Clenching his fists, he focused his mind on the bands surrounding them. Moments later, he’d snapped the left and was sitting up freeing his right hand as he scanned the room. Goran, Tiernay, Vartra, and one more he didn’t know. Hiding at the back, he caught sight of Jaisa.
Without taking his eyes off them, he reached down to free his ankles. “You’d better have a damned good reason for this.”
“We need you here, Tallinu,” said Vartra.
Kaid swiveled his head to look at him, his blood running cold at the thought of remaining in the past. “Hear me well, Vartra, I will not stay here! Nothing you can do will keep me here. I don’t care what it costs, I’m going home!”
“We don’t intend to keep you here, Kaid. We’ll return you to the future,” said Jaisa, pushing Tiernay aside and stepping forward. “I wouldn’t have helped them if I’d thought they didn’t intend to do that.”
He looked back to Vartra, unconsciously rubbing his upper arm. “How do you intend to get me back?” he demanded, swinging his legs off the treatment bed and jumping down to the floor. As he landed, he winced, putting his hand to his groin, feeling the tender muscles. A wave of nausea passed through him and he staggered back against the bed. “What the hell have you done to me?”
“We only needed you here for a short time, Tallinu,” said Dr. Vartra apologetically. “I’m sorry, but we had no option.”
Pushing himself upright again, Kaid lunged toward the doctor, but Goran was there first. “Hold on, lad,” he said, knocking him aside and spinning him round. His arms snaked under Kaid’s, grasping him across the shoulders and behind his neck.
Before he’d completed the move, Kaid was free. Constricting his chest muscles and pushing his arms up, he dropped down within Goran’s grasp, landing him an elbow blow in the stomach. As he pivoted around and away, he followed it through with a blow from his knee under the jaw. Goran dropped like a stone.
“It wasn’t Vartra, it was me.” The voice was lazily arrogant. “He only did the research, I—applied it—to you.”
Kaid looked across the room to where the speaker lounged against the countertop. A long face, topped by low-set ears and eyes of piercing blue stared back at him. Curling short hair of a rich dark brown contrasted with a lighter pelt: one of the Western Islanders. Like Dr. Vartra, he wore a white front-buttoning tunic. He was young, barely into his thirties.
“I don’t suggest you try anything like that with me,” the doctor continued. “All it would do is give you the rather dubious satisfaction of hitting an easy target.”
“What did you do to me?” Kaid repeated, his voice dropping to a low growl. At his sides, his hands clenched briefly, then opened as his claws began to extend.
“Nothing drastic. Everything’s still there and in working order, I assure you.” Again the same confident arrogance. “My name’s Rhioku by the way, Dr. Rhioku of Stronghold. Anything else, Dr. Vartra will tell you.”
“There was no need for violence, Tallinu,” said Vartra, breaking the tension as he stepped forward to help Goran to his feet.
Rhioku straightened up. “I suggest that those of us not involved any further should leave. The good Dr. Vartra wishes to talk privately to you.”
“I can manage, Goran,” Vartra reassured the security chief. “If we need you, I’ll call.”
Tail moving gently to show his lack of concern, Rhioku ambled past Kaid and waited for Tiernay to open the door.
“I’m staying,” coughed Goran, pushing Vartra aside as he leaned on the end of the bed for support.
Kaid could feel Goran’s anger and frustration. “Don’t feel so bad about it,” he said. “Fighting’s my speciality.”
“Mine, too,” snapped Goran. “I was part of the military when we still had an army!”
Kaid shrugged. “That’s the military for you. The Brotherhood of Vartra are the elite of my time.”
“Your time! You belong here, in the past with us, dammit!”
“Enough, Goran!” snapped Vartra. “Leave. There’s no reason now for you to stay.”
“I’m staying,” Goran snarled, straightening up and staring defiantly at the geneticist.
“You will leave us, Goran.” Vartra’s tone hit the command pitch and even Kaid felt himself straightening up in an instinctive response to it.
Vartra waited till the security chief had gone before indicating the chairs standing a few feet away. “Sit down, Tallinu. It’s time for me to explain.”
“Damned right it is.” Angrily Kaid walked past him and sat down. “We only left three days ago! Why the hell did you need to call me back?”
“Three days for you, Tallinu, but seven months for us,” Vartra said quietly.
“Seven months!” That shook him. He looked more closely at Vartra, then Jaisa. They had changed. Subliminally he’d noticed she had from the first but other events had been, and still were, more pressing. He turned back to Vartra.
“You owe me an explanation, not only for bringing me back, but for abusing my body while I was unconscious.” The heat of the moment had passed, leaving him with an anger as cold as Khuushoi.
“When you left, I began working again on my gene enhancement program. I was trying to stabilize the changes I’d made, and take into account what I’d learned of the Humans from the female, Carrie.”
Kaid made a dismissive gesture. “I know this. We worked that much out when we realized we’d left you with a sample of Carrie’s blood.”
Vartra glanced at Jaisa and back to him. “That’s not all you left with us,” he said. “As well as a sample of the mutated ni’uzu virus from Carrie, we had a sample from you. A sample of DNA that carried my enhancements but still included your ability to fight.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You didn’t take a blood sample from me!” As the silence lengthened, he looked over to Jaisa. “Not from me,” he said, realizing the significance of the changes in her and the full enormity of her betrayal. His ears laid sideways in anger. “You used me, Jaisa!”
She reached out to touch his arm. “Only a little,” she said. “I had to. The rest was real, Kaid.”
“You’ve had my cub.” He turned on Vartra. “You told her to do this! Is there nothing, no depths you won’t sink to?”
“Sit down!” Once more Vartra’s voice hit the command pitch, and automatically Kaid obeyed. “It had to be done. You are the only one we know of to have a natural immunity to the virus in our time. Which is why you, a telepath, can still fight. Yet you caught the modern equivalent and were enhanced by it without losing the ability to fight. Only your cub could carry through to the future the precise genes that will allow telepaths to fight again and contribute to them forming Leska links with the Humans.” He stopped only long enough to sit down.
“Without this cub, everything you know could never have existed. Without her, telepaths might never fight again, whether or not they have a Human Leska. We need you to return to the future with the new gene that will stop the genetic drift. It’ll also go a long way to ensuring that the hybrid children of mixed Leskas are less likely to suffer from birth defects. You’re right,” he leaned forward, “I will do anything I can to correct the damage done by my tampering. And yes, I do have the right to make those decisions.”
He sat back, mouth opening slightly in a tired smile. “After all, aren’t I destined to be a god in times yet to come? Believe me, Tallinu, I pay the price for those decisions on a daily basis. I can never forget what I’ve done, or the suffering that’s been caused, but I also remember it freed us from the Valtegans.”
“The fault isn’t just yours. We played our part by using your serum too soon,” said Jaisa quietly.
“No, the responsibility is mine alone,” Vartra contradicted her. “Do you understand, Tallinu? It had to be you. But I can’t leave it all to hang on the life of one cub. You are my backup, my second chance to get it right. Within you are the changes that must be spread among the Sholans of your day.”
“The breeding pr
ogram,” Kaid muttered. “That’s why it was started.”
“You know?” Vartra sounded surprised.
“There is little we don’t know. The Brotherhood’s intelligence network is second to none,” said Kaid. “How is this—fix—spread?” He was prepared to listen, no more.
“We’ve ensured it’s passed on by two methods. A virus, like the ni’uzu but less deadly than it was originally for us.”
“And?”
He hesitated. “We couldn’t depend only on the virus in case your medics stopped it spreading before they realized its importance. So we designed it to be transmitted sexually as well.”
Kaid began to growl deep in his throat, suddenly very aware of the tenderness in his groin. “You let that arrogant son of a tree-rhudda touch me … !”
“Enough, Tallinu! He’s a doctor. It had to be done. Would you rather I’d asked Jaisa to do it?” Vartra demanded. “You’ll never meet him again.”
“I’ll remember …”
“You’ll forget.” It was said with finality. “I won’t. If what you say is true, I have an eternity of living with my actions ahead of me.” There was a weariness in Vartra’s voice this time. He stood up. “It’s time to send you home.”
“You’re not messing with my mind, Vartra, nor is anyone else,” he growled. “And just how do you intend to return me?”
“Crystals,” said Jaisa. “Tiernay and I brought you back by locating your mind pattern.”
“Seems you gained a lot from our time together,” Kaid said bitterly. He could hardly bear to look at her; he felt used and betrayed by her on every level.
“Vartra didn’t make me come to you that night. I came because I wanted to. There’s no way he could have made me if I hadn’t,” she said, with a defiant look in Vartra’s direction.
“She’s my cub, Jaisa! Don’t you understand? You stole her from me! It’s my decision who I’ll share them with—who I’ll ask to carry them!”
“Mine, too.”
“No! Not unless I ask you!” He looked at her puzzled expression. “You don’t understand, do you?” He got up, turning away from her, affronted by her attitude. “Pairing with someone doesn’t give you the right to share their cubs.”
“Things are different here.” She hesitated. “Would you like to see her?”
“No!”
“If you don’t, you’ll never have another chance. You may regret it.”
He remained silent.
“Bring her in, Jaisa,” said Vartra.
Jaisa looked uncertainly from one to the other.
“Do what the God says. Why change your habits for me? I’m nothing, not worthy of any consideration.” He was angry beyond measure with both of them.
When she’d left the room, Vartra turned to him. “Stop getting this out of proportion, Tallinu. Many people have given their lives to save Shola from the Valtegans—your father for one. What you’re being asked to do is nothing by comparison.”
“You’ve played games with my mind since the beginning, Vartra. It would have been easier to die than to live with some of the things you’ve put me through! And my father’s not dead,” he said. “You can tell Zylisha that her sister and Rezac are still alive in our time. They survived in some kind of Valtegan cryogenic unit.”
“They’re alive?”
“I just said so,” he snapped. “They’re captives on a world called Jalna. In a few months we’ll be heading out there to rescue them.”
“By all the Gods!” It was Vartra’s turn to be shocked.
“He sent a message for you. He said your plan worked.”
“You see?” said Vartra, catching hold of his arm. “This was all necessary! Without my work they wouldn’t have had the abilities to defeat the Valtegans! I just wish I’d gotten it right from the first.”
“They left before we came here. Our visit didn’t affect that outcome at all.”
“I meant my initial work. What you carry now will set those first errors right, and what you gave to your daughter will save the lives of countless generations of unborn cubs!”
Kaid grunted in reply. Whatever the logic in Vartra’s arguments, it didn’t excuse his actions.
The door opened and Jaisa came in holding the child. “Come and see her,” she said, walking into the center of the room where the light was brighter.
“A look won’t hurt, Tallinu,” said Vartra. “The cub has done nothing to earn your anger.”
Reluctantly, Kaid got to his feet. He stood looking down at the sleeping infant.
“She’s like you,” she said. “Your eyes.”
“Don’t you mean Rezac’s?” he asked. The words were said and regretted before he could stop them.
Startled, she looked up at him. “Not Rezac’s, yours. His eyes were lighter.”
“I didn’t mean to say that,” he mumbled, reaching a tentative finger down to touch the cub. An emotion he couldn’t name flitted through him, then was gone. He’d never known Dzaka as an infant. Too late he heard the footsteps behind him and felt the hypoderm pressed to his neck.
As he began to crumple, Tiernay caught him. He felt himself being lifted and placed down on the treatment bed again. Gradually his consciousness began to fade.
The memory ended, spinning him back to his bedroom. He was lying on his back, looking up at the concerned faces of Lijou, T’Chebbi and Kha’Qwa. He barely saw them through the red mist of his rage. Like a coiled spring, he launched himself off the bed, landing beyond them.
“Kaid, calm down,” began Lijou, keeping his voice even. “It happened weeks ago. You came back safely.”
“He called me back to the Margins, Lijou! He used me—so did she!”
“Only to save lives, he made that clear. He sent you back with the corrected genes.”
“I trusted him and he betrayed me! In Vartra’s name, Lijou, they stole from my body, created a cub!” He stopped, realizing what he’d said. “In Vartra’s name! He’s no better than a criminal,” he snarled, heading toward the door. “He’s a sham, not a god! It’s all lies and deceptions!”
“Stop him!” Kha’Qwa tried to reach the door before him.
Kaid flung her aside as he ran through the open doorway out into the lounge.
“He’s heading for the temple,” said Lijou, running over to where his mate had fallen. “I’ve alerted the guard. He’s got to be stopped!”
“I’ll stop him,” said T’Chebbi, grabbing her belt from the chair by the door as she left. “Call off the guard, Lijou.”
Thankfully, the building was nearly empty, most of the Brothers being involved in the hunt or preparations for the evening. There was no sign of him, but she could track him by his scent. As she raced along the corridor, she cursed herself for not seeing this coming. She’d sensed danger, that was what had made her head out to see him in the first place. Judging by what had subsequently happened, she’d triggered his memory and thereby created the danger instead of averting it.
Reaching the top of the staircase, she saw the flick of his tail as he rounded the corner to the temple doors. In the distance, she could hear the approaching footfalls of the guards and knew she was unlikely to reach him first. Dropping onto all fours, she leaped outward, beyond the stairs, praying for a safe landing.
She cleared the flight of steps but landed awkwardly in front of the guard, bringing them up short in confusion. As she staggered to her feet, she drew her gun, baring her teeth at them.
“He’s mine! I’ll take him,” she snarled before she stumbled into the temple, slamming the door behind her.
T’Chebbi stood for a moment, looking and listening. He could be anywhere. Then she saw him, standing a few meters from the statue, oblivious to anything but his own rage.
“You two-faced, tree climbing bastard of a jegget! You lied to us! You used us for your own ends and pretended it was for the good of Shola!” he roared as he took hold of one of the heavy iron braziers and began rocking it. “You’re not a god! You never were! Just a m
ale who decided to play god with innocent lives! How many did you kill, Vartra? How many more will suffer just to see your will done?”
As he paused for breath and to get a better grip on the brazier’s stand, T’Chebbi called out to him.
“Tallinu, step back from the brazier! I can’t allow you to damage the temple!”
Like one demented, he ignored her, continuing to pull at it until it began to topple. Dancing back out of the way of the burning coals, he headed for the other side.
“Tallinu, stop, or I’ll shoot!” she yelled, watching in horrified fascination as the fire tumbled across the flagstones to the floor-length seasonal tapestries that hung between the pillars.
She looked back at Kaid. He was standing beyond the righthand brazier, pulling on the panels that hung there. Taking careful aim, she sent a bolt of energy to hit the floor centimeters from his feet. Chips of stone flew into the air, and she saw him flinch as one hit him. He took no notice and continued to haul on the tapestry.
“Tallinu, stop!”
She heard a ripping sound as the panel came loose at one corner. Behind her, the door was pushed open. She had no time and no choice. Her shot hit him cleanly on the shoulder. He collapsed forward onto the tapestry, his weight finally dragging it and its retaining pole to the ground on top of him.
Killian hadn’t been lying. The best part of a week had passed before the weather had cleared up enough for them to undertake the salvage trip into the mountains. Because of his specialized knowledge, Rezac, heavily cloaked and hooded in an effort to conceal his alienness, had accompanied Kris and Davies.
The trip had taken several days as the only device they’d had to cut the laser free from the ship’s chassis was the energy gun Davies had brought with him. Thanks to it, other tools weren’t in short supply: it made quick work of the Valtegan’s locked toolbox.
The wagon they’d taken with them hadn’t been large enough to transport all they thought they’d need back to Kaladar. A second pile of less essential items had been left stowed safely in the rear of the gutted vehicle. Once they’d delivered the first load, the cart and the guards would return for it.
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