After the two had finished their drinks, Stefan was ready to walk Anwen to her room, when suddenly a vibration came from the satchel the girl hung over her shoulder. She pulled out the communicator, holding it in her palm before spreading her hands to hold the device in its full form. She felt her stomach drop as she read the words printed on the screen.
“Jay’s calling me back to the officer’s mess.” she told Stefan, her gaze locked onto her communicator.
“Well? Let’s get going, then.” Stefan stood up from his seat.
“What? Why are you coming?” Anwen asked, puzzled.
“I’m not leaving you alone,” Stefan said. “We both know why you’re needed.”
Anwen frowned as she accepted the boy’s intention. Despite the mounting uncertainty of the entire situation, she felt somewhat at ease as she and Stefan jogged back to the officer’s mess. The sun was almost completely below the horizon at this point, and chills from the frigid desert air only added to the discomfort both teenagers faced.
Once in the mess, Jay himself was at the front door as he led them to a storage room that the Black Shield had converted into an office.
“I was hoping on calling you down both individually, but this saves a lot of effort,” he said as he sat on a derelict swivel chair behind a hovering desk, with stacks of handwritten notes littering it. The room was rather empty other than those two furnishings. “You’ll have to stand for now. I apologize.”
“So… this last resort—
“Just one moment, Anwen,” Jay interrupted. “Let me bring in your third associate. You both know why you’re here, but I’m not sending you two out by yourselves.”
A moment later, a jaded looking man entered, his light armor completely covering his body except for his head.
“Ivan?” Stefan exclaimed. “You too?”
Ivan merely shrugged as he leaned against a wall. It was evident that he had quickly set aside training to be present.
“You won’t be able to go where you’re going without him,” Jay answered. “You two are crucial, but you will need an adult’s guidance. That’s why he’s here.”
“An adult? He’s only four years older than us!”
“Say that again when I save your asses for the hundredth time.” Ivan grumbled.
“And where would we be going?” Anwen asked.
The look on Jay’s face became grim.
“The Shimajima.” Jay confirmed. Stefan’s jaw fell, while Anwen’s pupils widened in astonishment. Ivan simply shook his head.
“You mean… the only land in the whole world besides Yeupis?” Stefan’s eyes narrowed.
“Tell us what we need to get there!” Anwen took a step forward, her gaze set in steely determination, contrasting Ivan’s exhausted indifference and Stefan’s worry.
“This is why I like ya, Anwen,” a soft smile appeared on Jay’s lips. “You ain’t never said no to a challenge. That’s partly why I chose you for this assignment. But all three of ya got something the other don’t. Now listen very, very carefully.”
Jay began to divulge the plan to the trio, presenting a map on his desk. They would have to travel through the extensive underground tunnel system to the Marius Mountains, to an unused pass about a day’s walk east of Marius. This portion of the journey would take 10 days and would ensure that they reached south Yeupis without detection. After crossing the pass, in a small clearing, a craft would await them. Instead of a design that allowed it to cut through the air, it was made to just barely hover above the ground. This Craft apparently was called a car.
“It won’t be the same Craft you’re used to flying, Anwen. It’s a lot blockier looking than the Titanian’s, too. Southerners can only drive the blocky ones while the Titanians drive the sleek, smooth ones that look like they can slice right through air.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“So I can drive through the south with no problem. But what about those two?” Anwen noted the two young northern men.
“Please, let me finish. Yes, for a portion of the journey, you will have to play the part of a southerner. Not that you ain’t one, but ya really gotta put on the act. The clothing, the accent… should be easy. But importantly, you’re gonna need a temporary identity.”
“Like a fake name?”
“You’ll be known as Amara, an assistant to one Lord Astor. If their police ever come to you, you stay cool and show them the documentation that you’ll find inside the car and Astor will take care of the formalities. And before you ask, Lord Astor is a real person—an old acquaintance of the Anbieter’s, but he does not want to get involved in our matters. Don’t give him a reason to.”
“As in, don’t reveal our true identities.” Anwen surmised.
“Essentially.” Jay nodded.
“Easy… for most of us.” Ivan said while glaring at Stefan. In response Stefan frowned in embarrassment, clearly being reminded of his actions during the Battle of Depot-011.
“And that brings me to you two,” Jay turned to the young men. “You will play the role of slaves assigned to help Amara in her miscellaneous tasks for Astor. I don’t want to remind you of how you should be behaving. Don’t go acting on your own, and please, please, listen to Anwen. No matter how strong or smart you are, Anwen is the most level-headed of you three. And not to mention she is quite literally the only one who can speak to a Titanian on your behalf. If it does come to that,”
The trio each nodded in acknowledgement. This would be a very unusual task to undertake and a potentially dangerous one too. There was no point in trying to argue or negotiate any terms with Jay.
“But this is where your assignment really starts,” Jay pointed to a settlement in the very southeast of Yeupis. “It will take a three, maybe four-day drive through the south to get here. It would take two days if you used the route cutting through Shargara, but I ain’t gotta tell ya why that’s a bad idea. This town contains a port which isn’t regularly passed through by Titanian authorities, but it still handles ships that can travel very long distances. You will board one of those ships and use it to travel to the Shimajima without being confrontational.”
“So… how would we do that?” Ivan inquired.
“I will leave that up to you,” Jay said. “A lot of discretion will be given to you. I chose you three for a reason.”
Ivan took a glance at the two teenagers, before returning his gaze to Jay.
“I suppose it could be worse.” he shrugged.
“You three are the best and only ones fit for this assignment. You will find the area engulfed in a level 50 barrier that you will have to destroy. From there you will reach one of the 56 islands that make up the Shimajima, communicating with the locals, you will find their leadership and negotiate a way to take as many of their able-bodied men and women back to the north with you. Put whatever you can think of on the table. Trade, renewed relations, even a piece of land if they so want it. We won’t take half-measures with them.”
Jay then went into specific details on the roles each of the trio would take. Ivan would act in the capacity of support, giving whatever help he was able to. On top of this, he was to aid Stefan in dismantling the barrier. Stefan’s main task was to dismantle the barrier—given that he was the only Terran who had a chance at doing so—and to prove through his strength that the Yeupisian cause was worth supporting. Anwen’s role was perhaps the most important as she would not only get them to their first destination in the south but would also be in charge of communication with the Islanders. Given the certain language barrier, Jay provided her with a book of Shimajimese vocabulary that she was to memorise in its entirety.
“The Anbieter’s father was an avid enthusiast of Terran anthropology. He always had lots of books just like these. It looks like a lot, but it will take a minimum of three months to reach the islands. You’ll have plenty of time to drill it into your head.”
“That’s a thick book!” Ivan exclaimed as Anwen took the book and inspected its cover quietly. “Thank goodness I never learned how to read.”
“You never learned how to read?” Stefan asked.
“What good is reading to a mason’s son?” Ivan answered.
“Fair.” Stefan nodded.
“Do any of you have any questions? You will leave at dawn tomorrow, so ask now.”
Anwen raised her hand.
“Yeah?” Jay asked.
“How… many people are we supposed to bring?”
Jay crossed his arms.
“At least 30,000 people.”
--
Somewhere southeast of the Barrens was where the trio had encountered their first well, three days after trekking through the desert, they finally observed a break in their monotonous marching. Carrying their rucksacks on their back, the two young men cringed when they saw the covert entrance into the tunnels, jutting out of the middle of a forested area next to an almost undecipherable dirt trail which clearly hadn’t been used in a while.
“So three days of walking through the worst climate in the world, while evading stray Titanian crafts and trying not to die of thirst… just to come here? To this?” Ivan sighed, scratching his buzzed scalp. Him and Stefan had their cut to look more the role of a slave, processed and ridden of lice.
“You’ll get used to it.” Anwen smiled, as she raised a leg over the well wall dropped to the ground below.
“She’s been through tunnels before,” Stefan added. “Let her be our guide.”
He then followed the girl down the well. Ivan peered down for several moments, before he spoke again.
“Here I thought I was going to have to be your babysitter again. How the tables have turned.” he said, as he rappelled down the stone wall.
Each of the trio took torches out of their rucksacks—not the ones they’d been using their whole lives, but instead one that produced light of tubes called flashlights—and so began the portion of their journey to the pass that would take them back into south Yeupis again.