Thorn was led to an alcove set into the far wall. The force field engaged behind them giving them complete privacy.
"We're safe from prying eyes and prying minds now. You can't be too careful. The TechPsychers want to know everyone's business. Now, how many credits do you have?"
Thorn wanted more information. Torst had told him to be careful when mind probing someone as there were detection units now at all major stations that could detect any mind activity. The TechPsychers were doing their best to eradicate all natural psychers.
"Why is it illegal to get transportation from here?"
The Pertruan looked quizzically at him.
"Have you never been here before?"
"Not for some time. I've been away."
"Well your TechPsychers seem to be running the show here now. This seemed to be a major meeting point for escaping natural psychers from your Home world. One way for them to stop this was to outlaw their only escape route. Pretty much killed our lucrative sideline. You’re not one of them are you?"
"What if I am?"
"You'll never get off of the station. They have scanners to detect any abnormal brain activity as you leave. There are TechPsychers all over the place mind probing whenever they want. I'm surprised you've got this far without being detected. Unless you're not one of them. Now why would you lie about something like that?
One of the techniques Thorn learned during his Mastering was a way to mask his ability by training his mind to only show normal human brain activity. It was a kind of filter that only allowed that activity be shown.
"I never said I was one of them."
"No, I don't suppose you did. In that case human, the price is three hundred credits. I will be leaving in three hours. Now why don't you buy me a drink to seal the deal?"
Thorn smiled.
"Of course. My name is Thorn. What can I call you?"
"Once you pay me you can call me anything you like, but until then I am Enyar." The yellow teeth seemed to clash with Enyar's skin colour as he smiled. "That name sounds familiar. Have you been around the Delta System much?"
"No, I've been...incommunicado for some time now."
Thorn pulled out his credit chip card and scanned it across the table. A holo-image of a human head appeared.
"What can I get you to drink?" it said.
"I'll have an Earth World rum with ice and..." He looked over to Enyar who said.
"A Pertruan Childra."
Both drinks appeared on the table within seconds. The Pertruan Childra glowed its green luminescence and lit up Enyar's face. Picking up the glasses they then clinked them together and proceeded to drink. Thorn screwed up his face as the drink washed over his taste buds and down his throat.
"That’s either a poor quality rum or my liking for the drink has changed over the years."
Enyar chuckled at the look on Thorn's face.
Chapter 14
Outside of the alcove a commotion began. It was muffled by the force field, but loud enough to interrupt the two.
"Sounds like the TechPsychers are in."
"Can we release the field? I want to see what's going on," said Thorn. As the field disappeared and he saw once again the sight of a human with a headband torturing an innocent person, a familiar feeling of hate filled his soul. Tempered, but still there. He had to check himself to stop from squashing the three men to a pulp.
What they were doing was obvious and he could feel it. The two humans he spotted when he entered the bar had been thrown across the room. They were being mind probed with no care for any damage that was being done. The two Druans were being held in the air by one of the TechPsychers mind. Thorn could feel the scratching and scraping happening to the minds of the two humans. He felt the agony they were going through.
Torst had stressed to him that he had to stay away from trouble, but he couldn't let them go through this any longer. He threw out two barriers to the suffering men preventing further damage to their minds. The two TechPsychers reeled back a little.
"Wow! This one’s a strong one," one of them said.
"Yeah, this one too."
They tried harder to get a hold of their victim’s minds. The harder they tried the more painful it got until they both broke their links.
The naturals lay on the floor bemused by what was happening. The pain in their heads had suddenly ceased. Thorn turned to Enyar.
"I need for us to leave in thirty minutes and we will have two more passengers."
"I...I can't. I have things to do. Supplies to buy. You're not thinking about taking those two? It's too dangerous. We'll never get them onto the ship."
"I'll pay you ten times the price you quoted. Don't worry about getting them on the ship. Leave that to me. All I need is three crew uniforms. Leave them at the information kiosk."
The lure of the price was very tempting for Enyar. He'd never seen that sort of credit before. He'd been in more dangerous situations than this before and for less credit. But the TechPsychers! That's a different matter.
"I need an answer soon Enyar," Thorn stressed.
Going against his better judgement Enyar blurted out, "OK. We can pick up supplies en route. The ship’s in bay forty eight." He slipped out the front door avoiding the baffled TechPsychers.
As soon as he left Thorn slipped off of his chair and was behind the first TechPsycher in an instant. He swept him and as he fell backwards Thorn jumped up with a kick to his chest. In mid air a Laser knife hummed to life from the end of his boot and pierced the TechPsychers heart killing him instantly. A spinning back kick scythed the second TechPsychers head from his shoulders.
During this time Thorn kept a hold of the third with his mind, holding him in the same position until he was right beside him. The two Druans had dropped to the floor and disappeared as soon as they could get to their feet. Thorn could now hear the concerns from the control centre through the headband.
"Franks, are you close to the Sipid Bar? The scanners are going crazy."
Thorn replied as Franks.
"Yeah, nothing going on up here. They must be playing up again. Get one of the droids to take a look."
"OK, but have a scout around to be sure."
"Will do."
Thorn cut off the communication. Pulling the laser sword from his belt he dropped the TechPsycher to the ground, lifeless. He leapt over to the two naturals on the floor.
"We have to be quick. I'm going to place a filter in your mind to stop the scanners detecting you and then I'll quickly make you feel more relaxed so we can get out of here without rousing suspicion. At the moment you both look like you’re about to be executed. I've got a ship waiting for us."
"Who are you?" one of them asked.
"Don't worry about that now. Just try to relax for a moment."
As Thorn entered their minds the physical change was noticeable. Their bodies relaxed and loosened up. The muscles on their faces eased and expressions of contentment appeared. Thorn finished and went over to the TechPsychers bodies. He produced a device that he strapped to his hand and then laid it on one of the bodies. It immediately disintegrated leaving a pile of dust on the floor. The other two followed quickly. Thorn turned to an onlooker.
"Can you arrange for this to be swept up?"
Within seconds the cleaning droids were out on the floor sweeping away the remains of the TechPsychers.
"Let's go," said Thorn to the two naturals.
The three of them walked out of the bar leaving the customers carrying on as if nothing had happened and without a shred of sympathy for the TechPsychers. Thorn scanned the area outside with his eyes. Everyone going about their business. He caught sight of Enyar handing over a bag to the information droid and then hurriedly walking away.
"Stay close to me and try not to catch anyone's eye, especially the TechPsychers."
They leisurely made their way down to the lower floor and then to the information kiosk. A small queue had formed in the time it took for them to get there, but vanished within a few
minutes.
"My employer left a bag for me. His name is Enyar and I am Thorn."
"Yes sir. It's right here." The droid handed over the bag. "Can I help you with anything else?"
"No, this is all, thank you."
The three then found a deserted area to change in. Within minutes they were dressed in the uniforms of transportation crew members. Thorn made sure they were alone before speaking.
"Now I need you to stay calm just a little while longer. We have two checkpoints to get through and I'm not sure how long the filter in your minds can last. It's the first time I've had to do it on someone else so we're flying by the seat of our pants here. Do you both understand what’s going on?"
They both nodded in a spaced out kind of way.
"You're here to save us," one of them said with a smile.
"Hmm. Maybe I relaxed you too much. Can't worry about that now. Let's go."
They made their way to the first checkpoint situated just below the bar they had just come from. Two TechPsycher guards stood menacingly by the exit. Thorn let the two Naturals go through first and followed closely behind. They went through the same time as a small group of Pertruans, who by the look of it had been in the bars since they had arrived. One of them was shepherding them through. Suddenly the group stopped and a luminous liquid came gushing out of the Pertruan at the front of the group. So forceful that it splashed up and onto one of the TechPsychers.
"What the...? You dirty, stinking..." A mind-burst threw the Pertruan across the floor. The group started to get rowdy until three more TechPsychers joined in and eventually calmed the situation. By the time everything was quiet, Thorn and the Naturals were making their way down the long corridor to the docking bays. They caught up with another group when they got to the second checkpoint.
This time a single TechPsycher manned the exit. He was more concerned with making sure there were no problems with the ships getting away and liaised with the control centre in the module far above them. The group stopped by him and engaged in a conversation. Thorn squeezed past the group being as inconspicuous as possible.
Dock forty eight was a good half a mile along the docking area. A disembarkation pod stood idly waiting for a customer. The three entered and sat down.
"Your destination please," came the voice from the speaker in the roof.
"Dock forty eight."
The door closed behind them and they started moving. Halfway to their destination the pod slowed to a halt.
"We have been detained by the security. Please remain seated," came the voice.
"Why have we stopped?" asked one of the Naturals calmly.
Thorn got up to look out of the window.
"I don't know. Let me check your filtering before they come." He once again entered their minds and re-enforced the barriers that he had put in place.
A second pod stopped alongside them and two TechPsychers got out. They opened the door and looked inside. The headbands glinted in the pods lights. The two men looked menacing in their dark uniforms with their laser guns in their hands. Their faces were no more inviting than their overall look.
"We had unusual readings on our scanners when you went through. We'd just like to check you over." Without waiting for a reply one of the men produced a portable scanner and started waving it around the pod.
"Everything's fine in here. You can continue on your way." As soon as they left, the pod continued. Thorn let out a relieved sigh.
Chapter 15
The Shafian, the transport for Thorn and his two new additions, was a class C ship. Built for one thing and that was for moving all kinds of waste products to and from neighbouring galaxies. One race's waste is another race's Granium, as Enyar's old Captain used to say to him. At the time Enyar thought he had been travelling the stars for too long and inhaling the fumes from the containers in the hold, but soon came to realise how true these words were.
The luxuries that the Captain enjoyed in his quarters were what the leaders on his home world were accustomed to. There was no need to leave the ship. Everything was there. Enyar knew then what he wanted. And when the Captain handed over the business to him, he got exactly that.
Things were good until the TechPsychers showed up. Strangling the profit out of the business. Enyar knew nothing else and so was stuck with scrabbling around for any business going. This particular trip he was hauling Terulium, a waste product from the fourth mining planet in the Pion System. As waste products go, this was the most useless. It gave off a smell so bad that if you were exposed to it for too long your screwed up facial features would stay in that position for the rest of the day.
And it was also the most dangerous. The fumes were so unstable that the hold had to be vented into space at regular intervals leaving a trail behind the ship like a whipping purple tail. The only way to dispose of it was into the sun in the Gamma system. No mean feat with a ship as big as this one.
Enyar sat at his table in his quarters chomping away on an Epoua bone. Thorn and the two Naturals, Tianu and Saul, had just finished their food. Enyar was regaling them with tales of some of his trips and the things he'd seen.
"...and it just exploded in his hand taking off all eight fingers. I tell you now, that was one of the funniest things I've ever seen." He cackled with laughter and some meat fell from his mouth onto the floor. A small creature, the size of a squirrel, scuttled across the floor and devoured the morsel. This was Enyar's pet Chriln.
"So, Tianu, Saul. Where were you off to before you were invited on our little trip?" He gave a wry smile to Thorn who responded in kind.
Tianu spoke first.
"We were going to Prius 3. It's a safe planet for people like us."
Thorn immediately shot him a glance.
"Used to be," said Enyar. "If it's the same Prius 3 I'm thinking of it was destroyed about six months ago."
"What do you mean destroyed?" Thorn's eyes demanded an answer.
"Well when I say destroyed I mean it was terraformed. Completely changed the face of the planet. It's big news when something like that happens. It's very rare for a whole planet to be terraformed."
"What happened to the people on it?"
"I don't know. Up until now I thought the planet was uninhabited." Enyar was a little shook up by Thorn's re-action. "Did you know the people there?"
There was a pause before Thorn spoke.
"It was my home world after I left Earth."
"Had you been away from it for some time then?" asked Enyar.
"Thirty two years. Too long!"
Another pause. Saul spoke first.
"I know who you are!"
Thorn shot him a glance. Enyar sat up straight and put his bone down.
"Who is he boy? Ever since I heard your name it's been niggling me. I recognise it, but can't place it."
"He is Thorn of Prius 3. Leader of the most successful group of Naturals to have ever lived. He is the leader of the Psychic Knights. The saviour of thousands of Naturals all over the galaxy."
Enyar slammed his fist down on the table.
"Of course! That's where I've heard the name from. It was always on the lips of the TechPsychers in the bars back then. There was always tales of how they survived an attack by your group or how they nearly captured you. Boy, you really were a pain in their backsides. I thought you were killed back on Earth?"
"Not quite."
"Where have you been all this time? And the rest of your group? Are they still around? Are you going to wreak havoc on the TechPsychers again?"
Thorn shot to his feet.
"Our struggle was to free innocent people from the human trafficking that was happening that provided the scum of the human race profit and power. Only this time I am here to end it once and for all." As he turned and left his chair fell to the ground.
"Whoops! Put my foot in it again. Will I never learn?" Enyar turned to Saul. "So what can you tell me about this guy? Have I got to worry about him?"
"Only if you cross him. All I kno
w about him is the stories that we were told when we were younger. The heroics he and his men performed in the name of justice. The hope that he gave to all of us. Of all of the things I've heard, nothing was told of the feeling I get from him."
"And what would that be?" Enyar said picking up his bone again.
"Loneliness and a deep darkness. Something I am very afraid of."
Tianu nodded in agreement.
Enyar stopped with his mouth clamped round his bone. He pulled it away slowly.
"Then I should be worried about him. Is he likely to bring trouble?"
"Only to those who deserve it...and to himself."
"You and your cryptic answers. As long as he pays me I'll be gone after I drop you all off at Jornaer. He's lucky I need the credits or I would ditch him at our next stop." He continued with his meal, but didn't enjoy it as much.
The Shafian docked in the station orbiting the planet Alshun. The crew went about arranging for supplies while Enyar, Tianu and Saul stayed on the ship. Thorn travelled to the surface. During the trip to Jornaer he had contacted Torst who gave him a lead on where Ifor could be. Apparently he was acting as some sort of mercenary selling his services to any low life with credit and the last place he had acted for someone was on Alshun.
It wasn't by luck that Enyar stopped here for supplies. A little thought manipulation on him made him change his mind from his original destination.
Alshun was a spent planet. Mined until it was empty of the ore that was used for building dwellings on the nearby planets. It was now a stopping off point before moving onto the Fedora system, a system that attracted the well off and therefore Alshun entertained them before they moved on.
Because of this the main city housed supply companies and the bars housed swindlers. TechPsychers had a loose control of the place. No checkpoints or scanners were employed here yet. Just a lax security that threw its weight around every now and then.
The information that Thorn was given was about a company that hadn't been taken over by the TechPsychers yet. It was a clothing company that provided the finest materials in all of the System. Clothes that were tailor made for you while you waited or they would be waiting for you at your destination.
Thorn made contact with the owner just before they arrived. He made himself out to be a wealthy businessman and wanted clothes for his large, extended family on Drayloon in the next System. The meeting was arranged for two hours after they arrived.
Reformation - Part 1:Psychic Knights Page 6