Through the Stars: Chapter One

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Henna's eyes refocused in the darkness that had been her home for the last three years. She had been thrown into the prison as a traitor, refused to be given a trial, told to stay quiet and obedient and she would be allowed to remain alive. She had nearly given up hope, allowed herself to die, but that wasn't an option for her now. She wanted nothing more than to get back to her job and finish the task to which she had been set.

The light shown through the slits in the hatch closing her off from freedom. She watched as it got brighter, and lights flickered on outside of her cell. A red, horned face appeared, its beady black eyes looking through the slits at her.

"Prisoner. Stand." His crude grasp of the Talikian language made her cringe slightly.

She obeyed the Fet guard's order immediately, standing near the back of the cell as she was expected to. He opened the hatch and approached her, laser gun raised. Henna held out her hands to be bound, the Fet connected the shackles to her hands and led her out of the cell and down the hall. The guard was tall, his hind legs bent much like an animal's. Henna knew that Fets weren't the only species guarding the prison, however, no guards other then the cruel Fets were allowed into her hall. He led her to a small, steel door, opened it, and shoved her through.

The visitor room of her wing of the prison was sparsely furnished, the steel walls free of any decoration. Henna saw the visitor, wearing a deep cloak that hid his face, sitting on one of the two uncomfortable chairs. She took the other.

The guard nodded at the visitor and walked out of the door, closing and sealing it behind him. The person in the other chair didn't lower his hood, but held out a large envelope to her.

"Henna Cercian." She nodded. "These were found in the office of Colonel Mercid a year ago," he said in Reptilian, a hissing language unlike her native tongue of Talikian, which was much more complex. "We felt it best to deliver them immediately, however there were some minor...complications. In order for these papers to be recognized, we need your assurances that they are indeed real and your compliance to what they entail. Without it, you remain here."

Henna opened the envelope and took out the papers, reading them over quickly.

"And you found these a year ago?" Her Reptilian was nearly as flawless as his.

"As I have said before."

She nodded and looked down at the papers again. They were titles of ownership over her, signed by the Emperor. She knew that Colonel Mercid, the head engineer on the Reptilian base that had at one time orbited Sirius, had drawn these up the moment she had arrived on the Reptilian space station that had once housed the royal family.

"These are real," said Henna, handing them back. "And what is it that needs to be done yet?"

"You are to be shipped to the family you were willed to. Since you are not a free creature, you cannot belong to the Federated Planets. Your files will be brought up immediately and your ownership titles transferred. Until that is finalized, you will stay at the Imperial Prison." He stood and held out one hand to her. She noted how tall he was and that his hand was a smooth, green shade. She almost couldn't keep the grin from her face as she stood and took his hand. "We will see to your transfer as soon as we can. Thank you for your time, Miss Cercian."

Henna nodded. "Anything to help the Empire."

He swept to the door, which was opened and closed quickly. She sat back down heavily, staring at her own reflection in the double-sided glass that dominated one of the walls. Her once white hair was matted and brown, her black skin a sickly gray color. The eyes that stared back at her were no longer the healthy, pink shade they had once been. They were dark red and damaged from torture and trying to see in the dark. They were sunken into her face, giving her the appearance of a ghost. The door opened, and she stood as the guard came back in and shoved her roughly from the room.

The meal she was given at what she believed was midday had little nutritional value or taste. It was cold and lumpy, but she ate it all the same, her stomach no longer protesting as it had at first. The rough porridge settle at the bottom of her gut, making her feel oddly heavy.

Henna sat on the metal bed, leaning against the wall as she listened to the pained cries of those who lived in her hall. Male, female, human, Ceth, Glate, Talikian, it made no difference. They were thrown into random cells and kept there until they were moved, released, or dead. She had seen many of her hall mates being carried out of their cells in boxes, and only twelve moved out, either to be transferred to a different prison, or, as she liked to believe despite the unlikely chances of it being true, given their freedom back.

Slowly, the lights went out again, plunging her into darkness. The moans and whimpers emanating from the cell beside her told her that the female human living there had realized the lights were out, even if she couldn't see them anymore. Henna had been in her cell two years ago when they took the young human from her cell, tortured her for information, then threw her back, bleeding from both eyes. Henna had first hand experience with the machine that ruined eyes, it was the main reason her eyes were now red.

They had tried several times, unsuccessfully, to get any information from her on the rebellion. The results of those sessions were now covering her body, from the red eyes, to the scarred chest, to the odd lump on her arm, to the latest, and unhealed, dislocated and relocated knee. She had relocated it herself. She fingered the lump on her arm. It was roughly a finger span wide and half that tall. Inside it was a small, metal disk, which was deteriorating slowly, releasing the poison inside of it. The poison wouldn't kill, but would make the person's blood acidic to their flesh, so a small cut, if it bled, would be ten times more painful and damaging.

Henna was used to the burn now, as the disk had been inside of her for more than a year. It had started at twice the size as it was now. She had also grown accustomed to the pain that was living in the prison. It wasn't as if she had much of a choice, after all. It was either living here or dying, and Henna wasn't quite ready to die.

Time passed, and she slept, ate, and slept again. When she awoke on the second day after the visit, the Fet guard that ran the hall was banging his gun on the cells, waking everyone up. Henna stood quickly, hurrying to the door as a new prisoner was brought in. The guards made them watch when prisoners were brought in. For them, it was the greatest form of entertainment when an inmate knew the arrival. Henna watched as they drug the limp figure towards her end of the hall. The only cell without an occupant was the one that connected with hers; the young male Glate had asphyxiated himself with his shirt, preferring death to the torture inflicted. The cell door was opened, and the prisoner dumped in unceremoniously. Henna ran to the slitted vent that connected her cell to his, peering through.

The prisoner was a young Ceth, one of the catlike people from Valaportia. His gray fur covered body was curled up on the floor, tightly balled against the kicks he was receiving from the guards. When his cell was closed, he opened his eyes, intense green against the grey streaked fur. He glanced around, and spotted her in the vent. His eyes locked with hers, and she nodded at him.

"What's your name?" she asked in Talikian, her voice low.

"Desheen. You?" His Talikian was flawless, not that she expected otherwise. He was a Ceth, after all, and they could speak any language they heard.

"Henna." She slipped one of her thin hands through the metal of the vent, holding it out to him. He rose, took her hand in his own, and held it for a second before releasing it. "You know this is one of the torture wards, right?"

He nodded. "That's what they told me. They just want information that I don't have." His eyes narrowed. "Besides, I won't be here long."

Henna couldn't stop the grin that spread across her face. "Oh, yeah? And how is it you plan to escape?"

"I won't escape," Desheen said simply. "They'll have no choice. They have to let me go."

The seriousness in his face and the coldness in his eyes scared her slightly. She backed away from the bars, sitting on her bed once more. The lights turned off one by one, but she could still see the soft green glow watching her from the vent.

The day passed without any more excitement. Henna slept and awoke the next morning to Desheen's eyes staring at her once again. He didn't say anything apart from asking Henna how she was faring that day. The answer she gave him was a terse, "I'm alive." This had elicited a chuckle from him, though when she repeated herself the next day after he asked the same question, her face straight, his somber expression and cold eyes met hers, respect emanating from him.

As the days passed, they communicated, not through words, but through other means. He learned of her many torture induced injuries as one by one, they made themselves known. She was pulled out of the cell on her appointed torture day, put on the machine that twisted her leg out of joint, then thrown back into her cell. He watched as she relocated the leg once more, muffling the sounds of her screams with some balled up cloth. He didn't say anything more to her after that. She suspected it was because he didn't know what to say. When the Fet guards showed up to her cell door once again, he stood and whispered quickly through the vent, the first words he'd spoken in four days.

"Good luck, Henna Cercian."

She nodded at him, allowed the bindings to be put on, and followed the Fets out the door. They led her swiftly to the interrogation chamber, binding her onto a new machine, one that hadn't been there four days previous. A brown Reptilian walked through the other door, smiling at her evilly. His reptile-like features were scarred, his rough, brown skin torn in many places.

"Ms. Cercian. How are you today?" The hiss of the Reptilian language was harsh.

Henna grimaced as the usual injection was pressed into her arm. "The same as always, Helshnik."

He sighed. "Always with the 'evil people', Henna. Can't you come up with anything more original?"

She grinned crookedly. "And waste all the good insults on someone so low in rank he is forced to work at a torture facility?"

The Reptilian twisted the bindings tighter, cutting off her breath. "I would remind you, my dear, that I'm the one in charge here, and you...you are a lowly worm compared to me." He released the bindings and Henna gulped in air. "I would like you to be the first to enjoy the pleasures of our newest invention. Its purpose, you might ask, is to cause temporary paralysis by sending what I learned was a most painful jolt up your spine."

Electrodes were connected to the base of her skull, and Henna winced as they dug into her skin.

"You'll get nothing from me, Helshnik. Nothing except screams."

"That is, I think, were you are wrong."

When Henna was thrown back into her cell almost three hours later, she couldn't raise herself from the floor. Desheen watched her from his cell, but she didn't move.

"Henna?"

"I'm alright," she tried to say, but her words were badly slurred. "New device."

It took the rest of the day for the residule effects to wear off enough for her to move. When she finally was able to pull herself onto the small bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

She wasn't awoken by the normal lights, instead two Fets had unlocked her cell in the dark, bound her, and pulled her from her room. They didn't lead her to the visitor room or the interrogation chambers, they instead led her to the first place she ever seen in the prison, the transfer room. Sitting in the room was a richly dressed young green Reptilian. He was taller than herself, wearing the colors of the Imperial Royalty. He was also carrying a heavy, jeweled collar and a fine chain-link leash. The collar was put around her neck, the bindings released from her hands, new ones that matched the collar replacing them, and a filing disk handed to the Reptilian. He pocketed it and pulled Henna out the door, into the hall outside the room.

They walked to the entrance, him briskly and her jogging to keep up. The lift that went to the surface of the planet was at the end of the hall, and Henna could smell the fresh air wafting in. He kicked her into the lift, walking in calmly after her. The door slid shut after him, and she could feel the upward movement of the floor, lifting them towards the daylight that she could see sinking through the ceiling.

When the lift doors opened onto the midday sun, Henna put up her hand to shield her eyes against the glare. The binary system of Alpha Centuari had only one inhabitable planet, and the entirety of the planet was one large prison. Most of it was underground, only the wardens lived on the surface. There was one visitor house, where people who didn't belong to the prison could stay overnight, though it was small and rarely used. Henna had seen all this briefly before being taken below.

The Reptilian pulled Henna towards the landing platform, where a ship was waiting for them. The boarding platform was lowered, and they walked up it. Henna was thrown into a room, the hatch shut behind her. She felt as the ship started and lifted off. She also knew instinctively that they weren't going very far, because this specific ship had been designed for short distance travel. Despite being locked in a prison for three years, her mechanic's intuition stood firm.

The door to her room slid open, revealing the green Reptilian and a grey Ceth. Desheen smiled winningly at her, his green eyes glowing as he removed her bindings.

"Told you they would let me go," he said. "Come on, we'll get that disk out of your arm and assess any other damage that might have been done."

Henna removed the collar from her neck and followed Desheen to a small med bay onboard the ship. He pulled out a syringe and stuck the needle into her arm above where the disk was implanted. A simple matter of one slice got the disk out of her skin. Desheen bandaged it up quickly.

She wasn't paying attention to what he was doing, however. She was instead staring at the green Reptilian who was standing in the doorway.

"Have we met?" she asked him.

"No, we haven't, at least not formally." His Talikian was flawless, his voice familiar. "Since your language doesn't have an acceptable pronunciation of my name, please call me Vessin."

"And what do you want with me, Vessin?" She knew her question was bold, but she asked it all the same. In her life, she had only met five Reptilians who didn't strictly adhere to Imperial rule. "I'm a criminal, as you well know."

"I," he said, "as well as the rest of the rebellion, would say otherwise."

As if on cue, Devon, a green Reptilian and friend of Henna's, stuck his head into the room and smiled at Henna. "It's good to see you back. We'll be out of here as soon as possible. Henna, there are some things you need to know. We'll debrief as soon as we've cleared the system."

She nodded and laid back as Desheen checked her swollen knee. Devon disappeared again, and Vessin sat on one of the stools in the med bay, pulling out a hand held computer device and inputting information into it. Henna felt a wave of dizziness overtake her as Desheen pushed her knee back into better alignment, and rather than fight it as she had so many times before, she gave into the exhaustion and allowed herself to black out.

She awoke in the med bay alone, a set of fresh clothes, a simple mechanic's uniform, sitting on the end of the bed. Henna quickly changed from the rags she was wearing into the uniform and ventured into the corridor outside. She heard voices coming from another room, and walked cautiously over to it, listening. Two people were conversing in Reptilian, the hissing language of the Empire.

"- massive damage, Devon. There's no way she should still be alive."

"But she is, and that's all that matters-"

"You don't understand the horrors they have at that prison! I was there when the king implemented his new strategy to get them to talk! After Sirius was supposedly destroyed, he wanted the rebellion to be defeated as soon as possible and his rule restored. However, since none of the captured rebels would talk, he agreed to these...barbaric tactics. Her eyes, for example, they shouldn't be that color, should they?"

"No, her eyes were pink when we last saw her."

"Exactly!" Vessin's voice was half-angry, half-desperate. "The machine that did that, it could cause a person to lose their sight, if not kill them outright. You don't understand the horrors she went through. Her physical health aside, that place could drive a person insane in very little time. We don't know what kind of mental state she's in. She might not even trust us at all, only went along because we could get her out. Who knows! She might have turned-"

"She didn't turn!" Devon said, his voice raised louder than necessary. "You don't know all that girl went through to join us! She would have and almost did give her life for our cause, and-"

"And didn't, Devon. We don't know for sure what happened to her in these last three years. All we know is what she tells us. There's no way I'm taking that chance. We take her to Rilt, and she stays with me, no matter what. She cannot be allowed to gain knowledge of our plans. She is no longer to be trusted."

"I know we have to be careful, but consider all she's lost already. You can't turn her into a slave now, it would truly break her."

Henna heard Vessin sigh heavily. "You believed her a traitor once, we don't even know if that wasn't true. I'm sorry, Devon, I truly am, but there are no other options left to us."

Footsteps told her that someone was walking to the door. Henna turned and ran to the med bay, sitting quickly on the bed. Devon walked in, looked at her once, then nodded at her to follow him. She walked to the room where Vessin was sitting in one of several seats surrounding a round table. Henna took the one Devon offered, and he sat near her.

"Henna, much has happened since you were captured," Devon said. "I'm sure you have questions."

She knew what her first question was already, though it pained her to ask it. "Where's Flisk?"

Devon closed his eyes, then opened them again. "He's gone, Henna. He was killed on Sirius the day after you were captured. There was nothing we could have done."

Flisk had been a close friend and more to Henna when she had first joined the rebellion. She had more than once told herself she couldn't die if only to see him again. He had been her lifeline, and now that she knew he was gone, she felt a void grow within. She looked at Devon, her face emotionless.

"Who lives?"

"Skye is at Hideout with Noris, Neo, and Jerick. Cassy returned to the royal inner circle as a spy. Deidre's on Valaportia, recruiting Ceths. Fenze...didn't make it out of Sirius. He was captured, and we don't know where they hold him or if he's still alive."

Vessin stood suddenly and walked out of the room. Henna didn't turn to watch him leave, only stared at the table. The circle had been broken, and she knew it was her doing. Everything that had happened in the last days before she had been captured that had led to the capture of Fenze and Flisk's death were a direct effect of her leaving the group.

Henna stood and looked at Devon. "Thanks for telling me. I just want to be alone for a little while, if that's okay."

Devon nodded at gestured for the door, not standing himself. She walked out into the corridor at a loss as to where to go. She glanced around, spotted a ladder downward, and easily slid down it, into the engine room. She had helped Mercid design this ship almost ten years ago, so she knew it inside and out. She watched as the generator turned, catching every once and a while. Henna turned to where there were several tools on the wall and took a couple down, feeling the cool metal in her hand, and it comforted her to be among machines and tools once more. She opened the small access panel and a quick glance told her that there was a piece out of alignment near the top of the engine. A quick tweak put it back in place, and Henna replaced the tools on the wall, sitting down on the floor near the engine.

She was there for several hours before the engine started slowing down, signaling that they had reached deep space, where momentum more than propulsion moved them. Henna stood and walked to the ladder, climbing slowly. The corridor was empty, and she walked to the front of the ship, where Vessin was now piloting, keeping track of the navigational systems. She turned to leave, but his voice stopped her.

"I know you're here. I can smell the grease on you." He turned and looked at her. "On board not even a day and you're already messing with the engines." His tone was slightly accusatory.

"I am..." She stopped herself. "I was a mechanic. I helped design this class ship." She sat down in the copilot's chair and watched the guidance computer make minor corrections to their flight. "Look, I know you don't trust me, and frankly, I don't trust you."

He grunted. "At least we're on the same page there."

"But we have to work together. There's nothing for it. I don't know when you joined us or who you were when you joined, but the fact remains that you are technically a new comer, and you don't know all that happened before you came."

Vessin's eyes narrowed slightly. "I know enough. I know you betrayed your friends and joined-"

Henna stood, fists clenched. "I betrayed no one," she said in a quiet voice, which still held the entirety of her fury. "I went there to save them, but there were forces working..." She stopped. "There were those even on our team that didn't want to see me succeed. You know nothing of what happened, no one does, save myself and the person who wanted me to fail." The look on Vessin's face betrayed him. "I know you don't believe me, but I know what happened, and you, unfortunately, do not."

She turned and left, walking easily down the corridor. When she made it to the lavatory door, she opened it and entered, locking the hatch behind her. The shower, sink, and towels hanging up near the shower were all spotless, and Henna cringed when she saw herself in the mirror. She was far from spotless.

The shower didn't take as long as she had thought. The dirt covering her washed off in little time, though her hair, which was now down to her waist, was matted with three years of grime. The water running off of her started brown, and she stood there until it ran clear. She got out, dried herself, then hunted down a pair of shears, which she used to cut her hair to a reasonable length. She found a clean uniform in the closet and put it on, reveling in the feel of clean clothes. The person in the mirror when she looked into it was almost unrecognizable as the person who had walked into the lavatory. Her face was still gaunt and her skin still gray, however her hair was clean and white once more and her eyes held a sparkle in them that was all to do with being free.

Henna walked out of the lavatory, right into Desheen, who was carrying the collar she had so recently worn. He stopped when he saw her, grimaced slightly, and handed it to her.

"Vessin said you should be wearing this, in case we get boarded."

She took it from him, connecting it around her neck. "No, it's so he won't have an argument when we reach Rilt, wherever and whatever that is."

The sound of engines assailed their ears. Desheen blinked. "Rilt? The slave planet?"

It was then that Henna understood. "Rilt. We're arriving, so you'd better go. I need to find Devon."

He nodded and ran off. Henna walked to the room she knew Devon would be in. He was sitting at the table, running his hand along a fine crack in it. He didn't hear her come in, and she stood, staring at him.

"Did he die trying to find me?"

Devon jumped, turning quickly. "What?"

"Flisk. Did he die trying to find me?"

"No." Devon slumped further in the chair. "He died trying to get you back."

She closed her eyes against the pain. "I want to know what happened. Tell me everything."

He gestured at a seat near him. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes," she said, sitting. "Don't hold back, please. I need to know."

"Okay." He took a deep breathe and looked at the table. "We had arrived at Sirius. We knew you had gone there, we followed the homing signal of the pod you took. He didn't wait for anyone else, just stormed in, going as quickly as he could through the halls, looking for you. When we heard where you were being held, he tried to get in single handedly. He was shot by four guards...Four...He didn't go down until he made it to your cell to find you had already been moved. I made it to the cell just in time to see him give in to that old chest wound that never quite healed right. I was there when he died, and the only thing he said...He wanted us to find you. He wanted us to save you."

Tears were streaming down, her hands clinging to the arms of her chair. "I never got to say goodbye. And it's my own fault."

"No, it's ours. We didn't stop him, we didn't try. We were furious at you, believed you were a...well...a traitor." His yellow eyes were a well of sadness. "We never thought that something like that would happen. We thought-"

"I know what you thought," Henna said quickly. "You thought he wanted to catch me. You thought I betrayed you."

"You did! You betrayed us all!" Devon yelled suddenly, standing. His full height of six foot five inches would have intimidated most, however Henna stood and looked up at him, unafraid. "You left, remember? You turned your back on all of us!"

"I didn't turn my back on anyone! I was doing my best to help you! Not a single one of you wanted my help! As a matter of fact, one of you hated me so much-"

"No one hated you!"

"Then why did Deidre betray me?"

Devon stopped yelling, his eyes on her. "What do you mean?" he asked quietly.

"She sold me out." Henna broke eye contact with him, turning to the door. "She contacted Sirius before you reached it, told them there was a spy in their midst. That's why I was arrested before you got there. I don't know what her plan was, but it didn't work as she wanted it."

She heard him sit, his tail thumping heavily on the deck. "I didn't know..."

"No one knew." Henna turned back to him. "Or at least no one left alive. Devon, if anyone betrayed us, it was her. She may not have been raised on the wrong side of this war, but she was raised wrong. The damage she caused will never be fixed. And all suffer for it, not just me. I was the intended victim...Flisk...He's the one that paid."

Silence fell in the small room. Henna walked to the door, Devon stayed in the chair. She glanced back at him once, then left, walking to the med bay, where a bed was waiting for her.

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Through the Sky