Lysar sighed as she watched yet another patrol walk by in the distance. While Lysar and her group of similarly free-minded Rethans had somehow managed to tiptoe their way out of Thre-Vretania and towards the port city of Thre-Sypria, walking down narrow train tunnels, their journey to freedom had come to an abrupt halt as most of Thre-Sypria was on lock-down. Why? Lysar wasn’t sure and she had no idea what she was going to say to the other Rethans. The only beings she had seen capable of passing through the high security and into the space port were non-Rethan beings, ambassadors being sent home, having lost their jobs and no longer being welcome in Rethavok territories.
“Any change?” a small voice squeaked behind Lysar.
“No, none.”
The only joy to this whole situation was running into Trismit, the blue and yellow Rethan who had led Lysar out of that accursed supermarket when everything went… bad. Trismit had been perhaps too optimistic, but something about him seemed to cheer up the other Rethans. Especially since they had mostly been separated and captured. Out of the group of forty Trismit and Lysar had originally joined, only four remained and none of them had high hopes they would make it off this planet alive.
“Still patrolling?”
“Yes. I thought there would have been a Legion swap-over at some point, but it seems that the 271st and 272nd Legions are both still present, so we have double the number of soldiers to worry about.”
Trismit shifted his weight awkwardly, revealing a small back on his side. “That sucks. But I found a shop. Did not want to, but I stole some little packets of meat noodles, so we can have a warm meal tonight!”
Lysar backed away from the curtained window she had been peering through. Currently, the group had been hiding in an office building about 200m away from the public entrance to the space port. The building was supposed to house traveling xenons, non-Rethavok beings during business trips, as well as non-Rethans who worked for nearby shipping companies; but with the Voidlord’s takeover, the place had quickly emptied out and stripped. All that was left were tattered cubicles and a few broken sets of office furniture. For safety reasons, the group had mostly been sleeping within the central stairwell, the one area that had most access to the rest of the building, but they would take it in turns watching out of the windows on the third floor, which still had intact curtains and shutters.
“Where… did you find that stuff?” Lysar asked, heading back down to the stairwell. Trismit hesitated in his answer, following quietly and cautiously.
“It is… uh… hard to… uh, explain…”
“You say that a lot.”
“Yeah well…” Trismit shrugged. “There is a lot going on. Everyone has secrets. Like you, Lysar. You are hiding a lot. So am I. Best not to think about it and keep ourselves safe!”
Lysar grunted, stopping in her tracks and standing in front of Trismit. “I think we need to have a discussion.”
“Me too!” Trismit beamed, dodging past Lysar and skipping down the stairs. “In front of the others!”
Lysar grunted, chasing after Trismit and skidding to a halt in the main stairwell. Sitting around a small, covered fire were four other Rethans, all looking rather distraught.
“Welcome back, Lysar!” two of the Rethans, both seemingly identical in their black and silver armour plating and smaller than even the rather skinny Trismit, loudly chirped in unison. “Trismit said you wanted to talk! You never talk! Always silent!”
The oldest Rethan, a pale-skinned, green-armoured hulk and clearly the vok in charge, clambered to his feet. “Skesi, Skani, try to keep your voices down. Lysar, you look worried as always. Is something wrong or worse now?”
Trismit patted the older Rethan on the shoulder. “Everything is fine, Hedir, we just need to sit things down and, uh, talk! Because I have a thing to say and I think Lysar does too!” Trismit’s tone seemed wildly inconsistent. “Alright, everyone sit down and we shall go around in a circle and talk!”
Lysar eyed the other Rethans as he sat down. Hedir shrugged, deciding to let Trismit continue.
“What do you want to discuss?” a dark purple and grey Rethan by the name of Valkor, grumbled. “Because I would like some good news. Been too long since we had good news.”
“I have good news, but I have explaining to do first!” Trismit beamed. “Because, uh, well, I am not really the sort of vok you might think I am and if I just went ahead and told you all, you would… get upset at me and my, uh, secret…” Trismit lowered his voice. “It is all… a little bit… unbelievable.”
“What, like us all pretending we do not know who Lysar is?” Skesi and Skani both chirruped. “High General’s boyfriend! And she is all here!”
“Never mind about Lysar!” Hedir snapped. “We are all lost souls, and Lysar has lost more than we all have!”
“Have you?” Valkor asked, eyeing Lysar. “Do you know what is going on? More than we know?”
Lysar remained silent, trying to compose her thoughts. “I… I do not know anything that you do not know. I do not even know if my dear Rethais is even alive or not, but considering what is happening, I believe he is… no longer with us.”
The other Rethans fell silent. Skani hid behind Skesi, both of them realizing that they had been mean. Lysar though just sighed and turned back to Trismit.
“You had something you wished to tell us?”
“Uh, yeah…” Trismit stammered. “Um… I am sorry about… you know… But I… I think I have some good news. It just needs a bit of explaining.”
“Go on.”
Trismit hesitated. “Well, uh, when it comes to keeping secrets, I have one of my own. I was part of the 11th Legion, well, one of the only ones, and I have some… unnatural abilities. Two of which could be our ticket out of here.”
“What sort of unnatural powers?” Hedir grunted.
“I can disrupt electrical equipment and, uh, teleport short distances…”
“What?” And you are only telling us now?” Valkor hissed, nearly falling backwards from shock. “You have this power and-”
“Teleportation is insanely dangerous!” Trismit snapped, sparks sprinkling from his fingertips as he did so. “I do not know the limits of my abilities and I did not want to get your hopes up! But I have been trying to test myself out and I have realized I can teleport maybe one vok at a time… Out towards the exo-cargos…” Trismit stopped suddenly, taking a deep breath to calm himself down.
Lysar raised his hands, silencing the other Rethans, who obviously all had a lot of questions.
“What are you suggesting, Trismit?”
“I am suggesting that, with some careful timing, I could teleport us onto cargo ships heading off-world. It is… dangerous though…”
Hedir shrugged, as did Valkor.
“We have been in danger this entire time. It is not like we have any other options…”