Alliance Hunter

I woke in the cavern. It had worked despite my thinking that it wouldn’t. Digger leaned over me her hand on my naked chest. I just wished I wasn’t naked every time I arrived here.

“There, you are fine,” Digger said to me removing her hand from my chest.

I assumed she was doing to me the same thing as last time checking my health in her weird alien way. I hadn’t expected to be greeted by Digger since I had called for Mouse. “Where’s Mouse?”

“Checking up on something.”

“What?”

“I don’t know she will be back shortly.” Digger straightened up towering over me. “Welcome back Gwen.” She added. “I did want to say welcome home but we both know you won’t accept that. So to stave off any arguments I’ll just say I’m glad to see you.”

“Yes, you seem to see too much of me?” I indicated my body and blushed aware I had nothing on. “I just wish if I have to come here again I’d at least have some clothes on?”

Digger made a gesture with her hand and I felt as if something was crawling over me. I stifled a scream and looked down to find myself clothed in jeans, tank top and boots the type with high thin heels and buckles up the sides. Unfortunately I wasn’t wearing underwear but on the plus side I was now clothed but the style wasn’t me.

“Better?” she asked me.

“Thank you.” I sat up feeling more sure of myself. “I wanted to ask Mouse something?” I wasn’t sure if Digger could answer my question. Then I wasn’t sure this was a total waste of time but I had to do something and perhaps they could give me a few hints. Anything was better than keeping one eye over your shoulder for the rest of the trip.

“She won’t be long. In the meantime I can apologise.”

“Apologise for what?”

“I had to cut your hand it was the only way I could get your blood into your friend.”

I was confused. “I don’t understand?”

“I needed a method of getting the helpers in your blood into your friend.”

“Helpers? You mean the nanobots but I don’t have them anymore Kelli told me so.”

A sudden thought occurred to me. “You’re saying my blood is in Runa?”

“Your blood not exactly it wouldn’t be compatible with a different blood group. The helpers I put into you I made sure they wouldn’t show up on any scan they did of you. You wanted your friend to live?”

I couldn’t argue with that it had been on my mind at the time and still was hence my plea to the Keepers. “That is true.”

“”The helpers will do it quicker than the machine she is in now.”

I had to ask I seemed to be doing that a lot recently. I did note Digger kept referring to Runa as my friend. I guess in a way she was right. “Why?”

“Because she is your friend and is in need of help.”

The logical part of my mind agreed with her words. But that wasn’t going to help me here. I asked Digger the question I was going to ask Mouse figuring she’d probably know. Or it was what I was hoping for. “I did want to ask Mouse if it was possible to influence someone or even a group of people?”

“In what way?”

I explained my thoughts on the attack. It sounded stupid when I said out loud but I wasn’t certain of anything anymore I longed for the days when things were simpler. “The Elders think there is an outside influence causing trouble.” I went on to explain how I felt I was being watched as I tried to contact Mouse. “I don’t mean you, someone or something else. It felt different not friendly.” I hastily added.

Digger considered what I said. “It’s more that possible with the First Ones but they haven’t been around for thousands of millennia. The Guardians as you call them gather information by watching events.”

Another voice interrupted before she could say more.

“Gwen!” Mouse hugged me. “I’ve missed you.”

She felt really alive as if she was flesh and blood I felt her breath on my neck. I didn’t think it possible. There seemed to be a lot of impossible things happening lately so why should I think this any different. She still had her feathered cloak I assumed I was something cultural because I couldn’t see the need for a cloak in the cavern.

“I’ve been so worried about you,” Mouse said letting go and examining me closely.

“We were discussing if the Guardians are responsible for Gwen’s current crop of problems?” Digger said to Mouse.

“They are.” Mouse stated.

“Just like that?” I was sceptical.

“They have become more powerful since we became streams of data.”

“And now are you not.” That reminded me that I’d have to ask how I was here when Kelli was certain I was still on the ship. There had to be logical explanation of the how and why.

“They have the capacity to push minds down certain paths especially if the mind in question is predisposed in that direction.” Mouse paused. “Or if already weakened by injury.”

“Like me?” I all but accused Mouse of doing that to me.

“Never you Little One or any of your friends,” Mouse said to me. “Or anyone else for that matter.”

“Sorry,” I apologised.

“No need Gwen,” Digger said with a glance to Mouse. “We understand your reservations we do not do that.”

“So how do you know the Guardians are doing this?”

“They’ve done this before a long time ago.” Mouse’s face grew grim. “The First Ones stopped them. They turned their anger on us and sent their Avatar’s out to destroy us.”

“And these First Ones didn’t stop them?”

“No, so we turned to the Rho’xan for help.”

“It seems that the Rho’xan were capable of manipulating events themselves.” Digger added. “It was they that told the Guardians that we were responsible. It was nothing of the sort their actions brought them to the attention of the First Ones. They blamed us and the Rho’xan destroyed the both of us.”

“So you think this is the Guardians again?” I was certain that Mouse would tell me it was.

“Yes.”

Mouse’s answer didn’t fill me with confidence. “How do we stop them?”

“We can’t and neither can and will you.”

I took Mouse’s warning to heart. “What can we do then?” I regretted saying that I wasn’t a Keeper any more than I was a Valkyrie this was way beyond me in anyway.

“Blind them,” Mouse stated bluntly.

I shivered hearing the veiled anger in her voice and realised I’d said ‘we’ I wasn’t one of them I don’t know why I said it, it was stupid. Her anger wasn’t directed at me thankfully. “Blind?”

“Not in the physical sense. We will block them seeing us by creating a null zone around your ship.”

I could see a flaw in Mouse’s plan and told her so. “Won’t they see this null zone and know it is us?”

“Not if we create thousands of null zones. They will not know which one the ship is,” Mouse stated firmly.

Digger gave her an odd confused look. “You sure we can do that?” she asked Mouse anxiously.

“You never questioned when we moved those three ships thousands of light years?” Mouse scrutinised Digger carefully.

I saw the puzzlement on Digger’s face. I remembered the incident clearly having to endure an interrogation by both Ljufu and Xenai.

Finally Digger spoke. “You are right as much as it pains me.”

“How?” I asked Mouse. “How did you find this out?”

“Gwen wasn’t our first visitor since we became data.”

“The Corrupted?” I asked.

“The Corrupted was long dead before we received our other visitors,” Mouse told us.

“You mean there are more than one?” Digger enquired.

“Or the same one several times.”

“How no one knew about this place?” Digger seemed to be alarmed by that.

“The Corrupted did? I said to them.

“Gwen is right,” Mouse sighed. “The point is the cube you found and destroyed was supposed to cause a critical overload.”

“Which you said it was doing?” I said. Mouse must have point to make.

“Yes several millennia ago. Someone with more expertise than I set a loop in the program.”

“Loop?” I asked looking to Digger for help she just shrugged.

“The computer would nearly reach critical and reset.” Mouse hugged me again. “I’m sorry about what the computer did to you. It was in the pre-reset part of the loop.”

“So it wasn’t necessary,” I said and shivered at the thought of being a slave to the computer and trapped in the exoskeleton unable to free myself.

“Unfortunately it was partly right. The cube was working around the loop and every reset brought us closer to destruction. My original calculations were correct although I wish they weren’t.”

Slowly the comprehension dawned as I saw the implication in her words. I swallowed hard and said. “Saros would have been destroyed anyway.”

“Yes Gwen you truly did save us.”

I closed my eyes tight my mind on Ljufu and her family. On all those families it was a burden I was finding hard to bear. I changed subjects my mind straying from those thoughts. “Just a minute?” I said. “If the Guardians are so set against me why the hell are we going to Melanos. I’d be walking into danger, putting my team in danger.” Tendrils of fear clutched at my heart.

“Peace Gwen.” Mouse hugged me like I was her daughter, which I wasn’t. “The data rod is a message.”

I looked at her she hadn’t let go. “What do you mean by that?” Several worrying scenarios came to mind none of them with a good outcome.

“It wasn’t the one I wanted to give you.”

Digger spoke before I could say anything. “Yes Mouse do tell us?” Her words were tinged with anger.

Mouse stepped back releasing her hold on me and regarded Digger. “It’s complicated.”

“It can’t be that complicated?” Digger said to her. “I’ll not have you risk Gwen for one of your gestures?”

I winced at that wondering what Digger meant.

Mouse looked uncomfortable. “That rod was meant to go to Melanos.”

Suddenly one of those ugly scenarios raised its head. “Hey it’s not a weapon that will explode and kill me?”

I’d never seen such shocked expressions on either Keeper. Given their non-combative nature I guess that was a big ‘no’.

“It is a message from those that re-programmed the computer,” Mouse said.

“How do you know this?” Digger accused her before I’d had a chance to say anything.

“I just do. Ask yourself who hard coded your data stream. I couldn’t have done it, it’s far beyond my knowledge.”

Digger stared hard at Mouse it was several moments before she spoke. “What do you mean by that?” Her words held none of her earlier vehemence.

“Look at us we went from data streams to this. Now look at the time it took and think of what else we are now capable of?”

“I getting the point here. But I asking when did this happen. You do have an idea?” Digger spoke quietly.

“About the same time as the surface was restored. As near as I can guess it.”

“The First Ones?” Digger asked.

Instead of answering Mouse looked sharply at me. “Oh my dear one I’m afraid you have to return.”

“Return,” I said annoyed I still hadn’t got the answers I wanted from Mouse. It seemed every time we started to get anywhere I was pushed away.

“Your body is on the move,” Mouse stated.

I didn’t like the sound of that. While I was here I was helpless on board the ship. Yet it didn’t answer the question of why I felt as if I was physically here. “What do I need to do?”

“Just lie on the bed and we will do the rest.” Mouse leaned over me and kissed my forehead. “We will speak again soon.”

I was a bit weirded out by that but I lay there and closed my eyes.

I opened my eyes to see a glove wavering over my head in my peripheral vision. The glove was attached to a hand I hadn’t expected to see. I wasn’t in my quarters I was in Kara’s medbay and the hand in the glove was hers. I looked up to see her blue eyes scrutinising me in detail.

“What am I doing here?”

“Funny that was the question I was about to ask you,” Kara replied. “And there’s me thinking you were reliable. Please don’t lie to me? Kelli is very bad at it and I didn’t believe her explanation any more than I did Miri’s.”

I became aware I wasn’t in my clothes I was dressed in creamy coloured pants and shirt and that was all I was wearing. “Where are my clothes!” I demanded.

“Until I’ve resolved this you aren’t going anywhere. You are my patient and as such you are confined to the medbay until I satisfied with your answers. Are we clear Gwen Martin?”

I heard similar threats from the Elders. “Yes ma’am,” I had practically to drag the words out of my mouth. I am a Hunter and not Martin that was what I was firm on.

“Be glad I discovered you and not anyone else.” She looked at me a serious expression on her face. “You gave me quite a turn seeing you lying there unmoving.” She hesitated. “Almost like you were in stasis. All I wanted to do was discuss a training schedule with Kelli. Then what do I find, you stretched out like you are dead and Kelli spouting some flimsy excuse.” Kara scrutinised my face. “When I pressed her she wouldn’t give me a straight answer. Will you?”

I hesitated I couldn’t tell her I couldn’t even explain it to myself. What a tangled mess I was in. “I can’t it’s complicated.” I looked for a way out and couldn’t see one so I appealed to Mouse. I know I shouldn’t keep relying on her but I was in a fix no way out. I couldn’t explain it she made me feel safe in a motherly way. I didn’t want to say anything I still hadn’t told Jervic yet. Perhaps I was a coward I didn’t want him to hate me I felt guilty enough nearly getting him killed. “Mouse?” I appealed to the Keeper in the recesses of my mind unsure if she could hear me.

“Tell her.” Mouse’s voice whispered in my mind.

“You sure?” I said aloud and realised what I had done.

“Who are you talking to Gwen. You haven’t got an implant I should know I’ve scanned your brain more times than I could count on my fingers and toes.” Kara stared at me.

I wished I could hide but I wouldn’t I was better than that. With my heart racing I begged Kara. “Please just hear me out and don’t judge me?”

“Go on,” Kara said ominously.

I swallowed hard I wasn’t sure, I wasn’t sure if I’d be believed. “You know I was on Saros?”

“Yes?” Kara sounded intrigued.

“There’s a cavern under the planet. It was the last refuge of an ancient race who call themselves the Keepers.” I when on to explain my pursuit of Vanessa and my tracking her down to a dig site in the city. I went on to further to explain tricking my way in and the fight then the tunnel collapsing. I told her how I found the cavern and what the computer did to me and Mouse’s hologram. I went on to tell her about how I was released and returned to the surface. “I know it sounds like an outrageous fable,” I said to Kara.

“Please continue Gwen.”

I spoke again detailing the fight in the ruins and Jervic’s injuries and losing my hand. Then the Keepers contacting me and my conversation with Kelli.

“Kelli should have known better,” Kara warned me.

“Kelli’s my friend and she fixed my injuries countless times. Captain Xenai knows it all she’s walked through my mind.”

“Are that explains a lot, we’ve long suspected she’s a tepe.”

I gave Kara a look her slip-up made me suspect that Runa wasn’t the only silver on board this ship.

“Runa isn’t the only Silver Guard aboard this ship is she?”

Instead of denying it Kara laughed. “Oops I shouldn’t have shot my mouth off like that.”

Her use of an Imperial idiom took me by surprise. “Are you former Empire as well?”

“Oh no Gwen. I did a lot of learning when I was younger. But we seem to be digressing.”

I took a deep breath. I told her about the Guardians attack on me for thinking I was a Keeper and with much anguish the attack on Runa. “The Keeper’s seem to think that Runa’s attack was the Guardians trying to keep me from reaching Melanos. Why I do not know? I know it sounds insane but please believe me I am not.”

“No you are not insane. I’d know if you were. In your opinion the Guardians used the situation to their advantage.”

“I’m certain of that.” But I wasn’t I was going on the info Mouse had given me.

Kara sighed. “It sort of confirms what we know about the Guardians and what the Elders have long suspected. It will have to go into my report.”

“Don’t tell them!” I blurted out. “The Keepers want to keep this info low key.”

“I have to say something if they are attempting to influence events then we need to be prepared.”

“Please delay your report?” I begged her.

“I’ll try. But the next time you contact these Keepers of yours you will do it under my supervision.”

“Ok.”

“Good you can go.”

I left the medbay more confused than I was before at least I was dressed in some proper clothes. I hoped we could end this soon and I could get my life back. With that thought in mind I headed back to my quarters I had to warn Kelli about Kara. I suspected that she would get a grilling from Kara.