The Syndicate's Journey

by Nicholas Bogucki

  “Both.”

  “We are called Frochen. We are the last remaining of the Froach tribe.

  “The Frochen?” exclaimed Major General Lokhorst.

  “You’re alive!?” Major General Brentari shouted.

  “Yes. We’re the Froach tribe.”

  “What does that mean?” asked Major General Lokhorst.

  “Many years back, the Frochen were three tribes. The Froach, the Wiffroga, and the Frochen Kingdom. It’s in our history.”

  “There were three tribes? Whoa… Unfortunately, we don’t know your history.” Major General Brentari continued. “But we’d like to learn!”

  “The Old King made treaties to the tribes, and we kept them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We worship the sun and harness it’s energy.” The Froach explained.

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yes. We have not gone to where the Frochen lives in decades.”

  Major General Lokhorst turned to Major General Brentari and raised her eyebrows as she asked.“Wait. There are more Frochen?”

  “Yes. The rest of the Frochen live in the Kingdom.”

  “The rest of them...? How many more are there?” Major General Brentari asked.

  “More than I can count. We are not allowed to go in there.” The Froach replied.

  “Why not?” asked Major General Brentari.

  “Our peace treaty says so.”

  “Can you take us to them? We would like to meet them!” Major General Brentari exclaimed.

  “Brentari!” Major General Lokhorst grabbed her arm as she shouted her name.

  “What?! It’s a serious question.”

  “No, we shouldn’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “They are different.” The Froach interjected. “They are not like us.”

  The Major Generals turned and looked at the Froach. “Different? How so?” asked Major General Lokhorst as she let go of Major General Brentari’s arm.

  “Our history.”

  “I don’t... understand.” Major General Lokhorst replied.

  “We can show you.”

  “Show us? How so?” asked Major General Brentari.

  “We’ll take you down to the Frochen Kingdom. Only Frochen knows how to get there. We will not go inside.”

  “Wait, can you really?” asked Major General Lokhorst. “We’d love to go!”

  “Yes, we can. We can go right now.” The Froach responded.

  “Wait one second!” Major General Brentari shouted and looked at Major General Lokhorst. “Lokhorst, can you come here, please.”

  “Brentari, what is it?”

  “No, can we walk this way for a moment?”

  Major General Lokhorst looked at the Froach, and he nodded. Major General Lokhorst followed her a few feet away.

  “What is it?” Major General Lokhorst asked, annoyed.

  “How do we know they’re telling the truth?” She looked at them then back at Major General Lokhorst. “I mean, we just met them; how do we know that they aren’t just going to kill us?”

  “We have to trust them, Brentari. They seem harmless.”

  “But what if-”

  “-no what-ifs remember what I told you! We are on a mission from General Deschner. Do you remember that? Our entire livelihood is at stake.”

  “You’re right because we could die any second here on Varenok. What happened to the one that we saw dead back there, huh?”

  “I don’t think we should ask about that. Do you think if the Froach was harmful that they would have harmed us by now?”

  “Well...”

  “Well, what? You know I’m right.”

  “Say we did go with them-” Major General Brentari stated.

  “-We are going with them.”

  “Okay... how can we breathe?” Major General Brentari brought up a good point. “How can we breathe underwater? I’m pretty sure these OBAs...”

  “OBAs... you know they might be able to function...”

  “Yeah, I understand. I know what you’re going to say. That the OBA’s might be able to function as gills for us and that we can breathe underwater.”

  “Well, look at the facts. We are out here on a planet that is negative three hundred degrees when we last checked and look at us. We’re still moving like we would on Nuwurth. These are facts, Brentari.”

  Major General Brentari knew that she was right, but what choice does she have now? The Drakdel was hours away, and if she did not cooperate, who knows if the Froach would harm her.

  “Look, we can go...it’s just new, you know?”

  “I’m scared too, but adventure awaits us!”

  Major General Lokhorst walked closer to Major General Brentari and moved her hands on her shoulders. “We can do this. I know it.” Major General Brentari nodded, and they turned back to the Froach.

  “When do you want to go?” asked Major General Lokhorst.

  “Ready if you are.” The Froach spoke. “Here climb onto the backs of these two and hold on. They will follow me, and the rest will follow them.”

  Two Froach turned around and faced the other way allowing the Major Generals to grab and hold onto their fin on their back. They jumped on the Froachs’ back, and all the Froach walked to the edge of the water, and the Froach spoke.

  “Hold your breath. It won’t last long by how fast we can swim.”

  The Froach turned to face the water, and it dove into the water. The two Froach holding the Major Generals followed, and the other six followed after them. In a blink of an eye, the Froach were swimming downwards, deep into the depths of Varenok’s ocean. The Froach were avoiding the whirlpools by twisting and turning while escaping the sea creatures charging right for them.

  The Froach used their hind legs to push the water behind them and project themselves further into the depths. Soon the water became darker than before, as they were swimming away from the surface, the sunlight was not illuminating the water as it had previously. The Major Generals' eyes changed to allow them to see in the dark. The Froach were able to navigate and maneuver around the bigger creatures that lurked deeper in the ocean.

  Major General Brentari looked over at Major General Lokhorst, and she was pointing at her OBA. She did not seem upset at all, but in fact, she looked happy. Major General Brentari had a feeling what she was trying to say, so she let go of her breath and breathed through the OBA, and she was right. The OBA’s allowed them to breathe underwater. The group of Froach continued to swim until they were at the bottom of the ocean and stood on the floor. In front of the Froach was a gigantic bubble, and the Froach spoke to them.

  “You can hop off now. We made it.” The Froach continued. “This is the Frochen Kingdom.”

  The Major Generals listened to him and hopped off of the Froach.

  “Thank you. Without your help, we would have never gotten here.”

  “Yes, thank you so much!” Major General Brentari cheered.

  “Do not thank me. Through there, you will find the Frochen.”

  “Can we contact you again?” asked Major General Lokhorst.

  “You cannot.” The Froach said, and they turned around and swam away.

  “Well, we’re on the ocean floor on Varenok, and we can breathe in water.” Major General Lokhorst shook her head. “What else is going to happen?”

  “I don’t want to find out. I guess the only thing we can do is walk through this bubble-looking object.”

  “I’d say so. Hey Brentari? Thanks for trusting me. I know you didn’t really have a choice, but thank you.”

  Major General Brentari smiled at her. “Well, want to see what is in the Frochen Kingdom?”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Major General Reingle tossed and turned in the bed and slightly opened one eye. He swiped his hand, and his INH opened to check the time. On Nuwurth, it was 03:43. He leaned forward in the bed and looked out the window of the Drakdel and saw how bright it was outside.

  So much for trying to go b
ack to sleep.

  Major General Reingle looked in the room and noticed how quiet it was. Inside and outside of the Drakdel was quiet. Until he heard his stomach growl.

  I-I should probably eat something.

  He leaned over to the side of the bed and jumped down ever so slightly and walked towards the refrigerator. He pressed the button, and it opened. His eyes darted back and forth at the various colors, and he picked up a bright orange vial and pressed the button to close the doors.

  He turned around and walked to his chair and sat down in it. Major General. Reingle placed the vial on the desk and closed his eyes, and rubbed them. Then he picked up the vial and drank some of it. He bit off some of the vial as he drank from it and looked out of the window and took in the scenery.

  Day Two on Snakardekus, let’s see what is going to happen today.

  The Drakdel was overlooking the cave that they had explored with the Snargde encounter yesterday. Major General Reingle’s eyes looked at the cave, and he recalled what happened yesterday.

  That Snargde was pretty big. If Solbrig wasn’t there, I don’t know what I would have done. General Deschner didn’t send us any sort of weapons. Did he just expect this to be a peaceful mission? You know, I wonder if there are any weapons on board that he didn’t tell us about. There has to be.

  He stood up and left his unfinished vial on the desk as he walked around the inside of the Drakdel.

  If I were to put a weapon in here, where would I leave it?

  He turned and walked towards the control room and walked inside of it. He opened the cabinet doors and saw that only vials were inside and where their OBA’s original location was, but now empty.

  Hmm... there’s nothing else here.

  Major General Reingle turned to his left and opened a cabinet and noticed it was empty, but two impressions of guns were there.

  What’s this? Where are the guns? Did General Deschner remove them?

  He continued to look around inside of the room but could not find anything.

  Maybe I should ask Solbrig if he knows anything about them.

  He turned around and left the control room and walked back to the desk and picked up the vial. He proceeded to walk towards the window of the Drakdel and looked out.

  Today is going to be a good day, I know it. I may be afraid of the unknown, but that can be a good thing. Here’s hoping the next twenty-eight days go by fast.

  He reached out, holding the vial and toasted to his own words. Then he drank it and ate the vial. When he was done, he noticed a few rocks in the distance.

  Was that there before? I can’t remember. There are few rocks scattered and some cacti, but those rocks there I can’t remember if they were there or not. Hmm...

  Major General Reingle walked back to his chair and continued to look outside onto Snakardekus. He leaned back in the chair and continued watching and saw the rocks once again moving slowly. He sat up in his chair and then quickly stood up.

  Are my eyes deceiving me? I swear those are moving!

  He walked towards the window again and watched intently at the rocks and saw that they were, in fact, moving. They were moving towards the entrance of the cave.

  What the…! Snakardekus has moving rocks?!

  He looked closely and saw a small glimpse of blue underneath the rocks. He was confused about what it was. In a moment, the wind picked up speed, and the stones were moving back and forth and saw it flap in the wind.

  Wait, rocks don’t do that. What is that?

  The wind picked up, and the rocks were flapping in the wind harder than before. The stones were slowly walking now due to the wind. Major General Reingle swiped his hand, and his INH appeared, and he tapped “Scan,” and hoped he could scan the atmosphere.

  ◆◆◆

  SCANNING…………………………ONE MOMENT PLEASE

  ◆◆◆

  Aw, come on! Scan faster!

  His eyes did not leave the rocks, and he saw in the distance small dust devils appearing on the surface of Snakardekus.

  I don’t need the INH to tell me what that is, a sandstorm is coming!

  He was right. The wind became harder, and sand was soon flying in various directions. Multiple dust devils appeared, closer and much bigger than before. He watched as the rocks stopped moving. His eyes were watching the stones, and it appeared as if part of the stones flapped harder in the sandstorm, then the covering went back to its position. Underneath the covering, Major General Reingle saw blue.

  What is that?!

  ◆◆◆

  SCAN COMPLETE

  POSSIBLE VARANUS VARIUS OR VARANUS KOMODOENSIS

  POSSIBLE CARNIVORE

  UNKNOWN AGE

  ◆◆◆

  Wait a second. The INH scanned the rocks! Major General Reingle laughed nervously. This is great...wait. Unknown age? Carnivore? What...is that?

  Behind him, he heard Major General Solbrig snore in his sleep through the sandstorm, which scared him as he jumped and turned around.

  Solbrig! I forgot he’s asleep! I should wake him up...it’s not an emergency, but it could be!

  He rushed over to Major General Solbrig sleeping and shook his shoulder. “Solbrig, wake up. We have company!”

  “What? Company?” he sleepily asked.

  “Yes. I think there’s Snargde outside!”

  Major General Solbrig shook his head and rubbed his eyes. “What is it, Reingle?”

  He backed up and pointed out the window. “There’s a sandstorm outside, and there are some creatures out there!”

  “What kind of creatures?”

  “I-I don’t know, but luckily I was able to scan them.” He stammered.

  “What did the scan say?” he asked as he slowly sat up in bed.

  “Well, honestly, it came back with some information...which I was surprised.”

  “What did it say?”

  Major General Reingle swiped his hand to the left then upwards to project his INH into a hologram to show Major General Solbrig what the scan said. “See?”

  “Huh. Interesting.” He replied. “Varanus Varius and Varanus Komodoensis, huh? Do you know what that is?” Major General Solbrig asked.

  “Nope.” He shook his head. “Do you?”

  “I have an idea.” Major General Solbrig swiped his right hand and opened his INH. He tapped on “Files,” then he scrolled down to “Nuwurth.” Many files appeared in front of him on a list. “Animals and Creatures,” “Climate,” “Environment,” “Politics,” “Syndicate” “STAV” “Technology.”

  He then proceeded and tapped on “Animals and Creatures,” then another list appeared in front of him. “Amphibians,” “Birds,” “Fish,” “Mammals,” “Reptiles.” He tapped on “Reptiles,” and it opened into six more categories. “Crocodilia,” “Lepidosauria,” “Rhynchocephalia,” “Squamata,” “Testudines,” “Aves.”

  “Hm... uh, what was the name of it again, Reingle?”

  “Varanus Varius and Varanus Komodoensis.”

  “Gotcha, thanks.”

  There must be a way to search.

  He went back a screen and tapped on and held down “Reptiles,” and a search bar appeared then a keyboard. Major General Solbrig typed in “Varanus Varius” and pictures appeared in front of him.

  “Ah, okay so a monitor lizard, huh. These guys are big...what was the other one?”

  “Varanus Komodoensis”

  “Okay.” He proceeded to go back a page and type in words into the search bar as he had previously done. Appeared before his eyes were pictures of the creature. “Oh, Komodo Dragon…”

  “Komodo dragon?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Solbrig? Uh, I don’t think that’s a Komodo dragon.”

  “No. I don’t think so either, I think it is something entirely different...”

  “It is the Snargde, Solbrig!” He tried to contain his excitement, but he had a big smile on his face.

  Major General Solbrig shook his head and swiped away his IN
H, “I think you’re right.”

  “Solbrig, this is the exact spot that those pictures were taken years ago!” He pointed out the window at the cave. “You were right that creatures are predictable! This is our chance to go scan them!” He walked to the window and looked out of it.