Quest for Freedom Read online

  The others nodded in agreement. The sky was beginning to darken, as threatening clouds had already obscured the smaller of the two suns, and Janai hadn’t seen any place to use as a hideout.

  “Fine.” Sarah followed with a sour look on her face.

  That few more yards turned out to be all they needed. But instead of turning away from them as expected, the fence made a sharp turn to the right, back in the direction they’d come. If they’d gone only a few more feet, they would have run right into the thing. They looked in horror at each other.

  “It doesn’t surround the rockdome,” Blal’k said, pointing out the obvious. “It surrounds us.”

  All this time they were looking for a way into the fence, when they really needed to find a way out. Janai and the others had just assumed that the fence was there to protect the rockdome, and she mentally kicked herself for being so closed-minded. No wonder the Morgee hadn’t caught up with them yet. They knew about this fence and that it would stop Janai’s group. The soldiers had no reason to hurry after them.

  Sarah’s eyes grew wild. “Now what do we do? We’re trapped.”

  “Why wasn’t this put on the map?” Janai pulled the crude drawing from her pocket.

  “Maybe they put the fence up after the runner delivered this map,” Blal’k said.

  “But how could they get it up that quickly?”

  “Janai, I think we should try the other end of the fence,” Ash said in a soft voice, eyes focused on the sky. “Maybe there’s a gate.”

  The storm clouds were close now and she agreed. Ash and Blal’k looped arms around Vala and the group quickly made their way back toward the first marker. Janai jumped as a loud crack of thunder clapped overhead. The storm clouds were directly above the rockdome and moving fast.

  Then the rains came. The group scattered, looking for anything to hide in or cling to, when Ash called to them. The rain matted his white hair to his head. He pointed to the fence, which glowed bright red, then faded to orange, yellow, and finally no color at all. Ash threw a rock in the direction of one of their markers. The stone went right through the area where the fence should have been. No red glow. Nothing.

  Already, the ground at their feet was beginning to flood, and before Janai could stop him, Ash ran toward the rockdome. She shielded her face against the stinging rain and yelled out to him. But she was too late and prepared herself for the worst. Ash made his way to the other side of the fenced area and beckoned the others to follow. Another crack of thunder rattled the ground.

  Janai grabbed Krav’n and Tish by the hand and ran toward the Kritine boy. “Come on!” she yelled over the noisy rain. When they were safely on the other side, she turned around. Vala hadn’t moved. “Run, Vala!” Janai cried out. But the girl just stood there. Tish started toward Vala, but Janai held her back. A chorus of voices began yelling around her, and Vala’s earflaps move. “Come on!” she screamed.

  Vala jerked her head up and bolted toward them. About halfway there, she tripped and fell on her injured arm. She cried out but Janai couldn’t hear her over the rain. She took a step forward, but the girl got to her feet and staggered, then ran the rest of the way to the group. Ash and Blal’k supported her as they all ran, stumbling through the quickly flooding area, toward an archway of the rockdome. The rumbling grew loud in Janai’s ears. Vala had completely flattened her earflaps against her head. They climbed up the two steps to the archway and huddled together for warmth under the cove.

  The floodwaters were already over the bottom step and moving past them at a faster and faster rate. A black slab of what looked and felt like solid rock blocked what they thought to be the entrance. They ran their hands over the area, searching for some way in. Ash shook his head. He tried pushing.

  Janai helped him by bracing her body against the slab and using her full weight. Her head faced the cove wall and her cheek pressed against the slab. She noticed a thin rectangular crack in the wall. Had she not been so close, she would have missed it. She motioned for Ash to stop. Then she reached out her hand and touched the inside of the cracked area. A small panel slid open, causing her to jump. It revealed a large black button with a gold symbol. The symbol looked similar to the ones on the heat distributors and she had no idea of the meaning. She looked over at the others. At first, they just stared blankly at her. Then Sarah said something, but Janai couldn’t hear her over the torrent. Ash gave an exaggerated nod.

  Janai took in a deep breath and pressed the button. It went flush with the wall and the large slab slid open. The cold, wet group tentatively stepped inside.

  10 ~ The Rockdome

  They entered a small room and there was another black button on the inside, near the opening, branding another symbol. The floodwaters were nearly up to the entrance now. Janai pressed the second button. The rumbling became a faint hum with the closing of the panel, and fear settled in her gut like a sour fruit as she wiped the wetness from her face and let her eyes focus in the dim light. The room was just large enough for her group to stand close together without touching. Straight in front of her was a lighted passageway large enough for Morgee to traverse. Had she led them straight into a trap?

  She nervously slid the pack from her shoulder and fumbled through it for the light-fire weapons. Blal’k held out a hand for one of them. She slipped a black, cylinder-shaped object to him and he wrapped webbed fingers around it. The familiar vibration rang through Janai’s fingers as she charged hers up. Her body shivered from cold and fear and she had to concentrate to keep her weapon steady. The pounding in her head kept beat with her heart, as she and Blal’k led the others through the lighted passageway.

  It was dim with rows of continuous blue lights running along the edge of the floor. Janai looked ahead and the lights seemed to stop about a hundred yards in front of them. She couldn’t see anything past that. Slowly and quietly, the group made their way down the passageway. As they approached what Janai thought was the end of the lights, she saw that they made a sharp turn to the right. The group followed the turn, and about another hundred yards, made a turn to the left.

  Janai sucked in her breath when she saw an archway and a lighted room at the other end. She looked at Vala, who had her earflaps fully extended, and gave her a questioning look. The girl shook her head to indicate she didn’t hear anything other than the familiar hum. Janai turned back to the opening and crept toward the light, the others close behind her. When they stepped through the archway, hands came up automatically to shield eyes from the room’s bright lights.

  Once Janai could see clearly, she scanned the room, which looked deserted, except for dozens of large cylindrical tubes along three of the smooth walls. The tubes were about six feet across, at least ten feet high, and made of some sort of gold metal. Her eyes followed the wall upward and she almost gasped at the height of the domed ceiling. Even though she’d seen the size of the rockdome outside, from where she stood now, the room may as well have been as tall as the intertwined trees. The sight made her dizzy. A small, webbed hand slipped into hers and she glanced down at Krav’n, who tilted his heads back, liquid eyes staring.

  Someone tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to see Blal’k pointing at something. She followed the Ronarian’s gaze and found a large panel of lights adorning the fourth wall. They made their way to the panel. Several rows of small, black buttons with different symbols ran underneath the rows of lights. Not all of the lights were illuminated, and Janai could only wonder what the panel was used for.

  She shivered. The room was extremely cold. She scanned the faces of the others and saw trembling lips and shivering bodies. They had to get out of the wet clothes and find someplace warm to hide. Suddenly, the ground shook and the low hum escalated to a rumble. Janai felt the room descend.

  “We’re moving,” Ash said.

  Before anyone could steady her, Vala stumbled and fell against the wall near the light panel. Part of the wall disappeared and Vala fell through into a darkened area. The others scramble
d after her, but stopped when the wall reappeared. There was a sharp jolt and the shaking ceased. Janai heard a faint voice. Vala.

  Ash leaned close. “I think she wants us to follow her.”

  A familiar clanking of boots came from the passageway behind them. They hesitated only a second before dashing in the direction that the Aknidean girl had disappeared. As they reached the wall, the same portion disappeared, and Vala was waiting for them on the other side. When the last of them was in the darkened area, the wall solidified again. But the wall was transparent from this side and Janai could see clearly into the lighted room.

  She watched in horror as four Morgee soldiers entered with a group of eight children. The children moved strangely, as though in a trance. Their stiff bodies walked with jerky movements, but only when one of the Morgee prompted them with a nudge or a grip on the shoulder. The eyes of each of the children drooped slightly and, from the features, Janai could tell they were from Earth. They appeared drugged.

  Her mind flashed back to when the soldiers first invaded her homeworld, two days after the celebration of her twelfth cycle of life. She was running with her parents and others of her village toward the forest, where they would hide until the alien invaders were gone. But they were too late getting to the trails. The Morgee were waiting for them. The adults tried to fight the aliens, but her village was made up of healers, messengers and artists, not fighters. And the soldiers were too strong. In a matter of minutes, most of the adults were lying unconscious on the ground. Or perhaps dead. Janai never found out which.

  Her mother pulled her and her father away from the fighting, but the Morgee surrounded them and her parents were easily separated. She remembered running toward them, but strong metallic arms captured her, hauled her in the other direction, and dropped her into a huddle with several children. They were given something to drink. The ones who refused were held down and forced to swallow the thick, sweet liquid. She remembered feeling very sleepy afterward. She awoke in a slave camp on this world, the Morgee world.

  So that’s how they did it, she thought as she watched the Earth children through the transparent wall.

  None that she’d spoken to had remembered how they came to this planet. Janai had no recollection of the journey, either, which made it all the more terrifying. Since the rumbling seemed familiar to her group, they must’ve been in this room at one time. Chills chased up her spine at the thought of herself in the same state as these Earth children.

  One of the soldiers turned in their direction and Sarah gasped. Ash quickly put a hand over the girl’s mouth. They froze. The soldier didn’t seem to notice them and went straight to the lighted panel instead. A metallic arm reached up to the panel and moved slightly across it.

  Movement along the other walls drew Janai’s attention away from the nearest soldier. The fronts of the tall, gold cylinders against the walls slid open. Each revealed a Morgee soldier with its tentacle mouth disappearing into the side of the cylinder. The soldier nearest them pressed something on the panel and the Morgee came to life and extricated themselves.

  She had thought of their tentacles as mouths but now she wasn’t sure. Come to think of it, she’d never actually seen a Morgee ingest food. They carried large tubes with them, and during the digs, they would stick the tentacle inside the tube. She thought they were eating some sort of special Morgee food, but now she had doubts. The encapsulated Morgee could’ve captured her group at any time, yet they hadn’t. They didn’t move until the others came, and the one at the panel seemed to activate them somehow. This realization rattled around in her brain.

  The eight Earth children were divided up, and four newly released Morgee soldiers assigned as escorts. There was an exchange of what looked to be gemstones. The children were then marched out another archway and disappeared down a long corridor. All but one newly fed soldier filed out behind them. The remaining soldier took a place at the panel. Each of the four that had brought the children into the room stepped into a separate cylinder, attaching the mouth-like tentacle to the side of the smooth interior wall, and waited while the cylinder fronts slid closed.

  At that moment, Sarah lost her balance and fell with a thud, taking Ash with her. The remaining soldier turned in their direction and headed straight for them. Janai held her breath as her ears roared with terror and she held tight to Krav’n. The soldier approached the wall, scanned the transparent area, and placed a hand on it. Nothing happened. He paused, as though listening for something, then left through the same archway the Earth children had been taken. The doorway closed behind him.

  Janai’s group looked at each other in relief. Sarah and Ash were helped up from the floor.

  Sarah rubbed her elbow. “You think he saw us?”

  “I don’t know.” Janai tried to slow her breathing and her heart. “He didn’t seem to.”

  Blal’k supported Vala as he studied Janai. “We can’t stay here.”

  She placed a hand on Vala’s forehead. The girl felt clammy. “Right. We have to get out of here and find someplace safe.”

  “We could go back through the storm.” Blal’k narrowed his liquid eyes to vertical slits.

  Janai thought about it. “We may not have a choice.”

  “Please,” Penny said in a weak voice. “I wanna go.”

  Blal’k shifted Vala’s weight a bit. “I’ll open the panel to the outside, then you make a run for it.”

  “What about them?” Sarah nodded her head toward the cylinders.

  “Hopefully,” Janai said, “they won’t be able to get out unless someone opens those things from that lighted panel.” She hoped that with all her being.

  Blal’k put his hand against the transparent wall, but nothing happened. He looked at Janai and she motioned for him to try again. He did. And again, nothing. Ash tried, but no response. They took turns but the wall wouldn’t let them through.

  “We’re trapped,” Sarah said in a shaky voice.

  Lance pulled out his carving knife, holding the metal tool in front of him with both hands. “Maybe we could cut through.”

  Ash placed a thin, gray hand on the boy’s wrists. “I don’t think that would work.” He forced Lance to lower his makeshift knife.

  Janai scanned the tiny room for the first time. Four walls, one transparent, a floor, and a low ceiling. The entire room couldn’t have been more than eight feet in any direction. Nothing else presented itself. She had an idea and began touching every area of the walls that she could reach.

  “What’re you doing, Janai?” Lance had put away his knife and was holding his sister close.

  “There has to be a way out of here.”

  The others followed her lead and brushed their hands around the walls of the small room.

  “Here,” Lance said a few seconds later. A door panel on the far wall had opened at his touch.

  Another corridor lined with lights, but smaller than the first, appeared on the other side. They moved ahead. The wall solidified behind them and Lance touched the wall again. No response. They crept along the lighted passageway and ended at another door panel with a button nearby.

  This one opened into a large, bright room. Several dark panels, waist-high to Janai and about two and a half feet square, adorned the gray walls. Next to each was a black button with a symbol. Several transparent tubes, much smaller than the gold cylinders from the previous room, were lined up against the left wall. They appeared to be empty. Janai led her group across the floor to the peculiar transparent cylinders.

  Suddenly, a large door panel on the far wall disappeared and they flattened themselves between the tubes. A soldier entered, carrying what looked like slave jumpsuits, or what was left of them. He walked to the wall opposite Janai and the others and up to one of the square panels then pressed the button. The panel opened and he dropped the clothing in. The soldier then turned back and the group of runaways stared at the face of the enemy. Upon spotting them, the soldier began clicking and humming in the familiar Morgee language.
Boots clanked as he made a beeline for them.

  Sarah screamed. The little ones clung to the older children in fear. The sound of clanging boots approached. They scattered in a frenzy to avoid the reaching metallic arms. Tish frantically pulled on Janai’s arm with one hand and she looked down at the silent little girl. The child’s other hand was flailing and pointing at something. The panel, the one the soldier used for the clothing.

  Janai grabbed onto Krav’n and Tish and headed that direction. “This way!” she yelled over the noise and confusion. She smacked the button and lifted Tish into the hole. Krav’n was next.

  As Lance and Penny approached her, the door opened and in marched two additional Morgee soldiers. One started after Vala as she made her way across the room. Blal’k aimed his light-fire weapon. The red beam struck the soldier in the shoulder, halting him briefly.

  Janai looked down at her hand. The light-fire weapon—she’d forgotten she was holding it. Her weapon was still charged. She aimed at the soldier making his way after Lance and fired. She struck his helmet. His head was knocked back for a second. After a brief pause, he started toward her. She fired at his head once again but missed, striking the end of his tentacle. The glowing eyes behind that gold helmet flickered. After a few seconds of an awful sizzling noise, the eyes went black and he froze in mid-stride.

  Janai grabbed at Penny and shoved her toward the clothes panel. Lance was on Penny’s heels. He lifted his sister into the hole and followed her. Suddenly Blal’k was at Janai’s side firing at the third soldier, who had cornered Sarah between two cylinders. The weapon fire seemed to bounce right off the soldier’s back.

  Ash then clapped him on the back, turning his attention away from Sarah. “Run, Sarah!” he cried, but the Earth girl didn’t move.

  Vala let out a vicious yell, and Janai turned to see her struggling with metallic arms gripping her injured one.