Chapter Four: Onward March
About two days after the negotiations, an army of fourteen Taelons, Da'an, Mi'en and Ta'lay included, and one hundred and sixty three humans, Renee, Link, and Liam included were on board several Taelon shuttles on their way to Jaridia. Da'an did not want Link to go with them, but as a former marine, he insisted. In reality, he just wanted to be close to Da'an to make sure she didn't get hurt.
The passengers of the ships entered the Jaridian atmosphere to see a juxtaposition of a mighty acropolis and the war-torn outside. The Citadel was about the size of a large college campus. There were droves of black and green buildings stacked together in a network, about three stories tall each, that surrounded five buildings each as tall as the Empire State Building. Balvak explained to the humans that the five buildings were the Citadel itself, and the surrounding buildings were facilities, labs, storage houses, and living quarters for the staff and the leaders. Each of the five buildings belonged to the five branches of the Jaridian government: the lawmakers, the hierarchy, the civilian courts, the military courts, and the high council of generals who governed the military and who took over the entire government in times of war. The hierarchy had been dormant for thousands of years due to the never-ending Taelon-Jaridian War. Tradition was all that kept it existent. One of the biggest issues the Jaridian resistors had was the hierarchy's overall uselessness. They accused the high council of deliberately keeping the Taelon-Jaridian War going on for their own self-interests, rendering the hierarchy useless. Many of the dissenters were former members of the hierarchy.
Outside of the Citadel was a far different story. Fires had broken out everywhere. There was anarchy in the streets, which had been torn from under them. Buildings everywhere had been destroyed due to bombings from both sides. The devastation was driving more and more civilians to side with the rebellion by the hour. Those few still loyal had been driven to hiding or security within the Citadel. The shuttles landed in the center of the Citadel next to the great five buildings. The sounds of gunfire and bombs exploding could be heard even within the Citadel. Soldiers were waiting to quickly escort the humans to their living quarters where they would also be vaccinated. The Taelons were escorted to a different living quarters while the leaders were rushed inside the high council's building.
Renee, Liam, Da'an and Link were led to the Jaridian high council meeting room, which had eerie similarities to the UN meeting floor, where sixteen generals and five Jaridian peace leaders were waiting. Da'an could feel the menacing glowers from the Jaridian generals as she sat at the front row between Link and Liam behind a long desk facing a large stage. Renee sat next to Liam. The Jaridians had no concept of podiums. A single speaker only had himself and the stage to use to make his argument. The Jaridian generals took their respective seats. One of them sat behind Da'an and started blowing at her.
"Hey! Taelon abomination!" he whispered. "That is supposed to be my seat!"
Da'an ignored him, and Link took Da'an's hand more to restrain himself from whirling around to verbally attack him.
"Be sure not to leave your Taelon germs on my chair," the same general whispered.
Several of the other generals had been snickering at the general's slurs and joined in.
"Does she provide pleasure for you, human man-whore?" one of them taunted at Link.
Link rolled his eyes.
"What would you say if I said that I was going to spit on you for defiling my seat, Taelon?"
"Do you bleed now that you are a lost one, Taelon? Can I cut you?"
Liam had been boiling the whole time they uttered slurs at Da'an. "How do you sit there and take that?" he asked Da'an in frustration.
"These types of insults have followed me my whole life, Liam," Da'an said. "I tolerate them the same way they would if it was just them surrounded by a group of Taelons: I sit and pretend not to hear it."
"Order!" Balvak cried. The slurs and jeers stopped. Liam and Link sighed at the same time, while Da'an appeared undisturbed. "We have called this meeting and received the assistance of our allies to battle in order to stop the threat of the rebels once and for all. Our intentions here are to explain the details of our strategy to our newcomers. Vorjak, you have the floor."
"These Jaridian generals act like drinking buddies," Renee whispered to Liam.
"Thousands of years of unquestioned rule will do that," Liam replied.
"You guys are losing to these wankers?" Link whispered to Da'an.
"The Taelon Synod is just as comfortable in their seats as the high council. The only difference is that, with a Commonality, the Synod has to pretend it knows what its doing. Completely closed from the people and little to no opposition has turned these men into gods. They can get away with anything now. They are what keeps this war going, and the only reason we are losing to them is because a lack of a planet has cursed us with a tendency to run out of supplies a lot more quickly."
"In other words, you guys are cowards who act like you're not while the Jaridians are jack-asses who think that they're not."
"Leadership-wise, yes," Da'an replied.
Link scoffed. "Man, I hope our governments never get this screwed up."
Da'an retired with Link to her quarters worn out from the briefing session. The squabbling and debating about how to refine and foolproof the strategy had dragged the meeting from the scheduled hour to four hours straight with no rest. The Jaridian intelligence had informed the high council that the resistance headquarters was located some distance outside the city. It was decided that air support would clear a path towards a field some miles away from the headquarters. Human soldiers and Jaridian loyalists would stage a diversion in that field drawing the larger forces there. Meanwhile, a small task force would be making their way towards the headquarters to capture the separatist leaders and bring them to justice. Finally, air support would mop up any final resistance. The debate had been over how to make the strategy as bloodless as possible. The Jaridian generals had not limited their verbal abuse to the meeting room. They followed Da'an until Geris and Balvak stepped in and told them to back off.
"I don't ever want to go through a meeting like that again," Link heaved.
"I believe that would have lasted even longer if not for the apparent urgency going on outside," Da'an said. Distant thundering echoed outside the walls. "Speak of the devil."
"Well, sleep well, babe," Link said kissing her cheek. "Big day tomorrow."
"Actually I am only going to lay down for about an hour," Da'an said. "I have to go to the Taelon living quarters to inspect the living conditions."
"Need an escort?" Link offered.
"I will be fine," Da'an said. "Liam is going to meet me there."
"Well, here's my radio," Link said handing her a small walkie-talkie. "Call me if you need anything."
"Thank you…for putting up with all of this," Da'an said.
"Hey, I'm your boyfriend. Putting up with crap is what I do," Link joked.
After she watched Link enter his room, Da'an entered hers and quickly locked the door. It was the same green and black that Da'an had expected. There was an energy shower set up for her in preparation by Balvak's people. The bed was as hard as plywood, but the Jaridians had been kind enough to give Da'an a set of plush and soft pillows. There was also a desk and a storage tank with Jaridian drinks that Da'an knew she would never touch. The trip coupled with the stressfully dragging meeting had drained Da'an. She set the energy shower to turn itself off in one hour and lay under the soft current of energy that relaxed her every nerve into a dreamless slumber.
An abrupt knock outside interrupted Da'an's peace. She checked the energy shower's timer. It had not even been ten minutes! A frustrated blush rolled down Da'an's spine as she marched to the controls that unlocked the door.
It was Lili, with a small red-haired infant cradled in a blanket.
"Oh no," Da'an muttered about to close the door, but Lili stepped in before she could get to the controls.
"We need to talk," Lili said.
"No, we do not have to do anything. We stopped doing anything together at your discretion," Da'an said.
"Could you just give me five minutes?" Lili demanded.
"I wouldn't give you five nanoseconds!" Da'an shot back in irritation.
"Da'an please, you need to know this."
"Need to know what?"
"It's about you and Ariel."
"That little harpy and I have nothing in common."
"Goddamn it, Da'an! Just look at her! Please!" Lili cried.
The baby stirred some, but the long silence soothed her back to sleep. Da'an sighed. "Come in."
Da'an locked the door behind her and watched her sit.
"Aren't you going to sit?" Lili asked.
"I will stand, thank you," Da'an said tonelessly. "What do you want?"
"I told you to look at her," Lili said standing. She bobbed Ariel a little to awaken her. The girl started to whine, but Lili rocked her enough to bring her whines down to a baby coo. "Look into her eyes."
Da'an reluctantly came closer and stared at the baby. In shock, she jumped back. The baby's eyes were blue, just like hers! "What is this?"
"When you gave your energy to me, your DNA must have fused with mine and Vorjak's as her body was forming inside of me," Lili said. "I didn't want to believe it at first, but then…when I saw you on the screen with your red hair. The resemblance gave it away. If I had known you were alive, I would've told you sooner."
"Are you saying that thing is partly mine?" Da'an asked.
Lili nodded. "I'm sorry, Da'an. I never meant to hurt you, but I was desperate."
"No," Da'an panted.
"She was my daughter. I couldn't just let her die," Lili tried to explain.
"Get out," Da'an panted.
"Please, try to understand."
"Get out!"
"Da'an, can't you just look at me?"
There was a pounding outside. "Is everything okay in there?" Link cried.
"Link!" Da'an screamed. She thrust her hands on the controls to unlock the door.
"What's going on here?" Link asked.
"I want her out," Da'an said. "I want her and her…freak out of here!"
"You heard the lady," Link said to Lili. "Get moving."
"Da'an, I need to tell you something else, something I couldn't tell you on Earth."
"Get out!" Da'an yelled thrusting her hand out to the right. There was a loud bang, which was followed by the appearance of a large dent in the wall.
Ariel burst into tears and started screaming. Lili shuddered and left the room. Link took Da'an's arm and pulled her in for a hug. "What happened?"
"Her child—it has my DNA," Da'an panted. "That thing is partly mine."
"Doesn't mean she's your responsibility," Link assured.
"I want to go to the living quarters," Da'an said.
"I'll go with you," Link said walking her out of the room.