Just Desserts
by
Denise
Adom led his squad through the rubble of the base, carefully picking his way through corpse littered passageways. My god, they had finally done it. After more than a generation of strife and struggle, they had finally defeated the Purists.
Though he was grateful it was over, he still wondered who among the vanquished was the Savior. Someone among the Purists had betrayed their own kind and escorted a wing of bombers in that had broken the back of the Purist Resistance.
Each time he looked into the blond haired face of a corpse, he wondered if that person was the Savior. Did he feel relief that so many of the Purists were dead, or grief that, though they were basically the enemy, each corpse was one less person on their decimated planet.
He didn't know.
"Sir?" He turned to see one of his lieutenants coming towards him, an urgency in the woman's step.
"Yes."
"Sir, we've found a survivor. She is badly injured but we believe her to be Ferrell, Alar's second in command." This was what he had been hoping for. Perhaps now he would get some answers. He ordered the Lt. to take him to the woman.
They walked into an inner chamber that looked to have been used as a dining hall. The damned Purists had evidently been living quite comfortably while he and his people had been eking out a meager existence, struggling to find food and ways to leech the poisons out of the air and water. Hundreds died every day, their starved, ravaged bodies succumbing to the Purists' poisons.
The woman was covered with blood, tied to the table as Jayna, the healer, attended to her wounds. He looked up with tired, haunted eyes and met the gaze of his commander.
"Sir. She is gravely injured, but by using some of their beta canton I have managed to stabilize her. She will survive," he reported, almost reluctantly.
"Why is she restrained?" Adom asked, stepping to the healer's side.
"She has already tried to kill herself once. I thought you should at least be able to interrogate her before she succeeds," Jayna said, the tone of his voice telling Adom he was struggling to reconcile his oath to heal with his hatred of the Purists. Especially in light of the fact his son had recently died when a Purist fighter rammed his bomber.
"Breeder scum," Ferrell spat out weakly. "If you had honor, you would let me die."
"There's been enough death. Tell me how it happened," he ordered. "Tell me who betrayed you."
"Why should I tell you anything?"
He leaned in close, mere inches from her battered face. "Tell me what you know and I will release you. What you do with your life is up to you. A choice you denied us," he whispered evenly.
Ferrell thought a moment, then perhaps realizing what her fate would be as a prisoner of the breeders, she spoke up. "We were betrayed by our Kindred."
"Kindred?"
"When we were excavating this complex we discovered a device. Through years of study we realized it was a portal to another world. Alar made contact with our Kindred, the people of the world we originally came from. We beseeched them to be allies, offered to open a trade dialogue with them. At first they agreed, then they betrayed us. It was one of them who piloted the wing that escorted your bombers through." She stopped, wondering if she'd given the man enough knowledge for him to let her go.
He thought a moment. "Take her. Lock her up with the others," he ordered. "And find Densi."
"NO!" Ferrell protested as two men cut the ropes binding her to the table and hauled her to her feet. "You gave your word."
"And Alar's father swore he was a peaceful man," he countered as the weakly struggling woman was dragged to their make-shift jail.
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"Will it work?" Adom asked Densi, drawing the woman's attention from the screen in front of her.
She lifted a bleary gaze to her commander. She had been studying Alar's notes and journals for days. His arrogance in wanting to document the Purists' 'victory' for later generations just might be their salvation. "There's only one way to find out," she replied, getting to her feet and walking over to the pedestal. He watched her confidently push seven of the panels, each lighting up in turn, then she paused and looked at him. At his nod, she pushed down on the big red stone in the middle. The cavern was filled with a loud roar and they both watched in horror as the circle spat out a column of water. Adom grabbed Densi and pushed her to the ground behind the pedestal. 'Purist trap,' he thought as he braced himself against the expected onslaught of water.
When none came, the pair cautiously raised their heads and peeked around the pedestal.
They both stared in amazement at the rippling blue surface in front of them. Densi gave the man a gentle push and struggled to her feet. She stepped towards the circle, her brown eyes wide in amazement. "It's true," she breathed. "It is a portal to other worlds."
"But what's on the other side?" he asked. "Alar said three of his people died going through it."
"His notes also said they were able to establish radio contact with the Kindred. Surely we can do the same."
"What are you suggesting?"
"The Purists had small reconnaissance craft. They're tiny enough to fit through the portal. We'll send them through and see if it is safe."
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"That's the last of them sir," the lieutenant reported as a mother leading her two children stepped into the rippling blue surface, on their way to the new world.
As the portal snapped shut, Adom looked at the small group surrounding him, the last of his people on Uronda.
"Bring me Ferrell," he ordered, nodding at another lieutenant to proceed with their plans.
A few moments later the soldier led the woman into the cavern. Someone had replaced her torn clothes with another set he noted as she was brought before him.
"I will tell you nothing more," she said coldly. "You are clearly not a man of your word."
"I want nothing more from you," he said. "I have all I need." She looked at him, slightly surprised by the pleasant tone of his voice, the gentle smile creasing his dark face. "The people you see before you are the last of the BREEDERS," he said, emphasizing the derogatory term. "In a few moments we shall go through the portal and you will have won. Uronda will belong to the Puritans," he continued, perversely enjoying watching the emotions play across the woman's face.
"You will leave the few of us here alone?" she asked in horror, perhaps imagining life with only the handful of survivors she had been incarcerated with.
"No. Your stasis chambers are still intact. You and your people wanted this planet so badly, you can have it, with our blessing," he said, gesturing to the troop around him to walk away from the woman. "Do not follow us," he warned in a tone that suggested deadly force would greet any late arrivals as Densi entered the coordinates to the new world. The last of the breeders walked through the portal with out a backwards glance.
Ferrell watched the portal snap shut, leaving her alone in the chamber, the sudden silence and darkness nearly overwhelming her. For the first time in days, she felt hope rise in her chest. She knew Alar would be disappointed but she also knew that they had to leave Uronda. It would take them centuries to purge the land of the poisons and make it livable again. She and the rest would follow the breeders' example and would find a new home world. One pure, clean and fresh that they could mold to suit themselves. They would leave this death world behind.
She fairly ran down the passageway, eager to share the news of their unexpected victory with her brethren.
A sudden boom sent her to her knees in a rain of dirt and rocks. She felt a feeling of dread fill her as she forced herself to her feet and stumbled back down the passageway. She stopped at the entrance to the portal chamber and fell back to her knees with a strangled cry.
Through the choking dust she saw the pedestal lying on the ground, random sparks shooting amongst the shattered pieces and melted wires. Parts of the portal lay scattered in the dirt, totally destroyed by the explosives the breeders had set.
She knelt there, her tears cutting tracks in the dirt on her face as she watched the dust settle on the fragments of the pedestal and portal, realizing that Alar had attained his dream after all. Uronda was irrevocably their home now.
XXXfinXXX