“You’ll get our answer soon,” Caspian says before switching off the radio. He sits back in his chair in contemplation.
“How do you think it went? The signal was spot on, so it looks like I’ve perfected the frequency cloak.” Alya asks while adjusting the comms equipment in front of her, clearly more interested in the equipment than the question she asked.
“I think there’s a reason Sarkis collects allies,” Caspian replies, “He certainly knows what he’s doing. On the other hand, he seems to lose allies as fast as he makes them.” Caspian reaches for the nearby intercom switch. “Marina, I need you in the Command Center.”
“We’re just letting any Earthborn in here now? What do you want to do?” Alya asks.
“I want to tell Sarkis to go to hell. He thinks he can manipulate us because he found us, and we’re an unknown to everyone else, which gives him an edge against the other factions. We are a chess piece to him, and nothing more.”
“So what are you going to do?” Alya asks, finally looking up from her machinery.
Caspian stares at a nearby monitor showing a world map with various areas lit up in relation to faction controlled sectors. He then turns to another monitor of various star constellations, with an arrow pointing at an empty space. “We can’t do this alone,” he says, lowering his head to the floor, “but we can’t just blindly trust an opportunist with what’s coming. Even if we won, we’d just have to deal with a different enemy afterwards.”
A knock rings from the metal of the open hatch. “You wanted to see me, sir?” Marina says while standing at attention in the doorway, her pink hair seemingly lighting up the dark portal.
“How fast is that Moonskater of yours?” Caspian asks, turning his attention to her.
“Pretty quick. It’d take a lot to slow her down. I have it set up to cruise over most obstacles, so I can cut a lot off travel time. What do you need?”
“Sarkis’ new faction, Phantom, has discovered us. I still don’t know how, but he’s trying to use it as leverage to get us to join him. This suggests to me that he still doesn’t know why we’re hiding. If he did, he’d want nothing to do with us. So if he was wanting to ally with us, it would be to use us, not help us.”
“So what happens if we tell him to suck on the hot side of a rocket?” Marina asks.
“I’m getting the impression he’ll do what he does with anyone who turns him down. Try to kill them.”
“So we kill him first?” Alya asks.
“If we risk depleting all our resources fighting one enemy then we’ll have nothing left for the one coming,” Caspian answers.
“So what’s the play, Caspian?” asks Marina.
“We need to see if we have any friends out there. Sarkis has enemies. We need allies. Marina, you’ve just been promoted to Emissary.”
“The council isn’t going to like that,’ Arya says as a warning.
“The council will like it even less if they’re buried forever under this desert,” Caspian replies. “You leave first thing in the morning, Marina. May the stars guide you.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.” she says at attention before leaving the room.
“You sure about this?” Alya asks.
“We’re in a corner, Alya. We stand our ground, we die. We join Sarkis, we’re tools. Our only hope is to find some allies, or everyone on Earth will lose.”
“I was just starting to like you, Cas,” she says with a laugh. “I’ll miss working with you.”
“I think the excitement is just getting started.”
Marina
Caspian
Alya
