The Tymorean Trust Book 1 - Power Rising

by Margaret Gregory

  Chapter 5 - Integration

  Vincent stood quietly and watched the two children. He had just injected the girl with a mild, short acting stimulant. The dose was not enough to bring her back to full alertness, just enough to study her reactions to her current surroundings.

  Although Xyron’s monitoring instruments had indicated that his block on their power was effective, part of his mind was ready to react if she grew violent. This girl and her brother were not acting like Tymorean children who reached second stage. It was just possible that they might be able to overcome the block.

  The drug took a few minutes to act, but Vincent saw the girl beginning to stir. The first thing she did was to push herself up, slowly, and try to look around. He was out of her cone of vision. She looked at the white featureless wall, the low mattress she sat on, and the blanket she had thrown off as she moved. Then she sat immobile for a few minutes, seemed to begin to fall sideways, but caught herself with her arm. Naturally, she would still be feeling sleepy.

  “Tim?”

  Vincent saw the girl notice the second mattress where her brother lay. She tried to stand, but could only manage to get to her knees. She began to crawl slowly towards her brother.

  Although the gravity in that circular area of the lab was lower than Tymorean normal, it was higher than what they were used to on Earth.

  Persistent, Vincent thought as he watched the girl reach her brother and once there spend minutes trying to shake him awake. She finally got a response.

  “What?” the boy asked drowsily.

  “Where are we?”

  “Dunno. Go to sleep.”

  Further shaking had no effect, so the girl looked around again, as if for a way out. She tried to stand again, actually made it to her feet, and then tried to turn around.

  Vincent saw her start to topple over and moved quickly to catch her.

  “Relax, Cindy,” he said quietly, as he eased her down onto her bed. She was asleep again already.

  Vincent checked her pulse and breathing, did the same for her brother, and stood up.

  The white wall around him became clear, revealing the instruments and screens that were part of the special monitoring laboratory.

  Governor Xyron, in his role as the world’s senior scientist, joined his brother. “Satisfied?” he chided gently.

  “For now,” Vincent hedged. “You didn’t see how fast they powered up back on Earth. They were able to draw power from the lighting system at their school.”

  “I still have the power damping field on,” Xyron admitted, walking over to the boy’s bed. His foot activated a switch and the bed began to rise to waist height. “However, I was watching the brainwave monitor. The memory block is holding. There were no reactive surges and the brain activity stayed at resting level. She didn’t recognise her surroundings, but accepted them.”

  Vincent raised the girl’s bed and copied his brother who was moving a hand held sensor along the boy, keeping it no more than an inch from the pale blue gown he wore. When he finished taking readings from the girl, he sent the results to his brother’s master unit.

  “I think it is safe to reduce the level of sedation,” Xyron told Vincent. “I will maintain enough to allow them to accept the training and any inexplicable strange feelings. They will need help acclimatising to the gravity. Will you arrange for a group of children for that?”

  “I have a few particular children in mind,” Vincent said with a quick grin. Then he became serious again. “Have the Elders foreseen anything more about these children?”

  It was Xyron’s turn to give a wry smile. “They have advised me, most earnestly, that they must be handled carefully.” He shared the irony with Vincent. “However, I am not sure if they realise how powerful these children will be, would be now if we hadn’t reversed the transition to second stage. I am aware, however, and I intend to minimise any risk of them resisting the training they need.”

  Vincent shuddered slightly. Thinking back to what these children had been like when Tonos first called him…he wanted to distract himself from the spectre of trying to control children who were both powerful and rebellious.

  “When should they rouse enough to meet their royal cousins?”

  Xyron checked the readings on his monitors. “The last dose of sedative should have worn off enough by midday. Have them taken outside once the other children are back at lessons. The fresh air should help them revive further. However, I don’t expect them to be able to do much more than stand and walk around a little.”

  “I will speak to the attendants that His Majesty has appointed, and have a couple of the security guards with them while they are out there. Should I have the attendants come here to dress them?”

  Xyron nodded and activated the controls to lower the beds again. Then he and Vincent vacated the circular observation area.

  When they were clear, he reactivated the force wall that showed first as a pale mauve glow, and then became like a one-way window, opaque from the inside, clear from the laboratory.

  Before leaving, Xyron added more advice, “They are going to need a high level of assistance until they are ready for structured learning. Make it clear to your select little group to act as if that were normal.”

  The glowing mauve terminus of a transmitter beam hung in the air under a huge old tree. Two hefty brown clad men, each carrying a docile teenager, emerged from the glow. Two more figures, in the green tunic and trousers of personal attendants, appeared next. These two carried rugs and cushions. The glow then disappeared.

  One of the attendants, a mature aged woman, began to set out the rug on the ground in the shade. The other attendant, a young man, set the cushions into two piles. Only when they had finished, did the two other men set the children down onto the rug, so the cushions propped them up.

  These two big men were part of the Royal Estate security force, and although they did not expect danger in this area of the garden, they stepped back and assumed an alert posture, and kept their eyes roving around the group. Their current duty was to ensure that these newcomers to the estate remained undisturbed by all but specifically authorised people.

  The attendants crouched close to their charges and spoke softly to each other. As soon as the children began to stir, their attention went to anticipating their unspoken needs. Their charges were nowhere near as helpless as infants, but were in a state where they could not think for themselves.

  Cindy felt the sun warmed breeze on her face as she stirred from sleep. She smelt the floral perfume of nearby flowers and the scent of damp soil. Her mind showed her the back yard of her father’s house, and gave her the sense of being there.

  Her eyes opened and scene of overhanging branches and sunlight filtering through leaves did not match her rapidly fading dream. She rolled onto her side and saw a bed of multi coloured flowers. Instinct, rather than intent, caused her nostrils to dilate and take in the ambient smells and they made her feel safe, and at home.

  Movement in her peripheral vision drew her attention. She felt no surprise at seeing a grey clad figure being helped to sit up by someone in green. Instinctively, she recognised her twin, but felt no curiosity about the one who helped him. Nor did she react against the gentle hands that were helping her to sit up, and to support her so she did not fall back down. Even when her view was blurred because the bright light made her eyes water, and some one used a soft cloth to dry them, she did not resist. This unasked for assistance was just a part of how things were.

  When her eyes finally adjusted to the brightness, she turned to her twin and met his eyes. A fleeting recollection of her waking dream flashed through her mind. In feelings rather than thoughts, her mind dismissed the dream image. That was a made up vision. She belonged where she was and was content.

  A glass was placed in her hand and she instinctively grasped it and put it to her lips. Yet her arm felt heavy, and it shook. A hand, poking from a green sleeve trimmed in gold, supported her arm and helped her to drink without sp
illing too much of the water.

  Even though she just sat in the shade, Cindy felt the changes within herself. First, it was the sense of energy returning, or perhaps she was just now becoming fully alive. She began to notice more things, storing them in her mind, but not needing to think of them. Then she began to hear sounds – the buzzing of insects near the flowers, childish voices from some more distant place. When some of the voices seemed to be getting louder, she looked to see where they came from.

  A tall, dark haired man led four children towards her.

  Vincent noticed the blank expressions on the faces of Tim and Cindy Ward, and realised that they did not recognise him.

  “I’m Vincent,” he introduced himself, when he was sure both children were looking at him. “I have brought some of your Royal cousins to meet you. They will help you to learn the way things are done here.”

  He moved back and let the Royal children introduce themselves. As he expected, the oldest of the four assumed the leader’s role. He didn’t seem aware that the newcomers weren’t fully awake.

  “I’m Gann Reslic; my father is the President Governor.” He turned to indicate the only girl in the group. “This is Lexina; she is High King Tymoros’s niece. Denlic here is Vincent’s nephew and Governor Xyron’s sixth son. The other lout here is my younger brother.”

  Vincent gave Gann a look of reproof.

  “His name is Stenn,” Gann added quickly.

  Both newcomers looked from the solidly built blond haired speaker, to the slender reddish-blonde haired girl, then to the sturdy dark haired boy and finally to the lithe blond boy who was grinning at them. There was an obvious resemblance between the speaker and this other blond boy – both had strong aquiline features, but apart from that and the hair, they were quite different. The speaker was serious and full of self-importance. The younger boy’s manner seemed to indicate he was full of mischief. As Vincent had guessed, Stenn Reslic approached the strangers first.

  Stenn squatted down between the newcomers and offered his hand to the boy. He wasn’t fazed by the lack of response. He simply reached out and lifted the boy’s hand to give it a gentle grip of greeting. The boy turned to look at him, but gave no return tightening of grip. Perhaps he didn’t know how to greet people yet.

  “Welcome home. Vincent said your name was Tymos,” Stenn said, meeting the boy’s eyes, and finding the blue-green colour quite surprising. He turned then to the girl and repeated his greeting, noticing that she made a move to bring her hand up to meet his. He took it gently and said, “We are really pleased you have come, Kryslie.”

  She too had those startling blue-green eyes. “I’ve been told that you are not yet used to being here, and you came from somewhere with a lower gravity.”

  Neither Cindy nor Tim reacted to his statement, and while Gann gave an impatient grunt, and Lexina moved closer to the girl, Stenn simply maintained his grin and gave a casual shrug.

  He simply chatted as if these strangers were already his friends. “Apparently, the fastest way to get used to our gravity is to start walking around in it. No rush of course. While I am here to help you, I am being spared my uncle’s grumpy attention.”

  Gann muttered a rebuke to Stenn, who ignored it, because he had managed to make the new boy smile, even though he made no move to try to get up.

  Stenn considered the little that Vincent had said of these two. It wasn’t much, merely their names, and that they had come from off world, and still needed to acclimatise. Then he had requested that they asked the newcomers no questions. That had made him wonder, but he intended to obey that request because he wanted to be allowed to stay with them.

  He turned his attention to the girl, without seeming to pay attention to the attendant holding her up. Lexina had knelt down nearby and taken the girl’s other hand. Seeing the two together seemed to emphasise the sense of frailty he had noticed when he had held the girls hand. Lexina wasn’t as big boned as Denlic’s sister Olassa, but by comparison to this new girl, she seemed to be.

  “Come on, are you going to sit for the rest of your life?” Stenn teased, grinning again at the boy.

  Still no sign of reaction. Was he mentally challenged? No, it had to be something else.

  His mind put a name to Tymos’s attendant, and recalled he had gone into the service of the High King. The gold trim on his uniform supported that. Therefore, even though Tymos and Kryslie were wearing the basic grey coveralls, they were not servant rank. Well, wouldn’t be – he amended. They had to have Royal power, despite having brown hair like commoners. In addition, they had to be of high rank, or there wouldn’t be so much fuss over them.

  Lexina was talking encouragingly to Kryslie, and had her attention, so Stenn turned back to Tymos. He could hear Gann muttering to Denlic, and caught, “I wonder which of His Majesty’s relatives fathered them.” Stenn recognised disapproval in Gann’s voice. Well his brother was a stickler for correctness. It shouldn’t matter. If Tymos and Kryslie were here, they were not commoners, and his brother had no place criticizing their elders.

  “Come on, Tymos, up you get,” Stenn suggested again. He winked at Denlic and shrugged towards Lexina and Kryslie. “I want to see if you are taller than Gann here, or short like the smarter people.”

  Tymos’s eyes flicked from Stenn to Gann and back. Stenn saw the start of understanding in them and awareness that Kryslie was on her feet and standing with Denlic and Lexina supporting her.

  Gann came and put his hand under Tymos’s right shoulder, as the attendant helped to get him to his feet. Stenn took over from the attendant, without a word.

  “Just take a few minutes to find your balance,” Gann directed pompously. “It’s important that you do, or you will keep falling and may hurt yourself.”

  Stenn couldn’t smother a faint chuckle.

  “We won’t let you fall,” he assured Tymos. “But we don’t intend to be walking sticks for the rest of your life.” Gann’s stifled retort told Stenn that his double meaning had not gone unnoticed.

  It amused Stenn that Tymos chose to ignore the advice and try to take his first step, but he was full of concern when Tymos began to tremble with exertion after only a few steps. He knew that this was only to be expected, and part of him hoped the process of acclimatisation would take a while, but the rest of him was looking forward to having Tymos as a friend.

  When the attendants indicated that their charges had had enough exercise for this first day, Gann, Denlic and Lexina said goodbyes, and gave promises of seeing them again the next day. Stenn deliberately lingered, until the guards and attendants had taken the newcomers away. He was so full of thought that he jumped when Vincent spoke to him.

  “I think you and Tymos will get on well together.”

  “Ah! Yes, I hope so. I don’t think Gann was impressed though,” Stenn blurted.

  “He need not help them if he prefers to study,” Vincent proposed. “They are not likely to be in his level.”

  Stenn gave a sigh of relief. “How much longer will they be like that? When will they be able to have lessons with Lexina and Denlic and I?”

  “If the three of you keep encouraging them and helping them with the exercises, they will adapt quickly. They won’t be ready for lessons with you for a while yet, but I expect they will be running around in about a week.”

  “A week?” Stenn echoed. His mind did a mental back flip. He had assumed that Tymos and Kryslie were the children of missionaries related to Governor Tymoros. He’d met a few such children, and they had all taken a couple of months to acclimatise.

  He heard Gann calling for him to come to his class, but he ignored him. Vincent gestured for Gann to go on.

  “Tymos and Kryslie are going to need friends,” Vincent said quietly. “I hope you will keep encouraging them and talking to them. You seemed to take the right tack with them today.”

  “I want to, Sir,” Stenn admitted. “Do I need to be careful with them? They seem so frail.”

  “That should pass
as they acclimatise. They are having nutrient supplements to enable them to develop stronger muscles,” Vincent explained. “My brother will have them lightly sedated for a while.”

  “May I ask why they need that, Sir?” Stenn dared to ask. “I mean, their parents were Tymorean, right? A few of my cousins were born off world and they didn’t need sedation. And…why didn’t either of them speak? Didn’t they learn Tymorean?”

  Stenn subsided, allowing Vincent time to consider his answer. He hoped he hadn’t been too inquisitive, but Vincent wasn’t as stuffy as some of his uncles.

  After a moment, he had his answer. “They didn’t have the opportunity to learn our language – but we are giving them sleep lessons. The sedation is because those that reared them had no knowledge of us. When their power surfaced, they were…a problem.”

  It only took Stenn a moment to figure out what Vincent meant. He summarised it with one word, “Ouch.”

  Vincent smiled. “Yes, they must learn many basic things and quickly. I am sure, as your father’s son, that you understand why.”

  Stenn nodded. “You’ve suppressed their memories then?” he guessed aloud.

  Vincent nodded. “So you will understand that they are not imbeciles because they don’t know how to do things, or to act like we do. However, I personally, don’t think that has to mean all study and no play. Just don’t let them get into trouble.”

  “I’m the right Reslic for the job, Sir,” Stenn promised, and he was happy to obey Vincent’s shooing off motion to go to his lessons.

  For the past two weeks, High King Governor Tymoros had spent part of each evening observing the Earth children as they slept in the infirmary. Since they had been allowed to exercise in the gardens, he had cleared part of his busy schedule so that he could tune the monitors to follow their progress. In less than a week, they had adapted to the gravity, and were moving around as easily as the children who had been born on the estate. Equally noticeable was how Reslic’s young scamp, Stenn, was showing real maturity when he was with them.

  Tymoros smiled, thinking of how Stenn made the newcomers laugh. He turned back to watch where Tymos and Kryslie slept. He was able to see them through a one-way window.

  Even though he would be fostering them, he had not met them yet. For now, he had to be content with observing them from afar.

  He resisted the urge to pace, even though he was alone. He had chosen to stay in the infirmary, watching the children, rather than attend that evening’s Council meeting. He would normally have chaired it, but this evening the citizenship petition that Reslic had submitted for the children was on the agenda. As the person nominated to sponsor them, he had no vote.

  It should be a formality. The Governor’s council, which consisted of Elders and senior members of the three ruling families, would listen to the petition presented by Governor Reslic on the behalf of the children, discuss it and make their decision. When the formalities were completed, then he would meet the children he was to foster.

  Tymoros did not admit to his inner impatience and yeaning.

  At first, the children had been curiosities - aliens with Tymorean power. He had wondered how they would react to being on Tymorea. Now, watching them was more than a compulsion. It was like a nagging ache when he was unable to do so. He remembered his own children. He had sired five and they had all died. Fostering these could never replace what he had lost but there was something in the way the children moved and smiled that evoked sad memories.

  The only issue that might be a problem would be to convince the Council that the children would respond to training. They would want to be sure that when Xyron loosed his control of their power that they would not be rogue - people in whom the Royal power was warped and dangerous.

  That idea caused Tymoros to consider all that Vincent had said of the children. The onset of power was recent. Surely not long enough to warp their minds and make them dangerous.

  Having come to anticipate being their guardian, he did not want to have to neutralise their power if they were untrainable. An unpleasant duty of his role as Governor was disempowering people that became rogue; fortunately, it was a rare occurrence.

  He turned his mind from that possibility and concentrated on positive thoughts. He held onto one in particular; a prophecy told to him seventeen years ago, when he was still reeling from the death of his two remaining children. It had assured him that one day he would have heirs. It was all that had made it possible for him to retain some hope six years later when his next child had died as an infant.

  “Ty?”

  Tymoros spun round and saw Xyron had entered the observation room.

  “Have they voted?” he asked unable to keep his tone neutral. Xyron did not miss his eagerness.

  “The Council have approved citizenship and agreed that you are the only possible sponsor for them. They have requested clarification on the point of the highest rank that the children will be entitled to and have agreed that the title of Prince and Princess is appropriate based on the level of potential. They do however request your approval of that point before making it legal.”

  “I did not believe that matters of title and rank were to enter into the petition!” Tymoros remarked thoughtfully, becoming suddenly still. “What have you told them that you haven’t told me, Xyron? I understood that as they were not actually heirs that I engendered, the titles you mentioned were inappropriate!”

  “The council members raised the matter because of the extremely high potential of these children and your current lack of Heir Designates.” Xyron reported.

  “Are you saying that they would not object to my naming these non-Tymoreans my heirs?”

  Tymoros stated in some surprise. “Why?”

  “Come over to the computer and I will show you!” Xyron invited, heading for the terminal in the observation room.

  He accessed the data file on the Earth children and quickly recapped the data that he had obtained from the initial physiological sample.

  “I ran a DNA scan. Vincent had obtained a sample from the children’s father, and I naturally compared that with those of the children.”

  Xyron brought up three graphs on a screen. Tymoros knew enough to compare them.

  “Each has 50% similarities to their father as normal. Where is this leading?” Tymoros asked pointedly.

  Xyron brought up a fourth graph, labelled only with a code number, then a fifth and sixth.

  “The point is this; I ran a comparison search through my data banks. I do not have samples from every one on the estate, but I do have an extensive collection. I found the fourth one. You will note that there is an 80-82% degree of similarity between the DNA of each Earth child and that sample.”

  “Whose sample is the fourth sample?” Tymoros asked with a flash of interest.

  “Yours, Ty!” Xyron admitted, watching the surge of emotion on the High King’s face.

  “Who are the last two examples from?” These had many similarities his own sample but not as many as did the alien children.

  Xyron gave the names of two of Tymoros’s dead children.

  Tymoros studied the data, his mind exploring the implications of Xyron’s findings.

  Two new graphs were added to the screen and Xyron spoke again, “These are new samples taken from the Earth children today. They now show a 94% similarity to yours.”

  Tymoros felt a tremor of premonition.

  “Tell the Council, as a matter of courtesy only, that I will approve the proposed titles and that the rank of these children will be at least that of those that I personally engender.” Tymoros spoke carefully. “However, the citizenship papers shall only state that their petition was approved and that I was the appointed sponsor. Any decision regarding their position in my house is mine alone to make.”

  Xyron returned to deliver Tymoros’s response to the council, pleased and gladdened by the positive signs Tymoros had betrayed. In his mind, there was no doubt that at the public ceremony to present the children
as members of his family, Tymoros would announce them to be his Heir Designates. He had stopped short of stating that this evening, as he had yet to meet the children. He would want to make his own decision based on his own interaction with them. That was only right.