by Dani Hoots
David watched my reaction to what he had inferred. “You are a lot more complicated than you let on to be, you know that?”
“You don’t know the half of it,” I mumbled as I grabbed the newly obtained book. “Let’s get started, shall we?”
Chapter 19
I took a quick look at the new book again and slammed my fist down on the table.
“Damn it!” I yelled out. It was the same, the same as the other three books. I slammed my fist on the table again.
“What? What is it?” David became more alert, curious as to why I was so angry.
I shook my head. “No, no this is impossible!” I flipped through the pages. Every damn thing was the same. “This is an exact copy of the other three books.”
“So,” his voice became quiet. “All of that was for nothing.”
I flipped vigorously through the pages. “No, no, there has to be something here, something to tell us where Sanshli is.”
David took off his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes. “It was probably just a hoax, to distract us from what we should have been doing.”
“No, no this legend is older than the Empire. It has to be true.”
He put down his glasses with a slight smile. “Funny to hear you saying that.”
“My father wouldn’t believe in something that he didn’t know was true,” I argued, still flipping through the pages of the new book.
“Maybe he just wanted to believe it was true, so he could keep up hope.”
“No, there had to be something that made him believe this, something to make him have us find it. He died making sure we had the tools,” I let out a sigh. “I just don’t see them yet.”
“Will you ever see them though? Will you ever figure them out?” he asked.
“If you aren’t going to be optimistic, you might as well stay in your quarters with the rest of them. You are still in shock after Amanda’s death. That’s okay; I understand, but don’t go doubting all of this just because of one setback. Now, do you need to take a break or can we keep looking for a clue?”
“You don’t understand, though. You would never understand.”
“I watched my father die before my eyes when I was six, do you really think I don’t know what it’s like to lose someone close to me?” I countered.
“Sorry, I will help,” he placed his glasses back on.
“Okay, then. Now, last time we were in a slump, the watch helped us. Maybe there’s another thing like that.”
“What would it be though?”
I pulled out my watch. “Well, doesn’t seem to have to do with the watch again. Maybe the keys?”
David stood up and grabbed the keys from where he had stored them. “There’s not much to them, I’m not sure if they will be of any help.”
“We still have to try,” I grabbed them and examined them. There really wasn’t much to them, they were just plain old keys. I placed them back on the table. “I don’t see anything, but we will come back to them.”
“There’s nothing else that it could be,” David explained. I shot him a quick look, warning him not to be pessimistic again. “Sorry.”
I ran my fingers through my hair. “We have to think. Why would this book be important? Why would any of these books be important as a matter of fact? Is there something we don’t see?”
“What? Like invisible writing?”
I slammed my palm on the table. “Exactly! Like invisible writing!”
“Are you kidding? No one uses that stuff.”
“You mean like no one uses paper anymore?” I replied.
David motioned around. “I’m not sure if we have any instruments that can read that type of markings though.”
“All you need is some heat, at least for paper like this.”
I stood up and took one of the books to the stove and turned it on. After it heated up, I opened the book and held it over the heat, careful not to catch it on fire. That would be disastrous. After a few minutes, I gave up on the book and tried one of the others. None of them showed anything.
“Nothing,” I placed my finger on my chin. “What else could there be to these?”
“Does each page layout the same?” David asked.
“Yes.”
“No extra markings anywhere?”
“Nope.”
“So there’s no invisible ink, no extra markings, the keys don’t show anything and each page is the same,” David counted everything out with his fingers.
“That about sums it up, yes.” I leaned back in the chair and looked up at the ceiling, thinking of what we were going to do.
“And somehow it shows us where Sanshli is.”
“Supposedly.”
“This isn’t going very well for us, now is it?” David’s voice sounded tired.
“Not so far, no.”
“That’s ‘cause Cadi’s got bad luck following her wherever she goes,” Jack entered the room.
I straightened up and gave him a quick examination. He seemed to be in a more cheerful mood now but still looked concerned. Concerned with me.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I replied. “I always succeed, don’t I?”
Jack pulled up a chair and sat next to me. “Yes, but have you ever looked back on all the trouble you cause others? You may not have bad luck but anyone who comes in contact with you sure does.”
I ignored the comment. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be keeping an eye on the bridge?”
“I would be but Will came in. He didn’t seem to trust me with the ship’s controls. Thought I could help you all with something in here.”
“Well there isn’t much to help us with here since we can’t find anything to work with,” David explained. He looked better now, more collected, but still a little bit on the morose side.
“What do you mean?” Jack asked.
“The book is exactly the same as the other three,” I said.
“Are there any secret codes within the text?” he further inquired.
“Nope, none that I have seen. No invisible ink, no help from the watch or keys, and no other markings,” I slammed the book shut. “There’s nothing.”
I stared at the leather binding of the books for a while, knowing something seemed off. My mind raced to figure out what that was.
“Maybe we should take a break, clear our minds,” Jack began but I held my hand out to interrupt him.
“Shhh, I think I got something.”
“What is it?” Jack persisted.
“Shhh, I’m still trying to figure it out.” I pulled the other three books together, staring at the leather binding. I opened one of the books and placed it binding up. Then it hit me. “The binding! It’s a map!”
“What?” David asked.
“Look at this. Look at these markings,” I pointed out.
“On the cover? The dots?”
“The dots!” I opened the rest of the books. “Genius!”
“What are you trying to say, Cadi?” Jack saw how excited I started to get.
“The map isn’t inside the books, the books are the maps! Put them together and they map out the systems!” I pulled the books together. “Just have to put them together until it looks right.”
David and I started putting the books next to each other until it mapped out the known systems of the Empire. When we got them together the way they all needed to be, I noticed something off.
“Where’s Sanshli? All of these dots are known planets and stars,” David questioned.
“Look!” I pointed at one of the books. A spot began to light up with coordinates labeled underneath.
“How is it doing that?” Jack begun.
“I don’t care as long as it’s doing it. Get something to record those coordinates before they disappear,” I ordered.
David grabbed his tablet and jotted down the numbers. The light was starting to get dimmer.
“Hurry!” I urged.
He finished recording the coordinates just as it vanis
hed. I grinned as I collapsed into my seat.
“That’s it then,” David stated.
“That’s it! Ha!” I took a quick look at the numbers, “How far is that from here?”
“Uh, about five days I would say,” David calculated.
“Good,” I clapped my hands together. “Plenty of time to plan. We have one shot at this and we can’t mess it up.”
“What do you mean one shot?” David asked slowly, wondering exactly what I meant by that.
“You don’t think that the Empire is following us? They let us get away,” I explained.
“Why didn’t they just kill us then, if they didn’t want us to find it?”
I shook my head. “No, they want us to find it.”
“Why? So they can destroy it for good?”
I shrugged. “Or because there is something about this legend that we don’t know. Something we overlooked. Father tried to warn us about it but that part of the message got destroyed.”
“You talked to them, didn’t you? That is why you had a few bruises on your face when you came in. They are mostly gone now but I noticed them when you hurried aboard,” David insisted.
“I did. As I said, they are following us. I barely got away but I know they will keep after me until they have what they want,” I revealed. I could tell David wasn’t sure how to take this. He probably wanted to tell Rik everything right then and there, about me threatening him and such. He was probably getting fed up with all the crap I brought onboard. I would be fed up with me, too.
“What happens when the sword is pulled out but the person doesn’t want to change the past?” Jack changed the subject.
“I don’t know, Father never said. Actually we don’t even really know what happens when a person who does want to change the past pulls it out. We don’t know if the past just changes or if there is something more to it than that.”
Jack tapped his fingers steadily on the table, “That’s comforting. You don’t even know exactly what you are fighting for.”
“We know what we are fighting for,” I replied. “We just don’t know exactly how it will work.”
“Sounds like a bunch of tall tales to me. Magic and the like,” Jack commented.
“You saw what the books just did. They lit up. I can tell you it wasn’t anything mechanical, that’s for sure.”
“I’m just saying, if the Empire’s there and you pull out the sword and nothing happens, then what?”
“If you didn’t want to be part of the mission, you shouldn’t have come.”
“I didn’t know you all were going after a legend, now did I?”
“Wait,” David interrupted our argument. “I thought she told you. I remember you saying she told you about Sanshli on Recar. Then when you got onboard, you should have already known.”
I looked at Jack, who just realized he almost let slip an important part of his timeline of lies. He had told David that I explained where we were going but it wasn’t me, it was the Emperor when he ordered him to spy on me. The reason he didn’t believe me was because he was forced into this by Neil.
“I didn’t tell him the details,” I covered. “Just that we were looking for a book to help us find Sanshli. I don’t think he actually believed me but just played along. Am I right, Jack?”
Jack nodded, “Right.”
“Anyway,” I changed the subject before David could push further. “We should inform Rik of what we have found.”
David started to stand. “I’ll go. He might listen if it’s me talking, not you.”
“Alright then, report to him. I will go give Will these coordinates and we will be set.”
David nodded and left Jack and I in the lounge area.
“You sound pretty sure of yourself,” Jack broke the silence.
“You don’t think this legend is real, do you?”
“No, legends always come out of some truth. I’m just saying you really don’t know what this thing will do, what will happen. And if it is all just a hoax, then you gave up everything for nothing,” he went on. I knew he worried about me.
“I guess we will just have to wait and see, now won’t we?” I started for the door but as I got up to go, Jack blocked me.
“Cadi...” he began as he placed his hand in my way.
I gave him a stern look. “You know me well enough to know that I always have a plan and I always am fine, right?”
“I do, that’s why what you are doing now scares me.”
“I’m not going to start this again with you.”
He gently twirled my hair with his finger. “I’m not trying to start anything; I just want to make sure you know what you are doing.”
“I do.”
“Fine then, I will stop questioning you. Anything you need from me I am willing.” he paused with a smile. “And I do mean anything.”
I give him a kiss on the lips. “Glad you’re back.”
“Anything for my girl.”
I smiled as we headed to the bridge. I gave Will the coordinates and he quickly changed the route to them. It was only a matter of time now.
“So we have the location,” Rik’s voice loomed behind us. I turned to find him standing in the doorway, eyes focused and emotion gone.
“We do,” I agreed as I examined him. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine. Just needed some time,” his tone scared me.
“Are you sure? You don’t seem fine,” I looked over to Will who didn’t say anything this time.
“I’m fine,” he repeated.
“Hey Rik,” David’s head popped out from the corridor. “We should start figuring out a plan of action for when we land. The Empire is most likely tracking us and we need to get to the sword before they do.”
“Agreed. Shall we adjourn to the lounge area?”
I nodded. “Best place of any. Jack, you want to stay here and make sure we stay on course?” I knew he was to report to the Emperor the coordinates of where we were going. Now was as good of time as any. They wouldn’t arrive until after us either way.
“Sure, if you need anything you know where I am,” Jack gestured to Will. Will reluctantly stood up and let him take the seat.
David followed Rik out of the bridge. Will accompanied me behind them.
“He acted this same way after John died,” he commented in a hushed tone.
“What got him through it?” I asked, surprised that Will would say anything about that to me.
“Amanda.”
“Well then, this will be interesting.”
He stopped me in the middle of the corridor. “You know I hate you, but I’m pretty sure the only way to get through this is if you lead us.”
“Excuse me?”
“Look, I don’t know a whole lot about this Sanshli thing and David isn’t the leading type. Rik isn’t all here and he won’t be for a while. He will try to act like everything is fine but it will only lead him to bad decisions. You are the last person I want to take orders from but you are really our only choice. I know David agrees.”
“Well then, this is a change of events,” I said with a sly smirk.
“Don’t make me regret this. If you actually care about this mission like you say you do you will help us.”
“What do you want me to do exactly?”
“Make sure any plan is foolproof. Make sure Rik isn’t making the wrong choice. You know where we need to go and you know what we need to do,” he explained.
“I don’t usually lead people, you know that right? I like working alone.”
“I know.”
“Okay, then,” I turned back towards the lounge. “As long as we are on the same page.”
We entered the lounge. Rik and David already had the tablets out and ready to start marking down what our plan was. We didn’t know how many cities the planet had, which one held the statue, and worse off, where the statue would even be. I had a feeling it would be the same as my dreams, as if they only trusted me to find it. They wanted to make sure
it was me that found it, not anyone else, which I still didn’t understand why. The dreams always had the same thing. A large building, the only one still standing, with dragon pillars. If it was anywhere on the planet, it would be there.
Rik seemed distant the entire time we talked, as if he was there but wasn’t at the same time. He tried to keep going but I knew it must have felt like part of him was gone forever. I knew the feeling. I had known that feeling since I was six. I learned to accept it, I learned to cope. Rik apparently coped with it the opposite, shutting himself off from the world until he finally got over it, if he ever really did.
I debated talking to him, since he thought I didn’t understand how he felt. Will and David knew how to handle him; he had done this before, except the last time only Amanda could get through to him. We had to just let him run his course or hope that Sanshli would hold the key to all of our problems. One way or another, it should end for the best. I hoped.
We discussed all the things we knew about Sanshli, and then moved on to the things we didn’t know. We found we really didn’t know much and hoped that my dreams were right. We finally decided we would try to land as close as possible to the largest city and make our way on foot to the city. Once there, we would split up and look for the building in my dreams. Whoever finds it will either call for the other or, if pressed for time, would go in and pull the sword out. The Empire should be far enough away that we could make a break for it. If not, well, then we would just make a run for it. There really wasn’t much we could do if the Empire was already there, other than surrender. The others agreed. The P.A.E. would be gone soon and this was the last chance. If they beat us there, then they had finally won.
Five agonizing days went by as we waited to arrive at Sanshli. The end was near and we all knew it. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen soon. The entire fate of the galaxy sat on our shoulders and it wasn’t until now that we really felt it. The P.A.E. was gone and each of us knew it. Tension was heavy through the ship as we waited. Not much was said after we planned how we were going to deal with the Empire and finding the statue.
I passed the time in the recreation room, practicing fighting with a punch bag. I felt as if this was where it started, so many weeks ago. On the way back from a mission in this same place, ignoring my problems with some simple exercises. Life was funny that way. I punched the bag over and over again, letting my frustration unwind with every hit. I felt helpless, not being able to do anything as I was used to. I used to be free, not having to obey orders to every last detail. That’s the reason I was in so much trouble now. Neil never taught me how to obey strict orders like the other generals had to.