by Aer-ki Jyr
“How much is left?” Rammak asked.
“Plenty,” the Maverick said, “but the heart of our territory has been gutted. We’ve had to adapt, and right now they’re hard pressed to take any more worlds. We’re losing a few, but their advance has pretty much ground to a standstill. Most combat is happening out here where we can find a fleet to ambush, but it’s common rumor that another big push is coming. We can all feel it, but so far there’s been no sign. How are you doing?”
“Much better now,” Rammak said, his voice odd.
“You’ve done well, my friend. Can you fight?”
“I’ve maintained most of my strength, but I haven’t had a true test in a long time.”
“You’re still alive…that’s test enough. The rest we can fix if we can get out of here, though they’re not going to make it easy.”
“Do they have a ship in orbit?”
“Not an obvious one.”
“Have they started using stealth tech?”
“No more than usual. They’re still obstinate as hell, but they make use of it in special occasions. I expect they’ve got at least some hidden probes up there, and I’m not sure if we can outrun their ship on the surface. We’ll need a good head start to get out of the atmosphere and cloaked. They can pulse at shorter ranges now and pick us up, so we have to be careful sneaking around,” he said, looking over at Esna. “Are there any other Humans here?”
“I didn’t even know I was Human until he told me,” Esna admitted, pointing to Rammak. “All I know of is me and my brother.”
“And your father? Do you know where he came from?”
“Our ship. That’s all I can remember, I swear.”
“May I check?”
“What?”
“Take off your helmet and I will look inside your mind.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“It’s alright, Esna,” Rammak interrupted. “He’s not going to hurt you.”
“I want to search your memories in case there is something buried there that you’ve forgotten. If there are other Human survivors on other planets, you may have a clue to their whereabouts that you aren’t aware of.”
“Ok, just hold up, both of you,” she said, breathing heavily. “This is all happening a little too fast. Who are you? What are you? I…”
“Easy,” Rammak said, walking over and putting his upper arms on her shoulders and holding her steady. “Remember when I said I was trained to fight with others even if I’d never met them before?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, we’re not fighting right now but we are working together. If you think this is a shock for you, how do you think I feel after all this time?”
“You’re taking it well.”
“The painful memories are back, fresher than ever, but I can still do what is required. I don’t expect the same of you, so just try to go along and help out as much as you can even if you don’t understand what’s happening. We’re still being hunted and the Viks are closer than we thought. We don’t have time to spare bringing you up to speed.”
“My helmet?”
“Good,” Rammak said approvingly as he released her and she removed it, but Javvin didn’t say anything. He walked over revealing a glowing hand and placing two fingers on her forehead, then he just stood there staring at her from behind his solid faceplate.
“What now?” she asked.
“Try to remember when you were onboard the ship,” Rammak prompted. “Anything and everything. Tell me what it looked like.”
“Not very big. There was a bridge, a central compartment that held cargo, and four small rear compartments. Me and my brother had one we slept in. Our father had another.”
“What of your mother?”
“I don’t remember her. She died.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. He never told us. I can never remember anyone else. Whenever we put into port he had us stay inside when he took care of business. I’ve never seen another Human. I never even knew the word.”
“Thank you,” Javvin finally said.
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t do anything.”
“Actually I did. Your memories are blurry, as one would expect given the circumstances, but the ship design is familiar. One that was sold by a competitor of Star Force long ago and a favorite of independent traders. They lived on their ships and rumor had it they also had offspring that were never turned over to a maturia. I think you may be one of their descendants and that they’ve been running ever since the invasion began. How you’ve managed to survive this long is mind boggling. He has training,” the Maverick said, pointing a thumb at Rammak, “but the traders have none. I’d be very interested in knowing your full story, and while you may have a few more fragments to find with a more in depth scan, I’m positive that you don’t know any more than I do.”
“As for you,” he said, looking at Rammak again. “These camps you mentioned. How close is the nearest one?”
“Back the way we came, half a day’s travel. The next is far ahead past the blockade. Getting around it will require gaining elevation.”
“No,” Javvin said firmly. “I’m taking you through.”
“What?” Esna asked, not believing what she’d just heard.
“I’ll have to scout it out thoroughly, maybe make a few alterations in setup, but I’m pretty sure I can get your speeder through. After that, how far?”
“5 days.”
“Is it underground?”
“No, but it leads to a cave network nearby. It’s not visible from the air.”
“How did you know they were underground?” Esna asked.
“We found one near the settlement in the direction you were seen leaving.”
Esna gulped. “You found my brother’s body?”
“No, I didn’t. The Zen’zat got there first. I went in after they were gone and looked around. They must have destroyed the body.”
“We left him on the map. The glowing map,” she said insistently with the pain of his death coming back fresh to her mind just like Rammak had said his was.
“There was no map room. Not one intact, at least. There was fresh explosive damage. I assumed you left some sort of trap behind?”
Esna’s head twisted towards Rammak.
“No, I didn’t,” he said, a promise in his words. “I left your brother lay in peace.”
“Then they must have destroyed his body and the room it was in out of spite. I’ve seen similar things before. They left everything else alone, as far as I could guess, which is why I thought that one area had been mined. You’ve done a lot work here over the years.”
“Keeping busy,” Rammak admitted. “And I needed supply caches. This world has become barbaric.”
“So I’ve noticed. Did anyone else survive the attack?”
“A few. They’ve been long gone now. I was lucky twice.”
“Let’s make it a triple then. Stay here and I’ll scout ahead. I don’t think they heard her scream, but I’ll find out for sure,” he said, looking her way. “You need to be mindful of when you’re mic is on.”
“Sorry.”
“It takes time to learn and you’ve had far too little to be wearing that armor. Take this mistake and remember it. Use it so it doesn’t happen again. If you feel like screaming, turn it off and no one on the outside will hear you. The armor is sound proof.”
“How can I hear then?”
“External mics relay the sounds to your ear mounts. I’ll leave you in his care,” Javvin said.
“Wait. How are you going to not be seen? Can you make them see things with your mind powers?”
“I can, but there’s an easier way,” he said, turning to Rammak. “Commando.”
“Maverick,” the Calavari replied respectfully, then Javvin took a step and disappeared into a shimmer of light that moved off and Esna quickly lost it amongst the rocks.
“He can turn invisible?”
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Rammak didn’t answer her for a moment, and she saw him looking in the direction he’d gone, noticing that his dot had also disappeared from the battlemap.
“I’m sure he’ll be back,” she said reassuringly.
“812 years. That’s how long it’s been since I’ve seen another…” he said, suddenly choking up a bit. “He’ll be back. I’m not worried about that.”
“You ok?”
“Yes. Are you?”
“No.”
“You’ll adapt,” Rammak said offhand.
“Why didn’t you tell me he was coming?”
“Didn’t you hear him…” he said, finally realizing. “You didn’t open the comm.”
“Not until you were both here. He scared me half to death.”
“They’re supposed to be sneaky, which was why he contacted us and showed up on our battlemap. Didn’t you see the second dot?”
“I was sleepy. I thought he was you.”
“That’s not our fault.”
“Like hell it isn’t. It was your workout that did it to me.”
“Partially true.”
Esna sighed…then stifled a yawn that followed as her adrenaline began to bleed off and she started feeling more tired than even before. “What now?”
“We follow his lead,” Rammak said, sitting down beside her as she stood, with his head barely below hers given his enormous size.
Esna sat down as well, then leaned back in a pose that suggested leisure, though it was forced.
“Can you take a Zen’zat with his help?”
“Maybe.”
“So we’re not dead if they find us now? Not for sure?”
“We have a fighting chance now, but our best chance is to remain hidden until we can get to his ship.”
“Is it invisible too?”
“I would imagine so.”
“Then why can’t it fly to us? He mentioned another, didn’t he?”
“Yes, but I don’t know what the situation is. I think we’re still on our own for now and he’s going to tag along until he can arrange a pickup.”
“He’s smaller than I thought. I got used to you being so big.”
“He could beat me fairly easy in a fight,” Rammak admitted with no shame.
“So now I’m really just breathing baggage?”
“Baggage that the Viks want to destroy. You’ve valuable to them, and valuable enough for Star Force to send them out searching for you. And you’re valuable to me, despite your lack of skills.”
Esna rolled her eyes. “I guess that makes me feel a little better.”
“If I run with him, I’d be slowing him down.”
Esna cracked a smile. “Ok. Now that does makes me feel better, slowpoke.”
“I have an extra set of arms to carry,” he joked, then grew serious. “We have a chance now, Esna. And however this goes down, we won’t be left here. One way or another.”
“Dead or free?”
“Yes.”
“I can accept that. Just tell me what I need to do…or not do.”
“Start with making a habit of turning your mic off when you’re trying to hide.”
“I didn’t expect to scream, otherwise I would have had it off.”
“You have to learn to prepare for the unexpected.”
She was about to argue that, but something about it range true.
“I suppose so. I’ll make sure I stay quiet if we try to go through those guys up ahead. How does he plan to do that anyway?”
“I could make a guess, but how they work is a mystery to a lot of us. They get the job done though. You can count on that.”
“I’ll take your word for it. If he’s going to be gone a while, is there anything we can do here? I’m tired, but I don’t think I can sleep right now.”
“Have you eaten?”
“Nope,” she said, standing up and walking over to the speeder’s supply bundle.
17
Esna sat behind Rammak on the speeder being as still and quiet as she could. There was faint humming coming from the engine, but other than that they were whisper quiet as they drifted forward through the dark at slow speed with Javvin giving directions to Rammak over the comm. They were already past the scouts on the edge of the camp and had just made a left turn that was bringing them past a group out in the open between two large vehicles entertaining themselves with what looked like drinks and a little roughhousing. Their speeder was barely 20 meters away from them and even in the dark they should have easy enough to see, but as Esna held her breath they slid on by them without anyone taking notice.
Another turn and they were headed back in the direction they wanted to go…right into a half armored Critel crossing their path.
“Slow by half,” Javvin’s voice said, with Rammak reducing their speed to a crawl.
To Esna’s amazement the Critel just kept walking, going right in front of them and almost getting hit. He passed to their left and was so close she could have reached out and touched him on the back as they slipped through, but he didn’t show any sign of noticing them.
“Sloping right turn then stop at the wall and hold there.”
Esna watched what she could sitting behind Rammak’s bulk as they turned and headed sideways again between a big rock cliff and several stacks of crates, then they came to a stop in front of a wall with a passage visible heading left that they weren’t taking for some reason. They just sat there for several seconds that stretched into minutes. Esna wanted to ask what was going on but didn’t dare, even if her helmet truly did block exterior sounds, for she didn’t want to risk accidentally turning on her mic again.
More time passed until she heard footsteps approaching from the right, with her skin tingling in response as they just continued to sit there in plain sight as a short Calavari came into view.
“Back up and let him pass, then follow three meters behind.”
Rammak reversed course and drifted back, then the unwitting dupe walked right in front of them. Esna had no idea what was going on beside the aforementioned mind control, but what did that really mean? Could Javvin make them invisible to people who were looking directly at them?
Their speeder moved back up near the wall when he’d passed, then spun to the left and followed. About 50 meters further the rock walls on both sides fanned out and another encampment of 20 or so people were sitting around a flood-lid square made up of makeshift seats. A few of them turned to look at the newcomer, belting out a string of curses that the Calavari returned as he walked over to join them…all the while Esna and Rammak were right behind him and moving unnoticed despite all the eyes looking in their direction.
“Two more then you’re in the clear. Keep it slow and veer left at the next truck.”
A large wheeled transport was parked ahead and to their left. Esna didn’t know if ‘veer left’ meant before or after it, but Rammak took them to the far side and turned with Esna shifting her weight on the bike every so carefully so she could look to the right…where she saw another scouting post on an elevated rock outcropping. Up top was one person lounging in such a way that he might be asleep, but only one. She didn’t know where the other one was that the glowstick for a face Protovic had mentioned earlier and hoped his mind was messed with as well, whatever that actually meant.
A minute later the rocky walls fell off completely and a small plain appeared before them stretching out for a mile or two between the shorter ridges that diverged just past the camp. With only a few small mounts in the distance to break up the plain there wasn’t much to see and those were only visible with her helmet’s nightvision, otherwise it would have just looked like a sea of blackness beneath the stars. But rather than heading out into it Javvin told them to stop, so right on the edge of getting away they decided to sit and wait…and wait…and wait.
This was even longer than before and she wondered if Javvin was working his way up to them to hop onboard, but a startling single word much later ended that train of thought.
> “Go,” the Protovic said, with Rammak accelerating them hard and throwing Esna back in her seat. The sound of the engine increased ever so slightly, but otherwise they were nothing but a shadow slipping out further into the darkness as they were sliding over the scattering of ankle-sized rocks thanks to the bike’s anti-grav…and within a few seconds they were zipping away from the ambush encampment and on their way to the next hideout.
Esna waited until they were at least a minute out before chancing to speak, very grateful to be past that potential disaster but equally confused.
“Isn’t Javvin coming with us?”
“He’ll catch up on his own.”
“Does he have a speeder?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Why didn’t he ride with us? He could have sat on the supplies or something.”
“He knows what he’s doing.”
“So we’re just supposed to wait for him at the next camp, or somewhere closer?”
“He’ll catch up to us, so we just keep moving.”
“Then he has to have a speeder.”
“He can run faster than me, Esna.”
“As fast as a speeder?”
“Probably not this one, but don’t think he can’t cover ground quickly enough. Out here on the flat, 200 miles in ten hours is doable.”
“On foot?”
“Yes, and I’ve seen Archons do much better than that. Speeder or not, he’ll catch up. We just have to avoid being noticed.”
“We’re out in the open again.”
“But no one knows to look here.”
“Hopefully,” Esna added.
“Best we can do, I’m afraid. But we’ve got help now.”
“Yeah. What’s up with his face anyway?”
“The glow?”
“Yeah. He couldn’t sneak up on anyone without that armor or a mask.”
“His entire body is like that.”
“Everything?”
“He has patches that are exoskeleton that don’t glow, but all his skin does.”
“That is freaky weird.”
“That’s what Protovic are, Esna. And they’re not as weird as other races in Star Force. Wait till you see a Bsidd.”