Chapter 25 - Second Attack at the Estate
Tymos had analysed what his extra senses had received and transmitted to the nursery. He arrived back where Llaimos had been a short time ago and saw within that room, glowing trails that had not been there when he had left. His heart thumped harder; the Ciriot knew too much if they had come there. He sensed terror nearby and used that to focus his next transmission.
He recognised the room where a terrified Madame Teena was trying to protect six young children, and Sacul was brandishing a knife.
The cloaked figure facing them had an energy weapon covering the group and a mechanical device was issuing vocal demands for information. Sacul’s expression, when he saw Tymos arrive, warned the intruder and it spun around and activated its weapon.
“That won’t do anything,” Tymos said as he sprang at the intruder. Teena shoved her charges out of the way, as the aim of the weapon came near their former position. It stopped firing when Tymos wrested it away and threw it across the room. He mentally told Sacul to “Leave it and get the children away” when he became aware of his young friend edging towards it the weapon.
The Ciriot was a vicious fighter, and powerful. It fought with its full strength, even though it believed it was only fighting a child. It grappled with Tymos, and they both rolled together after Tymos pushed it to the floor. Tables and chairs became wrecks of wood and metal, and decorative wall hangings were torn from the walls as one or other of them tried to get the other tangled up. The creature did not seem to believe it would be overcome, but when it realised that it had misjudged its opponent, the mechanical device emitted curses and the creature was suddenly slack.
Tymos eased his position cautiously, in case the creature was foxing. Then he carefully reached out and rested a hand on his opponent’s chest. He sensed no life there.
“Damn! It suicided.” He had wanted a prisoner to question, but failing that, he pulled off the obscuring cowl and saw the shiny black armour beneath it. He tried to open the armour, but there was no obvious way to do so, and even using all his strength, he failed.
He activated his communicator and reported to Arden and then waited with his victim until two guards came to take the body to Xyron’s lab for later study. When he went in search of the children, and found them huddled in a room just down the passage.
He spoke to the trembling senior nurse. “I will take you all to my apartment. It is well shielded and you will all be safe there.”
After seeing the group to their new location, Tymos continued the thoughts that had been occupying his mind. “They should have been safe in the nursery. Only an insider could have allowed them to have access. Only a high ranking insider would have known the specific security override.”
That thought gave Tymos shivers. “How had the Ciriot even got to the Estate? In a robot capsule like the Aeronites? No… that didn’t seem right. They might have come along the tunnels somehow, but what was more important was how they had got the codes.”
The hair on the back of Tymos’s neck rose…Kryslie had mentioned the seven dead Tymorean guards in Amik, and the five she could not account for. Tymoros was missing, and Aldiv, and Perrin Reslic, all of those might know the codes, but surely they wouldn’t…
“Not willingly,” Tymos said aloud. He recalled how the Ciriot had been able to control Zacary and Stenn without either of them realising. But his father was much stronger, and so was Perrin Reslic…
Tymos returned to the nursery and looked for glowing trails. Only one led to the nursery; someone had led the creature there.
“Zacary!” Tymos thought, and he raced to where Kryslie had seen him last, unconscious on the floor in the small lounge area. His former classmate was not there but the brightness of the glowing trail leading up to that level was much brighter than the one leading to the nursery. Tymos back-tracked the bright trail to the beam-in point in the Great Hall. His fear grew when he saw two other trails leading away from there. How many other Ciriot might there be? Two? Four? Six? He reported to Arden. If his fears were right, there was a Tymorean transmitting them… but where had they gone?
They were pirates, his mind said, recalling that information. “Where might they think valuables would be? The blood raced from Tymos’s face. “The Governors’ quarters.”
He spoke into the comm. mouthpiece and gave a warning to Arden and was immediately assured, “All computer systems are now locked out. Security access by Xyron only. Full shields and fields will activate on your command.”
The Tymorean Governors did not accumulate belongings and valuables. What they considered important was knowledge, information and personal skills. And if knowledge was power, they wouldn’t want the Ciriot gaining access to the extensive archives of data from thousands of worlds and several millennia.
Tymos accepted the assurance and transmitted to the King’s suite. His mind was already full of the information on the protective screens and fields able to be set up there.
As soon as he arrived in the main room of the suite, Llaimos broke from Tanya’s embrace and ran to him, clinging to his waist. He was crying, and Tanya looked distraught. Keleb too, was white faced. Tymos listened to Tanya saying, “He won’t stop crying,” as he gave the “Full defensive screens, full shields,” voice command.
Tanya was not far from tears and Keleb was saying, “He is in pain. I don’t know what is wrong.”
Tymos lifted his growing brother into an embrace of his own and tried to make sense of the boy’s turbulent mind.
“Bro, you are not ready yet to fight,” Tymos whispered, as he sent some of his healing energy into his brother to ease the pain of his rapidly growing body. “I know you are getting bigger and bigger, but you have to wait. Soon though, soon…but we must be in Dira first… in the Temple.”
Llaimos was less than a year old, but his power was already rising into a body that wasn’t ready for it.
“I have to control your power, Bro, just for now. Trust me, and let me into your mind.”
Tymos sensed his brother’s complete confidence in him as he spoke the ritual words that would freeze his power at its current level. After a while, Llaimos’s crying eased to whimpers as the pain he had felt diminished to bearable levels.
Stenn Reslic, a silent observer until then, asked, “What is happening elsewhere?”
With Llaimos clinging to his neck, Tymos kept a firm hold on him and enlightened his friends.
“Father is missing, so is Aldiv, and five guards.”
“Uncle Perrin?” Stenn asked.
“He’s one of the missing. And it isn’t just Aeronites we are fighting. Ciriot pirates were in Amik, and Krys thinks they have Father – possibly your uncle too. The Aeronites have control of the city, but the Ciriot are pretty well doing whatever they please. At least one of the Ciriot came here.”
Jonko stiffened, Stenn’s expression hardened. “How?” they both asked.
“The Aeronites came in capsules propelled along the transmission tunnels. Possibly the Ciriot did too, or they may have used one of the guards, made him bring them here.”
“Never,” Keleb insisted. However, Stenn said only, “It’s possible.”
Tymos nodded. “I fought one of them in the nursery. It had Madame Teena, Sacul and some of the youngsters held up. It suicided when I got the better of it, but it shouldn’t have got in there. Only someone who knew the high level security codes could have let it in.”
“My uncle!” Stenn said, turning pale with shock.
“Or my father,” Tymos said grimly.
“Then there is no guarantee we are safe here,” Jonko said, stating the very concern that Tymos had.
“My father has a secure area in his palace,” Stenn said. “But it may be no safer. I mean, weapons won’t work in there, and we can’t transmit there, and even if we change the access code, Uncle might still be able to override it.”
“The computers are locked out to all but Governor Xyron, so it’s worth the risk; they won’t expect us to be there…it is a kind of containment cell isn’t it?”
Tymos had information come into his mind, and Stenn confirmed it.
“We won’t be able to transmit all the way so if you think we should go there, we all should have the new personal force shields on.” Stenn decided. “I have one on already.”
“So do I,” Tymos admitted. “You know where they are?”
“Yes, I’ll get four more.” Stenn agreed, but reminded Tymos, “You’ll need to give the door release command, and then the seal door command after I go out. I’ll pound on the door in a rhythm of twice pause twice pause twice when I get back.”
The commands were given, and then with Llaimos still clinging to him, Tymos moved closer to his foster mother and freed an arm to embrace her.
“Father chose well when he married you,” he told Tanya. “You are magnificent.”
“I am hardly serene right now,” she managed to admit. She was still on the verge of tears.
“You haven’t fainted yet,” Tymos teased gently, and managed to get a faint smile from her.
“I won’t give those intruders the satisfaction,” Tanya managed to sound determined. “Do you know if Ty is alright? And your sister?"
“No, but I know both are alive and no one smart would anger either of them. Trust their skills and their power and never doubt that they have the protection of the Guardians of Peace.”
Tanya allowed herself to relax enough to begin to consider personal comforts. She went to where she kept a small supply of refreshments and snacks in the suite, and ensured everyone had both. No one was fully relaxed, even with Tymos passing on what little information he heard over the suit comm. No one had been able to find the creatures who made the glowing trails.
Llaimos stayed hugging his brother, and Tymos didn’t notice his weight. He paced the room, needing an outlet for the energy building up inside him. He stopped and suddenly stiffened, as Llaimos let out an agonised wail. In his mind was a picture of Kryslie, and the knowledge that something was wrong. He was too young to know or even think of what. Too innocent even to understand the impressions Tymos was receiving. The Ciriot had done something to her, and now her mind was silent.
“What’s wrong?” Keleb asked, sensing their distress.
“The Ciriot have Kryslie,” Tymos said, his voice taut. He held Llaimos in a tighter grip, trying to ease his brother’s fears. Ignoring his friends and foster mother, he was whispering to his brother’s mind. “Bro, she is alive, they haven’t killed her.” He sensed his brother could not believe that. “Bro, calm your mind, like we taught you. I know she is alive, she is my twin, if she were dead, I would feel our twin-bond break. It is still there…” He tried to share the feeling with his brother. Llaimos’s wailing decreased.
Jonko commented calmly, “She is still alive.”
Tymos nodded. He did not tell his friends that they had hurt her badly.
Some instinct roused in Tymos, at first he thought it was another feeling coming through the twin bond. His unease was growing. He spoke to Arden, and asked if the guards had spotted any more glowing trails. The only ones were within the High King’s palace, but so far, only on the lower level.
“Tymos?” Keleb spoke quietly. “I feel…something…evil.”
“Yes, I do too. Be ready for an attack. This room is shielded, but it may not stay that way.”
Keleb drew out a stunner and a knife.
“What extra fields were you invoking before, Tymos?” Jonko asked. “Will weapons work in here?”
“Energy and projectile weapons should be disabled,” Tymos said quickly. “And it is likely that intruders will be armoured and shielded. No one should be able to transmit in.”
Jonko pulled out a knife and had a disintegrator ready to draw.
Tymos was edging Tanya towards the door to the king’s inner sanctum. The protections were even stronger in there.
The explosion came as a complete shock. The outer door of the suite blew inwards and four black armoured figures burst in, weapons ready. Jonko and Keleb moved to face them as Tymos ran for the inner door, grabbing for and dragging Tanya into the sanctum and across to where Tymoros had his solid wood desk.
“Get behind that,” Tymos ordered, shoving Llaimos at her, and then up ending the desk to make it a barrier.
He was aware that Arden knew of the explosion, and his frantic warning rang in his ears. “The shield generator has lost power.”
Tymos spoke back, “Get it working again! Is there a back up?”
“Re-routing power now, but at your location, only the defence fields are operating. Back up on the way.”
Judging from the agitated clicking sounds out in the suite, the intruders had discovered that their weapons didn’t work. Trouble was, with the intrusion shields down, more of the creatures could come in through the breach in the wall.
Tymos turned and saw that his friends were each fighting two figures, and were coming off worst. He had his two fighting knives in his hand as soon as he had pulled the inner door shut and given the activate command for the extra protections. He hoped they would be enough.
As he ran up behind his friends, he sent a message to their minds, “Duck!” and leapt over their heads and came down kicking at the two intruders that were slightly back from the others. The momentum of his attack knocked those two down, but not for long. They were quickly trying to find their feet, despite the awkwardness of their armour.
“Joints,” Jonko reminded Keleb now that they each had only one opponent. The dynamics of the fight had just changed.
The two that Tymos knocked down had yet to get up, but they were fighting fiercely, angry now at being bettered. They tried to pull Tymos down, so they could roll on him, or stab him with their own blades. Whenever they struck, their target had moved. When they looked to find him, he came in with an attack of his own, aiming his knife into the weaker armour at the joints where limbs needed to move. He glanced up after ramming home a knife into the armpit joint of one opponent, and had a glance of two robed figures just inside the door of the suite. One was placing a device in the centre of the blasted doorway. He saw a third figure, dressed in black, as he fought off an attack from his uninjured opponent, finally making a killing thrust into that one’s neck joint. The three new figures were no longer by the door when he looked that way again. He rose and spun around; Jonko had his opponent down and was helping Keleb.
Beyond his friends, the robed figures were watching. They had prisoners. Tanya was struggling to try to get to Llaimos. The figure holding the boy was succeeding with contemptuous ease, despite the fact that Llaimos was wriggling like a desperate eel. The third figure now had his face exposed and Tymos saw the rigid figure of Perrin Reslic. The blazing eyes of the President’s brother betrayed the fury of his resistance to the commands on his body and mind. He was unable to move and fight as his inner mind desired. There was no doubt about how the intruders had been able to get their captives.
Jonko and Keleb turned as they finished the last of their opponents; Tymos stayed beside the two he had fatally injured. From his position, he saw the robed Ciriot were arrogantly watching his friends. They must have decided that he was a mere servant since his clothes were dirty brown, and his friends were wearing the attire of nobles.
The robed Ciriot both drew weapons, and one spoke in their clicking speech, and the mechanical device translated, “Make any move, and we kill the woman.”
Jonko and Keleb stayed still, sizing up the chances of disabling these new intruders. They both realised that if they had penetrated the inner sanctum, at least some of the protective fields must have been deactivated, potentially making energy weapons useable again. Even if Stenn were to return, they would have no chance to don the personal force screens to protect themselves.
Tymos was aware of commands directed at Perrin. His former teacher’s hand was moving towards a device on his arm and his mind was deliberately wide open. He wanted Tymos to know what he was being made to do. He was resisting, and not completely succeeding. On one level of his mind, he was cursing in highly un-regal verbiage, knowing what the enemy wanted him to do and trying to resist the compulsion. On another level, his mind was spilling to these enemy beings, information on many topics of interest to the Ciriot.
Through Perrin’s mind, Tymos heard, “Bring those last shields down!” and Perrin’s mind giving the literal truth, “All the shields are down.”
With a glance, Tymos confirmed the fact. Perrin resisted telling them of the defensive force fields, but only for a few moments. Knowing that the older man could override the defences, Tymos sub-vocalised into his headset and warned Arden to be ready to reset the fields if they went down. In turn, Arden reported that power had been rerouted and the outer shields had been reset.
Perrin’s mind was being asked why the weapons did not work. It began to explain the layers of shielding and field protections. His hand jerked towards the control device on his arm that Tymos knew was a computer that could override all security and defences.
Tymos needed more time to think, and sent a flick of energy, like lightning, across Perrin’s mind. The man’s hand went into a spasm and for a time he could not input the commands.
Now, Tymos adjusted his eyes and quickly scanned the room. He instantly understood the different patterns and lines of force that were his visualisation of the defences.
The reddish lines were from the device placed at the outer door - the Ciriot device. They overlaid everything in the room as if making the walls part of a bubble of protection. It would stop outside help coming in. He would need to remove that. Under that, the pale mauve of the Tymorean shields, like those on every place where non-combatants were sent to be safe. The anti-transmission screen, showed as a yellow glow on the outer walls, and the weapons suppression field as a fine whitish mist.
A plan to end the stalemate formed in Tymos’s mind. He sent a mental command to a startled Stenn, who had been trying ineffectually to re-enter the King’s suite. The alien device in the doorway was itself a force screen generator, and whether intentionally or not, it blocked transmission.
He sent a warning to Jonko and Keleb to act on his commands. Then he concentrated on his brother and carefully explained, in simple terms and picture images, what he hoped to do. He felt Llaimos’s unqualified agreement and understanding. Finally, he gave Arden orders to act on Stenn’s command, to lower the anti transmission field.
In his mind, Perrin’s cursing turned into a warning. He couldn’t resist the force of the Ciriot command any longer. The defensive force fields went down. He did not let on that the shields were back up.
More clicking speech translated into, “Drop your weapons, and stop fighting, or one of you will die.”
The creature was still expecting the main trouble to come from his friends. Tymos stood, and walked between his friends, neither of whom had obeyed the Ciriot command.
“No!” he said, causing both Ciriot to focus eyes and weapons on him, and only then notice the colour of his hair. “They obey me!”
A burst of sharp toned clicking speech did not translate. The Ciriot holding Tanya put an odd-looking weapon to her neck and fired. She gave a squeal of pain and collapsed. Then the device translated, “The child will be next. Drop your weapons.”
The Tymoreans still did not obey. Instead, Jonko and Keleb moved further apart, and continued to stare back at the intruders. Tymos spun and fired in a rapid movement, using his high-energy beam weapon to turn the Ciriot device in the doorway into molten slag. He faced the intruders once more and gave them no indication that anything was happening behind their backs.
Stenn materialised, used a stunner on his Uncle, and caught him before he fell and transmitted away. Moments later, Tymos read in Stenn’s mind, “I’m ready, tell me when.”
Tymos was concentrating on the Ciriot still holding Llaimos. That one was saying, “I will perhaps kill this boy…or finish off the woman. She is of no use to me.”
The Ciriot’s patience would soon end, Tymos knew, but he was waiting for the inner prompting to tell him when to act. He saw the Ciriot’s hand begin to tense, ready to fire his weapon, a disintegrator.
“Drop!” Tymos said loudly, and both Jonko and Keleb obeyed.
The hand holding the weapon moved as the Ciriot turned his attention onto the one who defied him. The beam of his weapon vaporised a groove in the floor as it changed its aim to Tymos, but it could only cling hungrily to his personal force shield. This was the most dangerous part of his plan, because while he was shielded, Llaimos and his friends were not. The leader only had to drop his brother and aim the weapon. Tymos hoped that he would not activate the disintegrator close to himself, and that his brother could hold on tightly.
Raising one arm above his head, while still watching the Ciriot, Tymos invoked the protection of the Guardians for his brother, foster mother and friends. He felt a surge of power and knew his pleas had been answered.
Two weapons were trying to disintegrate his shield, and Llaimos was gripping his captor – his fists full of dark brown fabric. That Ciriot did not notice the holds, as he was determined to destroy the one who defied him.
With a mental command to Llaimos to stay still, Tymos brought both his arms out in front of him. His hands contained no weapon, but suddenly an energy beam seemed to shoot out from each of his hands, striking the Ciriot at the exact place where their shield generator sat at their waist. He was reflecting the energy beams back at them.
Mentally, Tymos gave an order, “Full defences, now” and the ravening beams suddenly stopped as Stenn reactivated the defences using the device Perrin had on him.
Llaimos sensed the hold of the Ciriot loosening, and he twisted free and ran behind the desk. His captor had made an abortive swipe in an effort to retrieve him.
Both Ciriot looked around, eyeing the door of the sanctum as the only route to freedom, but also subtly positioning themselves to fight. Neither were cowards, and both were positive of their superiority over the Tymoreans.
Tymos began to move forward, keeping the attention on himself. He sent a command to his friends, “Now!”
Jonko sprang up and raced to Tanya; Keleb aimed for the desk and swept up Llaimos. The shield that prevented transmission went down, and Jonko, Keleb and their burdens transmitted away.
The Ciriot attacked, making high-pitched clicking sounds. One kicked out at Tymos, and stumbled back when his target stayed solidly upright. The other leapt at him and Tymos met him with a solid defence and grabbed the over robes, using them to send that Ciriot stumbling. The two Ciriot were not used to fighting as a team, and Tymos was able to deflect attacks from both as well as make attacks of his own. The heavier armour of the Ciriot protected them from hurt when Tymos tossed them into furniture and the walls while he avoided most harm by being fast and light. The few attacks that got through, stopped at his force shield. All the time, Tymos was looking for an opening and when it finally came, one Ciriot ended up with a knife thrust into his throat. The clicking from that one became frenzied. It tried to halt the flow of purplish blood. It fell, twitching.
The other one clicked a challenge, that was translated into the mechanical voice as, “All of your weak kind will die. Killing me will not save them.”
This opponent was even stronger than the other was, Tymos realised, but that did not deter him. His own strength and power were working to his will, his technique and movements instinctive, thanks to the intensity of Jono Reslic’s training. While they rolled, kicked, and bounced off furniture and walls, Tymos was looking for a weak point to attack. Ideally, he wanted to disable this one in a way that prevented him from biting on its suicide capsule.
Tymos tried a trick, he had only idly considered. He transmitted a very short distance, so he emerged behind his opponent, and slightly off the ground. He kicked hard as he dropped, and landed on the back of the fallen Ciriot. The creature tried to buck him off, but Tymos clung to him, catching the creature by the back of its neck. The next move the creature made was predictable; it rolled, thinking to squash the scum that had tricked it. Tymos pretended that it had winded him, and lay still when the creature turned over, but it had left itself vulnerable, Tymos found a new grip, and squeezed the armour under the creatures chin, and in turn rolled it onto its back.
The creature still fought, swatting at the Tymorean with little effect. Tymos’s force screen took most of the force or the creature’s fists, but its own protection was no longer so effective. Yes, it still wore armour, but without the force screen, it was weaker.
Tymos continued to squeeze, showing no mercy as the creatures struggles became more frantic, and its mind tried to overpower Tymos’s well-shielded mind. The creature found it could not move its jaw to break the vial of poison.
“What a weakling you are,” Tymos stated, turning the taunts of the creature back on itself. “Look at you, pathetic, a failure like all of your kind will be.”
The clicks being made by the creature were translated as gabble. It tried to spit at its tormentor, but could not. Its mind was in frenzy, and its thoughts were fragmented, trying to think of a way to escape or to obey the prime command to suicide rather than be made to talk and reveal the secrets of its race.
Tymos spat to one side of his prisoner. “Weak indeed if you must rely on poison to stop your mouth, and weaker still if your mind cannot block mine.”
If he had to be honest, the images being spewed by that mind sickened him, even as the information they were giving him was of vital interest. Then they began to blur, as the creature fought for air. Tymos felt power building up inside him, and the anger of the Guardians of Peace was like a rumbling of thunder in his mind. The energy inside him grounded through the creature he held. In his head, he heard the voices of the Guardians, not gentle this time, but implacable.
“Th