For One Nen

by Capri S Bard

  297 AE

  Aboard the EGRESS

  They read for two hours before the engineers were able to bring some of the systems online.

  “Let’s go work on the computer again,” Teltel said when the lights illuminated down the rows and rows of garden tables.

  “It’s getting late, young ones. You should make your way back to your quarters,” the Maven instructed.

  “I wonder if the cooks are serving anything,” Mathis as he looked up at Teltel.

  “I’d like to eat before we go to quarters,” Teltel said to the Maven.

  “You can always eat, big guy,” Benai laughed.

  “Don’t linger,” the Maven said.

  “I-must-see-to-Arla,” Aiden said. “Frightens-easily.”

  Aiden and the boys walked out of the garden with Maven Sharla.

  “I smell smoke,” Tala said as they opened the doors.

  “That will probably last a while. I’m sure the air filtering system won’t come online for a while yet.” Deni said. “But we have the cleanest air on the ship, right here in the gardens.” She reached out her hand and lightly touched a large green leaf.

  The doors closed and Tala took Deni’s hand and pulled her close.

  “Oh! Love, I’ve got dirt everywhere,” Deni said with caution. “I’ll get it on you if you get too close.”

  “But I don’t mind getting dirty,” Tala said, as she grabbed Deni’s buttoned shirt with her fist and pulled the body of her mate against her own.

  Reaching her arms up around Tala’s slender neck, Deni said, “And that’s what I very much like about you.”

  Tala held Deni and whispered close to her ear, “Please never leave.”

  “Hey,” Deni pulled back and looked into Tala’s blue eyes. “I’m right here. And I don’t want to be anywhere else.” Deni laughed and tilted her head.

  This made Tala ask, “What’s so funny?”

  “I’ve just never had that feeling,” Deni said.

  “What feeling?” asked Tala.

  “Even in my happiest of times; in my gardens, or with my friends, or long hot baths, I’ve always secretly wanted to be somewhere else; somewhere…with you. And now,” her golden eyes shown bright, “I’m right where I want to be and I promise I’ll never leave.”

  “Quarters?” Tala asked.

  “Quarters,” Deni responded.

  When they came to the elevator they saw the Maven talking to a Blue-Coat of the medical staff.

  “Is everything alright,” Deni asked the Maven.

  “It’s Turk. He was burned but not too bad. He should be back to work before long. Henry and the others are alright, though.”

  “Glad it wasn’t too bad,” Deni said.

  “Try to get some rest,” the Maven said with a knowing smile. “I’m certain your listeners will join you again tomorrow.”

  Tala’s face blushed but the Maven just smiled and turned toward the dining hall. She joined Teltel and Benai at their table.

  Even before Maven Sharla sat down she had scanned the room meticulously.

  She leaned forward and spoke softly to the boys. “I think Tanik has a spy.”

  “What?” Teltel said.

  “Spying on us?” Benai asked with a growing smile.

  The Maven nodded.

  “Well sparse me blind,” Benai laughed. “Kind of makes a man feel important.”

  “Shut up, Benny,” Teltel said in a loud whisper. “She could stop the stories if she finds them.”

  Turning to the Maven he asked, “Who is it?”

  “I don’t know for sure, but I would keep an eye on Merari.”

  “That silly Anthro?” Benai said in a scoff.

  “I saw her with Tanik going into the emissaries’ offices just before they came to the gardens,” the Maven explained. “Just be careful. It would be a tragedy to lose those videos before we get to see them.”

  “Do you really think we can get it to work?” Teltel asked.

  “I think tiny ones need to be protected so they can have freedom to contribute to the wealth of all,” the Maven said. She then rose and faded as she walked away.

  “Sometimes she’s awfully cryptic,” Benai said with a furrowed brow.

  “She wants us to include Mathis,” Teltel explained.

  “He’s not so bad,” Benai said.

  “He’s a Hoth,” Teltel said as he stomped off leaving his tray of half eaten food behind as he rubbed the tip of his chin vigorously.

  Benai shoveled a few more bites into his mouth before hurrying after his friend.

  The rest of their nightly routine unfolded without incident. It wasn’t until the middle of the night when Teltel woke Benai from his nightmare that started the most eventful day the students had ever had.

  “Ben!” Teltel called. “Benny, you’re having a bad dream again.”

  Unlike the other times when Teltel would wake Benai from his dreams this time Benai woke quickly. His eyes shot open and like a flash he sat up and looked at Teltel.

  “You’re pale, Benny.” Teltel said. “You alright? Was it a bad one? Was it about the fire on board?”

  “I went mad this time,” Benai revealed. He hugged his knees under his chin and wept as he told about his dream.

  “I was on some sort of hill or mountain overlooking a bunch of people. They killed each other. Right there; right in front of me.”

  “It’ll be alright, Benny. It’s all going to be alright,” Teltel tried to comfort his friend.

  “I raised my staff; a long stick that I carried with me all the time, well I raised it high and brought it down and the killing began,” Benai cried. He looked at his friend as the tears kept streaming down his wet face. “I did that. I made them kill each other. I’m going mad. I have this ache inside that won’t go away.”

  He beat his chest with his open hand. “I ache down so deep I feel like it can never go away. There were giants there too. They wouldn’t let anyone leave. They protected me, but I went mad. Oh! Beyond the heavens - something out there - help me.”

  Teltel was made more than a little uncomfortable by his friend’s escalated level of inner turmoil.

  “Hey, get dressed. We’ll go to the fallow field. We can work on the computer.”

  “We can’t get that thing working by ourselves,” Benai said as he took off his shirt, blew his nose on it and threw it down the laundry chute.

  “Sure we can,” Teltel said.

  “No we can’t. We don’t know a thing about all that stuff. But Maven Sharla said you should be nice to a ‘little one’,” he said with a forced laugh as he wiped his face with his hands.

  “Not that Hoth,” Teltel whined as he only allowed himself to do with his best friend.

  “He’s not so bad. He’s just a Hoth,” Benai said as he put on fresh clothes.

  They left their room and rounded the hall to Trace and Mathis’ door.

  “What are you waiting on?” Benai said when Teltel hesitated at the door.

  “I didn’t want to just barge into their sleeping quarters in the middle of the night.”

  Benai slapped a button on the side of the door and it slid open.

  “Hey boys,” Benai called out in a loud voice. “We’re only here for Mathis so you can go back to sleep, whoever you are.”

  “Get the sparse out of here,” Trace yelled.

  “He said, ‘go back to sleep’,” Teltel yelled back.

  “Come on little guy,” Benai said to Mathis.

  “Am I in trouble?” Mathis asked with a voice as tiny as he was.

  “Only if you don’t come with us,” Teltel said.

  The little Hoth pulled on his clothes and rubbed his eyes.

  “What are you going to do to me?” Mathis asked in fear.

  “We just need your help,” Teltel answered.

  Mathis followed the very tall boys all the way to the fallow field where they worked on the computer the rest of the night.

  Well before waking hour, they had fixed
the computer and interfaced one of the small hard drives.

  Teltel pressed a button and turned it on and the boys gathered around the square frame monitor to watch an ancient movie from the ancestors of the Egress.

  0 BE/AE (The year of the departure of the EGRESS)

  Aboard the EGRESS in orbit above the planet REEN

  The screen was black a moment before it came to life. Chris came out of the elevator into a large hallway much like the main deck hall.

  “Okay I think these are pretty cool. These are the diagonal elevators I talked about earlier.”

  There was a smaller silver elevator door with two regular doors on each side.

  “So this is one of the elevators and those doors are for officers and emissaries of each tribe. There are nine elevators from this level of the officer’s quarters to the quarter sectors where some will live and hundreds more of each tribe will be in stasis.

  The camera followed the hall around and showed the interior white wall that encircled the main elevator and the outer wall with a duplicate elevator with four doors.

  297 AE

  Aboard the EGRESS

  “That’s my room,” Mathis said in his high voice.

  “Are you sure?” Benai said but added quickly with a pointing finger, “Oh, that’s our room. Look big guy.”

  “Yes,” Teltel agreed.

  “We’re in officer’s quarters?” Mathis said.

  “No,” Benai laughed. “We can’t be.”

  “But Chris said that’s what they were,” Mathis said. “I think it’s the ninth sector.”

  “What do you mean the ninth sector?” Benai asked.

  “I don’t think the officer’s quarters of the Hoth were ever used. I mean they were never allowed to have council representation, there were no Hoth emissaries. I think they put the keepers in the ninth sector. We live in the Hoth’s officer’s quarters,” Mathis said.

  “No,” Teltel yelled, which made the computer on the table shake.

  “Oh, no! I’m sorry guys.” Benai jumped to his feet and stopped the video.

  “What’s wrong?” Mathis asked in his high pitched sleepy voice.

  “We’re going to be late for class,” Benai explained. “I think if we’re late it might make Tanik suspicious.”

  “I wonder what she’d do if we didn’t show up,” Mathis said with a laugh. He gave a little yawn and didn’t budge from his sitting position. “I don’t know why we still have to go to class. I mean the particle wave will be here in just a few days anyway.”

  “Indeed. I don’t see why we have to go to class either,” Teltel agreed.

  “So we can tell the others what we found. So we can let them see this before,” Benai stopped. “Let’s just go,” he added.

  Teltel unplugged the computer and they hurried to the dining hall to eat before going to class.

  With the frequent black outs due to the frequent attempts to bring the damaged shields online, the ship had become colder in the last few weeks. The boys gathered with the other slightly more clothed, students in their open class area.

  They arrived before Tanik did, so Benai began to whisper to Beau and Bug. Bug in turn, whispered to Trina.

  “What’s this?” Tanik asked relentlessly when she arrived.

  “What, Tanik?” Benai asked with a grin.

  Tanik looked from Benai to Teltel and back to Benai.

  “No whispering in my class,” she said as she placed a stack of folders on her podium. She pressed her hands together in front of her and said, “Let us begin.” The class rose to their feet and began the morning ‘remembrance prayer’ routine.

  Rasta, the Antip, moved slightly closer to Teltel.

  “What?” Teltel said aloud.

  Tanik jerked her head around to face Teltel. The other students did the same.

  A little embarrassed, Teltel said, “I’m sorry. I thought I heard something.”

  He pressed his hands together in front of him and slightly bowed in front of Tanik.

  “I’m sorry,” he said again.

  “Let’s see if we can get through morning prayers without another outburst shall we,” she said as she began her smooth elongated movements.

  Again Teltel heard something but instead of verbally responding he simply froze.

  “Teltel, it’s me,” he heard the voice again. Then he realized the voice wasn’t audible.

  He cut his eyes slightly to his left to see Rasta smiling at him.

  “Yes, it’s me.”

  Teltel opened his mouth to speak but Rasta pushed her thoughts to stop him.

  “Don’t speak,” she pushed into his mind.

  The two picked up with the prayer, ended with the rest of the class, and sat down for morning recitation.

  As the class’ voices rumbled out their long songs and sonnets they had been saying since they were children Rasta pushed her thoughts again.

  “Whatever you guys are doing, I want to be in on it.”

  “No,” Teltel whispered quickly to her while Tanik’s eyes and smile of pride were focused on Merari.

  “What is it? What are you guys doing?” Rasta pushed again.

  Teltel knew he would have to wait until after class to tell Rasta anything. Even though Rasta had learned to control her thoughts, to be able to push them on one person at a time, Teltel couldn’t very well talk back to her without getting caught.

  A watery figure entered the classroom area and appeared in front of Tanik.

  “Maven,” Tanik said with nervous respect.

  The Maven nodded to Tanik respectfully. They began to give greeting.

  Teltel knew this could be his chance to whisper to Rasta without getting caught.

  “Can you push someone for me?” Teltel quickly whispered to Rasta.

  She nodded while the women talked of the fire the day before and black outs and the temperature change.

  “Tell the class we’re meeting in the fallow field after class but don’t let Merari know what you’re doing,” Teltel whispered quickly.

  “Why?” Rasta pushed with question.

  “Just do it,” Teltel said quickly.

  “Teltel, I said no whispering,” Tanik shouted. Then as if embarrassed by her outburst she turned to the Maven with a smile and calmly said, “They just will not listen sometimes.”

  Maven Sharla looked at Teltel and he gave a knowing smile. Teltel knew the Maven had visited class to see if Tanik was pressing anyone further about reading lies.

  “I was just taking my morning walk and wanted to stop by and see how you were getting along today,” the Maven said to Tanik. “I see you have things well in hand.” She gave Tanik a graceful nod and she faded as she left the class.

  Rasta moved a little closer behind Bug and Trina. “Meet in the fallow field after class,” she pushed her thoughts to them.

  They turned quickly to face her.

  “Turn around or you’re going to get us in trouble,” she pushed.

  She then quietly moved in between Beau and Benai. “Meet in the fallow field after class,” she pushed them.

  Benai smiled and nodded.

  Beau looked around as if he couldn’t believe they were the only ones hearing the message.

  Again she moved.

  “Rasta is there a problem?” Tanik asked suspiciously.

  “Just a little restless, I guess,” Rasta answered as she pushed her skinny dreadlocks from her eyes.

  “Probably the pending doom,” Benai joked. “Bound to make us all sparse before long.”

  Tanik pursed her lips and tilted her head in disapproval of his foul mouth.

  Benai just ducked his head for a moment as he tried to hold in a laugh.

  As Rasta moved past Mathis she quickly said, “Fallow field after class.”

  “Are you quite finished with your restlessness?” Tanik asked. “Or do you need to run laps around the ship to calm your nerves?”

  Rasta settled in the middle of Molly, the Denizen and Merari as she verbally an
swered her teacher. “I think I’m fine now.”

  Tanik began to talk about the importance of truth and how the keepers should be concerned with keeping the truth that their ancestors toiled earnestly to pass down to them.

  But Rasta cut her eyes to Molly.

  Molly gave a questioning look with her eyebrows moving closer together.

  “Are you with the class or are you with Merari?” Rasta asked as she pushed her thoughts into Molly.

  Molly looked at Rasta a moment then she dropped her head as if she were thinking of what she’d just heard.

  After a moment, Rasta pushed, “Meet me in the dining hall after class.”

  Class ended that day with Tanik smiling at her students and saying, “May each one of you be keepers of truth this day and the days to come.”

  Teltel walked out into the hallway and quickly caught up to Merari.

  “Hey, I think Tanik is on to us so we’re meeting on the observatory deck today.”

  Merari stopped long enough to listen to the giant. “Alright,” she responded. “I forgot something,” she said awkwardly.

  Teltel watched her turn back toward class. He knew the Maven had been right about Tanik having a spy and the spy was Merari. He saw Rasta sitting with Molly not far away in the dining hall.

  “Did you see that?” Teltel said as he sat down with them.

  “That sparsing spy,” Rasta snapped.

  Gazing off in the distance Molly said, “I’m not surprised.”

  “Why? Did you know she was a traitor?” asked Rasta.

  “She’s not a traitor,” Molly said soft and sad.

  “What do you call it when you turn on your friends?” Teltel asked with frustration.

  “Hurt,” Molly said with her large brown eyes and high pony-tail of thick, dark brown hair.

  “Hurt?” Teltel said with a growing lower-pitched voice that showed his maturity toward manhood.

  “Her mother died when Merari was born. She never became close to anyone until we were all brought to the keepers’ class when we were small. She’s worked for Tanik’s approval ever since, except… Tanik has never notice her much until recently. I wondered what the change was. I guess it’s hard to betray the one you most want to please.”