by James Somers
He could hear screams coming from different places where wounded but living men were being attacked by ravenous beasts, and he thought them fitting for the enemies of his people, the destroyers of his race.
When he finally reached the remains of the Saberhawk, it was still on fire in a few small places and smoldering across most of the main body section. He found Dorian’s body, but there was no sign of Tiet. Something must have happened. He would not have left her body exposed to the elements and wild beasts.
A closer look at the area revealed another surprise. There were two more androids among the wreckage that apparently had been destroyed by Tiet. He went to one that lay on the ground with Tiet’s blade still imbedded into its skull up to the hilt.
He withdrew the sword, allowing the robot’s head to fall to the ground and placed it into the sheath next to his own sword. Looking back to the ground around Dorian’s body, Orin could see what appeared to be several sets of Horva tracks. There were no dead Horva lying in the near vicinity.
Tiet would not have been consciously engaged by these brutes without having killed at least a few. He must have been unconscious. He spotted Millo several yards away among the cockpit wreckage. They had taken Tiet for a reason, but why would they want him alive?
First things first. He buried both Dorian and Millo in a clear area among the wreckage of the Saberhawk. Then he kinetically pushed a large piece of fuselage over their graves to protect the site from predators.
He followed the tracks left by the Horva army’s departure. He didn’t know where they were headed, but he would die before he gave up on the son of his old friend. Tiet had become like his own child after all these years, and nothing was going to stop him from either retrieving the boy alive, or avenging his death.
WHEN Tiet regained consciousness, he was suspended inside a semicircular mechanism with a form-fitting black suit covering all but his head, hands and feet. What appeared to be metallic buttons covered the surface of the garment and more were attached to his feet, hands and around his head.
The room he was being kept in was fairly dark except for a light around him and the soft glow of machines beyond. He could see some movement in the darker area, but the bright light that was focused on him kept his pupils constricted, not allowing him to see much.
He tried to exert his mind upon the mechanism that held him suspended in an energy field. He heard a spike in the monitor and a shock suddenly emanated from the suspension mechanism that nearly drove him to unconsciousness again. Apparently his brainwaves were being monitored.
He thought he might try again and began to feel for the people in the room. Perhaps he could seize someone controlling the unit, but the unseen monitor alarmed again and the field shocked him once more. Man that hurts!
He tried to contain the urge to cry out in pain. He was exhausted from the punishing energy. He knew another attempt would knock him out and he at least wanted to be conscious. Had the Horva captured him? He wasn’t sure. He could only remember Dorian amid the wreckage of the Saberhawk taking her last breath, and then pain and nothingness.
It wasn’t like the Horva to have such technology, but he remembered that the Horva he had faced on the battlefield had been much different than those back home on his own planet. And what had happened to Orin? He had not seen him since before the Saberhawk crashed into the valley floor. “Who are you?!” he shouted.
There was no reply from the darkness. “Where am I?! Come out and face me, you cowards!”
Behind a Plexiglas barrier a scientist tapped his communicator panel. “General? He’s awake.”
“Are you ready to collect your data?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Excellent. Move him to the dome.”
THERE had not been much to salvage from the wreckage of the Saberhawk. Orin had been able to obtain one blaster pistol, two working kemsticks and he had scavenged an extra scabbard for Tiet’s father’s blade. He had also found a locker containing several Barudii cloaks.
The cloaks were made of a synthetic material that was capable of scrambling electronic signals that came into contact with it. This had the effect of rendering the wearer invisible to scanning and sensor devices of many kinds, and was an asset when stealth was necessary.
Orin wore one cloak and carried another for Tiet stuffed inside his belt. If he was still alive, then they would need it to escape from his captors with as little fight as possible.
These intelligent Horva were much more skilled fighters than the brutish kind back home. He and Tiet would be greatly outnumbered even with their kinetic abilities. A subtle approach would be necessary in this case, if Orin was to successfully retrieve his protégé and get him home. Getting home was another problem that weighed on his mind, but only one problem could be dealt with at a time.
The trail of the Horva army had led him many miles north. It had been dark for several hours now, and Orin could see lights in the distance. The tracks of the Horva army appeared to funnel into a huge guarded compound in the distance.
The facility was massive and towered some five hundred feet above the ground. As Orin drew nearer he could see that a forcefield barrier surrounded the compound approximately three hundred feet outside the main building’s perimeter. There were intermediate, one hundred foot tall pylons placed every one hundred feet in the field, that acted as connecting points. They were of an alloy Orin was not familiar with, but they looked very tough.
The forcefield looked like it could easily repel a ground force, and the large pulse cannons stationed on the ground and the building itself would be capable of repelling a large number of aerial aggressors as well.
Fortunately, he had no intention of carrying out a full on assault. He would be like a virus; a silent but deadly invader that no one ever sees coming. He approached the barrier with caution. The darkness shielded him from natural eyes while the Barudii cloak kept him invisible to the technology.
Atop of each pylon was a guard station with a Horva manning it. Orin felt for the guard with his mind. He could sense the man’s body up in the tower as though his own eyes were fixed upon him; as though his hands touched the flesh. He increased pressure upon the vessels leading to the man’s brain slowly and steadily until the man collapsed unconscious. Then Orin catapulted his own body over the height of the pylon and soft landed on the other side.
The Horva guard would wake up in a few minutes and would likely not realize that anything had happened save a fainting spell that the soldier would not want to report to his superiors.
Orin moved across the span of the courtyard toward an area of the structure that was shadowed. Searchlights moved across different areas, and he was careful not to be caught in them or to allow his shadow to be cast by any ambient lighting. He reached a wall and noticed that it was made of a synthetic stone material of some sort. It was completely smooth and would be difficult for an enemy to find hand or foot-holds. Luckily, he wasn’t planning on scaling it.
Orin sought out with his mind, looking for any guards that might be on the roof of the complex. He found none. He leapt upwards and came to perch on the edge of the roof. He still could not see any visible guards, nor did he sense any. The roof of the complex was a maze of ventilation system outlets as well as large computer-controlled laser turrets. He began to walk across the roof cautiously; it appeared that the cloak was working well since none of the guns turned to fire upon him.
The ventilation system would be the easiest way for him to gain access to most points in the building without coming into direct contact with the enemy. There were probably scanning devices throughout, but he had to trust that the cloak would allow him to move undetected.
As he approached one of the large vent housings, he could hear the deep roar of the system working to supply fresh air to those within. He pulled out a spicor disc to get through the heavy gauge wire covering the vent, and then decided against igniting an energy weapon in the presence of the sensor-controlled guns.
With
his mind he focused on the center of the criss-crossing mesh work, then expanded the space so that the fibers were pushed outward just enough for him to crawl through. Once inside, he mentally controlled his descent and moved into a horizontal tunnel off of the pipe.
He slid along as quietly as possible knowing that any noise would be amplified by the nature of the tunnel. In turn, he could also hear many voices and various machine movements coming from all directions within the system, as it collected the activities of the complex and amplified them all.
Not knowing where Tiet was being held, Orin knew that he might have a long meticulous search ahead of him. He hoped that he might be able to sense him if he got close enough. His kinetic signature would hopefully be easy to distinguish among the Horva. And, if Tiet were able, he would already be trying to escape.
GENERAL Grod passed through the automatic doorway and into the control chamber. Within were various control terminals and stations for monitoring what happened in the chamber beyond. On the far side of the room was a large row of viewing windows that looked into the huge dome. Grod sat in his command chair and waited for final preparations to be finished.
“General, we have him in position.”
“Is he awake yet?”
“The suspension field is active; subject is conscious. Our warriors are in place. Battle droids are in place and activated. The teragore is in place in the outer dome. All successive inner domes are secured.”
Grod had a great interest in what was about to happen. He wanted to know the abilities as well as limitations of this Barudii warrior. The warrior’s abilities had once been an integral part of his plan for conquest of the Vorn race and this planet. Other opportunities to utilize those abilities had been lost, but now he had another chance, and he needed to see what his prize could do.
“Release the Barudii.”
TIET had not realized he was unconscious until he awoke again. His environment was different now. No longer was he inside the laboratory setting he was in before. He and the mechanism that still held him suspended inside its energy field were centered within a large dome.
The walls were mirrored like glass but the finish was peculiar; like a two way mirror. Someone was obviously watching from beyond. Near the walls were more of the Horva he had seen in the battle at Mt. Vaseer. There were twenty of them surrounding the mechanism that held him suspended within.
Each Horva soldier was wearing an armored garment and carrying various kinds of weapons, including several with pulse laser weapons. Others were armed with hand-to-hand weapons and Tiet wondered why that would be.
Suddenly the suspension field was gone and he fell about three feet to the ground. He was free from the field—but he had no weapons, and here were these Horva waiting for him. As soon as the field released him, the Horva attacked.
Tiet’s feet had no sooner touched the ground before he rebounded to the air and bounced off of the top of one of the mechanism’s curved sides toward the Horva. Several shots rang out from pulse rifles as Tiet sent his bare foot into the face of one of the men who tried to bring a bow staff up to defend himself. The powerful kick snapped the Horva’s neck, dropping him to the ground. Tiet snatched the weapon from his hand as he fell and launched himself back into the air.
The dark-skinned warriors were trying to track his movements to attack him, but were becoming a jumble as Tiet moved nimbly through them. He came down among several bunched together and was fired upon by a Horva man with a pulse rifle. He dodged the shots with lightening speed as several unsuspecting Horva on the other side of him caught the blasts. He parried and smashed the laser weapon along with the man’s hands with the spiked end of the bow. The other end quickly followed into his head, dropping him to the ground.
Tiet whirled around to block strikes from two more Horva and spun downward under their weapons to sweep their legs out from under them. They fell backward hard. Tiet struck one in the head, but was forced to evade more shots before he could finish off the other. The grounded clone tried to roll out of striking distance as Tiet pulled a large knife from a sheath on the Horva’s leg and hurled it back at the other clone with the pulse rifle. As the knife found purchase, Tiet caught the Horva’s rifle with his mind and leapt into the air. The pulse weapon met him there.
He landed laying down a line of steady fire on the remainder of the fighters inside the dome. There was nowhere for them to run as he mowed them down. Then he stopped firing and remained in a guarded stance to see what would happen next.
“Very good,” said Grod to the technicians around him, “lower the second dome.”
The dome around him suddenly split across the top and two equal halves separated and rolled back into the floor. Beyond was another identical domed room, only larger in size.
Within the dome were six battle robots that stood twice the size of a man. They were armored and were armed with large cylindrical fast repeating laser cannons. A shot rang out from somewhere on the dome that blasted the gun away from his hand.
They might have killed him, but that didn’t appear to be their plan. Evidently he was meant to fight for their sport; and unfortunately with no way of escape apparent to him right now, he had little choice but to comply.
Tiet retrieved the spiked bow. He raised it into the air with his right hand and started it spinning rapidly. The battle robots locked on target as Tiet sent the spinning bow into one of them like a buzz saw. The laser cannons that made up one of the robot’s hands were smashed to pieces as the bow ricocheted into its head, sending metal shrapnel in all directions.
The others quickly opened fire on him. He only had time for an instinctive move. Without even realizing it, he formed a bubble of intensely vibrating charged air that repelled the blasts from the robots. They were raining down a firestorm upon him, yet he remained untouched. The pulse blasts were disrupted as they impacted the kinetically-formed bubble.
The robots continued to fire, trying to penetrate the mental defense. Grod looked on with intense pleasure. He had not expected the Barudii to have this much power over the elements. He knew of no such incidence recorded about the Barudii of old times. This was even better than he had expected. His eyes were fixed on the young warrior through the refraction of light and image the charged bubble was creating.
Tiet quickly regained his composure and caused the bubble to swiftly expand with great force behind it; smashing into the five working robots around him. Each one was slammed into the inner mirrored wall of the dome with enough force to crush their exoskeletons and leave them as piles of twisted metal upon the floor. Once again he was left standing alone within the arena.
“Impressive power, is it not?!” demanded Grod to his technicians within the control room. “I really wasn’t expecting him to survive the battle robots.”
“Shall we open the last dome with the teragore sir?” asked one of the control techs.
Grod punched a key pad on the arm of his command chair. “Varen, do we have a viable sample of DNA?”
“Yes, General. The samples we extracted should work well for what you have requested,” said the Vorn scientist from a nearby laboratory.
“Very good then. Proceed according to schedule. And Varen…remember your family would not want to see you compromise the procedure and get them killed.”
“I understand, sir.”
Grod tapped the communication switch off. “Golon, retract the last dome!”
The Horva technician did as he was ordered and switched the control to retract the final inner dome wall.
ORIN was trying to follow the loudest sounds he was hearing. The ventilation system was not very difficult to move through; the tunnels were fairly wide to accommodate the large volume of air that moved in and out of the facility.
He came to a branch that veered off to his right. The sounds were definitely coming from somewhere off of this branch. The shaft narrowed considerably but he could get through on his belly.
He continued on for another fifty feet until
he came to a side vent that had a lot of light coming through it, and the noises intensified. Orin crawled up to it and peered through. Within his sight line was a huge creature that stood about fifty feet high. From what he could see the room was a great dome and a smaller semitransparent dome was in the center. Tiet could be seen inside it.
The inner dome was quite large also but not in comparison to the dome without that held this great beast. It was reptilian in nature and had four stubby powerful legs. A long tail, thick, with a cluster of large spikes on the end curled around the animal. Its head was fierce-looking with needle-like teeth proportional to the creature’s size.
Tiet did not seem to be acknowledging the presence of the beast in the outer dome. Scattered around him were several smashed robots and a number of dead Horva men. It all looked like some deadly sport for these clones of the Vorn, and he was sure they must be watching from somewhere.
Suddenly the dome around Tiet began to separate in two and fold down into the floor. He looked in horror at the beast being exposed to him now. The creature also reacted to the dome dropping before it. Now the prey was exposed.
It began to step toward Tiet’s position, and lunged at him with its long neck, propelling the deadly head and teeth right at him. He got out of the way fast, taking to the air. The creature lunged for him again as he landed. He threw out his hands and sent a massive kinetic blast at the predator’s incoming face; knocking it away.
The beast reeled for a moment, and then regained its composure with more fury. A chemical spray issued from its mouth, which ignited in the air on its way toward Tiet. He formed another kinetic bubble to repel the flame that engulfed him. The flame was disrupted, but not the heat. It was too hot to repel this way; and he sent the bubble outward and into the creature with massive force. The animal was hurt, but only became more enraged by Tiet’s counterattacks.
