"Greetings Kietnan."
"Greetings Milleck. I'm here to order two of whatever breakfast you have this morning."
"You haven't gotten prepared food since we arrived at
camp." Milleck noted.
"I wanted something different and am in no mood to prepare anything myself. And while I'm here, I'll pick up that dried meat if you have it ready."
"I delivered that to your tent last night, did the girl not tell you?"
"No, she didn't mention it." He said, surprised. "But we didn't speak much after I returned, she was tired and..." his stance changed as he looked at the older woman. "Milleck."
"Yes?"
"What exactly did you say to her last night?" He looked down at her, already feeling frustration building within him.
"Nothing that didn't need to be clear to her."
"And what exactly was that?" He asked, crossing his arms across his chest.
"It's easy to see the two of you are getting along exceptionally well. I simply made sure she knew that if she cared about your well being at all, she wouldn't allow herself to get too comfortable with you."
"Milleck..." he groaned in frustration.
"You know I'm right, Kietnan. The people won't approve of your friendship, let alone anything more."
"Nothings happ- " he stopped and drew in a breath, calming himself. "Forget breakfast." He turned to leave.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to clarify some things." He said angrily as he walked out the door and down the path.
"Kietnan!"
"Shima..." Kietnan whispered in shock at the sound of Ashima's loud cry. His body kicked into gear, and he sprinted towards his dwelling.
"Ki! ... Kietnan!"
"Shima!" He yelled. Panic ran through him when he heard nothing in response.
The gravel kicked up into the air as his feet pressed hard as he ran. He finally turned the corner and made the sprint towards his tent. He growled when he saw guards from the homeland standing leisurely outside of it. They turned and stood at attention as they saw him coming.
"The General is waiting inside for you."
He burst through his door, not bothering to close it.
"Where is she!" He demanded as he looked around the tent.
"Kietnan, my boy. It is so good to see you."
"Where is Shima!" He yelled.
"The intruder? It is on its way to the homeland, of course."
Kietnan roared and turned to run out of his tent and search for her but the guards blocked him.
"Move." He commanded through gritted teeth.
"I have questions for you, my boy." the general said from behind him. "Come and sit with me."
"Do not call me that, uncle." Kietnan growled, not turning to face him. He tried to push past the guards, and a fight ensued.
"Kietnan knocked the mail guard out with one swift elbow to the temple before the female guard held a knife to his throat.
"Kietnan, I will not ask nicely again. Come. Sit."
"I will sit and talk when Shima is returned to my tent. How dare you come grab her and haul her off without speaking to me first."
"So defensive over an alien? What has she done to you?"
"She has done nothing. She is innocent and harmless, she must be released." He took a small step forward but the guard pressed the knife to his skin, drawing blood, her face hard as stone.
"Kietnan, I believe you know Captain Tarusch." His uncle said as if she wasn't threatening to cut his throat.
"Yes." He growled.
"Good, so you know you shouldn't push your luck with her."
Kietnan did, in fact, know this. It was the only reason he hadn't tried to remove himself from her blade. He knew from experience that she was one of the few people that could best him in a fight. Easily, in fact. And she would have no qualms over shedding his blood if given the order.
~~~~~
"You should be thanking me, brother. Our uncle wanted to keep questioning you, if I hadn't intervened."
Kietnan ignored Kahal. "The longer we stand here talking, the further from us and closer to the homeland she gets." Kietnan paced in his brother's tent.
"Take advantage of them releasing you early, eat and get some rest."
Kietnan scoffed, "yes, release me into your custody so you can watch over me. With guards posted outside your door to follow me anywhere I go.
"Brother." Kahal said sternly. "Tomorrow we will complete the final trial and-"
"Tomorrow?! I will not stay here and do silly trials while she is alone, and scared, and potentially headed to her execution!
"Kietnan." Kahal commanded this time. "Sit down."
He sighed angrily but did as he was told.
"If you leave and abandon the trials, you will not only bring shame to yourself and to our family, but you will certainly be in no position to help Ashima."
Kietnan huffed, placing his head in his hands. "She is not like our females, Kahal. She has all of these strong emotions. I am the only one who understands this, the only friend she has."
"You know I am right." Kahal sat beside his brother, clasping his shoulder. "We will complete the final trial tomorrow and then we will head back to the capital. Together."
~~~~~
WARNING: This next section has moments of violence. You can skip this section if that is difficult for you.
~~~~~
"Why are you here?"
Ashima groaned and rolled her eyes. "I have answered this many times already."
"Answer it again. But with the truth this time."
"I have been telling the truth! There is nothing left for me to say!"
"Such an emotional species." The man shook his head.
"Now. If what you say is true, why was your spaceship so close to our planet? You had nowhere else to crash land?"
"Again..." Ashima drew in a deep breath before exhaling slowly, calming herself. They had traveled for hours, well into dark, before setting up camp for the night. The interrogation ensued almost immediately and she was no longer sure of how long they'd been at it. Her wrists were bound together, with an attached rope tied to a tree branch above her. She was exhausted.
"We were supposed to travel from Aeruli to Pazure. Something went wrong. Many of our gauges were malfunctioning, including navigation, but we didn't realize it until it was too late. Something within the ship burst and there was an explosion, which led to another explosion, and then another." She closed her eyes, a tear running down her cheek. "Please, I do not wish to talk about this again and again."
"Continue."
"No." She said angrily.
The man smacked her hard across the face and she gasped for air as it knocked the wind out of her lungs. Before she could even catch her breath properly, he again commanded. "Continue."
She whimpered, but sucked in a deep breath and ignored her pain. She already had many bruises and in some ways she was beginning to feel numb. Inside and out.
"I don't kn... I don't know how many... how many of us." She tried to calm her breathing to continue, so she wouldn't be hit again. "I don't know how many of us were close enough to escape pods to make it out on time. I was only in my pod a few minutes before the blast sent it barreling further into space, far from the exploding ship. There were.... " she whimpered as tears fell again. "There were 200 people on board. Many were my close friends. Please... no more, please."
"Why did your pod come to Domu?"
"Please, just let me rest!"
He punched her in the gut before pulling her hair roughly. "We are finished when I say." He released her and she was confident his hand had kept some of her hair.
She grit her teeth and angrily spoke her next words. "Our pods are programmed to find the closest planet or station and travel that direction, unless manually overridden. There was nothing else within time before I would run out of oxygen so I let the pod continue its course to this planet."
She felt herself losing consciousness. She was just so tired. If she could just sleep...Her eyes sprang open as his foot slammed into her knee cap. She wasn't entirely sure if it wasn't broken. She looked up into the sky as she drew in rough breaths. Dawn was beginning its ascent.
She looked up into his eyes and stared a long moment before she pulled a sliver of resolve and courage together before addressing him. "You are a poor representation of your people."
The back of his hand connected with her face.
~~~~
Ashima woke up with a start. Her heart pounded loudly and she gasped for breath. She looked around frantically and gasped for air as she took in her surroundings. She was back inside of the enclosed wagon they had been traveling in since she was taken from Kietnan's tent. Two... three.. or was it four days ago? Her mind was too fuzzy. She was taunted and poked by the men and women as they traveled in the wagons during the day, preventing her from getting restful sleep, only to be interrogated and tortured throughout the night.
"Here." Ashima jumped at the voice beside her. "Calm, calm." The voice spoke softly. "Here."
She grabbed the cup and drank greedily. They had only been giving her the bare minimum to live. A small cup of water twice a day and one serving of bread in the evenings before her interrogations would resume.
She immediately spit the liquid out when she tasted something bitter.
"Hey, do you know how hard I had to fight to be able to give you this?!" The woman whispered angrily before taking the mug away from Ashima.
"Wh... what is it?" Ashima eyed her suspiciously.
"It is a tonic that helps with pain and promotes healing." The woman spoke softly, seemingly offended at Ashima's behavior.
"I'm sorry. Thank you." Ashima quickly apologized. "I appreciate you giving it to me. It's just that some foods that are fine for Qarthans are poisonous to me. I thought it would be water and drank it without inspecting it. I'm sorry. Thank you for the drink." She hoped the woman could sense her sincerity.
She simply eyed Ashima curiously.
"Well..." Ashima hesitated. "I don't seem to be having a reaction to it." She timidly reached out her bound hands toward the woman, who slowly placed the jar back in them. She slowly drank down the liquid until it was empty.
"We will be near Aktur soon. Perhaps an hour." The woman stated.
"Is that the homeland?" Her nerves spiked.
"No." The woman shook her head. "It is a town on the border." She glanced around the windows to the cabin before leaning closer and whispering. "From there we will change transportation and should arrive in the homeland by midnight."
"Oh." Was all Ashima could say. She would usually have many questions but not now. She knew she should take advantage of this opportunity, of this woman's kindness and willingness to speak to her. But she was too beaten, too defeated, simply just too tired.
"Sleep." The woman whispered. "The tonic will help."
But Ashima didn't hear her, she was already asleep as the tonic worked within her system.