Chapter One.

The klaxons and fire alarms were blasting out their ear-splitting warnings. The exploration shuttle craft Oslo was being rocked from side to side by a multitude of nearby explosions. Access panels were swinging open haphazardly with the violent motion being experienced, wiring was breaking apart and short circuits were adding smoke and fumes to the atmosphere being breathed by the crew of ten as they struggled to maintain their balance and carry out their duties.

“Prepare to abandon ship!” barked out Ramon Suarez, the Oslo’s commanding officer.

Another explosion rattled the shuttle. The whole attack had come completely out of the blue. The Oslo had been part of a two-ship mission to survey one of three rocky planets orbiting a binary star system in the Struve constellation. For almost two weeks, everything had been routine, with nice, peaceful, mundane duty shifts, surveying and recording their findings. The crew well drilled in their various roles, but now, all was utter chaos.

The blasts were coming ever closer, as the missile assaults continued to slowly overwhelm the shuttles mainly automated self defence systems.

Karin looked across at her husband.

“Ramon, do you think we should at least send some of the crew to safety, the Bergen has reported that they are poised to recover our escape pods.”

At that moment a huge explosion hit the underside of the Oslo, the onboard systems reported a major hull breach to add to their problems.

Ramon glanced at the information monitors that were flashing their warnings. The proximity sensors were indicating an even larger wave of missiles on interception courses, even as he struggled to increase their orbit away from the surface of the planet they’d been observing. Decision made; he pushed the abandon ship activation button.

“Abandon ship, abandon ship” rang throughout the damaged shuttle, flashing amber beacons now added their strobe effect to the mass of sparks, smoke and warning lights illuminating the interior of the doomed vessel.

Just as they had rehearsed many times through incessant practice drills, never expecting to use the escape pods, the other eight crewmembers raced to the compartments that offered safety. Moving as best they could, they struggled to their assigned craft and within thirty seconds the shuttle reported all eight individuals had launched vertically away from the shuttle in two pods.

“That’s it Ramon, they are all safely away and the Bergen is actively tracking the pods.”

“Okay Karin, there’s nothing else we can do, let’s get out of here!”

Ramon grabbed his wife’s hand, and they made their way into the control cabins escape pod. As they both made it safely through the hatchway, Ramon smacked the large red button with his fist to start the launch process. With an audible hiss the hatch slid shut and both Karin and Ramon were rammed to the floor as the escape pod rocketed away from the doomed shuttle.

Ramon and Karin, still holding hands exchanged relieved glances. Then, as they began to relax a little, a huge blast hit the pod, throwing them around the interior, not that either of them knew that, as unconsciousness had claimed them both.

The Shuttle Bergen picked up the signal of the third pod to be launched by their sister spacecraft. Within seconds a huge explosion enveloped the nose of the Oslo, and the pod disappeared.

All had been so quiet, so peaceful, so mundane. Not so any longer!

Down on the surface of the planet being surveyed, military leaders watched with morbid glee, revelling in the devastation their missile and rocket attack had wreaked on the body that had been observed orbiting high above them.

Masonville was an increasingly industrialised nation, slowly trying to exert their greater power over their more rural and peaceful neighbours. The country had become a republic some one hundred and fifty annuals or so ago. The military had gradually increased their presence in the upper echelons of Government and had gradually imposed a martial approach to Masonville’s civilisation, constantly broadcasting speeches and propaganda extolling bigger efforts in the mines and factories, accompanied with stirring music to encourage the population to greater efforts.

So, the ruling elite considered the recovery of the debris from the orbiting object as of utmost importance to their development as the pre-eminent nation on Villiar. However, what they hadn’t factored into their calculations, were the huge explosions that destroyed the object and sent debris far from the expected point at which their forces could easily recover the ores that fell to the ground.

The leader of this nation, President Signi slammed his binoculars onto the guardrail of the palace balcony from which he planned to observe this latest coup. It was obvious that he was seething.

“General Brandr, fetch me the brains behind this fiasco, NOW, man, NOW!”

The general quickly muttered something to one of his aides, who scurried from the balcony. President Signi paced backwards and forwards across the balcony becoming more and more angry as each minute passed.

“Where are they General? What is keeping them?” the president snarled.

“I am not sure Mr. President; I am sure the people responsible will be here shortly!”

Almost on cue, a group of four people were shepherded into the president’s presence.

“Just what do you have to say for yourselves? What the hell happened?” the president bawled at the leader of the group, a tall thin man who was sweating profusely, having been dragged from his laboratory where he and his colleagues had been frantically scanning their monitors and instruments.

“I’m sorry Mr President . . .” he started to mutter.

You’re sorry, YOU’RE SORRY!” the president snapped, “I don’t want your apologies man, I want your explanations for this unmitigated disaster, AND I WANT IT NOW!” so saying he smashed his fist onto the balustrade.

The scientist’s leader pulled on his shirt collar, his large, pointed Adam’s apple frantically bobbing up and down on his neck as he sought to placate his irate leader.

“Right, erm! I’m sorry Mr President but . . .” the scientist’s leader started to say again.

“WRONG ANSWER!” hollered the president. “GET HIM OUT OF MY SIGHT! He continued to rant. This individual was grabbed by two guards and dragged protesting from the balcony.

“RIGHT YOU!” and he jabbed his finger at one of the three remaining scientists, “You want to tell me what just happened up there?” as he jabbed his arm in the air.

This time, a younger man stepped forward with his clipboard firmly gripped in his quaking fist.

“Well Mr President, we think the most likely explanation for the huge explosions must have been due to the object containing fuel or explosive substances within its core. This suggests it was likely hollow, possibly naturally hollow, or maybe, an artificial object, maybe containing life forms of some sort! As you know Mr President, we expected to be able to break the object up, topple it from its orbit and send the fragments to land within our nation!”

“Hollow, you say?” asked the president from under his darkly furrowed brows, his attitude calming somewhat as he rubbed his chin.
“We think so Mr President, but you must understand, we are still analysing our results, so these are purely our early conjectures!”

The president walked up and down tapping his lips, deep in thought, “What is your name?”

The spokesman looked decidedly off colour as he replied. “Hallr Mr President, Hallr!”

“Well Mr Hallr, I suggest you go back to your instruments, and you had better work out exactly WHAT went wrong, WHERE my debris is going to land, AND you have two hora to get back in front of me and give me the answers I NEED, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?”
Hallr nervously nodded his head.

“Yes Mr President, we’ll go right away, reassess the information we have, and I will report back to you within two hora!”

“Make sure you do Mr Hallr, make sure you do! Now, get out!

With that the three scientists beat a hasty retreat. The president stalked off the balcony himself and returned behind his desk, looking up at those still in his presence.

“General Brandr, I want you to mobilise your patrols to follow the likely trajectory of those fragments falling to the ground. I want every man under your command to be out there scouring the country for the ores or whatever it was that blew up, I particularly want the larger fragments, and I don’t care how far they have to travel to collect them, do you understand General?”

“Yes Mr President, although from what I could tell, it’s likely that some fragments may well land within Granaria, or even Vinaria!”

“General, I couldn’t care less WHERE they land, whether they land within OUR territories, OR, onto our near neighbours. I want those fragments! I don’t care who gets in the way of our troops! They are authorised to use all the tools at their disposal, and if anyone objects, ANYONE AT ALL, then eliminate them! In fact, general, make sure there are no witnesses left to relate what they see!”

The general snapped to attention, saluted the president and promptly marched from the office to issue his orders and to send off the recovery patrols that were all awaiting their orders.

Chapter Two.

Meanwhile, on the balcony of the palace in Willowton, the capital city of Granaria, Queen Adred;-

Granaria was a larger country in land area than Masonville, but was a mainly agrarian culture, particularly successful in producing grains, both for its own consumption but also for export. The country was run by a monarchy, with a predominantly female population. It seemed that the many wars of attrition they’d fought against Masonville had significantly affected the number of males born per one hundred births to around twenty percent, Granaria scientists also suspected the chemicals used to provide sufficient fertilisers to nourish their crops may be having an impact too, although the research was in its infancy. However, these issues were not currently uppermost in the Queen’s thoughts.

“Now, what are Masonville up to this time?” the Queen asked rhetorically.

“If only I knew mother, if only I knew!” Aryn responded as she shaded her eyes and continued to watch the falling spectacle taking place above their heads.

“Well, if I know one thing, Masonville are up to no good, and we’ll be feeling the brunt of their deviousness before too much more time has passed!” the Queen replied tersely.

Princess Aryn glanced at her mother.

“I think it best if we organise our forces to investigate any of the debris that seems to be heading our way, as well as preparing to disabuse any of Masonville’s population who may want to invade our territory and retrieve this material currently cascading towards both our nations!”

The Queen glanced up at the sky again.

“That’s a good idea Aryn, get the rapid response unit onto the road as quickly as possible. It looks as if most of the smaller fragments are heading towards the south of the capital but some of the larger fragments are coming down to the north, I want you, Aryn, to concentrate on the larger elements, as I expect those will be the ones of most interest to our friends across the border. Where is Caryn?”

“Here mother” answered the Queens younger daughter as she strode onto the balcony, casting her eyes upwards as she did so. “I was in the palace grounds checking the readiness of our units given the spectacle going on over our heads, I estimate they can be on the road within a quarter of an hora, once we decide where we are going!”

“Thank you Caryn, that’s good to know we can get underway so quickly, although I know it is what you have both trained your forces for!” replied the Queen.

“Now what is that?” pondered Princess Aryn as she quickly raised the binoculars back to her eyes. “That red object that has just emerged into view from within all that smoke looks a bit like a parachute to me!” She handed the binoculars onto her sister.

“I think you are right Aryn, if that fragment is worth fitting with a parachute, then the contents must be fragile and worth preserving. So, does that indicate life and/or delicate machinery?” pondered Caryn who passed the optical device across to her mother.

The Queen studied the sky above the palace intently.

“Whatever is in that fragment must be special as a second parachute has just been deployed which makes that object our main priority, I want you both to take the majority of your teams and get to the landing point of that fragment as quickly as possible. I want you to go prepared to face interference from Masonville! So, even if it delays you a little while I want you to go fully prepared, not only to recover what you can, but to also fend off incursions from our neighbours, and girls, be careful, very careful, I don’t want anyone hurt. You head off as quickly as possible and I’ll despatch some back-up forces in case of trouble, now, come and give your old mum a hug and then get going!”

All three women came together in a group cuddle and the Queen kissed each of her daughters’ foreheads and they then departed from their mother to grab their ready bags and go get their expedition on the road.

At the same time that the Princesses and their forces were speeding north, Prime Minister Pellinore joined her sister, the Queen on the palace balcony.

“Well Adred, what do you think is going on?”

The Queen glanced across at her younger sister.

“To be honest, I don’t really have a clue, although we’ve made some educated guesses, do you have any intelligence from your sources?”

Pellinore took the proffered binoculars and surveyed the skies above them.

“We don’t have anything concrete, although the level of radio traffic has increased dramatically within the Masonville military, especially traffic emanating from the headquarters to units close to our border. That can’t be good news for us, no matter what is going on!”

“That’s just brilliant Pellinore, any idea what they are saying specifically?” asked the Queen.

“They have introduced a new code which our experts are working on as we speak, the more internal messages which we have deciphered have given orders for every particle which lands, to be taken to their central headquarters as a matter of priority!” replied Pellinore.

“I don’t suppose the coded messages say much different, just that they are to be more vigorous in their efforts to retrieve these fragments!” mused the Queen.

“I expect you are correct Adred, I know the measures you have already taken, I spoke briefly to Aryn and Caryn as they were heading out, but sadly I think we need to mobilise all our forces, including the Civil Defence units to help where needed and to back-up the frontline units should Masonville become even more belligerent in the coming hora and days, at least until we know what we are dealing with!”

“Yes, Pellinore, I think we are in for some turbulent times in the immediate future, lets head down to the command post and see what the latest intelligence has for us!” and with that the two sisters headed into the palace’s interior.

“I’m hoping their skills will not be needed but I have despatched my two girls Ayne and Urna with the main convoy just in case specialised medical care is needed by anybody as a result of this mission.”

“Great idea Pellinore, let’s hope they have a wasted journey, but, somehow, I doubt it!” added the Queen as they both continued to the communication centre buried deep within the palace.

Chapter Three.

In the sky above the two, wary countries, the huge clouds of smoke and flame gradually dispersed as the high winds in the atmosphere rapidly blew the evidence away. Meanwhile the heavier objects started to rain down on the land mass known as Villiar to its inhabitants.

Roughly half the, albeit smaller debris landed on Masonville, but the object with the parachutes attached, drifted further and further westward into Granaria.

In the palace in Masonville, which was the name of both the country and its capital, President Signi paced to and fro, becoming increasingly agitated.

Following a knock on his office’s door General Brandr strode purposefully into the room followed by a very nervous Hallr and his two equally apprehensive colleagues.

“HALLR, you’re late man, LATE, you’ve kept me waiting an extra ten munt!

“Sorry Mr President Sir, but we received some last-minute information which we thought best to bring with us.” Replied Hallr.

“Well man, out with it, out with it!” barked President Signi.

“Well S,s,s, Sir” stuttered Hallr, “Our latest information seems to confirm.”

“Seems? SEEMS?” the President yelled, “What do you mean seems? Don’t you know for definite man? You are not inspiring me with confidence Hallr, perhaps you are not up to this role and I should replace you too!” snarled the President.

“No Sir, I know what happened, well, according to our latest information anyway” replied Hallr mopping the sweat from his brow, “Perhaps I could show you some photographs we have just received from one of our monitoring telescopes!”

As he said this, he spread a series of photographs across the President’s desk, the images showed a rectangular object being subjected to a series of close proximity explosions, before the next displayed the target starting to disintegrate. The final image displayed a sizeable chunk of the target breaking off as a huge mushroom cloud of flames obliterates the rest of the objects.

Hallr cleared his throat and started his explanation.

“As you will be aware Mr President, our intention was to shock what we assumed to be a solid object with close proximity explosions against its trailing edge, thereby causing it to start tumbling out of orbit and come to ground within the territory of Masonville!”

“You assumed it was solid, did you not check?” snarled the President.

“I’m sorry Sir, but we had no way to check whether it was solid or not, nor could we expect it to explode in the manner it did, causing the debris field to be much larger than predicted!” answered Hallr.

“So do you know where most of this object is expected to land?” demanded the ever-impatient President.

“Yes Sir, it err, um, er, it seems from the data we have managed to assemble that some will land within Masonville as intended, the larger chunks will likely land in Southern Granaria. But the section with parachutes attached is expected to land to the north of Granaria’s capital!”

The President’s face grew more and more red and his shirt collar seemed to be in danger of choking him.

“Parachutes? What parachutes? Why wasn’t I told anything about a section of this object coming to land by parachute?”

“I’m sorry sir, I thought you already knew about the parachutes!” mumbled a scared Hallr.

“Brandr, get this sorry excuse of a technical advisor out of my sight!” stormed President Signi, as he repeatedly prodded Hallr in the chest.

“Sir, Yes Sir!” responded General Brandr as he signalled two guards to begin to remove the quivering Hallr from the President’s office.

“Please, wait a moment Mr. President, let me explain fully!” exclaimed Hallr.

“I can’t stand incompetence!” grumbled President Signi “Right, YOU! What’s your name?” he demanded as he pointed at one of Hallr’s colleagues.

“I am Alfvin Sir!” replied the technician.

“Well Alfvin, do YOU know where this parachute section is going to land?”

“To be honest Sir, not exactly!” Alfvin could sense the dangerous ground he was on, “But as Hallr was about to explain, more data was coming in from our observatories all the time Sir, but we didn’t want to delay our meeting with you any further Sir, so I am sure we will have a better idea any moment now!” added Alfvin.

The President stared at his three technical advisors, as Hallr was being held at the doorway, the President glared at the men.

“You have one hora to gather better, more reliable information gentlemen and present it here in front of me, do you hear, ONE hora, not a munt longer, now, get out!”

Chapter Four.

Meanwhile. In Granaria several convoys were despatched to different areas of the country, with the largest and most modern actively pursuing the object that was being brought gently to the ground by its two parachutes.

Within fifteen munts the rescue mission left the palace barracks in a small convoy of fourteen vehicles and six motorbikes. Five four-wheel drive personnel vehicles each containing six individuals, also in the convoy was one of the latest radio vehicles, two ambulances, two winch equipped heavy rescue and two crane vehicles apiece, plus two flatbed lorries for returning any wreckage that could be gathered for further analysis, all the lorries were six axle all-wheel drive.

As the convoy raced down the road in pursuit of the canister suspended under the parachutes, the motorbike outriders did their best to clear the road of non-essential traffic. Local emergency vehicles tacked onto the end of the convoy as they were overtaken, before long the convoy in hot pursuit of the canister consisted of almost forty vehicles of various ages and capabilities. At the front of the procession, the modern palace vehicles set a fast and steady pace of almost thirty toils an hora which, for a convoy of that size, was impressive, especially given the relatively poor roads and the fact that the internal combustion engine had only been introduced from Masonville as little as sixty annuals earlier and was still a relatively new technology. Most of the population who tended to work the land, relied predominantly on draught animals of various types.

Princess Aryn, in the lead vehicle was busy watching the descending canister and trying to determine where it was likely to land. As it became ever lower in the sky, it appeared as if it was going to land up in the hills near the market town of Riventon. Aryn after consulting her maps of the area indicated that the convoy was to head east and begin the climb into the foothills of the mountain range that separated Granaria from their aggressive neighbours in Masonville.

As the quality of the local roads worsened and became ever steeper, the speed of the convoy steadily reduced. Meanwhile, the cannister, with its attached parachutes eventually disappeared behind the hills. After eventually cresting yet another ridge of one of the many valleys that ran north to south, the red and white parachutes indicated the landing point of the piece of debris to which they were attached. The problem being that the valley floor looked to be extremely boggy with bullrushes, marsh grasses and stagnant pools being evident everywhere.

Aryn brought the convoy to a halt and surveyed the ground to see how she was going to get across the terrain. To her eyes it seemed they were going to experience extreme difficulty just getting to the object on foot with little to no chance of gaining vehicular access.

As she was stood in the lead vehicle trying to decide her next action, Caryn walked up to her with one of her civil defence personnel at her side.

“How’s it looking Aryn?” asked Caryn.

“Literally sticky, very, very sticky, it looks to be a mass of mud, and who knows how liquid or how deep it’s going to be, but we have to get across somehow or try to get at the wreckage from the other side of the valley!” answered Aryn.

“Well, Aryn, I may have the answer to your problem here” said Caryn pointing to the young woman at her side. “This young lady is a member of the palace civil defence corps, her name is Lrna, she grew up around here and knows the land well, come on Lrna tell my sister what you told me!”

Lrna bobbed a sort of dainty half curtsy and a half formal salute to the Princess Aryn, Lrna was obviously a little nervous and somewhat overawed to be in such company.

“If it pleases your Highness, I may be able to help you get across the valley floor to that thing over there!” Lrna said pointing across the valley.

“If you can Lrna, that would be brilliant, what can you tell me, and how do you know a way across that mass of mud?” asked Aryn.
Lrna fiddled with the hem of her uniform jacket she looked up to Aryn who was still stood in the footwell of the vehicle

“If it pleases your Highness, my sister Ayleah and I grew up here and in the next valley as our parents tended the flocks of bleskins that were brought up here to feed on the summer grasses and vegetation, so we learned where was safe to walk and where not to, I am sure we can get you and all your people across to that object and back again safely.”

“That’s excellent to hear Lrna, but please, just refer to me as Princess, or Princess Aryn if you want to speak to me and my sister or cousins are standing nearby, no needed to be quite so formal! So, where do we need to go from here, do we walk, or do we have to travel further down the valley first?”

“I’m sorry!” stuttered Lrna, “If we travel about another toil down this track, we will be almost opposite where that thing appears to be sitting, and I can lead you across the valley. Then if it would help, my sister Ayleah can take the vehicles about another toil or so further down the track and get them across the valley from there! They should then be able to travel up the side of the stream to get up to that thing, assuming you would need some or all the vehicles over there as well! The only problem is, is that will be dark in ten to twenty munts, and it would be too risky to try and navigate our way across the valley floor in complete darkness, it may well be safer to await the dawn!”

An almost speechless Aryn looked down at a shy young woman who had knowledge that was to her, almost priceless.

“Where is your sister Lrna?” asked an astonished Aryn,

“My sister is driving one of the ambulances Princess!”

“So, she’s here, now?” asked a stunned Aryn, “Oh!! Listen to me asking stupid and pointless questions, if she’s driving one of the ambulances, of course she’s here!” she chuckled.

“Ok, Caryn, can you get the transport part of this mission organised and get Ayleah to get as many vehicles as possible, across there as soon as maybe, preferably the heavy vehicles first as I think they’ll be more important than the personnel vehicles!”

“I’ll get right on it Aryn” with that Caryn headed back down the convoy to find Ayleah.

“Now Lrna, climb aboard and let’s get further down the track as soon as we can!” With that Aryn reached down with her hand to assist Lrna onto the vehicle.

With that the convoy once again got under way and a short while later Lrna indicated they should stop and the element of the mission that was to proceed on foot should gather together, ready for Lrna to lead then across the morass in the morning.

“Princess, this is probably a good place for us to camp tonight before we work our way across the bogs in the morning!” advised Lrna. “If you will allow me to speak to everyone who is to follow me before we set off in the morning and I will explain how we are going to get across” asked a bashful Lrna.

“Of course, Lrna, you are the expert here, so you tell us all what to do and if you see any of us, and I do mean any of us going astray, you stop us and tell us off, you’re the boss here!” replied Aryn.

The vehicles that were to head further down the valley before being driven back up the far side of the mountain stream were marshalled into place at the front of the convoy.

Lrna was stood on the bonnet of the lead vehicle almost incandescent with embarrassment.

“Can you all hear me because this is important!” seeing nods or affirmations that she could be heard, Lrna continued with her speech. “This ground is very boggy, but we can get across without too much trouble if everyone concentrates on where they are walking. If you look at the grasses carefully you can see where some of it is shorter and a slightly paler colour. Just under that shorter grass is a layer of stones, and it’s those stones we will be walking on, so watch where I walk, I will try and flatten the grass as I go, so just walk in the footsteps of the person in front of you and walk in single file. Now, if you should trip and fall into the mud, do not struggle and try not to panic! Try and lie on your back and we will pull you out, do not attempt to stand up, because you will sink deeper into the mud and make it that much harder to rescue you. This is safe if you all pay attention!”

Aryn looked around at the twenty-five people standing in a semi-circle around Lrna and herself.

“Any questions?” Aryn looked at her guide, “Ok Lrna, thank you, let’s all get some sleep, I want to head off at first light, but I will have you repeat your little talk in the morning. But no fires tonight I am afraid, I am not sure that we are alone in these mountains, so be quiet too if you please!”

The convoy spent a quiet, cold, sleepless night and as soon as the brightening of the sky to the East heralded the onset of another day, the heavy vehicles being led by Caryn with Ayleah as her guide set off further down the valley. After a quick breakfast Lrna reiterated her instructions to the personnel who would be following her on foot across the marsh.

After her short speech Lrna hoisted her backpack onto her shoulders and proceeded to almost shuffle her way across the valley floor ensuring she trod down a track for the others to follow. After around fifteen munts they were approximately one third of the way across the valley, Lrna kept glancing back over her shoulder to see all was well, the whole procession seemed to be evenly strung out but with no apparent difficulties.

“So Lrna, how long did you live up here?” asked Aryn who was immediately behind her guide.

“Well princess, my mother says I was born up here, then I came up here every summer for the next sixteen annuals, sadly my father died the following winter and my mother didn’t want the same life for Ayleah and myself, so, when they were recruiting for the civil defence force my mother sent us both to the capital to apply and luckily because of our fitness and upbringing we were both fortunate enough to be chosen, and that was five annuals ago. Our mother sold most of our parents’ flocks although she kept a small number of animals and as far as I know she still spends most of her summers up here, I suppose old habits die hard and it gives her a purpose in life.”

“You mean you haven’t seen her recently?” asked an astonished Aryn.

“No princess, although myself and Ayleah know our letters we can read and write, my mother never learned and because my sister and I have been so busy we haven’t had chance to come back and visit, anyway, we could never be sure exactly where our Mum was going to be!”

“I had no idea people’s lives could be difficult even in this day and age!” For a short while silence descended on the procession, when Aryn happened to glance up and exclaimed.

“Wait a moment Lrna, who is (SPLASH).”

And that is the moment her highness, the Princess Aryn fell in the bog!

Chapter Five.

A spluttering Princess was unceremoniously dragged up by her backpack and dumped back on the track by the sheer strength of Lrna.
“Wow is that cold or what!” exclaimed a sodden Aryn once she got her breath back and had exhaled the water she’d inhaled. “Thank you so much Lrna, wow, I don’t want to go back in there again and serves me right for not paying attention to what I was doing!”

The Princess Urna who was the younger daughter of Prime Minister Pellinore and was deputy Chief Medical Officer to Granaria’s population had been six people behind Aryn, and she’d managed to squeeze past those in front of her to get to her cousin’s side.
“Well, that was stupid Aryn you daft beggar, are you all right?” she asked.

“I’m fine thanks Urna, although I could do without the compliments thank you very much” replied Aryn with a bit of a smirk at her cousins teasing. “Mind you, I am blooming cold and more than a bit wet to say the least!”

“Well, what do you expect after falling in, and Lrna warned you to pay attention to where you were going!” replied Urna, “So what caused you to lose track of the track, literally?” she added as she extricated a blanket from her pack to wrap around her cousin.

“Well, because I am taller than most, I could see over those tall rushes and realised someone was walking towards us, and I was halfway through asking Lrna who it could be, when someone took the firm ground from under my foot and then I was base over apex and getting up, close and personal to the bog, too close and too personal, it tastes worse than it smells!” answered Aryn snuggling into the blanket.

“Well, next time stop walking and ask your question!” said Urna slapping her cousins back handing her some fresh water to rinse her mouth out with. “Come on, ups a daisy, let’s get you on your feet and moving a bit to try and warm you up, but for crying out loud, STAY ON THE TRACK!”

Aryn looked at a scared looking Lrna,

“Don’t look so worried Lrna, it was entirely my own stupid fault, and I can’t say thank you enough for pulling me out before I even realised where I was, anyway, as I was asking before I was so rudely interrupted, someone is walking towards us, and I wondered who you thought it could be?”

“Well princess, the only person I can think of is my mother or another shepherd, but until I can see over these rushes, I can’t be sure” replied Lrna.

“Ok then Lrna, lead on but let’s be careful until we can be sure of who it is” Aryn spoke to Captain Rith Shearaj who was the leader of the militia detachment, who, along with a few of the individuals immediately behind her and the Princess came to an advanced level of alertness, “Let’s be ready for all eventualities and keep your firearms ready at hand!” commanded Aryn.

The procession carried on in Lrna’s footsteps with Aryn slowly regaining some of the warmth she had lost in her dunking.

“Hold up Lrna!” hissed Aryn who was close to her shoulder, “I just saw a grey-haired individual coming this way, let’s wait for them here, just step aside a touch if you can!”

“Yes Princess” answered Lrna. Behind Aryn the Captain and a couple of her military personnel moved forward readying their rifles as they closed up on their Princess’s back.

A munt or two later.

“Mum!” shrieked Lrna as she moved forward to embrace the woman approaching them along the track.

“Lrna, oh Lrna, come here girl!” called the woman, all that could be heard were muffled sobs as the two hugged and the older woman swung the younger around. As they parted slightly, the newcomer looked at her daughter closely.

“Well I must say sweetheart you do look well, but what are you doing all the way up here? I sent you and your sister away from the valleys to have a better life than I had, and yet here you are! But I am so glad to see you lass, tell me, how is your sister?” asked Lrna’s mum and as she looked over her daughter’s shoulder at the front of the procession.

“But first off Lrna, who are your friends, what are you doing here and is that the daft beggar who fell in the bog!”

“Oh shush mum, shush, that is the Princess Aryn, she caught sight of you and you distracted her!”

“Oh no!” exclaimed the mortified woman who quickly bowed low, “Forgive me Princess, I had no idea who you were, I meant no disrespect, I never dreamt to see a Princess all the way up here, let alone one who has fallen in the mire, I am so sorry for my insult!” spluttered a deeply embarrassed and somewhat frighted Lrna’s mum.

Aryn carefully trod forward and clasped the older woman’s hands in hers

“Do not worry Lrna’s mum, I think the description of me being a daft beggar is quite apt given the circumstances, you have a very special daughter here in Lrna, and hopefully in a short while you will be reunited with your other daughter, Ayleah?” said a smiling Aryn.

“She is, at this moment, bringing some of our vehicles up the valley to that object over there. I am so glad to be able to at least reunite your family, even if it is only for a short while! And you will be introduced to a further three Princesses, so you see, we don’t just live in isolation in the palace!”

Aryn then turned to Lrna, “Now, if you please young lady, will you be so kind as to introduce me formally to your mother, as I cannot keep calling her Lrna and Ayleah’s mum now, can I?” she smilingly asked.

Oh, forgive me Highness, please meet my mother Rusan, mother this is the Princess Aryn!” responded a mortified Lrna.

“I am very pleased to meet you Rusan.” said Aryn.

“I am honoured and thrilled to meet a real live, if somewhat cold and wet Princess!” said Rusan, “I hope my girls have been doing well in your service and have performed their duties to the best of their abilities!”

“Well Rusan, I can’t say I know either of your girls all that well, but I am so impressed with what I have learned of them so far, and for this young lady here, I owe her my life, and for them to be chosen as part of this expedition, tells me that they are both highly thought of. But, if you don’t mind, could we get moving and talk on firmer ground as I am beginning to freeze my cheeks off, and not necessarily the ones on my face either!” Aryn answered with a smile, whilst stamping her feet on the spot.

“Of course Highness, forgive an old woman’s excitement of unexpectedly meeting one of her daughters, if you follow Lrna, I will go ahead and get a fire going up close to that object on the hillside” and with that Rusan turned tail and quickly disappeared from sight.

“Lead on Lrna, let’s get moving so I can start my circulation going!” said Aryn with slightly chattering teeth.

“Yes Princess, we can make better time as we can now follow my mother’s trail” with that Lrna moved off at a much quicker pace.
Within another twenty munts the whole file was stood looking at the cylindrical and blackened object with the huge flimsy parachutes trailed up the hillside. Small fires were smouldering in the scrub that the object had landed on, and these were quickly extinguished by water from the stream and by individuals stamping on other, smaller, more distant fires.

While Aryn warmed herself by the larger fire Rusan had going, the rest of Aryn’s team were carefully investigating the cylinder.
“Aryn” called Princess Ayne who was Prime Minister Pellinore’s eldest daughter and the Chief Medical Officer for Granaria who’d been at the tail end of the procession across the marsh.

“It looks like there’s a door here on the side of the cylinder, or at least it looks like there is an impression in the metal of about the right size, there are some markings I can’t read, but there is what looks a lot like a window, although it is blackened, there is also what looks like a lever recessed into the side here, do you want us to try and see if we can open it or do you want to wait until the vehicles get here?”

“Well, we came all this way to see what has been going on, and there may be help we can provide, still, if you move out the way, I’ll come and open it or at least try!” answered Aryn walking towards the capsule.

“No you won’t!” stated Ayne with some vehemence, “You are too important to our nation, I will try and open it, it is part of my search and rescue training, I have a mask here, you don’t! So back away cousin, and everyone else too, leave this to me until I tell you otherwise!”
Ayne donned her protective facemask and after making sure everyone else had moved clear, attempted to move the handle. Despite her best efforts she could not get it to budge.

At that moment the first of the rescue vehicles arrived on scene with Ayleah standing on the nose of the lead vehicles indicating where it was safe to park. Following a short discussion, an iron tube was brought forward and placed over the lever and Ayne tried again to move it, but with the same result, nothing! As Ayne and a couple of the rescue crew were examining the cylinder again, one of them squinted down close to the apparent doorway,

“Excuse me, Princess Ayne, look, does this look like scorched writing, or symbols of some kind?” asked crew man Reafer.

Ayne looked closely to where he was indicating, and squinting and moving her head, she muttered “It certainly looks like it doesn’t it, have you a rag we can used to try and wash some of the soot off!” Ayne asked.

“Certainly Princess, here Yarg” Reafer said throwing a piece of cloth to his assistant, “Wet this in the stream if you please and throw it back up here”.

Yarg caught the cloth, dipped into the icy cold stream and she threw it back up to Reafer.

“Right let’s see if this gives us any clue as to how to open this door!” Reafer started to rub on the cylinder and, slowly at first, the definite outline of a red hand appeared from under the sooty exterior, but no further symbols or access panels could be discerned. At this point it was decided to wait until they could get the capsule back to the palace compound before any further determined efforts were taken to try and open it.

Meanwhile, examination of the wreckage in the area was being conducted. Chief Engineer Drows was clambering all over the hillside but was paying particular attention to the capsule. Aryn walked over to her, “How’s it going Chief?” she asked.

“Well Princess, other than the capsule and its parachutes there is not much in the way of other debris, I’ve got teams scouring the hillsides for any oddments that may have come down in the vicinity, and we’re organising a small pile here for us to load up later, I’ve also got a team doing their best to detach the parachutes from the capsule, then we’ll fold them up and get them secured ready to take back with us!”

“That’s great!” nodded Aryn, “Don’t open the canister, we don’t quite understand who or what we are dealing with at the moment, so the less speculation we start the better!” she added.

“I understand Princess!” replied the Chief.

While this discussion was taking place, Rusan approached Princess Aryn.

“Excuse me Highness, but it seems that most, if not all of you will be spending a second night here, as the sun will soon set, and it is not too easy to navigate the marshes during the horas of darkness, so, I was wondering if you would do me the honour of letting me celebrate being reunited with my daughters, along with meeting you, your sister, your cousins and the rest of your crew members by offering to cook one of my bleskins?” she asked. Rusan continued “I am not sure what, if any, rations you managed to bring with you, but I am sure some hot food will be more than welcome to you and your team!”

A bleskin was like a cross between a large sheep and a goat but with six legs, it was a very sure-footed creature both up in the mountains as well as out on the marsh and bogs and was farmed for its fleece as well as it milk and meat.

“Well Rusan, that is extremely kind of you to offer to feed us all, even though we have brought emergency supplies with us. Please let us at least, pay for the value of your beast!” replied Aryn.

“No highness, being unexpectedly reunited with my two girls is a priceless gift to me, I insist that you let me celebrate this reunion.” answered a very happy Rusan.

So it was that while the engineers determined a way to safely load the capsule onto one of the transport lorries, Rusan, her daughters, along with the units cook prepared a meal of roasted and boiled bleskin with a casserole of the vegetables the convoy had brought with them, flavoured with herbs from the immediate surroundings. Preparations and plans were made for loading the wreckage first thing the next morning and everyone gathered together to enjoy the first real hot meal many of them had had in two days.

After the meal people were sitting staring into the embers of the fire or talking quietly amongst themselves, At that moment a frantic scrambling descent was heard coming down the scree slope from above their sheltered position and a Captain Rith Shearaj ran into the camp.

“Good evening Rith, what can I do for you?” asked Aryn.

“Quickly highness, I need you to follow me to our forward observation point up on the Eastern ridge, I think we are going to have company sometime soon! It looks like may be an incursion patrol from Masonville heading our way, we’ve been observing faint lights pointing skywards from time to time, and they are definitely coming towards the next valley to us, or possibly even this one, it’s hard to tell for sure. I have ordered all lights extinguished and to maintain darkness for the rest of the night, or until we can be sure of what or who we are dealing with!”

“Ok Rith, lead on!” responded Aryn. “Hold just a moment, Caryn, can you get on the radio, speak with the Queen, and tell her we are probably going to need reinforcements as soon as she can get them here, I have an awful feeling our neighbours are about to incur her wrath, so if she can despatch at least two companies of the militia to us immediately it will be a good idea. Tell her where we are and for them to observe blackout conditions, especially the nearer they get to us! And make sure all lights are extinguished down here in the camp while you are at it!””

“I’ll get right on it Aryn!” replied Caryn as she ran off to the radio vehicle to make contact with the palace.

“Right, lead on Rith, let’s see what we are dealing with!” so saying she strode off across the stream and disappeared into the gathering gloom.

Meanwhile the camp extinguished all sources of illumination, including dousing the fire that had so recently provided them with a meal and a source of heat up in the chilly air of the mountains. All engines were also switched off, with the radio vehicle and both ambulances having extra batteries.

Chapter Six.

Aryn lay close to the top of the valley ridge carefully observing the faint lights slowly increasing in intensity from across the adjacent valley. Speaking very quietly to Captain Shearaj, Aryn whispered, “Do we know what is over there Rith?”

“Yes princess, the answer is not a lot really. There’s three valleys between us and the border with Masonville, we do have an observation post up there but, as far as I am aware, we have not had any advance notice of this incursion, if that is what we are indeed facing. There are a few narrow tracks that lead off into the mountains, there’s a handful of isolated shepherds huts that are in use during the summer, but most are probably deserted by now as we are at the tail end of that season. The first snows have already fallen and what small passes that there are up there into Masonville, must be close to being impassable. This seems like a major effort by our so-called friends and neighbours to get at whatever it is we have had literally drop in our lap!” whispered back the captain.

At that moment, the sound of straining engines could just be heard pulsing from the far side of the intervening valley. A sudden bright beam of light swept the sky before being quickly extinguished. As the Princess and the Captain continued to scan the horizon and the mountains beyond, they became aware of someone approaching them from the camp behind them.

“Captain, Captain Shearaj, are you here?” enquired a disembodied voice, “Over here Signalman Kenia!”

A scrambling across the scree was heard as the signalman approached the Princess and the Captain. “Captain Ma’am!” reported the signalman. “I think you are better reporting to the Princess first Kenia!” ordered the captain.

“Sorry princess!” apologised Kenia “I didn’t know you were this far forward; Princess Caryn sends her regards and reports that she has spoken with Queen Adred and her advisors. The Queen has already despatched two companies of militia to our position some horas ago and she reports that they should be near to our location just before dawn. Given Princess Caryn’s reports and the increased volume of military radio traffic from our border with Masonville, the Queen is going to despatch at least another two units in the next hora and as many more as can be mobilised within the next few horas!”

“That’s excellent news Signalman!” responded Aryn. “Go back to the camp and inform them that I want the camp to observe a total blackout, and silent operation. I want all militia to be sent up to us on the ridge.”

“Yes Princess” replied the Signalman as he turned to head back down to the camp. “Signalman, wait a moment!” hissed Aryn “When you get back to camp, send Chief Engineer Drows up to me if you would, tell her it’s urgent I speak with her!”

“Yes Princess!” the Signalman nodded as this time he headed back down the slope.

While they were waiting for the reinforcements from the camp to arrive, Aryn and Captain Shearaj observed the ridge across the valley. The moon Atos would soon rise, and being a full moon, it would help the observers determine if anything was happening opposite them. Within twenty munts all the available militia that Aryn had brought with her were spread across the near side of the valley ridge. Captain Shearaj had gone from outpost to outpost stressing the need for silence and lack of movement, with one lookout close to a rock outcrop or a boulder and keeping within its shadow, with their partner just below the ridge ready to transfer messages back and forth.

Atos broke the horizon behind the observers and climbed into the sky casting a dull red glow across the landscape. Aryn scanned the horizon with her binoculars, she was tired, stiff and her body was sore from where the rocks and pebbles dug into her flesh. Then, just as she was thinking of moving into a slightly more comfortable position, some four toils away her keen sight just happened to be focused on a section of ridge as a body, bent double, appeared. The individual stealthily broke the ridgeline and started a careful descent down into the valley opposite her position, moments later, another followed, then another.

Aryn whispered “Captain?” before she could say anything else Captain Shearaj replied.

“Yes Princess, I see them too!” she whispered to the messenger out of sight behind and below her “Mith, go from post to post and inform everyone that we have armed opposition heading our way, make sure everyone is alert, and Mith?”

“Yes Ma’am?” whispered back Mith, “Not a sound, not a pebble or twig to be broken, understand?” carried on Captain Shearaj.

“Yes Ma’am, I understand, not a sound!”

With that messenger Mith disappeared into the gloom. Aryn continued to scan the horizon, as far as she could tell there were three five-man patrols starting to head down the opposite valley side towards its floor. As far as she could tell, this valley was similar to the one they were in, steep sides, but with a wide boggy floor, with untold depths of mud and slime awaiting the unwary. There were no more vehicle noises or lights to be seen, just the occasional noise of falling rocks and scree as one of the oncoming individuals slipped down the slope.

Aryn felt a gentle tugging at her foot. She rolled deeper into the shadow cast by the boulder to her left and slowly looked down behind her. There crouched down was Chief Engineer Drows.

“Stay there Chief, I’ll come to you!” Aryn whispered. She slithered down the slope glad for the chance to get some movement into her stiff limbs, “Ahh, that’s better!” she whispered.

“What can I do for you Princess?” asked the engineer.

“Have you had a chance to examine that cylindrical object in any detail?” Aryn asked.

“Yes Princess I have” replied the Chief.

“Do you think we have any chance of loading it onto one of our lorries and taking it back to the palace with us?” asked Aryn.

“Yes Princess, although it is quite large, it seems relatively light. I think if we can dig out the bank a little just below where it has come to rest, we should be able to reverse two of the winch lorries up to either side of it, then if I can get a flat-bed lorry immediately below it, with a bit of luck we should be able to drag it directly onto the deck of the lorry. There are two possible snags, one, will we be able to dig out the bank below the cylinder? and two, will we have enough chains to hold it securely in place while we work our way down the riverbank and then across the bog.”

“Ok!” replied Aryn pulling on her lower lip. “Assuming everything goes to plan, what sort of timescale are we talking about to achieve all that and to get the cylinder across the valley and onto the track opposite?”

Engineer Drows stared off into the distance, “Well princess, it’s a very difficult question to answer! How long is a piece of string?”

“Yes Chief, I understand all that, but all I want is some idea of how long we may have to hold off our friends across the valley, who, I assume, want this object for their own needs!” At that moment a loud splash was heard, followed by whispered swearing of some sort. “Sounds like our friends have found the mud!” smirked Aryn, pleased that she hadn’t been the only one to have fallen into the mire.

“Well Princess, best guess scenario, say an hora and a half to dig out the bank, the same to load and secure the cylinder, it took us around a couple of horas to cross the valley and travel upstream, so say double that to go back with the load safely on the truck. We are talking a good day’s work at least, and that’s assuming we don’t hit any snags during the whole process!”

“That’s fine Chief, that gives me some idea how long we could be stuck up here with our backsides in the line of fire!” With that Aryn stared off into the distance for a short while. She then looked back at the Chief, “Here’s what I want you to do, go back and quietly get your equipment ready and if you can, as noiselessly as possible, start scraping away at the bank, then as soon as you have enough light to work safely by, set to and no matter what you hear from up here keep hard at it! I want that cylinder and everything else you can safely gather onto our lorries and heading back to the palace as soon as is possible, but, worst case scenario, do you have any explosives with you, and if you do, do you have enough to destroy that object, even if it is already on one of our vehicles?”

The Chief glanced at her Princess, “Yes Highness, I have some explosives, but who knows how much it would take to destroy it, but I can certainly make a mess of it if nothing else!”

“Well Chief, I hope it doesn’t come to that, but can you ensure if I give the command, you can indeed destroy some of it at least?” asked Aryn.

“Of course Princess!” answered the Chief, “We have gathered the parachutes, and some other odd bits of wreckage, so we should be able to leave here with some of what we came to rescue, even if we have to destroy the main item itself! I take it, we have company from Masonville heading our way?” she asked the princess.

“That’s correct Chief, that’s correct! So, the quicker you are away the happier all of us up here will be!” replied Aryn.

“Well, if you will excuse me Princess, I have work to see to!” replied the Chief as she quietly and quickly disappeared down the valley side.

Aryn worked her way back up to the side of the boulder at the valley lip and settled back in to keep watch alongside Captain Shearaj. “Anything new happened Rith?” asked Aryn.

“Not apart from one of the enemy patrol leaders falling face first into the marsh, no!”

“I heard him when I was talking to the Chief!” gently chuckled Aryn. “Nice to know someone else is cold, wet, and miserable!” she whispered.

“I thought that little snippet would cheer you up somewhat, what is even better news is that I think he was in the process of extending the aerial of a mobile radio set when he fell in, when they pulled him out, it didn’t look as if he had the unit with him, nor his rifle!” reported the captain. “They have sent someone to go back up the slope, presumably to report back to a senior officer, but I could be wrong, it’s hard to make out what is going on in this light! Whoever they sent back up the slope is making heavy going about it, he’s taking three steps up but sliding two back down, so I hope they aren’t in any rush for a report, as it’ll be daylight before he gets over the ridge at this rate!” she added with a smile evident in her voice.

With that comment, a loud crack rang out from across the valley and a large flare arced into the night sky, everything was thrown into stark relief, colours returned to the landscape, shadows became darker, blacker and more intense, before slowly, as it was caught in the gentle breeze, the flare descended under its parachute and drifted down the valley before falling into the all-encompassing mire and, with a loud hiss, the light was extinguished.

Moments later, the shot rang out, followed by a loud ricochet as the bullet bounced of a boulder further up the valley. “Hold your fire!” was the hissed command from Captain Shearaj passed from outpost to outpost. Moments later the loud bleating of a bleskin that had been rudely awakened was observed hurtling across the scree.

“At least we were able to see where their patrols had got to under the flares light, very decent of them to help us out like that was it not Captain?” mused Aryn.

“It certainly was Princess, I can only assume the report from the patrol leader was overdue, and some rear numbskull of an officer got nervous and wanted to know what was going on! Whatever the reason, we know we have fourteen men, at the marsh’s edge with no clue how to get across to this side of the valley, and, with a bit of luck, the rapidly escaping bleskin has convinced them that they are, at least for the moment, unobserved!” remarked the captain. And with that, both sides settled in for the night and the coming of the dawn.

The gradual lightening of the eastern sky signalled the start of another day. Across the valley the gloom suggested that the three patrols seemed to have amalgamated, and were slowly, inch by inch working their way across the valley floor towards their unseen observers. It was now clear from the camouflage patters on the uniforms on the personnel coming their way, that they were indeed from Masonville.
“Princess, look behind you!” hissed captain Shearaj. As Aryn turned and looked over her shoulder, she saw the welcome sight of reinforcements rapidly making their way along the track across the valley to her rear. What was equally pleasing was the two figures heading on their way across the marshes along the invisible paths only they seemed to know to meet with the reinforcements. Aryn determined them to be the shepherdess Rusan and her daughter Lrna.

At the same moment, engines roared into life, the sounds of activity rolled up the valley sides as the engineers got to work. The crane and winch trucks reversed into position to begin recovery of the capsule. The extraction of the object was under way in full earnestness.
Glancing back into the opposing valley, the fourteen-man patrol had disappeared from view as they must have dropped to their knees, although, judging by the splashing, more than one had fallen into the bog. Up on the opposing ridge, at least a handful of heads popped into view, obviously scanning for any sign of Granaria’s forces.

At that moment the crack of artillery broke out from the Masonville forces on their reverse ridge, although the shells seemed to be pretty aimless. What was even more surprising was the answering roar of heavier calibre field artillery from the next valley behind Aryn, the shells landing on and behind the ridges opposite.

It was a short length duel and slowly the Masonville artillery fell silent, and the approaching patrol had turned tail and was trying to get back across the bog as quickly as possible to begin the climb back up to their comrades. With the passage of time, only eleven individuals could be made out to be undertaking the climb up the opposite valley wall, this meant they had probably abandoned three more of their colleagues to their fate within the morass.

Aryn breathed out a huge sigh of relief. “Well Captain, I think we can relax a little as we have help at last, keep the troops hidden, no need to advertise our presence, I am going down to the camp to see how things are going and meet our relief column! I will send up people to relieve your folk as soon as they get here, but pass on my heartfelt thanks to all your soldiers, but I will speak to them later, after a decent rest and a hot drink!”

“I will do Princess, speak to you later!” with that Captain Shearaj headed off across the hillside whilst Aryn headed down to the camp.

Aryn had not descended too far before she was summoned back to the ridge edge. “What’s up Captain?” she puffed as she regained her breath.

“Look across the valley Princess, they are waving a flag of truce!”

Aryn carefully got her binoculars out and warily looked across the opposite valley. There, waving too and fro was the red and white checker flag signifying a truce and a desire to speak. Aryn slid down to the side of Captain Shearaj.

“Ok Captain, wave our flag to signify our willingness to speak, then as soon as some of their leaders make themselves known we shall go and see what our friends want, but I want your forces on full alert in case there is any skullduggery intended by the Masonville troops.
As Captain Shearaj went to arrange for their truce flag to be waved, the first of the reinforcements arrived at the top of the valley side.
“Good morning Princess, I hear you have had an interesting night?” remarked the leader of the fresh troops, Colonel Samth Wiams.
“Morning Colonel, your timely arrival is extremely welcome, as was that short barrage, it certainly gave our Masonville friends something to think about!” replied Aryn.

“You’re welcome, Princess, we had a spotter aircraft up very early this morning and they just happened to see where the barrage was launched from, so we had a reasonable idea of where they were set up!” replied Colonel Wiams.

At that moment Captain Shearaj returned to report that five individuals were starting to walk down the opposite valley side under the flag of truce, all appeared unarmed as was the accepted custom.

“Come ladies, let’s go see what Masonville thinks they are up to?” stated Princess Aryn.

“I don’t think so Princess, with all due respect, you should not go down to meet with them, it is far too risky, if your mother knew I had willingly allowed you to place yourself into such danger, she would have my guts for garters, and, she would be livid with you for taking unnecessary risks! Highness, do us both a favour and stay here! Leave these negotiations to Captain Shearaj and myself!” stated the Colonel with some firmness.

Before allowing Princess Aryn to dispute the Colonel’s assertions the Colonel looked around and barked out “Shearaj, keep a close eye on our friends, hold your positions and don’t fire unless you see a blatant act of aggression, Sergeant Murhy, Corporal Mith, Private Plike and Signalman Aiten, you are all with me, leave your sidearms here, but Aiten bring the radio, leave it tuned into our standard frequency with the set live so the Princess can listen in to what our friends have to say!”

“Yes Ma’am!” answered Aiten. “Right folks, follow me, keep your eyes open!” and with that the deputation rose above the ridge and descended to the valley floor.

Part Three by Iona Laing.

Chapter Seven.

Aboard the exploration fleet flagship The Vasco da Gama, Admiral Maurice Suarez was in a video monitor conference interview with the survivors of the shuttle Oslo. All of whom had returned to The Roald Amundsen via the shuttle Bergen. The eight survivors were all still stunned and shook up, not fully understanding exactly what had befallen their shuttle and particularly their two missing comrades.

“So, let me get this clear, you are sure this was a targeted attack by multiple missiles Ensign Richards?”

“Absolutely sir!” replied Julia Richards, “Your son and Karin were on monitoring duty when they observed multiple aircraft taking to the air, followed shortly by many land-based rockets being launched along with missiles or rockets being unleashed from the aircraft!”

“We have a recording of the events up to shortly before we were given the order to abandon the shuttle sir, we can relay the recording to you now if you wish to observe the attack being launched!” added Ensign Garrett.

“Please do Ensign,” responded the Admiral.

At which point he turned away from the monitor screen to observe a viewscreen on his flight desk. Several minutes later he looked up at the eight survivors.

“None of you observed any indication of such capabilities or evidence that the inhabitants of this planet were aware of your existence?”

“None of us observed this many aircraft airborne on our previous fly overs. There was always some activity which seemed to be training of some description,” added Ensign Richards.

“None of us have any idea as to how or why they targeted us sir!” added Crewman Peter Carter.

“None whatsoever sir,” added Crewman Ash Mistry.

“None of our logs recorded evidence of us being tracked, but obviously we were!” added Ensign Richards sadly.

“Thank you for your reports, now who can tell me what happened to the escape pod which should have contained my son and his wife?” asked the Admiral sadly.

“As we left the flight deck after Ramon gave the order to abandon the shuttle, we grabbed the evidence logs we had recorded to date and headed to our pod. Ramon and Karin were monitoring the self defence systems, but just as our hatch closed, I saw Karin dragging Ramon away from the flight deck to their escape pod and that’s as much as I know sir!” reported an emotional Kelly Garrett.

“Thank you for that information, Ensign!” whispered the Admiral, “Did anyone else see anything in addition to that report?” he asked the rest of the Oslo’s crew. A series of “No sirs!” was the sad response.

“Excuse me sir,” spoke out Captain Rowe of the base ship The Roald Amundsen, “Upon hearing the abandon shuttle order had been issued we managed to get a camera on the shuttle just as the attack was developing which will be available for you to view on your monitor, any moment now!”

The survivors turned to view the screens to their side as the attacks and subsequent explosions played out in front of the shocked faces. The Admiral watched the recording play, visibly wincing when the major secondary explosion enveloped the final escape pod to leave the shuttle. He stood there with a pale face, pinching the bridge of his nose. He looked to his side and asked for Captain Brian Little to report to his ready room. He then looked up at the survivors.

“Thank you all for your reports, I know this must be distressing to you, go get some rest! You have all had an awful day, and as soon as we have some information on the whereabouts and condition of Ramon and Karin, we will let you all know!”

“Excuse me sir!” said Captain Rowe, “We have just been able to identify the deployment of a parachute from within the debris trail, and it seems highly likely it’s an escape pod parachute!” so saying he gave the order to play the recording. A happier group of survivors looked from one to the other, and a father looked to have a little more hope in his expression too.

“Thank you, Captain! That looks a little more promising, I will get back to you shortly as to our next action!”

“Yes sir, I shall await your further orders!” and the screens went dark.

There was a sharp knock on the door of Admiral Suarez’s ready room. “Enter!” he responded.

“Admiral, you sent for me?” asked Captain Little.

“Yes Brian, have a seat for a moment please!” The Admiral sat at his desk and leaning back he placed his feet on the desktop and wearily interlocked his fingers behind his head. “I assume you have seen the recordings?” Maurice Suarez asked his friend and second in command.

“Yes Maurice, I have just seen them up on the bridge, including the deployment of the parachute, which is a promising development!”

“That it is Brian, that it is!” responded the Admiral. “But I think we may have a major potential problem Brian, a problem with the shuttle craft.”

“I came to the same conclusion Maurice, whoever launched that attack, knew exactly where the Oslo was, and, as far as we can tell, none of the civilisations are supposed to be that technologically sophisticated and the shuttles are supposed to be invisible to those on the ground!”

“That’s what worries me Brian, I want you to issue a recall to all currently deployed shuttles, all missions are to be suspended immediately until we can get some idea of what went wrong today!”

“I’ll get right on it Maurice, I have already issued instructions to the engineers to go over those shuttles still on board, and we’ll inspect those others in our fleet as they return to their parent craft. We’ll get to the bottom of this as quickly as we can! Plus, we have some hope now that perhaps Ramon and Karin survived the attack, let’s hope they landed among friends!” he smiled at his longtime friend and commanding officer.

“I hope so Brian, I really hope!” replied the Admiral.

The next day Maurice was sitting at his desk repeatedly watching the deployment of the parachute from the mass of still exploding, burning debris. He was deep in thought, what had gone wrong? Where had this destructive capability come from? Were his son and the woman he had quickly come to consider his daughter still alive, and if so, were they safe. He was bracing himself to contact his wife to tell her he still had no further news of their family members. The memory of his prior call the previous day was still deeply etched in his mind. Being unable to comfort the love of his life as she dissolved into tears tore at his soul. Great wracking sobs affecting her ability to speak coherently as she asked him repeatedly why, and why wasn’t he down there on the planet actively looking for their family already and to hell with the order to limit contact with less advanced races and civilisations, she wanted her only child and his wife back safe in her arms.

As he reached across the desk about to punch up the communication system to speak with his wife a glowing shimmer appeared in front of his desk.

“Maurice, don’t call Ava just yet, I need to speak to you first!”

As he jumped to his feet he stuttered, “Err, Ma'am!” As he looked on at the light shimmer as it resolved to reveal a short, late middle-aged woman with an ageless smile on her face.

“We need to speak!” she said as she sat in front of his desk. Maurice slumped into his chair, and for the first time since he’d heard and seen the evidence of the attack, he had some hope growing in his heart.

Chapter Eight.

Up in the mountains above Riventon., The two opposing truce factions faced off across a narrow part of the valley floor. Colonel Wiams stepped forward, as far as the bog allowed her too anyway. She called across the valley.

“I am Colonel Samth Wiams, I represent Granaria’s rulers and our people, just who are you, what do you want and by what rights do you dare to invade the sovereign lands of Granaria?”

A chuckle wafted across the landscape, “Colonel Wiams is it, well, I am General Laffe, and I have the honour to represent our glorious leader, President Signi, and we are here to recover our rightful property."

“I’m sorry General, did I hear you say your property? I can assure you that there is none of your property over here, you must have erroneous information!” answered Colonel Wiams.

“Colonel, I really don’t have time to waste words with you, especially with you being a mere woman! The longer you delay us, the harder and longer our journey back to the glorious nation of Masonville will be, due to the accumulation of snow up in the passes, now, kindly step aside, go back to your kitchens and let us reclaim our rightful property,” answered a testy General.

“To be honest General I am less concerned about your travel difficulties than you getting yourself and your troops out of Granaria. So, turn around and go home. I repeat there is nothing of yours anywhere around here, so please General go home!”

“Colonel, I am losing patience with your attitude, whether you like it or not I have my orders, orders relayed to me personally from our glorious leader and I intend to fulfil those orders to the letter! And, neither you nor your pathetic forces will prevent me from performing my duty, now, get out of my way before you regret crossing me and my men. If you antagonise me much more Colonel, my men will have to consider taking you and all your friends back to Masonville with us and put you to more appropriate employment for persons of your gender, entertaining me and my men!” the General barked back in return to general laughter from those around him.

“Well, General, I don’t really care who gave you your orders, but I have mine, which means that I want you to turn around and go home, I repeat, there is nothing for you here nor do I appreciate your threats to my forces!” snarled the Colonel.

“Is that so Colonel, well, we shall have to see won’t we!” with that the General turned his back to the Colonel and whispered something to his Aide. Moments later a soldier started to wave a couple of small flags at someone back up on the ridge that the Masonville deputation had descended from. The General turned to face the Granaria deputation.

“Colonel, you have exceeded the limits of my patience, so Madam I suggest you return to your pitiful excuse of a Militia, return to your base then let your betters go about our business as authorised by our glorious leader!”

“Are you threatening me General, and while under a flag of truce? A truce you requested!” stormed the Colonel.

“It is more of a promise Colonel, get out of my way or suffer the consequences, I have asked you nicely, now I am ordering you to move!” sneered the General.

At that moment a file of around thirty troops crested the ridge from the Masonville camp and headed down towards the marsh dragging a bloodied civilian with them, all were heavily armed.

At the same time, the drone of several engines could be heard rapidly approaching.

Moments later two twin engine aircraft came into view from behind the Masonville forces and made a bee line for the Granaria deputation, sweeping down the valley with their forward-facing machine guns chattering away at the Colonel and her group, who promptly scattered.

As the aircraft flew ever closer, the sound of several heavy calibre machine guns was heard from the Granaria forces on their ridge. The front aircraft of the pair, seemed to dip and then began to rear up at an increasingly severe angle, its engines screaming, before stalling out and dropping to the ground to its right. Here it exploded in a huge searing ball of flame and debris right on top of the Masonville General and his deputation.

The second aircraft veered to the left to avoid the first and started to desperately gain height, before it too was raked by machine gun fire. Its port engine started to emit thick black smoke before bursting into flames. The heavily damaged aircraft started losing altitude as it turned for home and barely clearing the ridge and leaving a thick trail of oily smoke it disappeared from view. Moments later a distant rumble was heard, and it seemed likely that the second aircraft had crashed too, as a pall of smoke climbed into the sky.

The Granaria deputation slowly regained their feet as they regrouped.

“Anyone hurt?” asked the Colonel. On finding none of them had been injured, although the radio unit was smashed, the five of them looked across the valley to where the acrid smoke was drifting across the land. The pungent smell of burning materials could not mask the sickly aroma of burning flesh. The patrol that had started down the valley side prior to the aerial attack were seen to be desperately making their way back up the slope, but not before one of them was seen to shoot the civilian in their possession, who fell, unmoving, on the ground.

“Come on, I think that concludes the negotiations for the moment!” said a subdued Colonel Wiams, “Let’s get back to our forces as I need to change out of these wet smelly clothes, that bog is not a nice place to seek cover!” said a sodden Colonel as she led her deputation back up the slope.

The Granaria forces deployed on the ridge, maintained a close watch on events across the valley, where, once the Masonville forces disappeared from view, nothing more was seen, although several engines could be heard slowly receding into the distance. Apart from the continuing crackling from the burning aircraft and occasional bangs from exploding ordinance, peace and quiet gradually descended over the hills.

Back down in the camp a hive of activity had seen an access ramp dug out below the canister and one of the flat bed lorries had been reversed into position immediately below it. On either side of this vehicle, the two winch lorries had been positioned, with cables attached to the canister. This was gently pulled onto the lorry due to transport it back to the palace.

Once loaded, the cannister was secured by chains and the whole thing covered by a timber framework which was, in turn, covered by several tarpaulins. All this activity took most of the day and, with daylight failing, a council of war was held.

“Well Princess, I think it prudent to remain here for another night!” stated Colonel Wiams, “I think it will not be advisable to attempt to travel back down the valley to the crossing point established yesterday, especially with such a valuable cargo, but I also think we need to know for certain what our friends from Masonville are up to!”

“Sadly Colonel, I think you are correct, what do you think Chief?” Princess Aryn said asked as she turned to Chief Engineer Drows.

“Well Princess, I think from a logistical perspective, to try and manoeuvre our cargo down the valley will take longer than we have available daylight horas left. Although our load is securely attached to the transport vehicle, it is more than a little top heavy and to attempt such a precarious trip in the dark will probably end in disaster, either we’d tip over or break something vital on the lorry. At the same time, we really need to know what Masonville’s next move is going to be, as we are, potentially, quite exposed here, in more ways than one!”

All the other leaders of this mission, the Princesses Caryn, Ayne and Urna all agreed that to attempt to move their cargo was too risky given how little of the day was left, although none of them were particularly happy at the thought of yet another night isolated in the hills.
The Princess paced back and forth for a minute or two in deep thought, she stopped and looking at Captain Shearaj she said “Captain, can you get someone to find either Rusan, Lrna or Ayleah as I think we are going to need their specialist knowledge a great deal more than we already have!”

Captain Shearaj smiled at the Princess and answered, “No need to send for them, they’re heading our way as we speak.”

Princess turned and smiled at the approaching group of three women.

“Ladies, thanks for anticipating my request and presenting yourselves practically at the same time I realised I needed your expertise once again.”

All three women bowed to the Princess.

“It is our honour to offer our services to Your Highness, it was obvious you were holding a council of war and that you may have use of our specialist knowledge.,” stated Rusan.

“Yes ladies, you can once again really help us out. Ayleah, can you, with the Chief here go back over our route that we’ll have to take tomorrow with our vehicles, I want you both to check for hidden rocks or soft areas that could cause problems for our extra heavy loads. Lrna, I know the original foot track we established yesterday to get over here is well trodden and fairly obvious to those who will need to get back across the valley tomorrow, do you think you could find a second or even a third track for us, so if we need to get out of here in a rush we have more than one option, and is there any way to disguise the tracks across the bogs? Finally, Rusan, my request to you will be the most distasteful, and, it is a request not an order! Do you think you could get some of our troops across the adjacent valley, we need to check on what is going on with Masonville’s forces, there may well be scenes of carnage over there that you may find disturbing?”

Rusan looked at the Princess in the eye and replied “I thank you for your consideration, Princess, but you needn’t worry about my sensitivities, I have seen my share of death and destruction over the years, not necessarily in such a brutal manner but it is a hard existence at time’s up in these hills. I will be honoured to lead your forces across the valley. Whilst it won’t be really possible to remove evidence of our routes back across the bogs, it may be better for Lrna to lay some false trails that start across the valley floor but just end in deep pools, it won’t take long for nature to hide the trails anyway as the grasses and reeds will be dying off soon as winter sets in. When do you want me to go across the next valley? I can be ready in a matter of moments!”

“Captain, how soon do you want to head off?” asked the Princess.

“I expect I can have a patrol ready in five munts or so Princess.”

“Thank you, Captain.,” nodded the Princess. “Now Rusan, once you have got our troops across the valley, I don’t want you to go any further than the other side of the marsh, we don’t know what we are going to find, and I don’t want you placed in any further danger than necessary!” Rusan nodded acceptance.

“Captain, we need to know what our friends are doing, are they digging in, are they trying to outflank us or have they retreated?”

“Excuse me Princess, but I can not only guide your forces across the marsh over there, but I can show then some bleskin trackways that will enable them to approach that ridge from the side, rather than struggling up the loose scree slopes that predominate up there, it’ll be quicker and quieter, so safer for them all!” offered Rusan.

Aryn looked from Rusan to Captain Shearaj then back at Rusan with an arched eyebrow as she thought over Rusan’s offer.

“As much as I don’t like it Rusan, your proposition is sensible, I will take up your offer. Captain, I am charging you with Rusan’s safety, I want her exposed to as little danger as possible.” replied the Princess.

“Caryn, can you speak to the palace and let them know what has happened here today, and what our plans are, keep your reports short and make sure you use our most secure codes, Ayne, Urna, can you both check on everyone, see if any are especially fatigued or suffering from the cold more than others. See if we have a way of getting everyone at least a warm drink, perhaps from the forces in our rear, it will be easier for them to hide our fires from unfriendly eyes, but it will have to be another dark night I am afraid, no need to advertise our whereabouts. Come, everyone time marches on let’s get busy, you all know what we need to do!”

A small section of the engineers with Ayleah in their midst started to descend the valley looking to ease the journey for the next day whilst Lrna established a second and then a third route across the valley floor as well as laying a handful of false trails. Rusan, with Captain Shearaj and a patrol of ten militia, ascended to the ridge before disappearing from sight.

An hora had passed and the drone of an aircraft high in the sky warned everyone to what appeared to be a Masonville reconnaissance aircraft, before it quickly headed back to its base. Later, as dusk was settling in, a single shot was heard to echo around the hills, but no-one knew where it came from or what it meant.

It took several horas before all the tasks were completed, and it was totally dark before Rusan, Captain Shearaj and the patrol returned to the camp, all were ashen faced and angry beyond description. Both Princesses Aryn and Caryn waited for the patrol to make its report. Ayleah and Lrna went to console their mother Rusan who was now in tears and sobbing her heart out.

The captain wearily came to attention before the Princesses and Colonel Wiams. “It seems that Masonville’s forces have withdrawn back towards their own lands. They obviously left in a hurry as they have left a lot of equipment behind, specifically several vehicles and artillery pieces that our own artillery damaged or destroyed yesterday. We counted over twenty dead individuals, left where they fell. Unfortunately, they’d come across a family of three shepherds that were known to Rusan, a husband, his wife and their teenaged daughter. The husband was the hostage we saw shot earlier, the wife and the daughter were discovered by their tent. The wife was dead she’d been shot, but the girl was being raped by a lone Masonville soldier, when he saw us approach, he slit the girls throat and charged at us! Before any of us could react, Rusan’s knife whistled closely past my ear and embedded itself in this man’s throat! We think he, or others had also raped the wife, we found no trace of anyone else up there. We did what we could for the two females, but with your permission, we all want to go back tomorrow morning to fetch them, and the man, and take them down to Riventon with us for a decent funeral. We had a quick look at the crash site, and apart from fragmented bodies there was nothing to be found, although at least two soldiers were seen who likely drowned when they fell in the marsh yesterday.”

Rusan looked up at the Princesses, “They were a lovely family, Trnk, Srah and their daughter Jaz were heading home from their last season of Bleskin herding, Jaz had just been accepted into your Civil Defence Force, she’d wanted to follow in the footsteps of Lrna and Ayleah, it was all she’d spoken about for years, she had to wait until she was old enough and now, because of that animal she’ll never be able to live her dream! My knife was too quick an end for him! We have our unique ways of justice for certain criminals up here, and we would have made him suffer, sadly, it was not to be,” and sobbing she was led away by her equally distraught daughters.

“I’ve never seen such accuracy with a knife Highness, but Rusan is right, it was too good for that scum!” spat Captain Shearaj. “He was completely out of control, I don’t know if he was drunk and evil, brutalised and evil or just plain evil, whatever it was he is not going to attack anyone else, the strategic value such a prisoner and the information he may have held for us cannot be underestimated but sometimes natural justice trumps all! Two thirds of my patrol are female, and fine troops they make, I could not bear for them to suffer such a fate as befell those poor innocents!”

“We are all tired Captain, your militia have been under tremendous pressure for days now, if I had been there, I may well have killed him myself!” said a dejected Princess Aryn. “Let’s get you all some food and a place to sleep, we’ve a lot to achieve tomorrow, and it’ll be dawn before we know it!”

The camp settled down to a cold dark night in the hills. Sentries kept a watch for any signs of should Masonville’s forces, reappear but nothing was seen or heard from them, just the bleating of bleskins as they searched out some food whilst keeping an eye on all these humans who had so rudely disturbed their peace and quiet.

Chapter Nine.

It was another long, cold and dark night. The sentries patrolled the camp vicinity, and the lookout posts were replaced with fresh individuals on a regular basis so that everyone got a chance for some rest. An hora before dawn Captain Shearaj and Rusan led a second expedition to traverse the adjacent valley to recover the three bodies for repatriation to their family in Riventon.

As soon as it was light enough, the heavily loaded lorry with the winch vehicles in company started their tortuous journey down the mountain streambed and made their way carefully across the marsh by the route that had been used on the original journey to the crash site.

It took the best part of the day to make it onto the mountain road that led down to Riventon and eventually to the capital of Willowton. The ambulances awaited the return of the recovery patrol so they could transport the three bodies back to their home. It was late in the day when the recovery personnel were seen cresting the ridge, they were carrying the three stretchers with their sad loads. What really surprised those awaiting their return was the sight of a soldier being dragged along with his arms bound behind his back, dressed in the uniform of Masonville. As the dead shepherds were respectfully loaded onto an ambulance, the vehicle headed downstream to follow the canister that had caused so much trouble in the first place.

Captain Shearaj approached Princess Aryn and came to attention.

“Princess, as you have seen we have brought those poor unfortunate shepherds down off the mountain. As we were making our way back across the marsh, Rusan heard what she originally thought was a young bleskin mired in the muck bleating for its mother. What she actually found was this Masonville soldier, stuck up to his chest in the mud, quietly sobbing. It took us quite an effort to rescue him although several of my force were quite prepared to leave him there, especially in light of what our primary mission was today! However, we pulled him out and brought him down to await his fate at your pleasure.”

Aryn looked at the muddied, smelly and bedraggled specimen in front of her. His head hung down and he was visibly shivering. He was a small individual, barely five foot tall and probably no more than one hundred and twenty pounds wringing wet, which he was.

“What’s your name soldier?” snapped Aryn, he offered no response.

“I asked you what your name is soldier, I won’t ask you again!”

“Strin” came the muffled reply.

“Look at me when you speak to me soldier! Do they not teach you respect in Masonville? For the last time, what is your name?”

He looked up at the imposing figure of Princess Aryn, bright green eyes looked at her although one eye was almost closed with a purple bruise on his cheek, his dirty yellow hair plastered to his forehead, and he bore a haunted, scared expression.

“Strin your highness, A,a,a Art Strin” he spoke barely above a whisper before dropping his head once again, his teeth chattering. He looked to be no more than sixteen at the most, certainly nothing like the tall well-built Masonville troops most of the onlookers were more used to seeing.

“Well Art Strin, what shall we do with you? I have a good mind to execute you for the crime of invading my country, the murder of that innocent family and the rape of the females, it’ll save me an awful lot of trouble, get him out of my sight!” snarled Aryn.

A loud wail escaped the lips of Strin and he fell to his knees. “Please Highness, p . . ,p . . ,please d . ,d . ,don’t hurt me, I . . , I . . ,I didn’t want to come here, I . . , I . . , didn’t hurt those people and I certainly didn’t rape the women, I couldn’t, I . , I . . , wouldn’t, I’ll tell you everything I know, I . . ,I . . ,I . . . promise Highness, I’ll tell you the truth, honest I will, but please, don’t hurt me, I ask for . . , for . . , sanc . . , err, sanc . . , sanctuary and protection from Masonville’s leaders, p . . . ,p . . ,please Highness,.” and he continued to wail and cry.

The assembled group exchanged glances as they looked at this example of their enemy, an enemy who seemed so different to that expected. Something was seriously wrong here.

Aryn sighed. “Stand up Strin, no one here will hurt you, now, come on, stand up!”

Strin struggled to regain his feet and eventually two of the patrol members grabbed an arm each and hauled him upright. He glanced furtively at those around him, especially at Princess Aryn who was obviously in charge and more so at Rusan who was slowly approaching the group. He started to shuffle backwards, his bare feet scraping on the rough tussocky grass. Blood evident in amongst the mud and filth covering his feet and legs. His obviously too large uniform tunic hung from his frame, with no sign of any trousers.

“You must be cold Strin, let’s get you something dry to wear, are you hungry or thirsty Art.” asked Aryn.

“Y . . y . . yes Highness, I am c . . c . . cold so very cold and hungry and thirsty, are, are you going to p . . ,p . . poison me?” he asked fearfully.

Aryn gave a subdued sigh, “No Strin, we are not going to poison you, we are not that evil no matter what you have been told or how your countrymen have provoked us with their behaviour! Right Captain, take our friend here and strip him of that filthy uniform, get him cleaned up as best as you can and get him something warm and dry to wear. Ayne, once he’s clean can you see about dressing the wounds on his feet, I doubt all that mud and filth is doing him any good! Then we can get him a snack and a drink!”

“Noooo!!!!” wailed Art, “It’s fine Highness, I can change my own clothes and wash myself if you will just loose my arms, I promise not to cause you any problems, honest, I’ll, I’ll be a good g . . ,g . . , I’ll be a good soldier, p . ., p . . ,p . . ,please, honest, Highness!!” and even more tears fought to follow the tracks of others down his cheeks.

Before anyone else could respond Rusan stood in front of Strin and put a hand on each of his shoulders.

“Shhh Art, now shush, shush Art, it’s okay, no one here will hurt you! If I ask you an important question, do you promise to tell me the truth? Look at me Art, I want the truth, it’ll be best to tell us the honest truth now, rather than you be discovered in a lie later, do you understand Art, the truth, . . Right?”

Art looked intently into Rusan’s eye’s; his eyes darting from one to the other as he stared intently into her face after chewing on his lower lip, he nodded to Rusan he whispered,

“Yes, the honest truth, I will tell you the truth I promise!”

Rusan looked around at all these important people she’d suddenly found herself amongst, they were far more important than herself she knew, but she had more life experience than most of them. They were mainly youngsters, plus, she was a Mum. They were all studying her intently wondering what had driven this simple shepherdess to place herself at the centre of this discussion.

“Right Art, you can tell me, the truth mind!” Rusan said levelly, “Ready? Are you a girl, Art?”

Gasps escaped more than one of the group surrounding this vignette. Fresh sobs and tears escaped from Art who had screwed his eyes tightly shut. Without saying a word, Art nodded his head.

“Y . . y. . ,yes, I am a girl, please, please don’t hurt me, please, I’ll be a g . ., g . . good girl, I promise I will, I will!!” the rest was lost in a loud gut-wrenching wail as she threw her head backwards tears streaming down the sides of her head, leaving fresh tracks through the mud that coated her head, the tears pooling in her ears.

“Oh sweetheart, shush, it’s okay, come here!” said Rusan as she stepped forward, her arms open wide as Art collapsed into this simple woman’s embrace. As Rusan rocked this girl from side to side, someone cut the bonds that had bound her arms behind her back. Art held onto Rusan as if her life depended on this woman’s embrace. Someone else wrapped the pair of them in a blanket. As slowly the wails and sobs subsided, Rusan held this girl away from her slightly.

“Shush sweetheart, you are safe here, now, what is your real name?”

Barely able to control her breathing enough to speak clearly, the girl looked up into Rusan’s kind eyes, “M, m, m, my n,. n, name is Jena, Jena Kryty, H, h,h, . honest!”

“That’s all right Jena, such a pretty name.” said Rusan who looked at Aryn for unasked permission to care for this distraught and fragile young girl. Aryn nodded her ascent. “Right Jena, will you come with me and let us get you clean, dry, something to eat and drink and your wounds treated and then you can rest. After that, when you are ready you can tell me your story, will that be fine with you sweetheart!”

Jena nodded her head, so tired, so shattered, her body heaving with silent sobs.

With that Rusan, Jena along with Ayne and Urna went to the stream to begin the process of caring for this young individual who had caused so much consternation in such a short space of time.

Chapter Ten.

An hora later Rusan approached Princess Aryn, Colonel Wiams, Captain Shearaj and Chief Engineer Drows who were all in earnest discussions about the following days agenda. Aryn, pointing to the seat next to her, passed Rusan a warm drink. Rusan was beyond upset, she was angry and incensed too.

“What have you discovered so far about our guest?” asked Aryn.

“Not the full story yet, but my Goddess, Princess, those Masonville animals must be stopped. Jena is fourteen, at least she thinks she is!”

“Doesn’t she know for certain?” asked Colonel Wiams.

“Not for definite, she’s an orphan, so birthdays were not celebrated, or even remarked upon.” Rusan gave vent to a great sob. “Oh Princess, you should see the state of her body! The scars, burn marks, she’s been lashed or whipped from her knees to her neck, some of the wounds are infected and your cousins are treating them at the moment! That poor wee mite, it seems she’s been raped repeatedly and continually for at least the last eighteen to twenty-four months.

Aryn spilt her drink and sat up straight looking at Rusan with a stunned expression on her face.

“Oh, Goddess, Nno!” exclaimed Captain Shearaj.

Rusan nodded sadly. “I couldn’t get the full gist of what she was trying to tell me; she’s shattered poor soul! She could barely string two words together at times, I think your cousins have now given her something to make her sleep so they can better assess her wounds. The best I can come up with is that she got into trouble with the authorities, I think she was involved in some civil unrest. She was caught, tried, sentenced all within a matter of horas, she was then sold to a Masonville soldier by the name of Art Strin!”

“So that’s where she got the name from!” muttered the Princess.

“Yes Highness!” nodded Rusan, “And, he may well have been the soldier we caught raping Srah and Jaz. She was his lackey, his cook, his cleaner, he treated her as his chattel! Raped her almost every night and was not averse to selling her favours to his fellow soldiers. She thinks she’s been pregnant at least twice, but each time she was kicked and beaten to induce a miscarriage, so she remained “ripe” as they termed it, for continued sexual relations! The bastards!” spat Rusan, as tears slid down her face. With a weary sigh Rusan added “There is a lot more to that girls story Highness, and we’ll have to wait until she’s a bit more rested, but I have a horrible, sickly feeling that she’s not the only girl who has been exposed to such brutal, degrading treatment!”

At that moment Princess Ayne was seen leaving the ambulance that housed Jena, Princess Urna and a couple of female militias acting as both orderlies and guards. She looked as drawn and upset as Rusan had when she first approached Aryn.

“How is she, Ayne?” asked Aryn as she passed her cousin a warm drink from the container at her feet.

“A mess, to be honest Aryn, a real mess!” Ayne growled. “I have never seen so much evidence of abuse on a single person, it amounts to torture inflicted by a sadist! How that girl’s will to live has survived such a prolonged catalogue of degradation I don’t know, I’m not sure I could have endured what she seems to have suffered. Someone, somewhere must be held to account!” She sat with her head slumped forward before looking up somewhat glassy eyed. “We’ve given her something to make her sleep, we’ve cleaned her wounds as best we can, but we need to get her back to the capital immediately. We can only do so much out here in the back of an ambulance. We’ll probably keep her well sedated for the next day or two, and hope her body can begin to repair itself, but I worry about her mind, she’s been through so much for one so young. Even though she’s asleep, she’s quite agitated and seems to be asking for you Rusan, she seems to have fixated on you!”

“Then, with your permission Highness, I will return to her side, she’s touched a nerve with me too, probably because of Jaz, and she reminds me so much of my girls I suppose!”

“Of course, Rusan, even though she’s technically our enemy, I will never forget her fear filled eyes and the wails she emitted, but we’re planning to take her back to the capital with us tomorrow, can you come with us? We already owe you a great debt of thanks and I’m sure my mother will love to exchange anecdotes with you about the problems of raising two girls! But I think Jena needs you at this point in her life, probably more than anything else we can do for her, you are important for her and probably her sanity!”

Rusan was already standing, “As much as I want to be there for the funerals of my friends, I feel a tie to that girl. I cannot abandon her in her hour of need, the requirements of the living outweigh those of the dead! Plus, it will give me a chance to spend a bit more time with my girls, so yes Highness, I will attend to Jena, not that an old shepherdess like me can do much to care for her, but I’ll be at her side for as long as she needs me!”

Aryn stood and embracing Rusan she said quietly, “You are an amazing woman Rusan, thank you for everything you have done for Granaria, you will need a great deal of physical and mental stamina to be the help that our young friend will need in the coming days, weeks and months!”

“Ayne also stood back up and hugged Rusan, “Yes, thank you Rusan. You can always sleep in the cot next to Jena, we can slide it right next to hers for tonight if needs be, then you can sit inthe ambulance with her tomorrow!”

A tearful Rusan just nodded to both these young women, then with a strangled, “Good night, all!” she left the group and climbed into the back of the ambulance.

As they all settled back down to finish their drinks Caryn came from the radio truck and sat next to her sister.

“I have just finished messaging the palace. The Queen sends her regards to you all and looks forward to your return to the capital and will rest easier once we are all safely back in the palace compound and can make our reports in person. She suggests that our cargo is disguised as best we can, and to time our return to the capital to be in the hours of darkness. Our intelligence service thinks it’s highly likely that Masonville has operatives keeping an eye on the capital and the palace in particular. If we time our arrival to the wee small hours, the roads will be quiet, and any observers will be that much easier to spot. If we can confirm our approach time, she will ensure that we have the roads closed off to ensure we can get our cargo into the palace compound as safely and as quickly as possible! Less chance of Masonville interfering, and less chance of injuries to our own people should the enemy mount an attack!”

“Sounds sensible Highness!” said the Colonel. “I’d rather keep as low a profile as we can, the rumours will no doubt spread whether we like it or not, but the fewer eyewitnesses to our convoy the better!”

“Definitely, Highness!” agreed the Chief “Plus, we’re going to have to travel sedately anyway, just to ensure we get back to base without any mishaps. As you have seen, it looks like we have an extra-long box body on the back of the lorry, and with the number of tarpaulins covering it no- one can look in and see what we have on board. But we’ll need to be extra vigilant the closer we get back to the palace compound. I think if we format the convoy, so it looks that our precious cargo is, well, anything but precious, then so much the better. We all know the steadier the pace of the lead vehicles the easier it is on those further down the convoy. That way we can ensure we are closed-up with minimal distance between each vehicle, the more concentrated our convoy, the better our response will be should anyone be foolish enough to mess with us. In theory! Plus, the less time it’ll take us all to pass any trouble spots!” she added with a half-smile.

“Agreed, I think you’ve all made sensible points and they’re the same ones I had thought of myself! Right, everyone, let’s try and get some sleep, it’ll be dawn before we know it!” said Aryn.

Some three horas later the original convoy had been marshalled into position and had already cleared the crest of the valley that had witnessed so much tension and been adjacent to so much death and destruction. About a third of way back from the lead vehicle was a nondescript lorry that bore a slightly larger than usual cargo. Three vehicles further back was marshalled an ambulance containing a sleeping Jena who had briefly woken a couple of times, and who, once she was sure Rusan was by her side, settled back into restless sleep, with awful images stampeding through her dreams. In the centre of the convoy was the second ambulance in a position of honour, carrying as it did the mortal remains of the innocent shepherding family, ready to transport them home. As the original convoy headed back towards civilisation, the reinforcements sent by the Queen were tacked onto the tail end of the consist.

As they reached the junction where the road diverged, one way to Willowton, the other to Riventon. People working in the fields were amazed as the approaching cloud of dust, slowly resolved itself into a seemingly endless array of vehicles. All sorts of rumours had been circulating as the passage of a vast array of traffic had been seen heading up into the high country over the previous days, now, it seemed that all those vehicles were returning to the capital, just what was going on?

What was also apparent were the small flotillas of Granaria’s aircraft, circling high overhead keeping a constant vigil on the road convoy. At least twice that day, single engine, canvas biplanes aircraft were seen to chase off sleeker and faster aircraft that seemed to belong to Masonville.

At least no-one paid any particular attention to an innocuous lorry with an extraordinary cargo securely fastened to its deck and completely hidden from view.

Two horas after the last inn had evicted its final drinker, the convoy drew up on the approaches to the capital city. The convoy was quickly and quietly reformatted into three columns rather than single file as had been necessary on the smaller country roads. The centre row consisted of the larger vehicles, the flatbed trucks, the winch vehicles, the ambulance and troop trucks towing the artillery pieces that had proved so essential during the exchanges with the Masonville forces up in the mountains. On either side of these were ranged the smaller troop-carrying vehicles and the motorcycle outriders. No matter how tired they were, every member of the convoy was at full readiness, firearms at the ready, all hoping and praying that they would soon be safely ensconced within the barracks and catching up on much needed sleep.

At the shining of a series of bright lamps facing back down the convoy from the lead vehicles, the procession started the final leg of their journey to the palace, would there be any interference from representatives paid by foreign powers? Well, they’d soon find out.

Chapter Eleven.

The streets were quiet and relatively deserted as the convoy made its way towards the palace.

The rumble of so many engines inevitably drew people from their beds to twitch open their curtains to see what was going on. Most thought it was the various forces returning to their bases after manoeuvres up in the hills. Whilst others wondered if the happenings in the sky of a few days ago had anything to do with events passing their windows. The convoy made its way to the centre of the capital and the palace without interruption, as they drew closer and closer to their base, so more of the junctions were closed off to prevent any late-night traffic impeding its journey.

The further into the centre of the city they travelled, the buildings they passed slowly changed from those of a residential nature to those of a more commercial status. Shops, stores, offices and those of an industrial nature, although these were relatively few and far between. The closer the convoy got to the palace, so the tension increased as they would have to cross an open square with taller buildings around its perimeter.
The plan called for the escort vehicles to fan out across the square leaving the heavier vehicles to enter the palace gates unimpeded, traversing to its rear compound and the garages. The troops deployed around the edge of the square tried their best to scan doorways, windows and rooftops for any signs of a threat, whilst others deployed on the roof of the palace did their best to spot any signs of a hazard, not easy to do in the dead of night and the moon Atos obscured by clouds.

With the lead heavy vehicles almost halfway across the square, a red signal lamp was observed frantically flashing from the palace roof. The heavy vehicles accelerated to attain the relative safety of the palace grounds. Princess Aryn ordered her vehicle to pull to the side of the roadway by the palace gates as the loud crack of a high-powered firearm was heard and a bullet slammed into the bonnet of her vehicle and a cloud of steam hissed from the shattered radiator.

Next was heard the almost simultaneous firing of two mortars and flares arced their way into the sky illuminating the square in their stark, bright white light. Meanwhile the princess was struggling to get back to her feet, only to be held firmly down by her bodyguards. Other bullets were fired and struck several trucks including the lead lorry and one of the escort soldiers tumbled from the vehicle landing on the roadway.

Moments later the “Brrrr” of a heavy calibre machine gun was heard being fired from the palace roof, striking the roof of a large store halfway down the lefthand side of the square, a second burst shattered several of the upper story windows of the same building.

Almost immediately several escort vehicles screeched to a halt in front of the store, within moments the front doors were blasted open and windows were shattered, with members of Granaria’s armed forces streaming inside. Several bursts of gunfire were heard from the interior, before a soldier appeared waving his arm to signify the coast was clear and there was no longer a threat, from that building at least. All the while this was happening, the centre column of the convoy continued to race through the palace gates and to the relative safety of the rear compound.

Just as Princess Aryn was being allowed to rise to her feet, three bodies were dragged from the store and arrayed on the pavement outside its doors. The princess was unceremoniously escorted towards one of the troop carry lorries about to enter the palace gates and she was hastily shoved in the back despite her protestations.

At this point flames were seen to gain a larger hold on the top floor of the store, and, as the last heavy vehicle reached the security of the palace, the two flares slowly burned themselves out and the square was once more enveloped in darkness. A third flare was quickly fired skywards to assist the security teams combing the square for any further threat.

The body of the shot Granaria trooper was placed onto a stretcher before being loaded onto a personnel vehicle and driven into the palace.

The local fire service, whose main station was also situated in the square were quickly on the scene of the burning store, which despite their best efforts was soon fiercely ablaze with thick smoke enveloping the square as it lazily drifted in the breeze. All they were able to do was prevent the spread of the fire to adjacent structures, even though some were scorched by the heat.

The bodies of the three snipers were thrown onto the back of an empty flatbed truck and escorted into the palace.

Crowds of civilian onlookers were held back at all the entranceways to the square, until all the buildings could be checked to ensure no further threats to life and property were hidden from view. It wasn’t until daylight that security was relaxed, and life returned to something approaching normality.

Within the palace itself some semblance of order was maintained as investigations were undertaken into who, if anyone was hurt, what damage had been inflicted and that the extraordinary item was still safe and secure and under rigid armed guard to prevent further attacks.

Amongst those escorted into the body of the palace itself were the three princesses, the shepherd Rusan and her charge Jena who was still clinging to her like a limpet.

Later that morning a roll call established that everyone of the forces despatched to recover the artifacts was safe and accounted for, with the exception of the shot soldier, Trooper Eily Rast, who had died from a single bullet that had pierced her heart. A feeling of relief that no-one else had been hurt was tempered with the anger felt at the loss of a beloved comrade, especially within sight of the palace gates and safety.

Meanwhile Queen Adred and Prime Minister Pellinore received a full debrief from those in charge of the recovery mission. They both felt rising anger at the audacity of Masonville and its leaders, and deep concern of the events of the last seventy-two horas. Princess Aryn didn’t think she’d ever seen her mother so angry. However, that view was soon to change!

Chapter Twelve.

In the main receiving room of the palace, two heavy doors swung open and a herald banged his mace on the floor. “All stand, all observe Her Royal Majesty Queen Adred the Fourth, Queen of Granaria, all observe The Duchess Pellinore, Prime Minister of Granaria, all who seek audience please make themselves known to Her Majesties Chamberlain!” thundered the Chamberlain, Dalno Glessa.

“Yes, yes, I have been kept waiting for too long” said a tall thin man in the dress uniform of a General of Masonville’s’ Armed Forces as he strode forward pushing several of his aides out of his way as he approached the Queen.

Immediately four guards unsheathed their swords and amassed themselves in front of the General.

“My apologies your Highness, I meant no offence!” smirked the General. “I have grown impatient whilst awaiting an audience, perhaps you did not get my request for an urgent meeting?” he stated with an emphasis on the “Urgent!”.

The Queen sat on her throne with her sister by her right hand.

“Am I to understand the Ambassador asked for an urgent audience Duchess?” the Queen asked her sister.

“Not so much asked, your Majesty, he demanded is the wording he used!”

“I thought that’s what you said,” responded the Queen, glaring at the Ambassador.

“Perhaps the Duchess didn’t fully grasp the urgency with which I made my request!” sneered the Ambassador.

“So, you are accusing my sister of failing to pass on your request, or perhaps you are accusing her of stupidity?” snarled the Queen.

“No! No your Majesty, I meant no such inference, it is just I had been instructed to seek an audience with your Majesty as a matter of urgency!” replied the Ambassador toning down his attitude a little.

“Well sir, for your information, I did receive your request, and I am here, but I will have you and your masters understand that I will attend to your requests for an audience when it is convenient to me, my ministers and my nation, I AM NOT HERE AT YOUR BECK AND CALL! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!” thundered the Queen.

“Majesty, I came on an issue of great-”

“I ASKED IF YOU UNDERSTOOD ME?” snarled the Queen, “Because Sir, if you cannot grasp that principal, perhaps you should return to your master and be relieved of your duties if they are beyond your level of comprehension!” the Queen interrupted.

Looking very red in the face the Ambassador lowered his head,

“My apologies your Majesty, I meant no offence!”

“I should hope not sir!” the Queen replied with a hard edge to her voice. “Now sir, what do you want. I have many demands on my time, so quickly man, quickly!” she ordered.

The Ambassador coughed into his hand.

“If it please your Majesty, certain items belonging to the nation of Masonville and its exalted leaders have inadvertently landed on your country and we seek their return immediately. We will of course pay for any damage caused and all recovery costs!”

The Queen sat back on her throne and stared at the Ambassador.

“Your property you say?”

“Yes, your Majesty, our property!” he answered feeling he was over the initial antagonism evident at the start of the meeting.

“And what property are we talking about exactly?” pressed the Queen.

“Oh nothing of any note your Majesty, just some insignificant items that would be of no interest to yourselves!” answered Masonville’s’ representative feeling increasing confidence.

“So, you are telling me you are going to pay Granaria good money to recover property of yours, items that have little or no value?”

“That is correct your Majesty, we just do not wish to litter your country with our rubbish!”

The Queen turned to her sister.

“Duchess, have we had reports of anything from a foreign nation landing within our realm?”

“Well, your Majesty!” replied Pellinore, “Perhaps the gentleman is referring to the remains of two aircraft, several lorries, at least three artillery pieces and the mortal remains of just over thirty of Masonville’s military!”

“Well, there you go sir, it seems your masters were worried for no reason, we will return the mortal remains, at cost, when you can provide us with details of exactly who and what your leader is referring too, AND, A VERY GOOD REASON AS TO WHAT THEY WERE ALL DOING ON SOVEREIGN GRANARIAN TERRITORY, YOU CAN LIASE WITH MY CHANCELLOR! This concludes our audience, and I am sure you have plenty of other important demands on your time!”

The Ambassador spluttered.

“Your Majesty I must protest, we know other items belonging to Masonville have landed in your countryside! Items other than those you have just referred too!”

The Queen stared at him as she visibly grew more and more irate by his arrogance.

“So sir! You are accusing my minister of lying are you, and I would recommend you think very carefully about your answer!” she glowered at him.

“No, of course not your Majesty, I meant no such disrespect!”

“I should hope not sir!”

“Perhaps your minister is lacking the latest information!” he answered trying to extricate himself from the hole he had dug. “I am sure my master would be more than happy to help Granaria’s limited resources in recovering our property.”

“Let me get this right sir, you are now accusing us of incompetence and offering to invade a Sovereign Neighbour, in violation of several treaties that both nations have signed and ratified over the years,.” The Queen said raising the pitch of her voice.

“No, No your Majesty, I am merely offering to help expedite this apparent misunderstanding between our nations!” said the Ambassador, “I meant no disrespect!”

“You keep saying that sir, but you keep making the same mistake, perhaps this task is above your competence!” responded the Queen.

“I am merely passing on the message my masters insist I deliver, we will have the return of our ALL our property as soon as possible, whilst maintaining the good relations our two nations share!” reiterated the Ambassador.

“Is that so?” said the queen thoughtfully!

“Of course, your Majesty!” smiled back Masonville’s representative.

“Well sir, I suggest you return to that embassy of yours and speak again with your masters. I have several questions that I want answering immediately, One, ask them, why they committed an act of aggression by sending an armed force into Granaria’s lands! Two, why they cold-bloodedly murdered four of our soldiers who were manning an observation post on our own territory? Three, why they cold-bloodedly murdered a hill shepherd and his family including raping his wife and teenaged daughter? Four, why they attacked our deputation, who were supposedly under the protection of a flag of truce, a truce requested by your forces? Five, why were armed individuals situated within a business owned by an individual from Masonville who proceeded to launch an attack within the very square outside my palace killing another of my troops. And finally, six, do they require the return of the bodies of at least thirty members of their own armed forces left in the hills? Do you think you can remember all that sir, or shall we write you a list?” the Queen demanded thumping the arm of her thrown with each point she made.

“I, err, I, err! I have no knowledge of anything you have just mentioned your Majesty, I am sure there has been a misunderstanding somewhere!” spluttered the Ambassador.

“Yes sir, there has been an almighty misunderstanding somewhere along the lines, one of which is what made your masters think you were a worthy Ambassador to this court!” stated the Queen with a hard edge in her voice.

“My masters will not be happy with your response your Majesty, I am sure they will withdraw any trade we have with you until such time as we have the return of ALL our property and assets, we shall cease export of all machinery!” the Ambassador answered with a sneer.

“Well sir!” said the Queen rising to her feet, “Before I gain the impression that you are threatening me within my own Court, within MY OWN palace, I suggest you leave and you may tell your masters that they may eat their machinery as, of this moment, Granaria ceases all exports of grain and other foodstuffs to Masonville, so, Master at Arms, show this gentleman the door and ensure he leaves this palace, I am sick of the sight of his face, so I suggest he goes before he displeases me any further!”

The master at arms along with four soldiers stepped forward with their swords drawn,

“This way sir! We wouldn’t want you to fall down the outside steps, now would we sir!”

And the spluttering and indignant Ambassador along with his aides were led from the throne room, with his increasingly irate voice fading into the distance.

The Queen swept from the throne room and quickly arrived at her private sitting room. Pellinore sat opposite her,

“Well, that didn’t quite go as I expected!” she said to the elder sister.

“Nor me really, I was already more than ready to give him a piece of my mind with the news we had received from the area of the crash site. But the arrogance of the man just asked to be treated with the same disrespect they have shown this country!” the Queen replied taking a sip of the cup of tea she’d just been given by one of her ladies in waiting.

They both sat quietly musing over the last few hours events.

“Right!” said the Queen sitting forward. “Pellinore, will you ensure that our security is in place, I don’t think we’ve heard the last from Masonville or its representatives, I want that artifact brought into the loading dock of the palace where we can keep a close eye on things until we can investigate more fully what we have in our possession. I am also interested in that young girl who was taken prisoner, I want to know what she knows about events within Masonville!”

“Yes, Adred, I shall get right on it, I’ll speak to you later!”

With that Pellinore left the room and the Queen, who remained sat in deep contemplation at all the recent events.

by Iona Laing.

Chapter Thirteen.

That afternoon the Queen entered the palace infirmary. Glancing round she saw her nieces Ayne and Urna both fussing around a small figure asleep in one of the beds. Sitting alongside the bed was an older, grey-haired woman, who was holding the hand of the prone figure, this woman also appeared to be asleep.

The Princess Urna approached the Queen.

“Hello Aunt, I take it you have come in to see Jena?” she whispered. “And our current new recruit, Rusan?”

“Yes Urna, but I see both are asleep, please, don’t wake them on my account. How is Jena?”

“Not good Aunt, not good at all, it’s almost like whilst she was struggling to survive at the hands of her captors, her will to live knew no bounds, now? Well, now that she feels some degree of safety, well, she feels she’s relatively safe, so it is as if her survival instincts have reached the end of their tether and her body has relaxed, and now, well now her injuries and infections are taking hold and gaining the upper hand! We are doing what we can, but she’s touch and go at the moment and I really fear for her survival. She doesn’t want to eat, we can hardly get her to drink much either!”

It was at this point that Rusan woke with a start, as she became aware of a new visitor to the infirmary. She stood straightening her simple shepherdess dress around her and walked to the foot of the bed occupied by Jena, and looked at either of the two princesses to introduce her, although she had a very good idea who this new woman was.

The Princess Ayne nodded to her aunt, “Your Majesty, may I introduce Rusan, whom I am sure you have already heard so much about, Rusan, may I present Her Majesty, the Queen Adred!”

Rusan did her best to perform a curtsy, something she’d never thought she’d have to do in her life, let alone to the Queen in person.

“Your Majesty, I am deeply honoured!”

“Rise Rusan, relax please. I have heard so much about you from my daughter, my nieces and my senior officials! We must have a chat a little later, especially about the difficulties in raising strong willed daughters!”

They both exchanged rueful smiles!

“However, I take it this is the child Jena?”

“Yes your Majesty, I would indeed be deeply honoured to talk with you later! But this is indeed our Jena, a fragile waif! Such an abused wee soul! She has suffered so much in her short, hard life, and now, just when she’s within touching distance of some sort of normality, her body is giving in to all the abuse and torment she has suffered. She’s riven with nightmares, things no-one should have to experience, I am not sure what is going to happen to her, she, she’s losing her spark! It seems she’s overwhelmed now! She won’t eat or even drink much; she’s almost giving up, or her mind has reached breaking point and is shutting down, I don’t know what a poor shepherdess like me can do, I have little education and have learned what I know purely through experience of life, but Jena seems to need me, and I will not let her down, and I will do all in my power, such that it is, to help her heal, but your Majesty, she’s a long tough fight in front of her!”

The Queen put her hand on Rusan’s shoulder.

“Book learning and practical training count for part of a person’s education, but we both know that without common sense, all a person’s knowledge can be wasted. You strike me as a really well grounded woman, someone who is probably the most important element in Jena’s ongoing treatment and recovery at the moment. She obviously feels a deep connection with you from what I have been told, and I witnessed it myself just as you were both asleep holding hands, you are her anchor in this current storm, it’s up to my nieces to provide medical assistance to help her recover!”

Just then Jena stirred, it seemed she’d missed her connection to Rusan.

“Rusan! . . . Rusan, . . . . where are you?” her hand waving around in the air.

Rusan rushed back to the young woman’s side.

“It’s okay Jena, I’m here, I’m here, shush now, here’s my hand sweetheart, see there’s nothing to be afraid of, you just need to get better. However, Jena, you have a very, very important visitor!”

“Oh Rusan, I am sore, . . . . .I hurt, and I am so, . . . . so very tired!”

“I know Jena, I know, but I am here with you like I said I would be, but the Queen of Granaria has come to see you, in person, she doesn’t do that to just anybody, see, she’s stood by the foot of your bed!”

Jena’s eyes roamed around the room before she focused on the figure stood next to the Princesses Ayne and Urna.

“I am sorry . . . your Majesty, . . . but it seems . . I . . . I cannot stand in your presence . . . at the moment, . . . . I am a little tired!”

The Queen sat in the chair on the opposite side of the bed to that occupied by Rusan and looked at this small individual, bruises evident on her face and arms along with various cuts and scratches.

“Well young lady, you have been through some rough times haven’t you?” She said, taking Jena’s other hand. “But as Rusan says, you are safe here, I promise you that! You just need to get better, then you and I can have a long chat about your life, life in Masonville and how you may be able to assist us to help others! Others who like you were sentenced to such abject misery, I am sure you want to help others don’t you?”

“Yes, . . yes your Majesty, I would really like to help others like me but, what can I do?”

Well, young Jena, first I need you to show that determination you had to survive what you were subjected to, I need you to show me that inner spark you have, that shear cussedness that nothing nor anyone is going to stop you from getting better, we all know you have it, and you need it now more than ever to get better. Rusan is here by your side, and will it be acceptable if I visit you again tomorrow?”

Jena lay there speechless, then all she could do was to nod her head.

“Good!” responded the Queen. “I expect you to do exactly as you are told, that’s a Royal command mind! “She smiled at Jena. “You hear me? You are to eat, even though you may not feel like it, but you need to fuel your body, and that means eating but even more importantly, drinking, do you hear me young lady, you need to drink lots to help flush out all the nasty bugs that are invading your body?”

Jena softly nods, “Yes, your Majesty, . . . I will try, . . . I promise!”

“That’s good Jena, now if you wake up and fancy something special to eat or drink, no matter what time of the night or day, you ask and someone will fetch it from the kitchens for you. Even if you want, hmm, let’s see, I know, a slice of drizzly cake, and a glass of warm milk at two in the morning, ask, okay young lady? You understand me, I’m the Queen, and I can get a bit bossy!” Smiled the Queen down at Jena.

“Yes your Majesty, I promise to try, but, err, your Majesty, can I ask a question please?”

The Queen stroked Jena’s cheek.

“Of course Jena”

“Erm, I just wondered, what is drizzly cake?”

“Oh dear me, how stupid of me, okay Jena, I will get you and Rusan a slice each of drizzly cake and a glass of milk brought up immediately, just try and keep Ayne or Urna from eating too much of it themselves!” With that the Queen winked at Jena and kissed her forehead. Drizzly cake is a soft sweet cake that has lots of different colours and flavours of toppings spread over the top here. The kitchens here make the best drizzly cake I have ever tasted, I am sure you will love it, so I expect you to tell me what you think of it when I see you tomorrow.

“Now, I’ll come back to see you tomorrow, but I expect you to be doing much better, don’t forget, eat something and drink lots, what sort of command is that?”

“A Royal Command your Majesty, I . . will . . try, . . yes your Majesty I, . . will, . . try!” replied Jena yawning, “Excuse me your . . . Majesty, . . . I . . . am tired!”

Queen Adred just smiled at their patient, then brushed some hair from the girls brow, kissed her forehead again and then she rose and walked off talking to Rusan, Ayne and Urna before leaving the infirmary to pay a quick visit to the loading dock to inspect the artifact which was being held under close guard.

Rusan returned to her chair alongside Jena, who settled down once she had her guardian’s hand in hers. Some twenty munts later, both Jena and Rusan sampled drizzly cake for the first time in their lives, neither could stop the smiles that were glued to their faces, even if the younger of the two was asleep before she’s had the chance to sample too much of this incredible delight. She did however drink most of the milk before passing out which was a good start.

Chapter Fourteen.

Two days later the ambassador of Masonville sent a message to the Court of the Queen seeking an audience at her Majesties earliest convenience. In due course a deputation was admitted to the throne room to await the arrival of the Queen.

In the main receiving room doors swung open and a herald banged his mace on the floor.

“All stand! All observe Her Royal Majesty Queen Adred the Fourth, Queen of Granaria, all observe The Duchess Pellinore, Prime Minister of Granaria, all who seek audience please make themselves known to Her Majesties Chamberlain!” thundered Chamberlain Glessa.

A small broad-shouldered man approached the Queen and made a marked, obsequious bow to the Queen.

“Your Majesty, may I introduce myself as the new Ambassador to your court, I have the honour to represent the country of Masonville, and its glorious leader President Signi. I am Major-General Clercq, at your service!” and again he made a deep bow towards the Queen.

“Welcome to my court and to my country Major-General, but I am confused, where is the gentleman I spoke to a few days ago, Ambassador Marchal, I was under the impression he was your nation's representative!?” asked the Queen.

“I am afraid Ambassador Marchal proved to us he was not up to the task entrusted to him, so he has returned to Masonville to ahh, to receive further, err, education, yes, further education!” the new Ambassador said with a sinister smile. “I assure your Highness, Ambassador Marchal will not be a further embarrassment to either of our nations, yours nor mine! Allow me to present my credentials.” With this he handed a scroll over to the Chamberlain who, in turn, handed them over to the Prime Minister who then handed them on to the Queen who quickly perused the document before handing it back.

“Well Ambassador, welcome to Granaria, now sir, do you have any further business for consideration now you have presented your credentials for our approval?”

“Well, your Majesty!” The ambassador smiled, “I wonder if you have determined yet, where our property that inadvertently landed within your realm resides? We, that is the nation of Masonville! We humbly seek the return of our property! It consists of various scientific experiments”

“Well Ambassador Clercq, I am unaware of any property belonging to Masonville landing within our realm! Do you know of anything Prime Minister?” asked the Queen as she turned to her sister.

Pellinore answered “No your Majesty, I have not heard anything as to property of any nature belonging to Masonville landing within your realm, well, nothing, apart from various items of military hardware that are still up in the foothills above Riventon that is, perhaps it is that to which the Ambassador refers?”

“Of course, how forgetful of me! I assume you wish to recover the debris along with the bodies of your armed forces personnel! Individuals who made an armed incursion into our realm, murdering EIGHT of MY subjects in the process! PERHAPS the Ambassador wishes to explain to MY satisfaction! WHAT was the intent of these individuals? WHO sent them into my nation’s territory? And just WHO authorised the use of such unnecessary force? CARE YOU TO EXPLAIN, CAN you explain that Ambassador?” said the Queen in a level but increasingly steely voice.

“I assure your Majesty, that the incursion was purely an oversight due to an overzealous local commander, an incident, we of the nation of Masonville and obviously our leader, President Signi, deeply regret and assure you it won’t happen again, we have, removed, those responsible, and I am authorised to offer full compensation to the families who were wronged, and in such a careless manner!” answered the Ambassador.

“Well sir, YOU WILL indeed recompense those affected, and as much as any financial settlement will do little to ease their grief, I tell you now Ambassador Clercq, that any financial recompense does not absolve those of Masonville who authorised these attacks from blame and we will do all in our power to see those behind these cowardly attacks brought to justice, do I make myself clear Mr. Ambassador?”

He mutely nodded.

“So, you are telling me that all this death and destruction was due to an overzealous local commander?”

He Nodded once more, the colour rising in his cheeks.

“A local commander by the name of General Laffe, was not the general your immediate superior at one point?”

This time he made no acknowledgement of any description, but all the colour drained from his face.

“I have asked you several direct questions Mr. Ambassador, . . . YOU WILL ANSWER ME WITH THE RESPECT DUE TO MY RANK AND TITLE WITHIN THIS SOVERIEGN NATION OF GRANARIA SIR, YOU COME HERE WITH YOUR FRANKLY REPETITIVE AND BORING DEMANDS, SO, . . Mr Ambassador, . . and for how long you remain welcome here in my court is growing more debatable by the minute, SO, DO I NEED TO REPEAT MY QUESTIONS? AND JUST TO CLARIFY THE POSITION WITH REGARDS TO GENERAL LAFFE, YOU WILL FIND IT DIFFICULT TO REMOVE HIM FROM HIS CURRENT POSITION, AS HIS MORTAL REMAINS ARE AMONGST THOSE SPREAD ALL OVER THE HILLS ABOVE RIVENTON!

“My apologies your Majesty, I will need to pass your comments to my superiors!”

“See that you do sir! Now, do you wish us to repatriate the bodies of your citizens?”

“No your Majesty, please dispose of the remains as your authorities see fit.” He answered off handedly.

“Well sir, we SHALL see to their disposal, and we will do so with MORE care and consideration than it seems their own country seems to see fit!” retorted an annoyed Queen as she rose to her feet and moved to leave the throne room.

“BUT your Majesty! A moment more of your time if you please, we consider those individuals as traitors to Masonville, and as such we owe them no further responsibly! Although, we will, of course recompense your nation, as it sees fit to deal with them!” the Ambassador replied almost babbling, “But it isn’t that particular property of ours you mentioned that we are specifically interested in, I assume you are aware of that incident in the skies above Masonville, some five days ago?” asked Ambassador Clercq.

“Naturally we observed the phenomenon, we assumed it to be the explosion of a meteorite or some other such item, or some aspect of weather behaviour, we have not witnessed before!”

“Well Majesty, I can say it was an experiment of ours, the detritus of which was never intended to land within your territories. We wondered if the convoy that returned in the early morning, the other day, did in fact bear some of our property?”

“WELL Ambassador, I can confirm that the vehicles to which you refer, were part of an exercise of ours, an expedition that came under attack by your forces! BUT, then I expect you KNEW that already did you not? However, I can assure you, and the leaders of Masonville, that none of the vehicles carried any property of yours, of any description! Other items of a military nature, along with various pieces of hardware, well, we left all that for recovery at some later date!” replied an annoyed Queen “Along with the bodies of your loyal subjects, individuals that you have now so glibly abandoned to our mercies!”

“I am sorry to labour the point your Majesty, but perhaps some of our property was “inadvertently” collected as your expedition returned to base, I am authorised to offer our expertise from within the embassy to help identify any of our items, if that would help at all!” offered the Ambassador.

“YOUR EXPERTISE you say? Well sir, I take it that it was your EXPERTISE that led to our forces to come under attack within sight of the palace here, within our own capital, likely, once again due to your EXPERTISE, perhaps you could explain THAT to my satisfaction!” demanded the Queen.

“I assure your Majesty, that Masonville had no direct involvement in any perceived attack on your convoy! Of course, we cannot be held responsible for any freelance undertakings of individuals, of possible Masonville origin, particularly within your capital!”

“PERCIEVED! PERCEIVED!! Well sir, I suggest you join us for the military funeral this afternoon, the funeral of our loyal trooper, a young lady murdered by a PERCEIVED SNIPER, THE BODY OF WHICH LIES IN OUR MORGUE ALONG WITH TWO OTHER BODIES OF YOUR TROOPS! A SNIPER WE FORCIBLY REMOVED FROM A BUILDING CONTROLLED BY A MASONVILLE INDIVIDUAL, I see SIR, you have about the same level of comprehension your predecessor displayed, although you couch your language in a slightly more civil tone, but let me say this once again, JUST so we understand each other fully, WE DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT, have any of the property as you call it, that belongs to Masonville, of Masonville or from Masonville, OTHER THAN THAT PREVIOUSLY SPEIFIED, now sir, are YOU clear, or do I need to send a communication to your masters asking for YET another replacement Ambassador, because sir, you are sorely trying my patience?”

“Yes, your Majesty, forgive my impertinence, I meant no insult, I shall, with your permission, retire to my embassy and seek further guidance from my superiors!” replied a clearly annoyed Ambassador.

“Yes!” replied the Queen, “You do that, I think it best you retire forthwith, I assume both of us have better things to do than to keep repeating ourselves! Master at Arms, escort these gentlemen from my throne room” so saying, the Queen swept from the room leaving the representatives of Masonville to stalk from the palace.

Once in the corridor, the Queen stopped and quietly said to Pellinore, “Come on, I enjoyed wiping the smile off that supercilious man’s face, I need a cup of tea, let’s go and see how Jena is this morning, hopefully she will be able to tell us more about herself and what is happening within Masonville at the moment, I really want to know what is going on, from a grass roots source, rather than these jumped up Jackanapes!” saying this they swept upstairs to see how their guest was doing.

Chapter Fifteen.

As Queen Adred and Prime Minister Pellinore were climbing the stairs, the Princess’s Aryn, Caryn and Ayne were rushing down the stairs is a state of high excitement.

“How did your audience with the Masonville Ambassador go Mother?” asked Caryn who was the first of the three youngsters down the stairs.

“Oh, about as well as you’d expect, glad to see you are back Caryn, how did the funeral go?”

Caryn’s face fell a little. “About as well as you’d expect Mother, the fact that I was there was much appreciated, as was Ayleah’s presence! We were both accorded special status, as were all of our escort truth be told. There is a great deal of anger within Riventon and the surrounding communities! Let’s just say that they would dearly love to get their hands on anyone from Masonville at the moment, especially such arrogant representatives as the Ambassador!”

“Anyway, Mother, we’ve just been summoned to the loading dock, there’s been some developments with the artifact, so we’re just heading down to discover what is going on! Do you want to come and look for yourself? Or shall we report our findings to you later?” asked Aryn.

“I think I want to see for myself what all the excitement is about! Those Masonville idiots have me all annoyed and I want to see what has brought our world to the brink of yet another conflict, then, I really need to speak to our friend Jena, to get a grip on the grass roots feelings within Masonville.” replied the Queen.

Five munts later the five women entered the loading dock area of the palace. The artifact was now stood upright on what appeared to be its base. A wooden scaffolding encircled the item, with several technicians busy examining the markings and other panels and dents contained within the structure. The most obvious being the bright glowing green outline of a hand.

Chief Engineer Drows approached the royal group and spoke directly to the Queen.

“Your Majesty Thank you for coming so promptly! As you can see, we now have the artifact in its correct orientation or we think it’s proper alignment and we’ve screened it off from the rest of the loading dock. Plus, we’ve restricted access to essential personnel only. However, about fifteen munts ago, the logo near what appears to be an access panel started glowing with a red light, this changed to a flashing amber hue and has just recently changed to the steady green image you can see now. We didn’t do anything further and we are awaiting your instructions!”

“Thanks Chief!” said the Queen as she turned to Ayne.

“I think, if you have your safety equipment to hand Ayne, it would be best if you approach the artifact, to see what we have going on here!”

“Yes Aunt, I have all my equipment with me ready for just such an eventuality, so if you’ll all step back a little bit, the Chief and I will see if we gain access and finally determine what exactly we are dealing with here!”

Both the Chief and Ayne donned their safety masks and gloves before climbing the scaffold to approach the green emblem. Chief placed her gloved hand over the green outline, but nothing happened.

The access lever would still not budge, even an inch.

After what was an obviously heated discussion up on the scaffold, Ayne was observed to remove the glove on her right hand before placing her hand over the illuminated emblem. No sooner had she done this than it started to flash and with an imperceptible hiss, a panel slid inwards an inch or two before disappearing upwards with a clunk, into the artifact.

Princess Ayne replaced her glove before carefully stepping inside the now open doorway and disappeared from view, pursued moments later by Chief Drows.

Moments later Ayne reappeared in the doorway, removing her mask as she did so, waving the other’s forwards.

“We have two survivors in here! We need stretchers immediately and they need to be up in the infirmary as quickly as possible!”

With that, Ayne disappeared back into the interior, whilst several of her medical staff ran forward, two bearing stretchers.

A few munts later both stretcher cases were carefully extricated and disappeared into the depths of the palace. Signalling the Queen and her entourage forward Ayne handed them over to the care of Chief Drows before she herself rushed into the Palace to follow the stretcher cases and her sister Urna.

“Well, Chief, what have you discovered so far?” asked the Queen.

“Well your Majesty, as you can see there are seats for up to four individuals, even though we only found the two occupants. There appear to be door controls over there, and this must be a control desk of some description, but I have no idea what any of it means or how it works, as of yet! There appears to be some sort of internal power supply, hear that hum? Plus, the control desk is illuminated as well as the hidden lights up near the ceiling! It’s going to take us some time to decipher, what it all means! It does seem that parts of this machine are damaged, especially by fire, as you can see by the smoke streaks up the inside of that side wall. This is going to be quite a conundrum, at least until our two guests wake up and speak to us!”

“Well, at least we have a slightly better idea of what we are dealing with than we did ten munts ago!” replied the Queen “I think we’ll leave you to your investigations, in the meantime, I think we’ll head off up to the infirmary and see how our latest guests are doing! But I don’t need to reiterate Chief, that this is a highly restricted area, after your initial examination, and lets not experiment with this technology, as it seems so very different to our own. It will probably be a good idea to reseal the access panel until our friends just taken to the infirmary can provide us with more detailed information.”

“Yes your Majesty, I’ll see if I can get a few photographs and leave things at that for the time being, no matter how tempting it is to see what some of the controls do, last thing we need is this canister getting out of control, I don’t want to cause further problems than those we already face! I’ll see if I can reseal the hatch for the time being, so that everything will be as those two individuals left things before landing up in the hills!”

“Thanks chief, please bring the photographs to my quarters as soon as you can, if I am not there we’ll more than likely be up in the infirmary!”

“Of course your Majesty, I hope I’ll to see you shortly!”

With that Queen Adred, Prime Minister Pellinore and the Princesses Aryn and Caryn went back into the palace, heading for the infirmary. This day was proving to be even more interesting than any of them expected first thing this morning.

Part Six by Iona Laing.

Chapter Sixteen.

The doors to the far end of The Infirmary were thrust open, and two stretchers were brought into the room and gently placed onto beds at the opposite end to where Jena and Rusan were situated. Screens were quickly erected around both beds and quiet commands could be heard being given.

At the other end of the room Rusan was doing her best to calm an increasingly distraught Jena.

“It’s okay Jena, there’s nothing to be worried about. It seems a couple of folks have had an accident or other sort of mishap. You’ve nothing to worry about here, . . . come-on, . . . have some more of this rich broth, it’ll do you a power of good, and if you have some space after that, I’ll pop down to the kitchen and see if I can’t get you some nice cake or biscuits!”

“I’m sorry Rusan, . . . I . . . I don’t think I could drink any more of this broth, it is delicious!” Replied a weary Jena, “! don’t think I’ve ever had anything that has had such flavour, although, I have a vague memory of my Momma making something similar for my sister and me before she died!!”

Rusan stopped with the spoon mid-way between the dish and Jena.

“You have a sister Jena? I didn’t know that?”

Jena stopped moving or talking but held her hands to her mouth, a stunned expression etched on her face! Then with tears in her eyes she looked at Rusan.

“I . . I have a sister, . . . a younger sister! . . . Or . . . at least I did have a sister, . . . two or three years ago!” she whispered through her tears.

Rusan placed the broth bowl on the table over the bed, and, scooting her chair to be beside Jena put both arms around her shoulders.

“Okay Jena, that’s quite the revelation, . . do you want to tell me about her?”

Jena simply stared straight ahead, before slowly looking at Rusan, she nodded her head and was about to start telling her tale when the doors to the infirmary opened, and the Queen, her sister Pellinore and the Princesses Aryn, Caryn all entered and, after looking over the two new arrivals, they all walked down the ward towards Jena and Rusan. Rusan stood by the side of the bed, clad now in a nurses uniform, rather than the rough shepherdess garb she had been wearing.

Urna walked down the room and stepped forward checking over Jena quickly, before smiling down at her.

“I am so pleased “Nurse” Rusan is being able to persuade you at eat a little today, and I see you have been drinking a lot more too!” Urna said, obviously pleased with the slight upturn in her patient’s condition. “You have done well with the broth for lunch too!”

“She has done really well!” replied Rusan, “My other clothes were too worn, dirty and/or too warm for such surroundings, so I was kindly loaned this fine outfit! I was trying to talk Jena into having another couple of spoonful’s of the broth, when, your two new patients arrived, which threw us off our stroke a little, . Jena said she’d never had such tasty food since her mother had made her and her sister some, many years ago! I was just about to listen to her tale when you all arrived.”

“You have a sister?” asked the Queen.

“Yes, . . yes your Majesty, I have a younger sister, she must be eight or nine now I suppose, always assuming she is still alive!” As she said this Jena’s eyes slowly filled with tears which gently dripped down her cheeks.

“Oh Child, try not to worry so, if you tell us your story, we will see what we can do!” said Queen Adred as she sat at the other side to Rusan and took one of Jena’s hands in her own. The Princesses Aryn and Caryn sat on the bed either side of the girl whilst Urna went to get one of her staff to organise tea, cake and biscuits for them all as she drew a chair to the side of Jena’s bed, and, with a deep breath and her eyes screwed shut Jena began to tell her tale.

Chapter Seventeen.

“My earliest memory is of my mother Sleal and I living in a small coastal village, my father Treed was a fisherman and was away for long periods of time. But my Mum and Dad loved each other, and we were happy. My Daddy would carve the most beautiful dolls heads and little animals for me while he was away at sea. Some out of wood and some out of ivory or bones he got from somewhere. My Mummy would get paints to decorate the dolls and animals. Then with scraps of cloth, she would make the dolls bodies and their clothes, they were so very beautiful.”

“The man who owned the boat my daddy worked on was called Zelch, he didn’t go to sea that often but when Daddy was away Zelch kept coming to our house, and he always seemed to pester my Mummy. I remember that my Daddy hit Zelch once and I heard Daddy tell him to keep away from us. Daddy said he was only going to do one last trip to sea as, he’d promised his best friend Polk, he’d do this voyage for him, and then he was finished with the sea, and was going to go work in a wood factory.”

Jena opened her eye’s and looked around at her audience, her lashes wet with tears.

“Daddy went off to sea and we never saw him again. Polk later told us that he’d heard Daddy and Zelch arguing, then, the next morning they found my Daddy’s body tangled in the nets they’d got over the side of the boat, he’d drowned. Mummy became sadder and sadder; she was worried about how we were going to buy food and pay our rent. Eventually, Zelch kept coming around to our house more and more often and I saw him giving my Mummy money. It was for food and such stuff Mummy said. Then eventually Zelch moved in with us, he said I had to call him Daddy from now on! I told him I didn’t like him; he wasn’t my Daddy, and I would never, ever, call him Daddy!”

“He hit me and said I was an ungrateful brat, and he’d get the better of me. He said I had to leave school as he wouldn’t pay to educate some other man’s bastard child! Anyway, I tried to keep out of his way, I did cleaning jobs or looked after younger children, anything to earn a few coppers so I didn’t have to rely on Zelch for anything. With the help of some of the older women and their daughters I taught myself my letters and my numbers. When Zelch found out he hit my Mummy and me, he tore all my books and pictures to shreds. Then, he threw all my toys and dolls that my Mummy and Daddy had made me on to the fire, he said they were more use keeping the house warm and cooking our food than being stuck on shelves in my room!”

Jena gave a half smirk!”

“He didn’t get everything though; he didn’t get my necklace!”

From under her nightgown, she pulled out a leather thong, to which was attached several small exquisite figures, amongst them a fairy, a mermaid and a kitten.

“My Daddy made me these when I was a baby, they were painted by my Mummy at some point, but it’s all worn off now!”

All her audience looked with wonder at these examples of rustic art, they were scratched and chipped to be sure, but even after all the intervening years of hard use, there was no denying the skill and dexterity that had been utilised in their manufacture. After everyone had had a close look at her prized possessions, Jena tucked them back under the collar of her gown and laid back in her pillows. She closed her eyes.

“It was only a year or so later that my Mummy had another baby. She had a girl who she named Jinz. She was a beautiful baby and I helped Mummy to care for her and she grew up to look a lot like Mummy and me. Where my Mummy and I had long straight blond hair, Jinz had bright blond curly hair, Zelch had curly hair!”

“As Jinz grew older she spent more and more time with me. We really loved each other, even though she was six or seven years younger than me, we were really close, and the more we loved each other, the more Zelch picked on me and he hit me a lot, I didn’t want him to hurt Jinz, so, the more he picked on me the less chance there was of him hurting her.”

“Then, one day, he came in my room and told me I was a useless bitch, and it was about time I repaid his kindness! He pushed me onto my bed and tried to push my legs apart and his, . . his, . . thing got really big!” Jena released a big sob, and Rusan went to hug her tighter, but Jena shook her head no!

“When, he couldn’t get my legs to open, he grabbed my head, wrenched my jaw open and shoved his thing into my mouth! . . . It smelt awful and the taste was . . . was even worse, and he laughed, . . he laughed at me, told me I was a worthless c**t and like my mommy this was all I was good for! So, I relaxed my body, and so did he!” Jena half smirked. “Biggest mistake he ever made! Because I bit . . . and I bit . . . .AND I BIT!!!! . . . He was screaming, just like a little girl!

The more he hit me, the harder I bit! Eventually I spit the end of his thing out of my mouth! The blood was everywhere, and I laughed at him, then . . . then he hit me with a bottle on the side of my head and I passed out!”

Jena looked at her stunned audience with a bit of a self-satisfied smile.

“He won’t try to rape any other women . . . or girls, . . not anymore!”

“Oh Jena, Jena, what happened next, can you tell us?” asked Rusan. Jena nodded.

“Could I have something to drink do you think first please?”

“Of course you can sweetie!” answered a clearly stunned Queen. “Here, this is a warmish, really sweet herbal tea, it’ll do you some good, and give you some much needed energy too, now drink up!” as the Queen pressed the cup to Jean’s lips. After drinking almost all the mug of tea, Jena closed her eyes once again and eventually recommenced her tale.

“The next thing I remember was waking up in the back of some sort of prisoner wagon. There was a sullen crowd around the vehicle, my Mummy was banging on the door with one hand demanding my release with Jinz in her other arm. Then in the background, a screaming Zelch could be heard being taken to a hospital, I think. Then as I watched one of the guards brought his rifle down hard on my Mummy’s head and she dropped to the floor, I am sure she died, one of our neighbours, Layce picked my sister up and held her tightly, and giving me a half smile, a half grimace and a nod, I saw her taking my sister into her house, some of our other neighbours picked my mother up and they disappeared into the silent crowd, that’s the last time I saw either one of them, I am sure my Mummy is dead but hopefully, my sister is living with our neighbour Layce, at least I hope she is, she was a nice woman was Layce.”

A deep silence permeated the infirmary, the depth of hurt, pain and suffering this frail girl had lived through was far beyond anything that her audience had any understanding of.

“What happened to you Jena, how did you end up in the clutches of that animal Strin?” Asked Princess Aryn quietly.

Jena lay there with a desperately sad smile on her face, with tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Before I was properly awake, and knew where I was, I found myself in a courtroom. They asked me if I had bitten Zelch, and I said “Yes, but!” That was the last thing they let me say! For an unprovoked attack on an upstanding member of society and for his permanent disfigurement and the loss of a vital appendage or words to that effect, I was given life in prison with no parole for the first twenty-five years. Even then it would require Zelch to give his agreement. So, I was sent to a high security orphanage cum youth prison. Well, with nothing to lose, I joined the underground network aiming to dismantle everything that the bigwigs in Masonville’s government stand for. Because I could read and write and not many of my fellow inmates could, I started giving lessons. Most of my fellow detainees had life stories just as horrific as mine! The vast majority are desperate for change, they are sick of Signi and his yes men. Then, just as I thought I was doing something useful, some way to commemorate my parents love of me and to maybe give my sister a better life than mine, I was sold into slavery!”

Jena needed another drink as she was rapidly running out of energy.

“It was then that my nightmare took on a whole new dimension! I was sold to Art Strin, Zelch’s older, more sadistic brother! The first thing he did was to get some of his fellow soldiers to hold me down while he raped me, then, after sticking his thing in my bottom, he told me I was going to suck him clean, and if he so much as felt a tooth scraping his skin, he would get the smiths pliers and he’d pull all my teeth out, one by one!

For the last two years or so, most of them have raped me practically every day! They . . . they even killed my, . . my BABIES!”

With that, the wails that screamed from the very depths of Jena’s soul rent the air, and she was inconsolable until Urna gave her a sedative injection. She slowly relaxed and sleep overwhelmed her tired body and shattered mind.

None of the audience that had listened to this tale of degradation and misery knew what to say. Most were hugging another woman, desperate for comfort and cognizant that every one of them needed that reassurance in return.

Queen Adred looked across at Rusan with a grim determined look on her face.

“We’ll be back to see her soon Rusan, give her our love when she comes round. But I want to see what background information you can get from her! I would like to know her family name, the name of her village, the name of her father’s boat, anything and everything you can get her to remember, I want to see if we can put that poor soul’s life back together in some way. I want to talk to her about how Masonville’s elite are hanging onto power and is there any way for us to help upset their applecart!”

Just as the Queen was about to move from Jena’s bed a herald approached.

“Excuse me your Majesty, I have an important message from the Chamberlain, it seems that Masonville’s ambassador is in the throne room, demanding an urgent audience with yourself!”

“Is he now, well how fortuitous, I think I am in exactly the right frame of mind to talk to him too! Tell Chamberlain Glessa I shall attend the ambassador at my earliest convenience!” with that message received, the herald went to report to the chamberlain.

“Come ladies, I suggest we retire to recover our sensibilities and lets discuss tactics to deal with that lowlife, sorry, ambassador! Let’s keep him dangling for a while, we’ll let him stew, the more annoyed he gets, the more rash he’ll get, the more information he’ll let slip, the better for us and, by the sound of it, the ordinary people of Masonville.

They stopped to obtain the latest update on the two survivors before they left the infirmary some time later.

Chapter Eighteen.

In the main receiving room of the palace, two heavy doors swung open and a herald banged his mace on the floor.

“All stand, all observe Her Royal Majesty Queen Adred the Fourth, Queen of Granaria, all observe The Duchess Pellinore, Prime Minister of Granaria, All acknowledge the Princesses Aryn and Caryn, all who seek audience please make themselves known to Her Majesties Chamberlain!” proclaimed Chamberlain Glessa.

The new ambassador rushed up to the Queen. Her escort quickly drew their swords and, at sword point, pushed him back down the steps of the dais, steps that he’d almost mounted.

The Queen made a great display of seating herself on her throne and carefully arranged her robes, removing imaginary pieces of fluff and smoothing her skirts, before looking up at the ambassador.

“Well, Major-General Clercq, I see you have about the same level of manners as your predecessor and that you yourself displayed at your last audience. You seem to have little respect for the title and authority I have here in MY PALACE!! OR THE ROLE OF AN ABASSADOR, NOW SIR, I am within a hairsbreadth of demanding your expulsion from my realm and your immediate replacement! NOW! DO I MAKEMYSELF CLEAR Major-General Clercq,. You Sir are skating on very thin ice, displease me or my court again and I will not be responsible for the consequences. NOW SIR, WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

“My apologies your Majesty, I apologise for my exuberance, it is just I have spent nearly all day waiting for an audience with your Majesty, on a matter of great importance to both our nations!”

“Is that so ambassador? Do you propose that I should organise the rule of my nation at the beck and call of someone like yourself?”

“Of course not your Majesty, I naturally assumed that given the urgent meetings our nations have been party to over the last few days, that you would wish to resolve these matters at the earliest opportunity!” spluttered the ambassador.

The queen stared at him for several seconds, before fixing him with an icy expression that superbly hid her rising anger with this man, the Queen was not someone to play cards against, not if you expected to win!

“I really have no idea to what you refer Mr. Ambassador. You asked if we had any of your property, both you and your predecessor were told we had none of your belongings other than bodies and wrecked military equipment, none of which you expressed the slightest interest in, so, that’s the end of the matter, is it not?” Stated the Queen, daring him to contradict her!

“Actually your Majesty, if I may show you some photographs, recently placed into my possession, they clearly show some of your forces removing some items from the foothills above Riventon!”

The Chamberlain accepted the photos from the ambassador, and after giving them careful scrutiny, examining each one several times, he passed them to Prime Minister Pellinore, who also gave them a detailed examination, before she, in turn handed them onto the Princesses Aryn and then eventually into Princess Caryn’s hands. Caryn moved across the dais before the photos slipped from her hands and were scattered all over the floor.

“Sorry Mother, I am so clumsy, I shall gather them up, it’ll take but a moment!” Caryn then made a real performance of recovering the photographs before she handed them over to the Queen.

All the while these interactions were taking place, the ambassador was becoming ever increasingly angry and short tempered. The queen quickly scanned the images before she turned to her sister.

“I’m sorry Prime Minister, do any of your staff have a magnifying glass to hand, I find my eyes get tired this late in the day, and I do want to understand the point the ambassador is trying to make here, so I would like to take a closer look at these photographs!”

“I am not sure any of my staff actually carry such an aid with them your Majesty, but I am sure we have one in the office somewhere, just a moment your Majesty!”

Pellinore turned to an aide.

“Lady Dilss, could you go fetch us a magnifying glass if you please?”

“Of course Prime Minister, I shall return shortly!” said the aide as she turned and left the room.

A great cry of frustration was practically yelled by Major-General Clercq, as he spun on one foot in a complete circle, his face was almost scarlet with apoplexy.

“This is beyond an insult to the great nation of Masonville and its glorious leader President Signi."

He was busy wringing his hands together his voice was almost a screech!

“Do you women have any idea of just who you are dealing with? You should stick to what you are meant to do! Provide us our next generation and look to your husbands needs, not this feeble charade you have just enacted! You think you are so clever, you are just weak, pathetic, females, women playing at running a country, I WILL HAVE OUR PROPERTY, AND I WILL, . . HAVE, . . IT, . . NOW!!”

Queen Adred stood up from her throne and smirked at the ambassador who was now suddenly feeling a little less confident of himself.

“Chamberlain Glessa, summon the Master at Arms and her escort if you would be so kind!”

Major-General Clercq’s right arm reached for his sidearm, but before he had completed half the move, Princess Aryn had taken his thumb and bending it backwards forced him onto his knees. She then deftly flicked his firearm to her sister who trained it on his head from a distance of two feet. Clercq’s own escort stood on in mute amazement with the speed of developments.

The Queen looked down on the ambassador in disgust.

“Well Major-General Clercq, I think if Masonville wants to continue this dialogue, then they had best send a new ambassador to my court! As you Sir, are now no longer welcome in my presence, my palace, my capital nor anywhere else within the realm of Granaria. It is only my decision to honour your diplomatic immunity that halts me from having you taken outside and shot for an attempted attack upon the ruler of this great nation of OURS. A nation that does not wage war on its own populace, especially the women and children of its people. So, Sir, you are banished from this realm, and you are to be escorted to the main border between our nations as a matter of urgency. Inform your leaders I am sick and tired of the spurious claims of property rights that have seemed to consume you and your predecessor! The next ambassador had better have a healthier understanding of their role in ensuring the smooth relations between both Granaria and Masonville, smooth relations both people’s deserve. BECAUSE, SIR, YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO YOUR NATION, AND TO THE ROLE OF AMBASSADOR, A ROLE ENACTED ALL OVER THE MANY COUNTRIES THAT CONSTITUE VILLARIA IN AN HONOURABLE MANNER, I WILL NOT BE THREATENED BY IMBECILES SUCH AS YOU! Now, Master at arms, escort this individual and his aides from this room, after disarming them of course, directly to the border post, I don’t care how you remove them, locked in a refuse cart for all I care, but they are to be evicted from Granaria forthwith, and immediately they have crossed the border, all diplomatic privileges are to be rescinded and withdrawn, and, should any of these five individuals attempt to re-enter Granaria at any point in the future, you have my permission to shoot them on sight!”

“Understood your Majesty!”

Princess Aryn with an extra backwards jerk, released Major-General Clercq’s thumb and he sullenly and slowly regained his feet. Visibly wincing as he tried to ease the pain in his hand.

Glowering at all these pathetic women, he looked at each one before he held out his left hand for the firearm he’d so recently and easily been relieved of! The weapon that was now in the possession of Princess Caryn.

“My revolver Princess, if you’d be so kind?”

Caryn looked at the Major-General, then at the weapon in her hand and chuckling;

“I don’t think so Sir, no-one threatens any of us, especially my Mother, this has been confiscated, so I think it best you get out before I use it!”

“But, . . . But . . .That . . . That is a treasured family heirloom!” spluttered Clercq.

“You are really not that bright are you? The Queen has granted you your life, and you still want to argue about the fine detail! I suggest you get out while you can, under your own power, because us pathetic women are quite prepared to drag you out of here by what remains of your hair and sling you into whatever vehicle can be found at such short notice!” Spoke the Princess Aryn levelly, “Because sir, had I been in my mothers’ position, you would be smoking your last cigarette and diplomatic niceties be damned! The more I learn about your precious president and the manner you rule your populace, the more I am revolted by you and your ilk! So get out and get out now!”

Still bemoaning his situation, the Major-General was removed from the throne room along with his four aides.

Each man was surrounded by four guards, each one kept several strides apart from the others.

Just as the final aide was leaving the room he started to limp, the limp seeming to get worse and increasing the distance from him and the rest of the deputation.

He then stopped completely and bending over, grabbed his calf and collapsed squealing to the floor complaining he’d severe cramp. With a furtive glance ensuring his colleagues had left the vicinity and were being dragged down the corridor, surrounded by their armed guards, he quickly rose onto both knees, ripping his epaulettes from his tunic, along with his other indications of rank and cried out in a quiet but determined voice, ensuring that his argumentative colleagues didn’t overhear his next statement.

“Please your Majesty, please, as a matter of urgency I claim asylum, please your Majesty, I cannot and will not return to Masonville, I throw myself on your mercy. They!” with a backward furtive glance at his former colleagues who were no longer in sight. “They, they make me ashamed and sick to my stomach to be a part of that whole corrupt government! So please, I ask you for asylum, and in return I will tell you everything I know about President Signi and his evil empire! An empire that doesn’t know it is on borrowed time as the ordinary populace, its people, they are close to open revolt! It is a powder keg and it is about to explode, it could be a blood bath, I need to do something to help my fellow citizens”

That put a sudden stop to all the discussions that were taking place on or around the dais.

Queen Adred stared at the young man on his knees, who’d unexpectedly thrown everything into a bit of a state of confusion. She then looked at Aryn.

“Princess Aryn, summon four of your troopers, let’s take our friend here down to the cells. Then we can find out, safely, for all of us, just what is going on here. I want to know what has prompted this apparent change of heart, and the sooner the better!”

Ten munts later Adred and Pellinore were sat in the private lounge where they often talked through the day’s events while drinking tea.

“Well Adred, THAT, was a hell of a day!”

“That my dear Pellinore, is one of the most profound understatements I think I have ever heard you utter, since, since we were children!”

And with that they both stared into the fire, each deeply lost in their thoughts!

Chapter Nineteen.

The following days were generally quieter than many of those that had followed the initial explosions that had been observed high in the sky. Many fragments had been brought into the palace compound in Willowton ranging in size from a few fractions on an inch up to the canister that had eventually disgorged the two survivors. These two were still currently being cared for within the Palace Infirmary.

Beside them was Jena, a distraught former inmate of the Masonville penal establishment who was still relating her story to Rusan, a shepherdess. Added to these events, the sudden defection of one of the Masonville’s former ambassadors’ aides, who had sought sanctuary within Granaria and the palace was in a constant state of flux. Diplomatic pouches were frantically being transmitted to and fro between Pellinore and Monique Grabeel, the Granaria ambassador in Masonville.

Information was being gathered and collated at an ever-increasing rate.

After an early morning breakfast Queen Adred, her daughters Aryn and Caryn along with the Queen’s sister Pellinore had been summoned to the infirmary. It seemed the two survivors from the capsule were showing signs of regaining consciousness. The four women quietly entered the ward. They acknowledged Rusan who was sat knitting alongside a sleeping Jena.

Pellinore’s daughters Princesses Ayne and Urna approached the deputation.

“I’m glad you have all arrived as it seems as if they are both almost certainly going to be waking up within a short while, they are getting more agitated, they’re both murmuring away, most of which is unintelligible, about the only things we can make out are regular mentions of Karin, Raul, Missiles, and Escape pod, as you can see, they are both quite restless.”

At that moment, one of the survivors slowly opened their eyes and looked around with a certain degree of fear and confusion. Ayne approached the bed and took hold of the patients right hand.

“Shh, don’t worry, everything is fine, you are quite safe! Can you tell me your name?”

The patient frowned and looked around at their audience before fear became the overriding emotion on their face, then shaking their head continued to stare around without speaking a single word, then as they screwed their eye’s tightly shut as if in great pain, they slumped back onto their pillow, deeply unconscious once again.

With promises they’d be kept up to date as to their guests’ conditions, the four women walked down the ward to speak with Rusan. Rusan quickly stood and bobbed a curtsey to the queen and her entourage.

“Good morning Rusan, how is your charge this morning? She seems to have a slightly better colour to her today!” asked Queen Adred.

“Good Morning your Majesty!” replied Rusan. “Jena had a fairly good night last night, so we were both able to get a decent night’s sleep, she’s had a little breakfast but as you can see that wore her out and she’s now sleeping soundly!”

“She does look a lot better than she did when we first saw her in those hills up in the mountains!” stated Aryn, looking down at Jena who’d a smile playing across her face.

“That she does Princess!” answered Rusan who turned to a side table and lifted a rectangular piece of slate to retrieve a slip of paper that was neatly folded underneath.

“Here your Majesty, this paper contains every bit of information that I was able to get Jena to remember. I am unsure how accurate any of this is, it has her date of birth, family details, things like the village she came from, the name of her father’s boat, when she was sentenced and sold, well, as well as she can remember anyway. I got her to write it all out for you, as neat as she could anyway, so if there is anything you can’t understand, you’ll have to come and ask her for clarification!”

Princess Aryn glanced at the list of information.

“No worries Rusan, at first glance this looks not only really legible, but highly comprehensive too! Thank her for me once she wakes up if you would!”

Caryn moved to the side of Rusan and picked up the piece of slate that had originally covered the document in Aryn’s hands.

“What’s this Rusan? I remember one of these from my school lessons!”

Rusan blushed furiously.

“Well highness, that’s exactly what it is, it’s a school slate! You see, although I insisted that my daughters learned to read, write and do their numbers, I, myself, never had the opportunity or the time when I was a girl, then, once I was a working woman and then a mother, well, I thought I would die being illiterate like most of my friends and neighbours. When I was getting Jena to write out her information for you, she realised it was a skill I lacked so, and please don’t laugh, but she’s started teaching me while we are sat here! First it was a way to pass the time, but it seems I have an aptitude for this, so while she sleeps, I practice my letters!”

Caryn looked at the older woman standing before her, who was looking very embarrassed with herself.

“Don’t belittle your efforts Rusan, both your daughters have proved themselves to be very highly intelligent, so I am not surprised that Jena has discovered an aptitude for learning within you. The more people who can read and write the better for us all. You keep at it Rusan, I will ensure you get a supply of proper paper and pens for you to practice with. I will also dig out some simple books for you to read. To start with, although they may be juvenile, they’ll make Jena’s lessons for you more interesting!”

“Thank you, Highness. I have felt a connection with Jena since the first moment we dragged her from the marsh and down into the camp. Even though she’s from Masonville, and technically almost a perpetual enemy, she, and, so it seems, a lot of their population, are just as much victims of oppression as we are victims of their almost constant unbridled aggression! Jena, to me, has become like a third daughter, in fact both Ayleah and Lrna visited me here yesterday, and in a short time it seemed like the four of us had always been a family, in fact, they are both hoping to visit again this afternoon, Jena is like their little sister and they have done her a power of good, probably more than me!”

“Don’t belittle your effect on Jena Rusan!” said Ayne as she joined the group. “Yes, your girls have given Jena a significant psychological boost following their visit yesterday, but Jena looks to you as a mother figure, you have become her anchor in all this upheaval, she’s going to continue to need you as she navigates this next portion of her life!”

As they’d been speaking, Jena’s eye’s fluttered open, and seeing herself surrounded by all these imposing individuals, she initially shrank to the right side of her bed before her hand snaked out to seek Rusan’s hand.

“It’s fine sweetheart, you know everyone here, no-one is going to hurt you, you know that don’t you?”

Jena quickly relaxed but still clung to Rusan’s hand. Queen Adred sat in the chair on the other side of Jena’s bed and sought Jena’s left hand from under the bedclothes.

“Good morning Jena!” the Queen said quietly, “I have to say, you are looking a little better every day, I hear you are giving lessons to Rusan?”

Jena glanced up at the smiling Rusan, before shyly nodding to the Queen.

“I think that is an excellent idea of yours to help Rusan! it must certainly help to pass the time, but hopefully, you’ll soon be able to leave this ward, and then we’ll find you both better quarters here in the palace, while you decide what it is you want to do!”

Jena looked almost horrified and clung even tighter to Rusan’s hand.

“No sweetie, you don’t need to worry, you can stay with Rusan for as long as you both want, so don’t you worry, I promise you that you are perfectly safe here!”

Jena relaxed, smiled at the Queen and nodded.

“Now Caryn has said she’s going to send you up some paper, writing materials and books to help with your lessons, would you like me to sort you out some books for you to read. It may help to pass the time, I know how boring it can be when people make you stay in bed, perhaps we can see about getting you both a small radio to listen to, depending on how much it might disturb our other two patients?”

Ayne smiled at Jena.

“I think both suggestions are excellent idea’s your Majesty! Some books would help ease Jena ease back into a more normal existence, she could even read aloud to Rusan, and a small radio playing some nice music, would help us all to pass the time.”

“Thank you, your Majesty!” said Jena quietly.

“You are welcome, my dear, now, how are her injuries responding to your treatments Ayne?”

“Overall, she’s doing really well your Majesty” replied Ayne, “One or two of her deeper lacerations are still looking nasty, but most are responding well to our treatments, but we need her to continue to eat well, drink plenty of fluids and we’ll let time do the rest! We have to apply regular salves and ointments to her skin, especially to her feet and back, but she’s doing a whole lot better than when we first brought her back to the palace aren’t you, Jena?”

“Yes, thank you Your Majesty, but am I really in the palace?” asked Jena hesitantly, “It’s just, if people were taken into the Palace in Masonville, they were never seen again and no-one knows what happened to them!”

The Queen frowned with displeasure, “Well, Jena, that might be the case in Masonville, but I can tell you that, that sort of treatment of the ordinary population is not something that happens here in Granaria! You have nothing to fear from me or anyone who represents me or my family, You are free to leave whenever you want, but, I hope you’ll stay with us for a while yet and let us help you as much as we can, now, is there anything else we can help you with at the moment?”

Jena shook her head and squeezed the Queens hand with her own.

“That’s excellent, now if you two ladies will excuse us, we have a few other duties to undertake, but we’ll be back to see you soon!”

After everyone had said their goodbyes, the Queen and entourage left the infirmary to see to their other responsibilities. Meanwhile, both of the two survivors slowly, but surely regained longer spells of consciousness. Worryingly neither knew who they were, but it seemed that one had a faint recognition of the other, but both suffered severe and repeated debilitating headaches.

Chapter Twenty.

Whilst the Queen and Prime Minister Pellinore worked on affairs of state, the Princesses Aryn went to the cells to start interviewing the ex Masonville military aide.

Some six hundred toils to the East, a different scene was taking place.

President Signi stomped backwards and forwards across his office. His chin was tucked into his chest, both his arms were behind his back, with his thumbs interlocked, one hand was slapping into the palm of the other. He seemed to reach some internal conclusion and then bellowed through the open doorway.

“Brandr, General Brandr, get in here!”

Almost as if he was outside the door awaiting the summons, which if truth be told, he was, he hurried into the President’s office, escorted by two aides.

“Well Brandr, is Clercq here yet?”

“Yes Mr President, he arrived a matter of munts ago! Shall I summon him for you?”

“Yes Brandr, let’s hear what he has to say for himself, this ought to be interesting!”

General Brandr nodded silently to one of his aides, who hurried from the President’s office. Two munts later a dishevelled Major General Clercq was hurried into the Presidents presence between two of Brandr’s aides, the aroma which clung to his clothing preceded him.

“Right, you three leave us, and close the doors behind you as you leave, both sets!”

At a surreptitious nod from General Brandr, the three aides left the main office, pulling the main doors too behind them as they left, before sliding two padded pocket doors from the door jambs, rendering the President’s office practically soundproof.

“Well, Clercq, so what happened? What have you to say for yourself? And this better be good, Major General, very, very good!” snarled the President.

Major General Clercq cut a very bedraggled figure as he stood to attention in front of the President, who was now seated at his large, heavy hardwood desk. Clercq had obviously not had chance to wash, shave or change his uniform since his expulsion from the court and country of Granaria almost three days previously. As he’d been threatened, he, and three of his four aides had been transported in the back of a locked rubbish cart to the main border post between Masonville and Granaria. From there he’d been transported in the back of a military lorry, practically non-stop until he was now hurried into his Presidents office.

“Mr President Sir, I have been treated most shamefully by those who rule Granaria. They wilfully ignored my rank, and my position as your Ambassador Sir, they purposely embarrassed me and my men. I have never been treated so shamefully, and I demand you seek proper redress from those who have the nerve to claim to be your equal! Those stupid, pathetic bitches, how dare they treat me the way they did! They, they claim to be rulers, rulers of Granaria, and you, you must take appropriate steps to annihilate them and their pox ridden regime, and you must do so at the earliest opportunity!” Clercq was becoming ever more incoherent as the interview went on.

“Well Brigadier Clercq, I asked you what happened?”

“Sorry Mr. President, I think you meant Major General! You said Brigadier!”

“I know exactly what I said Colonel, now, do I have to repeat my question, or are you aiming to become a Lieutenant-Colonel?”

“Sorry Mr President, but I must protest, I have worked hard in your service, I have done everything in my power to protect your position from all sources of attack and intrigue! I have done everything you or General Brandr have asked of me, I worked hard, damned hard to become a Major General”

“Well Lieutenant-Colonel, I know exactly what you did in my service, now sir, unless you want to leave this office as a Major, I suggest you answer my original question, so, sir, for the final time of asking, WHAT happened when you showed Queen Adred the photographs I entrusted to you, and you alone, photographs all you had to do was place in her possession, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?”

For a moment Clercq’s eyes hardened, before, swallowing his bile he told his President exactly how his audience with that so called Queen had unfolded. As he retold his version of events, his voice slowly rose in pitch and became ever more shrill.

After listening without raising any questions, his elbows on his desk and his fingers steepled in front of him, the President slowly sighed and sat back in his chair.

"So Clercq, you could not perform the task I set you? in spite of the importance of this task being stressed to you by General Brandr, and reiterated by myself, you sir, YOU COULD NOT CONTROL YOUR OWN PETTY VIEWS, THE CONTEMPT AND OPINIONS YOU HOLD OF WOMEN IN GENERAL, YOU SIR, HAVE EMBARRASSED ME, MY OFFICE AND THE NATION OF MASONVILLE!!”

“But!” spluttered Clercq.

“There are no buts!” snapped the President. “General Brandr, get this lowly Private escorted out of my presence, I do not wish to see this miserable specimen ever again, so place him somewhere as befits his skillset, in fact General, he likes throwing shit around so much, get him assigned to an engineer’s platoon, digging toilets, now General, NOW!”

General Brandr opened the double doors and slid apart the sliding soundproof doors. After a quick word with one of the three aides that had been in the President’s office, who couldn’t stop a fleeting smile from crossing his face, he ordered an escort of four soldiers into the room.

“Right Clercq, fall in!”

Clercq stood there speechless and unmoving.

“You, . . you can’t do that to me, I am Major General Clercq, I am a loyal servant of Masonville and its President, I’ll, . . I’ll”

General Brandr nodded his head, and the four soldiers picked up a kicking and screaming Private Clercq and dragged him from the President’s office, his muffled shouts and stream of invective and abuse slowly faded into silence.

“Brandr, I need someone who holds slightly less misogynistic views than Clercq, well, at least someone who does a better job of hiding their true feelings!” Both men smiled at each other, each reading between the lines of what was said! “Who do you suggest as our next ambassador to Granaria, because, I want that wreckage, I want all of it and I want it before someone else can take advantage of whatever secrets it holds. I don’t want to invade Granaria, but if an armed incursion is our only recourse, then so be it, but if we can do this diplomatically, at least initially, which is what that imbecile Clercq was supposed to achieve, so much the better!”

General Brandr considered his next words carefully.

“Well, Mr President, knowing as I do the importance of this task, then, if I may be so bold, perhaps you should send myself, as an interim representative? Let me achieve what our last two ambassadors have so miserably failed to accomplish, which is the complete and peaceful conclusion of these negotiations! Or, at the very least, accurate and precise information as to where an armed incursion needs to concentrate their efforts. As such a high-ranking representative, it would be quite in order for me to take an additional, diplomatic entourage, if you understand me sir?”

President Signi sat in deep thought for a few moments. Brandr’s suggestion made perfect sense, but he also knew that the General was looking to usurp the position of president for himself.

‘Could he trust him? Not as far as he could throw him!’

‘Would a successful result boost Brandr’s ambitious nature? Without doubt!’

‘Could he work to undermine Brandr’s allies within the armed forces whilst he was out of the country? Of Course!’

‘Could he lay the blame for another failure solely at Brandr’s feet? Undoubtedly.’

‘Could he, Signi, survive a successful conclusion of these negotiations without losing out to Brandr? Possibly, but not too easily!’

‘Did he have a real choice in this matter? Not really.’

‘Would Brandr taking his special team of operatives with him make Signi’s task easier at home? Probably not!’

Signi knew he was a good card player, but even so, he knew that Brandr had more than likely read every thought as it crossed his mind.

“Yes General, I think you are right, a special envoy is what is now called for, make the arrangements, get your men and yourself all set to leave at the earliest opportunity, get the necessary documents drawn up and I’ll sign them straight away!”

Brandr saluted, “Yes Sir, I shall make arrangements to leave immediately, I shall also arrange for you to have a reliable and dependable individual in my stead until I return from Granaria!”

“Thank you Brandr, I wish you a successful mission!”

As General Brandr left the office of President Signi, both men wondered about the wisdom of agreeing to the imminent course of events, but the die had been cast, for good or ill, only time would tell who was going to be the beneficiary of the next few days.

Chapter Twenty-One.

Princess Aryn followed the gaoler down the corridor to the cell of the Masonville Aide who had so surprisingly appealed for asylum, she wondered what had driven such a move, no doubt she would soon find out.

The cell door was opened and the individual incarcerated within stood briskly to attention as the Princess entered the room. She motioned for the door to be left ajar but for two sentries to be outside in the corridor if needed.

“As you may know, I am Princess Aryn, please, have a seat, there is no reason for us not to be as comfortable as circumstances allow!”

“Thank you, your Highness. I am Captain, or rather I was, Captain Magni Porarinn, that is, I am Magni Porarinn late of Masonville’s Diplomatic Corps.”

The Princess offered her hand in greeting.

“Well Mr Porarinn I am pleased to meet you. Now, if you will, please tell me your story, what has driven a man of your rank to throw it all away in the manner you have, and I advise you to tell me the absolute truth, because I will be checking details, you should know that not only are there two sentries at the door but there is also a scribe to record our conversation, just so we both know what was said!”

“I understand Princess!”

“Now Mr Porarinn, tell me about yourself, I will try not to interrupt your flow, I know how easy it can be to get sidetracked and lose your chain of thought!”

“Thank you, Princess, but please, call me Magni, it’ll be easier for both of us I think! I have had plenty of time to order my thoughts, and sort my tale in my mind, so, first I will start with my details, I am thirty-three annuals old and have served in the Masonville military in one way or another for the last seventeen annuals. Both my parents are dead as is my sister, so, I am now alone in the world, with no allegiance to anyone, but myself!

But back to the very beginning, my sister was three annuals older than myself, and we had a loving family life in our early days. Our father was a Lieutenant in Masonville’s army, and was killed on active duty some twenty-eight annuals ago, which war, skirmish or whatever, we were never told the exact details, but it left our mother who had been a nurse, to raise us both on her meagre wages as she resurrected her career and the small pension she was awarded for the loss of her husband, the father of her daughter who was eight and myself who was five. We had to move from a nice house to a small flat, close to the hospital where our mother worked.

My sister Asta was charged with looking after me and undertaking a lot of the chores needed to survive, we both grew up quickly, I did any odd jobs I could find to help our meagre finances stretch that bit further. Our mother worked every hora she could, so we didn’t get to see too much of her, and, when she was home, she was tired and slept a lot. So, nothing out of the ordinary really, lots of families had it as hard, or even harder than we did.

Asta sacrificed herself to make sure I was protected as much as possible from the realities of life. I only realised all this much later, when I had grown up myself, mentally, more so than physically, which I am sad to say took much longer than it should have. All I knew was that my father had died in a war against our main enemy Granaria, and I swore that I would honour his memory by following in his footsteps and defend the concepts and ideals that made Masonville the pre-eminent nation in all Villiar, what an idiot I was!”

“Can you stop there for a moment Magni?” asked the Princess. “Trooper Kendra, could you order a flask of tea to be sent down to us if you will, I think we are going to be some time here, so arrange for refreshments for you all too!”

“Yes Princess, thank you Princess!”

“Sorry Magni, please continue!”

“Thank you, Princess. So as you can see I had a relatively sheltered if poor upbringing, a widowed but hard-working mother, a sister barely three annuals my senior who was practically a second mother to me. I was nothing special at school, academically just average, but it turned out I was a gifted athlete, with a speciality of being a great long-distance runner, track and cross country events seem to come easy as I was always extremely fit, mainly because my mother and sister made sure I had the main share of food within our household!

I was encouraged to join the cadet force of the army and was made to feel special and was a bit of a poster boy I suppose for all things Masonville and the doctrines that enabled me to make of myself what I had. From such a disadvantaged background! I now realise I was a propaganda tool, and fools everywhere bought the story, hook, line and sinker, and the biggest fool of the lot was myself!”

A tray with two mugs and a large flask was brought quietly into the room and the Princess poured out the two drinks while Magni continued his story.

“When Asta was nineteen and I was sixteen, our mother caught an infection from one of the wards she worked on and died not long after. Asta told me our mother had complained about the lack of hygiene precautions on the ward she worked on, but no one took any notice, there was always a good supply of women needing jobs, and most were forced to be nurses. Asta had a poor schooling, as she was often forced to care for the star child, i.e. me! And, sad to say, I was told by my teachers and then the army to expect such preferential treatment and to enjoy it as was my birthright, just because I was male!

As I said, I was encouraged to join the army officer cadets, where as a star athlete I was portrayed as an ideal to emulate. I tried to look after Asta, but I was a selfish individual, and only realised too late what life was really like for the ordinary citizen of Masonville, but that’s jumping my story a little. I had to work hard at the academic portion of the military life, it didn’t come easily to me, unlike for some of the others. But if I was struggling with a mathematic problem or a grammar rule, Asta would invariably know the answer, and that was despite her own shoddy education, she was a really clever individual who was wasted by the system, mainly because she had the misfortune to be born female in a misogynistic society. And, sad to say, I didn’t notice it, until it was almost too late.

I worked hard, my face was the face of a system that proved Masonville was the elite nation, and anyone, with the same dedication could rise from humble beginnings, to reach the upper echelons of society. I joined the army proper once I was old enough, at seventeen, and worked my way up from a Second Lieutenant, up to Captain and I was about to be promoted to be a Major in the next few weeks, once this mission as one of Clercq’s aides had been accomplished. But I already knew I had been duped, as have most of the population sad to say!”

“That’s quite an opening statement Magni, do you want to stop here, or take a few moments, to regain your thoughts or take a comfort break?” asked the Princess.

“Actually, a few moments to stretch my legs and, as you put it, have a comfort break is probably a good idea if you don’t mind!”

“Not a problem Magni, it’ll probably be a good idea to have a fresh scribe and a fresh flask of tea, so, shall we aim to start again in fifteen munts?”

“Thank you, Princess, fifteen munts it is!”

Part Eight by Iona Laing.

Chapter Twenty-two.

The Princess and Magni Porarinn reconvene their meeting.

“So Magni, what changed you from being the poster boy for Masonville to becoming so disenfranchised that you seek asylum with Granaria, inevitably placing a price on your own head?”

“I tried to encourage Asta to join me away from the flats we lived in, I made enough for us both to live comfortably, but she wouldn’t hear of it! She wanted to emulate our mother’s life commitment of helping others, and I couldn’t persuade her to change her mind, I am ashamed to say that we sort of fell out for a few annuals, and I only had sporadic contact with her, oh how I wish I could change that, but it’s too late now!

But, Princess, it was a lot of little things to start with. One of the things we studied as junior army officers was Masonville’s military history and we were given access to all sorts of information. Why campaigns were fought, how they were fought, tactics, technology, and even the history of individuals! So, being naturally inquisitive and proud of my father, I looked up his military history. At first it was like reading my own life story, he was a talented athlete, in his case he was into field events, throwing the javelin especially but he was a decent middle-distance runner too in his early days. Then, I looked up where and how he died. That was the first time I started to have doubts about how great and special Masonville was and just how privileged the officer class were!

During one of the innumerable border disputes between our nations, my father was a Lieutenant and was given a mission to go behind enemy lines, to gather information on troop strength, which units they were facing, and what reserves were in place, the usual thing at that time! Trench warfare, where it was basically a stalemate unless you were lucky to spot an enemy’s weak spot. Nothing that unusual for a junior officer of the time, leading a platoon of roughly twenty men, hoping to get there and back with a prisoner or two! In one piece, probably to do it all again the next night.

Well, one night it all went wrong, someone triggered an alarm probably, or made a noise of some sort, who knows, all that the reports said was that the enemy, yourselves, opened fire on my father’s patrol, pinning them down in no man’s land as often happened. The reports stated that, eventually, peace slowly settled down and my father was able to bring most of his men back into their own trenches. It was at this point that my father realised that two of his men were still stuck in a shell hole seemingly afraid to move. These were a couple of new recruits, twin brothers, who were in their first few months of service.

My father was about to go out to these lads, seventeen they were, probably scared senseless, to bring them back to our own lines.

However, his regimental commander, a man by the name of Vigi Signi! Yes Princess, the very same Vigi Signi who is now president of Masonville, forbade my father from mounting a rescue mission. My father protested, whereas Signi insisted that it would teach further patrols to be more careful, and to not give their positions away. My father reiterated that these were two young lads, still learning the trade of becoming good soldiers, Signi, spoke an order to his second in command, Lukki Brandr, and yes Princess, the man who is now the presidents right hand man, General Brandr! Moments later, a mortar barrage plastered the boys’ position, and that was the end of them. My father apparently jumped up onto the top step of the forward trench, where he called these two lads names, but to no avail!

Now, this is where it gets a bit confusing, the official report states that my father spun to face our lines, and was shot in the back by a sniper from Granaria, but, I have spoken to several men from my father’s platoon, who swear that he was facing forwards when he was shot in the back, by someone from our side! The name that was mentioned most often was Brandr!

From that point on, I started paying greater attention to what was happening at home. What I had treated as either unfounded rumours, or circumstances that occurred to people who didn’t apply themselves wholly to the work of Masonville, I learned were in fact, purposefully downtrodden, as I had heard from time to time.

I was having to be so very careful, to protect myself from association with undesirable persons, and then I heard my sister Asta had been arrested. I managed to get to find where she was being held and went to visit her, I was shocked beyond belief when I finally got to see my sister!”

Magni sat slumped in his chair, unable to look up at the Princess. Slowly he raised his head as gentle tears slid down the side of his nose from the corners of his eyes.

“My beautiful, dear, sweet, Asta, looked so different. Locked in a windowless cell, her long golden hair had been roughly shorn short, and was now mainly grey. Her beautiful face was deeply lined, etched with many worries, she’d a pale almost transparent skin, with deep, dark rings around her sunken eyes. She could barely move when I was finally allowed access to see her.

She had become a nurse like our mother and had become more and more involved with the more downtrodden members of our society. She’d run clinics for those without access to medical treatment! This despite warnings to cease such treatment from those who ran her hospital.

Seemingly, she took drugs and first aid items that were out of date from her hospital’s waste bins to use at her unofficial clinics. Last annual she was arrested and charged with providing aid to the enemy! THE ENEMY! They were OUR OWN people!

She had a summary court hearing and was found guilty and sentenced to death! It was all academic anyway, she’d contracted a virulent form of lung disease and was dying. I tried everything I could to get her sentence changed, to at least get her out of the cells, so she could die in peace. Brandr, to keep me quiet and away from whatever was happening at home, sent me here.

Then, three weeks ago, I finally had official confirmation that my dear, sweet Asta had died nearly six months ago!

“I had already realised that I had been lied to my entire life, and I had willingly allowed their lies to form the basis of my “Poster Boy” lifestyle, that all my ideals and beliefs were based on falsehoods. Someone, somewhere, has got wind of my investigations, and I have been warned that, upon my return to Masonville, I would be meeting with a suitable fatal accident. So, I was all prepared to go home and continue my sister’s legacy of standing up for others, until such a point that the powers that be could conveniently erase me from the scene.

When, it struck me that I could, perhaps do more for my fellow Masonville citizens, by providing yourselves with as much information as I can, before I return home to join the underground fighters and bring the likes of Signi, and Brandr plus the rest of their cohort down to their knees, or die in the attempt!”

Silence overtook the room for a while, before Princess Aryn sat forward, resting her arms on the table separating the two of them.

“Wow Magni, that is quite some tale, no wonder you wanted to seek asylum within Granaria. You have given me a lot to think over, I need to undertake some checking of my own you understand, but I shall be back with our decision of what to do with you at the earliest possible moment, thank you for sharing what has obviously been a traumatic recollection of past events!”

“Thank you for listening Princess. I fully understand your need to verify events, as much as you can. I wish to impart to you everything I can think of that will be of benefit to Granaria, and which will then, indirectly benefit my own people. But once I have related everything that I think will be of benefit to you, I still wish to return to Masonville, and continue the fight for the emancipation of all its people from the oppression they have lived under for far too long!”

“I understand Magni, I really do, leave it with me and I will be back with our response sooner rather than later! In the meantime, is there anything you want?”

“Yes Princess, would it be possible for me to have some paper and writing materials, plus a few books to read and help me pass the time?”

“Certainly Magni, I shall make those available to you shortly!”

They both stood and Magni came to attention, and clicking his heels together, bowed formally to the Princess. She offered her hand in leaving and once Magni was once again sat at the table on his own, he folded his arms and stooped down and resting his head on his forearms he quietly cried for the sister he felt he’d betrayed!

Chapter Twenty-three.

It was now almost six days since the events that had triggered this latest period of anxiety within Granaria. Six days of frantic activity, where artifacts had been recovered, six days since many lives had irretrievably been altered, and almost every day since those explosions someone somewhere, had had their view of the world changed.

Up in the infirmary, the two survivors of the canister rescued from the foothills, were slowly adjusting to longer periods of consciousness. It seemed neither knew much of their previous lives, nor could they explain the nature of the canister in which they had been found. Neither of them seemed to recognise each other, although one of them seemed to vaguely know the other individual, which was a little surprising as they looked to be almost identical twins. Neither of them knew their names, so the staff had decided to call them Kress and Kriss.

Both were troubled with severe headaches and strange dreams and visions that those charged with their care struggled to understand.

The belongings of both were similar to each other, but bore no relation to anything that was normal for Granaria, nor anywhere else on Villiar, their clothing bore marks which could be names, or rank insignia, who could tell?

The closures seemed sticky in some way, as one tab seemed to consist of thousands of tiny hooks that would grab onto another element that seemed to be of small hairy loops. What would have, presumably, been wrist watches had various symbols that seemed to alter via a set pattern before they seemed to rest and go through the whole process again. Other symbols, such a red heart symbol only seemed to react when placed back on the owners’ wrists. But for now, all their possessions had been locked in the infirmary safe.

Jena and Rusan, who were still residents of the infirmary due to the severity of the wounds and injuries suffered by Jena at the hands of her captor, had taken to having short walks up and down the infirmary ward. On each lap they would stop and talk to these two females if either were conscious.

Both Kress and Kriss were sat at a table by the beds, when approached by Rusan and Jena. Jena was moving stiffly still but was still struggling with some of her wounds that had remained heavily infected, and which, despite every treatment available to Princesses Ayne and Urna refused to heal, both were quietly worried.

Young Jena had got to all of them from the Queen downwards, and all were desperate to see her make a full recovery. But, despite the indomitable spark she seemed imbued with, all were worried that their young friend was not going to make it, Rusan was especially concerned.

Feeling especially tired on another of her laps of the infirmary, Jena sat at the table with Kriss and Kress.

“You look a bit paler this morning!” said Kriss as she glanced at the young woman sitting across from her.

Jena had always spoken to them both when they were awake, and she seemed like a lovely young girl, but it was obvious that her health was failing.

Kriss placed the back of her fingers on the girls forehead, it was obvious she was burning up. Just then Kriss groaned out loud, clasped her head and dropped to the floor.

Jena was horrified that she had somehow hurt this woman and Rusan led her slowly back to her bed.

“I’m sorry Rusan, I’m so, so sorry, honest, I didn’t mean to hurt Kriss, I don’t know what happened?” whimpered Jena.

“I’m sure it wasn’t anything you did Jena, both of them have illnesses of their own, so don’t you worry, just concentrate on getting better, now you lie down and rest up, okay?” And Rusan kissed her surrogate daughter's head as she glanced back up the ward at the activity around Kriss.

Later that afternoon Kriss woke up and looked around her with a greater degree of animation to her face and movements. The Princess Ayne approached her bed.

“Well hello Kriss, you look a little brighter this afternoon, how are you feeling?”

Kriss looked at her for a moment, before shaking her head.

“Hello Princess Ayne, my actual name is Karin, I remember that now, but tell me, where did you find me?”

Over the next few minutes, Ayne briefly told Karin what had transpired over the last few days and weeks. Karin looked across to the resident in the bed next to hers, who was also deeply asleep after collapsing with yet another powerful headache.

“I’m not sure exactly what is going on, but I entered an escape capsule with my husband Raul, not someone who looks like my sister! But tell me, did you find a large, bright green pack with a large white cross printed on it?” asked Karin.

“No, err, Karin! We decided, once we had extricated the two of you, to reseal it until such time either of you could show us what was safe to touch and what should be left well alone. The capsule is under armed guard in the rear of the Palace!”

“The Palace?” asked a stunned Karin.

“Yes, this is the infirmary, which is part of the Palace compound, it was felt you would be safer here than in an ordinary hospital until we knew more about the two of you!”

Karin looked down the infirmary ward, down towards Jena who was looking even more ill than when she remembered seeing her this morning.

“Tell me Princess, what anti-biotics have you administered to that girl?”

“Anti-biotics Karin? What on Villiar are antibiotics?”

Karin threw the bed clothes off and slowly shuffled down the ward to Jena’s bed.

“Please Princess, let me see Jena’s most troublesome wounds, this is important!”

Rusan, taking the initiative, pulled Jena’s bedclothes down her body and pulled Jena over onto her right shoulder and side, Jena murmured with the discomfort of being moved. Princess Ayne undid the rear ties of Jena’s gown and lifted one of the dressings from across Jena’s buttocks, revealing a suppurating sore, that was red, angry and seeping yellowish green goo. Karin pulled a face and again felt Jena’s forehead.

“Please Princess, I promise I will explain, but I need you, or someone with authority to get down to the capsule, and when entering, immediately to the left you will see a large door, open that and inside you should find two large green backpacks, both with white crosses on them, I need them up here, now! Please Princess, every moment counts, then I promise, I will explain everything to you!”

Princess Ayne looked this woman in the face for several seconds, before turning on her heel and running to the door she called over her shoulder “Two packs you say?”

“Yes Princess, both packs, quickly!”

Jena was gently laid back on her bed, and then, as Karin was just covering her with the bed sheet rather than the blankets she’d also been draped with.

As she looked down at the extremely ill young woman in front of her, she heard a bit of a commotion up at the other end of the ward. Upon looking up just as Kress sat up and stared around, looking more than a bit confused until she caught sight of Karin.

“Karin? Is that you Karin?”

Karin rushed, as much as she could, back to Kress’s bed.

“Yes, I’m Karin!” she answered more than a little confused herself.

“Karin, thank goodness you are alright, it’s me, Raul, but somethings wrong Karin, really wrong, I feel really very strange.”

“Raul? Is that really you Raul?” Karin answered distractedly, and a little more confused than Raul, if that was possible.

“I can’t believe it Raul, if that is you, tell me, just for my own peace of mind, where did we meet and why?”

“Come on Karin, you know that we met at The Sierra Foundation Building Repository, you were Karin Ross then, we were looking into a prophecy concerning The Planet Anmar!”

“Oh Raul, it is you!” said Karin as she threw her arms around her now twins neck. “I think you better prepare yourself for a shock, you know the error that changed Gary to Garia?”

“Yes, of course! . . . Oh my, . . . It’s happened again hasn’t it?”

“It certainly looks that way Raul, but please, come with me, we have a very sick girl at the other end of the ward who is going to need both of our first aid skills, she’s running a severe infection, and looks like she’s several badly infected wounds, come look, I’ve sent someone to see if our Medi-aid packs were transported with us. Come and look, see what you think."

As Raul slowly climbed out of bed Princess Urna appeared with two dressing gowns, to help cover their bare backs as their own bed gowns rear fastening, left a lot to be desired with regards to modesty.

As they had gently laid Jena on her face, the extent of her wounds became apparent to them both. They exchanged pained glances.

“Please, if you can, help her, she’s such a sweet, lovely girl who has been to hell and back, she deserves a chance at an ordinary life, so please help her!” begged Rusan.

“Well, provided our packs are here, we will do what we can, but we are not Doctors, just well-trained amateurs really!” answered Karin.

“We will do what we can, but tell me, who here has been treating her and what have you done so far?” asked Raul.

“I am the Princess Urna and myself and my sister, Princess Ayne who has gone down to your capsule, have tried everything we know. We are the top medical officers here in Granaria, but we know there is lots we don’t know! We have been pumping in fluids and pain relief; we have tried to keep the wounds clean and dry and treated them with sodium hypochlorite and boric acid!”

“So you haven’t given her any anti-biotics!” asked Raul.

“What are anti-biotics?” asked Urna, but before anyone could answer Princess Ayne rushed back into the infirmary.

“I rescued, . . both, . . your packs, . . . in fact, . . . here they are now, . . . Aryn and Caryn . . . . have carried them . . . the last four flights, . . . of stairs, . . . for me, . . . as I was struggling . . . for breath .. . under the weight of . . . . both of them who, . . . . while trying to rush . . . them . . . here!”

Aryn and Caryn placed both packs gently on the bed beside Jena, as they looked at both of Karin and Raul with surprise as they each grabbed a pack and started to extricate various items and tools.

“I’ll explain shortly!” said a hushed Urna, “It seems our two friends may be able to help Jena, and in ways that are foreign to us!” just then both the Queen and Pellinore rushed into the room.

Chapter Twenty-four.

Karin pulled a small tube from the pack and placed into Jena’s ear where it beeped, she exchanged a worried glance with Raul.

“Her temperature is forty-one point three degrees °C! But I don’t know how normal a temperature that is for here, time for a quick random sample!”

Turning to Rusan who was the closest to her.

“Let me check your temperature please, it doesn’t hurt, I promise!”

Within a matter of a munt or two Karin had checked the temperature of ten individuals within the room, including the Queen, her sister, four Princesses, two nurses, a passing herald and of course Rusan.

“Well Raul, the average here is thirty-seven point two °C, with a range of a point or two either side of that, so it’s basically the same as for us, although I think our average has been bumped up a touch due to three hot and perspiring Princesses who have run upstairs with our packs, so it will be worth rechecking the average when they’ve cooled down! What did your blood pressure samples reveal?”

“Well the physiology here seems to be the same as humans everywhere, as the blood pressure across five samples is One hundred and Twenty-one over Seventy-nine, whereas Jena’s is only Ninety-four over Sixty-three. She’s one sick girl. Sepsis? Do you think?”

“It certainly looks that way Raul, and if it is, the sooner we start treatment the better, but I am not sure what we can do to cure her!”

“You’re better trained than I am Karin, what do you suggest?”

“First things first, let’s do the basics! Can we get all the windows open and see if we can get a bit of a breeze going, we need to strip her, and we also need bowls of cool water to bathe her with”

The two nurses on duty rushed to get the bowls of water and some washcloths, whilst everyone else opened windows but drew the shades to keep the direct sunlight out of the infirmary. Rusan withdrew her knife from it’s sheath at her waist and slit the sleeves of Jena’s gown so it could be gently removed from under her with the least disturbance. Partitions were arranged to protect Jena’s modesty from anyone entering the infirmary unexpectedly.

“I think Raul, given how sick she is, and even though we’re not one hundred percent sure that the physiology here is actually the same at ours, we treat her as if it is! We set up two new intravenous drips to get fluids into her, one including a pack of reconstituted whole blood! Then. hit her with every antibiotic we have available. I don’t think we have time for tests, even if the good folks here can perform such analysis. I don’t want to trust the automated Jeeves terminal on board the capsule either, always assuming we can get it to work. Then we dose her up with some heavy sedation and clean the worst of the wounds the best we can, after that, it’s up to the girl herself!”

“Okay, Karin, you’re the boss, even in this reality, I’ll get the drips ready to start!”

Then looking around at the sea of expectant faces, Karin asked for, clean, sterile bedding, some posts or poles to support the drips, bright lights and a means of raising the bed to make it easier to work on Jena, and some fans to try and reduce the girl’s temperature. Everyone, including the queen scurried around finding all the additional elements needed to care for Jena, such was the effect she’d had on all of them, even though they’d only known her for the few days she’d been amongst them, as well as the quiet confidence these two newcomers seemed to exude.

Once they’d managed to get a saline drip running into Jena’s left arm, they added several doses of anti-biotics to the saline infusion, whilst the new drip in her right arm had a concoction of several rehydrated blood products also being fed into her system, these infusions would be the first of several Karin felt Jena would need. While she was unconscious, Raul, Karin along with the Princesses Ayne and Urna worked slowly and methodically to deep clean the many wounds on the poor girl’s body. All wounds were treated with rapid healing creams from within the first-aid kits and then dressed.

The green first-aid packs fascinated both the Princesses, whose many questions were answered by Raul and Karin as they worked.

It was a long afternoon and well into the evening before Karin and Raul eased their aching backs and gently covered the sleeping form of Jena with a sheet. They had done everything they could to help this fragile patient who’d seemed to have had an influence on everyone she’d met.

The solar panels to keep the electrical equipment charged, had been out on the balcony all afternoon. This was to ensure there was enough electrical reserves to run all the portable equipment needed overnight to try to save Jena, although it seemed the capsules onboard electronics had kept the batteries fully charged.

Everyone was either slumped onto adjacent beds or nearby chairs, as a single low bulb illuminated the sleeping figure who looked as if she had a bit better colour to her than earlier in the day. Princess Aryn looked at the two newcomers.

“That was an amazing display of medical know how, knowledge that we can only dream about, that was a privilege to watch!”

Urna nodded in agreement.

“Our research is just beginning to hint at some of the things we have observed today, to see our dreams made real fills me with such hope and excitement!”

Karin gave a tired smile.

“You have to remember that we are both are only classified as first aiders, what you witnessed was what we would call basic emergency first aid in what could be a battlefield situation. All our team members had to undertake the same detailed training to be passed as fit to be part of our crafts crew. Our properly trained doctors have much greater skills than Raul or I myself possess, I just hope it is enough to help Jena, she seems a very lovely young lady.

But what barbaric individual inflicted those wounds? And why? What would possess, . . I, . . I? Words fail me! Honestly!

I have read of such injuries in history books, I never ever expected to witness them first hand, I hope they have been suitably punished? I never thought to see such barbarity, such injuries, especially on one so young!” Tears were flowing down her cheeks; Raul was equally speechless and appalled!

Rusan spoke quietly as she continued to hold Jena’s hand and stroke her forehead.

“Don’t worry, he won’t ever hurt anyone else ever again!”

Princess Aryn, half smiled, half grimaced.

“No, Rusan saw to that herself! His death was too swift really, but needs must, Rusan acted in defence of some of our forces, and for that we all owe her a debt of thanks!”

Raul and Karin viewed Rusan in a new light, but Raul in particular, understood the need for swift action at times. Karin looked at Rusan and asked.

“Are you her mother? I see the way you interact, it’s beautiful to see such love between the generations.”

“Sadly no, I am not her mother, in the sense I did not birth her!” said Rusan softly, “But, I see her as one of my daughters, and I am as proud of her as I am of my other two girls!”

The Queen looked around the room and then spoke quietly.

“Well, on behalf of us all I want to thank the pair of you for all your efforts to help our Jena, I don’t have to tell either of you how much she means to us all, especially Rusan there, but, we’ll let Jena tell you her story herself, it is a powerful testimony of the life she has endured. However, if you don’t mind, could you tell us, who you are? Where you are from? What are you doing here? And just what in the world makes you so special to our neighbours in Masonville?”

Karin and Raul looked at each other tiredly, and both shrugged together.

“Actually, your Majesty, I am not sure either of us can answer all your questions to your complete satisfaction! To be honest, we are not exactly sure who we are, why we are here, nor what we’re supposed to be doing really. Others may be able to provide the missing information, but in many respects, we are even more confused than you are! You see, last time we knew for certain what was going on, we were under some form of aerial attack, and we just about made it into an escape pod! But then, we were husband and wife, male and female, Raul and Karin, now, we find ourselves in a strange place, with different levels of technology, looking for all the world, as far as we can tell, like twin sisters! So, we are hoping you can answer a lot of our questions too!” answered Raul to a stunned audience.

Karin couldn’t help but yawn, Raul looked just as tired.

“Would it be possible to have a bite to eat and a bit of a sleep before we tell you Karin’s and my story. I for one am shattered, plus, I am as curious about where we have ended up, and the obvious changes we’ve undergone as yourselves! I can only imagine how curious you all are about us, but we also want to ensure we help Jena to the best of our ability, and that’s going to make tonight a long one as it is! I just feel that we’ll all be able to understand events a bit better once we’ve had a rest.”

The Queen nodded her understanding.

“A good point, let’s arrange for us all to meet up here first thing in the morning, hopefully, given your efforts this afternoon, Jena will be a little better, and I am sure Rusan is just as curious about the two individuals who have done so much for her honorary daughter as are the rest of us.”

As they all stood Karin took her thermometer machine and took Jena’s temperature again.

“Forty point four °C, that’s promising, that’s the third reading in a row where her temperature has come down! Hopefully the antibiotics are working their magic!”

“Magic?” asked a confused looking Rusan.

“Sorry Rusan, it’s just a phrase from where I come from! Where something is quietly performing its task, saying “It’s working its magic!” is just a way of expressing that, whilst we might not fully understand how something does its job, we know there is a logical reason why something is doing what it is supposed to! It doesn’t imply that whatever it is, is a form of magic, just it’s something we may not fully understand or be able to explain.

Now I am rambling! I am so tired, so I shall shut up before I confuse you all even more!” Said Karin with a smile.

“No Karin,” said Rusan. “I do understand your explanation and thank you for all you have done for Jena, I know she’d want to thank you herself if she could!”

“Mmmm” came from the figure in the bed to the surprise of everyone in the room.

Slowly everyone either returned to their quarters, or their beds, whilst Rusan continued her vigil.

Chapter Twenty-five.

The next morning showed a vast improvement in Jena’s condition. Her temperature had continued to reduce over night and was now down to one hundred and one point two. Jena was fully awake and asking if she could now lie on her back as she was fed up with being face down, plus she was hungry!

So the two Princess carers, Ayne and Urna and her two non Granarian carers Raul and Karin quickly and expertly reapplied the various creams and salves to her wounds, before carefully allowing her to sit propped up in her bed and have a light breakfast and some sweet drinks. She had the best colour she’d had since being rescued from the mire up in the hills above Riventon. Whilst her wounds were being treated, she’d told Raul and Karin a quick version of her life story which made a deep impression on them both.

Rusan then explained how she’d been forced to take Art Strin’s life, but that she had no feelings of guilt for ending his existence, and neither Raul nor Karin could feel anything but respect for the woman’s actions.

Once Jena was comfortable, and after receiving another infusion with more anti-biotics, her head drooped a little and she dozed. Everyone noticed that even though she was asleep, her fingers were firmly interlocked with Rusan’s, who was also dozing in her chair. After yet another long night of naps, interspersed with little procedures carried out on Jena it was hardly surprising everyone was so very tired.

Once everyone had had a breakfast, the Queen, her two daughters Aryn and Caryn, Pellinore and her two daughters with Raul and Karin gathered around Jena’s bed to start the process of explaining to each other the whole series of events that had brought them together.

The explanations, started with Raul and Karin explaining their mission, and the speed with which it had unravelled. Aryn and Caryn described the rescue mission and subsequent events. Ayne and Urna explained how Raul and Karin had eventually been discovered and their subsequent treatment. The Queen explained about her dealings with Masonville’s representatives and Aryn gave a brief synopsis of the individual currently seeking asylum whilst in their cells.

It was lunchtime before all the explanations had wrapped up, with every member of the group feeling a little overloaded by the exchange of information. This was especially so for Raul and Karin. Raul was feeling decidedly confused with all the changes he’d gone through, although he felt pretty sure that “The Beings” had to be involved, he, or more realistically now, she, could really use an audience with Garia at the moment.

Karin noticed that Raul was particularly quiet during the lunch they all shared.

“Raul, how are you feeling?”

Raul looked at her wife and shook her head, a single tear falling down her cheek.

Karin slid her chair across to her husband’s side, or was that now her wife’s side? She’d sort that conundrum out a little later, all she knew was that the person she loved was hurting.

She slid her arm around Raul’s shoulders and felt her head rest on her own shoulder, and then her nightgown grew increasingly damp, as the person next to her shook with silent sobs.

“It’ll be okay, Raul, it’ll all work itself out you’ll see. At least you know a little of what may have happened, perhaps Garia may grant us a visit with a possible explanation as to what occurred to make us look like sisters, and if you can be changed back.”

“I know all that Karin, I just can’t believe that I have been reduced to tears so easily, I mean, I knew the risks involved in these expeditions before we ever left home, I’m supposed to be a hardened space explorer, and here I am, crying like a little girl!”

“Think about it Raul, to all intents and purposes you are a little girl! Your body is awash with hormones that make us all, well those of us with the same physiology, more emotional. You have undergone an incredible change in circumstances, I’d be more worried if you weren’t upset!”

“But, we are no longer the same husband and wife we were a matter of days ago!”

“Listen you, you are still essentially the same person, you have the same ideals and the same core beliefs you had when we first met, all those years ago, yes, the outer wrapper is a little different, but I still love you, Raul!”

“But . . “

“No but’s, just shut up and give me a kiss!”

Raul looked up into his wife’s eyes, the same eye’s he’d fallen in love with when he first saw her back on Earth, and, closing his eyes, Raul kissed her wife.

When they broke the kiss, they realised just how public had been that display of affection. All their audience were sat smiling at them. The Queen leant forward and placing a hand on a knee of each of these two new visitors to her realm.

“We have a saying here that states that ‘True love master’s all obstacles placed in its path!' and, I think girls, that applies to you two too! Now, no matter what changes you have undergone, you love each other, pure and simple, we can all see that, so cheer up and try not to worry about things beyond your control.

Now, who is Garia, and will she visit you here?”

“Ah, Garia is a little difficult to explain your Majesty, and I never meant to mention her name. We have both given a strict oath not to reveal anything about her and those like her, so, at the risk of offending you, which we really do not want to do, we must respectfully decline to answer!” replied Karin.

“You have given your oath?”

“Yes, your Majesty, and we cannot, and will not, break our word!”

“Then, so be it, I would want all who make oath to me or the office I represent to have the same level of loyalty you both display. I would wish to meet this Garia someday, but I will respect your word. Now, what to do with you? You don’t look as if either of you need to be kept in the infirmary, so would you accept quarters within the palace for now, not as prisoners I hasten to add, but as our honoured guests? I don’t think either of you would wish to fall into the hands of those from Masonville!

Hopefully, they have no idea the capsule we brought back to the palace contained yourselves. So, as far as we are aware, it is more for the construction materials themselves, rather than any technological advantage that they can gain from your mode of transport that they are especially interested in. But, no doubt, they will eventually discover your existence. The longer we can delay that happening, the better for us all, but especially the two of you!”

“Thank you, your Majesty, we appreciate your understanding! Whilst we do not really need to take up valuable bedspace in your infirmary for ourselves, it is useful for us to be so close to Jena, especially for her ongoing treatment, particularly over the next few days.” Responded Karin.

“Okay, we’ll leave things as they are for now if everyone agrees, although we should find you two some better clothes to wear, rather than having you wander about in those awful hospital gowns.” The Queen said indicating Raul and Karin.

“Aryn, speak to our other guest this afternoon, I understand we are going to get a top visitor from Masonville in the next day or two, so the more insight he can provide, the better prepared I can be.”

“Pellinore, I want you to surreptitiously listen into the interview.”

“Caryn, I want you to go over our security arrangements, with particular emphasis on what we can do to ensure the capsule remains a secret.”

“Ayne and Urna, I want you to learn as much as you can from our guests here about ways to advance our medical care.”

“Aryn, after your interview, perhaps you could, with Caryn, take our guests to see what else they would like to take from the capsule, for safe keeping. Then, later this evening, all of us could meet up to discuss our findings and any other possible developments.”

“Jena, I want you to continue to teach Rusan to read and write, practice makes perfect after all! Plus, I want to see you starting to put a little meat on your bones, eat as much as you can as often as you can!”

“Rusan, you have my permission to raid the palace kitchens for any tasty morsels they can provide for yourself and for our friends! They all look like they could do with a bit of building up, as do you yourself come to think of it!

See Jena, I told you I could be bossy!!”

Jena giggled, a sound that made them all smile. With that, the small group dispersed to undertake their allocated tasks.

Chapter Twenty-six.

Aryn recommenced her meeting with Magni Porarinn.

“Well Magni, how are you this afternoon?” asked Aryn.

“I am well your Highness, I have no complaints, and I thank you for the books and writing materials you sent.”

Karin looked across the table positioned between the two of them and noticed part of a drawing peeking out from under a pile of blank and written on papers.

“May I?” she asked pointed across to the drawing partly on view.

“Of course, your Highness, it’s just a scribble I was working on to help pass the time,” answered Magni as he extricated the paper and handed it across. It was the portrait of a young woman.

“She’s beautiful!” said Aryn quietly. “Who is she, a lover?”

“No Highness, it is my sister Asta, she was truly beautiful. This is a very pale attempt to capture her likeness!”

“I can see a family resemblance to yourself, you are a talented artist Magni, very talented, what else have you drawn? I can see another picture poking out slightly!”

Magni coloured up, his face reflecting his embarrassment as he handed the second image across the table.

“Oh!” stammered Aryn recognising an accurate portrait of her own image. “It’s, . . it’s a very good likeness!”

“I’m sorry Highness, I didn’t mean to embarrass you, I just like to draw, and I have always been able to capture a person’s resemblance, really easily! Please, keep it if you like it that much!”

“No, I couldn’t take this, you may want to keep it yourself!” Then Aryn blushed as she realised what she had said.

“No, it’s fine Highness, if I want to keep a portrait of you for myself, I can easily draw another!”

Then Magni coloured up as he realised what he had said.

“Here, let me show you!” Then in front of her astonished gaze, Magni, in the space of less than ten munts drew another portrait of the Princess, similar to the first, but with a slightly different expression.

“Here, please keep that one too, as you can tell, I have an inexhaustible supply of portraits at my fingertips, it’s a gift I have always had. Here, please, take the picture of Asta too, I will draw another this evening! It will let you know for whom I am doing what I am doing, in giving you what information I can, in her memory, and, in my sorrow! I can never be a better brother to her now, but I can now be a much better brother in her memory than I ever was to her during her life”

So, placing the portraits to her side, Aryn continued to talk with Magni, learning what she could of the hierarchy within the top stratum of Masonville. She even left Magni’s cell later that afternoon with a whole series of small portraits of who was who within the upper governing echelon at the top of the tree. All the way down from Signi, to Brandr and others lower down to the government aides, from diplomats to hitmen suspected of enforcing the rule of Signi and his cohort. Little did either of them realise just how important these portraits were to prove.

Raul and Karin were presented with underwear and a sort of tracksuit and jacket for their journey down to the capsule. They were amazed to see the structure separate from the shuttle. That it was much bigger than they expected in one way, but also smaller in another. The realisation that it was supposed to be a sort of lifeboat for up to four individuals explained the size anomaly a little. They climbed the wooden structure built to give them access to the door which slid open as they drew near.

Aryn looked around, along with Caryn, it was her first real glimpse of the illuminated interior of the shuttle’s survival capsule.

“Wow, this looks really impressive, what do all these things do?”

Raul gave a brief overview of the many controls and sensors within the capsule’s cockpit. Slowly both Raul and Karin de-activated the shuttle’s survival capsule, mainly because most of its instrumentation and controls were now surplus to requirements, but also to conserve what remaining battery life there remained within the capsule's systems.

Looking around the interior of the capsule that had now returned to an almost darkened state, Raul and Karin began the process of grabbing various items of technology such as body sensors, including electronic components, calculators, hand-held tablets, personal mementoes and clothing. They were about to head back to the infirmary when Karin placed her hand on Raul’s sleeve.

“Raul, I don’t think you are going to need those, at least for the time being, do you?” Raul looked down at the items of clothing she’d removed from her ready lockers. She glanced from the clothing, back to Karin, then back at the clothing before nodding sadly.

“No, I don’t suppose I do now, do I! It was just an automatic reaction to seeing you removing your spare uniforms and clothing from your lockers!” said a somewhat dejected Raul.

“I know, Raul, hopefully things will be able to go back to some sort of normality soon, but for now, let’s leave Raul’s uniforms behind, mind you, if we take Lila’s and Ellie’s spare items with us, it will give us a few more options for now.

Eventually, with a last look around, the four women carefully balanced their armloads of clothes, personal items and belongings and travelled by lift back up to the infirmary and their evening meeting with the Queen and the others of their small ad-hoc group.

Chapter Twenty-seven.

The nine women were seated around a table in the common room area of the infirmary. The tenth, Jena had continued to improve throughout the day, and whist her temperature was still elevated, it was nowhere near as high as it had been two days previously, she was sat in bed looking the best she had since she’s first emerged from that horrible smelly mud bath that had very nearly finished her off.

They’d not long finished their evening meal when a messenger sought a brief interview with Pellinore, who’d walked down to the other end of the infirmary to receive her latest despatches.

She returned several munts later with an enigmatic smile playing across her face. She stopped as she walked past the Queen’s shoulder and waved a single page in front of her. The Queen shared the same smile.

“When can we expect delivery?”

“Nothing specific, but approximately two to three days!” answered Pellinore.

“That’s going to be one of the better things we’ll have witnessed in quite some time!” spoke the Queen, nodding over her cup of tea. “But we’ll keep that under wraps for the time being!”

“My thoughts exactly Majesty!” answered Pellinore, which only received confused expressions from the other members of the group!

“By the way your Majesty, one of the other items of information just passed to me was details of the next deputation to grace our shores and our court from Masonville!” exclaimed Pellinore.

“Oh goody, we can barely wait, can we?” exclaimed Caryn.

“Now dear, just because the last few representatives have been worse than useless, that doesn’t mean the next one will be another waste of space!” admonished the Queen with a smirk.

“Who are they sending this time?”

“Let’s see, . . . yes, . . . here it is, . . . The new ambassador is a Field Marshall Eydis, and he’s bringing an additional, four, . . six, . . eight, yes, eight aides with him, he should be here the day after tomorrow, so I assume he will make his presence known to us, either that day or the next?”

“Sorry Aunt, did you say, a Field Marshall?” asked Aryn.

“That’s right Aryn, Field Marshall Eydis! Why? Have you heard of him?”

“No Aunt, and that’s what’s so unusual, I have never heard of Masonville ever having any Field Marshalls, other than geriatric individuals they are pensioning off out of the way, but today, during my interview with Magni Porarinn, the highest-ranking individual Magni mentioned was Brandr, General Brandr!”

“That’s right Aryn, he didn’t, did he?” agreed Duchess Pellinore, “I think you need to have another interview with him in the morning, see what he has to say for himself, and see if he has ever heard of this Eydis individual!”

“I shall see him first thing, Magni strikes me as an honest person, I am sure if this Field Marshal was that important, Magni would have mentioned him to me up front!”

Early the next morning.

Magni was just settling down to read a little more, he’d had a wash and shave and was waiting for his breakfast to arrive. He had repeatedly compared his treatment and surroundings to those he knew his compatriots inflicted on their political prisoners. This was like night and day, and that made him even more ashamed of not seeing how misogynistic, dysfunctional, and awful his own regime was.

As he got comfortable with his most recent book there was a light knock on his cell door. He frowned then smiled and called out, “It’s open!”

The door was pulled open and the person who entered was none other than the Princess Aryn.

Magni leapt to his feet.

“May I speak with you? I am sorry I am so early; it’s just I have an important question!”

“No, of course not, Highness, come in, what can I tell you that has you at my door so early in the morning?”

“Thank you, Magni.” Said the Princess. “What can you tell me about Field Marshal Eydis?”

“I’m sorry Princess, who?” Magni frowned.

“We’ve been informed that the next ambassador from Masonville, will be a Field Marshal Eydis!” asked Aryn carefully.

“Eydis? I’ve never heard of anyone called Eydis, let alone a Field Marshal by that name! As far as I know Masonville doesn’t currently have any Field Marshals of any name. They tend to use the honorific purely as means of acknowledging individuals who have attained high rank but are now being pensioned off out the way and perform purely ceremonial duties. The last one was Field Marshal Urien, and he died almost a year ago! The highest-ranking officer apart from President Signi is General Brandr!”

“You’re sure Magni?”

“Absolutely Highness, I heard that Signi didn’t want to create any other Field Marshals as he wanted to ensure a clear distinction between his office and the rest of the military hierarchy! But that was just a rumour that did the rounds of the barracks following Urien’s funeral.”

“Okay?” muttered a confused Aryn, “Thanks for the confirmation, Magni, I may well speak with you further later today!”

“Anything I can do to help, then I am ready to answer any questions you may have! Highness.”

A confused and an unaccountably nervous Aryn was walking briskly back down the corridor wondering what this conflicting information all meant.

“Princess, wait please, Princess, I have just thought of something?” called Magni down the corridor. He stood in the doorway of his cell unwilling to run along the corridor’s length in case the armed guards thought he had nefarious intentions towards the Princess. She waved him towards her, and he jogged to her side, making sure he kept his hands clearly in view at all times.

“I’ve just remembered something Princess, it may be nothing, but I remember now, General Brandr’s mothers’ surname was Eydis, she had remarried I think which is why she had a different surname to her son, I met her once or twice, she was about as unpleasant as him too!

I remember now, I had to wait on her at some formal reception five or six years ago, I’m not sure if this helps you with your enquiries or not, but I thought I’d mention it while I remembered!”

“Thank you, Magni, I have an uneasy feeling that, that snippet of information may be vitally important! I’ll speak to you later!”

With that Aryn rushed off to find her mother and aunt to impart this latest snippet of information, she had a feeling the next day or two were going to be quite busy and more than a little fraught.

Part Eleven by Iona Laing.

Chapter Thirty-one.

The following day Raul and Karin had moved into their own bedroom just down the corridor from the infirmary. It gave them chance to be on their own and re-establish their relationship now that things had changed so drastically for them.

A larger room next door now housed Rusan, Jena, Sleal and Jinz who were busy forming or renewing their relationships.

Politically, everything was quiet as no response had been forthcoming from President Signi or anyone else from within the Masonville hierarchy for that matter.

Sleal had brought with her and her younger daughter, information about the burgeoning underground upswelling of revolt within the Masonville civilian population. It seemed that Signi’s impression of the control he could exert on the masses was not as absolute as he thought it was. His comeuppance could well be sooner than he ever thought possible.

Raul and Karin lay quietly in their bed. Both staring at the ceiling wondering what the other was thinking.

Karin then partially sat up and rested on her elbow as she looked at her partner, even if it did seem she was staring at her reflection. She saw the tear escaping from the corner of Raul’s eye and slowly trickle into her left ear.

“Hey, we’ll have none of that! What’s up? What are you thinking?”

Raul didn’t say anything, just chewed her lower lip and shook her head.

“Come on Raul, let me in, I can’t help you if you won’t speak to me, remember our vows? In sickness and in health! Until death do us part!”

More tears flowed from Raul’s eyes. Karin lay back down next to her spouse, then sliding her arm under Raul’s shoulders she pulled her partner close to her, their breasts interlocking as Karin held a sobbing Raul.

“Listen Raul, I am not sure quite why you have been physically changed into a woman, and a woman who looks like my sister at that! I mean from the little I understand of the transportation process our friends utilise, I suppose you are a near duplicate of myself! I don’t know if it can be undone or not, but we are in this together, I am not going to suddenly fall out of love with you simply because your outer being is different to the person I met and fell in love with back on Earth. I love you, pure and simple, so come on, talk to me, tell me what you are feeling? This is me, Karin, I am your wife, your life partner, your soul mate and whatever other term you care to use. Since we first met at the repository in Denver, I have felt something for you, that something has grown into love, a limitless love, I am not going anywhere without you! Do you understand me? . . . Do you? . . . . Do you understand me?”

After a short while Karin felt Raul nod her agreement. Raul looked up into Karin’s eyes.

“I can’t believe how screwed up my emotions are!

“I can’t believe how much weaker, physically, I am!

“I can’t believe this has happened to me, although I know I am not unique in undergoing such a drastic change!

“I can’t believe how readily we have been accepted into the extended family we seem to have become a part of, and, most of all!

“I can’t believe that you still love me, after all, you can’t get a more radical change than this can you?”

“Of course it could have been more radical, I could have transformed into a man!” said Karin smiling. “Look, when I lost my first husband, Alexander, I was a lost soul, barely existing. If you think I am going to give up and lose you too, then you don’t know me very well.

“Will things be different between us? Inevitably!

“Will I still love you regardless? Inevitably!

“Now Raul, relax a little, enjoy our privacy a little, so come here and give me a kiss!”

Sometime later than were still enjoying a cuddle and being close together, their thighs interlocked.

“Although we haven’t been here that long, it does seem from the folk we have come in to contact with, that this planet, apart from those bullies in Masonville, seems to be a lovely, gentle, less stressed place to live.” mused Karin.

“Well, if you discount the almost Nazi like state just next door, then yes, it is a nice place to live!” chuckled Raul.

“Did you ever think of settling down, you know, to a less frenetic lifestyle, or were you always planning on being a space explorer?”

“This is going to sound corny, but, until I met you, I thought I would always follow in my father’s footsteps and be an explorer all my life. I never expected to meet anyone who would derail that ambition! I mean, for a lot of my younger life, my mother and I were either left behind on some outpost or were part of my father’s dream of seeing what was over the next horizon on one of his ships. I thought everyone felt the same!”

“How do you feel now?”

“Now? Now I am not so sure! Now, I think that it would be nice to put down roots, you know? To make my mark doing something for others in some way. To be able to have some predictability in my life, to be able to come home to a place that didn’t have the ships power hum under my feet, somewhere where the view wasn’t a constantly changing vista of passing stars and galaxies! But to have a feeling of solidity, to be able to watch the seasons affect the environment around me, to watch things grow and evolve, to perhaps have a garden and grow things, to be with friends rather than just colleagues.

“This isn’t just because of my change; this has been growing on me since I met you and realised that there is a lot more to life than I ever thought possible! I want to be able to say I work to live, rather than living to work, if that makes any sense? Oh, I am just rambling I think!”

“That’s very philosophical Raul; it makes perfect sense. You want to put down roots, to establish yourself in other ways than logging how far you have travelled or how many star systems you have visited. There’s nothing wrong with a change of direction to give a person new goals. The hard part I suppose, is not looking back with a sense of regret, because you didn’t follow a different dream when that opportunity presented itself!”

“I know Karin, but we are not supposed to influence those worlds we investigate, we are just supposed to observe and report back!”

“Well Raul, I think that boat sailed when we crash-landed on this planet, and we are involved for good or ill!” interrupted Karin.

“You can say that again, but now that we are involved, we can’t abandon these people! I don’t think I could live with myself if we let people like Signi rule the roost, which seems highly likely if we do nothing, because, whether we were the instigators or not, everything has changed. We were targeted by Masonville, it wasn’t a random attack on the Oslo, if they can do that much damage to a vessel they should never have known existed, then just imagine the damage they would inflict on places like this? The devastation doesn’t bear thinking about, I think we are duty bound to help these people ensure peace for themselves and perhaps a better way of life for the masses living under Signi and his cohort’s yoke over in Masonville!”

“And that Raul, is why I love you; you were a man of honour, you have proved yourself to be a person of honour and perhaps, it is your lot in life to be a woman of honour, is that so bad?”

“No, I suppose it isn’t, is it Karin? The thing we must work out is exactly how we can help as many people as possible without ruining the good parts of this world!”

“Again, that is why I love you! - Did you ever consider having your own family?”

“Until I met you Karin, not really. It didn’t seem that important to my immediate life’s goals. But now, life has changed, I think it would be nice to have children, to tell them of the things I have seen and done, the places I have been, the people I have met, and especially how I met their mother!”

“I feel the same! When Alexander was due to return from his last run, he was to have had an extended period of leave, a shore-based training role for a while before his next supply run. We were planning to try for a family, but, when he died, that dream was shattered, as was I, and I thought that dream died too, then, I could have seen myself as being the mother to your children! But it’s all academic now anyway, unless we use a donor and one of the syringes from our first aid kits!”

“Perhaps not Karin, maybe I can be changed back, maybe not, who knows? We may be rescued and sort of returned to our previous lives, even if it is as a lesbian couple!”

Karin chuckled, “Well, a lesbian couple is one thing, it still leaves us short of a vital ingredient in the baby making stakes, sperm, Raul’s sperm to be exact!”

Raul lifted her head, “Actually, there is a certain medical facility back on Nirvana that holds some of Raul’s frozen sperm. All crew, male and female are given the option of freezing samples of sperm or eggs just in case of accidents! It’s not compulsory, but a safeguard offered to everyone. I took advantage and had some sperm frozen even though I didn’t ever foresee a likely need to make use of any. It was my mother’s idea, and I did it mainly to shut her up, but now? It seems like one of the best things male Raul ever did as regards his personal life, after meeting you of course!”

“Remind me to give her an extra kiss when we next meet up with her, and to give her my heartfelt thanks!”

“Don’t you mean, IF, we ever meet her again!”

“We will Raul, we will, you mark my words! We will be reunited with our family someday. While we are talking about the future, do you want to retain the same name now that your circumstances have changed somewhat? Did your Mum ever say what your name would have been if you had been female from birth?”

“Well, I know my parents tried for a long time to give me a sibling, whether it was a medical barrier or timing or what, I don’t know, but a couple of times, usually when I had passed a milestone of some sort, Mum would get the holo-photo display going to reminisce about previous achievements and she said they’d picked the next names out ready, but sadly, they never had the need to use one. If they ever had a girl she would have been called Raelynn, or Rae for short!”

“That is a beautiful name, so what do you think about changing your name? For the time being? If you think the change is indeed short term, do you want to stick with Raul?”

“I have a feeling that this change may well be for longer than I originally thought, but, as strange as this may seem, it doesn’t seem quite as scary as it did not so long ago! Perhaps, it makes sense to change my name to reflect the new me, and Raelynn is a nice way to honour my parents unfulfilled aspirations! What do you think Karin? Do you think I should change my name, and if I do, will it impact you or our relationship?”

“I think, for as long as you may need it, a more feminine name may well be appropriate. The main thing is your happiness. It may help you compartmentalise your life into the two, distinct parts you have been presented with. I like Raelynn, and I’m sure our new friends will like it too!”

“I think you may well be right Karin! So, then if I may introduce myself, . . . . I am Raelynn Elstrae Strall Suarez, I am pleased to meet you!” said Raelynn as she offered her hand in greeting.

“Wow Raelynn, that is some name you have there! If you don’t mind, I think I will stick to Raelynn or Rae for short, and Rae is looking better all the time!” laughed Karin shaking Rae’s hand.

“I know, Mum wasn’t too thrilled with it either, but she had to keep both grandmothers happy somehow! And that’s not easy let me tell you!” laughed Rae

“I know Rae, I know! Don’t forget I met both at our Nirvanan wedding ceremony! Formidable is the term that comes to mind! Formidable, or just downright scary, you chose! Mind you, not to burst your bubble, but there may be a few aspects to all this body changing you have undergone, that may have escaped your thought processes”

“What do you mean?” asked a confused Rae.

“Well sweetheart, you look like me, correct?”

“Obviously!”

“We could well be twins, yes?”

“Without a doubt!”

“Are you, Raelynn Elstrae Strall Suarez now female?”

“Yeeesss?”

“Are you breasts tender, and your tummy feeling bloated?”

“Yeeesss?”

“What do you think makes a woman’s body feel that way?”

“Err, . . . I’m not sure, . . . . should I know?”

“Well Rae, I’ll give you a clue, it happens roughly every twenty-eight days.”

“Nooooo!!!!”

“I can tell the penny is about to drop, even though we’ve only been here a couple of weeks or so, I recognise the signs!”

“But, . . . you mean, . . . . a period? . . . . . Noooo!!, . . . I can’t, . . . . can I . . . . . I mean, . . . I don’t know what to do!”

“Shhh Rae!” Karin placed a finger to Raelynn’s lips. “Don’t worry, I will help you, any questions, just ask and I will tell you all you need to know!”

“Oh Karin, that’s, . . . that’s, . . . a lot to get my head around, . . . I don’t know if I can do this!” a tear leaked from Raelynn’s eye.

“You will cope Raelynn, just like you have coped with everything else life has thrown at you of late, you are a strong woman Rae, you can do this, but that’s not the only thing to think about!”

“Isn’t that enough, . . . for now, . . . what with everything else that’s going on at the moment?”

“Well yes, but we were talking about the future weren’t we? So Rae, if you have had a period, it means you are, like me, and we are probably fertile young women!”

“Nooooo!!!!!”

“Yes, Rae, if you are indeed the same, or almost the same as me genetically, there is no medical, ethical or any other err. . . ical reason, as to why you could not be impregnated with a few of Raul’s frozen swimmers, and, potentially, become a mother yourself!”

“Wow!!!! Me, a mother?”

“Yes Rae, you could be a mother, that is if that is something you would like to be, sometime in the future perhaps?”

“You know Karin, that is not as scary a thought as you would perhaps expect it to be! Me, a mother!”

“Yes Rae, I also suggest we have a word with Ayne or Urna as soon as possible to discover what there is available locally for a woman on her period. The supplies in the escape pod will only go so far, before we run out of options. I presume we’ll have to utilise washable pads, but I’ll find out when we meet up this evening for our usual natter.”

“I have never been so glad to have you with me Karin, I’d have died of embarrassment having to ask what to do!” said an almost tearful Rae “I feel such an idiot!”

“Come on Raelynn, you have turned a major corner psychologically today, if you have coped with everything that life has thrown at you over the years, then you can cope with all this! Don’t forget you are mentally, the equivalent of a young, teenaged girl learning all about life. You have a lot of help, you are not on your own through all this, if you have a doubt or a question, then just ask, or tell me what is bothering you, I’ll sort you out! Mind you, I am sort of glad I am an orphan!”

“What do you mean Karin?”

“Well Rae, I presume your mother knows a little of what our missions are geared towards, and that we may come across transported individuals? And, that occasionally something goes awry with the transportation system?”

“I think so, but what exactly my father has told my Mum I don’t know, but I assume she knows some of the background!”

“Well, one way or another, if we are rescued or someone contacts us, she is going to know that she is now the proud mother of a wonderful, beautiful daughter! I could never have seen myself having to have a similar conversation with either of my parents, not that I ever knew much about my father! Even so, my Mum was a little narrow minded, and the fact that her daughter was married to another woman would have been enough for her to have disowned me and deny my existence. Trying to tell her it was an involuntary change would have made little difference. She belonged in the dark ages of the twentieth century! Loved her to bits, but she did my head in when I was growing up! Mind you, telling her I was now a man might have been an interesting conversation.”

“I am lucky I suppose, my parents are very liberal, I suppose they have had to be, given the nature of dad’s occupation and the people he has encountered. But it is still going to be an interesting conversation to have to have with my parents! ’Hi Mummy, Hi Daddy, I was your son, now I am your little girl’”

They both laughed, cuddled ever tighter together and just revelled in the love they shared.

Chapter Thirty-two.

Tens of thousands of miles above the planet Villiar, the fleet flagship, The Vasco da Gama, continued its geo-stationary orbit over the last known sighting of the jettisoned escape pod containing Karin and Raul.

The intense monitoring of events on the ground far below had continued without break. Admiral Maurice Suarez had slept very little since the attack on the shuttle had exploded onto their screens. The fact that it was his son and daughter-in-law who were missing in action didn’t make his job any easier. It would be too simple to go in mob handed, but it went against all the training that was ingrained in all Nirvanan Survey personnel! That to do too much, too quickly, could end with the exact opposite result of what you originally hoped to achieve, and that was the safe return of Karin and Raul.

The recordings of the interaction of between the opposing forces over the capsule was uppermost in his mind. The images, both daylight and in the nighttime infra-red spectrum and false colour had been hard to watch! Especially the violent interaction that had erupted in the foothills, that had had him close to intervening in another systems politics, but ultimately, he knew he had to let events unfold as they fell. It was hard to divorce his feelings of being a father from those of being the person in charge of the whole survey mission.

He had to trust to the training both Raul and Karin had received. Raul, he knew had a vast amount of experience for one so young, whereas Karin, although on her first trip was an extremely intelligent analysist.

From the interaction that had been observed from their high vantage point it certainly seemed that the nation that had recovered the capsule was the more benevolent of the two protagonists.

The recovery of the individual from what was obviously a bog or marsh suggested a more humane nature than the summary executions they had powerlessly witnessed.

Especially in light of the release of that prisoner’s bonds and the apparent hugs that enfolded them, that suggested someone at least had compassion.

What was concerning was the lack of effort to gain access to the capsule’s interior! Could they tell the occupants were deceased? Were Karin and Raul holding the fort and keeping the hatch closed? Only time would tell.

An excess of radio traffic from the more aggressive nation had almost entirely ceased following some event a day or so ago. The technical teams on board the Vasco da Gama had cracked some of the codes being used. Their problems were exacerbated by the fact that both nations were using unknown dialects. But it seemed that the computer processes being used at full capacity were beginning to bear fruit.

Maurice’s desk intercom burst into life and the image of the Vasco da Gama’s captain Bran Lalle filled the screen.

“Admiral, great news, great news, I’ll be with you in a moment!”

It was obvious that the captain was walking and talking into his hand communicator as he hurried along from the main bridge to the Admirals personal quarters.

Maurice barely had time to move his arm to the control panel on his desk before the door access signal sounded. The door hissed open, and Captain Lalle entered the ready room with a beaming smile plastered on a tired face. The door slid closed behind him.

“It’s great news Admiral, great news indeed! Our intelligence unit has made a stunning breakthrough! No matter how many computer systems you throw at a problem, sometimes it takes a human touch to provide that little bit of insight, insight that is absolutely crucial to resolving part at least of this conundrum.”

Maurice and Bran had been friends for longer than either cared to admit, and Maurice knew his friend’s precise mind would take a little while to get to the point, but his report would be succinct and little if any clarification would be needed. Bran continued.

“As you know Maurice, the nation that we know who secured the capsule has been repeatedly broadcasting the same message for three days now, not just within their own territory but towards the aggressive group, and in other directions too!

“Not only that, but the power output has also been significantly increased from what we know of their existing technological capabilities.

“But that’s not the best part, we are now able to actively translate the whole message! It’s in two distinct parts as you know. Now listen carefully!

“Computer, replay the translated transmission!”

“Right men! You all have your orders and know the plan, show these people no mercy, anyone gets in your way, then despatch them without a moment’s hesitation. We’ll be in and out of here before these idiots have any idea what is going on, by this time tomorrow we’ll be back in President Signi’s presence and you will all be awarded a hero’s welcome and be more than amply rewarded for your actions today, so keep alert! So, places men!”

“That was the voice of General Brandr, head of Masonville’s military and diplomatic corps. In that segment of conversation General Brandt is briefing his squad of top assassins about the imminent attempt to seize Queen Adred and her court. Fortunately for us here in Granaria this dastardly plot was foiled, unfortunately there were casualties. Four of Masonville’s troops died at the scene and one subsequently succumbed to his injuries. One of our own gallant defenders received minor injuries and is recovering well under advanced medical care. General Brandr has been placed under arrest, and, as he was masquerading under false credentials, and operating under President Signi’s personal authority, his claim of having diplomatic immunity has been denied. We look forward to hearing President Signi’s statement on these abhorrent events. The would be attack and subsequent retaliation has been captured on cine film, copies of which will be distributed to all fellow nations within Villiar along with a copy being sent to Masonville. This transmission will continue to be broadcast on this and other frequencies over the coming days.”

“Wow Bran, that’s brilliant, what a breakthrough, will we be able to open other messages in the same manner?”

“That’s what we anticipate Maurice, but that’s not the best bit, listen to the female’s statement again!

Computer, replay the female’s transmission again and increase the volume by fifteen percent!”

“That was the voice of General Brandr, head of Masonville’s military and diplomatic corps. In that segment of conversation General Brandt is briefing his squad of top assassins about the imminent attempt to seize Queen Adred and her court. Fortunately for us here in Granaria this dastardly plot was foiled, unfortunately there were casualties. Four of Masonville’s troops died at the scene and one subsequently succumbed to his injuries. One of our own gallant defenders received minor injuries and is recovering well under advanced medical care. General Brandr has been placed under arrest, and, as he was masquerading under false credentials, and operating under President Signi’s personal authority, his claim of having diplomatic immunity has been denied. We look forward to hearing President Signi’s statement on these abhorrent events. The would be attack and subsequent retaliation has been captured on cine film, copies of which will be distributed to all fellow nations within Villiar along with a copy being sent to Masonville. This transmission will continue to be broadcast on this and other frequencies over the coming days.”

Slowly a smile spread over Maurice’s face, “That’s her, that is Karin? It is, isn’t it?” Bran had an equally broad grin.

“Yes Maurice, it is Karin, we’ve performed a quick analysis of speech patterns, inflection, tonal range, stress levels, any indication of anxiety and everything else we can think of, and the results all come back with the same conclusion. That young lady broadcasting over what seems to be known as the Granaria Broadcasting Corporation, is none other than your daughter-in-law, Karin Suarez herself, last seen being dragged into the escape capsule we know is within their main compound. She is, by all accounts, happy, healthy, under no stress or duress and is working with whoever is in charge of the government. Although it is conjecture, if she is well, and functioning at the top of her game, which is evident in every test we’ve run, and there are a still a few tests being undertaken as we speak, but then it’s fairly safe to assume Raul is probably also happy, healthy, under no stress and working with whoever is in charge of the government too!

“It must be only a matter of time before we have definite proof that both are alive and well, and whatever is going on, they’re working as part of the response against this Signi character.

“It was only because Ellie Rett was working an extra shift in the intel suite that she stopped us concentrating on what was being said, but on the owner of the voice, speaking to us over the airwaves. A classic piece of lateral thinking!”

“Pass on my thanks to her, she doesn’t know how much this means to me and will mean to Ava!”

“Will do Maurice! Plus, we now know what tipped off Masonville to the Oslo’s presence, which in turn likely led to them launching their attack!”

“We do?”

“Our shuttles are faulty, or at least this batch of vessels are.

“The ceramic shielding tiles, fixed to the underside of the shuttles, are working loose and coming adrift! So those civilisations with appropriate technology may well be able to spot them orbiting above their respective planets. It seems whatever adhesive compound used is a new formula! While it claims better shielding capabilities all round, the only drawback to it, is that it’s main function, as an adhesive, is sub-standard!”

“How many shuttles are affected Bran?” asked a somewhat relieved Maurice.

“It seems to be every shuttle built in the last six years, at least that’s the evidence of those shuttles that we’ve had chance to inspect. All have shown themselves to be missing some tiles, most are missing just one or two, a handful are missing anything up to twenty, and all of those have build numbers concurrent with the Oslo! The Bergen which is two shuttles newer in the construction run is missing fourteen tiles so we were lucky that she was being masked so effectively by the Oslo, otherwise we may have lost the pair of them, then the list of missing personnel could have potentially been much worse!”

“So, it’s likely the Oslo had a significant number of missing shield tiles?”

“It certainly seems that way Maurice, yes!”

“Well, at least we are starting to gather some answers at long last! It’ll be great to give Ava some positive news for a change.”

“Not only that. but we are trying to determine ways of contacting Karin in some discreet manner, utilising the technology at their disposal, but also not wanting to announce to all and sundry down on the planet that one, but hopefully, two, of our personnel are stranded down on the surface!”

“Yes Bran, we need to let Karin know that we are aware of her survival!

“There must be some way of making contact discreetly with her. She has a particular affinity with the twentieth century on her home planet of Earth, have a look through our databases, see if there is anything from that era that may be of use to us, something that she may know of that we may not, but our computers may be able to help us with.”

“Actually Maurice, we have come across a method that was used to transmit messages over their early radio/telegraph systems called “Morse Code!” It was a system of combining dots and dashes to represent every letter of the alphabet!”

“It sounds very laborious to me!” interjected Maurice.

“It does to me too, but it was, apparently, very effective.

“For example, when ships were experiencing trouble at sea they would try and summon help by transmitting a universal three letter message of “S.O.S.” which equated to “Save our Souls”. This was done via nine keystrokes, three dots, three dashes and three dots. A dash was simply a slightly longer keystroke than a dot. Three dots represented the letter S, three dashes the letter O!

“Every letter of their alphabet had a unique key code, the letter “A” was a dot, dash, the most common letter used in their language was the letter “E”, this was represented by a single dot and so on.

“According to our research, it was possible for some operators to recognise other operators by the nature of the way the dots and dashes were transmitted! Although it does vary, due to word length etc, but the average operator could transmit or receive somewhere between twenty to thirty words per minute, some could, by using short words, even cope with speeds of fifty words per minute but that was exceptional.”

“That’s quite clever given the limitations of the technology I suppose!” mused the admiral.

“Well, whilst they may not use “Morse Code” we are fairly certain that the good people of Granaria use a similar method to transmit messages! So, what we propose is to selectively target the central Granarian complex. Then bombard them with the S.O.S. message and see if it is repeated, or something similar is transmitted back. Karin may have known of the code, but may not know all the letter combinations, but if someone bounces back the S.O.S. in reply, then at least we’ll have made contact with them.

“The only flaw in this plan, apart from Karin’s probable lack of awareness of all the code letters, is the fact we’ll be interfering with a native civilisation! For that we need someone in authority to give us the go ahead to breach this regulation.

“We don’t want to transmit in clear language in case someone with nefarious inclinations is listening in. It’s a risk using open morse, but less than using direct speech!”

“Okay Bran, let me think this over carefully, my obvious reaction to your proposal is to say yes, transmit your trial runs, and let’s see what happens, I should run this past headquarters in the Nirvanan Survey Service, but it will take time for the message to work it’s way through channels, and I want to know asap that Karin at least is safe and sound. So let me think on this for a short while. I assume we can automate the transmission and would have actual ears listening for a response, not just automated systems running when we can spare the time to listen?”

“Yes Raul, we can automate whatever message we want to send, and I already have a list as long as your arm of individuals willing to listen out for any response, and that’s before we’d formally announced that was the plan! So, don’t worry, any possible feedback will be picked up and relayed to yourself as well as whoever happens to be on the bridge at the time of receipt! Now, any idea of what we’ll transmit?”

“Well, I suppose if the S.O.S. combination was short and designed to attract attention, how about that code and Karin’s name, and well, we’ll judge what to send next once we know someone is listening out for us!”

Some ninety minutes later the continuous transmission of a code group started, “dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot, dash dot dash, dot dash, dot dash dot, dot dot, dash dot, dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot.” Then the whole sequence started up again. It was simply a matter of waiting to see if this tactic generated a response.

Any reaction would be an incredible bonus.

Chapter Thirty-three.

Twelve hours after the start of Vasco da Gama’s transmissions of the basic morse code message, Karin and Rae were summoned to Queen Adred’s private office. As they were shown into the Queens presence, Pellinore and Aryn were also waiting to speak to them as was an unknown individual who clutched a sheaf of papers to their chest.

“Thanks for attending so quickly girls, it is much appreciated. May I introduce Chief Scientific Officer Socorro Hervera, who has something you will both find interesting. Socorro, may I introduce Karin and Raelynn Suarez, security specialists currently seconded to us from a friendly nation. I’m afraid I can’t tell you more at the moment!” stated the Queen. “Come, let’s all sit on the sofas, we might as well be comfy while we discuss the item that’s causing a little consternation at the moment.”

“So Socorro, why don’t you tell us what has brought you to my office today?” asked the Queen.

“Certainly, your Majesty! May I pass around some copies of information I think you should all be made aware of!” As she handed out the sheets, she surveyed the two strangers. So, these were the mysterious twins she’s heard so much about within the upper echelons of Granaria’s civil service, she thought!

Let’s hope they can give us an edge over Masonville.

“If you’ll take a look at these pages, they represent radio transmissions we have received from an unexpected source for the last few hours. At first, we thought is was some strange natural occurrence or atmospheric anomaly. But now we have realised that this is a set of unique patterns in the transmissions, which, are being constantly repeated and we believe, are from a source outside of Villiar!

“It seems to start and end with the same sequence, but with a distinct but separate element in its centre, if you see it starts.

“dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot, dash dot dash, dot dash, dot dash dot, dot dot, dash dot, dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot.”

“We soon realised that the first nine characters being repeated at the end of the sequence was not accidental!”

With that Socorro seemed to run out of steam.

None of those sat around the small table could fail to miss the beaming smile on Karin’s face. Pellinore looked across at her.

“I take it my dear, you know what this represents?”

“Yes, I believe I do, it’s what is known as Morse code. The code was the invention of a man called Samual Morse, and dates back some five hundred years or so. It was an early means of sending telegraph messages, and relied on the people at either end of the signal wire knowing what the groupings of symbols meant, in it’s current form this short message, because that’s what it basically is, says;

“S.O.S. Karin S.O.S.

“I assume they used this message as the repeatability of the beginning and end would make it stand out from random static.”

“But why S.O.S., what does it mean?” asked a bemused Raelynn.

“Well, back in the infancy of radio communications on my home planet, it was a way of ships out at sea to summon assistance and help.

“There were several messages tried, the one that was popular at one time was C.Q.D. or “dash dot dash dot, dash dash dot dash, dash dot dot” which stood for ‘Come Quick Danger’!

“The trouble was that the keystrokes needed to send that message took longer and didn’t stand out from the background traffic in the same way that S.O.S. did! The middle bit of this message just states my name, Karin”

The Queen noticed the open-mouthed astonishment of Socorro Hervera.

“Socorro, I don’t need to remind you of the secrecy of these discussions and the facts revealed to you within this room. As you may have guessed, Karin and Rae are visitors, not only to our nation, but to Villiar itself!

“What you hear today, must not, and I repeat not, be repeated to anyone outside of this room, do you understand me? The very safety of Karin, Raelynn and ultimately everyone in Granaria depends on their presence remaining a closely guarded secret!”

“Of course your Majesty, I would never betray any confidences I am privy to, but so much of recent events now starts to make sense, but rest assured, you may rely on my absolute discretion.

“But may I ask who is sending these messages? Because, as far as we can tell, not only are they are coming from a source far above our atmosphere, but from a stationary point in the sky, and, how come one sister knows all these facts, yet another does not?”

“Ah, Socorro, I’m sorry, but the origins of our sisters are a matter that must remain a secret for the time being! But, to get back to the original point of this meeting.” Stated Aryn, “Can you use it to communicate with the senders of this message Karin?”

“I don’t see why not!” answered Karin, “There was a unique series of codes for each of the twenty-six letters used in the English alphabet, plus the numbers zero to nine.

“What amazes me, is that although I learned the principles of the code when I was in school, I seem to be able to remember the codes used, so if we come up with a reply, we can send it and see what happens next.

“I wonder if they identified my voice on the transmission which we beamed all over Villiar as a result of Masonville’s attacks! But, we can sort that out later!

“Let’s first come up with a reply to this particular transmission!”

A short intense discussion followed and eventually a message was decided upon that read. “Karin and Raul aok need tech help” which was sent repeatedly on a similar frequency to that the incoming message had used.

Not long after the first few transmissions of the answering message was sent the S.O.S. ceased to be received. Both Karin and Raul hugged each other tightly as they knew family and help was nearby.

Later, as they were sat quietly in their room, a bright glow began to grow in intensity, until it eventually resolved itself into the form of a late middle-aged woman that they both knew on sight.

“Garia!” exclaimed Karin, “I never thought to see you here!”

“Well Karin, it’s fair to say that I didn’t expect to see either of you two here either!

“You’ve certainly stirred up a hornet’s nest with your presence. But, as always, it gives us the opportunity to make changes for the benefit of everyone on this planet that has become home to the pair of you!

“By the way, I have spoken with Admiral Suarez, and he sends his love and best wishes to the pair of you, although he has yet to break the news to Ava that she now has a daughter, and not a son. But don’t worry, knowing Ava as I do, I am sure she will embrace you as her child no matter how you look. She has a love all mothers should have, a love regardless of their child’s outcome, sadly not all do, but you Raul, are a going to be a very lucky young lady indeed.”

“Well, Garia, while I am now female, we have decided that perhaps it is probably better if I leave the name Raul behind, I have decided to honour my parents by adopting the name they would have given to their daughter, if they had ever had one that is, so I am now Raelynn Elstrae Strall Suarez! I know it’s a bit of a mouthful, but it’s what they would have wanted, at least I hope so!”

Garia smiled at the women in front of her. “I think that’s a nice touch Raelynn, I don’t think either of you have anything to worry about, Ava and Maurice will love you both, just as they have always done!” she patted Rae’s knee in reassurance.

“You don’t think I will be changed back, do you?” asked Raelynn.

“I doubt it, there is no technological need to transport you to another place and therefore no need to construct another new body for you. We don’t, in effect, murder people to create a need to move someone from place to place!

Besides, it’s not so bad being a woman, I wouldn’t have missed a minute of my female existence, and your good lady wife would agree no doubt!”

“I understand, I just wanted to make sure of what my future held, rather than it being a desperate desire to change my body for changes sake!”

“I realised that Raelynn, none of us knows what the future may hold, but I think I can say with some certainty that your future is likely to be female in nature.

“Now, let’s talk about what you have started here on Villiar, and how it can be used to help remove Signi from power without leaving a vacuum behind that could lead to civil war!”

The discussions went on late into the night!