The Lord of the Plains

Chapter 19

  The Shield Tower was the most important building in all of Astar. There was more than one tower that held a shield in Astar, yet only one was known as the Shield Tower.

  The Shield Tower was located in the centre of Astar and was the highest point in the city. It held the only shield that could cover all of Astar by itself. The military had a large presence within certain parts of the city as well as outside. Internal Defence Force personnel, equipped with SIGPEWs and Reismal body armour were always stationed around the Shield Tower. The power stations and food and weapon storage facilities also had a large contingent of armed guards around them at all times.

  The constructs on top of the buildings in Astar that had so intrigued Aerlid, Riley now knew, were part of the power network of Astar. Astar used fuel of many different types, so that if one was cut off during an attack they could switch to another type without too much trouble. She knew much of the fuel used to power the energy weapons came from caves to the north, though the shields were primarily fuelled by the sun through the tower-top constructs.

  During that year Riley spent a lot of time with the Internal Defence Force standing outside the Shield Tower counting the clouds in the sky.

  Many of the resources used by Astar came through Coastside, a city on the coast connected to Astar by reinforced underground tunnels. There was a mine near Coastside, though many of the other resource extraction sites were flung further afield. It was the job of the submariners of Coastside to get those resources from the extraction sites safely to Coastside where they could then be taken to Astar.

  While she was counting clouds that job sounded very exciting to her, but that wasn’t one of the jobs her unit ever trained on.

  Every morning began with a run, sometimes around the city, sometimes around the park and sometimes in the military school compound. Riley did not enjoy these runs very much. Geilar wasn’t very fast, and she obeyed Aerlid’s instruction to never be faster or better than the strongest gemeng. There were other units running with them, but Geilar was in her unit so she tied her performance to his. So she had to be slower than Geilar all the time.

  At least she’d had practice with this in primary school. Still, she did not enjoy it.

  Geilar was giving her a strange look when they finished their run that day. ‘You don’t look very tired.’ he said reproachfully.

  ‘I am.’ she answered, glancing at him. He was sweating and panting. It occurred to her suddenly that she should start sweating and panting too. ‘I just hide it.’ she added.

  ‘You’re not losing on purpose, are you?’ he asked, anger entering his voice.

  ‘No.’ she replied, surprised. Before this conversation it had never occurred to her that someone might guess she wasn’t trying very hard.

  Seeing the hard look he was giving her she added, ‘I’m good at hiding it.’

  He continued observing her. She returned his gaze, bewildered.

  He sighed, ‘you’re good at hiding it?’

  ‘Yes.’ she stated simply.

  ‘Ok, how and or why are you good at it? Because you are really good at it.’

  ‘Uh…I don’t come from Astar.’ she finally said.

  ‘Really?’ he replied, mildly amazed. ‘So you learnt how to do that out there? Is it important?’

  ‘Yes.’ she said, a trifle uneasily.

  ‘Do you think that’s something we should learn? You know, hide our tiredness from the gemengs?’

  She was saved from answering by Colonel Hamnar approaching. He often chatted with the people who finished the run early while they waited for the others.

  ‘Colonel, sir,’ Geilar said eagerly, ‘do you know the gemengs learn how to hide their tiredness really well outside Astar?’

  ‘Hmm? Do they?’ he asked mildly, an eyebrow rising.

  ‘Do you think that’s something we should know? You know, for when we fight them?’

  ‘Hmm… so you’re from outside Astar.’ he said to Riley. ‘Yes, I remember. So you hide your tiredness well?’ he asked.

  Riley just nodded. She was rather wishing she could go back to running slowly behind Geilar.

  ‘So you went through the testing.’

  It wasn’t a question. Riley nodded anyway.

  ‘Do you have any difficulty moving your arm? I haven’t noticed you struggling.’

  ‘I healed well.’ She replied.

  ‘Hmm, when did you come through the testing?’

  ‘Seven years ago.’

  ‘I see, well, carry on.’

  When Riley returned home that night she practiced her panting. Clearly she needed to work on looking tired when she wasn’t if she didn’t want to arouse suspicion. She was a little vague on what she was hiding and why, but she didn’t think of that.

  When Aerlid came in he gave her a I’m-not-sure-what’s-going-on-here-and-I’m-not-sure-I-want-to-know kind of look. Gathering himself he asked, ‘what are you doing?’

  ‘Practicing looking tired.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘Do I look tired.’

  ‘…No.’ Then, ‘why?’

  ‘I did as you said and let the other gemengs beat me, but they think I lose on purpose.’

  ‘I see, well… don’t do that.’ he said firmly and waited til she nodded before continuing. ‘I think perhaps you should start running in the morning as well as the evening.’

  She thought about it for a moment before nodding. ‘All right.’

  ‘And let me know if they say anything more about it.’ Aerlid added.

  Patrolling with the Internal Order Forces wasn’t quite as bad as patrolling with the Internal Defence Force. The job of the order forces was not so much to defend important sites within Astar, but to make sure the citizens were behaving themselves. This mainly involved walking around Astar with an Order-1 loaded with a low grade charge and looking menacing when the situation required it.

  ‘I think I should have joined the air force.’ Jann grumbled as he joined the rest of his unit who were waiting for him outside the IOF station. It was a cool night, and their third in a row on duty.

  ‘Don’t tell Gasann that.’ he added quickly as Geilar looked like he was going to say something.

  ‘Wouldn’t dream of it.’ Geilar replied with a smirk. ‘Here’s your radio.’ he added, and handed Jann the rectangular device.

  ‘Is Jaff not coming tonight?’ Jann asked as he looked around.

  ‘No, it’s just us tonight.’ Leili replied. ‘They think we’re ready.’

  ‘As long as you don’t shoot any more trees.’ Geilar added with an evil grin.

  The other night while patrolling near the park, Jann had mistaken a tree for a gemeng attacking and shot it. Before they could get into an argument about the gemeng-like qualities of that particular species of tree, Riley cut them off.

  ‘We’re splitting into two groups. Geilar, Leili and you are going together around the east section.’ she said to Jann, ‘Batar and I will do the west. We’re to meet back here in two hours.’

  Jann stopped, his mouth open, then he got his mind in gear for the conversational switch. ‘Alright. Then we do north and south?’

  Riley nodded.

  The IOF split the city up into sections and each command was responsible for its own section.

  ‘TU-5 and another IOF unit are also in our section tonight, so don’t mistake them for trees…’ Geilar said, a smile in his voice.

  As Jann began a spluttering defence Riley wondered whether she should switch Jann and Geilar for tonight. She caught Leili’s eye. Leili shrugged. ‘I think they’ll be fine.’

  With that Riley turned and with a word to Batar they set out on their patrol. They would be out here for four hours tonight. It didn’t bother Riley so much because she usually spent the evening and early morning running in the park (and avoiding patrols like these). It was hard to tell with Batar whether he was tired or not, and Geilar would never let himself appear weaker than a human. Jann and Leili were getting used to it,
but next week they’d be off again and next time they were on night duty they’d have to get used to it all over again.