As Kayin got ready to take off I turned to him and said “You’re gonna have to teach me how to fly this thing when we get a chance. I’d like to do some sightseeing before we leave.”
He laughed nervously, replied “Yeah… As soon as I really learn, I’ll teach you” then he smiled.
I looked at him “How many times have you done this?”
3 interjected “You don’t even know how to fly!?... You guys really didn’t plan this well… I would have been better off in that room…”
Kayin said “Hey! I’ve flown 4 times, ok? We’re going to be fine. I’ll just take it really slow. It’s not that hard… And I’ll take you back right now 3! Just say the word!.. PLEASE.”
I looked back at 3. He folded his arms across his chest and stayed quiet...
Kayin pressed a few buttons on the console and I felt the engine come on… It reminded me of the day I went to the Aurora for the first time… The day I made the worst decision of my life… If someone told me then that I’d be doing what I’m doing, I’d think they were crazy.
Kayins takeoff was a little shaky and he came kind of close to hitting the launch doors but I could tell we’d be ok.
3 took it upon himself to say “You’re going to kill us aren’t you?”
I could see Kayin was getting really annoyed.
“Shut up hairball!”
3 sneered “You know… If my mind couldn’t run rings around that pathetic excuse you call a brain… That might insult me a little.”
I leaned towards Kayin “Just let it go… and come on man… Don’t call him hairball.”
He just shook his head.
3 said “Atlas, thank you but I can fight my own battles… especially against someone like him.”
I turned around “3, you promised…”
He leaned back in his seat “Ok, ok. So what’s the plan?.. You do have this part worked out don’t you?”
Kayin responded “Yes… We’re going to introduce you as another miner. While you learn the language and start convincing them to side with us, Atlas and I will be working alongside the others…”
He stopped, did a few more things on the console and then continued “The site we’re hitting first is the largest one. As Atlas suggested, I’m giving you 5 days before we carry out our plans… Even if you can only secure forces on a few of the largest sites it’ll be enough. We can’t risk taking any longer.”
3 laughed “5 days!? I’ll be lucky to convince the first group… You do realize they’ve formed a belief system based on supernatural deities right? Your own history of humanity dictates they’ll most likely try to kill me for speaking out against it… You do know that right?”
He got up and walked to the front of the ship “This could end up being a very difficult undertaking… The only thing I could hope for is that it’s almost entirely fear based. Then they might be more welcoming to an alternative… We shall see.”
Even though 3 acted like he didn’t care, he had obviously put a lot of thought into the plan…
Kayin said “Well, it sounds like you know what you’re doing. Just do the best you can. Even if we only have on this one site, it’ll help a lot.”
Just as 3 sat back down we started to break through the clouds…
The endless blue of the ocean was just as I had imagined, stretching as far as the eye could see. The greens, reds, and yellows, of the forests were like nothing I had ever seen… It was a breathtaking example of what Aeris looked like thousands of years before my time.
The oceans on Aeris had long been polluted, so by the time I was born they were more of a brownish green. And trees were somewhat of a rarity. Most of Aeris had desert like conditions and heat far too extreme for lush and diverse plant life.
Kayin turned to me and said “Isn’t it crazy to think that at one time Aeris was this beautiful?”
I nodded “Yes, and sad…”
3 said “I still can’t believe your people allowed that to happen… It really makes you recognize how dangerous ignorance can be… It’s shockingly simple to harness the power of the sun, wind, and heat coming from the earth… How were they able to convince your people not to use them for so long?”
I turned back and replied “Well once we repair our atmosphere, Aeris will begin to heal… It will probably take generations but at least we’re doing something about it. One day it will look like this again… Our race has made a lot of mistakes 3…”
After a few minutes we came upon another landmass and Kayin said “Ok this is it. The largest mining site on the planet… It has almost twice as many workers as the second largest. For whatever reason there’s a massive amount of chrysos here.”
3 yelled “It’s because there are a lot of streams and rivers. It usually helps form large deposits!”
We both looked back at him.
He shrugged “I read a book that contained something about it…”
When Kayin landed the ship his lack of experience really started to show… There was a loud crash and 3 was thrown from his seat onto the floor… My body was jerked forward and I slammed my knees into one of the consoles… But we made it.
I looked over at Kayin “What happened to taking it slow?”
He laughed “Hey, I did my best… We’re alive right?”
3 got up and said “Yeah barely… I could probably do a better job my first try. I think you need one of those injections…”
Kayin didn’t even react… I guess he was getting used to it.
We all got ready to step off and Kayin said “Ok, here’s the plan… They all know I’m a technician so I’m gonna have to take my usual spot repairing and maintaining the equipment. Atlas you’re gonna take a gun and lead 3 over to the guys guarding the natives. Tell them you have a straggler and that you’ve been ordered to stand guard with them… They won’t question you or even care.”
He looked at 3 “You know what to do. Just remember… Time is not on our side and don’t try to contact us. We’ll meet with you at night once everyone is sleeping.”
When we walked up to the site, the 5 soldiers standing out front started making fun of Kayin’s landing.
“I was sure that landing was going to end in a fireball and a cloud of smoke…”
We all started laughing and then one of them said “What’s with the monkey?”
Kayin said “Apparently this one got left behind. Me and Atlas here were on the way down so they sent him with us. Just gonna drop him off at the mine.”
They stepped aside and I heard one of the guards say “Good thing we got so many of these monkeys, otherwise we’d be havin to do all the work.”
I guess they wouldn’t be joining us… I found myself hoping he’d be killed off when we made our move… For whatever reason he reminded me of Horus. I could sense his lack of conscience and I didn’t like the fact that he kept referring to them as “monkeys.”
As we got closer, I could see the giant canyon they’d dug up. It was so deep the natives at the bottom looked like ants… It was so large it reminded me of the craters on Aeris from asteroids that hit millions of years ago.
The ones closer to the top that I could see looked malnourished, dirty, and exhausted. They were almost worse off than when they were packed in the storage rooms waiting for injections.
Then I saw it… I came to a stop…
There was separate pit at least a few hundred feet in diameter, full of native bodies… They weren’t even buried, just stacked on top of each other like trash… Right next to the mine for the rest of them to see…
I turned and looked at Kayin and 3.
I could see the sadness in his eyes… I could see the anger in 3’s…
“No one ever told me about this…”
Kayin was silent for a few moments. “Those injections weren’t perfect Atlas… Some died from exhaustion but most of them just suddenly drop dead for no apparent reason… Like their hearts stop.”
“Kayin… How could they do this?”
He just stared at the ground…
I was too ashamed to look at 3… I could only imagine what he was feeling… He must see us as pure evil…
Kayin said “Just concentrate on what we’re doing Atlas… This is why we’re here, to put a stop to this. Keep moving.”
I tried but I couldn’t move… Even though I wanted to look away, all I could do is stare at their faces… Kayin was right. I should have tortured Horus… I should have made him suffer.
Then chain him in that room for a while and do it again once he was feeling better…
Now I know why Kayin seemed so much angrier than I was… And I couldn’t blame him. A lot more than a few thousand natives have died… We were clearly guilty of mass genocide.
There had to be hundreds of them… and this was only one site… That’s why Neros ordered a thousand more natives… Horus lied. It wasn’t to speed up the mining, it’s because so many of them were dying from the side effects of the treatment...
Eventually Kayin yelled. “Come on Atlas, this isn’t even the first pit! The longer this takes the more of them die!”
When I heard that, I actually started to feel dizzy…
“…What?”
“That’s right Atlas! And it’s almost full, so in a few days they’re going to fill it in and start another one… And believe me it’ll fill up faster than you could ever imagine!.. Let’s go, please!”
I didn’t even want to think about how 3 was feeling… or what he was thinking about us…
Eventually Kayin came to a stop “Ok, this is where we separate. See that group of soldiers over there Atlas? Go report to them, you know what to say. I’ll meet up with you at the end of the day and we’ll get in contact with 3.”
I didn’t feel like talking, I just nodded…
Kayin turned to 3 “I know you can do this… Just look around if you need to remember why we’re here and why we have to work together.”
Then he patted me on the shoulder and wished us luck.
I took 3 by the arm. “Sorry I have to…”
He hasn’t said a word since we walked up to the pit… Even though we were alone and he could, he didn’t… He probably wanted to kill us…
As we walked over to the soldiers I wanted to say something… To say I’m sorry or try and console him in some way. But I couldn’t find the words and I got the sense that he didn’t feel like talking to me right now anyway…
When we got up to them I said “Hey guys, I’m Atlas… Neros ordered me to bring down this straggler and join you guys on watch.”
I need to come up with more to explain myself…
“I used to be on one of the teams rounding them up but I’ve been relieved.”
One of them stepped forward “I’m Cassian, and this is Gaius and Zara… Welcome to our boring world.”
I gave them a fake laugh.
Then Zara walked over and took 3 away.
Cassian said “Basically we just stand around and watch them all day… Every now and then some of them will get in a fight or something like that… Just go over and make some noise, they’ll stop and fall to their knees… It’s easy.”
Then he turned to Gaius “Go take a walk around the perimeter, it’s been awhile.”
He groaned and walked away.
Cassian was a heavy set man, and seemed really friendly. I didn’t get the impression that he was looking down on the natives like the others. From a far his heavy beard and wide stance made him look kind of mean, but once I got up close I realized he had a kind face hiding behind it.
Cassian watched him and as soon as Gaius made some distance he said “So you’re Kayin’s friend Atlas?”
I didn’t know what to say… Kayin didn’t mention anyone named Cassian… I had to be careful.
“Yeah we met at the academy.”
He got a confused look on his face and said “So what are you doing down here anyway?”
I didn’t know whether he knew I was lying or didn’t hear what I said, so I started to repeat the same lines.
He interrupted me “Oh Kayin must not have mentioned me… I’m in on the whole plan. I know you’ve been working with Horus… Gaius and Zara don’t know though so don’t say anything around them.”
If Kayin wanted him to know about the plan he would have told him… He didn’t even know Horus was dead or why we were here…
“Oh, I just wanted to get away for a while so I asked Kayin to pull some strings… Being on that ship gets old. This is actually my first time on the planet.”
“Really, you’d rather be down here and have to see all this than stay on this ship?.. You must have seen some pretty crazy things…”
Thanks for reminding me… “Yeah I really needed to get away… but you aren’t wrong… It might be worse down here.”
He scratched his head and started digging a hole in the dirt with tip of his boot.
“So I know something’s going on and you just can’t tell me… It’s fine, I get it.”
I shugged “Sorry…”
“Oh it’s ok, I’m just happy to be a part of… whatever it is you guys are doing… Most of us were really upset when they started bring the natives in to mine. No matter how they spin it, using people as slaves is wrong.”
Cassian let out a long sigh “Every time I put another body in the pit it reminds me of that…”
He stopped and nervously looked around.
“Gaius or Zara should be getting back any minute… Anyway, whatever you need just let me know, I’m ready to go at any time… And Gaius and Zara are good guys… They just lost some friends when the natives attacked so I told Kayin not to say anything to them.”
I replied “Do you think they’ll join us once we make our move?”
“I hope so… Oh here he comes.”
Gaius walked up “Ok I threw him in with the rest of them… I had to dump a couple of bodies so it took a few minutes… Things stink. I can’t wait to get out of here.”
I wanted to say something but I stopped myself… I had to remember what happened. I’d probably run into a lot of soldiers and miners that didn’t like the natives. I just hoped they would lay down their arms once we started the takeover… They were victims too. Forced into a small war caused by the ACI’s crimes against the native’s…
Though at the same time it was extremely aggravating because they didn’t have the sense to realize they were mad at the wrong people. We might have to end up killing a lot of our own… But it’s just another one of the consequences of the ACI’s actions…
Like Kayin said… None of us are innocent. And everyone will have the opportunity to atone and join us… If not, then we will stand up for the natives and fight against them.
Chapter 12
Cassian was right… Guarding the site was an extremely boring and depressing job. It even got to the point where I volunteered to walk the perimeter, just for something to do. Standing around talking to them for hours on end really started to get old.
As I circled the mine, I tried to spot 3 among the natives but I couldn’t. It was a hot day; the sun was shining so brightly I spent most of the time squinting… And after seeing how hard they had to work in this heat, it only made me angry… When I was done, I didn’t want to do it again. I’d watched them suffer enough…
Gaius and Zara stood around for most of the day talking about returning to Aeris. Even saying they wished we’d keep sending down more natives and speed up the mining process… It really seemed as though they didn’t care at all.
They’d always refer to them as “monkeys”…
It was obvious that having to drag dead natives from the mine every day and throw them on the quickly growing pile had no effect on these men. If anything they’d be laughing and joking as they did it.
Just like with the solider at the gate, I wouldn’t mind if they chose to fight against us….
I hated being there… I liked Cassian at first, but he was really starting to get on my nerves.
Every ti
me we were alone he’d ask me all these questions and talk about the plan. It was hard to believe Kayin let this guy in on it… He never shut up. I’m surprised he didn’t tell everyone he met…
By the end of the day, Cassian following me around and having to listen to the other two make fun of the natives made we want to get away from them as fast as I could… Not to mention I was losing my mind because I had no idea what was happening with 3.
All I wanted to do was find Kayin, meet up with 3 and see how everything’s going… I just hoped I wouldn’t have to spend another day with these guys… It wasn’t easy to contain myself…
When the sun started to go down Gaius walked over to a mobile terminal and pressed a button. A horn immediately starting sounding throughout the whole site. I could see wires running to poles with com speakers fixed to the tops.
I turned to Cassian “What’s that?”
“It’s to let everyone know we’re done for the day. Even the natives know what it means.”
I’d been wondering about something for a while… “Where do they go at night? Where do they sleep?”
“Oh they just live in the mine… They’ll start making fires soon and sending others out to hunt. We give them food but it’s not nearly enough… and they seem to prefer animal meat heated with fire anyway.”
I was kind of surprised “So they never leave the crater?”
“No, ever since the revolt they do exactly as we say. If you walk up to them they’ll usually get on their knees and start chanting or something… They really think we’re their creators. They actually don’t want to leave… It’s so sad…”
I thought to myself “Horus would be so proud.”
Then I said “Well I have to go find Kayin, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I was surprised Cassian didn’t try and follow me… I was already prepared to explain why he couldn’t…
When I got back near the entrance to the site all the soldiers and miners were starting to gather. There was large tent set up surrounded by tables and fire pits. Several men were handing out nutrition bars and water to everyone.
I needed to look for Kayin but I was also starving and really thirsty so I got in line. I figured he’d show up any minute.
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