CHAPTER 1 – The Captured (Pt 2)
Teeabu, Delah and other passengers spilled out from the train terminal into the bright sun.
“Aaaaeee, I’m over here!” Boon, cried out, waving.
Hand shielding his face, Teeabu recognized the old classic hydro-lift, a nine-passenger car, pulled up behind other hydro-lifts and a hydro-bus. An electro-magnetic push to counteract the planet’s magnetic pull made the vehicles hover a mere ten inches above ground. Beneath, steam that powered the engine escaped from specialized vents in the chassis.
Boon grinned with a tooth missing and crazed look, sporting red shorts, a dirty white short-sleeved top, and boots up to his knees. He slapped his hand on the orange lift. “Ain’t she a beaut? Kept her shining. Hop in everyone, me canopy’s down today. Sun’s shining like a polished wheel and the wind’s slowed to a purr. Gotta take advantage of that, ain’t that right, Priest Tee?”
Teeabu nodded. “Can’t pass that up.” Jerron leaped into the second row of seats. Teeabu took his cue and jumped in the same row without opening the car door to let the other passengers in.
Delah slapped her hands on her thighs. “That’s not right. You didn’t open the passenger door, guys.”
“Ohhh, they’re just boys, little Dee. Here.” Boon graciously bowed with door opened to let her in. Two other children pushed ahead of her to pile in the third row of seats. “No, no, no, kiddies not fair. Achh, never mind. Get on in.”
Eyes squinted, Teeabu noticed Delah didn’t budge. She leaned with hands on the lift. “I can’t. I got to go somewhere. Teeabu, will you meet me at the shack?”
“Boon, will you wait for us?” Teeabu asked. “This’ll just take a sec.” Teeabu heard protests from the passengers, kids from his neighborhood, including Jerron.
“Only a sec.” Boon waved him out of the lift.
Near the terminal’s entrance, Teeabu took Delah by the elbow and escorted her there, out of hearing distance. “You know you’ve got to come home with us, so what’s eating you?”
“I have a surprise at the shack. If I don’t go, something bad will happen.”
“Then you can’t go if you feel something bad will happen. Come on.” Teeabu pulled her by the arm, she pulled him easily back.
“No. I’m going and you can’t stop me. Will you come?”
Teeabu exhaled, rolled his eyes, and finally gave in. “Okay.”
“Don’t tell my mother about this, okay?” It’ll only take ten minutes for me to get there.”
“I’ll be there. I promised already.”
She darted away, almost fast as a speeding hydro-lift. Teeabu ran back to Boon’s hydro-lift and leaped back into the second row.
Jerron, smacked him on the back. “Not keeping any secrets from us are you, big brother.”
Boon interrupted talking from the front as he put the lift in gear and took off. “Speaking of keeping secrets, did anyone notice the blackout? I’m wondering if it was just me.”
With the canopy down, Teeabu felt the breeze blowing through his hair. “Yeah, we noticed it.” He leaned against the headrest in front, “Delah said it could’ve been the Centrex.”
“It, sure enough, had to be something like that. Cutting off everything you need. Then my lovely girl here,” Boon patted the upholstery, “she almost died on me, but I had a backup generator. It’s crazy. My question is, why in all Hades is this happening? Just thinking about it, gives me the creeps. We should’ve kept little Dee with us.”
He thought it wouldn’t be necessary, remembering how she had pushed a bully down, bigger than her, with her fingertips.
They zipped down the roadway, passing green fields of Reedpods, snaking around yellow and brown cornfields with fields of wheat a few acres back. Soon the homes appeared, round beautifully curved, some appearing as part of a hillside, others weren’t near hills to tuck under. These modern structures made of titanium and coated with Reedpod resin, to protect from the planet’s fire and rain, resembled Shatazar’s terra.
Teeabu hopped out of the hydro-lift and waved back at Boon and Jerron. The home angled under a hill with round pillars eight inches thick, twelve inches apart left way for a door, their portal. Without thought, he rushed into the portal where Yutva met him.
Once a slave to Araidia, she had been one of the few to escape the shielded city. She’d been elected as Mother of Irema, and her dress reflected her religious and political position in the village. The tunic and long skirt luxuriously clung to her figure. A brass collar adorned her graceful neck. An elegant woman, her square jaw and chiseled cheekbones reflected strength, tenacity, and her hair was gathered high like a crown.
The stately woman of mahogany complexion seized his arm. “Where is Delah?” Yutva asked, her hazel eyes widening.
“She went…” Teeabu scanned the room. Glass panels let light shine through. The living room was pristine with a couch, silver and gray pillows, all-glass entertaining table, and white rug.
“What’s wrong?” He asked and stiffened. Her expression was set hard as stone. She narrowed her eyes. He hadn’t done anything wrong today. He had just been inducted as an apprentice into the priesthood. Shiadung! She breathed hard. He had done something wrong.
“Why didn’t you bring her?” Yutva gave Teeabu’s arm a jerk to emphasize the question.
“I… I just left….” He pointed toward the doorway. “She didn’t take the hydro-lift with me. When we got off the train, she said she’d be at the shack and that’s only about ten minutes away from here. Then she took off and--”
“Why didn’t you stop her?” Yutva pursed her lips. “Never mind, never mind. Is Boon still outside?”
“He left to drop everyone off.”
“We have to fetch her.” She loosened her grip on his forearm and rested her quaking hand on his shoulder.
She hadn’t even inquired how the ceremony went. Something was deadly wrong. His heart hiccupped within his chest, drummed in his ears. Why hadn’t he grabbed Delah and demanded that she come home? He’d never seen Yutva so anxious before. She was often demanding and authoritative, but never frightened. She’d never dismiss something important like him not bringing Delah back home.
Yutva rubbed her arms as if it were cold and turned to leave.
Leptis, an Araidian, entered the room. Just when I though trouble can’t get any worse, Teeabu thought. Now Delah’s mother would chime in. He couldn’t wait to leave and find his cousin. He was a priest now holding a high rank, man enough to do this. If he left now, he could find her without any fuss from either of them. Teeabu snatched the card-key from the lamp table and slipped away out of their sight to bring Delah back home safely.
………………………………
“Is something wrong?” Leptis asked.
“Something is very wrong.” Yutva paced back and forth to calm her fears. She prepared herself for this event in her elegant fuchsia and gold embroidered two-piece skirt suit. Long and heavy, the material made a swishing sound from her strides. “The Watchman Ontomus has died. We have to gather the Council of Irema and the Elders now.”
Leptis voice tensed; she rubbed her forehead. “They’ve just had the ceremony. It might not be difficult to contact them.” Her eyes scanned the room. “Have you seen Delah?”
“She’s not here. Our little one is in danger out there. We have to find her. I’m afraid our treaty has been breached. I haven’t received an answer back from Yal. If we don’t act fast enough, there won’t be an Irema.” Yutva shuddered at how cold and calculative she sounded. She couldn’t leave and search for the only child she birthed and longed to hold as her own. Her religious position restricted her from bearing children without a husband. Shaking away the unpleasant thought, she had to take matters into her hand and warn the elders.
“Teeabu!” She turned to tell him to fetch Delah, but he was gone.
Leptis eyes brightened, golden sparkles within her iris nearly covered her eyes, indicating her blood pressure had risen. “How did you know about the Watchman’s death? Do you know what this means?”
Yutva nodded. She knew. It meant chaos and more invasions. Yutva had dependable resources from where she had gotten her information.
“My sources tell me that the Watchman Ontomus’ filthy, blasphemous son of the devil has taken the Chair.”
“Oh no.” Leptis covered her face with hands. “There’s no way out. We’re dead.” She started to breathe erratically, her chest moving up and down.
Yutva grabbed Leptis by her shoulders and hugged her. “We’re not doomed. And my words toward Eyetna were not meant for you. It isn’t good for me to thrash out insults like that and hurt you.” Yutva released the hug and reached for Leptis’ cold hand and held it. “I’m sorry to call him that. He’s still your brother.”
“I can’t believe how evil they are. And Araidians, too! What are we going to do? Delah? She’s out there alone.” Leptis wiped her tears off her cheeks.
“There’s no time to analyze the problem. Hopefully, Yal is still an ally and hasn’t forgotten goodness.”
The Araidian woman reached for Yutva’s arm. “I am so sorry. If I only knew about this beforehand, I could’ve helped.” Leptis kept shaking her head and apologizing for Betha and Eyetna’s deeds.
Yutva wrung her hands and remembered that fateful night when the Watchman’s guards had arrested her and Yal from their marriage bed. Betha-busa and Eyetna had instigated the seizure. It was unheard of, even punishable by death, for a union between an Araidian, especially one of the royal court, and a mere Shatarian slave. Yutva had been grateful for Leptis’ defense before the Watchman Ontomus, supporting their union. But that, too, was futile. This Watchman had been too weak in character to defend the lovers.
Banishment into the poisonous desert was Yutva and Leptis’ sentence, a sure death for anyone with no food and water. And any Araidian would instantly die from inhaling poisonous pollens from the Reedpods.
But Yutva had not died.
Yal, her beloved and husband no more, had been forced to mindling with the Centrex, the Araidian’s central computer, to forget her. Yutva had witnessed the grueling replacement of memory, the pain in Yal’s beautiful light-brown eyes.
She shrugged her shoulders. The Centrex was only a machine and the guardians of the computer, servants. The evidence of Yutva and the Counselor’s love for each other had tied the Watchman’s hands. That had sentenced Yutva and Leptis to die in exile.
Yutva embraced Leptis to calm her and yearned for what could have been. “We could do nothing but survive.”
“Thank you for immunizing Yal and me. I wish he was banished with us, too.”
For many years, Yutva distanced herself from feeling the pain of not being a mother to her child, not having Yal’s arms around her. She shivered, nearly screamed, wanting to burst into tears and let her sanity go. His dark curly hair, full lips, gentle face, strong physique haunted her many nights. Today, she wouldn’t break when her people needed her more now than ever. She straightened up, wiped her eyes.
“No, he surely would’ve been killed. It’s good he’s still alive. Maybe, one day he’ll remember us.” Yutva frowned and rushed to the portal. “We mustn’t loiter. Leptis, fetch Delah for me, please?”
Leptis agreed.
“And find where Teeabu is, quickly! I must gather the council right away. This is urgent.”
After Leptis left to locate the two children, Yutva hastened downstairs to a large console room with terminals, intercoms, and a communication network with detection systems. Leptis had knowledge of these systems and knowledge of the Centrex in Araidia. Yutva remembered the days and nights when her friend had drilled this knowledge into her and taught her every aspect of the equipment.
Today, she would prove her training had not been in vain.
A strange hum came from one of the terminals. She couldn’t quite see the image until a few moments later. She diverted her attention to call other council members when the hum grew loud into an alarm. Dark shadows appeared on the blue-lit screen, they danced closer, small ebony pinpoints that appeared to be ships. It can’t be! Eyetna didn’t wait for the negotiations, that evil….
“Delah!” Yutva cried out. “Teeabu, Leptis! They’re here.”
Yutva turned to run up the ramp, too late. Her ceiling caved in from the explosions. She dove under the console credenza for cover.
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