Knight�s Pride
By T.F. Kit
Chapter 11: Unstable Discoveries
"What about your family?" Lillian asked. "Why didn't they notice you were missing?" She looked poignantly at Deida.
Derk shifted in his chair slightly. "Well�" He started uncomfortably.
"Our parents were not exactly the most responsible people in the universe." Deida cut in. "They just simply did not notice." She sighed. "And I � I couldn't� I didn't want to find him the first day or so."
Derk glanced up at her.
"We had had a fight," Deida continued. "And I wanted to be an only child. So I didn't look for him. I felt bad when we finally did get him back." She absently tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "But he never told us he was kidnapped only that he was at the port when the incident happened."
KaLee heard feet shuffling slightly and looked at Derk. He was looking down at his feet almost ashamed that he had spoken.
Droe moved up next to Derk and placed his head on Derk's lap. There was a rumbling filling the room a hum that reverberated in KaLee's chest.
Memories of Charade filled her. Closing her eyes she let the music fill her. It rolled around the room filling each of them with emotions but KaLee knew the most affected was Derk. She managed to keep the tears back and opened her eyes to look around the room. Everyone seemed to be in the thrall of memories. Some starting off others having their emotions blatantly written on heir faces and a few eyes were brimming with tears. The music slowly faded but Droe did not move his head, only sat down.
The room was silent a moment before Spike spoke. "Wow." He took a deep breath. "Remind me to listen to more Kaven singers. You guys give quite a buzz."
"It is not something we generally share but I thought it was necessary for the moment." Droe's voice was quite as though the singing had worn it out.
"Since we seem to be going out of order now." Lillian was speaking. "Who is next?"
Eyes shifted around the room. Cole was tense in his seat.
"We could always go back to the highest rank." Spike said. Lillian gave a little bit of a nod.
"Or..." Deida spoke up. "I could tell you about another time my brother and I did not share the same experience."
The others looked at her. "You don't have to tell them Sis." Derk was looking at her wide-eyed.
"Yes Derk." She smiled at him. "Yes I do. There are things they need to know and I think this is one of them. It will give a little bit of understanding about US and why we really are here." With that said she turned her gray eyes to the others and asked, "Is that okay with everyone else?"
Lillian gave a nod and Cole looked relieved.
"Knock yourself out kid." Spike said.
KaLee and Ryan looked at each other. Ryan signaled. *Let her explain.* Both then gave a motion for Deida to continue.
She took a deep breath before starting. "Our parents are scientists. They love to study anything. About three years after the incident with Derk we found ourselves yet again on the boarders of FreeSpace and the Alliance."
*******
"There it is." Jessica said. "I knew we would find it." She was excited.
Deida could tell. It seemed to vibrate off of her body.
"Okay." Jacob said. "Start scanning for a landing site. I want to get soil samples and do some planet side readings."
Derk gave a little nod and started the search.
Deida started scanning and taking reading from here. She too was amazed.
Phrearden-Lock was unique planetscape. The land tectonic plates moved at an incredible rate compared to other planets; inches a day, highly unstable and dangerous to live on, but there were people who did. Phreardians were a nomadic people in their history but amazingly technologically advanced. That was what Deida hoped to study, their technology. They could 'pause' the shifting for thirty-eight hours, one of their days to a fairly large area. It was not something they did very often, but the fact that they were able to it at all was fascinating.
"I found a spot." Derk said. "In the Northern Hemisphere, four hundred clicks down." He punched in the coordinates.
"The area looks stable enough." Jacob spoke up. "The fault lines are a good ways away from that area, seems to be close to the middle of the plate."
"Okay then." Jessica said. "Let's land and have a look around."
Deida was excited as well. There was a decent size village not that far off of their landing area. She noted the coordinates and strapped in for landing.
They contacted the main complex to let them know their location. They did not need any sort of galactic incident to happen because they didn't follow protocol. It did not take long to settle the ship into its resting spot.
"We have seventy six hours to get all the information we can before we have to leave." Jacob started. "That is how long they allow us to be here. Both the Garrison and the Phrearden-Lock government were hesitant to allow us here. Let's not waste anytime."
Deida moved quickly to set up the dish and start it scanning the atmosphere. With efficient hands she programmed its receiving and recording, knowing the storage capacity of the drive she installed. She then set up the back up.
When it came to her parents' research she was never too careful. Despite all the precautions measures she took to protect the data the best one was to have a back up. It was three hours into the landing before she was done.
"There." She exclaimed and jumped out of her seat.
"What?" Derk looked up from the panel he was working at, it was open and wires seemed to be spewing from it.
"I have the dish scanning and recording. And the back up set and running." She grinned at her brother. "Now I can go check out the near by village."
Derk sighed. "You shouldn't go off alone." He did not like the fact that his sister was so interested in the people. Like their parents he knew she could get focused and loose track of everything else, even another life.
"Well you can't go and mom and dad are going to be way too busy." Deida said moving to where she had put her bag. "Besides I will be fine."
Checking her bag though Deida made sure there were enough supplies for a day. "A couple of bottles of water, some energy bars, my data pad, a flashlight, goggles, gloves, med-kit�"
"I still wish you wouldn't go alone." Derk spoke, interrupting Deida's thoughts.
She looked at him and could feel his irritation. She sighed. "How about this." She tried to come up with a compromise. "I will leave you coordinates to where I will be at and when you are done you can join me." She waited to see what Derk would do, ready to defend her decision to go.
"I don't know." Derk started. "Are you sure you can't wait for me?"
"I only have twenty hours before I have to be back and work here again. I want to get as much time in as I possibly can." Deida held her breath. She was going she had to. This was a chance of a lifetime.
She felt the inner struggle of her twin and finally his resignation to the situation. "Okay." He said looking at her with a stern gaze. "But take your communicator and contact me when you get there."
"Great." With his approval she knew she would be fine. She raced over to her sat and grabbed her communicator. Flipping it on she checked its settings. Good working condition.
Slipping it on her belt she raced out yelling back to her brother. "I'll contact you when I get there." She thought she heard him yell back to her to be careful but she was not sure and was too exited to go back and ask.
She flew down to the cargo hold where her hover bike was. With quick movements Deida started it up and headed out. She did a pass by her parents waving to them as she went.
They don't really care. She thought. But I should let them know anyway.
She had told them her plan before they came. Their only concern was her getting back in time to switch tapes for the scans. They had made the twenty-hour window. She knew she actually had twenty-four, but it was the time they allowed. She was not going to argue too much.
Deida saw a halfhearted wave from her mother then punched the controls and shot off on her back. It was going to be about three hours at good speeds before she reached her destination.
The light glitter off of the ground. Phivian Crystals were scattered across the landscape. Their resonance was extremely powerful part of the reason that Phrearden-Lock was so unstable. There was an abundance of them here. It was beautiful to look at as she flew. At one moment she flew close enough to the ground and found a herd of what looked like rabbits bounding across the landscape. Their fur glittered like the ground and gave off a mired of colors dazzling her. She sighed. Such an interesting land even the animals have adapted to their surroundings.
The trip went by fairly quickly and soon Deida arrived at the cliff top over looking a village. The grouping and clusters of homes looked fascinating to her. She wondered what type of technology they had inside, it had to be the most advanced she would see in a long time.
Looking down the cliff Deida frowned. She was going to have to find a way down. Pulling her pack off the bike she strapped it to herself.
"Oh right." She exclaimed pulling her communicator off her belt and clicked. "Hey Derk you there?"
"I am here. That you Sis?" His voice crackled from the speaker.
"Yeah. I'm at the village. How long till you get here?' She asked.
"I am almost done here. Another fifteen minutes or so and I am off." He responded.
"Okay. I will head down and start talking to the inhabitants." She told him.
"Head down?" Deida heard Derk's concern.
"I am up on a fifty to sixty foot cliff." She brought herself to the edge again and looked down. "I can get to the village." The feeling of concern hit her hard.
"Don't worry." Deida scanned the edge and spied it. "There is a path down and I will take it slow."
"Alright I will see you in about three and a half hours."
She grinned, still excited. "See you then."
Finishing clipping on the pack she headed towards the start of the path. It was high up but she intended to get down fast.
The path was steep and strewn with rock and breaks. But she could get around those. Deida knew she was going to be sore when she was finished but she did not care. This was a chance of a lifetime.
She hoped the inhabitants would be willing to talk to her. It had taken a lot to get her family there to research. There were tones of conditions. Talking to the Phreardians, however, was not one of them. As far as she could figure out they were allowed if they wanted to.
Deida was about two thirds of the way down when she noticed some of the small pebbles along the path start to shimmy and dance along the surface of the ground.
What is...? Her mind did not full grasp what was happening until the ground itself gave a jump nearly knocking her off the path. She stumbled and hit the cliff wall.
"Ow." She said trying to catch her breath and get focused.
There shouldn't be any activity here or now. Her heart was pounding in her chest. None of the readings indicate this happening.
The ground bucked again, throwing Deida to the ground. Large chunks of rock fell on either side of her. Looking out across the plain she watched the village. The homes seemed to shift and move with the ground as though they were fluid. Beyond the homes Deida saw a large bolder shimmy and skitter across the ground just like the tiny pebbles had done before.
The ground shifted as Deida tried to hold on. Then she was dropping far and fast. The air seemed to be sucked from her body and it was dark.
********
Deida took a sip of her drink to calm her shaking hands.
"Sis, how are you doing?" Derk's voice held concern in away that only a brother could.
She took a shaking breath and looked up giving him a weak smile. "I am fine. Just a little hard remembering sometimes."
"What happened?" Cole asked.
"A new fault line formed and a really large rift came into existence." She responded. "The Phreardians knew it was going to happen and were prepared. They had readings we did not have access to. So they did not think anything of it."
�Obviously you survived." Spike said. "How?" His hand was wrapped tightly around the glass he held.
Deida glanced at KaLee before focusing on the glass before her. "Well I was lucky�"
********
Deida let out a low groan.
"I think she is coming to." A voice seemed very far way.
The darkness that enveloped her made Deida feel very comfortable.
"Yes?" Another voice spoke now. "That's good. I know the shaman was worried about her. She was on a rough ride."
She did not want to wake up. She wanted to say where she was. It made her feel safe and strong. It was warm and did not cause her to panic or think of anything that might be overly stressful.
There was a shuffling of feet and hands were placed on her stomach.
"Easy child." A soothing voice was speaking to her. "Take slow breaths."
Deida tried to move but she could not figure out how. Her body was not responding it was as if it wasn't fully there. Her heart began to beat faster. Pain then filled her chest area and she moaned.
"Shhh. It's okay." The soothing voice spoke again. "Slowly. Take it slowly."
"Derk," was all she managed to get out before returning to unconsciousness.
When she finally came back Deida took a cautious breath. Her body still felt mostly numb but she was alive.
Where am I? Her thoughts were slightly jumbled. There was the shift and I was falling. Then� She let the thought go.
Had her parents actually come to find her? No� that voice wasn't family.
Cautiously she opened her eyes. The light was dim and the color was peaceful. She sensed more that saw someone to her left. Carefully she turned her head to get a look. Blinking Deida focused on the form there.
Sitting in a chair a book open in her lap was a woman. Here eyes were closed and hands setting loosely next to the book. Her clothing was a loose wrap covering her body from head to toe; only her hands and her face were not covered. Her breathing was slow and regular.
Sleeping. Deida then began to turn her head back to looking up. Pain lanced through her body. She gave a small cry and whimper.
The woman stirred. "Oh you're awake now." Her voice was kind but not the soothing one.
Deida gave a sound of acknowledgement. She really did not want to move.
"I will go get Fadl, he will have to look at you." The woman got up her cloth rusting in the quite area.
"Okay." Deida spoke softly a croaking voice, listening to the woman leave.
Taking slow deep breaths she reopened her eyes and managed to make the pain become apart of the background.
There was more rustling of cloth and Deida glanced over to the sound. Two people came in the room. One of them was the woman who was there before and the other a man he was about the same height and also covered head to toe in a wrap. His was a more faded wrap than the woman but only looked slightly older.
"Hello there."
The voice. That's the kind voice.
He moved up to the bed. "Why don't I have a look." Moving the cover down, he gently ran his hands over her abdomen. "You had quite the experience." His spoke softly to her. "You had no life threatening injuries a couple of cracked ribs, dislocated shoulder and a broken leg." Deida felt the warmth of his hands on her.
"My family." She said softly. "What has happened to my family?"
"They are being looked for as we speak." He said.
"They are missing?� Her heart began to beat faster.
"Easy." He moved his hands up to her head. "You need to say calm." He turned to the woman with him. "Let's sit her up." The woman nodded as he turned back to Deida. "Okay. Come now."
Between the three of them they managed to get her sitting up right propped against a pillow. Deida winced as she leaned back. Her ribs hurt and her leg was restricted.
"What happened?" She asked trying not to breathe too hard.
"There was a new fault line created."
Deida closed her eyes and tried to 'feel-out' for her brother. He was somewhere but a very long ways away.
********
�Feel out?� Cole asked interrupting the story.
�Just trust me it is a twin thing.� Deida said.
Derk just nodded as his sister continued her story.
********
He was a ways off and she could not get a good feel for him.
"You will have to stay here for the time being." The man spoke with soft whispers that in a way calmed Deida.
Opening her eyes she looked directly at him and into his eyes. They were a calming blue. "My name is Fadl. My son is the one who found you. Some of the watchers saw you while you were climbing down. They commented you were lucky." He sat back and observed her.
Deida tucked a stray hair behind her ear as she focused on what to do next. There had been so many questions she had wanted to ask before this had happened now seemed completely irrelevant.
"I know you have a lot of questions." Fadl slipped his head covering off revealing dark graying hair. "Why don't we start there."
********
"The first night we talked about the medical procedures they used on me." Deida took another sip of her water wetting her throat. "I don't remember the majority of what they did to my body but I healed almost three times as fast as I should have." She paused looking around the room.
"They are the most advanced in healing technology." KaLee said leaning forward onto the table resting her chin on her folded arms. "They really know their stuff."
Deida turned her eyes to KaLee "That is how they did the tuff to you. With their technology."
"Some�" KaLee swallowed. "Somewhat." She maintained eye contact with Deida.
"How long before they stated talking to about their philosophies?" KaLee asked.
"They told be about it all through out my time their. It was all around me. The machines were almost alive. It was amazing but it wasn't until about five days after I woke up that I got a bit of a better explanation." She started to fiddle with a bit of food that was still on her plate. "They had not told me anything about my family and that made me concerned."
********
Deida stood looking at the new landscape before her.
Where the cliff had been now there was a chasm. It was about one mile across and the land on the other side was level to where she was standing. There was a dust cloud rising from the other side. She knew form the sounds she heard that it was the rabbit like creatures she had seen on her trip over. They were called Thumpers or at least that is what the word translated into. Fadl had tried to say the word several times only to have her translator translate it each time. So she called them Thumpers.
When she had asked about the location of her family again she had been told her where they had landed been was no longer in the same place.
Fadl walked up next to her. "How is your leg?"
She looked over at him. His hood was back and was enjoying the breeze of the sunset.
"It aches." She responded looking down at her leg partially restrained by a brace. "But right now�" She paused swallowing back the tears that were threatening. "I am worried about them. My family."
"Why don't we go to my shelter and we can talk." He placed a hand on her back and gently guided her around.
The walk was slow with her injury and to keep the calm she had managed to maintain around herself Deida mentioned the Thumpers. �They are on the move again over there.� There was a slight nervousness to her tone that she had not meant to let slip through. Fadl smiled. �Yes they are but not from shifting ground from other predators. Don�t worry, your family will be found.� Deida simply nodded. He seemed to know what she was actually worried about with out her actually saying anything.
When they finally reached Fadl's shelter Deida was worn out. Her leg ached, as did her rib cage.
Fadl guided her to a comfortable chair and propped pillows around her. He started to make coffee, preparing the hot spicy drink.
"Now you have asked about our technology." He sat down, waiting for the water to come to its boil.
Deida took a deep breath, this was something to take her mind off of her family. "Yes." She looked at him. "I know you have technology more advanced than any in the universe but you barley use it and you don't seem to share it. Why?"
Fadl smiled. "It has some to do with how long and how much energy it takes for us to build a piece. It also has to do with our philosophies about life." He heard the water and went to it finishing the pot of spiced coffee. "Let me start by telling you about our philosophies regarding technology and man."
Deida pursed her lips. She was trying to be patient about it but she had heard this before. Taking a small breath she calmed herself and waited.
"Now you think you have heard what we believe before but you haven't. At least not the full version." Fadl sat down pouring a cup and handing it to her.
As Deida took it he continued. "To us everything has life. Even the machines we make. Treat them with respect and they will return the favor. Our technology majority at least is infused with the Phivan Crystals even if that is not what powers them. It gives them a uniqueness, almost a personality." His brow furrowed as though trying to figure out how to proceed.
Deida waited, taking a sip of the drink that had been handed to her. She had learned to drink the spiced coffee slowly. It was very potent.
"We also practice a type of technological magic that can give machine life. A true life not linked or dependent on anything. It is draining on the person 'building' the idem. Also this type of creation requires a full unbroken phivian crystal and because the limited resources of them on this planet and the instability of the fault lines in regards to them we do not share that technology or knowledge lightly." Deida watched as he stopped and took a drink from his cup. She used this opportunity to speak, maybe lead the conversation to plans or programs.
"I still don't understand." She said. "I mean I understand you not wanting to destabilize your home but you could teach people how to build the technology you have. There doesn't have to be 'life' to it. Surly you have diagrams, plans and programs that you use to build."
Fadl sighed and set his coffee down. "We do teach a few that are able to learn. It is more than knowledge of machine and its programs that makes our technology so amazing. It is an intimacy that is shared in the� creating of it." He watched her and knew she was not understanding, but how to explain the other hesitancies.
"Okay. So the machines would not be quite as advanced but to even come a step closer to what you have would be leaps and bounds for most people." She said.
"Deida, there has been only one time when my people used our knowledge in collaboration with others successfully. The people using it has corrupted all other times what we have shared. The most recent being with our shared health technology." He folded his hands in front of him. "It is difficult to see what you have worked so hard on be misused."
Deida looked at him a moment, curiosity getting the better of her. Finally she asked her next question. "What was the one collaboration that worked?"
Once again Fadl assessed her. She could see his inner debate, and then the decision was made as he nodded. The room seemed to have lost all sound before he spoke. Not a rustle of a breeze or chirp of bird could be heard. Deida waited.
As Fadl spoke his word seemed to echo in the room. "Voltron."