CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The thunderstorm came, and with it the streets became muddy rivers that overflowed into the huts. At night, Anthony and his team evacuated from their floor-beds and headed back to camp until the water receded.
As they were driving, lightning crashed, striking the rocky cliff to their left. Pebbles and boulders fell at precisely the moment they had just passed, blocking the road.
"Quite a storm, eh?" his captain remarked.
It was the only way out of Communion besides scaling the mountains or finding your way through the North Forest.
"Ah, don't worry about it," he said. "My men will find some way of keeping dry. And those Novacadians won't try anything funny in this weather."
Anthony had a shivering feeling, remembering what Rebecca had told him about Eve's brother. Someone was going to die, and Heaven knew what the repercussions would be. And it was going to happen tomorrow.
Anthony had an advantage on the others in the IAST. He, unlike the others, knew that the Novacadians were not at fault for what was going on. They were innocent. But try telling your teammates that you know what's been going on because you've been using mental telepathy to speak with them. The reception would be less than grateful.
They drove up to the entrance to the camp and got out underneath fat drops of rain and into muddy pools of water. As time became closer and closer to tomorrow, the more uneasy he felt.
Eve had warned him about Autumn. He'd gotten the sense, too, that this was a very powerful man, capable of creating widespread harm. And if that were to happen, he knew, then the astronauts might take even more drastic measures to control them.
He made up his mind and decided to go directly to the head honcho--General Garrison. But when he peeked his head into his quarters, he was not there.
He wandered the camp under the black sky and steady flow of rain when he came upon a lighted tent. Several senior officers were sitting around a table, conducting a meeting. Out of curiosity, Anthony tilted his head to listen.
"...Of course, our ultimate goal is to soon be able to inhabit the planet. Finding another planet like this is a one-in-a-million shot, and we don't have the time, nor the resources to do it. Novacadia is it. Communing with aliens is all very well and good, but ultimately, that's just for show-and-tell. My opinion? If the Novacadians continue to be a major threat to humans, we wipe them out. Completely. Earth goals come first, and with our rapidly heating planet, and nowhere to go, we're all going to die if we don't, at some point, set up colonies here. These aliens are dangerous, and should be treated like ferocious animals. But there are few of them, and even though we've already lost men at their hands, we can get rid of them quickly. Probably we would have lost more if we hadn't of confined them to their homes. I suggest more drastic measures. As far as anyone can see, we have next to no hope of communicating with them, and if they break force fields and kill people at random, then sooner or later they're going to have to go."
Anthony's eyes opened wide. They were planning to kill them all? He shuddered at the thought. But there was a reason for why the Novacadians were retaliating! Didn't anyone see, just with common sense, that they were imprisoning and torturing them? Or were they blind to their evils?
Even on Earth, there were laws about protecting endangered species. Apparently here, the same rules did not apply. He saw, in his mind, Eve's inhumanly large, dark, almond-shaped eyes, her pleading eyes, reaching down into his soul. "Don't say anything," she told him. "It is not just for your safety, it is for ours, as well. What is about to happen is meant to happen. Be at peace with that."
He walked sadly back to his tent, getting sopping wet in the process, and then took off his wet garments and hung them over a clothes rack. He tried to speak with Eve again. He focused his mind, pictured her lovely face, but nothing came through. He felt dejected and disappointed. He had, in his power, the ability to tell his superiors that he had been communicating with the Novacadians, but Eve didn't want him to say anything. And to the core of his being, he trusted her.
But more powerful than his trust in her was his love for her. And he didn't want her to be killed. Not by the astronauts, not the way the prophets said she would, no. He wanted her to be alive and prospering and leading the way for diplomacy between humans and Novacadians. They could be saved, Anthony decided, as he fell asleep to the distant rumbling of thunder.