Child of Time (29 page)

“He said he wanted to fight them. I wonder who “them”
is? He could have killed me when he had the chance but he protected
me.” Kiyan decided that his questions could be answered soon enough
when he saw Drovak begin to stir.

Finding himself restrained Drovak looked around as
much as his restraints allowed him. When he saw Kiyan he paused for
a minute. Continuing he recognized Kendra as the ascended woman
that had killed him a lifetime ago. The third person referred to as
Theo seemed vaguely familiar also.

“Even if he is the conscience of a drakken how do we
know that he isn't some sort of spy?” Drovak watched as Kendra eyed
him cautiously.

“He could have valuable information about the drakken
if he is a true defector.” Kiyan appeared to be somewhat on
Drovak's side.

Savos took the opportunity to enter the room at that
moment. Upon seeing Drovak on the bed he stopped in his tracks. “I
never knew that they looked so much like us.”

“We believe that they were thorans in their universe
but that they evolved on a different path.” Drovak noticed that the
one called Theo referred to him as one of them. Kiyan might be the
closest thing he had to an ally.

“We helped clone him because you asked us too Kiyan.
What do you want to do with him?” Kendra waited for Kiyan to
respond.

Kiyan walked up to the containment field and opened
his mind. Connecting with Drovak's was difficult but without
resistance. Kiyan found himself in a world of pain and slavery. He
felt the familiar strangling sense of hopelessness. There was more,
lifetimes more. Some short, some longer. Each ending violently.
There was a flicker of recognition as Kiyan gasped for air once
again in his own reality. Drovak lay quietly with his eyes closed.
There was an apologetic sense emanating from his mind.

Drovak opened his eyes again as he felt the force
fields holding him dissipate. Standing up beside the bed he touched
the containment field and hardly flinched as the energy discharged
into his hand. Withdrawing his hand he turned to Theo. “I know you,
timebender, dark bane, shadow slayer, warden of light, dark dragon.
The dark one fears you. I felt his fear as he consumed my life
energy.” Drovak fastened his eyes on Kendra. “You are the white
dragon, second amongst the ascended. The white lady, world
destroyer, one of the first human ascended. You killed me once, I
will never forget the look of sorrow on your face as I died. You
and your husband are feared among the drakken.” Gazing at Kiyan for
a moment he continued. “Boy, you fought a fleet single handedly and
might have won if you had tapped your full power.”

“I'm not a boy and I lost control when two fighters
fired on me. Kiyan felt a flicker of annoyance cross his face.”
From the compliment or the designation boy or the failure he didn't
know.

“No more a boy than I. You felt the lifetimes I have
lived as I felt yours. I felt your mind once before. The day the
stars burned. If you had burned the fleet I would never have met
you. I pledge my life to your service, star killer, allow me the
honor of pledging any remaining lifetimes you see fit to grant me
to fighting the dark one and his minions.” Drovak clamped his hand
over his chest and sank to his knees.

“How do I know we can trust you? I felt your pain and
suffering serving the dark one but how do I know you won't return
to his service.” Kiyan shook his head at the alien memory's still
burning in his mind.

“Does not the ascended free races that are enslaved?
Am I unworthy of freedom? For more than seventy lifetimes I have
fought the dark lords but only now might I have a chance to
actually strike a blow against their carefully laid plans. The dark
one wants to feed on the energy of this universe.” Looking back up
into Kiyan's eyes he continued. “They found a way to kill an
ascended and undo all his work. I know what they did.”

“What are you talking about? The dark one might be
able to overcome some of the newly ascended but he is trapped in
another universe.” Theo looked like he was having difficulty
believing what he was hearing. The flashes of light around his eyes
gave an indication of the storm brewing in his mind.

“Merlin, he was a human child once but became an
ascended that traveled time protecting the future.” Drovak regained
his feet. “Let me help while there is still time.”

“Who is Merlin?” Kiyan remembered a story from his
time on earth about the evil wizard Merlin that had ruled Europe
after King Uther died as a young man. Even then Kiyan had felt like
the story was wrong somehow.

“Merlin was a human child in the future that ascended
and returned to the past. He foiled many plots over the centuries.”
Drovak paced inside the containment field. Your timeline may not
have crossed his yet.

“How far in the future, what earth year.” Kendra
interrogated impatiently.

“The earth year 2023.” Drovak paused his pacing for a
moment.

“In 2015 all life was lost on earth due to nuclear
poisoning. How can he be from the year 2023?” Kiyan was puzzled for
a moment.

“Before or more correctly, after he died he preserved
the past. With his death the timeline was rewritten and the future
he was born in was lost.” Theo explained a little temporal
mechanics.

“But as you know, ascended beings exist in part as
temporal energy. The changed timeline shattered the future.
Merlin's fragment survived, at least for a short time. A moment or
a few days depending on the amount of temporal energy. He lives and
dies in that time. However with the reset history the fragment is
stranded. You could never get there.” Drovak stopped pacing as
looked at Kiyan. “The only way is to follow his footsteps and undo
the damage done to the past.”

“No, there is another way. He was part of the past so
his absence left a hole that can only be filled by him. Drovak you
underestimate our powers. The fragment or island universe is big
enough for us to travel too. A ship would never make it but a
couple individuals would have a good chance.” Theo paused for a few
seconds while he looked at Kiyan. “I can send you and one other
person Kiyan, choose wisely”.

“Why me, shouldn't one of you go? I'm the youngest
one here.” Kiyan felt a knot growing in his stomach.

“What you say is true. However the agents of the dark
one will be stranded on this island also. If we change the timeline
they might seek to damage it again. You are the only one that can
be sure of success.” Kendra took Kiyan's shoulders in hand and
looked into his eyes. “We can only walk a path once. Our choices
can be undone but it involves changing the flow of time. You can
live the same day twice. Merlin must live in order for the past to
be repaired.”

“Who should I take?” Kiyan asked after fighting the
idea and realizing Kendra was right.

“Any one you choose. It is your future and your
dreams.” Theo spoke solemnly.

“Ray. He has been in every dream or vision I have
had.” Kiyan finally chose.

“Good, meet me on my ship and we will send you off.”
Theo abruptly disappeared with a flash.

Kiyan made some arrangements for Drovak after Kendra
left then prepared himself for what was to come. Ray joined him
physically a few minutes before the teleport but had been
telepathically connected most of the time.

“
You know I will stand by you.”
The
reassurance emanated from Ray like a soothing breeze. Kiyan
activated the transport sequence and rematerialized on the Odyssey.
Atlas the ship's AI greeted him and directed him to where Theo was
busy making scans of the timelines.

“He was telling the truth. It does look like an
ascended moved through the past making changes or preventing them I
should say. There is a gap where he was but isn't. The residual
distortions came from the future but are dissipating. That timeline
is dying, without it we will have to rebuild the past and an
undertaking like that might tear earth apart.”

“How do I get there?” Kiyan's curiosity was getting
to him in spite of the weight of the world on his shoulder.

“You are going to slide through an eddy in the river
of time so to say. I will direct you and Ray but you will be the
one passing through the vortex. Time is connected to space where
there is space. Where space is there is time but where there is
time there isn't always space. It is the sum of the energy
generated as space displaces itself. Time is what bridges the gap
between the past and future. The link has not been severed yet but
it is weak. If it is severed the future will cease and a new future
will take its place. Small changes might cause eddies but something
like an ascended dying is like a dam in a river. It pools up then
flows in another course.” Theo stopped when he saw that Kiyan had a
worried look on his face.

“What happens if we get stranded there?” Kiyan's
stomach felt worse.

“Your gift is unique as well as powerful. You are
able to return to an exact moment in time and space. If the link is
severed, return to when it wasn't and we can guide you back.” Theo
hoped that Kiyan's powers were enough to survive on a fading island
universe.

“What happens if I succeed?”

“You won't notice it but the universes will merge and
become one. The past will flow into the future and they will become
one again. If you are successful we will know before you do. Theo
motioned to Ray and told Kiyan that he was ready. After asking both
of them if they were ready he connected with Kiyan.
“Open your
senses, feel the flow around you. Let go and become one with the
flow.”
Kiyan felt Theo guiding his senses toward a point. The
point was different than when he had used his senses to look around
him. The point hadn't happened yet. Kiyan felt the familiar
sensations of temporal distortion only this time it was blue light
that was the last to fade. When everything was dark Kiyan realized
the difference between going back into his own past and traveling
through time. The burning sensation was absent, he felt....
untethered, like he could be anywhere any time. He caught his mind
wandering when he saw glimpses of earth engulfed in dense
radioactive clouds. His senses were heightened but even so he
couldn't sense a single life form under the clouds. There was a
nudge from Theo towards the point so Kiyan focused on it. He felt
ages pass around him as he moved. A sensation unlike any he had
ever felt. It was like watching a video in high speed but still
seeing it like at normal speed. Reaching the point in time he
looked at a landscape ravaged by time. At first thinking himself on
the moon from the looks of the landscape he realized his error when
he looked up and saw a similar object shining brightly in the black
sky. Earth was dead. “
Let go, find the light.”
Kiyan decided
that he was in the right time but the wrong place. Focusing on the
point Kiyan felt it drawing nearer but it felt like swimming from
water into air. Substance but less than before. “
Let go,
the
words” felt distant as Theo spoke through the link. Releasing his
grip on space he felt a sensation of drifting. Focusing on the
point he felt it drawing him like a magnet. After what seemed like
an eternity Kiyan sensed a change in the flow. It was weaker here,
much weaker. Time was dying here and with it space. Kiyan felt the
light before he opened his eyes.

Tall plants surrounded him on all sides. Hearing a
rustle behind him Kiyan turned and found Ray. “I was worried I had
lost you.”

“And miss out on this?” Ray's last scales disappeared
and holographic hair shimmered into place revealing the face of a
young man. “Actually I was more like an anchor behind a boat. Our
telepathic connection pulled me through after you. It was a strange
sensation seeing or feeling, whatever it was, the death of
earth.”

Kiyan smiled at Ray's joke even as the complete
devastation haunted him. “This is corn.” Kiyan's HUD gave a
detailed description of the plant. “It went extinct on earth in the
Mesopotamian Empire. Yet here is a whole field of it.”

“I dare say that we will find many strange things on
this world.” Ray took an ear and sampled it. “It is even good for
food. Humans should not have let it go extinct.”

Kiyan laughed. “The timeline we lived in should not
have happened. It was the result of the drakken killing
Merlin.”

“I like this world. Come on let's save Merlin.” Ray
began looking around in an attempt to find out where he was. “By
the way how are we supposed to know who he is?

“We find the drakken. Their only purpose here is to
kill Merlin. We find them we find Merlin.” Kiyan accessed his
implants and found several signals being propagated around him.
Upon accessing several of the signals he was nearly overwhelmed by
the voices of millions of people. Making a note of that frequency
range he scanned other frequencies. Finding a faint one he
discovered that it was connected to billions of linked systems.
Scanning the systems he discovered what was known as the internet.
The amount of data being stored on the web of connected devices was
astonishing. Detailed information about weather and the surface of
the earth. Global positioning satellites were the next thing he
found. Tuning his implants to the GPS frequencies and storing the
information about the earth Kiyan glanced up at a few clouds
forming in the sky. It is going to rain soon.

Ray widened his eyes when Kiyan showed him the
information he had gathered. “Where do we start?”

“Let's see if we can get the drakken to do the heavy
lifting and let them find us.” Kiyan had a look that Ray decided he
didn't like. “The drakken are sure to have an intelligence network
here and they tracked Merlin to this time. They should at least
have a good idea of where Merlin is. If we start making a scene
someone is sure to come deal with us. The information I downloaded
would seem to indicate that there is a city near here. We might
start there.”