Dragonstar Destiny (26 page)

“LOOK!”
said Mikaela Lindstrom. “Here they come!”

She was pointing, and Takamura followed the direction of her finger.

Coming through some vegetation, from the direction of an outcrop of rocks, were three figures.

One was Becky Thalberg, and Takamura’s heart seemed to skip a beat as he saw that she had her arm around Phineas Kemp. But then he saw that it was not a gesture of affection: she was just helping him along.

The other figure, as it neared was more shocking.

But then Takamura remembered what Kii had said about Timothy Linden, and that explained this strange thing. It was the “adult” form of Linden.

This would take some getting used to ... Becky was going to become ... become like
that?

“Hey!” cried Barkham, waving at them. “Hey, over here!”

“I think they know where they’re going,” said Mikaela.

“Hold on a second,” said Barkham. “Oh my God, look! The Enforcers! They’re on their way back!”

Takamura’s head snapped to the direction that Barkham was pointing. Sure enough, two force-field spheres were bobbling along at a good clip just within view.

“How’s that anti-force-field belt of yours holding up, Kii?” Takamura asked.

“It will be adequate. But your comrades must hurry, I fear.”

He pointed. “The life-fluid of the Enforcer has indeed attracted the attention of the predators in the area, as you predicted. Look.”

A pack of allosaurs. Charging their way.

Takamura did not even have to think about his next action. He turned toward Becky and Phineas and Linden and he yelled, “Run! Run for your lives.”

But they had seen the dinosaurs as well; they had indeed increased their paces.

The thirty seconds it took for them to reach the hatchway seemed to stretch out an eternity. Even as they stumbled into the hatch, Takamura cried out. “Kii! Hit the device.”

The Enforcers were less then a hundred meters away.

Kii touched his button as Barkham fired into the group of dinosaurs coming their way, hoping to fend them off.

Barkham’s shots had no effect, but Kii’s device had a profound one: the force-field balls stopped as though they had hit a wall. They sparked and turned an angry red.

Then they fizzled away.

The creatures inside tumbled to the ground, screeching horribly.

All this had not been lost upon the allosaurs. They halted, then dived toward what appeared to be easier prey.

The screams of the Enforcers were awful to hear as the dinosaurs tore them apart.

“Hurry,” said Kii. “Go through the hatch. Get into the ship.” He was taking off his belt.

The others obeyed instantly, but Takamura lingered. “What are you doing, Kii?” he demanded.

“I am activating this device so that it will affect any other arriving Enforcers. I will place it here, so.” He put it down near the hatchway. “This will keep the scum spawn away, for a while, and it will give us time to separate the vessel. Now, comrade Takamura, I suggest that we—what is your phrase? —get the hell outa here.”

Takamura nodded, then scrambled after Kii as the creature darted through the hatchway.

* * *

“What the hell is wrong?” Barkham demanded.

“You’ve got to be patient,” said Takamura. “Kii has already told us, he’s not exactly a licensed Star Pilot. He’s going to have to wing this, so to speak. But first, he has to absorb whatever information he can.”

“We’ve got to hurry,” said Barkham, “before they somehow signal other starships to blast us!”

“I’m sure that Kii is more than aware of the situation,” said Jakes. “This is a damned complex system, let me tell you! I’ve been looking it over for a while.”

The alien had connected himself to the control board with all manner of filaments and headgear. Kii seemed to be in some sort of trance now, his eyes closed, his body barely moving.

Kemp had been taken to a room to lie down; he was in bad shape. But Becky was here, and so was the strange new form of Timothy Linden.

“Yes,” said Linden, surveying them all with his spooky eyes. “Yes, it must be soon ... And it will be soon. I sense that Kii has completed his grappling with the concepts and is even now engaging the operating mechanisms properly.”

“How do you know all this shit?” Barkham demanded.

“I am different now,” answered Linden.

“I’ll say.”

“It’s what is happening to Phineas, Barkham,” said Becky.

“And it’s what will happen to me. I’m afraid you’re just going to have to adjust to it.”

“Well, I don’t have to like it, do I?”

“You must realize, James Barkham, that the transformation that I have undergone is something that could happen to you as well, with the proper dose of radiation. All of humanity is neotenous. All of us have the capability. It shall be, I hope, the great equalizer. It will bring us all together.”

“And that’s what’s going to have to happen, from the sounds of it,” said Takamura. “That is, if Kii is right, and the Enforcers are going to want to blow us all right out of the universe.”

“Look, right now all I want is to blow this joint, if you know what I mean,” said Barkham. He jabbed a forefinger at the concentrating Kii. “Can’t you put a fire under that thing?”

“I’m sure, Barkham,” said Jakes, “that Kii is in just as much a hurry as you are ... perhaps even more of a hurry. The Enforcers will just want to kill us. God knows what they’ll want to do to Kii.”

“Are there any kind of screens here ... or instruments that can tell us what’s going on out there?” asked Takamura.

“No. I’m afraid not. We’re running blind.” Jakes looked solemn.

“You mean, if there’s a whole Enforcer armada out there after us, there’s no way of knowing it?” Barkham said.

“That’s right.”

“I hardly think,” said Mikaela, “that the Enforcers will have time to mount a countermeasure of that scope. I mean, they hardly expected this kind of thing to happen, did they?”

“We don’t know ...” said Barkham. “We don’t know anything about what they expected, or their security measures, or how they like to torture prisoners or anything ... I know, however, that I’m going to feel a hell of a lot better when old Kii gets us safely onto the other side of hyperspace!”

“I think we all would, Jim,” said Jakes. “But we have to accept that, as before, we are entirely in the hands of our new friend here.”

“And how do we know we can trust him, anyway?” said Barkham, several drops of sweat on his brow. “I mean, this could all be some sort of setup!”

Timothy Linden answered this concern. “Please. I have special ways of knowing these things. Sensory awareness of things such as truth and destiny. I promise you, all my registrations upon this creature known as Kii inform me that he is telling the truth. I would stake my humanity on it!”

“Humanity!” said Barkham. “Fella, did anyone tell you that you’re not looking particularly human lately?”

“I am totally human, I assure you,” said Linden.

“Wait a minute ... Didn’t Kii say something about you being a TWC sleeper agent?”

“That’s quite true. However, my transformation has freed me of that indoctrination. I am now fully equipped with my own free will.”

“How do we know?” said Barkham. “How do we know that you’re not just a part of the whole plot?”

“Plot?” said Becky Thalberg. “James, you really are getting much too paranoid. I think that this is a situation in which we’re just going to have to cross our fingers and pray. If it will do any good, though, I can vouch for Linden. He’s definitely on our side.”

James Barkham slumped back into a chair-like thing. He wiped off the perspiration from his brow with the back of his sleeve. “Yeah. Maybe you’re right. I guess I’m getting a little hyper over everything. Can’t blame me, though, can you? Shit, this whole thing has been a pisser. Sorry, Linden. Hope my comments didn’t bother you ..
. ’
bout you not being human.”

“I can more than understand your feelings, James Barkham,” said Linden. “With my background and my perceptions, I am quite aware of the strange and convoluted courses of human feeling and thinking.”

“Thanks, man,” said Barkham. “I just sure hope that we get to have the chance for a nice long philosophical discussion.”

“That would be my pleasure,” said Linden.

Suddenly a symphony of lights swelled up along the patterns of the controls.

Sounds squealed, keened, whooped.

Kii stood up from his seat.

“The starting measures have been completed,” he said. “Please find a safe place. Prepare for takeoff.”

Takamura and the others scrambled for seats.

As soon as they were seated, the contours of their chairs changed. Like protoplasm, webbing strands grew across the chairs, securing them in.

Kii sat back down, and the lights began an insane parade up and down the floors and ceilings.

For a moment, Takamura thought he was losing his mind. He felt as though he were being pulled inside out. He seemed to merge with the room, the others the universe.

Then everything seemed to explode into silence.

* * *

He was suddenly awake and aware. It was as though he had emerged from a faint, the pieces of his consciousness collecting, swarming up to a new whole.

A bit dazed, he looked around.

Kii was disengaged from his wires and controls. He was monitoring a sequence of lights. He looked up and around, noticing the others had reemerged into consciousness.

“Ah! I trust you enjoyed your rest?” said Kii.

“Rest?” said Barkham, rubbing his head. “Cripes, how long were we out?”

“Four point five of your time units,” said Kii.

“Over four
hours?”
said Barkham. “It seemed like about four
seconds!”

“Yes,” said Takamura. “That’s the way it felt for me, too.”

“You will be happy to know that we have successfully escaped from the Enforcers’ system.”

“You mean, we’ve made it back to hyperspace?” said Barkham.

“That is correct.”

“Whew. I never thought I’d be happy to get back here!” said Barkham.

Jakes stepped up to Kii eagerly. “Perhaps now you will have time to tell me a little more of how all this works!” he said, his eyes filled with wonder.

“Of course. There will be plenty of time for that now. It will be some weeks before we return to your planet. There will be time for everything.”

Takamura was suddenly aware that his arm were full of Becky Thalberg. “Oh, I’m so relieved to be back,” she said.

His hopes pricked up a moment, but then she withdrew, and her face showed nothing for him but affection.

“How is Phineas?” asked Mikaela.

“I think he will be all right,” said Becky, “But, to tell you the truth, I’m not feeling so well myself now. Any signs of anything growing on me yet?”

“No,” said Takamura. “Not visibly, anyway.”

“Well, it will be dermatology horror-show soon enough, I suppose. And I was always horrified with pimples!”

“I should go to Phineas,” said Mikaela.

“I think he’d like that,” said Becky.

One look at Mikaela told Takamura that she realized that Kemp would be lost to her, as Becky had been lost to him.

“I’m sorry to hear about Kate Ennis,” said Mikaela.

“Yes. But it could have happened to any of us,” said Becky.

“I’ll go to Phineas and talk to him a moment,” said Mikaela, after taking a breath of resolve. “But then, you must go to him, Becky. He will need you, I think. And you will need him.”

Becky nodded. “Yes. Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

Mikaela got instructions from Kii, and then left.

“Well,” said Takamura, “I suppose I should join Jakes. There is plenty I must learn from Kii.”

He stepped forward, but his arm was caught by Becky.

“Mishima,” she said.

“Yes, Becky?”

“I’m sorry it has to happen this way.”

“One cannot argue with fate, Becky, can one?”

“No, I suppose not. I’m changing, Mishima. I’m changing ... I can feel it. And I’m scared. Would you hold me?”

They embraced and she was warm and sweet and vibrant. A tear came to Takamura’s eye.

“Thank you, Mishima,” she said after a while.

“Thank you, Becky.”

“I just want you to know ... Want you to know that, in my way, I’ve come to ... to care for you very much. And I hope ...” She blinked back tears. “I hope that we can stay... friends. Stay close, somehow, after my full transformation.”

“Of course, Becky. Thank you, I shall count on that.”

“Yes. Yes, that will help me through it all.” She kissed him on the cheek, and then she walked away.

Mishima Takamura sighed and joined Jakes and Kii as the alien began to discuss the incredible spaceship that was taking them back to their home planet.

If only he had received that radiation, instead of Kemp.

And the hell of it was, Phineas Kemp really didn’t deserve it.

And certainly he didn’t deserve Becky Thalberg.