THE GREAT.

CRACKER.

The Brunanburh Space Station had a crew of twelve, who were into the second month of a six-month tour. These six men and six women had been working overtime since the arrival of the alien craft. They had continued transmitting updated pictures, and details of the vessel's movements, even after they had lost all their audio feeds to mission control at Farwell.

When Cadwallon and Rhiannon arrived in the control room, there were only two crew members present, and both were so absorbed in their work they didn't see their visitors materialise. Cadwallon recognised one of the men as Commander Philip Merchant, who had headed Ray Murdock's tour in the Brunanburh. 'Merchant, you old space junkie. Don't you have a home?'

Both men dropped everything when they saw the outsiders. Nobody should be able to get in or out of the space station without them knowing about it. If some of their systems hadn't been down, they would have been forced to assume it was an act of God.

'Ray Murdock. Am I ever glad to see you.' The commander drifted over to shake Ray's hand. 'How the hell did you get here, son?'

'Classified,' Rhiannon announced.

The commander suddenly saw who Ray's companion was, and became more formal. 'Mrs Alexander! I am sorry. I barely recognised you.'

'No need to apologise, Commander,' Rhiannon assured him, launching herself through zero gravity in the direction of the control deck. Here she could view the monitor that displayed pictures of the huge vessel outside, as seen through the lenses of exterior cameras.

'My husband has instructed that we sit this one out with you. Will this inconvenience your routine in any way?'

'There's nothing routine about this tour lately. The more the merrier,' the Commander replied without reservation. 'I don't suppose you know what has happened to our audio-visual feeds? Are any of our pictures getting through?'

'They are reading you clear as a bell down there,'

Cadwallon advised, having seen the pictures himself.

'The problem must be at this end ... I'll take a look at it for you.'

Philip smiled, weary-eyed from no sleep. 'Christ it's good to see you, Ray.' He'd never known anyone with as much technological expertise as Ray Murdock, and during an event of this magnitude it was comforting to know that the man who had designed many of the space station's systems was along for the ride. 'Come on, I'll get us some coffee. And when I say coffee, I mean it in the broadest possible sense, you understand.'

'Fear not, I've suffered worse.' Cadwallon motioned him to lead the way.

Cadwaladr could almost hear all the phones ringing back at the ICA. The Agency had taken over the investigation into all the strange space phenomena that had been taking place in recent weeks. The vortex had proven harmless and a source of much astrological excitement. Not a trace of debris had been found from all the fiery lights that had plummeted to earth. There had been a few isolated reports of visitors from outer space and their vanishing craft, but these had been easily dismissed and the whole incident written off as a freak space anomaly.

These two huge alien craft were not going to be so easy to explain, however. Shamash had said he would be discreet about his arrival, but maybe the sight of the vortex had led him to assume this was no longer necessary. Or perhaps the God had entirely different reasons for making his presence known.

From the ground, the shape of the vessel could only be defined by the bright, billowing clouds encasing its bulk as it ploughed down through the atmosphere.

Cadwaladr's team had so far been unable to power up the control room of the complex they'd unearthed in the Middle East, yet suddenly, the whole structure was fully operational.

The pairs of towers that lined each side of the long runway lit up, shooting several bands of green laser light between them to form a series of nets.

The entire site must be activated by the approaching craft, Cadwaladr concluded on the quiet, gazing at the light show that stretched out before him for miles. But the multitude of warriors who formed neat lines on the landing pad diverted the diplomat's attention. Doc presumed them to be the stand-in army Maelgwn had promised. They were all wearing Unken attire and NERGUZ modules, though they were not the same fighters Doc had recently freed. Who are all these people?

I had no idea Maelgwn still had so much influence here on Earth.

'They are your kindred ... and just like you, they are Chosen.' Vanora enlightened him, obviously following his every thought.

'Damn it!' Cadwaladr turned to her. 'How am I too hide my intentions from Shamash if I can't even shield my thoughts from you?'

'Just concentrate on your original plan, and all shall be well.' Vanora told him. 'The four of us surrounding you will act as an additional psychic field. You have nothing to worry about.'

Temujin stared at the awe-inspiring spectacle taking place around him. How much the world had changed in his absence. He moved away from Cadwaladr, so that he did not seem to be a bodyguard. Back in the days when he had ruled most of the known world Cadwaladr had watched his back. Now Temujin felt it was his place to return the favour.

The cloud cover began to disperse from the narrow length of the vessel approaching the illuminated runway ploughing through the first rows of the glowing green web. Each laser barrier the vessel encountered slowed it down until it hovered to a graceful stop in front of the main complex where Cadwaladr and his army awaited.

Hidden in the midst of the hundreds of troops, Maelgwn's additional force assessed the situation.

'That is not a transport, it's an entire city,' Neraida uttered as she witnessed Shamash's legions being beamed forth from the belly of the obstruction. His warriors were a wild array of differing human breeds, and they appeared to be armed to the hilt.

Talynn was closely scrutinising the weaponry they carried. The troops were not armed with sonic pulse blasters like the ones she and her friends carried. These guns were unlike anything she'd ever seen. 'What do you think they are?' Hero whispered to her. 'Some sort of molecule converter?'

Talynn folded her arms, concerned. 'Whatever their function, they are illegal issue. Shamash couldn't have cleared the design with the Pantheon - or I would know about it.'

Since being plucked out of ancient Gaul by the Nefilim, Talynn had carved herself an illustrious career as an industrial spy for Marduk. There wasn't much in the way of technological research and development that she wasn't aware of.

'Get close to Cadwaladr,' Talynn advised the others in her party. 'Shamash is sure to move inside before getting down to business, and we must keep Vanora and the others covered.'

Ethan grabbed hold of Talynn's arm as she moved to sneak off. 'Where are you going?'

'To see if I can't get my hands on one of those weapons.'

'Lead the way then.' Ethan let her go.

She rolled her eyes, not wanting to argue or otherwise draw undue attention to them. 'No. I work better alone.'

'Really.' This was news to Ethan. 'I seem to recall we were a team once, a great team.'

'Not now, children.' Neraida urged them along. 'Just do it and meet us inside.'

Neraida kept low and headed off towards the complex, Hero and Thais hot on her heels.

Inanna had no desire to accompany the landing party her brother sent to deal with the abominations of this planet. She wasn't in the mood for retribution, possessed as she was by a deep melancholy. She wondered why she'd allowed Shamash to persuade her into returning to this godforsaken place, as she observed the planet through the large windows of her chamber. A paradise lost, she mused. The greatest and only happiness she'd ever known had been here. But Gaia had also been the stage on which her lover's undoing had unfolded. I searched for you, Dumuzi, and although I never found you, I avenged your unfair sentence ... I am still avenging it.

You have been seriously mislead, I fear, Dumuzi replied.

His words struck the fear of the Goddess into Inanna's heart. She turned, unable to believe it was her lover - even when she saw him with her own two eyes.

What trickery is this, Dragon. She spotted Maelgwn beside the illusion of her husband, and her vindictive mood was rekindled. Come to seek your revenge, have you?

At her words, Dumuzi's playful, lighthearted demeanour departed, for he saw how his wife had tormented his saviour. Maelgwn had done well to keep his torture a secret. Dumuzi turned and bowed to him to thank him for his discretion. You are an honourable man, Dragon. I feel my wife does not deserve the respect you award her.

Then the God turned his woeful face to Inanna.

She humbled herself as she realised this was no deception; her own spiteful thoughts had just condemned her in her lover's eyes.

I can hardly believe how wretched time has made you, Inanna. Marduk warned me of how easily you could be so inclined.

Inanna drew herself up into a righteous stance.

Marduk drove me to this madness. He was against our union from the very beginning - My brother may have arrested and punished me for my offence, Dumuzi spoke up. But it was not he who dismembered my body and set it in stone to rot for all eternity. It was Shamash.

The claim was earth-shattering for Inanna.

Shamash was her twin, her brother, her closest confidant. He could never have sustained such a lie all this time ... not with me!

'Both your parents are willing to testify to the contrary,' Maelgwn told her. 'I am sorry, Nin, but it is the truth.'

As the implications of this revelation rebounded through time in her memory, remorse flooded in and she had to be seated. Oh, dear Goddess, what have I done? A multitude of emotions matted themselves around and into her heart, expanding and exploding.

There is so much to amend. I do not know where to start.

'In the name of Marduk, I am at your disposal, Inanna,' Maelgwn advised. 'My lord understands that you have been as much a victim in this affair as he.'

Although Maelgwn spoke for his lord, Inanna knew that deep down these sentiments were more his own.

She looked at him unable to comprehend how after all she had put him through he could stand there before her willing to help her out of the hole she had dug for herself. You make it painfully clear, Maelgwn of Gwynedd, who the superior race really is.

'Superiority is an ego-based delusion,' Maelgwn advised her. 'Love, however, is a life-giving force. You were a Goddess of Love once, Inanna. You have just forgotten how.'

The Goddess was near to suffocating from suppressing her emotions. She could not speak, she was so moved.

I have not forgotten. Dumuzi neared and knelt before her, clutching Inanna's hands in his own. We have both been foolish, Inanna. ... always wanting what we could not have. But, during all that time without you, I realised that all I ever really wanted was to make you happy.

And I, you, she wept openly. But I have done dreadful things in your absence, shameful things that - Shh, Dumuzi urged her, placing a finger to her lips.

There is nothing that has been done, that cannot be undone.

Help us bring my rightful assassin to justice and clear my brother's good name. In so doing we shall save the Dragon's kin and then maybe, just maybe, we shall find it within ourselves to forgive each other and start over.

Yes. Inanna pledged herself to their cause. I'd like that very much. She leaned forward to kiss Dumuzi, but suddenly drew back. The Great Cracker, she gasped, turning to Maelgwn. Shamash has developed a new weapon that was specifically designed with the Chosen in mind. Yet it could just as easily destroy my kind as yours.

'What manner of weapon is it?' Maelgwn inquired.

It is a double-action, hand-held weapon. Equipped with heat-seeking pellets that will turn a living target to stone on impact. This molecular blast is followed by a pulse laser bullet that shatters one's petrified victim into innumerable pieces.

The Cracker ... I remember this, Dumuzi added.

Production of that weapon was banned by Enlil before the plans ever made it off the drawing board.

Well, each member of my brother's force is equipped with this weapon, Inanna continued. But an even greater threat is mounted inside the belly of the ship, for Shamash had a much larger prototype made. The Great Cracker he calls it, and it is very true to its name. I have seen its destructive force demonstrated on a planet not much smaller than this one ... complete annihilation was the result.

'Once the weapon has taken its ultimate toll, can the process be reversed?'

The molecular process, yes, but once phase two has been initiated, there is no reversing the outcome.

Maelgwn's mind went into overtime. He had people all over the place and he needed to warn them all.

Meanwhile, Inanna materialised several of the weapons that had been dubbed 'the Cracker'; half of these she handed to Dumuzi and the rest to Maelgwn.

Calm yourself, Dragon, Inanna said, her tone stressing the importance of the pending announcement. There is one more thing you must know.

Rhun's team had materialised inside the control room of the main facility at Farwell to find one of Shamash's task forces waiting in ambush and were forced to fall back to the outside of the complex. The majority of the locals they'd recruited were turned to stone, along with Season, Sybil and Floyd. A couple of the local Indian lads had managed to grab Rhun and Candace and transport them outside the site's perimeters before they got hit.

'Jesus Christ, what the hell happened?' Rhun demanded an answer from Candace, insane with worry for his lover and comrades.

'I don't know,' she snapped back at him, still recovering from the shock herself. 'It is a new weapon.

I've never seen it before.'

'Well, that's just great!'

Brian arrived on the scene to see Rhun toss his weapon on the ground in a fury. His eyes quickly darted around and, spying Candace close by, Brian breathed a sigh of relief. 'Thank god you're alright.' He moved to embrace her.

But Candace avoided his affection. She was still too disturbed by what had happened. 'Many of us are not.'

Her focus rested on Rhun, who was so caught up in remorse he hadn't even noticed Brian arrive. 'What have you learnt?'

It's alright everybody, you can relax, I'm here, Dumuzi announced, handing out the weapons in his possession.

Rhun came bounding over to grab one and inspected it. 'Where did you get these?'

Compliments of your father, he advised. Now, listen carefully.

Dumuzi demonstrated how to activate the weapon while explaining how and what it fired. Rhun and the others listened impatiently to the information Dumuzi had acquired from his wife. They were eager to get back inside the complex before Shamash's force decided to finish off their team mates, shut off the power to the grid, or start blowing up energy plants at random.

Are we clear? Dumuzi finished, and everyone nodded in accord. Then what do you say we secure this facility?

They all activated their weapons and vanished.

Maelgwn arrived at the landing strip in the Middle East to find the battle over. The entrance to the underground complex was sealed and the spaceship hovered silently in its dock, not a guard to be seen. The army Neraida had rallied had become one with the landscape, the figures of petrified rock were scattered all over the runway and beyond. Maelgwn wondered at Shamash's restraint, for none of the victims had been finished off. Perhaps the God planned to collect them all like trophies when he was done. Or he might have spared them to use as bargaining power, should it come to that. Whatever his reasons, Shamash obviously hadn't planned on his foe getting their hands on his new power tool.

'Dear Goddess!'

Maelgwn looked across to find Tory grief stricken staring at the scene before her.

'I am too late,' she uttered.

'Though it would seem so, that is fortunately not the case.'

Tory was startled when Maelgwn spoke. 'Oh, thank God.' She flung her arms about his neck. 'I thought one of these statues was you.'

'I'm fine,' he assured her with a kiss and a pat on the back. 'Here ...' Maelgwn placed a Cracker in her hands.

His eyes became fixed on something yonder. 'I do believe I recognise that hunk of rock.'

Ethan and Talynn had been frozen together in an embrace, like a beautiful piece of sculpture. Maelgwn set his weapon into reverse and the burst it fired evaporated the stone. The couple fell to the ground shivering with cold and shock.

It took Ethan and Talynn a little while to recover their sensibilities, and Maelgwn started wondering if he and Tory should perhaps proceed without them.