Chapter 12

“Just what kind of friend, Dad?” I asked out of curiosity, knowing Dad had all sorts of interesting ‘friends’ from his work.

“From work. She retired, married and had three kids; your Mum knew her and liked her too,” he explained, looking a little embarrassed.

“Would it surprise you to know that I know what it is a Cure has to do and I’ve known for years?” I asked with a grin, as I rarely saw my Dad flustered.

“You do?”

“Yes. You aren’t that good at hiding secrets.”

“Who told you?”

“Greea, when I asked about how an upper level girl ended up in the Guardians.”

“Oh, that’s OK then. Does Dayyev know?”

“Not as far as I’m aware, but he might.”

“Well, as a Healer you may have found out anyway. But the important thing is, you don’t tell anyone who doesn’t need to know.”

“I know that, Dad.”

“Right, the lady you’re looking for is called Mikalie. Her husband is Trenn and the kids are Hilli, Truna and Galh. A boy and two girls, respectively.”

“I’ll do my best, Dad.”

“Thanks,” he nodded before we went over some family stuff.

Once the call was over, I questioned the AI as to how to go about finding someone on Trenta. Before the invasion, it would have been easy, but the planetary AIs had gone into a high security lockdown mode and weren’t giving details on anyone, just in case they were deceased and families hadn’t yet been told.

Still, my Dad had supplied, via the Perfumed Garden Guild on Vreekoos, a forwarding address and, taking advantage of a couple of days off, I went on the hunt, along with Torun who was bored.

The township of Carross was no more. The aliens had done their work all too well en-route to the nearest large city of Navvo. There were several bodies still dotted about as the clean-up teams hadn’t made it here yet.

“There’s always the chance they made it to a shelter,” a white-faced Torun spoke up.

“That’s what I’m hoping,” I replied as we finally identified the house where Mikalie and her family lived.

The house had a beautiful and well-loved feel to it, though had obvious signs that an alien had at least checked it out. The good thing though was that there were no bodies ... at least in the house anyway, though there was a trail of some kind leading through the back and out into a garden then rough scrubland.

“Over here!” Torun called out in a strained voice.

There were two bodies, both adults, and both fed upon, though judging by the knives and signs of a struggle, they hadn’t gone down easily.

“Wristbands identify them as Mikalie and Trenn,” Torun informed me as I came up.

“Damn!”

“I’m so sorry, Kiria,” she added.

“My Dad will be gutted,” I nodded. “Any sign of the kids?”

“No, not here. Though there’s a trail leading off into the scrub.”

We used our armour’s power to swiftly dig out a grave for the couple and laid them to rest in it. It seemed the least we could do, leaving their wristbands as a marker for the authorities to register later.

“Let’s go,” I replied with a heavy heart and a few tears trickling down my face.

We soon however came across a surprise in the form of a dead alien that had clearly died from the embedding of a knife blade in its thorax and had caused it to slowly bleed out.

“You don’t suppose... ?” I asked in growing hope.

“It’s something,” Torun nodded.

“Hilli, Truna, Galh!” I called out loudly using the speakers in my armour to amplify my voice.

“Nothing,” Torun sighed after a rotation.

“Going to use my wand to track any life signs,” I replied.

“Go for it. I’ll do the same.”

Our wands picked up no humans; though the trail led us on some distance until we reached the bank of a stream.

“There,” I pointed.

“Where,” Torun looked around and then grinned at what had to be the inspection hatch of an AI cabling run.

“Trenn was some sort of AI analyst; he would have access to this,” I explained further.

“Let’s give it a go,” Torun nodded.

It wasn’t straight forward; the AI linkage was security protected and for good reason. The superconducting cables ran through a cryogenic liquid keeping it at ultra-low temperatures and tampering with it would kill you if you didn’t know what you were doing. Also, the Empire did not want people tapping illegally into the network. Still, eventually we got permission to open the hatch, though I had to pull rank via my Dad to Uncle Herrick and a personal call to the planetary AI network for the hatch to open to us. I also told Dad about Mikalie and Trenn, watching him shed a silent tear in the process.

“One of these days you’re going to have to tell me just exactly who you are,” Torun stated as she’d listened in to the conversation.

“Healer Kiria,” I chuckled. “It’s all I want to be known as.”

“You called up Vreekoos somehow and spoke almost directly to an Imperial Troubleshooter via your Dad! You aren’t ‘just’ a Healer.”

“My family has connections, but, I don’t want them known, unless it’s a situation like this, a necessary evil,” I explained.

“Yeah, OK, I kind of get it.”

“I will tell you some of it if we find these kids.”

“Fair enough. Let’s go exploring.”

The good news was that there were sets of footprints leading away from the hatch, though no response to our calls. Hence, we ended up following the route in the direction of what our built-in nav system told us was Navvo.

“I hope they didn’t come out in Navvo,” I commented to Torun.

“Yeah. The aliens wiped the place out totally. The kids wouldn’t have survived there.”

“I know. But hopefully...”

“At least they made it down here and it’s a long walk to Navvo so they’ll likely have arrived after it was over,” Torun added.

“Yep.”

As it was, we didn’t have to go that much further before we found an access door, which was locked, but opened to the command protocols I had now got via Uncle Herrick. Inside we found Hilli, Truna and Galh huddled together, the two younger ones asleep whilst Hilli held a knife, eying us suspiciously.

“You must be Hilli, Truna, Galh,” I began. “I’m Kiria. My Dad is a friend of your Mum. This is Torun,” I added, pointing at her.

“Hi,” Torun said brightly, each of us being careful as we didn’t know if the kids knew yet of the fate of their parents.

“Are you Ground Force?” Hilli asked.

“Yes. The aliens are gone and we’re sorting out the mess they left.”

“Mum, Dad?” he asked, tears falling as I realised, he knew.

“I’m afraid they fell, but took out the alien pursuing you,” I explained as the two girls began to wake. “We buried them where they fell.”

“They ... they told us to run. My Dad getting us here and sealing the hatch behind us before he went back to help Mum. I wanted to stay and help, but he said to look after the girls,” he began to cry as I moved in to hug him.

“They saved your lives,” Torun added as she also approached.

“Mummy and Daddy are gone?” the young girl I knew had to be Truna asked.

“I’m afraid so. They died bravely and well, saving you and your brother and sister,” I replied softly as she began to sob.

“Can we see?” Hilli asked.

“OK,” I replied after a quick glance at Torun to see a slow nod.

We led the kids out of the maintenance tunnel, closing it behind us. Then took them to where we’d buried the bodies of their Mum and Dad. Torun provided them all with some wild flowers she’d picked for them to place on the grave whilst I called up base and arranged a flyer for us.

“Have you anywhere to go, or relatives?” I asked after we finally boarded the flyer.

“No ... at least Mum and Dad never mentioned anyone,” Hilli replied. “Both came here from other planets.”

“AI?” I asked, now we were linked back to the base one via the flyer’s internal systems.

“There are no records of relatives either on or off planet,” the harsh-toned voice replied.

“What will happen to us?” Truna asked.

“I don’t know, but we’ll make some enquiries,” Torun replied as all three of the kids just looked miserable and lost.

Whilst Torun took the kids to the base canteen to get them fed, I reported in to Senior Healer Flinn and gave her the various details of what we’d done and found.

“Orphans?” she sighed. “We’ve had reports of a good few. Trenta was one of those worlds where people came to forget their past and start anew.”

“Torun is getting them fed, but apart from that I don’t know the process,” I replied.

“Neither do I, but I’ll find out,” she nodded. “Just make sure they are comfy and have somewhere to sleep. You and Torun can look after them until it’s decided what we’ll do.”

My next port of call was the base communication centre where I used a specific very private code to permit me to access interstellar communications and get around the current censoring regime over the planet, maintained to stop ghoulish newsie speculation.

“Hi, Dad,” I greeted my father, having clearly woken him up.

“Kiria, good to see you. Any news?” he replied, stifling a yawn.

“We found the kids. I’m afraid Mikalie and Trenn died protecting them as I said earlier, but got them underground before killing the alien.”

“I’m glad your request for a code to open the AI cabling hatch helped,” he sighed. “How are the kids?”

“Numb inside. They haven’t started grieving yet. Galh hasn’t even said a word.”

“No one on planet to look after them?”

“No, they appear to be total orphans.”

“Hmm ... AI?”

“Yes, David?” I heard a background voice as well as seeing my mother come into view.

“Consort Mikalie, known relatives?”

“None.” the AI replied. “Her brother died at Kansdoorf when 3^rd Fleet was attacked. Her parents were lost in the explosions set off by Cillort on Vreekoos.”

“Anything on Trenn?”

“Nothing. We don’t even know if that is his actual name. Trenta’s authorities were permitted to do that via an Imperial mandate.”

“Oh, those poor kids,” I heard my Mum say softly.

“We were planning on adding to the family,” my Dad said to her with a slight smile. “We have all the time in the world for others of our own.”

“Oh Dave? Could we?”

“Yes,” he nodded. “We just need to start the ball rolling.”

“You’re a good man,” my Mum told him with a beautiful smile.

“Mikalie was a good friend, I owe her kids a good life. It’s the least I could do,” he replied. “Kiria, let the kids know they’ll be looked after by friends of their Mum.”

“I will, Dad,” I nodded.

“We’ll start the ball rolling, probably via Manny,” he added. “We’ll both be coming in on the first evac liner to bring them to our home.”