Chapter Two: One Long Tale

Briani awoke with a start. She always did. Her eyes still closed, she slipped her hand under her pillow. The cool metal of her blaster reassured her a bit, but not enough. Pulling her blaster, and leaping to her feet in one fluid motion, Briani stood ready for an attack, an instinctive reaction she had developed.

Satisfied she was alone, the young woman holstered her weapon, but her right hand always hovered near it. Just in case. She didn't trust Kalderans. Didn't even trust most of her own people. Couldn't take the chance.

The cool morning rays of the sun filtered through the hole in the wall that pretended to be a window. She had over slept, again.

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Unnatural clouds of black hung over the wasteland. To the untrained eye, the setting would have been indistinguishable from most any other place on the planet, Svorog's Anvil. Everything was in ruins. Buildings were literally falling apart, crumbling to dust as a result of Kalderan raids. The road was blanketed in a thick layer of debris, and was merely a path to death and destruction. Scorch marks became the signatures of individual battles, and fires. Briani could account for them all. She had been there. It was part of her job.

Dodging through the wreckage, she moved in complete silence and sought a route offering the cover she needed to move about without detection. The Kalderans were gone, but she feared their return. It would have been just her luck for them to attack right when she was in route to work.

Her path was changed every day, to throw off anyone trying to follow her. She knew the area like the settings of her blaster. All members of the Resistance did.

With one final look behind her, Briani eased her body through a narrow hole, sheltered from the view of the world by a unique angle and a few withered trees, plus the occasional bolder. Black soot lined the ragged opening, hopefully giving the appearance of an impact point, explaining the hole. Unless someone knew what to look for, they wouldn't give it a second thought.

"You're late. Again."

She nearly jumped. Her hand went for her blaster before she thought, and Briani whirled on the voice. No one was going to catch her off guard and live to tell about it.

"Very good. Very good, indeed. You may live to a ripe old age with that attitude." It was Ziloc -- if that was his real name. He was perhaps the oldest man she had ever seen, but that wasn't saying much. People didn't tend to live very long with Kalderan soldiers around.

She would never get used to it; every time she turned around, it seemed like he was there. That was a very unnerving thought, actually. "Don't. Do that," Briani hissed, grudgingly lowering her weapon.

Ziloc had quite a bit of money tucked away, it was rumored, and Briani could believe it. He was a collector, a finder of artifacts. He had a collection of relics from all key points in their planet's history. Seemed to think the past was important, perhaps even more so than the present. It was odd to her, since she lived day to day, never worrying about what tomorrow would bring, and trying not to remember yesterday.

"That's the third time this week," Ziloc continued, ignoring her comment. "If you're late again, the Doku Museum will no longer be inclined to sponsor your education."

Briani winced mentally. Finishing school was her one chance to escape this backwater planet and actually do something with her life. Her parents had lived and died to provide her with knowledge and useful skills, but without the help of Ziloc's "museum", she wouldn't have a chance on her own.

"Yes, sir. I understand."

Ziloc patted her shoulder. "Then get to work, Briani Tiez." His voice was as gentle as the old warrior could make it. She smiled. He had been the closest thing to a father she'd had since her parents were both killed ten months ago. He was all she had left.

The old man disappeared into the shadows, just as he always did, and Briani climbed over fallen support beams and other obstacles created when a building begins to collapse upon itself. Dust was layered on the floor, and her thick boots sent a small cloud of it rising into the air with each step.

She didn't stop until she reached a wall battered and, to the untrained eye, immoveable. Only battle scars adorned the rough surface, and a thin layer of rust began to eat away at the small sections of exposed metal.

Tossing a long glance into the shadows around her, she watched carefully for any movement, any sign that someone else was present. Pulling her eyes back to the wall, Briani rested a hand on the cool surface, applying gentle pressure.

When her hand dropped back to her side, a dimly lit impression of her handprint beamed through the wall. As the light went out, she glared sideways at the surrounding area, daring someone -anyone- to try and sneak past her.

The wall parted in a jagged line through the middle, but no crack had been visible before. A dark black tunnel was revealed, in much better shape than anything she had seen earlier. The steps leading downward were clean, and bright. The walls of the tunnel were made of a nice, solid metal, braced and supported by huge beams. Thin, dim lights lined the path on each side, providing the only source of light.

Briani entered, knowing the wall was already sealing behind her. Time for work.

Everyday, she completed an inventory, using a hand-held scanner Ziloc had acquired somehow. Several chambers were interconnected underground, and each one of them represented a different aspect of their culture. One of them in particular was her favorite. She wasn't sure why.

Maybe it was the unexplainable urge to smile she always felt upon entering. Or perhaps she simply admired Ortiz and anything connected with her. She was, in fact, one of Briani's childhood heroes.

The strange relics ranged from a DNA sample the Kalderans acquired, and promptly discarded, to a piece of ragged clothing. Briani grinned at the memory of the Resistance report from that day. Apparently, some off- worlders had decided to help Ortiz, and, to buy themselves more time to prepare, gave the Kalderans a body. When they sampled the body's DNA, and found it was not who they sought, the Kalderans threw the sample away. That had been quite a story.

In fact, one of those off-worlders had been injured, Briani remembered, trudging to the far side of the room. A long stasis chamber took up a large section of the room, pushed against the far wall. It looked like a modified torpedo to Briani, but she was no engineer, so...

The glass panel on the lid was fogged over completely, and she crept up to peer inside. When she had first learned of the contents of the chamber, Briani hadn't believed it. It couldn't be the tail.

But it was.

Briani leaned over the chamber, and brushed the ice crystals from the lid. Pressing her face against the glass, she looked inside. Furrowing her brow, she blinked and looked again, thinking her eyes were fooling her somehow. And then she started to panic.

It was gone.

"Whatcha looking for?" a shy voice asked from behind her.

Briani turned sharply, and grabbed from her blaster...but it wasn't where it should have been either! Glaring fiercely at the silhouetted outline of a girl before her.

"Oh...You're probably looking for this, huh?" the girl asked, holding the blaster with her tail. What? Tail?

"What are you?" Briani asked in wonder, finally pulling the pieces together.

"I'm...well...I'm Trance." She sounded so innocent.

Briani lunged at her, trying to tear the gun away. But she had underestimated the girl, and somehow ended up flat on the floor, the breath knocked out of her.

"I think I'd like to leave, now," Trance told her firmly, the complete opposite of how she had acted before. The blaster mocked Briani as it aimed downward at her. "Take me, please. Now."

TBC…

Soooooo… Love it, hate it? Hehe thanks to those of you who reviewed! Please do so again. I may not post the whole thing if I don't get the reviews I'm after, so those of you who haven't read it will just have to…well, review! ^_~