After a few minutes, Tern stopped and pressed both palms against the dead end cave wall. He took a deep breath and pushed. When nothing happened he took a step back and looked at the wall again.
Lena looked with him, but she wasn't sure what she was looking for. "What are you looking for?"
"There has ta be some kind of lever or button that opens this panel."
"What panel?" Suki said. "This is nothing but a dead end."
"No, look. This isn't the same material as the stone around us. This is fake," Tern said. He ran his hand from the ground up to just taller than him then across a width twice the size of his shoulders and then down again. He was outlining a door.
Lena stepped forward to examine the area he had shown. She didn't notice a difference. When she stepped back, Tern explained.
"The part I outlined... It's too uniform. Look at the surface. The rises and falls are too similarly spaced. They aren't natural." He knocked on the surface. It sounded hollow.
It was then that Lena saw what Tern had seen. He was right, this was man made.
The four of them began running their hands across the walls adjacent to the door.
"We're lookin' fer something' similar to the door that will unlock it," Tern said.
Lena felt the similarity in the stone before she saw it. A small mound about waist high. She pushed against it. A hologram appeared requesting a handprint. Lena lined her palm up with the hologram and let it scan her. The beeping of the hologram caused Lena's breathing to match with the sound. In—beep—out—beep—in and just as she was about to give up that her handprint would let them in, her name flashed across the hologram and the mound depressed. A whoosh of air blew her hair into her face as the door Tern had pointed out opened.
"Looks like ya found it, Lena," Tern said.
Tern stepped through first, followed by Suki. Tarek motioned her ahead of him. The lights in the room had already been triggered to reveal a room lined with shelves. On those shelves were binders with labels on the spine of them. She saw one labeled "Alliance."
Lena took the binder off the shelf and opened it.
"What is it?" Suki asked.
"It looks like these are communications my father had with the Alliance," Lena said. She placed the binder on a table that was in the center of the room. "It looks like anytime he had any contact with them, he kept a paper trail."
"Smart," Tarek said. "It makes it so that if the electronic files get corrupted, they have other copies of the communication."
Lena turned away from the book and looked at all the other binders. There were hundreds of them. Some thick with paper, others thin as if they contained nothing at all.
"Do you think this is what Xenia was talking about?" Suki asked.
Lena slowly nodded her head. "Yes, I do. If what I think is true, the information here will tell us who was with my father and who was against him."
"Don't we already know who was against him?" Suki asked.
Lena ignored Suki and pulled out another book and set it on the table. "This is a record of every person the Resistance ever talked to."
A beep sounded overhead, then a voice came over the speaker. "Tern, Birdee is awake," Myri said. "Don't know where you are, but if you can hear this, I thought you'd like to know."
"She just fell asleep," Suki said.
"She can't sleep fer long before the nightmares come," Tern said.
Suki's face filled with sympathy. More than sympathy, it filled with understanding, like she knew the exact horrors of the nightmares that awaited Birdee in her sleep.
"Come on. We can look at this stuff later. Let's go see how Birdee is," Suki said.
"Y'all can stay here," Tern said. "Best if there isn't a crowd.”
They watched Tern leave the room.
"Do the nightmares ever get better?" Lena asked Suki.
"No," Suki said. "You just learn how to deal with it better."
"Come on," Tarek said, pulling out another binder. "Let's find a way to stop this terror."
***
Lena slammed a binder closed. Tarek and Suki had left hours earlier for dinner. She had continued going through her father's communications, and was still no closer to finding the answer on how to stop Selene. The frustration at not finding an answer was making her moody.
Lena wanted to hit something. She didn't know how to piece any of this information together. She only knew she needed to stop Selene, and that the answer was supposed to be in here.
Lena took a deep breath and looked back at the binders. Her father had compiled this information in these caves for a reason. So nobody else could find them? So he could figure out a way to stop Selene? She didn't know and she guessed it didn't matter what her father wanted to do with the information. He was dead. She needed to figure out what she could do with it.
Lena opened a picture of Selene and sent the image to a screen that filled one side of the room. Everything that was happening on Mir centered around this one woman.
She looked back at the binders surrounding her. Anything that was a paper copy she could turn electronic and move around on the screen. She liked that idea. Then she wouldn't ruin the copies that were laying on the table.
She handwrote the name Viceret, then she threw the name on the screen. The Viceret people were somehow involved in all of this. To what end? She needed to find out how everything connected.
She put up the blueprints to the control device. The stupid device that caused all this to happen in the first place. She hated it.
She put up all the pictures of the council members. And then she threw to the screen Thora and Aaron.
She knew that Ras was a Viceret and worked for Selene. Or maybe Selene worked for him. She drew a line between them. Then she drew a line from Selene to the control device. Selene was using the control device on at least two people.
She stood and scanned the binders on the shelf until she found one with communications from Zeke. Inside it were pictures of a much younger Zeke and a Gideon when he was a child.
Gideon had shaggy hair and wide brown happy eyes. He was grinning. Lena couldn't help but grin. She pulled the pictures free of the pages and copied them to the wall. Then drew a line between them, the control device and Selene.
They were guessing that Selene was using the control device on the council. She drew a line and a question mark between each council member, the control device and Selene. If the council was being controlled by Selene, they wouldn't be able to help Lena remove Selene from power.
Who else could be involved? She scanned the binders along the shelf hoping a name would jump out at her. Then it did. The Cimmerians. They weren't necessarily connected to Selene, but they wanted to stop her just as much as Lena did. She wrote their name and put it on the board.
She opened the binder of her father's communications with the Cimmerians and started scanning the pages. She was only two pages in when she had to re-read one of her father's communications with General Carina. She pulled the binder closer to her. Was she reading this right?
"Help us start an inter-world war.”
She looked at the screen, then she looked back down at the communication between her father and the Cimmerians. Her heart skipped a beat. She jumped to her feet and stared at the writing and then at her wall. Her father was going to start an inter-world war, using the Cimmerians as the army. And according to the communications, General Carina herself had agreed.
She could do the same thing. She wouldn't need the council to help take Selene from power. She could bypass the council entirely. She could start a war.
Grabbing the binder she ran as fast as she could to the main cavern.
Druinn and Myri were in the kitchen talking as replicators made them some food.
"I need everyone," Lena yelled running towards the kitchen table and slamming the book down.
Druinn gave her a wary look but went to a panel on the side of the cave. Opening an intercom, she called everyone to the kitchen.
&
nbsp; "What's going on Lena?" Myri asked.
"I think I found an answer." Lena was bubbling with adrenaline and instead of explaining she paced impatiently as she waited for everyone to arrive. Myri and Druinn cast worried looks at Lena and then at each other. Myri set some food down on the table in front of Lena, but Lena ignored it.
Remiah and Dessa were the first to arrive. They gave a curious look to Druinn and Myri who only shrugged their shoulders and motioned them to the table.
Then Tern and Birdee entered. It looked like Birdee had been sleeping. Her wildly curly hair looked matted down on one side and she was being pushed on a glider by Tern.
Evren came from the tunnel leading to his workroom.
Suki and Tarek came last their faces smiling at something the other had said. When they were all seated around the table looking at her, Lena blurted out, "We can start a war."
The room fell silent. Everyone looked back and forth at each other like she'd gone crazy.
"Listen, I think we can do it. My father, he talked with the Cimmerians about it. It was one of his options." She laid the book on the table and showed the other's her father's letter with General Carina.
"Lena, I think you need to rest." Myri said.
"We can't start a war against Selene. For one, we don't have enough people. For two, we already had a war and lost," Dessa said.
Lena did not like her at that moment. "No," she said. "It'll work." She felt her excitement being replaced by fear but pushed it aside. "We won't start a civil war. That's what the first Resistance was. And you're right, the resistance did lose. We didn't have enough allies. But we won't do it the way my father did it. We'll start an inter-world war. One where we will have the support of an outside army. The Cimmerians, they're not from our world. My father, he talked to them about it. Getting them to attack Mir would force the Interplanetary Military to step in, bypassing the council."
Tarek's head began to nod catching on to what Lena was saying before anyone else.
"The Cimmerians are all citizens of Mir," Suki said. "The Interplanetary Military will only step in if one planet threatens another planet."
"The Cimmerians are dual citizens," Tarek said. "But if they formed their army on Qua, then they would be considered an invading force. Lena's plan might work."
"It will work. All we have to do is prove the Cimmerians formed their army on Qua with the intent of overtaking the government of Mir. Then they would be considered a threat from another planet," Lena said. "We don't need to get the council to step in to remove Selene. The Military will do it for us."
"Or we could forget the war, and fix the nullifier," Evren said. "You do realize that if you start a war, people will get hurt."
"People are already getting hurt," Lena said. "Or have you not seen Birdee recently?"
Suki put a calming hand on Lena's shoulder but the feel of the prosthetic only solidified her resolve.
"It's all speculation that the council is even being controlled by Selene," Suki said. "But if they are we'd still have to figure out who was being controlled and who wasn't and nullify those devices.”
"Then we still might not have the numbers from the council to initiate an investigation," Tarek said.
"So you're saying to go to war," Dessa said.
"I'm saying when it comes to removing Selene from power, there is not going to be an easy solution," Lena said.
"My father can be waiting with the military," Tarek said. "If we let him in on the plan,"
"You want to involve your father?" Suki said.
"He already is aware of what is going on on this planet," Tarek said. "He can't act against Selene without an official reason, but he's not naive about what Selene is willing to do for more power. And I've kept him updated on what is happening with Gideon."
"You've been telling your daddy what's going on here?" Suki said.
Tarek smiled. "With a dad like mine, I learned young that little gets past him and it's better to tell him before he finds out on his own."
Lena saw Suki's shoulders bounce in a silent chuckle. They both knew there was more to the story than Tarek was telling them.
"So let me get his straight," Dessa said. She seemed to have a harder time grasping what any of them were saying. "We get the Cimmerians to start an interplanetary war. The military will intervene. They come in and take care of Selene for us."
"Yes, basically," Lena said trying to keep the irritation from her voice. She looked at each of them as the idea of it sunk in. Lena was sure it was going to work. Her father had the answer just like Xenia had said he would. She saw Dessa looking at the others questioningly. As if waiting for their reaction before she made her own decision.
Tarek looked sure. Myri and Druinn were whispering to each other before they were both nodding their heads in agreement. Birdee and Tern looked ready to fight. It wasn't until Remiah said okay that Dessa bobbed her head in agreement. Then Lena let her excitement soar.
"Cool," Suki said after having waited for all of their responses. "Then it's official. Let's get going. We have a war to start."
Chapter Nine
Druinn, Tarek and Lena entered the caves housing Lucius. Besides checking his bathroom schedule every hour, Lucius was unguarded. Remiah had locked his door from the outside and it could only be accessed with a security code.
Lena took a deep breath to calm her nerves. Talking to Lucius was never a pleasant experience.
"Are you sure you don't want us to come inside with you?" Tarek said.
"I'm sure. I think he'll be more willing to negotiate without the threat of being knocked out again.”
"We'll be right outside the door if you need anything," Tarek said as he and Druinn leaned against the wall to wait.
Lena entered the security code into a side panel. The door opened and Lena took a tentative step inside. The door closed automatically behind her.
Lucius' room looked like the rest of the rooms here, two sets of bunk beds and a small kitchen, a living area, and a bathroom. Lucius sat on the upper bunk with his back to the wall, scowling.
"Get me out of here, Servant," Lucius said.
Lena felt her stomach churning. She shook off the unease. "I'm willing to negotiate your release," she said. "But I need you to do something for me first."
"I already did something for you." He pointed to a dish next to the sink. The memory chip that Lena had retrieved from Dorry's office sat in the dish, clean of any remnants that might have come out with it. "You said you'd give me the information that's on the chip. You haven't kept your end of the bargain."
"I didn't know the time had come to show you," Lena said as she glanced at the memory chip. The contents of her stomach bubbled and she quickly looked away. "I'll keep my end of the bargain," she continued, "but I'm here for another reason."
"I'm not doing anything else for you," Lucius said.
Lena wasn't in the mood to play his game. "Fine, you probably wouldn't be able to do it in the first place." She turned to leave. "Evren and I will arrange a way for you to view the files." She started to leave the room.
"Wait. What do you want, Servant?" he snapped, emphasizing the servant part.
Lena smiled and turned back around. "You have a way to contact the Cimmerians," she stated. "I want it."
Lucius huffed and turned to the side, not responding.
"Evren told me you'd have the quickest way to get in contact with General Carina."
"What do I get from it," Lucius asked.
"What do you want?" Lena said.
Lucius glared. "If you want to get in contact with the Cimmerians, I get to join whatever you're creating," he stated.
Lena looked at Lucius. "What makes you think that we're creating anything?"
Lucius just laughed. "We don't see eye to eye, Lena, but that doesn't make me dumb. General Carina wanted me to capture you, she thinks that you can destroy the Priestess. And now you're trying to contact her. There aren't very many reasons to do that unless you want her
help with destroying the Priestess. I want to be a part of it."
"You want to join me?" She couldn't keep the doubt from her voice.
"We've worked together before," Lucius said. "You know I keep my end of the deal."
"All I know is that you look out for yourself, Lucius."
"Is it so bad to have me on your side?" he asked.
Lena bit her lower lip as she processed his words. She did not like Lucius, and she had never tried to be nice to him, but he had been valuable in finding Birdee. And he did keep his word when they were trapped in Dorry's office. But making a deal with Lucius was like making a deal with a snake. You could never be sure when he'd turn and bite you.
She studied him for a moment, before answering. "It may not be what you're expecting."
"It never is," Lucius respond. He scooted to the edge of the bed and hopped down.
"How about I let you out of this room, I'll show you what's on the memory chip and you get me in contact with the General. If you still want to join us after that, then I won't stop you.”
"Lead the way." Smirking, he grabbed the memory chip and gestured to the door that Lena knew only she could open.
They exited the room where Tarek and Druinn were waiting. Druinn held up a pair of cuffs but Lena shook her head. Instead, the two men flanked Lucius on each side as Lena led them down the abandoned corridor towards Evren's workroom.
"So you got him to cooperate," Evren said as they entered the room.
"Lucius will get us in contact with the General," Lena said. "But first he needs to see what's on the memory chip."
Evren shrugged and opened a screen for Lucius to put the memory device in. As soon as the nullifier plans burst to life, Evren exploded in excitement.
"Of course," he said examining the blueprints. "This is brilliant."
"What are we even looking at?" Lucius snapped.
"A way to keep Selene from controlling the galaxy," Lena said.
"This is what I helped you save?" Lucius said disappointedly. "That is not how you destroy the Priestess."
"I warned you it might not be what you'd think," Lena said. "Now, General Carina please."
The Mir Chronicles- The Complete Series Page 52
