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 Chapter One

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter One

    ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    ¡°You must help me, now!¡±

    The unpleasant summons pulled Kiena from her peaceful contemplation, igniting her temper. There was just enough Vrill edging the demand to compel her into a full manifestation inside the bedroom of the fifteen-year-old Soek boy who called himself WareHawk in his online electronic games. As expected, he lay belly-down on a filthy floor littered with fouled clothing, empty food containers and plastic trash. She could barely tell where boy ended and trash began.

    He glared up at the blue-edged apparition with its wedge-shaped face, vertical eye slits, antelope-style ears, twisted dual-horns and almost-human naked female body. If he squinted she might almost look cool or even sexy, except for too many joints on her fingers and ugly-as-hell elongated feet. He reactively flinched, as he did each time she manifested, a reminder of her reality in his preferred world of gaming illusion. ¡°It¡¯s killing me.¡± He yelled, jabbing his right index finger toward the new wall-sized screen where a multi-colored, near life-sized monster threw bolts of flashing light toward his virtual gaming character.

    The display had holographic dimensions and she could see an electronic halo surrounding his chest and hands. Unacceptable. It made the online monster¡¯s bolts appear to cross the space between the wall and the boy in a realistic attack sequence. Unacceptable.

    She looked at the paper-thin screen coating the entire inside wall, a new gift from the Soek boy¡¯s foster parents for his birth memory. She spat to one side, an arc of blue-white energy flashing from her mouth to the floor leaving a real-life burn hole in the fire-proof carpet. It smoldered in the plastic entrails of the carpet fibers.

    Mick lurched to one side, yelping aloud. ¡°Hey, don¡¯t do that, my mum will skin me when she finds another hole.¡±

    Kiena could smell his unwashed musk and near biological readiness for mating. Mick Huxley, a one-time abandoned infant boy found in a fire-station baby safe box in a distant village, an infant quickly passed into the adoption process of a nearby city where unblemished male infants were valued.

    He squealed again as the online monster continued its attack. He didn¡¯t like looking at her, it always made him uneasy.

    Fostering, she thought, what a joke. It was easy enough for her to follow the electronic network flowing like a cobweb inside the wall structure, through dozens of other devices in the home, most lurking in watching resting mode. She traced the feed outward to a junction box into a larger network built into atomic electronic pillars that branched spherically into collection stations and generators. The air hummed with off-key harmonics she found dirty and annoying. Humans.

    He demanded she help him. The Vrill touch in his voice made that demand an imperative she was forced to accept as part of the bargain between them. She located the largest collection generator and gestured with her Vrill hand, sweeping through billions of connections and blowing the mechanical support devices within a mile radius. The bedroom went dark. She sniffed, the smell of burning electricity spreading like a virus as devices connected to the blown system acted like electronic dominos blowing out in a wave-like cascade effect. The controller in the Soek¡¯s hands flashed, burning his fingertips and palms where the glove-like device fitted to his body. He screamed, clawing the device off to shove his fingers one after another into his mouth trying to ease the burn pain.

    ¡°Yeow!¡± He scrambled to his feet revealing he was wearing his typical slender black pants and sloppy black t-shirt embellished with faded lettering in a language she couldn¡¯t read. He wasn¡¯t an unpleasant looking Soek to her eyes. He had regular features, long, thick dark hair hastily restrained in a hair tie, angular facial lines with prominent cheek bones and the light amber colored eyes of the Pasht peoples. He was long past old enough to be learning real skills. She snorted. He danced away from the sound, now wary.

    ¡°What did you do?¡± He yelled at her.

    ¡°I helped you.¡± Kiena said, her English rusty but understandable.

    ¡°What do you mean? My controller is fried. How is burning my hands helping me?¡±

    ¡°It was necessary to remove the dirty electronic halo trapping you to that wall device. I have eliminated the problem.¡±

    ¡°Dirty electronic halo? Do you have any clue how expensive this top-of-the-line Mark 9 controller system is? My parents will remove my privileges for life when they discover what you¡¯ve done.¡±

    ¡°Likely they will have to, as you say, stand in line.¡± She answered.

    Rubbing his hands against his pants he realized she was the major light source in the room. How was that possible? It was the first time he¡¯d ever seen her stand still long enough to radiate light. ¡°What do you mean? You were only supposed to help me kill that game monster.¡±

    ¡°I have tired of your play monsters young Soek. Real ones wait and those who know the difference will be attracted by the destruction of this electronic network. I suggest you pack some clothing so we can leave, unless you want to explain why this act of terrorism initiated in your bedroom?¡±

    ¡°Terrorism?¡± Mick stared at the apparition, realizing it was actively talking to him, like an adult. It hadn¡¯t done that before either. Usually it just appeared and helped him win his games. His stomach tightened, something was terribly wrong. It was acting like a person.

    ¡°Yes. Humans will identify the abrupt removal of an electronic network as evidence of warfare. They will be correct. They are a fearful race and will seek a source. Your birth records will be explored with more care, your blood work run, your identity scrutinized and you will correctly be identified as an enemy of the state, a non-human Soek.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean a non-human? What is a Soek? Being adopted doesn¡¯t make me non-human.¡±

    ¡°No, but digging up a cemetery on a moonless night to recover old bones when you were thirteen suggests issues, don¡¯t you think?¡±

    ¡°You made me do that.¡±Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Yes, I did.¡± Kiena acknowledged. ¡°Pack, I can smell ripples even now.¡±

    ¡°Ripples of what?¡± He asked his anxiety expanding.

    ¡°Disturbances in what humans call their electronic shell. They are tracing you even now. You should bring portable food and good shoes. You are too clumsy to be a successful thief. Extra socks and underwear too. You can learn to wash them for awhile.¡±

    Mick glared at her, what was she saying? She was just some kind of holo thing he had made up in his head. He thought he probably suffered from some new schizophrenia associated with online gaming mental illnesses because she was clearly outside his gaming environment and that wasn¡¯t possible.

    ¡°Move.¡± Her voice altered, some new edge prodded his mind and he watched himself moving, stuffing clean and dirty clothing into his best school pack including socks and underwear. He had a pair of good hiking short boots that he pulled on over his dirty socks. He grabbed a jacket, outdoor gloves and a snuggy cap and his multi-functional pocket knife and then he was hurrying down the dark stairs to grab a few handfuls of packaged nutrient bars and his mother¡¯s favorite portable waterclean jug. He stepped out the side door and into a world of chaos, discovering his neighbors yelling at each other, electric vehicles stalled out in the street, phones not functional, everything electrical was dead.

    He instinctively tucked his head down and hurried away, heading toward the edge of the neighborhood where a greenzone wove through the entire city. He no longer saw Kiena but the compulsion of her words continued to infect him, he kept moving, wondering what she meant suggesting he wasn¡¯t human. It felt like a game environment in a way except he didn¡¯t feel in control like he should. He wasn¡¯t surprised when his footsteps led him to her hiding place. It was nearing night when he stopped by the shrub-covered rocks. He didn¡¯t want to dig it up again. Terror oozed into his mouth with a bitter taste. Most of the time he managed to forget about the entire incident, like it never happened.

    He forced himself to climb a nearby rise, a vista viewpoint that overlooked the city. He expected to see lights, what he saw was only a few dim lights from small generators, the city was dark. The enormity of the size of the blackout sank in. Was she right? Would they trace the outage to his bedroom, to him?

    ¡°Kiena?¡± He gasped out her name.

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    He jumped sideways and turned to find her barely visible in the fading glow of the last of the sunlight.

    ¡°What did you do?¡± He gestured at the dark city.

    ¡°I told you, I swept one of their larger connector generator centers. Now, you will empty your pack and recover my bone sack. They will be tracing the molcom implanted in your brain and that locator your parents implanted in your shoulder when they adopted you. The locator first as you will be seen as an immature adult for a short time, the molcom after that. First, my bones.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going home. You are full of shit. I didn¡¯t do anything wrong but play my video game.¡±

    ¡°With me in the room.¡± Kiena was enjoying being away from the electronic prison of the neighborhood and city. It would be even better once they got further away, into the quiet and clean of the real world.

    ¡°You aren¡¯t real.¡± Mick said it aloud. ¡°You are just a figment of my overactive imagination. Everyone says that¡¯s my problem, I hear and see things that aren¡¯t there. That¡¯s why my mom took me to that psychiatrist so many times. He told her as long as they limited my games to RPG and three hours per day I would be fine.¡±

    ¡°And, you are going to say you adhere to those limits?¡± Kiena asked, using ring waves to check for approaching human signatures. So far, the nearby area remained clear. This close to her bones her abilities were strong. Still, she knew time was short, they needed to find a good graveyard before cutting out the Soek¡¯s locator.

    ¡°So, if I am not real, you can¡¯t be juiced by me. Right?¡± She continued, hardly listening to his chatter.

    ¡°What do you mean, juiced?¡±

    ¡°I gore you with what you call energy. If you are correct, if I¡¯m not real, nothing happens. If I am real, you will writhe in pain and delay us.¡±

    ¡°Gore me?¡± He didn¡¯t like the sound of that, not while looking at her twisting horns that seemed even brighter than before, as if they really did conduct energy. He shook his head, he had to get a grip.

    ¡°I do have horns.¡± Kiena gestured with her head as if enjoying his thoughts.

    ¡°You aren¡¯t real.¡± Mick insisted. ¡°You are blue like a blue holograph.¡±

    ¡°You see poorly due to sloth and lack of training.¡± Kiena swung her head again. She was enjoying the thought of goring the boy, it would be fun.

    ¡°My eyes are perfect, the eye doctor who checked me said so.¡±

    ¡°For a human, your eyes are minimally average. For a Soek, your eyes are barely able to see me so you equate that minimal vision to what I am. Fool. Like all Soek, you are stupid.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not stupid.¡±

    ¡°You know next to nothing. You are weak and give in to your inner desires when you know they are faulty. You lie to yourself. Weak. Stupid.¡±

    Mick recoiled. He sometimes did have thoughts that everything around him was sort of like his online games, a layer of illusion. No one knew that. She didn¡¯t know that. She couldn¡¯t know that. She wasn¡¯t real, she was just a figment of his imagination. He repeated it over and over in his head as if to make the thought become solid.

    ¡°Gore or not?¡± Kiena was ready to get her bones and move on. He remained younger than she might wish but he was minimally functional, her own impatience would wait no longer for him to mature.

    Mick shook his head. He was remembering the half a dozen holes in his carpet that his mother demanded he explain. Kiena holes. He couldn¡¯t explain them and he also remembered his still tingling finger tips and palms, burnt from an electrical surge that looked like it took out the entire city. Her words of ¡®juicing¡¯ him scared the crap out of him.

    ¡°No goring.¡± He said aloud, swallowing his desire to make her prove she existed.

    She snickered. ¡°Coward.¡± She said, almost dancing on the ground. It was the first time he¡¯d seen her move as if she could run, jump, climb and maybe do things he couldn¡¯t imagine. He felt like he was just noticing things, like she had hidden herself from him. He puzzled over how he had seen her now for what seemed like more than an hour.

    ¡°My bones.¡± She said, pointing toward the pile of rocks covered in the thorny bush.

    He frowned, he had to fight this and go home. With the city dark security would go to a curfew and he couldn¡¯t be found outside after curfew or he would be in serious trouble. As a hallucination she would have access to everything in his mind, he guessed, so that explained how she knew where the cemetery bones were buried, the ones he¡¯d dug up and stolen almost three years ago.

    ¡°My bones are real enough in your plane of reality.¡± She seemed to answer his thoughts.

    ¡°They aren¡¯t yours. They are just random bones from an unmarked grave on the edge of that cemetery. I made up the story that you exist. That¡¯s all.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s recover them now. I have let you leave them here long enough. Disrespectful you are. You will do a better job this time.¡±

    He shook his head.

    ¡°Do you wish me to exercise force?¡± She asked.

    He could see her features, see her mouth bending upward into a ferocious grin, one with fangs. She had fangs. He licked his lips. ¡°You can¡¯t make me. You are an illusion.¡± He tried to sound firm, strong.

    ¡°Stupid Soek. Recover my bones!¡± She coated the second words with Vrill into compelling Speech. She laughed as he staggered forward, fighting every step, heading directly into the thorny bush where it scratched at the skin on his exposed hands as he pulled it away from the pile of rocks.

    ¡°I hate you.¡± He yelled at her. He couldn¡¯t stop even when he was bleeding. He cursed under his breath. Why had her tone sounded so different on those last words, the ones he couldn¡¯t escape? He felt like he could physically feel the words creeping through his brain, killing his efforts to resist. Sweat bloomed on his forehead.

    She laughed, enjoying his blooding and struggle, wishing she could lick. She missed the taste of fresh blood, even Soek blood. It was beyond time to find her way back into a fur sack for fun. Wrecking havoc along the way would also be enjoyable. She was too long forgotten and those who had allowed this to be so, she would find them and mete out equal vindictive pleasure on them. Isolation had altered her, forced her to become resourceful. She would carry that knowledge into her next full life cycle. The prospect pleased her. She allowed the Soek boy to move more slowly than he should until finally the ragged sack holding her boiled bones was pulled free of the stony shelter she had made him make years earlier. Intact. She grinned.

 Chapter Two - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Two ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Germany¡¯s Minister of Special Projects within the KSA, Kommando Strategische Aufkl?rung, also known as the Strategic Surveillance Command, woke to the loud blaring of his departmental alarm system. He pushed himself out of the bed¡¯s comfort as his domestic partner growled at him. He couldn¡¯t blame her; the alarm was designed to be so unpleasant it could not be ignored. He sealed the soundproof transparent aluminum door to his study office and punched the desk button that would silence the sound now echoing throughout his residence.

    ¡°What?¡± Eric Felsen dropped into his ergonomically correct chair and reflexively began his routine of muscular stretching. It was clear he wouldn¡¯t be receiving more sleep.

    ¡°There¡¯s been an incident.¡± The voice of Command Security Lead Arjan Mazine spoke without inflection. The absence of any spin in the man¡¯s voice coupled to Arjan separating the conversation from any Command surveillance brought Eric more fully awake. Tule Soc. His fingers flew across hidden sensors in his glassy desktop, passing through more than a dozen security checks in the process, before a large holographic display appeared to float at eye-level just above the desktop. The audio on the display had been actively silenced he noted, so what he saw was straight forward surveillance footage. In the span of seconds, the recording showed a city electronically wiped out.

    The display showed him the event was less than an hour old. His guts froze. It had been a few years of ominous silence, a standoff between the Order and Tule Soc in a conflict spanning more than two centuries officially and unofficially.

    ¡°Any hints of this in intel?¡± He knew if there had been that Arjan would have led with a report. Still, he had to confirm that this event had not been telegraphed by any unusual activity.

    ¡°We are checking with renewed vigor.¡± Arjan answered, ¡°But, this appears to be isolated.¡±

    ¡°Vrill trace?¡± Eric rubbed at his face, he needed strong coffee or a similar stimulant.

    ¡°Momentary spike only at the location of damage.¡±

    ¡°Have we traced the Channels?¡±

    ¡°No. The strike came through a domestic network path as if the grid were used to locate the generators. The path appears to initiate in a residential neighborhood known for its quiet disposition. No nearby cemeteries. Nothing.¡± There was the sound of Arjan clearing his throat. Eric stilled. ¡°Sir, DireSec is prepping to fly.¡±

    ¡°They are chasing too?¡± Eric frowned. ¡°It has to be one of theirs, right?¡±

    ¡°Not if they are chasing, Sir.¡±

    Not if they are chasing. The sentence reverberated in Eric¡¯s mind with terrible weight. If Tule Soc and DireSec were both chasing it suggested a worse-case-scenario, a Wild Ba¡¯Neesh. It shouldn¡¯t be possible, he had teams scouring the surface of the planet scanning for Vrill trace. He knew DireSec had similar equipment and teams. Two overlapping passes which in theory should find all of them except after the first three captured too many years ago to count, no other Ba¡¯Neesh had been located. It had been decades once the large facilities maintained by the Order and Tule Soc had been clearly identified, the number of its occupants reasonably well known. Tule Soc had allowed itself to believe the absence of trace meant they had found all of them even when rumors persisted of non-identified groups in hiding. Rumors Tule Soc found impossible to verify. The alternative suggested that the Ba¡¯Neesh had developed a way to defeat the equipment.

    ¡°Do we have formal contact with DireSec yet?¡± Eric pulled off the tiny device he wore inside his left ear. His naked torso altered, glyphs flowing across his skin as if released from prison. He could feel them pulling, rising up from his skin¡¯s surface. They always did this when he released his Vrill blocker, the device inhibiting his personal display, a WiBo Tech device. He moaned knowing his office feeds didn¡¯t show visuals unless he pressed down on the pickup and the audio was set to convey only words, not ambient sounds.

    ¡°No Sir. So far no one is talking. We saw a single secure message directed toward Citadel within a minute of the event, then nothing. They won¡¯t pull out OrderSec until they have better intel. Likely Citadel will be casting at any time, Identifiers and maybe Seekers.¡±

    ¡°What have we got?¡± Eric massaged his glyphs. Tule Soc had taken their Ba¡¯Neesh in a different direction, one more hospitable to its human overseers. Casting gave the Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh too much personal power so Vrill use was developed to work through machinery controllable by humans. It left Eric handicapped yet it removed dependency on the erratic Ba¡¯Neesh. Better in his hands than theirs. He believed in Tule Soc¡¯s approach, even though he understood if they ever learned he was actually a Soek they would do their best to eliminate him with prejudice.

    ¡°The trail leads to a residence, to a bedroom in that residence. We are pulling data on the residents and rechecking for associations that possibly were missed.¡±

    Eric slipped the device back inside his ear, his glyphs vanishing from view. As always he could feel his Vrill struggling to defeat the device. He forced himself to breathe deeply, calming his inner dissonance. He was Soek with all trace carefully removed, it was the only way he could be trusted by the hierarchy of Tule Soc.

    ¡°My aircraft is ready?¡±

    ¡°I have sent a vehicle to move you directly to the airfield.¡± Arjan answered. ¡°I will join you there. I have instructed staff to provide properly caffeinated refreshments.¡±

    Eric knew that Arjan would join him under his formal role as the Director of Command Security, Arjan¡¯s association with Tule Soc nearly as carefully hidden as Eric¡¯s true nature. The duality of their secret lives often provided Eric with some amusement, in a grim sort of way. He could never be sure how much Arjan knew about the Ba¡¯Neesh issue. It was enough that each knew the other was of Tule Soc, a higher alignment of purpose beyond their official jobs. It created trust.

    Perisee poked Lemista hard enough to elicit a glare. ¡°We¡¯re not allowed to do anything while the aircraft is in the air.¡± Perisee reminded her.

    ¡°Rules!¡± Lemista snorted, an odd sound coming from the beautifully dressed woman walking demurely from the tram coach to the aircraft. Her walk was perfect, as was her appearance. Perisee, on the other hand, managed to look disheveled even under the tight programming of the Vrill-based hologram that masked her true appearance.

    Both looked human. Neither radiated the distinct Vrill signature of a Ba¡¯Neesh but none of the human or Soek males near them got close enough to be within easy reach of their very real Ba¡¯Neesh horns and antlers. Their appearance was an illusion carefully maintained so both of them could pass unnoticed by both surveillance and human observation. The devices used to perfect these illusions were top sellers of the Directorate or more precisely, of WitchBoard Technology, the primary technology corporation owned by the Directorate. Humans didn¡¯t respond with fear toward what they couldn¡¯t see. Although the Ba¡¯Neesh use of the devices was not their intended use, most were sold to persons of significance and government individuals who used the power of the devices to change their appearance for security purposes.

    ¡°I detest these things.¡± Perisee said in Neesh knowing the security men nearby couldn¡¯t understand her. DireSec had tried for nearly two-hundred years to parse the Neesh language but it wasn¡¯t possible. What they discovered was that what humans or Soek heard was only a portion of what the Ba¡¯Neesh communicated amongst themselves. They could guess at a few hundred partial words and get some of them right. Jordy had heard Perisee complain about the masking devices before so he recognized her complaint from the fragments of her speech.

    ¡°But, there will be goring and blood and explosions. Such fun.¡± Lemista countered. ¡°I heard Jordy say they took out an entire city. I¡¯m so excited I could eat old cook¡¯s gruel and smile.¡± Both Ba¡¯Neesh laughed.

    Jordy Greiger, Head of Directorate Security, DireSec, gestured the two into the aircraft, staying well clear of their currently invisible head arrays. They had special seats that allowed them protective head space while still allowing them to touch each other. He waited respectfully until they were seated, then he moved forward to deploy the restraint devices that would keep them secure during the flight. Only a fool would fly with unrestrained Ba¡¯Neesh. One of them poked him. It hurt. He gave Perisee a pointed look. ¡°Save your fun for later, Perisee.¡± He said firmly. She giggled.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    It looked odd on the human face masking her true appearance. He wished he could see her properly, it was much easier to judge a Ba¡¯Neesh temper directly, but, he had men aboard unaware of the Ba¡¯Neesh presence. He much preferred not to have to adjust the memories of any of his men should they realize the nature of the two women. The Ba¡¯Neesh tolerated his attentions, snorting softly to ingest his male scent. He ignored this too. You didn¡¯t work intimately with Ba¡¯Neesh without becoming well educated on their natures. A little lust wasn¡¯t dangerous, usually.

    Jordy¡¯s second, Elias Cross, waited until his boss was clear of the Ba¡¯Neesh before he gained his attention and the two of them sat in seats immediately adjacent to the Ba¡¯Neesh but well separated from the rest of the crew who were now loading in to the rear of the aircraft. ¡°Eric is airborne.¡± Elias said. Both Soek knew that Eric meant Eric Felsen, head of German Command Security and far more importantly, of Tule Soc.

    ¡°How do we interpret that?¡± Jordy asked.

    ¡°They would chase their own, but they wouldn¡¯t have any old enough to wreck this kind of havoc, would they?¡± Elias offered, knowing Perisee and Lemista were actively listening. Both Ba¡¯Neesh nodded. It was well understood that Tule Soc prevented the Ba¡¯Neesh in its care to age into full memory, it was how they maintained control, or thought they did. After a century of such nonsense both Ba¡¯Neesh could guess that Tule Soc¡¯s Ba¡¯Neesh¡¯s mutative processes would be correcting the problem from the inside out. It promised great fun and it was difficult for each of them to restrain their growing enthusiasm.

    Jordy sensed their rising excitement and reached into his flight bag for the snacks he carried, knowing dried meat would keep the two of them occupied for some time. They snatched at the treats and happily twined their legs together across the aisle. Jordy deployed the privacy screen that offered a distortion field between his men and the section he and Elias shared with the Ba¡¯Neesh. They simply couldn¡¯t act like humans for any length of time and both were attractive enough for his men to watch them. It was best to make that difficult even though he could guess at the gossip the screening would create. He knew he would be lucky to survive the trip with any of his men¡¯s memories intact, except for Elias. Both he and Elias were rated to live without limiters.

    He could guess the Tule Soc team wouldn¡¯t include any Ba¡¯Neesh, they would trust their machinery and their mules, the low-level Soek they bred purely to interface with their Vrill-based businesses. Two different strategies and likely two different objectives as well.

    ¡°We are reasonably certain the adopted boy is a Soek?¡± Jordy played with his external device, an invisible device that clung to his right arm and could project a holographic screen or a privacy bubble and flat display. The distortion field allowed him to use the holographic screen so that the Ba¡¯Neesh could see what he saw. A series of images showed a young man, although looking too young for his acknowledge age, another Soek indicator. The latest footage was a back-feed viewer from a life-size screen system. Newly installed the data reflected, a birthday gift from his adoptive parents. They saw the boy sprawled on his floor and behind the boy, a hole. All of them leaned forward but the hole remained just that. It was clear there was something between the back of the boy and the rest of his room. It simply appeared and with it, the hole absorbed light.

    They listened to a one-sided conversation of the boy demanding help with his game. ¡°You checked his speech for Vrill?¡± Jordy asked Elias as the footage continued. Then they saw an arc of light hitting the carpet, the boy flinching and turning to face the hole, complaining.

    Perisee snorted, ¡°He¡¯s really rude, isn¡¯t he?¡±

    ¡°What is that hole?¡± Lemista poked her holographic overlaid finger at Jordy¡¯s display.

    It was the question. Almost as soon as she asked the question the event happened and their access to surveillance died with it. What was the hole? They had expected to see one or several Ba¡¯Neesh, or at least some functional Soek. What they were seeing was a typical Ba¡¯Neesh orphan, a male offspring left in the care of humans, a practice so ancient it defied memory.

    ¡°Stupid Soek.¡± Perisee announced clearly. ¡°He thinks he is human.¡± She laughed.

    ¡°Sir, there is unskilled Vrill caught on his words asking for help.¡± Elias reported.

    ¡°Yes, but where is the Ba¡¯Neesh controlling him?¡± Lemista continued, using her finger to direct Jordy¡¯s display back and forth over a series of images from a variety of devices. The boy was uneventful. To all of their eyes he looked boring. ¡°He has no skills, no training. All he does is play games.¡± She snorted.

    ¡°And talk to a hole with Vrill-enhanced speech.¡± Elias added.

    Jordy played a lot of online games himself and he knew Elias did too as they often teamed up in online environments to kick butt. He said nothing aloud, just shared a hasty glance with Elias. So, they were dealing with a raw Soek? Aloud he said, ¡°A raw Soek and a hole?¡±

    ¡°Intel is showing the attack flowed through the house electronic network first. It took seconds.¡± Elias, who had a gift in analysis had been running scenarios for most of the hour since the event happened. ¡°We have not identified the secondary target yet.¡± He announced. ¡°But, with all of their surveillance down, the biggest banks and data systems in the city could be taken and we wouldn¡¯t know it. Minimal function of emergency systems should be coming online in the next twenty minutes.¡±

    ¡°How soon do we get out of this flying box?¡± Lemista asked, a whine threatening her tone.

    ¡°Two-hour flight. I can provide ample refreshments.¡± Jordy answered, keeping his tone flat. In some ways Ba¡¯Neesh were a lot like annoying children, until the moment they became devastatingly dangerous. He had to manage both sides with equal care.

    ¡°You know Jordy, this looks similar to Kirsan¡¯s cast in San Francisco. Similar electronic damage. Authorities there were digging out for more than two years to restore total function.¡±

    ¡°That was a long time ago, Elias. And, do we register anyone casting near the event time?¡±

    Elias shook his head. ¡°No detection of a cast but they can be hidden. Channel use is a whole other thing. Kirsan was using over a thousand highly trained and focused Channels for that cast. That kind of activity today would register anywhere in the world. Yet, there¡¯s nothing, a tiny Vrill spike at the moment of the event and then nothing.¡±

    ¡°Nothing but a hole.¡± Lemista sounded rather delighted with the mystery. She kept poking Jordy¡¯s holograph as if it might magically reveal something in the hole. ¡°I know she¡¯s in there. Your equipment sucks, Jordy. It should be able to feel into the dark. Why doesn¡¯t it feel into the dark?¡±

    Jordy captured her question knowing it was exactly this type of statement that fueled WitchBoard Technologies cutting edge research. Feel. She. The Ba¡¯Neesh was saying there was another Ba¡¯Neesh present, as invisible as she was. That also caught his attention. Someone using a WiBo device?

    ¡°Run an analysis to see if someone is using our tech.¡± Jordy ordered Elias who happily pulled out his old-fashioned looking slate to summon it to life. It only looked old. He could damn near run the world from the slate, giving sufficient power and an aircraft had no such reserves. He kept it to a standard analysis. It was tricky looking for signatures while trying to hide the search from other snoopers both from Tule Soc and interested unaffiliated governments who had a healthy suspicion of any peculiar world events. Given the opportunity, some of those governments would happily destroy every Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek on the planet and to that end they were constantly seeking intel. And, those connected to the Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek worked equally hard to prevent that intel from leaking out. It took several long minutes before Elias announced, with some confidence, ¡°No trace of our tech.¡±

    While that was good news on some fronts, it deepened the mystery on others. How could a Ba¡¯Neesh hide in plain sight?

    ¡°Run every spectrum you can from that existing footage.¡± Jordy fiddled with his own equipment running the same analysis while the two low-speaking Ba¡¯Neesh, watched. It was one of those moments when he needed to understand Neesh and couldn¡¯t. What were they seeing or thinking that he was missing? He knew he could ask, and they could lie or ignore him. It was doubtful they would tell him, not if they thought it might make things less fun for them. He groaned. Ba¡¯Neesh fun, the world was never ready for such mischief.

    ¡°I have something, I¡¯m not sure what.¡± Elias said, several steps ahead of Jordy. He transferred the analysis to Jordy¡¯s larger display. They rolled the footage again. If anything, it was worse. The filter was able to see through the hole or it literally made the hole invisible too showing that the room was empty except for the boy. They all watched as out of nothing an arc of Vrill darted down to physically ignite a fire, melt plastic and smolder. All four of them recognized what had excited Elias. It wasn¡¯t the absence of image as all light will vanish under the right filters. It was the Vrill. Elias slowed it down and blew it up to reveal a cascade of symbols cast as light, for effect. There was no reason for the Vrill to be made visible as a light effect, except, as Jordy reasoned, they were peering into the room of an online gamer with a serious hobby addiction. The lighting effect was unnecessary drama. The boy was being played with.

    ¡°Shit!¡± Jordy said, pulling back, his stomach now complaining loudly.

    Perisee laughed. ¡°I need to learn that one.¡± She announced and proceeded to try to arc visible Vrill toward the carpet in the aisle of the aircraft.

    ¡°No!¡± Jordy and Elias both leapt up. Elias to block the aisle from the view of the team, Jordy to hand Perisee a blood lollipop. It was an instant diversion from her attempts to replicate what was obviously a new Ba¡¯Neesh trick. The two Ba¡¯Neesh sucked happily on their suckers watching the Soek trying to strategize a way to prevent them from Ba¡¯Neeshing the aircraft. Perisee leaned forward to hand-smack Lemista, a gesture they had picked up from observation of old human footage now being converted to Vrill-based capture making it tolerable for the Ba¡¯Neesh to watch it, which some of them did obsessively and then they shared the content when they slept, although the non-Ba¡¯Neesh around them had only a sketchy idea of how deep the memory-sharing went when they appeared so passively asleep.

    Jordy knew he¡¯d been suckered, literally. He groaned, they still had a full hour to fly. Was bringing these two along really necessary?

 Chapter Three - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Three ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick tried to think his way out of his predicament but his basic logic couldn¡¯t get past how he could reason with a hallucination inside his own brain. It wasn¡¯t real, clearly. But, it still scared the crap out of him. How was that even possible? He glared down at the rotting sack of bones. Now she wanted him to pull out a finger bone. It was gross.

    The bag didn¡¯t smell, exactly. At least not how he¡¯d heard the odor of corpses described in entertainment videos. It smelled like old dirt with a little bit of mildew and rot mixed in. He thought the odors were more from the bag than from the bones. The bag was done, even as he lifted it out of the hole a few smaller bones fell out of tears in the decayed fabric. She made him pick up the dropped bones. He wanted to throw up. Instead, he squatted there with a handful of bones trying to plan an escape. Maybe if he tossed the bag of bones and they scattered his hallucination would be too busy to ¡®get¡¯ him, whatever that might mean.

    The only problem with that plan was the simple fact that she had been in his bedroom more than twenty times over the years with the creepy bones here, miles away. She could burn holes without the bones being nearby. That felt like a real flaw in his plan to ditch her, so he hesitated and stared down at the loose bones in his hands.

    They looked odd. He leaned closer as the faded light was making seeing things much more difficult. Still, they didn¡¯t look like the Science Class articulated skeleton that hung up like a suit of clothes from a wire rack.

    ¡°The small rounded one will do.¡± Her voice startled him because she was no longer favoring him with a physical apparition, now she was just a disembodied voice and every time she spoke it was from a different location, like she was sneaking around him in the dark.

    ¡°For what?¡± He looked around as if he could see her.

    ¡°Place the others on the flat stone so you don¡¯t lose any.¡± She continued. ¡°Now, get out your knife.¡±

    Placing the bones on the stone was easy enough, he didn¡¯t want to hold them anyway. He didn¡¯t like the sound of a knife though.

    ¡°Hurry. No doubt they will soon be tracking your child locator implant.¡±

    ¡°My parents will find me.¡± He tried to sound convinced of this fact. ¡°They no doubt have Mom¡¯s Master Locator already dialed in.¡±

    ¡°Really? So, you believe that wave of electrical destruction left your parent¡¯s personal devices untouched?¡±

    He stared around wishing he could see her and not wanting her to be there all at the same time. He hated her logic. He had smelled the noxious odor of burnt electronics filling his house. Common sense told him nothing had been spared.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, you rushed me out of there in a hurry. Maybe I overreacted to my game malfunctioning.¡±

    ¡°And, the city lights?¡±

    ¡°It was some kind of event, for sure. But, I didn¡¯t have a thing to do with it. Me running off is stupid.¡±

    ¡°Open your knife and use the sharpest tip to wiggle a hole in one end of that bone.¡±

    ¡°Eww. No. I am not going to play with these gross bones.¡±

    ¡°Carve!¡± Her word punched into his brain, just like the last time. He cried out and then decided to fake going along with her until he could come up with a better idea. He couldn¡¯t imagine how his subconscious brain, or whatever, was making him do things he didn¡¯t want to do. Maybe he should find a way to contact his psychiatrist. It had been more than six months. He was pretty sure he could find the office again, near downtown.

    He twisted the knife tip into the bone, scraping and turning until it started to become a hole. He had to do the other side too before there was a tiny hole in the middle.

    ¡°There! Satisfied?¡±

    ¡°Do you have string?¡± She asked.

    ¡°No. Of course not. I have nutrient bars, water and mostly dirty clothing.¡± He said sarcastically. Talking about the food was making him hungry.

    ¡°Dump out your bag. We need to transfer the bones anyway.¡±

    ¡°Here? In the dirt? No way.¡± He shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not putting these stinky bones into my bag.¡± He discovered he was waiting for that pointy word, that mental jab. It didn¡¯t come. He was left to argue inside his own head and that made it his responsibility, totally unfair. It seemed easier to dump out his bag. So what. They were mostly dirty clothes anyway. With the bag empty he found a nutrient bar and tore it open. He expected her to object. The silence ate at him even as he finished eating the snack. Why wasn¡¯t she talking now?

    He nudged at his pile of clothing. The locator in his shoulder started to tingle. That tingle meant he was supposed to message home. He could do so by simply pressing on the device directly through his skin, three times in a row. He licked his lips. How much did she know about the device? If she was in his head she knew how it was triggered. Was she inside or outside his brain?

    His shoulder tingled again. A non response would mean he was hurt or stuck. It would trigger a bigger alert with police services involved. That would totally piss off his parents.

    Should he put the bones in his pack? Hell no. When they found him he would have to explain possessing some dead person¡¯s corpse. Should he press his locator? When he did it would automatically signal boost and he would be able to hear his Mom telling him to come home. The best plan seemed to be to re-hide the bones in the rocks, stuff his crap back in his bag and head home. If they asked him about the locator, he could lie and say he was so upset he hadn¡¯t noticed the alert.

    ¡°They are coming.¡± Her voice surprised him again, this time it seemed off to his right. ¡°Eight human males.¡±

    That didn¡¯t make sense. He didn¡¯t hear anything. She was lying. No one was hunting for him but his folks and if their Master Locator had been damaged then they weren¡¯t toggling his locator. So who was? He discovered he was stuffing the rotting bone sack into his nearly new school class pack, jamming his dirty clothing on top and sprinkling the bones on the stone over the whole mess except for the one bone, the one with the hole. That bone got shoved into his pant¡¯s pocket along with his knife then he was hurrying along a dim trail that led him back toward the cemetery where he¡¯d found the bones so long ago. He refused to think his thoughts because they weren¡¯t logical, he believed a disembodied voice. Men were looking for him, for them.

    As the darkness closed in around him he discovered that his eyes adapted enough for him to keep stumbling forward. He knew a lot of these paths because his second favorite hobby was escaping into the green when his parents weren¡¯t around. He liked to pretend there were all kinds of adventures to be found, if he looked hard enough. At some points he thought he heard distant sounds and even one of those night hovering aircraft that whooshed and whirred like a giant insect. It was rather cool in a frightening kind of way.

    She didn¡¯t say anything and after a while he forgot to listen for her, he was just trekking through the greenzone in the moonlight carrying a pack full of bones. Yeah, totally rational. He laughed and adjusted the strap on his pack so the pointy bone parts didn¡¯t jab his back so much. In the process he located another nutrient bar and his mother¡¯s jug. The night was full of noise, far more than he might have thought. He could hear birds, frogs, and sounds of creatures he couldn¡¯t identify. They were comfortable sounds even when his crashing through their neighborhood silenced them as if he was plowing through their reality, an unwanted guest. That made him laugh too.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    He had to turn back out of the greenzone toward the northern end of the city to reach the boundaries of the large cemetery. He¡¯d read up on the cemetery for months before he snuck out with a shovel that night. It obsessed him. He couldn¡¯t remember where he heard about it first, maybe a dream. He learned it was a receiver cemetery. That¡¯s what they called a cemetery that city planners located far away from city boundaries once a city started to grow. This allowed developers to buy up old in-city cemeteries and relocate the dead well away from the city proper so they could use the land to build new structures. It made this cemetery grow in spurts, its original boundaries long forgotten. The newer sections were well maintained but out where the borders met the undeveloped reserves, that¡¯s where he¡¯d found the bones, forgotten and discarded. He sat down on someone¡¯s fallen headstone and allowed the natural sounds around him to resume.

    He drank the last of his water and just sat there. Nothing felt real. His shoulder was tingling again. It had done so off and on for the past several hours. Phone home, it seemed to say. But, through the gaps in the trees he could see the dark city. Why was his locator working when a whole city was out? The question tormented him. She hadn¡¯t tried to persuade him or use her weird words on him. She¡¯d left him with simple illogic. His tingling shoulder didn¡¯t make sense. Worse, when he faced the direction he¡¯d come from, he felt an increase in his boundary sensitivity. That¡¯s what the doctor had called it when people he didn¡¯t like got too close to him. He could feel it. In the darkness he thought he could feel them, hunters.

    ¡°Follow me.¡± She said, causing him to jerk upright. He¡¯d almost fallen asleep.

    A small light appeared in front of him, like a fiber-optic dandelion flower head. It was transparent blue and it bounced. He frowned. He was tired and nutrition bars weren¡¯t nearly enough for his growling stomach. He looked back toward the path. The same sensation in the upper part of his spine warned him that something was coming. The dandelion light moved away. He pushed himself upright. If he went back, he would run into whatever was coming toward him. She was moving away at an angle, toward the newer sections of the cemetery. There were well maintained solar paths there. He could see their soft low glow in the distance, like rivers of dim light.

    He knew that walking toward the city would eventually bring him to the transit road system and the open trams. Even if they were broken he could follow those roads back to civilization, find food and find a way to safely contact his Mom. He trailed the drifting dandelion trying to figure out how it worked. As a game feature it was rather nifty. If he thought of himself as an online avatar and the drifting light thing was his sidekick, he could rationalize the entire adventure into a comprehensive and potentially enjoyable gaming plot. The only thing that worried him about this fantasy was that in the online games he played, there were monsters that the player had to conquer at regular intervals to move from one area of the game to the next. He should be collecting abilities and developing skills and he should be learning what abilities and skills his cohort might have. So far, she could manifest into an upright biped form that looked somewhat human and she could manifest as a floating dandelion.

    He could credit her with doing something to knock out the city¡¯s electronics but that was what she said, he hadn¡¯t actually seen her do anything but claim credit and every gamer knew that other gamers were braggarts and liars. There was that compelling voice thing. If he could master that in real life it would be like the coolest thing ever. He could imagine himself forcing people to do things they didn¡¯t want to do. He grinned. But then, there was the burning of holes in his bedroom carpet. How did she do that?

    He¡¯d seen an arc of visible light, seen the holes, smelled the smoldering plastic burnt odor. And, he couldn¡¯t forget the bone theft. It had felt like a fun thing at first, a personal challenge until he was actually at the grave digging. He remembered feeling trapped, as if he got too close to something and it snared him. He hadn¡¯t been able to not dig up the bones, nor to carry them away and place them inside that stone pile. Had she made him dig up the bones? She claimed that too. He felt like she could lie to him as easily as she could appear to drift like an optical dandelion.

    All of these things suggested impossible abilities, in the real world. In the gaming world they were a bit old hat. If he considered his real life avatar and abilities, it made him a sucky real life player. It made her light years better than him. Did that make her the player and him the sidekick cohort? He didn¡¯t like that scenario because it meant he wasn¡¯t in control and he would be the one to be sacrificed to the first monster that showed up. He frowned and then walked into the light and it hurt, sending shockwaves through his body.

    ¡°You could warn me.¡± He said, jumping back while brushing at his shirt and discovered a hole exactly where the ball of light had touched him. He pulled up his shirt to find a round burn on his skin. It hurt, but not as bad as it looked like it should hurt. He frowned, now more puzzled than hurt. He¡¯d had his fair share of burns and usually they were quite painful. This one just looked bad and it felt like the pain was being sucked away even as he looked at it.

    ¡°Tasty.¡± She said at about the same moment the pain vanished completely.

    ¡°What did you do?¡± He asked, tentatively touching his stomach, probing for the hurt. His skin remained bumpy and damaged but if he hadn¡¯t been staring at the burn he wouldn¡¯t have known it was real. It looked like a rubber prosthetic piece, like the kind he had worn for Night of the Dead. ¡°It doesn¡¯t hurt.¡±

    ¡°I ate it.¡± She said. ¡°Now, time to cut out your locator.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± He shook his head.

    ¡°Knife!¡± She ordered.

    He shook his head again, fear blooming as he saw his knife in his hand, his dirty knife. ¡°I can¡¯t use this. I¡¯ll get some terrible infection.¡± It was the first thing to come to mind.

    She laughed again. ¡°Hold the blade in my light.¡±

    He scowled. It was a logical suggestion. If her light was hot enough to burn him, it was likely hot enough to sterilize his blade. He shook his head again. He wasn¡¯t going to cut himself.

    ¡°Remove the locator.¡± She ordered.

    ¡°I hate you.¡± He yelled out even as he dropped his pack, his jacket and pulled off his t-shirt.

    She drifted closer and grew stronger, giving him excellent light to see the small hump of skin covering the locator. ¡°Cut under and push it out like a zit.¡± She suggested.

    He shook his head, trying to fight the compulsion that continued to squeeze his brains. The longer he fought, the more painful it became. His hand started shaking from the conflict. Sweat made the knife grip slippery. ¡°Don¡¯t do this.¡± He tried to plead with her.

    ¡°Cut it now.¡± She continued, showing no audible signs of concern for his fear or potential pain.

    He shoved the blade into her light, hearing it sizzle. He had no more water to cool it down. He shook his head, fighting with his hand as it inched toward his shoulder. ¡°No. No. I won¡¯t let you.¡± He cried out, aware his voice was rising to desperate panic levels. She did nothing. Said nothing. He could feel the earlier words latching onto his thoughts, telling his right hand to move closer and closer. He dragged the dull knife under the hump and screamed. His skin parted and blood gushed out.

    The blue light darted at the blood, as if in frustration. He was gasping as the pain made him feel faint. He needed to get it out. That certainty roared to life on its own, as if the sight of his own blood was fueling a different perspective. It was a foreign object used to track him. He stopped gasping, pressing his thumb against the top of the hump to squirt the object out onto a nearby grave. His rush of instant pleasure shocked him in a new way. It was nearly ecstasy. As he watched the light danced along the wound, closing it even as he watched.

    He added to her list of known abilities, pain reduction and wound closing. Did this make her an in-game Healer? It was hard to categorize her as a character that usually had the welfare of others as its focus. He had the distinct feeling that his welfare was predicated on other motives, she needed him. For what, he didn¡¯t know. He had the strong idea that discovering her motives might be essential to his continued life. Without her prompting, he wiped the remaining blood with his holey shirt, then put that shirt back on, covering it¡¯s stains with his jacket. He picked up the pack. The blue light was already moving and rather more quickly than before, toward another section of the cemetery. He was almost running to keep up with her when she said. ¡°Stop here.¡±

    He lurched to a stop beside a large old tree.

    ¡°Climb high.¡± She ordered.

    He was clear now; she was currently in control. Once he got up the first limb it was easy to go higher. He climbed well into the top of the tree. It gave him an excellent view in all directions. He wedged himself into the hollow formed by two large branches and realized he would be hard to see from below. The blue light went out.

    ¡°They come.¡± She whispered so close to his ear he could feel the prickles of her energy.

    He looked back in the direction they had come and there, in the first rays of early daylight, the shapes of moving men trotting along stilled him. He counted eight of them. Human. They were wearing military greens and seemed to possess some kind of tube weapons. He watched them stop and run a device that beeped. A Master Locator. One of them reached down to pick something up from the ground. His locator.

    (Please vote for this chapter/novel before moving to the next installment. Please share this novel with your friends and family. And, don¡¯t forget to friend me on Facebook under Fay Thompson Author. I post there daily and let everyone know when new installments are posted. I would love that!)

 Chapter Four - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Four ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Eric paced the confines of the rented room. His team had brought in their own generators and tech so they were able to piggy-back the existing investigation from a distance. It wasn¡¯t optimum. The local city-state had deployed their own Anti-Terrorism Team within minutes of the event operating out of an underground city bunker that wasn¡¯t tied into the local electricity towers. All cities now had such units after the event in San Francisco demonstrated how a totality event could be devastating even without secondary targets. All city grids were now considered first level targets.

    What annoyed Eric was the conventional strategy of the Anti-Terrorist Team and its limited intel. The team was thinking the boy was a disaffected youth, possibly in league with other disaffected youth, likely trying to steal something protected by the grid. He was clearly a misfit. It wasn¡¯t a great surprise to discover he had been placed on a watch list from primary levels as he didn¡¯t make friends easily and kept too much to himself. It didn¡¯t help that his adoptive parents had coddled him with several attempts to use mental health intervention for a noted gaming addiction which seemed to consume most of the boy¡¯s free time.

    Eric found he was a double-dipper when his team wound their way into the personal records of the boy to re-run the most recent blood sample taken just after the boy turned thirteen when he was injured in some kind of bedroom accident. All personal records were backed up by non-local data storage to prevent total data loss in the event of electrical failure. The file stated the boy presented with a round blistered injury. The medical analysis described the injury as a round burn. When the boy could not detail the exact cause of the burn, bloodwork had been taken. At that time, the mechanical medical system checked his blood for chemical traces and found nothing. The summary of the medical file was that the burn source was non-conclusive, the boy was noted to present with elevated blood pressure and behavior the testing equipment identified as deceptive. New mysteries.

    Arjan suggested the first visitors to the boy¡¯s medical record an hour before them had to be DireSec although they had gotten in and out leaving only a minor auto-notation registering a file access. Who else could it be? Arjan couldn¡¯t tell if DireSec altered any of the data. It appeared to be intact but that too could be deceptive.

    When Arjan resampled the boy¡¯s blood it wasn¡¯t a great surprise to detect the genetic markers of a Soek. They had guessed that from Germany. Unless the blood was run through specialized testing he would appear to be fully human and generalized medical equipment did not do that kind of testing.

    ¡°Why haven¡¯t they caught him yet?¡± Eric rounded on Arjan. ¡°It¡¯s been three hours.¡±

    ¡°They are tracking his locator beacon. It has been actively moving in a green area roughly north and east of his residence. He hasn¡¯t activated his onboard locator although multiple prompts have been sent to him. From their perspective he is a young male with no criminal history hiking along a public path after a local disaster. He could be disoriented and innocent. His device may have been compromised by the event although our tech shows hundreds of thousands of locators that were not affected by the surge front.¡±

    ¡°They know the event originated from his residence, from within his bedroom, according to the team¡¯s chatter. That makes him more than a person of interest.¡± Eric argued back, knowing his frustration wasn¡¯t going to move the investigation along faster. His team couldn¡¯t show up in the middle of the situation as they had zero legal status for being in the area, much less involved in the investigation. His only solace was that DireSec was equally hampered. Both were waiting for the capture, for an opportunity to acquire the boy or eliminate him. Either would do. Neither of them wanted to reveal their presence because to do so would catapult the event into a real International Crisis, a situation neither of them wanted to create.

    ¡°Coincidence is insufficient evidence of causation.¡± Arjan quoted aloud, knowing it would annoy his boss. ¡°They don¡¯t know what we know.¡±

    ¡°You mean the local team. DireSec knows.¡± Eric came to stand behind the images his team had managed using nightsight drones. Not only did he see a lone figure hurrying down a lit path, he could see the Anti-Terrorist Team close enough to likely have him on a movement scope if not within visual range. The capture should happen within a few minutes. There was nothing to explain his own rising anxiety.

    Arjan pointed out two other drones, no doubt belonging to DireSec also following the hunt. The most logical approach was to let local enforcers take the boy down, subdue him and take him in. Getting to him inside their containment could be done with spider-mites, tiny robot killers that could crawl into a building carrying a lethal dose of Norso. Untraceable. A boy dies in custody. End of story. Would they prefer to get him alive where he could be properly analyzed? Sure. How he had managed the city-wide event begged such an interrogation. But, a quick kill remained a viable option, particularly if DireSec was better positioned to take him alive. He had to be one of theirs. Some kind of sleeper hidden inside a bureaucracy. To what end seemed clear enough.

    It bothered him that his scenario smacked more of Tule Soc policy than DireSec. Tule Soc used low powered Soek mules to deliver targeted Vrill-based diseases as weapons, it was their primary product. If the boy was a mule, it was the first evidence that DireSec was altering their policies. The electrical disruption smacked of their expertise while the mule aspect aligned more with Tule Soc. Could there be a viable third player that remained hidden? Someone using both techniques in a unique new way?

    Eric would have been even further disturbed had he known that Jordy and Elias were having a nearly identical discussion. They too identified Mick Huxley as an unknown Soek in the wild. They puzzled over his medical files, burn history and psychiatric diagnoses. There was nothing exceptional about the boy. His social awkwardness, while putting him on a watch list, hadn¡¯t risen to more heightened attention. He was average. He was acting like a mule. Running. What hope could he have of evading top security? They had watched him losing that escape attempt over the last two hours as the local team closed in on his location. Why had he paused so long near a rocky outcropping, wasting valuable escape time? He was not logical and illogical behaviors suggested an aptitude for non-linear thinking that over the long term, could be problematic. They needed to acquire him fast.

    The local Anti-Terrorism Team had found evidence left behind. A tiny amount of powdered bone left on top of a rock, a nutrient bar packaging, empty.

    Jordy dearly wanted to run testing on the powdered bone. Where had it come from? His team had managed to analyze all of the forensic matter left in the bedroom by snooping into the investigating files. There was no mention of bone. In fact, the only curious notation centered around several old burn holes and one fresh burn hole in the carpet. They could track the relative age of the earlier burns to retrieved conversations the boy¡¯s adoptive mother had made to a repair service, going back more than two years. The forensic team could find no device capable of creating the burns, nor could they explain the failure of the carpet fibers in the latest burn to re-harden in the time since the event. They remained soft.

    ¡°Have we got an ETA?¡± Jordy asked Elias.

    ¡°They should reach him within twenty minutes. He is slowing slightly and they are closing the gap.¡±

    ¡°Tule Soc?¡±

    ¡°Likely the source of those other drones. We are running operatives in a large ring around the local team. No trace of Tule Soc operatives on the ground between us and the capture location.¡±

    That was the critical factor. Jordy wanted the boy alive. WiBo Tech wanted to know how an untrained Soek boy could disrupt a city grid and leave no real trace of the device that had been used. All they had was that arc of visible light. That hole. That bone dust and the ineffectual low-rent ongoing escape attempt.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    They watched as the boy stood still and then used a blade to cut his shoulder. His scream was audible even to their remote drones.

    ¡°He¡¯s ditching the locator.¡± Elias leaned toward his display in excitement. He approved of the device removal action and his estimation of the boy¡¯s intelligence increased slightly.

    ¡°You¡¯ve got him visually locked?¡± Jordy knew he really didn¡¯t need to ask, but he couldn¡¯t help himself. He was getting a bad feeling and some of it was due to the two Ba¡¯Neesh waiting off to one side, whispering.

    ¡°He has no where to go.¡± Elias said with confidence. They watched the boy pick up the pace running across gravestones, patches of grass and around statues in a straight line toward nowhere special. Between one moment and the next, he vanished.

    Jordy cried out. ¡°Where is he?¡±

    The drones closed in, trying to reacquire the heat and visual signature that had been there moments before. Nothing.

    ¡°Find him.¡±

    The Anti-Terrorism Team was having even worse problems. Suspects didn¡¯t vanish into thin air when you could see them and hear their hard breathing. Their voices rose, orders flowing as each man scanned a part of their visual grid. He had to be there. ¡°Last location mark.¡± The leader yelled out.

    Eric in his rented room and Jordy now running toward the perimeter as close to the physical spot where the boy had vanished as he could get, were equally upset. Only the Ba¡¯Neesh found the chance to run exciting and fun although they looked strange running as humans when in reality they were running on fours and the illusion constrained what they looked like to upright humans.

    ¡°Is there another hole?¡± Jordy gasped out to Elias who didn¡¯t like running with his devices powered up. It was hard to look where his feet were going through a holographic display.

    ¡°Can¡¯t really tell without stable analysis and more energy to power my system. Not like we have a high-powered generator along on this easy trek.¡±

    Another thing Jordy mentally added to his growing list of new tech, a portable high-powered generator.

    ¡°He can¡¯t have gone far.¡± Elias reasoned aloud. ¡°What do you think, some kind of illusion sigil?¡±

    Jordy groaned internally, they were not in a secure location and possibly some of his nearby men could hear Elias¡¯ words. Worse, could this kid do a sigil? If so, when and where could he have learned one? Tule Soc favored non-activated Vrill work, finding real work placed too much power in the hands of Soek. What did that leave? A Soek boy whose DNA wasn¡¯t showing up in the Order database, at least not directly. Elias had said there were old factors. That meant the boy was related to someone but no one currently alive. Another mystery. His team slowed well outside the perimeter being set up by the Anti-Terrorism Team.

    It was frustrating. They could see the military-dressed men clear enough to pick out individual identities. They could see Tule Soc¡¯s drones and the local team pointing at them and having unhappy words over who was running the drones over their investigation site.

    Jordy kept his drones back far enough to remain out of easy view as his sported long-range lenses that should be able to see a tick on a mole¡¯s butt from a half-mile away.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh didn¡¯t like being told to hold back. It was clear the action was down near the cluster of human males. But, they had agreed to obey Jordy in order to be allowed to participate in this hunt and it was too early to cause real trouble. Besides, both of them were nearly as curious as Jordy and Elias. Where was the Soek boy?

    They had felt him as soon as they entered the Greenzone. Perisee told Jordy the boy was healthy. He knew that meant the boy was running juicy Vrill. That alone might exclude him from being a Tule Soc mule as they didn¡¯t allow Soek of strong Vrill to survive.

    Now the two Ba¡¯Neesh argued in their native tongue. It was terribly exciting that the Soek boy had vanished, while they were watching too. It was the second new trick they had witnessed and they wanted to know the secret of both tricks or really three tricks. The hole, the arc of visible Vrill and the vanishing. No Soek should be able to evade the detection of a Ba¡¯Neesh. Yet, ring scan as they might, his tasty flavor was almost completely gone. Both of them puzzled over the very faint trace that remained. He was here, and not here.

    The Anti-Terrorism Team was doing a grid search examining every inch of land in the area from where the boy had disappeared. Elias, listening in on their chatter reported their frustration to Jordy. The only highlight they noted was the retrieval of the boy¡¯s locator and some evidence of blood on the ground. A report that had the Ba¡¯Neesh excited. What was less clear was why the blood wasn¡¯t producing the genetic structure that could trace it to the boy¡¯s existing sample. The forensic team member ran the tests half a dozen times before stating that the small amount of blood spatter had undergone some kind of accelerated degradation. It would be no use as a matching media. They couldn¡¯t prove the boy was the boy. A new mystery. Were they actually chasing a boy or something else?

    Arjan pointed out the cluster of five individuals watching the scene from just outside the official perimeter. Now they knew where DireSec was and it didn¡¯t make any of them comfortable. He pulled his own drones back when he saw official drones approaching the scene. He noted the DireSec drones were flying high and wide using better lenses than those he had. He cursed. Tule Soc needed to improve their surveillance gear if they hoped to compete with DireSec directly.

    ¡°They can¡¯t get any closer than we can. Their position limits their tech so let¡¯s use our stable location to analyze what just happened. Have the drones switch to Vrill trace and start running grids. That boy was running Vrill so we should be able to reacquire him.¡±

    Arjan thought that statement was optimistic considering they didn¡¯t know how or why they had lost a visual on the boy in the first place. There was no where in an open graveyard to hide. That suggested some kind of casting activity but his home-based techs were telling him of no Channel spike.

    ¡°Take your system back to our transport and plug in.¡± Jordy told Elias. ¡°With the boy¡¯s locator gone, we will have to try to triangulate on his molcom. It will take a lot more power but we should be able to use satellite signaling to find him.¡±

    Nearly every citizen was implanted with a molcom at birth. They were molecular computers that attached to the nervous system to run a low-level check on the health of the individual. The molcom allowed an individual to stand near a medical services machine to transfer critical data about the health of the person. They could also signal early problems to prevent illness and disease but their signal was low and weak as it ran on residual bioenergetics that were not accessible to conventional electronics. These computers allowed for Vrill-based memory limiters and other functions carefully hidden from the population. They were not supposed to act as locators. But then, DireSec had designed the devices and every device had a backdoor, if you had sufficient Vrill-based power to access it.

    Tule Soc wasn¡¯t so lucky. They knew the molcom could be accessed but their policy limited Vrill strength so getting a molcom to talk to them would require locating a Vrill source capable of opening those back doors. Their best option seemed to be to wait for DireSec to do the work for them and then steal the retrieved data. They set visual tags on the cluster of four DireSec operatives within view and switched to intel gathering rather than direct acquisition of the now missing boy.

    Perisee turned on Jordy. ¡°He¡¯s still here.¡± She said, gesturing to the scene they were watching. ¡°He¡¯s hiding. We can smell him. You will let us go find him?¡±

    Jordy flinched. He could readily imagine the two holographically attractive human females walking into the military situation perimeter below them to sniff around. Sure, they wouldn¡¯t be noticed. Not at all.

    ¡°Not now, Perisee. Find him from here.¡±

    Perisee frowned. ¡°He¡¯s hiding.¡± She complained.

    ¡°Show me where, and how.¡± Jordy countered, guessing they didn¡¯t know either.

    ¡°He crossed a border.¡± Lemista announced, ¡°That¡¯s when we stopped seeing him. That means he is on the other side of the border.¡± She nodded, pleased with her analysis.

    ¡°What kind of border?¡± Jordy pressed.

    ¡°Like a big circle.¡± Perisee answered.

    ¡°A sigil?¡±

    ¡°Not one we recognize.¡± Perisee admitted. ¡°We can only tell it is there. But, we won¡¯t be able to taste of it until we are in it. We need to be in it.¡±

    ¡°Then we wait. You know we can¡¯t reveal our presence to the locals.¡±

    ¡°Waiting is boring.¡± Lemista whined, sitting down on a headstone. ¡°This cemetery is very weak.¡±

    Jordy looked around. Elias had already run tests on the cemetery, no big hidden channels. Like Lemista said, it was weak. But, it was a cemetery. It worried him. The Ba¡¯Neesh relationship to graveyards was notorious and not well understood.

    ¡°Is it stronger in other areas?¡± He asked, more to keep her busy than to learn anything new.

    ¡°Oh yes, there are better areas. It is this area that is weak.¡± She was cuddling with Perisee. They looked bizarre sitting on the ground, ignoring their appearance. No human female would sit like that.

    Better areas, Jordy thought. Why would the Soek boy intentionally run to a weak area?

    (Thank you so much for deciding to become my reader and hopefully my newest fan. You will begin to see art popping up #anime #gamer style here and there as I figure out how to do that here. I hope you like the novel as much as I like writing it.)

 Chapter Five - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Five ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    ¡°I can¡¯t move!¡± Mick said, his voice low.

    ¡°Of course not. The tree has you.¡± Kiena answered.

    He couldn¡¯t see her and her voice was right up against his ear sending sparkly shivers into his nervous system. He wanted to pull away, to brush her off, but only his facial muscles seemed to work, the rest of him almost felt like it wasn¡¯t there at all. He tried to relax, so far the bad guys hadn¡¯t found him. It really was true, no one looked up. Several of them had approached the tree and he¡¯d thought for sure they would find him, but they only looked up a little and then away, talking into their throat coms. They sounded upset and frustrated. He didn¡¯t really want them to find him, not when they sounded angry.

    As tired as he felt, it was enough to be able to look down on their search. He was clear now; they were searching for him. He¡¯d watched them find his locator and follow his trail toward the tree and then they simply lost him. He couldn¡¯t figure out exactly why but he guessed Kiena had done something. He worried about that, not knowing what she could do or would do. She seemed so matter of fact when she told him things like the tree having him. What did that mean?

    He waited until the searchers were out of earshot before he whispered, ¡°Why can¡¯t I move?¡±

    For a long time she didn¡¯t answer and since he couldn¡¯t see her, it made him think he was actually alone and caught in one of those sleep paralysis moments or something. For sure he was seriously tired so maybe his body had fallen asleep in the crook of the tree, but, he didn¡¯t really believe that.

    ¡°The tree is digesting your Vrill.¡± She finally said.

    That made no sense to Mick. ¡°You mean it¡¯s eating me?¡± He tried to feel upset by the idea but mostly he felt drained, like someone had pulled the plug on his body sucking out all of his energy.

    ¡°You know trees have roots, right?¡± She said.

    He would have glared but that took too many muscles. ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°They pass nutrients up and down in cycles both inside the internal and external systems. Right now the tree is passing your Vrill into its roots in order to fail the Vrill trace devices they are using to try to find you.¡±

    That almost made sense, if he knew what Vrill was. And, how did she know what the tree was doing, was she a tree whisperer? She seemed to guess his question, making him think she was inside his head again, a notion that he really didn¡¯t like at all. He was sort of hoping she wasn¡¯t a hallucination as that made him crazy and who could trust crazy.

    ¡°Vrill is Soek energy like electricity is an energy favored by humans.¡± She answered his un-verbalized question.

    ¡°You keep saying Soek. I don¡¯t know what that is either. I¡¯m human, okay. H U M A N, human. Got it?¡±

    ¡°If you were human they would have caught you already.¡± She announced.

    He noted she did that a lot, made declarative statements. A know-it-all, show off, loud mouth, arrogant, annoying personality. Why would his brain make up such an obnoxious phantasm?

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m human and not this stupid Soek you keep nattering on about.¡± He answered. ¡°I¡¯m not caught because I removed my locator and hid in a tree and they haven¡¯t looked up.¡±

    ¡°So, explain why the drones haven¡¯t seen you, they are looking down.¡± She replied sarcastically.

    Drones? He couldn¡¯t turn his head only shift his eyes to the sides of his sockets. There, in the far distance he could see something small hovering in the growing light. Drones? Who would bother sending drones after him? Then he thought about the darkened city. Did they really think he was a terrorist? It made the military uniformed enforcers make more sense if she was right. They would see him as a threat. They might shoot him if they did see him. He didn¡¯t like thinking she might have been right all along or that he really was a target of well-trained armed militia types. If that were true, then maybe she was right about the Soek and Vrill things too. He didn¡¯t want to be a non-human, it had been hard enough accepting his real parents had rejected him, even if his adoptive parents had always been nice enough. He could always tell they thought he wasn¡¯t exactly what they had hoped for in a son.

    Why weren¡¯t the drones seeing him? His thoughts reverted to her question. He could sort of understand the men not seeing him up the tree trunk because he would be hidden by branches and leaves. But, from above, there was less blocking sight of him, right?

    Watching the searchers quickly became boring and his frozen position in the tree made him warm and sleepy. It felt like those times when his game froze and he had to sit and wait feeling bored and stupid. Soon he was out, too tired to even dream.

    Hours passed. Elias had managed to identify the boy¡¯s molcom but as yet was struggling to find it, worldwide. He was trying to analyze whether there were other factors inhibiting the triangulation but Tech Ops back in Montana could only offer the unhelpful suggestion that the electronic event had in some way affected the search. They could find the molcoms of other nearby operatives but they couldn¡¯t lock onto the boy. It didn¡¯t make sense.

    Jordy kept feeding the Ba¡¯Neesh and was thankful when they chose to nap in the dappled sunlight, totally indifferent to the DireSec operatives who entered the vicinity checking in while everyone waiting for the locals to complete their investigation. They attracted attention, unwelcome attention. It couldn¡¯t go on forever.

    The local team had searched the area within a half-mile, twice and found exactly nothing. They had discarded DNA trace right up to the exact point where the boy had vanished. Not only had he physically disappeared, his body stopped shedding cells. According to their tech, he was at the point where his trace ended, except, it was a patch of grass between graves and no matter what they used to examine the site, there wasn¡¯t a hidden chamber or tunnel or anything else they could detect to explain the situation.

    Elias suggested to Jordy that they might be looking at a new type of tech that projected the boy and even discarded DNA until it was mysteriously shut off. Jordy added that unhappy suggestion to his growing list. Was such a thing even possible? While it was true the Ba¡¯Neesh laying among the graves looked like human females, they shed Ba¡¯Neesh DNA, of that he was certain because WiBo Tech had confirmed it to him on inquiry. Further, how could a holograph project physical trace like a heat signature and radiating biological data? Their systems had picked up all of that. Had someone learned how to teleport? Modern science was close and the Citadel was exploring Vrill potentials but he would have heard about it, right?

    Were the boy¡¯s medical files a ringer? That possibility was growing. When the blood on the ground didn¡¯t match up with the bloodwork on record, it posed new questions. It looked like a mule had been used, one made to appear Soek but only after re-testing years after the boy was found. There were simply too many loose ends and watching the Anti-Terrorism Team had become a torture of inactivity. Jordy could answer none of these questions without direct intel.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Elias brought both of the DireSec floaters as close to the perimeter of the investigation as he could. Both used mechanical cloaking technology that ran on old tech design. The skins of the floaters were embedded with tiny camera/display modules that basically transferred image content from one side of the disk-shaped craft to the opposite side. It allowed the craft to seamlessly blend into any situation with very little distortion. He sat in the smaller floater as the larger was designated for operative transport and technically, he was higher in rank than a DireSec operative. While they waited he used the powerful floater generator to do more intensive analysis.

    Eventually, the local team pulled out and their own floater arrived silently to collect them and leave.

    Jordy called out to Elias to follow the DireSec team down to ground zero. The Ba¡¯Neesh were already up and moving, easily distancing the operatives. Jordy raced after them.

    Elias got the alert that Tule Soc was also closing in on the location fast. It was a race. He placed his floater as close to the retrieval point of the boy¡¯s locator as he could, hoping to collect his own sample of the blood splatter.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh arrived first and headed straight toward the point where the boy had vanished. They were flanked by both arriving teams who weren¡¯t at all concerned with being identified by their opposition. In this instance, they shared similar motives. Perisee and Lemista plunged across the boundary and their holographic displays failed. Jordy groaned. He could see the stark shock on all of the non-Soek faces of both his operatives and the Tule Soc.

    Eric yelled out, ¡°You brought those creatures here?¡±

    Jordy shrugged, talking to Elias on his external, ¡°Why did their devices fail?¡±

    Elias was scrambling to analyze yet another anomaly. As if drawn by a magnet both teams raced after the fast-moving Ba¡¯Neesh who seemed utterly indifferent to the loss of their camouflage. They were circling a massive, very old oak tree at seventy-five feet or so past the border. Both were looking up with enough fixed intensity to bring out weapons and hurried calls for men to take defensive positions.

    Jordy yelled out, ¡°Pull back, pull back.¡± But, even as he pivoted back toward the boundary he felt something latch onto his feet as if he had just pulled on iron boots. He wasn¡¯t alone. It quickly became clear that the effect was progressive, crawling up the bodies of men and Soek alike to freeze them like statues in the cemetery garden. They were left with movable mouths and eyeballs which became a chorus of loud screams, threats and even some crying.

    Jordy, who had only a partial view of the Ba¡¯Neesh, was doubly shocked to realize the weapon, whatever it was, included them. Both of them appeared to be equally well frozen into position. He yelled out, ¡°Elias, stay back.¡± Hoping his aide would not cross the boundary. Why had it activated for his operatives and not earlier when the local team had crawled all over the same area for hours?

    The screaming wakened Mick who watched in captivated semi-horror as a whole new bunch of people were frozen all around the tree. Then he saw them, two females, naked, furry, one with twisted horns and the other with antlers. They were staring up at him and instinctively he knew they saw him. They looked amused, not angry. The men, those yelling, they were mostly angry or worse, frightened and angry.

    ¡°They can see me.¡± He said, pointing with his right hand. Until that exact second he hadn¡¯t realized he was no longer frozen to the tree.

    ¡°Of course.¡± Kiena answered, her tone a bit gloating.

    ¡°You did this to them, didn¡¯t you?¡± Mick stretched, his body an agony of stiffness and poked bruises.

    ¡°The tree greeted them.¡± She answered obliquely. ¡°We should hurry, the Ba¡¯Neesh will figure it out fairly fast.¡±

    ¡°Those female creatures are Ba¡¯Neesh?¡± Mick was more than willing to leave the tree as these frozen security people didn¡¯t look too friendly and he didn¡¯t want to be anywhere near when they unfroze. He could imagine they wouldn¡¯t be happy.

    ¡°Of course. Fairly young too.¡± Kiena remained invisible and her voice sounded close to his ear or even inside Mick¡¯s head, he couldn¡¯t be sure which except it didn¡¯t tingle like when she was a sparkly ball. He credited that as a small favor, likely temporary.

    He swung off the last limb and dropped to the grass. He could see that everyone that could see him was staring at him. He felt awkward and what did you say to temporarily frozen people who wanted to get you in ways that were likely unpleasant or even terminal. But, he couldn¡¯t help walking toward the Ba¡¯Neesh pair. They were much better looking in the fur than Kiena was in blue light. He looked them both up and down.

    ¡°Got a good look?¡± Perisee asked.

    He jumped back. He hadn¡¯t thought the creature would speak to him.

    ¡°You look real.¡± He said. He forced himself to reach out to touch her although his sense of personal danger rapidly escalated until he could barely manage his right forefinger on her shoulder. She had breasts. Adult female breasts. Uncovered adult female breasts. He blinked rapidly and pulled his hand back.

    ¡°Of course I am real.¡± Perisee snorted. ¡°I see you too young Soek boy. I smell you now. I will taste your blood. I will gore you and drink you and you will scream and I will laugh. You won¡¯t escape me now.¡±

    ¡°I want him, Perisee.¡± The antlered one interrupted, forcing Mick to shift his rather horrified attention away from the words of the first one. She wanted to gore him? Gross!

    ¡°I called him first.¡± Perisee answered.

    ¡°So what. I will get free first and he will be mine until I toss him into the pot to boil his bones.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Mick was edging away from both of them. ¡°You are both bat shit crazy.¡± He said. He wasn¡¯t alone in his thoughts, most of the operatives were having similar reactions.

    ¡°We can share him.¡± Perisee announced triumphantly.

    To Mick¡¯s horror, he saw that she was starting to move her head.

    ¡°To the Soek stuck outside with the vehicle.¡± Kiena whispered.

    Mick looked around and saw a lone man standing next to something with a very slight outline. Cloaking. This was better than any game he¡¯d yet played. He ran toward the vehicle. It was clear to him that he¡¯d won this first battle. How, he had no clue. But, in a game, when you won a battle you got the hell out of there quick before your opponent could retaliate. Except. He neared an older looking male with an intense expression. The man had several things that might be weapons. Mick needed to up his skills level. He yanked the items away from the obviously furious male. ¡°Sorry.¡± He said aloud.

    He ran toward the lone Soek who also had a weapon out. He whispered to Kiena that the guy wasn¡¯t frozen. She, as expected, didn¡¯t answer.

    The man lifted his tube as they approached the tree¡¯s boundary.

    Kiena called out, ¡°Assist Soek.¡±

    Mick ran through, waiting for the weapon to deploy. Watching the man with his arm wavering, hearing yells from the frozen telling him to shoot. He reached the man and took the weapon from his hand.

    ¡°We gotta leave man, before those Ba¡¯Neesh figure it out.¡± Mick said.

    Elias blinked. He must assist the boy. The boy hadn¡¯t spoken but he¡¯d heard Speech. Of that he was certain and the Vrill was hard and toppy and vastly different from any Vrill he¡¯d ever felt. Before the Ba¡¯Neesh figure it out. That¡¯s what the boy had said.

    Everyone else had heard it too, including the Ba¡¯Neesh.

    Elias helped Mick into the small floater and watched helplessly as Mick removed all of his personal devices, guided by what intel Elias longed to know.

    ¡°Where?¡± Elias managed to ask, sitting in the centralized driver¡¯s seat. Once programmed the craft could fly itself, or it could be manually piloted.

    ¡°Away from here. Oh, and does this floater have weapons? Of course it does. Damage all nearby vehicles to slow down these people when they get free.¡± Mick said, listening to Kiena. He was a good gamer. It was a simple translation to consider this whole frozen tree defensive thing as a deployed weapon. It was escape time, for real. He was now pretty sure the older man couldn¡¯t hear Kiena directly, except when she did that weird voice thing. He noted she had called him a Soek too. Maybe being a Soek was a thing, like being a half-elf in a game. A species type?

    ¡°A preference of direction?¡± Elias was trying to identify how long the compulsion of the Speech words would last. The cadence and intensity were beyond anything in his experience. Assist. It was a terribly simple word, hard to evade or sneak around in strategy.

    ¡°You are some kind of security guy, right? I need to get away from the rest of you, those guys down there, those guys earlier. What is the best evasion technique? I don¡¯t know the rules here.¡±

    It was quite an admission. Elias stored it for later. The kid was bright enough to recognize him as some kind of security. What else? People after him. Asking for help. He couldn¡¯t really be asking for help after evading three top teams by hiding in a tree. Really? Still, he reasoned, he had captured or been captured by the target. Score one for DireSec.

    (Please vote for this chapter/novel before moving to the next installment. Please share this novel with your friends and family. And, don¡¯t forget to friend me on Facebook under Fay Thompson Author. I post there daily and let everyone know when new installments are posted here. I would love that!)

 Chapter Six - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Six ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Perisee was first to break free of the tree, followed almost immediately by Lemista. They ignored the pleas of the scattered operatives and walked from man to Soek sniffing and discussing the physical attributes of each. Jordy would have found it funny in other circumstances when he wasn¡¯t one of the pinned butterflies, because that was what it felt like, he was on display and couldn¡¯t do a damn thing about it until the Ba¡¯Neesh were done having their fun with him.

    He did learn something though, in general they paid little attention to human males. The exception was Eric Felsen. They sniffed him twice and then sniffed again, whispering in Neesh to each other. Eric, like the rest of the men, could do nothing but stand inches from them, their horns and antlers easily lethal should they desire to blood them. He¡¯d never been this close to a free Ba¡¯Neesh, one not tranked out. It was terrifying. He was also certain they guessed his secret, though they did not say it aloud, at least in an understandable language. He hoped Arjan, who was in an indirect line of sight to him, would interpret their interest as nothing more than facing a top Tule Soc agent.

    ¡°Perisee?¡± Jordy had ceased trying to gain her attention after it became clear she and Lemista were in the midst of fun. Their measure of priority started with fun. Things like duty or responsibility were near the bottom. He had to wait for them to become bored. That took an additional hour before she wandered over to stand facing him.

    ¡°Jordy?¡± She asked, as if nothing were amiss.

    ¡°Could you free us, please?¡± Jordy knew she knew how to do so because she was free and he wasn¡¯t. The kid had known too. This was a Ba¡¯Neesh thing. Why hadn¡¯t his Ba¡¯Neesh recognized it earlier?

    ¡°No. The tree isn¡¯t done yet.¡± She answered.

    Jordy blinked. ¡°What do you mean, exactly please.¡±

    ¡°The tree is completing a bargain, a trade, a valued exchange. It is cycling your energy and Vrill and until it enters the release cycle, you will stay still, held, captive, controlled, in use, conduit.¡± She smiled, her upper fangs clearly visible.

    ¡°The tree released you.¡± Jordy observed. ¡°The boy Soek is escaping in our floater after damaging the other floaters and drones nearby. We need to accelerate this process; don¡¯t you think?¡±

    ¡°The Ba¡¯Neesh and trees have a long and deep relationship. We had forgotten this exchange promise, Lemista and I. It would be an error to violate the promise. We can wait. A chase is good so it will be good sooner or later even though we will be more hungry by then.¡±

    Jordy snapped his mouth closed to prevent himself from saying what he wanted to say. Likely, escape required the Ba¡¯Neesh in some way. Pissing them off would not be helpful. He sucked in a deep breath, thankful that whatever kept him in place had not stolen his ability to breathe. His mind centered on a piece of what she¡¯d said.

    ¡°This is a Ba¡¯Neesh weapon?¡± He asked.

    She and Lemista were back to whispering together, she turned to him slowly. ¡°Weapon? No injuries have occurred. We merely share, feed, encourage with the trees, bushes, plants. Are you injured, Jordy?¡±

    Jordy blinked. He knew all of the Tule Soc operatives were listening, as were his own. Everyone¡¯s memories would require adjustment. That included the Tule Soc operatives who appeared to be held up only by whatever force was controlling their bodies. How would he manage that adjustment? He looked from man to man within range of his vision. He had a device in his eye that captured visuals as snapshots. He knew DireSec Tech Ops was listening in on his throat com and had been since the rush toward the target. They knew he was frozen and they knew Elias was in the small floater. They knew Elias had the target. He needed to make sure they had the idents on all of the Tule Soc operatives so they could send Seekers out of the Citadel to adjust the men¡¯s molcoms. He knew his own operatives and he could guess they were being adjusted as he watched because several got blank expressions and looked around in confusion. Likely they were being implanted with instructions to ignore the visuals and audios of the two Ba¡¯Neesh while the Ba¡¯Neesh looked and sounded like Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°I am not injured, Perisee. How long should I share my energy with the tree?¡± He asked.

    ¡°It is pleased with the size of the donation and has agreed to release as early as possible. Roughly just before sunset. Trees measure time by sun movement.¡±

    Pleased with the size of the donation. Jordy swallowed hard. If he calmed himself, he could feel Vrill flowing from the crown of his head down his spine and out his legs into the ground. With focus and sufficient time, he could guess he would be able to feel the tree absorbing his Vrill, processing it and returning it in some way? It was like an entire system hiding in plain view. Why had he never heard of an energy exchange with plants? He knew the answer. Ba¡¯Neesh guarded their secrets. What had Perisee said, she and Lemista had forgotten this exchange. What Ba¡¯Neesh had not forgotten, had set this trap, had somehow worked with the Soek boy to spring the trap on he and his men?

    ¡°I didn¡¯t see a Ba¡¯Neesh, Perisee.¡± He said quietly.

    ¡°Neither did we.¡± Lemista answered. ¡°It¡¯s very exciting, isn¡¯t it? I am here and I was stilled and I am surrounded in mystery. The only thing missing is a bit of blood.¡± She turned to jab Perisee in the shoulder with her antlers suiting desire to action. Perisee squealed as blood flowed.

    Jordy groaned, hoping they wouldn¡¯t feel so excited they killed each other.

    The playful battle ended with three or four good sized gores and numerous scratches, all being well licked, each on the other along with purring, and moaning sounds of pleasure. Jordy expected it. The non-Soek humans were standing rigid. His operatives who could no longer see the Ba¡¯Neesh were oblivious and only Eric Felsen watched with wary captivated interest tinged with horror. Arjan had a look of tightly contained fear leaving Jordy to believe the man would kill either of the Ba¡¯Neesh given the first opportunity.

    Mick was busy searching the cabin of the floater for food and drinks. He found both as the craft was well stocked including ample proteins and even some red drinks with specially marked caps. He didn¡¯t touch them, guessing correctly they were for the strange ones. He went through the options, selected a preserved sandwich and energy drink and sat back to eat and stare at the older man who was watching him carefully.

    ¡°So, how are you thinking to trick me?¡± Mick asked, enjoying the food far more than he expected.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Elias asked carefully. He was observing the boy¡¯s frayed appearance, the clear stains of blood on his t-shirt, dirt on his knees and twigs and leaves in his hair. He was clearly the boy that had run.

    ¡°You are an unwilling companion. That means you will pretend to go along with me until you can overcome me, take back your devices and weapons and return me to whatever ill fate all of those security and military people seem to want for me.¡± It was a good summation of Elias¡¯ thinking.

    ¡°What¡¯s your plan?¡± Mick asked again.

    Elias wanted to lie, he wanted to lie badly but the damn compulsive word continued to cling to his neural pathways, he could feel it. He was bound to assist the boy until the compulsion wore off.

    ¡°My best option would be to marginally go along with the compulsion while laying an underlying secondary strategy that will place my team in a position to regain control.¡± Elias heard the words out of his mouth and cursed.

    ¡°Is your team listening to us in here?¡± Mick sensed the man was being forced to be truthful. He knew that force himself. It had a time limit. He didn¡¯t know how long so he felt he should ask questions fast.

    ¡°Yes. They have that capability.¡± Elias answered.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Disconnect that potential.¡± Mick ordered.

    Elias complied. He was experiencing a growing curiosity. The craft could easily be flown by nearly anyone but the boy made no effort to kill him and take control. That would have been Elias¡¯ first choice were their roles reversed, unless there were hidden factors.

    Kiena spoke inside Mick¡¯s hearing asking about a different device. Mick ended up having Elias describe the function of each device. Most of them were disconnected. He learned that one of them was a Vrill multiplier, the device literally acted like a generator of some kind. Vrill. That word again. Hearing it coming from the man¡¯s mouth sobered Mick. Kiena told him to ask about the hidden Channel inside the multiplier.

    ¡°Tell me about the Channel inside the multiplier.¡± Mick asked.

    Elias was feeling slightly less compelled but they had long since crossed into Soek territory. The boy had both seen and spoken to Ba¡¯Neesh. There was no functional reason to lie about what the boy clearly knew was present.

    ¡°It is strong which is why we are using it in this device.¡± Elias answered.

    Mick didn¡¯t know what it was. Kiena knew well enough, she wanted to see how the device operated. She told Mick to tell the man to activate it.

    Elias reached over and pressed the button. It was set for a relatively high output in order to power his main system, it¡¯s interface now resting next to the boy, too far for Elias to reach.

    Kiena materialized to lean over the device.

    Elias gasped and tried to lunge for the nearest weapon.

    ¡°Assist, Soek.¡± Kiena repeated, throwing the word at him again.

    The word slammed into Elias¡¯ mind. He sat back stiffly, staring at her. ¡°What are you?¡± He asked.

    ¡°I am Kiena. You are another stupid Soek.¡± She said.

    Mick half shrugged at Elias in commiseration.

    ¡°I take it you are the other stupid Soek?¡± Elias asked Mick directly.

    Mick nodded.

    ¡°Maximize this device.¡± Kiena ordered.

    Elias adjusted the controls as high as he¡¯d ever dared operate the machine. When he did her manifestation solidified into an almost opaque presentation. She was clearly Ba¡¯Neesh and clearly not like any Ba¡¯Neesh Elias had ever seen and he¡¯d seen more than a thousand. Mick didn¡¯t know any better, she just looked like Kiena more solid to him.

    As quickly as she had appeared, she vanished. Elias looked around, wary. A new type of fear blossomed to life in his chest. He had a single answer to many mysteries and it was named Kiena.

    ¡°Does the Vrill empty or discharge from the device.¡± Her voice came out of the air.

    Elias now understood why Mick was sitting quietly on the seat and doing nothing. He discovered he was now doing exactly the same. She was with them. He had no doubt now where that arc of Vrill had come from, nor who had disrupted an entire city¡¯s grid. It wasn¡¯t the kid. How the kid related to the situation remained unclear.

    ¡°It is sustainable for up to twenty-four hours before the Channel requires time to recharge. It is then down for around six of our hours, sometimes less.¡±

    ¡°Depending on Vrill nearby?¡± Kiena asked.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Elias nodded although he didn¡¯t know where she was or really what she was. Ba¡¯Neesh were not blue-lit apparitions that moved in and out of existence, sometimes transparent, sometimes solid. Teleportation? He couldn¡¯t guess. Somehow she seemed to be moving with the boy. A link? What was their relationship? That bone dust, her bones? Did the boy have Ba¡¯Neesh bones? That would make him a mule for a Channel.

    ¡°Act to protect our escape from detection, Soek.¡± Her voice slammed into him far more powerfully than before and that had been bad enough. It was clear she could access the machine¡¯s Vrill to augment her delivery. Elias gasped. Then he spun around, his fingers flying across the manual overrides of the floater, removing it from every possible detectable trace he could. He knew he needed to get the floater underground, deep enough to totally block detection. He turned to Mick.

    ¡°Punch up large, isolated, underground structures within 500 kilometers with an opening large enough for this floater to fit.¡±

    Mick gaped and then fiddled with the weirdest slate he¡¯d ever handled. It looked old and cheap. It wasn¡¯t. He was quickly enthralled by its speed and connectivity. It made Mick¡¯s home system seem like a baby toy. It was an odd request but he found the query sent the system into complex geological data revealing there were underground structures everywhere, hidden both close to the surface and deep. He¡¯d never known the planet was this well mapped. He called out the six top suggestions.

    The pressure was easing up on Elias, not fading exactly but not making him feel like his mind was enslaved. He could think. He didn¡¯t see an easy way out, not with something capable of using Speech on him at will. His best plan seemed to be to stop resisting and go along until he had a better grasp of the fullness of this entity¡¯s capabilities.

    ¡°I¡¯m Elias.¡± He said over his shoulder.

    ¡°Mick Huxley.¡± Mick answered, seeing no reason to lie. ¡°She¡¯s Kiena.¡±

    Her name again. Elias could guess it wasn¡¯t her true name. It sounded modern. She didn¡¯t feel modern to him even if she did seem to understand electronics well enough. Elias hoped for more, some indication of traceable knowledge. Something he could research.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mick answered. ¡°Elias, what¡¯s a Soek? She calls me a stupid Soek all the time. I don¡¯t like it.¡±

    Elias had the floater programed to fly a circuitous path toward a target destination. He pivoted the pilot¡¯s chair. The kid didn¡¯t know what a Soek was?

    ¡°Have you asked her?¡± He countered. He was not fully compelled to answer the boy although he didn¡¯t know how far the ¡®assist¡¯ compulsion would act on his brain. He probably shouldn¡¯t lie.

    ¡°She isn¡¯t forthcoming.¡± Mick said, trying not to look around to see if she was going to wink in and get him. He needed info. This guy knew more than he did. He was at least temporarily compelled. Use it. That¡¯s what Mick¡¯s gaming skills told him was the best thing to do. Milk the guy for info while he had the chance. He had to remember the guy was an enemy, only temporarily helping.

    Elias wanted to find out how Mick encountered the entity but he instinctively felt the compulsion would find that unhelpful. Sometimes, straight forward was the best path.

    ¡°I¡¯m a Soek. A Soek is a hominid. Do you know what a hominid is?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± This was sounding like biology class to Mick, not his best subject.

    ¡°Humans are Homo Sapien Sapien. Soeks are Homo Soekenesis, a parallel species that is somewhat compatible to humans in a dominant way. Soek sense and use Vrill while humans do not or not at levels Soek consider important to measure or be concerned with.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Mick answered flatly. There was a long pause before Mick continued. ¡°What she does, that¡¯s Vrill, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Elias answered. ¡°It appears so, although she escaped our Vrill detection devices. We would like to understand how she did that if she is wielding Vrill.¡±

    Mick sat thinking. So far Kiena had been right. He didn¡¯t like it. In fact, he really didn¡¯t like it. But, she had told him he could be traced by his molcom. He didn¡¯t want to be traced. ¡°I want to shut down my molcom.¡± He said. ¡°You can do that?¡±

    The compulsion was fading. Elias tested his answer in his mouth. It felt like he could say it out loud. It would be a test of the now missing entity who hadn¡¯t been seen or spoken for some time. He was speculating that her Vrill might be low. With the Vrill multiplier running he knew there was a big risk he was wrong. He couldn¡¯t evaluate her behavior yet.

    ¡°I can¡¯t shut it down. DireSec can though.¡± Elias answered, pleased to hear his tone come out even and solid.

    Mick sat there saying nothing. DireSec. That must be this Elias¡¯ security team name. They sounded like a gang or gaming team. Dire. That sounded mean and pretty solid. A good name for bad guys. If he were part of a gang like that he would lie about stuff out of hand, particularly to an opponent. Mick quantified himself and even Kiena as Elias¡¯ opponents in this instance. Where was she? He couldn¡¯t sense her nearby, not that he usually tried. Would this guy jump at him soon? He really didn¡¯t know how to use the weapon sitting against his leg. He couldn¡¯t just rely on Kiena, she didn¡¯t feel stable like a well known gaming buddy.

    He slid his right hand into his pant¡¯s pocket to fiddle with his knife, thinking he knew how it worked well enough. He wasn¡¯t physically trained but in close quarters a knife was better than knuckles. As his fingers groped around he felt a small round shape. The corpse finger. He frowned, unaware Elias was watching his facial expressions carefully. That frown halted Elias¡¯ slow forward movement, his shift of weight intending to spring toward the kid when the moment was optimum.

    Mick¡¯s fingers closed around the bone instead of the knife. He squeezed. He looked over at how Elias looked different, more tense, watchful.

    ¡°You are lying to me.¡± Mick said, certainty growing. ¡°You can shut down my molcom from here, Elias. Does that mean you don¡¯t feel her grip on your brain right now? Do you feel safe?¡±

    He was guessing, based on his own experience of Kiena. He was rewarded by Elias flinching just enough to tell him his words had scored.

    Elias leaned back, his eyes flickering around the boy, trying to check for any sign of Kiena. He could see and feel nothing. He remembered the hole in the boy¡¯s room. If he took the boy out, then what? What would she do? What could she do? For sure she could down the floater with likely no injury to herself as she seemed to have no physical body to injure.

    Her laughter startled both of the Soek. It seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.

    Elias held out his hand for his slate. Mick waved Elias to sit next to him so he could watch the older man run the program. Elias couldn¡¯t risk going for the boy with the entity obviously observing from hiding. It was a strange sensation, being watched by a force he believed was capable of killing him at any moment if he moved wrong. He shut down Mick¡¯s molcom because he found the system could now locate it. He knew DireSec would see the blip of the computer turning off. As his own molcom was also shut down, it removed the last means DireSec would have to easily trace them unless Elias turned on some of the systems he had been forced to turn off earlier. He didn¡¯t want to risk dying at the moment. He counseled himself that he should cultivate the boy, learn more, learn what this entity could really do and what it was doing, where were they going and why. It had chosen no direction, that was worrisome. Didn¡¯t it care where they went?

 Chapter Seven - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Seven ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Perisee and Lemista climbed the tree to the exact crook where Mick had sheltered. They curled together to whisper in privacy, to discuss the situation. They could feel the boy, smell him on the wood, taste the feel of his rather tasty Vrill. But, it was the ghost that captivated their attention. They didn¡¯t call it a ghost, nor did they call it a Ba¡¯Neesh. It was beyond their shared and individual memories.

    That suggested a Ba¡¯Neesh outside the Lamentation and that shouldn¡¯t be possible. The Califar Ritual had long ago bound all Ba¡¯Neesh together to share as a collective. To be Ba¡¯Neesh meant to be called within the ritual. They weren¡¯t individuals, not in the manner humans chose to perceive their nature. Ba¡¯Neesh were a single entity with many antlers, many branches, many root hairs but a single core. It wasn¡¯t possible for a Ba¡¯Neesh to be outside of that single core. Yet, both of them acknowledged that the tree remembered an agreement they had no memory of, a memory with a Ba¡¯Neesh they had no memory of. Neither should be possible. They needed a quorum of five Ba¡¯Neesh and maybe a Caster and they would need DireSec¡¯s new mobile Channel array. They nodded agreement to each other. It would have to be The Turtle. Jordy wouldn¡¯t like it. That made them grin. An edgy Jordy was a tasty Jordy and both of them had plans for Jordy that he knew nothing about, maybe executed together, they hadn¡¯t decided that part yet.

    It wasn¡¯t that Jordy didn¡¯t like The Turtle, they knew the two Soek had grown up together in some ways. It was simply that The Turtle was a natural catalyst and by rights this situation suggested the presence of another catalyst already active. The idea of bringing two catalysts together was exactly the kind of thing both DireSec and the Order worked hard to prevent. After all, the world was still recovering from the last time The Turtle had acted. It was why both Perisee and Lemista were working far from the Citadel. They were natural trouble makers but not on the scale of The Turtle or this new presence. She could do things.

    It was nothing special to talk to a tree, all Ba¡¯Neesh did that. It was a whole other thing to enlist a tree in the capture of twenty-three persons including two Ba¡¯Neesh, four Soek and seventeen humans. What the tree was doing, exactly, was why the two Ba¡¯Neesh had climbed up to find out. While Perisee had tried to sound knowledgeable to Jordy¡¯s questions, neither she nor Lemista really understood what the tree was doing. They were experimenting. Because the boy had fled into the tree suggested the tree¡¯s action had begun as early as that act, or even when the boy crossed the tree¡¯s territorial border, the relative edge of the canopy and root system. How had the tree known to act? It was clear to both of them that the tree had hidden all biological expressions of the boy during the earlier search. It was why they, Ba¡¯Neesh, had not sensed him. No Soek boy they knew had agreements with trees. Yet, this tree had sheltered him. Why and how? Why had to be the unknown entity. How required Lemista, as the volunteer, to open her perineum to the tree by literally sitting on it so her perineum could touch its surface. When she did so the effect was fast, she stilled.

    Perisee poked her. Lemista frowned and stuck out her tongue.

    ¡°What is happening exactly?¡± Perisee demanded, wishing she could share the immediate experience instead of having to wait till the next mutual sleep period and even then, it would be a memory and not a direct experience. Direct was best. Memory was a poor second best.

    ¡°It¡¯s pulling my Vrill down, as expected.¡± Lemista reported. ¡°It is practiced. I am resting on my perineum directly but also touching the tree in other spine areas, other access points, it is ignoring those although I felt the touch of exploration at those points in those first moments. It is recognizing me as a single individual and my primary receiving port as my perineum.¡±

    ¡°Who did it practice on?¡± Perisee asked. She too had felt the energy inquiry only she had said ¡°No¡± in her mind and the tree pulled back, unwilling to challenge with such an abundant ongoing supply. This was different from earlier. The tree had set a trap, a strategic trap and waited until all of the secondary teams had entered its boundary before taking the intruders. That act of plant on animal aggression was in practical terms, unheard of. The plan was not the tree¡¯s plan, clearly.

    ¡°There¡¯s a fungus.¡± Lemista reported. ¡°Root hair connectives. Oh my, the range of connectives is massive, maybe cemetery wide or even larger. The fungus is the trick. She taught the fungus that the wandering humans visiting the graves were opportunities for energy recovery. They have grown skilled at releasing an airborne soporific to make their targets feel slow and tired. Mushroom spore release. When they sit, the harvest begins. They are using ports in the feet, mostly as those contact the ground with minimal blockage.¡±

    ¡°So, it wasn¡¯t this tree in particular?¡± Perisee wanted to feel and follow the fungus too. It sounded fun.

    ¡°It was, I think. Not sure the logic of why. This is a very low Vrill area but a newer area of the graveyard. The entity used this tree in some way, their relationship is strong and well rewarded.¡±

    ¡°Their shared knowledge will continue the harvest?¡± Perisee pondered that idea.

    ¡°Yes. The tree says, why not?¡±

    Lemista backed out of the energy share. She closed her ports off to the tree and then her expression became puzzled. ¡°Perisee, the cycled energy is not mine.¡±

    Perisee reached out to grab Lemista by the antlers, the best connector to Lemista¡¯s Vrill.

    Her expression altered as well. ¡°How very odd.¡± She said. ¡°It¡¯s full of stuff, human stuff, human memories too.¡± The flavor of Lemista¡¯s Vrill wasn¡¯t wholly unpleasant, it was just strange. Both of them sat there processing the memories of the humans harvested recently by the fungus. It was like a broadcast monitor with hundreds of layers, all playing at once. Neither of the Ba¡¯Neesh liked it, but they found Lemista had to continue receiving until the last of it flowed through her. Perisee had only to let go of Lemista¡¯s antlers to be free of the experience. She didn¡¯t regret not having to endure the inanity of the running human conversations, thoughts and ideas. What a mess.

    ¡°The tree doesn¡¯t get all that crap, does it?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± Lemista felt a little top heavy as if the processing had both given and taken her energy. ¡°I mean, it gets it all, but it processes out over years not seconds so the immediacy and pressure of the process is mitigated.¡±

    They nodded to each other.

    ¡°You feeling okay now?¡± Perisee asked with true concern.

    ¡°Yes. But Perisee, my field is bigger.¡± Lemista said, her eyes rounding in surprise. ¡°Imagine if you drank from that filthy mental pool every day for years and years.¡±

    Perisee blinked. She didn¡¯t want to think the thoughts that were creeping into her mind. So, she dragged her sharpened right forefinger nail over one of her recent gores and gave Lemista a welcome drink of fresh blood. Well appreciated. They nuzzled and shared a bloody kiss.

    ¡°I adore you.¡± Lemista said, grooming her own mouth area with a well-licked finger.

    ¡°I know.¡± Perisee nodded, her mind whirling.

    The Soek came free first, including Eric although that didn¡¯t register with Jordy immediately. Jordy, Eric and two of Jordy¡¯s operatives stepped away from their frozen positions. One fell. The other three staggered and bent forward with a jolt of nausea. For Jordy, the experience was like immersing his head in a vat of blithering voices, all talking at the same time about nothing he was remotely interested in. He breathed heavily and tried not to vomit up what was left in his stomach. The Ba¡¯Neesh had shown no such reaction and he had a few moments to recall that with some bitterness, no warning.

    As the sense of immersion faded it converted into a massive header, the kind that made him long for dark sunglasses and a room of absolute silence, neither of which were present. He rubbed at his head.

    ¡°It¡¯s like a drug hangover.¡± Eric said aloud as he too tried to overcome the immediate symptoms.

    ¡°From what?¡± Jordy asked. He felt like he knew almost as little as he had waiting for the local team to leave the area, what, nine hours ago? ¡°Why are only a few of us released?¡± He gestured at the others. He knew which of his men were human and which were Soek so he could rationalize based on his knowledge, but, if true, that made Eric a Soek. Could the head of Tule Soc security team and a top operative at KAS really be a hidden Soek? The idea gelled. He saw a furtive look in Eric¡¯s eyes. It was a momentary thing, so fast he could almost imagine he hadn¡¯t seen it, but he had.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter.¡± He brushed off the question making sure he didn¡¯t look at Eric¡¯s men. He didn¡¯t want them to question Eric¡¯s species. It was a secret DireSec could use. Jordy sent his two functional if unhappy operatives to get a signal to DireSec for a replacement transport.

    ¡°Do you need com access?¡± He asked Eric. ¡°We have transport in route.¡± Actually, Jordy was wondering why replacement transport wasn¡¯t on scene. DireSec had been listening when they were taken and when Elias launched with the boy. They should have already arrived which meant they had arrived and were staying out of sight. He regrouped his thinking and walked from one frozen man to the next snapping clear head shots of each. He could see Eric¡¯s tight face, his likely understanding of what Jordy was doing, his inability to stop it as he alone was reanimated while Jordy had two functional operatives and two Ba¡¯Neesh.

    The thought made him look up into the tree. He had been able to witness the speed of their climb. He hadn¡¯t known they could climb like that, indifferent to watchers. They were barely in view, a slight movement high in the tree.

    Jordy completed his circuit and came to stand under the tree. By rights he should move himself beyond the boundary of the tree¡¯s influence, but he felt that was like chasing water. The tree was replete. He didn¡¯t examine what that meant beyond his own enormous header and a sense of not being right inside of himself. Things to examine outside the range of listening Tule Soc ears.

    Eric had taken him up on his suggestion and used the remaining damaged floater¡¯s com to send a privacy coded signal. His own floater arrived almost instantly, reflecting that they too had waited just beyond the visual range of the frozen people.

    Men piled off and waited, watching their still frozen comrades uncertainly. Eric held them back. It was impossible to tell if the weapon used would deploy again against new targets. He didn¡¯t want to risk further delays. He led the group to just beyond the original boundary and they waited. Eventually the humans crumpled to the ground and then made their ways, staggering, to their comrades. Jordy followed Eric¡¯s lead telling his men to head toward the two Soek waiting outside the damaged floater. Soon, he was the only one left near the tree. He waited. He didn¡¯t want to give Arjan a shot at the Ba¡¯Neesh. It wasn¡¯t till his Soek gave him a tactical ¡®All Clear¡¯ signal that he yelled up at Perisee.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Our transport will be here in five. Come on down.¡±

    The Ba¡¯Neesh had watched the unfreezing of the men with nearly as much interest as the freezing. They too noted the early Soek release without surprise. And, they could taste the rabid animosity of the Tule Soc second-in-command. The human had cowardly distance weapons. Both of them spat off the tree in contempt. But, they waited for Jordy. He had trained them in such actions showing them body signals for danger in areas where they might act impulsively.

    The replacement floater dropped in and they all hurried aboard. There wasn¡¯t room for sufficient privacy so Jordy positioned the once-more holographically altered Ba¡¯Neesh at the rear of the aisle and he sat between them, hopeful they would remember not to stab his head.

    The floater took them fifty miles to an airstrip in a small town well away from the city and its issues. Jordy had to restrain his questions as his men were looking mostly confused and uncertain and he didn¡¯t want to add to their distress. The floater landed inside an open hanger and operatives on the ground slid the hanger doors shut.

    Jordy waited and got off with the two Ba¡¯Neesh, now looking like well-dressed female agents, human. He was met at the door by his big boss, not his station boss.

    ¡°Sir.¡± Jordy saluted as his team melted away, absorbed into a larger mass of mostly Soek operatives. OrderSec uniforms were clearly obvious. He could imagine his initial team was off to be debriefed and fed new memories to cover for what couldn¡¯t be retained.

    ¡°Jordy.¡± Alesandro Kirsan himself, CEO of the Directorate and Tactical Head of both DireSec and OrderSec offered the casual greeting and gestured Jordy and the two Ba¡¯Neesh toward a cordoned off space radiating a privacy field.

    As soon as they were secure and alone, just the four of them, Jordy asked, ¡°Elias?¡±

    ¡°Unknown. He was alive and well the last time we were in contact.¡± Kirsan answered calmly, too calmly.

    ¡°The floater?¡±

    ¡°Was manually disconnected from tranmitters within five minutes of becoming airborne from your location. Elias did the disconnect.¡±

    ¡°Five minutes?¡± This surprised Jordy. Elias was top of his class, literally one of the best operatives in all of DireSec. ¡°What happened?¡± He had thought the boy would already be in custody or at worse, they would be trailing the floater.

    ¡°Excellent question.¡±

    ¡°You are certain Elias manually disconnected?¡± Jordy walked over to the temporary ops station that was already running three holographic screens. He called up the footage and watched as Elias jerked to attention and then rapidly ran the disconnects making no effort to protect tailing indicators, in fact, he did everything he had been trained not to do in such a situation.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± Jordy ran the footage more slowly and noted gaps.

    The sequence began with the boy running at Elias, recorded from the auto-feed implanted in Elias¡¯ right eyeball. Jordy could clearly see Elias pointing the stunner at the running boy, aiming and then his hand wobbling, fighting, before falling to point down. He heard the boy yelling out, ¡°We gotta leave man, before those Ba¡¯Neesh figure it out.¡±

    Jordy watched as Elias handed over his security gear to the boy and then asked ¡°Where?¡± It was extraordinary.

    The boy continued, obviously excited, ¡°Away from here. Oh, and does this floater have weapons? Of course it does. I bet they are hidden too like the outside. Cool. Damage all nearby vehicles to slow down these people when they get free.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t get it.¡± Jordy commented as the footage continued.

    ¡°A preference of direction?¡± Elias asked, his face tight and strange in Jordy¡¯s eyes.

    The boy said, ¡°You are some kind of security guy, right? I need to get away from the rest of you, those guys down there, those guys earlier. What is the best evasion technique? I don¡¯t know the rules here.¡±

    ¡°What rules?¡± Jordy asked the footage, not realizing that both Ba¡¯Neesh and Kirsan were all watching as intently as he was even though Kirsan had reviewed this footage in enth detail for hours. It had brought him out of the seclusion he lived in.

    They watched the boy searching the cabin and finding and eating food, obviously hungry. Then the boy said, ¡°So, how are you thinking to trick me?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Elias answered.

    ¡°You are an unwilling companion. That means you will pretend to go along with me until you can overcome me, take back your devices and weapons and return me to whatever ill fate all of those security and military people seem to want for me.¡± The boy said, drinking the last of the drink in his hand. ¡°What¡¯s your plan?¡±

    ¡°My best option would be to marginally go along with the compulsion while laying an underlying secondary strategy that will place my team in a position to regain control.¡± Elias answered, his face in obvious distress.

    ¡°Compulsion?¡± Jordy half stood and then sat back down. ¡°Who is compelling him? I didn¡¯t see or hear anyone except the boy.¡±

    Kirsan gestured him to keep watching.

    ¡°Is your team listening to us in here?¡± The boy asked, looking around suspiciously.

    ¡°Yes. They have that capability.¡± Elias answered.

    ¡°Disconnect that potential.¡± The boy ordered. But, hard as Jordy was listening he didn¡¯t hear any trace of Speech in the boy¡¯s words.

    They watched Elias comply until the feed cut off abruptly.

    ¡°That¡¯s all of it.¡± Kirsan said. ¡°It¡¯s clear Speech was used and yet it isn¡¯t stored on any device including on the onboard devices of each field operative.¡±

    ¡°By that kid?¡±

    ¡°In the absence of further data, we have to assume so.¡± Kirsan nodded.

    ¡°Oh, it wasn¡¯t him.¡± Perisee said confidently, ¡°It was Her.¡±

    Kirsan rounded on the attractive human female and then slowed himself. ¡°Would you please turn off your holographic displays.¡± He asked with almost painful politeness and visible restraint.

    Alesandro Kirsan was easily sixty plus years of age but he looked Jordy¡¯s age. It was a feature of Soek physiology to age slowly. He lived in seclusion precisely because his failure to advance in human aging terms made him visibly a target, as it did for all mature Soek. He was just over six feet tall, dark-haired and lanky build, with arresting features and a charisma that made him invaluable in business circles. He was considered one of the top three casters in the world, a fact that never ceased to annoy him.

    He was currently establishing a new identity for his second life, as they called it, within the Directorate. All Soek in professional life had three or four life cycles in the span of a single human life span, sometimes more. To carry their expertise forward they had to re-enter their professions under different names and re-earn status so that the humans they worked with remained oblivious to the truth of their species or long-term identity. It was complicated and hard. He had endured cosmetic facial alterations to modify his appearance from his life as Alesandro Kirsan. But, in the limited presence of Jordy and the two Ba¡¯Neesh, the truth of his identity was clear. He wasn¡¯t supposed to be here, responding to an emergency. Technically, Jordy had his job. Both of them ignored this minor occupational issue.

    ¡°Who is the Her you mention?¡± Kirsan asked Perisee, now that he could see her properly. While he did, Jordy watched him pull jerky snacks out of his pocket to offer one to each Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°My apologies for failing to bring food to you earlier when you indicated you were hungry.¡± He continued, ever the consummate host.

    Perisee grinned and sampled his fresh snack, he was becoming well trained, to her endless amusement. All Ba¡¯Neesh loved to mess with Kirsan and he knew it all too well. While Jordy was young and tasty, Kirsan was older and wicked in his own way, doubly tasty and useful far beyond the range of Jordy. They were forbidden from taking Kirsan, so, to make up for that loss of potential combat enjoyment, they teased him, or worse.

    ¡°The other. The one the boy is with. The one the tree traded with. The one who blew up the city. The hole. The one who hides in plain sight. She. We need a quorum that must include Anya and Old One Eye or Seera or both and we will be needing The Turtle.¡± Everyone knew The Turtle went nowhere without Anya although their relationship was hard to quantify as they tended to argue a lot about things other people struggled to comprehend, much less find objectionable.

    ¡°It¡¯s that serious?¡± Kirsan didn¡¯t argue. You got no where arguing with a Ba¡¯Neesh. They were always right, even when they were wrong. He¡¯d suspected this might be a situation, the DireSec euphemism for a potentially big problem. It had been nearly a half century, two of the human generations since the last big problem.

    The Directorate had built an entire underwater habitat for The Turtle attached permanently to the Citadel. This habitat was designed to protect both the Soek¡¯s necessary privacy and the world from his actions. He much preferred to spend his vacation time as close to the ocean floor as he could reasonably get and he usually dragged Anya along with him, so they could continue some incomplete discussion. The habitat was designed to exceed his every possible need in order to limit his time in human territory. And, Perisee was saying they needed him. Kirsan groaned.

    Getting the Elder to travel would be equally hard. Old One Horn was a notoriously miserable traveler and only did so under extreme duress, fully surrounded by a dozen mature Ba¡¯Neesh. And, Seera wasn¡¯t even at Citadel.

    ¡°Anything else?¡± He forced himself to ask.

    ¡°Yes, we will need the mobile Channel vehicle, the one with the big casting floor. I know you aren¡¯t satisfied with it yet, but we aren¡¯t interested in your stupid Soek floor. We need access to the Channels and of course the best multiplier CoEx you can mobilize quickly.¡±

    Kirsan blinked. What she was describing was an enormous undertaking. Why? This was a single Ba¡¯Neesh, right? In theory the two Ba¡¯Neesh standing in front of him should be sufficient to bring the wild one in. He rolled back her exact words, she hadn¡¯t said that it was a Ba¡¯Neesh, not exactly. In fact, she had carefully not applied any descriptive to the individual in this situation beyond her gender as a She. But, she had to be a Ba¡¯Neesh, right? They were just messing with him, being coy.

    ¡°Hate to interrupt, Sir.¡± Jordy spoke into the silent, stretchy gap.

    Kirsan restrained his rapidly escalating temper. ¡°You want?¡±

    ¡°Tule Soc¡¯s second had some kind of mental moment frozen in that graveyard. I think he might go freak show crazy to hunt down Perisee and Lemista, much less the others. And, there¡¯s something else. This was my first time meeting Eric Felsen. He¡¯s Soek.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± This did shift Kirsan¡¯s attention and quelled his temper.

    ¡°He released when I and my two Soek operatives did. I don¡¯t think his second noticed or put it together yet, at least when it happened. He may review and notice.¡±

    ¡°Eric¡¯s a mule?¡± Kirsan couldn¡¯t adjust his thinking that fast.

    ¡°No.¡± Perisee and Lemista said together. ¡°He¡¯s tasty and wearing one of your glyph hiding devices, Kirsan.¡± They both laughed.

    These simple words compounded Kirsan¡¯s understanding or lack thereof. What was a high-level Soek doing hiding inside the top reaches of Tule Soc? Was the other organization suffering an internal war of some kind? This information cast Tule Soc¡¯s entire policy into doubt.

    ¡°Dark Gods, you two don¡¯t think this is an evolutionary situation, do you?¡± Kirsan couldn¡¯t help himself. The Turtle had come to be recognized as an evolutionary shift. The species was moving away from current Soek nature to something else. He was scary on so many levels Kirsan couldn¡¯t measure them. He would never pass in human society, not like Kirsan and every other Soek. He was more like the Ba¡¯Neesh, a radically altered version.

    ¡°You and they have put pressure on our species for nearly two hundred of the human years. We are unable to evaluate what we do not remember. We should not be encountering what we don¡¯t remember. So, it is essential to see if others are carrying other memories, unshared for some reason or shared too long ago to be easily accessed. You know that both Lemista and I are ninth phase Ba¡¯Neesh. Old One Horn and Seera are at least eighth phase and they may have knowledge of others who are older still. We need a full quorum to discuss this.¡±

    Kirsan prayed that the pickups inside the space had recorded every single word escaping her mouth. He had just learned more about Ba¡¯Neesh history in one comment than he and his team had gathered in two and a half centuries.

    He tried to re-group. So, they needed defenses to guard any Ba¡¯Neesh they allowed outside from Tule Soc¡¯s second in command, and they were going to pull what amounted to an entire adult colony of Ba¡¯Neesh into a field assignment. The logistics of the thing horrified him.

    ¡°Perisee?¡± He stepped closer to the twisty-horned Ba¡¯Neesh. She was the more reasonable of this pair.

    ¡°Kirsan?¡± She made her own step toward him but didn¡¯t quite touch him.

    Her nearness caused his Vrill to escalate wildly.

    ¡°This She is a catalyst, yes?¡±

    ¡°Our sense of her, yes.¡± Perisee nodded but didn¡¯t stab the tasty Soek, she was amazed at her own restraint.

    ¡°You want The Turtle out. Two catalysts?¡±

    ¡°He will want to see the situation. Likely, he is already moving without you knowing about it.¡±

    Her comment drove Kirsan to the Ops desk just as the alert sounded that an unscheduled private sub had launched from the wrong side of Citadel carrying six passengers, two of them Ba¡¯Neesh, four of them Soek. Brad the Pirate was driving. Kirsan¡¯s least favorite son was present, likely unhappily so. Of course The Turtle would pull him out of sec. And, of course Xasper would come, The Turtle never traveled without him. He acknowledged the message. How had they known before he did? Ba¡¯Neesh intel, it continued to make his life hell.

    (Please vote for this chapter/novel before moving to the next installment. Please share this novel with your friends and family. And, don¡¯t forget to friend me on Facebook under Fay Thompson Author. I post there daily and let everyone know when new installments are posted here. I would love that!)

 Chapter Eight - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Eight ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick and Elias fell into an uneasy silence with both of them thinking about the relative presence of Kiena, if, from different perspectives. This floater was military grade and virtually soundless, its disk shape giving it no real front or back. The driver¡¯s seat was more a designate than a fixed seat. This meant that any of the perimeter seats could become a driver¡¯s seat or run the automated systems. Most children could program a vehicle destination by the age of eight and many did. Almost all vehicles used generic operating systems so people could travel worldwide with minimal difficulties. Only the big transports and commercial craft had specialized systems and even those were based on intuitive concepts.

    To Mick¡¯s eyes this floater had a lot of extra stuff. The central cargo area had built-in containers including one with a pretty good supply of food and drink. He could guess that the other containers held weapons, medical, external shelters and gear. It wasn¡¯t a large floater, not like the other one Elias had shot. When the weapons fire hit the other floater it¡¯s cloaking had flickered and the holoscreen had shown a larger vehicle. He could guess the other one was a multi-person transport. There were only five seats in this floater. That likely made it faster than most.

    Elias was keeping himself turned toward Mick both watching and watchful. Mick was thinking. He¡¯d actually slept for a goodly amount of time in the tree, he¡¯d eaten and while he could use a bathroom break, it wasn¡¯t a desperate urge, yet. He was worrying over his situation. He didn¡¯t really know what was going on. In a game his lack of game knowledge would make him easy meat. He didn¡¯t like being easy meat and usually he read up and studied games long before he joined any so he could evade the common pitfalls. He knew this wasn¡¯t a game but gaming was the best foundation he had to analyze the situation. He needed information. He could guess that this security guy would eventually make a move on him with or without Kiena¡¯s visible presence.

    Mick knew that Kiena only showed up when she wanted to, not every time he called out to her. He couldn¡¯t trust his safety on her assistance. And besides, he kind of wanted to ditch her and all of them if he could get back to his real life. He was pretty worried that his real life had vanished, like it never really existed in some way. That really disturbed him.

    Although he¡¯d been around Kiena for a couple years, he had avoided thinking about her. She was like a game person, fake and a bit mean. She bugged him, made him feel odd, lacking. He couldn¡¯t imagine what she might be doing when she was both invisible and silent because he didn¡¯t tend to think about her as real, until now.

    He couldn¡¯t afford to ignore her any more as that lack of knowledge could kill him and he didn¡¯t want to die. He was becoming increasingly curious about her now since he was in her power and she was effectively screwing with his life. He figured that the security guy¡¯s private slate, the one still on his lap, held all the goodies and it wasn¡¯t privacy blocked. He needed to separate from the guy far enough to snoop and see what this guy knew that he didn¡¯t. He needed to find out his mom was okay and, he needed a plan.

    The floater slowed and sounded a destination alert. Both Elias and Mick watched as it dropped down to skim the ground following a badly decayed, heavily overgrown roadway. The shelter was a tunnel entrance on that abandoned roadway, mostly obscured by bushes and dangling vines. Mick understood from the visuals that Elias had chosen a remote location, somewhere in the Reserves. That meant there wouldn¡¯t be civilization too close except for Reserve Teams. He could guess Elias had avoided any nearby teams too.

    The Reserves were large areas of formerly inhabited land that was being cleaned up, allowing nature to heal the wounds of the too-rapid human population growth and sprawl of earlier generations. They hadn¡¯t gotten to road removal in this area yet and Mick knew that tunnels were often left intact so long as risk of collapse was minimized. He¡¯d had to study the International Reserve Act in his classwork. Like all children and healthy adults, he had worked on a clean-up team in the Reserves for three weeks out of every year from the age of five. It was a mandatory citizen activity although individual nation-states ran their programs differently, every human being was considered a citizen of the planet and as such, they were part of the clean up.

    The floater came to rest a few hundred yards deep inside the hillside tunnel. That would put dirt and stone overhead, an effective screen against easy detection. It was dark. The tunnel¡¯s lights had long-ago been removed and recycled.

    The lights inside the floater automatically compensated.

    ¡°Well.¡± Elias said. ¡°We have arrived.¡± He was trying to figure out a way to test and see if the entity was active.

    ¡°Right.¡± Mick sat up and stretched a bit. His analysis of the inside of the floater had shown a collection of hand-held torches mounted just inside the main door. ¡°I think you should take a torch out and look around, make sure no big, bitey animals are sleeping in here with us. I can run the exterior lights too but the tunnel should be checked for signs of bad cracks, you know the drill. You¡¯ve done Reserve Work, right?¡±

    Elias didn¡¯t comment. Order-born Soek didn¡¯t work on Reserve Teams, they weren¡¯t official planetary citizens. Instead he said, ¡°And you?¡± Elias stood up. He wasn¡¯t against checking around outside. A normal security detail would include evaluating an unknown location. He could guess Mick had ulterior motives, like snooping on the floater. Good for him.

    ¡°I need to use the facilities.¡± Mick answered. It wasn¡¯t exactly a lie, all floaters had built in crappers in the bottom of the craft through a trapdoor and ladder.

    ¡°A weapon?¡± Elias asked, expecting rejection.

    ¡°Yeah, right. Uh, no. Find a stick or something. Likely the floater would have scared away most anything big enough to eat you. Besides, I bet you have skills.¡±

    Mick was already standing up. Elias was only a little bit taller than he was if much more developed, muscular like a trained fighter. His appearance made Mick jealous. He knew that he looked like a too-thin scrawny boy. Tall enough, but he barely exercised enough to pass his physicals, not enough to be athletic. Now he regretted not pushing himself a bit more.

    Elias didn¡¯t argue. There was no sign of the entity but he wanted to learn more. He felt that he needed to build trust with Mick, become a person, find out what was really going on. So, it delayed DireSec¡¯s arrival by a few hours, Jordy would expect him to use the opportunity to the best advantage. Now that the kid had mentioned security, he wanted to check to be sure there wasn¡¯t any sign of pursuit.

    Elias knew that sometimes a Vrill-wave half-sigil would be better at detection than any mechanical sensor. But, he didn¡¯t want to do source work where the boy could see him doing it. He was pretty certain the boy had zero training and he intended to keep him that way. ¡°Fine.¡± He pulled down two torches and stuck the second in his waist loop. He took along a couple nutrient bars from the food storage locker and a fresh bottle of water. What he intended would take at least an hour. ¡°I¡¯ll head inward first to see if the tunnel is blocked, it might be necessary to leave quickly and having two exits is better than one. I¡¯ll check the opening where we entered second. I¡¯ll be awhile.¡±

    Elias stepped down onto the old road surface. It had a soft and mushy feel under his boots. That meant this road was laced in oil-based plastics. Durable and flammable. Not an ideal combination, no wonder the teams hadn¡¯t started recycling these roads yet. He headed off into the darkness.

    Mick locked both exterior doors and made sure the top iris hatch was in its locked position. They could be pushed open for safety but not entered from the outside without a lot of effort. It gave him some privacy. He pulled off the wretched pack, pulled the trapdoor open and hurried down the ladder. Talking about the bathroom had increased his urgency so it was with considerable relief that he used the facilities. He spent the next few minutes examining the tightly-packed storage lockers surrounding the facilities. They were jammed. It was clear that whomever owned this private ride was maxing out for all kinds of possible events. In one container he found transport sacks and as soon as he touched one he liked it. He was that way about his clothing too. His mom said he had some kind of allergy to synthetics. He knew what he liked even if they weren¡¯t modern all the time. Modern had its limits in terms of comfort.

    He headed back up the ladder carrying the sack. The exterior cameras no longer showed Elias but there was a heat tracker that was following a moving dot in one direction. Rather the spy guy than him. He walked back to his seat and glared at his pack. What he wanted to do was play with the man¡¯s slate and figure out how to use the weapons and gadgets he had in a pile. What he did was upend his pack and dump his dirty, wrinkled clothing on the floor, along with the disgusting rotted sack.

    He separated his clothing from the bones and then ripped what was left of the sack open. In the better part of what had been the sack was a skull, and it wasn¡¯t human. He frowned. It looked like Kiena all right. His skin tried to crawl around. They were non-human bones but they were like human bones. They were whatever she was, obviously. Did that mean they were her bones? If so, didn¡¯t that mean she was a ghost? Ghosts didn¡¯t blow up city electric systems. He was getting something wrong here.

    He carefully opened the brand new transport bag and put the skull inside first. He wanted to just shove the bones in quickly and be done but even as he reached for one he felt his guts twist. It was the wrong bone. He frowned. There was no such thing as right and wrong bones. Still, he paused over another bone and it was first. He discovered there was an order to the packing of the bag and he couldn¡¯t deviate. It got easier. They didn¡¯t smell and when he touched them there was a feeling that flowed into him that he liked. Was that Vrill? He arranged the bones as they demanded he arrange them, right down to the tiny bones. That reminded him of his bone, the one in his pocket. He pulled it out last and was going to put it on the very top but his hand wouldn¡¯t lower. He stopped. She had suggested a string, like he wear it like a necklace. There was string in the medical kit, and scissors. He brought out the cord. He had to widen the hole a bit more but finally he had made it into a necklace. As soon as he got it over his head he felt relief. Was that her feelings or his?

    He scooped up the remains of the bag and shoved them into the recycler, hitting the button to remove the waste. He brushed at the floor with his boot to disperse the remaining dirt. That left his clothing. He pulled off his soiled shirt and found the cleanest shirt in his pile. He took the time to change all of his clothing right down to his underwear and socks. Among the built-ins was a small laundry machine that he filled with the first load of his dirty clothing. He made two other small piles because he didn¡¯t want bone and corpse dirt on his clothes.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    There were wipes in the medical unit that he used to clean the inside of his pack and then he moved the transport bag into his pack. It was what she wanted and somehow, it was what he should do, just because. The logical part of his brain told him he was being stupid. But, first things first. He filled the rest of his pack with nutrient bars and filled his mother¡¯s jug with fresh water. He pulled out the real food and a juice and deployed the flip-up table on his chair. Elias was still walking away from the floater, according to the heat sensor. That meant this tunnel was fairly long and it curved toward the right. Mick watched a few times and saw the man was pausing, sometimes circling and then walking on. It was clear he was discovering something out there but it hadn¡¯t really stopped him. So, that was okay.

    He powered up the slate and once again marveled at how massively advanced it was. Clearly, what was available to the general public was crap.

    It took him the better part of thirty minutes to work through the upper files to find what he wanted, recent communications between Elias and someone named Jordy. His boss? It was an ongoing conversation about the city electrical event. Mick scrolled back to the first mention and started reading aloud. He wanted to hear the conversation like it was inside a game, it made it feel more strategic and real. He even mimicked Elias¡¯ voice for the one side and a deeper voice for the other. In games, you could often develop a sense of opponents by how they spoke, their tone, their inflection and word choices. He guessed Jordy was around the same age as Elias and they seemed tight, like real life friends. That made him a bit jealous too, were both of them Soek? Why did they know each other?

    Most guys didn¡¯t get along with him too well, even when he was little and his mom was in the play groups, he was called anti-social and immature.

    At some point he became aware that something had changed. He looked around. The Elias dot was moving back toward the floater but that didn¡¯t feel like the change he sensed.

    ¡°Kiena?¡± He asked aloud.

    ¡°Continue the story.¡± She answered from nowhere and everywhere.

    She¡¯d been listening? Mick tried to feel irritated or annoyed, but instead he felt some relief and that was just stupid. So, he went back to reading the two parts. He learned that these men worked for an organization called the Directorate and a branch called DireSec. That explained a few things. What was more difficult to understand was their references to Ba¡¯Neesh and a situation and who was OrderSec? They had sent a message to OrderSec almost like this Order group was also in charge. Two bosses of one group sounded strange.

    He learned that there were three different groups chasing him. The local Anti-Terrorist Team, DireSec and OrderSec combined and a third group called Tule Soc. DireSec was not worried about the locals. He watched footage of his parents being interrogated and his entire bedroom being torn apart and bagged. The locals were calling him the likely suspect. His parents were upset but they hadn¡¯t been home when it happened and they weren¡¯t being blamed. They were taken for additional interviews to places Mick didn¡¯t recognize but they sounded like downtown somewhere.

    There were interviews with his psychiatrist, and a message about him being on a watch list for years for anti-social behavior. His grades were examined and discussed and then they latched onto his game choices, noticing his preference for RPG and solvers. All of this was woven in with strategy between this Jordy and Elias. It became clear to Mick that this Elias guy was a top guy, maybe a number two and his expertise centered on tech. The Jordy guy was a boss. It was massively complex, particularly when they were discussing the deployment of Tule Soc operatives. They clearly viewed Tule Soc as a serious enemy.

    Mick sat back when the majority of the conversations were sorted and looked at. Some of them were marked for further study. These guys were pulling apart his life in great detail. Why? He was exactly nobody special, an adopted boy.

    ¡°They have to be looking for you.¡± He said. ¡°You did this. You blew up the grid. I¡¯m the mask hiding you.¡± He accused.

    Elias had reached the floater. He tapped on the door. ¡°Mick?¡± He asked loud enough to be clearly heard inside.

    ¡°Yeah?¡± Mick didn¡¯t want the spy guy inside, not until he had some kind of defensive plan.

    ¡°You okay?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, sure. Cleaning my clothes.¡± He answered, not sure why he added on the last.

    ¡°Laundry?¡± Elias frowned at the door. Why was the kid cleaning his clothes, did he have a fetish? The visual state of his bedroom when Anti-Terrorism arrived to film it suggested a slob, not a neat freak.

    ¡°Yeah. I had blood on my shirt.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right.¡± Elias recalled the kid¡¯s knife-cut shoulder. The memory startled him. In retrospect he could grasp that cutting out the locator had to have been forced. She had forced the kid. They had force against them in common. Why hadn¡¯t he thought of that earlier?

    ¡°You want me to join you or finish the detail out here?¡± Elias wanted to do the wave. He could guess DireSec would be running trace and would pick up such a Vrill spike easily. Tule Soc might to, but he could bet DireSec had better tech, at least enough to arrive in the area first. It wasn¡¯t like he wanted to take on Tule Soc alone although he remained uncertain of both Mick and the entities capabilities. Too many unknowns.

    ¡°Go ahead and finish.¡± Mick answered.

    Elias shrugged, no doubt the boy was exploring the floater. He would have in the boy¡¯s place. It didn¡¯t matter. That the kid was running his slate irritated him, but that too didn¡¯t matter. Whatever he learned would just be wiped out when the team arrived. Better to forge trust. ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll be back later.¡± Elias tapped again and then Mick watched him move out of the floater¡¯s lights and toward the tunnel opening.

    ¡°He is sneaky.¡± Kiena said.

    ¡°Yeah, he intends to bonk me on the head or zap me or take a stunner to me and then give me to his DireSec Team or those Order people, whomever they really are. I need to learn his weapons and devices. I need some damn skills. Why did you dump me into this game without any skills or creds or buy-ins or nothing?¡±

    ¡°Good plan.¡± Kiena said, ¡°Will these attack types cause blood? I like blood.¡±

    Mick glared around in general as she was invisible. ¡°You¡¯re going to let him bonk me after I took care of your bones all by myself.¡±

    ¡°If it is enjoyable.¡±

    ¡°Enjoyable? This isn¡¯t fun.¡± He wanted to throw something at her.

    ¡°Oh, he¡¯s doing a working.¡± Kiena interrupted him.

    Mick automatically pivoted to face the direction Elias had walked toward, the tunnel entry. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Mick asked, distracted. ¡°What¡¯s a working?¡±

    ¡°He knows the Vrill and the Vrill knows him. Interesting. Those drone things, can you get one out there to watch him?¡±

    Mick blinked. That was actually a good idea. He called up visual drones and found out the floater had three sizes. The middle size drones were missing, shot down by the floater earlier. That left a dozen of the tiny eyes and two big weapon drones. He deployed two eyes to ¡°Find the target, observe, transmit and return.¡± It really wasn¡¯t much different from a game, just slightly different commands. He knew he was fast at learning new games. He just needed time.

    Within moments the drones flitted to the tunnel opening and out into the sunlight. Once they adjusted for glare they were able to locate the target. Elias.

    ¡°What¡¯s he doing?¡± Mick stared at the holo. Elias was picking up handfuls of dirt and making half-circle rings away from the tunnel entrance, starting with the largest ring and continuing inward.

    ¡°He is making a sigil.¡± Kiena said with a great deal of curiosity. ¡°But, only a half. Why only a half?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Mick shrugged. ¡°You mean half a circle? That looks like the drawing of a wave front, not a target.¡±

    ¡°Explain a wave front?¡± Kiena asked.

    ¡°You know, like the ocean. Waves moving toward a shore, only in my physics class they draw waves like that sometimes or as squiggly lines.¡±

    ¡°A Vrill wave?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Look, he¡¯s drawing a Cleopatra eyeball at the bottom center. What¡¯s that for?¡±

    ¡°To see.¡± Kiena¡¯s voice sounded excited because she was.

    Mick walked over to the Vrill multiplier. ¡°How is he accessing your Vrill stuff. Look at the gauge, it¡¯s dipping.¡± He squealed and jerked back. ¡°It¡¯s trying to suck me out.¡± He yelled.

    Almost as soon as the wave began, it ended. The machine¡¯s gauge returned to normal and Mick no longer felt the pull of it. He stared at the holographic screen receiving drone footage. Elias had gestured and audio picked up a word, a familiar cadence on it. He had that weird sounding voice thing too. Mick didn¡¯t like that a bit. He replayed that part and heard the word ¡°Searchers.¡±

    Mick patted himself, rubbed his forehead and tried to feel the invasion of it. Nothing happened.

    ¡°He did what you do and I don¡¯t feel like I have to search for anything.¡± He blurted out.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t directed at you.¡± Kiena replied.

    ¡°Directed. You mean those words, that special sound thing, it can be directed at, it¡¯s not just like a loudspeaker affecting everyone in hearing?¡±

    ¡°Precisely.¡±

    Mick stopped twitching and watched Elias turning his head slowly from right to left. ¡°What¡¯s he doing now?¡± He asked.

    ¡°He¡¯s seeing if there are searchers approaching from those directions.¡± Kiena was watching avidly, deeply interested, learning.

    ¡°Can you see too?¡± Mick asked.

    That penetrated.

    ¡°Hurry, a bowl and water.¡± Kiena ordered, the whip of Vrill just glazing the edge of her words.

    Mick didn¡¯t need the extra incentive. He pulled a bowl out of the food container and filled it with water. He placed it on his seat¡¯s table. ¡°Now what?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s look through.¡± Kiena said, manifesting before his eyes. She was in her more solid form, enhanced by the extra Vrill of the multiplier. She looked real. She was staring down into the water. Mick tried to angle in around her horns. He could only see a little bit but it was enough. The water was looking out across the landscape like he was on a drone, searching.

    ¡°Oh hell no.¡± He gasped. ¡°That¡¯s like magical shit.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Kiena agreed, well pleased with the few seconds of viewing that had taken place. The boy was proving useful.

    ¡°Magic doesn¡¯t exist.¡± He shook his head. Vrill. Magic. Energy. Elias causing something to flow away from him in a wave and return with imagery. Magic. That wasn¡¯t possible.

    He watched Elias deliberately scuff his dirt drawing until no trace of it remained. If Mick hadn¡¯t seen it happen then he wouldn¡¯t have believed it.

    ¡°Return drones.¡± He called out aloud, hopeful Elias had never known they were there, watching him.

    ¡°How can I possibly fight that? Those other guys, they are like him too, they have abilities! I¡¯m doomed.¡±

    ¡°Where did he learn, Soek boy?¡± Kiena¡¯s voice had that edge again and once more she was invisible.

    Mick was getting the idea manifesting had a price, a Vrill price. He stored that for later thought. Learning meant school, school meant books or teaching slates.

    He plopped down on his seat and asked Elias¡¯ slate for class slates.

    The laundry machine beeped while the machine was searching. He swapped loads and dumped his cleans on another seat and sat back down. Stored in the system memory were eighteen years of study starting at age five. Eighteen? Mick did the math, that made this guy the equivalent of a Doctor. But, he¡¯d never heard of the school, it was called the Citadel.

    He went back to reading aloud, just the class headers. Beginning Casting, Advanced Embedding, Group Speech, Identifying Sigils, the list went on and on with subjects he¡¯d never heard of. And, when he opened the one on Speech, there were vids of men in long, dark robes teaching and his screen filled with a study guide. It was all here. Probably back to the guy¡¯s first Gen Ed class at five-years-old.

    ¡°Could I learn this stuff too, Kiena?¡± He asked. ¡°You say I¡¯m Soek and he¡¯s Soek. If he can, I can, right?¡±

    ¡°I will prevent him from bonking you while you sleep, at least for a while.¡± She answered. ¡°We will examine his guides with interest and see what they have taught him.¡±

    ¡°You know.¡± Mick looked up and to his right even though she was invisible, he was getting a sense for where she was. How was that possible? What had she told him back when she blew up the electronic grid, that electricity was inhibiting him or something. Did she mean electricity interacted badly with Vrill? ¡°You know, Kiena. Elias made a big display of turning off my molcom, but these security guys, if they are good, like gaming good, they will have a way to turn it on from a distance, and take me out. I think that¡¯s Elias¡¯ plan. Get his team here and take me out. I bet they know something about you too. Those two Ba¡¯Neesh females, they knew everything in their eyes. Are you like that when you are like they are?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not like they are.¡± Kiena answered with derision, ¡°But, my eyes are like theirs.¡±

    That seemed a bit contradictory to Mick but he was learning not to get her upset. So, she wanted to feel superior, he just wanted her to protect him instead of hurt him. He believed she could do either on a whim. How to be whimless? That was the ticket.

    (Please share this novel with your friends and family. And, don¡¯t forget to friend me on Facebook under Fay Thompson Author. I post there daily and let everyone know when new installments are posted here. I would love that! Also, if you friend me on Facebook please comment and let me know you are from Royal Road.)

 Chapter Nine - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Nine ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Eric and Arjan regrouped in their rented rooms, both of them stiffly silent until they could enter a privacy screened area.

    ¡°What the hell was that?¡± Arjan rounded on Eric. ¡°Two Ba¡¯Neesh, unfettered, undrugged, able to do anything they might want to any of us and we were powerless, absolutely powerless.¡±

    ¡°They didn¡¯t. Stare, yes. But, they seemed mostly curious.¡± Eric said quietly.

    ¡°How did that boy get DireSec not to shoot him? You could see them from your position, I couldn¡¯t. What did he do? He sounded like he didn¡¯t know them but he walked right past us like we weren¡¯t there.¡±

    ¡°We were immobilized by the weapon, Arjan. He didn¡¯t seem to know how long it would take to wear off of any of us. He seemed excited and worried to me.¡±

    Arjan took a deep breath, his insides felt ripped apart, his head hurt so much he wanted to cry and he didn¡¯t cry. And, what was wrong with Eric, his boss. His behavior was off. Arjan couldn¡¯t quite pinpoint how but he almost seemed to be apologizing for the loose monsters. He knew what they were. He knew that their freedom came at the direct risk of all of humanity. Why had Eric made an excuse for them?

    ¡°I don¡¯t think the boy is of DireSec.¡± Eric continued, ¡°He isn¡¯t in the database of known lineage except as a distant ancestor hit. I think he used some kind of weapon on the DireSec operative outside of the immobility area. Two weapons.¡±

    ¡°Two? That boy took out a city. Are you saying he used one weapon there, a different one to immobilize us, a third to take the DireSec agent? That¡¯s at least three or my math is bad. Who is this kid and why is he appearing out of nowhere?¡±

    ¡°He appears to be the one identified as Mick Huxley, regardless of what Anti-Terrorism is saying about that blood sample from the graveyard.¡± Eric shrugged, as much to himself as for Arjan¡¯s benefit. ¡°We have multiple direct observations in close proximity when he walked among us. Those identifiers all say he is this kid Mick.¡±

    Arjan sighed heavily. ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t feel well. My head feels like it wants to be blown off by a grenade.¡±

    ¡°I have medical bringing in some analgesic for all of us. They will be in here testing us soon. All of us are having the same symptoms to greater or lesser degree. It looks like that immobility weapon, whatever it was, didn¡¯t operate evenly. That likely explains why there are men knocked out on meds in the other room due to suicidal expressions and why we are still functional, if painfully so.¡± Eric sowed the seeds of doubt, a weapon that struck unevenly. It was his best hope.

    ¡°I heard we have four knocked out.¡± Arjan nodded and then regretted it. He felt like every nerve in his body was inflated as if the immobility weapon had forcibly expanded each in some way. He dropped into a seat and cupped his head. He could barely think straight and somehow it was the hated Ba¡¯Neesh¡¯ fault. He equated the two monsters present with his physical state of misery. Somehow, they were causing his pain.

    ¡°Regardless, we have to work.¡± Eric firmed up his tone. ¡°Our best bet initially is to piggyback DireSec as they likely have the inside track on tracing that stolen floater.¡± Eric talked to his Tech Ops experts back in Germany. They indicated a trace on the floater that had picked up DireSec, tailing it to a secured airstrip. That airstrip was well shielded by stationary distorters DireSec had brought in. The best Tule Soc could manage was to visually watch the airstrip and note any incoming or outgoing floaters. They were already actively screening for message traffic even though anything they got would be heavily encrypted or sigil encapsulated, technology they had, as yet, only solved in a rudimentary fashion. It was frustrating to be behind in such things when their Vrill trace and sensor technology was better than DireSec. Tradeoffs. Each corporate entity focused on different areas of Vrill development.

    ¡°The range of that floater is easily up to ten thousand kilometers.¡± Arjan forced his brain to cooperate.

    ¡°Right. I have Tech Ops starting drones in grids from the cemetery out as we don¡¯t have a direction to focus on yet.¡± It was manpower and a rapid escalation of equipment. Eric knew his Ministers would be demanding results soon and he had nothing but failure to report. How had the boy escaped, not only the Anti-Terrorist Team, but all of them? It shouldn¡¯t be possible.

    Medical showed up with inhalers and ingestibles, short and long-term header relief. The promise. He could only pray that promise would be fulfilled. The exam produced other information, nerve damage. Both of them were showing alterations to their nervous system. Eric had blockers preventing himself and his close associates from Vrill testing as that would reveal his secret. So, the testing didn¡¯t show other distortions to his energy, but, he could feel the odd taste of his own Vrill. He had a private tester back in Germany but it was too risky to bring into the field where another operative might find it. So, he had to guess at what he was sensing. He could feel his energy being enlarged but it also felt dirty or unclean in a way new to him. What had happened out there?

    The medications did help in reducing the intensity of the hangover-like symptoms and both of them were told to eat bland foods and drink water to quiet their digestion. It made for an unpleasant food break but both of them obeyed. After a few hours it became easier and they flowed back into their training. They were here to both acquire or dispose of the Soek and to acquire all information possible about the event. That left them returning to the analysis of existing data which continued to come in from the Anti-Terrorism forensic department.

    They were able to confirm the boy was Soek, although his area of lineage remained oblique. Where he had been left as an infant could be close to a hidden Ba¡¯Neesh pocket or they could have travelled a great distance to disguise their presence. Their behavior in the wild was poorly understood. Both men considered the Ba¡¯Neesh more elevated animal than full hominid with advanced functioning. It was easier. They were monsters. They could do monstrous things like what had happened to this city. Both were certain at least one Ba¡¯Neesh was at the core of the situation, likely several. To what end? How did you fathom the reasoning of unreasonable alien creatures? That was the point. If the population of Ba¡¯Neesh advanced or increased, humanity would suffer. The species, although they could breed together, were fundamentally incompatible to primary human goals.

    Tule Soc used the species as an energy generating tool for weaponized disease delivery. Vrill had unique advantages over electricity and low-level Soek made excellent disease carriers. It was acceptable that these carriers died in the delivery of their weapon, usually to be discovered as unidentified male victims of the unknown disease source. Mules.

    Eric carefully hid his true feelings about this policy. Things had to change. The Directorate was advancing beyond Tule Soc and the only potential to reduce that advantage was to kill off the Directorate Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek. It had been tried. He shuddered. It was before his time that the last all out attempt had been made to kill off their competitors. They could never have anticipated The Turtle. He often thought the stories about those events were layered in myth, false words, but he had read the original reports, the impossible original reports. It continued to puzzle all of Tule Soc why this Turtle person had seemed to disappear after those events, becoming first a rumor, then a myth. Was he still alive? Had the Order killed him off for being too radical a deviation, after all, they were not innocent of their own control plans for the Ba¡¯Neesh? It was the consuming desire of Eric¡¯s life to find out the truth about the Turtle and the only way he could do so was by chasing DireSec and hoping clues would emerge, some mistake. It couldn¡¯t all be true.

    He had higher-level Soek moles planted into Order pick-up conditions, boys under the age of five. But, they were not yet old enough to find their way into the Order fully. It had taken too many years for the special program hidden within Tule Soc to produce Soek like him, they were collectively called ¡®The Solution¡¯. He tried, as he had so many times before, to sense the nature of the Tule Soc controls inside his brain. He had nothing to compare it to, this attempt to sense such a thing.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    His thoughts returned to the two Ba¡¯Neesh, so very different from the heavily drugged immature Ba¡¯Neesh kept by the Tule Soc. Their vibrancy. Their eyes. By the Dark Gods, those eyes ripping into his soul. He knew they knew, yet they seemed amused with his secret, unafraid of his duplicity. Did they sense he might become traitor to Tule Soc? He often wondered, where did his loyalties lay? Tule Soc was destroying his kind. He had a kind. How did he reconcile the knowledge that at some key point some distant handler would throw a switch and turn him into some kind of mule, a slave to the Tule Soc policy to destroy the opposition, once they had him in the place they wanted him. He kept seeing the amused Ba¡¯Neesh staring into his soul. What did they know?

    ¡°Eric?¡± Arjan¡¯s voice rose a bit.

    Eric blinked, realizing it was the second time Arjan had called his name. ¡°Yes?¡± He rubbed at his face. ¡°I don¡¯t feel normal, better, but not normal. How about you?¡±

    ¡°Improved but hating my head and nervous system with a passion at this moment.¡± Arjan answered. ¡°I was saying, I think we need to retrieve a bone sample. They couldn¡¯t have gotten all trace in their sweep. It is worth a look.¡±

    Eric perked up. A direction. Arjan was right, that bone dust reported by Anti-Terrorism was inexplicable. Whose bones and where had it come from? Chase the details. Success was often hidden in the overlooked details.

    ¡°Get us a small floater. It is dark but there¡¯s a moon. Plot in a landing as close to where the boy paused last night as we can get. Cloaked, of course. Pull a five-man support team. If we¡¯ve thought of it likely DireSec has too. We might meet them.¡±

    Both of them preferred the hustle of activity even with continuing headers. It was easier to ignore the pain if you were busy.

    Elias tapped his torch against the side of the floater, ready to go inside for the evening. He was tired and a bit anxious, doing the minor sigil work caused him casting drop. He needed protein and some enhanced water to offset the depletion and he needed to evaluate what the boy had been up to. ¡°Mick?¡± He yelled out.

    Mick frowned. He wanted to leave Elias outside but that felt wrong. Inside he could watch the man, keep tabs on him. Outside he would just worry what the man was up to. It was a cross between indoor worry and outdoor worry. Indoor seemed more reasonable. He couldn¡¯t predict how long Kiena intended to keep them together. From his perspective, she could do so indefinitely if she could block the molcoms so they couldn¡¯t be shut down. Could she get inside his head and melt the thing, or something? It was a newly terrifying idea as molcoms were designed to wrap around the brain stem and grow into the brain tissue itself.

    He ordered the door to unlock and eyed the Soek, he reminded himself, as the Soek entered and placed both torches in the charger slots. ¡°What were you circling in the tunnel?¡± Mick asked, trying to be friendly without being too friendly.

    ¡°Dens. Mostly old and for smaller animals. Some bear trace but it isn¡¯t fresh so likely the bear is out moving around for food and not hanging out inside, for the moment.¡± Elias was looking around carefully, doing a calculated survey of the interior. He saw two piles of laundry, one likely clean, the other still dirty. A scuffed mark on the floor with other dirt. He instantly wanted a sample. Clothing waiting to be removed from the laundry. The recycler had been used. He wanted the residue in that too, before it was incinerated. Evidence the boy had eaten and his pack was partially repacked, it¡¯s lumps altered. What was in there if the boy¡¯s clothing was not in there?

    Then there was Elias¡¯ slate, comfortably positioned on the fold-out table along with a bowl of water. He stared. What was that for? His mind raced. Perisee and Lemista often had bowls of water sitting around at odd times. More shallow bowls than this one but as he recalled, this was the only size in the cabinet. Ba¡¯Neesh viewing? He sucked in a shaky breath. He could guess what they might have viewed.

    He scanned the interior for other information and noted two of the mini-drones were in recharge mode. Spying on him outside. What had the boy seen? How had he known to look? His estimation of the boy increased.

    ¡°Mind if I eat?¡± He asked aloud.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡± Mick shrugged. He¡¯d watched the Soek scanning and he correctly guessed the guy was noticing every little thing. He was trained at close detail analysis. Mick¡¯s facial muscles tightened. He¡¯d made mistakes then, things to be noticed. It made him feel inadequate. He instinctively knew that some advantage had been gained by the older Soek. He needed to adjust that. He looked down at the slate, open on old classes. Kiena wanted to learn, to study this guy¡¯s guides, whatever that meant. He could guess she meant his teachers. Well great, he wanted to figure out these Soek secrets he seemed to be utterly deprived of. He felt cheated, like he always felt cheated. Second parents, second life, nothing of his own. Now he felt his possible super intriguing abilities had been hidden from him too. It all felt intentional. This had been done to him, by neglect. It felt bad. It made him mad. Revenge was likely held inside bland-looking class files. School, Soek style. He grinned on the inside. What would this Soek do to hear his old classes processing out loud?

    He had explored the hand weapon enough to know the stun from the kill setting and to put it on stun and how to activate the trigger. He waited until the Soek sat down with his hands full of at least a double helping of food. Why so much? Mick stored that away too. Kiena seemed to be drained by elevated Vrill use, now this Soek eating hard and drinking from a container marked with a prominent E. What was it?

    They were sitting across from each other. Mick made a play of drinking water from the bowl having noticed Elias staring at it earlier. Let him wonder if Mick was just using it as a crude drinking vessel. Deceit. Mick had played a lot of games against a lot of opponents both real and programmed. Sleight of intention was often valuable, never show your true hand until you had to. He would have to be much more careful of this spy guy going forward. Added pressure. It wasn¡¯t an unpleasant sensation, it was a familiar gaming feeling.

    When the older Soek¡¯s hands and mouth were full, his muscles relaxed and seated. Mick sat down the slate and folded his clean clothing. Then he moved quickly to transfer his second clean load to the empty chair and load the third and last load. It only took a minute or so. He sat back down, the weapon leaning against his thigh. He¡¯d already stowed the other devices that he hadn¡¯t examined yet into the side pockets of his pack, folded the second load and stored the combined first and second load in on top of the bone bag. It left him with just the slate, the weapon and the empty bowl. He put the bowl on the empty seat.

    Elias watched all of this, noting the boy was moving fast and smooth, he was thinking out his moves in advance. That gave Elias a clear understanding that the boy played virtual games that incorporated whole body coordination. Likely he had to clean his bedroom for the necessary room. A decent player then. Elias hadn¡¯t had enough time to do more than note which games were listed in that initial forensic report. About half of them Elias had played enough to understand their strategy, the newer ones were less well known, he had less time these days for such fun. He continued eating his protein-rich dinner wondering what the boy intended to do next. He couldn¡¯t have guessed.

    Mick transferred the slate¡¯s audio to the floater¡¯s system. He programmed in Elias¡¯ voice which the slate had in full and his earlier modified Jordy voice as the alternate allowing the computer system to use default voices for any additional requirements. He skipped the Gen Ed classes finding the class titles and descriptions matching up with Gen Ed everywhere. Rote. He stopped at the first class that he didn¡¯t recognize, a Safety and Rules Class. It sounded boring. It was for five-year-olds. Mick didn¡¯t know the rules. Time to learn. He ran the class program.

    Elias nearly jumped out of his seat as the floater speakers began reading the class description on audio. His first instinct was to attack the boy. He noted the boy was watching, his right hand clasping the weapon. Even from his seat Elias could tell the weapon was off safety and primed. Why out loud? He calmed himself with difficulty.

    Mick made no apology. The Soek¡¯s sharp reaction told him this choice was unexpected and of concern to Elias. A good move, then. He smiled inwardly, acutely aware that Kiena was behind him and over his shoulder. Could she read? He guessed it could be possible she couldn¡¯t read English. Convinced the immediate danger from Elias was reduced he adjusted the program to highlight each word as the voice read it. She could then see the words as she heard them. She noticed and silently approved. He was correct in guessing her grasp of written language in the human world was poor.

    Mick sat back and listened as the Master¡¯s voice admonished the five-year-old new student that living inside the Citadel was dangerous and they could die. What the hell kind of school frightened five-year-olds on the first day of class? He kept his surprise to himself, not realizing his surprise had been caught by Elias who was now watching Mick¡¯s facial muscles avidly. His estimation of his guest was growing. A first choice, to learn what Elias had learned in school, aloud. Maybe he was better than a decent player. His Vrill could just pick out a slight suggestion of something behind the boy. The entity, listening and maybe watching his screen. He shuddered. What the hell was he into?

    (How do you like Mick? I''m a fan. Did you ever want to get a sneak peak into a school for some kind of magical working? Of course, you know snooping is costly. :) Enjoy!)

 Chapter Ten - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Ten ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick played class after class as the evening deepened. First in disbelief, then in anger, then it a sort of continuous outrage. A five-year-old stranger was given opportunities he was never offered. After the third of these prep classes, that¡¯s what he called them. He glared at Elias. It was this boy, not some random stranger whose classes he was snooping into. This exact man had once been the boy in these classes. The class he paused on was called Recognizing Vrill. The boy was in a room of similar-aged boys and Mick had already learned that in this school, the classrooms were physically real and surveilled. At the end of each class the footage of the actual class was sent to the student¡¯s slate. Every facial expression, every twitch, every miscreant behavior was captured. It was beyond shocking.

    Mick had seldom been inside an actual classroom as they weren¡¯t cost effective. Every residence had a virtual box as they called it. The students sat in their box and the box was collected into a classroom setting. It was like the walls of the box became transparent but the other students, like Mick, while looking real, they were holographic projections of each other. You couldn¡¯t actually touch another kid and the teachers couldn¡¯t touch anyone. It was remote. That was why there were so many organized play groups, so kids could meet each other in non-stressful, non-school settings to play in real life. All neighborhoods, residential blocks, residential towers and residential areas had a host of play groups and activities, well supervised. While his school experience was fully monitored too Mick had never seen his own childish behavior. Maybe his parents had received critical parts through their service, maybe his doctors, but Mick wasn¡¯t troubled by a daily review of his behavior. Somehow this Citadel was far more intrusive than the box. And, he knew that none of the students he saw on the footage had parents nearby, they were alone. They talked about dorms, not about families. Were all Soek abandoned? If so, why had he been adopted out and these Order-born boys were not?

    ¡°You can move a ball on a grooved board.¡± Mick parroted the lesson of that long-ago day¡¯s class. ¡°Show me.¡± He said to Elias.

    Elias didn¡¯t want to show him but he could feel the presence more clearly now. Either she was getting stronger or his sensitivity to her presence was adapting. He thought the second more likely than the first.

    He had eaten but not cleaned up his food bowl and spoon. He pointed and the spoon moved away from his finger. It didn¡¯t fly. It just moved an inch or two and stopped.

    Mick found a second spoon in the food cabinet and he placed it on his table and pointed like Elias had. The spoon sat there. Mick¡¯s fury bubbled. ¡°It¡¯s a trick. You are doing a trick.¡± He said, his tone elevated.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Elias nodded. ¡°It is a trick. You have to know that Vrill is moving from your nervous system through the tip of your finger to push against the mass of the spoon. You don¡¯t believe. Seeing isn¡¯t enough. You are too old. Why do you think they teach us at five? It¡¯s because our thinking is malleable, unformed. Yours is rigid with erroneous physical rules.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t what Mick wanted to hear. ¡°You mean I can¡¯t learn?¡± Mick¡¯s tone lowered. ¡°You think I¡¯m stupid, like she says. A stupid Soek.¡±

    ¡°You have no arcana intelligence.¡± Elias kept his tone even. ¡°You have been taught such things don¡¯t exist and if they don¡¯t exist, you cannot move the spoon, your mind blocks you. I know they exist, I can feel my Vrill, I can sometimes see my Vrill, I can move the spoon.¡± It was a straightforward analysis. And, slightly mean. Elias knew he was pushing the boy. What would he have thought had he been raised outside the Order?

    ¡°Teach me.¡± Mick demanded.

    ¡°No.¡± Elias answered. What could the boy do, shoot him? He watched the outrage flickering across the boy¡¯s face. He pitied him. The boy was disabled, damaged, crippled by the overlay of human thinking and programming.

    Mick jerked back, his mind churning, seeking some avenue to punish the smugness on Elias¡¯ face. Then he watched his spoon take flight, not move an inch or two. He glanced at Elias and saw the stiffness of his face and body. It wasn¡¯t him. Kiena. The spoon spun in mid-air then darted toward Elias like a thrown knife and even as Elias raised his hands in hasty defense, it halted, turned and raced toward Mick.

    Mick didn¡¯t raise his hands. He had seen fear in Elias, fear of the unknown. In that fear he had seen himself. He couldn¡¯t control what he didn¡¯t know but he could control how he reacted to what he didn¡¯t know. He wouldn¡¯t give Kiena the satisfaction of seeing him cower. So the spoon hit him in the nose and he yelped in reaction. But, then he laughed even as he wrinkled his face at the radiating sensations. He would have a bruise. It wasn¡¯t so bad. No reason to cower from a flying spoon.

    Elias flinched. He understood the silent exchange and the fact that arcana intelligent or not, he had cowered before the spoon.

    ¡°I can see her Vrill.¡± Mick said into the quiet. ¡°I know she can hit me with it. Two truths. I¡¯ll damn well catch up and you will help me, or not.¡± There was threat there. Elias scored the boy with yet another hit. Well played.

    ¡°Why does the spoon move?¡± Mick asked as he picked up his spoon and contemplated his bruised nose. She hadn¡¯t made a sound, simply demonstrated that she could throw spoons, not move them an inch on a table. It argued with something in Mick¡¯s mind. It had to do with mass. Did Elias perceive the spoon to have too much weight or mass to move the way she used it? He could see the questions in the older Soek¡¯s eyes. So, they weren¡¯t that different then. Unequally stupid.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Elias admitted, confused by his own lack of clear understanding. In class, the objective wasn¡¯t to understand how, but to cause the action. ¡°I have to focus really hard to push something bigger than a hollow ball.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    Elias shifted, unhappy to be on the spot. He wasn¡¯t a damn Master teacher of Vrill science or theory. It wasn¡¯t fair. He could move the spoon. He could demonstrate competence. That was the benchmark. His mind flitted to Mael Strom, this kid reminded him a bit of Mael, asking impossible questions that no one needed or wanted to know. That comparison sobered him. He was the only adult Soek here. It was a forced teaching position. The alternative didn¡¯t beg consideration. Mick couldn¡¯t be like Mael, Dark Gods, no one was really like Mael Strom.

    Mick watched the expressions on Elias¡¯ face. His turn. He could read anxiety, tension and even some fear. But, more importantly, he could tell Elias was thinking about something he didn¡¯t like.

    ¡°A hollow ball is light. They use them because even slight amounts of energy will start them moving. I was showing off with the spoon.¡± Elias answered.

    Mick could understand that. He questioned why he wasn¡¯t as mad at Elias. Showing off, a vulnerability. Was the spoon the older Soek¡¯s maximum? Somehow, he didn¡¯t think the flying spoon was Kiena¡¯s maximum.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t weight something of a human illusion?¡± Mick asked carefully. ¡°I mean, you drop something heavy or light and both hit the floor at the same time, so their weight is not critical to their speed of fall.¡±

    Elias swallowed hard. He was suddenly feeling trapped inside the floater. It was almost like he could hear the entity thinking. How did apparitions think without actual brains? His mind flitted to the Citadel¡¯s Chamber of the Beloved, the many voices chanting. He wanted to crawl out of his skin. They all thought without brains, verbalized without mouths or throats or air. Why have a brain if you could think without one? Perisee¡¯s voice came to life in his memory, ¡°Fur sacks are for fun.¡±

    Kiena burst out laughing, his thoughts as clear as spoken words.

    Mick jumped. Elias glared.

    ¡°What was that about?¡± Mick turned to his right where she hovered, like an invisible hologram, no mass.

    ¡°Thoughtless brains.¡± Kiena said, clarifying nothing for the confused Mick.

    Elias groaned, his head dropping to be cupped in his hands. She was able to hear his thoughts. Terrible news.

    ¡°Tell me,¡± Mick yelled, much louder than earlier. ¡°It is mean to be outside some joke.¡±If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Elias gathered himself. It wasn¡¯t his job not to be mean but he was trying to build trust, remember. And, it wasn¡¯t going all that well either. He looked up. ¡°I was wondering how she could think without a brain.¡± He said.

    Mick stilled. ¡°And, she didn¡¯t cream you?¡± He finally said, his tone soft even though both of them knew she was right there. It was as if her amusement was radiating. They were her fools, her entertainment.

    ¡°Not yet.¡± Elias answered. ¡°Listen, I never was that great at Vrill Theory. I get all caught up in manifest paradoxes, thinking traps. It was why I voced out into Tech Sec to complete my upper studies.¡±

    ¡°Vrill Theory?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°Yeah. Why the rock and the feather hit the ground at the same time kind of things.¡±

    ¡°Pushing Vrill means I have to feel it and know it is leaving my finger?¡± Mick switched subjects. He sat the spoon on the table. ¡°And, you think it is too heavy to move when Kiena obviously finds that funny. So weight must not matter, you must be wrong. I saw you move the spoon but did I really? I saw the spoon in the air or did I? My eyeballs are slow. Was your Vrill pushing on the spoon¡¯s physical mass or is it a perception trick? Physics says that all objects are mostly empty space that we can¡¯t see because our eyeballs are inferior. Am I the observer and the Vrill is transferring the construct I perceive as a spoon from one location to another. I see movement but is space simply adjusting to the Vrill?¡±

    Elias groaned, this kid did sound like Mael, when he bothered to speak out loud about some problem.

    ¡°Who is this Mael Strom?¡± Kiena¡¯s voice shocked them again.

    Mick knew the question wasn¡¯t for him as he¡¯d never heard the name before. He looked over at Elias¡¯ twitching upper lip. A tell. An uncontrollable signal of another player¡¯s stress. Useful.

    ¡°He¡¯s the Turtle.¡± Elias answered cringing. He had a terrible feeling that telling her about Mael was a really bad idea.

    ¡°A Turtle?¡± Kiena explored the names. Two names. Both powerful and descriptive. Who was this Turtle that was also the storm?

    ¡°We grew up together. He got a Glucene hemisphere stuck on his head when he was like twelve or something and it grew into his skull. It looks like a turtle shell.¡± Elias edited the story as hard as he possibly could.

    ¡°Glucene?¡± Mick asked. ¡°How did he get a plastic toy stuck to his skull?¡±

    Elias shifted. ¡°It¡¯s complicated.¡± He answered, wishing he could swallow his own head and end his growing misery, now.

    ¡°How is Mick like Mael Strom, The Turtle?¡± Kiena continued.

    Mick¡¯s eyes widened.

    Elias closed his eyes, wishing his brain would shut up so she wouldn¡¯t hear him, wouldn¡¯t pry. He took a deep breath.

    ¡°Mael would say that no intersection is random or chaotic, that Mick is with you because of non-random connections currently not visible because we are not observant. And then, Mick is asking questions that are all crooked and bent, that¡¯s like Mael does. He is on some path no one else can even see. This kid is too old to learn source work. He shouldn¡¯t be reading my class slates. It¡¯s all wrong.¡±

    The room ran to silence. Mick was getting the feeling that somewhere in Elias¡¯ poorly grouped sentences there was a back-handed compliment to him in there. About what, he had no idea. So he had asked about basic physics in relation to this Vrill energy movement thing. Wasn¡¯t energy a core discipline in physics? Every kid knew that from Gen Ed. Or maybe, the Citadel ran thin on Gen Ed?

    ¡°No intersection is random.¡± Kiena repeated aloud. ¡°And Mick asks, is the spoons movement an observer error.¡±

    ¡°I hate you.¡± Elias rubbed at his face. ¡°I don¡¯t know why the damn spoon moves. I know I imagine my Vrill like a narrow beam of light coming out the end of my finger and I want the spoon to be in a different spot. What happens in between I have no idea. Okay?¡±

    ¡°Is the Vrill in the intent or in your finger?¡± Mick made things worse.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s maybe both? She moved it without a finger so maybe the finger isn¡¯t necessary. Maybe the Vrill interacts with your perception thing. God this is making my brains hurt. Both of you shut up. Play the damn class footage. Maybe I missed stuff in that class. I don¡¯t remember anything about an observer except Master Frawn, he stared at me enough and I picked my nose a lot in that class.¡± Elias was back to holding his head and wishing he could go out in the dark without a torch. Alone. No more questions.

    Although Mick found Elias¡¯ comments rather funny, he didn¡¯t make the mistake of letting down his guard, if anything, the suggested breaking down of the other man increased Mick¡¯s inner tension. If he were Elias, he might play out such a theatrical scene. He could feel how very much Elias didn¡¯t want him poking in his class studies. And, who was this Turtle person? A plastic hat? It wasn¡¯t exactly a lie but¡­at about that moment he realized he was rolling the finger bone in his fingers, through his shirt. The more he played with it, the more he sensed Elias shifting from passive to active mode.

    He looked over at Kiena who was somehow appearing more like a rimmed figure. He¡¯d never been much of a believer in being able to see the radiant energy of a person, their aura, but he was seeing something. What he couldn¡¯t tell was whether she was manifesting or if his energy sight ability was improving. He dropped his right hand down, groping around for the stunner. Somehow in the activity with the spoon the weapon had drifted away from his leg. He didn¡¯t quite dare look down to find it. It was like the air changed, tension become aerosol. He dove to one side as Elias arrived in a dive, knocking the slate to the floor and slamming into Mick.

    Mick waited for Kiena to act as Elias reached past him toward the weapon. That was a mistake. One thing Mick was sure of was that he didn¡¯t want to be stunned, to wake up tied up. It was a new thought that exploded through his mind. He really didn¡¯t want to be stunned. He shoved the heavier Soek upward, just enough to offset Elias¡¯ balance and return his attention to Mick rather than the weapon. Mick did what every gamer did in close combat. He rolled. In his case it was under the now broken table to squirm out into the aisle area closer to the center of the floater. He watched Elias twist to follow him down, so he rolled again and tried to find his feet only to find Elias on top of him trying to bash his head into the floor.

    ¡°Sneagly bastard!¡± He yelled out gaming profanity. It was habit.

    ¡°Miserable finkwaddle.¡± Elias yelled back. They rolled together, Elias with the advantage.

    Mick realized the stuff getting in his right eye was blood, his blood. He jerked his knee up to the sweet spot on all men and heard Elias woomph just enough for Mick to squirm away, searching for anything to improve his disadvantage. What was he thinking to be going hand-to-hand with a trained spy?

    Elias grabbed Mick by the hair and rammed his face into the floor, hearing a crunch and squeal and then he was floating above Mick, connected only by his hand in Mick¡¯s hair. He yelled, flailing his legs trying to get traction but touching only empty air.

    Mick clawed up at Elias¡¯ hand, pulling his own hair out to escape Elias¡¯ grip. He wriggled free and twisted to face his tormentor. He pushed himself to his feet and he wanted so much to kick Elias in the head, but she had him. To kick now would make him a coward. He screamed his outrage. His nose hurt awful, there was blood everywhere and all the escalating thrust inside of his body made him want to release it. He howled, mopping at his face with his t-shirt and then holding it over his nose to stop the blood.

    He should get the damn weapon. Instead he sat down on one of the empty seats and watched his arms and legs jerking and spasming. Elias dropped face down to the floor with a thump.

    Mick smeared at his face. He wanted water and yet he didn¡¯t. It was the first time in his life he¡¯d ever been in a real one-on-one with another person. He couldn¡¯t wrap his brain around it fully. It was like he had been thrown through a wall inside his head. He lifted his bloody right hand. It was jerking in spasms. Something trying to get out of him, that¡¯s what it felt like. He was constipated. He started to laugh as the image of energy poop shitting out of his nerves filled his thoughts. It was stupid. It hurt. He hurt. He felt drunk with it. He no longer wanted to kick Elias or really to yell out. He kept laughing.

    Elias was sitting up trying to reconcile being pulled off the boy with Vrill. The kid must be right. Mass must not be a factor. He stared at the boy¡¯s clearly broken nose. He¡¯d done that. There was blood everywhere and the boy was laughing, not the I¡¯m fucked kind of laugh, but more the kind of laugh he¡¯d seen in street brawls. Mick was punch drunk, or something like it. He looked over at the weapon within reach on the floor. He had zero doubt that Kiena would not let him shoot Mick. Beat him up, obviously, really hurt him, no. How had he forgotten how much Ba¡¯Neesh loved physical combat? He¡¯d been played.

    Mick finally managed to stagger over to the med cabinet and pull out some wipes. Elias got up and helped him. He washed Mick¡¯s face and told him to brace himself. Mick just laughed again. ¡°You asshole.¡± He said to Elias, ¡°You broke my fucking nose, for real. This game hurts. Why do I like it?¡±

    Elias popped the boy¡¯s nose back into alignment and was rewarded with a scream, followed by a hiccup and then a giggle.

    ¡°It¡¯s a rush.¡± Elias answered. ¡°Vrill rush. She pulled me off you like I was a tissue. Your god damned answer, Mick. Mass doesn¡¯t matter.¡± They both laughed together.

    ¡°I¡¯m constipated.¡± Mick answered, holding up his jerking right arm. ¡°Dominant hand. It¡¯s trying to shit energy.¡± He bent over laughing too hard.

    Elias shook his head. ¡°You don¡¯t shit energy.¡± He said. But, it was funny and Mick¡¯s extremities were all twitching and jerking.

    Mick pulled off his bloody shirt and shoved it in the laundry. ¡°You know blood doesn¡¯t come out of clothing all that well.¡± He commented.

    Elias had grown silent. There, dangling around the boy¡¯s neck was a bone. It was covered in blood from transfer.

    Mick turned around to see the shock in Elias¡¯ face. He looked down to what Elias was fixated on. ¡°What? You ain¡¯t never seen a corpse bone on a string before?¡± He asked, giggles taking him again. ¡°I am wearing a corpse.¡± Mick promptly sat down and reached lower to pick up the slate, admiring that all of the violence hadn¡¯t damaged it or even turned it off. ¡°Next class section.¡± He said aloud.

    ¡°You are wearing Beloved?¡± Elias finally choked the words out.

    ¡°Beloved. If you mean Kiena¡¯s right index finger bone with a hole poked in it by my pocket knife, on a string I took from that cabinet. Then yes. I am wearing a¡­what did you say? A Beloved? What the hell is a Beloved? This is the rotting corpse bone of an almost terrifying monster apparition.¡± He looked over to where Kiena drifted like an invisible balloon. ¡°She doesn¡¯t have any mass I think. We have to talk about that mass thing again. But, this time don¡¯t break my nose. It hurts.¡±

    ( If you visit me on Facebook at Fay Thompson Author you will hear details about how I write. Friend me. So far I''ve only posted a couple anime-style drawings here. Hope to post more soon. I will let you know where they are hiding when I do so.)

 Chapter Eleven - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Eleven ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    ¡°They could find us, anytime. Right?¡± Mick spoke up between the class programs. He felt like his brain was too full. Early on in his development he had been diagnosed to have some features of Eidetikers Syndrome or the ability to capture and retain information, detail and sometimes images with great clarity. He remembered his parents being told it happened occasionally in young children and usually ended when the child could speak well. His ES persisted but it wasn¡¯t complete.

    He couldn¡¯t remember everything but he could recall most of what he heard. Maybe that was why he favored audio material over visual. Sometimes he imagined his brain like one of those twisty straws only his was a tube, miles long and knotted together so tight it could all fit inside his skull. In his imagination of that tube, information poured in and in and in until it filled up. Then, he had to process or sleep or there wouldn¡¯t be any more room. He had reached that point. He clicked off the class stream.

    The inside of the floater felt eerily quiet. Elias had long since sagged back in his seat, hearing his life playing out like some horrible echo. To his chagrin, he didn¡¯t remember most of it. He heard voices of other boys, voices of Masters and he didn¡¯t know who they were. Unbeknownst to Mick, Elias also had a form of ES but his centered on technical analysis. Put him in front of a computative system with his ears covered so he couldn¡¯t hear surrounding sounds and he had almost total recall. Mick¡¯s playback was almost torture and in large part Elias felt like he couldn¡¯t string the words together, they became one giant blur of sound. When the room went silent he couldn¡¯t comprehend the absence of the noise and then he picked out Mick¡¯s words from the sounds that had been his life. He¡¯d asked a question. Elias pushed his chair back to upright and stared dully at Mick. Was it over?

    ¡°DireSec and those Tule Soc people, they could find us anytime, right?¡± Mick repeated. He saw the glazed expression on Elias¡¯ face slowly correct to some semblance of awareness. It was like the guy had totally zoned out. Good to know.

    Elias looked at the time display on one of the holographic screens. It was two in the morning. He was both hungry and tired but more tired than hungry. Body confusion.

    ¡°Right.¡± He nodded, his security training rising. ¡°It¡¯s been sixteen hours. How long did the immobility weapon last?¡± He asked aloud.

    Mick shrugged. ¡°How would I know?¡±

    Elias sighed. His thoughts were sluggish.

    ¡°I think we should send one of those little drones out to each entrance to the tunnel with pre-sets.¡± Mick said, ¡°You know, like mechanical movement, sound, air changes, whatever. I don¡¯t know what they do, besides spy.¡±

    Elias nodded. It was a good idea. Why hadn¡¯t he initiated defense earlier? Those damn classes.

    ¡°They can do all of that, it¡¯s their primary function.¡± He pivoted and reached over to select two drones. Mick arrived behind his chair but he didn¡¯t stop him. Elias took a deep breath. He hadn¡¯t intended to do anything deceitful until Mick reacted. Whatever. He programmed the two drones for standard surveillance defensive mode and then programmed two more to switch off at two hour intervals so they would have two out and two charging at all times. ¡°That work for you?¡± He asked Mick, uncertain how much of what Mick saw he understood.

    ¡°Make it a loud alert.¡± Mick answered. It looked okay even if he didn¡¯t understand all of the commands. ¡°Will they alert even if it is DireSec out there?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Yes. I can program them not to communicate with DireSec but to alert us first.¡±

    ¡°Do that.¡± Mick nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t want them sneaking in here to turn on my molcom and diddle my brain while I¡¯m asleep.¡±

    It was a crude offhand comment. Elias stiffened. It was perhaps the first time he acknowledged that his rating status that protected him from molcom limiters was adjustable. Yes, his molcom was off, like he¡¯d done with Mick. But, as Mick guessed, it was just as easy to turn it on as off if you had that level of access to the system. DireSec certainly had the ability. Why hadn¡¯t he noticed that himself? The only people he knew whose molcoms were effectively dead were top Masters who somehow killed them with Vrill as part of their finals exams to become a Master. On and off. He reached up to touch the back of his own skull. Would Jordy toggle him on and memory adjust him? The threat hung there. They weren¡¯t supposed to.

    He examined his trust in the leadership of DireSec or even OrderSec. Had he become a liability by being in this situation? There were ways he could easily see that being a consideration by top brass. He got chills. He didn¡¯t want his brain diddled either. He adjusted the settings on the drones to maximum distance review and sharp alert and absolutely no communication even if approached by DireSec communication. There were settings in case DireSec had a rogue situation. He simply reversed the technology, his own expertise giving him the ability to override the systems and enter new code.

    ¡°No brain diddling tonight.¡± He announced when he was finished. He looked up to find Mick staring at him, his right hand holding that bone necklace right through his new clean t-shirt.

    ¡°Good.¡± Was all Mick said. Somehow the bone helped him sense duplicity. He was a quick study. He was already learning to trust the bone. They deployed the drones.

    ¡°You aren¡¯t planning to bonk me while I sleep, are you?¡± Mick asked Elias.

    ¡°I might.¡± Elias said. It was truthful.

    Mick¡¯s eyes narrowed. He didn¡¯t feel threatened. Would the bone tell him if he was threatened? He didn¡¯t know. He did know he was super tired and likely couldn¡¯t defend himself worth a shit if Elias did jump him. He would have to trust Kiena. He frowned. Sucketh.

    ¡°Right. I might jump you too.¡± Mick rolled his eyes and then pointedly turned his back on Elias to check the doors making sure they had their interior overrides on.

    Elias grinned. He got up to check the top iris, equally firm in doubling its security. Damned if the kid hadn¡¯t got him guessing. He then used the downstairs bathroom, followed by Mick. Both grabbed pillows and blankets out of the storage lockers and extended the chairs to their sleeping position. They weren¡¯t super comfortable but between the floor or the chair, at least the chair had some cushion. Each slept across from the other and both of them fell asleep almost as soon as they got in a decent position.

    The scream of the alert brought both of them upright what felt like only moments into their sleep.

    ¡°What the hell?¡± Mick yelled. ¡°Did you set that to go off in an hour or what?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s five hours and no, we have company.¡±

    ¡°DireSec?¡± Mick was standing in the middle of the aisle, not really sure what to do.

    ¡°No. Looks like Tule Soc found us first.¡± Elias was busy running data, not even looking at Mick. This was his job. He was in protect and defend mode. Daylight had brought danger.

    ¡°Who is Tule Soc exactly and why are they chasing me?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°They are dividing, half toward the other end of the tunnel. They intend to trap us. Internal system override. Seal all seals, recirculate interior life support. Defend against bacteria, viral, chemical and aerosol attack.¡±

    Mick gaped. ¡°They use biologicals? That¡¯s illegal.¡±

    ¡°Quite. They are the best in the world with them.¡± Elias spoke grimly. ¡°They are after you because you took out a city grid, a likely indicator of Ba¡¯Neesh activity, Soek activity, DireSec and/or OrderSec involvement. They are in the business of exterminating all Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek not in the direct control of Tule Soc or the Tule Society. That means two Soek in a floater in a remote tunnel in the Reserves is open season. They should likely try to acquire you first in order to rend the secret of how you took out a city grid. But, if that proves too hard, they will simply kill you, and me and then they will melt down the floater into a blob. Sound good?¡±

    Mick was gaping at Elias, horrified. ¡°You aren¡¯t kidding?¡±

    ¡°No. Fraid not.¡± He was programming the floater¡¯s weaponry so that half would fire under automation. It wasn¡¯t optimum but he had only two hands and he expected the near tunnel entry to be the first assault.

    Elias stilled. There was something wrong with his brain. He stiffened. There was stuff in his head he hadn¡¯t known before sleeping. Fragmentary but not dream residue. He blinked rapidly. He knew Mick had played a lot of a game called Fighter Hero by Exicon. The controls in Exicon were largely similar to the weapons on the floater, intentionally so. It allowed operatives to practice strategies and firing in their free time like a simulator.

    Mick was having a similar experience, he knew what Vrill should feel like and look like and he knew Kiena was seeking revenge. From whom he had no clue. There was other stuff, too much to fix on. He looked down at his right finger and pushed. He watched an eerily familiar trickle of light arc off his finger toward the floor. Not as strong. It didn¡¯t melt the mat flooring. Something had happened while he slept, he had entered Kiena¡¯s thoughts in some way, into her knowledge.

    ¡°Mick?¡± Elias made a snap decision. A manned fight was better than auto. Opponent fighting systems could identify known auto patterns; it was harder to solve independent individual choices. ¡°Fighter Hero. A few differences but just yell, and I¡¯ll try to coach you through them. You got the long tunnel, I got the short. Don¡¯t play nice. They will be trying to kill us.¡±

    And, there it was.

    Mick scrambled to the seat opposite Elias, adjusting it to face outward. He powered up the generic screen controls. Fighter Hero. Had that company made the game for fighting in real life? That was a creepy thought. Maybe all those extra hard games he¡¯d played weren¡¯t against the machine. The world wasn¡¯t nearly what he¡¯d thought it was. It was like there was a second world under the surface reality. Then he saw the first target and it was on.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    Elias flinched when the boy started yelling out, hurtling curses at the men running toward him or riding vehicles down the tunnel. Then Elias realized the boy was in a game. He grinned and let himself be totally improper and yell out too. It helped. It made shooting at things so much more exciting.

    The first battle happened almost too fast and then the aggressors pulled back, well into the darkness, leaving a handful of dead or dying behind.

    Elias twisted around to look at the full display on Mick¡¯s side. Darkness. Half the floater exterior was showing Mick¡¯s field, half his field. Too dark. Sure, they could see some heat signatures but Elias knew that certain cloaking devices could mask heat. And, no doubt the next volley would be robots. They needed light. A slow smile crept on his face.

    ¡°Kiena, you watching?¡± He said aloud, ¡°I can¡¯t move a damn spoon, but I can do this.¡±

    Mick pivoted to see Elias raise his right hand pointing outward, as if the floater walls weren¡¯t there. ¡°Light!¡± He yelled the word out and Mick could feel the Vrill snaking from the multiplier machine toward Elias and then the tunnel filled with light.

    ¡°Kiena? I¡¯m busy. You do it.¡± Elias said aloud, the light snapping off.

    Kiena was riveted. The Soek was using Speech, but not on any of them. Summoning light itself? She lifted her invisible hand and pointed outward and cast the word toward the tunnel and its invisible light. She laughed aloud as light came to life all around them.

    Mick snapped his mouth closed. Light. They were making light inside the tunnel with Vrill. He saw movement down the tunnel on his side of the bend. Bugs. Lots and lots of bugs. Mechanicals, and they were fast.

    ¡°I got fucking bugs!¡± He yelled out. ¡°They look like roaches, for real.¡± Then he was busy shooting, accompanying each shot with a yell and an obscenity.

    They launched into the second far more protracted battle.

    Mick was quickly annoyed with his weapons. They were too slow, too small and not enough diversity. He was sweating and the freaking bugs were advancing.

    ¡°Who designed these cheesy-ass weapons. Too slow, too weak, no broadcast, no concussion and I am seeing bugs with cans on them. What¡¯s in the cans? Explosives? Acids?¡±

    Elias blinked. The boy¡¯s litany of verbal spew was abrasive and entertaining both. He reached out and toggled the external speakers, he had already added one more external view, what was on their screens, the view of the battle from inside the floater out on a tight DireSec encrypted channel. If DireSec was out there he wanted help before they lost their hull because sure as shit some of Mick¡¯s cans were explosives and some were biological agents. He didn¡¯t want to know.

    ¡°Well, Elias? Who was the asshat who under designed our weapons here?¡±

    Elias grinned. He could imagine that DireSec would play this crap in review at some point. Let them. When would he ever get the chance to poke back at authority. ¡°That would be Kirsan, likely.¡± He said aloud.

    ¡°Well Kirsan, whomever you are, you suck the big wad. These bugs are faster than grease on a pole and your weapons have a delay on re-charge and seriously, shitty selection and the game stick is slow. I mean seriously, Exotec makes better. Oh shit. More bugs. Take that you weasily, crumb-eating bottom feeder. Die you scum. Die.¡±

    ¡°Fuck me. I¡¯ve got five more large transports.¡± Elias yelled out. ¡°Reinforcements.¡±

    ¡°No fucking way!¡± Mick yelled back while blowing up another three of the flying type of bugs. They were extra hard. He hoped he scored extra for them. ¡°Wasn¡¯t this load of nasties just one large transport, a few on my side and more on yours?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias was hating their odds. It occurred to him they were about to die, for real and everything. ¡°We can¡¯t fight five transport loads of fresh reinforcements.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m getting rats now. Still mechs but they have larger bundles and they climb walls. Oh, you creepy mother fuckers. Die, I said die.¡±

    The Tech Ops team onboard Kirsan¡¯s large floater yelled out. ¡°Broadcast incoming.¡±

    Screens around the perimeter of all five floaters shifted to show split views of the inside of what could only be a tunnel.

    ¡°Location lock?¡± Kirsan couldn¡¯t help himself.

    ¡°I got fucking bugs!¡± A voice yelled out. ¡°They look like roaches, for real.¡±

    ¡°Analyze voice for ident!¡± Jordy yelled out.

    The same mystery voice continued, ¡°Who designed these cheesy-ass weapons? Too slow, too weak, no broadcast, no concussion and I am seeing bugs with cans on them. What¡¯s in the cans? Explosives? Acids?¡±

    ¡°Likely ident is Mick Huxley.¡± A tech called out.

    ¡°Well, Elias? Who was the asshat who under designed our weapons here?¡± Mick continued, his voice sarcastic.

    The screens were full of exploding bugs on one side and dart and dash on the other with Tule Soc operatives trying to evade direct hits.

    ¡°Shit.¡± Jordy said, ¡°They are in an all-out battle.¡±

    Kirsan was processing the analysis of himself as the asshat designer. A part of him was cringing. To his right a Soek with a turtle-shell on top of his head was watching avidly, alongside Xasper, the Master Caster. Xasper was snickering. The bastard was snickering.

    ¡°That would be Kirsan, likely.¡± Elias said aloud.

    ¡°Voice ident is Elias.¡± Jordy yelled out as the realization hit home, Elias and Mick were fighting Tule Soc together.

    ¡°I think we found them.¡± The Turtle said, matter-of-factly.

    ¡°Two hundred kilometers and closing. Estimated arrival of Tule Soc reinforcements at target area, under five minutes.¡± A techy yelled out.

    ¡°We won¡¯t make it.¡± Kirsan spoke aloud. ¡°We are at least fifteen minutes out. Do we have satellite views? Send fast drones out ahead and get us external visuals.¡±

    ¡°Well Kirsan, whomever you are, you suck the big wad.¡± Mick¡¯s voice seemed larger than the speakers. Everyone was riveted to every word. ¡°These bugs are faster than grease on a pole and your weapons have a delay on re-charge and seriously, shitty selection and the game stick is slow. I mean seriously, Exotec makes better. Oh shit. More bugs. Take that you weasily, crumb-eating bottom feeder. Die you scum. Die.¡±

    ¡°Gaming.¡± The Turtle spoke, amusement in his voice.

    ¡°Fuck me. I¡¯ve got five more large transports.¡± Elias yelled out. ¡°Reinforcements.¡±

    ¡°They must have drones up outside. Excellent. Get us those feeds too.¡±

    ¡°No fucking way!¡± Mick yelled. ¡°Wasn¡¯t this load of nasties just one large transport, a few on my side and more on yours?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias replied. ¡°We can¡¯t fight five transport loads of fresh reinforcements.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m getting rats now.¡± Mick¡¯s voice overran Elias. ¡°Still mechs but they have larger bundles and they climb walls. Oh, you creepy mother fuckers. Die, I said die. I¡¯m going to stomp you like the ugly gutter juice you are.¡±

    It was becoming clear to the operatives on all five of the DireSec floaters that the unimaginable battle inside the tunnel was on the verge of being lost. Many of them were yelling out and slamming their fists into their upper thighs, helpless to help. This wasn¡¯t a battle like any they had ever seen. They wanted in on it in the worst way.

    ¡°They have light, continuing light.¡± The Turtle said, a fact everyone had missed.

    Kirsan glared over at Mael and then back at the screen. Was Elias able to maintain light while fighting?

    They watched one of the Tule Soc transports veer off, heading, no doubt, for the other end of the tunnel, the long end.

    ¡°Anything we can do?¡± Kirsan¡¯s frustration weirdly mirrored Micks. Their weapons were simply not designed with this kind of a scenario in mind.

    ¡°Don¡¯t we have any god damned thing to reach out past the tunnel entrance to target those transports?¡± Mick yelled.

    ¡°We got those big drones but we would need to unseal to launch and likely we already have biologicals in the tunnel as we haven¡¯t seen an operative in here since that first round. What was alive is dead.¡± Elias answered, as much for Mick as for DireSec. They would need to know.

    ¡°You mean those guys I shot are really dead?¡± Mick blinked. It felt like game yet he could see bodies on the screen. Real men? It was gross and horribly, rather exhilarating. He really was fucked up. ¡°Fuck. More rats and more of those spider things. Those fuckers blow up when I shoot them. Aracnid bombs.¡±

    Several of the techs were hiding grins. The dialogue in this battle was priceless.

    ¡°We need to crush one of those transports. That would be a game changer.¡± Mick yelled over at Elias.

    ¡°They are pulling their mechs back to re-group, that suggests human hive queen deployment.¡± Elias answered.

    ¡°Yeah, my cowardly bastards are pulling back too.¡±

    Something thumped the underside of the hell. ¡°Oh shit, something got past. Was it cloaked or am I just missing shit? God damned fuckers. Does this hull have a way to charge it with electricity, Elias? Can we zap them off? Likely they are using electro-magnets, right? No hull breech.¡±

    ¡°No hull breech.¡± Elias¡¯ fingers were flying over the floater¡¯s specs. ¡°You think that was dead under?¡± He yelled out.

    DireSec operatives were leaning forward, straining.

    ¡°We are still ten minutes out.¡± Jordy announced so that all five ships could hear.

    ¡°Sounded like. You got an idea?¡± Mick pivoted to stare at Elias. ¡°How long before they detonate it?¡±

    ¡°Not long.¡± Elias answered. ¡°Likely they will make another mechanical rush and will want to gas us or kill us before they risk any of their agents. Cowardly fuckers.¡±

    ¡°You charge, I drive?¡±

    ¡°Now!¡± Elias yelled.

    The light in the tunnel snapped off.

    ¡°Did we lose the view?¡± Kirsan yelled, everyone thought the planted device must have exploded. A flare at the very edge of their visual range and the sound of falling rock overwhelmed the speakers.

    ¡°No. We have view. Vrill withdrawal.¡± The Turtle answered.

    ¡°He must have charged the hull to detach the magnet and Mick piloted deeper on his end. That will leave a mine field of unexploded and now buried devices. What a mess!¡±

    ¡°Why hasn¡¯t he given us any interior surveillance?¡± Kirsan snarled. He wanted to see what was happening, not just hear voices.

    A new noise poured out of the DireSec speakers. It was a wail that sounded half alive and half mechanical.

    ¡°What the hell is that?¡± Jordy was leaning over the shoulder of the top Ops guy trying to make the guy give him answers.

    ¡°Elias. The damn multiplier.¡± Mick¡¯s voice added to the din.

    ¡°Does he mean that sound is the onboard Vrill multiplier?¡± Kirsan asked everyone and no one in particular.

    ¡°Likely.¡± Mael too was leaning forward but his head was tilted to one side, listening intently. Beside him stood Anya, her two twisted horns glowing. She and the cluster of Ba¡¯Neesh behind her remained eerily silent, only their eyes glowed. Battle. They loved battle.

    ¡°Zoom in.¡± Jordy¡¯s voice brought them all to staring at the overhead satellite view which was already tight over the four remaining transports. ¡°What the hell is that?¡± He pointed.

    A blue arm was reaching out of the nearest tunnel entrance. It had a hand. It had elongated fingers. It flowed like molten lightening.

    Too late the lead Tule Soc transport recognized the blue object as an unknown danger. As the craft veered hard to the right the fingers stretched out to wrap round the craft, to squeeze it causing explosions and sharp, jagged knives of energy light.

    ¡°And, that is why we are here.¡± The Turtle said as the remains of the ship dropped to scatter on the ground and they watched the arm swing with deadly precision, not grasping this time, this time it was a bat that knocked a second transport through the air and into the ground where it exploded. Then, as fast as it had appeared, it vanished. A cheer roared to life in all five ships.

    ¡°Shit!¡± Elias yelled out. ¡°Two fuckers down.¡±

    ¡°Elias, look at the gauge.¡± Mick said.

    Kirsan thumped his fist on the console. He wanted to see the damn gauge. It must be the multiplier. He needed to know.

    ¡°Are they running or re-grouping?¡± Mick continued.

    Back to the game. Operatives and techs alike were going from screen to screen studying the behavior of the three remaining Tule Soc arriving transports and the one already on the ground. Technically Tule Soc still had the advantage.

    ¡°There¡¯s not enough juice left.¡± Elias said.

    ¡°But, do they know that?¡± Mick answered. The two of them were looking through the limited lenses of the two small drones lurking in the brush and trees, one on each side evading detection.

    Their screens shifted to a satellite view.

    ¡°What the fuck?¡± Mick yelled. ¡°God damned game glitch. Where did that imaging come from?¡±

    ¡°DireSec.¡± Elias answered, turning to watch Mick carefully while keeping one eye on the two stationary transport floaters, deciding what to do no doubt.

    ¡°Sleazy bastard.¡± Mick yelled, ¡°Are you trying to sell me out? I have the damn stunner¡­here somewhere.¡± Mick answered. ¡°And, I¡¯ve got the damned Beloved. Wanna play, Elias? Wanna play?¡±

    ¡°The Beloved!¡± Anya announced. ¡°There is a Beloved in that tunnel.¡±

    (Ahh, our first battle is here. Did you enjoy? I enjoy the wild battle scenes the most, as a writer and this novel has quite a few and each is different so they are a blast. I''m here every day posting so please comment if you have any questions I can answer without spoiling the story.)

 Chapter Twelve - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Twelve ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    The operatives and guests on all five of the DireSec ships seemed to inhale at the same time, the moment extending with tense anticipation.

    Elias gestured with his head. ¡°They are going to risk it, Mick.¡± He said. The satellite feed was showing the floaters reforming and heading toward the backside tunnel entrance.

    Mick looked up and yelled. ¡°Sons of bitches.¡±

    ¡°And, that¡¯s why I opened a channel to DireSec.¡± Elias said, ¡°We need the help. They see what we see in the tunnel.¡±

    Mick still didn¡¯t like it. ¡°I don¡¯t trust you Elias!¡± He yelled, but secretly he was happy they weren¡¯t totally alone in this part of the fight. Temporary allies? He promised himself to remain vigilant, not let his guard down too far.

    Kirsan ordered two of his five floaters to head toward the main tunnel entrance, the crash site now burning, the other three toward the back where Tule Soc was re-grouping. ¡°We outnumber them but they must have incoming. Get me more reinforcements.¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t get between them and the back entrance.¡± Jordy said. ¡°They are guessing the blast filled our end with too much rubble for us to recover our floater. Maybe they hope the blast killed the floater. They are willing to race for the prize as we are still minutes away, if we dare the blue hand. Do we dare the fucking blue hand?¡±

    Elias looked at Mick. Both shrugged, both stared at the depleted Vrill in the multiplier. Time. How long before it refilled?

    ¡°How long does it take the multiplier to recharge?¡± Mick yelled out, thinking, why be sneaky about the question now?

    That told Kirsan what he had wanted to know. The blue hand was powered by the multiplier. ¡°Take us in close to the tunnel entrance. Get the bio-suits we have and drop the bio-suited operatives, the tunnel is deadly. Expect traps. Kill anything that moves and roll in the sensors so we can air test ongoing.¡±

    ¡°Is anyone going to tell us the answer?¡± Mick fumed, ¡°Asshats. These are supposed to be your buddies, Elias.¡±

    ¡°They are coming in.¡± Elias answered grimly. ¡°What do you expect from them, Mick?¡±

    ¡°So, we get a new attack from down tunnel plus your buddies pretending they can¡¯t talk to us. Are you blocking the incoming? Fuck. Turn it on so we can hear them too.¡±

    ¡°How long does it take for the multiplier to recharge?¡± Mick asked again, as if the absence of response was purely mechanical. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was or wasn¡¯t.

    Kirsan was inclined to continue ignoring the boy. Proprietary data and the kid¡¯s less that glowing review of Kirsan¡¯s design abilities.

    ¡°It is already re-charging. To what level do you require?¡± Mael answered unexpectedly, his tone civil, even friendly.

    ¡°Hell if we know. Who are you?¡±

    ¡°Mael Strom. And, you?¡±

    ¡°Mick Huxley. Can you guys blow their transports out of the sky out there?¡±

    ¡°We have some capability. However, analysis suggests that their willingness to confront superior numbers means they have nearby reinforcements. We are still five minutes from the main tunnel entrance. Will the blue hand be used against us, Mick Huxley?¡±

    Kirsan and Jordy were both glowering at Mael. He had zero rank here. Still, he was interfacing with their target in a way that was direct and calm. He was acting like their target was a friendly and it seemed to be working.

    ¡°Do you really have Glucene stuck to your skull?¡± Mick asked aloud. ¡°Oh, Elias thinks it unlikely, at least not instantly.¡± Mick answered. ¡°We can¡¯t offer any promises though.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I managed to get Glucene stuck to my skull.¡± Mael answered wryly. ¡°We will accept not instantly. Can you tell if the tunnel is completely collapsed? Is your floater operational?¡±

    ¡°Mael, we got major ceiling cracks at our location, debris but smaller. We appear to have escaped the blast area far enough to be functional. All of our systems are mostly intact.¡± Elias ran off his incoming diagnostic list.

    ¡°Mostly?¡± Kirsan interrupted.

    ¡°We have potential exterior seal breach in an area about one foot in diameter. Lead edge closest to the main tunnel entrance.¡±

    ¡°Fuck? Those biologicals are getting inside?¡± Mick yelled out, near panic.

    ¡°It¡¯s a double seal, Mick. We are okay for the moment.¡± Elias answered.

    ¡°You still have minis?¡± Kirsan interrupted again.

    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±

    ¡°Get a few out to look at you from the near outside.¡±

    ¡°Risky.¡±

    ¡°Now.¡±

    Elias released two more small drones before Mick could stop him.

    ¡°That opened us to two more seal breaches.¡± Mick yelled. ¡°You stupid bastards. It¡¯s not your life getting ready to be dead, now is it? Eww. Elias, what are those sacks?¡± Everyone stared at the sticky weblike sacks clinging to various spots on the hull. They were undulating and creeping along to expand over the hull.

    ¡°Never seen those before.¡± Kirsan acknowledged aloud.

    ¡°They look like insect egg sacks. See the small globes inside. Likely we don¡¯t want those to deploy.¡± Elias answered.

    ¡°How do we get them off?¡± Mick was nearly dancing in frustration. ¡°Is there exterior spray jets with insecticide? Come on, tell me this bucket has something to defend its hull.¡±

    Kirsan flinched again. The boy was right. No thought of this type of defense had been considered in the design of the defensive floaters.

    ¡°We have liquefied coolant. I can spray them manually.¡± A new voice offered. ¡°I¡¯m rated for biological warfare.¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s talking?¡± Mick wished he could see into the ship with the voices, it was frustrating to be given only voice chatter.

    ¡°I¡¯m Brad the Pirate.¡± Brad answered.

    Mick looked at Elias, ¡°Seriously, this guy thinks he¡¯s a pirate?¡±

    Elias was grinning. He hadn¡¯t known Brad was nearby. ¡°He is a pirate.¡± He answered.

    ¡°What makes you a pirate?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°I like to destroy stuff and wreck havoc and generally break or bend the rules.¡± Brad answered.

    ¡°Seriously?¡± Mick instantly liked the guy and the bone was telling him this guy was trustworthy. ¡°Well, get in here and get these spider things off us, they are growing fast.¡±

    ¡°Tule Soc is moving toward the far tunnel entrance.¡± Jordy interrupted. Deployment of next attack likely imminent.¡±

    ¡°Order everyone we have in a thousand miles to head toward us now.¡± Kirsan yelled. He was getting too excited and he knew it. ¡°Get me an open com to Tule Soc. Now.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the boss, isn¡¯t he?¡± Mick said to Elias. ¡°Is this really his floater?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias was probing the tunnel area toward the main opening carefully, looking for escapees. ¡°Man up Mick. They will come in hard and fast. If you see an exo, don¡¯t shoot unless it doesn¡¯t respond to a hail.¡±

    ¡°An exo?¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°Yeah, the pirate will be wearing an exo. You can¡¯t miss him.¡±

    ¡°Tule Soc, Eric Felsen?¡± Kirsan turned to the shielded open channel. ¡°You are ordered to stand down. You are attacking a floater belonging to DireSec. We will defend our property.¡± Kirsan¡¯s voice had a distinct Vrill edge to it.

    ¡°You don¡¯t think¡­¡± Mick asked Elias, gesturing toward the multiplier with his head.

    ¡°Let¡¯s not think DireSec is attacking us. How about that?¡± Elias hedged carefully.

    ¡°Not think?¡± Mick parroted. ¡°You mean¡­¡± He blinked. Elias was suggesting Kiena would attack based on who they identified as the enemy from within their own thinking. Scary. He knew his thoughts were all over the place.

    The people on the DireSec ships were trying to cut through this obvious half talk between Elias and Mick, what were they not quite saying?

    ¡°Yeah. Let¡¯s do that.¡± Elias nodded. Then there was another wave of bugs and both of them went back to blasting and yelling.

    Eric Felsen had his own problems, the abrupt com connection with DireSec didn¡¯t improve his mood. ¡°Tule Soc is chasing a known International terrorist that has already caused damage, injury and death. We exercise our right as a world citizen defensive organization to defend the planet.¡± Eric Felsen spoke firmly, hoping to hide his deep misgivings over the current state of this situation. Two of his ships down, forty-two trained operatives killed, more in the tunnel and the floater seemed uninjured, its occupants alive and well. What the hell had attacked his people and was it waiting to do so again?

    ¡°Fuck.¡± Kirsan answered, most unprofessionally. Obscenities were contagious.

    DireSec touched down as close to the tunnel entrance as possible. They used their floater¡¯s doubled airlock system to release Brad and ten operatives suited up for biological warfare. Several pre-packaged containers trundled out from the lower part of the floater, fast assembly containers. The floaters lifted off again, retreating to a safer distance, cautious of Mick Huxley¡¯s inadequate assurances. The operatives split into groups. Brad thundered into the tunnel at a noisy full run and a secondary set of small holographic screens appeared around the inside top of Elias and Mick¡¯s stolen floater, showing views from various new devices, including the front-facing system on the exo-suited Brad.

    ¡°Considerable debris, a big crater, but passable, if slow. Lots of devices. Some bodies. Some live devices, go to channel sixteen elle and scan for identifiers.¡± Brad¡¯s voice boomed out of the speakers. ¡°Three containment areas recommended, one for biological devices, one for explosives and a third for dead bodies.¡±

    Behind him the suited operatives were fast assembling containers that could withstand a tank without breaking seals, once sealed. They were open ended at this point for fast fill.

    ¡°Tunnel is compromised. Fast acting, likely lethal biological agent detected, layering over knock down gas. No where to escape. It will pool low to the floor as it is heavier than the air. Recommend the Wind if Mael can manage it.¡±

    ¡°Great idea.¡± Kirsan nodded. ¡°You up for it Mael?¡±

    Mael was already backing up into the circle of Ba¡¯Neesh. They closed around him facing outward, antlers and horns interlocking or touching. ¡°Tell Elias to shoot bolts into the tunnel floor and to put the floater in reverse.¡± Mael ordered. ¡°On my mark.¡±

    ¡°Shit? What does he mean, the Wind?¡± Mick yelled out, continuing to shoot at the swarming mechs.

    ¡°You keep shooting, the mechs will continue to attack until they can¡¯t.¡± Elias answered. ¡°I¡¯m locking us down.¡± Huge thuds and jerking pulled the floater tight to the tunnel floor. ¡°Tell me when Jordy.¡± Elias yelled out, his finger on the throttle.

    ¡°The bugs are two or three times what I can shoot.¡± Mick yelled, suddenly alone in shooting the bad guys. Die you roach maggots!¡± Mini explosions popped as Mick took out any arachnid he saw. He knew they were the top weapon for opening the hull. He didn¡¯t want the hull opened. The creeping web was beginning to distort the external camera systems. ¡°Fuck you fuckers. I fucking hate bug mechs. Stupid robots. Send one of your miserable cowardly handlers in here you scum. Die. Die.¡±

    ¡°Now, Elias.¡± Jordy yelled.

    ¡°Hold on Mick.¡± Elias yelled as the floater went to full throttle, as if it weren¡¯t currently pressure bolted to the tunnel floor.¡±

    ¡°A tornado of spinning air scrubbed past them collecting the light mechs like so much rubbish.¡± Mick gaped. He felt like the floater would for sure pull away to be sucked along with the mechs but the bolts held.

    ¡°We have blow out on the other end.¡± Jordy reported happily. ¡°Damn, look at them scramble, too bad we couldn¡¯t direct the wind at those transports.¡±

    The shuddering of Mick¡¯s floater stopped.

    ¡°Is it over?¡± Mick asked, his eyes wide, pupils hard and tight with reaction. He could feel the tension in his face, like every muscle was pulled hard. More than wind had passed through them. Wind and Vrill?

    ¡°They will send in another wave.¡± Jordy answered. ¡°The Wind is over.¡±

    ¡°That was that Turtle guy, wasn¡¯t it?¡± Mick asked. ¡°His name, I should have guessed. Mael Strom, a dangerous turning stream, like a sideways tornado. His name is a god-damned storm. No fucking wonder. Ultra wicked shit man. Can I do that if I learn hard? Damn.¡±

    ¡°Elias, disable the hull heating auto. Take it manual.¡± Brad¡¯s voice brought Mick¡¯s head around to stare wide-eyed at a massively large exo-skeleton encased man.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re Brad the Pirate?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°You got it.¡± Brad lifted a hose and pointed it at the floater. ¡°You keep the bugs off me and don¡¯t shoot me either. I don¡¯t want to be holed with this much bio crap around.¡±

    Mick wanted to climb into a suit like that. A giant mechanized man. It was rather massively the dub. Then there were bugs and rats and spiders and targets everywhere. He dove back into blowing the bastards to the tenth level of hell, all accompanied with lurid obscene descriptives. Brad focused on freezing off the sticky webbing being careful not to allow any of it to touch his exo. The webbing was trying to escape and attack him. Clearly, it was being directed by someone hiding far from the battle front. Cowards. Brad discovered he was yelling at the web too. It made it better. He would recommend yelling in battle from now on.

    The DireSec operatives still stuck inside their ships were yelling equally loud and often much worse expletives, calling out encouragement and derision at Elias and Mick when they missed or exploded something.

    The Command Ship wasn¡¯t quiet either. They were organizing the recovery of every bit of Tule Soc tech they could, sending mechanicals out to assist the haz-suited operatives who were running in and out of the tunnel entrance, dragging rolling carts. It required several dart in and drop missions for each of the transports, each time they retreated back to a safe distance. It looked like chaos. Kirsan sent two of the floaters around to harry the Tule Soc ships to limit the ground attack if possible. The other two were busy positioning operatives as mech directors, an expensive decision as it would slow any physical deployment of the operatives as ground troops. Like Mick said, DireSec wasn¡¯t prepared. But, Kirsan reasoned the tunnel wouldn¡¯t be safe for man or Soek until Tule Soc was gone, and they were digging in from the look of it.

    ¡°Hull is visibly clean. I am going to spray sealer on that damaged area. Do continuous seal checks as micro-small devices may have been in those sacks. We can¡¯t be sure we got them all.¡± Brad¡¯s voice broke in on Elias and Mick. I¡¯m heading back to pick up a few deterrents. I¡¯ll be back.¡± Brad ran back toward the main tunnel entrance.

    Mick immediately felt abandoned. ¡°Where¡¯s he going?¡± He yelled. ¡°Die you bastards. Dark Gods they are coming in fast. Is a deterrent a weapon?¡±

    ¡°Likely. Hopefully not math problems.¡± Elias yelled back.

    ¡°What do you mean math problems?¡± Mick fired at a larger clump of insects and then realized it was something new, it kept coming. ¡°Fuck, what the hell is that?¡±

    ¡°Armored mule. Surprised they didn¡¯t use them earlier.¡± Elias answered, ¡°Brad is a Master of Math.¡± He laughed. ¡°Can¡¯t say I¡¯m impressed at Tule Soc¡¯s strategy here. They obviously thought we would be easy meat so they didn¡¯t plan well. Stupid.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s a mule?¡±

    ¡°It carries others into the fray. It will try to bypass your perimeter and then dump its cargo.¡± Elias answered.

    ¡°Fuck fuckers. Too fucking many. I can¡¯t shoot the little ones if the big ones are there so the little bomb carriers are getting past.¡±

    ¡°Me too!¡±

    ¡°Hold on, I¡¯ll be there in three minutes tops.¡± Brad¡¯s voice boomed.

    ¡°Ain¡¯t got three.¡± Mick yelled. ¡°No fucking concussion grenades or disruptors. Kirsan you putz, build better weapon and defensive systems.¡±

    A blue light crawled out within range of the external viewers. Both Elias and Mick leaned forward, then together they stared at the multiplier, it was still low. Then Elias noted a thin blue line heading off toward the main tunnel entrance. ¡°Oh shit.¡± He said.

    ¡°You got uhhh¡­ incoming.¡± Elias warned DireSec.

    ¡°What?¡± Jordy asked?

    The tunnel floor heading toward the massing bug assault lit up with eerily familiar curved lines.

    Everyone in the Command ship was as close to a viewing screen as they could get. What the hell was happening? Blue was bad. Blue was very bad.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say your multiplier was low?¡± Kirsan yelled out.

    Mael pointed toward a barely visible line racing toward the Command ship. ¡°Too late for evasive action, Kirsan.¡± He said. The line turned the inside of the cabin into a soft blue glow and then the floater shuddered to Vrill life.¡±

    ¡°Yep. I did boss.¡± Elias said without looking away. He¡¯d stopped shooting. He watched the wave front shape appear in front of them with no eye. Just a wave. What was she doing? Electronics, she liked electronic disruption. An electronic wave front?

    ¡°Grab something and hold on Mick, you too Brad if you are in the tunnel. Everyone down. Looks like an electronic wave front heading toward Tule Soc. Shit. We will get the reverse shock wave and this tunnel will act like a rifle barrel. We are so screwed.¡±

    The wave blasted forward accompanied by wild laughter, an electronic nightmare of Vrill fury. It didn¡¯t make the tunnel curve well and that¡¯s what saved the Tule Soc from total destruction. The shock wave rolling backwards from the event horizon hit the floater. It was still bolted down from the wind or it would have been blown into the collapsed rubble at the explosion site. Brad, like every other operative inside the tunnel was flat to the floor. He was heavy enough to only get tossed a few hundred feet resulting in a few dents and damaged systems, nothing important to life. Three other operatives became splatted when they hit the massive supports at the tunnel entry. The men outside tumbled hundreds of feet but weren¡¯t killed outright. The DireSec floaters, not being attached to anything, blew around but to their pilots¡¯ credit, didn¡¯t crash.

    ¡°Fucking A.¡± Micks voice recovered first. Awe in his voice, a sentiment shared by all.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh inside the Command ship were screaming and honking, having been knocked to the floor. The Channels stored in the lower level storage area had come massively and loudly to life, roaring outward unlike their normal careful radiance. Stolen Vrill. Demand without compromise.

    Mael picked himself up off the floor, noting his several bruises and considered himself lucky. Anya jabbed him in the shoulder with her horn, a nasty gore. ¡°We have a problem.¡± She articulated carefully in the noisy chaos. He nodded. Clearly, the situation wasn¡¯t exactly as they had imagined. He¡¯d never heard the Channels roar before. He was pretty sure he never wanted to hear it again.

    (This is fun to write. I hope you are loving it too. Be sure to head over to my Facebook page at Fay Thompson Author if you want to talk with me about anything, make a comment. I''m here daily to upload and surf around. )

 Chapter Thirteen - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Thirteen ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    ¡°Miss me?¡± Brad¡¯s voice boomed at them again. He arrived dragging several carts loaded with various devices. ¡°That back shot blew me around. I have dents.¡± He pointed one of his massive metal hands at an indentation on his side. He seemed pretty pleased with it. ¡°Your seals holding up, Elias?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, so far Brad.¡± Elias nodded.

    ¡°What¡¯s all that stuff?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°Well, I had a thought about plugging the tunnel on this side, at least temporarily. I brought some isocyanates and polyol and amine catalyzers and a secret component.¡±

    ¡°English, Brad.¡± Elias interrupted.

    ¡°Oh, right. When you mix them together in the right proportions you get a foam that expands up to a thousand times its size. Biodegradable too, with some help. But, it hardens fast and will give Mael a surface. He¡¯s back there recovering now. We have to slow down the Tule Soc assault.¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t their mechs cut through that stuff?¡± Mick wasn¡¯t sure plugging one end of the tunnel while the other was in ruins was the best option for escape. But, there were too many bugs and likely more to come. A choice between what?

    ¡°Sure, but it takes time and what you remove has to go somewhere. It¡¯s like tunnel digging, the removed dirt has to be taken away. It¡¯s a logistical problem. I like logistics. Anyway, I¡¯m heading in there to give Mael a surface to play with. Then we will do a second plug over what Mael does. That should buy some time. Besides, he¡¯s been wanting to test this out for awhile. Brought this crap all the way from the Citadel thinking he might get an opportunity.¡±

    ¡°Go!¡± Elias interrupted Brad¡¯s obvious desire to continue talking.

    ¡°Oh, right. Bad pirate. Must go plug hole. Be back shortly.¡±

    ¡°I get the plug thing but what is all the surface thing about?¡± Mick turned on Elias.

    ¡°Ask Mael.¡± Elias shrugged, he could guess and as easily be right as wrong. He wanted some time to use the head, grab some food and water and generally take a break. ¡°I¡¯m taking a few minutes. Stay alert, there are likely bugs and rats in the rubble waiting to come out. Remember that there¡¯s an operator somewhere trying to sneak up on us. You have the Pirate¡¯s back, at least as far as you can see him and likely he will be providing light. Stay alert.¡± Elias pulled up on the trapdoor latch and headed down. Neither he nor Mick really noticed that they were operating like a team. Kirsan and Jordy noticed, both of them sensed something else happening here.

    ¡°Let¡¯s take this gap to retrieve everything we can and get a good look at the position of the floater, start strategizing possible end points to this encounter.¡± Kirsan spoke quietly to Jordy. Both of them were watchful of Mael, Xasper and Anya, huddling in a far corner speaking behind a privacy screen. Secrets. There shouldn¡¯t be secrets in a Command ship, but there were.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh were reclined on the floor, filling a whole side of the floater making it impassable. Clearly they were guarding the privacy of the Turtle. They had a peculiar relationship with Mael, one that grew stronger as the years passed. It worried Kirsan, the entire evolutionary issue that Mael represented worried him.

    ¡°I think Elias is behaving slightly off.¡± Jordy said. ¡°Not by much. It is clear there is duress, and yet, he is also aligning with Mick. I can¡¯t see where it connects.¡±

    ¡°We can guess it connects with the source of the blue light.¡± Kirsan answered grimly. He had thought that source was too weakened after the transport attack to attack again. He still couldn¡¯t wrap his mind around the sound the Channels had made, nor the Ba¡¯Neesh¡¯s strange reaction. They obviously knew something. Would they tell, even to the Turtle? He was DireSec¡¯s best chance. If they spoke to anyone, it would be to Mael.

    They heard the occasional sound of laser fire and a few explosions and each time they did, heads went up and the sense of another approaching battle teased everyone.

    ¡°You know the kid is pretty good with weapons.¡± Jordy acknowledged. Truthfully, he was jealous of the situation, the opportunity to engage in a real life firefight was almost like a fantasy to him. It wasn¡¯t how modern battles were waged. In a sense it was old school from the era before the Resolution between Nations. War abatement, at least on the surface.

    There were still situations but no one called them battles, much less wars even though people still died. Humanity was supposed to be beyond outright war even though animosities remained. Security. Everyone lived with heightened security. Jordy often thought it was an uneasy peace, one forced upon a species not well suited to peace. He had never been able to clearly understand how the Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh fit into what was really humanities picture, in a planetary way. He could imagine the complexity of the politics involved trying to explain this current mess to the local nation-state, thankfully not his job. This particular area was friendly to neither the Directorate nor Tule Soc having once been a fairly conservative place, before the forced peace.

    His job, he reminded himself, was to strategize exit plans. How to retrieve the floater, the boy and whatever the source of the blue light was and bring them all secretly into DireSec custody.

    Mick was busy watching Brad manually mixing the contents of several large drums. The exo had excellent vid and the light was back, Mick couldn¡¯t tell who was making it and although it interested him, watching out for creepie crawlies around Brad was far more serious. Likely, he thought, every Soek but him could easily make light. The Pirate was a friendly. Mick didn¡¯t question his gut. The improved light made it easy to watch for attack. Getting Brad back closer to the floater became Mick¡¯s primary concern. He saw other bio-suited men on Elias¡¯ side of the tunnel but they were skirting the floater, giving it a wide berth. He could imagine the memory of the blue light was scary enough to keep them back. He could smell Elias eating and that made him hungry too, but he would wait till Brad pulled back a safe distance.

    When the reaction started it was fast and Brad hustled backward to avoid getting caught in the foam. It quickly filled the tunnel sideways and then expanded along the tunnel¡¯s length before finally stopping.

    ¡°How thick do you think it is?¡± Mick called out to Brad.

    ¡°Twenty-eight and a third feet.¡± Brad answered with proprietary precision.

    Mick blinked and then remembered Elias¡¯ words. ¡°You really are a Math teacher, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely!¡± Brad had reached the area of the floater. He automatically turned on his scanners to re-check the floater¡¯s hull. There were no new signs of web growth. ¡°Any seal degradation in there, Mick?¡±

    Mick flipped through the various screens Elias had on fast flow. One had charts and figures and a detailed diagram of the floater. ¡°Which metric is the right one?¡± He asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s labeled Primary Seals. Lower right. There is an overall and any leaking seals will be featured at the top in red. Do you see it?¡± Brad said calmly.

    ¡°Got it. There are five yellows. I don¡¯t know if there were five before or if they are new.¡± Mick said.

    ¡°Read them out, I¡¯ll check on the outside.¡±

    Together they examined the five yellow seals and Brad sprayed a fast-curing sealer on each of them. ¡°I think they were damaged earlier.¡± Brad announced. ¡°I have a super close scanner that goes down to molecular levels and the penetration doesn¡¯t appear to be continuing.¡±

    Elias was standing behind Mick, watching silently. The sensors had been a wobbly yellow earlier. When the repair was complete the seals returned to green. ¡°Looks fine now Brad. We¡¯ll watch it.¡± Elias said.

    ¡°Good. I hear Mael and Xasper are on their way. I¡¯m going to keep the light on so that means I¡¯ll stay here. Is that all right?¡±

    Mick wondered what the man would say if told to go. Would DireSec really give them that courtesy or was it an illusion of courtesy? He couldn¡¯t tell. He did know he didn¡¯t want Brad to go. Somehow with the Pirate there he felt safer, which was ridiculous, all of these guys were DireSec, his enemy. Still, for the moment they were temporary allies. Sleight of hand, he thought, nothing was quite what it might seem.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    He nodded to Elias and then raced downstairs for the fastest pee ever. He didn¡¯t want to miss anything. He was back before anyone else arrived to find Brad and Elias checking other systems and discussing the retrieval of the mini drones still outside. Brad was saying the atmosphere in the area of the floater was likely safe enough to at least risk a second external seal opening for the retrieval.

    ¡°What do you think, Mick?¡± Elias wasn¡¯t sure why it was becoming more important to him to align with Mick. Maybe battle bonds? He¡¯d heard of that type of connection before, but never felt anything he thought was real, until now. He was getting a feeling he should protect Mick and maybe himself as well.

    ¡°Do you have any sterilizer aerosol with you, Brad?¡± Mick was now leaning over Elias¡¯ shoulder eating a sandwich from the stash.

    ¡°Good idea, and yes, I do. I can spray into the opening before you allow the bot inside and then spray the bot too. That should kill anything clinging to the surfaces.¡±

    They proceeded to sanitize the small charging pockets that housed the mini¡¯s. Then, three bio-suited figures appeared coming from the original tunnel entrance. They walked up to Brad and then turned to look at the floater, allowing the imagers to see their faces. Two of the men were tall and slender, both with dark hair and each of indeterminate age. To Mick¡¯s eyes they both looked edging on stern or even mean. The third didn¡¯t look human. He had a turtle shell helmet that had reshaped part of his face. Mick gaped. The Turtle. He seemed younger than the other two as well as shorter, but it was his eyes that captivated Mick¡¯s attention. They looked like Ba¡¯Neesh eyes.

    ¡°Are you Ba¡¯Neesh?¡± Mick blurted out.

    Mael blinked, it was the first time anyone had asked him that. He straightened slightly. ¡°You do know a Ba¡¯Neesh is a female Soek, right?¡± He said calmly.

    ¡°What?¡± Mick yelled. ¡°Are not? They have horns and shit. I saw them. Hooves and weird hands and antler like a deer or antelope.¡±

    ¡°Exactly. The female form of the Soek is the Ba¡¯Neesh.¡± Mael said very matter-of-factly. They have horns, antlers, pivotal ears, elongated heads, enhanced smell, enhanced sight, enhanced hearing, enhanced Vrill use, extra jointed fingers and cloven hooves with their human-like toes able to pivot upright. Their arms are also longer and their legs shorter allowing them to run on fours and as you no doubt noticed, some have rather large fangs.¡±

    ¡°You mean my birth mother was a Ba¡¯Neesh?¡± Mick was struggling to catch up with this impossible idea. He wasn¡¯t related to these creatures, to Kiena, to the blue light, to the bones, to the Channels, to the Beloved, to this weird-looking guy. He sagged, grabbing the back of the seat.

    Elias had never heard it articulated exactly that way before. He pitied the shock Mick must be reeling from. He remembered clearly the day he had finally understood, his own terror and self-pity.

    ¡°Time is not our friend.¡± Xasper¡¯s much deeper and harsher voice intruded. ¡°Discuss this later.¡± He pivoted and the three Soek strode away with Brad watching.

    ¡°He was lying, wasn¡¯t he, Elias?¡± Mick whispered, his hand finding the bone. But, it told him every single word had been true. The holoscreen showed the three Soek had stopped.

    ¡°Who are the other two?¡± Mick had chosen to shove the blob of impossible nonsense out of his thinking and focus on the now.

    ¡°Xasper Deeto and¡­¡± Elias paused, for the life of him he couldn¡¯t remember Kirsan¡¯s new name.

    ¡°Damien Thorne.¡± The third man answered for himself, ¡°Head of the Directorate, owner of the floater you stole, Mick Huxley.¡±

    Elias nodded. Damn, that was the new name, right.

    ¡°You told me the guy was Kirsan something.¡± Mick turned on Elias. ¡°Plus, that name is a lie.¡± He said firmly.

    Elias didn¡¯t know what to say. His boss was literally feet away down the tunnel and no doubt listening to every single word.

    ¡°Block your outgoing, Elias.¡± Kirsan/Thorne ordered.

    Elias shut down the feed to the transports and to everyone but Kirsan directly.

    ¡°I was Alesandro Kirsan.¡± Kirsan/Thorne said. ¡°I¡¯ve aged out of that identity. My new identity is Damien Thorne.¡±

    This time Mick¡¯s bone agreed.

    ¡°You will not share this info on open channel, Mick Huxley or my wrath will be upon you.¡± Kirsan/Thorne warned.

    Mick stiffened. There was the DireSec bite he¡¯d been expecting. In a way it relieved him that they weren¡¯t all instant friendlies.

    ¡°Okay.¡± He agreed. What did he care who this Kirsan thought he was?

    ¡°Go open channel, Elias.¡± Kirsan/Thorne ordered. The conversation over.

    Mick considered the secret. Clearly it was a secret and clearly Kirsan wanted to limit its spread. Logically that made possession of the secret a danger. Kirsan had just endangered him. Logically that meant Kirsan believed he would be able to control that information which meant control Mick. Non-friendly friendly.

    Mick said nothing. Let them think he was too stupid to get it. He found another sandwich and stood back watching the screens.

    ¡°What are they doing, Elias?¡± He asked.

    The Turtle and Xasper were pulling out torches from a suitcase-like hardened bag. Mael said, ¡°You stay behind us Thorne, hands on our shoulders, until we get the design done. Xasper will lead the cast. Our clear objective is to fully protect and defend this side of the tunnel. Likely the floater¡¯s MagC will keep it fed for as long as the floater is in this location. A constant trickle will be sufficient.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re sure this will work?¡± Kirsan/Thorne asked.

    ¡°No. We haven¡¯t had a chance to test it.¡± Mael answered. ¡°Should work fine.¡±

    ¡°Time.¡± Xasper spoke again, obviously irritated.

    ¡°Right.¡± Mael agreed. ¡°Now.¡±

    Mael and Xasper activated their hand-held devices. What emerged looked like directed paint riding on a light beam. The two of them carefully drew what Mick realized was a vertical sigil, right on the lumpy surface of the expanded foam. What the sigil represented, he couldn¡¯t begin to guess. Almost the instant they finished he felt like something fresh passed through him.

    ¡°We have activation.¡± Elias called out.

    ¡°That was Vrill activation?¡± Mick asked, his feelings a confusion of admiration and doubt.

    ¡°That was casting.¡± Elias said. ¡°Xasper actually did the cast as we can¡¯t trust Mael to cast anything without blowing shit up. Thorne is the next best conventional caster; they are doing a triple cast to stabilize the sigil. It will lay in wait.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Mick frowned at the strange design. The three men were walking back toward the floater. It seemed like a lot of drama over something silly, even though he had felt that cool sensation.

    ¡°It¡¯s a weapon.¡± Brad answered. ¡°It is passive in that it does nothing if you touch its other side with only good intentions. However, if you have ill will toward say anyone on this side of the sigil, it is likely to respond in unpleasant ways.¡±

    ¡°No shit.¡±

    ¡°Yep.¡± Brad was lifting more of those big drums of chemicals. ¡°I¡¯m going to seal it between layers. We should buy some time with it.¡±

    Mael stumbled. Both Xasper and Kirsan/Thorne reached over to catch his arms enough to support his weight.

    ¡°Casting drop.¡± Elias said. ¡°All three of them will need immediate assistance. I¡¯m sure Anya is waiting to help.¡±

    ¡°Anya?¡± It was the first female name Mick had heard in a long time.

    ¡°Yes. She is the Ba¡¯Neesh that deals with Mael.¡±

    Mick couldn¡¯t decipher what that statement meant. Deals with? Was that like his relationship with Kiena? A hold on and pray not to die kind of thing? Mick backtracked, ¡°What do you mean he blows shit up?¡± He asked. By now the three of them were out of direct visual range so that only the mini cams were picking them up.

    ¡°You saw the Wind.¡± Elias answered. ¡°This was Mael¡¯s second working of the day. That was partly why the other two supported him. You don¡¯t want to be around when Mael gets frightened or too excited. He¡¯s what we call a catalyst, he does things no one can guess in advance. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they are simply big nasties.¡±

    Unanticipated actions. To Mick, that sounded far too familiar. He noticed that he wasn¡¯t alone in looking around the inside of the cabin. For the moment, he couldn¡¯t sense her. He took a deep breath. Did that mean they thought Kiena was a catalyst too?

    It felt abnormally calm. Brad, outside, was packing out his empty drums and equipment, dragging several large wheeled carts from the floater area back toward the tunnel entrance. Mick thought about how they were half-way trapped. Technically, they could blow the bolts and fly out over the debris, probably and then what? Go where?

    He sat back down facing the inside and Elias. Elias could see over Mick¡¯s shoulders to the screens, just like Mick could see over Elias¡¯ shoulders. There was no further sign of enemy activity yet both of them believed it wasn¡¯t over.

    One thing continued to eat at Mick, his mother. He knew she would worry and the city security was likely giving both of his parents a hard time. Could this Kirsan/Thorne person help? Could he trade for help for his mother? What did this guy want with him? Kiena? Only problem with that was he didn¡¯t have Kiena, no one did. It was mostly an illusion that she was with Mick, an accident, not a real choice. Or, at least he didn¡¯t think so.

    He pulled the slate into his lap. Elias groaned.

    Jordy, listening in, frowned. He dearly wanted visuals that neither Elias nor Mick seemed the least interested in sharing. Why?

    Mick was back to thinking that what he didn¡¯t know was operating against him. The answer might lie in this slate, inside old classes. In his hands. For the moment DireSec hadn¡¯t made demands on them, on him. That wouldn¡¯t hold. They would. He would in their place. So, he had a window of time, how long remained unclear.

    He powered the slate up and returned to the class on Recognizing Vrill. It started to play aloud. He redirected it to play from the slate and not through the big speakers.

    In the Command ship techs were scrambling. The class began to play out on the audio.

    Mael looked up from where he was sitting, eating. ¡°Elias, is that you at five?¡± He yelled out.

    Elias groaned again. Booger-eating Elias at five. ¡°Shut up, Mael.¡± He yelled back. It wasn¡¯t like he could do ear plugs; his boss would expect him to keep Mick under constant watch. He rolled his eyes. He could hear faint snickers. Likely both Jordy and Mael, both of them had known him most of his life.

    Mick had a spoon and he had taken the non-broken table seat adjacent to the one broken the night before. He sat the spoon on the table and remembered what Kiena had shown him. How to feel and see Vrill leak out your finger. He aimed the small flow at the spoon. Elias sucked in a breath. One fucking night. Hours really. What had changed in Mick? The spoon slid across the table.

    ¡°Class off.¡± Mick said, looking up to catch the tight look on Elias¡¯ face. ¡°Game on, Elias. Game on.¡±

    (Welcome back! The game is afoot. Do you like Battle Chapters, I have lots of Battle Chapters, mischief and mayhem. How much trouble do you think Mick is in at this point? J I hope you enjoyed this chapter. On we go.)

 Chapter Fourteen

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Fourteen ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick woke to Elias shaking his shoulder, hard. His memory blurred. There were too many voices in his head. ¡°What?¡± He snarled, ¡°What?¡± He couldn¡¯t position himself in the now or imagine who this man was shaking him when he was exhausted, so tired.

    ¡°We have to go!¡± Elias yelled at Mick again. He had woken as if pulled up by his brain stem. Everything hurt. He wanted to share that pain with his tormentor, this kid.

    A hard thudding brought both their heads around to see a bio-suited figure pounding on the exterior door with a torch, or maybe that was a stunner. ¡°I know you took him in there.¡± The figure yelled, ¡°Let me in this instant Elias or I will melt this fucking door open.¡±

    Point of fact, it wasn¡¯t possible to melt the door open with either a stunner or a torch. Elias just stared, ¡°Rojer?¡± He yelled back.

    ¡°Of course it¡¯s Rojer you, meat head. I know he¡¯s in there, that blue light thing probably took him.¡±

    ¡°Shit!¡± Elias rubbed at his face, struggling to grasp what was real and what wasn¡¯t.

    ¡°Who the hell is Rojer and why is he yelling?¡± Mick managed to sit up. His brain was sending him panic signals, that was the only way to interpret his mental din, now added to by this noisy bastard. Something solidified, they had to leave, now. The urgency was overwhelming.

    ¡°What the hell?¡± Mick shoved off his blankets and punched Elias in the shoulder, ¡°We have to leave like right now!¡± He yelled.

    Elias nodded. The sensation was intensifying. He reached over and unlocked the door. ¡°Ass inside and shut the fuck up, Rojer.¡±

    Mick gaped, air was rushing in. Air full of contaminants. Was Elias insane? He watched the bio-clad figure clamber up the stairs followed instantly by Elias hitting the power door close.

    ¡°Going to blow the bolts.¡± Elias roared, his head felt like it wanted to explode. Only escape remained.

    ¡°Where is he?¡± Rojer yelled, waving his weapon around the small interior space.

    ¡°Who?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°Grab hold.¡± Elias yelled.

    Mick and Rojer both grabbed for the arms of the closest chairs and fell more than sat in them.

    ¡°My father.¡± Rojer yelled again, trying to see where they were hiding him in the small cabin. There really wasn¡¯t anywhere to hide anyone.

    ¡°Meet Rojer Kirsan, he¡¯s obsessed with his father because of a genetic mistake. Meet Serla, Second of his Name. Now, shut the fuck up, Rojer/Serla et. al.¡±

    Mick was confused. He really didn¡¯t like an armed DireSec operative barging in. Then more thoughts landed. All three of them said, together. ¡°They are sending explosives down the overhead air shafts. We¡¯ll be crushed.¡± It was a vivid image and the message appeared whole in all of their heads at the same time.

    Concussive blasts followed Elias pressing the switch to blow the bolts.

    ¡°Hope the fuck we can get through that debris. Fuckity, fuck, fuck.¡± Elias powered up the floater, talking as much to himself as to them.

    Rojer had turned his chair to face the screens, his weapon tossed aside. ¡°Are there more bugs and shit?¡± He asked, his voice excited. He activated a third of the floater¡¯s weapons, his training kicking in despite his failure to understand what was happening.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± New voices came over the loudspeaker.

    ¡°Get out of the way of the tunnel entrance.¡± Elias yelled out. We got bogies in the air shafts. They must have waited till dark.¡±

    ¡°Crap!¡± Jordy¡¯s sleepy voice penetrated.

    ¡°I¡¯m flying manual, Jordy.¡± Elias yelled. ¡°Tell Thorne we are all on manual and his aggravating third son is in here with us looking for him. Don¡¯t diddle with our molcoms, you got it? No auto pilot. Form up on us as we emerge, if we fucking emerge. Mick, Rojer use your weapons to try to blow the tops off that pile of debris. We will be scraping the ceiling here. Dark Gods my head hurts. No more fucking all day and evening classes, Mick. I don¡¯t care who is pushing for them.¡±

    The five DireSec floaters came to life in a rush as its occupants threw their sleeping platforms back to seat positions and tried to grasp what had changed. Ground operatives raced to throw themselves aboard as the hatches closed.

    Jordy yelled out, ¡°Do we have eyeballs on airshaft intrusions? Why didn¡¯t we think about those? Fuck. Brad, is there enough room for that floater above that blast debris?¡±

    Brad adjusted his exo, his systems racing to calculate the exact size and shape of the remains of the tunnel. ¡°They will be scraping the ceiling.¡± He confirmed. ¡°Nice calc, Elias.¡± He stretched, trying to remember Elias¡¯ grades from his upper math classes. Nothing stood out in his memory.

    Mick and Rojer were blowing off the sharper tops on the debris pile while Elias slowly navigated them through the maze of broken tunnel materials. He wanted to race. He couldn¡¯t. He swore loud and viciously. How much time? His inner clock was ramping up. ¡°Can¡¯t wait on you guys any longer.¡± He yelled, ¡°We are plowing through.¡±

    The floater hit the tops of the debris to horrible crunchy sounds but kept going, accelerating. They could see the tunnel entrance. All three of them hunched as if trying to make the floater duck under the edge. What was behind them was gaining. ¡°Faster Elias, max us out!¡± Rojer yelled.

    The floater punched past the last of the debris and hit the opening at max available speed as the mountainside behind them exploded in massive spectacular violence. The tunnel collapsed. Elias shot for the dead center of the DireSec transport floaters who were ramping up their own speed. The small floater, heavily scraped up but fully functional, blew past them like they were standing still and angled upward. Elias¡¯ training kicked in fully. Up, hard and fast.

    ¡°Check for enemy ships.¡± Elias yelled at Rojer and Mick. Both of them were fumbling with the scanning systems. It was one thing to use weapon systems, another to shift over to technical. Both instantly felt inadequate.

    ¡°Let me fly this, Elias. You take the technical.¡± Mick yelled out. ¡°Too many screens and my brain isn¡¯t quite right.¡±

    They switched function without leaving their seats. Elias yelled out. ¡°DireSec will fall in along side you. We are damaged, try to get in between and stay there. Listen to Jordy from the Command ship.¡±

    ¡°Right!¡± Mick could see the DireSec transports gaining behind them. He eased off slightly to allow them to be caught faster. A part of his brain acknowledged the illogic of assisting in being surrounded. Then the thought slid away as his total focus transferred to a flotilla of ships cresting the horizon.

    ¡°Shit. You seeing this Jordy?¡± Elias yelled again.

    ¡°We are. You won¡¯t do auto, Elias?¡± Jordy asked.

    ¡°Can¡¯t. We remain vulnerable to Molcom limiters.¡± Elias answered. This elicited a shocked look from Rojer and equally startled comments inside the Command ship as the rationale gelled into understanding.

    ¡°Right.¡± Jordy nodded. He could understand that fear. But, Elias was ranked out, or was he? The thought disturbed. Was the situation truly endangering Elias¡¯ right to molcom safety? Truth or paranoia? ¡°Where are we going, Elias?¡± He asked.

    Thorne was up enough to glare at the displays. Casting had taken a lot out of him earlier the day before. What the hell was Rojer doing on that floater and how had he managed to get inside? Irritation, the most common sensation he felt about everything related to Rojer, washed through him. By rights his son should be voced out somewhere, nowhere near anything important. Yet, here he was again, dead center in the middle of the action. He was a screw up. Why Mael had forced Rojer onto his personal security staff continued to rankle. The two of them, Rojer and Mael, had a long-standing antipathy towards each other, yet, Mael insisted Rojer was essential. Another mystery. Thorne rubbed his forehead. He needed more analgesic and to eat again. He hated the thought of both.

    Mick was staring at the horizon where more ships than he thought could reasonably exist were altering direction toward them. His only thought was away. But, there had to be a place.

    ¡°Jordy, whose ships are those?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Most are running national identifiers and if you turn on channel twelve you can hear their demands for all of us to land as we are in their air space.¡±

    Mick grunted. Fuck that. ¡°And, the rest?¡±

    ¡°Tule Soc. Seems they got to the head-of-state. Temporary alliance.¡±

    ¡°What about my mother?¡± Mick said, scowling. ¡°My parents had nothing to do with any of this.¡±

    ¡°We know.¡± Jordy answered.

    It wasn¡¯t really an answer though, just an acknowledgement.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    ¡°We need a destination, Mick.¡±

    Mick was about to throw the question back to Jordy when his mind filled with an image of an island in the middle of nowhere. He looked over to find Roger and Elias looking back. ¡°Where is it?¡± He asked aloud.

    ¡°Citadel.¡± Elias and Rojer answered together. They all felt the same thing, that was the destination but the decision didn¡¯t come from any of them, it came from the presence hidden in plain site.

    ¡°Citadel? Are you crazy?¡± Jordy argued back.

    ¡°Calculate our distance to leaving this airspace, max speed of our slowest transport.¡± Mael¡¯s tired-sounding voice filled the speakers. ¡°Jordy, where are our reinforcements? Redirect on an oblique path, you know the direction. Get more. Get as many friendlies as you can. Prepare to be fired upon. Anya says to make absolutely sure we all guard Mick¡¯s floater. It must not be hit or catch fire at any cost, even if we have to sacrifice others.¡± It was an extraordinary thing to say. Jordy blanched.

    ¡°Mind telling us why?¡± Thorne asked the question every DireSec operative on the Command ship was asking. Sacrifice ships and operatives for this small, damaged floater?

    ¡°There is a She aboard.¡± Mael finally answered. ¡°We don¡¯t want to accidentally complete the Lamentation of the Beloved before we know who She is.¡±

    The only people not frowning in confusion were the Ba¡¯Neesh and Xasper. They were nodding.

    There wasn¡¯t time to comment as all six ships started receiving fire. The distance was too great for the conventional weapons array Mick and Elias had been using to fire back. That left their larger armed drones and Mick yelling, ¡°Where the hell are the Vrill activated weapons? Piece of shit. Who decides what needs to be on these floaters anyway, the Wuss King Thorne?¡±

    Rojer snarled although he was in half agreement with the wretched young man. Their weapons were small and inadequate to this type of encounter. Wuss King. The name tickled some part of his psyche.

    ¡°Can the blue hand do some fly swatting?¡± Mael asked aloud. If they didn¡¯t do something, they wouldn¡¯t escape this airspace.

    Both Elias and Mick stared over at the MagC, the Vrill magnifier. The gauge read three-quarters power. They shrugged at each other.

    ¡°Can you swat these ships?¡± Elias asked aloud while highlighting six of the lead ships closing in on them on the interior holoscreen above his chair.

    ¡°Who are you talking to?¡± Rojer said.

    Their MagC made a sound. The MagC¡¯s on all five of the other DireSec ships made similar sounds.

    ¡°Shit.¡± Elias said, echoed by the chaotic noises coming from the Command ship as their machine came to life on its own.

    ¡°What did you do?¡± Jordy yelled. ¡°Our MagC is ramping up in spite of being set on low.

    ¡°Exactly.¡± Elias cringed. ¡°Maybe we should all duck?¡± He suggested.

    Energy leaped from MagC to MagC and then outward looking like an eerily reminiscent blue arm with a hand with long, too-many-jointed fingers. It balled up as the enemy ships started to bank away. The fist hit the last ship in the row and then snapped back off. That ship hit the next ship and like airborne dominoes they all watched the expanding mayhem as if it were in slow motion. She made it look easy to calculate the likely path of fleeing ships well enough to take out six, Elias¡¯ six.

    The MagC¡¯s powered back down and laughter echoed through each ship, coming from the area of the device. It was the kind of laughter that made the skin crawl, a true and likely cruel pleasure in killing. They were trapped watching transport loads of men die in spectacular mid-air crashes. It was the kind of view that silenced and then created a kind of dark admiration. The enemy hadn¡¯t stood a chance, overwhelming ship numbers or not.

    Thorne, was fixated on only one thing, The Lamentation of the Beloved. It gelled. Mael¡¯s warning was explicit. Don¡¯t let the Lamentation begin. All of Thorne¡¯s priorities shifted. Protect the center, at all costs, protect the center. Finally, he understood the stakes.

    The six DireSec floaters altered direction to the closest border into open International territory. Their chasers were no longer firing; they were back far enough that the shooting stopped. It was clear they were being escorted out of the airspace in lieu of attempts to land them or bring them down.

    The immediacy of the situation eased. Mick sagged back. He noted he had slept maybe three hours tops. That coupled to his lack of sleep the night before and a day of high stress defense, left him beyond drained. He knew he should find his own stunner, it was somewhere in the tangle of his blanket, now mostly on the floor. And, who was this Rojer guy who was now peeling out of the bio-suit to reveal a relatively young man of spectacular beauty, scowling. A Kirsan. Son of that Thorne guy with the name weirdness of the day before? Rojer¡¯s stunner was up on the ledge of the curved counter that was fixed into the leading edge of the floater, the counter from which all of the controls were accessible by touch in front of each seat.

    Elias felt equally drained. Mick¡¯s choice to run classes well into the night had left him exhausted. He¡¯d heard questions passing between mostly Mick and Brad and sometimes Mael and once or twice Jordy about this class detail or that. It was a cram session on steroids. How far had he gotten, five or six years in one marathon session? Somewhere in the midst of it he had lost his concern about Mick learning. What would he have done if thrust into the Order¡¯s world of Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh? He didn¡¯t know that he would have chosen to steal another guys class material but it wasn¡¯t a bad choice. Mick was treating this entire thing like a game he needed to learn fast. What remained shocking was how fast he absorbed it all. It was like hearing a starving man eat.

    Rojer folded the bio-suit and looked around for somewhere to stuff it.

    ¡°Downstairs.¡± Mick pointed at the trapdoor.

    Rojer glared at him with narrowed eyes, suspicious. Mick had the idea this mode was Rojer on normal so he just shrugged. Rojer glanced at his weapon and then at the damage to Mick¡¯s face. It was clear the boy had been in a pretty good fight but his attitude was relaxed to the point of melt. The kid clearly wasn¡¯t afraid of either Rojer or Elias. Even Rojer could guess he was missing critical information for that to be true. He gathered up his bio-suit and climbed down the ladder to shove the suit in on top of other gear in a locker.

    He used the facilities while trying to figure out what had brought him out of his perimeter guard position, telling him to run into the tunnel. It was illogical. He hadn¡¯t seen his father yet the impetus that his father was in danger felt so real. He scowled. Everyone knew about his genetic fuck up, his heightened to the point of easy paranoia reactions around his father. What had triggered him? He did a quick security examination of all of the lockers but found nothing out of place. Everything looked standard issue and properly stowed. No Ba¡¯Neesh. Wasn¡¯t everyone saying there was a Ba¡¯Neesh on this ship? If so, where?

    Elias had the floater following the directional advice from the Command ship. While technically they were not on auto, until that ship changed course they were flying level in a straight line. While he had to sit at the controls, there wasn¡¯t anything special to do.

    ¡°What¡¯s in your head?¡± Elias said to Mick, sitting across from him with a glazed expression.

    ¡°You mean beyond the absence of sleep, the shock of wakening not knowing where the hell I am, the realization I¡¯m still in this fucked-up situation and voices that shouldn¡¯t be there. She is in there.¡±

    ¡°Me too.¡± Elias understood exactly. ¡°She wakened me. It was like she squeezed my brain in those blue hands with the extra long fingers. Gods my brain hurts. Vrill squeeze? That should be a new developmental weapon.¡±

    ¡°Pressure.¡± Mick nodded, watching the new guy Rojer step away from the trapdoor and shut it so none of them would fall into the hole. ¡°How about you, Rojer. I¡¯m Mick Huxley. I take it you may or may not be the son of that arrogant boss guy who likes to threaten and posture and glower.¡±

    Rojer stiffened and was about to yell at the younger man, barely old enough to be a full-fledged teenager, when the words sunk in. Only his counselor ever really talked about his father to his face, everyone but Mael was too scared of him. ¡°How about me what?¡± Rojer answered, processing Mick¡¯s description of his father for future examination, in private.

    Mick noticed that Rojer was impeccably dressed. His clothing was similar to Elias but the patch on his upper chest was different. Not DireSec? His clothing also looked expensive in a way Mick knew meant private provisions. ¡°How about what is in your head right now?¡± Mick answered as Rojer found the non-broken table seat adjacent to Mick and sat down, leaving his weapon out but he avoided playing with it like a thug.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Rojer couldn¡¯t decide what to feel or think. He didn¡¯t want his father disappointed in him again. Leaving his assigned guard post in the middle of the night wouldn¡¯t exactly please the man.

    ¡°What is in your head?¡± Elias repeated.

    On the Command ship the conversation was captivating everyone although they had already screened it from the other transport ships. This was not battle sequence info that was an essential share.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Rojer hedged, his gaze wandering to note a full backpack under the counter at Mick¡¯s feet, the broken table dangling from the seat no one was using, bruising on Elias¡¯ knuckles and his somewhat unkempt appearance. The intent look both of them were giving him was upsetting. They knew something about what was wrong inside his head.

    ¡°You do know.¡± Mick said, one hand up to play with something hidden by his t-shirt.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias nodded. ¡°Give, you bastard.¡±

    Mick discovered he trusted Elias¡¯ opinion and for Elias to call Rojer a bastard added some confirmation to Mick¡¯s first impression, the pretty guy was an ass. What had brought him into the floater? He could imagine both who and how, but why had Kiena collected Rojer, because he was beginning to suspect she was assembling Soek like pieces in a puzzle with him in the first position and Elias in second.

    Rojer felt trapped. In spite of his family connections most Order-born avoided him, he had a reputation and it wasn¡¯t a good one. He knew that everyone but Mael thought he was a broken elitist asshole and he had tormented Mael for years, before Mael became The Turtle. All of this added up to a rather sour life with few friends and mostly uneasy temporary companions. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± He hedged.

    ¡°Stop being a wuss.¡± Elias¡¯ tone sharpened. ¡°Tell us what ran you into a likely contaminated area to pound on the floater door.¡±

    Thorne and Jordy both nodded.

    ¡°I had to find my father.¡± Rojer blurted. ¡°I was certain the blue thing had him inside the floater and I had to save him.¡±

    Mick snorted before saying. ¡°Yeah, that sounds about right.¡±

    ¡°And, now? What¡¯s in your head now?¡± Elias pressed.

    ¡°It¡¯s gone.¡± Rojer admitted. ¡°The pressure, I mean. I looked downstairs and he couldn¡¯t be here. I know that. I mean¡­¡± Rojer paused and straightened up, ¡°Director Thorne?¡± He asked aloud.

    ¡°I¡¯m listening.¡± Thorne answered, trying to lean in the seat in a way that was resting while his brain was tightly focused on Rojer and this conversation.¡±

    ¡°See.¡± Rojer didn¡¯t answer his father, he continued talking to Elias and Mick. ¡°He isn¡¯t here. I knew it even when I was running but I was still running and I felt compelled.¡± Rojer knew this was important, his father and Mael would need to know this stuff even if or particularly when it was embarrassing to him personally.

    ¡°Right. And, what¡¯s in your head now?¡± Elias said again.

    Jordy and Thorne shared a look. Elias was pressing hard. What was he getting at?

    ¡°I¡­I¡¯m taken.¡± The two words tumbled out.

    Jordy gasped.

    Mael had made his seat upright so he could listen more closely with less risk of falling asleep. At his side Anya stood, her expression tight. ¡°Right.¡± Mael said aloud.

    ¡°What does he mean, he¡¯s taken?¡± Thorne turned on Mael.

    ¡°He means,¡± Mick interrupted before Mael could answer, ¡°She¡¯s collected him from among the Soek in your group. I would guess he¡¯s as stuck in here as we are.¡±

    ¡°Collected?¡± Thorne was frowning.

    ¡°That¡¯s how I¡¯ve been thinking of it this morning, around my yawns and my jumbled brains. I feel collected, stuck here with some of my own wishes and desires and that blue hand gripping my spine just below where the spine goes into my skull. She has me. Of course, she¡¯s had me for years. I got used to her light but constant touch until I mostly forgot it was there. But, when she wants stuff, it isn¡¯t light anymore. It¡¯s like a fist tightening around your brain. Her words in your mouth, her desires through your body. We are so screwed in here.¡±

    It was the longest any of them had heard Mick speak. He continued, ¡°She calls herself Kiena, but that¡¯s not her name, that¡¯s a lie.¡±

    ¡°Neeshatari.¡± Anya said aloud. Her word set off an echo with the word repeated by the many voices of the Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°Neeshatari! Neeshatari!¡±

    (Welcome back! Ahh, the Neeshatari. Such fun. Yes, Rojer is the ass he sounds like. ::grins::)

 Chapter Fifteen - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Fifteen ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    The military operations room was situated six floors underground, several miles from the city. It had state of the art military-grade technology currently tracking six Directorate floaters, at a safe distance. Eric and Arjan stood to one side of the room, they were not in this nation/state¡¯s direct line of command so technically they had no power. Their idents clearly positioned them as military guests. It felt awkward.

    Two local Reserve Teams had responded to smoke from the first two transporter crashes earlier the day before. They brought responder crews in to suppress any natural fires only to find debris scattered over several miles of land and hundreds of dead bodies from the second battle. It was too late for the military to hide the disaster. Coupled, as it was, to the ongoing electrical crisis in the nearby large city, it quickly became clear that this nation/state was a target of several acts of terrorism. Only now, the military could establish that the Directorate was involved. They had footage to prove that the devastating attack on their clearly marked transport ships had included some kind of blue-light linkage among a group of six Directorate ships.

    Publicity fanned the flames of outrage. The nation/state appealed to the International Board of Grievances and was awarded approval to follow the attacking floaters into International airspace to force the floaters down or eliminate them as a threat to other nations.

    Eric and Arjan remained quiet. Tule Soc¡¯s Ministry of Defense was of the opinion that they should ride on the coat-tails of this much larger force. Let the nation/state do the heavy lifting. Tule Soc merely wanted to assist and to be certain of the destruction of as many Directorate and Order people as they could manage.

    The Directorate was insisting via holo communications that they were not attacking or terrorizing the nation/state, they were retrieving a stolen floater and leaving the nation/state as quickly as possible. They refused to return, citing the virulent language broadcasting from the nation/state toward them. They could not explain the weapon that had destroyed six fully loaded national transporters beyond pointing out that they had witnessed one transporter being hit by what looked like lightening and that ship had hit other ships due to piloting errors. It was a war of words being fought on the sidelines while the world¡¯s gaze followed the six floaters heading away from any nation/state airspace.

    Covert departments in most nation/states understood there was a second hominid human-like species living in small pockets around the globe. The exact locations remained closely guarded secrets. The identities of individuals who might be members of this hominid group were protected by discrimination laws even though most nations were attempting to identify suspect persons within their populations. The world public had only glimpsed a few of these creatures in poor quality drone footage thirty-years earlier. Footage that had since been removed from public data storage worldwide.

    Tule Soc never admitted to having a colony of non-humans in their control and the Directorate argued these non-humans presented no threat to humanity if they were simply left alone. Several world governments went to great efforts to assist in the hiding of the non-humans in order to gain access to their unique gifts and technologies. The nation/state at the heart of this current event was not on the inside of this information sharing.

    Eric caught the attention of their personal diplomatic attache. ¡°Would it be possible to use a small room to review the forensic data from early in the investigation? We seem to be at loose ends here and we would like to be of greater value in predicting what these terrorists might choose to do next.¡±

    Arjan gave him a look but said nothing. Personally, he was content to watch the military exercise in removing the threat from the heart of Ops. But, Eric was his boss. Clearly Tule Soc had underestimated the situation twice reflecting badly on both of their records. Perhaps Eric had insight into some detail they had missed or a way to repair their in-house reputations.

    ¡°This way, Sir.¡± The attache was more than happy to move these interlopers away from the center of activity. While an alliance existed the military must be polite and helpful, but none of the military commanders felt that this Tule Soc group was innocent in the deaths of so many military men even though they had also lost forty operatives. The question remained, why had Tule Soc brought so many unauthorized operatives into the nation/state without proper notification to chase a local terrorist that appeared to have no direct connection to the group?

    That question remained firmly at the top of the new alliance as Tule Soc was primarily known for their pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing and its military applications. Their interest in this event remained unclear. Formally, Eric had told the nation/state that they had responded to the offensive activation of the Directorate. Tule Soc recognized the Directorate as associated with other International terrorist events in the past, as well as having made sympathetic statements about the non-human hominids.

    Unfortunately, Tule Soc had arrived somewhat before the Directorate, making this assertion hard to support.

    Eric and Arjan were left alone in a room with several computing systems. These systems were open, not requiring entry codes.

    Eric gestured, indicating their conversation would be monitored. Arjan nodded.

    ¡°It occurred to me that we have time to review the initial event again, now coupled to substantial forensic analysis. The military is chasing the terrorists, let¡¯s see what is known about the young man at the center of everything, this Mick Huxley. Where exactly did he come from?¡±

    Arjan nodded. Their own investigation had identified that Mick was both Soek and adopted, a well-known coupling. Where he had come from was far less straightforward.

    Eric started with the event in the boy¡¯s bedroom. The hole. Even after two days the military analysis of that hole remained blank. What their experts could say with some certainty was that a blue energy stream had exited the hole and damaged the carpet. They had also identified the energy to have strong Vrill components.

    Both Eric and Arjan leaned in to play that again. Strong components, what did that mean? Further exploration of the data revealed that there was more human bioenergetics in the mixture than straight Vrill. That shouldn¡¯t be possible.

    ¡°Is that why we keep picking up only traces of Vrill?¡± Arjan lost his irritation toward Eric.

    ¡°Probably. We never did get a read on a lot of Vrill energy anywhere near here, not until that blue hand appeared. It was clearly Vrill. But, we didn¡¯t test its structure.¡±

    Eric had that info on his external and they could clearly see that the energy that had crushed their transporters was not wholly Vrill either.

    ¡°What are we dealing with then?¡± Arjan asked.

    ¡°A mixture?¡± Eric mused aloud. ¡°We can guess the boy has some mixture. We have to consider the possibility he is acting alone. Yes, we see a hole in the footage behind him. We see an arc of energy. We hear him talking, but he was talking to his game too.¡±

    ¡°You are suggesting a lurking ability, manifesting post puberty?¡± Arjan¡¯s eyes widened.

    ¡°We have to consider that a possibility. We have seen nothing else. We have seen only effects. It was easy to think he had some kind of help, but, we don¡¯t really know that. He is documented to having a psychiatrist.¡± Both of them opened and read that sealed file. ¡°Antisocial behavior, gaming addiction, propensity toward lying to authority.¡±This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°Let¡¯s look at the family history.¡± Arjan moved to the next seat so they had all four systems running, two Tole Soc and two military. ¡°This seems to center on electronics. What is the family history around electronic purchases?¡±

    In retrospect it seemed too obvious. A quick review of the parent¡¯s financials revealed frequent electronic upgrades and replacements, in particular, gaming systems. It quickly became clear that electronics didn¡¯t fare well in the Huxley household. Everything from smart toothbrushes to muni-transport passes were in constant failure, for at least the last three years. Prior to that the family¡¯s use of electronics seemed fairly standard.

    ¡°Puberty.¡± Eric said.

    Four offices away the military analysts were scrambling to switch focus toward a detail they had missed. Electronic damage within the home. When they looked they found eleven calls for service to the residential unit¡¯s power system over the past three years. The problems had escalated. Two new box replacements, even small devices were discovered damaged or no longer working.

    ¡°Pull the electronic devices out of evidence.¡± Commander Harris ordered.

    Eric had already moved on, unaware of the scramble his conversation with Arjan was causing.

    ¡°We¡¯re going at this the wrong way.¡± Eric continued. ¡°If he is the singular enemy, why not isolate and take him out?¡±

    Arjan shook his head, he wanted to blow the Ba¡¯Neesh to the eleventh level of hell. He¡¯d seen them in that graveyard. ¡°I don¡¯t see how.¡± He answered grimly, DireSec has him in their custody now.

    ¡°True, and the military is taking corrective action, against the Directorate. That International Appeal allows them to use heavy weaponry once in International airspace. That¡¯s their strategy, their decision. I¡¯m only interested in removing the boy and that weapon he wielded against my team. Let¡¯s call it a personal strategical strike.¡±

    Commander Harris was listening intently. He could tell these Tule Soc operatives had an idea.

    ¡°Molcom?¡± Arjan said. ¡°You know we isolated the boys by its coding and found it was off. We can¡¯t access those codes. No way this government will give them to us either.¡±

    Commander Harris yelled for the override codes on civilian molcom units, specific to the boy Mick Huxley.

    ¡°What is off can be turned back on.¡± Eric said.

    ¡°I want that damn molcom activated and then wiped. Take out that weapon¡¯s brain.¡± Harris yelled again as the Ops team scrambled.

    ¡°And deleted.¡± Arjan added. He supposed there was some satisfaction in so simple an ending. Wipe the kid first, then let the military blow the crap out of DireSec. Surely those two Ba¡¯Neesh were aboard one of those ships. There would be satisfaction in that.

    ¡°Those floaters must have energy accelerators on board. That would explain what caused the arc linking one to another.¡± Eric commented. Rumor within security circles suggested the existence of such devices. So far, no one had captured one to prove it. He wanted one but couldn¡¯t see how they could recover one unless the wreckage of the six ships was over shallow waters. Could he talk the military into planning their attack over such an area of the ocean? They were listening. ¡°If those floaters went down in shallow water it would be possible to salvage their onboard systems and prove this terrorism.¡± He said.

    Harris nodded at his Corporal and told him to revise the strategy for salvage. They would prove they had fully defended their nation/state from terrorists and get a valuable technical device in the mix. Something to compensate for the loss of life.

    ¡°How does that explain the first event?¡± Arjan was re-running the initial electronic attack again. The boy didn¡¯t have an accelerator.

    ¡°He was playing a game, right. Full wall screen, holographic response avatars, complete immersive experience. Do you think he got really excited? He did call out for help trying to beat that game¡¯s monster. That¡¯s what was happening at the exact moment of the event. If he does have a latent ability that involves directing energy, he may have pushed in some unknown way and forced energy backwards through the residence, the neighborhood, the local towers and up. To him it may have felt like pressing one of those holographic or virtual control panels. He likely didn¡¯t believe he was responsible. He was just playing a game.¡±

    ¡°But, then he ran.¡± Arjan said. ¡°He had some awareness because he took stuff, clothing, food, water and other smalls.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Eric nodded.

    ¡°So, how did he immobilize us?¡± Arjan argued.

    ¡°If you flow an electrical current through the body it forms a circuit that can lock the body into a type of frozen position. If electricity is his talent, this effect may be known to him. I didn¡¯t feel damaging current but I certainly felt changes in my body.¡±

    ¡°It fits.¡± Arjan said.

    The military was nodding too. Logic. A single enemy with a formerly unknown ability to move energy. ¡°Do we have that override coding yet?¡± Harris bellowed. He wanted this over, even better, he wanted to be the person who brought down the threat. No one attacked his nation, not on his watch.

    ¡°Medical is working on it, Sir. We are being told it will be another fifteen minutes or so. Also, we will need to be within five miles of the device to activate the brain wipe. The on and off can be done from satellite, but the wipe coding is intentionally restricted to close proximity.¡±

    ¡°Identify our fastest aircraft currently chasing the terrorists. Notify them we will be putting them within range of the blue weapon for a few moments, long enough to transmit a data burst. They should prepare back-up maneuvers for a hasty escape and program those in on auto. Give us a count-down.¡±

    DireSec noted changes in the formation of the fleet chasing them. An attack was imminent. Clearly the nationals had International approval for attack. Arguments being made at the highest level had so far not resulted in an end to the threat. DireSec had its own military allies in flight heading toward them but they were still more than thirty minutes away. With Mael, Xasper and Thorne all too tired to cast again, alternatives were being floated.

    Mick wanted to know what Vrill-based weapons were available. Thorne was finding Mick nearly as irritating as Rojer who seemed to have rapidly adapted to being number three on his own ship. ¡°We don¡¯t design those types of in-flight weapons systems.¡± Thorne explained, again.

    ¡°Damn stupid. We are in flight. What the hell are we supposed to do, spit at them?¡± Mick argued back.

    Truthfully, a number of DireSec operatives were agreeing with Mick, they didn¡¯t like feeling helpless with a massive swarm of enemy airships on their tail.

    Mick turned on Rojer, ¡°What are you good at? I know Elias is all posh and shit with analysis. I doubt we can analyze the crap out of them while they¡¯re firing rockets up our butts. Brad was saying once over International waters they can fire live ammo at us like old-school bombs and bullets.¡±

    Rojer nodded. ¡°International Alliance is giving them a free pass, sounds like.¡± He was getting fired up. He could feel his mind straining toward protecting his father from bombs up his butt.

    ¡°Well, what fantastic talent do you have? I¡¯ve seen Mael with the Wind and all of that casting stuff which seems clunky as hell to me. What¡¯s your voodoo?¡±

    Rojer didn¡¯t like Mick¡¯s disparaging tone. ¡°I¡¯m good at Speech.¡± He said. It was his only saving grace at Citadel, it was what had saved him from voc. His voice.

    ¡°You mean your pretty-boy voice or that compelling Speech thing? I haven¡¯t processed that class in my head yet.¡±

    ¡°True Speech.¡± Rojer announced formally. He was actually pretty proud of his voice.

    ¡°So, you can compel them?¡± Mick paused. ¡°How do you reach them? They are like miles away.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t. Only if they can hear me.¡± Rojer shook his head.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s stupid. They are obviously changing formation in preparation of attack. Why not open a channel to them, you know, beg for mercy stuff?¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t beg for mercy.¡± Rojer yelled.

    ¡°Course you will, you putz.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s right.¡± Brad¡¯s voice interrupted what both of them had felt was a private conversation. It was easy to forget others were listening in. ¡°They are obligated by International Law to keep the Emergency Channel open for last minute negotiations. But, transmitted Speech through human devices fails to carry the energy edge necessary to compel behavior.¡±

    Mick scowled. ¡°All these non helpful rules. What about that light thing? It had that edge. I felt it.¡±

    ¡°How would making light help?¡±

    ¡°Light is both particle and wave.¡± Mick said aloud. ¡°So said my physics text, anyway.¡±

    ¡°Sound is a mechanical wave.¡± Brad interrupted, getting excited. ¡°Marry the two?¡±

    ¡°Shit.¡± Mael said, his eyes widening.

    ¡°Can we chain the light to the Emergency Channel coded with the Vrill Speech?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°Fuck yeah.¡± Brad said.

    ¡°We have a break-away ship, man your stations. He is closing fast and hard.¡± Jordy yelled out.

    ¡°I have the Emergency Channel open.¡± Brad yelled. ¡°Let me figure out these waves, Rojer you ready to Speak, Elias you ready to attach the Light?¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡± Both Elias and Rojer were skeptical.

    ¡°What do I say?¡± Rojer asked.

    ¡°Stop attacking us.¡± Mick answered. He felt funny, like a sudden itch in his brain. He reached up to rub at the back of his neck.

    ¡°Elias, now!¡± Brad yelled, ¡°Direct the light at the fleet. I¡¯ve got it. Fucking A. Rojer, tell them!¡±

    Rojer yelled out, ¡°Stop attacking us.¡±

    The fleet pilots jerked, twisting to curve away from the formation turning the skies into instant chaos. The lead fighter banked hard on an auto escape plan.

    ¡°That worked.¡± Elias and Rojer yelled out.

    They turned to find Mick collapsed on the console, unconscious.

    ¡°Mick?¡± Rojer reached him first, to shake him but the boy didn¡¯t waken. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with him Elias?¡±

    Elias saw the flashing red alert on his screen. Molcom intervention. ¡°Fuck, they wiped him.¡±

    (I must admit I enjoyed writing this one, especially once it heated up nicely. My mean streak is ramping up here. ::grins::)

 Chapter Sixteen - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Sixteen ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    The six DireSec ships took evasive action hoping to lose the disoriented national ships in the chaos.

    ¡°What do you mean, Mick¡¯s wiped?¡± Jordy yelled at Elias over the com.

    ¡°He slumped when that ship approached, when the rest of us were busy throwing that light of confusion at the national fleet. He¡¯s alive but unconscious. What do we do?¡± Elias said.

    ¡°That ship must have been targeting him. We should have anticipated such an attack. Logical really.¡± Jordy mused aloud, admiring the simplicity of the attack.

    ¡°Patch Master Kristo through, he¡¯s en route, correct?¡± Mael interrupted, feeling a growing pressure inside his mind. He sat up fully. ¡°Get out of my head!¡± He barked aloud.

    Anya raced to his side, her eyes wide and tense, looking around for the source of the danger.

    Mael jerked, his hands reaching to each side of his head with a flash of sudden punishing pain, then the sense of it was gone and he collapsed forward, breathing hard. The attack had been so fast he was reeling, as if his mind were tossed in a tornado.

    ¡°Jeffrey.¡± He said again.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got Master Kristo.¡± Jordy answered, ¡°Tight line encrypted, we can push him up to an avatar.¡±

    ¡°Jeffrey?¡± Mael got himself to his feet facing the holographic image of Master Jeffrey Kristo strapped in aboard an aircraft. He seemed to be adrift in the aisle.

    ¡°Mael. What¡¯s happening, you don¡¯t look so good?¡± Jeffrey asked.

    ¡°Not me, you ass. We have a person brain wiped by a distant activation of his molcom.¡±

    ¡°Sedate him and send him in for retraining.¡± Jeffrey answered, staring at Mael, noting the continuing changes to Mael¡¯s facial structure. He was becoming more turtle-like. He wanted to run scopes and tests on Mael but knew the likelihood of that was remote unless he could sweeten the pot. ¡°I brought Lal with me.¡± Jeffrey offered. He knew Mael was powerfully attached to Master Bartholomew Lal, the food expert.¡±

    ¡°Lal¡¯s with you?¡± Mael¡¯s tone perked up. He was regaining the normal path of his thinking. It had been too long since he visited with Lal.

    ¡°Yes. He was wanting to try some new recipes as a method for delivery of medication without the recipient knowing they are being treated.¡± Jeffrey switched back to the original subject. ¡°Who is wiped?¡± Concern that the wipe had occurred to someone he knew and cared for wafted to life inside Jeffrey. Why were they making this call to him when they knew he would join them in a few hours?

    ¡°Mick Huxley.¡± Mael answered. ¡°The boy in the middle of all of this.¡±

    It was as if the boy¡¯s name summoned her, maybe it had. A blue apparition appeared in front of Mael and then all of them heard the whine of the MagC and the apparition solidified into a tall oddly-shaped Ba¡¯Neesh.

    Mael stared in shock. He was used to seeing Ba¡¯Neesh and understood their variations. This one was different. Her body was thick with muscle. Her lower body in particular. Her face was prominently elongated pulling her eyes into an angled oval shape. She had antelope ears and a pouch. That gave him the essential clue to her primary Chimeric aspect, kangaroo. It didn¡¯t explain the prehensile tail that curled around her waist like a belt. Likely a secondary melding. She didn¡¯t have hooves, she had the long extended feet of a kangaroo with five wide spread toes, viciously nailed. It was clear she hopped when running as her front arms were shortened. Her head was crowned with roe deer-like antlers whose mounts were thick with ringed bone. Kiena, Mick had named her, a false name.

    ¡°Who is that?¡± Jeffrey had watched the manifestation with the same shock as those in the room with her. He was desperately hoping the room¡¯s scans would include bone structure. She was unlike any Ba¡¯Neesh he had ever seen.

    ¡°Fix Mick.¡± Kiena stepped closer to Mael.

    Those around him noted she seemed to see only Mael and the Ba¡¯Neesh. The rest of them were unimportant.

    Mael stiffened. She was about his height, taller if you measured the antlers. He could feel the Vrill washing off of her in waves. He understood one essential thing about Ba¡¯Neesh, their disdain for cowardice. He stepped forward, well within her antler¡¯s reach.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have the Healer¡¯s skillset, Kiena. I am Mael Strom, the Soek Turtle.¡± He dropped to his knees at her feet, lowering his face to the floor. ¡°Welcome to the Command ship. I am at your service.¡±

    The Ba¡¯Neesh in the aisle near him collectively trilled, well pleased with his proper behavior.

    Kiena blinked. It had been so extremely long since she had been properly addressed that she¡¯d forgotten the feeling.

    ¡°Mael Strom.¡± She answered, gesturing for him to rise. ¡°Fix Mick.¡± She repeated.

    Mael pointed toward the seated avatar floating in the aisle nearby. The shocked figure of Master Kristo gestured in acknowledgement of the inclusion.

    ¡°This is the Soek Master Jeffrey Kristo. He is en route to our landing location. He is our Healer. He will attend to Mick.¡±

    Kiena looked at the avatar, noting its fabric of construction was much the same as her own manifestation. That meant this Soek was not present physically.

    ¡°You will fix Mick?¡± She asked the avatar of Jeffrey.

    Jeffrey¡¯s brain was scrambling. She looked Ba¡¯Neesh, but by the expressions and careful posturing of the Ba¡¯Neesh behind Mael he could tell this wasn¡¯t a normal Ba¡¯Neesh. They were being very careful. ¡°I understand he was brain wiped. The enemy activated the molcom in his brain and then used the limiters wipe function on him.¡±

    ¡°You will fix Mick?¡± She repeated, her tone rising.

    ¡°You mean recover his former brain function and memories?¡± Jeffrey felt a new kind of fear entering him. No one had ever successfully recovered a wipe. He¡¯d always wanted to try but that had been a secret dream, not a horrifying reality.

    ¡°Yes. This Mael Strom, this Xasper, this Thorne, this Pirate. Their brain devices are non-functional yet their brains work properly. You correct Mick to no longer be vulnerable to this cowardly device?¡±

    ¡°It has never been done.¡± Jeffrey admitted.

    ¡°You fix Mick or I will pull these brains apart to understand how they are different from those with these cowardly devices. Do I begin now?¡±

    The realization Jeffrey could read in Mael¡¯s face that this Ba¡¯Neesh could indeed examine the brains of his friends, horrified him.

    ¡°I¡¯m coming. I¡¯m the best there is. Is Old One Horn with you?¡± Jeffrey fell back on his psyche training, divert, gain time to think.

    Kiena turned to survey the Ba¡¯Neesh staring at her. Furred. She would be furred again, soon. She located an extreme Elder with a massive horn. She should be dead. Why wasn¡¯t she dead? ¡°She is here.¡± Kiena recognized the marks of a Healer on the old one. This suggested this Soek Jeffrey had a relationship of understanding with a Ba¡¯Neesh Healer. ¡°I will not kill one of these four until your efforts fail. I will experiment on the stupid Soek nearby, instead.¡±

    As quickly as she had appeared, she vanished. The MagC slowed and finally stopped making noise.

    ¡°Kangaroo.¡± Mael said. ¡°We should have guessed.¡±

    ¡°Very old Neeshatari.¡± Anya said. ¡°We are in trouble.¡±If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Mael had dropped back into his seat, fatigue hammering at him. This Ba¡¯Neesh was so like his Anya, yet so powerfully unlike her as well. He sensed an iron fist, a mind strong and without much empathy or sympathy. She was used to taking, doing, being. What would she be like in the fur? His body was answering that with blossoming hungers unlike any he had ever felt. He could smell the rising hormone levels of all of the Soek on the Command ship.

    ¡°Explain.¡± Thorne had walked to the edge of Ba¡¯Neesh territory, usually an area he avoided at all cost. He and the Ba¡¯Neesh had an uneasy truce stemming from the moment the Turtle had interceded and changed all of their lives in the process. That defeat still rankled. He feared the Ba¡¯Neesh. But, that was a past dream, not a present reality.

    Anya, as usual, stepped between Mael and Thorne.

    ¡°Rude and stupid Soek.¡± She greeted him.

    Thorne eased down onto his knees though it truly pained his ego to do so.

    ¡°Ba¡¯Neesh Anya.¡± He answered back. ¡°I am here to serve you.¡±

    ¡°Liar.¡± Anya spat to his side. ¡°However, you are our liar, Kirsan.¡± She gestured for him to rise.

    She looked around, ¡°You will not memory adjust anyone in this room or on Mick¡¯s floater. Likely the era of these molcoms is ending. Likely She will end it. A coward¡¯s tool. We have been remiss in allowing it to continue so long.¡±

    Thorne gritted his teeth. He had juniors in this room. Memory adjustment was one of the primary tools of a security team to keep its members focused.

    ¡°Agreed.¡± He offered with bitterness. He knew Mael agreed with her, the issue had been raised before, and carefully shelved.

    ¡°The Neeshatari are the ancestors. When we decided to become Ba, or move to the collective known to you as Ba, there were those who did not agree. We tricked them. When they died in honorable battle, we carried their bones into deep hiding where their plaintive wails could not be heard. We left them there alone for eternity. The Neeshatari are returning. Eternity has ended. Likely the spread of humanity triggered this. As there is one, there will be more, if not now, then soon.¡±

    ¡°What do we do about her, now?¡± Thorne pressed. ¡°She isn¡¯t alive, is she? Yet, we all just met her.¡±

    ¡°We comply.¡± Anya said simply. ¡°We recover Mick. If we do not, we die.¡±

    Thorne hadn¡¯t expected that. The simplicity of the analysis was brief to the point of starkness. Their lives depended on recovering a boy from brain wipe? Why this boy? There were others. Hell, they could give Elias and Rojer to her although he already suspected she didn¡¯t require such gifts, she already possessed them. Why Mick? The question persisted. Would this Neeshatari kill them all if they failed? His personal sense of the creature was tinged in awe-edged fear. It was beyond what should be real. She was already dead, what could they do to her? ¡°What did she mean she would experiment on our other stupid Soek?¡±

    That was answered by a scream as one of their techs toppled to the ground clutching his head. He didn¡¯t twitch long and he wasn¡¯t brain wiped, he was dead.

    Mael regained his feet. ¡°Kiena. I know you are listening. Don¡¯t kill our people. We cannot fix Mick here. Stand down and give Master Healer Jeffrey time.¡±

    There was no answer, only silence. But, Kiena had demonstrated the ease of killing individual Soek. The mood inside the floater became one of tense fear. She could strike any of them at any time.

    ¡°Jeffrey? What do we do about Mick, he¡¯s starting to move a bit?¡± Elias interrupted. He had watched the scene in surprise and growing horror. What were they going to do if Mick didn¡¯t recover?

    ¡°Sedate him.¡± Jeffrey answered, feeling relief at being able to do something. He struggled to process the suddenness of the technician¡¯s random death. ¡°Go to your med cabinet and look for the red container marked SED. Use the plunger type applicator. Dial in a one. That should hold him for about twelve hours or so. Recline his bedding and just watch him. When you arrive the medical team traveling with the unit will have a mini-floater that will place him in a secure environment. Put headphones on his body so he cannot hear anything. The less information going in to his brain, the better.¡±

    Elias nodded, already grabbing the sedation and the plunger. It felt like they weren¡¯t doing enough to save everyone. Rojer helped him move Mick to a sleeping position and then they drugged him, hearing his breathing shift to a deeper rhythm. So far so good. They found headphones used to working around high noises and fitted them to Mick¡¯s head. He would hear nothing.

    ¡°Is She going to kill me too?¡± Rojer grabbed Elias by the forearm.

    ¡°And, how exactly do I know more than you do?¡± Elias answered. He knew Rojer was almost habitually an arrogant bully. It was an ingrained habit he hadn¡¯t grown out of. He shook off Rojer¡¯s grip. ¡°We¡¯ve got six hours or so according to the running timer Jordy posted. I suggest we sleep with this floater on auto. No need to stay manual at this point. She threatened retribution if anyone¡¯s molcom is targeted. I bet that means us in particular. So, it keeps DireSec from fiddling for the time being. That makes us safe until we land, at least.¡±

    Rojer nodded. He was tired too. He started up the exercises his counselor had taught him on how to reduce his state of anxiety. He went to the med cabinet and selected a mild calming medication which he self-administered. Let someone bitch at him later for using it without consulting a medic first.

    They flew in to the floating port in formation with five ships surrounding the one. They knew they had been observed from the moment the national air force had picked them up at the tunnel. They knew the port was International and technically in alliance with no specific nation/state. That didn¡¯t mean DireSec enemies would not be on the port hopeful of taking them out on landing. They¡¯d prepared for that by sending teams in ahead of them to create a perimeter. Enough ready funds could purchase most things and space on a floating port was easy enough to arrange. DireSec had made those arrangements at this port many years earlier, only augmented now that the threat was real

    The move from floaters into the port building took place at a run. Everyone surrounded the single personal medical floater. Most of the operatives were carrying backpacks and weapons. Although the gap between floater and building was small, footage was captured and the distant nation/state saw that an individual was being evacuated from the small, battered ship. A cheer went up in the Technical Ops room and Commander Harris received congratulations. They hadn¡¯t gotten the DireSec floaters, but they had taken out the blue weapon. He watched the floaters already lifting off to disperse in different directions. He had taggers ready and the pursuit continued, until the exact moment each of the floaters individually exploded over open waters and he understood, DireSec had ended the battle.

    The port spies waited for the arrivals to emerge into the central causeway, the location from which all boats and aircraft were accessed. No one emerged. They began running illegal facial recognition systems thinking the uniformed men had changed into civies, but the system recorded no such persons in the port.

    DireSec rode the transport elevators down below the bottom level. They had long ago paid for the private access. The elevator let them out into a barren concrete room with a sealed maintenance tunnel. To all extents and purposes this underwater bunker was part of the underside of the port¡¯s general maintenance. The tunnel hatch required DNA access. It led to a long, sleek submarine which received them, sealed and dove. They were off the port within eight minutes of arrival, leaving minimal trace that they had ever been there. The auto sterilization features inside the elevators were already running programs that would remove all genetic and forensic materials. By the time the elevators returned to their normal service, they were clean.

    They brought Mick to the high-tech medical suite where Jeffrey was waiting. Elias walked on one side of the mini-floater and Rojer on the other. Jeffrey noted that Elias had a civie backpack and Rojer an operatives pack. Both Elias and Rojer were carrying stunners already primed.

    ¡°You can¡¯t be in here.¡± Jeffrey gestured at his aide to move the two Soek outside.

    ¡°We can¡¯t not be in here.¡± Elias answered, lifting the stunner. ¡°Like it or not Jordy, we won¡¯t leave Mick. There are two of us so that one can sleep while the other stands guard. If She needs more, she will take more. Don¡¯t push Her.¡±

    Jeffrey looked up at the surveillance imagers overlooking the exam table. ¡°Got that Jordy?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Jordy was back to staring at a holoscreen of one of his best friends, now clearly behaving counter to DireSec training and of all people Rojer Kirsan, guarding an unconscious boy. Clearly, all of them were still being held hostage by the situation. ¡°Do we want to switch off and on too, Director Thorne?¡± He glanced over at where the senior boss was slouched in a nearby chair, still tired.

    ¡°I¡¯m eating and then sleeping. Send Lal to me. Food that tastes good might make this slightly better.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll join you.¡± Mael said. The Command Center filled with Mael, Xasper and Anya.

    Thorne groaned aloud. What did he do to deserve all of this? ¡°The Channels?¡±

    ¡°We moved all of them safely. Rojer has the only one still bagged. The crews gutted the MagC¡¯s before we left the ships. It appears the Ba¡¯Neesh were successfully masked while in the port. Everything seems to have worked.¡± Xasper answered. He would have preferred a private cabin but things were too tenuous to leave Mael with the Ba¡¯Neesh or DireSec, momentarily well intended or not.

    ¡°Do we know what¡¯s in that backpack that Elias carried out?¡±

    ¡°We do,¡± Jordy answered. ¡°We got a scanner up close and personal. A single set of bones. Looks intact. Clothing and packages of what looks like food. Kid was ready to run.¡±

    ¡°A Channel?¡±

    ¡°Yes and no.¡± Jordy shook his head. ¡°The energy reads on Mick and that pack just don¡¯t add up. We need Brad to dive into what¡¯s happening with the Vrill and where all the extra energy is coming from.¡±

    ¡°What extra energy?¡± Thorne sat up.

    ¡°There is something going on between the backpack, Mick and the onboard MagC unit in the main engine rooms of the submarine. The field is growing, not being depleted.¡±

    ¡°How is that possible?¡± Thorne asked.

    ¡°Exactly. Brad is sleeping. His timer is set for six more hours. He will look at it then.¡± Mael interrupted. ¡°No one will bother his down time.¡±

    Jordy nodded. Thorne understood too. The Pirate Brad was part of the group of people that surrounded Mael. They were friends and more. Brad was differently abled having suffered a casting incident before birth. If they hurt Brad in any way none of them had any doubt in the result. Mael would do something and it wouldn¡¯t be good. Brad was as close to family as Mael had.

    ¡°It¡¯s like being squished between the Turtle, the Ba¡¯Neesh, this Neeshatari and the Directorate. How am I supposed to run this mess with any hope of success?¡± Thorne said roughly.

    ¡°We run it together, Kirsan. You¡¯re not the lone ranger here to save the day.¡± Xasper responded. ¡°No matter what your inflated head tells you. Survival will take all of us.¡±

    (Welcome back. I hope you are having a good time with my characters and their issues. I am creating illustrations for this novel-in-progress so be sure to join me over at Fay Thompson Author on Facebook and friend up!)

 Chapter Seventeen - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Seventeen ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Eric thanked the military for their courtesy and assistance during the crisis. Commander Harris had made him watch the brief port footage four times as if he had personally brain wiped the boy. Eric was noting the heavy backpacks nearly every operative was carrying and how the perimeter had been effectively cleansed before the arrival of DireSec. Who could sacrifice six floaters with impunity and knew enough to do so over deep water? He had no doubt the devices would have included special explosives such that the remaining pieces would be tiny. Another failure. No boy, no weapon, no magnifying devices. His fury was poorly hidden.

    The military had allowed Tule Soc to land three of their floaters on the base making it relatively easy to leave. Arjun maintain a flat affect, responding only when directly questioned. Once they were airborne and the ship¡¯s privacy devices fully deployed, Eric isolated Arjun.

    ¡°They clearly think it was the boy on that mini but we have no way of determining the blue weapon is gone.¡±

    ¡°Will the Ministry allow us to go after them?¡± Arjun asked, nodding his concurrence. He was seething. The Ba¡¯Neesh had walked through that port footage looking like human females. Even worse, there were fourteen females in that footage. What a bonanza it would have been to take out the ship or ships carrying them. As it was, they had nothing.

    ¡°This event has stirred up the Ministry. Many are making sounds that it is time to go after them again. We have improved weapons and we know where their big facilities are located. I received a call to return to headquarters at once. It could go either way. You and I could be docked into lower paygrades, or we could receive the ticket for upgrading to a war strategy. It is clear the Directorate is less well controlled and new weapons are being designed. We have the documentation on that windstorm followed by another electrical wave and that final weapon, light used as a carrier wave, that hasn¡¯t been used before. All of these can be used to justify cleaning them out. Beyond that, the footage of the blue weapon is devastating. I think our better position is to acknowledge the wipe of the boy but continuing uncertainty about the nature of the blue weapon. It is as hard to prove existence as non-existence, at least in the short term.¡±

    ¡°Agreed.¡± Arjun nodded and again noticed that he still felt itchy around Eric. What was it that continued to bother him? A few clarifying words in a stressful situation? That shouldn¡¯t be enough to undercut their teamwork. He acknowledged that his animosity toward the non-humans had deepened. Was his judgment flawed? He decided to watch the footage of the graveyard sequence again, in privacy.

    ¡°We agree DireSec departed the port via a submarine?¡± Eric asked.

    ¡°Most likely.¡± Arjun nodded. ¡°They have several that we know of which means they likely have others we know nothing about. We have a small team heading in to do some exo diving near the port to confirm the capability of housing a submarine under the port for discrete periods of time. We should hear back on that within twenty-four hours or so.¡±

    ¡°Paranoid group.¡± Eric said, relaxing in a chair. He would be glad to be away from this place and back to the nation of his birth. ¡°We should have such defenses in place as well. They need to up our budget and manpower both. How are we expected to fight an enemy that outstrips us in critical ways?¡± It was an old argument, but maybe, this time, the Ministry would see the benefits of competing more directly. They couldn¡¯t allow DireSec to gain enough new weapons to make them untouchable. The risk was that at some point the Directorate would attempt to gain access to the Tule Soc Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek populations and that couldn¡¯t be allowed to happen. Who controlled the Ba¡¯Neesh would likely control the planet in the near future and Tule Soc intended to be that entity.

    ¡°If they are heading toward Citadel and if their submarine is a super-cavitation-type, they could arrive before we land in Germany.¡± Arjun sighed. He hated being in the chase position even though a lot of his job centered on gathering intel and predicting likely movements of the enemy. Knowing where DireSec would be for any period of time meant nothing if that intel wasn¡¯t acted upon in a timely way.

    They had attacked the Citadel before, with catastrophic losses, before his time. They wouldn¡¯t make the same mistakes again. Nothing that had happened at that tunnel could have been predicted. It simply proved how dangerous things were becoming. This escalation would certainly make the Directorate even more vigilant. At least, they now had another military wanting the Ba¡¯Neesh killed off. Enough allies and Tule Soc could overwhelm the Citadel by force. He wanted to be the one leading that assault so he was in full agreement with Eric, now was the time to push the Ministry into action.

    Jeffrey stared down at the boy laying so still under the med canopy. He was almost ridiculously average. They had stripped him as soon as he hit the table, except for the bone on a string, none of them dared to even move that item. Jeffrey had the holofield centering its attention on the boy¡¯s brain. All was quiet, too quiet. The boy was so heavily sedated that his brain activity was nearly flat. Jeffrey could see the molcom in an expanded view. Clearly it had been installed when the boy was under the age of two, as prescribed. The molcom was designed to grow into the brainstem, become integrated into the nerves such that it couldn¡¯t be removed. This one had done its job correctly.

    Brad had powered his exo in its chair configuration into the medical suite. He was studying the device design. With his life on the line, as well as the lives of people he cared about the design plans had mysteriously been released to his computing system.

    ¡°You have any brilliant ideas yet?¡± Jeffrey asked Brad. In the adjacent bed Elias was curled up and Rojer was standing rigid at Mick¡¯s side. The two Soek disturbed Jeffrey, their behaviors strongly abnormal. Mael had told him they were under compulsion but Jeffrey kept thinking it was more than Speech affection. Not only had he not heard anyone using Speech, he had no evidence of the presence of the manifesting Neeshatari. He wasn¡¯t sure if that was good or bad.

    ¡°I have some ideas. Can¡¯t say they are brilliant though.¡± Brad answered. He found Mick¡¯s heavily bruised face oddly interesting. He looked asleep, innocent, but his rather filthy mouth rang in Brad¡¯s memory in vivid detail. This was a vibrant person.

    ¡°Give.¡± Jeffrey demanded.

    ¡°Well, it is like a conventional computing system in basic operational ways except that it primarily filters and samples. All of the experiential and thinking experiences of the individual flow through the device on the way to their normal places in the brain and body of a person. Memory is really like musical compositions, when certain neurons fire in a specific order they form a tagged memory sequence that causes a cascade in the brain that the person experiences as a real memory. It isn¡¯t really a cohesive memory, it is the experience of a memory.

    It is really small energy and chemicals firing that individually hold fragments. When the combination is triggered the brain rebuilds what it thinks happened in that sequence. So, the quality and number of firing neurons equates to the quality and detail of the end memory. A memory practiced often will take on the ¡®brain story¡¯ that is practiced. By this I mean that it isn¡¯t like a movie, you don¡¯t recall seamless flow. In fact, your real memory fragments can be altered by new information brought in later from new sources. This can be incorporated into what the individual believes is true memory.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    ¡°Doctoring. We do memory editing frequently with operatives to remove troubling sequences and insert less troubling information.¡± Jeffrey admitted.

    ¡°Right. Well, with Mick here the molcom sent a message into the brain to purge unneeded memory fragments only the setting was adjusted to ALL. This means that the molcom sent a message to all of the storage areas inside Mick¡¯s brain to destroy the memory fragments using an amygdala coding that exists in the brain to prevent a person from the intensity of memories they aren¡¯t capable of dealing with. This is what the molcom was designed to use. It is elegant in its simplicity. It is actually much harder to edit memory sequences than to wipe them entirely.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Jeffrey agreed. ¡°We have to have the person do a debriefing recall of the mission so we can record the sequences of neurological firing in order to program the correct sequences to delete and reframe. Usually we include suggestive memory stimulants and various spliced footage of the event to reframe the event in the direction most useful to DireSec.¡±

    ¡°So,¡± Brad continued. ¡°The problem is we don¡¯t have a copy of Mick¡¯s lifelong memory sequences to reinsert?¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± Jeffrey nodded. ¡°The molcom doesn¡¯t get everything. I can pull up fragments as the neurological storage also lodges in body tissues and muscles that don¡¯t receive the molcom delete message as they are in another more protected system. Things like body memory. You can forget you were a ballerina but if you put on toe shoes you will know how to dance. That kind of memory.¡±

    ¡°With a computing system,¡± Brad said, ¡°It isn¡¯t like memory is deleted. What really happens is that it falls below the threshold of easy retrieval, it appears to vanish. It also allows the same storage area to be written over. The brain is likely similarly efficient. I know I lose a lot of low relevancy data. It isn¡¯t totally gone, but it is very difficult to access easily.¡±

    ¡°So, you think it is still there but hidden?¡± Jeffrey asked. ¡°The neurological field sensor isn¡¯t picking up the language of firing combinations. With a rewrite, I can see the fragments.¡±

    ¡°How did you beat it?¡± Brad asked Jeffrey. They both looked at Rojer, who was actively listening. All Order-born Soek were vitally interested in what the Order or Directorate could do to their brains.

    ¡°Well, I knew the molcom was inoperable.¡± Jeffrey admitted. ¡°I knew it was designed to interpret any attack to say melt it with chemicals as a violation of safety causing it to immediately shut itself off and issue an alert to authority. This didn¡¯t solve the Mastery requirement to cause it to cease functioning entirely, without offering an alert, such that a brain wipe or limiting could be possible. You know they don¡¯t let us have the blueprints on the molcom to figure out a solution and that every area of Mastery might have a different solution.¡±

    Brad nodded. ¡°Mind had to do with math.¡± He acknowledged.

    Jeffrey turned to look at Rojer. ¡°They tried to fix your obsessive reactions through manipulating your molcom, didn¡¯t they Rojer?¡±

    Rojer looked from Brad to Jeffrey. This was his private business. He hated that everyone knew of his disability.

    ¡°They tried.¡± He managed at last. Both of these Masters outranked him and likely always would. That they were talking about forbidden knowledge likely meant he would undergo adjustment sooner rather than later and he hated having his brain tampered with. He could always tell things were wrong and there was so much wrong inside his head he didn¡¯t need more added to it.

    ¡°Right. I read your files.¡± Jeffrey nodded. ¡°My point is that the brain adapts to the presence of the molcom over the long term so solving the riddle of shutting it down permanently is a bit like letting go of a part of yourself you don¡¯t really know is not natural. My solution had to do with encapsulating my molcom as an intruder. Since I run Vrill within the body during diagnosis of illness, injury and disease, this is like finding a leaking poison pill within the bowel and having to prevent it from leaking long enough to pass the pill in the stool. That is one of our tests in our Poisons Healing Class.¡± He said, ¡°I only had to have my stomach pumped twice when I failed to get it right.¡±

    ¡°So, you could do healing work so that Mick would encapsulate his own molcom meaning it couldn¡¯t operate again?¡± Brad asked.

    ¡°Oh yes.¡± Jeffrey nodded. ¡°I can silence the molcom, I simply don¡¯t know where to get a copy of his brain to re-feed in to make Mick, Mick.¡±

    ¡°How about we try to access what¡¯s hidden and see what we can recover. Let¡¯s assume Mick wants to be Mick so his body will try to help us. The trick here is we don¡¯t want to put new information into his existing storage areas as it will tend to overwrite what he needs to be himself.¡±

    ¡°How do we do that?¡± Rojer asked.

    ¡°Well,¡± Jeffrey stared down at the boy. ¡°Let¡¯s set up a neurological capture device and coat him in sensory film. That way, whenever we stimulate him the brain will or should produce what is stored. We won¡¯t know what it is as any sequence only plays correctly in its host brain, but we can get an idea of the content by using volunteers to receive the signals and tell us what they think they experience.¡±

    ¡°Sounds pretty dodgy to me.¡± Rojer said. ¡°You don¡¯t expect me to rent my brain out for this kid, do you? I have enough problems in there without random shit.¡±

    Jeffrey was adjusting the holofield to the correct settings. ¡°For the moment, Rojer, I don¡¯t need to rent your brain. But, I make no long term promises. My skills are better than those medics back in DireSec when you were young. Might do you some good at this point.¡±

    ¡°The film?¡± Brad asked.

    ¡°Oh, we do that old school. There is a vat on the morgue side. We immerse him into it with straws out his nostrils. It¡¯s rather creepy but effective. The three of us should be able to handle Mick, he¡¯s not that big.¡±

    ¡°I can exo.¡± Brad offered.

    ¡°Right.¡± Jeffrey nodded with true enthusiasm. ¡°I keep forgetting you are Super Soek.¡± He grinned at Brad. ¡°How about you carry him in there naked, I will fill the vat and find some straws. Come on Rojer, you can guard in there too just don¡¯t get in the way. He will be able to breathe okay. Once we lift him out the skin air-dries to a silver color in about sixty seconds, probably as long as it takes to move him back to this bed. Everyone ready?¡±

    It actually took longer than that. Jeffrey had to program the bed to sensor mode which produced hundreds of transparent pillars for Mick to rest on, that way the holofield could see all sides of him at the same time.

    Brad thought the kid looked pretty cool in silver even though his hair got all clumpy and likely would wash out weird. Rojer was grossed out, particularly by the bed of transparent nails. Jeffrey had to reassure him that Mick wouldn¡¯t be uncomfortable. Brad had to explain about weight distribution until Rojer simply glowered with annoyance. He hated math. He knew Brad knew that too and was likely tormenting him on purpose. Still with the now silver Mick laying there motionless, there were no signs of distress.

    ¡°What now?¡± Rojer asked. He was hoping Elias would waken early and he could leave during this medical stuff. He also didn¡¯t like it that the bone was still there, not silvered. Brad had carefully used one of his exo hands to lift the string so the bone wouldn¡¯t touch the film. Now that the skin was dry, the bone was carefully positioned next to Mick¡¯s neck, dangling so it touched nothing but the string holding it.

    All of them knew that bone connected to Kiena. No one wanted to talk about her directly but all of them felt some or a lot of fear about her. Rojer mostly felt confused. He didn¡¯t understand why Mick now felt like his father. He knew Mick wasn¡¯t his father but the compulsion that he knew was his paranoid obsession had him tethered to this kid. It was very annoying. He considered asking Jeffrey for some calming meds except he was on guard duty so that desire didn¡¯t match up with his duty. He glowered, looking for a target to vent on and hating that venting meanness was what he wanted. It was easier before he understood what was wrong with him, back then he could just be mean and like it, now he had a whole cluster of wretched considerations to contend with like embarrassment, shame and guilt. Why wouldn¡¯t the world just let him be mean? He cringed.

    (Are you ready to reach the Citadel yet? I hope so. I love the Citadel for¡­reasons. Enjoy!)

 Chapter Eighteen - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Eighteen ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Jeffrey and Brad were highly focused on their third experiment, lifting and bending Mick¡¯s legs as if he were jumping. The neurological fragment sequencer was recording data transmitted from every nerve connecting to Mick¡¯s silver skin and they could observe the composition of each fragment in the output field of the sequencer.

    The sound of pounding hooves brought them all around to stare at the doorway. Rojer reached for his weapon and tried to see the danger. The treatment room was stacked. That meant there was an office-type room adjacent to the corridor followed by a room that did auto-diagnoses. That meant there were three doors between the corridor and the treatment room where Mick lay. Jeffrey had been assured there would be a guard on the outer door to prevent interruption coupled to the fact that the Directorate wanted Mick guarded from escape, however remote that possibility might be with the boy unconscious.

    ¡°Jordy?¡± Jeffrey called out. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°MagC activation. The Ba¡¯Neesh have decided to go to your location, as a group. Mael and Xasper are chasing them and Thorne and I are right behind.¡±

    Elias pushed himself upright on the adjacent bed. ¡°Can¡¯t sleep for shit in here.¡± He complained, stretching and staring toward the entry. ¡°We getting company, Rojer?¡±

    ¡°You can hear as easily as I can.¡± Rojer said abruptly, his stomach was telling him things he didn¡¯t want to hear.

    ¡°Stay out!¡± He yelled.

    They heard the outer door open in spite of his order.

    ¡°Should I shoot them, Elias?¡± Rojer waved his stunner around, hunting a target.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t.¡± Elias answered. ¡°Let¡¯s see what is causing the commotion before you kill anyone, okay?¡±

    Brad was surprised at how placidly Elias was handling Rojer. The second door opened and now they could hear the Ba¡¯Neesh, honking and whistling and calling out to each other in Neesh, their language.

    ¡°Looks like we have company, Rojer. Be polite but don¡¯t act like a coward, okay, unless you want to be gored.¡± Elias continued, his own stunner was out and he¡¯d taken a position facing the door with Mick in between. Technically Rojer was on the point side of the protection detail, closest to the door.

    ¡°Gored. Fuck no.¡± Rojer backed up until his back pressed into the treatment table.

    Jeffrey just stood there. It appeared their treatment session was being interrupted, likely with cause.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh entered first, heads swinging to sweep the room hunting for something and then they focused on the silver Soek sprawled on the table. It was their first up close and personal view of Mick.

    ¡°He¡¯s silver.¡± Moira announced.

    Old One Horn pushed forward to sniff deeply. ¡°He isn¡¯t in there yet? How long do you expect Her to wait before She intervenes?¡± She looked over at Jeffrey.

    ¡°I¡¯m treating him.¡± Jeffrey prickled defensively. In truth, the machine had just begun collecting data and from the amount collected so far, they had days or months to go at this rate of collection.

    ¡°Ba¡¯Neesh are not known for patience toward Soek.¡± She answered.

    Jeffrey nodded, he was well familiar with that truism.

    With the addition of five more Soek the treatment room was jammed. ¡°You can¡¯t all stay in here.¡± Jeffrey said. ¡°Some of you must leave.¡±

    ¡°The MagC is ramping up.¡± Jordy answered. ¡°We believe She will manifest here.¡±

    ¡°Where, on top of the table?¡± Jeffrey was master of this space. ¡°Three Ba¡¯Neesh and three additional Soek. You choose but move now.¡± He lifted his hand and pointed, shifting to Speech. ¡°Not chosen must leave now.¡± He articulated carefully.

    It was intriguing to watch both the Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek identify the chosen from how the compelling speech acted upon them. Most fun was with the Ba¡¯Neesh who honked and yelled in active dismay to discover they were dismissed. No Soek dismissed a Ba¡¯Neesh. Yet, Master Jeffrey was right, there wasn¡¯t room. They decided they could move to the adjacent auto room on one side and into the lab through another door. So, they moved where they could still see and be nearly inside the room. Jeffrey contained his urge to smile. The Soek were nearly as bad. It turned out that Mael, Jordy and Xasper were chosen, not Thorne. This pushed Thorne into the same group of Ba¡¯Neesh hovering in the doorway. He glowered, obviously believing that Jordy should be there or even Xasper. It did open up some room around the table.

    Old One Horn had never moved, she was back to sniffing Mick with some curiosity and mumbling deep in her throat. Anya and Moira were the other two remaining Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°Move away from the table so you won¡¯t confuse the readouts coming from the sensors.¡± Jeffrey made swishing motions with his hands. Brad facing Jeffrey, nodded. ¡°Do we want to do the arms next?¡± He asked. They were doing large muscle groups first. It was important to divert the Ba¡¯Neesh as much as entertain them. The treatment had become an entertainment. He sighed.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Jeffrey refocused on the treatment and shifted to stand next to Rojer while Brad moved next to Elias, moving the guarding two toward Mick¡¯s legs.

    ¡°Individually first, like with the legs?¡± Brad continued, knowing they were playing to an audience.

    ¡°I will work his left arm first.¡± Jeffrey was equally aware of the many horns and antlers at his back, all glistening with Vrill. ¡°We are watching the neurological fragment sequencer for collection of memory fragments.¡± He pointed to the area of the holo documenting their efforts.

    ¡°Why is Mick silver?¡± One of the Ba¡¯Neesh asked.

    ¡°We dipped him in a sensory skin so that when his nervous system responds the skin picks up the data and transmits it to the sequencer telling us we have captured data.¡±

    ¡°Does it itch?¡± Another asked.

    Jeffrey straightened. They were distracting. He thought back to his day in the skin. Yes, it had itched later when the removal liquid used to scrub it off peeled a layer of real skin along with it. He tailored his response. ¡°He doesn¡¯t itch now. Removing the film is irritating to the skin and it removes all of the body¡¯s short hairs and some of the long. That does itch a bit.¡±

    ¡°It will take his eyelashes?¡± The same Ba¡¯Neesh asked. Jeffrey was pretty sure it was Lemista, she was strongly interested in physical appearance.

    ¡°Yes, likely. They will grow back over time.¡±

    ¡°His eyebrows too?¡± She continued.

    ¡°Likely. Now, Lemista, I need to focus on generating more fragments and sequences. If you don¡¯t mind.¡± Jeffrey was politely telling her to shut up.

    Lemista sniffed while Perisee, ever at her shoulder, giggled. ¡°Told you.¡± She said in a soto voice whisper everyone could hear. Several of the Ba¡¯Neesh forced into the doorways also snorted.

    Jeffrey tried not to feel them at his back. He was safe, he told himself, no reason to gore him.

    ¡°Let¡¯s try his right arm now.¡± Jeffrey flashed a hasty look at Brad who nodded calmly.

    Brad, of all of the Soek, felt no threat from the Ba¡¯Neesh. So, they could kill him. Stand in line. He had been at war with death literally from the day of his birth. To die on the tip of an antler or horn wasn¡¯t a bad thing, in fact, he hoped to go out by Ba¡¯Neesh when he neared the end of his battles. Until then, they were merely Ba¡¯Neesh, amusing, terrifying and ultimately any one of them might be his mother or sister or grandmother or aunt. They were family. They were his.

    Brad used the gentle settings on his exo arm to bend Mick¡¯s right arm at the elbow, working it several times. He wondered if the kid¡¯s muscle memory was recalling something as mundane as eating or more likely, the muscles used in game playing. He knew as well as Jeffrey that they were only getting trickles of data, no where near enough to attempt to boot a brain. So, the MagC was ramping up, that was vastly more interesting. The She, as the Ba¡¯Neesh insisted on calling Her. The She was coming otherwise they wouldn¡¯t have muscled their way down here so fast. That simply meant they wanted in on the fun. He hoped that fun didn¡¯t include massive amounts of spilled blood, a Ba¡¯Neesh favorite.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    He carefully placed Mick¡¯s arm back on the transparent pins that kept him elevated so the sensors could read the underside of his body.

    ¡°Right.¡± Jeffrey said, as much to himself as to any of them. The trickle from arm bending wasn¡¯t impressive. His sense of failure was growing. Yes, they were collecting tiny fragments of Mick but he had hoped for much more. Like Brad, he was equally concerned that the data collected was lower function stuff. ¡°Let¡¯s do the hands next.¡±

    This exercise produced a much higher transmission ratio and the Ba¡¯Neesh, now leaning in as far as their necks could stretch, jostled and spoke to each other about the flow of the information. A few of them were quite good with technology, Anya in particular, and, they could read the equipment.

    ¡°On to your hand, Brad.¡± Jeffrey reluctantly sat Mick¡¯s left hand down. Likely Mick¡¯s right hand was the top producer if his analysis of muscle usage bore out.

    Mick was right-handed so it was no surprise when the data stream collection numbers ramped up nicely. In the midst of this stream a blue hand appeared, moving between Mick and the sequencer as if trying to catch the fragments. Jeffrey watched the numbers shift and escalate, clearly the machine was picking up neurological information from the intruder. He both wanted it to continue and to end, as it was screwing up his collected data. He said nothing and simply watched. The reality was that Mick¡¯s body wasn¡¯t going to produce enough data to recover him. In the off chance he could capture data on Kiena, he let it run. As quickly as the ghostly blue hand had appeared, it vanished.

    The room took a collective sigh, Ba¡¯Neesh included. Then Perisee said, ¡°Is She gone then? That was it?¡±

    ¡°Shhh.¡± Moira said.

    ¡°Well, I thought more would happen than Her silly blue hand thing, we¡¯ve already seen that.¡± Perisee continued, stomping her feet a bit in disappointment.

    Quite frankly, Jeffrey was not unhappy with the limited manifestation. He had seen the footage of that hand killing transport ships full of men.

    ¡°Jeffrey?¡± Brad asked. ¡°What¡¯s next?¡±

    Jeffrey was studying the mess that was Mick¡¯s bruised face. By rights a healer didn¡¯t press on bruising because it caused pain. But, he needed results and besides, the boy was unconscious and not likely to regain consciousness or feel the pain.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to palpate his facial muscles as the information stored there is likely very recent and coded with higher states of energy.¡±

    Brad frowned slightly. Palpate the bruising? Was Jeffrey giving up? True they had only a tiny fraction of the boy. He allowed himself to consider the restless antlers and horns at Jeffrey¡¯s back, easily close enough to gore the Healer from the back. Jeffrey was relatively young, young enough to want to live. Were they getting to him?

    ¡°Right.¡± Brad said, moving his chair to be at Mick¡¯s head, on his right side.

    Jeffrey moved along the table wanting to stand above Mick¡¯s head from the top. He ran into someone. He frowned, intending to chasten the Ba¡¯Neesh who was in his way. Then he noticed the sharp intake of breath of everyone around him. He looked at the strangest Ba¡¯Neesh he had ever seen. Clearly her Chimeric aspect was kangaroo, and roe deer, and feline, and monkey? The aspects were far sharper than those he usually witnessed.

    ¡°False name Kiena.¡± Old One Horn said, her voice gravelly and old.

    ¡°Name so old it¡¯s forgotten, One Horn.¡± Kiena answered. ¡°You know I remember your name.¡±

    The Ba¡¯Neesh trilled, both in shock and delight. A remembered forgotten memory. They dearly loved those.

    ¡°And I yours¡­when my brain cooperates.¡± Old One Horn answered, thudding her hoof against the floor.

    ¡°You should be long dead.¡± Kiena said.

    ¡°True. These miserable worthless Ba¡¯Neesh fail to kill me properly. I long to taste death and run in the Afterlife.¡±

    Kiena nodded, as did most of the Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°Why do you allow this stupid Soek to linger at healing?¡± Kiena was clearly speaking to Old One Horn. It took a long moment before Jeffrey realized she was speaking of him.

    ¡°I¡¯m not stupid.¡± He answered, not realizing he was echoing the boy on the table.

    ¡°Slow?¡± Kiena pivoted to face him. ¡°Is slow and malingering better than stupid?¡± She asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m not slow or lingering either.¡± Jeffrey defended himself.

    ¡°Then why haven¡¯t you fixed Mick. You keep playing with his body. What is that? Is he a doll? Fix him.¡±

    Jeffrey stiffened before he answered, ¡°His brain memory is gone, deleted. We are recovering his muscle memory.¡±

    ¡°You suggest the recovered Mick will only know muscle memory? Why? What foolishness is this?¡± She turned on Old One Horn. ¡°Have you allowed this healer this foolishness? What good is memory within the muscle only? So, Mick will know how to stand up but not know his own thoughts or even why he stands up? Is this your doing One Horn?¡±

    Old One Horn snorted. She was seldom confronted. It was enjoyable that this phantasm of a Neeshatari found her an acceptable adversary. She grinned. ¡°All Soek are stupid but this one less than most.¡± She stated.

    Jeffrey could almost flower in her compliment. He was of the lesser stupid. He snorted in turn. Both the old Ba¡¯Neesh and the apparition looked over at him. Funny, both looked lethal. He remembered Mael¡¯s advice to him once, never show cowardice. He lifted his chin.

    ¡°Do you have a better solution to the problem of Mick¡¯s missing neurological sequences?¡± He asked Kiena. He could feel the Ba¡¯Neesh behind him sneaking forward, his compelling speech obviously failing to hold.

    ¡°Why would they be missing?¡± Kiena asked. ¡°Repair him and, what did you say, encapsulate that worthless crap molcom in his head.¡±

    ¡°As I said, that worthless crap molcom deleted his files. I don¡¯t have the files to reinstall.¡±

    Kiena turned on Old One Horn. ¡°Really?¡± She said.

    Jeffrey had the distinct feeling that Old One Horn was trying to hide something. He turned to look at the watching but silent Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°What?¡± He asked. He was gifted with empathy on steroids, as one of his teachers had once said. He could smell an odor of deceit, Ba¡¯Neesh deceit. He knew they loved to play, to trick, to hide, to obscure. But, this was a boy¡¯s life. Not fun. Not funny. ¡°What is not being said here?¡± He demanded, risking a step toward the apparition. ¡°Tell me why I¡¯m being stupid you Vrill powered replica of a Ba¡¯Neesh.¡±

    Several Ba¡¯Neesh actually giggled.

    Kiena swelled, Her presentation gaining both height and solidity. She wanted to play hard and dirty with this Soek, but She actually liked him and his energy quite a bit. He was tasty.

    ¡°Use your Ba, you dolt.¡± She yelled at him.

    ¡°My Ba?¡± Jeffrey blinked.

    ¡°You are born of Ba¡¯Neesh, correct. That makes you Ba¡¯Soek of course. Don¡¯t they teach you which combinations produce which offspring?¡±

    ¡°Ba¡¯Soek?¡± It was the first time he¡¯d ever heard the word. ¡°What does the Ba mean?¡± He demanded, wishing he could shake the apparition by Her arms, foolish as that thought was.

    ¡°Collective. You are all collective. Except for this one.¡± She reached over to touch Rojer who felt Vrill arc into his body as if he were plugged into a socket. ¡°This one is different. But you, and the rest here, are all Ba.¡±

    Jeffrey did a surprising thing. He dropped to his knees before the apparition and said, ¡°I am Master Jeffrey Kristo, a Ba¡¯Soek. I am here to serve you Kiena not of true name. Please tell me in the simplest of terms how I can use the Ba to save Mick. Please.¡± He placed his forehead to the floor at her feet. He¡¯d seen the video of Mael doing something similar. It was okay. It was okay to serve. To save his friends he would serve. To save other lives he would serve. What was one service among many?

    Kiena liked his strategy and considered taking him. She tilted her head. He might fit Her burgeoning plan nicely. ¡°The Ba.¡± She turned to look at first Old One Horn and then at the watchful Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°I care nothing for your secrets, Ba¡¯Neesh. Your games may not be my games.¡±

    There was stomping and gasps both of annoyance and delight. A game was on.

    Jeffrey pushed himself to his feet so as not to be accidentally trampled by the live Ba¡¯Neesh now once again crowding forward.

    ¡°Master Jeffrey Kristo Healer. I see you.¡± Kiena said. ¡°The Ba is the collective, an agreement to move the Neeshatari and others into a shared memory state. It is a form of collective immortality. You are Ba. This means you share the memory of all Ba Soek or all nearby non-Ba Soek if you sleepstate within range of their Vrill. Perhaps this worthless molcom crap inhibits awareness of Ba state?¡± Her speculation grew and bloomed inside of Jeffrey.

    She looked over at Elias. ¡°Elias, stupid Soek, this is your molcom. Encapsulate now and kill it.¡± She ordered, flowing a visual of his molcom, its location in his head and the compelling order. She turned to Rojer, ¡°You, Soek of many names,¡± She repeated the instruction inside Rojer¡¯s skull. Then she shrugged, her dual-tipped roe horns growing brighter. ¡°To all within range of my Vrill on this submarine. This is your molcom. Find it. Kill it. Encapsulate now.¡±

    Soek and human alike aboard the submarine received the location of their molcoms as both a visual image and a hot spot in their heads. They were shown the way to encapsulate with biological nacre as that was what the body uses naturally to isolate non-compatible intruders. Their body¡¯s attacked the molcom to an accompaniment of screams of pain mixed with a sort of ecstasy at killing the thing.

    Kiena flickered back to her blue transparency. She grinned. ¡°The MagC needs improvement.¡± This she directed toward Thorne. ¡°You will improve it, Thorne who is Kirsan who is known to me as your true name.¡±

    ¡°Master Jeffrey.¡± She shifted to look at him. ¡°Elias has full Mick in his head. Place Elias hands at Mick¡¯s temples. Think Mick back into Mick¡¯s body.¡± She said the words slowly and simply.

    Jeffrey looked over at Mael, who was standing silent, his expression eager and wary in equal measure. ¡°Mael? How do I get Elias to think Mick?¡± He asked. To his mind Mael was the smartest and the most intuitive Soek he¡¯d ever met.

    ¡°Make Elias focus.¡± Mael suggested.

    ¡°Of course.¡± The solution seemed too simple. Jeffrey wanted to laugh. His own molcom was dead but he could feel how Kiena had lit it up. It made him want to encapsulate it more. Collective. Shared memories. No wonder all Soek had some form of Eidetical Syndrome. By the Dark Gods, no more wipes, the part of his vocation he hated the most.

    It was easy enough to hyper-focus Elias and to place his hands on either side of Mick¡¯s head. Elias knew how to direct his Vrill. The order using compelling speech to send Mick back into Mick was actually done by Rojer, who had the best voice.

    Everyone watched as the neurological sequencer spiraled upward toward the massive load that was a totality of Soek memory. When it peaked and the numbers began to decline and then ceased flowing altogether. Jeffrey manually pulled Elias away.

    ¡°Cease sending Mick.¡± Rojer ordered, well pleased to have such a critical job. This would save his father, and the rest of them. He swelled up a bit and realized he wasn¡¯t getting those annoying limiter voices in his head anymore. Kiena had shown him how to kill his molcom. No more threat of brain wipe. He looked over at the blue apparition. She had said he wasn¡¯t Ba. No shared Soek memories in his skull. He rather liked that. He realized he had a growing relationship with this monster, She understood him. It was a strange feeling to be wanted for the very aspects that others deplored. He smiled to himself, not realizing others noticed and took note.

    (Welcome back! Well, things are heating up. Are you enjoying yourself in my world? I hope so. Enjoy!)

 Chapter Nineteen - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Nineteen ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick woke to a fairly rough shaking of his shoulder. He looked up bleary and confused. ¡°What?¡± He tried to piece together why his mother had some guy in his bedroom standing over him with a stern expression. The guy was wearing all blacks, one point in his favor. Weirdly, he thought he maybe knew the guy¡¯s name. It was Eljay or Elrod or¡­he blinked. ¡°Elias?¡± He guessed, staring down in total surprise at his hand. It was silver. ¡°Why am I silver?¡± He asked. At about that moment it gelled that he was lying naked under a stiff sheet on what looked like a medical bed.

    ¡°Sensor film. You have to use a particular solution to remove it. Jeffrey has that.¡±

    Mick shook his head. ¡°Do I know Jeffrey?¡± He asked, somehow trusting this Elias although he was way too old to be a friend, if Mick had any of those. He didn¡¯t remember any. In fact, his memory was like a swirly in a toilet. The thought of a toilet triggered his body into announcing he needed one, right now.

    ¡°Toilet?¡± He managed the single word. The rest of the room was jammed with equipment, way tighter than a medical center room. Where was he? Even thinking about it made his head hurt so he decided it was better just to find the toilet and not think. A plan; don¡¯t think because thinking hurts.

    Elias reached out to grasp him under the right elbow, as if Mick were decrepit. He wanted to shrug off the touch but when he tried to walk his legs felt like warm noodles. ¡°Shit.¡± He offered the mixed up world. Something was clearly wrong with him. He followed his new policy of not wanting to know. No thinking. That led him to allowing Elias to lead him into what was clearly a super tight toilet. Formed metal. Who the hell would form a toilet out of metal? Then he didn¡¯t care, he was too busy bracing himself to pee. He watched himself, wondering if his pee would be silver too, but it came out looking pretty normal. His body didn¡¯t seem to want the other end of things so he turned around hunting a fast wash for his hands.

    The faucet operated with a push button. You pushed and a little water came out and then it stopped and you had to push again. Mick frowned at it. The silver crap on his hands didn¡¯t wash off. ¡°I¡¯m silver all over?¡± He asked, looking at what he could see of his body and in the mirror. That was instructive. His hair was clumped out in chunks and they jutted out in all directions. Long hair, long spikes of silver. They were rather dab in one way and creepy in another. ¡°I don¡¯t think my hands are clean.¡± He picked through the words in his brain, hoping they were the right ones. He couldn¡¯t be sure.

    ¡°We are docked. You probably should put on some clothing over the silver. There¡¯s no time to get that off before we head topside.¡± Elias said.

    Mick stood there, hearing the words and trying to make them make sense. The attempt caused his brain to hurt again. It seemed easier to just agree. So, he nodded. There, communication without words, the best ever.

    Elias opened a backpack that had clothing that Mick suspected was his. Some had blood on them. Or, stains that looked like blood. It seemed reasonable enough, he was in some med center so likely there was some injury under the silver. He struggled to climb into underwear and pants. Elias found a wrinkly but clean looking shirt. They didn¡¯t bother with shoes. Elias just told him to watch his step, there would be sandals later.

    Mick said, ¡°Okay.¡± And, he nodded again, pleased with himself. He watched Elias close the backpack and hoist it onto his back. There was something wrong about that. Mick tried to imagine what could be wrong and he couldn¡¯t figure it out. A door opened and another man stuck his head in saying, ¡°Is he ready?¡±

    Clearly the man meant Mick. Elias nodded, ¡°He needs help walking. You take the other side.¡±

    Mick wasn¡¯t too happy with this but again it was easier not to argue, he could barely stand on his own much less walk without help. ¡°Okay.¡± He said, although no one had asked him. He noticed that guy number two had on a similar uniform as Elias only their patches were different and guy two¡¯s clothing seemed fancier. He looked tailored. Mick mentally shrugged. Goodie goodie, he was with a pouf and what looked like military or security guys. No shoulder patches so more likely security. He couldn¡¯t fit it together so he focused on walking, that was hard enough.

    They arrived at the door and he noticed it had a rim and the door was metal with an honest to god spinning wheel lock thing, like for a vault only thinner and not so polished as those on vids. A ship? He had to really focus to move his legs up to step over. It felt like a lot of work and he waited for congratulations on his efforts from his two helpers. They tugged at him trying to move him faster. That annoyed Mick. Bastards.

    His irritation seemed to lubricate his brain. ¡°Where am I, Elias and who is this other joker?¡±

    Rojer glared at him. ¡°I¡¯m Rojer Kirsan, otherwise or also known as Serla, Second of his Name.¡± His tone was pompous and affected.

    ¡°Toity, toity.¡± Mick found his voice and a better flow to his words. This was like a game. ¡°Is that supposed to mean something special Rojer? You look like a pompous walking asshole.¡±

    Elias snickered. It appeared Mick¡¯s vitriol had survived.

    ¡°Shut up, Elias.¡± Rojer snapped out. ¡°I do not look like a pompous walking asshole.¡± He worried that maybe he did. Mick was rather brutal in direct assessment.

    They came to another raised doorway with its hatch open. Mick realized the word was hatch and that elicited a grin. He knew the word hatch. ¡°This is a ship.¡± He announced. His gait and balance were both improving even if he still felt weak and shaky.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s a submarine.¡± Rojer replied sarcastically.

    ¡°A submarine? How the hell am I on a submarine?¡± Mick stopped and frowned at Rojer. ¡°I don¡¯t remember¡­ Wait. Gods my brain is a fucking mess.¡± He looked over at Elias. ¡°Why is my brain mess your fault, Elias?¡±

    Elias flinched. ¡°I did my best. How was I to know we are Ba and you had your fragment sequences in my head? Come on, you are slow as dirt and they are freaking waiting on us. We are last off.¡±

    Mick found he could pick through the words and they still didn¡¯t half make sense. My what? Fragment sequences? And, what the hell is Ba. You are a vague son-of-a-bitch, Elias.¡±

    Elias tugged at his arm. ¡°Move it, Mick. I¡¯m in enough trouble already and it¡¯s all your fault.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Rojer agreed. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be under Her compulsion if you hadn¡¯t got into this mess.¡±

    Mick struggled forward looking from one guy to the other. What mess? Who was this Her person? They arrived at a ladder.

    ¡°You gotta climb this, Mick.¡± Elias said. ¡°You first, we will try to push you up and Brad is up there to pull you once you are close.¡±

    ¡°Brad?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, the Pirate.¡± Elias answered, ¡°He¡¯s in exo so lifting you is no problem but it might hurt your arms.¡±

    ¡°A Pirate?¡± Mick stared up the ladder to see exactly what Elias had said, a man in an exo. Familiar. A friend. ¡°I like you don¡¯t I?¡± He yelled upward.

    Brad, nearly inverted looked down to see the silver boy staring up. ¡°Yes, I believe so.¡± He answered.

    ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll climb then.¡± Mick suited words to action and forced his right foot onto the rung. He immediately regretted the absence of shoes. ¡°Fuck Elias, this tread has teeth. What about my fucking hiking boots?¡±

    ¡°Sorry.¡± Elias answered. ¡°I forgot about the treads. Just climb. We¡¯ll shove and you¡¯ll barely feel them.¡±

    ¡°Barely is right.¡± Mick complained ¡°Damn fucking shit. Last time I listen to you talking about shoes.¡± He shoved himself upward trying to move each foot as fast as possible so the unpleasant treads wouldn¡¯t dig in too hard. It hurt. He yelled out more curses and called Elias a string of progressively nasty words.

    Elias and Rojer both had a hand on Mick¡¯s butt, shoving him upward together.

    ¡°Seems his mouth survived intact.¡± Rojer observed.

    ¡°Yeah. Noted that.¡± Elias was actually pleased that Mick sounded like Mick. He seemed confused, but hell, hours ago he¡¯d been a brain wipe. It was all about perspective. He held onto his hidden thrill that his own mechanism for brain wipe or editing was forever gone, because of Mick, even if it had left him with a strong header.

    Mick arrived on the upper level shaky and sweaty except the silver skin held all the stinky moisture against his real skin causing a sensation a lot like chafing. He could imagine himself with a whole body rash, not a pleasant thought.

    There was another ladder, a much more substantial one, heading upward to where Mick could see an open iris-type hatch. There was a snug-down hatch above that, a dual system. His mind tried to tell him something about doubled entry systems but he couldn¡¯t hold on to it. He eyed the treads on the bigger ladder, they were simply wider versions of the same nasty, pokey bumps. ¡°I¡¯m not using that.¡± He said, ¡°Not without my hiking boots.¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    ¡°We have to go up to reach Citadel.¡± Rojer argued. He was taller than Mick and his natural tendency to bully roared to life. It was time to leave, his father was up there watching, ergo they needed to leave before his father got pissed at him and Rojer wasn¡¯t going to let some silver piss ant cause him problems. ¡°You climb now!¡± Rojer leaned over Mick in an intimidating way.

    Brad, who had pulled Mick up, resisted the urge to instantly intervene. It would be instructive to see how Mick responded to such provocations.

    Mick ignored Rojer as if he weren¡¯t there. He was leaning on one of the walls and rubbing the bottom of his left foot. The marks left by the treads were clear and defined as indents. Elias arrived to glare around, ¡°Why aren¡¯t we heading out?¡± He asked.

    ¡°You go on.¡± Mick said. ¡°I¡¯m going to find my boots.¡±

    ¡°We are escorting you.¡± Elias said, ¡°This is all about getting you topside of this vessel.¡±

    ¡°Great.¡± Mick switched to rub at his right foot. ¡°You go first then.¡±

    ¡°Oh for fuck¡¯s sake.¡± Rojer turned, stowed his weapon again in the side loop on his belt and headed up the main ladder. Mick noted the weapon. It might be helpful to have one too.

    The rest of them watched Rojer, Mick included. Rojer stuck his head up through the upper hatch to see that the dock was full of DireSec operatives, milling Ba¡¯Neesh and the top brass who had been aboard. Ranging along the top of the submarine were its captain and most of its crew, clearly taking in the air and the scene with some interest.

    ¡°Well, don¡¯t linger there.¡± Thorne stepped toward Rojer. ¡°Is Mick behind you?¡±

    Rojer was trying to lift his right foot up to the next tread, without success. He could feel something between him and actually getting out of the sub. ¡°I¡¯m not lingering and Mick is down there complaining about his missing boots.¡±

    ¡°You are lingering, ever the drama queen.¡± Thorne said again. ¡°Come out.¡±

    Rojer realized that the longer he stood there the less able he was to fathom why he was supposed to go up instead of down. The compulsion swelled inside of him. ¡°Fuck!¡± He said aloud. And, then he realized heads were turning to look at him without favor. Swearing. The damn swearing was contagious. It was as if Mick¡¯s gutter mouth was a virus and he¡¯d caught it.

    ¡°Come out, Rojer.¡± Thorne had reached the edge of the dock when several Ba¡¯Neesh trotted over to wedge themselves between Thorne and the dockway that connected the sub to the dock. ¡°What are you doing?¡± He yelled at the Ba¡¯Neesh, noting they were facing the sub, not him.

    ¡°I am not able to come out, father.¡± Rojer answered finally once he had exhausted his effort and was sweating hard.

    Thorne stared at the back of the Ba¡¯Neesh heads, who were ignoring him but preventing him from approaching the submarine. Clearly something was going on.

    ¡°She cannot have you.¡± The closest Ba¡¯Neesh told Thorne.

    ¡°Captain. See if you and your men can pull Rojer out.¡± Thorne ordered, peeking between the Ba¡¯Neesh even he didn¡¯t dare to touch, mulling over her words. Have him.¡±

    Captain Powell and three of his security team walked over to the hatchway and peered down. One after the other the security men attempted to step into the opening, each encountering an invisible wall. The Captain tried as well, to no avail. ¡°We are being blocked.¡± The Captain¡¯s tone was incensed. ¡°Has that thing taken my boat, Thorne?¡±

    Rojer could see he would only lose more traction with his father by staying and reminding him of Rojer¡¯s current forced disobedience. He stepped down slow at first and then hurried, enjoying a sense of relief the deeper he went.

    ¡°Won¡¯t let me out, Elias.¡± He announced once his feet hit the deck.

    Elias tried next, to the same results. Mick had sagged down to watch as his guards conferred amongst themselves, trying to shield him from their words and no doubt secondary plans. Mick tried to sort out why that didn¡¯t worry him. It didn¡¯t logic up.

    Brad lumbered over to the ladder to take its treads two at a time. He had to twist to move his exo shoulders through the hatchway. ¡°I appear able to move through.¡± He announced, even though he didn¡¯t move any further through than his chest.

    ¡°Well, come out of there.¡± Mael was next to Thorne behind the line of Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°I believe I will be staying with Mick, for the moment.¡± Brad answered with a hint of surprise in his tone. ¡°He is functional, but only just. I see no harm in remaining aboard.¡±

    Mael frowned. He didn¡¯t want Brad in harms way and Kiena was harm in the worst possible way.

    Grand Master Guardian Ornius arrived to crab his way through the milling crowd so that he too could peer through the wall of Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°So, you¡¯re not stuck then Brad?¡± He asked.

    ¡°No Ornius. I feel no compulsion either way.¡± Brad answered.

    Ornius tapped on two of the Ba¡¯Neesh, smiling at each. ¡°Let me through.¡± He said calmly but firmly.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh had a thing for Ornius. He was very old and utterly unafraid of them. That alone was exciting. Then there were his many peculiar robes. In normal times, within Citadel, the attending Ba¡¯Neesh youngers, now students, would chase Ornius through the halls trying to touch his robes. His robes, being heavily protected by hidden means, danced and fanned out and jabbed at them like an adversary, making them squeal and laugh. He was probably the best liked Soek of all, right behind the Turtle. The Ba¡¯Neesh gave way and allowed Ornius forward.

    Ornius crossed the dockway to lean down to more easily talk to Brad. ¡°Have you met Her yet? Yes, I saw the medical room footage. I mean in your head you silly math pirate.¡±

    ¡°Not yet. Or, I haven¡¯t slept yet.¡± Brad admitted. He was overdue for a sleep period but at the moment he didn¡¯t feel particularly tired.

    ¡°Do you feel obstructed.¡± Brad asked.

    Ornius reached over to touch Brad¡¯s massive upper shoulder. ¡°No. It appears She is indifferent to whether I come or go as well.¡± He looked down through the narrow crack that was all that was open with Brad blocking the way.

    ¡°Kiena not your true name, Neeshatari.¡± He called out, ¡°I am stupid Soek Master Ornius of Citadel. I offer you welcome to enter and stay etc. We are here to serve you.¡± There was no answer. Ornius looked crestfallen and then he perked up again. ¡°Personally, I invite you to invade my brain during my sleep period, or otherwise, as I would greatly like to hear your experiences. I give you welcome permission even though I know you can enter without that, there is some distinction between being invited or not.¡± Everyone knew Ornius loved to talk, to himself if no one else was present. ¡°Right. Well, there¡¯s that. Parked here on the sub is as good, almost, as being inside the facility. Again, you are our guest, not our captive, no matter what these other Soek might think.¡±

    Thorne twitched. He knew Ornius was speaking for all of them. Not really his place but on Citadel, Grand Master Ornius was the law. Thorne flailed at the politics which prevented him from overruling Ornius. He knew better than to try to force the issue and that reason was standing next to him, Mael Strom. Master Ornius was like Mael¡¯s father/mentor/co-conspirator although they were not actually related by blood. Thorne had tried fighting them before, and lost. He might dislike the power structure that had evolved, but in truth, it had worked far better than he expected for a long time. His resentment was more personal, a beating of his ego.

    ¡°Right.¡± Ornius turned to head back toward the waiting line of Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°Where are the boy¡¯s boots? Didn¡¯t he have them on when you hauled him into this sub? Do I have to fabricate some to fit?¡±

    Master Jeffrey stepped forward, followed by two DireSec operatives carrying containers. ¡°That would be me, Grand Master Guardian Ornius.¡± He said carefully.

    ¡°You. Oh right, you are the Healer. Welcome to the Citadel Jeffrey. Why doesn¡¯t that boy have his boots?¡±

    ¡°Strategy, Sir. It was felt that being bootless would reduce his tendency to flight.¡± Jeffrey answered. He towered over Ornius, remembering the old Soek as being taller and more garrulous. It was clear his leadership position had agreed with his temperament. This was only Jeffrey¡¯s second return to Citadel after his own escape. A checkered past.

    ¡°Likely so, but foolish. Surely you don¡¯t think hiding his boots will alleviate his potentials.¡±

    ¡°Kiena, Sir.¡± Mael interrupted. ¡°It was felt some measures should be taken now that Mick was more directly in our control.¡±

    ¡°An unconscious boy is a measure of control?¡± Ornius snorted.

    ¡°You know what Kiena can do, Sir.¡± Mael continued.

    ¡°Do I?¡± Ornius looked up at his favorite person in the entire world. ¡°Do I really, Mael Strom? I know what she did, not what she could have done. Restraint. Admirable restraint for a Ba¡¯Neesh, nay Neeshatari. Quite laudable.¡±

    Mael gasped, as did the transport operatives who had been live witnesses to the tunnel affair. Ornius¡¯ assessment landed to Mael¡¯s widening perspective. ¡°Trust you to set me straight my dear Master Ornius. Restraint. I am indeed stupid.¡±

    Thorne was absorbing the same message, as was Xasper. The resulting understanding was terrifying.

    ¡°You have ideas on how to improve the MagC on the sub?¡± Ornius directed this question at Thorne. ¡°You should consider Her requests, gloved orders Thorne.¡±

    Thorne nodded as that too settled in.

    Ornius pivoted toward the captain and crew, now anxiously pacing the top of the sub. ¡°If She doesn¡¯t let you back in, which seems reasonable if I were Her, there is housing inside the facility, use the wall com to be directed by Ops. I suggest testing everyone on this dock to see who She wants and who She doesn¡¯t want aboard. There are five human crew and two Soek aboard now? Yes. Your Executive Officer and Munitions Lieutenant are apparently acceptable. I see a kitchen helper, a miscreant who got drunk and disorderly in your last port, confined to his quarters and a maintenance supervisor working on a plumbing issue. Is that accurate, Captain? And, of course the remaining two DireSec operatives, lurking in wait just out of sight of Mick.¡±

    Thorne moaned to himself.

    Jeffrey had waited through this one-way dialogue. He liked Ornius, the Soek was brilliant and empathetic, an unusual combination. ¡°I should try, Sir.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t go in there Jeffrey, what if She takes you?¡± Thorne pushed his head between two of the Ba¡¯Neesh who stomped a bit but would allow no more than his head through.

    ¡°Service Thorne.¡± Jeffrey answered. ¡°I serve. You, the Directorate, the Citadel, the Soek, the Ba¡¯Neesh. It¡¯s all service. I am willing to serve Her and said so in the Infirmary hours ago. My patient is down there, unfit, covered in sensory skin he won¡¯t be able to remove on his own and in recovery from a total brain wipe. I am clear where I belong.¡±

    Brad was backing down the hole as Jeffrey used the dockway. He was wearing his operative backpack that held his personal gear and behind him two DireSec operatives were fully loaded, hauling the ingredients for the film removal as well as Jeffrey¡¯s personal remedies. They were assigned to Master Jeffrey and viewed these circumstances as merely the current assignment. They were both Soek, low level but good tempered.

    Jeffrey stopped over the hole. ¡°Kiena, I¡¯m sending down my assistants with my gear. I will follow with Mick¡¯s boots. Okay?¡±

    As expected, there was no answer. But, first one, then the second assistant both disappeared down the hatch hole without any difficulty, along with their burdens. Jeffrey looked across at the gathering. ¡°Likely some among you should follow me. Try. We are all stupid humans and stupid Soek, all of us have been listening to the rhetoric coming out of that last dust up at that tunnel. The Directorate, that means us too, are now identified as terrorists. I am guessing they will be on the attack. Do you want to be with the blue weapon or not? They will be coming for us all. Time to Soek up. No more brain wipes, thank Mick for that.¡± Jeffrey looked down, ¡°I¡¯m tossing the damn boots down first.¡± He followed by tossing the boots. And, then he disappeared down the hole.

    (Here we go. Mick on a submarine. I¡¯ve been on a Naval one in real life. They are super tight inside. Of course, this sub is different, as you shall see. Enjoy! Oh, and boost my rating back up. I like fives! ::grins::)

 Chapter Twenty - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Twenty ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick had found a semi-comfortable position sitting on the decking with his back up against one of the walls while all of the upper level discussion was taking place. Most of what was said was too hard to follow so he focused on finding clean socks in his backpack because he had managed to realize Elias was carrying his pack and for unknown reasons it was essential he keep it for himself. It looked strangely packed. He knew himself to be a stuff and go kind of person rather than a fold, roll and pack. Why did he have so many clothes with him, enough to make the pack bulge?

    He paused to open both his mother¡¯s water jug and a nut bar. He was starving. The silver film didn¡¯t feel right and he struggled with pulling his socks on straight. Why bother with clean ones when his skin was not right? He continued anyway as more and more people descended the main ladder to first pause, then be directed somewhere by Elias or Brad. Rojer, stood too close and brandished a stunner, fully charged too. Mick managed to seal his boots on. They looked old-school style with visible laces but those were fake, they actually sealed with self-healing closures making the boot fit properly. He felt better when he had both on. As he reached over intending to repack his backpack he saw that there was a large oddly lumpy bag in the bottom taking up all of the room.

    He pressed open its closure and peeked inside, only to sit back abruptly and glance around, hoping no one had seen his reaction. There were bones in there. The thought activated a memory stream in his mind, one with him digging up these bones in a graveyard. He rubbed at the pain in his head and gaped at his own memory. That memory attached to another memory, one of him squatting at some stones putting the bones in his pack, without the new bag. Dirty bones. And, then a third memory of repacking his pack in ritual form, every bone exactly in its place. He reached up to find the string dangling around his neck. It had been there when he woke up, a small bone necklace. He had ignored it, his mind too screwed up to focus on a necklace.

    He resealed the inner bag and carefully laid his clothing in on top. The string of memories hurt, as if they pushed on other nerves and connections in a wave of electrical punishment. Mick could sense more memories on all sides, as if they were hunting him. He scowled. Clearly there was something wrong with his memories. They were his, but not exactly his. For some reason every memory had a feeling of Elias attached. He tried to sort out that feeling but it was nebulous. Elias was simply there in his head. Everywhere. Well, he looked up to notice a particular man standing nearby with two uniformed security type guys slightly behind him. They had bundles. This was the guy that tossed his boots down the hatch earlier.

    Mick re-sealed his outer pack. It was old-school style too with lots of straps, rings and pockets. He¡¯d found he liked a lot of the old fashion styles and his mom¡¯s clothing maker machine could as easily pattern old-school as current. His mom. He blinked. He found a memory of her but she felt distant, as if layers of stuff like informed experiences was missing. He knew he loved her, but he had no sense of that either. He¡¯d done something and it had got his parents in trouble. His father wasn¡¯t such a big deal, he and Mick never really got on all that well, but his mom, she mattered.

    ¡°My mother?¡± Mick asked the waiting man, noticing a kid that looked close to his own age wearing a peculiar three-quarter length dark robe was following a similarly robed much younger boy down the ladder. Both were wide-eyed and curious.

    ¡°Jordy?¡± the waiting man asked the air, that told Mick the submarine was surveilled. Of course it was surveilled. Still the thought made him uncomfortable.

    ¡°We have no new information on Mick¡¯s mother.¡± A voice came over the intercom. ¡°She appears to still be confined but there is continuing chatter that she was not involved. They are confining her and her partner for her safety from other citizens.¡±

    Mick was back to near total confusion about the mass of words. He couldn¡¯t keep up. His gaze trailed the two younger people and then he saw a kid slightly older than him following them. He had a tight face but really active eyes. They found Mick and instantly Mick knew he would like this kid, narrow tight face or not.

    ¡°Mick?¡± Jeffrey asked again, noticing Mick¡¯s near total distraction. It appeared clear the boy wasn¡¯t tracking well.

    ¡°Yeah?¡± Mick watched Elias direct the younger people down another level, telling them to find bunks. There weren¡¯t any arguments or questions. Why no questions?

    ¡°Mick?¡± Jeffrey knelt down so that he was in Mick¡¯s visual range. ¡°Your mother appears healthy and safe.¡± He repeated slowly.

    Mick nodded. ¡°I should get up. I have boots now so the treads won¡¯t hurt.¡± He noticed that thinking in the present no longer hurt so bad. It was the memories that hurt. He leaned forward and fumbled with the backpack. He was surprised when it was the stranger who helped him. But, he needed the help and Rojer wasn¡¯t the best helper. The stranger assisted him upright.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know you, right? I don¡¯t want to memory search as that is painful and all screwed up and Elias is in there and nothing is right. Memories hurt.¡± Mick concluded, not really tracking that his conversation was erratic.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know me. I am Master Healer Jeffrey Kristo, I am here to help you restabilize your memories and thinking.¡±

    Mick had lost track of the guy¡¯s words after his name. It was a convoluted name. This guy thought he was a master of something. Mick snorted. ¡°Master ha ha.¡± He said aloud.

    Jeffrey grinned, ¡°Everyone calls me Jeffrey.¡± He said, although that really wasn¡¯t true. He could imagine it needed to be true for Mick.

    ¡°My pack is heavy.¡± Mick announced while reaching up to secure its front strap. ¡°Either I¡¯m weak or it¡¯s extra heavy due to those bones. Why am I carrying bones?¡±

    Jeffrey inhaled a bit. ¡°You are weak. I noticed you eating a protein nut bar. That will help. I believe She is making you carry Her bones.¡± He continued, saying each word very slowly.

    ¡°She? Girl bones.¡± This made Mick laugh which almost made him fall over. ¡°Figures, never had a date yet, so I dug one up. It¡¯s gross to dig up bones in the middle of the night.¡± He announced. He was thinking that the bone-digging memory only hurt the first time he recalled it, after that it became part of his real world. Oh, a real world and a painful memory world.

    They had started walking along the corridor with Rojer once more stowing his stunner to offer Mick an arm.

    ¡°I¡¯m not an invalid, Rojer.¡± Mick said firmly, ¡°Besides, you are supposed to be guarding or whatever, like Elias sneaking along behind us. This guy Jeffrey will let me lean on him, won¡¯t you?¡±The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Yes, I am happy to assist you Mick.¡± Jeffrey nodded. He was noting the push/pull of negotiating status happening to both Rojer and Elias centered on Mick. It was instructive. Even a damaged Mick was managing nicely.

    Elias was struggling, as soon as Mick started to recall something he felt it, not like his own memories but like flashes of imagery, disconnected. He didn¡¯t want this crap in his head. It was intensely distracting and made him stumble.

    Mick paused at every doorway to stare into the rooms. On this level the spaces were clearly storage, tightly and efficiently packed. The corridor was a central channel and there were devices on pillars right in the middle of this channel. Right now they seemed dormant, shut down because the submarine was in port. At the third such technical pillar Mick paused and pivoted.

    ¡°Elias, what are these things?¡± He asked.

    Elias had noted that with Mick just looking around at all new stuff his own brain wasn¡¯t hearing the kid¡¯s memories. He looked over at the pillar eagerly, having examined the last two in passing. New things. No memory new things.

    ¡°This one is a secondary station managing communication. There is an inner part that can go through the hull for a clear signal when the submarine is near the surface.¡± He felt triumphant in summoning his knowledge. It made him feel less out of control.

    Mick scowled at him. ¡°How the fuck did I know that? As soon as you started talking I get these tech thick pictures in my head.¡±

    Jeffrey looked between the two. ¡°And, you Elias?¡± He asked.

    ¡°When he nackers on about memories.¡± Elias nodded.

    ¡°I get nothing.¡± Rojer announced with a bit of pride.

    ¡°You aren¡¯t Ba. Remember?¡± Jeffrey looked over at Rojer. He could instantly see advantages to having a Soek without Ba. Share, not share. His estimation of Kiena went up.

    Elias could see it too. Somehow the connection with Mick made him feel a sense of increasing loyalty toward Mick, while with Rojer, Rojer was still a detached asshat. He blinked. There were clearly positives and negatives to being Ba. He could only hope his disorientation would diminish with experience. The removal of his molcom made this new. If he had experienced it from birth, it wouldn¡¯t feel like this now.

    Mick had stepped over to peer up into Elias¡¯ face. ¡°You have my memories in there?¡± He asked, truly shocked.

    ¡°Yeah, you have mine in there?¡± Elias nodded.

    ¡°Shit. My own memories hurt like hell, doesn¡¯t seem fair to have to feel yours too.¡±

    ¡°The molcom blocked the Ba.¡± Elias said. ¡°If we shared from early this wouldn¡¯t hurt or feel so fucking weird. Right Master Jeffrey?¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± Jeffrey agreed. ¡°I expect all of the Soek who are Ba will now experience disorientation, cognitive dissonance and a slow reconciliation with this aspect of their nature.¡±

    ¡°Ohhh.¡± Mick reached up to hold his head. ¡°Fucking word trigger. Soek.¡± He bent forward. It was clear his memory process was far more painful than that of Elias.

    ¡°Breathe, Mick.¡± Jeffrey ordered. ¡°I have analgesic with me. Elias, fetch his water bottle out of the pack. Oh, and take the pack, you had it earlier.¡±

    Rojer glowered for a moment and then realized with the three of them occupied that placed him in charge of security. He hurried past Elias as that was the likely direction of any pursuers. Being pro-active was a new role for him. It felt good, a little scary being responsible, but still good. He straightened up.

    They treated Mick for his growing header. Elias took Mick¡¯s pack which Mick decided was okay since Elias had his memories already too. It was convoluted logic. He didn¡¯t want to think about it, just feel lighter, more able to walk. They headed deeper aft to find the corridor ended at a cross aisle which seemed the same in either direction. They went right and after walking another dozen feet hit a left hand corner. Just past that corner the top of the hull curved overhead exposing a tight hanger holding a sleek six-man floater. ¡°Wow¡± The four of them said together.

    ¡°I bet this sub has mini-subs too and likely a hydrofoil hidden as well.¡± Elias said, reaching out to touch the sleek lines of the floater. ¡°Bet this is armed too.¡±

    ¡°You would be correct.¡± Jordy¡¯s voice said through Elias¡¯ wrist com.

    ¡°Looks bad ass.¡± Mick acknowledged. Then he frowned, more memories plowing into his head. ¡°Cripes. Are the weapons on this crate as lame-ass as those on that other floater, Thorne?¡± He yelled out.

    ¡°Yes, Mick Huxley. I haven¡¯t magically improved the weapons in the last day.¡± Thorne¡¯s tired voice came over Elias¡¯ wrist com.

    ¡°Fuck.¡± Mick was back to leaning weakly on the wall, staring at the floater, his head full of sequences. ¡°Fuckity fuck. I killed people. Fuck!¡±

    ¡°I did too.¡± Elias said, reaching over to put his hand on Mick¡¯s shoulder in comfort.

    ¡°I wanted to.¡± Rojer announced, unreasonably jealous. ¡°I got off a few good shots in that air battle.¡±

    ¡°Shut up, Rojer.¡± Elias said, glaring at Rojer.

    ¡°Jeffrey. I know I shot people, why don¡¯t I feel really bad about doing it, you know, ethically fucked up and shit?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°Likely you treated it like a game.¡± Jeffrey had watched the vids of the battles like everyone else. ¡°That made it less real. You may have a delayed reaction. Or, you could be built to absorb battle engagements. Some people are. Some Ba¡¯Neesh certainly are.¡±

    ¡°A game. Right.¡± Mick agreed. ¡°I¡¯m good at games.¡± Mick rubbed at his face as if he could massage his own brain. The initial pain of the memories was fading, storing. He took another deep breath. So, memory equaled pain, then process, then recovery. ¡°Ba¡¯Neesh like to fight.¡± He announced, it didn¡¯t feel like a memory full of pain. He puzzled over the difference.

    ¡°I think we should find the submarines control center.¡± Mick straightened. Weak as shit or not, there was a pressure inside of him, urging him to explore, to understand. He looked over and saw it echoing in Elias and even Rojer. He paused while looking at Jeffrey, something about that topside conversation came back to him. This man volunteering to come into the sub.

    ¡°You volunteered.¡± He said to Jeffrey. ¡°She took you.¡± The second part hurt hard but he was better prepared now, expected it even. He let the pain wash through, then the memory opened up like a flower. She. Kiena. False name. Neeshatari. He was Soek, Ba¡¯Soek, the stupid Soek. At the end of the memory stream he grinned, he wasn¡¯t alone, Elias grinned too. Shared knowledge.

    Mick returned to looking at Jeffrey. ¡°We sleepshared, Elias and I. Tonight, all of the Soek aboard, including you, we will all sleepshare. Her taking is only an alignment. It doesn¡¯t swallow our personalities. Our Ba, it won¡¯t negate that either but we will act like a single organism in our own defense. The many hands of the collective mind.¡±

    ¡°Welcome back, Mick.¡± A new voice came through the com.

    ¡°Mael Strom, right?¡± Mick bent over in the wash of pain but breathed through it. ¡°The Turtle. I met you. Do you feel it too?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Something approaching?¡± Mael answered thoughtfully, ¡°Yes. Tonight we sleepshare together, all of Citadel. Well, except for Rojer and a few humans. A failsafe. Intriguing. So, go explore the control center, they are waiting for you. Brad¡¯s already there checking things out. Apparently, She needed a submarine.¡±

    ¡°We need better weapons, Mael. Better Vrill-based weapons.¡± Mick said. ¡°Thorne doesn¡¯t really want to hear me. Maybe after I sleepshare with him.¡± Mick laughed. ¡°Do you think we will all inherit a bit of his arrogance?¡±

    ¡°We have apparently contracted your penchant for obscenity speech.¡± Mael answered. ¡°I haven¡¯t heard or used the word ¡®fuck¡¯ so much in my life as in the last two days.¡±

    Mick laughed. ¡°No prune mouth here.¡± He acknowledged.

    The small group was moving back along the central corridor, a little faster this time as there wasn¡¯t anything new to see and Elias was carrying Mick¡¯s pack. The Control Center was actually down a level, on the same main floor as the Infirmary. This time Mick managed the stairs without sore feet.

    They were greeted at the base of the stairs by four more men in uniform. This time Mick noticed that all of the insignias were like Rojer¡¯s. OrderSec. The word came out of an Elias mental fragment. Order-born. All Soek. That told Mick that some of the DireSec operatives were human. He puzzled over the distinctions. How did being Soek born change a person in terms of crewing a submarine? The OrderSec team dropped in behind them. Mick shrugged. He had no weapon, he could barely walk without stumbling and his mind was one fucked up mess. Whatever.

    (Mick has found his boots. I am enjoying writing about these characters and what they are experiencing. I hope you like it too. See you tomorrow with the next chapter.)

 Chapter Twenty-One - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Twenty-One ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick lay in a shallow tank of smelly red stuff. Jeffrey promised it was only for thirty minutes as the red stuff was supposed to penetrate the silver film and help it release. Mick had his eyelids closed and glued shut and glue around the straws in his nose and his lips glued shut. Yet, somehow, he could still smell the stuff, like rotting bananas bad. The only positive to the entire process was the absolute silence. Jeffrey had shut everyone outside, even Elias and Rojer, saying Mick needed the absence of stimulation to keep still.

    Jeffrey was right.

    Mick felt slammed, his brain was so tired he felt he could sleep for a week solid, except his brain refused to shut down. He understood that his brain had experienced a trauma, a wipe and been re-fed back into him. All of that was too scary to comprehend fully. He preferred to think of it as falling asleep instead of wiped. He felt like Mick. But, he knew, he didn¡¯t have any way to compare the current Mick with the before Mick. He tried to shut his brain off again. Jeffrey said it was okay for him to sleep in this vat thing, maybe even easier.

    He liked Jeffrey well enough, the guy had an easy way about him. Quiet, firm, solid. He instinctively trusted him, just like Pirate Brad. Both were a lot older yet he couldn¡¯t fix their age in his head, they felt around thirty or so. Soek. He knew this was part of the problem. He¡¯d never known a Soek before meeting Elias. The idea he too wasn¡¯t human was hard to process.

    Jeffrey had told him that while he looked younger than fifteen human age years, this slowness to age would only grow more pronounced pushing him further from humans who knew him well. That would be his mother. She cared. He tried to find the composite that generated the right emotional state. He should feel powerful emotions, that¡¯s what his psychiatrist had told him. He suffered through the pain of that recall wishing he hadn¡¯t summoned a new memory. Jeffrey had warned him it would be harder to process memories while in the vat.

    But, he wanted to feel a greater sense of loss around his memories of his mother. Instead, he felt guilt for getting her into trouble and regret for not saying goodbye but he really couldn¡¯t find the feelings of deep sorrow he should have. Back when he was ten the doctor had made him take a series of tests relating to correct emotional experiences. They played some vid scenarios and he was supposed to feel something. He failed that stupid test.

    They had him wired up so they could read the deployment of neurological chemicals, strong indicators of specific emotional states. His didn¡¯t fire properly, so they said. Back then the fear was that he was a sociopath. But, the doctor said he wasn¡¯t, he simply didn¡¯t respond to stimulation in predictive ways. There were reactions, but they were contextually different from the expected.

    He compared Jeffrey¡¯s silver sensory film to their helmet like head gear. Soek technology. Jeffrey said it wasn¡¯t available in the human community. He couldn¡¯t respond like a human because he wasn¡¯t a human. The answer seemed clear now, but at ten years old, he was human. Jeffrey even said his bloodwork would be unremarkable before puberty and with Soek, puberty usually came late, that¡¯s when the mutations began.

    He tried to feel anxious about being Soek. But again, what did it mean? He was just Mick, no matter what species label got hung on him. Inside his head he was Mick with a broken word salad memory problem. But, still just Mick. The Ba thing, that was weirder. He didn¡¯t feel like Elias was reading his mind or could. He didn¡¯t think he could read Elias¡¯ mind, except maybe during a battle. He blinked. Why had he quantified an exception? The thought circled inside him.

    He had already remembered the tunnel battle when he sat back-to-back with Elias and there had been moments when they acted seamlessly, like one person expressed in two different operations. Ba was scary and strangely welcome. Maybe he would stop feeling so isolated and alone all the time. Maybe the lack of Ba had acted on him to limit his ability to interact with peer-aged kids, except through the anonymity of gaming. Maybe he had even met Soek online.

    Elias played, so did Jordy. Mick knew that from Elias¡¯ shared memory. It was weird thinking he might have played with another species without knowing it. Were there more still, other hidden species?

    What exactly was out there riding the back of his head with prescience? Jeffrey said the Soek had once been human, then a group separated to organize around a deviation, a mutation process, slowly growing to alienate them from their human cousins until now, they were distinct species. He felt surrounded in secrets. Jeffrey said the Ba¡¯Neesh knew more, but as usual, were holding back, forcing the Soek to work harder. To what end?

    If this were a game. Mick focused on that thought. It was a game. In some critical way, thinking it was a game felt right. And, if this was a game, if he transplanted this scenario into a gaming platform, he would be in the building process. Every game had time periods where the opponents marshalled their resources, worked on abilities, refined rules, and made adjustments for the upcoming battles based on changes in what they knew and understood.

    Why had he been rebooted? Jeffrey said that during the flight out of the national airspace he¡¯d collapsed, been the locus of a directed personal attack on his molcom. Mick knew he was just a kid. Expendable. Hell, Elias and even Rojer had a better skillset than he did. So, why bother trying to get him back? He had already learned that She forced it. But, why did She force it? Why Mick? Secrets. He suspected She wouldn¡¯t tell him, at least not easily. He was processing the Ba¡¯Neesh trigger word. It had so many layers. He had seen them walking around, or frozen really.

    He had seen Kiena, mostly in blue. Neeshatari. When he thought of Her his mind shied away, hunting safety. She was the key. She knew something. He could feel the grip of her at the base of his skull, compelling, but not trying hard. He suspected Her touch in his mind was barely a whisper, the rest he was augmenting on himself. He knew Her in some way and She knew him. Kiena, lying about her name. He paused on the thought. Why was he so adamant in forcibly including that truth every single time he thought of Her? Lying. Name error.

    Something physical got his attention. He focused. Jeffrey?

    The plugs inserted deep in his ear canals were pulled out. ¡°Can you hear me now?¡± Jeffrey¡¯s voice sounded too loud to his hearing.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Mick nodded.

    ¡°Good.¡± Jeffrey continued. ¡°I will be rinsing you with a brisk spray. It will feel bitey. Lay still. If you can¡¯t, I will strap you down. Okay?¡±

    Mick nodded again. He didn¡¯t want to be strapped down.

    It was miserable. The wash felt like jabs of needles where the spray hit him. Mick moaned in his throat. It was extremely difficult to lay still and it took all of his concentration. He worried about what it would feel like on his face and genitals. Rightfully so. He hadn¡¯t remembered his punched out face, its bruises, its small cuts. He screamed, only, it only happened inside his mouth. What really happened was desperate inhale snorts and snorty snot blasts as the spray felt like a power sander on his face.

    Jeffrey had forgotten too. He raced to turn off the spray but by then most of Mick¡¯s face was scrubbed revealing intense, refreshed wounding.

    ¡°Gods Mick, I¡¯m so fucking sorry.¡± Jeffrey¡¯s tone was truly remorseful. ¡°I forgot your face was trashed. Son of a¡­ I¡¯ve stopped the spray. What do you want me to do?¡±

    Mick couldn¡¯t cry, his eyelids were glued shut. He couldn¡¯t scream with his mouth glued closed. So he snorted and snorted until the pain was manageable. He wanted it over. He was fucking half done.

    ¡°Pain killer?¡± Jeffrey asked?

    Mick nodded. Nuke him the fuck up. He nodded more vigorously.

    A power ampoule penetrated his shoulder, unfortunately too close to another bruise. Mick moaned and then his mind spiraled out, carrying him away. He could feel the spray turned back on him. He didn¡¯t give a fuck. He wondered why Jeffrey waited to narc him up. Maybe he wasn¡¯t the only person off their game. He wondered what turning a molcom off when it was already off did to a person like Jeffrey. A degree of permanence? The thought floated above him, filled with glitter and lights. He watched it and wondered what it meant. It was pretty and shiny.

    He roused hours later laying on a soft medical bed. He was slathered in salve. It smelled good, herbal. He felt clean and sore and itchy, even with the salve. He could hear the murmur of voices in the next room. The door was open although his room had the lights on low. He lay and listened, focusing on the sound until it became clear in his hearing. It was Jeffrey talking to someone named Serla. He tried to connect the name. Wasn¡¯t Rojer called Serla too, Second of his Name? The audible second voice on the com didn¡¯t sound like Rojer. Who was Serla?

    It was clear, based on the content of the conversation, that Serla and Jeffrey were close friends. Serla was asking questions, mostly about Mick. He was discussing various bits of footage, tunnel footage, the airborne battle footage. Mick¡¯s alertness grew. This Serla was clearly a strategy expert. The man was deeply interested in whether Jeffrey believed Mick¡¯s essential logical pathways were damaged by the wipe. Jeffrey was speculating, describing Mick¡¯s disorientation and flashes of clarity. Serla seemed particularly amused by Jeffrey¡¯s discussion of Micks assessment of readiness and weapons directed at Thorne. He even laughed. ¡°No wonder,¡± He said. ¡°Thorne has been fit to be tied for days. Seems gamer boy finds his toys inadequate, Thorne never likes to be told he is inadequate, in any way.¡±

    Gamer Boy.

    Mick evaluated the tag. He was one boy among millions of gamers yet the tag felt personal. He compared it to his online gaming name, WareHawk. Both had dub. He found he favored his old moniker more. Ware meant Beware, Hawk indicated a bird of prey.

    Aloud he said, ¡°Call me WareHawk, if you mean me in gaming mode.¡± He spoke loud enough to silence the conversation. Footsteps brought Jeffrey into view.

    ¡°You¡¯re awake? How bad is it?¡± Jeffrey asked, appearing at his side.

    Mick watched Jeffrey¡¯s face. ¡°I slept. Integrated. Who is Serla? When can he get here?¡± He hadn¡¯t known the last words were coming until they escaped his mouth.

    ¡°Integrated. Interesting word.¡± Jeffrey answered. He reached over and toggled his external wrist device, common to all DireSec operatives, Jeffrey included. ¡°You there Serla?¡±

    ¡°WareHawk, huh? I¡¯m running your stats now.¡± The voice held power and authority and another something Mick couldn¡¯t analyze so easily.

    ¡°Not bad. Your gear suffered a lot of electronics failures.¡± Serla noted. ¡°Power surges. You needed a Vrill dampner to do a clean interface. Might have pushed your scores up.¡±

    Mick blinked. There was no courtesy dialogue. This guy was straight up. ¡°I didn¡¯t know about Vrill then and besides I doubt our power maintenance had Vrill dampners available for isolate Soek gamers.¡±

    ¡°Lack of knowledge is no excuse.¡± Serla answered, and he wasn¡¯t playing coy.

    Mick grunted, pushing himself upright. ¡°You game?¡±

    ¡°I have.¡±

    ¡°Would I know you?¡±

    ¡°Our games have not overlapped according to my records.¡± Serla answered.

    Mick was gasping a bit. He felt like he¡¯d hit the motherlode of straight up. ¡°When do you get here?¡± He asked directly.

    ¡°En route as of about now.¡± Serla answered. ¡°I understand you and the Neeshatari have stolen a submarine, our biggest and best too.¡±

    ¡°Seems like.¡± Mick answered, trying not to scratch himself.

    ¡°I expect you to have some concrete weapon improvement ideas by the time I arrive, around fifteen hours from now.¡± Serla answered. Authority. Mick squirmed a bit and then nodded. He needed the help.

    ¡°Elias will help.¡± He said.

    ¡°You have the Citadel at your feet, Mick.¡± Serla¡¯s tone chastised. ¡°Access your resources. You wouldn¡¯t be here now without due cause. The Ba¡¯Neesh like to play close to the action. This means the clock is running. I am bringing some Akaitapi with me, cloaked.¡±

    Mick realized he knew the strange word, a specific group of Ba¡¯Neesh who lived ¡®under the mountain¡¯. Anya was Akaitapi. He wasn¡¯t sure exactly what it meant beyond name recognition because even Mael hadn¡¯t shared that information. He realized he knew this through a sleepshare, not his direct memory. It didn¡¯t hurt. Integration. The word took on new meaning.

    ¡°I integrated, Jeffrey.¡± He said again. ¡°Got some Mael in there. Do you think Ba is selective? I seem to have more of some a less of others.¡± He found he was able to see the memories of others like available data. It didn¡¯t just flood him. That was a relief. What it offered was like those class slates, only better, he could dip into the real information and knowledge at any time. Serla¡¯s comment landed. Use the Citadel. Battle and Weapons development? Who else was in his head this morning?

    ¡°From my own limited experience of one night¡¯s sleep, I would say yes, we seem to favor specific shares over others.¡± Jeffrey nodded, ¡°Likely it¡¯s a mutual choice. Those strongest who want to share with each other get more, those less inclined or blocking get less. Discretion. If you have Mael it¡¯s because Mael agreed. I didn¡¯t get Mael, except on minimum.¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s Lal? He wants to try anti-itch dessert on me.¡± Mick said, raising an eyebrow. It sounded great, anything anti-itch sounded great, but dessert when he was starving sounded extra good.

    ¡°Bartholomew Lal, our Master of Superb Food.¡± Jeffrey said, ¡°He is lurking in the Citadel making goodies. He¡¯s tight with Mael. I will tell him you are hungry. He¡¯ll make you fat.¡±

    ¡°Jeffrey? I think I need a wrist com, like the rest of you.¡± Mick said. ¡°And a stunner, someone took the one I stole earlier.¡±

    He heard laughter over Jeffrey¡¯s com.

    He noticed he was naked and all over red with bumps. This was worse than a rash, he felt peeled. He looked around for more salve. ¡°Got socks to cover my hands, Jeffrey? Keep me from scratching?¡±

    (I loved bringing Serla back. If this is the first WitchBoard book you have read, he will be a mystery. He is critical in other novels and he is one of my personal favorite characters. Yes, there are other WitchBoard novels. I am uncertain at this exact moment of the publication information on them. I am hoping you will be a fan ready to yell at my publishers for publication. The writing/publishing world is strange right now. Anyway, I hope you are enjoying the novel. Please click the stars and comment here or on Fay Thompson Author on Facebook. You are the best!)

 Chapter Twenty-Two - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Twenty-Two ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    The submarine¡¯s mess hall was ship wide with corridors on both ends making it a large space and it was noisy and active. When Mick arrived, with his guards and Jeffrey, the entire room quieted and they were met with uneasy stares. Mick, still a bit unsteady on his feet, stared back. What were all of these people doing here? He automatically scanned the room for familiar faces and he found some. Brad the Pirate was pulled up to one of the few accessible tables, hosting all three of the younger students Mick had seen the day before.

    Mick headed toward them trailed by not only the openly armed Rojer who seemed to keep his weapon out at all times, and Elias who looked tired with dark rings under his eyes. Behind them were four uniformed OrderSec operatives.

    Mick found them all a bit ridiculous and no way was Brad¡¯s table large enough to host the mess of them. He ignored that. Somehow this walk was important, a measuring of him. He tried not to trip or fall on his face, and he tried really hard not to itch. He could guess his red, splotchy skin was ugly as hell. Too bad. He was peeled all over.

    He came to a halt at Brad¡¯s table, unaware how ferocious his battered face appeared, or the way his long hair had spiked out from the silver and red stuff. He had no eyebrows, no eyelashes, no short hair anywhere. Somehow it made the intensity of his eyes larger and stronger.

    ¡°Mind if I join you?¡± Mick asked, gesturing at the three open chairs.

    The boys made to get up and leave but Mick didn¡¯t want that. ¡°Stay.¡± He ordered. He wasn¡¯t really aware it was an order, thinking of it more like a request. But, they heard it as an order and sat, eyes wide.

    ¡°Look like you might fall over.¡± Brad said astutely, he was measuring the scene with care. He noticed Mick¡¯s indifference to much of it, awareness and dismissal. Intriguing. The kid reminded him of Mael when Mael was young, in his own world.

    ¡°Feel like it too. Don¡¯t want to make a total ass of myself in front of these people. Are they all volunteers or what?¡± Mick sat down and sighed with relief. He could feel the boys staring at him, the flit of their eyes trying to fix on what to do, how to gauge the situation.

    Mick gestured Elias to sit along with Jeffrey, who demurred. Jeffrey wanted to watch but he wanted Lal¡¯s promised treat more. ¡°I¡¯m going to go search out that dessert.¡± He said, ¡°Don¡¯t scratch.¡±

    Mick waved his sock-covered hands at Jeffrey. Then he focused on the older boy that he instinctively liked the look of. ¡°I¡¯m Mick Huxley. You are?¡±

    ¡°Neoptalamus Crull, everyone calls me Neo.¡± The boy answered.

    ¡°Neo.¡± Mick acknowledged. He went to the next tallest boy figuring he was probably two or three years younger than he was. ¡°And you?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Raiko Eng, call me Raiko or Eng.¡± The second boy said, a bit defensively.

    ¡°Volker Weiner.¡± The youngest boy blurted out with obvious discomfort.

    ¡°Seriously, they call you Weiner?¡± Mick snorted with poorly held laughter.

    ¡°My friends call me Volker.¡± The boy said, his posture stiffening as he jutted out his chin.

    ¡°I bet.¡± Mick nodded. ¡°That name is ripe for being picked on, are you picked on Volker?¡±

    ¡°Sometimes.¡± Volker said, ¡°I have demerits for juicing.¡± He looked over at Rojer standing behind Mick. ¡°Not like him though. I never gored anyone.¡±

    Mick twisted to see who Volker was looking at. ¡°You¡¯ve gored someone, Rojer?¡± He asked, surprised. His memory was hurting again only this time it was from a Mael fragment. A scene in a bathroom, Rojer trying to kill him. It was only a moment; the true context didn¡¯t come through.

    Rojer¡¯s nostrils flared out and he emitted a chuffing sound.

    ¡°Yes. He gored Mael.¡± Brad said calmly, ¡°They are the same age. Nearly killed him too. Should have been expelled but things got messy.¡± Brad answered for the diffident Rojer.

    ¡°No shit.¡± Mick realized the sounds in the room had gone back up, making their table conversation a bit more normal. His four OrderSec guards had faded back toward the walls leaving only Rojer towering over the table.

    ¡°So, tell me Neo, why are you here?¡± Mick continued, looking back over at the tall, thin, dark boy who managed to project a feeling of aloof watchfulness.

    Neo simply sat there for a minute or two, long after the silence became awkward.

    Mick waited, surprised by the intensity of his own feelings. He was invested in this guy¡¯s answer. Why?

    ¡°You are going to war. I will go with you.¡± Neo finally answered. ¡°Who are you going to go to war against, Mick Huxley?¡±

    Volker gasped. Raiko nodded. Brad felt his own Vrill accelerating.

    ¡°Don¡¯t know yet.¡± Mick said. ¡°Do know actually. Don¡¯t know what I know except I know it. The game is on.¡± He muddled through his own answer.

    Jeffrey arrived with a cake-like dessert. ¡°Lal said you eat this now, before you scar yourself. Can¡¯t promise it works.¡±

    Mick looked down at where his right hand, inside the sock, was rubbing at his left arm. He could feel the heat of the rub even if he had temporarily been unaware of scratching.

    ¡°Tasty? You know I¡¯m fucking starving.¡± He said and then realized there was a buffet line. ¡°Crap, I need to load a plate.¡±

    ¡°Tomorrow.¡± Jeffrey waved him back. ¡°I¡¯m already up. You eat in reverse, hopefully Lal got it right. He¡¯s a genius, you know.¡±

    Mick noted that all three boys, Brad and Elias were all staring with open desire at his cake. The name Lal was the key. He instinctively wrapped a protective arm around the plate. ¡°It¡¯s mine.¡± He announced. Then he took his first bite and it was on. ¡°Oh hell, this is so fucking good.¡± He mumbled around the next bite, now acutely aware of the jealousy of those around him. ¡°Sorry, can¡¯t share. What¡¯s in this stuff? Uhmmmm.¡±

    Jeffrey laughed. ¡°Another victim.¡±

    ¡°Did he make anything else?¡± Brad interrupted to ask, working on controlling his own saliva glands.

    ¡°Well, actually yes. He sent over some kind of snack thing, enough for everyone. Said he didn¡¯t want to cause a riot over here.¡±

    Soon, the snacks were passed around and contentment filled the room.

    Mick tested out the anti-itch by removing his hand socks. Jeffrey was back to standing next to Rojer, watching avidly.

    He rubbed at his arm where he¡¯d tried to scratch earlier. The itch was still there, but barely.Stolen novel; please report.

    ¡°Shit works.¡± He announced. Then he looked over at Jeffrey, ¡°Could you maybe get another piece for later, when this one wears off?¡±

    Jeffrey laughed. ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s all about the itch.¡± Then he nodded. There is one already back there. Actually several, he says you eat one every nine hours until the itch is totally gone.

    Mick sagged. ¡°Oh my gods. Makes that peel almost worth it. Not quite, but almost.¡±

    ¡°Your face,¡± Neo asked. ¡°Who beat you up?¡±

    Mick blinked. He had forgotten about his face. ¡°Oh, that was Elias, he¡¯s really good at hand-to-hand fighting. He would have pulverized me worse but She pulled him off. He was like dangling in mid air. Ended the fight.¡±

    The room had quieted again, heads turned to listen.

    She.

    The word hovered there. Mick struggled with the memory pain flooding him. He had an experience that the depths of his memory of Her was far bigger than the length of his life and that was stupid.

    ¡°Kiena, of the false name.¡± He said aloud. ¡°I got in a few licks too, on Elias, I mean. That was before we had to deal with those Tule Soc creeps.¡±

    ¡°Is the war with Tule Soc?¡± Neo asked.

    Mick looked over at him. ¡°Do you think so, Neo?¡±

    Neo just stared at him, noncommittal.

    ¡°Anyone want to clarify who these Tule Soc are exactly? I get this muddled history that my bone tells me is full of shit.¡±

    ¡°Your bone?¡± Volker asked. ¡°We heard you are carrying a Beloved. Is that true?¡±

    Mick paused, another wave of fresh memory crashing through him. He noted the pain wasn¡¯t as intense as when it first started, but it was enough to make him catch his breath. ¡°Elias has the Beloved. I have Her directive bone. A finger I think or part of one.¡±

    ¡°Directive?¡± Brad asked, his interest growing.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Mick answered ¡°Mostly I seem to feel it like a truth teller device. I can tell when people lie.¡±

    ¡°Can you tell if She lies?¡± Brad asked.

    Mick grinned. ¡°No and yes. I mean, I know Her name is a lie. But with Her, I feel a link.¡±

    ¡°Like with Albert.¡± Brad said aloud. ¡°Specific Vrill access. Tell me Mick, should we all be wearing bones?¡± He asked.

    Mick was hearing that Albert was Albert Strom, Mael¡¯s Soek father and from Mael, the image of a bone held in Mael¡¯s hand coupled to a whole slew of fragments too many to sort out, except Rojer was there with a bloody hand, a young Rojer, crying and yelling.

    Mick turned to Rojer. ¡°Show me your hand.¡± He said.

    Rojer wore gloves, always. He glowered at Mick then he noticed the entire table was watching, along with many at nearby tables. ¡°Oh, for fucks sake.¡± He stuffed his stunner in its belt loop and then pulled off his left glove, revealing the absence of his pinky finger. ¡°Happy now? Mael cut the damn thing off. Had to, we had to reach Serla. Coms were dorked by Tule Soc so we had to go old school, through the Vrill. He had Albert, I am Serla so my finger and Serla First of his Name are the same genetically, or enough to call out. Hurt like hell. Bastard. Mael¡¯s like that, makes you do shit and it hurts.¡±

    The boys at the table were gawking, even Neo. None of them had known about the finger. Who could have guessed with the prosthetic tucked into Rojer¡¯s glove?

    ¡°I never heard that one.¡± Raiko said. ¡°We learn about the Turtle in history, of course. But, he cut off your finger? Was it really bloody?¡±

    Rojer grunted, already putting his glove back on. He hated being a reflection in Mael¡¯s fame, only not really. A part of him knew he had been critical to the survival of Citadel, his sacrifice, just a finger. That was his fame. He had entered the floater with Mick. He knew the feeling inside of him, recognized it, service or not, his destiny sat at this table. He wasn¡¯t Ba. He was Rojer Kirsan. It was confusing.

    ¡°It bled everywhere.¡± Rojer admitted. ¡°Totally ruined my robe. Course, Citadel was a trashed mess at that point anyway. Mael insisted I use my father¡¯s codes and be my truth.¡± He repeated the words Mael had yelled at him, words carved like crystal inside his mind. He couldn¡¯t forget. ¡°He told me I am the Voice.¡± The last words came out soft, contemplative. ¡°I don¡¯t really know what that means. I wanted to be a top designer, a caster like my father. Only, he isn¡¯t really my father. I am neither Order-born, nor Legacy. I am other.¡±

    Mick just listened, Rojer spilling as if all the words were trapped inside of him. He knew Rojer from Mael¡¯s side. He hadn¡¯t sleepshared with Rojer. It was like he wasn¡¯t there. But, Mael knew Rojer. The echo of Mael memories inside of him showed that goring again only in slow motion, the Vrill of one boy mixing with the Vrill of another. Mael knew Rojer through the intimacy of shared Vrill.

    ¡°Vrill share.¡± Mick said aloud.

    Brad was paying acute attention to every word Mick said. The boy was like a puzzle, pieces arranged piece meal. What did Vrill share really mean?

    Mick gratefully accepted the plate of food Jeffrey slid in front of him. He was equally aware that everyone else but Elias had eaten, likely Rojer too. He wondered if he was supposed to tell Rojer to eat. It felt awkward. What was their relationship? Was he Rojer¡¯s captive or being guarded for his own safety? Did that mean there were people in this room or on this submarine who might do him harm? He looked around and noted that Neo continued to watch him.

    ¡°You game, Neo?¡± He asked.

    ¡°We all do.¡± Neo answered immediately. ¡°We compete on Stratego and Warrior, Thief, Scoundrel. I usually win.¡±

    ¡°We, meaning the three of you?¡± Mick asked, instantly excited.

    Brad was equally interested. He had wondered why these three boys were down the hatch when so many were not.

    ¡°Yes. We are a team.¡± Neo nodded. ¡°We¡¯ve played you. The name WareHawk is one of the solos each of us has battled when we can¡¯t time up.¡±

    Mick swallowed. ¡°Who are you? Wait, you aren¡¯t CrullBoss, are you?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m the Bossman.¡± Neo answered.

    ¡°Shit. You beat me most of the time.¡± Mick took another bite wondering if the guy felt familiar through gaming action. He paused again, ¡°Then you are the Volkano.¡± He gestured to Volker, ¡°and, I don¡¯t know your name.¡± He stared at Raiko. ¡°Who are you?¡±

    ¡°SamauriEng.¡± Raiko smiled. ¡°I kill you lots of times too. You always try to bluff me.¡±

    Mick looked at Volker, ¡°You risk too much. SamauriEng is sneaky and CrullBoss is just way fast. How are you so fast, do you have adjusted settings?¡±

    ¡°I cheat. I always modify equipment. Improvise. Modify. Win.¡± Neo answered, he was nursing an Evercold bottle of water. ¡°What do we do about the crappy weapons on these vehicle platforms?¡± He asked.

    Mick liked that. ¡°Yeah, on that floater they sucked. Slow, crap for selection and nothing to concuss those fucking bugs.¡±

    ¡°Can you arrange for us to see the real footage?¡± Neo asked.

    Mick looked at Brad. ¡°I have zippo clue about that.¡± He looked around and how the grown men at nearby tables were now deliberately turned to overtly listen. Clearly, they expected more.

    Mick turned to Rojer, ¡°Can you ask the room how many have seen the raw footage of the battles?¡± He asked.

    ¡°You authorize Speech?¡± Rojer asked with a sneaky quality to his tone.

    Brad flinched.

    ¡°Why would you need that right now, Rojer?¡± Mick asked. ¡°You have a penetrating regular voice. You are adult. You are dressed in security garb. I look like an unhealed flesh wound. I can stand on the damn table and ask but I would rather you convey structured authority. These guys are volunteers. They should see what went down. Right? Maybe they want to un-volunteer. Better to know right off than be surrounded by unhappy backstabbers later.¡±

    Mick¡¯s conversation with Rojer was leaking out, captured on wrist coms and being converted to readable text. Gossip on steroids. The room was listening, reading and watching.

    Brad hid a smile. He wondered how much of Mick was for real? Did the kid really not know everyone was listening closely? Or, was this social strategy?

    ¡°Do you want to see the raw footage of the tunnel and air battles?¡± Rojer¡¯s voice commanded the room¡¯s attention.

    Brad realized, Mick was right, Rojer had a voice that expressed authority. A tool.

    The affirmative was loud and immediate.

    ¡°Can you set that up, Brad?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°I can.¡± Neo answered, just the hint of a smirk in his tone.

    Brad noted the move. Positions. These kids were finding positions among themselves. He decided he needed to play more games. Clearly he was off his game here.

    ¡°Good to know, Neo. Let¡¯s let Master Brad interface with the submariners, likely there are a few who aren¡¯t very happy with me because I¡¯m a kid with a Neeshatari looking over my shoulder. Citadel should appear to have some authority; don¡¯t you think?¡±

    This caused a ripple of amusement and some nods of agreement.

    ¡°True.¡± Neo nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t have Master Brad¡¯s system. He¡¯s tanked out, you know. But, I bet I know work-arounds he doesn¡¯t.¡±

    Brad chuckled. He was a tank. The holoscreens along each wall crackled and then the sound of Mick yelling obscenities took over.

    Mick finished eating his food and tried not to cringe in his chair. He considered the depth of his mouth. No wonder his mom was always yelling at him to get it under control. Then, he too lost himself in the battle scenes. Some of the footage was new to him, raw. He rode waves of pain and was thankful no one expected him to speak. He watched the footage and it became harder and harder to comprehend he was seeing himself.

    ¡°Need more sleep?¡± Jeffrey leaned down to whisper in his ear.

    Mick nodded. ¡°Can you pause it, Brad?¡± He asked.

    All eyes turned to stare at him. He climbed to his feet. ¡°Serla says to analyze the crap weaponry, focus on improving it. This is slamming my head. I¡¯ve gotta go. Those wanting to stay after seeing how close to death we got, great. We need better Vrill-based weapons. My brain hurts. I¡¯m leaving. Tell Brad.¡±

    (Welcome back my friends. Share this story with your friends if you can. I will have a publication contest for signed paperbacks once the novel goes into publication. People who are friended to me here or on my Fay Thompson Author Facebook page will qualify for the lottery. There will be a separate illustration book too.)

 Chapter Twenty-Three - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Twenty-Three ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick could hear them coming from somewhere down the corridor, their voices argumentative and higher pitched, younger. Jeffrey had him stowed in a recovery room that was basically just big enough for an adjustable bed held down to the floor with massive magnets. The door was open, Mick insisted over Rojer¡¯s complaints about security. Mick ordered Elias to get some sleep and watched Jeffrey stash him next door as Elias was unwilling to go far. Mick couldn¡¯t tell if it was compulsion or something else.

    What he knew for sure was Elias was upset. He felt like he got everything from Elias, clearly the person sharing the most with him. Elias was confused, grieving the loss of his personal friendship with Jordy and unclear on what was happening.

    Mick pushed himself to the side of the bed and noticed his red skin was less red than earlier. Five-hour nap? He heard Elias making noises too. The approaching boys had wakened both of them. He wondered about that too. He trusted Elias. Maybe it was the memory share but it didn¡¯t seem to matter. Elias was a solid person, pragmatic, intelligent, analytically gifted. They were in this together, whatever this was.

    ¡°Mick. Tell this red shirt to let us in.¡± Raiko called out from the outer corridor doorway.

    Mick slipped off the bed and frowned at his clothing. He didn¡¯t want cloth touching his skin. He opted for a robe hanging nearby. It was too thin, like it was made of pulp fibers instead of fabric base. Mick walked barefoot to the doorway to look past Rojer into the ante-room that acted like a miniature hallway to a set of five recovery rooms. Elias arrived in the doorway next to Mick¡¯s. He was properly dressed if still looking harried and tired. They exchanged a glance, a recognition of a shared memory base unlike anything either of them had ever felt before with another person. Weird intimacy, a little awkward and uncomfortable.

    ¡°Gossip on the hidden channels speculates they intend to gas us, you, while you are still vulnerable.¡± Neo said, as if discussing chips for lunch.

    Elias stiffened. ¡°Fuck.¡± He said.

    Mick nodded. ¡°Strategically sound. What have you done about it, Neo?¡±

    The rest turned to stare at Neo.

    Neo grinned. ¡°Well, I might have reprogrammed the outer seals.¡± He said. ¡°And, adjusted the surveillance in here.¡±

    Elias¡¯ wrist com went off.

    ¡°Elias?¡± The voice was recognizably Jordy. ¡°What¡¯s happening down there?¡± Jordy asked.

    ¡°Protection of Mick is commencing. Where¡¯s Brad?¡± Elias asked.

    Neo pointed upward. Elias nodded. ¡°I see you waited until Brad was off ship.¡±

    Mick walked over to Neo and whispered in his ear, ¡°Use the emergency pillars upstairs to tell the Exec Officer to drop us to the ocean floor, or make it happen yourself if not.¡±

    Neo disappeared down the hallway. Mick stretched, aware the two other boys were staring at him, wondering what he had whispered and why Neo was special.

    ¡°What do you want from me, Jordy?¡± Mick spoke at Elias while gesturing to Rojer they were going to be leaving. Rojer nodded. The thought of shooting someone was exciting. Mick went back into Elias¡¯ room and rescued his backpack and then back to his room for his boots, he had to have boots on this ship.

    Thorne¡¯s voice came over Elias¡¯ com. ¡°There is no desire to hurt you Mick, but we need to protect Citadel. You can¡¯t keep holding us hostage.¡±

    Mick pulled on his boots and sealed them, slinging his pack over his shoulder. ¡°So, did I sleep through your request for me to leave the submarine or go to the brig or whatever, Thorne?¡± All of them felt the submarine¡¯s engines kick to life.

    The sub explosively blew its connectors to the decking and dropped like a rock. The sudden movement threw them all off balance, grasping at each other and the walls to remain standing.

    Brad¡¯s voice interrupted. ¡°Fuckers. I shouldn¡¯t have left. Knew it was dodgy as hell.¡± He sounded genuinely disappointed.

    ¡°We have chasers.¡± Neo¡¯s voice emerged from the wall squawk box. Looks like four mini¡¯s. We don¡¯t get to kill them, do we?¡± He sounded regretful.

    ¡°How many crew are compromised, Elias?¡± Mick asked. It was clear to everyone that everyone was listening both onboard and in Citadel.

    Elias answered, ¡°likely around twenty percent at a guess, more will follow if it¡¯s clear you are no longer important.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± Mick nodded to Rojer, whispering. ¡°Can you yell loud?¡± Rojer nodded. ¡°Speech?¡± Another nod coupled to a grin. Mick shrugged, Rojer correctly interpreted that as permission to use his own words. Rojer peered out into the central corridor, now mysteriously empty when usually it bustled with people. ¡°Disloyal to Mick kiss the floor.¡± He yelled, his voice ripe with activated Vrill. All of them could feel the snake of Rojer¡¯s intent sending the words around corners, into rooms, up and down stairs, anywhere air was openly traveling. The bite echoed in the brain.

    Volker laughed outright. They ran as a group, heading not fore toward the Command Center which Mick could guess would be the best guarded space. Instead they headed toward one of the many small ladders heading upward, off the main corridor. The submarine wasn¡¯t that big but it had lots of ladders. Elias spun the first hatch on the top level closed behind them as his wrist com went off again.

    ¡°There¡¯s no where to go, Mick Huxley.¡± Thorne said forcefully. We have Central Control.

    ¡°Of course there is, Thorne. And, of course you have Central Control.¡± Mick answered a bit breathlessly as he forced his weakened body to run. ¡°You have to remember I just slept with the Exec Officer in my brain. He will only turn over if your operatives catch me. Seems he likes being captain. This is a deep ocean sub. Those mini¡¯s are not rated for deep ocean. Do you want me to demonstrate?¡±

    Elias reached over to one of the wall boxes and said. ¡°Those loyal to Mick will find those not loyal face down on the floor. Arrest them. Check every person logged onto this sub.¡±

    The open com allowed them to hear lots of yelling and shouting and the pounding of footsteps. Sounded fun. Mick couldn¡¯t figure out why anyone was being loyal to him, was it just the faint opportunity to steal a sub for a joy ride? Reflectively, he could imagine thinking such might be worth it, if he were in their places. Fun.

    Neo was standing next to the second pillar on the upper level, his fingers flying across the holo control panel. ¡°Much better system than my gaming rig. I¡¯ve got eyes off on this level. We are secure, at least for the moment. Exec is fighting with the Lieutenant, I think. The com keeps switching on and off.¡±

    ¡°Did we ever see a head along here, Elias?¡± Mick said, raking his fingers through his already messy hair.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias walked him to a room with a H on the door. H for head. Right.

    Rojer was facing the way they had come, his weapon brandished, his posture classic warrior defensive.

    ¡°We have disconnected the MagC.¡± Thorne said.

    ¡°Okay.¡± Mick cracked the door open so Elias¡¯ com could pick up his words. ¡°You think that is adequate, Thorne?¡±

    The open com allowed them to hear lots of swearing, thumps and screams.

    ¡°Analysis of all engagements with the Neeshatari suggest Her range is limited, augmented by the MagC. Besides, water and electricity don¡¯t mix well, Mick.¡± Thorne almost gloated.

    Rojer nodded in agreement.

    Range. Interesting suggestion. ¡°Is Moira around?¡± Mick asked. He had returned to the corridor, the boys and men forming a loose circle around him. He sat down on the decking, trying not to scratch himself. He should have remembered to bring the salve. Regrets.

    After a few long moments the holo capability of the wall com displayed a frowning Ba¡¯Neesh with a massive rack of antlers.

    ¡°Stupid Soek Mick.¡± She said, glaring at the pickup with obvious displeasure.

    ¡°Yes, I remain a stupid Soek, Moira. My Ba share with Neo and the others tells me you are running the Battle School, Weapons Development.¡± Mick continued. ¡°Moira, do you think shutting down the submarine MagC is sufficient for Thorne to succeed in containing the Neeshatari?¡±

    Moira stomped and snorted. Mick realized she was real, not a manifestation like Kiena. She spoke words he couldn¡¯t comprehend to someone out of visual range of the pickup inside the Citadel. He waited. By the expressions on the other boys faces he could tell she scared them.

    ¡°Thorne is a more stupid Soek.¡± She finally answered.

    ¡°Moira, can you tell me about distance and range of Vrill casting. How weak are we?¡± Mick was rummaging through his backpack for one of his nut bars. He was back to being hungry and already regretting Lal¡¯s itch dessert, somewhere below.

    ¡°Depends on the construct.¡± Moira answered, her tone not nearly so abrasive as earlier. Her stomping had stilled as well.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°Other side of the planet distance?¡± Mick took a bite.

    Elias stiffened. ¡°What are you wanting to aim at Mick?¡±

    ¡°We have your weapons locked down.¡± Thorne stated firmly.

    ¡°Maybe.¡± Moira said. ¡°The lasers are certainly that far in a straight line although there is immediate efficacy loss, spread. The constraint is duration time and Vrill burn as well as ultra-violet damage.¡± It was a far more scientific analysis than Mick would have guessed her capable of. His estimation of her flowered to life on a strong upward track. Serla was right.

    ¡°Right. That¡¯s the reason a super laser would need to be outside Earth atmosphere.¡± Mick nodded. ¡°How about a UV shield?¡±

    ¡°A sigil?¡± Mael¡¯s familiar voice intruded. ¡°Hi Mick, back to causing trouble today? Glad to hear you are feeling better.¡±

    ¡°Can you wrap light in a containment sigil?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°Stop pandering to him. He needs to bring the sub back up now.¡± Thorne said, his tone not nearly so calm as earlier.

    Neo keyed an open channel from the Command Control Room. They got a holo visual of men fighting before the feed cut back off. Neo laughed. ¡°They don¡¯t want us to see the fighting.¡±

    ¡°We just learned we can throw Speech on Light.¡± Mael answered. ¡°Courtesy of Mick Huxley. Particles and waves. Theoretically, we should be able to do other sigil attachment as well, if we can figure out the math.¡±

    Moira snorted. ¡°Math. What does it sound like, Mael?¡±

    Mick noticed she didn¡¯t call Mael a stupid Soek. He felt some jealousy of that courtesy. Maybe someday he would also elevate beyond stupid status. A goal.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got reports of fourteen crew in restraints, one of them is the Lieutenant of Munitions.¡± Neo announced.

    ¡°Oh, we will need him.¡± Mick frowned. ¡°Is he just fighting to fight or what? Can you ask someone to put him on the com?¡±

    Elias took one of Mick¡¯s snack bars and started chewing it. ¡°Likely there is food up here. Should we rummage?¡± He asked, for some reason the situation felt ridiculous rather than dangerous. Maybe it was sitting on the floor with a bunch of kids. Gamers. He drank from Mick¡¯s jug.

    The disheveled face of the Munitions Lieutenant appeared above the wall box. He had clearly been worked over.

    ¡°I am Lieutenant Mortimer Banks. I demand you free me at once. This vessel belongs to the Directorate.¡±

    ¡°Mortimer? Really. Do they like call you Uncle Morty or what?¡± Mick snickered. There was a famous goofball show called Uncle Morty.

    ¡°I am Lieutenant Mortimer Banks. I demand you free me at¡­¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mick said, ¡°I heard you Morty. Answer me this, what is the best long range weapon on board this sub?¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Mortimer asked. ¡°You aren¡¯t authorized to touch any of my munitions.

    ¡°If you had to hit something say twelve thousand miles away, what do you have?¡± Mick continued, eyeing Elias with jealousy. Maybe someone should look for more food.

    ¡°We have four torpedo-type missiles, some kind of disruptor payload.¡± Neo answered, his tone happy. ¡°Not sure if it knocks people out or what. Likely its rated non-lethal since the Accords. It¡¯s got encrypted coding, will take me a few to decipher.¡± Neo said, clearly loud enough for the intercom wall unit to pick up.

    ¡°That¡¯s classified.¡± Morty yelled. ¡°Get the hell out of my systems you miserable student bastard, this is my ship, my munitions, not some gods be damned gamer toy to blow to shit like you did to that floater.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mick answered. ¡°Neo just said that, encryption. This would be faster if you just told us. Just check the range, okay, Neo? Oh, I didn¡¯t blow it to bits, Morty. I was brain wiped when Thorne did that.¡±

    ¡°Near surface launch is over six thousand miles.¡± Neo announced, ¡°Depth creates drag, water more than air.¡±

    ¡°What are we shooting at, Mick?¡± Mael asked.

    ¡°Don¡¯t know for sure.¡± Mick answered and then he bent over as his brain tried to find the answer, burning an acid path backward in his mind. It took a long moment before he was able to ask. ¡°Any idea when Serla arrives?¡± Serla. Lifeline. Serla and the Akaitapi. Soon. He had to be soon.

    Elias crawled over to peer at Mick where he was rocking and moaning, clearly experiencing something new. Where the hell was Jeffrey?

    ¡°Sound, Mick.¡± Moira¡¯s voice interrupted. ¡°Rojer the one who Gores, he attached Speech to Light. Math is music.¡± Moira interrupted. ¡°We forgot. We go to remember now.¡± She moved away from the pickup leaving the holo blank.

    ¡°You need to pay attention to me!¡± Thorne yelled.

    ¡°Don¡¯t play with my munitions!¡± Lieutenant Mortimer Banks yelled.

    Mick had his eyes squeezed tightly shut but he managed, loud enough for the com to pick it up, ¡°Morty, if they are your munitions what the hell are you doing confined instead of manning your station?¡± Mick answered, ignoring Thorne. ¡°Is he Soek or human?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Soek.¡± Neo answered, also focused on Mick who was clearly in trouble. ¡°He voced out to the Directorate, was retrained after a brain wipe twelve years ago.¡±

    ¡°Fuckers.¡± Mick said, back to rocking, clutching at his head. ¡°Sorry about the brain wipe Morty. Not my doing. You really want to sit this out?¡±

    ¡°Sit what out?¡± Brad interrupted. ¡°Tule Soc?¡±

    Mick just sat there, his head was nearly intolerable. ¡°Don¡¯t ask me.¡± He whispered to Elias, ¡°Make them stop asking me.¡±

    ¡°Mick requests you cease asking him about the target. If you continue we will shut down your access to him. Understood?¡± Elias announced.

    Elias looked toward the faint blue glow just past the third tower, watching. The rest of them followed his gaze.

    ¡°She really is real?¡± Raiko said in a voice of awe and terror. ¡°Why is She blue?¡±

    ¡°Shit.¡± Thorne said.

    ¡°Get Jeffrey, and those four OrderSec guys and Morty.¡± Mick said to Elias.

    ¡°They will try a trick.¡± Neo was close enough to hear.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mick nodded and then stopped. ¡°Volker, you know where the floater is aft? Find the analgesic in the med pack, inside the floater. Oh, and water too. See if they keep the food stocked.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a floater?¡± Volker straightened up and then looked with concern in the direction, right past the blue light. ¡°Will She let me, Mick?¡± He asked.

    ¡°She let you on board Volkano. Run.¡± Mick answered.

    Neo reached up to toggle the wall box. ¡°You listening down there. Mick wants the four OrderSec operatives, Jeffrey with salve and Morty. At the topside hatch.¡±

    The box crackled. ¡°Two of the operatives are compromised.¡±

    Mick had his eyelids squeezed tightly shut to reduce the glare of the corridor lights even though that glare hadn¡¯t changed. He was changing. ¡°Get them out of confinement. Make them wear safety pins on their shirts or something so I can tell who was in confinement. Give them their stunners. Tell them to run.¡±

    Everyone could hear Mick but Neo repeated the orders anyway.

    ¡°You know they will try to take you Mick.¡± Neo said. ¡°They could have hand-held gas weapons.¡±

    ¡°Tell them to bring those too.¡± Mick said aloud. ¡°Or not. We may need a demo of their weapons.¡±

    Rojer grinned. ¡°You are a nasty piece of work, aren¡¯t you Mick Huxley?¡±

    Thorne and Jordy were racing through strategy in a totally illogical and frankly stupid scenario. That frightened both of them. Why was Mick bringing armed guards to the hatch? Brad was re-running every word, seeking any detail missed, grinning slightly. Grand Master Ornius was with Mael, Anya and Moira.

    ¡°What¡¯s he doing?¡± Ornius asked Mael, who shrugged.

    ¡°We shall find out, won¡¯t we, Ornius. I bet Brad knows. Hey Brad, what¡¯s Mick doing?¡±

    Brad really did smile then. ¡°Best guess? Build time. He is invulnerable and knows it. Our problem or more correctly, Thorne and Jordy¡¯s problem is why he knows this and they don¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s build time?¡± Thorne asked. Jordy sort of shrank a bit.

    ¡°Jordy knows.¡± Brad answered, ¡°Every game has a discrete section of time, after a monster is killed, where the players get snacks, use the head, nap and generally think about what the game taught them so far so they can re-build their characters to be more effective. Build time.¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t a game.¡± Thorne yelled.

    ¡°Tell him that.¡± Brad laughed. ¡°What are you missing here, Thorne? Same scenario as before. There is a Neeshatari on that submarine, just like with Mick on the floater. What did you learn about Neeshatari capabilities? Like Ornius said, Her restraint.¡±

    ¡°Shit.¡± Thorne swallowed hard. ¡°You are telling me¡­¡±

    ¡°Only what you already know, Thorne, but refuse to accept.¡± Brad continued.

    ¡°Enemy at the hatch.¡± Neo said, sounding pleased. Clearly Mick had a plan.

    ¡°Right. Is Volkano back yet?¡±

    ¡°Here, Mick.¡± Volker handed over the analgesic and bottled water. ¡°Lots of snacks in there, durable, not really tasty but I brought some out.¡± Mick was already swallowing the pain med.

    ¡°Let¡¯s do Jeffrey and two of the operatives first.¡± Mick said to Elias. ¡°Let them choose and let them in.¡±

    All of them looked at the blue light. It was just a blue light. ¡°They are all Soek, right Neo?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Good. Humans will likely be harder to deal with.¡±

    Neo stepped back up to the intercom. ¡°We want Jeffrey and any two operatives. Open the hatch. We have the next hatch closed. Close the first hatch behind you so there are three people inside, three waiting.¡± Neo looked at Mick who did a short nod.

    ¡°Safety pinned or not?¡± Mick asked once they heard the thud of the outer hatch closing again.

    ¡°The operatives are pinned.¡± Neo said.

    ¡°Good. Okay.¡± Mick pushed himself upright to look at the holo of the three waiting men, waiting armed men. ¡°Who do you serve?¡± He asked.

    Jeffrey immediately dropped to his knees, setting a plate with Lal¡¯s cake on it on the deck, he pressed his face to the decking. ¡°I serve the Neeshatari, Kiena, not Her true name.¡± He said clearly.

    One of the operatives stepped past Jeffrey. ¡°I serve the Order of Guardians of the Grove.¡± He announced. ¡°I am OrderSec.¡±

    ¡°The¡­? Crimey what a mouthful. Is that accurate Elias?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Elias nodded. ¡°We shorten it to Order and Guardians mostly.¡±

    ¡°How do you serve?¡± Mick asked. ¡°Are you serving, now?¡±

    ¡°We maintain order to preserve the safety of the Ba¡¯Neesh at Citadel.¡± The operative wasn¡¯t particularly liking this question offensive technique. He wanted to take this kid out.

    ¡°Is a Neeshatari within your purview?¡± Mick continued. ¡°Are you required by your duty to protect the Neeshatari now aboard this submarine?¡±

    ¡°I am to protect the Ba¡¯Neesh at Citadel.¡± The operative said firmly, sensing the slippery slope of this conversation. He was really not liking this conversation.

    ¡°Right.¡± Mick answered, ¡°Got that. You are aboard this submarine, correct. Of your own volition. Right? Logic it out. We are us. Those inside this submarine. For the time being, we are us. How do you serve to protect by seeking to attack the Neeshatari? Has the Neeshatari attacked Citadel?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°She will!¡± Thorne¡¯s voice interrupted.

    ¡°Do you protect by attacking?¡± Mick continued, as if Thorne hadn¡¯t spoken. ¡°Who is attacking the Neeshatari?¡±

    ¡°Citadel.¡± The operative nodded.

    ¡°So, your question becomes, is the Order of Guardians of the Grove here to attack or protect the female of Homo Soekenesis?¡±

    ¡°Homo Soekenesis?¡± The second operative asked.

    ¡°We are all Soek, correct?¡± Mick said. ¡°By extension, the duty to protect the Ba¡¯Neesh includes their offspring, ancestors and descendants. Us. We are Us. Who are you attacking and why?¡±

    ¡°Shit.¡± Thorne said.

    Brad laughed. The two non-pinned operatives outside the hatch, listening to all of this, shrugged at each other. Morty glowered and looked more than a little lost.

    ¡°Now.¡± Mick said, ¡°We are going to let you in. You will see a blue light behind us. You can choose to attack the Neeshatari and us, or not. Understand, the Neeshatari, like other Ba¡¯Neesh, loves intimate gore. I cannot speak for what She may, can or will do to you. She is Neeshatari and does what She wants, when She wants, how She wants. You are Soek, I suggest you kneel to Her instead.¡± Mick gestured Rojer to unseal the inner hatch.

    Rojer noted that Mick didn¡¯t tell him not to be ready to shoot. Elias noted that too and he assumed a firing stance as well. The hatch opened. Mick was back to sitting on the floor, his shoulders against the wall.

    The two operatives followed Jeffrey inside, their eyes on the blue light. Both were carrying gas canisters primed and ready. Jeffrey stepped out of the possible line of fire, noting the kids were a bit tense but more curious than anything. What had Brad said, build time. Time to correct, adjust, modify, alter, refuel, patch.

    The second operative dropped first after carefully holstering his weapon. ¡°I serve Homo Soekenesis in protection of the female first. That would be you, Neeshatari, Kiena, not your true name.¡±

    The other operative yelled out, ¡°No!¡±

    Rojer happily stunned him while Elias lunged for the operative¡±s weapon to keep it from deploying when it hit the deck.

    Mick looked over at Jeffrey. ¡°Trojan Horse today Jeffrey?¡± He said.

    Neo grinned.

    ¡°Do you want to eat that and wear that salve or cop to the deceit?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°Deceit.¡± Jeffrey grinned back. ¡°You in trouble, Mick?¡±

    ¡°Just took an analgesic.¡± Mick answered. ¡°You here to help me now Jeffrey?¡±

    ¡°Yeah! I too serve Homo Soekenesis, female first.¡± Jeffrey answered, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±

    (Poor Mick. My friends, to find out what happens with Morty you will need to wait for the next chapter. Not long, I promise. This was running long. Enjoy!)

 Chapter Twenty-Four - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Twenty-Four ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Of course, everyone was listening. Many were hiding grins. All of them were thinking. Technically, Mick was correct, the Order of the Guardians of the Grove, and their public branch, the Directorate, were in the business of protecting the Homo Soekenesis, female first. Yes, it was true that Mick and the Neeshatari had stolen two Directorate vessels, but could you really steal from yourselves as the corporation that was the Directorate was theoretically shared equally by all Soek, known or unknown, Order-born or not. Had he just borrowed the vessels? And, technically, while he had indeed damaged the floater, he hadn¡¯t blown it up, the CEO of the Directorate had chosen to do so, himself. A clear logical argument.

    Discussion was most heated in the confinement area and within the Citadel itself. Was Mick an enemy of all Homo Soekenesis? What about the Neeshatari, did they really want to position her as an enemy? Nearly everyone had witnessed footage of the blue hand swatting the transport floaters like flies.

    Thorne was inside a sealed room having a tantrum. Jordy had found Mael, Ornius, Brad, Anya, Moira and Xasper under the sigil in the Math Department headquarters, discussing everything with Calypso, Master Mathematician.

    ¡°Is math really like music?¡± Mael was demanding.

    ¡°We dance, don¡¯t we Mael Strom?¡± Moira was eager to not be here. Her brain was yelling at her that the Akaitapi were coming and the local Ba¡¯Neesh clearly didn¡¯t remember what must be remembered. Urgency irritated her temper. She hated being behind. How could she/they have forgotten, they might as well be the immature Tule Soc Ba¡¯Neesh, youngers.

    ¡°It can be.¡± Calypso nodded. ¡°The basis of music and sound can be mapped mathematically and certain mathematical combinations act on the brain of the receiver. How do you think Speech works? Vrill has mutative and conversion properties. And, as Moira says, we dance. Inevitably all casting involves math. Timing, duration, distance, rhythm, patterns, these are the easy to see translations. One of the reasons this sigil is so powerful is because we actually mapped it with math as well as with Soek intuition.¡±

    Everyone looked up. You couldn¡¯t be in the presence of The Sigil without looking up. It was famously powerful, a reminder of Mael¡¯s dimensionalization of the sigil idea.

    Outside the outer hatch the two OrderSec operatives and Morty were also arguing. It seemed clear to the operatives that Mick was correct. It was equally clear to Morty that the submarine was stolen, a violation that security should remedy. It really bothered Morty that Mick had sent for him. Was he captive or what? Man his station. The absolute nerve of the kid. He hated that he felt a sense of abandonment, a nerve Mick had touched too easily. And, who was this Neo kid messing with his specs? What did they need to know range for? He wanted to shoot at something beyond a static target, the idea this kid might shoot his weapons for real was the real kicker.

    The hatch spun and opened. One of the two OrderSec operatives and a DireSec operative were half-dragging the stunned other operative. They plopped him down outside the hatch. ¡°He¡¯ll have to sleep it off out here.¡± Elias said. ¡°You three ready to head in?¡±

    The operatives nodded.

    ¡°Go on through, we will shut this and follow you.¡±

    It bothered Morty that the DireSec guy wasn¡¯t the least bit concerned with what Morty might do. It offended Morty¡¯s fighter instinct. He noted the bruises on the operatives face. This had to be the operative that had been on the floater. He got to shoot and kill stuff. Lucky bastard.

    He arrived at the pillar to find a stringy older kid in a three-quarter student¡¯s robe with the entire control panel open and flashing.

    ¡°That¡¯s mine!¡± Morty yelled, trying to charge forward. He ran straight into a beautiful Soek wearing OrderSec. An operative holding a stunner and an eager grin.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°Try me.¡± Rojer encouraged. ¡°Uncle Morty, right?¡±

    Morty paused. There wasn¡¯t a good way to win against a weapon and a person eager to use it. He glowered, only then noticing Master Healer Jeffrey kneeling next to the naked aggravated red legs of a boy wearing what looked like a napkin. This was Mick? He tried to reconcile his outrage with what was clearly a badly hurt boy. No eyebrows. That sucked. What had the kid said, ¡°Sorry for the brain wipe.¡± No one had ever said that to Morty. This kid had been brain wiped too. Morty remembered feeling the molcom die inside his head when the blue one ordered everyone to encapsulate. No more brain wipe. This kid.

    ¡°Hey Morty.¡± Mick said, ¡°Rojer¡¯s an ass, ignore his words. Although, I yell out heinous crap too when I¡¯m fighting. Apologize in advance, likely I will yell Uncle at you. I get excited.¡±

    ¡°I get excited too.¡± Morty said, seeing the pile of medical stuff on the floor next to Mick. ¡°You doing okay?¡±

    ¡°Not really, but Jeffrey will sort me out, hopefully.¡± Mick sounded tired. ¡°So, Serla is going to be here in a few hours based on what my crap for memory brain recalls. He will expect you and Neo and Raiko and Volkano and Moira and Mael and well all of Citadel to be on it in terms of weaponry. Range is important. Help Neo here. Likely you messed up some faces in Central Command based on the condition of your knuckles. You us or still being a belligerent bastard?¡±

    Morty felt like he was chewing unspoken words. He wanted to yell, to make demands, to start a fist fight. Instead he looked down the corridor at the diffuse blue light and back at the obviously hurting boy, young man? He knew himself to be a belligerent bastard by nature, always ornery, only his weapon systems loved him. ¡°Neo, huh?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. He is going to piss you off.¡± Mick nodded. ¡°I suspect Serla will too. Channel that into getting our lame-ass weaponry improved. Time shortens.¡±

    Those in the sigil room had gone silent when Morty was moved. At the last, Mael said, ¡°how short a time?¡± He knew they couldn¡¯t ask. Maybe Serla knew already. Mick seemed to be leaning heavily on Serla¡¯s arrival.

    Morty¡¯s thick body belied his youth, he looked grizzled, like a bear. He glowered at Neo. He looked like he could break Neo in half with his bare hands, Neo thought so too.

    ¡°You touch me, Morty and Rojer will stun you or worse. Got it?¡± Neo said.

    ¡°Wuss.¡± Morty answered. ¡°My hand has more muscle than your entire body.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you are thick.¡± Neo noted sarcastically. ¡°So, you know these weapons or not?¡±

    ¡°Move over.¡± Morty tried to muscle Neo away from the controls.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± Neo stood his ground and Rojer stepped forward.

    ¡°He won¡¯t be watching all the time.¡± Morty threatened.

    ¡°Someone will, until you discover I¡¯m faster than you.¡±

    ¡°Bastard.¡±

    And, that¡¯s how it went. Mick almost immediately tuned the two of them out. Life was too short to listen to gaming hustle on focus.

    ¡°Any chance you have a non-drugged cake hiding around?¡± He asked Jeffrey. ¡°I am itchy.¡±

    Elias had the boys and the operatives dragging bedding rolls in near the pillars. It seemed clear they were staying put, for the moment. Elias thought that was smart. Likely the crew of the sub was struggling with both the Ba and the changing circumstances a bit like he was with his own head. Staying out of sight allowed people to settle. Clearly Mick didn¡¯t intend to do anything with those confined besides hold them for awhile. He could guess the confined men and Soek were arguing the merits of Mick¡¯s argument. Had they stolen the sub? Arguments obviously could be made either way. But, no direct threat had been offered from the sub toward anyone. To Elias¡¯ mind, Thorne had lost this one too. He hoped Jordy was riding out the storm that was Thorne when he was upset. Politics, the most hated aspect of his job. Former job.

    Elias looked at Mick, now laying back on bedding. What was his job now? It focused on Mick and down the hall on Her. It intrigued him that Mick had handled this with nothing more than argument and a blue light. Elegant. He knew Mick¡¯s loneliness and had felt its echo inside of him. Why had the Directorate allowed the molcom to cut off the Ba? That worried him. His job was analysis and security. He stepped over to Rojer and waved the three OrderSec operatives into a huddle. He clarified. ¡°Mick is ground zero. Neo is next, mostly we will need to stay on top of Morty, he¡¯s a loose cannon. Shifts, eight hours apiece. I¡¯m going to sleep because when Mick is down it is my time because when Mick is up we have to be top of our game. Serla is coming. If you don¡¯t know who he is, research through your wrist com. If they try to block your com, yell for Mael after waking me up. Don¡¯t wake me up. Neo likely can fix it too. Think.¡±

    The operatives nodded, authority felt comfortable, duty normal. They divided up and one at a time they explored the space in detail, from one end to another. Volkano accompanied them, raiding the floater in passing to bring out three torches and more food.

    (Build time. This made me grin on so many levels. Clearly Morty fits in, don¡¯t you think? More tomorrow! Enjoy.)

 Chapter Twenty-Five - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Twenty-Five ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Eric knew his place. In the world of diplomacy and politics he could sit at the table, but his position was more representative than substantive. One large nation/state and two smaller ones had joined together to address the issue of non-human terrorism focused specifically on the Directorate. Eric could guess there was another room somewhere with other nation/states lining up to stop this initiative. What was less clear was where were the top brass of the Directorate?

    If he listened to these politicians he might be persuaded into believing the Directorate corporate leadership were running for cover, but his operatives had noted only the movements of one group of possible persons of interest out of Montana. They were all using the avatar technology that completely disguised their real identity. Eric knew this intel could be wrong. The Directorate Headquarters located in Great Falls, Montana hosted dignitaries from around the world. They essentially owned both the city and the military base located just outside city limits. One of their top products was their avatar security systems, the people leaving Montana could be anyone.

    All intel really had was the use of one Directorate long-distance aircraft. It could carry around fifty people and travel anywhere in the world. Sneak footage showed thirty-two people boarding the craft and some were likely crew. None were identifiable. They appeared to be a group heading out on vacation, dressed casual and carrying typical luggage.

    Eric knew the Directorate was watching, their intel was the best in the world. They sold the technology everyone else used, including Tule Soc, redesigned, of course, but stolen from Directorate designs. Still, their absence of response was shocking. They had to see the military build ups. They had to know about the ongoing terrorism analysis being broadcast on all of the major media networks and saturating the world shell. They had to know. Why were they saying and doing nothing?

    ¡°Mr. Felsen?¡± One of the foreign too-shiny military men asked Eric a question.

    ¡°Sorry Sir, my audio appears to be going in and out.¡± Eric fiddled with his external as if it were defective and then nodded at the man, ¡°Could you repeat your question, please?¡±

    ¡°I was saying that evidence suggests they fled to the island facility named Citadel. Do you concur?¡±

    It annoyed Eric that they continued to go over the same points, assuring themselves their plan was correct. He had sent every bit of intel Tule Soc had on where the Directorate had gone after the airborne incident. He didn¡¯t like repeating himself.

    ¡°They used a submarine when leaving the International Port and our tracking devices followed them in that general direction.¡± Eric refused to be pinned down. Everyone in this room knew the Directorate Headquarters was in Montana, untouchable. That nation/state was showing some signs of concern but they hadn¡¯t announced an alert or any kind of media statement. It appeared they were accepting the Tule Soc analysis of a rogue situation outside the national waters of their nation/state. The attack was focused toward Citadel, not their nation/state. Technically the Directorate was a corporation. Technically they didn¡¯t have a military, just substantial security teams and operatives and technology. But, they were a type of military, a corporate military, and everyone knew it.

    ¡°You sound unconvinced Mr. Felsen.¡±

    ¡°I remain concerned with the Directorate¡¯s lack of official response to all inquiries on the subject. It is illogical.¡± Eric said, He could feel his bosses shifting uneasily in their seats. This was a time for firm resolve, not uncertainty. ¡°They are known to be intelligent and strategic adversaries. Illogical behavior indicates some intelligence we do not have privy to. As a security expert I am voicing my concern. I think we should go in hard and fast to take advantage of this opportunity. But, I am not an expert in such operations. I gather and analyze intel, that is my job.¡± He schooled his body movements trying to show no indication of his growing anxiety. Something was wrong. He wanted to hit the off switch on this mission only he didn¡¯t know where it was.

    ¡°We are in agreement then?¡± The brassy military man whose name kept slipping away from Eric continued, his gaze when he looked at Eric hard, irritated. Eric felt himself adrift in a sea of sharks, alone. This was his initiative; he was having trouble retaining the idea.

    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡± Eric made a show of agreeing aloud. He could feel Arjan¡¯s stiffness. His second hadn¡¯t been right since the tunnel or maybe the graveyard. He tried to act as if nothing was different but Eric sensed Arjan¡¯s withdrawal. Eric leaned back in his chair, toggling his external. Arjan, at his right, watched carefully, examining every move. Nothing new. He glanced over at Arjan and shook his head slightly. Of course, Arjan was checking too, his own data. Arjan offered a slight nod in return.

    Another half hour and Eric was able to leave the room. He paused in the doorway as his contingent of Ministers gestured for him to wait.

    ¡°We are ready?¡± Minister Callen reached him first, concern on his face.

    ¡°Yes, of course.¡± Eric answered.

    ¡°You mentioned being concerned.¡± The other two ministers had joined the small group.

    ¡°I am, concerned.¡± Eric said, ¡°I feel we have an information gap. I would rather know conclusively what is happening at the Directorate. We don¡¯t have inside intel, that compromises certain information streams leaving us with speculation. I don¡¯t like that.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s overdue.¡± Minister Callen continued. ¡°We should have gone after them and finished them off immediately after the last incident. We had support then, not as much as today, but enough to follow up. Our predecessors lacked the necessary backbone to confront potential worldwide censure. We do not suffer with that weakness. The Directorate gave us excellent footage.¡±

    His comment seemed to suggest Eric might also lack backbone. There was a direct threat in his word choices. Eric read that threat clearly enough. His thoughts shifted.

    ¡°We have no actual intel that the blue weapon is destroyed.¡± Eric said. ¡°We should incorporate that potential in the final attack plans.¡±

    ¡°We witnessed the boy brain wiped and being carried out of that floater in a medical unit. We witnessed the destruction of a whole fleet of corporate floaters, no doubt to destroy evidence. There is no evidence this weapon was outside the boy. This is what happens when a higher-powered Soek exists. He acted alone. You need to accept that Eric, even if being beaten by a lone Soek is hard to stomach. No one has ever witnessed what we have seen in that footage. It isn¡¯t a skill. The boy had zero training. We cannot worry about it being a representation of a new capability.¡±

    ¡°It isn¡¯t unknown, Sir, with all due respect.¡± Eric shook his head, knowing he shouldn¡¯t press the point but the man was wrong. ¡°Prior to our attempt to clean out the Citadel there was an incident with a cruise ship.¡±

    ¡°I know my history, Mr. Felsen.¡± Minister Callen didn¡¯t appreciate being challenged by a security person, particularly one who had fared poorly in the recent action. He was preferring Arjan in the man¡¯s job and sooner rather than later.

    ¡°I merely suggest that the Directorate used electrical disruption both in San Francisco and immediately afterwards at the cruise ship. We should not tell ourselves these former experiments are completely detached from the blue weapon. We don¡¯t know. We do know we don¡¯t have protection against such a weapon.¡±Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    ¡°All we need is one good hit on Citadel and we can do that from a safe distance.¡± Minister Callen¡¯s face was tight, his tone unpleasant. ¡°We¡¯ll drown them. We have only to form a ring around the island to detonate charges against any submarines and they are trapped. Do you think they can swim away?¡±

    Eric realized he had gone too far. For a moment a sense of panic washed through him at this massive shift in his circumstances and then, oddly, relief. ¡°Of course not, Sir. However, I wish to suggest an immediate change. I believe Arjan is better suited to represent Tule Soc in this important mission. He has a strong military mindset and training in battle scenarios. My expertise is intelligence gathering and security. Would you approve his immediate advancement?¡± He could see that his words had surprised the Ministers, he had navigated around their plan to remove him and possibly expose him.

    ¡°You are stepping down?¡± Minister Callen expressed his surprise.

    ¡°I am Head of Security for Tule Soc, particularly at our Fels facility.¡± Eric answered. ¡°With so many of our operatives mobilized for this mission, protecting the Fels will be all the more difficult. I am pleased to promote Arjan for this more military concern as I know his skillset. Is this a problem?¡±

    ¡°Fels. Yes, of course.¡± Minister Callen nodded to the other two Ministers. ¡°We should have considered this. Excellent analysis Eric. We will discuss Arjan¡¯s promotion to a newly created more military position representing Tule Soc.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Sir.¡± Eric fought to control the powerful wave of relief flooding him. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind I will take a lesser needed floater and immediately return to Fels.¡±

    ¡°Brief Arjan. But, you already have, haven¡¯t you?¡± Minister Callen was feeling slightly uneasy. A voluntary demotion didn¡¯t match up with what he remembered of Felsen¡¯s personality profile.

    ¡°He¡¯s on top of things.¡± Eric smiled, the first real smile he¡¯d felt in weeks, maybe years. ¡°A few minutes.¡± He gestured for Arjan to follow him. They left the building and headed into the structured grounds, a flashy extravagance for a military building. It indicated a level of strong military support for the nation/state hosting this enclave.

    ¡°What was that?¡± Arjan stopped Eric. ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    ¡°A transfer of power.¡± Eric said. ¡°I haven¡¯t felt right since before the tunnel. That graveyard weapon did more damage to me than first thought. The medic suggested rest and further tests. I was waiting for the right moment.¡± It was all a lie. Eric wondered at the ease of it escaping his mouth. ¡°You¡¯re ready.¡±

    ¡°Medical?¡± That word caught at Arjan. He was struggling to sort his feelings. He¡¯d felt something wrong. He¡¯d watched the graveyard footage almost obsessively, trying to comprehend why Eric was loosed earlier than the rest of the Tule Soc team. He¡¯d fostered suspicions that now felt churlish.

    ¡°Rest will likely do the trick.¡± Eric answered. ¡°Besides, we will be short manned and I know the Fels better than anyone, even you.¡±

    ¡°I hate the place and you know it.¡± Arjan nodded. He felt slightly guilty over Eric being forced to deal with the Ba¡¯Neesh. Maybe he could convince the Ministers to rid the entire planet of the creatures. Why stop with Citadel? They had the Vrill. They had the bones. Those could generate for centuries according to Tule Soc scientists. They were this close to genetically mastering Vrill itself. He couldn¡¯t wait.

    ¡°I do know it.¡± Eric said, nodding in response. ¡°I will be on com if you need me. But, I expect you won¡¯t. Be careful out there Arjan, there is something off about how the Directorate is responding. I¡¯ll keep the few operatives we have in the field watching for any sign, of course. But, just be careful. They are very different from the Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek at the Fels.¡±

    ¡°I think they screwed up and got caught on footage.¡± Arjan replied. ¡°But, I saw the blue hand too.¡± He answered, controlling the icy fingers crawling down his spine at the memory. ¡°Tule Soc¡¯s part in this offensive is to provide intel about the creatures, as well as biologicals to eliminate them if the flooding fails to do so.¡±

    Eric nodded. He needed this over. He patted Arjan on the shoulder and that was it. There would be files to shift, offices to vacate, routines to discover. His step was lighter as he headed toward his temporary rental room to gather his few belongings. He wanted to run. He couldn¡¯t let Arjan see that and wonder about it. The man¡¯s suspicions would return, particularly if things went badly. Why did he think things would go badly? When he was out of sight of Arjan he allowed himself to speed to a fast walk. Time was shortening. He needed to hurry. He didn¡¯t focus on the illogical thought, allowing it to sweep together with the upcoming mission, even though he had just abandoned that mission. Hurry.

    The last time Tule Soc had attacked the Citadel, Mael Strom had been eleven years old. The attack began with Tule Soc using its then brand new Vrill-detecting drones to identify Order-born Soek on their vacations. They were hunting the Directorate facilities but felt that taking out Order-born Soek along the way was worthwhile and easy. Attack defenseless children and those hosting them, that was the plan.

    When they identified a target location they dispersed a biological weapon that infected Homo Soekenesis with a disease called the Early Death. This weapon attacked post-puberty age Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh. Younger Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh became ill but survived. The objective of Tule Soc was to control the Vrill by having the only living specimens in their own facilities.

    The first three attacks were on vacation compounds, among them a place near Fisher Bay in Dailian, China was attacked. Mael Strom¡¯s string, a collection of six boys ranging from five to seventeen, were present. Mael was not allowed out of the Citadel at that time because he was on detention. Jordy and Elias had already aged out of his string, that left Pedro Lopez at fourteen, Moritz Belken at eleven, Arjun Safar at eight, Zhigiang Chen at seven, Norris Fenright at six and Evgeny Stepanov at five.

    Pedro and Morris died two days later from the disease. Moritz, Arjun, Zhigiang, Norris and Evgeny disappeared, taken by the attacking Tule Soc. They were brain wiped and retrained as Soek mules. That was the history from the Directorate side for that single string of Soek boys. On the Tule Soc side, only four boys in that string were officially recovered. The mystery of the fifth Soek boy remained hidden, he ceased to exist.

    Eric leaned back in his seat. This floater had a dedicated pilot. High praise from his bosses, or were they just keeping an eye on him? He closed his eyes. There was a boy there lurking in what he now knew were recovered memories. They were good friends, string mates. His name was Norris and he had bright red hair that curled like a halo. He laughed a lot. Norris. His friend.

    Norris was six and Evgeny was five and they were running in terror as drones sprayed them from overhead. Norris, crying and telling Evgeny to hide inside a barrel. Norris. His friend, telling him Tule Soc was trying to kill them all. Tule Soc. He had to hide from Tule Soc. ¡°I am Evgeny Stepanov,¡± Eric whispered to himself, silent words forming on his lips, too dangerous to speak aloud. I am Evgeny Stepanov. I will find Norris. Tule Soc has Norris.

    Eric checked in with Kommando Strategische Aufkl?rung. His position within the KSA had zero official connection with Tule Soc. Only two top brass knew he also worked for Tule Soc and what Tule Soc was. For everyone else, he had simply been away on personal business, a family emergency. Having dual jobs offered him a unique opportunity. He had paid particular attention when the nation/state military identified and then wiped the molcom of Mick Huxley.

    It occurred to him that likely the special faction within Tule Soc who had rescued him into their project, were using the same technology. They could only use it on identified molcoms. That was what he learned from Mick Huxley. His molcom was known. It meant that the moment his handlers would use him it would likely be done through his molcom. His lifetime research on Mael Strom had revealed he was part of a String, whose list he now found himself included on.

    Was he really one of those stolen Soek boys? Or, had the graveyard done something else to his brain? He could so vividly remember the Ba¡¯Neesh smiling into his eyes. Had she done something to him? He wasn¡¯t the same. He¡¯d suffered massive headers and stomach problems for the last two days, coupled to memories of a life before Tule Soc. One of his new memory fragments included gossip that Mael wasn¡¯t allowed on Quarters because he broke his molcom. Knowing what Mael Strom had done shortly after that gossip, Eric believed it to be true. What it meant for him was the thin possibility that he too could break his. Could he escape the trap?

    His plan, once he understood what those few fragments meant, was to create a window of opportunity for himself. Likely, he had only a few days before whatever warfare commenced would send Arjan home and there simply wasn¡¯t room for two Heads of Security within Tule Soc. He wanted to find Norris and try to solve Mael¡¯s puzzle, how to break a molcom. For that, he needed to talk to the Ba¡¯Neesh. It was a terrifying plan. He smiled.

    (I have posted three drawings on earlier chapters so far. I hope to eventually make one for each chapter. I invite you to explore as I am likely to post some out of order when excited by a scene or image, they are like treasures for you to find. If you have joined me then you have seen them already. I can be found at https://www.facebook.com/Fay-Thompson-FAYT-Author-Artist-312158343071554/?modal=admin_todo_tour</a>! Enjoy!)

 Chapter Twenty-Six - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Twenty-Six ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    <h1>It was a forty-minute high-speed tram ride from the Security Headquarters in Munich to the non-descript small town of Schelklingen centered in the National Reserves and accessible only by tram with private pass approval. The town¡¯s sole industry was Tule Soc, although its major manufacturing was in Munich. Schelklingen held the Tule Soc Research Center, a small cluster of buildings that were modern, but not fancy. To the world Tule Soc was the preeminent manufacturer of customized pharmaceuticals. Their public building¡¯s in Munich prominently displayed their many humanitarian awards. They were famous for spending vast sums to heal a single person whose case had baffled other medical centers. What they sold behind closed doors were biological and chemical weapons, most with limited dispersal for targeted harm.</h1>

    <h1>Eric knew that the moment he entered the tram, security was watching. Nothing happened near Tule Soc, it was his job to make security invisible and he was good at his job. While the small town had its appeal, it wasn¡¯t pretty enough to attract vacationers, intentionally so. It¡¯s single small hostel was never full. There were no accidental visitors. Visiting family were the only exceptions, the town¡¯s only guests.</h1>

    If you were an actual guest of Tule Soc, you stayed inside Tule Soc and likely never entered the town at all, there were less public entry points disguised and hidden. The townspeople believed the privacy of the researchers was carefully guarded. Mostly the town housed Soek mules living mundane human lives. They were employed by Tule Soc and every aspect of their lives were closely monitored and sometimes adjusted to keep them ready for use. If the town had a peculiar statistic, it was the commonality of its male population leaving suddenly. But, slight memory adjustments erased anyone noticing.

    Eric was well known in town and several people waved at him when they saw him exiting the tram. They thought he was a researcher or did some kind of technical work at the labs. He commuted, living elsewhere, not a local. Nice enough though, if a bit dour. Didn¡¯t smile enough. Was smiling today.

    He entered the lab and routed himself past security. He¡¯d let them know he was coming in. The man in charge of Security when Arjan and Eric were absent was named Henreich Ulff. He was in his mid-forties with just the hint of a paunch, lighter hair trimmed tight till it was almost too short. He snapped to attention and hurriedly paced the boss. He couldn¡¯t understand why Eric Felsen was at Tule Soc when the battle for Citadel was surely only hours away.

    ¡°Update me.¡± Eric ignored the man¡¯s obvious questions. He intended to send Heinreich off toward the battle within hours. First, he needed to immerse himself in the routine of Fels Security.

    ¡°Shipments of all requested compounds are in the final stages of preparation.¡± Heinreich said, wondering why Eric wanted a personal update, everything was in his reports. ¡°I have cancelled all vacation time and off days for the duration. We have a deadline for incoming personnel in three hours.¡± Heinreich struggled to keep up with Eric who was already riding the Security lift down eight floors. Ba¡¯Neesh Level. Ba¡¯Neesh. Damn. ¡°We are, of course, mid-process on the Termination Sequence for this quarter¡¯s Ba¡¯Neesh. Security down here is reduced to three men on rotation. Everything else is locked down, the creatures are fully tranked. Well, except for those drying out for Termination.¡±

    Eric flinched. Days ago the word would have gone in and out of his head with a tag of disposable monster. Today, the word termination so casually stated nearly brought up his stomach. He could see the Ba¡¯Neesh in the graveyard, looking into him. Tule Soc were fools, himself included.

    ¡°Fine. Order is maintained. I will be moving more personnel to join the shipment. I also want to see which mules are being selected. We may not need them after all. Assemble the relevant files at the Security Station and inform me that you and everyone else is ready to fly. We are short on time.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a change in the plan?¡± Heinreich stumbled. His participation included.

    ¡°We are flexible to rapidly changing situations.¡± Eric answered obliquely. ¡°Being prepared is the minimum we should do. I wish to personally see what state the Ba¡¯Neesh are in. You do the files. I will join you again in a moment.¡±

    ¡°Sir, yes Sir.¡± Heinreich jogged back to the Security Station fuming under his breath. He didn¡¯t want to fly out. He had dinner plans.

    Eric continued down the long hall. When a set of Ba¡¯Neesh were timed out, Tule Soc moved them into separate quarters from the rest. They were allowed off the tranks, an essential step to amping them up for fighting. Their bones would only generate good Vrill if they died in battle, a lesson hard learned by Tule Soc before his time. There was a passageway transparent aluminum wall that allowed him to look into their new quarters in safety.

    He¡¯d forgotten the date in all of the excitement over Mick Huxley. He stared through the window at twenty-eight ragged looking Ba¡¯Neesh stumbling around in a relatively small space. They looked like animals, so very different from the ones in the graveyard. Would these blurry broken things be of any use to him? His hopes faded. He would have to try.

    They noticed that he wasn¡¯t the guard and they charged the glass. Awake enough to express fury. He noted their blunted horns, kept that way for easy handling. They would be shown how to sharpen their stumps before the battle. The routine was to amp them up and turn them loose on each other where they would go into blood rage and gore each other to death. Those that survived would be killed by knife. All for Vrill harvesting. His stomach revolted.

    Each of the Ba¡¯Neesh was twenty-five years old, the age where true memory wakened, where they became too dangerous to keep contained.

    Several slammed into the window a second time. He jerked back. How could he ask anything of these furious creatures? They knew this was the death room. They always knew.

    The viewing room had the gauges that indicated how much trank they were receiving. Policy was to ease them off slowly, over a couple days. He didn¡¯t have that. He adjusted the mixture to zero and then he hurried away, sealing the viewing room under his palm only.

    Heinreich was ready for him when he arrived. He started off by telling Eric that he had medical appointments the following day and could not be reasonably excused. Eric pulled up the man¡¯s files in front of him and deleted the hastily added appointments. ¡°You are a top agent. There is nothing to be handled here in the next few days that a mule can¡¯t stand in on.¡±

    ¡°A mule?¡± Heinreich was stunned. Mules were kept out of the labs.

    ¡°Yes, we have several on our lower level security team. They are expendable later, my skilled men are not.¡± Eric made a show of flipping through the personnel files. ¡°I will be putting you in charge of the lab transports, along with the extra men.¡± He leaned forward, checking the cargo lists. ¡°What¡¯s this? You have Activation Materials on the same aircraft with the Inert Compounds.¡±

    ¡°Sir?¡± Heinreich pressed forward to stare at the holo. Everything looked correct to him. He frowned.

    ¡°There was a memo.¡± Eric knew the best way to get a man off his stride was by bringing up the memo. No one ever knew if they received and read all of them, it was something of a joke. ¡°When more than one transport craft are going to a single location, Activation Materials are to be flown separate from Inert Compounds. Prevents accidental mixing if there is a failure of the craft.¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    Heinreich nodded. Put that way it made sense. He fumed over missing that memo and hoped it wouldn¡¯t appear as a dock mark on his permanent file.

    ¡°I will redirect the cargo.¡± Eric said, his fingers flying. ¡°You hustle toward the debarkation point, check every name and make sure everyone is present. It¡¯s your command.¡±

    Heinreich nodded and saluted again. The gaff might pass then.

    Eric altered the coding on the Activation Materials to one intended for a different mixture. Together they would do nothing. Someone would catch the error, but not in the last few minutes of loading. A review, tomorrow or next week maybe. The mission on Citadel would not have lethal biologicals to use on the Soek. ¡°Hustle, man. Make sure all of our agents are out of this level. I¡¯m going to pull in those mules. I don¡¯t want them seeing each other.¡±

    Heinreich felt like he was privy to a secret. Such sharing almost guaranteed advancement points. He turned and raced away, his mind flooded with unexpected rushed orders. He checked every room, including the bathroom to make sure all of his new command men were exiting with him. He adopted a stern face telling them to check their orders. Most had similar feelings to his, they had intended other activities with most of the staff unexpectedly off campus. Now foiled.

    Eric overrode all previous orders and shipped out every operative he could locate. Misery loved company. A few might want the adventure; most were slackards which was why they weren¡¯t chosen earlier.

    He sat down to pull up the mule list. With two-thousand, five hundred Ba¡¯Neesh at the facility, the list included almost five thousand names. He knew he wouldn¡¯t find Norris by name, like his own, it would be a different name. He set the search for red hair and date of acquisition. Almost immediately he pulled three names, two were deceased. He studied their features first before going to the remaining Soek, a gardener. In fact, he recognized the man¡¯s name the instant it came up. Simon the Gardener. He had a gift for making things grow. Eric blinked, he¡¯d passed the Soek on his way into the building less than an hour earlier. There was a note in the file that his services were not to be moved from gardening. Someone upstairs liked gardens.

    He sent a summons to Simon Parkerson and he sent clearances through all of the various Security check points.

    He sent a summons to four other Soek who were indeed working low level security. They were true mules. He could do nothing about the mules already shipping out. He checked the time.

    He overrode the system to order in a large transport with restraints. With all of the vehicle traffic, one additional craft was mostly ignored. Clearly Tule Soc was going to transport more mules. The craft was designed for weapons deployment transport.

    Eric coded in to look at the Ba¡¯Neesh in termination. They were yelling and honking and banging on the walls, far more active than when they were slowly brought off the trank. He activated a low-level inhibitor drug which would pass in and out of their systems in four hours.

    The five mules arrived at his secure station breathless and alarmed. All of them knew any summons likely meant something bad. He turned to face them, trying not to focus on the gardener who looked entirely out of place with green overalls covered in old stains. The other four were in their blacks and looked reasonable. They might be security.

    ¡°I¡¯m Eric Felsen, Head of Security. We will be transferring Ba¡¯Neesh from an enclosure to a transport craft. The area is secure and the loading ramp is blind meaning what we are loading will not be visible to other persons in the area. You are here to insure that is what happens. They are slowed down and all are wearing magnetized cuffs so they will automatically form a chain. Your job will be to watch and tell me of any issues.¡±

    ¡°What is a Ba¡¯Neesh?¡± The gardener asked. His voice was Norris, rich and full.

    ¡°A Ba¡¯Neesh is a non-human humanoid. They are female and have been kept poorly. We are moving them for their safety and health.¡±

    ¡°A non-human?¡± Simon repeated the startling statement.

    ¡°Yes, they have fur, horns, breasts, cloven hooves and more.¡± Eric answered, trying not to be impatient. ¡°Yet, they are very like humans. Be careful. You are not expendable to this operation.¡±

    ¡°Animals?¡± Simon continued.

    ¡°No. They are Ba¡¯Neesh.¡± Eric gestured them toward the long hallway. ¡°I will explain more once we are in the air. Move out.¡±

    They hurried, except for the gardener who kept staring at Eric, a slight frown on his forehead. He kept pace but only just.

    The transfer from holding into the transport craft went surprisingly well, considering the shock on all of the mule¡¯s faces. Eric showed them how to secure each Ba¡¯Neesh in a seat usually used to restrain mules. They secured all of the Ba¡¯Neesh and took their own seats. They were flying without a pilot. Eric had entered a false destination that he intended to alter once they were safely away.

    Their craft got in line to launch and waited. The wall transparencies allowed them to watch the craft heading out to battle launching immediately before them. The Ba¡¯Neesh stared in silence, this was the first time any of them had ever seen topside, trees, mountains, green.

    ¡°Your designation and code?¡± A voice came over the intercom. Eric used Arjan¡¯s code and a typical mule designation. There was a pause and then the same voice said, ¡°Cleared. Good luck on your mission.¡±

    Eric leaned back in his seat only then noticing the acute tension in his back muscles.

    After fifteen minutes following out the fleet, he altered the auto plan and his craft shifted position.

    The same voice as before asked why their destination was coding. Eric replied. ¡°Our mission is above your pay grade.¡± He deactivated the sensors and removed all of the tailing tags. That left the mule locators and all of their molcoms.

    The temporary drugs were already wearing off on the Ba¡¯Neesh, much earlier than expected. He could hear their outrage at discovering they were restrained.

    He brought out a knife and thought back on that moment when Mick Huxley had cut the locator out of his shoulder. He started with his own. The pain elicited a heavy grunt. He breathed through it and popped the locator out. When he was sure he could stand, he walked over to the hanging medical kit and pulled out sterile wipes. He cleaned the blade, letting his shoulder bleed. He heard a change in tone with the Ba¡¯Neesh. When he looked, they were staring at him, licking their lips. Blood. He stared back.

    He handed the knife to the next mule. ¡°Cut yours out now.¡± He ordered, using an edge of Vrill in his speech. He wasn¡¯t well trained but it was enough to cause the Ba¡¯Neesh to grunt and stomp. They did better, calling out, ¡°Cut it out, cut it out.¡± Their voices individually weak but collectively powerful. Each of the mules repeated what Eric and done, except most cleaned away their own blood, probably not liking the greed now nakedly visible on the faces of the Ba¡¯Neesh.

    Simon was last. He had to remove layers of clothing and he delayed so he could clean the area well. He did this while looking directly at the Ba¡¯Neesh, almost like he was egging them on. He placed Eric¡¯s knife aside and found a scalpel in the med kit. Much sharper. With more care and restraint than the other Soek, he cut himself open with almost medical precision. Then he laughed. He let his shoulder bleed while he reached down to pick up the locator. He sniffed it to the rapt attention of the young Ba¡¯Neesh. Then he placed it in the onboard incinerator disposal unit and hit the button. In a flash, his locator was gone.

    The other Soek hurried to find theirs and do the same.

    ¡°Still got to deal with the molcom, Eric Felsen.¡± Simon said.

    Then he walked over to the nearest Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°Could you heal this for me, please?¡± He asked.

    She lunged in the restraints. He didn¡¯t pull back, just avoided her blunted horns. He shoved his shoulder forward. The Ba¡¯Neesh all around him were jerking and howling. The one he¡¯d approached stuck out her tongue and licked and then the most extraordinary sound came out of her.

    ¡°Me. Me. Me too.¡± The other Ba¡¯Neesh yelled out, Vrill running up and down the words.

    The mules crept forward, clearly afraid, and offered their wounds to one after the other, Eric included. He made sure every Ba¡¯Neesh had a taste although by the time they reached the last, there wasn¡¯t much blood left to be licked. He stared at his wound in amazement, it was already sealing closed.

    (I hope you enjoyed this taste of the Ba¡¯Neesh. I did! Onward we go. A little blood for everyone today!)

 Chapter Twenty-Seven - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Twenty-Seven ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Eric didn¡¯t really know where to take the craft. Weirdly, he realized he was tracing Mick¡¯s footsteps. First, steal a craft, then hide it, then battle your way to freedom. What had Mick gained, a brain wipe. Could he do better? The difference between them centered on a ship full of Ba¡¯Neesh and five other Soek, all upset. He needed to get out of sight. He circled the craft back toward the area of ground he knew best. Tule Soc, not the facility, but, Tule Soc¡¯s Research Facility was near Hohle Fels (hollow rock), the generative of his surname, Felsen. He¡¯d grown up in the area, on the edge of the Reserves. The famous cave called Hohle Fells and its massive cave system was long-since closed due to its fragile nature and a century or more of visitors doing damage to its truly ancient art. Hohle Fels was where the first ever Venus statue was found, made by Paleolithic early man.

    At the last minute he diverted to an even more remote cave ruin named Brillenhohle. It¡¯s two spectacle-like cave holes had collapsed into a single larger opening after an earthquake. He had once seen the still visible cave opening on satellite footage in an area of the Reserves deemed too dangerous for exploration. His craft should just fit into the cave with enough room to hide most of the craft under the remaining cave ceiling.

    He had to finesse the craft into the tight space by switching to manual and flying it in himself. The fallen roof had made the cave floor a litter of boulders. He used the craft¡¯s stabilizers to level the interior making the tight space even tighter.

    Simon had watched this maneuver with a great deal of interest, standing behind the pilot¡¯s chair. He noted that Eric Felsen used a lot of barely audible curse words while bumping the craft into the cave walls. Clearly they were hiding.

    ¡°Now what? They will likely want to pee soon.¡± Simon asked. ¡°I know I do. Is there an exterior door that can open into the cave proper? I¡¯d like to explore. I¡¯m not much for confined spaces.¡±

    Eric frowned. The idea he might have to release individual Ba¡¯Neesh hadn¡¯t occurred to him in his hastily constructed plan. He rose to a sea of curious, watchful eyes. He owed Norris. This Simon was Norris trapped inside a wiped mind. He was uncertain how that fit together except he kept feeling like he owed this Soek. Was he the same person with a different name? It was a critical question Eric needed to answer for himself.

    There was an exit door that could open, very close to one of the cave walls. He managed to get it open saying, ¡°No way to deploy the ramp. You will need to climb down on your own.¡±

    Simon was already in the doorway. He flashed a smile and dropped down in one big jump. The other mules were standing, looking around with growing uncertainty.

    ¡°What are we doing here?¡± One asked.

    ¡°Testing some new equipment for Security Division.¡± Eric lied. ¡°Go ahead and explore the cave if you wish, don¡¯t leave the cave. I will maintain supervision of the Ba¡¯Neesh.¡±

    All four of the Soek nodded and headed over to follow the gardener out. It was only mid afternoon. An escape of under an hour. Eric wanted to throw up. None of this would work, what had he done?

    ¡°Will there be more blood?¡± One of the Ba¡¯Neesh asked in German, her accent thick and slow.

    Eric noted that none of the Ba¡¯Neesh were trying to escape. The circumstances appeared to be entertaining them, rather than frightening or alarming them. More blood? ¡°Likely. Likely things won¡¯t go well.¡± He admitted.

    ¡°I like blood, tasty.¡± The same Ba¡¯Neesh answered.

    ¡°Me too.¡± Several near the first one murmured agreement.

    Eric realized now was a prime opportunity to ask the Ba¡¯Neesh if they knew how to kill a molcom. He had them alone. He neared the more talkative of them. She watched him closely.

    ¡°Do you know how to kill the molcom in my brain?¡± He spaced out each word. It hadn¡¯t occurred to him they may never have heard of either the molcom or even the word brain.

    ¡°I like to kill, I think.¡± The Ba¡¯Neesh answered.

    He groaned. ¡°Molcom?¡± He asked again.

    ¡°I don¡¯t remember a molcom.¡± She picked out the word for emphasis. Is it here for me to kill it?¡±

    A thump brought his attention around to see Simon had returned.

    ¡°What does she want to kill?¡± Simon asked walking over and among the Ba¡¯Neesh as if unafraid.

    ¡°I want to kill the molcom.¡± Eric said. ¡°They can find it, wipe us all.¡±

    ¡°Ahh.¡± Simon nodded, pulling off his gardening cap to ruffle his still curly red hair. ¡°That is what this is about?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Eric answered. Somehow he had thought a mule meant lower intelligence. He hadn¡¯t conflated the term with himself or Norris. It was an error. Clearly Simon wasn¡¯t stupid. He might not have before wipe fragments, but the man had managed to make himself valuable. Not a mean feat for a mule. ¡°I hoped they would know, the Ba¡¯Neesh. There is a Soek named Mael Strom, he killed his at six years old. That means they should also know how.¡± Eric watched Simon carefully when he said this to see if his old friend had any echo inside of him from Mael¡¯s name.

    ¡°A maelstrom is like a tornado in a lake or large body of water.¡± Simon said. ¡°You say this is a person¡¯s name? What is a Soek?¡±

    Eric absorbed the storm lesson, he hadn¡¯t known there was a water storm called a maelstrom. It clearly fit Mael too. ¡°A Soek?¡±

    ¡°Yes, you said a Soek.¡± Simon repeated.

    ¡°I did.¡± Eric nodded. ¡°A Soek is a non-human humanoid that emerged parallel to Homo Sapien Sapien, it is technically a Homo Soekenesis. You and I and those with us, all of us here, are Soek.

    ¡°I am Ba¡¯Neesh.¡± The talkative one spoke up. Clearly she was avidly listening, as were the other Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Eric said, ¡°You are Ba¡¯Neesh, the female Soekenesis. I am just a stupid Soek, the male Soekenesis.¡±

    Simon laughed at this and then roared. His amusement caused the Ba¡¯Neesh to laugh too. For Eric this was a first, he had never witnessed a Tule Soc Ba¡¯Neesh laughing. In his memory of the graveyard, he remembered one of those two Ba¡¯Neesh laughing, she had laughed at him. She had done something to him. He rubbed his face.

    ¡°Well stupid Soek Eric Felsen, did these Ba¡¯Neesh have the answer you need?¡± Simon asked, gesturing at the confined group, clearly finding the situation of continuing amusement.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± Eric sagged a bit. Saying it out loud made it real. ¡°Their memories are ¨C limited. I had hoped, but I don¡¯t think they know what a molcom is much less that each of us has one like a ticking bomb in our skulls.

    ¡°So, ask this Mael Strom person.¡± Simon said pragmatically, ¡°I take it he is a Homo Soekenesis too?¡±

    Eric flinched. ¡°He¡¯s Order.¡± Eric answered. ¡°They are our enemy. Tule Soc¡¯s enemy, I mean.¡± His body and brain were in direct conflict over this practical suggestion. So simple. Ask Mael Strom for help. Impossible. Tule Soc was getting ready to bomb the Soek, the Order, all of Citadel.

    ¡°Order. I know that word.¡± Simon rubbed at the bristle that was a short beard. ¡°How do I know that word?¡± He asked Eric, his gaze speculative.

    ¡°Order.¡± Eric was still focused on the suggestion. Ask Mael. He looked at the craft full of Ba¡¯Neesh. Order would love to have them. Could he manage a trade? ¡°Order is the Order of Guardians of the Grove, bound to protect and take care of the Ba¡¯Neesh in their care.¡± Eric recited the words by rote, only afterwards realizing it was a memory fragment that offered the memorized snippet.

    ¡°These Ba¡¯Neesh aren¡¯t well protected or cared for.¡± Simon reached over to pass his hand gently down the upper arm of the talkative Ba¡¯Neesh, who was listening and watching him closely. She didn¡¯t react beyond glancing at other Ba¡¯Neesh, curiosity in the look.

    ¡°No.¡± Eric admitted. There was pain in that admission. ¡°There isn¡¯t time. Tule Soc is attacking the Citadel today.¡±

    ¡°Citadel?¡± Simon stiffened slightly. ¡°Tule Soc is attacking those who protect these Ba¡¯Neesh?¡± He clarified aloud.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Eric paced between the rows. ¡°There was an incident where a city lost its power.¡±

    ¡°The newsworthy terrorism of the Directorate?¡± Simon asked.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Eric nodded. ¡°The Directorate and the Order are twins, part of one group. Tule Soc is attacking the Order as the Directorate Headquarters are too well protected.¡±

    ¡°Cowards.¡± Simon said. ¡°What is at this Citadel?¡±

    This disturbed the Ba¡¯Neesh who repeated the word like an echo.

    ¡°Citadel?¡± Eric frowned. ¡°It¡¯s mostly a school for Soek boys. And, it houses what we believe is over a thousand Beloved and half that many Ba¡¯Neesh, with Elders.¡±

    ¡°Double cowards.¡± Simon rested his hand on the Ba¡¯Neesh¡¯s furred shoulder. ¡°Tule Soc is attacking children?¡±

    ¡°Elders!¡± The Ba¡¯Neesh repeated, excitement in her tone.

    ¡°When Tule Soc realizes we are gone, that you took these Ba¡¯Neesh, they will hunt us down. Right?¡± Simon continued.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°What to lose, Eric Felsen, Head of Tule Soc Security? If this Mael Strom person lives, ask him. Perhaps he values these Ba¡¯Neesh and those children enough to help you.¡± Simon said.

    ¡°Help us.¡± Eric modified.

    ¡°I noticed I was the only gardener you ordered to your lair. Why? Who am I to you Eric Felsen?¡± Simon asked.

    Eric shook his head. ¡°No time. I can place an encrypted call to Montana, Directorate Headquarters. They could possibly route me through, in the middle of a battle. Dark Gods I really am a fool.¡± He was already ignoring Simon, caught in the thrall of the suggestion. Ba¡¯Neesh and children. Why had he never truly processed these things until that graveyard? He used the overrides on his external and then walked over to the side of the craft that was under the cave opening. Signal strength increased. He noted that Simon continued to lightly touch the Ba¡¯Neesh. They were allowing him to do so. It was extraordinary. Simon/Norris who had not been in that graveyard to be wakened, could touch a Ba¡¯Neesh gently. His stomach soured further.

    ¡°Jordy?¡± Brad nudged Jordy, still sitting beside him. ¡°We¡¯ve got a call.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Jordy answered, deep into the expected deployment of the hidden arsenal protecting the Citadel. They had always known that some day Tule Soc would try again.

    Brad yelled over toward the Sigil Room. ¡°Hey Mael, Eric Felsen is raising hell with Tech Ops in Montana demanding to speak to you and only to you.¡± Brad turned the conversation on to broadcast.

    Thorne yelled out. ¡°I¡¯m head of the Directorate. He must mean me.¡±

    ¡°He won¡¯t talk to you.¡± Brad answered. Everyone could hear Tech Ops making that argument in the background with Eric Felsen being adamant.

    Mael, who had been in his favorite position laying on the floor staring at the ceiling sigil, pushed himself to a seated position. ¡°Isn¡¯t Eric Felsen head of Tule Soc Security?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s him.¡± Brad nodded. His gut was telling him the situation was about to change. He loved it. He adjusted his medications to allow for sudden action.

    ¡°He has to speak with me and currently the Directorate is not saying anything about the terrorism accusations.¡± Thorne said, unhappy that Mael was now standing to walk past him toward Brad.

    ¡°Why does he want to speak with me?¡± Mael asked, as if Thorne hadn¡¯t spoken at all.

    Brad pulled up the most recent footage of Eric Felsen frozen in the graveyard. It was a good facial view. Mael leaned in and stared at the holo. ¡°I don¡¯t think I know this¡­¡± He stopped talking. The footage continued to play, showing Perisee sashay up to the frozen Eric to get nearly nose-to-nose with him before laughing.

    ¡°Perisee! Lemista!¡± Mael yelled out, bringing everyone to attention. Brad politely broadcast their names throughout Citadel where the two were playing a poke me game topside.

    ¡°What?¡± Thorne demanded, hurrying over to join the crowd at Brad¡¯s desk. ¡°What do you see, Mael?

    Brad had frozen the image on Eric¡¯s face.

    ¡°Where are those brats?¡± Mael thundered again. ¡°Perisee! Lemista!¡±

    ¡°We need to be focused on that incoming mob of aircraft.¡± Thorne said, pointing at the holo Jordy was following.

    Thundering hooves arrived at Brad¡¯s door. He noted what seemed like every adult Ba¡¯Neesh was crowding the hall just outside the door. He overrode the speakers in the hall to say, ¡°Mael requires Perisee and Lemista to enter. The rest of you can please wait. The rooms are full. I will project holos along the wall so everyone can see.¡±

    The Ba¡¯Neesh stomped and yelled in frustration at being denied access, but only Perisee and Lemista came forward. There were three Ba¡¯Neesh already in the Sigil Room, Old One Horn, Moira and Anya. Brad left the outer door open as the slightly less eager Perisee and Lemista faced Mael.

    The expressions on the two entering Ba¡¯Neesh faces were telling. Mael gave them each a hard look and then he focused on Perisee. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me? What did you do to him?¡± He yelled. ¡°Do you realize we are a bit busy for this, right now?¡± He continued.

    ¡°For what?¡± Thorne demanded, echoing the frustrations of everyone else playing catch up.

    ¡°I only gave him a little push.¡± Perisee said after glancing at the holo.

    ¡°But, he¡¯s mine. I tasted him first.¡± Lemista whined. ¡°How did you push and not share with me? Sneaky. What did she do, Mael?¡± Lemista asked.

    Mael had turned back to the screen, staring at the image. He straightened. ¡°Patch him through Brad.¡±

    Thorne stomped his own foot and wanted to shake Mael hard. The Turtle was now stepping firmly on his turf. Xasper tapped Thorne on the shoulder and shook his head. ¡°Not in front of the Ba¡¯Neesh.¡± He whispered to Thorne. Everyone knew they loved mayhem, particularly up close and personal and with blood if possible.

    ¡°Right.¡± Thorne steamed, forcing himself to be still.

    ¡°Eric Felsen?¡± Mael, like everyone watching on the holos was looking past the man¡¯s face to what had to be the interior of an aircraft with Ba¡¯Neesh strapped in. That registered with a hard jolt, Eric with Ba¡¯Neesh strapped in somewhere.

    ¡°Mael Strom?¡± Eric managed to look fairly calm although when the holo appeared he gaped at the strangest male he had ever seen. Mael¡¯s entire head was covered in a helmet-like shell, his face was altered to a wedge shape, yet he still looked human too.

    ¡°I am The Turtle.¡± Mael continued. ¡°Why are you contacting me?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s got damned Ba¡¯Neesh on a ship.¡± Thorne whispered to Xasper.

    ¡°I have eyes.¡± Xasper whispered back.

    ¡°I want to make a trade.¡± Eric stated flatly.

    ¡°What do you have that I could possibly want?¡± Mael asked.

    Anya was now standing at his side, her horns burning bright. Everyone near her could feel her rising tension in the sharp snorting sounds puffing out of her nostrils.

    Eric swallowed hard, visibly.

    ¡°He¡¯s way nervous.¡± Brad said. ¡°How strange.¡±

    ¡°No way he would ever violate protocols like this.¡± Jordy stated, both were speaking low. ¡°Is this a trap?¡±

    ¡°Well?¡± Mael¡¯s tone hardened. ¡°Are you in that mess of aircraft heading toward us now?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Eric shook his head. ¡°I resigned as head of Tule Soc Security and then sort of defected.¡±

    It was an extraordinary word, old and seldom used. Brad played a definition out loud to much nodding and consternation from the now avidly watching observers.

    ¡°I am not the person to defect to. That would be Damien Thorne. He is here with me. Do you wish to speak with him?¡± Mael asked.

    ¡°No. A hundred times no.¡± Eric shook his head. ¡°I want to trade these Ba¡¯Neesh for the solution to killing the molcom.¡±

    Brad instantly shut down the audio reply as the hallway and outer room burst out in shocked responses. He narrowed the pickup focus to just Mael and Anya who hadn¡¯t moved an inch. Only Anya¡¯s snorting had intensified abruptly.

    ¡°Trading your damaged Ba¡¯Neesh is not enough.¡± Mael¡¯s words shocked a second wave of screaming reaction carefully hidden from Eric by Brad.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Anya hissed at Mael, her horns vibrating inches from his face. He gave her a single telling glance and then looked back at the pickup.

    The room and hall silenced.

    ¡°I will need more. You understand the level of importance of molcoms.¡± Mael continued.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have more.¡± Eric¡¯s expression had tightened with some readable hopelessness now clearly visible.

    ¡°Of course you do.¡± Mael said. ¡°I want total access to all Tule Soc facilities. I want everything you have in your head and files and then we will talk about the Ba¡¯Neesh.¡±

    Brad hid the gasping wave of reactions to this extraordinary demand. He was grinning widely after the shocking jolt of Mael¡¯s earlier words. Trust the Turtle!

    Mael leaned in close to Brad. ¡°Trace his location and redirect Serla there now.¡± He said, returning to his position.

    ¡°Agreed?¡±

    ¡°They will wipe me before I¡¯m half finished.¡± Eric replied, his shoulders drooping. Hope fading.

    Another Soek wearing gardening clothing entered the view. ¡°You will protect him from being wiped?¡± This new Soek asked.

    ¡°Freeze frame, Brad.¡± Mael said, leaning in to stare at the holo of bright red curly hair. He inhaled sharply.

    ¡°Unknown Soek. I see Ba¡¯Neesh nearby.¡± Mael said.

    ¡°He¡¯s ¨C Simon.¡± Eric said, hesitating slightly over the name.

    ¡°Eric, are you agreed?¡± Mael pressed. ¡°You will have to dump all critical data fast before the alarms get to you. Can you preset your external to continue and to block attempts to interrupt the data dump?¡± Mael asked.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Eric visibly worked on his external. ¡°I¡¯m ready.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Before you do this, you are certain you no longer align with Tule Soc?¡± Mael asked. ¡°We will know.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m certain.¡± Eric said, fatality evident in his tone. ¡°You have to promise me to save Simon and the four mules and the twenty-eight Ba¡¯Neesh before Tule Soc finds them.¡± Eric answered.

    First priority, save Simon. Mael hid his smile.

    ¡°Approach the Ba¡¯Neesh I see behind you. A leader?¡± Mael ordered.

    He leaned over to whisper to Anya whose facial expression altered, her tension visibly shifting at his words. She nodded.

    Eric and Simon returned to the talkative Ba¡¯Neesh. He held out his external toward her. ¡°Listen to this.¡± He said.

    Anya spoke in clear, sharp Neesh. The Ba¡¯Neesh strapped into the seats listened and then screamed and yeowled. Then as fast as the ruckus had begun, they became silent, and then the talkative one looked at Eric. She spoke a fluency of words, brief but layered in Vrill. He understood exactly none of those words. Then his header, which he had so carefully controlled with analgesic, exploded with an intensity unlike any before.

    He jerked and backed away. ¡°What have you done?¡± He yelled at Mael through the holo. ¡°My head. They are ripping my brains apart.¡± He said.

    ¡°They are remembering you.¡± Mael said. ¡°Now, Evgeny, activate the data transfer and lay down so they don¡¯t injure you when the brain wipe hits.¡±

    ¡°Evgeny?¡± Simon yelled, joined by Ba¡¯Neesh and everyone inside the Math Department.

    Mael continued, ¡°Norris, who is now Simon, you must keep everyone safe until Serla gets there. Serla is coming with the Akaitapi, they will deal with the Ba¡¯Neesh. Can you manage the external after¡­¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s down!¡± Norris yelled. ¡°I am Norris Fenright aren¡¯t I. Dark Gods, I remember more than bits.¡±

    Elias shook Mick. ¡°Wake up, all hell is breaking loose upstairs.¡±

    ¡°The Tule Soc attack?¡± Mick asked blurrily.

    ¡°No, I think Mael Strom is going to take Fels. Come on, you need to wear real clothing.¡±

    ¡°We need Brad.¡± Mick said.

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell our new captain to take us up.¡± Elias grinned, he was feeling better today. ¡°Apparently, we are required to transport a few hundred mostly Ba¡¯Neesh and Mael Strom and his crew.¡±

    ¡°What about Citadel?¡± Mick asked, still grumpy.

    ¡°Jordy and Thorne have it covered. We need to get this bucket outside of the charge perimeter before it starts.¡±

    ¡°Did I miss everything while I slept?¡± Mick asked.

    (I must admit I enjoyed writing this chapter quite a lot. I hope you enjoy reading it too. Click my stars folks. More later.)

 Chapter Twenty-Eight - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Twenty-Eight ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Arjan felt the alert on his external through first vibrations, followed by two small jolts. He excused himself from the important battle planning round table with great reluctance. Only a top alert could penetrate to his level at this point and he was inside the only top situation Tule Soc was currently involved in. He entered the small hallway of the craft and deployed his device¡¯s privacy perimeter. He was enclosed in a transparent but visible barrier of impenetrable sound proofing. ¡°What?¡± He snapped impatiently using the audio feature to activate the full alert. It was the Tech Ops Supervisor riding in the lower area of this craft.

    ¡°Sir. I am receiving a peculiar report out of Fels.¡± The Tech Sup said, ¡°I felt it should be your eyes only until you advise me how to proceed.¡±

    ¡°Run the report.¡±

    Arjan automatically noted the time. They would reach attack range in under an hour. He didn¡¯t have time for issues at Fels, that was Eric¡¯s job. A junior technician he didn¡¯t recognize appeared in a holo originating in Fels small communications center. He said something about an unauthorized encrypted message streaming through Fels uplink. ¡°What message?¡± Arjan¡¯s irritation ramped up. Didn¡¯t these fools know where he was at this exact second?

    ¡°Sir,¡± The tech stammered, ¡°It¡¯s under Head of Security Eric Felsen¡¯s override coding, fully encrypted and its data heavy.¡±

    ¡°Contact Eric Felsen then. Why are you bothering me?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve tried, Sir.¡± The tech was shaking hard now. ¡°It¡¯s the recipient of the content that forced us to contact you when we were unable to reach Eric Felsen after numerous tries.¡±

    ¡°What destination?¡± Arjan was already planning two demotions before the hour was ended. ¡°The outgoing, what is the destination recipient that so alarmed you today?¡±

    ¡°It is streaming to the Directorate in Montana, Sir.¡± Nothing could have shocked Arjan more thoroughly.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Arjan bellowed in his soundproof bubble. ¡°Is the Directorate in communication with Tule Soc? Why have I not received this interaction?¡±

    ¡°The stream is outgoing only, Sir.¡±

    Arjan pulled up the data fed to him from the ship¡¯s Tech Sup through the link to Fels. What his system told him was that a data stream was using the Fels uplink, exactly as the junior had said. He backtracked the stream. The origination source of the activity registered simply as Fels, not tracing like it should down to the specific device, room and even geographical location of the person sending it. Just Fels. He frowned, toggling Eric through all of his emergency contact lines. Nothing. He wasn¡¯t even getting a locator ping back.

    He stared at the encryption coding flowing with the data stream. Whatever was being sent was massive. He stilled. Eric not answering. Eric in that graveyard moving at the same time the Soek moved. Eric a Soek? It was impossible. No Soek could ever reach a position of authority inside Tule Soc, they were all mules.

    He sent a privacy coded alert toward Minister Callen in the war room. He didn¡¯t yet have the overrides that would accompany his new position. They had thought to have a few days to implement the rapid and unexpected withdrawal of Eric Felsen. Betrayal? A long data stream of encrypted material streaming to the Directorate without Arjan¡¯s knowledge could only be betrayal at the highest levels. He told Minister Callen who told the other Ministers on the flight and within seconds Arjan¡¯s override coding shifted along with an order to wipe Eric. If his signal was within Fels, he was close enough for the facility technician to field the signal.

    ¡°Molcom identified and eliminated. No locator confirmation. Direct signal bounce back.¡± The Tech Sup read off his own monitoring holo.

    Arjan was running the scenario, what could a high-level Soek want to send to the Directorate? Clearly he was attacking Fels. ¡°Give me the ground situation at Fels Research Lab. Identify operatives on station now.¡±

    The image of the front desk security officer swam into view. He looking up at the holo pickup confusion clear on his face. ¡°Sir?¡± He asked.

    ¡°I want the operative in charge.¡± Arjan clarified. ¡°Not the front desk sergeant in charge of the front door.¡± His tone was icy.

    The junior communication ops guy at Fels came back into view. ¡°He is the only operative we have located inside the facility at this time, Sir.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Arjan snapped back, his stomach was turning to acid. ¡°Who is in charge of security at Fels?¡±

    ¡°Eric Felsen, Sir. He logged through three hours before deployment of the transporters, Sir. He has not left the facility but we are unable to find him. Heat tracers within the facility show only the single live person, the front door guard.¡±

    Arjan swallowed hard. ¡°Do everything you can to block that stream, now! And, pull up personnel files to order in the next available security operatives to guard the labs.¡±

    ¡°Sir?¡± The craft¡¯s Tech Sup interrupted.

    ¡°What now?¡± Arjan said harshly.

    ¡°Sir, the super cavitator has changed directions and is accelerating.¡±

    ¡°What? What super cavitator?¡± Arjan asked, fighting to maintain his slipping semblance of control.

    ¡°Following your orders to note any underwater activity in the vicinity of Citadel, we picked up faint drone trace about forty minutes ago and properly reported that trace to your second, Sir.¡±

    ¡°My second?¡± Arjan asked. ¡°Who the hell is my second on this trip? I want all available data on that super cavitator on my external, yesterday!¡±

    His device added a third holo to the now crammed space inside his privacy bubble. He could imagine how chaotic he must look from the outside where three Ministers now stood watching him. There wasn¡¯t time to clean up how things looked. It was chaos.

    He messaged Minister Callen, ¡°Fels may be under attack. The big sub has left Citadel.¡±

    A new face swam into view, that of Heinreich Ulff, standing stiff and uncertain before a holo pickup. Behind him was a transport full of men. ¡°Sir?¡±

    ¡°Ulff?¡± Arjan was aghast, the man was a known screw off of the worst sort. He was supposed to be in charge of Fels this exact instant. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± His eyes paused over the data stream running under the man¡¯s image. Ulff was on one of the four added transports out of Fels. Eric had messaged he was pulling in all vacationers and off duty people to help in the mission. Four transports worth? Had Eric emptied Fels?

    ¡°I was advanced to Second in Command by Head of Security Eric Felsen.¡± Ulff said nervously, ¡°I was unaware of this until the alert about the super cavitator reached me, Sir. I felt it best to deploy additional drones as you were listed as in conference and not to be disturbed.¡±

    Arjan forced himself not to explode verbally. It was a black joke of some kind, a parting gift from Eric Felsen, now brain wiped for it. He couldn¡¯t rip Eric because he¡¯d already effectively killed Eric. He swore under his breath.

    ¡°Eighteen minutes to battle stations, Sir. In conference persons are requesting your immediate return.¡± The Tech Sup looked miserable, being the conduit for what was essentially a near public reprimand of Arjan¡¯s first real command. Eighteen minutes.

    ¡°Give me projected arrival time of the super cavitator to the North Sea. Update me on the current location of the thirty-something loaded aircraft out of Montana. What the hell is going on in Fels? I want the location of Eric Felsen, now!¡±

    Minister Callen was now standing just outside of Arjan¡¯s bubble, gesturing.

    Arjan removed the bubble and the holos spread out to form a loose circle around him.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on Arjan?¡± Minister Callen¡¯s tone was harsh. ¡°We are less that twelve minutes from target range. Your presence and ours is essential in the conference room. We should not leave our allies alone on the brink of the attack. It looks bad.¡±

    ¡°It appears the Directorate may be using our attack as an opportunity to counter-attack Fels. Eric is down but he may have been down prior to us shutting down his molcom. The facility appears to be empty of security personnel. I am reaching out to our other facilities now.¡±

    Minister Callen lifted his hand. ¡°We culled all of our facilities for top personnel for this mission. All are running emergency staffing. Didn¡¯t Eric tell you?¡±

    Arjan tried to remember the briefing. Eric had mentioned security at all of the facilities, how understaffed they were, why they could use him while Arjan was away.

    ¡°The super cavitator will reach the North Sea in just under forty minutes, Sir.¡± The Tech Sup¡¯s voice interrupted, now in the open where the Ministers could hear as well. ¡°The aircraft leaving Montana altered course about sixty minutes ago. It is overflying the former nation/state of France, as we speak, Sir. Trajectory conforms to illegal penetration of national airspace in three minutes.¡±

    Three minutes?

    ¡°Eleven minutes to target battle station, Sir.¡±

    Arjan wanted to throw up. ¡°We have to divert back to Tule Soc.¡± He said to the Ministers.

    ¡°After we deliver their death blow, Arjan.¡± Minister Callen said, ¡°At this point, you are chasing them into Fels. If they can split our attention, we must split theirs. Continue with the attack on Citadel.¡±

    ¡°Permission to send Heinreich Ulff and the additional men with him back toward Fels now, Sir.¡± Arjan tasted the bile in his mouth, Ulff wasn¡¯t his idea of a top operative. He was argumentative, bordering on disloyal and liked to mouth off to authority. Arjan could guess the man would perceive this move as a demotion coupled with a hostile reaction.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Do we need them here?¡± Minister Callen asked.

    ¡°No Sir. Apparently Eric Felsen sent them with our fleet, unbeknownst to us, Sir.¡±

    ¡°You do not seem to have anything under control, Arjan.¡± Minister Callen said, ¡°I must say, we expected better of you.¡±

    Arjan stiffened.

    ¡°Five minutes to target range.¡±

    Arjan yanked in his holo displays and strode back through the conference room door, to be met by a wall of uncertain military men staring at the four of them with barely restrained hostility.

    ¡°My pardon, Sirs.¡± Arjan did his best to sound polished. ¡°A last minute matter needed to be dealt with. We are three minutes to go?¡±

    He took his seat and ignored the beeping of his external. Three minutes, then Citadel would be fighting to stay alive. He used his fingers to tell his external, and the tech people watching it, to find Eric Felsen. That was the heart of this mess, the exact physical location of his former boss. What had Eric done to him?

    It took only minutes for the large sub to reattach itself to the Citadel dock, the mess left by its last hasty exit had yet to be cleaned up and repaired completely. Crews strung makeshift decking to the top of the sub. The dock itself was a mass of people. More than two-hundred adult Ba¡¯Neesh crowded next to a hundred and fifty Order Sec operatives, grads, seniors and even a few juniors and the cluster that travelled with Mael.

    Brad tapped on the hatch. Elias went up the steps himself to palm it into override and manually open it. He stuck his head out and looked around, shocked to see the number of people waiting to get aboard. Mael headed the mob. ¡°Elias, we need to load fast. Get Rojer near the down ladders and tell him to use his damn voice to move everyone in quickly.¡±

    ¡°Mick?¡± Elias looked down to see Mick looking up. ¡°Is She going to let everyone on?¡±

    Mick shrugged. He wasn¡¯t the boss of anything Kiena. ¡°Let¡¯s head back aft and let Rojer and the OrderSec guys direct traffic. I don¡¯t think they will gas us with all of these people aboard, do you?¡±

    Elias relayed Mick¡¯s words and discovered the first in were Mael and his group. That included Brad, Xasper, Moira and Anya and Perisee and Lemista. Apparently Mael wasn¡¯t trusting Perisee and Lemista out of his sight at the moment.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to come with you Mick.¡± Mael called out. ¡°Kiena, not your true name, don¡¯t go getting ideas of taking me, I¡¯m not yours.¡±

    Anya snorted, ¡°Like that would stop her trying.¡±

    ¡°Why do you think I¡¯m surrounding myself in Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh?¡± Mael answered, already following Elias and Mick. He nodded to Rojer, ¡°Rojer.¡± He said.

    ¡°Mael.¡± Rojer answered, his stunner in hand.

    Mick hadn¡¯t expected Mael to push his way into their secondary command space but by the steady flow of people clamoring down the main stairs it looked like Kiena was giving them a pass. He was hungry and feeling much better. He was glad he was wearing actual clothing he could thank Elias for that one.

    The central corridor space filled quickly and Elias spun the hatch. Clearly there were unspoken rules at work. Mick rummaged in the pile left by Raiko for some food.

    Jeffrey, who had been outside gathering more medical supplies, thudded on the door and Elias let him in, to seal it behind him. ¡°That¡¯s going to get tiresome rather quickly.¡± Jeffrey said to Elias¡¯ nod of agreement.

    Mick was trying hard not to stare at Mael Strom with his distorted face and turtle helmet. There was something wrong with his feet too, although they were hidden in odd-looking shoes. The Ba¡¯Neesh close to Mael gave him a pointed look. He had the instant impression she was strong with the Vrill and connected directly to Mael in some way. He wondered at the relationship between her and Mael. No one had yet told him anything about relationships. He had a feeling what he was seeing was unusual. He wanted to stare at her in particular. Anya, Mael called her. She had two prominent twisting horns that appeared to have sparkly bits flowing up and down them. Visible Vrill?

    Moira stomped on all fours down the entire corridor, exploring. To Mick, she looked the most alien of the Ba¡¯Neesh. She had a huge rack of antlers and he could tell she preferred to walk on fours, like an animal, where Anya clearly stayed mostly upright. The other two, Perisee and Lemista he remembered from the graveyard. They were deep into an argument and both were sporting what looked like fresh wounds. He wondered about the bags each of the Ba¡¯Neesh were carrying. He couldn¡¯t imagine them carrying luggage.

    Jeffrey approached the two. They immediately snuffled and snorted. A rather rude sound, to Mick¡¯s ears. Jeffrey ignored that and reached over to touch a still-bloody wound on Perisee¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Why hasn¡¯t Lemista tended this properly?¡± He scolded aloud.

    ¡°She wanted aboard over me.¡± Perisee announced, remembered outrage in her voice. ¡°She gored me.¡±

    ¡°I see you arrived anyway.¡± Jeffrey replied without overt concern. He applied a smear of something on the wound. ¡°This will taste okay when you two make-up.¡± He said. ¡°No blood in the sub. Got it?¡±

    ¡°Of course I arrived. I¡¯m Perisee!¡± Perisee announced.

    ¡°I was ahead of you anyway.¡± Lemista needled.

    They looked on the brink of more goring. Mick gaped at them. ¡°Are they always like this?¡± He whispered to Elias. Both of them were standing against the wall fairly distant from the two griping Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°You mean wounded?¡± Elias asked. Mick noted that the other Citadel boys were mostly ignoring the Ba¡¯Neesh. Morty, like Mick, was gaping and looked near panic.

    ¡°They like blood. Managing them inside a sub is ludicrous. No wonder Mael has Rojer out there yelling ¡®Horns and Antlers, Neesha.¡¯ That¡¯s code for no fighting. Left us with brat one and brat two in here though. Moira should settle them; she is their main voice when they require a single voice. At least for the Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh. She and Xasper there have a history.¡±

    ¡°That guy in the rag robe is Xasper?¡± Mick stared, each sight more peculiar than the last.

    ¡°Master Caster of the entirety of all Soek.¡± Elias nodded.

    To Mick, Xasper looked older than Mael but not as old as Thorne who thankfully wasn¡¯t present at all. Xasper had hawk-like features and strange hair. It was as if the hair on top of the man¡¯s head had parted to leave a distinct rectangle of open skin on top and that skin seemed to roil as if something was alive up there. Mick was too far away for a close look. He suspected Xasper was naked under the ragged robe. The idea made him uncomfortable.

    ¡°Why does he look like that?¡± Mick whispered.

    ¡°He¡¯s a caster.¡± Elias shrugged. ¡°He is sensitive to organics. So is Mael, you know. But at least Ornius makes sure Mael doesn¡¯t look like Xasper. Ornius is a Master of Couturier, that¡¯s fancy for clothing. He made Mael make the cap Anya is wearing, it¡¯s a living sigil too.¡±

    Mael was busy listening to something Brad was saying. He shook his head. ¡°Give me the entire ship.¡± He said, his tone urgent and irritated. Brad nodded. Mael yelled out, ¡°Horns and antlers, Neesha! Get out of the aisles so the crew can man the ship. No disputes or I¡¯ll put you back off and there will be no fun. I¡¯ll make you swim. Don¡¯t make me come down there.¡±

    Mick looked over at Elias.

    ¡°They listen to him; the only Soek they actually do listen to.¡± Elias explained.

    Moira had returned to stalk over to Perisee and Lemista who were eyeing Mael with some concern. ¡°Not you two?¡± Moira said.

    ¡°Wasn¡¯t us. He made us promise earlier.¡± They sounded defensive.

    Jeffrey, who was squatting over his medical containers looked up. ¡°Weren¡¯t you thumped?¡± He asked Moira.

    She stiffened, her chin lifting.

    ¡°Right. I brought some of my special Ba¡¯Neesh anti-thump cream. Did you want me to apply it or not?¡± He stood up with a wide jar, its lid off.

    Moira shifted her weight from hoof to hand. While on her fours she was Jeffrey¡¯s chest height. She grunted an affirmative.

    ¡°What¡¯s a thumping?¡± Mick whispered to Elias.

    ¡°That¡¯s Ba¡¯Neesh medicine.¡± Elias answered, he was rather enjoying Mick¡¯s questions. ¡°With something more than a gore they will go to Old One Eye and she will slam their skull with her horn, literally ramming healing Vrill down through the nexus point at the top of the skull. It fixes what was hurt but hurts hard from the thump. She¡¯s notorious for enjoying the bleat of pain she elicits from healing other Ba¡¯Neesh and occasionally Soek. She treats Brad regularly, you know. But, he¡¯s special. She doesn¡¯t thump him.¡±

    ¡°Thump bruises.¡± Jeffrey had been listening to this explanation while he rubbed the cream into Moira¡¯s head. Her long hair was parted and woven into her antlers. He ignored the mess the cream made of her elaborate hair treatment and rubbed away. She didn¡¯t look happy about it but she didn¡¯t stop him either. ¡°I hear we have a lot of thumpers so I¡¯ll be heading downstairs once we are underway.¡± He handed out clumps of jerky-like sticks to the Soek, including to Mick and Elias, and lollipops to the Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°No blood on the sub. Got it?¡± He said again.

    Perisee and Lemista said together, ¡°You aren¡¯t the boss of us, Healer Jeffrey. I spy fresh Soek meat.¡± They snorted, obviously now in collusion.

    Elias groaned. The two of them trotted over to confront Elias and Mick.

    ¡°You are mating ready?¡± Lemista said first. Clearly she was speaking to Mick as she shoved Elias out of the way.

    ¡°How would he know? He is only a stupid Soek.¡± Perisee replied, inhaling sharply and then making a snuffling sound.

    Mick noted that none of the other Soek were interrupting these two, they were watching carefully and quietly.

    ¡°What are they doing, Elias?¡± Mick asked, growing concerned as Perisee was overtly sniffing at his chest, where his bone hid beneath his shirt.

    ¡°Ba¡¯Neesh do what they want.¡± Elias answered obliquely.

    ¡°Great.¡± Mick backed up as far from them as he could. They simply followed him, getting ever closer.

    ¡°I want to taste him.¡± Perisee said, obviously upping her game.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be a coward.¡± Elias whispered to Mick.

    It wasn¡¯t the first time Mick had heard that advice. Ba¡¯Neesh didn¡¯t like cowards.

    He stopped backing up. ¡°No.¡± He said.

    Perisee instantly lunged forward, her soft nose touching his. ¡°You tell a Ba¡¯Neesh, no?¡± She asked.

    He couldn¡¯t see past her. He noticed she smelled good, sort of sweet and earthy. But, her horns were right there and he was certain he had seen traces of blood on their tips. They were now rippling with energy, like Anya¡¯s. Why was no one helping him?

    ¡°She asks a question, stupid Soek Mick.¡± Lemista was leaning in so close he could smell their mingled breath together. He remembered that Elias called these two the twins, not because they looked similar, because they didn¡¯t, but because they were together. Relationships. He was confused. What were they asking him? Mating? He couldn¡¯t even imagine what a Ba¡¯Neesh mating might look like.

    ¡°I heard her.¡± He managed to say.

    This launched a flurry of action which left him dumped on his back on the floor with four Ba¡¯Neesh actively sniffing his crotch through his pants. He yelled out, shoving his hands over his pants between their snuffling curious noses.

    His chest burned. He felt them lunge back as a blue apparition crawled out of his chest. He could feel Kiena, it was like he had a hole in his chest. He wailed aloud.

    ¡°I say no, Ba¡¯Neesh.¡± Kiena said, her head swinging from one Ba¡¯Neesh to the next. ¡°I say no.¡±

    Perisee clapped. ¡°Oh, I want to burst out of a stupid Soek¡¯s chest. Show me, show me.¡±

    Kiena vanished. Mick took the opportunity to scramble away and make it back to his feet. The rules, what were the fucking rules here? He stared at them wide-eyed. Perisee advanced on him. ¡°Show us how to burst out of a Soek¡¯s chest.¡± She demanded.

    ¡°How the hell would I know?¡± Mick said, clutching at his chest feeling for the hole Kiena had crawled out of. It took everything he had not to back away from her. He found only the dangling hot bone. He pulled it out of hiding and blew on it trying to cool it down. He would have a burn mark on his chest, for sure.

    ¡°A Beloved finger bone.¡± Moira stepped forward. She was nearly as curious about the bursting out of the chest trick as the younger Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°She made me carve it.¡± Mick said defensively when Moira took the bone into her fingers, tugging slightly.

    The other three Ba¡¯Neesh and now Mael crowded forward, each taking the bone in turn before passing it along. ¡°Clearly the bone is a portal.¡± Mael said.

    Moira turned on Xasper, ¡°Make Albert burst out of your chest, Xasper. You have his bone.¡±

    ¡°Tell me how and I will.¡± Xasper said sarcastically.

    ¡°How.¡± Anya interrupted. ¡°Of course Soek too stupid to know how. She knows that means we know too. First we need to pair a Soek with a bone. What do we remember?¡±

    This launched another excited round of Neesh honks, whistles and chirps. Mick realized none of them were now interested in him. Their attention was like a pointy on and off switch, currently off. He slipped away, as far away as he could manage, massaging his chest where there was a bubble of skin. He edged over to Jeffrey. ¡°Could you put something on this burn?¡± He asked. Mael, Xasper, Brad, Elias and Neo all watched, staring at the exposed burn as Jeffrey rubbed something cooling into it.

    ¡°You¡¯re getting glyphs.¡± Mael said, his fingers tracing tiny lines on Mick¡¯s skin. This brought the Ba¡¯Neesh rushing back over to look and to touch the bone again while whispering to each other in Neesh.

    Mick stood there stiffly, staring at his chest. He¡¯d seen marks like that, lines really, on his legs when he was dressing. He figured it was from the peel. What were glyphs?

 Chapter Twenty-Nine - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Twenty-Nine ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Grand Master Guardian Ornius poured his large Everhot bottle full of Guatamalan coffee and then he sealed the top. He gathered up his carry sack with its selection of pastry, fruit, cheese and blood sticks. He twitched at his best robe, selected just for this occasion then he left his quarters to slowly climb the stairs up into Ba¡¯Neesh territory on Levels One and Two at Citadel.

    A flood of youngers greeted him and they raucously called out that Old One Horn had a visitor. He kept walking, knowing the ancient Ba¡¯Neesh healer would be topside, enjoying the morning air. The youngers trailed him gabbling mostly in Neesh and giggling and laughing at jokes he couldn¡¯t share. He sometimes wished he understood more of their hidden language but then again, likely it was better he didn¡¯t know if he was the butt of their jokes.

    He finally reached the island top of Citadel, a glory of well-tended plants, trees, bushes, shrubs and equally well-tended birds. Old One Eye liked to recline near the south-facing cliff edge at this time of the day so he walked through the grove and along the path where he usually found her. He¡¯d brought a blanket he knew she favored, one of his priceless embroidered pieces. When he arrived he knelt down to greet her, offering his services to her.

    She grunted and gestured for him to sit. She knew as well as he did that their old bones preferred sitting to standing. She had known he would come and she had selected the place with the large flat rock. He always brought goodies. To her mind Ornius was the best Soek ever, though she would never ever say such a thing.

    He arranged his carry sack and bottle and a third satchel on the stone and then asked for permission to drape the blanket over her shoulders. She nodded.

    He opened his containers and mused that although he could hear the giggles and whispers of nearby youngers, there was not a one to be seen. Clearly Old One Horn had the power to keep them in hiding, a worthy power indeed.

    He sorted the offerings, poured two large mugs of hot coffee and then sat next to her, so close their thighs touched. She didn¡¯t make any complaint.

    ¡°What is in that mystery satchel?¡± She asked.

    ¡°High-powered binoculars.¡± Ornius answered. ¡°We should have an excellent view of the battle from here. And, if they should get through Thorne¡¯s defenses, then we shall die first and fast.¡±

    ¡°To be celebrated.¡± She nodded, selecting a pastry to dip in her coffee. Ornius always had the best coffee of anyone. She had heard he brewed it personally.

    They spoke amiably until Ornius¡¯ external device pinged.

    She grunted, her dislike of such devices well known.

    ¡°My apologies, Old One Horn, Thorne¡¯s anxiety demands soothing.¡± Ornius said, toggling the device to answer.

    ¡°Yes, Thorne?¡±

    ¡°You should be in the war room, not topside, what if some weapon gets through?¡±

    ¡°If one gets through then we die. Right?¡± Master Ornius selected a chunk of cheese and took a dainty bite. ¡°Defense is your job, Thorne. You are ably supported by both OrderSec and DireSec operatives as well as the supremely competent Jordy. Correct? What can one ancient Soek do for you besides listen to the attempted violence? You and I both know that you spent years perfecting the defenses. If they have a weapon that gets past you I can¡¯t sew our way out of it. Mael obviously believed Citadel would survive. I trust Mael. Now, if you wouldn¡¯t mind, I am enjoying or planning to enjoy the battle from a good vantage point with a dear friend. Please do not disturb me with things I can do nothing about.¡± Ornius set the device on silent, emergency only.

    ¡°You are far too courteous, Ornius.¡± She said firmly.

    ¡°He is nervous on good days. I can¡¯t imagine the torture he will be today. Poor Jordy.¡±

    ¡°True.¡± She nodded. ¡°Do I see a blood treat?¡±

    ¡°You do. I asked Lal to make them especially for you and for today.¡± Master Ornius smiled and spent the next few minutes uncasing his binoculars, cleaning them carefully and then adjusting them to fit her wider eye spread.

    ¡°I feel them.¡± She said, pointing toward the horizon.

    ¡°I too.¡± Master Ornius agreed, showing her how to hold the binoculars for the best view.

    She scanned the horizon. ¡°Too distant yet.¡± She said, handing the device back to Ornius. They both knew he would enjoy using it more than she. ¡°We should eat more and discuss Tule Soc. Do you think Mael will roll through them? Imagine, two-thousand and five hundred Ba¡¯Neesh in one location. I¡¯ve heard they are all immature. What a horror.¡±

    ¡°I have tried not to dwell on them. It is too painful.¡± Ornius answered, adjusting the binoculars so he could scan the horizon. He knew that the opticals downstairs in Ops would have brilliantly sharp visuals, but it was different to see death approaching while listening to youngers giggle in the bushes. He thought maybe he should have explained that to Thorne but likely the caster would merely suggest moving the youngers to one of the lower bunker rooms that could survive for more than a month with their recycling systems if Citadel were damaged. No, if there was to be death, they would not play cowards in the dark.

    ¡°You must show me all of the footage from Mael and this stupid Soek Mick. Perhaps an evening under the Sigil?¡± It was a blatant invitation, she even managed a few snuffle snorts.

    Ornius smiled. ¡°What an agreeable suggestion.¡± He said, ¡°We must ban everyone but Calypso, he can run the equipment and allow us to relax on some soft bedding. I will provide for a sumptuous meal.¡± He had already pre-planned for entertaining her and had the main kitchen preparing just in case.

    ¡°Acceptable.¡± She said.

    He lifted the binoculars again and then froze. He pressed the auto-focus and an enormous fleet of aircraft came into focus. ¡°They are here.¡± He said, readjusting the binoculars and handing them back to her. She sat upright, displaying far more interest than her earlier words might suggest.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°They are many.¡± She said. ¡°I remember too well the mules climbing the cliffs before Mael¡­¡± She didn¡¯t complete the sentence.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Ornius nodded with clear understanding. That had been a day of death and renewed life. He could just see a dark line on the horizon with his bare eyes. He didn¡¯t ask for the binoculars back. He didn¡¯t need to see the fleet again.

    ¡°Before Mael.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve thumped him, you know.¡± She said. ¡°His shell is truly a shell, laced with dimensionalized sigil.¡±

    ¡°Did he have that hair tuft of his, when you thumped him?¡± Ornius asked. Everyone but Mael found the round hole Anya had carved in the shell for Mael¡¯s hair knot, to be humorous. What turtle had hair coming out of its shell? Of course, no one said that to his face.

    ¡°No.¡± Old One Horn grinned. ¡°It was still that sugar toy thing in the process of becoming. It was soft and weird but he was in there all the same. I worried that the sigil defenses wouldn¡¯t let me touch him, like it did the first time when he first arrived topside. Moira and I both tried but the damn sigil was already taking on its true power, like a good horn should.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s still mutating.¡± Ornius said. ¡°He can hold his breath for more than two hours now. It¡¯s extraordinary. Anya says it grows longer each time he free dives. He says the Channels go with him into the deep. I often think about such things.¡±

    ¡°I hadn¡¯t known his breathing was that advanced.¡± She replied. ¡°Oh, Ornius, they are firing things. Look. Look.¡± She shoved the binoculars in his hands. He didn¡¯t adjust them, just used her settings to see the bright arcs of multiple weapons launches. His timing was perfect, he witnessed the anti-missile response devices breeching the water surface to throw weapons back at the arcs.

    He handed her the binoculars and said, ¡°Look for the defenses rising up and down in the water. Thorne said there were rows and rows like a shark¡¯s mouth.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± She crowed, her other hand punching outward. ¡°Take that you cowards! Oh, Ornius, I see four defensive rings now. Those closest are huge. What do they do?¡± She passed the lenses back. Ornius looked.

    ¡°Those are the ones that will reach the aircraft. Oh look, there goes one.¡± He handed her the binoculars again. He heard the youngers much closer and he wasn¡¯t surprised they had been snooping. More than two dozen peeked out from every nearby bush and tree. One of them saw him seeing her and she grinned and pointed, at the shapes now becoming fireworks.

    ¡°Sparkly!¡± She yelled. ¡°I can feel them dying.¡± She did a weird whole body wriggle thing and soon all of the youngers were doing it. ¡°Too far away to really capture their energy.¡± She said a bit sadly.

    The battle continued until it became clear that the aircraft, which had spread out trying to find a vulnerability in Citadel¡¯s defenses, kept dying with not a single weapon making it through. Illegal ballistics on both sides. Target practice for Citadel¡¯s defenses.

    A little over an hour later Ornius saw the aircraft banking away. He toggled his external. ¡°Thorne?¡¯ He asked.

    ¡°All aircraft are heading away.¡± Jordy answered, his voice wobbly with stress.¡±

    ¡°Anything I should know?¡± Ornius asked.

    ¡°We had several units fail to fire but we built in redundancies on redundancies so it didn¡¯t matter, just equipment that will now be examined with great care.¡± Jordy answered. ¡°We are receiving communications from more than twenty-five nation/states inquiring about their observation of the use of ballistics. We are International news, again. Thorne is formulating a response, did you want in on that, Sir?¡±

    ¡°Oh no.¡± Ornius shook his head even though he was on audio only with Jordy. ¡°That is fully Directorate domain. Do we have an update on Fels?¡±

    ¡°Only that Serla and the Akaitapi are in the former nation/state of Germany doing a low-level scan for the hidden transport.¡± Jordy said. ¡°A Soek named Norris is attempting to signal without using devices Tule Soc can trace. It appears to be a race. Serla says the gardener¡¯s directions are exceptional.¡±

    ¡°Excellent.¡± Ornius nodded again. ¡°Continue keeping me on silence, I am going to enjoy the rest of my meal now.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡± Jordy¡¯s tone was polite but slightly amused. He was wishing he could go to silence too, at least around Thorne.

    Ornius turned his device back off.

    ¡°Well, there we have it Old One Horn, no death for Citadel today.¡±

    ¡°Cowards.¡± She repeated. ¡°Distance weapons have their place but I will never approve of them.¡±

    ¡°Want to tell me about why that stupid Soek Mick is insistent on range?¡± He asked softly.

    ¡°You would like that, wouldn¡¯t you Ornius?¡± She glanced over at him.

    He nodded. ¡°Any time I can get an inch in front of Mael I¡¯ll take it. He says Mick knows something in the back of his brain. He thinks Mick wants huge range, beyond imagination huge.¡±

    ¡°None of us get ahead of Mael.¡± She said quietly. ¡°Did you see him with that holo of Evgeny? Moira replayed that a dozen times in our circle, yammering at Perisee and Lemista about not sharing properly. They said they were sworn to intel privacy which is total crap. How could they play and not share and then he pops up and gets it straight off?¡±

    ¡°So, you think he¡¯s right, about Mick?¡± Ornius asked.

    ¡°When is Mael Strom really wrong?¡± She countered. ¡°He is in the deep with the Channels, like a Ba¡¯Neesh. You know Ornius, I¡¯m so damn old my memory sucks. One minute I know something, the next I¡¯ve forgotten again. This Mick, this Neeshatari, I worry. It is a big memory lurking out there and I¡¯m just on the bitter edge of it and every night I try to push my old brains out there trying to find it and all I get is tiny bits. I should be dead and regrown already instead of decrepit in this ancient body.¡±

    ¡°I know.¡± Ornius said, nodding. ¡°But, we are here in these old meat sacks for a reason Old One Horn.¡±

    ¡°This is true.¡± She answered. ¡°I have tried to die or be killed more times than I can count, and I fail. Me. Failing to die. It is ludicrous. And, my horn. By the Dark Gods, my horn is so Vrill saturated I feel high all the time, like narced out as the youngers say, on one of Jeffrey¡¯s potions.¡±

    ¡°At least we have good food and good coffee.¡± Ornius temporized, now wishing to calm her down a bit.

    ¡°Food.¡± She nodded, taking the hint well enough.

    The youngers, now that the perimeter was broken, were sneaking in and stealing bits of food and then crowing and daring each other to risk Old One Horn¡¯s pointy massive horn for the next bit. A game. Fun.

    The Elder settled in to play. Ornius knew that Old One Horn was still devastatingly fast, when she desired to be. He protected the coffee mugs and enjoyed watching the dart and run and steal and laugh game. Only two of the youngers sported wounds by the time the food was all eaten. The youngers were happily sitting on a rock together licking the blood and comparing one wound to the other to see whose was bigger and better and more bloody. Other youngers circled, jealous.

    He helped Old One Horn to her fours and refolded the blanket. He couldn¡¯t leave it with her because the Ba¡¯Neesh were communal and it would be shared. He preferred to make it a treat just for her. He cleaned up the dishes and repacked the binoculars. Old One Horn was already gone, leaving without any comment. A few youngers remained behind to watch him, planning mischief no doubt. But, they loved his robes and he knew that likely the next game was a plan to chase his robe as he went back downstairs. It was all fair. His robe was enormously capable of defending itself while still looking elegant and appropriate for a Soek of his age. He smiled.

    As soon as he entered the grove the game was on. He acted oblivious to their antics as they tried and tried to touch the robe and it whipped, darted and blew around evading them. He was trailed by squeals and laughter all the way downstairs. It was a good way to end his topside adventure with Old One Horn. His thoughts returned to Fels as the youngers weren¡¯t allowed onto the private area of Level Three where he was going. He left his stuff in his apartment and headed down to Ops. What he would show Old One Horn would be a rerun, her favorite. She liked to know the endings of holos before watching them.

    (Master Ornius is a return character from one of the other WitchBoard Novels to be released relatively soon. I adore him. And, as you can guess, we are now heading to Fels. Enjoy!)

 Chapter Thirty - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Thirty ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Norris described a series of rocky outcroppings overlooking the Ach River to the approaching Serla. The town that had once existed along the banks of the Ach had long since been removed and nature had healed the wounds of man¡¯s intrusion. But he could see the river and the main entry to this cave was heavily obstructed with gating to protect what was left of the ruins. That told him it had been an attraction. It was a ruins he said. All tourist markings had been removed along with the trails that must have existed.

    Serla told him to climb to the highest point and look south and westerly, they were coming in from the North Sea via the former nation/state of France.

    Eric¡¯s device was designed to be able to reroute communication through all nearby devices, masking any precise origination point. A tech team would eventually route it out, but, as former Head of Security, his gear was top shelf. Serla didn¡¯t want to test the tech team by giving them additional signal to follow, he had a better solution, the Akaitapi. All of them were actively sniffing the floor but he knew that the sounds were really an indicator of Vrill ring sniffing. He had the intake vents in the lower body of the aircraft flowing air into the cabin and with the air would come other things.

    He was following the Ach River and watching the rocky buttresses that rose rough and sharp along the one side. He identified the historical cave sites. Only one was noted as an important ruin. Brillenhohle. Movement caught the attention of his scanners and his holo bloomed with a green-clad human figure waving a yellow rainslicker. He grinned and made quick work of bringing the transporter as close to the waving and running figure as he could. There was nowhere to land so he simply got close enough to open one of the ramp doors so that five of the Akaitapi could jump out onto the outcropping. They trumpeted and then raced toward the figure who was slowing and then stopping.

    Serla knew the feeling. You didn¡¯t face the Akaitapi without some trepidation, unless you were a fool. They were an ancient group of Ba¡¯Neesh whose Chimeric aspects tended to favor the land around the mountain where they lived.

    Most had at least some characteristic from the legendary buffalo, the puma and bighorn sheep. They favored wide thick shoulders and massing hair that looked more like a mane than human hair. Their faces were remarkably human in an angular sort of way with large, wide-spaced eyes, dramatic eyelashes and a second set of transparent inner eyelids that operated vertically. At first glance, what you noted was thick muscle, sharp fangs and horns carved scrimshaw style in either the buffalo or bighorn shapes. They looked right on all fours so when they rose up to stand on their legs, it was doubly shocking because then you noted that their human-like hands and toes folded upward when not in use. The heels of their hands and feet were hooves designed to easily carry their weight at a full run. They loved rough ground and made short work of reaching the now stopped Soek to surround him blowing steamy breaths into the fresh air.

    Norris gaped, uncertain what to do. Serla exited the craft more slowly, allowing Norris to get himself under control. He looked strange to Norris¡¯ eyes, like a cowboy with worn rugged pants, a long-sleeved shirt tucked in and a hat for shade. Norris noted Serla was easily the tallest, widest, most athletically fit man he had ever seen, particularly since he could tell that Serla wasn¡¯t young. He had a sort of timeless look to him. His long hair graying at the temples, carried in a long braid and banded with beaded straps.

    The Akaitapi waited, but now all of them were looking down and inward toward the striated stone rising up around them.

    ¡°Show us, quickly.¡± Serla said, ¡°I¡¯m Serla.¡±

    ¡°They are Ba¡¯Neesh too?¡± Norris pointed. ¡°They look so different, so massive and powerful.¡±

    ¡°They are the Akaitapi.¡± Serla said, as if the word explained their startling appearance. He didn¡¯t have time for the explanations that wouldn¡¯t really explain anything anyway. Let the Soek learn as they all did, by experience.

    Norris made up his mind, mostly not to keep his saviors waiting. The sharp point on their horns were quite frankly, terrifying. The Ba¡¯Neesh in the craft had blunt horns. He hoped he wouldn¡¯t suffer for the condition of the Ba¡¯Neesh in the cave.

    They had to go upward to enter through the caved in roof. He watched in admiration as the Akaitapi leapt up and into the cave as if they had known it all of their lives. Inside, they slowed, facing four Security operatives with weapons.

    Serla dropped into the cave after Norris and continued walking forward. Norris wasn¡¯t so sure. He could read the blatant fear on the faces of the mules, that¡¯s what Eric had called them, mules. He too, was a mule.

    ¡°Either shoot at us or get out of the way.¡± Serla said in German as the Akaitapi closed in around him, two on each side and one behind.

    One of the guards took aim at the closing Akaitapi.

    Norris, now behind the bunch and barely walking, heard the buzz of bees or insects only far too loud. He frowned, he had noted no insect issue in the cave earlier. The mule had dropped his weapon and was clutching at his head. Serla passed him saying, ¡°They can reach any of you faster than you can fire and likely, they will stop being gentle and simply kill you for the attempt against them.¡± But, his tone wasn¡¯t harsh. It was as if he were explaining to a foolish child. The other three looked over at Norris, as if asking what to do.

    ¡°These are the Akaitapi.¡± Norris said in the exact tone Serla had used on him. He was pleased to see the confusion he¡¯d felt, echoed in their expressions. ¡°We follow them.¡± He continued as he was already hurrying to catch up, his moment of uncertainty gone.

    Norris stepped inside the narrow doorway to find the Akaitapi simply staring at the restrained Ba¡¯Neesh. He couldn¡¯t read them. That surprised him, he knew himself to be pretty good at reading both other people and animals as well as all kinds of plants. Yet, these were different. When he tried to focus harder three of them whipped their heads around and lowered their horns in his direction. He lifted his arms, palms up and open to display no weapon. For the first time in his life he felt he understood the gesture. He stilled.

    They continued to stare at him and then in unison they made a snuffling sound. He swallowed as the residue of fear washed through him again. He felt it, tasted of it and weirdly, liked it. He was alive. He lowered his hands noting they were hot. His hands only tended to get hot around dirt and only occasionally around people. He lost the curious thought when one of the Akaitapi approached the same Ba¡¯Neesh who had been most active earlier. A leader? He wondered what sign she gave of that as she looked similar to the rest, a ragged bunch.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    The Akaitapi lunged at the restrained Ba¡¯Neesh screaming a terrible cry, her head lowered and her horns aiming straight for the heart of the seated Ba¡¯Neesh.

    Norris raced past the other Akaitapi yelling. ¡°No. No. You cannot hurt her.¡± He tried to get between them.

    The lunging Akaitapi paused abruptly as if caught in an invisible net. She was inches from the seated Ba¡¯Neesh who was inhaling sharply but otherwise not moving, her chest open and ready.

    ¡°I do not kill hornless youngers.¡± The Akaitapi said in English.

    Serla translated the words into German.

    Norris blinked, he was half between the two Ba¡¯Neesh and recognition of his peril made him gasp. Why had he done that?

    The Akaitapi ignored him. He shifted his weight, slowly pulling his body out from between them. He heard the distinct sound of amusement from the seated Ba¡¯Neesh he was backing into with his butt. Amusement?

    ¡°Remove the human devices.¡± The same lead Akaitapi ordered the Ba¡¯Neesh she had charged at.

    ¡°I have no memories, Elder.¡± The Ba¡¯Neesh said plaintively.

    Serla simply translated, as if this language issue was fully expected.

    Norris could speak English as well as German but he was out of practice, he appreciated the clear translation.

    ¡°Use a simple.¡± The Akaitapi ordered, shifting from fours to upright to be nearly as tall as Norris but at least a head shorter than Serla.

    Norris watched the Akaitapi¡¯s hands unfold from her thickened fur. Delicate long human-like fingers except for the extra joints. He leaned closer, his fear forgotten. Extra joints? Why not extra joints? His slight movement had caught the Akaitapi¡¯s attention, she glanced over at him, her gaze piercing, as if she were looking into his body. She sniffed again, loud. Behind her the other four, who had watched impassively, sniffed in unison. What did that mean? What was this sniffing doing?

    Norris didn¡¯t dare back up. With some creatures any sign of fear might end a person. These Ba¡¯Neesh shared that expression, he felt certain.

    The Akaitapi turned back to the seated Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°Use a simple.¡± She said, drawing a shape in the air. ¡°You see?¡± Her tone wasn¡¯t unkind. Norris tried to draw the shape with his index finger.

    ¡°I see.¡± The seated Ba¡¯Neesh said, her trapped hand moving in the confined space. Only, Norris could see a tracery of light trailing in the path of her finger. What was that?

    The rings the Ba¡¯Neesh had worn every day of her life popped off. She screamed out in pleasure. ¡°I see!¡± She said again, triumphant.

    ¡°Why doesn¡¯t my finger work?¡± Norris stepped forward to ask the Akaitapi, his finger drawing the symbol again in the air in front of her.

    She looked over at him. ¡°What lock? What open? Stupid Soek.¡±

    Norris blinked. He was a stupid Soek? Clearly she was at least somewhat right, he didn¡¯t know shit about being a Soek. She hadn¡¯t said he couldn¡¯t but she had correctly noted he had nothing to open. ¡°What was that line that followed her finger? It doesn¡¯t follow mine.¡± He continued, noting that his hands were both very hot now.

    ¡°Vrill.¡± The Akaitapi replied. ¡°You see the Vrill, Soek?¡± Her movement around to face him happened so fast he couldn¡¯t have dodged away even if the thought had entered his head, which it didn¡¯t. She leaned in to snuffle at him directly, her nose lowering to inhale his body odor an inch from his upper body. He felt trapped between her horns. Exposed, as if she were stripping away every layer of concealment he had been hiding behind his whole life. He wasn¡¯t safe with her. He stiffened, the back of his neck heating up.

    ¡°What is Vrill?¡± He forced himself to ask, his gaze caught on the ripples of energy curling up and down her too close horns.

    ¡°Nectar of the Dark Gods.¡± She answered obliquely.

    The seated Ba¡¯Neesh had gained her feet. She seemed scrawny, thin, unkempt, ragged and hollow standing next to the Akaitapi.

    Around them each of the Ba¡¯Neesh solved the puzzle and in turn they called out their delight. Norris noted that none of them seemed at all afraid of the Akaitapi although clearly the Akaitapi could easily kill them. What had the lead Akaitapi meant that she didn¡¯t kill hornless youngers? Why the quantification? Did she kill older Ba¡¯Neesh?

    He edged away from her and reached down to pick up the discarded restraint, now open. It was simple to lock, you just pressed it to itself. The formerly seated Ba¡¯Neesh stared at him, at the device and then back at him. He noticed but didn¡¯t notice exactly. He was trying the simple thing again. It felt familiar. A voice he didn¡¯t know suggested he think at the sigil.

    ¡°Sigil?¡± He said aloud. ¡°My finger doesn¡¯t trickle.¡±

    ¡°Let it out.¡± Serla said having watched Norris with both concern and a bit of admiration. He was standing his ground surrounded by perhaps the most dangerous beings on the planet. Particularly notable compared to the near terror of the other mules rigidly clumped in a knot near the doorway.

    ¡°What?¡± Norris looked over, surprised to see Serla. He¡¯d forgotten the man was even in the craft.

    ¡°Your Vrill. Let it out.¡± Serla repeated.

    Norris looked at his dominant hand. He thought about feeding the plants, that¡¯s what he did. He stuck his hands in the dirt and felt a tingle and then he flowed out to the plants needing help. He flowed. His eyebrows lifted. Flow. The tingle must be Vrill.

    He noticed the Akaitapi watching him. Did they think he would fail? A simple. The word told him something.

    He held the cuff out with his left hand with a bit of drama. Somehow these Akaitapi warranted added drama. And, he drew the sigil firmly in the air with his right, focusing his entire being on flowing his energy into¡­the cuff snapped open. He instantly dropped it. The Akaitapi laughed, then the Ba¡¯Neesh laughed and one of the mules said, ¡°Could I do that too?¡±

    The Akaitapi looked at him and her amusement faded. ¡°Yes. But your Vrill is intentionally made weak. There is much to be done here. Let us get at it.¡±

    ¡°Aristeen says he has Mael within sight.¡± Serla said.

    Norris noted Serla wasn¡¯t carrying an external yet clearly he was connected. How? He couldn¡¯t quite solve Serla. Another mystery. He didn¡¯t notice that he moved among the Ba¡¯Neesh easily. They noticed and a trilling sound whispered amongst them.

    ¡°We need Mael and Elias to re-boot Evgeny¡¯s true memories.¡± Serla said, ¡°These Ba¡¯Neesh will refill him with his second identity memories. It will hurt him. Can you assist him in not feeling as much pain, Norris? We need Evgeny up and functional. Ahh, they have brought Jeffrey, the Master Healer. He will help too.¡±

    ¡°Your brain is wired.¡± Norris stated.

    ¡°Quite.¡± Serla agreed. ¡°They arrive.¡±

    Norris noted than no one was much concerned with the mules. They were standing as far from the Akaitapi and Ba¡¯Neesh as was possible inside the craft. No more weapons were showing. All four were quivering but standing their ground. Fear. It was like a narcotic wafting in and out and through the Ba¡±Neesh and Akaitapi, not with each other, but with everyone but this Serla. Norris instantly wanted to be like Serla, indifferent to the danger of the Ba¡¯Neesh. The idea washed through him. He noted a thin line trickling out the tip of his right index finger. Vrill. It had a name. He¡¯d always wondered about it.

    The name Mael registered on delay. ¡°Do you mean Mael Strom is here?¡± Norris hurried after Serla who had reached the doorway where he had paused.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Serla said. ¡°This is going to happen fast. Brad is with them. We are disabling the communications system at the facility. We must move quickly to get Evgeny functional.¡±

    Norris didn¡¯t know who Aristeen or Brad were, his entire being was focused on Mael Strom. A name, like Evgeny. His whole body thrummed with rising Vrill.

    The Akaitapi and Ba¡¯Neesh both swung around to stare at him, several licking their lips. He was oblivious. His hands hurt. They burned. He didn¡¯t know he was dropping a puddle of Vrill on the decking of the craft. He didn¡¯t know he was humming an earthy sound like that the stones make when the sun warms them so much they emit. He didn¡¯t know he was rocking slightly on the balls of his feet, up and down in a sort of rhythm, in tune with the music rising inside of him.

    ¡°Oh shit.¡± Serla said aloud.

    (Welcome back my friends. And, we are into the mischief directly. I am looking forward to rendering drawings of the Akaitapi in this chapter. Not today, unfortunately as work beckons, but soon. Enjoy! Remember to toggle those stars and boost my numbers for me, please.)

 Chapter Thirty-One - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Thirty-One ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mael heard Serla cry out in consternation just as he exited the door ramp of the sub¡¯s floater. He couldn¡¯t run, his turtle-like feet were not designed for speed so he was nearly last to the door, following Mick who was being careful due to his recent health problems. Brad arrived first, only to find the gap between the ship and the cave wall too narrow. He solved the problem by nudging the ship, stabilizers and all. He heard yelling from within and he grinned, damned if he was going to miss anything due to someone parking too close to a damn wall. Not this time.

    Serla stuck his head out, ¡°Are you done? You probably bent those stabilizers with your antics.¡±

    ¡°You yelled.¡± Brad grinned, making no effort to offer an apology.

    Serla looked past Brad to where Mael was finally catching up. ¡°Mael, I think you should be first.¡±

    Brad just grunted and stepped up, screw that. He was first, he would be first. Serla knew better than to tussle with an exo and he backed up. His internal device messaged Brad to beware of massive Vrill puddling on the decking.

    Brad gulped and powered his transparent face plate up so that he could look with his real eyes. Mael shoved at him from the back saying, ¡°Stop blocking the door you big lump of metal.¡±

    Brad edged to one side just far enough to allow Mael in followed instantly by Anya. Mael halted nearly as fast as Brad had earlier. It was Norris. Mael¡¯s defensive helmet flashed to bitter cold and then back like it was uncertain but wary.

    Mick arrived in front of Elias and boldly stepped in and then gaped first at the Akaitapi and then at the most miserable looking group of Ba¡¯Neesh he¡¯d ever seen. Elias shoved him roughly to one side, throwing his body in front of Mick.

    ¡°What?¡± Mick banged against a seat and it hurt. He peeked around Elias who was staring, not at the massive Akaitapi, but at the gardener guy he¡¯d seen on holos off an on all day. Norris someone. A Stringer with Mael, whatever that meant.

    He felt Her flow through his bone, eliciting another burn bite of Vrill and then She was standing directly in front of Norris. He was rocking rhythmically, he eyes rolled back in his head, his body rigid and now Mick saw his hands, they looked white hot and he knew enough to understand the Soek was pouring Vrill out uncontrollably.

    ¡°Norris?¡± Mael asked, concern in his tone.

    ¡°I have found you.¡± Kiena said to Norris. When he didn¡¯t respond, she solidified and repeated, ¡°I have found you.¡± In true Speech.

    The shabby Ba¡¯Neesh trilled and then collectively yelled out, ¡°We remember, we remember.¡±

    Norris¡¯s eyes struggled to normalize. He stared at the apparition in front of him radiating Vrill. He blinked.

    ¡°Feed me!¡± Kiena ordered.

    Mael jumped toward Norris on one side, the Akaitapi on the other, but none of them were fast enough to reach Norris before he lifted his hands up to grab her entirely Vrill-based roe-deer horns. The arc of Vrill threw everyone backwards and the two of them were too bright to observe. Brad deployed his filters and stepped toward them. He was ready when the transfer stopped and Norris collapsed backward. He caught him.

    ¡°Next time protect him from injury.¡± He spoke firmly to Kiena who was radiating. She didn¡¯t answer. She was facing the Akaitapi and to Mick¡¯s readjusting eyes, they didn¡¯t look exactly pleased to see Her.

    ¡°Neeshatari.¡± The leader of the Akaitapi stepped closer saying, ¡°We are not surprised, if not entirely pleased either. We challenge your possession of this Soek.¡±

    ¡°You cannot challenge the dead, Aapisowoohta Aahsssapit.¡±

    ¡°Star Watching.¡± Serla translated.

    ¡°You cannot possess the living, Iiyiko Iksstsoohkinn Payoonihkaawa.¡±

    ¡°Hard Shell Initiation Breaks.¡± Serla translated again. ¡°They speak the language of the Niitsitapi, a Native American Peoples.¡± He offered in explanation. He sent Brad a message saying he was picking up accelerating message traffic nearby, likely searchers.

    Mick¡¯s face was screwed up trying to follow the enormous names. He hurriedly repeated Iiyiko over and over in his mouth trying to fix it into his memory. His bone was telling him each name was a true name for each of them. There was something dangerous about knowing a being¡¯s true name, particularly a being with massive Vrill-radiating horns and a penchant for stabbing things. He squirmed. He wasn¡¯t supposed to know the name or She would have told him Herself. Iiyiko whatever whatever. And, the Akaitapi leader, she was A¨Cpee¨Cso¨Cwho-ta. That was rather embarrassing, to be truthful. It sounded better in English, Star Watching. His brain tugged at that name and he frowned, it was attached to the thing he shouldn¡¯t remember.

    Jeffrey had entered after the juicing, which is what Elias whispered to Mick had sort of happened, albeit light years different from anything like it in his memory. Jeffrey hurried over to first Norris and then Evgeny a scowl growing on his face. ¡°What the hell happened to that one? You said one brain-wiped patient.¡±

    ¡°He isn¡¯t wiped.¡± Brad said, ¡°He is enervated, or drained or something. I suspect its like casting drop. He fed Her.¡± He pointed at Kiena who continued to be present, a first for everyone in the room.

    ¡°Is that why everyone is acting drunk? I smell excessive Vrill, like a damn ozone stench.¡± Jeffrey said with some sarcasm. ¡°First I had to deal with Vrill-pooping over-excited Ba¡¯Neesh on the sub and now you tell me She sucked on him like a damn vampire? Seriously, manners here. She can¡¯t drain him like this, it¡¯s inappropriate.¡± He fumbled around in his med kit bag and brought out an ampoule. He pressed that to Norris¡¯ shoulder and muttered about stupid Soek.

    Anya snickered. Jeffrey¡¯s complaint landing precisely at a gap in the clearly serious Akaitapi to Neeshatari interaction. The local Ba¡¯Neesh were circling the Neeshatari, whispering in Neesh. The Akaitapi snorted.

    Jeffrey turned on Evgeny sagging in the seat. He unstrapped him, pressing to keep him from falling out of the seat. ¡°Well, well?¡± He said, his voice getting louder. ¡°Do you expect me to lower him to the floor myself?¡± He said, his tone continuing to be peeved and dominant. ¡°You!¡± He pointed at one of the Akaitapi, ¡°With your massive shoulders you can probably bench press this Soek. How about you and that other one whose name I can¡¯t remember much less pronounce at this exact moment and yes, I remember who you are, I¡¯m being impolite and not properly respectful and bite me, no, not literally. This Soek needs our attention immediately and if Serla gets any more grim-faced he will explode. No, I don¡¯t want him touching Evgeny. I need clean energy, pure-ass Vrill and you two know you have the gods-be-damned best there is.¡±If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    This round-about compliment hastened the two Akaitapi to step over to assist Jeffrey in lowering Evgeny to the floor. They stretched him out in the aisle and then backed up.

    Jeffrey glared over at Mael. ¡°Stop standing there thinking and get your butt over here with Elias, between the two of you we should have the first of Evgeny.¡± He said briskly.

    Mick stared, utterly captivated by how Jeffrey cut through all of the positioning and background politics of each of these Ba¡¯Neesh and top Soek like so much butter. He approved. He was also intensely curious as to what Elias would do. Elias had held Mick¡¯s entire memories and then given them back, that¡¯s what others had told him. Now he would see it done.

    He was only here because Elias wouldn¡¯t leave him and Elias was here because Mael insisted and Mael was here because both Elias and Evgeny were his Stringers, a relationship Mick was still unraveling. He liked being in the thick of it even if it were likely the weirdest thing ever. He kept eyeing Iiyiko, expecting her to vanish but she was hovering over Norris, that made him feel a little jealous. To his mind Norris was like a battery for her. He was glad it wasn¡¯t him, the guy was out cold and if Jeffrey¡¯s tone was any indication the guy would be grumpy and with a header when he woke. He commiserated, thankful that at the moment he was neither itchy or exhausted, a big improvement.

    Elias squatted on Evgeny¡¯s right side, Mael on his left. Each of them placed their hands, fingers clustered as tightly together as possible against the Soek¡¯s temples.

    ¡°On my mark.¡± Jeffrey said. ¡°Focus on Evgeny at five. Articulate his name like a sigil and summon his memory.¡±

    To Mick, Jeffrey sounded like a seasoned expert. He wouldn¡¯t have guessed that the healer had only ever bound his own brains back together. That made Mick the virginal cherry popper for this process. This Soek wouldn¡¯t have to be peeled, the lucky bastard. Mick was still picking red stuff out of his hair like some algeafied dandruff.

    ¡°Now.¡±

    Everyone leaned in to watch, including Iiyiko.

    ¡°I see.¡± Said the local Ba¡¯Neesh leader. Her tone brilliant and excited.

    It didn¡¯t take long, apparently a five-year-old didn¡¯t have much data to stream back. Mael let go and when he did, Elias followed saying, ¡°That wasn¡¯t nearly so bad as with Mick.¡±

    He and Mael both stood back up and moved through the Ba¡¯Neesh crowd to stand relatively near to the four Soek mules. Those Soek were holding up the wall next to Serla and Brad, who were whispering together about the intel suggesting their location had been detected.

    Elias joined Mick, he was shaking. ¡°Vrill drop.¡± He said in explanation, ¡°but, not too bad. With you I had a terrible header and felt like I wanted to die. Now I remember Evgeny when before he was just someone I remembered slightly who had disappeared or died. Now, he¡¯s a person again.¡±

    They watched Jeffrey call the lead local Ba¡¯Neesh forward.

    ¡°She¡¯s too weak.¡± Aapisowoohta said. ¡°Chain them. They all followed Anya¡¯s instructions to take his memories. They have done so with all of these Soek.¡± She gestured at Norris and the quivering four mules.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to chain.¡± The local Ba¡¯Neesh said, her tone both irritated and interested.

    ¡°You kneel at his head.¡± Aapisowoohta said, ¡°The rest of you local Ba¡¯Neesh will grab an antler or horn until all of you are connected.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Will that be fun?¡± The local Ba¡¯Neesh asked.

    Aapisowoohta snorted as she and the Akaitapi and Iiyiko all moved back toward the small group of waiting Soek creating a distinct separation of contact.

    Mick noted that Iiyiko was behaving just like the others, as if She were physical flesh. Had eating from Norris made Her alive and physical? He whispered the question to Elias who shrugged his lack of knowledge.

    The local Ba¡¯Neesh formed a wedge of hands on horns all hovering over the main one who had her hands on Evgeny¡¯s temples.

    ¡°You ready?¡± Jeffrey said, listening to Serla¡¯s translation into German. He looked over at her, to his eyes she was in truly horrific condition, he schooled his expression to hide that assessment. Soon enough he would have her, all of them in his care. They would recover. The horror of their pending termination clutched at him. He reminded himself that Evgeny had saved them but he couldn¡¯t escape the knowledge that this same Soek was likely responsible for the death of hundreds of Ba¡¯Neesh. He had to divorce that thought too, healing was at hand. ¡°Focus on Eric when you took him.¡± He said, again with translation.

    The local Ba¡¯Neesh nodded.

    ¡°Now.¡±

    Mick gaped. Evgeny twisted and screamed with Jeffrey holding him down by kneeling on his shoulders. He could see the Vrill washing over the tops of the Ba¡¯Neesh like a rippling wave. Iiyiko snuffled and she was joined by the Akaitapi, a sound of understanding and approval. A memory manifest. He stiffened. He was watching all of them remember. It¡¯s what they did. That fact surfaced like a sledgehammer hitting his skull. He moaned and bent forward gasping. Elias put his arm around him and told him to breathe through it.

    ¡°They are rememberers.¡± Mick said. ¡°They are remembering. They know I will remember too. I can hear them.¡±

    Mael¡¯s eyes fixed on Mick, knowing Serla and Brad were picking up every word. This was why Mick must be with them, he thought again, Mick was a key to unlock the bigger mystery. The Rememberers. What a telling descriptive.

    The local Ba¡¯Neesh lowered her hands, Evgeny was still flopping about but she had a look of distinct pleasure on her face. ¡°I like Vrill sharing.¡± She grinned.

    ¡°Damn drunks.¡± Jeffrey wobbled with the after affects as he climbed off of Evgeny whose eyes were fluttering and whose hands were grasping.

    ¡°My fucking head.¡± Evgeny screamed. ¡°What did you do to my fucking head?¡±

    Jeffrey nodded and looked relieved. ¡°You will have a slight header and muscular aches for several days, Evgeny. You will find your early self is now intact. You will attend to me as soon as we get the hell out of this increasingly dangerous position. I will give you just enough pain killer to allow you to function without passing out. Sorry about that, but we can¡¯t let you rest right now.¡±

    Evgeny listened to this with contempt. ¡°You call this a slight header?¡± He said with blistering sarcasm.

    Jeffrey pressed an ampoule into Evgeny¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Yes.¡± He said, ¡°You should have seen Mick, I peeled him, poor bastard.¡±

    Mick nodded. Evgeny was staring around in increasing bewilderment. ¡°Who are these¡­these Ba¡¯Neesh?¡± He pointed first at the Akaitapi.

    Mick was first to answer, perhaps in sympathy for what Evgeny was experiencing. ¡°That boss one is Aapisowoohta something, something, that means Star Watching. I don¡¯t know the other¡¯s names, likely long and hard to pronounce. Collectively they are the Akaitapi, those who live under the mountain. The She, that is Iiyiko something something I can¡¯t remember, it means she breaks shit with her hard head or something. She¡¯s dead, I think. That Soek with the helmet like a turtle is Mael Strom, the exo is Brad the Pirate and the really pretty Ba¡¯Neesh is Anya. She is tight with Mael Strom although I don¡¯t understand exactly what that means.¡±

    As it turned out, everyone was pleased with Micks backhanded explanation, even Iiyiko, although Anya gave him a hard look.

    Evgeny had tracked this description with his brain struggling to push things into sensible coherence. ¡°Who are you?¡± He finally asked.

    ¡°Mick Huxley, the stupid Soek you¡¯ve been trying to kill.¡± Mick answered.

    ¡°Oh.¡± Evgeny nodded and then grimaced. ¡°Fucking hurts.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mick answered, ¡°It¡¯s better to sleep it off. I had to after you wiped me. But Serla over there says we have incoming and now that you are up on your feet again, brain intact, we better get out of this cave before your old buddies use us for target practice. Likely they have more of those spider bug things. Bastards.¡±

    Evgeny saw Norris. ¡°You killed him?¡± He accused, managing to weakly reach Norris¡¯ side.

    ¡°Vrill drop.¡± Jeffrey said. ¡°I¡¯ve doped him out, lucky bastard. He will sleep off the worst of it, unlike you.¡±

    Evgeny turned back to stare at Iiyiko. ¡°What are you?¡± He asked.

    She laughed. ¡°Revenge.¡± She answered. ¡°I am Revenge!¡±

    (I realize this is a complex cast of characters but I don¡¯t believe in the ¡®special¡¯ savior individual. I believe, as you can see, that each of us brings our own strengths and weaknesses to the challenges in our lives. I hope you like my cast as much as I do. No, don¡¯t ask me to pronounce those names. J)

 Chapter Thirty-Two - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Thirty-Two ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    It was like someone pulled a plug, everyone except for the now snoring Norris began to move, Mick included. Now that the brain wipe business was done, he had a strong desire not to be around the guy who wiped him, even if payback was a bitch with teeth. He followed Mael, Anya and Brad to the door, only, they passed through with no problem while he hit an invisible wall.

    He spun around to where Iiyiko and the Akaitapi were conversing in tones too low to be overheard.

    ¡°Really?¡± He yelled, getting everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°Why are you keeping me here with that Soek who nearly ruined me forever?¡±

    Iiyiko barely glanced at him and as usual, she wasn¡¯t in a mood to discuss anything with him, just talk to the muckity-muck tough Ba¡±Neesh who seemed to know her from some long ago time.

    ¡°Oh, I get it, you are staying here because of him.¡± Mick pointed at Norris. ¡°Well, cut it out. I want to fly with the Directorate not a bunch of loser Ba¡¯Neesh and a crud ex Tule Soc operative and a flipping gardener with leaky Vrill hands. You stay all you like Iiyiko, stop blocking my freedom.¡±

    His rant managed to bring Mael, Brad and Anya back to jostle for position in the narrow doorway to watch.

    Iiyiko stepped over toward Mick.

    He hesitated but managed not to step backward although suddenly it was everything he wanted to do. He stuck out his chin.

    ¡°You guard Norris.¡± Iiyiko said firmly.

    ¡°You do it.¡± Mick argued back, ¡°You have the big Vrill guns here, I¡¯m just a stupid Soek gamer boy, remember? You don¡¯t need me.¡±

    The Ba¡¯Neesh, all of them were forming a rough circle around Mick, he could see their nostrils widening and the excitement of conflict pushing their Vrill upward.

    ¡°You guard Norris.¡± Iiyiko repeated, stepping closer to him.

    ¡°Or what?¡± Mick stomped his right foot. ¡°You want to blast me with your blue hand trick or force me with your weird voice hammer? That¡¯s nasty shit. Means your weak if you think you can lead anything or anyone with intimidation and force. So do me, Neeshatari. That crud already beat you to it.¡±

    The four mules were staring wide-eyed and they weren¡¯t alone.

    ¡°Iiyiko stays with Mick.¡± She finally said. ¡°Mick and Elias stay with Norris. When function restored, mobility resumes.¡±

    ¡°You did this to him you boneheaded phantasm.¡± Mick knew he should stop, should consider what he knew she could do to him but he was at his limit.¡±

    ¡°Incoming.¡± Serla broke into the disagreement. ¡°Brad, you three run for the floater. Cover us while I get us out of this hole. Mick with the mouth¡­¡± But, Mick had darted for the door when the Akaitapi trumpeted at the Ba¡¯Neesh and moved collectively. Clearly they had no intention of flying anywhere. He dove into the midst of them as they exited the craft. He screamed as he hit the barrier but the diffusion of Akaitapi Vrill allowed him to pass through in spite of Iiyiko. Elias swore but he was too late to play the same trick. He hit the invisible wall and bounced back.

    ¡°He¡¯s alone out there.¡± He yelled at Iiyiko who was standing in the middle of the aisle, her head swinging indecisively back and forth from Norris to the doorway. She cursed in Neesh, an arc of Vrill curving down from her mouth to burn a hole in the decking. Then she vanished.

    Elias ran for the door again and this time he was able to pass through as if it were normal. He immediately stumbled on the rocks as the aircraft, carrying only Jeffrey, Norris, Serla, Evgeny and the four mules lifted off. He ducked and pressed himself to the cave wall as the craft banged and smashed its way upward. Where was Mick?

    He hurried across the boulder-ridden floor and upward, climbing out of one of the collapsed roof holes. All three of the aircraft had vanished already. Mick and the Ba¡¯Neesh were nowhere to be seen. He cursed. The cave was surrounded in thick woods. He heard the sound of weapons and he cursed again. If the Tule Soc were like DireSec they would send a team in to examine the cave before or after they blew it to shit. Where the hell had everyone gone?

    He followed a thin trail down through the forest trying to visualize his location because he didn¡¯t want to use his peripheral devices as they would make him an easy target to locate. Fool kid. When he became winded, he stopped for a moment and breathed. Where was Mick? He closed his eyes and focused, calming himself. It was easy enough to draw a Seeker sigil in the air. He drew the spiral with a trail of Vrill following his fingertip, old dead traitor Master Ito would be proud, he thought, visualizing Mick. The sigil pulled him hard to his left. He ran on at a steady downhill pace. The boy was following something, the Ba¡¯Neesh?

    That idea nagged at him. He could guess that the Akaitapi would simply vanish in the woods but the local Ba¡¯Neesh were in no condition to go hard or fast. Mick was young, if not in the best shape, could he trail them? What exactly was Mick good at besides gaming systems?

    Mick was cursing his decision to rough it in a wilderness. He didn¡¯t have the peripherals of the DireSec operatives, he didn¡¯t even have his backpack or knife. All he had were three equally out of shape local Ba¡¯Neesh who were lagging back and breathing hard. He caught up with them. The glared at him but thankfully didn¡¯t attack him. He guessed they were maybe too tired to juice up. He didn¡¯t speak German. He remembered they didn¡¯t speak English and there was no Serla handy for translation. He could hear the sounds of explosions and the whine of something crashing but it wasn¡¯t close. He could guess he might know more about the real world than they did. It was a good idea to steer away from the sounds.

    His last memory of running through woods had been because bad guys were chasing him for being a terrorist. These same bad guys. Would they go after their escaped Ba¡¯Neesh? He guessed that would be a hell yes. Perversely, he didn¡¯t want these slower than he was, incompetent and inept youngers to be caught. He¡¯d heard the discussion that they were slated for immediate termination when Evgeny took them for trade. Fuck that.

    ¡°I¡¯m Mick.¡± He said to the slowest one, now going at a walk. The slightly faster two were only a bit ahead and they kept looking back, clearly worried and uncertain to be leaving one alone with him, a possible enemy.

    ¡°Edda.¡± She said. ¡°Soek?¡± She asked.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Mick nodded and pointed at himself, ¡°Stupid Soek.¡± He then pointed at her, ¡°Ba¡¯Neesh.¡±

    ¡°Ba¡¯Neesh.¡± She repeated. They had caught up with the two faster ones, all three were drooping. In the distance Mick could hear running water. A drink sounded good. Technically, citizens were told not to drink from natural water sources due to continuing pollution problems. But, he was already thirsty and this escape had barely started.

    ¡°Water.¡± He said, cupping one ear toward the sound. ¡°He made a motion of drinking.¡±

    ¡°Water.¡± Each of them said in turn, now pacing him.

    He had played a lot of RPG games that were in the woods. Usually in a game you had to avoid traps. He doubted the enemy had time to set traps in a location they hadn¡¯t expected. The trick would be to look like a herd of animals, not like humans, to their sensing devices. He didn¡¯t have a molcom and Jeffrey had told him the Ba¡¯Neesh fried them when attempts were made to place them in their brains. They might have locators though. He thought about that.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    He reached over and touched Edda on the shoulder. She whipped around far faster than he expected, her top lip curling back to reveal sharp fangs. He held up both his hands and shook his head.

    ¡°Locator.¡± He said. Then he showed her his scar and he tried to pantomime cutting his skin to pop it out. They laughed at him and made derisive sounds.

    ¡°Fuck.¡± He said, frustrated.

    ¡°Fuck.¡± They repeated. He twinged a little at that.

    A series of twirly whistles and chirps came from just above his right shoulder. Mick instantly knew that Iiyiko was back. He ran through his verbal rant in his head. He had spewed pretty harsh.

    Edda looked at him and then whistle chirped back in Neesh, as if she thought he was speaking Neesh.

    ¡°That¡¯s as incomprehensible as German to me.¡± He said aloud, looking over to the disturbance in the air that was all that was visible of Iiyiko.

    ¡°They do not have locators.¡± Iiyiko answered in English.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh trilled in reaction to clearly two voices.

    ¡°So, you can be useful.¡± He said, his tone sarcastic. ¡°Iiyiko.¡± He said to the Ba¡¯Neesh while pointing to the disturbed air.

    He felt a zap of energy right between his shoulder blades. He cried out. It was in a terrible location, right where he couldn¡¯t reach to rub it or scratch.

    ¡°Iiyiko!¡± The Ba¡¯Neesh said in comprehension.

    He heard Her laughter, with its cruel edge. Maybe he deserved the zap a bit for his zealous nasty mouth toward Her. He thought.

    ¡°You should not have run from me.¡± She said to him.

    ¡°You should have stayed with your new Soek toy.¡± He countered, picking up a stick to use as a back scratcher.

    ¡°Unconscious Soek not fun.¡± She answered. ¡°More tired Ba¡¯Neesh ahead and Elias catching up, using a Seeker on you. Can you feel it?¡±

    Mick turned and tried to open himself to sensing Elias. Was he there? He couldn¡¯t be sure if he was feeling Her suggestion or an actual tingle in one direction behind them.

    ¡°Where are the Akaitapi?¡± He asked, She was never this talkative.

    ¡°Far ahead, they seek traps.¡± Iiyiko answered, ¡°Ba¡¯Neesh communal, they collect to each other, stronger near.¡±

    ¡°You mean they are coming toward me?¡± Mick said. ¡°Why? I¡¯m not a Ba¡¯Neesh.¡±

    ¡°You are an attractor, like a magnet.¡± She answered. ¡°Beacon for Ba¡¯Neesh. You attract me or I you, depending on perspective. Keep them moving.¡± She rattled off more sounds in Neesh.

    Edda answered, her tone less friendly.

    Mick knew the feeling, Iiyiko was inherently bossy. He came to a stop. First, it allowed the three Ba¡¯Neesh to rest for a moment, which they did. It also positioned him as leading them, a subtle shift. They were instinctively following his lead even though he was pretty sure they were technically older than he was. They still felt younger than him, it was a sensation he couldn¡¯t quite sort out. Elias had told him all of these Ba¡¯Neesh had already borne offspring, some several. For Mick, the idea of having children at his age was ludicrous. But, he knew he didn¡¯t know what he didn¡¯t know. They felt younger, immature. He wanted to trust that assessment.

    As they rested he was considering if they should go to the river. He could clearly see it now through the trees. It was close. In a game such an obvious lure was the signature of a trap.

    ¡°Is going to the water a trap?¡± He asked Iiyiko.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Elias answered, breaking through the brush behind Mick. ¡°But, it¡¯s early, a quick drink is likely a reasonable idea. Where are the rest of them?¡±

    ¡°Elias.¡± Mick said with true pleasure, ¡°She said you used a Seeker, you will show me that?¡±

    ¡°Maybe.¡± Elias answered carefully, technically he didn¡¯t know the rules of sharing Order techniques with Mick. All they had been through and he remained stuck in the uncertainty of their status. And, now this. It made more sense for the kid to have hopped back onto the floater with Mael, why run with the Ba¡¯Neesh?

    The Ba¡¯Neesh were watching the two of them avidly, clearly listening intently. They might not speak English but both Soek could guess they were fast learners. Was hearing English causing them to remember understanding English? Mick puzzled over the thought. It was edging the area in his head he was avoiding, punishing him with a slight headache.

    ¡°English?¡± He asked Edda.

    She blinked, her head tilting. ¡°Hear.¡± She answered as if plucking the word out of thin air.

    It wasn¡¯t a word he had said to her or heard said inside the aircraft. He nodded.

    ¡°Yes.¡± He said. He gestured. ¡°We go to drink.¡± He repeated the pantomime of drinking.

    ¡°Yes.¡± All four answered in unison, clearly grasping his intentions.

    ¡°You have a weapon, Elias?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°Of course.¡± He answered. ¡°But, my weapon, like my devices, will leave a trace if I use it. I¡¯ve got everything shut down completely. We want to avoid using them if possible. Last resort, yes?¡±

    Mick headed down a game trail toward the river, the Ba¡¯Neesh following the two Soek.

    Elias was back to paying attention, his inner analyst and intel gathering skills kicking in. This was Mick in a wholly new environment. He couldn¡¯t help but remember the way Mick had vanished into a tree in that graveyard, a mystery never fully explained in the rush of everything that had happened.

    ¡°Iiyiko?¡± He asked, he too could see the disturbance in the air riding just above Mick¡¯s right shoulder. ¡°Can the trees hide us here in some way if we need to disappear?¡±

    ¡°The Great One lives here.¡± She said obliquely.

    ¡°What does that mean?¡± Elias asked Mick.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know exactly.¡± Mick answered. ¡°Something about tree roots and a fungus. She calls the fungus a Great One.¡± He culled that tidbit from his remembered conversation with her in the tree.

    Elias frowned. They had reached the river bank and found eight more of the Ba¡¯Neesh squatting and drinking. Edda and the other two hurried forward to join them to a quick gabble in Neesh. The word ¡®fuck¡¯ was passed around.

    ¡°You had to teach them that word?¡± Elias asked Mick. They were drinking too. With no containers it might be a long time between drinks so each took their time to allow their bodies to rehydrate as fully as possible.

    ¡°The battle stopped.¡± Mick observed, ignoring the profanity discussion.

    ¡°About fifteen minutes ago.¡± Elias said. ¡°No way to determine the outcome. The Akaitapi will be in communication with Serla and likely they can reach these locals, or we should guess something like that. I don¡¯t know their range, do you?¡±

    ¡°Nine leagues.¡± Iiyiko answered smugly.

    Mick and Elias shared a glance. ¡°How long is a fucking league?¡± Mick asked.

    Elias wrinkled up his face. ¡°I used to know that, Gen Ed History.¡±

    Mick frowned, the back of his neck was heating up. ¡°Hey,¡± He said, ¡°Stop that.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Elias continued to concentrate, his Vrill escalating with the effort to recall the lost minor detail.

    ¡°Ow.¡± Mick yelped and pressed at his neck. ¡°Stop that.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just trying to remember how far a league is.¡± Elias could feel the memory, like a brain itch. He strained, focusing hard.

    Mick punched him, squalling. ¡°It hurts.¡±

    Elias warded off further punches and then straightened. ¡°It¡¯s three nautical miles.¡± He said triumphantly.

    ¡°I fucking know, you moron.¡± Mick was rubbing hard at his neck. ¡°You were digging in my brain too. That¡¯s not fair.¡±

    Elias frowned. ¡°I can¡¯t dig in your brain.¡± He said. ¡°It is my memory, not yours.¡±

    ¡°Dumb ass, we now share memories.¡± Mick leaned forward and splashed his neck with water.

    Elias¡¯ mouth formed a large circle. ¡°You mean like a sigil search that crossed from my brain to yours?¡± He asked in wonder.

    ¡°What do you mean, a sigil search?¡± Mick¡¯s neck was cooling down and his curiosity was rising now that the pain had stopped.

    ¡°Well, you know how you focus really hard to remember some stupid detail in classes and you can feel your brain compressing and running a search like those on a device.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°I felt that, and then the rising of Vrill.¡± Elias said, ¡°I never thought Vrill might be connected with searching memory, that would mean it has to do with storing and sharing the memory too, wouldn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°I guess.¡± Mick trailed off uncertainly. ¡°I know it fucking hurt when your Vrill was digging around in my head.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias was getting excited, ¡°But, for a little bit of your header pain I managed to dig out a forgotten memory. I don¡¯t think I would have remembered on my own. I hated those memorization of worthless details classes, so fucking boring.¡±

    ¡°Remind me how great it is when I dig into your fucking brain with the blunt Vrill instrument of me searching for something stupid.¡± Mick answered. Then he looked up, his shift mercurial. ¡°We need to go, right now. That way.¡± He pointed, rising to start off at a dead run.

    He didn¡¯t even look to see if the small crowd of recumbent Ba¡¯Neesh and Elias were following. He knew they would. It was instinct. Elias ran after him, shaking his head. Mysteries. What was in Mick¡¯s head?

    Elias caught up with him fairly fast and said, ¡°Nine leagues is roughly twenty-seven miles. Just thought you should know.¡±

    Mick glared at him, his pace slowing to a more manageable speed. He wanted to think the urgency came from Iiyiko, but he knew it wasn¡¯t Her, it was them, the Ba¡¯Neesh ahead of him. Attractor, attractee, who was whom? He could feel escalated Vrill. It didn¡¯t matter what it was, he had to reach them.

    (Back to Mick and Elias, mischief and mayhem.  Off we go to head into the larger mysteries of what is truly happening and why. Enjoy! More tomorrow. Star me!)

 Chapter Thirty-Three - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Thirty-Three ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    A mistake. Arjan barely dared hope that the footage was real. Before being wiped Eric must have released the Ba¡¯Neesh in some futile gesture of remorse. The fool. The monsters were dumb as rocks as their current detection indicated. Free less than a full day and he already had them under surveillance.

    Best intel suggested there were two foreign aircraft and one Tule Soc craft heading toward the facility. And do what? Clearly they knew nothing about the loose Ba¡¯Neesh. Or perhaps, they didn¡¯t care. Arjan had the entire mass of Tule Soc force with him, they had only lost one transport in the national fleet debacle against Citadel. He would arrive in the area in minutes.

    He continued to wonder why there had been no intel even hinting at the massive defensive system guarding Citadel. That shouldn¡¯t be possible. Tule Soc maintained spy satellites with eyes on the island at all times. It indicated a completely underwater build in absolute secrecy, a true engineering feat. Well, the upside was that all of the Directorate¡¯s illegal weaponry had been paraded before the International community. He and the Ministers had been fielding calls demanding a full and immediate investigation of this rogue group.

    The national alliance that had fronted the decimated fleet, always fragile, had fractured as their ships fell out of the sky. Two thousand men dead. What saved Tule Soc was their back position, the military men had felt the corporation had only a minor role in the offensive. Arjan knew he was alive because of sheer luck, not through any superior strategy on his part. He would take it.

    Now, the objective was to drive DireSec away from the facility and to bring them down politically. He was already in heated discussion with the former nation/state of Germany¡¯s national protectorate forces who were in the process of deploying to protect the facility from this widely reviled rogue corporation. It wasn¡¯t what he¡¯d planned but it softened the depth of the Citadel disaster and it might just save his new job. The Ministers were already discussing how to present the situation in positive terms to the full Tule Soc Ministry who would be gravely unhappy at seeing their name in the media attached to this mess.

    He replayed the footage on his external device. A small floater running a grid search trying to locate Eric¡¯s body had noted movement in the woods and thought they were seeing a herd. Until that herd passed through an open meadow and they had visuals. Arjan grunted. Finally, retribution would be his.

    He sent all but three of the transports on to Fels, those three were over a hundred decent operatives, more than enough to capture these Ba¡¯Neesh before they encountered any other humans. He sent himself a note to identify every operative who was seeing the footage or would see the monsters live, a little memory adjustment would be necessary in the aftermath of this mission.

    He kept tracking the three aircraft heading toward the facility. It was suicide. He had ten times the number of Tule Soc operatives and aircraft responding much less the expected protectorate forces. Still, those three craft had managed to take down the first to reach them in the Reserves. Four more small floaters destroyed. He had the techs replay the footage from those aircraft several times trying to understand the weapon. All he saw was a bright light and then the interior footage showed the pilot behaving oddly. Some kind of disruptor ray? The aircraft noted no trace of weapon deployment. If anything, the three aircraft seemed indifferent to the Tule Soc floaters, they didn¡¯t even veer off course. Their lack of concern ate at him.

    Elias jerked Mick back and pressed him roughly to the ground. The lagging Ba¡¯Neesh happily squatted, breathing heavily behind them.

    Through the trees they could see activity in a meadow. Too many men, all wearing the distinctive uniforms of Tule Soc.

    ¡°What did they do to them?¡± Mick whispered.

    ¡°Broadcast stunner would be my guess.¡± Elias answered.

    ¡°Shit.¡± Mick hated what he was seeing. ¡°They are dragging them off like carrion.¡±

    ¡°There are four aircraft hovering over the area.¡± Elias pointed out. ¡°I only see forty or fifty operatives. It means they only unloaded one or maybe two of them.¡±

    ¡°Only?¡± Mick said with heavy sarcasm. ¡°And, what have we got, Elias? Two Soek and eleven worn out Ba¡¯Neesh.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias agreed. ¡°Crap for odds. Do we just abandon them to their fate?¡± He said with equal sarcasm.

    The operatives were dragging the seventeen Ba¡¯Neesh into a pile taking no care whether they were banging them against rocks or logs. In fact, Mick rather thought they were intentionally being rough. Bastards.

    The eleven Ba¡¯Neesh with Mick had crawled up to watch, muttering to each other in Neesh. He could imagine that conversation. At the least, he had to keep these ones from doing anything stupid like running down there to be stunned. It was clear the operatives were counting the ones they had.

    ¡°They have a Vrill trace device.¡± Elias pointed out, gesturing toward two operatives carrying a device attached to a back pack between them. ¡°Once they get it running it will pick us up as close as we are. No doubt they are looking for these eleven to fulfill their count.¡±

    ¡°Fuck.¡± Mick said, ¡°What the hell are we going to do? Your stunner will like take out one or two while the rest rush us?¡±

    ¡°Pretty much.¡± Elias¡¯ tone was grim. He knew if he signaled the DireSec aircraft Tule Soc would lock on to their location via the signal, and what? Three DireSec ships against three Tule Soc and how long before they could fly back? And, more importantly, there was a Tule Soc fleet somewhere, they had backup. ¡°Got any bright ideas, that guy is going to turn on the tracer as soon as he gets the pack on his back. Likely they have more than one too.¡±

    Mick was glaring around looking for any trace of Iiyiko, but, apparently she was off gallivanting elsewhere. Bright ideas. He had no desire to land in the hands of the creeps who wanted him brain wiped or dead. They could torture him. Based solely on how they had treated the Ba¡¯Neesh, he wanted no part of their hospitality.

    Elias grew thoughtful, there was one weapon. He looked over at Mick. ¡°We could laser them maybe.¡± He said. ¡°We don¡¯t have the Channels but it might let us get away and take out a few in the process.¡±

    Mick frowned at him. ¡°What laser? You said you had a stunner.¡±

    ¡°I always have a laser.¡± Elias said enigmatically. ¡°We¡¯re not supposed to use them. They are sort of dangerous.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s some Order trick thing, isn¡¯t it?¡± Mick said, ¡°A fucking secret. Well¡­¡± He focused at the word Elias and laser.

    Elias yelped. ¡°Stop that.¡± He said roughly.

    Mick pressed as Elias moaned clutching at his head in misery.

    ¡°Told you it hurt like the devil.¡± Mick said, finding the memory and stiffening. ¡°You just point and voila? What the fuck.¡±

    ¡°It takes mega juice.¡± Elias noted that the guy was fiddling with the pack straps, they were running out of time.

    ¡°Yeah? How about a chain?¡± Mick said, looking over at the Ba¡¯Neesh who were tightly focused on their hushed conversation.

    Elias rubbed at his neck, he wanted to smack the kid with the header now thumping his brain like a hammer. Chain? His brain fumbled with the word, a Ba¡¯Neesh chain to heal Evgeny? That memory surfaced. He grew excited. Right.

    ¡°Fuck yeah.¡± He gestured the Ba¡¯Neesh in close and then used a stick to draw on the ground. He pointed at them and counted to eleven making eleven marks. They nodded. He pointed at himself and Mick and said, two marking them with X marks. They nodded again, apparently they understood basic math. He scratched on the dirt a line down the middle with one Soek and six Ba¡¯Neesh and one Soek and five on the other.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°But, I¡¯ve never done this laser thing Elias and your memory is vague as shit.¡± Mick argued.

    ¡°Yeah. But, you have my memory of doing it.¡± Elias said, ¡°So, you remember how to do it. The trick is short bursts, like this.¡± He lifted his right hand straight up and pointed with his index finger. Mick and the Ba¡¯Neesh were tightly focused on him. ¡°You can say laser aloud or just in your head. You are actually summoning light. The laser is a type of light. Like this. On, off.¡±

    A tight beam of red laser light shot upward to cut a small limb which fell on top of them to much scrabbling and dodging.

    ¡°Laser.¡± The Ba¡¯Neesh sounded gleeful.

    ¡°Dangerous.¡± Elias looked at them. ¡°You chain, Mick and I shoot using your combined Vrill. I¡¯ll go left, you go right and let¡¯s take out the ships, not so they crash on the Ba¡¯Neesh, but to cause chaos. Then we laser the operatives, particularly the one with that pack heading toward us now.¡±

    Edda said, ¡°Fuck.¡± In agreement, apparently.

    ¡°Shit.¡± Mick said, nodding. He got up and ran right, trailed by five Ba¡¯Neesh. They weren¡¯t exactly trying to be seen but speed seemed more important than stealth. He heard shouting from the Tule Soc operatives, they¡¯d been spotted. Elias yelled out, ¡°position.¡±

    Mick turned to the Ba¡¯Neesh and said, ¡°Chain.¡±

    They grabbed each other¡¯s horn mounts. He nodded. Then he reached out hoping they knew he had to be part of the chain. They burst into Neesh but he grabbed hold of Edda¡¯s mount with his left hand and lifted his right pointed up.

    He focused tightly on the Elias memory. This time it felt different, he could feel the Vrill of the Ba¡¯Neesh pressing the memory like a balloon being filled. He looked up, a prayer on his lips. ¡°Laser on, off.¡± He said, being sure to angle the finger in case it worked he didn¡¯t want to fight another falling limb.

    His finger went red hot and he screamed even though it lasted far less than a second. ¡°Fucking A.¡± He said, watching another limb tumble toward the ground. The Ba¡¯Neesh were nodding and Edda said, ¡°I see.¡± She was grinning.

    Mick discovered Elias was already firing, his laser cutting through the first ship spilling screaming men to splat on the ground and trees. Distance was clearly not a huge problem for the laser. The two halves of that ship thundered as they hit the ground. The remaining three ships were taking defensive action, which meant flying away.

    Mick nodded at Edda, ¡°You ready?¡± He didn¡¯t wait for an answer, just yelled out laser on and then he pointed. It was surreal, a lot like using a gaming glove except for the white hot pain part. He thought he was doing something wrong for it to hurt so much but he screamed through it, spraying curses as much as general wails. On and off, over and over. He hit another aircraft just on the edge of what he could see. It spun in the air and then disappeared out of range of his sight. Then he focused on the operatives running toward him leveling weapons.

    It was a whole other thing to cut a man in half. Mick almost threw up. The Ba¡¯Neesh howled and then he realized they were ramping up, their Vrill increasing as the mayhem intensified. They were enjoying the dismembering of men. He got lost in the on and off until he couldn¡¯t find another target. The two remaining aircraft had disappeared, likely were flying out to a safer perimeter or beyond eyesight.

    He looked over at the Ba¡¯Neesh who seemed to glow. They kept saying, ¡°Das blut. Das blut.¡± He could guess they were saying the blood as if delighted. Gruesome. Creepy as fuck. His stomach was roiling but there was no time to hurl, they had Ba¡¯Neesh to rescue.

    He raced across the battlefield, trying not to see the dead and their entrails. There were several stray limbs severed from bodies. Edda and the Ba¡¯Neesh were screaming and yeowling, too excited to even think about being quiet. There were a few wounded. The Ba¡¯Neesh used rocks to bludgeon them. Mick made no effort to stop them. These were the Ba¡¯Neesh¡¯ lifelong captors. Who was he to have an opinion about killing them? Maybe later.

    They reached the still unconscious pile of Ba¡¯Neesh.

    Elias yelled, ¡°Ba¡¯Neesh, attend.¡± He hit the last word with some Vrill, it brought the distracted and now bloody Ba¡¯Neesh around to look at him and Mick. ¡°We move them into the woods. Now.¡± Elias continued, grabbing one of the unconscious Ba¡¯Neesh under her arms to drag her toward the woods.

    More Neesh chatter but quickly the eleven joined in and together they moved the Ba¡¯Neesh out of the bloody clearing.

    ¡°Now what?¡± Mick asked Elias. He was fried.

    ¡°Now we guard them till they waken enough to help us.¡± He said. ¡°Thing is I think we can use their Vrill in a chain whether they are awake or not. That would make these others a sort of unused battery source.¡± He grinned a bit, reaching over to place his hand on one of the unconscious Ba¡¯Neesh¡¯s horn mount. This caused the eleven to say something to him in loud terms, he stared them down. ¡°Practice chain with sleepers.¡± He said, demonstrating. Edda watched carefully as he gestured they should also grab a sleeper¡¯s horn mounts and then he demonstrated a laser again saying, ¡°They may come back.¡± She nodded.

    The eleven pushed and pulled the sleeping Ba¡¯Neesh into positions they preferred and then sat with them, everyone connected. Mick and Elias joined them, wedged on all sides by Ba¡¯Neesh facing outward in a rough circle.

    ¡°Typical defense circle.¡± Elias said. ¡°I think Vrill sharing with them gave them access to our memories.¡± He continued, as the eleven looked at the two of them and talked and then argued in Neesh, all the while looking outward and upward for incoming enemies.

    ¡°We killed men, Elias.¡± Mick said, his stomach uncomfortable. They were close enough to the battlefield to see the bodies and to see curious animals sniffing along the outside of the meadow. The Ba¡¯Neesh chortled over this and made entreating sounds toward the animals until several ventured out to sample of the human bodies and their parts.

    ¡°Oh man, that¡¯s super gross.¡± Mick said.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias found he couldn¡¯t not look. It was one thing to kill a man from inside a floater, another to cut him in half with your finger laser. It was both disgusting and shockingly satisfying at the same time. What was wrong with him? He noticed Mick was watching the dead too, his expression a weird mix of upset and dark pleasure. What was wrong with both of them? Was it a Soek thing he¡¯d never heard of? He remembered Mael saying something once about Ba¡¯Neesh liking battle that was up close and personal. This qualified. It shifted something inside of him and he was guessing the same for Mick.

    Darkness came with more animals arriving to sample the booty. The unconscious Ba¡¯Neesh were wakening, unhappy and disturbed. Elias told Mick they needed to find deeper cover because Tule Soc would be back, likely to nuke the meadow from a distance with some big artillery. They wouldn¡¯t allow the Ba¡¯Neesh to escape.

    Mick learned the Ba¡¯Neesh leader¡¯s name was Aenor. She woke irritable and not at all as favorable to finding herself in a pile of Ba¡¯Neesh with two Soek in the mix. Edda did the talking. Mick and Elias just got up and walked away with Mick yelling over his shoulder, ¡°Come on. They will return.¡±

    Some of their intent must have penetrated because all twenty-eight of the Ba¡¯Neesh trailed after the two Soek, still arguing.

    Mick pondered that the Ba¡¯Neesh he had been around all seemed to like to argue. It must be a trait. He wondered where Iiyiko was, she had missed everything. He almost felt a sense of worry but it was more like uneasy.

    ¡°I¡¯m wiped out.¡± He confessed to Elias as he stumbled on some root along the narrow, dim path.

    ¡°You?¡± Elias argued back, ¡°I did that healing thing with Evgeny before all of this laser stuff. I could eat anything and want more. We have Vrill drop.¡± He stumbled too.

    It was as if he summoned them, out of the darkness the five Akaitapi appeared, carrying strings of small dead animals dangling from their shoulders, dripping blood down the front of their massive chests.

    ¡°Come.¡± The leader Aapisowoohta said.

    Mick was too tired to try to recall her name. He was staring at the dangling small animals. Raw. He couldn¡¯t decide if he would throw up or chomp it down. Clearly it was food. Dinner.

    The Akaitapi moved them far more quickly than any of the local Ba¡¯Neesh or the two Soek wanted to go. Clearly, there was a destination and a reason to move fast.

    Mick got to punctuating each step with a verbalized curse word. Elias emulated him and soon the local Ba¡¯Neesh around them were all swearing in a colorful array of language.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to regret this.¡± Elias whispered to Mick.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mick nodded, ¡°They learn swear words really fast. You notice the Akaitapi are ignoring us. I think we are below them on the food chain. What do you think?¡±

    ¡°As long as they feed us that meat.¡± Elias answered. ¡°I never thought raw could be a thing I might eat, but tonight, I could eat my own arm I¡¯m so drained.¡±

    Aapisowoohta snorted and then led the group into a small cave opening. The opening was barely large enough to crawl through but the cave itself was much larger and it smelled of creatures, a sort of musty, fecal, acidic odor. Mick could care less. He dropped down and said, ¡°I may never move again.¡±

    The local Ba¡¯Neesh followed suit and surprised both Elias and Mick by laying close against both of them. Clearly, some threshold had been crossed.

    The two Soek discovered that the Akaitapi liked roasted meat, if a little on the rare side and one of them told them there was water dripping from the wall further in. He didn¡¯t see how they generated the fire. It just appeared in a pile of sticks they must have gathered earlier. No one moved to drink until long after the meat was warming the insides of bellies. Mick discovered fresh kill cooked over a campfire was about the best tasting food ever. Apparently the local Ba¡¯Neesh agreed with much lip smacking and contented sounds. Life was good.

    Neither Elias nor Mick asked about setting a watch. They were too done in to be of any good to anyone. A quick drink, a discreet pee in the depths of the cave and they returned to the Ba¡¯Neesh pile, finding their fur warm and comfortable.

    The Akaitapi shared glances and returned to the entrance to protect it with sigils. For the night, it would do. They had much to discuss with their observation of the chain laser. The destruction was intense. What could healthy, well prepared Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek do?

    (Well my friends, I was very tired when I started this chapter and I will tell you, I totally wiped nearly a thousand words until I found the right way in. Fatigue was dealt with by resting and eating. Do you like the result?)

 Chapter Thirty-Four - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Thirty-Four ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Warmth moving away from him roused Mick to a discovery he was sleeping on rocks and dirt to a nasty smell. He wrinkled his nose and stretched, discovering all kinds of aches and pains he couldn¡¯t remember the source of. He frowned around the overly-full cave of glaring Ba¡¯Neesh, several were injured and others were washing them with a bit of rag, combing hair with fingers and eyeing Mick with what he thought might be hostility. Wasn¡¯t his fault the stupid Tule Soc had dragged them in the dirt.

    Well maybe, he amended thoughtfully, if they hadn¡¯t wasted so much time drinking the water, they would have arrived sooner. The thought brought the laser thing to mind. It felt unreal, like the whole massacre had happened on a vid, not in real life, not to him. He pointed his right index finger at the wall and called out, laser. A blast of rock shattered and sprayed him. He yeowled, yelling ¡°off, off damnit.¡± Real enough. He brushed and rubbed at the new sore spots.

    The cave had become silent. He glared back at the Ba¡¯Neesh, this was all their fault. ¡°What?¡± He said roughly, pushing himself to his feet. Pee was demanding his immediate attention.

    ¡°Fuck.¡± Edda answered. ¡°Laser fuck.¡± She laughed and the rest of the Ba¡¯Neesh joined in.

    ¡°Shit.¡± Mick said, hurrying past the large part of the group to head deeper into the dark cave. It wasn¡¯t any better in daytime than the night before. He couldn¡¯t see worth a shit and had to feel his way by reaching his feet out on the uneven floor and listen to the drip. He knew the drip place came before the pee place but the drip made his urgency to pee intensify. He started swearing, wondering how he had managed to get himself into this entire mess. He should be home in his soft bed listening for the ding that the house made when his breakfast was ready. Breakfast.

    He peed and some of his angst flowed out with it. That left him thinking about home and why he felt mostly not too much about it. Had the brain wipe separated him from the emotional context of his memories?

    He found the water dripping place and waited while a Ba¡¯Neesh whose name he didn¡¯t know washed out a rag. When she finally left he washed his entire head, feeling the bruises like forgotten trophies, the new rock-chip nicks, the filth, the smell of dried blood from dead body splatter. He even washed his hair and noted that he too was finger-combing to straighten it back out. Why didn¡¯t he carry a pocket comb? He did his best and then tied it as neatly as he could at the base of his neck. Long hair. He¡¯d noted that all of the Soek he had met wore their hair long, as did the Ba¡¯Neesh.

    His mother had complained, telling him he looked out of place as the current style for men was much shorter and more trim. He never wanted anyone to cut or even trim his hair. His mother. He tried to summon intense longing to see her, be hugged by her, but at best he managed a tepid he would like to, at some point, mostly, kind of feeling.

    Elias arrived.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with me Elias?¡± He asked. ¡°I don¡¯t miss my mom enough. It¡¯s like she is off in the distance and I don¡¯t even feel like I should tell her I¡¯m alive. That¡¯s wrong.¡±

    ¡°Did you have a good relationship with your foster parents?¡± Elias asked, going through a near identical process of washing his face, even his hair.

    ¡°Yeah, I guess.¡± Mick found a boulder and sat on it. He could see better now, as if his eyes had adjusted to the dark a bit. ¡°My mom, mostly. She spent the most time with me. She¡¯s part of the Advocacy on Human Rights. They make sure everyone gets a totally fair chance at realizing their potential. She¡¯s really great that way.¡±

    ¡°And, your father?¡± Elias was finger-combing his long hair too, working out the many knots.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Mick played with a pebble. ¡°He¡¯s a Reserves Administrator for three teams. That¡¯s pretty important but he is away half the week and when he¡¯s home all he talks about are this or that problem with his teams or their sites for the week. So boring. He doesn¡¯t bother to even try to understand me. He once told me I was super selfish. I could tell he didn¡¯t think much of me.¡±

    ¡°I never met either parent.¡± Elias said simply. ¡°Order born, cr¨¨che raised and then boarded at Citadel. I had a Comfort Counselor, of course, and then the String, my classmates and a few Masters I liked okay.¡±

    Mick listened, his memory echo of Elias gave him flits of each of these experiences, so different from his own life.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t I care more, Elias?¡± He returned to his own problem. ¡°I feel focused on myself, like my father said, I feel selfish.¡±

    ¡°How do you feel about killing those men yesterday?¡± Elias asked, finding a boulder across from Mick where he sat down.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Mick said, ¡°In the moment I was grossed out and wanted to throw up. Then, it felt sneaky good in a way. I¡¯m not supposed to feel good about killing things, only damaged people feel like that.¡±

    ¡°According to whom?¡± Elias asked.

    ¡°My psychiatrist for one. He said I showed signs of too much detachment from healthy human emotional states.¡±

    ¡°Are you human? Don¡¯t you think your human measure might not relate perfectly to being Soek?¡± Elias asked.

    Mick blinked. ¡°You mean you feel this detachment too?¡±

    ¡°I care about things, but this last week has made me feel things I never felt before, since I met you and everything happened so fast.¡± Elias admitted.

    ¡°They,¡± Mick pointed back toward where they could hear the Ba¡¯Neesh, ¡°seem to have fast experiences.¡±

    ¡°I never get the sense they hold onto things emotionally.¡± Elias agreed, nodding. ¡°Hot and fast. If it happens in the moment then fine, once the moment is gone, it¡¯s like they choose not to dwell on it endlessly.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, like when they had me on the floor and then poof, I was invisible.¡± Mick said, nodding to himself.

    ¡°Exactly.¡± Elias agreed. ¡°Super short attention span, no lingering trauma. Remember, these Ba¡¯Neesh have been confined and treated badly since birth.¡± They could both hear laughter coming from the direction of the Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°And, they are laughing.¡±

    ¡°So, that¡¯s why I find it hard to miss my mother? I mean, I want her to be safe and healthy and all of that, but, I can¡¯t fit my head around going back to a life of laying on the floor of my bedroom playing a game all day. It¡¯s like it didn¡¯t really happen to me but to some other kid.¡± Mick said.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    ¡°I know the feeling.¡± Elias nodded. ¡°I listened to those classes you played back in the floater and it was like it happened to someone else, not me. I feel like I have had several separate lives and when you showed up, my old life ended again. I resented that, a lot. But, now this feels almost normal.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    There was a long pause and then Mick said, ¡°How old are you anyway. At first I thought you were like thirty or something, but now you feel only a little older than me.¡±

    Elias laughed. ¡°Thirty? Damn. I¡¯m older than Mael is, Mick. I was sixteen when he was nine.¡±

    ¡°No way.¡± Mick tried to see Elias face to see if he was lying.

    ¡°Totally.¡± Elias said. ¡°I¡¯m thirty-five.¡±

    Mick shook his head. ¡°Do you feel that ancient?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Sometimes.¡± Elias thought about it a bit. ¡°Mostly, I feel like I just got out of school, still trying hard to learn things and find my way.¡±

    ¡°Like me.¡± Mick nodded. ¡°I missed my upper school levels. No great loss though, all the classes were so boring.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re way behind.¡± Elias said, ¡°Clearly you need all the mastery classes, I didn¡¯t do too well on some of them which is why I voced out. I¡¯ve been uncertain what to share with you as technically, you are an enemy combatant. Except, I can¡¯t make that work in my head anymore. I have no idea what you are except you arrived and I feel compelled to guard you and you end up in the middle of shit.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± It was Mick¡¯s turn to think about it from Elias¡¯ side. Mastery classes. He knew that meant magic stuff. He¡¯d known Elias was hiding that stuff from him as much as he could. It made him feel both a little comforted and uncomfortable all at the same time. He got up. ¡°I¡¯m hungry.¡± He stated.

    ¡°Me too.¡± Elias answered, ¡°Can¡¯t say I¡¯m looking forward to more semi-raw meat though.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. But the Akaitapi are really good hunters.¡± Mick replied. ¡°And, did you see how they made that fire so easy last night?¡±

    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t see. That worries me too.¡± Elias said. ¡°They actually worry me quite a bit, I feel like they are hiding nearly everything from us, even worse than the Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh do and they are bad enough.¡±

    ¡°So it wasn¡¯t just me?¡± Mick said. ¡°I felt like a stupid Soek last night, an exhausted stupid Soek.

    ¡°Me too.¡±

    They arrived to find the fire going again and a new stack of wood lining one side. The smoke masked some of the more unpleasant odors and the local Ba¡¯Neesh were pulling the skins off what looked like large rodents to Mick. He frowned.

    ¡°Squirrel.¡± Elias said, hopeful more than certain.

    ¡°Oh.¡± That didn¡¯t seem much better to Mick than big rats.

    His resistance lasted until the smell of roasting meat activated his salivation glands. He frowned. He was primitive as well as stupid. Then he forgot both when Edda handed him a speared squirrel on a stick, hot.

    He learned to eat with his teeth and to wait for it to cool some. He found the Akaitapi had returned with a small pile of nuts and berries too, as well as some bulbous roots he couldn¡¯t identify. They were eating these raw so he decided they must be safe uncooked. The nuts were bland, the berries tart and the roots were spicy. Together the meal was surprisingly tasty although he had to return to the drip twice for water to wash all of it down.

    When he returned after washing his face and hands, the local Ba¡¯Neesh were seated in a circle with the Akaitapi, also seated, at the end nearest the cave entrance. He wedged in between Elias and Edda, she seemed to be the nicest of the Ba¡¯Neesh toward him.

    ¡°They have searchers in the woods.¡± Aapisowoohta continued. ¡°You will remain inside the cave. We have protections up that will cause them to avoid the area. They are using tracers but the rock operates like a shield and you will fill rocks in the entrance to protect what might leak from the opening. We will be gone, perhaps until tomorrow. You should be safe. You have lasers.¡± She repeated everything in Neesh after the English version for Elias and Mick.

    Everyone nodded. Mick could imagine chopping up intruders trying to break in. Elias shook his head.

    ¡°When they come, if they find us, they will use an illegal rocket device to blow into the cave and crush us to death.¡± Elias said.

    ¡°Perhaps.¡± Aapisowoohta said. ¡°We must consider that strongly. You will build the inner wall as thick as possible. The area has natural Vrill trace from ancient occupation of Ba¡¯Neesh for centuries, working into the environment. It will operate against their devices. We suggest no fire until after dark. The odor and trace of smoke might be sensed. They are not woodsmen. They are loud and awkward in the woods.¡±

    ¡°Where are you going?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°To Fels. We gather intel.¡± Aapisowoohta answered. ¡°Rest, you will likely need your strength, later.¡±

    Mick hated that their words were all thoughtful and well-reasoned. He didn¡¯t want to be stuck in a cave all day. But, he could tell he was still tired, too many days of too many problems. He grumbled under his breath.

    As it turned out they spent more than two hours after the Akaitapi left filling in the cave opening like a jigsaw puzzle. It was hard work and the local Ba¡¯Neesh seemed to think it was Soek work. So, Elias and Mick did the work, snarking to each other about the Ba¡¯Neesh, secure in the thought that these Ba¡¯Neesh didn¡¯t speak English.

    That ended when Edda approached Mick and said, ¡°Lazy?¡±

    Mick had his shirt off and was mopping the sweat off his face. As they closed in the entrance the light inside the cave dwindled and Edda was more a shape of dark-on-dark, he couldn¡¯t see her face or even attempt to read her expression.

    ¡°What lazy?¡± She asked a second time.

    He wondered where she got the word ¡®what¡¯. He knew where she¡¯d heard the word lazy. ¡°Not wanting work.¡± He answered, hoping the language barrier would hold up in this instance.

    ¡°Not work?¡± She left out the word wanting.

    ¡°Yes.¡± He said.

    She hurried away from him chattering in Neesh, loudly and with some negativity in her tone.

    ¡°Shit.¡± He whispered to Elias. ¡°They learn fast.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias said. ¡°First profanity and now lazy. Think they will allow us to sleep with them later or not?¡±

    Mick paused. It was weird to think he had slept up against two female bodies the night before and didn¡¯t remember much about it. He was male, so was Elias, they were female.

    ¡°So, what¡¯s the deal between Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek?¡± He whispered.

    ¡°You mean sex?¡± Elias answered directly.

    ¡°Well, okay.¡± Mick said.

    ¡°No one knows except maybe Mael and Anya.¡± Elias answered, ¡°Oh, and the Akaitapi, of course.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°We artificially constrained reproduction both the Directorate and Tule Soc.¡± Elias answered. ¡°At the Barrens, the Ba¡¯Neesh were allowed in a room with vials of Soek sperm, frozen. They walked along and then selected one. It was reconstituted and the Ba¡¯Neesh were given the vial. Later, they might become pregnant, or not. The Directorate tried everything but the Ba¡¯Neesh only got pregnant by the vial method, except for Mael.¡±

    ¡°You make exceptions for Mael a lot.¡± Mick observed. ¡°What happened with Mael?¡±

    ¡°No one knows, exactly.¡± Elias answered. ¡°When Kirsan took over Barrens they did a spot inspection. Back then that meant they gassed the Ba¡¯Neesh to render them unconscious and walked through their quarters. They found a male infant who was being diaper changed when the inspection happened. He was months old. Typically, the Ba¡¯Neesh gave up male infants three days after birth. Mael was several months old. They checked all of the other babies to be sure they were all female. Then they tested Mael and his paternal contributor was not in the record. No vial. They asked the Ba¡¯Neesh as they could identify her. She apparently shrugged as her answer.¡±

    ¡°So, what happened?¡±

    ¡°He was listed as unknown contributor and sent to cr¨¨che. He didn¡¯t get along super well. They called him Mel Barrows back then. Later, much later, Xasper discovered his mentor Albert Strom, dead. He was very old even then, like Ornius old. In fact, Ornius and Albert were best friends. Later still, the Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh told Mel he was Mael Strom. Ornius knew the name. Xasper then described Albert¡¯s body when he found him. They drained his gonads. How, no one will say, but Xasper knows. He gets all dark in the face the few times he will talk about it. He says they took Albert and it killed him.¡±

    ¡°You mean they milked him sexually?¡± Mick was fascinated. He knew he was behind, by human standards, in being attracted to girls. They were okay, but he knew guys his age who were over the top constantly talking about sex.

    ¡°I guess. Xasper won¡¯t say, at least to me.¡± Elias admitted. ¡°He probably told Mael, they have a tight relationship.¡±

    ¡°So, this all sounds like ancient history. What about now? We are in this cave alone with twenty-eight Ba¡¯Neesh, Elias?¡±

    Of course, Elias didn¡¯t have an answer and his silence echoed the thought in both of their heads.

    (Welcome back. Would you like to be blocked into a dim cave with twenty-eight Ba¡¯Neesh?)

 Chapter Thirty-Five - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Thirty-Five ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Two of the Ba¡¯Neesh made a sort of paddle rake by peeling some of the bark off the limbs the Akaitapi had left for firewood. They scraped the floor of the central area removing the top debris and revealing a softer underlayer of silt.

    Mick discovered he could sense their movements and see something, it was like they radiated. He talked to Elias about it and they both thought they were seeing a faint aura of Vrill. They tried to see each other but that seemed less successful. Elias said the Ba¡¯Neesh Vrill was cleaner than Soek and maybe that made it brighter. They were subdued. It was stuffy in the cave with everyone breathing, Mick had the feeling they were running out of air although Elias told him there was fresh air along the area of the dripping water.

    After they swept out the area the Ba¡¯Neesh settled down into a close-knit group leaving Elias and Mick on the outside. They spoke in Neesh and were playing with each other¡¯s hair. It made Mick grumpy. He wasn¡¯t exactly hungry, although he felt he could eat. He had plenty of water. It was a sort of snubbing, Ba¡¯Neesh to Soek.

    He worried over it for maybe an hour before he got up and walked over to Edda. The Ba¡¯Neesh conversation stopped.

    ¡°I want to join you.¡± He said.

    Edda didn¡¯t answer, nor did she give any sign of understanding him. He couldn¡¯t tell if she was faking it. Half the time he thought she knew more words than she seemed to know at other times, he felt played. He sat down so close to Edda his thighs touched her.

    She chattered at him brusquely and pulled herself out of contact. She gestured as if telling him to leave.

    ¡°No.¡± He said. He had his jacket rolled up to make a pillow so he laid down right there, his feet closest to the Ba¡¯Neesh, right in the middle of their soft, silty dirt.

    Elias waited, thinking about it. Then he walked over and lay down next to Mick. The Ba¡¯Neesh pulled away when his intent became clear. There was more unpleasant sounding Neesh, and a full-on argument between Edda and Aenor, the leader.

    Elias whispered to Mick, ¡°Hopefully they won¡¯t bash in our brains while we sleep.¡±

    Mick whispered back, ¡°They won¡¯t, they need us for manual labor and shit.¡±

    Both of them snickered, facing each other in the dark. They could hear the Ba¡¯Neesh listening and weirdly it was funny to play the other shoe, snub them back.

    It was dark, too warm, close air and quickly the two of them fell asleep, unaware of the confused Ba¡¯Neesh, not certain how to treat the Soek in their midst. Eventually, they too lay down and slept, curled against each other like spoons. Edda forgot Mick was Soek and curled against him and another did the same with Elias.

    Because the cave was so dark it was impossible to tell a difference in the time when the group wakened. None of them were sure what wakened them, there didn¡¯t seem to be new noises or anything dangerous. But, Mick pushed himself to his feet.

    It took even longer for his eyesight to adjust to where he could see the individual Ba¡¯Neesh shapes again.

    ¡°Want to explore?¡± He asked Elias.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias replied. ¡°I need to warm my muscles up.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say the laser was first a light thing?¡± Mick asked as they picked their way deeper toward the now-familiar drip.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias said, ¡°I should have thought of that earlier. A dim light shouldn¡¯t take a lot of Vrill. As Mael said, I am only talking to the light that exists here in ranges hard for my primitive eyeballs to process.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡± Mick said, not really sure what Elias meant exactly.

    A soft glow appeared that felt really bright. The Ba¡¯Neesh exclaimed and then they too were radiating light, without the finesse of Elias.

    ¡°Turn those off and stop wasting Vrill.¡± Elias snapped.

    The other lights vanished and there were a few words in Neesh that sounded to Mick exactly like snarky words. He tried to repeat them but found his mouth resisting.

    It seemed where the two Soek went, the local Ba¡¯Neesh would follow. The dim light was plenty to see by making it much faster to avoid the rocks and boulders.

    Elias followed the air to a slot that seemed to be a crack leading to the surface somewhere. There was a hint of more light suggesting it was still daylight outside.

    They continued, poking into pockets and holes, looking for anything larger. Eventually they found an animal¡¯s den with lots of bones. It was perhaps two feet tall. Elias suggested he go first to check for danger as he had the stunner and the light. Mick stayed so the Ba¡¯Neesh stayed. Eventually Elias called out that it was tight but went very deep. So, they followed him, the Ba¡¯Neesh occasionally radiating the same type of dim light when it became too dark.

    After about an hour on his hands and knees Mick was wondering what it was they were doing, they would have to go all the way back and his knees were complaining, loudly. ¡°Elias?¡± He called out.

    ¡°Yeah, just a bit further, I think.¡± Elias answered. ¡°Water up here, moving fast. I want to see what it is.¡±

    Mick soldiered on, he couldn¡¯t leave Elias alone. That was a Reserves rule, always buddy up. He could hear the Ba¡¯Neesh complaining to each other without the need of translation. It was clear to Mick they were following a crack and sometimes it was wet without the relief of drinkable water. His pants were wet and his mouth dry.

    ¡°Right.¡± Elias said nice and loud.

    Mick did his best to hurry forward for a look at this rushing water promise. He could hear it too and it seemed to aggravate his thirst. The crack widened into a much larger crack, tall enough to stand upright many times over. Far above were some glints of light but Mick could tell it wasn¡¯t a way out, at least not for them. Maybe for mice and bats.

    What captivated everyone¡¯s attention was a large culvert pipe. Mick¡¯s experience suggested it was reinforced concrete installed after a drill and brace operation. The Reserve teams left these alone as most would eventually collapse in on themselves and nature would resolve the issues presented. This one had clearly begun the process long ago as the top of the pipe was missing and there was a bit of water splashing up and out of the holes, making them bigger.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh crowded forward until the entire open space was jammed.

    Now what?

    The Ba¡¯Neesh answered by reaching over the curve of the pipe to scoop handfuls of water. Mick watched for a moment and then he saw the concrete under one of the Ba¡¯Neesh wobble.Stolen novel; please report.

    ¡°Wait!¡± He yelled out, ¡°Come away before¡­¡±

    A thunderous sound accompanied by a scream threw the concrete and the three Ba¡¯Neesh leaning on it into the culvert pipe. The water didn¡¯t look that deep but it was brisk. They continued to scream as they disappeared flowing with the water.

    ¡°Shit.¡± Mick yelled and then before Elias could stop him he had jumped in after them. He had years and years of rescue training and he knew that these kinds of pipes often had grated openings that could be opened at periodic intervals for old time maintenance.

    It felt like a water slide. He swung himself around to go feet first, hoping the Ba¡¯Neesh were smart enough to do so as well.

    Behind him Elias vacillated and then the Ba¡¯Neesh chose again by jumping into the pipe after Mick.

    ¡°Shit.¡± Elias yelled in frustration. ¡°Feet first. Feet first.¡± By then he was the last one in. It wasn¡¯t so bad, but he worried that he would pile into a plugged up pipe full of Ba¡¯Neesh and they would all die in there.

    He passed the first ceiling grate barely seeing it. Then he heard Mick yell out something. Elias did his best to maintain a light in the tube and ahead he noted other light coming on. The Ba¡¯Neesh, at least some of them, were following suit.

    Mick grabbed hold of the grate with a clear view of the fading light of evening above it. He stabilized himself and found the rungs.

    He heard the Ba¡¯Neesh before he saw her. He yelled. She laughed, clearly enjoying the ride. She swept past him before he could grab at her. He was prepared for the next one and soon there were enough Ba¡¯Neesh to flag and stem off the opposite wall, using each other as braces. They seemed to have a natural gift for understanding engineering. They caught each other and eventually Elias.

    Mick called him over to the rungs where he still hung. The Ba¡¯Neesh were angling their bodies to allow the water to continue past them while all of them were looking over at the two Soek.

    ¡°It¡¯s rusted solid.¡± Mick said. ¡°I count four went on down lower. If we get out, we should be able to follow the grate structures to the narrows. They will likely be caught there, hopefully.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± Elias used his laser and a hand on a nearby horn mount to cut through the former grate hinges, pushing up and out to throw it off. He climbed out and looked around for any sign of operatives. There was nothing. ¡°Get them out first.¡± He ordered Mick.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh climbed over each other and made the exit look easy, most were smiling and all had drunk enough water to feel good. Elias dropped the grate back in place.

    He tapped Edda on the shoulder to get her attention. She flinched at his touch but remained looking at him. He mimed listening to the water and said, ¡°Can you hear it up here?¡±

    ¡°Hear?¡± She nodded.

    ¡°We follow water.¡± He said.

    She gabbled something in Neesh and the Ba¡¯Neesh tilted their heads and then headed down the slight slope. In the distance Mick could see the banks of a river again. Likely the culvert drained into that.

    ¡°They will be watching the river.¡± Elias said.

    ¡°Yeah, classic trap.¡± Mick nodded. They were trailing the Ba¡¯Neesh now who would stop at each maintenance grate and look in and call out.

    ¡°Edda?¡± Mick jogged up to stop her and knelt down. ¡°Trap ahead.¡± He said. He formed the shape of the clamps on her wrists from the devices the Tule Soc had used on them.

    ¡°Trap?¡± She repeated.

    Mick nodded. ¡°Slow, quiet.¡± He raised a finger to his lips. ¡°Sneaky.¡±

    ¡°Trap.¡± She nodded, whispering in Neesh.

    They did an odd thing. Where before they had been rather noisy and clunky, the Ba¡¯Neesh now became stealthy, all of them on their fours and clearly watchful. They had seen the mimed wrist guards and they seemed to guess at the word trap.

    Two grates further down they could hear voices coming up from underground. Elias gestured to Edda to quiet speak to the underground Ba¡¯Neesh. She did a whistle, chirp conversation that ended the voices.

    Elias had to burn the hinges on this grate open too and he stood guard as Mick led a chain of Ba¡±Neesh back down into the culvert where they found another grate where the culvert became three smaller pipes. The Ba¡¯Neesh were up against the side walls but appeared unhurt. They climbed over Mick and the other Ba¡¯Neesh and then up the ladder and out. By the time Elias lowered the grate quietly, the Ba¡¯Neesh were in a rough circle facing outward and sniffing.

    ¡°Which way?¡± Mick asked Elias, guessing the older Soek would have already been thinking about it.

    ¡°I think we head back up to the escarpment; it seems riddled with caves.¡± He whispered. With darkness well upon them they discovered the local Ba¡¯Neesh could blend into the woods as if they had lived there forever. They no longer spoke and on fours they weren¡¯t a lot taller than a large dog in height. It was hard for Mick and Elias to keep up. Occasionally, Aenor, the leader, would pause and the Ba¡¯Neesh would alert, their senses far more sensitive than the Soeks.

    It was on one of these alerts that they heard male voices. Aenor gestured the Ba¡¯Neesh off the trail and into the woods to disperse. Mick and Elias continued forward with great care. They had been climbing steadily as the ground sloped upward toward the escarpments. This left uneven low spots likely from thousands of years of runoff before the culverts had been installed. In one of these a cluster of operatives had built a fire and they were setting up camp.

    ¡°Nine.¡± Elias said.

    It was a terrible choice. Mick¡¯s group could backtrack and circle wide hoping they wouldn¡¯t come upon another group and that the Vrill tracer in plain sight wouldn¡¯t immediately go off on their trail. But, this ground search suggested Tule Soc had found sign of some Ba¡¯Neesh nearby. Had they found the entry to the cave?

    The Ba¡¯Neesh made the choice for them. While Mick and Elias were hunkered down spying on the encampment, the Ba¡¯Neesh circled around on both sides and then made noise. The Soek watched in horror as the operatives raced for weapons and started shooting. Then they saw pairs of Ba¡¯Neesh, one operating as a living battery while the other used her laser finger to fire on the operatives. They weren¡¯t aiming to kill either, they were taking out the weapons. With fourteen pairs of Ba¡¯Neesh it was short work to disarm, sometimes literally, the Tule Soc.

    What happened next was instructive and brutal. The Ba¡¯Neesh screamed tribal-like yells and raced into the clearing to engage with the operatives in hand-to-hand combat. It was nearly two on one. Soon, Mick and Elias were witness to the violent and very personal destruction of the operatives. Mostly, they kicked with their hooves or bludgeoned with stones until each one was checked and found to be not alive.

    Mick lunged over to a rock to disgorge the water from his stomach. Then he sagged to breathe heavily.

    ¡°Come on, Mick.¡± Elias said grimly. ¡°We need their gear and they will have open coms down there so we can hear what Tule Soc is saying. Run.¡±

    Mick tightened his stomach muscles and followed Elias. It was the first time he¡¯d ever searched newly dead men before. It became easier as he did it. Sometimes he played a thief in his games and he went there in his head. The Ba¡¯Neesh, after dancing around in a drunken mode slowed and panted, then the Soek waved them forward and showed them to gather all of the camping gear. Most was still packed. They took all of the weapons too and two Ba¡¯Neesh turned a laser on the Vrill tracer.

    Backing out of the clearing seven of the stronger Ba¡¯Neesh were walking upright wearing packs like the Soek. The bloody rest of them stayed on their fours.

    Elias yelled out, ¡°Find water underground.¡± They headed at an angle to their former direction in the now quite dark woods. Mick and Elias weren¡¯t saying much, they were trailing the Ba¡¯Neesh, not for any particular reason except it felt less stressful. When they were above the clearing Aenor stopped the group and came back to Mick. ¡°Fire?¡± She asked and pointed.

    It was a good idea. A forest fire would bring in Reserve teams but it would also eat up the evidence of the true nature of the massacre.

    Mick and Elias shared a glance and then nodded together. Elias reached into his pocket for a lighter but Aenor laughed in derision. She pointed and yelled out, ¡°Fire!¡± Both Soek jumped back.

    ¡°How¡¯d she learn to do that?¡± Elias yelled as everyone had to run as the top of the ridge had wind blowing in all directions, they could only hope the fire would run downhill and not just chase them.

    After a few minutes the wind tapered down and the fire chasing them slowed. The Ba¡¯Neesh were clearly tired and settled in to a slow pace. No sign of the Reserve forces yet.

    Edda dropped back as she usually did to match the slowest pace. Mick was pretty sure she had something wrong with one of her legs. She was covered in blood which she ignored and now she was tightly focused on just following the leaders.

    It wasn¡¯t too long before Aenor trumpeted and all of the Ba¡¯Neesh sniff snorted and then pointed. The Soek saw and smelled nothing.

    ¡°Do you think they really found water or are we just wandering around in the woods?¡± Mick asked Elias.

    ¡°I think they smell water.¡± Elias said. ¡°They are natural elementals probably. You saw how they cavorted in that damn culvert, laughing all the way down when we all could or should have been beaned. Now the fire thing. I didn¡¯t know you could summon fire like light, maybe water and air too and how would you summon dirt? I¡¯ve been thinking about it, Mael could tell us.¡±

    They reached a grate structure. The sound of water was distant and slow compared to the last culvert, it also sounded deep and even the torches stolen from the dead operatives couldn¡¯t see the water. Elias cut the hinges and headed in first.

    ¡°The treads are in bad shape so be careful.¡± Followed by, ¡°One at a time, not much water in this one.¡±

    And, that was how they found shelter for the night.

    (More blood. They do like revenge that is certain. More tomorrow my lovely fans.)

 Chapter Thirty-Six - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Thirty-Six ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Aapisowoohta skirted the edges of the slow-moving fire. Parts of it were dying out, the undergrowth too full of water to burn easily. She had seen no lightening and found the fire suspect. The Akaitapi crossed over the blackened mess hunting the source, they weren¡¯t alone. Noise and movement attracted them toward a ravine where two aircraft were hovering. The area was densely wooded and Aapisowoohta could imagine there was no where to land.

    These aircraft were dark in color, possibly green, with gold markings and distinct large red and white crosses, clearly visible in the moonlight. They did not look like the Tule Soc craft she had entered in the cave.

    The five Akaitapi moved through the fire-ravaged undergrowth carefully, wary of wearing the stink of this place in their fur. At an improved vantage point they were able to look down on a scene of destruction. Aapisowoohta counted nine bodies, badly burned, but their positions suggested fighting, not running from fire. There was a campfire ringed in rocks but strangely, that fire remained lit.

    The teams bringing in black bags to carry out the dead were arguing in German, not a language she could translate easily. Then she understood part of the conversation, it centered on two arms cut off from different bodies. Clearly a battle then. What had happened here?

    The Akaitapi had met with Serla to hear about the situation at the facility. They had told him they had left the Ba¡¯Neesh in a secure location. They had since found the lie of that statement. A return to the location of the cave found the entrance blown and most of the cave collapsed, but no sign of the Ba¡¯Neesh, no scent of blood or Vrill.

    ¡°What do you see, Ssaahkohtssi?¡± Her second was ring sniffing and dislodging ash.

    ¡°Humans never travel light.¡± She answered, losing interest in the scene.

    Aapisowoohta tightened her focus. Ssaahkohtssi was correct. The dead had no gear except a single backpack that looked melted. Laser? Her certainty that this scene was Ba¡¯Neesh related increased.

    ¡°We must find them. The fire still burns; this suggests this massacre was recent. Do we head toward the likely location of caves or has their experience in the last one turned them off?¡±

    ¡°I would go to ground were I in their poor condition and post the suggested battle here.¡± Ssaahkohtssi said, ¡°They cannot have gone far.¡±

    The group fanned out to ring sniff at intervals, seeking any trace of odor, however minimal. The fire had done an effective job of destroying such telltale evidence.

    They gathered back together. ¡°We need to pick up their trail outside of the fire area. This ash is as nothing. Let¡¯s find the edges and circle.¡± All of them knew it would be a lengthy hunt, the fire damage area was substantial and the odors of smoke and ash made the nose scent blind. The reached the end of the fire damage and walked away from each other, noses lowered to the dirt, snorting and snuffling.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh remained clumped near the upward stairs to the grate, clearly uncertain. Mick found it darkly amusing that they could collectively decide to attack armed operatives but have trouble deciding what to do in a concrete drain structure.

    ¡°We should move them between grate openings, don¡¯t you think?¡± He said to Elias. ¡°I would think heading uphill or away from that fire, just in case.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± Elias said, nodding, they were both using lit torches taken from the dead. ¡°I¡¯ll check it out and you listen. Don¡¯t let them get comfortable as they will likely be hard to move once settled.¡±

    ¡°Fine.¡± Mick turned to Edda who looked ready to collapse. ¡°We wait and listen for Elias. He will check the pipe for safety, then we move on.¡±

    Edda frowned, he was certain she understood the gist.

    ¡°Injuries?¡± He continued, walking from one to the next. ¡°You show me injuries.¡± This drew more of a blank. He pointed to the scabbed nick he had suffered when he lasered the inside of the cave the night before. ¡°Injury.¡± He said again. This elicited grunts.

    As he moved along each Ba¡¯Neesh showed him a variety of wounds. Apparently the operatives, at least one or two, had managed to grab for knives. He saw four stab wounds, areas that were swollen and older wounds from that stunning where they had been dragged face down. Although those had been cleaned, all of them were now covered in filth and blood. He arranged them in order of worst off. He looked up to find Elias had returned.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t answer.¡± Elias said, his tone curt.

    ¡°Oh, checking wounds.¡± Mick answered, noting the peeved tone in Elias¡¯ voice. ¡°We need to do triage when we stop. Did you find a place that is between?¡±

    ¡°Triage?¡± Elias lost his attitude. ¡°How bad are they?¡±

    ¡°Four took knives, survivable clearly, but bad enough.¡±

    ¡°Shit.¡± Elias said, nodding. ¡°Follow me.¡± He headed back the way he came, Mick spaced out the most wounded next to a least wounded and showed the least wounded the injury and told them to watch and help. His staccato words had impact. The Ba¡¯Neesh neither complained nor grumbled. They followed Elias. Mick took up the rear. It wasn¡¯t a long walk. He guessed about a quarter mile in, all slightly uphill but not too bad.

    As he walked up the line he told those with packs to take them off and then he showed one what the small medic kit looked like. She articulated a description and each pack produced one. He gathered these as he moved forward toward Elias and the most badly injured. Elias had stopped and was now kneeling beside her.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh had no clothing. They didn¡¯t need clothing with the natural maturation of their short fur. This fur made Mick forget they were naked. His mind had decided this was Ba¡¯Neesh and he had made it normal even though he had seen Ba¡¯Neesh in clothing.

    He and Elias brought out the sterile wipes to scrub around the first Ba¡¯Neesh¡¯s two stab wounds, both were oozing. The rest of the Ba¡¯Neesh crowded in, several creating light enough to see well. They murmured in low tones but were clearly watching. The injured Ba¡¯Neesh kept staring from Soek-to-Soek.

    ¡°It¡¯s in a good area.¡± Mick said. The wounds being too far above the heart to get into the big organs. She was holding her arm carefully though, that told him a muscle or tendon might be damaged. There wasn¡¯t a field treatment for a near shoulder upper chest stab wound besides to clean the area and treat it with an injectable antibiotic followed by possibly closing the wound. He discussed this with Elias who was impressed by the kids clear field knowledge, possibly better than that of Elias.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°My father¡¯s in the Reserves.¡± Mick explained aloud, as if everyone wanted to know. ¡°I¡¯ve had umpteen first aid classes, at least one a year, often several.¡± To the Ba¡¯Neesh he said. ¡°They are deep but not near organs. Tendons and muscles took the hit.¡± She just stared at him. ¡°First we clean, then we use meds, then decide about stitches.¡± He brought out a small razor which caused a flutter of conversation but no one stopped him.

    He used the sterile press cream and shaved a patch that cleared both wounds. This brought on more Neesh dialogue. He could feel the Ba¡¯Neesh being treated, shaking. Shock? ¡°We have a shock blanket in that stuff, Elias?¡± He asked, proceeding all the way to the stitching and then he paused.

    ¡°If there is crud deep in there and I stitch it, it could go septic.¡± He said, then he settled back on his heels. He had an image out of his Elias memories of a Ba¡¯Neesh with a massive horn thunking the head of another Ba¡¯Neesh. Healer.

    He got up to walk from one Ba¡¯Neesh to the next, reaching out to grab each one¡¯s horn mount and then drop it. They made complaint but again, they didn¡¯t stop him. He returned to one Ba¡¯Neesh with a single central horn. It was wide and grown out about an inch or so, heavily blunted. ¡°You are?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Helewidis.¡± She answered, clearly uncomfortable.

    ¡°Come with me, Helewidis.¡± He gestured her toward the front.

    ¡°Edda.¡± He called out, dubbing her his translator study.

    Edda was waiting, leaning slightly to take the weight off her right leg. Her expression was curious.

    Mick did a pantomime using his fingers to shape a horn which he placed on his own head. ¡°Helewidis¡¯ horn.¡± He said.

    He leaned in over the wounded Ba¡¯Neesh and acted like he was putting his fake horn on her wounds. ¡°Vrill wound.¡± He said.

    Edda brightened, bursting out in a flood of Neesh.

    ¡°Healer.¡± Mick said, pointing to Helewidis. ¡°Her.¡±

    Helewidis needed some help getting into the exact position and for this the Ba¡¯Neesh crowded in making Elias use his hand torch on the wound.

    ¡°Vrill heal her.¡± Mick yelled out.

    Helewidis complied sending a jolt into the wounds.

    The injured Ba¡¯Neesh yelped and yeowled and then spewed a flood of Neesh that ended in an upward tone of surprise.

    Helewidis had backed up, her horn now bloody, her expression worried and curious both. When the injured Ba¡¯Neesh changed her tone, Helewidis grinned. She patted her horn, ¡°Healer.¡± She said firmly.

    This became the routine for each wound. The Ba¡¯Neesh set about prepping for their turn by washing in the six-inch-wide stream that meandered down the center of the large pipe. It seemed clean enough and in any case neither Elias nor Mick had the energy to argue about drinkable water. It was keeping the Ba¡¯Neesh busy.

    As it turned out, each Ba¡¯Neesh wanted a turn and most offered to chain for Helewidis so she had ample power to draw on. There was a lot of Neesh discussion and even Edda¡¯s sore leg was effectively thumped. The entire process tired the two Soek out even more but now they had well-treated Ba¡¯Neesh who were clearly feeling better.

    They went through the packs and handed around the ready-to-eat packets and Mick painstakingly showed each Ba¡¯Neesh how to add a purification tablet to the water bottle before drinking. He wasn¡¯t sure they understood why, but they each did what he said. Soon, everyone had eaten, drunk clean water and were reclined against the reasonably clean walls of the conduit.

    Mick and Elias discovered six of the nine recovered weapons were slagged, the remaining three they split between them with Elias getting one and Mick two. They passed out the knives they found for the Ba¡¯Neesh to decide who would get one. The rest of the technology they put in a pile. Mick took a watch that had some medical features as well as communication. Elias was assembling the main communications hub and propping it up well away from the water. He murmured to Mick that reception was poor but he could get a bit in and out. They offered sleeping wraps which the Ba¡¯Neesh took after moving together into as close to one pile as possible. They had found both combs and brushes along with two small mirrors. It was like candy. The two Soek listened to the discussions and arguments over these items with wry humor while they took a position at the bottom end, closest to their entry.

    Elias chose that location telling Mick that their forensic trace would be on that end, so an enemy was more likely to find them from that direction. Mick didn¡¯t care, he just wanted to sit down and relax.

    ¡°You handled all of this pretty well.¡± Elias said, gesturing toward the Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°You mean watching that battle and the medic stuff?¡± Mick asked, just to be sure they were discussing the same things.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias nodded, ¡°They were brutal.¡±

    ¡°But fair.¡± Mick said.

    That surprised Elias. ¡°What do you mean, fair?¡±

    ¡°They disarmed them, didn¡¯t kill them outright.¡± Mick said. ¡°They had the superior weapons and by tag-teaming with a Vrill generator partner, they could as easily have lasered them in half as slag the weapons. They gave the men a chance, hand-to-hand.¡±

    Elias hadn¡¯t processed it that way, he blinked. ¡°That¡¯s what you saw, fairness?¡±

    ¡°I saw bad-ass hand-to-hand fighting. My assets.¡± Mick answered with some care. ¡°Who am I to judge them for evaluating threat from their perspective? I know my brain is hanked from being raised human, and humans only talk about fairness and cowardice, yet historically they like to kill from a distance, make it sanitized. I got the difference on that here today. Fucky bloody, gross, violent, exhilarating shit. Made me barf.¡±

    Elias was centering on Mick¡¯s word choice of assets. Evaluating. He was viewing the Ba¡¯Neesh as his fighting team, like in gaming strategy. Elias couldn¡¯t tell if that was a good or bad way to look at it. It was a useful way to look at it and it suggested a preparation for future battles. Now they both knew completely untrained Ba¡¯Neesh could fight like demons. He wasn¡¯t sure how he was going to think about it, he knew his brain was in shock.

    ¡°I know, if one of those operatives had come at me, I would have lasered his head off.¡± Mick continued. ¡°Does that make me any different, bottom line? I¡¯m Soek, they are my sisters. We are of one.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m struggling with it.¡± Elias admitted, ¡°It happened so fast and they didn¡¯t include us, hell, we didn¡¯t even know they changed positions until they started making noise so those guys would shoot at them. Damn, I didn¡¯t think about that, they let those guys make the choice to fire on them. Next time they need to do them first; we are damn lucky none of them took the weapons fire.¡±

    ¡°Shooting uphill, harder to sight a weapon.¡± Mick answered.

    ¡°Do you think the Ba¡¯Neesh knew that too?¡± Elias said, pondering.

    ¡°They had all been fired down on in that meadow and who knows who shot them before or from what angles while in captivity.¡± Mick answered, equally thoughtful. ¡°They seem to grasp engineering stuff really fast. It¡¯s somewhat in that line, don¡¯t you think?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias nodded. ¡°We need to get them to learn English faster. This miming stuff could kill all of us.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mick agreed. ¡°You thinking what I¡¯m thinking, Elias?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    Both of them turned to look over at the Ba¡¯Neesh, who had quieted down to listen to their conversation.

    ¡°Edda?¡± Mick called, damned if he would get up and down from his semi-comfortable position.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh seemed to feel the same way.

    ¡°Fuck Mick?¡± She answered.

    Elias snickered.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mick said, louder to be easily heard. He looked over at the unknown Ba¡¯Neesh closest to him, she was one of those who wasn¡¯t so friendly. He pointed at her. She frowned and then rolled her eyes. It was the perfect expression of near disdain. Elias snickered again.

    ¡°You tell Ba¡¯Neesh to¡­¡± He pantomimed sleep and then he pointed from himself to Elias and back. ¡°Ba¡¯Neesh, sleep share with Soek. Learn English speak.¡± He mingled his fingers together.

    ¡°Mick stupid Soek fuck.¡± Several of the Ba¡¯Neesh called back. Edda laughed. Then she said, ¡°Yeah.¡± An exact tonal replica of Mick.

    ¡°Fuck.¡± Elias said. Both he and Mick burst out laughing.

    (If you¡¯ve just joined me following a link off the web somewhere then Welcome! Be sure to go back to start at the beginning and friend me on Facebook for early updates and other goodies! Enjoy.)

 Chapter Thirty-Seven - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Thirty-Seven ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Morning arrived painfully. Mick remembered the header pain all too well, memory stretching. He cursed bitterly. He should have known his great idea would include a punch in the head. He wasn¡¯t alone, all of them were suffering equally. He found the med kit and handed out analgesics while listening to the Ba¡¯Neesh gripe and moan in a mixture of three languages. He wished they would shut up but he didn¡¯t bother to say so. He just drank some water and waited for the pain killers to kick in.

    Elias was playing with the com unit again. It made Mick nervous.

    ¡°Won¡¯t they trace that signal?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Can they, yes. I¡¯ve got it rerouting but a good tech guy could sort that given some time. I doubt they have received anything more than communication garbage, like static and weak at that. They probably think an animal carried it off, which is weirdly a bit true.¡±

    ¡°Do you think it is day or night?¡± Mick forgot he had a wrist watch.

    ¡°Evening.¡± Elias answered, ¡°We all slept pretty hard. We should scout and post guards.¡±

    ¡°The food won¡¯t last.¡± Mick said, he wanted to move out and to stop feeling chased. Runners made mistakes. That¡¯s what happened in games. Although they had found this hole for the night or day or whatever, he didn¡¯t trust it. To scout, as Elias suggested, would mean a person sticking their head out like a gopher out of a hole. A sitting duck, target wise and once an enemy understood the conduit, it would be simple enough to drop gas grenades down the holes and knock them out without a chance. He said as much to Elias.

    Aenor made her way through the Ba¡¯Neesh to scowl at him. ¡°No say head pain fuck Mick.¡± She stated, clearly unhappy with him.

    He shrugged. ¡°You have words.¡± He answered. ¡°It worked.¡±

    She glared at him a long moment. ¡°We go soon?¡± She asked.

    ¡°Could be a trap here.¡± Mick said, nodding. ¡°Full dark, we leave. We should pack up now.¡±

    ¡°Trap.¡± She sniffed loudly first downhill, then uphill. ¡°Not yet.¡±

    ¡°Funny,¡± Mick said, ¡°My brain feels drained but I don¡¯t get a sense of a lot of new Ba¡¯Neesh memories, do you Elias?¡±

    Aenor snorted and turned to walk back.

    ¡°Me either.¡± Elias rubbed at his temples where the header was finally easing off. ¡°As usual, they manage to take what they want.¡±

    ¡°At least they got some English.¡± Mick stared after her. ¡°I keep feeling played by them, they are rotten sneaks, you know. Sneaky sneaks.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias said, nodding. ¡°I noticed.¡± Both Soek gathered up their new belongings and started a tight pack out. It didn¡¯t take long to understand the Ba¡¯Neesh had no clue how to pack. Both Soek grumbled as they had to unpack and repack every bag. The Ba¡¯Neesh ate the remaining food while watching.

    Mick snagged a couple nutrition bars before they were completely gone.

    ¡°Hungry.¡± One of the Ba¡¯Neesh answered his stare.

    That reminded him there wasn¡¯t more food to magically show up. Either they headed toward civilization or they figured out how to hunt. He scowled. More blood.

    They left through the same shaft and grate, to find the area undisturbed. Mick decided heading toward the Hollow Hills gave the best opportunity for lots of potential shelters and some height to better see a greater distance. He continued to feel uneasy and he finally tracked it down to not having a plan. Shelter and food. Sure, they were a sort of plan, but not really. What were they doing out here besides being hunted and running? The gaming adage returned again, ¡®runners make mistakes¡¯. He needed to change things up, but how?

    They reached the escarpments just as the moon came out to offer its bright light. The Ba¡¯Neesh climbed with an alacrity and speed that left the Soek waiting with the more injured at the bottom of the rough, rocky spears. They returned, reporting on lots of little caves, mostly being used by animals. Twice, they returned to drop dead animals at the Soek¡¯s feet. Both Soek learned to tie the feet of the small animals using string from one pack. Mick noted the kills were all broken necks. One was a rabbit, another some kind of rodent larger than a rat.

    They continued north, roughly paralleling the shine of the now distant river below. Neither Soek wanted to talk, both were facing away from the Ba¡¯Neesh, scanning the thickly wooded terrain for any signs of man. In the very far distance there was a glow of lights. Mick estimated twenty-five to thirty miles at least. Was that the town where Tule Soc was located? He knew from the prep on the sub that the area was almost entirely Reserves, the corporation having obtained special dispensation to be inside the perimeter of the Reserves. Such clearances were rare in most nation/states as the objective was to heal disturbed nature and the presence of intrusive buildings negated that freedom.

    They continued, gathering kills and heading north until the Ba¡¯Neesh returned and Aenor said, ¡°we have cave.¡±

    They followed her up a winding, treacherous trail to a narrow crack between spears of rock. Even close up Mick had trouble finding the opening. The crack bent and twisted deceiving the eye into thinking it was shallow. Then it opened into a decent-sized cave with Ba¡¯Neesh using harvested branches to sweep out old animal den materials. At the side there was a small, bathtub-sized pool of fresh water that dripped from the ceiling and ran out over a small group of rocks to drain somewhere else outside. It kept the pool full and it didn¡¯t smell bad. It wasn¡¯t a complete cave. When he looked up he could see the edge of the moon through a sliver in the ceiling. That suggested they could make a fire, an idea the Ba¡¯Neesh were already working on. He wondered at the speed of their expertise.

    Elias grunted when Mick made a comment to that effect. ¡°Well, you did say they were rememberers.¡± He said, ¡°Mael always said that Tule Soc killed them when their memories started to really come in, that¡¯s when they get dangerous, when they remember who and what they are.¡±

    Mick thought about this, ¡°Do you think they remember the same things as say the Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh? Or does each group remember different things?¡±

    ¡°I would guess a bit of both.¡± Elias answered, sharing the curiosity.

    Mick laid down his string of small animals on a flat stone. On top of the savage battle the day before, he struggled to face the reality of eating in the wild. These Ba¡¯Neesh hadn¡¯t harvested nuts, berries or tubers, just meat. They imitated the Akaitapi fire ring with stones and several went in and out bringing in wood. They stacked it neatly back where the cave got low. This cave didn¡¯t really have an area to pee. Mick guessed the plan was to use a corner between the spears outside. They would still be hidden from all but a directly overhead view. It was a bury your shit place.

    ¡°Will this ceiling shield us from a Vrill tracer?¡± He asked Elias.

    ¡°Decently.¡± Elias answered. ¡°The devices function best with direct line of sight type hits. Vrill is energy and nature has some ambient radiant Vrill anyway. The rock should distort and bounce our more concentrated Vrill trace. This is likely as good as or better than the conduit for that.¡±

    Mick was staring down at the dead animals. He knew enough emergency woodcraft to know they needed to gut and skin the creatures, poke them on a stick or a place them on a hot rock to cook them. It was gross.

    Aenor gave him a hard look. ¡°To eat, we cook.¡±

    That was clear enough. The message also seemed to be, we caught them, you cook them for us. He groaned. The packs were already lined up along one wall so he had no excuse.

    Edda and several of the Ba¡¯Neesh came over to either watch him or supervise, he couldn¡¯t decide which. Turned out the skinning part was not as hard as he thought, the gutting was just as gross as he feared. He remembered the intestines and anal track had to be removed and discarded far from camp or it would attract predators. He said as much. Aenor snorted and scooped up gross handfuls, followed by other Ba¡¯Neesh. Elias trailed them and reported they raced across the top of the spears like goats and tossed the mess on the far side before returning, bloody handed.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Mick made them stop when they went to wash in the pool. ¡°No.¡± He said, he pointed to a runoff area that was much smaller holding only a bowls-worth of water. ¡°Wash here. Keep the pool clean.¡± They nodded and complied.

    He washed the knife and found some sticks to use as spears. Elias helped him shove the spears through the mouths and bodies. By then the fire was merry and it became a challenge learning how to position the meat to cook and not become part of the fire. They all learned together and ate a meal not nearly as well made as that provided by the Akaitapi. Parts were near charcoal black and others still dripped too much red for Mick. He grumbled but by then the odor had him salivating.

    It wasn¡¯t enough. All of them agreed they would need more kills to feed the lot of them the next time. Mick eyed the skins. It seemed obscene to waste them. He wasn¡¯t tired having slept overlong the day before. He took the skins over near the washing stones area and scraped them on both sides to remove the fur. He knew little about leather except it didn¡¯t have fur. Edda joined him along with her friend Merlada. They played with the bits. ¡°What for?¡± She asked.

    He pondered that. Then he pointed at her feet, her cloven hooved heels that were now hidden by her descended foot and toes. ¡°When you walk on stone you are noisy.¡± He said. This caught the attention of all of them. ¡°I have rubber soles.¡± He showed them his boot soles. ¡°These make me less noisy on hard surfaces.¡±

    ¡°You are very noisy in the woods.¡± Aenor observed. ¡°Both of you crash and slam the earth.¡±

    ¡°We are carrying packs.¡± Mick answered, a bit defensive. He knew she was right, he made a lot of noise compared to them. ¡°How did you learn to become so quiet so fast?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Like you say to Elias, we remember.¡± She answered. ¡°In the woods, memory of woods return. Trees share, water shares, rock and dirt speak, we listen and hear the past.¡±

    He gloried in her continuing improved English. Her accent was pretty bad but way better than unintelligible German.

    ¡°Iiyiko talks to trees too, and fungus.¡± He said, realizing he had pretty much forgotten the Neeshatari in the last couple of days. Where was she when shit was going down, anyway?¡± He frowned.

    ¡°What Iiyiko say to fungus?¡± Aenor asked with true curiosity in her voice.

    At first he didn¡¯t want to tell her, like it was a secret between himself and Iiyiko, but was it? Aenor was in his memories and it was in there somewhere, but it was more than the fact Aenor would likely find the info on her own. He straightened while Edda and Merlada were playing with the raw leather trying to cover their heels and, of course, arguing about it. He needed a better relationship with Aenor.

    ¡°Iiyiko calls the fungus the Great One.¡± He answered, taking his thoughts back to that conversation. ¡°She said the fungus grows in the root hairs of trees and plants, that what we see above ground as separate, is all connected under the soil, communicating. The fungus is One, the plants above are many. She taught the trees how to harvest and use the human dead¡¯s energy, made a trade with the fungus that was already sharing with the trees and plants.¡±

    ¡°This fungus here too?¡± Aenor asked.

    ¡°Iiyiko said so.¡± Elias answered. ¡°Something in the transport when we found you, I think.¡±

    Aenor squinted and both of the Soek yelped aloud, feeling their brains squeezed. Mick staggered to his feet to find the analgesic, getting enough for Elias too.

    ¡°Go easy squeezing our brains.¡± He said brusquely to Aenor, ¡°it reduces our ability to function well, that reduces our overall defenses and it is a bad move.¡±

    Aenor clearly didn¡¯t like to be chastised. But, she sat and thought about it. ¡°You did not sleep share with Iiyiko.¡± She announced, ¡°But, I saw what she did. If she can do, we can remember or reason it out too.¡±

    Mick returned to sit down facing her. ¡°We have to work together Aenor, you and me and Elias and the rest of you. A team. You are gaining memory but you are still far behind where you should be. I have modern human knowledge, Elias modern Soek knowledge. Together we are stronger, a better team. Elias is an analyst. I am a gamer. You are Ba¡¯Neesh, potentials unclear. We are all potentials unclear.¡±

    She nodded in clear agreement. ¡°Now Elias will explain sigil.¡±

    Elias groaned in turn. The Ba¡¯Neesh crowded round in their customary too-tight cluster. He said, ¡°a sigil is a symbol representing an idea, action, person, place, thing or behavior of a thing. There are thousands of sigils. The first we learn in Citadel is the Seeker. When you lose your shoes you do this¡­¡± He drew a spiral in the air, his finger trailing Vrill. ¡°The spiral is open so it leaks Vrill fast.¡± He pointed to the open end of the spiral. ¡°If I were looking for my shoes I would push Vrill into the Seeker as I draw it and visualize my shoes. When the Vrill leaks out, I will see my shoes and hopefully find them.¡±

    All of them had to try the sigil at once. Of course, they didn¡¯t have anything to seek so they were frustrated.

    Mick gestured for them to stop. ¡°Listen, when you use your Vrill it is like water pouring out of you. When you are empty, you are empty until some time passes, defenseless. This means you only use Vrill when totally necessary.¡± They all nodded, already understanding this in general.

    ¡°No wasting Vrill.¡± He ordered firmly. ¡°Save Vrill to fight.¡±

    ¡°Show us other sigils.¡± Aenor ordered.

    Elias showed her the Identifier, the Turtle Shell Defense, and the Ear. ¡°The Id allows you to not just seek out but use a compel to subconsciously release the nature or name of something you seek information about. It is a mixture of Seeker and Voice blended into a shape. The Turtle Shell Defense is what turned Mael into a Turtle, for real. It is very powerful when positioned passively. The Ear belongs to Master Ornius. If you have an object of a person or group, you can draw a Vrill ear on the object and listen to that person or group speaking. I¡¯m not a caster so I only learned basic sigils.¡± He said, a bit apologetically.¡±

    ¡°There is a Watcher.¡± Mick said. ¡°We need a shallow pan of water.¡± The Ba¡¯Neesh scrambled and eventually they found a rock with a shallow dip, they spooned water into the dip. Elias watched, realizing Mick was teaching what he didn¡¯t know. It was strange. In a way it was similar to Mael¡¯s discovery process, Mick reasoned it out his own way and discovered entirely new things. Elias had seen many plates of water which Ba¡¯Neesh used to snoop on others. He knew Mick had seen one, the boy was extrapolating and wanting these Ba¡¯Neesh to learn with him or what, teach/learn together? It was an intriguing idea.

    When the water settled, Mick said, ¡°We all know what Mael looks like, right?¡± Everyone nodded, Mael¡¯s appearance was distinctive.

    Elias resisted a grin. Let the boy play this out, it would be instructive.

    Mick leaned over the rock and did the Seeker sigil over the water. That was a new one to Elias, he didn¡¯t think the Ba¡¯Neesh peeped using a Seeker like that. ¡°Mael Strom.¡± Mick said, his Vrill and Voice wobbly and uncertain. Aenor grabbed his left hand and placed it on her mount and said, ¡°with force fuck Mick.¡±

    He frowned both at her and himself. She was right. He knew his uncertainty was acting on his effort. He focused.

    Mael Strom. Mick called out a second time, realizing several other Ba¡¯Neesh decided a chain was in order to deliver this force. He yelped as a bolt of Vrill shot through him and into the water. ¡°Wow.¡±

    The water became glassy and they were looking down on a turtle helmet. Mael Strom jerked, both hands rising to his head and then he looked up. ¡°Mick?¡± He said. ¡°Fuck that hurts.¡± He thrust his right hand upward in a punching motion and the water sprayed all of them in the face as it burst upward.

    Elias gasped. It didn¡¯t work like that, yet clearly, it did. Mael now knew Mick was alive and well. It offered intriguing potentials. A way to check in. Sure, the Vrill use would spike on machines but a machine would need to be close or huge to be running planetary Vrill trace. It wasn¡¯t exactly a cast, more like a mini cast.

    ¡°Maybe too much Vrill, not sneaky enough.¡± Aenor said, wiping her face.

    Mick started to laugh. ¡°Iiyiko spied on Elias¡¯ Searcher sigil, we saw through his eyes.¡±

    ¡°Show me!¡± Aenor grabbed Mick by the upper arm and shook him, as if he were holding out on her. Mick decided she was a lot like Iiyiko in being bossy. Maybe that was why they butted heads.

    ¡°He was searching for searchers.¡± Mick said, looking over and Elias nodded agreement. ¡°I had a mini-drone out watching him, spying on him as he was my enemy then. He swept the dirt. Then he took clean dirt and made half rings.¡± Mick demonstrated on the silty floor with his finger. ¡°Then he drew a Nefertiti eye here and he cast his intention to find those searching for us and the eye mark gave him a steady visual, like long, long vision.¡±

    ¡°Does size of sigil matter?¡± Aenor interrupted?

    ¡°Yes.¡± Elias answered, ¡°Large sigils are used in casting as the caster must move inside most sigils in the cast.¡±

    She frowned, clearly in some disagreement with this idea.

    Mick continued, ¡°Iiyiko and I looked in a bowl of water through Elias¡¯ eyes, I think She thought She just wanted to see what he saw, not to get his attention. Not like what we just did. We got Mael¡¯s attention, right? Poked his head it looked like. Iiyiko and I didn¡¯t want Elias to know. Sneaky like. Then Elias was tired, Vrill drop. He had to eat protein and drink enriched water to recover.¡± Mick finished.

    Aenor sat back on her haunches, thoughtful. ¡°You know more, memory tangles. We practice more weapons. More weapons Mick. We fight better.¡±

    Mick nodded, she was exactly right. Like him, she was a stupid Ba¡¯Neesh, just like he was a stupid Soek. Maybe he only tried things when under pressure. He tried that thought on but it didn¡¯t feel exactly right. He amended the thought to, so far. He knew that in games, he tried things when he attacked, it¡¯s what made him a challenging player to compete against, innovation.

    There was no question where they slept that night, after Elias insisted the Ba¡¯Neesh post two of them on guard every two hours. He made Mick give them the new watch so it would beep the time for them. ¡°Good practice,¡± He told Mick, after they went over the rules of what posting a guard meant. Watch and warn the group. That was the job. Don¡¯t be seen. That was part of the job. The two Soek slept warm and cozy surrounded in naked, furry, female bodies. Mick dreamed of Ba¡¯Neesh and the Ba¡¯Neesh dreamed of Soek.

    (I was told to remind everyone that you can find me on Fay Thompson Author on Facebook. Friend me. I post chapter and artwork updates there first. Ask questions, comment, just chat. I¡¯m home mostly in the evenings. Enjoy!)

 Chapter Thirty Eight - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Thirty-Eight ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick sat straight up and yelled out, ¡°It¡¯s telepathy.¡±

    Of course, he wakened everyone, with the general consensus being to shut him up physically. He shrugged off the sharp words and grabby hands and repeated what he¡¯d said. ¡°It¡¯s telepathy.¡±

    Elias groaned. ¡°What in the flames of hell are you talking about when I was sleeping really well?¡±

    ¡°Sleep share.¡± Mick rubbed at his face, the cave was still light enough to see the sea of grumpy faces surrounding him. ¡°Don¡¯t you see, if we can share info while asleep, it means we can share info brain-to-brain, that¡¯s telepathy.¡±

    ¡°Then, why don¡¯t we hear each other?¡± Elias was considering thumping the kid. ¡°We don¡¯t hear each other, Mick. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. Zero. Just your bastard mouth yammering when we should be sleeping.¡±

    ¡°We must.¡± Mick shook his head. ¡°The only thing different is we are asleep when we listen.¡± He argued, mostly to himself. He glared around at the sniffing Ba¡¯Neesh. He was learning they had certain sounds that meant certain attitudes. This kind of sniffing was annoyance, no doubt with him. He fixed on Aenor whose expression was nearly hostile.

    ¡°Aenor, I know you messed in my head today. I know you did, remember?¡± He squirmed a bit. ¡°Think something at me, not pull on my brains.¡±

    He felt nothing. His frustration grew. ¡°Think a color. Think red, or¡­¡±

    His mind flooded with icy blue. He grinned. ¡°Icy blue.¡± He chortled. ¡°You thought icy blue, right?¡±

    She blinked and then shared a look with the other Ba¡¯Neesh.

    Mick¡¯s mind flooded with red. ¡°Red.¡± He yelled out, and he wasn¡¯t alone. All of the Ba¡¯Neesh and Elias spoke too.

    ¡°Shit.¡± Elias said.

    ¡°Color, so we know we can receive color.¡± Mick said. ¡°I bet we can do more but when we are awake, we stand guard on our brains, defenders. A color isn¡¯t language exactly. It¡¯s like an itch.¡±

    He almost instantly regretted that suggestion when the word came back as not a word, but a physical sensation. ¡°Okay. Yes, I got it.¡± He writhed, trying to make the itch subside.

    Aenor was focusing on him fully now. ¡°Why itch and color?¡± She asked.

    ¡°A guess?¡± Mick said. ¡°Probably warning things are exempt from the defender inside. Colors we associate with defense. Like red for danger, yellow for beware, green for safe. Sensations may bypass that part of the brain too like¡­¡± He focused on heat.

    ¡°Hot?¡± Aenor asked.

    ¡°Yeah. Hot, cold, warm.¡± Mick nodded. ¡°We use these in healing when we evaluate by touch. Again, not verbal language at all. I didn¡¯t try to send to you a WORD that could speak in your head. I did try to send you a feeling.¡±

    ¡°Voice.¡± Elias muttered. ¡°When I was in school and trying to learn my first word using true Speech, the word we were told to work on was ¡®yawn¡¯. If we could get the Master to yawn, we would pass the class.¡±

    ¡°Yawn.¡± Aenor used Speech and everyone yawned, including her.

    ¡°Exactly.¡± Elias said. ¡°Shit. That was telepathy hiding behind Vrill influence on words?¡± He tried to catch up with what Mick was suggesting.

    ¡°Those molcoms.¡± Mick said. ¡°It¡¯s that whole purple cow thing. You know, do purple cows exist?¡± He asked to blank stares. ¡°We don¡¯t know because we are taught they can¡¯t exist so if they can¡¯t, then when we see what seems like a purple cow, it must be something else, right? The moment we stop agreeing with it¡¯s non-existence, it becomes possible to exist, but we are then outside of the world where a purple cow cannot exist. Soek. I am Soek. I hear words in my sleep and that means I¡¯m a broken telepath of some kind. I am not human, who are unable to hear words in their sleep, I think, or they believe they cannot therefore they cannot. I resist because I want to belong and sharing my brain is scary and I don¡¯t want my brain to hurt or be taken without my consent. I am afraid. I am a coward. I am a broken Soek.¡±

    ¡°Fuck Mick.¡± Aenor rose to her feet. ¡°I am not a coward, fuck Mick.¡±

    Mick grinned. ¡°Are too, Aenor. All of us are too afraid to be what we can be with each other. We are ego, as my psychiatrist would say. Our ego is a weak-assed little kid terrified of nearly everything.¡±

    ¡°<u>No.</u>¡± She threw the thought at him hard.

    It landed in the brains of everyone, not just Mick.

    ¡°I received a thought word.¡± Elias said aloud. ¡°No.¡±

    Turns out, everyone heard her. She smiled in triumph. ¡°I can think word at you, fuck Mick.¡±

    Mick shook his head. ¡°No. You thought no and everyone received it, not just me. No finesse. I felt a struggle in my head, after the word arrived. I knew it wasn¡¯t my word or my thought.¡±

    Others nodded in agreement.

    ¡°Broadcast.¡± He said. ¡°I bet it is like casting and that thing we did with Mael and the sigil and the water.¡±

    Aenor sat back down, her forehead furrowed.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t really focus on Mael.¡± He confessed. ¡°I focused on his helmet. It is like this super odd thing and it radiates.¡±

    ¡°Vrill.¡± Elias said, ¡°Mael says it is behaving like a Ba¡¯Neesh horn or antler.¡±

    ¡°When everyone chained up we pushed into that helmet.¡± Mick said.

    ¡°It¡¯s a powerful defensive sigil.¡± Elias said, awakening dawning inside of him.

    ¡°He grabbed the shell.¡± Mick recalled. ¡°He said it hurt.¡±

    ¡°It goes icy when it defends itself.¡± Elias said. ¡°So, you really focused on seeing the shell?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Specifically, yeah. And then everyone pushed cause I¡¯m just learning about my Vrill like a weak-ass kid.¡±If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    Silence grew as everyone considered his words. He stiffened, his mind moving back and forth over his excitement, his use of Vrill. ¡°Gods, I really am as stupid as Iiyiko said.¡± Mick said sourly. ¡°Fuck me. We have to not use Vrill in here. We have to not use that equipment of yours either, Elias. Here I wake up all excited and stupidly trigger us to use Vrill. In a game, my opponent would be trying to trigger me to get me to give him trace. By the Gods I hope these asshats haven¡¯t figured out a way to understand my triggers enough to get me to stimulate others into Vrill use.¡±

    ¡°Fuck.¡± Aenor stared around as if demons might crawl out of the walls.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think they know you.¡± Elias said, his own feelings made grim by Mick¡¯s astute assessment. They were all fools. It was daylight and they were indeed using Vrill, at the time when Tule Soc would be trying to find them using Vrill tracers.

    ¡°Next one to use Vrill I punish and hurt them hard.¡± Aenor glared around at Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek alike. ¡°Ba¡¯Neesh not be made fools like stupid Soek. Learn battle rules. Now. I not warn.¡±

    Rules. Mick nodded, his feeling intense and sober. ¡°I am learning these battle rules too, Aenor. I am chasing my damn tail. I¡¯m sorry for making us less safe.¡±

    She glared at him. ¡°Never apologize for unlearning. You chase Ba¡¯Neesh to be less stupid in future.¡±

    Elias snorted. ¡°Got you there. What the hell are we teaching these Ba¡¯Neesh, Mick. Profanity and an enduring view of Soek?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mick smiled uneasily. ¡°What are they teaching us too, Elias? How to leap instead of walk, fly instead of run, pulling and pushing at our brains. Our sisters. I am less sure we are doing any more than sharpening their edges by rubbing their way against us.¡±

    No one slept well after that. Everyone was individually thinking about how things could possibly work. What were the limits? It was scary.

    Arjan paced the small room that had been hastily converted into the main security office. The situation was a nightmare. So far the national defense was riding down the middle of a territorial impasse. He knew there were certain people in high positions who were aligned with Tule Soc¡¯s truth, eager to prevent the good name of the public Tule Soc from being destroyed. The corporation was one of the largest industries in the world. Still, Damian Thorne, newly arrived from Citadel, was a persuasive man. It was Thorne¡¯s misfortune that the world was still raw from the understanding that massive illegal weaponry was in the hands of a corporation few knew much about.

    In the midst of this, Arjan was chasing shadows. The Tule Soc story behind closed doors was that yes, they were sheltering a substantial number of severely retarded humans who could not manage themselves. As a health corporation they had been seeking treatments for years for the bizarre physical deformities these children manifested until eventually the deformities killed them. That was the line. Humanitarian kindness. Except, there were Ba¡¯Neesh in the Reserves of Fels, loose. If a single one came into public view it negated all of the public story.

    He knew the Directorate had hundreds of Ba¡¯Neesh adults just outside the facility, standing guard outside of a dozen aircraft. Tule Soc claimed these individuals were wearing the well-known avatar gear designed by the Directorate to mask the identity of the individual. Play acting. So far, the Directorate had not brought in the teams necessary to take the Ba¡¯Neesh housed at the lab by force. He knew that likely they feared injuring the monsters. It was political hell.

    ¡°We have nine confirmed dead in that wildfire.¡± His new second, Dieter Vogel, interrupted him to say. ¡°Reserves Teams are expressing concern that they found two cleanly severed arms, unusual in a fire, not the work of animals.¡±

    ¡°Clean? A laser cannon?¡± Arjan said. ¡°How is that possible? Those cannons are huge and require vast amounts of energy to fire.¡±

    ¡°Unknown, Sir. We have to speculate DireSec developed a mobile device and are testing it in the field against us.¡± Dieter concluded. He was struggling to come to terms with what they were hunting. His secrecy rating had gone through the roof three days earlier when Arjan advanced him. That advancement cost him far more than he had imagined.

    They were chasing monsters, real life monsters who seemed to have a mobile laser at their disposal. He had watched the restricted footage of the blue hand weapon and wondered if the two weapons were related. Most of what he was encountering was not logical, it offended him in a way he was careful to screen from his new boss.

    He had been told these monsters had escaped and were so dangerous that the operatives were to kill on sight. He couldn¡¯t quite mesh this with the situation at the facility and the mentally defective mutating children everyone was fighting over. Did the mentally defective have the training to use a laser?

    ¡°Send in more teams.¡± Arjan ordered. ¡°I know it makes us thin near the facility but that situation is going nowhere fast and we have to eliminate the threat of these loose monsters.¡±

    Dieter nodded, turning away to return to his own office to order yet more teams in to a ground search that in the aftermath of the fire deaths, had produced no credible evidence of Vrill trace strong enough to follow. If these creatures did use this Vrill, how were they hiding? More caves? There were thousands of caves in the pock-marked Hohle escarpment area. If the Reserves Warden discovered Tule Soc was violating its agreement to stay out of the Reserves, what would that mean?

    Arjan came back to Dieter¡¯s doorway. ¡°Concentrate where the operatives were killed. They are on foot, that means their range is limited. They have to be in the area whether we see them or not. And, show me the Reserve Team rescue footage again, there¡¯s something wrong with it.¡±

    They watched the footage together. The Reserves Team had overflown the wildfire area looking for both a source of fire origin and any intruders that might have been in the area. In general, fires were started by weather events or by humans. There had been no lightening in the area for weeks, just rain. That suggested intruders.

    When they saw a thin trail of smoke they followed it to a still smoldering campfire and bodies. It was clear to the Team that these intruders were the cause of the fire and died soon after it was lit. What wasn¡¯t as clear was the intruder¡¯s identities as they were carrying no identification and their bodies were charred enough to make reconstruction necessary. But, it was the two cleanly severed arms that stood out. Those amputations shifted this from a careless fire to murder.

    Arjan had Dieter freeze the footage so he could study the pattern of the bodies and parts. Clearly, one-on-one brutality. Why hadn¡¯t the men used their weapons? Then he leaned in. ¡°Do you see any weapons, Dieter?¡±

    Dieter also stared hard at the holo. How had he missed something so obvious? ¡°No. In fact, I don¡¯t see their gear either, Sir.¡±

    Arjan nodded. Then he pointed at one boxy pack. They focused in on the object. It had been a Vrill trace pack. It was melted by extreme heat. ¡°They killed the pack. Odd. Took the weapons and gear, why?¡±

    ¡°To use, Sir?¡± Dieter answered.

    ¡°Right. They needed the gear or were they just removing it? They must have needed it. Food? Arms, certainly.¡±

    ¡°You think they are hungry?¡± Dieter asked. ¡°But, we found evidence of substantial small animal kills in that cave we blew. If they can hunt like that then why were they going for food? I would think they wanted the weapons. Could the amputations have been to remove the weapons?¡±

    ¡°Before or after the ground fight?¡± Arjan followed the logic. ¡°It had to have been before. They lasered first, then engaged in hand-to-hand. Why? Clearly the laser is the superior weapon. Why not kill them all at a distance with the laser? Why fight them?¡±

    ¡°You said they are violent creatures.¡± Dieter said, ¡°What if they wanted to kill them up close?¡±

    Both men shared a glance. There was a kind of primordial terror in the idea of facing an enemy who preferred to be in your face to watch you die. A creature able to vanish into the woods, like the monsters in ancient folklore. That¡¯s what it was, Dieter realized, this all reminded him of the fairy tales he¡¯d read to his daughter when she was small. Dark tales of creatures in the woods, in eld Germany¡¯s famed black woods. A lab full of twisted creatures. Arjan had shown him secret footage. They were human-like but clearly not human. A few in the woods. He suddenly knew he was not being told the whole truth. This ambush smacked of revenge, of thoughtful, brutal revenge.

    These monsters had wanted the operatives to see them, know them as they died. He shivered. A blue hand that could toss aircraft and monsters in the woods with laser cannons large enough to kill two shiploads of men. He had a sudden desire to quit his job, and his wife was still unpacking in the small town house he¡¯d been given as part of his incentive package. His daughter, now twelve, in harms way if these creatures could go where humans could not. He tried to imagine what he could say to her, the stories might be real after all Neva. The stories might be real after all.

    (When I was young I lived in a fairly small town with one library. I read my way through every children¡¯s book in that library including shelves and shelves of folklore and fairy tales from all over the globe. Clearly, they didn¡¯t influence me at all. J)

 Chapter Thirty-Nine - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Thirty-Nine ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    The worries grown out of their foolish use of Vrill led to an uneasy and extra careful exploration when daylight faded to darkness. While everyone wanted to test out the new Vrill ideas, where or how to do so safely remained a solid problem. So, being Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh, they argued in whispers while others stared into the bushes and woods jumping at every tiny sound.

    Eventually, they all agreed that they could be no closer than one league to their base to use Vrill, except in a dire emergency, then to flash red to warn everyone. It made sense. Sorting out how far a league was, became tricky. Elias said they should allow forty-five minutes at a fast walk, less at a run. Without a watch they decided to count evenly to fifteen-hundred for a near distance.

    Mick demonstrated by counting out loud, not really wanting to expose whether the Ba¡¯Neesh had math or not. He counted in English and as he did, he noticed a distinct echo as every Ba¡¯Neesh in the group called out the same word. At the end of this count, while walking, all of them felt comfortable they were far enough away for Vrill. But, by then, none of them wanted to test anything. It all felt serious. So, they hunted instead. Actually, twenty of the Ba¡¯Neesh hunted, all pairing up and moving away from Mick, Elias and eight remaining Ba¡¯Neesh standing in a circle around the Soek facing outward. Mick didn¡¯t arrange this set up, it was all Ba¡¯Neesh. He appreciated its simple structure and noted it was a fast way to scout an area.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking, Elias.¡± Mick squatted down and scratched at the leaves with a stick.

    ¡°Yeah?¡± Elias was wary. He¡¯d been thinking too. ¡°If Mael hadn¡¯t been wearing a kick-ass defensive sigil, you would have hammered his brain.¡±

    ¡°You too?¡± Mick nodded. ¡°He said it hurt and he punched upward with his own Vrill, breaking the surface tension of the water hard enough to transfer force. His was some kind of cast, right? Mine and Aenor and the chain, that was a directed thought. It was only an attack because I have crappy control over my Vrill. So, the Ba¡¯Neesh boosted my sense of insecurity so what was I throwing at that helmet, besides anxiety and a fear of failure?¡±

    ¡°You are saying you threw an emotional attack at Mael, not just wanting to ¡®see¡¯ him like the Ba¡¯Neesh use water for viewing? You wanted to see that helmet, that defensive shield? The shield sensed this as dangerous and reacted. Mael simply reacted. His Vrill is intense and unstable, so they say. He didn¡¯t cast, he juiced the direction of attack.¡±

    Mick brushed his hands in the leaves, as if brushing away this aspect of the conversation. ¡°It¡¯s about Aenor, she did an undefined broadcast, at me locally but hit everyone around me too.¡± He said, ¡°I don¡¯t remember what happened on that floater right before I was wiped. Something about attaching Speech to light or something in order to deliver confusion. Was that right?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Elias said. ¡°Speech requires a local listener to become compelling so the words had to use the light as a vehicle to reach the subjects before the speech activated in their presence. If Speech passes through a mechanical device, it seems to alter the Vrill such that it stops compelling.¡±

    ¡°Vrill activated thought doesn¡¯t need the light, Elias.¡± Mick said. ¡°It must use itself as the delivery vehicle, like wireless does with electricity.¡±

    ¡°A weapon.¡± Both of them said together.

    ¡°Yes, with sufficient power.¡± Elias modified. ¡°We had the MagC on the floater. Aenor and the others chained up to wallop Mael.¡±

    ¡°He recognized me.¡± Mick said. ¡°He said my name. Vrill must carry a signature from the initiator because I don¡¯t think he physically saw me exactly. Or, maybe he did. It was more like he knew I was there.¡±

    ¡°He knew you were attacking from above.¡± Elias said, ¡°Right? You visualized the helmet from above, although I don¡¯t think you ever saw it from above, did you?¡±

    Mick nodded. ¡°I thought turtle shell looking down because you know, turtles are on the ground in the Reserves when you see them. It was instinctive to think of Mael as the identity, coupled to turtle shell, powered by Vrill.¡±

    ¡°That means this weapon can be aimed at a target.¡± Elias said. ¡°Rumor says there are two-thousand-five-hundred immature Ba¡¯Neesh in that facility, Mick. And, with Tule Soc still hunting us and our Ba¡¯Neesh, it seems pretty clear they are still confined. I don¡¯t know why Mael hasn¡¯t got them out of there yet. It has to be politics.¡±

    ¡°We could reach them with this weapon, we know the Ba¡¯Neesh know some of them super well.¡± Mick said. ¡°But then what? Tell them help is coming? Aren¡¯t they all drugged out and shit? The longer I know about what is going on there the worse I feel about it.

    Mick pushed the thought aside to focus more on the weapon. ¡°Iiyiko used Speech on me.¡± He said, Sometimes I felt like She was right against my eardrum, but She was outside my head, not in thoughts inside, I don¡¯t think. It was hard to sort out. I was really afraid She could read my mind like a telepath but now I feel like she got patchy impressions when I was stressed. She made my ear itch.¡±

    ¡°I think I heard her externally too.¡± Elias said. ¡°But, it¡¯s tricky, She doesn¡¯t have vocal chords to vibrate the air. Yet, she vibrates the air. I should have paid more attention in physics. When they were setting up that light attack and discussing the wave fronts and blending them with a sigil, I felt out of my league.¡± Elias admitted. ¡°She is pure Vrill, her imagination manifesting physical form. We weren¡¯t paying attention. She imitates vocal representation, likely it is all Vrill manipulation since She is all Vrill manipulation.¡±

    ¡°So, wait. You are saying that we didn¡¯t need the light She simply needed to move her manipulation into the hearing range of those She was acting upon.¡± Mick wrinkled his upper lip, ¡°No wonder She thinks we are all stupid.¡± He started to laugh.

    Aenor trotted up and dumped two strings of small animals in front of them. ¡°Why laughter?¡± She asked.

    ¡°They are discussing Vrill manipulation and activated Speech.¡± One of the guarding Ba¡¯Neesh turned to say. She picked over each word with difficulty but both Mick and Elias had a sense she understood the gist even if the words remained a struggle.

    ¡°The thought weapon?¡± Aenor asked.

    ¡°That too.¡± The same Ba¡¯Neesh answered.

    Mick realized he only knew a few of their names, intentionally so. He had resisted crossing the threshold of knowing them. There was a sense of risk attached to such knowing.

    ¡°You are?¡± He asked directly.

    ¡°Beate.¡± She answered, her look toward him cool, bordering on unfriendly.

    ¡°Beate.¡± He repeated. ¡°I apologize for failing to ask before. I felt an attachment fear of some kind. I don¡¯t know how to behave properly, not with Ba¡¯Neesh and not much with human either. I¡¯ve always sucked at social stuff. In my head I feel like I don¡¯t grasp essential components to shared attachments and that creates some fears in me. I don¡¯t want to let those fears continue to inform me.¡±If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    ¡°Beate.¡± Elias repeated aloud, discovering he was equally guilty of avoiding knowing all of these Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°I have failed as well.¡± He admitted.

    Beate glared at the two of them. ¡°Weak fuck Mick and fuck Elias.¡± She spun around and stomped off.

    ¡°So much for apologies.¡± Mick said.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias agreed, ¡°but, the apology wasn¡¯t for her exactly you know, it was for me. I need to get my head straight around what I¡¯m doing too and self-honesty is essential for that.¡±

    ¡°True.¡± Mick nodded saying. ¡°I feel better, regardless of Beate snooping in on our semi-private conversation.¡± He threw the words at her back and was rewarded with a snort.

    Aenor stomped her foot. ¡°Now you must repeat your ideas to me or I rip them out of your skulls.¡± They both knew it wasn¡¯t an idle threat so they did their best to go over the same ground, adding in thoughts and details while more Ba¡¯Neesh teams came in with their kills, a few bloody. By the time they finished the entire group was back together and Aenor made a snorting sound. ¡°No Vrill experiments.¡± She ordered. ¡°I felt Vrill hunting out there. We go to other area next time and talk about cowardice in such usage.¡± Several guilty Ba¡¯Neesh chirped disagreement and Mick and Elias gathered the dead kills, knowing it was their job to haul in the food killed by the females. They were heavy, nearly double what had been gathered the last time. Good eating, Mick thought, not really realizing the shift in his tenor of thinking about eating off the land. He did have one thought though, ¡°How about some teams range around on the way back and look for tubers, berries and nuts. All meat will block our digestion.¡±

    The Ba¡¯Neesh fussed over the idea for a moment with several exchanges in Neesh and then the majority decided it was likely fun. Imagine, a Soek suggesting fun. Aenor organized the search for other foods as a challenge instructing double pairs, one set to guard as the other set foraged. Mick was impressed. Aenor would likely make a decent gamer if she continued to develop. He stored her idea away in his growing inner vault of Ba¡¯Neesh strategies.

    To say they ate well that next meal was understating the experience. All of them took greater care on how to prepare the meat and the addition of other edibles proved entertaining and fun. None of them could identify exactly what had been found but the Ba¡¯Neesh said they could smell fouled food. Mick wished he had that talent.

    It continued to puzzle him why the Ba¡¯Neesh were all so radically mutated when the Soek were restrained to be visually nearly identical to human males. Evolution suggested the mutations were responses to environmental pressures. He wondered what those were and then after a few minutes he started getting that pain avoidance signal in his head and he backed away from the thought. He looked up to find Aenor and two others watching him closely. He shook his head. Telepathy, at least as he understood it in this moment, wasn¡¯t letting them peek into his skull. Their intuition might give them hints but did they really know him well enough to extrapolate from hints?

    As they settled in for the arrival of daylight, most of the Ba¡¯Neesh were cleaning themselves and using the grooming tools and mirrors to work on their hair. Mick watched with more than a little attraction. They were looking better to him. Their fur and muscles seemed to change every day and he would swear their horns and antlers were longer.

    ¡°Stop staring at them.¡± Elias sat down next to him and whispered. ¡°They are Ba¡¯Neesh.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that mean?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°It means they have physiological triggers too. They are noticing your noticing of them grooming. Do you see their amusement? We don¡¯t want them thinking of playing with us physically, okay?¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Mick carefully looked away from them. ¡°Are you having thoughts?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Some.¡± Elias admitted. ¡°It isn¡¯t like with human women. I never feel out of control with them. They are enjoyable but I can¡¯t seem to deep connect like they want me to.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve never been.¡± Mick said. ¡°Honestly, I¡¯ve never wanted to either. I can see the attraction of women but I¡¯m emotionally flat. That¡¯s what the psychiatrist said. They did this one test where they showed me faces and figures of a wide variety of males and females and I didn¡¯t spike. That¡¯s what they called it. They said I was immature and that was odd for my age.¡±

    ¡°And, now?¡± Elias asked, they were both turned away from the Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°I notice them in a way I can¡¯t explain. They are becoming vivid to me. I feel like I¡¯m waking up somehow.¡± Mick answered.

    ¡°Me too.¡± Elias said. ¡°I grew up thinking they were monsters, you know. Back then the Order kept the truth of the Ba¡¯Neesh from the students. They were the monsters who lived topside and we were bound to protect them. When we went on Quarters the Order made sure we had lots of human females around. They said it was to normalize us. I think they gave us stimulants and hormones too. Lots of retired or non-Citadel older Soek have human families and low latent Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh children. We were told that was the correct path. I thought those girls were okay but I didn¡¯t try anything for years, and then, it was enjoyable and not really important.¡±

    ¡°Why did the Order lie to you?¡± Mick asked. He noted that the Ba¡¯Neesh had quieted, as they did when they were snooping.

    ¡°Well, honestly?¡± Elias hesitated and glanced around at the way the Ba¡¯Neesh could and did look through him. They had his memories. They had all of this in there. It was better to frame it with his adult understanding of it than to let them encounter those memories raw.

    ¡°Back then, the Directorate was moving in a direction much like Tule Soc. They wanted the Vrill without the trouble of the Ba¡¯Neesh. They had covenants, agreements with the Ba¡¯Neesh from the World Wars when the Ba¡¯Neesh helped them win, and they started to break them, refusing to give the Beloved back to the Ba¡¯Neesh. That became a series of battles where the Directorate tightened and tightened the conditions they forced the Ba¡¯Neesh to live with. The Ba¡¯Neesh retaliated by refusing to become pregnant. The Directorate tried everything but forced reproductive attempts died within hours. They had a plan to harvest all existing Ba¡¯Neesh and magnify the Vrill with machinery like the MagC and CoEx.¡±

    ¡°Xasper was the major voice in challenging this plan. He told them without the Ba¡¯Neesh all design and casting would collapse, the Grove would end. They sell casting for gain and influence. It was a huge political mess. A bunch of stuff happened that ended when Mael took Xasper¡¯s Beginning Casting Class. He was flunking out and he crossed the sigil without being killed. No one knew the Ba¡¯Neesh at Barrens had created Mael to be Mael Strom, to break the Directorate. He did that just over two years later when the Beloved popped him through five levels of granite for Anya to find him in her garden.¡±

    ¡°Mael did what Mael does, he brought the great storm. That was the first deadly battle with Tule Soc where every adult at Citadel nearly died. Mael and other youngers saved them. That freed the Directorate Ba¡¯Neesh from the punitive control of the Directorate and put Order back in charge. Not everyone agreed, there are still factions inside the Allied initiative that want the Ba¡¯Neesh out. They want the weapons and power without the source.¡± He shook his head.

    ¡°That¡¯s when the lies ended.¡± Elias said. ¡°Every student in Citadel mounted in defense against Tule Soc. They fought alongside the Ba¡¯Neesh youngers. The Channels were freed as the Ba¡¯Neesh took control of Level Five and they have retained that control since. They returned to the Agnosin Ritual and the Lamentation of the Beloved. And, everything changed.¡±

    ¡°The Lamentation!¡± Aenor cried out, to be echoed by the other Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°How could we have forgotten?¡±

    ¡°Why did Mael Strom not free all of us, then?¡± Aenor demanded, her tone furious.

    Elias looked around, at the sea of dead Ba¡¯Neesh, those destined for Tule Soc termination. ¡°He was eleven, a younger. I am not sure but the Directorate was fractured then, there was a turncoat inside the Citadel and we were in chaos. The Akaitapi and Serla said they must not, I think, they said it wasn¡¯t the time.¡±

    ¡°We died for what time?¡± Aenor pressed, still angry.

    ¡°The time to come.¡± Mick answered and then buried his head in his hands and howled out in pain. It was just a passing memory blow but it hit him so hard he became unconscious. When he wakened minutes later it was to find Healer Helewidis pressing her horn to his head with all of the Ba¡¯Neesh humming something, stealing the agony away.

    Aenor pushed Helewidis to one side and straddled Mick physically, her nose inches from his. ¡°Fuck Mick. Ancient memory I feel, hear. I no ask again. Understand. None of us ask again. This trust you earn. But, we know you carry it. That Neeshatari knew, it is perhaps why she take you personal. Not hers now. We defend your brain. Understand? We accept Akaitapi remember something we forgot even if hard to accept.¡±

    Mick blinked, she smelled really good.

    (I admit I really liked writing this one, for my writer friends, this is where magic grows, in inspired accidents by clueless persons. J Anyway, off to more tomorrow. You know I think about this all day. Story grows in the fertile mind.)

 Chapter Forty - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Forty ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick woke restless. He had a low-grade, persistent header coupled to the uncomfortable feeling that Aenor may have assigned specific Ba¡¯Neesh to watch him. Every time he walked across the cave he had a shadow. Finally, he snarled at them, ¡°I don¡¯t need a babysitter, okay? So, I have some gnarly memory turd lodged in my skull. It isn¡¯t going to pop like a zit and trust me, if it does then what are you supposed to do? Protect my brain from my brain like how?¡±

    Steffi, the taller of the two current guards shrugged in a fair estimation of a human shrug. ¡°I told to not let you alone, fuck Mick, so you not alone.¡±

    Mick glared at Aenor but she just gave him an indifferent look. His concerns didn¡¯t bother her. When it became clear that she had no intention of rescinding her order, Mick got up into Steffi¡¯s face and said, ¡°Back off, Steffi. Nothing wrong with your eyeballs, right? Watching is with eyes, not with me tripping over you. I don¡¯t want to know you are hovering. Okay?¡±

    ¡°Watching is more than eyes.¡± Aenor said from across the cave. Truth was, she was feeling restless too. ¡°We understand nothing of enemy. We not spy. We not look. We afraid to find out. I tire of Soek fear.¡±

    Mick couldn¡¯t agree more. He was tired of feeling trapped. He felt like the answer had to be using their Vrill, but that made them vulnerable to the tracer devices. His chin lifted. ¡°I say we go to our perimeter and see if we really can make it into a weapon that is useful, the Vrill, I mean.¡±

    ¡°You have a plan?¡± Elias asked. They decided to leave the packs in the cave with Mick and Elias rigging tool belts to carry their knives, torches and weapons. It was hard enough keeping up with the increasingly agile Ba¡¯Neesh without the added weight. Both of them knew the Ba¡¯Neesh held back when the Soek were with them. It was something both Soek were intent on improving, their own woodland and terrain fitness.

    ¡°An idea.¡± Mick said as they prepared, ¡°You know I hate vegging on my butt letting Tule Soc have the initiative. It¡¯s just not my style. Aenor is right, we have all these ideas and we are too scared to try them out for fear of registering on the Vrill tracers. It¡¯s like being constipated. It¡¯s super stupid. Aenor is right, we are letting fear limit us. We need to do something about that. Besides, we will be beyond the perimeter in a new area tonight, fresh territory.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m in.¡± Elias answered.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh, as usual, were already waiting to leave. The last hour before true dark was the worst time for them. Mick could guess that without having the Soek with them, they would roam earlier, risking more exposure. What he couldn¡¯t determine was if Elias¡¯ rule to wait for full dark was really the advantage he suggested.

    The drones, he knew, could fly in any light so all of this was a nod to human nocturnal behaviors. Elias was targeting the men controlling the drones. Those were operatives, wouldn¡¯t they hunt at night? Would he in their place? The answer was, he would, particularly if the drones had night vision capability and Elias said some did.

    There was no way to know if the Ba¡¯Neesh were actually nocturnal hunters. These Ba¡¯Neesh had been in the woods just over a week and their behavior was being shaped by Mick and Elias. He hated when his thoughts circled like this and he was as ready to run as the Ba¡¯Neesh when Elias finally gave the signal.

    An hour later they were in an area of the Reserves closer toward both the river and the still distant lights. Elias said that likely the ground patrols were thicker closer to the facility and spreading out as they advanced.

    ¡°My idea is to try for the Vrill tracers.¡± Mick said. ¡°All of us know what the pack ones look like and Elias has the visual on a drone kind. Aenor, can you receive that image from Elias?¡±

    She seemed to think the transfer might be improved by her putting her hands on either side of Elias¡¯ head. He eyed Mick with some regret, expecting another nasty header.

    ¡°You think exact image, Elias.¡± Aenor ordered. ¡°At me.¡±

    Elias took a deep breath and tried to relax. He built up what a Vrill tracer drone looked like in his head. He discovered it was surprisingly difficult to do. He had to think about every detail in order to make it real. He focused and tried to send the image toward Aenor on Vrill. Since he¡¯d never tried that before he wasn¡¯t sure what he should feel.¡±

    ¡°Stop chatter thinking. Shut up.¡± She snapped at him. ¡°Image only.¡± This went on for several minutes before she dropped her hands. ¡°Soek heads full of garbage.¡± She stated, shaking her head. ¡°I have image. May or may not be right, he insecure. He think it is like this, not know. Must learn to see better.¡±

    Mick shared a glance with Elias, commiserating.

    Aenor turned on Mick. ¡°Okay, I have visual maybe Vrill trace device in air. Now what?¡±

    ¡°We weaponize a Seeker like we accidentally did with Mael.¡± Mick said. ¡°This device we target recognizes trace, that suggests to me that it has some Vrill too. I say we seek both the visual and the Vrill and when we find it, we add to the existing Vrill.¡±

    ¡°Internal slag?¡± Elias grinned.

    ¡°It won¡¯t have a sigil, right?¡± Mick said. ¡°No defenses?¡±

    ¡°Tule Soc doesn¡¯t use sigil work in the way the Order does.¡± Elias said.

    ¡°We need an exit strategy.¡± Mick said. ¡°When we seek it, likely it will triangulate on us here at the same time we locate it. If it were my device it would report to some central handler, right Elias? That means, while we focus on one, they will respond with force to our spike in Vrill noted by the same machine we are targeting. Maybe they will send other tracers, maybe operatives, maybe aircraft. We have to think they will come after us hard.¡±

    ¡°We need to run in all directions.¡± Elias said, ¡°diffuse our heat signatures and make them choose who to follow. If they are forced to using tracers to follow us it would require one for each pair of us going in each direction. I think it is less likely they have that many tracers able to put into play that fast. If they use heat signals the woods are full of deer, we have seen them in hunts, look like deer running. If it works, watch for opportunity to laser down drones or aircraft. Change directions and go to high ground to watch. Teams of two. Don¡¯t get caught. Meet up back at the bent tree in two hours or so. Okay?¡±

    Everyone nodded. Mick discovered he was teamed with Aenor and her team mate Gisella while Elias was paired with Beate and Dinnah.

    Aenor did the Seeker while everyone chained up behind her, Mick and Elias included. For a long moment there was nothing and then the Ba¡¯Neesh, in unison, lifted their heads to ring sniff. Vrill. The ring sniff gave them a direction. Elias stepped forward to put his hand on Aenor¡¯s mount when the first Seeker failed. He drew a second Seeker and aimed at the nature of the device as he knew it. Its shape, design, intention, users. It was all there. Almost instantly a device roared toward them and so shocked them that the chain broke with Ba¡¯Neesh yelling out trying to see the device almost upon them in the visual.

    Mick grabbed Aenor and Gisella by the mounts and yelled. ¡°Again, Aenor. Duplicate Elias¡¯ Seeker now! And, this time we go for it.¡±

    The Ba¡¯Neesh scrambled to return to their former positions as Aenor sent again, hands hitting horns awkwardly as the device appeared vividly with shocking suddenness. ¡°I see.¡± Aenor yelled out. ¡°Die you fuck trace.¡± She flowed juice toward it, toward it¡¯s Vrill, in the last second recognizing a familiar taste to that Vrill. Flowing into that taste, knowing the bone of the Ba¡¯Neesh housed in the device, trapped. ¡°Freedom!¡± She screamed. The device blew outward.

    ¡°Mick yelled out. ¡°Now, we run.¡±

    Aenor and Gisella dropped to fours and he chased them, hearing the crashing of many hooves all around him and then that faded and there was only Aenor glaring over her shoulder at him and sending him a look that could only mean, faster you slow Soek.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    He forgot to count. He struggled to breathe. He watched the Ba¡¯Neesh¡¯s radiance as his guide. He kept on until his legs gave and he crumpled with no idea where he was. He gasped. Aenor returned and gestured silently with her head. Further.

    This time they moved quietly heading upward into a distant part of the escarpment far from their home cave. As his heart settled down he noted that both Ba¡±Neesh had their large ears swiveling, listening. They got to where the trees thinned out and he followed them down onto their bellies, each aimed in a different direction. In the moonlight there was movement in the air, too big for bats.

    Mick reached over to grab one of Aenor¡¯s horns. ¡°I¡¯ve got drones.¡± He said, calling up the laser to blast it. They got three more before Aenor pulled them up to walk another mile to another tall spear, to watch. They could see bursts of light here and there. And, something bigger went down in a flaming ball. Mick grinned. Someone got an aircraft. He counted ten other hits. They kept moving, shifting direction. He was lost. When Aenor finally stopped he was exhausted but elated. He looked around and realized they were at the bent tree. Others trickled in until everyone was accounted for.

    ¡°I hate to say this,¡± Mick said. ¡°But, on the way back to the cave we have to hunt. No Vrill.¡±

    ¡°Need food.¡± Aenor agreed. ¡°Hunger strong. Vrill weak.¡±

    It seemed far further than the way out had been but the Ba¡¯Neesh managed enough kills on the way to give everyone dinner. They crept into the cave as daylight eased up over the woods, a last glance showing a dozen small fires with smoke trails in the distance.

    ¡°Weapon hard work.¡± Aenor dropped to the floor. Mick fell next to her.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± He said, ¡°Probably need double team of four or five Ba¡¯Neesh for that kind of assault. ¡°We won¡¯t surprise them the same way again though.¡±

    They decided five teams might work. No one argued. They struggled to get the food onto the fire and only roused enough to eat before collapsing into one huge pile.

    Much as they wanted to see what they had done. Elias said there would be traps placed near all of the kills expecting just that kind of curiosity. They stayed close to the cave for the next three nights, just hunting.

    Aenor told all of them that the tracer had some of a Beloved within, now burned. She told Mick she wanted to burn the rest of the Beloved so it could complete the ritual. He didn¡¯t understand this ritual fully. But, the intensity of her desire was clear. What he did now know was that every Tule Soc Vrill tracer device had bones inside of it. Tule Soc was using Ba¡¯Neesh bones to hunt the Soek, its own kind. It made an ugly sense.

    It also gave him new ideas. Iiyiko in the graveyard. The puzzle of that teased at him. Elias said it was a low-Vrill human area, where they had met. Low-Vrill. Why would Iiyiko select that area with areas more rich in Vrill nearby? And, he could not ignore Iiyiko¡¯s insistence on recovering her own bones. He was discovering that everything he¡¯d experienced was related creating a sense of more questions than answers. Iiyiko knew more, but, they hadn¡¯t seen or heard from her since that day in the transport aircraft and Norris. Mick imagined her following Norris. It irked him.

    On the fourth day after the successful testing of the weapon, they split up into five and six person teams and crossed the escarpment to the side furthest from the river before heading out in five directions. Elias said this area should be of less interest to Tule Soc in their hunt so it might be a safer place for the second testing. This time they wanted to focus on taking out the backpack Vrill tracers. In theory, distance should be immaterial in deploying the Seekers, within around thirty miles. The idea was to attack from a position of greater safety. With luck, all of the Tule Soc operatives would be on the river side of the escarpment, searching close to where the last battle had taken place. Elias did warn that if it were DireSec, they would have aircraft standing by for instant launch. That made this attack more dangerous as response should be faster.

    Mick was paired with Aenor, Gisela, Steffi and Irma. He discovered they were all good runners. He hated them as he gasped along in their wake, suffering their annoyed rear glances as they had to wait on him several times. Eventually, he found a seat on a rock and pulled out his water bottle to drink. They discovered he was no longer chasing them and they returned. They wanted to go further. He just looked at them. ¡°So, you are faster in the woods. I get it. I¡¯m sure we are far enough. No need to exhaust me completely half-way in, right? You want me to run again afterwards don¡¯t you?¡± His argument silenced them.

    All of them had seen the Vrill tracer backpack carried by ground searching Tule Soc operative teams. There was no need for building an image, they were also now familiar that they were hunting a Beloved. Aenor had told the Soek that the discovery of the Beloved inside the tracer made it much easier to find. Mick intended to try to ¡®see¡¯ in the Ba¡¯Neesh way when Aenor made the first sending.

    ¡°We need to locate and destroy much faster with less Vrill use on our part.¡± Mick said. ¡°Two for the Seeker. The rest of us save our Vrill and wait for the next one. We try for three backpack tracers tonight. Slag party. Right?¡±

    Aenor nodded. ¡°We trade off for each seeker kill. Mick right, save Vrill. Burn the packs. That our objective. Kill the device and burn the pack completely. We free the Beloved piece-by-piece, as necessary.¡±

    It went off perfectly. In between each assault they ran. They ended up curving back toward the escarpment finding a higher place to watch for drones and aircraft. As they neared their intended watch point the color red slammed into them. Mick fell. He sensed it was Edda. It hit a second time. Something was wrong, terribly wrong.

    He hadn¡¯t used his Vrill at all during any of the attacks. He sketched a Seeker in the air coupled with Edda. Aenor grabbed his hand and jammed it on her horn. The image that appeared was Edda crumpling, her eyes closed. As they watched there was a distinct, loud report and a red hole appeared in Edda¡¯s forehead as the image faded.

    Mick raced off to the bushes to throw up. A second, third and then fourth report hit him with hard punches, ripping at his guts. He didn¡¯t need to see, the first kill resounded with each additional report. He waited on the fifth. Edda was teamed with Elias. There were five in that group.

    ¡°We run, Mick.¡± Aenor said, pulling him up.

    ¡°Trap, Aenor.¡± He answered bleakly. Four shots. Illegal weapons. Kill shots. Four. Who was alive?

    ¡°We know, Mick.¡± She said, ¡°We still run. We at war. A good night to die.¡±

    Mick howled his outrage, sound bursting out of him from some primordial place so deep inside he had never known such feelings or sounds existed inside of him. Edda, sweet Edda. He chased the Ba¡¯Neesh back across the escarpment. Twice they drew Seekers on Edda, each time to see her laying in the dirt, clearly dead. The Seekers gave them her precise direction.

    The run sucked his rage away, he couldn¡¯t sustain both fury fueled grief and the energy to run. Eventually, he ran into the back of Aenor who was standing still with her hand up. Below, through the trees was a clearing. Just in view was a floater, a small six-man floater. Two men were dragging a third person up the ramp. Elias.

    ¡°Not dead.¡± Aenor whispered.

    ¡°Should be six men in that floater.¡± Mick whispered back.

    Mick stilled his brain. Strategy. Too early for them to have mounted traps so close. How long since the gunfire? Ten minutes? Less? He couldn¡¯t judge. He could see the dead Ba¡¯Neesh and four men with dark bags getting ready to bag them. No, his mind hardened, they couldn¡¯t have the Beloved.

    He wanted to rescue Elias but the floater was a dangerous target with Elias aboard. They couldn¡¯t just laser it as that could easily kill Elias too.

    ¡°They must have a broadcast stunner.¡± He whispered to Aenor. ¡°They shot them before landing. They will shoot at us as soon as we fire on the men in the clearing.¡±

    ¡°Cowards.¡± Aenor said, nodding.

    ¡°We need to rescue the Beloved.¡± Mick said. ¡°Can¡¯t let them have Edda and the others.¡±

    Aenor gave him a measured look. ¡°We attack men, aircraft fly?¡± She asked.

    Mick hated it. ¡°We can¡¯t blow the floater with Elias aboard. We go for the Beloved.¡± He made his tone firm.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Aenor nodded to the other Ba¡¯Neesh. They could see four operatives and four Ba¡¯Neesh bodies. Clearly that left two operatives, the two that had taken Elias aboard.

    ¡°You shoot the men.¡± Mick said, ¡°I¡¯ll try something else on the floater.¡±

    All four of the Ba¡¯Neesh lifted their arms and aimed at the operatives. Mick looked at the aircraft. He needed for it not to shoot them when the operatives registered the laser attack. He needed to drive them away. Humans. Would Vrill thought carrying raging fear reach them? He reached over and grabbed horn mounts to the uneasy glances of the Ba¡¯Neesh as they fired on the operatives. He sent his outrage fueled fear thought at the ship. The laser bursts were fast. He kept focusing trying to drive the humans off with fear. The four Ba¡¯Neesh, their kills dead, focused on Mick who was struggling with projecting fear and placed hands on his head, giving him what they had left to send fear and panic into the ship. ¡°Fly.¡± They said collectively, ¡°Fly in fear.¡±

    The ship¡¯s ramp dragged the treetops as the craft lurched away, taking Elias with it. The Ba¡¯Neesh and Mick sagged, drained. A Ba¡¯Neesh¡¯ sharp whistle announced the nearby arrival of other Ba¡¯Neesh. Aenor answered back. Her group and another headed into the clearing in a race to recover the bodies.

    It was clear to Mick that each body was too heavy for any single Ba¡¯Neesh to carry. Cut them? He was horrified but his stomach had no more to give.

    He called the second team of six over and grabbed the first mount. The Ba¡¯Neesh were getting used to his grabbing of them, like it or not. They chained up and watched grimly as he cut each body in half, using the laser to cauterize the bleeding. In silence the six took half a body each and Aenor and Mick took half each of Edda. They had to carry upright which slowed the Ba¡¯Neesh further. Mick just blanked his mind, refusing to think about Elias, about the dead. It was enough to think about stumbling after the Ba¡¯Neesh, hearing Aenor order target fires in their wake, burn their path. This time they headed into the light breeze so the fires would flow behind them. He noted they had reached the rocks of the lower escarpment, still far from the cave. They paused as Ba¡±Neesh ran down to finish starting the closer fires and to spread them along the ridge of stone, disguise their trail.

    The way home staying totally on the stone was brutal.

    (I am writing this late in the evening. I¡¯ve been imagining this scene for some time. As I have, what¡¯s to come. Enjoy my friends!)

 Chapter Forty-One - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Forty-One ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Each of the Ba¡¯Neesh carrying half of a dead body unloaded to the right just inside the cave entrance. Mick, carrying the lower half of Edda, did the same, feeling ghastly about the untidy pile of body parts. He knew he was in shock, he kept feeling cold and then hot, his brain refusing to think of anything but arriving. Now arrived, he sagged to the floor surrounded by equally traumatized Ba¡¯Neesh. They had no food, nothing to look forward to as daylight painted the inside of the cave. The pile.

    Mick squeezed his eyes shut as if to wall out the visual but it seemed stamped on the inside of his eyelids. He couldn¡¯t leave Edda like that, starting to rot as sunbeams warmed her still cooling body. ¡°We can¡¯t leave them like this.¡± He said aloud.

    Aenor, near the cave entrance was organizing two of the fresher teams to stand guard just where the rock spears opened to sight of the long sweeping valley below. No one grumbled but everyone grumbled. Mick could hear the pain of them inside his head, inside his own body, an echo or was it all one inaudible sound? He pushed himself upright and staggered over to the pile. He had seen historical footage of humans in the last world war stacked in piles like this, discarded. Edda wasn¡¯t discarded. He pulled through the bodies to find her as if to put her back together. The tone inside his head shifted, a little angry, a little hopeful. He was too tired to lift Edda alone. Ba¡¯Neesh came over to help him. He had her two halves. Now what?

    The word Agnosin floated to the surface of his mind. He could tell it was from Elias although he thought he had heard the word too; he was just too tired to try to find it in the jumble that was his memories when he became tired. What he did remember was Iiyiko and her bones. He had to clean Edda. It became an imperative.

    He had seen lots of animal bones. The Reserves Ranger Stations were all decorated with some animal or the other, usually taxidermy bones as the stuffed critters could attract predators. That from another safety class. How did they get from their bodies to their bones? That detail hovered like a question ready to pounce. He knew the answer. He didn¡¯t want to know the answer. He was becoming expert at recognizing memories he didn¡¯t want to explore or feel. He rubbed at the sides of his head wanting to stop the search inside his brain for ¡®the way¡¯.

    He realized his face was wet and dirty wet. He didn¡¯t remember when it started, this wet face thing, the soreness in his eyes. Dust now painted his wet face, he could see this on the similarly wet faces of the Ba¡¯Neesh looking to him for the answer. He had to dig out the answer to that question. He moaned. Several Ba¡¯Neesh reached forward to hold him up, to place hands any place on his head they could reach. It was a silent plea. It was the Ba¡¯Neesh telling him they would journey into his memories with him. A single word surfaced. Boil.

    How were they going to boil four whole bodies in a cave? They had nothing. No cook pots of any kind. He raised his head, the signal to the Ba¡¯Neesh to withdraw their hands. ¡°We have to boil them.¡± He said.

    Aenor, now standing watching the cluster around the Soek nodded. ¡°Agnosin.¡± She said. ¡°We must clean the Beloved. We have water.¡± She pointed at the bath-tub sized pool dripping steadily with clean water. ¡°How do we boil them, Mick?¡±

    How? He got to his feet and walked over to look at the pool. It was a pool. He moved to the overflow and instinctively he cupped water to splash on his face, as much to wake him up as to clean the filth off of him. How to make the pool boil? It became a simple engineering question.

    ¡°We divert the dripping water first.¡± He said. ¡°Find a shock blanket with plastic on it.¡±

    Together they rigged the blanket so that the steady drip ran over to the overflow area of rocks leaving the pool to become still.

    He knew it was easy enough to boil water, you just added heat. The problem was they couldn¡¯t add fire close enough even if they surrounded it with fire, it would take too long and not get hot enough. He was pretty sure they needed to keep the water at a rolling boil, that was pretty hot.

    He still stank of the fire they had used to disguise their path to the escarpment. Fire. He could mentally see the Ba¡¯Neesh sending Vrill fire into the brush to burn. Vrill fire.

    He pressed his right hand into the water and tried to summon Vrill fire. He got nothing. ¡°We need to heat the water really hot.¡± He explained. ¡°Vrill fire?¡±

    ¡°In water?¡± The Ba¡¯Neesh closest to him sounded disparaging.

    ¡°Yeah, why not?¡± Mick pulled his wet hand back out, not even a good tingle. He was exhausted.

    ¡°Why not.¡± Aenor looked at the water and then at her hand. ¡°The strongest of you chain up behind me and let¡¯s see if juice boils water.¡± She said.

    It did. In fact, the water boiled so fast and hot they all backed away a bit. ¡°We will have to add water back.¡± Aenor said, ¡°Edda first. How long to boil the Beloved, Mick?¡±

    He cringed. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Gross. Till the meat falls off the bones. We need the bones as clean as possible.¡± He backed up another step and then stopped. He had to help Edda. He stepped forward again. He rolled her torso so he was behind her and then he lifted her by the armpits. The Ba¡¯Neesh backed away. He slid Edda¡¯s upper half into the pool. Thankfully, she sank. The Ba¡¯Neesh brought her lower half and added that to the pool.

    ¡°We must keep the water hot, boiling.¡± He said. ¡°Teams? I¡¯m too weak and too tired.¡±

    The odor of cooking meat wafted off the pool. The Ba¡¯Neesh smacked their lips.

    ¡°Oh gross. Maximum gross.¡± Mick yelled out, wanting to run except there was no where to go and horribly, Edda smelled tasty. He was appalled. What was happening to him?

    The odor had changed something for the Ba¡¯Neesh, their tone shifted from dark to lighter. There would be food. There would be rejoicing of the transition. The dead were gifting the living. Half of them found positions around the pool and sticks to stir the water.

    Mick sat as far away as he could, his back to the inside cave wall. His mind was at war with his body, with his alignment with the attitude of the Ba¡¯Neesh. He heard the words, ¡°The Lamentation has Begun.¡± A hum took over and soon he witnessed Ba¡¯Neesh dancing across the silt floor, calling out Edda¡¯s name and discussing her in Neesh. He couldn¡¯t understand what they were describing but it created laughter.

    All of this was wrong, so wrong. He yelled out, ¡°You can¡¯t treat her like this.¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    One of the Ba¡¯Neesh whose name he couldn¡¯t yet remember danced over and looked down on him. ¡°She died in battle you fool. The best way ever. She blessed us with celebration of her success and the gift of her power, knowledge and ability. Why do you cry, did you not enjoy Edda too? Get up and celebrate her freedom. We will properly carry her with us. She will be reborn anew when it is the right time. You must help us. You must join in. You are Soek.¡±

    He gasped. ¡°It¡¯s gross.¡± He yelled. ¡°It¡¯s disrespectful.¡±

    ¡°For a human, yes.¡± Aenor had joined the other Ba¡¯Neesh. ¡°It¡¯s time you let go of the human idea of yourself you cling to Mick. It¡¯s time you embraced being Soek. Come, eat of Edda. She is sweet, as always.¡±

    Mick sobbed, he shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t eat my friends.¡± He said.

    ¡°Of course you can, you are hungry, in Vrill drop from the battle. This is how we cure that quickly; we eat of the Vrill laced flesh of our fallen. They honor us by feeding us. We remember now. We eat. We celebrate, then we bring the war to them carrying the bones of our Beloved. We remember.¡±

    He moaned, disgusted and horrified by the delicious odor and the sounds of Ba¡¯Neesh already pulling flesh from the body, pools of grease swirled around the pool. He wanted his body to display his horror by throwing up, instead it betrayed him by telling him he was really hungry. He wouldn¡¯t eat her, he wouldn¡¯t.

    ¡°Don¡¯t damage the bone.¡± Aenor stated firmly. ¡°Clean it. We clean it with the boiling water and our teeth, with great care fuck Mick.¡±

    How had he gotten from the wall to the pool? He shook his head. Aenor used a stick to lever up one of Edda¡¯s arms, already some flesh removed. She used her knife to cut off a chunk of the upper arm before letting the arm go back to boil more. ¡°Tender.¡± She said, holding out some slightly pink flesh to him. ¡°Celebrate Edda.¡± She ordered, Vrill lacing her words.

    He glared at her and tried to maintain his resistance, but the Vrill was just enough to pull at him. Was it her words? Was she compelling him? He could escape responsibility by telling himself he couldn¡¯t help himself. But, that was a lie. He took the piece of Edda¡¯s arm and stared at it. It was rich with Vrill, almost like a flavor enhancer. Would he smell like that too when he died? It was a peculiar thought.

    He¡¯d never much thought of his own death except as an abstract. Did he want to be buried to rot in a box in the ground? It wasn¡¯t like Edda could use her body anymore. That was wrong. Was it? Every bit of her was for the benefit of the collective group of Ba¡¯Neesh. The body to combat Vrill drop. The bones to support Vrill use as a sort of battle weapon. What did he really know of death, theirs, his? Would he want to contribute to the success of things he felt strongly about or rot in the ground alone? How had Iiyiko ended up alone? The gravity of her plight now filled him. He recalled how intensely she had forced him to dig up her bones. Of course. She was alone, isolated, unable to help the Ba¡¯Neesh. What had happened to her?

    He took a bite. Better to die and live with your friends, your family, those you cared about, then to be abandoned in dark soil given only to bugs and worms. Edda tasted sweet. He wanted more. He squatted with the Ba¡¯Neesh. Someone handed him a stick. Occasionally they talked about body parts and it was horribly gross and he discovered he liked it. He was Soek. Stop measuring himself to human standards when he clearly wasn¡¯t human. He ate another piece. The water boiled merrily. He got up to help add more water to the pool and then found himself dancing, humming a song he didn¡¯t know and spinning around with Ba¡¯Neesh whose names blurred into Edda and out of Edda. He understood. As her bones released her flesh, Edda became more vividly alive to all of them. They welcomed her, carefully stacking first her small bones, then larger and larger into a pile on a rock. Edda was emerging again.

    When the bones were properly counted and all accounted for, the Ba¡¯Neesh skimmed the pool of the skin and remains that would not be eaten, using a shock blanket like a tarp.

    Mick helped. They took what was no longer Edda to the far side of the escarpment while being guarded by others, to cast it off a high point for the birds and animals to also celebrate. They returned to clean the pool, fill it and boil Merlada.

    Mick knew he slept, curled against a couple Ba¡¯Neesh. Then he was wakened to eat and dance Merlada into freedom, and then Adelheid and Elke, two he didn¡¯t know well. The party went on for three days and nights before it was done and they had four piles of bones.

    He selected a finger bone from Edda. He had decided early on that he must have her connected to him forever. She was his first Ba¡¯Neesh friend. Aenor took Elke¡¯s bone, two others took a bone from each of Merlada and Adelheid. They used the knives to make holes. Mick strung his on the string with Iiyiko making a knot between them to keep them from touching. The Ba¡¯Neesh worked their bones into their hair as beads.

    Then they emptied four of the packs and Mick showed them how the Beloved was properly packed. He took Edda¡¯s bones into his pack. Aenor watched this thoughtfully, she took Elke and the other two took Merlada and Adelheid. There was just enough room in the top of the packs for a medical kit and a few small items like a sewing kit and packets of water pills. They went through the rest of the stuff to pack the other five backpacks. Clearly, all of them knew it was time to leave the cave. They returned the pool to its normal drip and cleaned out evidence of their presence but the odor of sweet dead Ba¡¯Neesh permeated the stones themselves. At full dark, they slipped away, now twenty-five of them.

    They all knew where they were going, to get Elias. Aenor did a quick sigil sketch and they followed her. Mick noted she was using very little Vrill. He adjusted his pack straps for best comfort and tried to think, not think, about the Agnosin Ritual and the Lamentation of the Beloved. He carried a Beloved, belonged to two. He would need to find Iiyiko¡¯s bones soon. His responsibility. He hadn¡¯t understood that. He knew his Vrill was stronger but, as Aenor said, he was weaker than the weakest Ba¡¯Neesh. His gift, she said, was to lead them, not to fight their battles for them. He sort of understood that. He knew Edda¡¯s boost on his back would improve him. He needed to be as strong as possible for the Ba¡¯Neesh.

    His long-delayed fury over the capture of Elias and what that likely meant, now rose, as if released by the completion of the Lamentation. It was time to free Elias. Aenor assured him Elias still lived and was within the roughly thirty miles or nine leagues of Ba¡¯Neesh sensing range. Aenor would say nothing of his condition. Mick could guess. Alive meant the opportunity for recovery.

    They moved quickly toward their objective. Mick noted that the Ba¡¯Neesh now teamed up naturally, they ring scented and whistle hooted to convey simple information. They were tightly focused on the unknown traps Mick assured them would be in place. The closer they came to Elias¡¯ location, the more likely the traps would be present.

    The first they found was a trip-wire. Mick followed it to a sensor pinned to a tree. A simple directional device that would send images of any disturbance to the wire. Unsophisticated. Aenor, testing the Seeker, had each team run what she called tiny seekers looking for wires. They found many and soon decided an entire perimeter was being described by the overlay of wires. Not a new defense, something older. This suggested to Mick that they were approaching a well-defended, high-security facility.

    They climbed high in the trees for daylight and watched drones fly from a location north of them. These weren¡¯t tracers, nor were the operators interested in animals in trees as the area had been repopulated with numerous animal species by the Reserves Act, years ago. The drones were hunting on the ground and seeing nothing.

    As Mick and the Ba¡¯Neesh watched, the drones returned and left every four hours in an overlapping schedule. Automated. That didn¡¯t mean no one was monitoring the footage but, as Mick said, likely the technicians assigned to such a task were bored.

    They took even greater care to remain dispersed the next night as animals in pairs were low-value targets. They had estimated the likely time for each drone to cross in and out and climbed trees during those periods. It slowed them down. All of them were eating berries, nuts and tubers and even some raw meat, no one¡¯s favorite.

    Eventually, Aenor trilled. That was the agreed sign that they were near.

    Mick came forward and saw, nothing. ¡°How close.¡± He whispered.

    ¡°Hidden.¡± She said, pointing.

    It was dark, Mick gave that rationale for why he missed the slight distortion around the fully cloaked pill-box-like entry. It was another of the fixed camera projection units, again, old school tech, this place had been protected by security devices for years. Underground. He didn¡¯t like that but as Elias was down there, that¡¯s where they would go to get him.

    (Ah. The Lamentation of the Beloved! Such fun to write. J Enjoy!)

 Chapter Forty-Two - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Forty-Two ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick watched from the tree with increasing discomfort. In gaming there was magical food and rest and water wasn¡¯t a problem. In real life he was discovering that supplying an attack was enormously important and something he¡¯d totally missed. Now they were literally up trees spying on a fully cloaked small boxy building, too small to house Elias and Aenor had whispered to him that Elias was below, fairly deep too. He felt increasingly inadequate to the task of leading the Ba¡¯Neesh in a raid.

    He knew nothing about what was below ground, nothing about any of this. His lack of real insight offended his idea about himself. He was having to revise everything. What he did know with improved direct intel was the schedule of the drone releases. Careful observation had detected masked pipes through which the drones emerged and returned. From up the tree he couldn¡¯t detect if the boxy structure even had a door. It could be for some other purpose, not designed as an entry point. But, his intuitions suggested it was a seldom used building of some kind. Maintenance or emergency evac?

    Well into the second day with hunger and thirst now a constant torment, his persistence was rewarded by the exit of two men, both wearing the dark uniform of Tule Soc security. Although they had weapons on their belts, it was clear they weren¡¯t doing a patrol, in fact, they lounged around and smoked thin sticks of some smelly herb. They each took several drags, engaging in a bored conversation in German. After about ten minutes, they opened and closed the door they had propped ajar and once again the boxy building became nearly invisible.

    Aenor leaned over to whisper to him. ¡°They said the prisoner¡¯s only remaining value might be a trade and it didn¡¯t look like DireSec even wanted him back enough for that to happen. They were tired of hanging out in the woods with nothing to do.¡±

    ¡°Did they say how many were down there?¡± Mick asked.

    Aenor shook her head. ¡°No.¡±

    Mick shifted his weight to relieve the stress of his position. His whole body ached. He focused on the men¡¯s behavior. The door left ajar was the key. In a properly staffed secure situation wouldn¡¯t there be alarms on the door and people watching if a door was open? That the two men weren¡¯t concerned suggested they weren¡¯t worried about being observed. Alone? Could they really have only two guards and equipment watching Elias? Yes, it had been several days. He tried to climb into their human heads. All games were designed by human engineers so he had played in human thinking his whole life. Clearly they or their superiors had contacted DireSec trying to trade Elias for something, and failed. That made Elias expendable. Had his value been downgraded?

    He could imagine they would first have interrogated him for information on the Ba¡¯Neesh. What then? Any detailed info would rapidly age. He knew that Elias had default interrogation defense skills. He had been trained to fixate and repeat. Clearly he hadn¡¯t given up the Ba¡¯Neesh cave. That meant his technique had likely been successful. When they didn¡¯t get the Ba¡¯Neesh, had Tule Soc moved on to grilling him about DireSec? Mick would have. It was the logical progression. Elicit information and then try to trade Elias back for some gain.

    The hard part was deciding if the entire set up was an elaborate trap. The other position was that Elias told them how to trap the Ba¡¯Neesh and that was why he was out in what appeared to be an isolated position. Bait. Mick could visualize that scenario too. Why go after the Ba¡¯Neesh if Elias had convinced them the Ba¡¯Neesh would come after him?

    He shared both scenarios with Aenor.

    ¡°We must assume trap.¡± She said. ¡°Soek are stupid and weak, even you and Elias.¡±

    Mick had to nod agreement. If it were a trap, then what would be the next best move? To leave. Abandon Elias. That is what logic suggested. He couldn¡¯t swallow that. He could all too easily see himself in Elias¡¯ shoes. Would he want to be abandoned to the indifferent tortures of the Tule Soc?

    ¡°This has to be a secondary or emergency exit, maybe used to recover failed drones.¡± He said, ¡°I say we try to trace the building underground and see what other entry points tell us. Also, we should try to locate mechanical openings like for air venting and similar. If it is big down there they will need air exchange systems, likely hidden as features of nature or masked by cloaking.¡±

    It was hard to walk away from the site. Everyone was hungry and the necessity of hunting further device traps kept them on edge. Twice they tripped wires but each time the Ba¡¯Neesh who did so was on fours and there wasn¡¯t any immediate pursuit. The drone activity did increase. It tightened. The group moved further away from the wired perimeter until they no longer saw the drones. They hunted, but there was no where to camp. They did learn they could heat rocks to cook the meat without smoke. It never seemed to be enough food. They circled the probable facility and approached again from the opposite direction. It was nearly a week out from the cave.

    In that week they became experts at the wire traps and a second device that used an offensive odor to keep animals away. The closer they approached the more intense the odor. It had a chemical base and Aenor said a flavor of Vrill, it was being boosted. The odor acted on the brain creating increasing fear. With the Ba¡¯Neesh¡¯s well-developed odor sensitivity it was particularly difficult for them. Several had bouts of paranoia until Mick had them find a skunk, an animal they routinely avoided, to milk its odor organs creating a noxious sticky mixture blended with tree sap that everyone could rub under their noses. It worked. Soon they were able to locate the actual device and enter the perimeter it guarded. It was instructive.

    Mick, as usual, was trailing Aenor and Gisella when both came to a sudden halt, sniffing. Then they backed up. To Mick¡¯s eyes there was no sign of danger. He backed away and heard the distinctive chirp whistle they used to warn others.

    Aenor¡¯s team went up the next big tree to climb as high as possible. More bird-like chirps chatted between trees. They were running nine teams spread out across about a mile.

    Aenor whispered to him that all were in the trees, currently safe.

    He asked her what was wrong.

    Then he didn¡¯t need to ask. The ground near where she had backed up began to rise up out of the soil, trees and all. The opening was large enough to allow the passage of three floaters, all rising silently to head in the direction he knew was toward the town. As silently as the elevator had opened, it closed. It was perfect, the illusion of continuous forest returned.

    Three floaters were more than two lone guards. Trap exposed. The odor defense teased at him, it suggested a weakness. Clearly it was being used to prevent animals from entering the facility when the elevator was open, that could indicate they had experienced animal problems. What would attract animals enough to be a problem? There had been few wires on this approach to the underground facility. Why? Too much tripping?

    ¡°Can you smell food?¡± He whispered to Aenor.

    She glared at him, ¡°With my nose covered in skunk stink?¡± She said.

    ¡°Wipe it off.¡± He ordered. ¡°I have more if you freak out.¡±

    Her eyes narrowed. ¡°Bad idea.¡± She said, taking a cloth from Gisella¡¯s pack to wipe at her nose. They could tell the instant the skunk stopped being effective. She cursed, her face filling with fear.

    ¡°Fight Aenor, it¡¯s fake.¡± Mick ordered, his hand gripping her upper arm. ¡°Smell for the odor of food.¡±

    She took a deep sniff and they had to press her body to the trunk to keep her from fleeing. Then she subsided and her head turned toward the left. ¡°Over there, I smell food.¡±

    Mick, ready with the salve, reached over to smear her nose. The fresh skunky odor brought a pained look of relief coupled with intense dislike.

    Mick grinned. ¡°There must be a vent from the kitchen of this place, the odor guards have to be due to intense animal intrusion. Let¡¯s find out how lethal the vents are. I bet they are wired to the hilt.¡±

    They crept down and headed toward where Aenor had pointed. It was clear when they got near. The vent had at one time been covered in cloaking, now shredded from many assaults. It was dented and damaged and ringed in sensors making no effort at hiding visually. Clearly the battle was ongoing and whomever was defending the vent had given up on the cloaking system.

    Mick gestured them back to nearby trees, collecting a handful of pebbles on the way. It was dark. There was a good moon but there were heavy shadows.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Mick tossed a rock trying to hit a sensor. It took two tries before he ranged in and hit one solidly. Alarms blared, lights flashed and the sensor spasmed with bolts of electricity.

    He waited till it subsided and then he threw another rock and started the display off again. This went on for nearly two hours before a trapdoor opened upward with a slam and a man¡¯s heated voice yelled out curses. He was carrying two weapons, a stunner and a massive cook¡¯s knife. Clearly, he worked in the kitchen. He was followed by four armed security men.

    Aenor leaned over so her mouth was against Mick¡¯s ear, ¡°One back left is Soek.¡± She said. That changed everything.

    ¡°Use the mental Vrill voice to lure him into the woods to follow chirping sound.¡± Mick told her.

    She nodded and reached out to grab Gisela¡¯s horn. They watched the men argue and the one in the back left pointed toward the wood, his tone rising. The other three shrugged, clearly the vent wasn¡¯t under animal assault at the moment, no rodents to kill for amusement.

    The Soek mule brought out his stunner and a torch and started walking a perimeter. Down the line a Ba¡¯Neesh chirped. The mule pivoted and cried out. The other men laughed and mocked him for chasing birds. That¡¯s what Aenor interpreted to Mick. The humans propped the trapdoor open about six inches using a rock after they returned down the hole leaving the lone operative outside. It looked like a familiar strategy, much like the other door left ajar a long distance away. Slack security. Mick thought. His group led the Soek deep into the woods, following him carefully. They noted he avoided the wire traps and had a band lifted up to cover his nose, clearly a remedy for the stink. Mick told Aenor he needed to approach the Soek alone. He had an idea. Aenor nodded and whistle chirped to keep the other Ba¡¯Neesh in hiding.

    Mick removed every trace of Tule Soc he carried, passing Edda off to Gisela. He found it surprisingly hard to let go of the knife and stunner, but it was critical to his hasty plan. When he was ready, he yelled out and crashed through the bushes and shrubs toward the armed Soek.

    ¡°Hello, hello.¡± He said, waving his obviously empty hands. ¡°I am so glad to find someone, I¡¯ve been wandering for days, totally lost.¡± He hurried into the Soek¡¯s view to confront a stunner pointed at him. He slowly raised his hands and came to a halt. ¡°Hello? Aren¡¯t you with the Reserves Team? Uhhm, Reserven Mannschaft?¡±

    The Soek lowered his weapon slightly. ¡°Who you?¡± He asked in awkward English.¡±

    ¡°Austausch Mannschaft von Eire?¡± Mick limped through the words he had made Aenor teach him while following this guy. ¡°I¡¯m Aedan McGill. They dropped us in an area to search for the source of a fire and then there was an explosion and suddenly the woods were on fire and everyone ran. I ran. At first there were other people but then I fell and hit my head and was knocked out and when I woke up the fire was near and I ran again and I saw nobody. I mean nobody. I¡¯m starving. Do you have food? Essen?¡±

    The Soek had listened to this and Mick could tell by the guy¡¯s expression that he was stumbling over the words. Mick dropped his hands and looked around. ¡°There is a hot shower near here and food, essen?¡± He repeated. ¡°I really need to get back, check in and everything. Reserves will have a team out looking for me by now, certain sure. I¡¯m probably totally in trouble for not sticking with my buddy but we didn¡¯t get along great. Sorry.¡±

    Mick could tell the exact instant the Soek decided he was a filthy random kid lost off a Reserves Team, the Soek got that adult look of long-suffering pain. He gestured for Mick to follow him. When they neared the facility Mick made sure to act like the odor was ten times worse than it was until the Soek pulled out a small screw-cap container of cream and said, ¡°under nose.¡±

    Mick rubbed the stuff in over his existing skunk guessing he smelled like he¡¯d been in both a fire and squirted by a skunk. He knew his clothing was filthy and a bit worse for wear, his forgotten eyebrows were itchy and just starting to grow back, he had discolored facial bruises from that head fall and altogether, he totally looked the part of a stupid kid.

    The Soek led him around the traps to the still propped trapdoor. ¡°We enter here.¡± He said and mimed for Mick to follow him down. Mick nodded and looked around but saw no evidence of the nearby, watching Ba¡¯Neesh. His job was to investigate the interior and find a way to get Elias out. He climbed noisily down the ladder to find himself surrounded in security people, yelling questions at the operative who had caught him.

    ¡°Oh hey.¡± He said, his tone relieved. ¡°I¡¯m so glad to find someone out here. Cool ranger station. Left over from pre-Act right? We repurposed some old underground stuff too. I would never have found this place. Seriously, never.¡±

    A large, very fit man stepped forward. ¡°Horst says you are Aedan McGill?¡± His English was considerably better than Horst.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Mick nodded. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t have a snack would you? I¡¯m like totally starved, and filthy, I just got here you see, part of the exchange program, came out at the last minute because our reserves are finished. We always exchange out you know. Eire, now the nation/state, is tiny.¡± He could see his appearance, odor and ramble was working by the softening of the alert state of these men.

    He rubbed at his nose. ¡°That stink was awful. Did something die up there. Wow. I can¡¯t decide which I need more, a shower or food. I think food. Can you give me anything, even one of those for crap nutri bars would be okay?¡±

    ¡°This way.¡± The leader guy gestured and Mick followed along ignoring the way they surrounded him in the bunker-like corridor. They didn¡¯t go far. Three doors down was an open doorway into the back of a substantial kitchen. The size of it told Mick that they were feeding or could feed at least a hundred people. Trap then. The two guys at the other end of this place were either a trap or low on some totem pole of duty, assigned at the drone launch site end.

    ¡°Oh, food.¡± Mick gushed and realized he didn¡¯t have to fake it; he was really hungry. In short order one of the cooks handed him a bonafide plate heaped with food and a Evercool bottle of nutrient enriched juice. He bobbed and thanked the cook effusively when he realized the cook likely spoke minimal English. He wandered out into the hall and slid down the wall to sit on the floor, eating with his hands. Two of the security guys had already left, no doubt to run his name in the system. Wouldn¡¯t matter, Reserves records were notoriously bad and his description of the muck up was likely true enough to pass a rough discussion. Odds were, Tule Soc wouldn¡¯t want Mick to blab about their underground, likely illegal, facility and were only going to check the roll count, not really ask questions that would generate questions they wouldn¡¯t want to answer. If he were them, he would feed the kid and ask higher up persons for directions on what to do, a tiny window of opportunity.

    He ate fast and even licked his plate. They left his plate and utensils on a hall tray and led him deeper to a clearly residential block. Along the way Mick got close enough to the lead guy to memorize his punch-in codes at the secure doors. There were maps on the walls posted regularly enough for him to guess this place hosted people who didn¡¯t know their way around a lot. Some kind of training place? The Reserves Office where his foster father worked looked like this without the secure doors.

    They led him into a barracks of sorts with rows of beds and lots of lounging men. He was moved between them toward an open bathroom large enough for three times the men he¡¯d seen. From the rolled bedding it looked like maybe thirty men were in the dorm, the rest of the beds were empty. He was down to a single guard, one who spoke okay English who told him to shower and dress. He was handed a pile of clothing that was the uniform for this place. He gushed his thanks and again, he didn¡¯t have to fake it. He hurried into the shower and blissed out under the biting hot spray. He regretted the speed with which he had to clean himself and gloried in the fresh clothing noticing they had only left his boots.

    He could imagine them examining his clothing for whatever. Dressed and groomed he headed away from the dorm doorway and toward a corridor exit door. It wasn¡¯t coded. Clearly the men who worked or trained here used this door to head away from the sleeping area. He slipped through. It was night, the corridor was empty with lowered lights. He could guess the round spots high on the walls were cameras so he staggered as if lost, allowing one hand to come to rest near the hallway light switch. He had messed up his family¡¯s residential electrical system enough to know how to fuck things up with intentional Vrill use now. He juiced the wall, grabbing hold of Edda¡¯s bone through his clean new shirt. The lights flickered and then went out, he immediately turned and ran toward the direction of the drone maintenance area.

    ¡°Safe. Moving toward Elias.¡± He Vrilled the thought the best he could, hoping Aenor would grasp it.

    The color green, edged in yellow filled his mind. Clearly she got something, warning him to be careful? Sounded right.

    He used the emergency manual bars on the doors to code through. He could imagine their back up generators would kick in fast, he needed to be as far from the barracks area as possible when they did. Luckily, their building design opted for straight lines. He entered the third set of secure doors and found the wall. He threw his Edda linked juice again. Aenor would feel it. The Ba¡¯Neesh carrying Edda would report the use.

    His timing was good, the returning power flickered in this new section and went out again. He could hope he¡¯d damaged at least one generator. Run, his instinct told him.

    Above ground the Ba¡¯Neesh were chasing him while trying to be mindful of possible wires and as soon as the one carrying Edda told Aenor that Mick was juicing, Aenor guessed at what he might be juicing. All of them could feel the dirty electricity of the underground building flickering. She grinned and had several teams locate the many hidden vents of this building and run juice down, into what systems she couldn¡¯t imagine, any system was good, humans had a love for electronics.

    Arjan, wakened to the persistent ring from his external. ¡°What now?¡± He demanded, knowing his sleep had barely entered its restive phase.

    ¡°System glitches at the Schulung.¡± Dieter announced, rubbing at his own face as he had also been awakened abruptly.

    ¡°How bad this time?¡± Arjan demanded querulously, ¡°More rodents tormenting the kitchen staff?¡± The Schulung was notorious for system failures partially due to its clandestine location and having to use inferior maintenance personnel over long periods of time. It sucked.

    ¡°Electrical and some random air handlers.¡± Dieter replied. ¡°Sir, I am getting a delayed report on a possible intruder, some kid picked up in the wood nearby said he was a Reserve Exchange. Horst says he had nothing on him, his clothing was filthy, he was banged up pretty bad. They fed him and sent him into the showers when the glitches started and they lost track of him. Apparently the power in that whole area of the building is down and the kid got himself lost. They have teams out searching the halls and rooms.¡±

    ¡°A kid?¡± This wakened Arjan fully. ¡°Max the alert.¡± He ordered.

    (Are you enjoying yourself? I am. I dearly love WitchBoard from one end to the other. They are such a mess. More soon, I promise! Enjoy!)

 Chapter Forty-Three - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Forty-Three ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick trotted along the darkened corridors with only emergency battery operated lights spaced well apart to give light. He found he didn¡¯t need much. His eyes seemed to be adapting to lower light conditions. Behind him he heard raised voices and the heavy thud of boots on the hard floor. He kept his pace. Memory told him Elias was quite some distance down the central hall which formed a shape somewhat like a guitar on the wall maps. He doubted the strange design was intended for interrogation, it seemed more focused on those drones or part of the entire facility¡¯s security presence.

    The interior of the facility was well mapped and had three zones in the large part of the building. Portions of the building were shown as stacks, indicating additional lower floors. He appeared to be on the top floor labeled M. He knew this because of the dorm and kitchen placement. Below were a tighter warren of rooms with names he couldn¡¯t identify. He kept to this level. At a guess he felt like he had climbed down about twenty feet and the floor was level, that should put the Ba¡¯Neesh directly over his head if they were following him. He felt they were. His experience with them was giving him a tenuous connection, like a developing sense of their presence.

    The doors entering the dorm area were coded but going toward the kitchen the doors were casual swing, likely because they were a common area, as he passed the larger rooms he heard voices and he ducked back into the shadows of a branching hallway. It was hard to control his breathing. He tilted his head as the Ba¡¯Neesh often did as if that improved hearing.

    One voice was giving orders. That voice sounded like the big leader guy from earlier. Other men answered and footsteps headed toward Mick. He frowned. Clearly they were organizing a search already, he¡¯d hoped for more time to find Elias. He heard voices calling out, ¡°Klar, klar.¡± He could guess that meant they hadn¡¯t found him in whatever room or area. From the sound of things, they would be on him pretty fast.

    The downside of the facility layout, from his perspective, was that it offered few hiding places. The hallways and corridors were boxy and straight giving a clean line of sight, corners were at ninety-degrees and they wrapped in box style meaning he could be easily trapped by force from two ends of any one hall. He sprinted toward the long arm hallway that should be on the other end of the outer box-set of hallways.

    His footsteps rang and he heard the outcry of someone guessing he wasn¡¯t wearing uniform boots. He kept on, knowing that once they entered the hallway behind him they could shoot down the hall with a stunner and that would be the end of his fancy rescue attempt. He cursed aloud, ¡°Fucking bastards.¡± A laser would use too much juice for not enough payoff, what could he do? What could he do? His mind flailed about touching on each of his experiences and the discussions about weapons and those they had tried in some form. The only one with potentials that seemed even remotely doable required a Ba¡¯Neesh with better Vrill skills than he had. He needed to be a fancy caster like Mael. His head lifted. He gripped Edda¡¯s bone and while running, drew a Seeker in the air in front of him yelling out, ¡°Mael!¡±

    Mael pivoted to stare into the Vrill disturbance off to one side. His name had been called out. ¡°What?¡± He yelled back.

    Mick drew another Seeker and yelled out, ¡°Give me confusion behind me.¡± He knew that Mael and DireSec had used that trick before during the battle where he was brain wiped.

    Mael on his end yelled for help from the Ba¡¯Neesh already scrambling toward him with delighted eagerness. They were so unbelievably bored. He drew a slightly different sigil in the air. Xasper showed up in the center of the aircraft that had become Mael¡¯s regular location. ¡°Get out of the way.¡± He brushed Mael aside and flashed his hand through the barely formed sigil. With enviable speed and focus he threw a sigil into the air that hovered as if suspended on invisible strings. The Ba¡¯Neesh greeted this sight with excitement, they had known the caster was practicing mobile casting.

    The Channels aboard three of the DireSec aircraft began to hum, the Ba¡¯Neesh joined in, now forming circles on all three of the main aircraft.

    Mick knew none of this, only the increasing thunder of heavy feet clearly intending to catch him where the outer box crossed the t-shaped corridor. ¡°Come on, Mael.¡± He yelled again, not wanting to risk another Seeker. He didn¡¯t feel wiped out by his sigil attempts, yet, but he worried that might be adrenaline and as soon as he came to a halt Vrill drop might swamp him. He knew he should have practiced this stuff even if he knew they had done what they thought was safe. Safe wasn¡¯t helping his lack of practice and experience.

    He arrived at the still sealed secure door that isolated the long hall from the common rooms. Maybe he could laser it down. Him and what boost for that kind of sustained burn? He thought with increasing sarcasm.

    ¡°Mael.¡± He yelled out again seeing a cluster of men rounding each corner heading straight toward him. The only thing buying him time, he realized, was they didn¡¯t want to shoot their own men while aiming at him.

    ¡°Fucking Soc-heads.¡± He yelled out, pivoting to put his back to the door, raising his right hand ready to summon the laser. Instead, oddly, Elias¡¯ Nefertari eyeball sigil popped into his mind, from that first ever sigil he had seen. He grabbed both bones and drew the shape around him in a curve, as if he were inside a glass tube. He focused on Mael saying, ¡°See this.¡± He threw Vrill at the shape.

    Mael gasped, a near panoramic scene appeared outside of Xasper¡¯s hovering Vrill sigil. ¡°You did that?¡± He asked Xasper.

    Then he realized he was seeing Tule Soc operatives running toward him from two sides and a hallway ahead, all dark with emergency light running. ¡°Wait, that¡¯s Mick¡¯s view of things.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s give them light and confusion.¡± Xasper said, a bit boastful as he formed his right hand into a ball of Vrill and threw it toward Mick¡¯s sigil. The Vrill flowed to Vrill and they watched the ball fragment like exploding marbles, bouncing and peening down all three hallways.

    ¡°Now, that¡¯s fucking cool.¡± Brad observed with true admiration, powering his chair into the heart of the circle. ¡°Have we ever done double sigil at distance before Xasper?¡±

    ¡°I haven¡¯t.¡± Xasper, like everyone else, was watching and noticing that Mick¡¯s sigil was holding.

    Mael was first to comment, ¡°How the hell is that kid holding that sigil in place? He isn¡¯t you, Xasper.¡±

    The Ba¡¯Neesh in their own circle just inside the curved sigil, laughed. ¡°He is robbing us.¡± Anya said. ¡°Little bastard is reaching right into our Channels to fuel his own sigil.¡±

    ¡°How the hell¡­ We are fucking behind, again.¡± Mael said. The marbles were now chasing the Tule Soc men who were running away as if from the devil itself. They could hear screaming and then the view pivoted to face a security door. Mick kicked it.

    ¡°We have view.¡± Mael announced the obvious. ¡°Where the hell is he anyway?¡±

    ¡°Darkened badly lit corridor,¡± Brad observed. ¡°Likely underground from the look of it. Plain like Citadel.¡±

    ¡°Doing what we should have done.¡± Anya said. ¡°He isn¡¯t a coward.¡±

    Mael flinched. Mick kicked the door again.

    Xasper leaned forward and reached out his Vrill hand to do a simple unlock exercise.

    Mick yelped as a Vrill hand emerged near the door. It clearly tried to unlock the door. It failed.

    ¡°It seemed obvious.¡± Xasper said, withdrawing his hand.

    ¡°That confusion cast won¡¯t hold too much longer.¡± Mael observed.

    ¡°Gods I suck at this Vrill shit.¡± Mick said aloud. ¡°Give me hot hot hands whomever is chaining back behind me. Gonna laser this fucking door to the floor.¡±

    ¡°Shit.¡± All of the Soek with Mael got up close with the curved sigil. How had the kid made a curved sigil? Mael stuffed that aside for later thought.

    ¡°Chaining, of course.¡± Anya laughed again, and then reached over to grab the horn of the Ba¡¯Neesh on either side of her. ¡°Chain up for Mick.¡±

    The MagC aboard each ship powered to life, the Channels ramped up their hum.

    Xasper and Mael shared a somewhat horrified glance. ¡°Was dealing with me like this?¡± Mael asked, finally understanding what it was like to be on the out-of-control end of an untaught Soek going to laser a full-on security door.

    ¡°Hopefully, they don¡¯t have explosives in that door.¡± Brad observed, ¡°Some of ours do.¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°Oh great.¡± Mael said, ¡°You mean we might get a full view to him exploding? ¡°Shit. Don¡¯t we have any damned shields to push through his sigil.¡±

    ¡°No time.¡± Xasper said, ¡°He¡¯s starting the cut. But, clearly we need to work on shields. We needed them in that air battle too. He complained about their absence, as I recall.¡±

    Mick went for the hinge side first and then he kicked. Nothing. Then he lasered the handle grip side from top to bottom and kicked again. All of them could hear the return of boot footsteps.

    ¡°Hurry!¡± Mael said. Uncertain if the sigil was carrying sound both ways. They needed testing. What was he doing parked outside a facility deep in negotiations with restless Ba¡¯Neesh? Clearly his job was solving this rapidly widening pool of questions.

    Anya said aloud, ¡°When he does that lurch back thing right before he kicks¡­¡±

    Mael, Xasper and Brad turned to see the Ba¡¯Neesh lifting their right legs in unison.

    ¡°Now!¡± Anya yelled out.

    They Vrill kicked the door through Mick¡¯s foot. Mael, Brad and Xasper gurgled and gasped as the secure door when flying and skidding down the hallway, nearly falling on two armed Tule Soc operatives who had been brandishing their weapons at the door. Those two screamed, turned and ran. Clearly a flying door wasn¡¯t what they were trained for.

    Mick chased them.

    ¡°They Soek.¡± One of the Akaitapi observed from the rear of the Ba¡¯Neesh circle. ¡°They felt the Ba¡¯Neesh coming and ran.¡± She laughed aloud. ¡°Mick forces us to remember, as expected.¡±

    Mick¡¯s sigil ran with him. Xasper who was studying the sigil yelled over to the Ba¡¯Neesh to help him finish it properly.

    Moira came forward to stand next to him. ¡°Full circle?¡± She said.

    ¡°Always.¡± Xasper nodded.

    He looked over at her huge rack of antlers. Never would he have considered grabbing them. Rude bravery? The worst she could do was kill him, and would that be so bad? He reached over and grabbed her antler. She howled, pulling him around as she tried to shake him off. He hung on and said as loud as he felt was polite, ¡°Moira, let¡¯s finish the damn sigil. You can gore me later if you want to.¡±

    She stilled. He reached up his right hand and seemed to grab the edge of the eye to pull it around the room until it touched the other side of the eye. As soon as they touched, they got a three-hundred and sixty-degree view of Tule Soc operatives chasing Mick while Mick chased two Soek mules who thought they were Tule Soc operatives.

    ¡°Take the Soek.¡± Mael said. ¡°We can yell through this thing? Yes. No? We hear him, logic says he hears us too. Fuel Mick¡¯s voice? Damn, what are the properties of this thing?¡±

    Anya stepped forward as if getting closer to the circular sigil would allow him to hear her better. ¡°Mick. This is Anya,¡± She called out firmly, ¡°You need to tell the Soek to help you. Use the true Speech and say, ¡°Soek assist.¡± Just that. Now, we help.¡±

    Mick looked around trying to see Anya, but he saw only operatives in both directions. Didn¡¯t she know he sucked at speech? Help him, how?

    He lifted his right hand.

    ¡°A signal?¡± Anya snorted with growing amusement. Soek. Clearly the Ba¡¯Neesh in the ship were enjoying themselves. Fun. ¡°Boost him.¡± She ordered.

    Mick yelled out, ¡°Soek assist.¡± He could feel the words inside his mouth altering and swelling, growing from his weak-ass edge to a wallop. He instantly wanted to assist himself. ¡°Shit.¡± He said.

    The two Soek ahead of him slowed and then turned staring at him in growing confusion and not a little fear.

    ¡°Stun the ones behind me.¡± Mick ordered as he caught and passed them.

    The two got about half of the first group before they were stunned by those following. Then a strange thing happened, three of those following fired on the rest of them to chase after Mick, yelling questions at each other they couldn¡¯t answer. The three confused, chasing mules argued loudly trying to sort out what had just happened and why they were not shooting the kid. They tried. They couldn¡¯t raise their weapons on him. It was a long fucking hall.

    An all-too familiar skittering sound brought Mick and the mules¡¯ heads around in horror, to find the hallway being invaded by bugs, mice, rats and other mobilized robot devices.

    ¡°Fuck.¡± Mick yelled.

    ¡°Allow me.¡± The familiar tones of Iiyiko¡¯s sarcastic voice intruded as she manifested in the hall between Mick and the mules.

    ¡°Bout fucking time You showed up. Behind the mules.¡± Mick yelled as the running Soek were trying to break and looking for cover in a hallway with zero cover.

    ¡°Assist him.¡± She repeated the order aloud, her Vrill-laced voice powerful and without any hint of mercy.

    The Soek ran past her staring wide eyed, the bugs hard on them.

    She laughed and rolled a sheet of Vrill to flow along the floor and climb up the walls of the hallway.

    ¡°How does She do that?¡± Anya asked, stomping a foot in frustration. She wasn¡¯t alone, all of the Ba¡¯Neesh feeling trapped inside of the aircraft on a good day were stomping in frustration. How come a Neeshatari could go to Mick directly and they were stuck in these damn DireSec aircraft, watching.

    Mick accelerated, yelling behind him. ¡°You Tule Soc morons, catch me before She accidentally fries you into pillars of ash. She has a low tolerance for stupid Soek.¡±

    They too sped up trying not to hear the explosions and weapons fire from the hunting machines. Iiyiko, of course, was having fun.

    Mick arrived at a plain door with a warning sign in red, in German. He could guess. Drone headquarters. He slid to a stop and pointed his right index finger at the door knob. Elias¡¯ unlock simple had risen through his memories when Xasper sent a Vrill hand at the other door. Its memory lingered in Mick¡¯s mind. ¡°Unlock!¡± He articulated, the Soek mules came up beside him. One looked at him and reached out to turn the knob, it wasn¡¯t locked.

    ¡°Shit, Mick.¡± Mick said aloud to himself, ¡°Always try the handle first.¡±

    Then he pushed through to find a small apartment with a bedroom with three bunks, a tiny kitchen, an equally small shower and a lounge area with a wall of electronics. Function. Clearly they had found the quarters of the two Soek who had run into Mick down the hall.

    The Soek rushed in and Mick slammed the door. He really didn¡¯t want to see if Iiyiko got all of the bugs. Only one had to escape. The sound of that battle grew increasingly close making him suspect she was falling back a bit. She could just collapse that tunnel.

    He opened the door and yelled out, ¡°It¡¯s a fucking tunnel Iiyiko, collapse it on them. Blow the fucker up, just don¡¯t blow me up, okay?¡± He slammed the door shut again to face three near panicked Soek mules.

    ¡°Where is Elias?¡± He yelled at them.

    ¡°Prisoner?¡± One answered in thick English. He was the same massively large leader guy from outside the kitchen.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mick nodded.

    The Soek pointed toward a trapdoor with a ring twist handle. Mick ran over, twisted and yanked. Even as he was pulling the door up he yelled out to himself how stupid he could be. It could blow. It could be a trap. It likely was a trap. He really was stupid. The door slammed to the floor and he radiated light down in the hole to see a small, boxlike room, devoid of even a bed, a figure crouched in the corner, a hole in the floor for a toilet and one that didn¡¯t work well. It reeked.

    ¡°Elias?¡± He yelled. The figure barely moved. He regrouped, the figure moved.

    ¡°You and you, go down and help him out of that hole.¡± Mick yelled at two of the three Soek. There was a set of collapsing stairs folded to the wall next to the trapdoor. ¡°Hurry, some of those bugs might get through and She might actually blow the tunnel and this fucking place may blow with it. You got, hurry, yet?¡±

    The two Soek nodded and sent the unfolding ladder down. Mick turned on the third Soek. ¡°How do we go up?¡± He yelled and pointed when the man seemed not to understand. Up?¡±

    There was a fixed ladder in the side of the entertainment, surveillance room leading to another trapdoor. Mick climbed it first and twisted and threw the trapdoor up and over on its side. He looked up into the back side of cubbies designed to hold and recharge armed drones. He was staring them in the face.

    ¡°Shit.¡± He yanked his head back down as the slight whir of wings warned him that some Tule Soc operative was going manual operation on the drones from a remote location.

    The two Soek were dragging the badly beaten Elias up the stairs. He was naked. Mick frowned. ¡°Put pants on him.¡± He yelled at the lone Soek, bring a bag of shoes, socks, underwear and the rest. Fast!¡±

    They pulled the closest fitting pants on Elias they could find. He was perking up enough to lift his head.

    ¡°Damn, Elias.¡± Mick said. ¡°You are a sight for sore eyes.¡± He grinned. ¡°Glad to find you alive. Iiyiko is blowing shit up outside that door and we are going up into the all-time lair of weaponized drones, now being activated by some bastard back there somewhere.¡± He pointed at the now loud sounds emanating from the door. ¡°We gotta go. You ready?¡±

    Elias nodded.

    ¡°Great!¡± Mick focused and stared upward. Yellow, Red, Yellow, Red. He thought at Aenor hard. He was coming up.

    ¡°Here goes nothing.¡± Mick thrust himself partially through the trapdoor while firing his laser finger. ¡°Come to daddy you mechanical pieces of shit.¡± He yelled out, completely unaware of the entertainment factor the curving sigil was providing to Mael¡¯s aircraft occupants.

    He discovered the wall of the drone shed blown out and Ba¡¯Neesh happily lasering the drones who seemed to be trying to hide in their caves, as if they understood the manifestation of death approaching.

    He crawled out, staying low to the floor and yelled into the hole. ¡°Bring Elias next. You¡­¡± He gestured at the large angry-eyed lone mule, ¡°Up here, we will pull on him while they push from below. Move your ass you slow fucker.¡±

    The Soek could see laser fire above Mick¡¯s head. The last place in the world he wanted to go was up to get his head blown off by what? Who was up there? In the choice between death and death, he noted that at least this kid was still alive. He trusted the laser fire over the explosions and shudders outside the door. The mule lunged upward and twisted to belly flop, reaching down for one of Elias¡¯ arms. Mick had the other. ¡°Now!¡± He yelled, a trace of Vrill coating the word.

    By then, the drones were slagged and the Ba¡¯Neesh were making definitive kill shots just to be sure. The lone Soek with his face down looking at Elias heard movement of someone stepping over him but he was busy grunting, certain death was with the next breath, or the one after that. Elias emerged gasping and in obvious pain.

    Furry arms reached down and lifted him whole to throw him over the back of the largest of their Ba¡¯Neesh, Freya. They expertly used pack straps to tie him in place while the other two bewildered Soek crawled upward just as the outer door collapsed and shrapnel exploded everywhere. Mick slammed the trapdoor down behind the last of the Soek and said, ¡°Now we run.¡±

    They were gaping at what looked like a herd of semi-human females all snorting and slamming their hooves, eager to be away.

    ¡°We disabled the trip wires.¡± Aenor trumpeted, her excitement too much for simple words.

    ¡°Thank the gods.¡± Mick answered, grabbing for Edda¡¯s pack to swing it up on his back. He was unaware that the sigil held, that the Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek in the transport ship were seeing the well-organized teams of Ba¡¯Neesh in the wild.

    ¡°They have Beloved.¡± Anya said, sobering, her hand pointing.

    Aenor twisted and turned and then walked over to Mick. ¡°You got eyes, waste precious Vrill.¡± She swept with her hand through the sigil. ¡°Now they gone.¡±

    (The return of Iiyiko, for the fun, of course. More tomorrow my friends. Are you having fun too? Don¡¯t forget to toggle my stars and invite your friends and you know, say nice things about my story.)

 Chapter Forty-Four - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Forty-Four ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick aimed the group toward the nearest thick clump of trees. This was so close to the underground facility they could hear the ongoing concussions and blaring of alarms. Vents, formerly well hidden by cloaking and design were now streaming plumes of smoke and stink.

    ¡°So close?¡± Aenor asked, turning the Ba¡¯Neesh in a circle to face outward.

    ¡°Have every other team seek Tule Soc airborne and ground.¡±

    ¡°How?¡± She asked.

    Mick nodded toward the Soek tagging along with wide worried eyes, fingering their weapons. ¡°They are the nature of Tule Soc, you have seen the devices. Get a sense of the generic enemy that is the entirety of Tule Soc. Like a flavor.¡± He moved over to help Elias off Freya¡¯s back.

    He turned to Gisela and said, ¡°Tell these two to cut three long straight branches, cut one in half, notch the ends and I¡¯ll show you how to make a fast gurney.¡± Gisela nodded, gesturing the Soek toward the trees.

    ¡°Knife?¡± The massively larger Soek with the heavily muscular build asked bluntly. He was also the one struggling the hardest to overcome the compelling action of their words.

    ¡°Give them two knives.¡± Mick said, leaning down to squat next to Elias. He gestured the third Soek over with the rest of the clothing and together they worked on dressing Elias properly.

    ¡°Oh and Gisela, that big one wants to kill you.¡± Mick glanced over. ¡°No, you don¡¯t get to kill him first. Use speech on him frequently until he stops being stupid.¡± She grimaced. ¡°More fun to gore him.¡± She announced to the agreeing grunts of other Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°No doubt.¡± Mick nodded, observing that her horns were noticeably longer. ¡°But, he¡¯s got muscles, good to carry Elias. You can kill him later, maybe, if he stays really stupid.¡±

    ¡°Men leaving hole in ground like rats.¡± One of the Ba¡¯Neesh who¡¯d climbed a tree passed her words down to her partner who was poking around inside a hole in the tree, hopeful of food.

    ¡°Toward us or not?¡± Mick called out, a move that Aenor and several other Ba¡¯Neesh didn¡¯t like. He noticed. He shrugged. ¡°They know we¡¯re here cause the shit was done to their underground secret place. Okay?¡± He said. ¡°That smoke means Iiyiko started some fires down there and those alarms mean they haven¡¯t put them out. That means they have to surface or die. Oh, they want to kill us no doubt. Just look at the expressions on these dumb-ass Soek faces. Murderous indeed. But, we aren¡¯t their first problem now.¡± Elias pushed his hands away and finished dressing himself. ¡°They will come for us, Mick. Fire or no fire.¡± He said, his voice weak and full of nearly intolerable pain.

    Helewidis, turned away from her post to hurry over, glaring at Elias. ¡°You all over one big fuck up, Elias.¡± She said.

    ¡°Thank you.¡± Elias said, nodding miserably. ¡°I¡¯m going to get all of us killed.¡± He answered despondently. ¡°You should have left me to die alone.¡±

    ¡°I fix.¡± She said cheerfully enough. Before Mick or Elias could answer she lowered her head and rammed forward hard enough to knock Elias to the ground with a pained grunt. She laughed, saying. ¡°Borrowed fucking Vrill, aye fuck Mick? Chain me!¡± She reached over to palm Mick¡¯s chest where his two-bones hid under his shirt. The Vrill in her hand slammed him into a loud squeal and then Mick felt it reverse, as if she sucked out of him only it wasn¡¯t him being sucked. His back arched like someone had plugged his spine into a powerful outlet.

    He squealed again. ¡°Son of a Vrill sucking Bitch.¡± He yelled. And, then he was a conduit, a channel to channels, a gods-be-damned chain in a linkage.

    Elias took his turn screaming as the healing Vrill slammed into him. This wasn¡¯t gentle friendly Helewidis, this was the power of Old One Horn macked out through a MagC and arguing with Healer Jeffrey toned chain. It lasted mere seconds. For both Mick and Elias it felt like hours or days before Helewidis stepped back grinning.

    ¡°Now that Vrill.¡± She said, shaking her hand as if it were a wet dog.

    Aenor grabbed her by the upper arm. ¡°They will see us. The Vrill!¡±

    ¡°No. Aenor.¡± Mick held up one jerking hand, still rippling from the overload charge of Vrill to his entire body. He knew he was high as a kite and fuck if he didn¡¯t care. Except. ¡°No, Aenor. We don¡¯t hide anymore. Kill any Tule Soc that turns toward us. Sigil and chain up. Don¡¯t use Iiyiko¡¯s bone like she did.¡± He pointed at Helewidis, but, use Edda. Edda touched Iiyiko I¡¯m not sure exactly when, been trying to climb out of my pack for since or whatever Helewidis did that chain thing that has me all fucked up. I think she burnt a hole in my chest.¡± Mick pulled up his shirt to explore his chest where a second burn blistered and swelled right before his eyes. He groaned. ¡°Fucking overachieving Ba¡¯Neesh.¡±

    Then he stared at a spot between himself and Elias, who was moaning and rubbing his head as if poleaxed. They recognized the high in each other and both pointed at the Vrill distortion spot floating between them. ¡°That¡¯s Edda?¡± Elias asked. His memory flooding painfully with what that meant, the reality of her death.

    ¡°Baby Iiyiko Edda, I think.¡± Mick said, nodding. He grunted as the Edda bone in his hand sparked. ¡°Yeah, well¡­¡± He lifted it to say directly to it. ¡°You ain¡¯t got her power yet, Edda. Ain¡¯t my fault. You¡¯ve only been dead a couple days. Learn faster.¡±

    Aenor dropped Helewidis¡¯ arm in the midst of this and reached over to grab the two bones in Mick¡¯s hand. ¡°Edda?¡± She yelled like he did, right into the bones. Then she jerked back and dropped them staring at Mick like it was his fault they sparked on her too.

    ¡°What?¡± Mick said crawling toward the still gleeful Vrill drunk Helewidis and her growing horn. He wondered when he had missed noticing that each horn seemed bigger and more pointy.

    ¡°Edda say¡­¡± Aenor stiffened and turned toward the three Soek mules who had ceased their efforts with the makeshift gurney to watch and listen. Aenor lifted her right hand and pointed it at the big, thick one calling himself Karl. ¡°Molcom. Encapsulate.¡± She yelled the order with a hard Vrill edge.

    It was their turn to squeal. Mick leaned over to Elias, who was looking quite a bit better, like an animated punching bag. ¡°Better them than us.¡± He said in a faux whisper.

    Helewidis leaned in toward him, the exact right angle. He stood up in perfect alignment so that her horn touched his burn spot. The pain vanished. He staggered back and rubbed at his chest, giggling. ¡°Fucking Ba¡¯Neesh healing. You going to be able to walk then, Elias?¡± His voice had a drunken wobble.

    ¡°Fucking A.¡± Elias tested out his new boots and groaned, they were too big.

    ¡°Wrong size?¡±

    Aenor rolled her eyes. The Soek mules were busy clutching their heads and spewing foul language in German while she observed.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Elias nodded. ¡°Let me try that guy¡¯s boots.¡± He pointed at the second of the Soek whose name Mick was pretty sure he¡¯d never heard, even during the German swearfest, so it was okay he had no memory of it.

    Mick staggered over to the crying Soek and demanded his boots.

    Aenor said. ¡°Assist Mick.¡± Nice and loud and loaded with Vrill.

    The Soek took off his boots with obvious reluctance and received the pair Elias rejected.

    Mick wandered back to Elias, not feeling quite as drunk.

    ¡°Do you feel compelled to help me, Elias? Or, is she broadcasting to ALL stupid Soek in the area again?¡± He asked.

    Aenor snorted. ¡°I not broadcast.¡± She said.

    ¡°I am not stupid.¡± Big Karl gasped out, interrupting her.

    Mick just laughed and spun back around. ¡°You have like zero idea how big a fucking stupid you are stupid Karl.¡± He said. ¡°You and your two nameless Soek mule friends here have all been trying to kill the Ba¡¯Neesh, your own mothers, daughters, sisters, you know, family. You dumb ass twit.¡± Mick had rounded on the three of them, waving the boots in one hand, his voice rising in the other. ¡°Further, she just made you kill the fucking molcom in your brain that Tule Soc was or will try to use to turn you into a killer mule. Right. She fucking showed you how to kill it instead of them kill you. And, you are so stupid you are wanting to kill her for your puny little Soek cry-baby pain. Fuck off you weenie.¡±If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Elias started to laugh somewhere mid rant and was now doubling over in amusement, surprised he felt almost alive again. ¡°The boots, Mick. Give me the fucking boots.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, right.¡± Mick said, handing Elias the boots.

    ¡°Incoming drone.¡± The cry came from up the tree.

    An argument ensued between Ba¡¯Neesh in two trees both wanting to kill it.

    Mick tilted his face up. ¡°First to call, kills first. If low on Vrill yell pass.¡± He ordered.

    He turned when a hand pulled him around. Big Karl. Big Mad Karl.

    He looked at the flustered outraged Soek. Was he ever that totally stupid? ¡°Yeah?¡± He asked and tapped the Soek¡¯s grip with his own Vrill laced finger.

    Karl jerked his hand back. ¡°You tell me what is happening.¡± He yelled, ¡°Or I break you in half.¡±

    Mick looked up at the thickness of the Soek¡¯s neck. In a regular world no doubt this guy was a tank, capable of breaking mere puny humans in half with ease. In Ba¡¯Neesh world, he was a low-powered Soek at the mercy of Vrill he had been bred to be low in. But, he was still Soek. Mick blinked. Vrill used to build muscle and mass. Power of a different kind. Asset.

    ¡°Karl. You can only touch me because Aenor, that¡¯s that Ba¡¯Neesh right there, is allowing you to do so because she is slightly miffed at me and might want to kill you and is contemplating it.¡± He said as the Ba¡¯Neesh in the trees chortled she had the first stupid drone. Mick continued. ¡°She likes hand-to-hand die bloody fighting. Got it? So, if you want to live today, you stop threats you cannot back up to Vrill. I¡¯ve got Vrill enough to cut you in half with this single fucking finger. Imagine what she can do.¡± Mick paused, realizing the other Soek were listening. They needed analgesic. He reached down to his pack, somehow on the ground between him and Elias and he pulled out the med pak. Clearly a Tule Soc med pack and a Tule Sock pack. He watched these realizations hit home with Big Mad Karl¡¯s expression.

    He opened the med pak and pulled out three analgesic packages, handing them to Karl who received them hesitantly, as if certain they were poison.

    ¡°For your fucking headers.¡± Mick said. ¡°Now, what¡¯s happening is this. We rescued Elias here and in the process you responded to Vrill speech directed at Soek, that means you are mules or were. Now, you are outside with Ba¡¯Neesh who are taking you. That means they will compel you to obey them until you do so without needing to be compelled. That means when your brain catches up with the truth here. Until then, Tule Soc will now try to kill you too once they realize your molcom no longer works, you become simply disposable Soek, like me and Elias. So, they are now your personal enemy and they are sending more drones over to try to kill us. But, I have an idea.¡±

    He turned away from stupefied Karl who was being approached by the other two former mules for the analgesic and Mick walked almost normally over the few steps to Aenor.

    She had been listening, as all of the Ba¡¯Neesh were prone to do when Mick ranted. ¡°What now?¡± She asked.

    ¡°Can you think send to Mael through Edda? Reserves. Red?¡± He said.

    She reached out to grab his necklace again. ¡°Why the fuck not, Mick.¡± She said sarcastically, narrowing her eyes and targeted the Turtle so vivid to Mick when he dreamed.

    Mael jumped, saying. ¡°Fucking kid. Or wait, that¡¯s a Ba¡¯Neesh. What the fuck does he mean? Reserves. Red?¡±

    The two words ran around the room like an echo before Brad powered over to Mael. ¡°How did you hear something?¡± He asked.

    ¡°In my head.¡± Mael¡¯s voice grew thoughtful. ¡°Telepathy? Is Mick saying the damn Ba is a form of telepathy? Crude though. He sent two words that weren¡¯t clean words, more emotional displays of some kind through a Ba¡¯Neesh.¡±

    ¡°Chaining.¡± Anya offered, her expression one of growing excitement. She turned away saying something about bone links to the Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°Recall Mael, his foster father is high up in the Reserves.¡± Brad said. ¡°He is telling us something about the Reserves. Code Red. That has to be danger. Reserves Danger? Shit, he is saying the facility is in the Reserves and he is in danger. No, wait. It can¡¯t be in the Reserves, that is illegal. Ahh. Rat them out. Can we fucking triangulate on the Vrill spikes. Of course we can. Smart boy. Rain shit on the bastards, hoist in their own petard and all that.¡±

    Brad turned back to his onboard system as word passed to run triangulations for the exact location of the recent Vrill spikes. Everyone knew the search would be triggering the Tule Soc snoopers riding their communications systems. The only difference being, Tule Soc didn¡¯t need to find the facility, they already knew where it was.

    Brad waved the room to silence. He opened a broadcast channel to the national military directed toward the Head of National Reserve Endangerment. ¡°I wish to report an unauthorized likely illegal structure, fires, and injured armed men at¡­he gave the exact longitude and latitude of the Vrill spike. That is within your protected Reserves.¡± He closed the channel.

    Thuds pounded on the aircraft door. Damien Thorne, normally housed in the aircraft next door stood in the ramp, his face a mixture of fury and desire. ¡°What the hell is going on?¡± He thundered when they opened the door.

    ¡°Elias was rescued.¡± Mael said calmly.

    ¡°What?¡± Behind Thorne two men in military uniforms arrived on the run negating any further semi-private conversation.

    Thorne pivoted saying. ¡°I assure you no DireSec operative has left this compound or entered the Reserves.¡±

    ¡°Not quite true.¡± Mael spoke over Thorne¡¯s head knowing a pickup would be feeding all of this live to Tule Soc. ¡°See, technically Elias is still a DireSec operative. He has been lost in the Reserves since the day of our arrival here. He was caught by Tule Soc and held for ransom on the side, we believe without national knowledge. What is true is that his rescue was not done by DireSec operatives. We haven¡¯t left here. We haven¡¯t brought any new operatives across the border as per our agreement with you. The rescue team is not affiliated with us in any official capacity.¡±

    ¡°We received a message about an illegal structure and armed men in the Reserves.¡± The lead military man said abruptly.

    ¡°Yes. We reported our intel to that fact as soon as we understood the intel.¡± Mael continued. ¡°Have you directed satellite footage to observe?¡± He knew they had, Brad was nodding. ¡°Ahh. I see yes. You can see the smoke plumes and running men as well? You will be busy then sending Reserve Teams in immediately to assess the damage to the environment? Excellent.¡±

    ¡°What team did this rescue?¡± The military man demanded.

    ¡°Quite the question.¡± Mael said. ¡°I expect we will all learn more when the National and Reserve Teams explore the area to demonstrate affirmative intel about what is taking place there as we speak. We know only that our single DireSec operative in the Reserve, is alive and is no longer being held prisoner for ransom.¡±

    The military men spun away, bringing Damien Thorne with them who sent a bitter glance toward Mael as the ramp closed behind him. Clearly the negotiations and discussions had just leveled up a new step or two.

    Mael turned on Brad saying, ¡°We need eyes on them. How the fuck do we get eyes on them? Mick would sigil something but damned if a casting Seeker on our end would remain stable like that eye of his. How did that happen anyway? When did an eye become its own sigil? Bent like a panorama too. Damn useful.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t do a sigil eye thing we haven¡¯t invented yet.¡± Brad said, ¡°But, I did just launch three observer drones at the same time the nationals did theirs. I have mine broadcasting on continuous the word DireSec, in case Tule Soc tries to shoot down the nationals and blames us. I would. If I were in their shoes and trying to hide that base.¡±

    ¡°We have technicians manning each drone?¡± Mael asked. Serla had walked over from the third aircraft to pound on the ramp door, bringing three more senior Akaitapi with him. Clearly the situation was changing.

    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡± Brad answered, they were only too eager to fly ops considering the forced boredom we have all been suffering here.

    ¡°Right.¡± Mael realized his own boredom had vanished. He asked himself, again, what was he doing here? He wasn¡¯t political, hated negotiations and had wanted to leave almost immediately when it became clear they couldn¡¯t mount a direct rescue of the youngers inside the Fels facility, not once nationals arrived. All they had been doing was preventing Tule Soc from further damage. Health and Welfare teams were now in place to observe the drugged Ba¡¯Neesh and Tule Soc was not being allowed inside, for any reason. The holo screens in the aircraft began to display the fast flight over the forest. The smoke plumes were easy to find and close.

    ¡°We have Tule Soc up.¡± Serla said, taking a seat next to Brad so he wouldn¡¯t tower over his seated position. ¡°And, as expected, they are trying to shoot us and the nationals down.¡±

    The drone views danced as DireSec operatives maneuvered to avoid the drone-on-drone shots. They watched two of the three national drones explode before DireSec techs decided to protect the last one by flying defensive circles around it.

    Brad yelled in to the open communications. ¡°It isn¡¯t our drones firing on you. Check your footage. Take evasive maneuvers as our drones are observer only, we have no weapons mounted.¡±

    Mael grinned, they were nearly on top of the plumes and DireSec¡¯s excellent long-range opticals was picking out the sight of running Tule Soc clad figures, with weapons out.

    As the drones passed over the site Brad upped the audio feed from national, now a steady stream of outraged cursing with orders flying for armed response teams from both their military response team aircraft and the Reserves division.

    ¡°And there, as we say, is a well-executed plan. Go Mick.¡± Brad¡¯s tone had a bit of glee to it. ¡°I¡¯m peeling one off to try to find the Ba¡¯Neesh. There is spiking Vrill nearby. Clearly they are no longer hiding. Why are they no longer hiding? Shit. Did you see that? Someone just lasered a Tule Soc drone. She¡¯s in a damn tree taking potshots at a distance. Good range.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s chaining.¡± Anya said. ¡°Everyone gets a right index finger bone, now!¡± The Ba¡¯Neesh inside the aircraft hurried forward with finger bones which had already been drilled.

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Mael asked when Anya forced one into his hand.

    ¡°Linkage.¡± She announced. ¡°We are fools. We link with bones. We knew this back when you and I mounted that first battle and had to cut off Rojer¡¯s finger to make one. Why didn¡¯t we follow the thought out then? Stupid. We stupid like some Soek.¡±

    Mael received a narrow string and made a crude necklace. Ornius would make them fix these into proper jewelry, later. He put his over his neck and instantly felt a Vrill spike against his chest. ¡°Ow.¡± He said, running one hand up under his shirt to rub at the hot spot.

    (More fun! Elias is back, I''ve missed him.)

 Chapter Forty-Five - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Forty-Five ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Brad funneled footage to national, indifferent to their complaints that they had their own footage. He ignored their repeated requests to recall all DireSec drones. Instead, he ordered up six on rotation so that there would be double coverage wherever the Ba¡¯Neesh led them.

    One of the techs manning a drone yelled out, ¡°I¡¯m locked on.¡±

    A bright flash brought everyone around to look.

    ¡°I¡¯m still here.¡± The same tech¡¯s voice sounded disbelieving.

    ¡°They appear to be distinguishing between drone ownership.¡± Brad said, his curiosity rising rapidly. ¡°How are they doing that, Mael?¡± He yelled without looking away from the still evasive footage giving him only peeks at the now mobile Ba¡¯Neesh group, not as one large group, as he might expect. The Vrill spikes dispersed outward. ¡°By the Dark Gods, they are in formation.¡± He yelled again. ¡°Can you imagine Ba¡¯Neesh in formation?¡±

    It did bring everyone in to stare at the feeds, Ba¡¯Neesh and Akaitapi included.

    ¡°Pairs.¡± Payoonihkaa said firmly. ¡°They are running teams.¡±

    This wasn¡¯t normal, to anyone¡¯s experience.

    ¡°Large dark group shadowed by a team, five males all wearing Tule Soc gear. Walking and slowly at that.¡± Brad continued.

    ¡°Direction?¡± Mael felt like he didn¡¯t need to ask. They were coming for their youngers, as all of the Ba¡¯Neesh now trapped in the aircraft had been demanding since arrival. Only, these Ba¡¯Neesh weren¡¯t asking, nor was Mick. Mael could see clear benefits to not being formally aligned with political groups. Rogue. He rolled the word around in his mouth, no wonder the Pirate was enjoying this.

    ¡°Schelklingen.¡± Brad said. ¡°They are heading right at us.¡±

    ¡°Tule Soc will mount a strong offensive to prevent what would be utter failure for them.¡± Serla said.

    ¡°It¡¯s their only choice, really.¡± Mael said. ¡°With their violation of the Reserves, coupled to the unresolved questions at their labs and now they have been caught destroying national drones. If footage of the wild Ba¡¯Neesh surfaces, it will negate their lab argument and our political argument will be validated.¡±

    ¡°We have that footage.¡± Brad said, pointing to the brief glimpses of running Ba¡¯Neesh they were capturing with their drones.

    ¡°Yes, but we are DireSec, the terrorist organization. They will claim it is artificially produced.¡± Mael said. ¡°One corporations attempt to undermine and ruin one of this nation/states top corporations. It is the stalemate we have suffered under since arriving.¡±

    Mick paced Elias, wishing he could help his friend more directly as Elias forced himself into a steady, if slow walk. The mules took up positions with Karl up front and one on each side of Elias and Mick, a clear position of potential control. They were looking for an opportunity and everyone knew it.

    After fifteen minutes, Karl said, ¡°We are being followed by non-Tule Soc drones.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Mick nodded. ¡°DireSec is watching.¡±

    ¡°Tule Soc is not the enemy.¡± Karl stated.

    ¡°Do you believe they will fire on you if given the chance and with you identifying yourself?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°No. I am a well-known, well-trained operative with excellent stats.¡± Karl answered.

    ¡°Easy enough, Karl.¡± Mick said. He knew Karl would continue pressing to overcome the compulsion and likely would die by Ba¡¯Neesh. He was thinking he should try to save the Soek, belligerent or not. The guy was tough. A tank. That had to count for something.

    ¡°How so?¡± Karl stopped and faced Mick. Elias took the opportunity to sit on a log nearby and drink some water.

    ¡°Tule Soc is chasing us with drones too, right?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°The monsters shoot them before they get near.¡± Karl answered.

    ¡°Okay. I tell the Ba¡¯Neesh to let one in and you contact Tule Soc and identify yourself.¡± Mick said. ¡°Either it fires on you or not. Right?¡±

    ¡°They won¡¯t fire on me.¡± Karl sounded certain.

    It was simple enough to tell the Ba¡¯Neesh to hold off on the next drone. They positioned Karl and the other mules just under the canopy of some large trees adjacent to a small clearing.

    Karl was already on his external engaging in an animated conversation in German. Mick and Elias were far enough away to be clear of any firing. There were Ba¡¯Neesh nearby, well hidden.

    The drone circled, it¡¯s operator clearly wary. Then Karl stepped out from beneath the canopy and waved. The drone swiveled around to bring its weapons to bear. Karl stumbled back, yelling into his external, ¡°Nein. Nein. Nein.¡± He dove for cover when the drone loosed its weapon, an energy disruptor.

    It got off one shot before a Ba¡¯Neesh lasered it out of the air. Karl slapped at his pants and boot where the disruptor had grazed him, leaving burn marks and smoldering fabric.

    Mick walked over. ¡°Any less stupid now, Karl?¡±

    Karl glared at him. ¡°They must have thought I was you.¡± He said.

    Mick snorted and said, ¡°Do you really think people who know you well would mistake my lanky teen build for your muscle mass? Really?¡±

    Karl flexed and unflexed his large hands. He so wanted to correct this situation, return his world to its proper course. It all centered on this single kid. His mind toyed with what this kid had done inside a well-armed Tule Soc facility, surrounded by operatives. It couldn¡¯t be real. Why had Tule Soc fired on him, Karl Rutger? He had spoken to the chain of command. He had properly identified himself and passed on intel about their location, numbers, direction, everything he had overheard from them, at least the stuff he understood. And, the kid had watched him, clearly understanding what Karl was doing and allowed it.

    He tested the compulsion inside his head. It was still there. It had been there while he was trying to betray them. The conflict in his mind tore away at him. Logic told him that his attempt to betray had to be assisting Mick, conforming to the compulsion in some way. How?

    Mick turned away from Karl to return to Elias¡¯ side where he squatted. ¡°You able to go on?¡± Mick asked

    Karl shifted his focus toward the injured Elias. He was healing, far too rapidly based on Karl¡¯s excellent understanding of human recovery. That monster creature, the one calling itself Helewidis had done something to Elias. He stared around, trying to see them, the lurking monsters. He could feel them watching him, wanting to kill him. He considered himself excellent in the field, these monsters should not be able to hide from him visually with such ease.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    ¡°They will set traps now.¡± Elias said. ¡°You have defined your direction as toward their heart, toward the youngers. They understand you are coming now, Mick.¡±

    ¡°I know.¡± Mick acknowledged. ¡°While you were away, we encountered the style of their field work. Trip wires, odor devices and drones.¡±

    ¡°Away, right.¡± Elias cracked a grin. ¡°I¡¯m making you slower Mick.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mick said, ¡°You are fucked up, but, we need to hunt anyway. This whole feed your battle group thing is way harder on the ground. I¡¯m hungry enough to eat a deer today, not that they will bring one in. They have a relationship with deer.¡±

    ¡°Food sounds excellent.¡± Elias said. ¡°You should ditch me in the woods.¡±

    ¡°And, negate digging you out of that hole?¡± Mick grinned. ¡°You know; you owe me now. You will have to dig me out of some future hole, that¡¯s how this works.¡±

    ¡°The boots fit well enough.¡± Elias said. ¡°That one Soek, Otto, he is walking funny. I bet he is wearing my blisters already.¡±

    ¡°Noticed that.¡± Mick agreed. ¡°I never realized how seriously critical boots and shoes were in a battle group too.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I never even thought of that while gaming.¡± Elias agreed.

    Karl walked over, having listened to this almost reasonable exchange between the two enemies. Ridiculous but reasonable.

    ¡°Why do you call us mules?¡± He asked, his tone edged in bitterness. Clearly he had reached a point of believing Tule Soc might have fired on him knowing his identity.

    Mick rose. ¡°Time to walk on. How far are we from the town, Karl?¡±

    ¡°Schelklingen?¡± Karl asked. ¡°They will destroy you.¡±

    ¡°Us, Karl.¡± Mick corrected. ¡°They will try to destroy us. How far?¡±

    ¡°Nine miles, roughly.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand. You should be running away.¡± Karl said.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mick helped Elias to his feet. ¡°Did that. Earned my running from bad guy¡¯s merit badge already. Time to bring it. Think of this like more training, Karl. You are the expert here on Tule Soc techniques, what kind of trap would you set for catching this battle group?¡±

    Karl flinched. ¡°Battle group? You are in the woods with monsters.¡± He said, as if challenging the designation of a battle group.

    ¡°Exactly.¡± Mick nodded, back to walking with Elias on one side and Karl pacing him on the other. The other two mules were trailing them and Elias was right, Otto was walking funny.

    ¡°What is a mule?¡± Karl redirected, back to his initial question.

    ¡°Exactly.¡± Mick said nodding, as did Elias. ¡°They will send mules at us. I would. I have demonstrated a vulnerability by accepting mules into my battle group. Tule Soc will correctly interpret this as a weakness. Likely, they have already attempted to use your molcom and discovered it non-functional. After all, they recently wiped me so it is fresh in their arsenal, although, having wiped me and failed, which should now be clear to them, would they really try the same thing again with a mule or two?¡±

    ¡°They are desperate.¡± Elias said, analyzing the situation. ¡°You got the nationals to see that illegal facility. Much as I detest politics, if DireSec had freed the youngers then Tule Soc wouldn¡¯t be running this mission in the woods, it would no longer make sense. That means they have maintained the lie.¡±

    ¡°My thoughts exactly.¡±

    ¡°What is a mule?¡± Karl¡¯s tone escalated.

    ¡°What¡¯s it sound like, Karl?¡± Mick didn¡¯t pause. He felt the Vrill disturbance that was Aenor turning back to shadow them more closely, listening. He noted his ties to her were getting stronger, like an unused muscle.

    ¡°A mule is a cross between species of horse and donkey.¡± Karl said. ¡°I¡¯m not a cross.¡±

    ¡°Well, actually you are.¡± Elias answered. ¡°You are the likely offspring of a human and Ba¡¯Neesh to produce a low-level Soek. Aenor likely knows your mother lineage and she won¡¯t care about your father lineage because it¡¯s human. But, that¡¯s only one version of a mule, what¡¯s the other, Karl?¡±

    ¡°A smuggler?¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± Mick said. ¡°Because Tule Soc is strongly pharmaceutical and develops disease weapon engineering, what would a mule smuggle, Karl?¡±

    Karl was thinking about the way men vanished from Schelklingen. They were called in to the office and usually no one heard from them again. The upper management said they were transferred out of the area, but some left partners behind who were relocated to Munich, usually. He¡¯d heard rumors that the men never contacted their domestic partners again.

    ¡°You are saying Tule Soc uses some of its operatives in clandestine smuggling of their products?¡± He was frowning. He had a memory of being trained on how to deploy specific medical devices. Everyone had that training, at least he thought so. It was called a Basic Medical Safety Class.

    ¡°Right.¡± Elias picked up the thread again. ¡°They intentionally breed low-level Soeks, block all information about their cross-breed status from them and then use them to deliver weapons with the Vrill they can access. It¡¯s all about control. Soek have certain mental features that make them uniquely amenable to obedience when low levels of Vrill are coupled to conditioning. Like you hearing Iiyiko and betraying your comrades when Mick rescued me. You couldn¡¯t not hear Her.¡±

    ¡°I couldn¡¯t not hear her.¡± Karl repeated. ¡°I can¡¯t not hear any of these monsters. They are inside my brain. I want them out.¡± He demanded.

    Mick snorted. ¡°That too shall pass, Karl. It is certain they will likely use mules, hoping I will try to save the Soek who is delivering the lethal whatever. Right, Elias?¡±

    ¡°I would.¡± Elias said.

    ¡°Me too.¡± Mick agreed.

    Karl found himself in the strange position of discussing strategy, one of the features of being a lead that he excelled at, in normal circumstances.

    ¡°What¡¯s the most likely operative team size?¡± Mick asked Karl.

    ¡°Six with a lead. Fits the small floaters.¡± Karl answered, still frowning.

    ¡°We encountered more of the larger teams.¡±

    ¡°Except for the one that stunned me.¡± Elias said, his tone stiff.

    ¡°Right. They were six. Small floater. We couldn¡¯t shoot it down with you in it.¡±

    ¡°They could be bringing Early Death.¡± Elias said. ¡°We are all adults, even you Mick, post puberty. It¡¯s knock down is minutes from exposure.¡±

    ¡°Aenor?¡± Mick called out and she unmelted from the woods immediately adjacent to their small group. ¡°Do you remember Early Death yet?¡± He asked.

    Karl had tripped at her sudden arrival so close to him. It made Mick remember when he first saw the Ba¡¯Neesh. He noted his memories were no longer painful about anything related to his experience with the Fels Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°Not much.¡± Aenor reluctantly admitted.

    ¡°Warn the teams to watch for Tule Soc Soek, individuals or as a group, between now and nine miles or a league. They will be walking death. Avoid and report when detected. Do not kill the Soek, that might be the mechanism of disease dispersal. Tule Soc knows we are all Soek here so they risk none of their own lives.¡±

    Aenor pivoted and ran, emitting a host of peculiar chirps, whistles, and honks loud enough to penetrate the woods on all sides.

    Karl gasped, he couldn¡¯t reconcile these monsters as intelligent beings yet he had just watched orders being passed from Mick to this Aenor one.

    ¡°Karl?¡± Mick said. ¡°Never show cowardice to a Ba¡¯Neesh. She might kill you out of hand. Understood. She might kill you anyway, just for fun, but dying with cowardice will pound your remains into oblivion.¡±

    Karl frowned over the idea he could be a coward and what did Mick mean, oblivion. Dead was dead.

    They continued on at their slow pace.

    ¡°What is this Early Death?¡± Karl eventually asked. His gaze kept darting into the woods on all sides, hunting for sign of the enemy, although now he wasn¡¯t entirely sure what the enemy looked like.

    ¡°A disease out of ancient times that Tule Soc rediscovered about forty years ago. It attacks adult Soek and only adult Soek. It kills adult Soek within about seventy-two hours. It makes immature Soek ill but they survive.¡± Elias answered.

    ¡°Explain this Soek you keep mentioning.¡±

    Elias laughed. Same questions, different Soek. He described the separate species, using the same mule analogy and finishing with the comment, ¡°I am Order-born, that means both of my contributors are clearly known. Mick here, not so much. He¡¯s too high on the Vrill chart to have a human male contributor, that means he is Soek-on-Soek but the Order hasn¡¯t sorted his lineage yet, or at least last I heard.¡±

    ¡°You say Tule Soc intentionally made me weak, so they could compel me to kill others as a carrier of disease contagions?¡± Karl asked after they had walked in silence for close to ten minutes.

    ¡°Vrill weak, yes.¡± Elias answered. ¡°Kill others and yourself. Allows Tule Soc to keep their political hands clean. Mules become merely collateral victims of some disease outbreak.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but Karl, you still have Vrill.¡± Mick said, ¡°I¡¯m betting on it actually. I¡¯m guessing you¡¯ve Vrilled your muscles and I¡¯m guessing Hans and Otto here have something special that they Vrill. What? I don¡¯t know yet.¡±

    ¡°Betting on it?¡± Elias asked.

    The audio pick-up on the DireSec drone following the Soek closely had long since tuned in to this discussion and three ship loads of Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek were avidly listening.

    His question was interrupted with the sound of returning hoots.

    Mick led Elias over to another downed tree so he could rest as they waited for the Ba¡¯Neesh. Clearly, the Soek trap had been located.

    (I considered alternatives for this chapter. However, sometimes the characters want what they want. Onward! I think it developed nicely once it came through.)

 Chapter Forty-Six - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Forty-Six ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Aenor trotted over to where Mick had stopped. ¡°As you told us, bone sense maximum range.¡± She reported. ¡°Vrill trace present. Six Soek mules.¡±

    Karl listened intently. The compulsion was lessened than it had been, but his experience being shot at continued to upset him. Mick had said there would be a mule trap. Now there were six mules. It bothered him that he had so readily adopted the ugly term, but, he couldn¡¯t escape the consideration that this kid wasn¡¯t lying. Tule Soc had fired on him, after clear identification. Mick was right, no sane person would mistake Karl¡¯s physique with the scrawny body of the kid. ¡°What is Vrill trace?¡± He asked, his continuing dissonance echoing in his voice.

    ¡°Tule Soc operatives carry a special pack, it contains a bone of a Ba¡¯Neesh. They use the Vrill in this bone to detect Vrill nearby as a sensor device. This machine see¡¯s all of us with higher and lower displays depending on how much Vrill we are pushing.¡± Elias answered, he was enjoying the rest, knowing it was likely temporary.

    ¡°That¡¯s a special body heat detector.¡± Karl argued.

    ¡°Do you agree it detects the target, but only some targets?¡± Elias questioned back.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Karl admitted reluctantly. ¡°It doesn¡¯t see everyone.¡±

    ¡°Yet, everyone has heat.¡± Elias pushed.

    Karl¡¯s nostrils flared in annoyance, his mind flailing about with yet another illogical correction. Why hadn¡¯t he noticed this detail earlier?

    ¡°Removal of your molcom ends the limiters used to prevent normal questions.¡± Elias guessed at Karl¡¯s confusion. ¡°Now that you killed it, logic rises.¡±

    Mael was leaning in to the holo providing the audio and visuals from the drone, desperate to catch every word. ¡°They are using the device bone as a range tool?¡± He wasn¡¯t alone in his utter captivation of the situation.

    ¡°They continue to move toward this direction.¡± Aenor said, restless with waiting when danger approached.

    ¡°Right.¡± Mick said, nodding. ¡°They are in formation, staying together? Can you tell?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Can we find these Soek?¡± Mael demanded of Brad and Serla.

    ¡°Tiny trace, Mael.¡± We are trying to isolate one out of many.

    ¡°The Ba¡¯Neesh are in a half circle.¡± Serla said. ¡°Teams. So stronger and in a pattern. Let¡¯s overlay a map. The single bone should be isolate and weak near the middle.¡±

    ¡°Got it.¡± Brad answered as the trace was pinpointed on a map. ¡°The range from their positions is guesstimate at a bit over a mile, shifting as the Tule Soc Team continues forward.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s get visuals on them.¡± Thorne arrived sounding tired and irritable. He was followed by Jordy who made a swishing motion at his neck to visually suggest that they should not question Thorne about his interview with the nationals.

    Jordy moved over to take a position over Brad¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Authorizing six more drones.¡± He said, ¡°Notify national we are investigating a possible sighting of our operative, they are welcome to join us.¡± The execution of this order elicited a nasty demand for them to stand down from national. They launched anyway and were immediately chased by double the drones from Tule Soc who had no intention of allowing footage of the impending mission to be revealed to national.

    ¡°Break¡¯s over Elias, sorry.¡± Mick helped Elias up. ¡°We can¡¯t let them push us back toward the underground facility.¡±

    ¡°Left.¡± Elias said, ¡°Tell the Ba¡¯Neesh to maintain range and dispersal. Vital. The mules will turn with us and keep pressing forward.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± Aenor was already honking and chittering her calls into the woods, eager to move on.

    The group hustled left at the best speed Elias could manage.

    ¡°You trained in this scenario, Karl?¡± Mick asked as they trotted along.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Karl answered, debating when to lie to this kid and try to take out as many as possible. He registered his possible ability to use his weapon on the kid, compulsion fading. In the heat of this incident were these kidnappers forgetting to maintain control over him. He grinned slightly.

    ¡°What is the protocol?¡± Elias asked, breathing hard.

    ¡°Obtain visual confirmation of target and deploy countermeasure. Return to pre-determined location and re-group.¡± He answered. It violated nothing. General info, pretty standard stuff.

    ¡°And, if the target is dispersed?¡± Elias asked.

    ¡°Lock in on largest target and deploy.¡± Karl answered, scanning around them for Ba¡¯Neesh. He could only see Aenor although he guessed her partner was near and likely others too. He plotted a strategy to take out Mick first, then Aenor, then Elias. They were dispersed. Fools.

    ¡°That would be our group.¡± Mick said, ¡°Right?¡±

    Karl thought about that. Five men and at least two Ba¡¯Neesh. It didn¡¯t matter if three were kidnap victims. The Team would go on the group. If the Ba¡¯Neesh were dispersed in pairs that made Mick correct. What worried him was the medical agent. Was it a weapon as Mick said? Would it kill all of them as a unified target, as well as the mules deploying it?

    ¡°Yes.¡± Karl answered, returning to some hesitance on engaging in his planned attack. A few moments more, learn more. His brain argued with his outrage over being captive to this kid and these monsters. ¡°If the machine see¡¯s all of us then they should head toward us.¡±

    ¡°Agreed.¡± Elias was slowing. Mick paced him and said. ¡°Grab Edda through the pack. Juice up, Elias.¡±

    Elias blinked, as did everyone in the three main DireSec aircraft and on the distant submarine. Every holo screen was running with them, listening in, while also watching the drone battle happening outside the air base as Tule Soc tried to down the drones of DireSec and national. Only this time both DireSec and national were running armed drones and giving as good as they got.

    ¡°Juice up?¡± Mael said, feeling an overwhelming sense of speed as his brain tried to catch up with what this kid was doing so casually. None of this was normal. The kid didn¡¯t know the rules, so the rules didn¡¯t inhibit him. The words flowed through him.

    Elias shrugged and pressed his left hand to Mick¡¯s backpack thinking, here goes nothing. The jolt of Vrill slammed into the six nexus points in Elias¡¯ hand, all five fingertips and his palm. He screamed and jerked his hand away, seeing Vrill burn lumping up his skin like a direct contact with a hot pot. ¡°Fucking A.¡±

    Mick looked over. ¡°Likely we need to practice that too.¡± He said, ¡°Sorry Elias. You know Edda is like days dead and raw as all hell.¡±

    ¡°You fucking burn your hand next time, Mick.¡± Elias stuck one finger at a time into his mouth to suck on the skin, like he could lick the blisters down. ¡°Asshole.¡± He mumbled, then he noticed he wasn¡¯t tired anymore. Juice. Fucking painful juice. How was Mick carrying Edda around?

    Karl watched all of this with warring curiosity and anxiety. He noticed Elias picking up his pace. Aenor was leading them at an angle, clearly the attacking Soek mules were pushing the circling Ba¡¯Neesh into an oval shape to maintain range.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°You are trying to get on the backside of this Tule Soc Team?¡± Karl asked as the strategy sank in.

    ¡°Yep.¡± Mick said, nodding. ¡°We want them to push us in the direction we want to go while we try to encourage them to abandon their impending death. Think you can lock in on that team¡¯s com sign, Karl?¡±

    Karl couldn¡¯t see where that would hurt his plan, he wanted to see how Mick intended to deflect the deployment of the counter measure. That intel would be valuable to Tule Soc when he returned. A few minutes more. He locked in on the nearest team sig and sent an emergency code to break in on the closed circuit. As a Team Leader his external had extra features that allowed such interventions in the field.

    Brad managed to get one drone away from the conflict to fly at the target location. The Soek Team wasn¡¯t there but a moving com sig trailed to a new location.

    ¡°Open channel, Karl?¡± Mick asked.

    Karl thumbed the device to broadcast allowing all of them to listen in fully.

    ¡°This is your target.¡± Mick yelled, his voice rising as his excitement accelerated. ¡°Do you copy Tule Soc Medical Deployment Countermeasure Team now chasing our trace roughly North and West of your position. Copy?¡±

    A thickly accented voice answered. ¡°Identify yourself.¡±

    ¡°Target.¡± Mick said again.

    There was a gap.

    Mick gestured to Aenor who trotted close. ¡°Silent, listen closely.¡± He said. She snorted and ran ahead. Gisela appeared out of the woods to pace her and she went to three hooves so she could grab Gisela¡¯s horn mount.

    Karl tensed. He could kill both of the Ba¡¯Neesh at this instant. But, he felt pulled by the open com. Why silent listen? He could think of a hundred better compelling words were he in their shoes. Stupid strategy.

    Aenor dropped back to all fours.

    ¡°Target here.¡± Mick called out again, ¡°You are carrying a toxic viral agent. You are instructed to deploy that agent to kill me and those with me. Right? You are also carrying a pack to identify our movements. Right again?¡± He didn¡¯t wait for confirmation. ¡°If you deploy the agent it will kill you at the same time. Your only chance at continuing life is to get away from the agent before you deploy it. Understand, Tule Soc has activated your molcom and decided you are expendable in this action.¡±

    ¡°You are the target. You lie.¡± The same voice replied.

    ¡°Right.¡± Mick said, ¡°Logical deduction, but wrong. Did you see lasers destroy Tule Soc drones over these woods earlier?¡±

    Another long pause. ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± Mick continued, ¡°Lasers. Do you think our lasers can reach your body before you deploy your agent?¡±

    This pause was longer and all of them noted that the forward motion of the Soek based entirely on the angle Aenor was running was slowing.

    ¡°Yes.¡± The answer finally came.

    ¡°Right.¡± Mick nodded even though they couldn¡¯t see him. ¡°So, Tule Soc expected us to kill you. Likely the toxic agent is activated upon your death. Is it tied to your biological response system?¡±

    Karl nodded. ¡°Sensors.¡± He said, his stomach was churning.

    ¡°Sensors?¡± Mick repeated.

    ¡°Yes.¡± The mule¡¯s voice was now strained.

    ¡°Do you want to die in these woods?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°No.¡± The answer was immediate.

    ¡°Right.¡± Mick said. ¡°Stop and remove the tracer pack first. Deactivate and position each viral device carefully on top or touching it. Make sure not to deploy the agent. Can you do that?¡±

    There was silence.

    Mael and the others were staring at the mule team in a circle arguing and then the one with the tracer pack took it off and placed it on the ground. ¡°Shit. They are doing it.¡± Mael said. ¡°Why is a well-trained team listening to Mick?¡±

    ¡°Aenor used Vrill thought on them.¡± Moira commented. ¡°Compelled them to listen carefully. She gets better at this telepathic messaging to get them to hear Mick clearly.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but listening isn¡¯t action.¡± Mael said. ¡°Why are they accepting his suggestion? I get no Vrill in that communication. It¡¯s straight speech. Mick isn¡¯t exactly charismatic, not like Kirsan.¡±

    ¡°Wait, he¡¯s going to speak again.¡± Brad said, they could see Mick¡¯s group had stopped and was facing in the direction of the Soek mules although there was no way they could see them at that distance.

    ¡°This is target.¡± Mick said. ¡°Is the agent off your bodies safely?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°You notice I do not ask you to disarm or surrender.¡± Mick said. ¡°I have lasers. You are still armed. I and my Battle Group are heading North and West. Clearly you have the remaining option to shoot us if you can.¡± Mick said.

    ¡°Why tell him that?¡± Karl demanded. His own thoughts of shooting Mick, temporarily shelved.

    ¡°Why not?¡± Mick shrugged. ¡°Without the tracer they can¡¯t see us clearly. Tule Soc may take out their molcoms or try to get them to go back for the agent. We have to nullify that option.¡± He turned to Aenor. ¡°We need two teams with us and one tracking the mules. They are to not be killed if possible, injured if necessary only. Keep them away from the pile at all costs. The idea is to divide them from the pile.¡±

    Aenor trumpeted and the message flowed out into the woods.

    Karl grabbed Mick by the upper arm. ¡°You just fucking said that shit is toxic.¡±

    ¡°Yep.¡± Mick finger zapped Karl¡¯s hand. ¡°We gotta run, Tule Soc will react to this in unpleasant ways, likely they will slam those mule¡¯s brains through their molcoms at some point. Time is critical.¡±

    Elias was ready but skeptical. ¡°You have some magical plan for this pile, Mick?¡± He asked, mirroring the feelings of Karl and the other less vocal Soek who were also feeling the reduction in compulsion.

    ¡°An idea, Elias.¡± Mick answered as they moved out. ¡°All I ever have are ideas. None of this shit is tested, worse run game ever! I don¡¯t much like being a Vrill test bunny, do you? Thorne, you listening, get your lazy butt moving on sorting these necessary defensive and offensive options up to speed. Elias doesn¡¯t like his hand all burned to fuck and no Jeffrey here to ease it off and Helewidis is a mile from here and running in a different direction while he is hurting all over.¡±

    The Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek in the aircraft with Thorne all glanced at him, seeing him fuming and glowering at each in turn. Mael snickered. ¡°Fucking Mick.¡±

    The distance was roughly a mile before Aenor waved them to a halt and pointed at a pile sitting in an open area.

    None of them much wanted to breathe.

    ¡°Well, Mick?¡± Elias demanded.

    Mick pulled off his backpack and pulled out his shock blanket. He spread it out on the ground. ¡°Come on Elias, you know what the thing fucking looks like.¡± He said.

    ¡°What thing?¡± Everyone listening echoed his words.

    ¡°Mael¡¯s fucking turtle sigil.¡± Mick answered. ¡°The Beloved will activate it or keep it active or whatever, if that story you told me is right.¡±

    ¡°Fucking A.¡± Mael, Xasper and Thorne all frowned at the holo. ¡°He isn¡¯t going to cast a sigil, in the woods, over Early Death? He isn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°I think he is, or someone is.¡± Brad answered, fighting a near constant sneaky grin. He knew he was enjoying this far too much.

    ¡°The only one who has ever cast there is Elias, and he¡¯s fucked up and hardly in condition to do a cast, if he even remembers how.¡± Mael said.

    Elias was shaking his head vehemently. ¡°I can¡¯t cast a major sigil, Mick. I haven¡¯t cast anything like that for literally years.¡±

    ¡°What does he mean, a sigil?¡± Karl asked, trying to fathom what Mick was doing.

    Aenor sidled up to the shiny blanket. ¡°Blood. I gore you Mick?¡± She asked, as if inviting him to something pleasurable.

    ¡°How about a knife cut, Aenor. Will heal easier I think as your horns are still blunts.¡±

    She snorted. ¡°I cut then, some fun.¡±

    The Ba¡¯Neesh nearby and aboard the ships all licked their lips.

    Karl couldn¡¯t help himself from gathering close to watch. The monster was really going to cut the kid. He was fascinated and horrified a bit too. They were all fucking crazy.

    Aenor made the cut into Mick¡¯s upper arm. Elias dipped his right index finger in Mick¡¯s blood and drew the sigil as best he could remember it. The three other Ba¡¯Neesh leaned forward to stare at it. ¡°What does it do?¡± Gisela asked.

    ¡°Turtle defense.¡± Elias said, hoping it was approximately right.

    Mael and the two casters stared at the bloody mess of an amateur sigil. ¡°That will never work.¡± They said in unison.

    ¡°Chain up.¡± Mick looked over at the Soek all staring at the bloody blanket in mystification. ¡°You hold hands. Elias, sorry but you need to grab Edda, I¡¯ll chain to Aenor and the Ba¡¯Neesh.¡±

    ¡°And, then what?¡± Elias said. ¡°Who the fuck is casting this mess?¡±

    ¡°Shit Elias, isn¡¯t that obvious?¡± Mick said. He pointed upward at the familiar drone that had followed them for hours. ¡°Those fucking caster dudes are going to do this. I¡¯ll link to Iiyiko and she will link to their MagC and those other Ba¡¯Neesh and some fucking one will know how to activate this sucker. Oh wait, let¡¯s throw the blanket over the pile. We want the defense to prevent anyone from attacking the pile and this is the only defense thing you have shared with me. Damn lame ass weapons.¡±

    ¡°Fuck me.¡± Mael and the two other casters shook their heads in denial. ¡°This will never work.¡± They heard the MagC ramping up. ¡°Oh fucking shit. We are going to blow everything to fuck.¡±

    Xasper stood up. ¡°Moira?¡± He said.

    Everyone aboard pressed back to leave an open space in the center of the aircraft as Moira and Xasper faced each other. A space far too small for casting a sigil. ¡°I suggest we close our eyes and enter the Grove.¡± Xasper said, pulling off his robe to reveal he was naked. We know the sigil; we can dance the Grove as it is truly in our minds anyway. Mick is in the Channels chain and we know the delivery point. He might be right. There is a Beloved present under the sigil. Dark Gods, I think his reasoning is sound, although nonconsensual forced casting is improper and I will reprimand him firmly, next time I see him in person.¡±

    Moira laughed and shook her massive rack. ¡°Let¡¯s dance.¡± She said, as the hum rose to a shuddering heartbeat.

    (Welcome back my dear friends. I can¡¯t really explain what it is like to write inclusively with old and new characters. Such fun! Do you think this casting will go right? Tune in tomorrow and find out! Enjoy!)

 Chapter Forty-Seven - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Forty-Seven ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick, staring at the bloody shock blanket covered pile, along with Elias, Karl, the two mostly mute mules, and four Ba¡¯Neesh expected a poof, something. There was a slight disturbance of the light blanket but that could be a breeze. He scowled.

    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± He yelled upward toward the drone.

    The shipload of Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek had just witnessed the most sensual cast any of them had ever witnessed and were still gaping at the caster Xasper, collapsed to the floor and Moira a bit Vrill drunk being surrounded by Ba¡¯Neesh.

    ¡°Massive hype for minimal payoff.¡± Mick echoed Karl¡¯s thoughts exactly. He reached down and picked up a loose pinecone and before Elias could stop him, tossed it at the covered pile.

    The cone appeared to burst into flame in mid air, throwing pointy-edged pine cone leaf shapes, like shrapnel, in all directions.

    ¡°Ouch.¡± Elias yanked at the four bits now embedded in his hand and the side of his neck. ¡°Don¡¯t fucking test a cast, you moron.¡± He yelled out.

    Everyone else was equally covered and hurrying to clean the bits off.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know the cone would fucking explode.¡± Mick said, leaving a bloody trail on his cheek, neck and the same hand that had tossed the pine bomb.

    ¡°Defense.¡± Karl was impressed in spite of the seven pokey bits making him bleed. ¡°All of that from a stupid shock blanket, some blood and chaining up. I like defense.¡±

    There was no time for further discussion although those in the aircraft were once again leaning in, utterly shocked by the exploding pine cone.

    ¡°That worked.¡± Mael said, still confused. ¡°How the hell did that amateur sigil on a bent blanket actually work?¡±

    ¡°It identified the target.¡± Xasper said, already hunting down food and enhanced water. He was reeling from the cast itself, such a tiny space and Moira. By the Dark Gods if he had known what dual casting felt like in the flesh, he would never cast apart again. He gazed over at Moira who had turned to give him an uncertain return glance. They silently agreed not to share the experience until they could talk it out, together.

    Xasper noted that although he felt some casting drop, it was nowhere near as bad as it should be. He ate more from habit than true need. Sure, he could use some juice. He contemplated grabbing a horn like Mick so easily did. How did the kid fucking grab Ba¡¯Neesh by the horns with such ease?

    Moira stepped free of the Ba¡¯Neesh to stride over to Xasper, staring down at his still naked state. She lunged her rack downward to the shrill trilling of the watching Ba¡¯Neesh and gored him in the chest.

    He screamed. Then she jacked him up until his spine arched backwards to the horrified gasps of the Soek. He released from the antler¡¯s bloody points in three places, like a constellation on his chest. He flopped backwards to lay on the floor gazing up at her. She leaned down and slurped at the blood spurting from his chest. Other Ba¡¯Neesh pushed forward, diving in for their licks and giving Xasper little juicy jolts with each tongue crossing his skin. He blissed out and it wasn¡¯t until the Ba¡¯Neesh turned away that Jeffrey could rush forward only to stare down at Xasper¡¯s chest, now scabbed with three round, precise holes dead center. Xasper pushed himself to a seated position. ¡°No more drop.¡± He announced. Then he laughed, an almost as incongruous an event as the goring had been for those watching him closely.

    Mael was first to recover. He¡¯d known Xasper most of his life. They were tight in a way different from all others. ¡°She gored you.¡± Mael said, ¡°Why are you fucking laughing?¡±

    ¡°No more drop, Mael.¡± Xasper answered, ¡°I always wondered what the true remedy for drop was, now I know. Now I fucking know.¡±

    Moira, her back turned to the Soek said loud enough for all to hear, ¡°We remember.¡± Then she was again enfolded in the Ba¡¯Neesh chorus of trills and heated questions in Neesh.

    Mael closed his open mouth, watching Xasper rise with too much spring in his step and a weird smirk on his mouth. What wasn¡¯t Xasper sharing with him? He had an image of Anya goring him and he flushed. What was wrong with all of them? Mick. This was entirely Mick¡¯s fault. It was as if the thought summoned the action. They all hurried back when the sound of trumpeting Ba¡¯Neesh filled the audio.

    Aenor turned to Mick. ¡°We have incoming. Run.¡± She yelled out.

    Mick didn¡¯t hesitate, he grabbed Elias and yanked him upright and was already mid-stride in a run. Elias spewed a stream of curses but kept up.

    ¡°Incoming what?¡± Karl paced them easily.

    ¡°What Aenor?¡± Mick repeated toward the Ba¡¯Neesh already so far ahead as to be nearly invisible to them, he was following her Vrill, not the sight of her.

    ¡°Devices.¡± She yelled back in English. ¡°Insektenschwarm.¡± In German.

    Even Mick didn¡¯t need the translation to grok her meaning. ¡°Oh fuck.¡± He tried to run faster.

    ¡°Insektenschwarm?¡± Karl blinked. ¡°Roboter?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, fucking robot bugs.¡± They could all hear them now, like real insects on steroids. Mick had to admire the sound effects, they were ghastly and really effective.

    ¡°My elektroschocker won¡¯t kill them.¡± Karl wasn¡¯t liking the rising gut-twisting fear flowing upward in his body. ¡°They must have dropped bienenstock behind the mules.¡±

    ¡°How many in one schwarm or cluster?¡± Elias asked, he was fighting to keep up.

    ¡°Container usually one hundred count, standard mixture of twenty-five percent of four types.¡± Karl answered. Whatever doubts had remained in his mind about whether Tule Soc intended to kill him, faded. Bienenstock were killing machines, and not through one shot weapons, they were designed to terrify and lengthen the process. Biters, injectors, rippers, acid sprays, cutters and stunners. Pin the prey and then torture them to inspire absolute fear in other prey enemies nearby.

    ¡°So, we have at least a hundred of those fuckers on our heels?¡±

    ¡°Ja.¡± Karl nodded. ¡°If just one container. More if more.¡± He had fought five Bienenstock in training as part of his levels. Five. And that had been incredibly hard. He¡¯d suffered all kinds of injuries but in fact, that single exercise had elevated him in rank to a team leader. The idea of a hundred with no instructors standing by able to hit their off switch made him furious and panicked. He glanced at Mick and noticed the boy was thinking. They had lasers. Lasers would kill a bug. He didn¡¯t have a laser. It infuriated him.

    A scream and the flashing of hard red brought the group around toward the left. For a split second they hesitated to the sound of a second scream, clearly Ba¡¯Neesh, then Karl followed Mick straight toward the sounds, cursing in German with every step. Why? Why? Why? Every bone in his body wanted to run hell bent as far and fast away from the bienenstock as he could, not toward them.

    They entered a clearing to see one Ba¡¯Neesh down hard and nearly covered in the machines, the second was losing her battle of stomping and kicking trying to reach her partner. Freya. Mick yelled out to her just as she went down under a concerted attack of the machines.

    Mick waded in, intent purely on throwing the machines against the nearest trees. The Ba¡¯Neesh running with him formed up to a circle around the contained battle with Mick, Elias and Karl inside where the bugs, mice and dinosaur-like flying birds were in full attack. The Ba¡¯Neesh concentrated on lasering the still coming bugs. The two mules stood just behind the Ba¡¯Neesh, able to do nothing more than kick at the bugs that got close.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Karl stomped, kicked and yelled, discovering his German cursing echoed Mick and Elias¡¯ loud filth in English.

    Mick yelled upward. ¡°Where are those fucking concussion grenades, Thorne? I need them now.¡±

    Both of his hands were bloody and the aircraft load of horrified Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh were watching in riveted silence.

    ¡°We need a bubble shield we can toss grenades and laser through. Fucking fuckers.¡± Mick continued.

    Karl had picked up a log laying on the ground and was clubbing and kicking. ¡°We lose this war.¡± He yelled at Mick.

    ¡°Lousy defense weapons.¡± Mick yelled back even though they were nearly shoulder-to-shoulder. There were fewer bugs but the price for trying to grab and throw them by hand was growing.

    They could hear the growing chittering of more bugs coming.

    ¡°Mick?¡± Aenor yelled out. ¡°Too many for four lasers.¡±

    Mick stiffened, throwing the last of the bugs inside the circle over the Ba¡¯Neesh heads. They had a brief gap with the hurt Ba¡¯Neesh no longer being ravaged. He looked over at the two Soek mules. He needed more Soek, more trained lasers.

    ¡°Call those attack Soek mules to run toward us, Aenor. Tell the nearby Ba¡¯Neesh to keep up a heavy fire and to pace us, give us and those mules cover fire.¡± He looked at Karl. ¡°You take Freya on your shoulders. Hans, you take Steffi.¡±

    Karl scooped up the largest of the Ba¡¯Neesh he had yet seen and threw her over his shoulders in a fireman¡¯s carry. Hans, much smaller but larger than Mick or Elias, grunted but got the smaller Steffi up on his shoulders.

    ¡°We run.¡± Mick yelled out again, heading through the gap the Ba¡¯Neesh provided in their tight circle to run through a gauntlet of harrying devices. Elias grabbed the back of Mick¡¯s pack and lasered in front of them, cutting a way as Ba¡¯Neesh fired from the trees exploding more.

    ¡°Grenades, Thorne.¡± Mick kept yelling upward. ¡°Explosive tossable Vrill packages and a runnable shield, like that turtle only more like a cavitator. What the hell. Uncle Morty? Serla? Moira? What can we explode so Vrill blasts in a directional?¡±

    Karl, watching the lasers was impressed by the kid¡¯s ability to talk under fire. Kind of nasty talk to superiors but spot on. Karl, for himself, was wanting a better bludgeon. He could imagine one radiating this Vrill stuff to overwhelm the electronics of the bienenstock on contact. Like Thor. A hammer. He really liked that idea. Maybe he could talk Mick into having these enemy forces make him a Thor hammer for battle. He grinned.

    He almost fell when the bloody, badly injured Ba¡¯Neesh he was carrying came back to life with a horrendous roaring sound. For a moment Karl was certain he was dead and then her weight shifted and she climbed him to position herself with her legs around his neck. It was much better. ¡°Besser.¡± He yelled out.

    Then her legs squeezed and he choked, suddenly vividly aware of her excellent muscular development.

    ¡°Laser those bastards.¡± She leaned over his head to yell down at him.

    ¡°Oh,¡± Perisee and Lemista exclaimed together. ¡°I want to ride a Battle Soek too.¡±

    Battle Soek? The Soek aboard the DireSec aircraft glanced at each other in growing realization that they were surrounded by Ba¡¯Neesh staring at each of them with a new type of avarice.

    ¡°You can ride me.¡± Brad the Pirate offered, a wry grin on his face. ¡°I could maybe carry two of you into battle.¡±

    The other Soek glared hate beams toward Brad then the battle sucked them all back into its thrall.

    ¡°I no have a laser.¡± Karl yelled back, swinging his wood bludgeon like a pendulum.

    ¡°I do.¡± Freya said. ¡°Vrill loss. Get me close to Mick to juice up on Edda. Hey Mick, coming in, have Iiyiko boost Edda or get those lazy drone-watching Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh to wake the fucking Beloved up to direct channel to Edda and our other Beloved.¡±

    Karl grunted. That sounded a lot like disparaging words. He didn¡¯t know what Citadel was but the word lazy was key. He grinned, smashing another bug. Karl paced Mick and Freya lay back to lower herself by bending backward, her knees firm around Karl¡¯s neck and body, in line with Mick¡¯s backpack, placing her horns directly on the bag. Karl felt her spasm and then swing herself back up with an admirable athletic ease.

    ¡°She fucking refueled upside down while dangling off a Soek.¡± Moira said with growing admiration. The Beloved were ramping up, the MagC¡¯s on three aircraft and a distant submarine and linking all the way to Barrens and Citadel came online. Power. Edda was one Beloved channel. Moira wasn¡¯t the only one wondering what this would do to Mick with Edda riding his spine. He kept running.

    With Freya lasering they were able to get a mostly clean path ahead as the bugs tried to regroup to flank the runners.

    Aenor yelled out, ¡°Soek mules on your right side, Mick.¡±

    Mick edged to the right. ¡°Come on Karl. Aenor guard Elias, he needs some juice and I don¡¯t have time this exact second.¡±

    Karl followed Mick to the right as the six running mules came into view. They had their stunners out and their eyes were wild with fear and uncertainty.

    ¡°Speech them to form up, Freya. Holster those useless stunners.¡± Behind they could hear Ba¡¯Neesh in the trees calling out, ¡°More incoming.¡±

    ¡°Another box of those fuckers.¡± Mick waved his middle finger upward at the following drone. ¡°I need that concussive Vrill, directional, like now would be good!¡±

    Brad and Serla were scrambling, directly linking to Neo and Morty with Moira standing over them her still bloody rack waving dangerously close. ¡°Lazy Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh. That¡¯s me. Fucking Mick.¡± She kept muttering, on repeat.

    Jordy observed, ¡°They are closing on the outskirts of town. Ten minutes max at their current pace.¡±

    ¡°Tule Soc will be ready.¡± Serla said. ¡°Tell national we are vacating our agreement as Tule Soc is attacking our operative. He had been sending the drone feed to national, to a shocked military watching the weirdest battle they had ever witnessed, literally on their doorsteps using weapons they couldn¡¯t figure out and featuring the same strange females Tule Soc insisted were DireSec avatars. Now bloody females, still running and shooting lasers. Whatever they were, they weren¡¯t avatars was the growing consensus. And, being military, most of those watching were itching to get involved, if they could figure out which side was the one to align with. The creatures or the bugs?

    ¡°Karl, tell the mules we are going to form a circle. Have them place their non-dominant hand on the back of the neck of the guy next to them and put the one who is the best shot on one end, the end closest to the approaching swarm. Karl, drop that fucking stick and point your dominant finger upward.¡±

    Karl pointed his index finger while yelling out in German for the mules to form a circle facing backward toward the flowing mass of new bienenstock. They did so reluctantly believing they were facing absolute death. Those six and the former two made eight.

    ¡°Karl. Think laser gun on your finger. On and off really fast.¡± Mick said, turned to face backward behind the row of mules.

    Karl aimed his finger upward while saying, ¡°I can¡¯t do this stupid Vrill shit, Mick.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± Mick said. ¡°But, she can.¡±

    Karl glanced at Mick and then felt shocking moisture on the back of his neck where her groin hugged his head. His mind fluttered, what was that? ¡°Laser.¡± He said, ¡°On, off.¡± A tree limb overhead cracked.

    ¡°Fuck. I forgot to tell you not directly overhead.¡± Mick said while all of them dodged the falling limb.

    ¡°Laser.¡± Karl said again in absolute shock and delight, staring at his finger, it hurt. It glowed. He pivoted, the bludgeon forgotten. He was already yelling at the mules as the row of them shared impossible glances and then aimed their stupid fingers toward the oncoming barely visible mass of moving machinery. ¡°Laser.¡± They said together. ¡°On and off fast.¡± Mick yelled.

    ¡°Schnell.¡± Karl yelled, slipping into team leader mode as naturally as breathing.

    Mick dropped down next to the weak end of the Soek row, grabbed the guy¡¯s free hand and slapped it on his backpack. The Soek screamed, but Mick didn¡¯t let go. Eventually the screaming stopped, the Soek, Vrill drunk as his buddies jacking through him, shot the bienenstock with their fingers. Several started to laugh. One to cry.

    One said, ¡°It burns.¡±

    Karl said, ¡°Suffer and fire your asses off. Die like you mean it.¡±

    Then the swearing began, a mixture of English, German and Neesh as all of them focused on trying to kill as many as possible.

    ¡°This is Vrill costly and my finger hurts like a bloated sausage plugged into a socket.¡± Mick yelled out. ¡°We need better. You are the fucking brains. Build me a better weapon.¡±

    ¡°Working on it.¡± The voice that pierced the battle sounds was young and sarcastic.

    ¡°Neo?¡± Mick asked.

    ¡°WareHawk?¡± Neo answered.

    ¡°Tell Serla to prep for a Scorched Earth end game, Neo. When I win this fucking battle of the bugs the guy I¡¯m fighting will go for broke, the youngers. Tell him Iiyiko and Elias, and¡­ who was that asshat that blew up the cruise ship?¡±

    Elias, his finger so hot he thought it might be cooking looked over at Mick. ¡°You mean Aristeen, crazy fucking Aristeen?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Serla brought him I think.¡± Mick and Elias killed some more bugs with Elias also grabbing the bag. The Ba¡¯Neesh kept running past to juice up in passing.

    ¡°I think so.¡± Elias shook his head. ¡°He¡¯s crazy Mick and you want him with Iiyiko?¡±

    ¡°Yeah and the Gardener.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t ask for me.¡± Mael said aloud, slightly miffed. ¡°Why the fuck am I here, anyway?¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Neo said, ¡°That¡¯s easy Turtle, you are an asset.¡±

    Serla interrupted, ¡°Scorched Earth, Mick?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Elias said so. He¡¯s good at that analytical crap.¡±

    ¡°I never said any such thing.¡± Elias called out, horrified by the lie.

    ¡°Your brain said it Elias.¡± Mick continued firing, glancing over at his friend. ¡°Shooting is like meditation with cursing and exploding shit. You thought it out and it registered in my skull.¡±

    (And here we are again my wonderful fans. Having fun? I loved the Battle Soek¡¯s arrival. Did you like that too? Enjoy!)

 Chapter Forty-Eight - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Forty-Eight ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    The new swarm was smarter than the first one. Elias yelled over at Mick, ¡°they are using techs, see how they aren¡¯t running in the easy-to-guess patterns like that last group.¡±

    Mick scowled. That¡¯s all he needed, smarter bugs. Everyone was hurting and already tired.

    ¡°Linking?¡± Freya asked, confused.

    ¡°They¡¯re losing.¡± Serla ran the numbers to calculate Mick¡¯s group response to this second attack.

    ¡°Real technicians are manning the bugs, to be less predictable.¡± Karl said to Freya in German.

    She grunted.

    ¡°Do you think Mick doesn¡¯t know, that he¡¯s in denial?¡± Brad asked, ¡°They will be overrun if this keeps up, they just can¡¯t laser them individually, fast enough. Mick was right, he needs something wider.¡± It felt grossly unfair to Brad that Mick and the others might lose, might die a horrible death, because the Directorate didn¡¯t have weapons good enough for them to defend themselves. ¡°Can¡¯t we do anything for them?¡± He asked.

    Oddly, it was Xasper who answered. ¡°Elias?¡± He waved to silence the increasingly loud voices filling the command center of the aircraft.

    ¡°That you Xasper?¡± Elias wasn¡¯t exactly chummy with Xasper Detto, the Master Caster.

    ¡°During Mick¡¯s rescue of you, I threw a cluster of juice balls threw that eyeball sigil he made. Something Moira has been working on, having me try it out.¡± Xasper said.

    ¡°Balls? Like how many balls?¡± Elias paused in his shooting to look up, wishing he could see Xasper, not just hear him. Every kid in Citadel made a juicer spitball at least once. They worked on a lesser valuable trait of Vrill to be contained inside the surface tension of spit smeared on the hand. They could be rolled into temporary spit balls that would hold together for mere moments until the spit dried out from the radiant heat of the Vrill and popped with a release of energy. Often these balls backfired on the boys trying to prank someone with them and many a boy had gone to see the medic with palm blisters from a Vrill spitball explosion. It was a three demerit offense.

    ¡°You have glycerol?¡± Moira¡¯s voice interrupted.

    ¡°Like in hand cream?¡± Elias asked. ¡°We have some burn cream in the med kits, I think.¡± He couldn¡¯t remember how much.

    ¡°Glycerol operates like spit, only it lasts a lot longer.¡± Moira said.

    Mick was already scrambling in his med pak to find a half used tube of burn cream and an unopened skin protector tube. He handed both to Elias and went back to shooting.

    Elias¡¯ left hand was burned and blistered. ¡°I can¡¯t roll them.¡± He said. ¡°Mick, you are going to have to roll them and hand them to Aenor.¡±

    ¡°Fill her hand.¡± Xasper¡¯s voice returned. ¡°Vrill attracts Vrill, the law of attraction in energy.¡±

    ¡°That ball of Vrill marbles you used in the corridors?¡± Mick was getting excited as his memory of the effectiveness of that weapon increased.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Aenor came to stand next to Mick, to watch him squirt goo into his hand, rub his hands together and nothing. She scowled. ¡°Give me that.¡± She used another glob and then spat on her hand and rolled and out came a bright little ball of sparkly intensity.¡± Mick opened his hands to receive the ball. She rolled another and another, to his mind it seemed to take forever before he had seven and decided he needed to test it.

    He turned, stood fully and threw the glowing larger ball at the center of a cluster within the swarm. When the ball hit the ground it didn¡¯t explode, it shattered into the smaller balls which raced in all directions. Three of them hit dodging bugs and exploded. It was satisfying. But, his mental math told him the balls took too long compared to the speed of attack.

    Moira yelled out in Neesh, a staccato burst of communication, clearly intended for the Ba¡¯Neesh alone.

    ¡°The three with the Beloved throw these from the trees for maximum dispersal.¡± Xasper translated roughly knowing what Moira intended to say from earlier discussion with her.

    Aenor was already yelling out the same Neesh message.

    The next hour was the worst with bugs running right up to the Soek who were kicking and screaming while continuing to laser them. By the time the approaching bugs slowed, everyone was in rough shape. They heard cheering from the trees as clearly the Ba¡¯Neesh perfected the spit ball grenades.

    Karl lifted his now-shabby boot intending to smash a bot that was damaged enough not to be able to crawl, but still jabbing toward anyone getting close.

    ¡°I want that.¡± Freya demanded, stopping him.

    Karl pulled back and figured out how to pick up the hated thing without cutting up his hand. He offered it upward.

    ¡°Linked. You sure?¡± She asked Karl.

    ¡°Ja.¡± He said.

    ¡°Cowards.¡± Freya said. She shook the device and then yelled at it loud. ¡°You think you safe in there, playing with your game stick? I Ba¡¯Neesh. You coward. I kill cowards.¡±

    She dropped back, the sign to Karl she wanted a refuel and he swung around so she could reach Mick¡¯s backpack. She was holding the bug away from her and Elias yelled for Mick to bend his neck forward to be well out of range of it¡¯s flexing talons.

    Freya jammed her horn mounts against the pack and said, ¡°If Neeshatari can run dirty electrical signal, Ba¡¯Neesh can too. Die you bastard.¡±

    Mick was knocked forward onto a pile of dead bugs and a few still moving. The bug in Freya¡¯s hand glowed blue briefly and then arced for a moment visually upward.

    A technician in an underground bunker heard the Ba¡¯Neesh and saw brief glimpses of the targets and then his hand where it connected to the computing system got hot as electricity raced up his arm to stop his heart. He didn¡¯t even have time to scream.

    Other technicians in the room scrambled away from the consoles and the bugs still attacking slowed and looked around in confusion. Aenor and Gisela jumped forward to cut the legs off of two more, grabbing them and running back to jack in to the now curled up Mick, his face pressed hard to his upper thighs as his back felt like it was a rod of pulsing Vrill. One after the other the Ba¡¯Neesh jacked in and the bugs radiated upward. The computing room resounded with explosions as the Vrill chased through the connected equipment and systems to run right into the walls and kill the wiring all the way to the facility junction box.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Aenor, Gisela and Freya cheered, to be echoed aboard the ships.

    ¡°An Iiyiko move.¡± Serla observed, still shocked by what Brad¡¯s system was measuring in terms of Vrill spikes and the location where those spikes had flared up. A town location. Distance hits. More weapons. How to run Vrill backward through existing electrical systems.

    Clean up took another few hours but they were thorough, slagging every single bug whether it looked dead or not. Karl was adamant, he said the bugs had programming to pretend dead. He really wanted that Vrill hammer and to better understand why every time Freya killed something his neck got hot and sloppy wet. He had thought she was bleeding but his mind kept suggesting other possibilities, impossible possibilities.

    ¡°Mick.¡± Karl came to stand next to the kid.

    ¡°Yeah?¡± Mick was staggering with fatigue. Those last three jackings had slammed him.

    ¡°I want a Vrill hammer.¡± Karl said. ¡°I like to smash things.¡±

    The Soek mules, mostly wiped out and in shock from a day they couldn¡¯t have imagined, stared over at Karl.

    Elias and Mick both faced Karl head on. ¡°A Vrill hammer, Karl?¡± They said in unison, ¡°You mean like a Thor hammer?¡± It was instantly funny. Karl as Thor, with Freya riding him.

    Far away Neo snickered, a feeling shared by Brad and Serla as well.

    ¡°Ja.¡± Karl nodded. ¡°I will call it bug smasher or head smasher. Do you think this Xasper person can make it boomerang and come back when I throw it? I could throw it at bad guys and blow shit up.¡±

    Mick laughed. ¡°You watched those old Thor vids didn¡¯t you, Karl?¡± There was nothing else to do. He looked up at the circling drones. ¡°You hear that Thorne? A bad-ass Karl hammer that conducts Vrill and can boomerang back to Karl. Got that?¡±

    Brad wiped his eyes. ¡°I want one too.¡± He said, after thinking about it for ten seconds.

    ¡°A smaller one for me,¡± Freya piped in to say, with spikes on the sides to kill stuff bloody.

    ¡°The nexus points in the fingertips and palm could link into the grip of a hammer-type device, run Vrill into it.¡± Brad said. ¡°It¡¯s the boomerang part that might be more difficult. A hammer isn¡¯t exactly aerodynamic for throwing.¡±

    Serla exchanged a look with Brad. ¡°Mechanical problems, can be solved.¡± He grinned too. The kid and the Ba¡¯Neesh were still alive. Then he sobered, the kid and Elias were right, Tule Soc knew they were being exposed, the most dangerous time.

    With the second swarm dealt with the core group of mostly Soek arrived at the edge of the woods. They could see the town across the half-mile fire break, a classic exposed kill zone.

    Elias dropped down to sit against a tree trunk. ¡°You can¡¯t mean to have us cross that, Mick.¡± He said as the laughter faded.

    Karl helped Freya down and she stumbled. He continued to help her sit next to her friend Steffi, who remained unconscious and to Karl¡¯s eyes, she didn¡¯t look good at all. ¡°We need help here, Mick.¡± Karl said, fidgeting. His finger hurt. He had acid holes burned in his boots, slices through his pants into his calves and several bite marks all the way up his body like railroad tracks. His entire focus remained on Freya mostly, tangentially on Steffi because Freya was rocking and mumbling something he couldn¡¯t understand to Steffi. ¡°Mick?¡±

    Mick didn¡¯t want to get back up, he¡¯d only just sat. He crawled over on his knees to sit next to Freya. Steffi was in a bad way.

    ¡°Did you call for Helewidis?¡± He asked Freya aloud.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Freya said. ¡°She comes, very tired already. Everyone has some wounding, Mick.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s clean Steffi¡¯s wounds and see how bad she really is.¡± Mick said, shrugging off the weight of his backpack. Gisela arrived with her pack and together they sorted out their depleted med supplies.

    ¡°Small flowing water, not far.¡± Gisela said. ¡°We should move to there. Everyone is thirsty.¡±

    Mick sighed. ¡°Good idea, damn tired myself. But, water sounds fabulous. Come on Elias.¡± He pulled the pack back on, Karl lifted Freya and then helped Hans lift Steffi. The woods were getting thick with evening shadows which seemed to add to the adrenaline drop.

    They could see the town, no doubt full of food while they starved. Mick told his brain to shut it, as Elias said, that fire zone was a death trap. No doubt the entire perimeter of the town was sheltering Tule Soc operatives and now there was less assurance they wouldn¡¯t be using actual guns, illegal or not. Just making it to the perimeter crossed that vital threshold suggesting Mick could win, a potential he knew the enemy couldn¡¯t allow. Mick hadn¡¯t won yet but reaching this point alive was enough to make the enemy desperate. He had no idea how they were going to cross it, but they must.

    They heard the small stream before they saw it and it did lighten the mood again somewhat. This time the Soek mules headed straight toward it and began cleaning their own wounds. Everyone¡¯s lower legs were torn up and some had acid burns like Karl.

    Karl set Freya right next to Steffi and he and Mick returned to going through the packs. He noted that the other Ba¡¯Neesh had left. He tried to grasp why Mick showed no fear of being in the hands of his enemies with only Elias and two injured Ba¡¯Neesh on his side, and the watching drones, there were now two. He couldn¡¯t quite grasp his own emotional state. The compulsion that had ridden him was a tattered rag in his mind. He glanced at Freya, able to see her more clearly than when he carried her. She was so strange looking with her narrowed face and animal like ears and horns. He tried not to look at her breasts and then got fixated on thinking about them. He¡¯d never been much interested in females; his entire adult life had centered on operative advancement. Sure, he had experimented but found it anti-climactic at best. He¡¯d questioned his sexuality more than once when he didn¡¯t share his friend¡¯s obsessions with partnering up.

    Mick cleaned Steffi with as much focused care as he could. Elias was already sleeping in a somewhat uncomfortable position slouched against a tree, covered in wounds. He glanced over at the group of Soek keeping themselves apart. ¡°Think they will try to take me out, Karl?¡± Mick asked, making no attempt to hide his question from any of them.

    Karl squirmed a bit, he could hear the Soek arguing this exact idea, in German. Part of him knew he should be joining them and overcoming the enemy. Enemy? He looked at Freya. Tule Soc had done this to her with the intent to kill her. He couldn¡¯t reconcile his altering feelings.

    ¡°You are the target and enemy to some.¡± Karl said pragmatically.

    ¡°You think so?¡± Mick used some of his refilled water bottle to rinse the filth out of Steffi¡¯s worst torso wound. The fucking rat things had ripped her chest open nearly a foot in length to a lot of blood loss, no wonder her face was pale and drained looking.

    ¡°I did.¡± Karl answered. ¡°Decided those trying to kill me were my enemy. You haven¡¯t tried to kill me directly yet, Mick. Indirectly though, that last battle nearly killed all of us.¡±

    ¡°We got lucky.¡± Mick said, nodding. ¡°I don¡¯t have an Order background that knows secrets about Vrill use. I crammed on Elias¡¯ class materials but only got into fifth year studies and then Tule Soc brain wiped me. When Master Jeffrey put my brain back together, well, it¡¯s a fucking mess in my head related to what I know or not.¡±

    ¡°Your brain works damn well, Mick. At least for this shit.¡± Karl gestured around. At that moment he saw Ba¡¯Neesh emerging from the woods. It was like not being sure he was seeing what he was seeing, they were that fluid in the environment. He felt jealous. He called out, ¡°Helewidis? Freya needs help.¡±

    The group of Soek hesitated, hands resting on unused stunners. Clearly they understood their laser fingers only worked with the help of the Ba¡¯Neesh. They could maybe kill one or two and then all of them would die. They were certain of this. What Karl said, what is killing me is my enemy, that made sense. Tule Soc had sent bienenstock. All of them should be dead, twice over dead if this Mick kid and that toxic agent were true. Expendables. As a group they walked back over to stand uneasily outside of the knot around the two badly injured Ba¡¯Neesh.

    They watched one of the Ba¡¯Neesh, called Helewidis, jack in to Mick¡¯s pack and then horn the one on the ground. The dying one. Mick was again in that curled forward position, his spine molten. He focused on not passing out.

    Jeffrey, aboard the aircraft, pointed. ¡°Something is happening to Mick.¡± He said aloud, concern heavy in his tone. ¡°Hadn¡¯t healed from the brain wipe. What is direct and continuing contact with this Beloved Channel doing to him?¡±

    (Fatigue catches at me tonight, but, I am well pleased with this chapter. I particularly enjoyed Thor¡¯s hammer. Do you think Thorne will make them?¡± I might know the answer to that.)

 Chapter Forty-Nine - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Forty-Nine ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Freya was able to get still unconscious Steffi to swallow with Karl holding Steffi up at an angle with one Ba¡¯Neesh drinking from one bottle while Freya trickled water into Steffi¡¯s open mouth. They got enough in her for the two Ba¡¯Neesh to nod to each other with satisfaction. Mick, watching, wondered at how the ¡®sharing¡¯ truly went. He kept learning things that pushed at his thinking. Karl kept his own mouth shut while wondering much the same thing. He had ample emergency training, an area he particularly enjoyed. What he was seeing simply didn¡¯t apply ¨C to humans.

    Noises in the woods from across the stream brought the uneasy cluster of Soek to their feet with two or three stunners in hand. Ba¡¯Neesh appeared, only these were much larger and distinctly elder Ba¡¯Neesh with fully grown twisting horns, a head ruff and heavier fur. They were carrying strings of dead animals. They plopped them down and all but one of the five turned and much more quietly vanished into the woods¡¯ shadows.

    The lone remaining Akaitapi glared at the prickly Soek group. ¡°Stupid Soek.¡± She announced derisively and then snorted, shaking her mane. ¡°Shoot and die or stuff those distance weapons in your pants.¡± It was provocative. One of the Soek made to lift his weapon. Two of his nearby mates placed a hand on his arm. ¡°Nein.¡± They said.

    ¡°You!¡± The Akaitapi pointed at one of the Soek. ¡°Here.¡± She pointed at the pile of dead animals. He exited what now felt like the safety of the group to cross the small stream and approach her directly.

    ¡°I am Onnopa¡¯tsis Sipi. Night Huntress. You speak English?¡± She said.

    ¡°A little.¡± The Soek answered, trying desperately to squeeze her hard name into his mind. ¡°I¡¯m Falk. Means falcon. I hunt cross-bow.¡± He said, pleased with piecing together a full sentence.

    ¡°Soek clean the kill. We cook and eat.¡± She pointed at the pile. ¡°Knife is a barely acceptable weapon to hunt, bow a coward¡¯s weapon, does not give prey a chance.¡±

    Falk picked his way through her words, her horrible accent and then frowned. ¡°I am not a coward.¡± He said, pointing at the pile. ¡°No knife to dress.¡±

    Onnopa¡¯tsis Sipi honked over at the woods and one of the smaller, to Falk¡¯s eyes, more normal Ba¡¯Neesh trotted out and tossed a knife at him. He dodged, cursing. The normal Ba¡¯Neesh was gone by the time he retrieved the knife to the echo of her laughter.

    All of the Soek were watching except for Elias, who slept through it.

    Neither Mick nor Karl heard any Vrill on the Akaitapi¡¯s words. No compulsion.

    ¡°Who is she?¡± Karl asked.

    ¡°An Akaitapi.¡± Mick said, frowning slightly. How long had the elder Ba¡¯Neesh been nearby? He hadn¡¯t been told. Still, they came bearing meat. He was already drooling. ¡°Ba¡¯Neesh from far away came to help our Ba¡¯Neesh.¡± He made the distinction.

    ¡°Freya?¡± Mick turned to speak directly to her, ¡°How long have the Akaitapi been back?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Found us near the second cave.¡± She answered. ¡°Stayed at distance, told us you needed to run. We let you run.¡±

    Mick groaned and replied, ¡°I need to know my resources. We could have eaten earlier instead of everyone starving now.¡±

    ¡°They not here to feed you, fuck Mick.¡± Freya said, with a bit of sarcasm. ¡°Or us. How we learn without do? Elders not teach incompetence.¡±

    Karl was half sharing both perspectives. Clearly these Akaitapi were seasoned. He watched the one supervising Falk with how to gut. Oddly, the two of them seemed to have crossed that fearful hump that was close contact with a Ba¡¯Neesh. He considered his own feelings, he didn¡¯t want to be far from Freya. It was almost obsessive, the feeling. He checked himself. What was wrong with him?

    ¡°They like throwing shit balls at robot bugs, laugh hard.¡± She continued.

    ¡°Spit balls.¡± He corrected, automatically.

    She snorted. ¡°Like shit name better.¡±

    Clearly her session with Helewidis had made her feel better. Mick knew more than to argue over a shit name. He sighed. ¡°Need to know everyone¡¯s skills, traits, abilities to position best in fights.¡± He said aloud.

    Karl nodded. He looked over at the Soek group and then he called out in German, asking each for their stats, gifts, hobbies, bad traits, the works.

    Mick listened, picking up one word in ten. Aenor had trotted off long since and he didn¡¯t want to get into it with Freya, it was too much effort. He could guess Karl was fulfilling his not exactly requested order. What was his relationship with Karl now? Weirdly, the closer the Soek got with Freya, the safer he became in Mick¡¯s mind. Invested. He¡¯d seen the possessive look in Karl¡¯s face. He really wanted to talk to Elias about it but Elias desperately needed the rest. He pushed himself up to go to Elias and move his friend to a better flat position on the ground. Elias muttered but didn¡¯t waken fully.

    The Soek group, answered Karl. At first with obvious reluctance, then with a sort of relaxing comprehension. They were moving beyond expendables into more valued status. Each of them felt the shift and by the end they were bragging on each other and telling tales. Karl was listening, strongly aware of the glowing rocks the Akaitapi had made into a circle and the cooking meat. The odor was invading his brain and clearly the brains of the former Soek mules, loosening their tongues.

    Mick shrugged out of the pack and left it leaning against Elias, who muttered in his sleep again, this time saying the name Edda.

    Mick stretched, his body felt off, wrong, changed. He avoided thinking about it. He wanted food. Ba¡¯Neesh first. He knew that rule well enough. He walked across the stream utterly unaware of the hard focus of the nearby Soek, watching his every move. They watched him reach down to pick up two flat rocks and carry them toward the circle of glowing stones.

    ¡°Evening.¡± He said to the Akaitapi. ¡°I am here to serve the Ba¡¯Neesh.¡± He offered up the two stones.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Onnopa¡¯tsis Sipi sniffed and stomped a bit. ¡°Those cooked well enough.¡± She pointed at two pieces. Mick noted meat and vegetables. He could have kissed her but thought she might kill him for that. He managed a nod. Falk poked the various bits and placed them on the rock plates. He was so hungry he could spit, but he could guess this kid was equally hungry and not acting on it. He watched Mick walk toward the woods. It was dark enough he could barely see the kid but he noticed that Mick seemed sure of his direction. He vanished and then moments later returned empty handed to fetch two more stones.

    Mick looked over at the Soek mules. ¡°First we feed the Ba¡¯Neesh. Then we eat. Then they kill your molcoms and you hate on me for the header that causes. Enjoy your food first.¡± He turned to Karl who had showed up wanting to feed Freya himself. ¡°Ah, Karl, Steffi likely won¡¯t eat but Freya will and a lot, twice a rock plates worth. Okay? Oh, have her ask for the analgesic, not sure what we have left. Those six will need it.¡±

    Karl nodded, he remembered his own header, before the Vrill and battle cured him. Was it only this morning? He was struggling to account for how the day felt like a week, how he was utterly altered. He crossed the stream and found two rocks. A slow trail of Soek followed him. Falk loaded his two rocks and Karl worried he would succumb to his lust for the meat. He grunted aloud to the following Soek in German. ¡°Feed Ba¡¯Neesh first or they kill you out of hand.¡± He didn¡¯t know if it were true, but, it felt true. He headed back over to serve Freya who gave him a sharp look and accepted both rocks for herself. He watched her eat aggressively, her fangs put to good use. It made him want fangs. He turned away and headed back to join the uncertain Soek. Two more rock platters. He then faced the woods and paused. It was a nudge, maybe something visual, maybe a sound. He couldn¡¯t say. He just knew and walked forward to be met by a team who took his rocks and snorted.

    He was followed by Soek mules. He found he needed to lead them to the next set of Ba¡¯Neesh. Why could he sense them and the mules could not? Was it all molcom inhibitors or something more?

    They fed the Ba¡¯Neesh and found there was plenty more for them. When the meat finally reached Karl¡¯s mouth he felt an ecstasy, a food bliss. He couldn¡¯t believe how good fresh meat tasted. He sat next to Freya and wolfed it down. She gestured at her two empty stones. A clear visual request for more food.

    He and the Soek continued feeding the Ba¡¯Neesh and themselves until everyone was sated. Mick helped feed Elias and let the second and third helpings be handled by the mules.

    When the meal was finally done. Mick forced himself to get back up. He walked over to Karl who also stood. Karl had six analgesic packs in his hand, given to him during the second and third helpings to the Ba¡¯Neesh in the woods after Freya honked at them. Mick and Karl nodded at each other and together they walked over to where the Soek were waiting, most with nervous expressions. Hans and Otto simply sat there, nodding full understanding of what was to come.

    ¡°The Ba¡¯Neesh are going to use Vrill embedded speech on you to compel you to obey.¡± Mick said, ¡°They will show you where your molcom is inside your brain and show you how to encapsulate it so that Tule Soc cannot brain wipe you from a distance. I would have done this immediately, but I was busy, fighting and running. You will have a massive header, take the analgesic and then sleep. We will likely leave in a hurry, stay dressed.¡±

    Karl repeated Mick¡¯s words in German, being explicit. He could see the fear in the Soek¡¯s eyes. ¡°I did it this morning, as did Otto and Hans.¡± He said, ¡°You do it now.¡±

    The Ba¡¯Neesh voice came out of the woods, unattached to any form, just words spiraling through the air with compelling power. Karl noted he didn¡¯t receive the order. He would have thought it was a blanket order. It was the first time he realized that the Ba¡¯Neesh could select for voice compulsion. A skill. He was collecting their abilities. Tactical, his mind said pragmatically. These were, as that person Neo had said, Mick¡¯s assets, part of the Battle Group.

    In some odd way Karl realized it was now his Battle Group. These beings had fought along side of him and helped keep him alive. His Battle Group. He liked that. He liked that Mick had brought him over to supervise the pain of the molcom encapsulation. It went better than his had. He wondered if the slight prep of fighting with the Ba¡¯Neesh and running Vrill had helped. He put that aside to think about later too. He ordered the Soek to sleep after each was dosed up. Mick had already turned away, leaving Karl with the Soek. In charge.

    Mick curled up next to Elias. The Soek formed a stiff line that altered as they quickly fell asleep and turned to cuddle each other. Freya was down cuddling Steffi. Karl first sat and watched all of them, noting Mick was relaxed but his eyes stayed open. He thought about setting a watch and then understood the Ba¡¯Neesh were out there, all around them. It was about as safe as it could be in the circumstances. He lay down wondering if Freya would let him be close. Then he was asleep, not noticing her telling Steffi that the big Soek was warming her back. It was spoken in Neesh anyway, so he wouldn¡¯t have understood. But, she didn¡¯t make a move to push him away.

    Mick knew his body was asleep. It was in that noodle state of utter muscular softness. But, he remained aware. He wasn¡¯t in the woods exactly so he couldn¡¯t say he was fully awake, but he was aware of the woods and the Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh all around him. He felt his body deep breathing, the slight snoring sounds coming out of his open mouth. Still, he knew he was in a new kind of sleep.

    There were voices, conversations. He drifted towards them with a feeling that he knew the people talking. Females. He thought one was Edda. He missed Edda. The voices became more distinct. He called out, ¡°Edda?¡±

    He knew he was laying in the woods, next to Elias and between them were Edda¡¯s bones. He knew that, but still, Edda was in this other place too.

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be in here, Mick.¡± Aenor¡¯s voice said with her no-nonsense tone of dismissal.

    ¡°Where?¡± Mick asked, confused. He was inside his own head inside his own body inside the woods laying next to Elias. He was sleeping, or mostly.

    ¡°Here.¡± Aenor replied.

    He didn¡¯t answer right away and he could hear grumbling and cross discussions. He knew he didn¡¯t know these Ba¡¯Neesh as well. He was doing better. He knew most of their names now. But, they were usually not near him. It was hard to gain that personal sense from a distance. He regretted that.

    ¡°Oh, do stop nattering on.¡± Aenor said again. ¡°Drivel. What are you doing here, Mick?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sleeping in the woods.¡± He said, a bit defensively.

    ¡°Really?¡± Aenor became more distinct, like she was sneaking up on him. He didn¡¯t like that analogy. Maybe she was just getting louder.

    ¡°Clearly you are a dream.¡± He said and then plaintively cried out, ¡°Edda?¡±

    ¡°He thinks this is a dream.¡± A voice with that distinct foreign accent interrupted. An Akaitapi? He wondered which one. He didn¡¯t know but two of their names and he¡¯d forgotten the first one. It was long.

    The same voice snorted. ¡°That¡¯s rude. Not remembering my name. I remember your name fucking Mick Huxley.¡± She said.

    He thought about the dream rules. He really didn¡¯t want to piss off a Ba¡¯Neesh, dream or not. ¡°I apologize, it¡¯s not an easy name for me. I¡¯m a stupid Soek.¡±

    ¡°Pandering now, Mick?¡± She snorted again.

    ¡°Well, which is better. Should I not apologize and simply be rude?¡± He answered.

    ¡°I want to know why he is in here.¡± Aenor said again.

    ¡°Me too.¡± Another Ba¡¯Neesh he wasn¡¯t able to easily identify spoke up, clearly miffed.

    ¡°I opened the door.¡± Edda said.

    ¡°Edda?¡± Mick tried to get closer to her voice although he had no idea how such things worked in here.

    ¡°Why would you do something stupid like that?¡± Aenor argued.

    ¡°I have been hearing things through his spine.¡± Edda said. ¡°I wanted to listen deeper and here is quieter and deeper. I keep hearing a name, Mikha¡¯el. I am trying to remember.¡±

    ¡°A memory?¡±

    Mick felt as if the lot of them were swimming toward him. It was scary. ¡°Hey wait.¡± He yelled out, trying to retreat but he didn¡¯t seem to have any limbs. It annoyed him that once again he was somewhere where he didn¡¯t know the rules and others did. It wasn¡¯t fair.

    ¡°Give us the memory?¡± The voices, many, loud, demanding, ordered.

    (Such fun. Writing is hard and fun at exactly the same time. For me, my characters are all standing behind me offering their opinions and advice and often mucking up my plans. I love them. More tomorrow! Enjoy!)

 Chapter Fifty - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Fifty ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick couldn¡¯t sense any means of physical escape so he reverted to his go-to mom avoidance system, distraction. In his case, at the moment, his most frequent mental exercise involved trying to solve his ongoing and continuing Vrill weapons problems. So, he opened that door in his mind and ducked inside, intentionally forcing himself to think about the very first Vrill weapon he had been exposed to, Iiyiko, then Kiena¡¯s, compulsion speech.

    Did she have compulsion thought too? He wavered over committing to one way or the other. Sometimes he felt certain she was clairvoyant or telepathic or what the Ba¡¯Neesh called Ba or sleep sharing, yet at other times she felt wholly external. However, since she appeared to be entirely composed of Vrill, that made all of her thoughts and language constructed out of Vrill. He confused himself and decided to move on to the next weapon. He could distantly hear the other voices yelling at him but he also noted they didn¡¯t seem to have compulsion in this space, so, for the moment, they were relying on other pressures, like his mom did, trying to force him to do what they wanted. He resisted.

    Next had to be the way then Kiena had sent Vrill into the wall of his bedroom that night. It seemed so very long ago and detached from him, like it happened to another person. He mentally shrugged. Clearly his Ba¡¯Neesh, the Fels Ba¡¯Neesh, had solved that weapon, at least in part by sending Vrill backward on an open electrical signal feed. He wanted to know for certain the other side damage, but he could sort of guess if it worked like with Kiena¡¯s efforts. Distance attack of the person wielding the controls over weaponry. Very nasty. Attack the source weapons were like what Neo did in game, alter the game while playing it to adjust the rules more favorably. It felt super important, like he¡¯d leveled up.

    Next came the frozen tree trick. He didn¡¯t see how that could be used except when around a natural tree and plant system that included that fungus. Still, if the fungus linked underground, how much of the greenery on Earth were in on that conversation already? He was suspicious it might be a lot with the Ba¡¯Neesh being sneaky about telling him. So, he put that weapon in the maybe range.

    He continued wandering through the array becoming more and more engrossed and detailed until he no longer heard the Ba¡¯Neesh, much to their annoyance. They couldn¡¯t help but hear him, droning on and on about this weapon or that. Aenor and five of the others set themselves on full receiving mode and ignored the others to listen to him closely. Edda moved in and out, frustrated, as she wanted to ask questions that clearly Mick was avoiding.

    After what turned out to be several physical hours of detailed review he backtracked to play the turtle defense over and over, it was key, the only pure defensive tool he yet knew. How good was it? He had no way to measure its true application without full testing. It was scary. The other weapon wasn¡¯t really a weapon at all, it was his eyeball sigil. Curved. That curve had been so helpful as it gave a one hundred and eighty-degree coverage. Lastly, he kept returning to the super cavitation of the big sub. What was it exactly?

    What allowed the sub to avoid the friction of the water, the resistance of its forward movement? It wasn¡¯t a weapon, not exactly, but it offered a glimpse into viewing the approaching battle through a different lens. He sat up stiffly, his eyes flickering and the now crusty drool that had oozed down his chin, crackling on his skin. He rubbed at his face and noticed his fingers felt stiff and thickened, hardened. He couldn¡¯t see them in the poor light, they just felt different.

    His body felt wrong. His mind, in the thrall of the weapons, couldn¡¯t focus on his body. He swept the wrongness out of his thoughts as he looked upward, unaware that across the stream Aenor and Gisela were wakening, ten feet away, Karl swam upward from a blurry dream of many voices toward the surface of the night, trying to sense what wakened him.

    Aloud, Mick said, ¡°A curving Turtle cavitator that is like a nosecone in front, streaming back along the sides for protection, moving with us as a group. A shield.¡± His words activated the sleepy attendant manning the drone feed who wakened Jordy sleeping nearby who wakened Thorne and then Xasper whose arousal wakened Moira and through their hateful grumbles they each sat up and turned toward the holos, once again broadcasting at full volume.

    ¡°What?¡± Mael, wakening late, asked aloud.

    ¡°Shhh.¡± Jordy said, stretching and trying to get his brain functional. ¡°Mick is awake.¡±

    ¡°What the fuck time is it?¡± Mael continued, oblivious to the suggestion he remain silent.

    ¡°Half past three,¡± Brad, to everyone¡¯s surprise came powering out of the private area they maintained for his dedicated sleep.

    ¡°What are you doing up?¡± Mael turned on his friend. ¡°You must sleep. Don¡¯t let this rotten kid make you ill, Brad.¡±

    ¡°I adjusted my sensor to waken me when he wakened.¡± Brad said. ¡°Like it or not, Mael, we are running inside his game, on his personal clock. Time to get back to work. Play that last bit back, Jordy.¡± Brad stretched and adjusted his onboard chemistries to counter the insufficient sleep. He would survive. He wouldn¡¯t miss this. Not again.

    They all listened as Mick described what he needed. A nose-cone-shaped anti-assault cavitating sigil like the Turtle. It was accurate, a precise understanding.

    ¡°That might be doable.¡± Xasper was the first to speak. ¡°It¡¯s just a Turtle, like Mael¡¯s embroidered cap. It moved passively with him and while it physically was shaped around his brain area, the properties were close to what Mick is describing.¡±

    ¡°What is the cavitation part about?¡± Mael turned on Xasper, clearly he was now up, they were all now up, willing or not.

    ¡°He is suggesting attack weaponry and even thought might be viewed as resistance, like water to a sub. A super-cavitator creates an internal environment that allows a large submarine to deflect and displace the friction around itself, in a way, passing it behind, almost like the way we bend light. He wants us to bend munitions and possibly the intent to kill as a unique identifiable source around a discrete package, the area covered by the defensive sigil.¡± Brad worked it out live. It was elegant and simple. Could it work?

    ¡°We¡¯ve never tried to deflect active assault as a counter-measure, only as a passive aide.¡± Mael reminded Brad.

    The night vision lenses on the six drones now watching the sleeping Battle Group began to display the rapid rising of the group. The only one not to get up was Steffi, still unconscious.

    ¡°They like to attack me after dark.¡± Mick said, looked up although he was speaking openly. ¡°I think we should try now, before they have a chance to deploy on their timing.¡±

    ¡°Mick, we don¡¯t know what a Turtle will defend against.¡± Xasper said. ¡°The idea of adjusting it to a cavitator through the likely attack is intriguing, but you can¡¯t risk everyone¡¯s life on such an idea. There will be other times to test it out.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t have the time to waste, Xasper.¡± Mick answered, ¡°We never did. It¡¯s a go and die or go and penetrate past their perimeter.¡±Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    ¡°What do you mean, no time?¡± Mael demanded.

    ¡°No time.¡± Mick repeated, shaking his head. ¡°We must get to the youngers, tonight. Without them, our chances of survival dwindle too far. They knew that. That¡¯s why they shaped Tule Soc and tried to shape Directorate to remove the threat.¡± Mick turned toward approaching Aenor. ¡°Can you draw a Ba¡¯Neesh sigil in blood on one of the remaining shock blankets carried by the field Ba¡¯Neesh?¡±

    ¡°They?¡± Mael asked aloud, ¡°Who are they?¡± He received no answer, to his growing frustration.

    ¡°They come with it now.¡± She said, her tone a bit sour. ¡°Very sneaky, Mick. I learn your tricks, won¡¯t be so easy to fool the next time.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Anya leaned in. ¡°What did he do? Oh, to have been inside that circle last night. I so need to know what she knows that Mick knows who is refusing to say fully. Youngers!¡± She spat to the side, exactly like Kiena was wont to do around Mick. She now fully empathized with the Neesatari. Mael stared at her, the footage of the Neeshatari welling to the front of his mind, spitting on Mick¡¯s carpet the day this erupted. What the hell was really going on here? Why the time pressure?

    The bloody sigil was ready quickly and Mick had Karl telling the Soek they were going to run across the killing zone with four of them in the center of the group, the tallest four, holding the sigil overhead like their lives depended on it.

    ¡°I think he¡¯s right about that.¡± Xasper said, nodding. ¡°Mael¡¯s turtles were all fixed. He¡¯s going to power it with the Ba¡¯Neesh, the Channels and the links out. All we have to do Moira, is cast the cavitator part, the active intention within the stability of the Turtle to protect against directed Tule Soc assault.¡±

    ¡°It means we keep the nationals from attacking too.¡± Brad said, wishing Serla were here. Two thirds of the Ba¡¯Neesh and attending Soek were gone, outbound to Oxine and Kuriwa, flying with nationals to evacuate those two lesser facilities. Serla, Aristeen, Iiyiko and the Gardener Norris, were with Evgeny prepping to blow the Fels electrics all to hell at the first sensor of a Tule Soc communication toward the facility. They had to leave it to the last bitter second as the shut down would be complete, leaving the facilities air handlers off line. He didn¡¯t want to imagine twenty-five-hundred-wakening-from-their-drugged-state-Ba¡¯Neesh, unable to escape the underground death trap of their mechanical confinement. Once the electrics blew, local Dire¡¯Sec efforts and their unwilling national aides were on a terrifying clock. How to get the youngers out before they died from simple bad air?

    Everyone believed the nationals were now fully on their side, after Thorne finally told them the monsters in the woods were coming for their children, being forcibly drugged and held in prison-like conditions inside of the lab facility. But, the nationals were facing almost nightmarish echos out of their deep past, an unholy alliance with fabled creatures. Everyone knew that individually, the military men and women could go rogue and try to kill the Ba¡¯Neesh. There were historical examples.

    Between the Battle Group and the lab entry were the massed Tule Soc with illegal vehicles now openly displaying illegal weapons and men chasing residents out of the massive wedge of lethal intent facing the injured Ba¡¯Neesh and a few rogue former Tule Soc operatives across the kill zone. A last stand.

    ¡°We go to fight now.¡± The Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh, all wearing Beloved backpacks, were readying themselves. The Soek knew that the time for argument was over.

    ¡°We cast the sigil first.¡± Xasper said and Moira nodded. ¡°We go once Mick¡¯s group move out. Brad, you will organize the counter-assault on our end? Everyone stay with a Ba¡¯Neesh, channel to maintain communication and added power both with the Vrill and through DireSec com.¡±

    Mael found it strange that it was Xasper so ready to take Mick¡¯s hair-brained idea to heart. His Xasper. Emotion welled. Dark Gods knew they would have some deaths tonight. How many, he couldn¡¯t say. He stared at his embroidered cap on Anya¡¯s head, her horns protruding through its surface these many long years. Would it be enough to save her? It was an intolerable thought and he knew she would resent it. Dying in battle was the ultimate in choices when becoming a Beloved. He knew that. He hated its simple truth and hated Mick for putting them, him, in this position tonight.

    He shared a glance with Brad who was being actively attended by Perisee and Lemista who fully intended to ride their Battle Soek into the fight. He could read their uncertain odds in Brad¡¯s eyes. What could Mick do once he reached the town? Wade through a thousand armed men? The Vrill weapons they had seemed woefully inadequate. Scorched Earth. That¡¯s what Serla had repeated.

    He now fully understood the reference, everyone did. Brad had detailed the definition the night before. ¡°A scorched-earth policy is a specific military strategy focused on the destruction of anything that might be useful to the opponent while it is advancing through or withdrawing from a location.¡± It was apparently a famous quote, although Brad didn¡¯t mention the author of it.

    Mael also understood how he was profoundly different from Mick. He would only risk the lives of those he cared about as the absolute last resort and then he became out of control, not really strategic, more instinctively active. Mick, the kid was leading a group. Right or wrong the kid had a grip on the stick of control. That grip was pulling all of them along with him.

    Mael knew, as Neo so pointedly told him, he was just an assent. A collection of abilities Mick could and would use without request or apology. It was a shocking understanding of their roles.

    Brad grinned and turned away. Mael knew his dear friend was glorying in this opportunity. He was running toward the destiny that waited for all of them once the cast was thrown.

    ¡°How will we know?¡± Everyone heard Mick yell. The Battle Group was assembled. The Ba¡¯Neesh, Akaitapi included, were riding shotgun in an outer ring, each paired up with the Beloved packs spaced evenly and the Soek on the inside, protected. Everyone had access to a Beloved, a horn and a partner. The trembling inner Soek, the tallest, were holding the bloody shock blanket overhead. They hadn¡¯t witnessed the last one. They weren¡¯t under compulsion. They were running with this horrifying group into certain death and yet each of them felt a new linkage, one to the next, the hovering voices of the night lingered in their minds. Karl hadn¡¯t answered that question, he shared it. It would have to wait. He yelled out in German, ¡°On my mark.¡±

    Mick found he understood the German. When had that happened and how? He mentally shrugged, it felt like English inside his head, he doubted he could speak it, but understand it, yes. A good thing.

    ¡°You will know!¡± Brad yelled back as Xasper and Moira were once again busy. It seemed inappropriate to yell while they were casting but, everyone was ready to bolt.

    ¡°It feels, strong.¡± Elias said, noting his own improving health. He eyed Mick from the side, something was off about Mick¡¯s face and the kid kept rubbing his fingers as if they hurt. ¡°You okay?¡± He asked. The waiting felt the worst.

    ¡°I dunno, Elias.¡± Mick answered distractedly. He and Elias were behind Karl who was carrying Freya and next to Hans with Steffi. The run would be timed by Elias, considered the slowest person in the group. ¡°My hands are stiff, like the Vrill yesterday leathered them. I can¡¯t straighten out my fingers. My whole body aches, I guess it¡¯s like battle flu or something maybe.¡± He shrugged, uncomfortable talking about it.

    He felt flushed, his throat was a bit sore, his eyes hurt and he kept thinking there was a fluttering in his eyes, a mucus he had to keep blinking out of the way. But, he thought he could see better too and faster. He kept noticing his eyes flickering toward barely seen things in the woods, in the dark woods. Aenor turned to look at him. He noticed her horns were much larger. Overnight growth? Did all of that Vrill accelerate their mutations? Elias had told him Ba¡¯Neesh looked so strange because of ongoing mutations that continued their entire life. He wondered what she would look like in five years, or a hundred. It was an odd thought. He felt Edda heating up as his spine spiraled to life. When had it started to spiral, another new observation?

    ¡°They are casting.¡± He said aloud, pleased that his tone remained even, showing no sight of his inner panic.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh began their hum and suddenly, it was as if the shock blanket became alive, everyone could feel the presence of something or someone else, looking down from the blanket.

    ¡°Shit.¡± Elias said.

    ¡°We run!¡± Yelled Karl. He too had felt the unmistakable presence and the impetus to run was half to run away from that presence. He decided not to think of that. Take charge. His job. He was Team Leader of this Battle Group. He raised his right fist. ¡°We are coming for you Tule Soc.¡±

    ¡°Vengeance!¡± Yelled out Freya, her fist lifted too. Karl liked that. He hoped Mick was right and with this blanket defense they would survive the kill zone. If not, he would die in glory fighting next to Freya. There were much worse ways to die. He grinned and again wished he had fangs and that hammer, he would insist on that hammer.

    (Here we go my lovely fans! Do you think Mick has a plan or is he a pantster, doing everything by the seat of his pants? I wonder what¡¯s happening to him now. </img>)

 Chapter Fifty-One - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Fifty-One ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    The first hundred yards or so, through the last of the trees wasn¡¯t so bad except they had to stay in a group and wind around the widest path. Mick discovered he likely should have organized the cast taking this into consideration, a future note, if any of them had a future.

    He knew Elias was giving him the side-eye glances although it was dark enough Mick doubted he was more than a shape in the moving shapes. Still, the persistence of his friend¡¯s attention added to his nerves. Then the trees ended, chopped out by the Reserves Team along a survey line. Standard practice. It felt like skin being stripped away. What was left was a low growing ground cover. Reserves policy kept grasses out and favored some local plant that would remain close to the ground. Mick knew they were mostly plants identified by normal people as weeds. Often they had pricklers, made bad odors when stepped on or favored some other noxious trait. His foster father had often said if the plant made the animals and insects unhappy while overgrowing, it was likely a good choice.

    The best Mick could say for this local plant was at least the ground beneath it had been graded to a flatness instead of like some he¡¯d been on, which were rough churned and difficult to walk across. It appeared this nation/state liked their fire zones tidy. Big surprise, not.

    They hesitated slightly in the now too-bright moonlight. A perfect night. Yet, the edge of the town glowed across the way and not from its windows and all of them could see the shapes of men walking back and forth. Likely they had already been seen and weapons were even now being trained on them, sighted in for distance and best effect.

    ¡°Go, go, go.¡± Karl hit the trigger that activated their feet forward.

    This was way scarier for Mick than the other battles had been. First the floater had felt like he was protected, then in these same woods he had been busy and there had been woods. This naked exposure with untested defense running toward certain death turned his breathing into gasping, his running into a stumbling shuffle. Every instinct argued to run the other direction, every instinct but one. That lone sensation radiated from the core of Mick. Forward was the only option; no matter what alternatives might look like to others. He couldn¡¯t say from where this certainty emerged, only that it pressed him forward.

    The barrage waited until they were about a third the distance across the field. None of them could describe what the weapon was supposed to do exactly, nor what they madly hoped the cast shield might do to save them. What they experienced was two-fold, first they got cold, so cold Mick thought he might be freezing. Their run became a walk as the air they breathed became puffs of near frozen air. The shield, wasn¡¯t the shock blanket, it was an invisible curved structure twice to three times their height, above the blanket.

    Karl pointed at the next approaching explosive device. ¡°Modified mortar shells.¡± All of them slowed to watch death arcing down toward them. Perfect range. Perfect shot. It was a bit like the shock blanket sigil might be a target they were waving at the enemy drones who were above, likely sending precise location info to the mortar shooters.

    The shell exploded on impact with the invisible curving Turtle, throwing hot embers and what seemed to be shrapnel in all directions. They watched these continuing nasty bits reach the ground to catch the fire-break plant life on fire all around them. Mick realized, they had to walk over ongoing fire. Only, as they advanced, the cold which curved out in front of them quenched the hot embers first. It was like watching an invisible wall reaching forward.

    All of them felt another sensation too, a hunger inside the shell of the Turtle they cowered under. That realization landed where the mortar shell had missed them. This Turtle sigil was embodied and it was beginning to accelerate, acting upon those it sheltered with an urgency to run. It wanted to hunt.

    ¡°What are those voices?¡± Aenor yelled over at Mick as she too accelerated. It was true, he too could hear conversations, snippets, advice, yelling and he could feel emotions within those words. German words. The flow of the Tule Soc ahead of them passing around the Turtle?

    ¡°Those it hunts.¡± Elias said, he was noting that this sigil made him feel stronger. As it accelerated, he found the means within himself to ramp up too. What was it? The only other Turtle Shell Defense sigil he had ever stood beneath was the precise fixed one painted on the underside of the common room in the Math Department at Citadel. It had a presence too, but it wasn¡¯t the exact same presence to his mind. Similar but different. An individual?

    It. Glances slipped from Ba¡¯Neesh to Soek and back again. It. They were rapidly approaching the front, as Mick remembered was the word used in old-school style gaming when you encountered the enemy up close and personal.

    He yelled back at Aenor, ¡°Can you reach the Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh and Akaitapi through this sigil?¡±

    ¡°They are close.¡± She answered.

    ¡°Can you yell for them to use true Speech and broadcast, throughout that town?¡± He said, ¡°Something like, All local Soek, Emergency! Assemble at town center, full Reserves gear, weapons and food. Now.¡±

    Several of the Battle Group Ba¡¯Neesh raised their voices together.

    ¡°What are you doing, Mick?¡± Brad said aloud. He was hiding behind a building near the front choosing to watch the run live and the two Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh with him heard the summons. ¡°Fucking A.¡± Brad said, while Lemista and Perisee, already standing tall on his exo shoulders faced in different directions and made the summons.

    Mael spoke by com to Brad, ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± He asked.

    Brad restrained his chuckle, sensing Mael might not be the best recipient at the moment. ¡°With a guess, Mael? I think Mick is assembling an army. Didn¡¯t our intel put close to five thousand low-level Soek in this town? A fucking army. Armed too. With Reserves supplies. By the Dark Fucking Gods, Mael, he is summoning an army to the town center. The Ba¡¯Neesh are passing the word.¡± No one had armies anymore, not really as a standing army was against International laws. Brad was pulling up DireSec drone feeds from across the town to display on his devices, feeds showing men leaving businesses, their residences, off the streets, dressing on the run. It was the middle of the night; the streets should be empty. Well, except for the already massed Tule Soc and now the DireSec operatives and Ba¡¯Neesh. A third player. The new emerging arrivals were wearing backpacks and about half carrying some type of weapon, even large knives and what looked like bats. All were headed inward toward the rapidly filling streets of the downtown area.

    The lab was on the outskirts, and the perimeter where the Battle Group was approaching was away from the downtown corridor leaving only a small area of the town¡¯s Soek unable to cross through the Tule Soc massed operatives. Footage showed these Soek running along the barrier, mostly toward the lab and circling round the back of that facility out closer to where nationals still had their temporary shelters.

    Those national troops still undeployed to town directly were trying to turn these Soek back, but instead the Soek simply curved out wider to avoid the nationals, some running through other areas of the fire break they were out so far from the town.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    The Battle Turtle hit the Tule Soc perimeter with unholy impact. The Battle Group watched men being tossed like debris up, over and behind the Turtle, into the still burning fires to either side of their path.

    The Battle Group discovered their lasers were inoperable inside the Turtle pointing in any direction except the rear. Several of the Ba¡¯Neesh twisted to fire through the rear opening, recognizing it was a vulnerability in the shape of the sigil¡¯s streaming nose cone and cavitator design.

    It took Tule Soc too long to understand this opening before the Battle Group was among them, the Turtle killing any Tule Soc operative that didn¡¯t retreat out of its path. It wanted to head toward the greater massing Tule Soc but Mick told Aenor to yell through the sigil to nearby Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh for the right direction for the downtown area, for the Soek.

    Honks and trills directed them to the right, down a boulevard-type street. Clearly the city planners were boxy regimented thinkers. The group quickly saw the Soek.

    The Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh and Akaitapi not inside the sigil were busy lasering Tule Soc operatives in battles on both sides and mainly behind the Turtle, giving the Turtle further support as they continued to run forward as the Soek parted before the approaching strangeness.

    Footage on Brad¡¯s feed showed the shape of the nose-cone through deflected small weapons fire and explosive bursts ranging along its sides and top. This is what the Soek saw on the ground and wisely avoided. Something was closing in on them.

    Aenor looked over at Mick, who was blinking furiously, one hand rubbing his eyes. She caught Karl¡¯s attention and in German asked him, ¡°You want us to compel Soek, right?¡±

    Karl nodded after his own glance toward Mick. ¡°Ja!¡± He answered. He was digging this entire impossible arrival. ¡°Assist Mick. Molcom Encapsulate. Take Analgesic. Assist Mick.¡± He yelled back at her.

    The voices of the Battle Group Ba¡¯Neesh called out, to be echoed across the town in all directions. ¡°Assist Mick. Molcom Encapsulate. Take Analgesic. Assist Mick.¡±

    Karl grinned. How to make an army, 101. It was impossible. Yet, he was seeing through the nose cone hundreds of men, make that Soek, dressed not in Tule Soc uniforms, but in the greens of citizens called to service for the Reserves. It amused him. A Green Army.

    They walked the Turtle through the crowd of Soek who crowded out to the sides not to touch it, to the center of the downtown area. The Turtle turned toward the massing Tule Soc and pushed on, dragging the Battle Group with it.

    ¡°How do we turn this thing off if we want to?¡± Karl asked Elias, pointing up. Clearly, the Turtle had its own mind. No one had told Karl sigils had intelligence, were entities. Mick seemed out of it.

    ¡°We don¡¯t.¡± Elias answered, equally worried about the mobile Turtle nearly as much as for Mick, who was staggering and stumbling, acting like he was trying to climb out of his clothing. When Elias spoke to him, Mick was incoherent, clearly not able to lead this Army he had summoned. Delegation put that on the three of them, Aenor, Elias and Karl.

    They instinctively formed up ahead of and on both sides of Mick with Gisella behind, upright, keeping Mick upright and within the safe bounds of their sub-group.

    ¡°Can we give those Soek mules lasers?¡± Karl asked.

    ¡°Yes, at least some. Don¡¯t know what the Vrill we can access will support.¡± Elias answered, logic he understood. His position clarifying itself. He was Mick¡¯s second in command. At Aenor he said, ¡°Get the Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh to organize boosters to strings of Soek, those closest to the Tule Soc first.

    Karl interpreted. He yelled orders at Aenor and used his external to bring up a visual of what the overhead drones were seeing, the DireSec ones. Elias gave him the coding knowing Jordy would skin him later. Too bad, so sad for his future self. He didn¡¯t work for Jordy anymore anyway; he was with Mick. That incongruity amused him.

    ¡°I think we need to stop, force the Turtle to hold position.¡± Elias said. ¡°We need the intel.¡± All three nodded. It was incredibly hard to resist the forcible pull of the Turtle¡¯s will but as a group they managed it.

    ¡°Do we take down the shock blanket?¡± Aenor asked, the local Ba¡¯Neesh were holding the Soek in place with powered help from backpacks.

    ¡°Not yet.¡± Both Karl and Elias shook their heads. They brought Aenor in close to see the overhead view on Karl¡¯s holo. The quick look told them Tule Soc still had around a thousand well-armed men between them and the lab facility. Even superior troop size wouldn¡¯t defeat better weapons. How was this going to work?

    They turned on grunting screams from Mick, now on his hands and knees. He was clawing at the modern cobble appearance of the boulevard, with claws.

    ¡°Oh shit.¡± Elias knelt down next to Mick. ¡°What the fuck is happening to you, Mick?¡±

    Mick looked up, his face truly visible through the sigil as they had paused near a streetlight.

    There was a row of lumps where Mick used to have eyebrows, ridges from forehead to nose, an angling of his chin, double eyelids and that was just his face. It was as if his bones were being rebuilt from the inside out, while they watched.

    ¡°Mick?¡± Elias tried to deny what his eyes were seeing.

    ¡°He within the Lamentation of the Beloved.¡± Aenor said, ¡°Rapid alter and growth, like us.¡± She pointed to her dramatically larger horns. ¡°Too much Vrill, too fast. Edda let him inside. Should have known. He in there, just hurt a little bit.¡±

    ¡°A fucking little bit?¡± Mick¡¯s voice, altered as well, roared out and then ended in a weird chirp. ¡°Understatement on steroids.¡± He rapid blinked up at them, blurry in the light. ¡°What are we waiting for? Expand the fucking Turtle and take the lab. Let Citadel and DireSec chase the Tule Soc. Make Brad lead the army that remains outside the Turtle.¡± Then he writhed and screamed again.

    The idea the Turtle could enfold the Army hadn¡¯t occurred to any of them.

    ¡°Expand it?¡± Aenor straightened. ¡°How, Elias?¡±

    On the spot, Elias glowered at Mick and then felt bad for doing so. No one knew this shit. How to expand a sigil from the inside?

    ¡°How about we push out.¡± Karl, ever practical, asked. ¡°All sides at once we walk out from the center.¡±

    ¡°The Ba¡¯Neesh, we tell the Turtle to expand as we walk out.¡± Aenor nodded.

    ¡°We cover our asses, turtles have holes in their defensive shells.¡± Elias pointed behind them to the hole they all knew was there behind them. It was their noisy ass end.

    Aenor called out in Neesh, Karl in German and Elias and Gisela reached down to pull Mick upright. When they did they could feel his body burning, raging. He stood shorter than before and hunched a bit forward.

    ¡°Helewidis.¡± Elias yelled and then found the Ba¡¯Neesh beside him, glaring not at him, but at Mick. She snorted. ¡°Stupid Soek, changing too fast.¡± She lowered her single horn and Elias noted it was three to four inches longer than it had been, was it days or hours ago, his tracking of time seemed stretched. Too much Vrill, too fast? All of the Battle Group Ba¡¯Neesh were suffering from it. She rammed Mick on the head, hard. The word thumping floated up in Elias¡¯ memory, from stories about Old One Horn. Well, Helewidis seemed to be a young one horn, equally thumpery with her damn healing horn.

    Mick stopped screaming and seemed intent on simply breathing.

    ¡°He hungry. Must eat. Starving.¡± Helewidis¡¯ English was choppy when she wasn¡¯t stressed, clearly worse now.

    Karl interrupted. ¡°That will have to wait. I am going to give the expansion order. Ready?¡± They all nodded, except for Mick, they couldn¡¯t tell if he even understood, just that his horrible screams had stopped.

    The outer ring of Ba¡¯Neesh simply walked outward in teams and the Turtle stretched. The core of Soek holding the shock blanket remained exactly in place with the Turtle suddenly no longer trying to tug them. The expansion served the Turtle¡¯s wishes, to move toward Tule Soc.

    The Ba¡¯Neesh walked between crowded confused Soek in green who felt the shock of cooler air and a massive presence overhead as they passed within the shelter of the Turtle. Weapons firing on them suddenly stopped. That alone was enough to keep the confused Soek inside, with the monsters.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± One asked of the Soek holding the shock blanket up.

    ¡°Vengeance.¡± That Soek answered. ¡°We are Mick¡¯s Army. We assist Mick. Big Bad Karl is your superior officer. He is the one with Freya, the monster Ba¡¯Neesh on his shoulders. Obey Big Bad Karl.¡±

    These words flowed like a virus among the growing field of Soek the Turtle now sheltered. They continued the expansion all the way to the Tule Soc line where the Ba¡¯Neesh stopped, facing the angry, terrified, operatives who continued to futilely shoot at them, point blank. The last few steps had been over the bodies of dead Soek and two Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh, already being carried to the center. Mick was the center. The Ba¡¯Neesh that remained tight to Mick and the four Soek carrying the sigil, received the dead Ba¡¯Neesh and compelled the Soek carrying them into lasering the bodies in half and tying them around their shoulders so those Soek could still fight, if necessary.

    This gruesome process sent new shockwaves through the Army, creating a new understanding that the Ba¡¯Neesh army took their dead Ba¡¯Neesh with them and in the process made a new version of Soek mules.

    (Ahh. We have reached the Army. Poor Mick. I almost feel sorry for him, but not totally.)

 Chapter Fifty-Two - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Fifty-Two ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Arjan knew the exact moment he had lost, even though his well-trained operatives were still holding their positions and defending the path into the facility. That moment came when the kid¡¯s deployed force field turned away from the facility, Arjan¡¯s planned engagement, toward the town center, toward the impossible assembly of Soek dressed in their Reserves gear. An Army. Then, the same force field that destroyed everything Tule Soc it encountered, absorbed the Soek and grew larger, as if the force field was eating, becoming.

    Arjan now realized his forces were fighting with DireSec, not the kid, not the detestable child somewhere inside that force field. His hatred had grown all consuming toward the kid that was inch-by-inch destroying his life. He knew he had no career, no future. Despicable acts would be laid upon him by nationals. His guarded secrets were exposed, because of monsters.

    What infuriated him the most was what the force field¡¯s change of direction exposed. This same kid was indifferent to Arjan, his forces, his plans, his entirety. Indifferent. By turning aside, the kid demonstrated Arjan and his forces were conquered while the outcome remained yet undetermined. How was that possible?

    ¡°Dieter.¡± Arjan yelled for his second who was busy with the fight and came reluctantly into the small private office of his boss. He had an end play to execute.

    ¡°Sir?¡±

    ¡°I need an isolated communication line, fully shielded. Now.¡± Arjan said.

    Dieter spun to return to his desk, to the many conversations already taking place. Important team leaders requiring directives. What the hell was wrong with Arjan? He coded in the necessary encryption to isolate one of the precious communication lines, adding to that feed full defensive shields.

    ¡°Ready, Sir.¡± He said through his wrist external.

    Dieter deflected the still holding offensive conversations to watch his system feeds as Arjan entered several series of codes, none Dieter had seen before. Then Arjan activated the signal direction, a familiar code for the Fels Facility, the Lab. What was Arjan telling the lab systems to do?

    The instant the signal activated the power flickered inside the bunker and died, turning everything red under the emergency generators. Then those died. What was Arjan doing? Dieter keyed his shoulder lights on and hurried into Arjan¡¯s office.

    ¡°You¡¯ve blown electricity, Sir?¡± Dieter couldn¡¯t see this as any type of serious advantage.

    ¡°No, you ass.¡± Arjan spun around on Dieter, snarling. ¡°They blew the electrics when I attempted to send the signal. Get the backups running. Fast.¡±

    Dieter retreated, frowning. Arjan was saying that the opposition was keyed to a private Tule Soc communication line specifically to blow the electricity. Why? First the monsters walking inside a force field, clearly intelligent monsters, not the insane animals Arjan said. Now, Arjan wanting to attack the lab. It was a circus of lies and Dieter was responsible for the men out there dying for Arjan¡¯s lies. He was horrified. What was going on here, really?

    Arjan paced, waiting for power to return. It took several minutes before he realized every flicker of returning power that was followed by darkness was a backup being blown. DireSec was clearly chasing and blowing all power in the town and area. His mind turned back to that first incident, the inciting incident that had begun this nightmare, a city losing its power. The kid. It all came back to that kid. Arjan had believed the kid dead, that blue hand weapon well destroyed. Denial. He now knew the truth of it. The kid had just destroyed the facility power, anticipated his attempt to gas everyone in the building.

    What now? He wouldn¡¯t remain cowering inside a bunker. He turned and nearly ran past Dieter, then through the security door. He knew the external doors were electrically powered, no fire escape doors. Better security over human safety. He swore bitterly already knowing when he reached those doors that he was inside his own prison, unable to escape. How long before the breathable air ran out? He realized, it was the same count now facing the drugged monsters in the bottom level of the labs. He would die with them. They too were in sealed, contained spaces.

    He turned and walked back to his office, past Dieter giving him unhappy looks. His second didn¡¯t know both of them were dying. Arjan closed his office door behind him and suffered the continuing stream of external holos showing him the now stationary force field and his forces battering against it, with no progress. He knew the rear of the thing was more vulnerable but DireSec was in full defensive mode there, along with the distinctive uniforms of nationals. Sides, national had finally taken sides and it wasn¡¯t favoring Arjan.

    Better weapons. Better defense. Better strategy. He counted off the errors in his thinking, in his choices. He wanted to talk to Eric, to ask him how this had happened. But, Eric too had been a lie. How had a Soek reached top levels in Tule Soc? He turned to his system to run those inquiries, knowing he was using precious system batteries but he needed answers, none of this made sense. At least he could die knowing answers. That became his last hope.

    The Turtle¡¯s size grew large enough to encroach on the Tule Soc positions, driving operatives backwards as their larger weapons were tossed into the air, to crash among residences and businesses of the citizenry who were already pressing away from the conflict on every avenue heading outward into the fire zones.

    Mick wobbled back to his feet and tried to straighten upright, but his back wouldn¡¯t let him, Edda wouldn¡¯t let him. His brain was a bit Vrill drunk from Helewidis¡¯ thunking gift so he decided he could walk crooked until Edda let up. It was all her fault. His thinking muddled out a pointed mental finger in her direction, only to hear a heated, profane, retort back. Then, realizing Edda was listening, he mentally lowered his finger. He frowned and then regretted that too, his face was hot and tight and his skin felt thicker, like it was harder to make facial expressions because of thicker skin. That made no sense at all.

    Mick pushed his way past Karl to what was the front of the Turtle. He was facing a string of big weapons, all firing point blank at him. He looked past the machinery to the men running the weapons. He shook his head. Then Mick made a hand gesture, waving them to the side. It was a clear warning. Most of the operatives had had enough of facing an impervious force field only to have bits of their own weapons showering back on them. All of them were injured. One called it bomb rain. They collectively decided to run for it.

    Mick forced the eager Turtle to wait until Mick could no longer see the backs of those running away. He wasn¡¯t here to kill men, he realized, he was here to rescue the youngers. He waved his right claw forefinger forward. ¡°Now.¡± He said, his voice high and chirpy, totally wrong. He coughed and tried again and managed a lower hoot sound. His English was barely understandable. Great. He hoped that was only when he yelled, not regular talking.

    He stepped forward and the Turtle moved with him, at his pace. Elias came up on one side, Karl carrying Freya on the other.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°My feet hurt, Elias.¡± Mick said, happier that his regular voice still sounded okay. ¡°Gotta remove these boots. My toes are being crushed.¡±

    Mick paused and the forward movement of the Turtle ceased. It gave Karl a spectacular moonlit view of ground vehicles with mounted mortars popping like pop corn under the forward pressure of the Turtle. He hoped no innocent lives were lost when the flying vehicles eventually crashed. Now all of the Tule Soc operatives in front of them were abandoning their posts. He couldn¡¯t fault them. Lost cause. He¡¯d wanted more personal action but he decided he could settle for survival and these absolutely freak show fireworks.

    Mick squatted and pressed the seals on his boots to instant relief. He pushed the boots off and then saw the bizarre shape of his socks. ¡°Oh shit, Elias. I¡¯m afraid to look at them.¡± He said.

    Elias stared. The socks described a shape that wasn¡¯t a human foot. He sucked a breath. He owed the kid for his life a few times, what was sock removal compared to that? He reached over and tugged off the nearest sock in one hard pull. Then he gasped. ¡°Oh, Mick.¡±

    Mick¡¯s taloned foot uncurled exposing long clawed toes with dark pointed nails. One of his toes had migrated around to almost the back of his foot. Elias thought, no wonder Mick¡¯s feet hurt. He reached down and freed the second foot. Did he call that a foot anymore, it was clearly more like a four-fingered taloned-claw with thick, hardened skin that almost looked plated. He poked at it. ¡°It¡¯s hard.¡± He said.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t feel that.¡± Mick said, flexing his new freed toes. They felt much better outside the boots. Looked creepy as fuck, but felt better. He handed Elias his former boots. ¡°Will these fit you or Otto? I won¡¯t be needing them anymore.¡± He pushed himself upright and found his balance much improved although the arch of his foot didn¡¯t touch the ground. It was sort of like walking on pads. His talons clicked on the faux-cobbled surface. Noisy. Like Ba¡¯Neesh hoof noisy. He frowned. What would padding look like for long, dark, pointy nails?

    Aenor stared at him just like she had stared at his feet. Her expression remained guarded, uncertain.

    ¡°I¡¯m still me.¡± Mick said, a bit sarcastically and then he resented the click-whistle on the end of his words that stole his intended effect.

    ¡°Clearly you are not still you.¡± Aenor answered. ¡°But, Mick enough. We go now to get the youngers, fuck Mick?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I can walk better now.¡± Mick said, tightly controlling his tongue when it wanted to slap the top of his mouth at the end. There was a hole in the roof of his mouth. He frowned. That must be where the whistle sounds were coming from. He pressed his tongue to his teeth to find they were all still there, still felt human, like himself.

    He walked forward now worrying about that feeling human part. Something was wrong with his back. He was afraid to tell Elias that his backpack felt stuck. Usually he could feel it moving as he walked. It was still moving but not like a backpack. He didn¡¯t want to know. He¡¯d seen his creepy feet, what the fuck was happening to his back? Almost as if the thought caused something, his backpack made a huge popping sound, exactly like an explosion.

    ¡°Mick?¡± Big Bad Karl, Elias and Aenor all asked in unison.

    ¡°Yeah. Something is happening.¡± Mick answered. ¡°Edda exploded, I think. I¡¯m afraid to look just now.¡±

    The Battle Group had reached the half-dozen wide steps leading to the two sets of double doors of the main entrance to the Tule Soc Research Lab Facility. These steps were like the architecture, blunt, straight edged and rather plain. On either side of the stairs were eighteen-inch wide low walls clearly designed for people to sit on them. Except they were sharp cornered and looked uncomfortable. The bottom of the stairs had forty-eight inch square ends topped with granite platforms, again at sitting height. Mick thought they were designed for statues or something but none were ever installed. Just big flat granite squares with too sharp edges, now covered in bird shit splats.

    ¡°I think I¡¯m going to rest here, Elias.¡± Mick said, pointing to the top of the platform. ¡°Aenor, you can manage the door cutting and Karl and the Army can kick them in, right? Power is off in there I¡¯m pretty sure. When the streetlamps went down Serla and his team must have blown it like I hoped. You guys need to move fast to rescue the youngers. Trapped. Karl, I need you and Freya to get the solar blanket up on top of this building, protect everyone. Elias, take Otto¡¯s external and find Mael. Not sure where or whose drone is DireSec. He needs to bring the wind, I think, fill this damn building with oxygen-rich air. I think I need to sit here. That okay?¡± Mick looked around at his core team. Each of them nodded.

    Aenor said, ¡°We need Ba¡¯Neesh on edges of Turtle. I call more.¡±

    Karl nodded and said, ¡°I¡¯m assigning the original eight mules for private guards around you, Mick.¡±

    Mick climbed up on the platform and Elias joined him, already playing with Otto¡¯s external. Otto was one of the original eight and four of them were already circling Mick, their expressions protective, the other four were manning the blanket. The enemy, as Karl was wont to say, was anyone pointing weapons at them and they knew what the Ba¡¯Neesh would say, ¡®assist Mick¡¯. Simple orders.

    ¡°I need the dead Ba¡¯Neesh.¡± Mick continued and then pointed to the stairs immediately in front of him. ¡°Any dead Ba¡¯Neesh need to be here. Must see what I have done. Assign teams to bring the Soek dead to this lawn area here.¡± He pointed to the left of the platform. ¡°Take the Tule Soc dead to the hole in the Turtle and arrange to leave them in a proper area there.¡±

    ¡°You sure you want the dead here, Mick?¡± Elias asked. It was a difficult request.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Mick nodded. ¡°My psychiatrist used to tell me I needed to face the consequences of my actions, not hide from them. I think I must see them, know them. They are me, mine, forever mine.¡± He answered. ¡°My dead.¡±

    Elias shook his head but climbed up next to him. He noticed Mick sat funny, knees up, talons flat and sort of hunched forward. He dangled his own legs over the too-sharp edge of the granite. They were surrounded in people moving, a mass of green. People with determined yet confused expressions.

    The four Soek carrying the dead halves of the Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh arrived, to find seats. None chose to remove their burdens. Instead they sat quietly on the steps in front of Mick and Elias.

    Elias told Otto that Mick needed food and green-clad Soek started to approach to hand over food, some Reserves pack ready-to-eat crud and some with real food from their homes.

    ¡°Got Jordy.¡± Elias said, pleased to have access to tech again. A drone had found them and was hovering overhead above the indistinct top edge of the turtle.

    Soek started bringing dead Soek to lay out on the grass.

    ¡°Jordy has Mael. He is coming. Brad is here too, Karl got to him and they are going up and over the top of the building.¡± Elias pointed toward the area where a mass of Soek were using Reserves gear to form ladders to raise the shock blanket.

    ¡°Brad has Perisee and Lemista ordering Soek to give the blanket holders a break. Created another team.¡± Elias settled back into reporting, only regretting that this external was not Vrill based and it wasn¡¯t a top model, still, it was something.

    ¡°The youngers?¡± Mick asked, eating a sandwich slowly, finding his mouth felt slightly smaller.

    ¡°Aenor found Serla, Aristeen and Norris.¡± Elias answered. ¡°Serla says Iiyiko is with them and can ramp in on all the juice needed to cut the doors. He says thanks for the Army of Soek to help, making good progress.

    Mick looked up, through the sea of moving green Soek to see the Soek who was Mael Strom striding along with a host of heavily antlered Ba¡¯Neesh surrounding him. The Soek Army parted before this host.

    ¡°Mael.¡± He said, some pleasure in his voice. ¡°He will understand what¡¯s happening to me.¡±

    Elias felt a stab of jealousy at this comment and then he chastised himself. He was¡­ He was¡­ Elias blinked. Was he just a Mick bodyguard? Or what? Did he need a title, a position? He shoved the uncomfortable feelings aside. It had to be enough that Mick was his friend and they were doing whatever this was, together. So the kid liked Mael? He liked Mael too. Mick belonged to all of them. That was the thing.

    Mael arrived and stared at Mick in the moonlight. The changes were striking, new head shape, taloned feet and what was going on with his body, tightly hidden by the boy wrapping arms around his knees as if trying to hold his body together?

    ¡°Mick? You summoned.¡± His tone only held an edge of sharpness.

    ¡°I did.¡± Mick said, nodding. He heard the edge. Yeah, a kid ordering older people about. He could see the annoyance of that. ¡°First, can you blow more oxygen into that building and then, later, if you have a moment, I have a problem.¡± Mick said, ¡°A personal problem.¡±

    Mael regrouped, as he seemed to always do around this kid. He softened. ¡°We got nationals to bring in mobile air circulation units once we understood what Serla was going to do. We¡¯re ready. Serla was bored and guessed like you did at the problem. I have time to sit with you and Elias, would that be okay? Anya needs to talk to you about the dead, so I¡¯ve been told.¡±

    (The battle that collapses. Tricky. Why did Mick really need an army? Secrets. J I am such a terrible tease sometimes.)

 Chapter Fifty-Three - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Fifty-Three ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick scanned the Ba¡¯Neesh surrounding Mael. The one with the massive rack, he couldn¡¯t mistake her, she was Moira. He also recognized Anya, the petite twin-horned Ba¡¯Neesh who wore the black cap pierced through by her horns. Mael¡¯s Anya. Or, could there be partnerships? Behind the eight approaching Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh were more of the Akaitapi. He recognized the leader although her name escaped him. He whispered to Elias, ¡°Do you remember the lead Akaitapi¡¯s name?¡±

    Aapisowoohta snorted, then her name slammed into both Mick and Elias¡¯ brain including pronunciation, ¡°Ahhh-piso-wooh-ta.¡±

    Mick rubbed at the sides of his head, saying, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, okay. It¡¯s like scrambled eggs in here sometimes.¡±

    ¡°You will remember me properly, Fucking Mick.¡± She answered, aloud this time.

    ¡°What did I do?¡± Elias fished through his pants pockets, hopeful of a stray analgesic. One of the guarding Soek helpfully provided two doses. He¡¯d assisted one of the Reserves medic guys earlier and then asked for extras.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t know it either.¡± Aapisowoohta said firmly to Elias. ¡°Now that we better understand direct thought, it will be easier to encourage proper behavior amongst you Soek.¡±

    ¡°Great. Now everyone will blame me for that too.¡± Mick said, gratefully swallowing the analgesic Elias gave him. ¡°Like teaching the Battle Ba¡¯Neesh profanity wasn¡¯t enough.¡±

    Elias nudged him. Mael would have too, had he been closer. Mael decided he should get closer so he edged around the dead Ba¡¯Neesh carriers and climbed up to sit next to Elias.

    ¡°Quite a view.¡± Mael said looking uncertainly at the bodies of the dead Ba¡¯Neesh gruesomely, but efficiently, cut in half for easier carrying and then at the field of dead Soek. He frowned, he knew Brad would encourage him to deepen his understanding of Mick by closer observation of the boy¡¯s choices. What did this display of the dead tell him?

    ¡°You are bringing the other youngers here?¡± Mick answered, totally ignoring the comment and throwing both Mael and Elias off guard. Thorne, still aboard the aircraft, leaned in and swore roundly. He had just got the Oxine youngers moved to a stadium. What did the kid want now?

    ¡°The others?¡± Mael focused tight to understand the odd sound of Mick¡¯s voice.

    ¡°All Tule Soc Ba¡¯Neesh must be here.¡± Mick said, fighting with his mouth but still a click escaped at the end. He sighed.

    Mael opened his mouth to ask why when Moira interrupted. ¡°You have our Ba¡¯Neesh, Mick.¡± She stated, a slight threat underlying her tone.

    Mick looked up and out to fix on her. He should get up. He was pretty sure he couldn¡¯t at the moment. ¡°I do.¡± He answered. ¡°They are my Ba¡¯Neesh now, my dead Ba¡¯Neesh.¡± He stated with as much firmness as he could. He could sense a new type of battle ground, a struggle for the Beloved. It was a fight he knew he wouldn¡¯t lose. Aenor and Freya would come. His Ba¡¯Neesh, they were all coming.

    Mael flinched, the kid¡¯s words indicated possession, a feature not present in Ba¡¯Neesh culture. A new shift, or a much older way?

    Moira shifted her weight and snorted. Anya stepped closer until she was nearly touching the dead. ¡°These are Cassia and Berlina, Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh.¡±

    Mick nodded. ¡°Thank you for their names.¡± He said, ¡°I won¡¯t forget their names.¡±

    Anya took her turn to frown and then she shifted, as if trying to shrug off her temper. ¡°They are Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh, Mick.¡± She repeated with a stronger edge.

    Mick lifted his chin as high as he reasonably could. ¡°Yes.¡± He said. ¡°As soon as the youngers arrive we must go into the woods for the Agnosin Ritual. We could use a suitable boiling pot.¡±

    It was possibly the last thing that any of them expected to hear. First, that Mick was taking the Ba¡¯Neesh back into the woods of Fels. Second, he was positioning himself as an integral part of a secret Ba¡¯Neesh ritual.

    Anya gasped. Moira trumpeted. Neither of them was entirely sure of the shifting shape of their long-held secrets.

    Aapisowoohta spoke from behind Mick. ¡°We will find a cauldron. Tonight we celebrate.¡± It was inclusive, not Mick¡¯s I but the softer We of the collective.

    ¡°Thank you, Aapisowoohta.¡± Mick answered and then the strain of holding his body upright became too difficult and he curled forward again.

    Mael was recalculating. Thorne was busy making sure his drone was capturing every possible word out of their mouths. Ba¡¯Neesh secrets, after two plus centuries, a kid had broken through. He was also ordering the immediate removal of the wakening youngers to Fels.

    ¡°We will want their Beloved too.¡± Mick said, fatigue pulling at him again. ¡°Can you find those, Mael?¡±

    Mael nodded, those discussions had already begun, way above his political level, but he knew about them. Evgeny had intel. As he once again turned to ask the questions now pressing his mind, he was again interrupted by loud hoots from the front of the building and then the still-tense Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh broke rank and ran toward the sound, scattering the Soek Army in their path.

    Youngers streamed uncertainly out of the facility, still groggy, seeing the first rays of morning for the first time ever. Most were making sounds.

    Elias pointed upward. ¡°We are on International media worldwide it seems. All nations are being warned to stay out of the area, all non national flights are banned. Thorne is saying national is loading transports. Apparently they find the wakening youngers, difficult.¡±

    Mael snorted, back to watching the spreading field of youngers surrounded by elders flowing toward them, chattering, unafraid. Painful emotion washed through him, how many years had he not forced this evacuation, allowed the early deaths of older Tule Soc Ba¡¯Neesh? Whatever the kid¡¯s faults, he had accomplished this.

    The Soek Army mostly gaped at the youngers, so nearly human, the youngest of them, so absolutely non-human, the elders. The youngers, some now running, headed straight at Mick, as if he wore some banner. The first to arrive might be five or six. They halted and pointed at the dead Ba¡¯Neesh, saying something in Neesh.

    Ahh, Mael thought, they came to see the dead Ba¡¯Neesh. Just when he was certain that was the answer, one of the youngers climbed past the dead to ascend the stone platform and stand inches from the three Soek.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    ¡°Sofia!¡± She announced and thumped her chest. She held out her hand with her elongated fingers wide spread. ¡°F¨¹nf!¡± She exclaimed. ¡°Du Fuck Mick?¡± She asked looking from one Soek face to the other.

    Mick groaned, saying to Elias in a whisper. ¡°Aenor did this. Revenge.¡±

    The younger laughed and then spun around like a top, coming to a halt to stare at the field of dead Soek. Her chin lifted. ¡°Gestorben Soek.¡± She said, turning to look at Mick, her eyes far too wise for her age.

    ¡°Yes.¡± He answered and then was horrified that the word was followed with a honky chirp.

    She snorted and then giggled and then pointed at him and then other youngers were climbing up and around trying to get at him.

    Elias yelled out, ¡°Soek, protect Mick.¡± And, seven of the eight former Soek mules hurried forward to carefully lift the Ba¡¯Neesh youngers and set them down away from Mick¡¯s platform. They discovered they had to stand on all sides as the youngers were persistent.

    ¡°Aapisowhoota, can you do something?¡± Elias called out, thankful her name was now etched in his brain.

    A trill sent the wave of youngers back to play on the stairs and further down, some running in among the Soek dead, playing, touching them, taking things off their bodies to show to each other. The guards around Mick stepped back, watching uncertainly.

    Mick took one look and ignored the youngers. He figured they likely knew what he should do with the dead Soek, a problem he had taken on himself for reasons he didn¡¯t want to disturb in the recesses of his mind. There was something that must be done, just as critical as the Agnosin Ritual was for the Ba¡¯Neesh. It mattered not what was on the bodies, it was the bones that were critical.

    The youngers came out in waves as room after room was opened, emptied and cleared. The oldest of the freed Ba¡¯Neesh carried the infants and herded the youngers who were barely walking. By then, the Soek Army had turned itself into a large playpen, not allowing youngers out of the Turtle. Few were fathers but all were curious, the young seemed so much more approachable than the elders. So, they faced inward and were assaulted by questions in German, hundreds and hundreds of questions and more than a few Vrill pranks as the youngers discovered their Vrill was no longer inhibited.

    A steady stream came to see first the dead Ba¡¯Neesh still held by the Soek in green and then to throw questions toward Mick, usually things like if he was really a Soek or why did he have the dead near him, the most common question. He had no answer and eventually he simply shrugged and glared, which seemed to make most of the Ba¡¯Neesh amused. He had the sneaky feeling he was the font of a widespread joke. And, every single one of them told him their names and a number, their age. He wallowed in the impossibility of clearly putting names to faces even with his excellent memory. He had a resistance to receiving the names of the Ba¡¯Neesh, and every one of them seemed aware of it. Even Elias and Mael felt sorry for him. Clearly he was being punished, Ba¡¯Neesh style.

    Eventually, the trickle slowed enough for conversation to resume. Jeffrey arrived to join the three of them on the slab, noting that Mick refused to move, to change positions or to reveal anything but what was obvious. It was too noisy and active to attempt the private conversation both Mick and Mael wanted. During the day, Mael and Elias noted Mick¡¯s voice continued to alter, becoming increasingly strange and oddly similar to the honks and whistles of the Ba¡¯Neesh. He wouldn¡¯t allow Jeffrey to examine him. He did accept more pain killers and was getting nicely high when Aenor, Karl and Freya returned.

    ¡°Was that really necessary?¡± He said almost before Aenor got close enough to hear him clearly over the din.

    ¡°What?¡± She replied, her expression oddly satiated and softened.

    ¡°You know what, Aenor.¡± Mick said, ¡°The damn youngers are all calling me Fuck Mick. How am I supposed to remember every damn name and age?¡±

    She looked up at him and then tilted her head. ¡°Do you need to know them?¡± She asked.

    He hadn¡¯t expected that. He shook his head and then slowed. ¡°Don¡¯t make me look.¡± He said, as if to an elder which technically she was.

    ¡°You entered the Lamentation.¡± Aenor shrugged. ¡°I promised not to ask. I go to find my daughters now, they have much to remember and fast. We wait on the others?¡±

    ¡°Elias says they are in flight. ¡°Thirteen hundred sixty-five from Oxine and eight hundred and forty-two from Kuriwa.¡± Mick quoted the numbers. Elias had already told him that was four thousand and seven former Tule Soc Ba¡¯Neesh, all told. The number frightened him, it wasn¡¯t enough. It had to be enough.

    Aenor shrugged. ¡°You talk soon, Mikha¡¯el, all Ba¡¯Neesh here attend the ritual tonight, you cannot keep silent to us when awake.¡±

    Mael and Elias turned on Mick. ¡°What? Why is she calling you Mikha¡¯el?¡±

    Aenor had taken a few steps before she turned toward Karl and Freya, now hovering over still-seated Hans. She stepped closer. ¡°We celebrate Steffi tonight too.¡± There was both acute sadness and a sort of pride in her tone. ¡°We have much to celebrate.¡±

    Mick tried to stand, intending to go to Steffi. He found himself unable to rise, instead he toppled into Mael who propped him back up. He panted, shocked back into himself by the burst of sudden pain elicited by the movement. A day without moving. He was now uncertain that had been such a good idea. ¡°Steffi!¡± He yelled out, unaware in came out in Neesh or what Elias and Mael heard as Neesh. He loosed his bereavement in a hard, loud, honk. The Akaitapi behind him echoed the sound and then the youngers roared to life making the honk roll out and away across every person within range. Mick gasped, thrusting a claw up over his face. He hadn¡¯t intended to do that.

    The youngers had silenced and turned to face him. Curiosity and an almost covetous interest radiated off them. Mick cowered back.

    Brad, across the field of green Soek was monitoring the Mick feed, as he was calling it, while continuing to attend to the attractions Perisee and Lemista made to the youngers. All of the youngers wanted to climb Brad, and he was willing enough. He found the increasingly active youngers, a dangerous delight. He had to keep telling them not to Vrill his exo, even though he had covered the thing in permanent sigils just in case. They kept wanting to test why their Vrill bounced, turned into spinners, poofed, sparkled or otherwise transformed depending on which sigil they shot their finger at. He hadn¡¯t realized he was turning himself into a toy.

    ¡°Do you think that¡¯s spelled Mikha, Elias?¡± Brad messaged over to Elias, reminding himself to send Elias a better external than the crap one he¡¯d stolen from Tule Soc.

    ¡°Why?¡± Mael leaned over to talk at Elias¡¯ external.

    ¡°Well¡­¡± Brad said with an elongated pause, ¡°That name has a history. Has he told you yet what this is really about? You did ask him, it¡¯s been hours, Mael?¡±

    Mick, of course, could hear all of this. He was glowering at Elias, Mael and the device.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare ask me.¡± He yelled out, followed by a chirp. That caused him to pull his right hand away from where he was hugging his knees to slap the claw at the slab surface. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare. Aenor is bad enough. I¡¯ve got enough damn pain. It totally isn¡¯t fair.¡±

    Mael wanted to spare the kid, but he was Mael. Anya, Brad and Xasper and eventually Calypso and Ornius were at risk. Pain or no pain, he needed answers, they all needed answers.

    Mick seemed to read Mael¡¯s intent on his face. He tried hard to press himself to his feet only his muscles weren¡¯t helping him properly. He got half way up and again toppled, crying out. ¡°Don¡¯t. Don¡¯t. Don¡¯t.¡±

    Elias and Mael shared a glance. They settled Mick back down. He was rigid and staring forward. ¡°I don¡¯t know nothing.¡± He said aloud. ¡°I want to talk to my mother before I can¡¯t talk anymore, not properly, anyway.¡±

    Mael nodded. ¡°A trade then, Mick?¡±

    Mick turned toward Mael. ¡°You can reach her, for sure?¡±

    ¡°Thorne? What do you say?¡± Mael asked into Elias¡¯ device.

    ¡°The nationals in her nation/state have her guarded for her own protection.¡± Thorne answered. He too wanted to know what Mick had to say. The certainty of gaining that knowledge had slowly overcome the logistics of the past few weeks. Range weapons. Neo and Morty still chasing more and more hidden ballistic rockets, secreted by former nation/states in defiance of International law. Thorne knew that every citizen was watching footage of the events at Fels, seeing the monsters, the Army, the Turtle. The world was waiting.

    ¡°I¡¯ll get her, Mael.¡± Thorne said, ordering Jordy to turn the techs on getting him a secure line to a nation/state that overtly considered the Directorate to be their number one terrorist organization in the world. He sucked in a breath and went to change into one of his better professional suits. Let the world meet a Soek. He knew his job, he finally knew his job, he was fronting for Mick, the rogue non-citizen in control of an Army with weapons and skills the world had never seen before. He knew, they would listen, everyone would listen.

    (Are you worried about Mick? I am. I am so very mean to him, full on body torture happening here and even the youngers are teasing him. What¡¯s a gamer to do?)

 Chapter Fifty-Four - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Fifty-Four ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Brad waded through the adoring youngers trailing two of the most wicked Ba¡¯Neesh in all known Soekdom, Lemista and Perisee. The two infamous Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh were busy teaching those nearest youngers rotten new tricks to try with the small ones burgeoning Vrill. This was accomplished to a chorus of giggles and challenges. He arrived at the platform now hosting four of his favorite people. He handed Elias a high-tech DireSec com.

    ¡°Mick?¡± He said, carefully assessing the boy in person. Mick was a changed being and not just with the peculiar body alterations either. He was surrounded by the dead. Extraordinary. ¡°Thorne says they will have the connection secured in a few moments.¡±

    Mick nodded, his eyes flickering across Brad to the two Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh and the crowd of attentive youngers. ¡°You have an entourage, Pirate.¡± He answered, pleased to be able to control the delayed post-verbal honk successfully.

    ¡°I do.¡± Brad nodded. ¡°I may need to adjust what were supposed to be protective sigils on my exo, I appear to have miscalculated.¡± This statement was accompanied by a Vrill arc out of the group of youngers, giggling and exploding sparklers on Brad¡¯s shoulder where the Vrill arc landed.

    ¡°Do you know where that reprobate Rojer has gotten lost to?¡± Mick asked.

    Rojer, sucking lemons over being outside of the events, glared at the holo he was watching of Mick. He parodied Mick¡¯s words. ¡°Where do you think, Mick?¡± He asked back at the holo. He had been in purgatory from the moment he had separated from Mick. His father, DireSec and OrderSec all found his recent behaviors unsatisfactory in some way, relegating him to piss-ant duty guarding a stash of goods currently parked in a landing zone awaiting national¡¯s permission to transport.

    ¡°I do.¡± Brad answered, surprised that Rojer had entered the first face-to-face conversation he¡¯d had with Mick in weeks.

    ¡°He¡¯s supposed to be here. Right here. Right now.¡± Mick click honked. ¡°Rojer, when you hear this, move your ass.¡± Mick said.

    Rojer gaped and then snapped his mouth shut. He turned and walked away from his post. The small floater from the sub was parked along with the goods. He shrugged. If Mick could steal a floater Rojer Kirsan sure as fuck could do so as well. Fuck his father and all the political words that kept him stranded here.

    Brad stared at his system feed. He¡¯d toggled Rojer¡¯s location when the name was mentioned and now he saw that Thorne¡¯s personal override codes were being used to hijack the submarine floater. He rather admired Rojer for finally showing some balls. Thorne wouldn¡¯t like it. Nationals would add to their bitching. Brad grinned. ¡°Rojer appears to be enroute, Mick.¡±

    ¡°Fucking A.¡± Mick said, ¡°He¡¯s my voice, you know. My own voice won¡¯t last much longer I don¡¯t think. It¡¯s been getting worse all day.¡±

    Brad catalogued Mick¡¯s words. My voice. A possessive much as he¡¯d taken the dead Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh. What did it mean? Brad understood political power and leadership and this kid didn¡¯t appear to be any of the models that Brad knew well. Yet, his use of the possessive indicated an expression of leadership, an orientation. Mick was a direction and Brad could tell, much as Mael could, that Mick was increasingly knowledgeable about what he claimed not to know. He was being secretive.

    Helewidis and two Ba¡¯Neesh unknown to Mick arrived behind Perisee and Lemista, scattering the youngers with a few gestures and Neesh words. The youngers retreated to a safer distance and quieted, stopping to listen. It was contagious, their attitude and attention spread like a virus and soon the entire area had quieted.

    Helewidis glanced over at Steffi¡¯s body, now laying next to Hans who wouldn¡¯t leave it. She sighed. Then she edged her way up what was becoming a path up and over a side wall to get closer to the now crowded platform. Brad stood aside to give the Ba¡¯Neesh clear passage.

    ¡°Stupid Soek.¡± Helewidis said abruptly. ¡°Make room.¡± That order swept the other Soek off the slab to stand next to Brad.

    Mael felt bad, the kid had asked to talk to him, likely about his physical changes. Being right there with him and still it had felt impossible to have that conversation.

    Jeffrey was the closest to the slab, having just moved off its surface.

    Mick, now alone and isolated on the slab realized he was the center of attention. He tried to scowl but his face felt too tight and the muscles were in new places and it hurt just trying to figure them out. ¡°What are you going to do to me?¡± He stared past Helewidis to the two unknown Ba¡¯Neesh who were clearly much older and their horns were running heavy with Vrill.

    ¡°Straight you out. Stupid to receive the adjustments all balled up like that. Going to hurt.¡± Helewidis said.

    ¡°Fuck.¡± Mick tried to evade her hands but he was twisted up like a damn pretzel. With the three Ba¡¯Neesh on three sides of the platform and Jeffrey on the last, his efforts merely caused him to topple over on his side.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with his back?¡± Elias could now see that Mick¡¯s backpack, which should have slouched when he moved, had remained in place.

    ¡°Exactly.¡± One of the other healers said, snorting.

    ¡°Do you know what¡¯s happening to him?¡± Jeffrey asked Helewidis. He couldn¡¯t stop looking at the frozen backpack. He looked over at Mael, at the turtle shell helmet curled around his head replacing all but a center cluster of hair. That shell helmet had never been explained to his satisfaction and Jeffrey had no intention of allowing this second evolutionary event to transpire without information being shared.

    ¡°He entered the Lamentation with Edda last night.¡± Helewidis said, ¡°He is in the Lamentation.¡±

    To Jeffrey¡¯s ears this data meant nearly nothing. He knew of the ritual in a distant way, it was one of the secret things Ba¡¯Neesh did only when totally unobserved. It was how they became Channels.

    ¡°What do you mean, exactly?¡± He said.

    Helewidis glanced at him and then shrugged, dismissive. Then she backed away from the slab with a shout and angry Neesh words as a blue apparition manifested next to her. Iiyiko.

    ¡°What do you want?¡± Mick wasn¡¯t exactly pleased to see the Neeshatari either. All of them had some bad idea that he knew for certain would make his already hurting body even worse. Iiyiko, he knew, had a cruel streak when it came to Soek and their pain, she seemed to enjoy it.

    ¡°Jeffrey, you can¡¯t let them do what they want to do to me. It will hurt bad ass bad. I just know it.¡± Mick pleaded, trying to unpretzel his body enough to reach Jeffrey, so close yet hopelessly so far.

    ¡°Only stupid Soek not sleep through Lamentation, nicely stretched out. Fucking Mick.¡± Helewidis said, her tone not exactly a friendly slab-side manner.

    ¡°Jeffrey?¡±

    Jeffrey was watching the boy¡¯s short, painful movements. He could guess that this Lamentation process was mutating the boy¡¯s bones, tissues, tendons, muscles and everything else and indeed, based on what he was seeing, Mick was stupid. He turned to the Ba¡¯Neesh healers, ¡°How can I help? I have pain killers with me.¡±

    The Ba¡¯Neesh laughed and it seemed to echo through the listening crowd. Perisee turned to face the crowd. ¡°Never enter the Lamentation in a squat, like a stupid Soek.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Jeffrey didn¡¯t wait for permission. He knew as well as Mick did that the Ba¡¯Neesh had other interpretations of pain. He doubled the dose he gave to Mick and even though he could see that Mick thought of him as a betrayer, he tried to convey some assurance by reaching out to grasp Mick¡¯s left clawed hand. He almost dropped it. The hand burned, was stiff, was leathery and it had hardened nails that Jeffrey instantly thought could likely rend metal they were that hard. He had to force himself to remember that Mick was just a kid in trouble, no matter what he looked like.

    None of them noticed the little younger who snuck her way up next to the Neeshatari until she said, ¡°What is his Chimeric aspect.¡± In German.

    Karl with Freya back up on his shoulders was tall enough to have an excellent view. He translated, knowing most of these Soek favored English.

    ¡°Good question.¡± Aenor found a space crowding the corner to stare at Mick. ¡°I think Edda confused.¡±

    Mick was floating, he could hear them and he wanted to resent their cavalier attitude and what was Sofia doing watching him. She was cute.

    ¡°I think she try for hawk, like his gamer name.¡± Aenor continued.

    ¡°Edda?¡± That name rippled away. ¡°She is in the Lamentation too?¡± Mael blurted out the question. ¡°How is that possible?¡±

    ¡°Old ways.¡± Iiyiko surprised everyone by answering. ¡°Mikha¡¯el remembering who he is, as do we all.¡±

    Jeffrey pulled out a scalpel from his his med kit and started to cut away the backpack. He couldn¡¯t explain why he was trembling. But the crowd silenced again and those with the best views, stared. As the fabric of the pack peeled away bits of medical kits and survival supplies fell out.

    Jeffrey pulled them away on his side and Sofia confiscated some on her side, shoving her booty in the air with a Neesh shout before reaching in to grab more. That didn¡¯t interest the adults, they were all staring at something clinging to Mick¡¯s back. It wasn¡¯t bones. It had a skin of sorts covering an uncertain shape.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Mick asked at the silence surrounding him, the cautious concerned faces of those staring at him.

    Sofia half climbed onto the slab and leaned her face down to where his lay on its side. ¡°Edda maybe grew wings. You too crooked to tell. I want wings too.¡±

    Karl¡¯s voice translated, albeit with some hesitance. Mick¡¯s back would make a great horror story, some bizarre parasite growing out of his back. He couldn¡¯t help but stare in a totally creeped out kind of way.

    Jeffrey reached over to touch the growth. He wasn¡¯t sure what to call it. It was tangled up. The healer in him started the process of pulling and tugging.

    Mick said, ¡°Ouch. That hurts even with me narced out.¡±

    Jeffrey nodded as Helewidis and the other healers moved in to assist him. ¡°It appears the Beloved Edda has joined with your body, Mick.¡± He said as if discussing the weather.

    Mick¡¯s thinking, now seriously slowed by the drugs, took a long time to process this impossibility. Edda was dead. He¡¯d eaten her properly. She was bones in a backpack.

    ¡°Those look like prehistoric dinosaur appendages.¡± Brad said, unable to look away.

    Mick continued to complain as they forced his legs to elongate, thrusting Vrill into his joints. Jeffrey continued to cut away his clothing, wanting to see the whole of Mick, unadorned or covered.

    Sofia circled between the adults and the slab with the best view of all. Eventually she returned to Mick¡¯s face, still laying on his right cheek, panting. ¡°Brad say you dinosaur Chimeric maybe. You old.¡±

    Brad. She already knew Brad and by her tone Mick could tell Sofia, like the other youngers, liked Brad. He was jealous. The youngers just teased him. What now, Dino Mick? Was that an improvement over Fuck Mick? He groaned.

    He thought it would never end, this massage and manipulation of his limbs. They did it all, even the joints of his elongated toes. Vrill bliss washed out the narcs and left him feeling pliable. He could imagine himself standing up. Naked. In front of two thousand and five hundred youngers and how many other female Ba¡¯Neesh? He looked over at Jeffrey who was standing so that Mick could see his face.

    ¡°How bad is it Jeffrey?¡± He asked.

    Jeffrey blinked. To his mind Mick was the most amazing creature he had ever witnessed. Strange looking, but hey, he was less than twenty-four hours into his morph. What he would look like was likely very different from this awkward creepy sort of mixed up mutation.

    ¡°I think you will eventually have wings.¡± Jeffrey quantified. ¡°I can¡¯t tell you how long because this rapid mutation process has only happened once before, to Mael, and that was before anyone knew to really observe him to document every tiny change. With Ba¡¯Neesh, the mutations continue through their life. I am unaware of any this rapid before. I have noticed all of the Ba¡¯Neesh in the Vrill battles that jacked into massive Vrill are rapidly altering. I need to get you into my lab, all of you.

    Mick sighed. Changing or not, his body was what it was. He would have to learn to live with whatever shape Edda was designing. He noted she was hiding from him, being mute to his inquiries about what the hell she had done to him. It wasn¡¯t like she was going anywhere, he thought. He knew where she was going to be, awake or not awake.

    The adult Ba¡¯Neesh around him shifted and a few stomped and snorted as this thought reached them. A Soek inside the Lamentation.

    Iiyiko leaned in. ¡°Get up, Mick. Time shortens.¡±

    He looked up at her. The memories he was so avidly avoiding were closer now, as if sneaking up on him, to flash into him without notice. He pushed himself upright off his distorted palms. ¡°You knew about this, didn¡¯t you Iiyiko?¡± He said.

    ¡°I remember.¡± Iiyiko stated firmly. ¡°I chose to remember. I remember I chose to remember. I know you. I find you. It is time, Mikah¡¯el. Time shortens.¡±

    She wasn¡¯t using compelling speech on him. She didn¡¯t need to. Mick could hear the truth in her words, as if pulling him out of a tiny hole into a bigger space. Painful but necessary.

    ¡°Time shortens.¡± He said, followed with the distinctive click, hoot of Neesh. He blinked, noting two sets of eyelids, the mucus that had earlier troubled him, gone. He tried to recognize if his words were English or Neesh, he wasn¡¯t sure.

    He swung his body around to sit, panting, to find Sofia right there. ¡°Am I speaking Neesh, Sofia?¡¯ He asked her, allowing the clatter of alter speech to flow at the end.

    ¡°I hear you.¡± She answered, avoiding the question like any proper Ba¡¯Neesh would. She grinned and then reached over to grab his left claw hand. ¡°Come.¡± She said and although Mick could hear Karl translating, he understood her fine. Sleep with German-based Ba¡¯Neesh and understand German. Enter the Lamentation and understand Neesh? That price felt enormously heavy. He stood up next to Sofia. Every joint popped and snapped. He was naked. He let go of the human concerns for the absence of clothing. He wasn¡¯t cold. He was Mick, no matter what name the Ba¡¯Neesh tried to foist on him. He was Mick Huxley.

    ¡°Ahh, Mick.¡± Brad interrupted Micks self talk, ¡°I have your mother on the com. I am blocking the visuals on our end.¡±

    Mick managed the three steps over to Brad with Sofia continuing to lead him, as if he were totally gimped. He didn¡¯t trust her not to be pranking him. He didn¡¯t want to release her small hand either.

    ¡°Mom?¡± He hoped he was speaking English.

    ¡°Mick?¡± Her familiar voice shocked him with its impact. He sucked in a deep breath.

    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s Mick.¡± He answered, tightly forcing his mouth to behave.

    ¡°You sound funny.¡± She said, ¡°Are you okay?¡± Her voice sounded strained to Mick. He could sense she was tired and anxious.

    ¡°I am okay.¡± He said, ¡°I wanted to say something to you, its been bothering me.¡±

    Everyone leaned in, not wanting to miss a word. All of the Citadel Soek didn¡¯t know their mothers, had been raised by creche. Mick had a foster mother. Most were envious of the opportunity to call someone mother.

    ¡°I¡¯m here, Mick.¡± The distant female voice softened. ¡°You know you can tell me anything, no matter what.¡± She said. It was a loaded statement and Mick correctly recognized she was being coached. He modified what he had intended to say, his mind hardening as new thoughts chased into his thinking.

    ¡°You were right, Mom.¡± Mick picked out each word carefully, ¡°My profanity use has unexpected consequences. I should have listened to you about that.¡±

    Of all of the things he could have said, this was as off the wall as could be.

    ¡°Profanity?¡± His Mom¡¯s tone demonstrated the feeling of all of them. ¡°You are talking to me about your profanity?¡± Her tone snipped.

    ¡°Mom. I think this line is limited.¡± Mick said, looking over at Brad who correctly guessed something else was afoot. ¡°Is Dad with you?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Right here, Mick.¡± An authoritarian voice answered brusquely. ¡°I have a lot of questions¡­¡±

    ¡°Dad.¡± Mick interrupted. ¡°Can you liason with the Reserves Admin here in this nation/state? I am moving around ten thousand people into the Reserves and your expertise and interface would be enormously helpful.¡±

    There was a sharp pause that extended out for nearly a minute.

    ¡°We are in protective custody here, Mick.¡± His father¡¯s tone shifted from aggressive to an almost professional tone.

    ¡°I think we can arrange transport. It¡¯s for the good of everyone. Stay on this com line, Dad, and bring Mom with you. I need a chance to see you and talk in person, make things right.¡± Mick gestured at Brad who was already running his system.

    ¡°Okay.¡± His father didn¡¯t argue.

    Mick nodded, even though his foster parents couldn¡¯t see him, he could see both of them, their stiff body language, their wandering eyes. Tension. Fear.

    Mick gestured for Brad to cut his end of the feed.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Brad asked aloud.

    ¡°I¡¯m ruining their lives, permanent if I can.¡± Mick answered. ¡°They are becoming tools. If I don¡¯t move them into hiding now, I will be forced to kill them later. Acquire them, Brad.¡±

    (Hard chapter to write. Some are. It is just the nature of writing to deadline and a story that is pushing hard inside my mind. Writing is not for wimps. ::grins::)

 Chapter Fifty-Five - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Fifty-Five ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    After Mick stood for a few minutes next to Brad, Sofia tugged at his claw. Mick looked down to find her staring up at him. ¡°You ready, Fuck Mick?¡± She asked.

    He shook his head, noting his neck muscles were returned to sore suggesting his Vrill bliss and pain killers were wearing off. ¡°Call me Mick, Sofia.¡± He said firmly, even though his words came out a mixture of English and Neesh to his own ears.

    She tugged again, without answering him, leading him past the dead Ba¡¯Neesh to walk unsteadily forward. He could tell that alone she could have danced and spun and ran circles around him. She didn¡¯t, her grip on his claw remained firm.

    He took a quick glance down his body to be sure his private bits were hidden. He could feel that his jones was tucked up inside his groin, like he¡¯d seen with some animals and his other bits had pulled upward too. Still there but hidden. It felt less awkward to check with his own eyes. What he saw of himself was rapidly growing fur, no longer the downy fluff of what seemed moments ago, hidden then under clothing.

    He debated if he should find clothing. His mind rejected the idea as an artifact of human skin, no longer his concern. He straightened, realizing his back, though still tender, was no longer so heavy or strained although his balance had shifted toward the front of his talon pads as if he were permanently leaning forward. He rotated his head hearing more popping sounds as Sofia tugged him into the crowd of youngers who formed around him with curious eyes. He was aware he was trailing the guardian Soek, seven of them, Hans remained behind. He noted that his former boots were on Otto¡¯s feet and the Soek¡¯s gait was less pained. His thoughts continued to flit from detail to detail as Sofia began to chatter at him, introducing other youngers, talking about the various shades of light in the rays of sunlight, how the dirt on the ground held living bugs. She didn¡¯t seem to need any input from him but he noted that her words activated discussion among the other youngers.

    It was like their mouths had been trapped, silenced and now they were making up for it. He focused on not falling, on being led. He felt a sense of familiarity toward Sofia that grew with each step. He¡¯d known her before, been waiting for her. He hadn¡¯t known that. He fumbled with the odd thought, the recognition across time. She was Sofia. She would lead all of these youngers, was already leading. Sofia at five. He needed to store this exact memory as special. Sofia at five.

    His joints continued to pop as they realigned under his forward movement. Behind him the cluster of Mael, Elias, Karl, Brad, Aenor, Jeffrey and the Ba¡¯Neesh watched. Iiyiko, as was her wont, had vanished without warning.

    ¡°What is she telling him?¡± Mael asked. He knew. He could hear Sofia as there were now five drones following the strange figure that was Mick-in-alter surrounded by a flowing sea of Ba¡¯Neesh youngers from five and older, all walking with him and talking in Neesh mixed with German sprinkled with English words. Anya kept whispering to him some of the meaning, the description of chattering leaves on the nearby trees, how grass felt under hoof, why the sky was a blue color, where the clouds came from, would they leave soon.

    ¡°She¡¯s lubricating his joints.¡± Jeffrey said, ¡°Note how his walking is improving with each step and how his head is surveying everything, as if seeing the world through Sofia¡¯s eyes. He¡¯s listening. I would guess we should all now listen to Sofia.¡± In fact, he noted, they were all listening to Sofia who continued to chatter requiring no input from Mick at all.

    ¡°Two of those drones are nationals on International broadcast.¡± Brad said, directing everyone¡¯s attention upward. ¡°The world is watching this and according to the media stats, they are tightly focused on every possible outlet channel. Mick and a younger on walk-about because clearly that was what it was.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying the drones can¡¯t fly through the Turtle?¡± Mael asked, his curiosity whetted.

    ¡°It appears not, not even ours.¡± Brad nodded. ¡°Apparently the Turtle registers some uncertainty about the intentions of mechanicals. A suggestion it is aware that the handlers of drones can be shifted turning a friendly into an enemy.¡±

    ¡°But,¡± Mael mulled over the larger question this posed, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t these Soek be equally questionable? No one has directed compulsion at them for most of the day, or have they?¡± He could see the uncertainty and even fear in the facial expressions of many of the Soek that the drone feeds were picking up on while Mick passed near to them.

    ¡°They youngers are practicing an ¡®assist Mick¡¯ on them and have been since leaving the facility.¡± Brad said. ¡°How affective they are and have been remains fascinating.¡± He was finding the behaviors of the Turtle incredibly interesting. He could feel it. It was not an it, it was a someone. Who was it? Someone¡¯s were individuals or perhaps collectives. A reasoning Turtle. It seemed the longer the sigil existed manifest, the stronger its identity grew. Had this been what happened in the Math Department at Citadel? He was certain that sigil had become stronger and more individual over time. He was equally certain the sigils were not identical.

    ¡°Mael?¡± Brad turned on his friend, ¡°You have worn two Turtles, and sat for years under The Sigil. Are each as different as I now suspect?¡±

    Both Mael and Anya turned to Brad as each of them were wearing one of the Turtle Shell Defensive sigils on their heads.

    ¡°Mine is a soft presence, young, vigilant, watchful.¡± Anya said first, her tone curious. It was as if the cap she wore were an unexamined surprise, now exposed by the massive presence all of them recognized above them.

    ¡°I was young when I worked that,¡± Mael said thoughtfully. ¡°Mine is older, it feels¡­¡± He hesitated. ¡°It feels like a Beloved, like when the hemisphere passed through the field of Channels in Citadel that day, like someone attached to the hemisphere. My turtle is female. I think she is Ba¡¯Neesh in Beloved state. Why didn¡¯t I notice that before? When I grew, she matured her awareness as well. She is vital and strong. I didn¡¯t know I carried a link until this moment. I had simply accepted the physicality of the turtle shell without really questioning the nature of it.¡±

    ¡°Like Edda?¡± Jeffrey asked, they were all watching the shifting movement of the thing that clung to Mick¡¯s back, as if it were changing, flexing, testing itself while he walked.

    ¡°Less powerful than Edda.¡± Mael frowned. ¡°I think I picked up trace or a link. There is a whole Beloved somewhere that I¡¯m wearing a link to. Why didn¡¯t I know this? Why haven¡¯t I sought her out?

    ¡°To do what?¡± Brad asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. It seems important though. She¡¯s on my head and no doubt informing my brain, my Vrill, my choices.¡± Mael was a bit disturbed by this realization.

    ¡°Like the bone Mick wears for Iiyiko?¡± Elias offered. He was feeling jealousy of these links so many of the Soek now had in the form of a bone to a Beloved, given by the Ba¡¯Neesh to selected Soek. Where was his?Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Mael said, nodding, his facial expression clearing a bit. ¡°Only mine is permanently attached, like she is riding me, a free ride.¡± He looked over to where Karl stood, absent of Freya on his shoulders. It was curious, he now expected to see Freya on Karl¡¯s shoulders as a matter of course. It was as if the two of them had an agreement, a partnership.

    He looked past Karl to where Freya sat next to Steffi¡¯s dead body. She was talking to Steffi in Neesh. How odd. He looked toward the other dead Ba¡¯Neesh to find each of their body parts attended by a Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh and all of them seemed to be talking to the body parts. Clearly they were attending their dead. He looked up, the massive sigil turtle felt stronger and less thinned out, as if resting over so many Soekinesis were feeding it. Time and Vrill. What were they all summoning with these turtles? Who were they summoning if not Channels?

    Mick and Sofia had made a large circle and were heading back toward the Citadel group when word passed that the first of the distant transports had landed, the youngers were coming.

    Mick and Sofia turned outward toward the landing area well beyond the sigil border. Ba¡¯Neesh led Army Soek through the sigil to form a hedged tunnel that reached from the landing area to the sigil. The youngers, clearly visible on the drone footage on Brad¡¯s system, came out of the aircraft running, yelling, pointing and heading toward the tunnel.

    Mael noted that Mick and Sofia stood exactly at the end of that tunnel. Planned? It hadn¡¯t felt intellectually planned to him, yet, there the pair stood. A pair. A fifteen-year-old altering Soek and a five-year-old Ba¡¯Neesh, holding hands and facing the incoming youngers. Brad said this first load was from Oxine and like with the Fels release, the first through the tunnel were near Sofia¡¯s age, running as if their legs couldn¡¯t stretch fast enough. They skidded to a clattering halt before Mick.

    Everyone watched as each younger looked up at him and announced their name and age, then they sprinted off to dive into the Fels youngers, to be absorbed.

    ¡°They are telling Mick they have arrived.¡± Brad finally got it. This wasn¡¯t a prank like Mick had said, this was something else.

    The older Ba¡¯Neesh, trailing the younger ones, some carrying infants walked instead of running, into the Turtle. Each of them looked up to stare a long moment at the invisible Turtle before walking forward. Every single Ba¡¯Neesh was introduced, the older¡¯s speaking for those too young to speak themselves.

    Sofia continued chattering to Mick, a running dialogue as this flow passed around the island that was Mick, Sofia and his guards. She told him that certain Ba¡¯Neesh were carrying, that others were for the cr¨¨che, as she said. Mick didn¡¯t answer, he was absorbing every face, every name, every age.

    ¡°He¡¯s remembering them.¡± Elias said, somewhat awed. ¡°No one can be expected to know so many names and ages and if Sofia is right, so many dispositions. But, Mick is receiving.¡±

    There wasn¡¯t anything ceremonial about this arrival or the next half dozen that followed. The youngers simply ran, as if knowing the path. On the perimeter, the guarding Ba¡¯Neesh teams walked outward to expand the Turtle further, to receive more and more. Eventually, all of the Tule Soc Ba¡¯Neesh stood together under one sigil. They were loud and mobile.

    Mick and Sofia continued to wait. The tunnel of Army Soek didn¡¯t budge.

    ¡°Mick¡¯s foster parents are on that next aircraft.¡± Brad said to Mael. So is Thorne, Jordy and a cadre of DireSec operatives.

    ¡°He knew.¡± Mael observed.

    ¡°He knows.¡± Brad corrected. It was odd seeing Mick standing in one place with the chatty Sofia. His friend kept moving his arms, shoulders, neck and Brad could imagine joints popping as the boy¡¯s alter continued. He guessed at the pain.

    Before the aircraft could disgorge its full load, which included a group of important national people and military as well, a lone figure trotted out of a small floater to glare at the Soek tunnel before racing down it as if all the fires of hell were on his trail. He slid to a halt before Mick.

    ¡°Mick?¡± Rojer scowled at the bizarre figure standing next to a younger. ¡°What the fuck happened to you?¡± He asked. He knew, somewhat. Or at least he had listened to intel and seen some footage but that hadn¡¯t prepared him for the sight of Mick up close, nothing could have done that.

    ¡°Rojer.¡± Mick said. ¡°This is Sofia. You should offer respect.¡±

    Rojer¡¯s glare intensified. Sofia was not an adult Ba¡¯Neesh. He knew the rules, a Soek only did the nose-scraping thing to adult Ba¡¯Neesh. He opened his mouth to refuse when Sofia said, ¡°Die Stimme?¡± It was both analysis and demand. Rojer tried to comprehend what she was compelling out of him, a younger. He hesitated. A voice from a Soek behind Mick said, ¡°the Voice?¡±. Clearly a translation.

    Then Rojer heard the distinct sound of movement behind him. His father arriving with a shit ton of muckity mucks. Better to get this respect shit over before his father saw him and was embarrassed for or by him.

    Rojer flung himself down. ¡°I¡¯m here to serve you, Sofia.¡± He threw the words up sarcastically.

    ¡°Liar.¡± She answered, brightly. ¡°You are here to serve Mick, Rojer Kirsan, not your true name, not a true Soek.¡± Her words were in German. Otto coughed up a translation to the confusion on Rojer¡¯s face.

    Rojer lurched back to his feet. ¡°Not my damn fault, Sofia. I didn¡¯t ask to be born.¡± He nearly yelled at her.

    ¡°Did too.¡± She yelled back. ¡°You late, as always.¡±

    Rojer heard the translation and frowned. What did she know about him? She knew something. He inhaled. He desperately wanted to know how he had come to exist. He knew the mechanics of what had happened but no one, not even his father, could explain what went wrong. Not really. She knew something. He lost some of his attitude.

    ¡°Mick?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Over here Rojer.¡± Mick picked out each word, recognizing his voice was much worse that even minutes before. ¡°You must be my voice you rat bastard.¡± It was a strange invitation.

    Rojer processed the rat bastard. He was kind of. He knew himself to be nearly unapologetically flawed. He sidled over to stand next to Mick. ¡°Your voice sucks.¡± He said aloud.

    ¡°Yeah. I believe you will be learning Neesh, Rojer.¡± Mick answered, ¡°You won¡¯t like it, the language involves non-linear leaps since you cannot hear the Ba components. You are handicapped, likely another Ba¡¯Neesh punishment of you. Retribution? Your observation skills must improve rapidly. I don¡¯t have a lot of time left with normal language.¡±

    Rojer glared around at the masses of Ba¡¯Neesh who all seemed to be staring at him, most with snide amusement on their faces. Punishment? Retribution? What had he done and when? That was the question. What did Mick mean, exactly?

    Then the entourage, or at least those able to pass through the sigil¡¯s invisible perimeter began to arrive. Turns out three quarters of the nationals and military were deemed unfit and prevented, turned back to much heated argument. There was no mechanism for debate. You couldn¡¯t really talk to a sigil unless you were Soek, none of these were.

    Thorne counted himself lucky to be allowed past. He felt a burn, as if the sigil were warning him. It was scary. He led the Minister forward, trailing the two humans that were Mick¡¯s foster parents. Prior to arrival there had been agreements and most of those left outside the perimeter had been present more as jailers than as guests, to maintain control over the parents except they made the mistake of allowing the illusion of the parent¡¯s freedom by having the parents go first. They were now left behind, surrounded by a green Army sprinkled with monsters. They backed away slowly, retreating toward the uncertain safety of their aircraft.

    Mick was focused on his foster parents, more precisely, on his mother. She looked terrible. Anxious or maybe even terrified of the surrounding creatures. His father on the other hand had his facial expression under control, as usual.

    His mother reached him and didn¡¯t recognize him. But, it was clear she was meant to stop by the surrounding enclosing bodies, now quieting to watch and listen.

    She looked over at him, breathing funny.

    ¡°Mom?¡± Mick forced the word into English.

    She stared and then burst into tears, shaking her head.

    Mick turned to Rojer who leaned in to listen. He told Rojer what to say.

    ¡°Welcome.¡± Rojer¡¯s beautiful voice spoke. ¡°Mick offers his greetings and is thankful of your safe arrival. Be not disturbed by his appearance or the oddness of his voice. He is well. You are safe here.¡± Rojer looked over at his own father, now coming up behind the parents. His father¡¯s expression was irritated. Rojer lifted his chin, he was the Voice.

    (Ahh, Sofia. She is delicious. There are characters whose stories arc across the several books in this series, she is one, can you tell? ::grins:: Rojer, of course, is also one, the sneaky rat bastard. I like when things come together.)

 Chapter Fifty-Six - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Fifty-Six ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    The Army Soek assisting Serla, Evgeny and Norris dismantled the external doors to open the bunker. Air rushed in.

    ¡°This way.¡± Evgeny said, hurrying forward down a straight corridor to other security doors, easier to break through. They entered the inner offices to find the floor and desk areas littered with men, collapsed and unconscious or dead.

    Serla called for medics while he walked from body-to-body, gesturing to the Soek which ones remained alive and to carry them out of the building. At the inner-most office they found two men, Arjan and Dieter, both still breathing. While Serla left the office to deal with the logistics of getting the injured to safety, Evgeny removed a specific computing device and turned to find Norris watching him.

    ¡°We need to see them first.¡± Evgeny said, urgency in his tone.

    ¡°What do you think is in there, in those files?¡± Norris asked, his tone uncertain. Both of them knew Serla would be back in seconds.

    ¡°Someone behind what freed me, who kept you from becoming an expendable mule.¡± Evgeny said, stuffing the device inside his shirt.

    ¡°They will find out, discover this deceit.¡± Norris argued, and then it was too late, Serla arrived in the doorway, his hands full of Dieter¡¯s equipment. He glanced at the desk, noting the absence of one of the many devices. He could guess by the body language of each Soek who held the missing device. He gathered up what remained and acted as if he noticed nothing, but his gaze trailed Evgeny. The stiffness in Norris¡¯ walk argued he was in disagreement with Evgeny¡¯s moves. It explained to Serla why Evgeny had been so adamant to rescue the leadership of the Tule Soc security forces.

    Serla sent a rapid stream of messages from his own mental-to-texting program to Brad, indicating the analysis of Evgeny¡¯s continuing slightly off behavior. Serla had a massive computing implant, a feat of brain-to-computer engineering that had not been duplicated since. It was this implant that made Serla so good at high-speed analysis, organization and strategy, among other things. Brad responded with an acknowledgement and warning to be careful, something Serla understood and totally agreed with. A snake with many heads came to mind in the ongoing DireSec investigation of the internal workings of Tule Soc. The main objective centered on the location of all Tule Soc Beloved and finding and securing all weapons designed for use against Soekinesis.

    Serla said aloud, ¡°Secure this location for the nationals. We will turn all of these individuals over to them for appropriate handling.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t what Evgeny wanted. In truth, he wanted Arjan dead as he couldn¡¯t yet determine what Arjan might know. Yet, for the moment, he had to stay in apparent alignment with DireSec, his rescuers. He worried about Norris, feeling heavily conflicted.

    They passed one of the closed and locked doors. Forced open, it revealed a technical control room, its computing consoles melted with several dead control technicians showing signs of electrocution.

    Brad, receiving Serla¡¯s eye imager feed, gained both Jordy, Mael and Elias¡¯ attention, showing them the carnage. Elias waved Karl over. ¡°Freya¡¯s results.¡± He said, just above a whisper.

    Karl stared, nodded and looked at Brad, a somewhat withered Soek inside a massive exo. ¡°You upgraded Elias. Will you upgrade me too, Pirate?¡±

    Brad, somewhat surprised by how frontal Karl was after only a day or two in this company of strangers, gave Karl an apprising look. ¡°I¡¯ll ask Mick.¡± He said.

    Karl nodded. ¡°Need better communications for better combat outcomes.¡± He said, indifferent to the suggestion that his loyalty might be suspect. He instinctively trusted this Brad the Pirate, a quick evaluation between natural warriors. He would walk next to this Soek at any time.

    Mick gestured his foster parents forward along a path leading away from the building. A building which likely seemed to be this Army¡¯s headquarters, on footage. The lone military person and his companion, a local nation/state minister, both hurried forward to try to interject themselves between Mick and his foster parents. Mick and Sofia came to a halt. The altered boy faced the two men.

    ¡°There is an agreement that the custody of your foster parents must be returned to their nation/state, Mick Huxley. We demand you complete your interaction with them and uphold your end of this bargain.¡± The minister said with an abrupt tone. It was clear he was uncomfortable and wished out of this situation as quickly as possible.

    Mick leaned over to whisper to Rojer.

    Rojer adjusted his posture, a slight affectation his father approved of. His son looked exactly right, so long as you didn¡¯t know him, he appeared the consummate and normal professional.

    ¡°We understand there are agreements. We move now to a more comfortable location where refreshments will be made available. Mother Huxley appears in some distress.¡± Rojer¡¯s tone and delivery were perfect.

    Thorne acknowledged a growing appreciation for Mick¡¯s choice in his reprobate, damaged son. The single quality Rojer had that excelled was his voice, and of course his excellent appearance always so carefully maintained. He could see that Mick was shifting the attention away from his bizarre body alterations toward Rojer, as if their roles were reversed. It was a sleight of hand.

    It was difficult to challenge the stumbling walk of Mick¡¯s foster mother or the hand of assistance Mick¡¯s foster father was giving her under her elbow. She kept staring from side-to-side, as if surrounded by animals waiting to eat her.

    Mick whispered to Rojer who used his external to request Jeffrey attend them. Everyone could hear. Thorne explained aloud that Master Jeffrey Kristo was a well-known Healer, the equivalent to a person with doctor status. The minister and military man followed along uncertainly. In truth, both were growing increasingly uncomfortable under the psychological pressure of the force field and surrounded by creatures and a watchful Army.

    Mick steered his foster mother across from his former seat, to its companion slab on the other side of the stairs. The dead Ba¡¯Neesh were still visible but not quite as close. The dead Soek were actually now visible in a more frontal way, their bodies lined up like some outdoor morgue. He gestured for her to sit on the stone platform.

    Rojer, whose every word was being carefully listened to, received two Soek who brought both water and some packaged Reserves nutrient bars.

    Mick observed his father¡¯s slight twitch of possible amusement when he received a bar for both himself and Mick¡¯s mother.

    Mick, Sofia, Rojer and the entourage of guards, paced, leaving Thorne, the military man, the minister and nearly twenty DireSec operatives standing awkwardly on the stairs, waiting on Mick.

    Mick¡¯s mother accepted the water and received Jeffrey who spoke to her in soothing tones and offered her a small packet of Reserves anti-anxiety medication. Mick¡¯s father examined the still-sealed package and nodded to her. She opened and tapped the contents into her mouth with a grimace, quickly washed down with the water.

    The youngers, flowing with the group, were back to tittering and engaging in conversations and arguments in their normal mixture of German and Neesh. The two nation/state officials couldn¡¯t help but listen to the inane observations of their clothing, appearance and discomfort. The two noted that Damien Thorne was not treated to the same evaluation. It was as if the man were invisible to the youngers. Thorne, on his part, was grateful for the younger¡¯s restraint, understanding it was likely quite temporary.

    The younger¡¯s greatest curiosity centered on Mick¡¯s foster parents. It was their first encounter with human pair bonding. They focused on the woman¡¯s distress and the man¡¯s obvious stiffness and wondered how he might look different from the adult Soek around them, when naked. It was an embarrassing discussion. Luckly, neither Mick¡¯s foster mother or father understood German so they remained oblivious to this slightly lewd discussion.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Mick¡¯s mother calmed, the sedative working.

    Mick and Sofia came to a halt in front of her. ¡°Better?¡± Mick managed the single English word.

    ¡°Yes, Mick.¡± She said, nodding, clinging to Mick¡¯s foster father¡¯s hand. He was staring at Mick, his face and expression strained.

    Mick whispered to Rojer who nodded.

    ¡°We must move the group into the Reserves. It will be a trek.¡± Rojer gestured toward his father¡¯s DireSec operatives in their distinctive black uniforms with their displayed insignia. ¡°These Directorate Security personnel will walk with you for your comfort and protection. You should speak to any of them if you have a need. As you can see, English is not the native tongue of the local Ba¡¯Neesh or the Soek Army. Mick and Sofia will join you later when the campsite is established.¡±

    ¡°Wait!¡± The military attache stepped forward as close to Mick as the guards would allow. He noted that all of those guards were now holding primed stunners directed toward him. He pulled himself to a halt.

    ¡°This entry into the Reserves is illegal and against International law. No approvals have been negotiated.¡±

    Mick spoke to Rojer who said, ¡°We understand your concern, Sir. However, the Fels have been the home of these Ba¡¯Neesh for thousands of years. You have not negotiated with them for permission to invade these lands in the past. That appears to be the rule most adhered to. We have a Reserves Admin Officer, in the form of Mr. Huxley, to observe and report on how the return to the Fels is managed. You have a computing system, Mr. Huxley?¡±

    Mick¡¯s foster father shook his head, his attention fully on Rojer.

    One of the DireSec operatives, receiving a communication from Jordy, stepped forward to hand Mr. Huxley an external, much to the frustration of Thorne and the two nationals.

    Mr. Huxley was observing the developing lines of power in the situation and correctly guessed his foster son held the cards. He accepted the external and powered up, discovering he had access to DireSec security channels, left open by the gifting operative. His gaze flickered to his son¡¯s strange distorted face to see Mick watching him, passing a silent message between them. It was a warning look. Mr. Huxley wisely withheld all of his many questions, now was not the time.

    His newly received external tingled on his wrist. The small ear capsule that clipped to his earlobe spoke into his ear that he should do exactly as requested and support Mick¡¯s mother at all costs. Mr. Huxley agreed and nodded.

    Sofia said, ¡°Can I be the one to cut out their locators?¡± In German. It was accompanied by a slurpy lick.

    Mick, easily captivated by her, told himself his foster parent¡¯s wouldn¡¯t understand the reference to blood. He gave Jeffrey a glance and Jeffrey understood that indeed, a surgery would occur soon. Jeffrey used sub-vocals into his com unit to tell his own medic team to follow the group with the gear.

    Aenor was already telling the Soek in charge of the dead Ba¡¯Neesh that they were leaving. It was that fast.

    Mick and Sofia angled away from the Thorne group to rejoin the already moving Fels Ba¡¯Neesh now following Karl with Freya comfortably on his shoulders. Karl was striding next to the massive metal exo and trailed by both Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh, all whispering to each other about what Mick had in mind.

    Mick fell in next to Elias, with Sofia on one side still holding his claw and Elias on the other, nervous and playing with his new external.

    ¡°Mael?¡± Mick asked. Mael was ahead of him but walking equally slowly on his own strange feet, no longer trapped in footwear.

    ¡°Yes?¡± Mael answered, glancing back. He didn¡¯t stop moving. In his gut he could feel a shift in the Turtle, a rising interest in leaving the area. It had come on so fast he had at first mistaken the sensation for his own restlessness. Now he was certain the entity that was the Turtle was intent on leaving.

    The Soek carrying the overhead blanket came off the roof in a planned move that looked practiced. Once on the ground new teams of Soek surrounded them in formation. Karl¡¯s doing. They were joined by several Ba¡¯Neesh pairings who were wearing packs, the Fels Ba¡¯Neesh Battle Group split between protecting the sigil and forming a protective group around Mick. They were augmented by Citadel and Akaitapi Ba¡¯Neesh who seamlessly found their places.

    The Turtle walked enmasse out of the town, with the two nationals arguing and sputtering at Thorne the entire way. Mick and his group kept clear. DireSec slowly shifted position to isolate the Huxley¡¯s from the nationals and Thorne. They were directly ahead of them but with several operatives in between.

    This time the passage across the field was uneventful beyond noting the burnt areas where the munitions had landed. There was debris. Mick, walking with Elias and the ever chatty Sofia, thought about what his father was likely thinking. Damage to the Reserves, Mick¡¯s fault. His father had always found Mick lacking in some critical way. It made them near strangers. His mother, she was too easy, trying to smooth the path of Mick and he¡¯d abused her for it, pressing her for the games and objects he wanted without really trying to meet her goals for him. Mick confronted these thoughts on the trek. He cared about these two humans but he couldn¡¯t say it was with overwhelming emotions. His lack of depth disturbed him.

    They arrived at the treeline with early evening already dimming the light. The youngers, now tired after a day of unusual exercise were keeping up, but barely, and their occasional spats grew more frequent. The older Ba¡¯Neesh simply ignored such things, making no effort to tend to the youngers.

    It was the surrounding Army that broke up the spats and more than a few of the Soek lifted exhausted youngers to their shoulders for free rides. It quickly became a trend and soon there were only a few of the older Ba¡¯Neesh youngers still walking.

    Mick felt a sense of refuge when the trees closed in overhead. The urgency inside of him now centered on finding a suitable place for the ritual. He knew he would need to separate the humans from the event. ¡°Elias?¡± He started to ask only for Elias to hold up his hand. ¡°Serla and Brad already organized how to separate the humans in both DireSec and the attending nationals as well as your fosters. The Akaitapi are guiding Serla with that group toward a cave. It is distant from the ritual site.¡±

    Mick felt strangely inadequate. He was surrounded by competent older people who seemed to understand what must happen next. Clearly, roles were shifting. He wondered if his feelings were attached to his foster parents being so near by. They needed to have a conversation. He felt conflicted by the certainty of that reality. It was a formal ending. He knew his attachment to them was weak and weakening even with them present. It was as if they belonged to a person who had died, with only the shadow of the relationship remaining.

    Sofia, who had run ahead to pick up pine cones with the other youngers, returned to hand him one. ¡°Exploding leaves.¡± She announced, clearly in possession of at least some of the details of the Ba¡¯Neesh prior to her own rescue and release.

    He realized he felt more for this child he¡¯d known only a few hours than for his foster parents. He kept walking, knowing the Akaitapi were ahead somewhere, leading the group through the trees. He showed Sofia the tree seeds hiding inside the pine cone, remembering his own foster father showing him when he was little. It was an odd echo, as if some part of himself were testing his feelings. She danced away again to show other youngers the magical seeds that could grow into trees. Some thought she lied and argued with her. Then she was back, lagging, not unlike Mick himself.

    The Turtle flowed with them passing nature easily inside its invisible perimeter. As a group the deeper they went the quieter people became. It was settling in that they were a group, that something more was going to take place. The Soek were struggling to comprehend their involvement, asking questions of each other than none could answer.

    Then, those carrying the dead, walked past Mick¡¯s group and it was like a message. Destination. Mick, Elias and Sofia found nearby rocks to sit on, others found the ground. In the distance Mick could hear his Reserves Admin foster father complaining about how this many people were damaging the woods. He agreed. He watched that group walk away toward the side, to the very edge of the perimeter before his sense of them vanished. He guessed they had gone underground into one of the many caves.

    Rojer came up behind Mick, unhappy there was no where decent to sit without ruining his pants.

    Mick pointed to a nearby rock. ¡°Best seat in the house, Rojer.¡± He said, barely understandable even to himself. Sofia was yawning and leaning against him, her pinecone forgotten on the ground nearby.

    Brad came over to squat so he was facing Mick. ¡°Isolation achieved.¡± He said, ¡°Serla brought knock out gas for the humans. Jeffrey says they will have hangovers in the morning but will be fine.¡±

    ¡°I need to see them soon, Brad.¡± Mick said painfully slow, forcing each word out for clarity.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I expect so. Your voice is barely understandable.¡± Brad nodded. ¡°Will you consent to wearing an audio pickup? I have years of Neesh files and practice that are only improving now that there is the Ba.¡± He asked.

    Mick felt the discomfort of his growing disability. Why was his alter impacting his ability to communicate effectively? Part of him wondered if it were some kind of twisted punishment for his use of profanity. That felt ridiculous but he couldn¡¯t help his guilty conscience. Everything was happening so fast. He knew how he was here, but, how had this happened? As these thoughts poked at him, he shook his head, as if by the physical movement he could prevent the deep knowledge from its inevitable path upward toward the front of his brain.

    ¡°Mick?¡± Brad asked again.

    ¡°Good idea.¡± Mick managed to say. ¡°At least for now. Sofia understands me well enough and I think Elias too but I understand your desire to understand Neesh better, Brad. Besides, Rojer will need the help I think.¡± They all looked over at the fastidious Rojer picking at forest litter landing bit-by-bit on his clothing.

    Rojer looked up to find everyone staring at him. ¡°What?¡± He asked, as if caught doing something wrong.

    (Welcome back. Drop me some comments. Share me with others. Enjoy!)

 Chapter Fifty-Seven - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Fifty-Seven ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Master Ornius was old enough to have developed more than a few questionable habits. When he was advanced to the rank of Grand Master Guardian, Ornius was given Pith¡¯s old apartments which were much more grand than his old digs in the Shoe. The best feature of this new suite was its bathroom. Pith had spared no expense on himself and it was lavish by Citadel standards. It¡¯s everfull tub was so nice that it was common for Ornius¡¯ friends to invite themselves over to use it. However, mornings were a different story. The isolated commode had its own room and even a door that he never shut. It had assorted electronic devices that Ornius had removed on day two leaving a nice collection of empty ledges. He didn¡¯t need to be reached by OrderSec while busy.

    He filled these ledges with his own stuff, mostly with rings of ears. They weren¡¯t scalped flesh ears; they were parts of clothing that were worn by every person who lived at Citadel. Master Ornius was a Master of Textile Creations, a long defunct art no longer taught as an area of expertise. He had become the person in charge of keeping students, Masters, Guardians and OrderSec clothed. And now, he oversaw the clothing worn by Ba¡¯Neesh when they chose to do so. It was fair to say he had cloth from every single garment worn in Citadel as he didn¡¯t allow outside clothing to be brought in unless it passed his personal inspection. If he couldn¡¯t harvest a one and one half inch piece of cloth from a garment, it was summarily rejected. Since he was the big boss of Citadel, his garment rejections required no reason to be given so he had long maintained the secret of his craft.

    He used these fabric squares to make ears. In simple terms, he embroidered an ear onto the fabric, embedding the magic working of its creation and then he hung the ear on a ring of other ears. Each fabric square ear had an embroidered name so he could easily tell whose belonged to whom.

    Of course, he had his favorites and he ringed them separately. These were usually students who were up to mischief. He loved listening to student pranks and to hearing what was really happening below stairs which included all levels below Level Three inside the Citadel.

    During his morning meditations, Ornius was given to spying on the Citadel, sometimes at random, sometimes on tight focus.

    Immediately after the battle for Citadel that Tule Soc lost, Ornius had to use the commode and being bored, as usual, he grabbed a ring at random and snooped in on some students.

    The first few were doing nothing of interest and then he happened upon one in the midst of a heated argument. It took him several minutes to identify each of the other students nearby contributing to the argument. The subject was sneaked footage of the tunnel battles from DireSec.

    Ornius perked up immediately. He particularly liked when students were up to mischief, he considered the trait highly useful and the sign of healthy brains. Children should be up to stuff, particularly against authority. He listened in for more than an hour, his reason for sitting on the pot totally forgotten. It became clear this footage had been cloned and passed among a wide swath of the student body, and it was wildly popular. Every detail and sometimes numbered frames-by-frames were being argued.

    Ornius eventually decided his butt would have a permanent ring if he didn¡¯t get up. He put aside his ears and returned to his formal office, piled with stacks, boxes, baskets and bins. Ornius felt most comfortable when his primary workroom was hoarded. There was exactly one chair, a very comfortable chair right in the middle of the mess. He sat and had a long think. Then he called down to Math Department Head Calypso, waking him. He asked Calypso for a specific collection of musical arrangements. Calypso, being quite familiar with Ornius¡¯ eccentricities, moved to his own office and contacted Brad, the guru of all computing systems.

    Brad, equally groggy asked what for and was told simply, ¡°Ornius.¡± The name was enough. After fifteen minutes of searching the world shell, Brad sent Calypso a collection file of multiple similar yet different bell tones from an instrument called a glockenspiel. Calypso forwarded the file and both Soek returned to their beds.

    At six in the morning exactly, the emergency alarm system of the Citadel and every student slate woke up to brightly ringing bell sounds. It was roughly thirty minutes before most students usually rushed awake to hurry to classes. So, throughout the Citadel students and Masters alike as well as all of the Ba¡¯Neesh, sat up swearing.

    The sound repeated and then it was followed by the sound of a throat clearing. Grand Master Guardian Ornius addressed the Citadel saying that at exactly nine-thirty that evening a set of secret files would appear on the slate of every student or younger if they had completed their assignments due the following day. No sharing allowed. Any sharing would be punished by the inability to receive the next secret file the following night. This announcement was followed by a different set of beautiful bells. And, immediately after that, a wild uproar could be heard as students, youngers, Ba¡¯Neesh and Masters lurched out of beds to question each other about exactly what was in the mystery files.

    It was the first time any Grand Master Guardian had ever addressed the entire Citadel population using this surprising method. The first time bells were used. The first time the emergency broadcast system was hijacked and no one but Ornius had a clue what it was about.

    It made for an overwhelming number of calls to his office, all ignored. Attempts to find him were not successful and the situation resulted in very animated class rooms as every class was occupied with trying to solve the mystery.

    It was the first time in years that every student, bar none, had their assignments done and submitted before the deadline and students sat, squatted and hovered over their slates eager to discover the file. They weren¡¯t alone, every Master was doing the same on class slates drawn from stores as they couldn¡¯t decide if their own systems qualified and they, like their students, had to know. It was aggravating, the common word used in the Master¡¯s private lounge the entire day.

    Calypso alone had some insight, mostly because Ornius now sat under the Sigil in Calypso¡¯s Math Department rooms drinking excellent coffee with his guest Old One Horn while Calypso waited to upload the file. On the dot the file reached out to every student slate, even the ones being falsely used by Masters. It was actually a series of files from a variety of devices documenting the footage of the battle of the blue hand. Classified DireSec footage.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Calypso groaned as he too opened the files to see what Ornius was up to. He heard Ornius and Old One Horn cackling together as Ornius set up the holo projector to play an old vid while the two relaxed in a massive bean-filled bag Ornius had sewn and placed in the room for their comfort.

    ¡°Gods Ornius, Thorne is going to have a fit.¡± Calypso yelled out, once he understood what he was seeing, ¡°He¡¯ll know this is from Brad.¡± Calypso said, unable to not watch the footage. He¡¯d heard about it, of course, but to see it... The blue hand was amazing. The file footage finished with Elias yelling that Mick had been wiped. It was high drama at its finest. Calypso instantly wanted to run it again, to see every detail.

    ¡°Thorne is busy.¡± Ornius said while the opening credits of the old vid played, ¡°Anyway, technically, all footage taken by the Directorate is in open ownership of the Order and as I am head of the Order, that means it¡¯s mine. It¡¯s time to be the change we need, Calypso, why do you think Old One Horn and I are still alive? Mick is right. Something is coming. Time to ramp up.¡±

    Calypso looked past the doorway into the Sigil room where the two old ones were comfortably reclined with a platter of snacks close to hand. The old Soek was the bomb. Clearly, he expected Calypso to mute his own slate-attached system so he could romance One Horn, if that was what they were doing. No one was quite sure, except maybe the two of them. Mick was right? Calypso pondered that statement. He knew Ornius to be a superb strategist. What was coming? He put on comfortable head phones and replayed the files, noting another set popping up marked with the next day¡¯s date. Clearly Ornius wasn¡¯t finished. He focused, he needed to catch up. His mind automatically ran calculations to identify how the hand had understood the complicated trajectory of knocking one ship into another while each ship was trying to evade the action. It was elegant. A domino assault. Soon, he was lost in the math.

    The following morning Citadel roused early. A different set of bells rang out, silencing the occupants. ¡°Good Morning Citadel.¡± Grand Master Guardian Ornius said, ¡°The curriculum of Citadel is now altered. Every Master will adjust their classes to prioritize the questions posed by the footage you have seen. Additional footage of the tunnel battle, the graveyard and the exit from the tunnel is already on each slate. You are expected to review this footage and ask strong questions about what you see and hear. Students with inventive weapon solutions will apply to the OrderSec office on Level Three and discuss their ideas with Commander Sindu. Viable weapons will be tested topside as early as possible with OrderSec and Ba¡¯Neesh supervision. Masters are instructed to do everything possible to encourage all student inventiveness. All Quarters and Vacations are cancelled. I expect your best efforts. Another file will be directed to your slates at half past nine this evening, same criteria applies. You finish your class assignments first. I want your best.¡± This was followed by closing chimes and silence and then overly loud, excited voices as the dining area was swamped by hungry Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh far earlier than normal.

    Ornius, well satisfied, retreated to his commode room to listen to his ears. He reminded himself he needed to talk to Old One Horn about why she wasn¡¯t dead. It was time she told him. Logic suggested he wasn¡¯t going to like her answer. He expected that. He had ordered four OrderSec operatives on his outer door to refuse anyone entry into his quarters. He had shut down his communication machinery. The Masters needed to stop having him hold their hands. He could hear the operatives refusing entry at the door almost immediately, they seemed to be enjoying telling the Masters and Guardians, ¡°No.¡± He grinned.

    It took three days for the outraged Masters to come to grips with the situation. It took the students and youngers a few hours. They ate up the footage, argued details, swore at the dearth of weapons. Mick made a rapid acceleration to full-on celebrity status. Every class now required an application, an understanding of Mick¡¯s choices and how he had thought things might work.

    The day Mick and the Fels Ba¡¯Neesh made the Turtle sigil to carry to the town, the entire student body of Citadel demanded they create a fixed Turtle sigil over the island. Several argued in the assembly, held in the defunct Level Four Casting Arena, that they needed fixed Beloved on buoys tethered around the island and Wayward, the supply island twelve miles east. The Ba¡¯Neesh refused to part out their Beloved for these buoys.

    Ornius stood and the assembly grew silent. ¡°The solution?¡± He asked and then pressed his palms toward the ground to maintain silence. ¡°Your history? Are you stupid Soek? What did Mael teach the Ba¡¯Neesh?¡± He raised his finger-pointing right hand and a single word raced round the room, ¡°Laser.¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± Ornius nodded, ¡°Think it through.¡± He demanded, lowering his hand.

    A young Soek raised a wobbly hand. Dillian. He was seven and seated next to a seven-year-old Ba¡¯Neesh name Crucible. They were friends and always in trouble together. Ornius liked to spy on both of them, they were on his favorites ring. ¡°Dillian?¡± Ornius asked.

    ¡°The waters off Citadel are full of downed Tule Soc Vrill trace drones. Thousands. Mick says these devices have Beloved bones in them.¡±

    Ornius allowed himself a smile. ¡°Exactly right. Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh old enough to fit the ocean-going exo suits will take emergency classes in operation and safety and immediately go find the Beloved. The first student to correctly work out the correct number of bones necessary should send their work to Master Calypso, they will be rewarded with a dinner from Master Lal.¡±

    There was an immediate rush toward the wall-mounted sign-up sheet as Masters glowered at Ornius as yet more classes were undermined in favor of application, everything now focused on weapons. The crowd formed out in teams, another result of the latest footage, Battle Ba¡¯Neesh and Battle Soek formed paired partnerships as student sorted themselves into functional teams.

    The medics were already calculating the rotation of Soek carrying Beloved in backpacks for a slow alter process under one of Ornius¡¯ orders. Not everyone volunteered, but everyone wanted to jack in, link, Vrill out, power up. Topside was awash in weapon testing and Ba¡¯Neesh identifying Soek who could carry them. The gym was equally busy with Soek focusing on Vrilling their muscles to be like Big Bad Karl. There were clubs forming in alignment with several of the top personalities in the footage. Citadel was rapidly changing. Calypso pointed this out to Ornius, that he was morphing all of them at once. Ornius nodded, his expression serious. ¡°Tomorrow we begin mandatory Healer courses. Old One Horn told me she is alive because so many will be injured and die. Everyone will learn. We mix Soek, human and Ba¡¯Neesh healing skills. Mandatory.¡±

    ¡°She said that?¡± Calypso was horrified. They had caught up with the live Mick progress. The Soek boy now something else, like Mael only not, mutating. The Green Army. The enormous Turtle sigil that seemed aggressive at the distance of Calypso watching. He wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to see the famed Agnosin Ritual. He knew he must. They all must. He had come to agree with Ornius, hold nothing back from the youngers and students, Mick wasn¡¯t. Only the infants and those bearing must be spared. ¡°What are we facing, Ornius?¡± He asked.

    The old Soek looked at him. ¡°Old One Horn says we will learn tonight. She is sad and fierce. Will you watch with us tonight, Calypso? I don¡¯t think anyone should watch alone. I will put that in my announcement today. No one is to be alone as we face this together. Mick has united us, perhaps for the first time ever.¡±

    (I dearly love the Citadel and a number of my novels include events at Citadel or Barrens, another facility I have not introduced in this novel although it will be mentioned. I also love Ornius and his antics. It was time to reveal how all of this affected the Citadel, in the absence of a great number of its primary residents. ::smiles::)

 Chapter Fifty-Eight - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Fifty-Eight ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick paused in front of the sliver-like opening to a cave. Two DireSec operatives were overtly guarding the entrance though it remained unclear from whom or whether to prevent those inside from leaving. The cave entrance filled with the uniformed shape of the national military man, clearly unhappy with his current accommodations. He glared at Mick and his entourage. ¡°This is unacceptable. I demand we immediately return to proper quarters.¡±

    Elias glanced at Mick and then said, ¡°We are here to talk to the Huxley¡¯s in private. Would you invite everyone but the Huxley¡¯s to join us outside here?¡±

    ¡°Did you hear me?¡± The man stepped closer looking from the tallest, Rojer, to the shortest, Sofia.

    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡± Rojer decided to answer for Mick. ¡°However, it is necessary to have a short conversation to determine their welfare before we address your issues. Is there some reason we cannot meet with the Huxleys?¡±

    Several minutes were wasted with arguments from both nationals and even from Thorne, who was still hosting the two nationals. Eventually, it became clear that Mick¡¯s group would enter and as necessary escort everyone else out. All of this upset the Huxleys who became involved in this round discussion until Sofia lifted one of her hands and said, ¡°Now! Assist Mick!¡±

    Mick, feeling increasingly uncomfortable noted that he thought she was speaking true Speech in English. He looked down at her, wanting to ask her how she¡¯d learned it so fast. Elias answered his unasked question, ¡°the youngers have all been practicing those words on every Soek they encountered today, didn¡¯t you know?¡±

    The nationals, Thorne and two DireSec operatives exited the cave and Thorne made a sweeping gesture inviting Mick¡¯s group inside. They entered and immediately the elder Huxley strode toward them saying, ¡°This is intolerable.¡±

    Mick raised his right index finger to his mouth in the universal symbol for silence. He shook his head. Elias was already running a scan of the narrow, claustrophobic cave where two areas had been established, an outer section for the nationals and Thorne and an inner area for the Huxleys, trapped.

    All of them watched Elias locate and destroy a number of listening devices. They heard more noises from the cave entry and turned to welcome Master Jeffrey inside. He glanced around and then at Elias who was positioning a distortion field generator at the entrance. ¡°We are clear, then?¡± Jeffrey asked as the soft hum of the field engaged.

    ¡°We are clear.¡± Elias said, putting his diagnostic equipment back in his small carry sack. He pulled out two other devices and set them on a rock. Clearly DireSec had re-stocked him with all of his spy gear.

    Rojer stepped over to face the elder Huxley. ¡°Mick¡¯s ability to communicate is heavily limited at this point. I am here to clarify specific words if you cannot understand him. Sofia is here to interpret as his primary language at the moment is Neesh, Elias has an onboard German translator to translate from her German to English. Master Jeffrey is a Healer, the equivalent of a medical doctor. Time is short. Mick apologizes for this pressure but there is no alternative.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not a costume then?¡± Mick¡¯s mother said, pointing at Mick.

    ¡°No, Ma¡¯am.¡± Rojer continued, relaxing into his role. ¡°Mick, Elias and Jeffrey are the male version of the Homo Soekenisis hominid, Sofia is an immature female, a younger, called a Ba¡¯Neesh. Mick has entered a rapid mutation process which is why his appearance is altering and his speech is affected.¡±

    ¡°Mick?¡± His mother stepped over to face her foster son. He stood there allowing the extreme close-up of her stare, the uncertain touch of her hand on the bumps on his face, the fur on his body.

    ¡°So, you are the terrorist?¡± Mick¡¯s foster father said, pulling her back a step, protective.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Mick answered for himself, allowing the chirps and whistles to do what they may. ¡°I am a Soek.¡± He turned back to his mother and reached out one of his claws toward her. She withdrew slightly. He sighed. ¡°You were great mother.¡± He said, articulating each word as carefully as he could.

    She snuffled and then burst into tears. He turned to his foster father. ¡°I ruin your life. Extreme danger. The enemy will try to use you to force me in ways I cannot allow. If I do nothing, eventually I will be forced to kill you. Understand?¡±

    Elias translated Sofia¡¯s careful German to make sure the elder Huxley understood.

    The man drew Mick¡¯s mother closer. ¡°What are you going to do? We are prisoners here.¡±

    ¡°New life.¡± Mick said. He gestured to Elias to explain from an earlier conversation where they planned this meeting.

    ¡°First, Master Jeffrey will cut out your locators. Then collectively we will destroy your molcoms so you cannot be traced. We will do this at the end as you will experience a painful header once we do this. You will put on these avatar security devices and your appearance will alter. We will walk you out of here and you will be taken to transport. Mick will not know where you go. You will be shown how to create new lives, new identities. Mick believes he will not see you again until the danger is ended.¡±

    ¡°What danger?¡± The senior Huxley demanded, ¡°All of this seems utterly bizarre.¡±

    ¡°You will be shown footage explaining the danger within a day or two. You must accept that truth, for now, Mick is abducting you against your will until you properly understand it is the only way he can try to save your lives.¡± Rojer rather liked this part.

    ¡°When is this danger supposed to be ended?¡± The blustering Huxley continued, glaring at the crude scalpel Master Jeffrey had removed from his kit.

    ¡°There is no approximated end date.¡± Elias said.

    Jeffrey injected the elder Huxley with a sedative and then apologized as the man half fell to a seated position. He knew the foster mother was already under sedation so he didn¡¯t want her unconscious. He used a direct contact numbing agent over the area on the man¡¯s shoulder where one of Elias¡¯ devices indicated the presence of a locator. The man watched as his arm was expertly cut and the locator fell to the ground.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    A quick-heal spray sterilized and sealed the bleeding wound, forming a lumpy faux scab. Jeffrey handed the man a sterile wipe and turned to Mick¡¯s mother. She was holding onto one of Mick¡¯s claws and staring at him in the face. ¡°You are really in there, Mick?¡± She asked again.

    He nodded.

    ¡°I love you.¡± She said.

    ¡°Mother.¡± He answered, unable to articulate the words back to her. In truth, the emotions he was feeling were mostly the desire to escape this experience. He forced himself to step forward to awkwardly embrace her. He felt her pull herself backward when she touched his back growth, horror entering her expression.

    He swallowed and looked away, it was the kind thing to do. Sofia reached out to take the claw his mother now rejected.

    It was quick work to cut out her locator and apply the seal over the wound.

    Mick stepped back several steps. Jeffrey had assured him he could manage the Vrill necessary to fry the human¡¯s molcoms. There was little to see, only the ripple of Vrill that passed through the others warned that the event was finished. The two humans sagged, their hands cupping their faces. Jeffrey applied the pain killer and Elias positioned the avatar devices. He showed the elder Huxley how they operated and told him that the avatar would project the illusion they were DireSec operatives. There were two DireSec operatives who would enter when Mick left, they would exchange places and simply follow Mick¡¯s group out. The elder Huxley nodded, then he turned to Mick.

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand any of this Mick.¡± He said, ¡°Not really. You have been a crap foster son from day one and I never really liked you. Taking you in was a mistake I will forever regret.¡±

    Mick nodded.

    ¡°I don¡¯t care to see you again.¡± He said, ¡°You understand. You stay away from us, you have brought us only misery and injury. Just stay away.¡±

    Mick nodded again, slightly relieved and somewhat pained by the confirmation of his entire life¡¯s guesswork. He had always felt senior Huxley¡¯s antipathy from early on. Still, it hurt.

    His mother wouldn¡¯t look at him, she just clung to his foster father¡¯s arm as if he alone were safe and maybe that was true too.

    Mick nodded at Elias and inclined his head toward the door. They exited leaving Elias last while two DireSec agents crossed in to hand Elias the field generator, hastily removed. In seconds the switch was made and the two Huxley¡¯s followed Elias out the cave entrance, appearing to be the two DireSec operatives.

    Mick hadn¡¯t paused to debrief the waiting Thorne or the nationals, he was nearly trotting with Sofia into the welcome shadows of the woods.

    All of them knew that the masquerading DireSec agents would knock out the nationals with sleeping gas almost immediately while the Huxleys were already being led toward a cloaked floater a mile or so from the cave entrance. It was over.

    Mick gasped out a honking sound, shocked that it reminded him of the grief sound he¡¯d made for Edda. He felt a delayed wash of intense pain flow through him forcing him to bend over and try not to hurl until Sofia said, ¡°The Lamentation nears. We run now Fuck Mick.¡± He allowed his grief to flow into Steffi and the others, the too many others, all dead because of him, his choices.

    Her soft fingers curled around his hard ones and she tugged, pulling him into the woods, into the quickness of her feet near soundless on the forest debris. His own talons were clumsy in comparison, he let her lead, let her define the path, the speed, the impetus toward the celebration of death. He gave himself to the ritual, feeling his head arch back and an enormous wailing bellow emit from his constrained throat. It was as if he were blowing out the past along with his language. He experienced a certainty that for now, he would speak English no more. There was a relief to this loss, a just punishment perhaps.

    They arrived at a clearing near the base of the hollow escarpment with its many small cave openings. The area was full of Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek.

    Sofia led him to the first of the three large tubs, already boiling with body parts drifting. He took his turn at the stirring stick before handing it to Rojer whose facial expression was gruesome horror mixed with a weird pleasure.

    He passed it off to the shocked Jeffrey, the equally shocked and horrified Elias and finally to Thorne who looked as if to drop the stick at first and then pausing to stir some more, his face furrowed and then he too tilted back his head to emit a shattering cry. A lamentation for his damaged youngest son, long dead along with his cherished human mother.

    Karl was the first of the Tule Soc Soek to step forward followed by the rest of Mick¡¯s guards. They were followed one-by-one by the remaining Soek in whatever random order drew them forward. Mick climbed to a vantage point and sat watching, noting the bodies of the dead Soek off to one side, per his instructions.

    He whispered to Sofia who called out in Neesh and some of the Ba¡¯Neesh rose from their positions near the pots to stare at the dead Soek and then up toward Mick. He gestured and they teamed up to carry the Soek up the escarpment, to the rock spears. Once begun, this process took on its own ritual aspect as he directed them to load the top of the nearby spears with the bodies. Soon enough all of the dead lay facing the stars, like an offering.

    Aapisowoohta stepped over toward him, ¡°How do we do this, Mick?¡± She asked in Neesh.

    He was staring upward as the odor of freshly cooked Ba¡¯Neesh brought drool to his mouth. They must hurry.

    ¡°Those with Beloved come forward.¡± He answered. ¡°We reduce the Soek to ash. Hot as we can. I can help.¡± He replied, his mind seeing an older scene with metal framework, bodies suspended in the air, the better to burn cleanly.

    Sofia led him upward as other Ba¡¯Neesh selected their rocky spears and ascended. The scent of the boiling intensified, as if nature were blowing the odor intentionally toward them.

    Mick and the others didn¡¯t see the Citadel Soek, climbing to see what would be done. They were too tightly focused.

    Mick stood over the three bodies on his spear. ¡°You ready, Edda?¡± He said aloud in Neesh.

    Sofia laughed and then reached up to grasp at the growth coming from Mick¡¯s back. Elias was first to join in, then the reluctant Rojer and finally Karl, towering over all of them with Freya watching avidly from his shoulders.

    They made a laser but in Mick¡¯s mind it was blue and when the other¡¯s saw his, they went to blue as well and the bodies of the Soek were incinerated, reducing to ash in less than a minute. Up came the wind to spin the ash in all directions, coating all of them in the process to loud complaints from Rojer. And, as quickly as it had started, the Soek were given back to the Ba¡¯Neesh, which is what Sofia told Mick she had felt.

    Mick wasn¡¯t certain he¡¯d felt anything but a now gritty mouth. He turned back to the pots, knowing it was time to eat. He found his altering body was much better at climbing than his old one had been.

    He returned to the triad of pots and received the stick. Aenor approached with her knife. ¡°No time to wait, again.¡± She said, a reprimand in her tone. Sofia translated and the words passed in German to the shocked Soek watching this in sort of suspended horror.

    She leaned in to cut off a slice of Steffi¡¯s arm.

    Mick snatched it and tilted his head back to receive the offering. He could hear the gasps of shock and horror and then he felt the bliss. He sang out to Steffi, thanking her, celebrating with her.

    The Citadel Soek floundered in the challenges of their own reactions until Anya pulled Mael forward, Perisee pulled Brad and other Citadel Ba¡¯Neesh dragged the reluctant ones forward. They passed through the initiation into the bliss of that single tiny bite, all that each were allowed. Then the tiny bits flowed out with some of the Army Soek only getting a lick. It was enough. The euphoria was contagious. Soon the Ba¡¯Neesh were dancing and hooting and the celebration continued until every bone was removed, cleaned and ready to pack.

    Mick showed them how this was done and soon, three more Beloved were raised to the shoulders of those Ba¡¯Neesh chosen to carry them. The offal was scattered off the spears and the pots upended, abandoned.

    Like a drunken party they ascended to the spears, to stare at a night sky brilliant with stars.

    Sofia had chosen to climb onto Mick¡¯s lap, leaning back nearly asleep but not quite.

    The Citadel Soek took places near Mick and all but one individual rocked in a current of energy that flowed between everyone. That lone Soek was running back toward the town, his mind awash in the terror of what he¡¯d witnessed. He had to escape, that lone thought consumed him.

    (Brutal. I know you are ready for the next chapter. Tsk Tsk, you must wait. Enjoy!)

 Chapter Fifty-Nine - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Fifty-Nine ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    Mick looked across the many spears of rock, the ash long gone, now housing the living. The euphoria of the ceremony had eased his tension slightly but now he could feel the fingers of dissonance returning. That¡¯s what his long-ago psychiatrist liked to call anxiety. A failure to align, that had been another of his catch phrases used to identify the deficiencies in Mick.

    ¡°Worrying about your foster parents?¡± Elias asked. Clearly he could tell Mick was off, his body twitching almost as if he were prepping to run. ¡°Or that ceremony. Gods Mick, why didn¡¯t you warn me?¡± Mick hadn¡¯t answered, just gave Elias a glance and then looked away again.

    Mick could feel the Turtle sigil and it too seemed restless although he could identify no danger. He amended that to no immediate danger. He could logic out his feelings as something like battle drop, that could exist, right? Couple that to the uncomfortable interaction with his parents followed by the ritual. It all linked into a chain that was reasonable to explain his increasing--dissonance.

    He remembered three-years-ago, the first time he heard the word. He¡¯d looked it up and discovered it meant a lack of harmony like when two sounds clashed. Was that what it was? The scene was peaceful, the sigil present, the immediate enemy vanquished, the Ba¡¯Neesh rescued. All of these seemed in harmony. He looked over at Elias again, wishing he could talk to his friend without going through Sofia. He couldn¡¯t quite make her fit into his analysis, yet. She was five. Why didn¡¯t that matter? It should matter. He had a certainty of feeling that he knew her, had long known her. Was he just clinging to her because she seemed to accept his alter almost too easily?

    His inner melancholia was interrupted by the thundering arrival of Brad, leading Serla and Norris up the rocks.

    Mick¡¯s thoughts instantly shifted. He needed to talk to Serla. He rose to face the three and then he looked past them to see a gaunt-faced, very thin and tall Soek climbing like a spider up the rock face behind them. He fought to remember the Soek¡¯s name, Aristeen.

    Elias and Sofia had risen as well with Sofia moving forward to climb Brad until she could peer directly into his face. ¡°Pirate.¡± She announced. Then she looked past him to the other three giving each a hard stare, lingering for a long time on Norris and then she spun and jumped all in one motion to trot over to grab Mick by the claw.

    ¡°Did we pass muster?¡± Brad asked. He was still flying from the ceremony. He now knew he wanted a Ba¡¯Neesh to kill him, to eat him. What an unbelievable rush.

    Serla stepped up to stand next to Brad. As usual, his tanned features were impassive, closed. He had none of the charisma of an exo suit, instead he commanded attention through his frequently silent demeanor.

    With the small group¡¯s arrival Thorne approached and turned on Mick. ¡°You promised to reveal your target, Mick Huxley.¡± He said, irritation and a hint of arrogance in his tone.

    Mick nodded and then used a brushing motion with his right hand, as if to sweep aside Thorne¡¯s words.

    Brad interrupted what he could correctly guess would be a Thorne tirade of some kind. The insolence of youth, altered or not was likely reaching the Thorne tipping point. ¡°We have escorted your parents toward safety.¡± He began, trying to sort out why he felt Mick was accelerating. It wasn¡¯t the rigidity of the boy¡¯s face, trapped in shifting biologicals, unable to facially express properly. It was a radiating edge. Brad knew this edge, Mael had it too. He auto-fed his body additional nutrients and resources. Something wasn¡¯t right in Mick world and he didn¡¯t think it had to do with the kid¡¯s foster parents.

    He¡¯d watched Elias¡¯ live feed of the interaction. It had annoyed him and made him want to shake that foster father into some sense. Bad as that had been, he didn¡¯t think it was the source of Mick¡¯s array of body twitches, as if he were having trouble standing still.

    ¡°Mick?¡± Brad took another step forward, the limit of the small space on which he stood.

    ¡°Anya?¡± Mick answered with a name no one expected him to say. He spoke a flood of Neesh toward the petite Ba¡¯Neesh now on her feet glaring at him. It was a request for Neesh to English translation through her. A rude request. Mick had never offered service to any of the Ba¡¯Neesh and he didn¡¯t do so now. She flared her fangs at him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t let him back out of telling us of this mystery target.¡± Mael said to her, he too now on his feet.

    ¡°So, use me.¡± Anya said, her tone a clear warning.

    Mick tightened his grip on Sofia¡¯s hand hoping she would not feel slighted by his choice. He needn¡¯t have worried, Sofia was now fully awake and getting excited. Fun was happening. Maybe even some blood.

    ¡°Serla, analyze our current stats.¡± Anya clipped out on top of Mick¡¯s rough Neesh. Almost as the words came out of her mouth she lost the Neesh edge and focused on Mick. He was gaining. She turned and honked out a warning.

    Then she focused on Serla. He was what the Ba¡¯Neesh called Soek-not-Soek, as was his clone Rojer Kirsan or Serla, Second of His Name. Serla was endlessly mysterious to the Ba¡¯Neesh and highly prized by the Akaitapi, unlike Rojer.

    Serla had been running calcs from the moment Mick rose. He analyzed the boy¡¯s body posture, twitches and rising Vrill. It forced his system to automatically review available data to locate the source of the boy¡¯s problem. He decided he wasn¡¯t alone on this escarpment, many minds might be enormously helpful at this point.

    He summarized aloud the taking of the lab, the freeing of the Ba¡¯Neesh, the retrieval of the Ba¡¯Neesh at Oxine and Kuriwa. Each was like a fallen domino, clear wins. As he reached the end of the list he moved over to the continuing issues. ¡°We have not received access to the Beloved except for some hundred or so we found at Kuriwa.¡± It was the last statement on the list.

    Mick nodded and then spoke again.

    Anya said, ¡°What else don¡¯t I know?¡±

    This surprised all within hearing. No one had tried to keep information away from Mick.

    Serla stiffened and then started to run his calcs again, concern wafting off him in waves. Brad, tracing Serla¡¯s process, noted the shift of the Soek¡¯s massive internal system into overdrive. Brad toggled the DireSec alert system flashing a warning beacon to every operative and individual with an external, he sent a modified signal to the Army Soek with their array of lesser quality and random devices. All of them recognized the familiar characteristics of a warning.

    ¡°What now?¡± Mael yelled out, hating the damn OrderSec device they forced him to wear. ¡°Mick. You damn fucking promised.¡± He too began to ramp up.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°Serla?¡± Mick managed the name.

    Serla looked up, noting the kid¡¯s growing distress and worse, much worse, Mael ramping up. ¡°We lost a Soek. He defected during the ritual.¡± Serla said.

    Whatever Mael and the others had expected, it wasn¡¯t that a Soek had run. It was astonishing only one had run.

    Mick made a contracted sound that ended in a hiss. Anya said, ¡°Accurate odds on retrieval of the Beloved?¡±

    Brad choked. He watched Serla¡¯s analysis and Brad doubled down to check the stats.

    ¡°Unlikely, based on ineffectual negotiation between the Directorate and nationals for the youngers.¡±

    ¡°Unlikely?¡± Anya repeated on her own.

    ¡°Not in a timely manner.¡± Serla answered.

    ¡°Who?¡± Anya asked for Mick after another sound.

    Serla answered before Anya could translate. ¡°Evgeny.¡±

    Mick shook his head. ¡°No.¡± He managed something that sounded like that word. Anya filled in the rest, ¡°Not Evgeny, Eric.¡±

    Then Mick burst into a lengthy spiel in Neesh that brought the Ba¡¯Neesh hooting and shrieking to their feet, stomping.

    Anya put her right hand on Mael, a warning to him. Then she said, ¡°I¡¯m a fucking stupid, stupid Soek. Evgeny is Eric Felsen, right? Head of Tule Soc Security. How did we fucking forget that? Don¡¯t tell me former. What do we fucking do? We get lured here by the dangling of Ba¡¯Neesh, we get seduced into killing Eric¡¯s molcom and forcing Elias to be present which brought me here. First move. The Ba¡¯Neesh loosed in the woods. He was certain of easy retrieval or to kill them. They were weak, barely off their drugs and with no wood skills. He gained access to DireSec and OrderSec. Second move. It¡¯s a god damned trap. He knows I can¡¯t let them have the fucking Beloved, to do so would gut the Fels Ba¡¯Neesh as well as those at Oxine and Kuriwa. Tule Soc intended to end their Ba¡¯Neesh program. They baited us, baited me. A fucking trap. Third move. They now have all of us sitting on this damned escarpment in one group, even the best-of-the-best of Citadel. Sitting fucking ducks. I suckered along like the biggest newb ever and made things worse. All of this to make things worse. I can¡¯t let them have the Beloved.¡±

    ¡°My belated analysis, yes, Mick.¡± Serla answered nodding agreement.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you take the Army in there and get the Beloved?¡± Mael asked, his own Vrill roiling.

    Mick shook his head. ¡°No. That would force us against the nationals and we need them. He fucking knew that too.¡± Anya translated. ¡°He will immediately break up the Beloved into parts and separate them to make them harder for us to acquire, to waste our time and resources. Has he reached the town yet, Serla? Please tell me you fucked his communicator.¡±

    ¡°He should be there in estimated ten minute¡¯s tops.¡± Serla answered. ¡°I fucked his communicator when he defected.¡±

    Mick turned to Mael. ¡°This is the problem: if we allow them to keep the Beloved, our line of Tule Soc Ba¡¯Neesh is reduced to only those currently alive. We lose the memories, the gods precious memories of those inside the Lamentation. If we complete the Lamentation then all of our adult Ba¡¯Neesh will become pregnant as fast as possible to embody the Beloved. This pushes their ability to fight back roughly three to five years out, I¡¯m guessing.¡±

    Mael blinked as the information sunk in and Mick¡¯s orientation to that knowledge. Brad did the math and swore viciously.

    ¡°We¡¯re fucked.¡± Mick said and no one needed the translation to understand his words.

    ¡°We are a target here, Mick?¡± Mael was coming up to speed mentally.

    Mick nodded, saying through Anya¡¯s mouth, ¡°The sigil buys us some time, but only till he gets to the biological weapons. We are breathing Fels air, we have an open ass on this turtle, remember?¡±

    Brad interrupted, ¡°We have Ornius.¡± He said and when no one paid attention he went to mechanical broadcast and repeated so loud no one could not hear him, ¡°We have Ornius.¡±

    Everyone turned to glare at Brad. He shrugged and set his system to open broadcast. ¡°Sir. You are live.¡± He said and then gestured to the crowd.

    Ornius¡¯ made a throat clearing sound. ¡°Well now, Mick. You must put the bagged Beloved on the backs of the immature Ba¡¯Neesh youngers and rapid grow them, like you, slow them back to pre-puberty, strong enough to fight, immature enough not to get pregnant for three-to-five years.¡±

    Mick gaped. He wasn¡¯t alone. None of them had considered forcing the youngers to rapid alter. He looked down at Sofia, watching his face intently, ready. He could tell she was ready mentally. He was supposed to force all of these barely freed youngers into the agony of a rapid alter. He railed against the old Soek¡¯s words even as the logic of the argument slammed home inside of him.

    ¡°Burn the Beloved. Now!¡± Ornius continued. ¡°Old One Horn says this is all we can do to save as many as we can.¡±

    Mick nodded, accepting the order. Through Anya he said, ¡°Give me Neo.¡±

    Brad rolled his eyes and then grinned. ¡°Fuck Mick.¡± He said, patching through to the sub.

    ¡°What about the range target?¡± Mael wanted to vent, his body was riding the edge of freak out. He decided he wasn¡¯t made to be one of Mick¡¯s Battle Soek.

    Neo¡¯s voice came through the broadcast system. ¡°Mick? We¡¯ve been hacked into Brad¡¯s feed here. What the fuck, man?¡±

    ¡°What burning weapons have you found, ones that burn and burn.¡± Mick said through Anya.

    ¡°Range?¡± Neo asked.

    ¡°The Fels Lab.¡± Brad answered, ¡°And, the facilities at Oxine and Kuriwa.¡±

    ¡°Fucking for real?¡± Neo asked, ¡°Get out of my way Morty. Eng, go shotgun on me. Morty you pull the best options and find those codes I entered.¡±

    ¡°When, Mick?¡± Neo came back.

    ¡°Now Neo. Keep hitting the target until it is ash and I mean ash.¡± Mael yelled out.

    ¡°Turtle?¡± Neo asked, a bit of awe in his voice.

    ¡°Fucking A.¡± Mael answered, surprising everyone. ¡°And, we are now running toward you, away from Fels. We have a shield and if we stay together we should survive the burn.¡±

    Mael reached out to grab the front of Mick¡¯s shirt to pull the kid toward him. ¡°Understand this Mick, I gave the order, not you. I am responsible for those who will die tonight, not you.¡±

    Brad nodded and said. ¡°Mick, I gave the order too, not you.¡±

    The saying flowed out, first among the Citadel Soek, then the Ba¡¯Neesh in Neesh until the escarpment echoed the words.

    Mick gasped and then he said, through Anya once again, ¡°I too give this order. I am Ba. I am Soek.¡±

    Mael let him go, nodding back. ¡°We are all in this together.¡±

    Mick shared a hasty glance with Elias and then he lifted Sofia to Elias¡¯ shoulders. Elias nodded and yelled at Brad, ¡°Tell the Soek to carry every Ba¡¯Neesh they can and to stay under the sigil.¡± The Ba¡¯Neesh were honking and jumping down from the escarpment, racing to team along the sigil¡¯s edges, to keep it powered up and out.

    Mael felt the sigil gaining Vrill, excited. This was not the sigil he wore or the one painted on the underside of Math. He was thankful Anya could run faster than he could, he couldn¡¯t imagine carrying her. Youngers wearing Beloved. Fast alters. What would they become, like Mick? He was slightly horrified. And, what was the damned infernal target the kid kept managing to avoid revealing? He wanted to strangle him. Instead he glared over at where the kid was running, to see Sofia giggling and laughing on Elias¡¯ shoulders, being followed by eight Soek being led by Karl with Freya on his shoulders and Rojer, his expression one of eager enjoyment.

    They ran down the back side of the escarpment just as the skies behind them bloomed with light followed by a massive concussive sound that caused the ground to heave. Many fell. They got back up.

    ¡°Did we warn them?¡± Mael asked.

    ¡°No.¡± Brad, close enough to hear, answered. Grim. ¡°We are alerting nearby DireSec aircraft to come in on cloaking to get us.¡±

    ¡°Is the sigil going to let the floaters inside?¡± Mael retreated from thinking of the people dead and dying on the other side of the ridge, in a town like many others, innocent of what had caused their deaths.

    ¡°Perisee says, yes.¡± Brad yelled back. Perisee and Lemista were riding Brad. ¡°So, maybe?¡± Everyone knew that Perisee wasn¡¯t the height of reliability.

    It turned out she was right, a fact she emphasized by bouncing up and down on Brad. Another bomb hit tossing her off between bounces. Lemista laughed, Perisee tried to gore her. Brad swept the two of them up the ramp into one of the massive floaters used to move the youngers earlier from Oxine and Kuriwa. They overcrowded the interior, as did the nearly a hundred other aircraft of all types and sizes.

    Mick told Sofia to tell Elias to fold up the sigil blanket and tuck it between his back and Edda, to keep it going.

    Anya rounded on Sofia who Elias had let back down, to pick her up and shake her. ¡°You learn English tonight in sleep share if I need to bind your head to mine, understand. I not like being inside Mick¡¯s head, he is chaos to Mael¡¯s order. Learn fast.¡±

    (Ahh my lovely fans. Did you predict this? Hopefully not. If not then I¡¯ve done my job here, misdirecting you toward other thoughts. What will Mick do now? Got a guess?)

 Chapter Sixty - The Wild BaNeesh

    The Wild Ba¡¯Neesh Chapter Sixty ?2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

    About half of the Directorate aircraft were cloaking capable. And, everyone was telling Thorne he had to fix that. He felt put upon. He was having trouble grasping the fact that the Directorate, not under his control, had just shot multiple old-school warheads at three towns in a foreign nation/state and by all available intel, burned the facilities in each town down to rubble that continued to smolder. He was being barraged with International demands for surrender. He slapped at his external device, swearing viciously and most of that vitriol was directed at Mick who was surrounded in the control center area of the ship while Thorne, Head of the Directorate, had to fight for a nearby seat.

    What the fuck am I supposed to tell them?¡± Thorne demanded. Worse, no one was listening. He slammed his fists on the armrests of his seat. No one was listening to him.

    Brad had taken the seat designed to control this aircraft, his exo now in chair form. ¡°Where are we going, Mick?¡± He yelled out.

    Mick had found a seat and Sofia had climbed atop of him. He, like nearly everyone else, was staring in horror at the devastation playing out on footage on three separate holo units, each split into multiple feeds. Horror from many views.

    ¡°Mick!¡± Brad yelled again as the ramp powered up into the overfull belly of the aircraft. They had Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek crammed into every open space, many sitting on others.

    Mick focused on Brad and then he pointed upward mumbling in Neesh. Sofia said, ¡°Neo. Over deep seas.¡± In German, of course, translated by Brad¡¯s device.

    Brad shook his head and ordered his and the rest of the fleet to the imprecise location of toward Neo, that meant the sub, and over deep seas. At the least it would place them outside of this nation/state.

    ¡°We have nationals up and heading toward us, Serla said, having taken the seat next to Brad with Jordy on his other side.

    All of the nearly a hundred ships lifted in more or less unison, a triumph in itself.

    ¡°They will fucking take pot shots at us.¡± Thorne yelled, determined to be heard. ¡°We just fucking shot up their nation.¡±

    ¡°They know we will shoot back.¡± Serla¡¯s voice held a calming tone. He had spent years working under Thorne when he was Kirsan and the two knew each other well. ¡°They will exercise caution not wishing to lose ships like the other nation/state did a few weeks back.¡±

    Rojer was itching to get at the defense system controls but those seats were already manned by experienced techs who had spent much of the last few weeks studying every aspect of Mick and Elias¡¯ earlier firefight. None of them intended to vacate a fighting seat, especially not to Rojer.

    ¡°Leaving national air space.¡± Brad counted down from five.

    Jeffrey had robbed his stores to find his stash of blood suckers, the lollipops so favored by Ba¡¯Neesh. He started with the youngers first and then to any Ba¡¯Neesh that grabbed for them. The sounds of slurping filled the gap.

    ¡°We will be over Neo¡¯s position in ten, nine¡­¡± The rest of Brad¡¯s count was interrupted by Mick lifting the licking Sofia off his lap to set her on his seat. He looked around the crowded space with what appeared to be some confusion on his face. It was difficult for him to move around the people sitting in the aisles or two up on the seats. The interior quieted with everyone watching Mick to the sound of slurpy licks.

    Mick paused in front of each of the important Citadel Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh, to stare into their faces one at a time. It was like a lottery. The aircraft came to a hover as Brad had no further instructions to pass out. He too was watching Mick, noting the intensity of the boy¡¯s body language.

    Mick inched away from Central, trailing Thorne¡¯s litany of bitching, mostly heard only by Thorne. Thorne didn¡¯t like to be examined by a kid and rejected for criterion he didn¡¯t even know. It simply added to Thorne¡¯s list of things objectionable about Mick Huxley.

    Mick wove his way deeper into the thickly crowded aisles and then he paused, his head sweeping along as if scanning those even deeper. At the far back of the aircraft were the standing Akaitapi who didn¡¯t like to squat or lay down aboard ships. Mick straightened and everyone turned to follow him with their eyes.

    The space around the Akaitapi was slightly more open than around the other Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh. Mick headed more directly toward the five aboard this ship. They shuffled as it became clear he was coming toward them specifically and the leader took the fore.

    He came to a stop in front of her. On her fours her head reached his chest yet he still felt small next to her, insignificant. He lifted his chin. Then he reached out with a speed that shocked and elicited a wild trumpeting from all of the Ba¡¯Neesh nearby. He¡¯d wrapped his claws around the base of her horn mounts. This was no immature Fels Ba¡¯Neesh with blunted horns. This was a massively strong elder Ba¡¯Neesh fully armed.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    She instantly flung her head from side-to-side trying to throw him off. Had he still had his human hands, that would have worked. But, he had claws that locked into place so what flew was his body out parallel to the floor to the gasp and hoots of everyone trying to scramble out of the way. It was clear to nearly everyone that Mick was going to die.

    When she couldn¡¯t loose the stupid Soek, Aapisowoohta pushed her mass upright to her full height and unlocked her hands, reaching around his slender form intending to rip him away from his touch of her. In the process her fingers touched Edda and she stilled. He hung from his claws, staring up into her furious eyes. She stiffened and then said, ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Thorne yelled out. ¡°What the fuck is going on? Is she going to gore him or not?¡± He sounded almost hopeful.

    Mick let go of her horn mounts and faster than he could imagine her head lowered and her left horn pierced his shoulder with excruciating pain, followed by Vrill, followed by laughter.

    Mick gasped, his scream swallowed. He wobbled on his feet and then he lifted one claw to dip it into the wound and offered his bloody finger for her to lick. She did so and then trumpeted. Mick stumbled backwards, now supported by Ba¡¯Neesh hands reaching out toward him, most trying for a bloody dip or lick in passing.

    He looked across the distance at Brad. Behind him, Aapisowoohta said, ¡°Up. We go up, hard and fast, as high as this mechanical trash will go. Link up, jack in, all ships, Citadel and Barrens. Set a mark for the highest point, Pirate. You detach from the Ba to protect your life. Everyone else expendable. Now.¡±

    Brad nodded, he had built-in protections in his system to protect his fragile life from massive Vrill shifts. Serla¡¯s hands were already flying over the systems, shifting all ships to auto recovery if Aapisowoohta¡¯s oblique warning were accurate, and it would be. The Star Watcher didn¡¯t make mistakes.

    ¡°Serla, Second of My Name.¡± Serla ordered, ¡°man a seat.¡±

    Rojer couldn¡¯t have been more shocked. He knew Serla disliked him nearly as much as his own father did. He hurried over before the tall Soek would change his mind.

    Mick had sunk to the floor and Sofia had found her way through the crowd to once again crawl onto his lap. ¡°Fun.¡± She said, around the remains of her delicious lolly after giving his gored spot a curious look.

    Serla opened the broadcast channels on all of the Directorate ships as well as several interior feeds on their lead ship.

    Nationals in hot pursuit slowed as the open broadcast came up on their holos. ¡°What are they doing?¡± The Commander asked.

    ¡°Going up, Sir.¡± A subordinate tech stated the obvious.

    ¡°What¡¯s up there?¡± The Commander demanded. ¡°Use our long range visuals and satellite footage, where are they going? There¡¯s no escape that way.¡±

    There was nothing to see, just nearly a hundred ships closing in on the limits of their range at the very thinnest part of the planet¡¯s atmosphere.

    ¡°What the fuck, now I get to die of frostbite, lack of oxygen and the brat kid still hasn¡¯t shown us a damn thing.¡± Thorne¡¯s rant continued.

    Mick reached up to the bones dangling from his chest. ¡°Iiyiko.¡± He articulated Her name as best he could. She didn¡¯t appear.

    The MagC¡¯s on every ship responded, on the sub, in Citadel, in Barrens. On every ship the Soek grabbed each other by the back of the neck, closest to the spine and linked in to the nearest Ba¡¯Neesh. In Citadel the younger teams of Ba¡¯Neesh and Soek huddled under the thousand dangling Beloved Channels. Ornius and Old One Horn were topside, with his binoculars and some vintage wine with snacks. Both felt they were old enough to let the young blow their Vrill.

    Brad began the count-down to apex and even Thorne shut up and everyone looked up although all they could see was aircraft ceiling.

    ¡°What the hell are they looking at?¡± The Commander yelled. Every nation/state was linked in to what was now a world shell open broadcast, watching the freakish non-humans in aircraft heading toward the outer limits of the atmosphere.

    A thin blue line fired upward out of the lead aircraft disappearing into space as if fishing. Everyone watched.

    Iiyiko swept her hand through the planet-sized sigil. She was tiny, miniscule to its vastness. But, she was pure Vrill with intent and her intent was to break the sigil.

    At the moment of contact she recoiled, sliding down the Vrill linkage into the MagC¡¯s to come to rest inside her haven of Norris, now unconscious and collapsed among the other unconscious Soek and Ba¡¯Neesh littering every aircraft, the submarine and the two Directorate facilities.

    Serla watched the footage as a ripple spread across the sky, as if peeling an onion. ¡°A sigil.¡± He whispered to Brad and Rojer, the only others who remained conscious. ¡°They¡¯ve used a fucking sigil to hide in plain sight.¡± He turned to Brad, ¡°Give me a quality frontal pickup. It¡¯s time to clarify what we are doing.¡±

    Brad nodded, he couldn¡¯t look away from the disaster transmitting through the holos. A massive fleet of space ships was heading toward them, maybe weeks out, maybe closer. Mick¡¯s admonition that time was short, hit home. They were so fucked.

    ¡°I am Serla, a non-human Homo Soekenisis hominid.¡± Serla said into the pickup, ¡°My kind have just destroyed three Tule Soc facilities in a nation/state that was holding the dead of my kind hostage. Above is the true enemy to Earth. The Dark Gods are returning and they had set a distortion force field to prevent humanity from seeing their approach. The blue hand weapon has destroyed their force field so you can witness this truth. Tule Soc was fronting their preparations to take our planet. Prepare to fight. Everyone.¡±

    This is the End of The Wild Ba''Neesh [Part One].

    (I have other books in this series ready to be published. If you enjoyed this novel I invite you to rate it on this website, join my friends list at Fay Thompson Author on Facebook, join me on Twitter @FayThom04494140. My push is to have a major publisher pick up this series in my WitchBoard universe. You can help by becoming an official part of my fanbase. Thank you! I hope you have loved this book as much as I have enjoyed writing it for you.)

 Return of the Dark Gods

    The WitchBoard Series continues with "Return of the Dark Gods".

    Gamer Mick Huxley continues his adventures along with the rest of the Soek and Ba''Neesh. Only, this time he is confronted with the Dark Gods themselves. They intend to harvest Earth resources and toy with its inhabitants, like they have done repeatedly in Earth history, only this time humanity, led by the Soek, isn''t eager to submit to an alien space-born species presenting themselves as gods. Mick strikes the first blow at the end of "The Wild Ba''Neesh" when he has Iiyiko wipe through the world-wide sigil that has been preventing Earth scientists from seeing the approach of the Dark God''s fleet of ships. The Dark Gods retailiate immediately and that is exactly where this novel begins.

    Since you have already read The Wild Ba''Neesh you are now familiar with the WitchBoard world and it will likelier be an easier read for you even though I will continue to do worldbuilding for readers joining us only starting with this new novel. I will be including a lot of the same cast of characters and, of course, the true villains, the Dark Gods will be introduced. The stakes are higher as now all of Earth is under seige and there are a lot of human beings who don''t like or trust the Soeks in their midst. So, it is likely there will be trouble from two sides, humanity and the Dark Gods. And, some of the Soek''s old enemies are back eager to work with the Dark Gods against the Soek. It''s complicated and nasty.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    If you found The Wild Ba''Neesh to be a bit dark and scary then you will likely find The Return of the Dark Gods to be even more intense. This next novel also has more science fiction elements woven into its fabric as a good deal of the story will take place in Earth orbit and it will include space ships and massive habitat spheres. You like those, right?

    I am writing this novel as part of NanoWrimo [National Novel Writing Month - November] and I am going to try to post a chapter a day like I did with The Wild Ba''Neesh right here on Royal Road. Do you like that idea? I want to hear from you to see if you are eagerly waiting for the continuation of Mick''s story. You can message me directly at my twitter feed at @FayThom04494140.

    Here is a link to Return of the Dark Godshttps://www.royalroad.com/fiction/28069/return-of-the-dark-gods-a-witchboard-novel/chapter/419162/chapter-one Chapters One and Two are already up live for you! Enjoy!

    Both The Wild Ba''Neesh and Return of the Dark Gods fall into the sub-genre of Dark Urban Fantasy, GemerLit, with features of Horror and Science Fiction. Both novels are intended for an adult audience even though Mick is 15 when his story starts. There is and will be profanity and violence in both novels.