Well, hasn't this been an interesting day, thought Colonel Berut. Ever since that retaliation the aliens gave us a few days ago, every military and political personnel has been on my case.
The aliens past the Conduit were giving the marines of PSI more trouble then expected. Luckily the Emperor saw fit to congratulate me on a fine retreat and a minimum loss of life.
"Major Xentan, please report to my office immediately," he called into his intercom. He should be here any minute, he thought.
Major Xentan, while relatively new to the project, had been showing promise lately. He was the one that had prevented heavy casualties.
Give him ten more years of military experience and he could be deadly.
Finally the Major knocked on his door. "Come in," Berut called.
Xentan entered. Being only 5'9" and small-framed, he looked like he would have been a geek in his teens. But the small twenty-four year old was nothing short of a military genius waiting to blossom.
"All right, Major. Take a seat and give me your forces report."
"Yes sir," came the crisp reply. "We lost only twenty-two percent of our forces in the last battle. We still have fourteen aircraft operational, with three more almost complete. Also, the Emperor has seen fit to make available six units of his Special Forces and five of his aircraft."
"Good, good. With those new forces ready we should be able to take back all of the lost ground, correct Major?"
"Yes sir, no problem."
"Then get right on it," Berut told him.
Major Xentan stood up, saluted, and walked out of the office.
Yes, with just a bit more experience I could give him the problem of the Rebels and information regarding their hiding place. I would almost bet he could find them within a month. Berut leaned back in his chair and laughed softly into the darkness.
Frankly, Jakar needed to either get off now, or see if Dacota would hire him to work on his ship. He would have to ask him next time they were alone.
After being with Dacota, Lyta and the crew, he could tell there was a bond between all of them. The crew watched out for Lyta, making sure nothing would ever hurt her. Lyta liked to cheer up the men that worked on the ship by singing songs, dancing at night, or just talking to them.
Dacota watched it all from a distance, yet was an intricate part of it. The only problem was that Jakar didn't know what notch he filled.
Maybe I should just give up running and hiding and start a new life, one that can be enjoyable. He turned toward the town. I think I am going to find me a new sword today. With that thought in mind he headed out to start shopping.
He waited till a small bike had crossed then started toward the shop. When he got inside he looked around. The sword shop was evidently not doing very well. The fact that it only had about six different swords in the whole place, not to mention the empty displays showed that the store had seen better days.
"Excuse me," he called out, "But I am interested in getting one of your swords."
An old man came walking slowly out of the backroom. "Well look around and get you one."
"Aren't you gonna help me find one?"
"Sonny," he replied, "Do I look like I could even lift a sword?"
"All right, fine. I will pick one out myself." He picked up and swung around all of the swords finally choosing a very interesting one. It had no blade really, just a very hard flat edge on it. Not flashy but now Jakar saw he could use this and not really kill every hit with it.
"I am going to take this one Gramps, how much will you give me for my old sword?"
"No more then seven hundred fifty-four danras, the one you are holding is eleven hundred forty-three danras."
"I have the money," Jakar said. He gave the old man his old sword and had the man drill two holes in the new one. Then he reached into his pocket and got his money wallet out. After paying the man, he walked out of the store.
Stopping and slowly turning around as though he was just taking in the sites, he got a good look at him. From the bulk of his jacket he must have some kind of gun in there and maybe a short sword as well. Then he saw the emblem on the side of the jacket. A picture of Mystica with a special sword going straight thought it. By the Guardian Chatorn, they have finally found me!
All logical thought left his mind as Jakar turned and gave himself away as he ran full blast into an alley. They are not going to catch me! I will not go back! The alley halted in a dead end, but instead of stopping and turning around he ran straight for the wall. If the guy is right behind me then this trick will give me at least five more seconds. Besides I can't turn around, if I do he has me.
When Jakar reached the wall he ran right up it for two steps then flipped backwards off of it. He landed with his opponent's back to him. His gamble had worked. He quickly pulled out his sword and lunged at the man's head. But the hunter must have known what he was going to do, for he rolled out of the way and came up with a pistol in his hand.
"Stop right there, Jakar Nerak. I know who you are. I won't kill you, but you better stop or I will shoot you."
Jakar kept his sword up but didn't advance on him. "What do you want?"
"Why, just you of course. Officer 1st class Jakar Nerak formerly of SIGS."
"I left that a long time ago. You can't take me back."
"I am not a bounty hunter if that is what you are thinking. I am a special agent of SIGS sent to bring you back. They would like their experiment returned to them. Unharmed preferably. If not, they understand."
Jakar was becoming more and more frightened. "You can't just take people and play with their bodies as you please, it isn't right!" he was screaming by now with anger and fear.
"Easy Nerak, your eyes are starting to glow."
"I don't care," he screamed. Then somewhere deep within his mind something surfaced again. He chanted something very quickly and then pointed toward the man. The ground began to shake.
"Nerak, stop that or I will shoot you!" he said but his voice was shaky. "STOP IT!"
He fired at him but a rock appeared out of nowhere and hit the bullet. Another rock came and crushed the gun.
"I am not going back," Jakar said in a very mystical sounding voice. He chanted one more time and a great rumble began. A scream of pain came from the SIGS agent and then it was over. A spire of rock had come up from the ground and impaled him.
Jakar shook his head to stop his eyes. He slowly calmed down. I have to get out of here. If someone finds me with this guy and how he died, I am going to be in big trouble. Jakar very quickly left the alley. But something happened that he did not see. The spire disappeared.
"Are you ok Jakar?" she asked him.
He turned toward her, "Yeah I think I am," he took a deep breath and continued, "Has our passenger arrived yet?"
"Nope, but they are late so something could be holding it up."
"Ok, fine...." He trailed off as a small med. transport unit came up to the gangway.
As they started to unload their passenger Dacota came running down telling the crew to go to their quarters now, even Lyta and Jakar. "Yeah, take him to my quarters. He will be most comfortable there." Finally he turned toward them. "Would you two please go to your rooms?"
"Yeah sure. No problem, Dacota," Jakar told him. But as they turned to go Lyta saw who the passenger was.
Duncaan Keriador?!?!? That is the special passenger? Then Jakar grabbed her arm and took her to her room.
Duncaan looked up at him. "Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes Dacota," he said.
"You too, old friend,” He walked over to Duncaan as he stood up and gave him a quick hug.
Then Duncaan sat back down in his chair. His gray eyes looked into Dacota and they still looked the same as they had the first time he had met Duncaan.
It was around ten years ago that they had first met. Dacota had been loading cargo onto his ship when five men with weapons came at him to steal his cargo. Dacota had pulled out his spear, but he knew he couldn't fight them all. Then out of nowhere a young man, a teenager even, had dropped off the top of a building and quickly took two of them down. During the next few minutes the young man was just a blur of kicks, punches and martial arts moves. The whole fight took about two minutes after Dacota got involved.
"Thanks, I owe you mate," Dacota had told him.
"No problem, my name is Duncaan Keriador, and I need a ride to Endori."
"You have it! I will take you anywhere you need to go."
Ever since then, Dacota had taken Duncaan just about everywhere to all of his matches. The rest was history.
All of this went through Dacota's mind in two seconds as he now looked at his friend. He had heard about what had happened of course, and had immediately come to take him to Los Juegos to let Duncaan recover.
Duncaan had an arm in a movable sling, his chest had been taped up and some kind of medical device was on them. His face looked like it had been beaten to a pulp but looked better now. He also was walking with a limp.
"So, how are you feeling Duncaan?"
"Well considering I can never fight professionally again, can't move more then three feet away from Faith, and have this really painful limp, good."
Dacota smiled at him. "You could never fool me Duncaan. You are in a lot more pain then that aren't you?"
Duncaan nodded. "Yeah, every breath is a struggle. But I'll heal over time."
"Well, I just wanted to come down here and see how you were doing. We will be in Los Juegos in about three days, so you should be comfortable."
As Dacota got up Duncaan suddenly grabbed his arm. "Dacota, just to tell you PSI is looking for me."
"Why would they be doing that?" he asked.
"I don't know why. I just wanted to warn you to double your guard. And if they do find this ship let them have me. I don't want any of you to be hurt," Duncaan told him.
Dacota looked at him. "All right, I will do that for you. Watches will be doubled and I will take care of you." With that Dacota left the cabin.
Dacota walked down the hallway a bit before Jakar and Lyta joined him. "Dacota, was that Duncaan Keriador in there?" Lyta asked him.
"Yes. that was him. But you can't tell anyone that he is aboard."
"Fine. We promise, Dacota," Jakar told him, "But I also have a question for you."
"Shoot," Dacota said.
"I don't want to wear out my welcome on this ship, so if you are going to continue taking me everywhere with you, will you let me help out with running the ship?" he asked Dacota.
"Sure I will let you do that. Perri will tell you what you can do. Go to him tomorrow. I think I am going for a swim now. Oh, also tell Perri to set course for Los Juegos. I will catch up later."
"Yes sir," Jakar said, then he ran up to the deck.
As Dacota and Lyta came up to the top deck, the men were talking quietly among themselves. "Hey boys, don't stay up too long playing trasad."
"Yes sir." they told him, then got back to their game.
Dacota stripped off his shirt. "I will be back in about three hours Lyta, until then watch out for Faith and get anything she needs ok?"
"No problem Dacota."
He then turned and dove into the sea. When he hit the water all his problems seemed to flow out of him like an evening tide.
