“If you would follow me, I'll show you to your room,” Commander Talan said with an exaggerated flourish that Sasha found unsettling.
They followed the old man as the thick double doors in the center of the painting slid open to reveal a massive atrium. Natural light poured from high above, masking the ceiling, while floors circled the walls, vanishing in the distant light. In the center of the atrium stood a meadow of tightly packed green grass surrounding a pond, a gentle creek flowing in from the wall, cutting between a small forest of tall leafy trees and prickly bushes of species she had never before beheld.
“A little piece of home for those that are here at school,” explained Commander Talan as he noticed Sasha's look of fascination. They ambled down a stone path that circled the meadow and pond, listening intently to the commander explain a little about Earth's native foliage, before climbing into a transparent elevator that started to ascend.
At what Sasha had counted as the fifth floor, the platform stopped, and the group exited. Regalia ran to the edge to peer down at the shimmering blue water, 25 meters below, where colorful fish could be seen swimming in schools. Gil'Da followed close behind, making sure the young girl didn't get too excited. They walked passed rows of blue colored doors, and stopping before one that was colored white like the walls.
“Here we are,” Commander Talan said as the door opened and he led them within.
The room was quaint at best. A four person table and kitchen area was set to the right, while four single-person bunks were lined against the left wall. A washroom could be seen hidden in the back corner, next to a recreation area with a three person couch in front of a low table with a PDU in its center. Sasha turned her gaze to Commander Talon, noticing concern in his eyes.
“It is sufficient, Commander Talan, we thank you for your hospitality...if possible we would like to be alone to freshen up,” Commander Talan smiled at Sasha's kind words.
“As Her Grace commands. I would, however, not recommend leaving the officers barracks. The base is like a maze and it's quite easy to get lost,” he bowed again and left the ladies to explore their temporary home. Sasha sighed, exhausted, and made her way straight to the washroom.
“I am going to freshen up......if nobody minds?” Regalia and Gil'Da were busy exploring the kitchen, apparently too engrossed to respond, while Tiana fell back onto one of the beds, leaning on her elbow, smiling mischievously in her direction.
“Would Her Royal Highness like me to wash her royal back?” Sasha shot a fiery glare in response that caused Tiana to giggle while rolling over, presenting Sasha a clear view of her backside.
The washroom was small...very small...but that didn't matter to Sasha as long as it had a shower or bath with hot water. She stripped off the too tight jumpsuit, letting Terra hop to the sink basin’s edge, before climbing into the narrow shower tube. The steamy hot water jets activated, spiraling up then down to cover every millimeter of her flesh. She ran her hands through her silky black hair, finding the sensation of the water’s caress like a massage at rejuvenation spa, just what her mind needed to relax. As she calmed, her thoughts began to wander.
The memory of Trent from when he appeared before her in the ferry shuttle crept into her mind. She recalled the feeling of caressing his ghostly cheek, and the unconscious yearning for him to return her touch it called forth. With a suddenness that took her breath away, the foggy vision grasped her mind's eye, whisking it free of the washroom and through the interior of the TSB Fleet Base, before exiting into the dense asteroid belt. The vision accelerated, the stars blurring to paint space itself a vibrant white, before slowing as it approached a beautiful blue and green world, only marred by large tracks of yellow and grey. White, puffy clouds appeared before her as she dove into the atmosphere, imagined wind striking her skin as the surface quickly approached.
A majestic blue ocean expanded before her as she dove below its surface, trying desperately to hold her breath, but finding she didn't need to breathe. Darkness enveloped her as she dove deeper and deeper, but before she could panic, the light returned, and with it, the sight of Trent, moving through a narrow tunnel, his face dirty and uniform ripped.
Something is terribly wrong, Sasha’s mind cried. Trent froze, staring directly into her distant eyes, mouth agape, and started reaching for her cheek. But the strain of holding the image was too strong. A relentless tugging forcing her vision back into her body so fast the she slammed against the wall of the shower tube, losing her balance and sliding to the floor, gasping for breath.
“What...” she panted, letting the water wash over her trembling body. Something’s definitely wrong, she thought desperately, why would Trent, now a Lieutenant in the TSB, be crawling around in the walls of what has to be TSB Earth Base? A reason struck her and she thought of the man responsible for the entire fiasco they now faced, Sir Simwa. She concentrated like she'd done on Tiana, hoping to locate her enemy. But nothing happened.
“Vin,” she held the bracelet up to her mouth as she finally caught her breath, “can you tell me what's going on at TSB Earth Base? Why is Trent in the walls?” Silence was the only response. “Vin? What’s going on?” she asked again, but still nothing.
Unable to fathom why Vin wouldn't answer, now of all times, she pulled herself to her feet and slipped out of the shower. Drying off quickly, she forced herself back into the too tight jumpsuit, waiting for Terra to climb onto her shoulder, and prepared to exit, but froze. The mirror showed a reflection, different than the one she had seen prior to leaving the ABF Princess One. It showed a woman she suddenly didn't recognize, a woman who couldn't do anything right, had been useless and careless, letting those in her responsibility come to harm...to die.
Not this time, she told, this time I will do something...I will save Trent. Her mind made up, she rushed out of the washroom, looking at the women sitting quietly at the table as she came to a stop, standing stiffly. She'd constantly been placing her friend's in danger...did she want to do so again?
“I need some air,” she made a painful decision, “I'm going for a quick walk...alone,” she turned, rushing from the room, ignoring their curious stares.
Is this the right thing to do? The question repeated, over and over, while she ran to the elevator. But she couldn't answer, her mind racing with thoughts of Trent, the trouble he may be facing, and the knowledge she may be the only one who can save him.
Her heart beat briskly as the platform descended. She was scared. This being the first time she'd ever done anything alone, always having her guards, servants, or Tiana by her side. She felt a twinge of guilt at the thought of leaving Tiana behind, who'd decided at the age of six that they would always be together. But she couldn’t live with herself if she placed her friend in anymore danger. She had to do this alone.
“Standard communications with Earth are currently offline,” Vin stated, breaking her free of her thoughts.
“Why didn't you answer sooner?” Sasha hissed, staring down at the sphere hovering just above her bracelet.
“All standard communication protocols had to be explored before a proper reply could be formulated,” Vin explained, not seeming to have a problem waiting five minutes to answer a question.
“If it will take more than a few seconds to answer, you must tell me,” she scolded, shaking her head as she spoke. “But for now, I have another question. How can I get to Earth...quietly?” she inquired, fearful of having to ask Commander Talan to borrow a starship. She could order him, of course, but she had the feeling he would be less then accommodating. Plus, there was something about him that seemed off...something she couldn't quite place.
“Yes, Grand Duchess Sasha Alutia. A personal unpowered transport shuttle is available for your use. Please proceed to a transport tube station.” Emboldened by the news, she started forward as soon as the elevator finished descending.
As she weaved her way down the stone path, she couldn't help but glance over her shoulder. High above, a single blond haired wom
an stared over the railing. Her heart cried for her to stop, to turn around, but she ignored it, already having made a decision.
She entered the first transport tube she came upon, which shot off before she had a chance to state her destination. A few minutes later it opened to a dark corridor. Strip lighting embedded in the wall lit as she exited, illuminating a rounded hallway that vanished into the distance.
“Vin?” she asked.
“Please enter the first doorway to the right,” Vin stated.
She rushed down the hallway, and found the first door, which spun open as she approached. Within, appeared a cylindrical personal shuttle, lying horizontally in a track that vanished into a tunnel cut into the side wall.
“Please lay yourself in the personal transport shuttle and place the life support apparatus over your head. There should be sufficient space for Terra to fit within,” instructed Vin.
She looked to Vin’s sphere, then the shuttle, convincing herself once again that she was doing the right thing, before climbing the steps. She grabbed the helmet, allowing Terra to climb in first before placing it snuggly over her head. Terra scurried around until he found a comfortable spot below her chin to curl up, purring contently. Once she climbed inside, laying her body flat, the door slid shut as the interior of the shuttle turned to jelly, completely enveloping her. A sudden pressure told her she must have launched and a metallic voice entered her mind through her BC node.
“Two hours till arrival on Earth,” the voice faded as her own turbulent thoughts took its place.
What would she do when she arrived on Earth? The question suddenly frightened her.
Chapter 14
Trent shuffled slowly though the narrow maintenance tunnels, trying his best not to disturb the dense layering of dust that encircled him. Though he found it useless, the tiny particles would react to any movement, and creep relentlessly through the gaps in his jumpsuit to attack his skin. He tried to ignore it, but found the itching unbearable, forcing him to stop every few meters and try to dislodge the irritating invaders.
The maintenance tunnels did exist, as he'd expected, but they were very narrow, and very dirty. From what Taku had explained, there were special vehicles that allowed maintenance personnel to easily traverse the tunnels without having to contend with the dust piles created by them doubling as an outflow for the base’s environmental system. Unfortunately, the medical bay wasn't where they were stored, and it was just too risky for anyone to try and pilfer one from the storage areas controlled by Sir Simwa's followers. Trent sighed, stopping once again to try to adjust his jumpsuit.
A shadow shifted out of the corner of his eye. He spun, finding only a large pile of dimly lit dust that lay undisturbed.
“Can’t be that lucky three times,” he muttered as he thought back to the black haired beauty from his dreams that had begun appearing in the waking world.
The first time he had seen her outside his dreams was when he was about to shoot Jan'Lus. She appeared within his mind, begging for him to stop, to let her live. Then, when he was moving through a particularly nasty stretch of tunnel between the medical and hanger bays, after having no luck locating Sir Simwa in the base command and control center, she coalesced before him. He watched, mesmerized, as her trembling fingers slowly reached forward to caress his cheek. Her touch was warm, gentle, and his heart responded, beating uncontrollably and calling forth forbidden emotions from their ancient prison. When he reached out to return her touch, his mind screaming that she actually stood before him, she vanished in a wispy cloud.
I’m not going crazy, he repeated the thought from that time, knowing her touch real and not a figment of his imagination. Though he’d begun to doubt himself, since twenty minutes later she appeared again. But this time as a full bodied apparition that was completely unclothed. She vanished after only a second, but the beautiful sight was burned into his heart and mind.
He returned his thoughts to the present, shaking his head in an attempt to dislodge the feeling's that had snuck into his heart, before pushing on.
The maintenance tunnel he now traversed ran parallel to TSB Earth Base’s enormous hanger bay and seemed to go on forever. Every 20 meters or so he would come across an access port, with an adjacent PDU that allowed maintenance personnel to view what was beyond, along with access the maintenance systems for the adjacent BAP.
He flicked the activate icon on the next PDU he reached, coughing as a plume of dust was expelled alongside the irradiated particles used to form the projection. About halfway there, he noted, his location seeming equidistant from the hanger bay entrance, and his destination of docking control.
He started forward again, finding another section of tunnel that was uneven, forcing him to climb over, then under irregular protrusions that jutted from the floor and ceiling. While he maneuvered slowly through the obstacles, he started to mull over the events since he’d been “abducted” by the TSB, finding himself stuck on one particular question; how could so many people be so fully immersed in such a grand deception? The only logical response he could think of was that the corporate sponsored illegal human experimentation that he was now a part was to test brainwashing on a mass scale. But even if this was the case, he knew it unlikely something or someone would have not been out of place or character, a researcher or test subject who wasn’t totally inoculated...like him. This wasn’t the case, however, and all evidence, no matter how ridiculous his mind screamed it was, pointed to the truth being that he had stumbled upon a grand human space empire beyond all comprehension.
“Come on, Trent,” he grunted as he slid off a particularly high obstacle into a large pile of dust, “There’s just no way that could be true,” he continued as he pushed forward, hoping that during this “recon” mission in which he’d volunteered, he would finally be able to locate a shred of evidence that this was actually a corporate experiment.
He paused when the tunnel split. The right path curved sharply away from the hanger bay and narrowed into complete darkness, while the other descended sharply to the left, in the direction Taku had explained he would find docking control, general staff offices, and Sir Simwa’s headquarters, or so they hoped.
Trent started down the slope, but lost his footing. He braced himself as he slid, and as expected, crashed into a massive pile of dust where the slope leveled.
“I’m too old for this,” he muttered when the dust settled and his coughing ceased.
Just beyond the bottom of the slope, access ports began appearing every few meters, lining both sides of the tunnel. The first few PDUs he activated revealed rooms of identical design. Against the far wall of each, a black, human sized ellipsoid capsule, open in the front, sat in a cylindrical recess with a single rail vanishing into metal portals set in the floor and ceiling.
Why’s everything have to look like a coffin, Trent shivered, finding this ellipsoid “coffin” much more menacing, being black and waiting for a body to be inserted and launched skyward in some unholy ritual. Adjacent to the first crevice sat another, but without a black “coffin” and with the portals open, revealing a narrow tunnel beyond, like an inverted subway stop. In the center of the room sat a single PDU atop a thin post, awaiting activation. Finding nothing of interest, he moved on. Over the next 30 minutes, he passed well over a hundred of these identical rooms, the majority containing the black “coffin” he'd seen in the first, but some with both recesses empty or full.
Finally, after a 20 meter gap in the access ports, the “coffin” rooms ended and were replaced by what appeared to be offices. The first few were converted for storage, silver crates stacked around and atop desks with PDU’s built into their surfaces. While those that followed had makeshift bunks and basic living supplies hastily scattered throughout, showing obvious signs of habitation. The majority of, what he gathered to be the temporary living quarters of the traitors, were empty, though he came upon one with a group of green uniformed officers talking over a projection. The projection showed a three-dim
ensional map, with about 40 varying sized sections, or wings, spiraling around a cylindrical core, with a barely discernible label hovering above: TSB Earth Base. He activated an audio feed for the room through the adjacent maintenance PDU, but they were talking in whispers, too low for him to hear.
The offices ended much sooner than the “coffin” rooms, and after 10 meters or so of no access ports, he came upon one slightly larger than all the rest. He activated the adjacent PDU, which displayed a large globular room. On one end sat a massive PDU, set as a viewscreen that wrapped around the curving walls, displaying data Trent couldn't even begin to decipher. Ascending rows of workstations curled out from its base, climbing like stairs. At the far end, above the last row of ascending workstations, sat a single occupied seat...his blood began to boil.
Trent would never forget the man, appearing as bored as the first time he'd met him, sitting casually in the seat overseeing the rest; Sir Simwa. He was dressed in a dark green suit that was even gaudier then the one he'd worn during Trent's trial. Another man, dressed in an ostentatious, bright green uniform covered with gilded gold and platinum markings, talked rapidly, but with obvious reverence. He rubbed his hands together nervously as he glanced repeatedly towards the viewscreen. Sir Simwa, apparently becoming bored with whatever explanation the man was providing, waved him away dismissively. The man bow deeply, before rushing down the rows of workstations, shouting at the furiously working personnel behind each. Sir Simwa rose, a smirk on his distant lips, before slowly sauntering out the doorway behind him.
Trent moved to the next two offices, thinking that may be where the man was heading, but found them empty, along with the next two, but sighed with relief when he viewed the next, which were like none of the others.
Alutia Rising, Anniversary Edition (Alutia Rising Series, Book 1) Page 27
