Scene 32: Reluctant Return

Aaron opens his eyes.

Desdine stares down at him from the bedside.  The ceremonial optical sensors disquiet Aaron as he has the irrational sensation of feeling all the scans that are coming from everywhere on Desdine.

DESDINE:  Master... I'm grateful that you're not dead.

Valory starts from her chair in the corner
of the infirmary and rushes to Aaron's side.
She rests a hand on his arm.

VALORY:  I'll let them know.

AARON:  Wait...

She's already gone.

AARON:  What happened?

Valory leans out from the end of the hall
to the common area where she finds
Erimentha sitting alone at the table.

VALORY:  Hey.  He's awake.

Erimentha glances in the direction of the
cockpit and ventures after Valory.
Though hard to hear, the others
are clearly arguing.

Erimentha comes to Aaron.

ERIMENTHA:  How are you feeling?

AARON:  I think I missed out on something.

ERIMENTHA:  You gave us a fighting chance.

You got him.  Rune did, too.  I don't think

we're finished with him, though.

AARON:  Who was he?

Erimentha glances at Valory.

ERIMENTHA:  I don't know.

AARON:  A guess?  Anything?

ERIMENTHA:  I expected to find Samael on that ship.

And only him.  The Masters told me nothing

about a protégé, formidable or otherwise.

AARON:  Are you going to report back to them, then?

ERIMENTHA:  There is no provision for it.  

I would be forced to leave Janriel.  And I am

afraid of losing my assignment to someone else.

She has trouble keeping eye contact 

with Aaron over this last part.

AARON:  Erimentha… just how long have

you been a Chosen?

She looks over at Valory who clears her throat.

VALORY:  Come on, Desdine.  You sound like

your gears are still locking up a little.

DESDINE:  My diagnostics detect no such issue.

VALORY:  We'll check those, too.  Come on.

They are left alone.

ERIMENTHA:  I have received training as a Touched 

since I was a small child to become physically ready

for being a Chosen.  I was Chosen six months ago

and received further training since being imbued.

I was tracking Samael on my own for two months,

including, the two weeks of which I was incarcerated

with the mercenaries whom you recovered me from.

So, to the heart of your question, I must admit that my

abilities have been largely academic exercises up to this point.

AARON:  Well... you're doing a great job, then.

ERIMENTHA:  Thank you.

AARON:  Why did the Masters send you alone?

ERIMETHA:  I don't know.

AARON:  Did you ask?

ERIMENTHA:  A Chosen is dangerous, Mr... Aaron.

But expected to be far more of a danger to the wider 

untouched galaxy.  But... hardly deserving

of the attention of the Masters.  Only...

AARON:  Yeah?

ERIMENTHA:  If Zayd-Neil is any indication, I'm beginning

to have doubts Samael is a Chosen?

AARON:  Really?

He starts to sit up.

ERIMENTHA:  No, no.  Rest.

AARON:  Well... what does that mean?

ERIMENTHA:  At first, I thought the need for my mission

to be a clandestine operation was a natural extension

of the private functioning of the Order.  But I now

judge this a significant enough threat to have

come in force to Janriel.  But I was expressly

discouraged from seeking such support.

AARON:  Perhaps they made a mistake.

Erimentha winces and
squirms in place.

AARON:  You should report your findings.

We're all lucky to be alive.

ERIMENTHA:  I cannot describe to you how uncomfortable

this whole conversation makes me.  I have never doubted

the Master's wisdom.  There must be something that they

expect of me.  What, I am not certain.  Something I 

forgot that they told me.  It must be.

AARON:  The simpler explanation is that they didn't

have all the possible information to give you.

You're a scout, right?  Well, aren't you?

ERIMENTHA:  In a manner of speaking.  Samael's 

presence closes their eyes and ears to Janriel.

AARON:  If you are concerned with being a good

soldier you will have to adapt.

She smiles at him.

ERIMENTHA:  Where do you find your faith?

AARON:  What do you mean?

ERIMENTHA:  The Masters teach that the galaxy

is faithless outside the Order.  That all the old

religions died and faith went with them though 

some people thought they could keep it.

We suffered terribly today and yet

faith stays with you.

AARON:  Well I suppose it would be easier

when you see your masters doing miracles.

ERIMENTHA:  But they are careful to teach no certainty 

against evil.  That vigilance is required of each of us.

AARON:  What are you saying?  You think the 

turned blood is stronger?

She sits down at his bedside.

ERIMENTHA:  The Master's blood is called Neumaferous.

Turned blood is called Lethchor, to conceal.  The purpose 

of Lethchor is to make my senses dumb to it as if I were

one of the untouched unfamiliar with Neumaferous.

I cannot negotiate with the power of Lethchor.

It's momentum is unyielding.  I have little

answer to it other than simple barriers.

It is never a question of power.

AARON:  If you say so.

ERIMENTHA:  Neither can be commanded.  Or so the

Masters taught us.  But once, while we were on the ship, 

I touched the black blood with my mind.  I do not care to 

repeat the experience.  From that I am even more confused

how Zayd-Neil accomplishes what he does.  He would almost 

have to be stronger.  But that is not supposed to come into play 

with Neumaferous.  I do not understand anymore.

AARON:  Did you know Samael growing up?

ERIMENTHA:  No.

AARON:  Then perhaps he comes from outside the Order.

If the Masters are a bloodline, who says all the

Masters' extended family stayed together?

ERIMENTHA:  The Masters always go to great lengths to recover 

their own.  Prestmoors were called, occasionally.  And Samael would 

not need to make Lethchor.  He wouldn't need to harvest from the Chosen.

AARON:  What if it's his?

ERIMENTHA:  A Master making Lethchor from their own blood?

That is no different than stealing from the Order.

AARON:  But, tactically sound.  As you said, the Order

goes to great lengths to recover their own.

They must think very highly of you.

She appears to blush.

ERIMENTHA:  You managed to avoid my question, Mr. Miles.

I asked where your faith stemmed from.  And I am beginning

to comprehend that you are fixed in placing all your hopes

on me.  In this short time, why have you been so keen

on taking my side when you knew so little?

AARON:  When I nearly died, I saw you.  And there was

never a more beautiful, welcome sight.

ERIMENTHA:  Surely, you don't mean to say you

would be willing to die over appearances?

AARON:  I'm not so hopeless.  I think it's pretty simple.

You said how turned blood is created.  At least, 

it's supposed to be harvested from someone else.

Well if the Neumaferous blood is any indication

of the soul... I've never felt more strongly as if I

was standing on the right side of things.

She smiles while facing down.

ERIMENTHA:  You voiced my worst fears when you 

suggested the Masters could have made a mistake.

AARON:  Hey, I'm not sure how you're taking that-

ERIMENTHA:  But you have helped me see that in being

faithful I cannot judge myself too harshly.  I was chosen.

I am Chosen.  To doubt myself is to doubt them and 

there is no telling where that might lead.

Please... rest awhile.  I need to go 

speak with the others.

In the cockpit, Rune, Tulia, Ross and
Nicodemus argue over their course.

Valory looks to Erimentha with
concern as she lingers at the door.

RUNE:  I say we skip the blockade like we were 

originally going to do.  They can't really have 

everywhere covered.  It's just that no one
else has a ship that can anymore.

NICODEMUS:  And what are you going to do when

they get glued to you with a precision jump?

Short-range cruisers are excellent coverage.

RUNE:  So there would be no way for

this ship to get in to begin with.

NICODEMUS:  Simple.  They're not set up

for keeping people out.

ROSS:  We have someone to vouch for us.

NICODEMUS:  No way we're flying up to the 

blockade's doorstep.  They've taken to 

shooting on sight nowadays.

TULIA:  I have to agree with Nicodemus.  

No one's been answering her calls.  

Is there any chance she's rogue, too?

ERIMENTHA:  If I lied to you about going to them

I'd get myself killed too.  But I don't want to go back.

TULIA:  Why not?

ERIMENTHA:  We weren't pursued.  A couple of you

wounded Zayd-Neil, but we hardly did any harm

to his ship.  Why didn't he come after us?

NICODEMUS:  Put him on his backfoot, he needed to 

lick his wounds.  What difference does it make?

It was a fight we had no business having.

ERIMENTHA:  Agreed.

RUNE:  Agreed?  Just like that?

ERIMENTHA:  I have been rash in my duty.

I now understand the need for caution.

Tulia appears to be looking in the distance.

TULIA:  Samael.

RUNE:  What?

TULIA:  I think Zayd-Neil is afraid 

of a confrontation with him.

ERIMENTHA:  He called Samael his master.

TULIA:  He also said that creating Zayd-Neil was 

an act of rebellion to them.  Perhaps he has 

rebelled against his new master in turn.

NICODEMUS:  And where did you get this new great 

insight that has no basis in evidence?

Tulia stays fixed on Sweets' eyes.

TULIA:  There's circumstantial evidence.  Nobody knew anything 

about Zayd-Neil in coming here.  Samael's whereabouts are 

supposedly a mystery to him.  They're both hiding.  

Perhaps it's from each other.

NICODEMUS:  All this speculation isn't going to get us anywhere.

RUNE:  Can you think of anything else we got?

ERIMENTHA:  I think it's about time you explain why

you want to talk to the Order so badly.

NICODEMUS:  We don't need to get into that.

ERIMENTHA:  Tell them what you told me.

Nicodemus hesitates.

NICODEMUS:  The Prestmoors are moving, gathering again.

Sometimes it's just small meetings.

ERIMENTHA:  (matter of fact) But that's already forbidden.  

The Prestmoors are too dangerous to allow any chance to organize.

NICODEMUS:  Everyone's dissatisfied with their new lot

in life: hired guns, security consultants, whatever work they 

can find hasn't been too peaceful.  For most of them,

no families and no encompassing love for profit.

TULIA:  Present company excepted.

NICODEMUS:  Well the Empire's expansion was pretty well

over with by the time I was raised up.  Pretty much just

maintenance operations from then on.  

ROSS:  Suppressing public unrest.

NICODEMUS:  In any case, the Prestmoors want reinstatement.

And I don't think they care how they get it.  Right now they're

just shopping for a legitimizing body.  Some argue for

taking back up the name of the old Empire.

ERIMENTHA:  Your last orders were to make a peaceful life.

NICODEMUS:  Well I'd say you forgot to breed that into us.

And since the Order did create us, your superiors should have

known that you left the means for peace rather open-ended there.

We were made to follow orders, fundamentally.  And Prestmoors

don't improvise well without some basic plan to work within.

VALORY:  You did well on Orelius.

NICODEMUS:  I didn't have to do very much, little one.

And I didn't much like doing so little either.  It's galling to see

hard-won worlds withdraw from the Republic rather than fight

the encroachment from our neighbors.  This blockade might be

dangerous to us, but in the grand scheme it's nothing more than

an extended bluff to show some might.  The current poor state

of the Republic is a matter of honor to the Prestmoors.  

My people intend to rise up again.  

RUNE:  And you're trying to stop them?

TULIA:  Do you think the Order can do it?

NICODEMUS:  I know they can.  We need new orders.

And as our chosen representative said,

my last orders were to make peace.

I intend to follow those orders.

VALORY:  So where does that leave us?

ROSS:  Trapped right in the middle 

of an immense power struggle.

ERIMENTHA:  There is no greater power than the Order.  

The Masters will see us all through.  I will not abandon 

any of you to the forces at work in Janriel.

TULIA:  We still have no idea 

what our next move should be.

Static starts coming over the radio.

VALORY:  Is anyone going to get that?

RUNE:  What's to get?

NOAH:  Shadow's Heart... are you receiving?

Rune scrambles for the radio mic.

RUNE:  Blockade control, we have been trying

to reach you.  Where have you been?

Pleases acknowledge.

NOAH:  (static) I'm not Republic.  Unfortunately, you won't 

be hearing from them, but I know they heard you.

TULIA:  This is Shadow's Heart.  What are you talking about?

NOAH:  I have a message for Aaron Miles.

TULIA:  He's indisposed at the moment.

NOAH:  I'll only deliver to him... and only

in person.  I can't stay on this frequency.

I'm sending you a rendezvous.

RUNE:  We're not leaving Janriel, are we?

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