• Chapter 3

    Celica walked with the Captain through the doors that led to the lobby of POCC headquarters. She had been trying to explain the events of that night to him for nearly half of an hour. The enormous dome-ceilinged room was dimly, but naturally lit by the skylights that lined the cement hemisphere above them, through which silvery moonlight shone. Footsteps echoed around the walls as they walked much too quickly towards a hallway on the left.

    “It… caught on fire?” The Captain shot Celica a skeptical look as they walked through the spacious hallways, and Celica immediately felt ridiculous.

    “Well, no, sir, the fire surrounded it and-“

    “Celica, you realize that nothing can control fire that way except for Unknown, right?”

    “Yes, sir, but I-“

    “And you realize that bodachs are the servants of the Unknown, right?” The captain interrupted her quickly, sounding stern.

    “Yes, Captain, sir, but-“

    “And so you must know that there would be no possible reasoning to explain why an Unknown would attack a bodach.”

    “But I saw it, Captain! They saw it, too!” She stopped and pointed to the three Ery who had accompanied her, who had been following silently behind them. In a panic, they simply shrugged and looked at each other for the answers.

    “Well, there was definitely fire, and then the bodach dissolved,” one of them said, “But we don’t know if it was intentional, or even if it was an Unknown. It was all very mysterious.” The approached the end of the hallway where a large, glass door inhibited their journey.

    The Captain, looking satisfied, pulled out a card from a pocket in his belt and held it up to a scanner. With a loud clicking noise, the door in front of them unlocked, allowing the Captain to push it open casually and continue walking briskly.

    Feeling betrayed, Celica continued. “I know that it was intentional.” She sounded more confident than she felt.

    “Your detector would have picked up a trace.” The Captain replied through his black cloth. “It didn’t, did it?” He sounded annoyed now as he pushed his way through a steel door, and Celica and the other Ery had to rush in order not to get locked out. They were now in the Captain’s office, where the Captain sat behind a desk and leaned back.

    “Well, no, sir, but the detector was broken. If there was an Unknown, I wouldn’t be able to tell.”

    The Captain sighed and leaned forward again. “Listen, Celica. I realize that you believe in the Unknown and see the good in everyone, but the Unknown wouldn’t have helped you. Use your common sense. Remember Peter?”

    With a pang of sadness, Celica recalled her first encounter with the Terran world, as well as the traitor that had led her there. “Yes, sir.” She said softly, looking away.

    “You wouldn’t want something like that to happen again, would you?” Celica didn’t say anything, but merely shook her head limply. “Then stop putting your faith in them. They’re bad people, Celica.”

    Celica knew that it wasn’t true. There were no such things as bad people, only bad decisions. She didn’t argue, though. She didn’t trust her own voice.

    “What about the mission? Did you complete it?”

    “Yes.” She said softly, still not looking into the face of the Captain.

    “Well? Where is it?”

    Celica pulled from her pocket a round, transparent object about the size of a quarter dollar. Inscribed in it were the words “Takram Shavha Carat”

    “Ah. Thank you, Celica. This is exactly what I needed. Do you know what this says, Celica?” He asked rhetorically.

    “No, sir.”

    “It says, in Candrian, ‘Bane of the Underworld'. This will be sent directly to the lab, it may be useful later on.”

    He placed the small glass oval into a cylindrical tube, which he then laid down in a chute. It shot off instantly through the floor.

    “Now go to your cabins, we’ll send you the intel for your next mission in the morning. Get some sleep.”

    With a sinking heart, knowing that she would not get any farther with her argument, she led the Ery back through the thick steel door.