Chapter 9

'Ashley!' a voice called through the hall. She stopped and turned to look back at the mass of students milling around below her. A figure was pushing through them and took the steps two at a time to catch up with her. 'How was your weekend?' Carlos grinned at her.

'Enjoyable,' she nodded. 'How was the movie?'

'Horrid,' he told her. 'We lost rock-paper-scissors and the girls picked some chick flick.'

'The horror,' Ashley grinned and started walking again. Carlos followed without a word. 'If that's how movies get picked all the time, I don't think I'll ever be tempted to join you.'

'If you join, we'll let you pick the movie the first time around as a courtesy call. Anyway, usually we vote and pick the most popular one. This time we had a draw, so we had to settle it differently.'

'Oh, so you invited me to be the tie breaker. Good to know,' Ashley laughed.

'Not entirely,' Carlos grinned. 'So you'll come next time?'

'Oh no, you promised me a veto pick when I join. I'm saving that for a really good one,' she smirked and hitched the strap of her backpack up higher on her shoulder.

'Good point,' Carlos nodded a bit disappointed. His eyes suddenly narrowed as he looked at her. 'Hey, what's that?' he asked, pointing at a mark on her shoulder that had become visible as her jacket had shifted with her bag.

'Nothing,' Ashley said, pulling at her shirt and jacket to cover the mark again.

'It looks like…'

'I said it's nothing,' Ashley snapped, irritation colouring her voice.

Carlos stopped walking for a moment at the venom in her voice, but quickly recovered. 'So, wanna do homework together at the Youth Centre after school?' he asked, deciding it was best to change the subject.

'Yeah, sure,' Ashley nodded, her shoulders relaxing again.

'I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help to you,' Cora apologized. 'I do hope you find him.'

'Thanks, Cora, at least it's a lead of sorts. I've got a contact I can approach with this,' Zhane nodded. 'Just take care of Nya.'

They said goodbye and Zhane cut the connection. He sat back in his chair and ran his hands over his face. Cora's information wasn't truly useless per se, but it wasn't exactly helpful either. With a sigh he looked up at Deca's eye. 'Deca, keep this information locked behind my personal security code. Until I know how useful it is, I'd like to keep it to myself.'

'Acknowledged. Karone has returned to the ship. She is looking for you,' Deca informed.

Zhane cursed under his breath. He had hoped the Eltarans would keep her busy for a little while longer so he could make a second call. Now that would have to wait. He turned his chair around just as Karone walked onto the bridge.

'So, did Cora have anything useful?' she asked immediately.

'Unless they turned Andros into a girl. No, nothing,' Zhane shook his head.

'But she did have something,' Karone pressed.

'Yeah, but I'm not entirely sure what it is myself. It's some information that might have value buying other information, but it might be completely useless too. So what did Eltar say?'

Karone raised an eyebrow, but allowed him to change the subject. 'They'll supply us and they're willing to send up mechanics to help with the repairs. They were a little insulted you didn't join me on the surface and asked me to relay a message to you.'

'Of course, self-righteous bastards. What's the message? Though I think I can guess.'

'If you would just tell them the location of the rebels, they'd be able to send help,' Karone told him. 'Who are these rebels anyway? You mentioned them before. And why wouldn't you tell Eltar where they are? We're all on the same side of the war, aren't we?'

Zhane sighed and motioned for her to take a seat next to him. He swirled his chair to face hers and took a deep breath.

'The rebels are Karovan fugitives doing as much as they can in the war against Dark Spector. It's not much, but it does help. Over the past year I've asked dozens of times for Eltar to share their cloaking technology the Phantom Ranger uses so I can install it on the Megaship. It will be so much safer and easier to visit and supply the rebels. Eltar refuses. In return I refuse to share the rebels' location. I visit as often as I can risk it, but without a cloaking system, that's not all that often at all.'

'I'm sorry,' Karone muttered, reaching out to take his hand and giving it a squeeze. 'I'm sorry you had to deal with them alone.'

'If it's alright with you, we'll take the supplies, fix the scanners and patch up the engine ourselves without Eltaran mechanics. They just want to get their hands on Karovan technology anyway. Once the scanners are back in perfect working order, I think we can risk a visit to the rebels. They'll be happy to see you again and there are several former shipyard workers among them. They'd be better help fixing the rest of the Megaship than anyone Eltar can provide. These guys build the thing.'

'I think I like that plan very much,' Karone smiled. 'Will your dad be there?'

Zhane's face darkened and he shook his head. 'I know they made it off planet with your family during the evacuation, but their ship was damaged. That's the last anyone knows.'

'If anyone can fix that ship, it's your dad.'

'If they had the supplies on board, yes,' Zhane agreed. 'He'll definitely have been able to land it safely somewhere too. Whether they made it off again, I don't know. Chances of them having had the right supplies with them are slim. There must be more survivors out there than just the rebels. I know there must be and they might have been able to meet up with a group we don't know about. But it's all pure speculation.'

'There out there somewhere,' Karone assured him. 'Just like Andros is.'

'And we're going to find them all, win this war and live a quiet life on KO-35,' Zhane grinned.

Karone laughed, dropping his hand and shoving at his shoulder. 'You're and idiot,' she accused. 'I'll let Eltar know what we decided.'

'I'll go with you,' Zhane said, jumping up. 'I'm definitely not getting that cloaking technology if I insult them by staying on the Megaship.'

'I can tell them that.'

'No, until you've met the rebels, this is my battle. After that you're free to decide if you join in or not, but you shouldn't get involved without knowing everything,' Zhane stated firmly.

That night Zhane walked onto the bridge. 'Deca, where's Karone?' he asked, dropping into the chair behind the central console.

'Karone is currently in her courters.'

'Thank you, Deca,' he nodded. Pushing several buttons on the console, he watched the viewing screen change from showing Eltar to a static. He waited patiently for a few minutes and was about to cut the connection when the static was replaced by a tired looking man.

'I'm sorry to wake you, but I need to talk to you about a side job of yours and this was the first and possibly only private moment I had,' Zhane spoke quickly. 'The signal is secure and coded.'

'Alright,' the man nodded. 'What do you want to talk about?'

'Astrae,' Zhane stated. 'The Stolen Children.'

The man turned grim, but motioned for him to continue.

'I found Nya of Kinta on a slave colony a while back. She doesn't talk much still, but I spoke to her sister earlier today and she did mention a few things. Nya remembers being sold on Onyx, not in the tavern auction, but an even blacker market. She didn't say who kidnapped and sold her, only that she met a girl named Astrae and she was a slave too…' Zhane trailed off for a moment. 'The slave of Darkonda.'

'Astrae will kill you if she ever heard you repeat that. Darkonda is her worst enemy. I'll advise you to keep it to yourself.'

Zhane nodded. 'So it's true. Could it be she's one of the Stolen Children as well?'

'We honestly don't know. It's been considered, but she doesn't fit any child on the list. But it's also very likely the list is incomplete. Astrae is human, without a doubt. However, not all humans live on planets like KO-35. Most live on planets much less advanced. If Astrae was stolen from one of those isolated planets, she'd never be added to the list. Or she could just have been born to human slaves and sold as an infant.'

'So the information is useless,' Zhane sighed.

'Information that seems useless now might be invaluable later. You have provided information we will be looking into, though. I'm sorry I could not be of more help to you.'

'Wait,' Zhane said hurriedly as the man reached to cut the connection. 'You've met Astrae, right? What's she really like?'

'Ruthless when she needs to be.'

The connection was cut just moments before Karone walked onto the bridge.

'Who were you talking to? I thought I heard voices,' she asked.

'A contact. I thought you'd already gone to bed.'

'Another? How many contact do you have?' Karone exclaimed, ignoring his statement.

'A few,' Zhane replied vaguely.

'Useful?'

'Not today.'