by James Somers
THERE had not been much to salvage from the wreckage of the Saberhawk. Orin had been able to obtain one blaster pistol, two working kemsticks and he had scavenged an extra scabbard for Tiet's father's blade. He had also found a locker containing several Barudii cloaks.
The cloaks were made of a synthetic material that was capable of scrambling electronic signals that came into contact with it. This had the effect of rendering the wearer invisible to scanning and sensor devices of many kinds, and was an asset when stealth was necessary.
Orin wore one cloak and carried another for Tiet stuffed inside his belt. If he was still alive, then they would need it to escape from his captors with as little fight as possible.
These intelligent Horva were much more skilled fighters than the brutish kind back home. He and Tiet would be greatly outnumbered even with their kinetic abilities. A subtle approach would be necessary in this case, if Orin was to successfully retrieve his protege and get him home. Getting home was another problem that weighed on his mind, but only one problem could be dealt with at a time.
The trail of the Horva army had led him many miles north. It had been dark for several hours now, and Orin could see lights in the distance. The tracks of the Horva army appeared to funnel into a huge guarded compound in the distance.
The facility was massive and towered some five hundred feet above the ground. As Orin drew nearer he could see that a forcefield barrier surrounded the compound approximately three hundred feet outside the main building's perimeter. There were intermediate, one hundred foot tall pylons placed every one hundred feet in the field, that acted as connecting points. They were of an alloy Orin was not familiar with, but they looked very tough.
The forcefield looked like it could easily repel a ground force, and the large pulse cannons stationed on the ground and the building itself would be capable of repelling a large number of aerial aggressors as well.
Fortunately, he had no intention of carrying out a full on assault. He would be like a virus; a silent but deadly invader that no one ever sees coming. He approached the barrier with caution. The darkness shielded him from natural eyes while the Barudii cloak kept him invisible to the technology.
Atop of each pylon was a guard station with a Horva manning it. Orin felt for the guard with his mind. He could sense the man's body up in the tower as though his own eyes were fixed upon him; as though his hands touched the flesh. He increased pressure upon the vessels leading to the man's brain slowly and steadily until the man collapsed unconscious. Then Orin catapulted his own body over the height of the pylon and soft landed on the other side.
The Horva guard would wake up in a few minutes and would likely not realize that anything had happened save a fainting spell that the soldier would not want to report to his superiors.
Orin moved across the span of the courtyard toward an area of the structure that was shadowed. Searchlights moved across different areas, and he was careful not to be caught in them or to allow his shadow to be cast by any ambient lighting. He reached a wall and noticed that it was made of a synthetic stone material of some sort. It was completely smooth and would be difficult for an enemy to find hand or foot-holds. Luckily, he wasn't planning on scaling it.
Orin sought out with his mind, looking for any guards that might be on the roof of the complex. He found none. He leapt upwards and came to perch on the edge of the roof. He still could not see any visible guards, nor did he sense any. The roof of the complex was a maze of ventilation system outlets as well as large computer-controlled laser turrets. He began to walk across the roof cautiously; it appeared that the cloak was working well since none of the guns turned to fire upon him.
The ventilation system would be the easiest way for him to gain access to most points in the building without coming into direct contact with the enemy. There were probably scanning devices throughout, but he had to trust that the cloak would allow him to move undetected.
As he approached one of the large vent housings, he could hear the deep roar of the system working to supply fresh air to those within. He pulled out a spicor disc to get through the heavy gauge wire covering the vent, and then decided against igniting an energy weapon in the presence of the sensor-controlled guns.
With his mind he focused on the center of the criss-crossing mesh work, then expanded the space so that the fibers were pushed outward just enough for him to crawl through. Once inside, he mentally controlled his descent and moved into a horizontal tunnel off of the pipe.
He slid along as quietly as possible knowing that any noise would be amplified by the nature of the tunnel. In turn, he could also hear many voices and various machine movements coming from all directions within the system, as it collected the activities of the complex and amplified them all.
Not knowing where Tiet was being held, Orin knew that he might have a long meticulous search ahead of him. He hoped that he might be able to sense him if he got close enough. His kinetic signature would hopefully be easy to distinguish among the Horva. And, if Tiet were able, he would already be trying to escape.
GENERAL Grod passed through the automatic doorway and into the control chamber. Within were various control terminals and stations for monitoring what happened in the chamber beyond. On the far side of the room was a large row of viewing windows that looked into the huge dome. Grod sat in his command chair and waited for final preparations to be finished.
"General, we have him in position."
"Is he awake yet?"
"The suspension field is active; subject is conscious. Our warriors are in place. Battle droids are in place and activated. The teragore is in place in the outer dome. All successive inner domes are secured."
Grod had a great interest in what was about to happen. He wanted to know the abilities as well as limitations of this Barudii warrior. The warrior's abilities had once been an integral part of his plan for conquest of the Vorn race and this planet. Other opportunities to utilize those abilities had been lost, but now he had another chance, and he needed to see what his prize could do.
"Release the Barudii."
TIET had not realized he was unconscious until he awoke again. His environment was different now. No longer was he inside the laboratory setting he was in before. He and the mechanism that still held him suspended inside its energy field were centered within a large dome.
The walls were mirrored like glass but the finish was peculiar; like a two way mirror. Someone was obviously watching from beyond. Near the walls were more of the Horva he had seen in the battle at Mt. Vaseer. There were twenty of them surrounding the mechanism that held him suspended within.
Each Horva soldier was wearing an armored garment and carrying various kinds of weapons, including several with pulse laser weapons. Others were armed with hand-to-hand weapons and Tiet wondered why that would be.
Suddenly the suspension field was gone and he fell about three feet to the ground. He was free from the field-but he had no weapons, and here were these Horva waiting for him. As soon as the field released him, the Horva attacked.
Tiet's feet had no sooner touched the ground before he rebounded to the air and bounced off of the top of one of the mechanism's curved sides toward the Horva. Several shots rang out from pulse rifles as Tiet sent his bare foot into the face of one of the men who tried to bring a bow staff up to defend himself. The powerful kick snapped the Horva's neck, dropping him to the ground. Tiet snatched the weapon from his hand as he fell and launched himself back into the air.
The dark-skinned warriors were trying to track his movements to attack him, but were becoming a jumble as Tiet moved nimbly through them. He came down among several bunched together and was fired upon by a Horva man with a pulse rifle. He dodged the shots with lightening speed as several unsuspecting Horva on the other side of him caught the blasts. He parried and smashed the laser weapon along with the man's hands with the spiked end of the bow. The other end quickly followed into his head, dropping him to the ground.
Tiet whirle
d around to block strikes from two more Horva and spun downward under their weapons to sweep their legs out from under them. They fell backward hard. Tiet struck one in the head, but was forced to evade more shots before he could finish off the other. The grounded clone tried to roll out of striking distance as Tiet pulled a large knife from a sheath on the Horva's leg and hurled it back at the other clone with the pulse rifle. As the knife found purchase, Tiet caught the Horva's rifle with his mind and leapt into the air. The pulse weapon met him there.
He landed laying down a line of steady fire on the remainder of the fighters inside the dome. There was nowhere for them to run as he mowed them down. Then he stopped firing and remained in a guarded stance to see what would happen next.
"Very good," said Grod to the technicians around him, "lower the second dome."
The dome around him suddenly split across the top and two equal halves separated and rolled back into the floor. Beyond was another identical domed room, only larger in size.
Within the dome were six battle robots that stood twice the size of a man. They were armored and were armed with large cylindrical fast repeating laser cannons. A shot rang out from somewhere on the dome that blasted the gun away from his hand.
They might have killed him, but that didn't appear to be their plan. Evidently he was meant to fight for their sport; and unfortunately with no way of escape apparent to him right now, he had little choice but to comply.
Tiet retrieved the spiked bow. He raised it into the air with his right hand and started it spinning rapidly. The battle robots locked on target as Tiet sent the spinning bow into one of them like a buzz saw. The laser cannons that made up one of the robot's hands were smashed to pieces as the bow ricocheted into its head, sending metal shrapnel in all directions.
The others quickly opened fire on him. He only had time for an instinctive move. Without even realizing it, he formed a bubble of intensely vibrating charged air that repelled the blasts from the robots. They were raining down a firestorm upon him, yet he remained untouched. The pulse blasts were disrupted as they impacted the kinetically-formed bubble.
The robots continued to fire, trying to penetrate the mental defense. Grod looked on with intense pleasure. He had not expected the Barudii to have this much power over the elements. He knew of no such incidence recorded about the Barudii of old times. This was even better than he had expected. His eyes were fixed on the young warrior through the refraction of light and image the charged bubble was creating.
Tiet quickly regained his composure and caused the bubble to swiftly expand with great force behind it; smashing into the five working robots around him. Each one was slammed into the inner mirrored wall of the dome with enough force to crush their exoskeletons and leave them as piles of twisted metal upon the floor. Once again he was left standing alone within the arena.
"Impressive power, is it not?!" demanded Grod to his technicians within the control room. "I really wasn't expecting him to survive the battle robots."
"Shall we open the last dome with the teragore sir?" asked one of the control techs.
Grod punched a key pad on the arm of his command chair. "Varen, do we have a viable sample of DNA?"
"Yes, General. The samples we extracted should work well for what you have requested," said the Vorn scientist from a nearby laboratory.
"Very good then. Proceed according to schedule. And Varen…remember your family would not want to see you compromise the procedure and get them killed."
"I understand, sir."
Grod tapped the communication switch off. "Golon, retract the last dome!"
The Horva technician did as he was ordered and switched the control to retract the final inner dome wall.
ORIN was trying to follow the loudest sounds he was hearing. The ventilation system was not very difficult to move through; the tunnels were fairly wide to accommodate the large volume of air that moved in and out of the facility.
He came to a branch that veered off to his right. The sounds were definitely coming from somewhere off of this branch. The shaft narrowed considerably but he could get through on his belly.
He continued on for another fifty feet until he came to a side vent that had a lot of light coming through it, and the noises intensified. Orin crawled up to it and peered through. Within his sight line was a huge creature that stood about fifty feet high. From what he could see the room was a great dome and a smaller semitransparent dome was in the center. Tiet could be seen inside it.
The inner dome was quite large also but not in comparison to the dome without that held this great beast. It was reptilian in nature and had four stubby powerful legs. A long tail, thick, with a cluster of large spikes on the end curled around the animal. Its head was fierce-looking with needle-like teeth proportional to the creature's size.
Tiet did not seem to be acknowledging the presence of the beast in the outer dome. Scattered around him were several smashed robots and a number of dead Horva men. It all looked like some deadly sport for these clones of the Vorn, and he was sure they must be watching from somewhere.
Suddenly the dome around Tiet began to separate in two and fold down into the floor. He looked in horror at the beast being exposed to him now. The creature also reacted to the dome dropping before it. Now the prey was exposed.
It began to step toward Tiet's position, and lunged at him with its long neck, propelling the deadly head and teeth right at him. He got out of the way fast, taking to the air. The creature lunged for him again as he landed. He threw out his hands and sent a massive kinetic blast at the predator's incoming face; knocking it away.
The beast reeled for a moment, and then regained its composure with more fury. A chemical spray issued from its mouth, which ignited in the air on its way toward Tiet. He formed another kinetic bubble to repel the flame that engulfed him. The flame was disrupted, but not the heat. It was too hot to repel this way; and he sent the bubble outward and into the creature with massive force. The animal was hurt, but only became more enraged by Tiet's counterattacks.
Grod was completely enthralled by the display. He wanted this kind of power for himself, and he intended to have it. The teragore opened its great mouth again and a long whip-like tongue shot out toward Tiet. He flipped over its strike, as the beast tried to catch him.
The long tongue darted back and forth trying to capture its prey as he continued his acrobatic evasive maneuvers. Orin cried out to Tiet from behind the vent in the dome wall. He heard him and tried to pause as much as he could to locate his voice. He could see Orin's hands coming through the vent in the wall.
This was a tight place to try and maneuver. The vent was quite thick and blended right into the rest of the wall materials. He couldn't get enough room to cut through. Orin pulled a kemstick from his thigh clip and brought it through the vent space with his hand, as Tiet tried to evade the whipping tongue of the teragore.
"Tiet!! Take it!!" cried Orin.
Tiet saw the weapon in Orin's hand and leapt upward after it. The kemstick leapt away to meet him in the air. He caught the weapon just as the tongue of the teragore found purchase around his legs. It brought him full body into the ground. The impact knocked the breath out of him and the kemstick out of his hand.
The great tongue began to retract quickly, dragging him toward the beast's mouth. He realized the kemstick was not in his hand and reached out with his mind to retrieve it, as he was pulled across the ground. The kemstick obeyed and rolled after him; leaping into the air to find his hand as Tiet was lifted upside down toward the gaping mouth of the creature. He caught the weapon as the creature pulled him inside and the jaw closed after him. The teragore raised its great head and swallowed the young warrior whole.
Grod was grinning from ear to ear as the lump of flesh began to slide visibly down the creature's throat. Orin's heart was about to leap from his chest as he watched the heir of his king devoured by the animal. Suddenly the visible lump stopped its descent within the teragore's throat. A rod of b
right orange light erupted from the creature's neck and quickly whirled around in a great circle from within. The teragore's massive head pitched forward as the neck separated from the rest of the animal's body. He leapt out of the orifice within, landing near the severed head covered in the creature's secretions.
"Unbelievable!" shouted Grod.
He was out of his chair on his feet in amazement. "I have never seen such a display of power and skill!"
Suddenly Tiet sprang into the air and caught a hold of the vent where Orin was located.
"Get back!"
Orin was still in amazement himself at the wonderful escape his protege had just executed. He slid backward fast to allow Tiet to gain entrance. Tiet stabbed the ignited kemstick into the armor plated grating and cut through it with ease. The hot piece fell out and landed on the floor of the dome below as Tiet crawled inside.
Orin backed his way out of the smaller vent shaft with Tiet following him on his belly. Soon they came out into the larger main shaft.
"Good to see you again!"
"And you. Quickly, put this on. It will hide you from their scanners."
Tiet pulled on the Barudii cloak and the pair headed back down the main shaft on their knees the way Orin had come in.
"Where did he go?! And how did that weapon get into the arena?!" growled the General.
"We're searching sir. It appears he has gone into the main ventilation system but his life signature has disappeared from our scans."
"Find him now!!"
VII
Estall had been doing a good job getting the Vorn battle ships ready for departure. With the enemy under control here, they had been able to gain control of the ships that were still docked on the planet. Ranul had come up with technology to allow them to operate the Vorn control systems. The devices converted the Vorn computer language to Castillian and vice versa, allowing them to pilot the craft through the rift if necessary.