He hands me his flask of warm green tea. I take a sip and glance at him trying to guess what he’s doing here.
“So he has a special name for you,” he says.
I knew he was not going to pass on a chance to make fun of me. “Is that a problem?” I say.
“No, not a problem at all.”
“So drop it already.”
I hand him back the flask of tea and shake the receptor as if trying to determine whether it will work again or not.
I steal a glance at Damian. “What are you waiting for? Go. I can’t concentrate with you staring at me.”
“You’re ticklish,” he says. “On top of everything.”
“You’re getting weird again.”
“For someone as secretive as you, you’ve allowed Finn to know a whole lot about you.”
I fear where this is going. “I’ve known Finn all my life. Of course we know things about each other.”
“Just how ticklish are you exactly?”
It hits me that he’s here to tickle me. Or at least try. I see the amused expression on his face. I don’t like it because it’s not consistent with who he is and because I want to avoid thinking about the night that he kissed me at all costs. It brings up too many painful memories, too many regrets. I need normalcy in my life more than anything else right now.
“Oh no, you don’t,” I say as he drops the flask and moves in to put his plan to work. I try to run away but he catches up with me quite easily.
“I’m holding the receptor and I will use it if I have to,” I warn him but he doesn’t take my threat seriously. There are a few dead Sliman who made the same mistake. His fingers attack my mid section. The shock of being tickled makes me lose my balance immediately. I fall to my knees and twist away from him.
He kneels down, too, and I can tell that his fingers aim at my neck. Before I can think about it, I turn the receptor at him and blast him away with some purple energy that lifts him a few feet in the air. I turn off the receptor and Damian drops to the ground.
“Damian, did I hurt you?” I say as I rush over to him. He groans a little and then he attacks me at full strength. He holds both my wrists in his left hand and starts tickling me with the right hand. I fall back writhing with uncontrollable laughter and he climbs on me without pausing the tickling attack for one second. I think I’m having a déjà vu from yesterday when Finn attacked me in the same way.
“I can’t breathe,” I protest but he is relentless. I could kill them both, I think, and that would be the end of the tickling.
“Damian?” It’s Tilly’s voice. Yep, it’s déjà vu alright.
Damian stops to look at her. Tilly and Biscuit watch us in bewilderment.
“What’s going on?” Damian says as he sits up. I do my best to straighten my hair and my shirt.
“Ah, three Sliman are here and they’re asking for you,” Biscuit says.
“Seriously, Biscuit, what’s going on?”
“He just told you,” Tilly says. “We were practicing outside the cave when the Sliman appeared out of nowhere. We reached for our guns but they dropped theirs, they raised their arms and said that they’ve come in peace. Then they asked to talk to our leader.”
Damian’s face grows pale. “It’s begun,” he says as he draws his gun. “Freya, keep your receptor out of sight but keep your fingers on it.”
We rush to the camp. The receptor is in my pocket and my fingers feel sweaty and heavy around it. The scene is as Tilly and Biscuit described it but it feels even more peculiar. Three huge Sliman warriors, clad in black from head to toe, stand in the middle of the camp. Their bright green eyes shine in a ghostly manner underneath their hoods. Their pulse guns and shock bows are on the ground right behind Finn’s feet. Finn is pointing his gun at them.
One of the Sliman, who seems to be in charge as he stands a bit ahead of the other two, turns to Damian. “There you are,” he says and his voice, although deep and really low, has nothing strange about it. It could be the voice of any big, strong man. “You must be the leader.”
“And you are?” Damian asks.
“Wudak,” the Sliman replies. “We’re here in peace.”
Damian shakes his head. “And why should I trust a Sliman?”
“Just hear us out and then you can make that decision.”
“Speak then.”
“Shouldn’t we do this in private?”
“No,” Damian says. “We’re all equal here. But of course this is something you wouldn’t know anything about.”
“No, you are not all equal,” Wudak says. He turns his gaze on me. “We are here to tell you that we are loyal to you,” he says. “You will be our queen. And we will serve you as you wish.”
I am stunned at this and step back in fear as all three of them walk towards me with bowed heads. Damian jumps to action punching Wudak in the face with the back of his pulse gun and then banging the heads of the other two Sliman together.
“Get the hell away from her,” he yells.
Wudak wipes the blood off his face. “So the word is true,” he says. “You are as strong as a Sliman.”
Damian pays no attention to him. “Finn,” he says, “tie them up.”
3
The Sliman’s hands are tied behind their backs. Damian pushes them inside the cave. Nya stands guard at the entrance. Her long body is straightened like a fine bow string, all her senses are sharpened.
Damian forces the three Sliman to sit down in front of Theo’s heavy desk. He ties their legs together before tying them to each other. The Sliman don’t resist this and they don’t even blink when Damian removes the hoods from their heads.
The one named Wudak has long black hair with two thin braids in front. He is handsome in a peculiar way. The other two have shorter brown hair. All three of them have their identification numbers tattooed around the corners of their eyes in grey ink. The detailed calligraphy of the tattoos reveals that they are high in the Sliman ranks, especially Wudak. They seem to be of the same age, but then again so do all Sliman. They never age and they never seem to change.
“How did you find us?” Damian says as he draws a combat knife out of his boot.
“You don’t need to be aggressive,” Wudak says. “We are here to explain things to you. So that you understand.”
“How did you find us?” Damian repeats pausing between words for effect.
“I am Wudak,” the Sliman says. “Commander of the third Sliman Regiment on Plantation-15. This is Malzod and this is Gritu.”
Gritu looks smaller than the other two but still huge in comparison to most of us. Damian is about to punch Wudak again when I intervene and hold his hand down. “Let him talk,” I beg of him.
“She’s right, Damian. Let’s hear what they have to say,” Finn agrees.
Wudak turns his face towards Pip. “We have been following you,” he says. I search for Finn’s eyes. It all makes sense now.
“You released the little girl.” Damian is the one to say it out loud. “You’ve placed some tracking chip on her. That’s how you knew where to find us. That’s why you let her go. To set a trap for us.”
Wudak shakes his head. “We freed her as a gesture of our goodwill. So you would know we are truthful.” He says those last words looking at me.
“You knew she was my sister,” I whisper.
“Yes. And we destroyed all evidence that could connect her to you.”
I consider this for a moment. “I have two sisters,” I say.
“No, you don’t. Not anymore. Otherwise, she would be here as well. You have my word for it.”
I cover my mouth with my hand. Pip’s eyes well up and her fingers pull on my shirt. Finn tries to put his arms around me but I push him away. I’ve known that my brother must be either vanished or lobotomized by now, but my sister is young enough that she could be in a plantation still.
“How?” I say. “How did she die?”
“I see that I have upset you. I am sorry about that. I keep
forgetting how sensitive humans are,” Wudak says and lowers his head.
“Is this the kind of crap we have to listen to?” Damian snaps. He would want nothing more than to kill them right now. Maybe in his mind that would be a way to avenge Daphne’s death.
“There has to be some point in all this,” Finn says. He turns to Wudak. “Is there a point? I don’t like your chances if you don’t get to it fast.”
“We are here to protect the queen with the sensory receptor,” he says. “She is in danger.”
“My name is Freya,” I say trying to hold back my tears.
“Freya, you are in grave danger. We have come to protect you and offer our allegiance.”
I can feel how my companions shift their positions, how they stare at the Sliman in shock and fear. Damian grabs Wudak’s hair and pulls it back as if trying to rip it off. “What kind of danger?” he says. “And why would you care?”
“Because we are slaves like humans. And because we don’t like it,” Wudak says staring into Damian’s eyes.
“Bullshit,” Damian spits out.
Wudak turns to me again. “The aliens, they don’t want you to know what you are capable of doing, but we know. We can show you. We can teach you. We can help you win.”
“Is my sister dead?” is all I can say.
“We don’t have that information,” Wudak says. “What we know is that she is out of the plantation network and that is never a good thing.”
“What happens when kids leave the plantations? Where do they go?” Damian asks. It’s the question we have all been asking since the day we were able to talk.
“I will tell you what I know when the time comes. You have to trust us first. I don’t know everything though.”
“This all sounds a little too convenient,” Damian says.
“There’s nothing convenient about what we’re doing. If the aliens suspect there’s an insurgency building up within the Sliman ranks, they will destroy us on the spot.”
“You’re stronger than them, you know how they operate, what their weaknesses are,” Finn says. “This whole time we’ve thought you were brainless but it’s obvious now that there’s a certain degree of intelligence in you. Why not use what you know to bring the aliens down and free yourselves? Why come to us? Why are you seeking out Freya?”
Wudak sighs and his companions lower their heads. “We are not as lucky as you,” he says. “We do not enjoy the gift of autonomy. We depend on the aliens for our survival.”
Doc is intrigued by that. “What do you mean?” he asks.
“Once a month we receive an injection. It’s called Omicron 5 and we believe it’s made up of different minerals, perhaps from different planets, and some forms of bacteria. That combination keeps us alive. Without it, all our body systems start to shut down one after the other. Only the aliens know how to prepare the formula and only the sensory receptors can bind it into a transmittable fluid. The aliens produce the minimum amount that is needed for one month so that we can never find any additional supplies. We could try to steal a sample and have it analyzed, but even if we managed to analyze and recreate it, which is doubtful, it would be useless without the receptor.”
“Without someone who can yield the power inside it,” Finn concludes.
“So this is all about you. You need Freya for her powers. The rest is a smokescreen,” Damian says.
Gritu speaks for the first time. “What we are trying to say is that we have a common enemy. We are earthlings now, just like you. We were born on this planet just like you. We want to be free just like you. There is room for everyone.”
“We need you and you need us,” Wudak says. “You’ll never beat the aliens without our help. Trust me on this. A thousand receptors would not be enough.”
Silence overtakes the cave as we all try to determine whether what the Sliman say can be trusted or not. Even Tilly is stunned into muteness.
“Why did you say that Freya is in danger? What was that all about?” Damian wants to know.
“There’s nothing that the aliens want more than to get their hands on her right now.” Wudak’s words sink in slowly, turning my blood to ice. “They have been preparing for you, Freya. They will come for you. And they will try to take you by surprise.”
“Do they know where we are?” Damian says.
“No, but that will change soon.”
“Why? Are you going to tell them?”
“I understand that you want to protect your companions, that you want to protect Freya, but if you don’t listen to me, you will all be captives again. Or dead. Soon.”
Damian begins to lose the little patience he has left. “You’re in no position to make threats,” he says.
“The aliens are bringing in their drone air vehicles,” Wudak says. “There’s no escaping those things. They will scan the entire district within twenty minutes, they will pick up your position and they will blow you up. But not before they have captured Freya.”
“Where are those aircrafts?” Theo asks. “We have never seen them.”
“They are on their way to Earth as we speak. They are being transferred by two massive cargospheres. They run on synthetic fuel that cannot be found or composed here. They have to bring in the fuel, too. Normally, they wouldn’t do that because certain elements in the Earth’s atmosphere can cause the fuel to explode. But they will risk it on this one occasion. That’s how much they want you eliminated.”
I turn to Finn. I can see that he, too, remembers our conversation from yesterday. There’s no time to dream about planes anymore. Not if what we’re hearing is true.
Theo’s face has sunk. Zoe puts one consoling arm around him. Tilly holds Biscuit’s hand. Something is going on between those two, I think, as if trying to disentangle myself from the horrible news by sticking to simple thoughts.
“I still don’t know why we should believe any of this,” Damian says.
“We have already said a lot more than we should have. We have taken a great risk by coming here. By letting you know about the Omicron 5,” Wudak says.
Damian shakes his head. “It’s not enough,” he determines.
Wudak thinks for a moment. Then he takes a long glance at each of his companions. Both Malzod and Gritu nod reluctantly as if giving him permission for something.
“As you wish,” Wudak says. “If I am honest, I’ve always known it would come to this. You want proof that we are sincere. How would you like to kill a few aliens?”
His words produce the desired effect. We can barely breathe. Scout and Rabbit both exclaim in unison, “We’d like that!”
Damian can’t shake his doubts. “What do you mean kill a few aliens?”
“We can help you attack an alien convoy that will pass through the district’s lowland tomorrow. We can tell you all you need to know to turn the encounter into a complete and absolute victory.”
Damian is intrigued by the possibility. He raises his eyebrows the way he always does when he sniffs out opportunity. Finn gets fidgety, he shifts his weight from leg to leg. I know he has a million things he wants to ask Wudak. I take his hand in mine to steady him. Even Nya drops her post and comes closer.
“I’m listening,” Damian says.
“Three aliens are leaving Plantation-9 and Earth,” Wudak begins but is interrupted by Biscuit.
“Terrible place,” he says as he reminisces Plantation-9. “Horrible food.”
Wudak doesn’t know what to make of this. He continues, “They will travel to a predetermined landing area a few miles north of the plantation. They will carry equipment and food to take back with them. There’s several spots along the way where you could attack them.”
“What about a Sliman escort?” Finn asks.
“Yes, there will be one. Eight guards. You can take them if you surprise them. And you will. They won’t see you coming.”
“You’d have us kill your own kind?” Damian says disgusted.
“They’re not our kind. They’re killing machines
,” Wudak says staring into Damian’s puzzled eyes.
“If only you knew how much bloodshed there has been among humans,” Gritu says. “Genocides, holocausts, civil wars. There’s always some reason behind it. Most of them illogical. How do you think the aliens were able to take over this planet? The humans were not unified. They were already weakened by a war over a primitive energy source called oil. They were killing each other before the first alien ship arrived.”
Wudak wants to get back to making his point. “Only those who have evolved to the point of hungering freedom are our kind as you say.”
“And how many of your kind are there exactly?” Damian asks.
“I could say there are many, but that would be a lie. I didn’t come here to lie. I can say the number is growing as word of the Queen spreads.”
“Yet,” Damian persists, “despite low numbers you sound extremely confident.”
“Any confidence is extreme in this world.” Wudak seems to be losing patience for the first time. “Do you want the aliens or not?”
“For all we know, you are setting a trap for us,” Damian says.
“And why would I do that? Why wouldn’t I have attacked you here with all my forces when you least expected it? I’ve known for weeks about your location. Why would I risk my own hide dropping my weapons at your feet? Why wouldn’t I lead my entire Regiment here?”
“He is telling the truth,” Gritu adds as if his corroboration could make all the difference in the world.
“You are scared of Freya’s receptor, that’s why,” Damian says to Wudak.
“There are ways around the receptor,” Wudak says. “While she doesn’t understand it, it can always be taken from her. It would probably take many Sliman lives, but it can be done. There are a few aliens left that can handle their receptors, too. They could be brought in. The only reason it hasn’t been done is because they don’t know where you are.”
“You still haven’t given me a shred of evidence,” Damian says.
“Fine, don’t believe me, just let us take you to the alien convoy,” Wudak says. “We’re at your mercy, keep us tethered. You can kill us on the spot if what we have said is not true. ”
dark legion Page 2
