“Get on your hands and knees and stare at the floor!” ordered the Guard.
Okay, a different approach. “We have to figure out how to open the airlock space-side. The poison is right here!” Chase almost pointed at the containers near him, but instead held back just in case someone had a happy trigger finger.
“Listen,” said Devon. “We have to get these containers out there.” He cocked his head toward the windows in the hangar that showed the blackness of space. “The containers are full of batrachotoxin.”
“Get down on the floor!” yelled the man. A couple more Brigantia Guard inched their way in, pointing their weapons at Chase and Devon.
“I'm Overseer Chase Byrd. I was just in the infirmary with you guys. Come on, you don't recognize me?”
One of them hesitated for a moment, looking Chase up and down. “I can't confirm who you are.”
“I have my ID Card on me.” Chase went to grab it.
“Do not move, Sir! I don't want to put a laser impulse in your head!”
“I'm just going to show you my card.”
“Get down, sir!” said the Guard, moving forward.
One of the Guards took Chase by the collar and forcefully pulled him down to the ground. “Hands behind your back!”
Chase felt the cold steel of a handcuffs wrap tightly around his wrists. Devon was also pressed to the ground, and clicking sounds confirmed he had been hand cuffed too. The Brigantia Guards lifted them off the ground and nudged them out of the hangar door and into Sphere 1.
“We will identify you later,” barked a Guard.
“No, you will not identify us later. Identify me now and get me back into that airlock. The poison needs to be—”
Chase felt a heavy shove to his back. “Shut up and move!”
Chase slowly shook his head. “Your very survival depends on getting that poison off of the starbase!”
A Guardsmen talked into his com link. “Sergeant Manning, do you copy?”
“Here, Lieutenant.”
“I have captured the trespassers. One claims to be—”
“We are under heavy fire, Lieutant. We have most of Payson's men down, but four have passed our Guard and are heading your way. We are in pursuit. I repeat, we are in pursuit. Get ready! These bastards can fight.”
“Yes, Sergeant. Where do we put these two captives?”
“I don't know! Figure it out. A Starhawk Transport or something?!”
“Yes, Sir.”
Devon spoke to the Guard. “Tell him you have Devon. He knows me.”
They marched out of the hangar and the Guard eyed a Starhawk. “Let's put them in there.”
“No, listen...” objected Chase. “We—”
“Move it along, Sirs!” A Guard picked Chase up off his feet and walked him over to a Starhawk, waiting for another Guard to open the side panel door. Once it opened, they threw Chase and Devon inside. Devon landed hard into an ebb metal side bench, hitting his back and head against it. Chase somersaulted against Devon, feeling the cushion of Devon's body. The door slammed shut and the Starhawk pressurized.
Chase moaned. “I hope your prophecy has changed, but I doubt it.”
“Me too,” replied Devon, wishing he could rub the bump on the back of his head.
They rolled to a seated position, then scooted back and leaned against the back of the ship. They were in the ship's small cargo hold. From where they were, they could see the pilot seat about fifteen feet in front of them. The windows, including that of the cockpit, were a heavy tint, blocking anyone from seeing in, but allowing the occupants of the Starhawk to see out.
“Do those driver seats look abnormally big to you?” asked Chase.
“They look huge.”
They gave each other a look, knowing full well that the pilots of these crafts were not human.
“We’ve got to get out of here!”
The Starhawk suddenly rocked back a few feet as an explosion went off near the nose of the craft.
“Guild! I'm not getting the best feeling about what happens next,” said Chase.
Devon looked grim. “Something has changed though.”
∞
Sleuth sat across the desk from Admiral Diana McCoy, blankly staring at the art in the room, picturing himself tearing it down. He considered it a strange distraction and probably one of the reasons why Diana wasn't taking him as seriously as she needed to.
They had met with the Thomas Berard and Eden and the others earlier, but it was too short. Diana had all day to think about what Thomas presented to her, and since the day had already gone by and she was in the wee hours of the morning, Sleuth found it ridiculous that she was still wondering what she should do next.
“Don't let these new people scare you out of the agreement we made with Lien-L. They may be here to distract us, sent from Kien's Alliance. You know, the alliance that Lien-L warned us about before the attack.” He spoke the last sentence emphatically, as if he was tired of repeating himself.
Diana sat back against her chair. “My gut is telling me to trust them.”
Sleuth leaned back against his chair as well, trying to get in rapport with his admiral. “I understand what they bring and offer, but I'm telling you we made this deal and if we don't follow through, all lives on this ship, including yours, will be lost.”
Diana didn't care about her life, at least not to the point that she worried about death. She worried about her people—even the coward sitting in front of her. “That Thomas Berard guy said he can get us off of this place and somewhere safe.”
“Lien-L offers us safety and even riches for the next cycle. In fact, I have a feeling they need us more than we need them.”
“Well, we can do this on our own. You know, leave with our own starship.”
“Too late. We would be stoned to death if we got the ship up and going now.”
“Really?” Diana bit her finger. “If we tell everyone on the ship that the mechanics fixed the engines, then why wouldn't they believe us?”
“And when the mechanics say they didn't? Let's wait for the next cycle like we agreed.” He huffed. “Kick these newcomers off the ship as soon as possible.”
Diana considered it for a moment then shook her head. “No.” She hesitated. “At least, not yet. Anyway, what is this next cycle about?” questioned Diana. “Lien-L has spoken of it for years, but never giving us an inkling of what it is...Have you been able to decode the meaning?”
Sleuth shook his head, but couldn’t hide the inexplicable gleam in his eye. “I haven't decoded it, yet. Not in the vid streams or com channels or any other mode of data consciousness. All I know is that a new cycle of something is about to happen and we have a chance to survive this one and enter into the new.”
“What do you mean, the new? Lien-L personally told me that we have a safe moon for our own when this is all said and done.”
“Admiral, we must wait until the new cycle. We can choose to go to that moon or stay here and be celebrities to the new batch of humans.”
“If we wait, then it is at the cost of more than a half a million lives. The deaths of all those on Matrona, Taranis, Brigantia, Sirona, and—” she slapped her hand on her desk and reached over, snagging Sleuth by his collar, pulling the skinny man onto her desk. Her face was stern and her eyes burned with rage. “New batch of humans? What are you telling me?! More importantly, what aren’t you telling me?”
Sleuth stuttered, “I...I don't know, Diana. Nothing. Please let me go. I don't know why I said new batch of humans.”
“You know something and I'm not letting go until you tell me.” She pointed out her armor- covered windows. “Lien-L's army tried to commit genocide on the human race and we cooperated. You, me, and Admiral Jenkins.”
“You didn't know, Diana. You didn't know they were going to kill so many.”
Diana let go of Sleuth and he slithered back into his chair. She put her head down on the desk and cried. “I almost killed our entire race and—”
“You warned our race,” growled Sleuth. “That could have been a huge problem.”
Astonished, Diana looked up, wiping tears from her eyes. “I did what?”
“How else would Star Guild have known that the enemy was coming? In fact, Starship Sirona was the first to fire upon the enemy—who we now call the Drags, thanks to your daughter.”
“I did no such thing,” responded Diana.
“The Drags weren't on any Holographic Display Console and somehow we knew to fire at them? The only person that could be aware of such a threat was you or me and that buzz-brain Jenkins on Starship Taranis. I sure as Guild didn't order the first shot and I know Jenkins didn't. We were the only ones who knew of the impending attack, so—”
“It wasn't supposed to be an attack, Sleuth. It was supposed to be an exercise mission. Very few were supposed to die. I participated in it to save our race, not end it!”
Sleuth laughed. “You know that's not true. You and I are both responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. And perhaps more, since you allowed an officer to fire on the Drags.”
Diana's head dropped in defeat. “I'm done, Sleuth. We are blaring up Sirona's engines and taking off. We will join the rest of Star Guild fleet at the rendezvous point.”
Sleuth laid his head back against the chair, closing his eyes in disgust. “You're killing me, Diana. They are all dead anyway, so there is no one to rendezvous with. I guarantee not one starship has survived this attack.”
Diana's voice dropped to a whisper. “Tell the crew to get ready. We leave at...” she glanced at her watch, seeing that it was around noon. “Fourteen hundred hours.”
Sleuth shook his head, pinching his glasses against the ridge of his nose. “No.”
Diana stood. “You will do as I ask or be reprimanded.”
“You reprimand me and this all comes out to the crew.” He reached in his pocket, pulling out a small, round device. “All of our dialogue has been going to Lien-L for many months now, by order of Lien-L. He is listening now. If you—”
“Who the Guild are you working for, Sleuth? Me or them?”
He cleared his throat. “Let me start again. If you reprimand me, Lien-L will see to it that the crew hears every word coming from your snaked tongue.” He stood. “We stay here until further orders from Lien-L.” He pointed to his heart. “I don't know about you, but I want to live. Perhaps some of our crew, which might be the last of our kind, wants to live as well.”
“Sit down, Sleuth.”
“Your orders mean nothing to me, Diana.” He turned and pressed a few buttons on the console next to the door. The door slid open and he walked out without bothering to look back at her as the door shut behind him.
Diana put her head in her hands, speaking to herself, “What do I do?” She sat and wept, not only for what she had done to the masses, but for potentially sending her daughter to die.
She stared into her hands, searching for clarity, and at the same time telling herself that she is a monster. “They should call me Admiral Monster.”
She pressed a button on her desk and a drawer opened near her knee. She reached in and took out a phaser, placing it against her temple. She squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the trigger. An empty click sounded, telling her that the gun wasn't charged.
Rearing back, she threw the phaser against the ebb door, breaking it into several pieces. “I guess I gotta deal with this shit like everyone else.”
Episode 13
Intuition
Eden stood in front of door thirty-six. She held out a small piece of paper with the same number typed on it.
“This is it,” she mumbled to herself.
Just in case, she knocked on the door; when no one answered she let herself in.
“Home sweet home,” she said.
The officer's room was small and was only fit for a full size bed with a pillow, a locker and a closet. She touched the cover on the bed, feeling the ebb fabric. “Cheap ebb-spun fiber.”
It was very early in the morning. She had accidentally fallen asleep at the cafeteria table sometime after dinner and no one bothered to wake her up. Now she was wide awake.
She sat on her bed and took a rock out of her pocket, eying it.
“The dragon crystal,” she whispered. She grabbed the pillow, pushing it against the wall, then leaned against the pillow. There she sat for several minutes, trying to deduce who, out of all the people she met today, could be the traitor. She knew two things; she saw a woman who was dropped off at the ship last night, and a man that had opened up a hatch on top of Sirona and helped her down the ladder. The woman was strikingly poised in stature and the man was small and skinny.
Admiral Diana McCoy walks like that, but who was the small guy? That Sleuth character? She was convinced the woman was Diana. It was an easy choice out of the many women she'd seen on the ship thus far. The other person who held herself like Diana was Crystal, but she wasn't on the ship. Or, is she? wondered Eden. Could that have been Crystal instead of Diana?
A knock on her door made Eden sit straight up. She crossed her legs and hoped it wasn't the admiral.
“Open,” she told the door, watching it slide upward. To her surprise there stood the handsome Thomas Berard, seeming very comfortable in his long, thick robe.
He bowed. “May I come in, Eden?”
“Yes, please do. I'm a little bored and thinking too much.”
He smiled. “You have a busy mind.” The door behind him closed. “One word of advice, if you don't mind my giving it?”
She puffed out her lower lip. “And what did I do wrong now?” She grinned, because Thomas never appeared to be angry or irritated about anything, so doing something 'wrong' probably wasn't even in his vocabulary.
But his eyes narrowed and he spoke gravely. “Don't assume that danger doesn't lurk behind your door. You're safe with me, but not with everyone. I know you're on Sirona and you think that no one will harm you here. On the other hand, we know—and you know—there are traitors amongst your people. So please, be very certain who is about to walk into your room before you open the door.”
“I know, I know,” she said, dismissively. “I realized that the moment I told the door to open. I won't make that mistake again. I was even thinking about the—”
He placed his hand on her mouth, bringing his lips close to her ear, whispering, “Again, we do not speak openly here. We are never alone, even when you think we are. There are vids and audio devices everywhere on the ship.”
Eden nodded and Thomas slowly pulled back, sitting beside her on the bed. His eyes cast downward for a moment, as if he had been a little too rash. The next moment, however, Thomas's brightness returned. “You know, you're a fast learner and a strong leader. Not a leader that immediately commands a room, as that has yet to be learned. However, you are a leader that when handed the torch, can run with it flawlessly. You have the ability to make the right decisions when necessary. The rest of the crew knows this and will one day be proud of you, just as I am, Eden.”
Eden stammered, “Th...thanks.”
This had been the first time in several days that Thomas had spoken to her one-on-one, and she was delighted they finally had some alone time together.
She looked away, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious. “I'm not so sure about leading the crew. Aren't you or Nyx the leader?”
Thomas slowly shook his head, looking deeply into her eyes. He leaned in and her spine tingled and her heart fluttered.
Kiss me, she thought.
He blew on the spot between her eyes and before she could ask why, she saw a burst of color all around Thomas for several seconds, then the colors receded and faded away.
Blinking with astonishment she asked, “What was that?”
“I was giving your third eye the gift of sight. In time the gift will become stronger and stronger within you. Do not be afraid of it. Use it to your advantage, because you'll be able to tell anything about someone by the colors you see around t
hem.”
Not entirely believing she could tell anything about anyone, Eden changed the subject. She held up her stone. “You said this is important.”
“Your dragon crystal,” he said, glancing at the stone in Eden's hand, then closing her fingers over it. “I have not told you the full story.”
She tilted her head, melting into his words. His tone gripped her attention, and she wanted desperately to grab him and touch her lips against his. She shook the image out of her head, saying instead, “What about the crystal?”
“It's less a story and more a tale of its purpose.” He took a deep breath, his eyes locked on hers.
He is so close, Eden thought. Why doesn't he just embrace me?
“This dragon crystal is from planet Draconis, which I have mentioned to you before. It was fought over between the Dragon warriors, which in some circles are known as the Reptoids, and my Knights Templar. It was a long and hard fought battle—darkness against light—and the light, the Knights Templar, prevailed.”
She opened her hand, seeing the translucent crystal seeming to brighten in light. “It's not just a rock then.”
“It's far more than that. Many thousands of years ago your relatives found an anomaly in the Draco constellation in the Milky Way Galaxy within Ursa Major. They pinpointed the anomaly at planet Draconis...” he paused, seeing her confusion. “Never mind those names, just understand that there is a planet named Draconis and it's filled with lizard-like humanoids that think stabbing a friend in the stomach is hospitable...to say the least.”
Eden recoiled slightly. “Oh. That's good to know—but what does that have to do with this stone?”
“Thousands of years ago your relatives visited the anomaly, somehow knowing that the anomaly was important. The anomaly was this stone in your hand. When they arrived on Draconis they tested the stone. It proved to be too powerful and short-circuited their instruments and starcraft. Knowing they landed on a dangerous planet, inhabited by beings with technology similar to their own—and some technology more destructive—they called in the Knights Templar to extract the stone and themselves. It was too late. The Reptoids hunted down and killed your relatives, but just before the Reptoids took back the stone, one of your relatives infused the dragon crystal with her own blood, aligning the stone with your bloodline. You see, the first blood spilled on these crystals encodes the DNA of the blood into itself—if the DNA is pure enough. Your bloodline has very pure DNA, thus making the partnership...perfect.”
Star Guild Episodes 10 - 18 (Star Guild Saga) Page 14
