Chapter Three: Why Do We Fall?
It didn’t take long for Starla to realize she was dreaming again.
She was looking out of a large viewing window and her hands were on the controls of the transport. While she was keeping an eye on things, the rest of the crew seemed to be chatting about what they planned to do when they got back.
“What about you Alicia?” asked Robert.
“Me? I think I’m going to Sentret V to hit up the dragon fights.”
“Oh, that sounds like fun,” said Anthony.
Anthony Sulivan; Starla could remember his name. He was sitting directly behind her with bleach blonde hair and a perfectly formed face and body. Everyone used to have a crush on him back in the Alliance…
The Alliance. What was the Alliance anyway?
“Hey Starla!” said Robert. “You got anything planned?”
“I guess just head back to Terra Prime.”
“That’s it? Wait for the next mission? No parties or high life?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Is this about what happened back at that Zetrani temple?” asked Jeremy.
Starla turned backward to see a man with brown hair and green eyes looking at her. He had a gentle smile and a small build that reminded her someone who was not always the toughest of the bunch, but always the smartest. He was Jeremy Quinn. Her heart beat faster and she immediately remembered that they had once shared a relationship.“No,” said Starla finally. “I don’t think I’m too worried about that.”
“Me either,” said Robert. “After all, you all checked out just fine.”
“Still,” pressed Jeremy. “It’s weird that it held us up like that for so long.”
“Yeah,” agreed Robert. “I thought you might be dead.”
“We all agree it was weird,” said Anthony from behind Starla. “Robert said we all checked out though so I don’t figure we should really worry about it.”
“I guess you’re right,” said Alicia. “Maybe a relaxing visit to Hyla would help.”
“I hear it’s great there,” replied Starla.
BEEP. BEEP.
“What was that?” asked Robert.
Starla shrugged. “I’m not sure. I guess it was…”
The ship suddenly jerked to the left and everyone crashed around for a moment before the vessel completely twisted around. When it did, Starla immediately caught sight of a very small planet that she hadn’t seen in the same spot just moments before.
“Where did that come from?” asked Alicia.
“I don’t know,” replied Starla. “The planet… it just showed up.”
“We better buckle up,” said Robert. “Just to be safe.”
Starla looked over the ship’s controls and couldn’t see anything wrong. It must have just been some kind of strange fluke. Whatever had caused them to jolt was gone and in its wake an entire planet had appeared.
Starla finally woke to the sound of people playing just outside her window. She climbed out of bed and looked out to see several children in the open center of the village with a small ball that they were all kicking around to one another as they ran back and forth. She headed out into the center of the hut and found that Kaleb was waiting for her by the fire. He had set the Ca’oDu on a nearby table and he was holding a small necklace to his mouth as he whispered a prayer.
“Kaleb,” she said. “Good morning.”
“A good morning it is not.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m afraid it is about your friend.”
“Alicia? Is she…dead?”
Kaleb looked up at her and then motioned for her to take a seat. She came over to where he had motioned and placed herself next to him. He reached out and took her arm and then let out a deep sigh. “I’m afraid the demon came to the village last night. She took your friend Alicia into the darkness. She…is gone.”
“What?” asked Starla. “How is that possible? How could the demon take her?”
“I’m sorry Starla. It came when no one was expecting it.”“
What about the guards? Didn’t they do anything?”
“They tried to stop it. I’m going to visit their families today and explain why they were so horrifically murdered by the demon spirit and all I can lean on is the fact that they died trying to help protect a god.”
“Why would a god need protecting?”
“The same reason Zata eventually died for his people. When the gods and goddesses take on a mortal form they gain all the benefits and all the downsides. The fact that they might die from a simple wound to the leg becomes something they must consider before they descend to the surface.”
Starla quickly stood and ran out of the hut. She headed straight over to where the villagers had kept Alicia but found the hut in ruins and two men working to cover the dead guards. Suddenly overcome with grief and anger she shouted out in an angry tone and then picked up a piece of the hut’s debris and used it to smash against the still standing pieces of wood. Kaleb rushed out of his hut and wrapped her up in his arms before pulling her to the ground.She just lay there and cried out. This wasn’t right.She couldn’t remember much but she knew that demons did not come in the night and snatch people away. She knew that gods and goddesses didn’t exist. This wasn’t something that actually happened to people. She worked to regain her control so that Kaleb would release her. When he did, she quickly got back on her feet. She turned to the man that had tackled her and told him to stand up.
“Where is my equipment?” She asked. “I need my GPS device and my weapon.”
“The things we found on you are being held in the far hut.”
“Take me there.”
“Okay.”
Kaleb led the way to the hut that he had just mentioned and when he took her inside she quickly moved over to where the GPS had been set down on a wooden table along with Alicia’s bloodied uniform and lighter. At the very end of the table sat the single pistol that Alicia had given to her.
“This was everything you two had,” said Kaleb.
Starla picked up the GPS console and slid the outer cover off so that she could access the circuit board. She glanced over the board and found that a few cables had broken free. She plugged the cables back in and then reached to the back and hit the power switch with her fingers crossed. The power came on for a moment but then flickered and shut off. She reached to the back side this time and popped off another small panel so she could pull a white crystal from its own little section.
“Do you see this?” She asked.
“Yes,” said Kaleb. “What is it?”
“This is a power crystal. It emits low levels of electricity and is perfect for powering electronics or for hiding messages. It is an alien technology of some sort.”
“You remember all of this?”
“Just now as I was working,” she replied. “It clicked in my head. My memories seem to surface as I need them.”
“So, why did you remove it?” asked Kaleb.
“This crystal is shot. Can you see how it looks cracked and white throughout?”
“Yes, is that not correct?”
“Nope. A fresh crystal is clear.”
“So this one is no good?” asked Kaleb.
“We need to get back to the wreckage,” Starla said, ignoring his question. “I should be able to find one in the control panel. Do you think you could convince your guards to take me there?”
Kaleb seemed uneasy and he looked over to the GPS for a moment.“What will powering this thing do for you?” he asked.
“It’s a Galactic Positioning System. When we use it, we can lock onto people’s emergency signals and pinpoint their location. It will help me to find any other survivors of the crash.”
“Other survivors?” asked Kaleb. “How many are there?”
“There were six of us on the transport. We know that Robert didn’t make it and I’m pretty sure that William is dead too.”
“Who is William?”
Starla shrugged. “I don’t remember him. I just know that he fell out of the ship.”
“So there may be four of you…”
“Until Alicia was taken by your demon,” replied Starla with a nod.
“I want you to come with me,” Kaleb said. “I think I have something that you want to see.”
Reluctantly, Starla followed Kaleb back to his hut and when they were inside he retrieved a tattered and torn collection of papers that he had pulled off his bookshelf. He flipped through them for a minute until he found what he was looking for and extended it to Starla.“This is a section of text that was removed from the Ca’oDu after the religious group that was organizing the book decided that the prophecy had been incorrect.”
Starla took the pages and flipped through them until she saw something of extreme interest that caught her gaze. There was a drawing of a crystal, very similar to the one she had just been showing Kaleb, and it was set at the base of a stone pillar.
“What is this?” she asked.
“Before the fall of Deibra, there was a group of people who still held true to the old religious ways. They spoke of a time when the gods of Deibren would come to this world. When Zata came and Deibra was destroyed, most of the people assumed that the prophecy had come true in one form or another and so it was no longer needed in the revised version of the Ca’oDu.”
“Look Kaleb, I understand that you want to think I’m a goddess. Right now, I am on the verge of admitting that there is some greater reason about why I’m here. The only problem is that I have never been the guardian of light or a spirit worshiped by your people. Alicia and I were soldiers in an Alliance of some sort. We fought stuff and went on missions. I mean, come on, I flew a spaceship here. I didn’t just drop down from the heavens with the intention of bringing goodwill and peace to your people.”
“Fair enough,” said Kaleb with a small grin. “Let us go to the Pillar of Kazaa. We can travel there at the crack of dawn tomorrow and I will show you this sight. Once we have visited and once you have seen the things that I have seen, we will speak on the matter of your origins again.”
Starla looked at the image of the pillar and then down at the crystal in her hand. “If we go there can I break open the pillar to get to the crystal inside?”
Kaleb looked at her with a pained expression for a moment but then nodded.“If it comes to that,” he said. “I will look away while you destroy the relic.”
“Then you’ve got yourself a deal,” said Starla. “I’ll go.”
Starla had returned the book to Kaleb and then gone outside to get some fresh air. The idea that she was fulfilling some kind of ancient prophecy was a little unnerving but she couldn’t deny the mounting evidence that she was here for a reason. After her last dream she was still haunted with the surprise she had felt when this planet had shown up on the detectors. It seemed like it had simply come out of nowhere. When she turned to look for a source of water one of the nearby guards seemed to see that she had no idea what she was doing.
“Can I help you find something?” he asked.
She turned to him and smiled. “I’d be grateful of that. Oh, and hello by the way, my name is Starla. Starla… Knight.”So she did have a last name.
“Nice to meet you Starla, my name is Saiyin Vos’k.”
“Hello Saiyin.”
“Now, what is it you were looking for?”
“The water?”
He smiled and motioned for her to follow. “Just this way.”
She followed him around several huts until she found what appeared to be a stone well. He reached over for a wooden bucket and dropped it down into the depths until he heard it finally hit water.
“It keeps emptying on us. We’ve been without good rain in a while.”
“Will you try digging another?” she asked.
Saiyin shook his head. “That is forbidden.”
“It’s forbidden to find water?” asked Starla.
“No, it is forbidden to dig into the soil more than just a few feet. It was in the city of Deibren that people first started to dig into the ground. They eventually reached the underworld because of it.”
“Wait,” said Starla. “You think they dug to the underworld?”
“I don’t think it; I know it. They unleashed a terrible evil on the land when they reached the underworld. Demons, just like the one you have heard, came rushing out onto the surface where they terrorized anything and everything that moved.”
“Saiyin, let me ask you something,” Starla said as she turned to face the young man. “What will this village do if the well dries up?”
“We will have to venture to the lake in the North for our supply. We did this regularly before but it has become more dangerous since the demon showed up.”
“How many other people has the demon killed?” asked Starla.
Saiyin looked surprised by the question but held up his fingers aside from one thumb that he tucked away.
“Nine people?”
“Yes.”
“How many others has the demon taken away aside from Alicia?”
Saiyin’s answer came almost too quickly. “None.”
“None?”
“She is the first one that the demon didn’t simply tear apart.”
“I see. Well, I guess one way or another we’re going to have to start looking for answers if we really hope to find any.”
“What do you mean?”
“Saiyin, I want you to come with me to the Pillar of Kazaa tomorrow.”
The guard’s face lit up like he had just won a great deal of money and he quickly bowed before her as he thanked her for asking that he come. A few moments later he had taken off, nearly screaming to anyone he passed that he was going to escort Vorda to the Pillar of Kazaa. It was rather odd to watch him spread his joy when she was feeling more uncertain and jumpy than she had since arriving. She only wished that the poor guard she had just recruited knew the kind of danger that following her around would bring.