Kareivis: Warrior

CHAPTER 11: IN THE INNER FOLD

Muhali announced that they were nearing Neptune’s orbit. And this interrupted whatever tiff the brothers were having. She then ordered anyone who was not in the nesting pods to make use of them immediately. A light shockwave was felt throughout the carrier as it made its final jump from behind the shadows of Neptune and to the Pirmas facility of Zeme. Muhali's hair blew in the air as if it was being blown by the wind. Her eyes glowed a bright blue colour as her hands hovered over a sphere in the command centre. And in an instant the carrier had landed in the Inatum (receiving jumper bay) of a large underground facility. The nesting pods opened automatically, and the entire crew exited as Rehsa led the way to the main exit. As the crew exited, Rehsa went back to search for Muhali and to ensure that she was ok. When Rehsa arrived at the command station she found Muhali hunched over the command centre with both her hands stretched out clinching to the edges of the command centre. “My princess!” Rehsa exclaimed in a panicked tone. She hurried to assist Muhali to sit down. “I am fine. You need not worry about me. Has everyone made their way off the carrier...?” Muhali asked as she paused and looked directly at the entrance and she continued: “...lurking in corridors, hiding behind closed doors and eavesdropping on private discussions is beneath you Master Kilnus.” When she said this the door slid open and standing at the entrance was Master Kilnus. “My apologies your highness, when I did not see you exiting with the others, I became concerned. I saw Rehsa heading to the command station, and I followed her. Forgive me my princess if I have overstepped my bounds. But by your appearance I was justified to worry.” Muhali forced herself to stand up and said: “Rehsa would you excuse us for some moments. I must have a word with Master Kilnus.” Rehsa did not say a word she bowed her head and exited the command station. She did not go far; she waited at the outside of the command station. Muhali could barely stand because even though she had interfaced the carrier with its own jump gate, she did not have time to compensate for the levels of energy consumption required to make the jump. She had to use her own energy to facilitate the jump. Kilnus could see that she was not herself but since they had been nothing but enemies in the past, he couldn’t ask her directly what was wrong. He tried to assist her to sit down but she would not allow him to touch her. Instead, she only said: “I know that it is your guilty conscience that is compelling you to behave in this manner. Rest assured Master Kilnus I will not tell my sister nor my father. And I will likewise not divulge the events that unfolded in the altercation of our previous encounter to any other individual. I do not hold this matter against you, and neither will I use it as leverage against you. So, you may go back to despising me and insulting me at every turn.” And with that she exited the command centre leaving Kilnus astonished. But he managed to compose himself and he followed her and Rehsa out to the docking bay. When they reached the exit, they were shocked to find that the entire crew of the Pirmas site were all in the docking bay waiting for her. Even though most of the crew that were on board the carrier had exited; the Pirmas crew refused to leave until they had seen Muhali. When they saw her they all knelt on one knee and bowed their heads. A woman then stood up and said to Muhali: “Welcome back your highness. We have not seen you since you designed this place. You have been greatly missed. Please forgive us, some of the crew had not met you before. They all insisted on coming to greet you and I simply could not deny them. Everything is set for you in the lab and Farisei will join you in a few moments to brief you about Antrinis.” “Thank you...” replied Muhali “...I would like to introduce to you Masters Kilnus and Varens of the house of Kilnus. You already know Rehsa and the royal guard. And lastly these five are the shadow legion from Rammenu. May I see the lab? I must enter the parameters for the rescue plan.” “Certainly, my princess please follow me.” replied the woman and then she continued saying: “if I am to understand correctly, the five are to go to the interface centre, Masters Kilnus and Varens are to remain here until Farisei returns. Rehsa as well as the royal guard are to come with you. Am I correct?” Muhali nodded her head gently in agreement. The young masters wanted to protest and when they looked at her to speak, they saw the stern cold look on her face and they kept quiet. Muhali, Rehsa and the royal guard followed the woman to the lab where Muhali was shown the weapons that were confiscated at the Antrinis facility raid. She opened one of the cases and took out a small flat board. She pressed the tips of her fingers gently against the board. It glowed and became a mini version of her control centre in Inthia. She waved her hand in the air from the front of the board to the back of the board and five monitors appeared in front of her. The monitor at the centre showed an image of Vesma: “We have been waiting for you to make contact. So far there has been no apparent threat to Inthia or Thyatira. But Zionas's scouts did record a Channidae fleet divided into three companies. So far, they have just made a barrier line near their jump gate, there is yet to be any movement. Zionas will send through all the information we have gathered.” “Thank you, my princess. We arrived safely on Earth, the Channidae are aware of our arrival. I made sure to make enough of an energy burst to alert them. I am about to analyse the weapons that our people seized when Antrinis was invaded. I am still waiting on Farisei to return so we can discuss how I will get into Antrinis without being detected. Yuda's core is still at her base. I will report to you when the second phase has begun. Be safe my princess…” and with that statement Muhali bowed her head to her sister. She then ended the connection between Zeme and Inthia. She signalled with her hand to call Rehsa and the guards nearer to where she was standing and with the black board still glowing she put the weapon in the light and it began to levitate. The parts of the weapon come apart as though it was being disassembled. Muhali began to study the weapon carefully taking notes on the monitor in-front of her as she explained to the guards and to Rehsa about how the weapon functioned. Just as she was speaking a man entered the room and walked toward her, his face appeared to be irate. He didn’t look at anyone else besides her and as he approached she turned around. She was not an emotional individual, but the presence of the man seemed to give her joy. “Teacher!” she exclaimed as she put her hand across her chest and bowed her head. The man however did not display the same affection that Muhali seemed to have toward him. Muhali noticed this and asked: “Is there any problem? You do not seem yourself.” The man frowning shook his head and looked down. He put his hands behind his back and finally he replied: “Yes Muhali, I do have something that is weighing heavily on my mind. When you were a child you were arrogant and boastful. You were full of yourself and thought you knew everything. But you matured; you became kind, fair, selfless, impartial and honest. You became a student that I was proud of. I left you in that state and now I wonder when all of that changed.” Muhali was confused and as she was about to respond the man continued: “I saw Masters Varens and Kilnus as I landed in the docking bay and the guards told me that you ordered that they be confined to Inatum. I am aware that the two young masters are part of the new council of Inthia. I contacted Skydas to know what was happening and he informed me of all that took place on Thyatira as well as the other issue. So, I ask again when did you change?” Muhali did not respond she looked down with a sad expression on her face. And the man took it as a sign to continue: “I have never known you to keep the company of those you do not trust. And even if it was Mamme who imposed them on you, you would never have agreed to bring them along without a certain measure of trust in them. I implore you my student to be the matured princess you once were and award them the same opportunity to learn as all the others that are under your charge.” he moved to hug her and as he did this the door opened for the young masters. As the two young Masters entered the control tower, Muhali let go of the man whom she then introduced as Farisei. She then shut down two of the three monitors that had been projected by the board. The remaining monitor enlarged, and a small cube appeared at the centre of the monitor. Muhali placed her hand beneath the cube so that it gave the illusion of resting in the palm of her hand. And the walls began to release an inner wall that spread throughout the entire room leaving them in darkness apart from the glowing light of the monitor and the cube. The walls began to glow as if they were in a simulator. The weapon that they had been studying then appeared along with a holographic image of a soldier from Inthia. The weapon shot the soldier and it spread a corrupted version of their pure energy blast all over the soldier’s body. In less than a minute the soldier was dead. Muhali then explained that that specific weapon was specifically meant to kill anyone from Inthia weather pure blood or not. She continued to explain that the weapon would not harm any human, it could only stun them. She then assured them that because she had discovered how the weapon worked, she could also create counter measures against it. She then gave the data cube to the woman who had received them when they first arrived on earth. She also instructed the woman to give the cube to the chief engineer of the Yuda facility so that he and his team could implement the counter measures for the weapon. When Farisei heard these instructions, he looked at Muhali and asked: “…has no one told you my princess?” “…told me what?” Muhali replied. “My princess, during the raid on the Antrinis facility Lukos the chief engineer stayed behind to ensure the safety of Yuda’s core. We have not seen or heard from him since then. But we are sure that he was not captured. We are also sure that he is not at the Antrinis facility. What we are not sure of is where he is and how he managed to escape because levels eight through twenty have been locked down by Yuda and the humans have not been able to infiltrate them.” Muhali kept silent for some time as she paced up and down with her wrist band radiating a dim shade of blue. “This means that we have lesser time to bring up to speed Masters Kilnus and Varens. This also means that their mission parameters have changed. They were to help us track down our captured people and to evacuate all others that are residing here on earth. But now the young Masters have to track down Lukos. Rehsa will accompany them to ensure they do not arouse suspicion with the humans. I will go with Farisei to retrieve Yuda’s core. All the necessary arrangements have been made to make Pirmas the new Yudah facility. We must move quickly as we have no time left before commencement of our plan.” Muhali said as she finally stopped pacing. “My princess, would it not be better if you accompanied us while we track your engineer? That way you could train us, and we could stay together. Then when we find him all of us would accompany you to the Antrinis facility…” Varens said from the back of the group. “…in theory yes. That would be a good idea. But the sad reality is that finding Lukos will not be as easy as you think. He is highly skilled at blending in and remaining invisible even to those around him. He is also the chief engineer who works closely with Muhali which means he is knowledgeable when it comes to our technology. Even if you were to track him down quickly, apprehending him would be a different and most difficult task altogether. Muhali and I going to Antrinis would allow for you to track down Lukos without interference from the humans as we would serve as a distraction. I believe this is the plan that Muhali has in mind by separating us…” Farisei replied before Muhali could say anything.