Slave Line (The Young Ancients) (35 page)

"So... Two of us at least have this dead guy in our heads and so do, what is it Denno, fourteen hundred Larval assassins? That's going to end well, isn't it? Didn't you say that having that many would drive them insane eventually?"

They talked the whole thing out, but it was the puzzle piece they needed. The threat, the one that had been hunting him his whole life nearly, was from them. Insane Cordes super killers. They'd infected Burks with the Rhetistic set well before Tor was born most likely. Maybe even just by bleeding on him or being around the man. It hadn't done anything to Green, of course, already having his own set in place. The new one couldn't gain purchase, so it just lived in the blood, waiting.

For Burks to get clever and realize that he could make an almost perfect copy of himself with just a tiny shot of his own blood into an immortal baby. Then if anything happened to him, Noram would have a back-up. Someone to watch out for them that wouldn't have a choice in the matter.

A slave. Like Burks was.

"Except..." Cordes Blue put in, her pale face looking slightly stern as she stared at the others.

"The Cordes Rhetistics were meant to act faster, so they got into place and formed a second personality, then stayed dormant for some reason. The one in me activated early, when I was only about twelve days old. My personality and current mentality is based on a combination of biology and that template laid in at an early age. Tor Purple seems to be an individual personality however, not influenced in a similar fashion. Perhaps it was due to the early triggering systems encountering a different set of biological sub-structures? That or the multiple Rhetistic competition in his system early on?"

Tor forced a chuckle, not really finding it funny at all.

"So. I can't do anything about any of that at the moment. Anyone have an idea about what to do with the Larval Cordes then? They obviously want us dead. Or one of us at any rate, and don't care about the others. I'm not vain enough to think that's really about me, though... they really did seem to want me dead each time we've met before, like it was a personal thing. Of course if they were going after Cordes to get rid of the competition I could see it... How would they know though? That would make Blue a better target to take out anyway, don't you think? Truer to the initial form, if I understand it all correctly."

Timon shook his head and walked to the middle of the group.

"No. That doesn't make sense at all. What if they were trying to make it
seem
like you'd die though Tor, in order to trigger the Cordes thing in you? I mean, they're assassins and there are a whole lot of them. They could have killed you if they wanted to. Instead they just kind of pushed at you. Teasing you. I mean, I could be wrong, but it has to be at least as likely as them failing all those times. If they wanted you dead they could have just used these missiles on Two Bends and we'd all be gone." His tone sounded older than his years, which got most of the Ancients to nod slightly.

"Possible." Orange stroked her chin and just stood for a while doing that. It looked funny, like an old man, not an attractive looking young woman, but he wasn't going to say anything about it. Not his place.

"We could... Work with that as an assumption for now. It seems likely that we have to deal with the Larval anyway, right after we fix Tor's arms and nose. Though leaving it a little crooked could help. You're a bit too pretty the other way. You look like a girl."

It was a joke of course, so Tor ignored it. He couldn't help how he looked, could he? Besides, she looked like a girl too.

She smiled at him and took his right hand firmly, placing her left on the front of his chest.

"Relax the muscles of your arm and tell me when you are ready. We have to set it. It will be painful."

Tor didn't wait, dropping into a trance instantly, relaxing as best he could feeling his face go slack and arm limp. He stood away from the pain, but wasn't deep enough for it all to go away. He doubted he had time for it. Orange would probably start pulling in a few seconds, so he couldn't brace himself for the pain.

The woman didn't though, just waiting patiently.

"Alright. Go." He said the words and forced himself not to tighten up as she pulled gently, straightening his right arm. It didn't pop or anything like that, but it did hurt, even with him killing off the pain as he was. Then he felt warm hands on his arm at the point of the break guiding the bone back into place. His eyes were closed so he didn't know who it was. When he opened them his mother was there, her face white, but the bones felt right, except for the pain.

He built a splint without waiting, using his clothing amulet. It was handy for it, providing what was needed without extra materials. It was a soft thing though, built out of layers of shield material meant to look like stiff leather and lined with soft cotton, for comfort.

Then Orange grabbed his nose and pulled without warning, which did make a popping sound and started the bleeding again. He had to make a rag to hold against it and tilt his head back. It was annoying since it tied up his only good arm. What if he had to fight someone? What if the Larval hit him with more missiles? The craft he'd been in had held, but the impact had nearly killed him anyway, even with a shield on. It was, he knew, due to the fact that that force had nowhere else to go, since the shield of the craft couldn't take it like the ground would have. that meant it had coursed through his body in waves until he absorbed it all. It was probably worse than if he hadn't had the shield on at all. He was lucky to be alive.

It hit him suddenly. He hadn't thought about it before, but Tor had been a lot closer to death than it seemed. If the meeting house had been a real one, made of the metal it looked like, or maybe even just a different shape, they could all have died. A sense of dread came over him then.

"OK. We need to take out the Larval I guess. We need weapons and a real strike force. Can we do it without them catching on to what we're doing do you think Denno?" This was the hardest part, getting the Ancient to help.

The Larval were, in a very real way, Brown's children. The only ones he'd ever had. Now Tor was blithely talking about killing them all. It was a thing Brown couldn't do personally and probably would have to argue against. Tor shook his head slowly.

"Sorry Denno. I know how you must feel, but they aren't just your creations now and really seem to be insane. Maybe on several levels, we're going to have to act before they get a chance to respond and we can't be divided on this. I understand if you can't help us, but we need information to do this right. If we can at all. If we wait too long they'll probably just attack again. They already killed several people today trying to get to us. Provided it was them, of course. If we miss any of them, they'll scatter. For that matter some of them already have, most likely. I would have with their kind of numbers. Cordes too, I think. I mean it feels right." Tor looked over at the Blues who stood in a loose group, surrounding the tallest one, Cynthia.

Their Cordes nodded.

"Agreed. It would make sense to be certain they didn't present too easy a target. If it were me I'd keep one large group and then send about half of the others off to random locations. All over the world in fact. After this they have to suspect that an attack will be coming, particularly if they saw Purple trying to follow them. Still, we can't do much about it at the moment. We need the Tellerand Ancient, if he still lives, and to discuss the reason why we were all called here, if indeed it wasn't about this Cordes situation?" She knew the answer, it was clear, but was letting Brown have a chance to bring up his real concern. Like they were working together and had a plan to convince the others.

Denno stepped forward, and spread his hands.

"No, it's the incoming fleets. I believe you personally were involved in observing them?"

That Blue gave a single dip of the head and closed her eyes, thinking.

"Yes, we used remote sensors placed in permanent orbit. They are most definitely coming. They do seem to be spread out and in separate groups, but other than that we can't determine much. The lead ships look like the historical records of the four-ten, as you were told, the others do not. That could mean almost anything." She went still as Cynthia Blue took over without so much as batting an eye to clue the other version of herself in on the idea.

"The mathematics of the situation are clear. Beings that bother to travel such distances either do not need resources to do so, or are seeking them. If it is the later kind of situation, odds are that most groups would be hostile if they encounter a more primitive society. We've chosen to hold our technological levels on Earth to a low point over all. We cannot at present resist a hostile attack from space."

Brown agreed. Loudly.

"Right. We need to prepare for war as fast as possible. I don't understand how it works, but the Noram magical system has advanced in recent years to the point that I think it's our best bet for such a defense. To that end I think we need a vote to place the treaty in suspension until after the danger is known or disproved. After that point, if it isn't a real situation, it should go back into play, of course."

He seemed to have the others right up until he said that, then they all started arguing. Tor slowly walked to the dining room, hoping that some of the dinner meal would be salvageable. It was still in the kitchen and was cold now, but he'd eaten worse. He'd made worse and thought it was good, so didn't complain, even as his nose ached and his arm throbbed. Everyone else had followed along, and ate, though not a lot. It wasn't the food though, just nerves and confusion, he figured. That along with the dead bodies in the outer entrance.

The bickering about things didn't stop, Denno insisting that they needed the freedom to act without rules for a while, in case the answer required higher technology, but Gray and Orange thought it might be the start of a power grab, if for different reasons. Gray openly wondered if Denno had control of his own mind, or if someone had taken it from him and was using him as a puppet.

They went off on a tangent, for a long while. Several of them in fact. To make it more entertaining few were simply bizarre. Like Alice suggesting that they try to enlist the entire world into a single military to fight the alien menace. It wasn't practical at all in her vision. It left no room for farmers, mothers or even children. She wanted them all it seemed.

Gray argued for dropping the population numbers for some reason. She didn't explain it clearly, but the idea was to make it look like Earth was a dead world and not worth going to.

"Stupid idea Grandmother Gray." Timon said, his eyes on her alone, as if expecting an outburst.

"We have water and air. Minerals and building materials. Any group coming here wouldn't be after the people and wouldn't be scared off by disease. All your plan would accomplish is death for a lot of people." Tim held his ground on the matter, even if she did look like a younger version of their mother, even when the woman started screaming at him. She got so angry seeming that Laurie finally stood up, something cupped in the palm of her right hand. A force lance it looked like to Tor.

"I suggest you treat my child with a bit more respect madam." The whole thing looked ridiculous to Tor, but Lara just nodded stiffly and shut up about her plan then.

 Tor could kind of see what Brown had meant earlier, about not all the Ancients always seeing eye to eye. It was clear Lara thought she was right. It seemed a real and workable plan to her, make the world seem unattractive by killing most of it.

Then they went back to arguing about the treaty at least.

It didn't seem like a huge problem to Tor and fighting about it was just people wasting time as far as he could tell.

He mentioned it, several times, but no one listened to him. This was their way after all, it was clear. Finally Burks called for a vote, seeming slightly annoyed with the whole thing too.

"Yes means you want the treaty suspended as Denno suggested, no means that you want it held to as always. I vote no." It was a strong statement, which clearly ticked Denno off.

Gray and Orange voted that way too.

Tor shrugged.

"As long as it's not part of a power grab, then I vote yes. They're just rules, it's not like we're voting away knowledge of right and wrong, or can't call someone on their mistakes if they start to make them."

That got the Blues to all vote yes, as well as his mother. Denno voted yes as well, but that wasn't surprising, it being his idea.

Tiera, for some reason voted no, and Timon rolled his eyes at her.

"Yes. I agree with Brown on this one. If it's a real enough problem to be worried about, then we need to treat it seriously and not let a set of largely broken rules guide us." The words made him sound  a lot older than he was.

The final vote was set at four against to eight for, with only Red abstaining. She didn't say why.

Denno grinned, looking happier than he had a right to, given they were discussing an invasion fleet.

"Good. I think we need to start a push for this Noram technology then. We have the Noram builders... I mean, Tor,
do
we have them? I believe you're in charge of that for your Kingdom?" He looked at him closely, eyes focused on him as if he might just pull out or something, even having voted for what Brown wanted already.