Chapter 3 - Retrieval
As the van moved off, Vincent quickly settled a net of sensors over each of the children and turned on two monitors. The readings from the net came up on the screen as rows of light – showing breathing, pulse and heart rate as well as metabolic level and brainwaves. He studied the screens and felt stirrings of alarm. He hoped he hadn’t waited too long to get them from the school. Fleetingly, he wished that he hadn’t needed to play down the seriousness of their condition for the father’s sake, or to consider appearances. Taking them out on stretchers when eight hundred human children were outside, would have raised too much attention.
Moreover, Daniel had received too many shocks already, and had needed some counselling and reassurance too. After all, few truly sane Earth humans were ready to accept the existence of real space travelling aliens. No humans would be capable of comprehending the type of power the children were developing either. Daniel though, had begun to see the dangers of leaving his children uncontrolled and untrained and had already envisioned the results of them getting worse. Still, giving them up wasn’t an easy decision and Vincent intended to petition the Tymorean Governors to let him bring Daniel to visit them, once they had started their training.
One of the monitors beeped and then the second one echoed it. As his eyes scanned the readings, he mentally urged his driver to hurry. Fortunately, his clinic was close, since he had to use the slow Earth means of transport. It was going to be a close thing. The children were on the verge of waking again. They had almost completely metabolised the sedative, and he had given them enough to keep a human adult out for two hours. Moreover, with the children’s brain activity still at a frenzied level, he knew the power was controlling them. Neither of these signs boded well. If they should wake before he could get them to Tymorea… he might have trouble controlling them again.
John Goss, Vincent’s driver and general assistant, backed the van up to the patient entrance at the rear of the clinic. This back area of the old house was screened from the neighbouring properties by a double row of trees. Once he had parked, he hopped out and opened the back doors of the van. He knew the routine, Vincent would have the monitors disconnected and would help him lift out the couches until the trolley support dropped down.
“Room 1,” Vincent said tersely, and John nodded. That was his boss’s private consulting room and where he often carried out unusual physiological tests. John didn’t know what the tests were for but he was well trained in preparing the equipment. This trip though, had been an emergency call, so the equipment was all stowed in cupboards and only the desk, chairs and the two couches were in view when John pushed the first trolley inside.
“Move the girl onto the couch there please,” Vincent directed as he lifted the boy to another one. Then he said, “John, advise my staff that I wish to remain undisturbed. I will be observing these children for a few hours and then deciding on treatment. I won’t need you further today, and I might have to be away for a few days.”
John mentally shrugged as he acknowledged. His boss was often away, travelling to patients in all parts of the country. He was, after all, a renowned psychologist. He did sometimes wonder what criteria were necessary for his boss to take on a patient – and in the current instance – what was wrong with the two kids.
Vincent wasted no time once he was alone. From an inconspicuous cupboard, he took out a compact box that sprang open at his touch. Inside was a simple looking device. At first glance, it might seem to be a hand held computer. The keypad, however, had strange glyphs and coloured squares instead of numbers and letters. Vincent pressed a complex series of keys and waited. Nothing seemed to happen for a long moment, but Vincent was used to the time lag when sending a summoning signal to his brother on Tymorea.
“Vincent?” a voice came from the device’s speaker.
“Yes Xyron. I have two Earth children who are showing signs of Tymorean power.”
Vincent spoke in the direction of the device knowing it would pick up his voice from any where in that room. “I will transmit them to you if you would activate a long range beam to the coordinates of my laboratory.”
After a moment, the disembodied voice confirmed, “The beam is activated.”
Vincent replaced the communicator in the box and took from it two alloy devices that he clipped to his belt. He replaced the box back in the cupboard. While he waited for the beam terminus to appear, Vincent pressed a remote control device taken from a nearby table. The signal caused the laboratory doors to lock and the glass in the windows to darken. Moments later, an oval shaped mauve glow came into being in the centre of the room, just behind the two diagnostic couches.
Then when he had moved both couches into the mauve glow, he pressed a button on one of the alloy devices. It was his personal transmitter. A white vapour filled the room and when it had dispersed, the room was devoid of people.
A short time later, the doors automatically unlocked and the windows lightened.
A long distance away, on a completely different world, Vincent rematerialized, having travelled the distance at the speed of thought. He arrived with the two couches in a room practically identical to the one he had left on Earth. He recognized the subtle differences though and knew he had arrived on Tymorea. Vincent deactivated his personal transmitter. Immediately he began to feel heavier, as the natural gravity of Tymorea became re-established in the room. When the interplanetary “long range” beam was operating the gravity experienced was that of the planet where the beam was directed.
The walls of the room, originally opaque, became transparent and then non-existent. Vincent did not have to wait long for the arrival of his brother.
“Xyron,” Vincent greeted with a slight bow in respect of his brother’s rank of Governor. It looked like his brother had been disturbed in the middle of some official engagement for he wore his official robes - a gold cape over tunic and trousers of silver fabric.
The two men had strong familial likeness, high foreheads framed by dark hair, grey eyes and long straight noses. Xyron was the elder by five years.
Wasting no time, Xyron told his brother, “I have everything ready to begin testing immediately. Help me move the couches.”
They moved the sedated children to marked locations in the room and focussed the scanning devices.
“The sedative I gave them will be wearing off shortly,” Vincent warned his brother. He took off the light coloured jacket of his Earth style suit and folded it over a chair. “It was the strongest I had but it was being metabolized at a very rapid rate.”
“Could you not use your power to control them?” Xyron asked as he placed a hand on Tim Ward’s forehead. Then he answered his own question. “No, I sense why you could not!”
Before removing his hand, Xyron’s face took on a look of concentration and for a short time his hand glowed purple. He then placed his hand on the still sleeping Cindy and the same thing happened. The glow faded.
“I have controlled their power, and they will stay asleep until we are ready for them to wake,” Xyron told his brother.
Vincent let out a long sigh and relaxed.
“We have a great deal to do,” Xyron commented. “We must determine if these children are the ones mentioned in the prophecy of Dakven. Ty and Jono are waiting for our report!”
Xyron activated two scanning devices and programmed them to perform a full examination. While the device carried out its program, he removed the cape of his formal robes. He had been in the city of Dira, meeting with the Elders, when he received his brother’s summons.
Each device scanned the patient a number of times, using different parameters for successive passes. Then it touched the patient once, but from that contact, Xyron obtained complete physiological information on his patients. Then for a time the brothers analysed the data. They looked at everything even the basic cell structure and genetic pattern. Only when they had considered every detail, did Xyron call a conference with the other Governors. It was irrelevant that it was then in the middle of the Tymorean night. Their findings were startling.
Before they left, Xyron activated an invisible wall of force to surround the sleeping children. The scanners would alert Xyron of any changes to their condition. He was taking no chances with the newcomers.