“We made it!” Anaxis cried.
Maleira ran from the cockpit to the cabin and joined in the dance Anaxis and Mills had started.
“I can’t believe it!” Maleira shouted. “We really escaped! We made it!”
“Oh, I’m the happiest boy alive!” Mills said. Tears streamed down his cheeks.
“Unbelievable,” said Maleira. “Absolutely unbelievable! But we’ve got to keep moving. We’re not out of the thick yet.”
“Well, we’re out of the air, which is good enough for me,” said Mills.
“Let’s run, boys,” Maleira said. “Before they come find us.”
The sun was high in the sky and the wind was blowing pollen through its rays, heavy through the humid air. Maleira led the way from the neatly crashed ship through the waist-high grass.
“Where are we going now?” Anaxis asked.
Before Maleira could answer, one of Gnirean’s ships appeared on the horizon.
“Wait… They’re headed towards us,” Maleira said. “Get down. We’ll have to crawl.”
The boys dropped to their hands and knees and continued to follow along after Maleira, as the noise of the approaching ship grew louder. The ship spotted the escapees despite their hiding, and landed nearby.
“Damn. No use hiding, now, I suppose,” said Maleira. He stood up.
Anaxis and Mills did the same, to see the group of four Gnirean guards approaching.
“Don’t try to run,” one of them ordered. “You wouldn’t make it far.”
“What’s it to you if we escape, Vilsa?” asked Maleira. “I’m an old man. They’re a couple of children. We pose no threat to you. To Gnirean.”
“You know I have to bring you in, Maleira,” Vilsa said. “You know I don’t have a choice.”
“Have you ever?” Maleira asked. “Don’t you, now?”
“I don’t,” Vilsa said. He turned to one of the other guards and said, “Go ahead and wristlock them. Get them back to the ship.”
“Well, we almost made it, boys,” Maleira sighed as he resignedly offered his wrists for binding.
“You did your best, Maleira,” said Anaxis.
“Some best. Go on,” said Vilsa. “Get them to the ship. We’re done here.”
18
The three near-escapees were put in a holding cell for a trial they were to receive that same afternoon.
“So how are we going to get out of this one?” Mills asked Maleira when the door was slammed shut on their cell.
“As soon as I think of an idea, I’ll let you know,” said Maleira. “I’m at a complete loss on this one.”
“What’s going to happen at the trial?” asked Anaxis.
“Oh, it’s a sentencing,” Maleira said. “They call it a trial, but it’s a sentencing. We’re all already guilty. There’s nothing we can do.”
“And what do you think the sentence will be?” asked Mills.
“Death,” Maleira answered. “By injection. Won’t hurt at all.”
Mills lowered his head and started a quiet whimper.
“Isn’t there something we can do?” he sobbed. “Can’t we at least try to escape again?”
“Well, see, they’d evanesce us,” Maleira said. “With lethal injection, you literally feel nothing but a second of sleepiness before it’s all over. With evanescence, you feel your arm dissolve, are aware of your abdomen having gone missing. It’s a horrible way to die. Unless they hit your head first. But the possibility that they won’t is there.”
Mills fell down onto the floor and pulled his knees to his chest.
“Who’s this council, anyways?” Anaxis asked angrily. “Don’t we get to say anything?”
“You can talk all you want, but they won’t listen,” said Maleira. “The High Council is the same five people it has been since before the wars with Allovast. The same five people it will be in a thousand years. They’re pointless, because the laws are fixed and dictate everything. The Council just dresses up and sits in fancy chairs and recites the law.”
“But they’re human, right?” asked Anaxis.
“I guess you can call it that,” said Maleira.
“So you can talk to them. I’m going to try,” said Anaxis. “Really, really try.”
“Give it your best shot,” said Maleira.
After a short wait, the three fugitives were brought before the High Council in a pourstone room adorned sparsely with banners and batting. The Council looked down from their high chairs at Maleira, Anaxis, and Mills and one of them asked, “Are these the escapees?”
“They are,” answered a man standing at the front of a crowd of spectators gathered behind the accused.
“Death,” the council said. “Death for all three. Immediately.”
Mills howled.
“Wait,” Anaxis said. When none of the Council reacted, he shouted, again, “Hey! Hey, listen!”
One of the council leaned forward and squinted.
“Yes, you. Hey, will you listen to me for a second?” Anaxis asked her.
The woman stared at Anaxis as she asked, “What’s this?” of no one in particular.
“I just don’t think this is very fair,” said Anaxis.
“No?” another of the Council asked as they leaned forward. “No, the law isn’t fair. But it is always just.”
“Well what’s just may be different for everyone, but what’s fair is pretty much the same,” said Anaxis.
The rest of the council leaned forwards.
“Do you think you know more than the High Council of Gnirean?” one of them asked.
“There’s no way I do,” answered Anaxis. “I’m from Talx. We hardly know anything.”
“From Talx?” asked a council. “How did you ever get to Gnirean in the first place, to be able to try and escape?”
“It was a long journey across the Stretch and through the Squeeze. We had to go deep underground and kill a jaela,” answered Anaxis.
“And for what did you undertake this task?” asked a council.
“To visit the mothership you all buried away for some reason. To implant a key. To try to contact Alm,” Anaxis answered.
“What?” one of the council demanded incredulously. “What did you say?”
“Visited the mothership?” another asked. “How?”
“Young man,” asked a council, “Do you mean to say that you found a way to turn the mothership back on?”
“I did,” Anaxis answered. “And it worked. I think. How did none of you hear about this?”
“There would be no reason for us to hear about it,” one of the council said.
“Aren’t you the High Council?” Anaxis asked.
“We only rule on legal issues,” said a council.
“You parrot the law,” said Anaxis. “You don’t actually make decisions, do you? Your law is not a living law, is it?”
“What do you mean to say?” asked a council.
“I mean to say that I disagree with the way you’re running things around here,” Anaxis answered.
“Oh, do you?” another council boomed.
“Yes!” Anaxis said. “Listen, I grew up in the desert, out where you send your drones to destroy us any time we try to rise up out of the dirt and better ourselves. I see what you do with your technology now, how you waste it. What’s the point? What are you protecting? You’re throttling the people of this planet, both your own and those who you suppress with your ludicrously overpowered surveillance machine.”
“They would rise against us without it, as they have before,” a council asserted.
“You really think anyone still wants to rise against Gnirean? That’s foolish! We just want to be more comfortable, to thrive, to work to reach the stars like our ancestors did. It’s time to let the control go. You won’t be losing a thing. You’ll be gaining the world.”
The Council was silent for a while. Mills gave two big thumbs-up to Anaxis, who shrugged as if to say he hoped it had worked. Maleira winced in anticipation.
“Perhaps it is time for a Summit,” one of the council finally said.
Maleira choked.
“A Summit?” another council asked. “That would be first in quite a while, wouldn’t it?”
“I think it would be,” said another. “It could be good.”
“A Summit, then,” said the first council.
“What’s a summit?” Anaxis whispered to Maleira.
“It’s when they restructure the law,” Maleira said. “This has never happened. It was built into the law, but it’s just never happened. And I never thought it could!”
“So, this is good?” Anaxis asked.
“It’s more than good, it’s… It’ll change everything. Everything.”
“Are we still going to die?” Mills asked.
“Probably not, no,” answered Maleira. “Absolutely incredible.”
19
As a new way of life was decided by the High Council, Anaxis and Mills were set free. Maleira was retained, as he had committed several severe security breaches, but he seemed to think that he would ultimately be absolved, and promised Anaxis and Mills they would meet again. Anaxis and Mills were delivered to Talx by one of Gnirean’s ships, to arrive as the sun was setting over the sienna landscape.
“Can you even believe that it really happened?” Mills asked Anaxis as they watched the ship that returned them home fly off into the distance.
“It may not have, for all we have to show,” said Anaxis.
“How much trouble do you think we’re going to be in?”
“So much.”
“I suppose there’s no denying the inevitable,” said Mills. “Let’s face our fates.”
“Agreed,” said Anaxis. “See you when my parents let me out of the house again.”
“Will do. That was some adventure, friend.”
“Something to cherish our whole lives. And who knows what may come of it? If Gnirean will open their doors, if Alm will respond to the beacon. Life is so much more interesting now.”
“It sure is,” agreed Mills.
“Alright. Let’s do this,” said Anaxis.
He walked to his dwelling and pushed the leather flap aside. His mother was inside, and was so startled by Anaxis that she dropped the bowls she was holding and cried out.
“Anaxis!” she cried, running over to her son and throwing her arms around him. “Where have you been? Oh, I’m so happy to see you!”
Anaxis hugged his mother back and sighed with relief over her lack of anger. “It’s the craziest story,” he said. “Is Dad here? Brother or sister?”
“Oh, Anaxis, they’re out at the cliffs. Where they have been searching every day since you and Mills disappeared? Is he okay, too?”
“He’s fine,” Anaxis said. “I have to go tell them that I’m alright. That I’m home!”
“But, where have you been?” his mother asked again.
“I’ll tell you when we’re all together,” said Anaxis. “Just wait, I won’t be long!”
“Well, alright” his mother said, seeming wary to let him go after he had only just returned. “But you come back quickly, okay?”
“I will, I will,” said Anaxis. “Wait, tell me, did Xala ever come back?”
“Of course she did,” said his mother.
“And she didn’t tell you anything about where I went?”
“You were gone a good deal longer than she was, young man,” said his mother. “I want to know everything.”
“I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you. Did she bring back the machine?”
“Of course, son. You’re a hero. Did you know that?”
Anaxis stopped for a second and then smiled. “I didn’t,” he said. “Let me go grab the others. I’ll be right back, Mom.”
His mother beamed and nodded. “Go on, Anaxis. Go ahead.”
Anaxis ran to the cliffs at the edge of town and so surprised his father that the man fainted dead away. His brother and sister couldn’t decide if they were angry or happy, and kept vacillating between punching and hugging their returned brother. When the whole family was together again in their shelter, Anaxis told them about all of his wild adventures. He talked long into the night, fueled by yoga steep and the awed attention of his family.
Anaxis and Mills were indeed heroes now, both for their journey and for the machine they sent back with Xala to the village. The citizens enjoyed much extra time with the device helping supplant their foods, and so could start to improve in other ways, to tend to things they couldn’t before. And this was without drone flyovers, which completely ceased, at least until the High Council of Gnirean decided on what new path they were going to take forward.
A few days after returning home, Anaxis and Mills sat along the edge of the cliff they had once scaled to begin their journey and gazed out at the stars arriving for their nightly show.
“So, where are we going to go on our next adventure?” Mills asked Anaxis.
“Oh,” Anaxis said as he stared into the burgeoning starlight, “I’ve got a feeling the next adventure is coming to us.”
TO BE CONTINUED
Legend of Alm -The Valor Saga Pt 1 - Falling Star Page 21
