O.K. Thanks to all those who reviewed. Sorry it took so long for me to update. I've had writers block for about a month. But now the block is gone and I'm writing again. Once again I apologise deeply for taking so long.
DISCLAIMER: If I owned Galactik Football I would have a copy of the series on DVD. SO that should prove I don't own it. (Plus I'm poor as hell so suing me would be pointless)
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Sins of The Father
Chapter 1.
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(TWO MONTHS AFTER THE FINALS)
A rather young-looking female was sat staring into the blackness of the cell she was in. Although most people lived in cells on the slave planet, locked in at night so they couldn't run away, even if there was a fire. Although to Q'am, there wasn't a difference between night and day. She didn't remember a time when there was. She had been told her family owed a debt and she was sold into slavery. Even though slavery was illegal throughout the galaxy, this planet had been well hidden and slavery was still practised. She sometimes wished someone would buy her, at least she'd have a chance of escape, a chance of freedom.
But what was freedom anyway? No one had ever told her what that felt like. She knew from what she had heard that she had been brought to the slave planet when she was seven. She was twenty years old now. Twenty and had never once known what daylight looked like. She knew her memory had been wiped. The first seven years of her life were a mystery to her. But that was procedure anyway. The guards wiped the minds of everyone who came to the slave planet. You're much less willing to fight if you can't remember what it is you want to fight for. Everyone had their memories wiped on the slave planet. She was lucky she couldn't remember the first seven years of her life. Some people couldn't remember the first fifty.
She glared at the general who ran the slave planet. They called him Blailok. Although Q'am was sure that he was supposed to be dead. She did see the large TV every so often when she had to serve dinner to the guards. She ended up doing so at least once a month. She'd seen the news report speaking about how he'd died after trying to cause a new ice age. Or something like that. After all, why pay attention to the TV? It wasn't like she was going to see anything apart from the slave planet ever. Blailok made sure of that.
When there were auctions for girls, she had NEVER been included. Ever. She knew it was because Blailok ordered it that way. She didn't know why. After all, she may not be all that pretty, but all slaves fetched a price. She knew that it was something to do with what she knew. Or rather, what she had known before her memory had been wiped. She saw one of the guards open her cell door. "Your turn to cook, slave." He said gruffly. She just got up and did what she was told. She didn't want anymore scars after all.
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Clamp was working in his lab on some new upgrades for the holotrainer when he heard his lab door open. He turned to see Sonny standing there. "I won't ask how you got in. Are you here to see D'jok?" Clamp asked. "I would like to see him, but I'm here on far more important business." Sonny stated. "Don't tell me you lost the Metaflux?" Clamp questioned. Horror written in his features. "No but there is something wrong with it." Sonny answered. Clamp went from relief to unease in the time it took Sonny to finish the sentence. "What's wrong with it?" Clamp asked. "It's under-developed." Sonny replied. "It shouldn't be. Judging from the performance of the snow kids, and the time it had to develop inside them, it should be perfectly developed. Unless…" Clamp thought for a moment, before realisation dawned and slight panic set in the scientific mind. "That means that there are others out there who have been affected by the Metaflux." Clamp stated. Sonny nodded. "I had hoped you might come up with another reason for it. But you seem to have come to same conclusion as I have." Sonny mused.
"How comes it took you so long to get back here Sonny?" Clamp asked. "I was all the way past most civilised planets when I actually examined the Metaflux. My ship's fast but not that fast." Sonny answered. Clamp nodded. "Are we going to tell the kids?" Clamp asked. It was a question that had been posing in Sonny's mind since he found out that the flux was incomplete. "We'll have to. They're the only other people that know the signs of deterioration in someone who has been affected by the flux." Sonny replied, after a few moments of deliberation.
"We need to find out who else has the Metaflux, or they could potentially be a walking time bomb to themselves." Clamp said sadly. Sonny nodded. "You're right, which is why we need the Snow Kids help on this. The Metaflux is, after all, undetectable." Sonny said, as he thought about ways to track down the affected kids.
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Q'am blinked slightly at the brightness of the kitchens. She sometimes forgot that light existed at all. It was a word to her most of the time. The word didn't have much meaning when you were an object. Q'am started cooking as she always did. She pushed the orange-red strands of hair behind her ears and chopped up some vegetables. She had learned very early on to be good at cooking. That was because if you couldn't be good at cooking, then you could be good at something else. As of yet, something else had not arrived to take Q'am to one of the dark rooms that guards dragged some of the other girls to. She had had to knock on some of those doors sometimes and leave a tray of food or a tray with a jug of wine outside. She heard the screams of tortured agony come from the girls and she feared one day she may just be unlucky enough to be one of them. That was why she worked so hard being good at everything else.
Today she thanked God that she didn't have to go near those rooms. She did know the small mercies bestowed on her and she was thankful for all of them. As she finished cooking, she heard the general, Blailok, talking to one of the guards. She saw them about to come into the kitchen and thought quick. Darting into the large looking pantry, she closed the door til it was only open a crack. Luckily for her, neither the guard nor Blailok had noticed her.
"You need to get rid of the girl." Blailok hissed. "Why? She cooks! I don't get why you haven't sold her off yet sir!" The guard answered. "Do what you're told. Get rid of Q'am and do it quickly. She knows too much." Blailok snapped. "Sir with all due respect the slaves are going for their annual memory adjustment in three days." The guard stated simply. "That will be too late for me. I need her gone and I need her gone today. The slave planet may be shut down soon. If you remember slaves are illegal. That old bastard, Duke Maddox, will be looking into all my dealings, including the slaves. Once they come here they'll reverse the memory adjustments anyway. I can't afford her having her memory back. She needs to go." Blailok hissed. He went to leave the kitchen.
"And what do I get out of murdering a stupid slave? I'll get worse time in prison for murder when they come." The Guard said. "Don't be such an idiot. Just lock up the other slaves and leave. They won't know you were the guard here. Just be quick about it. Everyone thinks I'm dead and it's all well and good until I restructure my plans. But that girl cannot live to tell about me. She's the only slave that knows about my existence on this stupid planet. She also knows other things that will make my situation far more tenuous should she live to remember anything. Get rid of her." Blailok said. He turned and walked out of the kitchen, before the guard could make any more complaints.
Q'am was now absolutely terrified. "What could I possibly know? Him being alive wasn't the only thing he mentioned." Q'am thought. Her panic was clear in her deep brown eyes. The guard glared and walked out of the kitchen. Q'am knew it was most likely to look for her. She had to think of a plan to escape and she needed to think fast. For a moment she almost considered just letting the guard kill her. After all if she could escape she had no idea how she would live outside in the rest of the galaxy. Then of course she mentally slapped herself. "What in the hell is wrong with me. I've gotta get out of here or that's it, I'm dead, and I won't even know why the hell they wanted me dead in the first place. All I need to do is escape and try to remember everything. If I can knock out one guard and get his keys, then I can escape. So long as I'm not seen." Q'am thought once again.
She bit her lip as she carefully came out of her hiding place. She remembered the boiling pan on the stove. "Can't use that. If I threw the stuff all over him he'd probably scream the whole slave building down. That'd bring everyone." Q'am was trying to find something heavy enough for her to knock out one of the guards, yet still light enough for her to lift. She looked over at the huge leg of roasted meat. "Will it be heavy enough?" Q'am pondered this thought to herself for a few moments, before estimating the weight of the leg. "If I slam it down hard enough it should knock out anyone." Q'am thought to herself. She heard footsteps. "If this doesn't work I'm so screwed." Q'am thought to herself. She grabbed the huge leg of meat, not concerning herself with the fact that it was burning her hands. She could worry about pain once she escaped. She dove behind the door of the kitchen, leaving it wide open. Enough for a suspicious guard to check who was in there anyway.
She saw the same head guard from earlier come into the kitchen. "Slave? Where are you?" The guard growled. "This is it. My only chance. Please God let this work!" Q'am begged. She felt tears prickle in her eyes but she ignored them. This had to be done first. She took a deep breath and jumped out from hiding. The guard turned around in surprise, and Q'am drove the leg of meat firmly down onto his skull. She used every ounce of her strength on that one blow.
She could have cried with relief when he crumpled to the ground and lost consciousness. She didn't have time for that now. She took his large bunch of keys quickly and saw there were numbers etched into the keys. That would make it easier to find the doors at least.
She quickly made her way out of the building that had no windows. It was dark outside, but it was dark all the time for Q'am so she didn't care. She saw a loading cargo ship. The planet also sold machine parts and food to some planets. Of course that was just a cover. Q'am didn't see any guards around. She double-checked to make sure, and then she ran for the ship. She knew no one in the ship would notice. She crawled into a small space in between a couple of ship heaters, and waited for the ship to take off.
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"What do you mean the Metaflux is incomplete?" D'jok asked, as Clamp and Sonny explained to the snow kids what had happened. "It's clear in some places. This means it's not fully developed, this means it is incomplete." Clamp answered. "If you see any kids, that look to be coming down with the same symptoms as you did, then you should tell Clamp or myself straight away. They could be suffering from the Metaflux influence." Sonny added. The group all nodded in agreement.
"How are you gonna track down anymore kids with Metaflux inside of them?" Micro-Ice asked. "Yeah it's not exactly detectable is it?" Ahito added, before nodding off to sleep again. "We just compile a list of all children between the ages of unborn and five who were within the same mile radius you were all born in. Then we'll check them one at a time." Clamp responded. The others just looked slightly baffled.
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Q'am felt the ship taking off and breathed a great sigh of relief. NOW she was worried about her hands of course. She looked at the burns on her hands, and knew she didn't have as much damage as she could've done. She was once again grateful to be free. Then she fell asleep in between the two heaters praying for a good stop when they got to wherever the cargo was supposed to be delivered. She also hoped that whatever she happened to remember wasn't too horrible.
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Sinnedd was having great problems during training. The smog was effecting him more and more. He hated to admit it, but he didn't want to play using the smog anymore. But of course, he didn't know how to play without the smog. He walked into Artegor's office, where he saw the demented, Shadow's coach glaring at paperwork and muttering curses to himself.
"Artegor?" Sinnedd questioned quietly. He wasn't feeling quite so cocky as he usually felt. "What is it Sinnedd? I'm busy." Artegor hissed. "I can't use the smog anymore." Sinnedd said definitely. Artegor's harsh tone putting some steel into his spine. "How do you expect to play for the Shadows if you don't use the smog?" Artegor sneered. A smirk appeared on his face. "I don't. Which is why I'm quitting." Sinnedd said. He then walked out of Artegor's office.
Since the finals two months ago, the words that Baldwin had said, to stop him from putting the flux sucking device on the cup, had haunted him. Maybe he didn't have any nightmares, but he didn't get any sleep. He'd treated people callously throughout his life, and he'd justified his actions and terrible behaviour on the fact that he didn't have parents and in a way, he had thought people should treat him differently because of this fact. He now realised that had his parents been alive, they would've been ashamed of his behaviour. The only problem now, was that he had been this way for so long that he wasn't sure if he knew how to change his attitude. "We'll have to wait and see if I can." Sinnedd thought to himself as he grabbed his stuff and went to the space port. He was leaving planet Shadow and he was going to do his best to leave the old Sinnedd, the one that would shame his parents, behind.
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O.K. did everyone like that chapter? Before anyone asks. Sinnedd is NOT going to rapidly change into a nice guy. That would be completely unrealistic. But he is now starting his own journey of self discovery. Which may or may not turn out to change him in some ways. You'll find out more about Q'am later on. She IS important to the storyline but I won't tell you how yet. (nods) Anyways I hope you all liked the chapter, and I will be writing a new one soon. (nods)