Daron and the following group of fighters had snaked their way through the trees, beginning to jog as soon as they were out of sight of the battlefield. I had expected them to cut down the hill, hoping to catch unsuspecting enemies, trying to hide from our advancing forces, but they soon turned and headed in completely the wrong direction.

“Where are they going?” Mia muttered to me as we jogged in their tracks. Mia had wanted to catch them up, to ask Daron what they were doing, But I couldn’t shake the feeling of unease from seeing the group of fighters around him. Daron’s brother Faron marched at the head of their column and was far from friendly towards us, after our confrontation in the forest. I didn’t want to get surrounded by a group of men who would happily gut us, so I held Mia back. Just in case.

The sun began to dim as it dipped into the horizon while we were still following them. The mud was seeping cold into my limbs and my stomach grumbled horribly. I was about to either throw in the towel and head back to campus when their party slowed and then stop. They were at the edge of my EM sense and I wasn’t able to tell what they had found until we moved closer and my field expanded.

“Holy fuck,” I muttered. Without being able to see through the underbrush, Mia could only look at me, and wait for an explanation. I took her hand and led her forward a few more paces until the forest cleared and we were on the edge of a meadowed grassland. A sea of vibrant purple and golden flowers coated the ground, shimmering like water with the breeze, and perched on top was a Ship.

It was one of the largest ships still capable of entering an atmosphere, twice the size of the Dutchess. It was painted a deep auburn and its thick flowing body stretched out across the meadow.

“What the hell?” Mia muttered, “That’s not a campus ship,” she pointed out.

She was right, every ship the campuses used were old, sometimes even to the point of being rusted. This looked brand new and very expensive.

“What do you think they’re doing? Should we get closer?” Mia asked.

“No. Something is wrong here. Who would bring a ship down here? We're leagues from any of the campuses.” I said. Why would Daron be meeting them? I decided the best thing to do would be to back off and observe from afar. We might be able to find a vantage point up on the ridge behind us.

I began backing up, when my scanner buzzed against my skin, I looked down to see a call from [Daron Enserton], and before I could even touch my scanner’s screen the call connected and Daron's voice came through the device. “Erick, just as expected.”

It was Daron’s voice, the tone was the same but the cadence was all wrong. Daron was timid, always worried and unsure of himself. Now, his voice was strong. Every word was measured and it rang with authority. This was the voice of a man who could command a group of warriors.

“Daron. What’s going on?” I asked. I tried to sound nonchalant, but the hairs on the back of my neck and arms were standing up. I scanned our surroundings but felt nothing.

“Why don’t you and Mia come over and see for yourself,” I looked up at the ship to watch Daron standing with his back to us. He couldn’t know we were here, could he?

“Come over where?” I asked.

“Erick, Don't play stupid. I know you're here, in the trees,” He laughed, the laugh of a man when he knew he was winning a game without any chance of losing. It sounded so wrong coming from Him. I looked up again and watched him turn, to look right at us.

“That’s alright mate. I think we’ll just head back. You look pretty busy.” I would never have thought Daron posed any threat, but the men around him did. I wasn’t prepared to run into a fight I had no reason to be in, especially not when I could easily have just walked away. Mia looked at me and nodded,

“You, can’t just leave. That’s not happening. Either you come over here, or I’ll have you dragged over.” He there was no doubt in his voice that it could happen. I could tell he was losing patience. I took two steps away from the clearing and the ship.

“Nah, we’re good. You have fun though. Let's go, Mia.”

I heard a twig snap but still, I felt nothing in my EM sense. I turned to leave and walked right into the head of a large hammer as it swung at me. On instinct, I twisted the dial in my mind, but the hammer didn’t slow. It slammed into my forehead and I was thrown back from the force. Electricity surged through my body. I couldn’t move, I could even yell through my tensed muscles. Mia slapped into my side as she too writhed from shock. We both lay there, stunned as four men stood over us.

How? There had been no one there, I felt nothing in my EM sense. The snapping of the twig had to have been a boot, but without being able to feel anybody I had ignored it. And now we were trapped. The men rolled our stunned bodies over, ripping our scanners from our arms and shackling us with thick bolted handcuffs. Just for good measure, they clasped tight ropes around our knees.

I would have preferred to be carried like a sack of potatoes. Instead, they stood us up and forced us to frog march our way into the open, then across the field and up to Daron. He smiled at me, slapping a hand on my shoulder.

“Sorry ‘mate’, I couldn’t have you wandering off, would ruin all my fun,” he said, his smile not dropping. He turned to the men holding us, “Take them in, second deck cells, they are our guests, and I want them treated as such.” Daron didn’t ask, he didn’t just speak to the men. He ordered them, and they obeyed without question.

I waddled beside Mia, struggling not to stumble and trip as we were shoved up a ramp and into an entryway. Like the Dutchess this one was well adorned for comfort, the fresh walls and floor were crystal clean. We saw very little except closed doors and a service elevator as we were directed through the ship and up to the second level. I scanned wildly with my EM sense and despite my eyes telling me that there were people, my augment told me it the ship was empty. I could feel the wires in the walls and the power units dotted along the ship, but no people.

Daron hadn’t lied when he said we were treated like guests, even if we were in shackles. The cells were more like hotel rooms, except for the glass wall that ran along the front and the cameras in every corner. They still had all the amenities one might want during prolonged incarceration, a shelf of books, a large double bed and a soft sofa.

Daron’s men made their first mistake when they pushed Mia and I through a door and into the same room. Now, all we needed was information and we had a way out. At least for one of us.

They removed the rope from our legs before slamming the door closed and leaving us to our own devices. I almost jumped when Mia dropped down onto the bed. “No!” I said with a yelp, dashing over and trying to pull her up.

“What?!” she said in surprise.

“The bed. You cant rest!” I said before lowering my voice, no doubt the place was riddled with microphones but it was always better to be safe than sorry. “We can’t risk resetting our respawns. Death might be our only way out of here.”

Mia froze, looking from the bed to me, “Does that mean?”

“Yeah, I may have to kill you. I’m sorry,”

It was the strangest sentence. But Mia took it with a nod, then, a little smile. “Or I might have to kill you,” she said.

“True,” I said, returning her smile.

“I guess we can rest on the floor right? Camping never reset our spawn point, right?” She said, sliding her back against the wall to sit.

“Right,” I said, sliding down to sit beside her. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, with our arms still bound behind our backs, but feeling Mia’s shoulder pressing up against my own made it bearable.

“Is your augment working?” I asked.

“I think so, why?”

“I can’t feel anyone, and before, outside the ship, I couldn’t slow my perception as I should. I don’t think my Augments are working,” I said. I didn’t know what that meant for our ability to escape, and I couldn’t explain why. Mia only nodded in understanding.

We felt the ship shudder as the engines started and it pulled away from the ground. We knew we were bound for space, but we had no idea where we were going.

We rested for what felt like an hour, but without our scanners, it was near impossible to tell. Mia was almost nodding off beside me when we heard footsteps approaching along the hallway outside our cell. I nudged her to ensure she was awake, only to look over at her staring at me, “I’m awake,” she hissed.

We both watched the glass wall as the footsteps drew closer and closer at an irritatingly slow pace until Daron stepped out into the open.

“Erick! Mia! How wonderful to see you here,” He called through the glass with a wide smile.

“It’s really not, Cunt,” I spat.

“Oh, you actually called me a Cunt. Keg told me what that means, you humans are sure strange, its both an insult and a term of endearment. Which one did you mean?”

“Take a guess,” Mia said with a sarcastic hiss. “You know we're just going to kill you, right?”

“You? Kill me? You’re caged, shackled, and you don’t even have the use of your Augments.” Daron chuckled.

“You? You’re doing something to our augments? That’s why I can't feel you right now?”

“Yeah. Creators that took a long time. I had to slip nanites into your drinks for weeks just to get enough into you,” Daron sighed.

“You drugged us with nanites?” Mia asked, her mouth agape.

“You would have noticed if I shot you with one of my bullets. Didn’t suspect a thing though did you. But now, your augments have been disabled. They didn’t even need to take your scanners away, I’ve cut those off from the world too,”

Fuck! He had been planning this. Whatever this was.

“What are we doing here Daron? What’s going on?” I asked.

“Great question! Really great question. You’re here because you have been such a big help.” Daron said. I didn’t think he was talking about me saving his life, or even befriending him.

“What exactly did we help you with?” Mia asked the question I was thinking.

“Everything, you wonderful smooth-skinned creature. Everything,” Daron said, pulling a chair from across the hallways to sit in front of the glass. “You and your friends have been a wealth of knowledge. None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for you people being so sociable, and nieve.”

“So the last few months have just been an act? You just wanted information? For what?” I asked, pressing my shoulder against Mia.

“Of course it has, but I didn’t create this character for you, oh no. Faron was only three minutes older than me but our father still treated him like the firstborn son as though I didn’t exist. As children Faron was vicious, and everyone turned away as though they saw nothing. So to placate my brother I had to appear weaker, smaller. Less of a threat. But now I have my opportunity to prove my worth, to show that that idiot deserves nothing.” The character of Daron that we knew was gone now. He sat straight, the lines from worry that creased his face were smoothed over and his smile was of a person who was perfectly in control.

“That sucks man. But you didn’t answer the question.” Mia said.

Daron tilted his head as he watched us. Like a child at the zoo gawking in at the attractions. “ Did I tell you what my father does?”

“He’s a businessman,”

“Yes. But he is in the business of planets,” Daron said with a small smirk and the pieces began to slide together in my mind.

“What do you mean?” Mia asked.

“His company is one of the largest privately owned military forces this side of the dark systems. He finds planets, usually ones that have been freshly integrated. He conquers them and sells the pieces to the highest bidder. Based on everything you’ve told me about earth, it’s going to be worth quite a lot,” Daron said, his smile widening as he pressed his forehead against the glass.

I felt Mia stiffen beside me, just as a felt it in myself. All of Daron's questions had seemed like innocent interest, about the landscape, the animals and climate…. “Universal consistency…” I muttered. “We told you how to find it,” I felt sick.

“Yes, you did. Thank you. Sincerely. It took a long time to run the simulations, to make all the arrangements. But now we’ll be in positions, right for the system to finish its induction. You’ll have a front-row seat as we take your home.” Daron smiled as I closed my eyes and fought down a wave of nausea.