Trust and Destiny

By Arwen Jayne

One minute he'd been Michael Williams, six foot four, short cut brown hair and unassuming brown eyes. The next minute he'd found himself in a vast boundless void of light and space with no point of reference. It was immensely peaceful with a sense of oneness and connectedness with everything . Then he was spat out the other side, confronted by a woman with sea-green eyes and hair the color of softly spun gold that flowed down her back. Horror stills Michael to the core as he realizes that he has travelled not just through space but time as well and this wondrous woman is destined to fight to save his planet from an invasion of aliens from the lower dimensions. Only trouble is she's going to be on the losing side. Kiana's a warrior and her kind don't interfere with free will or destiny."

"If I must face what I must face tomorrow though, I have something to ask of you. It may even be the reason you came.”
God help him, he thought he’d sell his soul if she wanted it. “Ask away. If there is anything I can do it would make me feel a bit less damn helpless right at this moment.”
Kiana didn’t hesitate. If tomorrow was her doom then she wanted her moment with this amazing man. “Mate me.”

...

Around midnight her sixth sense woke Sarah. Looking up amongst the stars she saw a strange and wondrous sight. A real UFO was coming into land due south of her position. It was unlike any aircraft she had ever seen. It was only because of her keen sight that she was able to make out its almost circular shape. There were no obvious portals or windows. Its mirror like surface sparkled like a myriad of diamonds. It wasn’t in any stealth mode. It hovered over the land for a moment and then seemingly disappeared straight into the earth.
Her curiosity got the better of her. She banked her fire, gathered up her spear and her few belongings and headed off in the direction of the UFO.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arwen Jayne
• Release date: Feb 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311502698

Arwen Jayne

My passion is writing paranormal fantasy romance with a metaphysical twist. When I'm not writing I'm either reading other people's romance and erotica novels, gardening or learning about the myriad of things that interest me: meditation, brain change, metaphysics, linguistics, genetics, myths, magic and the odd bit of science and engineering.

Book preview

Disclaimer

While reference has been made to some actual historical events or persons and some existing locations all other names, characters and places are fictional; the product of the author’s over imaginative mind.  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses or places is purely coincidental.

This book contains sexually explicit scenes and language that may offend.  The author is not responsible for any loss, harm, injury or death resulting from the use of the information contained in this title.

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the help and encouragement of my friends, my partner and my family. Thanks go to my wonderful editors Jen and Joanne, for volunteering their precious time and giving much needed polish to this work. Any remaining errors in the book are my own. To Jen, as always, for our discussions on metaphysics, for listening and giving honest feedback on my ideas. To Eric, an Australian fan who read the first draft of this book and offered some useful comments along with some ideas to use in the next book. To my partner for his never ending patience, encouragement, advice on weaponry and other technologies. And a special thanks to all who read the first two novels and have encouraged me to continue the series.

Photo Credit

Kris McKracken for giving me permission to use his photo for the cover. For more of his photos visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/krismccracken/

Prologue

It was twilight in the Western Desert.  A lone wallaby perked its ears up and stared intently at an outcrop of rocks. A small joey poked its head up from the pouch to see what had got it’s mother’s attention.

Sarah swore and lowered the spear she’d aimed at her prey. There goes tonight’s supper. She’d tracked this particular wallaby for two days. This was the first time she’d gotten close enough to take aim and to see that it carried young. She wouldn’t take a mother roo. Call her soft but that was a limit she wouldn’t cross, not even to fill her own stomach. The streak of impracticality might have come from the white man’s blood that flowed in her veins. Yet it had been her grandfather, one of The People, who had taught her how to survive out here and instilled in her a respect for all life, particularly that which brings the life of a new generation.

She scanned the landscape for other food and spotted a morning glory vine covering a patch of nearby sand dune. Scratching beneath its surface she followed a root back a meter or so until she came across a medium size tuber. Oh well, bush potato for dinner didn’t sound so bad.  She found a few wild figs growing on a bush that was struggling for existence in a crevice among the rocks. They’d be dessert.  She dug beneath a nearby rock and found wet sand.  A small hole she made in the sand slowly filled with a an inch or so of water which she bent down to drink.  Then she put the sand back and recovered it with the rock, just as it had been.  Scrounging up a few pieces of mulga root she set to making a small fire in the lea of the rocks. Be it ever so humble there was no place like home.  At least it would be her home tonight.  She couldn’t stay too long in any one place without exhausting that area’s available food.  She’d move on tomorrow.

Around midnight her sixth sense woke her. Looking up amongst the stars she saw a strange and wondrous sight. A real UFO was coming into land due south of her position. It was unlike any aircraft she had ever seen. It was only because of her keen sight that she was able to make out its almost circular shape. There were no obvious portals or windows. It’s mirror like surface sparkled like a myriad of diamonds. It wasn’t in any stealth mode. It hovered over the land for a moment and then seemingly disappeared straight into the earth.

Her curiosity got the better of her. She banked her fire, gathered up her spear and her few belongings and headed off in the direction of the UFO.

A few years earlier, near Kandahar, Afghanistan...

Warrant Officer Andrew McCullum and his commanding officer Major John Samuels had stopped to give assistance. An overturned vehicle half-blocked the road to Kandahar. They both knew it could be an ambush but plain old ethics meant they stopped. The Major walked over to investigate while Andrew covered him from behind the open car door of their armoured vehicle.  A grenade launched from closeby. They both dove for cover but with not enough time to get back in the vehicle Andrew was thrown into the air, twisting as he fell. He fell with a loud crack and everything went black.

The next he knew he was lying in the military hospital at Kandahar. The Major was snoozing in a chair beside him.  John? You’re alright then?

The Major came alert in a flash. Concern for his friend written on his grizzled face.  It threw me a distance. I’ve got some cuts and bruises but I was lucky.

Andrew wondered if that meant that he hadn’t been. He was awake and alive wasn’t he?  It was then he realised he couldn’t feel his toes. The legs were there but no feeling. Shit.

1

Sergeant Michael Wilson threw his pack on the basic but clean hotel bed. His police station and the old weatherboard 1930’s flat behind it had burnt down during a spot fire from the firestorm that had threatened the town. The town’s colonial pub, The Bushranger’s Rest had kindly put him up for the night, free of charge, until he could sort out some alternate accommodation. He was that revved up he doubted he’d sleep. He pulled his wireless earbuds out of his bag and got them working with his tablet.  At least he’d have some brainwave music to let him drift into some sort of rest. Yan, the local doctor, had recommended it to him when he’d had a few sleepless nights after attending a particularly gruesome car crash. Old man Watson who’d been eighty not out had a heart attack at the wheel of his car and since he hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt at the time the result had been rather grisly.  It was always hard dealing with a corpse when you knew who they’d been.

Yet it wasn’t a crappy day at work or even the leftover adrenalin from the bushfire that had his mind churning now. It was the trip he’d had coming back from the Himalayas. An instant trip so to speak. Meta, a near godlike being who didn’t like you insinuating that he was godlike, had whisked him and Yan back from the Himalayas. One minute he’d been Michael Williams, six foot four, short cut brown hair and unassuming brown eyes. The next minute he’d found himself in a vast boundless void of light and space with no point of reference in time and space. It was immensely peaceful with a sense of oneness and connectedness with everything. Then he was spat out the other side, finding himself once again in his normal form, as local cop for a small rural Australian town called Boswell, hurrying off to help stop a fire started by some evil aliens.  Well maybe that last bit wasn’t so normal but over the last six months of so the town had been in somewhat of an upheaval since they’d found themselves at the forefront of an interdimensional, intergalactic war. But what perplexed him most was not the war between the Malakim and the Din but the fact that his self and his body as he knew them had blinked out of existence. Yet at some deep level of his being had he continued on in that strange space that Meta called the non-local. Then his self and body had blinked out and then back into existence. He’d kept his mind off thinking about it until now. He’d been too busy helping to save the town and dealing with the aftermath but now that everything had settled down the thought was back to tapping annoyingly on the door of his mind.

The thing was this, if it was that easy to switch off his physical existence and all that his self identified with then what was real? Really he needed a philosopher Einstein to answer that question. He grimaced when he remembered that Simon had tried to explain some of it to him when he’d been telling him how his sister Sally had ended up pregnant. That conversation had led to Michael threatening Simon and as much as insinuating that Simon’s views were evil.

He guessed the door tapping in his mind wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. If he looked closely at the thought, maybe glared at it, perhaps it would go away.  So he put his earbuds in and laid down on the bed. He thought a way to analyse it all might be to bundle up everything he knew about himself and put if off to the side for a moment. What was left? He remembered the feel of that space and connected with that, drifting into it. He let go, trying to trust it to show him whatever it needed to show him. For once in his life he’d keep his mind open. Suddenly he felt himself dropping out of the space, into a definite location.

Who are you? came a lilting but startled female voice, waking him from his reverie. 

He opened his eyes and sat up.  Before him was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She wore a pale blue, almost translucent garment. Wavy hair the colour of softly spun gold flowed down her back.  Her eyes were of clearest sea-green, sparkling like a tropical ocean. He thought he might fall into that ocean and drown in it happily or perhaps find in it an underworld paradise. She smiled uncertainly at him, as if mystified by his presence. He looked around his surroundings.  Nup, this sure wasn’t his hotel room. Um, my name’s Michael, pleased to meet you.  I don’t mean to sound abrupt but who are you and where am I?

My name is Kiana, I’m pleased to meet you too. The formality seemed a little stilted but her eyes ran appreciatively over his body. She didn’t recognize the uniform but he held himself with an air of authority and confidence that she liked and she could see from the way his garments sat on him that the body underneath must be well toned from either regular work or exercise. You’re in the realm of the Malakim.  Don’t you know how you got here?

I guess through something I’m told is called the non-local but seriously, I wasn’t trying.

Kiana was amazed, she’d never ever heard of accidental teleportation. So it just happened to you?  Without any thought of where you were going?  That’s kind of dangerous.  Who’s your teacher?

Michael guessed that his trip back from the Himalayas had taught him more than he’d thought, in an experiential kind of way. Not a teacher as such. A guy named Meta helped me and a friend travel to where we needed to be, quicker than we could go by normal means. I was just lying down remembering it and here I am.

You know Meta then?  We should go to him now and let him know what’s happened. He might be able to take you back to where you came from.

Michael was a little confused by her suggestion as Meta was probably at this moment sleeping on Simon’s verandah in his usual cat disguise. That keen to get rid of me?

Kiana blushed.  Not at all, I just thought, if there was nothing to keep you here, that you’d want to go home.

Michael wasn’t about to let this angel of a woman out of his sight just yet. He rarely allowed himself to get interested in women, at least in Boswell. He might have to arrest them sometime and that would be, well, kind of awkward. Kiana could walk away at any moment and he might never see her again. He had a feeling that would be a damned shame. Couldn’t we talk a bit?  Tell me a bit about yourself.

So this strange but handsome man who had appeared out of nowhere liked her enough to stop and chat. Interesting! I’m a crew member on Thex’s team. We patrol the galaxy and step in where there’s trouble, to try and restore order. You just caught me actually, we’re heading off tomorrow.  Some nasty reptilian species we haven’t come across before has escaped from The Between where souls that refuse to reincarnate and evolve usually stay put until they relent and decide to be born.  She noticed Michael had gone white and was giving off an aura of great angst. Is there something wrong? But before he could even answer a stream of thought from his mind crashed into hers. Oh my!" A hundred thousand years trapped in crystal, her brain struggled to grasp the enormity of it.

Shit! Kiana you can’t go tomorrow. It's clear I’ve travelled back in time and you’re about to head out to try and save my planet.  We have to find your versions of Meta and Thex and stop your team going.

My versions? Kiana wondered to herself. She took Michael’s hand in hers and channelled calming energies into him. Be at peace Michael. This is what I do. Protect and serve. I can’t run from this. I would have no honor.

Michael groaned in frustration. How could he demand from this beautiful woman what he would never do himself. I understand honor and duty well enough Kiana. My job is not unlike yours, just on a smaller scale. I protect a town not a galaxy. But what’s the point of going if you’re all heading towards your doom?

Everything that happens in the universe is used by the all-spirit to further its purposes, whatever that grand plan may be.

Codswallop Michael thought to himself, then wondered how he might use this philosophy to further his argument. After all, when in Rome. Well your all-spirit sent me here for a purpose. If you don’t believe in accidents then you must see that I was sent here as a warning.

It’s not about fate Michael, it’s about potential, about harnessing everything that happens for the maximum amount of long term good.

Michael groaned. You’re sounding like Simon.

Kiana picked an image of a man from Michael’s mind, a tall, wiry man with close cropped copper colored hair and pale grey eyes, but didn’t recognize him.  I don’t know this Simon you speak of but we will go and see Meta and discuss this. If I must face what I must face tomorrow though, I have something to ask of you.  It may even be the reason you came.

God help him, he thought he’d sell his soul if she wanted it. Ask away.  If there is anything I can do it would make me feel a bit less damn helpless right at this moment.

Kiana didn’t hesitate for a moment.  If tomorrow was her doom