For One Nen (20 page)

“You talk like I made these decisions. Roffin and William decided these things. Your Roffin granted William permission for us to occupy the lower grasslands. Maybe you should take up your frustration with him.”

“We are on very different paths,” Pitle said.

“But I thought…” Vincent began but stopped short. He took her wrist and pulled her to himself. “I thought our paths would one day join. I was hoping…” he stopped again and then he brought her even closer and kissed her gently.

She closed her eyes and accepted his tenderness for a moment.

“No. No. no,” she said as she pulled away from his embrace. Her tears streamed from her eyes though she kept them tightly closed. She knew that just looking at Vincent would make her return to his warmth. She loved him; maybe too much. She knew she couldn't be with him. Not really. Not on his path. Roffin would never allow it. Roffin and the other high-ranking city leaders were against any of the city dwellers taking a mate from the people of
Earth – the Denizen.

Relations had become strained early in their arriv
al when the Denizen settled halfway between the city and the rebel Hoth, the tribe which the city hated. But a few like Pitle and Pijin had not decided before-hand to follow their leader's rules. Actually they didn't give it much thought at all. Before the newcomers arrived on Reen the thought of visitors interrupting their way of life was a foreign concept to them. They had no idea that some of these people from a faraway planet called, 'Earth', would be so attractive and appealing to them. Their eyes so full of mystery, their kindness much like their own. But they never could have imagined that these Denizen would be so curious.

Much of Reen’s world seemed to fill this curiosity. But when the cousins began talking about exploring more of the planet’s caves and its underground tunnels, the friends they had made among the native tribes were frightened. 

Vincent turned from Pitle and shoved his hands into his pockets. “If you can't help me understand your fear maybe I can find the answers somewhere else.”

Pitle let out a small gasp but couldn
't open her eyes to watch him walk away. She wanted all the while to call him to herself and never let him go. She envied how Vincent could be so open with her. She wished beyond wishes that she could do the same with him. She held her eyes closed tightly and if Vincent had only turned around he would have seen her vanish.

297 AE

Aboard the EGRESS

They read for two hours before the engineers were able to bring some of the systems online.

“Let’s go work on the computer again,” Teltel said when the lights illuminated down the rows and rows of garden tables.

“It’s getting late, young ones. You should make your way back to your quarters,” the Maven instructed.

“I wonder if the cooks are serving anything,”
Mathis as he looked up at Teltel.

“I’d like to eat before we go to quarters,” Teltel said to the Maven.

“You can always eat, big guy,” Benai laughed.

“Don’t linger,” the Maven said.

“I-must-see-to-Arla,” Aiden said. “Frightens-easily.”

Aiden and the boys walked out of the garden with Maven Sharla.

“I smell smoke,” Tala said as they opened the doors.

“That will probably last a while. I’m sure the air filtering system won’t come online for a while yet.” Deni said. “But we have the cleanest air on the ship, right here in the gardens.” She reached out her hand and lightly touched a large green leaf.

The doors closed and Tala took Deni’s hand and pulled her close.

“Oh! Love, I’ve got dirt everywhere,” Deni said with caution. “I’ll get it on you if you get too close.”

“But I don’t mind getting dirty,” Tala said, as she grabbed Deni’s buttoned shirt with her fist and pulled the body of her mate against her own.

Reaching her arms up around Tala’s slender neck, Deni said, “And that’s what I very much like about you.”

Tala held Deni and whispered close to her ear, “Please never leave.”

“Hey,” Deni pulled back and looked into Tala’s blue eyes. “I’m right here. And I don’t want to be anywhere else.” Deni laughed and tilted her head.

This made Tala ask, “What’s so funny?”

“I’ve just never had that feeling,” Deni said.

“What feeling?” asked Tala.

“Even in my happiest of times; in my gardens, or with my friends, or long hot baths, I’ve always secretly wanted
to be somewhere else; somewhere…with you. And now,” her golden eyes shown bright, “I’m right where I want to be and I promise I’ll never leave.”

“Quarters?” Tala asked.

“Quarters,” Deni responded.

When they came to the elevator they saw the Maven talking to a Blue-Coat of the medical staff.

“Is everything alright,” Deni asked the Maven.

“It’s Turk. He was burned but not too bad. He should be back to work before long. Henry and the others are alright, though.”

“Glad it wasn’t too bad,” Deni said.

“Try to get some rest,” the Maven said with a knowing smile. “I’m certain your listeners will join you again tomorrow.”

Tala’s face blushed but the Maven just smiled and turned toward the dining hall. She joined Teltel and Benai at their table.

Even before Maven Sharla sat down she had scanned the room meticulously.

She leaned forward and spoke softly to the boys. “I think Tanik has a spy.”

“What?” Teltel said.

“Spying on us?” Benai asked with a growing smile.

The Maven nodded.

“Well sparse me blind,” Benai laughed. “Kind of makes a man feel important.”

“Shut up, Benny,” Teltel said in a loud whisper. “She could stop the stories if she finds them.”

Turning to the Maven he asked, “Who is it?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I would keep an eye on Merari.”

“That silly Anthro?” Benai said in a scoff.

“I saw her with Tanik going into the emissaries
’ offices just before they came to the gardens,” the Maven explained. “Just be careful. It would be a tragedy to lose those videos before we get to see them.”

“Do you really think we can get it to work?” Teltel asked.

“I think tiny ones need to be protected so they can have freedom to contribute to the wealth of all,” the Maven said. She then rose and faded as she walked away.

“Sometimes she’s awful
ly cryptic,” Benai said with a furrowed brow.

“She wants us to include Mathis,” Teltel explained.

“He’s not so bad,” Benai said.

“He’s a Hoth,” Teltel said as he stomped off leaving his tray of half eaten food behind as he rubbed the tip of his chin vigorously.

Benai shoveled a few more bites into his mouth before hurrying after his friend.

The rest of their nightly routine unfolded without incident. It wasn’t until the middle of the night when Teltel woke Benai from his nightmare that started the most eventful day the students had ever had.

“Ben!” Teltel called. “Benny, you’re having a bad dream again.”

Unlike the other times when Teltel would wake Benai from his dreams this time Benai wo
ke quickly. His eyes shot open and like a flash he sat up and looked at Teltel.

“You’re pale, Benny.” Teltel said. “You alright? Was it a bad one? Was it about the fire on board?”

“I went mad this time,” Benai revealed. He hugged his knees under his chin and wept as he told about his dream.

“I was on some sort of hill or mountain overlooking a bunch of people. They killed each other. Right there; right in front of me.”

“It’ll be alright, Benny. It’s all going to be alright,” Teltel tried to comfort his friend.

“I raised my staff; a long stick that I carried with me all the time, well I raised it high and brought it down and the killing began,” Benai cried. He looked at his friend as the tears kept streaming down his wet face. “I did that. I made them kill each other. I’m going mad. I have this ache inside that won’t go away.”

He beat his chest with his open hand. “I ache down so deep I feel like it can never go away. There were giants there too. They wouldn’t let anyone leave. They protected me, but I went mad. Oh! Beyond the heavens - something out there - help me.”

Teltel was
made more than a little uncomfortable by his friend’s escalated level of inner turmoil.

“Hey, get dressed. We’ll go to the fallow field. We can work on the computer.”

“We can’t get that thing working by ourselves,” Benai said as he took off his shirt, blew his nose on it and threw it down the laundry chute.

“Sure we can,” Teltel said.

“No we can’t. We don’t know a thing about all that stuff. But Maven Sharla said you should be nice to a ‘little one’,” he said with a forced laugh as he wiped his face with his hands.

“Not that Hoth,” Teltel whined as he only allowed himself to do with his best friend.

“He’s not so bad. He’s just a Hoth,” Benai said as he put on fresh clothes.

They left their room and rounded the hall to Trace and Mathis’ door.

“What are you waiting on?” Benai said when Teltel hesitated at the door.

“I didn’t want to just barge into their sleeping quarters in the middle of the night.”

Benai slapped a button on the side of the door and it slid open.

“Hey boys,” Benai called out in a loud voice. “We’re only here for Mathis so you can go back to sleep, whoever you are.”

“Get the sparse out of here,” Trace yelled.

“He said, ‘go back to sleep’,” Teltel yelled back.

“Come on little guy,” Benai said to Mathis.

“Am I in trouble?” Mathis asked with a voice as tiny as he was.

“Only if you don’t come with us,” Teltel said.

The little Hoth pulled on his clothes and rubbed his eyes.

“What are you going to do to me?” Mathis asked in fear.

“We just need your help,” Teltel answered.

Mathis followed the very tall boys all the way to the fallow field where they worked on the computer the rest of the night.

Well before waking hour
, they had fixed the computer and interfaced one of the small hard drives.

Teltel pressed a button and turned it on and the boys gathered around the square frame monitor to watch an ancient movie from the ancestors of the Egress.

0 BE/AE (The year of the departure of the EGRESS)

Aboard the EGRESS in orbit above the planet REEN

The screen was black a moment before it came to life. Chris came out of the elevator into a large hallway much like the main deck hall.

“Okay I think these are pretty cool. These are the diagonal elevators I talked about earlier.”

There was a smaller silver elevator door with two regular doors on each side.

“So this is one of the elevators and those doors are for officers and emissaries of each tribe. There are nine elevators from this level of the officer’s quarters to the quarter sectors where some will live and hundreds more of each tribe will be in stasis.

The camera followed the h
all around and showed the interior white wall that encircled the main elevator and the outer wall with a duplicate elevator with four doors.

297 AE

Aboard the EGRESS

“That’s my room,” Mathis said in his high voice.

“Are you sure?” Benai said but added quickly with a pointing finger, “Oh, that’s our room. Look big guy.”

“Yes,” Teltel agreed.

“We’re in officer’s quarters?” Mathis said.

“No,” Benai laughed. “We can’t be.”

“But Chris said that’s what they were,” Mathis said. “I think it’s the ninth sector.”

“What do you mean the ninth sector?” Benai asked.

“I don’t think the officer’s quarters of the Hoth were ever used. I mean they were never allowed to have council representation, there were no Hoth emissaries. I think they put the keepers in the ninth sector. We live in the Hoth’s officer’s quarters,” Mathis said.

“No,” Teltel yelled, which made the computer on the table shake.

“Oh, no! I’m sorry guys.” Benai jumped to his feet and stopped the video.

“What’s wrong?” Mathis asked in his high pitched sleepy voice.

“We’re going to be late for class,” Benai explained. “I think if we’re late it might make Tanik suspicious.”

“I wonder what she’d do if we didn’t show up,” Mathis said with a laugh. He gave a little yawn and didn’t budge from his sitting position. “I don’t know why we still have to go to class. I mean the particle wave will be here in just a few days anyway.”

“Indeed. I don’t see why we have to go to class either,” Teltel agreed.