excerpt from untitled novel - Elyeen and Caine in the midst of the Dregs

Eyleen stared blankly at the mounds of sand piled into mountains. A warm breeze whipped her face and loosened dirty brown strands in her braid as she drove. Caine refused to elaborate on what happened at the Black Market so Elyeen boiled in her own stew that slowly evolved into a storm.

Caine told her everything. He looked out for her. Her eyes shrank to slits as she replayed the memory in her head. Caine stood up and leaned out the buggy. Elyeen ignored him, not wanting to heed his desert warnings.

“El, stop the buggy,” Caine huffed. Elyeen’s face was permanently twisted in a stormy position. Not even her ears twitched at his command.

“Stop the damn buggy El,” Caine asserted much more barbaric than the first time. Again, she kept her eyes on the desolate desert and let no reaction escape.

“STOP!” Caine screamed at her furiously. Elyeen stomped on the gas and the buggy roared. The desert heat scowled at the two in the buggy. What would normally seem like a beautiful, twinkling twilight was filled with something heavy and dark. There was an invisible fog that made it difficult to breathe and kept Caine on edge. He shoved Elyeen out of the side of the buggy. She tumbled over wave-like and came to a crashing halt. Caine had jumped in the driver’s side and hit the brakes so quickly that the buggy screeched. Caine hustled over to Elyeen as she picked herself up and dusted off her already faded and torn pants.

“What is wrong with you?” Eyleen hissed.

Caine grabbed her elbow and yanked her down. “Shut up and stay low,” he murmured. Both lay on their bellies anticipating what would happen next. A powerful, mechanical humming took over the sky. It was a Kaiser Citadel military ship. These ships looked much like blimps but were made entirely of metal. They were used by the military to transport weapons and to drop off exiled criminals to the unforgiving desert.

Elyeen lowered her goggles over her eyes. Using sensors, the goggles zoomed in on the military ship like binoculars. Crisscross lines pinpointed what her pupils focused on and a red circle enveloped the faces of those departing the ship. Four disheveled people walked down the ramp first. They had black cloths over their faces and their hands were tied up in laser cuffs. Trailing after them were two soldiers. The soldiers of Kaiser Citadel were always adorned in all black garb from head to toe so that they were all uniform and if dealing with a highly sensitive situation, their identity was secure. The last person coming from the ship was quite obviously one of the gaudily dressed military captains. One could tell the ranking based on the color accent and the moon phase on the chest. This particular captain wore a midnight blue cape with identical colors stripping his boots, gloves, and helmet. On his chest, a third quarter moon – left half of the moon visible – lay imposing to its viewers.

“That captain, he’s pretty high ranking I think,” Elyeen uttered to Caine.

“What’s he wearing? What are his colors? I don’t have those damn fancy goggles. I can’t see shit,” Caine grumbled, “They all look like little ants to me!”

“Blue, dark blue, like the night sky. And the moon phase – it’s third quarter.”

“Hmmm, ya you’re right El. He’s only two rankings away from Standardization General and when ya get that far you have access to the people of that planet Arcapia.”

Elyeen paused for a moment before reacting. She had heard of the mythical planet Arcapia and how it was much bigger than the tiny planet of Distonous. Distonous was the size of an asteroid compared to Arcapia. She had only heard of jump ships that had the capability of getting to the planet, but most were destroyed in the Atomic War. What made Arcapia so mythical was that it was apparently the perfect place for people to live and the technology was so advanced that they could even cloak the entire planet so that it was invisible to outsiders. She had never heard Caine talk about the mysterious planet before.

“What about Arcapia?” she asked curiously.

Caine sighed and rolled his eyes listlessly at Elyeen’s response. He grunted out, “Not important right at this moment. But yes, it’s more than just hear-say.”

“Wha- why haven’t you said anything before?”

“El, it’s not like we can get to it anyway. Jump ships don’t exist. If they do… well that’s something the government knows not me.”

“But how do you know that the Standardization General has access to the planet? Why are you keeping things from me?”

“El, it’s better this way. Besides, I buy secrets occasionally at the Black Market for a reason. Anyways all I know is that they have some way to contact the people or at least whatever government officials they have. I’m not sure exactly how though.”

Elyeen huffed and tightened her braid. Something was going on with the soldiers and criminals that caught her eye. Leaving the conversation for a later time, she scanned the situation. She wished she had some way to hear what they were saying based on their aggressive, jerky movements.

The criminals had been lined up in a row and cloths removed. Elyeen didn’t recognize them. She wondered when the soldiers and captain were going to abandon the exiled prisoners to live out the rest of their days in the wretched Dregs. Elyeen watched as the captain pointed directly at the prisoners. Her face twisted in confusion. She had never seen this before, nor had they ever taken this long to drop off criminals. One of the soldiers lifted his lazer shooter toward the outlaws.

Elyeen gasped in horror, “I thought they let them go. I’ve never seen them kill people.”

Caine shot her a glare, “What? No, I’ve never seen that, but now it makes sense…” his voice trailed off as he tried to peer down to see what was happening.

The soldier with the raised lazer shooter had yet to fire and it seemed to have made the captain red. Zooming in, the other soldier stepped in front of the shaking people afraid for their lives. The captain’s reaction to this was not a pretty one. Steam seemed to blow out his ears and his eyes were volcanic. He tore over to the defiant soldier and snatched the lazer shooter out of his back holster then pounded him upside the head. The soldier cascaded down with a thud. With the stolen lazer shooter, the captain shot each of the hostages and down they fell like a row of dominos.

Elyeen was shaking at the horrific sight she witnessed. “Caine, we have to do something. We can’t just–”

Caine worriedly interrupted her, “On it. Get in the buggy. Drive as fast as you can. Think on your feet and I’ll follow.” He swiftly hopped in the car and Elyeen followed his lead.

Elyeen hit the gas before Caine had even gotten himself situated. He grasped the roll bar til his knuckles were white. As they hastily approached the scene, Elyeen gazed at the captain ambling up to the out-cold, resistant soldier. She saw the captain aim the lazer shooter to the helpless soldier. She grit her teeth and skid up to the military personnel.

The buggy tumbled over and around crashing into the captain and the complacent soldier knocking them down face first into the sand. She had hit them at just the right angle to baffle them and give them a dizzying headache, but not directly enough to kill them. The buggy was at a slight angle, easy to fix with a punch to the gas. As soon as she got the buggy completely grounded, she jerked the buggy around the drove past the unconscious soldier. Caine was hanging onto the edge and bent over. As they passed the soldier, he grabbed him by his arm and reeled him in. The soldier was strewn across the back of the buggy. Not wanting to be followed, Elyeen gassed it and the trio disappeared like a speck of sand amongst the many arid hills of the Dregs.