Commander Grant's POV
After seeing the state Rallen was in, I decided against explaining the real situation. It would be too much for him at this moment. Instead I simply told him to get some rest. After this I decided to return to the strategic conferences and calculations room.
"What was Rallen doing at the time of the krawl attack?" I asked the officers in attendance of the meeting. There were also a few communication screens online for those who could not make it.
"He was on Daichi, Sir, and he wasn't alone," a highly ranked cadet reported. "He and Jeena left from headquarters' front dock at eleven thirty-four in their patrol cruiser. We found the cruiser still at one of Daichi's landing zones."
"Why were they on Daichi to begin with?" the large chief engineer asked skeptically.
"Rallen and Jeena aren't just buisiness partners," I explained, "let's leave it at that."
I turned to the biologists on hand before continuing. "Have your teams run any diagnostics on the blood Rallen was covered in? Doctor Senklar thinks it may be something other than krawl."
"We have run several tests and can confirm that these are no ordinary krawl, and we're not completely sure whether or not they're krawl to begin with. Senklar may be right about this," a tall scientist explained. "We have formed some interesting theories about these krawl, though, but we would need to examine some spectrobe genetic material before we can say for sure."
"On it," Professor Kate said through the video communicator. "Just name a species."
"Bring up any flying spectrobe that uses wings for upward thrust," another of the biologists requested. "preferably not in the aoi family."
"Kugaster genome on screen... now," Professor Kate said as the data uploaded. The scientists then pulled up a holo-screen with the genetic structure of the krawl. I stared intently at the segments of code that were being displayed. I saw a similarity in the two DNA strands.
"Look!" a short, bald man shouted while pointing at a section on his screen. "Both these krawl and the spectrobe share the ability to fly, but the krawl's wing strength is increased to the point that the creatures can exit the atmosphere and travel through the vacuum of space."
"Wouldn't this kill a normal red-blooded organism?" I asked with growing curiosity that I was not willing to show.
"Yes, but the genetic structure in these creatures does not require an excess of oxygen to survive. These krawl need no vortexes to travel between planets," the short scientist explained.
Everybody in the room went silent at this. We spent a few minutes contemplating these stronger krawl... if they even were krawl. We could be dealing with a completely new threat.
"Isn't anobody curious as to why Rallen returned alone and without his cruiser?" Professor Wright shouted in frustration. "There are no signs of Jeena anywhere! The only thing I've found is a journal and a navigational watch in the valley down here."
"Yes, I suppose it is concerning that one cadet returns covered in blood while the other remains missing..." I said calmly. "Are there any signs of a fight in your location?"
"I found several empty shells. Some of them were sunken into the ground, and when I dug them up and examined their weight, I determined that they had fallen approximately four hundred feet to be buried so deep," Wright explained. "To kill something that high up, Rallen would have had to be at least that high off the ground."
"That answers your second question, doesn't it?" another cadet said matter-of-factly. "Rallen was obviously brought back here by one of those creatures. Just because Rallen decided to attack them, doesn't mean that they're hostile."
"Good point," the tall biologist responded. "Perhaps they carried Jeena off as well. If this is so, she should show up soon."
"I have a sneaking suspicion that your inductive reasoning is far from the truth," I stated. "If both Rallen and Jeena had been carried off by the creatures, wouldn't they have both been dropped off her around the same time?"
"Will we ever know exactly what happened?" Kate asked sadly. This caused us all to get quiet again.
"All we can do is continue our efforts to find and neutralize this enemy before it gets to us as well as our efforts to find Jeena. I will deliver the bad news to Rallen when he seems ready to think with both of his brain cells," I explained with an internal smile. "Until we have made progress, meeting adjourned."
One week later...
Rallen's POV
"And that's all we can find," The Commander finished explaining to me. All that they had found was a journal and a watch.
"Have you looked inside the journal?" I asked as I sadly curled up in the medical bed again.
"Only a few pages, but Professor Kate advised me not to read too far into Jeena's journal. I'm under the impression she wants you to investigate it," The Commander stated as he placed a hardcover book on the table next to my cot. "I can see that you'd prefer to be left alone with your thoughts. Report to my office when you can."
I picked up Jeena's journal. Was I really going to read over all of the past few years from Jeena's point of view?...
I decided against it, as it would probably just be a hundred pages of her complaining about my recklessness. After that it would just be some sort of confused daze about her feelings.
I found myself drifting back to sleep, but this wasn't the dark, dreamless sleep of the nights before. This time I dreamt of something that truly terrified me.
DREAM
"The armies have formed, what shall we do now?" said a humanoid figure with a ribcage covering her chest. She was covered in skeletal plates of armor, and her skin was an odd shade of green.
"You and your scouting party are to go towards the nearest inhabited planet and kill all who get in your way. I want a map of the terrain and a thorough description of all biological aspects," A taller figure said in a hiss. This creature had more plates all over her body and no ribcage covering her well-endowed chest. She also had a strange pair of skeletal wings protruding from behind her. Unlike the first figure, this person had crimson skin.
"As you wish, Kerrigan," the first person said with a strangely familiar smile.
Rallen's vision then zoomed out to a broader view of the krawl force. The number of creatures was staggering. The ground itself of the familiar planet looked as though it was alive.
The short figure and a group of the krawl were then sucked up into several large, flying things similar to the one that had carried off Jeena. The flying creatures then moved out of Rallen's vision as it began to fade to blackness.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a familiar form appeared. It was a person curled into a ball. He or she was crying.
Rallen then found that he had taken a "physical" form within this dreamscape. He moved towards the person. When he was at the person's side he finally realized who it was.
"Jeena...?" He asked tentatively.
"Rallen? Why?" She said, looking up at him with her tearstained face. "Why didb't you save me? Why weren't you there when I needed you most?" She screamed this last question at him with confused rage in her face. "Why, Rallen?"
"J-Jeena, I... I tried, I really did, but-" Rallen was cut off my a mature, female laugh.
"You let her down, kid," A tall woman with red hair and a strange white suit said. "There's no room for error in this war, and you just slipped up. Jeena doesn't need someone who will let her down at the moment a situation gets to be too much. She needs someone who will always help her when she needs it. She needs me. Don't even try to convince her otherwise."
"W-who are you?" Rallen stuttered at this newcomer.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" The woman replied with a grin. She then turned to face Jeena, "come, Princess. There's work to be done."
As the woman walked off with Jeena at her side, Rallen tried to run after them, but this only seemed to make them recede faster into the growing darkness around him.
Rallen.
Who was this woman? What did she have to do with Jeena's disappearance?
Rallen!
How did this dream connect with the first he had had?
Rallen!
Was this Jeena's voice he heard calling to him?
DREAM ENDS
"Rallen! Wake up!" Commander Grant shouted at the sleeping cadet.
Rallen's eyes shot open as he realized he was being called by a superior officer, rather than by his partner.
"Yes, Sir," Rallen said as he shot upright and saluted.
"For a moment there I thought he was dead," Webster said from behind the Commander.
Ignoring the old museum curator, Commander Grant addressed Rallen. "We have reports of more of the strange krawl on Ziba's moons. Unfortunately, at the rate the krawl are multiplying only one of the moons can be saved. Akaboshi is the home an important mineral research facility, but Aoboshi is home to an important spectrobe research facility. It is entirely up to you to decide which moon you save, but keep in mind the consequences of each."
"I'll have to decide on my way there," Rallen replied solemnly. It was apparent that he didn't want to go to Akaboshi or Aoboshi, that he wanted simply to lay in his present state until the problems solved themselves. If they didn't solve themselves, then he'd simply leave this world knowing he'd failed.
"A one-man ship is waiting for you in your usual dock," Commander Grant said before turning to leave. Webster hovered in place for a moment before driving his little craft out the door.
Rallen sighed as he slowly got to his feet. He decided that he really didn't have any other choice. He had to go.
This chapter feels a little overdone for some reason... Oh well, at least it sounds good in my head.
I don't own Spectrobes or any of its characters, nor do I own the mysterious redhead. (The first person to guess who that is gets absolutely nothing... mostly because I said her name in the story...)
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