Shas’kor felt his back hurting, having slept in the wilderness near a rural road. He did not know how long but looking at the sky it was not going to be day for long. He got up from the ground, he had to get Ma’eth to Vra’elo’s child and bring him to the hangars. The ship should already be there as agreed with the dealer.
As he got on the road again, Shas’kor was overtaken by fear, he did not know how a warp drive worked. Shas’kor, while always an enjoyer of spacecraft, never got too deep on how the various FTL systems worked. People would have seen him as weird for it, he was not an air caste after all, he only knew that T’au ships used wormholes and the other races like the Gue’la and the demiurg utilized some sort of interdimensional travel through something they called “The Warp”. Which was also the doom of the fourth sphere of expansion, he remembered from his history classes.
How was he, a fire caste with less than basic knowledge, supposed to drive an incredibly advanced ship through the depths of space and drive to the farsight enclaves? When most experienced air caste pilots got lost in the horrors of it! He was most likely to… No! He could not think of it! He will bring Ma’eth to the enclaves, he must succeed, no matter the odds, he has to do it, he has made a promise to Vra’elo and will abide by it.
Shas’kor could finally see the residence where Ma’eth was hiding, from afar the building was made of different square shapes in its form and had an entire wall made of glass. It was about two stories tall and had a terrace, and while he couldn’t see the garden from there as it was enclosed by walls, he guessed it was medium sized from the dimensions of the walls.
When Shas’kor arrived at the gate, it was closed, but thankfully he still had his friend’s keys. He didn’t see the kid or any drones, so Ma’eth was probably inside. He opened the door and took a few tentative steps into the garden.
Shas’kor felt the buzzing of a drone just behind him, and from the buzzing realized, belatedly, that it's a gun drone.
“Shi-”, before he could finish the drone started to fire, Shas’kor managed to avoid the shot, how he did not know, and immediately started running, managing to hide in a bush.
As he was catching breath, Shas’kor heard an acute voice, it was firm but held a clear tinge of fear in it, “Show yourself with hands up”, Shas’kor obliged.
As he exited his hiding spot, he could see a child with big wispy eyes like his father, soft lineaments and red copper hairs, dressed in tan shorts and a green t-shirt with a videogame logo. The gun drone was not far behind and the pointer was clearly aiming for his forehead.
“Who are you?”,
“I'm Shas'kor, y-your father’s friend, he d-did talk about me. r-right?” Shas’kor answered, well knowing that the wrong word would result in a pulse shot to the head.
“Where's dad?” asked Ma’eth with a still wary look on his face.
Shas’kor’s look darkened as he looked at the boy, “ I’ll explain everything, just ask the drone not to point at me”, the boy sighed and with a worried look said, “Ro-nni, come back here please…”, the small drone de-activated its guns and returned to his master, while the boy started petting its top as if it were some kind of fluffy pet. Ma’eth made a gesture to come inside the house, Shas’kor followed quickly.
One thing he noticed was that understanding the child’s pheromones was nearly impossible, it was as if he did not emit them! It felt weird for him, but it was probably just a stupid sensation.
As Shas’kor entered the house, he felt small. The door opened to an open space living room that had a big kitchen corner, a couch of great size, a giant curved tv screen that likely had augmented reality tech too, the tv stand was full of of game consoles, both new and old, overall, the entire room was big as his apartment was. Just how rich was the kid’s mother? Then he remembered something from Vra’elo’s chat logs, she was a por’el, the implications of the power dynamics made him shiver a little bit, but he quickly buried back any bad sensations. No, with how Vra’elo was talking with her, this isn’t anything bad, Shas’kor was sure of it.
Ma’eth gestured for him to sit on the couch, while the child quietly sat on a comfy armchair, still holding the drone close and petting it. “What happened, why is dad not here?”, Shas’kor held the tears from his eyes as he answered, “Bad people came to attack the planet from far away, your father fought bravely…”, Ma’eth continued before he could, “... and sacrificed his life for The Greater Good”.
A moment of silence followed between the two, long tears streamed down the boy’s face, Ma’eth was holding the drone even more tight, with a feeble voice he muttered something that just broke Shas’kor’s heart, “I'm all alone now, dad’s gone, just like mom, not that they were around much…”.
As Ma’eth said so, Shas’kor immediately got up and hugged the child, tears flowing, “I made your father a promise, I will not leave you alone. I’m here now, you are not alone”.
As the two separated from the hug, Shas’kor forced a smile and continued, “You cannot stay here, I must bring you to somewhere safer, somewhere where you will be able to live a normal life.”,
Ma’eth looked at him with a look of wonder, “Will I be able to go to school?”
Shas’kor was confused at the question at first, what child would be happy to… then he remembered; Ma’eth has been living all of his life isolated, he had to grow up earlier than his peers and, most importantly, never met other children his age., The thought made Shas’kor shiver, “Yes, you will go to school, I assure you”.
Without much talk, Ma’eth packed up his things. He did not bring much, with how many things he had, the boy was attached to only a few. As he finished packing up he came back to him with a request, “Can we bring Ro-nni along?”, Shas’kor had wanted to say no, but he felt not able to negate this request, the drone was the closest thing the child had to a friend, to force him to abandon it was too cruel for him. He sighed “Ro-nni can come along”, the child thanked him with a hug and weirdly enough, the drone’s buzzing became of a higher pitch. Meanwhile Shas’kor looked outside, the day was over and night had finally come, Sai’ran’s moons were all full, all three of them; a rare occurrence.
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They got on the road to the highlands, where the airfield was. The place was not much used aside from refuelling purposes as it was pretty far from Alsena and was pretty small. Ma’eth followed, always close behind, they were quiet for all of the journey, the drone’s buzzing being the only sound made.
When they arrived at the airfield, Shas’kor stopped near it and began pondering how to infiltrate, they could not make a sound or they would be spotted, but as he was thinking, the idea came to Ma’eth. “Ro-nni can cut the barbed wire for us”, that was a good idea. He had to admit this boy was very bright for one his age.
“Well, then, let's get in” Shas’kor said, lowering his voice. Ma’eth obliged and with a small gesture ordered the drone to open the passage for them. The drone retracted its guns and from a hidden compartment two robotic arms holding scissors emerged.
They ran around the fence and got near the hangars, the place was essentially a blind spot as no lights could get there, and for what he could see, there were no guards around. While the drone was cutting up the fence, Shas’kor could not help but wander back to Alsena, the pillars illuminated the night as much as the moons, he was really leaving, his home, his city, his planet.
Shas’kor never was a traveler, in fact, he had never left Alsena’s general area in all his life, he had always wanted to visit the bigger cities and landmarks of Sai’ran, to visit other sept worlds, but he was never going to do so, not now, not before. Shas’kor has been assigned to public defences, and while, like Vra’elo claimed, he could have become someone important, it was not the time to speculate on lost chances. His present was here, a deserter to his comrades, a criminal helping a mixed blood escape, a traitor to The Greater Good.
The drone had made short work of the barbed wire, its robotic arms disappearing as fast as they appeared. It returned to Ma’eth to get petted on its top; a weird drone indeed. They got in without making a noise, Shas’kor read his notes for a moment, the ship was on the third hangar from where they’d entered.
As they reached the hangar the door was left open, Shas’kor held his pulse pistol in case of an ambush, but nothing of the sort came as they entered. The ship was just there, its keys on a nearby table and with it a small manual. Shas’kor opened the manual while Ma’eth was silently observing the ship, this was the first time the kid had ever seen a spacecraft.
The manual was hard to read, as the translation below the demiurg language was clearly not done by a water caste, “Ship has supercomputer, supercomputer handles warp with route and ‘Gilar Feild’...”,
“Its Gellar Field.” the child told him, Shas’kor was astounded, “That glyph over there makes an ‘e’ sound”,
“H-how can you…” Ma’eth stopped him, “Mom wanted me to know many things” He explained, “She said that if I knew how to speak to many people, the universe would be open to me wherever I go.”, then the boy returned back to his languages.
“The language of The Bentu'sin is ancient and simple to understand, each glyph is only one sound and the words do not have many meanings.”, realizing the child’s abilities, Shas’kor gave him the manual, while he opened the hangar's giant door.
“This vessel is a Tolkien model, It has limited warp abilities handled by the ship's computer, when in space. After reaching a designated velocity it will calculate the route to the destination and open a gate to the warp. The computer creates a type of Gellar Field (a bubble of space) known as a ‘Rampart’ to protect the ship from the warp. Tolkien models can stay in the warp for 4 hours at a time, then it will jump back to real space and won’t be able to enter it for some time, depending on the length of the previous warp jump. The recoil time is 5 hours. this model has no generator and needs fuel to jump in the warp, it is heavily important to avoid jumping in the warp when the ship's fuel levels are below 30%...”
Shas’kor had listened closely, this child had great knowledge of a language that many Water Castes would not even comprend. The Demiurg had no problem speaking the language of the T'au after all. Most children his age would be playing outside, running in the parks and playing all sorts of games. Yet there he was, Shas’kor had to give this child a normal life, even if it was his last action.
He opened the ship's door and finally entered the cockpit, the design was sleek and angular like the outside, the seats felt comfy, and the Command panel was full of various buttons.
Ma'eth guided him as he detailed what each one of them does, and when he was ready, turned on the ship. All came to life, as various lights came on, the ship's engines were rumbling and, the ship began talking in a robotic voice, “Vessel K-72 ready, atmospheric conditions: stable, take off measures can proceed, awaiting orders.”
“Exit the hangar and initiate take off procedures.” answered Shas’kor with a commanding tone, he was shivering inside. He was actually doing it, he was actually going to space, he was steering the ship to the runway, it did not matter if they spotted them as they were going to take off now.
Shas’kor was feeling too many emotions and he had never been a wordsmith, on one side, fear, he still had doubts, while the ship’s computer would handle most things, space was still dangerous and he did not know what would happen next. On the other hand, Shas’kor felt a sense of freedom and adrenaline that he had never experienced before. For the first time in his life, he would not just gaze at the sky, he would touch it with his hands. From behind a reinforced cockpit of course.
Ma’eth sat quietly on the other chair, the boy’s eyes too full of wander, gazing at the ship’s controls while still holding the manual. The drone hovered behind them as it plugged itself onto the ship, giving the vessel data about their surroundings.
Finally as they were moving, the entire ship rumbled, they were flying at greater speeds and in just few moments everything looked smaller and smaller. The airfield, the highlands, Alsena, the pillars itself appeared small, Shas’kor and Ma’eth could see their top. He had been on planes before, but never reached the height to see such massive buildings end. They got higher and higher, nothing was visible anymore and as they looked up, the only thing to be seen were the stars and some satellites around them; they were in space.
Shas’kor looked at the three massive white orbs that were Sai’ran’s moons while pointing them out to Ma’eth, they looked massive from here, it was beautiful; the ship brought them back into reality as the artificial voice of the ship’s computer spoke, “The vessel is out of the atmosphere, currently orbiting the planet, destination pending.”, with that, the ship opened an holographic depiction of the galaxy.
The entire area controlled by the T’au looked incredibly small, even against the vast expanses that were labelled as nothing more than obscure “Void”, then the ship zoomed in on their area, allowing them to see each system. Sai’ran was a yellow point in the projection, he recognized the enclaves on the other side, oshovah’s four controlled systems made a constellation that the people of Sai’ran knew as ‘The Four Swords’, he pointed at one of them and the ship’s computer immediately began calculating a route.
It took a few moments, but the ship’s computer had found a viable route, “Route to destination possible, minimal warp jumps required:56, estimated time to arrive: 15 days, refueling will be needed two times, void refueling stations in the sector: 2, awaiting orders to start.”.
“Proceed” said Shas’kor with determination in his eyes, he did not know what would happen in the future, but a promise is a promise. Ma’eth will have a normal life, go to school, make friends, play outside, Shas’kor was sure of it, even as the ship plunged itself into the unknown, they would get through this…
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From the airfield tower, two Fire Caste guards are sitting and pretending to work. It's deep night in a semi-abandoned airfield, whatever could happen? It's not like a ship could appear from nowhere and fly off into the distance, right?
“Wow man, this series is much darker than the original!” said Shas’la Nei’gon looking at her pad’s screen, “You will not believe it but this is closer to the original novel the series is adapted from.” answered Shas’la Fo’sei, while sipping a cup of blackbean juice, while glancing at his friend’s screen, “Oh this is the episode where she-” he was stopped by Nei’gon kicking him, “ouch! what was that for!”.
“I told you I don't want spoilers! I want to experience it myself!” answered Nei’gon with an exasperated look,
“Ok ok i got it! Calm down gal!” Fo’sei answered while taking another sip from his cup, he looked up to the windows for a moment, the view made him spit his drink, “ehhh, N-Nei’gon?”,
Nei’gon groaned in frustration, “What is it aga-” this time, it was her moment to remain speechless, a ship with neon red accents had just taken off from the runway and had just disappeared into the sky.
“What in the mont’au has just happened?” said the young woman in pure shock,
“S-should we t-tell the Shas’ui about this?” asked Fo’sei in return,
“Are you mad? They would berate us to no end!” answered Nei’gon, then she got up from her chair and with an intimidating gesture, continued, “We did not see anything, nothing has ever happened, got it?”,
“Y-yes, understood” concluded Fo’sei cleaning himself with a handkerchief.
The two returned to what they were doing before, as if nothing happened, hoping that this little incompetence would not get discovered by the Shas’ui, or it would be a rough time indeed, for them at least…
