Chapter 5
Jeena immediately got the transmission up and going as she contacted our commander, his face appearing on the console once we did so. "Rallen, Jeena! Is that you? Do you copy?" Grant asked.
"Yes, we hear you, Commander! Oh, we're so glad to hear your voice," Jeena said with a smile as Maja stayed back.
"Are you okay?" Commander Grant asked.
"We're fine sir. We happened to get sent into a portal and during the process, one of the High Krawl invaded our ship and suddenly lost all of her memories," Rallen said.
"Hmm... so they did traverse the portal..." Grant said to himself, me confused at that part.
"Commander? You read?" Jeena asked.
"Yes, I'm still here... you say that a female High Krawl lost her memories? You're absolutely sure?" Grant asked.
"You can meet her now if you want," Jeena smiled as she stepped back and Maja smiled as she gently sat down in the chair.
"Um... hello sir," Maja said with a bit of shyness.
"So, you say you remember nothing?" Grant asked.
"Only what Rallen and Jeena have told me... from what they say I used to be evil... but I don't want to be evil anymore. I want to help defeat these Krawl. And the Krawl are attacking the system we're currently in, the Kaio System. Why I have no clue, but I can't remember anything so I don't know what they're planning," Maja said with seriousness.
"You said Krawl in the Kai- Sys-" Grant was about to say before the link suddenly died.
"The link's dead... that was odd, wasn't it?" Jeena asked.
"You mean when he said that thing about traversing a portal?" Maja asked.
"Yeah, how would he have known about the portal even though he sent us out to the location with no idea of what the sector held?" Jeena asked.
"Eh, you're overthinking things, girls. Besides, we need to go find this Kamtoga guy and get to Doldogo. I wonder what kind of planet it'd be," I said, trying to get them to think of the main issue.
"Yeah, you're right. Maja, get strapped into our passenger seat, we're going to go for a ride," Jeena said.
"Okay," Maja smiled as she got into the passenger seat and strapped in as Jeena and I did the same thing before we input the coordinates for Doldogo and proceeded to fly our way over there. When we got to the planet, we were in awe by how it looked. A giant ring of energy surrounded the smaller planet that looked to be absolutely covered in plant life! We went to the coordinates of the main town on the place and we landed in a small place just outside the village and across what looked to be a small stream.
"Ah... smell that sweet forest air," Maja smiled as she exited the cockpit and we were about to move forward before she scrunched her nose at something. "Wait... something's not right with this water... Whoa! Have a look at this!" Maja exclaimed when she saw the river, me and Jeena listening and rushing to her to see something we didn't expect. The river wasn't made of water. It looked to be made of poison! "This water is being poisoned by Krawl... I can smell their stench inside of this river," Maja groaned as we then got noticed by a villager.
"Hey, who are you guys? And why does one of you look like the monsters that are in the forest?!" he asked, Maja sighing at that and looking at the man with a frown.
"Please don't lump me in with those disgusting creatures. I don't like being classified as one anymore than you do," Maja frowned at him.
"Oh... sorry... wait, what are those things by your feet?" the guy asked.
"They're Spectrobes. Do you know where we may find the one in charge in this village?" Jeena asked.
"You must mean Greta. She's in the house in the center of town, fashioned out of a large hollow tree," the man said.
"Thanks," I said as we went to the large tree and knocked on the door, wondering if she was in.
"Come in," I heard a voice say on the other side. A deep woman voice. We went inside and she turned around at us while speaking in an annoyed fashion. "And just where did you run off to, HUH?!" the woman asked, her spooking me a bit when she yelled like that, her only then looking surprised by our group.
"Hmm?! I don't know who you are and I don't like strangers. Who are you?" Greta asked.
"Sorry to intrude, miss. I'm Jeena and this is Rallen, we're NPP officers," Jeena said as she showed her ID on her badge that was on her hand, same with me. Maja then timidly approached the large woman with orange hair and looked a bit concerned.
"I-I don't mean to be rude, but do you know if a man named Kamtoga had come here recently?" Maja asked.
"And why would I tell you that? You look like the-" Greta was about to say before I stuck up for Maja.
"Look, she doesn't like being compared to the Krawl and she doesn't even remember her life from five hours ago and backwards. So please, tell us, have you seen Kamtoga?" I asked her.
"I've actually been trying to contact Kamtoga myself! It's a complete disaster out in the forest! The Krawl are invading the forest and now they're starting to contaminate our rivers with poison. We've had to resort to storing our water since they started to poison the rivers," Greta said.
"That sounds bad. But what was that thing you mentioned before? When you mistook us for someone else?" Jeena asked.
"Well, my daughter, Salia, ran into the forest to protect it. She'd risk her life for that forest. I don't really like to rely on strangers, but I see you all have Spectrobes on you. Could I entrust you to try and find her and see about trying to fix the rivers?" Greta asked.
"We'll find her, we promise," Maja said as she then left the place and I went after her, Maja sighing as Jeena and I caught up with her afterwards. "Sorry... I'm just... why does everyone have to lump me in with the Krawl? I get I'm the same species, but if I'm willingly among humans, it would be obvious I'm not going to attack, right?" Maja groaned in frustration.
"It's because there has never been a single instance of a good Krawl in the past. You're pretty much the only good Krawl in existence, so people are going to be suspicious of you no matter where we go... I don't like it anymore than you do, Maja. You deserve better treatment," I said to her, Maja sniffling and smiling at me for the first time in awhile. And instead of in the past when she would mock me after smiling, this new Maja did something different. She approached me and then kissed me on the cheek, me in shock that she did that as was Jeena. Now it was official. The past Maja would never think of trying to kiss me of all people! She really was changed and she really wasn't acting anything.
"That... uh..." Maja said as she blushed pink on her purple skin.
"It's fine. It felt nice," I admitted to her.
"Mm," Maja smiled as Jeena looked at me with a smile.
"Okay, lovebirds, let's go find Salia and stop screwing around," Jeena smiled at us.
"R-Right," Maja said with a blush again as we continued forward, making sure to have our Spectrobes search the ground for more minerals and fossils.