Sophie glanced sideways at me, and then looked at the air in front of us.
“Oh yes.” She grinned, before poking her finger into the force field, which gave off sparks.
“Sophie!” I pulled her hand back quickly.
She rolled her eyes and laughed at me. “Worry wart.”
I turned to face her. “What do we do now then?”
Sophie quickly held her teleport watch up to her eye level and flipped the main compartment open, showing the screen I remembered from last night. She touched the teleport watch to the force field and then reeled back from the shock.
“I can’t teleport through here.” She eventually told me.
“I told you.” I muttered.
Sophie looked at me timidly. “Yeah, you did, and you were right. Your people are good with force fields.” She said, and then her tone changed drastically. “But all force fields have weak spots, and all we have to do is find this one’s.”
“And you want me to use my powers to do that.” I smirked knowingly.
“Well….” Sophie sounded awkward. “Yeah, I do.”
“Alrighty then.” I stepped forward slightly, and held my hands out palm-first in front of me. My eyes slid shut, and I concentrated. Suddenly I could feel the particles of the air all swirling around me, bumping into each other and the more solid, fixed particles of the ground and trees, and Sophie and I. I grimaced as I felt the electrical energy of the force field, and moving my mind around I felt for a chink in the structure of the force field. I frowned as I felt around and then stretched my concentration further along the force field to try and find a weak spot. But I still couldn’t.
“Abi?” Sophie’s voice sounded to me, and I turned, my eyes flickering open.
“I can’t find anything yet.” I told her. “We’ll have to go further along.”
“Alright.” Sophie grabbed my hand and we walked parallel to the force field until I found an adequate spot to try again.
Eyes closed, hands outstretched, I focused on the force field, and this time I found something, a small gap, absolutely miniscule, in the fabric of energy in front of me. My eyes flew open.
“Sophie!”
She ran over from where she’d been standing. “Where is it?”
“Right there!” I pointed up to the weak spot I’d found.
Sophie squinted, as if trying to make it out. “Yeah, I think I can see it.”
I nudged her, grinning. “Don’t lie, I know you can’t.”
She pouted and huffed. “Fine, but let’s at least hope I’ll be able to teleport through it.”
“Yeah.” I said absentmindedly.
Sophie opened her teleport watch again, and started typing some things on the small keypad she had on there, occasionally glancing at the force field or the screen.
After about two minutes, she flipped the compartment shut and reached out for my hand.
“Okay?” she asked me.
“Okay.” I replied confidently.
And so Sophie pressed a button on the watch with her free hand and the world disappeared.
Teleporting was the strangest and most exciting experience of my life. I felt like my lungs had been completely compressed as we rushed into blackness. I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t feel anything but my own body and the grip Sophie had on my hand, and then suddenly we were back in the world again. I stumbled slightly as we landed, feeling off-balance. I looked up at where we were, and then behind me, where the border of the shimmering, blue force field was now situated. We did it.
I turned to grin at Sophie.
“What did you think of that?” Sophie asked me with a raised eyebrow.
“It was… interesting.” I said breathlessly, still trying to regain my composure.
Sophie laughed. “Yeah it sure was.”
I would have laughed too, but I didn’t have any breath to laugh with.
“Come on.” Sophie said, and pulled me through the trees. We were heading in the direction of the spaceship.
A few long minutes of running, and then we reached the tree line, facing the spaceship.
It was completely different to the last time I’d been there.
Instead of soldiers piling out of the spaceship, they were everywhere, set up in factions around the field. Looking to the right, in the distance, I could see the base set up almost directly in front of my town, with people trying to break through the force field from there. I shrunk back into the bushes as I noticed the amount of people with guns standing around guarding the ship, with some very close to where Sophie and I now were.
“Don’t worry.” Sophie told me. “I have a plan.”
“Really?” I turned to face her.
“Well, sort of.” She admitted, grinning madly at me.
She then pulled one of the gadgets from her belt and held it up.
“Is that a scanner?” I asked in bewilderment, staring at the device.
“Yes, but it’s not holographic.” She said shortly. “I already had this one, I just added onto it.” She turned the scanner to face me. “Smile!”
I obliged and she took a photograph of me.
“Alright, but what are you scanning with it?” I watched as she moved the scanner from side to side and then focused it.
“The spaceship.” Sophie answered casually.
“What exactly for?” I continued.
“To find a way to get in there, basically.” She stated.
“Uh, okay.”
A bout of silence ensued, except for the small sound of the scanner beeping.
Finally Sophie put the scanner away.
“That sort of worked.” Sophie said, obviously not happy with the outcome. “But I need to get closer to get better results.”
“Yeah, good luck with that.” I told her, rolling my eyes.
As Sophie fiddled with more gadgets on her belt, I counted the guards, and there were way too many for my liking. I wondered for like the millionth time, why were the humans here? The way they were all marching around looked like this was a war, but as far as I knew my people hadn’t done anything to the humans. I hadn’t even heard of humans before last night. I guess I’d find out why they were here in due time. I looked down at the ground of the field, and noticed the rubbish everywhere. Did these people even care? They came to my planet, they wanted to attack my people, and now they were leaving their rubbish around like this was a junkyard. I’d been happy to give these guys a little leeway up until now, thinking that they might be misunderstood, but you don’t need to understand anything complex to know not to pollute the environment. Even if these humans were misled, they obviously didn’t care too much about anyone but themselves. I could feel anger boiling up inside me.
I didn’t even realise my fists were clenched until Sophie nudged me.
“Are you okay Abi?” she asked, looking worried.
I shook my head. “I just can’t believe how…. careless they are! I mean they’ve invaded this planet, ready to attack my people, and they just walk around like they own the place.”
Sophie nodded, her expression bitter. “I know, it’s horrible to look at.” She glared at the ground. “And they’re my people!”
“Are they all like this?” I asked, wondering.
“Most of them.” Sophie answered sourly.
I was about to say something else when I sensed something behind me, something I’d missed entirely while absorbed in the conversation with Sophie. I turned around just as the gun was cocked.
Sophie whipped around and saw the young man who was standing there with his energy-dispensing gun pointed at us. He had dark, wavy hair and hazel eyes, and was twenty years of age. He was wearing clothes fit for a soldier, camouflage pants and protective jacket over a clean, tan t-shirt, but from the badge tagged to his collar I could tell he was a mechanic. He looked unfamiliar with a gun, and the stern look in his eyes I could tell replaced a normally light-hearted attitude. I knew that him holding a gun was a result of whatever brought the humans here, and, oddly, I felt sorry for him.
“Hands in the air.” He said in a surprisingly youthful voice, aiming the gun at Sophie’s chest, probably because she was the older one.
Her hands flew into the air like a shot and a fearful look appeared on her face, which I could tell was over-exaggerated but must have looked genuine to the guy with the gun.
“Please don’t shoot us!” Her voice was high-pitched and thick with fake fear. “I’m sorry, we were just exploring the forest; we weren’t trying to do anything Jon.” Boy she was quick, picking up the name from his badge and saying it like she knew him already.
Jon’s forehead creased in confusion. “What do you mean? Who are you?”
“It’s us Jon, Sophie and Abigail.” She told him desperately. “You picked us up on the last planetfall, remember?”
I decided to join in on her deceit by turning to Sophie and saying in false exasperation; “He really doesn’t remember us!”
Jon looked even more confused. “I don’t…. I don’t know you.”
“Well you should. I’m one of the trainee mechanics.” Sophie said, very convincingly I might add. “Though I don’t really work with your rank much.”
He tried to process what Sophie was saying, and looked like he was trying really hard to remember us two girls. Sophie was obviously a very persuasive actress. Suddenly Jon redoubled his grip on the gun and glared at us.
“If you’re really from the Eridanus II, then why were you skulking around in the bushes here?”
At the mention of the spaceship’s name I saw Sophie’s eyes widen momentarily, but she quickly stifled her surprise and smiled sheepishly.
“I told you, we were exploring the forest. My little sister wanted to play in here so we did. And we’re very sorry.” She said very convincingly.
Jon looked between Sophie and I. “You two are related?”
“Of course we are!” Sophie exclaimed, wrapping an arm around me exaggerating protectiveness.
“Okay…. But I still don’t believe you.” Jon told us. “Where are your IDs?”
“Right here.” Sophie pulled the scanner out of her pocket and turned it on. After flipping through some things on it, she pulled up a screen with some information, and a picture of herself on it.
Jon took the scanner with one hand, holding the gun loosely with the other.
“Alright…” he eventually said, flicking the screen to the side so that a new ID came up, with a picture of me on it. Now I knew why Sophie had taken that photograph of me.
Jon handed the scanner back to Sophie, but he still looked wary.
To be honest, in that moment I was so scared that he was going to look at me and realise I was a Paladanian but he didn’t. Instead Sophie decided to say the stupidest thing possible.
“Could you tell us why we came to this planet in the first place, because I’m afraid I don’t exactly understand.”
Jon’s eyes narrowed and I knew we were busted.
“Now if you really came here on the Eridanus II, then you would most definitely know that.” He said coldly.
“Now if you really came here on the Eridanus II, then you would most definitely know that.” He said coldly.
Both our hands flew up this time, and Sophie grinned awkwardly.
“Okay, so maybe I lied to you, Jon, and I’m sorry, but we didn’t come here to hurt you, we came here to find out why you humans came to attack this planet.” Her voice suddenly turned cold with fury.
Jon’s expression changed. He was confused again. “If you’re from this planet, then you should know that already!” he said.
“Well look at me then!” Sophie stretched out her arms, inviting Jon to look her over. “Am I Paladanian?”
I expected Jon to say something like ‘Pala-whose-it?’, but instead he actually knew about us. I guess I should have expected that but how could he know?
“I don’t- I’m not sure.” He said, looking uncomfortable as he did so. “Apparently Paladanians look the same as humans.”
“Really?” Sophie asked with sudden interest.
“Who told you that, then?” I added.
Jon stared at me in bewilderment. “Well, only those that your people have enslaved over on the other side of the system!” he spat at me with contempt.
“Enslaved?” I asked in confusion. What was Jon talking about? That was when I realised. “No…… no, no, no, no, no, no, no.” I muttered, coldness beginning to creep into my heart. I stared off into the distance, not focusing on anything, only hoping that Jon wasn’t saying what I thought he was. “Please tell me you haven’t been there.”
Sophie looked bewilderingly between me and Jon, for once out of the loop.
Jon looked coldly at me. “Did you want to keep them a secret did you? Well I guess you wouldn’t want people to know of the filthy things your race has done?”
“What are you talking about?” I shouted at him. “If you’re saying what I think you’re saying then you should be on our side. What did they tell you, that we were the bad guys? And you believed them?”
“Oh what a clever comeback.” Jon said. “Only a Paladan-”
“OI!” Sophie yelled, totally impatient as always. “Somebody tell me what the hell is going on!”
Jon and I both stared at her, then at each other.
“Why don’t you tell your companion about your people’s big secret?” he asked me coldly.
“Abigail?” Sophie turned to me questioningly.
“Sophie, it’s not a secret. Jon’s just trying to wind you up.” I said, trying to reassure her. Damn these humans! Jon was now trying to turn Sophie against me.
“If it’s not a secret, then tell me what it is!” Sophie insisted, while Jon looked on with a smirk on his face. Oh, how I wanted to throttle him.
“Alright!” I yelled at her. Then I pointed at Jon accusingly. “This idiot, and all the other human idiots here, went to Werayne!”
My words hung in the air for a minute, until Sophie managed to say something.
“What’s Werayne?” she asked in confusion.
I sighed. “It’s only the evilest planet in the entire galaxy!” I shouted.
“Is evilest even a word?” Sophie pondered distractedly.
“Sophie, you are missing the point!” I told her heatedly. “The people of Werayne will do anything to cause war, and they told your people that the Paladanians are the bad guys!”
Sophie stared at me, before turning to Jon and saying; “Well that’s rubbish!”
“She’s the one spouting rubbish!” he pointed at me.
“Jon, calm down!” I tried to coerce him. “Just think about it, from what you’ve seen of the Weraynians, and what you’ve seen of the Paladanians, who do you think is the one at fault here?”
Jon stopped for a moment, and I could see him thinking. “Well your people haven’t really done anything to us except place a force field around us, but…. I guess….. the Weraynians gave us weapons….”
“They did?” I asked in bewilderment. I grabbed his gun, looking closely at it and gasped. The gun had Weraynian engineering. No….. no this wasn’t right. I dropped the gun on the floor in shock. How could this be happening? Werayne was the cause of most Paladanian nightmares, and now they’d tricked the humans into attacking us.
Sophie turned to me and gripped my shoulders when she noticed my positively frightened expression. “Abigail, stop freaking out!” she told me, as my breathing got heavier. “No matter how bad these Weraynian guys are, and what they’ve done, you don’t need to worry about it. Occasionally bad guys do stuff, but there are always people to stop them. From what I’ve seen of your people, and the people from Halapatov, these Weraynians are going to have no power over you at all.”
“Sophie you don’t understand!” I told her, terror etched in my voice. “There was a war, a hundred years before I was born. The Weraynians wanted control of the entire system, and we had to fight! The rest of the Staarus System battled the Weraynians, and they only barely won. We drove them back and the Halapatovians and Paladanians built a force field, and trapped the Weraynians inside it. This wasn’t just any old force field. It’s meant to be impenetrable but the humans still went there! Do you realise how bad that is? It means there’s a war coming!”
“Oh my god!” Jon breathed. Sophie and I turned to look at him, her hands still on my shoulders. Seeing the amazed, and slightly ashamed, look on Jon’s face, I knew that my desperate words with Sophie had convinced him that we were telling the truth.
“Do you believe me now?” I asked him as Sophie dropped her hands, despite already knowing the answer.
He nodded slowly. “I… I’m so sorry. We came here to fight you, and in the long run to kill you, but it was all a trick, a trap to start a war.”
I smiled sadly at him. “It’s not your fault Jon.” I said. “The Weraynians are deceptive, and they would have known exactly how to get to you humans. What did they tell you that made you come here anyway?”
Jon blushed. “Well… actually… they told us that you captured any spaceships that violated the space around your planet, and that your people stole a human ship and had them as slaves working in the capital city of this country. They showed us pictures and diagrams and statistics and things and then we came here.”
I stood there, open mouthed, and stared at him. “Wow.”
Jon looked at his feet, scratching his neck in embarrassment. “Yeah I know, us humans are stupid.”
“Guys!” Sophie interrupted us. “Incoming!”
We spun around to see a group of humans coming towards us. Uh oh. Somewhere amongst the previous drama, I’d completely forgotten about the fact that the humans weren’t supposed to know we were here. Maybe I shouldn’t have been shouting so loud.
“What’s going on here?” A large bald man with a gun asked as he menacingly approached.
“Just a little argument that’s all.” Jon replied, stepping in front of me protectively. “These girls just wanted to explore the woods and I was telling them why that wasn’t a good idea.”
One of the other humans, a female with short black hair squinted at Sophie and I. “I don’t remember seeing those two before.”
“That’s because they were picked up on the last planetfall.” Jon said casually, still trying to protect me. I was getting tired of being shielded by so many people.
The bald guy scoffed. “What, they were picked up on Werayne?” The others started laughing and Jon, Sophie and I reluctantly joined in.
“You know what I meant, but that was a good one!” Jon laughed again, a little unnecessarily. “They’re from Cral 2, the planet we landed on before Werayne.”
“Ah ok, that makes more sense.” The bald guy said, nodding thoughtfully. “Well, try not to make any more commotion; you really caused quite a ruckus there.”
And with that, the humans just walked away.
Sophie stepped in next to me. “Well that was incredibly easy.”
“Well we were just discussing how stupid humans were.” I raised an eyebrow at her.
“Hey!” she nudged me with a grin on her face, and I couldn’t help but split into a grin as well, in spite of the dread that still weighed on me.
Jon turned to face us. “I think you two have to leave.”
Both mine and Sophie’s expressions changed dramatically into looks of outrage.
“How does that help anything?” Sophie exclaimed. “We came here to find out what was wrong, and fix it! We can’t just leave now!”
“Look, I can handle it!” Jon told us, with his hands stretched calmingly towards us. “I’ll talk to them, and convince them to back down.”
“Jon, no offense but I really doubt that.” I said warningly. “From what I’ve seen of humans, most have quite low intelligences, and will not think logically in a situation where they think their own kind is endangered.”
Jon looked confused and turned to Sophie. “What is she talking about?” he asked her.
Sophie grinned. “Oh, she has Paladanian mind powers. She can understand things about people just by looking at them.”
“Okay….” Jon still looked confused but shrugged it off. “So what do you think will convince them?”
Sophie and I exchanged a quick glance.
“We need to somehow prove to the other humans that the Weraynians were tricking all of you.” I said, and Sophie nodded beside me.
“Now there’s probably a few people we could convince of that without hard proof, and with their support we will be able to convince the others.” She added on. “You know most of the humans here right?”
“Well… I wouldn’t say most, there are a lot of them.” he told her hesitantly. “But I do know a good few!”
Sophie looked sceptical and I yet again had to sigh at her unnecessary attitude.
“Well, you get on to telling those guys; in the subtlest way possible mind you!” I started. “Sophie can help you but you’ll have to keep her amazing people skills in check.”
“Hey!” Sophie protested but I held up a finger for silence.
“I’ll come with you too, but I’ll probably be examining the spaceship for evidence.” I continued. “And by examining I mean looking around.”
“Okay….” Sophie still looked huffy from my comment on her personality. “That plan seems a bit weird, like wouldn’t it be better if Jon or I checked for evidence?”
“No, you’re human; the Weraynians are clever and would not leave loop holes obvious to humans in their plot.” I replied.
I turned to Jon, waiting for his reaction. It took a while but he said something eventually.
“You certainly have a lot of ideas for a little girl.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I’m Paladanian, what did you expect?”