Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) (21 page)

Timon took one of the new shields and put it on, sliding it
onto the chain that had his other shield on it. This one was on a rounded focus
stone piece that was a milky brown color, and kind of ugly, even with the nice
red glow of the sigil. All of them had that. The testing was going to be
interesting, but having at least half a brain left, he decided to go fairly
slow with that. If he'd messed up it would be too easy to die, wouldn't it?

First he just made a very small room for himself by touching
the wall and concentrating. It was tiny, and almost touched him on all sides,
so that there was no room for air, just the shield. If it worked right, then
his breath would stay around him, even in space, and would be cleaned and made
fresh and breathable constantly. It was a lot more complex than it sounded,
because it didn't just make the air better, but could make new air, if it was
needed. That had to come from somewhere, of course, so the material used for it
would be his body. If he did it right, then some dead skin cells would be gone
at the end of the test. If he got it wrong, he'd probably be pulled apart and
die as soon as the field kicked on.

"Here we go then. Once more, into the great
beyond!" It sounded like something from a tale, so he smiled, and then
made the wall in front of him vanish, leaving only hard vacuum and emptiness in
front of him.

Exhaling he wondered if it would be his last breath. It
wasn't though and in fact, after a few minutes of doing that he realized that he
was fine. You couldn't see anything, but he was staying perfectly warm, which
could have been a problem in the shadow of the ship like he was, and could
breathe easily.

Timon just stood there until he was too bored to be bothered
with it anymore, meaning just over an hour. There was a lot to test, so he made
the wall come back with a hard thought and went to find Monroe. That was hard
to do, not that he wasn't in his lab, but because that space had changed
positions. By about half the ships length. It took a while to find him. Timon
finally broke down and just sensed the man, and walked toward him, having to
turn around in half a dozen blind dead-ends in order to do it.

"Timon! I haven't seen you in a while, is everything
all right?" The all black man was in the same white coat as before, but
had on light blue trousers underneath, and soft looking shoes. Without waiting
for an answer he gestured at the lab bench, which had a lot of strange things
on it. "Radiation experiments. The new medicine is working very well, and
those healing devices your people have? But I was asked to find some way of
blocking it that could be used by common people."

Nodding Timon held out his hand.

"My new shield will do that. Commoners can't have them
in Noram, but I might be able to help with that part, if I can make a separate
field. Someone else will have to make the copies this time though." He was
being just a touch surly about it, but Monroe worked out what was needed and
set up a test that wouldn't even kill Tim if the shield didn't work. Not at
first.

It was a simple two step process. He held a tiny meter that
could tell if radiation of different sorts was getting through and then the man
blasted him with a tiny lead colored device.

After ten minutes of readings the other man smiled at him.
Very happily.

"That works. As well as the hull of the ship even. Can
the shield EVA?"

"I have no clue what that is."

"Oh, um, space walk? Go outside the ship on its own?"

"It should control the temperature well enough and let
a person fly in space, and breathe. It isn't perfect though. It's not going to
be very fast, compared to a ship, but it will go about a thousand miles an
hour, at a guess? Maybe two? Less in atmosphere. Mentally directed. I stole
that design from one that Tor made, but only used for himself. Most of the
parts of this are lifted from other peoples work. The only new part is making
air from the person inside in a pinch."

"Brilliant. Well, it's radiation resistant. Who's
taking it out for a drive?"

That took a few seconds to work out, but he let his chin
come up.

"That will be me, since it's my design. If I messed it
up, I should be the one to pay for it. I'm getting the Captain to stop the ship
first though. Is that still Judy?" He said it like Monroe would know, but
the man just shrugged, making it seem innocent.

"They don't really tell me things like that. We have
twenty of the High Servants now however, so we could test it on them? Mage Deshi
has those compression units for you, several hundred of them. Ones to move and
capture dust too. We had to work on the designs for that for a while to get it
right. Otherwise it would have just made a mess however. Clutter the moon up,
you know?"

"Good. I guess. We'll have to teach the new people how
to use them. It's different." To demonstrate he moved up about four inches
and started to float away. Monroe didn't follow him, but he did call out.

"Get me those radiation blockers for my project?"
It was a question, not an order at all. He nodded anyway.

"Yes. I'll... We need to farm more work out. I'll make
some templates."

Sorvee House could make them. They had manufacturing things
set up, businesses that did nothing but copy magic and all that, didn't they?
He'd send a note or something.

It was more work though. It weighed on him suddenly. He
could
say no, but this wasn't about some already rich merchant trying to get him to
make them even more wealthy. It was about survival. If he did less than he
could, and everyone died, then that was going to be on him. There was a time
when Tim wouldn't have felt that way. Oh, he would have
helped
and known
it was the right thing to do. That would have been easy. You helped others if
you could. That was the country way.

The way that he'd been raised into.

Now he actually
felt
it. He knew that it was all on
him, as stupid and moronic as that sounded. As if the whole world sat on his
narrow and underfed shoulders. If that was the case, then they were dead.
Because he nearly was. Oh, it wasn't a physical thing, it was one of the mind.
Of the soul, if that existed. He thought so. It was what he worked with after
all. The field that created life was there in everyone, and what any builder
had to use as leverage to make things happen.

Not that he knew that for certain. Still, he was tired, deep
inside. Not gone, or dissipated, but inside, there was something that had worn
away. Some bit of him that just wasn't there anymore.

Not that it made things right or fair, but that didn't
matter anymore. Even good had to be set aside, given what they were facing. The
Ancients... They were evil, he realized. Not all of them, but enough. Gray and
her clones, Cordes and whatever he had going on. They weren't just bad, or
greedy, or anything that Timon could understand. They were vile, all the way
through.

That meant that Timon had to do whatever he could to stop
them, because no matter how you did the sums, everyone dying was worth his life
to save. Yes, he valued himself more than he did most people he didn't know,
but there was a limit to that, wasn't there?

So if he had to die, work himself to death, or trying to
fight against beings that he could barely understand to protect people that
would never even meet him, so be it. No matter how tired he got, he could stand
for another step. He hoped. That would work for now. It would keep working too,
until he just couldn't get back up again.

The thing was, he could see that time coming. His field was
strong, but his soul
hurt
. It was like everything had been taken away
from him and he could never, ever get it back. Everything that mattered was
gone, and all he had was...

That next step.

So he stopped whining and took it. He wasn't in pain, not
even emotionally. He knew what that felt like, and this wasn't it. Right now he
had some work to do, but later, after he rested for a bit, there would be more.

That was all.

Timon took strength from the idea somehow and thought that
he managed to even look bold, rather than like a person going to their own
execution. It might be, of course, his death, but he didn't think so. Not that
day. Not unless Remy was waiting for him to wake up, so that they could have a
fair fight. As if that could happen at all. It really couldn't. In the end it
was going to have to be very unfair, if Tim wanted to live. That's what he was
planning on at least.

On the bridge he didn't find Judy, who was gone it seemed,
but a totally different Captain. He was a Noram nobleman, it was clear, and
stood at least eight feet tall. Or he would if he hadn't been sitting. The man
wasn't familiar to him, but Tim waved anyway, when he turned to stare at him
from the door.

"Captain? I need for the ship to stop, so that I can
take a trip outside."

The man looked at him blankly, his face not all that old,
but he was probably about thirty or so anyway. Giants didn't age as fast as
commoners in looks. Nobles didn't. The man had red hair, but it was a dark red
that almost could pass for brown in the right light. His skin was dark and he
looked familiar.

"Oh? I suppose that's one way to die." The man
smiled though, and let the words come out softly. Then he stood and bowed.

"Captain Peterson. Countier three. We've met? I was at
the battle of the Capital."

Timon had no clue who he was. There had been a Captain
Peterson there, but it wasn't this man. His brother, most likely.

"Call me Tim. I have a new shield that will let us go
outside, but it has to be tested. It holds to vacuum, and radiation, but the movement
and all that will need to be checked." He sounded very bland, but not
lifeless. How that worked he wasn't sure.

It would have been within his rights to refuse, or call him
a liar. Timon almost expected some excuse to be made, since he was only a child
after all, but the giant just nodded.

"Finally. High Commander Orange mentioned that we
needed something like that. I didn't know that I'd be honored with seeing it
firsthand so soon. She projected it taking five years or more. We can test it
on some of the High Servants."

After a few seconds Tim shook his head. It was a slow thing,
but he did smile himself, after a bit.

"
Everyone
keeps suggesting that. It's not going
to happen, but why is that? How bad have they been being?"

The man let his vast hands spread in the air and shrugged.

"Bad? Why, they've been perfectly
noble
about
the whole thing. Entitled, whining little wastes of space. That isn't totally
fair, three of them are worth their beds, but the rest... It's a dangerous
time, Countier Baker. Tim. For anyone to act like they have been, standing on
title, instead of duty... Let's just say that my orders are to use them to
death, if it's needed. Or if they don't shape up, I'm to find a way to make
sure it's necessary. This comes from Sir Derring, not High Commander Orange.
Their own leader."

"Oh." If the man thought that he was going to have
a problem with that, he could think again. It made sense to him, in the moment
at least. "Fine then. Let's have the first class on how to use the new
devices. Can we have a large room emptied of air? I don't want to lose any into
space."

The man didn't seem upset by the idea at all.

"I think we can do that. Do you want it opened to space
with them in it?"

Timon nodded.

"Yes, we'll need the ship to stop, then have it set up
so we can go out and play for a bit. I don't know how long it will take. I have
a few million of the shields, so after the first round here, everyone can have
one, if we don't all end up dead." Timon yawned and had to wave an apology
for it.

For some strange reason the man seemed to think he was
joking, but he sent people to get it all going, which meant that twenty minutes
later he was walking around with a box and handing out red glowing amulets to
two lines of white robed trouble makers. To his surprise, Monroe was there too,
along with Wistra, the kitchen woman. They might have been joking but they held
out their hands, so he gave them the shields too. Even the Captain got one.

"Wistra, you and Monroe are the last out. Captain
Peterson, you need to stay here, to make sure it all goes smoothly. I'll go
first. Everyone, these are the new shields that will let you do the work you
need on the moon's surface. I'll go over what they can, and cannot do, in a
moment."

There was an annoyingly nasal tone that came from the second
line. A tall thin man that looked to be in his thirties.

"I'm not doing this! You can't just throw our lives
away on some trinkets made by a boy that isn't even old enough to shave. Have
your balls even dropped yet?" He was trying to push him around, Timon
thought, but in an abstract way. Honestly he didn't care about it at all. It
was strange really. He should have been mad, being challenged like this in
front of all these people.

He grinned wickedly instead.

"No, I don't shave, and yes, all dropped and ready. Why
are you that interested in my balls, exactly?" That got a chuckle from
some of the others at least, which told him that this man wasn't just a problem
for people
outside
the unit. "I suggest you put the trinket on and
activate it now. In thirty seconds that wall is going to open up, but in five
all the air is going to leave this room. Do it or die." He tapped his on
without thinking. As long as they had them though, the things would turn on,
when the air started to get too thin to breathe. It was a safety feature.

Wistra, Monroe and Captain Peterson who was by the interior
wall, all followed suit, along with about a third of the people in white. Timon
gave the Captain a look and he touched the wall with a single large hand. After
a few seconds some of the people were turning a bit blue and slapping at the
amulet, and after fifteen they'd all turned on.