Validation


The transport vehicle shuddered as the roar echoed over the plains.

The driver reached over and turned up the soundproofing.

The man in the passenger seat adjusted his hat.

"It's a shame, really," he remarked.

The driver leaned forward a bit in an attempt to find the track he was supposed to be following.

"Yeah- stupid tourists who don't know the first thing about mental shielding. You'd think there would be some sort of screening before they let people travel here. It's bad enough having to listen to them without it affecting the animals."

He jerked his thumb towards the back of the transport.

"Case in point."

The man in the hat nodded and looked up at the bulk of Saturn suspended in the sky.

"Yeah- the Titanian Tourism Acts, or something."

Another roar, dulled by the increased soundproofing, shook the cabin.

The man in the hat reached out with his mind and tried to calm the beast they were taking to the preserve.

"Any luck?" the driver asked.

His passenger shook his head ruefully.

"Nothing. I'm not strong enough to get through to him."

The driver shrugged.

"Well, hey- that's why we brought that equipment you're lugging around."

The other man looked down at the black box in his lap.

"Still- I can't believe he'd do that. I mean, he's always been docile enough, and the keeper was always kind to him-"

"Lanothians are touchy, you know that. Back in the day we'd mind-link with them and ride 'em around. Good guards, too- they react to the minds around them, and take on the characteristics of the ones linked to them."

The man in the hat shifted uncomfortably.

"So it's really true that there was somebody twisted in the crowd that day?"

The driver shrugged.

"Not my business to know. Maybe."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, the plains passing by below them.

"We there yet?" the man in the hat asked. "I can never tell where the preserve line starts."

The navigation console beeped.

"Now we are."

The passenger reached for the door controls.

"We don't have to go really far in, right? Let's just drop him here. I'll be sorry to see Validus go, but all that business with destroying his enclosure was too much. The Head-Keeper didn't deserve that at all."


The transport had landed, and both the zoo employees had walked around to the back. The man in the hat snapped his box open and took out a curved metal band and took his hat off; arranging the band carefully around his head like a tiara.

:You ready?: the driver asked.

The other man nodded, and the driver stepped forward to place his hand on the scanner pad; mentally ordering the door to open.

It slid open slowly, the heavy doors taking their time to fold properly into position.

Finally, they rumbled to a stop.

The man with the power amplifier on his head stepped forward cautiously, projecting calm and safety to the behemoth inside.

Validus lumbered slowly out of the transport, grunting lowly in uncertainty.

"Come on, come on," the man said under his breath. "You know me, Validus, there's nothing to be scared of, you're safe, come on…"

Slowly, they established a pattern- the man took one step back, Validus shuffled forward an inch or two. After an excruciatingly long time, the giant Lanothian had moved a fair distance away from the transport.

The man who'd been coaxing him relaxed somewhat, and walked towards the great beast, arms out.

"See, that wasn't so bad," he said encouragingly. "And now you've got all this nice grassland to run around in on the preserve-"

Validus reared up on his back legs and roared; the sound exploding over the plains and making the grass tremble.


The man fell to the ground, hands clutched over his ears, head ringing in time with his tortured eardrums.

He heard his companion yell with his mind, not his ears.

"I'm okay," he mumbled, trying to send a psychic reassurance. "B'there's s'mething…"


Validus was reeling from the mind he'd touched- so foreign in content and tone than those of the zookeepers he was used to being around.

It hurt.

There it was again- a bright glow in a world delineated only by the faint traces of other minds and fleeting images grabbed from those with eyes.

Validus reeled and stumbled sideways, only peripherally aware of a soft wet crunch beneath one hand, and a sudden blank spot in his view of the world.

It wasn't as important as this other mind- the mind that was too hungry and bright and sharp to be friendly.


The man with the power amplifier on staggered to his feet and stared, eyes slightly glassy, at the bloody mess where his partner had been.

"Ah, Symradel-"

His knees started to give out.

"Let me help you there," someone said.

The man felt someone catch him- but it was a distant sensation, most of his mind being taken up with the intensity of Validus's negative reaction to whatever it was he had sensed.

He tried to force himself to focus and looked up at the person who'd caught him.

"Thank you," he said blearily, then what he was seeing registered in his brain. "Hey, you're-"

Tharok ran him through and took the power amplifier.

"That's mine, I believe."


Tharok placed the power amplifier on his head.

Validus roared again, unable to block out the cyborg's mind.

Tharok turned towards the beast.

"C'mon, you brute," he said, striding forward. "I know how this works. If I keep projecting long enough, you have to link with me. You will link with me."

For long minutes, the plain shook with Validus's pained stumblings as Tharok kept forcing his mind at the Lanothian.

Finally, the giant settled.

Tharok came closer and regarded the beast, now seemingly docile.

Smash that transport.

Validus turned and raised his fists, bringing them down with all his power on its roof.

It crumpled instantly.

Tharok smiled.

Let me up, he ordered. We have things to do.