by Tim Kaiver
"Are you guys there?" Schaefer asked.
"We'll look for your clever trees," Cullen said.
"What did you mean, who's supposed to be the jealous one," Schaefer asked.
I've been in a prison for six years, Ehli said, and you've been here? Did you find a girlfriend or two to keep you company? We saw plenty of cute ones back at the building with the nurses.
"There." Cullen pointed and pulled her along faster.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Schaefer said. "And really, you haven't even given me a chance to explain what happened."
Oh, I look forward to that. Including being in the loop when you distract our son to get lost in the middle of a jungle.
"Our son is doing fine. He's just a little confused, which is understandable, but not entirely within my control. We have a group bent on disrupting our progress, and it's because of them that we're not having this conversation in person, that I'm forced to train my beloved son and wife as best as I can, at a distance."
Your beloved. How precious.
"Ehlin Rose. Please. Don't assume the worst. Give me a chance to explain."
Cullen led Ehli to a tree with an orange vine growing like lattice-work up from the trunk.
Whatever you think will help your case, start talking. We've found your entrance and are on our way in.
18
Emmit's dad indicated they should follow him. "Come on, you two. I want to show you something."
Emmit looked over, surprised to see Adi.
His friend gave him a weird look. "Where are we?"
"The people who cut off our path to get you straight from Setuk also disrupted our communication," his dad said as he slowed near a glass overlook. "I needed a hardline neuronet link to reach you—at least for now. Captain Re is helping to restore communications."
As Emmit neared the overlook, he saw the same village as before, but now dead bodies lay about in the paths between the huts. One man, an older guy with glasses, had his hand over his shirt, where a red stain blossomed. He slid down the wooden doorway.
A red laser drove into his chest, scorched his shirt and sent out a puff of red, stealing the remainder of his resistance. He rocked to one side and his face planted in the mud, his hand releasing the earlier wound.
"Do you see why we didn't have the luxury of waiting to meet in person before we speak?" his dad asked.
"Who did that?" Emmit asked.
His dad looked ashamed. "The rejects."
"Rejects?" Emmit remembered that word being whispered in fear back in the cafeteria.
"They didn't take well to the treatments and want to destroy me. I'm sorry to have to show you this, but we're at war. The boy I needed you to reach to get him to his father… A second of indecision, or a refusal to follow your commander's direction, can—and more than likely will—cost lives. Lives like those of the boy and his family."
Emmit's heart squeezed. His stomach twisted into a knot. "The bo… Samu?"
His dad shook his head slowly.
*Task to use telepathy to direct Samu to his father – Failed.*
"I'm sorry," his dad said. "I'm glad you were able to reach Adi, but that wasn't what I asked for. I didn't mention the stakes because I didn't want the pressure to lock you up." He took a deep breath and exhaled, then shrugged. "We have a very serious problem, and I'm almost entirely to blame for it. But I won't let that stop me from doing everything I can to save you, Emmit, your mom, all of you. Will you listen to me when I say what to do?"
"I'm sorry, Dad."
He waved Emmit off, shaking his head. "You didn't know."
His dad's attention shifted to Adi as he sat on the desk, his demeanor as calm as if Emmit had brought him in from playing to have a fresh batch of cookies. "I'm truly sorry you had to get involved in this, Adi. Though I suppose languishing in Setuk's prison camp or being sold into slavery wasn't a great alternative."
His dad paused, watching Adi.
Emmit checked on his friend. The boy looked bashful, as though willing to remain silent for as long as necessary until the attention passed to someone else.
"Your last name Brinoway?" his dad asked Adi.
The boy shared a surprised look with Emmit before returning his gaze to Emmit's dad, then reluctantly nodded.
"You lose your voice in those tunnels?" his dad asked with a gentle smile.
Adi shook his head.
"Oh, well, if you say so." He waved at the screens, and they turned black. "The reason I asked your last name, Adi wasn't because I didn't know it. I know more about you than you do."
"Don't you want to know what I'm…? Adi, you're gonna have to speak to me if you want me to share."
Adi started to nod, then said, "Yes, sir." His tone said he responded more out of obedience than curiosity.
His dad rolled his eyes. "Okay. That's a start, I guess, but… Oh well, I understand. You've both been through a lot in the last hour... not to mention the last six or so years. Without further delay." He snapped his fingers and pointed at a screen.
A man in an Osuna maroon hopper uniform sat at the controls of a spaceship. A square monocle rested over his left eye, the sign of a hopper pilot ready to enter the bubble.
Emmit realized who the man was just as Adi cried out, "Dad?"
Emmit’s dad clapped. "Hopper Colonel Seewick Brinoway. Wouldn't you know, he’s one of the pilots leading the search for Vijil."
He turned and gazed, much like a dagger, at Adi. "And like I said, indecision or failure to obey can lead to lost lives… like that." He snapped his fingers between his and Adi's faces. "Are you listening, young man?"
Adi nodded and said, "Yes, sir."
"You know, I've never met your father. But I have met a few hoppers who made a good case for why they serve the Osuna. With many, it's hard to argue. Their families live peacefully in some of the most pollutant-free zones of the empire. They might go their whole lives without learning of, let alone seeing, the atrocities the Osuna are capable of. Your father is one of those good men—he's lost his way a little since you disappeared, and thinks the Osuna are testing him. He thinks they have you and are holding you as a reward for his faithfulness and execution of service to find a clue that leads them to Vijil."
"Can I talk to him?" Adi asked.
"In time, yes, of course. You need to get to Fel Or'an first."
"And then I can talk to my dad?" Adi piped up.
"You'll be closer to speaking to him then," his dad said. "The technology is in my ship at Fel Or'an, so yeah, you won't be able to speak to him without getting there."
Adi popped out of his seat and made a beeline for Emmit. "Come on, Em. Let's get out of here. I want to tell my dad I'm okay."
Emmit really hoped this was Adi’s father, that their story would end in joy equal to the hope shining in the boy's eyes. "What happens after he talks to his dad?" Emmit asked.
"If everything works out, we're going to pullspace onto his ship and utilize their pull power to get us to Vijil."
Adi's eyes opened wider, hanging on every word. His eyes began to film. "You mean we can… see him?"
His dad appeared to struggle to hold his emotions in check as a glimmer touched his eyes. "I hope so, Adi. You and my son will need to be strong and do what I say. Do you think you can do that?"
Adi nodded. "We're strong. We're miners."
"Okay then." His dad’s attention shifted to his son. "Go find your mom and our pilot. I'll see you soon, okay?"
Emmit smiled. "Yeah, Dad."
His dad kissed him on the forehead, then a bright light blinked and they found themselves back in the concrete room.
*Mission to reach Fel Or'an and link with Hopper pilot Brinoway – Activated.*
19
Cullen's foot caved in a hole wide enough to suck his body into the gap. He released his rifle and stuck his hands into the collapsing dirt. One hand struck a metal rail and bent his wrist before his shoulder crashed into the ladder. He grabbed the rung a
nd stuck a boot into the wall to slow his fall. "Agh." He spat mud gristle off his lips. "I found the entrance. Do I get XP for the graceful maneuver?" He grinned at Ehli as he looked up.
She looked back as though waiting to find out, but no notification appeared. "Maybe next time," she said.
+5 XP to Cullen – located exit.
Ehli laughed. "Actually, your graceful detection just told the kids what path in the tunnels to take to meet us, so good job."
"How do you know that?"
"Schaefer just told me."
"Ah. Great. So, what, we just wait here?" Cullen scanned the forest and beyond the swamp for any mara. "Why don't we go down anyway, just so we're not out in the open?"
Ehli looked around briefly, then agreed.
At the bottom of the ladder, Cullen offered a hand to help Ehli step off. The tunnel allowed a small circle of light to reach their feet, but left Ehli's face in shadow, so Cullen took a flashlight out of his backpack. He set it to stand upright and extended the top to create a 360-degree flood light that added a tint of blue to their skin. "Can I see?" He indicated her snake bite.
She tilted her head to give him a better view.
The bite marks seeped yellow pus and hadn't scabbed over, and the skin that surrounded them was a dark shade of blue-purple. Without the flashlight, he imagined it would be red. "The swelling's going down, but we should clean it. How does it feel?"
Ehli gave it a tentative feel. "It itches. Some of the skin is still numb." She sucked in a breath after touching the wound directly. "Eh. That part's still sore."
Cullen opened his backpack and found a small packet of peroxide. "This'll burn a little."
"It's okay. They didn't exactly pamper us at Setuk."
"Right." Cullen twisted the cap off and lifted the bottle to her face. "Ready?"
She nodded. The peroxide bubbled light blue over the wound, washing traces of the pus and breaking up what scabbing there was. Cullen took a cloth and dabbed it clean. He replaced the bottle of peroxide in his backpack.
"What are you thinking?" Ehli asked.
Cullen looked up. "You're still a telepath, right?" he asked with a smile.
She shrugged. "It's kind of a fluid skill. I don't know how to describe it. I don't always hear, and I think I'm learning when to turn it off. Besides, I don't want to invade your privacy."
"At this point I guess I don't care about privacy—with you anyway. I just want to survive and complete the mission. Did you see the quest add-on about getting Adi to Fel Or'an?"
"Yeah. Not that we wouldn't have, but I wonder why the late addition."
"Me, too." He took out his bottle. "You know, I should have let you dig for your answer. Maybe get you some practice XP."
"Oh?" She smiled. "Okay. What else are you thinking? About us being here. About Willo. About your father and what he means in all this."
Cullen smiled. "Don't limit it to one thought or anything to make it easy on either of us." He glanced down at his boots to collect his thoughts.
She hooked a finger at his chin and gently lifted his gaze to hers. "It helps if I can see your eyes."
Okay, he thought, reminding himself to stay professional. His next thought went to Torek and how the flo-greaser was probably loving the challenge right now.
"Flo-greaser, huh?" she asked. "Is that a bounty hunter phrase for making your money move quickly?"
"Well, that or getting it quickly. But good job."
+1 XP to Ehli – successful practice.
She scoffed, smiling. "Well, okay. That wasn't that hard." She looked off in thought for a moment. "I just silenced anything less than 5 XP additions."
"Good thinking. You wouldn't want to brag."
She shrugged. "No, I can still brag, just with bigger scores."
"Okay, whatever you need to motivate yourself to catch up with me."
She squinted a playful glare.
His thoughts eventually drifted back to Willo. As to Willo... and my father, he thought. I don't know. I have to be careful.
He took a drink. I tend to trust people, he thought. Torek says too much, sometimes.
"That's not a bad quality," Ehli 'pathed back.
Well, in my business it can be. It's put us in some tight places.
An example of Torek saying too much was on the train where he teased Lieutenant Huls about not researching his enemies before a mission. It wasn't true, but Torek didn't respond well to military types since Morunth's paladin academy kicked him out.
How'd that happen," Ehli asked.
He caught a stomach bug and when one of his drill sergeants forced him to crap in his pants during drills instead of excusing him, Torek not only slipped a laxative into his beer that night, but also covered the bathroom stall and toilet seat with fireweed oils.
Ehli chuckled.
Cullen joined her. He and his date got quite the rash.
"So, they kicked him out for that?"
Yeah. He could have waited a little longer to make it less obvious, but he's not the most patient type. After leaving their program he took a job off world, ended up bounty hunting. He met me early into my exile and instead of turning me in, helped me develop a better cover to not look so Rucien.
"Interesting," Ehli 'pathed, "but my original comment was about you trusting too easily. That's not the worst character trait to have."
Oh. Well, that's put us in tight places, too. He thought back to the time when a bounty they were hunting pleaded for one last hug with her father, only for that man to stick a pistol out around her waist and shoot Cullen in the chest. Torek had put the man down with a headshot and tazed the woman, before finding out later that the man wasn't her father but another member of their scavenger ring.
"Shot in the chest, huh?"
It was a good job, Cullen joked. One of my favorites.
"So, you guys did what, exactly?"
We started with tracking down a few pilots who knew his mom and were generally a waste on society for anything but bar tabs and attitude. When they crossed the line, we acted as extensions of the local police and put them away before anyone got hurt. We never found his mom, but those jobs morphed into catching the worst Esune before they could sell themselves to the Osuna and raid Rucien colonies.
It wasn't always like that, though. He thought back to a recent mission: Kelvi Tul, a smuggler Cullen thought was too reckless in his ventures for the wellbeing of his island's safety. He had just made a deal with an Osuna ship flying under an Esune alias. Cullen caught him as the deal took place and signed up for the capture bounty.
As Cullen and Torek dropped him off at Orthu Station, they hacked the security system to overload its mainframe and shut down the locks and power. As this happened, Cullen delivered a tip to one of Kelvi's top women, Seba who came and rescued him... but was captured not far from the station. Cullen and Torek could only guess at whether the consequent interrogation had resulted in their next hunt, which had led them into a trap. That had been a month ago.
Ehli smiled as she watched him. "How exciting. And you never found out if Kelvi or Seba gave you up?"
He shook his head. No, but we didn't go through our normal channels to take it, so there's no telling whether, if we'd instead taken one through the Verol network, it would have ended with our arrest and execution or not.
"So, what channel did you go through?"
Torek. Cullen thought back to Willo's claim that his partner couldn't be trusted. It would have been easy for Torek to set him up. Cullen had taken his word for it on this job and didn't keep tabs on Torek's net activity. They worked well, each leaving the other to do what they did best and meeting in the middle when it best served their goals.
"Which goes back to you trusting too easily." Ehli smiled. "It isn't your fault Torek tricked you, if that's what's happened. If you hadn't come, my son and I would still be in prison, and I've seen enough people not survive a day there that I'm more than glad to be out."
Cullen nodded. "I'm glad you're
out, too."
She patted his hand.
+5 XP to Ehli – practice marker reached. (Former +1 included.)
"Great. I'm going to switch back to talking now for a bit. That is a strain."
"Sure."
***
In the silence, Ehli considered how her life had changed. She'd mourned Schaefer years ago. Back then, she would have given anything to get him back. Now, after all that, it wasn't an easy decision to pick up where they had left off. Everything hinged on Schaefer—or how little I knew him in the first place.
She stretched her hamstrings, leaning forward and focusing on her breathing. Her head throbbed and her muscles felt thin and deflated. "Does it make me a bad mother that I'm not running to meet my son?"
Cullen laughed and stretched beside her. "I'm sure he'll understand. How's your leg?"
She hadn't thought about her hamstring since the treatment Dr. Sara had given her on the train, which was a good sign. It was a little sore, but no worse than the other leg. "It's okay. I'm more all-body worn out, like I could lie down and ask to be pampered for a few days before I worry about anything else."
Cullen chuckled. "I imagine it's been a while since you've had that luxury."
"Oh no," she said with a straight face. "The warden at Setuk regularly offered foot rubs after long days. Really nice guy."
Cullen smiled as he rose and stretched his back. "Sorry I didn't get a chance to meet him."
"Yeah. No you're not. And I've gone long enough without any pampering. I wouldn't know how to relax for longer than two seconds." She took out a bag with a screw top from her backpack. The label said Vitamin C on an orange background. She squeezed the contents into her mouth, and a wash of cool citrus followed through. After swallowing, she said, "That was cold...." But the bag was not.
"Have you never had a cool pack drink?" Cullen found one in his pack and unscrewed the cap. "Wonderful little technology the Esune figured out from the Osuna. Not that they would ever have volunteered such a non-vital enhancement. The pack gives off a small nitrous burst when the skin crinkles, causing the juice to cool as it rushes out."