Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) (30 page)

So one of the clones.

One that was close enough to Tor, or at least Lairdgren
school to have a communications device. They weren't wide spread, after all.
About one in five of the students at one school had them. True, it might have
been stolen from there, but he had no proof of that at all. It did mean he knew
where to look next, if he could hide things well enough. Not that seeing what
Tor was up to wouldn't be a good plan. He might still be in the Capital though.

Timon rallied, faking his way through the talk, his voice
suddenly cheery enough that people froze and stared at him, as if he were the
insane one and not the person on the other end of the device.

"Ah? Haven't you heard? If you get too close to taking
out the rest of us, the plan is to take out the whole planet. The only way you
win is if you manage to survive. You won't be winning, even if the rest of us
die." That was the Monroe plan, wasn't it?

It got a chuckle in return.

"Oh, big words. How are you going to do that? Use your
little explosive devices to stir up some dust?"

Kolb moved in next to him, standing, his face looking more
fierce than Timon had ever seen it.

"We have devices that are the equivalent of ten
thousand forty kiloton bombs per hour.
All
they can do is destroy the
world, but if it comes to it, that will be the last thing I do."

There was silence for a moment, and then a rather happy
sound came.

"Little brother! So good to hear from you. I noticed
that you aren't half as savvy as you think, amazingly enough. I've been right
there with you, in your own classes, for years now and you never even noticed.
Tsk. Very shoddy work on your part. I even have my own face. True, younger than
you might recall, since you weren't alive when I looked like this, but I did
keep wondering if you'd pick up on it."

Kolb clenched his jaw and looked enraged, but only for a
half second. Then he smiled. It was a thin lipped sneer really. The kind of
thing that Timon thought few really lived through having directed at them.

"Mitchell?" It was clear that it wasn't a guess
really. More a shocked realization.

"
Very
good! Now, no need to hurry back, I'm just
going to be moving along now anyway. I won't even take any prisoners. You don't
really think that Tor's explosive device is still any good, do you? He told me
about it. I visit him regularly you know, and have for
years
. He thinks
of me like a brother in fact." The boy, who was probably a man, if a young
one, given his being at the school for years, didn't bother to sound smarmy
about it. No his tone was just matter of fact.

Timon rolled his eyes.

"Well, Terek, I suggest you run. Tor's weapon may not
be around, but I can make more. Millions of them if I need to. The only choice
you all have is to surrender. Nothing else will save you."

The Cordes clone snorted.

"Perhaps, but giving up won't either. Are you really
going to destroy the whole world, just because you and some vermin can't live
on it? That's hardly sporting of you."

"I'm hardly sporting at all. To answer your question
though, yes. I'll destroy it all, rather than let you have it. I would have
thought that your people would have worked that out already. The Larval
almost
had it, but they failed at the end. It was a flaw in their nature, tainted as
they were by madness. But you, you and granny Gray, you know who I am, don't
you? What I am?" Tim smiled, his lips moving, but his eyes staying dark
and cold.

Trice touched his shoulder, but didn't speak. There wasn't a
lot of use she could say after all.

Cordes seemed to suck air in between his teeth.

"No, sorry, I don't think I follow you. Who are you? The
Great Unknown factor?"

Timon laughed.

"And here you were starting to sound
stupid
. The
Larval almost got the idea, they just missed by a fraction, thinking it was Tor.
Remy Seventeen understood it, but you, one of the greatest Kings ever to have
lived and my own grandmother, you can't understand it at all.
I'm
the
thing you didn't account for. The end of all life. The end of the very world
itself. If you don't surrender now, or at least stop what you're doing, then
you all die, and nothing can save you." There was a bit of silence then,
but just as the boy on the other end was going to try for a no doubt witty
rejoinder, Tim cut him off.

"
No
. I am the death of the world. There is no
other option. Unless you back off. Is that understood? There will be no further
warnings."

Then he cut the connection with a slap.

Doris moved to him and gave him a hug, but didn't speak and
Kolb patted his shoulder with a large and callused hand. Even Trice didn't say
anything which just left Mags.

"Do you think that will stop them? Some words?"

Timon shook a bit, trance state or not. It had just been too
big of a day. The deaths of all the people he hadn't even tried to help
wouldn't hit until later. Probably in his sleep.

"No, I don't. I don't even think that the fact that
I'll do exactly what I just said will stop them. We need to be ready for a real
fight now."

After a bit, Kolb slapped the bulkhead, which only made a
light thump.

"It wouldn't hurt to catch that little pain in the ass
Mitchell too. I knew he had too much skill to be that much of a waste all the
time. He moved too well, when he wasn't acting like someone had stolen half his
brain."

It wasn't going to happen though. They had to find a place
for the people in the ship first. They had a lot. More than he'd figured on, by
about ten or twenty times. The thing there was that no one, not even the government
of Austra, their own homeland, knew what to do with them. They didn't have a
place, and...

Well, it surprised him, but when it came down to it, the
people of Austra opened their own homes to the dispossessed. They were normally
more selfish than that. Or he'd thought so. Clearly he owed them all an apology,
because when it came to this, every single one of them stepped up instantly. He
could do that later though, after they all lived.

The colony wasn't even close to ready yet, so that was out,
as far as extra housing went. It was a shame too, since they were going to need
to get as many people to safety as possible, so they didn't lose everyone. It
was a crushing thought. The kind of dismal thing that no one really had to
consider, or at least they
shouldn't
ever have to. At any moment they
could all die. Worse really, no matter what they did, most would, over the next
years, if they didn't figure something out fast.

The Others had seen to that.

Timon really wanted to curl up and sleep. There was no way
for him to run from it all, and he was really afraid that in the end, he might
well end up being something other than a businessman. At the rate he was going,
he might end up as the planet's executioner.

Sucking in a big breath, he called Denno and arranged a
place to drop his load of refugees. It took hours, but in the end he stood at
the bottom of the stairway that had been created and waved at people, until a
group of them gathered round. Then, bellowing, he made a speech. It probably
wasn't a very good one, but about ten thousand people held up their hand-helds
and took his words and image down. It was just habit for them, he realized. It
wasn't good or bad, they simply shared whatever happened, and didn't know what
else to do, even in a crisis.

"As you know, there was an attack off the West coast of
this land today. What you may not know is that the lands of Soam and Afrak were
hit first. A choice was made, to help you, since we could get word to you in
time. There is a cost for this, if you're willing to pay it. A cost that no
person has a right to ask of another, but that must be paid, if the world is to
survive.

Any man, woman or child, without regards to age, is asked to
join us in finding and punishing the men and women that did this to us. They
didn't just kill your friends, your family, or take your world from you in
spirit, but in
truth
. This attack was designed to rip at the very fabric
of the world and destroy it, slowly, over the next years. To make it difficult,
or perhaps impossible for humanity to continue to exist.

We can survive this, but only by pulling together. Only by
standing side by side and
making
it happen. If you come with me, I can't
promise you ease or comfort. You certainly won't have gold or riches from it.
All I can promise you is that spending your life with us in this task will
potentially buy the lives of hundreds, or thousands of others.

If you come with me this day, you may die. I won't lie to
you about that. But our very world lie in the balance. So choose well."

Then he stopped, not certain if anyone would even understand
him. The words had flowed from his lips, but it might all have been so much...
noise
.
Honestly he couldn't tell at all. It wasn't until about a minute later,
everyone just standing there, that a very old woman, who was probably close to
ninety, if she were a day, hobbled to the front of the crowd, and started to
climb back into the ship, right then.

It was probably the shame of being showed up, but almost
everyone under thirty started doing the same then, including a group of kids
that were handing off little babies to strangers that weren't going. Some of
them were barely babies themselves.

That was literal too, he saw, but Timon didn't send them
away. One of those tikes might be the one that saved them all, and he'd be
damned if he were going to throw them away for being too young or short.

They didn't get everyone, but he had a good ten thousand
fighters in his ship when he took off. It was Kolb that called him on it,
pointing out the obvious.

"What do you think they can do?"

"What we
all
can, of course. Die. Trice, get
King Richard on for me, if you can?" He made himself sound polite at
least. It was hard at the moment, but he didn't have a lot of choice as to
where to take them all. Not if they were going to be armed and given weapons.
Food too. They needed a whole lot of that.

After a while Trice murmured in his ear.

"I explained, but..."

"Good. King Richard? I have ten thousand warriors that
need training. I'll outfit them, but we need someone to do the work. To teach
them. Can I have the men and women from your Flight Training center?"

"Ah, I..." It wasn't really like that man to hedge
and hesitate, but after a moment, there was a harsh female voice. Queen
Constance. Timon got ready to be taken to task for what he was planning. A
thousand arguments came into his mind even as she spoke the first words.

"That sounds reasonable. These men and women have lost
everything. For us to not take them in now would be... Unconscionable. We'll do
whatever we can for them, even if that means putting weapons in their hands,
then we will."

So, for what was about the third time in their shared
history, his Aunt was actually on his side. More, this was about the first time
she actually seemed to really mean it.

From further back in the chamber a deep voice rumbled. Count
Peterson, Timon thought, given the words. He was the one in charge of the
Flight Training school for the Military after all.

"We stand ready to serve, Sire." The man was
simple, in a way. Not dumb, just direct and prone to thinking in black and
white. It made him easy to be around, compared to most of the nobles Timon had
met.

He was also the King's son-in-law. The simple words had
impact, coming from that source.

From the back Mags called out, tearing up a little.

"I'll help train them too, if Tim can get them
outfitted, like he said."

"I can. I have to attend to a few things first, but
after that, I'll have them set inside three weeks. Modern shield and weapons.
Magical." It was about the worst plan ever, but he'd do it.

The real problem didn't come until about four hours later,
when not only did Mags' ship set down to deliver up a prize of bodies, but ten
others did too. It wasn't just a hundred thousand people, but closer to a half
million, and they weren't all old or babies either. They all looked scared, or
in shock, but there were some that would make good warriors, he thought.

As soon as they landed in the Wildlands, which were
technically owned by Tor, for the next ninety-nine years or so at least, he
flew off, with Trice and Kolb hard on his heels. Or at least behind him. Kolb
had the old style flying rig still, so lagged, but Timon didn't need to go
inside the Palace or even the Capital at all. He was just getting his sister,
since he really wanted her to talk him out of confronting Tor.

That was all emotion though, on his part. After all was
done, Tor was going to have to be stopped. Probably that day, and honestly,
Timon didn't know if he could do it. Even with Kolb's help. Trice... It would
be best if she didn't go with them, he knew. She loved Tor so much that there
was probably no way she could separate Cordes from him. Or he thought so
anyway.

When they landed outside the gate, Tiera was already waiting
for them, a fast craft set up and glowing pink. It was a strange choice but it
didn't matter and at least would be easy to see. Her colors were green and sky
blue though. Then, this wasn't about that was it? They had to take Tor off
guard, at least a bit.

Patricia looked at them all and made a face.

"You know where some of these people are, don't you?
Our enemies. That's what this is about." Before Tim could explain at all,
she went on. "That Cordes on the device, the clone, he mentioned visiting
Tor. I know that he has one of those memory things in his head, a Rhetistical
version of Cordes. Is... Tor with them?"