CHAPTER 5

Someone Bigger

Maija bit her tongue and followed. She didn't know why she had felt so entitled- and after the fact, felt a little embarrassed by it. She just knew that Kaius wanted her so badly that this other group must be here to protect her. Too good for this world. No one would be that selfless. And Maija had just given up her only bargaining chip for a ship.

Lidia led them back out through the crowd and outside the temple, to the edge of the island Maija had arrived at. She stopped and turned back towards them.

"Everyone got working grappling hooks?" she asked.

Maija nodded but turned to Makhai who, surprisingly to her, nodded as well, a grappling hook strapped to his right arm. She hadn't noticed it before.

"Good," Lidia said before she jumped off the side. It took a few seconds, but Maija heard the grappling hook activate so she followed, making sure her grappling hook was secure to the ground before leaping off after her.

Right underneath them was a wide-open room with a flat concrete floor made from large brick. It was dark, unlit and empty. The only light coming from the open window-ways they had entered from. Once Maija's feet were planted firmly on the ground, she disconnected the grappling hook and followed Lidia. Makhai wasn't too far behind.

Along the left most wall was a small opening in the floor lit by a cold blue light. Lidia walked over and jumped down, not saying a word to Maija or Makhai. They followed. Maija wondered how far they were planning on walking and for what reason these ships were stowed so far away.

The drop wasn't that deep, so their grappling hooks weren't necessary. It led to a tight stone hallway, the left side blank, the right having a doorway every so often in seemingly random intervals. Maija peeked into a few, an empty uninteresting room lay beyond them, small windows letting in little natural light.

Lidia turned into a wide opening along the left wall that dropped to a long set of stairs downwards. They followed them down and onto a platform that hung over massive interconnecting tunnels that exited the island's sides, cutting huge holes in it. The tunnels and opening were large enough for any ship to enter it, even Kaius's ship. It was impossibly large and impossibly dark, the light shining in from the openings barely breaking through the darkness.

Maija was blown away from the structure. If all of this had been around since the end of the old world, the first Foundation, had all this been underground? What had those people use this for? How did they even build all this? Where'd they get all the white stone from?

There were several ships docked beside the platform they were standing on stretching across every wall of every tunnel. Ships were everywhere, all put together in different ways, different shapes and different sizes. Every ship built for a different reason now sitting in a dark tunnel lit by lamps.

"What is this place?" Maija asked, stepping up to railings blocking off a fall into the tunnel almost a hundred feet below.

"This is my hanger," Lidia said, looking on at the fleet of unique ships with pride written all over her face. "The people of this island knew of its existence but never used it. Wouldn't want all this space to go to waste."

She walked along the platform, viewing every ship from the side. "Now, this pigment could get you I'd say a ship with no more than six engines…"

Lidia continued to list off certain features and specs of the kind of ship Maija could afford. Engine type and rarity. Same with wings. Metal kinds and qualities. Same with wood. Maija found herself ignoring her, wandering off to a ship hidden between two large ships, almost dwarfed by their size.

This one was small, consisting of a top deck and lower deck, a small cabin near the back the only entrance to the deck below. Four wooden wings formed an X shape along the very back hull of the ship and four engines, two on each side sat in front of them. The helm was at the forefront of the ship, almost hanging off the edge and every part of the ship's hull was made from a rusting bronze. A cannon sat at the back end of the ship in between two furled sails and one frontward facing atop the ship's cabin. Fast, powerful, small. Agile and low profile, it was the perfect ship for what she needed. To get away from New Unity and from Kaius as quickly and discreetly as possible.

"I'll take this one," Maija said pointing up at the ship she had found.

She had interrupted Lidia who now looked over at her quizzically. Before she could ask why, the tunnel lit with red light, pulsating and flashing. An alarm sounded from a point far above them, drowned out and muffled by meters of rock and stone. Something had happened, something bad.

Maija turned towards Makhai and then the stairs back up. Before she could move though, Lidia grabbed her wrist. Maija twisted, fighting her but she was far stronger, she flipped Maija's arm around and held it firmly in front of her face.

"Don't go up there," Lidia said, her voice firm enough to almost convince Maija. "Take the ship and get out of here."

"Where would I go?" Maija asked, gently working her wrist from Lidia's grip.

Lidia took the vial of pigment and pushed it into Maija's hand. She was surprised at first by Lidia's sudden change in attitude but couldn't question it. Not when the island shook just like Harbourage. Booms and bangs above vibrated through the entire island, shaking off loose rocks from the ceiling of the massive tunnels they stood in.

"Listen," Lidia said, dropping Maija's wrist and now grabbing both her shoulders. "This may come to a surprise to you and try not to think about it too much, but we've been watching you since we found out Kaius was doing the same. We need to know why he wants you because he wants you and he wants you badly."

Maija stepped back, wrinkling her brow, trying so hard to cover her discomfort. Now two groups had been following- stalking- her. Even if these people seemed to be on her side for now, Maija still did not like that idea. Didn't feel comfortable with the knowledge- almost sick to her stomach when thinking about how every action she had ever taken, every word she had spoken had been seen and heard and probably even recorded. Somewhere a book sat, or collection of them, that detailed every moment Maija had ever experience and the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to get the hell out of there.

"Go to Cliffside," Lidia said, bringing Maija back into reality. "It's not too far from here. This sector. We can help you end this."

Maija looked back at Makhai, to the ship, and then back to Lidia, pocketing the vial of pigment. "I need a weapon. Fuel. Resources."

"Everything you're going to need will be on the ship. It's fueled up and ready."

She nodded and Lidia let go of her shoulders. Maija grabbed Makhai and they boarded the ship, Lidia already disappearing to the surface of the island. While Makhai took control of the ship and lifted it above the others to its front and back, Maija ducked below deck to equip herself finally. She couldn't wait to have a bow on her back once again. If she could even use it the same with the grappling hook leeching off her right arm.

Directly in front of the stairway down was the atlas skycore hanging from the ceiling, several attachments hooked to its bronze cylindric shape. The skycore at a base could only manage so much weight. For bigger, heavier ships, just a single skycore couldn't provide enough lift to lift the ship. Each attachment could give some help to the core by refining processing power, filtering surrounding air, and other things allowing the core to supply more lift to the ship. Given the number of attachments on this core, Maija assumed she could fit a lot more weight to the ship safely.

At the moment, it didn't seem to matter but Maija could already feel the ship quickly rising higher and higher at an almost startling speed. Several attachments added to a ship not heavy enough to call for it gave the ship a speed and agility Maija, and Makhai needed to escape from New Unity. She had chosen correctly.

Hiding behind the backside of the stairway was the fuel tank, still made from bronze and behind that were a row of metal lockers lining the back wall. Maija tore the first one open, finding several green fuel containers stacked on shelves. She moved the next and the next and the next finding an assortment of random materials filling most of them except from the last. Pulling open the final locker, just barely squeezed behind the fuel tank and the back wall, Maija found weaponry. Two leather hide holsters with silver metal pistols sitting in them, ammo in a pouch along the back of the holster's belts.

The ship's engines kicked on, slowly pushing the ship forwards. Buzzing like a bug's wings. Even through the ship's hull, the engines were loud, almost deafening. The vibrating, whirring sound bounced around and echoed through the bottom deck of the ship and Maija fought the urge to cup her hands around her ears as she slipped the holster around her waist and fastened it firmly.

Maija slipped back around and up the stairs to the top deck and into a completely different environment than the one she had come from. The red cloth still hanging from her belt flipped and gently whipped at the back of her leg as she stood at the metal, now wind filled top deck looking up into open sky.

Except it wasn't open. Hovering below the fluffy white clouds covering the sky, was a fleet of ships all arranged in a square pattern, each line of ships situated so that each ship would sit between the gap of the two ships in front of it. There were hundreds of them everywhere, blanketing the sky and ground in shadows. Every ship was firing at the island.

Maija moved around the cabin and found Makhai at the helm, piloting the ship towards empty space, dropping the ship down towards the void as quickly as possible.

"Hang on to something," Makhai said when he noticed Maija behind her. Despite his age, he was an excellent pilot and Maija always found herself surprised by that with each new maneuver he performed. This time, he pulled the helm's controls back, dipping the nose of the ship down. Wooden ailerons along the four wings all flipped downwards.

With speed that took Maija completely off her feet in more than one way, the floor she stood on sloped as the ship now flew with the power of its engines downwards. She lost her balance, landing hard on her back and slid down towards the edge of the ship's bow.

"Woah, woah, woah, what are you doing!" Maija shouted as she reached with her hands and feet trying to stop her fall. Her heels finally caught on the ledge of the deck, the ship's slope now almost vertical, the floor now more of a wall. She grappled the cabin above her and used it to stabilize herself.

"What are you doing!" Maija called out to Makhai who was still managing to pilot the ship while being pressed up against the helm almost horizontally.

"We need to get out of their sights!" Makhai shouted back, his voice strained, teeth clenched. "Out here, we're a sore thumb. We need to get down to the void, only then will we have a chance to lose them."

Maija didn't reply. Couldn't. Even from her position upright relative to the pull of gravity, it felt as if all blood in her body was pushed up into her head. The air was rushing around them, and her ears were filled with nothing but wind. And all she could do was wait. Wait and hope that Makhai could pull the ship back up before the void crushed their ship- and them with it- into a ball of metal.

A cannon fired overhead, filled Maija's ears with a different sound. It fired over the ship, just barely missing its back end. They had been found and it couldn't be more obvious who they were. They were on the run and New Unity wanted them.

More cannon's fired, coming from everywhere at once. One shot struck the bottom of the ship and exploded. Maija yelled as the entire ship rocked forwards, swinging her on the grappling hook's rope and slamming her back down to the deck. Something crunched when she landed, and pain spiked across Maija's shoulder and down to her elbow. She screamed and let herself go limp, the pull of the grappling hook on her dislocated shoulder bringing infinitely more pain, as if skin and ligaments were stretching like rubber.

She reached with her left arm for anything to grab onto, to put her weight off her shoulder but the floor was vertical in all directions. Greif drowned everything else out. The sound of the engines, wind, cannon fire. Her heart pumped with pain against her skull as everything overwhelmed her. But somehow, she remained conscious. Unaware that the light had dimmed, and the world pushed into fog. Calm ensued but she felt nothing but fiery, excruciating pain as it seemed like skin and muscle were the only thing keeping her arm attached to the rest of her body.

Eventually, after the sky turned dark gray, the ship straightened up and the pain eased just enough for Maija to slip into a blissful unconsciousness.

But when she awoke, it all came back, and it came back hard. She was now lying flat on the ground, the grappling hook completely removed from her arm. Makhai filled her vision and she jumped back, wincing and groaning between clenched teeth. He gave her little time to process what had happened.

"Okay Maija, this is going to hurt but it will be quick." He had both his hand on her right arm. One on her wrist and the other wrapped firmly around her hand, her arm stretched out from her body. "When this is over, try not to move."

"What?" was all Maija could squeeze out, still in a daze, before Makhai quickly and strongly pulled her arm back. Pain spiked through her arm as a wet thump slammed in Maija's ears. The pain instantly eased but was still very much present.

Makhai helped her sit up and quickly propped her chin up, pouring a fist full of bright red daccat berries into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed, putting her injured arm instinctively across her chest, the tart flavor of the berries almost unrecognizable.

Maija closed her eyes and look deep breaths of relief as the pain eased with each suck of air in. The healing effects of the berries acted instantly and within seconds, the pain was only a distant memory, just a numbness reminding that it had once existed.

Makhai fell back sighing loudly, a sound bold and sharp in the quietness that was the void. Maija would have heard the ship's metal frame creaking if her hammering heart had calmed.

"You had dislocated your shoulder from that hit," Makhai finally said. "I just reset it. Most of the remaining damage should be superficial. Hope it didn't hurt too bad."

Maija shook her head, conveying that she was fine. Then crooked it down, considering her thoughts. It had hurt like hell, there was no covering that up. But Makhai didn't need to worry about that, he had done his part. She rested her head back against the wall of the cabin facing the front of the ship. The lack of sound was startling, but Makhai quickly filled it as he recapped what had happened after Maija passed out.

She had only been out for a matter of minutes but as soon as Makhai had leveled the ship out after entering the void fog, they were quickly lost by New Unity. He had left the tops of the sails just barely breaking the fog allowing for him or Maija to keep a look out at times and that New Unity had returned to the island and were now slowly circling around it.

Makhai had unfurled the two sails and were moving towards a windwall. Since engine propellors would disturb the void's fog, sail power was the best they were going to get.

"A windwall?" Maija asked when she was finally feeling up to it, the berries' effects having done their job. "Cliffside is an island in this sector."

Makhai nodded at the helm, his back to her. "I never intended to bring you there. And I don't think you intend to go there either." He turned towards her. "Correct?"

Maija sighed and looked away, holding her sore arm to her side. She shook her head, "No."

"There's something special about you and I wish I could say I knew what. But I'm not going to let anyone have you. No matter what their intentions."

He stepped away from the helm and timidly turned towards her. "Maija, you know I have always wanted to give you the best life possible given the circumstances, but I feel as if I have fallen short, especially now."

She stepped forward, about to tell him how wrong he was but he cut her off before Maija had started. "We have been given an opportunity very few get, and I do not intend to waste it. Be careful. We're going to leave and never come back, go as far away as we can. We can't outrun New Unity, but we can outsmart them. Do not waste this, do you understand?"

Maija nodded. She understood. Not of what he had told her to be careful of- that had been apparent to her as soon as she had appeared in this world- but she did understood the situation they were now in, and that life may never return to how it was before. They would be on the run constantly, jumping from island to island, sector to sector. New Unity would likely put a bounty on them. They would have to hide their faces.

It wouldn't be the best life but so be it. If that's all this miserable, wretched, half assed attempted at a life had to offer then so be it. Maija was going to make sure Kaius was going to pay for every single life he had taken. She balled her fists. Nothing was going to stop her.