Kingdom Of The Nanosaurs (trilogy)

Kingdom Of The Nanosaurs - chapter 5

5. Fireball and fusion

Tom Wheeler eased back into the armchair-like driving seat of his delivery truck, pushed up the sleeves of his tartan shirt and hummed along with Johnny Cash. The deep brown voice sang of loss and heartbreak and that suited Tom’s mood. Illuminated on full beam, the dual carriageway stretched ahead of him through the flat lands of Lincolnshire only as far as the torrential rainstorm would allow. His shift was coming to an end and Tom was looking forward to pulling in for the night at the small town of Middleton about ten miles up ahead.

The storm had hit suddenly. Tom drove slowly through an atmosphere so dark and dense that it seemed to wrap itself around the truck in a physical embrace, rocking and shaking the chassis as Tom fought to keep control and keep the vehicle on the road. Outside light storms and jagged streaks of horizontal lightning exploded around him. Tom prayed there were no other vehicles on the road.

He stared for a moment at Cygnus Hyperbole. The comet dominated the eastern sky still visible through the churning storm clouds. Tom couldn’t even pronounce the name of it; but it was fascinating. The TV and radio news channels had been full of it. Make the most of it while you can, the experts advised. You may not see another sight like this in your lifetime. It disturbed him greatly and caused him to think big thoughts – about things like death and the hereafter and about time and the universe. Then Johnny Cash’s voice went deeper as the radio burped once and cut out. Worried now, Tom tested his electrics as his headlights flickered and flashed. In a matter of seconds he would be driving blind.

He looked up ahead. Something odd was happening to the comet. As Tom watched, a scintilla of light broke away from the core. It was bigger than a spark and left a blazing trail behind it as it veered towards Earth.

It may have been Tom’s imagination but he could swear it was heading straight for him. What the hell? It was no shooting star that was for sure. It seemed to get brighter and wax larger as it headed at a phenomenal speed into the Earth’s atmosphere.

••••

Oriel compressed his light body. He was the last of his kind – a Sun Angel or Throne with special powers. If the fallen angel horde known as the Shadix caught him in sufficient numbers his existence would be extinguished and the cosmic destiny created by the Continuum and set in motion by the Guardians would falter before it had begun. Cygnus Hyperbole had appeared exactly on cue. The Shadix had been chasing him through three dimensions of time and space. If they could absorb his spiritual energy they would become truly awesome. He had been preparing for the battle of his long existence when the comet arrived and he had leapt on board, blending with the fire and ice, allowing his being to be assimilated. Behind, in the tail of the comet, the Shadix had also attached itself separating into individual spores that were creeping ever closer.

Oriel dived and split from Cygnus Hyperbole. Ahead was the blue planet: the world where his destiny had dictated he would find his next incarnation. The image of a young boy, tall with an open and friendly expression, filled Oriel’s inner vision. Oriel’s destiny was married to that of the boy’s who was going to need all the angelic help he could get to fulfil the quest.

At stake was the Cosmic Algorithm, the source code of timeless creation within the Continuum. It had never manifested in tangible form before but the multiverse was about to experience a seismic shift vibrating through the membrane of time and space.

Oriel had only one chance of survival. The Shadix could not permanently occupy sentient life forms; at least not yet: they could only make fleeting forays into this world, although their collective power had already enabled them to assimilate just one victim. During the last eclipse this world had experienced the Shadix had attacked. With his acute angelic vision, Oriel could see a thin, skeletal man with acid coloured eyes; a powerful man presiding over a wordly empire of wondrous science. Inside this man the Shadix lived like a malignant infection infiltrating his very DNA and imbuing him with black angel powers. And this man was already experimenting with unnatural abominations.

Oriel had to enter this world’s gravitational environment, locate a human being and become as one with it before the Shadix could reach him. But Oriel knew that his angelic powers would be severely limited once in human form. He would have to live and act as a human and track down the bearer of The Cosmic Algorithm.

The Guardians would protect the animal kingdom, that was their role. But mankind had free will. Once the Cosmic Algorithm took form the Guardians would not be able to influence the future of mankind but only act as gatekeepers to the Continuum.

Oriel sensed life, energy, emotion, pain and elation emanating from this world: Earth it was called. Oriel could see and sense life in many forms and guises here.

A huge plain stretched either side of him as he plunged in a fireball towards the surface. Crossing the plain were massed ranks of ghosts and old angels, memory remnants and entities that had once known life, all occupying their own individual wavelengths, all of them vibrating at infinitesimally different rates. And there were millions of humans in this world, hordes of sentient beings, far coarser and rougher, all made of flesh and blood with a finite lifespan.

Oriel could see the delivery truck driving along the lonely highway and he could feel the life force of Tom Wheeler. Oriel already knew all there was to know about Tom. He had blueprinted the trucker’s DNA into the fabric of his own being. Oriel was also aware of the effect his presence might have on a simple biped life form powered by a nervous system so he could not afford to shock the man too much. It could result in his instant death. Oriel hoped that Tom Wheeler was strong enough.

Tom Wheeler could not believe what he was seeing. His communication system had malfunctioned and he was driving on instinct. Before him, the splinter of light that he had thought was a particularly bright meteor had grown in size and power. Now it had reached the horizon he saw it was a ball of fire hurtling along the highway towards him. Tom looked left and right. The rough terrain could spin the van on its side but he needed to take evasive action. When he looked again, the fireball was only a mile or so distant. It must be moving at phenomenal speed. By the time Tom slammed on the brakes and prepared to wrench the wheel hard left and take his chances, the fireball was the size of a two storey building and bright enough to blind him. Tom Wheeler cried out then as his world exploded.

Oriel held back on full spiritual power. He needed to inhabit this body and keep its owner asleep and dreaming in the recesses of his cerebral cortex. He had no desire to harm Tom Wheeler. He needed him alive and well and fully functioning.

When the moment of fusion came, Tom Wheeler’s body convulsed and he was rendered instantly unconscious. His temperature rocketed rapidly then quickly stabilised. He would now remain in a dream state where time would be revealed for what it really was – just an illusion. Oriel instantly occupied every nerve fibre and synapse in the body of Tom Wheeler. He was aware of every second of Tom Wheeler’s life and his past lives. He owned every memory, every tear, every moment of joy and every moment of pain this human being had ever experienced.

Oriel now was Tom Wheeler.

The man in the tartan shirt emerged from the blazing inferno unharmed and walked away into the eye of the light storm.