[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.”“That silly Anthro?” Benai said in a scoff.“I saw her with Tanik going into the emissaries’ offices just before they came to the gardens,” the Maven explained.“Just be careful.It would be a tragedy to lose those videos before we get to see them.”“Do you really think we can get it to work?” Teltel asked.“I think tiny ones need to be protected so they can have freedom to contribute to the wealth of all,” the Maven said.She then rose and faded as she walked away.“Sometimes she’s awfully cryptic,” Benai said with a furrowed brow.“She wants us to include Mathis,” Teltel explained.“He’s not so bad,” Benai said.“He’s a Hoth,” Teltel said as he stomped off leaving his tray of half eaten food behind as he rubbed the tip of his chin vigorously.Benai shoveled a few more bites into his mouth before hurrying after his friend.The rest of their nightly routine unfolded without incident.It wasn’t until the middle of the night when Teltel woke Benai from his nightmare that started the most eventful day the students had ever had.“Ben!” Teltel called.“Benny, you’re having a bad dream again.”Unlike the other times when Teltel would wake Benai from his dreams this time Benai woke quickly.His eyes shot open and like a flash he sat up and looked at Teltel.“You’re pale, Benny.” Teltel said.“You alright? Was it a bad one? Was it about the fire on board?”“I went mad this time,” Benai revealed.He hugged his knees under his chin and wept as he told about his dream.“I was on some sort of hill or mountain overlooking a bunch of people.They killed each other.Right there; right in front of me.”“It’ll be alright, Benny.It’s all going to be alright,” Teltel tried to comfort his friend.“I raised my staff; a long stick that I carried with me all the time, well I raised it high and brought it down and the killing began,” Benai cried.He looked at his friend as the tears kept streaming down his wet face.“I did that.I made them kill each other.I’m going mad.I have this ache inside that won’t go away.”He beat his chest with his open hand.“I ache down so deep I feel like it can never go away.There were giants there too.They wouldn’t let anyone leave.They protected me, but I went mad.Oh! Beyond the heavens - something out there - help me.”Teltel was made more than a little uncomfortable by his friend’s escalated level of inner turmoil.“Hey, get dressed.We’ll go to the fallow field.We can work on the computer.”“We can’t get that thing working by ourselves,” Benai said as he took off his shirt, blew his nose on it and threw it down the laundry chute.“Sure we can,” Teltel said.“No we can’t.We don’t know a thing about all that stuff.But Maven Sharla said you should be nice to a ‘little one’,” he said with a forced laugh as he wiped his face with his hands.“Not that Hoth,” Teltel whined as he only allowed himself to do with his best friend.“He’s not so bad.He’s just a Hoth,” Benai said as he put on fresh clothes.They left their room and rounded the hall to Trace and Mathis’ door.“What are you waiting on?” Benai said when Teltel hesitated at the door.“I didn’t want to just barge into their sleeping quarters in the middle of the night.”Benai slapped a button on the side of the door and it slid open.“Hey boys,” Benai called out in a loud voice.“We’re only here for Mathis so you can go back to sleep, whoever you are.”“Get the sparse out of here,” Trace yelled.“He said, ‘go back to sleep’,” Teltel yelled back.“Come on little guy,” Benai said to Mathis.“Am I in trouble?” Mathis asked with a voice as tiny as he was.“Only if you don’t come with us,” Teltel said.The little Hoth pulled on his clothes and rubbed his eyes.“What are you going to do to me?” Mathis asked in fear.“We just need your help,” Teltel answered.Mathis followed the very tall boys all the way to the fallow field where they worked on the computer the rest of the night.Well before waking hour, they had fixed the computer and interfaced one of the small hard drives.Teltel pressed a button and turned it on and the boys gathered around the square frame monitor to watch an ancient movie from the ancestors of the Egress.0 BE/AE (The year of the departure of the EGRESS)Aboard the EGRESS in orbit above the planet REENThe screen was black a moment before it came to life.Chris came out of the elevator into a large hallway much like the main deck hall.“Okay I think these are pretty cool.These are the diagonal elevators I talked about earlier.”There was a smaller silver elevator door with two regular doors on each side.“So this is one of the elevators and those doors are for officers and emissaries of each tribe.There are nine elevators from this level of the officer’s quarters to the quarter sectors where some will live and hundreds more of each tribe will be in stasis.The camera followed the hall around and showed the interior white wall that encircled the main elevator and the outer wall with a duplicate elevator with four doors.297 AEAboard the EGRESS“That’s my room,” Mathis said in his high voice.“Are you sure?” Benai said but added quickly with a pointing finger, “Oh, that’s our room.Look big guy.”“Yes,” Teltel agreed.“We’re in officer’s quarters?” Mathis said.“No,” Benai laughed.“We can’t be.”“But Chris said that’s what they were,” Mathis said.“I think it’s the ninth sector.”“What do you mean the ninth sector?” Benai asked.“I don’t think the officer’s quarters of the Hoth were ever used.I mean they were never allowed to have council representation, there were no Hoth emissaries.I think they put the keepers in the ninth sector.We live in the Hoth’s officer’s quarters,” Mathis said.“No,” Teltel yelled, which made the computer on the table shake.“Oh, no! I’m sorry guys.” Benai jumped to his feet and stopped the video.“What’s wrong?” Mathis asked in his high pitched sleepy voice.“We’re going to be late for class,” Benai explained.“I think if we’re late it might make Tanik suspicious.”“I wonder what she’d do if we didn’t show up,” Mathis said with a laugh.He gave a little yawn and didn’t budge from his sitting position.“I don’t know why we still have to go to class.I mean the particle wave will be here in just a few days anyway.”“Indeed.I don’t see why we have to go to class either,” Teltel agreed.“So we can tell the others what we found [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]