by James Somers
“Tiet! Where are the others?” asked Ranul over the sound of the cruiser’s cannons, still firing on the retreating Horva.
Tiet’s face gave away the news before his voice did. “Dead!”
Ranul was shocked by the news, but he hesitated only a moment; a battle was still raging around them. They entered the transport and took seats near the cockpit. The Aolene warriors filed back into the transport and took their positions inside. The ramp lifted as the pilot brought the ship off the landing platform and headed back to the Vorn cruiser.
Tiet could hear Wynn and Ranul speaking with each other, but he wasn’t really paying attention to them. He felt safe again as they climbed skyward toward the waiting cruiser still blasting away at the Horva.
The tension of the fight began to be relieved somewhat, but with it came a flood of suppressed emotions. He began to weep bitterly as he pressed his head against the bulkhead. Ranul and Wynn left off their conversation with one another, but did not engage Tiet.
The Vorn cruiser received the transport and continued to clear the city of Horva combatants. They fled into the rail tunnel in droves while others continued into the wasteland on foot or in damaged war machines. They were pursued no further than the limits of the city.
A lone and injured figure watched as the Horva army retreated under heavy fire from the battle cruisers. He wondered where they had come from. All of those large ships were thought to have been destroyed by the Barudii sphere. The battle at Baeth Periege had taken a turn unexpected.
He wasn’t sure how the cloning facility had been destroyed. The last thing Grod remembered was going to sleep in the cloning pod. He awoke to utter devastation, and all of his men in the cloning pods with him, were dead. Malec and the scientist Varen were also dead.
Grod could see his army was on the run without him. This battle was lost. But at least he was alive.
He spotted a personal transport vehicle near a section of debris and confiscated it. Firing up the engine, Grod climbed onto it and bolted away from the smoldering wreckage of the cloning facility toward the open wasteland beyond.
ONCE he was clear of the atmosphere, Kale scanned the space of sector 773. He quickly found the signal he was looking for. He plotted the course into the navigation computer and activated the auto pilot. The strider took off for the preset coordinates at three quarters of its maximum speed. His thoughts were returning to the surface and his fight with Orin.
He had thought the man dead for so many years now; the man who had come between him and his own father. Now he was sure that Orin was dead. But it was not at all satisfying to him. He even felt some regret.
He had not had such feelings since he saw the body of his father lying dead on the battle field near Mt. Vaseer. The betrayal of his own people, though they had rejected him, had not been as satisfying as predicted either.
He had wept over his father and mother and brother on more than one occasion, secretly. His years among the Vorn military had not been able to erase the memories he had of better times before the incident that changed everything for him.
Regret once again tried to settle upon his mind and once again he fought to push it away. After all, what was done was done. He had chosen his path and things could never be what they were again. As for Orin, he had initiated the attack on the landing platform. Kale had only been defending himself. There was nothing he could do about that. At any rate, it had been clear that nothing had changed in Orin’s mind either.
But his younger brother was alive on this Castai. It did not matter. To change course now would be a death sentence for him. He had betrayed his people to the Vorn and now the Vorn to the Baruk.
In the distance, scanners picked up the large vessel he had fixed the navigation system upon. The strider automatically slowed its pace as the docking bay of the Baruk vessel locked onto it and guided the ship inside. Kale prepared himself to give report of the battle. He pushed lingering thoughts of home and family as far away from him as he could and proceeded down the ramp to the waiting Baruk.
INSIDE Tiet’s cabin, Ranul and Wynn discussed the events leading up to this battle at Baeth Periege. The Vorn cruiser under Estall’s command was still in position guarding the city, but the Horva had fled hours ago.
Still, the western portion of the city was in ruins from the battle. The space port and surrounding buildings, including the main cloning compound, were devastated almost completely.
Tiet stood in the shower stall of the washroom, letting the hot water pour over him. He wished the steamy water could cleanse away the recent memories in his mind; even that he himself could be dissolved in it and washed away never to be thought of again.
When the heating cell in his quarters ran low on stored hot water the temperature began to change and so did his desire to stay there in it. He turned off the faucet and stepped out to dry himself. He noticed in the wall mounted mirror that his body was covered in cuts, scrapes and bruises.
These last few days had been the most exhausting and punishing experience of his young life. He stared into his own face reflected before him. Why had he lived while others had died? And did he really want to go on living without them?
He clothed himself in a simple garment and came into the other portion of the cabin where Ranul and Wynn were still talking. Tiet caught Orin’s name mentioned before he entered the room.
“Who killed Orin?” asked Tiet abruptly.
Both men gave him uneasy stares, as though the answer was known but they weren’t sure of whether to give it.
“Wynn, I saw your face when Orin said the name. He said Kale killed him. Kale was my father. But he could not have meant my father. You seemed to know who he meant by your expression.”
Ranul looked at Wynn also.
“Ranul, do you know who this person is? I think the time for secrets is over.”
“You’re right. You need to know the truth. The person Orin named is not your father, but your brother.”
“What!?” Tiet could hardly stand at the statement. “Wynn, I don’t have a brother!”
“Actually Tiet, you do,” confirmed Ranul. “He’s your older brother.”
“Why have I never been told these things? Why didn’t Orin tell me this?!”
“Three years after you were born there was an incident,” said Ranul. “While under Orin’s command, your brother was to guard a certain village of three thousand people with a squadron under his command. He had always been a brash young man and given to conflict with his superiors.
“Kale decided that there was no real threat to the village and took the majority of his fighter squadron onto the battle front, while leaving only a few to guard the people. The Horva attacked during that time and almost two thousand men, women and children were killed as a result of his irresponsibility.
“Orin was furious with him and petitioned your father to remove his rank as a warrior. Your father was ashamed of him and did so and Kale was dishonored before the people. Shortly after those events, he disappeared; he was nearly eighteen years of age at the time.”
“I still don’t understand why he killed Orin,” said Tiet.
“About five years later Kale was found to have conspired with the Vorn military. He gave them the information on the effects of the Transdimensional Rift upon your people and how they were greatly weakened by its random collapsing. It was all they needed to know to mount an appropriate and devastating campaign at the Barudii’s weakest time.”
Tiet dropped his head into his hands as he sat down upon his bed. “Does any of this get any better?! My father and mother and my people massacred by the Vorn conspiring with my own brother! And now Dorian and Orin are dead because of all these things!! I do not think I can bear to know anymore of it!” shouted Tiet.
They got up to leave. “I cannot say I know how you feel young master,” said Wynn as he put his hand firmly upon Tiet’s shoulder, “but I’m here for you. You must go on despite what has happened. Your father the king is dead…but you
, the heir to the king…you live on and our people live on with you. I hope you will not let their legacy die now after all that has happened.”
He followed Ranul out the door, leaving Tiet on his bed to ponder all that had happened. It was so horrible. Everything was worse in reality than he could have ever imagined in his worst nightmares. Yet he was still alive. Now what am I supposed to do?
He thought of Orin. Back when they lived in the cave far in the wasteland, when he had taught him to be a man and a warrior, he had told him that to resolve a difficult problem or situation, resting the weary mind was the best way to clear one’s thoughts and be able to approach the situation with new vigor.
He thought upon those lessons for some time. Orin had always been very wise. He wondered if his own father had perhaps imparted his wisdom in some way to Orin. Now both men were gone, but their wisdom was still living in his memory.
He got up from his bed and walked to the portal window of the chamber. He could see over the city of Baeth Periege below. Much of it lay in ruins from the battle with Grod and his army.
Wynn had said that these people, the civilians, had longed for peace, and had hoped for it even through years and years of oppression under their own military government. That government was gone; defeated by Grod’s Horva. Grod appeared to be dead, the Horva were defeated and fleeing from Baeth Periege. Maybe, just maybe, he thought, there was something left that was good after all.
X
DATE: The Year 9028 (planet: Castai III-Rex)
THE bright red glow of the binary star Casiss glided across the surface of defense probe #2041. Its mission, to hold a position in this quadrant and maintain continuous long range scans toward the home system of the Baruk, had been uneventful for the last six months since its launch. The probe sailed through a vast sea of silence. Casiss was calculated at nearly one quarter of a light year away, with none of its uninhabitable planetary bodies visible to the eye, save the electronic eye of probe #2041.
Something entered into its sensor band one tenth of a light year away from the probe. #2041 closed in on the object with its sensors to distinguish whether it might be a naturally occurring object such as a meteor. It had been the case fourteen times already since the probe took position there.
The object was quite large, but it was not following the normally erratic flight pattern of a natural space body. Quickly the sensor field was penetrated by even more similar objects; fifty in all. Each of the objects followed virtually the same flight path, putting the group on a direct course for the planet Castai.
WYNN walked through the courtyard of pools outside of the newly appointed combat training facilities. The artwork was pure Vorn from different eras he was unfamiliar with. He took note of the rich detail present in the forms; some of natural things such as native animals, and some of the Vorn race. As he came through the serene area into the main courtyard, he could hear the sounds of battle. He saw hundreds of warriors from among the Vorn race intermingled with many Castillians from nearly every tribe that had migrated across the Rift after the battle of Baeth Periege eighteen months ago.
The migration had been rather unexpected, but there had been a rally cry to join the Barudii king. The Vorn had been defeated on Tiet’s home-world by Estall. The people had begun to refer to it as Castai-Ori, for origin. The twin Castai here across the rift had similarly begun to be referred to as Castai-Rexus, illustrating the presence of the Barudii King. There was at present, no king at all, but Tiet being the heir to that throne had chosen to remain on this side of the Transdimensional Rift following the battle at Baeth Periege. His desire was to remain on the sister planet of his own home world because of the likelihood of further conflict with the Horva and the impending attack of the Baruk.
Tiet as yet had assumed no formal power, but both the Castillian tribes remaining on Castai-Ori and the recently freed Vorn civilian population of Castai-Rexus were looking for leadership.
The Vorn had originally looked to Daooth or Wynn as potential leaders to unite them to face future conflicts, while the Castillians had looked to Estall as the victorious leader of the Aolene who had brought about the capture and subordination of the Vorn military on Castai-Ori.
Wynn had emphatically refused, while pointing out that he could never assume power under any circumstance so long as an heir to the throne of his people lived. With Daooth backing Wynn, and a history of relations between the Vorn and the Barudii kings of the past before the Baruk created conflict, it brought about a consensus among the Vorn to follow Wynn in backing the throne of the Barudii. Estall had also deferred to the throne of the Barudii, and hoped Tiet would step up to the task.
It all seemed a wonderful change of events to Wynn, but Tiet had not consented to ascend formally to his father’s throne. It had become a matter of great frustration both to Wynn and those among the Council of the Twelve Cities that he remained reluctant. Wynn himself had spent hours trying to persuade the young man, who at times seemed that he might cave in to the pressure, but he realized that Tiet doubted himself. The deaths of his friends were still weighing heavily upon his mind.
Tiet had taken great interest in organizing civilians from among the Vorn and the migrating Castillians to form a large ground force in training. He had become obsessed with the task, in fact, leading Wynn to the conclusion it was in part to relieve himself from his own troubling thoughts concerning recent events and the deaths of those dearest to him.
Wynn ascended a stairway leading to a very long balcony that overlooked the training courtyard. He couldn’t help but be delighted to see his own Castillian people training with the Vorn to fight a common foe. A dream in part had been realized with the uniting of these people and he hoped nothing would tear them apart again; but he thought it vitally important that they have the necessary leadership; and that leadership could not be served better than in the Barudii King.
Swords clashed on the courtyard as instructors from among the Aolene guided the trainees in various sparring exercises. The handsome new uniforms Tiet had designed were of the same material used in the old Barudii cloaks and rendered the wearer electronically invisible.
Various improvements from Vorn technology allowed for the E.M. shields to be reduced in size and incorporated directly into the garments along with components that provided a real-time holographic data display and nano-sensory components. These helped to mimic the Barudii kinetic ability to sense information such as number and position of combatants within a certain range.
The data created pressure sensations in the garment to alert the warrior and in effect give them perception in all directions simultaneously. Other nano-components provided scanning of one’s surroundings and fed the information to the holographic display.
Today, the trainees were practicing Barudii blade techniques. Much progress had been made in the ten months since Baeth Periege had been engulfed in battle. Daily more trainees appeared as the migration from Castai-Ori continued despite the threat of the Baruk. The city had been under constant repair by numerous robot construction crews, although the cloning facility that had once been such a jewel of science for the city was never rebuilt. The Vorn Council of the Twelve Cities, named for the twelve large cities now housing the population for unification and safety concerns, had outlawed the cloning of Horva as servants.
General Grod’s Horva troops provided little interference to reconstruction after their defeat. There had been a few raids on smaller cities that were nearly abandoned, but it appeared they sought supplies rather than conquest. Grod himself had been proven to still be alive; a fact that had brought considerable alarm to the Council. While there seemed to be no immediate threat, it was a definite possibility that Tiet’s new recruits might face a war on two fronts if the Horva resurfaced with attacks on the twelve cities.
Wynn continued to walk the length of the balcony until he could see a group of recruits surrounding one unarmed man. The young man was blindfolded but not bound. Several of the recruits moved in to str
ike.
The first strike went for the face. The victim’s head bobbed to one side as the strike passed before him. He quickly struck the mid-section of the attacker then swept the feet while countering another strike from a different recruit.
As the recruits moved in quickly, trying to overwhelm the man, the whole situation seemed to revert to chaos. In a matter of a few seconds, all of the recruits were tossed to the ground, leaving the man standing alone. Wynn chuckled a bit to himself as Tiet removed his blindfold and beckoned his students to their feet.
He could not hear the instructions given at that point, but soon the recruits disbanded to other exercises in the courtyard.
Tiet raised his blindfold again and replaced it over his eyes. Wynn noticed a flash of light as something caught the sun between Tiet and himself. Something whispered and kissed the railing of the balcony next to his right hand. He could see a spicor disc lodged there.
He looked back at Tiet, still blindfolded but curling his index finger in the air toward Wynn. He smiled, then stood waiting. Wynn dropped to the courtyard below as Tiet leapt at him. Wynn caught Tiet’s foot and sent a fist to the groin, but Tiet’s other leg had already come up and over to catch Wynn in the side of the head. Wynn stumbled as he let go of Tiet’s foot, but quickly regained his composure. Tiet was standing ready and on guard; he liked training with his mentor.
Wynn smiled back at the younger man and began to think he had taught him too well in recent months. They exchanged a quick moment of fists and kicks with neither man landing a blow to advantage. Tiet was still smiling behind his blindfold.
“I’ve come to urge you to speak with the Council,” said Wynn.
Tiet’s smile disappeared. He was never pleased when this subject came up; which it often had since the Council had pressed for leadership in the months following the battle at Baeth Periege.
