Child of Time (66 page)

“
Luke?”
Kiyan was about to reduce the drone to
its basic elemental components when Luke acknowledged that he was
in control.

“
They use a rather complicated CPU core system. It
took me a minute to figure out how to hack into it. Even then it
rather... constricting.”
Luke made his annoyance at having to
operate such a clearly inferior piece of technology known. Kiyan
suggested that he simply find the information that he needed and
they proceed with the mission. Luke decided that he would rather
use the drone and contribute as much to the group as possible
despite the clear limitations that were imposed. After only a
couple more encounters with the drones they arrived at the data
core.

Corban had been right when he said that the core
would be shielded. It was probably shielded to protect from the
heat and from any possible invading drakken fractions. Luke had
been able to ascertain from the drone’s data bank that they were
programed to eliminate any visitors. Apparently the drakken dark
lords were in struggle for power in the wake of the transfer from
organic clones to mechanical drones. The dark one required most of
the resources for the war however the dark lords were left to their
own devices with what was left.

“
So what do we do with that?”
Fred was tossing
marble sized pieces of metal into the invisible energy field. On
contact with the fields they were vaporized into clouds of gases.
It was an interesting sight so Kiyan understood Fred’s fascination
with the effect. Fortunately it had been Luke that had discovered
the obstacle first. Unfortunately he had vaporized his drone in the
process. Kiyan had to admit that it was a rather ingenious method
of protecting the data core. Unlike the average force fields that
rippled and flickered visibly this one was only visible when it was
discharging energy on contact with matter. Attempts at disrupting
the emitters by warping all the surrounding metal had not altered
the field’s integrity.

“
Maybe I can get through it.”
Corban stepped
forward and stretched an arm towards the field.

“
Be careful.”
Kiyan warned his first officer.
Corban glanced back to reassure Kiyan before a thin strand of
glowing energy extended off Corban’s arm. As soon as the strand of
energy hit the field it flashed into life and a shockwave of light
traveled back along the strand of energy. When it hit Corban the
fire elemental was thrown backwards. He hit the wall and melted
through it leaving a hole. Kiyan and Fred rushed to the hole and
peered through. On the other side of the hole there was a ball of
fire floating above the floor. It was several feet in diameter and
looked like a miniature star. Kiyan was about to crawl through the
hole when the star began to shift and reassumed Corban’s form.

“
That was... different.”
Corban had assumed a
humanoid shape but he was floating a few inches above the floor.
Kiyan stepped aside from the hole in the wall when Corban began
drifting towards it. The metal wall melted and flowed like water
when Corban touched it. The hole was several times bigger and
Corban was walking on the floor when he came through and rejoined
the group.

“
I never knew I could have too much energy. It was
too much energy to control.”
Corban shook his head. “
I would
not recommend touching it.”

“
I could have told you that.”
Luke was still
bemoaning the loss of the nanites he had invested in the drone.
“
Kiyan, I think I have an idea that might get us through. You
have the ability to move both directions in time. I have seen you
do it. I noticed that when you move back in time it slows to the
point of a standstill before reversing.”

“
So you're saying that if I manage to stop time I
might be able to pass through the shield?”
Kiyan scowled as he
thought about the implications.

“
Exactly. I can help you control the effect but it
will be a fine line. Either side could have drastic reactions.”
Luke seemed to think that there was no other way to get through the
shield. Well strictly speaking there were other ways that he had in
mind but none of them could assure the integrity of the data core
once the shield was breached.

“
Alright. Let’s try.”
Kiyan closed his eyes
and focused on trying to slow time. He felt Luke backing him up and
giving him greater control over his powers. He felt the energies
around him slow. He opened his eyes and saw the familiar shades of
red. Apparently the slowed light waves shifted to lower energy
infrared wavelength. In the moment that Kiyan felt time stop moving
the light completely faded. He had to shift to using his life
bending to detect the faint traces of energy that indicated matter
around him. After a few seconds Kiyan was able to see everything
again with a degree of clarity. He was able to see the shield that
obstructed the doorway like a thin sheet of energy with veins of
energy pulsing across it.

Kiyan reached out and began bending a piece of metal
nearby. He found it harder to do than normal because he was unable
to take advantage of the energy that existed in the matter in the
normal flow of time. He moved the chunk of metal into the force
field and let it absorb the energy frozen in place there. Kiyan
began to expand the metal piece in a ring shape sweeping the fields
of energy out of the way. The band of metal was stretched thin and
glowing brightly with the energy that had been absorbed when Kiyan
had managed to open an area big enough to step through.

Once on the other side Kiyan loosed his control and
let the normal flow of time resume. The sudden intensity of the
energy around Kiyan drove him to his knees and nearly blinded his
senses before he was able to reduce his sensitivity. Kiyan looked
back through the force field at his companions. They were both
gaping in astonishment at seeing his suddenly appear on the other
side.

Kiyan left Corban and Fred waiting at the force field
as he went in search of the shield emitters. They did not have to
wait long as the emitter for that particular hallway was a short
distance away through a doorway. Kiyan had moved with a piece of
metal levitated a few feet ahead of him should there be another
shield. The door melted and didn’t hinder Kiyan’s progress much. On
the other side was a large force field emitter. Kiyan had seen
bigger ones but they had been designed to protect ships from
attacks. The energy this one was capable of handling were more than
enough to prevent passage on a hallway. Kiyan puzzled over the
overkill scale of the defenses when Luke reminded him that he was
dealing with an alien race in another universe. As it was Kiyan was
sure that aside from destroying the station no one was going to be
able to pass through the force field and take control of the
station. Kiyan only had to remove a section of the main conduit in
order to cause the emitter to go off line. In an atmosphere the
massive amounts of electromotive force would have caused a spark to
bridge the gap but in a vacuum there was nothing to conduct the
energy.

Kiyan’s companions joined him shortly after he had
disabled the shield emitter. They followed his lead and cautiously
made their way forward. They were rewarded by rounding a corner and
seeing the core. It was a column of glowing nodes inside a visible
force field. Kiyan was able to sense that inside the force field
there was an atmosphere and that it was cooled to a few balmy
degrees above absolute zero. Kiyan made his way to a console that
stood outside of the force field. It only took a few moments for
Luke to interface with the system and find the information that
they needed. Luke only needed a couple minutes due to his recent
understanding of how the drakken computer systems worked. Luke was
even able to override the shields long enough for Alec to transport
them to the Avenger.

“Just stay in there until you get cooled down.”
Alec’s hologram was standing on the other side of a force field.
Kiyan tuned his shield emitters to the same frequency as the
containment field and stepped through. Fred still had a glow to him
and small flames were still crawling across Corban’s body.

“That isn’t fair.” Fred made his opinion known.

“My body temperature never changed. My shields
protected me.” Kiyan laughed at the set of glares that he received
before he turned to Alec. He could tell that Luke was already
uploading the codes into the mainframe. “So what is the verdict?”
Kiyan realized that it felt good to be able to use his voice again.
Telepathy was alright for limited communication if only one of the
people was telepathic. If both were telepathic communication was
virtually effortless.

“The verdict is very good. Better than I had
anticipated even.” Alec pulled up a couple screens that showed data
being decrypted. “It looks like the station was a relay point in
the network. As such it had the codes for the controlling dark
lord’s network. On top of that it seems that this dark lord had
managed to steal the codes for a few of the other dark lord’s
networks. A virtual gold mine.”

“We had to make some alterations to the station that
might give our presence away.” Kiyan knew that it would probably
take a while to find the information that he wanted and was
thinking ahead. He still wanted to keep the fact that there was a
protectorate presence in the drakken universe secret for the time
being.

“Don’t worry about that. I can cover our trail well
enough.” Alec’s hologram disappears as soon as he was done
speaking.

Kiyan wanted a further explanation so he transported
to the bridge. On one wall was a holoscreen showing the ring shaped
station silhouetted against the star. Kiyan watched as the Avenger
powered a couple singularity cannons and aimed at the surface of
the star. The two forced point singularities were only visible from
the warpage of the background light. They struck the surface of the
star below the station before they destabilized with a flash.

Kiyan understood what was happening. The gravity
waves would disrupt the magnetic fields that were holding the
plasma to the surface. As he expected a massive solar flare erupted
between the impact points. The ropes and strands of plasma expanded
in a huge loop up under the station. A solar flare of this
magnitude would be enough to strip the atmosphere away from a
planet let alone a station a fraction of that distance away. The
station’s shields held out valiantly against the superheated matter
that washed over it. No matter how valiant the last stand was its
end was inevitable. The shields buckled and the structure heated
past metal’s boiling point a moment later. Soon it was lost to the
flood of plasma that was spraying across the system.

“You said that you were going to cover our tracks not
erase them.” Kiyan addressed Alec with a smile.

“I had not realized there was enough of a grammatical
distinction to differentiate the terms by.” Alec’s response made
Kiyan throw up his arms in mock defeat.

“Cover means to leave them there but disguise them so
no one will notice. This is not very disguised.” Kiyan was slightly
worried that a random solar flare that obliterated a station
probably designed to withstand the like would draw suspicion.

“I still fail to see the difference. Your tracks are
still their but now they are disguised as lumps of melted metal.”
Alec looked like he was enjoying the exchange.

“Alright. Enough about the nuances of language. Have
you made any progress finding the portal?” Kiyan knew that if it
came to the technical data, Alec could win every time in such a
debate.

“I think I have made some progress. I’m cross
referencing data from the three networks. There are a couple
possible locations. One is a planet that has no tactical or
resource value that is being guarded by a small fleet. Another is a
location that the dark lords seem to hold as sacred if you can
believe they have that concept. A third location is one where
defective clones were sent for disposal.” Alec informed Kiyan that
he would let him know if he was able to isolate a single
location.

“My money is on the third location that he
described.” Theo weighed in on the conversation.

“It would stand to reason that Reigns would feed off
their energy. I shudder to think of the feast he got when the
entire drakken empire converted.” Kendra shivered visibly at the
thought.

“He would be far too strong for us to fight in his
current state wouldn’t he?” Terra looked around the assembled
ascended apprehensively.

“Not if we go back in time.” Theo paused for a second
before shrugging his shoulders and changing the subject. “I hope we
can deal with it quickly and that the time reset goes smoothly. I
have seen strange things happen when a time stream compensates for
a reset.”

“I really don’t know what might happen with a reset
of this magnitude.” Kendra agreed that Theo had a point but also
pointed out that there was not any alternatives presented.

--------

“I think I have found the location of the portal.”
Several hours had passed before Alec informed the impatient people
that waited. “I had to cross reference all the information found on
all the dark lord’s networks before narrowing the location down to
one possibility.”

“I thought that you only had access to a couple of
the networks?” Kiyan knew that Alec was a powerful AI but hadn’t
realized how powerful.

“It really was nothing, one of the networks I had
access to belong to the dark lord that had overseen the development
of the encryption system. He made a universal key generator for his
own use before letting the program fall into his rival’s hands.”
Alec casually explained something that made Kiyan realize just how
divided the dark lords were. Their apparent unity in the war was
only their obedience to their master. Without Reigns controlling
them they would fall on each other even if the time line didn’t
reset.