Chapter Ten
In the Isolation Unit at SGC-UK
Inside the isolation tent the doctor bends over Rob Bowden's hand, a hand held electric rotary saw at the ready. He turns on the power and and the blade starts spinning with a high pitched whine and, as he is checking the ring is still stuck, he is about to saw through Rob's finger when the ring seems to release itself and fall away easily in his hand. The doctor stares in surprise at the ring, sitting in the palm of his gloved hand. He shakes his head, turns off the power tool and places the ring in a small plastic zip bag and seals it up tightly. He exits the isolation tent and checks the readings from the monitors. Whatever had possessed Rob Bowden was now long gone and he absent mindedly places the bag on top of the workbench as he disconnects the equipment. He tells his team to take down the tent and put the body in the freezer room reserved as a temporary morgue, then busies himself with typing up his report on the morning's bizarre events.
Rob Bowden wakes with a start. He is freezing. At first he thinks he is still in the barn he spent the night in, a frost forming on his hands and face, then he notices the noise of a pump and the glow of an electric sensor light and realises he is not lying on straw but a metal trolley. He jumps up, his body aching with cold but where is he? He tries to remember what happened, he remembers a bright light, a feeling of leaving, a torment, a dragon... At the thought of a dragon, he reaches for the ring but his finger is bare. He carefully climbs off the trolley in the darkness and feels for a wall, finding it a meter away. He follows it round till he reaches a door and tries the handle. Because it is a freezer store and not a proper mortuary, the catch opens and the cold air floods out into the room beyond. Rob blinks in the bright light while checking the room is empty, then closes the freezer door behind him. He is in some kind of store room, shelves stacked with boxes of supplies, rations, uniforms, equipment. Rob quickly makes his way to the door and glances out onto the walkway beyond. It is empty but he slides a nearby chair under the door handle just in case then sets about ripping open boxes to find some warm clothes and something to drink.
On Epona, in the water ducts of Hall Mead.
'Which way now Gryst?' Garble irritably shakes his head as the shoal reaches yet another branching of the waterway. Gryst pauses for a moment, placing a hand on the slimy walls feeling for a mark he made many many years ago. Gryst swims off down the right hand tunnel without waiting for anyone else and Garble sighs and sends yet another group of men down the left hand tunnel, just in case. At this rate, they would be but a handful by the time they reached the gate.
Gryst ignores the muttering and complaining Garble and continues down the water duct running deep under the Queen's Hall.
The water runs clearer, colder now, as the remainder of the shoal finally swim through into a vast underwater cavern housing the palace's aquifer. Gryst stands up in the shallow depths of the water, glad to shake free the water from his gills and breathes in the icy air in sharp gasps. Barble follows him and waits until his lungs have filled several times before counting how many Naxen men are left. 'We are but a shoal of twenty now.' he complains, 'How will we take the gate with so few?'
'The gate is not guarded, you should worry more about how we breach it to fall through to the realm of the Celestians.' Gryst smiles at him, a thin, cruel tease of a smile.
'Not guarded?' Garble is shocked by Gryst's words.
'No, not guarded. They think their maze of passageways and courtyards is enough. But they have forgotten the old Naxen ways, the water lands, the creeping marshes this city was reclaimed from... this,' Gryst sweeps a hand through the icy water, ' This is how we reach the Gate of the Twins.'
Gryst dives back under the water before Garble can question him further and swims towards a dark shadow in the far wall of the aquifer cavern. Garble signals to the remainder of the Naxen shoal to follow and swims after Gryst, following him into a narrow, rough-hewn tunnel that scrapes his scales for several hundred feet. Garble emerges, spluttering slightly, into the shadows of an empty courtyard. He hauls his body out of the narrow drain and stands, water dripping from his skin. In front of him Gryst is sitting at the edge of a circular pool smiling his triumphant, teasing smile. 'See Garble, this is the Gate of the Twins. Now, you tell me, how you plan to breach it!'
'I don't plan to breach it, I plan to open it.' Garble waits till his twenty men have all arrived and then strides towards the pool. 'Thank you, Gryst, you may join the war party at the rear, I'll lead from here.' Garble steps to the edge of the pool and then coughs, regurgitating up something Gryst cannot quite see from his gullet.
'What's that?' Gryst asks, not keen to lose his position in the shoal.
'This? This is a Doublet, looted in a Naxen raid many centuries ago. The War Council have kept it safe for this moment. We will open the gate and wake Nixor from his Celestian tomb, we will return with a new Dragon army to wipe the Kin from the face of Epona when the gates open on the equinox. We will be Warlords here and on the four planets and we will worship our rightful King, Nixor, Dragon King of the Four Worlds. But first I must signal the rest of the shoal, dispersed in the city, they will distract the Valkyr while we open the gate.' Garble retrieves a small water reedle he has tucked behind his gills and very carefully places it between his two thumbs, cupping his webbed fingers into a large resonating bowl and then gently blows across the reedle. The low note with a particular resonating frequency it produces spreads out through the air, vibrating with any water it meets and, in particular, the mucus glands all Naxen men possess in their gullets. An almost silent signal only the Naxen can feel. Garble waits for the first sounds of alarm from the far corners of the palace then throws the doublet into the pool. It spins out in the falling light then sinks without trace below the water, leaving only a ripple spreading out across the surface.
On Earth, in the Isolation Unit
Rob Bowden glances through the small porthole window in the door into the isolation unit. It looks empty but just to be sure, Rob straightens his uniform, pulls his cap low over his hair and eyes and tucks the clipboard he found in the supply store under his arm efficiently and strides into the unit purposefully. The room is empty but a small plastic bag on one of the workbenches catches his eye. He glances at its contents and his heart skips a beat as he recognises the ring inside. He is about to open it when the doctor interrupts him carrying a sandwich and a coffee. 'Hello? Can I help you?'
'Sir!' Rob salutes smartly and waves the clipboard at the doctor. 'I have orders to retrieve the ring, Sir.'
'Oh? Yes! Yes... of course, take it, take it... do you need me to sign? You look very familiar... are you part of the medical team?'
'Sorry Sir, this is required urgently.' Rob swiftly leaves the isolation unit and for a moment the doctor stares after him, with the strangest feeling they had met before, then he shakes his head and returns to finishing his report.