Survival-Part One

by Seven


Disclaimer:  Earth: Final Conflict and its characters are copyrighted by Tribune Entertainment Company.  All rights reserved.



**********



Sal'eil brushed a few strands of her dark hair from her eyes as she crept along the rooftop, her slender body encased in a thick leather jumpsuit, textured to hide the shine.

She was poised at the top like a cat, her brown eyes shifting to blue as she watched the Embassy. Da'an was standing by the window, conversing with a tall young man.

For a long time, Sal'eil simply watched them. They appeared to be discussing something serious, although the man was smiling once or twice. "Kincaid, Liam," she murmured to herself, flashing back to the files she had read.

Well, we're damned if we do and damned if we don't, she thought, her pale skin darkening a little. At least this way, my children will grow up normally... if we survive.

She smiled, and leaped off into space...

****

The seizures weren't the worst part...

Zo'or's long hands gripped the arm of his chair, and his smooth face contorted as his entire body shook in a series of wrenching spasms. After a moment, the spasms subsided, leaving him blushing and gasping for air.

No, he decided. The seizures weren't the worst part. It was the realization that he had evaded ever since he had been a child, and the test results had come back. Sterile. That damnable word had haunted his days and nights ever since, taunting him with the prospects of a life denied.

"Zo'or?"

Zo'or straightened and forcibly stopped the shaking, holding himself rigid as he faced Sandoval. "Yes, Agent Sandoval?"

If Sandoval noticed anything, he didn't show it. Immovable, as usual. "Major Kincaid will be undergoing the security checks later today," he replied casually. "He will be on the mothership for a good while..."

"I am already acquainted with the schedule," Zo'or snapped, his patience rapidly draining. "Why are you telling me this?"

Sandoval folded his hands behind his back. "I am requesting that my duties be postponed until after the checks. I have... business with Da'an, and this time seems as good as any."

For a moment, Zo'or stared at him with eyes like a cat's. Then he waved a hand dismissively. "Very well," he said in a shaky voice. "The afternoon, during the checks."

Sandoval's eyebrows rose a little in surprise, as if he hadn't been expecting to be granted leave. But as Zo'or turned away impatiently and stared out the window, he realized that Zo'or had said yes... with no signs of an ulterior motive. He turned and left before the Taelon had a chance to change his mind.

Zo'or watched Sandoval as the implant hastily retreated, apparently to go to the shuttlebay. Agent Sandoval had been acting oddly recently, he mused. He had vanished without explanation for several days, had spent an odd amount of time on Earth, had been experiencing sudden changes in mood...

A slow suspicion unfolded and took root in Zo'or's mind. If it became necessary to terminate Agent Sandoval, he would not hesitate to do so.

****

Sal'eil bumped through the crowded mall, ignoring the murmured "Excuse me"s. A faint look of revulsion rippled over her lovely face, her eyes flashing in her face like twin sapphires.

As hard as she tried, she couldn't think of the humans that swarmed around her as being equals. She wanted to, really wanted to feel that they were equal to her.

Heaven knows, I've wanted, I've tried, she thought fiercely. But I actually AM superior to them. Not because of anything so paltry as appearance, skin color, wealth...

A pang hit her as she realized that if their plan didn't work... she would be superior to no one. They would all die out before they had even rooted themselves. Not even on Earth... if they found a habitable world elsewhere, they would settle there.

She saw him sitting in an electronics shop, browsing over a display of globals. His cropped shock of ash hair made his tanned face and gentle aqua eyes look... alien.

Sal'eil slipped next to him and studied a rack of Discmans. "You have the information?" she whispered.

Nick smiled and nodded, his eyes flashing blue for a moment. "Ohhhh, yes. I have the information, all right."

"The checks?"

"This afternoon, from two to seven."

"PM?"

"Yes."

Sal'eil scowled. "That doesn't give us much time."

"No, it doesn't," Nick said, crossing his arms and running a finger over the casing of a bright green global. "But then, how long do we need?"

Sal'eil frowned, picked up a Discman and weighed it in her hand. "Fifteen minutes, maximum. Three of us—two to infiltrate and get out in one piece, one to monitor the outside for shuttles or outgoing transmissions."

She dropped all pretense of shopping and placed the Discman back on the rack, her blue eyes flaming to brown and back again like a pair of opals as she stared at him. "Are you with me?" she asked in a low voice.

Nick swallowed and ran a hand through his pale hair, making it stand on end. "Yes."

"Good." She sighed and closed her eyes, leaned against a large speaker and smiled. "We strike today."

****

Liam had never had much to wonder about in his short life, and when he was puzzled by something, he usually delved deep to find the answers. But this was different. As he watched Da'an reading the news reports on his datastream, he realized that this was very, very different.

"I'm off," he said with a small smile. Da'an waved away the datastream, and looked over at him. "Five hours of paperwork misery up on the mothership."

Da'an smiled a little at that and nodded.

As Liam stepped out, he almost ran into a smaller man. "Sandoval?" he asked guardedly.

Sandoval smiled a little. "On the way to the mothership?"

"Yes."

"I just left." Sandoval clasped his hands behind his back and cocked his head to the side. "I have to talk to Da'an about... a certain topic."

"What topic is that?" Liam asked, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Security," Sandoval said with a small smile. "Good day, Major."

As Sandoval stepped past him, Liam glanced over his shoulder. Something inside him screamed not to leave the Embassy, to stand by Da'an and make sure that nothing—nothing!—got past him. He and Da'an had been arguing as of late, but he had no intention of letting Da'an come to harm.

Well, he didn't have a choice in the matter. Liam Kincaid reluctantly turned and walked out of the Embassy.

****

The electronic binoculars clicked as Sal'eil pulled them from her eyes. She was poised, catlike, atop a small building ledge, watching as the small dark figure of Liam Kincaid walked out onto the shuttlepad and climbed inside. A moment later, it rose off with an earsplitting whine and shot into ID.

A small smile touched her pale lips as she put a cheap plastic whistle to them and blew a soft, breathy note.

There were three answering tweets from nearby buildings.

She looked to Nick at her side, his pale skin and hair in sharp contrast to his dark clothing. He looked a little nervous, but no less determined than she was. She smiled a little and patted his shoulder, earning a flash of his wide smile in reply.

"Now," she murmured.

She swung down onto a fire escape with a clatter, with Nick only a step behind her. She glanced from side to side down the empty street, then ran across and into the Embassy.

The security guard looked up as two people, a young man and young woman, sprinted in the door. The boy looked downright terrified, but the girl had an odd kind of urgent grimness about her. They both stopped and drew back a little as the guard stepped into their view. "ID, please," he asked.

THWIT. The guard took only one look at the dart in his chest before collapsing to the floor.

Sal'eil holstered her gun and ran down the hallway again, Nick taking a branching corridor. Both led to the same place...

****

"You're coming with us."

Sandoval spun at the cold woman's voice, as she stepped in. Her dark hair was slightly disheveled around her pale oval face, but she did not have the appearance of someone who was tired. She took a step toward Da'an, aiming a small pistol at his head. The Taelon drew back a little, eyes wide.

Sandoval raised his arm and fired his skrill at her. The gun clattered to the floor as her hands went up... and caught the blast. It was suspended in a glowing energy ball between a pair of burning shakarava. For a moment, the young woman shook, gasping as she held the energy between her palms. Then, it flashed out towards Sandoval, slamming him against the wall. He slumped to the floor, faint red burns marring his hands and face.

Da'an rose and stepped down. "Do not harm Agent Sandoval," he said desperately. "I will come with you."

The woman curled her hands into fists, and smiled. "Very good."

Nick stepped out into view and snapped a pair of handcuffs onto Da'an. Sal'eil smiled again as she led him out.

****

Da'an shivered a little as the two led him out into the cold air, to a black-painted van in an alley. His hands shifted a little in the cold metal cuffs, testing its limits, and the girl prodded him in the shoulder.

His mind spun over what he had just witnessed. The girl had shakarava! She had thrown Sandoval's skrill blast right back at him as easily as throwing a ball...

He glanced from side to side, at the concerned face of the young man to the icy face of the young woman. He didn't recognize either of them... not from his hybridization experiments. Could they be... other children, like Liam, that Ha'gel had sired? His mind dismissed that possibility.

He looked at the girl again, looking over her fine features and bright blue eyes. Some of her features looked oddly familiar...

"Stop staring," the girl growled throatily as she unlocked the back of the van and pointed at the low, stained-beige seats inside. "Inside."

Da'an obediently stepped inside and seated himself primly on one of the seats. The girl climbed in and slumped in the seat opposite him, her hand going to a small plastic pistol strapped to her long leg. "It has explosive bullets," she announced matter-of-factly. "Can seriously harm a Taelon, perhaps even kill one. So, if I were you, I wouldn't so much as twitch without my say-so."

"I was not intending to," Da'an announced.

There was a roar as Nick revved the engine, the top of his blond head visible over the back of the seat. A shuddering breath was heard as the van shot out of the alley.

The girl glanced out the back window, her hand tightening around the pistol hilt. Da'an considered a question for a moment, then asked, "What is your name?"

She stared at him blankly, as if disbelieving that he would dare to ask her.

"If I am to address you, I must know your name," Da'an explained.

She uttered a faint laugh. "I was hoping that you wouldn't 'address' me at all. But if you must, then call me Sal."

A snort of laughter, followed by faint giggles, was heard from the front seat. Sal glared venomously at the back of his head, shaking with mirth, then looked at Da'an and jerked her head to the side. "Nick."

A long silence ensued, broken only by occasional coughs from the front seat, and the roaring of the engine.

****

"Sandoval!"

Liam Kincaid's heart skipped a beat as he ran into Da'an's office, and saw the FBI agent slumped in a heap against the wall. His dark skin was burned almost red, and his clothes and hair smelled singed. He looked... dead.

Liam dropped to his knees alongside Sandoval and pressed his fingers to Sandoval's neck. For one horrible moment, Liam thought that he had lost his remaining parent.

"Owww..." Sandoval groaned and winced, not opening his cracked eyelids. He jerked and strained against Liam's hands on his shoulders. "Da'an..." he whispered.

"Easy, Sandoval, easy," Liam soothed, holding Sandoval down with one hand and yanking out his global with the other. He pressed the emergency button and set it on the floor. "Everything's fine..."

"Da'an," Sandoval choked again, his burned eyelids rising to reveal desperate dark eyes. "Where is he?"

Liam's heart contracted as he looked at Da'an's chair, then at the winding ramp that circled over his head. "I don't know..."

"They took him," Sandoval gagged, then coughed. "They kidnapped Da'an..."

****

Sal's pale face had gone deathly white over the last hour. Da'an watched with concern as she rested her head on her hand, her breathing coming erratically.

"Are you in need of medical assistance?" he asked softly.

She straightened, her dull eyes brightening a little. "I'm fine," she said decisively.

Nick twisted to look back at her. "Sal," he said seriously. "You need to rest. That skrill really hit your-"

"I said I'm fine!" Sal almost shouted, shivering a little. As Nick sank back into his seat, she curled up and stared at the side of the van. Only Da'an noticed a flickering, wounded light emanating from her palms.

****

Two shuttles rose from the street in front of the Embassy, buzzing aggressively before zipping into ID. Volunteers poured from a parked third shuttle onto the street, scouring for Da'an.

But none saw the black-painted van slipping slowly from Washington.

****

Liam Kincaid entered the bridge with the manner of a stormcloud, breathing hard. As Zo'or rose from his chair, Liam announced, "Agent Sandoval was attacked and Da'an has vanished..."

An indescribable emotion flitted over Zo'or's pale face, as if he weren't certain whether to cry or laugh. For a moment, he simply stared at Liam, the hint of a blush under his facade. Then he slowly sat back down. "Agent Sandoval will recover?"

"He's been severely burned, but he'll recover," Liam replied impatiently. "Right now I need a squad of mobilized Volunteers to find Da'an."

Zo'or was staring at him with the barest hint of a smile. "How large a team?"

"I was thinking of twenty."

Zo'or nodded, with a catlike look on his face. As Kincaid strode off the bridge, he smiled to himself, as if satisfied by some trick that a pet had done...

****

"Major Kincaid!"

Liam stopped dead as the voice of Doctor Parks reached him. She was standing in the doorway to the medical bay, beckoning him inside. As Liam stepped next to her, she whispered, "Liam... Sandoval's been talking a little. It's hard for him, but he's managed to tell me that the person who attacked him was a woman, with shakarava."

Liam took an involuntary step backwards. His mind spun back to the calamity involving the Taelon twins Da'an had created, then abandoned. But there was an audacity in this... perhaps desperation?

Liam frowned and nodded. "Thank you for telling me. It might be useful later on." As he walked away, he wondered just what the shakarava-wielding kidnappers were...

****

Da'an watched Sal—if that was her true name—as she wavered on the edge of her seat. The young woman seemed to be stronger, more focused than before, and her shakarava had ceased giving out the fluttery light they had before.

As she stared at him, her brown eyes seemed to shift to blue and back before she broke eye contact.

The van growled, slowed down, and stopped. Da'an looked up at the front seat as Nick popped open a door and stepped out. Sal smiled ever so slightly as her friend pulled open the door. "Out."

Nick grasped Da'an's arms and helped him to the ground. The young man looked nervous and slightly frightened, but his touch was gentle.

Da'an looked around himself. He was standing on a crude gravel driveway, in a sweeping green meadow. The misty forms of mountains could be seen surrounding the valley, the green fading to gray and white halfway up.

Dotting the middle of the field were white tents, the size of houses. Da'an blinked in the sunlight at the sight of about ten people walking around the tents. Some of them were only children...

Sal stepped out of the van next to him, a faint smile touching her pale lips. "Welcome to our home, Da'an."

***

A stiff breeze gusted through the camp as Sal and Nick led Da'an through the encampment, the hands of one gentle and the other as hard and impersonal as a stone. Da'an watched Sal, dark tendrils of hair spiralling over her eyes.

A red-haired young man stepped out of one tent, dressed in a flannel shirt and khaki pants. He hugged Sal briefly, a hug only marginally returned. "You got him," the new man commented.

"Yeah," Sal said with the first warm smile Da'an had seen. "How are the kids?"

The man's smiled melted away like the mountaintop mists. "Not so good," he murmured in a mild Irish brogue, whispering into Sal's ear so softly that Da'an could barely hear him. "They miss their mom."

Sal'eil patted him on the cheek sympathetically and glanced back at Da'an. "Don't worry."

"Is this the right thing to do?" Robert asked.

Sal'eil's lovely face darkened slightly. "We all agreed that this had to be done. Otherwise, we will die out before we even EXISTED. Do you want that?"

"No... I know," Robert whispered, clearly troubled by the situation. His eyes slowly locked with Da'an's, then fell away. "I'll take him down to the caves."

"Thanks," Sal'eil said with a grateful smile. She glanced back at Nick and jerked her head to the side.

The two young men took Da'an's arms and led him to one of the mountainsides, to a carefully-reinforced cave mouth. A waft of dry air hit Da'an, making him step back a little, but Nick and Robert pulled him onward, into the dark tunnels of the cave...

****

"Sal'eil!"

Two high, clear voices. A little boy, about seven years old, slammed into Sal'eil's legs as she slipped into one of the huge white tents. Sal'eil looked into his blue-gray eyes and ruffled his auburn hair. "How are you, Si'lar?" she murmured. "Where's Jenna?"

"Here I am!" piped the boy's younger sister, running out and hugging Sal'eil's other knee. "Who's that outside?"

Sal'eil ruffled the two small heads, one red and one dark, as she sat cross-legged on the ground. "That's Da'an... a Taelon."

"Can he hurt us?" Si'lar asked worriedly.

Sal'eil smiled and shook her head. "No... he should worry about US hurting HIM. He can't do anything to us. None of the Taelons can..." Her eyes misted over, as if she were locked in a daydream.

****

The darkness was near-absolute, broken only by the phosphorescent glow of a series of small lamps on the walls. Da'an shivered a little in the cold, then stumbled on something on the floor. Strong arms grasped his shoulder and waist and steadied him. "Careful," Nick's breathless voice said.

As Nick's grasp hurried Da'an onwards, Da'an commented casually, "I am curious. Do you have the shakarava as well?"

The silence became deafening, as if Nick and Robert were shocked by the question. "That's not for you to know," he replied stiffly.

In the dark, Da'an smiled to himself. "I would assume that that is a 'yes.'"

"I didn't say anything."

"Your unwillingness to answer is your answer."

"Quiet."

Da'an fell into silence obediently, watching the aqua eyes glimmer in the darkness, narrowing as if in frustration. "What is 'Sal's' true name?" he asked timidly.

"I said quiet. Her name doesn't matter."

"I think that it does..." Da'an let the sentence hang, watching the two young men exchange glances. "Her pretense of being human was shattered the moment she used her shakarava. I am curious as to what she-"

"Listen, these answers aren't for you," Robert burst out. "You don't want to hear it—believe me."

Da'an smiled again. "You presume to know my desires?"

There was no reply as a door cycled open in front of them, revealing a carved stone cell with a narrow bunk, a table and chair, both bolted to the floor. Da'an stepped inside, looking around with curious eyes. "You intend to confine me here?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," Nick replied curtly. As he and Robert stepped back out, he commented, "The bunk has a hijacked energy stream hooked up to it. This is frankly the best room we have in this place. If you need anything, just yell or bang on the door."

The door cycled shut, leaving Da'an alone in the small stone cell. He looked around at the carved walls, at the rather worn furniture, and slowly seated himself on the bunk. He slowly began to pull at the cuffs on his wrists...

****

Fifteen hours. Over half a day, and Liam was ready to scream.

He kicked at the smooth floor of Da'an's office in frustration, watching the Volunteers scour the walls and floor with handheld sensors. There wasn't so much as a hair to determine who had kidnapped Da'an, and descriptions of the strange pair from Sandoval and the guard could apply to half the people in Washington—a dark-haired woman, and a blond man.

"Anything?" he asked Ross, a heavyset, dark Volunteer who was scanning Da'an's chair and the overhanging canopy.

"No, sir," Ross replied regretfully.

"Have you made any progress, Major?" an all-too-familiar voice chimed from the door. Liam composed his face quickly before turning to face the tall Taelon standing in the doorway, watching the Volunteer with something akin to curiosity.

"No," Liam replied. "We haven't found a DNA sample that we can match to anyone except Sandoval and Da'an." As Zo'or walked down beside him, Liam murmured, "I can't wait till Sandoval gets back."

For a moment, Zo'or stared at the young man, as if astonished why anyone would want Sandoval out of the hospital. Then he began to drift around the room, peering at sensor displays.

Is he TRYING to be a nuisance? Liam wondered irritably. Zo'or seemed to be hanging around for no reason, keeping an eye on the investigation of the kidnapping of his greatest foe.

"Sir!"

Liam jumped at the sound of Phillips's voice as the tall, gangly young woman ran over, a comm chip held between a pair of tongs and a wide smile on her face.

Liam plucked the chip from the tongs and slipped it into his global, waving Da'an's datastream into view. There was a scroll of data, and his brow puckered in confusion as Zo'or walked closer, eyes locked on the datastream.

"Trace it once it comes up," Liam ordered. Phillips nodded and yanked open her global.

The holographic figure of a young woman appeared, slouching on a tabletop, arms crossed, in what appeared to be a black leather jumpsuit. Dark eyes in a pale, pretty face glimmered with amusement as she cocked her head to one side. "Don't bother trying to trace this. The signal's bounced off about ten Earth satellites." She uttered a throaty laugh. "I was wondering when you'd find that chip."

"Who are you?" Liam demanded, hoping that he sounded authoritative.

"That doesn't really matter," the woman said. "I go by the name of Sally Isle."

"What has happened to Da'an?" Zo'or interjected, sounding more curious than upset.

Isle's eyes widened a little as she gritted her teeth. "Da'an is being well taken care of."

"Why have you kidnapped Da'an?" Liam demanded. He glanced at Phillips, who shook her head regretfully.

Isle smiled a little. "Ransom."

Liam's mind flashed back to the reports he had read about William Boone. Da'an had been kidnapped by a band of renegade soldiers a while back, to be held for ransom... and had almost killed himself as a result. Could he be doing that now?

"We need an array of Taelon genetic samples, free of tampering. Deliver the samples, and you get Da'an back. Don't... and it's your conscience." Her voice took on a distinctly menacing timbre, just before the communication line ended and her hologram vanished from sight.

****

Da'an had, over the course of the past three hours, managed to pull one of his wrists from the cuffs. He blushed slightly with concentration, his long fingers slipping on the sharp edge of metaljutting from inside it. It was more involved than anything he had attempted before, more difficult.

He rose from the bed and walked over to the locking mechanism embedded in the rock face, and pulled off the casing. He frowned at the intricate circuitry, then carefully began to chip at it.

It would, he thought, take a very long time...

****

Ronald Sandoval slowly came onto the bridge of the mothership, his steps slow and halting. The skin on his face and hands was still raw, reddish under the pale blue lights, but more healed them when Liam had last seen him.

Zo'or looked over at him coolly. "Agent Sandoval. You have been dismissed by the doctor?"

"Discharged," Liam corrected.

Zo'or shot a brief glance at the young man, then back at Sandoval. "You have been fully briefed on the situation with this... Ms. Sally Isle, and Da'an's kidnappers?"

Sandoval nodded curtly. "I have, Zo'or." He waved up a display of Earth, spread over by thin purple lines that intersected each other in a crisscross pattern. "I suggest... that a small shuttle fleet hunts for Da'an in this search pattern."

"The pattern has only been successful in very small areas," Liam interjected, frowning. "You think it'd work over an entire planet."

Sandoval's face took on an expression of mingled annoyance and disgust. "We do not have sufficient shuttles to compensate for that," he said grimly. "Our only option is to do this. If you have another idea, I'd like to hear it."

"Choppers," Liam responded instantly.

Sandoval's burned face went blank, his dark eyes frowning slightly. "What?" he asked slowly.

"Choppers," Liam repeated, crossing his arms and nodding at the holographic display. "Helicoptors. They're not really in the same catagory as shuttles, but they would still increase the number of search vehicles to track down Da'an."

Zo'or smiled slightly, his gaze fixed on Liam. "An excellent suggestion, Major."

Liam started to speak, then snapped his mouth shut. He frowned slightly, considering the question that leaped to his lips. I suppose it couldn't hurt to ask, he thought. "Zo'or, the demands of Da'an's kidnappers are... unusual, but easily complied with. Why don't you just deliver the genetic samples to Sally Isle in return for Da'an?"

Zo'or almost squirmed, his eyes turning down uncomfortably under Liam's steady gaze. "As the leader of the Synod, I cannot deliver Taelon DNA unless I am able to supervise the procedures that it will be employed for. Ms. Isle does not seem inclined to inform us of this." He stole a sideways glance at Sandoval. "If you wish to find him—alive—you must find him yourselves."

Sandoval's hands were folded behind his back, but Liam saw them jerk spasmodically, despite the calmness of his exterior emotional state.

"Request the helicoptors," Zo'or added, swiveling his chair away from the two protectors.

****

Wind whipped over the bulging white tents as the small group seated themselves inside. They ranged from tiny infants on the backs of their mothers, to full-grown adults. Saleil, cross-legged on the damp grass, looked around at the faces surrounding her.

One man stepped forward, and held out his hand. Sal'eil briefly touched her palm to his, as he sat down beside her. Her eyes briefly looked over his slanted, pale-blue eyes and close-cropped dark hair, and a hint of a smile touched her full lips.

"I've delivered our terms," she announced to the group. A faint sneer touched her voice. "That Zo'or and Da'an's precious Major Kincaid heard every word of it—and I made it clear that there is no room for negotiation."

"What if they don't agree?" a young man named Ar'ila asked nervously.

Sal'eil's face hardened into a visage of stone. Only her eyes, flaming blue in her pale face, moved at all. "They have to agree. Otherwise..." She stopped short, interlocking her fingers in front of her.

****

Da'an was secretly grateful that one of the cuffs was still bound to his wrist. He had dropped the other end of it at least five times now, producing a loud clatter that—he was almost certain—wasn't loud enough to be heard outside the cell.

He had been crouched down on the floor for hours, chipping away at a particular circuit in the electronic locking mechanism, trying to break it down without destroying the circuits surrounding. He glanced briefly at the huge metal door, his distorted reflection gazing desperately back at him...

CHUNG.

Da'an's large blue eyes widened as the locking mechanism slipped back into the door with a loud noise. Slowly, he rose from the cramped position, a tiny blush running under his facade as he smiled. Carefully, he dug his fingers into the edge of the door and pulled with all of his strength. The door slid open.

Da'an felt another chill run through him as he stepped out into the cold passage, blinking as the light surrounding faded, leaving him in complete darkness except for a small glow from the open door. I cannot remember the way out, he thought desperately.

Frowning, he set off through the tunnels.

He lost all sense of time, walking through the dark and pressing his hands to the rough-hewn walls, making sure he didn't accidently walk into a dead end. At any moment, he expected to hear shouts and the sound of shakarava firing, as "Sal" and her accomplices caught up with him.

But there was no sound, except his own footsteps.

He blinked suddenly, at a thin pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel. With a smile of relief, he began to jog toward it, the blue-white dot expanding to show a free range of meadows and hills. He emerged into the light at the small mouth of the cave, wincing a little at the sudden brightness, yet welcoming it as something he had thought himself forever deprived of.

The sound of a laugh reached him, and he glanced over his shoulder. As the laugh died away, Da'an quickly began to jog into the wilderness...