Freder looked down the valley from the rocky promontory that he had so often used as a sentry point for the southern approaches, there in the hazy distance was the belching of many steam powered vehicles. Another incursion by the Hand. Every such invasion was unwelcome but to Freder this was doubly so. Today was to have been his day in the labyrinth, the test for all masters elect to pass and thus become a true master in the Brotherhood of the Good Arm. He had been in the Brotherhood for nearly eleven months and the time had seen a huge change in his circumstances from a talented but ignorant boy to a master, well almost. But instead of undergoing the final test he was here guarding this pass, guarding it because this incursion was not as easily deflected as all the others. Those had been easy to repel because the masters could turn the metal weapons of the Hand against them, he himself had seen off a seemingly mighty airship, armed to the gunwhales with men and bombs, with one well placed lightning strike drawn down from a stormy sky. This time the Hand had not blundered into their demesne with much bluster, many weapons and no strategy. This time they were well planned and prepared, the lumbering armoured vehicles were all well earthed and their occupants insulated from the lightning strikes. When masters had attempted to manipulate the machines by going closer they had been felled by some unseen force with few clues as to the nature of the weapon. That very morning Jake Lightning Arm had been the only one of five masters to escape back to them and he had been in a pitiful state, barely able to walk. He had described the awful sensations before collapsing completely and Freder had been present amongst the masters and masters elect.
“It was as though someone with hands of flame had scratched nails of iron down the inside of my skull. The pain was unendurable.” Jake had whispered hoarsely.
That had been three days ago and he was still in the infirmary under the care of master Elias.
It seemed obvious that the Hand had made a breakthrough in their researches into weapons that would be effective against the members of the Brotherhood, undoubtedly helped by his own twin brother and his knowledge of modern electronics. It also seemed obvious to him that he should be one of those who would hold the pass against this fresh assault, his dark aura made him the single most powerful member of the Brotherhood. But there was another reason for him to be here; if Josef had indeed aided the Hand in their research then he would be the only person who was likely to understand just what the new weapon was, and just possibly, how to neutralise it.
Observing the column from this vantage point Freder felt something that had been a blessed absence for much of his time in this world, the insidious scratchy buzz of electrical interference. He was fairly certain he knew what Jake had encountered for he had experienced something very similar to the description the first time he had entered the IT suite at secondary school. He had been physically sick and nearly collapsed at the intensity of the battering of so many electrical signals. Since then he had become inured to it, yet it still made him feel ill and badly disturbed his concentration when he had lessons in the room.
Somewhere in that column of vehicles was a device that generated severe electrical interference and he was probably the only person who stood any chance of getting close enough to it to destroy it. But the problem was how to get close enough to first locate the device and then summon the necessary force to completely obliterate it. He was just one boy and he would be easy to overpower with enough men or even to kill if that was the Hands’ intent. The thought caused him to shudder and pull his cloak closer around him, his movement caught the attention of his companion and a warm arm wrapped around him and pulled him gently into her side.

“What’s wrong Freder ?” Valentina asked him.
“I have to get amongst those machines, find and destroy the one that is generating the interference.” He answered her grimly. “No one else will stand a chance.”
“Interference ? Is that the weapon the Hand have made ? Do you know how it works ?” The questions tumbled out of her, she was frightened by this unstoppable advance.
“I can feel it, like a harsh buzzing in my head.” He told her and looked up at her face.
“Like an itch.” She said.
“Yes. On my world there are countless machines making such interference, I had to learn to live with it. But here anyone with a good arm will be totally unprepared for that level of ‘noise’, it’s what overwhelmed the other masters and nearly took Jake too.”
“Have you told anyone of this ?” She questioned him.
“No, not yet.” He admitted. “I wasn’t sure until I got this close.”
“You must tell the Master Supreme immediately. We must plan how to destroy it.” She told him urgently.
He nodded, it was the smart thing to do, but he also knew why Valentina was so concerned. She didn’t want him to put himself at risk as he had done for her at Crossblinging, they had something no others shared and they had become almost inseparable since that day when their auras had linked and merged for the first time.
“Someone will need to be here.” He said looking back at the smoke rising from the column. Valentina took his hint and reached down to the vatenloeker that ran swift and silver through the rocks below them to use the energy to send an empathic message to her mother, for though Freder could do many things he still lacked the finesse to make his messages understandable, though at least their strength no longer drowned out everything. Valentina felt her mother’s aura stir in response and knew that a replacement would soon arrive. Freder felt the message and reached for her hand, he knew he could destroy any machine of the Hand, the deep vatenloeker provided more than enough energy for the task, but he drew a different form of strength from her presence and at this time of trial he needed that calm.
It was an hour later that the slightly incongruous sight of Freder and Valentina still hand in hand was seen in the corridors of the House but not even the boldest senior would make fun of them, everyone knew of their shared strength and prowess. Valentina placed her hand upon the lock plate of her mother’s suite and almost immediately the door was swept open from inside at the Master Supremes merest gesture. They stepped inside to face seven of the most experienced masters gathered around Miranda Bluesky’s desk, a daunting sight for anyone.
“Valentina, Freder.” Miranda greeted them with a smile. “You wished to speak to me ?”
“I believe I know what the weapon of the Hand is.” Freder answered her. “Valentina has also experienced the sensation that I can feel coming from the column, Tina.” He prompted her.
“I felt an itch in my head, I don’t feel it now that I am far from the column of machines.”
Frowns crossed the faces of the gathered masters.
“The sensation I felt is like a harsh buzzing in my head.” Freder told them. “I haven’t felt it since leaving my own world.”
“What causes this ?” Miranda asked him directly.
“Electrical interference, you would understand it as a galvanic noise. The Hand have made a device that generates huge quantities of this noise and can direct it at us as they will. I think Jake probably only caught a fraction of the full force of it and so he could just escape, the others must have been in the middle of the beam.”
“Galvanic noise.” Simeon Othersight muttered and shook his head. “Can’t see how it could affect us that much, lightning is galvanic but it doesn’t knock us out.”
Valentina felt Freder’s emotion begin to rise, for they were still hand in hand, and gave him a subtle tug to get his attention. She shook her head as he glanced her way, this was not a time to upset anyone by a rash action, he seemed to accept the restraint and cooled his irritation.
“Master Supreme.” He said formally and all eyes turned back to him. “Maybe I can demonstrate a fraction of the interference for master Simeon’s evaluation.”
It was so polite that Miranda could scarcely refuse and she could feel Stannous’ positive reaction, though that could easily be him mischief making as he and Simeon were longtime antagonists.

“Very well Freder.” She assented and braced herself as she saw him release Valentina’s hand and his aura darken and expand in search of an energy stream.
“I think you should leave.” He said to Valentina as he began to channel the energy, he intended this to be a full on demonstration. “I don’t want to hurt you Tina.” He said in the face of her silent protest. She felt her mother’s gentle coercion and acquiesced, much to master Simeon’s growing consternation.
With Valentina outside the room and the door closed Freder felt reasonably sure that she would be protected from the worst of interference by the stone acting as a shield.
“If this hurts at all then tell me immediately.” He told them seriously. “I don’t want to be doing the Hand a favour.”
The charge build up was nearly complete and the air around his hands glowed blue.
“You’ll know it if it hurts me my young friend.” Stannous assured him with a tight grin.
No one else spoke but they could easily feel the strong static charge he had built up, it was a standard prelude to ‘throwing’ an electric shock. The first spark jumped the gap to the nearest metal clad leg of the desk with a loud crack but nobody so much as flinched and Freder could see master Simeon turning to deliver some caustic comment to another master. Stepping up to the desk so that he could touch it easily Freder brought his hands in close to the sculpted metal and with twitching fingers let fly sparks of all sorts, a cacophonous disharmony of galvanic noise in the heart of the calmest House. Everyone clapped their hands to their heads in pain and even Freder was shocked by the level of noise he generated and stopped of his own volition after only a couple of infinitely slow drawn out seconds. There was absolute silence in the room as the masters warily took their hands from their heads and looked at each other, their faces pale and anxious. They now understood perfectly how truly horrendous the new weapon of the Hand was.
“The Lords preserve us Freder, you think that the Hand can do worse ?” Stannous demanded of him.
“We know they can. They felled four of Jake’s party and he is still suffering after effects.” Freder answered him seriously, there must be no misunderstanding.
“Can even you withstand such an assault ?” Stannous asked him with almost brutal directness.
“Possibly. I am much more used to such noise, there’s lots of it in my world.”
“Galvanic noise.” Stannous mused. “Is there any protection from it ?”
“Perhaps.” Miranda commented and directed a summons out to her daughter.
Pale faced and more than a little spooked Valentina looked around the edge of the door before entering the room proper, it was clear she had felt much of the dreadful demonstration as well.
“How bad was it outside Tina ?” Miranda asked her softly.
“It was horrible, like someone was bashing pans inside my head, I just wanted to run away.”
Miranda stepped over to her daughter and put a comforting arm around her, stroking her back gently.
“Then even these walls only provided a little protection.” She surmised and like all the others turned back to Freder. He had pulled off the impossible once before, could he do it again now that the stakes were even higher ?
“Trickery.” He pronounced. “We need to fool the Hand into believing I am on their side so that I can get in amongst the machines, find the one harbouring the weapon and completely destroy it.”
“And what is your trick ?” Stannous prompted him.
“I don’t have one. I just know that I have the best chance of taking out the weapon even if it is used on me.” He said and cast his gaze around the masters, throwing the problem back to them.
Their glances back and forth told of the confusion, they were vastly experienced in the many aspects of the good arm but fighting the newly wily Righteous Hand seemed beyond them.
“The Hand will only trust one of their own.” Valentina spoke up. “I saw how they reacted to anyone not in their uniform at Crossblinging. They despised the town’s policemen and had little time for the authorities there. But even when men from different units of the Hand met there was great camaraderie.”
Freder smiled at her, once again Valentina had provided the way forward.
“We must make a uniform for Freder, one that can pass for that of the Hand.” Miranda announced. “It must be padded to make him look larger and the boots must have built up soles and heels to give him extra height.”
“He cannot just march up to them.” Stannous added. “Too suspicious out here, we must provide a convincing pursuit, lightning strikes at full intensity.”
Miranda felt her daughter tense under her hand at the mention of real danger to Freder.
“Is that essential ?” She pressed Stannous but it was Freder who replied.
“Yes.”

The growl of gears and steady throb of engine exhausts beats seemed unnaturally loud to Freder as he stood in the shelter of a small grove of wind stunted oak trees. His hastily improvised disguise had a rough high collar and it chafed his neck but he tried to block such discomforts from his mind as he concentrated upon his risky task. He had selected his assault site so that he was close to five of the major vatenleoker that ran through these hills, a point where they were closer than normal to the surface and easy to reach. He would need all that power to destroy the machines. The plan called for him to emerge from the grove when the lead vehicle came into view around a shoulder on the hillside, perhaps 200 yards distant. Stannous and Mikal were on a hilltop behind him holding a thundercloud, pregnant with charge, ready to rain lightning strikes down towards him as though he was being pursued. He could sense the position of the still hidden lead vehicle, just about right for the prelude of this carefully orchestrated attack. They would see the first lightning strikes come down but would not know who or what they were aimed at, it should be sufficient to get them nervous about an assault and be in the right frame of mind to render aid to one of their ‘own’. He slashed his left arm down and the lightning blazed out of the sky, each strike getting closer to his position, setting the terrifying scene perfectly. A tree blew apart at the back of the copse and Freder started pumping the ‘worry beads’ in his right hand to summon up his ‘normal’ red orange aura just in case they had a watcher in the column. He sensed the next stroke being directed towards his hiding place and broke cover immediately. Another tree shattered in flames and he was careening wildly towards the metal cased machine, arms flailing for the built up shoes made it very difficult to run properly. However this worked in his favour as it looked like he had run a considerable distance and was running out of strength. He was now in full view of the fighting machine that led the column and the lightning was grounding all around him, he didn’t need to pretend that he was frightened, these were very close. The exhaust beat changed, accelerating as the lead machine opened a gap between itself and the next pair behind it, it was working, they were giving him shelter ! He sprinted for the gap, narrowly missed being fried by a strike that sizzled low over his head; that would be Stannous’ work as no-one else had the confidence to dare such precision, but he would have words about that afterwards. Then there was a screaming scraping in his skull as the interference weapon discharged and he nearly stumbled in his surprise and discomfort. But he could now see that the horn shaped device mounted in a turret on the big central engine was pointing away over his head towards the distant masters. The lightning abruptly stopped as either Mikal and Stannous were disabled or they sought cover. Now it was up to him. The first task was to disable the weapon, this close he was not sure he could endure it’s awful noise in his head for long. The rivers of energy sparkled brightly in his mindseye as he ‘looked’ down into the native rock and he reached for their metallic streams, connecting with all five, he would need every last drop of that resource. He stopped in the midst of the still moving column and punched his left hand, palm outwards, up at the horn on it’s turret as it panned back and forth seeking fresh targets. There was a hideous scream of tortured metal and it ripped up and away through the air exposing an array of thin wires, now mangled. But the action had alerted a watcher in the lead vehicle and it came to an abrupt halt with a crashing of gears and hissing of steam.
“Sinisterre !” A voice bellowed from a hatch and it was followed by a wild pistol shot.
Freder’s aura flared blackly and the bullet was fended off to hit the armoured hull of the big central machine. He spun around and threw his arm at the man who was taking more careful aim and the gun flew from his startled grip and smashed brutally into his face. The other machines were now grinding to a halt and it would only be moments before more of the Hand either rushed him or shot at him and he could sense the weapon being powered up for a new discharge, it’s ruined turret swinging towards him.

A door in the lead tank swung open with a heavy crash and Freder summoned a huge wave of energy, this was no time for finesse, the massive carcass took off with a slight whoosh of air, flipped over and came crashing to the ground upon its back. Men screamed in panic and pain as the contents of the firebox and boiler spewed into it’s wrecked interior. Without waiting to see if anyone would emerge from it Freder spun back to the big weapon machine and flung the energy stream at the turret as sparks began to dance between the wires and the ether filled with the terrible howl of their discharges. Mercifully the fragile wires lasted only fractions of a second before they were mashed back into the insulating backplate and this in turn cracked and crumbled as the surrounding metal distorted and bent. For good measure Freder flipped the metal monster over onto its side with an almost casual gesture and turned to face the next challenge. Doors had opened in nearly every engine and members of the Hand were spilling out clutching rifles, some already taking aim at him, all of them seemed to be shouting the same word.
“Sinisterre !”
Freder laughed almost insanely at the sight, they were pointing metal guns at him, a master elect of the Brotherhood, so pathetic ! He swept his left arm round in a great circle and every single rifle propelled its unfortunate wielder backwards into men and machines. Before they could recover their wits he had seized their weapons in his unseen hand and wrenched them cruelly free, discharging some in the process and flung them far away. Men regarded him with total shock, one small figure could do all of that ?
“Pathetic !” Freder shouted at them in his emotionally charged state. “You aren’t even a match for one of us, I could kill you all !”
They believed him, not one man was untouched by this Sinisterres assault.
“Go back to your masters and tell them what I did here today. But understand this, do not return, I will not allow you to harm my brothers or sisters.” Freder told them.
Then Freder did something that he could not have known he was capable of, he reached beyond the five major vatenloeker and tapped into many and channelled that awesome energy. All seven remaining tanks flew into the air as though in formation, whirling and spinning like leaves caught in a maelstrom high above the terrified men.
“Go !” Freder roared with terrible authority as he held the machines aloft in his blazing grip.
The clothes he wore began to smoulder as the huge streams of energy leaked ever more into the surrounding air and even those men with no sight could see the boiling streamers that erupted from the slight figure in their midst. They needed no further prompting and took to their heels. Now Freder let his grip on the energies go and the tanks plummeted to the ground and landed in a series of terrifying thumps and bangs.

A horrible silence descended upon the battleground and Freder looked around at the destruction he had wrought, then he heard the moans. That wretched sound quenched the fire that had burned within him. In horror he realised that there were still men inside the wrecked tanks, badly injured, maybe even dead. He sent an urgent summons to the watching masters to send help for them and turned to the nearest tank, the weapon machine, to see what help he could render.
His gesture ripped open the armoured shell as though it was paper and he clambered into the stifling heat of the interior. Two men were cowering in a corner of the floor and the wall where they had been thrown by tipping up of the tank. The bogus uniform still smoked slightly but the red hand was clear and they drew some relief from it until Freder spoke.
“This way.” He waved them.
But they shrank back again for they did not know him as a member of the Hand. Freder sighed and reached for their metal belt buckles with his unseen hand and wafted the terrified pair out of the tank and set them upon their feet. Without waiting to see what they did Freder turned his attention back to the tank and pushed his senses through its interior, there didn’t seem to be anyone else inside, just a dark space, time to complete his mission.
Standing upon the hull he sent his aura high up into the cumulo nimbus thunderhead that Stannous and Mikal had summoned and searched out the pockets of charge he required. This machine would never menace the Brotherhood again nor its parts be salvaged for another; he intended to melt this infernal device into slag. Eyes closed, he felt the lightning paths he needed and channelled charge up from atop the machine, in moments the two would meet and the circuit would be made. Nothing would stop his destruction of the galvanic noise generator.

A clang of a door being swung open reverberated through the metal beneath his feet and his eyes opened in surprise, there was still someone inside the machine !
“Get out !” He yelled. “Get out before it blows !”
The first feeler of the multiple lightning bolts he had summoned was tickling the air around him, there were only seconds left.
“Wha….?” A muzzy voice said.
“Jo ? Jo ! Get out, get out !!” Freder screamed frantically as he peered down into the dark interior and saw his brothers face blinking into the light.
“Fred ?” Josef questioned still shaken and disoriented. “That you Fred ?”
Freder could feel the bolts streaking in towards them, Josef would never make it out in time, he jumped down into the hole and grasped his brother to him tightly. The lightning struck and kept on striking, everything went black and silent for an eternal moment.
Then the 21st century came crashing into his skull.
They were once more standing beneath the rusting old lamp standard in the park with rain beating down on their heads and shoulders.
“Fred. How did you get here, how…..we’re back.” Josef breathed in his astonishment as his addled brain took in the new surroundings.
“Yes.” Freder said bitterly. “We’re back.”

End of Strand One of the Sinisterre Skein

Now it is up to you who have read my tale. Do you want it to continue ? Do you want there to be a Second Strand ?
John_O