CHAPTER FOUR◄CHAPTER FIVE►CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER ARTWORK

“Hold still, friend,” Elkanah said, his voice barely able to be heard over the percussive fire of gauss and plasma, the crackling flames of the smoldering troop transport, and the thundering hooves of the frightened Zuthari in their nearby pen. He knew he had to hurry, but if he rushed his movements he knew that he’d probably shock the girl’s nerves further than they already were, and as such he took his time, gently coming forward a few paces at a time while trying to remain low and not be a target for the Confederates. “Come on, let me get you out of that thing.”

Even his slower pace wasn’t enough to totally calm Talitha. She trudged backwards a few steps in the yoke with what little strength she had left to give. Her golden hair, disheveled and dirty, fell down before her face, partially obscuring her yellow eyes as she stared up at him; her expression thankful that she’d rescued her, but still fearful. How was she to believe a soldier of the Crown Army, the iron fists of her oppressors?

Trying to give her some semblance of reassurance, Elkanah brushed away the hair in her face so that she could get a full look at him, and that he meant no harm to her. He held his handpaws out to the side, setting his gauss rifle down on the dirt as he came up beside her. “It’s alright,” he beckoned to her. “See? No weapon. I’m here to help you. We’re getting out of here.”

Elkanah eyed the thing, which didn’t look overly complicated to take off, but it was impossible for the wearer. A leather strap was lashed and locked around either wrist, and a simple threaded carabiner chain link locked the back of her collar to the neck portion of the yoke. Gingerly reaching behind her neck with both handpaws, he started to unscrew the threaded bolt, having to hoist her head up slightly in order to clear the chain from its bracket. Once it did, her body slumped downward, as she had no more strength to give. He helped keep her upright as best he could, beckoning her to do her best to stand on both her footpaws to give him the leverage needed to remove the wrist straps.

“I know it’s a struggle to stand up,” he said, trying to keep one arm under her to support her weight that she could barely try and hold up herself. “But I can’t get you out of here if your wrists are tugging against these restraints. I’ll help hold you up and use my plasma knife to cut the locks off these wrist straps, but you have to remain still while I do so. Can you do that for me?”

Talitha was unable to do any more than tiredly nod her head. She could hold still, that much was certain, but she’d need all the help she could to even hoist herself up. Elkanah continued to clutch her upright with one arm as he reached down to his belt where his plasma knife was situated. It was a tool meant more for cauterizing flesh in the event of injury or as a last line of defense when ammunition had run out, but it was equally useful for a circumstance such as this. The metal blade with its plasma edge was more than capable of slicing through metal, but for the slave girl’s own safety, it all depended on her maintaining her stillness.

The sergeant flicked the ignition switch of the weapon as its luminescent edge flickered to life. He held his breath as he narrowed his concentration to the locks, and nothing more. It was easier said than done with the battle blaring around him. In a split second, he could find himself being slain by an incoming round from Confederate fire, and at that point the girl would fall victim to whatever fate awaited her. Perhaps she’d be freed by the incoming Confederate assault, or perhaps she’d be killed in the crossfire. Her chances for freedom, however, were clearly going to be assured if she was released from her bindings. Elkanah just continued telling himself that the Confederates wouldn’t take a shot at him if they saw him trying to free the golden furred Sivathi. For now, it seemed to be working, for all the incoming fire seemed to be directed at Crown troops that were actually fighting back.

After the first lock fell free, Talitha’s wrist fell forward and to the ground, and Elkanah once again had to keep her upright as she limply sagged in the one remaining leather strap, her arm arched painfully upward. He quickly got to work on the second lock, the plasma of the blade cutting like a knife through hot butter. In no time at all, and through the continued luck of the battle not scathing them for the moment, the second lock then fell free. The straps were still around Talitha’s wrists for the moment, but at least she was free from the yoke that had made her life worse than hell itself over the last day and night.

The slave girl then fell from the last binding that held her tight, and Elkanah quickly acted, dropping to his knees and holding her in his arms. He knew that she was beyond exhausted and was incapable of moving under her own strength, and it was all up to him to continue on with her. He’d committed himself to desertion, and now that this captive was free, the next step in absolving his sins for having served the Crown Army needed to take shape. He didn’t know what his plan entailed beyond that, or where he was going to go once he finally made it to the clear, but at least now he could rest more easily in knowing that he’d taken the first foray into what he knew was truly right. That, however, wasn’t something he could linger on at the moment. He had to leave the battlefield, and fast.

As tenderly as he could, he tapped her lightly on the cheek with his handpaw before she slipped away into unconsciousness. “We’re leaving. Hold on to me as tight as you can, friend,” he said, looking up and away for a moment to survey the battle’s progress. The Crown forces were losing decisively as the Confederates continued pouring from the cave mouth, already beginning to weave between the APCs and engaging their dismounted infantry in melee combat while another contingent moved to secure the crash site and ruins of Zeshom Noor’s manor. A third, smaller unit was diverting to the holding pens to try and free some of the slaves there. “Don’t you worry about any others we’re leaving behind. It looks like they’ll be free sooner than we know it!”

Just after Elkanah had picked up his gauss rifle and slung it over his shoulder, an incoming kinetic antitank round from one of the tank destroyers came whistling through the air of night, slamming into the front of another APC that was about thirty yards away from the duo’s present location. By some miracle, it didn’t penetrate and ricocheted off the frontal armor at an angle, hurtling off and ripping a hole in the Zuthari pen fence. The impact of the shell was enough to kill a pair of bulls, but worse yet, the floodgates had seemingly been opened for a stampede of the creatures to make their way out onto the battlefield, adding to the already confusing state of things. In no time at all, the Zuthari had begun barreling out of the hole in the fence, racing out in all directions as the troops of the Crown Army, their backs once again turned away from Zeshom Noor’s estate, couldn’t hope to prepare for being trampled.

Elkanah, however, could see the danger clear as day. Directly behind him to the southwest, the ever expanding wasteland and desert reached out past the borders of the now ruined estate of Zeshom Noor. He didn’t know what was beyond there, or if safety or survival could be guaranteed. With nowhere else to go, however, he was left with little choice. He couldn’t turn the girl over to the Confederates and take a chance in answering to them while still in uniform. As long as he remained here, he himself would be in danger, and there was no guarantee the slave girl in his arms would be able to get through the conflict unscathed in her weakened state. That being the case, he needed no further instructions as he stood up and then took off, trying to outrun the Zuthari bull that was quickly coming up on both himself and the girl he carried.

It was common knowledge that the Zuthari had exceptionally poor eyesight in the dark, and even with the flashing lights of battle swirling all around, the mud pits down below would possibly provide a good enough hiding place, if only for a moment. Elkanah ran as fast as his footpaws would carry him, his body still screaming in protest from the bruising of being thrown out of the APC in the explosion and made worse by carrying Talitha in his arms. The pummeling hooves of the bull behind him were getting closer and closer with each passing second, and the ground was shaking like an earthquake as the raging beast thundered forward.

As soon as he neared the edge of the nearest mud pit, Elkanah slid downward with all the force he could muster, not wanting to risk dropping the rescued slave by making a bounding leap upward. The lights of battle up in the air and around them were unable to penetrate into the sunken earth slopes and the ground inside as the sergeant and Talitha slid downward, landing in the mud below with a splat. Quickly seizing his chance, Elkanah crouched down as low as he could to the ground, practically having to wallow in the muck and mire in the hopes that the Zuthari bull would give up its charge and hopefully lose sight of them.

The beast’s nostrils flared as it came to a screeching halt at the edge of the mud pit where Elkanah and Talitha were hidden, a few loose stones tumbling down the slope of the pit and landing on the duo painfully. Elkanah instinctively held up his gauss rifle in the direction of the Zuthari as it looked around the edge of the pit, gazing into the darkness below it in case it just so happened to see them. He quickly put it back down again, knowing that there was little use in trying to use small arms against the silicate armored bodies of the beast. Only plasma weaponry or very high calibers—like the ricocheted antitank round—were capable of dealing with a Zuthari, and it was a weapon he lacked at present. The rest of his fire team had been in possession of such gear, but they had all been destroyed in the blast. Now, his only hope was that stealth and shadow alone would be enough to get them off the hook.

The creature stomped its hooves on the dirt several times as it instinctively wanted to continue its charge, gazing this way and that to try and find the targets it had been honed in on. They’d seemingly disappeared into the black pit below, and it wasn’t able to see any further into it. Only the blazing wrecks of vehicles and the fighting troops nearby were the only things it could see. It didn’t take long for its short attention span to be routed elsewhere, as some small arms fire from the Confederates harmlessly ricocheted off its silicate plating. At feeling the sudden attack, it did an about face at the edge of the pit before stampeding off again in the direction of the battle, eager to trample whoever had been the one to fire the shots at it.

Elkanah let out a sigh of relief at seeing the rampaging bull having quickly lost interest. At least that crisis had been averted for the moment. However, the matter of escaping the battle completely still remained. With Major Emiah dead, the lack of a commander was throwing the entire company into disarray, and the APCs and assault guns that hadn’t been already destroyed by the Confederates had begun to completely turn tail and run back up the dune, hoping to get in the clear upon reaching its crest and descending back down to safety. The infantry that had already disembarked from their vehicles were cowering behind the wrecks, unable to go anywhere except in the direction of retreat, and in doing that they risked being gunned down. Then again, if they stayed put and tried to fight, the Confederate onslaught would eventually sweep over them as they’d already done to several positions in the column, where melee fighting would ensue or the Confederates would demand their surrender. It wouldn’t be long before the entire company was overrun.

Elkanah thought about the prospect of simply surrendering to the enemy. Though he had heard tales of both the mercy of the Confederate cause and the equal brutality they dispensed, depending upon the commander, the way the battle was unfolding in its merciless, unforgiving nature had him thinking that he wouldn’t be getting any good treatment if he turned himself in. On top of that, the golden fur of the girl, in spite of her appearances of being a slave, might draw the suspicions of the Confederates if they even got their paws on her. More importantly, what guarantee was there that they had the capacity to treat her properly for her wounds?

Elkanah bit his lip, kneeling down in the mud and cradling the girl in his arms as he prepared to make the ascent back up the side of the mud pit’s slope. Every second that he wasted pondering what-ifs was time wasted in being able to get away. His choice was clear, and he couldn’t commit himself to the easy way out by just letting her go and expect her to be picked up by the Confederates. A warzone was no place for her to recuperate from her wounds, if she survived the battle at all, and in freeing her, Elkanah already felt a growing sense of responsibility for her wellbeing and safety. It wasn’t something he could explain, but he felt it as an innate drive within himself. In taking personal care of her, he was righting all the wrongs that he’d participated in and witnessed in his life, both as a member of his family and within the Crown Army.

Bearing this in mind, the Sivathi sergeant planted his boots firmly into the dirt, shaking off the mud as he began to pull both himself and Talitha out of the mud pit, back up to ground level. As he got back upright after exiting the mud pit, he looked around to see that the company’s retreat was now in full swing. The wreckage of the troop transport was beginning to emerge with members of its crew and the soldiers on board, who were in no condition to fight against the Confederates and were beginning to surrender. As such, the equipment and weapons within would soon be in the paws of the rebel forces. At witnessing this, Elkanah knew that the mission to secure the troop transport had failed spectacularly, and he was likely in the clear to begin making a hasty foray into the wasteland himself, likely able to bypass anybody who would have otherwise told him to fall back in line and continue the fight—not like any of the remaining officers were trying to do so.

Beginning to move further away from the flaming wrecks of APCs and assault guns, surrounded by the dead soldiers of the Crown Army all around, Elkanah took off jogging into the darkness and the wastes that lay before him as quickly as he could. Though somewhat hindered in his speed by having to carry the girl in his arms, his sheer determination spurred him onward. The deserts and wastelands of Siva where he planned to hide could be a cruel and unforgiving place, but at least he could possibly find shelter there in some secluded cave or near a rocky outcrop that would permit him the chance to disappear from the ranks of the Crown Army for good, hopefully chalked up as another casualty of the Confederate assault.

As he continued to run into the darkness, going deeper and deeper into the desert, the sounds of the battle he was leaving behind started to die down, becoming little more than a distant echo as the light pollution of the burning vehicles and the shattered troop transport emanated a soft red glow in the rising dawn. By sheer chance, it almost seemed to be symbolic to the young Sivathi soldier of the turmoil he was attempting to leave behind, as the morning twilight gave way to something new. Not only was this the case for him, but for the girl he clutched in his arms as well. Elkanah had abandoned his hated life as a soldier, and Talitha was leaving behind the misery of her days on Zeshom Noor’s estate. New dawns awaited them both, as did the whole Zaket system and beyond.

*

Elkanah knew that he couldn’t continue his trek for much longer as the binary Zaket suns climbed higher and higher into the sky. Morning had been manageable enough, and the cooling alloys built into his light armor plating lessened the severity of the punishing solar heat, but for Talitha, she had little to protect her except for her slave rags. Knowing that he needed to find shelter to hide away from the heat of day, for the slave girl’s sake, he’d spotted an opening in a mesa several kilometers away with his infrared binoculars. The cave that was likely within would be perfect for hunkering down and providing a place where both of them could recuperate and she could be properly treated for her wounds.

Unlike the heat signature he’d seen from the cave outside Zeshom Noor’s estate, there was no indication that there was anything inside, and being part of the mesa, it was likely that it didn’t descend into the underground. At worst, maybe it was the den of some wild beast that was out on a daytime hunt. With luck, it would be truly empty when he got there.

Trudging forward, Elkanah felt the slave girl shift weakly in his arms, and he looked down at her. He knew that she was suffering greatly. He had brought her out here on his own accord, on a mission to personally make amends for all the things he’d let happen in his life as a member of a privileged middle class. Inside his heart, however, he knew there were reasons beyond just his own personal investment in looking after somebody who couldn’t care for themselves. All the things that Zeshom Noor had said right in front of him had driven him to act not only on the urge of fighting an injustice, but also to uncover the reasons for how a slave could ever have the marks of nobility. The signs were clear as day, and perhaps when the girl was well enough, she’d have some answers for him. There was little chance that she could have pursued those truths under the Confederates—assuming she’d survived the battle—considering their attitude towards the bulk of nobles; and she had semblances of one despite her lash marks and rags. Then again, she had appeared just as confused at Zeshom Noor’s words as Elkanah had, and didn’t know whether to make heads or tails of his mad rantings.

Nonetheless, there would be a time to discern all that for himself. On top of seeking shelter, Elkanah needed a further plan than just lingering in the desert. He only had supplies to last him for so long, let alone enough to feed two Sivathi. His field rations and first-aid kit had been designed to Crown Army standards to last a week when alone. It was certainly possible that he could make it last the same amount of time for two, but it would prove very difficult. The amount of time it would last wouldn’t be enough to make it to the nearest settlement on foot either; it would take at least two weeks to get to even the most remote village, based on his holo-maps. One possibility would be to return to the crash site and scavenge for anything of use that could sustain the two of them for that long, but by that point it would likely have been picked clean by the Confederates. Going back now was too risky, and even if he could, Elkanah wouldn’t be able to just leave his new companion behind in her current state. He had to hunker down for the whole week to try and heal and care for her as best as he could. Only by then would she be strong enough to have any chance of making a further journey with him.

Nearing the entrance to the cave at the base of the mesa, Elkanah peered deeper inside, squinting his eyes to block out the blinding light of Zaket A and B. The thing was quite small and could hardly be called a “cave” in the truest sense of the word. It didn’t seem to go back any more than twenty feet into the mesa, and was a little under the same width across. Nonetheless, it would at least get them out of the punishing sunlight and provide a place for him to treat the girl, and perhaps get a rest himself. Through rigorous military training, he was able to endure the harsh elements of Siva’s more than others of his race, as was an innate base trait in the Sivathi. But he wasn’t invincible, and having to carry a passenger had made him tire quicker than he’d thought. The girl in his paws boasted no such luxury of being able to withstand the climate. Under normal circumstances, yes, but these were hardly normal times.

Elkanah hurried along in the last few steps that brought him into the shady interior of the cave. As the binary suns disappeared behind the towering mesa and the coolness of the cave met him, he almost immediately felt more at ease. At long last, he could finally settle down and start caring for this poor slave girl. He looked back into the farthest point of the cave, where the floor of the chamber’s interior sloped down ever so slightly. Wasting no further time, the sergeant stepped towards the back of the cavern, finding a flat surface along the cave floor to set down girl down. The sudden drop in temperature as they’d entered the cavern had seemed to reinvigorate her some, now that she was out of the heat. The darkness and cool temperature washed over her like a fresh wave, and for the first time since she’d been released from the yoke by Elkanah, she slowly opened her eyes as she was put down on her belly. Elkanah avoided laying her on her back, so as not to aggravate her lash marks that needed medical attention.

Elkanah saw the girl finally coming back into full consciousness, however weak it might have been, but he didn’t want to overstep things with how much she’d seemingly been through. He simply began to set aside his equipment against the wall of the cave, eager to get out of his light armor plating and move a little more freely. As anxious as he was to do so, he knew that he still had a job to do in helping treat the slave’s wounds. Only after he’d administered aid could he rest himself. If he was going to travel down this path of redemption for standing idly by to the plight of the slave class and commoners, then he couldn’t dream of putting his own needs before those of her.

Talitha had cognition of where she was, but things were still hazy, at best. Sprawled out on her belly, she could barely even bring herself to turn her head in the direction of Elkanah in her current state of exhaustion. His white furred form stood out against the blackness of the cave like a sore thumb. Everything in her vision was still a blur, just as it had been when she’d been lashed to the yoke. What was clear as day, however, was that a soldier of the Crown Army had rescued her. A very enforcer of everything that had kept her downtrodden for her entire life had been the one to break her chains of bondage. But in the face of all the kindness he’d shown her thus far, she was still conditioned to be fearful of him. Almost as if the action would provide her with some kind of safety, she grasped her clawed fingers into the ground of the cave, clutching at it so as not to be whisked away from the spot on which she lay and sent back into the nightmare of slavery. In spite of it, she felt the first semblance of safety—tiny as it was—that she’d ever felt in all her life. It was an alien feeling to her, as she’d been so accustomed to the harshness and cruelty exacted upon her by her former master and his overseers. Even if she was still mildly afraid of the sergeant, she knew that she was finally in a place where another beating or reprimand wasn’t to be expected.

Her grip on the sandy floor of the cave tightened sharply as she suddenly felt the sting of her lash marks, and how severe they actually were. As she’d been out cold from the shock and terror that had surrounded her and the tiredness, she hadn’t fully grasped how serious the pain actually was. Her fatigued nerves hadn’t been capable of even registering the sensation. It shot across and radiated through the entirety of her back as a little tear escaped her eye, trailing down the grime and dust on her cheek. Though she’d been accustomed to the whip’s bite to a degree, the pain this time was something else entirely. Kabir’s whip had done its job well, and the golden fur upon her back was crisscrossed with reddish, bloody marks. Had they been left alone, they would have eventually scabbed over and scarred, but the relentless strikes she’d endured upon the millstone had made sure that her flesh had been torn away from her back. If and when she healed, the remnants of brutality wouldn’t be soon forgotten, both in her mind and on her body.

The pain wasn’t the only reason that her emotions silently spilled over and into tears down her cheeks. In addition to the shred of safety that she felt, she felt a burgeoning sense embarrassment and shame in being in her current state before the soldier. She’d been taught in life that she didn’t deserve such treatment or good grace. It had been one thing that she’d been acclimated to the belittlement and mistreatment from Zeshom Noor and the others. It was another thing now that somebody that she’d originally considered an enemy was trying to help her, and she almost didn’t want to believe that such a notion of compassion could be dispensed upon her. Was this really happening? How could anybody care for her in this way when she’d been born to suffer?

Talitha continued to watch Elkanah out of the corner of her eyes, her blurred vision doing its best to try and piece together the puzzle that was his identity as a soldier of the Crown Army, and his ostensibly empathetic demeanor. The whole thing just didn’t add up as she watched him remove the last of his armor plating, setting it down next to his gear and knapsack. Now in the lighter clothing of his basic uniform, Elkanah finally began to dig around through some of the pouches of his pack, feeling around for a moment before finding the dual purpose antiseptic and collagen growth spray buried in his first aid kit. A cutting edge product of military medical research, the stuff was a particularly useful treatment for minor battlefield wounds that helped to sterilize the site of injury and accelerate reconstructive tissue growth. For injuries such as the one his companion was suffering, it could halve the time of convalescence. Moreover, it would provide some much needed relief, which she clearly was in desperate need of now as she was beginning to come out of her practically fainted state.

“This is probably going to sting a little bit,” Elkanah said as he removed the spray from his knapsack. “And I know it may be hard for you to believe me when I say that this is going to help you. This is an antiseptic and collagen promoting spray that’s going to assist in sealing up those lashes on your back. If you would continue to remain still and let me apply this to your back, I promise that within a few hours the pain will have subsided completely and you’ll be well on your way to recovery. After that, I can properly begin setting up camp and we can get you some much needed water and sleep, then supper after you wake. How does that sound?”

Talitha closed her eyes, squinting out the remainder of her tears. She didn’t want to look weak in front of the sergeant, and was embarrassed to be crying in front of him. Turning her head away from him so that she wouldn’t see her tears, she simply nodded in agreement. If the treatment was going to hurt, it certainly wouldn’t be any worse than the deep bite of the whip on her back that she’d known all her life.

Taking the bottle in his handpaw, Elkanah reached out with the spray nozzle as tenderly and slowly as he could, doing his best to try and keep the girl calm by making no sudden movements. He was almost afraid of what might happen when he would finally start applying the compound to her wounds. He couldn’t begin to know how traumatic of an experience anything on her back would feel, but he was trusting her to find it within herself to remain strong so that he could properly treat her, for her own good.

Depressing the tip of his finger on the spray bottle, Elkanah began to distribute the compound upon the girl’s aching back. A subdued mewl creeped out from Talitha’s throat as the sting of the antiseptic bit into the nerves of her flesh. The tolerance for pain of the chemical had been designed to be more bearable at a local level for a mere gunshot wound or burn. With her entire back being treated, Elkanah could only imagine how much it had to hurt her, and he silently swore at himself for having to do this. He knew that if he didn’t that the slave girl wouldn’t be anywhere near convalescence by the time they ran out of supplies and needed to move out, and perhaps more importantly he was preventing her wounds from becoming severely infected.

Talitha knew it too. Standard lashes on a day to day basis eventually scabbed over and healed on their own, but she’d seen those that had survived the most brutal whippings both on and off the millstone, just as she’d been subjected to. The slaves at the receiving end were deliberately left untreated to cripple them. From the business perspective, it was a sacrifice that had to be made from time to time in diminishing the work capacity of a slave, but messages had to be sent from time to time, and on top of it all it was the ultimate way of reinforcing the social castes that Sivathi society revolved around. That could have been her, if not for the soldier helping her escape, or had the Confederates taken her into their ranks and not had the medical capability to properly attend to her.

Talitha dug her fingertips into the ground as the radiating sting spread across her back. She tried her best to believe this was going to help her, and deep down she knew that it likely would, but she’d always been told that such pain was “for her own good”. The whip was what kept the slaves of Zeshom Noor in line, along with so many other Sivathi in bondage.

“It’ll only be for a moment longer,” Elkanah said with a placid voice that betrayed his appearance as a military man. “Just give me another minute or so to apply the spray to the last of your lashes, then we’ll get you bandaged up.”

Elkanah soon neared the completion of his task as he descended down to her lower back. He was lucky that the spray battle had such a large capacity, for he’d practically gone through half its volume just to cover the entire of her wounds. Far less was required under typical circumstances, but as was obvious, these circumstances were anything but typical. Finally, after what seemed to be an agonizing eternity for Talitha, the sergeant finished applying the antiseptic and collagen spray to her lash marks. All that remained was to wipe away the blood and grime before bandaging them up.

Reaching back into his knapsack, Elkanah put away the chemical spray, swapping it out for a clean, sterile microfiber rag. Keeping his touch incredibly tender, he started to wipe away the blood that was spattered across her back, doing his best to get it as clean as possible before applying the bandage wrapping. Each time that he pressed his handpaw against her fur and skin, he could feel her muscles tense up reflexively, having been habitually accustomed to only feeling a cruel touch upon her body. Just as she had shed a single tear, so too did the sergeant wipe away a lone bead of water from his tear ducts as his own emotions got the better of him. He felt an immense amount of sorrow for the slave. What horrors could have possibly been exacted upon her to make her react in this way to offers of help? He knew, for he had seen it in his youth, and he’d seen it only the night before as she languished on the millstone. This wasn’t a high and mighty semblance of the wonderment in Sivathi society. This was barbarity, plain and simple, masquerading as a cultured caste system and tradition. Nobody deserved this.

By the time Elkanah was finished, the rag was soaked in the girl’s blood, demonstrating to him just how much fluid she had lost and the severity of her injuries. On the bright side, the lash marks were now sterilized and were reinforced with the collagen accelerant, and could begin healing properly. For this, he had to have her sit upright so that he could loop the bandaging around her back and torso. This, too, was a marvel of Sivathi science. The bandages were a self-cleaning nanite fiber that utilized the natural chemistry of the body to always remain fresh, thus prolonging the amount of time they could remain on before needing to be changed for sanitary purposes.

“I’m going to sit you up now, okay?” Elkanah said to her, ever so carefully cupping his handpaw under her belly in preparation to get her upright. “I’ll need you to in order to apply your bandages. After that, we’re all finished. The nanotechnology in the bandages use your body’s chemistry to stay clean after sterilization, and also have a painkiller coating that will help numb the hurt from the antiseptic.”

Talitha permitted him to hoist her body up, but even as she sat down on her haunches, she had to grasp onto his shoulder for support to keep from falling back down, as she was still very weak. Tiredly, but with gratitude, she gazed at his handsome, white furred face, the tension in her body lessening one sliver at a time as he wound the nanite bandages around her torso. It would still take a lot of desensitizing to completely do away with her overly touchy pain reflex, but every touch of the sergeant’s paws chipped away at the horrible mindset that she was eager to be rid of.

As he worked, the question that had been on her mind began to gnaw at her even further. Why had this soldier deserted his post and duties to assist her? Why would anybody in the Crown Army do such a thing? She squeezed her handpaw into his muscular shoulder, feeling another semblance of security as she clutched to him that she’d never known before. “Wh-why are you helping m-me…?” Talitha weakly stammered, her parched throat and cracked lips barely able to utter the question that she so desperately wanted an answer to.

So focused was Elkanah on his work and so weak had her words been that the sergeant couldn’t understand her the first time. “What’s that?” he said, glancing up to meet the gaze of her yellow eyes; a bastion of beauty behind the pain and grief she exuded.

Talitha squinted her eyes a little, doing her best to focus on his own gaze and blotting out the blurriness that her weak state condemned her to. Now that the fires of war had settled for the time being and they were alone, the first vestiges of trust and care had been planted as they looked at one another. There was no doubt at all that this soldier meant her no harm. The stories of his past that lay nestled behind the two blue orbs and pupils attested to his intention to do the right thing from here on out, where he’d failed to do so in his past lifetime; stories that she could only surmise, just as Elkanah could only surmise the terrors she’d endured. Even then, she still begged an answer to the question. “Why… are you helping me…?” she said with a small bit more of confidence, though still incredibly weak.

Elkanah finished applying the last of the nanite infused bandages around the girl’s torso and back, which would keep her stiff for a few days, but they’d serve the purpose of healing her very well, more than any treatment by civilian, rebel, or natural means could have afforded her. As he reached to his pack once again to grasp at his water canteen, he gently continued allowing her to rest her paw upon his shoulder for support as he unscrewed the cap of the flask. He brought it to her parched lips, delicately tipping it back and letting the slave girl drink as much as she wanted to rejuvenate herself. It had been specially designed with an internal device to draw away moisture from the air—however miniscule it might be—and automatically refill over the course of several hours. It could do so faster on the more temperate, lush poles, or on planets and moons with wetter atmospheres, but it was still a handy thing to have, no doubt. As she drank, Elkanah finally delivered his response.

“I was complicit in the plight of slaves and commoners for far too long,” he began to explain as she drank. “Not just while in the Crown Army, but in my youth as well. The cries for liberation in Sivathi slaves have grown too great for me to ignore. The desire to act has festered in me for several years now, and seeing you lashed to the millstone… Seeing you at the mercy of your master as he threatened to take your life… It was the catalyst for action that I should have taken a long time ago. The Crown of Siva has no grounds to continue such barbarity in an age where we are taking to the stars. Somehow, when we ascended to the heavens, we left our morality behind. Perhaps that’s why more and more of us are fighting back, because as we reach out to the beyond, we refuse to take the tradition of bondage with us into the future. That’s why the attack on your master’s estate happened by the Confederates. And that’s why I chose to help you. I want to right the wrongs of all my inaction before.”

Talitha let the coolness of the water spread all throughout her being, sighing deeply as she felt the liquid rejuvenate her. With her dehydration starting to be averted, she was slowly beginning to make more sense of what was going on, and could fully comprehend Elkanah’s words, even if they still didn’t add up in her mind that had been inured to think of herself as little more than chattel. Even after all the hopes and dreams she’d had for freedom, and all the things she’d done like fighting for Jophia and standing up to Princess Aliya, it would be a hard mindset to break that she wasn’t worthy of help or care. Zeshom Noor and the system that had kept her enslaved would beat that into her mind many times over. But maybe—just maybe—this soldier would walk with her on the path towards valuing herself and fighting for a greater good. It was clear that this was both something that they wanted.

As Elkanah reached to put the canteen aside and allow it to refill over the course of the next several hours, Talitha finally raised another question that had slowly begun to bubble in her mind; one that hadn’t crossed it in her weary state. What was the name of her savior; this sergeant who had acted in defiance of the established order to save her life when it seemed so sure that it would end?

“What do they call you?” she asked, panting heavily as she continued to revel in the good feelings of the water that had quenched her thirst.

Elkanah started to sift through his pack again, pulling out the heat resistant digicam poncho that helped protect against the most unforgiving elements of Siva. He could spare it for the girl, since she lacked any proper clothing of her own. Withdrawing it, he offered it to her to throw over her body for comfort and protection before he answered. “Elkanah,” he said, extending his handpaw to her in a greeting motion, donning a smile.

As he waited for her response, he gazed down at the initial on her collar. T. There were only so many Sivathi names that began with the letter, but which of them they could be, he did not know. He had to ascertain that for himself. “And you?”

“Talitha,” the girl answered, grabbing his handpaw and shaking it gratefully. “My name is Talitha. Thank you for all you’ve done for me, Elkanah.”

As Talitha donned the poncho, she finally released her handpaw from his shoulder, able to sit upright on her own strength, though still somewhat wobbly. Elkanah knew that it would still take quite a while for her to be at full strength, but at least the most immediate hurdle had been cleared, and she could begin healing properly. “Lie down for a bit, Talitha,” he said, taking the bedroll from his knapsack and sprawling it out on the cave floor. “You need some proper rest. Get some sleep, and when you awaken it’ll surely be time for supper, and I’ll have the canteen refilled.”

The generosity of Elkanah seemed to have no bounds. Under some degree of help, Talitha felt herself carried to the bedroll and set upon it, the coolness of the cave and the heat resistance of the poncho helping to calm her nerves and steady her body that so desperately needed this proper care. It only took a matter of minutes for sleep to claim her. It was the first slumber of her life in which her dreams, her life, her bedding, and her very essence could be called her own.