Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) by P.S. Power Page A

voice a bit more abstract.
    "We're about over the site of the blast now. From the
readings it was clearly a nuclear device. I don't have the kiloton range yet,
but it was decently large. That's a violation of the treaty, of course, but I
don't imagine that's at issue right now. If your craft frustrated a Remy, that
speaks well as to the idea that shields might remain helpful as well. Keep
yours on at all times. Provide them to those around you as well. It isn't a
perfect plan, but I have to agree with Alice. If you leave, the problem will
simply follow you. Staying will at least allow you to make preparations there.
We also have to reconsider the other situations."
    No one spoke, but Timon understood what that meant. They
were supposed to leave in a few hours to try and recover Julie White, the
leader of Soam, who had been kidnapped and was being held prisoner. The
location was in her own land, near the southernmost tip of her continent,
almost verging on the Antarctic.
    Timon thought about it for a bit and then looked out the
window. After all, if he was being tracked, his going there would be too. They
were, he knew, probably all being watched though. It was a lot less than
perfect. The situation on the ground was too heavily protected for him to go in
alone, naturally. Otherwise he would have tried to free Aunt Julie days before,
even if it meant he might die. That was what you did for family, and while he
might not feel that kind of thing, he knew it was a rule.
    That was something he hadn't realized before really. The
changes that Tor had made, they didn't force him to love his family any more
than he had before. It wasn't an emotional decision then, but a thing of long
training that made him say the next part.
    "I need help to get her. I'll go now, but..." It
wasn't something he could do alone. Not really. The guards were clones after
all and probably had either Cordes or Gray in them, if not copies of other
minds that had been long dead and resurrected. That part was interesting, but
if it were the case, then they'd probably have been selected for their loyalty
to one of the others involved, at the very least. The point was that they
weren't just guards, standing there with wooden clubs.
    All of them had special abilities and skills, many of which
he couldn't match at all yet. Some he never would, being biologically incapable
of them. For instance shape changing wasn't a thing for him. There were other
things that no one had even told him about that were very possible too, he
didn't doubt.
    Instead of them telling the little boy that he wasn't
allowed to go, or suggesting that he pilot the ship or something, for the
escape, even though it was an area that he actually was qualified for, Orange
spoke up.
    "Kolb, can you do it, if the children help? Tiera and
Timon? It isn't a perfect fighting unit, but they are formidable people. As are
you, of course." That last bit sounded tacked on, but the woman had a
problem with good looking men and Kolb, while no Count Lairdgren or Brown, was
ruggedly handsome. It colored the way that she looked at the rest of them.
    "Yes. Tim, can you meet us at the blast site?"
    "Tiera is with you?" He hadn't heard her speak,
but there was a soft murmur from what seemed to be Kolb's right side.
    "I'm here." It was the right voice, he thought,
but sounded abstract, soft and almost drugged. Like a person in a trance. That
had been the plan however, hadn't it? Tiera was trying to protect the knowledge
she had about Tor and his Cordes being part of the plot against them, by simply
controlling her every thought. Constantly. It was a feat that Timon hadn't
expected of her and wouldn't have. She was a bit high strung and edgy most of
the time, even after the changes Tor had made to her. Violent and angry. Except
that she was doing it anyway, because she had to.
    "Right, I'll be there in... Call it five minutes, I
need to let Countess Printer know that something is going on at least or she'll
kick my