Only Human (39 page)

Tharron was staring at him in wonder. "Well
done, boy," he managed. "But those were my planes. I want you to do
away with that second battleship now. You hear me? And the small ship behind
us."

Kiran regarded him for a moment. He felt Nova's
warning. Did she not want this man dead? "The small ship?" he said.
"The one with my father on it? Will you give me candy if I do? Come here, Mighty
Tharron. Take my hand so that I may know you."

Tharron backed off. "You listen,
boy..."

Kiran slid out of his chair.

"Sit down!" Tharron commanded.

"You know," Kiran said, his
cherubic face smiling happily at the rebel leader. "I don't even need to
touch you, you know. I can feel you through the floor we're both standing
on."

 Tharron recoiled from the child and found
himself backed into a corner of the cockpit. Suddenly, the K'lar's eyes widened
in understanding. There was a brief moment of vertigo as he floated between
life and death. Then there was nothing.

Kiran shook himself in disgust when Tharron's
being had become part of the Tughan.
I see what you mean
, he said to Nova.
He turned to the pilot, the only rebel still alive on this ship.

Pe Khoja had watched Jelani die and had
marveled at the ease with which their leader had been dispatched. They were
gone now, their bodies littering the floor, their minds living on inside this
child.

Kiran's hand moved to Pe Khoja's wrist.

"Can you fly this ship?" the
rebel asked.

"Yes."

"The Eagle's right behind us." Pe
Khoja felt no fear. Neither did he underestimate this boy. "If Tychon
doesn't shoot us down the battleship will. They'll destroy both of these
ships."

Kiran shrugged. "They'll try. I can
handle the
Teti
and I can handle Tychon." He dropped his hand.
"Perhaps you shall live, Pe Khoja. There is something you want to know,
isn't there?"

Pe Khoja nodded, his eyes on his screens.
"I have many questions."

"And you want answers for all of
those?"

Suddenly Pe Khoja was no longer sure. He
looked into the Tughan's eyes and knew that all of the answers were there. The
child had absorbed the conscious and subconscious, the knowledge and the
memories of almost a thousand people and had learned. But did he, Pe Khoja,
really want to know? Did he really?

 "Well?" the Tughan demanded.
"Shall I tell you a few things?" He climbed into the copilot's seat.
His child's fingers brushed back the long blue curls and the eyes in the
youthful face regarded him mischievously. "Didn't you always want to know
where we all come from? You always thought that our origin might have been
something quite extraordinary, didn't you? That, just maybe, we are all the
same species, after all? Should I tell you how right you are about that? Do you
really want to know?"

Pe Khoja gripped his controls.
"No!" he said, his teeth clenched.

"How about our future? Do you know where
we're all going? Do you want to have a look at what's ahead? By understanding
all those people that have joined me, I know what happened and why, so very
long ago. You would, too, if you could see all of us at once. But I can also
see where we're all going. For the same reason. Nothing is coincidence if you
know the math, Pe Khoja, nothing! It's just more tangled than you were led to
believe." Kiran paused for a moment. "And did you know that I can
change it all? I can do anything!"

"You can also die!" Pe Khoja
flipped his plane to rush directly at the Eagle behind them. Tychon would
either shoot them down or let them crash into him. It would mean the same,
either way.

 Kiran shook his head. The ship assumed a
mind of its own and veered away from the Eagle. Pe Khoja suddenly saw into the Tughan
and understand. For an instant, his life's search for wisdom had come to
fruition and he knew. Then he died for it.

* * *

"What was that?" Tychon looked
after the receding ship. For a brief moment it had seemed as though they had
been on a collision course with the rebel cruiser. "Nova? Talk to him!
Find out what's going on!"

"The Tughan," Nova managed.
"He killed Tharron. Killed Pe Khoja..."

"He's flying that plane alone? I'll
tan his hide!"

* * *

"Eagle Five, come in," Carras
called again. "Eagle Five!"

He reached for another channel. Who was
aboard? Why was it chasing the last of the rebel cruisers? The Tughan was on
one of those ships. But which? He glanced at the screens in front of him,
unwilling to take the time to wonder why
Erato
had fallen silent. One
problem at a time, he thought.

The bridge behind him was a frantic,
noise-filled hive as operations officers conducted the external battle with the
enemy shrills.

"Hullo? Battleship up there?"

Carras frowned. "Identify."

"Um, this is Greah."

"Who?"

"I'm from Shaddallam. We're on the Eagle.
Nova is sick or something."

"Who else is aboard?"

"Ty."

"Not the boy?"

"No, he's on the other ship. He's
killed everybody!"

"Let me speak to Tychon."

Someone shouted in the background and Greah
shouted back something equally unclear. Then Greah was back. "Uh, he's
busy. Something broke."

Carras swore. "Tell him to get out of
the way!" He turned to his helmsman. "Destroy the rebel ship. Go
through the Eagle if you have to."

"But, sir, what about our fighters?
The battle–"

"Go!"

* * *

"No!" Kiran screamed into Nova's
mind when he saw
Teti
streak after them. Nova was knocked backward,
unconscious.

Tychon hailed the rebel ship. "Kiran!
You will not harm that battleship!" he said firmly, as he would at any
other time when Kiran misbehaved. He's just a little boy, he told herself,
knowing better. Just a little boy. "I know you can hear me. Let Nova go.
You're hurting her! I want you to turn your ship back to Shaddallam. I'll be
right behind you."

The Eagle shook like a horse bucking its
rider when a hit from the
Teti
glanced off the shields. Another volley
bypassed the Eagle. This time it found its target and blasted Kiran's ship off
course.

Tychon watched in horror as the small craft
righted itself and came about as if to make a stand. He waited for the final
blow from the
Teti
.

Kiran had other plans. Tychon changed
course to follow him as he dove past Carras' battleship, dodging her fire, and raced
toward the dead
Erato
drifting at some distance. Tychon swerved the
equally maneuverable Eagle around
Teti
and followed closely. He did not
hesitate to follow Kiran when the rebel ship dove into
Erato
's open launch
bay where it skidded as it touched down and crushed its landing gear. Tychon
set the Eagle down close to the crippled vessel. The massive bay door lowered
behind them even as deadly volleys from the
Teti
impacted against
Erato
's
shields.

* * *

Nova dragged herself to her feet and
staggered toward the cockpit. Tychon tossed his headset aside and jumped from
the pilot couch to catch her.

"Kiran..." she mumbled. Why did
everything seem so foggy?

"You stay here," Tychon said to
Greah. Greah didn't seem to be inclined to do much else. He stared speechlessly
out of the cockpit and through the transparent wall that separated the launch
from the pressurized decks where the bodies of pilots and crew lay where they
had dropped. No one here had been prepared for the Tughan's rage.

Tychon walked Nova back to the lounger.
"Lie down. I'll–"

She snatched his hand and held it to her
interface node, allowing him to see the Tughan through her khamal with the
child. Tychon's eyes widened in horrified surprise when he perceived what Kiran
had become. Like Nova, he felt the presence of the people now dead and the
terrible intelligence that made up the Tughan Wai. "No," he breathed.

"Gone!" she gasped. "He's
broken our khamal. He doesn't want you to see him." Nova tried to sit up.
"He's taken control of the battleship. Leaving Shaddallam now. So fast... Carras
is following. We've got to stop Kiran!"

Tychon nodded, slowly, as if to himself. Wordlessly,
he pulled his gun from its holster and left the Eagle.

"Ty, don't," Nova cried. She groped
for the edge of the lounger and lurched to her feet, her mind clearer now that
the Tughan had released her. She stumbled to the cargo bay door and into
Erato
's
landing area, stopping only to snatch a gun from its storage.

Kiran stood near the rebel plane's ramp,
coughing, his face smudged and very pale. Acrid smoke still seeped from the
ship. No one else had exited.

He stared up at his father and the gun that
was pointed at his head.

"Dadda," he cried, backing away.
In spite of the lives he had taken and the vast power awakening within him, his
face was that of a small boy, frightened and confused. He stumbled over a prone
body on the ground and fell. Some small part of him recognized the lifeless
thing and he shook his head in horrified comprehension. "I did this? Why
did I do this? Why is this happening?"

"You can still stop this, Kira!"
Tychon said urgently.

Kiran came to his feet. His expression
turned to outrage. "I cannot! Your own people were shooting at you to get
at me. Can't you see what they've done? Can they lock me away? Can they ever
live without fear of me? They will kill me, Tychon. They were prepared to
destroy the whole planet to get at me. Baroch is here with me. I know what
happened!"

"You're just doing what you were
designed to do. You'll have to learn some things."

"I know everything!" Kiran's
words were an accusation. "I have touched this ship and I know every Union
ship ever built and some you haven't invented yet. I have touched nine hundred
and twenty two people and I know things that no one will ever know. And that is
only the beginning! They will not let me touch them. They will kill me if they
can."

"You are still Kiran Tar Phera and
heir to Delphi."

"I am a monster locked in the body of
a child and I have no place to go!" The rage emanating from the Tughan was
palpable.

Tychon lifted his other arm to grip his gun
with both hands. It still shook in his grasp as if just holding it required
tremendous effort. The agony on his face was not something Nova had ever
encountered. "Why won't you stop me?" he pleaded, forcing the words
through gritted teeth.

Kiran slowly shook his head. "I don't
belong here, father. End this now." He closed his eyes and lifted his arms
away from his body. "Do it! Before I change my mind!"

Nova glanced at the setting of her own gun,
aimed, and shot Tychon twice.

She heard Greah's scream from inside the
Eagle when Tychon was thrown some distance away where he landed painfully on a
conveyor, dazed and unable to move.

Stunned, Kiran looked from his father to
Nova and the gun in her hand.

"You have destroyed enough
people," she said. "I won't let you destroy him, too. I can't!"

This was not Kiran, she reminded herself,
feeling the setting on her gun reset under her finger. This was a creature
without equal, one who had killed to feed itself and would kill again to become
even more powerful. Tharron was within him, as was Jelani and Pe Khoja and so
many others. All of them furious, all of them grieving. Already, these entities
were fighting over dominance in shaping Kiran's new personality. This
thing
had to die!

Or did it? When the fury settles, when the
grieving ends, would what remained not also have the right to live? Would the
Tharron-presence inside the boy guide his future or would reason prevail? Would
Pe Khoja's thirst for knowledge lead the Tughan to kill, or would he use this
powerful new mind for greater things? How would all the others that died here
today shape this creature?

Her eyes shifted to Tychon. "I'm
sorry," she said, offering her apology to everyone and no one. "I
have no choice." She dropped her gun. "Take the Eagle. It'll outrun
Carras. Go!"

"Why are you doing this?" Kiran
whispered.

"I am doing this for him!"

Something moved across Kiran’s face and
shifted into the sum of the elements that made up the Tughan Wai now. It was ancient
and in motion and still incomplete, but it was no longer a boy. "Maybe
that is what makes you human, Human."

He looked at the man who had given him life
and had nearly taken it away. Greah now hovered beside Tychon, struck
speechless in wide-eyed bewilderment. "Would you have done the same for
her, Father?" Kira said. "She can keep teaching you if you let
her."

"Kira..." Tychon rasped.

Kiran cocked his head, listening for
something that was noiselessly approaching. He moved toward the Eagle. "I'm
still here, somewhere. Please know that I loved you and that I wanted to be
like you. I won't get that chance now, but for a little while it was a good
dream." He looked up at Nova. "Look after Tychon. You are worthy of
each other, I think. He needs you."