by Power, P. S.
The green one however wasn't.
Everyone else seemed to be there, and were perfectly normal, which was confusing as well. Or would have been, if the plan was to have several of them there to kill him at once. This seemed like a mistake, more than anything.
Of course, if this woman, the brown one, was a real person, and was identical to his mother, Merilee Merchant, then that meant... The idea wasn't a thing he could deal with at the moment. Focusing, he locked that thought down as best he could.
He looked at the woman, and felt like passing out. Remembering the corpse of his own mother, right there next to him, for three days, pinned under a heavy roof slab. He shook a bit, which got the green colored Adversary to move over to him.
"Sorry, are you... Right?" The Standard was broken and slow, but the concern sounded real enough. Polite and almost worried, like a person might be for anyone acting a little bit off.
So he nodded.
"Um, yes... This woman?" He gestured to the lady, who bowed, clearly trying to do it right and not knowing how.
"I'm Merriland. May I aid you?" She spoke far more clearly than the green fellow, and while she had what seemed to be a Forten accent, it was easy to understand her.
Dareg shook his head.
"No. It's just, you look like my mother. Exactly. She died, several years ago. Her name was Merilee." Interestingly, she looked panicked to hear that, and Yarl went wide eyed, but green Kevin didn't seem to get what he was saying.
Not understanding standard that well, at a guess. It was clear that these people spoke a similar, but different language at home. Dareg shook his head, not knowing if anyone there would get that.
"It's nothing. Let's go over the devices?" He did that carefully, really showing them how to use both things. It didn't take long, and they all got how to use the boxes after setting it up and walking around a little. The lights were harder. He made some light statues for them, to stall for time, and work things out. One of them was his mother, who was clearly the same person, only human, not Forten.
The President looked hard, and ready to fight, but when he turned to do that, and order her taken, Dare waved at him.
"This woman here, Merriland, is real. I can feel that. Magic? She isn't a threat. Not that way. The only harm there is to my mind. There's no need to harm her, or react harshly. She's who she seems to be." Dareg didn't mention what that meant for him. That could be dealt with later.
The woman moved over to them however, understanding that she was in real danger, the accusation being that she must be one of the dark beings. The others started watching him, and he forced a smile.
Then he gestured toward the ship.
"Neesa, can you take some of these people for a trip? Have you gotten to do that before? It's very interesting."
The President was doing something, going for a weapon it seemed, which got most of the others to do the same, even as Dare tried to get them all out of there. It wasn't working.
Finally he just bowed to the man, which worked, being so strange for these people. They all stopped, and looked at him.
Dareg forced his voice to be as calm as he could manage, and nearly whispered.
"This woman seems to be the original. You and she, and these others need to go now. There is one of the Adversaries here. Run away. I'll... Probably die, but... You need to get away." He hissed the words, and looked over his shoulder at Neesa, who was starting to get it. There was a stillness and no bobbing at any rate.
She spoke, her voice... Remarkably normal for her.
"Yes, we should do that. Come, please. The Forten have been kept away from such things a bit, but that is not right. We should share such gifts openly."
One of the men, who was of the silver eyed kind, moved toward them, and actually pushed the President, physically.
"Go! I'll stay here, and help get these superior lights and case things to where they need to go. Who else do we need, Dareg?" His Standard was about as good as the President's, though with a similar accent. That the man was willing to stay and fight was brave of him, especially since he'd just heard Dare say he was probably going to die. From what he'd heard, that was the only thing that had ever happened for the Forten in regards to the enemy. Still, the man smiled gently, and tried to move the others away, so that they could live. "You can get us a trip later though, right? I'd hate to miss out on that."
That was an idea. He could take green Kevin away with him in a ship, but people here had heard what he'd said... Which didn't mean they all could understand it. The thing there ultimately was that he didn't have a ship, and couldn't get the leaders away without it. Neesa however, could.
"Oh, I don't know..." He waved at the Adversary and tried to act like it was just normal to pick him. "Would you help? It won't be hard, but it would be good to have an extra set of hands." That had to be translated for the man, who seemed agreeable enough with the idea.
For once in his life the evil person wasn't six steps ahead of him. There was a hint of time distortion, but it was very low level, and didn't seem to be gearing up for a fight yet. Dare could hardly feel it in fact, and wasn't certain it was there. That meant the man should be able to be affected by magic. Not that he had weapons on him that way. No one had ever even suggested that he get that kind of thing. Maybe a real knife, for eating or light work, but nothing like a cutter or force lance.
If he knew who the being was, and could kill them, instantly, before they slipped sideways in time, or whatever they called it, that might, possibly, work. After they slid away into that time thing, they'd just dodge anything directed toward them, with near perfect accuracy. How that worked he didn't know, but it seemed pretty certain that it would.
The silver haired guy, who was vastly muscled, and powerful, looked at him, then smiled.
"We need to get into the inner area, or it will get hard to breathe in here soon, once they strip the air. Shall we?" The case followed them, and green Kevin moved in along side of him, walking quickly. There was a door that slid open, and as soon as the ship was loaded, and they were all in a small room on the other side of a heavy metal door, a vast noise could be heard. It wavered, pulsing in a way that shook the world around them.
The silver fellow gestured toward a table, so that he could set the floating box on it. It was old looking, and made of what seemed like solid metal, but the style was the same one that people had in their homes. Four legs, with a flat surface above them.
As soon as it was down, the muscular silver haired man turned to him, still looking happy. There wasn't even an overt sense of fatalism in it. That was interesting, since the man was well aware they were about to die. He was just ready for it. It was, from what came off of him, his part in the greater world. To die, as was his duty, in order so that others might live
The sense was that his only real regret in the moment was that Dareg was going to die with him.
"What is the plan?"
Dareg moved to the box, still stalling for time, and tried not to seem as awkward as he felt. He spoke in rapid Noram Standard, hoping the other man would miss it.
"Um... I'll distract him, and you kill him from behind? We have to act first, and do it right, because if he moves sideways in time, he'll kill us both. We might die anyway. I wish we could get him off into space for this." He could only hope that the other man didn't realize what was being said. That, and that this silver man was willing to do what Dareg said, even if it was possibly wrong and evil. That part had to be a real thing for the other man. He couldn't know that green Kevin was truly their enemy. It had to have been possible that Dare was just wrong, after all.
Since they weren't suddenly fighting for their lives, it seemed that the first part was happening well enough.
So, taking a light out, Dareg put the thing on the floor.
"Say, um, sir? Would you come here?" He waved at the green one, plastering what he hoped was a polite expression on his face.
The man needed a prompting from his friend, but f
inally walked over, smiling. He kept doing that while Dareg formed a ball of light, leaving it incredibly dim. Floating in the air like a solid yellow ball, nearly in front of the man's brilliant emerald eyes. Pretending to be interested in the goings on the other man slipped behind the fellow, removing something small from his belt, or pocket. Just before the man seemed ready to move in, Dare smiled, and looked at the greener of the two.
"Okay, ready?" He saw the man in the back nod, but so did green Straughan. When that happened, he turned the light on very brightly, but so it would only hit the Adversary in the face. He gasped, blind, and then screamed, moving away. As that happened, his new Forten friend pointed a small silver metallic device, and did something. There was a click, and then after a second, the man's head exploded, dropping him to the floor.
Dimming the light, Dareg looked at the dead man, who disintegrated, turning into a shadowy mass of black dust. It was the smaller kind of event, thankfully. Like what had happened with Bill and Kevin when they died.
They both just stood there while it dissipated into nothing. Not even flowing away really, just fading.
The other man, who was dressed in light gray, wiped his hands on his pants leg.
"That was different. Here everyone told me that learning your Earth tongue was a waste of time. They'll think twice on that now. This is the first time we ever managed to stop one of them. We need to see the recordings. Pictures of what we did? Then we will be arrested for the death, but it was needed. Duty required it."
The man ran off, leaving Dare not knowing what he was supposed to do with himself.
After all, if Merriland the Forten was the real person, then that meant his mother, Merilee, had been a copy. One of the dark beings.
If that was the case, and those things all turned to black like that when they died, then he needed to investigate. Because his mother hadn't done that. She'd just been there, for days, dead and unmoving. Right next to him the whole time.
Then she'd been taken away and buried at the local graveyard. Dareg had been to her unmarked grave, but hadn't seen her be buried. No one had thought that important at the time, since he'd been recovering himself.
It seemed that he needed to go back where he came from, and look into some things.
Chapter fourteen
The Forten actually had crime, and criminals, including murderers. It hadn't been mentioned before, but it seemed like it was important to them that Dareg stand trial for helping to kill Kieran Tag. Who was a healer in good standing within their ranks. As far as anyone had known. They were even going to arrest him for it, until President Sta'Benson came to the investigators, their version of a city guard, and proved that it wasn't a normal thing, using the moving pictures the room had picked up.
It made for a tense three hours, but everything in the Forten world was watched, it seemed.
The pictures moved and the sound was recorded, but for the first time they had direct data on one of the Adversaries that was clear and solid. It also showed that something far less than normal had been going on in that room, off the main port hangar on F-Two. The big problem there was that the Forten Police, which was how they referred to their guards, weren't all that certain that the black mist the body vanished in wasn't just Noram style Earth magic, designed to trick them. More to the point, they couldn't know that it wasn't a weapon, or common thing they just didn't know about.
It was a great point, Dareg knew. He really couldn't prove otherwise, but luckily the President was allowed to override that part of their system. In part.
The man looked at him hard, his brown face tired seeming.
"I can't stop this forever. You may have to stand trial for this... It's... We don't have any mechanism for this kind of thing. Right now I'm claiming it was needed, which people do seem to understand, but... Kieran Tag had friends. Ones with enough power to make trouble for us all. It may be best if you leave, and avoid coming back to our space, the ones under Forten control, until we get to the bottom of this."
Dareg got that one, since being hung as a murderer, or tortured to death for it didn't sound fun at all. He mentioned it, still feeling a little bit like his world had ended.
"I can't get to the bottom of all this if I'm dead. I'll leave. It... You know that it was real, right? No one back home has magic that can do that kind of thing to a body. Not that I know of, or have even heard hinted at." There were probably ways to get it done, but he really didn't know them. He could prove that under Truth verification, but Yarl let him know that even if that was the case, and the devices worked, their laws wouldn't count it as real. Not without decades of testing first. Which the President clearly felt interested in, but didn't mention out loud.
Reading the man, it was clear that he was basically bending the law by giving Dare a chance to run. Possibly breaking it outright. If he waited, even another hour, he'd be imprisoned, and put on trial.
That nearly got him to flee at full speed, but doing that would have left the silver haired warrior man that had helped him stuck, taking the blame for the whole thing. As it stood, it was kind of obvious that Sta'Benson's plan was pretty much that one. Blaming the warrior, who had simply done his duty to save them all. Dare was threatened with being locked up for helping to murder an innocent man.
The warrior man, who was named Lynd, was actually guilty, under their laws. The only way out of being punished would be to prove, beyond all shadow of a doubt, that Tag had been an enemy combatant. That couldn't be done, however, even if they showed that he was one of the Adversaries. The dark being hadn't fought, or even struggled much while dying. They'd simply assassinated him, not giving him any chance at all.
Which meant that if Dare just left, the man would be enslaved and forced to labor, for the rest of his natural life.
"I understand. Yarl... Would you do me a favor, and leave?" It probably seemed like a strange request, but the leader of the Forten stared at him, the idea that Dareg was going to fight, instead of just escape, running through his whole being.
Mainly because, when there had been a real threat before, the boy had sent the rest of them away, in order to protect them from harm. People that he didn't even know. To Yarl it simply made sense that he wouldn't allow an innocent man to be locked up for what had happened. The trick of course would be in preventing bloodshed. The thing there was one he couldn't come up with a plan to allow to happen. If an escape started, the police would fight, to prevent that from happening. They were all of the silver caste, and couldn't really help doing that, if their duty required it. No more than Lynd could have not tried to save them from the darkness.
In short, the entire thing was a mess about to take place. One that Yarl had no way to control or stop. Worse, if the Forten accidently killed Dare, that would, probably, start a war with the very people they'd come to help.
Dareg didn't see a way out either. Not without simply grabbing the Forten prisoner, and leaving with him, jumping away. That wasn't possible with a jump shield however. Or, rather, it could be, if the shield wouldn't push the other man away when it activated. The thing there was that it was designed to do that, because Tim hadn't foreseen a need to jump with more than one person at a time. If you needed to do that, then using a ship was simply natural. That he didn't have such a thing at the moment was an oversight on his part, no doubt.
The trick then, would be in rewriting the jump shield itself, in order to get them both free. That was going to take longer than an hour however. At least if he made a new shield, however that was done. He had a feeling that, much like the jump ships themselves, some secret process was used to make the things. It wasn't like doing up a batch of lights.
Unless it was simpler than that. He could, perhaps, force the device to do something it wasn't meant to do, if he was strong enough. Like making a door vanish on his pod house. The field wasn't designed for that, but with enough focus he could get it to happen. The trick was that with a little house he could stand there all day long if he had too, in order t
o make it work. Here he was going to have to get to Lynd, and then into vacuum, so they could flee. That simply wasn't going to work. The other thing he might try would be jumping from inside the space, but in a closed room, at least a small one, there was a chance that doing that might well kill anyone that was too close.
The fact was that no one had tested that part of things, as far as he knew.
It meant that he had to get the man outside, or into the empty hangar bay, at the very least. Then force his shield, which would be far more reluctant to help him out, to do something it was specifically built to not allow. Then risk hurting thousands of people, by jumping away from inside the atmosphere of the moon sized ship.
Well, he could also leave the man to suffer at the hands of his own people for the crime of protecting them. That was a real option. Not one that he loved however. He would have left, planned and come back later, but as soon as they moved Lynd, it might be impossible to ever find him again. The fleets had so many ships, and so much space on, and in some of them, that it would be harder to locate the man than if he were being hidden on Earth.
His mind spun, trying to figure out a better way to do things, but time was running out. For the moment a rather stoic Lynd was sitting, shackled with very solid chains, in the room directly next to the one he was in. There was no way that Dare could simply walk to that room and order them to open up. On the good side, the guards weren't inside the space any longer. On the bad, the door had to be opened by having one of the guards in proximity to it, alive and conscious, demanding that it allow them in.
He sighed, and then stood up.
"Come with me, please? I need to see Lynd." It was a bold thing to announce, in this place that spied on people constantly. The President of the Forten looked very troubled, then stood up.