kill them."

So even lending me his weapon he'd feel responsible for any outcome. Difficult. "Haven't you got anything I can just zap him with, an electric shock or something, if he gets out of hand?"

"It would have the same effect. A Lyrean's heart has an electromagnetic field around it. Disturb that and the bonds holding their cells together disappear and they fall apart into so much dust."

Ugh! I had no wish to do that to anyone, even a blood sucking alien. "So no zapping him with anything electrical. No stake or bullet to the heart."

"No." You could write a whole book about the horror on Thallon's face.

"Damn. That's one hell of a vulnerability. Haven't you guys made any deflective chest protectors for them yet?"

"No but that is an excellent idea," he looked to Naira, his maker, for her thoughts.

"A very good idea indeed. I'll catch up later with our electrical engineer, Karina, and see what we can come up with," she eyed me assessingly, "So you don't really want to kill him?"

"Hey, I'm not some murdering bastard. I just don't want him to get the upper hand. I only want to pretend to be the bitch from hell."

Naira undid a strap on her boot and extracted a large, nasty looking knife which she passed to me, "You might need to do better than pretend with Kjartlan."

"Geez Naira, I thought you told me Kjartlan was one of the better ones."

"He is." The look on her face told me she was serious.

That so did not bode well for our awakening the whole of the Lyrean population now in stasis. It was going to take some fairly irrepressible humans to deal with this bunch. I took her knife and nodded my thanks. _Steve?_

Yes?

_When his bite turns ecstatic,_ which I somehow knew it would, _I'm going to need you to distract me._

A gleam awakened in Steve's eyes. _And just how would you like me to distract you?_

I rolled my eyes _, "Improvise will you."_ Sheesh. Did he really want me to say it. But I suppose he did. _I don't want to yield to Kjartlan intimately. I'd rather yield to you. You I trust. You have my heart._

I felt the warmth of Steve's response in my head, _consider it done_.

After making a small cut in my wrist I allowed a few drops of blood to splash onto Kjartlan's lips. Nothing.

"Give it a moment," Naira instructed.

I gave it a moment, taking that moment to position my knife and search for any psychic threads that would lead to his mind. Again, nothing. Yet. Ah there. Just as his eyelids began to twitch I felt a thread and rode it to connect with him. _Hear me Kjartlan. I offer you my blood as food but no more. I am not yours. I belong to others. Try to mess with me and the knife at your throat will find your jugular. Understand?_

_Woman_ , was all I got in response.

If he so much as thought 'mine' I was going to clobber him. _Not yours_.

His eyes slammed open.

I offered up my wrist for him to get the scent of fresh blood.

He smirked, the friggin bastard had the audacity to smirk, then he bit down.

The shock of pain quickly followed by ecstasy near caused me to drop the knife but I held firm. _You're doing that on purpose_.

Would you prefer it just hurt?

_Yes, no, hell, just tone it down a bit will you_?

I felt a very male chuckle in my mind. _This I cannot do. It is like a switch, either on or off._

The growing need to orgasm was messing with my ability to think. "Naira, I need you hold this in place for me.

"Sure." Naira prized my death like grip from the knife and held it firm at Kjartlan's neck.

"Steve." The tightening of my vagina was rapidly reducing me to one word conversation but he did what he promised. He improvised.

Taking my free hand Steve raised my fingers to his lips and sucked, first one finger. His warm moist lips moved over my index finger like a tight glove. Not too tight, not loose, but bloody firm. I could feel the pull of him sucking. Gods was it like this for a man. But my ability to ponder soon dissolved as Steve took a second and a third finger into his mouth. His tongue swirled around all three. How'd he do that? But it had worked. My focus was now solely on Steve, despite the other man sucking on my wrist and, I was vaguely aware, watching me with interest. I didn't care. This was between me and Steve.

Steve thrust his fingers into my mouth, nearly making me gag but not quite. I had to tilt my head to take his fingers so deep. That's when fantasy took over, a vision of him thrusting those fingers into my cunt while Aston and Kjartlan sucked on my fingers. Fionnalagh licking my neck, sucking on my jugular. So not going there but my mind had other ideas. If Kjartlan was reading any of this from my mind I was so doomed. But my inner core didn't care as it tightened, warmth fired through me, I arched back and screamed.

Vaguely I was aware of Naira ordering Kjartlan off my wrist and Steve lowering me to the ground, holding me, murmuring his admiration in my ear.

I woke briefly, sometime later. I was aware that warm bodies surrounded me on all sides. I didn't even know the city owned a king size bed. A ridge in the mattress suggested it was nothing more than a few singles pushed together. I blinked an eye open and spied Kjartlan dozing in an armchair in the corner of the room, like a king on his throne. His hair of palest, almost translucent white was tied back. He wore a plain shirt of deepest green, silk perhaps. Black jeans and a pair of calf high sturdy boots adorned his legs. Okay. Yep as long as he was over there and not on the bed that was okay. Relieved I drifted back off to sleep, needing to produce a few new red blood cells.

##  17

Mid afternoon Thallon entered the room bringing clothes to replace those Aston and Fionnalagh had torn. "Briefing in the conference room in five minutes. I'm to escort you."

I stretched and sat up, pleased to have my own clothes still on, "Thanks Thallon." Steve stirred beside me.

I handed the clothes to Fionnalagh and Aston, giving them a nudge. Fionnalagh opened her eyes and acknowledged me, "A chara." I assumed that meant something like friend, it was the intent I felt in my head. Aston realised he was still naked, with a stranger in the room. He blushed, which was adorable.

We waited on them to rerobe then followed Thallon to the conference room.

It was a full room. Naira was flanked by her 'life-blood' Harry as well as her AP guards, at the moment Laz and Pira. I couldn't say she took the head of the table because the table was round which pleased me a lot. There's a certain egalitarianism in round tables, myths or not.

Russell was there with Harry's sister Sam. The scientists grouped together as did the remaining APs. Except for Pira who seemed more than comfortable in the presence of one of the scientists who went simply by the name of TJ due to the unpronoucability of his very long Arente tribal name.

Some I didn't know. Russell introduced Ulv and Ilya, medical personnel from the nearby mining camp. They were welcoming and happy to have another medical person in the vicinity. Apparently my grand-daughter Belinda had somewhat reluctantly been acting as the city's first aid officer. There was something unique about Ulv and Ilya's auras but I couldn't quite pick what it was. My sixth sense told me these were people who lived by their instincts. Another man with them, a miner by the name of Kenzo was much more reserved. His aura was similar but subtly different. I wasn't sure of his role and Russell didn't explain. I felt a cloud of secrecy surrounding the man.

Also at the table were representatives, APs I was told, from the other, still functioning, Lyrean cities.

One chair remained vacant, which puzzled me until I noticed Fionnalagh bow slightly towards the empty air. Okay someone was there. I defocused my eyes and saw a dazzling array of energy and an outline of wings but had difficulty resolving the image further. A woman perhaps.

Callan was here too. Evidenced by a patch of purple moving on Harry's arm.

When this many people, so different in species and occupation, came together there was bound to be politics. Being ignorant of their respective backgrounds I took my cue from the secretive Kenzo, I kept my quiet and listened.

Naira knocked on the table to quell the chatter in the room. "Thank you all for coming at such short notice. Some of us are fully or partially telepathic but not all. Most of you speak English so I will use that, although be aware that I am still new to it so I will be relying on Harry to interrupt me with the finer nuances if I lose the meaning of what I am saying. Seren will translate for those who only speak Lyrean. I understand Fionnalagh, you are fluent in Nova Lyrean."

Seren translated and Fionnalagh nodded.

"Very well then. We have several matters to discuss. Our newest city residents Aston, Steve and Emily have agreed to be 'life blood' to two of my kind. On behalf of my people I thank you for your generosity. It is therefore with much pleasure that I extend a warm welcome to Fionnalagh from what was the planet of Sanctuary and to Kjartlan, of this planet."

Kjartlan let out a string of words that sounded accusatory. I hoped Seren would translate but Naira replied before she could. "No Kjartlan. It is by agreement with all those here that we have chosen not to awaken the old council at this time. We want to forge a new civilisation on our reawakened planet. A culture that respects all the beings now living here including the humans, the automated protectors, shapeshifters, etheric beings and the planet's main lifeform. This is not just our home anymore but theirs too. We doubt the old council would see it that way."

"Also," Naira continued her reply to Kjartlan, who seemed unconvinced, "The old ways did not serve our women. Those of that gender amongst us want that changed. The humans in particular come from a society that no longer closets women. They wish to continue their full and active lives on this planet, as they are used to. As we waken more Nova Lyrean females we hope to encourage them to participate as equals, as respected and capable beings, able to make their own decisions."

Kjartlan made a sound, a growl?

Sam and Fionnalagh clapped resoundingly. The rest of us, including the men, Kjartlan not included, smiled, gave thumbs up, nods and other general signs of approval.

Kjartlan looked directly at me and arched a brow. Should I be worried? Nah. His problem. I'd deal with him as I needed. I knew I had Aston and Steve, and it seemed Fionnalagh as well, there to back me in the unlikely event that my spine melted under his stare.

"Now," Naira continued, "if I may return to the matter of our new human friends. They have already shown surprising abilities to work with Callan. You have probably noticed the new life forms Callan has evolved into to. I am hoping this means we can accelerate the rebuilding of our planet," Naira looked directly at us as if expecting a reply.

_What do you think guys?_ , I sent a mental question to Steve and Aston.

Steve seemed pleased, _love to_.

Aston shrugged his shoulders, _why not? But it might be good if they give us some specifics about what they want and don't want._

So I answered Naira, "We'd be happy to but we need some clarity about what you intend to create."

Naira considered this then nodded, "Sam is a marine biologist, Callan a soil scientist and microbiologist. Eadoin," Naira indicated the vaguely empty chair, "will want input as well. They'll be your reference group."

"Um, Sam we can talk to but the others?"

Naira looked sternly at the empty chair. Various people around the room let out a collective gasp as a beautiful androgynous winged being took form, "Very well, I will show myself to you for this purpose. Though I am Earth's queen of Faerie, I am not bound by space and time so I can be here as you need." She surveyed the three of us then manifested a charm out of thin air which she gave to Steve. Should I be offended? But I knew she was right. Steve was the most in tune with nature of the three of us. "Put your hand on that and call me when you have need of me," then she vanished. I could no longer make out even a vague outline in the chair so I guessed she had gone. Possibly gone. If she was truly beyond space and time then I guessed she could be literally everywhere at once.

"And, ah, how do we talk to Callan?"

"Harry?" Naira asked, looking for advice.

"Honestly, I think all they have to do is open their minds to him. They ate those mushrooms he produced for them so they should already be contaminated."

I coughed, "Contaminated?"

"It's why we only allow one way travel to Mars at this time. Callan is quite invasive. Although these days he likes an invite.The 'music' you made was his invite," Harry explained. "You called him."

Hmm, I wonder if we'd been truly aware of the consequences at the time but it had felt right, "Fair enough. So just open my mind. Give me a moment." I searched through the psychic threads that surrounded me until I felt one that might be Callan's, _can you hear me?_

Loud and clear. Nice to meet you Emily. Er, you're not angry with me are you? Steve's song kind've hit a chord with me.

I felt his need to be welcome, an integral part of the society that was forming here. _I have no regrets Callan, we knew when we came here what we were doing. That it was a one way trip and why. I'm pleased that we were able to make your acquaintance so soon after arriving and in a most enjoyable way, if I may say,_ I reassured. "We've established contact," I explained to the rest of the room who might have been wondering at my silence.

"Excellent!" Naira was genuinely pleased. "Once you've restored life on Nova Lyra we have bigger challenges for you."

Bigger than re-engineering the biosystem of a planet? But at that moment Kenzo's communicator buzzed. "Excuse me, I need to take this," He excused himself.

We chatted among ourselves while we waited for his return. I turned to Aston and Steve, "So can you guys hear Callan too?" I wondered.

Steve nodded, "I heard your entire conversation with him."

"And you Aston?" I queried.

"Once Harry said I just had to open my mind I tried one of your visualization techniques, seeing a door open in my mind to a path that would lead me to Callan. It was a patchy connection at first but I managed to tune it in. It's just another frequency after all, like a radio. I'm sure once we understand these things better we'll find there's a scientific explanation for everything we're encountering here."

Of course there would be and somehow I knew it would be Aston who would come up with the theories. I was starting to appreciate his mind went well beyond even the average engineer.

"Why thank you Emily," Aston grinned.

I groaned, "You really are getting better at this telepathy aren't you?"

Just then Kenzo came back in the room. He went directly to Naira and spoke in her ear. She nodded her understanding then knocked on the table again to get our attention. I was going to have to find her a gavel or whistle or something. She'd hurt her knuckles if she kept banging the table hard enough to be heard over this rabble.

Naira smiled at me. Shit I was going have to learn to guard my thoughts.

"I'd rather you didn't Emily. You have some excellent ideas. You're right I do need something more effective to get their attention. And now I do have that everyone. Kenzo's just told me another from the mining camp has gone missing?"

"Who?", this from Russell.

Naira beckoned Kenzo forward to answer, "A new guy named Erik Hjálmarsson. Came up in the last batch of employees Sakla recruited to replace those who died when the Earthquake leveled part of the mining complex."

"Is he one of us or one of them?" Russell wanted to know, whatever the distinction meant.

Ulv interrupted. "He's one of them but I think there is hope for him. I saw him help someone to his feet the other day when the man tripped. You're average Din doesn't do that."

I raised my hand to interrupt, not sure on protocol but I was itching to know.

Kenzo acknowledged me, "Yes Emily?"

"What's a Din?"

"Haven't got a lot of time to explain right now but let's just say they're a carbon based life form, in this case humans, who have been taken over by an evil entity. The entity serves one named Sakla, an evil as old as whatever you can imagine. Din have only one interest, greed, and they'll do anything to get what they want including enslaving whole planets."

I had a sudden uneasy realisation. "You're one of them."

Kenzo laughed. He looked to Naira, "With your permission. Can I show her?"

Naira nodded, "They need to know."

Kenzo's form shimmered, his body replaced by a large upright lizard looking creature with a huge lion-like head and front facing 'arms'. With a deeper voice he explained. "This is what inhabits Din infested humans. Thanks to Russell's boss I've had my karma purged and been given a second chance, integrating both beings into one. I can still take this shape in her service. He shimmered back into his human form."

"Th...ank you," I was a bit stunned. I now studied Ulv and Ilya with new knowledge but Ulv noticed and shook his head.

"No Emily, we're just shapeshifters. In the service of Naira's brother." He noticed Kenzo's glare, "Tell you more about that later."

Kenzo stopped glaring, "As I was saying, Erik's gone missing. We can only assume he's been taken by Roland, a particularly nasty Din who finds joy in torturing and mutilating his victims."

I guessed he added that last for the benefit of us newcomers.

Kenzo continued, "Seren's previously scanned the akashic field looking for Roland and thinks he's established himself in caves, old lava tubes, near one of the volcanoes. Probably Tharsis and probably in an area the humans call Alba Mons."

Russell, who I hadn't noticed disappear reappeared with a map in hand and handed it to Kenzo. Kenzo spread the map out on the table to pass around. "It's a large distance to cover and I probably don't need to remind you we have only a couple of hours left until the nightly freeze falls. We may find no sign today. Those of you who can non-local travel and can therefore cover ground quickly would be a great asset to our search. That includes Callan, I believe."

Harry nodded, "It does."

Kjartlan said something in Nova Lyrean to Seren. Seren relayed, "Kjartlan says that if his old cargo-ship is a goer he could cart other searchers to the search site."

Naira looked to Karina, "The cargo bay is at the East entrance. Aston, I know you might not be familiar with spacecraft but..."

"Count me in," Aston answered before she could finish. I could see the enthusiasm written all over his face. A new toy to play with him. I wished him good luck and heard Steve do the same. I noticed Fionnalagh relax a little. Interesting. Probably relieved he mightn't be joining the search.

Karina urged Aston, "Come on then, this way."

Naira wasn't finished. "Russell, can I ask you to head up the search team?"

Russell tensed, "Naira, you know that as a meta being I can't intervene. This guy's ventured off on his own, of his own free will," he emphasised the free will. "I'm happy to offer transport for the searchers but in this matter that is all I can do."

"I'm sorry Russell. I am not well versed in the constraints you have to work within. I am aware that Callan has asked you to take on guardianship of this planet. For that alone we are truly grateful."

Russell muttered, "I haven't exactly said yes to Callan yet."

"But you will," Naira seemed sure.

Kenzo paced and Russell noticed. "Sorry Kenzo, I know we need to get going on this. Can I suggest Fionnalagh. I gather she has as good a knowledge of the terrain of this planet as any here, perhaps better."

"There's the small matter that she doesn't know our language," Kenzo pointed out.

Russell didn't see the problem, "So, she just needs to mind share with someone who does, someone's mind she doesn't mind sharing that is," for some reason he looked at me.

"I was going to offer anyway," I pointed out.

Russell grinned, "I know." He turned and considered Kjartlan for a moment, "Perhaps Steve could do likewise for Mr Grumpy."

Both Steve and I burst out laughing. Kjartlan looked at us mystified.

Steve approached Kjartlan, I could hear him in my mind mentally explaining what he wanted to do. Thankfully Kjartlan nodded his assent, though his eyes continued to watch me. Steve nudged him to go into an an adjacent room, relieving us of the audience.

Fionnalagh came to stand before me, just bend your head to touch mine, when we touch we will share. It's like telepathy but somewhat more invasive. Are you sure you don't mind?

I shook my head, not at all. I don't know why but I trust you.

I sense you as a kindred soul as well. Shall we?

Fionnalagh knelt so that she wouldn't strain her neck then I bent my head to hers. I really had no idea what to expect but I visualized my mind opening and let her in. Nothing could have prepared me for the vastness of her very long life. Her wisdom. Her courage. Her fierceness in battle. And her enormous pain at the loss of her family, her people and her planet. To be left the only one of her kind, possibly. She knew some had fled to Earth but had no knowledge of what had happened to them. I led her mind into my very limited knowledge of the ancient celts, a large empire or culture, no-one was sure which, that had once covered all of Britain, much of Europe, a large chunk of the Iberian peninsula and some part of what was now Turkey. I showed her what I knew of their art and the tiny bit I knew of their languages and history.

In turn I felt her pride in me, how I had coped with the respective losses of my daughter and husband, how I had raised my daughter's children and done my best to teach my grandchildren to be resourceful, responsible for their actions and most of all to question. She saw my travels after Bob's death, all that had fascinated me, all that I had learned.

I saw her skills in battle and negotiation, as if they were my skills. It was like it was all being downloaded into my brain and becoming part of who I was. Yet my core understood it would never be anything other than what it was, my authentic self. These were just new experiences, new skills and knowledge that were being woven into my existing layers. Layers that were afterall just the clothes of my mortal soul.

That final thought profoundly shocked Fionnalagh. She pulled her head back so she could look at me earnestly. "My life-blood, you are mortal?" She asked in perfect English. Well maybe not so perfect, she spoke with my own Australian accent which was just fine by me.

I shrugged my shoulders, "I'm 85 Fionnalagh, in human terms that's pretty much the end of things."

Fionnalagh looked me over, assessingly, "But you look to be only a little older than me. How is that possible?"

"I've learned in the last couple of days to create an outer form closer to how I see myself. I am the reality I create."

"Then create immortality for yourself."

"I'm not sure how. And even if I tried how would I know unless I received a mortal wound and survived. Look Fionnalgh, I'm not afraid of death. This body is only a manifestation, a shell that allows me to exist in this dimension. Sort of like a much cherished long-time set of clothing. It may die but my essence never will."

"An admirable trait for a warrior but what of me and Kjartlan, if you die?"

"You have Aston and Steve," I pointed out.

"And they are mortal like you?"

"Er," I was seeing her reasoning, "Yes."

Quicker than the blink of an eye Fionnalgh bit into her own wrist. I stared in horror at the blood pouring down her arm. "Fionnalagh!"

"Either drink from me or I will choose death now. My own near-immortality relies on blood to keep my heart pumping. Once the electrical field of my heart degenerates from blood loss I will disintegrate into dust."

"Hell! This is blackmail Fionnalagh." I harnessed my inner chi into the palm of my hand and grabbed her wounded arm, sending a high speed healing warmth into her.

Fionnalagh almost lost balance as the wave of chi hit her. You so don't want a seven foot alien falling. "Fuck, what was that?" She stared at the place where I had just removed my hand, the skin on her arm already whole and healthy again.

"That was chi and don't make me do that again. It takes a lot for me to connect with source that quickly."

"I was offering you the gift of immortality."

"For the wrong reasons Fionnalagh. Don't take me wrong. I'm not ungrateful but you said it yourself. What would happen to you if you couldn't get life blood? Your action was driven as much by self preservation as by any thought for me. And I understand that drive. You spent many years after the apocalypse hit your planet, our planet, starving as your food supply ran out."

"It was horrendous," Fionnalagh admitted with no small amount of sadness. "Not only had I lost my homeworld and my people but I was forced to watch as we were reduced to living off the blood of the last surviving animals we'd saved underground. The planet's atmosphere was gone. Topside life was impossible. Below ground nothing thrived. Bit by bit our livestock died and we had no choice but to opt for stasis hoping vainly that the APs would someday wake us if by some miracle life on the planet became possible again."

"So the question I pose to you Fionnalagh, and please don't hate me for it, what did the Sancturians and Nova Lyreans do that might have brought about the cataclysm?"

"We didn't cause it. The Din did," Fionnalagh countered but I could see, no I could feel, the cogs in her brain turning.

"You're speaking to someone who is an apprentice of creating my own reality."

"You think we were responsible. How? We didn't create the Din."

"In a way you did. Maybe the whole galaxy did. I'm following my gut hunch here but I'd say that the Lyreans and maybe others throughout the galaxy fell victim to one or both of the two fundamental illusions. The illusion of separation and the illusion of lack. Actually both illusions sort of feed off each other and generate a whole set of others such as death, the need to achieve and so on. The Din are just a physical manifestation of the illusion of lack, they are greed personified, if you will. But greed can't exist unless there's an underlying belief that you are separate from others and they have something you can't have."

I watched as Fionnalagh's defensiveness ebbed, she was considering what I'd said, "I'm going to have to think on this some but right now we need to organise a search party."

"I agree."

"I ask only one thing."

"And what's that?"

"When I have understood your wisdom, you will reconsider my offer."

Since I was beginning to develop a greater trust my own abilities to create my reality I doubted it would ever be necessary to be 'made immortal' but on the other hand, if she offered purely from her heart rather than fear of scarcity what harm could it do. "Ok."

##

##  18

I offered myself to the role of Fionnalagh's assistant. I suppose you could say second in command but it was more an organising rather than a military role. Yet I had her back. We quickly gathered together three teams, one of those capable of non-local teleportation, those who Russell would transport since he was able to teleport multiple parties hanging on to him and a team of those who would travel to the search site in Kjartlan's cargo ship. This way we could all quickly make it back to the city if the search extended until the start of the nightly freeze. The freeze was what everyone took seriously, if you didn't you'd die out there, those of us who were human anyway. For the android-like APs the freezing process could damage their circuits irreparably. Even for so called immortals being frozen for the night was very debilitating. They had to survive their cells bursting and becoming mush the next day. Temperatures approaching the minus 100 degree Celsius mark weren't to be messed with. The only way Callan's varied lifeforms managed to exist until each dawn was because they had built in anti-freeze. We didn't.

Fionnalagh kitted me out with a stunner, "I know you don't like to kill. You have the courage and wisdom of a warrior but the heart of a healer. This will incapacite. Thallon, show her how to use it."

Thallon did

Most of the others bristled with far more weapons. Some rifle-like objects looked very advanced but others I recognized. Knives and throwing stars. Fionnalagh herself wore some kind of fearsome looking sword in a scabbard.

Fionnalagh felt my interest in her mind and answered it, "I like to be prepared for all eventualities."

Once the first two teams headed off the rest of us went towards the cargo bay. Yep, Kjartlan was there, striding around, issuing orders. "We go in five, what's keeping you guys?"

It was Aston who surprised me by fronting Kjartlan, "Backup Kjartlan, Karina's just doing some final checks and she doesn't need you in her face yelling. It won't make things happen any faster."

"I'm just trying to keep things on schedule. We're running out of daylight. Anyway people work better under pressure."

"Actually they don't. Scientific studies have shown that high cortisol levels lead people to make mistakes and forget things when they're under stress. It interferes with higher brain functioning. It's one thing to have an adrenaline rush when you're fighting or fleeing it's entirely another thing to put under stress when you're problem solving faults or trying to concentrate on fine detail, like the wiring and connections on a spacecraft."

Kjartlan let out a huff of exasperation, "Bloody hell Aston. Do you have to drown me in the science?"

"I'm just explaining."

"How long?" It was all the captain really wanted to know.

"We'll if I can get back to assisting Karina rather than keeping you off her back it should only take a couple of minutes."

"Okay then. And I'm not on her back," Kjartlan muttered, confused by the lingo.

"Not physically. If you were you might have Max to answer to. You're just lucky he's not here or he'd have thumped you by now."

Karina, head stuck in a maintenance hatch yelled out, "Stop arguing with Mr Grumpy and hand me that multimeter Aston."

I choked on a chuckle. It appeared Kjartlan was in danger of acquiring a permanent nickname if he wasn't careful. "You might want to tone it down a bit Kjartlan or you're going to get yourself a bit of a reputation."

"Well if you people would take orders..."

"We're team players not vassals Kjartlan," I interrupted. "Chain of command works in times of war. The rest of the time we are a people of equals."

"What sort of culture is that?"

"One that happened when a whole bunch of starving people who'd been thieving to feed their families, political prisoners and free thinkers as well as a whole heap of free settler farmers were thrust into a drought and flood stricken continent, riddled with all kinds of poisonous and dangerous creatures and long established locals who really didn't like being kicked off the land they'd been living on for the last 50,000 years. The newcomers survived through a thing called mateship and I don't mean anything sexual. Each person pitched in to help the other with whatever skills and knowledge they had. Though it's a way of life fast disappearing in our cities, outside of them it's still what we do. It is who we are."

"But Aston is not from your land. I saw that in Steve's mind."

"He's from the land many of our ancestors came from. We have a common heritage. Many have come from other lands since then, thankfully, or we'd still be eating meat and three veg."

Before Kjartlan could ask what that diabolical culinary delicacy was Karina yelled out. "We're ready. Fire her up."

As we began to board I was faced with Kjartlan once again, "I know I said you could come but that was before I knew you were mortal."

"Who told you?"

"It was in Steve's mind. I'm surprised Fionnalagh didn't find out too."

"She did and we came to an understanding."

"And?"

Fionnalagh stepped to my side. "She's coming Kjartlan. It's her choice and I will not force or blackmail her to do otherwise."

"Then give her your blood, if she won't take mine."

"I have already made that offer Kjartlan. We have come to an agreement of sorts, in other words later."

"But if she gets injured now....?"

"I refuse to live in fear any longer, fear of starving. Steve, Aston and Emily are not livestock to be milked. They are sentient beings who freely offered their blood to us for no gain of their own."

"That I haven't fathomed yet. If not for the protection we can offer or the pleasure of our bite then why did they do that?"

I butted in, "Because it was the right thing to do. Honestly, if you're that worried about your food supply Kjartlan set up a blood bank. The human scientists here might not be ready to become life-blood or whatever you call it. Frankly if they see the problems me, Steve and Aston are having with you I don't blame them. But I'm sure they won't mind making a regular donation of a pint of blood or two. Such donations are common in our world. They help people who experience blood loss in accidents. Now if you're finished talking about me in the third person can we all get on board."

Kjartlan's jaw flapped as I walked on board, Fionnlagh at my side, but he no longer blocked my way. I guess my argument had made some sense then.

Fionnalagh and Kjartlan relaxed a little when Aston didn't insist on coming. I guess I couldn't blame them. Kjartlan was pissed though when he realised Steve was boarding. Before he could even start I stood in Kjartlan's way. "I need him. If there's healing to do we work as a pair. Don't cripple me. Going without Steve for me would be like Fionnalagh going without her sword."

Kjartlan's shoulders sagged in defeat. With an exasperated puff of air he wandered over to take the main controls of the ship. "Fionnalagh, navigation. Thallon, in the unlikely event we need the ship's weapons you're on that. Emily and Steve, watch that scanner. If you see anything blip let us know. The searchers are all wearing identification pins, if you see a blip without an id there's a good chance it's our man. Karina," he paused, "why are you here Karina?"

"In case anything on this old heap of junk breaks down."

Kjartlan scowled, I guess he didn't like his favorite ship being called a piece of junk. Thankfully the engine's roared to life.

##

##  19

An hour out and nothing, then something caught my attention. "Did you see that Steve?"

"Yeah. You got any reverse on this Kjartlan?"

"Where to?"

"Back one grid position and one grid over to the left."

"The measurement is a merferld."

"Whatever, you can call it robgovs for all I care, one back and one to the left please."

"Your wish is my command Emily," Kjartlan muttered, "Fionnalagh, take us back."

"Already there."

Steve and I studied the screen. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. "Can we get any zoom in on this contraption?" I wondered.

Thallon came over to assist, hitting a few buttons and showing us how to use a joystick to move the area under observation. "Cool," Steve took the joystick. I wondered idly if his generation still had such things or were they just a feature of the games of the past.

Steve rolled his eyes, "You so have some catching up to do Em, and yes we still use them. Look. There."

"I see it. Two blips, faint. Not sure what that faintness means."

"It means they're below ground," Thallon answered.

Fionnalagh got on the comms, "Teams one and two. We think we have them. I'm sending you co-ordinates."

Kjartlan landed the cargo ship on the nearest flat piece of ground and we all got out, except Karina, who opted to stay and mind the ship. She still had a few things she wanted to tweak.

It was one thing to know where our targets were but another to find an entrance to their underground location.

"Kjartlan, you and Thallon take the left flank of the hill, the three of us will take the right," Fionnalagh commanded.

I sensed that Kjartlan didn't like taking orders but Naira had put Fionnalagh in charge of the search, not him. "Shouldn't we split Steve and Em between us, that way only one of them might come to harm."

Fionnalagh sighed, I think her patience was wearing thin. "Em's already explained she needs Steve with her. Now go. Time's a wastin."

I couldn't make out what Kjartlan was saying as he strode off with Thallon, it sounded remarkably like swear words. I decided to give his mind a wide berth. I didn't need to know what he was thinking. I had a pretty good guess.

"You two metaphysics experts got any wild hunches?" Fionnalagh asked.

"Better than that," Steve answered, "We have Callan."

Not getting any further explanation from Steve, Fionnalagh looked to me, so I obliged, "He's going to stand still for a moment and sing, I think."

"You think?" I felt Fionnalagh wondering at the vagueness of it all.

"He kind of goes with the flow, context, all that," I put my fingers to my lips to encourage her to keep quiet a moment.

Steve raised his hands to the sky and began his chant. From all directions Callan's purplish coloured life form, its most basic slime mould form, flowed towards us. Encountering Steve it flowed up him until it met his head. Reading his intent it then flowed off into the crevices and ravines around us.

Steve stopped singing. "It's found them. Follow me, I know the way."

Fionnalagh called on her comms unit. "They've found a way in. Lock on to my identification pin and cover us. We're going in."

I heard a crackle on Fionnalagh's comms, followed by what sounded like a few choice swear words. Fionnalagh ignored it. She knew my mind and she knew that I wouldn't wait. Not if a man was being tortured. The search had already gone on too long. Much harm could have already come to the target. Yes I was avoiding calling him Erik. If we did arrive too late I didn't want to have formed an image of him. Call it a nurse's basic survival tactic. There's only so much misery and pain you can empathise with in one day before you align yourself with it too. So 'the target' he was. I kept telling myself that. But deep down I knew I couldn't, wouldn't harden my heart so I sent my mind out into space and did my best to visualize that everything would workout okay. Call it prayer if you will but I'm not religious. Spiritual yes but religious no. I just called it creating reality and it was fast becoming my fall back approach for whatever came my way.

"Freeze!" Steve suddenly yelled.

"What is it?"

"Callan's found out that the ground's full of landmines. The PM's going to mark us out a path. Hold on for a moment."

"PM?" I wondered.

"Short for Plasmodia Mascus. It prefers that to being called a slime mould."

"Oh," a slime mould with feelings, "So it's sentient? I thought it just contained Callan's consciousness, not that it was sentient itself."

"Definitely sentient. And scared. It doesn't want to get blown up either."

"Tell it we're truly thankfully to it for taking this risk for us."

Steve closed his eyes and sent the message via Callan. "It says thanks for appreciating it. It likes being appreciated."

Well I guess a slime mould, sentient or otherwise, wouldn't get a lot of appreciation. I took a mental note to do so in the future.

Path outlined for us we continued on, down into a dark crevasse.

_Use telepathy_ , Fionnalagh warned. _Shade the spotlight of your torch with your hand so it only casts a light on what is immediately in front of you. If the one called Roland is down there we don't want to let him know of our approach, if he doesn't already know._

As if to greet us, in some perverse way, a gut wrenching scream emanated from below, We have to hurry.

Steve held me back, _careful, see where the path goes all dark and glass-like there. It's obsidian, leftover from some past eruption. Callan doesn't know how strong it is_.

Fionnalagh and I nodded, _I'll go first,_ I suggested _, I'm the lightest._

Neither Fionnalagh nor Steve were happy about that but they couldn't argue the logic.

_Keep to the edge_ , Fionnalagh suggested, _it might be more stable than in the middle_.

I made my way across the slippery glass surface, trying to spread my weight, _next_.

Let me try Steve, I don't like the idea of you both being on the other side without me.

Protective as ever, but I couldn't blame her. I didn't insult her by telling her to take care because I knew she'd do her damndest.

Fionnalagh took a step onto the surface. It seemed okay. Then the crack appeared. Steve and I spotted it the exact same time. _Get back Fi!_ I yelled into her mind with all my might. Fionnalagh spun and flung her body back in the direction she'd come but her leg caught on the edge of the abyss that opened up. Anyone else would have cried out as a loose shard of obsidian cut into her femur. Her discipline held but I saw her tense with pain as Steve hauled her back up.

Steve? I asked, needing his assessment as a healer.

It's bad. She's bleeding out. I need to heal this.

_Take my sword,_ Fionnalagh offered _,_ barely able to form the thought.

Too heavy. Remember what I said about having no lack of anything. I have everything I need. Now help Steve heal you by creating your own best reality.

_Yes commander_ , she teased, but I felt her fading fast.

_Go._ Steve ordered in uncharacteristic assertiveness. _I know what to do._

I went.

As I continued down the tunnel a pale light reflected on the walls around me, it was coming from up ahead. I switched off my torch and tippy-toed on, making sure to make as little sound as possible. Not that I had to worry about hiding the sound of my footsteps much. The screaming was getting louder. Flashbacks from my army days played through my head. Men with shrapnel piercing their gut...

_Focus on the now_ , came Steve's reprimand in my mind.

How's Fi doing?

I've sealed the wound but she's lost a lot of blood. I'm going to have to feed her.

_Okay_ , that did not sound good. _Thanks for distracting me_.

_Always Em_ , then I felt him retreat from my mind. He had things to focus on too.

The pungent odor of rotting and burnt flesh hit my nostrils. My stomach churned. I told it to shut the fuck up. Peering around the corner I saw the reason for the smell and nearly spewed there and then.

On the walls hung what could best be described as large chunks of meat. Large humanoid chunks of meat. One on the end of the wall seemed not much better than the others, it still had legs and, oh god, it moved.

Chained to a chair near a stainless steel bench was the worst horror. A man had his arm in in a vise as some maniac with a hot saw proceed to gleefully take slices off his arm, and ate them. The victim, only alive because the saw kept searing each wound it made so he didn't bleed out, groaned, his eyes rolled back in his head. As the maniac sliced again the victim's hold body jolted. The scream sliced through me as readily as the saw slicing through his arm.

I had to do something. I fired my stunner.

The maniac turned and smiled, "ah fresh flesh. Yes you will be an especially tasty morsel."

I fired again.

The maniac walked towards me laughing. "Your toy won't hurt me, I long ago inured myself to such pain."

Pissed and panicked I threw the stunner away from me and went for my hand. Chi poured from my solar plexus into my palm, some invisible fuse lit and I threw the flame. I didn't miss.

The maniac screamed. His clothes blazing, searing his flesh. It was all I could do to stop myself going to his aid. "May the universe have mercy on your soul." But though the man might be dying gruesomely before my eyes something else wasn't. It took etheric form and separated from the man's aura, taking physical form. Oh shit. I'd seen one of these. When Kenzo had transformed into his alter ego in the conference room.

It straightened itself, roaring its defiance. "Puny human. You dare."

I drew another ball of chi from my being and threw it at it but to no effect. It's scales deflected the flames.

As it moved on my position I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye. Kjartlan. A coil of rope at his waist. Fionnalagh's sword in his hand. _Keep the beast's attention on you_ , he commanded.

No difficulties there. "Yeah I dare lizard-face." I threw another ball of flame. I was beginning to feel empty in my core but it was the distraction Kjartlan needed. He raised that great sword and in one swift arc decapitated the beast's head. The remains disappeared into a dark patch of, what would I call it, anti-light, then it disappeared.

I sagged against the wall. Kjartlan threw the sword down and ran to me. "Emily!"

"I'll be fine. Get that poor bastard free and that one on the end of the wall. I pointed to the one on the far end of the wall. He's still alive too."

Kjartlan paled but went to do just that. He was starting to know better than to argue with me. Smart man.

I'd be nursing soon enough, once Kjartlan freed them, but I needed thirty seconds for myself first. I raised my hands to the sky, high above the cave, and visualized both the core of the planet and the centre of the galaxy, the emptiness within and without, and connected. A flood of golden light poured down through my crown chakra, replenishing me, and through me the planet. From my heart that golden light radiated out, filling the room with a glow that only I could see. It touched each being in the room, living and dead, even the maniac who'd been host to the demon. I felt it's boundless compassion wash over us all, including me and Kjartlan. Reassurance touched my heart. I had acted from need not hate but either way it wasn't about to judge me, judgement wasn't its thing. It was for me not to judge. Having reminded myself of that I got up and went to give what first aid and solace I could for these poor bastards.

##

##  20

It took awhile for the rescue team to haul us out of the hole. A temporary bridge had to be made across the chasm. Kjartlan had swung across it on a rope, okay for a mad dash rescue but difficult for bringing the wounded out on stretchers. It was getting close to freeze time so a decision was made to come back for the deceased the next day.

I accompanied the injured back to the ship. Karina was waiting. "Em. Cripes, you're so pale. What happened?"

I just shook my head, "Some things are best not spoken Karina."

"That bad?"

"That bad. Don't suppose you've got some water with you. My mouth is kind of dry."

Karina eyed me with concern, disappeared down a corridor then returned with a flask a face washer.

The water was cool as it trickled down my throat. The wet face washer was a welcome dampness for my forehead. "Thanks," I handed both back to Karina and returned to my patients.

Erik stirred. I put my stethoscope to his chest. "In my first aid kit Karina. There's an ampule. Could you draw it up into that syringe."

"I can do that," she passed my the medication. I swabbed Erik's good arm and gave him the shot. I didn't need him waking up anytime soon. I wanted him back in the city before then. The living corpse was another matter. Thankfully the being was in full coma.

I checked Fionnalagh and Steve as the rescue team brought them in, both paler than I liked. "How much blood did you give her Steve?"

"What she needed."

Fionnalagh was sleeping peacefully. I was truly grateful that she'd created a reality in which she continued to live. The cut had nicked the femoral artery but Steve had sealed it. I hadn't picked that from his brain but I knew he knew my ways. He'd been in my own mind enough.

An almost affectionate Kjartlan brushed my hand to get my attention, "Thallon's just finishing securing our patients in. We're ready to leave if you're think they okay to travel."

"Then let's go." The sooner we got home and cleared my head the better.

We landed in the city's cargo bay, the night doors shutting behind us. I shivered. Frost crystals and icicles covered much of Kjartlan's craft. We'd been running a bit close to the wind. Kjartlan came up behind me a threw a jacket around my shoulders, "You young lady are headed for a hot tub and warm food."

I shook my head, "Not until I've given my debrief to Ulv and Ilya", who'd kindly agreed to do night shift on our patients.

He patted me, "Don't be long," but it was less of a command and more a declaration of concern. This new, softer, respectful Kjartlan had me off balance. What had changed?

Ulv and his best friend and technical assistant were waiting for me in the Infirmary. "Doctor," I acknowledged Ulv. "Ilya."

"Now now Em, let's leave all the hierarchy and title bullshit for Earth," Ulv scolded, but not harshly. "What we got?"

"Fionnalagh's ready for release but refusing to leave Steve's side. Steve's fine, just needs to make up a bit more blood."

"Blood group B negative you said over the communicator."

"Yes."

"Good. It's a pretty rare type but I took a quick look through this city's human medical records and found a match in a paleontologist named Declan."

"I've met him. Nice guy. He's got a bit of a soft spot for their team leader Stace."

"Yes , I noticed that. He was happy enough to donate a pint."

"Great." Though I had to wonder how Declan had inherited that blood group.

Ulv handed the blood bag to Ilya who didn't need telling what to do.

I saw Fionnalagh watching us with interest, amused. "It appears I am not the only species that needs the occasional transfusion. Although it would seem to be a much less fun way to feed."

"It's not so much food," I explained. "It's more a volume thing. Our hearts need a certain amount pumping around our bodies or we don't get enough oxygen and we feel faint. Worst case scenario we go into shock and die." Seeing Fionnalagh's frown of worry I realised I might have gone too far with the explanation. "Steve's fine Fi. His blood pressure is already stabilizing. He'll be back to normal after this pint and a good night's sleep." I hoped she didn't mind me occasionally shortening her name but she hadn't complained yet.

"And the others," Ulv prompted.

"I've got Erik heavily sedated. Naira's in a conference call with some experts back on Earth and some kind of Grey alien who's knowledgeable about advanced bioprinting."

"What are the options they are considering?"

"It's difficult. Because he's possessed by a Din they can't easily give him the genetic cure that makes humans immortal, not without causing a cardiac arrest. At the moment he's not in a fit state to survive jump starting his heart if it stopped. And even if they did turn him immortal, they don't think the arm would ever regrow. Naira wants to try nanites on him, like the ones she used to build the APs but there's a concern about melding silicon and carbon based cells. The latest idea I heard them brainstorming was to shoot him in the foot with a bespelled bullet, which would apparently expel the demon. Then attach a bioprinted arm." Though the process sounded complex. "But my biggest worry is that his mind may be an issue too. Severe torture like he experienced has to leave its mark."

"We'll leave him a medically induced coma then, at least until we've dealt with the arm."

"The other poor sod? Do we know anything about him?"

"Not much, odds are he's the second last miner who went missing. Likely still possessed by his demon and again likely mentally as well as physically injured. Although I won't say beyond all hope of healing because I know that anything is possible. Steve wants to work with me, Aston and Callan to see if we can 'regrow' him using the right frequency vibrations. He's so far gone we're more inclined to risk a more metaphysical approach. That and Naira thinks so much needs replacing on him we'd be effectively turning him into a cyborg if we used what she wants to try on Erik. If he survives he's going to have enough mental issues without us making him into something that isn't quite human. Having been possessed by a Din he wasn't quite human anyway but he may not have been aware of being possessed. Russell says the demon is no longer in him though. Probably went back to the etheric realms when he realized the man wasn't going to be much of a host for him anymore."

"Let's try your way first. I'd like to watch when you do."

"Me too," Ilya added. The man was usually so quiet it surprised me to hear him speak.

"I'll make sure of it."

Kjartlan was waiting for me outside the infirmary door.

"You're still here?" I stated the obvious.

"Making sure you feed and rest. Come. Aston's in the dining room waiting for us."

"But you don't eat our food."

"But you do." Not taking anymore argument from me he scooped me up in his arms and carried me. Honestly, I would have normally fought to free myself from his hold but I was bone tired.

Aston looked in surprise as Kjartlan brought me in., "Don't tell me you've tamed her."

"Hardly. She's just overtired. I expect I'll, how do you say it, wear it tomorrow."

Aston laughed. "Only if you deserve it. Em's pretty fair minded. Just tone down the macho stuff."

"Macho?"

"Overly assertive, overly aggressive, overly protective."

"But it would be alright to do all those things in moderation?" Kjartlan wanted to know his limits.

"In the right circumstances. You can be assertive when you have more expertise but do it politely. You can be aggressive but only to her foes, or the rest of us will gang up on you, as will she. You can be protective when she can't do it herself, like now but don't encroach on her freedom of choice, freedom of will or movement. Unless she likes restraints during sex that is and I'm not sure that's her thing."

"Restraints during sex?" Kjartlan asked curiously.

I elbowed him in the ribs. "Will you two stop talking about me as if I'm not here?"

"You were asleep," Aston countered

"Just dozing."

"You were breathing heavy," Kjartlan noted.

"Hmm, well I'm hungry now. You can put me down."

"No, I don't think so. I like you in my lap. You can take it up with me tomorrow. For now eat," He passed me a particularly tasty morsel from one of the plates of tapas in front of Aston.

Aston, watched on amused, "You're going to feed her?"

"It might be the only chance I get."

So Kjartlan fed me, picking out the pieces he noticed I liked the most. He held a drink of pureed fruits, something of Callan's creation, to my lips and I swallowed their nectar, enjoying every last drop.

I must have dozed off again as the next I knew I was back in the very large bed we all now shared. Except with only the three of us in it it seemed a bit decadent. "You do realize I am only up to sleeping," I murmured to the two of them.

"Go to sleep _a s_ í _vem_."

What did that mean? My heart? My Love? A different language to Fionnalagh's but it sounded nice. As I played around with it in my head I drifted back off to sleep, cradled by two warm bodies belonging to two magnificent men. Life was good.

##  21

As I awoke the next morning I realised the bed was a lot fuller. Ulv must have released Steve and Fionnalagh. A deep need to reassure myself they were both well and still in my life had me reaching out to touch them both.

Steve squeezed my hand in affection but made no move to take more of what I offered. I raised a brow.

Steve's smiled as he inclined his head to Fionnalagh, "Fi has something to ask you first Em."

I looked to Fi, "What's up?"

Fionnalagh loosened the tie on her silken wrap around, enough to bare her throat and some of her breast. My breath hitched.

"Kjartlan and I are agreed on one thing. We were wrong before. You deserve better than being treated as a scarce resource that we fear losing. You are fearless and resourceful, honest in your opinions, fair and open minded. Your heart loves where it will and, as Steve has explained to me, that love is so large that none of us in this little poly group need compete for your affection. We have no need for you to be different from what you are. Though we may occasionally pretend otherwise we do not seek to tame you. You bless us by simply being Em."

My jaw flapped. What had I done to deserve such words?

Fi heard my thought, "That's the thing Em. You have made me realize that you don't need to do anything to have such affection heaped on you. None of us do. We are unique individuals who will grow all the more closely together as we love each other as friends, companions and lovers."

"So," wondering where was she going with this?

"I am creating my own reality Em, as you taught me. I offer you once again my blood, this time not out of fear for you are right. We can set up a blood bank for emergencies. And I know that you will be with us until it is your time to leave this dimension, to ascend."

"Then why Fi?"

"Because you are my friend, _mo chara_ , you are Kjartlan's heart and the woman who Aston and Steve have chosen to love despite all your respective differences in age, era, race and occupation. The five of us are an odd bunch to be sure but we wouldn't be us without you. Will you commit to eternity with us?"

What could I say? What could I do? I looked four sets of earnest eyes and my heart melted. "Ok."

How were we going to do this then, I wondered? I wasn't keen on the whole wrist slitting thing happening again. But Kjartlan pulled a small dagger from where he had it stashed beneath a pillow. "Allow me."

Fionnalagh tilted her neck, to allow Kjartlan access. I had a moment's fear but trusted them both to know what they were doing as he made a small nick in her flesh. I relaxed, it didn't look life threatening. She held me as I lowered my mouth and sucked, tasting the metallic yet strangely appetizing taste. I'd never been this close to another woman in my life, ever, but with Fi it seemed perfectly right.

Fionnalagh groaned in pleasure as I fed, arching her neck back. When I finished, satisfied that her wound had sealed, I raised myself back off of her. Other strong arms held me as Kjartlan's lips brushed mine. His tongue licking my lips for a taste of Fionnalagh's blood and he too moaned in delight.

Out the corner of my eye I saw Steve and Aston gave each other a look of understanding. They took the small dagger Kjartlan had used and looked to Fionnalgh for assent. The next I knew they'd made two small cuts on her breasts and there was much sound of sucking and moaning. It was all just in the background to me.

"My heart," Kjartlan addressed me. "When I feed on you this time I would do it my way, with your permission."

My smile blossomed as my heart opened to him, "Since you asked. Yes. Hell yes," I wanted no doubt between us.

"I am large," he warned.

"Oh I do hope so."

Kjartlan chuckled, "Damn, Emily, what will I do with you?"

"Well I guess you'll continue to be an annoying, overprotective, controlling prat at times. As I will continue to be an annoying challenge to every ingrained instinct you possess, stomping all over your efforts to contain me. But let there be honesty between us. I wouldn't have you any way other that what you are."

"Do you think you could love me?" Kjartlan asked, uncharacteristically uncertain.

"I already do."

His smile beamed back at me, his mouth parting to reveal the tips of his incisors. Oh shit. Why was the sight of them making me hot?

He spread my legs wide, "Next time I will ask the others to hold you down and restrain you, if you allow. For now just stay where I put you."

"Perhaps," but I stayed still as he crawled on top of me, all luscious seven foot of pale alien. Lovingly he turned my head to the side and his mouth descended on my jugular. His teeth scraped my neck, teasing. Was this a safe thing to be doing, the nurse in me tried to yell at me. But a large ten inch cock pushing apart the delicate folds of my very wet cunt purged all thoughts from me head. "Yes, Kjartlan. Yes."

"Next time I will get Steve and Aston to use you first, preparing you for me, while I watch"

My core clenched, my inner slut excited at the thought. "Enough of the next times Kjartlan. I need you in me now."

"As my heart commands," two incisors piecing my neck as he began to thrust.

Oh shit. My brain spun out into the blackness of the universe as my body melted into liquid pleasure. My body went on autopilot, raising my pelvis to meet each thrust. Bed sheets crunched in my palms as I tried to stall the building need.

_That's my heart_ , Kjartlan's murmur rippled through my mind, _hold at that and we'll come together._

The glove of challenge thrown down I could do little else than comply, even as my body screamed at me for release. Relentlessly he shoved as much of himself into me as he could, again and again, until I thought I might shatter into a million stars within the night sky.

_Now!_ He growled in my mind.

Like a spring releasing, everything let go within me as I gave him my orgasm and my heart.

##

##  For more about the author and her books visit:

Onstellar: https://onstellar.com/arwenjayne

Gab: https://gab.ai/Arwenjayne

Email:arwenjayne@gmx.com

You can still find me on other social media channels but, in keeping with the theme of my novels, I am trying to transition away from mainstream social media.

##  Books by the author:

Non fiction

A simple nuts and bolts guide to yogic meditation and relaxation

A short introduction to the Sattvic diet (aka Simon's cookbook)

Left hand adventures series

Heart of Stone

A Lick of Immortality

Trust and Destiny

Don't call me kitten!

Guardians of the Rasselas (a novella)

Don't label me!

The Vampire President and the Headmistress (a novella that grew)

My Inner Alien

Rewriting the Dream

The Martian Vampire Chronicles

An open connection of the heart.

Beyond body, place and time

