Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) (29 page)

Timon waved her over.

"The rest of you, if you could come over here
please?" He meant the group, but got all the stragglers, which cut the
overall number in half nearly, since the slow walkers turned toward him too.
"If you could all stay here? I now that you want to go, but there will be
things in the future. You can all come and help with the new colony later,
perhaps? It's valuable work. I really don't have food for everyone if we all
go. I know this is terribly rude of me, I hope you can all forgive my lack of
foresight?" When in doubt, take the blame. Tim knew that letting these
kids feel like cowards wasn't going to help anyone at all, and if shamed too
much, they might well just go anyway, to prove their mettle.

Alyssa smiled at him and winked. She was cute, in a decently
tall blonde way. She was thinner than he remembered her however, as if she'd
been stressed for a long time.

"Good. I have work to do here and so do half the
others. We're here if you need us though. The builders whose fighting groups
are going are on the craft, so we should be fine. Everyone in my crew is a
first year." She shrugged, and a couple of the others did too. All
builders, from the clothing.

The Headmaster clapped at them all then.

"Very well, back to studies then! A word, Lord
Baker?" The man didn't sound angry, but he came up to talk, followed by
Kolb and an old woman that Timon was almost certain would be Doris.

When they were all in, the older looking man bowed again.

"Congratulations on your promotion. Now, how long do
you think this expedition will last? I do need to write a report about
this."

Timon had no clue, but instead of saying so, stared at the
man for a bit, trying to work it all out.

"I might need Kolb and Doris for a while. The rest are
mainly just coming for the trip. If it gets dangerous, they might help, but so
far Soam is actually the safest place to be on the planet. The fear however is
that Gray won't let that last. We're going to locate the Ancient in charge
there and see if we can find out what's being planned. I figure that we can
send the others home in a few days? Really, they don't need to go, except that,
naturally, they do." It was clear to him, and everyone else just seemed to
accept it, except Trice.

"They do?"

There was a clearing of the throat and then Kolb spoke, his
voice deep and slightly pensive.

"A force that sits unused for too long becomes stale.
Change, even temporary or occasional change, keeps people sharp." There
was a bit of a glance on the trailing end of it that seemed to tell Trice that
it was so obviously what Tim had meant that she should have known it already.

Which she actually did.

It was only that she didn't think Timon would know it, not
having had those kinds of classes in school yet. It was a valid enough point,
if neglecting the fact that he could figure things out, on occasion.

"So, call it three days unless something actually
happens, for the main group. We'll keep in touch daily. Or you can contact us,
if any parents wonder where their children are."

The old man, who was slightly stooped looking, bowed a bit
again and then climbed out the door, dropping lightly to the hard stones a few
feet down. There was almost no sound from the move, which gave a bit of lie to
the idea that he was
just
a school master, if anyone was paying
attention. Sloppy of him, really.

Then he got in contact with Gerent. From the sound of it,
all the excited people were chatting away merrily on the other craft right
then. Timon was glad that he didn't have to be over there, himself.

"Follow along. We'll head due South for the first three
hours, at about half speed."

That was mainly so that they didn't get lost. The whole trip
would take about five to get there, going that slow, but he was going to set
down in a random location, picked between hours three and five. It would make
it harder for Gray and Cordes to get people in place to attack fast enough.

Five minutes later they were in the air, with Gerent about
ten miles away to the East. That way they wouldn't accidently hit each other if
something happened. The others sat in the back, about twenty feet behind him,
but spoke loudly enough for him to hear easily.

It was Kolb that spoke first.

"I got word that Julie was holding up in the caves,
near the North West coastal region. We can be there in a few hours. I'd like to
set down in a different location and then use decoys, so that we aren't spotted
getting into place." The man had a map, in the leather case that he'd
carried with him. It was a tube, about four feet high.

Doris sat quietly, and after listening to Trice and Kolb for
a while, finally moved. To sit next to Timon at the controls. The seat she took
was a soft cream color and seemed to be made of soft leather with a lot of
padding underneath. She smiled peacefully as she nearly melted into place.

"So, Timon Baker. I've been meaning to seek you out for
a discussion. Would now be a good time for you?" Her voice was serene.

His wasn't too different still either.

"I'm not going anywhere, so yes. What can I do for
you?"

"Torrance Baker made changes to your emotional
processing abilities. I was wondering if you could explain, from your own view
point, how this has altered your reactions to stimuli?"

He felt a very faint flash of annoyance, since it was one of
his least favorite topics, but after a while he glanced at the woman, and
noticed her pearl colored hair. It fit with being elderly, well enough, but was
also a sign of something else. That she was controlling her looks by force of
will, he thought.

"About as would be expected, I guess. I haven't really
changed what I've been doing, to the best of my knowledge, I just feel bad
about it after the fact. I really don't know what Tor was going for, if it
wasn't Cordes suggesting it in order to change how I'd react. He said something
to that effect to me. Cordes, I mean. The version inside Tor's mind?"

The woman looked at him for a very long time. Well past when
it would have been uncomfortable for most people, but Timon didn't go on. It
was all he had to say about things, unless she had questions.

"He spoke to you openly? That's very interesting. It
shouldn't have that large of an influence on you then, in the short run. It was
always a risk, leaving you without a sense of guilt. Green suggested to me that
you should feel about half of what most do, in that regard. It will be enough I
think. I doubt that Tor can comprehend a person making logical choices that
still preserve the greater good. Cordes can, which means that he's likely using
that idea to control your brother. Or was. Do you have any idea how much
control he's assumed over Tor at this point?" It wasn't leading, she
really seemed interested in knowing.

Timon just didn't know at all.

"I haven't been around him a lot. There was that bit of
trouble with Remy Seventeen, so I had to stay in space for a while. I just got
back yesterday."

That earned a slow nod.

"I'd heard. What plans do you have, to protect
yourself? Have you accepted death then? Most would have stayed off world, given
such a threat."

He blinked, but realized that she just hadn't heard yet.

"I killed Remy Seventeen earlier today. Green and
Orange are going to dump the remains into the sun. Or, I guess toss them in,
from a long way off. Just to make sure. It's not functional now however."

That got the woman to sit up suddenly, and stare at him.

"You stopped a Remy? By yourself? No army, or use of
nuclear weapons?
Kolb
!" She jumped up and started to chatter at the
other Ancient in a rapid fire fashion that sounded strange and not like any
language he knew. It was a bit like Noram Standard and Austran, but also not
really. It had a lot of irregular words, and the tenses didn't line up exactly
right all the time.

Then, rather than ask him about what had happened, Kolb
contacted Green, who was in orbit already, seeing to the task at hand. He at
least didn't doubt what was going on.

"This particular Remy is gone. It's an elegant solution
really. A viral mimic, that surrounds each cell of the being in a shielded
space, preventing useful functioning. There's no sense or reading of life at
all. Alice and I are going to sling-shot it in about fifteen minutes."
That seemed to mean something to the other Ancients at least.

Doris sounded slightly awed suddenly.

"So, this was a magical construct? Built by Timon
Baker?"

That got Burks to clear his throat before answering.

"Totally."

"Not you, or Torrance Baker?"

"Not at all. As far as I know, the idea came from Timon
alone. Tim?"

That wasn't exactly true, so he confessed to it, in case it
was important later.

"Monroe helped, by explaining how the Remy all
functioned."

Doris clapped, several times, like a school girl. Then she
moved to sit back up front with him and touched his right shoulder gently. It
didn't trigger his shield, but it still felt a bit creepy.

"Marvelous. That's a real accomplishment. There have
been well armed and armored armies that couldn't manage it, in the past."

He'd heard things like that, but it was a trick, not a
fight, that had let him win. Timon didn't explain that however, since it was so
clear that even trying to would be insulting.

Mercifully they just chattered quietly for a while, sitting
at a table behind them, munching on fruit and some rolls. Trice played hostess,
lacking anything else to do. When Kolb pointed to the map with a single finger,
touching the paper with a soft thump, Timon tapped the sigil on his communications
device, and got in touch with Gerent.

"Due East, all the way to the coast line. Full
speed!" Then he raced off, without explaining the plan to anyone. The
others went on alert, looking out the windows suddenly, but he just laughed a
little.

"We're going to park under the water off the coast and
use night fall as cover from satellites. Then we can move into place and see if
we can find Julie. Unless you want to try something else?" He looked back
at Kolb. The bald and scarred faced man shook his head.

"No, that's as good a plan as any, and better than
most. It won't really fool anyone, not if they're watching, but if there's even
a chance of throwing them off, we have to take it."

It still took a bit to get things all together and he had to
land and physically go to Gerent's craft to reconfigure it for under water
work. It couldn't go very deep, but doing that let him pick up his friend Mags,
which was worth doing for no other reason than having her around.

He had one thought, which he didn't share until hours later,
after they ate a small meal, sitting about twenty feet under water, as night
fell.

"So, what we need to do is leave under cover of
darkness. If Mags is willing to help us out, we can leave this craft here, and
take her Space Ship over to find White." Timon had felt it on her when he
went over to help Gerent, but the others acted impressed. Especially Kolb.

"You have a Space Ship? How did that happen?"

The large and slightly homely girl blushed.

"Um, Tor gave it to me. For helping his brother. He
didn't have any other Fast Carriages at the time, so..."

She glanced at Timon, and then hunched her shoulders a bit.

"I don't know if I'm allowed to have it. Tiera said I
shouldn't tell anyone."

He looked at her and shrugged.

"I can see that. Still, you
do
have it and if
you're willing that means we can be on the other side of the continent and back
before light. Then... Well, we should take out the satellite system and put up
our own in its place, don't you think?" He managed to sound playful, but Kolb
rolled his eyes and snorted at him.

Rudely
, if the truth were going to be known.

"Oh? That's easier said than done. Do you know what it
would take to get a system like that up, much less removing the one that's
already in place?"

"Nope." Timon stood up to stretch and then took a
few deep breaths. The air coming in was cool, since it was getting dark out and
was as close to winter as it got in this part of the world. "Or, well, I
mean, I don't know what it will take to disrupt the current system, but I have
some satellites ready. They'll take pictures and all that. It really isn't as
good as what the others have, but it will be ours, which will be a nice change,
I think."

Then he had to explain what he meant.

It took some time, but by true dark, they were ready to go.

The timing couldn't have been more perfect if Timon had been
holding a sigil down to make it happen himself. The very instant they hit the
far coast, the western reaches of the mighty Soam continent, the world turned
to light. Not in a good way either.

"Mags! Go up!
Up
!" He screamed it, even
though he couldn't hear anything other than his own voice. It was a nuclear
device. It didn't seem any bigger than the one that he'd outran before, and
this ship was faster than his, so it could work,
if
the girl at the helm
would just pull the damned control up.

Diving toward her he got there just in time for her to react,
doing what he'd told her to. They went straight into the air, the world
buffeting them gently as it moved away. That was the space distortion wave,
Timon thought, since they were too far away for it to be moving matter anymore.
Not that he knew that for certain, but after a minute he was as sure as he
could be while contemplating throwing up. Not that he ever got sick like that,
but the attack had come so suddenly it was either planned for them, or they
were just in the worst possible place, at the worst time ever.

It was Kolb that surged to the front then, who ordered Mags
to rotate the craft so that they could see out. The blasts came in waves, each
looking like a growing white hot spark on the dark world below them. One set
off in Soam, the other off the West coast of Afrak, which was just visible to
the far right. First there was one right next to the land. Then, after the
water had been pushed away, Tim understood, able to feel the action, even from
space, two more explosions came in both places, about two miles out, and then
three, placed twice that distance away. It was almost pretty, in a bright and
rapidly hidden way.

"The water is making clouds to conceal it. The rest of
the blasts." If there were more, which Timon didn't know for sure. He
thought he could sense that however. "Fuck."

It was a hard word, and lacked any feeling, but no one else
seemed to notice.

Trice seemed baffled, if only for a few seconds. She got the
meaning fast enough though. It was basic physics.

"What... A giant wave? They only used one device off of
West Noram... This will be huge."

Doris shook her head however.

"No, my wager is that it's three, or four of them. This
was discussed... A long time ago. The waves will be destructive, probably
killing ten times the number of people the bombs would have, but the true
devastation will come in what happens later. The Earth will slow from the initial
blasts, but speed on the wave, shortening the day by the slightest of
fractions. This will change the climate over time however, causing famine for
some years. Water shortages. Untold death."

The lady panicked, as uncharacteristic as that probably was.
Timon saw it happen, since her flesh relaxed and the wrinkles left suddenly. It
was dramatic, and she changed color in mere moments, to a soft pearl sheen.
Then she began to breathe faster, which was being matched, if a bit more
gruffly, by Kolb. That they, both Ancient beings that had seen almost
everything at one time or another, were doing things like that had to mean it
was worse than he thought it would be.

For once in his life, not knowing enough seemed to be a
blessing.

"How long before all this happens? The waves."
Timon spoke gently, keeping his mind still. One of them had to hold it all together
after all. Mags was in shock and Trice was so white she could play Tiera in a
school play. That or a ghost.

No one answered, so Tim shook Kolb by the arm sharply enough
that his shield kicked on, throwing the hand away painfully.

"Get it together! We need to know time scales,
now
."

"Right. About six hours for the wave, maybe half that.
The rest, well... that will start in a few weeks. Right now the big danger is
to the land masses. Afrak... That crazy bitch hit her own home? Her people
aren't ready to face this kind of thing. She made certain of it."

No one spoke for a bit, which had a frozen and still
component to it, like they just didn't have a plan to cope with this kind of
thing, Ancient or not. Timon grabbed his communications device. Then
he
froze. Who could do anything about this at all? The answer he got wasn't a fun
one, since he didn't really understand it, but it was simple enough. He could.

Not easily. Not alone. It wouldn't help the people that
drowned under the waves either, but the energy of the world could be held on
its current course, if he hurried and got enough help... Which wasn't possible,
he realized. If every person on the planet had been a builder, they could have
worked as one, possibly, and changed this. As it was, he was one man. A
boy
.
And nothing he did would stop the waves from coming. The rest, the damage to
the world, would come as well. He was thinking too big for the moment, and if
he kept trying to do that nothing would get done at all.

"So move the people?" He whispered the words and
knew it wasn't going to be enough. He tried to get in touch with Alice anyway.
In case she was willing to help. She was the one with a fleet of fast ships
that could hold a lot of people.

"Orange, go."

No words came out. It took so long that she had to speak
again, her voice slightly amused.

"This is Alice Orange, who called?"

Timon took a shuddering breath and forced words out, hoping
he'd say something close to correct.

"Timon Baker. Alice... The others, the Ancients... They
set off..."

He expected Kolb to talk then and explain, but it was Doris
that leapt forward, yelling.

"It's a nuclear cascade. In... I see three locations.
South America, Africa and now Australia. Alice... They've killed us all. That
crazy renegade twat and her dead friends have done it!" She did
not
sound happy about it, and Alice at least responded with a question, if not the
right one.

"Who is this?"

"
Doris
! We're in geo-stat orbit right now,
watching. We'll check the other side of the world. This is... The
devastation... Why?
Why
?"

It was pretty clear that they'd gotten about all the good
they were going to out of her, so Timon forced himself to take back over as
both Kolb and Trice were busily getting in touch with people on their own
devices. After about ten seconds, Timon just started barking orders, knowing
that half of them were stupid, and not caring anymore.

"Alice, we need to get all our ships to Austra.
Kolb!" He was on with Brown after all, who was clearly already up on what
had happened in his part of the world. "We're sending the ships in. Get
the Austrans in the affected areas ready to move out. We won't have enough room
for everyone... Damn... Mags, get us to the Ranford. I have some things there.
We'll drop shields with flight rigs too. Denno... we'll need him to put orders
out over your system as to how to use them."

Kolb didn't hesitate to start that going and neither, it
sounded like, did Orange. Mags however just sat, not moving.

"But... the other lands... shouldn't we help
them?"

Timon felt his bottom lip quiver like a tiny child as tears
came to his eyes, but he shook his head firmly and sounded like an adult. For
once.

"No. We can't do anything for them at all. Austra is
the only place on the planet that can mobilize their people fast enough to do
anything useful. Afrak and Soam will have all their people spread too thin.
We-"

His Aunt Alice was a warrior, above all else, and calm in
the face of death, especially when it wasn't hers.

"I'll get with the Ranford on the shield drop and
pick-up. We can just call them. It will be faster that way."

Ah. He'd forgotten that. It meant that they needed to head
for Austra then, as Trice called the students under the water and told them to
take the other craft, and get home as fast as they could.

"Then..." She just sobbed. It came out softly, and
no tears fell, but it was as real as crying could get, floating there in space
like they were.

Timon leaned in.

"Then arm
everyone
. We're going to find the ones
that did this, and kill them all. No mercy. No surrender. We will dig them out
of their holes and rip them to shreds, until no bit of them exists to ever do
this again."

It sounded bold at least, and would work,
if
they
could find the Ancients. If he were them, Timon would have been off in space.
Hiding. That or deep, deep under the earth. It didn't really matter. He'd find
them. Then... Well, after that it didn't matter who killed them, did it? That's
what armies were for. Making sure that if you, personally, fell, someone else
could take over and get the job done.

It was rude of him, but he pushed Mags from her seat, and
took over directing the ship at speeds that no one sane would have tried to fly
them at in atmosphere, and then made the thing grow to the largest size it
could. It was a big ship, being about a quarter mile square, and it had twenty
levels, and enough room on each for...

That he didn't know. As many as they could find, he hoped.

It wouldn't be enough, not even with every ship they had.
Not even with every new shield they could drop. If anyone in Austra could even
figure out how to turn them on, much less use the new magical devices. Damned
if they wouldn't try though. It was a horror, waiting for people to load and
then searching for the next collection of people that was big enough to warrant
trying to get. If it wasn't close to ten thousand, they didn't stop, even
though that meant passing by women and children that stood in the streets and
on the tops of their apartment complexes. In the end he had to drop into a deep
trance and shut off everything he could, even as the stress of the day made
that nearly impossible.

It didn't totally work. Not at all really, because his focus
meant he was reading the fields of... Everything. If he looked at it, or
thought about something at all, he connected with it. With them.

The others went down and got people to climb in, telling
them to leave their things behind and save their lives. Timon could hear some
of the conversations from other ships over the communications device. It was
just open now, even though it wasn't supposed to do that. The demand was
breaking the system, it seemed.

He heard Mags, down below, bellow at someone, who seemed to
be a man.

"No! The children get on first. Leave the dog!"

The man refused, and from the top window Timon saw them
leave, the man and his pet, a small and frightened looking white and brown
animal. Walking away from salvation, so that they could die together.

It wasn't the last thing like that he witnessed that day,
and it had to be worse for the rest of them, actually being with the people. He
was safe and insulated where he was, even as the Ranford dropped from the sky,
slowed and dumped a black mist from the bottom of the craft. That, he
understood, was scale getting in the way of perception. The shields were big
enough, each one the size of a gold coin, the ship was just that far away.

Time crawled and rushed all at once, until finally Kolb called
to him directly.

"I see the wave. We need to be above it. Estimated
time... three minutes."

Except that it was going to take longer than that to get
everyone on board. This latest crowd was pushing, trying to live, to get to
safety. When the wave was about a minute away, rushing at them at a speed he
couldn't calculate, people scattered. Small children, some carrying what looked
like dolls, were pushed into the sky by their parents. When one flew closer to
his window he realized the little boy in front of him wasn't carrying a stuffed
animal or rag doll, but a tiny baby. One that couldn't possibly be his sibling,
being of a very different look. They were, thankfully, tied together. Both were
sobbing, but the little boy managed to gain enough control not to hit the giant
ship in front of him at least.

They had to go higher, because what was coming at them was a
wall of water. One so high that what few trees Austra had were vanishing under
it in the distance, by a very good ways. It was... Death. No one on the ground
was going to survive that, Timon knew. Not without a shield on.

As he rose he saw an older man grab a small girl. At first
he wondered if he were going to harm her, in some crazed fit of rage at his own
passing, but it wasn't that. He just slipped something around her neck, and
started to yell at her, until she rose in the air, straight up, like a cork in
deep water. Then Timon lost sight of the man, the ship itself in the way.

It wasn't until later, when he was above the wave that
washed away half the land below him, that Timon realized that he'd been crying
for hours. True, he didn't feel anything, but his eyes leaked, and when the
others came back up, he wasn't alone in that. Trice and Mags were doing it too.

After that, they just hung there in the air, not doing
anything for a long time. It was the blue flash that came from his pocket that
shook him out of it. Grabbing his communications device, he wondered when
they'd started acting normal again.

"Tim Baker." He sounded exhausted and dead inside.
It was accurate, so he went with it.

"Baker? Ah, the
brother
. Very good. You'll do
then. We noticed that you managed to rescue a few poor souls in Australia?
Bravo, but it won't do you any good. We can hit you like this over and over
again, and you can't do anything about it. Really you should just give up now,
don't you think? Make it easier on everyone?" The voice was new to him,
and other than being young and male, only one thing stood out. The tone and
accent was Cordes.