The Cosmic Logos by Traci Harding Read Free Book Online

are of the Chosen breed, so they must have used a vessel to execute the hijacking.’
    Candace shook her head. ‘According to Zabeel, the Aten simply vanished, with no warning and no witnesses.’
    â€˜Do you have a plan of action?’ Tory asked, heading off another interrogation from her husband. Realising he was being overzealous, Maelgwn contained himself.
    â€˜As we all know, the Aten has an excellent cloaking system. However, as a safety precaution, Zabeel recently had a tracking system designed to track the elestial crystal emissions that radiate from the Aten’s unique drive system. Naturally, this system can only track the Aten across space. If the thieves have taken flight into time, the system cannot track them. We are hoping the hijackers are not aware of the full potential of the vesselthey have stolen, and that their timing for the theft was just an unhappy coincidence.’
    Rhun felt sympathy for his Delphinus half-brother. ‘Well, surely we can assume that if the tracking system can’t pin down the Aten, then the hijackers have fled into time?’
    Everyone around the table nodded to agree with the Vice-Governor’s summation, except Floyd; Candace looked to him to explain the hitch.
    â€˜That’s the theory. The problem is that the tracking system has yet to be completed.’ Floyd outlined the problem.
    â€˜That’s what I meant when I said we’re hoping this theft was just a fluke, as the timing was uncanny,’ Candace added.
    â€˜So how long until the tracking system is up and running?’ Maelgwn voiced the pertinent question.
    â€˜Naturally Zabeel has given it top priority, and I shall leave for Lura to see if I can’t speed things along as soon as this meeting is adjourned … we hope to have the system operational asap,’ Floyd assured his old friend.
    â€˜In the interim, we were counting on,’ Candace’s eyes turned to Noah, ‘the Tablet of Destinies … might it be of some aid in locating the Aten’s whereabouts?’
    Noah looked a little doubtful. ‘I shall certainly consult the Tablet on this matter,’ he offered. ‘I can put forward the Aten as my current concern, and see what we come up with, but as Tory will tell you, understanding the Tablet’s predictions is not always immediate.’
    â€˜This is probably a stupid question …’ but Avery hadto ask it anyway. ‘Have any of the fourteen guardians of the Logos tried willing themselves after Cordella?’
    It was too risky for any bar the fourteen of the Logoi, and the Night Hunter’s apprentice, to attempt pursuit, for only they had been granted the ability to teleport themselves safely between star systems.
    â€˜I tried to locate her psychokinetically but was unable to,’ Candace informed them regretfully. ‘We suspect a NERGUZ module is being used to conceal her.’
    â€˜I thought we’d disposed of all those wretched things,’ Tory scowled.
    â€˜So many modules had been black-marketed by the end of the Pantheon’s rule that it has proved impossible to get them all out of circulation.’ Candace defended her government’s efforts. ‘I was surprised by just how many of the devices we did manage to recoup … it seems that just about everybody had visions of bringing the Pantheon down.’
    â€˜And now someone wishes to bring us down,’ Maelgwn stated warily.
    â€˜We don’t know that,’ Candace argued. ‘They may not have known Cordella was on board, or the capabilities of the vessel they were stealing.’
    â€˜And they just happened to have a NERGUZ handy?’ Maelgwn posed. ‘I don’t buy that.’
    â€˜Our terrorists may have skipped through time already.’ Rhun voiced another possibility. ‘Not even the fourteen of the Logoi have the ability to fold time without Otherworldly aid or technology.’
    â€˜I do,’ Avery