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  “And look,” whispered Kaley from the seat next to Gaiah. She pressed a raised circle on the side of an arm rest and the arms silently folded flat into the back of the chair. “Allowing more flexibility in office working conditions! My own invention,” she added proudly. “We sell them in our New York shop for three thousand dollars each.”

  Alasdair took the chair at the other side of Gaiah, grimaced and said, “Well, here we go.”

  The man in green stood. His narrow face had deep grooves at either side of his mouth. “I am Gorand of the Clan Sea and I am the elected speaker for the Ten.” His voice was low and lilting. “We welcome you home, Gaiah. The Trinity has dire need of a melding's child. The situation is becoming critical. For your benefit, Gaiah, I have prepared a short demonstration.”

  The windows darkened and the room dimmed. A light shone down on the table. Gaiah’s eyes widened and she leaned forward to look more closely at it. The table was a giant sundial. The band marking the outside of the table was divided into hundreds of sections, while the inner band had considerably fewer.

  “Gaianan time and Earth time,” said Alasdair, indicating first the inner band, and then the outer. Alasdair held out his watch. That was why the markings were familiar. It was a giant replica of Alasdair’s watch, the time of the two worlds.

  A shimmering hologram appeared over the center of the table. A planet appeared. Almost a metre high, it hovered in perfect definition and colour. Seas, mountains, deserts, ice caps, everything was perfectly clear. It was also perfectly familiar, Earth hung in front of her. Gorand began. “This, obviously, is Earth. And this,” he paused, as another planet glowed to life, next to the slowly-spinning planet Earth. “This is Or’ka.” It was slightly bigger, but it had only about a quarter of Earth’s land mass. It was mostly a swirling mass of rough seas.

  “And finally, we have Gaiana.”

  Larger again, it floated next to Or’ka. It had half the land mass of Earth. The land was spread around its equator, in a series of long, green islands surrounded by tranquil looking waters. The three worlds lined up next to each other filled Gaiah's view.

  “This is what they look like, and now, this is how they are positioned in reality.” Slowly, Or’ka moved directly across, covered Earth, and became a transparent purple version of itself through which Earth was clearly visible. Gaiana moved across next and extended over them both. Gaiana’s transparency was blue and still Earth was clearly to be seen, as was Or’ka.

  These jaw-dropping special effects were unreal. Gaiah Turned to Kaley to share her amazement, but Kaley’s face, with the glowing colours of the hologram rippling across it, was set and serious.

  “Their magnetic fields are different,” continued Gorand. Shooting lines of yellow sprang from north to south on Earth. Or’ka, meanwhile, had a flow of red undulating in an anti-clockwise direction. Gaiana’s flow was a brilliant blue, smoothly circling its world in an undulating wave. Gaiah could see all three functioning freely and independently, yet in the same space.

  “As you can see, they don’t interfere with each other at all, but every September and March when the solar winds are strongest, this happens.” The three magnetic fields started to dance, to entwine and mingle their colours. Red, yellow and blue turned to shades of green, purple and orange. “The aurora borealis. The endless light dance of magnetism and our sun's radiation."

  Gaiah looked towards the windows. The sunlight was visible as a dull glow.

  “Yes, it's our sun too. Our three parallel dimensions share the same skies. As I said, at these times of the year it is easy to merge our energy and simply shift Earthways. This causes no disruption to Earth. Outside these times we never force a shifting unless there is a dire necessity. However, the Or’kans have no such reservations.”

  The magnetic fields stopped their connecting dance and returned to their own rhythms. Suddenly, a blast of red from Or’ka broke through the yellow lines of Earth, creating a gaping hole that filled with a murky orange whirlpool. Earth’s magnetic lines continued but each time a yellow band approached that area it became dull orange until it moved on. Gaiah could see there were a lot of similar colour muddlings around Earth’s globe.

  “Or'kans have permanently damaged the magnetic field around Bermuda. Thousands of Earth lives have been lost, planes have crashed and boats have sunk because of their interference. But this is not the true horror of Or’ka.” Gorand’s voice was grave. He paused as the door opened and a young girl bounced in.

  “Gorand! I was told to say that Gaiah must eat, and I was sent in with these.” She put a steaming mug of cappuccino complete with chocolate sprinkles in front of Gaiah, accompanied by a plate of toasted muffins–butter melting over their golden tops. She was smaller than Gaiah. Her hair, plaited into dozens of long braids all shot through with silver ribbon, made a shining curtain hanging down her back.

  “It’s so electric to meet you! And we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other. I hope you like dance music, cos I love-”

  “Renny, thank you. We’ll fill Gaiah in on your part in her life shortly, but for now, let us continue.” Gorand’s voice cut through the girl’s excited babble.

  Unabashed, she gave Gaiah a luminous grin, winked and left the room.

  It was a bit awkward, being the only person in the room with food or drink. She ignored it until Kaley nudged her and said, “Eat. Don’t waste the time or the food.”

  Gaiah obediently picked up her coffee and sipped.

  Gorand continued.“We Gaianans spend our time creating, gathering and husbanding our world’s energy. We respect and love Earth as our equal counterpart. It is also our core; without our connection to Earth, we wouldn't exist. And because our life spans are so much longer and there isn't any want or evil in our world, we are pledged to watch over Earth, doing what we can to protect it from the malice that is Or’ka.”

  His voice was somber. Deep lines appeared between his eyes, drawing his eyebrows together. “The Or’kans are high energy beings like us, but that is where the similarity ends. Or’ka is ruled by five families. They treat their people abysmally, use them as slaves. They force them to produce energy endlessly. They are never allowed to shift Earthways unless they are sent on a vile mission of destruction.” He drew a deep breath. “The almost unspeakable truth is that the Or’kans have developed a way to shift to Earth in a pure energy form. They transmit directly into a human, forcing their host’s energy particles to make room for them. Their ultimate aim is to take over Earth.”

  Gaiah just stared, the golden muffin turned to tasteless crumbs. It was surreal to be drinking coffee while she listened to this horror story.

  “They have been trying it for many years; Or’kan years. But the hosts died almost immediately and the Or’kan was returned to Or’ka. They tried shifting instantly to the nearest human as soon as the first host died but the second, third or fourth host died anyway. They experimented with this method for a time until they realized the energy cost to Or’ka was too great. They killed hundreds of thousands of humans. On Earth it was called the ‘Black Death’.”

  Gaiah gasped. Of course she had heard of the ‘Black Death’ in history class. Almost sixty percent of Europe's population had died. All for an experiment? Gorand paused and looked at Gaiah, in case she had a question. But she just looked back down at her coffee. What was there to say?

  “They kept trying to increase their time of human occupation; their next concentrated effort was called the 'Spanish Flu' on Earth. This was just as devastating and, like the previous time, we shifted as many Gaianans Earthways as we could and encognated people all over the world, to isolate a sick person so that the ' infection' couldn't pass from one person to another.”

  “Oh my God.” breathed Gaiah. “This is so horrible.”

  “Apart from the mass attempts, they have been constantly making individual efforts; Earth’s history is full of tales of alien abduction, zombies, and invasion of the body-snatcher type stories. All of these woul
d have been better for Earth than the truth.”

  Gaiah leant forward. “If they can’t sustain it in the long run, they can’t destroy Earth, can they?”

  Gorand walked around his chair and leaned on its high, padded back. “That’s the point. In order to control Earth they need to spend many Earth years building and controlling governments and countries. Unfortunately, there are always many power-hungry, ruthless humans willing to get behind a leader like this and support them. The Or’kans then discovered a way to tranquilize their victim so their occupancy went from days to years. But, as they discovered with Hitler, that wasn't enough.”

  “Hitler?” Gaiah repeated weakly.

  “Unfortunately, yes. Hitler–an artistic, animal-loving, vegetarian, beloved only child–was turned into the creator of one of the most hideous mass murders in history. That was Seoc, from Or’ka’s Clan Fire, one of the Five Families. He stayed so long in Hitler, he had to use the body’s own energy to boost his return to Or’ka. Earth movies from the time show the deterioration. Hitler appeared shaking, stooped and frail. In the end, because Seoc used almost every particle of energy to return to Or'ka, there was barely a body left. What was left, was quickly cremated by the remaining Or'kans, before they too fled.”

  Gaiah shuddered, she'd heard the speculations about this. In one of the most photographed wars ever, there had never been any photographic evidence of Hitler's death.

  Gorand shrugged. “Seoc was so weak afterwards, he needed a year in Or’ka to recover. The trouble was, an Or’kan year is approximately thirty Earth ones. And when Seoc was recovered enough to return, the regime he had so carefully built up was now an integrated part of the European Community, contributing to the common welfare. Not what he had in mind at all.”

  “Why didn't another Or’kan just take his place in another body?” Gaiah asked.

  “Firstly because, when things started going wrong, Seoc sent his Or´kan commanders home, to save energy. He hoped to run his campaign with the Earth people already in his thrall. And secondly, because there are only five ruling families on Or'ka. While they might share the energy produced by their slave population, they are extremely jealous and competitive. Each family pursues their own agenda. Some of the lesser families are only interested in Earth as their private playground. These creatures are horrible and degenerate but don’t pose as much threat as the others. The most dangerous families are the ones who are determined to be the family that finally controls Earth. So, each project is from an individual family and Seoc’s only brother was too young.”

  Gaiah was overwhelmed. She wanted to dismiss the whole thing as an absurd fantasy, but sitting here in this dim light, surrounded by anxious, serious faces, it all felt too horribly real. “Gaiah, we could talk forever about history. About the twists and tales of the Trinity’s existence, but the crux of the matter is, the Five have found a way to occupy a human for a significant length of time, and then move to another when the first dies. They can do this now without having to return to Or’ka. They can keep whole dynasties going this way. We suspect North Korea has been their testing ground.” Gorand swiveled his chair towards him and slumped into it.

  An older woman stood, her hair coiled around her head, kept in place by silver ribbons dotted with flowers. The colours in her tunic, from lilac to the faintest pink, seemed to glow, even in the dim light. “I am Bevin, of Clan Light. If they can do this,” she said, her sibilant voice sweet and clear, “the Or’kans will not only destroy humanity in an orgy of violence and greed, they will try to change the magnetic fields to prevent Gaianans shifting to intervene. If they succeed in doing this, we fear the effects on Gaiana would be catastrophic.”

  A solemn silence filled the room. Gaiah’s head was reeling. The worlds floating over the table disappeared, the windows changed colour and sunlight came back flooding back through the walls.

  Twelve faces looked at Gaiah. Gorand spoke again. “So there is our dilemma, Gaiah. What are we going to do?”

  It took Gaiah several seconds to register the question was being asked of her in all seriousness. She gave a nervous laugh, which unfortunately coincided with a mouthful of muffin. The resulting spray of crumbs on to the table broke the tension and everyone laughed. It was such a plainly silly moment, Gaiah wasn't even embarrassed. In fact, she laughed even more. Then the horror of what she had heard came back to her. She spread her hands and said in a small voice, “Why are you asking me? I don’t know! I’m only eighteen! I'd never even heard of this Trinity until yesterday, I’m having trouble just believing it, and you’re asking me to save it?” She looked around the faces, hoping to find even one person who thought this was ridiculous too.

  A chair scraped back. “Ruairidh, Clan Earth.” A forceful voice filled the room. “You are a melding’s child and that’s extraordinarily special. The Or’kans know it too and that’s why they tried to stop you reaching us.”

  “But why didn't they stop me while I lived in London?” interrupted Gaiah, well aware she was using the word 'stop' instead of kill. Alasdair answered her.

  “They would have, in a heartbeat, no matter which heritage you favored-just to be sure you were eliminated. However, the Or’kans were unaware of you until we made contact. You were born on Earth and Nia had never brought you to Gaiana. All those years we stayed away from you, kept you safe. We couldn't even come to London to get you. It would have alerted one of the Five. However, it would appear that someone did know, but thankfully it must have been a junior member taking it upon himself to interfere with your journey. I expect by now they have some unfortunate occupied human keeping an eye on you.”

  Gaiah leaned her elbows on the table and put her head in her hands. She spoke down to the table. “I’m sorry everyone, I really am. I know you were expecting something great from me, but I honestly meant it when I said I don’t have a clue. Dimensions, shiftings, mind-taking, annihilation. It’s waaay beyond me. Is there another, em…er...melding’s child around who might be more help?” This caused a ripple of amusement.

  Kaley said, “Gaiah, darling, a melding’s child happens about once in several Earth millennia. Without fail, they are people with extraordinary powers. Even if you don’t know it yet, you are the answer.” She looked at the table. “Oh my Powers! The time. We must rush.”

  Everyone stood. Gorand said, “I’m so sorry our first meeting had to be filled with such ugly conversation. I promise, on your next visit we will show you all the beauty of Gaiana and the hospitality of your people.”

  Alasdair put his arms around Gaiah. “Quickly, we've no time!”

  Gaiah looked at him. “Why, what’s the rush? We haven’t been here that long.”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “But it’s been a Gaianan hour, an earth day. It’s now eleven o'clock on Monday morning on Earth. You are already late for your first day at school!”

  Chapter Nine

  This is absurd. Gaiah was speechless. One minute they’re asking me to save the world and the next they’re sending me to school. Alasdair steered her to the door. “We really do have to rush.”

  “Well, I’m sure you’ll be back soon and we can fill Gaiah in on everything else she needs to know.” Gorand said, approaching Gaiah. “I cannot tell you how relieved we all were when it was reported that your Gaianan heritage was coming to the fore. But time is of the essence. Please don’t delay.”

  Gaiah opened her mouth but closed it immediately; she could think of nothing to say. There was no time anyway to say anything. The Ten stood and watched in silence as Kaley and Alasdair ushered her out.

  Outside, Gaiah was surprised to see Renny going from foot to foot like a wind-up toy waiting to be released. Her hair was beautifully cut. The multi-coloured Gaianan clothes swapped for skinny, black jeans and a tight, red sweater, which clung down over her hips, revealing curves a black, leather jacket did nothing to hide. Heavy eyeliner and biker boots completed the look. She grinned at Gaiah, her smile lighting up her face and sparkling in her eyes. She beck
oned, waving her hands energetically.

  “Come on! We’re going to be late, probably get detention. Oh, maybe we won’t, given it’s our first day and all.”

  Kaley smiled at Renny’s enthusiasm. “Renny's going to go to school with you every day. She has an ability to detect any encognating in her vicinity. This will keep you safe from any human being influenced to do you harm. After last night,” she paused and grimaced at the memory, “I don’t think any of the Five will risk shifting personally to get you.”

  This doesn't sound very reassuring. “But why can’t I just stay here and be safe? Why do I have to be sent out…out... there?” Gaiah gestured vaguely.

  Kaley took Gaiah’s hand. “Apart from the fact that we don’t know your capabilities yet, it could damage the Earth part of you if you permanently shifted dimensions in one go. Earth people are held tightly to Earth, they can neither see nor move through dimensions. You have to acclimatize slowly. Also Gaiah, you have to get as much knowledge and perspective on the whole situation as you can, because you are going to find the solution!” While she was speaking, Kaley shifted them both Earthways, followed almost instantly by Renny and Alasdair. She handed Gaiah two lunch boxes and shepherded them out to the car. Alasdair got into the driving seat and Kaley waved them off.

  Gaiah's mind kept replaying parts of the unbelievable meeting she had just attended. Her head was spinning.

  There would have been silence in the car if it had only been Gaiah and Alasdair, but Renny chatted exuberantly, pushing her head between the two front seats and waving her hands to illustrate everything she was saying.