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  Orin didn’t waste any time with further inquiry. He located his safety harness and secured himself to the chair.

  The boom arm swiveled over to attach to the car and he could hear the magnetic seal apply through the roof with a snap of metal. Daooth watched carefully as he guided the arm and placed the car inside the tunnel for departure. Once inside he released it and closed the safety door behind it. It took only a moment for the magnetic field to charge and build inside the tunnel and then the rail car was speeding down the tunnel.

  Daooth secured the control station and locked out the system. Hopefully Grod’s men would not be able to disable it when they arrived to investigate. He ran out of the chamber and back through the secret tunnel entrance they had come by. It was time to get back to his quarters before he was missed.

  TIET was shaken by the slowing and stopping of the rail car. He saw that Wynn was already out of his harness and looking through the front window at the tunnel blockage ahead. He removed his harness and joined him at the window. The lighting in the tunnel was adequate to see the large pile of heavy stones that were piled three quarters of the way up to the roof of the tunnel. A large hole that looked like the source of the rock could be seen going upward into the tunnel roof.

  The rail car came to a halt approximately fifty yards from the blockage. The side door unlocked and opened automatically, no doubt under the watchful eye of Daooth hundreds of miles away in the control chamber. Tiet followed Wynn out the door and they bounded up the tunnel toward the rubble.

  “Well, let’s get started,â€� said Tiet as he began to concentrate on the individual stones.

  “I want you to move all the stones at once.â€�

  “What do you mean? Are we able?â€�

  “If you remember when we were on the roof of the General’s compound….â€�

  “Yes,â€� interrupted Tiet, “you were controlling the automated weapons while simultaneously fighting the Horva! That was amazing.â€�

  “It was easier than you realize. It is not in the amount of power, but in the technique for wielding it.â€�

  “What do you mean exactly?â€�

  “I mean that when you use the kinesis you are reaching out with your mind. You are probably used to reaching out in one direction at once. But you must learn to reach in all directions at once, as though you were surrounded in a sensory field and everything within the boundary of it were susceptible to your senses and your control. When these things are comprehended at once in your mind, you’re able to manipulate them, and the kinesis carries out the thought with action.â€�

  Suddenly he was enthralled by this new understanding of the Barudii power insomuch that he nearly forgot why they were even here.

  “When I was on the roof, you were in the dome with that teragore. I could reach out throughout the compound and in my mind I could see you fighting that beast. I admit it takes discipline and a lot of practice to begin thinking in this fashion, but you do have the ability. Of course it’s all made possible by the energies in play here. We don’t understand how, but the fact remains. It was the overlap through the Rift that gave us Barudii what power we had, but on this side we are much more powerful.â€�

  “Could you teach me?â€�

  “Within you I believe is the last hope for the Barudii to carry on as a race. We must do what we can to preserve what is left. You’re young and if you survive this war our people have hope to live again. I want to make as much of a contribution of what I have learned to that future as possible.

  “Now, raise the rocks, Tiet. Reach out in all directions around you, feel the tunnel, the ground, the hole in the roof, even me standing here beside you, and then move the picture in your mind with determined intent.â€�

  Tiet tried to let go of the way he would have normally gone about the task by trying to lift the boulders individually. He began to feel more and more around him. The picture of his surroundings was in his mind as though he had eyes on all sides, and even more, he could feel his surroundings in a way he had not previously realized.

  He could sense the temperature of the air in the tunnel, the rhythms of Wynn’s bodily functions—heart rate, blood pumping, neurons firing—and he could feel it in a way that gave him confidence that he could manipulate any of it if he desired. His kinetic power felt like another appendage of his body. In his mind he searched over the surface of each piece of rock in the pile of rubble and could sense with exacting precision where it fit in the crumbled tunnel roof above.

  He exerted his will upon the rock and it disassembled in his mind and in reality. It moved apart and seemed frozen in a moment of time with even the dust suspended in the air. Wynn was in awe, not at the possibility of performing the task, but in Tiet’s quickness to apprehend the concept and be able to apply it so skillfully. He was his father’s son indeed. The rock began to ascend upward and reassemble into the places it had previously occupied in the cavernous hole.

  Once it was all in place, Tiet held it there but was unsure what to do to keep it all in place. Wynn fused the joints of the rock with his mind and Tiet could feel them supported by it. He released the structure and it held.

  “I could sense your power working within the same space as my own and I could sense my susceptibility to your mind. Was that real?â€�

  “It was real but not indefensible. If I were to attack you kinetically, you could shield yourself from the intrusion and prevent such an attack and possibly even counter it if you sensed that I was unprotected in some way.â€�

  His communications link beeped to life on his wrist.

  “Daooth here. How are you progressing with the repair?â€�

  “It is already complete my friend.â€�

  “Good. Orin is already en route with the other rail car and the explosives. He should be arriving at your location; within half an hour. I had to leave the station because I realized they are monitoring this place from Nagon-Toth.

  “I have been monitoring transmissions from the compound about Baeth Periege. Grod’s forces have already penetrated the city and were able to disable part of the city’s perimeter shield. The Vorn are attempting to keep them at bay, but from the communications among the Horva they are probably well on their way to entering with their main group of forces.â€�

  “The sooner we send that rail car into the cloning facility the better,â€� said Wynn.

  “I agree. You will need to reenter the rail car. Now that the blockage is cleared, the automated system will take control and position your car safely inside a passing cell in the tunnel wall.â€�

  Tiet followed him back into their rail car. The door closed automatically and an alarm sounded to notify the passengers of an approaching car in transit. The computer began its procedure for clearing the path of the other rail car in the system as a hoist arm moved away from the tunnel wall to magnetically grasp Wynn and Tiet’s car; pulling it into the recessed portion of the wall known as a passing cell. The car locked in place as it prepared for the passing of Orin’s car; counting down now from twenty two minutes.

  The_Chronicl-ir_to_the_King

  IX

  ORIN sat uneasily within the second rail car as it made its way down the dim tunnel, traveling at hundreds of miles per hour toward Baeth Periege. The explosives setup, located in the car, was rigged for an explosion upon the car’s stopping and Daooth had wired its trigger directly into the auto sensor panel for that purpose.

  The computer controls for the magnetic rail system would automatically bring the car into the cloning facility for unloading and stop it at a preordained station within the compound. When the auto sensors signaled a full stop it would detonate the care package. All he had to do was make sure nothing prevented the car on its journey and then escape himself where the system came above ground.


  Daooth had sent the car into the blocked tunnel under repair conditions, but with the removal of the tunnel blockage, the automated system had assumed control again. Orin was glad to know that they had been successful in clearing whatever debris had been up ahead.

  Now he just had to keep his mind centered on the tunnel up ahead so that he could make sure nothing else happened to prevent the car from reaching its destination. If this was their only shot at stopping General Grod from completing the DNA regeneration of his troops then he had to make sure nothing would trigger the automated system to stop the car.

  He could sense the other car up ahead as he projected down the length of the tunnel. It was out of the path of his car and he was approaching their position rapidly. In a few moments he had passed their car tucked away in a recess of the tunnel wall. Orin continued to project his mind up ahead. Nothing appeared to be in the way and within ten more minutes he felt the car and tunnel begin an upward ascent. Daylight came into the car abruptly as it emerged on the surface within the city of Baeth Periege.

  He quickly made his way to the front window of the car and could see what must have been the cloning complex in the distance ahead. The speed of the car was rapidly declining as it entered the city. Overhead, he could see the massive magnetic rings that Wynn and Daooth had spoken of.

  A barrier came halfway up the height of the rings and stretched between them on either side. He supposed it must have been a preventive measure to keep someone from inadvertently falling or climbing into the path of the rail cars. Otherwise, there was open space between the rings from that height upward and this would be his means of escape.

  Orin looked over the bomb mechanism once more, then raised his blade from its scabbard and cut a circle into the roof of the car large enough for him to pass through. He shot up through the hole and came to stand on the roof of the car. He could feel the tingling of the magnetic field around the car and beneath the rings. Several items including his blaster pistol flew off of his person toward the rings as he passed underneath them. Fortunately the adomen that formed his blade was not magnetic.

  Around the rail system on either side was a massive open area that separated the main city from the outer perimeter. It was lavish, with decorative pools and gardens of every sort and Orin thought how surprising it was to find such things in the Vorn city.

  He had never considered the peaceful or artistic side that the Vorn might possess. They had been the enemy for so long that he had never looked beyond any characteristic that wasn’t oppressive or linked with this war.

  On the right of the magnetic rail he could see where Grod’s army had knocked out a large portion of the defense shield and had secured the area just inside. It appeared they were making a definite effort to push the Vorn away from the cloning facility.

  Perhaps Grod had already gotten inside and begun the process to regenerate himself with Tiet’s DNA. If any of them were inside, they were about to get a big surprise.

  To the left were several ships docked upon a huge landing platform. None of them would have made Orin look twice except one. It was a Barudii ship. A strider. It sat within a number of Vorn military ships, some of which were powering up to escape the onslaught of Grod’s army.

  He picked his moment and leapt away from the rail car. It continued on without him toward the cloning facility, but he wasn’t watching it anymore. He was transfixed upon the Barudii ship. It had been his ship and had been stolen previous to the massacre of his people.

  It was nearly five hundred yards away from him and he began to run toward it. He could see it exhausting from the engine’s cooling vents. Whoever was inside was planning on leaving very shortly.

  Behind him, the rail car came into the station at the cloning facility. Several of Grod’s men who were guarding the entrance raised their weapons as they saw the rail car coming into the docking site. The car slowed and the men moved toward it, but they couldn’t see anyone through the windows. The car stopped and the doors opened for unloading.

  Orin was closing within two hundred yards of the strider. Behind him came a flash of light that cast his shadow upon the ground running in front of him. The sound came less than a second later along with a blast wave that knocked Orin off of his feet. He tumbled and looked back to see the cloning facility blossoming like a flower with petals of debris and flame. The job he came here to do was done, but now there was something more.

  Orin quickly got back to his feet and turned back to the landing platform he had been heading for. To his amazement, the gateway was down and someone was walking out to see the devastating explosion. Orin had started to run, but stopped in his tracks when he saw the man standing there. Then the man caught his gaze and they locked together in time.

  Each of them recognized the other in a way few could ever understand. Rage flooded every fiber of Orin’s being. He surrendered to it and sprinted toward the man standing under the strider. At nearly the same instant the man ran towards Orin. He removed a blade from a scabbard under the long coat that he wore. Orin pulled his own blade.

  They took to the air as they approached one another. Their ignited blades struck one another as they passed and Orin struck the other man’s face with a quick jab. They both soft landed and turned to face one another with blades on guard.

  The other man staggered a moment from the hit, as he landed. He touched his face with his hand and looked at the blood when he pulled his hand away. The cloning facility burned behind him.

  “So, what I was told was true!â€� shouted Orin. “You murderer! You’re a traitor to your family and your people!â€�

  The man did not answer the charge. He raised his blade and leapt again at Orin, who stood his ground. The man came down with a powerful blow and Orin matched his blade. They exchanged several quick blows, then Orin was knocked backward by a kinetic blow from the other man. He flipped over and recovered himself quickly; bringing his blade to bear.

  “So Kale, I see you have been training. You rejected your people, but not their ways?â€�

  “I was rejected by my father and my people!â€� said Kale angrily, and he blasted at Orin again with his mind, but the mental attack was countered and nullified.

  “You betrayed your father the King! And for what? So that you could join up with the enslavers of our planet?!â€�

  “No! For revenge. What loyalty did I owe to him when he dishonored me, his only son, before our people?!â€�

  “Not your people anymore. And not his only son,â€� said Orin sarcastically.

  Kale struck again and again but Orin did not let his blade through. Suddenly he sensed someone else and quickly evaded another blade in flight. He launched himself up and away and came down to find two more Barudii surrounding him with Kale.

  “So you led away other traitors as well?â€�

  Kale and the other two Barudii rebels closed in on him simultaneously with blades drawn and ignited. Orin pulled a kemstick from under his cloak and ignited it. He did not wait for them to strike, but took the fight to them.

  He struck at one of the two Barudii, while simultaneously attacking the other man with his kinesis.

  The first defended himself with his blade while the man under Orin’s mental attack failed to perceive his own weakness. Orin caused a massive firing of pain neurons throughout the man’s body, especially in his hands and arms.

  He buckled under the mental attack and threw his sword away as though it were on fire. Orin immediately sent his kemstick spinning behind his body at the newly vulnerable target. It caught the man directly in the chest. He seized and fell to the ground dead, as the kemstick fell away.

  Orin diverted between his two remaining opponents, striking and countering as each came at him. He tried a mental attack on the other unnamed Barudii, but found him protecting himself kinetically. Kale moved in again as Orin defended a strike from the other. He tried to mentally pu
ll the kemstick from the ground, but Kale intercepted it in flight and cut through the handle of the weapon, destroying it.

  Orin wondered in passing thought if he would lose this confrontation. The other Barudii man was not nearly as skilled, but having to deal with both at the same time was tipping the scales out of his favor. Suddenly explosions began to erupt on the air field around them.

  They each looked to the direction of the attack to see the army of General Grod beginning to move toward their position. Large war machines were firing volleys from some distance away at the ships on the huge landing platform, apparently in an attempt to destroy those preparing for lift off.

  Orin used the distraction to strike again at Kale, who skillfully intercepted his strike but did not anticipate the leg sweep that Orin caught him off guard with; sending him backwards to the ground. The other Barudii renegade took advantage of Orin’s move against Kale to strike at Orin from behind. As Orin turned to counter the strike, something flashed behind the man and a blade shot through his chest.

  Orin looked toward the point of origin to find Tiet and Wynn emerging from the magnetic rail safety wall and running hard toward them. He was glad to see them, but for a quick moment the tragedy of Tiet seeing Kale and vice versa flashed in his mind. He turned to strike at Kale again who was still on the ground trying to get up.

  He locked eyes with the younger man in that instant, and then Kale glanced behind Orin to the blade that had been hurled into his comrade. Orin did not have time to discern what had caught Kale’s attention. The Barudii blade catapulted away from the fallen man’s body under Kale’s mental control and pierced Orin from behind. He lurched in shock and pain; his eyes still locked on Kale’s face. He could hear Tiet shouting from some distance away.

  Kale looked at the young man approaching with an older man following close behind. He was dressed in the same Barudii cloak as Orin. Kale stood over Orin’s fallen body and extracted the blade from his back.