by Ashley West
"With all due respect, General, your fire burns bright still. You're not a relic."
Holin smiled. "You always were my favorite, Samel. I'd like you to keep that in mind as we talk."
That brought a frown to Samel's face, but it cleared quickly. "Alright," he said slowly. "What's going on?"
"You were involved in the disturbance with the Hillsiders some time ago, were you not?"
Samel nodded. "I was, yes. Kalia summoned me that morning to help."
"Then you saw how unusual it was than what the Hillsiders usually do."
"Yes," he agreed. "There were far more of them than I've ever seen before."
"They usually do not attack in such force. The thing about the Hillsiders is that they aren't very smart," Holin said. "They do not plan. Two or three of them will stumble upon a village or a town and they'll attack it. People usually are ill prepared to fight them, and that's why they have such a reputation. But strategy has never been one of their strong points."
"You don't think this was an accident." It wasn't a question.
Holin speared him with a look. "Neither do you," he said. "Because you're smarter than that. Tell me what you think."
In all honesty, Samel hadn't given it much thought. He'd gone to fight the creatures because it was his duty, and when they were all dead, he'd assumed that was the end of it. But Holin had a point. The Hillsiders were easy for them to fight because they, like so many others, couldn't stand up to their flames. Their claws were no match for the pure fire the warriors wielded, and so their clashes were short lived.
But this battle had waged on for much longer than usual. And there had been nothing typical about it. Holin was also right that the Hillsiders didn't plan. It wasn't their style. They almost seemed brainless at times, with the way they shambled and just mindlessly attacked whatever was in front of them. So for them to all have worked together to attack the same place...
"Someone's controlling them," he murmured, frowning. "Or giving them orders, at least."
Holin nodded. "That was my thought, as well. They never would have done that on their own."
"But why?" Samel asked. "If you wanted an army, why in the Void would you go for Hillsiders? They aren't good for anything other than slashing up what you point them at."
"Perhaps that's what they're wanted for," Holin suggested. "There's something to be said for dumb muscle, don't forget."
Samel supposed he had a point there. If you wanted a force that was expendable and wouldn't talk back, then Hillsiders were perfect for that. You could just point them at your enemies and they would keep throwing themselves at them until they died. But there wouldn't be any results. Any warrior worth their weapon could kill a Hillsider easily. It would just be a wasted effort...
"...on both sides," Samel murmured as the thought hit him.
"You have a thought, Captain?"
"General, sending Hillsiders to attack someone is a wasted effort. But it's wasted for both sides. The Hillsiders die again and again because they aren't smart enough to know how to stand up to a fully trained warrior. But the warriors are wasting their time as well. Hillsiders will never be a threat, but they have to be dealt with all the same. So while we're fighting them, whoever is in charge is either working to tire us out or using it as a distraction to do something else."
Holin's face was solemn, but he nodded. "Yes, that does make sense. And that is the reason I've brought this up. It has recently been discovered that a book was stolen from the library of the Elders."
"That's sacred ground," Samel said, taken aback. The Elders were seen as the highest authority their kind had. Even though they had a leader, who was the figurehead of their people, the Elders were the oldest. They had seen the most, and most of them had been warriors before they became too old to do it. They had the most experience and it was said that they were the closest to the Heat that burned inside the planet.
The library was where all the sacred scrolls and tomes were kept, reminders of a time before technology. All of the first stories of their people were written on those scrolls and books, and for someone to have infiltrated that space... It was unthinkable.
"We have been trying to figure out who could have done such a thing."
"It can't have been any of our people," Samel said quickly.
Holin looked amused. "And why do you say that?"
"Because we all know what it means to defile sacred ground," Samel said. "We all know that land is for the Elders and those who have permission to go there. No one would dare."
"That was my thought as well," Holin admitted. "It is far more likely that the Hillsiders were a distraction and that someone used our preoccupation to sneak in and take the book."
It made him angry just to think about it. The books and scrolls in the library weren't for outsiders. They were a record of their people and how far they'd come, and for someone else to just come in and help themselves... It made his blood boil. Samel clenched his hands into fists and took a deep breath.
"What did they take?" he wanted to know.
Holin shook his head. "I wasn't told. The Elder said that it was not a book of great importance, which leads me to believe that this was just a trial run. That whoever is behind this merely wanted to see if they could get in and out with something that belongs to us."
"They chose a sacred space for a trial run?" Samel demanded, incredulous.
"It's likely they didn't know how important the library is to our people," Holin pointed out.
That made sense, but it didn't make him any less angry about it. "What are we going to do?" he asked, hunger all but forgotten about.
"I am glad you asked."
The very next day saw Samel found himself preparing for a patrol. It was both exciting and demeaning all at once, and he had conflicting feelings about it. He hadn't done a patrol since his early days of being a warrior, but the fact that he was looking for something specific made it a little better.
It wasn't going to be a widely known thing that someone had gotten past them and into the library of the Elders. For one, it was shameful that it had happened at all, and for another, there was no need to cause a panic among the people over something they were still working on figuring out. Only those of high rank in the warriors knew what was happening, and Samel felt a little thrill at finally being ranked high enough to be in on something like this. And, he supposed, it was nice to be getting off planet for a bit. It had been too long since he’d spent any time in a ship looking at the stars from up close.
“Hey.”
He looked up from where he was packing a light travel bag for the short trip to see Crispin standing in the doorway.
“Sure, just let yourself in,” Samel teased, pushing his comm device into the bag.
“Done that already. You going somewhere?”
And that was the thing about being of higher rank than one of his oldest friends. It wasn’t like he could just tell Crispin what was happening. “For a bit, yes,” Samel said. “Warrior stuff.”
“You mean stuff I’m not supposed to know about, right?” Crispin asked dryly. But then his face split in a smile. “It’s alright. I know you can’t tell me anything now that you’re all high and mighty and captain-y.”
"That isn't a word," Samel pointed out, but he was relieved. He had very few friends and his family hardly saw him. Joining the warriors was a lifetime commitment and it didn't leave much room for other commitments. He wanted to keep the friends he did have and not make them hate him because he had an important job now.
But he needn't have worried, apparently. Crispin was so good natured about most things that this wouldn't be enough to put a damper on their friendship at all.
"That's beside the point," Crispin said. "I was coming to see if you wanted to go down to the cantina tonight and see what we can see, but I'm assuming you're going to be busy."
"I am," Samel said. "Unfortunately. I feel like I haven't been out with you and Shenna in an age."
"It
's been a long time," Crispin agreed. "But hey, at least you still want to spend time with us, even now that you're more important than we'll ever be."
"You know that is not how this works, don't you?"
Crispin laughed. "Of course I do. Don't worry, Samel. We aren't going to let you forget that you have a life outside of being a warrior. We'll see you when you get back from whatever it is you have to go and do."
"Thank you, Crispin," Samel said sincerely. He held his hand out, and Crispin clasped his forearm, smiling.
"Where would you be without me?" he teased. "Be careful out there. Heard the Hillsiders have been acting up lately."
Samel frowned at that. "You mean when they were here a few weeks ago?"
"No, I mean in general. There was a dancer in the cantina the other day, and she was talking about how she was chased from one of her performances by about six of them."
"On this planet?" Samel wanted to know.
Crispin nodded. "Yeah. Out in one of the border areas. She said she's heard about them moving in other places, too. Who knows what they want."
That's what he would have liked to know as well. If it was just them looking to infiltrate the planet's' capital, then they wouldn't be spread out all the way to the border areas. Those were rural towns that had very little by way of money and resources, and there wouldn't be anything there for someone to take.
"Keep your ears open," Samel said seriously, giving Crispin a look that he hoped conveyed how important this was.
"Will do. Anything with big groups of Hillsiders involved can't be good."
"That's for certain," Samel agreed. "I'll see you when I get back."
The shuttle he'd managed to wrangle for this patrol wasn't fancy. It wasn't one of the big diplomatic ones that people took from one planet to another when they were just making short trips, and it wasn't designed for comfort either.
Samel's legs were already cramping from the small control area, and he sighed and pressed his hand to the sensor on the command panel.
"Instructions?" went the shuttle's AI, in its monotone voice.
"Auto steer," he said. "Circuit 754-Alpha."
"Acknowledged. Circuit 754-Alpha engaged."
He pushed himself out of the command seat and stretched his arms up towards the top of the ship, leaning back until his spine cracked with several satisfying pops. Samel groaned and went to hunt down something to eat.
It was beautiful out here, what with the lights from the stars and the sight of the planet below him. It was rare enough that he got to come all the way out here, and he had meant to enjoy it, but Crispin’s words were still playing in his head.
The Hillsiders were becoming a bigger problem than they had ever been before, and no one knew why. It didn’t make sense for them to be all over the planet and trying to infiltrate the capital city. If there was anything for them to take it would be in the capital, not out on the borders where people barely had enough to eat.
None of it made sense, and he hated when things didn’t make sense.
He was out there, floating in a slow orbit around the planet, trying to see if there were any disturbances. Sometimes in order to get a clear picture of something, you had to step all the way back so you could see the whole thing. Or at least that was what General Holin had told him when he’d assigned Samel to this mission. They needed to be able to see what was happening so they wouldn’t be caught off guard again, and they needed to know if someone was out there with their eyes on their planet.
Honestly, Samel didn’t think anyone would be that foolish. The fire warriors weren’t to be trifled with, and anyone who wanted to challenge them would have a hard time of it. What did his people have that was worth that kind of danger?
Samel shook his head and tried to stop worrying. He was higher up in the ranks now, but it still wasn't his job to try and figure this out. The Generals would be on it, putting their heads together and waiting to see what he brought back by way of information. So it was more important that he keep his eyes open than that he wracked his brain trying to put together motives and assumptions.
And it wasn't a hardship, having to watch the view. He'd always loved flying, even before he had taken his oath as a warrior. The darkness of space was so beautiful, studded with light and a multitude of colors. It was hard to explain to someone who had never seen it before, but as he gazed out at the world outside of his shuttle, he had to be grateful that such a sight was his to see.
The moons were slowly orbiting his home planet, undetectable to the eye in how slowly they were moving, but he knew that one moment they would be on one side and the next they'd be on another, the two moons and the planet moving in a dance so much older than him.
One of the moons was craggier than the other, deep craters in its surface from where something had crashed into it before it was fully formed. They affectionately called it 'the Broken Tooth' for the way it looked in the sky most nights. The other was full and round from here, though Samel knew that it was hiding from them down on the ground. That one was the 'Lady's Face', bright and lovely in the night sky.
The thing about sitting out here was that it made him love his planet even more than he previously did. Just seeing it from this distance, looming ahead of him all rust brown and orange was enough to make him reaffirm his pledge to protect it in his own head.
"Incoming transmission," said the AI, startling him out of his thoughts, and Samel shook himself.
"Display," he said, turning his face towards the command panel.
"Acknowledged." There was a moment where nothing happened, and then a green light shot up from the panel and split into hundreds of lines that bisected each other at perpendicular angles, forming a grid. The grid wavered and shook and then resolved itself into the face of General Farleen, her usual no nonsense expression fixed firmly onto her face and well represented by the holo call.
"General," Samel said, saluting quickly.
"Captain," she replied, voice crisp. "Report."
He cringed internally. If only it had been General Holin who'd called him. He did better with hearing that there was nothing learned yet. Farleen was all about results, and Samel didn't have any for her as yet.
"It's all quiet out here," he said, keeping his posture straight and meeting her eyes. "So far no disturbances and no sign of surveillance."
The General frowned, clearly displeased. "They are out there somewhere, Captain," she said. "And we need to find them."
"Yes, General," Samel said. Because he quite agreed. Whoever and wherever they were, they needed to be found. But he didn't know that circling the planet was the way to find them. "I could go further out," he suggested. "Maybe see if I can pick up a signal. This close to home, all the tech from our own satellites is jamming anything I could pick up."
"A moment, Captain," Farleen said, and she withdrew for a moment. He could hear her murmuring to someone in the background, and Samel sent a quick wish to the stars that she was talking to Holin or even Dala and not someone like Josit who was even more of a stickler for the rules than she was. Holin would let him go out further and find out what was going on because he wanted to know as much as Samel did.
A moment later, Farleen returned. "You are to report back, Captain," she said, and unless he was seeing things or getting interference in the transmission, she actually looked regretful. "We will try a different approach."
Samel kept his sigh internal. "With all due respect, General, I don't have anything to report, and this is important. Wouldn't it make more sense for me to go just a bit further out and see if there's anything to see? Or just do a scan. Just for a moment?"
She shook her head. "You are to report back, Captain," she said again.
"Yes, General," he said. And his voice was as polite and respectful as ever, but he felt dull inside. And let down.
"Transmission ended," went the AI, and Samel sighed in earnest then. It wouldn't do to disobey a direct order from the Generals. There were seven of them, and they we
re the second highest order in the warriors and the third highest on the entire planet. Ignoring them was as good as telling the Elders to go void dipping, and that just wasn't something you did if you wanted to keep your rank.
All the same...
Samel looked out at the inky blackness beyond him. No one had said he couldn't take the long way home. There was a refueling station just a bit out from where he currently was. He could say that he'd stopped to get fuel and a snack and just happened to have his scanners going at the same time...
It was the sort of recklessness he would have been known for when he was a recruit, the kind of thing that was supposed to have been trained out of him. But he was already in the command seat, hand pressing to the sensor.
"Instructions?"
He grinned. "Override auto steer," he said. "Engage manual command."
"Engaging manual command," went the AI, and the two round globes that served as steering controls rose up out of the panel in front of him.
He put one hand on each and then was off.
Once he was in range of the fueling station, which was no more than an inverted dome about a hundred times the size of his own shuttle, floating along ahead of him, he pressed one hand to the sensor again.
"Instructions?"
"Engage scanner," he said. "Radius forty, highlight foreign activity."
"Engaging scanner."
Those settings would pick up anything that wasn't technology developed by his people in an area wide enough to find anything that was lurking in the darkness. He couldn't get any further out without alerting the Generals that he was disobeying them, so this would have to do.
"Approaching Refuel Station, designation six-one-four-nine-Beta-seven," said the AI. "Initiate refuel protocol?"
Samel hesitated. He didn't really need fuel, as he had more than enough to get back home in one piece, but it would buy him more time to watch the scanner and look more authentic in case anyone was tracking him.
"Initiate," he said.
