K.L.A.U.S

Chapter 1

'DING DING' a small chime sounded. "Good morning, sir," a digitized voice could be heard saying. "It's twenty past sun-up. Your freshly hydrated Cofus Beans has been prepared and is ready in beverage bay one in the kitchen. You have three personal messages, one of which has been flagged priority. Would you like me to play it?"

Sunlight was already shining into the room as Hertus Klystron groaned and slowly opened his eyes. A few feet away from his bed was a small, semi-square shaped device sitting on the ground with a few metal spikes sticking up from it. "Sure," Hertus moaned. "Play priority message."

The small device dinged, and began speaking. "Message from Astrus Pri Mystren... received thirty-four minutes ago. Message reads... Reminder to Klystron... Don't forget about the final stage system reviews today. Those of importance will be here two hours past sun-up. Message ends."

Hertus sighed as he sat up from the soft foam bed that he had been lying on. "Like I could ever have forgotten that", he said to himself. "Thank you Bink."

"You are welcome, sir," the device replied. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Hertus stood up and stretched. As he did, he could already see the deep indent from the foam bed reshaping itself as if he had never slept in it. As he walked toward his dresser, he glanced toward Bink. "Vitals on Dalrus?"

"Dalrus vitals, checking," Bink replied and then continued a few seconds later. "Vitals nominal, cycle at six point five positive. Shall I end cycle now?"

"You should know the answer by now," Hertus mumbled. "No thanks Bink. That's all I need."

"Very well, sir. Please have a good day," Bink replied as it rolled itself out of the room.

Hertus finished getting himself dressed and made his way down the hallway toward his son's room. Although most parents would probably not think twice about just allowing their house servants to auto-cycle their children, ever since his bonded died, one of the habits that he had never given up was to always be there for his son when he woke up.

As he stepped into his son's room, he looked at the diagonally positioned sleep pod and saw the peaceful expression on his six-year-old son's face. Reaching up, he pressed a few buttons above his son's head. Immediately, a small blue light began to flash, indicating the start of the wake up sequence.

As Hertus stood there, waiting for his son to wake up, he couldn't help but think once again about what had brought his society to this point. It was an argument he repeatedly had with himself, as it was something that he very strongly fought against for years before his son was born. In a society where genetically engineered super-people were becoming more and more common, pressure for the non-altered people continued to increase. Something that some portions of the population, mainly the upper class and those that could afford it, had turned to giving their kids an edge by turning to 'smart drugs'. These drugs would give kids who were twelve-years-old or under an extra edge in learning, by helping them to focus more, and helping their brains better absorb knowledge.

Unfortunately, the side effect to this is that it made it very difficult for kids to sleep at night. As such, societies solution to this were the sleep pods, which helped to push kids to sleep and keep them asleep for the proper amount of time each night that modern science has found that normal Terans need. For the longest amount of time, Hertus was among those who were fairly vocal about using the biochemical advances that society had made on their children. 'The creator made us the way we are for a purpose, it's unnatural for us to try to change that.'

In the end, however, he caved, just as most other parents in his position had done, since with the birth of his son, he was faced with forcing his son to live with a strong disadvantage. By not giving his son the advantages of the 'smart drugs' from the start, many opportunities his son might have, would be closed to him.

"Papus?" the six-year-old boy whispered as his eyes fluttered open and began to focus.

"Good morning, Dalrus," the man whispered as he reached down, and lifted the boy out of the pod and into a hug. "Sleep well?"

The small boy nodded as he instinctively held out his arm. As he did this, Hertus reached over and picked up a small velcro-like thin strap from the boy's dresser, and wrapped it around the small boy's arm. When this was done, the boy wrapped his arms around his father's neck.

The two walked down the hall into the kitchen where the man set Dalrus on one of the kitchen stools and then proceeded to make breakfast for both himself and his son.

Dalrus tilted his head slightly as he looked at the time displayed on one of the appliances. "You woke me up early?"

Hertus smiled as he sat two bowls of nutritional supplement down on the table. "Yes. Today is the day that you are coming to work with me."

Immediately the boy's eyes lit up. "Effren!"

Within twenty minutes, both of them had finished their food, washed up, and had loaded into the skimmer, with Hertus making sure that Dalrus was securely fastened into his junior seat.

As they pulled out of the driveway, and began down the road, Hertus entered in their route to get to their destination. "Warning, Travel Advisory detected," a digitized voice replied, as part of the map on a small display panel began to flash red.

"What's wrong, Papus?" Dalrus asked, as he detected the shift in his father's attitude. "Is it the Algon demonstrators again?"

Hertus couldn't help but smile at the perceptiveness of his son. "It looks that way, salus," the man stated as he made the needed changes to their route to avoid the demonstration areas.

As the skimmer made its way down the road, Dalrus intensively watched out the front window at the looming skyline. Even without the smart drugs, Dalrus was a curious boy by nature. He especially seemed to love architecture and large buildings. This worked out well, since they lived in the capital city of their zone which had some of the largest buildings their clan had designed.

For his part, Hertus's mind was focused on trials and tests that were planned for this day. The cumulation and validation of the last ten years of his life all came down to what would happen today. But it was not just himself that he was concerned about, but the safety and integrity of all his people could possibly rest on the events that would occur, and the decisions that the Genrus Pri and other Genruses would make.

Before either of them knew it, their skimmer was pulling into the parking lot of the ministry of defense's main research complex. Heavily armored men with weapons immediately approached them to preform the needed search before allowing the skimmer to proceed. Dalrus sat rigidly back in his seat, as one of the men opened the passenger door, and ran a small scanning device over him, as another man ran a similar device over Hertus. Once the armored men were satisfied, Hertus was allowed to continue past to park.

"About time you got here," a man in a white lab coat stated hurriedly as he walked to Hertus's side almost immediately after he and his son stepped through the door into the large lobby area of the main building. "Night diags finished about 15 minutes ago, everything is nominal except for cells eighty-three and eighty-five, The confidence tests from the latest data dump looked like they resolved all the outstanding issues other than the same half-tone logic fail test that we have always had. And are you sure it's wise to have your son here?"

Hertus looked through some of the papers that the other man handed him as he continued walking. "Okay, let's do a near-edge re-initialization of those two cells. If they still fail, let's flag them off for today's tests, and just let the secondaries handle their logic load... The half-tone logic is expected, we won't get past that while we are working in such a small environment, so let's not worry about that."

He then handed the papers back to the man before he stopped and looked the man directly in his eyes. "And as far as my salus goes, I would appreciate it if you let me worry about it. We are at a pivotal point in our history, whether we fail or succeed today, I feel Dalrus has a right to be here, and see what his papus has accomplished."

The man in the lab coat nodded as his expression immediately changed. "Okay, my apologizes Zon Pri, I spoke without thinking. It's just that I didn't think that... well... never mind." With that, the man began walking quickly ahead of them toward the lift that would take them to one of the lower levels.

As Hertus neared the lift as well, he felt a small tug on his arm, and looked down toward his son. "Papus?" he began in a small voice, "Can I go see the pools?"

Hertus smiled down at his son. "We have a little time before the Genrus Pri arrives, and the tests begin, so as long as you promise to not give Thortin a hard time, you may."

"Thanks, papus," the boy said cheerfully as he wrapped his arms around his father for a few moments before they both continued to walk toward the lift.

 


 

A tall, blond haired, man in his mid twenties, who was also wearing a white lab coat, slowly made his way down the center of a large room which had a number of small pools going up and down the sides. The pools were raised about two feet off the ground, but were a few more feet deep. In several of the pools, small grey creatures, some with patches of green and others with patches of blue, were swimming around.

"Thortin!" Dalrus cheerfully called out as he literally ran into the room, causing the man to jump slightly.

"Hey, boss," the man replied as he looked up toward the six-year-old. "Did you manage to talk your papus into letting you skip your classes again?"

Dalrus gave Thortin a sheepish grin and a nod. "Uh-huh. He has some important tests or something today."

Thortin nodded solemnly, as he knew just how important the tests that would occur today would be. "That he does. I'm glad you are able to be here to support him."

Not fully understanding what Thortin meant, Dalrus nodded as he allowed his attention to be pulled toward one of the pools. "Can I play with them?"

"Hum, I don't know..." the man began to say jokingly. It didn't take long for the puppy dog eyes to come out, and for Thortin to quickly change his mind. "Okay, come over here."

The man led Dalrus over to a side table where he ran a small device up and down each of the boy's arms a few times. As he did this, the device emitted a soft blue light which caused Dalrus'es skin to sparkle. "Okay, boss. You're all set. Just remember to be gentle with them."

"I will," Dalrus replied as he ran toward one of the pools near the front of the room and began to dangle one of his hands in it.

Thortin watched the light brown haired boy for a few moments before he returned to his morning data recording tasks. Although he knew that Hertus and Emeres choose to not have their son genetically altered as more and more parents seemed to be doing these days, he was surprised at just how much of his father's spark of scientific curiosity was showing up in Dalrus.

"Where's G-forty-three?" Dalrus called out with concern from the edge of the pool.

"Oh, I'm sure he's in there somewhere," Thortin called out as he jotted down a few notes on his clipboard.

Dalrus stretched his neck and leaned in a bit closer to the pool. "No, I don't see him in here."

Thortin looked up from his papers and sighed as he began walking toward the boy. "You know, other than me, I think you are probably one of the only other people that can tell the morphs apart just by sight."

The boy looked toward Thortin expectantly.

"G-forty-three died a few days ago," the older man replied with compassion in his voice. "There were a few flaws in his genetics."

Dalrus looked back toward the pool. "I liked that one. He was nice."

Thortin nodded and was starting to turn around to go back to his work when Dalrus made a comment that he was not expecting. "Thortin?" the boy began, "Do you think my genetics are flawed, too?"

Turning back around, Thortin could see the boy staring at the small wristband on his arm, the one that delivered the smart drug into his body. "No, boss," he began, as he walked back toward the boy. "What on Tera would ever make you think that?"

Dalrus shrugged as he allowed his arm to drop back down into the pool. "It's just, well, a few of the kids in my class don't need wrist bands or anything to help them learn. One of the kids said it was because their genetics weren't messed up."

It wasn't as much the words that the boy used, but the tone and the way that he said them which caused Thortin's heart to melt. Setting his clipboard down, he walked over and pulled the six-year-old into a hug. "Oh, sweet Dalrus, you shouldn't listen to kids like that. You and your genetics are fine. Your dad just wanted to make sure that you could decide on your own what was right for you, when you got old enough."

"I know," Dalrus replied as he hugged the man back.

Within moments, the hug broke. Dalrus went back to trying to pet the odd looking creatures in the pools, and Thortin went back to making his notes and observations. Ten minutes later, the door to the room opened up, and Hertus walked in.

"Papus!" Hertus's son called out immediately as he ran toward his father. Had anyone else been watching, they might have thought it had been hours or days since the two saw each other, and not the handful of minutes.

"Salus," Hertus replied as he quickly found himself with small arms wrapped around him. "You haven't been giving Zon Thortin any problems down here, have you?"

The boy shook his head as Thortin approached the two. "He's been as good as Aurum," the man replied.

"That's good to hear," Hertus replied as he looked down toward his son only to see him looking up toward him. "Are you ready to get started?"

The boy nodded, and the two turned to leave the room.

"Hertus," Thortin called out, causing the older man to look back toward him. "Good luck up there."

"Thanks," Hertus replied as he and his son continued out the room, toward the lift.

 


 

"Genrus Pri, I would like you to meet my son, Dalrus," Hertus began once he walked into the room, and was standing in front of a man wearing a very ornate military style uniform. He then looked down toward his son. "Dalrus? This is Genrus Pri Slarious."

The rather tall and distinguished man took a few moments to size up the boy that he was being presented to him. "You have a fine young boy there, Zon Pri," the man stated. "No doubt, I'm sure he will follow in his father's footsteps."

"Thank you, Genrus Pri," Hertus replied with a slight bow at the high praise his son just received from one of their greatest military leaders.

Within moments, another man in a slightly less ornate uniform walked up to the Genrus Pri, and whispered something in his ear. As soon as this happened, the Genrus Pri looked sharply toward the other man and then toward Hertus. "I don't see that as a problem, I'm sure Zon Pri Klystron is ready to get started."

Hertus nodded as one of his lab assistants handed him a small notebook. He then looked down toward his son as he pointed to a few other men in lab coats standing in the far side of the room. "How about you go stand with Zon Winstan while I talk for a bit?"

"Yes papus," the boy said politely as he ran over toward the man his father pointed toward.

"Genrus Pri," Hertus said with another slight bow as he turned away from High General and walked toward the front of the room. About twenty different men were standing around in the room. Although a few wore lab coats, most seemed to be dressed in military uniforms, while a few others were dressed in more formal business attire. Behind him, a set of large darkened windows lined the entire front wall of the room.

"Gentlemen? Genrus?" Hertus began as he quickly caught everyone's attention. "Before we get to the real reason you are all here, I would like to say a few things. First, I'm pleased that all of you were able to attend this morning. I'm especially honored that the Genrus Pri was able to find time out of his busy schedule to personally attend. The last ten years have been a trying time filled with a number of unique challenges and hurtles as my team and I worked on developing the KLS systema two. A lot of hard work and long hours have been poured into this by everyone involved. However, I think that by the time you leave this morning, you will agree that it's been well worth it."

After seeing a few of the men in the room nod, Hertus continued. "I think we are just a few weeks shy of it being ten years to the day in which I found myself in a similar position as I am now, as I presented the first fully functional prototype of the Klaystron Lateral Sentient systema one. As a result of the unique biochemical lateral processing architecture that the KLS provided, we were able to demonstrate how it could out-preform any other system in it's class by a factor of ten."

"It was shortly after that demonstration that the council graciously provided us with the opportunity to take this architecture to the next logical step, the KLS systema two, which I see as the proof of concept stage. The council, as well as the Ministry of Defense have put a lot of trust and faith in providing us the space and resources necessary to reach this step. This morning, I hope to not only prove that the support was well founded, but to also demonstrate the importance of being able to receive the funding needed to build the full scale KLS systema three model."

As Hertus continued, he began to flip through pages in the notebook he was holding. "Now, if you will all kindly follow along in the notebooks you have been given, much of the information that you are seeing is the cumulation of all the tests and measurements that we have preformed over the last three months as we began to push the systema two to its full potential. For example, as you can see on page nine, although the basic hardware architecture for the systema two was built from the equipment of ten of our current top-of-the-line Mark Eight systems, with the lateral architecture upgrades, and the other various enhancements that we have made to the systems, in certain applications, it now has a processing power that easily passes fifty-four Mark Eight systems. A full list of all the hardware enhancements we added is outlined on pages thirteen and fourteen."

"Pages eighteen and beyond provide documentation and test results of all the standard tests that the Ministry of Defense provided us to test that the system met its needed requirements. As you can see, in nearly every test, the systema two exceeded those requirements by a minimum of ten percent."

After seeing several more nods of agreement, and noticing that several of the people were quickly becoming more interested in what they were hearing and seeing, Hertus continued. "Now, although all of this information is good, it is something that we could easily have sent to your offices to review. Therefor, I think it would be best if we moved on to the real reason you are all here, the live fire demonstration."

Hertus turned around to face the darkened windows. When he did this, the windows became fully transparent to reveal a type of indoor test range setup in the room below. "In the room below us we have a single standard assault drone that is configured to take live operational instructions from the KLS systema two. On the other side of the room we have five more standard assault drones configured with the standard military offensive protocols. There is also a type two enhanced assault drone that will be controlled by a Teran operator. As was previously agreed upon, both the operator of the enhanced drone, and the layout of the obstacles of the course itself were chosen by the Genrus Pri himself, and were not revealed until he and his team arrived an hour ago. As such, we have had no time to prepare the KLS for this senario."

"Genrus Pri? With your permission?" Hertus asked as he looked toward the decorated general. Once he received a single nod of approval, he then turned to a small computer terminal that was positioned between two of the windows, and typed a few commands into it. "KLS systema two, begin operation live fire one alpha."

"Initiating," a digitized voice replied as everyone in the room moved closer toward the windows to witness what was happening in the arena below.

The KLS drone lunged forward a few inches before it came to a halt and simply sat there. The five drones on the other side of the arena, however, immediately began moving forward and navigating around the various obstacles, slowly making their way toward the KLS drone.

Heads in the room began to turn, and small whispers could be heard about the apparent stalled drone. Hertus, however, continued to stand tall and confidently as he watched through the window.

It only took about twenty seconds for the first drone to make its way through the obstacles and reach a point that it had a clear line of sight to hit the stationary KLS drone. A bright beam of red laser energy shout out from the drone, but just as it did, the KLS drone came back to life and quickly scooted itself behind one of the obstacles. As a result, the bean of light hit the back wall, causing an impressive display of sparks. A few moments later, the KLS drone was again shifting it's position as a second drone took a shot at it.

As this processing of shooting and dodging continued, Hertus began to speak. "Although the KLS has never had a chance to fight against these types of drones, or in this specific environment, it's enhanced lateral architecture literally allows it to almost instantly learn from every move of its enemy it observes in real-time, and incorporating that knowledge into it's data core."

As if to demonstrate his point, the action in the arena quickly changed from the KLS drone being on the defensive and dodging the shots of the other five drones, to the KLS drone suddenly going on the offensive, and beginning to take it's own shots at the other drones. Unlike the shots of the normal drones, the positioning and angle of the shots that the KLS took made it almost impossible for the normal drones to avoid them.

Within sixty seconds, the KLS drone had neutralized all five of the normal drones, leaving only the enhanced drone to deal with. Unlike the normal drones, the Teran controlled enhanced drone was not as quick to commit itself to a specific location, as it's operator had also been observing the tactics that the KLS drone had used. As such, a cat and mouse game began between the two remaining drones which lasted for several minutes, with each occasionally taking a shot at the other. Finally, the KLS drone had itself in a superior position, and took a shot at the enhanced drone, hitting it squarely, but causing no apparent damage.

Hertus immediately glanced toward the Genrus Pri, who was already grinning. "I took the liberty of increasing the armor of the type two. Consider it an additional challenge."

Hertus nodded as turned back toward the window, now significantly less sure of how the KLS was going to preform under these new conditions. The KLS drone found itself quickly dodging out of the way as the other drone had taken a shot at it, almost immediately after the KLS's shot hit it's target. This time, however, the KLS drone did not manage to move fast enough, and a portion of its back armor plating was blown off.

Once again, the game of cat and mouse begin, with both drones occasionally taking shots at the other. This time, however, the shots of the KLS drone seemed to be a lot more erratic, and sometimes completely off their mark. As Hertus watched this, a feeling of dread came over him. Although the Genrus Pri never informed him of the rule change, he and the other Genrus would still see it as an overall failure if the KLS drone failed. He then began trying to rack his brain to remember which key systems of the drone might have been damaged when it took that hit earlier.

As Hertus continued to think of this, a sequence of events quickly occurred that even took him by surprise. The enhanced drone had just taken a shot at the KLS drone, and was in the process of repositioning itself when the KLS drone took a shot, which again, was completely off it's mark as it hit the edge of one of the obstacles. The hit caused the framework of the obstacle to collapse, landing almost perfectly on top of the enhanced drone, causing it to be knocked over on it's side. Another shot from the KLS hit one of the other obstacles causing it to crash down and smash the drone's main turret. In effect, the enhanced drone had been completely immobilized.

Cheering and clapping broke out from almost everyone in the room as the windows looking down into the arena went dark. "Operation complete," the digitized voice reported. "Ninety-three percent efficiency."

It only took a few moments for Hertus to realize what had happened. The shots of the KLS drone had not become erratic, but were in-fact all carefully calculated to weaken some of the obstacles. Since it's primary weapon had proven to be ineffective, it was forced to improvise. Yes, the first live demonstration of a lateral system improvising in real time. Just as he came to this realization, he felt the arms of a very excited six-year-old wrap around him, showering him with praise as well.

Once the cheering died down, and a few people in the room began to leave, the Genrus Pri walked over to Hertus. "That was an impressive demonstration, Zon Pri Klystron. A most impressive demonstration."

"Your words honor me, Genrus Pri," Hertus replied. "I hope what you have seen here today will be taken favorably toward your support of the systema three."

"Indeed," the high general replied as he quickly glanced down at the boy who had attached himself to Hertus. "It's nearly noon. Why don't you take your son down for a bite to eat, and then join me and the other Genrus in the conference room in an hour."

"Thank you," Hertus replied as he gave another slight bow of respect before moving himself and Dalrus toward the door.

 


 

Other than a small amount of idle chat, neither Hertus or Dalrus said much over lunch. Hertus knew that his son was pleased with him, because of the smiling glances the boy occasionally stole over the course of the meal. However, Hertus's thoughts were in a different place. He had spent so much time preparing for this day, and trying to anticipate any problems that could go wrong that now that he was here, and the demonstration was over, he was not sure where to go next.

His hope and his dream was that the Genrus Pri, and as a result, the Ministry and the council would support his project to build the full systema three. But what if they didn't? The last ten years of his life had been spent focusing on this single project, what if even after all of this, they decided it was too large of an investment? What would he and his son do then?

As the two finished their lunch, Hertus looked into the deep emerald green eyes of his smiling son. "Why don't you go down stairs and hang out with Thortin for a bit. I'll be down to get you as soon as my meeting with the Genrus Pri is done."

"Yes, papus," Dalrus replied as he cheerfully made his way out of the room.

By the time Hertus walked into the conference room, the Genrus Pri along with three of the other Genrus were already sitting behind the table, sharing papers and notes with each other.

"Ah, Hertus, please come in and join us," The Genrus Pri stated in a surprisingly informal manner.

As soon as Hertus took the seat that had been set out for him, the Genrus Pri continued. "Before I begin, I would like to say that you and your team put on a very impressive performance today. The way that KLS demonstrated its ability to improvise was astounding. With that in mind, before we inform you of our decision, is there anything else you wish to say that you feel we should take into consideration?"

Hertus thought for a few seconds before he slowly shook his head. "No, Genrus Pri. I believe that the demonstration and the information I've provided you should speak for itself."

"Very well," the High General nodded in agreement before his tone changed to a more official, formal one. "In that case, Zon Pri Hertus Klystron, it is the finding of the Genrus that the presentation and performance of the Klystron Lateral Sentient systema two has met or exceeded all expectations. As such, it is our recommendation to the Ministry of Defense that construction work on the Klystron Lateral Sentient systema three begin immediately as outlined in your systema three brief, with a few minor modifications."

"Thank you, Genrus Pri," Hertus stated with relief. "If I may ask, sir. What modifications?"

The Genrus Pri was in the process of signing a few pieces of paper as he looked up toward Hertus. "It's nothing that significant Zon Pri, nothing that the systema will not be able to handle. The Ministry of Defense has already informed us that they are prepared to fully endorse this decision as soon as we gave you our decision. So, you can expect an official proclamation within the hour."

Hertus nodded. "So, am I correct in assuming these are classified modifications?"

"No," the High General stated as he handed his paperwork off to one of the other Genrus. "First off, it's our intent to link all of the main defensive assets of the entire Aquilonis Alliance to the KLS systema three as soon as it's completed. Secondly, the construction of the primary systema three facilities will occur in the Collis Zone."

"Sir?" Hertus asked questionably.

"Do you have a problem with that, Zon Pri?" the general asked.

"I mean no disrespect, Genrus Pri, but I was under the impression that if the systema three was approved, it would be built here, in the capital zone, not in some zone in the middle of nowhere. My son..." Hertus stated and then trailed off as he quickly ran out of what he felt were valid arguments.

"Hertus?" The general began speaking a bit more informally. "I don't know if you have been paying attention to the news feeds lately, or hell, even looking outside the door at some the demonstrations, but things are not going well for us right now. Unofficially, the Ministry of Defense sees KLS as the only viable long term solution that will give our people the edge we need to survive."

The Genrus Pri waited a few moments for his words to sink in. "What we are up against is a lot larger than you, me, or your son for that matter. There are schools in the Collis Zone, we will see to it that your son continues to get the best possible education that can be offered."

Hertus nodded slightly. "I'll need some time to think about this, Sir."

"What is there to think about?" the general replied with a degree of surprise in his voice. "You've just been given what you have spent the last ten years fighting for."

"I understand that," Hertus replied.

The Genrus Pri sat there for a few moments looking at Hertus before he nodded. "Very well, but I suggest you consider this very quickly Zon Pri. This is not something the Ministry of Defense will be able to sit around and wait on for long. If you are unable to build the KLS systema three, someone else will."

Hertus nodded.

"That will be all," the man behind the desk stated. Without another word, Hertus stood and left the room. He had a lot to think about, and not much time to do it in.

 


 

"Papus!" Dalrus squealed as soon as he saw his father walk into the room. "One of the phasens let me touch it."

"Really?" Hertus replied as he quickly found his arms filled with a happy six-year-old. As he hugged his son, he looked questionably toward Thortin.

"The barrier that I applied this morning was starting to wear off. I was standing right next to him, so nothing could have happened," the man defended. "If you hadn't come in when you did, I was just about to give him another application of the barrier."

Hertus nodded in understanding. He knew how much his son enjoyed spending time watching the phasenmorphs, but he also knew just how dangerous they could be, especially if they were able to attach themselves to you. "No harm done," Hertus stated after a few moments. "I'm sure you kept a good eye over him."

Thortin nodded and sighed with relief.

"Are we going home now, papus?" Dalrus asked as he pushed himself back from the hug to look into the caring eyes of his father.

"We'll be going home shortly," Hertus replied. "But first, what would you think about taking a stop by the park first?"

"Really? Effren!" Dalrus smiled.

"I'm guessing the review went well?" Thortin asked.

"Yeah," Hertus replied as he and his son made their way out of the room. "You could say that."

A few minutes later, Hertus and Dalrus were outside and at their skimmer with Dalrus securely fastened into his junior seat. When they reached the guard shack at the front gate, one of the guards waved at Dalrus as the gate was lifted to allow the skimmer to pass.

Once Hertus turned out of the parking lot and onto the road, he hadn't made it more than a few hundred feet when another high speed skimmer came out from nowhere, and sharply cut in front of him and came to an abrupt stop, nearly causing his own skimmer to slam into it.

As soon as his skimmer stopped, both Hertus and Dalrus could see four armed men get out and look toward them. None of them appeared to be that happy, and from the small symbols on each of their shoulders, Hertus knew at once that they were all Infernus Alliance rebels, or at the very least, sympathizers to their cause. Looking out the rear window, another skimmer could be seen pulling up close behind them, effectively blocking them in.

Just as Hertus was about to reach for the dashboard communicator, one of the men fired their gun, hitting the windshield. This caused Hertus to instinctively duck down. Before he knew it, the passenger door was flying open, with one of the armed men standing there, knife in hand. Before he had a chance to react, the man made a single swift motion with his knife, and the straps of the junior seat fell apart. Moments later, the unthinkable happened.

"Dalrus!" Hertus screamed as he watched his son get yanked out of the car. The same man that pulled the boy out, then aimed his gun directly at Hertus's head. Moments after that, another gunshot was fired, but the shot was too far away to be the gun that had been aimed at Hertus.

Looking up, Hertus could see the man that had pulled his son out of the car, now literally dragging the boy behind him as he made his way back to his friends. Behind them, several well armed guards from the Ministry of Defense were quickly running toward them with guns drawn.

Another shot was fired, and the man that was trying to drag Dalrus dropped to the ground. The other three Infernus men got off a few shots at the approaching guards, but seeing that they were heavily out numbered, they quickly decided to turn and run.

Fearing more for the safety of his son over his own, Hertus forced himself to quickly get out of the car, and duck behind the door. As more shots were fired from the security team who had now reached the back of the skimmer, Hertus poked his head up from the door just in time to see all three Infernus rebels in full retreat, as Dalrus was in the process of running back toward his father.

"Dalrus, get down!" Hertus shouted desperately trying to get the boy's attention.

Before Dalrus could react, another shot was fired, and almost as if in slow motion the small boy let out a high pitch gasp as his body flew forward about a foot before falling to the ground.

"Dalrus!" Hertus shouted with rage as he ran toward his son, completely ignoring the shots that were still being fired. "Dalrus!" By the time he reached the boy, a steady pool of blood was already gathering under him, as well as from the acorn sized hole in the boy's chest.

"Papus?" the boy wheezed as his body struggled for breath.

"Dalrus, no," Hertus cried out as he tried to grab hold of his son's head.

Instead of answering him, the boy's body trembled slightly, and then went completely limp as Dalrus let out his final breath.

"No... no... no," Hertus cried as he clutched onto the body of his dead son. "No..." As he cried, everything else happening in the world around him seemed to fade away. The gun-shots, the shouting, the approaching sirens, none of it registered to him as he cried for his son. He didn't even feel the pair of strong hands lifting him up, and carrying him away.

 


 

The remainder of the day was, for the most part, a blur to Hertus. He remembered a few parts, such as being at the hospital, and being told there was nothing that could be done for his son, and being back in the conference room an hour later being told by the Astrus Pri about what they had uncovered about the plans of the Infernus rebels to kidnap his son, but beyond that, there was only hurt and pain.

Before he knew it, he was standing in the middle of an empty kitchen back at his house. Any other night, Dalrus would have been sitting at the counter, working on his evening studies or helping him prepare dinner. Now, however, there was only silence.

Hertus walked down the hall and next found himself standing in the doorway of his son's room. Staring directly at him were the dressers and small desk that Dalrus used for his school work, as well as the shelves full of various nick-nacks that he had made or toys that he had collected over the last few years. But the biggest thing that stood out like a sore thumb was the empty sleep pod.

He stood there for several minutes just looking into the room. Before he knew it, however, he found himself walking into his own room, and rummaging through his closet before he found a small device with several wires sticking out of it. A few moments after that, he was back in his son's room, hooking the wires up to the sleep pod. When he was done, he stood in front of the pod and the device as a battle raged through his head.

As part of their process of being able to properly regulate sleep patterns of a developing child, one of the functions of the sleep pods were to keep a memory imprint of the child it was keyed for, which was updated each night. Although it was possible to extract these imprints from the pods, the act of doing so was only allowed in very specific situations, and then only as an investigational tool for a law enforcement agency. To possess an unauthorized imprint was considered a serious crime. Of course, the fact that he was one of the few people in existence that not only had the knowledge, but also access to the proper equipment to do what he was about to do, it was still considered highly illegal.

But never the less, there he was, standing there with all the needed equipment hooked up. All he had to do was to press a few buttons to preform the process. Given the way that he had set up the interface to the pod, it was also highly unlikely that anyone would ever notice, especially since there would be no investigation into his son's death. But that did not make the debate any less intense.

In the end, however, with already feeling the intense emptiness and hole in his heart that had been torn out, the thought of the unlikely chance of being caught and arrested was quickly loosing it's grasp on him. A few moments later, he pressed the keys that brought both the device and the sleep pod to life.

It took less than five minutes for the device to complete whatever it was doing and then turn itself off. Pressing a small button on the side of the device, the top portion of it popped open. Hertus carefully reached in and pulled out a small paper-thin golden chip, no more than one inch by one inch. He placed the chip into a special protective case, and then held it close to his chest and just stood there for a long time, as silent tears fell from his eyes.

Two hours later, Hertus found himself sitting at his desk in the front room, looking at some of the pictures that decorated the wall. Most of the pictures were of Dalrus. A few of the pictures even contained pictures of Emeres. First he lost his bonded, now he lost his son. Hertus shook his head slowly as he realized there was no longer anything else left for him here.

With that thought in mind, he pressed a few buttons on his desk. A few moments later, a female voice came across the speaker. "May I help you?".

"This is Zon Pri Hertus Klystron calling for Genrus Pri Joslin Slarious," Hertus stated in a slightly shaking voice.

"One moment please," the lady replied.

A few moments later, the voice of the High General was heard. "This is Slarious."

"Genrus Pri," Hertus began. "This is Zon Pri Hertus Klystron."

"Hertus?" the man instantly replied, immediately dropping the formalities. "How are you holding out?"

"Alright," Hertus replied and then paused for a few moments before he continued. "About the offer that we discussed earlier. I believe I've made up my mind, and I wish to take you up on it."

There was a brief pause before the High General replied. "Are you sure about this, Hertus? You've just gone through a lot today, are you sure you wouldn't like to take a few days to think about it more?"

"I appreciate the offer, sir, but I don't need any more time," Hertus replied immediately. "The last several hours have been a blur to me. And, knowing how I reacted to loosing my bonded, I know that I need to find something to loose myself in. KLS would make the most sense."

There was another brief pause before the Genrus Pri responded. "Okay, I can accept that. In that case, I'll begin to make the arrangements first thing in the morning. Go ahead and spend tomorrow getting packed, and be ready to head out the day after."

"Very good, sir. Thank you." Hertus replied.

"Take care of yourself, Zon Pri," The High General said with a small hint of compassion before he dropped the call.

Hertus pressed a button to also drop the call on his side as well. As he did this, he reached into his shirt pocket, and held tight onto the protective case where he knew a small paper-thin golden chip was safely resting inside.

To Be Continued

 


 

Editors Notes:

I cried each time I read about Darius dying. It will tear at my hear every time I read it. In the short amount of time, I grew to love the character. Zacky, you have a way with words that bring all your characters to life. Now, it is going to be interesting to see what Hertus does with the KLS systema three. I can't wait for more!

 


 

Other Editor's Notes:

I haven't much to add to the editor's notes, except to say that this is turning out to be a very interesting story, with a lot of twists and turns, Zacky is indeed quite good at giving us well developed and very believable people, especially the kids.

I know there is a lot more to come, and I, for one, can hardly wait to see how it all goes.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher