The Sun Gods Woman Part 1

THE SUN G.o.d'S WOMAN.

SAHARA KELLY.

Prologue.

The lights in the conference room dimmed and the polite babble of conversation diminished to an expectant hush. The dulcet tones of the moderator swirled around the guests.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present our keynote speaker this evening. From Pendrake Industries, here to tell us about his exciting new discoveries, may I ask you to join me in welcoming Dr.

Kyle Pendrake."

An enthusiastic round of applause greeted this comment, and in the back row of the room Annie Lynden caught her breath.

He was gorgeous.

He was one hot babe-magnet whose pictures hadn't done him justice.

And he was a dedicated scientist who had made magic. Literally.

There were some quiet moments while Dr. Pendrake's a.s.sistant carefully hooked up the small computer system next to the podium.

Annie's mouth watered as she used the time to study the notorious Dr. Pendrake.

Easily topping six feet, his hair was dark and longer than fas.h.i.+onable. Today he had tied it back neatly, but there were still fiery glints s.h.i.+ning through when he bent to straighten a cable.

His clothes were neat and well tailored, and reeked of expensively casual chic. His round-necked s.h.i.+rt was definitely a silk knit, and was topped by a jacket that probably had been custom made for his broad shoulders.

Tasteful khakis fell in perfect creases to his gleaming loafers.

Not a pocket protector in sight.

He stood and glanced around the audience, and Annie caught a flash of light from incredible green eyes.

Sheesh, he was s.e.x on a stick. She dropped immediately into a fantasy of licking her tongue up the sensitive flesh just inside his very naked hipbone. And back down. And over slightly.

A tap on the microphone brought her attention back to reality, although to judge by the parted lips and squirming bodies of the few other women present, she wasn't the only one picking up the major s.e.x vibes from this luscious set of walking hormones.

"Good evening."

His voice was as appealing as the rest of him. He should probably have a government warning stamped on his b.u.t.t. Just thinking about his b.u.t.t distracted Annie and she wrenched herself back to business-to take notes on the lecture for her editor.

It was a coup for her to be here, because this was very much an "invitation-only" affair. There were some pretty impressive looking suits in the front rows, and even a military uniform or two. Her editor had sworn that this project would probably end up cla.s.sified within months, and would have come himself, but his wife was due to produce a little editor any second, and he hated science anyway.

So here she was, Miss Junior Reporter, still months away from graduating with a degree in journalism, covering what promised to be the hot technological topic of the year-Kyle Pendrake's "Magic".

Developing a severe case of l.u.s.t for the noted scientist wasn't going to help her write the feature article she'd been promised, or the spot on the front page where her byline would appear. Her palms started to sweat as she worked the first sentences in her mind...

Dr. Kyle Pendrake may have discovered magic, but in the eyes of many of his audience, he managed to create a little of his own at last night's symposium... Yeah, that would make a nice intro ...oops, he was beginning his lecture.

Annie leaned forward, unwilling to miss a second of what this guy was selling. Whatever it was, she'd take some.

"Merlin." The word floated through the now-silent room like a wisp of fog. "A name synonymous with the forces of magic, the forces of nature, a command of the most fundamental elements of our existence."

The audience was hushed, all attention focused on the man at the podium. The lights struck his head and upper body, leaving much of the rest of him in shadow. A nice dramatic touch, thought Annie, and one that worked well when you looked as yummy as the good professor.

"Magic," he continued, meeting as many eyes in the audience as he could. This guy knew how to work a crowd.

"The premise that magic exists is not new. Scientists have played around with the idea for many years. At Pendrake Labs, however, we don't 'play'...we get serious!"

A quick smile moistened the panties of at least three women in the second row, judging by their reactions.

"The result of our research is here with me tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present to you...Merlin." A wave of his hand and a click of the remote control b.u.t.ton produced a spotlight focused on the small unit at his side. He pa.s.sed his hand over it and it began to glow.

Infrared sensors, thought Annie, busily jotting down her impressions, and refusing to be seduced by the show.

"Merlin is an acronym, standing for 'Magical Energies Resonator and Linear Integration Network" board. Actually," another smile crossed his handsome face, "...it's more correctly known as M.E.R.L.I.N. dash B."

The large screen behind Dr. Pendrake lit up with the Pendrake logo and a sleek graphic of the name Merlin.

"In our labs, it's the SR388 unit, and in our system here, it's...well, it's pretty special."

A shade of excitement had crept into his voice, and Annie paused in her note taking to watch him. She could just make out a pulse beating at the base of his neck as he turned to his unit, and a faint sheen of sweat was beginning to film his forehead.

A period of very technical information followed, which Annie wisely let slip by. Her readers wouldn't care about the operating system, whether it would work on the latest PC, or MAC, how many bazillion gigs of memory it needed, or whether Microsoft would be releasing a bug update within the promised time frame.

No, her readers wanted the whole picture...the images of what she was seeing, the end result of what this machine was rumored to do.

His scientific presentation winding down, Dr. Pendrake laid his notes back onto the podium.

"You are probably all a little bit curious about MERLIN." He smiled. "We were too, when we realized what we had developed. A plug-in board that can harness every bit of magic that is lurking near it. And there is magic everywhere, ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake."

He crossed to the front of the small dais and raised the lighting in the room with another click of his remote control. He could now see his audience more clearly, and the feeling of intimacy was heightened as he swept his gaze over the forty or fifty faces that intently watched him.

Annie felt his glance like a bolt through her body. His eyes hesitated a moment as they pa.s.sed over her, and she felt the pull of his attraction right down to her thong! Sheesh, what she wouldn't give for a night with this guy. No holds barred.

"There is magic in the materials we use to create our buildings, and magic in the earth they stand upon. There is magic in the plants that grow, the wind that blows, and the air we need to sustain our very lives. "

I'll just bet there's some pure magic in your shorts, too, buddy, thought Annie.

His gaze flickered back to her, and for a second Annie was aghast at the idea he might have heard her. She blushed fiercely.

"This magical energy is collected by our friend MERLIN, and converted into digital impulses. The result? "

After a suitably dramatic pause, the monitor behind Dr. Pendrake lit up with some kind of movie. There were carriages moving up and down a busy street, and people bustling about their business. But unlike old films, this one was in glowing color and the movements of the crowds were natural.

"A viewer, if you will. A glimpse through the veils of time. An opportunity to see the past!"

There was complete and utter silence as mouths fell open and eyes widened. Unable to believe what she was seeing, Annie was as startled as everyone else.

"Yes, you are really looking at the past. We estimate this to be New York in about 1890 or so, judging from the clothing styles. I'll leave those details to the historians amongst you-our goal is to continue to provide opportunities to peek at our past, and to learn its secrets. MERLIN is truly a magician in that respect."

A murmur rose in the room as people started to question, wonder, puzzle, and in general react in a variety of ways to the outrageous claims made by Dr. Kyle Pendrake.

"I understand your shock. Believe me, the day we first discovered these amazing results, we were pretty much in shock too. But let me a.s.sure you that this is quite genuine. These images are being generated now, here, in this room, by the Merlin system. They are not recorded, digitized, enhanced or in any other way altered. You are seeing a moment in our history-as it happened."

The murmur rose to a hubbub as the scientists in the audience started firing questions at Pendrake, the historians struggled to get their hands on pencil and paper to note what they were seeing, the military whispered to each other, and a couple of women tried to get closer to the Professor.

Annie watched it all with skeptical eyes. Could it be possible? There had been a lot of ongoing research into the nature of magic and its presence, so that had a ring of truth to it. But capturing it? Turning a computer system into a wizard? And then casting a spell to create a window on the past?

This was all sounding way too much like a bad science fiction novel. If it hadn't been for the man on the dais who was expertly fielding questions, and the images playing on the huge monitor behind him, she might well have dismissed his claims as just another hokey experiment that was designed to rip people off.

But she could see the carriages rolling along the broad street, kicking up dust from the horses' hooves. As she watched, one horse deposited a large pile of steaming droppings and a woman crossing the street behind the carriage had to do some very fancy footwork to avoid it. Now that was realism.

The conversations around her continued, and many people had now moved closer to the unit and the dais.

Dr. Pendrake stepped back to allow them a chance to get a good look at his system. He moved away from the crowd and stood alone for a few moments. His eyes scanned the room and found Annie.

Once again, she felt something startling in his gaze. She knew he'd looked for her this time, and was not fooled into thinking it was because he'd developed a sudden case of l.u.s.t for her body.

She was pretty much used to this reaction.

Her white-blonde hair separated her from her peers on a regular basis, and her unusual violet eyes finished the job. Why she had been born with the genetic flaw that resulted in albinism, she had no idea, and neither had her parents. In fact, it had been several years after her birth that her pediatrician had actually realized that Annie was an albino. She had the less severe form, and her eye color was proof of that. But her hair remained obstinately platinum, her eyebrows were practically non-existent unless she used her makeup properly, and she burned to a crisp at the beach.

Her gla.s.ses took care of her minor vision problems, and it really had been no hards.h.i.+p after she'd learned how to deal with it.

But it still attracted attention.

Just like the attention she was now getting from Dr. Hotbody.

She raised her chin slightly and held his gaze, refusing to look embarra.s.sed that she hadn't joined the gus.h.i.+ng throng of salivating techno-groupies. If he wanted her attention, he was going to have to come and get it.

Always a.s.suming that she didn't drop to her knees and offer him whatever s.e.xual favor he wanted. It would not further her image as a cool, calm, representative of the Fourth Estate. Drooling and humping his leg was probably out, too. She sighed as he turned away, summoned by a two-star general.

It had been a nice fantasy.

Returning to their seats, the crowd settled and waited for Dr. Pendrake to conclude his presentation.

"Well, you've had a chance to take a look at Merlin and what he can do. As I mentioned to some of you, we have only looked to the nineteenth century thus far, but tonight, in honor of your presence..." he bowed politely to his audience, "...we are going to set our parameters a bit farther back. Tonight we will attempt to sneak a glimpse into the age of Shakespeare, Sir Francis Drake, and the magnificent Virgin Queen herself, Elizabeth the First."

Incredulous gasps met this announcement, and an excited buzz of conversation covered Dr. Pendrake as he adjusted settings, typed in commands, and tapped nervous fingers on the data-crystal case in front of him.

He stood, and another tense silence fell.

The monitor grew blurry and the images of Victorian New York pixilated into darkness. The room lights dipped, and for a moment nothing but the glow of the LCD screen illuminated the faces staring at it.

Then all h.e.l.l broke loose. A picture appeared. It was of the ocean, and sailing upon that ocean, two enormous galleons. The picture panned around to the wharves along the oceanfront. There were sailors meandering to and fro, barrels, crates, casks and ropes piled everywhere, and women walking-in enormous gowns.

Cheers and applause and cries of surprise and wonder erupted through the conference room.

He'd done it.

Grinning from ear to ear, Kyle Pendrake also stared at the screen.

The crowd stood in unison, and Annie joined them. She was applauding as loudly as anyone and adding a couple of whistles to the cacophony. The excitement was infectious and the enthusiasm enormous.

Annie stood on a chair to watch Pendrake's reaction, and as she did, she noticed the Merlin unit next to him. It was vibrating slightly, its glow changing from a soft blue to more of an electric green. The greater the applause, the greater the change.

The size of its aura was getting larger too. Annie frowned and stopped clapping as she wondered if she should bring it to anyone's attention.

But the crowd, as the saying goes, went wild. Cheers brought out more cheers, and shouts of "Bravo" and "Magnificent" were tossed around with the applause.

The green glow was intensifying, now s.h.i.+ning onto Pendrake's expensive khakis. There was a golden center to it, surrounding the unit, and it was pulsating. Annie realized that it was pulsating in time with the

roar of the crowd.

They were the ones producing the energies that were feeding Merlin. It was eating their emotions, and liking them from the looks of it.

Little sparkles started flas.h.i.+ng through the glow and suddenly Kyle Pendrake looked over at his creation.

He froze for a second, then moved casually toward it.

G.o.d, was it going to explode?

Annie held her breath as the others continued their approbation, probably not realizing that this wasn't part of the show. The images had faded on the monitor, and the biggest source of light was now Merlin itself.

A woman, who hadn't taken her eyes off Pendrake all night, let out a loud yipping cheer, and Merlin lapped it up.

A giant fireball of light swelled around the unit, enveloping Kyle as he reached to disconnect the power.

There was a sudden hiss, followed by a screech of deafening proportions.

And Kyle Pendrake was gone.