Slave Line (The Young Ancients)

by Power, P. S.

  That was the only part that really bothered Tor, the shields. Oh, they'd work against the Larval if they attacked, at least they had in the past, but those missiles had managed to do a number on him anyway. It meant there were gaps in the system and he had no way to really know what they were until something like that happened. Worse he hadn't even found a fix for that one yet, much less done the work to correct it. The idea ate at him, but he knew that trying it at the moment would still be foolish. More, waiting to get data on the Larval was just giving them more time to set up and get in place. It would make everything a lot more dangerous than not.

  Denno had a plan, one that as a Knight of Noram Tor didn't really love, though he could see where the man was coming from. He wanted for them to go and collect information on the clones and then arm the protection force of Austra with Noram style shields and weapons, since the newest ones were far more powerful than what the Austrans had. Especially if they all had multis on them. Armed like that a regular soldier was at least the equal of one of the assassins. The problem was just that Tor wasn't absolutely certain he could trust Denno yet. Or anyone. Not in something like this.

  Trice wanted to go, which made him uneasy, since he loved her. Ali tried to suggest she could do it as well, since she knew how to use a shield and weapon, but her heart at least, very sensibly, wasn't in it. Thank goodness.

  "No dear, we can't afford to risk you. If the force going doesn't make it for some reason I need for you to finish my work. You'll need to go and get with the King and make him understand what might be coming and that we need to build space going craft as quickly as possible. You may have to learn to build a lot faster than is reasonable to get that done, but use the Lairdgren group if it comes to that, don't try to do it all on your own. Not that I intend for that to be needed. This is just about getting information right now and if anything happens we're all running as fast as possible." He grinned, but got solid nods from everyone else at the breakfast table, including all the ancients except Orange, who didn't suggest otherwise, but probably couldn't back away from a fight at all. It just wasn't an option for her if what Cordes passed to him from his memories was right.

  Black wasn't helpful at first, Tor didn't think, but after a few seconds he understood the man's plan... And that he actually had one. He was helping Ali to save face, so she wouldn't feel bad about not going.

  "Aye. You've proven yourself brave and strong along with your Princess Karina. If these others should by some happenstance fall or be captured, I recommend the Noram Princess to take my sisters place as leader of the space fleet. For that matter we should get the lady in as your second there Orange... You'll like her, the first time we met those two girls rendered Burks and I unconscious and delivered severe beatings just to punish Burks for not apologizing to Tor over something. They're not even a barbarian people. Quite a surprise. If I was half a millennia younger I'd see if their Princess was single." He wasn't even glib or teasing about anything he said, which got Orange off on a tangent about the new force she intended to put together from all the lands and found the conversation turned from that idea without anyone's feelings being hurt.

  Not that Tor thought it would be a problem. The vast majority of the time spy missions worked because no one really expected them. Most spies were horribly inept when it got down to it, Cordes assured him, but still effective, because even when noticed no one really believed they were real at first. It gave them time to run away or cover their tracks.

  There was a lot of interesting information there within the new memories inside his head, but Tor just didn't know enough to really trust it all yet. Just before they left he waved to Cordes Blue and got her to walk over with a smile on her light colored face. It was charming. That had to be the different personality inside, since the other Blues were always cold and a little free of emotion. Devoid of it almost.

  "OK, I need more information about this thing in my head, can you help with that? I understand that there will be some differences, since you were pretty much born with yours and mine is new after a fashion, but if I'm going crazy eventually, I need to know it, so I can plan." He tried to steel himself for the bad news, but it turned out to be slightly better than he'd thought.

  "I doubt that. The original Cordes broke down biologically, from the simulations we've run First and I believe that it was a biological and not a mentally based problem. You're line is strong and not prone to madness. This will protect you from that we believe. Also I truly do not believe that the consciousness within you would allow itself to harm a host. The Larval are different, because of their hive nature, if you could look within their minds they would be nearly incomprehensible I believe."

  Tor nodded at that, a slow and considering thing.

  "I've done that. They seemed almost evil, not just alien. If there is truly a Cordes inside them he's probably well and truly insane by now. I don't think the others understand that yet. Not really. They don't seem properly frightened at least. I'm ready to wet myself over all this myself." He wasn't really, but he was wary. How could he beat an Ancient being that had over a thousand bodies like that? There just wasn't any way he could see. Well... one at a time might work, but it would be incredibly hard to make that happen. He had to be perfect every time and they only had to get lucky once.

  The Blue in front of him gave a soft smile and placed a warm hand gently on Tor's left shoulder.

  "You're afraid? Sensible, but it doesn't show at all. You seem bold and courageous. Now me, I feel fear. It's a Blue trait, an overage of caution. It's half of why we hide away in the Antarctic. You should come visit some time soon. We have a lot to discuss I think. Bring your friends with you? If the current work allows I mean. It gets lonely there, since Cynthia built the whole thing in her image and I have memories that say it can be different than that. It would be good to have friends again." The tone wasn't sad though. That, he realized, was a Cordes thing. The man didn't have sadness and was, by default, happy. That Tor wasn't being flooded with that emotion was a sign of some real work being done to protect him from it.

  They parted then, and Tor made sure he had all his amulets on. Then he double checked everyone else that was going, which was a slightly odd group, all things considered.

  Everyone else was going home that day, Timon flying them since that would take the least amount of travel time and be safest that way. It meant more than one trip for him, but as the boy pointed out, that was the business he was going in to. It was just good practice for him.

  The Tellerand men asked to go to Noram, since they were still actively campaigning to convert Tor's mom, and didn't want to let that go. Not even if it meant spending the rest of their lives on the attempt. It was funny watching her try to hold her tongue as the men kept suggesting she'd be happier if she prayed with them or read their book of faith.

  Tor was pretty certain she threatened to beat Tim if he didn't take them back to Tellerand directly. In point of fact he insisted they go home first, since it was closest.

  The crew going to Austra then was made up of himself, Burks, Denno, Orange, Trice and Carlos. At first it didn't make a lot of sense to take the cook like that, except to return him home, but Tiera nodded as if it made perfect sense when Tor suggested it.

  "Because he's from there and already a spy? That makes a lot of sense. He should be able to tell you if anything is wrong or out of place."

  It really did work that way, from a certain perspective, but part of Tor just felt like he had to protect the man from harm. It was so normal that he didn't realize he'd been doing it at first. He always tried to protect other people like that. It was just what he did. When he thought about it Tor wanted to blame the Rhetistics, or maybe the new ones from Cordes, which, as he realized almost instantly, weren't new at all, having been there his whole life. If they hadn't they couldn't have broken the other set.

  Finally, as they got ready to leave the Cordes memories threw him a small line, having already figured it all out, but waiting fo
r him to get it on his own. It wasn't Rhetistics at all, he was just a good person that cared for others. There wasn't any big or important reason why, it just was. Good people tried to make sure that others didn't have their lives thrown away.

  The craft he set up could have carried them all easily, but Trice set up hers too, which looked like a jet black rectangle instead of a delicate teardrop. She took Orange and Carlos with her, giving him Burks and Denno. It felt a bit like a set up to him, especially since Trice made a point of not looking his way at all while doing it.

  Definitely a trick of some kind. She was normally more subtle than that.

  Tor didn't bother waiting though, just getting them headed the direction Denno pointed, trying to watch the skyline as well as he could as he raced along, in case the Larval had more missiles or planes ready for them. He didn't see or hear anything, but those craft were fast enough to sneak up behind them. The plan was to just go to the docks near where the ship had been and come in slow, over the water. They didn't have a communications device that would work, since Denno hadn't gotten one when he'd been there last.

  "Oversight on my part, but they could track them if I had it on me and I didn't want anyone to know exactly where we were. It turned out someone knew anyway. Probably from satellite data. Putting up giant buildings in the blink of an eye is impressive, but not exactly easy to hide from space. Something to keep in mind from now on, I guess." He sounded nearly bored about the topic, which didn't make a lot of sense. When he went quiet Burks cleared his throat. Twice.

  As far as Tor knew the Ancient didn't get nervous anymore, so it was strange enough to get his attention. A bizarre thing clearly pointed at him, as the man was sitting next to him in the front passenger's seat, looking at him directly, as if trying to get a read on him.

  He didn't come at the topic slowly though, rushing to it like it was on fire actually. Something that had to be put out as soon as possible.

  "Tor... Your mother asked me, asked us, to talk to you."

  That seemed like her. It would be hard for her to do it herself, because she couldn't quite see him as an equal. She probably never would of course. Parents didn't. It was hard for him to think of Tim as an equal yet and the kid was clearly shaping up to really make something of himself. How much harder must it be for her?

  No one said anything for a long time. It would still take hours to get to Austra from where they were, so there was no hurry. Tor looked around, hoping to see a good excuse to change the topic. Like aircraft or an interestingly shaped cloud. Nothing presented itself though. The thing there was that he understood what both Burks and Denno were going to say. It was what they had to. What their fundamental selves forced them to do. They'd want him to make up with her, to smooth the wrinkles and be the one to make it right.

  Only that wasn't going to happen this time.

  Tor looked at Burks and shook his head, not bothering with the half hour of conversation they were supposed to have first.

  "I'm different now. Free to make my own choices. I know it doesn't seem to you two like you're trapped, which is a good thing since you can't escape from it, but what those people, the techs that made you what you are, what they did was build servants. The ultimate slaves who can't even see the chains or the bars on the cage. They left you without an escape, which meant they could make you powerful and intelligent. More so than the people you were supposed to serve even. I'm free now though, more or less at least. I can see that I have choices that I never even thought of before. I can go anywhere, do anything, it doesn't just have to be a dream now. I can even choose to stay angry at someone that's wronged me. I know you two can't. You can't even really see it as needful..." He smiled then, sadly, trying to convey what he was really feeling and not being certain he knew the right words yet.

  "I made excuses for her Burks. For ma. I kept telling myself that she was just a little difficult, a little unpleasant, but it's worse than that. With her family, especially the boys, she's very nearly emotionally abusive. For some reason it's even worse with me. I mean, before, I always did what she wanted almost instantly and she still yelled and threatened violence to try and cow me into compliance. There was no reason for it though. I..."

  He stopped talking, trying to collect his thoughts, trying to understand what he wanted to say. It didn't come for a long time, but no one else said anything, just waiting, knowing he'd get there eventually.

  "I know why she did it now. I mean I think I get it. She's taking out all her own anger at you on me. What she has to be mad about I don't know, but it almost has to be that, doesn't it? She probably needed to be spanked more as a child and you couldn't do it or something stupid like that. Only, no matter how hard you tried, I 'm just not you. I don't even know if we're really genetically identical, Lyn said we may have some subtle differences..."

  Burks sat looking forward, not making eye contact at all.

  "She was wrong there. The tests are clear. Except for the combat rage you and I are identical, including the mitochondrial DNA. The data Abumanitalli sent along with Timon and Tiera proved that again. I think you might be right though, that Laurie blamed me for what went wrong in her life. She should have been at the best parties and living a life of leisure and ease, maybe even being married to the King, but instead I sent her away, hiding her from a threat that might not have even existed. I assumed that Glost Serge had sent the Larvals to kill her. Indeed I know he intended that to be the case, but now I have to question if that was the actual goal at all. Were they just there to pass the Cordes Rhetistics to me, in hopes that one day I'd cause them to go into you or at least someone else? It required a good blood type match, or else it could have proven fatal, so at least a relative of mine. If I'd ever had need to give Dan a transfusion it would have taken though, I think. Both of us should probably avoid that, if it ever comes up."

  It was Denno who spoke from the back seat his voice flat and strange. He normally managed warmth in his tone, even under stress. This was something different.

  "Tor, I never had a mother. Or a father. None of us originals did. We were created in a lab, raised in what amounted to a testing facility and had only each other to lean on. You have a family, a real one. I've seen enough of such things to know that what you're doing, removing your mother from your life... It will hurt you both in the long run. I ask you, no I beg you, to reconsider, before days turn into years and mild annoyance turns into bitterness."

  It was calm and sensible, even reasonable on the surface, but it missed the point totally.

  "If I do that she'll never learn. Maybe she can't, I don't know, but I have to try something. If I'm the one to give in on this she'll always feel like she can treat people any way she wants. She needs something to wake her up. To make her see what she's been doing. Otherwise we're going to end up with another version of Lara Gray in a few hundred years. One without the restraint to merely cripple all the men on a continent. I fear for the world if that happens. I also don't want to end up having to hunt her down for atrocities like you had to do with those others." He didn't mention that he remembered that now. Cordes wasn't the only one. It had happened over and over again.

  Indeed, so far all the immortals without Rhetistics had eventually failed. Luckily most just killed themselves, or did things to make others kill them. But a few had truly become monsters. That was what Tor faced now, the price of his freedom was eventual death, probably by his own hand. Hopefully in fact.

  The same was true for his whole family, including his Uncle Dan. They may make it for hundreds of years, even thousands, but it was something that had happened in every case so far.

  But everyone died and a thousand years of life was more than a hundred. Tor wasn't going to complain about that. He just had to make sure no one else got hurt in the process.

  The others stopped speaking then, not that Tor thought he'd won or anything. They weren't wrong, it was just that he wasn't either. They might not be able to see that though. It was clear enough to him. He
shrugged.

  "For now we need to work our way into place, how do we do that Denno? We could go in underwater and swim to the beach? Use disguise amulets to make ourselves look right. Then, sneak over to the Larval training center and have a look around?" It wasn't a great plan, but Tor had no training in things like this at all.

  Denno chuckled.

  "Tor, I'm in charge of Austra. Even the Prime Minister has to answer to me. We can just walking into the Parliament building and have them deliver the information. Demand a military group for it at need. Try to take the boys in peacefully first and go from there. It might not have been them after all. Lara could be wrong. Maybe the activation code was never give? Maybe Cordes is still asleep within them. Or if awake, maybe he's powerful enough to hold it all together?" He sounded optimistic about the idea and Burks nodded along.

  For his part Tor lied, understanding that Denno had gone into deep denial over what had to happen. They weren't there to set up an arrest, but to find a way to kill as many of the Larval assassins as possible. Otherwise they were probably going to kill all the Ancients, or at least do something so horrible that no one really wanted to discuss it with him. He'd heard some pretty bad things in his life, but no one would even tell him what the original Cordes had done to warrant death. Not exactly. It had to be pretty bad or the others would have just said.

  It had to be worse than say, trying to rape, torture, mutilate and kill every man woman and child on the planet. If that was the case, what could all those killers do with that mentality? Tor didn't have a concept of it at all, just figuring it was worse than he could even imagine. For some reason that wasn't very comforting.