James Somers: The rise of Lucin

The dark eyes widened a little as the stranger perceived Kale's goading-his eyes of yellow iris burning like coals of fire upon his pale face. Then he waved the others away. Kale wondered if he might be using telepathy to communicate with them as well. The humanoid creatures around him began to dissolve away like sand blown by the wind. The dark cloud, they had arrived by, reformed. Their leader stared at Kale a moment longer before he also dissipated-just long enough to send Kale a final thought. This is far from over human.

His form disintegrated and was caught away with the ominous black fog as it rolled over and around Kale's body. He sensed pure, malicious evil washing over him as the cloud rolled around him and left him standing among the dead of their kind. Their bodies also lost their physical forms, but were not carried away with the others. Whatever holds their bodies together, he thought, must be lost when they die causing their molecules to disperse completely-total disintegration.

Before he realized what had happened, the townspeople came out from their hiding places to see the warrior that had vanquished the foes. Juli came out into the street also. She walked toward him as Kale extinguished his kemsticks and replaced them on his magnetic thigh-clips. The man who had tried to stop Kale from interfering stretched out a strong arm to stop the girl.

"Don't, Juli, he's dangerous."

"Daddy, can't you see, he's on our side?"

She pushed past her father and ran up to Kale.

"Kale, I can't believe what you did! I mean, how did you-? Are you one of the Guardians? Did they send you to help us?"

"Well I-"

"Are you sent by the Guardians, boy?" asked the girl's father as he approached from behind her. He was a slightly overweight man with dark hair and a full beard that nearly hid his lips from view. Kindness shined in his eyes, yet apprehension dwelt there as well.

"I don't even know who the Guardians are."

"Really? Well, I've never seen anyone but the Guardians do the things you just did to the Agonotti."

"Who are these Agonotti?"

"Well, these creatures-they feed upon our people. We try to fight them, but they become vapor-only taking physical form to feed or fight. They're so fast we're unable to stop them."

"What about other people-other cities on this planet?" Kale asked.

"The Guardians protect most of the major cities. They have special abilities we don't understand, but they are also able to defeat the Agonotti the way you did," Juli's father said.

"Then why don't they protect your people?"

"Very simple," he said. "We aren't able to pay them the price they demand for their protection."

"That doesn't sound like a guardian to me. It sounds more like extortion."

Just then, another man interjected himself into the conversation. "And just who are you to come here and judge. You're a stranger yourself and we don't have any reason to trust you either."

"I am only passing through, as I told Juli inside the restaurant. I just wanted to get some food and supplies and be on my way. I don't mean any of you any harm."

"Just because Kale is a stranger doesn't mean we shouldn't trust him. Look at how he risked his life to save our people," Juli said.

"Still, it's not good for him to remain here among us," the man said. Some of the others nodded their agreement with him. "He will only bring down the wrath of the Agonotti upon us if he stays."

"We can't just send him away," Juli's father said. "After all, he is only a boy."

It might have been meant for his defense, but something about that statement crawled all over Kale. He wasn't a boy by Barudii standards. He had passed the trials. He is only a boy? It made him shudder.

Juli, desiring to come to the aid of the nice young man, followed up with the same intent. "We can't just send him out alone to let the Agonotti come after him." She smiled at Kale as she said alone.

"I still say, you're asking for trouble-you know the laws, Olson Barone!" the man said to Juli's father, accusingly.

"Surely, Master Elam would not deny our people a hero and a hero's welcome," Olson argued. He stepped between Kale and the crowd. They had become eager to brand him a troublemaker rather than a deliverer.

"Young Master Kale," Olson Barone said. "You may come to our home this evening and we will see you on your way with supplies when you are rested and ready."

"I don't want to be any trouble," Kale said.

"Not at all," Olson said for the benefit of the crowd.

Juli ran back into the restaurant for a moment to gather Kale's satchels he had brought with him. Olson guided Kale away, holding the boy by the shoulders as a father might his son. He stood nearly a foot taller and Kale thought that he must be a good half a foot taller than his own father. Juli hurried after them and met her father and Kale at their family's transport.

Some of the crowd dispersed to attend the wounded and dead. The man that had challenged still stared at them and shouted his final warning. "You know the laws, Olson! You know the laws!"

Tiet picked up his supplies and slung the bag over his shoulder. He turned to look over the final jump coordinates as Mirah came into the transgate chamber carrying a small medical kit. She handed it to Tiet and kissed him goodbye.

"All you need to do is give him the injection intramuscularly near the base of his neck. The special Horva antibodies packaged in the serum will hopefully have the same effect on Kale's symbyte organism as Emil's natural antibodies did on the one that was in his body.

It was amazing how quickly Mirah had been able to find a cure once she had zeroed in on the differences in the clone physiology.

"You say that has my antibodies in there?" Emil asked.

"Well, I've engineered them a bit, but basically that's right," Mirah said. "Your father's genetically enhanced physiology has given you the same kinds of ultra defenses as all the first generation clones had. There are really some amazing processes going on when you study it."

"As long as it helps Kale."

"Well you've got to find him first," Grod said.

"We will-I know it, Father."

Tiet and Emil had worked feverishly trying to figure out which planet Kale might have gone to. Hopefully, Draconis was correct.

"Are we ready, my king?" Emil asked.

"Activate the gate, Grod, and don't worry I'll watch out for Emil," Tiet said.

"Actually, I was going to instruct him to keep an eye on you," Grod said. "Be careful-there's no telling what you will face on Draconis. Very little is known about it. Many refugees ended up there during the war, but who knows what has happened on Draconis since that time."

Grod tapped the panel to activate the jump sequence to Draconis. The portal opened up before them. A wall of light quickly gave way to the blurred image of the planet beyond. Tiet and Emil walked through. They had prepared to return with a callback signal generator that could form a portal at the same location they would be arriving at.

As soon as Tiet stepped onto planet Draconis, he sensed kinetic power and supposed it must be his son. Tiet turned and saw Mirah in the portal and nodded to her with a smile just before it snapped shut. Kale had to be here somewhere. Now they just needed to find him.

They had traveled to one of the planet's cities on record in the transgate's database. Tiet had been so engrossed trying to sense Kale he paid little attention to his surroundings and the scene they had walked into.

He snapped back to reality as he noticed Emil's kemsticks ignite in his peripheral vision and cut down a shadowy figure. Tiet realized an attacker closing in on him as well. He dodged an attack. The man rebounded off a building wall nearby and came at him again. Tiet's weapons leaped to his hands, but Emil, with his sticks linked to form a staff, was quicker and cut through the humanoid.