Talent For Trouble (24 page)

“This isn’t right,” he protested, clearly still clinging to his delusions surrounding his own strength.

But Jana had had enough.

“I’ll tell you what isn’t right, you bastard. Subjugating people and stealing their power isn’t right. Kidnapping little girls and raping them isn’t right.” She advanced on him with each sentence, anger in every fiber of her being, tears falling down her face, unheeded. “Separating me from my sister wasn’t right. And killing my parents wasn’t right.” She stopped a few feet in front of Kol, his body paralyzed by the force of her will. “They never did anything to you! Nobody on Mithrak ever deserved what you did to us. Have done to us. For years! You stole our planet, like you steal our people and our free will. You steal our Talent and use it for your own selfish ends.
That’s
not right.” She paused in her tirade, breathing hard.

She saw the fear in his eyes, but she had to keep on pushing. “Now tell me where the crystal mines are or I’ll crush you where you stand. You know I have the power. You’ll never rule me again. You’ll be lucky if I let you live.”

Kol seemed to fear her. Good. She read panic in his eyes, and then, a sort of resignation came over his features.

“I can give you the mines. I am their caretaker,” he said, pain entering his eyes again.

“Where are they? What planet?” she insisted.

She needed to know. Control over the crystal meant control over the collective. If she could stop more of the crystal from falling into the masters’ hands, she could stop them in their tracks. And then—only then—would her life have been worth something.

She saw stopping the collective as her chance at redemption. And this blue insect wasn’t going to stand in her way. She needed what he knew.

Kol blinked a few times. His mouth opened…

“Ip—” he whispered, breaking off as a spasm struck him hard.

And then, his eyes rolled back in his head as he sagged in her telekinetic hold.

“Failsafe!” Darak yelled, coming up behind Kol, putting his hands on Kol’s temples.

Jana knew what Darak was trying to do. He was trying to get into Kol’s mind before he died. He was trying to salvage what information he could before the deadly command that must have been triggered by Kol’s decision to speak of the crystal planet took full effect.

Harnessing all her the new power given her by the crystals in her skin and all the skill she could muster, she ripped into Kol’s dying mind, taking everything and leaving nothing behind. She took the good memories with the bad. She would sort through them later.

She saw Darak in there with her, his mind as strong as hers, but the power not augmented by her crystals. She saw he’d saved a lot of data in an area that looked as if it had burned on the mental plane. That must’ve been the epicenter of the explosion. That was where the data they most needed would probably be hidden. If anything was left.

They had to work fast. As Kol’s body died—and there was nothing they could do to save him now—his mind was shutting down, the memories fading as the organic computer that held them died. She literally saw his energy leaving his body, his thoughts going off somewhere she could not follow.

She had to grab what she could before it was all lost. Desperately, she sought for the information she most wanted—the location of the crystal planet.

There…

Almost…

And then, Kol was gone. She had saved what she could, and there was no more left. Kol was dead. His memories gone with him into another realm.

She let go of Kol’s body and let it slip to the floor. Darak stood facing her, his expression intense.

“Ipson,” he whispered. “That’s the name of the planet. Did you get the coordinates?”

“I think so,” she replied, a little shell shocked from what had just happened.

Her emotions were all over the place. She had gone from anger to anxiety to rage to furious mental activity as she pushed her skills to new heights and did things she had never contemplated doing before.

But they’d had to be done. And she had been the only one with the entrée into Kol’s crystal-enhanced mind able to do it. Though…Darak had been there.

“How did you get into his mind?” she asked, still in a state of confusion and heightened awareness after such an expenditure of power.

“Look at his hand,” Darak said, pointing to where Kol’s right hand was stretched out on the floor.

In the center, where the sliver of crystal had been, was a black mark. The crystal had burned up, burning out Kol’s mind with it.

“So that was the failsafe?” she asked.

“The crystals must be programmable. I think the crystal held the data that was shared with the grand master,” Darak theorized. “It blew, but we were still able to get into his memories. I saw some of it.”

“I got more. I just collected everything I could before his mind fled into the ether. I shoved it…somewhere…” She thought about it, not really understanding what she’d done in her moment of panic and need. “It’s in this crystal,” she said, holding out her right hand, rubbing the largest of the chunks that could be seen on her hand with her left forefinger. “I didn’t realize what I was doing at the time, but I put his memories here. You’re right, Darak. They function like data crystals but with way more capacity and different abilities…”

“We’re going to have to study this in greater detail, but right now, I think we need to get the hell out of here. Kol came alone, but it probably won’t be long before someone comes looking for him.” Darak moved to the fire to gather up their belongings and douse the flames.

Prodded into motion by Darak’s bustling around the fire, Jana collected the water she’d brought in and dropped by the door, giving it to the horses, who had spent the night on the other side of the wide, round room. They had been calm throughout, though she knew from their swiveling ears and alert eyes that they’d been watching what had happened.

Jeri was better with horses than she was, but Jana petted their noses, taking a moment to unsaddle them. She left the saddles on the floor, knowing they’d be turning the horses loose when they translocated back up to the ship. There was no reason to stay. Kol was dead, and they now had vital information that had to get back to the Council.

She thanked the horses and told them to seek the farm in the valley below, hoping that whoever now lived in her old house would treat the horses kindly. She also made sure to erase any evidence of her and Darak’s presence from the tack she was leaving behind in the tower.

When she finished, she turned back toward the center of the room where the confrontation with Kol had taken place. If they left his body there, would it not deteriorate, like the other things they had left in the tower over the years?

“What should we do with him?” Jana asked. “Do we just leave him here?”

Darak came to her as she stood over Kol’s body. They both looked down on the shell that was left behind of the man who had caused so much misery.

“I think we should take him back to Liata and let them decide. He is one of theirs, even if he turned his back on his people in favor of power,” Darak said unexpectedly. “Liatans have very strict beliefs about burial and the afterlife. We wouldn’t want to do the wrong thing with one of their people.”

Jana saw the sense in that. It wasn’t about Kol, per se, but about Liata and keeping alliances strong. Much as she’d hated Kol, she wouldn’t deny the Liatans their right to decide what happened to his body.

“I’ll get them to send a stasis pod down from the ship,” Darak said, trying to use his communicator. After a couple of tries with no response, he shook his head. “There’s something strange about this tower. None of my tech gear works properly in here.”

“But did you notice how your psi powers are amplified here?” she asked softly. “I bet you could ‘path Agnor from here with no problem.”

Darak was silent a moment, his gaze considering. Then, his eyes lost focus as he tried the telepathic message to his ship in orbit. A smile spread over his lips as he blinked back to focus a few moments later.

“Worked like a charm,” he reported. “You’re right about this place. It sounded like Ag was right next door, not on the other side of the planet. He’s going to transfer a stasis pod on his next revolution in about fifteen minutes. I told him to aim for the area between the gate and the doorway, so stay clear of it until the pod arrives.”

“Just enough time to finish cleaning up here and packing our things,” she said, moving to do just that.

But Darak intercepted her. He took her into his arms, and she went gladly, clinging to him in the aftermath of the most distressing thing to happen since being stolen away from her home. She’d come full circle, at last. It had all started here, on Mithrak, in the valley not far below. It was sort of poetic that it ended here, too.

“There’s time for this, too,” he whispered, his mouth next to her ear. “Time to be grateful that we both made it through this alive. Time to begin healing.”

“Thank you, Darak. You’ve been—” Her voice cracked with emotion as she clung to him, her head nestled on his shoulder. His warmth heated the cold places in her soul.

“Ssh,” he crooned. “It is I who should be thanking you. You saved us both here today. You and your incredible power. I’m in awe of you, Jana.” He rocked her from side to side, and something in her heart felt the first faint hint of joy as the realization slowly hit her that they were both still standing and Kol was actually dead.

She still couldn’t quite believe it.

“It wasn’t really me. It’s the crystal,” she began modestly, but Darak pulled away, smiling that devilish smile at her.

“Don’t sell yourself short, sweetheart. It’s you. And it’s the crystal. But the crystal would be nothing without your beautiful mind to guide it. You overpowered Kol’s hold on me, and for that, I owe you my life.” He winked at her, and she felt a moment of happiness, even though they were still in danger every moment they stayed on Mithrak. “But we can discuss how I’ll pay you back later. Right now, we need to get out of here, right?”

Darak let her go, holding onto her arms until he was sure Jana was stable. He watched her closely for any signs of instability. He could tell she was still somewhat in shock, but time was of the essence. They had to get away from Mithrak and report what they now knew back to the Council. The information they now possessed was too important to take chances.

He watched her as she finished packing. He helped, erasing any sign of their camp as best he could. They didn’t have a whole lot of gear, so it was reasonably simple to break camp.

Before he knew it, they were ready, and the fifteen minutes were up. He went to the arched doorway and looked out. Sure enough, the pod, on its hoversled, was waiting. Darak jogged out to get it and brought it back into the chamber.

He saw the look on Jana’s face as he bent to deal with Kol’s lifeless body. She looked a little green around the gills now that they were out of the heat of combat. He paused.

“Why don’t you let me handle this, sweetheart? Go outside for a bit and get some fresh air. Take the horses out and turn them loose, okay?”

She looked like she wanted to protest, but then relented. “If you’re sure, I’ll just take care of the horses.”

He was glad she’d taken his offer of an out. He knew now that Jana was too sensitive a soul to deal with the taking of a life—even one as evil as Kol’s—lightly.

Darak readied the pod and did a quick but thorough search of Kol’s pockets. He knew the body would undergo microscopic examination when they got back to Liata. Spores and microbes in his body might tell them a lot about his travels.

Kol had been too highly placed in the collective to let pass uninvestigated. If the Liatans didn’t want to do it, Darak would exercise his right as a StarLord and bring the body to Geneth Mar. In fact, he might just do that first, anyway. Oh, he’d return Kol to his home planet, eventually, but not after they’d gleaned every last bit of information his body might betray.

Some information might come a little easier though, Darak discovered, as he palmed a small handcomp and sets of miniature data crystals Kol had hidden in the inner hem of his jacket. Had the man been foolish enough to bring all his data with him on a mission he’d tackled all alone?

Apparently so. Though a closer examination would be needed of the handcomp and crystals. Agnor could start on that aboard the
Circe
, once they got back up there. Jana could help, since she was probably the most likely of them to know collective access codes and systems. It would give them something to do on the trip back home—which they’d be making at top speed. No saving the engines with this kind of booty on board.

Darak couldn’t help the sense of satisfaction that threatened to overtake him. But the mission wasn’t finished. They weren’t home free yet. They weren’t even out of danger yet.

He had to stop counting his accolades before they were due. He had to get everyone home in one piece first and the data delivered before he could count this mission the success it looked like it was going to be.

Still, he couldn’t help a feeling of grim satisfaction as he hoisted Kol’s limp body into the pod and shut the lid. With a flicker of satisfaction, he turned on the stasis field that would preserve the body until it was delivered to the Specitars back on Geneth Mar. After they were done, he would see that Kol made it back to Liata—if the Liatans wanted to claim him.

He suspected he’d have to spend a little time in diplomatic talks with the leaders of Liata to discover exactly what they wanted done with Kol. He’d made an assumption about them wanting him back, but Darak needed firmer information than his best guess.

Darak sighed. He was learning firsthand something his cousin Micah had said many times… A StarLord’s work was never finished.

Jana was glad to escape the tower chamber. She didn’t want to think just yet about what had happened inside, but she felt a sort of burgeoning sense of freedom, deep in her soul. It was an uncomfortable feeling, to be sure, because it had come at the expense of another’s life.

She had hated Kol, and thought she wanted him dead, but the way he’d died… It left a very bad taste in her mouth. He had been killed, ultimately, by his master.