Unholy Star, Beyond Faith

Remote control killers

The twelve-year-olds sat huddled together in the corner of the munitions room. It was the place where they had retreated when Sedek had thrown them out of the briefing aera. Sen was in shock having seen, Het, a Learned and her friend being held at knifepoint at the hand of Pepper, one of Zoro's personal guards. All it would take was one word from the old man, and Het would be dead.

"Calm down!" Bast comforted his friend the only way a boy of twelve knew how to comfort, "This might be important, stop shaking and look!" He reshared the thread that he had to the viewing wall in the briefing room, inviting Sen to view it directly through her veetex.

They could only see Zoro's side of the standoff (they stood on the command deck of his starship Fortress). On the al Danni, the Mawlas Xe' ed and Sedek stood with the captain of the ship, Bashshar. With relief, the children saw Het was still alive, although the tip of the knife was still held firmly against her throat.

"If only you knew the amount of work that has gone into getting this far. Webs within webs of intricate planning, decades of work, and spanning the Galaxy. You really don't know the scope of what you are messing with." the Elder Learned had regained his composure.

"We're not blind." Sedek replied, "The assassination at Skye by the same death dealers that rebelled against the Church. Then, by some fantastical turn of events, the Kingdom is dragged in and is now compelled to defend the Rebels should the Church seek revenge..."

"Yes, yes, that's part of it, sure, but that's not why I'm here. You have something I need."

"Don't you mean someone?" Xe' ed questioned.

"She is the key. We, the human race, were once on the verge of a diamond age of discovery that would take us to heights that we, now, can't even imagine; back when the machines could show us the way. She can help us return to that place."

"You can't have her," returned Sedek, "She's Ethnaa Aashar, and we have sworn an oath to defend her and the others. It's too dangerous around you, so we are enacting our right and taking the children to where they will be safe."

Xe' ed added, "By-the-way, she's a girl, not your something."

"Don't you think I know that!" the exertion from restraint was apparent on the old man's face. "She is as precious to me as her mother..."

[Unseen to the children, Xe' ed winced and grasped Sedek's arm.]

"...and, her grandfather. Even now as we speak Panthera Tigre--yes, that's right, the great General Tiger--is preparing for battle against the Druids to assert our supremacy within the Kindingom."

Sen gasped out loud, Tiger was her favourite person in the whole Galaxy.

"You see how far these plans go, and this is just the beginning!

"Now, you will give her to me, or I will kill this girl here." He pointed his walkingstick over at Het and poked her in the chest. "As pretty as she is, she's become a liability to me, and so it will not be a difficult thing to see her dead."

Sen pulled out of the thread and appealed to Bast, "We must save her. What can we do!"

"We can go to him. He wants you. Let's get a shuttle, are you up for it?"

There was a scream from the thread. It was Het. Sen panicked, "he's going to kill her, there's no time, we must do something now!"

Bast nodded, "if I find you the address of Pepper's autex, you could trick her into letting Het go?" There was a good reason why Bast, youngest of the augers and natural prodigy, was chosen as Ethnaa Aashar; given an access point, there was seemingly no system that he could not find.

"Yes, I think so." With the location of a pax, Sen was able to access and manipulate it.

"Okay, give me a second."

"Hurry."

"Here."

Sen closed her eyes and received the pax. It was the address of Pepper's personal interface. The friends had used this trick before; when they sent whispers to Sedek, teasing him into thinking that there were ghosts in his apartments back at the living platform. Sen followed Pepper's system until she found what she was looking for, the guard's auditory cortex processor.

There was another scream from the thread followed by Zoro, "I'm going to do it!" And then pleas from the Mawlas for Zoro to let Het go.

"Do it!" Zoro ordered Pepper.

"Do it!" Bast ordered Sen.

Sen screamed. Het screamed. Pepper screamed and fell to the ground.

The thread cut out and Bast, himself frantic, pulled a panicked Sen in close. She was crying so hard it was like she couldn't breathe.

Xe'ed ran in and took over, lifting a catatonic Sen into her arms, "What did you do?!"

We killed her, thought Bast, but he didn't say it.