Child of Time (19 page)

“Yes, he is a human.” Savos answered.

“No human has ever been a stone skin. How is this
possible?” The commander didn't seem to believe what he was
hearing.

“He was on the protector’s refuge world.” Savos
offered.

“Please let me scan you to verify this.” The
commander made some scans and stepped back when the scans were
completed. “You are human but you are also a stone skin. Forgive us
if we threatened you in any way. We don't often meet members of
protected races, especially humans.”

Savos informed the commander about the first incident
with Fred and a few troops were dispatched to investigate.

Please come with us to our central base. Savos
apologized once more for having attacked Fred.

“What is a stone skin?” Fred had heard the term a few
times but didn't understand what it meant.

“Some of our people have gained the ability to
manipulate earth, like you. Some of our benders were exposed to
intense heat by an accident and those that survived were changed on
the cellular level. They were stronger, both physically and as
benders. Their organic matter shifted to a silica instead of carbon
base. Their "stone skin" as it were is a result of the
transformation. They age extremely slowly and seem to be able to
withstand most any physical damage without any effects.”

--------

Kiyan with Theo and Kendra had scanned every chunk of
rock within light years. Corban had scanned anything that had a
remotely telepathic signature. Expanding the search they found a
new star system. A star and a lone barren planet surrounded by an
asteroid belt. Kiyan barely looked at the scans of the asteroid
belt. Looking at the scans of the planet he found it eerily
familiar. Imposing himself on the virtual scans he glanced at the
landscape. He saw an ocean on one side and broken mountains on the
other side. It looked a lot like the planet from the dream. This
had to be where Fred was. Scans of the planet were not conclusive
as the planet showed no life signs. Notifying the rest of the
search team Kiyan took the Avenger to warp. Coming out of stealth
in order to use the full scan strength Kiyan proceeded to conduct a
detailed scan of the planet. He was nearly surprised by the com
signal being sent from the planet.

“Unknown vessel, please identify yourself.” For
demanding information the hail didn't identify the sender.

“This is Kiyan of the Avenger representing the allied
races. Please drop your interference field so I can conduct a scan
for a missing crew member.”

“Please withdraw from our space. The voice was
getting insistent.”

Activating the cloak Kiyan moved the Avenger to
another position. Activating a sensor ghost at his old coordinates
it only took a moment before his suspicions were confirmed. Kiyan's
discreet scans indicated that some weapons were activating on the
planet surface. The laser beams were soon ripping through Kiyan's
sensor ghost.

Kiyan raised his main shields as he came out of
cloak. The rudimentary weapon systems didn't pose much risk. Kiyan
told both Theo and Kendra to come out of warp farther out and come
in under cloak. Kiyan held the drop ships he controlled in
warp.

“Firing on an allied vessel is considered an act of
war.” Kiyan found himself in a quandary, checking his shields he
decided that he could keep it up all day. Whoever this race was
definitely not technologically advanced.

The laser barrage stopped and scans of the planet
showed no signs of civilization again. The security scanners
detected the warp frame a moment before the a dozen drakken ships
dropped out of warp. Kiyan almost smiled as he calculated the odds
at success. Drakken were fearless if anything. The drakken opened
fire as Kiyan laughed. A dozen ships compared to the fleet that he
had battled the other day. Giving the command to the drop ships to
come out of warp as he tried opening a com channel to the lead
drakken vessel. A moment later and the drakken tried to use the com
channel to upload a virus.
So that is how they want to play
it,
Kiyan thought. The drop ships came out of warp weapons hot.
The Athena and Odysseus came out of cloak with a salvo that nearly
vaporized a couple of the ships. The drop ships opened fire along
with the Avenger. The last few drakken were soon no longer capable
of offering opposition. Of those all but one went critical and
exploded taking the last one with them.

“Are you sure this is the one?” Kendra asked.

“Yes, Kiyan had a dream about this planet and they
are blocking our scans.” Theo explained.

The three of them used all the vessels in the system
as they scanned the planet from every angle. The interference field
fluctuated for a moment allowing them to detect a human life sign
for a half second.

“Please leave our space.” The hailing channel from
the planet opened again.

“Please by all means let us enlighten you. One, your
earlier display of firepower did two things, one is an act of war.
Two you would have been hard pressed with one drakken ship. Three,
we have detected a human life sign on the planet. Four, humans are
under our protection and as such refusing to release a member of a
protected race is also an act of war. And five, last but not least
there are three battle cruiser class Assurian vessels in orbit each
one capable of destroying your planet. Theo decided to lay it out
with a little intimidation.

The response from the planet was delayed but when it
came a new voice spoke. “If you are indeed the protectors we will
offer you full access to our planet to conduct your search. We did
not mean to insult the protectors.”

Kiyan thought that it had been a little more than an
insult but if diplomatic relations could be maintained then an
insult could be overlooked. “We are sending you the location of the
life sign that we detected.”

The voice returned, the coordinates that you gave us
are in in a restricted zone. “There has been rebel activity in that
area and any search operations are not possible in that zone.”

“We are not requesting that you perform a search.”
Kendra reassured. “We would perform the search.”

“Your safety is of our highest priority, we cannot
allow you to be injured on our planet.”

“What then would you recommend, we allow our friend
to be captured by these insurgents?” Kiyan understood the reason
for diplomacy yet he was growing impatient. “We give you our word
that we will not hold the people of your planet responsible for
anything that happens.”

Silence was all that was heard for a few minutes
before the hail replied with visual data. Kiyan transferred the
stream onto a virtual display and was mildly shocked by seeing the
thoran.
This doesn't make sense, the thorans I know don't act
like this
. “Before we grant access we have one request. Our
planet is hiding from the drakken ships. Thank you for defending
the planet earlier. We request that you agree to defend us from the
drakken. We cannot hope to fight a civil war and the drakken at the
same time.”

“This can be agreed upon but we need to find our
missing crew member first. After that we can discuss terms of
alliance.” Theo seemed to be as tired of playing diplomatic games
as Kiyan, perhaps it ran in the family.

The interference field over the portion of the planet
where they had detected Fred was lowered as an answer. Kiyan
disengaged from the ship and began preparing to beam down. Kendra
and Theo contacted him to tell him that Draxos was being sent for
and that they would all be going down. The AIs would be more than
capable of handling defenses should the drakken return.

“Even Jeremy?” Kiyan asked.

“He can come with me.” Theo offered. “I will make
sure nothing happens to him. As it is we will have to break up,
there is too much ground to cover.”

Kiyan beamed down with Ray, Corban and Alec in one of
his battle androids. They found themselves in a large cavern. Kiyan
looked around for a moment before realizing there was no light yet
he could see the room with near perfect clarity. The surprise
elicited a response from his neural interconnect, it seems he was
outfitted with a sensor system. Corban sent the message that he
could see with his airbending fine so no light was necessary, Alec
was outfitted with the same sensors as Kiyan. They reached out with
their minds and decided that there was a faint telepathic signature
from Fred to the tunnel to the right.

---------

Fred Addy and Savos were feeling their way through
dark tunnels in the hopes that the rebels that had ambushed their
detachment were not following them. They had become separated from
the main group in the confusion. Fred and Addy was having a better
time of it than Savos. Fred was using his bending skills to map the
terrain ahead of them and Addy was benefiting from Fred's skill.
Savos had some night vision but not enough to match the other's
bending vision. They were trying to make sure there was no ambushes
ahead of them so they were being as quiet as possible.

---------

Kiyan found himself and Ray the only ones walking as
the other two were flying. Alec was using some gravity negating
tech and Corban was airbending. He walked quietly and scanned the
caves ahead. Kiyan detected the life signs the same time as Alec
did. It was a moment more before Corban detected them.

“They are thoran. They must have some basic
telepathic blocking ability.” Alec offered.

Kiyan thought for a moment. “With my personal
shielding systems and with Alec we should be able to neutralize
them. They don't have any transponder signals so we can assume that
they are rebels.”

“My tactical analysis indicated pretty much the same
thing.” Alec concurred.

“Be careful.” Corban admonished.

Kiyan looked at his list of cybernetic systems and
found an active camouflage stealth module. Activating it he could
hardly see his own hand, his skin seemed to project what was behind
it giving it the appearance of invisibility. Letting Alec link with
him, Kiyan watched as the AI also disappeared. Slipping up behind
one of the rebels Kiyan accessed the thoran anatomical information
and discovered a nerve in the neck that was exposed. Sending the
information to Alec he received information about a nerve behind
one of their ribs that was rather susceptible to damage from a
blow. Time seemed to slow as Kiyan made his move. The first thoran
was rendered unconscious and the second was only able to register
an attack was happening before he too was sleeping. Turning to the
last one on his side of the cave Kiyan saw the remote in the
rebel's hand and reacted instinctively. He raised his hand toward
the thoran and watching the blue arc that seemed to move in slow
motion. The discharge blasted the rebel backwards destroying the
remote in the process.

“We need to move.” Ray noted.

They soon were farther down the tunnel. Taking a turn
they noticed the life signs at the same time that the ground
exploded in front of them. Kiyan's shields spared him from any
damage. He turned to Ray whose scales looked like they had taken
the brunt of the blast, there didn't seem to be anything more than
a couple fast disappearing bruises. Corban was covered in flames
that seemed to leave him completely unscathed. Alec was shielded
same as Kiyan and was fine. The tunnel was collapsed but Kiyan was
able to bend a couple boulders out of the way and Corban melted a
couple more. The group were set on by laser fire from the other
side before they could continue. Corban was able to blow them back
with a blast of air and Ray was through the hole and shifted in a
flash. The screams were soon quieted.

Upon climbing through they found Ray holding three of
the rebels in his claws. The final one was laying quietly against
the cave wall. Alec soon had two of the remaining sleeping
peacefully. Kiyan connected with the mind of the last one, unable
to make sense of what he found he stumbled across the language
centers in the thoran's mind. The rest finally began to make sense.
The order to find two aliens and a security force officer that were
on the loose. The Intel was that they were supposed to be coming
down this tunnel.

“We couldn't have missed them, this says that we had
to have passed them.” Kiyan was confused.
Even if the officer
had lost his transponder they would surely have detected Fred.
Kiyan thought for a moment before remembering that Fred might have
been able to detect them with his earthbending but wouldn't have
been able determine friend or foe. If he managed to hide then that
would mean they could have passed them. Focusing on life bending
was different, before it had been necessary to focus on it to see
life energy, now it seemed to work into Kiyan's overlay like an
additional system. He walked back up the tunnel and looking at all
the walls as he went. Seeing a disturbance in the energy flow in
one spot he began prodding and found a couple life signs. The
energy of one he recognized as Addy but the other was new. Fred
should be here where Addy was, he should be close unless he was
dead. Connecting with the energy of the stone Kiyan pulled
surprised at the resistance he felt but soon overcame it. The wall
crumbled then exploded out at them. Kiyan easily deflected the
rocks but was thrown back by someone that had followed the
rubble.

Landing on his feet and jumping into the air to avoid
whoever it was that was attacking him, he hardly had time to land
again before he ducked a swing from a thoran. The thoran’s rib
produced the desired effect and Kiyan turned to see his attacker
coming in for another blow. Blocking the punch by catching the fist
in his hand he was surprised to find that his strength was almost
matched. He also sensed the fist that he was holding was silica in
nature. A living stone? Kiyan wasn't sure what to think. Releasing
the fist and ducking he sped behind the creature.