“Fenris!” he shrieked.
Ravana cursed and muttered something obscene about Fenris’ parentage.
“We have been expecting you,” snarled Fenris. He stepped closer and aimed the pistol at The Flying Fox’s head. “Though not in fancy dress. All of you, get in here!”
“There goes our plan,” sighed Ostara.
Ravana, Ostara and Surya cautiously stepped through the hatch and joined Fenris and his captive on the steel gallery. It took Ravana several moments to realise that the vast cylindrical cavern before them was indeed the double of the other engine room, for everything in sight was covered in purple mould or fungus, while vine-like growths masked every steel beam, ladder and walkway. Like the other room, the centre of the chamber was dominated by the spherical fusion reactor and its attendant network of conduits and pipes. The air was filled by the same strained humming, only this time it was accompanied by an indistinct and almost human wailing that sent shivers down her spine. Her implant began to pick up vague shadows but nothing her mind could make any sense of.
“You’re a scumbag,” she said, glaring at Fenris. “A cowardly, evil little scumbag!”
“We are here to make you pay for your crimes,” added the birdman, though he sounded far from convinced. One look at the gun had made his artificial muscles wilt.
Fenris ignored them both. “My Raja,” he greeted, adopting a mocking tone. “So good of you to finally join us. Taranis was most disappointed when you declined his invitation.”
“Invitation?” Surya exclaimed, incredulous. “You tried to kill us!”
“Put the gun down, Fenris,” demanded Ostara. “You’re in enough trouble as it is.”
Ravana glanced towards the control console further along the balcony and then froze as Fenris turned and pointed the gun at her.
“Don’t even think about it,” he warned. He nodded towards the flight of steps descending from the balcony. “Down there!” he barked.
When no one moved he placed the gun against Ravana’s ribs and gave her a push. Ostara mumbled something under her breath and moved towards the steps, The Flying Fox, Surya and Ravana close behind. Fenris kept his pistol aimed at their backs and did not follow until they had reached the bottom of the stairs.
Ahead rose the huge bulk of the fusion reactor. Ranged before it, nestling amongst the pipes and purple vines, were twelve glass tanks filled with a green bubbling liquid that masked the grey shape within each one. The vats were as high as Ravana herself and all were linked to a haphazard assemblage of laboratory equipment, which in turn was attached via heavy electrical cables to the fusion plant itself. An irritating dull drone filled the warm air as the parasitical vats feasted upon the reactor’s power.
“Where’s Taranis?” whispered Ravana.
She cautiously scanned the scene for any sign of the priest. Her gaze fell upon a pitiful sight. Half-hidden amidst the equipment was a cage barely two metres square, inside which a trembling creature stared back at her from almond-shaped eyes. It looked for all the worlds like a death-row prisoner as its spindly fingers clung helplessly to the bars. As their gazes met, Ravana did not need to see the beautiful blue markings on its skin to know it was the grey stranger from her childhood, the wounded traveller far from home.
“A grey!” murmured Surya, coming to her side. “They really do exist!”
Suddenly, Ostara shrieked. Something approached from behind the reactor.
Ravana turned and gasped in horror at the half man, half multi-limbed machine that now lurched towards them. The face below the metal skull plates was cruel and haggard with grey skin that hung in folds, yet from the waist down his body was that of a spider walker, the eight-legged mobility chairs she had seen on the streets of Hemakuta. Tubes cascaded from the man’s head and torso into the metal body of the walker, while the black chair upon which he sat seemed to blend seamlessly with the clothing he wore. Taranis was literally both man and machine, for there was no clear divide between where one ended and the other began.
“Ashtapada!” cried Ravana, gripped by the image of a huge mechanical spider.
“The mad priest himself!” Ostara looked shocked and stunned. “It is him, right?”
“That was the face on the holovid,” murmured Surya. He tried to hide behind her.
“I am Taranis!” the newcomer snapped. He sidled closer amidst a creepy contortion of metal limbs. “I have been waiting for you, Raja. I did not expect you to bring a retinue!”
“They are of no consequence,” said Fenris with a sneer. “I will deal with them in good time.”
“They are honoured to be here at the birth of a brave new world,” Taranis declared. “Today my disciples set forth and soon all will bow before the word of the greys!”
The scarlet-clad birdman, who up until now had been silently assessing the situation in the manner of a superhero both startled and annoyed, took a step forward.
“I am The Flying Fox!” he declared. “This madness ends now!”
He raised his fists and strode boldly towards the priest. Taranis shot him a disgusted glare and for an instant Ravana caught a flash of activity via her implant. The birdman gave a shriek of pain as an unseen force took his legs and cruelly splayed them wide. He collapsed into an untidy twitching heap on the floor.
“You fiend!” cried Ravana.
She dashed to her fallen hero and knelt to help him up into a sitting position, ignoring the threat of Fenris’ gun trained on her back. Out of the corner of her eye, she spied her cat dart from behind the nearest vat and towards the cage, its electric nose cautiously sniffing ahead. Taranis lumbered closer and paused.
“The mighty Ravana.” His voice was bitter. “You’re just a slip of a girl!”
“Well spotted,” she mumbled, more than a little perturbed.
“Your mother betrayed the faith!” he snarled. “She was the chosen one; destined to carry the future king of Lanka, born to unite Yuanshi and rid the moon of Que Qiao. I planned your life to the last detail,” he revealed. “You were to have the best schooling, the best training, the best of everything! You were to be the greatest leader and warrior Yuanshi had ever seen. It was I who named you Ravana, demon king! Then your whore of a mother goes and spoils it all by having the audacity to give birth to a girl!”
“How dare you speak ill of my mother!” Ravana retorted, now back on her feet.
“You gave Ravana her name?” asked Ostara. “She was teased dreadfully at school.”
Surya frowned. “Are you saying only boys can be great leaders and warriors?”
“That is the way of the greys!” snapped Fenris.
Ravana glanced towards the caged creature, which was gently stroking her cat with its outstretched grey fingers, then turned to the priest with a defiant stare.
“How can you revere the greys yet treat them so badly?” she demanded.
“They taught me that mind is all and flesh is a mere distraction,” Taranis said. “I was on a mission to a frontier planet when my ship was hit by a meteoroid. I was left stranded, trapped in the wreckage, with no prospect but death. It was they who rescued and repaired my shattered body, yet they saw no difference between my own mortal frame and the mechanical carriage I relied upon to get around. The result is what you see before you.”
“Yuck,” muttered Surya. “I am never going to one of their hospitals.”
“Do not mock the wisdom of the greys!” roared Taranis. “It was you, Ravana, who provided the new mother of destiny. My agents followed you into the woods that fateful day and saw you with the creature. It gave its body to provide the embryos for my disciples, in the same way that I have sacrificed my own flesh to the cause.”