“But I want to come with you.”
“I know, but if the rebels find this ship, they’ll raid it. I know they can’t harm you, but I don’t want to see you captured either.” I touched his cheek. “You’re very nice and compassionate and I don’t want them abusing you, okay?”
He caught my hand and kissed it. “I will do as you say, Overlord.”
Gently, I removed my hand. “Willa and I will be in contact. Advise us of any change, any change, understood?”
“Perhaps of these tumbleweeds you spoke of,” said Willa with a serious look.
I couldn’t help laughing. “No, those are okay, if you even knew what they were. I’m talking about people…anyone…doing anything.”
“I understand,” said Cory.
“And if this goes south, we’re going to need the ship ready, so when we flee, we’ll take off and head back to the Calumny.”
“Goes south?” repeated Cory and Willa in unison, confused.
I shook my head. “If things go badly, you need to be prepared.”
“How bad is bad?” asked Cory.
“Oh, if you see me and Willa, screaming, running faster than hell back to these coordinates.”
Cory nodded. “I will keep a lookout for screaming and hell running.”
I just smiled and patted him on the back. “Be safe, Cory.”
Willa and I left the ship, and I made sure Cory locked the door. Willa was uneasy about being out in the open, in the wild. I loved it. The sun on my face was soothing and warm. I turned to see Willa and saw her perspiring in her black, skin-tight outfit.
“I should have advised you to wear looser clothes.”
I remembered to do that, wearing my white shirt with “AVA” on it, and my green pants and white shoes Loren had given me. Sand and ocean water had been clung to it, but it was washed clean aboard the Calumny.
“I am the head of the royal guard. I can wear nothing else.”
“You’ll start to feel different after we’ve been out here an hour or so.”
“Is that how long it’ll take to find these humans?”
“Maybe longer; I don’t know. There’s nothing for ten miles, so either we wait here until someone comes, or we go to them.”
She looked in the distance, to the east, towards the clear dome. I looked too, but I couldn’t see the city, only the sunlight reflecting off the glass. I desired to go near it—to be close to Henrietta, John, Loren, and yes, Julius. But I dared not. I had to head west—to seek out the rebels. There would be no Stargazers around—the ones that had been scattered about the planet were transported to Calumny soon after I’d come aboard, but they hadn’t been able tell us much about the rebels, desiring to be apart from them. They’d only come in contact to fight over resources or when the rebels ambushed their small vessels. Before the Stargazers had boarded the mother ship, they’d set the self-destruct on their ships, leaving only charred wreckage for any rebel passerby.
Willa looked at the ship. “Can we fly overhead?”
“No, I don’t want to frighten the rebels. They don’t have ships, so we don’t arrive in ships—equal footing. I want to gain their trust.”
Willa furrowed her brow, not liking my plan, but then she nodded. “It is as you command, esteemed Overlord.”
“Just call me ‘Ava’ while we’re on land, okay?”
“But that is disrespectful.”
“The rebels don’t know what an Overlord is and they don’t care. We’re encroaching on their land and that’s it. Now, they know we’re Stargazers.” I twirled a lavender curl around my fingers. “But we’re going to show them that we come in peace—that we can be friends—that we’re better together than apart—and that together we can end Julius for good.”
Her cheeks blushed at the mention of Julius. But it wasn’t affection; it was anger. She removed a small knife from her belt. “I will carve out his black heart.”
I held up my hand. “No, you won’t.”
“But-but you said I’d have my vengeance.”
“There will be justice. He will stand trial for his crimes. And he will be imprisoned for the rest of his immortal life. Remember that? He can’t die.”
She shook her head. “If he wills it so, he can! If he practices Deliverance, he’ll depart, forever! And he won’t go to that starry realm! He won’t!”
She was talking rapidly in Stellar, upset, finding it hard to communicate her feelings in an alien language such as English.
I advanced and placed my hand on her shoulder. She was taller than me so I had to reach up high. The anger from her face had subsided. Now, she cried.
“You’re not the only one he’s hurt, Willa. Others demand justice as well. As Overlord, only I can administer his punishment.”
She nodded, agreeing, but I assumed, not liking. “Will you imprison him?”
“Honestly, I don’t know, Willa. Who will watch over him when we’re gone? Cody? Will he be Julius’ warden for the rest of his life?”
“Then how will you make him lose his immortality?”
I knew the answer, but I couldn’t say it, not to Willa, and especially not to Cody. I had been thinking about it for a while. Julius said that he would die when I died. It was simple. For there to be justice and Julius to depart, I had to depart as well. Would he join me in that starry realm or would he rot away in the ground?
“Let’s not speak of this right now,” I told her, changing the moody subject. “Let’s find help.”
“Will the humans help us?”
“All we can do is ask, Willa.”
“And if they don’t?”
“We’re on our own, but as long as we have purpose and fortitude, we will prevail. This is our time to make a difference. We can’t pass it up and move on to another planet. This is our home now, and we’re going to save it.”
Willa bowed. “I will follow you anywhere, esteemed Overlord.”
I smiled. “Ava.”
She nodded. “I will follow you anywhere, Ava.”
And she did follow me. She followed me for miles and miles, under crowded trees, through thick brush, past poisonous plants, and over gopher holes in the ground. The land around us was wild and I loved it. It wasn’t white and clean like Sanctuary or dark and cold like the Calumny. It was untamed and I didn’t know if we were going to be ambushed at any second. I was afraid for Willa. I didn’t want her to get hurt, although, I knew she could handle herself. She wielded those blades like they extended from her own arms and even without them, she was strong and quick—a valued warrior and trusted protector. I was strong too, but I didn’t want to fight, not when I wanted to win people to my side.
The forest cleared and we stood alongside a blue river, coursing from left to right, not knowing when it began or ended.
“Are you thirsty, Ava?”
I nodded. “Very; let’s drink.”
We sat on our knees and bent over, cupping our hands to scoop up the water. As we poured it in our mouths, it tasted warm, but refreshing. I went to take another sip, but Willa was on her feet, her blades zinging to life. I turned abruptly too and saw five men and two women—rebels—staring at us. Each one had a rifle, pointed in our direction.
“The alien’s got swords,” said one, a tall man with long brown hair in a ponytail.
His rifle was a bit lowered, like he didn’t really want to shoot or threaten us, but was still cautious. He stood beside a short man, stocky and bald, who seemed to be leader of the little ragtag group.
“Swords are no match for these,” said the bald man, smiling. “We’ll blow them swords to pieces.”
“But what if they’re stronger than regular swords?” asked a woman, average height with a deep scar running down the side of her face.
“Yeah, they’re aliens, after all,” agreed another man, hiding in the back of the group.
I held my hands up in a gesture of peace. “We’re not here to harm you.” I looked over at Willa, sneering, her swords poised to attack. She cou
ld have easily subdued all of them by now. I was glad she was stable. “Willa, put those away.”
“She speaks English,” said the man with the ponytail.
“They mimic,” retorted the bald man. He spit on the ground to show his dislike and held on tighter to his rifle. “That’s what they do—trick you.”
“We’re not tricking you. My name is Ava and I escaped from Sanctuary, from the Corporation.”
The group’s focus was on Willa, except for the man with the ponytail. His rifle was completely lowered, looking at me curiously. I wished he was the leader and not the bald man. I felt that at any moment he would shoot us. We weren’t immortal. We would die. We were strong and fast though, and perhaps, we’d survive just a little bit longer, enough for Cory to come and get us, and take us back to the ship where we would be quickly healed. But I’d told him to wait. That we’d come to him. I had a way to communicate with a button on my shirt. All I had to do was press it and I could talk to him, but not now—not yet. I thought I could still manage the situation without bloodshed—on both sides.
“No one escapes from that place,” disagreed the bald man. “You know what I think?” He cocked the hammer. “I think you two were let out…yeah, let out by that monster Pallas…sent here to kill us.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “If you wanted you dead, you’d be dead by now,” I said in a low, threatening voice.
Why couldn’t he see that we were harmless? I looked at Willa. Well, it wasn’t helping that she still had her swords out.
“Willa! Put those away!”
She would never disobey me, so she slowly lifted her arms and slid the swords into their scabbards against her back. But as a caution, casual-like, she gripped the handle of the small knife at her belt. In one swift, quick move, she could throw it at a curve, slicing the bald man’s neck, while puncturing the heart of the woman with the scar beside him.
Willa wouldn’t needlessly kill, but if she thought my life was in danger, she’d throw them like they were rag dolls, just like her sister did, but this time through the forest, right smack dab against the clear glass of the dome—for Julius to see and know that we were coming for him.
The man with the ponytail stepped forward, his gun hanging loosely by his side, unafraid. He was five feet away from me. Willa went to lunge forward, but I held up my hand, telling her to stay back. All the others kept their rifles pointed at us.
The man looked at my shirt. He smiled. “Ava?”
I smiled back. “That’s my name.”
“We heard some chatter about you.”
“Shut up!” barked the bald man.
“You were treated differently,” the ponytail man went on.
I nodded. “They didn’t know what to make of me. I looked like a Stargazer, but I acted like a human. I had no memory of who I was. But I was tortured and imprisoned in Quadrant Echo. I met two kids, privates, named Rainn and Sunny.” I swallowed, nervous. “I also met another one, Thaddeus Ridge.”
“I hate that SOB!” said the bald man. “He’s nothing but trouble!”
I smiled. “Well, would you be glad to know I broke every bone in his hand?”
“Why?” asked the ponytail man.
“He was threatening Sunny and Rainn.”
“You care about us humans?”
I nodded. “I do. I have friends in the dome: John Goode, Loren Valier, and Henrietta.” I paused and then said, “I had another one too—Victor Jamison.” I turned to Willa. She didn’t know that her own sister killed my friend. I turned back to the rebels. “I want your help.”
The bald man spat on the ground again. “You want our help?! You got a big ole ship just hovering out there in space and you need our help?”
“It’s advanced, but we can’t penetrate the dome. Pallas has strengthened the defenses.”
“He’s got Medusa working overtime,” said the ponytail man.
“Shut up!” barked the bald man again.
Willa growled at him. I didn’t like him either.
“They’re just trying to help,” defended the man.
“Aliens don’t help! They’ve never helped! The only good alien is a dead alien.”
And he made good on his word. He pointed the barrel of his rifle square at me and pulled the trigger. The bullet never even hit me. Willa, with lighting fast reflexes, drew her swords again, and in a cross motion, sliced the bullet in half. Shavings fell onto the ground. As an extra bonus, she slammed her sword down the middle of his rifle, and it fell in halves from his hands. The rest, despite having guns, backed way, nervous. The bald man started trembling. It was almost comical.
I turned to Willa. “All right, it’s over. Put them away now.”
She was growling but did as I asked.
The man with the ponytail chuckled. “It’s about time Marcus got put in his place.” He turned to me and smiled, extending his right hand. As I touched him, I noticed an absence of bonding and felt that the rebels didn’t have such abilities in their DNA. Julius had engineered that too. “Hi, I’m Selwyn and I’d be glad to form an alliance.”
***
I found out by talking with the scarred woman, named Gina, that everyone had wanted Marcus, the bald one out, and Selwyn as their leader.
“He’s more level-headed,” Gina had told me while we waited by the river.
Selwyn, with the rest of the humans, were gone, out looking for other rebels to bring them back to me, where we could collaborate and form a plan. It seemed to be working out. Selwyn was enthusiastic, but I didn’t know how the rest of the Resistance would feel. Gina didn’t like me, and she really didn’t like Willa, who kept a low growl all the time, but Gina didn’t run away from me, and we even shared a meal—a can of beans. Willa refused, saying she wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t hungry either, but I ate the beans, hoping that by sharing a meal, Gina would feel like humans and Stargazers could get along, and then she’d tell the other rebels of her experience. But it was Selwyn I relied on. Everyone liked him, but it wasn’t for his skill at using a rifle. He didn’t keep a tight grip on it, and when he went to kill a rabbit for us to eat, the bullet jammed, and Gina had to fix his gun.
“He’s a sweet boy,” said Gina, as she sat back against a large rock along the river.
Willa was standing guard, looking out as if we were about to be attacked. I sat with Gina, showing her that humans were acceptable to Stargazers and that I didn’t mind sharing the same space.
“Boy?” I asked.
Gina nodded. “Well, I guess he’s a boy to me. He’s nineteen, but I’m”—she smiled—“I’m older.”
“He looks older than nineteen.”
“It’s the rough life out here. It makes you grow up fast.”
“Do you know the Goode family? A boy named John?”
She nodded her head. “Yeah, we know all about John or is it Doctor Goode?”
I nodded. “He’s a doctor—physiology. He examined me when I first arrived.”
She grimaced. “What was that like?”
“I don’t know. I was unconscious. I know that he stuck a Separator in my head.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s inserted in the ear, and apparently it tries to find out all your secrets.”
“What did they discover?”
“Nothing; it didn’t work on me.”
She raised her finger. “See? That’s why we rebels will do anything to take down the Corporation. They’re cruel. And if any of us are captured, we kill ourselves.”
Willa turned to Gina, interested. “How?” she asked.
Gina furrowed her brow at Willa, unsure of how to converse with the less-than-friendly alien.
“It’s all right,” I told Gina.
Gina nodded. “Well, you see that?” She opened her mouth. There was a blue square attached to the inside of her cheek. “That’s poison. Thaddeus Ridge and his boys raided a large Stargazer vessel about two years back. They had all this neat stuff…anyway one of the
group, a man named York—I don’t think that was his real name—he was a sort of a scientist—well, he went through all the equipment and found these blue squares. He was able to translate enough of the Stellar to realize they were like cyanide.”
“Where’s he now?”
Gina’s face fell. “He died. It was poison, but when he went to attach it to the inside of his cheek, he had mistakenly translated something wrong, and ended up killing himself. You see, the square”—she showed me and Willa again—“is supposed to be attached to another protective clear square.”
“And he didn’t have this square?”
“He didn’t know that’s what it did. You see, if you just put the blue square in your mouth, well, you die because you’ve activated it with your saliva or any other sort of liquid. The clear square contains the poison on the blue square until you activate it.”
“How do you do that?”
“You remove it from your cheek and crack it with your teeth.”
Willa took a step forward. “If this knowledge is available, then someone died, experimenting, correct?”
Gina nodded, sad. “Another man—kind of a scientist—friend to York—named Cal—he figured it out, and knew that there was only one way to test his theory.” She shook her head. “That was a sad two days—burying two men like that—men who were smart—men who were needed.”
“Did they have any family?” I asked, sad too.
“If they did, we didn’t know. No one talks much of what they’ve lost—or who they’ve lost. It’s too sad to think about. We just try to survive, day by day, until…”
“Until?” Willa asked, cocking her head to one side, intrigued.
Gina sighed. “Until the day comes that we don’t have to survive anymore—the day when we’re either dead or everything is normal again, and we can live life in luxury.”
“Luxury?” asked Willa, confused. “Shouldn’t you be grateful to be free?”
“Yeah, that’s good too, but we all want to be wealthy.” She pointed in the direction of the dome. “We want grand homes and more food than we can eat. We want the good life. It’s been far too long, sitting on the hard ground, shivering in the freezing rain, your stomach growling, aching for just a bit of food. That’s a rough life. We all know we don’t deserve that—that we deserve a better one.” She shrugged. “Why not? Why can’t we have what they have?” she asked, nodding towards the dome.
Stargazer Page 17
