Chapter Forty-Five

Poseidon spent much time in Rasputin’s bedroom as well as in Wolfgar’s, he seemed much less interested in the rooms of the women.  Several times he remarked on Rasputin’s meticulousness as he passed his hand over objects or politely rifled through the drawers. “He was always that way, everything had to be just perfect, every last little detail…of anything,” the last he said with almost a smirk.  “I honestly thought the world was rid of him and all the better for it.” For all of the room’s neatness and cleanliness there was a thick oily residue on everything he touched and the scent of it, that nauseating smoky smell mixed with the remnants of fine cologne to assault the old man’s nostrils. Samantha, he was sure couldn’t smell it and when she ran her hand over the dresser all she probably felt was the smooth polished surface of dark wood. The senses of Mortals had never been as finely tuned as those of Olympians and other magickal beings but they were even duller after all their years of lazy living in their towering skyscrapers with Ben & Jerry always on hand for company.

Him, that was the way the King of the Seas has referred to Rasputin since he got here, never once did he say the man’s name though he would say Wolfgar’s name with ease. “I take it you don’t like ‘him’ very much.” Samantha said playfully as she followed Poseidon around.  “We should go back to the church.”  If he was here to inspect these mysterious Ley Lines then that was where they needed to be. Most of the members of her team were there taking measurements and readings their computers spitting out graphs and correlating information.

She was right and they should leave, Poseidon reached and took her hand in his they disappeared from Rasputin’s bedroom and reappeared on the very busy grounds of the ruined church. “He’s a plague upon the Earth sent straight from the bowels of…” his voice trailed off and he looked around almost as though to see if anyone was listening to them, “…a very deep and dark place… to be a thorn in the side of all that is graceful and civilized.   Never a friend of the Olympians was he or to Man. He knows only darkness, destruction and endless thirst for power.” Poseidon took in his new surroundings and watched the people with their machines but mostly he watched their faces.  All the information he needed to gather was usually written there however brief. wandered around the trucks parked outside the ruins of the old church. 

Sam leaned against the rear of the truck. “Look, I don’t mean to be disrespectful but I have to tell you, I don’t believe in these Ley Lines. They’re just metaphysical BS….in my opinion, of course.” She watched the old Olympian’s kind face fall.  “Aren’t they?”

“If they were would I be here now?” The King of the Seas countered. “Don’t ask me, ask them.” He pointed off toward the people scurrying around and taking their readings. “See what they have discovered with their gadgets and technology.”

Ok, she could do that. Sam looked around until she saw Lieutenant Ayers and called out for him. “Lieutenant!”

His neck snapped around as he turned toward her voice. “Yes, sir.”

“Report.”

“Yes, sir.” The young man quickly walked to over to them.  “So far, ma’am, we’ve found some very, and I do mean very, unusual magnetic activity.”

“How unusual?”

“As though there were a giant superconductor right under out feet.” He said in astonishment. “There’s low level gamma radiation, it’s strongest at the altar inside as are the magnetic readings.”

“Still think it’s bullshit, General?”

“Thank you, Lieutenant you’re dismissed.”

“Yes, sir.”  He saluted her and then walked off.

Poseidon waited until the young man was once more out of ear shot. “Think of them as the arteries of the Earth, each carrying the energy of the entire planet keeping her heart pulsing, her lungs breathing, her brain firing. Where these arteries intersect, in the very rare places that they meet, doorways to other worlds can be opened if you know how.” He peered into the back of the truck

Sam wished he wouldn’t do that. “But you don’t.”  Why had they sent Poseidon to help when he clearly admitted that he couldn’t? It all just sounded like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to her, this whole idea that the power to open gateways to other worlds laid within the Earth itself and was somehow easily and readily accessible all along if you only knew the secret. It was very unsettling after all of her years with the Stargate, technology not of this world and thought to be far superior to anything they ever had on Earth before.  All of those years scientists struggled to understand it and to decipher it were nothing but wasted time and effort if that were true.  At least that was how she felt about it deep down in her gut.

Poseidon clearly caught the edge in her voice as he began fingering through the items in the back of the nearest truck. “Am I in your way Samantha?”  To his surprise, the truck was full of weapons he’d never seen before. “I thought that with all of your kind’s curiosity surely you’d tapped into the Ley Lines by now…at least discovered them. After all isn’t your curiosity, your constant drive for knowledge and endless questioning the reason my Brother loved you?” He paused for a second, “your kind I mean.”

“I dunno, why do you favor fish?” Sam asked growing irritated with the old man.

“Unlike your kind who will never be satisfied at least not until they are something they were never meant to be, sea creatures are very happy with their place in this world and in being just what they are.” Innocently Poseidon picked up something that looked like a Zat gun and pointed it at himself as he stared down the barrel.

“Don’t do that!” Sam shouted.

“I am an Olympian,” Poseidon countered as he continued to point the weapon at his own face, “what’s the worst that can happen? Even if it goes off it won’t kill me.”

With firm force Sam put her hand on the barrel of the weapon and eased it away from the old man’s face. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

The horrible dawning came over Poseidon’s face.  “You’ve built weapons against us.” He gasped and turned the object around in his hand.  “Just us, just Olympians or all of us?” He suddenly demanded to know. “How long?”

“What did you think? We were going to come here and shoot Wolfgar with conventional technology?” Sam asked in a snippy tone. “Ares would understand.”

“I am not Ares and you can bet that when she wakes Calla will not…by the Gods! How long have you been using her? Daniel approves of this? My King sanctions this?”

“Calm down, no Daniel doesn’t sanction it, in fact,” she sighed deeply and shook her graying head, “he thinks we stopped a long time ago a very long time ago. Calla never knew.”

“How long?”

“Since Daniel first brought her back to Earth.” Sam admitted with a heavy heart. She never wanted this news to come out never wanted Calla, who was like a sister to her, to know what they’d been up to.  It was only business-war business which was why Ares would understand—and she was warrior.  She had to protect her country against all enemies foreign and domestic.  The Olympians posed a great threat to this world they could unleash havoc of Biblical proportions at any time and if they decided to do so then the humans, the mere Mortals, had to be prepared to put up some kind of fight.

Poseidon turned away from her in disgust before wheeling around once more and shaking the weapon at her. “What is it? What does it do?”

In for a penny in for a pound, right?  “That one fires…it fires…Xerinium rounds.” She didn’t think she’d ever felt so guilty in her whole life.

The old man dropped the weapon as though it had heated tremendously in his wrinkled hand. It tumbled to the ground and lay in the newly matted grass as though it were looking up at him with one good eye.  “You expect our help?  You use my Niece…my Queen!...as a guinea pig in one of your labs. Use her to construct weapons which will kill her and her family, people who have not raised a hand against you but who have only offered their help and their guidance and now you want me to assist you?  I am very disappointed in you, Samantha.”

“Would you just stop and think? Please? I mean, look what Aphrodite did to this planet!”

Poseidon’s wise old eyes narrowed on her as he took a very steady step toward her. “And look who stood by your side, who was it that fought and died by your side to protect this world?  It was us…all of us! When you needed us, when this world needed us we were there and we did not hesitate to protect her. Perhaps you’ve forgotten that?”

“I haven’t forgotten, none of us have forgotten.” Samantha stuttered.  “You have to understand…”

“Ah, but I do.  Mortals…humans…” he said the word almost as though it were a curse, “not only is it in your nature to destroy yourselves but you won’t be happy until you take everything else with you.”

“Sir? Everything all right here, sir?”

She understood his anger and his outrage, hell she’d feel it too if the roles were reversed.  “Everything’s fine, corporal. We’re just having a heated discussion, that’s all. Go on.”

“Yes, sir.”

Poseidon waited once more until prying ears were gone.  “Most of all, how could you do that to her?” He asked honestly. “She considers you her friend.”

“You talk as though it was me personally. I didn’t do it, Poseidon. I never did anything to hurt her and I never would.” She protested.  “It wasn’t me.” That was almost true Sam never did do anything to directly harm Calla she only misplaced three of her fertilized eggs once, that’s all. What harm did that do? Another true was, she didn’t know the answer to that question or whatever became of those embryos.

“Then who?”

The guilt was overwhelming in the face of the old man’s ire. “Well, at first it was O’Gara,” Sam couldn’t help but smile as the day Calla blew up the lab went through her mind.  The fire alarms went off all over the base and it took two days to soak up all the water not to mention the two foot hole she blasted in the concrete wall. “Then, I don’t know…Adams and Richardson and well then there was Annie…”

“Annie!” Poseidon bellowed. “Our Annie?”

“I didn’t mean it like that, look you’re making me nervous, ok? Just back off.” Sam said and pushed the old man away.  “Annie’s research,” Sam clarified as Poseidon took a few steps away from her and cocked his head to the side waiting for her to explain.  “Her research into the fertility problem,” Sam clarified, “they used it.”

“You mean your research,” Poseidon sneered, “as I remember you were instrumental in that.  So what is it? A hidden weapon? Trying to kill us in a subtle way?”

Now she wasn’t nervous or guilty she was insulted. “Come summer you’ll see, there will be healthy babies in Altair Ain. I would never, ever, under any circumstances, do anything to hurt a child.”

“You help secure out future while making sure you can seal our fate? How convenient. How….two faced…of you.” He smiled as the Mortal phrase crossed his lips. “The Ley Lines are in there,” he pointed off toward the old ruins.  “I suggest you get started.  Athena will be here tomorrow but were it not our family trapped on the other side…then you…you…bitch…” he shook a crooked old finger at Sam.  “If I were you, I would never ask for our help again.”  Before he disappeared from her sight, Poseidon spat upon the gun at his feet.

End of Chapter Forty-Five of
Golden Years
by Moon Mistress
a/k/a Lisa Beth Darling
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Chapter Forty-Six