Chapter 18

We barely made it out of the valley before the sun poked its head over the horizon. A small culvert provided a degree of cover, until night fell once more and we were able to travel freely. We dozed throughout the day, reserving our energies for later.

Around late afternoon, there was a surge in flyer activity and we understood immediately that our activities had been uncovered. I'd hoped that it would have taken them longer, but knew we had to make the best of what opportunities we had. We edged deeper into cover when a craft hovered by the entrance, probing the darkness with a powerful searchlight.

Detecting nothing, it disappeared, but on two more occasions, flyers probed our hiding place. The last visitor followed up the searchlight with its heat weapon. The water bubbled and frothed where the beam intersected it. Steam washed over us but we held our breath, relieved when the craft eventually flew away.

Teel held onto me for dear life, her fear palpable. "I'm sorry I deceived you," she admitted, at the moment when she thought she was about to be fried alive.

"Don't worry. You did what you thought was right."

"Sarek didn't want to involve you in the conflict. He didn't think it was fair."

"You'd make a great spy," I told her. "I never suspected you for an instant."

"It was terrible living a lie, not being able to tell even those closest to you what was going on."

"Nella?"

"I used her to gather information. She was my best friend and I feel ashamed of what I did."

"People do the craziest things in times of conflict. You did what you could to protect her. In the end, it was my misdeeds that landed her in trouble."

"I was so surprised when I found out I was having your baby. When I learned that Nella was pregnant too, I was even more amazed. I thought it was a miracle."

"What happened to your baby?"

"It was transferred to the nursery."

"Boy or girl?"

"Girl."

"I like girls."

"I called her Angela, at least for the few weeks that I had her."

"That was sweet."

"If only Nella could have had hers."

"I know."

"I had to walk past her every day," Teel sobbed. "I had to stare into her lifeless face."

"Troyal told me."

"You saw him?"

"A few months ago, in one of the villages. He told me what they'd done to her."

"Tamar told me that he'd killed you when you tried to escape. He actually gloated about it."

"It's true that he did try to murder me."

"I hate that man."

"You won't have to see him again. The city folk are good, honest people. With these seeds, we'll be able to build a real community, and maybe even help groups in other cities to establish themselves. In time, perhaps we'll even come to compete in numbers with those of the citadel."

"You're really making all these things happen, Mark."

"Not just me. It's everybody else too. Things are going to change."

"You're the catalyst. That's what Sarek told me. When the excavation team studied the site where they found you, he knew exactly what they'd find."

The news stunned me.

"It wasn't an accident?"

"He sent them there," she informed me.

"How on earth did he know?"

"He never told me. Honestly, he didn't."

It was clear that I'd grossly underestimated Sarek. He was moving us around like pieces on a chessboard to achieve his greater goals. I'd never considered the circumstances of my discovery, but thinking about it, it did seem slightly too convenient that he was there to awaken me, and knew exactly what to do.

I began to wonder how many of the subsequent events were prearranged, or perhaps inevitable in the light of what he knew about the Ancients. My head hurt as I tried to figure the man's machinations. I decided there was little I could do, other than to proceed as normal, and play my part in whatever events were unfolding.

"It's dark enough now," Vanessa announced. "We should go before it's too late."

We emerged from our gloomy lair to take our bearings, and then head speedily off in the vague direction of the city. With two days walk to the river, then another two days beyond that to reach the outskirts of our base, the opportunities for the Guardians to detect us were not insignificant. We marched throughout the night, holding tightly to our precious cargo.

On several occasions, the whine of flyer engines were heard overhead, and we were forced to race for cover to avoid the penetrating beams of searchlights. On one occasion, Vanessa was caught in the edge of the beam, and we thought that we'd been discovered but fortunately, we managed to escape undetected.

It was Peter's complacency that finally led to our undoing. Protesting about the cold, he lit a small fire and it blossomed up out of all control before we could stop it. A passing flyer spotted it and within minutes, two more craft had joined in the hunt, scouring every inch of ground with meticulous precision.

"Go," Vanessa urged. "I'll draw them away. They can't hurt me in this suit."

I was unsure, but didn't stop to question her logic. We dashed off in one direction whilst Vanessa disappeared in the other. I waited until Teel and the others were safely ensconced in a dense thicket, before doubling back to check on Vanessa. Teel called out my name but I waved reassuringly, and rushed off in the direction I saw Vanessa depart.

Flyers buzzed around the sky, occasionally firing heat beams toward the ground. I crested a slight rise and my heart leaped as I saw the Silver Demon standing in a small hollow. Three flyers circled overhead, firing indiscriminately at her. The night was alive and I nearly suffered an untimely demise when a stray reflection set the grass on fire yards from where I stood.

From their manoeuvres, it was clear that they had some preordained plan of campaign in mind. They never stayed in place for too long, and their beams continued to fall on Vanessa with alarming regularity. The suit began to glow and I feared the combined energy from three flyers was ultimately too much for it to cope with.

As if to confirm my suspicions, Vanessa's leg gave way and she dropped to her knees. Sensing victory, the flyers stopped circulating and fired continuously at the fallen figure. The nose of each flyer glowed as the intense energies searched for a weakness to exploit.

I knew that once the suit's stasis field collapsed, Vanessa would be incinerated in an instant. That moment was imminent, and I thought desperately about what to do to prevent it.

Throwing caution to the wind, I reached into my pocket for the portable heat weapon and wound the power up to full. I aimed at the nearest flyer, at the point where the reflected beams were bouncing back and forth. I pressed the firing stud, adding my own firepower and hoping that the energy would not reflect back towards me.

After just a few seconds, the whole craft began to falter. I ceased fire and jumped for cover just as it exploded in a shower of sparks. The blast blew the adjacent flyer into a spin. I watched as it struggled to correct its course before it ploughed into the ground. The final flyer now took the full brunt of all the dissipating energies. It overloaded and tumbled out of the sky in a ball of flame.

I raced over to Vanessa who was clearly struggling to remain upright. The suit was flickering in a way that I'd never seen before. I circled around until I located one of the release catches of her faceplate.

"I told you to go," Vanessa gasped, grimacing in agony and then passing out. The Silver Demon tumbled over and began to lose some of its lustre. It was clearly failing.

It took ten minutes to extricate Vanessa from the suit. Her pulse was weak, but she was thankfully still alive. I dragged her clear then fired a burst of energy into the machine's innards. It burst into flame, sparks flying in all directions. I threw all the access panels into the inferno and they too were engulfed. With luck, the Guardians would conclude that whatever the Silver Demon was, it was destroyed in the conflict. Picking Vanessa up, I draped her over my shoulder and made my way back to join the others.

"What happened?" Peter exclaimed when he saw me approach with the unconscious woman. "Is she dead?"

"No, but she's had a severe shock. The suit shorted out with her inside. I'm going to have to carry her for a while, and hope that she eventually recovers."

The others stood around indecisively. "We've got another couple of hours before daybreak," I informed them. "Let's get going."

I was heartily glad for the arrival of dawn and being forced to seek shelter. I stretched Vanessa out on the ground, my body aching from bearing her weight for so long. Teel knelt by her side, examining the woman carefully, and then glancing up at me, full of worry.

"Will she be okay?"

"It's hard to say," I replied.

"Could it have damaged her permanently?"

"Her father implied that wearing the suit took a lot out of her, but I've no idea what the effects of a severe system overload could be."

"This is my fault," Peter admitted sorrowfully. "If I hadn't lit that fire..."

"Forget it," I told him, "what's done is done. You weren't to know."

He sat down on the ground, deep in despair. Jeremy tried to comfort him, but his friend was too deeply disturbed by the result of his actions.

We slept throughout the morning, becoming soaked to the skin when the heavens opened, adding further to our misery. Vanessa remained unresponsive, despite our best effort to revive her. There was no physical injury that we could discern, but some internal trauma obviously afflicted her. We ate half the remaining rations, and when daylight finally faded, prepared to get underway.

Throughout the day, there had been no flyer activity at all. I was unsure whether they were licking their wounds from the losses of the previous night, or had assumed they'd destroyed their adversary. Whichever way, we were all glad of the respite; the impending threat of aerial attack compounded with all our other burdens would have been almost too much to bear.

Wracked with guilt, Peter carried my share of the seeds in addition to his own, leaving me free to manhandle Vanessa's dead weight. We had just crossed over the river at the halfway point on our journey when Vanessa finally stirred. Calling for a short rest, I laid her down and helped her to drink a few mouthfuls of water.

"I hurt all over," she groaned.

"We're just glad you're alive," I replied

"What were you thinking, coming back for me?" Vanessa agonised. "We had what we came for."

"If I hadn't come back, you'd be dead now."

"Where's the suit?" she asked, looking around.

I shook my head. "It was probably damaged beyond repair."

Expecting her to rant and rave, I was surprised at her reply. "I'm glad in a way. I hated it."

"Now that we have the seed, we shouldn't need it anyway. Hopefully, the Guardians will find its charred remains and conclude that they managed to destroy it. I'll let you rest for a few minutes, before we get back underway."