by Power, P. S.
Timon could see that. It wasn't a great situation after all, not for anyone. Still, he could almost bet the Remy knew where he was, so there wouldn't be a lot of point of hiding it from Trice, would there?
"I'm in space. In orbit around the center of the planet. There seems to be an Ancient Assassin after me. Pretty near unstoppable. On the good side, Monroe, he's a cloned Ancient that came over to our side, because someone asked him to, anyway, he thinks that Remy is looking to die, which makes the whole thing sound a lot less dangerous than it really is."
There was a single beat, about three seconds long, "you can take him? In a fight I mean? This Remy?"
Timon could have lied, but didn't bother, forcing his voice to sound chipper anyway.
"Not a chance in hell. Not yet at least. This could be a long term thing. I... Really, it will probably kill me. It can change shape to look like anyone, is pretty much indestructible, and I don't think it can just quit, or anything sensible like that."
"But... I just got married. It will make me look bad if you die after a month. There has to be some way to handle this. Count Lairdgren or Brown..."
Timon nodded, thinking to himself for a bit, then realizing that he was supposed to actually speak out loud, like a real person.
"I'll be chatting with everyone I can about this, you can bet. It's just another thing, and nothing for you to worry about. I mean, from what I understand, this is a fight between us two and no matter what else happens, it will stay that way. So you don't have to be concerned about personal attack. Not from this thing."
"Oh?" The voice suddenly sounded a little snappish again. Trice was good at things like that, going back and forth in her mood suddenly. It was a skill she had. That or a mental illness. Possibly both. "Do you really think that my first concern was for my safety? This isn't fair. You never get anything good at all, do you? First there was all that stuff with Countess Allan and the Larval, then Rodriguez, then business dropped off due to the war and you get attacked, and kicked out of school for it. It's like the universe has a grudge against us or something."
Trice had been part of her own troubles that were as bad, or worse than Timon's, so he got the idea she was going for. He was also bright enough to realize she was fishing for him to reassure her of her own place in things.
"I got you though, didn't I? That goes a long way toward fixing the rest. As for business, it's doing fine and picking up again already, now that the plague is dying down. It was that, not the war, that slowed things down. Well, you've been handling the books and scheduling, so you tell me if it's still all that down."
Trice ignored the part about business altogether and focused on herself. Like Timon had intended her to.
"I make up for a lot of it? You mean the girl you got stuck with, to help me out of a bad marriage agreement? It's sweet of you to say, but..."
Tim snorted. Then he chuckled a bit.
"Wait, that is sweet of me, isn't it? Why how could I ever think that a pretty, intelligent and well connected woman is a prize? I must be delirious." He made it sound happy and realized that it was close enough to true even. Not the delirium part either. His wife was a catch.
His catch too.
"Well, I'm the lucky one, you know. After all, I have seen the books and we are doing a lot better. I live in a palace as my first house and you aren't exactly hard on the eyes. A bit short still." She actually gasped after a few seconds, but then made a funny sound as she reconsidered things. "You're growing though and will actually end up taller than me, so I can live with that. We can call it an investment in the future. If you don't die, I mean."
"There is that." Tim felt his smile fade, but there didn't seem to be a lot he could do about it.
Trice had an idea. One that was stupid. Or, at least Timon knew it was. She didn't know about the corrupt Cordes yet though. She couldn't. There was too much chance she'd let it slip to Tor, and that might go very badly for them all.
"Tor will help you. If he knows about this. You don't even have to ask, I bet, so it won't hurt your pride, after the troubles between you."
She was, of course, right. Tor would help him. They were brothers, before and after everything else and where they came from that actually meant something.
"Oh, don't imagine that I hadn't thought of that already. The thing there is that Tor will be in danger if he helps me too much. Remy Seventeen would have to take him out, since he's too dangerous. The only way to keep him safe is to largely keep him out of it. I'll... Ask for some advice though. I have another project that I need help with anyway. It might be related." Now he was just being placating and trying to make her feel better, but it wasn't a lie, he realized. It was just a plan that he hadn't fully formed yet.
Getting help from the enemy like that, without letting them know about it.
That was going to take skill.
Trice let out a gust of air, as if she'd been holding it in. Probably because she thought that even bringing up Tor might start a fight. It hadn't yet, but it could. After all, his wife loved his brother far more than she did him. That wasn't exactly something that made him happy.
Almost as if reading his mind she whispered the words. They came from the device so quietly that he doubted she meant for him to really hear them. He did though.
"I love you. Come home safe."
"I love you too." He didn't promise anything.
There was no way he could. Not and make it believable.
Chapter six
The deep trance he forced himself into wasn't that hard to maintain though he was aware that someone came in regularly and helped him eat, drink and go to the restroom as he'd requested. It was a vague thing, that felt so far away that Tim didn't bother feeling ashamed or embarrassed. Not even when he understood finally that it was two of the commoner girls that were doing it all, instead of one of the men or Monroe.
The focus was far too intense and deep for him to worry about trivial things like modesty. The strangest part came when the two girls gave him a shower. They didn't do anything untoward with him, otherwise, but the in-depth washing and scrubbing wasn't exactly needed yet. He'd only been under a few days. It wasn't until he surfaced, days later, that he understood it all. The two little perverts had been ogling his body.
Then he let that go. If they'd been royal women he probably would have been molested outright, or something. Or worse, royal men. He could let it pass, he decided. They were both cute enough after all, and weren't actually doing anything wrong.
Since it was what he had to work with, Timon had managed to get an iron nail from a food packing crate, and put the test field on that. It felt strong enough, and seemed like it would do what was needed. It didn't have a glowing sigil on it, but the whole thing gave off a blue light, since he didn't want to lose the thing or have someone confuse it with some other, more normal, nail.
He was, he knew, still in a very deep trance as he rose. His first job was to go to the restroom, after drinking as much water as he comfortably could. Doing anything else would be asking for trouble, later. Then, after he took care of those things, he walked to the lab wondering if Monroe would have anything ready yet or not. The black man stood inside, wearing his normal coat, and didn't seem to be doing anything else at all. He just stood. Waiting.
Tim held out the nail.
"Hey." His voice cracked from disuse. That meant he had to clear it several times in order to make himself sound normal. "Try this. Just tap it to start the field."
The man went slowly, moving without asking however, and set the nail across the room. Then he turned to Timon and waved him to the far door.
"No need for us to die here, so stand back. I have a containment field set up for testing. Will the magical device need to be in with it?"
Timon shook his head.
"No, I don't think so. It should send the instructions even if it's in a shielded area. If the field is near it, then it will shut it down. Or at least prevent it from moving around." Hopefully.
The man smoothed his white lab coat, which he only wore there, and then made it happen, the softly glowing pink material spreading out into a box that seemed to be made all of glass. Then, without asking, Monroe walked across the room and very carefully touched the long but squared nail. It turned from blue to green, signaling the field was active.
At first, for about twenty seconds, it looked like nothing had happened at all. Then, slowly, the pink turned orange and faded into nothing.
Monroe smiled, which didn't mean that much, but he also moved to clap Tim on the shoulder.
"Excellent. We need to run more tests, of course, I'll set that up." Except, naturally, that he couldn't.
All the micro-plasma had shut down when the field was activated, even the stuff held behind the special shielding that it was kept in. Rather than seeming upset the man looked amazed, for a moment.
"Very, very good! What's the range on this field? About twenty feet?"
Timon had to look around to understand that guess. It was about how far the glow would carry. That had nothing to do with the actual device though. That was just decoration. A bit of prettiness done because it cost him no more than a little extra effort.
"No, it should cover a few miles. It's a strong field. The information sort of goes where it's needed though, it doesn't blanket everything. That would take too much power. Like the communications devices?" It was what he'd based the idea on, at any rate. Ideally one device could be made strong enough to cover the whole world, but that wasn't happening. Not with him doing it.
"Oh? That's a very nice range then. Now we need to work out how to make enough of them and spread them around. You seemed to have an idea?"
"Yes. Not one I love, but it might work. I just have to do it right."
If he could do it at all.
He'd need privacy for it, he thought, since there was no way it would be an easy thing, which meant going back to his chambers, and then checking the time. It was four in the morning, Capital time, and even earlier in Lairdgren. That meant waiting at least. Also waiting on getting some food, since the kitchen wasn't going to be open on the ship and helping yourself was frowned on, he'd heard. That meant he had time for a nap.
People didn't really get how exhausting building could be. It just seemed like a person closed their eyes and suddenly there was magic to be had, but that wasn't it at all. It took tremendous focus, clarity of thought, and holding an abstract idea at the front of your mind the whole time, while linked to a physical object. That meant being awake for it all. It was mind numbing at best, or would be, if a person didn't focus hard enough. It burned energy though, the whole time and wasn't a replacement for sleep. So functionally, the six days that he'd just taken to build that novel device had been totally without rest for him. Even though he'd sat on his bed the entire time.
Tim drank more water, and then rested, his eyes closing, almost on their own. He planned to sleep for eight hours, or until someone woke him, but it was the second thing that happened, with Denno Brown knocking at his chamber door. Or more exactly, just walking in, looking fit, tidy, and better looking that Timon ever would.
For his part, Timon opened his eyes and rolled to the left before the man could kill him. Brown didn't move at least, except to hold his hands up, to show they were empty.
"It's just me, Denno."
Timon was, not very artfully, crouched on the floor, trying to turn his shield on while pulling a force lance. He stopped and read Denno first, and found that it certainly seemed like him at least, which got him to stand up, feeling a bit mentally fuzzy.
"Oh. Hello. I figured you might be Remy."
The man nodded, as if that just made sense.
"Orange came and got me, she wanted to do a supply run, so we offloaded a lot of rations from Austra. We also changed most of the crew. Captain Matheson decided that the best we could do was to make it all happen in one trip and take off from unexpected locations. We used the main space port in Vagus for it. We have the new ports being watched. I have to head back in an hour, but haven't been in space personally for, oh, the better part of six hundred years? I miss it." Then, as if invited, he sat carefully on the edge of the bed. It was a tangled mess, because of the sprawling and tumbling out that Tim had done, which made the space seem untidy.
"Ah."
He was still waking up, but the older man, who only looked to be in his mid-twenties at the moment, did the speaking for him.
It was the kind of thing he excelled at.
"Monroe mentioned that you, for the first time in history, have managed a way to artificially control micro-plasma? Nasty stuff. Outlawed by the treaty, but that won't stop the others, I don't think. Not now. That's an impressive feat. I don't suppose you have a way to stop nuclear devices yet?"
Timon shook his head. He hadn't even been thinking about that. Why, he didn't know. Not really. It was as if they had to be left on the table.
"Not really. Hopefully that won't seem a good option to anyone. Plagues, micro-plasma, nano swarms, those can take out people and leave the planet fine. The large bombs... not so much."
Brown nodded pensively, his fine features looking slightly bland.
"I agree. The problem is that Cordes and Gray might do anything, in their desperation. Well, I didn't come to bother you with these things. Do you need anything? I can send it up on the next trip, possibly, or better, send it to Orange and have her work out how to send it. We aren't taking your safety for granted here. We know the score and won't make it too easy for Remy to get to you." He smiled and then shook his head sadly. "This isn't good, Tim. You need to move from here soon. Any ideas where to go?"
Timon nearly told him that letting him know that was foolish, but it probably didn't really matter, did it?
"Well, first the new lunar base, since we need to start work on it. A full colony. Then I'll grab, or maybe build, a ship and head out from there. See some of the other planets, if I can work that out? Remy can follow me to the edge of the solar system if it wants." Not that Tim was going to do that at all, and knew it. Well, the new settlement wasn't a bad plan, but the rest wasn't on the table. Not with a war on.
Brown went misty eyed anyway.
"I'm very sorry to hear that, Tim. It isn't what I would have picked for you. I actually hoped, still hope, that you'd consider eventually taking over Austra from me. We need some fresh thinking there. People like you already, too."
He snorted.
"Not a problem, get Taman to do it. If she will. She's sweet, and smart. Too young yet, but if you didn't mean 'have you take over in a few hundred years' then you're an idiot anyway. Provided I can't just change things, I mean. With Remy."
"You can't negotiate. It doesn't want anything, except for you dead. Unless Monroe is right, and then it wants you dead, and to die itself. That won't help you a lot."
He knew that. It was hard not to, since everyone kept saying it. Tim would have normally been a little insulted, if everyone had been assuming that he was just going to die like that, but this once it seemed like it was the sensible course of action.
To die.
Horribly, and alone, but in a way that could be verified.
"Well, first we need a tracking system. One with pictures, like what you use in Austra. I'm trying to work that out, using magic."
Brown stiffened and rolled his eyes, but wisely kept his mouth shut. He didn't believe in magic. Worse, even while riding through space in a magic craft, wearing clothing made of the stuff, and talking about a new way to stop micro-plasma that worked on the principles, the man couldn't believe it and never would.
It had been made a part of him, thousands of years before. Why, no one had ever really explained to Tim. It wasn't a big deal, except that the man had to try and rationalize it all to himself, which had to be getting really hard to do, about then. He was literally surrounded by it at the moment, after all.
It made sense suddenly, the offer to have Tim take over his land. With Count Lairdgren it h
ad been easier to see, but this was real too. Green was tired and barely hanging on to his place in the world. His mind was going and sooner or later, he'd vanish into insanity. Oh, it would take another thousand years or so, but it was going to happen. He'd seen too much, and borne the pain of suffering in ways that someone like Timon just couldn't even imagine.
However it had worked out, reality had been kinder to Denno Brown. Oh, he'd suffered loss and pain too, no doubt, but it hadn't been enough to nearly break him. Maybe he was tougher than Green. Or perhaps it was just that he'd gotten luckier.
Still, in that moment, thinking about magic, Timon understood what the man had to have been thinking.
Sighing a bit, Timon spoke.
"You think that the future of Earth is going to be in the new technology of Noram, don't you?"
Denno looked slightly shocked, but after a few moments let his head fall, his face going along with it.
"I do. I really do, Timon. How can we not use it? It's-" A medium dark brown hand gestured around them, as if indicating everything, not just the ship. "It's the perfect solution. It hardly takes resources at all from the planet and allows for things that we haven't had in hundreds or even thousands of years. We can't afford to keep things as they have been, with an option like this right there for the taking. It's time for the old age to pass and the new one to begin." It sounded tired and a bit sad, but the Ancient shrugged and stood up from the edge of the bed, so that he could pace.
Timon watched him closely, but for once couldn't work out what the man would say next.
"I can't survive in that world though. I can barely say the word, magic. I can't say it and mean it. I have to think of stage shows and illusions even to mouth the word. I can see it all around me, feel it against my skin, and I can't..." Grasping at the air in frustration, he held nothing, which was the point. "Make sense of it. We have to use it, to make it the new way of Earth, and perhaps even this part of the galaxy, and I can't be part of it. So someone is going to have to take over for me, so my people, my children, won't be held back. There aren't that many options left now."
