Athena screeched past the vehicles of the aug honour guard returning the Aug Queen and Jay 7 to the fire city. She saw Jay 7 jolted as she raced past them. She adjusted her steering wheel and looked back into her dashboard screen. The transports behind her swerved dangerously.
Some stopped, others turned to her. After a few moments they began to give chase.
“General Athena 8, respond.” The familiar monotone of the Aug Queens voice came from her dashboard.
The general hit a button and shut off the connection. She had a long way to go, and she wasn’t going to stop and chat. With that thought she took the last stretch to the port stone at full speed.
Flash.
She was out of the port stone and 19.8 kilometres from the Asambhav. She switched on the boosts and rolled over and down the dunes. Her BUV, the second fastest ground vehicle in the Continuum ate up the distance in minutes. So much so, that only when she was on the last stretch that she heard her sister call again.
“Athena 8. What are you doing?”
The General always short of words replied “Stopping Ghost, sister.”
She BUV skidded to a stop at the back hangar and Athena 8 flew out of the vehicle. The workmen and women looked at her in surprise. The General stopped and looked for any resistance for a split second when she didn’t find any she shot towards the null area.
The first two corridors she passed without any challenges. The next one was closed but as she was thinking of blowing it up with her plasma launcher it beeped open.
Athena 8 smiled. E65 somehow always came through.
The general raced passed that corridor and the next one when she saw resistance. Augs. Ten, no eleven of them. Usually, augs kept their projectors on. Projecting skin and human features over their metal bones. These ones must have been too damaged for them to be on the frontline.
The other thing that differentiated the augs and cyborgs was their inability to create external effects. That meant she had a magical advantage while they with their potentiality enriched bones, had a physical leg up. All of that, meant she could kill them at a distance. But she did not want to do that.
Instead, Athena 8 pulled out her launcher and shot a restraining net over their heads. The augs followed the explosive with their head and with a well-placed energy shot from a pistol flung it away.
What they forgot was that she was peak class one. She jumped. Her armours kinetic energy release systems flinging her up and over the heads of the augs in a blink. Then she was landing in a roll and springing back to her feet before the augs had even turned around.
The soakers underneath her hummed. They pulled at her potentiality and that of her armour. With an annoyed huff the General flared a small disruptive shield around herself. The soaker would eat at it, and it would fail. But it was disposable. She turned the last corner and saw the large, locked door.
The null room. And she didn’t have a way to get through that. Once again, somehow E65 was there. Along with two Jays and one Parvati. Before she could ask what in the gods name he was doing there, E65 shot a small speck of igniting antimatter at the door.
Whoosh!
The door was gone and Athena 8 shot through the opening. She analysed the area in an instant. Her hud pinger everything one by one.
Men in hazmat armour. Non combatants
Pods with people inside it. Warders
A cyborg standing in the middle of them. Taran 45.
Then her hud glitched and pinged wildly.
Warning!
Class 4 anomalies detected.
Status – Incapacitated
Behind the pod was a square stasis bed emanating cold throughout the room. On top of that were the two anomalies she was glad she didn’t have to fight. Those two, if they weren’t so malformed would have killed her and her budding faction.
One of the mechanical arms on top of the platform sliced open one of the anomaly’s chest. The adjoining arms descended and went into the horror’s torso. Lights bloomed inside the thing. Lasers cutting, snipping and separating the rib cage from the anomaly’s chest. Then with a scooping sound the first arm lifted the upper section of the ribcage free. Another arm separated the bottom section of the ribcage. The rest of the arms started printing a new ribcage inside the anomaly. Weak placeholders made of simple calcium.
“General?” Taran 45 turned to look at Athena.
“Ghost! What have you done?” Athena asked in a whisper.
“What needed to be done.”
Athena 8 looked up and saw the arms firing lasers to reduce the size of the ribs. Shaping them into a smaller form. Athena 8 moved forwards and looked into the first pod. There was naked girl inside. He back was open and smaller arms were connecting an excalcit spine to her back. They were working furiously on her back shaping it, moulding it and trimming the waste. Other arms were holding a tangle or nerves, arteries and veins waiting for the first arm to finish the job.
“I am too late.” Athena 8 muttered.
“Aaaaaaahhhh!” A scream from the other pod jolted her.
She turned and ran to it. The General recoiled at what she saw.
There was small boy inside the pod. His milky blind eyes wide in pain. His chest were two sheets of skin in the corners of the pod. His insides were kept in place with medical arms and the amniotic gel inside the pod.
The other pod began to ping, and a muffled moan came from it.
“Sedate him and the girl too.”
“We can’t.” One of the surgeons protested “If we need to go into their brain we need it clear of any chemicals.”
Athena 8 flinched and whirled to face the High Councillor “Brain?”
Taran 45 looked at the doctor in disgust “Just… Do… It.”
“General.” Taran 45 turned back to Athena 8 and shook his head. He started again “Tina. To give them the capabilities of the twins we need to implant the advanced parts.”
“Have you lost your mind, Ghost?”
Taran 45, the man who had once served in the General’s army as a recon scout, looked back at his former employer with pitying eyes “You can’t lead us all Tina. Even your shoulders are not strong enough to bear the weight of the continuum follies. We need people who are more. No, we need warders who are more.”
From the side of her eyes, she was the rib cage being lowered into the pod. She didn’t have the stomach to look inside the pod. She averted her gaze and tried to ignore the pained groan that came from the boy.
“Kid. Relax, it will be over soon.” Taran 45 said almost affectionately.
Athena 8 looked up at her old intelligence commander. He wasn’t going to stop. Only she could stop this.
Athena spun and pointed her weapon at the anomalies. Taran 45 anticipated her. He moved with the general. He wasn’t strong enough to fight but he could do something. The grabbed the launcher’s nozzle and pressed his forehead to it.
Athena looked at Taran 45 and growled “Ghost, move.
“You want to kill the anomalies. You will have to do it after you kill me.”
Athena let a trickle of potentiality flow into her weapon. It began to glow and she snarled “Don’t think I won’t.”
“Well do it. End this madness.”
“Now isn’t this typical. Our General, pointing her weapon at someone.” A monotone voice came from the broken door.
To Athena 8’s surprise, E65 and his group wordlessly interposed themselves in between the Aug Queen and her.
The Aug queen glanced at them and nodded in appreciation.
“Move.” The Aug Queen ordered what was left of the superb seven.
“Sorry, your queenship. You want to get to the general? You will have to go through us.”
“See that, Ghost. That is how you end madness. By standing up against it.”
Taran 45 held onto the weapons barrel with a white fisted grip. His eyes locked onto the general’s trigger finger.
“Did you put tracers on their bones?” Athena 8 asked Taran 45.
“General?” The high councillor said in a confused tone.
“Did you put trace glyphs on the warders new bones?” general Athena said while gritting her teeth.
“No, not yet.” Taran 45 answered.
“You will not.” Athena 8 ordered “You will also stop all the modification you are doing on the warders and undo what you have done.”
Taran 45 looked at Athena 8 and knew that she wasn’t lying. He straightened his back and silently shook his head.
The General growled “I am not playing around Ghost. I will shoot you.”
“Threatening the High Councillor?” The Aug queen asked.
“Did you know?” Athena 8 pulled back her launcher from 45’s grip and turned to look at her sister.
The Aug Queen spread all four of her arms and shrugged “I knew. I wasn’t going to give them my augs. My augs are special. They are just cannon fodder. So, all that was left for the high councillor to make them into weapons was his little project.”
Athena 8 nodded and walked to the Aug Queen “I see.”
Athena 8 faced the Aug Queen.
“Are you planning to fight me General?”
“No, sister. I am planning to smack you around like I used to.”
The augs behind the Aug Queen twitched and the superb seven raised their weapons warningly.
“I am not the little Heena that you used to know Tina.” The Aug Queen said. Her voice gaining an inflection of violence.
The General shook her head and before anybody could see what had happened, a crash echoed out in the null room.
The general lowered her foot on a stunned Athena laying face down and looked at the augs “Move and I will crush her head.”
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The augs all stilled.
“You won’t kill me.” The aug queen muttered.
“No, I wouldn’t kill Heena. But there is nothing of her left inside you.” Athena 8 said in a frustrated growl and in the same voice continued “You have her memories. Recall them. How many times have we fought. How many times have I defeated her. But have I ever embarrassed her like this?”
“I should kill you.” The Aug Queen flinched as Athena 8 Raised her foot and looked at her elder sister as she continued speaking “If not for anything else, then for being pathetically weak. But the battle lines we have drawn will fail if I do. Maybe they will anyways when the coward Jay 7 runs away again.”
The Aug Queen jerked as if she had been hit and responded “He is not a coward. He is a great man. A hero. The hero of Nile.”
Athena 8 lowered her head to speak into the Aug Queen’s ear “Yes. Where he used an orbital bombardment to kill tens of millions. I know. I was there. On the ground saving our people. Should I release the video to everyone in the Continuum? You can say whatever you want, you can’t delete history.”
The Aug Queen stopped moving and looked at Athena 8 “You will not do that either. That will break the moral of the Continuum.”
“Fuck the Continuum!” Athena 8’s voice echoed in the dark room “Look at what you have done.”
The General pointed at the pods and the people in it “You have assaulted warders. Warders! What do you think will happen when the Silver City comes to know about this?”
“Seven had made deals with the Silver City before. We will make a deal again.” The Aug Queen replied.
“No, you fool. What the Continuum has done is crossed a line. You mutilated them and experimented on them. The Silver City will call them abominations and dispose of them. Then, they are going to look for the nearest scapegoat and wipe them off the existence.”
“We will hand Taran 45 over to them.”
Athena 8 chuckled mirthlessly “Let me guess? Jay 7 came up with that one too?” She looked down at her sister to find something that would show her a glimpse of the woman she was and sighed “What about the Kel? What are you going to tell him? He is not going to take your convoluted explanation for an answer.”
“We have worked with a kel before.”
“A Silver City Kel. This one belongs to the frontier faction. A faction at odds with the silver city. But you wouldn’t know that. You are a toad is a small pond and you think you are a queen.”
Athena stood up looked around at everyone looking at her. From the side of her eye she saw the purist arrive.
She didn’t wait for them and began “Listen. This is how things are going to happen. My people will escort the warders everywhere from now on. If they find that you are trying to hurt them, they will kill you. No, matter who you are. And they will have my blessing to do so. If they fail, I will kill you.”
“General.” A woman’s voice called out and Athena looked at Parvati 551 looking back at her. The councillor continued “Should this be discussed in council.”
“You want to fence with me right now 551? Come, lets fence.”
Parvati 551 quickly took a step back “Calm Tina. I am not disagreeing with you. In council I will vote with you. But what you are doing will set a dangerous precedent.”
Athena 8 shot a finger at the two pod “This! This mutilation sets a dangerous precedent.”
Parvati looked at her wife and took a step back. Ruby F1450 closed her eyes and nodded “General…”
Athena 8 cut her off “Enough! Just answer me this. Did you know what Ghost was doing?”
Ruby F1450 was annoyed but answered “We found out a few hours ago.”
“A few hours ago.” Athena 8 nodded and in soft voice asked “What was the continuum created for?”
“General?” Ruby F1450 asked.
“What did my father create the continuum for?” Athena 8 looked at everyone in the room.
“To continue humanity.” Ruby F1450 said getting annoyed.
“No!” Athena 8 shouted. Her voice booming in echoes in the dark hall. She controlled her pitch and continued “To protect humanity. To help the weakest amongst humanity. And to continue the humanity while doing that.”
She pointed a finger at the pods again “Does this look like protecting humanity? Does this even look like humanity?”
Ruby F1450’s face reddened, she was about to open her mouth when her wife grabbed her hand and pulled her back.
Athena 8 shook her head and muttered “You didn’t even call me.”
Parvati M551 stepped in front of her wife and asked “What are you going to do?”
“Me? I am going to take the warders, my faction and all my assets and leave.” She looked around and everyone “You all have lost your way and can’t be trusted with warders.”
“You can’t” Taran 45 protested.
Athena 8 whirled and grabbed the High Councillor by his throat “What?”
Taran 45 croaked “You can’t move the warders. They will die.”
The general lowered her head to look into her old subordinate’s eyes “Then fix the mess.”
“I can’t.”
“Ghost!” Athena 8 snarled.
Taran 45’s legs thrashed in discomfort, but he spoke “They will need supervised care after the procedure. They will not survive if we don’t constantly adjust their growth.”
Athena 8 grimaced and let the force crushing Taran 45 ease “We’ll see about that.”
The general turned to look at the men and the woman who had stood beside her in the confrontation. One of them looked familiar to her but she did not have time for that. Instead she began issuing orders.
“E65, you and your people are on bodyguard detail. I will send someone to relieve you in a few hours. They will also have the new armour for your friends.”
Athena 8 turned to the Aug Queen “Assault commander! Take your people and leave.”
As she was turning to the purist Marshall Lara’s voice announced.
Attention! Attention!
The patients will into anaphylactic shock in 200 seconds
Diagnosed Cause - Brain Transplants are being rejected.
Using quantum cores to create a neurological map.
Unusual neurological activity detected in both brain sets.
Mapping.
Processing.
Neurological map created.
Neurological map rejected.
Creating a new Neurological map.
Creating a dreamscape based on Warder Sheetal’s brain activity.
Awaiting Warder Ash’s vitals to stabilise.
Athena looked at the words popping on to her hud one by one and let Taran 45 down.
Taran 45 who had gone still with everyone listening to Marshall Lara’s words jolted and freed himself from the general grip. He shouted “All non essential personnel vacate the room. Medical personnel to the pods.”
Athena 8 stepped in front of the High Councillor.
Taran 45 shoved her “General, shoot me or get out of the way.”
Athena barely moved but relented.
Taran 45’s hands shook. His death, he could accept. His death, he somewhat even welcomed. His death… By the gods why hadn’t someone blown his head of yet. His death was not his concern.
The warders death worried him. He couldn’t allow that to happen. The continuum needed them whether they liked it or not. They could hate him for creating them. But without the two kids in the glass and iridium pods, they were all looking at a slow painful death. No, he corrected himself. If General Athena could be trusted, and he trusted her more than anyone else, their deaths would fast and sudden. Warders like to shoot first and ask questions later.
Taran 45 reached the first pod. Looked at the flatlining reading and ran to the second one.
Athena 8 was already there. Taran 45 ignored her and looked at the reading. He hit two onscreen buttons and yelled “Report!”
“It’s his brain thrive councillor, it is not responding.”
Taran 45 looked up “Marshall Lara, where is that dreamscape?”
Marshal Lara reported “High Councillor, I cannot create a dreamscape with the neurological spikes I am detecting. I need a mental baseline and steady activity afterwards to establish one.”
“It’s the hair.” One of the doctors said loudly “I keep telling you all, it’s the hair.”
“Not this again M688. This is not the time for this.”
The first one shrank back, and Taran 45 looked at him consideringly.
“How long will it take to replace the hair?”
The two surgeons looked at each other and the first one answered “Ten minutes maybe?”
Taran 45 looked at the reading on the display and ordered “We have one.”
Taran bit his lip and looked in between the display with the falling and his surgeons looking helplessly as the vitals on the two warders declined.
Athena snorted.
“Is something funny, General?”
“Yes.”
Taran 45 squinted “Do you know something we don’t?”
Athena pointed at the glass and said “Watch.”
Taran 45 turned to look inside the pod. Ash’s body began to glow, and he took an instinctive step back.
The glow slowly seeped out of the kid’s body. It surrounded him. Creating and merging with his aura superimposing a picture of the soft pretty features over the broken body of the boy. The young pretty boy smiled smugly and a microsecond later long silver blue flowing locks appeared over Ash’s exposed brain. Hundreds of strands went through the skull and penetrated right into his brain. Others appeared over his scalp. They all flowed upwards and then dramatically fell sideways over his right cheeks while the right side of his face quirked up prettily.
The picture lasted to a fraction of a moment. But for Taran 45 who had ascended to mid class one the image could have lasted for minutes. His did not know why but something inside him made his mind speed up, take in every detail, and seared it into the back of his mind.
Creating a perfect replica of the cutest sleeping child he had ever seen in his life.
The glow faded and left a semi sliced open Ash in its place.
Athena 8 nodded “That one, he is full of himself, isn’t he?”
In response Taran asked “What was that?”
“That was a warders soul superimposing itself over the body to repair it while screaming look at me. Look at me. I am so pretty.” Athena 8 rolled her eyes.
“They can do that? They can superimpose their souls to heal themselves?”
The General turned to glare at Taran 45 who was now looking into Sheetal’s pod “Yes, Ghost. Did you think the stories about warders soul structure being different from ours were just stories?”
Taran 45 jerked but did not take the bait instead he screamed at his two subordinates “M688. M439. Get the anomaly’s scalp. It has strands that are not normal. Put them in the warder’s brain. We have two minutes. Get to it.”
“What about the female? She has those strands like that too.”
Taran growled “Do them both but focus on the boy first. He has hundreds of them.”
Athena looked at the surgical pods. She did not need the readings to see that they had the time. She also knew that the warders could heal themselves twice more with their stored potentiality.
She took a step back and exhaled.
“General, do you have anything to add?” Taran 45 asked.
“Yes.” Athena nodded to herself “You are a fool. An ignorant fool. Warders are one of the most difficult creatures to kill in all of reality. But with you, I fear for their lives.”
Taran 45 touched his throat. The spot where the general had laid her hands on him and nodded “I will be careful, general.”
“No. You will let me oversee their care from here on.”
Taran 45 stiffened and a bit of heat entered the High Councillor’s eyes. He quickly did a mental inventory and smiled.
“No. General.” Taran 45 straightened his back.
“No?” Athena asked threateningly.
“Yes, General. No.”
“Be very careful ghost or I will kill you right here and right now. I have plenty of justification for it.”
Taran 45 smiled “I understand your feeling on the matter but General, they don’t know you. I will lead to enter their minds to carefully help them integrate the new parts. Their mindscapes won’t let you in. The one they have spent most times around is me.”
“I can do it.” The Aug Queen said from the side.
“No!” The high councillor and the General said together.
The Aug Queen stood up straight and glared at Taran 45 “High Councillor, as soon as you are done. I will be taking the Marshall with me. We need her in the front.”
Taran 45 sighed and nodded but did not look away from the General’s eyes. The Aug Queen took in a breath and walked out with her augs.
Athena 8’s eyes blazed into the younger Taran, finally she relented “Fine. Do what you need to do to finish up what you have started. But if I see any of you forcing anything on them again, I will beat you into the ground.”
The General looked around the null room. At all the faces looking at her and growled “Until you are begging me for death.”
Taran 45 nodded “As you wish, General.”
Athena turned to look at Taran E65 and her features slightly softened “I am sorry E65. You did good but your time as an infiltrator is at and end.” Athena tapped the pod next to her as it began to glow, she looked in and continued speaking “Protect them with your life and call me at the slightest hint of trouble. I will be…”
Athena stopped. He eyes wide open to look at the female warder’s projected soul. The boy’s features had softened becoming dainty like one of those courtly nobles in Rier. Sheetal was different. Her features gained an edge to them. Making her face became more angular. The worry lines from her forehead all but disappeared. Matte black hair fell down to her lower back and swayed in an unseen wind framing her regal feature dramatically. Her eyes fluttered open and the General suddenly felt small under the gaze of two black holes.
Those eyes, those dark eyes that had focussed on her for one hundredth of second closed and forever in Athena’s mind the baby warder was replaced by a regal queen.
“General?” Taran 45 gasped.
Athena couldn’t look away from the unconscious girl. She whispered to herself “Why did I even doubt the light?”
“General?” Taran 45 asked.
“I need to...” Athena 8 shook her head and started again “I need to do a lot of things to prepare.”
“General?” Taran 45 nudged the large woman. It was like pushing on a wall.
Athena looked down at Taran 45 and shook her head. She chuckled “It’s nothing, ghost.”
She turned to E65 “Take care of them. I will be in Free City. Call me if anything happens. Or if anyone does anything.”
Everyone watched the General stomp away with a thoughtful expression on her face.
“Did she?” Parvati 551 who was standing out of the way with her wife began. Looked at the giant woman turn the corner and asked in a whisper “Was she smiling?”
“Yes.” Ruby F1450 nodded in surprise.
Taran 45 who was looking inside the pods one by one ignored the two women talking. His eyes were focussed on the needles that were pushing thin follicles into the two brains. He looked at the two surgeons. They made micro adjustments in the warder’s scalps to account for the new strands and then lowered them down.
“Surgeons, add ethericite to the gel in the pods and activate it.”
“No!” A shout stopped the surgeons and Taran 45 turned around to look at Parvati M141 holding up a finger.
“Specialist medic, you are not the Athena Chandra. Do not mess with my operation.” Taran glared at Parvati M, his gaze slowly softened and he continued “I understand your objection. Ethericite heals but also poisons blood stream. In this case it will not. M439, add Needles to your crew. She is a member of the warder’s party. Brief her.”
Taran 45 saw the two purist councillors heading to him and continued his instructions “M688, seal them up add fluid to the brain and then for god’s sake add ethericite to the amniotic gel.””
“Ladies.” Taran 45 acknowledged the councillor while watching the warders inside the pods. The two young people were doing relatively well inside the fluid. Their vital signs were steady and all he needed to do was put them back together.
But that did not mean he was happy about how the whole operation had gone. His secret plan was supposed to remain a secret for weeks if not months and it had all gone to the abyss.
First the gods forsaken purist had shown up, Then, his fears had come true and General Athena had run straight into his secret null zone. That woman knew every little secret they all tried to hide. And this time when he had looked into her eyes he knew he was dead. But death did not scare him. Passivity did. He had seen empires fall because those who needed to guide it, did not do what needed to be done. And he was not going to let the last of his people fall.
Thankfully, Athena A07 had come in after her. And as usual the two sisters animosity had distracted them both. Instead of shooting him in the head the General had vented by putting her little sister down a notch.
Taran 45 examined the pod in front of him, Sheetal’s transplants were removed by the small mechanical arms that ended in microscopic fingers. Small strands were brought from the scalps of the female anomaly and added to the parts in a blur. The tens of arms worked together and brought the new parts down. Then the new arteries, nerves, and veins were printed on the spot from the flesh of the anomalies and integrated into Sheetal brain.
He looked sideways. Ruby F1450 was looking at the girl with a pinched expression. Parvati 551 on the other hand was looking at him with wide eyes.
“You were ready to die.” She stated.
Taran 45 exhaled “I am ready to die for this.”
Ruby F1450 looked at the high councillor for a long moment and then asked “What are you doing, 45?”
The usual heat from the woman’s was missing and she was genuinely baffled.
Taran 45 moved to the second pod and looked inside at the boy. The parts that were going into his brain were smaller but no less important. Where Sheetal was given addition to her prefrontal lobes and temporal lobes, Ash was given more nerves like the new optic and oculomotor nerves along with other parts he was not familiar with. He was a spy and politician, and not a surgeon. He had people to know the minutia.
The silence got heavy and just when Ruby F was going to speak the High Councillor replied.
“Saving us, Ruuub.”
Parvati looked from the broken anomalies in the back to the scarred children in the pods.
“By mutilating children?” She asked in almost a whisper while watching the taboo in front of her.
“No by creating a weapon and a shield. A shield for the continuum to hide behind and weapon…” Taran 45 quirked a smile while looking at the scrawny boy inside the pod “A weapon that the most fearsome wielder should fear.”
“And you were willing to die for this?” Ruby pointed at the pods and asked.
“Yes. I am willing to die to remake them. I am willing to die to protect them.” Taran 45 answered.
Ruby F1450 nodded in understanding. While her wife looked at Taran 45 in shock and incomprehension on the two younger women’s faces and shook his head.
The two surgeons appeared from the back of the pods and started placing soul shards in one by one.
“Why?” Parvati 551 asked.
“You are too young. You don’t remember what our world was like when we had a warder walking amongst us. We didn’t know how much he shielded us from the universe until he was gone. These are not our warders. But I am going to do everything to tie them to us. And when I am done, I am not going to lose them. Not to a stray bullet or a rak weapon. And if they kill me. Well, I am willing to let them. When the time is right.”
“You are mad.” Parvati shook her head.
“Madness is watching your people die one by one. Madness is seeing you civilisation falling apart in front of you and not doing anything. Madness is not taking a step forward when the universe highlights a direction to walk in.”
The two surgeons brought his equipment to him on a floating table. Taran 45 sat down on a chair and placed a crown like ring over his head. It would help him enter the dreamscape and the smaller ones on each of his limbs would let him interact with the warders dreams.
Parvati 551 looked inside the boy warder’s pod and watched the small laser arms blur as they poked little holes inside the scalp. A small electric pulse made the small hair on her body stand. Inside the body the strands linked to Ash’s brain jolted upwards. The arms from the top of the pod moved rapidly. Sucking in hair through the holes and then filling in the opening with bone from the male anomaly. More bone went in to glue the scalp back together and the councillor noted that the head of the boy looked slightly bigger than it was before.
“Surgeons. Add the cerebral fluid.” Taran 45 ordered his doctors.
Parvati 551 did not when her hands had begun to shake. The ideal she aspired to was purity. Purity of thought, purity of body and purity of action. Those were the tenants she and her faction aspired to. This was no less than heresy and she couldn’t do anything. Her faction was too weak. She was too weak. All she could do was die trying and her people needed her.
“Don’t give me that look.” Taran 45 smiled at the angry councillor and continued “Whatever you are planning to do, the kids will do worse to me when I enter their dreamscape.”
“Do you want me to wish you luck? I won’t. You deserve everything they are going to do to you and much more, 45.”
Taran 45 chuckled mirthlessly “No. I am not worried about the kids. I have worries about what is going to happen next. I might not survive the next step.”
The councillors looked at Taran 45 questioningly.
Taran 45 straightened and in formal tone asked “Councillor Parvati 551, would you do me one favour for all times sake, the warders, they might need counselling after this. Can I entrust their mental health to you?”
Parvati 551 glared at Taran 45 and then looked at the girl in the pod. She was wincing in her dreams. She sighed “Yes high councillor. But perhaps they are not the only ones who need therapy.”
“I don’t have time for therapy.” Taran 45 said and looked up “Marshall Lara, please disengage your domain and transfer all your threads to the resonant link in the Aug Queen’s care. I don’t want you implicated in this mess.”
“What are you doing Taran 45?”
Tran 45 cracked his neck “Councillor please step away from the pods. Better yet, leave. I am going to start a ritual to invoke the lights creatures and call them here.”
“What!?” Ruby F1450 who hadn’t taken her eye of the female warder turned and looked at the High Councillor in shock. Her voice began to rise as she continued “Are you mad? Wasn’t defiling her champions like this enough? Now you want to show of your work to taunt her creatures?”
Taran 45 grimaced and replied “No. I am going to call on them to ask for help.”
“Ha! You are mad.” Ruby F1450’s face paled and she asked her wife “Has he gone mad?”
Parvati 551 looked at Taran 45 and truthfully couldn’t tell.
Ruby took a step away from the high councillor and muttered “By the gods, they are going to kill us. They will destroy us all.”
“Not if I do this right.”
Captain Ruby F1450 eyes blazed “You mad man. You think they are not going to put the warders out their misery first? Everyone is going to die here!”