Child of Time (35 page)

Kiyan along with the rest of the Voth and kayloo
assembled along the road through the center of the undercity. The
Voth overlords set up some loud speakers and began booming out
orders. “Dangerous aliens have escaped our custody and we have
Intel that they are down here. Bring them forward and no one will
be punished. Any attempts to conceal them are sanctioned.” Kiyan
realized that by sanctioned the Voth meant that the chip would
force people to obey.

The surrounding Voth glanced at Kiyan before he
connected with them and told them to turn him in. There was some
resistance until he explained his plan. He also connected with
Jeremy and told him the same thing. There was a yell as Jeremy
played his part and fought attempts to turn him over. Kiyan did
likewise and was rewarded with half a dozen blasters being trained
on him and a thorough search. Kiyan and Jeremy were both heavily
chained and not a single word was exchanged during the climb.

This time they were locked in force field cells
instead of the metal ones like before. A quick glance around told
Kiyan that three walls were black and the fourth was clear with two
guards posted outside. Kiyan hadn't been in the cell long before
one of the walls faded leaving a clear force field with the Voth
officer from before sitting on the other side. Behind him was
another darkened wall.

“For an alien spy you don't have any gadgets. You
even look Voth.” The officer was glaring at Kiyan with a look of
disgust.

“I don't need a lot of gadgets. You know my people
will be contacting you if I don't check in with them.” Kiyan
disabled his holographic disguise removing the ridges and marking
of a Voth revealing his human facial features.

“Nice trick. Some sort of implants? To tell the
truth, one of your people has already contacted us. He was, how
shall I say, skittish. Now who are you and what is your mission? I
shouldn't have to tell you we have ways of convincing you to be
truthful.”

“My name is Kiyan, I'm the commander of the
battleship Avenger.”

“You seem awfully young to be a commander besides
everyone is a battleship commander these days.” Kiyan detected an
annoyed note in the officer’s voice. What is your mission?

Kiyan walked up the clear force field separating
them. “You will know soon enough.”

“I say now is soon enough. Tell me.” The Voth stood
up and walked up to the other side of the force field. “I should
warn you. You see we can draw the atmosphere out of your cell and I
can watch you suffocate or I could have some poisonous gas pumped
into the cell with you.”

“Oh I shudder at the thought.” Kiyan's environmental
systems would protect him in either scenario.

The Voth tapped his wrist and a holographic screen
sprang up across his arm. He looked at it for a moment before
continuing. “Your fellow spy just told us everything. I'm just
giving you the opportunity to tell us of your own accord. Funny
that we should go looking for two spies and find two, just not the
same two we were looking for.”

A quick telepathic scan on Kiyan's part revealed a
thoroughly cooperating Jeremy. Jeremy informed him that they were
telling him that Kiyan had sold him out. “Funny that you should
mention that. You see Jeremy was just supposed to be a distraction
so he never knew the real plan.”

Kiyan watched the brewing storm in the Voth's face.
“I would normally just have you chipped but we tried that once. I
will give you one last chance. Tell me what your mission here is
and how you disabled your chip.” There was a cold tone in his
voice

“An ace up the sleeve.” Kiyan almost laughed at the
expression on the Voth's face.

“A what?” The frustration was becoming evident.

“Oh, I'm sorry. It’s an earth thing. I cheated.”
Kiyan burst into laughter much to the rage of the Voth.

“You should have cooperated. I could have made your
life easier.” The Voth pushed a button and ordered a telepath. “Now
I will have my answers and there is nothing you can do about it. I
am told having thoughts and memories ripped out of your head is a
painful thing. I can only hope they were telling the truth.”

It was only a minute before the telepath arrived and
was on the other side of the force field. His eyes widened as he
realized who Kiyan was. “
What do you want me to do child of
time?”

“
Tell him that I was able to infect the under
cities with a virus that disables chips. Tell him that in a few
hours the virus will be completed and the under city residents are
going to rebel.”
Kiyan watched as the telepath passed on his
message to the alarmed Voth.

“A virus! How badly is it spread?” The Voth officer
almost looked terrified.

“He said that it has been released in all the under
cities.” The telepath stepped out of the officer's frantic dash
from the room. He glanced at Kiyan before following the officer.
Kiyan was trying to decide on the next course of action when the
darkened wall on the other side of the room melted. Kiyan stared at
the drakken for a moment before it spoke.

“So one of the protectorate whelps has got himself
caught. Pray tell what is your name? I mean the title you get when
you become a protector.” The drakken's tone might have been
considered cultured if not for the growl.

“What my people call me or your people call me?”
Kiyan paused as he examined the drakken. “You know I can't tell you
apart very well, you almost all look like lizards.” This jibe
caused the drakken to snarl revealing his yellow teeth. “Your
people have called me Star Killer.” Kiyan watched as the drakken
bristled.

“It is a myth, the Star Killer does not exist.
Whoever you are doesn't matter. When we get the artifact then we
will open our portal and then we will be able to erase the
protectorate from the face of this universe.” The drakken had lost
his civilized tone as he snarled at Kiyan. “Your death is
sure.”

“Now I was wondering, how did you convince the Voth
that they should trust lying scum like the drakken instead of us?”
Kiyan scanned the force field as he talked.

“We showed them the might of the Drakken Empire
compared to your pathetic fleet of a couple hundred ships.” The
drakken made his disgust for the protectorate show in his voice and
face. Kiyan finally isolated the frequency of the force field and
tuned his shield emitters accordingly.

“Ha, I have a hard time believing you can call it
might when six of our ships crushed a fleet ten thousand strong.
Kiyan watched as the drakken drew a long thin blade. “You and your
blades.” Kiyan grew a couple ice blades of his own behind his
back.

“I will claim the honor of slaying you myself. The
drakken went to the panel by the door and punched a few buttons.
Kiyan was ready when the force field dissipated. Ice as hard as
metal met the drakken blade with a clang. The Voth guards came at
the sound but stood with blasters drawn as they watched the
spinning and dancing fighters. The drakken was far more skilled
with a blade than Kiyan had anticipated. The fight was over soon
enough as Kiyan parried a slice with one sword and planted the
other blade in the drakken's chest. The drakken blade fell to the
floor as the frost spread rapidly over the twitching drakken. The
drakken's final snarl was frozen in place as he fell to the floor.
Kiyan sensed a plasma blast dissipate into his shields. Turning to
the guards Kiyan laughed.

“My quarrel isn't exactly with you, let me pass
unhindered and no harm will come to you.” Time seemed to slow as
the next blasts hurtled towards him. The blasts were still moving
fast enough that a couple hit Kiyan but blue arcs jumped from him
and split the air with a thunderclap. When Kiyan recovered from the
loss of energy he saw the still bodies of the guards laying where
they landed. Another scan told Kiyan that Jeremy was only a few
hallways further on. The first guard that Kiyan encountered never
knew what attacked him. Another guard drew his weapon before a
blast of air slammed him into a wall. Metal bending the door to
Jeremy's room proved easy when Kiyan encountered the lock. Kiyan
shifted into his ice form when he sensed the Voth waiting in
ambush. Reaching out with his mind he felt the moisture in the air.
Kiyan could even detect the water in the bodies of the Voth.
Carefully he cooled the water until he sensed the unconscious Voth
collapsing. Stepping into the frosty room Kiyan saw Jeremy behind a
force field.

“Took you long enough. Neat trick causing
hypothermia.” Jeremy was in his water form and to Kiyan's surprise
had fingers of ice fire flickering over his body. “Come on, you
going to let me out?”

“I'm working on it.” Kiyan interfaced with the
security console and began breaking the encryption codes. “What's
with the ice fire?”

“Ya about that, apparently I can only do it when you
are nearby and ice forming.” Jeremy proceeded to flash blue flames
around his cell. “It actually feels warm to me like I'm drawing the
heat out of everything.” The barriers dissolved and the duo began
working their way to an exit.

“
Help us.”
The telepathic message crashed into
Kiyan's mind stunning him for a moment. When he recovered he knew
what he needed to do.

“Come on, we need to go up.” Kiyan began sprinting as
ice fire erupted across his glassy body.

“Why up?” Jeremy was running to keep up.

“We have to distract the Voth soldiers. They are
hunting the kayloo trying to eradicate them.” Kiyan vaulted a
railing and jumped off a wall over a startled guard.

“What about the under city?” Jeremy parted and flowed
around the bewildered guard without missing a step.

“Fred and the others should have them sealed. It’s
the bonded Voth up here that need help.” Kiyan spied a stairwell
with a clear central shaft. He leapt into the shaft and free fell
for a moment before firebending and blasting himself upwards.
Jeremy followed a bit slower but still flowing up the stairs as if
gravity were merely a suggestion. Kiyan found that ice bending the
air above him and heating the air below him increased his speed
exponentially. A thin metal roof yielded with an explosion of
liquid metal.

“Now what?” Jeremy landed on the top of the roof next
to Kiyan as they looked from the tallest building in the city.

“When the cold icy wind blows and the winged men fall
from the sky.” Kiyan understood a part of the prophecy in that
moment. He felt the wonderful chill setting in as he began bending
ice fire as much as he could feeding it with the cold at his core.
Opening his eyes he realized that he couldn't see anything but
blinding blue flames stretching into the sky. Using his life
bending Kiyan could sense what he couldn't see. Drawing heat from
the atmosphere Kiyan could feel the cold slipping away as he grew
warmer. Sensing a disturbance above him Kiyan turned his mind
upward and sensed swirling moisture condensing into dense clouds.
Kiyan could feel Jeremy bending the clouds into a storm but he
could also sense that Jeremy was running out of energy. Electricity
kept from Kiyan to the clouds and a dark shadow fell over the land
as the clouds spread. Swirling snow glowing from the light of
Kiyan's flames and the flashes of lightning was soon the only light
that reached the ground. Kiyan felt his mind expand as more and
more energy passed through his body. Soon he could sense the city
and the residents. A wash of terror from the Voth about the black
storm that raged overhead and the joy in the minds of the chipped
Voth and kayloo as they were freed buffeted Kiyan from all
sides.

Kiyan felt the fear of one of the freed Voth as if it
were his own. Casting his senses around he felt the surroundings
shift in an instant. The feeling of being in two places felt
strangely detached to Kiyan. Time moved slowly as Kiyan looked back
at the top of the building with a light like a blue star burning
atop through the swirling snow and flashing lightning. On his other
side amidst the queer shadows cast by the blue star in the
unnatural darkness a Voth soldier was firing a blaster at a Voth
and his kayloo. Kiyan walked over to the slow moving ball of plasma
and reached out to touch it. Kiyan felt a flicker of energy as he
absorbed the heated plasma. Attempting to airbend Kiyan found that
the air felt thick and strange. Pushing some at the Voth there was
a clap as air was split and rejoined in an instant. The blast of
air crushed metal and stone like it was dust. The force missed the
Voth but the aftershock caught him. Kiyan turned back to the Voth
and his kayloo and noted the frozen expression of stunned surprise.
Another sense of rage and Kiyan was half a world away fighting a
dozen soldiers attempting to bust a door in after a kayloo. There
was a frigid ting in the air as Kiyan melted their weapons.

Snow swirled around Kiyan as he glanced around.
Scenery on this part of the planet was different that where Kiyan
had been used to. There were no mountains here, just plains
stretching into the horizon. A couple silvery flashes under the
boiling clouds caught Kiyan's attention. His senses were heightened
enough that even at the distance he could distinguish the falling
shape of a person. Kiyan thickened the air near the ground to break
their fall. To his surprise they both shifted into full sized
dragons. One was a pale blue and the other was a deep red. Kiyan
felt the presence of a couple more dragons near his other location.
Kiyan felt more fear and flickered to a new location. Half a dozen
kayloo were surrounded in a city square by soldiers. Kiyan was
about to bend the plants to his will when a green dragon dropped
from the sky. Kiyan watched as the plants twisted and swirled
around the terrified soldiers. In another moment Kiyan was looking
at a wild landscape and a few helpless Voth soldiers. The dragon
caught Kiyan's attention as it began circling him threateningly.
Attempts to speak resulted in a raging burst of ice fire and Kiyan
was back in his own body.