Razing Pel (7 page)

Walking into the larger room, Kaj
was shocked at what he saw.  Lined up all around the room were
cages.  He walked up to the first one and shone his light
inside.  "Ahh," he screamed, falling back, dropping the light.
 He brought himself together, picking up the light, shining it
back into the cage.  At least two rotting carcasses of Daj
were sitting in there.  Both of which were extremely skinny.
 He then went over to the cage that was behind him.
 Three more carcasses laid there.

"What the heck is this?!" Kaj said
in an angrily tone.  He ran over to the next cage.  More
dead Daj.  Kaj ran throughout the entire downstairs, checking
every single cage, all of which contained dead creatures of his
race.

"Hello," a scratchy voice called
out.

Kaj spun around, racing over to
where he heard the voice.  He approached the cage, shining the
light inside of it, through the metal bars.  Kaj saw two dead
Daj piled on top of each other, with teeth marks apparently on
them.  He then shone the light over to the other side of the
cage, where another Daj was.

He sat up against the back of the
cage bars.  Reaching his hand up towards the cage, he then
shielded his eyes from the light.

"Please, the light," he
said.

"Oh, sorry," Kaj said, lowering
the light to where his feet were.  Kaj walked up closer to the
cage.  "What's going on here?"

"The ... the ... Galactic
Soldiers," the weak Daj forced out.  "They raided my village,
snatching up everyone."  The old Daj moaned for a second.
 "Wait a minute young man.  Don't I know you?"

Kaj shined the light up to the
Daj's face for just a second, getting a better look at him.
 He did somehow look familiar to Kaj.  It suddenly came
to him.  The old Daj that sat in the cage was the same one
that Kaj rescued not long ago from the goons.

"Now I know who you are!" Kaj
burst out.  He shone the light on the back wall near the Daj's
head.  "You're the old man that I rescued from before.
 Remember."

The older Daj's eyes widened as he
now remembered.  "Yes, I know who you are now.  You're
that nice boy that saved me."

"What happened?" Kaj
asked.

The older Daj leaned up a little.
 "Soon after the Galactic Soldier's supposedly left in the
shuttle with you and the others, they soon returned.  They
told us that we all were going to United City, and for everybody to
get into these cages.  All of us were a little skeptical and
refused to do so.  We all wanted the nice transportation that
you got.  When we refused to get in, they started attacking us
- firing at us and beating us. They forced the remaining Daj that
were still alive into the cages.  After they packed us all on
this ship, they then told us the truth.  That we were going to
be experimented on for future Galactic Soldier technology.  We
were all frightened.  We all thought we were granted freedom
like you."

"So how did everyone end up like
this?" Kaj asked.

"Anyway, a little while after we
left, all of us heard this loud, screeching sound.  We thought
it was just the Galactic Soldiers messing with us like we're their
pets.  But it wasn't them.  It was something else.
 Something I wish it wasn't.  One of the others down here
told me he heard the sound before.  He told everyone to
prepare as we were about to crash, and he was right.  The ship
halted, and we heard a bunch of men upstairs screaming.  That
loud screeching sound continued for a little while longer.
 Then, everything went silent. We screamed to see if anybody
would come and let us out.  But no one came.  We started
to starve down here.  And you know how Daj are my good boy.
 If we don't get our nutrients and vitamins within a certain
period of time, our bodies start eating us from the inside.
 We were left here to starve."

"That's awful," Kaj said.  He
was now resting on one of his knees as he listened to the older Daj
tell his story.

"I watched as each Daj in here
died off, until I was the last one.  I would've been gone by
now, but I managed to survive by doing the unthinkable and
resorting to cannibalism."

"Hold on a second," Kaj said,
standing up.  He turned over towards the hallway, yelling,
"Phos, get down here!  Quick!"  He listened as he heard
the footsteps of a Phos from above.  Coming down the stairs
and through the hallway, Phos appeared.

"What's wrong," he said.  "I
heard you call ..." He couldn't finish his sentence.  Phos
stood there motionless as he shone the light around the room,
viewing all the dead bodies of Daj trapped in cages.  "What's
going on here?  What is all this?"

"The Galactic Soldiers," Kaj said.
 "This older Daj told me that they rounded them all up and
were going to use them for experiments."

"This is madness," Phos said.
 "In all my years of being a Captain for the Galactic
Soldiers, and knowing all of our secrets objectives, I've never
seen or heard anything about this."  Phos went up to the cage.
 "Are you alright sir?"

The elder Daj was quiet.
 "I've never trusted your kind, and now, never will."  He
moaned again.  "Your kind has done more damage to this planet
than the Oce have."

"Hey!"  Kaj yelled
out.

"No no," Phos said.  "The man
is speaking what he feels is true.  And I agree with him.
 The Galactic Soldiers have done more harm than good.
 We've done more damage than protection.  It's not
entirely my fault, but I feel a part of it is.  And for that,
I am truly sorry to you, and mostly to you Kaj.  Growing up
under fear is no way anyone should grow up.  But I'm going to
make it up, for the both of you.  We are going to get to
United City.  We are going to get on that ship.  And we
are going to get back at what the Oce and the Galactic Soldiers
have done to your planet, and most importantly, your
lives."

Phos pulled out his pistol, firing
a shot at the hold latch, allowing the cage door to swing open.
 Both Kaj and Phos slowly walked into the cage. Phos knelt
down, until he was eye level with the elderly Daj.

"Come on sir, we're getting you
out of here," Phos said.  The elderly man didn't
move.

"At the age I'm at, I would only
drag the two of you down," the old Daj said.  "I only wished
this happened sooner, so I could at least see United a City one
last time.  I hope you two make it to the city, and you as
well see the beauty in it as I did."

Kaj felt bad that the older Daj
would soon be gone.  It felt so weird that someone that was so
close to Kaj would be dead soon.  Then, a thought came into
his head.

"Uncle!" Kaj blurted out.  He
ran out of the cage, searching the cages again, seeing if his uncle
was in any of them.  "Uncle!  Uncle!"  Kaj kept
yelling for him, hoping that he would respond.  "Where are you
uncle?!" Kaj ran back over to the cage that Phos and the older Daj
were in.  Kaj described to the older Daj what his uncle looked
like, hoping that he may have seen him get caged.

"Sorry son," the older Daj coughed
out.  "The whole scene went by in a flash.  I hardly
remember anything.  I'm terribly sorry."

Kaj fell to his knees on the
filthy cage floor.  He gagged a little bit, thinking that he
will never see his uncle again.  His family was gone.
 His parents, and now his uncle.  He kept imagining his
uncle lying in a bloody pool of his own blood in front of his
house.

Phos knelt down next to Kaj.
 Rubbing his back, he said, "It’ll be alright."  Phos
stood back up.  He shone the light back near the old man.
 "Do you know where you can find a current map of your planet?
 The one we have is very dated."

"Shouldn't there be one by the
pilot's room," the old man said.  "If not, some Galactic
Soldiers have a map programmed into their helmet.  Speaking of
helmets, how come you are not wearing one?"

"What do you mean?" Phos
said.

"Don't you know that our air on
this planet is poisonous to humans?  That's why the Galactic
Soldiers wear those helmets.  It's certainly not for the
fashion."

Phos quickly turned to Kaj.
 "That's why the pilots were like that.  Breathing in the
air caused that to happen to them."

Kaj was still getting over the
fact that his uncle was gone.  He slowly stood up.  "But,
why would they do that?  You know, remove their
helmets."

"They probably didn't want to see
what was coming next," the older Daj said.  "If I was in their
shoes, I'd probably do the same."

"But there's just one thing I
don't understand," Kaj said.

"What's that?" asked
Phos.

"If the humans upstairs died
because they inhaled the air, and you're a human, then how come
what happened to them didn’t happen to you?" Kaj and the older Daj
looked at Phos very confused.

"Yes, I was wondering the same
thing as well," the older Daj added in.

Phos looked at both of them, not
knowing what to say.  He was at a loss.  "I'm not totally
sure," he said.  "I can't explain it myself.  Maybe, I'm
somehow immune to the toxic air."

The two Daj kind of rubbed it off,
though Kaj remained very skeptical.

While the three continued to talk,
Phos spotted something off the corner of his eye.  He thought
he saw a figure standing near the stairs.  Snapping his neck
quickly in that direction, he did in fact see something
there.

Shining his light over where the
figure was standing, he yelled, "Hey you!"  The weird creature
scurried up the stairs, not giving Phos or the others enough time
to actually see what it looked like.  Both Kaj and Phos ran
out of the cage, heading towards the stairs.

"We'll be back," Kaj addressed to
the older Daj.

They both headed for the stairs,
but while they did, a blaring alarm suddenly ignited.  The
downstairs section of the ship that they were in starting flashing
red lights that were on the ceiling.  Kaj and Phos stopped and
watched the lights flash for a second or two before continuing
forward.  As they were about to head up the stairs, a large
metal door collapsed in front of them, blocking their only
exit.

Phos pounded both his fists on the
metal door.  "Dammit!  Let us out whoever you are!"
 He shone the light around the door, seeing if there was a
handle for him to shoot off.  Nothing.  It was a blank
metal door.  Both of them ran back down the hallway, back into
the large room with the cages.  "Check the end of the room
Kaj.  See if there's another way out."

Running to the end of the room, he
came across a wall.  No door.  No way out.  "Nothing
Phos!" Kaj yelled over.  He ran back over to where Phos
was.

"How do we get out of here now,"
Phos said.  "We don't have that much time until the ship
leaves."  They both headed back into the cage the elderly Daj
was in.

"Looks like you're both trapped,"
the old Daj said.  "Just like me."

The intercom for the ship suddenly
came on.  All three listened as they waited for a voice to
follow.

"Welcome passengers," a croaked
voice said over the intercom.  "Due to two passengers boarding
the ship without Captain Authorization, I believe the only solution
to this problem is to go out with a bang.  Or should I say,
boom.  Yes, that's right.  I've rigged the ship to
explode.  I would like to thank the passengers who chose to
fly with us today, and I hope you will not return."  The
intercom shut off.

"Rigged to explode!" Kaj yelled
out.  "We're dead!  There's no way out!"

"Who was that over the intercom?"
Phos asked the old Daj.  "Does it sound like any one of the
Daj that were trapped down here with you?

The old Daj shrugged.
 "Doesn't sound familiar to me.  But you'd better hurry
and get out of here."

"The drill!" Kaj blurted
out.

Phos looked at Kaj with a confused
look.

"From the cave.  Remember.
 You used it to cut through the rocks for us to
escape."

Phos suddenly remembered what he
was talking about.  "Let's go.  Who knows when this place
will blow.  Kaj, grab the old man and let's go."  Phos
raced out the cage, heading back over to the metal door that
blocked the stairs.

Kaj went over to the old Daj,
trying to help him up.  "No, no my boy.  Like I said
before, I’d only slow you down.  Hurry, while you still have a
chance.  Go!"  Kaj raced out of the cage, heading over to
Phos.