Loyalty

Loyalty

Receding water and crashing waves played like a subtle melody in the background of the early evening. As a gentle sea breeze blew in from the crystal-clear waters surrounding Artemis Island. Along the shoreline, on a boat, Autumn along with the wild cat Taima devoured resources. Resources left behind by the New Aurora forces for Mathis. She tossed the scraps of the rations to the side for Taima to finish up.

Autumn with her good hand twisted the top off a canteen and placed it on her dry lips. drinking the water that was warm from sitting in the sun all day. But she didn’t care, how could she after her battle with Mathis and the journey getting to this point. She wasn’t greedy with the water and, doing the best she could to hold the canteen with her bad hand, poured the water slowly into her good one. Allowing Taima to lap up some water for himself, she watched her partner enjoy his well-deserved meal. She knew their time together was coming to an end, just beyond the horizon barely visible was her next destination. The capital ship the man Mathis told her about, and the place where Atif was being held.

The quick meal and time off her feet was everything she needed, feeling refreshed, she was ready to make the journey to the capital ship. Climbing out of the boat, the ocean’s cold water cascaded over her feet. Her sandals slowly sank into the wet sand leaving an imprint, closing her eyes, Autumn inhaled deeply. Easing her mind, she took it all in. Opening her eyes she looked back at her partner, giving Taima one last pat on the head. The big cat only purred, a complete one-eighty to his temperament a short time before. Walking further into the waves, leaving the shores of Artemis Island at her back, she threw both her hands into the water and channeled her essence outward. Hoping to lure in the perfect sea creature. She needed something strong enough to carry her as well, one that was fast enough. Autumn realized she wasn’t going to find anything so close to shore and decided to venture out further.

She dove into the waves submerging her whole body and started swimming further despite the injuries she sustained to her hand and forearm. With Autumn on the next part of her journey Taima rose from the shore and made his way back toward the tree line of the forest and disappeared, the connection between the two severed.

***

“Lieutenant Augustus, it seems that we have lost connection to the Sargent’s biometric data as well the geometric information about his location.”

The lieutenant stroked his grey beard, gazing intently toward the sea in front of him. From his position on the ship’s bridge, he had a spectacular view of the dusk hues of the setting sun.

“Is this a technical issue?”

He questioned.

“Hard to tell sir, Drone A and unit Alpha have been decommissioned we are downloading their respective black box information as we speak once we have gathered that we should have a better understanding.”

“What about Mathis’ personal body cam and audio?”

Augustus wondered as he waited for more information from his subordinate. It all wasn’t making any sense to him. Mathis a seasoned veteran along with two Class B drones couldn’t possibly be done in by a single entity.

“Sir, it seems that his body feed data was manually deleted.”

This caught Augustus’ attention, he turned to face the soldier giving him this report. His arms crossed behind his back. 

“ Now, why would he go and do that? Is there any way to tell the nature of the disconnection? If he’s deleting feed information of his free will, is it so farfetched to believe he severed the connection on his own as well?”

The soldier rubbed his chin pondering over the questions that his superior was asking.

“I’m not sure myself, I can run it by the tech division and see what they have to say about the matter. But, besides that sir I’m also here to report that the prisoner that Mathis did manage to capture is finally awake and being held in the interrogation room for further questioning.”
“Thank you soldier you are dismissed, Private Moon maintain course for Coastal Garden and alert me once the colony is in sight. I have a little bird to make sing.”
he orders the private at the helm of the massive capital ship. Who just nodded, before finally gathering the courage to ask his commanding officer a question.

“Sir, what about the Sargent? Are we just going to leave him behind like this? “

“Sorry Private, my hands are tied with the lack of information and the chaos happening in Coastal Garden as we speak, we must keep moving forward. You just focus on steering this vessel and leave the matters with the Sargent to me.”

Augustus was firm in his decision; he didn’t like the idea of leaving a man behind anymore then the private did. But with the new orders to transport a detachment of soldiers to Coastal Garden to assist in the lockdown he had no time to waste. Augustus, accompanied by two soldiers, made his exit off the bridge of the capital ship and into the elevator that transported him to the brig on the lower level of the ship.

In a dimly lit room was Atif and one other soldier. The soldier remained silent and posted by the door, keeping his eyes focused on Atif. Atif, whose hands were secured to the table by steel chains, her feet shackled to restrain her movements and prevent her escape. Her body was heavy and slow to react while her eyes had a hard time staying open. The remaining side effects of the sleeping gas she was exposed to hours ago. She could feel the waves of fatigue shoot down her arms as she commanded her body to move. It didn’t listen, lowering her heavy head and resting her forehead on the cold hard table she was chained to, Atif took a deep breath.

The beeping of a keypad being punched caught the attention of Atif and the soldier guarding her. Soon the door to the interrogation room opened and the soldier stood at attention as his superior entered the room, his two escorts posted in the corridor. Pulling a chair out from the table and taking a seat in front of Atif, the Lieutenant gently rested his forearms on the table and folded his hands. For the time being he remained silent observing the young adult.

“What is your name?”

Augustus questioned watching Atif raise her head to make eye contact with the man before her. For a moment she didn’t mutter a single word, just her groggy eyes looking deep into Augustus’. She answered the lieutenant’s questions but not in the way anyone one in the room was expecting.

“Rumo cha ka uma cha.”

The young tamer started speaking in her native language, a language she knew they wouldn’t have the slightest understanding of.

“Just another feral human it seems, broad can’t even speak Aurorean.”

One of the guards crudely commented, the Lieutenant looked over his shoulder with a look of discontent on his face. That was all it took to make the guard stand at attention regretting his previous comments. Turning back to Atif, Augustus took notice of the tribal markings on her cheeks. Again, he asked the young woman her name. But all he got back in return were strings of words he didn’t understand. Inhaling deeply, he didn’t allow himself to get frustrated. From Mathis’ report it was obvious the woman in front of him was the undocumented human, one of the many things New Aurora was actively combating. But he also knew she was not the one New Aurora had classified as restricted. How or why her information was restricted didn’t concern him, it was above his paygrade.

It was clear there wasn’t going to be any possible line of communication between the two and without an expert linguist onboard it was pointless to ask any more questions. All there was for him to do now was throw her back in the brig with the rest of the trash they had captured along their journey. Standing up from the chair Augustus issued his orders to the guards with him.

“Throw her in the brig with the rest and add her to the processing list. I have no use for this one.”

“You.”

Augustus called out to one of the guards that was standing around.

“Send a message to the tech unit to send Beta drone back toward the Island to locate Mathis and the other human. I have other matters that need my attention.”

The mechanical door of the room opened as he approached and without another word, he left the room, his orders given. He had to admit he was a little caught off guard by the woman. In all his years of service he had never come across someone with tribal markings, markings like the one she had on her face. The words she spoke were an oddity as well; it wasn’t uncommon to come across people that spoke different languages. But one way or another they derived from Aurorean and could easily be deciphered. What she was speaking had no undertones or subtle hints of the Aurorean dialect. For the time being he pushed it to the back of his mind. Right now, with the interrogation stalled at a dead end, his main concern was to put together the names of the soldiers to deploy to Coastal Garden to assist with its occupation.

Going one way towards the elevators that took him to his private quarters, the guards with Atif in tow went in another. Toward the holding cells and a little past the assortment of beasts the capture group managed to wrangle up on Artemis’ Island. Raising her head, Atif was shocked by not only the vast number of beasts that were being held on this ship. But the number of humans being held as well. Women and children of various ages caged up like the beasts that kept them company.

“Can’t believe that mess happening in Coastal Gardens.”

“I just hope I’m not one of the guys chosen to assist in that garbage. I got my R&R starting as soon as we touch down in Busaya.”

The other guard countered as the two continued to drag Atif along back toward her cell.

“Plan on going to the festival? Should be some fine ladies and good drinks.”

“That’s the plan, barring the lieutenant pulling some shenanigans and putting me on that detachment.”

Atif smiled while keeping her head low. In the back of her mind, she started to formulate her plan of escape. She continued to listen on, as the two soldiers chatted away oblivious to the fact that she could understand everything that they were saying. With the sound of another door opening Atif and her escorts found themselves once again in the section of the brig where her cell was located. Punching in a code sequence into the keypad located next to the cell. The two guards with their combined strength tossed Atif into the cell and closed the iron door behind her. Continuing their conversation as they walked away from the cells returning to their previously assigned posts.

Atif slowly rose from the cold hard ground of her cell. Sitting upright, she noticed that her hands and feet were still shackled. Calming herself, she began flowing essence into her arms increasing their muscle density and giving her increased strength. She pulled her wrists away from one another, testing the chains confining her. She smirked sinisterly, understanding now that she could break the chains at any moment. Crawling over toward the wall of iron bars separating her from freedom, she tested the bars. As she expected, with the assistance of essence she could indeed bend them as well. Now it was all a waiting game as to when she could make her escape. Her best bet was to wait till they got to Coastal Garden. Giving her a better opportunity to move around the capital ship without being detected. That was only part of her plan, the beast and humans being held captive aboard the ship also played an important role.

She planned to start a riot midway between Coastal Garden and that place called Busaya the guards were talking about. For now, she had to be patient, something that the young tamer wasn’t very skilled at. But if she wanted her makeshift plan to go off without a hitch, she had to play the waiting game.

“You can use essence too?”

A fragile voice called out from the shadows of the cell. Atif turned her body around to face the source of the words. Peering deep into the darkness she could make out the figure of a young girl. Surprised at the fact that not only was someone in the cell with her, but that they had knowledge of the use of essence.

“How do you know about essence? More importantly who are you?”

Atif question thinking about the revelation.

“I mean you no harm, this is all new to me too. It’s not every day you run into someone who can use essence. My name is Haiden, what’s yours?”

***

The giant fin of a monstrous black marlin quickly rose from underneath the surface of the ocean. Cutting through the water seamlessly in its pursuit of the capital ship. On its back holding on for dear life was Autumn. She opened her eyes and started breathing again after holding her breath for several minutes. All to stay undiscovered by any guards on the ship that might take notice of her. Looking out beyond the capital ship that was close in sight was another marvel new to Autumn’s eyes. The sight of the colony Coastal Garden.