“In ten minutes, we’ll be in the atmosphere,” informed Nadee, reading the data displayed on the control panel.

“What are the chances that they’ll reveal us?” asked Quirinus.

Sitting in silence, in front of Antares, made him extremely uncomfortable.

“If they’d wanted to expose us, they would have done it earlier,” said the Kehrian woman, keeping her eyes on the screen. “They want to avoid attention, so they won’t waste their time and resources in making a play for a chase.” She lowered her voice to an ominous whisper. “They’ll just eliminate us on the sly.”

“Watch out, Chandri, just in case,” Antares spoke up for the first time in a while. He’d decided to engage in an insane move just to gain an advantage in Kali’s eyes. He was the first one who’d received her last message and after a quick rethinking of the matter, he’d assumed that if he hurried up, he would get her out of the Union’s trap. He did not care about the fate of Jalandhara and its inhabitants but in most cases, the sovereign of that planet had the final word.

Maybe she’ll finally value my valour and as a token of gratitude, she’ll plan the liberation of Zetherion. He stared at the floor and propped his head up with his fist. I wasted seven years of my life. Seven bloody years and this Kehrian woman still didn’t do anything except fly from one system to another and piss off the Union. We need a real war to get somewhere, but if our great Devi Kali thinks otherwise, we have to shut our gobs… He gasped, clenching his fist tighter …or get cut off from supplies, support and armoury and simply put a bullet in our heads.

“What about our plan?” Nadee cut off his quiet contemplation.

Antares turned his head towards her and cut her with his gaze.

“What did you say?”

“Do you have a plan?” She twitched her ears. “We’ll land in five minutes, and I still don’t know the plan.”

“In short,” he stretched out his hand, “we disembark and leave the landing strip. Then we hide in the ruins along the main road, slowly moving forward to reach the nuclear power station where they’re detaining Devi. Later, when we finish the recon, I’ll decide what to do next.”

“It’s still not enough.” She raised her ears and scowled. “I can’t work like this. No disrespect but…”

“Stop complaining and let me focus,” growled Quirinus, lifting his head from his LiqWatch, “if you don’t like our methods, you can go back to Eurydion at any moment.”

Nadee kept quiet, glancing at him with anger and a trace of fear. It was not the first time when she’d heard this threat, but the thought of returning back to that planet terrified her every single time. The two Celestians used the same method to ensure she would to anything that they ordered her to, even things no sane person would ever do. Her secret fright gave them absolute domination over her. After a short argument with an inconclusive exchange of views, she always agreed anyway. She would rather die for ideas she never believed in than live on the streets of Eurydion.

“Two minutes,” she said and ignoring the tremble of her hands, she turned off the autopilot.

Cerridwen stood up and stretched her stiff arms when the twinge in her back became unbearable. Grimacing with every step, she walked around the hold thrice and stopped cold. Something was wrong. She could not move effortlessly around the room, and her hair flopped back on her arms.

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Stay calm, analyse the situation, find the solution, she recalled her father’s words and lowered her eyes. Simple to say. But how the hell can I stay calm if I don’t even know what’s going on?

“We are on the suborbital zone,” informed Nadee. “Brace for landing. The monsoon clouds are coming near, there may be some turbulences.”

The entire ship shook, arousing Cerridwen from her contemplation. The Celestian girl gripped a pipe to keep her balance, feeling the effect of gravity almost as strong as if she were on the ground. She exhaled calmly, yet keeping her muscles tensed for the jerks. Strong winds jolted the vehicle again, but Cerridwen remained on her feet. The flood of adrenaline prepared her body for another exertion, and her racing heart agitated her blood. She bent her head and tightened her grasp.

Gradually slowing down, Nadee glided the vehicle over the darkened area of the inner city. It was the middle of the night and she could not see the details, but the ship’s scanners detected a vast squared area surrounded by run-down, partly collapsed storehouses and low residential blocks. On the other side of the concrete jungle was the target – abandoned scientific facility with the nuclear plant where medical radioisotopes had once been produced. Between the ruins, an enormous square-shaped building towered like a lone mountain, overgrown with a metal forest of pipes and chimneys, about five meters high, reinforced by coils of barbed wire fence encircling it.

“We’re landing near these storehouses,” decided Antares, pointing to the symbols of the buildings on the screen. A gripping sensation in his guts told him that without a plan, his action would be on the line.

They passed several hundred meters more, flying low above the five-storey residential blocks, and landed on an almost empty square. Antares opened all the doors and ran out. He slowed down in front of the hold.

“Stay here!” he barked at Cerridwen, then he darted towards the ruins, leaving her on her own.

"But what if they..." started Cerridwen and ran after him. ...find me?

Warm winds tugged Cerridwen’s hair when she jumped out of the hold. A smell of tropical air and wet stone got into her nose. Grains of sand and fragments of leaves scratched her face, but she scurried after the team without looking back. She turned from the cracked airfield into a narrow street between the ruined houses and slowed down, panting in silence.

From the interior of the buildings came low sounds of conversations, scrapes and rustles. Under the balconies, in provisional tents surrounded by piles of boxes and barrels, sat huddled creatures with blue skin and brown eyes. Some of them sized the intruders walking on their territory up with distrustful eyes while others ignored their presence.

Cerridwen wondered why. Despite watching the news and searching the Web, she’d never seen anything like this. Most of the portrayals shown in the media presented happy citizens of the rich worlds. The exceptions were the images of ruined cities and piles of the dead that exposed the evil committed by the rebels.

Cerridwen squinted. The Union that she regarded as an institution which defended the ones who could not defend themselves became a congregation of blind men in her eyes, self-absorbed and obsessed about their own future. She thought about everything she believed in. She was not interested in politics, so she accepted all the words proclaimed by the Union. She clenched her fists as she felt the first stab of fear. She’d come to realize that there was no one who would protect her and her home unless it was profitable for the people sitting in the government.

A barely audible rustle drew her attention. She flexed her muscles, preparing to run. From the corner of her eyes, she spotted a tiny person leaning out of a broken window on the ground floor. When she turned her head, the creature hid away behind the foil hanging from a window-frame, knocking a little, shiny object off the window sill.

A gold-plated figurine fell to the ground. It depicted a bird outstretching its wings to fly, called Simurgh, the coat of arms of Jalandhara and a symbol of guarding its godlike Devi.

Quirinus noticed it too. He slowed down and waited for the rest to go further.

What power will shake their faith? He wondered and smiled scornfully. She treats them like cheap labour and they still worship her. He bent down to pick up and hide the figurine in his pocket. He had to take advantage of all opportunities.