vegetation.
Then they were hit from the rear by more laser fire. More soldiers could be seen closing on them from the trees.
'I'll take the rear!' said Kale, 'Guard my mother!'
They were back to back around Mirah, deflecting the stun blasts of the symbyte soldiers. Kale decided more action was needed. Soon the soldiers would be upon them. He moved away from his mother and Emil and took to the trees. A kinetic bubble, generated by his mind, formed around Mirah as he took off away from her.
He moved from branch to branch and tree to tree and quickly found his way above the soldiers. Kale swooped down into the enemy forces and began to bring his sticks into play against them. He hacked into the soldiers, taking down as many as possible as he deftly moved among them.
Their attack from the rear quickly began to disorganize as he slipped in and out of their ranks. Many of their own men were being taken down by crossfire in the confusion.
Emil was not having as much success in his efforts. The soldiers were almost completely across the clearing now and the fire was too concentrated for him to block it all. Several blasts got by his defense and brought him down hard.
The kinetic bubble was still in place around Mirah as the soldiers took the opportunity of Emil's unconsciousness and moved in on her. They blasted away in vain at the bubble, but Mirah could not move from the position to run either.
'WE'RE coming up on their position!'
Tiet brought the transport into a descent on the clearing just beyond the raging battle his family was involved in below.
'I've got two transports rising out of the trees ahead!' said Tiet.
'I'm on it; locking on targets.'
Wynn brought the transport's missiles online as the targets began to clear the tops of the trees. He fired nearly every rocket the ship was carrying at the enemy transports.
As soon as they had cleared the treetops, the ships turned toward them to fire and were greeted by almost twenty high-powered rockets. The transports shattered to pieces before they could fire a shot and fell back to the ground much faster than they had risen.
Tiet continued his descent and landed the craft very roughly as he bolted for the door. Wynn and Grod quickly followed with Jael and Mareb close behind. They all ran into the battle.
The symbyte soldiers now turned to fight them as they ran into the fray. Tiet and Wynn began to maneuver through the symbytes, cutting them down at every turn of their swords. Tiet could see Kale far off among a second group of soldiers, battling with them furiously; his dual sticks whirling about him like circles of death dealing light.
When he came upon Mirah she was under attack by several soldiers trying to penetrate a kinetic bubble being maintained by Kale's mind. Tiet quickly dispatched them and somewhere in the fight Kale sensed him there with his mother and released her from her protective imprisonment.
She immediately moved to Tiet's protection and he headed for the transport with her. Kale and Tiet spoke in mental sensations through the space between them and Kale disengaged the fight and took to the trees after his parents as they headed for the ship.
Grod already had Emil's unconscious body in his powerful arms and was heading back to the transport after them, as Wynn and the two Horva soldiers laid down cover fire and defense for them.
The main group made it to the transport safely, though still under fire, as Kale bounded through the treetops over the symbytes and came down into the clearing en route for the transport. Tiet was already lifting off with Kale in his mind, knowing that he could make the jump to safety without any problem, but something happened as he ran for the ship. Tiet could sense a complete loss of control in Kale's mind and waves of pain taking over his body. He looked back through the open troop deployment door to the field below in time to see his son fall.
No shot had hit him, but he was losing consciousness quickly. Kale could see the transport just ahead and above him, but he could not make his body respond to his desire to lift himself up to it. As his eyes closed he caught a faint glimpse of Wynn touching down next to him on the ground.
Tiet brought the blaster cannons to bear on the soldiers emerging from the trees as Wynn lifted Kale's body to his shoulder and made the leap under mental power to the transport.
'I've got him, Tiet! Let's go!'
He punched the engine throttle controls and the ship surged away from the battle. The computer on board signaled a warning. One of the Horva soldiers slipped into the chair and read the display's information.
'I'm showing an enemy ship following us from ten miles back, sir.'
'Grod, are the coordinates plotted in the navigation system?'
'Yes, but that ship will know where the bunker is and lead the others there if we go now.'
It won't matter as long as that ship can do what you say it can; we're leaving this rock.'
LUCIN slammed his fist on the control panel, shutting off the negative report from the ground forces. The boy had gotten away, but he had still been infected by the girl.
It was very draining on his limited power to maintain collective control on so many human hosts. Controlling the whole population was necessary, but he needed the boy's powerful mind to control the entire body as one organism.
'Can we catch the ship?' asked Lucin.
'We're keeping up, Sir, but they're flying the same thing we are. We can't overtake them until they stop somewhere.'
'Can you pinpoint where they might be headed?'
'They're heading on a course that will bring them near the area of Nagon-Toth.'
'That's it. They're heading to Grod's compound. They don't realize it's gone. Send all available ships and troops to Nagon-Toth.'
'Yes, Sir.'
The boy was of the utmost importance, but he was fighting the takeover of his mind and body; Lucin could feel it. He hadn't thought of the possibility that the boy might be able to resist him. It hadn't been a problem before when the Three had been assimilated to control the Baruk, but the boy was much more powerful than they had been; all the better for their purposes.
WYNN piloted the ship while Tiet stayed at Kale's side as Mirah examined him. He was still unconscious. Mirah passed a hand-held medical scanner slowly over his body. The information fed to a portable display she had setting on the floor of the ship next to his head.
'What is it Mirah, what's wrong with him?' asked Tiet anxiously.
Tears welled in her eyes as she continued to pass the scanner. Any professionalism as a doctor was gone now as she saw the information pouring onto the display. This was happening to her baby; her only child.
'Mirah?'
'It's one of those things, like we found inside the bodies of the Baruk. It's taking over his neural pathways; winding its way around his brainstem and infiltrating his spine.
'Can you stop it?'
'I don't know anything I could do to remove it without killing him,' she said through sobs.
'What about Emil?'
'That's just it. His scans aren't showing the same level of infiltration. Somehow his body is keeping it at bay; fighting the takeover and keeping it confined near the entry site. It might be something about being a Horva; I just can't pinpoint it right now with this limited equipment.'
Grod was listening intently as Mirah spoke of his son. Emil was still unconscious, but it appeared to be completely related to the stun blasts he had received in the battle.
Tiet knelt near his son and focused on him mentally, shutting out everything else. He could sense his pain now and more than the physical pain he could sense his mental anguish. The symbyte organism was fighting for control of his body; trying to push Kale's own mind out. He could hear his thoughts, as he cried out in the darkness
