Only Human (18 page)

“I understand,” Tychon said. “But we are in
a hurry today. I have so little time in my schedule, you see…”

The Delphian teacher looked around,
smiling. “So where is Kiran? We hadn’t expected him back so soon.”

Tychon’s eyes snapped to her. “What?”

Her smile wavered. “Aren’t you dropping him
off?”

Nova felt her knees weakening. “He’s not
here?”

“Ah, no,” she said. “He’s been on Delphi, hasn’t
he?”

“I think I’d know if he was on Delphi,” Tychon
said, barely controlling his voice. “Why do
you
think he’s there?”

“Major,” the administrator looked panicked.
“I’m sure we will sort all this–"

“Where is my son!”

The administrator used his wrist array to call
for another supervisor to assist, no doubt afraid that Tychon was about to
dismember him on the spot. Nova thought his fears might be well-founded.

Tychon glanced at Nova. “Jelani,” he
growled.

“Your… your staff came here,” the
administrator said. “Not Shan Jelani. A few days ago. They had your sigil. It
all seemed in order. You wanted to meet Kiran for a holiday on Delphi, they
said. Winter solstice in the mountains. He was so excited.”

“My
staff
?” Tychon gestured toward
Nova. “This is my staff! And no one carries my sigil. Did they say that they
were on my squad?” He paused for a moment. “Were they even Delphian?”

“Well, no. A Caspian and a... a  Human. And
a K’lar woman.”

Tychon rounded on the Delphian tutor, his
fury blazing. “
You
should know better. You know that Phera would never
permit him to be taken off-planet without a Delphian mentor. Nor would I.”  He
pointed at the building behind her. “Those are officers’ children in a war
zone. What were you thinking?”

Nova stepped closer to him and placed her
hand onto his back. The two staff members practically cowered before them now,
knowing his anger was justified, afraid of the repercussions to come. Grandson
to Phera, Kiran was no ordinary officer’s child. “Major,” she said softly. “We
need to get back in the air.”

Tychon closed his eyes, breathing deeply.
“Yes, you’re right.” He directed another angry glare at the staffers before
turning away. “You two had better get some explanations together. Until then,
collect every scrap of video you have of those people and send it to Colonel
Carras on Targon.”

Nova hurried ahead of him into the ship.
Taking the communications console, she contacted Feyd’s traffic control to
request an investigation into any flight plan that may have been filed for this
stopover. There was no record of any delegation from Delphi among the volume of
flights that passed through here each day. She requested a log from both nearby
charted gates to be transferred to Targon.

Tychon had launched the Eagle and headed
for the jumpsite back to Targon while she was still engaged with the Union
controller.

“You don’t think he’s on Delphi?” she asked
when she had closed the com link.

“Phera would never stand for this nonsense.
If there is something legal that Jelani can do to get his hands on Kiran, he
would not interfere. But kidnapping? Lying to the staff here? That's not something
he'd tolerate. See if you can find out where he is. If you find him, have him
meet us back on Targon.”

"Can you just arrest him?"

"I can as long as he’s not on Delphi."

Nova connected to the relays to send
transmissions to Delphi, Magra, Zera and Targon - all likely destinations. Her
clearance as Vanguard ensured that her inquiries received priority at every
destination. Still, it took a while before they reported back, one by one,
during which a tense silence seemed to take up all the space in the cabin.
“He’s still on Targon,” she reported finally. “I guess that’s something.”

“This is my fault,” Tychon said, his eyes
on screens that showed nothing of interest. “Why did I ever think he’d be safe
on Feyd?”

“Feyd is as safe as any other place.”

“Delphi is safer. But I had to show them
what I thought of their outdated governance, didn’t I? Had to show them that I
didn’t need them. Had to turn my back on everything after–" He glanced at
Nova and fell silent.

“You did what you thought was right for Kiran.
There is no point in looking back now. We’ll get him back.”

“Right.”

She regarded him fearfully before daring to
give voice to those fears. "Why would he take Kiran and
then
tell
you that he's going to do just that? You are Vanguard. You have hundreds of
enemies. You don't really think Jelani's got him, do you? "

He bit his lip. “Kira is all I have, Nova.
I have to think that.”

* * *

They arrived on Targon in a state of
exhaustion. Neither found any joy in having set a new record for crossing the
distance from Feyd to the base. Nova landed the Eagle near maintenance to have
the crossdrives checked for any damage their abuse may have caused. They
stopped for nothing else in their hurry to Carras' suite where Jelani awaited
them.

"I most certainly hope that you have a
very good reason for this!" Jelani greeted them, his stance conveying his
annoyance clearly. "I should think that you would have enough respect for
my position to come to Delphi should you wish to speak to me, rather than hold
me here. I am expected there for a meeting. I should have left days ago."

"My son," Tychon snapped.
"Where is Kiran?"

Carras, who had risen from his chair when
they had entered, collapsed into it with an audible moan. Why were these people
making his base their battleground?

Jelani blinked. "What?"

"Kiran was taken from Feyd four days
ago," Nova said.

Jelani stared from one to the other.
"By Melyb'ry," he groaned.

Nova studied the man, baffled. She had
expected indignation, protest, perhaps even pleas of innocence. But this
reaction came unexpected. The haughty exterior had disintegrated, leaving only shock
and despair. He made no effort to restore the tranquil facade at which
Delphians were so adept.

"Jelani?" Tychon said, equally
baffled. "What do you know of this?"

"The boy? Gone?"

 Carras moved quickly to push a chair
toward the Delpian, certain that he was about to faint.

"Jelani..." Tychon pressed.

It seemed a lifetime before Jelani
recovered enough from Tychon's revelation to speak. "What have we
done?"

"Talk," Tychon whispered, barely
audible. He had never seen the man in a state quite like this.

"At Kiran's khamal gzali," Jelani
began. He half turned to Nova and Carras. "That is a rite for infant
Delphians involving what you probably call a mind link. It is performed by
elders or a religious leader, believed to impress upon the child a sense of
heritage, purpose and loyalty to his past. No one really knows if these
embedded memories ever reach the conscious mind. It has become a ritual, even
observed symbolically among the low-born."

"Get on with it," Tychon growled.
"Must you high-born carry on so?"

Jelani's gaze returned to him. "Kiran's
khamal, which was performed by none of his true relatives, was attended only by
a number of Shantirs."

Tychon's eyes narrowed. "Phera was not
there?"

"No. Kiran's grandfather was called
away on some Council matter on the day that the Shantirs had chosen for the khamal."

"What are Shantirs?" Nova asked.

"Mystics," Tychon said.
"Druids, wizards, healers, whatever you wish to call them. They develop
their mental acuity to include the kind of non-medical brain or mind altering
research that even your people still dream of, Colonel." He sighed.
"Then they shroud it all in holy language and convoluted rites so that
outsiders think it's all harmless, old-world."

"Tychon!" Jelani gasped.

"Broke another one of your moral
codes, didn't I? It's time people knew about us."

"Will you go on now!" Nova cried.

"When the Union Commonwealth arrived
in this sector, what you call Trans-Targon, there was great fear that our world
and ways were threatened by the influx of outside evils. We are a peaceful,
defenseless planet and our people were afraid of what the Union would bring.
Even after Delphi had joined the Union and your base was built, the people were
still waiting in fear of what would come. They were right, of course. Look at
this war you have started."

 "Wait a–" Nova began to protest.

 "Go on, Jelani," Tychon cut the
argument short.

 "We needed a way to defend ourselves.
When Dana, my sister, chose Tychon for her mate, his genetic background, though
far from noble, was deemed suitable."

 "Suitable? What does that mean?"
Nova asked.

 Jelani shrugged. "I do not know, but
the Shantirs did not object to the match. Not even when Tychon joined the
Union's Air Command and became a pilot. Not even when Dana followed him. Dana
was believed to know her place, to observe tradition, even if her consort turned
out to be lacking in loyalties."

 "Do not question my affinity to
Phera," Tychon warned.

 "I question your choice to remove the
boy from Delphi, nothing more," Jelani replied. He turned to Carras.
"Kiran was born a year after the match. There was no reason to think that
he would ever leave the influence of the Shantirs." Jelani closed his
eyes, shaking his head in denial of what he now had to say. "Because of
this, more than any other reason, because it was thought that he would never
leave Delphi, Kiran was chosen to be the Tughan Wai."

Nova turned at the sound of Tychon slowly
sliding down along the wall. He sat on the floor, resting his head on his
knees, his arms wrapped around them.

"Ty?" she was astounded to see
him in this attitude of despair. She whirled to Jelani, a cat ready to spring.
"Translation," she hissed.

"Tughan Wai?" Jelani shook his
head, trying a hopeless smile. "The end of all you see here." His
gesture included the room, the base, the planet.

"What?" she whispered.

"A mentality capable of such
destruction that a single thought can blow this installation to bits."

Nova heard a strangled sound from somewhere
within Carras’ barrel chest. "How?" she asked. "Why?"

Jelani pointed at Nova. “Just like that
abomination,” he said, pausing when he noted her dumbfounded expression. “I
mean your interface, Captain Whiteside. Just like that abomination can let you
use your mind to change sub-space, so the Tughan’s mind will let him change
matter itself. By willing it. He only has to be shown a thing to change a
thing. If he understands the composition of stone and steel, he can take it
apart down to the last atom.”

"They’ve been developing this for
centuries," Tychon lifted his head from his arms. For the first time Nova
was aware that there really was a blue tint in his skin. "Secretly. It was
just an experiment to see how we can develop our minds. Some Shantirs dabbling
with theories and extrapolation. Resonance, thermal transfer, things like that.
But when the Union took hold over the last two hundred years, the experiments were
stepped up. Eventually, when it became clear that the Union was a useful
alliance, the need for this weapon became less important. The Council at the
time ordered the project stopped. It was assumed that the whole idea was
abandoned."

"And it wasn't," Carras said.

"Correct," Jelani said.

"This Tughan thing," Carras
spoke. "It isn't a new concept by any means, is it? I am thinking of the
Glanep nomads of Fjan Orr. It was nearly limitless what they could do. Then
there was the incident on Phi Nine, if I remember correctly."

Jelani nodded. "The Glaneps are
emotionally incapable of harming anything with it even if they wanted to and
Phi Nine burned."

“What is the extent of the Tughan’s
ability? What range? Under what conditions? You said he could destroy this base
if he wished.”

“We do not know,” Jelani said. “
I
do
not know. Perhaps someone on Delphi does.”

"If Tharron has Kira..." Tychon
said.

"To be used as this Tughan…" Nova
added.

He nodded. "A person like that could
walk into any city, base, plant and take it out. No need to carry explosives,
no weapons, no planes or bombs. He could be sitting in this room and you'd not
know it."

"He is a little boy!"

Jelani raised a hand. "That fact may
buy us time."

"Time for what?" Nova asked.

"As I understand it, the Tughan cannot
be put to use at this age," Tychon looked to Jelani for confirmation.

Jelani nodded. "It could be very
dangerous if any attempt was made to use him now. He is too young. Months,
years of training are necessary. How else can anyone deal with such power?
There are mental exercises of controlling it that must be undertaken before the
Shantirs even dare tell him who he is."