by I. Christie
"So, you are moving back to shamedian?"
These were not the thoughts of a soldier, JG reminded herself. However, she did remember at one time in the cave, as SMjr JG of the Black Rose, when her hand was raised to whip a sub that unrelated thoughts crossed her mind. The Cave was a house of pleasure for doms and subs, where sometimes she had moments of enlightenment. An amazing place for such things to happen. Suddenly JG was back to the present.
JG stepped behind a tree. Looking up she decided a top view of her area would be invaluable.
JG nearly lost her grip on the branch.
She would have continued the mindtalk if not for a group of uniformed men moving toward her position. Soldiers. She grabbed a branch from another tree that was within fingertip distance and steadying herself, hopped over. She nimbly moved from tree to tree until she was shadowing the soldiers to their left. This was the first sign of an army for nonviolent Arnica, and she was very curious.
JG's frantic mind struggled to control her emotions. Her arms wrapped tightly around a tree branch for solidity. Her breathing automatically adjusted to the rhythm the Sha'Kar taught her to center herself. She rubbed her forehead ruefully. On a deeper level she reminded herself to focus on a task to keep from worrying about Alexandra. Any little thing was upsetting her. It was interfering with her assignment. She nearly laughed aloud at that. Alexandra was her assignment. Turning her attention to the immediate, JG's eyes narrowed. Some of the soldiers dressed in red were slashing branches and bushes in their way, ignoring the path another group of them was following. They all looked tired as if they had been at a quick march for days.
There was a noticeable hesitation.
The two followed the soldiers back to the temple they had spent the night in. The soldiers had avoided the main road, which added to her curiosity about their mission. JG
worried they would find her ship. However, they did not enter onto the temple proper.
The men formed a crescent around the temples grounds instead. Four men huddled around the bottom step, which led up to the closed front double doors of the fence.
What her companion pictured for her was a young girl, slim, translucent, and wearing a large medallion on her flat chest.
The Sha'Kar picked up JG's thoughts of Alexandra.
"Lord Chaney was not an honorable man. He killed and caused others to sufferwithout so much as a thought of anyone else but himself. And…Alexandra did not intendon killing him. It was an accident."
The sudden rush of emotion nauseated JG. Her temper escalated so quickly it took her by surprise. A small pop in her ears forced her to hold onto a branch until she could regain her equilibrium.
"Just how am I supposed to feel about a murderer or a…a…helgas moon!"
Feeling slightly better, JG loosened her grip on the branch, then patted the tree trunk. Moving her head slowly around, she listened for any unnatural sounds, easily picking up muted curses to her left. By the noise they were making as they set up camp, JG guessed they were not Alan's MS. Metrasoldiers were disciplined and professional.
Peering through the tree branches, she watched the soldiers, quickly picking out which were MS and which were local soldiers, and not just by the dark red uniform tunics and the black uniforms but by the separation of the groups. One was quietly eating, while on the other side of the camp were the local soldiers laughing and carrying on as if they had nothing to fear. JG was curious about the working relationship between the two groups, remembering from her own experience that the MS mercilessly tormented soldiers they considered inferior. JG had trained with some of them at Lord Chaney's private training ground. That was when she was a covert operator in the persona of MSgt. JG, a grim faced noncom in the Black Rose troop.
Alan Fermin was proud of
his metrasoldiers. They were composed of warriors kidnapped from planets closed to visits from space traveling planets. The closed planets were considered too violent and self serving to be traveling through space. From these warring primitive planets, smugglers kidnapped warriors and sold them to the metralabs where there were turned into living robots with deadly skills that were outlawed in the two galaxy powers space. The impact was rebel groups incorporated the brutality thus taking the two large galaxy organizations, the Collective and the GCFC, or the Committee as it was shortened to, steps backward in their unilateral outlawing of violence, killing, and slavery.
Alan Fermin, a psychotic serial killer, had money and influence to buy his own army, and for a while his dream of owning his own planet was unstoppable.
JG shifted her position on her tree, withdrawing her focus on the group. She could feel something, and that something was moving toward the group. Whatever it was, felt dangerous. The sudden appearance of an officer in the camp, wearing the black clothing of the MS brought both groups of soldiers to their feet quickly. One of the local soldiers looked uncomfortable but he and an MS walked a distance from the group with the newcomer. The conversation was brief. Then the officer was gone.
The drizzle started a few stan hours later. By the muttering from the soldiers huddled beneath their shelters, they were miserable.
JG took a deep breath and held it for a few moments and then released it. She rubbed her forehead. A dark dred filled her. There was a pop but it was from far away.
She breathed in and then out; each time she let the air out she pictured darkness leaving
her. And then another pop. With it came the strong smell of the earth, vegetation, and connection with other small creatures.
Who she was on Merker's Outpost was not the same person that awakened on Rouster.
She was altered by her experience of places she had no idea existed. Her responsibilities changed with her expanded awareness. Connecting with all sorts of creatures and life forms she did not recognize, meant on some level she was now morally obligated to consider their welfare in whatever action she took. There was so much to worry about, including where she was placing her foot, where she sat down, and where she dumped her waste. Not a practical way to live. How can anyone live this way? JG, unconsciously rubbed her forehead. Now she was worrying about where she landed her ship. Maybe she dropped onto some poor creature that made its home… She sighed exhausted.
JG nodded to herself. A sound wave resonator makes sense. So where are theykeeping them? And more importantly…what's my part in all of this?
Helping Alexandra is my priority, she reminded herself. But she was here and within view were a group of soldiers that she could gather some information on….such as, how well do the locals work as a team with the MS when in a battle situation. From experience she knew the MS worked well as a unit, and were cruel, and contemptuous of anyone not of their group. But this was not the case here. The MS were displaying a different mind set. It worried her. How much were they left to their own volition? And who was their leader? She had never met a female MS. Alan preferred males since he had a psychotic urge to brutally beat females to death.
JG looked up at the dark sky, and felt the heavy mist coat her face. She pulled the hood of her coat further over her head.
JG grabbed the soldier from behind and was surprised when he responded just as quickly, throwing her off. She managed to stifle his call to his friends but a call from a nearby sentry alerted him when he did not get a return hail.
The alerted guard attempted to sneak up on JG but she heard his approach. She tapped him on the shoulder, smoothly removing his sword from its scabbard at the same time. After losing his knife to her too, he tried to keep a distance between them while calling for reinforcements. JG found herself encircled by red and black dressed warriors.
They all had their long swords drawn, pointed in her direction. In the pale light of the moon, they glinted nastily.
As they tightened the ring around her, she turned slowly looking for someone who looked like a real threat. She reached out and could feel the group's energy. It was something Alexandra let her experience on Merker's Outpost, only this time, she initiated it. The group's energy was edgy and dark. There was a difference between the metrasoldiers and the others. The natives were angry for varying reasons, mostly disgruntled with their own lives. They were town bullies that grew up and still wanted to be bullies. The metrasoldiers were just angry.
She tossed the stolen knife at the black dressed soldier that was hanging back, letting the local soldier in front of him block his view. She laughed when the red soldier thought it was for him and nimbly moved aside not taking his eyes off her. It should have hit the soldier behind him in the thigh. That type of wound would be serious enough to take him out of action for a few days, unless they had a medikit.
Not waiting to see if the knife hit its mark, JG flipped out and over the heads of the two lines of soldiers. She kicked the legs out from the MS that turned to face her, grabbed a wrist, breaking it, while using his sword to stab his companion in the thigh.
She kept moving in the familiar dance of a fighter, knowing instinctively that this group was not used to fighting as a team. The local soldiers scattered in panic, interfering with the MS. Her intention was to test and frustrate. This MS group was not at all like the soldiers Alan had pitted against the Black Rose.
When she felt she had learned enough, she took the first opportunity to flee, armed with a staff, back into the forest. She retrieved her pack and went to find a place to spend the night. She found a tree to climb and moved away from the angry survivors.
There was not many soldiers without knife wounds, many inflicted by their own side. She would see how fast they mended; another bit of information that would come in handy.
JG chuckled.
She remembered to give thanks to the spirit that briefly touched her hands, again thinking that her view of Alexandra and her abilities was certainly changing. There was also some trepidation. It meant methods she normally would use to defend herself had to change…and were changing. She grinned to herself. Like for example, harassing the soldiers but not taking any lives. Stealing a staff instead of a sword and knife. The next challenge would be having to face these soldiers again, better prepared because they knew more about her as she did of them.
She tied herself to the tree on an uncomfortable perch and settled for a nap.
The next morning in the outskirts of a village a child was tending his herd. Every planet had animal herders. She was amazed when the child readily answered all her questions, until she felt the Sha'Kar's amusement.