Heredity, Chapter Three

Gala stepped into the ancestral hall at Nottingham Castle, clad as always in her long black coat and black hat with a scarlet plume. Work in the City Centre was proceeding apace, and most of the refugees saved from the Ring of Fire by The Four Heroes had received medical attention or been reunited with their families. Gala had therefore delegated the remainder of these duties to the other three members of the team she led, and returned home.

Suddenly it was as if an indoor thunderstorm had broken. Gala whirled round to see Harbin standing before her in the hall, a gaunt silhouette of half-light around whose shadowy shape a ragged grey cloak was wrapped, and from the head of which a pair of burning red eyes pinned her. His mass emanated waves of unearthly force that reverberated from the walls and ceiling, while his very presence darkened the confined space as if through a solar eclipse.

Gala was not slow to reach for her cutlass, but Harbin was quicker. His hand shot out, and Gala’s torso erupted in a fountain of red light. All of the Next Four had the ability to house their Time-Shifting Devices and other paraphernalia within their bodies, but now Gala screamed aloud as hers was forcibly torn free. The Time-Shifter flew into Harbin’s waiting claw while she dropped first to her knees then fell prone. Harbin turned his fuming eyes down to her as she sprawled before him on the floorboards.

“I wanted to see your face,” said he, in an echoing, scraping, clangourous voice that barely suggested a human being at all.

The door banged open and Ned and Thassal charged into the room. Harbin cast one glance at his old enemies and the next second was gone, leaving shockwaves and ricochets cascading over the scene in his wake.

“Fast,” Ned growled. “Too darn fast!”

Thassal ran to the window and stared out, to see a speck of grey twilight vanishing against the blue sky miles above Nottingham’s rooftops. “He’s leaving Earth’s atmosphere!” exclaimed the half-Martian. “Whatever he’s after, it’s not on this planet!”

Joe and Neetra, who had been closest to the Castle, raced in. “Gala!” Joe yelled and hurried to her side. She stirred and tried to sit, though her strength was badly drained.

“Who…who was that…?” Gala moaned. “He took the Time-Shifter…our last…”

In short order the remaining members of the two teams arrived, first Bret, then Dylan and Phoenix, and lastly Tidshaw and Autumn swooping in at the window. “Bad news, gang,” Ned announced. “Harbin was here, but he got what he was after then took off spacewards!”

“Gala, can you tell us anything more of what happened?” Joe asked her.

“Nothing,” she replied weakly. “Only that he said he wanted to see my face…”

Tisdhaw, Autumn, Thassal and Ned started as one, and gazed at Gala out of huge incredulous eyes.

“Harbin spoke?” Autumn burst out. “But nobody’s ever heard his voice, not even us in all the time we’ve been fighting him!”

“Why would he talk now, and why to you?” Tidshaw went on in astonishment. “He wanted to see your face? What does that mean? Who are you to him?”

“I’ve never seen him before in my life,” was all Gala could say, as the other members of the Next Four hastened into the room having heard her psychic summons. Joe turned to them and declared: “We must fathom out, at any rate, what use he has for your one remaining Time-Shifter, for that, not Gala, would appear to have been his target. Chancellor, take care of her.”

“I would be glad to,” The Chancellor returned, his voice decidedly curt. He carefully helped his injured leader over to a couch as Joe stood up, and continued: “What reason, then, could Harbin have for travelling to this era, stealing the device and then quitting this world?”

“Could he be after me?” Thassal suggested at once. “Unlike my three companions, I already exist in this time. Harbin might be his way to Mars right now, with some plan to stop me ever reaching adulthood!”

“Thassal, get over yourself, you’re just not that important to the course of history,” stated Ned, not unkindly.

“Who else among you had a father who was a genuine historical figure?” Thassal demanded of his team-mates.

“Er, all of us!” Autumn pointed out. “But Thassal’s idea could be right – it’s as good a guess as any. Why would Harbin need the Time-Shifter though, for that?”

Steam and D’Carthage, the other two members of the Next Four, were looking on dumbfounded as they attempted in vain to make sense of this conversation. The Chancellor however had wasted no time in producing a handheld scanner from his bandolier, and even as he busily adjusted its dials he now announced: “Perhaps the Time-Shifter itself can shed some light on this. I am able to monitor changes in its operational parameters, and…yes, readings show it has been reset in the last few minutes. This Harbin has not, however, elected to open a time-portal in outer space. He has triangulated a point in Nottingham, or rather under it. The co-ordinates are some miles down, and almost directly beneath where we stand.”

Dylan’s eyes opened wide. “The caves,” he breathed, and whipped round to face Ned. “I know that in your time the caves are free again, but right now they’re still sealed off by the Nottingham drill. You told me Harbin’s set himself up as an enemy to everything we stand for – could he be attempting to use the Time-Shifter to somehow transport Dimension Borg’s interference into your era, so your team won’t be able to contact our cause just like we can’t now?”

A look of alarm crossed every face. “What kind of a man is this Harbin?” Joe cried. “For all that he may appear primal and mindless, his genius and his knowledge of our powers must be equal to his might for him to conceive of such diabolical designs against us!”

“But it’s way too possible,” Ned declared grimly. “It would explain everything – why he came back here, why he needed the Time-Shifting Device, and why he’s going into space! After all, even he doesn’t have that sort of power alone!”

“What do you mean by zat?” Phoenix inquired, but Thassal was already going on: “True, Ned, it would take a tremendous amount of energy, so we all know what he’d need to find. Where’s the nearest, though? Surely there isn’t one close enough to Earth for him to reach, at least within his own range?”

“Maybe not in our time!” Tidshaw suddenly cried, and rounded on The Four Heroes. “The Grand Master Robot black hole – the one that was created not far from here, during your battle to recover your stolen powers from him. Is it still open now?”

“I remember that!” Neetra exclaimed, with touches of pride. “I teleported myself, seven other people and Rebecca’s car all the way to Earth, even fighting against the black hole’s pull and even though I was only little back then! Toughest teleport I’d ever tried, and it sure tired me out, but I got there! How do you know so much about it?”

“Because you’ve told me and Tidshaw that exact same story about a thousand times,” Autumn grinned.

“It’s not due to close for at least another couple of years,” Dylan continued, in answer to Tidshaw’s question. “Why?”

“That’s where Harbin’s going, is why!” Tidshaw declared. “We learned a while ago he can increase his powers a huge extent by somehow harmonizing himself with a black hole in space. In that state he could easily fire up the Time-Shifter with enough juice to bring the damage to the caves forward into our day! It’s the last piece of the puzzle, guys! Now all we need to do is get up there and stop him!”

“No arguing with that,” said Dylan. “Chancellor, you and the Next Four stay on Earth and get ready to administer emergency aid down here in Nottingham. The city’s going to be looking at some major earthquakes if we fail, and Harbin transports a great chunk of geography out from under everyone’s feet! Phoenix, you go with them too. Dealing with Harbin himself looks like a job for The Four Heroes – both lots of them, I mean!”

“Dylan is correct,” Joe said decisively. “Your knowledge will be essential to us, Tidshaw. Only you and your team know Harbin and are experienced in fighting against him.”

“That much is apparent,” The Chancellor remarked. “So may I ask what it is that qualifies you and your fellows to accompany them? I have never seen these four young people before. I take it you have?”

“Um, actually, most of them we met for the very first time today,” was Neetra’s honest reply. At this, Steam cried out: “Then Neetra, love, are you sure you’ll be safe with their crew? If you don’t know them, how are you going trust them?”

“They know us, Steam,” Neetra explained, with a tiny smile. “It’d take too long to explain how, but believe me on this. They know us better than they know anyone!”

The Four Heroes Ultimate Cycle and the Hero Cart soared across the stars, carrying with them the valiant eight who would do battle with Harbin to save the world. Most eyes were fixed on the infinity ahead as they prepared for the first sighting of their foe, but Neetra had spent the journey sitting down and talking with Autumn in a quiet corner of the Cart’s passenger section. A concern unconnected to Harbin was on our heroine’s mind.

“I know it’s safest if you don’t tell me anything about where you come from,” she began hesitantly to the teenage girl in pink, sounding almost shy. “But there’s just one thing you could really help me with, if you can do it without giving too much away. You see, it’s only today I’ve realised just how long I’ve been picturing you and imagining you, Autumn, and whenever I did, a part of me was afraid that…well…I spent so long away from mine, nearly all the time I was growing up. And because I didn’t have one of my own, at least not one who was around when I was a child, it always made me wonder how I’d do when it was my turn, and…”

Autumn took her hand.

“You’re the best one any girl could hope for,” she interrupted gently, her brown eyes glowing into Neetra’s own. “Which doesn’t mean you never tell me off for leaving my knickers lying around on my bedroom floor! But you understand what it’s like for us to be out there in the world, and meeting you today when you’re about the same age as me, I can see why. You’re a real girl. There’s nothing fake about you. You always know who you are, and how you feel. That’s why I couldn’t have asked for anyone better to teach me how to be that way too.”

Neetra’s smile was brighter than the stars that surrounded her. “Thanks, Autumn!” she whispered, with tears in her eyes.

“Heads up, girls!” Tidshaw then called from the prow of the craft. “Target in sight!”

END OF CHAPTER THREE