Way of No Return (Champions of the Crystal Book 8)

Chapter 12.4

When Ford approached his lab, he was startled and annoyed to find the lights on there too. Leaning Stecklan against the wall, he approached with the gun ready. The door responded to his palmprint as always, and he stepped through, calling, "Hands in the air and away from the equipment!"

Two pairs of grey eyes met his, and one of the students said, "If I do so, we will all most assuredly regret it. Who are you?"

"I am the owner of this laboratory and everything in it," Ford retorted. "Who are you?" Now that he looked closely at them, he was beginning to have some idea.

The one who was not elbow-deep in a contraption said, "We have adopted nicknames for the convenience of our fellow students. I am called Lallar, and my colleague is called Fanar. How are you called?"

"Call me Ford. You're the exchange students from Homeworld, I take it."

"Yes, sir," Lallar said. "We are sorry to have used your equipment without permission, but we hoped to contribute to the scientific efforts of the resistance. Perhaps you would not mind helping us deactivate this device before it explodes."

"Certainly," Ford said, going over to Fanar. "Lallar, here. Watch the door. Oh—I left a colleague of mine outside. He's incapacitated. Would you help him over to the cot?"

"Yes," Lallar said.

Ford went over to examine the device Fanar was entangled with. "Ah. Yes, that one's tricky. It's never worked right. Here." He gave it a firm slap on one side, and it deactivated.

"Thank you," Fanar said, quickly withdrawing his hands. "You're Ambassador Tassan, are you not?"

"Yes. Or, I was. I've retired from diplomatic life," Ford said.

"Do you have any recent news of Homeworld?"

"None since I left, I'm afraid. I've encountered several Wayfarer pairings recently, but none of them had been in contact with Homeworld, for security reasons. But I have no reason to believe the invasion has reached that far."

Lallar stumbled in, dragging a reluctant Stecklan. Ford went over to help, and Stecklan seemed to relax a little, letting Ford lead him over to the cot. "Sleep it off," Ford advised, then went back to the lab table. "Now. Tell me everything you've done in here. Starting with how you circumvented the security."

"We did not. The security people did that," Fanar said. "When we volunteered to help and said we thought we would know how to use some of this equipment, they let us in. They said it was authorized since the princess released your personal as well as public assets to the militia."

Ford scowled. "I need to watch that message," he sighed. He was sure Sabrina had meant to contribute money and weapons to the resistance and hadn't given a single thought to his dangerous lab equipment. She paid about as much attention to what she called his "puttering around" as he did to her jewelry collection. Less, actually, since he bought her jewelry on a fairly regular basis, he amended with a faint grin. "You two are lucky you haven't blown anything up yet."

"We have proceeded with extreme caution," Fanar said.

"I can see that," Ford admitted, glancing around. Few things appeared to have been moved, and the fire suppression system had not been set off, which even he had been known to do occasionally. "I'd welcome your assistance, but I'd prefer that you not work in here unsupervised."

"That is acceptable," Lallar said. "We have spent so much time attempting to assign functions to the equipment that we have not been able to make any progress on experiments. Your guidance is welcome."

"Excellent," Ford said. "The last thing I was working on before I left for Homeworld was the possibility of disrupting Kyan communications, but I had not made much progress. My work at the Wayshipyard Training Academy was focused on counteracting the Kyan Way disruption technology from within a Way, but I lost my class notes on the journey home. Since the Kyan are an immediate problem, I propose to return to the problem of their communications, unless you have another project in mind."