Emancipation

Chapter 6 : Exceptional

Chapter 6

Mae sat at the head of the conference table as members of her staff bickered back and forth. The inane and mostly pointless griping was grinding on Mae’s nerves. If this weren’t an important staff meeting, she would disappear off down the corridors into the bowels of Sanctuary where she had a small hideaway in what had once been a broom closet. She was in charge of this madhouse. Half of her staff was arguing for the continuation of old policies and procedures. The other half was arguing that the old policies and procedures were something foolish to cling to when their biggest enemy knew all of them from the inside out.

It seemed that Mae could just end the argument; she was the chief of domestic operations for the pan-omniversal group known as the factors. Being in charge didn’t necessarily mean she could end the squabbling. Even a display of her shrewish temper wouldn’t end the argument. It had been simmering since Miranda Harvey, an elite factor defected and became Mira Black, queen of darkness. Mae had tried and tried and tried to end the argument. She had even appointed Brenda Bench as chief of field operations to place the argument in her court. Somehow it had bounced back into Mae’s field of responsibilities.

The factors in the field depended on the resources produced, gathered, or managed by the people of the Preserve. Mae was ultimately responsible for those resources. Resource allocation was the crux of the problem. Research and development needed a certain level of resource allocation to continue improving and creating new technologies. The technology supply department needed resources for large-scale production of R&D’s tech. Niri Everett, the head of education for the Preserve was having trouble getting the departments under her to roll out the new curriculum based on new field procedures.

Mae inhaled deeply, “Everyone! Shut UP!”

The several groups at the table fell silent. She knew they waited for her to present a Solomon-like solution to all of their problems. It was a solution she had yet to see. Still, she made an attempt. R&D, technical supply, divide up the resource harvesters between you, evenly, NFL draft style. Then be happy with what they bring you or negotiate personnel trades.”

Those two groups grumbled softly and returned to their seats at the conference table or other workstations. The members of the educational department still stood just one or two more insults shy of coming to blows.

“I as chief have decided all of you will follow the new curriculum starting at the beginning of the next grading term,” Mae stated flatly, “Niri, I want to know if any of them aren’t up to speed.”

Niri smiled broadly looking every bit like a mischievous pixie. One of her opponents crossed his arms, “There is no way we can do that! The next term begins next week!”

Mae smiled and crossed her arms, “It sounds like you have a lot to get done and very little time to do it. Why are you still here?”

The man and the rest of the educators gasped and teleported away in a hurry with the light popping sounds of air rushing to fill the places where they had stood. Niri saluted Mae and walked out using the door. There people still stood with their concerns unaddressed. Mae was tired. She just wanted to retreat into her closet. She pushed her chair back from the table and headed to the kitchen to gather snacks to sustain her as she hid from the worlds she was responsible for. Her staff recognized the behavior, and the bickering started up again.

That was fine. Let them argue, Mae was going to her retreat from responsibility. She packed her non-perishable snacks in a mesh sack and grabbed a water bottle which provided an endless supply of ice-cold water. Then Mae teleported to her closet. She threw her sack into the recliner she had moved in there for her visitors’ comfort. Mae threw herself into the hammock she had installed back when this little closet was her home. That had been back during the housing shortage that had occurred when the factors had reclaimed Sanctuary as their main base.

Mae just lay back in her hammock and let it swing for a short while. After a few minutes of doing nothing, Mae teleported a pile of balled socks into her lap from their resting place in a trash can sitting below a toy basketball hoop. She spent the next fifteen minutes sinking basket after basket of socks. She would have kept going, but a knock sounded on the closet door.

Relatively few people actually knew about her secret refuge. Most of them would only bring dire news to her there. She stiffened and tossed a balled sock at the door panel and waited for the bad news. To her surprise Imhay, the father of her daughter and common-law husband stood on the other side. Was the news so bad they felt the need to have him break it to her? She had already seen the death of one omniverse so in her mind things could get really bad at random intervals. “Hi, honey, what’s up?”

“Mae, it is about damn time you come out of this closet. If you need a break, why not take one and spend it with me? We could go to our farm, do a little natural stuff. Maybe have some fun? No pressure though…” Imhay stated.

That was when the pin on her collar released a slight squeak. “Okay? What’s the news?” Mae asked the air.

“Illoa has made her report on Laura Minor,” Mona, her personal data organization program stated. Mona was a recent replacement and had yet to get a feel for the news Mae accepted when she was in her closet.

Mae sighed, in this case, Mona had made a proper judgment, “Summarize the report please.”

"Laura Minor might be months in the infirmary just to stabilize her abilities before they can even begin training her,” Mona stated through the pin.

Mae groaned, “Thank Illoa for the report and let her know I’m cool with the timeframe.” Mae was far from cool with the timeframe. Mae had hoped Laura could help them find the other two Martin sisters more quickly. Months within the Preserve could be millennia for the sisters out in the omniverse.

Imhay spoke, “Mona, tell Illoa to put Mae on medical leave. She is not to be interrupted except for omega level situations for at least a week.”

“Ma’am, is that alright?” Mona asked tentatively.

Mae looked Imhay in the eyes. He was firm on her taking time off. This closet was a closely guarded secret, but only five people knew about the farm outside of the immediate family. Those five would try every other possible location before troubling them at the farm. “Fine, Imhay. We’ll do some ‘natural’ stuff.”

Within two hours Imhay was driving them the last half hour down a dirt road to their farm. With the exception of the fourteen years that Imhay had spent here raising Lyla, the farm ran itself under the control of AIs. Imhay pulled into the parking spot next to the front door. He got out and walked around to open her door. She got out. He surprised her by scooping her into his strong arms and carrying her up the stairs to the porch.

Mae smacked him on the arm, “Carry the bags, not me!”

“The bags are already in the bedroom! I know I can’t guarantee to get you there unless I carry you!” Imhay laughed.

Mae blinked. She had figured that Imhay meant gardening when he said, “do a little natural stuff.” Apparently, he had other things in mind. From the haste with which he made his way to the bedroom, he wasn’t going to want to leave the bedroom their entire stay. Mae chuckled as he dropped her on her side of the bed. Maybe a vacation was exactly what she needed.


* * *

Adja edged around the corner of the compound. She had gotten used to the look of the young Sanruphrup. After being raised by human and post-human species the animal-like faces of the Sanruphrup were unusual to her canine eyes. Really she should feel just as comfortable with their faces as her own. What did make her uncomfortable was the way the young Sanruphrup pups were shaved from head to toe and dressed in identical light gray uniforms. In the uniforms, Adja couldn't tell the males from the females. There was no difference in how they were treated either.

Humiliation seemed the keyword in Mira's rearing of the pups. The obviously human keepers set the pups against each other fostering mistrust between the pups. It disgusted Adja how the pups would leap on each other's weaknesses. She didn't understand how this early treatment could possibly foster the kind of adult obedience that she had seen in some of the other bases. The strategy of the creche was obviously to do severe mental and emotional damage to the pups, warping any sense of good or evil the pups might or might not have been born with.

"Tegunte, drop!" One of the creche proctors yelled at one of the pups Adja really liked. The pup hesitated and received a heavy blow to the back of the head for it. "When you are given a command you comply!"

"Why?" The other young pups in the room fell silent and froze.

The creche proctor lifted a hand to smack Tegunte again then he lowered it slowly. "Rugart! Come!" A large pup with close-cropped reddish fur Ran to the proctor's side. The proctor handed Rugart a laser pistol, "Apply correction Rugart!"

Adja had seen correction before, this time she ran to grab Tegunte by the coverall. She teleported both of them to her camp outside of the creche compound. Tegunte was clearly confused and terrified by the fact of its thwarted execution. Adja lowered her veil of invisibility, revealing herself to the pup. Calm down, no one is going to kill you! You are in my protection now! She thought directly to the pup.

"What are you?"

Adja smiled with just her lips, a smile showing her fangs might scare the pup. I'm a healinghound and a factor. I am here to help you.

The pup cowered, "A factor? You're going to hurt me. The factors are our enemies!"

Adja shook her head no. I saved your life remember. I help people. Your old masters were the ones that enjoy hurting people.

Tegunte was clearly conflicted.

Do you want me to take you back to where I took you from?

"No!"

Do you want to come with me to The Preserve?

The pup nodded.

Adja laid a paw on the pup and teleported them back to The Preserve. They arrived in Room 52, the Middle of Everywhen that served as the front entrance to the entire Preserve. They were at the back of the line for medical check-in. Everything went fine for several minutes until security noticed Tegunte's obvious dark uniform. Three watchers stepped up to them. "Ma'am, is this dark agent authorized to be here?"

Adja sighed. Really, it's just a Sanruphrup pup, it was about to be executed for defying orders. I couldn't just leave it there.

"Ma'am, we will have to speak with the chief about this!"

Adja sighed again. She waited for them to summon Brenda. Of course, Brenda would just okay the child's application for refuge. Minutes later Mae Amante arrived. She had a scowl on her face. This might not be as easy as Adja had thought. Mae was chief of domestic operations, perhaps she had to okay immigrants?

"What do we have?"

"Chief, this healing hound is attempting to bring a dark operative into The Preserve."

Mae looked over the pup. Surely she would see that it wasn't much more mature than a human child in preschool. Mae knelt next to the pup. "What is your name?"

"Tegunte."

"Are you male or female?"

"Female, mistress."

"I'm not your mistress. We don't have masters and servants here. Everybody is free to do as they choose as long as they don't harm anyone else. Do you understand?" Mae stated.

Tegunte shook her head no.

Mae sighed and stood up. "Gentlemen, please walk these Tegunte through medical check-in then escort her to our refugee children's services. We'll need to arrange for a qualified foster family for her."

Adja sensed a touch of anger from Mae as the guards led Tegunte to the nearest medical check-in. "Adja, isn't it?"

Yes, Brenda assigned me to investigate the treatment of Sanruphrup operatives, and to assess their abilities. I found a creche where juvenile Sanruphrup were being trained. I observed several pups' executions for defiant or merciful behavior. I couldn't bring myself to watch Tegunte's execution too.

"Did Brenda tell you to bring back a souvenir?"

Chief, once I rescued Tegunte from her execution, I couldn't just leave her out there.

Mae sighed. "Get through medical check-in and go give Brenda a full report."

Yes, Chief.


* * *

Raen Davis hid behind the fencing, like a silly schoolgirl. At thirteen, anywhere else in the colonies she would have been a schoolgirl. She licked her lips and waited, her purpose was much more serious. He would be coming by any minute. She brushed her bronze hair from in front of her eyes and stuck her eye to the tiny hole in the nearly complete wall. Her breath quickened. Was that one of his entourage? It seemed likely since patrons and proprietors of the various market stalls streamed out to watch him as he passed. A man stood directly in front of Raen’s peephole blocking her view. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.

She was here, legitimately. She had to see him! Raen threw herself up the wall and caught her arms at the top. Using her elbows she hooked her arms over the wall and hung dangling. Her view was perfect. Jayden Baerd, heir to the Baerd Guild leadership was an imposing youth. He had an athletic build and managed to walk with an assured grace that not even members of his entourage could match. Raen sighed and rubbed her cheeks. Jayden approached Raen’s position and very little had a chance of upstaging him in her awareness, but the shimmer of silver down a drain-spout across the street drew a glance. She almost waved it off as nothing, only belatedly remembering her legitimate business in Baerd Guild territory.

Raen’s gaze reluctantly shifted from Jayden to searching out the telltale flash of silver again. The silver striped viper was rearing back to strike a woman intent on a table of perfumes. A glance back toward Jayden meant that Raen missed the actual strike. When she returned her attention to where it should be the snake had its deadly fangs sunk deep into the woman’s shoulder and the woman was in the process of swooning.

Hoisting herself the rest of the way up the wall, Raen leaped over the spectators to the woman’s side. The startled snake hissed and began slithering off. Raen pulled the syringe full of antivenom from her satchel and stabbed the twin needles into the fang marks. The plunger went down and Raen withdrew the device. She caught the eyes of the woman's concerned companion, "She needs to be seen by a medic immediately!" Then she turned her attention back to the snake. The silver striped vipers’ chosen prey in the wild was wild teegs. For some reason the wealthy fancied the sour sweet musk of rutting teegs as a base note in many perfumes.

Raen heard a mass gasp from the crowd and turned to see the viper rising in pre-strike position. Its chosen target, Jayden. There was no way she could cross the distance and capture the viper before it struck, but her nose told her she could present it a better target. She snatched up a bottle of perfume and poured it all over herself as she sprinted towards the snake. She didn’t hear the keeper of the stall’s protests over the thought of the danger to Jayden.

The viper pulled back to strike at Jayden with its tongue flicking out. It didn’t strike. It turned towards Raen. Before she was ready, the snake was in position to strike out at her. She pulled her self to a complete stop as the world around her seemed to slow. The snake released itself in a clear attack, but only seemed to come at her at the speed of a garden slug. She easily whipped out her hand and had the snake’s jaws securely immobilized before she finished a sharply inhaled breath. Her other hand fished the milking hood from her satchel. Raen applied the milking hood which would strip every ounce of venom from the snake before humanely dispatching the threat. The situation diffused, Raen felt time snap back into normal motion.

Jayden was still pulling away from a strike that would never come. Raen stared at him openly for the first time. His coppery curls fell perfected to his shoulders. His eyes were the green of a weathered copper coin. Every inch of his wardrobe screamed wealth and power. Raen smoothed her tattered tunic and began tucking the viper in her satchel.

“I assume you have business here!” A tall gorilla of a man snarled at her from her left. Raen couldn’t bring herself to look away from Jayden’s perfectly chiseled masculine features to pay the simian man any mind.

“She stole a whole bottle of my best perfume! I want payment!” Another man whined from behind. To Raen, he was little more than a mosquito to be waved away.

Jayden’s lips parted and his voice was as musical as she had always imagined it would be, “Uh, Miss?”

She had trouble swallowing, “Raen, Raen Davis.”

“Well Miss Davis, I believe you owe this shopkeeper for his perfume. From the look of things you don’t appear to have the funds,” Jayden stated.

Raen suddenly realized she reeked of perfume redolent in teeg musk. “I am so, sorry. I had to get the viper’s attention! It was about to strike you!”

“So you pour a bottle of my most expensive perfume over yourself!” The irate shopkeeper howled.

Of course it was the most expensive. “I needed to smell more like a teeg than anyone else in the crowd. The silver striped vipers preferentially hunt them in the wild.”

“So the perfume bath was to attract the snake.” Jayden chuckled, “Corey compensate the vendor. Miss Davis, it appears that I was lucky you were here.”

“It wasn’t luck, I have been staking out this street for three days, ever since the apothecary guild put a bounty out on an escaped viper. The snake was hungry and it was trying to find a herd of teegs. The perfume market was a logical endpoint for its search.” Raen confessed.

“Three days? I haven’t seen you.”

Raen felt blood rush to her cheeks. “I am not affiliated with a trade guild, and don’t have the money to shop here so…”

“You have an apothecary guild badge,” Jayden pointed to the small symbol stitched to the strap of her satchel.

“Yeah, but trying to explain that I have business here to security is more than a little difficult. They’re more likely to think me a thief or panhandler making excuses.”

“Given, how about I make your life a little easier?” Jayden snapped his fingers and held his hand out over his shoulder. A member of his entourage thumbed through a bag and pulled a small box out. He placed the box on Jayden’s outstretched hand. Jayden then presented the box to her.

Raen couldn’t get her arms to move to take the box.

“I owe you for saving my life.” Jayden opened the hinged box and pulled a bronze pin from it.

“That’s a courier badge for your guild!”

“Why, yes, it is. My father has been on me to find us a reliable new apprentice courier. Something about taking on the duties of my station…”

“You want me?” Raen squeaked through suddenly dry lips.

“You obviously have a cool head in serious situations. I couldn’t even follow you snatching up that snake. My gut tells me you are good people Raen Davis. So, do you accept?”

All Raen could manage was a wide-eyed nod.


* * *

Beaoul stood half a step behind and one foot to the left of Mira as she stood examining the newest generation of hellhound puppies. Beaoul had blue eyes as opposed to the the gold to red tones the rest of the hellhounds had. Very different, but Beaoul could still see the essential hellhound in her form. If someone had never seen the usual hellhound, but had heard of them, they would definitely apply the label to her.

"Very nice," Mira mumbled. She turned to her puppy master, "Klugg, have there been any other unusual puppies born?"

"No, Mistress, and I have assigned a constant watch on the whelping kennels. All puppies are checked."

"How likely is it that we missed a prior example of this unusual hound?"

"Not likely at all, except, unless, perhaps some of the puppies that we know have been stolen by the factors were…"

Beaoul felt a dangerous shift in Mira's mood, and the hellhounds stirred against their tethers. "What?"

"Perhaps they ended up with the Factors?" Klugg had no idea the danger he was in.

Beaoul felt a silent impulse to attack him projected from Mira. The hellhounds pulled against the light tethers that held them in check. One by one the tethers snapped and the hellhounds closed on Klugg. For however stupid the man was, Beaoul still felt the affection a child would for a dysfunctional parent. They were steps away from launching at him in earnest. Beaoul silently pressed her will out upon the other hellhounds, Get back in line! The hellhounds stopped abruptly and began backing away from Klugg.

Mira's eyes opened and she glared around the parade grounds, "Who did that!" She pressed more definitely on the hellhounds to go after Klugg. They flinched toward action.

Beaoul tested her will against Mira's and pressed the hellhounds to return to their handlers and sit at alert. The psychic pressure on the parade ground increased with Mira's rage. Klugg threw himself on the ground at Mira's feet. He finally grasped the danger he was in. "Please, Mistress, I wasn't in charge of the whelping kennel when the disappearances occured. I beg of you, mercy!!!"

His groveling appealed to Mira's sadistic side, "What you are saying is don't kill the messenger. Okay, who was in charge?" As she spoke the pressure on the hounds to attack abated. Beaoul took the opportunity to press the hellhounds back into their parade stance.

"Darnel! My predecessor, you had him fed to the hounds…"

"That's right. I am entitiled to forget such small details, I have whole universes to conquer. What is one simple puppy wrangler in the grand scheme," Mira limply waved her hand in dismissal. It took two sanruphrup attendants to drag him back away from Mira's immedeate vicinity. The hellhound handlers nervously re-tethered their animals. Mira blinked, and faced Beaoul, "No one has ever defied me in that way successfully, Beaoul. I will give you one opportunity to explain your actions."

Beaoul pressed the idea that she thought she was reinforcing Mira's will by returning the animals to their handlers. She had only ever known them to break away in defiance. Beaoul could hardly allow them to defy their mistress.

Mira glared at her, "Next time, check with me. I was the one that commanded them to break away."

Beaoul bowed, lowered her head and tuckied her tail. She projected appologies.

"How did you know you could do that?"

Beaoul carefully formed the words in her mind, "I didn't know I just strongly desired to send them back to their places."

Mira raised an eyebrow, "I suppose it is good I have someone else they will take orders from." Mira twitched a limp wristed wave in Beaoul's direction, dismissing her.

Beaoul quickly got up and ran back into the kennel. Klugg stood just inside. He leaned on the doorway. Beaoul nosed him. He straightened up and flinched away, until he saw it was Beaoul. "You, did that?"

Beaoul sheathed her claws and placed a paw on his back.

He scratched her behind the ear, "I thought I was going to die, horribly. Thank you. Now, never defy her again. She'll kill us both."

Beaoul nodded and left him.


* * *

Fiona floated in a warm soft sort of field. Slowly she realized she was waking up. Her consciousness rose and she snapped awake when she heard a man's voice nearby, "Dora, are you sure the early warning and interception grid detected asteroid targeting?"

Fiona's eyes snapped open and she saw a man standing with his back to her bed.

"Okay, but if the interception grid didn't redirect the target, who did?"

"Excuse me, but what target? Who are you? Where am I?"

The man spun on his heels, "Oh, hello there. Uh, this planet was targeted by a weaponized asteroid, but it's okay that asteroid was redirected."

"Where am I?"

"On earth?" He shrugged.

"I'm telling you Jenovian, Someone has penetrated the complex. I definitely detected incoming teleportation!" A male voice stated from the hallway.

Jenovian and a rather geeky-looking young guy entered the room. Jenovian looked at Fiona and then at the stranger. "Duke, go get Norda." The geek ran off through the hallway. "Is he bothering you, young lady?" Jenovian asked Fiona.

Fiona shrugged.

"Who are you, buddy?" Jenovian asked the stranger.

"Oh, sorry, Beauregard Willis, field factor. We're here checking on a reported weaponized asteroid. It got redirected from your planet, but not by us."

"An asteroid?"

"Yeah, The Darkone likes launching them at unsuspecting and vulnerable worlds. We have been monitoring your system to keep an eye out for trouble. Our system alerted and we came to check it out."

"Darkone? Does she perchance go by Mira Black?"

"Yes!" Beau said excitedly pointing at Jenovian, "I take it you've met?"

"She launched an attack against our world a few years ago. I am a member of the group of gifted individuals that drove her off our world."

"Congratulations, but that is probably why she launched an extinction-level asteroid at your world. It was rerouted a few days ago. I wonder who stopped it."

"Hi, my name is Fiona. I'm in the room too. Where am I?"

Jenovian smiled at her. "Pleased to meet you Fi. I am Jenovian Batrell. I am one of the leaders of the Terran Defense Force. Do you remember Mira trying to kidnap you?"

"Yes, then you and Norda came and stopped her. I remember passing out but not how I got here."

Beau held up a hand, "Dora wants to know the timing of this attempt."

"Who is Dora?" Jenovian asked.

"Oh, sorry, Dora is my suit computer."

"We interrupted the kidnapping attempt four days ago. She's been unconscious since then."

"Bingo! She's why Mira must have redirected the asteroid. She must want Fi here a lot. She didn't want to chance wiping her out with the rest of the life on this planet. I realize that you have a good track record against Mira, but your world isn't safe as long as she is here. Mira will keep coming. She will tear through every last person on this planet to get her. Let me take her into protective custody. Mira doesn't have access to our base Sanctuary. We can keep her safe and out of Mira's hands."

Jenovian looked at Beau suspiciously, "It is pretty convenient that you have arrived just days later with an offer to whisk her off."

Norda entered the room and elbowed her way between Jenovian and Beau to Fiona's bedside. "How are you feeling?"

Fiona surveyed her condition. She was hungry but well-rested. "I'm a little hungry."

Norda waved her hands over each other and a sandwich appeared between them. Fiona realized Norda had used something akin to magic in order to teleport a sandwich from the complex's kitchen. Fiona wondered if she could do that now too, but there would be time to try later. She stared at Beau and searched his mind and soul for his intentions. He really wanted to protect her. She instinctively trusted him. "I think I should go with Beau. I feel like it is the right thing for me to do. Mira chased me from one world to another. If she really can't get into his base, I think it is a good place for me to be."

Jenovian looked at Beau skeptically and radiated worry at Fiona. Norda put a hand on his arm. "She's right. This man comes from good people. I trust him." Jenovian threw up his hands and left the room. "Beau, what do you need to take her to your base?"

"Fi, can you walk?" Fiona nodded. "Nothing, do the honors, Dora!" He pointed to his left. Quicksilver flowed from his fingertip and formed a whirlpool before settling into a mirror-smooth portal. "After you. Fiona rose from the bed dressed in a long nightgown.

She stepped up to the portal, held her breath, and stepped through. On the other side was an infinite space. White and bright enough to be confused with heaven. Beau stepped through the portal behind her. Ahead of them were several lines of people waiting for their turn at what appeared to be examination tables. Men and women stationed at the exam tables waved devices Fiona could only assume were various scanners over the people and then waved them through. Occasionally two or more people would be waved up to the exam table at once. The medics would scan them all and call in someone else who would arrive with a tablet. They would lead at least one of the individuals off.

Beau waved at one of the medics and the medic gestured for them to skip the line. They approached the exam table and the medic looked at Fiona. "Have a seat." Then the woman waved the scanners over Beau as he stood. "What did you find this time Beau?"

"No idea Tina, but Mira wants her bad enough to cancel an asteroid strike."

Tina flinched, at Mira's name. Fiona sensed that the evil woman was a sore spot for the medic. Tina turned to Fiona, "Hello Kiddo. What's your name?"

Fiona's felt a flare of anger, this woman couldn't be much older than she was. "Fiona Maken. I'm an adult I turned eighteen last month."

"Ease up kid. I didn't mean anything by it. At my age, everybody is kiddo to me." She began running scanners over Fiona.

"At your age?"

"I am old I might not look it but I am older than your universe," Tina smiled. Beau laughed like it was an inside joke.

"I don't understand." Fiona frowned.

"Most of us in The Preserve are older than the existing universes. Our omniverse was destroyed, this one sprang into existence later." Beau stated.

Tina looked at the screen of the scanner in her hand. Then she shook it. After hitting it a couple of times she stared at the screen again. "Okay, now I believe the stories. There really are people with unscannable DNA. I wonder if you can become invisible."

"Speaking of invisible, Brenda's here." Beau pointed back along the line waiting for medical check-in.

Tina waved someone over to the exam station.


* * *

Nova kept an eye out for anyone following her. The women's resistance group depended on secrecy to stay safe. She felt their fear at discovery. The documents she carried in a bag gave good reason for that fear. Nova carried copies of the records from the monastery library. The women all had heard anecdotally about the Purge, but the records were detailed and accurate. Nova had been surprised that the monks had given her free rein in the library. Perhaps they had tired of running between the stacks and her table all day long. The point was that she had a much more complete picture of the many atrocities of the Purge.

She couldn't understand how the wholesale murder of women and children could not only be acceptable to the founders and creator but suggested by them. Women had been tortured and killed and the children that depended on them died of starvation and neglect. The purge actually threatened the survival of the colony. The religious zealots were so intent on purging the unfaithful that they ignored the fact that without women there would be no future generations. It was self-destructive in the extreme. The Purge went on much longer than was logical. It happened in waves every time the religious fervor started to die down someone would stir it u up again. Who would be so self-genocidal as to nearly eliminate the ability for the colony to reproduce?

Nova ducked into the abandoned warehouse the group used as a gathering place. What little soft conversation there was fell silent. The women waited for Nova to enter before many of them breathed an audible sigh of relief. Nova laid the papers and books she had brought out on the meeting table. "Ladies here are the documents that I promised. Including the private journals of some of the convicted heretics."

The women descended on the documents and began taking notes. "You do realize that these documents will disappear from the records if they think you will use them for evidence," Nova warned.

"Evidence of the insanity of the religious zealots? What good would that do? They are still that insane. This is just so we know what happened, facts not just hand me down myths." Isadora, the leader of the group stated.

Nova sighed, "I have more records to bring, but I can only make so much disappear from the library for so long."

"We appreciate what you do. We know the risks that you are taking."

Nova shrugged. The religious hierarchy acted like she could do no wrong as an emissary to the founders and the creator. She really didn't see what she was doing as dangerous, but then again she hadn't been born into this culture as a normal woman. She had a status of her own. Each of these women only had as much value as the men that basically owned them put on them. They weren't slaves per se, but they really didn't have any rights of their own. Most of their men didn't have much value either, only the religious hierarchy had any real value or power.

"This is even more twisted than I could ever have believed!" Sonya one of the younger women flipped through the final confession of one of the victims of the purge. "They made her confess to being in league with dark forces and causing others to stray from the faith. They burned her alive one limb at a time before drowning them to put the fire out. They called that mercy compared to what she deserved! Sick!"

Nova nodded. "Wait until you see some of the illustrations in there."