The Coordinate

Chapter 14: Hostage Situation?

            Silence.

            He started to grow uncomfortable being around it. It was like a constant, hot magma in his head. Silence almost never existed back in Novaien, and in space, silence meant you were lost, or your partner died, or you did. How he’d be able to overcome this uneasiness when things started to settle down and peace is back once more, he’ll never find out, but luckily, or rather, unluckily, peace and silence was most probably never going to arrive for him. He’s cursed to this life. A life of ghosts pressuring him to continue fighting, a life where his own voices and the voices of everyone he knew demanded to live up to his father’s legacy.

            He never did, nor will he ever will be. He only hoped to do the bare minimum, but even that he failed doing.

            He guessed that, due to his failure, he was stuck here, and was punished with the deaths of most of those that trusted him.

            He looked up to the sky, where he had just noticed that those white things falling from it had stopped falling. With a slight, green tint, the sky was golden and scarlet. A sky that he had only heard of in his father’s stories after every space expedition.

            A soft groan came in three meters west.

            That golden light touched the girl beside him. Her eyelids started to move, and her arms reached to her right, seemingly out of habit.

            She had a short, black hair, brown eyes, toned, well-defined arm muscles, and looked young. Weapon Carrier trainee, her files read. A soldier, though based on her lack of scars, the panic and helplessness when he subdued her, and her naivety, she was a neophyte.

            “Had a good sleep?” Swallow said, sitting across her.

            She sat up, and eyed him. There was panic in her eyes, the very same panic an animal caught in a trap would have. She suddenly screamed and flicked her wrist, but nothing happened. She flicked over and over again, like something was supposed to happen, but nothing did.  A quick blur, and she spun. Her feet raising to Swallow's head. Swallow managed to duck, sweep her still standing feet, and pin her to the ground.

            “Relax, Rori.  I deactivated your ID chip and your drive connection, that way they won’t be able to you.” He said.

            “Who are you? How did you know my name?” she said, trying to get out.

            “My name’s Swallow. I’m Winter Swan’s… acquaintance. The one who piloted the ship with her.”

            “Bastard!” she cried out, cowering on her corner.

Swallow stared at her with a blank expression tossed at her a cold, cellophane bag. She moved from it like it was chemical weapon or something.

            “Relax, will you? It’s from the cafe shop, or whatever you humans call it, earlier.” He said. Swallow then stood up, flaunting his coat and trilby hat on her, “Do you like it? I stole it from a shop?”

            Rori’s eyes widened. Swallow recognized her remembering what happened judging from that reaction alone.

            “W-what do you want from me? Where are we!?”

            Swallow took a deep breath. “We’re at a building rooftop somewhere in the rural areas. If you’re wondering why we’re able to stand out like this in the open with all the surveillance and blatant lack of privacy of your government, then that’s something I can’t tell you yet.”

            Rori eyed him suspiciously. A man like him is truly someone that, like Jordan said, the New World Government is ill-prepared to handle, but…

            This particular novasapien didn’t seem murderous and dangerous than she initially thought. There wasn’t any hostile aura, not anything that she felt come from him at least, but like those things in movies and novels, this could be some kind of act to get her to talk.

            “What I want…” he continued. “I want you to go back to your facility and tell them nothing happened to you. Pretend like this encounter didn’t happen at all.”

            “Why would I do that!?”

            “Because I’m doing this for Winter, and for this planet.”

            “For Winter?”

            “Yes. As we speak, that girl is being experimented on probably. Your government’s novasapiens are probably trying to figure out the technology behind my ship, and thus, is using Winter their subject to conduct their experiments. And let me tell you, they are painful. Very painful. She might be screaming her heart out as we speak.”

            “And I’m supposed to believe you as someone who kidn*pped her and forced her to help you?!”

            “Don’t give me that. I can see you talked to her. You know she’s the one who offered to help me.”

            Rori was silent. How did he…?

            “Well, whatever. Subduing you like this was a mistake, probably. I don’t know, but what I hope to gain is inside information about the underground city. Security there will be tighter, and as someone who lives there, you’ll have something to tell me, right?”

            “I’m not telling you anything.” She spat.

            “Not even if it’s to help your friend? I am doing this for her after all.”

            “You’re f*****g lying! Winter may have helped you but that’s because of her dreams getting in the way of her common sense. I’m not like her, and you damn well sure the New World Government will have you, if not them, then the one who shot you down, Jordan Heron, will!”

            Swallow’s eyes lit up at the mention at the last sentence and turned to her.

            “Jordan Heron, huh? That’s that other guy’s name. I don’t think it’s him that shot me down. I think it’s you.”

            Rori fell silent, her eyes widened.

            “Well, in any case, that’s just me testing you,” he said. “I already got everything I need from you. I hacked your drive connection while you were asleep. I was surprised you didn’t wake up from that. Your drive connection and ID chip will be deactivated when the sun fully sets. You can get your police force to pick you up by then.” Swallow stood up, walking to the building’s edge. He leaned, taking in the view of the golden orb and scarlet sky..

            “A sky like this…” he started again, “doesn’t exist in our planet, you know? The A’vins ruined it, and soon, it’ll ruin yours as well.”

            Rori stood up immediately and ran to the building’s hatch, but upon opening, it was completely destroyed.

            Her heart skipped a beat, and she resorted to running to the other side of the building’s edge and screaming her lungs out for help.

            “Quiet down, human. Nobody can hear you.”

            She was still crying and screaming, her voice breaking pathetically and sobbing.

            Swallow sighed. “Rori Porter Moa,” he said with a stern, calm voice. It chilled her to her very bones, as if her own parents called her. “You want to be a soldier, right? Your files even said you were a prodigy. What I’m looking at isn’t a prodigy. It’s a helpless puppy who’s scared of seeing an enemy. I’m surprised you were able to shoot me down with an attitude like that. If anyone should be a combatant, it should be that guy, Jordan Heron. From what I got in your files, that guy’s willing to burn the world for something he wants to protect. You should probably learn a thing or two from him.”

            Rori’s cringed, looking down the floor. It hurt the unearned pride that she had, one she didn’t know even existed until two days ago with Jordan.

            Swallow climbed up the ledge and stood up in, spreading his arms.

            “One last thing, Rori Moa,” he said. “What you implied, that Winter Swan is stupid for letting her dreams get in the way of common sense, that’s just wrong. You don’t know your friend at all. What she is, is a good person.”

            Rori snapped a vein.

            “What the hell do you know about her?! You’re not even her friend! You don’t know anything about us!”

            “I do, actually…” he turned towards her, still standing on the ledge, smiling, “After all, our mind became one the moment she chose to enter my ship.”

            Swallow stepped off from the ledge, disappearing from her sight.

            Rori up to his side of the ledge and looked down, but was gone.

 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

            “Rori...” Jordan whispered her name out loud, as if expecting her to show up in his room and demand another treat from him.

He lied down on his bedroom, his limbs sprawled across the mattress as the air conditioner filled the silence of the room. His heart was thumping, his nerves restless and limbs unable to calm down. He never liked someone being angry at him. I mean, he couldn’t care less when someone angered Winter first, and he’d just beat the absolute s**t out of them, but this time, that particular person that was mad at him may have the right to be mad.

            He raised his arm and tapped on his wrist. A projection appeared from his palm, beaming through his skin, and on the projection, Rori’s face and her identification number. He dialed her number again, but it was met with a blank. She wasn’t picking up

            She was mad, that was for sure. Jordan saw a glimpse of her tears and her cracking voice. He certainly didn’t expect her to be this… soft.

            She wanted to be a soldier or something, didn’t she? Shouldn’t she have already conditioned herself to tolerate harsh words more? By the Zionous, how was she going to be a Weapons Carrier if she was that soft?

            He wanted to apologize to her, but at the same time, he felt like she deserved it. What she said was idiocy after all, but in the end, he didn’t contact the authorities to find that particular novasapien. He didn’t know why.

            He flicked his wrist again, revealing that same projection from his palm. He tapped on the dial function, and still nothing.

            His eyes panned to the time, showing 4:48 PM. The sun was already setting. He expected her to be in her room, ranting about him on social media or badmouthing him with her other girlfriends, but he was fine with that. He couldn’t care less about what others thought of him. Winter was all that mattered to him. That didn’t mean he was unsympathetic and brutal to anyone else however.

            He wasn’t that cold and uncaring to others, at least, when he feels like it.

            Three knocks hit his door.

            “Come in,” he said.

            The metal doors parted. Mrs. Finch came in with a serious, and worried face.

            “What’s wrong, Mrs. Finch?” he asked.

            “Where’s Rori?”

            “Rori? I thought she already came back. She’s not in her room?”

            “She isn’t. When was the last time you’ve seen her?” asked Mrs. Finch.

            “Back on the a surface city café, we-“

            Mrs. Finch’s eyes widened. Her brows furrowed and her horns lit up.

            “You two went to the surface city!? Did you two even take a moment to hear the notices that was played literally everywhere?!”

            “W-wait. I’m sorry, no I didn’t. Why? What’s going on?” Jordan’s chest got heavy.

            “The novasapien you shot down escaped the Zionous’ entourage and apprehension guardsmen, and it’s in the surface city, Jordan! Rori hasn’t been seen, nor can she be contacted! We wouldn’t be worried about that, but her wrist-line can’t be tracked either! You know what that means, don’t you!?”

            Jordan’s stomach felt like it was about to hurl itself out.

Yes, he knew well what that f*****g meant.

His limbs weakened as his head scrambled for excuses, trying to find any reason that the worst possible outcome did not just happen.

            “I can’t f*****g believe you!” Mrs. Finch said, storming out of his room.

            Jordan remained in his room, paralyzed. His head was spinning, and the noises blurred in his head.

            Should he have reported that man immediately, or should he have not made Rori angry. What if it wasn’t even that particular novasapien? What if it was something else? But what if that novasapien heard their argument and rendered her too dangerous to live?

            Too many factors to consider… too many conclusions to reach, and none of them were favorable.

            He jumped out of his chair and hurried to his advisor. “Wait, Mrs. Finch!”

            The novasapien woman turned back and eyed him angrily while holding up a panel-tab to her ears, waiting for a pleasing answer.

            “Rori and I saw a novasapien that looked like the one that we just shot down. Blue horns, black hair, wearing a cloak. We saw him on Sterling Café on the surface city, that was the last time I saw Rori too!”

            “You saw a suspect and didn’t contact the authorities immediately?!” Mrs. Finch’s eyes flared. “What happened to-“

            “But-“

            “I don’t want to hear it! You will stay in your room and wait for the police for interrogation. You’ve disappointed me, Jordan.” She said as she walked away, continuing on her conversation with the opposite end of the panel-tab. A wry smile appeared on his face briefly, but perhaps it was just the panic cracking down at her walls.

            Doors all over the hall opened one after another. Heads peeked out from them, and Jordan felt their gazes burn at his skin. He wanted to go back in his room and hide from them, but still felt like he deserved it.

            If his hesitation did in fact, put Rori in any danger or worse, killed her, then he deserved to be locked up and have his rights revoked, but if that happens… who’ll take care of Winter?

            No.

            Staying in his room to await interrogation?

            Hah!

            These investigators and police enforcers couldn’t even find him in a day.  That was a shameful display. It wasn’t that they were incompetent, but rather, this particular novasapien was just more capable than anyone they had ever faced.

            He turned back and fast-walked into his room. He changed into darker clothes then walked out. He went to the backdoor of the facility, and as the artificial sunset kissed his face, he ran up to one of exits of the underground city. He knew well he’d still get tracked, but it didn’t matter. The authorities can tail him anytime they wanted, but his mind was already made up. He was going to find Rori, make sure Winter won’t find out, and after that, he’ll return home with Rori in one hand, and the bloodied, beaten body of that novasapien bastard.