Page 20 of Koha'vek
“I don’t think we will have to worry about them anymore. His men were arriving as I left to help him take them all into custody. I suspect they will start a new life on the Penta prison planet very soon.”
Chapter Twelve
Raven
After taking a few weeks off following Hannah’s kidnapping for her to recover and for us to get our house built, I finally began patrolling my territory in and around the Medicine Bow Mountain Range that extended from Colorado into what was Wyoming before Earth fell to the Mesaarkan’s attack over 100 years before I was awakened.
The region was sparsely populated, so I wasn’t expecting any trouble I couldn’t handle unless I came upon a similar situation as I found in Brislow. Most of the towns in the region were actually hamlets with fewer than a couple of hundred residents. The rest were mostly deserted. I flew my sky cycle for hours, over mountain after mountain and through the valleys between, seeing nothing unusual.
Then I came over a ridge to an isolated valley with no ancient roads leading to it or through it. Pine-covered slopes parted into an open basin surrounded by steep-sided mountains. I slowed my cycle and then stoppedto hover over the region for a closer look. My onboard scanner picked up faint energy readings that I identified as Mesaarkan. They were too weak to indicate a base, but strong enough to warrant further investigation.
From my vantage point, I couldn't see any activity, even though my internal scans indicated otherwise. I scouted briefly for a place to land and took my sky cycle to the ground amid a small stand of pines. I dismounted and moved on foot, my boots silent on the mossy trail. As I crested a low rise, my CPU pinged an anomaly. It was a cloaked perimeter sensor, old Mesaarkan technology, half-buried under the dense underbrush.
Considering how close I had come before finding it, I was certain whoever had put it there already knew of my presence. I raised my visor and stepped into the clearing.
Five figures emerged from the trees, their weapons visible but holstered. My muscles tensed instinctively. Mesaarkans. Although I knew I could probably take them out, I still risked ending up badly damaged.
I recognize them instantly, as I had been trained to do since before I was awakened. Physically, we were closely matched in size. While I wore nanitearmor, their scales served as a more natural armor, and it moved more fluidly.
Their body language showed no aggression in their stands, only caution. A sixth figure emerged from between two of the aliens. This Mesaarkan was older, marked with facial scars and a burn across one shoulder.
“We were wondering when someone like you would come,” he said.
“You’ve been expecting cyborgs?”
“No,” the male said. “We were hoping for one who might listen.”
Behind them, a human woman stepped into view. Early thirties. Unafraid. Her hand rested lightly on the elder’s arm.
I raised an eyebrow, a bit skeptical. “You’re not prisoners?” I questioned.
“No,” the woman said simply. “I am Sara, and this is Veklan. We’re mates.”
That got my attention, and I thought of Koha’vek. Until I met him, I’d always thought of Mesaarkan’s as enemies. That human females would accept them as mates had always been unfathomable.
“We are deserters,” the elder added. “Some fled before the war ended. Some stayed to protect what mattered. We’ve kept to ourselves. But now we want more than survival. We want peace. Legal peace.”
“I assume, since you deserted, that your return to Mesaark would land you in prison. You want asylum.”
“Yes.”
“And you want me to ask for it.”
The elder nodded. “We cannot go to the Enclave command. We need someone they trust.”
At first, I could only stare at them as I contemplated their request. In one respect, I would be going against everything I was made for. On the other hand, these Mesaarkans were victims too. They had been forced into a war long after it should have ended. Clearly, they had respect for humanity. They cared for their human mates, and it seemed their human mates cared for them in return.
That’s when I realized:by helping these Mesaarkans, I would also be supporting the humans I was trained to protect. “All right. I will take your request to the enclave and cyborg command. I can’t make any promises.”
“You came and you listened,” the woman said. “We already have more than we had yesterday.”
“Could you show me around? I’d like to see who and what I will be representing,” I asked.
The elder dipped his head in assent and turned, retreatingthe way they had come, expecting me to follow, which I did. As we entered the basin where they had built their community, it became clear why they had remained undiscovered for so long. They had built most of their dwellings into the sides of the hills surrounding the basin, so they blended in with the surroundings. They were essentially underground homes. They had cultivated their vegetables among the wildflowers and grasses, so that they did not resemble cultivated gardens.
A few horses and various other livestock roamed freely in the vicinity, with shelter built under a grass-covered hill. As they showed me around their little village, I saw at least a dozen other human women living among them. They peeked out of their doorways as we passed by.
The more I saw, the more I realized these Mesaarkans were not hurting anyone. They were simply trying to build lives for themselves in the wake of a war that should have ended decades before it did. Arresting and exiling them from Earth would be harming humans whom I had sworn to protect. Yet, I knew that many would not see it that way, and I might be endangering my status by speaking for them.
