Child of Time (41 page)

“That took more energy than I had anticipated.” Luke
managed the suits balance as he recommended Kiyan find the energy
supply soon. Kiyan managed a few tentative steps before the
sandstorm hit. He was thrown to the ground by the first blast but
recovered himself and was soon working his way onward. After a few
minutes Kiyan became steady enough to try moving faster. Attempts
at running soon had him tumbling into a sand drift. Flailing in the
shifting sand Kiyan solidified the drift enough to stand. Kiyan
bent the suits legs then sent a pulse of energy through the suit.
He sensed the air flying past as he catapulted through the storm.
The ground approached alarmingly fast until he slammed into it.
Surprisingly the suit absorbed the entire shock of the landing.
Kiyan launched himself into the air again and again as he sped
across the surface of the planet.

Kiyan's final leap landed him on a rocky outcropping
at the location Luke had told him about. He sensed the stored
energy in the scattered crystals that glowed in the storm. Energy
arced to the suit as Kiyan picked one of the crystals up. He felt a
surge of energy as the crystal pulsed as bright as a star. When the
energy stopped flowing Kiyan watched as the crystal disintegrated
into dust before blowing away in the wind. He picked up a few more
crystals before he had refilled his energy reserves. Kiyan picked
up a half dozen more and bent slots into the suit. When he inserted
the crystals the suit began to glow with marks and patterns in the
Assurian language as Luke manipulated Kiyan's nanites into the
suit. Kiyan realized the difference that full energy reserves made
as he hardly felt the effort required to move the armor suit. It
felt like an extension of his own body now.

“What now?” Kiyan stood still as the storm raged
harmlessly around him.

“We need to find out what destroys the AI probe in
two hundred years.” Luke proposed returning to stasis sleep for
most of the remaining time. Kiyan didn’t like the idea but wasn’t
keen on hanging around on the barren planet. Ice forming in the
armor suit proved different. It felt confining but safe as he
sensed the energy humming in the suit. Kiyan felt sleepy as the
comfortable cold seeped into his extremities. The last thing he
remembered was the distant hum of the suit as he drifted into a
deep sleep. The long sleep was punctuated by strange dreams as the
years slipped by. Kiyan was vaguely aware of Luke's presence on
occasions as he neared consciousness before he slipped back into
the cold.

---------

Rinald’s attention drifted as the history instructor
droned on as the group of new rebirths walked through the museum.
It had only been a few weeks since Rinald had been reborn. He was
still getting used to the memories of his past life drifting
through his head. The memories felt like they didn't belong, like
he was only an observer of someone else’s private thoughts. The
most vivid memory had been of the previous Rinald’s death. He had
been a member of the elite sniper squad that patrolled the borders
of the free conglomerate or FC as it was known.

Rinald caught motion out of the corner of his eye and
reacted just in time to catch a soft ball flying toward his face.
“Good to see you are paying some attention. Now can you tell me
about these artifacts?” Rinald grimaced as he recalled this
instructor was prone to throw these balls at any one he thought
wasn't paying attention.

“These are remnants of a civilization that was
thought to inhabit this planet before it drifted free of the
Andromeda galaxy cluster.” Rinald tossed the ball back at the
instructor before picking up a holographic fragment of metal. “Most
of the remnants of the civilization have disintegrated over the
last few hundred thousand years. Over the last hundred thousand
years the atmosphere shifted composition as the sun aged. The
change preserved what is left of the Asgard civilization.” Rinald
tossed the hologram back at the display case where it reappeared at
its original location. He hadn’t really been listening but had
recited information from one of his predecessor’s memories. Rinald
counted himself fortunate that his predecessor had been something
of a history buff.

“Correct, you might have learned something yet.” The
instructor eyed Rinald suspiciously before moving on to the next
display. Some of the Reborn present didn't have any memories to
pull from and all this was new to them. A recent raid on the
drakken base had resulted in several clone sequences being
“liberated”. Yesterday’s lesson had been about the history of the
reborn. Rinald ducked the next ball but it hit the student standing
behind him. Rinald tried to pay more attention to the lesson but
his mind wandered anyways. Yesterday he had endured a lecture about
the accident on the drakken ship that had activated the original
genetic profiles of all the new clones. Imprinting didn't work and
the reborn clones rebelled and seized control of the ship. Years
later when what was left of the fleet arrived at the rogue planet
the other drakken had discovered what had happened. The reborn ship
took out several of the other ships before it crashed to the
surface of the planet. The reborn had survived on the harsh planet
under a shield dome in spite of the constant harrying from the
imprints.

Rinald hardly had time to catch the ball as it sailed
towards his face. He looked around at the surprised faces around
him. “It normally takes years to develop reactions like that. You
must have integrated your previous life exceptionally well.” Rinald
wasn’t sure if the instructor was annoyed or angry with his lapses.
“Let’s move on and at least pretend to pay attention.”

The group assembled in front of a reinforced display
case. They looked in awe at the black statue with the glowing
glyphs covering its surface. This was something that Rinald didn’t
already know about. It hadn’t been here in his last life.

“This is a new addition to the museum. It was
discovered in a solar crystal field some time ago and our
scientists have been studying it for the last few months. To the
best of our knowledge it was some sort of mining robot that is
technologically beyond us. The glyphs appear to be related to the
Asgard symbols we have found but as of yet we haven't been able to
translate them. We don’t know much as the outside is made from
obsidian and the core is shielded.” The instructor flipped through
some pages on his wrist computer before continuing. “The consensus
is that it was left active when the Asgard departed the planet but
malfunctioned a long time ago. Its good condition is probably due
to the internal solar crystal power source and repair nanites
regenerating it over time.” The instructor tapped a few buttons on
the control panel and paused before continuing. “Strange, the
crystalline core is usually near absolute zero but now it is
several degrees warmer.”

Everyone nearly jumped out of their scales as the
blast doors slammed down at the entrances to the building. The
instructor paled as the hologram disappeared when he tried to bring
up his wrist computer. “We must be under attack again.” The
instructor faced the group and began to give instructions as the
lights went out. The room was only lit by the glowing glyphs on the
giant mech suit.

“It’s moving!” One of the students gasped as he began
backing away. Rinald was cautiously backing away himself as the
suit slowly stood up. The armor plating glass shattered into a
million pieces as the suit’s head touched the display case ceiling.
Rinald doubled over onto the ground as he felt something strange in
his mind for an instant. For that instant he sensed the powerful
mind of a young alien.

“Identify yourselves.” The voice shook the room as
the suit thundered an order. Rinald understood what the alien had
been searching his mind for as he understood his own language.

“We are reborn drakken, we don’t mean you any harm.”
The instructor was obviously shaken by the change of circumstances
but managed an explanation.

“They don’t look like drakken.” Rinald heard a voice
that he would have expected to hear associated with the mind he had
felt.

“It's been twelve thousand years since we fought
them, they might have changed how they look.” The original voice
thundered in the room.

We aren't imprints if that’s what you mean. The
instructor was surprisingly courageous in the face of the current
danger. There was confusion evident over the dual personality the
mech was exhibiting.

“He’s right, they don't think like normal drakken,
these might be drakken like Drovak.” The second voice confused
Rinald. It seemed like there was two people talking. A glance
around at the terrified students told him that he wasn’t the only
confused individual.

“Explain what you are.” The second voice filled the
room as the mech suit smashed what was left of the display
case.

“We are reborn drakken. There was an accident on our
ship with the clone generators that reactivated our original DNA
sequences. The imprinting process didn’t work on us so the imprints
tried to eliminate us.” The instructor gave a brief history before
curiosity got the best of him. “How do you know about drakken, we
thought that the Asgard race had gone extinct hundreds of thousands
of years ago?”

“Asgard? No I am a protectorate commander. We are at
war with the drakken.” The second voice was much quieter than
before. “What are you doing here?”

“Protectorate? You mean there are other people
fighting the imprints?” Rinald shared the instructor’s
confusion.

“We ask the questions for now but yes we are a member
of the allied temporal races.” The first voice still made everyone
jump but it sounded less threatening.

“We were in orbit of this planet when the clone
generators activated. I think we were supposed to be on some sort
of mission but the imprint didn’t work on us so we don’t know.” The
instructor was looking less worried.

“My mission was to prevent the destruction of a ship
when it arrives here. How do I know you aren't the ones that
destroy it?” The second voice spoke ominously.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Rinald tried
not to let his voice shake as he spoke.

“So you’re drakken fighting the drakken, Drovak would
be overjoyed to hear this. Can you tell me what might destroy the
ship when it arrives?” The mech suit settled to its knees as it
spoke.

“This planet is surrounded by a minefield. If
anything that is what will destroy your ship.” One of the other
students spoke this time.

“If I succeed with my mission, none of you might have
ever existed.” A seam appeared in the torso of the mech suit and a
cold fog began seeping out.

“If you succeed with you mission what will happen to
the imprints?” The instructor asked the question this time.

“We hope to drive them from this universe.” The seam
on the mech suit split open and released a wave of the frozen fog.
Everyone stepped back as the fog dissipated and revealed the alien.
“I’m Kiyan and you heard Luke earlier. It is nice to finally get
out of that suit.”

“We need to take you to our leaders to decide on a
course of action. Unfortunately we seem to be under attack at the
moment so we are stuck in here.” The instructor motioned towards
the blast doors barring all the entrances.

“That was kind of my fault.” Kiyan closed his eyes
for a moment and the blast doors slid back into their recesses. “I
wanted to see if you were really different and I needed some
privacy for that.” A blue force field rippled over the opening when
everyone’s eyes adjusted to the light. On the other side of the
force field a couple squads were assembled with weapons trained on
the entrance. They soon lowered their weapons when they saw there
wasn't a threat, Luke lowered the force field and Kiyan was
escorted to the council.

Kiyan felt like hours had passed as he went through
the introductions and explanations. When the reborn council learned
that Kiyan was a member of an alliance that was waging a war on the
drakken twelve thousand years in the past, they had to talk among
themselves for some time. Kiyan waited as they deliberated about
what they wanted to do with him. Luke was silent while they
waited.

“Kiyan, we have some more questions before we can
come to a decision.” None of the reborn present looked aged in any
way, probably because none of them were more than twenty years old.
One looking like a leader among the council addressed Kiyan. “You
say you are on a mission that if successful could erase us from the
time streams. You want to ensure the arrival of a ship that start a
civilization thousands of years ago. Any number of variables could
preclude our survival. Can you give any assurance that we might
survive?”

“To my understanding in the original timeline we
never met you.” Kiyan understood their concerns but weighed the
issues in question. Was it really his choice to erase a
civilization for the greater good? Could he live with the memory of
having destroyed the reborn and any hope of rehabilitating the
drakken race even if he was the only one that knew about what the
cost was? On the other hand, the war might be set back immeasurably
if not lost by the absence of the Assurian fleet. “I can't give any
guarantee that the reborn will exist in another timeline but I can
tell you that we have a good chance of driving the drakken invaders
from our universe and winning the war. I honestly have no idea what
might happen.”

“From what you tell us, the rest of the universe is
at war with the drakken. We and our fight with the few drakken that
came with us is but a speck of dust in the cosmos.” The leader
paused before continuing. “Can you tell us one thing truthfully? If
we are sacrificed, can you win the war?”

Kiyan didn't answer at once as he reviewed all the
advances the protectorate had made. They had smashed drakken
fleets, staged revolutions and struck deep in the drakken's own
universe. “Yes, we can win the war. It is not certain you will be
lost in the change but I don't know what could be or could have
been.”