The Gathering Read online

  ***

  Danielle hopped out of the hovercraft and beat Benit to the Holodome door. The light of dawn was cresting over the horizon. “I can’t wait to get these contacts out.”

  “Go ahead, but don’t sign out just yet. Stott wants to speak with us.”

  “General Stott?” Fear edged its way into her chest.

  Benit flashed a guilty look at her. “It’s nothing. He just wants to go over a few things you missed on the first day.”

  “What did you say to him?” She pressed her palm against the cool metal sensor and the door vanished.

  “Nothing. I mean, just that you would benefit from some of that stuff.”

  “Liar.” She whacked him on the shoulder. “You told him I was having doubts, didn’t you?”

  “Not doubts…just concerns.” He ran a hand through his thinning hair and peered at her a bit sheepishly.

  “Whatever.” Danielle stalked down the brightly lit hallway. “I’ll be in the bathroom.”

  Luckily, no matter which way you turned you eventually found a bathroom. Danielle shoved her hands under the faucet and splashed cold water on her face before taking out her contacts and returning them to their small container.

  When she stepped out of the room, Benit was leaning against the wall waiting for her. “I’m sorry.”

  She gave him a sideways glance. “You did what you thought was best.”

  Benit motioned for her to follow him down the hall. The white stone walls of the outer ring appeared sanitized and sterile. A shiver went through her and she rubbed the sides of her arms. When Benit stopped, she almost collided with his back.

  “Stott’s in here.” He stepped aside.

  She took a breath and entered the room. She’d never met with General Stott one-on-one before. He sat at a large desk with a glass surface and he stood when she entered. Being in his early fifties, she had always imagined him as a father figure. His light hair was buzzed short and he wore a crisp military uniform; she’d never seen him in anything else. She wondered if he slept in it. Not that the Dyken people had a large military. Quite the opposite. Stott and a handful of men had been the extent of the force before they came to Maslonia. There had been no need, since war had been eradicated for centuries on her home world.

  “Danielle. Benit. Come on in. Have a seat.” General Stott waved to a couple of metal chairs pushed against the wall.

  “I’m sorry to bother you, sir,” Danielle said, shifting on the hard seat.

  Stott’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s no bother. I’m told you missed the first day of training.” He clicked his tongue against his teeth. “Someone should have corrected that oversight before we left the surface.”

  Heat rose to her cheeks. “I was given an overview of what I missed. They said it was just a basic history lesson about Maslonia. I didn’t miss any actual training.”

  Stott’s lips pressed together and Benit squirmed in his seat. “I think what Danielle means is she didn’t miss any of the physical training exercises.”

  “This is true. However, I would like to show you some photos from the history lesson you missed. They’re important, or we wouldn’t have taken an entire day to go over them.”

  Danielle felt like a child being scolded, which wasn’t fair. She knew how important this mission was. But Stott stood there staring at her so she put her hands between her knees and nodded.

  Stott clicked a remote, and a large photograph appeared on the opposite wall. What once were buildings now lay crumbled and scorched, large jagged metal pieces reaching up from the rubble like skeletal fingers. “If you didn’t know any better, you would assume you were looking at the surface of our own planet. You would assume wrong.”

  He clicked again, and this time a child stood in front of the rubble. She wore torn and dirty clothes, her blonde hair matted. Smudges of dirt and grime marred her face. She couldn’t have been more than five years old. Danielle’s chest constricted.

  “This is Gabby,” General Stott said. “The undercover Dyken who took this photo spoke with her for about an hour. She told him how she wanted to grow up to be a doctor so she could help people.” He paused for dramatic effect. “She died in an explosion the day after this photo was taken.”

  Danielle’s heart ached for the precious child. “How sad.”

  Stott ignored her and clicked his remote again. A photo of a little boy appeared on the wall. He had no arms. “This boy was sent into an enemy camp, small bombs strapped to his arms. He was to send them a message. ‘Get off our land.’ You can see that the enemy didn’t comply.”

  She blinked back tears. “Who would do that to a little boy?”

  General Stott turned to her. “His father was the one who strapped the bombs on.”

  She sucked in a breath but kept quiet. Stott clicked through several dozen photos, each one as shocking as the last, most of them pictures of children. Some were picking through trash to find food. Others had missing limbs or serious burns.

  “This is why we are here, Danielle. These are innocent children. The hatred these Maslonian factions have for each other is staggering. They will not stop killing each other until every last Maslonian is dead. The resequencing will stop the hatred and pain. All we do when we resequence is change a few memories. They wake up and no longer remember the war. There’s no need to kill because they no longer remember that they hate each other. Isn’t a world without war better than what we have here?”

  “Yes.” She knew war was bad, but she hadn’t known how bad.

  He clicked again. This time a family appeared on the screen. They were huddled in a corner of what looked like a partially bombed-out home. A dirty mattress lay to one side of them. Piles of rubble took up the rest of the photo.

  “This is how most of the families are living here on Maslonia. Now, I’ve been told you’ve been stationed in Hailsburg.”

  Danielle nodded, feeling numb.

  “You are lucky. Hailsburg is one of the last cities unaffected by the war. Other Dyken soldiers are being sent into these bombed-out wastelands. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of people left in most of them. We’re saving who we can by creating a new life for them in the Holodome.”

  Stott sat on the corner of his desk and folded his hands in his lap. “I heard you were distressed about a young man you saw in the resequencing room. You’ll be happy to know they adjusted his treatment. He’s doing fine…already relocated to the Holodome. He’ll wake up today with his family, living in a comfortable home. He will know nothing of the war or the devastation that has been a part of his life up to this point. Finding a date for the homecoming dance will be his biggest concern.”

  She thought about the teen on the table. He didn’t seem like the dancing type. But she could imagine him at school, getting into his locker and talking with friends. “That’s such a relief.”

  General Stott placed his arms behind his back. “I’m sure you’re both tired. Go ahead and sign out. Get some rest. We’ve got a busy few weeks ahead of us. And if you’re volunteering to stay on after The Gathering, it will be even longer.”

  A rush went through Danielle. “I’d like to stay on and be stationed in the Holodome. Right now I’m on standby, and I haven’t heard anything.”

  Stott’s mouth curled up into a smile. “I’ll see what I can do.” He dismissed them with a nod, turning back to his desk.

  Benit followed her out. When they were several yards away, he leaned over. “I’m glad the young man is okay.”

  Danielle breathed out relief. “Me too. I hated seeing him struggle like that.”

  They continued in silence down the long curved hallway. A group of portals were ahead, but before they got there, they passed by an open door. Another resequencing room. There were more tables than usual crammed in there, sleeping Maslonians strapped to them. Danielle almost swallowed her tongue when she saw Shayne among them.

  She tried not to stare as they walked past. Benit stepped in front of a portal and p
laced his palm on the sensor plate. The screen lit up, and he typed in his coordinates. “Good night.”

  Danielle stood in front of the portal next to his but didn’t activate it. “See you later.”

  She waited until Benit disappeared before turning around. Could she get into trouble poking around where she wasn’t stationed? She wasn’t sure, but she could always fake being lost. It wasn’t that far of a stretch.

  When she got to the door, she peered around the corner. Quite a few Dyken soldiers were bustling about the far end of the room, none of them paying any attention to the tables where Shayne lay. She took a few tentative steps toward him. No one noticed her.

  She maneuvered around the tables toward him. His chest rose and fell with steady breaths and she froze. He looked so peaceful, even though thick straps held him to the table. His uniform had been removed, and he now wore white shorts with no shirt. She wondered what his life would have been like if they hadn’t come to his world. Would he have lived for another year?

  The last words he spoke to her echoed in her mind. You think we’re the bad guys? Why? What have we ever done to you?

  She took another step and reached out with her hand, her fingers coming in contact with the warm flesh of his arm. She felt the tension of his muscles under his skin. Nothing, she thought. You’ve done nothing to us. It’s what you’re doing to yourselves.

  She picked up the small ID card attached to the table. Shayne Bartlet. Telekinetic. She imagined him living in the Holodome, going to school and doing normal teenage things. She grew up inside a Holdome. She knew what it was like. No one went hungry. There was no homeless. And with the resequencing, Shayne could live a normal life, not knowing about the horrors of Maslonia.

  Yes. She was doing the right thing.

  She placed the card back on the table and slipped out.

  The End

  This short story is based on The Overtaking series by Victorine E. Lieske. Book One, The Overtaking, is available for purchase right now. Book Two is scheduled to be released in the near future.

  Website: www.victorinelieske.com