The Wars of Zegandaria by Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (find a book to read .txt) 📕

Neola just looked at her out of the corner of her eye and smiled playfully, turning slightly on her heel. It was as if she didn't care at all about her surroundings and the fact that they were in a semi-deserted area, thousands of miles from the nearest outbreak of civilization.

- Don't sweat such a small thing, we may be short of quite a few things, but we still have enough bottles for at least a month to come.

- 'My girl,' Zengar Endookia dared to open her mouth, 'you haven't changed at all since the last time I saw you.'

- 'But, you, Uncle Zengar, had two eyes then,' Neola shook her head, 'clearly times are changing,' here she paused briefly, 'things are definitely taking a turn for the worse.'

After resting for a few minutes, getting a burst of strength from the concentrated caloric food and changing their oxygen bottles, they were now able to satisfy the curiosity of their kind 'hostess'.

- 'Well, tell us what brings you this way,' she could not contain herself.

Without sparing any details of their shared experiences, they both recounted the most interesting of their adventures together. She listened attentively and intently without interrupting them, her facial features changing barely noticeably.

- Honestly, we've been here for almost six weeks now and we're completely cut off from the outside world. Our only 'connection' is the radio airwaves. But it keeps crackling and picking up absolutely nothing. No matter how hard we try, for the moment we are completely isolated from what is happening on the surface.

- 'I can help you fix it, as I'm a qualified aeronautical engineer,' Sasia offered her services. 'Perhaps the relay and one or two integrated circuits for the digital sound transformer need to be replaced.'

The men were silent in bewilderment, but it was clear from their expressions that something was bothering them. It did not escape the watchful eye of the One-eyed Zengar, who moved his single eye now to Neola, now to Sasia, though he remained seemingly unperturbed.

- 'We don't have such things,' Endwhite ventured to call. 'But we can find them if we look. There's a lot of debris and rubbish rolling around. There's bound to be something of use.'

- 'Well, well,' Neola interjected most unexpectedly. 'I think it's time for bed. In hibernation mode, spacesuits consume less compressed oxygen, and we should conserve it. Who knows if we'll find new supplies from somewhere?'

Everyone complied with what she said, as it was going to dawn soon. Sasia also flopped into a makeshift 'sleeping bag' that Neola's people had made out of various pieces of quisson and plexoniars, but sleep could not hold her in its embrace for a long time. Although she was at the edge of her physical capabilities, among complete strangers who generally still didn't inspire much confidence in her, she tried to force herself to sleep and had almost succeeded when she most surprisingly heard some strange, barely audible sounds. Pretending to be asleep, she scarcely opened her eyelids, and some semblance of light filtered through the narrow slits between her knitted lashes. In the farthest corner of the cave, almost completely obscured by closely spaced stalactites, two wispy silhouettes shimmered. One was short and tanturing, while the other was tall and slender. Sasia listened in on their conversation.

- 'Will he take us where we want to go?,' some strange voice babbled in the darkness. One had to make quite an effort to catch that low, thick, bass sound, much less to make out the meaning of the inarticulate speech.

- 'We cannot be sure, but treat it well for now. You must not raise any suspicions. I clearly sense that she does not trust us yet. And why should she?,' added another voice, which, though greatly muffled, sounded like a badly oiled sewing-machine of the distant past. It was just irritatingly impossible, but certainly cautious enough.

- 'You're right,' the first voice chuckled. 'She hasn't even a clue where she's got to. Did you put her gun away, remember?'

- 'Never mind,' the second voice condescended, 'let's go to bed, because she might hear us.'

^^^

Sasia had taken it upon herself to fix the damaged speeder in a timely manner. And she knew how to keep her promises. One would have simply enjoyed watching her carefully attaching the integrated circuits and soldering capacitors, using a translator pneumatic hammer to straighten evasive hull parts, and last but not least trying to do a basic update to the old operating system to fix a bug that made it impossible to see the amount of interron fuel in the tank. She then set about checking that the microplasma turbines were maintaining the required RPMs to make a stable flight. Of course she wasn't doing this entirely alone as her friends were helping her as best they could, or at least trying.

Sweat dripped from her brow despite the suit's built-in cooling. But they had no time to waste. She had to finish this an hour sooner.

Neola wasn't jealous that it was Sasia who had become the center of attention due to her competence. They had to get out of here and she was the only one who was aware of what she was doing. Except something was nagging at her, and that was how they were going to get rid of her after she did her job. Uncle Zengar was dead. One night they just saw that he had bowed his eyes forever. But at least he had brought her to them. Neola was grateful for that, too.

Endeavour fussed around the pilot as if he liked her. Truly this little woman, she possessed the agility of a cat and had a mind as sharp as a razor. How she only skillfully fixed the digital sound translator, without which the speeder was practically useless. How he deftly connected wires, adjusted every detail with infernal precision.

One thing weighed on him, though. He'd been the one chosen to kill her so that Neola and her people could save themselves. There was only a maximum of four people they could fit in the speeder, and that was if the pilot seats were removed. The purpose was the compressed air bottles would keep them in hibernation until they went into orbit around Zegandaria. The speeder wasn't suited for so-called space jumps, nor did it have an extra reinforced hull, but it would last at least a little while the Enzoria took them in. Such a plan was very bold, but they were counting on it to succeed.

- 'What are you thinking?,' jokingly threw Sasia at him, her face as red as a radish. 'It's like someone threw an Ezonium bomb in your face! Ha ha. Relax a bit.'

- 'Well ... I ... such,' Endwhite muttered. 'I'm glad we're on the same team. I like being of use.'

- 'You really are,' she tossed him a coquettish look. 'I hardly think you'll find a sidekick like that around.'

Neola followed their conversation all too closely, albeit from a distance. She was trying to figure out if she could rely on Endeavour or if she had to involve someone else. She was impressed by the looks they were throwing each other. What was going on here?

Before the renovations had started they'd gone to a place nearby that everyone called the Graveyard. All sorts of junk rolled in there and it was the strangest area in all of Rodwell. It didn't take long for Sasia to figure out that this was where they'd stashed their soul-harvesting battle companions to keep them out of sight. It was a practice in the army to let the wounded die of their own volition, or turn off their oxygen supply. No ammunition was wasted that the living might later need. It took them more than two days to locate tarpaulin tubes for interron fuel and miscellaneous charcals that might have been useful. What was their surprise when pieces of integrated circuitry showed themselves from under the debris, and Sasia, set to work assembling and joining them with low-viscosity glue, and then with metal-based Lerouane Parmesan. The collected wires turned out to be completely fried and unfit for anything. They had to be re-walked, something that wasn't very much to the liking of Neola, who was skimping on every capsule of compressed oxygen. The second time, however, they got lucky and somehow managed to find even a Riandan teraflyther. The device was just lying half buried in the dust and sand, but after a brief check it appeared to be working.

- 'This thing can be used,' Sasia said calmly. 'But I need to gut the hull and get the Irethium threads for the tracer.'

- 'As long as you're sure they'll do the job,' Endwhite shrugged. 'It's all right.'

When they returned, they saw that Neola's people had polished the surface of the hull composite and applied a special protective paste, as she had instructed. Upon entering the stratosphere, it was what would provide them with precious seconds before the hull began to glow dangerously.

The very idea was more than a little far-fetched, but behind them was death, and in front of them was death again. There was salvation only in the sky, in open space. They wished they could fly like birds. To fly free. To think of nothing. About all this war. All this chaos. But nothing could change now. All was lost long ago. They could only hope they were on the right track and of course act.

- 'When will you be ready?,' Neola glared at them from under her eyebrows and growled slightly defiantly.

- All that's left to do is set up some of the relational mechanisms in the transformer box to equalize the cockpit pressure.

- 'Okay.,' the redhead muttered, turning around and seeming to stop caring about them altogether.

- 'I think she's jealous,' Endwhite muttered.

- 'Don't think so,' Sasia whispered with her head slightly bowed. 'There's no reason for him to. Let's get to work, partner.'

It was starting to get dark now, and they needed to use the last remnants of daylight to work out some final details. The next morning they also had to prepare a special makeshift chute for the horizontal takeoff of the speeder, as the lateral stabilizers were still giving some defects on vertical takeoff.

- 'What were those obsolete equatorial stabilisers for,' Sasia said angrily. 'They gave serious deviations in the balance of the machine when the polarity changed. But that's what we can put in.'

Endwhite mentally counted the minutes until he was going to drive the laser cutter into her back. He had mentally prepared himself and where to hide the corpse. He was even considering dumping his comrades. He knew that once he was done with the pilot, it would be his turn. And they'd probably just strangle him with a piece of quizon. Just like in the good old days. How corny!

But the speeder had to be fully operational and well stocked with oxygen capsules. Otherwise it was pointless to take that risk and miss his last chance to get out of here.

What was taking so long with the repairs Endwhite couldn't fathom, but he waited patiently for an opportune moment.

He was well aware of what Neola had planned, along with Radsoil and Edward. He had to get ahead of the moment.

^^^

Radsoil - a large man - knew well the meaning of the word 'boss'. Neola was the only one who saved his hide once and he would never forget it. His rough hands, like steam hammers, were at her disposal. Edouard was weak, but utterly unpredictable, and in Endeavour's observation, would do anything if asked. With great effort they had survived in these caves these past four weeks, and despite Neola's seeming kind words, the blood of his slain battle companions hummed in his ears. This war shouldn't have been there at all. But was there a choice? The first recruitment had nearly caught him in a field