@ Gordon AI: Thanks for the Beta offer. I may take you up on it once (or maybe that should be 'when') I've finished.

@ Troll99: Hope you had a nice holiday. Now get to work on Android or Human!!!

Echoes of future past, part 38

Flux took an involuntary step back, "You may have changed somewhat, but you still have to adhered to the rules of the council." Trance smiled, moving the gurney so that it was behind her, "I don't work for the council anymore: those self-serving bigots lost my respect a long time ago." Several of the guards drew long knives, and looked at her menacingly. Trance smiled, then adjusted her stance so that she faced them side on. She held out one hand, palm up, and with the ends of her fingers, gave them a 'come hither' gesture.

The first guard ran at her, his knife held out straight to run her through. Trance leapt into the air, somersaulting backwards, and raised her right foot sharply, catching him under the jaw. The force of the blow lifted the guard off of his feet and sent him crashing to the deck, out-cold. A second guard rushed Trance from the side as she landed, but she blocked his knife-arm with her left hand, and then slammed the flattened palm of her right into his chest at high speed, driving the air from his lungs and sending him flying back into anther two guards, sending the three of the sprawling to the ground.

Warned by some sixth sense, Trance dropped into a low splits, dodging below a swung knife just in time to avoid lousing her head. She punched out with her left fist, catching the guard square in the groin with enough force to break his pelvis. She grabbed his dropped knife and flung it across the room, pinning Flux's hand to the wall as he went for the alarm switch, "Don't touch that dial!"

Trance looked at the last of the guard still standing. His uniform was different, denoting a higher rank. Golden epaulets on his shoulders showed he was an expert in psychic as well as physical attacks. Trance smiled: at last, a true challenge. They slowly begin the circle, sizing each other up, probing for weaknesses with their mental powers. Trance was careful, only showing a fraction of her true strength, hiding her newly developed skills, lulling her opponent into a false sense of security.

Suddenly, and without warning, they charged at one another, their hands glowing with built up physic energy. At the last possible moment, Trance leapt into the air, diving over the guard's head, sending him headlong into the bulkhead. The reverberating sound of the impact echoed around docking bay, drowning out the moaning of the few guards that where still conscious. Traces chuckled, "It's all about strength and speed with some people, never skill or tactics."

"You always where my best student Del-Rak: it sadden me greatly when you turned your back on us." The voice from the doorway made Trance spin round to face the newcomer. He stood as tall as Dylan, but his skin was a shade of purple that was slightly lighter then Trance's had once been. His tail flickered backwards and forwards slowly below his long robe, a subconscious display of the anger that he managed to keep from his face. Trance drew herself to her full height, and found herself straitening her uniform, "Farther. It has been a while: not long enough, but a while none the less." Flux looked at the deck, "Lord Sen-Tel, it is not safe for you to be here: your daughter is more powerful then she was when she left."

Sen-Tel smiled, "She may be powerful, but she is still my daughter: I now her weaknesses." He raised his hand, figures stretched out, and Trance was lifted from the deck, "You where my heir apparent, you would have served on the council after I retired, but instead you chose to ally yourself with the primitive life-forms of this galaxy. I offered you the chance to rule three galaxies, and you turned it down to be a glorified gardener. You disappoint me Del-Rak, and now you will die."

Trance laughed as her farther tried to crush her mind, "You really think I would come back here and challenge you so directly if there was even a chance that you could defeat me? Yes farther, I was your best student, and I learnt a lot: I learnt how to be cruel, how to bend the wills of others to my own ends, how to show no pity as I killed the weak and innocent with a wave of my hand, and I learnt well." She slowly descended to the deck, her eye glowing with the brightness of pulsars, "But then I had what the humans call 'a moment of clarity', an epiphany of sorts, and I learnt the truth: despite how much we like to pretend, we are not masters of the universe, we are not gods. You ordered our people to seek out the Engine of Creation so you could ascend, but you never once thought that maybe the universe had other planes for itself, and didn't like your medalling."

Sen-Tel shielded his eyes, "But why did you return?" Trance smiled, "I came for the four pieces of the Engine of Creation that are in your position: I had hopped that we could do his peacefully, but you just had to try and kill me, didn't you." Trance raised her hand, and Sen-Tel found the deck moving from beneath his feet, "I offered you all of creation! How could you turn me down?" Trances smile broadened to a grin, "I got a better offer." For the first time ever, Sen-Tel feared for his life, "If I give you the Engine of Creation, what will you do with it?" Trance's face became very serious, "I will undo a wrong you visited on a friend of mine, and then I will return it to its rightful owner. And it's not a question of if you give it to me: I can take it without you trying to stop me, and you will live, or I will take it over your dead body."

To Be Continued