Kensi and I went to scout out the surrounding area, to see what kind of trouble we had to face, as well as get a lay of the land. I wasn't exactly sure what was about to happen, but it didn't feel right. As we got to the top of the hill, we saw a settlement in the distance.
"Think there are any friendlies down there?" Kensi asked.
"Don't know, but you aren't going down there." I said.
"Deeks." She said.
"This isn't up for debate. We fled a system with an Aeon presence, and now we're in the Uknown Regions. I don't believe in coincidences." I said.
"You shouldn't be going in there alone, Deeks." Callen said over the earpiece.
"I need to scan a few of the local natives. While I'm doing that, see if you can't find anymore settlements." I said.
"Deeks, you don't have to do this." Sam said.
"My android scans won't set off any radars." I said.
"Maybe." Kensi said, and then headed back to the ship.
"Kens." I said.
"Yeah." She said, turning back to me.
"I need you to hold on to something for me." I said, approaching her.
Kensi felt a sense of déjà vu had come over her. We were both on a hill overlooking the town, and I was approaching her.
"What's that?" She asked.
I reached out and pulled Kensi in for a kiss, a quick one, and after I broke the kiss, I quipped. "That. I'll be back for it later." I said, and then descended the hill.
Kensi stood there for a few moments and then headed back to the ship.
As I entered the town, I activated my scanners and checked out the townsfolk. I scanned at least twenty people, and then I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I approached the nearest stall, feigned like I was going to make a purchase, and then exited the town. I don't want a repeat of when we were in Romania and being chased by the Comescu's. As I climbed the hill, I turned to see that people following me hadn't left the town. I turned my scanners on and scouted the area. Nothing out of the ordinary, so I kept going.
I was lost in thought, going over the scans that I took of the people that I had to stop momentarily and get my bearings.
I tapped my ear, opening the channel and said. "Callen."
"What do you have Deeks?" Sam said.
"Activate long range scanners and tell me what you see?" I asked.
There was a moment of silence, and then Callen was the one to answer. "There is a small settlement south of our position."
"I'm heading back." I said.
Twenty minutes later we were all gathered around the holo map and discussing everything.
"What did you learn in the town?" Callen asked.
"This is the scan of the standard human brain." I said, putting the scan on the screen.
"Okay." Sam said.
"Stupid question: when did you take?" Callen asked.
"I took it as Kensi was walking back to the ship." I said.
"And the brains you saw in the town." Kensi said, a little perturbed by the scan I took without her permission.
"This is what I saw in town." I said, putting one of the scans I took on the scan next to Kensi'.
There wasn't a lot of difference, but Sam spoke. "Here, the middle of the brain. What's this metallic object here."
"If memory serves me, that would be the pituitary gland." I said.
There was a moment of silence while the information that I just given was being understood.
"So are you telling me that the pituitary gland in the village has been destroyed." Sam said.
"No, not destroyed, converted." Callen said.
There was another moment of silence, and I was the one to find my voice first. "Are you telling me that I just discovered how the Aeons assimilate organic matter into their collective."
No one answered, but instead Kensi nodded her head yes to answer my question.
"Well, this is one of the ways Aeons assimilate humans. They can also convert humans that are on the verge of death as well." Callen said.
"What do you think about the settlement to the south?" Sam asked.
"Whatever downed the ship has to be somewhere on this planet." I said.
"What if the cause is still up in space?" Kensi asked.
"Something about this planet caused an emergency landing. Let's not skip over the fact that we've encountered the Aeons in two different systems." I said.
"At least an Aeon presence in the second system." Sam said.
I roll my eyes and shrug my shoulders.
"Let's head to that settlement south of us." Callen said.
"Let's be quick about it." I said.
The four of us headed to the exited and filed out. Callen armed the ship and activated the cloaking device.
"When did you add that safety feature?" I asked Callen, as we started walking south.
"I got it some time ago but is the first time I'm actually using it." Callen said.
"Given what we know, or what we've seen so far, what is you opinion of this planet." Sam said.
"We can't really make anything more than assumptions because we've only seen one town. The one we're going to now maybe friendly, albeit we should assume they'll be hostile until they can determine we're not a threat to them." I said.
"What makes you think they aren't going to be hostile towards us?" Kensi asked.
"We'll have to cross that bridge when we get there." I said.
"No use bellyaching about it." Callen said, and then we fell silent for the rest of the journey.
Star Ocean-
As we were approaching the settlement, we realized that it nothing was more than a small village. I checked my watch and saw that the journey took about two hours to complete. I took in the town and tried to understand what I was looking at. The people had looked at us in shocked dismay and kept their distance. Others had taken an interest in us; it was at that point that I was able to give voice to what we were looking at.
"Callen." I said.
"What is it, Deeks?" Sam asked.
"We've stumbled upon an underdeveloped planet." I said.
"Come again." Callen said, turning to look at me.
"What?" Sam and Kensi both asked.
"Did I stutter?" I asked.
"This is serious Deeks." Callen said.
"My last statement still stands." I said.
"I guess that explains why the main town had the Aeon corruption." Callen said.
"I mean, I guess." I said.
At that moment, we were surrounded by guards and detained. We were taken to a structure in the center of town. If I was a betting man, we're being take to the elder's house and interrogated to see if we bring trouble or not. I thought.
I was wrong, way wrong. We were escorted to a wagon to the side of said building, forced in, and taken to and undisclosed location, so we, still, could be interrogated. We watched as the doors on the wagon opened and we were told to get out. We got out of the wagon and followed our captors some distance. We taken to some room with a throne.
The person sitting on the throne started speaking, but Callen, Sam, and Kensi didn't understand them. It took me a moment to boot up my communicator and start translating.
"You four are a bit of an anomaly: you're clothing is not standard dress, but the most unjustly thing is the dark one." The man sitting on the throne said.
I was about to reply, buy my eyes almost popped out of my head.
"Deeks." Kensi said.
"Yes." I said.
"What did he say?" Callen asked.
"You don't want to know, but I will say that our clothes were the first thing to be brought up." I said.
"For Deeks to be a loss for words, I'm guessing that it had something to do with me." Sam said.
"More, or less." I said.
"Do you not understand me?" The leader said.
"Yes, and with all do respect I'm going to ask you not to antagonize the dark one." I said.
"Wow." Sam said.
"Hold your tongue naïve!" One of the guards said.
"No let him speak." the leader said.
"With all due respect if we wanted to harm you, we would have done so, but there is a settlement north of here that is going to be a severe problem in the future." I said.
"How long?" A woman in a robe said.
"That's a good question, but we don't have an answer to that question." Kensi spoke up.
"Silence, woman." A man said, reaching out and place a hand on Kensi.
"I wouldn't do that if…"
Kensi cut me off by brushing the man's man off her shoulder, and then hip tossed the man. The other guards unsheathed their weapons, but Callen and Sam drew their guns.
"What do you plan to do with those?" The leader asked.
"One round Deeks?" Callen asked.
"Make it count." I said.
Callen fired one round, mere inches from the leader's head, and the guards started to charge, but Sam fired off another round, which caused them to stop. There was a moment of silence, and hesitation.
"Now that we have your attention." Kensi said.
"What sorcery is this?" One of the guards asked.
"It's not sorcery, it's a tool that you won't see for another millennia, or so." I said.
"Mi lord." The woman in the robe said.
"Stand down men." The leader ordered.
"But sire, we can't give ground to these heathens." One of the guards said.
"Heathens." Callen said.
"You can understand us now." The woman in the robe said.
"Yes, but the how, is going to be beyond your comprehension." I said.
"What are your terms." The leader said, grudgingly.
There was a moment of silence before Callen said. "We need information, and if possible, a place to stay while we investigate."
"Are you serious." Another guard said.
"What?" I asked.
"Do you actually think we would house you after that show of force?" The headguard asked.
"Sire, a word." The robed woman said.
The leader nodded his head, and then woman and the head guard approached his throne. Sam and Callen shared a look, and then Sam looked at us. Kensi and I checked our gear, and then I went into sleep mode and scanned the surrounding area, as well as check my systems and other functions. It was a good twenty minutes before Kensi came calling.
"Yeah." I said.
"We got a place to stay for the time being, as we search for the thing that caused us to land on this backwater planet." Kensi said.
"You." The woman said.
"What?" I said, turning to face her.
"I would like to speak to you, alone." She said.
"Stay with Sam, and Callen." I said.
"Will do." Kensi said, and then walked away to check in on Sam and Callen.
As Kensi left, the woman waved for me to follow her. I followed her to a staircase, and we took it to the roof. The sprawling view that spread out before me was breathtaking. It didn't take long before my sensors brought up that signal that emanated from this planet. I started to look around like I was mad, and then I locked in on the signal. It took me a moment to discern that this woman had a request as well.
"What do you require?" I asked, not looking at her.
"Your not the first person to come to this world." She said.
"Somehow that's not surprising." I said.
"I know the location of whatever made you go crazy…" she said, trailing off.
"You want to get to the point. Let me warn you that if you send us on a wild goose chase, it won't end well." I said.
"I have people that have been captured by the settlement north of here." She said.
"Okay." I said, turning to face her.
"Most of them children, a couple teenagers." She continued.
"How many in total?" I asked.
"Six, or seven." She said.
"Do you think we can get a guide—wait a minute. Are you forcing us to get your people back before you tell us what we want to know?" I asked.
"Yeah." She said.
"How do you know they won't attack while we're out retrieving your people?" I asked.
"They raid the various villages throughout the week, and ours was just raided yesterday." She said.
"What makes you think they won't come here again?" I asked.
"Honestly, I don't know. They usually raid the various villages evenly." She said.
"That could change if they saw my friends and I come here." I said.
"That's not impossible, but it's a chance we need to take." She said.
"Then I guess the only question is if we were to go and rescue your children, should we just ignore and abandon the other children that are behind held captive." I said.
There was a moment of silence, and then she said. "Give me a day or two, then we will be ready to move." She said, and then walked away.
"Excuse me." I said.
"Yes." she said, stopping without a backwards glance.
"It seems we're going to be working together for the foreseeable future." I said.
"So, it would seem." She said.
"Would be rude to ask the name of the person who I'm going to be working with." I said.
There was a moment of silence, most likely mulling over the benefit of disclosing her name, and then she said. "It's Lady Rothais." She said.
"The name's Deeks." I said.
"What kind of name is Deeks?" She asked, looking over her shoulder at me.
"The name I was given when I was born." I said.
"Just be ready to move when I call." Rothais said, as she leaving.
We went our separate ways: Rothais going to coordinate the coming raid, and I was going to inform Callen, Sam, and Kensi of the tentative deal that I brokered for the getting off of this planet.