6 THE PROBE
Troy opened his eyes fast, to see where he was. He saw he was still inside the Cruiser, in the Cargo hold.
“Where are we?” asked Troy, in a frantic tone, tapping his transmitter.
“The Arkylum!” Kru said, relieved, “We made it!”
“Really?” asked Troy, unable to believe Kru.
“Tsokay!” exclaimed Kru, after confirming that they had indeed successfully teleported inside the Arkylum of the Orion Swift.
“Good!” said Troy, with a heavy sigh. “I am coming up!”
“So what happened back there?” asked Kru. “I lost you for a couple of minutes! I was worried to death! How did you make it back to the Cruiser?”
“I don’t know,” said Troy, walking towards the elevator.
“You don’t know?” asked Kru, totally not buying the idea.
“Yes,” said Troy, between heavy breaths of air. “I have no idea as to what happened back there.”
“Tell me what you know then!” insisted Kru.
Troy looked irritated by the idea and didn’t reply him.
“Fine!” said Kru, when he knew that Troy wasn’t going to tell him anything.
“It was the Elveden,” said Troy dryly.
“What?” asked Kru.
“The Elveden teleported us in,” said Troy, entering the elevator.
“Really?” asked Kru, in an apprehensive tone.
“Yes,” replied Troy. “I don’t know how she did it, but she did it when they jammed my suit.”
“Mmm…fine,” said Kru.
Troy knew that he wasn’t convinced but he didn’t bother trying to convince him any further. He exited the elevator.
“We’ve got to deal with Norman and the Elveden girl,” said Troy, as he neared the Command Centre.
“Right,” said Kru.
Troy soon reached the Command Centre and stood near where Kru was seated near the Voidshield.
“So any ideas?” asked Troy, looking at the pale lights in the Arkylum, through the Voidshield.
“Well-” said Kru.
“Where am I?” interrupted a very charming voice at that moment, just behind the two boys.
Troy and Kru turned to see that it was the Elveden girl and they felt losing control over their senses, instantly. Both the boys seemed spellbound by the girl in their midst.
The girl was fair, fairer than any woman the boys had ever seen, yet her skin looked rich as if coated with butter. Her blonde hair fell down up to her hips in many cute little golden locks. Her eyes were ocean blue and her lips were small and baby pink. She was dressed in a lavender body suit and looked very beautiful.
“Damn!” Troy breathed, frozen in his position.
“Affirmative!” chipped in Kru involuntarily.
“I asked you a question,” asked again the blonde beauty firmly looking a bit shaken, knocking both Troy and Kru out of their trance.
“Oh! You are aboard the-” said Kru.
“We are inside an Albein transporter ship,” cut in Troy, trying to impress the girl first.
“Where are the others?” asked the girl, her voice trembling even more.
“We couldn’t save them,” said Troy in a low voice, trying to empathize with the girl.
For a moment, she didn’t reply, as she appeared to be shell shocked. Her lips quivered and her eyes instantly welled up with tears.
“You should have let me die!” sobbed the girl, on hearing Troy say that and collapsed onto the floor at the entrance to the Command Centre Troy and Kru were lost for words, they had no idea as what to tell and comfort the girl. They looked at each other and wished they knew how to do that. After a few moments of awkwardness, Troy decided to act first. He went towards the girl slowly and tried to lift by her shoulders.
“No!” cried the girl, as she refused to get up.
“I am sorry,” said Troy, looking at the girl.
The girl continued to sob pathetically.
“Can’t we go back to see if others had survived?” she asked, wiping her eyes with the back of her left hand.
“I’m afraid not. There are too many of them. Getting you out safely was pure dumb luck,” said Troy, who sat down beside her.
“Mmm…” mumbled the girl.
“What’s your name?” asked Troy.
“Emilie,” replied the girl.
“I am Troy,” said Troy and got stuck right there. He had not the slightest idea where to proceed from there.
“I am Kru,” broke in Kru, who came and stood near them.
Emilie looked at Kru and put her head down immediately, as tears didn’t stop flowing down her pink cheeks.
“We’ve to move on, Emilie,” said Troy. “We’ll get you back to the refugee quarters.”
Emilie didn’t answer back but she got up. Troy heaved and got up too.
“Come,” he said gently, as he showed the way, while resisting every attempt to hold her hands. He knew that she needed it but he was equally afraid that she might shove them off.
Troy went ahead of Emilie and stood by her bunk.
“Is there anything you need?” asked Troy.
Emilie nodded her head to indicate no.
“Well,” said Troy. “We’ll make sure that you have water and food. Stay here, we’ll get back to you in a while”
Emilie again nodded to what Troy said and sat on the bunk.
Troy snapped his fingers to call Kru and walked out of the quarters back to the Command centre, which were about twenty meters apart with the elevator right in between them.
“What do we do now?” asked Troy as soon they reached the Command centre
“What do you mean what do we do?” asked Kru, cocking both his eyebrows at him.
“The girl’s in shock and we’ve got a political situation here to deal with before we can safely introduce her to the authorities on this ship,” said Troy.
Kru didn’t answer as he looked at the floor and appeared to be lost in his thoughts.
“Kru?” called Troy.
“Yes.”
“Tell me!”
“How do we bust Norman?”
“How do we?”
“We don’t!”
“What do you mean we don’t?”
“We don’t bust Norman,” said Kru, defiantly.
“What the heck?”
“Now isn’t the time, Troy!”
“We don’t know what Norman is up to!”
“Precisely the point, Troy, we don’t know what she is up to! That’s why it’s dangerous! We don’t know her agenda, even if we bust her, she might be able to carry on whatever she is up to undeterred.”
“And you are basing this on a little incident that she didn’t want to rescue the Elveden? She might have been just overcautious, maybe she didn’t want to risk the lives of the people aboard the Orion Swift!”
“Is that why she closed the wormhole while there was still normal active transmission between the Cruiser and the Orion Swift, in absence of any kind of attack? Doesn’t that seem weird to you?”
“She could have been overcautious there too! I mean, you can’t see these alien guys, Kru and they could as well as slipped through the wormhole! Or she could have thought that the aliens somehow hacked into the Cruiser’s AI system!”
“You don’t seem like you want to bust her!”
“I want to bust her, Kru, but for doing this without the approval of all the authorities on board and letting those poor men…speaking of which, what about those men we stunned?”
“They are right here!”
“I can see that!” said Troy, looking at the six burly men scattered around the Command centre.
“Emilie didn’t notice them?”
“She must have!” replied Kru. “But I guess it didn’t capture her immediate attention.”
“We are back to square one!” lamented Troy, as he sunk on the Commander seat. “What do we do now?”
“We seemed to have used that expression awfully a lot in the past few hours,” commented Kru to which Troy let out a heavy sigh.
“How much more time before these men regain consciousness?” asked Troy, feeling guilty for stunning those men.
“Three hours, at least,” replied Kru, looking at the condition of the men.
“Tsokay,” said Troy. “This is what we’ll do then…”
“WHAT?” asked Kru loudly, as if he were deaf in both the ears.
Troy grabbed his head with both his hands and lamented, “If it were only a question of hiding Emilie, it would be no problem but we’ve got these men too! It complicates matters!”
“So it gives us only one choice that is to tell the higher authorities the truth,” said Kru confidently.
Troy looked at Kru and gave a short nod of approval.
“How are you going to arrange the meeting?” asked Troy, feeling his light stubble around the chin.
“Rutgers!” replied Kru.
“Rutgers?” asked Troy, in a tone of disgust. “That rude basta-”
“He is our only hope!” cut in Kru. “I’ll go talk with him, when I give you the signal, take Emilie and come!”
“Are you sure you want to do it in person?” asked Troy, thinking the previous incident they had shared with Rutgers.
“Yes!” replied Kru, at once.
Troy thought for a moment and said “Yes! But what if it goes wrong?”
“I don’t think it will-”
“With all due respect, you remember last time what he did to us right?”
“Yes, I do,” said Kru. “This time it’ll be different, I promise you.”
“Tsokay!” said Troy after a long drawn thought.
“Good!” said Kru. “See you in a short while!”
“I don’t understand how that’s going to work,” murmured Troy to himself, after Kru took off.
Troy looked at the unconscious men in the Command centre and huffed loudly, then he turned around and saw the refugee quarters from where he was standing. He thought his time would be better spent there.
“I better go there!” said Troy and weakly smiled.
Troy entered the refugee quarters and expected to find Emilie asleep but instead she was awake, sitting on the edge of her bunk bed. She was no longer crying but she was clearly not in a mood to talk.
Troy took a long breath and sat beside her.
After what seemed to be a long time, Troy found the courage to talk with her.
“Emilie,” said Troy.
“Mmm…” said Emilie.
“How do you feel now?”
Emilie looked at him for a moment and then into his blue eyes. Troy was unsure of what she was doing but he suddenly started feeling pain. He felt as if his heart was taking every beat with such great effort and it felt like it were going to explode from exertion. His mind was experiencing fear, fear at a level, he had never felt before and he was filled with confusion and sorrow.
“That’s how I feel,” said Emilie, looking away.
Troy gasped and looked away to hide his eyes from her sight. They were wet with tears.
“I am sorry,” he coughed. “I truly am.”
“Don’t be,” replied Emilie.
“I’m not sure how I can help you, Emilie?”
Emilie turned, looked at Troy but this time with a weak smile, “Thank you for saving me, Troy but I am beyond being sad because I have lost more today than I have gained, a new life for old, new friends for family and a new strange place for my own.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“I lost my mother tonight,” Emilie said, speaking as if she were in a trance. “She was the only living relation I had. I don’t know what to do without her!”
“There’s no going back, Emilie,” said Troy. “I was in your state ten years ago, when I had lost my dad and sister.”
Emilie again looked into his eyes.
“I was terribly lost that day, it was all well till one day both of them went missing in space, just like that! Their ship was found six months later, floating as space junk with what remained of my dad and sister,” said Troy and sniffled loudly.
Emilie continued to look into his eyes and her own eyes started to glisten, as Troy spoke.
When he stopped talking, there was absolute silence. Both of them were lost in their own thoughts, till Troy felt a warm touch on his left shoulder.
He looked at Emilie. It was her hand. She was smiling weakly at him. Troy managed a weaker one back, then immediately wished he had come up with a stronger smile.
“There was something strange out there when I rescued you,” said Troy.
Emilie looked at him, “What?” she asked gently.
“The aliens, they didn’t attack us at all though I bet they have got better weaponry and all.”
Emilie’s face became serious and asked, “May I?”
Troy was confused by what she meant but he nodded yes whatsoever. Emilie looked into his eyes.
“You have beautiful eyes,” Troy’s tongue slipped. Emilie broke into an instant smile to which Troy grinned victoriously.
“You are right!” said Emilie. “They attacked neither you nor me. I saw them killing my people right before my eyes but they didn’t shoot at me. They could have easily killed me but it looked as if they were trying to-”
“Capture you!”
“Yes! There must be-” said Emilie, when they were suddenly interrupted by Kru.
“Troy!” boomed Kru’s voice, from the corners of the room, “Report to the elevators!”
“Don’t mind him,” said Troy, moving his pointing finger in a circular motion near his temple. “He’s a little loose.”
Emilie managed a weak polite smile.
Troy was clueless once again and had no idea as how to cheer her up, but this was no ordinary bad day, it was possibly the worst for her. It was still amazing though as to how she was holding up. He slowly put his hand around her shoulders and to his surprise, she quietly lay her head on his shoulders.
“Rose Fox,” said Emilie abruptly.
“Huh?” said Troy, failing to recognize what she had uttered.
“Emilie Rose Fox, in case you know, you wanna know,” said Emilie.
Troy flashed a broad smile.
“Troy Dylan Zander, in case, you wanna know too,” said Troy.
“Mhmmm…” said Emilie. “Thank you, Troy.”
“You’re more than welcome!”
“TROY!” shouted Kru on Troy’s transmitter.
“Yes Kru!” replied Troy, holding his head in pain.
“I’ve arranged an audience with the Albein and Kepler authorities! Take the elevator to HQ Conference. I have cleared the security for you! Quick!”
“Already? Anyways!” replied Troy. “Emilie, we’ve got to go! I’ll explain on the way!”
Troy took Emilie to the cargo hold level and exited the Cruiser.
“The current Albein Chancellor is up to something, though the Albein Senate had ordered the rescue of any Elveden refugees, she secretly met up with the rescue team and ordered them not to do anything. Kru came to know of this and we entered the scene.”
“You keep forgetting that I read your mind,” said Emilie, smiling mildly.
“Oh! That’s right! I forgot!” said Troy and as he continued walking fast, hos heart froze as he recollected the things he had said about her along with Kru before he had met her. Troy took a big gulp and kept moving.
“They entered the elevator, which was once again empty.
“HQ Conference,” said Troy, loud and clear.
Within three seconds the door opened again onto a landing. Troy and Emilie came out and proceeded into the Conference room. Kru was already waiting for them over there. Albein security androids were stationed everywhere. It was the first time Troy was seeing the Albein droids with his own eyes. They were six feet tall and covered in dark blue and grey. Their faces were metal grey with a thin lens visor and all of them were heavily armed and looked very powerful. The Albein droids approached them and stripped Troy of the weapons he had been carrying and then nudged him to go forward.
They were about twenty five Albein Senators seated in a semicircular arrangement and there was an obese man seated on a high podium that was kept right in front of the semicircular arrangement.
However, there was no sign of Chancellor Norman anywhere.
Kru indicated both Troy and Emilie to stand beside him and Rutgers, on the stage, in front of the Senate. Murmurs erupted spontaneously as soon as the people saw Emilie and Troy and they didn’t die till an Albein official, of the post of the Speaker started speaking.
“This emergency probe has been ordered based on information from our ship captain, Mr. Rutgers Wood, pertaining to accusations against the Albein Chancellor Ms. Norman Wall. Mr. Wood claims that he received this information from an Albein boy, Mr. Kru Yule. Now, will Mr. Kru Yule step forward and bring forth the accusations himself?”
“With all due respect, Mr. Speaker, I do not wish to start this probe without the accused present,” stated Kru, without a hint of any sort of fear in his voice.
The Senators burst into noisy talking among themselves upon hearing Kru say that.
“Let there be silence!” the Speaker’s voice boomed throughout the Conference hall. “Have care how you speak, child! Your accused is our Chancellor!”
“I am well aware of that, sir but I maintain my position on that point!”
“What are you doing?” hissed Troy beside him.
“The right thing,” replied Kru.
“Kru, they are all sided with Norman, you know that well!” said Rutgers in a low voice, leaning onto Kru’s ear.
“I know,” replied Kru. “But this is the only way!”
“I hope you are right,” said Rutgers. “But I am starting to regret calling for this meeting in the first place!”
“We need to make sure our Elveden refugee gets a place to stay-” said Kru.
“Mr. Yule, you’re part of an inquiry, so I suggest you pay us respect,” interrupted the Speaker.
“Yes sir, but I possess enough evidence to convict our Chancellor, so I suggest you summon her here instead of chatting with me,” said Kru, irritated at the Speaker’s attitude.
How the heck is he not stammering now? Troy thought to himself.
“What the hell, Kru?” asked Rutgers, in a bout of rage but upon seeing the expression on Kru’s face, his face lightened, “Him too?”
Kru nodded yes slowly.
“Alright, Mr. Yule, we’ll summon Ms. Norman Wall here,” said the Speaker, after looking at the rest of the authorities who were furiously consulting with each other about what Kru had told them.
Ten minutes, Norman walked into the Conference looking very mad. Troy could feel her powerful gaze, as she glared at Kru and the rest as she stood on the far end of the podium.
“Well, here she is,” said the Speaker. “Tell us now!”
“Here, is my evidence.” Kru said, “I have sent the data to your individual comps, from where you can access it. This woman here, had ordered the men assigned to the Elveden rescue mission to abort the mission beforehand in secret hiding the facts from the Senate. In addition, she left those men to die, by closing the wormhole before they return safely to the Orion Swift. This woman clearly is hiding something.”
The authorities again submerged into their talking and the Speaker spoke, “My dear boy, you are quite imaginative, if I can say so. The Chancellor has the power to do whatever she wishes to and that is why she is the Chancellor.”
“But the law clearly states every action of the Chancellor is to be evaluated by the Senate before it can be approved,” retaliated back Kru.
“The same law states that under high threat conditions, the Chancellor can do whatever she wants to ensure the protection of the Albein people.”
“Can’t you see she’s up to something?” begged Kru. “After all she’s done on our planet to grasp power. She’s nothing but a power hungry monster!”
“ENOUGH! Don’t you bring your personal feelings into this, boy!” cried the Speaker, at which Norman walked away from her position to in front of the authorities and she turned to face Kru and the others.
“So am I guilty?” she asked loudly, with a sinister smile on her face.
“No!” cried the Speaker, as if whatever Kru had told before was a very bad joke.
“Who says I am guilty, Mr. Speaker?” asked Norman, her sinister smile growing.
The Speaker turned to look at the Senate and saw no hands up. He turned and said loudly, “No one, madam!”
“Good!” said Norman. “Now, Mr. Yule, you do have a medical history of mental illness especially after your parents died, under rather unfortunate circumstances. Therefore I don’t blame you for what you have done now, it’s just the illness speaking. However, such things can’t be tolerated anyways, hence you and your friends will be taken prisoners until further notice.”
“NO! YOU WITCH!” cried Kru, as Troy recovered from the crazy truth they were facing. This wasn’t any close to the thing he had imagined or thought. This was complete nuts.
“Oh! Rutgers! You are such a fine captain! I would hate to lose you too! And who is this? Isn’t it Dylan’s son? Your mother would be so enraged at this, boy!” said Norman, in an irritating tone. “And look at whom they rescued, a young Elveden! Pity that you are going to be imprisoned for the rest of your cursed life.”
Then just for a moment, Norman’s eyes and Emilie’s eyes were locked at each other and instantly, Norman jerked as if she had just been shocked.
“GET THE ELVEDEN!” she cried.
Troy immediately bolted towards Norman out of pure fury, who was only a few meters away from them.
“TAKE THEM NOW!” cried Norman, upon seeing Troy sprinting towards her and two droids flew and knocked Troy down, before he could hurt Norman. “Strip them of all tech and put them in one cell and put the Elveden in a separate cell!”
“Max, get us help!” whispered Troy, just before the androids removed his transmitter.
The droids then overpowered all of them and dragged them to the prison bay, where they stripped them of the nanobot body suits and made them wear ordinary prison clothes, before putting them altogether in one holding cell.
“That went great!” muttered Troy to himself inside the holding cell, which was big enough to house the four of them, completely covered by transparent walls that had tiny nano spikes loaded to jolt the prisoners upon the slightest touch.
“Norman is clearly up to something!” said Rutgers, stroking his black beard.
“We’ve got to save Emilie!” said Troy, dryly sobbing thinking of her.
“But we can’t do anything from here!” said Kru. “We’re done for! Norman will accomplish whatever she’s up to now”
“What could she be up to?” asked Troy, absent mindedly, when he suddenly remembered. “Emilie knows what Norman is up to.”
“What?” asked Rutgers, thinking that he had just heard something very relevant to their situation.
“The Elveden can read minds and that is why Norman has ordered Emilie to be executed! Whatever she is up to, Emilie knows!” said Troy as he got up and proceeded towards the transparent wall.
“Don’t touch it!” Kru warned, “It will shock you!”
Troy sighed. He wanted to save Emilie. He just couldn’t let her die. His eyes were becoming cloudy, as he thought of her.
That Norman…
Then all of a sudden, Troy started hearing a voice in his head. It was Emilie’s.
Don’t worry about me! and then the voice was gone.