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Episode 13: A Message for the Living
"Miezella…" The voice drifted on the misty air, "Miezella Celestella…" It came again.
Celestella looked around, squinting her eyes as she looked fruitlessly this way and that, trying to find whoever was calling her name.
"You are my loyal servant, are you not?" the voice asked, now seeming more familiar somehow.
"Who are you?" Miezella replied, reluctant to make a commitment to someone she could neither see nor identify by voice.
"Oh, Celestella… don't you know me?" Suddenly the voice was right behind her and she whirled to face it.
"Malha!" she exclaimed.
Celestella shot up in bed, sweat rolling off of her as she gasped for breath, feeling like she'd just run a marathon.
"What in all the worlds was that?" she thought, getting up.
She didn't feel sleepy anymore – not after that. She'd had dreams – visions – before, but never anything so frightful as this. Somehow fear had just been force-fed into her soul.
The face she'd seen was the Malha's, but not the voice, at least, Celestella didn't think it was hers. She'd never heard the Malha speak so gutturally. But why would she dream of the Malha now of all times? The Guardiana followers' leader had been missing for months now – her ship and crew with her.
Miezella brewed herself a pot of strong tea. She poured herself a cup and sat down by the window.
There was little starlight to be seen now that Belarus had been submerged beneath Gamilon's surface. Some artificial lights had been hung from the planet's crust far above them, but for the most part, all was dark above. Below however, there was a plethora of city lights.
Belarus was no dull place, even after its move. Halfway through the night it was still going strong.
"Miezella?"
The soft voice made Celestella jump and almost spill her tea.
"Mirenel!" She exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"
"The dream." Mirenel replied quietly, "You had it too… didn't you…?"
There was a moment of silence before Miezella replied, "I did."
"We have to find out what she wanted." Mirenel said, "You know we do."
"I know." Replied Celestella, "But I also know that the Leader would have our necks if he found out we were still dealing with the shéds."
"Yes, sister, but we must this time. Linke's eyes pleaded with Celestella to listen. "Our work beneath the city is still intact. Belarus' move didn't unsettle the prison. We can retreat there to do it."
Celestella slowly set down her tea. She didn't answer for a long time, just stared out at the city lights below. Then finally she said, "Very well. Stay here." She stood, "I'll be ready as soon as I'm dressed."
Several minutes later Celestella and Mirenel left for the palace's not-so-savory basement. Once a place for the enemies of the crown, it now housed a device that would allow Celestella and Mirenel to interact more easily with the world of the shédiim.
As quietly as they could, they whisked through the levels of the palace – careful to remain unseen as they went. Unwanted questions now could lead to problems they didn't need to deal with at the present time.
Thankfully the way was clear. The halls – as was the usual now that Belarus was underground – were lit with yellow-orange lights all the way down to the sublevel entrance.
Once past that door, the light changes from warm orange to cold blue.
They descended into a deepening darkness, the blue light ebbing the farther down they went.
When they reached the bottom of their descent, the light changed again. Instead of light from either side of them, low green light emanated from around the edges of the room they now found themselves in. They closed the door to the upper world and locked it to ensure that they would not be disturbed.
In the center of the dark room lay the device they had come to use.
They approached the thing with a strange reverence.
Mirenel slowly climbed into it.
Miezella waited until her sister was settled, then placed her hands on either side of Mirenel's head and both women began an unearthly chant.
For several moments they did this, then both were suddenly silenced, and Mirenel began to speak, but it was not Mirenel's voice that emanated from her lips.
"You've finally come." It said, "You did well to heed your night-visions. There is much we have to do. But time is going by quickly and we must act soon if we are to do as we must to stop this Eratite ship from ever reaching Iscandar."
The room was filled with a heavy darkness, so thick that the room's only occupant felt, for the thousandth time in the past months, that he was being smothered by it.
So much had happened since that fateful coronation day. He'd lost his best – and only – friend; he'd lost the woman who had been a mentor to him in place of a mother since he was ten. He had discovered his own brother's treacherous plan, and then he'd sanctioned it.
The Leader looked down at the pitch black floor, unable to really see it. The only sounds were his own breathing, and the hum of the palace air system.
Today he had received numerous reports from various fleets that had been sent out. A report from General Lysis detailed the work on the planet the Eratites called "Pluto." The base seemed ready for the eventual arrival of the Eratite ship. Yes, Gantz was on duty in the Eratites' solar system, but the man had limited experience with something like this. So the Leader had prepared for the eventuality of his failure.
General Lysis was, even now, headed to the Pluto base to run a final check on it, and there he would stay until the strange battleship was either turned back or destroyed.
The Leader looked up, breathing deeply. Then he saw the one sight that could still lift his spirits these days. There, through one of the holes of Gamilon's crust, he could see Iscandar floating as it always had just beyond Gamilon's atmosphere.
He could almost see the face of Queen Starsha looking back at him through the darkness.
He slowly stood and stepped closer to the window, his eyes still turned upwards.
All of a sudden, something caught his eye. A faint glow reflected in the window.
The Leader stopped and let his gaze shift to the strange glow.
It was coming from somewhere across the room.
His curiosity piqued, he turned to find the source of this glow. He scanned the other side of the room, looking from one end to the other.
Then he saw it, coming from underneath a very old, very weathered book he had found weeks ago but hadn't had the time to look at yet.
He slowly walked over to the ancient thing, thinking that maybe someone had planted something inside the book.
He carefully picked up the book.
The glow became a bit brighter, and he realized that it wasn't the book causing the light, it was something else.
There, lying on the table was something he'd forgotten about for what seemed like an eternity. The Iscandarian Interface.
In that moment he realized something he'd forgotten since the dark presence began taunting him. He had been forbidden to summon Masterson, but no one else.
He reached for the interface, his hand starting to shake. He chided himself, unsure of why he was anxious to even touch the device.
His last conversation with the Iscandari Queen had been some time ago. Any recent contact with her had been through his staff. He hadn't actually seen her face in a long time, but it was indelibly etched in his memory none the less.
He withdrew his hand and took off the glove that covered it, then he slipped the interface onto his marked left hand and waited.
"Mistress, you have a call." Adrianna said, waking Starsha from a dead sleep.
"Who would be calling now? And why hasn't the comm system notified me?" asked the queen groggily.
"It isn't coming in on the main comm system, Mistress." Adrianna replied. "It's coming through the Interface network."
"But who…?" Starsha began, puzzled. "Who has an Interface and would use one now? I haven't spoken to anyone using one of those since…" then she realized who was on the other end of the line.
"Adrianna, I'll accept the call, but I will come as soon as I'm presentable." She ran her fingers through her hair, noting the tangles.
"Of course." The Jeshurunian replied.
Starsha flew out of bed and quickly dressed and brushed out her hair. Then she slipped her interface onto her hand and accepted the call.
The face of Leader Desslok of Gamilon appeared before her. His green eyes were still just as deep and piercing as she remembered them.
"Ah, Queen Starsha," said the Leader, "I was beginning to wonder if you would answer."
"Desslok." She nodded in greeting, "It is the middle of the night, after all, and I have… more responsibility than I used to."
"You are still as lovely as I remember." The Leader said, catching Starsha off guard.
There was a long silence between the two as Starsha tried to find an appropriate response to such a statement.
Finding none, she simply addressed the very reason they hadn't spoken recently.
"Slaughtering the Eratites is not the way, Desslok." She said soberly. "Perhaps they would be willing to help your people if you simply asked them."
"Starsha…" the Leader sighed, "We cannot depend on anyone other than ourselves now."
"But you can…" Starsha replied softly, "Yahweh – Adonai… He is ready and willing to help you – to help us all in this time of great sadness and need…"
"But Adonai has saved no one since this ordeal began. He has watched millions die and done nothing to assuage the death and destruction." He looked away, "How can you tell me that He would intervene now when He hasn't in the past."
"Oh Desslok… He has intervened… in ways that you cannot see."
"Mistress! Mistress!" Adrianna interrupted, "You're needed –"
Starsha held up a hand just outside the sphere of Desslok's sight, stopping the Jeshurunian mid-sentence. She looked sadly at the Leader, knowing that her time was up for now. "I must go… Good night, Desslok."
With that, she severed the link.
Sighing heavily, she turned to Adrianna. "The strangers?" she asked her friend.
"Indeed. One of them is screaming in his sleep. He won't stop, and he won't wake up." The Jeshurunian sounded a concerned. "Please come. Perhaps you can get through to him."
Starsha nodded, immediately heading out the door for the strangers' rooms, taking Adrianna with her.
"Which one?" she asked.
"The one you first found, Mistress." Answered Adrianna. "He's in this room." She rustled the leaves on the right side of her plant body.
The sounds of distress melted through the door, their volume skyrocketing when Starsha opened the portal.
The screaming was horrific, the man was clearly asleep, suffering nothing physically, but he still uttered terrible sounds – like he was being tortured.
Starsha set Adrianna down on a nearby table and carefully approached the stranger. He was throwing his arms out against some imagined assailant, or maybe struggling against bonds.
Starsha came closer, avoiding the man's hands and arms. She looked for an opening and finally found one.
She slipped behind the man's bed and placed cool hands on either side of his face. She waited for a reaction.
The man seemed to fight harder than ever now and started batting at Starsha's hands.
The Mahtehkhetim who had been attending the man started to come restrain him.
"No." Starsha ordered, "Not yet." She leaned over and began to sing softly,
"O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.
O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
Throughout the song, the man's struggling began to subside until it finally ceased. He never woke through the entire thing. His eyes, once rolling crazily beneath their lids, were now moving in normal sleep rhythm and his heavy breathing slowed.
Whatever nightmares had haunted the man were now gone.
The Leader sat in silence, his sanctuary now dark once more, the light from the Interface having gone out the instant Starsha ended their conversation.
What could have been so important that she would have gone so suddenly?
Just then the door to his chambers chimed, indicating that someone requested entrance at this late hour.
"Mintra'el, who is it?" he asked his A.I.
"It appears to be Advisor Celestella, Sir." The artificial intelligence replied, "She seems concerned about something."
"Let her in." the Leader sighed, but leave the lights off.
With that, the Leader stood and faced the window, arms crossed, eyes turned towards Iscandar.
"Leader," Celestella greeted as she swept into the room."
"Yes, Celestella?" Desslok said, not even turning to look at the woman. "What leads you to disturb my solitude?"
The cold reception did not even slow the woman.
"Sire, there is something that requires immediate action. It has come to my attention that the Eratite ship may be armed with much greater firepower than we first realized."
"And?" Desslok replied curtly.
"And they must be stopped immediately. We cannot let them rampage through the galaxy killing our people at will! They've already slaughtered the entire advance fleet sent to destroy them, and I have just received word that they are now bearing down on the base at Ee Katan Zakkar. They've fired some sort of prime weapon, constructed with the same Wave Motion technology that our own weapons are based on, though this application is – is – on such an enormous scale that –"
Desslok raised a hand, silencing the babbling woman. "Get to the point, Celestella."
"Sir, I recommend that you let my sister and I… contact some old friends of ours to infiltrate the Eratite ship and destroy them from within, and at the same time, take the designs for this new weapon they've somehow constructed so that we too may use it."
Desslok was silent for a long moment. He could hear Celestella fidgeting behind him, waiting for his response.
Finally he said, "Very well. You may do so. But take care not to get yourself into something you cannot get out of."
"Yes, Leader, of course. We will take the utmost precautions. As will our… friends." She replied.
The Leader's eyes narrowed as he heard a bit too much enthusiasm in her voice. She was up to something, but he had yet to figure out what it was. Until he knew, he would let her do what she wished. Perhaps she would take a misstep that might tell him what she was really doing.
"You may go." Desslok said, dismissing her.
"Get us out of here!" Gantz screamed as the unbelievable energy surge barreled towards the ship and its fleet. The power was unthinkable. That one Eratite ship would have something like this… How was it possible?
"Only two worlds harbor such power – Gamilon, and… Iscandar." Thought Gantz as he watched the energy charge closer and closer to them. Seconds seemed to slow into minutes and he thought that this might be the last thing he saw in this universe.
Two seconds later Gantz's ship vanished into an uncalculated warp.
Wildstar tried to watch the energy surge as it sped towards the enemy fleet and the base on the floating continent, but the longer he looked, the harder it was to look. The light from the energy was so bright it made his eyes burn. He clamped them shut against the brilliant flash.
In a moment it was all over.
Derek slowly opened his eyes, "Wha…? Wait, what happened to the floating continent?" he pointed out the viewport at where the strange thing once was.
There was silence on the bridge when they all realized the same thing, but only Sandor had the stomach to say it.
"We used too much power." He said quietly. "We only intended to destroy the enemy flagship and perhaps the base on that floating island, but instead we've obliterated the entire thing…" he turned to look at the Captain, "We've learned a grave lesson here. Let us make sure we don't repeat it."
The entire bridge crew nodded grimly at this. Then Wildstar piped up again, "And that monument is gone now too, Sandor. How will you figure out exactly what it was now?"
"I have the information we gathered while we were there." Replied the XO. "It isn't everything I had hoped to get, but it will have to suffice. Hopefully with that I can piece together the information I've missed."
"Wildstar, return to sick bay." The Captain ordered, "You look like you've just gotten off a bad carnival ride."
"Yeah – yeah, I think I'll get back now." Derek replied, suddenly feeling like he might give back every meal he'd ever eaten. He got up slowly and made it through the elevator door. He was fine until he got back to Dr. Sane's office. Then he really did throw up.
Sandor sat alone at his private workstation down on the third bridge. A giant screen was mounted on the wall in front of him and he had countless images and text scattered across it, trying to make sense of the strange place they'd found on that island.
He'd run the cross through a fingerprinting system and found countless prints all over it, most of them matching, but some not. Clearly the most numerous print set belonged to necklace's owner, this "Talonka," but the other prints were still a mystery to him.
Curiously enough though, her prints were not so dissimilar to his fingerprints.
He was now running the object through another set of tests that would be able to uncover even the tiniest bit of living – or once-living – tissue left on the item.
He waited for several hours while the computer put the majority of its power into scanning the necklace.
He was looking at the images of the inscription on the altar when the computer notified him that its scan was complete.
He was overjoyed when a list of several different remains popped up on the screen for him to look at. Most of it was old skin, but there was also a sample of blood.
The blood intrigued him, so he decided to leave it for last. Instead, he started his investigation with the skin samples. Again, most of them matched, but two did not.
Sandor thought it safe to assume, at least for now, that the most numerous cell sampling came – again – from the owner.
Just out of curiosity, he ran one of the owner's skin samples through a geographic genetic coding test, used back on Earth to determine an individual's ethnic background. He was fairly certain that the test would return with some sort of error fairly quickly, but when it didn't, he began to feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
The strange feeling grew until, half an hour later the computer notified him that it had finished the test and that there was a viable result to display.
He took a deep breath and opened the results.
He read most of the way through them and then nearly jumped out of his chair when he came to the first line of the real results – the geo-coding.
"What?!" he exclaimed, utterly floored by the one word in the ethnic background results.
Episode 14: A Stopover at Titan
Sandor and the Captain sat in silence in the captain's quarters, the results of the test displayed on a screen sitting on the small table they sat on either side of.
The Captain picked up the tablet and stared at it, looking through the results over and over.
When he was done, he looked up at the science officer, "This is fascinating, Sandor, but I'm afraid I don't understand why this is so serious."
"Yes, Sir, I know. I wouldn't be this concerned if it weren't for… this…" Sandor reached over and opened another set of tests. "If you'll remember, I had a research team comb the debris of that island we so unceremoniously blew away. We found numerous items of interest, including… some remains of the soldiers stationed at the island base."
The Captain looked at the set of results now on the screen he was holding. "And this is…?"
"The results of the tests on those remains." Sandor replied, "One of the many tests I ran was the same test I did on the sample from the cross we found inside the memorial. That's the test you have in front of you now." Sandor reached over again and opened both result sets side by side. "If you'll scroll down to the last section, you'll see why I brought this to you."
Avatar worked his way through both test results, stopping at the final section, looking from one test to the other. "They're the same I see…" The Captain said, "Could there have been a mistake? Perhaps the samples were contaminated somehow?"
Sandor watched the captain, a feeling of dread stuck in his throat. Finally he said, "There's no mistake, Captain." He sighed, "I ran the test a dozen times – on more than one sample from the island debris. Every time, the results were the same."
"Have you released this information to anyone else?"
"No, of course not." Sandor quickly replied. "That could start a war onboard ship. The fewer problems we have, the better, especially on a voyage like this one."
"When should we tell them?" the Captain asked, still staring at the screen in front of him.
"That… I don't know, Sir…" Sandor's eyes dropped to the table.
"There are a few people we should tell right now." The Captain said, setting down the tablet.
Sandor looked up at his friend and superior. "I agree. They'll be the most affected by this, whether or not their shipmates know."
Over the next several minutes five crew members received alerts on their private communicators, asking them to report to the captain's quarters immediately. All five went and were greeted soberly by both their captain and executive officer.
"Shamira Cohen." Sandor nodded to the member of his science team as she walked in. "Gilad Hartwick," a Black Tiger, followed Shamira in, "Dov Kramer, and Ilana Amsel," the two medical officers came in next, followed by the last crewman summoned, "Homer Glitchman."
They all saluted their captain and XO.
"So what're we in for?" Homer asked the instant the door to the captain's quarters hissed shut.
Sandor's grave expression quickly quelled the comm officer's levity.
"You are here," the captain began, then sighed and shook his head, "because there is something you five need to know."
The crewmen didn't say anything.
"I have some test results here that concern all of you." Sandor took the tablet the captain offered him.
"Do we all have a disease or something?" asked Hartwick, "I'm sure Dr. Sane could figure out –"
"It's nothing like that." Sandor interrupted. "In fact… it might have been better if it was…"
All five looked sharply at the science officer.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to wish you ill, but I think you might agree with me once you see what it is that I've called you here for.
Sandor held out the tablet for one of the five to take. Ilana reached out and took it.
The whole group gathered around her to see the screen.
Ilana went all the way back to the beginning of both tests, looking through the paragraphs of text slowly enough for everyone to see. Finally she reached the end.
There were murmurs of confusion at the results.
"I'm no doctor, and I'm certainly no scientist." Hartwick said, looking up at Sandor, "Can you tell us what all this means exactly?"
Sandor nodded, "Of course." He took a deep breath and began, "Every people group on Earth has a unique gene marker indicating where on Earth their ancestors were from. All of you have a similar genetic marker because all of you, though from different countries, are Israeli."
"Okay, so you're saying that whoever these two people are in these tests, they're from the same place?" asked Hartwick.
"Not precisely… though that is true," Sandor said, reaching out a hand to take the tablet back. Ilana surrendered it. Sandor opened a third test beside the other two and handed the tablet back to Ilana once again. "This is a test I ran on one of the five of you after I ran theses other two tests. Please, look at the results."
Ilana quickly skipped all the preliminaries this time and skimmed down to the results.
All five pairs of eyes widened.
"Just whose tests are we looking at here, Sandor?" Homer asked shakily.
Sandor looked down for a few seconds, then met the five's eyes. "The first is… a Gamilon soldier from the floating continent back at Jupiter. The second is from the memorial we found on that same island. The third…" Sandor stopped short, not sure how to say the next part. Finally, he decided to just say it. "The third one is yours, Homer."
The other four crewmen's eyes shot to Homer in disbelief.
"He's – he's one of them?!" Hartwick exclaimed, pointing at Homer and backing away from him.
"No, Hartwick…" Sandor replied softly, "All of your tests came back the same as Homer's. All five of you share this same marker with these two Gamilons." Sandor said, then looked at Gilad, "Hartwick, Homer's not 'one of them.' Quite the opposite. It seems that they are a part of you."
"But that makes no… sense…" Ilana put in, "How could this alien race be connected to us, they've never been to Earth."
There was silence in the room.
"They haven't been to Earth… right?" Ilana repeated.
"Perhaps not in the recent past." Sandor replied, "But their roots clearly indicate a history with Earth, and with Israel in particular. I don't have any answers for you right now, but I will let you know if and when I find more information."
"Please tell me you haven't told the rest of the crew." Ilana said, anxiously.
"No. You five are the only ones other than the Captain and me who know this." Sandor replied, "And it's going to stay that way until we know more."
"Thank you, Sandor…" Homer said. "Maybe we should get back to our posts… before everyone else starts to wonder."
"Yes, you should." The Captain nodded, "If anyone should ask you anything you can't answer, feel free to refer them to one of us."
"Yes, Captain." Came the reply from all five.
"You're dismissed." said Avatar.
All five crewmen left quickly, some looking more shaken than others. But when Homer was almost all the way out the door he turned and said, "You were right Sandor. I kind of wish we did just have a disease." Then he stepped out the door and let it shut behind him.
When the door was shut Sandor looked at the Captain and said, "What have we gotten ourselves into?"
The comm crackled and Orion's voice said, "Captain, we have a small problem with the engine."
"What is it?" Avatar asked.
"That blast from the Wave Motion Gun overloaded some circuits down here that we can't go without long-term. I can work up replacements for 'em, but we'll have to get some raw materials before I can start."
"What do you need, Orion?"
"Titanite, Captain. Good thing for us we haven't left the solar system yet."
"Don't we have any of it on board?" Avatar asked.
"I wish we did, but we left in such a hurry that they didn't get a chance to ship any more of the stuff in." replied the engineer.
"Alright, we'll make a stop."
"Thanks, Captain.
The comm went silent.
"Well, Sandor, get to the bridge and let Venture know we're going to the Saturn-Titan area."
"Yes, Sir."
"Where are we?" Gantz demanded as he struggled to his feet. The surprise warp had thrown him and most of his crew to the floor.
"We're just outside the orbit of the world the Eratites call 'Saturn.'" The navigator supplied while catching his breath from his own tumble.
"Damage report?" the Colonel asked.
"Damage to multiple decks, as well as our prime weapon and parts of the engine." Came the reply.
"Begin repairs immediately." Gantz ordered, then said, "And try to raise the Zakkar base."
"Trying now, Colonel," the com officer responded, then was quiet for several moments while he tried to get a signal from the base on the Memorial island. "Nothing's coming in, Sir." He finally said, "No signal at all."
Gantz said nothing – just stood there, his face growing angrier and angrier by the second until he exploded, "They killed them all! The butchers murdered them all!" he took a shaky breath, "The next time we cross that ship's path, we bring it down."
Argo settled into orbit around the ringed giant's tiny moon. Venture had had to take more precautions before the warp to Saturn to make doubly sure that the engine wasn't overtaxed.
The crew seemed to be getting more and more excited – or perhaps it was anxiety they exuded, no one could really tell. The closer they got to the outer edge of their solar system, the more emotions began to heighten.
The question now was, who would be tasked with retrieving the Titanite that Orion needed along with extra in case this problem happened again.
"Come on, Doc, let me outta here." Wildstar protested from his bed in the medical bay. "I'm fine now. I haven't puked in two hours. You didn't say anything about that stuff you shot me up with having side effects."
"If you'll recall, Wildstar, I didn't have your attention at the time I 'shot you up.'"
"Shoulda told me anyway." Derek mumbled.
"You left once without permission; I'm not letting you leave again – at least, not for a while, not until you're completely recovered from that idiotic suicide mission you gave yourself."
"Doc, I'm fine!" Wildstar insisted.
"You are not fine, you're acting like an idi – "
The Doctor stopped short when his communicator beeped. He pulled it out and looked at something on the screen. After a moment, he stuffed the thing back into his pocket. A brief look of annoyance flickered across the old doctor's face, then disappeared.
"Fine… you can go, but I'm coming to find you in three hours."
"Derek Wildstar, report to the bridge." The announcement came over the med bay's comm.
"Alright!" Wildstar whooped and shot out of bed, suddenly feeling woozy, but the feeling passed almost instantly. "Finally getting out of here. This place smells like peroxide." Wildstar sniffed the air, "And… sake?"
"Just get to the bridge." Sane ordered.
"Alright, I'm going," he said, then thought, "Three hours of peace is better than nothing." Derek tugged on his jacket and hurried out of the med bay.
A few minutes later he was on the bridge.
"Captain." He saluted.
"At ease, Wildstar." Avatar almost laughed at the young man's sudden enthusiasm. "We need you to go with IQ-9 and Miss Forrester to retrieve some Titanite."
"Captain, pardon my asking, but, how did you convince the Doc to let me out?"
"Sometimes, Wildstar, it just takes a word from someone you've almost died with to convince you of something."
At this, Derek's face sobered a bit, "Yeah… I suppose that would do it."
"Get ready to head down to Titan, and make this trip as short as possible. We don't know if there are any more Gamilon ships out here, and we don't want to be around to find out."
"Yes, Sir." Derek replied and hurried off to get ready for the expedition he'd just been tasked with leading.
"There it is." Derek announced, "Big yellow chunks of rock, just like the report said there'd be. I'm setting down in that canyon." He indicated the wide fissure that housed the needed Titanite. "IQ-9, you have your little cronies ready to roll back there?"
"They are ready, Wildstar." The robot replied, "But they are not 'cronies,' they are a highly specialized quad of robot assistants designed to –"
"Yeah, yeah, can it, tin head." Wildstar cut IQ off. "Just be ready."
"I am ready." IQ quipped.
"Derek, stop being so rude to IQ." Nova chided as the ship slowly sank to the floor of the canyon.
"He's just a robot, Nova."
"What does that have to do with anything?" she replied, "Just try to be more civil to him, will you?"
"Whatever." Wildstar dismissed just as the cargo plane settled on Titan's surface. "Let's just get this over with."
All three passengers disembarked and set for the robots to cut and load the Titanite.
"We have a ship on the radar, Colonel." Came the announcement Gantz had been waiting for.
"So they finally made it here." He thought, "What are they doing?"
"It looks like they've sent some sort of scout ship down to the surface. We don't know why yet, but they've settled in a canyon on one of the planet's moons."
"Send out the Merkevet* squad." Gantz ordered, "Order them to capture whatever crewmen they find on that moon and bring them back here, but if the Eratites become violent, have the Merkevetim* terminate them."
"Yes, Colonel."
"We ready to go?" Wildstar asked as the last of the robot squad was loaded up into the ship.
"I'm ready." IQ-9 announced.
"So am I." Nova echoed.
"Great, let's get off this rock." Wildstar started to get into the plane.
The plating next to his hand exploded.
"Get down!" Wildstar shouted over his suit comm as he whipped around and drew his weapon. But when he looked around, he saw nothing in the direction he thought the assault had come from. Then he looked up and froze.
Just above them on the canyon's edge sat a line of tanks, their weapons all pointed straight at him, Nova, and IQ-9.
"I think we're a bit late on our departure time, Derek." Nova said over the comm. "Any ideas on who that is and how we get out of this?"
"Not really, no." Wildstar replied, unless we can make a run for it and somehow into an area where they can't follow."
"I find that idea to be very unwise." IQ-9 put in, "Your chances of success are less than a thousand to one. You wouldn't even make it to the next hill."
"Thanks, oh eternal optimist." Wildstar quipped. "Now can you give us some sort of distraction or something so we can at least try not to die here?"
"I am fully capable of a distraction." IQ replied. "What should I do?"
"I don't know, tin head, be creative." Wildstar replied.
"You are fortunate that I'm programmed to be creative."
The Merkevet squad had the three members of the Eratite crew in their sights: one man, one woman, and one robot. They started to charge a stun beam that would knock at least the man and woman out for hours. The robot, on the other hand, might prove harder to disable without frying its circuits.
The man and woman were both crouched down behind their plane. The robot was standing near where the squad had seen the other two drop.
Suddenly the robot came out from behind the plane and started dancing wildly towards another part of the canyon.
The lead Merkevet was so taken aback by the movement that it followed the robot's movement.
"Now!" Derek signaled Nova to run. "I'll be right behind you."
"What about IQ?" Nova asked, alarmed that Derek might just be considering leaving the robot behind.
"Don't worry about him, he can take care of himself. He'll find us."
"Okay." Nova agreed.
"On three we'll both go for that huge rock down the canyon in the other direction. Got it?"
"Yeah." Nova replied, "Just count already."
"One," he stole a glance up at the tanks. They all appeared to be fascinated with IQ's very weird "dancing. "Two," he looked ahead, at the shelter that might protect them from their enemy while they figured out a way to get off of Titan alive. "Three!"
Derek and Nova bolted towards the rock formation, hoping that the operators of those tanks didn't see them making a run for it.
Nova counted to four in her head and was relieved when no shots came. She continued counting, but when she reached seven, the ground behind them exploded, nearly sending them both flying. By some miracle both of them kept their feet but started running faster than they ever had in their lives.
"I don't think they appreciate my creativity very much." IQ's voice came over their suit comms.
"Maybe – not – " Wildstar replied, "But – at least – we're not – dead yet."
Another round of fire crashed into the ground, this time beside them. Both instinctively dodged away from the shot.
They dove behind the rock they'd been eyeing from the cargo plane and collapsed from the run, both breathing hard.
"He's – still a tin head, but – I guess he can be useful sometimes." Derek said to Nova.
"See, he's not all bad," she replied just as raggedly.
Derek leaned against the rock as he sat on the ground, causing his feet to slide away from him, towards the far canyon wall. He started to draw them back, to keep them out of the line of enemy fire.
One foot hit something hard. A rock, he thought. He started to kick it away, then stopped when he saw a glint of metal. He carefully reached down and scraped away the hard crust that had formed around the object.
"Huh?!" he wondered out loud. "What's an astro-automatic doing on Titan?"
He rubbed more of the grime off of the weapon, revealing the insignia of the ship the gun's owner had once belonged to.
"The… Yukikake?!" Wildstar exclaimed, then looked below the insignia where the owner's initials were stamped. He turned to Nova in disbelief, "This is Alex's gun!"
* Merkevet/ Merkevetim – tank(s)