Chapter 27

Solar time unit = year planetary time unit = day

Sam was again reaching out, feeling the powerful Tetricon as it accelerated away. He wasn’t sure just who this was; he’d already met the four new minds.

He could tell it wasn’t the doctor. A small smile came to his lips. It also had a distinct antipathy for the doctor. It most definitely wasn’t the seven councilors; they seemed to shit their pants when he was around. Hmmmm, this was getting interesting indeed.

A few moments later, the new mind seemed to vanish, though Sam could still feel a faint trail. Might be good to not actively try to scan or interfere with it. After all, he was strong, by far more than any others he’d met. This power might prove to be the deal breaker if it joined with the others.

A movement behind him had him turning to see Thantas dragging Triot along the ground. Sam only smirked at the look of pain on Triot’s face. Upon reaching him, Thantas again lifted Triot, then smashed him as hard as she could to the ground. “Stay!” she growled.

“Ah! I see that you are finally, fully awake. I can also see that you have some form of osmosis healing.” The startled look on Triot’s face confirmed what Sam had thought was true. Reaching out, Sam briefly touched the side of Triot’s head. “There. I think that should keep you for a while.”

“You piece of garbage! What have you done to me? I am a Tetricon of the first house! What you have done isn’t possible unless...” An audible gasp came from Triot.

“Ah! I can see the first light of any intelligence in your eyes. No, we didn’t break the code of osmosis. I was born with it! Your kind tried to steal it from us, not knowing that it was unique to the individual with it. Yours was stolen when you tried to copy it; it hardly works as it should be,” Sam told a now worried Triot.

“You ... you turned it off?” a startled Thantas asked.

Sam turned to see the look on Thantas’ face. “In the simplest sense, you might say that. It’s not gone, though; he will have a much harder time using it.”

“What!? You haven’t the right...” Triot started.

“HAVEN’T THE RIGHT! You, you thief, are the one who hasn’t the right! What you took was never meant to be integrated within your race’s geno. Honestly, I am surprised that it didn’t kill or consume you,” Sam almost shouted.

A sinister smile came to Triot’s face. “It is the spoils of war.” Here he looked at Thantas. “Besides, the little bitch wasn’t really using it to—” Triot’s voice was cut off as Thantas’ foot met the side of his face.

With a growl, Thantas was about to lash out harder when Sam stopped her. “That’s enough, Thantas. I had more questions though; it is nicer with him quiet.”

A quick smile came to her face. “We need to make it permanent as soon as possible!” She looked at Sam, then drew her foot back, kicking Triot again. “What? Just making sure he stays out longer!”

Sam could only shake his head at the extremely happy expression on Thantas’ face. I do believe she is enjoying this far more than I at first thought.

Inside the newly constructed dome building, Triann was hard at work preparing more tests. She had to find out what it was with Sam that made him more unique than any other of their race.

The simple fact that he had transferred the immunity to the gas to all of them was an unfounded bonus. Her curiosity was what had made her one of the greatest healers of her people. It also seemed to be a downfall of hers; her mate, almost as busy with the government, made them a perfect match.

They had been so much a match that her mate hadn’t made it for the birth of Sam. He was there, though, when they launched Sam to Earth. Poring over the massive data about Sam, Triann was still puzzled why Sam wasn’t activated until the present time.

Hmmm, she thought, a few of the things she suspected were showing to be, in fact, fact. The main mystery, though, was why it was now that the cubes the infants had been suspended in became active.

Movement behind her barely registered as her mate, Fino, moved to a piece of equipment. “Have you felt anything more from Thantas?” Fino asked.

“Not as of yet. She appears to have more than half her memory back. All the force training she had has completely returned. It also appears that almost all the memories that we implanted in Sam are starting to come to the fore.”

“So, he has almost the same skills she has, just far more strength. I ... I felt something I haven’t for a very long time. We have a thought warrior among us, though as to who I am unsure. I am sure of the both of us, also of Mellos’s father. It is the other three I am unsure of.”

“A thought warrior!” Triann’s thoughts returned with a gasp. “I had thought they were outlawed after control was lost by one. I was part of the team that removed much of the power of those left.”

“I was surprised as well; this could make things very dangerous indeed. I am the last of our planet’s government. Even I am unsure if they will listen to my orders. Without the others, this could prove extremely difficult. Plus, when I felt them, they were just as powerful as then. No, we do have to tread carefully,” came Fino’s thoughts.

“Don’t you believe that we should alert Sam? I know that he is far stronger than any Cliverstone physically, though mentally? That I am sorely unsure of,” replied Triann’s thoughts.

“He is strong, far stronger than I ever thought he would be. I believe it’s something about this Earth that he was on that has something to do with it.”

“Hmmmm,” Triann’s face screwed up into a look of profound thought. “Something about this Earth...” Searching her mind, she felt something at the edge of her thoughts.

“When I first started this search for worlds that possessed the same atmosphere that contained the gas, I almost skipped Earth. The atmosphere had a combination of the gas, which was in far higher amounts than I had ever encountered,” Triann thought to no one in particular.

“If that is true, then why send him there?” Fino asked.

“They were high, but there were also high amounts of regular elements. They seemed to more than balance it out,” returned Triann’s thoughts. “Hmmm,” Triann thought a few minutes later. “It appears that all the overabundance of both elements is what caused his absolute immunity.”

“Then we are good, well, except for the other problem. I just hope he doesn’t hate the both of us. I could take that, though if he refuses to help further, then we as a race are also doomed.”

“Hate is a strong word. I am sure he will be displeased with us, not hate,” Triann responded.

“You forget, Triann. He was raised on an alien world with a completely different way of thinking. Remember, he has no problem with cessation of life,” a worried Fino thought.

“I am sure that he will continue to help us, our people,” replied Triann.

“You have the confidence of a female sire,” Fino’s thoughts said as he shook his head. “I hope that in this instance you are correct.”

The Lord Doctor chuckled as he watched the two young arachnids struggle to escape. He had to admit that the both of them were far stronger than he thought they’d be.

It had taken almost perfect timing and most of his power to capture them. Had he not gone as hard and fast as he did, they might have gotten away. That would have been disastrous, as one he could handle, though two? It would have taxed him to the brink of even his power. Now, though, he had the upper hand.

A smirk came to his face as he thought of the coming. They would probably threaten quite a bit, perhaps a frontal assault. This time, though, he was sure that they would do exactly what he wanted. An evil laugh erupted from his throat; they would be his slaves by the end of the day, he was sure of it.

The Lord Doctor turned to look upward. Ah, good, his soon-to-be slaves were approaching. Two loud thuds outside the doctor’s domicile alerted him that they had arrived.

Both nearly ripped the door off of the domicile as they charged in. The Lord Doctor just stood back as both the elites started to fire with increasing strength of firepower. The shield between them and the young Tetricons flared brighter and brighter ‘til the young within it started to scream.

“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,” the Lord Doctor started to evilly laugh. “In case you haven’t guessed it, the shield is tied to the planet’s inner energy core. Unless you can turn it off or destroy the planet, then you have no chance.”

“Release them, you putrid sack of garbage!” the male arachnid hissed. They both watched in shock as the female arachnid threw herself against the shield. For a moment, she breached the shield as she started to pull one of the young from the shield.

The doctor’s face showed worry as he shot an energy beam at the female, knocking her away. This, of course, afforded the male time to slam his own body into the doctor’s. Both landed in a heap, though the male moved away from the semi-conscious doctor at the scream of the female.

Again, the doctor started to laugh as he slowly stumbled to his feet, bleeding profusely from quite a few places.

“Try ... try that again, and it will be the last you ever see your offspring alive. If I remember correctly, this is one of the last of your mating/off-spring cycles.” The Lord Doctor panted out, noticing that the blood wasn’t slowing at all. “I had thought that the conditioning was no more with the two of you. Had I time, I would reinitiate it.”

The male, tending to the female, smiled slightly when she whispered to him. Turning, the male hissed, “The slave beam no longer affects any of us. We grew out of it many, many cycles ago.”

“Too bad, your kind were our strongest asset. Now? You are just useless flotsam, though you will do as I say if you wish to ever see your offspring alive again. Don’t think you can do anything to defeat me. Try, and they will be no more.”