The sun had been down for some time. Even without knowing the precise orbit of Psi-Aion, it would inevitably rise. He peered through the bars of the wooden cage at the guards outside his cell and their village beyond, wondering what the morning would hold for the group.
He’d gone barely a second without thinking about his crew. Some of the men and women he’d served with on the Vanguard had been there since he’d taken command. They’d seen a lot of action during the war. To have perished on what was supposed to be a routine mission burned him to his core. Glancing over at Susan talking to Corporal Higgs, he wondered how he would’ve handled it if she’d died with them.
“Come and see this!”
The voice of Tyler Cassidy echoed throughout the cave. Nicolas, Susan, and the Marines walked down the deep cavern toward him. They’d already scoped out the cave’s confines, hoping to find a way out. But it was sealed in every direction.
When they reached him, the cargo captain was standing by a cave wall. “What is it?” Nicolas asked.
Tyler pointed. The light of the full moon above Psi-Aion helped bathe the cave with faint illumination. Nicolas stepped closer and noted at the markings scrawled on the wall.
“Cave paintings,” Susan said. “It’d make sense that a people at their point of development would create such primitive drawings.”
“I thought ancient humans used cave paintings to communicate with one another.” Tyler brushed a hand over the rock face. “These people have a spoken language.”
“Not necessarily. We communicate audibly with one another, but we still connect through numerous other avenues, such as the written word and art. This is probably how they record their stories.”
Nicolas studied the figures in the drawings closely while Tyler and Susan continued their back and forth. The first in the sequence was a crude render of a black bird with dark, menacing eyes. Farther along were a group of black figures. They dragged others, painted in yellow, along with ropes.
“The Seekers?”
“Nicolas?” Susan walked up beside him.
“These drawings represent the Seekers.” He pointed to the cave wall. “The bird is their ship. These figures are the soldiers we met on Orion V. These figures here…” He gestured to the yellow drawings. “The natives of this world.”
“Why would the Seekers be enslaving their own kind?” She reached out to touch the renderings. “They’re abducting them?”
“It’s obvious the natives aren’t capable of interstellar flight.”
Tyler pieced it all together. “So, they aren’t Seekers after all. The real Seekers are coming down here, taking them, and using them to what?”
“To be their arms and legs?” Nicolas pondered.
“But why?”
“I’m not sure. But we know the Seekers have a control over Christian Nash. It would stand to reason they can manipulate these people as well.”
“And we flew in on a spaceship from the sky.” Susan beat Nicolas to the punch. “They think we’re Geri Vokar. They think we’re Seekers.”
“But we look nothing like the them,” Higgs chimed in.
“No,” Nicolas said. “But we’re dealing with a primitive race of people who’ve seen us drop from the sky in a space vehicle. We can’t blame them for being confused.”
“If that’s the case, we’re in a lot of trouble.”
Nicolas agreed with the Marine. They would need to convince the natives otherwise. But with the obvious language barrier, he wasn’t sure where to start.
Thirty-Five
Kione stared at the cryogenic chamber before him. The cold and sterile gray box wasn’t what he had in mind when he’d been told he was leaving the Tokyo Institute of Advanced Sciences to travel off-world.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
He turned. There in her usual white lab coat was Doctor Tai. Her kind eyes viewed him with concern.
“Did you sign off on this, Doctor?”
Tai appeared to consider the question before putting on a brave face. “You know as well as I, I don’t get the final say in matters such as this.” She put a hand on Kione’s shoulder. “You still want to go, don’t you?”
“Of course.” It’s not as if the Minister of Defense gave me a choice, anyway. “This sphere… If there’s any possibility it might help me find my people, it’s worth a shot.” He turned back toward the cryogenic chamber. “I just didn’t—”
“Want to go inside this,” Tai said. “I understand. I don’t much like it either. But the powers that be have deemed this to be the safest and most secure way of transporting you.”
Tai had his back, so he trusted he would be safe for the journey. She would, after all, be coming along aboard the Vanguard.
“Is he ready?”
Kione craned his neck toward the door, but there was no one there. He spun around toward Tai.
She’d disappeared, too. What the…?
The room went dark, and a cold breeze blew around him. He was no longer inside the Institute, but outside in a forest.
A bolt of energy shot past his head and into the tree behind him.
A figure walked toward him through the darkness. They raised their weapon to fire again, but Kione threw himself behind the nearest tree trunk.
Another energy bolt seared at him, hitting the tree. His heart raced, and sweat beaded down his forehead.
Where am I?
The footsteps of his attacker neared, sploshing through the soft forest floor. Kione took a chance. He jumped from cover and sprinted away, zigzagging from tree to tree. Behind him, the figure gained, spraying weapon fire in his path.
Kione reached the top of a cliff and stopped short from slipping over the edge. His pursuer, dressed all in black, aimed his gun at him. Kione closed his eyes and prepared to travel to whatever afterlife his people called home.
Knock. Knock.
He opened his eyes.
Now where am I?
He stared down at the bed where a CDF uniform sat neatly upon it. A knock sounded at the door again.
“Umm, come in,” he said.
The door opened, and an older man entered with chief petty officer rank pins
