RABAN (The Rabanian Book 2)

by Dan Haronian

  May-Thor ran through the depths of the desert feeling hopeless. She knew that quicksand and deep pits could be anywhere and that her unrestrained, blind flight could cost her her life but she didn’t care. When she finally slowed down it was not because of the traps. None of it really mattered. Neither the rebels, nor Mampas nor Seragon would let her live after all this.

  Suddenly the horizon behind her lit up. The light was so intense that the rings of Aesder disappeared for a moment. A huge, red mushroom of fire filled the sky. Soon several secondary flashes lit the desert. She stared at the fiery tableau transfixed. A blast of wind suddenly threw her to the ground and a series of shockwaves shook the ground beneath her. She scrambled to her feet and started to run again. She fell several times but always managed to get to her feet and continue running. When she couldn't run any further she fell to the sand one last time and lay there feeling completely lost. Confused and disconnected thoughts ran through her mind. Nothing made sense. Then she remembered Raban’s deadly molecules. The formula had been sent to a factory for production. Her life was over but maybe she could at least try to stop that from happening. She stood up and started to walk back toward the glow on the horizon.

  "It wasn’t Naan, it was me," Raban's stuttering words echoed through her mind. "Don't do something stupid." I’ve been stupid from the start of this mess, there’s no reason to stop now, she thought to herself. She looked at the glowing horizon. It was stupid to think she'd be able to reach the chemical center, but she didn't stop. The least she could do was die trying. Suddenly she heard the sound of a fast approaching hovercraft. She glanced skyward but saw only the faint outlines of the Rings of Aesder. The noise began to fade then grew again. A ray of light lanced out from a hovering dot and scanned the surface. She slowed her steps. When the light came closer she stopped. It found her and locked onto her position. A sandstorm rose into the air. Grains of sand stung her skin like small needles. She fell to her knees and curled into a fetal position. The hovercraft whistled as it descended. The whine of its engine diminished as it touched down lightly a short distance from her. Two men appeared. They ran to her and grabbed her by her arms, then dragged her towards the hovercraft. She screamed in agony. It felt as though her arms were being torn from their sockets. The hovercraft lifted off and flew her deeper into the desert.

  They landed a little while later. One of the men dragged her out and tossed her onto the sand. He told her to run. She was confused at first. Were they letting her go? The sand in the air tore at her skin and her mouth and nose were soon filled with grit. She couldn't breathe. Finally she closed her eyes, covered her face with her hands and ran. The men followed her. They directed her from behind. Suddenly the blowing sand began to slacken. She opened her eyelashes a bit and through her tears she saw a door closing behind her. She heard the groan of an engine and realized what was coming. The fall took what was left of her breath away. At the bottom of the shaft she was ejected into a corridor and fell to the rough floor like a corpse falling out of a casket. Her eyes were sore and her throat was swollen nearly shut. She tried to stand but failed.

  "Why? What is this madness?" came a hard-edged voice from her left.

  The voice was familiar. It was Gu-Dos. She lifted her head and looked for him through slitted eyes. The corridor was filled with a small group of people that she didn't recognize.

  "What was your purpose? What did you hope to achieve?"

  A blurry figure walked over and helped her up. He tried to brush the sand from her face and eyes.

  "Leave her be," Gu-Dos shouted.

  The man backed away and she stood there alone and slightly stooped.

  "What have you done?" asked Gu-Dos stalking towards her. There was despair in his voice. He sounded like a father resigned after countless talks with his shrew of a daughter.

  New tears sprang to her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

  "Why did you eliminate the delegation from Seragon?" he continued firmly.

  She raised her head at that. All of her fragmented thoughts vanished in an instant. "The delegation?" she asked, confused.

  "Yes. Why?"

  "The molecules. They made them," she said. It was the only thing that made sense to her.

  He held her arms firmly and shook her hard, shouting into her face, "They made them because you gave them the formula! Why?"

  "To create chaos," said someone from behind him. People moved aside and a white bearded old man stepped forward. He didn’t hurry. It seemed as if he had all the time in the world. "To start a war," he added when he stood next to her.

  "Oziri," she whispered to herself. Through her tears she thought she saw a smile under his beard.

  "War?!" said Gu-Dos.

  "Seragon’s army will be here tomorrow," growled Oziri-Dos.

  "It won't be a war. It will be a massacre of innocent civilians."

  "Maybe. If it comes to that then the desert will be the safest place to be," said Oziri-Dos.

  "You think it won't expand into the desert? Do you think Mampas will let us live after all this?"

  "I think they will be too busy to care."

  "And what about this poison? This molecule will destroy us. Are we safe from that in the desert?"

  " If you can tear yourself away from picking on this poor girl and move against the chemical center you may be able to stop production."

  May-Thor remembered Raban’s last words to her. She thought about the war hovercraft he’d apparently captured and Gu-Dos’ words about the delegation. Suddenly everything clicked. It was all part of his mad plan. She stared at Oziri-Dos. He noticed her gaze and his face took on a look of satisfaction. It was as if he could read her thoughts.

  "It's impossible to approach," said Gu-Dos. "He destroyed their fuel reservoir before they brought him down."

  May-Thor’s eyes went wide. The burning in her eyes and throat disappeared in an instant. "They brought him down?" she asked, afraid of the answer. New tears welled in her eyes.

  "Nonetheless you must go," said Oziri-Dos. "We need to make sure this material is destroyed. Let Mampas handle the problems with Seragon on their own."

  Gu-Dos gave him a quick look and then looked back at May-Thor. "Put her in a cell" he said gnashing his teeth. "She is worthless, but she has information that we need and I want to know it all."

  He left quickly and two men approached her.

  "Let her be," said Oziri-Dos. "I will take care of her. You won't get anything from her in her current state anyway." He moved closer. "Come girl, let's get you cleaned up," he said and led her toward the infirmary.

  The smile on his face confused her. "You're his grandfather," she said. She was beginning to doubt her conclusion.

  "Yes," he said pensively and sighed. "For many years I led our people in the war against Mampas. Now my grandson, who I have only seen once before in my life, and is the son of my traitorous daughter who I haven't seen for more than 30 years, has sacrifice himself to achieve our goal after all my years of failure." He looked at her and sighed again. "This world is odd."

  "You don't look sorry to hear about his death," she said.

  A beaten smile appeared on his face. "I have run out of strength to feel sorry. The death of so many of my people in the last few weeks has completely drained me."

  They entered the infirmary. A member of the disinfecting detail approached them. "I suggest you take a shower first," he said pointing. "Wash out your eyes as well as you can and I will bring you some clean clothes."

  After a long hot shower May-thor felt better. An orderly cleaned and disinfected the wound on her chin and covered it with an adhesive bandage. "These drops will clean and soothe your eyes," he said, pointing at the drops on a small table.

  Oziri-Dos sat patiently in one of the chairs and waited. When the man was finished he stood up and walked over to her.

  "I'm sorry," she said looking at him. "I was drawn into all of this."

  "He didn't tell you what he was about to do," said Oziri-D
os decisively.

  "He did…not all of it and I am not sure how much of what he said was true." She shook her head. "He somehow pulled me into things against my will." She thought of Raban's last words to her again and laughed in despair. "I tried to get in touch with you after I found out that the molecules had been produced, but-,"

  She fell silent and became pensive. "Did he really blow up the delegation from Seragon?" she asked.

  "I don't know. From what I heard it was Mampasian war hovercrafts."

  "Mampasian hovercrafts?"

  He smiled. "Somehow I have a feeling he was involved."

  "He's crazy," she said. "Was crazy," she added quietly.

  "He didn't tell you everything because he knew you wouldn’t cooperate," he said. "It doesn't change anything, but maybe it's a sort of comfort."

  She shook her head. "I should've stopped him." Her thoughts strayed to the many times she’d thought of killing him.

  "Don't despair. It's not over yet and no one knows how this thing will eventually end." He jerked his head and two men in uniforms came into the room. He leaned close to her and whispered in her ear, "Rest a bit. I’ll try to get you out of here."

  "Out?" she whispered back.

  "Of course. You must escape if you want to live."

  The escape shell opened and I crawled out. The hovercraft had crashed nearby and the smell of smoke filled the air around me. I saw the flames in the distance peeking from time to time through the smoke. I heard a war hovercraft approaching and I rushed to the other side of the escape shell. I knew it was transmitting a distress signal and I had to get away from it quickly. There was a big pocket on the back of the shell. Emergency was stenciled across it. I opened the flap at the top and emptied its contents onto the sand. It was filled with medicines, bandages, an isolation blanket, and a gun. I shoved the gun into my pants, put the blanket over my shoulder and started to run towards the city. The war hovercraft was coming closer. I looked behind me and saw a light zero in on the escape cage.

  A humming noise rose above the roar of the hovercrafts engines. I recognized the sound. A swarm of Flyeyes emerged from the hovercraft. Soon they all would be looking for me.

  I raced towards the flames of the crash on the horizon. When the buzz of the Flyeyes signaled their imminent arrival, I opened the blanket on my back and threw myself onto the sand. The blanket covered me from bottom to top, and the waves of Flyeyes passed over me without notice. The hovercraft soon followed them staying close to the ground. The wash of the engines covered me with a thick layer of sand. I felt its weight gradually increasing. Tightness grew in my throat. When the noise of the hovercraft faded I slowly raised my head and dug out a narrow slit in the sand, just enough so I could breathe.

  Thesh's eyes went dark when he saw the message on the screen. He pulled his hair backwards twice, and then stood and paced like a trapped animal. He went back to the screen and read the message again and again. Massive flashes of light outside his windows pulled him from his thoughts. He rushed over and peered through the glass. A wave of thunder shook the office building. The sky was black. There were more distant flashes and the rumble of secondary explosions rolled in from several different directions. He walked back to his terminal and called Itgass.

  "What happened?" he shouted as soon as the connection went through.

  "I'm on my way to the chemical center," said Itgass.

  "No you idiot, what happened to the delegation?"

  Itgass turned away for a moment, but he quickly looked back at the screen again. "Their ship was vaporized sir."

  "How did this happen?" shouted Thesh.

  "I don't know yet sir. We are still pursuing him."

  "Pursuing who?"

  "The rebel. We were trying to bring him down," said Itgass when a new set of explosions took place nearby.

  "Who?" Thesh could hardly hear Itgass

  Itgass paused for a few seconds.

  Thesh saw his face on the screen and noticed his hesitation. "Who are we pursuing?" he shouted.

  "It's the rebel sir. I didn't have the time to update you but it's an ongoing event."

  "Update me about what?" asked Thesh impatiently.

  "Silor caught him sir, the stutterer. They tried to sneak him into the desert. We intercepted them but he apparently took over one of our hovercraft."

  "He?" shouted Thesh. He thought he wasn't hearing correct.

  "The rebel, or maybe someone else," said Itgass. "This man is as slippery as a fish in water."

  Thesh nodded his head and started to laugh. "The rebel took over one of our hovercrafts?"

  "Yes sir, a war hovercraft."

  Thesh backed away from the screen, his face jerked to the side as if he’d just been punched.

  "I know it's hard to believe but apparently that is what happened."

  "Wait, apparently? Do you only suspect or are you certain this is what actually happened?"

  Itgass didn't answer.

  "Why did you try to intercept Silor’s hovercraft? Why didn't you just ask him to hand the rebel over?"

  "We tried to stop them, but there was some conflict. I don't have the details yet."

  "Unbelievable," mumbled Thesh.

  Another explosion suddenly blasted through the connection and the picture bounced and shifted. The truck in front of Itgass vehicle was following stopped abruptly Itgass’s driver swerved onto the shoulder of the road to avoid a collision.

  "What happened?" asked Thesh.

  "Turn around," Itgass yelled to his driver. His face began to glow in a sudden red light and he started to sweat, sucking in ragged short breaths.

  "Itgass?"

  "It looks like the fuel reservoir sir. It exploded. One second, sir. Additional voices were heard as Itgass started communicating to the men in the escort vehicles around him. "Everything is burning sir, we have to pull out," he said into the camera.

  More explosions echoed through the connection. Thesh ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

  "It's him sir," said Itgass. "He blew up the fuel reservoir."

  "Can’t anyone bring him down?" shouted Thesh.

  "It's crazy sir, everything there is burning."

  Thesh shook his head and began to pace again. "He was aiming for the chemical center. He wanted to destroy the lab," he said to himself, tapping his chin. "But why? If he is the one who stole this information…" He didn't finish his thought aloud. He gazed out the window for moment. A long train of thoughts ran through his mind. It all made sense. He walked quickly back over to the screen. "What if it's all been planned?" he asked.

  "Sir?"

  "What if it's a trap," Thesh shouted at the screen.

  "What is a trap?" asked Itgass and looked around him.

  "What if he did all this to drag Seragon here?"

  Itgass wiped the sweat from his face and stared at the screen. Thesh’s eyes were blazing as if he’d just uncovered some big secret. He leaned forward. "That’s it. It has to be. Everything he’s done was just a trick. He wanted to make Seragon think we were behind it. He wants them to think that we stole the information in order to wipe out the Desertians." He lingered for a moment, ran through the facts again, and started to laugh hysterically. "He took over the hovercraft. He shot down the delegation. Don't you see? It all adds up."

  Itgass heard him laugh and wondered if he was losing his mind. Another message came in and he shifted his gaze from the screen to focus.

  "It's him. No doubt about it," said Thesh.

  "Sir, it was us who shot down the hovercraft."

  "What hovercraft?"

  "The delegation’s hovercraft sir. We shot it down."

  "We?"

  "I don't have the details but it looks like a case of mistaken identity. Somehow we thought it was him."

  Thesh continued to pace the room, pushing his hair back and shaking his head.

  "Sir," he heard Itgass call. He rushed back over to the screen.

  "Someone scrambled the flight cont
rol information," said Itgass "We were chasing hovercraft 23, but somehow hovercraft 23 was the delegation’s hovercraft."

  Thesh started to laugh again. Itgass looked at him worried.

  "Don't you understand?” cackled Thesh, “It's him! He's the one doing it all!"

  "You think he scrambled the flight control? From the war hovercraft?"

  "So if it's not him it's someone else working with him. What difference does it make?"

  Itgass didn't answer. Several firefighting hovercraft flew over his position heading in the other direction. They distracted his attention.

  "Think about it, said Thesh, “Over time, despite our strikes on their bases, their status has improved and ours has worsened."

  "I don't know Sir. This chemical that was manufactured, it can destroy them. All of them."

  "That is all part of his plan," called Thesh. "That is the reason why he was trying to destroy the chemical center. Seragon is already here. He has already achieved his main goal. We will be forced to explain why we stole this information and produced it. Now we have eliminated their delegation and we will be required to explain that as well."

  "So you think Silor is with him," said Itgass.

  "I don't know. I still don't understand everything. That puzzle is still missing a few pieces but it's starting to take shape. Itgass, I need you to bring me this material. If I'm right, then he will follow and we can capture him and squeeze the truth out of his stuttering mouth."

  Itgass didn’t answer. Thesh pushed his face closer to the screen. "Did you hear me?" he shouted. "Bring me this material immediately."

  "Yes sir, as soon as possible sir. It may be some time before we are able to enter the chemical center."

  "Send soldiers and Flyeyes. Make sure no one enters."

  "Sir the place is burning like the fires of hell. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole chemical center burns down."

  "Make it happen," shouted Thesh. "We need to get our hands on this material now. He will come to us. Do you understand this? This is our only chance."