Supernova on Twine (4 page)

Emergency
entry, Zane’s implanted data storage device. Ship time, unknown.
Location, Crystalline sanctuary. Date, unknown. Internal
input.

I told them what we had to do. I told them everything. How we
had to act fast because Parenthesis was almost upon Supernova. I
also told them we had to remain hidden as much as possible because
the whole damn planet of the eternals was out looking for us. Tink
had a great idea. We all had to phase shift.

Zane
paused from his entry.

Tink had
already shifted, his skin going translucent within a blink of an
eye. Sure, the Banshan had the technology to remove eternals and to
disarm a being under phase by bringing him back to the moment, but
all they had to do was avoid capture for the here and now. The
sensors all over Parenthesis wouldn’t be able to trace them as
easily if they rotated their phasing every hour the way the cat
being’s space-station did. By the time the Banshan did get a lock,
hopefully, they would have shifted again and re-calibration of
their instruments would give them more time to do what they had
to.

Zane
continued.

Of course the tricky bit will be when we have to enter the
control room
.

And how we’re going to get off Parenthesis so we don’t get
sucked back in time with it,
Motac
said.

Oh fuck, I never thought of that. Shit…now you tell me, Motac.
Great, this is just gettin’ better and better all the
time.

Motac’s voice seemed to soften.
Now,
now, just phase shift, my lover. I’ll guide you
.

You called me your lover
.

You don’t like that?

Zane shrugged his shoulders.
I don’t
care one way or the other
. He had to admit,
he did like the pet name Motac had given him. To be a lover of cat
beings and now of eternals, that had a nice ring to it. Lover? Yes,
that’s what he was. A lover of all men, no matter their form,
species or whatever. Zane loved Jakey and Cals and Tink and Mirko
just as much as he would soon love Zoltan and Motac, he was
sure.

You don’t sound so convincing
, Motac
said with a chuckle, one that reverberated around Zane’s
mind.

I’m easy.

Don’t I know that.

Hey, no need to get nasty about it
.
Zane grabbed Tink’s hand. “C’mon, Tinkles, time we did what we have
to do. I’ll follow. Motac seems to have a pretty good handle on how
this place is set out. He’ll take us to the crystalline control
room…hopefully without too many Banshan interruptions.”

Tink
squeezed Zane’s hand. “Hopefully with none at all.”

Mirko
said, “Zoltan and I will go to the storage rooms. He tells me our
pods are secured there. I think an escape plan is just as good as a
plan of attack, don’t you?”

“
Ooh, good idea, Mirko,” Zane said. “We’ll need a way to get
off this rock once all hell breaks loose.”

And break loose it will.

“
Tink likes this plan. We split up, but work together then. My
Zane, lead the way.”

Okay, Motac, which way once we’re out of our little fuck
den?

Take a right. I will let you know when to change when we come
to it
.

Right-o.

For what seemed an eternity, Motac guided Zane through
numerous tunnels, chambers and access ways. Tink was close
behind—so close he would occasionally grab Zane’s buttocks and
squeeze to reassure him that he was still there. Zane wished they
weren’t trying to avoid angry Banshan, and that they had the time
for some more skin on skin time. To have Tink’s tongue over his
arsehole right now would be divine
—
a sure fire way to get him hard and
horny and make him want to sink his cock into Tink as deep as it
would go, the way he did when Motac lubricated him with his eternal
fluids. Then again, to have Motac wank him at the same time he
fucked Tink—man, that would be hot.

Zane
shook his head of such thoughts. He always got horny when Tink was
close, more so when the moment dictated he couldn’t do anything
about his urges. Why was that? It seemed the more you couldn’t get
something, the more you desired it. Still, Zane knew the time would
come. They just had to get through this. He just knew he was
dribbling pre-cum, his foreskin wet and glistening to let everyone
know what he was thinking. Damn his hormones and his feelings for
his men.

On the millionth turn, or whatever the number was, Motac
said,
Stop here
.

Zane
noticed they had halted inside a room that seemed to look down onto
another. Then again, to say such a thing was an understatement.
What he looked down onto was massive, larger than what he could
comprehend in a single glance—or even a long one, for that
matter.

Below us is primary control room and the beginning of the
superstructure that houses the planetary engines,
Zane
, Motac began as if saying such a thing
was normal.

To Zane,
Motac’s words were certainly not run of the mill in any way. He’d
never seen such a thing. To him, and to put it into terms he
understood, he would say what he was looking down at what were
about a half a dozen crystalline sky-scrapers that seemed to go
right into the heart of Parenthesis itself. Many, many platforms,
gangways and structures seemed to radiate out of the central
spires. He could also see that the whole place glowed with an
energy he couldn’t fathom, certainly nothing humanity had ever
created, at any rate.

The previous owners of Parenthesis must have been a
marvel
—
they sure
did know how to create one. A machine made of crystal that could
move a whole planet not only through space but through time must be
one of the wonders of the universe.

Wow
, Zane said. He realised his mouth
was agape and that he couldn’t take his eyes of the workings below
him.

Tink came
into view, crawling from behind Zane. He’d forgotten all about the
here and now, too busy gawking at the engine—if one could call it
an engine. The cat being asked, “See the platform below
us?”

Zane
looked. On a rather large self contained platform directly below,
three Banshan worked at numerous crystalline control stations.
“Yeah, of course I can see it, Tinkles. How could I not miss
it?”

Tink
patted Zane on his back, rubbing it. “It is the first primary
inducer flow control station, and fortunately for us, right at the
peak of the crystalline engine. From here we could start a chain of
events that could give us a desirable result.”

Tink’s right
, Motac
interjected.
If we can disable the primary
inducer flow, then perhaps it will open up an opportunity for us to
halt the engine’s workings. If anything, we could trick the machine
to think it was time for maintenance
.

Before
Zane could repeat what Motac said, Tink said, “There’s only one
problem with this plan.”

“
What’s that?” Zane asked, hating that he had to ask such a
question straight away.

“
It will mean that one of us will have to go down to the power
relay station that controls the inducer flow. From there they’ll
have to reverse the polarity of the neutron stream so that all
backup systems will be disabled.”

Zane was
now totally confused. “Say what?”

He simply means that the power feeding into the room below us
will need to be turned off.

Tink let
out a gentle chuckle and kissed Zane. “Tink loves Zane so much.
Never fear, Tink will do it. But it will mean we will have to
separate for a while. Tink shouldn’t be long, just a bit of stealth
work.”

“
I don’t know if I can handle not having you by my side,
Tinkles.” Zane was genuinely concerned all of a sudden. First Mirko
and Zoltan had to leave due to the plan, now Tink. He hoped the
plan was working with them all being separated. He always
understood there was strength in numbers. Not so right now. It
seemed an individual could do more to stop a marauding planet than
a whole army of angry Banshan not yet possessed by
eternals.

We’ll be all right, Zane. We just have to do a bit of sabotage
work once the power is disrupted
.

That’s what I’m afraid of
, Zane
said.

Why? Because it means you’ll be alone with me again?
Motac’s voice sounded hurt.

Zane
didn’t mean such a thing, but in a way, he supposed the eternal was
right. He preferred the company of Tink and Mirko to a shadow
being, especially in situations like this. “Look, let’s just get
this over and done with.”

Within a
heartbeat, Tink had disappeared down an access tunnel, his
beautiful bubble butt and long tail the last thing Zane saw. Zane
had a nasty feeling, right at the pit of his stomach, as if it was
the last time they’d be together.

He
swallowed hard.

What do we have to do, Motac, to make sure whatever Tink has
to do isn’t done in vain?

Go to the hatch on the left. I will guide you from
there.

Right.

Zane
crawled over toward the hatch in question. Straight away, Zane
could see a problem, and blurted. “There’s a lock on this
thing.”

Yes, and so there should be. This is the main access tube to
the heart of the induction flow control room below. From inside
this, you can do all sorts of damage before you’re even
detected
. A flicker of something strange
permeated the eternal’s words. If Zane didn’t know any better, he’d
say it was fear.

We’ve been detected already, haven’t we?

Why do you say such a thing, Zane?
But
Motac couldn’t hide the register of his voice and the emotions it
radiated within Zane’s mind. There was a moment of silence, before
Motac added,
With Tink going through the
other hatch to the power control room, an alarm was tripped, yes,
although it may take them a while to realise what’s going on. From
what I can tell—and see through your limited vision—the panels
below are reading such a thing.

Hey, my eyes are just damn fine!

They are…for a human. But not for an eternal. Now, we must act
fast if we are to give the work Tink will do a chance of
succeeding
.

Zane
looked at the panel on the hatch once more. It was like an LCD
display, but holographic in nature. “So what do I have to do?” he
whispered.

The door can only be opened by the right
combination.

Cool. Give me the code, then.

It’s not that easy.

Somehow I knew you’d say that.

You still don’t trust me, do you, Zane. That’s why you didn’t
want Tink to leave. That’s why you doubt me even now. Haven’t I
proven myself to you already?

Zane had to be honest. He touched the panel and hundreds of
geometric shapes danced around his fingers.
Nope. A roll in the hay doesn’t make bosom buddies for life,
you know.

Then we’re lost if you can’t bring yourself to trust
me
.

Zane had to cool the situation. He could tell Motac was both
angry and upset.
Look, buddy, just get us
inside the hatchway, then we can talk. If there’s an alarm
sounding, this whole area could be crawlin’ with Banshan any
second
.

Motac
didn’t replay straight away.

Again, Zane tried to backpedal. The thing about words, even
mentally projected ones inside your own mind to a being who was
living there
—
once
spoken, they couldn’t be taken back. He didn’t mean to be hurtful,
but he also couldn’t lie to himself. He didn’t trust Motac…not
completely. How was he to know if he really was a coalition
eternal? What if he was only giving Zane a false sense of self
awareness to make his capture easier in the long run? What if Motac
was a double agent?

All those thoughts and more reverberated around his mind.
Again, he asked,
Motac, how do we get
inside the hatchway?

Chapter
Five

Emergency
entry, Zane’s implanted data storage device. Ship time, unknown.
Location, Hatchway to Induction Flow room control. Date, unknown.
Secure internal input.

I worked out how to record a diary entry without Motac being
aware I’m doing so. Here we are, at a sort of stale mate. An alarm
has been tripped and all the Banshan this side north of the equator
of Parenthesis now know we’re somewhere around the control section
of the planet. Fuck. No wonder Motac was jittery. Still, I have no
choice but to trust him for now. Sure, he could be a double agent,
working for the shadow eternals, but what choice do I have? He’s
inside my mind, for one thing. For another thing, I want to see
Tink and Mirko again, if only to fuck them both good and
hard
.