Child of Time (37 page)

Chapter Sixteen: Proof

There was a flash and the feeling of being
dematerialized. This was not a regular teleport. Inter universal
teleports were a science that Drovak couldn't quite understand.
Fortunately Prometheus knew what he was doing. Drovak materialized
in a hallway onboard the drakken vessel. He remembered how poorly
drakken ships were lit. The hallway was barely light enough to
traverse but it helped Drovak’s cause. From what he knew there
would be a single clone piloting the ship through the portal. It
would be incinerated when the ship passed through and someone would
beam in on the other side to take control. If he didn't take
control before the portal there would be nothing left on the other
side but ashes.

Drovak stalked down the hallway toward the control
deck. The clone must have seen Drovak coming in spite of everything
he had done to avoid attention. The control deck door slammed shut
in front of Drovak as he rounded the corner. The small computer
Prometheus had given him proved useful in overriding the lockout.
Like Drovak had expected, the clone had little tactical imprinting.
The only skills he had been imprinted with was ship navigation.
Drovak was ready for the clone’s surprise. Drovak caught the clone
by the throat and plunged the force blade attached to his wrist
into its chest. Death was quick and Drovak was busy reprogramming
the controls. He pulled out of the fleet and disappeared into a
warp frame.

Drovak felt safer at warp while he formulated a plan.
He was sure to die no matter how the mission went. If he succeeded
there was sure to be a long slow death. If he failed death might be
quick or not. The only way that Drovak could figure was if he could
somehow convince the dark lord that he truly was a loyal drakken.
The dark lords spoke the words of the dark one. They were the only
ones that the dark one communicated with. If one of them were to
die, a new one would be chosen by the dark one but its knowledge
and plans would be lost. Their clone sequences were engineered for
maximum intellectual and tactical capacity. Its loss would set the
drakken back for years. Drovak was nearing a drakken home world. He
dropped out of warp but found himself surrounded by hostile
fighters.

“Identify yourself.” One of the other ship opened
communication with Drovak's ship.

“I'm here to see the dark lord. It is urgent.” Drovak
snarled at the other ships.

“We will decide that.” There was hardly any warning
before a volley of weapon fire was smashing into Drovak's hull.
Primary shields came online even as Drovak exerted all his skill
flying his frigate in evasive flight patterns. They had dozens of
fighters on their side but Drovak had lifetimes of experience on
his side. Flying his ship like it was a part of him Drovak used
thrusters and pulse detonation engines combined with the
gravitational pull of the planet to slide and roll around his
adversaries. A squeeze of a finger on the trigger left the melted
remains of a fighter skidding through space.

Thrusters on full Drovak overloaded the pulse drive
while he boosted the thrust nozzle shielding. Releasing the built
up pressure catapulted Drovak out of the way of a volley of fire
and shattered the fighters foolish enough to try sneaking up behind
him. Drovak unleashed a hail of fire on the surprised fighters
leaving nothing but shrapnel. A quick scan was interrupted by
alarms splitting the air with deafening clanging and the shock of a
barrage of cannon fire overpowering his shields. Smoke filled the
control deck as sparks and flickering consoles lit the room. Drovak
discovered that among the few systems still operational were the
maneuvering thrusters.

“Surrender your ship.” Drovak didn't see any way out
but to comply. He piloted his ship down through the dense clouds of
dirty fog that strangled the planet. Clean air poured out of the
ground when Drovak's ship neared a large armored door. Underground
was a huge hangar deck where Drovak was directed to land. Opening a
hatch Drovak was assaulted with the stench and several drakken. He
let them overpower him and soon Drovak found himself in an iron
cell deep underground.

The only other prisoners were defective clones
awaiting re-imprinting. After the initial snarling, one of the
braver ones charged Drovak. Slashing as he dodged he left the other
drakken’s arm covered in gashes. Blinded by rage and pain the other
drakken bowled into Drovak and knocked them both to the ground.
Drovak felt the burning sensation of sharp teeth tearing into his
side as he sank his claws into his adversary's neck. There was a
spray of green blood and a few twitches before Drovak threw the
corpse off him and stood up. He had a few cuts on his side but
nothing permanent. The ascended had experimented with the cloning
process and had accidentally improved it over the drakken process.
He has stronger and more agile than most any other clone he had
ever met. He was able to think clearer than he could remember any
other lifetime.

The rest of the drakken prisoners slowly stalked
around the outside edges of the cell but none tried to test the
newcomer any further. “Leave me alone or you will share its fate.”
There was some unintelligible growling but Drovak noticed his end
of the cell was empty. The hours passed without anyone coming to
interrogate him. Drovak began to suspect what passed for
administration had lost track of him.

“Hey, I need to talk to the dark lord. It is
important.” Drovak yelled at a passing drakken worker.

“A defective wants to speak with our dark lord?” The
sneer on the drakken’s face told Drovak that he had indeed been
misplaced. Hearing the scratch of claws on stone he turned in time
to impale one of the braver drakken with his claws.

“There's was a mistake. I'm supposed to be
interrogated about speaking with the dark lord.” Drovak growled as
he spoke.

“They all say there has been a mistake but you will
soon see the truth. You will be repurposed soon enough.” Drovak
wanted to rip the face off the drakken but resisted the urge as he
began forming a new plan. Being repurposed might not be so bad. He
could resist the imprinting process like he had so many time
before. It could be a problem if he got repurposed for something
like piloting a ship into the portal. If he could only get
something like a guard or worker on the planet he could work his
way close to the dark lord. The Drakken Empire’s greatest strength
could also be their greatest weakness. Their clones were imprinted
to be loyal so there was minimal security and no one would suspect
a drakken of working for the enemy.

“What will I be repurposed as?” Drovak inquired hours
later when several drakken collected the prisoners.

“Won't know until you are imprinted. You will tell me
when you get finished. You won't remember any of this but you will
be fixed.” The drakken strapped Drovak into the chair and began the
process. Engineering concepts and scientific data flooded Drovak's
mind. The information was new to Drovak. He had never been purposed
as a scientist before.

“My mission is to manage the planetary geothermal
power system.” Drovak was surprised by the amount of access he had
been granted.

“You can check out any equipment you need over
there.” The drakken was already off to the next defective prisoner.
Drovak used the opportunity to change his uniform and select a few
weapons from the cabinets. He made his way to a transport and was
soon on his way to the geothermal facility. The geothermal facility
was as dark and dingy as the rest of the planet. Drovak looked out
over the cavern full of machines that converted the heat from the
core of the planet into energy usable by the connected systems. It
wasn't that efficient but it was self-regenerating. One of the
dangers was that it could destabilize the planetary core and cause
a meltdown if not managed properly. This could be the opportunity
that Drovak had been waiting for if he was careful and played it
right. The problem was that if he were to destabilize the core the
overlord would evacuate. If he could only stop the overlord from
escaping before a catastrophic meltdown.

Drovak passed some workers and hardly was given a
glance. He arrived at his sector and was assigned a work station.
From his station he was supposed to monitor the power grid and shut
down anything that was overloading in his sector. A computer could
do this but the drakken print out a clone to do what they don't
want to spend time designing a machine to do. It is a wonder they
ever became warp capable let alone conquered the known universe. It
wasn't long before Drovak had hacked into the rest of the system
and redirected control to the small computer Prometheus had given
him. He still left a certain amount of control at the individual
stations but he had the authority to override anything he
wanted.

His life as an engineer came in useful. It had ended
badly but he still remembered everything he had been imprinted with
including the systems that stood for computers on drakken ships. No
one challenged him when he walked out of the facility. Part of his
imprint had been the maps of the power distribution grid. This
world was a large planet but it was only inhabitable underground
and only in the places that were protected from the caustic gases
outside. The once thriving world had been slowly dissolved over the
past couple hundred years after the invasion. Drovak shuddered at
the memory. He had been there that day with several million other
fighters as they overpower the planet's defenders. The last one had
fought to its dying breath. The planet had been claimed for the
Drakken Empire and they had proceeded to begin manufacturing ships.
It had thrived when it was on the front edges of the empire but now
it was in the center of an empire that had strangled countless
worlds. One of the dark lords had been chosen here and he had made
his seat on this pathetic excuse of a world.

“Identify yourself.” The challenge was growled out by
a worker on one of the structures nearby.

“I'm inspecting a power distribution hub. It might be
damaged.” Drovak shrugged off the insolence of the worker. This was
still a shipbuilding world but no longer on the scale of when it
had been in it's prime. As such the empire no longer supplied it
with fusible material for the reactors. Its sole source of energy
was what it extracted from the planet's core. If the geothermal
energy system went offline it would only be a matter of hours
before irreparable damage was done to what remained of civilization
if it could be called that. A day offline and the acidic gasses
would have seeped into the cavern and melted everything into a
puddle.

The planet walked a thin a line between survival and
desolation. Because of that energy workers had authority levels
second only to the dark one and his guards. Drovak stared down a
couple drakken workers that paused before giving him the passage
way. One snarled as Drovak passed but he didn't dare strike when he
saw the uniform.

The dark lords may have been appointed by the dark
one but they still didn't cooperate with each other unless it was
for the dark one. On everything else they squabble and fought for
every scrap of power to be had. This dark lord had been engineered
for his ability to plan battles and utilize tactical information to
the best advantage. He planned the tactics of the war or wars. When
the other dark lords had learned of him when he was chosen they
recognized the danger he presented with his mental powers and a
fleet. If he had been given the chance he could have piece by piece
seized every planet in the empire becoming the single most powerful
dark lord in history. This possibility prompted the other dark
lords to unite against him leaving him with nothing but this
strangled planet to call his own and a hand full of derelict ships
to patrol his system. He would have gone but there was nowhere for
him to go to.

“Halt. You aren't authorized to enter the Dark Lord's
palace.” A hulking drakken stepped out of the shadows and
confronted Drovak.

“I need to repair the energy hub in the palace.”
Drovak realized as he spoke that he hadn't been imprinted with any
information about the power systems in the palace.

“We have workers to repair our own systems. Who are
you?” The guard drew a long rapier.

Why choose such an archaic weapon
, Drovak
thought to himself. “I'm a wraith, born of countless lifetimes.”
There was a confused flicker of comprehension as the guard lunged
at Drovak with lightning speed. His charge was cut short by the
throwing knife planted in his throat. He crumpled into a heap
before Drovak pulled him back into the shadows. Drovak changed his
clothes but realized his new disguise would only work from a
distance. Each of the dark lord's guards were chosen personally and
an imposter would be recognized quickly. The underlings working at
the palace would give him plenty of space when they saw his new
uniform.

Drovak was disgusted as he looked over the elaborate
compound that was starkly contrasting with the rest of the planet.
The dark lord was a clone and he was imprinted but he was not bound
to anyone except for the dark one. It was his greed that had driven
this planet to the brink of destruction. His thirst for power was
denied by the other dark lords so he took what pleasure he could
from flaunting his power over the drakken he controlled. Drovak
swiped the guard's security pass and the doors quietly slid
open.

On the other side of the door another guard assessed
the situation and struck at Drovak. Meeting the metal clad fist
with his force blade Drovak easily cut through the steel and sliced
into the hand. Catching the other fist with his hand Drovak smashed
his head into the drakken’s skull. The protectorate cloning process
gave him a much stronger skeleton than normal drakken. There was a
crack and the guard staggered backwards. Drovak followed the
stunned guard pounding him with blow after blow. Something snapped
and the battle was over nearly as quickly as it had begun.