by James Somers
equipment to stay hidden from their field of view.
Tiet made it about halfway to the control chamber when doors at the four corners of the room opened up. Vorn soldiers rushed in with clones. The fiendish, crazed looking men were purposely mutated in size and strength during the cloning process. Their fingers had sharp claws and their teeth were predatory. There was no fear in their eyes. They charged at Tiet, howling savagely.
The lights in the chamber flickered and went out. Emergency lighting immediately kicked in. The soldiers looked around wondering what had happened, but the Horva had no such concerns. They continued to charge.
Tiet pulled his Barudii blade from the electromagnetically shielded scabbard strapped to his back. The adomen blade hummed like a whisper, desiring to shatter the molecular bonds of anything the metal touched. Shots rang out from the soldiers further away, but they weren’t firing at Tiet. He saw another blade catch the light, becoming a blur as the dark figure wielding it swooped in from the ceiling and began taking down the guards. Tiet recognized his mentor immediately.
As the Horva lunged for him, Tiet struck the first in front of him then somersaulted over another attacking from the rear. Two strikes cut the clone down.
The other soldiers, not engaged with Orin, began to fire at everyone: the two Barudii, the Horva and even each other from across the room. It was hard to tell who was fighting who in the half light. More clones rushed Tiet and were cut down by their own panicked handlers—shooting anything that moved. Tiet threw three spicor discs each killing another clone. The discs exploded into three-foot-diameter blue spheres, vaporizing anything caught in the fields. Orin eliminated the soldiers on the other side of the chamber then came to Tiet’s aid.
One of the brutes lost an arm to Tiet’s sword, but continued his attack with the other arm. The bloodthirsty clone landed a fist to his head knocking him to the ground. Orin appeared behind the brute, striking him down immediately.
Orin helped the boy to his feet. Tiet knew by Orin’s expression that he was in big trouble with his mentor. Bodies lay strewn on the floor all around them in the chamber. An alarm began to wail throughout the building.
“You see? This is why I told you never to come here!” Orin shouted.
The middle-aged Barudii warrior stood a head taller than Tiet with a muscular build. His hair held the gray of experience and his face the scars of war.
“I know, but I couldn’t just stand around doing nothing. Our people are dying!” Tiet pleaded.
“Yes, you can. What do you think you’ve accomplished here? You’ve set off alarms. You’re probably being monitored right now. And you might have gotten those children killed, if I hadn’t intercepted them and helped them get off of the premises safely. You’re reckless Tiet. Just plain reckless!”
“It’s still better than doing nothing! Father wouldn’t want me to do nothing!”
“Your father would want you to stay alive…now get out of here, while I buy you some time.”
“Wait, Orin—haven’t you noticed there aren’t any Horva in production here? This chamber didn’t have anything happening.”
“So?”
“So, those tanks over there—they shouldn’t be bone dry, not if they’re still in use.”
Orin looked around to see what he was referring to.
“Maybe they can’t make them right now,” Tiet reasoned. “This might be our chance to rally the people and drive the Vorn out while they’re weak.”
Tiet was right about the clones at least. It appeared as though there had not been any clone production for some time. Orin considered the boy as the alarm continued to blare overhead.
“Please, Orin. We have to at least try.”
“Come on,” Orin grumbled. “I know someone who might be able to help us.”
UPRISING
Ranul awoke to the annoying voice of his computer attempting to alert him to an incoming priority message. He sat up groggily in his bed as the display flashed in his eyes. He noticed the time was now three hours after nightfall.
“Ranul, K’ore,” he said to the computer.
“Identified.”
The visual message flashed onto the screen instantly. Governor Kisch K’ta’s handsome, dark face appeared on the screen—a man from among the Vorn clan who ruled Castai during its occupation. The difference in skin tone among the human clans had long been a source of conflict and had played a big part in the outbreak of war. Still, Kisch K’ta had remained formally pleasant with Ranul as long as he obeyed.
“Ranul, I want the prototype Sentinel to report to the cloning facility at once,” said the governor.
“Has something happened that—”
“It’s none of your concern,” he interrupted. “Have the android report to my office immediately.”
The transmission link snapped off before Ranul could inquire any further. He knew something big must have happened for Kisch K’ta to put the android into action now. Still, there was no choice but to comply. He knew all too well the consequences of disobedience to the Vorn.
Ranul threw on his clothes without formality and made his way down the corridor. He identified himself with the robot guard in order to gain access into the main lab. As the lights flicked on, he walked over to the Sentinel’s power dock and addressed the prototype robot by the code name imprinted on its memory.
“Vale.”
“Yes, Dr. K’ore,” the android responded politely.
“Governor Kisch K’ta, demands your presence at the cloning facility. Please report immediately to his office there.”
“Yes, Dr. K’ore,” said the robot.
Without further inquiry, the android removed itself from the power dock and proceeded out of the lab. Ranul admired his work, but took no pleasure at the thought of such a weapon in the hands of the Vorn. The android moved fluidly, even gracefully—like the warrior it was designed to resemble. It seemed almost as though one of the long dead Barudii warriors was alive again. But this one’s mission had nothing to do with protecting Castai.
Ranul’s stomach growled with hunger. I Might as well have something to eat, since I’m up anyway. When he exited the lab, the android was already gone. Only the lone robot guard stood there. Ranul walked back to his onsite quarters with thoughts of late night snacks and Kisch K’ta’s strange middle-of-the-night request, all swirling in his head.
The automatic door opened then shut behind him as he made his way straight to the food compartment. He jumped as hands wrapped around his upper arm and mouth.
“Don’t scream,” a male voice whispered into his ear. “It’s Orin, your old friend. Remember?”
Ranul paled with lingering fright as Orin released him and they faced each other for the first time in years.
“Orin? But I thought…I thought you were all killed by the Horva years ago at the battle of Vaseer.”
“Not exactly,” Orin said.
☼
Down the hall, a robot guard came to life as its auditory sensors caught trigger phrases from Ranul’s domicile. It rolled on its dual tracks toward Ranul’s apartment. Someone was with the doctor, but they were not authorized.
Ranul’s door chimed then began to open even before he could answer it. Beyond, a Sentinel guard stood with his pulse weapon raised into the room. As the door cleared the robot’s body, a Barudii blade shot out of the shadows toward the guard. The figure wielding it was a blur of motion, dissecting the robot’s weapon hand, then plunging the adomen blade through its torso. The Sentinel’s appendages went limp as Tiet’s sword fried its central processor.
“We should go now,” Tiet said as he replaced the blade in its scabbard.
“Your young friend is right,” Ranul said. “The Sentinels share a collective mind. What one knows, they all know. They’re no doubt sending more units to this location right now.”
“I need to know about the clones,” Orin insisted. “Why aren’t the Vorn still producing Horva?”
&
nbsp; “They can’t produce anymore right now, at least not until the fleet arrives. They’ll bring us more supplies—equipment and chemical matrix to produce them.”
“Is it this way in all of our cities?”
“As far as I know, but the fleet is due to arrive in a matter of days.”
“You had better come with us,” Orin said.
“Did you really think I would stay here now?” Ranul said as he gathered items into a knapsack.
Tiet led the way out of the room into the corridor. Another Sentinel rounded the corner and fired. Tiet’s body sprang upward reflexively, pressing flat against the ceiling, using his mind to cling like a spider. He cleared the path of the laser fire just in time.
Orin stepped into the corridor with his blade drawn. A wrist-mounted electromagnetic shield generator repelled the Sentinel’s pulse laser fire. Tiet sprang away from the ceiling toward the robot. When Tiet planted his feet on the ground again, the severed upper half of the Sentinel followed suit. They wasted no time heading up a nearby ventilation shaft. Soon, they emerged onto the roof of the cloning complex.
“Now where do we go?” Ranul asked.
“This will buy us a little time,” Orin said. “Tiet, what do you see?”
Tiet ran along the edge of the building. “I see a small transport down here off the west side. It looks empty!”
Orin and Ranul joined him on the western wall of the building. Large environmental conditioning units squatted on the roof, groaning as they cooled the air inside the complex.
“I can’t make that jump, Orin,” Ranul