Keeper Hunter

I carried on in silence the checkpoint dwindling into the distance. I was totally confused I hadn’t expected that.

“Any idea as to what just happened?” Copper said breaking the silence.

“No idea?” I told her unsure. I had a thought. “Do you have a comms reader?” Her defensive driving clued me in to the fact she had had Security training at sometime.

“Yes glove compartment.”

I opened it to find the item. It was a larger older version of a scanner a little rough around the edges and appeared to be well used. It seemed to be more like a datapad than a comms reader.

“Might take a while to boot up,” Copper said her eyes on the road. “It’s rather old.”

I powered it up and waited and waited some more. She was right about the start up time. A couple of icons appeared and I tapped the one marked comms reader.

“Place your comms on the red square and hold it there until it turns green. Might take a bit of time it doesn’t always work first time,” Copper told me her concentration on the road. Definitely had Security training.

I held my tongue I wasn’t about to tell her I was familiar with how it worked from my time in Security on Earth. I did as she directed.

“Green means it has finished,” she said.

A new icon appeared and tapped on that. I stared at the information on the reader my blood running cold.

“What the Hell?” I uttered.

“What is it. It’s not playing up again?” Copper said with a frown.

“According to this I’m Lady Glenda Hampton, Baroness of Parkdale wherever that is?”

“I didn’t think Glenda Hampton was your real name?” Certainly that was a Security Officer response.

“That’s true but this gets worse. According to this I’m the niece of Richard Broaden.”

“What?” Copper sounded totally shocked by that. She almost took her eyes off the road to look at me.

“That’s what I said, this is insane?” I admitted.

I didn’t want any of this and I wondered why Lady Broaden seemed to think it was a good idea classing me as a noble. She should have just painted a large target on my back. Nothing about this seemed logical.

“Who are you really?” Copper asked. “I certainly don’t think you are related to the Broadens?”

I didn’t blame her I was just as confused. “I’m not,” I replied. “My mother would have been overjoyed if we were.” I grimaced that would have been a simpler answer than what it was.” “I’m too Valkyrie to be any relation to the Imperial family.” A far more honest answer. Any Valkyrie or alien blood would have instantly excluded me from the nobility. Then only in the last few years I had found out I wasn’t a pure Human as I had thought.

“Right I think I understand that but what is your real name?” Copper said being direct. “I hate all this cloak and dagger stuff.”

“Ok a proper introduction. I am Gwen Hunter. I do agree I hate all the cloak and dagger stuff myself. I guess that’s my Valkyrie blood telling me that.” Then the Valkyrie had shown me how sneaky they could be. They had disguised my Valkyrie heritage somehow only to bring it to light on Alfheimir.

“Hunter hey, not too much of a leap between that and Hampton is it.”

“It’s the name they foisted on me.” I gave Copper a look but she was concentrating on driving. Then the Elders had done something similar by giving the false name Gloria Henry. “I feel like I’m blundering through something important and not knowing what it is. Part of me wants to go back and find if the new leader of the Separatists is the Prophet from Alfheimir. Part of me wants to go on and look for…” I paused my thoughts in a whirl. I had to know I had to find the Keepers. “Some people I am very close to who have vanished.” That sounded a bit lame but it was the best I could do. I didn’t want any more people knowing about the Keepers.

“I get all that by the way but why this cloak and dagger act?”

“Because I would be arrested and returned to Earth as soon as I crossed the border.” I winced at the bluntness of my statement.

“Why?”

“I got on the wrong side of Admiral Komana.” I still wasn’t sure what I’d done to warrant her wrath. It seemed her grudge was personal from our last conversation. I hadn’t helped much by telling her to shut up. She knew I was on Paranova close to the Confederacy border. I expected her have a close watch on any vessel crossing. I was certain she knew me well enough to know I’d sneak across.

“Shit that is big?” Copper said surprised. “Hey wasn’t that Admiral Komana you were speaking to in the motel?”

“That was her.”

We lapsed into silence and drove that way for a couple of hours.

“There’s a small town just off the highway we can take a break at,” Copper said suddenly.

“Is that wise?” I replied. We were driving through a plain consisting of low scrubby bushes and rocky out crops.

“They were welcoming there the last time I came through this way.”

I glanced out the window seeing the sun low on the horizon. Copper was making sense in that way. We still had a long way to go. “Ok we still have a long way to go.”

Copper nodded and changed lanes ready to exit.

Cooper slowed taking an exit ramp off the highway. The road curved gently down into the scrub and onto a less used road. It was staring to get dark I wasn’t sure of the time. I was still running on ship time. A break would be nice I had to admit I was getting tired a rest would be nice. I’d been running on adrenaline for too long. Thirika and Runa would tell me to do so. I felt a little sad thinking about them wondering what they were doing now. Suddenly I was on alert my fatigue fading as we closed in on the town a series of dark shapes in the dusk.

“Shouldn’t there be lights?” I asked Copper.

“You are right the last time I was here it was lit up with neon lights.” She sounded concerned. I didn’t blame her for that.

I drew my Seven double ‘M’ and placed it on my lap. “Be ready to reverse out of here?” I warned her my mind on another deserted town this time on Alfheimir. The town was an ambush. I vividly remembered the battle my mind dwelling on the details. That Prowler tank easily shrugging off the shots from a MARs. A rocket-firing weapon that easily destroyed the lighter armoured MRECV common in the Confederacy.

“Reverse?” Copper said her voice tense.

“Trust me on this?” I told her. “I’ve been ambushed before.” I wondered if that was the real reason that Komana had me exiled. Xenai was quite happy to commit her forces in my rescue. She’d given me a set of combat armour and some flares to call in a rescue. I never got the chance to see if the flare I’d sent up worked. The Prowler had blown up the building I was in. The next thing I knew I was chained to a wall in some basement in the capital city of the Bondedottir Clan. Elvby, the city was the base for the Prophet. The same person I suspected was leading the Separatists. The Prophet had escaped Alfheimir blasting his way through the cordon of ships surrounding the planet.

The town was all concrete and steel the buildings looking prefabricated. The same type of buildings used by start up colonies. A road dissected the town I could see a number of buildings mostly housing units on the left side of the road. A refuelling station and a larger building dominated the other side of the road. There was a power station at the far side of the town on the road leading out. It was quiet too quiet and that had me nervous. All I could hear as we rolled to a stop was the wind and the occasional pop of contracting metal. That made me nervous my senses went of full alert. I caught the stench of decay on the wind. It didn’t smell of death just decay. I surveyed my surroundings as I exited. All the building windows I could see in the gathering dark were shuttered. The town looked abandoned I couldn’t see any signs of a fight. But I wasn’t an expert so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

“Stay with the ATV,” I told Copper. “I’m going to take a look around.”

I climbed out of the ATV my pistol in my hand. As I slowly made my rounds of the town I was ready to take action my Valkyrie training coming to my aid. The largest building appeared to be a casino cum bar. I walked to the end of the street halting by the power station. There was a small office attached to it. On a hunch I tried the door. It wasn’t locked. Inside was a switching panel that looked as if it serviced the whole town. A large lever stood out on the panel it was turned to off.

I couldn’t see any sign of an ambush. This town had been abandoned the thought made me angry. There was Earth over populated and then there was this place. I knew many families would love to leave Earth in hopes of starting a new life. They’d love a place like this to live and grow.

“Looks like no one is home,” I said to myself and turned the switch to on.

The town blazed into light and sound. I exited the station and headed back to the ATV.