NAAN (The Rabanians Book 1) Page 8

  After so long in endless daylight I was caught off guard. After a few seconds I calmed down enough to wonder why this surprised me so much. The planet in the sky was large, but it was only logical that periodically, it and the Aion would both be on the other side of this planet.

  I walked to the edge of the forest. I was worried about my brothers. My encounters with the local people hadn’t even hinted at violence, but that was no guarantee. Still both of them were missing. I thought maybe they had met each other. Maybe someone had warned them about the darkness and they’d decided to stay in the town until the morning.

  The town’s lights were on and they cast faint shadows. I sat next to a tree, watched the houses, and wondered what I should do. A chill engulfed me. I finally decided it was too late to go looking for them, so I turned my face towards the forest, curled up, and fell asleep.

  A familiar whistle woke me. I thought I was still dreaming, but the hard ground, the chill in the air, and the stars above me convinced me otherwise. The town was silent and the dark sky above didn't reveal anything. The whistling noise increased gradually. It sounded like a hovercraft though it was different from the hovercraft sounds I knew.

  Rolling thunder was added to the whistle and the ground started to shake. I stood up. The treetops above me lit up, and dozens of hovercrafts flew by, streaking toward the town. The vibrations grew and I clung to a tree to steady myself. Was Seragon here? This was madness! Had they caught my brothers and forced them to reveal their identities? No, that was impossible! Seragon could not have come so quickly. Then I remembered Shor. Could it have told them?

  The questions ran through my mind long after the sound of the hovercraft squadron faded. I kept hugging the tree until the pain of squeezing my cheek into it eventually broke into my thoughts. I released my grip and looked back in the direction of the town. I climbed the mound that led to the trail and looked out over the town. I could hear noises increasing and decreasing. Something was happening.

  An open cab truck, filled with people dressed all in black appeared on the street. They turned behind one of the houses and disappeared. Another of the trucks drove towards me and stopped a small distance from the mound. More uniformed men stood on the back of the track with machine guns and rifles. I heard them speaking rapidly, and then they turned their guns towards the forest. I dropped to the ground and started to crawl away as quietly as I could manage. When I was a safe distance away, I stood up and started to run. The trees around me blotted out even the dim light of the stars. I could barely make out the dim silhouettes of the trees. Eventually I stumbled over a protruding root and fell.

  I stayed down waiting for the pain to subside and my breathing to stabilize. My mind was still trying to make sense of the situation. Why would someone invest so much effort just to catch us? Then there were the soldiers in the open trucks with their rifles and machineguns. They seemed to have been prepared for an attack. What were they defending? Daio and Dug? None of it added up. Either way something bad was going on.

  I stood up and started to walk deeper into the forest. Maybe there was a war going on here. The colorful fields, the juicy fruits, and the toothless smile of the people I met came back to my mind. If it was a war, the locals were caught completely off guard. I remembered the hovercraft we saw the day we landed. I hadn’t seen any others until now. Was it possible the locals had no such technology? As I considered what this might mean, a light suddenly dazzled me.

  Daio woke to the sound of the hovercrafts. There was no window in the cell but he still heard them. They sounded strange. He wondered about the cause. Was the technology here that different? Was it the thin air? He went to the barred door and listened. Could this be the invasion the bigheaded man had feared?

  He thought about the interrogation. The bigheaded one said they’d killed someone. He thought about his brothers. It was probably Sosi. Dug would cooperate but Sosi would resist and it would look like he had something to hide.

  Three policemen were suddenly at the door. Startled, he backed up a bit. The door opened and one of them signed for him to come out. They led him back the room with the monitor. The bigheaded man was sitting next to the screen. To his right was a stranger in an elegant uniform.

  “Sit,” came the voice from the speaker. Daio walked to the empty chair and sat.

  “What is your role in the invasion force?”

  Daio moved uncomfortably on the chair. “I have no role in anything,” he said and heard his words translated.

  The bigheaded man nodded as if he was expecting this answer.

  “Who else is here with you?” he asked.

  Daio hesitated. “I am here with my brother,” he said. “I think you killed him.”

  The man nodded again. “Where are you from?”

  Daio didn't answer and the man in uniform gave him a threatening look.

  “My name is Daio, and I already told you that we escaped from Seragon. We arrived here by accident. Did you check my story?”

  “Seragon is far,” said the man in uniform.

  “So what? We arrived here on a shuttle few days ago. Check the landing records”

  It was silent for a few seconds and the two men exchanged looks but didn't say anything.

  “Give me a terminal and I will prove it to you,” said Daio.

  The bigheaded man looked at the uniformed officer, nodded, and the latter spoke to one of the policemen.

  “Get it set up,” came the voice from the speaker.

  Daio thought the translating system had gotten it wrong. A few seconds later though, the policeman came back in with two technicians an old monitor, a keyboard and a big box. They laid everything on the desk, hooked the box to the monitor and the keyboard, and then plugged a few more cables into the wall. They stepped back.

  “Please,” said the bigheaded man pointing at the monitor.

  Daio stood up and hesitatingly walked to the monitor. Maybe this is our punishment, he thought to himself. After years of trading with Devil's boxes, they will force us to use this thing.

  “Don't you have neck sensor?” he asked gazing at the keyboard.

  “This is what we have,” said the bigheaded man.

  “You surf with this?”

  The man in uniform said something fast and angry, but it was too fast for the machine to translate. Daio sat in front of the monitor and sighed. He wondered how anyone could surf with such a primitive input device. It's ridiculous! He gazed at the bigheaded man and thought that maybe he had been wrong to volunteer. Now it was going to look like he was stalling for time. He shook his head. He couldn’t have known they had no neck sensors, and besides, they wouldn’t have rushed to give him access to the network if they suspected he was a spy.

  He moved his hands on the keyboard and slowly typed the address that would take him to Seragon news sites. It would have taken him a split second if he had a neck sensor. Now, after few irritating minutes of repeated attempts, he gazed at the monitor in despair.

  “Either I am not using this keyboard properly or the network won’t allow me to leave the local network,” he said.

  The bigheaded man gazed at him with suspicion and then looked at the man in uniform. Daio threw his hands in the air and said, “Let me try again.”

  He was typing a new address when suddenly a man walked into the room and handed a piece of paper to the bigheaded man. He looked at the paper, and then rose and stepped to the terminal. He typed few lines on the keyboard with remarkable speed.

  “Try again,” he said and backed away.

  Daio typed the address again. This time the front page of the news network appeared on the monitor. A shiver ran down his spine when he saw the familiar letters and icons. He surfed back and a few seconds later the pictures of him and Dug appeared on the monitor beside the report describing why they were wanted. The bigheaded man took the keyboard and typed in few commands. A translation appeared on the monitor. He gazed at the monitor for a few seconds and the man in uniform joined him
.

  “You said you are here with your brother," said the bigheaded man. "What about your second brother?” He came closer to the monitor. “Where is Sosi?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, suddenly realized they must have killed Dug.

  “Is he here?”

  “Yes, but I don't know where he is.”

  “Why did you lie?” asked the man in uniform.

  “Why shouldn’t I lie? You killed Dug,” Daio snapped back at him.

  The bigheaded man said something quietly. The uniformed man went to the door and spoke to one of the policemen. He disappeared. A few moments later slow steps echoed in the corridor. Two policemen appeared at the door, supporting Dug between them. He looked like a wreck. His face was so bruised and swollen that Daio could hardly recognize him and without the policemen’s support he would have surely fallen.

  “Dug,” called Daio and hurried to his side.

  Dug lifted his head, but his eyes were swollen completely shut. His face reminded Daio of Sosi’s during their escape. Dug tried to speak. His swollen lips moved, but no sound came out. The bigheaded man looked at him with disgust. He pointed to a chair against the wall close to the door and the policemen dragged him towards the chair. Daio followed.

  “Where is Sosi?” asked the man in uniform from across the room.

  Daio turned to him. “I told you, I don't know!” he growled.

  The bigheaded man walked over to him with small quick steps.

  “The invaders plan on destroying us. Without help there is no chance for us to survive.”

  Daio glanced at him, then turned back to Dug, feeling confused. The man wasn’t’ making sense. What did his words have to do with not knowing where Sosi was? What did he want? Didn’t he realize now they were escaped convicts?

  Suddenly a whistle was heard and a massive explosion knocked them all to the floor. Dust filled the room. A wind swirled in through the big hole now blasted in the wall facing the street. Daio and Dug were thrown against the back wall. A constant beep was in Daio's ears and he felt pressure in his chest. He struggled to his feet and tried to pull Dug up with him. Dug didn’t respond.

  “Dug!” he called, dropping to his knees and clearing debris from Dug’s body. Dug was barely breathing. Daio tried to brush away the dust from his face, and Dug flinched reflexively.

  The bigheaded man suddenly appeared at the door and Daio gazed at him with astonishment. The man had been right beside him when the explosion happened but he was completely unaffected. Even his clothes were clean. The man walked forward quickly, stepping over wreckage. He stopped to examine the frozen look on the face of the man in uniform. He lay on the desk, his head bleeding and his hands hanging down. The bigheaded man nodded and immediately walked over to Daio. He caught his eye and motioned with his hands to follow.

  “I won’t leave him here,” said Daio. The man bigheaded man walked forward, and without hesitation lifted Dug onto his back as if he was a plastic doll. He mumbled something Daio didn't understand and was about to leave when a second blast threw them into the corridor.

  Daio was smashed against the corridor wall. Dust filled his lungs and he began to cough. He crawled a few feet, and then pushed himself once more to his feet. The cloud of dust obscured everything around him. Suddenly he spotted the bigheaded man through the screen of dust. He was far down the corridor, Dug still on his shoulder. The man looked at him and to Daio it seemed he’d been standing there for a while, waiting. He caught Dios's eye and shouted something in a scolding tone. He started to walk away and Daio hurried to follow him. He caught up at the end of the corridor. The bigheaded man opened a door and started down the stairs beyond it. Daio looked at Dug’s head bobbing over the man’s shoulder. The man’s strength was shocking. Daio couldn’t understand why he was bothering to rescue them, when the earth under his feet was burning.

  They went down a few floors. When the stairs ended the man laid Dug gently on the floor. Some people came running over. The drew back when they saw Daio and Dug on the floor but their savior shouted a few short and firm words and pointed towards Dug. They walked over to Dug, lifted him and followed the bigheaded man down the corridor.

  He ducked into one of the rooms and hurried over to a terminal. They laid Dug on the floor and stood over him. Daio walked over to Dug while the man started up the terminal.

  “There isn't much chance,” Daio heard from behind him. He turned to face the bigheaded man at the terminal.

  “I cannot protect you anymore. I suggest you escape from here,” came the voice from the speaker.

  Daio stared at him, “Escape? Escape to where? He needs help!”

  The man nodded angrily. “Any place will be safer than here.”

  Daio gazed at Dug with concern, “Don't you have an army?” he asked with despair.

  “We have an alliance with Mampas, but they won't help.”

  “Mampas?”

  “The planet,” said the man and pointed upwards.

  “Why won't they come?”

  “We sent messages but they don't answer.”

  Daio gazed back at Dug. “He'll die without help.”

  “We’ll all die without help,” answered the man.

  “Maybe…maybe your calls were jammed,” said Daio.

  “Jammed?”

  “Scrambled!”

  “Maybe,” said the man.

  “Can I check the network?”

  “Please,” said the man and moved back from the terminal. Daio stepped forward, leaned over the keyboard and typed. It was irritatingly slow. He wondered if he would be able to do anything at all with such primitive equipment. Why didn't they have neck sensors?

  His surfing was slow and clumsy. The network around the planet was completely empty. The information circles were great distances from each other and with his limited surfing capabilities it took him some time before he was able to leap from one to the other to escape the information dead zone. He finally connected to one of the news channels on Mampas. A news summary appeared on the monitor and the bigheaded man touched his hand when he saw it.

  “There’s nothing here,” he said, “Not even a 0 reliability.”

  “I think the network is scrambled. There is no information about what's happening here. Nothing is going out of here. To the planet up there,” he pointed to the air, “it's as if this place doesn’t exist.”

  “We are doomed then,” said the man.

  Daio gazed at him. His smooth face showed signs of sorrow then his face changed.

  "Maybe there's another way,” he said and the bigheaded man’s eyes lit-up with hope.

  “We need to find Sosi. If anyone can do something it’s him.”

  “Where is he?”

  Daio raised his eyebrows. “We were to meet in the forest. I don't know where he is now.”

  The man disconnected the translator. He dialed for an inside line and an old man's face appeared on the screen. They spoke for a while then the image on the screen disappeared.

  “I will help you find him,” said the man after hooking the translator back up, “but I need you to help us.”

  “What about Dug?”

  “I'll make sure he is taken care of,” said the man. “My name is Doctor Afgena Tarki,” he added.

  “Doctor,” said Daio surprised. “You are a Doctor?”

  The man smiled. This was the first time he’d smiled.

  “I am an anthropologist. I studied in Mampas and was a professor at the University of Ses.” He signed. “I’m here because Naan has always been my home, despite all the years in Mampas.”

  “Naan,” said Daio.

  “Yes, this small planet.”

  “Aren't there neck sensors in Mampas?”

  “There are, and if we'll get out of this mess alive maybe you'll figure out for yourself why Naan is…is what it is. But we don't have time for that now.”

  The Doctor walked to a backpack that was lying on the desk and pulled out a box with straps. He tied it to arou
nd his own waist then began adjusting some of the controls. When he spoke, his words, translated into Seragonian, came from the box's speaker.

  “This portable translator was developed by one of my students on Mampas,” said the Doctor.

  “That’s amazing,” mumbled Daio to himself.

  “It was invented to allow students from Naan to study at the University of Ses without having to spend years learning the language," said the Doctor with pride and stepped to the door. “Let's go.”

  “What about Dug?”

  The Doctor didn't answer. He looked at one of the policeman. “Call the medical staff. This man needs treatment right away,” heard Daio from the box.

  The policeman nodded and left the room in a hurry.

  “It seems you are more than a Doctor here,” said Daio.

  “I have volunteered for so many things that people simply listen to me on everything now.”

  They rushed outside. Three policemen joined them. Each carried a big gun and a large communication device.

  “Don't you think we need more men? The forest is huge.”

  “We'll manage,” said the Doctor.

  Mampas had started to rise. In its dim glow Daio could see the wrecked front of the building. Piles of rubble filled the street. They moved down the street past shattered buildings and collapsed houses. The streets were quiet and empty. No hovercrafts were seen in the sky. Once they had to stop so that Daio could catch his breath. Another time they had to squeeze against a wall as a single hovercraft appeared above them. When they were at last on the trail they heard another blast from back the way they had come. Daio saw a mushroom cloud rising over the town. The Doctor continued forward without hesitation.

  Daio sat down on a large rock after they entered the forest. “It will be hard to find him,” he said breathing heavily. “Maybe they caught him already. Maybe they killed him.”

  “I don't think so,” said the Doctor. “He’s safe if he is in the forest. They have focused on the town.”

  Daio gazed deep into the forest. It would be a miracle if they found him and an even bigger miracle if he could really do something to help. He had no idea what they were up against nor how much time they had.