Chapter 26: Operation Scout The Planets
"This spring you speak of..." K folded his arms. "Where is it?"
Iniko tilted her head. "The Spring?"
"Yes."
"It lies beneath the pond."
"The pond?"
"Yes, the very one where we connected as Other kind and Key."
Silence settled over the room.
Kagu’s fingers froze above her holographic keyboard.
"You mean..." she blinked. "The ritual thingy?"
Iniko nodded.
"The pond is only the entrance for Other Kinds and a forgery for our Ulu. Beneath it rests the Spring."
K slowly rose from the couch.
"I’ve been there."
"...What?"
"I saw it."
Both women stared at him.
"The Spring wasn’t water."
His eyes slowly unfocused as memories surfaced. "It was...a void." He held his hands out."Endless and there were rings everywhere. Each one in pain. They were crying, begging to be freed. And in the center of it all sat Shira. Chained."
His voice lowered. "Your fallen star."
Iniko’s smile slowly disappeared.
"I don’t know who you’re talking about."
K continued. "She called herself Oni’Ik Shira. I found another version of her or rather she found me. And while I was down there she told me to connect her to the giant one and I did. Then chains began breaking. The entire place started collapsing. It was then I woke up."
The room fell deathly quiet.
"...Impossible."
K looked at Iniko.
"What?"
She slowly shook her head.
"No one can enter the Spring like that."
"I did."
"No."
She took a small step backward.
"The only path to the Fallen Star is through the Spring itself."
"You must physically descend. Which is to dive beneath the pond, every Priestess knows this." She pointed at him."You...never left the treehouse to begin with so there’s no way you went down there."
K frowned. "Those women with us told me to descend."
"Yes physically, but you never did.You were unconscious and my attendants carried you there to my house after the ritual."
K’s brows knitted together. "No...I was there."
"You couldn’t have been."
"I saw everything."
"I don’t know what you saw Khae’el but it wasn’t real."
Silence.
K replayed every memory.
The white void. The space descended into. Shira. The chains. The voices trapped within the rings.Even Luituka.
None of it felt like a dream.
"So you’re saying..." He looked directly at her."...my body never entered the Spring."
"Yes."
"So my mind did."
"I..."
She hesitated.
"I don’t know."
K slowly sat back down.
Then everything finally clicked.
"I didn’t free her body..."
Kagu looked over.
"What?"
"I only freed..."He clenched his fist."...her consciousness."
"Hold your horses, cowboy, the person who is the closest to ’Shira’ just told you whatever you saw wasn’t real and what? You’re spiraling further into it?"
"The body is still beneath the Spring."
Several seconds later K stood.
"We’re going back."
Kagu sighed exactly as he expected.
"For the love of electromagnetic forces, listen to me! Listen to her!"
"We have to."
"No, we don’t. Look I get that you want your memories back, I do too. But we can’t keep acting rashly and you’re forgetting something."
She dismissed her holograms."We’re military personnel."
"Not me. I was put out of commission."
"So You seriously think Admiral Bak is going to hand you a ship just because ?"
K didn’t answer immediately.
A faint smile ghosting his lips.
"I’ll ask."
"...ah, yes. And he’s going to say yes to the one person whose head so badly wants on his plate."
"He won’t suspect anything."
"He’ll suspect everything!"
"Not if we give him something to not suspect."
"Gee, I wonder what that might be." She said flatly.
He crossed his arms.
"I’ll give him a reasonable explanation."
"Mhm-hm"
"We recently rescued Iniko."
Kagu blinked. "And?"
"If whoever attacked her according to our is still nearby..."
"..."
"...it would make sense to scout neighboring systems."
Kagu stared at him.
"...That’s actually..."
She looked offended.
"...a decent one."
"I know."
She sighed. "Fine but not today."
"Why?" K frowned.
"Because you just got back and your approval to fly an escort ship for the expedition was forged...do you want Bak to know sniff that out? You should be glad he isn’t hot on your tail asking questions!"
She folded her arms.
"We wait one day then we ask."
"...Agreed."
Outside the window—
A faint shadow moved.
Lex stepped away from the wall beneath the living room window.
"So..."She folded her arms with a grin. "...that’s what you’ve been hiding."
Her eyes drifted toward the stars.
"A chained giant beneath a sacred spring."
She chuckled. "This is getting interesting."
──── ✦ ────── ✦ ────
1321 hours
Planet Meredith—Clarity—Command.
[Admiral Bak’s office.]
"Denied."
Bak didn’t even bother looking up from the reports stacked across his desk.
K remained standing.
"You haven’t even heard my request Sir."
"You want something?"
"I do."
"The answer is no."
"..."
K inhaled slowly.
"I wish to scout neighboring systems surrounding T5-01P, Sir."
Bak’s pen finally stopped moving.
"Reason?"
"The survivor. Sir."
"Report."
"If her ship was attacked nearby, whoever initiated it may still be operating within neighboring planets."
Bak finally raised his head.
His expression remained unreadable.
"You are currently suspended. Out of combat."
"I know."
"Why are you involving yourself in matters pertaining to combat?"
"Our planet might be in danger and I won’t sit still and watch it happen."
"So why should I approve you going? You’re not the only Matyr I have on ground?"
"..."
"Get out."
K saluted and marched out.
"It didn’t work."
He muttered to Kagu who sat in the outlet lodged in his pocket.
"Should I be surprised?"
1400 hours
[Admiral Bak’s office]
The office door slid open.
"Coming back won’t make me change my mind, K, leave me alone."
Lex casually leaned inside.
"Oh."
She feigned surprise.
"Didn’t know you had company."
"Oh gods please leave."
Bak sighed.
She smiled innocently.
"I was wondering if my favorite uncle would finally approve my leave."
"No."
"You didn’t even think about it." She whined.
"I did."
"It lasted half a second." She murmured though a pout. "You’re no fun."
"I’m not paid to be."
She looked toward Bak. "A little birdie told me you turned away a certain someone..."
"If he put you up to this, my answer remains no."
"I think he’s got a point and no he didn’t."
Bak narrowed his eyes.
"You think?"
"Think about it."
She counted on her fingers.
"He isn’t asking to fight and he isn’t asking to rejoin active duty. He’s literally volunteering to make sure whatever attacked that girl isn’t lurking around our exploration routes."
Bak remained silent.
"And...if it makes your old ass back ache less" She added with a grin."I’ll tag along. Keep an eye on your big ’rouge’."
"If he tries anything stupid..." Bak starts.
"...I’ll drag him back myself." She finished for him.
The office was silent for a moment. Then,
"You’ll supervise him."
Lex saluted dramatically.
"Gladly."
His gaze hardened. "If he messes up or goes out of line...I’m launching you both into space."
"Whoa..."
"Now please leave."
"You have to approve it, you know, sign the paperwork and all that."
Bak sighed heavily and opened a drawer.
A familiar case slid across the desk.
Lex caught it.
"Oh and you have to give him back his armor too."
"Why?"
"What if we encounter hostiles? I know you want him shredded to bits. I know how much you fantasize about that."
"I don’t fantasize about anything like that." He growled through gritted teeth.
"Anyways, he needs the protection."
His armor.
"He’s still suspended."
Bak warned.
"But if you’re both leaving Command’s airspace...I’d rather you survive on your way back."
"Thank you, uncle dearest!"
"Get out. Now."
She didn’t need to be told twice.
As the office doors shut behind her, Lex smirked.
"You owe me big time,K"
She flipped the card between her fingers.
"’I didn’t ask for your help’ is what he’d probably say."
She stretched lazily. "But he wouldn’t have to know."
"And that’s why this is going to be fun."
──── ✦ ────── ✦ ────
Before dawn the next morning...
The Horizon rested alone inside the noisy launch bay. Technicians and Engineers yelling orders and barking at themselves when someone didn’t respond quickly. Their data pads blinking with the ship’s status.
K secured the final seatbelt over his restored armor before climbing aboard.
For some reason, Bak had approved his request to "scout" the neighboring planets. He even gave him his armor back.
Kagu floated beside the cockpit. Her face sour.
"I did not want to be in this ship this soon."
Iniko carefully stepped inside behind him, marveling at every flashing display.
"This is what your people use to fly among the stars..."
"It’ll make you sick again."
"...Probably."
She smiled anyway.
The hatch sealed.
Engines slowly awakened beneath them.
Neither of them noticed the rear cargo compartment quietly sliding open.
A familiar red-haired woman slipped inside carrying a duffel bag.
She settled comfortably behind several supply crates.
"Pfft..."
She covered her mouth to stop herself laughing.
"Let’s see where you’re really going. K."