Realms of Eden: Book 5: Hyak Anali

"Sorry Jebidiah," said Alfred sheepishly, "but the girl told me that you didn't have any men in your realm and that they couldn't come back into the real world. I just imprinted myself on a few of your worker bots and suggested that they see if they could be of assistance to Janine.

"Oh and I borrowed some of your toys from the sex shop factory and made a few adjustments to fit them up with the right equipment," he finished lamely.

Jebidiah snapped his fingers and a man appeared beside him. The man was muscular and bore a striking resemblance to the very surprised Sydney.

"Hello," he said to the man that was equally checking out the man who had spoken.

"Hi Sydney," said the man holding out his hand, "I'm Alfie."

Siti reached for the man as well saying, "Hi Alfie I am Siti, pleased to meet you!"

"No! Siti you cannot steal him! This is one of the bots that Alfred imprinted. Janine has grown rather fond of him and she would make my life a living hell if I don't return him. However, I will bring another blank bot with your modifications, Alfred, so that you can show me how you imprinted him." Jebidiah snapped his fingers sending "Alfie" back.

"But that can wait until these grubs are finished with!"

Alfred bowed to the realm master, seeing Siti's hot gaze upon him and her hand signal three, he grinned nodding.

"What the hell is he trying to do?" yelled Penny who had ignored the by-play behind her and concentrated on Donno who was trying out his new toy.

The group rushed to the rear railing where Penny was pointing out the white tank moving across the sand of the beach and now appeared to be climbing the steep cliff in front of it. They watched as what appeared to be multi-jointed legs with steel clawed feet drag the craft up the black rocked cliff.

"Because he won't fly I had to put in some other modes of getting around for him," said Jebidiah as if he was simply stating the obvious.

The tank appeared to be a giant spider as its eight legs gripped and manoeuvred the machine around until it hung horizontally across the cliff face its nose at the edge of Siti's love cave. "Hey Sydney," came Donno's voice, "watch this!"

The big white tank's front opened, the panels retreating inside the craft's body and a cannon rose from the exposed area pointing into the cave. Water blasted from the weapon in a roaring rush that the people on the boat could hear quite clearly followed by screams as several of the large worms rushed from the cave and began scrambling up and down the cliff.

A blinding flash, then another came from somewhere above and behind them, then two jets screamed over the top. Several of the worms fell in flames from the cliff to the beach below. "Leave some for me!" yelled Keith Richardson's voice as his heavy bird swooped in low over the cliff tops. Several small rockets fired from his underwing areas destroying two of the worms that had reached the top of the cliff and were looking for a place to burrow.

"Ok boys let's bring the whole lot back here and put it back together again," called Jebidiah.

Shortly the big tank rested in the water and the crew on board Majestic watched as the jets hovered over their anchor points and settled back in with audible clicks as the grappling equipment locked them into place.

"Penny there is a helmet in here with your name on it!" called Donno excitedly and the woman on the deck whipped her head towards Jebidiah.

"Yes Ms Rogers you have to co-pilot this rig and also run its computer programs for Wilbur especially when it goes into flight mode."

Penny raced over to the extending gangplank and across to the boat as quickly as she could. "Flight mode?" queried Donno his voice sounding extremely worried.

"Donno lower your helmet visor and stay in your seat, look for the wing symbol on the panel," said Jebidiah quietly.

"Got it," said Donno then his voice cut off abruptly.

"What's up with Donno? He's gone all dreamy and limp in his seat," asked Penny.

"He will be fine Penny," said Jebidiah. "Listen to the instructions in your head and don't forget to warn the boys upstairs before you do anything," he added.

Not long after there was a giggle from Penny and her voice. "Ready boys?" she called.

"Affirmative," came the three pilot's responses.

The gangplank retracted as Big Suzy asked, "What's happening now?"

"Just watch," said Jebidiah smugly.

The big tank boat began to move away from Majestic as Jebidiah suggested that they move to the prow for a better view. The crew, crowding around the forward deck, were stunned as the three jets fired, locked into their positions and the tank gathered speed across the water before lifting into the air and flew into bright blue sky.

"Oh my goodness," breathed Ea and Bacchus together.

The big plane turned and skimmed across the water before gently touching down gliding to stop some 100 metres away. "Bring on the bad guys!" screamed Penny in delight.

Chapter 6 - Beltea

A red speck, just discernible in the blue sky above her, circled her family's team of horses and oxen. The slow moving beasts dragged the wagons carrying their possession across the last of the desert sand where it gave way to the stunted growths and grasses that marked the beginning of the foot hills. The young woman watched the speck and her sharp eyesight picked out a man riding the red bird. Her eyes opened wider as she looked around to the other family members to tell someone what she saw.

Her father's head was bowed as he chided the oxen to plod a few more steps to the shade of a nearby stand of trees where he promised them that they could rest. Her mother was busily working her hands on the reins of the pair of horses guiding the cart that contained the family's treasures at a slow pace to follow the oxen.

Further back along the track that they had come along her two elder brothers were riding their other horses in towards them. It was no use talking to her sister, who sat astride a large horse waiting for the beasts and carts to follow her into the small clearing she had selected for the evening's camp. The woman regarded her as a simpleton prone to making up stories for attention.

She continued to watch the red speck and with a little concentration she directed her thoughts upwards querying the strange combination of man and beast.

Sydney was surprised at the faint query in his mind. It was only from the tone that he realised that it was a question because he could not understand the language that it was asked in with any sort of certainty. He passed the thought to Siti in her palace and was amused by the translation of 'What do you seek God in the sky on the strange red bird?'

Narrowing his eyes he spotted the woman on the ground far below him where he had noted horses and oxen with some carts travelling across the edge of the desert. His patrol of this area was primarily to seek out further evidence of the worms that they had been ruthlessly tracking and destroying with fire and water for the past two months.

He had seen the family moving for several days and had been intent on keeping himself and the other members of Majestic hidden as they tracked the travellers ensuring that they were not attacked.

The village that they had come from was many kilometres away. A burned out shell as the residents had burned the buildings and the surrounding ground to try and combat the hungry worms that had struck them in the nights for the past several weeks.

Siti's emissaries had contacted the villagers before and had offered them refuge in her expanding moat surrounded township. Many had taken up the offer immediately but some, like the family below him, had refused, preferring to take their chances fighting off the monsters.

Inevitably the worms had become too much and these were the lucky ones having escaped the village in the late afternoon several days ago. Sydney recalled that when they had overflown the village, only yesterday, nothing was left except some yawning craters where he and his team had set booby trapped bait in case the worms returned searching for food.

The worms, it seemed to Max and Ian, were moving far too quickly in the sandy deserts and bushland. It was almost as if something was distributing or guiding them to areas where his team had not yet been. Certainly in random sampling of the soils many, many kilometres from the central birthplace of the monsters, smaller versions were found. They were far beyond what their computer simulations said they should have been able to travel.

Thelma's scouting team, now armed with cloaking ability, had been asked to look for travelling groups of suspicious men or solitary dark garbed and hooded men. The request had been made by Ian after Siti had filled him in on the appearance of a cloaked and hooded man at another village's nightly gathering fire.

Now Sydney was circling aimlessly, watching. The rest of his team he had sent back to Majestic after they had spent almost twelve hours of the day on patrol. The query in his head was a quite unexpected change to the dark thoughts that were prevailing in his head over his guilt at inadvertently creating these monsters and his depression over the demands of his new wife.

He asked Siti for a phrase to transmit back to the figure on the ground that would tell her that he meant no harm. Receiving the thought he gently passed it into the woman's mind far below him 'I come in peace little sister. I hunt the worms'.

A fearful image of a gaping red maw came back to him as the girl's obvious near miss with one of the creatures a few evenings before was sent to him as well as her obvious delight at having seen one of Siti's helpers above her.

Sending back an image to her of a worm burning as his flame throwers raked its body in the sand and a triumphant whoop pleased the woman greatly.

On a whim he asked Siti to send him some more of the language so that he could meet with the exhausted travellers and ensure that they were going to be able to find their way to her growing township. Siti's giggle suggested that he was ready to accede to his wife's wishes and meet with the locals for some more experience. He crushed her thoughts with a bitter "Forget it!" and with a wave of his arm sent a thought of a camp fire and a watching eye back to the girl on the ground.

The woman sent back an image of herself and Sydney responded with one of himself then sent an image of the sun rising in the east and an eye with a querying tone. "Ska," came to his mind and he grinned, that was one word he did understand, "Yes." He shifted his weight and turned Hope for home.

Siti had watched the interchange between the warrior on his sky borne mount and the little woman on the sands. Her head shook sadly and almost she reached out to the warrior to tell him the truth of the woman he so easily mind spoke with.

The dark haired woman furiously hissed in her mind, "No Goddess, please! He need never know that I am here! We will not meet, his place is the sky, mine is the water. We can see each other from afar. Please do not interfere."

"Very well Beltea as you wish. But you do know that I am incapable of preventing the two of you from meeting. It will be history repeating itself again and again.

"Ever since Atlantis you two have been destined to meet again Beltea not even I can prevent that. His and your destinies have always been intertwined Daughter of Poseidon!"

"I know Siti, but you shall not interfere!"

Beltea shook her long dark hair making the strands of gold within it dance in the last of the setting sun's rays, the silver circlet at her brow twinkling briefly as her fringe parted to reveal it and the sparkling yellow gem in its centre.

Quickly she resumed her normal form. The circlet absorbed into her forehead, the simple totally dark haired girl that her parents and brothers doted on but was slow to react and even slower to speak. A beautiful woman but one whose mind was away with the gods. Never completely focusing on those around her but smiled in easy delight at the wonderful things she found.

Sydney leaned against the railing on the upper deck of Majestic. His mood was one of concern, he was not sure where it was directed but his unease was enough that he could not join the happy, singing group behind him that celebrated the death of several dozen large worms.

They had encountered them in the sands about a third of the way across the desert leading towards the water mass that would later be called the Caspian Sea. Thelma's scout team had spotted them as the tell-tale sand depressions had pursued a lone man as he ran and staggered across the ground.

Kelsey had reached out from her craft and dragged him across the front of her machine, carrying him to a nearby oasis and dumped him into the water. Telling him to stay there in the local native dialect, the man had simply hung in the water as his unseen rescuer took off.

As his wife had told the tale and described the man's astonished look. The others had reminded her that the reason he was so bewildered was that she had remained cloaked so the man had no idea what had lifted him from the ground and dumped him in the water.

Using a couple of small laser cannon the nest of worms had been uncovered by Simon's tank and the green team's firepower and the fighter jets had rapidly destroyed them. Paul's team patrolled as Serenity and her crew walked the ground looking for smaller worms and eggs.

They had devised a concoction of lime, salt and water that could be dumped into the fight areas that killed any smaller hatchlings and neutralised any eggs. Keith Richardson's big bird overflew the area after they had moved and dropped his load of specially made bombs.

They had worked the routine now for several weeks and they found that it was successful, as the worms never reappeared in the areas that had been treated.

"Penny for them," whispered Jo as she snuggled into his side looking up at him with her lovely smile and darkly lashed brown eyes. He reached his arm around her and playfully squeezed her to him.

"Nothing worth a penny," he replied as he let her go, walked towards the stairs and disappeared down them to the room he shared with his wife.

Kelsey touched the woman's shoulder gently causing her to turn towards the warm touch. Jo grasped the woman to her in a fierce hug as Kelsey's eyes overflowed with tears and her voice caught in her throat as she tried to talk. "Hush, Kelsey," the little nurse said patting her back gently. "He is just confused, he thinks he has committed himself to just you and we are not available to him any more. He feels our love that is all that he needs at the moment."

"No, it's not Jo," Kelsey whispered into her ear. "He needs all of you, not just your words and your smiles. All of you!" She finished with a soft stroke of the woman's bottom and breasts to emphasise what the "All" meant.

Kelsey turned from Jo and moved back to the bar accepting a wine from Bonnie. The dark haired woman gave her a small smile. "Guess he is still not giving in is he?" she asked her aunt.

"No he is not!" Kelsey said sharply. She saw the hope in Bonnie's eyes extinguish at her words. "I just don't understand why he cannot see that just because there is a band on his finger that he has to cut himself off from the love of all of the rest of you!" Kelsey took a long swallow of her drink. Tears had sprung in her eyes and threatened to spill over.

Dashing a hand across her eyes she tried to smile as Thelma and Jo pressed into her sides. "What the fuck are we fighting for if it is not to let ourselves be free?" she asked softly. The three women around her could not answer her.

Sydney lay in his bed gazing at the ceiling. Realising that his wife was not going to be sharing his bed again tonight he rolled over on his side and let his body relax. His mind however continued to play the words Kelsey had said to him. "Sydney, you are my husband not my property! For goodness sakes love, you and I and all the others are fighting to make a world that allows us to all treat each other equally, to live and love freely! Here you are deliberately withholding that love from all of those that want you!" Her screaming and yelling had done nothing to diminish his feelings of responsibility to commit himself to the woman who loved him, even more than she loved herself.

He tried to make her understand, make her realise that she had shown him that she was his in every way. It would not be fair of him to not return that same commitment. Her response had been to try and remove her wedding band and throw it into the sea. The gold ring would not budge from her finger. He believed that had convinced her that even the fates were trying to tell her that they were meant to be together, and only the two of them. She had glowered at him with an anger that he would never have believed could come from her. The ring on her hand had glowed a brilliant white hot that had almost blinded him in its intensity as she spat back at him that there were nine rings and somehow he had to find the ones that deserved them and give them to all of them. He was not going to be doing that by locking away his heart and body!

Surprised Sydney had asked how she knew that there were nine rings. Kelsey had simply looked at him stunned and fled from their bedroom. That had been a month ago and they had barely spoken since.

Next morning Sydney was up on Hope just before the sun rose and he headed to the camp that he saw the travellers from yesterday making and the strange mind that had called to him. He sent a good morning call before him and was delighted to hear a welcome to you worm chaser play across his mind.

Resuming his previous position he was alarmed to see dark rippling on the sand leading towards the makeshift camp and screamed into his helmet for all teams to assist.

He called to the girl and hoped that the urgency of his message got through as he drove Hope into a downward path firing his lasers into the ground in front of the ripples. The ground exploded accompanied by screams as his lasers found a target and the monstrous grey worm broke the surface convulsing in pain.

Switching to flame thrower he came in close to the beast raking it from maw to thrashing tail. It was the thrashing tail that undid him, catching the side of his craft as he swung in too low, he was tossed from his craft landing in a heap just past the end of the dying beast as Hope circled above him.

Dizziness overcame him as he stood and looked around wondering where he was. Then a dark haired woman supported him, her strong arm wrapped around his waist as she urged him to come with her back to the shelter of the trees. Staggering he let her lead him and as she moved quickly he noted the burning carcass that they passed. "What is that?" he asked her.

"Deathworm," the woman replied, "you just killed it but it got you when you came to close. Move it Enyalius there are others and I don't think you can ride your beast just yet!"

She quickly led him to a small pond, its water clear as it drained from one end and filled from the stream feeding it from above as it splashed musically down over black rocks in a never ending cascade of water that fed from a deep spring further up the hillside. Looking around she saw her parents running with the beasts further down the track towards the broadening creek, which the pond's water eventually flowed into, down the path. Sighs of relief escaped her as she saw them safely into the deeper water as a gaping maw punched from the ground a scant ten metres from her mother's fleeing steps.

The man in the water regarded her quietly as she turned back to him. Resting comfortably with her legs around his waist as he stood in the pond that was only to his shoulders, she clung to him. If she had tried to stand her head would be under the water if she tried to do it on her own. He grinned foolishly at her and without thinking she lifted her mouth to his and kissed the lips that had not touched hers for almost 6,000 years.