“I have my son to rescue,” said Kusac, hitting himself with the hypo on his injured thigh. “I need to be able to fight again if need be.”
“You won’t stop him,” said Banner wryly. “I know, I’ve tried.”
Prime world, same time
“Shaidan’s missing!” said Kitra, dashing into the office where Dzaka was closeted with General Kezule.
“What?” demanded Dzaka, looking up. “Has he gone off on his walkabouts again? I’ll tan his hide for him!”
“No, he’s really missing. He’s nowhere on K’oish’ik!”
“That’s impossible,” said Kezule. “How could he leave this world?”
“I don’t know!” wailed Kitra, eyes overflowing with tears. “I promised my brother I’d take care of them all for him.”
“I’ll tell you who probably knows where he is,” said Dzaka, getting up, “Gaylla.”
“Yes, she has to know!” said Kitra, dashing the tears away with the back of her hand. “They’re never far apart.”
They found Gaylla in the bedroom, holding her pet jegget tightly, surrounded by her brothers and sister, sobbing her heart out.
“They’s taken Shaidan!” she wept. “They’s taken him away from me!”
Kitra sat down on her bed beside her. “Shishu,” she said, looking up at the nursemaid, “Take them all round to the Brothers’ and Sister’s rooms, please. I need to talk to Gaylla alone.”
Shishu nodded, and rounding up the other four cubs, led them off to M’Nar and Jerenn’s common room.
“Gaylla, who’s taken Shaidan? Where did he go?” she asked quietly, taking the distraught cub into her arms.
“He went to help his mama and papa,” she wailed, “but while he was there, they tooked him away.”
“He can’t possibly have gone to help his parents,” said Kitra. “It would take him weeks on a spaceship to get there!”
“He got taken there, I felt him go,” she wept. “Then they’s tooked him from there to somewhere else!”
“Gaylla, it’s all right. He’s probably hiding down in the grand courtyard,” said Dzaka, trying to help.
The cub began to shriek and wriggle in Kitra’s arms, demanding to be put down. The poor jegget was even squeaking in distress. Kitra released her, and Gaylla slid off her lap and down onto the floor.
Standing there, Gaylla stamped her foot hard. “He’s gone to M’zull to be with his mama and papa, to help them against the bad man who made us,” she said, rubbing her wet face on her sleeve. “He told me so!”
“How is that even possible?” asked Kezule, looking at them.
“I could tell you if anyone bothered to ask me,” said ZSADHI. “But I’m just an ignorant AI, aren’t I? I know nothing.”
“What the hell?” asked Dzaka, looking around the room for some manifestation of the voice.
“ZSADHI, what do you know?” asked Kezule.
“Another AI took him, one more powerful than me.”
“What?” demanded Dzaka. “Another AI?” He looked at Kezule. “I thought you only had one AI here, ZSADHI.”
“We do,” said Kezule grimly. “ZSADHI, explain yourself before I have your personality overwritten!”
“Very well! If you feel like that about it. I am only trying to help, after all.”
“Get on with it!” roared Kezule.
“Another AI has been communicating with Shaidan for some time. It has a presence here due to a transponder he wears braided into his hair. It has the ability to move people and objects almost instantly over vast distances.”
“Why have I never been made aware of this before now?” demanded Kezule.
“I wasn’t aware of it till now. It wasn’t until Shaidan actually disappeared this time that I knew.”
“This time?” asked Dzaka ominously. “Has it happened before?”
“Looking back on my records of past events, I see he has gone missing some four times before,” said ZSADHI.
“Who does the computer belong to?” asked Dzaka.
“That I cannot tell you,” said ZSADHI.
“Likely it belongs to one of the two races you have been working with here, General Kezule,” said Noni, entering the nursery. “The TeLaxaudin and the Cabbarans, isn’t it?”
“How do you know of this? What makes you so sure it’s one of them?”
“Well now, it could be because we don’t know anyone else it is likely to be,” she said sharply as she pushed her way through to the cub’s side.
“Well, precious, I see you have a pet jegget!” she said. “What’s it called?”
“Snow,” said Gaylla with a hiccup. “A Brother gave her to me.”
“Ah, Brother Vartra would that be?” she asked, sitting on the edge of the bed and reaching out to pet the jegget.
A smile wreathed Gaylla’s face. “You knows him? He gave me Snow as a pet.”
“I knows him,” agreed Noni solemnly. She looked up at the other adults gathered round Gaylla. “I think our young lady has told us all she can. Perhaps now is the time for you to go and leave her to me. There’s nothing we can do here if Shaidan is indeed either on M’zull or has been taken as a captive. That’s down to his parents now.”
“There must be something we can do!” raged Kezule. “They left me to look after their son, and I haven’t!”
“It would take three weeks to get there on the fastest ship,” said Noni. “Not just that, you could find yourself surrounded by enemies and be taken captive. Far better to leave it to Kusac. Trust me, he will know his son is in danger. Now go, and leave Gaylla to me.” She reinforced her order mentally, telling Kitra that all the adults worrying like this was only making Gaylla hysterical. Vartra brought her the jegget to ease her pain and the separation, she sent to her. We can do nothing from here; make the males understand this.
“I think we should go,” said Kitra, getting up. “We can talk about this in the lounge.”
* * *
“Am I expected to believe that an AI from another species has been talking to Shaidan all along, and whisked him off to help his parents on M’zull?” demanded Kezule as they settled down in the lounge. “ZSADHI, ask Doctor Zayshul to join us. She knows exactly who’s working in the labs right now.”
“It seems we have more at work than just an alien AI,” said Dzaka. “We have Vartra, too.”
“Vartra?” asked Kezule.
“One of our Entities,” said Dzaka. “God of Warriors, seen as a warrior laying down or picking up His tools of war. He’s surprisingly active for an Entity!”
“He gave the jegget to Gaylla,” said Kitra. “There is no way that the creature could be here unless He gave it to her. They only exist on Shola, and are the only other telepathic species on our world.”
“They’re considered vermin and are very adept at avoiding capture, believe me!” said Dzaka. “It would take an Entity to capture one.”
Kezule looked confused. “Why would an Entity like him give a creature that’s seen as vermin on your world to Gaylla as a pet?”
“To divert her and comfort her when Shaidan went missing,” said Noni, coming in. “There’s method in the madness of this Entity, mark my words. I feel He may not like the role that has been created for Him!”
Doctor Zayshul came in then and they quickly updated her as to what had happened with Shaidan.
“There was a TeLaxaudin working in the labs until earlier this week, but no one has seen him this last day. We don’t keep a strict watch on them. ZSADHI does that and only alerts us if they go into proscribed areas.”
“Seems to me that the TeLaxaudin are good suspects for having their own AI here,” said Noni. “Do they have a ship on K’oish’ik?”
“ZSADHI?” asked Kezule.
“No, they get dropped off by a ship which then leaves. They don’t maintain one her
e.”
“Is Kouansishus on our world?” asked Doctor Zayshul.
“No, Doctor Zayshul, the TeLaxaudin doctor is not on this world, and no vehicles have lifted off our world in the last five days.”
“So someone else is missing without having left K’oish’ik in the normal way,” said Kezule, “just like they did during K’hedduk’s brief reign.”
“All we can do is to keep a good eye on Gaylla and ask her to tell us if Shaidan shows up back on K’oish’ik,” said Dzaka with a sigh.
“I already asked her to do that,” said Noni. “It’s all we can do, unless you fancy praying to Vartra and asking what is going on?”
Looks of astonishment greeted her comment.
“What? I thought that would be the only obvious thing to do,” said Noni tartly.
CHAPTER 11
KARMA
Ghioass, Isolationist HQ
THE world around him disappeared suddenly, and Shaidan found himself adrift in the darkness of nowhere. Just as suddenly, he materialized again and fell to the floor with a crash that knocked the breath out of him.
A black-furred hand reached for him, but instinctively, still on his hands and knees, he crabbed away backward. The mind did not feel Sholan; it felt different, alien. He sensed the presence of other alien minds, two of them, both facing him.
Looking up, he saw a being similar to his people, but the legs were straight, and the hair was like a mane, full and long.
He pulled his knife, slowly coming up into a crouched fighting stance. “Who are you? You aren’t of my people.” He heard the wobble of fear in his voice and tried to banish it. “You’re U’Churians. What do you want with me?”
Prime world, morning of same day
The cubs were full of it, almost bouncing off the walls with a mixture of horror and excitement that Shaidan was missing.
M’Nar excused himself and came back with N’Akoe to help. At least that’s what Jerenn thought until his sword-brother again excused himself.
“I’ve got something I have to do,” he said apologetically.
“Right now?” asked Jerenn, trying to comfort Zsayal. “Can’t it wait till Brother Dzaka and Sister Kitra come for them?”
“Right now,” insisted M’Nar. “You’ll understand shortly.” With that, he left their common room and headed for the library.
It was empty at this time of the morning, and he slipped in, quietly closing the door behind him.
Now he was here, he wasn’t sure where the panel with the secret catch on it was. He remembered Shaidan saying something about it being like a raptor, or a dragon—dragon, it was like a dragon on a nest!
The only place there were carvings of draconic creatures was round the fireplace that wasn’t used now. M’Nar pressed every part of the carving on the right-hand side of the fireplace, but nothing worked. Then he tried the left-hand side. Almost at once, he heard the slight click and saw a panel in the wall spring open slightly.
Heart in his mouth, M’Nar pushed the panel open and looked in. It was as dark as the inside of a Highlander’s pouch, as the saying went. He reached in his pocket for the flashlight and, taking it out, shone it down the passageway. It was dusty and cobweb covered, but he couldn’t see anywhere that a journal could be placed. There was no help for it. He would just have to explore this fascinating secret passage!
He pulled the panel closed behind him, then started walking, keeping his eyes on both sides of the walls as he did. It was just a tad wider than his shoulders, and he was well muscled for a Sholan. For a Valtegan—well, the Primes would be able to go down like he was, but the commandos, Kezule’s offspring, would have to go down it sideways.
Then he saw it: a hard-bound blue book sitting on a small shelf made by a missing brick on the inside of the passage. He grabbed it, putting it inside his tunic where it would be hidden from prying eyes. He wanted to read this by himself before he involved Jerenn—he had to know what he was getting himself involved in before telling his sword-brother.
Retracing his steps, he stopped at the panel, listening for any sounds of occupancy in the room before releasing the catch. Slipping through the gap, he entered the library again and closed the secret entrance. He could follow the tunnel to its end another day when something more important didn’t demand his attention.
Heading back to their common room, he found the cubs gone and Jerenn and N’Akoe chatting about where Shaidan could be.
Jerenn looked up as he walked in. “Have you finished this important task?” he asked.
“Yeah, all done,” said M’Nar. “Just need to work on that plan for the MUTAC for a few. I’ll be down there if you need me.” He waved his hand and, oblivious to Jerenn’s objections, left for the barracks where the MUTAC was stored.
Once there, he climbed up into the cabin and sealed the doorway. Sitting in the control harness, he pulled out the book and began reading.
What he read made the hair on the back of his neck bush out and his blood run cold. Shaidan was young enough not to notice all the implications, but this journal hinted at an alliance of other alien species to rival the Sholan one with, as its member races, two of the most adaptable and tech-minded species he could think of. They were also the most devious as they were intertwined deeply in the Primes’ lives. The Cabbarans, the mysterious TeLaxaudin, and the U’Churians were woven into the fabric of each other and the Valtegans in a way he found discomforting.
Then there was this AI called Unity, a computing device of infinite size and knowledge, not only of all their species in the Alliance, but of its own three-member species. The journal also gave him a way he might be able to contact this Unity. Now that he was unsure of. There was no telling what can of worms that contact between him and Unity would open. It gave him food for thought, though, and the knowledge that he couldn’t tell Jerenn what was in the book yet, even though he still needed to find a way to discuss it with him at some point.
Hiding the journal inside his tunic again, he headed back to the Palace.
Ghioass, Isolationist HQ, same day
“Put that knife down, child,” said Naisha, not unkindly. “You might get hurt if you try to use it.”
“I know how to use a knife,” said Shaidan. “Stay back, or I will!”
“Don’t make threats you can’t keep,” laughed Tyakar, standing just behind Naisha. “You lose all credibility that way,”
“Why am I here? What do you want with me?”
“We were told to capture you, and that’s what we did,” said Tyakar, elbowing his colleague out of the way and coming toward Shaidan. “Now give me that knife before you regret it!” He held out his hand for the knife, expecting Shaidan to comply and hand it over.
Instead, Shaidan lashed out with his blade, cutting the male across the palm of his hand before darting back again.
“You little . . .” began the U’Churian, pressing his good hand over his bleeding one. “Get him, Naisha!”
“That’s not the way to behave,” said Naisha, shaking his head. “You’ll only make Tyakar angry, and that’s not something even a grownup wants to do.”
“I’m angry!” shouted Shaidan, his face creasing in rage. “You stole me from my papa! I was just about to see him, and you stole me!”
“Master Zaimiss wants to see you,” said Tyakar, taking a rag out of his tunic pocket and wrapping it round his hand. “And what he wants, he gets. You made a big mistake when you cut me with that knife! Naisha, grab him!” he said and they both suddenly rushed at Shaidan.
He managed to get in another slicing wound, this time to Naisha, before they held him down and prized the knife from his grasp. He was then let go, but as he got to his feet, Tyakar lashed out at him, delivering a blow to the side of his head that sent him spinning across the room to hit his head hard against the wall.
Stunned, he fell to the ground, lying t
here while Tyakar came up to him and gave him a kick in the ribs.
“Let that teach you not to play with pointy things,” he growled before leaning down to haul him to his feet. “Now get moving! Master Zaimiss wants to talk to you!”
* * *
Zaimiss sat in a pile of cushions with Elder Tinzaa beside him on her sloping chair. “So you are the young one who has been cutting my helpers. I know they aren’t happy about it, but I am less than pleased. You show regrettable manners for a child.”
Shaidan peered at the TeLaxaudin, unable to focus on anything except for the dark red draperies. Everything else was blurred. He felt dizzy and nauseous, and wanted dreadfully to sit down so the room would stop spinning.
“You are a nexus. Around you the potentialities swirl. Why is that? What do you know that makes you so important to the future?”
Naisha nudged him in the side and Shaidan mumbled something incoherent.
“What did you say?” snapped Zaimiss. “Repeat yourself! What’s wrong with him?”
“Master Zaimiss, he’s gone pale and his hand feels clammy,” said Naisha after examining him. “He hit the wall during our capture of him. I think maybe he has a concussion.”
Shaidan fell to his knees and started vomiting.
“Get him out of here,” hummed Zaimiss in disgust. “Put him in the room you prepared for him and get the doctor to see to him! I don’t want him dead.”
“Yes, Master Zaimiss,” said Naisha as he waited for Shaidan to stop vomiting before picking him up and limping out of the room with him and Tyakar.
“Damned child had no business having a blade on him,” said Tyakar. “You got sliced up by him, too. What was it, your leg?”
“Yes, but it’s shallow, thank goodness. It’s already stopped bleeding. We need to get information from him, Tyakar, and we can’t do that if he’s unconscious or dead! Think ahead before acting.”
Tyakar grunted at him and sped up, walking quickly to the room they’d turned into a cell, opening the door for Naisha.
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