The Dragon Circle

by Irene Radford

  “He recovers fast,” Kat said. She finally looked up from her study of the bracelets.

  “We all do. A matter of survival.”

  “And possibly something else?” She twisted her wrists. The bracelets flashed. She winced.

  The bracelets weren’t supposed to flash. The current threading through the conductive plastic was designed to be silent and invisible.

  Loki shifted his attention to Kat and the bracelets. Did they rest a little looser on her wrists than they had a few moments ago?

  “You can’t open the bracelets without a key,” Loki said, somewhat puzzled. “I’m an expert with those things and I know the locks inside and out. You can’t open them.” He walked over to her, bent on examining the lock to make certain.

  While he crouched beside her, Loki relieved her of the counter-grav units and strapped them to his own arms and feet. All the while he studied his sister and how she held her wrists.

  “Wanna make a bet I can’t open my own bracelets?” She smiled sweetly even as she lunged to her feet. She kept her hands together as she shoved them into Loki’s jaw.

  She no longer had the counter-grav holding back her blows.

  Black-and-yellow stars burst before his eyes. His balance tilted. He shifted his weight forward. Veteran of too many brawls, he knew how to compensate and stay upright under a sucker punch. Without thinking, he swept one leg behind Kat’s feet.

  She fell backward. The bracelets dangled from one hand only. Her left swung back, preparing a new blow. If she was like the rest of the family, her dominant left hand was free.

  Bad news.

  Kat twisted as she went down and caught herself. She drew her feet back under her and jumped upright, only slightly hindered by the heavy gravity.

  But she jumped back, toward the cross corridor.

  Loki cursed himself. He should have manacled her feet as well. She had two more sets of force bracelets in her uniform hip pocket.

  He dove after her, still fighting for clear vision and balance.

  He caught up with her easily, propelled by the purloined equipment. She did not go far before he grabbed her right shoulder.

  Too late.

  Her left hand slapped a comm unit set into the bulkhead just below a ship’s diagram.

  “Captain Leonard. They’re going after the king stone!” Kat yelled.

  CHAPTER 26

  KONNER FLEW into the crystal room at the exact center of the ship. The king stone and the first twelve drivers lived here.

  He could not think. He just had to do.

  An engineer turned at the sound of the portal irising open. Konner let loose with a blast from his stunner. It caught the man square in the chest before he had time to sound a protest. His body plunged backward, toward the bulkhead. In null g he bounced off the exposed pipes and conduits and spun in a new direction.

  The recoil from the gun sent Konner into a roll. He compensated, firing in the opposite direction.

  But the crystals’ chatter rose to an unharmonic seventh chord.

  Konner braced himself low against a driver crystal to prevent recoil from his weapon that would send him flying about the room.

  A second and a third man went down as easily as the first. They, too, were propelled from wall to wall.

  The crystals shrieked at the disruption of their routine maintenance.

  Konner closed his ears and his mind to them. Deftly he caught each of the engineers and tethered them to the leashes attached to the bulkheads. If the ship had to dive into evasive maneuvers, the momentum could severely damage vulnerable humans. They had to have the leashes handy at all times.

  Crystals, however seemed to glory in the challenge of rapid changes of direction and speed. As long as they were connected to the king stone. Without it, they grew confused and spurted energy in odd, and often dangerous, directions.

  At the consoles around the room he checked each display. One of the drivers was out of alignment. It needed to be rotated a micrometer or two. It happened sometimes after a magnetic storm or when the ship achieved too low an orbit too quickly. The unusual planetary magnetics of MKO-IV could be playing havoc with the crystals.

  Every instinct in Konner demanded he perform the adjustment.

  Blindly, he slapped every console into sleep mode. Each crystal had to come off-line in order. No time for the long safety protocols. He had to get the king stone disconnected quickly.

  First he cut the flow of nitrogen to the stones. The gaseous fuel flooding the crystals caused the mono-poles to spit energy along the miles of fiber optics to the directional crystals. He could shut off the fuel source, but the stones still had massive amounts of energy contained within their force field.

  Konner braced himself against the console labeled due north of the king stone. He found the fiber-optic cable in the first position. “Let’s hope these guys use standard left to right.” He closed his eyes, said a brief prayer to whatever God might listen, and pulled.

  The cable did not want to let loose its connection. “S’murghin’ stubborn dragon!” he yelled and yanked with all his might.

  The cable broke loose.

  The crystals shrieked loud enough to wake the techs.

  Konner flew to the opposite bulkhead. He grabbed a leash with one hand to keep from bouncing around the room. “Hush now. This is for the good of my people,” he whispered to the crystals.

  Sparking energy spat from the end of the clear tubing. He capped it with a special clamp from the workbench beneath the console.

  The south console was now directly beneath his butt. He loosed the first cable and began working on the number one here. It, too, resisted his attempt to disconnect it. But, eventually, it yielded to his pressure.

  Too much time. He had to get on with this. On to the west and east consoles. Each disconnect came a little easier than the last. He was down to the last twelve when the clamps ran out.

  Curses streamed from his mouth. He had to improvise. How?

  Praying the next crystal did not decide to blast him he tied an overhand knot in the cable just before its connection to the console. Then he gritted his teeth and prepared to endure pain.

  The cable came free. A dribble of sparks leaked out, not much in comparison to a fully live fiber optic, but enough to light a small city for a day. He kept his hands above the knot, hoping he remained safe. Now to keep the leaking energy from making the cable dance about. He wedged the knot between two exposed pipes along the bulkhead. So far so good.

  At last he had all one hundred forty-four red directionals free of the king stone.

  The king stone whined and strained loud and long as it sought to compensate for the loss of the center array by tapping into the other two circles of directionals at the bow and aft.

  “I’m sorry.” Konner felt as if his heart might break. With a few commands to the computer, he isolated the other two circles of directionals.

  Now he had to tackle the twelve green drivers.

  The king stone wailed a mighty protest. The big blue stone was dangerous when isolated. At any moment it could unleash forces no man had encountered and lived.

  Konner could not listen. He could not think. He had to keep going now before he lost his nerve.

  The green drivers were bigger than the reds and channeled proportionally larger amounts of energy. The cables did not want to knot. The leakage was more volatile. His hands grew raw from contact with the raw power.

  The crystal techs began to stir in their tethers.

  Konner looked over his shoulder for any indication that the blue king stone would protect itself and its family of crystals from disconnection and death.

  “I have to do this,” Konner apologized to the stone.

  A headache slashed Konner like a laser wrench to the base of his skull. Too-white lightning flashed before his eyes, nearly blinding him.

  “I’m sorry. But I have to do this. There is no other way.”

  (There is always a better way.)


  Was that the stone speaking to him?

  No, it could not be. The stones might be alive, but they were not sentient.

  Were they?

  The voice became a chuckle. The headache eased. But it did not go away.

  Konner took a deep breath and cut the connections to the other two circles of drivers.

  The force field went down.

  The king stone was now alone.

  He thought he heard a sob.

  The ship lurched slightly. He grabbed hold of the console edge to keep the null g from throwing him into the bulkheads along with the semiconscious engineers. Without the crystal arrays, the vessel no longer compensated for collisions with space fragments. Most were too small to notice. Anything larger than his fist could throw the vessel off alignment.

  Surely someone would notice that the arrays were off line and come to investigate. He had to hurry.

  He took a deep breath to steady himself. Then another. The crystal chatter became less strident. Almost took on meaning. He inhaled again. Held it. Let it go until he felt as if his belly button met his backbone.

  His focus grew more acute in the center. Fuzzy layers of bright yellow and blue surrounded the crystals. He peered more closely and saw deep into the core of the king stone. Light and energy blossomed outward, enveloping him.

  He had to touch the blue stone.

  Slowly he approached the stone and placed his hands on it, near the base.

  Awareness of his body drifted from his mind. He knew only the channels to each crystal. A tiny beacon called to him from far, far away.

  The mother stone.

  If he just reached a little, he could touch her, become a part of the massive family of crystals communicating throughout the known galaxy. Every ship became a part of him. He understood each of their idiosyncrasies. They teased him. Flitting in and out of his perceptions, needing him to adjust this, fix that, align a pathway through the universe to connect them all.

  He sighed. A sense of family welcomed him. Stronger, keener than the domineering embrace of his mother, the grudging respect of his brothers. More massive than the love that he shared with Dalleena, but not better.

  Dalleena.

  He knew what he had to do.

  Still dazed from the oneness he shared with the stone, he withdrew his mind.

  And then he twisted the king stone free of its base.

  The king stone screamed. The sound battered his ears and his mind.

  He jerked his hands away from the stone’s agony.

  “I can end your pain,” he whispered. He grasped the stone with both hands. The cool facets blazed hot and angry.

  He ignored the pain and yanked the king stone free.

  Tears ran down his face. He cradled the stone in both arms, ready to hurl it against the bulkhead. But he couldn’t. He was the stone. The stone was he.

  He’d rather kill a man.

  (There are always alternatives.)

  Sobbing openly, still holding the king stone as if it were an injured child, he stepped out of the crystal circle.

  “Put it back,” an angry female demanded. “Put it back or I shoot you with a full load from this needle rifle.”

  CHAPTER 27

  KONNER STILLED. His emotions evaporated. “If you shoot me, you damage the king stone.”

  He shrugged, shifting his grip on the king stone. In null g it weighed nothing. But the two-meter length of the thing made it awkward. By the time he reached the docking bay on the outer rim, the crystal would weigh more than he did.

  Before that, he had to get past Commander Amanda Leonard, captain of the Jupiter. She blocked the only exit to the crystal room.

  The engineers thrashed against their tethers. The simple straps would not restrain them long.

  If only he had some way of getting Commander Leonard out of the way, for just a few seconds.

  Nothing loose floated about the crystal array. Everything was strapped down and out of reach. As was his stunner.

  Leonard raised her rifle and took careful aim. “In null g the stone will not drop. I’m a crack shot. I can kill you with a single needle in the eye.” The newest upgrade had the option of firing a single needle. The weapon Loki had used to kill Hanassa could only fire a wide spray.

  Konner couldn’t take the chance she was bluffing with the capabilities of her weapon or her ability.

  Well, the magic had been working for him so far. He concentrated on his stunner, holstered on his belt on the right side, for easy draw with his left hand. He shifted the king stone again, bringing the left end up in front of his face.

  “Care to take a chance on hitting the stone?” he asked. The words spilled forth, but his mind was on the stunner, willing it into his right hand where he cradled the base of the crystal. “Those things don’t shoot on a straight line. They spray the needles across a target area. You’d also hit one or more of your own crew behind me.” He pretended ignorance of the new design.

  The stunner remained in place, impervious to the prod from his mind.

  How comfortable was Amanda Leonard in null g? She seemed to have braced herself against the doorjamb to keep herself in place and prevent recoil.

  Konner was in the middle of the room with only some fading directional crystals, barely a meter high, as a brace. Just a little spring upward would propel him as high as he wanted to go. The right amount of pressure against the balls of his feet would keep his movement slow, give him more control over his trajectory.

  Without thinking further, he sent himself up. Maybe he could kick the ship’s senior officer in the temple and knock her out.

  Commander Leonard followed his passage with the muzzle of her needle rifle.

  Then the stunner nudged his right fingers. He was so startled at the delayed reaction to his mental command, he almost brushed the weapon aside. Before it floated away, he snagged it with one finger. A little shift of his hand and he had it braced against the crystal and his index finger on the trigger.

  No way to aim. No time to regret.

  “Sorry about this, Commander.” Konner pressed the firing button on the black box of the stunner. A bolt of red energy hit Leonard on the side of her face.

  She slapped the place as if she had been bit by an insect. Her fingers caught the tail end of the stunning blast. Her hand fell to her side twitching as her knees collapsed and her eyes rolled up.

  “Hey,” one of the engineers shouted.

  Konner twisted and shot all three of the tethered men. They rocked like pendulums at the end of their leashes. The recoil sent Konner against the bulkhead near the ceiling joint. He banged his head against the cerama/metal plates. Black stars bloomed before his eyes.

  And so did the web of blue energy connecting the transactional gravitons and the planet. The crystal in his arms seemed to expand as it drew the energy inside itself, inside Konner.

  How could the king stone still be connected to the rest of the universe? Did it communicate with the mother stone even now?

  He swallowed, trying to understand.

  The crystal array came closer. Konner fought to restrain his drift across the room. He checked the air circulation ducts. He should be moving toward them as unseen compressors moved the air about and scrubbed it of CO2.

  No, he was moving toward the center of the crystal array. The king stone wanted to go home. He could not allow that. He had to get back to the docking bay. Fast. Before either Commander Leonard or the engineers awoke and sounded an alarm.

  Cautious about recoil, Konner twisted around. Then he pushed against one of the driver crystals. He aimed for the hatchway and the exit. Years of practice in free fall made his aim true. But he had to shift the king stone to keep from banging it against the doorjamb. A damaged stone would solve many problems. It might also kill him. At least break his heart.

  An image of Dalleena rose before his mind’s eye. He smiled. If anything could heal him after a catastrophe with the crystal, she could. He did not want to put that kind of burden
upon her. He had to protect the stone.

  At the next intersection Konner pushed against the first solid object he encountered. He sped down the long ramp to the next level. Near the end of it, gravity began to grab him. He anticipated and landed with both feet on the deck, knees bent. And another long spring until heavier gravity forced him back on the decking. With each pace toward the outer decks and each descent down a ladder, the stone grew heavier in his arms. By the time he reached normal Earth gravity, sweat poured down his face and back. His toes were bruised and his calves ached.

  He spotted the passageway he needed into the heaviest gravity and hoped he’d land somewhere near his brothers. He needed help with the stone. His fingers were numb from grasping it so tightly. His shoulders felt as if the stone were wrenching both his arms free of the joints. Air burned all the way down his throat to his lungs.

  His heart beat too quickly and irregularly.

  And still he felt the giant crystal pushing him backward to its home. It screamed in his mind at the loss of its family.

  “I promise, I’ll reunite you to at least one array,” Konner soothed the crystal.

  It did not believe him.

  “How about if I find a new task for you?” Though what that would be, he had no idea.

  “Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!” A male voice came over the comm system. He sounded so calm.

  ”All crystal techs report to manual stations. Repeat, all crystal techs to manual. This is an emergency. All decks, all shifts. Be on the lookout for the O’Hara brothers. They are aboard. Do not shoot. They have the king stone. Repeat. Do not shoot them. Approach and apprehend with caution.

  St. Bridget! Konner was willing to bet that all the bay doors had been sealed. No one was leaving the ship with the king stone or without it.

  What are we to do with the intruder in orbit? Stargod Konner tells us we cannot allow it to fly away. This requires much thought and subtle action.

  We have powers we have not used in centuries. A little tug here, a push there. The intruder will not stay in orbit long now. Nor will they fly away.

  Dalleena lay flat amid the tall grasses on the verge of the plowed fields. From here she could watch the village. Raaskan, the headman, and his wife Poolie lay just beyond her.