Chapter 35 - Llaimos Spies on the Ciriot
The instruments in the President Governor’s personal craft, now flown by Llaimos, were the very latest developed by Governor Xyron’s staff. Therefore, he had no trouble detecting and tracking Ciriot air and spacecraft. Mastering the controls of this sleek fighter had taken only moments. All the knowledge he needed had come to his mind as soon as he thought about the need. His siblings had indeed given him a marvellous gift in those few moments after he had grown to adulthood. Before they had filled his mind, Llaimos had felt like an empty vessel; he had been a child, faced with a tremendous task and he was totally ignorant. Then Kryslie had touched him. When the power had flowed into him, he had known what it was but it had been almost overwhelming until Tymos had touched him and the power obeyed him.
“Pyr, in the rear storage locker there are several sets of armour. See if any of them are your size,” Llaimos instructed. Now was not the time for introspection; though he could not help wondering what he had missed by being a child for such a short time. The thought brought a rush of confusing images that he firmly pushed aside. He was glad when Pyr returned and distracted him with the need to adjust the size of the armour.
“What of you, Prince Llaimos?” Pyr asked respectfully.
“I won’t need it!” Llaimos assured him, finding he knew how to adjust the armour but only to a certain point. “I can’t get it any smaller,” he admitted worriedly.
“They don’t make armour for children,” Pyr commented. “I don’t think it is possible to make it any smaller. This will do!” He donned the armour and took from Llaimos a small alloy box that he had found in a locker on the ship.
“Put this in an accessible pouch, it is a force field generator which will protect you at any time that you are outside the ship. It will also give me a means to locate you.” Llaimos explained.
Pyr nodded that he had understood and obeyed a hand signal from Llaimos to return to the co pilot’s couch. Llaimos took the controls off automatic and flew manually.
He was aware of Pyr but didn’t turn to look at him; he really didn’t know what the child was capable of. So decided just to ask if the child knew how to do something before asking him to comply.
“Child!” Llaimos thought to himself. “The child was almost ten– what did that make him? It was fortunate that Pyr hadn’t actually seen the process where Llaimos had grown up. If he had, he would not be so trusting in the wisdom of this Great One! Llaimos pushed that thought aside also and began to hunt Ciriot.
The Ciriot usually flew in groups of at least two, so Llaimos watched, waited and learnt. Detailed pictures and computer-generated replicas where created of the different types of Ciriot craft and his computers analysed the performance of each type. When Llaimos noted an isolated Ciriot ship, he was ready to act. All the different craft had standard defensive screens, more that adequate for engagements with most other life forms. This one was no different. The pilot was not expecting trouble, for no Tymorean aircraft had been seen since that last major engagement. Even if he had been alert, the attack when it came didn’t seem like more than a minor mechanical problem.
The Ciriot had never had a chance to learn that the Tymorean sciences were much, much more advanced than they could determine from their planetary scans. They had also conveniently forgotten the lesson they had been give when the Tymorean ships had first appeared out of nowhere.
Consequently, Llaimos in the President’s fighter craft, watched the Ciriot craft from a distance away, gathered all the information he wanted from it and gave instructions to Pyr.
“Can you program the weapons computer to generate a disruptive pulse set at the frequency of their drive generator and a field to neutralize those defensive screens?” Pyr nodded in anticipation.
“When they have landed, I want a full coverage blocking screen,” Llaimos continued. “I want no signal to go out from that ship.”
Pyr set to work with enthusiasm. His early training had given him more than enough theory so solve that simple problem.
The Tymorean ship had a carrier field around it for the defensive screens and protective fields. The disruptive pulse was generated from a slender rod that protruded from the nose of the ship and ended just out side the range of the protective fields. Llaimos activated the disruptive pulse when he came within the weapons range. The Ciriot pilots had no suspicion that they had been attacked, it was simply as if their ship had inexplicably lost power. They acted predictably and found an open area to land in. Llaimos landed a short way away, his ship hidden behind visual distortion fields as well.
With the engines turned off, many of the alien ships had fewer blocking screens and Llaimos discovered that he could now scan the interior of the craft.
This craft was a four-crew type of aircraft and all the crew disembarked after a few ineffectual attempts to call their base. They began to talk between each other; their voices were a series of clicking noises.
Llaimos and Pyr carefully disembarked from their own ship.
“Remember,” Llaimos thought at Pyr. “While the force field will make it difficult for them to detect us, they cannot walk through us. If one of them shows too much interest in your position, stand very still; it minimizes the distortion of the air caused by the field.”
As Llaimos and Pyr walked towards the alien ship, one of the Ciriot re-entered it. It was studying a computer screen as two silent intruders walked past him to get to the rear of the ship. Llaimos was wearing goggles that let him scan through walls; he hadn’t his sibling’s talent to do it otherwise. He found the Burnfire storage locker and the route to the drive chamber. While Pyr maintained a lookout, Llaimos attached a small limpet like object to the back of the engine control computer. It was a transmitter/receiver device that would enable Llaimos to take remote control of the ship at a time of his choosing. The device was saturated with the carrier force that would prevent its detection. The device also carried a small but powerful amount of explosive. It was now a flying bomb.
Llaimos led Pyr to the storage locker and mentally told him to flatten himself against the wall to let the Ciriot past. The Ciriot had obviously concluded the self-diagnostic routine and found nothing wrong and was going to check the engine manually. As soon as he was out of sight, the two intruders stole the Burnfire and escaped back to their own ship, where they carefully stowed the Burnfire and discontinued the pulse. After a time the alien started the ship again, found it was inexplicably running perfectly, recalled the rest of the crew and took off. Only then, did Llaimos take off and begin to seek his next victim.
Llaimos continued in this way gradually building up his supply of Burnfire and his knowledge of the Ciriot ships, not to mention more and more sabotaged craft. The more he observed, the more he was convinced that the Ciriot were acting out of character in their conquest of this world. The scanty knowledge that the Governors had gathered about the Ciriot had all indicated that this race of pirates usually operated in groups of two to twenty ships; family groups, not a fleet of a thousand. The number of Ciriot ships that Llaimos had observed about the planet was already over that amount. He had spoken mentally to his siblings and they too would consider reasons for this unusual event. They all expressed a wish to know if the Ciriot had a baseship similar to the Aeronite ships to service the smaller craft.
Llaimos had already achieved an impressive tally of sabotaged craft when he felt the call from his brother.
Even as he listened to his brother’s message and shared the knowledge Tymos took from the Ciriot’s mind, he directed Pyr to fly to Tymos’s position. He landed as close as he dared, and once again activated the blocking field he had devised. Pyr remained in his ship watching for other Ciriot ships.
As they talked, Llaimos could feel Tymos’s desire to know everything about the ship; it matched his own. The Ciriot Tymos had killed had been one of some superiority, still black robed but almost as powerful as some that had purple robes. What a wealth of information they now had about their enemies and how much more would be learned from his ship’s computer?
Tymos went off to get new clothes, and Llaimos set to work, knowing that the Burnfire in the ship had died out from lack of fuel.
The chance to download the ships memory banks was not to be passed up. With the knowledge from the Ciriot’s mind, it was a simple process and Llaimos quickly deduced how it could be done from any of the other ships via remote wireless signal.
Llaimos did not delay in starting the download to his own computer, and while Pyr monitored the process from the Tymorean craft. He was aware of Tymos leaving with the mutants and rescued Aeronites, and sent a mental farewell.
Llaimos did not want to stay longer than necessary at the alien ship and as much as he wished he could hide the ship for further study he had no means to transport it and hide it anywhere else. He compromised by creating a portable field generator to hide it visually, and hoped the power source would last long enough to confuse the enemy when the ship was found to be missing. If they found it, it would be apparently undamaged, and no trace of the crew would be found. A mystery to worry them!
It was impossible to transmit signals through the poisoned atmosphere for more than short distances so Llaimos plotted a course to take him close to the Royal Estate so that he could transmit the data to the computers there. He knew those units were running off geothermally charged batteries, and still operating. It was not his intention to land on the Estate, though he could if he needed to, since the president’s ship had the controls needed to raise selected shields remotely. He would only go as far as the maximum range for accurate data transfer, since the Estate was still a target of the avaricious Ciriot.
As he flew in that direction, shielded, cloaked and on autopilot, he let his mind consider the information Tymos had stripped from the Ciriot mind.
That alien had been more important than most of his fellows. It had been an aide to a “Ciri Prince” based somewhere on this world. The Ciri Princes, for the memory had indicated more than one, were not only seeking treasures and valuable metals but were searching for a particular person or people. The designation of the one they sought was “Prince of the Universe” a being of some superior race that lived on a world that was in legend unconquerable. To the Ciriot, this in itself was a challenge; such a race, they believed, would be rich in plunder, the people such fine fodder for their torturous rites. The challenge had done something unprecedented, and united over one hundred of the male dominated warrior tribes of nomadic space pirates.
In the Aeronites, they had found a race they could not defeat on their home world. From the Aeronite legends, they had heard of the Great Ones and a legendary Guardian Planet. They made plans to invade the world that the Aeronites had once been expelled from by such a Great One.
The Ciriot tribal leaders reported to the Princes, the strongest, hardest, and meanest of their race and the rulers of the major Ciriot clans. The Ciriot Princes caused problems with Aerdna’s orbit, and then offered the Aeronites an alliance and help in defeating their enemies on Tymorea.
In most instances, the Ciriot stole their technology from other races, but there were Ciriot who excelled in understanding alien technologies and they were given instructions to develop certain devices. Using a genetic manipulation technique, they developed a hybrid that looked Aeronite and thrived on that world but reported to them. As a gesture of good faith, they presented cloning technology to their “allies”, not caring what it would be used for and also gave them knowledge of the means to hide their spaceships from detection devices. Of course the Ciriot did not mention a useful flaw in the technology that permitted those that knew of it to detect the cloaked ships! While the Aeronites observed the world and prepared to invade it, the Ciriot tribes were gathering together. Unprecedented numbers of large family ships rendezvoused and docked together forming colony ships that provided a base for the smaller vessels now prominent on Tymorea. For safety only half of each tribe stayed in the colony ships, the remainder returned to their planet under the leadership of the eldest sons of the tribal leaders and Princes.
The Ciriot grew tired of the watch and wait tactics of the Aeronites and found a way to speed the process and give it urgency. Their scientists had found a way to accelerate the destabilization of Aerdna’s orbit and this had been done to a point that could not now be stopped.
Ciriot forces secretly followed the Aeronite invaders to Tymorea and set up a ground base on a continent away from the populated first continent. They hid the base and watched the progress of the invasion. The apparently natural catastrophe facing their home world was a sufficient spur to the Aeronites to keep them focused. The Ciriot could appreciate the artistry of the attack which had seen damage done to the planet remain unnoticed and ready to cause vital failures when the pressures of war began. The death or corruption of the Supreme ruler’s children appealed to them.
When the Tymoreans began to notice the Aeronites actions and subtle resistance began, the Ciriot had fallen into the habit of thinking of the Tymoreans as backward and slow, doing too little, too late. The setbacks to the Aeronite plans were lucky accidents. Even the inexplicable appearance of planes capable of fighting the Aeronite ships didn’t do much to change their view. The ships defended well but seemed incapable of a crushing attack.
The withdrawal of the Tymorean ground forces was seen as a gesture of defeat. The Ciriot Princes gave orders for their own ships to attack. Counting on the element of surprise, they began to destroy both Aeronite and Tymorean targets. The alliance of convenience was over!
And then - their plans met serious resistance. The Tymorean Space fighters suddenly broke off an engagement with the orbiting Aeronite baseships and flew planetward, proving that they were also capable of atmospheric flight. From other places on the planet, more fighter craft appeared and began to attack the Ciriot, when before they had merely defended. The difference was staggering. The Ciriot experienced heavy losses and in the stress of the conflict had reverted to their familiar fighting tactics of fighting in tribal groups not as a fleet. The Tymorean pilots adapted quickly and maintained their supremacy. The Ciriot were forced to withdraw and wait. The Tymoreans did not pursue and instead disappeared.
The Ciriot expected further resistance but found none. For some days they were ultra cautious, fearing a trap but when no further signs of fighters were seen the Ciriot soon convinced themselves that they had won the engagement. When no defenders appeared to prevent the attacks on the cities, they declared the planet theirs.
The Ciriot were supreme! The Aeronites may have thought they’d won but they were quickly learning otherwise as Ciriot warriors were sent out to defeat any Aeronite troops they encountered. However, the Ciriot rapidly discovered that they had won nothing. They had found no valuables to plunder, no rich deposits of metals or other tradable commodities. The powerful leaders of the powerful race they sought had gone into hiding. The victims that they had found were of less value than their ex-allies were and even under torture could not reveal the locations of the treasure houses.
Llaimos allowed himself to be amused, by the Ciriot’s memory of his angry superiors. The Ciri Princes had ranted about how they had captured one of the three supreme rulers, but children had helped him escape. And that had been true, Pyr had helped, but so had Kryslie. They called her a child too. How wrong they were.
But what they regretted most, was losing the king because he had been strong in a power they sensed and craved. They had been sure he would know everything they wanted to know.
The Ciriot were aware that the power was retreating, and only a handful of children remained. That worried Llaimos – how did they know that? That was something he should mention to his brother and sister. As far as the Ciriot were concerned, that just meant that all the adults must be dead if children were the only defenders.
It was reason for them to attack the heavily defended places. Their logic told them that the treasures they wanted must be there. The Princes gave orders for the cities to be breached by whatever means possible, then searched, looted and destroyed. If they could not locate treasures, they were to question the citizens until someone revealed the desired information.
Pyr interrupted Llaimos’s meditation. “I can’t get the signal to the computer. There is too much interference.”
After adjusting the parameters of the different scanners, Llaimos took manual control of the craft and checked the shields and cloaking.
“I am going to have to land in the hangar cavern – the Ciriot are not targeting there. I can lower the shield over the entrance and bring it back up once we are in. We should be able to access the computer from there.”
Although Pyr would have relished the challenge of lining up the distant point in the mesa walls, he did not argue when his brother took control. All his experience had been on virtual image simulators, not in actual atmosphere when the weather and winds were exponentially more treacherous than normal. He admired the skill of his newfound brother, and promised himself to become as good one day. He felt the ship shudder as it slowed to enter the cavern, but Llaimos held it steady and landed it in the exact centre of the enormous cavern. He gaped in surprise at the closely parked ships around the perimeter of the space.
While Pyr followed directions for accessing the archive computer and set up files for the downloads, Llaimos linked the wrist unit into the security system and checked the Estate.
Tymos had mentioned Jordan being there, and he discovered that his lost brother, was still there.
“Jordan is here,” Llaimos told Pyr. “Up a level or two.”
“What about my guardian? Is he here too?”
“He is at Dira, in the Temple. Jordan is alone.”
Pyr seemed to be arguing with himself. He stopped what he was doing and was staring at the touch pad. “Could I…talk to him? Tell him that I am well?”
Llaimos nodded, thinking that Pyr might help bring Jordan closer to a Tymorean way of thinking. He opened a two-way, secure comm. frequency from the ship to the security monitoring room.
Pyr couldn’t contain himself when he saw Jordan. His brother was startled at hearing his name over the comm. frequency, and looked around and finally located the screen where Pyr’s face showed.
“Where are you?” Jordan demanded. Relief that Pyr was alive warred with fear for his safety.
“I am with my brother, Llaimos,” Pyr announced. “We are finding information about the Ciriot.”
Jordan manually adjusted the view and saw that Pyr was wearing oversized armour, and was indeed with a man. He studied the face of the man and recognised the ethnic likeness to the king, and to his own image. If Pyr called him brother, he was another of the High King’s get and brother to Vila and himself too. But Kellex had never mentioned this one. Was he another that was whelped on another world? He must be. The only other child Kellex knew of was an infant.
“Is he treating you well?” Jordan asked carefully. He feared that the Tymorean would punish Pyr for what had happened to the King.
Pyr told his brother excitedly how he has stowed away on Jordan’s ship, followed him and met his father, and helped his father. He was more sober when he told of subsequent events, with the Ciriot, but was animated again when he told how he was helping to trick their unfaithful allies.
“What you did was wrong!” Pyr finally blurted.
Jordan was already feeling guilty about that. “Pyr, you have to believe me. Vila and I didn’t know then. I’m…glad the king is still alive…and that they are treating you well.”
“Jordan, Llaimos would welcome you,” Pyr said, hoping Jordan would agree.
“Bro, I can’t…” Jordan said, huskily. “Kellex has Vila commanding the squadron. He has discovered that he can’t leave that Temple and thinks she can get him out. I can’t renege on Kellex now, or he will kill Vila. And anyway, the Tymoreans will never forgive us.”
Pyr’s face fell and Llaimos sensed his misery. “He must make his own choice,” he murmured. “I respect his concern for our sister, Vila, and his choice to help protect those who nurtured him. Tell him I will speak in his defence.”
The message was passed to Jordan, who didn’t respond for a long moment and when he did it was with a terse, “I am glad you are where you belong.”
Jordan cut the signal.
To distract Pyr, Llaimos suggested studying the data they had collected with the aim of locating the Ciriot base. They had to have one somewhere on Tymorea. When they felt they had a good idea of its position on the second continent, Llaimos sent the location mind to mind to Tymos. Then, Llaimos had Pyr write a program to enable them to request a download from the Ciriot ships they came in range of so when the current downloading was finished, they could leave to find more Ciriot ships to sabotage.