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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1904165" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 92: An Hour Late“Its been two hours,” Voort said anxiously, giving Landau a look that showed he wasn’t going to wait any longer. Both of them knew they should have gone in an hour earlier, but Landau was being cautious. Overly cautious in Voort’s opinion.    This time, though, Landau didn’t object. They had set the airspeeder down behind a series of dunes a fair distance off from the entrance to the facility. Whether there was any actual cover or not, neither of them knew. It was one of those things that was best not to think about. Even if they did know, there wasn’t anything that could be done about it. Without a word, Landau casually hit the switch to open the hatch, climbing out just before checking that he had everything he’d need. Voort was out just as quickly, and in a few seconds they were heading towards the only entrance they could see.* * * *Jen slowly found the world returning, a blurred and dizzying experience. Being knocked out was bad enough normally(of which she’d only experienced a few times), but whatever had happened to cause this was much different. As she closed her eyes to try and ignore the blur, she found that her ears still functioned well enough. There was a good amount of movement around her, and the way the sound echoed hinted that she was still in that large, domed chamber. She could hear a rushed voice, though the exact words were indistinct. Well, the reply was clear enough.    “I have what he needs. Kill them both.”    That was Sadrak. Had to be. No other voice compared to that kind of quality. A quiet response was followed by the quick and echoing sounds of footsteps. Jen attempted opening her eyes, and as they focused she caught sight of one of those strange humanoids quickly exiting the chamber. Turning her head slowly, she could see the dark robed figure of Sadrak. He turned also, meeting her gaze with no eyes that she could see. But she could feel them. That was worse.    “It is time we had a talk,” there was a pause long enough for him to walk over towards her, though without seeing the feet under the robe it looked like he was gliding across the well polished floor, “You feel something within you, do you not?”    Jen didn’t answer. But her face betrayed the surprise at hearing that. So he’d caused it? How else would he know? She hadn’t felt anyone sifting through her thoughts, but then again, Jen still wasn’t completely sure what she’d be looking for. Or feeling for. Whatever. Yet again, she wished the Force was as concrete as science was. All this mystical stuff, no matter how true, only served to muddy the waters and confuse everyone.     “Yes, I know of it,” He said, picking up on her thoughts. That time, she did notice something odd. Like a small string finding its way through places it shouldn’t. She’d not felt that before...but maybe He’d sifted through her mind while she was unconscious? Somehow, Jen doubted that. Even though she couldn’t see anything through the heavy black hood, she knew He was smiling, “But unlike those animals, I did not cause this. This is of its own. An interesting turn of events. But I must ask you...why does she hide? Why will she not speak?”    Something about the way he said that sent strange shockwaves through Jen’s mind. She couldn’t explain it, but it almost felt like whatever else was ‘there’ was being pushed. Provoked even. Yet it hid, and Jen got the feeling whatever ‘it’ was, it was waiting on something. Something. What? What was even going on?! Jen then became the third of the group to swear the planet off. If they all put these experiences together, the only conclusion that could possibly be drawn is that the planet was cursed. Or they were. Or both. Probably both. Or maybe it was just Akan. Ever since she’d met him...on the inside, Jen couldn’t help a smile. She’d tease him about that later.    Strange. That feeling was out of place in this situation. Yet, it was growing. Jen felt good. Strong. Happy, even. Mentally, she tried to trace it, and found that it had its roots within that odd separation of sorts. So ‘it’ was comforting her? Helping her? And hiding at the same time. Why couldn’t the galaxy just make sense for a few minutes?!    A blaster shot rang out suddenly, breaking her out of the trance-like state Jen had fallen into. Her eyes snapped open, and she had just enough time to see a red blaster bolt shoot past Sadrak’s dark robes, singeing a few edges in the process. Rage sounded from beneath the hood in a violent growl of anger as the figure spun to look to the shooter. Standing there and already pulling the trigger for another shot was Voort. Sure, it would be the dramatic thing to wait that extra second for someone to say his name in the breathless way that so many holodramas always did. But there were no cameras on him to capture the moment, so why waste a perfectly good second?    The second shot was aimed perfectly, flying straight out at Sadrak’s midsection. With a quick hand wave(of which Jen got another short view of that strange, almost clawed hand), the blaster bolt collided with nothing. Before a third shot, Sadrak was ‘floating’ back, towards a set of steps on which there was a large almost throne-like chair. Typical egotist. But Sadrak reached it quickly, sitting quickly and pressing a switch. Voort was running forward, aiming another shot when he managed to catch sight of that claw-like finger. Was that really Sadrak?!    When the chair began to descend into the floor, Voort fired wildly, just hoping to hit something. Breaking the chair would have pleased him. No, hitting it would have. But he didn’t. Just before that robed head got down to below the floor, Voort caught sight of a strange glint. An eye. But silvery in the light and nothing like anything he’d ever seen before. The only way he’d seen it was from the careful movement that was caused by Sadrak speaking.    “Another day, Titus. Another day.”    Then he was gone. It was gone. Whatever that was. Voort stood and watched the floor for a long moment, and then turned to Jen. Quickly, he ran over and knelt down beside her, lifting her up and noticing a few new bruises and marks across her face. Jen had an almost forced smile on her face, but leaned into Voort some and said quietly, “You’re late.”    Voort couldn’t help a short laugh, wrapping his arms around her and carefully helping Jen to her feet, “You know I like to wait until the last second.”    Gaining her footing, Jen’s smile changed to a much more genuine one, “You missed that second this time. In fact, I think that second was about an hour ago.”    “I tried telling that to Landau,” Voort responded with a shrug, slowly and carefully helping her to walk towards the exit. He didn’t seem worried that they’d be ambushed for some reason.    “Speaking of Landau,” Jen said, finding the strength to walk on her own but not minding the help at all, “Where is he?”    “Finding the children,” Voort answered her quickly, almost a little too quickly. It was obvious to Jen that something else had happened between him and Akan. She hoped something could be done about that tension. It was not something she wanted to think about, seeing both of them fight. Yet, she still worried it was going to come to that. And Voort wasn’t as innocent as he tried to convince himself of. Jen knew all too well that having seen Akan as a rival of sorts(no matter how untrue that was), Voort had another reason to be angry with the idealistic kid. One day, Jen wondered if she could point out to Voort closely it seemed like he was trying to fight with his own younger self. And Akan seemed to be doing the same thing in reverse, fighting with a possible future self. So alike, they were. Deep down, it was obvious that fear was the motivating factor behind all of it.    The two of them then faded into small talk as Voort navigated the maze of corridors. Amazingly, it looked like he knew where he was going. Jen didn’t take long to figure out that he was following Landau’s comm signal as they’d done before. But why was no one else around? Where were guards? Something wasn’t right. No. Too many things weren’t right.</blockquote>

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