The Shadow of the Moon-Lydia's Tale

Chapter Twelve

'Have you seen this?' The Commander flipped on the halo. It showed Lydia at the temple talking to the massed groups of the Ax. 'It's all over the C, it's hit over a billion views in just over three hours. It's the subject matter of the whole fleet. Everywhere I go the crew are asking me about her. They know we have her on this ship. They think she's some sort of saviour, a prophet who has the backing of a God who will save us all in our fight with the Swarm. I say we've got a later day Joan of Arc on board and no one remembers what happened to her.' 

Faulke ignored the comment -old earth history wasn't something he was that bothered by. He saw that to interrupt the Commander now would be inadvisable. 

'God knows where this halo came from!' Waite-Kidd continued. 'This sort of thing could jeopardise the whole fleet. We're supposed to be here in secret and some idiot starts taking halos and uploading them onto the C.' 

Faulke dropped a halo disc on the table with a clatter. 'It's Napes. I took it off him earlier.' 

'If it not one of them causing me problems, it's one of the others. Have you got a handle on him, can the fool do us any more damage?' 

'Not now -I dropped him back on the planet this morning, back at the hab hut. I've told the Headman he can use him to help in the temples reconstruction. Nape can spend the rest of this war lugging stones up slopes. It might teach him some humility.' 

'And keep him out of harm's way.' Waite-Kidd did up the top button of the collar on his blue uniform. 'Alright you'd better bring her in.'  

'Aiexsky remember what I said, she truly believes this artefact exist and it will save us.' 

Waite-Kidd inspected Lydia. The girl standing in front of him with her locked jaw so determinedly set was not what he'd expected to see. She looked lithe, fit, tanned. She had pulled her hair back from her face, tightened it into an efficient pony tail and looked at him with purpose in her eyes. She was no whimsy and he'd seen a few in his time. He liked that. 

'Well my girl you'd better tell me what this is all about.' Waite-Kidd stood up and bought his intimidatingly wide face close to hers. 'You have deprived me of a resource I badly need and all I'm getting is some sort of namby pamby story about a god and an ancient weapon.' 

Lydia remained unmoved 

'God dam-it girl!' Waite-Kidd slammed his hand down on the table, 'Have you any idea what you have done! We are trying to fix the one and only thing that stands between Earth and enemy that will tear apart everything we know and you seem to be off on a little crusade of your own into la-la land.' 

'The Aephren will raise the Hammer of the Gods and needs to be retrieved.' Lydia strived to keep the shaking from her voice. 

'I'll tell you what I think. This Aephren, your Hammer of the Gods. All mumbo jumbo.' 

'The Nergalrhod told me.' Lydia knew it sounded foolish but it was the truth. It did not matter to her now if the Commander liked that or not. 

'No one told you except the voices in your head.' 

'If you don't help me I will find someone else who will.' 

'Who has this Aephren Lydia?'  

'The Halout has it.' 

'Who? Never heard of him,' remarked Waite-Kidd dismissively. 

'Faulke knows.' 

'It's an ancient name for the Old Man of the Mountain.' 

'Oh Christ, it's what. This is getting worse.' Aiexsky turned to Lydia.' Lydia do you know who this is. This... this individual, if he actually still exists leads a band of Assassins. It's a type of weird cult, ages old, surviving through old fears and superstitions. Even the planets of Outremer haven't got it in them to take him on. He holes up in his planet fortress at Alamut on the edge of Outremer. His raggedy group of Corsairs range up and down the system there crewed by a bunch of degenerates who pillage every ship and kill almost anyone they encounter. And you think you can just pop over and ask him to hand over a weapon of mass destruction to you?' 

'He will if I ask.' 

'You really do believe in this don't you? The man hasn't been seen or heard of in three hundred years. If you find him you'll probably be talking to a corpse, you know that don't you?'  

'I know he's still alive. I'll go there and get the Aephren and bring it back here and give it to you. How can you lose?' 

'Tell you what Lydia, if you ask ten thousand Ax to come and help me I'll give them two Exo machines to help rebuild the temple. According to Faulke there are over one hundred thousand inhabitants down there working on your temple now. A couple of eco machines is a fair exchange don't you think?' 

Lydia considered, 'It's fair. I'll ask the headman, if he agrees then yes.' 

'OK you can go Lydia, I'll arrange for the coms to be set up to save you going back down to the surface. I'd like to talk to Faulke for a few moments.' 

Alex undid his collar and pulled open the top of his jacket. 'This Aephren Faulke, can there be any truth in it?' 

'Many cultures have such a references, hammers, spears, shields, it's not unusual.' 

Waite-Kidd looked up, his eyes cleared. 'The fleet are afraid, afraid of what the inevitable battle will bring, afraid for their families back home. They need something to get behind, something to believe in. Take her Faulke, if you will, take her to Alamut and see if this dam thing exists. Let's face it's better than to just sit here and wait for them to come and always wonder if there was any truth in all of this.' 

Faulke nodded. He knew the moment Aiexsky saw Lydia he'd made his decision. He'd wanted to believe in her, he needed to believe in her for the sake of the fleet. 'By the way what happened to the woman, Joan of Arc?' 

'She was captured by her enemies Faulke and burned at the stake. Don't worry they made her a Saint afterwards.' Aiexsky caught Faulke by the arm. 'I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that. Look after her and look after yourself. If this thing exists, whatever it is, bring it back, we're going to need it.' 

Faulke made for the door. 

The Commander called after him. 'There's an Earth expression, ''caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.'' I think you're about to find out what that feels like. The question is - is your Lydia the devil or the deep blue sea. Or something else?'