Castaway Planet

Paige sighed as she walked looked around the inner chamber of the escape capsule. The last few hours had been tense, with most of the deckhands as guards ready for anything else to attack. After the second hour, Duncan had half the group stay on guard and the others were freed to try and take a break. He had ordered them to sleep and eat some of the rations, and that was that.

Without the fresh fruit, they still had a lot of food, but Paige was worried about the wildlife. When the creature attacked, she was shocked by what she sensed. It was the same spark of hunger she had felt from a newborn puppy. But it was too big and strong for that, and where were its parents? The passengers were all coming down from their terror, and Bradford hadn’t made a single speech so that was good.

“No, I heard it was a dragon!” One of the passengers said to another as Paige came closer to him and his friend.

“A dragon!? No. I heard from one of them that it was this mutant thing! It froze them with a look!”

“Hells. If something like that will attack us we need more people here! And to make a wall around the crater like Bradford said!” A woman said and her friend shook her head.

“My granddad was an outdoorsman. Just for a hobby of course. But he tried to make a log cabin once, he needed a class 3 lifter to even get them off the ground! And that was when his construction site was near the place he cut down the trees!” Her friend said and Paige kept quiet as she moved past them in a slow circle of the room.

Before he had let anyone in, Duncan had ordered everyone to keep quiet about what the creature had done. She understood why, if the passengers had any idea what horrors were out there, then they might riot if Bradford had his way. The best thing to do was wait, and hope whatever this resource that Duncan spoke of would help them.

As she walked while wondering if she should volunteer for night watch, she felt something. She went still as she felt as if someone was watching her, and tried to keep her nerves calm. She looked around with her eyes only and felt her nerves worsen when she didn’t see anyone watching her.

She kept moving, wondering what or who was looking at her, and why. Her mind went through dark places as she moved closer to the door. She didn’t have a weapon, but if she moved outside to guard and the person followed her then they had to be a deckhand. Was it one of the people who had chased her off her world? Or was it someone else? All she knew was that she didn’t like not knowing who was looking at her and she was getting worried.

She walked towards the door and saw Jones on guard and smirked. He would let her pass or take his place, and then she could try and deal with whoever was watching her.

“Hey, Jones!” Paige said cheerfully. As Jones looked up at her, she tried to project all the lessons she had learned on the ship about customer service.

“Hu? Oh. You’re Daige or something right?” Jones asked and Paige fought to keep her smile happy and cheerful.

“Paige and I were wondering if you wanted someone to take over your watch!” Paige asked and Jones nodded absently.

“Yeah, that would be nice. But the boss wants me to watch and everyone else is down because of the attack. Who would even want to take over?” Jones asked as he shook his head.

Paige looked at him with an expression of sheer shock. How could he be that stupid? She was about to say something when she felt that feeling of being watched increase. The feeling was something that she couldn’t ever miss. It was like her organs were shaking, both hot and cold at the same time It grew stronger and she was starting to get worried about who it might be when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Paige, there you are. I wanted to talk to you,” Racha’s voice caused Paige to swallow. Turning she saw Racha looking at her with a smile on. But her other sense could tell, Racha was the person who had been looking at her, and she wanted something from her.

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Racha smiled at Paige, hoping she would calm down. Racha had to give her credit, it was only the skills from her job that let her notice that Paige was nervous. Still, that just gave another tell that she was a Reader. That and the way that she had handled herself against the river spider and wolf creature, that all told Racha that the mission needed Paige.

“Miss Racha! What are you doing here?? Did you come to see me?” Jones asked with a grin on his face.

Racha looked at Jones out of the corner of her eye and frowned. She watched as he straightened up and tried to put on the charm, why that fool was fixed on her she couldn’t understand. She didn’t even know what sparked his interest in her, and with her nanites watching everything she did, that was saying something.

“No. The boss wants the top guards to come back and watch the door,” Racha said bluntly and turned her head to look at Jones. “So you're relieved.”

“What?! But what about the top?! Does he want us to lock up?!” Jones asked and Racha looked at him and shook her head.

“Paige and I are to take over for them. So go and get some food,” Racha said and Jones looked at her as Paige took a deep breath.

“And what did you want?” Paige asked as she looked at Racha.

Racha looked at Paige, wondering how she should handle this. There was the direct approach but then something about Paige told Racha that would be the wrong way to go.

“I wanted to talk to you about the mission tomorrow. I……. let’s talk outside,” Racha said as she looked around. Paige followed her gaze and saw both passengers and deckhands look at them.

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Jones just watched Racha and Paige climb up the crater’s wall and shook his head as he sighed. Racha was still playing hard to get! But the prophecy that showed him who his life-mate would be, she fit it to a T! It did say that he would have a trial to earn her affection and he would do anything for her!

Moments later two deckhands came down and nodded at him. He left the airlock and moved into the main chamber, looking around at the people as they moved around. He knew they had enough supplies to last a while, and that they could last months without going out into the wilderness. But it was better to get food and supplies before there was a shortage, but they needed a safer way to do it.

He didn’t know how he could show anyone the proper way, and he feared they would die. He needed to do something, anything that might let him help them! He looked up and saw Bradford heading towards one of the bathrooms. Jones went still and started to recite prayers of thanks as he smiled and moved to follow him.

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Bradford sighed and walked into the bathroom and tried to think up a plan to control this situation. The attack was the perfect way to get power, with how they were almost killed by one of the monstrosities here! But they had to have fought it off and now there were rumors that there was a miracle healer among the deckhands. He didn’t know what to do, the few conversations he had heard since then were all pro-Duncan. He was being praised for sending the first team out!

They found something, something the old coot said would help them survive! The fact that he was sending a team out to take it while making contact with other capsules! Well, the idiots just ate it up!

If that ship was taken, and they linked up with the other capsules, then he didn’t know what he could do. He had run into five other CEOs on the ship, if even one of them was on this island, and they had their muscle with them! He needed something, anything that he could use to get control.

“Mr. Bradford?” A voice behind him caused him to turn and see a man standing there.

“Yes, what does Mr. Duncan want with me now?” Bradford asked as the man looked around. Bradford had been in the business for a while, and he knew all the tells for someone to be trying to hide. That feeling he sometimes got when he was near something that would help him was starting up again.

“I’m not here for the old man sir, I wanted to talk to you about him, as one man of faith to another,” The man said as he made an upside-down pyramid with his hands.

Bradford went still before he grinned and looked at the man. “A fellow disciple, here of all places! Were there many of you among the deckhands?”

Bradford couldn’t believe his luck. He only funded the Order of The Chosen with hard materials they could sell. And only the guards and the High priest knew his patronage, like all the other cults he funded. To think that one of them was here, meant that he might have a group of people that he could use.

“Not here sir, but I wanted to talk to you about this planet. I reviewed a revelation that we were sent here by the true God,” The man said and Bradford looked at him and nodded.

“You did my boy? Please tell me more,” Bradford said and he barely kept his face calm. He might have underestimated this one. If he was a ‘true believer’ then he might be too hot for him to handle. He had barely dodged a scandal once by killing the idiot that had almost told everyone he was their backer. But there was a chance that he could use this fool until he had to kill him.

“Let me introduce myself, sir, I’m Jones, of the main Temple. I was a guard there, outer duty only,” Jones said and reached out a hand.

“Ahhh. So you were an outer guard, that explains much,” Bradford said and looked at Jones in a new light. Only the Inner members of the cult knew the truth about everything. And the fact that he was one of the Outer, made Bradford’s guess that Jones was a true believer correct. As he looked at Jones, he wondered how he could use a fanatic right now.

“This planet is mad sir Bradford, totally mad! Some foolish lesser beings must have come here and done terrible things to all these poor animals! We must find the manpower to tame them like the Inner Trainers!”Jones said with passion and Bradford winced internally.

“Wait? ‘Like the Inner Trainers’? Like them you said? And you’re an Outer Guard?” Bradford asked shocked and Jones nodded.

“Yes sir! One such as you must know the proper prayers to do so! My old captain said you were very smart and knew much sir!” Jones said and Bradford looked at Jones, trying to keep a calm look on his face.

“Makes sense,” Bradford said absently as he stroked his beard.

He knew the truth about how the so-called ‘beasts of the planets’ were tamed. And this poor diluted fool looked like he had no idea. If he ever found one of his scientists who had been on the ship with him to inspect the goods he had been looking to buy, it might be possible. But then they would need to make the right laboratory to make what they needed and where………. Bradford went still and then he grinned and looked at Jones.

“I might have a man who knows the proper chants to create the items we need. But that my friend is only if we have the resources to make them. That resource the old fool spoke about, do you know what it is? Bradford asked and Jones shook his head.

Bradford frowned and looked away, trying to think of something in line with this zealot’s beliefs to further his goals

“Sir, the danger out there while we gather supplies……… if we could figure a better way…..” Jones began and Bradford looked at him and smiled wider.

“………Then the others will follow us! Perfect my boy, perfect! Now let’s think and talk again later, for now, we plan apart!” Bradford said and Jones nodded, grinning back at him.

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Above, on the crater’s rim, Paige looked at Racha and wished that she had any kind of weapon on her. The way that Racha seemed to be sending off the sensation of a hunter was making Paige more worried than she had ever been. The thought she had about why the wolf creature had wanted her reared its head and Paige looked at Racha who took a deep breath.

“Okay, let me say this first. You can say no to my offer,” Racha said as she looked at Paige.

Paige felt her bad feeling grow, and she swallowed before she stammered out a question. “And what offer would that be?”

“I…… I want you on the mission to the resource tomorrow. You’ve got the skills that I think will be the key to our survival,” Racha said and Paige went still.

She looked at Racha and swallowed, that was all the confirmation that she needed, Racha did know! And she was offering Paige what?

“You know what I can do…..” Paige said and Racha nodded.

Racha looked Paige straight in the eye and took a deep breath. “Yeah, I partnered with someone who could hear like you once in the Service. Save our lives once or twice.”

“Wait…. ‘the Service’?! You’re!” Paige asked as she stared in horror at Racha, a thousand thoughts going through her.

The Covert Special Services were the inter-solar security division of the Federation. More stories had been written with one of them as the evil mastermind. The rumors about them, from weird technology to slave labor camps……. Paige went still as a terrible thought went through her head. If it was true, then everything made sense. And with the wolf creature, that made sense in why they wanted her, and that made her shiver in terror.

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Racha rolled her as she saw Paige’s reaction. The ‘Rumor Shield’ was at it again. She shook her head in disgust; some parts of her job were so out there! Using the real threats they had dealt with quietly as rumors about them as being behind them, it always bothered her. But it was the best way to keep secrets, throw out lies with parts of the truth changed to make people remember them.

“Don’t worry, the Service isn’t as bad as the stories make us seem. But abilities like yours could help us a lot! And with how you handled yourself when we went out…..” Racha began only for Paige to interrupt her

“Then who was hunting me?” Paige asked softly and Racha looked at her in horror.

“What,” Racha asked quietly and Paige looked at her, swallowing before speaking.

“I…….. I left my home because people were hunting me down. They wanted me dead or alive, like the wolf,” Paige said and Racha blinked.

For a moment she didn’t understand what Paige was talking about but then everything crystalized and her memories filling in the blanks.

Racha had dealt with a lot of mad scientists over the years, and the ‘Bio-Builders’ were the worst! What they would do to get rare genetic material was something that was the stuff of nightmares! And the most criminal ones were those who were after making slave races. The number of times those people had done things to the free sentiments of the Federation………

“You think these people who hunted you… They wanted to turn you into a breading whore. And you think they were from the Service!?” Racha exclaimed and as Paige nodded and took a step back Racha started to swear.

“Oh, you stupid idiots! I knew when I heard about that operation things like this would happen! Makes the public believe the worst are just rumors to keep them safe my foot! What happens to the few people who are involved in this life, you idiot!” Racha exclaimed and Paige blinked in shock.

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“What do you mean rumors!?” Paige asked and Racha sighed and looked away.

“All those rumors about things that Covert Special Services personnel are behind? The core truth of all of them is that we took down people or groups who did them. We make the rumors that we’re behind them to make sure that the public doesn’t find out that the events even happened. And those who believe always come clean when we bring those rumors up during interrogation,” Racha admitted and Paige felt from her other sense that she was telling the truth as she knew it.

“Wow,” Paige blinked in shock and Racha sighed.

“Yeah, but I was telling the truth before. You’re cool under pressure, medically trained and your abilities only add to your value. If something like that wolf comes at us, your early warning could be the difference between life and death,” Racha said bluntly and Paige looked at her and sighed.

“Give me some time to think about it, okay?” Paige said after a while.

Racha nodded and looked at Paige with relief. “You have until we get ready tomorrow. I….. the target is a crashed yard-ship. It’s an older model so we can’t know when it crashed, or who might be there. But I’ve broken into models before, so there’s that,” Racha said as she nodded at Paige and started to walk to the right.

Paige turned and walked towards the left, looking out at the star-filled sky above them. The forest seemed to be more alive, and the soft night calls of something in the distance were the only sounds that came from it. She didn’t know what to do, if she left she might have to tell the others about her ability. But if she stayed, people might die. Looking up at the sky and trying to find a constellation, she knew that there was only one thing to do.