The Altreian Enigma (Rho Agenda Assimilation Book 2) Page 17

  Khal Teth walked into town wearing only the animal-skin breechcloth and vest, his bare feet splashing through puddles left by the first of the daystorm squalls. With his bow slung across his body, spear in his left hand, and foot-long ivory knives sheathed at each side, he felt primitive in an oddly satisfying way. His rider’s doing.

  He didn’t know this fishing village, so he reached out with his mind, identifying 1,007 residents, a quarter of them children. All but sixteen of the villagers were of the Khyre race. Having evolved on land, as opposed to having risen from the seas like Khal Teth’s amphibian Dhaldric race, these short, gray-skinned beings made up the vast majority of the Altreian population and the bulk of its military. Unlike the Dhaldric, they had developed only limited psionic abilities, able to link their minds with the machine intelligences built into their starships and military craft, but little else.

  He touched the minds of those who had taken shelter from the storm in the nearest buildings, extracting the information he wanted as he continued on his way. This village was called Trion, one of hundreds of such in the chain of islands ruled by Lord Reiath, a minor territorial functionary whom Khal Teth had met on two forgettable occasions. But Reiath did not live in such a rustic place and thus he was not Khal Teth’s current target.

  Like others of its kind, Trion had no streets and but a single walkway. The glass-like buildings formed a graceful arc along the eastern end of the bay, their colors shifting from burgundy to the greens and blues of the sea as seen from different angles. Grouped by purpose, those that supported the fishing industry occupied the center of the arc, where the lone pier stretched out into the bay.

  The few citizens who were out and about in the storm did not notice Khal Teth, though he walked right past them. All was as he intended. He would allow their minds to observe him when he finished the business at hand.

  Walking up a short ramp, he stepped into one of the waiting bubble-cars, entered the address of the Hall of Law, then settled back into one of the hovercraft’s four seats. The ride was not a long one, but by the time the craft pulled to a stop in front of the single-level blue building, a break in the clouds allowed Dorial’s bright light to shine through, casting Khal Teth’s shadow out before him as he entered the building.

  The unadorned entryway led to a spartan waiting area with three rows of pedestal chairs and a reception station beside a closed portal that provided access to the offices of the local officials. None of the eight who awaited admittance even glanced at Khal Teth as he walked to the reception station. When he came to a stop, the female Khyre receptionist looked up, her surprise suddenly replaced by a helpful expression as she motioned toward the opening portal.

  “Village lord Brensho awaits you, master.”

  Without acknowledging her words, Khal Teth stepped into the hallway beyond. Of course she did. He had commanded it when first he had touched minds with the female. Brensho stood as he entered the meeting room, not daring to comment on his appearance. She was Dhaldric, but a lesser mind than Khal Teth. Unsurprising. There were no greater minds than his. Now she was his.

  Such was the Altreian way. Those with the power to dominate the minds of others did so. The greater their psionic ability, the more minds they could dominate. Once bound to a psionic, an Altreian remained bound, unless released by his master or taken by a more powerful psionic, in which case the bond was merely transferred from one master to another.

  There was a hierarchy. A low-level Dhaldric might be able to master a mere handful of Khyre. The more powerful could forge a bond with hundreds or thousands and could even bond other Dhaldric to their service. The elite who rose to the level of the High Council remained unbound.

  The bond was not without its limitations, the greatest of these being range. To truly dominate another’s mind required that the bonded be in their master’s presence. For an elite mind, that presence might extend over an entire island. And numbers mattered. A psionic who could control a thousand Khyre might only be able to manage two hundred low-level Dhaldric or five powerful ones.

  But any psionic power that went into maintaining a bond weakened the master, potentially making him a target for a rival. The game underpinned all of Altreian politics.

  That did not mean the overlord was the most powerful psionic of all. Any Dhaldric who aspired to that position merely had to gain the support of enough members of the High Council to have a preponderance of psionic power on his or her side, a feat made possible with an alliance consisting of a minority of the most powerful council members. In Khal Teth’s case, it would have only taken the support of one other. Parsus. The betrayer.

  Khal Teth refocused on Brensho, who stared back at him. She was quite attractive. How long had it been since he’d had such a thought? Dismissing it, he seated himself across from her, motioning for her to do the same.

  “My dear Brensho, I will be needing a number of things from you and your village during my brief stay.”

  For a moment, he felt the slightest hint of a struggle as her mind tested his. He clamped down on her mind softly, saw her eyes widen, then smiled.

  “I am sure you will find my desires most agreeable.”

  For three orbdays, Jack had looked on as Khal Teth consolidated his hold on the village of Trion. There had been no real reason to delay that long, but Khal Teth seemed to enjoy getting his aristocratic groove back. The act was nothing but a disgusting abuse of power that left Jack seething.

  Khal Teth seemed to think it was perfectly fine to take whatever he wanted because he could. Worse, the people he abused seemed to expect such treatment—at the very least, they accepted it as their fate. Having arrayed himself in the finest clothes this town’s elite could provide—pants, shirts, and boots that shimmered with the mottled maroon of Altreia itself—Khal Teth availed himself of the three Dhaldric women he found desirable.

  Khal Teth even took perverse pleasure in the suppressed rage of their spouses. Since he had bonded each of these Dhaldric people, their inner feelings made no difference. Having seen such behavior during his years in the Middle East, Jack wasn’t shocked by the overlord’s antics. But that didn’t mean he had to like it.

  Unable to do anything to interfere with Khal Teth, Jack set about learning as much as he could about how this world’s ship of state functioned and how Khal Teth used his abilities to navigate it. One thing became clear quickly: no matter how powerful the psionic was, he couldn’t control tens of thousands of Altreians directly. Instead, they set about creating a pyramid structure, or working their way as high up a preexisting structure as their skills allowed. Rather than manage a hundred of their people, it was more efficient to handle five more-powerful individuals, each of whom controlled about twenty others.

  An Altreian master didn’t directly manipulate those he had bonded unless he wanted to make that person do something specific. Bonding was more like extracting an enhanced pledge of fealty. However, the master would be alerted if any of his bonds were broken. Therefore, the Dhaldric were keen on knowing their limitations, lest one attract the wrong kind of attention.

  Khal Teth had just stolen Trion’s village leaders from Lord Reiath. Reiath wouldn’t necessarily know who had done the deed, but the act was certain to piss him off. Clearly Khal Teth hoped the regional lord would come to personally investigate. What easier way to take over a small region than to bond its leader?

  Jack didn’t approve of that plan, not that Khal Teth was paying any attention to him. While it might work in this instance, staying in one place as you attracted the attention of more and more powerful people would inevitably lead to disaster. At some point during Khal Teth’s climb up the pyramid, the offended lord would respond with military force.

  You wouldn’t have to personally battle another with your mind if you killed him first. All that was required was to launch a long-distance strike from outside the other’s mental range. Problem solved.

  Of course, Khal Teth knew this. So what game was he playing?


  Jack wanted to find the answer before his host got them into a situation that The Ripper couldn’t get them out of.

  Lord Reiath was nobody’s fool. Neither was he overly bold. The fact that someone had just hijacked one of his remote island fishing villages wasn’t terribly unusual. That was the way of things. Frequently a talented young Dhaldric would try bonding his way up the hierarchy, rising until someone more powerful bonded him into his proper place. This was the meritocracy that had made the Altreian civilization into a galactic beacon of prosperity.

  But occasionally, someone much more dangerous decided to make a calculated power grab. Such moves were frowned upon due to their potential of bringing very powerful high lords into opposition. In such cases, the overlord himself might be forced to intervene, something that could shake the current balance of power on the High Council. Almost certainly, no such forces were in play here. Still, a dose of caution was in order.

  Focusing his mind, Reiath contacted three of his five regents, directing them to load a force of one hundred guardsmen on five fast-attack craft and make haste to deal with the Trion situation.

  Satisfied, he leaned back on his couch and took a sip from a frosty glass of chosk, enjoying the warm glow it generated on its way to his stomach. Things would soon be restored to their proper order.

  Khal Teth felt the minds of the converging hostile force long before they entered the bay, his thoughts turning to Lord Reiath. The island regent was not such a fool after all. That was good to know. Perhaps Khal Teth could make use of him. But first he would deal with this minor annoyance.

  “I hope you’re not planning what it seems that you are.” Jack’s mental voice surprised Khal Teth. He thought he had blocked the human’s thoughts. Was he getting stronger?

  “Watch and learn.”

  Jack continued as if he hadn’t heard Khal Teth. “Because the full-frontal approach isn’t likely to go well.”

  With a growl, Khal Teth strengthened the block, shutting out the distraction that Jack’s thoughts presented. He could still feel the man’s anger, but that was just fine.

  He had debated sending the whole village out to meet the guardsmen and their police hovercraft but had rejected the ploy in favor of something far more dramatic. He would meet them alone and in person.

  Khal Teth stood up and walked out of his new office, down the hall that opened into the reception chamber, then stepped out of the Hall of Law onto the walkway that ran along the beach. He stood alone in the twilit evening, all of the village inhabitants having retreated into their homes or places of work as he had ordered. A deep stillness had descended on the island in response to his will, even the gentle breeze having died out.

  The air smelled damp from the last of the daystorms. Altreia’s reflection off the bay completed the illusion that the entire brown dwarf rested upon the horizon, the small specks of the distant hovercraft seeming to have been launched from its surface. Tonight Altreia appeared more heavily mottled with black and red as great storms eddied across its surface.

  He walked forward, wearing the maroon uniform he had come to favor, with his two ivory knives strapped to his thighs. His long strides carried him down the pier, past the watercraft moored to both sides, all the way to its end. Khal Teth stopped, lean arms crossed over his powerful chest, and filled his lungs with the salty sea air. The physical torture that Jack Gregory had put him through had transformed his body in ways that Khal Teth found both startling and wonderful. A body to match his powerful mind. There would be no mistaking him for Parsus any longer. A new god had arisen from the sea, and he awaited his onrushing deniers with a sense of eagerness.

  The three hovercraft grew ever closer, their shimmering black sides reflecting the colorful sky as they approached the pier. Khal Teth entered the minds of the sixty-seven guardsmen and crew members, forcing the latter to bring the craft to a halt just beyond the end of the pier. There was no astonishment on the faces of the male and female Khyre guardsmen, nor for their Dhaldric masters. Instead, they knelt before him, thankful that he did not kill them all then and there.

  A strange sense of wrongness wormed its way from Jack’s mind into his.

  Khal Teth reached out to more thoroughly examine the minds of the group’s Dhaldric commander. The thoughts that he found there horrified him. A streak of light appeared from over the horizon, its fiery trail clearly that of an autonomous seeker.

  “Shit!” Jack’s voice tore its way through Khal Teth’s mental block. “If you want to live, give me control right now.”

  The brightening streak arced toward Trion, freezing Khal Teth in place.

  “Listen, you son of a bitch . . .” Jack’s voice acquired a razor edge. “You want vengeance? This is who I am. This is what I do.”

  With a snap Khal Teth retreated to a safer place.

  Jack was back.

  He dived from the pier and entered the cool water, his powerful legs driving him down until he found the bottom. Counting off the seconds, he swam away from shore. He reached a deep shelf and plunged into the murky depths, his body automatically maintaining neutral buoyancy as he sought to put as much of the shelf as possible between himself and the impending pressure wave.

  A flash of light strobed the depths, followed almost immediately by the wave. The explosion had doubtlessly obliterated the village and all of its occupants, along with the boats full of guardsmen whom Khal Teth had bonded. If the attack had consisted of an underwater burst, the pressure wave would have killed him, despite the distance he had put between himself and the shore. Instead, the blast just left him with bleeding ears and one hell of a headache.

  That pissed him off.

  What kind of sick bastards were these Dhaldric pricks that they would so casually sacrifice the people they deigned to lead? Heather, Mark, and Jennifer had thought the Kasari were the bad aliens. Now Jack was leaning more to Janet’s way of thinking. Apparently absolute power in the hands of a few quasi-immortals wasn’t such a good thing. But here he was trying to help one of them climb back to the top of that ladder.

  He continued swimming away from the island. Whoever had launched that weapon was bound to send in some force to do a battle damage assessment, and Jack didn’t plan on being anywhere close when that happened.

  Jack recalled what Khal Teth had gleaned from the mind of the commander just before the missile had appeared. Lord Reiath had sent more than a hundred guardsmen, not the sixty-seven who had shown up in the bay. And there had been five hovercraft instead of three. The smaller part of the group had stayed far from the island, well out of psionic range, even for Khal Teth. And among those Altreians had been the Dhaldric commander of the entire force. Clearly the psionic who had captured Trion was too powerful for Reiath to challenge directly. Thus the kill order had been given and executed.

  Good call. It had damn near worked.

  But Jack hadn’t come here just to be killed. He had never made a habit of letting people who tried to kill him keep on living, and he didn’t intend to start now. As he continued swimming, he made a mental note to pay Lord Reiath a visit.

  But first he had something far more important to take care of.

  CHAPTER 29

  Mark had delayed his return trip to Hanau, sending Aaden back through the gateway while he remained behind with Heather. The nagging worry that she was in trouble had only grown worse since he had last seen her. The white streak in her hairline was confined to a small spot in the center of her forehead, but the sight of it terrified him. He had done his best to mask his reaction, but she had noticed.

  Now that Aaden had departed and Robby had closed the Earth gate, he intended to get to the bottom of things.

  “Robby,” Mark said as the boy climbed out of his seat at the control station, “would you mind giving Heather and me some private time?”

  A knowing smirk spread across Robby’s face. “Aaden was right. You two really should get a room.”

  Heather laughed and Mark found himself grinning as well.
He had to keep reminding himself that Robby was only nine despite looking like an athletic early teen. God help the girls if he ever got loose in the real world.

  “Scat,” said Heather.

  They stood together watching as Robby exited the lab. Once he was gone, Mark turned to Heather, started to say something, then reconsidered. The large, mostly empty room felt downright wrong for the discussion he wanted to have with her.

  “Let’s go get a cup of coffee,” he said.

  Her right eyebrow lifted slightly, but she nodded. Taking his hand, she walked out of the laboratory through the larger equipment room and then into the hallway that led to the break room. But then an obviously angry Janet Price intercepted them.

  Despite having not seen Mark in weeks, Janet ignored him, spinning instead on Heather.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  Heather took a deep breath, then sighed. “You mean with my dad and the Smythes?”

  “Damn right I do.”

  “Let’s step into the break room.”

  “Why? Do you think a robot will overhear us?”

  “Robby might.”

  That stopped Janet, who frowned but nodded. “Fine.”

  She touched the wall, the door slid open, and Heather followed her inside. Mark followed the two women in, wondering what had happened to set Janet off. Jack’s departure had created underlying chaos, the team’s tight-knit universe undone.

  Janet and Heather sat opposite one another at a table that seated four. Mark grabbed a chair between the two women, all thoughts of coffee forgotten.

  “What makes you think that I need your parents’ and in-laws’ intervention? My grief is my own, and I’ll deal with it.”

  “I’ve just been worried about you. I thought a little social interaction might help.”

  Janet’s eyes narrowed. “Look, I’m stuck doing a job that’s unnecessary while you try to take on the whole world. Speaking of intervention, have you looked in a mirror lately?”