Child of Time (33 page)

“What is the deal with the bonded people and the
chips?” Kiyan was curious about some strange things he had
noticed.

“The bonded Voth are unable to control themselves.
The Kayloo infect their minds and the bonded Voth begin making
unsound decisions. They nearly destroyed our civilization and
brought us into a technological dark age about five hundred years
ago. The remaining unbound Voth saved us by stopping the kayloo.”
The guard seemed to hold a grudge against the Kayloo.

“So why didn't you just get rid of them or stop them
from bonding?” Kiyan wanted to find out all he could.

“We would have but they have certain skills so we let
them live among us. They built just about everything around here
and they have abilities that are very beneficial to our society. My
sister is one of the top healers. Kiyan began to realize what was
happening.” The guard seemed perfectly comfortable with the fact
that his sister was a virtual slave.

“Bonded Voth are like second class citizens or
something?” Kiyan probed a little deeper into the issue.

“Ya, it’s pretty normal. I mean I was sad when my
sister was walking down the street and a Kayloo attacked her. But
you know some of them live pretty good lives. My sister has an
apartment at the hospital and they give her several hours a day off
just to do whatever she wants. For a bonded Voth she has a pretty
good life. She may even marry another bonded Voth someday.” Kiyan
was a little shocked at how resigned the guard was.

“
Have you learned anything?”
Theo interrupted
Kiyan as he was about melt the cell bars and throttle the
guard.

“
Oh come on I was interrogating my guard.”
Kiyan decided against the throttling.

“
Your guard?”
Theo was laughing. “
You
already got captured?”

“
I did it on purpose. Getting captured I mean. It
was an excellent opportunity to question people.”
Kiyan
proceeded to tell Theo everything he had learned so far.

“
So they are not just enslaving kayloo but their
own people?”
Theo seemed as shocked as Kiyan at the news.
“
You said that the kayloo brought on a technological dark age? I
wonder why kayloo would do something like that. They are usually an
intelligent peaceful race that avoids conflict. There has to be
something else. Keep up the work and be careful.”

Kiyan reconnected with Fred to talk over the new
information. Fred was also surprised and had to be convinced to
refrain from throttling Kiyan's guard. “
Oh by the way, Addy just
connected with me. She managed to teleport in undetected but some
kayloo reported her and a lone kayloo is illegal. She is hiding in
a garden of some kind.”

“
I don't know a better place for her to hide. I
haven't connected with Ray yet but I am sure he is fine
somewhere.”
Kiyan hoped that Ray was fine. “
I think I have
found out everything I can here so it is time to move on. I learned
a lot from my guard so we should be able to blend in better. When
we find our kayloo we should be able to move about with few
restrictions.”

“
Alright you break out first, I will cover
you.”
Fred stood up in his cell to watch. Kiyan activated his
life bending and looked at the guard. Sending out tendrils of
energy he began to calm the chaotic energy patterns emanating from
the guard. The guard began to stagger as the energy settled into a
slow even pulse. Kiyan slowed it down a little more and the guard
collapsed on the ground sound asleep. Kiyan used the opportunity to
erase any memory of the previous conversation. Kiyan melted enough
of the bars to slip through then returned them to their original
shape. Hearing a shout from the other guard Kiyan looked up in time
to see Fred's metal web releasing a charge as it wrapped around the
guard. Fred was soon free of the cell and had collected the web off
the guard.

“Come on let's go.” Kiyan activated his cloak and
Fred followed his lead. They had some difficulty with the security
panel at the exit but Kiyan was able to hack it and override the
doors. A few flights of stairs and they were in the lobby. Staying
low and edging around the room no one noticed the minor distortions
caused by their cloaks. They waited until someone was leaving the
automatic doors to follow. An alarm sounded about the time they
left and several officers converged on the location of the person
they had been following. Leaving the commotion they went into a
dark corner and decloaked.

“What do you think caused the alarm?” Fred looked a
little worried.

“My chip.” Kiyan had noticed someone was following
them.

“I can remove it if you want.” Fred was glancing
behind them as well.

“No, I think I can use it.” Kiyan made a quick turn
in between two buildings then made another turn. Stopping around
the corner he waited with Fred. The Voth rounded the corner and was
surprised by the ambush but was not unprepared. He blocked Kiyan's
moves with a skill that Kiyan had only seen in one other person.
“Hi Ray. Why didn't you contact me?”

“There are telepaths here and I didn't want to risk
exposing myself.” Ray brushed off his hands as he glanced back
around the corner.

“Telepathy is sanctioned here. Why would there be
telepaths making scans?” Kiyan was almost sure he knew the
answer.

“There are four casts here. On a scale of one to ten
with ten being the most powerful, the ruling Voth are a ten with
unbonded Voth being a seven. Bonded Voth would be a two or three
and a kayloo is less than one.” Ray explained as quickly as he
could. “An unbonded Voth would be the best class to escape
attention but if I get scanned closely there is no way I could
escape being recognized as a kayloo.”

“Just a moment.” Kiyan sensed his implant activating
and attempting to send his coordinates back to command. He was able
to rewrite the code on the implant and transmit coordinates going
the other direction. “We should be able to avoid detection better
if we go as bonded kayloo.” Ray nodded as he shifted into a small
black winged lizard. Flapping to Kiyan's shoulder he wrapped
himself around his neck. Kiyan touched his mind and they left the
alley.

“Addy is this way.” Kiyan let Fred take the lead as
they walked along the street. Kiyan kept his eyes low and stepped
out of the way of any kaylooless Voth and he hardly got a second
glance. Taking a turn they came into a large square filled with
trees and plants of various kinds. Fred made his way towards a
corner and sat on a bench. He looked at a couple young men wearing
police uniforms looking around the square. Both of them had kayloo
perched on their shoulders. When the men moved to the other side of
the square, Kiyan heard a soft rustle in the vegetation behind him.
Glancing at Fred he saw a vine wrapping around his torso.

Glancing up as he felt his mental defenses being
tested, he saw one of the bonded Voth coming straight at him. Kiyan
reached out with his mind and interfaced with the Voth's chip. His
virus made short work of it and the Voth collapsed. Kiyan made him
forget about them as both he and Fred made their escape. Kiyan
could sense the confusion and lack of direction for several blocks
before the consciousness realized its freedom and closed itself
off. Kiyan was glad when he sensed the Voth transmitting the virus
to his kayloo just before the Voth disappeared.

“Now what?” Fred waited for Kiyan to form a plan.

Kiyan thought for a minute before responding. “If we
could only find someone that knows about the fragment. I might be
able to learn more.”

--------

Theo had teleported himself undetected down to the
planet after hearing Kiyan's message. After observing several high
level Voth he decided to follow one for a while. He was pleasantly
surprised when the Voth mentioned a powerful artifact. He wasn't as
pleasantly surprised when the Voth mentioned a drakken ambassador.
Theo discovered the anti-telepath blocker the hard way and was
almost discovered when he nearly lost control of his energy. A
deeper probe of the Voth mind didn't give him much more than
fragmented memories. Time to find out the old fashioned way. Theo
waited until the Voth was in his office after telling a guard that
he didn't want to be interrupted.

Theo materialized after raising a sound dampening
field around the room and the Voth nearly jumped out of his skin at
the sight of him. “Who are you!? Guards!”

“They can't hear you. I'm Prometheus, captain of the
of the protectorate vessel Odyssey. I have a few questions. What do
the drakken want? Better yet I think I know what they want. What
did they offer you for it?”

“I don't know what you are talking about. GUARDS!”
The Voth wasn't cooperating.

“OK let me guess. The drakken sent an ambassador when
they discovered how well your planet is defended so they tried
diplomacy for once. They promised to not invade your planet in
exchange for a useless artifact. You decided that the trade seemed
a fair one and also a cheap exchange for the safety of your planet.
How close am I?” Theo could tell he was close by the look on the
face of the Voth.

“How do you know so much? Yes they did offer us
safety if we gave them the artifact. They said they have millions
of ships and could just fly them into our defenses until we were
broken without making a dent in their fleet. What can you offer us?
A couple hundred battleships? No I know when to stay on the winning
side. But why don't I at least listen to what you have to propose,
take a seat.” The Voth leaned forward in his chair and set his
elbows on the desk.

Theo sat down on the chair. He wasn't that surprised
when the constraints snapped into place. “You know this isn't a
very good start of negotiations.” Being non caporal has its
benefits. Theo moved his hand through the constraints like they
were air. So let me correct a few things for you. “One, if the
drakken get the artifact they will have millions of ships and
drakken to crew them. As it is they only have a few thousand clone
sequences available so they can only man a few ships. Two, six
protectorate battle ships defeated ten thousand drakken ships in
battle at one time. If I sent a couple hundred ships here we could
easily stand up to a million drakken and win. And last but not
least. I could decimate your planet's defenses with a couple ships
without sustaining a scratch.”

“We don't respond well to threats, lies or empty
boasts. Our government leaders will be meeting later today to
accept the drakken offer. You can kill me but you will never win
your war and our people value our privacy so we won't be letting an
offer that gives us just that slip by.” The Voth settled back in
his chair with a smug look on his face.

“OK I will admit that there was some boasting there
but it wasn't idle. I didn't lie about anything and I would call it
more of a warning than a threat. Two pieces of information for you.
Drakken are liars and the protectorate doesn't look kindly on
slavery.” Theo stood up and leaned over the desk. “You leave me
with few options. You live on the kayloo home world yet you enslave
them. I think I have made my decision.”

“If you want a war then I am sure we can give you
one. There is more to the Voth than meets the eye.” The Voth made
few rapid taps on his desk and the door burst open. Theo
disappeared as a couple plasma blasts streaked through where he
used to be.

---------

Kiyan had learned about Theo's visit. There had been
a shift in the attitude of the bonded Voth. They had stepped up
scans and just about every corner had a Voth and a large kayloo
standing on guard. Kiyan and Fred still hardly warranted a second
look in spite of the stepped up security. Wandering around the city
hadn't been very informative accept he never saw a single unbonded
Voth doing any manual labor. There were large kayloo being used as
beast of burden walking down the street. In one spot Kiyan saw a
Voth cleaning windows while a gigantic spider suspended him above
the street. Further on he found several earth type kayloo repairing
a patch of road. After walking past the road work the two of them
went into an alley in order to cut between two buildings to the
next street. Kiyan paused when he got a message from Theo about
Jeremy. He was about to argue when someone walked into the alley
behind them.

“I, uh I didn't mean to interrupt anyone, I'm going
to go now.” The startled face of the girl with the brightly
feathered kayloo around her neck felt familiar to Kiyan when he saw
her.

“She has been following us.” Fred pointed at the
suddenly scared looking girl.

“Why didn't you say so sooner?” Kiyan hoped she
wouldn't give them away.

“I wasn't sure until she followed us in here.” Fred
was about to say something else when the kayloo shifted into an
eagle form and launched itself at them. Kiyan bent the air behind
the girl into a dense wall while the bird scratched at Fred's rock
hard skin. Ray was hovering over the girl snarling at her when she
tried to run.

“Please don't hurt her. Freya was only trying to
protect me.” The Voth girl was cowering under Ray but Kiyan could
feel her probing at his defenses.

“So you are a telepath? We don't want to hurt you or
Freya.” Kiyan glanced at the snapping bird wrapped in Addy's vines.
“Who are you?”

“I'm no one. Just a simple Voth. Don't make me go
back to the overlords.” The girl stopped trying to access their
minds.

“Well “no one”, as you can see we are just normal
Voth and want to just get on with our lives.” Kiyan motioned to
Fred to release Freya and recalled Ray, he was about to turn and
leave.

“No. You're not Voth.” The girl was still nervously
standing there when they turned back around.

“How are we not Voth please enlighten us.” Kiyan was
still sure he knew her somehow.