Chariots of Heaven

Kira had been running for hours, traversing the thick and unforgiving jungle as quickly as she could, but even the armor didn’t save her from exhaustion and she found herself needing to stop. According to the map she had run nearly seventy-five miles, but this didn’t make her feel better. At this rate it would take the better part of a week to make it to the nearest outpost, and even so, would she have enough time to save Kaya? Her sister was resilient, but would she be able to withstand torture?

  Kira’s thoughts were interrupted when her stomach growled with hunger. She realized that she hadn’t eaten since the sweet roll Thanatos had brought to her room. Remembering what Velion said about the holodisk she pulled it out and pointed it towards a section of the tree she was sitting on. Kira pressed the symbol for ‘rations’ and the device came to life, shooting the tree trunk with a strange sort of laser. After a few seconds the laser shut off, revealing that the section of the tree had been converted into a sort of organic nutrient bar.

  Picking it up, she sniffed it. It smelled a little like stinky feet, but appeared edible enough. Biting into it, she discovered that Velion hadn’t lied about the bad taste, but she was so hungry she didn’t care. Shoving the entire thing in her mouth she chewed in tranquility, wondering if she should find a place to take a nap. Before she could decide, a strange noise started coming from her left. At first it was a low humming noise, but as time passed it grew into a loud roar.

  Recognizing the sound, Kira realized that it was a ship, and from the sound of it, it was circling the area around her. Realizing that the tree canopy would prevent anyone from being able to see her, she decided to knock down a few of the trees. Gulping down the disgusting nutrient bar, Kira started to amass energy. One after another she proceeded to blast the trees around her, opening a wide hole in the canopy as they crashed to the ground. As suspected, there was a ship circling the area and once the trees were down the person flying it seemed to notice her presence.

  The ship moved over top of her, and hovered for a few moments until it lowered a small platform held by four long cables. Stepping onto the platform once it reached the ground, Kira grabbed on to the cables and waited for it to lift. As it started to move upwards towards the ship she prepared herself for a fight as she was unsure of who was piloting the ship. Several seconds later the platform was pulled up inside the cargo hold, and to Kira's surprise she found Thanatos standing by the platform’s control console.

  “How did you find me?” she called out as the cargo hold floor closed below her.

  “Aithos tracked your holodisk here. What the hell are you doing way out here? How did you even get so far away from the palace?” He demanded, looking concerned.

  “I don’t know that you’d believe me if I told you. A lot has happened since I saw you last. You said Aithos tracked me. Is he on the ship?”

  “Yes, he’s piloting it, but you didn’t answer my questions,” Thanatos reprimanded, but Kira ignored him as she made her way towards the bridge.

  As she entered the bridge, Aithos turned to her and said, “Oh thank heavens you’re okay. After I was knocked out back on Earth I thought for certain the worst had happened.”

  “You were knocked out? That lunatic!” Kira shook her head trying to understand why Aeria had done this.

  “Who are you talking about? What happened to you?” Aithos asked. Thanatos nodded and gave Kira an urgent look, also wanting the same answers.

  “Aeria. She followed us to Earth and was spying on us when we met with my family. She seems to think that we are part of the rebellion and that we were having a secret meeting, or something,” Kira fumed.

  “Well that explains why she sent me to take Aithos into custody. She must have thought you were a traitor,” Thanatos concluded, giving Aithos a worried look. “How did you end up with her anyways?”

  “She showed up at the transport building; said that Aithos had something to do on Earth, so she was supposed to bring us back to the palace for him. I told her to take us to Velion but instead she made us get in a ship with her. I knew there was something wrong, but I didn’t listen to my instincts!” Kira paused, shaking her head.

  “What happened after that?” Aithos looked alarmed.

  “That’s when she flipped out on us. She said something about a note and then started calling me a traitor and asking what the rebellion was planning. I tried to tell her that we weren’t traitors, but before she would let me explain she attacked me and tried to kill me. She locked me in the cargo bay and set it to decompress while I was in it,” Kira finished. Aithos and Thanatos looked to each other in disbelief.

  “But you are alive. How did you survive the decompression?” Aithos marveled.

  “I don’t know, I just used the armor like Thanatos trained me to do but that doesn’t matter. The important thing is that Aeria still has Kaya! And she is taking her to Draco!” she shouted, growing weary from all their questions.

  Aithos’s eyes widened in surprise as he listened to Kira. Thanatos shook his head and said, “We need to take this back to Velion right away. He needs to know what Aeria’s done and he needs to know about the information you discovered on Earth. Don’t worry about your sister; she will be okay. We’ll go get her after we talk to Velion.”

  “No! You don’t understand, Aeria won’t listen. She’s convinced that we are traitors and she’s taking Kaya to Draco to torture her for information. There is no way to know what she will do if she finds out I survived,” Kira objected.

  “Aithos, get us back to Ishkur. Kira, just try to remain calm, we are going to take care of this.”

  Kira wanted to protest more, but she knew it would do no good. Sitting down in one of the co-pilot seats she folded her arms and shook her head. Kaya, just hold on, I’m coming for you!