RABAN (The Rabanian Book 2)

by Dan Haronian

  Naan walked into his father’s chamber accompanied by his two Mampasian guards. This time his visit home raised his spirits. Everything was under control. Perhaps it was the scenery of his childhood that comforted him, or maybe he was simply more at ease with people who spoke his native language and whose eyes were on the same eyes level as his own.

  Daio’s secretary stood when Naan walked through the door and rushed to open the inner door of Daio's office for him. Naan strode forward, gave her a patronizing smile, and then went inside.

  "Naan!" called Daio when he saw his son.

  "Father," said Naan without any inflection. "How good it is to be home." He looked around the office.

  "It's great to have you here," said Daio looking at the burly bodyguards who flanked his son.

  "How are things coming?" asked Naan.

  "Very well," said Daio.

  Naan sat down on the couch in front of Daio's desk. Daio sat as well, and waved the guards towards the adjustable chairs against the wall. He kept them in his office just in case he suddenly had tall visitors.

  "Let them stand. It's their job," said Naan.

  "You're in no danger here, nor anywhere in Naan. At least you can let them sit while you are in my office."

  The guards faces remained stoic. They acted as if Daio wasn't even there. Naan looked at them and nodded a bit. One of them walked over to the chairs and carried them back to the door. They adjusted them to the proper height, then positioned them on either side of the door and sat down.

  "How are things in Mampas?" asked Daio with interest. "I heard there are problems with the rebels. Someone said there was a scrambling incident. That someone tried to break into something on Seragon. Is this true?"

  Naan nodded. "It seems Raban was able to teach them something. But you don't need to worry. They know how to take care of their problems on Mampas."

  "Yes, I know. They have no problem setting the desert on fire."

  Naan smiled. "The height of the flames is not the issue," he said. "It's the attitude. They just don't let their problems grow until it's almost too late."

  Daio raised his eyebrows. The hint was clear.

  "How are things coming here? I understand Heneg's got his hands full."

  "The Flyeyes are already patrolling the City of the Chosen, if that is what you mean."

  "So? What does it look like there?"

  "I hope things will turn out okay eventually. I was very afraid of what Sosi might do at the beginning, but it looks like he is accepting the situation. I also think the wound of Raban's death is starting to heal." He sighed and immediately added, "I feel so sorry for him."

  "Yes, me too," said Naan making no attempt to hide his scorn.

  "I understand you haven’t sent an occupation force in yet."

  "I'm not planning to send any troops," said Daio. "They are not all our enemies and we are not planning on conquering them."

  Naan shook his head in frustration. "Heneg is talking to Musan regarding cooperation between the two police forces. I want their police to train at our facilities and our police to visit theirs,” Daio continued. “I want everything related to law enforcement to gradually merge. They need to feel we have no intention of conquering them. Their policeman can continue enforcing the law there, and in time the only thing we will need to do is exchange their uniforms."

  "And what about the teachers in their schools? Are they going to continue teaching as usual? You are being ridiculous. How will you force them to reject their old values? How will you stop their belief in their Books?"

  "Everything in its time. It will all be as you say eventually."

  Naan shook his head again. "Your sensitivity amazes me sometimes. Everything must be smoothed over as if nothing has happened here. You are acting as if the scrambling information in Seragon is not a result of Raban’s training. The blood of these Desertians is on Raban's hands and therefore on the values taught by his teachers. I am being careful not to mention his father. Do you really think Mampas will accept your plans?"

  "They will if you tell them to," said Daio. "If the integrity of Naan is important to you that is exactly what you will do."

  Naan wanted to tell him that he was striving for the integrity of Naan. He simply preferred to do it his way. Then the secretary’s face appeared on Daio’s screen.

  "Sir, there's a message for Naan," she said.

  Naan wrinkled his forehead and gave her puzzled look. "A message for me?"

  "Yes, from your secretary sir."

  "I have just arrived. Why are they already looking for me?" he asked. "Can’t they do anything for themselves?"

  Daio stood up. "Come sit down here," he said.

  Naan looked at him and smiled. He stood up and walked around the table and lifted himself onto his toes to reach the seat of the comfortable chair.

  "Put her through," he said.

  A few seconds later his secretary was on the screen.

  "I'm very sorry to disturb you sir," she said her face tense. "The filtering system found this message a few moments ago. The reliability is not very high, but I thought you would like to know about it."

  "What is it all about?"

  "They caught him, in the desert," she said.

  "Who?"

  "Their scrambler, Sonny."

  "I don't believe it," said Naan and looked at Daio surprised. "How many lives does this man have?"

  Daio approached the desk and looked at Naan's secretary’s face. She was calm now, after Naan's surprised response.

  "Where is he now?" asked Naan.

  "It says here that he is still in the desert, but again I'm not convinced this is real."

  "When was this report was published?"

  "A few hours ago."

  "And what is the reliability factor?"

  "Ahh, 0.37."

  Naan rubbed his chin as if he was analyzing a business proposition. "Okay I'll look into it," he said.

  "You want me to keep you updated?"

  "That won't be necessary," said Naan and disconnected. "I must speak to Thesh," he said looking at Daio.

  His father waved at the terminal and said, "Please."

  Naan quickly surfed past three gates and found Thesh at his desk.

  "Yes Naan," said Thesh. "I see you are aware of the report about the rebel."

  "Is it true?"

  "Yes, Silor caught him. They are on their way over."

  "This guy is amazing. How did he manage to survive?!"

  "No doubt he's lucky, but I think he is finally out of luck," said Thesh.

  "I'm not sure it's a matter of luck. How could anyone survive such a complete devastation twice? Only a handful out of the hundreds at the bases survived and somehow he always manages to be one of them."

  "Lucky or not, I would like to know where he learned his capabilities," said Thesh. "Maybe your Raban trained him."

  "Yes," Naan said quickly. "I'm in my father's office. He’s right here beside me," said Naan, hoping that Thesh got the hint.

  "Ahh, Daio. How is he?"

  "He's fine," said Naan and moved over a bit to allow Daio see the screen.

  "Hello Thesh," said Daio.

  The camera's field of view widened and Thesh was able to see Daio on the left side of the screen.

  "Hello Daio, how are you?"

  "I'm fine thank you. I'm happy you were able to catch this man."

  "Yes," said Thesh, dragging the word out as if he’d been relieved of a heavy burden. "It seems like a minor thing, but it's a major relief. Seragon is very agitated at how close to a crisis things progressed."

  "We must interrogate him," interrupted Naan. "It's important to expose his relationship with Raban. It will make our interaction with the City of the Chosen much easier."

  Naan knew that Raban had had nothing to do with this rebel, but it would be a simple thing to use him to help with the smear campaign, no matter what he said in the interrogation.

  "I assume we'll know something soon," said Thesh.


  "Will he be held in the detention center under the embassy?"

  "I guess so. Silor will hand him over to Itgass at the edge of the desert and Itgass will take it from there," said Thesh.

  "Excellent," said Naan.

  "I understand he didn't actually scramble anything in Seragon," said Daio.

  "No," said Thesh. "Seragon says he did not, but still they are insisting we investigate the incident. It won’t take long to find out who he is and where he acquired his capabilities." He lingered for a moment before continuing. "So how things are in Naan? I assume this is not easy times there."

  "No, things are very unsettled, but we’ll get through it. That is our way."

  Thesh smiled. "I have no problem with your ways, as long as you know what you're doing. But if it turns out that this scrambler had something to do with your nephew, there will be consequences."

  "We are taking care. Rest assured that something like that, if indeed happened, won't happen again. As I explained to Naan there's no need for a war. We can easily annihilate the City of the Chosen. It would no doubt solve many problems, but there's simply no need. They have no army. Even their policemen are unarmed. At worst this was an anomaly and we will make sure it won't repeat itself."

  Thesh laughed. "I can’t understand your logic," he said. "I'm happy that Naan is your ambassador here. I can understand him. He's very resourceful and…filled with ideas. I’m glad he is able to translate between us."

  "I am glad as well, and I believe Naan’s judgment is just as good as mine."

  Thesh smiled. "Okay, goodbye all," he said and hung up.

  Daio started to pace the room. He felt that there had been something a little off in the discussion with Thesh. Naan had been trying to hide something from him, although he wasn't sure what. He turned to find Naan still sitting on his chair. "Itgass Pim is still the minister of defense?"

  "Yes, do you know him?"

  "Yes, of course."

  "You are surprised he is still the minister of defense," said Naan.

  Daio shook his head. "That's not my business."

  "I know, but tell me why it surprises you that he's still holding this position."

  "He's not very smart. He is an example of what money in power can do."

  Naan nodded. Itgass was an asset from his point of view. He turned on the chair and scanned the room.

  "Well, that was interesting," he said and rubbed his stomach. "I'm getting hungry." He jumped from the chair, which bounced back in response. "Why don't you join me for lunch?" he asked.

  "No thank you," said Daio. "I don’t have time to eat just now. But I assume I'll see you tonight in the house?"

  "Yes of course. I already saw mother. She promised to get the family together for dinner. It will be nice."

  I glanced into the back of the hovercraft and saw calm in May-Thor’s face. I wondered if she felt at home now. Then I looked at the passing dunes and thought of Naan. I would give anything to go back two or three years and do a few things differently. If I’d only listened more to my father. I doubt it would have changed my drive to build the shuttle. I wondered how much my project had affected Naan's actions. I decided that his hatred of me was so deep that no matter what I’d done nothing would've changed it.

  I didn't have much experience in flying over the desert, but suddenly it felt like the dunes were passing too close to the window. The hovercraft adjusted it course up and down a bit periodically to avoid hitting them. The pilot had said that the base is close by, but we’d been flying low for too long. I looked again at May-Thor. Usually she was highly alert to anything unusual around her.

  "How far away is this ba-ba-base?" I said looking at the pilot.

  He didn't responded nor did the people behind me. I looked back at her again. This time I saw a change in her eyes. She’d gotten my message. She rose a bit and looked out the window. I suddenly I thought I saw something on the horizon.

  "Is that Ma-Ma-Mampas?"

  May-Thor straightened abruptly and looked out the front window as well. Her surprise gradually changed to shock. Our eyes met and she shook her head as if she was telling me, this is not good. I turned back to the front and closed my eyes. I could still see the fear on May-Thor’s face. I took a deep breath, then another one, then slipped my hand down and released the buckle. The click was loud enough that pilot gave me a quick look. I didn’t wait for him to react but immediately jumped across the cockpit and grabbed the control stick. The hovercraft immediately dropped toward the sand, but the pilot pulled wrestled the controls away from me and brought its nose up again. It rose but the belly scraped the top of a dune and threw a wave of sand into the air. Another small dune rose up before us. The craft bounced off it as well and I was thrown into the air. The hovercraft nosed down quickly. The pilot was able to stabilize our flight but while he was distracted I grabbed his head and slammed it into the control panel. He lost consciousness and the hovercraft slammed into the ground hard. As if in slow motion it flipped end over end landed on its back with a crunch.

  I was the first to recover. Broken glass was everywhere and the pilot’s motionless body was pinning me down. I rolled him off of me looked frantically into the backseat. May-Thor and the other two people were still buckled in. The hovercraft’s roof had caved in and trapped them in their seats. The man to her right was unconscious. The one to her left looked stunned and was wiping the blood out of his eyes.

  I crawled back to her. " Yo-Yo-You o-o-okay?"

  "The fuel," she said taking short breaths. "We have to get out before it explodes," she said fumbling with the buckle.

  "Co-Co-Come on," I called. I reached my hand back to her, but she was still busy with the stuck buckle. I wanted to say something that get her moving but everything was confused in my mouth. Instead I held her hand and screamed. "Auuuuuu."

  "It's stuck," she screamed back and looked at me in terror.

  The man to her right got loose from his chair and fell. Something in his hand blinked but I ignored it. I crawled closer to her, held her arm, and tried to form the words that might help her.

  Something touched my arm and immediately an electrical shock surged through our bodies. We screamed. May-Thor’s hand slipped from my grasp and she flew backward pushing the man away. I cringed away and started to shake uncontrollably.

  "Gggggeeeettttt," she screamed trying to regain control of her body. I was twitching uncontrollably. She reached out with both hands and bent the buckle a bit. It released and she fell onto the roof of the smashed hovercraft.

  The men with the stun gun tried to get to us, but his leg was stuck in the handle of the luggage door. May-Thor pulled him back, his leg twisted and he screamed. She pushed herself forward, legs first, and kicking me towards the remains of the front window. The feeling had started to come back to my body and her kicks hurt.

  "Get out already," she shouted.

  I turned and tried to grab the window frame, but my hands were not working right and they only bumped into the wall.

  "Get out," she shouted again. "It's about to explode."

  I tried to aim my hands at the frame once again but before could find a grip May-Thor came through from the back and kicked me bodily onto the sand.

  May-Thor slid out of the window and landed on me. "We have to get farther away," she shouted.

  We tried to stand and run. I was still suffering the aftereffects of the shock we’d received, and my legs were moving as if they had their own will. I lost my balance again and fell. She picked me up and supported me with her shoulder. Slowly we dragged ourselves away from the wrecked hovercraft.

  There was a noise behind us and the man crawled out the window and started in our direction. We continued to stagger forward, as we watched him over our shoulders. He limped quickly towards us. We could walk no faster. It was clear that he would catch us in seconds. All of a sudden the hovercraft exploded and we were thrown forward.

  "It doesn't end, it simply doesn't end," she shouted angri
ly and gnashed her teeth.

  She helped me up, but just as we began to move away from the roiling inferno he was behind us again. He was bruised all over, but he still held the stun gun in his hand. He came forward quickly and May-Thor tried to dodge to the left. She was too slow. He slammed into us and we all fell to the ground. May-Thor got loose immediately. The man put his hands on my face and pinned to me to the ground. He pressed the stun gun to my neck, and looked at me with the wide eyes of a madman. I closed my eyes tightly, waiting for the shock that would paralyze me. Suddenly I heard a crack and the pressure on my neck decreased. My attacker went limp and he fell on top of me. I pushed him away and rolled to the side. His head was twisted completely around.

  May-Thor stood above us, breathing hard. Her hands were contorted into claws as if she was a bird of prey.

  "Wh-Wh-Where… the s-s-s-stone?" I said looking at the big stone that was lying on the sand.

  "Get up."

  I turned to the man and went through his pockets.

  "What are you doing?" she asked when I pulled out his wallet.

  She pulled me to my feet and we started to run towards the city. The desert sand close to the belt road turned from yellow to gray. When we got closer to the road she suddenly stopped and pushed me to the ground.

  "Flyeyes. Don't move," she whispered.

  I didn't even see them. I pushed my head in the sand, closed my eyes and tried to ignore the heat that was searing my face.

  "How do you feel," she asked after a few seconds. She raised her head a bit and looked around.

  I let out a massive sigh. "O-O-Okay," I said, as my left leg suddenly started to shake.

  We stood up and walked quickly towards the road. I walked without her help, but I was limping badly. From time to time stray current shot through my legs making me jump.

  She was faster than me. The distance between us increased until I thought she was trying to run away from me. It would not be anything new. I wondered if she understood that something didn’t add up. Desertians would not have taken us to Mampas. I saw her cross the road and walk towards the houses that bordered the desert. She looked back from time to time. I could not decide if she wanted to make sure I was okay, or if she just wanted to make sure she was far enough away.