FALAHA'S JOURNEY: A Spacegirl's Account in Three Movements

Episode #42

"Here, hold onto this." Eyuran gave me a small data neck tag. "Baro's ID."

"Did you look what's on it?"

"Only his complete medical history, which was rather unremarkable prior to when he set foot on Quennah. Two head injuries—"

"Three," I interrupted. "I hit him again while we were in Bradoh."

Eyuran frowned and glared at Baro. "Did he try to do something to you?"

"No, we were hotly debating our future course of action." We stared at each other, while Eyuan processed this information.

"Three head injuries and other traumas within one day," he concluded. "Don't you think simply being among us might kill him faster than Hunters could?" I forced out a guilty smile, but Eyuran had a valid point. "Anyway, I didn't have much time to study the rest. Besides, I was under the impression you wanted the man to tell you himself and would see the data only if he had died." I glanced at the Medan and then looked at my cousin again. "I have bad news," Eyuran continued, taking out a knife and cutting his hair short. "Yesterday the enemy ship started to move. I think it has left Klia. Right now we are heading somewhere. Assuming the worst, they have the location of Kan Diona. They could have obtained the data from a crushed Medan vessel. I saw at least two of their Motherships in the scrap."

My mouth dried up and it suddenly got chilly in here, so I burrowed deeper in the folds of my blanket, clenching the data tag in my fist. The enemy could have obtained the data from Quennah as well.

"Even if their target is not Kan Diona—yet, they still might head for another Nua colony," I said. Eyuran nodded.

And speaking of the enemy, are we dealing with the same Baali that killed that young female? Her enemy ship did somewhat match the one I stood on from the outside, and as for interiors—although Kané did not know much, only the basics of Baali shipbuilding and the overall structure—according to that, all Enclaves looked somewhat the same. Yet taking into account how our soma splices at conception, Dorgu's part of the memory must also reside somewhere in us. Assuming it is the same ship, our soma must contain many things regarding it and its Commander's... Yajur's plans, though this information is probably dated considering our extremely long time of separation. But what if some of us already know this? What if my father knows it as well? Was Bradoh-type gear developed to board this thing? If so, what were our plans regarding the possible combat? Is Baro hiding something after all?

Also, what did match closely was the shanra pattern on the Hunter that ate our grandfather and the one Shaamta wore. I was pretty sure about that. What does that mean? And who or what was that person I met? He didn't feel like Shaamta at all. It was someone else.

"Do you remember the green-eyed person who helped us?" I asked Eyuran as he finished his haircut. At neck length, it was still a wavy mess.

"Who?"

"Never mind. I'll explain later, when Baro wakes up. I think someone here makes the Hunters from our own people. And probably feeds the captured rest to those. I'm not sure about that person's motive to do this, though... I took a DNA sample from a Hunter and I wanted to show you the data, but my Node is gone now. Mom is still alive. I think. We have to look for our people—we might still be able to save them."

"I know about the Hunters' DNA. I've heard that hypothesis from Dad, but I took several samples to see for myself as well." He moved closer. "I want to show you something."

He helped me to get up. As I feared, my main strength was gone. I gasped as I made my first weak step and Eyuran caught me by the waist. Without a word he easily lifted me up in his arms and I felt how truly strong he had become.