Several Lawgivers were gathered in their headquarters but the place was remarkably silent given the number of people. Everyone was sitting around, while a young Lawgiver relayed what he saw to his superior, Libra.
No one said a word, none of them dared. While most of the Lawgivers had a certain mean streak in them, and were not averse to conflict, Libra was on a whole different level. They all stat, silently watching him as he rang his hands tightly in front of him, tensing up after hearing his spy's report.
"I presume you are mistaken." Libra said in warning, glaring at the young guard, his voice low and considered. He just shook his head warily. "My sister?"
"She was with the outsider, the one that plays with us on occasion." The Lawgiver said nervously, starting to look around, hoping that the others were ready to intervene. He knew they wouldn't though. Even if he WASN'T the superior officer, Libra's strength and temper were well known to them. "I saw them together myself."
"And...you did...nothing?" Libra asked in an eerily calm voice. The young Lawgiver didn't say anything, not knowing what to say that would make the situation any better. To say anything against Cassetopeia would be insulting Libra's sister, which he was not keen to do. Saying that he had done nothing while she openly defied the expectation she was to marry Orion with an outsider would be...dereliction of duty? He wasn't sure, but he had a feeling Libra would see it that way. To say something about Jake, well, it was clear Libra was already unhappy about the outsiders and the effect they were having on the village, so he doubted bringing that subject up would make things better.
Libra didn't wait for an answer. He started ranting nonsensically and angrily, cursing loudly in his native tongue in a deluge that lasted for an uncomfortably long time. He rounded on them.
"This outrage will NOT stand!" He roared. "I will not have my faith, my people, and most of all my family disgraced by this...abomination!"
"Sir...with all due respect..." One of the others started to say, but Libra silenced him with just a glare. He was in no mood to be argued with.
"Sir, we are yours, we will support you in any course of action you take." One of the others replied. "But the outsiders are leaving of their own volition soon."
"So they leave, and THEN what?" He asked. "They have brought their tainted technology and ideas here in the short time they are here. What if they return? What if they bring others with them?"
None of them said anything in response. He just rose and started pacing.
"Our young will understand one day that we are doing this for their own good." He stated. "They will resent us for now, but in time when they have their own young they will thank us!"
"Sir...I merely ask...what do you intend to DO about it?" One of them asked. "Centuri has already decreed we are not to confront the outsiders. We are not to prevent them leaving."
"I have no intention of keeping them from leaving." He stated. "I just intend to ensure they do not wish to return."
He looked to one of them and smiled.
"You are on Draco's Frakkushia team aren't you?" He asked. The other Lawgiver just nodded. "I will need your uniform."
In the tavern, Orion sat, turning everything he had heard over in his mind. He could hardly believe what he had heard. He had listened as his people, and above all Centuri, had been accused of running the settlement like a concentration camp, controlling what people were allowed to see and hear and think, even deciding who was and wasn't allowed to leave.
He didn't want to believe it. His heart went back to his life on Andresia, all those years ago before The Armada came. There had been tragedy in his live, he could barely remember his parents, but he could remember them. Then one day, they were gone, and since that time he had been raised by Centuri.
Centuri had no children of his own. The Earth Gods had not chosen to bless him and his wife with offspring for reasons known only to them. He had raised Orion as his own. Orion had many fond memories of that upbringing. People of the village would run to Centuri in the street, asking him for advice, or presenting him with gifts for blessing their households. Even after he had left the school and taken on work in the mines, Orion's lessons continued. He had made the decision early in his life that he would be a preacher just like Centuri.
He could remember good times as an adult as well. He loved his work in the mines, reaping the bounties his Gods had bestowed upon them. More than that though, he could remember that the other workers made work that was strenuous, tedious, and at times even painful a lot of fun! He would regularly play and joke with his colleagues in the mine, and memories of their spirited drinking sessions that ended most days still made his heart swell to this day.
Unfortunately, his head had doubts. He was not blind. Part of his journey across the stars was that he was exposed to other ways, other ideologies. He remembered at first, when Lafitte had originally taken him onto his crew, he and Marv would mock him for his insistence on praying and observing some of his holidays. At first, he took it as an insult, and would lash out when they did. He only tolerated their barbs because his need for vengeance outweighed his outrage over their lack of respect for his ways.
Over time though, he noticed that Marv would openly joke about Lafitte's culture and habits, and in return, Lafitte would do the same. It was when he saw them smiling and laughing doing this that in time he learned there was no malice behind it. They both accepted they weren't the same and that they would say and do things that seemed to range from the odd to the ridiculous to each other, and even respected it. They were able to point out the things that didn't make sense to them in each other's way of life, and remain friends. He couldn't remember exactly when it happened, but eventually he found himself joining in.
He remembered a similar thing happening when he joined the Rangers. They didn't understand him, or some of the things he said and did, but they gave him space, and allowed him to practice his faith, even when it was clear to him they didn't understand what he thought and believed. In retrospect, having learned some of their ways, he had even looked at some of his customs, and started to realise that there were things that in a certain light seemed to be more than a little silly, while seeing that the same was true of their ways.
He wasn't blind to the fact that some of the things he had been taught no longer seemed to fit with the things he had experienced in his trials. Gia had been the biggest test for him. He had known her for months, he had come to like and respect her. He had fought side by side with her on many battlefields before he found out completely by accident that she was homosexual. In that moment, he had said something that very nearly cost him his closest friends.
He didn't think about it before, but as he prayed and studied his scriptures, he had come to realise that it wasn't even a part of his faith. The Gods had said nothing about homosexuality at all. The attitudes his people had to it were taught to them by people who taught them the scriptures, and so they had accepted them as such. It was then that he learned there was a stark difference between his scriptures, and the religion formed around it by people with their own ideas and prejudice. His teachers were not infallible; they had their own vices that they passed on in their teachings.
That was what troubled him. He knew that Centuri had taught him things that his own experience had shown him to be questionable, or completely untrue. Was it possible this was true? Was it possible that Centuri's devotion to his interpretation of the Faith would drive him to subjugate his own people? To force them to walk the path he laid out for him? It pained him to think the man he considered a father would do that. He had spoken with him only hours ago about his arranged marriage, and while he had been unhappy with Orion's decision to refuse it, he didn't get the impression he intended to try and force him.
He couldn't deny the evidence though. Others had been hurt, been forced to follow the path laid out to them by their elders. He got up off the bed, throwing the book in his hands onto the pile of confiscated contraband on his bed. He needed to be sure; he needed to see for himself.
Back in the village, Noah was sitting with some young Andresians outside the tavern. They all looked more than a little nervous as Noah waited.
"This is a mistake, he'll tell Centuri for sure!" One of them stated. Noah just looked to him. He didn't know much Andresian, but he recognised the name.
"You don't need to worry..."
"He's Centuri's loyal little lap dog, he always has been!" One of them protested. "He's practically his son! He'll go straight to him and tell him..."
"Hey, Orion's his own man." Noah assured them.
"Centuri raised him since he was crawling on his belly! He..."
"Trust me on this." Noah told them. "On Earth, kids don't have to do everything their parents tell them. If I was expected to follow in my parent's footsteps, someone's seriously screwed that up."
Just then, Orion came storming out of the tavern. Noah tried to approach him, but he just shoved past him. They all followed him as he made his way to the library, finding two Lawgivers standing guard at the door. They had been told when they arrived that the building was shut down for safety concerns, but Orion could see no signs of work to reinforce it or renovate. One of the Lawgivers held up a hand.
"This building is off-limits." He stated. Orion just looked to him sceptically.
"I'm going in there." Orion answered. "There's something I need to see."
"I'm sorry, but no one is allowed to go into that building." The Lawgiver reiterated.
"On whose instruction?" Orion asked. The guard didn't say anything else.
"Orion, my Preacher, please leave." He answered. "I don't want to harm you."
"I don't want you to try." Orion replied, before beginning to make his way forwards. The two Lawgivers raised their clubs, but didn't get a chance to use them. Before either of them could respond, Orion had disarmed one of them, and levelled them both with the club, before heading to the door. He kicked it straight off the hinges into the building, and walked in. He wished he hadn't as he found just as Noah had said, the building was filled with magazines, books, computers...all confiscated because they contained information from outside of the settlement. It didn't seem to matter at all how innocuous it was, he found a whole stack of Harry Potter novels. He turned around and headed back out into the street, to the Lawgivers who were still lying on the ground. He grabbed one of them, peeling him off the ground by the lapels of his coat, and shaking him roughly.
"Who ordered this?" He demanded angrily. When he didn't get an answer, he punched the helpless guard hard across the face. "WHO?"
"Orion, stop..." Noah was cut off as Orion shoved him away, before turning back to the guard. He needed to hear it.
"WHO?" He barked. Eventually, the guard just looked to him in panic.
"Centuri ordered these materials to be outlawed." He told Orion. "Libra enforces his decree that possession of literature from outside of the Reservation is heresy."
Orion just shoved him to the ground, looking to him in disgust. It was true. All of it was true. He turned and started to walk off, knowing there was somewhere he had to be.
"Orion, I'm really sorry..." Noah was cut off as Orion snapped something in Andresian. Noah just sighed. "I'm guessing by context that's the Andresian version of 'bite me'."
"Yeah." One of the young Andresians replied, patting Noah on the shoulder. "You just go on believing that."
In a field a little way off, the villagers were beginning to gather. It was some viable farming land that had been converted into a Frakkishia field as one of the many measures taken to help the Andresians form a community they could call their own.
Frakkushia was an enjoyable, albeit slightly rough and raucous game that had been enjoyed on Andresia. Given that there weren't many Andresians left, and not all of them settling in one place, there was basically only one field and two teams in the world. It was only played on the reservation now.
It was a complex game, but the short-hand version of it was that it was essentially soccer with a lot more contact. The two teams, teams of eight, would set up on opposite sides of the field, and for 120 minutes, separated into one hour halves, try to kick the ball into the opposing team's Khrakka or goal, a four foot diameter round net, held about three feet off the ground.
Like soccer, it was not permitted to hold or carry the ball, or even hit it with the hand, but anything above the elbow was considered legal. However, the main thing about the game was that contact was not only legal, it was actively encouraged. Tackles, throws and take-downs were all perfectly legitimate ways to halt the progress of a potential striker. It was a rough game that Jake was a little thrown by at first, but he had found he really enjoyed. Not only did it comprise a lot of the things he enjoyed about martial arts and soccer, it was also helpful training for his soccer career since the greater contact encouraged him to hone his reflexes and speed, encouraging him to learn to dodge rather than confront tackles.
Gia, Cat and Emma were all standing on one edge of the field, waiting for the game to start. One team was already out on the field, but the other team hadn't arrived yet, causing a bit of a stir among the crowd.
"What's taking so long?" Gia grumbled. "The game was meant to have started by now."
"Maybe Jake needed a little rest." Troy suggested as he arrived, bringing some drinks with him. Cat just looked at him.
"Why, did you hurt him in training?" She asked.
"Oh, he won't be hurt." Troy said with a little smirk. "But he might just be a little distracted."
"What do you mean by that?" Gia asked. Troy just nodded to the opposite side of the field, where Cass was standing with some opposing fans. Emma just smiled.
"You mean...?"
"I don't know what they got up to, but when I left, let's just say...they looked like they were getting along pretty well." Troy told them.
"Aw, that's great, Jake's a great guy." Emma commented. "He spends a fair bit of time around here anyway; it could be good for him."
"Yeah, after what happened with Allis..." Cat's words tailed off as she saw Troy. It wasn't something anyone asked for, but it was still a situation that was a little sensitive in places. "Um...sorry."
"No offence taken." Troy replied. "I know that didn't end well for anyone."
"Well, instead of worrying about that, why don't we concentrate on the game?" Emma asked. "Isn't that Libra on the field?"
"Oh great, Mr Personality is playing." Gia said sarcastically. "Is it just me or does he look more pissed than usual?"
Meanwhile, just off the field, Jake was pacing, looking around as his team prepared.
"Where the hell is Orion?" Jake grumbled, checking the time.
"It doesn't matter, we can't delay the game any longer or we have to forfeit." One of the other players replied. "I guess that's what we have substitutes for. I'll start off in Orion's place. Jake, you're taking centre."
"On it." Jake answered. With that, they all ran out onto the field and started to line up to a few cheers. Draco looked to Libra as they saw this.
"Remember what to do." Libra told him. Draco just nodded in understanding. As they lined up, Libra was a little off the centre, behind Draco. Orion had already granted kick-off to Draco's team. Draco kicked off, and Jake was stunned as the ball came almost straight to him. He was looking for a pass off to another player; he wasn't expecting the ball to come to him.
Then, before he had a chance to think about where he was, much less what to do with the ball, Libra came charging in like a freight train, wrapping a thick arm around his head in a vicious lariat takedown that threatened to tear Jake's head clean off his shoulders. He flew backwards, landing sickeningly on the back of his head and neck, rolling backwards and ending up face-down on the ground. Draco's team made short work of getting the first goal.
As Jake started to peel himself off the ground, stroking his jaw, he was sure he could catch the faintest hint of a satisfied smile on Libra's face.