Jones and Pat had recovered themselves after meeting Mycah and Raffy and were frantically trying to beef up their security systems. They had made their way into the room where she had been held and found the two burly security guards face down on the floor and the female doctor on her back, spread eagled. Brushing the hair from her face, Jones checked to see if she was still breathing as Pat checked the men.
“Still alive,” he said as he stood.
“Same here,” Pat said. “I really wish you hadn’t wound her up.”
“She was a kid,” Jones responded defensively. “A stupid, trespassing kid.”
“She wasn’t trespassing, Jones and you know it. We kidnapped her to experiment on her!” Pat said angrily. “It’s not right...”
“They attack us, Pat. That isn’t right!” Jones said looking Pat square in the eye.
“This isn’t Rheso, Jones. This is Skyeyla and it doesn’t belong to us. We’re invading their world and we expect them to sit back and accept it? Then we dare to get angry when they fight back. We’ve killed children, Jones.”
“Pat, you knew what coming here would require and you’ve stepped up every single time, so don’t you dare start getting righteous with me.” He stepped forwards menacingly,
“You don’t scare me, Jon so stop trying to threaten me.” Pat turned away, “I hate what we are doing to this place.” He paused and ran his fingers through his hair, “I don’t think I want to be a part of it anymore.”
“Pat think what you are saying. We are making a place for the Rhesii to live; we are giving them a home, Pat.” He walked towards him and put his hand on his shoulder. Without Skyeyla and the other planets our race would die out.”
“Maybe we are supposed to,” Pat responded pulling away from Jones’ touch. “We destroyed our planet, what gives us the right to take over another one?” He exited the room and used the walkie talkie outside to radio for medical assistance for the three people in the room. He also reported a breach and explained that the “girl” had escaped.
“I’m sorry Sir, what girl? Over.” Came the static filled reply.
“SK 124” he replied stonily, “over.”
“Roger that Sir.” And the static ended abruptly, he put the walkie back in its hold and turned down the hallway. Jones followed behind him and they walked in a stony silence.
“I will see you in the Tech Room at twenty-one hundred hours, Co-Commander Patrick. That is an order.” Jones said as they left the building via the main entrance.
“Yes Chief Commander Jones.” Patrick said with no emotion in his voice; he strode towards his quarters leaving Jones standing under the overhang frowning.
“What do you make of what the Chief Commander said to us?” muttered Sam to Craig as they worked together to cut wood for the inner circle. Both Sam and Craig had come to Skyeyla on the first “ship” out; they had brought their families with them and were determined to make a living out here.
“I think they should have told us that before we agreed to come.” He replied, brushing a hand across his forehead he rested on his axe. “I’m not happy about pushing natives out of their planet.”
“I agree,” replied Sam. “It doesn’t feel right. If we could live in harmony that would surely be good? It would stop them wanting to attack us, right?”
“I would have thought so. Come on, we need to get this wood chopped.” Craig swung his axe hard from above his head and splintered the wood sending slivers flying outward.
“How much more do we need?” grunting Sam as he pull drove his axe hard into the wood.
“I’m not sure, but better to have too much than too little.” He responded, with a whoop of joy as the tree begun to creak and slowly begin tipping. With a crack the trunk sheared from the stump and collided with two other smaller trees bringing them down too; the air was filled with leaves and bits of dead wood for minutes after the tree had been felled. The silence in the forest lasted a mere few seconds until the shouts of the First Flux men could be heard as they called for saws to begin cutting the tree into sections they could move by hand as they didn’t have horses or heavy machinery to assist them. The air was thick was sawdust which caused the men to cough violently until it had settled enough for them to start work. Same and Craig swapped their axes for a tandem saw and set to work on one end of the tree. They grunted with the effort their hands soon slick with sweat and blood from burst calluses.
They had built an inner wall five meters in from the stone ring which they had learnt contained a certain type of magic which could, apparently, defend them from the natives. So far, they hadn’t seen any of the natives but they were aware that sometimes the forest went silent and they felt as though they were being watched; yet they continued on as if nothing was amiss. Sam and Craig were two of the biggest men in the Flux and they each did the work of two men which meant more intake for their families. Because this was the First Flux they didn’t have money, instead they traded simply in food and items they needed. As the tree begun to be segmented they paused to take a short break; upon stopping they realised just how quiet the forest had become, looking around at each other they bunched together and quickly made their way towards the stone circle. Whistling overhead came arrows which thudded into trees at each side of them; in their panic they sprinted, leaving people behind. Sam and Craig ducked behind trees and waited for some of the slower people to get to them before pulling them to safety. As Sam hooked an arm around one teenage boy and pulled him out of harm’s way an arrow whizzed past and embedded into a tree directly in front of them. They boy looked up at Sam in fear;
“You’re alright,” he said reassuringly. He glanced across to Craig who had three boys with him, they exchanged a nod and ran for the next tree; each time they broke into the open arrows flew past them. They rapidly made their way back towards the circle without getting injured though there were several near misses; just before they broke the circle a long shafted arrow pierced Sam’s shoulder. He fell forwards heavily with a groan, Craig saw him drop and ran back to him; he hauled him to his feet and pulled him over the stones to safety.
“Okay, so what did you find out from the Rebels?” Sorrel asked Mycah as they sat outside eating lunch.
“They said there was a gap in the Hold’s defences that would be easy to break further and allow us access to the “main frame” and allow us to do the most damage. They gave me some pretty detailed directions and some interesting details on how to break the technical equipment.” She spat out the bone she had been chewing the meat from. “But having been in the Main Building, the directions they gave me wouldn’t even take us to there, but to a place not far from it. The thing is, the woman who was there with me, I read her mind. The place they were directing me towards was a type of colony.”
“A colony?” Dio asked with a frown.
“Yeah,” she responded. “They’ve bought people from their own planet here, normal people not soldiers. They have built them this village in the trees with this circle of rocks around for protection.”
“Rocks?” scoffed Sorrel. “That’s not going to protect them from anything.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure, Sorrel.” She hesitated, a frown crossing her face. “It seems there is a type of magic in the stones that would possibly allow us entry but it certainly wouldn’t allow us to get back out.”
“So it’s a trap.” Dio stated, picking up a bowl of rice.
“I’m not sure, it could be that they have built on top of the break in the defences or it might be that they weren’t aware it was there. I don’t want to assume that they’re setting us up, but it does kind of look that way doesn’t it?”
“Why don’t you just asked them?” Asked Red telepathically to all of them; she bent her delicate head down and pulled the drumstick out of Sorrel’s hand and chomped down once shattering the bones between her teeth. “Wouldn’t that just be the easiest thing? You could always check their minds to make sure they aren’t lying.” Sorrel reached up to stroke her face as she spoke;
“We could do that,” Dio said. “We could always use Dream Watching.”
“Dream Watching?” Mycah asked, “I’ve never heard of that before, what is it?”
“It’s really easy.” He pulled himself up straighter as he spoke, “all you have to do is tap into your magic as you sit beside someone who is dreaming and slowly make your way into their mind. But, you have to be slow and patient because if you move too fast they can feel it and wake up. Basically, you have to enter the sleeping brain and you can shift through memories at will and pick something you want to see and they show the true version of it. They can’t lie in the dream so if you speak to them tomorrow after the Red Moon Ritual then Dream Watch it, you can see where or if they lied.”
“Oh wow,” Mycah said with a grin. “Will you teach me how to do it?”
“Sure,” Dio said, blushing slightly. Raffy shifted his weight from one foot to the other and blew smoke out of his nose.
“I want to fly, Mycah. Come fly with me?”
“Course!” she shouted, scampering up his leg and up onto his back. “Go, go, go!” she said laughing, thrusting her fist into the air.
I cleared the 25K mark, yay me
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