Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) (18 page)

There was a sound that came from the door, which had been
left open. It was Alice Orange, at least from appearance. When Timon let his
mind run out, he could feel her. Not that he was certain the Remy couldn't fake
a pattern too, on that level, but it was the best he could manage.

"Ah! There's the pretty men. Conspiring against me
already? I should have insisted that you have a woman with you, so that I'd at
least stand a chance." It was her own Rhetistics that made her say that,
Tim knew, so he didn't worry about it.

"Aunt Orange. Can we get a crew for the new Lunar
colony project? Monroe has some ideas for it. It will probably mean a lot of
work for me, but I'll live. Most likely." One way or the other.

"We can do that. High Servants? Clever of King Richard,
sending them off into space to get rid of them. Half of them are fine enough,
but the others aren't worth the spit needed to moisten my tongue to scream at
them. Guess which you're going to get?"

Timon didn't rise to the bait, "fine. Let's do it then.
I need to work it all out anyway. Let's call it another two weeks to get things
started? It might be more than that."

That got a laugh from the two Ancients, which annoyed him,
but Tim didn't let it show. Had he said something funny? He didn't think so,
but Denno, who really was his favorite, actually explained it to him.

"Weeks. There was a time when building a base on the
moon took longer. I think the first time it was a few million years? The second
base took nearly fifty, from the start of planning to completion."

Alice cleared her throat and spoke with her thick and
slightly strange accent.

"Longer than that. Closer to sixty-five. I worked on
the whole thing, personally. It was one of the first projects I managed without
killing anyone." She spread her hands, but held them low, as if ready to
fight with the smaller men. She always did that, even when things were relaxed.
"Not that some few didn't deserve it. I must be getting old, I hardly ever
kill anyone anymore. That or people are finally becoming smarter. I doubt it's
that."

Blinking Tim tilted his head.

"It's probably just that I don't understand all that
will be needed. It won't be up and running on its own for a year or longer. I
figure we can use a variation of the Earth moving and compression units to
start with. Create that first, then figure out how to make air and water. I
mean, I can
make
them now, but I have to create a field that will make
it permanent."

Then he got to spend three hours explaining that to both of
them, with Denno barely keeping up at all and Alice thinking he was trying to
trick her, making promises that he wouldn't, or more likely, couldn't, keep.

"That really might be the case, not the trickery part,
since that's just your Rhetistics, but it will be hard to pull off. If I can do
it, well, then it will be taking magic to the next level, won't it? Creating
reality with thought. I don't even know if that's a good idea. Still, we
probably won't really know until we try it."

Then they held up the returning ship even longer, going over
the specifications for the new base. When they finally left, it was six hours
after they'd planned to leave and Timon was starving.

Sleepy too. He went to find food, going to where he knew the
kitchen, the galley, to be. It was almost time for the second ship meal, having
missed the first completely, thanks to all the planning. The fare was plain,
but he ate it in the common room and lingered, getting to see almost everyone
as they stopped for their own meal.

Timon knew he was stalling, trying not to get in contact
with Tor. They'd been fighting and calling up to ask for help with something,
even just for information, was going to be hard. It had to be done though,
unless he could work out how to make mass copies himself. It wasn't that nothing
came to mind, just that what did, making it grow like a tree, probably wouldn't
make enough different versions of itself.

Sighing, he stood up, and walked out of the plain blue room
with its little tables that seemed to be made all out of well rounded stone,
and went to the observation deck. That was just a fancy name for a medium sized
room that no one went into, with one of the walls turned into a clear shield,
so that you could see Earth. They were rounding it fast, but he could see that
Noram was still mainly in sunlight, meaning his brother would be awake.

The milky tan focus stone in his hand shook a bit, as a
flash of anger hit him. It was complex and uncomfortable this time. He was
still mad at Tor, but knew that it might not have totally been his fault. That
stripping away of what Timon really was served Cordes so well, that the
suggestion for it might well have come from there, if not the work.

Tapping the sigil, he waited and after two minutes nearly
tapped it again, to turn it off.

So naturally a voice came then.

"Tor's Bakery, Sherilyn Bonner speaking, how may I help
you this fine day?" The girl sounded chipper and happy. That wasn't always
the case, but normally was. She was Ali's school roommate.

"Hey Sherri. Timon here. I was wondering if Tor was
around? I can get back with him later-"

There was a clatter, and then a voice that sounded familiar.

His brother.

"Tim! I wasn't expecting to hear from you. Is
everything all right?"

"Define all right?" There was a hint of surliness
in his tone, so he tried to cover it with a small laugh. "No, really,
everything is fine. I just wanted some building advice, since I managed to get
kicked out of school without a single lesson. Not that Printer has a good
building section yet."

There was a murmur from Sherri, and then Tor, who spoke a bit
louder. "That would be great. I'll be in my office." Then there was a
sound of movement, as his brother explained, apparently to him, what was
happening. "I had to buy the place next door and add an office since
people keep interrupting me at work. Sherri's doing pretty well, and I have a
fulltime assistant here. Now, do you need me to do some building for you?"

Since that was the last thing Tim wanted in the world, he
tried to cover in typical little brother fashion.

"I can do it myself, at least I hope so. I need to make
field impregnated nano-dust." This next bit was the hard part, the bit
that might cause Cordes to get involved. It pretty much had to be done though,
since he really didn't think that anything else would work. "I came up
with a field to stop micro-plasma, which is a horrible weapon that's kind of
like death dust, only made of energy. It burns people when they breathe it in,
or it touches them, and can potentially kill everyone. I can stop it already,
but-"

Without missing a beat Tor continued for him.

"But the field has to be where the problem is. So,
nano-dust... Well, it's a bit boring, but you probably have all the skills
already. It's basically like making a growing field, that's basically alive,
like a virus or bacteria, so that it will breed and make copies of itself,
directed to do so inside the medium you choose. Be careful though, since there
can be problems with having too much magic in the world. This should be all
right, since it's just stopping a problem. Maybe run it by Denno and Burks
first? Just to make certain that it's going to be what you want?"

Even with the caution, he ran over the whole thing with him
three times, to make sure he understood it all. There were more steps than it
sounded like there should be, but most of them were simple enough, if Tor
wasn't just being humble and making it sound easier than it was.

"What else do you have going on? I hear that you moved
to space? Is Trice going to go and live with you there soon? It seems weird,
you being away from your wife." There was a bit of darkness in those words
at least, and Timon knew it wasn't about him not being with Trice all the time
either. He was more than a little upset that Timon had married her, even if it
had been to keep her safe from some creep that she was supposed to marry. Rico
Gala. The new Baron, after he'd killed his father and mother a few weeks back.
Nearly a month now.

Timon ignored that and smiled, so it would show in his
voice.

"We're putting together a new moon base. A colony
really. The High Servants are coming in to do the work, since it will help
safeguard humanity." It wasn't until the words were out that he understood
it to be a mistake. After all Cordes would have to realize that it would mean
humanity wouldn't be gone, wouldn't he? Though, come to think of it, that part
of the plan was almost certainly Gray's. Cordes had an agenda, but what that
was no one had ever told him at all.

"Hey, Tor... Would it be all right if I asked Cordes
some questions? I'm having a little problem with a Remy, and wanted to see if
he had any suggestions other than 'you're going to die'. I get that it's the
most likely case, but..." This was going to be interesting, since he
didn't know if Cordes, the one in Tor, knew that
he
knew that the
Ancient King was in on the whole plan.

"Naturally, young Timon. What do you need of me?"
The voice was still Tor's, but deeper and with a strange accent. Not as strange
as some of the others, but it was enough that it sounded wrong on his brother.

It was tempting to confront him, but that would be a
mistake, no matter what. Timon took a breath and described the situation. The
one with Remy Seventeen wanting him dead, what Monroe had projected as being
the most likely case scenario and the plan he'd told Denno, about first helping
with the lunar base set up then moving out into space for exploration, to buy
himself time. The only difference was that this time it sounded so much more
sensible suddenly.

Cordes seemed to agree.

"That would sadden Torrance, to have you leave.
Especially since the fight you are having is my fault. I urged him to make
those corrections to you, Timon. I've seen that sort of thing before, the lack
of conscience, the reduced sense of fear. It never ends well. I'd hate for you
to leave us, before making things right with Tor. It wasn't his decision. Not
alone. Perhaps if your anger could be shared with me, it might allow you two to
reconcile?" The man sounded both friendly and reasonable. It was probably
why people had made him King and left him there, for over a thousand years,
before he'd gone insane.

"I'll work on that part. This might... I don't have a
lot of choices." It was too easy to talk to the man he realized, almost as
if it were a power that he had. Even over the communications hand-held.

"Good! Now, the Remy... They don't have a lot of
weaknesses and even trying to die, it might be too much for you alone.
Isolating yourself will at least cut down on the collateral damage. They are
weak to intense radiation, temperatures over three thousand degrees... You know
about their shape changing? They're very strong and fast, but you can contain
them. Think of an elephant. If you can keep one of those in..." There was
a bit of swearing then. "You have no clue what that is, do you?"

"Nope." Timon didn't add anything, just imagining
the giant thin Ancient twirling his mustache. Except he was in Tor's body and
didn't have facial hair at all. It was considered bad form for a baker.

"Let me see then. If you could contain one of the larger
nobles, in a full Combat Rage? That should be enough."

Timon tilted his head.

"So, use a special ship, one with no way to control it
from the inside, and send it into the sun? That's hot enough, isn't it?"

There was an intake of breath, but Cordes kept talking.

"Yes. It wouldn't be the first time that trick has been
used however. You need to have more than one plan. At least seven. I really
wasn't aware that there was a Remy left at all, I haven't even heard of one
in... Well, let's say that it's been a long time and leave it at that? I wonder
who they've been? If they're after you, then you have to know that they've been
watching you for years first. They won't just pick someone out of a crowd after
all. Not for a project like this, doing that would run counter to their
fundamental nature. You should be quite proud you know. By doing this, one of
the greatest killers in history is proclaiming you their equal. That's not an
honor to take lightly."

It was however, one that Timon could have done without. He
did record the advice in his head however, coming from the enemy or not. No one
had ever claimed that Cordes was stupid, they'd just mentioned him having gone
insane after a time.

"Thank you. Well, I'll let you explain to Tor that the
reason I'm going to sleep with his wife is all
your
fault then. It's
wrong to make changes to people without their consent. That got you into
trouble before you know." True that was a lot more people and he'd really
messed it up, but still...

"Ah. That's an unkind thing to plan. Torrance isn't
your enemy. Even
I'm
not. It's for the best. As for the other thing, you
know, I don't recall that at all?"

"That isn't an excuse not to learn from it. Thank you
again, for the advice."

"Certainly, I'll be in touch if I think of anything
else."

"Thanks."

Then he clicked off, before he had to talk to Tor again and
answer questions. There were certainly enough of them to go around after all.

It wasn't enough to just know how to create the nano-dust
field sets however. He had to get the right kind of material to put them on,
and then actually make it work. That would be hard, he figured. Not the dust,
which he got just by asking Monroe to help him make some, but the field itself
would be brutal to put together.

That, he feared, was going to be all his building from now
on. In one way or another, it was going to just be so hard to do that no one
sane would bother with it. He had to have some new things ready to go, ones
that Cordes-Tor didn't know about. Things that Remy had never heard of and
wouldn't be ready for. That meant taking huge amounts of time doing things that
he really wasn't in love with in the first place. He could build and was
getting pretty decent at it, after a fashion.