Choice of the Gallant - Paradox Equation I Page 8

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  "Lord Master, the time ships are complete."

  "You wish a reward. Speak it."

  "I ask for my children, Lord Master."

  "With this ship, I have the power to grant your request. You have no children in this time. So I shall find them in another and bring them to you. You are a nameless slave. Your children shall be the same."

  "NO!"

  He broke free of his guards and ran. He heard Hensk's laughter mocking him. Slaves could not escape. There was nowhere to escape to.

  He ran by the keyboard and triggered the mechanism. He had little time before it engaged. He dove into the corner and laughed, as he closed the matrix. He had an escape. The thirteenth ship formed around him. Now to free a world and distract the dark brothers.

  The mechanism engaged. The oldest race stepped from their suddenly opened cells and walked away from the guards holding useless weapons. The power satellites were torches in the sky. The densk fled the crumbling city. Fled to ships that would not fly. The one they had been given to free them had completed his task. They were really very proud of him. They hadn't expected him to accomplish it for several hundred years. The child had freed his foster parents while still an infant.

  The slaves of other races extracted revenge. An old man happily told Rorisk why he was strangling him. The densk disappeared from the planet. One scream at a time.

  When they were gone, the elder race sent four to restore the ships. The freed of other races had transport home. They would free their worlds. All that would remain of the servants of the Dark One that had infested their galaxy were the eleven priests and the one lord. The child would keep them from inflicting great harm. They tapped the energy source he had created and engaged the great defenses that had been awaiting it. They reached into the mind of the child with the key they had been given and freed his powers.