by Rayner Ye
Foster soon joined her.
“Is everything okay?”
Foster nodded and narrowed her eyes on a nearby lavender bush, covered in honeybees. “Z’Das wants me to work for the secret service.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That I’d think about it.”
Aedre felt a pang of jealousy, which was senseless. She’d already told him she didn’t want to be involved.
***
The following evening, Aedre called Z’Das. Getting hold of him didn’t prove easy, but she got there in the end.
He arched an orange eyebrow.
“Did Foster decie to work for you?”
“That’s not your business. Now, if you were an agent, it would be, but you’re not.”
“I’ve changed my mind. I want to continue rescuing women and girls.”
***
Cheen’s Northern Western Desert, Mayleeda
The following day, Dad surprised Aedre by telling her he was gong to train to become and agent too. They said goodbye to the friends they’s met and boarded a susman which looked like a yellow fish. The susman went further up the road and waited at a second exit.
Aedre heard Noomy and Inga say a teaful goodbye, then the side melted open. When Foster climbed inside and saw them, her mouth fell open. “Why are you here? It’s a long way to escort me.”
“I changed my mind,” Aedre said. “I want to help again, and I want to feel and move my bloody limbs.”
Aedre’s head pounded, and she broke down in tears. Dad put his arm around her shoulders.
They travelled over continents and ocean for twenty-four hours but had the comfort of Biluglass and all its amenities. In Cheen’s Desert, MSS had a training camp under a white Biluglass dome. A river ran through and contained areas to lie on which looked like iron lily pads. Sprinklers showered water overhead.
Accommodation and other facilities were underground. They ate in a cavernous hall and sat around a table with other men and women training to be river and rain agents. Aedre spotted YuFu and hovered to a space across the table. “Good to see you again.”
“You too.” He came around, leaned over and hugged her.
“YuFu, this is Yasmin’s mum, Noomy Foster, and this is my father, Toby.”
YuFu bowed to them. “Great to meet you.”
“What about your family?” Aedre asked YuFu after he returned to his seat.
“I’ll see them after training. Hope Tao Tao keeps away from my wife.”
He stared at Noomy Foster. “I can see the resemblance.”
Speechless, Foster dabbed her nose with a napkin. “You know my daughter?
He nodded. “Aedre saved Yasmin and me from the Yiksaan Syndicate. We stayed in a Feili temple with a fantastic old man called Apek.”
“Was she in a bad way?”
He lay his hand over his heart, then quickly lowered it. “Yasmin was much better when I last saw her, and so happy after watching the news about Glass City.”
“Yasmin is on her way to Mayleeda,” Foster said.
He smiled and nodded. “Will she join us in training?”
“Don’t know. I hope not.”
“Why did you join us?”
“So I can save my two other daughters. They became concubines.”
“Where?”
“One in Mayleeda, and the other in Nerthus.”
“Did Z’Das give you permission to seek them out?”
“After two months.”
“Nice.”
“Has Z’Das given you a project to work on once our training’s finished?” Foster asked YuFu.
“Yep. I’m gonna bust a Glass City like yours. My friend has a sister there. She’s a noomy too.”
Aedre gave YuFu steady eye contact. She knew who he was talking about—Akachi. The spy still had his sight set on rescuing his sister.
Foster clutched her moonstone pendant and swallowed. “Her daughters?”
“Still young.”
“I don’t understand how his sister is there.”
“She was abducted as a child.”
“Oh.”
“The only problem is that astronomers say her moon’s outside Plan8.”
“Outside the boundaries?”
He nodded.
Aedre’s stomach flittered. How would they get her through the boundary?
Foster must have been wondering the same, because she rubbed her forehead. “How could it be possible? No one in Plan8’s ever been able to get outside.”
“I know. Weird, right? Spaceships arrive where they started, like a loop.”
“How does your friend know she’s there?”
“Travelled by river and rain.”
“Who is your friend?”
“Name’s Akachi. He’s an ex-MSS agent. Helped conquer Glass City.”
“Aedre told me about him. Why’s he not working on saving his sister?”
“Has a little boy. Doesn’t want to be involved anymore. It’s a long story. Poor guy’s had it hard.”
“You’ve had it hard too, from what Aedre tells me.”
“I think we all have.”
Aedre’s heart banged at the thought of Akachi. It sent an electrical jolt through her paralysed body. When would she see him again? Hopefully soon.
The End
List of Plan8 Systems
Constellation of Plan8
Map of Planet Kuanja
Map of Rajanakki
Map of Giok
Tushing’s systems
Map of Mayleeda
Author’s Note
Please review me on Amazon.
If you enjoyed this book and wonder, why not read the Red Star Trilogy? Aedre is a side character in Red Star along with other RRT agents on Mayleeda Moon.
Chairmans Planet (Red Star 1)
Chairman’s Treason (Red Star 2)
Chairman’s Escape (Red Star 3)
If you are intrigued to know more about characters involved in various adventures within this series, why not read the multi pov Plan8 Slaves Slaves box-set?
Book 0: Prequel to the Firesnake
Book 1: Five Light-Years to the Firesnake
Book 2: Slaves of the Firesnake
Book 3: Catastrophe in the Firesnake
Book 4: Time Travel in the Firesnake
Book 5: Invaders of the Firesnake
Box set: Space-Shifters of the Firesnake
Alternatively, check out YuFu's single pov Plan8 Slaves omnibus standalone:
YuFu’s Firesnake
www.rayneryeauthor.com
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https://m.facebook.com/rayner.ye.8
List of Characters
Aedre: A Sax from Oxfire, Enderland, Nerthus.
Aedre’s dad: Senior electronics engineer at the Bod’s Android Recover Centre in Oxfire, Nerthus.
Akachi: Spy who works for the Mayleedian Secret Service (MSS).
Apek: Aedre’s Jerjen feigong teacher at a Feili temple near her home in North Rajka. An elderly man.
Aran: Giokese who helps Aedre
Arif: A Native Red travel agent in Rajka.
Bamdar: A Sax Nerthling. The boss of the Yiksaan Mafia in Rajka, Rajanakki, Inarmuzza, Kuanja.
Bhaltair: Aedre’s boss at a Mayleedian language institute in North Rajka, Rajanakki, Inarmuzza, Kuanja.
Bamdar: A Sax Nerthling. The boss of the Yiksaan Mafia in Rajka, Rajanakki, Inarmuzza, Kuanja.
Chairman Yacopo: New Biluvian ruler whose scientists created Chloroplasts and Noirplasts.
Chairman Yark: Co-ruler and invader of planet Kuanja, one hundred and fifty years in the future.
Chairman Yorick: Chairman of New Bilu whom invades planet Kuanja one hundred and fifty years in the future with the help of Mahaaraanee.
Colonel Benberg: Second in command at Glass City, Moon Cronos, orbiting Eeporyo. Originally from Markaz, Kunaja.
Crowleen: Crow woman and Keeper of Keys, Hearthrum, Eeporyo.
Dang: A Native
Red Feigong teacher at Rajka’s central stadium.
Delisa: Manager of Glass City, Moon Cronos, orbiting Eeporyo. Originally from Enderland, Nerthus.
Doris: Android Nurse.
Fern: Home-Nurse Robot.
Gus: Son and employee of the manager of Giok’s labour camp.
Inga: Noomy Foster’s third daughter, Glass-City, Cronos, Eeporyo.
Jayan: A Native Red Feigong teacher at Rajka’s central stadium.
Jennefgarr: Clay tribe’s psychic, Hearthrum, Eeporyo.
Jess: Bamdar’s personal prostitute.
Kaal: Mahaar’s son.
Kala: Mahaar’s daughter.
Mahaaraanee: The High Priestess of the Satsang Sky People, one-million years ago on the planet Artheus.
Mahaar: Mahaaraanee’s oldest son.
Maki: Akachi’s son.
Margo: A robot who tends to Aedre.
Maria: A Native Red travel agent in Rajka.
Mata: A guard who works in the Shard of Swords at the labour camp in Giok, Inarmuzza, Kuanja.
Mosh: A Mayleedian language teacher. Aedre’s friend and housemate in North Rajka. Recently murdered by Bamdar.
Nabi: Aedre’s best friend on Kuanja. Recently murdered by Bamdar.
Nahau: Somare’s wife, and Gus’s mum.
Noomy Foster: A noomy in Glass-City, Cronos, Eeporyo.
Roobish: Aedre before she re-set time.
Sharr Shuvuu: Three-quarters human and one-quarter owl, she is the Bubo
Sharr Shuvuu’s Mama: Originally from Markaz, Kuanja.
Sixty-two of the south-west wing: Android Maid who Aedre copies.
Somare: Manages the labour camp in Giok.
Soozan: Aedre’s sister. Oxfire, Enderland, Nerthus.
Ting: Aedre’s friend.
Tomin: Aedre’s ex-boyfriend.
Wayan: A Giokese mother who Aedre lives with.
Yasmin: Noomy Foster’s first daughter, Glass-City, Cronos, Eeporyo.
YeLi: A Jerjen Inarmuzzan, working in Aedre’s local Feili temple.
YuFang: YuFu’s fabricated self. A Jerjen who worked for, then stole from the Oojenan mafia in Mayleeda, captured by Bamdar’s pirates, and taken to the Yiksaan complex in Rajka.
YuFu: A Jerjen diamond fisher from Mayleeda. He works for Tanmixan and secretly harvests diamonds from Tushing’s atmosphere.
Z’Das: Head of Anti-Terrorism and Human Trafficking at the Mayleedian Secret Service. Akachi’s boss.
