Resonance of the Stars: Bleak Horizon

Aye...it is strong. Kyuba downed his and poured himself another. The only conceivable place i can see the children staying is here....as I have said they will not be harmed...there are doctors here not affiliated with the church...in fact the one she sent running with a wound is a Zionite from a far of planet no affiliation with the church whatsoever....I am not good with handling crazy people...believe it or not....but yes this must be dealt with and soon. You are her commanding officer and I hope she will listen to what you have to say...I know she will not listen to me...after all I am a member of a group of Savages....

Lucas nodded and took another sip.

"Alright then, enough pleasantries." He slowly took a seat and placed the drink beside him, once more interlacing his fingers.

"How soon do you think we will be moving out? We have a lot of work to do, and we're going to have to go planet by planet to show we mean business."

"I'm hoping that will work, but we can't keep them here forever. Sooner or later she will break, and we need to make sure we prevent that at all costs. I'm not a psychiatrist Kyuba, I don't have the needed experience dealing with people under extreme duress, hell, half the time I need that professional treatment myself. But as her CO, and hopefully as her friend, maybe she will listen to me. How is she? I think I should deal with this as soon as possible, I know she still wants to beat my head in but once we finish with the council we are going to be on borrowed time, so the sooner I fix this...problem...the better."

We have...time...the council will make us wait while they talk things over. Go find her...I will try and find...Zero...see if he is...ok...

Lucas nodded, took one more swig of his drink and rose.

"Alright then, I have some work I have to do. Keep me posted Kyuba."

As he walked past his XO, Lucas patted him on the shoulder and smiled.

"Good work."

He quickly walked out and made his way to the first room he assumed Michiko would be staying at.

He slowly knocked on the door and waited.

"Sophia? You in there?" He asked, once more putting his relaxed face and tone into motion. He knew these were dire times, but he did not want to scare the children by making it seem worse than it already was.

An audible yawn came from the room. "Yeah I'm in here." she said, voice still laden with sleep.

Lucas smiled.

"Could I come in? I was hoping to check on your brother."

It wasn't a lie, Lucas was still concerned for Raul's condition, however he also needed to speak with Michiko before the council got back into swing, and he needed to be quick.

"Yeah, you can come in. Raul's fine though...He's sleeping. Don't make a lot of noise. " She replied, slightly more awake.

Lucas smiled as the door opened and quietly made his way inside.

He looked over and saw Raul peacefully sleeping, and with this he slowly knelt down beside Sophia's little sleeping spot nearby.

"Hey, how're you doing?" He asked with a smile. He needed to make sure before he went any further in dealing with Michiko, the children had some idea of what needed to happen. He didn't like it, who would? But he knew this was one of the only places those children would be safe.

"They treating you ok?"

"Fine I guess." Sophia looked at the ground. "But I don't like it here. These people are scary." Her eyes met Lucas's "I can't wait to leave. They remind me of the people who tried to hurt us." She said in a pathetic tone.

Lucas nodded in understanding. Only someone who enjoyed working with the church would enjoy being in this place.

"I know Sophia...I don't like it here either."

Suddenly, an idea sparked in his mind.

"Sophia...Do you know what's been going on lately? Not just here, but across the galaxy?"

He doubted she fully understood, but he was going to give her a brief lesson, and hopefully form a plan that would benefit everyone.

"Kyuba...You said diplomats recieve special treatment on this station correct? Well, what about those in need of education...Basic survival and training skills, those kinds of things? Would those be given at all?"

"No," She looked confused. "Is something wrong with the galaxy other than those bad people who tried to hurt us?" Her eyes began to shine with curiosity and concern.

Lucas looked hopeful, almost sad and happy all at once. It killed him inside to have to potentially pull two more innocent souls into their struggle, but he knew this might be the only chance they had at protecting these children.

"Well Sophia, that's a big part of the problem actually. Those bad men? Well they're everywhere. They actually are the important people in our galaxy. They tell us what to eat, what to drink, what to watch every day on the news....Sometimes they even tell us who to fight."

He sat down beside her, now slightly below eye level, and ran a finger through her hair.

"We were lucky to find you when we did, but you and your brother aren't alone. These bad men have all kinds of little boys and girls locked away, hurting them...turning them into things they were never meant to be. You know what I mean, Sophia?" He asked, hopeful she was understanding all of what he was trying to tell her.

Sophia was horrified. "They're everywhere!?" she whimpered. "That's awful." Tears welled up. "Why doesn't somebody stop them like you did?" She abruptly latched on to Lucas's neck. It was a hug of gratitude.

Lucas gently patted her on the back, and smiled. She was slowly beginning to understand what was happening, and perhaps, even what needed to be done.

"Well you see, Sophia, there were people who did that."

Gently, Lucas pulled her away and stared into her eyes, a sad look on his face.

"Those people you saw with me? We were a team. We worked with a bunch of people, just like you and me, and our job was to stop the bad guys before they did anything else to hurt people."

Slowly, his face lit up as he began to smile and reminisce.

"And you know what? We were good at it. We'd been stopping them for months, getting close to a year as a team, but the people we worked with, they'd been at it since before you and I were even born!" He whispered, clearly attempting to shock her with his tone.

"Wow, that's a REALLY long time!" Sophia was surprised and delighted at this news. Then her face went back to a frown as she realized something.

"What happened? You said were." She said with the frankness only a child could muster. "You stopped the bad people from hurting us. Are you going to quit??"

Lucas chuckled, happy that she was so annoyed by the idea of them stopping their quest.

"No, no Sophia, far from it. But....We've hit a couple of problems along the way. That bunch of people I talked about? The ones we worked with? Well...The bad men got to them, and now we're the only ones left. We hid for two whole weeks! Can you believe that? Me and Michiko sitting in some caves out in that desert somewhere? Two weeks we sat there trying to figure out what to do next, and you know what? We had no ideas."

He smiled looking at her, almost bringing him back to the innocence he felt he had as a child. Lucas was inspired by the courage these two children had, facing insurmountable odds, surviving the cold titanic grip of the Faction, and now finding themselves here.

"We had no idea what to do, until we found someone. Two someones in fact! A strong little boy who held up to the most pain I have ever seen someone go through, and his sister-" He said as he poked her on the nose.

"-Who was so brave that she sat there with him and sang him a little song while we fixed him up. You know how people say that ideas are like a fire you need to tend to as it grows? Well this little boy and girl gave us the start to a fire like that, and we knew we needed to stop sitting around on our butts and get back to work!" He whispered out with exasperated joy.

"All kinds of little boys and girls like these two are out there every day, fighting to stay together and be strong, and we knew we needed to show them that someone was out there with them!" He told her with a smile plastered across his face.

Kyuba stalked down the hallways looking for zach. Yes...they can be taught the basics....but i doubt michi would allow it...

"Oh!" She exclaimed, happy again. "Well we wanna help too!" she told him enthusiastically.

Lucas heard the words he had been hoping to hear.

"You leave that to me, Kyuba."

"I'd been hoping you'd say that, because right now I need your help, Sophia."

His smile once again began to fade ever so slightly, as now he had to get to the heart of the matter.

"The thing is, this place? I don't like it, and I know you sure don't either, but there's a reason we're here. With all of the good guys we were working with gone, we don't have anything. We have no money, no materials, no nothing. Right now, we couldn't even afford a little candy bar, let alone fight the bad guys. But these people...They're offering us that. They can give us the money we need to start out and get back on our feet, get some more wins in the fight against the bad guys, maybe save more little boys and girls like you. These people are the only ones who have what we need, and believe in us right now."

He looked at Sophia with slight sadness in his eyes, as he knew she was starting to understand what needed to happen.

"Do you understand what I'm saying, Sophia?"

"I guess so..." The tears returned. "But I wanna go with you... I don't care if it means being around these scary people, we want to be with you and Michiko and Uncle Zach!" Tear drops splashed onto the floor. "You're not going to leave us are you!?" Sophia was getting panicked. "We can help, I promise! We can learn to do anything you ask!"

Lucas nodded and a he wiped the tear away.

"Don't worry Sophia, we're not just going to leave you. But, I do have an idea of what we can do."

He patted her on her shoulder and smiled.

"Listen, Michiko, Uncle Zach and I need to take care of something, something kinda big. Michiko's home is in a lot of trouble, and it might be related to the bad men. It's going to be really dangerous, and you could get hurt if you come with us. Plus, Raul isn't ready to be moved yet, so I've come up with another idea."

Standing up briefly, Lucas took a seat beside her and gave her a hug.

"These people, some of them may be scary, but while you and Raul are on board...Well, to them you're like a little princess. You ask them for anything, and they will do it, but there's one thing in particular that they are really good at. You know what that is?"

When Sophia shook her head, Lucas smiled again.

"Training. These people will be kind and gentle with you, and they can start to teach you some of the things you will need to know in order to help us. We're going to need to leave for a little while, a few days, some weeks, a month or two...But listen, we can and will call you and talk with you every day, so just like you can tell us how your training is going, we can tell you how we're doing in dealing with the bad men!"

Wrapping her in a gentle but strong hug, Lucas lifted Sophia up and spun around a couple of times, hearing the giggles and laughter of a girl with joy.

"And once we save Michiko's world? Well, you and Raul can come with us, and we can start building a new place to call home there. Imagine it, a big building with a bunch of boys and girls running around, a bunch of friends to keep you company, and us being there with you every day! We would stop the bad guys together, and you'd be heroes!"

He stopped spinning and looked at Sophia, much in the way a father would look to a child.

"Do you think we can do this, Sophia? Can you be brave for me, and help me save the galaxy?"

"You mean we'll have a home, and and and..." She could barely contain her excitement. "A family!?" The little girl jumped up and down. "These mean people are nothing! I bet they don't even hit as hard!" Sophia exclaimed trying sound act brave.

Lucas smiled and gave her another hug.

"I bet you're right Sophia." He said with a smile.

"There's still some time before we have to move out, but I need to take care of a few things first. I'll be back in a few minutes and we can talk and play as much as you want, ok? But first, I need to go find Michiko and talk to her, do you think you can help me find her?"

With the children taken care of, Lucas was finally able to focus on the main problem at hand: Michiko.

"Kyuba, we have one problem taken care of. The kids have agreed to stay on board the ship and be taught while we liberate Michiko's planet. Think we can sort out the details with the Council during our meeting later?"

"Ok, but how?" She cocked her head in confusion. "I haven't seen her since she left a long time ago." Sophia explained, dancing around, not understanding the gravity of the situation.

Lucas looked around the room for any sign of her presence. Since there was no nurse in the room, Lucas assumed that she had come back and was in the general vicinity, as she wouldn't have left the kids without supervision nearby.

"Hm...How about we play hide and seek? Only now there's two seekers, and we're both looking for Michiko. I bet you she's around this room somewhere, let's see if we can find her. You ready? On your mark, get set, go!"

He treated this like a simple game, but he knew something was wrong if she wasn't within viewing distance of these two. He was hoping that with two sets of eyes the hunt would be a bit easier, especially with Michiko's devotion to Sophia.

Beginning to look around the suite, Lucas would occasionally call out Michiko's name, looking behind and beneath furniture, and possibly for hidden rooms.

"Michiko, where are you?"