The train quietly whirred over the tracks as I pondered over what had happened with the High Table. They were sacrificing us, I’d have to be naïve to set that aside, but it was equally a gamble for them too, and now that could be used to our benefit.
Vulcan may be a dangerous man but if we didn’t start playing our cards then I know we aren’t going to be any better off than Commander Norii, he had his chance and it got him nowhere but I’ll be damned if I let that happen to me and my crew.
The train came to a steady stop, pulling me out of my thoughts. I stepped down and looked around the near-empty station, searching for Kellan and Kerin.
“Revan!”
“Over here!”
I turned towards their voices and smiled as I saw them, heading towards them. Kerin rushed towards me and started questioning me about what had happened while Kellan discreetly looked for any injuries.
“It’s alright, I am completely fine,” I assured them, trying to calm them down.
“What happened? Why did they call you?” Kellan asked as Kerin nodded.
“A lot happened. But not here. Let’s go somewhere safer.” I whispered, recalling Vulcan’s eyes everywhere. They looked at me, confused, but nodded in acceptance and followed me towards the exit.
…
“Revan, what are you doing? What is going on?” Kerin asked as I went through the room, scanning it thoroughly in every nook and corner for any hidden devices.
“Shhh,” I whispered as I drew the curtains and double-checked the doors. Kellan and Kerin watched me with concern as I looked around once more. Finally feeling satisfied I sat down with a sigh on the chair.
“What?” I asked as I saw them looking at me anxiously.
“What? What do you mean? You are the one who is behaving oddly. Taking us to some random hotel and now closing all the curtains and checking it over like we are some criminals. You tell us what’s going on.” Kellan asked impatiently as he crossed his arms.
Kerin rolled her eyes at his dramatics and looked over at me, “He’s right Rev, you’re acting oddly. What happened there? Are we in danger?”
I looked at them both, preparing myself for the onslaught about to come my way as I began, “It’s a bit complicated…”
…
“Complicated?! You have got to be kidding me! Revan are you insane?! We won’t even get past the first hour on that planet. It’s a crumbling piece of rock!” Kellan yelled in frustration as he paced the length of the room with his hands fisted in his hair.
Kerin sat hunched over in the corner frowning at me, “So, what are you not saying?”
I looked over at her in surprise, “What do you mean?”
“You are keeping something from us. You would have never accepted this in the first place, so what’s the actual reason?”
Kellan stopped his rant midway through to look at me with worry, “Is she right? Is there some other reason?”
I sighed and rubbed my face in exhaustion, “Yea, you’re right. At the meeting when they asked me to do this, I declined stating that it was too dangerous but then Vulcan played his hand… he was having you two watched, and he very clearly mentioned that if I were to decline then I’d be short of two friends.”
They were silent for a while before bursting out in unison,
“He can’t do that!”
“That bastard! How dare he?”
“Can we complain to someone?”
“Oh, come on Kerin, you know no one can touch the High Table.”
I raised my hand to silence them as I stood up and started pacing the length of the room thinking about what I wanted to do. Kellan and Kerin watched me quietly, I knew no matter what I could trust them, and that’s what I was going to need to win this game.
“I want to do this.”
Kellan’s face flushed with anger. “If you think-!”
“For us.”
He stopped midway through and asked in surprise, “What?”
“What do you mean Rev?” Kerin asked in concern as she leaned against the wall looking as exhausted as I felt.
I looked around once more, checking to make sure Vulcan’s assassins weren’t hidden in the dark corners. Kellan and Kerin twitched uneasily at my newfound habit, “I mean let’s go to this planet and dig for the Oxinophilicate, but this time let’s do it for us, and not the High Table.”
They stood there watching me for a while, speechless before Kerin began, “Revan, this is madness.”
Kellan snorted, “Madness is putting it lightly.”
I laughed darkly and made my way towards and pulled away the curtains, gesturing to the dark and dingy city below. Lazy spirals of smoke drifted along the crooked roofs as people tried their best to keep warm in the harsh weather, their thin walls and thinner roofs hardly providing them with any protection from the cold weather.
“Is this what we want for ourselves guys? Or for the ones that we love? For Commander Norii’s family? We hardly make it through winter, and we are the lucky ones. Kerin, things are only marginally better for you in the Inter-Nav Unit and even that is not to say much. How long do we live like this? From hand to mouth, barely scraping together enough to have a roof over our heads. Don’t we deserve more?”
I panted as I finished my speech, Kellan and Kerin stood stunned as they looked at me,
“Brother, we understand but how do we even do this? The High Table has spies everywhere.” Kellan said as he began pacing once more.
“Not to mention their ships are retrofitted with trackers and have remote control functions.” Kerin chimed in.
“Don’t worry about that, I specially requested to have the ship and the equipment scanned and tested myself so that we can find a way to work around the trackers and scanners,” I said as I took out the stamped documents provided to me by Lord Vulcan showcasing the terms of the deal. Their eyebrows were raised in surprise as they went through the document and its contents.
“This, wow, Revan this is great. How did you get them to agree to this? Providing for Commander Norii’s family? That’s wonderful.” Kerin laughed as she went over everything.
Kellan chuckled as he looked over at me, “This is something brother, way to go but how do we do all this? Getting all the crates and avoiding detection and if we do succeed in all that where do we hide? There is nowhere on Bhaillemorien where the BMA’s can’t reach us… where the High Table can’t reach us.”
Kellan’s face was pale as he looked over at me in worry and I went over and grasped his shoulder, “Don’t worry. Do you think I thought of all this without having a plan? Trust me, I have thought this through, and I won’t let them win, and I sure as hell won’t let my crew get killed.”
“So, what do we do then? What’s the plan?” Kerin asked, handing the documents back to me.
I smirked as I looked at them, “First we call in our crew.”
Kellan laughed as he took out his communicator, “I got that covered.”
Kerin rolled her eyes at Kellan and smiled as I looked at her, “Yea, yea, I’ll get started on the navigation route.”
“This is going to be fun.”
…
The Digger Specialist Unit (DSU) was the reason that Bhaillemorien was able to breathe today but no one would ever acknowledge that the Primonirs lords have rewritten our stories so well that at this point we were nothing but an afterthought in the pages of our history.
Scum, thieves, and good for nothing were the words that people used for us when they saw us. People tried any possible way to switch Units; either by getting through the university or by trading whatever they could. It was hard to climb these walls, and many have died trying.
But I had realized a long time ago that running away from here was never going to work, they’d always know where you are from. For them once a low level, always a low level, no amount of trading was going to change that.
So, instead, I decided to climb up the ranks of the DSU and hone my skills into something that could not be avoided or ignored. I entered the specialist ranks right out of the university surprising everyone and was recruited for the High Table expeditions from the beginning with Kellan and Kerin working right alongside me having excelled in their skill sets.
Kellan and I trained for the primary engineer positions to maneuver and handle the D.I.G.G.E.R in high-risk terrains while Kerin became an Inter-Nav specialist, this was when we came by the rest of our crew.
From the shadiest of bars to the smartest corners of the university, each member was unique, boasting a skill set that not many had. We had hand-picked them and worked alongside them for years. There were ups and downs, sometimes I did contemplate strangling some of them in their sleep, but it was worth it because they held the one thing that mattered the most to us, loyalty.
Jensen was the very first to join us, built like a tank with a weather-beaten face and hands scarred from handling heavy explosives day after day, few would choose to cross him. He had stood by us through the years. He handled the tricky job of cracking open the land to allow us to get started. It was well known that should we do this wrong then the entire expedition is a wasted effort.
Simone Renkiens was the next to join us, Kerin was the one to come across her in a dark alley beating up two men into a mush for crossing her. Kerin being Kerin was impressed by this and asked her on the spot if she’d like to join us. She is the crew handler now, even Jensen does not cross her, and I am not surprised considering she towers over the rest of us with rippling muscles with the face of an angel.
Kohney and Lam were Kellans pick, the trickster twins were well known amongst the shadier side of the community for being expert robbers. There wasn’t a place they couldn’t get into if they put their mind to it. How? Well, they did it by digging through. With the ability to navigate through a variety of terrain, there wasn’t a surface that they couldn’t master.
I met Lauren and Neave at the university, they were in the same year as me and managed to outshine me in many ways but what set them truly apart from the rest of us was their fearlessness in getting up close and personal with the Oxinophilicate in its raw form. They managed to reach places that the D.I.G.G.E.R couldn’t, at least not without triggering gas pockets. Their extraction ability was priceless.
It was a harsh path to traverse and there were times when I felt that we couldn’t make it but time after time they all proved me wrong, and now we worked together like a well-oiled machine. If only Commander Norii had listened to me, but his judgment was clouded by others and what they said, “They are criminals! I can’t allow them on board!”
Kellan and I argued with him for hours, saying how it was madness to go with an untrained crew, but he refused to listen to reason. In the end, he agreed to allow Kerin and Jensen alone and that was only due to having worked with them before.
It didn’t help much in the end, one after the other mistakes were made, and people died.
But not this time. I wouldn’t allow it.
…
“Kohney and Lam are on their way.”
“I hope you didn’t tell them much; Vulcan might be having our communicators tapped.”
Kellan nodded as he sat down in the chair beside me, “Obviously. You don’t need to be worried about that. I just told them that we just wanted to have a chat.”
“Great.” I sighed in relief.
“What about you? Any luck getting in touch with Lauren and Neave?” He asked.
“Yep. They said they’ll drop by in an hour or two.”
“It’s impossible to catch hold of them.”
“Does that surprise you?”
“No. I can understand.” Kellan muttered, a dark look crossing over his face.
Lauren was the daughter of a wealthy Lord from Primonir but she wasn’t legally his, no one knew who was her mother but from her almost translucently pale skin and purple eyes, people believed her mother was one of the Others. She was abandoned from birth at an Orphanage where she met Neave, who protected her fiercely from the cruelty and judgment of the people.
“People are dicks.” Kellan growled as I nodded in acknowledgment.
“Guys!” Kerin exclaimed as she came bounding in, “I called Jensen and Simone. They are on their way here right now.”
I clapped my hands together and stood up, “Perfect! Alright, guys let’s clear up and make some space. There’s a lot to discuss once they get here, we have no time to waste.”
…
“You fool! How dare you?” Lord Deneidier Vulcan ducked as another glass vase was thrown his way.
“Erenia! That is enough. Compose yourself!” He growled as he caught her in his arms and spun her around.
“Don’t you dare tell me what to do! You of all people. I made you! You were nothing but another upstart with a titled name. My family paved your way, it is House Krosf’s money and power that lines your coffers!” She hissed as she fought against him, her scarlet nails digging into his skin.
“I understand my dear but right now you are not behaving befitting the station of any House, so compose yourself, continue in this vein like an animal and I’ll have you thrown with the hounds in kennels.” He said coldly as he fisted her thick brown hair and flung her aside.
Coughing, she gathered herself, “For centuries we built this empire, Primonir, a land untouched by filth. A monument to our power and purity, and now you allow it to be associated with the lowest of the low?! And for what? Some rocks?!”
“Wretched woman! Those rocks are what keep you clothed in your finery!”
“No, Vulcan. We command every single Oxinophilicate upon this land. No, your greed is something else entirely. There is only so much one can eat before the hunger turns on itself and consumes you. You played this hand to exert your control over the Houses but remember that they value purity above all else. You are spending our coffers on a DSU member. You allowed him to dictate our terms! You took Primonirian money to spend on some idiot’s child!” She spat.
“Woman. It was for us! Imagine the power we will hold, the purest of ores, air as breathable as on Earth. No stings and burns every time we breathe. We won’t choke, we won’t hurt. Can you imagine how the people will kneel before us? To feel that? It will power weaponry at a level never before seen. People will trade their lives for it. We will rule over everyone.” He laughed, his white eyes glowing with power.
Erenia giggled and sashayed towards him, her green eyes aglow, “My poor Deneidier, always striving to climb above others.” Vulcan barely managed to turn before she was upon him, pinning him down under her voluptuous curves, her nails cutting into his cheeks as she turned his face towards her, “Remember husband, House Krosf supports you for now, but should your ploy fail, then we will make sure to go over House Vulcans legal paperwork very minutely, and every transgression will be dealt with harshly. We are the House of Judgement of course; law is ever so important.” She laughed and got off him, making her way towards the door to leave before turning one last time to look at him, “You don’t cut deals with snakes Vulcan, sooner or later they will bite.”
The door slammed shut, Lord Vulcan stared at it for a while, lost deep in thought.
…
“So, what have you called us here for?”Kohney asked as he stretched out lazily on the couch while his twin perched on the couch’s arm like some sort of overgrown bird.
“There is a mission, and we have been assigned to it,” I replied.
“Woo woo! Money time.” Lam yelled.
“About time,” Jensen grunted as Neave and Lauren smiled in excitement.
“That’s great news Revan. Where is it though?” Simone asked me.
Now comes the hard part I thought as I looked over at Kerin and Kellan for support, they nodded in support, I took a deep breath as I looked at the rest of the crew, “It is in sector 2, planet Killigan.”
Everyone was silent for a while, puzzled at the name but Jensen recognized it instantly and stood up as he stared at us thunderously, “Have you lost yer mind, boy!”
Simone frowned at him in consternation, “Jensen! Calm down.”
“Yea man, why are you yelling?” Lam asked, looking puzzled.
I raised a hand to calm them, “Jensen has every right to be mad at me. Planet Killigan is the same planet we went to on our previous expedition, the one where Commander Norii died.”
The silence was stifling as everyone turned to look at me.
“We heard that planet is extremely unstable Revan,” Lauren whispered, her purple eyes glowing in the light.
“It is.” Kerin agreed as she made her way forward, “It is extremely unstable, littered with gas pockets, and can explode at any time.”
“Well, then why are we going?!” Kohney cried out, looking lost.
“Is it because it is an order? Because you can deny them Revan. “You aren’t compelled to accept,” Neave said with concern.
“She is right Revan,” Simone said quietly.
“Not this time. The High Table commanded him.” Kellan said, his voice laced with fury.
“Fuck em’ boy! Tell them it ain’t possible. We don’t want their money, there are other expeditions.” Jensen growled in anger.
I laughed darkly, silencing everyone, “Oh no, Jensen. This one we are taking and not for them, for us.”
I narrated the whole story watching the surprise, anger, and excitement flit across their faces. I leaned back against the wall looking at them, “Well? What do you think? Do you all want to do this? Remember, you can back out of this, none of us will compel you. It is always your choice.”
The crew looked at me steadily, they looked nervous but determined. I knew I had my answer.
“For the first time we get to dig for ourselves, you think we will leave? Not a chance!” The twins cried out in unison.
“It is a risky bid, but I don’t mind. This mark is ours.” Simone smirked at me.
“I still feel this is madness boy, but I’ve never abandoned ya before, and I’m not doing it now,” Jensen grumbled, glaring at us through his bushy eyebrows.
“Revan, we don’t mind but how do we even do this? What is the plan? The High Table will have us watched and monitored constantly; it is their crates after all.” Neave said in concern as Lauren nodded, grasping her hand for comfort.
“I know. We will be monitored constantly, and it will be impossible to get rid of them, that’s why we go to people that they won’t be able to monitor; they refuse to monitor them.”
Everyone looked at me in confusion, finally, Kellan asked me, “Who?”
“The Others.”
Once more the silence lay like a heavy blanket before they all began protesting.
“Revan, have you lost your mind?!”
“They are not like us!”
“We know nothing about them!”
“They are not human!”
“They are not one of us.”
“Enough!” I cried out, “Look at us. We are turning them away just because they aren’t like us because we consider ourselves above them for some reason. Then what makes us any different? How are we different from the High Table? From the people of Primonir?”
Everyone became quiet, lost in their thoughts.
“Where do we even find them then?” Kerin asked.
“Simple. We take the train.” I replied.
Kellan laughed as he thumped my shoulder, “In plain sight, I see,” His face became serious as he continued, “ I don’t like this Revan, but I can see what you are planning to do.”
“This is madness,” Lam muttered as he looked at me.
“But we’ll stand by you.” Said Kohney as the rest of the crew nodded.
“We will leave at first light tomorrow. I had drafted some of the Others for assistance when Commander Norii had encountered excessive ship damage, I have kept their contacts in case something went wrong. They were trustworthy, and it’s not much I know but it is a start, and this is one place that the High Table cannot reach, and we are going to use it to the best of our ability.”
“Aye Commander.” They cried in unison.
…
The Others not much is known about them save that they were always there, on the very fringes of our galaxy but we had never really crossed paths with them or maybe we had just refused to acknowledge them.
There had always been evidence of their existence, but mankind had decried it as weather balloons or some sort of weather phenomena mixed in with a healthy dose of hallucinations. They were wrong. The Others had been visiting Earth for a long time, trying to understand their ways and behavior.
They had found the human species very interesting, their battle for dominance amused them but they never found them interesting enough to establish contact with them, they weren’t clever enough yet. So, they kept their distance.
This didn’t last for long, because when the Crumbling occurred, it had begun with the galaxy of the Others since they had existed far longer than us, but nothing could have prepared them for this, they never thought fate would play them a cruel hand. The Others, except a select few, never even thought of putting up a fight, they faded along with their planets.
The ones who did survive fought tooth and nail to breathe, they tried every possible way and worked together on various solutions but nothing was permanent, that is when they came across Bhaillemorien. It was their last chance.
Putting aside their pride and seeking to survive the disaster, they established contact with humans. It was safe to say that mankind was never the same. There was a flurry of panic with a liberal dose of fear, there were those who were curious to see how different the Others were from them, but the fear of aliens drove them back.
Eventually, they gave in and that was when the Others first stepped foot into Bhaillemorien. It was first decided that the Others would simply be given basic provisions and sent away but the Others pleaded to stay, promising to work and help the humans improve their world, to better it.
This was their first mistake.
The humans took everything from them; their knowledge, their expertise, and their strength, in the end, they were rewarded with a tiny corner of Bhaillemorien in which to survive in. It was the Others who first helped to mine the Oxinophilicate from complex terrains, but House Vulcan claimed it all and spread vicious stories of how the aliens knew nothing and tried to steal from them.
Hounded and hunted with no place to run, the Others stayed within their sectors looking for ways to survive.
…
The bar was crowded, and the speakers blared with music that we had never heard before; a slow beat mixed with undertones of something close to flutes. The air hung heavy with the scent of cigarette smoke and burning wood. Figures gyrated on the dance floors, bodies that we humans couldn’t comprehend.
“Guys, look at that! That guy has four arms!”
“Leave that Kohney! Look at that, they have horns on their head!”
“Kellan, Lam! Pipe down, now.” Simone hissed quietly as the Others started turning around to look at us and began whispering amongst themselves. Kerin moved closer towards me as a snake-like creature reached towards her with its tiny paws. I felt a little glad I had left Jensen with Lauren and Neave at the hotel to arrange for supplies, somehow I knew his reaction would have been much worse.
“Humans?”
“Why are they here?”
“They look so weird.”
A large one with vicious-looking fangs started making his way toward us before someone called out in a deep rumble, “Rizval! Stop. They are with me.”
The large one turned around and grunted, “Yes, Chief,” before walking away.
“My God,” Kellan whispered as the next figure started approaching us. Large, larger than the one before it and built like a tank with huge, pierced ears and a trunk, he looked like a cross between a man, an elephant, and something unknown. Large horns curled over his head like a ram and his tusks moved as he grinned showing his fangs. His six red eyes glowed in the light as he looked down on us.
“I hope the place wasn’t too hard to find for you Revan.”
“Not at all Ka’al. Surprised to see you here instead of at the shop though.”
“Ah, business isn’t booming much, not enough ore to work with,” he said with a touch of frustration as his trunk moved agitatedly.
“I understand my friend, which is why we are here.”
His eyes bored down at us with intensity before he finally looked away, “I see. How can I be of help?”
“Maybe somewhere more private?” I asked quietly, gesturing towards the steadily growing crowd of people that were watching us curiously.
“Agreed, after you.” He gestured with his multiple arms towards a door at the back.”
Nodding, we started moving towards the door.
“My God,” Kellan whispered again.
