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

Episode #57

Father borrowed several drones from Bradoh. He wasn't sure about the exact way to the destination in question. But since he'd chosen this place, we wouldn't wander too far off from Tagai if some sort of 'shadow zone' existed for the Baal's presence as well. If so, the place he mentioned—no, most definitely a ship—was somewhere underneath this area.

"The Medan sure is alert," Father told me when we set off on our search for a suit. Perhaps he had also decided it was time to talk about the mission with us, so this walk had another purpose—sharing vital information and discussing further plans. In this case he'd want to be away from the Baal and out of the enemy's potential sight. The depths of the trash labyrinth provided an ideal place for undisturbed conversation.

I sighed. "He's trying too hard. Go easy on him. I think you are being appreciated."

"Aa."

Baro and Eyu followed a few steps behind, talking about suits. The topic struck a chord with those two.

"He likes you more than he thinks or wants to admit." Father didn't appear to be angry at Baro's earlier question. At least he didn't show it.

"Maybe," I replied. "Do we have a back-up plan?"

He nodded again and shrugged. "I wouldn't rely on him too much, though. I have no control over there whatsoever as there were issues with its approval."

Oh, so Father wasn't alone after all. "Say, for how long did you know Quennah had been followed?"

"From the moment we left Dannan," he told me. "They appeared around the same time you killed their Observer."

"Observer?"

"That creature with a similar shanra pattern as Shaamta's you were talking about. It wasn't a regular Hunter."

"Oh." Had my involvement made it somehow different? "So you must have killed one before."

"We certainly had." He looked at me. "More than one. But never before have the 'owners' arrived this quickly in person to check out a planet completely devoid of people. That's an unusual change in their pattern of tactics. And we're not exactly sure about the reasons behind their sudden interest."

"I see." That made sense of the enemy infiltration on Quennah. With Orewen present, they shouldn't have been able to determine the exact amount of people aboard though, yet their attack looked like they knew Quennah carried only a few of us. It meant that they knew how many of us had been aboard since our departure and might have known how many had left the ship when the Medans chased them out.

It was strange that they decided to catch a few people with an Enclave and not send a Hunter vessel after us, with three or more of them around. Was the enemy after what remained aboard? Did they simply want to destroy the ship? Again, they could've done it sending any of the Hunter craft after us.

"What about Mom's Cold Sleep? What's the major effect for us?"

"A person in that condition broadcasts their location to all with sensitive enough soma, that sensation ranging from a gut feeling of something bad happening, right to direct contact with their consciousness."

"Ah so." True. With my soma's progress I happened to experience both ends of the spectrum, but I hadn't been able to pinpoint her exact location the last time either. "Were you able to reach Mom? You felt it too, didn't you?"

"While I was away from Quennah, I couldn't reach to find out who that person was without bringing the enemy's attention to me and those with me. After you told me it was Avila and that you'd 'met' her, I figured it might have been the reason she disappeared from my sight some time before I met up with you here. So she is either already awake or dead now." He seemed somewhat distant.