They weren’t even halfway through the hanha before Chull took out his comm.

“Oh, you’re doing it now?” Ayna asked.

“I’m calling Chima. She’ll pass the job on.”

Their group lined up the same way it had on the way into all of this, and Saketa again found herself in the middle. She enjoyed the peace for a little bit before letting herself drift behind, to join Vanaka and Losan.

“Thank you for your help,” she said. “Both of you,” she then added, despite the subtly gnawing knowledge that Losan didn’t really have a say in it. “You didn’t need to enter into battle for my sake, but you did.”

“Anything for a friend, right?” Vanaka said. She smiled, but the effects of all of this on her nerves were showing. “Not that I… have ever had to do something like this for a friend before. It’s mostly been… being a confidant, or helping with a hunt, or doing errands.”

She took in a quick breath.

“I am just trying to be a good person. That’s all.”

“You have already done so much more for the balance of energies in a few years than most do in their entire lives,” Saketa told her. “Be proud.”

Vanaka looked away and smiled bashfully, her nerves seemingly forgotten for a moment.

“Thank you,” the girl said softly.

Saketa allowed her feelings a few breaths of peace, then spoke again.

“How are you?” she asked.

“She has been through worse,” Losan said.

He turned his head, but it was his mistress that he was looking at. Saketa realised that it was a reminder.

“Yes, that raid on Gorono was worse,” Vanaka said. “More death. More human horror. And there was actual gunfire. I don’t like the sound of bones breaking, but… I can live with it.”

She did another one of those sharp breaths.

“So, you killed one?”

“He gave me no other choice,” Saketa said.

“That’s why the… um… blood?”

Vanaka pointed at the left side of Saketa’s face.

“It is an old tradition of Kalero,” Saketa told her. “Offworlders tend to take it for gleeful savagery, but it is a reminder, of what was done. An acknowledgement. It is typically followed by ritual cleansing. I will see if I can get around to it tonight.”

“Mm.”

Vanaka didn’t seem to know what to say, so she changed direction.

“But how are you? You look… well, I don’t know how you look, but it’s definitely something.”

“I have him,” Saketa said, and fixed her eyes forward. “His main hideout on this planet. I will find him there, or lie in ambush.”

“And then what?”

“I will kill him.”

She realised that her jaw had clenched at some point, but couldn’t seem to loosen it.

“There is no other remedy. He cannot be caged, any more than I can, and he is a stain. A gross imbalance. They all are.”

Vanaka touched her arm gently, and the softness of it forced Saketa to reluctantly turn her head to look at the girl again.

“Are you sure you’re up for it?” Vanaka asked with unbearable concern. “You’re… weakened, somehow. I’m not going to pretend to really understand all this, but if this guy is half as dangerous as you keep saying-”

“He brought down the Brankon by himself.” Saketa reminded her. “He is that dangerous.”

Vanaka didn’t let go of her arm, and Saketa was torn between wanting to yank it free and feeling ashamed at the impulse.

“I have to,” Saketa said, almost whispering the word. The itch she’d been trying to deny was getting more insistent, slowly creeping up into conscious awareness despite her best efforts. The itch that asked… if she did indeed prevail… if she did slay the Exile… then what?

“I have to.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Chull’s prediction proved correct. They weren’t even out of the Tanga before several small police shuttles buzzed through the air and came to a stop above the place they’d just raided. They were too far away to see what came next, but Saketa didn’t need to. It wasn’t long before they heard the whine of land vehicles hurrying to the scene as well. The situation was surely in hand.

They exited the hanha, and since pursuit seemed out of the question by now the others started to relax. Chull slowed his pace a bit, which brought the two halves of the group closer together. He twirled his combat staff, and turned enough to be able to look at them.

“This was a good use of a couple of hours,” he said, looking victorious and happy. “And since I am amazing I am not too proud to acknowledge that this happened because of you folks.”

Ayna laughed.

“Yes, all very invigorating,” she said. “To… watch it all play out from a safe perch.”

Now Vanaka laughed, and Fredrak showed a controlled grin.

“Well, I felt a lot better in there with someone keeping an eye on things,” the Vylak said, and the Dwyyk gave her an appreciative look.

“Having a lookout at your back is valuable,” Losan said. “Don’t discount it.”

“Aww, you two are just the sweetest strangers,” Ayna replied with yet more of her theatricality.

“But staying on my point…” Chull said. “I am thankful. Clearly we weren’t paying close enough attention to that place. Tonight we averted a potential disaster, and my neighbourhood is safer than it was yesterday.”

Saketa nodded curtly.

“That is a good thing,” she said, for the sake of being present.

They continued on back the way they’d originally come, and as they neared the Tanga Fredrak let himself drift behind until Saketa realised he wanted to talk to her.

“Yes?” she asked at low volume.

“I assume you know what I want. I have a mission to complete.”

“I’ll complete it,” Saketa said. “Do not worry.”

“Oh, I do worry,” Fredrak replied. “I worry about such a dangerous factor running around out of sight, and only a single person doing something about it.”

“I have the training to handle this particular problem,” she insisted.

“And I have a duty to see it fixed. To be able to confirm it.”

She didn’t answer right away, what with lacking a good response. Fredrak let the silence hang for a bit before continuing.

“Many people assume that my line of work is all about spying equipment and long-term observations. Many others assume it is all about secretive officials making careful moves on a gameboard, in some far-away undisclosed room. Both sides have a point, but on the level I operate direct interpersonal relationships are vital. And so far we’ve been helping each other out.”

Saketa was forced to turn to face him.

“You have been useful, yes,” she admitted reluctantly.

“So… share, then,” he said. “You say you have the information we need. Let’s hear it.”

“I do not think you understand what kind of fight this is,” she replied stiffly, even as she felt uncomfortable at the evasion.

“Then enlighten me, please,” Fredrak said in a very deliberately pleasant fashion. “I freely admit that my people are tragically under-informed about the Kalero Wardens and the other strange things to be found out on the Fringe.”

“I doubt the wisdom of changing that, if I am to be blunt with you,” she said. “From what I have seen of the Federation you are such a young society.”

“We are over three hundred years old.”

“Exactly. And you are so very big, and yet wish to do everything so very quickly. You think in terms of immediate, external solutions, rather than allowing yourselves to grow on the inside, and letting that shape the universe around you. I worry that if given hints as to the nature of power it would be summed up in some file and entered into your gigantic mess of a leadership. And someone somewhere would attempt to start a project to churn out elite operatives in the shortest time possible.”

She thought of home, and of the history lessons that permeated the culture of Kalero.

“It is a recipe for disaster. Disaster that will echo for a very, very long time.”

He didn’t lose his pleasant demeanour.

“That is all very grim,” he simply said.

“That is reality.”

“The reality is that I think we are drifting away from the topic. Do please share with me what you’ve learned. If nothing else, you’ll benefit from having someone to watch your back.”

She felt caught, because however she might feel about it all she couldn’t actually refute his core point. She was saved for the moment as a chime could be heard up ahead.

Chull reached into his tunic and answered his comm. He smiled and chatted in the native tongue, and Saketa took it to be news of the plasma/Purist/police situation. The man turned to face the group again and she thought he might say something to them.

Then, like a switch being flipped, his face shifted. A noise, a bang of some sort, carried to their group. It came from the direction of the Tanga.

Chull turned with a hissed word on his tongue and broke into a run. Saketa followed him, and from the sound of it so did everyone else.

This was bad. It wasn’t a mere suspicion or likelihood. She felt it in her being.

They had to make a left turn, then a right turn, then a left turn again. Chull had chosen a route that would keep them out of public sight, and that meant weaving past houses and walls. It was intensely frustrating. Saketa thought of trying to Shift, but she had neither the balance nor knowledge of the area to rush into one. That was even more frustrating.

The next wall was shorter than the others, about half again a person’s height, and Chull ran straight at it. He nimbly leapt up and vaulted over the top without breaking momentum, and Saketa followed. She landed running in a long row of small gardens before a length of row houses.

His lead on her lengthened a bit. Desperate emotion was potent fuel, and by the time Saketa could glimpse the Tanga compound up ahead it was clear that he would beat her to it by several seconds.

Saketa tried. She really tried to catch up, through sheer physical power. She tried to find focus for a Shift, but didn’t dare stop the sprint; a failure would mean precious seconds wasted for no benefit. So she just ran, and felt failure build up as they neared an unfolding disaster. It was all so, so horribly familiar.

Chull vaulted over the opposite side of the wall, and soon after Saketa followed him again. She was now nearly to the wall that surrounded the Tanga, and could see most of the building rising above it. There was no visible damage, but lights were flickering.

Her lungs and muscles hurt by the time she went through the gate. Chull slowed down just enough to be certain that the three Tanga warriors lying in pools of blood were indeed dead, and still beat her to the front door.