Trojian Horse

“Your majesty, we have located Reeger’s armada. They’ve formed a temporary encampment on the banks of the River Ruen,” a voice in the hall announced. The Queen waved her hand in acknowledgement. The lifeless body of Arien had been moved from the room into Hethios laboratory, on his insistence. The hall had emptied out leaving only Roue and his company, Hethios and a few Vulpeculae who were helping him prepare for the coming battle. The Queen was deep in conversation with Reinon about all that she knew concerning this war they found themselves embroiled in, the uses of the sword, the history of Reinon and her people, and whether any weakness in Reeger had been noticed by any of them. Reinon answered all her questions as best as she could though they had not quite made it to the question of the Aldebaran.

“Tell me again Reinon, how do you know so much? You seem at such a tender age to know so much.”

“Where I come from knowledge is our life. We are warriors but we are also librarians.”

“And what of belief?”

“What about it?” Reinon asked evidently confused.

“What sort of things do you believe in?”

“Our people were not really believers in any specific system, at least not until the sword came to my forefathers.”

“Came to them?” the Queen asked.

“It’s a long, complicated story,” Reinon replied somewhat dismissively. The Queen got the hint.

“And then what happened?”

“Well, our whole belief system changed. Somehow the wielder of the sword was capable of things that seemed impossible. Our forefathers assumed that the weapon had been sent to them from the heavens though by whom it was given was never made clear. As time went on guardians of the sword were elected and it was passed down from generation to generation. The sword has a way of revealing its wielder to its secrets.”

“The sword would reveal its secrets? You speak of it as if it were alive,” the Queen said.

“It is difficult to explain but it is unlike anything you have ever experienced. It forms a deep mysterious bond with whoever it chooses and makes them capable of so much. The sword showed me Arien long before I knew him. I saw what he could become and that our lives were linked in some way. I understand your confusion but it really is difficult to explain. Knowledge seems to flow through you from the sword.”

The Queen noticed Turo look thoughtfully at the knife on her belt at Renin’s declaration. Turo then proceeded to pull out the knife and examine it carefully before placing back in its holster.

“A curious weapon,” the Queen said to Reinon.

“A gift from the heavens,” Renin said. “Perhaps there are gods looking out for us out there.”

“There are. Yanwe is our Guide, we are nothing without Him and only He --”

“My Queen,” Hethios interrupted. He had been passively engaged in the conversation between Reinon and the Queen the entire time. “I would like to take our guests and gather all that I can from their time on Reeger’s ship. We can use all the information we can get to prepare.”

“Very well Hethios,” the Queen said nodding.

Hethios motioned for Roue and his companions, to follow him. They walked mutely behind him until they entered Hethios laboratory. His laboratory had grown increasingly untidier since Arien’s disappearance.

“Why did we have to leave so suddenly?” Reinon asked. “Did I say something wrong?”

“We can’t afford the time to get into a debate about the supernatural,” was the only reply she received from Hethios.

Reinon clearly did not understand and it seemed Hethios was in no mood to explain.

“It means we have more pressing matters right now Reinon,” Roue supplied.

They found chairs and sat around the long central table in the room. There were numerous charts stuck onto the clean, shiny white walls all around the room.

“Okay, I need you to tell me everything you can about Reeger’s ship. Anything you can remember about the weapons on the ship, drones, anything, and everything,” Hethios began once they were all seated. Small windows and artificial light ensured the laboratory was brightly lit. Several charts had been untidily rolled up and pushed to one side of the table. “I am writing a report for use by our fighters so start talking.”

They all started offering whatever details they could offer, mostly all at once. Hethios silently, diligently, and meticulously took notes on a flashing screen that lay flat on the table. His head would come up from the screen occasionally to clarify a statement or question the validity of the details they were offering him then he would hunch over the screen and begin typing away as soon as they mentioned something he deemed worthy of being recorded.

“Do you know how may ships there are?” Hethios asked, one of the few questions he asked during their session.

“No, not really. I think they’re too many to mention,” Roue said.

“He has armadas that he calls on whenever he needs them. I’m guessing there are perhaps ten galactic cruisers in one armada each with hundreds of drone fighters and thousands of Dracien, both foot soldiers and fighter pilots,” Reinon said.

“And how do you know so much?” Turo asked. She had been sitting quietly watching and listening to proceedings until then.

“I’ve studied Reeger for an uncomfortably long time. A very long time.” Reinon was transported to another time and place in that instant.

“I see,” Turo said. “May I see your sword?”

Renin looked at Turo, a little surprised at the request. She reluctantly placed the sword in Turo’s extended arms. Turo reverently accepted it into in her hands and began studying every inch of the sword, the hilt, the double edges, and the inscriptions etched on either side of the blade from the hand guard to the point of the sword. The symbols were inscribed either side of a central groove running through the middle of the blade on either side. She of course understood none of what was written but she was surprised to see that the inscriptions were largely like the ones on her own blade. Her surprise was noticed by the whole group.

“What is it?” Roue asked.

“Nothing, it’s just a beautiful sword,” Turo answered handing the sword back to Reinon.

“What exactly is that sword capable of?” Elia-bi asked.

“Our people call it the Kata. Only the royals can wield the sword,” Reinon said.

“Are you saying you are a queen on your home planet?” Elia-bi asked.

“No, a princess. Reeger…he killed the king and queen. Of course, then he didn’t know I had escaped nor that I escaped with the sword and that is how I came to join the resistance.”

“Oh…” was Elia-bi’s only response.

“The sword, however, is capable of much more than you could believe is true. It can cut through any material, it can grow blunter or sharper as you require. It’s rather incredible.”

“By Cronin, what does that mean?” Mato-Rayo asked.

“Yes, what Mato asked,” Elia-bi added.

“The sword is called the Kata for a reason. In my people’s land that means that which cuts by intention. It is a strange name for a strange power. It becomes blunt when the wielder wants it to be, sharp when required, can change length and shape as desired but only so far as the wielder can visualise their intention.”

“Is that all,” Roue asked. “I would still rather use my trusty paccer.” He tapped the weapon that was holstered on his belt. He was genuinely impressed though.

“It is also said that the sword can cut through the fabric of time, enabling the wielder to observe time as they would the view out of this window.”

“If that indeed is true then that is a dangerous weapon,” Hethios said. “Although I would like to see a demonstration of the first thing you mentioned if it’s not too dangerous.”

“It is dangerous. I mean the weapon is dangerous but I can show you what it can do,” Reinon offered. “The time thing is how Arien and Reeger met the first time. He used it to try to kill Arien before the prophecy could fulfilled.”

They all sat quietly and watched. Reinon stood up and Hethios handed her a thick piece of wood. She placed it on the table and raised the sword above her head gripping the long handle with both hands. Hethios thought he saw the sword shimmer a moment before Reinon brought it down forcefully on the wood. He nearly screamed for her to avoid damaging his table when he saw the sword effortlessly slice through the piece of wood but then stop dead on the table without causing so much as a scratch. They were all impressed.

“I keep hearing about this prophecy --” Hethios began but he never finished his sentence.

Just then Ti-lo stepped into the room.

“The Queen would like to meet for a briefing in the throne room, which is now the command centre,” Ti-lo announced.

“We are right behind you,” Hethios said. “Another time then,” he said to Reinon as they walked out of the laboratory.

“Yes, another time,” she replied.

⃰

How pathetic they all looked, scrambling around oblivious of the destruction that would be soon hurtling toward them. Maloch crouched low at the very edge of the treeline spying on the Vulpeculae city. He was on very high ground which allowed him to look on the city and a far beyond it. It was easy to see why they had chosen this site to establish their city. From the west, where he now lay watching them, they were protected by the thick forests while very high cliffs protected the north, much too high, and steep to scale unless you could fly and beyond those cliffs was even more forest. Mountain peaks were visible east of the city and as he had been flying to the location he had seen the enormous lake that lay in the middle of the group of mountains surrounded by yet more forest. Only the south remained relatively accessible and that is the direction that the main gate faced. There was no sneaking on this encampment.

The city itself had been organised into concentric circles and he guessed the very centre would be the command centre, well protected in case of attack. Something else was strange about the buildings. To him it seemed as if they were made from something other than stone or dirt, perhaps metal. He squinted his eyes slightly as he looked through the lens of his viewer. Yes, the walls of the buildings were covered in dirt and many other materials that obscured their natural metallic shine but it absolutely was metal beneath all that dirt. In fact, now that he was looking closer he thought the buildings seemed to connect in some way, a way that was not obvious to see from afar but almost impossible to see at close range. His vantage point allowed him to see the connections between the buildings in much the same way a galactic cruiser was connected by its intricate network of corridors, bridges and doorways. The city seemed to be one large ship partly buried in the ground. It seemed the most sensible answer to the question that only now began to creep on him. This is where the ships that brought them here were hidden. In plain sight.

He looked down into the city, in the one of the circles not far from the centre. There was the Rogue surrounded by a large crowd that walked back and forth around it while many others stopped to admire it. By now news of Arien’s death would have permeated throughout the city. He would wait long enough to see how they had responded. It would be even better if he could hear something from down there.

Scrambling to his feet he ran back toward his small fighter ship that was parked in a very small opening close to the edge of the forest. A stealth fighter such as his would be very difficult to spot unless someone was looking for it and knew where to look for it. He climbed into the ship and opened a small compartment in the cockpit of the ship pulling out a small drone no bigger than some of the smaller leaves all around him hanging from the trees. After pressing a few buttons on the cockpit the drone came to life. It was equipped with a tiny pair of small but powerful wings, was relatively and narrow, incredibly thin, and weighing a little more than a leaf. The drone fluttered its wings, flew off out of the ship and sped towards the city. He put a helmet on his head that allowed him to see everything the drone saw and hear whatever was happening around the drone. Soon the drone was flying silently within the city limits without fear of it being spotted knowing it could camouflage itself and morph into other shapes if necessary.

The drone stuck onto a wall in the courtyard where the Rogue had been left. Numerous voices were speaking all around the drone, some loudly but most in hushed tones. The latter were the conversations he was most interested in. There was talk of the death of the Ser-ooit boy, the first son of the Queen (as he apparently became to be known), and how the leaders were in the midst of hatching a plan of escape. Another suggested that they had run long enough and there can be no talk of escape, if Reeger had found them here then there was nowhere else to go and they should stand and fight. Yet another suggested that if they stood together they could defeat Reeger and finally begin to enjoy true freedom. Very few suggested disappearing in the cosmos, most of the conversations Maloch heard were in support of fighting and he was sure that if the majority felt this way then it was more than likely that would be the consensus among the leaders as well. After all their chosen one had been brutally murdered and if he understood anything of their honour they would want to seek vengeance. It seemed he was right on all counts judging by what he heard. Of course the only way to be absolutely sure would be hear it from the mouth of Hethios or the Queen but that was a chance he was not willing to take. He already got what he had come for.

The drone flew speedily back to him while he sat in the cockpit. Soon after he was in the air flying back to the Dracien encampment on the bank of the lake. He found Reeger and told him everything he had heard. As he had guessed would be the case, Reeger was very pleased and were it not for the repairs still taking place on the ship he thought Reeger would have launched an attack immediately. Reeger was particularly impressed with his quick, detailed work and as long as Reeger was happy with him then everything was as it should be.