TWO
Early the next day Sedom stared blankly into the com monitor of her unit. Her golden eyes stared into a void of blackness; a deep chasm of dark emotions she couldn't understand. No matter what she attempted to do to help her cause, it had a way of crumbling before her. Even her friends failed to see her efforts, blaming her, criticizing her as if she was a child. She stared into the com screen, the face of a twelve-year-old girl staring back.
“When does life get easier?” she asked grumbling.
“I'd like to know that answer myself,” returned a young man's voice.
Sedom's eyes shifted to the image of Rokaa Desvin, who was watching her from the other side of the monitor. Over her shoulder, the last rays of sunshine gleamed through the window from the light source outside. One single beam of light filtered through the window, casting a haze over the monitor.
“Sorry, I wasn't available yesterday. The Braum requested my presence at a meeting and I couldn't refuse. It would have been considered... ungrateful if I didn’t make an appearance. Consider it the downfall of taking asylum on another planet.” Rokaa watched her from the other side of the monitor, his chin resting on his hands and his golden eyes shining with concern.
Sedom nodded, sighing from the frustrations of living with people again. “That's okay. I spent the night working on my lookout tower. It's about finished. Carwavo helped hand me nails. Well... let me rephrase that, he helped as he nibbled on the nails. He needed some fresh air and a friend.”
“Your pet tof?” Rokaa clarified. Sedom nodded. “It looks like you needed a friend more than he did. What happened?” Rokaa asked.
Sedom shrugged, trying to keep her tears on the inside. “Lolum yelled at me. It’s stupid that I'm feeling this way.” She walked over to the window, shutting the blinds. “I shouldn't let it get to me. I mean, who is he to yell at me? I saved his life!” She plopped back in her seat, her arms tucked across her chest.
“After he saved yours,” Rokaa pointed out. Sedom glared at him, her bottom lip protruding slightly. “Regardless of who saved who, why did he yell at you?” Rokaa continued.
Sedom turned to the door, checking to see if anyone was around. “I made a mistake. I forgot to include Cidele's information with the guard sentries. When they registered an attack, they swarmed her, believing she was an invader.”
Deep wrinkles formed around Rokaa's eyes. “I thought you had to have clearance to walk the streets of Gathow? How has she managed not to have this problem before?”
“It’s a different branch of security. When Gathow’s security orbs register an attack, it singled a secondary orb-system to patrol. Those orbs are far more deadly and don't patrol as often because of their limited power supply. A blast from one of those orbs can destroy a twenty-story building... but they only have one shot.”
“Ouch! But she's okay, right?” He asked.
Sedom nodded, and then leaned back. “She’s stunned over it all, but okay. I can't help but feel so stupid for making such a… whatever. It's done now.” Sedom sighed deeply as she rested her head against the seat. A knock at her door made her sit-up. “I have to go, someone's at the door.”
“Okay. Don’t work too hard and know you're loved,” Rokaa called back.
“You are too.” Sedom pressed a kiss to the monitor as the screen went blank. “Come,” she called to the front door.
Garric entered the unit, looking around the corner into Sedom's office. “I thought I heard someone else in here,” he mentioned meekly.
“I was talking to a friend on the com.” Sedom continued to stare into the monitor, even though Rokaa was gone. “Did Lolum send you here? He couldn’t yell at me enough for saving his daughter,” she barked, unable to hide her frustration at the situation.
The Clove man's orange eyes widened. “Yell? No, Chadon. I couldn't even if I wanted to.” He set several books on her dining table. “It's the anniversary of Lolum's daughter's death and he's been in a mood. Oddly enough, Cidele warned me to stay clear of him,” he said as he grabbed a computer pad from the top of the book pile.
Sedom melted back in her chair. Now everything was making sense. “Wish I would have known. It’s a strange coincidence. I guess I can understand what he’s going through,” Sedom huffed.
“Hum, yes, well… I searched for you last night after I heard what happened. I figured you were working outside again. Read this. I think you’ll find this of interest.” He took one of the computers, handing it over the top of the chair.
Sedom reached over the top of her chair, grabbing the pad and began to read it. With each word she read her eyes grew larger. “Ratisha Augars? I was sure she was dead. She should be dead. She was a traitor.” She read through several more pages. Sedom’s lips grew taught. “How did you know Ratisha was helping us? Iya was extremely careful not to let the Marisheio know our location.” She looked over her shoulder to Garric who was standing nervously by her desk.
Garric shrugged. “Sorry to say, she wasn’t careful enough. The Marisheio Empire is one of the largest governments in the galaxy. We eventually stumbled across your transmission. We also had a substantial reward offered for you. Someone recognized you and collected on the reward. When you left with Ratisha, we arrested Patto. Under…” he paused, glancing down uneasily at the computer pad, “…great duress we learned that his wife was taking you to Ryion Sital. We arranged roadblocks to keep you from entering the city. Talenvanc ordered all Rycal eliminated from the city to make sure you had nowhere else to run.”
It took Sedom a moment to let Garric's words sink in. Her first reaction was to lash out. But lash out at who? Garric? Attack her servant? It seemed foolish to take her anger out on a defenseless slave. “And Ratisha?” Sedom mentioned again. “You… force her to talk under duress?” Sedom accused, rising from her seat.
Garric raised his hands to fend off Sedom's anger. “Sortec, I was an investigator. I was never present during an interrogation. They have other men trained in these things. Though I can tell you what I saw after… they were not kind to her. But that was to be expected. She was a traitor to the Empire, of her people. If I were to return, I'd expect the same treatment, if not worse. There were certain expectations--”
“Her only crime was helping a sick child,” Sedom grumbled.
Garric closed his thick eyelids. “I said what was expected, not that it was right.”
Sedom sat and glanced down at the computer screen. “I'm surprised they let her live. I owe her my life. Not only did she risk her life by healing me, she sacrificed herself when you came looking for me outside Ryion Sital.”
“That’s probably why they've allowed her to live so long. They know Narkoy pay back their debts. They probably expected you to rescue her.” He paused, leaning against the counter beside Sedom. “How did you get away? We had your group surrounded on the road? That is if you don’t mind me asking?”
Sedom thought back, her mind in knots. “I guess it doesn’t matter if you know. Two of my caretakers buried me in the snow and ash under one of your transports,” Sedom said, her eyes distant as she recalled the day. So many bad memories and now she shared them with Garric, the cause of many of her memories.
Garric nodded, he too thinking back. He shook his thought aside. “Clever. They hid you right under our noses…” he thought out loud. “Well, they may be using her as bait. The way I came by this information was suspicious. It was as if they wanted you to know her whereabouts. Sortec, I believe they’re desperate.”
“Right, desperate,” Sedom smirked.
Garric chuckled musing over an inside joke that Sedom knew she'd never be privy to understanding. “My people won't stop until they have Gathow under their control and you're dead. They won't settle for only Gathow anymore. You and your kind are an insult to our way of life.”
“And the death of mine,” Sedom scowled. “Here I was planning to offer them Gathow in exchange they leave me alone.”
Garric gave Sedom a long, troublesome gaze.
“Right after the Braum invites me to attend his birthday ball next month,” he returned without missing a beat.
Sedom rose from her seat, stretching her back. She never remembered her back aching so much, even after spending several nights sleeping in a tree. “I like your humor. He’s turning twenty, right? I almost forgot. I wonder what he's been doing. I haven't heard from him since he returned to Carmintor.”
Garric took back the computer, flipping to a different report. He handed the computer back, pleased to stay one step ahead of Sedom. “He's building an army.”
“He has an army. A rather impressive one too,” Sedom returned bemused.
“I misspoke. He’s doubling his army. There is a rumor that he's looking for a Narkoy ship called the Oslo. He wants to copy the technology and build a fleet of them. Needless to say, it’s making my people rather nervous,” he mentioned secretly wondering if she'd admit the Narkoy had the ship.
There was a rumor that the Narkoy hid an invincible ship somewhere nearby in case their enemy ever came too close. The most impressive part of the Oslo was its ability to cloak itself and its mobility to break through any planet’s atmosphere and land safely on the surface.
Sedom stared at her office door for a long moment, searching through her thoughts. She hadn’t heard about the Oslo for some time. Last time she heard mention of the ship was at a party she attended when she was nine. She remembered a very heated conversation between her grandmother and the Di-Braum of Carmintor regarding its usage. He wanted the ship, but her grandmother refused.
“The Oslo? I almost forgot. His uncle must have said something about it?” Sedom questioned. She dropped the computer back onto the table, her bottom jaw agape. “Combi am' troll… how do you know about it?”
Garric shrugged, amused that he managed to make Sedom admit to the Oslo’s existence. “I run a highly organized network of spies who don't know I'm working for you. They think I’m under cover for the Empire. It comes in handy.”
Working? Sedom thought. In a way, he was working for her, just not in a traditional sense. “Well, keep up the good work. I want you to keep an eye on Jasper and the Marisheio. Let me know if they get close to my ship.”
His tongue traced over his pale-yellow teeth. “Your ship?”
Sedom returned with a smirk followed by a quirky half-grin. “Everything Narkoy is now mine, so yes my ship. Just as Gathow is my city.”
“I understand. I would need to know where it is though if I am to keep an eye on it,” he mentioned.
Sedom hesitated, her eyes drifting to her open window. She could have sworn she closed it the previous night. “It’s in the Nevet system,” she began with a sigh as she closed the window again. “My… grandmother placed it under Relgid’s care,” she said, almost as if she was uncertain of her own words. She snapped her fingers, remembering what she wanted to ask Garric. “Ah, also, I'm going to need you to do some research.” She removed a diagram from one of her books, handing it to Garric. “It's called a Hagon. It's like a map… a star chart, I guess you could say.”
Garric nodded, uncertain if she knew what it would involve. “To do so I will need access to the library.”
Sedom stared blankly at Garric. Did she risk letting Garric have access to the wealth of her people's knowledge? Regardless if he was her slave, he was still her enemy. “I'll arrange for Cidele to assist you. You can start in the morning.”
“Cidele won’t have anything to do with me, you know that,” Garric grumbled. “She can barely stand being in the same room with me,” he mentioned.
“I'll see what I can do. The orbs won't let any Clove into the library by themselves. My grandmother established the protocols. It's taking me time to figure out how to override them and reestablish them under my authorization. Maybe Noral can help? Do what you can until I can figure something out.”
“It’s difficult to do anything when the entire city, people and technology are fighting against me,” Garric mentioned.
Sedom searched her unit for her jacket. She was surprised to find it hanging next to the food replicator. She couldn't remember why she hung it there, but there had to be a reason. Then she remembered why, quickly ordering a small meal bar from the food replicator.
“I’ve been so busy lately, I keep forgetting to eat,” she mentioned to Garric, noticing his questioning stare. She stuck her food bar in her mouth to hold as she slipped on her jacket. “I need to speak with Zion,” she said with her mouth full. She removed the meal bar, swallowing down a chunk. “We'll continue this conversation later.” She continued out of her unit, nibbling her meal bar in route.
Inside the near-empty cafeteria, Sedom found Zion, Dranium, and Lolum sitting at one of the metal tables eating mid-meal. Zion glanced to Sedom, his mouth full of ziza roots.
“We've got company,” Zion mentioned low to the men on either side of him. He waved her over to the group.
Lolum watched Sedom as she approached the table. “You honor us with your presence. I thought you'd never come down from that lookout tower.”
“Is that where you thought I was?” she called back. She wandered over to the table, resting her hands on Dranium's tense shoulders. The Mandicien man was hunched over his food, almost as if he was protecting it from anyone taking it from him. His body trembled beneath her hands. He moved away from her grasp. “Doing better? I'm glad to see you out of bed,” she whispered into Dranium's ear.
The dark haired Mandicien man nodded a jerking nod as he picked at his roots. “I’m still having my good and bad days. Knowing that there’s an army of orbs outside my door rests my mind at ease. Hasapoi is also helping.”
Sedom had rescued Dranium, Zion and a nurse named Evolanc from a group of Marisheio. They were all being transported to a holding facility where they were going to be interrogated, tortured and then killed. Although the other two in the group were just captured when Sedom found them, Dranium had been held by the Marisheio for over two years. He was in bad shape when she found him after years of being brutally tortured.
Hasapoi? It was a name Sedom heard before, but she couldn’t remember who he was. “Hasapoi?” she questioned.
“Noral's friend,” Lolum spoke up. “He arrived during the attack on Ortees. I thought Cidele mention him to you.”
Sedom nodded several times. Of course she remembered. The orbs told her there was an eighth person in Gathow. “Yes, she mentioned he arrived. In all the chaos, I kind of forgot,” Sedom thought out loud. Noral mentioned he asked his Windrit friend to help Dranium get passed his mental issues. “Well, when I get a chance I'll stop in and introduce myself. And...” She paused, running through the list of items she had to do in her mind. “I'll make certain he has security clearance so the orbs won’t bother him. As long as he's helping and you know he is trustworthy.”
Dranium nodded. “He's helping. Lolum also sent me to work on the computer systems. It's keeping my mind focused,” he admitted. “It’s a needed diversion from staring at the infirmary's walls. I have to admit, these systems are a bit unusual.”
“Narkoy technology,” she smirked. “Thanks. We need all the help we can get.” Sedom patted his shoulder as she sat between him and Zion.
“She’s staying? This is dangerous, isn’t it?” Zion asked Lolum as his locks of curly hair bounced against his high cheekbones.
“Depends on why she’s staying,” Lolum smirked back.
She turned to Lolum and then back to Zion. “Was I interrupting an important conversation?” she asked seriously.
“Hardly,” Lolum smirked back. “It’s just unusual to see you. You’ve been up in that lookout tower so much lately, we were starting to forget what you looked like,” Lolum mentioned.
“Oh, well, as you can see I’m still cute and still blue,” Sedom joked back, causing Zion to chuckle. “And still can get a rise out of you. So, Zion,” she started with a pop to her voice.
“Sortec,” Zion answered back with the same zest. “What do you need?”
&n
bsp; “Famous last words,” Lolum grunted as he sipped his coffee. The coffee dribbled down Lolum’s long, white beard and onto his green, long-sleeved shirt. He dabbed the coffee away with a napkin.
“It serves you right,” Sedom snipped at Lolum. She turned back to Zion. “I need some help,” she began. Playfully, she snatched a piece of root from Lolum's plate, intentionally mocking him. He slapped her hand away.
Zion continued to eat, ignoring Lolum’s heeding words. “Will I need a weapon?”
Sedom shrugged. “I need to rescue a woman. I heard rumors they're keeping her in Vici before transporting her to Mar-quiel.”
“Vinic you mean?” Zion asked. His eyes turned to his food.
Sedom frowned as she searched her mind. Had she mistakenly used the wrong name for the city? How could that be possible? She was never wrong.
The three men watched her, seeing her struggle with her own memory. “They changed it a few moon cycles ago to honor a new deity. Some goddess of protection or war, whichever,” Zion explained before she had an aneurysm.
“The name change didn’t work regardless. The Marisheio took it over about a moon-cycle ago,” Lolum mentioned.
“Oh, why didn’t I know about that?” Sedom questioned.
“You were up in your lookout tower,” Dranium spoke up.
“No. That’s when she went to Crowarl without telling us, remember?” Lolum scolded. “We were panicked that something happened to you.”
Zion took a quick sip of his drink. “When you returned, I did tell you, but you didn’t seem interested. So, your friend, is she scheduled for death?” he asked.
Sedom nodded, thankful to be updated on the city's name change, regardless if Lolum felt the need to scold her… again. She knew she wasn't wrong, but she didn't want to take any chances. “Probably. Why they haven’t killed her yet is beyond me. But if there’s a chance I can save her then I want to try.”
“Why this woman in particular?” Lolum asked. He sipped his coffee again, more careful to avoid dribbling on his beard.
The Last Narkoy: Gathow: Book 2 Page 2