Child of Time (44 page)

Kiyan returned the salute. “Rinald, we are both
protectorate commanders here. I will take care of any issues
regarding the reborn. I have to say that I am more than glad that
you were able to survive the reset.”

“I was told by the Assurians that it was by your
request that we were saved. Our people are forever in your
debt.”

“I only did what I could.” Kiyan watched as Rinald
dematerialized for the teleport back to his ship. “This is going to
be fun.” Kiyan said aloud to himself.

“
I'll say, those Assurians were something else
too.”
Luke agreed with Kiyan's prediction. “
I knew there
were other AI but had no idea there were so many.”

“You had fun with them also?” Kiyan didn't bother
trying to talk in his head.

“
Ya, they said I was something special. Something
about having true emotions.”
Kiyan sensed Luke was annoyed at
the thought. “
I told them that it was just you bleeding
over.”

Kiyan couldn't help it. The thought of an emotional
AI in his head forever struck him as funny. He burst into in
uncontrollable laughter as he felt the strain of thousands of years
wear off. He was laying on the floor gasping for breath in a minute
as Luke's attempts to find out what was so funny only added to his
mirth. The laughter subsided into a series of hiccups after it had
run its course. Kiyan had to focus to stop the hiccups as the
perplexed Luke observed.

“
It is said that laughter is as good as
medicine.”
Luke offered an explanation for Kiyan's sudden good
mood.

“It is, I feel thousands of years younger.” Kiyan
smiled as he left the conference room.

“
I sense that was meant as a joke but I do not see
the humor in it.”
Luke had a long ways to go when it came to
emotion or humor for that matter.

Chapter Eighteen: Subterfuge

“What, did you not think I would find out?” Kiyan
nearly kept out of his skin when Theo appeared next to him. He had
just finished a meeting with Rinald, leader of the reborn drakken
and was heading towards his quarters.

“What do you mean?” A multitude of possible meanings
swept through Kiyan's mind.

“I sensed a massive change in the time stream and it
is all centered around you. I've traced the changes for thousands
of years in multiple timelines. Possible futures have disappeared
and others have changed.” Theo stopped his rant and examined Kiyan.
“You are different somehow.” Theo blurred as he circled Kiyan
taking in every detail. “Your mind is far older than it should be
but its age differs by thousands of years from your body.” Theo
muttered his observations to himself. Kiyan wasn't worried but
Theo's erratic behavior was making him a little nervous. “Your
powers seem to be more refined somehow, almost with calculated
precision. Strange, your implants are different somehow.” There was
a flicker of confusion as Theo detected another anomaly. “You've
never been this connected with Alec before, wait that's not Alec.
How do you have an AI embedded on your implants?”

“That would be Luke. He is kind of a close ally.”
Kiyan didn't quite know how to explain the circumstances involving
his predicament.

“
Close?”
Kiyan refrained from laughing as he
detected the sarcasm in Luke's thoughts.

“You have a prime existing on your implants.” Theo's
eyes narrowed as he spoke. “Impossible, even if you did inherit
some small part of the source code it would take thousands of years
to encode.”

“Long story. There was sort of a hiccup in the
timeline involving thousands of years drifting in the galactic void
and the Assurian home world. That's where I met the Reborn and we
fought the drakken and repaired the timeline. Then I came here.”
Kiyan summarized his experiences of the last adventure. “I guess it
wasn’t that long.”

“So when the timeline reset you got inserted in the
last hour or two.” Theo's face had a thoughtful look as he digested
the information. “So the reborn drakken came from another timeline?
That explains several things about some of the possible futures.
Why didn't you just use the ship's wormhole drive and make the jump
in days instead drifting for years to get to the Assurian
world?”

“The timeline reset erased them. I was left adrift.”
Kiyan stepped around Theo and continued towards his quarters.

“The temporal shields and paradox generators should
have prevented that.” Theo followed Kiyan as he continued trying to
piece together what happened. “Once the ships were manufactured the
shields are activated. They shouldn't have been erased.”

“Must be a new feature because I definitely remember
drifting.” Kiyan sensed Alec interface with his implants to send a
message. He received the message but Alec also began struggling
with Luke in order to maintain the connection. Kiyan's head filled
with massive amounts of code as the two powerful AI struggled for
the upper hand. The back of Kiyan's eyes filled with a blinding
light as he sensed his mind expanding to compensate for the vast
computing power required. Dimly Kiyan saw the lights around him
flickering and the confused expression on Theo's face.

“STOP IT NOW!” Kiyan was almost overwhelmed by the
rush of sensations returning to his numbed body. He found himself
on his hands and knees as a holographic projection flickered into
existence. He felt a pair of hands on both sides helping back to
his feet.

“You aren't Alec.” Kiyan heard Theo's voice above the
buzz in his head. Looking up he saw the same person he had seen on
the barren planet standing on his other side from Theo. “Luke was
using the ship’s projectors to take visual form.”

“Kiyan, you might have just told me you had a prime
in your head. I was under the impression you had picked up a virus
somewhere.” Alec sounded upset. “I had no idea you had that much
processing powers available.” There was a new tone of respect in
Alec's voice.

“My sincerest apologies to all about the
misunderstanding. Kiyan, I'm sorry for any discomfort I caused as I
battled for my life.” The last part of the sentence held a sting
directed at Alec. “How remiss of me, my name is Luke, Asgard
prime.” Another scowl was directed at Alec.

“Enough already, all Assurians are descended from an
Asgard prime. We trace our roots to the same Asgard derelict.”
Kiyan stared in disbelief as both AI launched into a lengthy debate
about the superiority of the separate races.

“Assurian AI are a dime a dozen. There is one
everywhere you look.” Kiyan could feel Luke's annoyance building in
the back of his mind.

“So when I delete you, I will be rid of your entire
race once and for all.” Alec was sounding as annoyed as Luke.

“Ha, I laugh. You tried that once before. I dare you
to try again. There will be deletion but not of my data.” Luke took
a defiant stance. Kiyan would have laughed himself if it were not
for the destructive potential that both wielded.

“A blight on my quantum crystals. I should just
delete you.” Alec appeared to make a try as Luke's hologram started
flickering.

“Alec, the timeline changed. Surely you knew about
the new prime. The reborn have been living on Assuria for
generations and I talked with Alpha before being sent here.” The
buzz in Kiyan's mind had finally faded enough that he could think
clearly again. “Alpha said that our destinies were permanently
linked so no one is getting deleted.”

“You are right, I did know about him but had orders
to isolate the effects on the new timeline until now.” Alec looked
embarrassed by his acknowledgement. “I merely wanted to test our
newest ally.”

“Test! You tried to delete me.” Luke was still upset
over the incident.

“I was making sure your firewalls were sufficient to
protect Kiyan's mind.” Alec made a feeble excuse.

“A valid concern. I should test the ship's defenses
to make sure it won’t self-destruct.” Luke paused for a moment.
“Anyhow. We are going to have to figure out a way to work together
as last I checked Kiyan was commander of this vessel.”

“Alright we will work something out but right now, I
am tired so I'm going to get some rest.” Kiyan caught a glimpse of
Theo's incredulous face before he disappeared.

-----------

Dark Lord Corsav sat on his throne musing over recent
events. He was one of the oldest dark lords from the drakken
universe. His years of distinguished service for the dark one had
earned him a place as one of the two dark lords to head the
invasion. Already he had acquired untold wealth in his conquests of
the worlds he held. The power he had wielded when he crossed over
had numbered in the hundreds of thousand war vessels. The thrice
cursed ascended had reduced his strength by over half in their
first strike somehow. One of his worries was that they might repeat
the feat. This worry nagged at the back of his mind constantly. The
portal had been flooded with energy sealing it completely in an
instant. If it had been closed properly then he might not have been
in the predicament he was in now. If it had been allowed to close
slower there wouldn't have been the aftershock portal opening
nearby. The second portal drained energy from the drakken universe
only allowing travel in one direction of non-organic matter. Corsav
could get reinforcements for his fleet but not the crew. The other
downside to this portal was that it was too unstable preventing the
formation of a stable portal. May the darkness rend the thrice
cursed ascended. The latest news from the other side was that a
leap in technology might make it possible to send androids
imprinted like drakken clones through the portal soon.

Corsav shifted on his cushions as he continued to
brood. One of his servants passed by with a tray of delicacies for
him. The urge to vent some of his rage on the servant passed before
he acted on the impulse. Sampling some of the rare fruit and meats
he resumed his contemplation. Scans of the timelines had indicated
that most of the progress the protectorate had made in the war
revolved around powerful ships manufactured by the mysterious
"Assurian" race. It was Corsav's pride to have finally discovered
that the Assurians are an AI race. It had taken many temporal
agents to find the origin of the race. From there it was easy to
finding their weakest point. A single unarmed probe should have
proven an easy target indeed. To ensure victory he had sent a small
fleet to accomplish the mission with hundreds of clone sequences he
could ill afford to lose. Scans had indicated a shift in the
timeline but only momentarily before another timeline arose from
the ashes of the old, stronger than ever before. The meddlesome
protectorate fleet was gathering its strength for a strike he
wasn't prepared for at that very moment. Thrice cursed ascended,
may that shadows strike them. May their dying agonies span decades.
The bright purple splash of color on the wall opposite Corsav
betrayed his anger as he hurled fruit at the wall.

A low rumble escaped his chest as he stood. It pained
him to order his treasure fleet into the star but it would have
burned far more to let it fall into the hands of the protectorate.
What he couldn't hold he would destroy. He gnashed his teeth as he
prepared for a tactical retreat. He had far too few clones to hold
off an invasion. If he could hide for now and return with glory
when his new fleet arrived, crewed with emotionless androids that
would implicitly obey his every order. The glory of the Drakken
Empire would strike the protectorate and smash them to pieces. The
thought soothed the rage he felt. Until then they seemed to be able
to predict and undo every plot he conceived.

------------

When Kiyan dropped through the warp frame in the
first of several drakken held worlds. He expected to meet some
stiff resistance. Somehow both Luke and Alec had found a way to
work together without constantly bickering over topics only of
interest to an AI. Kiyan was sitting on the command chair fully
interfaced with the Avenger as he swept the system for enemies.
Luke brought a small anomaly near the planet to Kiyan's attention
as a possible cloaked vessel. Kiyan began moving the hulking
battleship toward the disturbance as the rest of his crew
interfaced with drop ships and fighters. In Kiyan's peripheral he
could see the sensor sweeps of each one of the nimble vessels that
danced around the Avenger. He sensed Alec remotely controlling
dozens of support vessels. Even more streamed from the hangar bays
as Luke tried his virtual hand at it also. With every new angle he
could scan from the shapes of several cloaked ships became more
defined. The battle group assembled into formation and drew closer
to the anomaly. Kiyan wanted to make sure that they were drakken
before destroying them.

Inspire of the fact that they were ready for the
"surprise" attack a dozen fighters and a couple drop ship’s
defenses failed under the sudden fire. Kiyan was dimly aware of
Corban's and Jeremy's annoyance over having their vessels
destroyed. Hundreds of plasma cannons released their charge
illuminating space as the blue orbs tore into the drakken ships. A
second more and the remnants of the ships that hadn't been
vaporized by the initial assault drifted through space as the
molten metal cooled. The collective scanning power of the battle
group was then directed to the planet surface. A knot formed in
Kiyan's stomach as the detailed of the ravaged planet formed in
front of his eyes. A couple low passes confirmed the
devastation.

“The foul creatures have adopted a scorched earth
policy.” Fred was barely concealing his disgust over what he was
seeing. Kiyan relinquished control of the ship to Alec as he opened
a communication channel to some of the other ships.

“Let me guess, they took everything leaving only a
token force to finish destroying the planet.” Rinald appeared on
the screen. “I had hoped to liberate a few clone sequences.” The
disappointment was keen in his countenance.