Three Shells Paradise

A Stable for the Unstable

Roff was very happy when Gibbs was put along with him on stable duty. The court case was still pending so they had plenty of time to talk. Gibbs told him that he was shocked by the way Rial had got him arrested in the coup and even more when she got couped by an underage kid and that too Roff's.

Gibbs: You tried that coup so many times on me, but never succeeded, how did Maula do it?

Roff: When I tried it was always face to face with you. And I know that you had developed a bio chem that would make it impossible for any opponent facing you to defeat you. I helped you procure it in the first place and so  I know its effects. Your opponent is rendered powerless and you could defeat him easily.

Gibbs: Why then did you keep trying to defeat me?

Gibbs: Because I didn't want to defeat you, I wanted to win you back.

Roffy... and he hugged him.

"How touchy! As if this place wasn't filthy and smelly enough, there are two more beings to disgust me." Said Rial.

Rial, hey there welcome to the stable.

Shut up Gibbs.

Now, the stable was a place where all kinds of vehicles in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and conditions came for repairs. They were all public properties and hence maintenance was a lot of work.

Roff nudged Gibbs to talk to her, "I always thought you both were a couple."

Gibbs: Really? Looks like I'm the last person to know of my own love story!

Roff: Duh! Now goooo...

Gibbs went and sat next to her. She moved away. He looked at Roff who was asking him to go after her again and again.

"Hey there, you are here to clean the mess before the animals are back from grazing. Now move it." Shouted the Stable Keeper rather mockingly. And sure enough floating devices, travel pods, and other transport devices started to come in for maintenance in large numbers. They all got to work until it was time for break.

This happened for a couple more days, Roff would ask Gibbs to talk and Rial would keep moving away without a word.

Then on the fourth day Gibbs asked Roff to leave him alone, he was getting nervous with an instructor behind him and with no results. He stopped in his tracks and said "Rial isn't her real name; is it Roffy?"

He patted the back of his head sheepishly and, "Sara, why are you angry with me now that I know I love you. When I didn't realize it, you were by my side always. And now when it matters most you are being stubborn. Why?"

Rial: You do remember my NAME!
And a surprised, teary eyed Rial left the stable.

Gibbs: Roffy, Sara is angry with me, I understand. But why is Orla angry with you?

Roff then told him all that happened there.

Gibbs: You deserve it you numskull. She loved you so much. She perhaps couldn't tell you about her parents because she didn't want to remember how I murdered them. Did you think about it so?

Roff: Now you take her side?

Gibbs: Aren't you both on the same side?

Roff: I'm not so sure now. Hmm, but why hide it? Didn't she trust me?

Gibbs: I think she knows you too well. By the way, how often do you go to her parents place? I remember I crippled them.

Roff: Not much. Well, I told them they should have gotten their daughter married to you, it would have saved the world a lot of trouble. Her brother hurled a serving bowl at me and that was the last time I ever went there.

Gibbs: Hmm Sara is right. You are stupid.

Roff: You too? Now I feel truly loved!

Gibbs: Enough with the sarcasm. You are stupid and are so thick you can't even agree it.

A few days later, Roff was taken to the court for hearing, the judge asked him to fetch his wife or if she pardoned him in two days, he could earn his freedom.

When he went over to his mom's house, Orla wasn't there. They told him, she had left them a note.

Love seems to be a very rare commodity. I lived my life well with a lot of lovely people, was well loved, I dare to think. But, looks like my share of love has been exhausted. I would have loved to leave this world amongst loved ones, but now I'm leaving to die amidst people who loved me.

Please let me do so in peace.

Your father is not entirely wrong in blaming me, I guess he didn't expect me to keep secrets. Also, since he was betrayed once, he must have felt bad about it.

P.s. mother please give my kids The Box. You are all not as poor as you think. Mom did leave you a small fortune.

Love Orla.

Roff was shocked. Now everyone was blaming him. Each of his kids received a small gold chain with a precious stone. They were engravings on the metal. He had not been forgotten, he received one too. Also in the box were an Id and password to a bank on earth, it contained above a million bucks.

Roff sat down lost in thought. Just as Sia walked in, he asked her to tell him where Orla was. Sia didn't want to say anything and simply went away. None of the kids were talking to him. Well neither were the adults.
He went to Sia again and she handed him the note again and said, "Go find her yourself."

Roff: I need a clue.

Sia: Read the note properly.

He read it again and again. Orla was always good at such things. He also realized that she was good at going under the radar. She found safe places during the regime where he and a small number of people could meet undetected and hatch plots. These places also served as training grounds for a lot of followers including their children. When the regime hunted them, she still kept them safe and hidden for months. He thought, if she could keep her people safe for years together, she could probably do the same to keep herself hidden. But where was she?

He went over to meet Gibbs and found that he had been taken for questioning.

He say down frustrated at the base of a stone sculpture, when a brain wave hit him.

He went straight to the nearest freeway center and got a pod to the place where Guru Hira, Mata Shyla and even her parents had been cremated. That was also the spot Orla had chosen for the safe drop. Not many knew of the spot and hence it had been considered safe. Except of course Orla, Sia and the baby had never got the chance to land there. So it was still secluded.

Now, he reached the small insignificant looking hill on the eastern most part of the earth. Not much could be said except that Orla had chosen well. Her parents would definitely like the serenity and calm the quiet little valley provided. And then he thought of how Orla must have felt on having her parents killed right before her eyes just a few minutes after knowing that they were her parents. Since they didn't have any heirs that the world knew, Orla had simply suggested that they have the funeral on earth in an obscure location that the Green Army wouldn't be able to find.
He had visited this place only once before, a day after they had gotten married. Not when they had planned. Her publicly known parents had their legs chopped off when they had defied Gibbs and got them married. Later when they died too, Roff hadn't quite gone to the funeral, a little out of spite but mostly out of guilt.

[Author's Note: Please wait for the next update.]