Chapter 23 - Retaliation
As soon as he could move again, Tymoros went to kneel beside his children, fearing the worst. He felt rage building within him, directed at the intruders who must surely have been the cause of the deaths of his other children. And these, that he had known for such a short time…
“Ty?” Xyron spoke quietly, aware of the rage in his fellow Governor.
“They are alive,” Tymoros said, his voice tight with emotion. “I don’t know how it is possible, but they are alive.”
“Raw power,” Reslic said bluntly. “They have the potential to handle a great deal. The power they called on neutralised the effects of the disruptor, though that is a less efficient way of dealing with the incoming energy than redirecting it.” He did not state that their own shields had only just handled the load and that the attendants summoned by Tymoros were lying lifeless on the ground. He summoned more guards and warned them to have force shields on.
“I think we should have these two moved quickly,” Xyron warned. “The diagnostic readings I am getting are odd. It is like they are both drawing in energy from somewhere.”
Reslic and Tymoros saw that Tymos and Kryslie were already stirring, even though they were still only vaguely conscious. Both had hands that were glowing purple.
“Tymos,” Tymoros spoke quietly to his son. “You need to ground out the excess power, and let us deal with the intruders.”
Tymos murmured, “Go ahead, it’s buzzing in my head. I can’t stop it coming in.” He weakly moved his hand to take his father’s and the power in him drained painlessly away. He was limp and unresisting as Tymoros lifted him and allowed one of the guards to transmit them to the infirmary.
Xyron spoke to Kryslie, and although she understood what he wanted to do, she didn’t dare allow her power to drain away. She could still feel the minds of the intruders, and she knew she could find them, even if they were invisible. They had not given up the idea of killing her, of killing the Governor’s, and any other innocent Tymorean that got in their way. She reached out with her mind to locate them, one by one, and held the minds of the intruders so they could not move. Five of them.
Reslic saw the look of concentration on her face, saw her hands glowing brightly. He understood what she was doing.
“Where?” he demanded.
“Rear gate,” Kryslie said, her mind identifying one location. “They know they can’t get out near the front gate. Another has a bunch of mutants around him.”
Her sense of the others suddenly vanished. The images in her mind turned to a white washed wall. She heard Reslic giving orders when she stopped speaking. While she was trying to extend her reach, and break through to see where the unspeakable creatures were hiding, Tymoros returned from the infirmary.
Xyron spoke quietly to him. “I would like her right away from here, but she is using her power to find these intruders. It is apparent that she can distinguish their minds from those of our people.”
Kryslie spoke again, “One is in the green house hiding under the herb beds.”
Reslic stayed close to Kryslie and Xyron gave a head gesture to have Tymoros move away a short distance.
“I am also sensing a rise in anger,” Xyron admitted. “Can you sense it too?”
Tymoros turned his attention to Kryslie, observed the intense concentration, and as Xyron had said – rising anger.
“She is drawing in power at a tremendous rate,” Xyron observed. “I think it will be more than the guards force suits can handle.”
“I will go with her,” Tymoros decided. He walked back to Kryslie and spoke gently. “Come, Kryslie. You can help find them equally well from an observation room in the palace.”
He felt the start of resistance from her, as she realised they were making her retreat, but then considered the rest of his words and understood they were still letting her help. She went with Tymoros and one of the guards without fuss.
They went to Xyron’s laboratory, the observation room that Kryslie recognised from her days just after transition. She felt tricked and began to struggle in her father’s hold, but he distracted her immediately. “Can you still sense the alien minds?”
“Yes,” she agreed, abruptly stopping her struggles. “But they are thinking of blank nothingness.”
“Very basic mind shields,” Tymoros remarked neutrally. “There is a technique you might try to focus your mind and make your sense of them increase. Will you try it?”
Kryslie nodded, realising that the buzzing in her head was not helping her.
“Sit on the mattress,” Tymoros invited. He lowered one of the diagnostic beds down to floor level and gestured to it. As Kryslie made herself comfortable, sitting cross-legged on the mattress, he lowered the second bed to a comfortable sitting level for himself. Then he met his daughter’s eyes and began to teach her a mantra of focus, having her repeat the phrases after him. As her concentration on the phrases deepened, he added new ones and she copied him, unaware that he was now helping her slip into a meditative trance. He was putting her mind into a resting state. He watched her for a while after she had stopped speaking and saw the intense purple glow of her hands fade to mauve. She was not aware of him when he stood up, or when he transmitted away.
To the guard standing outside of the shielding circle around Kryslie, he said, “Notify me of any change.”
Tymoros returned outside to rejoin the hunt for the remaining intruders and mutants. From the messages and orders audible through his headpiece communicator, he knew that eight of the intruders had been captured, and twenty of the twenty-eight mutants. They did not know how many more intruders remained on the estate, trapped by the dome shaped shield now activated over it, and preventing anyone leaving.
Part of his mind was on Kryslie, and her ability to sense them. It had been useful until the intruders had realised she was doing it. Then, it had made her a more important target than she had been, though she seemed unaware of that danger. He had needed to move her to safety, and from the way she was beginning to become angry, he knew it was also important to reduce her power. It was as well she had not resisted his gentle grip, or her power would have blasted his force shield, and himself. That showed she still had control, and after her power reduced, her anger should as well. Still, he was unsettled. How would she be when all the alien intruders were found and disempowered?
The search continued, but the estate covered a very wide area. Trying to find an area of distortion – a shielded man – was not easy. It began getting dark.
Tymos woke in a room that was part of the infirmary. He found that Jonko and Keleb were with him in the room. Both were looking out of a window.
“What can you see?” Tymos asked, and they both turned.
“Just the lights on the guard’s dark vision goggles. We can follow where they are moving about. It is too dark now to see anything else,” Jonko told him.
“We saw two really brilliant flashes,” Keleb added. He saw Tymos shudder.
“The intruders have power, like we do. They are not Tymoreans, and it is in a perverted form. The Governors must neutralise it.”
“Kill them?” Jonko asked calmly.
“No – they are still alive. At least the ones we saw,” Tymos told them.
“We?” Keleb queried. “Where is Krys?”
Tymos tried to reach his sister’s mind. He sensed at first a calm oasis and then a flicker of response, recognition of him, and then a flare of annoyance at being lulled into a trance. Aloud he said, neutrally, “She is helping to find the last of the intruders. Why are you two here?”
“Governor Xyron wants to be sure we have no ill affects from whatever they clouted us with,” Keleb said wryly. “We never saw it coming.”
Tymos recalled the early events. “I couldn’t move, and I saw the guards, Lexina and Denlic falling down.”
“Jon and I didn’t fall or turn statue. We saw you go blank, and the others falling and then something hit us and knocked us out. I don’t think we were out for long. The others had roused, and Stenn got really angry when he realised you both were gone and he went running off. I didn’t see you go.”
Jonko remarked, “He didn’t get very far, because we had summoned help. One of his uncles dragged him back. Stenn came here to get checked over, and then I assume he went back to his room.”
Keleb saw Tymos was trying to make sense of it all. “Apparently, they used some kind of local area force field. The medics think it targets the nervous system, and a low setting stops you moving, while a higher setting causes paralysis and you fall unconscious. When the field goes off the effect stops. Don’t know why it didn’t affect both of you that way.”
Tymos turned the question back at him. “Why didn’t it affect you two then?”
“All we can figure out,” Jonko said thoughtfully. “Is it might be because we are more human than Tymorean.”
“So you think the weapon targets Tymoreans?” Tymos considered. It was possible, he and Krys were also of mixed breeding.
“Either that or somehow it is related to the strength of the power,” Keleb proposed.
“Perhaps,” Tymos said, with his mind full of details he had subconsciously noted about the intruders.
“The intruders have power, so they would also have to be shielded against that weapon.” In his mind, Tymos sensed Kryslie pick up on that idea, and try to think of a way to make the intruders turn their shields off. He got off the bed and went to join his friends at the window.
“What the…?” Keleb exclaimed.
Six separate small explosions – visible by the flaming gases – occurred in quick succession within the area of their view. The last one caused a flare of light from skyward.
Kryslie shared the view of the explosions, and the information gave her an idea. Now, the minds of the intruders were no longer blank – they were intent on escaping during the confusion and while some force shield was down. They had planted explosions to breach the defences and to provide distractions. She sent out a thought of the explosions igniting fire around the remaining intruders, and sent the memory of intense pain, like they were actually burning. Then she sent the idea that they needed to drop and roll to put the flames out, or to turn off the force shield that the fire was burning on.
Thoughts of panic and fear returned to her. All but one mind, that of the leader. His mind was full of rage as he heard his men screaming. He knew it was a mind trick, because one of the men was right next to him. It seemed he knew Kryslie was behind it, and sent a burst of intense anger and hatred at her. Then he had to run as Tymorean palace guards were converging on his mindless subordinate.
Cursing his men for being fools, the leader ran through the breached fence, pushing past a group of mutants, to get to the opening to the path through the caverns.
Kryslie concentrated on her father and sent him a warning, “The caverns. Down to the bottom.” She didn’t fully understand the thought she had received, since she had no knowledge of the caverns or even that the estate was situated on a mesa.
As the number of conscious intruders decreased, Kryslie became increasingly aware of the buzzing in her mind. She ignored it as she tried to find the mind of the leader. He was escaping, but she wanted him disempowered, wanted him caught. She breathed in, wanting more energy, more power, to try to blast through his mind shields. It wasn’t as easy as it had been in the garden – she reached harder. The lights in the lab dimmed, but Kryslie was oblivious. She could see as well in the dimness.
The guard watching her reported to Tymoros.
Kryslie concentrated on the sense of the leader of the intruders. His mind was shielded, but not well enough. Anger and rage leaked from his mind. Anger at the loss of his team, anger that she and Tymos had not been taken, had not been killed. He was desperate to escape, to come back later to kill her, and Tymos and their baby brother.
The buzzing in her mind increased, her mood began to echo the intruder’s mind. She was angry that the leader was escaping; she wanted to go after him, stop him. Her hand reached for where her transmitter usually sat on her belt. It wasn’t there. She remembered that the intruders that had taken them, had removed them and tossed them away. She was no longer content to sit in safety, and she stalked towards the door. Five paces and she ran into an invisible wall of force – and cursed. She tried to force her way through it, failed and reached for more energy. The lights went out.
Tymoros sensed the change in Kryslie’s manner, and sensed the dangerous trend of anger, and the desire to kill.
He transmitted immediately to Xyron’s laboratory, outside of the circular wall of force. His daughter was not aware of him. She was still trying to force her way out of the enclosed space.
He watched her, for he could see clearly, even in the dark. She was determined, as she had been when she reached out and controlled the minds of six intruders from within the lab. She had wielded a remarkable degree of power, so astutely and yet it was still only a glimpse of her full potential.
Now, without the outlet to use the power, it was simply building up with in her. She had not been trained to handle that level of power yet.