ThunderCats
Bio-Booster Armor Guyver
Eye of the Storm
Episode Thirteen
Jagara and Mumm-Rana stood at opposite ends of the scrying pool with their hands outstretched and mystic energies flowing into the liquid. Both women ended their incantations at precisely the same moment, and the waters in the cauldron were a nearly offensive violet. Mumm-Rana and Jagara stepped back, evidently pleased with their work, before addressing each other.
"This must be done," Jagara said, her face as solemn as her voice.
"To think," Mumm-Rana said at length, "at first I wanted to kill him. Now, I'm tyring to help him unlock more of his power. Existence can be a strange thing, can it not?"
"Given that I once more walk with mortals and am wearing attire far more abbreviated than I am accustomed to, I am inclined to agree." Jagara grinned a little at her jest. Mumm-Rana had been surprised to find that one of her wisdom and power could be somewhat lighthearted.
"Well, you did not complain when you awoke."
"I never said I did not like it. It is... liberating, I suppose. The spell should be ready soon. Should you not rest?"
"I have fully recovered after my last encounter with Sho. At the very least, I am glad my counterpart has not."
"I saw that battle. It was impressive to say the least." Jagara had availed herself of Mumm-Rana's cauldron in the two months since being restored to life in order to be fully abreast of all that had occurred concerning the ThunderCats and Sho. The Thunderian sorceress had been awestruck at the devastative might of the Guyver. Especially without Sho at the helm. "Out of control. I can see why they called it that. Absolutely merciless in how it dealt with the Lunattaks and Mumm-Ra."
"When shall we employ the spell?"
"Soon, but not now. Let them adjust to the latest development before we throw a rude surprise their way."
"A strange way to phrase it."
"But an apt one."
Seeing Claudis in such good health bolstered Tygra's spirits immensely. Already he was sitting upright in the contoured bed with the sheet pooled around his waist. The man was still barrel-chested as he had been in his prime, yet the muscles of his arms and torso had slackened with age and so much time in stasis. Given a week or so to rest, Claudis looked as if he might just retake his place on the throne.
"I'll speak with Lion-O about that," Claudis had replied when Tyrgra made a tentative attempt to broach the subject. The calm tone of his voice, strangely, did little to assuage Tygra's own worries. At present, however, his sightless eyes were goggling and his jaw hanging slack. Tygra had just finished his overview of events of the past few years. Most particularly, the Mutant Army and their utter immolation.
"This boy..." he began, then paused to collect his thoughts. "This Sho... did all THAT?!"
"It sounds fantastic, I know, but it's all true. Sho is a large part of the reason New Thundera Colony exists."
"Such power... And you say he follows the Code of Thundera?"
"To the best of his ability. Of course, he was only just introduced to it rather than having it ingrained into him all his life." All in all, Sho did quite well with the Code. The ins and outs of Thunderian law were still something of a mystery to the human, but so long as he kept the Code close to his heart, all was well. Sho, Tygra well knew, wasn't the type to abuse the power he had yet the fact that he accepted Thunderian laws and ways let him sleep a little better at night.
"This other human... I forget his name. I apologise, but my time in stasis has left my memory somewhat addled."
"Lisker," Tygra replied, "is still out there. Though he hasn't caused us any trouble, and Sho believes he may have changed in some ways, he is still considered a threat."
"From what you've told me, my son has indeed chosen a worhty new Vanguard of Thundera. Has it gone to his head?"
"Not at all."
"Sho sounds like a remarkable young man. I would like to meet him."
"I will arrange it straightaway..."
"Oh, no rush. So, Tygra, tell me. How is Lion-O?"
"As king..."
"From what you just told me, he has done well in that regard. I mean, how IS he?"
"Oh. Do you mean..."
"Let me be more specific. Has he chosen a wife yet?"
Tygra hesitated. This was a topic he'd been hoping to save for later.
"Well, yes, there is a woman in his life."
"Good. So, don't keep me in suspense. Who is it?"
"Belive it or not... Please understand, many things have..."
"Out with it. A local?"
"Cheetara." Claudis' reaction was nothing like what he had been expecting. A warm smile creased his lined face, genuinely happy over the news. Even though his eyes were blind, Tygra still resisted scratching his head in confusion in front of him.
"I can feel your befuddled expression from here," Claudis teased. Tygra had forgotten how casual he could be in private conversation. "I take it you thought I would disapprove."
"Well, yes, actually."
"The circumstances are indeed unusual, but I know she always cared for him very much. Granted, I never thought they'd share an intimate relationship, but I know her quite well. Cheetara would never have given herself to Lion-O if she didn't think him deserving. Or ready. If she loves him, that's enough for me. Besides, are they not both adults now?"
"Well... yes, they are."
"Perhaps it's fortunate that his suspension capsule malfunctioned. If anyone can help Lion-O steer through the challenges of adulthood and kingship, it's her. I have no worries."
"Is... there anything futher?"
"No. In fact, I find myself rather hungry."
"I'll have a meal sent to you at once."
"Thank you, Tygra."
Tygra made his way out of the Medical Wing, feeling more puzzled than anything else. Claudis' attitude had been remarkably relaxed, especially regarding Lion-O's relationship with Cheetara. Deep within, Tygra asked himself why he was so happy about it, and why he had not been terribly surprised when told that his son's suspension capsule had malfunctioned.
Another thought occured to him, one he had kept filed away as unexplainable. Exactly WHY had Lion-O not only aged, yet had been physically powerful on emerging from his capsule? It was the one thing his limited knowledge, and Pumyra's rather more advanced knowledge, of medical science had yet to explain. At most, he should have aged a year or so. Jaga's having foregone suspension entirely explained his death, yet something still had not added up. Tygra felt himself closer to an answer than before, yet faced with even more questions.
Claudis, once he'd heard the door slide shut, faced forward and allowed the smile he had kept hidden to show. Cheetara and Lion-O. Never would he have thought of that. While waiting on his food, he allowed himself to consider how his son would have turned out had Thundera not been destroyed. Would he have chosen a woman of the Nobility? A civillian? Unwed kings had been known to fall for the average citizen from time to time, able to marry above any concerns of the ThunderCats by royal fiat alone. Arranged marriages had fallen to the wayside decades before he himself had acsended the throne, and that had been no small amount of years ago. At least his son had found love earlier in his life than Claudis had.
Even moreso than his regrets over having never been there for his son, Claudis held more for what had become ultimately necessary. The entire plan had been conceived in desperation, a counter-measure against the worst possible outcome for the Nobility. That they had been unable to arrive at the rendevouz point with the other convoys had been a possibility, hence other high-ranking ThunderCats having been sent with them to act as a new government should the Nobility be slain. Even so...
Even so... he thought. Lion-O had been robbed of nearly a third of his life by the hand of his own father. The process itself had been untested, with no guarantee it would work. Claudis had played dice with the life of his son. The fact that he'd won did little to temper the act itself. Jaga's advice to be a positive force in his life after such a thing seemed hollow, even asinine in the face of that. The worst of it was, however, that Claudis knew he had still more strings to pull in regards to Lion-O's destiny. In order to properly guide his son through the perils of kingship, he had to be more of a manipulator than a father.
To be my own child's king-maker, Claudis thought as he lay down once again. An ancient proverb came to him, of the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few.
"Or the one," he finished in a hushed whisper.
Siberias' quarters were sparse on decorations, unless one could count stacks of datapads and tomes of research stacked in a strange form of orderly chaos as decor. The elder Tyger seemed to feed on knowledge, a fact which Tygra found admirable. The questions which had arisen anew after his conversation with Claudis had nagged at him harder than ever in the hours since they'd spoken. Tygra kept trying to tell himself that they were unimportant next to the question of who the king of New Thundera Colony truly was, and kept coming away dissatisfied. The simple truth was that he had to know.
"How much do you know about suspension capsules?" It was uncharacteristically direct and indelicate, but he felt it best to get straight to the point.
"I don't suppose this concerns our newly-awakened monarch." Siberias eyed him evenly over the cup of tea which had paused at his lips.
"Claudis spent so long in stasis, I'm worried about any lingering after-effects." It was almost true.
"Well," the elder began after taking a sip, "there is that. The very point of the suspension capsules was to extend the lives of the occupants. The gas pumped into the closed environment was intended to slow all bodily functions to a crawl. Metabolism, cellular mytosis, cardiac and pulmonary rhythms, everything. Even higher brain functions."
"I'm interested in what could possibly cause the systems to fail."
"Any number of things. The systems had numerous redundancies, but nothing is ever perfect. However, before our homeworld was lost, failures had bottomed out at merely three percent. Lord Claudis, so far, is showing no signs of suspension failure." Being alive was proof enough of that.
"While in stasis on our journey here," Tygra began after sipping from his own cup, "Lion-O experienced what I can only describe as partial suspension failure." Silence thickened between them as the golden sunlight fell on Siberias' stacks of books along the western wall of his chambers.
"There is no such thing as partial failure when it comes to stasis," Siberias replied in an even teacher's voice.
"All of us, excepting Jaga, entered the suspension capsules for the trek to Third Earth. All of us, excepting Lion-O, emerged with only marginal age progression. Not only was he fully grown, having passed through puberty and adolecence, he was in excellent physical condition. As if only his mind had slowed and his body kept on."
"What you're describing is patently impossible. When I said there was no such thing as partial failure, I meant that even partial failure translated into catastrophic failure."
"Oh?"
"If what you say is true, then our king would have been little more than a vegetable. Lion-O's muscles would have atrophied, his heart would have been weakened, the liver would probably be only barely functional, body chemistry a train wreck, and that only if he lived at all." Siberias closed his eyes with a heavy sigh. "Recovery would have been impossible. If he'd suffered partial suspension failure, it would have been enough to count as total failure. Lion-O should have only lived a few hours on emerging. If that long."
"Nevertheless, that's indeed what happened."
"Then he either experienced a chain of scientific coincidences and impossibilities tantamount to a genuine miracle or..." Siberias gasped as the obvious conclusion occured to him.
"Which is why I need to know."
"This is... unsettling. Still, I don't see how it could have been done. Much of the original work on it was highly classified, but there is one rumor I came across."
"And that is?"
"I had heard, and I do not know how true this is, that the technology had been stolen from Plun-Darr."
Tygra sat still, shocked into silence. Plun-Darr and Thundera stealing technological secrets from each other was hardly news, espionage being a distasteful yet necessary affair for nations and worlds since the dawn of history, but something to preserve life having been developed by Mutants? Mutant science focused primarily on faster ships and faster forms of murder.
"Well, they obviously wrote it off as a lost cause," Tygra said more to fill the silence than to continue the conversation. Having learned more, he found himself faced with an impossible solution. Lion-O's suspension capsule had been tampered with. This in turn required someone with intimate knowledge of not only the systems, but the basic science behind the process. Also, this someone had to have access to the suspension capsules on board the royal flagship. Lastly, this notional someone had to have had... Claudis' blessing.
It was insane, he thought as he thanked Siberias and took his leave. There was no way Claudis could have had the knowedge to do such a thing... but that was what scientists were for. None of them necessarily had to know why they were experimenting on different uses of the capsules, all they needed was royal writ. As for tampering with the capsule itself, the suspect pool was pitifully small. Panthro possibly had the expertise, but even he would balk at such a concept. That left only one.
Tygra made his way to the Medical Wing on autopilot. This needed to be straightened out, and now.
Claudis knew it was Tygra before the other even spoke. The strange meatfruit grown locally was being digested along with the unnamed vegetables and the bread which could have been baked on Thundera, the taste was so familiar.
"What's the trouble?" he asked casually, hiding his growing unease with the skill of years of practice in statecraft.
"M'lord," Tygra began, and he could read volumes in the other's unsteady voice, "we must speak."
"Given that you have dismissed Kyranna and Pumyra is currently occupied in her laboratory, I'd say this is to remain between us. This concerns Lion-O, does it not?"
"I believe Lion-O's suspension capsule..."
"Was tampered with? I know." Claudis steeled himself on hearing the other's shocked gasp. Tygra, ever curious, had pieced together enough to determine what had happened at last, and had come to confront him. Another skill he had learned as king was how to wrong-foot others, and he needed to take control of this conversation quickly.
"Then..."
"I ordered it, yes. Sit down, Tygra."
"I..."
"Sit down. Now." Claudis let a little of the royal authority slip into his voice and was rewarded with the sound of Tygra sliding a chair next to the bed and taking a seat. "It was never supposed to happen, but contingency plans are made in the event they're actually needed. Just before Thundera was destroyed, while I was guiding all of you off-world, I was confronted by Slythe."
"I fail to see how..."
"Do not interrupt me. While planning the evacuation, we knew that keeping it a secret would be impossible. Plun-Darr High Command learned of it in record time, yet did nothing to harrass us."
"Why commit their resources toward killing us all when our own planet was going to do it for them?" Tygra said, repeating Royal Intelligence's take on the state of Mutant inactivity at the time. "I know all that."
"What you did not know, what was kept between Jaga and myself was that we were selecting an alternate destination. The captains of the ships would, on reaching the rendevouz point, receive another set of coordinates for our destination. This measure was taken in the hope that Plun-Darr would not learn of it until we had re-established our society and were able to defend ourselves again." The vertebrea in his spine popped loudly as he stretched his back. "On finding that orbital navigation satellites had been sabotaged just before the last of us were to leave, I remained behind to guide you."
"And the Mutants were waiting. Now that I think on it, it was rather a small force." Claudis heard the growing horror in his voice clearly.
"Slythe was operating with the permission of Mutant High Command, but not toward the goal he'd outlined. Slythe's stated intent was to recover plans for the new Warbot which our intelligence had stolen, but his true aim was to delay the departure of the flagship as long as possible With the rest of the convoy out of range, his force would face far less resistance when he tried to seize the Eye of Thundera. Which attempt failed spectacularly, you told me." Claudis grinned into the deepening silence between them. "Third Earth had already been selected as an alternate should we find ourselves unable to reach our chosen world."
"Are you telling me that... that stealing some of his life was necessary? That taking such a tremendous risk..."
"Not so large a risk as you might think. I know how intelligent you are, especially since you put things together so quickly, but here are some things you do not know. Suspension capsule technology was..."
"Stolen from the Mutants." Claudis couldn't miss the accusatory tone of Tygra's words. Well, he told himself, if he was to know it was best he know it all.
"True, but not in its current state. The technology had been originally designed to accelerate the maturation of new soldiers, along with increasing their physical capabilities. This was, of course, a disaster. Each subject emerged with various physical and mental abnormalities, the ones who survived at least. Most died during the process, and it was not an easy passing. When R.I. brought the plans for this system to us, my Chief Engineer noted how the systems could be put to the opposite use. As such, suspension capsules had been developed and installed on all deep space-worthy ships. It was an acceptable alternative to dumping massive amounts of funding in the failing FTL drive program. As it turns out, that decision has possibly saved thousands of Thunderian lives."
"And stolen some from your own son!"
"I cannot deny that, nor can I claim that the decision had been easily reached. I can't imagine how Jaga had to have tormented himself as he piloted your ship, knowing that his last act in life was to defy not only the Code but nature itself."
"Was that planned, too?"
"A contingency, I told you!" Claudis exclaimed, growing angry. "I had to plan for as close to everything as I could, and that meant not revealing everything to my advisors! Neither I nor Jaga had any desire to implement it, but Slythe made it necessary. I am not trying to deflect any blame, but I AM trying to explain how this became necessary!" Claudis paused briefly, reigning in his growing anger.
"On calculating the distance between Thundera and this planet, we both knew that if it came down to it, Jaga would not survive the trip. Lion-O would need all of you in your prime, and all of you would need a leader who wasn't either a kitten or too old for the responsibilities!" Claudis stopped for a moment before continuing, fighting not to unleash his temper. Tygra didn't deserve it. "Face it, if Jaga hadn't followed my order, the Mutants would have subdued you and all the native peoples of this Third Earth."
"I... cannot argue that point."
"Exactly. What I did was for not only the ThunderCats, but for all my people. Once our countrymen scattered among the stars learn that Thundera's heart and soul still live, the ThunderCats will be the light which draws them together again."
"Even so," Tygra replied, "I can't find any real justification for what you and Jaga did."
"Speaking as a man, neither can I. However, I was also king. A king, or one worth the veneer on his throne, has to put his people above all else, his own blood included."
"By that, you mean you intend to ceede the throne?"
"Haven't I taken enough from him already? On a related topic, Cheetara left not long before you arrived and she told me about Lion-O's offer."
"Are you saying I shouldn't take it?"
"The Lord of the ThunderCats, laws of succession aside, must be the king's most trusted advisor. Can you stand at his side, knowing what you know now and knowing you cannot tell him?"
"Will you?"
"When the time is right, yes. Lion-O deserves to hear the truth from me."
"Then I can. I can and I will."
"Do not accept this role as a means to keep an eye on me," Claudis replied, reaching out and finding Tygra's arm. "The two of us cannot be at odds."
"Knowing what I do now, I cannot fully trust you in an advisory role."
"I know, and I am truly sorry that you had to find out this way."
Claudis heard Tygra rise from his seat before taking his leave. Alone once more with his thoughts, Claudis finally let the tears come.
Lion-O meets his father for the first time since Thundera was lost. How will Tygra handle the burden of the truth about Lion-O's aging in stasis? Will it affect his performance as Lord of the ThunderCats? How will it affect his dealings with both father and son? All this and more in the next episode of Eye of the Storm.