A momentary lapse of reason - Ch10 completed (20/07)

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Mercenary
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A momentary lapse of reason - Ch10 completed (20/07)

Post by Mercenary » Tue, 18. Jul 06, 10:42

Chapter 1 - The Lapse
Chapter 2 - A Past Life
Chapter 3- Old Friend
Chapter 4 - Pirate Spy
Chapter 5 - Dream Factory
Chapter 6 - Pirate Colours
Chapter 7 - The Ruse
Chapter 8 - The Other Face
Chapter 9 - Reflection

Completed below the +++++++++

Chapter 10 – Cracks

“It was a neat trick to disappear on us like that,” Caran said.

“I wanted, needed to escape that life,” Lumar said and felt as though he was beginning to sound stuck for things to say and forced to repeat himself all the time.

“But here you are right back in the thick of it. Didn’t they ever tell you that there’s no point in painting over cracks.”

“If you want to annoy me, now is not the best time.”

“Is that the Goner speaking or the killer?” Caran stepped towards Lumar and spoke quietly, “Have you heard yourself recently? You spent time in reflection, only the person standing before me isn’t the Goner I heard you were trying to be, what I’m seeing and listening to is the tough guy and the paint’s flaking off all the time.”

“And which do you need right now?”

Caran stepped away and gave a wry smile but there was no mirth in it, he said, “To tell the truth, the Goner. There’s a lot of stuff happening right now that we’ve been trying to gather intelligence on, but it’s been like walking on egg shells. Then all of a sudden you showed up right in the middle of a delicate operation and killed the man in the know, destroying everything.”

“But you haven’t lost everything otherwise you wouldn’t be here,” Lumar responded but still contemplating the analogy of paint on a wall and deep down he knew Caran was right, he had had many similar private discussions with Noah. Hiding away and ignoring the defects that he saw in himself would not make them vanish.

“No, not everything and there are ways that we might be able to help each other,” Caran said, “But I have to be certain you’re not going to kill everyone you meet.”

“The best way to fix the cracks in a wall is to take it down and build it again,” Lumar muttered.

Caran looked slightly confused for a moment and responded, “No the best way to fix a wall is make sure the foundations are sound and then re-build it.”

Lumar gave this some consideration and nodded slowly while ideas slotted into place. Somehow the reality of why he was reverting back to his old self was never more apparent to him than now. It was not the words themselves, he had heard them many times over, but the significance of his current situation that finally brought them home. He could not change the past but he needed to find a way to let it go.

“All this discussion shouldn’t be held here,” Lumar said in an off hand way and came to a decision with what he had to do, “I have a few apologies to make .. and then I’ll join you on your ship.”

The Argon agent gave a brief look of surprise at the sudden change and nodded, “Do what you have to and we’ll meet you on-board the Holy Ministry.”

Lumar flashed a quick smile and addressed Korecmancketras, “Did you name the ship?” The Paranid grinned and Lumar added, “It’s a terrible name.”

Folding his arms and with hands tucked into opposite sleeves, Lumar turned and walked the gentle measured pace of the Gonar back towards the inner temple.

He found Tinn talking with several other members of the temple and approached. The group noticed him and stopped talking. Lumar paused for a moment and then said aloud, “Brother Tinn, I owe you an apology. My manner earlier was not appropriate for a member of the Temple and for that I am sorry.”

Tinn smiled, “I understand you are under considerable duress at this moment. It was wrong of me to encroach upon you while you were clearly still suffering.”

“It is not wrong to be curious, Brother Tinn or to offer support and kind words in times of trouble. My shortness with you was uncalled for, and I should have said that I have an unfortunate way of dealing with problems,” Lumar was choosing his words carefully, “It is not a way that leads to the True Light.”

“Your apology is accepted Brother Lumar, and perhaps when you are ready to discuss this way of yours we can see if there is some means by which we can change it for the benefit of all,” Tinn said and smiled, he held out his hand.

“We will, but first I have other people to see and things to do.” Lumar responded, shook hands and added, “Until our next meeting, and remember that in a world of darkness not all light is divine.”

Tinn gave a slight nod and replied, “May your feet be guided to the True Light.”

Lumar was aware that, with a number of other priests observing, Noah was standing by the arched doorway. Meeting him there he could hear the soft low voices starting to talk behind him.

“Which path do you tread now Brother Lumar?” They moved into the corridor and began the slow walk to the infirmary.

“In many respects I feel as though I have not so much strayed as fallen. I owe you more than a simple apology.”

“You seek to make amends or look for forgiveness?”

“Forgiveness is only warranted if the moment was a singular event made by poor judgment and in similar circumstances wouldn’t be repeated,” Lumar said.

“Do you not think that it is what resides in the heart of both the giver and the receiver that makes forgiveness meaningful?” Noah responded in a quiet voice.

Lumar thought for a while, “You have shown me nothing but patience and courtesy during my time here and yet within a moment it was forgotten. I see now that, as has been so clearly stated by another, all I’ve been doing is painting over the cracks and the surface is rapidly falling away.”

“My son, you chose to walk a new path and never did I believe it would be easy for you. It was probably blind hope that led me to believe you would not fall at least once, and as I listen to you now I feel you have a genuine sense of regret. Your summary about forgiveness was your old self talking and that you don’t feel you possess the inner strength to evict the monster.”

“If you ask me never to return, then I will understand,” Lumar replied.

“Well it isn’t everyday one of the Brethren threatens to kill me and the thought did cross my mind, but from what I see and hear there is still hope for you. This whole unfortunate incident has, for good and for bad, opened your eyes. It would be a gross mistake not to pick you up after a fall, and somewhere inside you I believe you have the strength you need to become a whole and complete.”

They talked until they reached the medical centre where Gwendal sat with the other sisters. Lumar took a few steps away from Noah and said, “Sisters, I owe you all an apology and particularly to you Sister Gwendal for my comments earlier.”

The young girl drifted across to him and held out her hand. He crouched down and gently grasped it.

“Your hand feels warmer than it did, but you look sad. It must be all that anger locked in your heart. You should try to get rid of it as it makes you cold,” she stated plainly for all to hear.

Lumar felt a little stunned by the comment and the girl smiled. He said, “That’s very perceptive of you little sister. I will go now and search for a way.”

“Then I accept your apology,” She let go of his hand, turned abruptly and rejoined the others leaving Lumar still crouched down. When he stood up he looked through the window of Candy’s room and felt lost. Whether it was the sudden change in his expression or something else, Lumar could not tell except that he felt a hand take his arm and he found himself walking casually beside Noah once again.

They said nothing until Lumar began to board the shuttle when Noah commented with a smile, “Take care Brother Lumar, consider all that has happened and when you have found the path back to the True Light then return to us, and you will be welcomed with open arms. But just remember this, killing people is frowned upon in civilized places and most people go to prison for it.”

The shuttle trip was all too brief and Lumar found himself wandering along the corridors of the Colossus. He knew exactly where he was going but was just taking his time to get there while all around him the ships crew carried on industriously. Eventually he reached the door of the meeting room which was more casually laid than he expected with luxurious armchairs around a long low table.

Caran Belign was the only person present and appeared pre-occupied with his datapad only Lumar knew the agent was fully aware of his presence as he could not have failed to notice the door open. Lumar chose a seat and with hands tucked in sleeves sat down and cast his eyes around the rest of the décor of the room. The walls were adorned with pictures of famous paintings that changed every few mizuras indicating they were simply conference screens for a much broader audience than the two of them.

Caran tapped a few buttons on the screen and then sat back saying, “So, have you decided on which identity you want to keep?”

“Yes, I have.”

The argon agent nodded and appeared to not want to know which, he said, “You do realize that laws apply to you as much as anyone else, and although we tend to ignore incidents in uncontrolled and lawless sectors, threatening Goner priests will not be tolerated wherever it happens.”

“I know.”

“Then you appreciate that right now I should be arresting you for your recent behaviour.”

“And you are free to do so. I have made my apologies and for the most part it has been accepted but that does not absolve the crime,” Lumar responded.

Caran watched him for a while and then took a deep breath, before he said, “It’s fortunate for you then that Noah has indicated that he will not press charges at this time. However I have left the option open should he have any reason to change his mind.”

Lumar decided a shrug was in order and did so, he replied, “Then I will have to ensure that he has no reason to lose faith in me.”

Caran smiled and gave a nod before saying, “A good decision and I hope you manage to live up to it. Not that I expect it to be easy, the particular problem at hand could easily make you want to be Creed, only if you did everything would be ruined.”

“Then why are you choosing me?”

“You have an inherent survival ability and a sense for real danger long before it gets close. Out of all the agents I have in the field you’re the only person I know who looks Argon but can put a Paranid or Split flat on the deck without the use of a stun weapon.”

“Are you expecting me to have to fight?”

“There is the chance you might, but if it comes to that then it is a situation you will have brought upon yourself, and the mission will in all probability have failed. My usual advice to agents is if the situation shifts unexpectedly, like sudden unexpected meetings, where you’re the first guest to arrive and the room appears to be lined in plastic for redecorating, or simply a last sezura change of venue to a shuttle craft, then don’t go, assume you’ve been found out, and get on the next official transport ship off station. We have a system that allows operatives to back out of situations where there is an element of uncertainty while keeping the mission alive.”

“Do I go on the training?”

“There’s no time.”

“Maybe you should use one of your proper agents.”

“I would, but they’ve been compromised. Creed was known to do the occasional dirty job for the agency and, although it’s not official yet, someone on the inside thought they’d see if you were there on business. They found the file to an operation that was outside of the general internal viewing and leaked information to people they shouldn’t.”

“This doesn’t make sense,” Lumar was having difficulty in rationalizing the time frames surrounding the sequence of events, and said, “You wanted to talk to me when I first brought the girl on board. Which means you already knew about the leak in the short time I was on the station, that in turn says to me that someone had notified the spy in your organization that I was around. This spy managed to plough through your systems to discover the relevant document and then transmit the data. Now I know you have a reputation for efficiency but you must have known about the leaked data within sezuras of it happening and that I find quite impressive. After then you would have had to make contact with Korec and Noah, then taken a fast ship across the Argon Prime sector, and I’ll assume Korec made the jump to meet to meet you, after which you would then have to jump to Cloudbase South West to collect Noah before finally jumping to meet me coming out of the Nebula. I’d suggest those last few events could happen in a relatively short time but ..” Lumar looked perplexed.

“Apparently you were loitering in the nebula for quite some time. As for Noah, he happened to be in a meeting with Ban Danna and an assortment of ambassadors including two from Earth in Argon Prime. I gather they weren’t making much headway and had broken up for the tazura’s session. News of your presence near the pirate station had already reached me and I was in conversation with Noah when things went wrong. So in essence you gave everyone the time they needed and we only had to make one jump.”

Lumar considered this and gave a wry smile. He wondered if people would be so responsive if things appeared to get out of hand a second time. Yet he felt still had reservations how any of this could in any way help him, “If all this is as you say then I don’t know if I’m of any use to you. The pirates have discovered the mission and it’s already compromised, they also know I’m around.”

“But you were never involved in the mission your name’s not listed. For them it just happened to be a fortunate coincidence.”

Through all the chat Lumar realized he was missing an important piece of information, “Wait a minute, what exactly were your guys working on?”
Last edited by Mercenary on Fri, 21. Jul 06, 11:12, edited 4 times in total.

KiwiNZ
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Post by KiwiNZ » Tue, 18. Jul 06, 13:09

Nice reasoning there. Looks like Caran had managed to achieve what had been almost been given up on: have Lumar win over Creed. This time at least. But the way the argument went I'd say Lumar will keep the upper hand no matter what is going to happen. But it won't be easy. I am impressed by the consistency of the Caran character throughout the stories, always been reasoning and still does, obviously with his powerful appearance backing his points. :)

Looking forward to the next part! :thumb_up:


"I will join you on ship" - missing a word?

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Mastermue
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Post by Mastermue » Tue, 18. Jul 06, 19:48

Just caught up with the last couple of chapters.....Brilliant Merc. :D
Really enjoying the story!

Mercenary
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Post by Mercenary » Wed, 19. Jul 06, 11:30

Cheers,

Not quite got around to doing edits yet, but part 2 added below ====

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Post by KiwiNZ » Wed, 19. Jul 06, 13:16

Great read! Really nie closure of the events at the temple. Great to see he has changed for the better.

Looking forward to the next bit! :thumb_up:


"ready discuss" - to discuss?
"he could here" - hear?

Mercenary
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Post by Mercenary » Thu, 20. Jul 06, 14:14

chapter completed below the +++++


(still haven't fixed the typo's .. but will do next edit .. :oops: )

KiwiNZ
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Post by KiwiNZ » Thu, 20. Jul 06, 14:33

Excellent finish! It almost sounds funny threatening Lumar/Creed with the law :D

The failure of the mission does indeed sound very sketchy. And the cliffhanger is promising!

Looking forward to the next chapter! :thumb_up:



"taking him time" - his?
"wherever they happen" - I believe you are referring to a single event -> 'it happens'?

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Post by Mercenary » Fri, 21. Jul 06, 11:16

Cheers Kiwi,

a few edits and alterations made as well as correcting a few typo's.


Back to the UK for a week, so no new chapters until I get back here.. :(

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Post by KiwiNZ » Fri, 21. Jul 06, 13:47

Bu**er! Does that mean you will actually need to work again when you get to the UK? :P

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Post by Mercenary » Fri, 21. Jul 06, 14:25

Nope :D .. quite the opposite 8)

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Post by KiwiNZ » Fri, 21. Jul 06, 15:06

And how does that satisfy the requirements of an excuse? Not at all! :twisted: :P

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Post by Charon_A » Thu, 27. Jul 06, 12:24

Folding his arms and with hands tucked into opposite sleeves, Lumar turned and walked the gentle measured pace of the Gonar back towards the inner temple
décor

Looking forward to next part, more action :twisted:

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