Evening comes to the rainforest as the twenty federation troops finish up their work. Captain Navar strides across the ravaged land, his anger radiating off of him in waves. He overheard his men talking about going to the local felac tavern tonight, after the crystal tree harvest, and he knows who told his men they could go.
"Damn him." Slade mutters to himself. "He knows a fight will break out over the sacred swamps! I wanted to keep the locals out of this! Sadistic son of a bitch!"
The large dark officer strides up to the black ship, the only feature of any real size in the bog except a few more small crystal trees near the towering cliffs.
"A word colonel, if I may?" Slade says as he approaches Nocte, lounging in the captain's chair like it’s his, Nocte continues talking and holds up a hand to signal Slade to hold on.
"...and check to make sure there are watches set on the ship while we are gone. We wouldn’t want to loss any of the cargo like that moron Captain Scully."
"By Aries no sir, we wouldn’t want that. Did you watch him get sacrificed last month on the net." Commander Krovel responds to the colonel's orders with a gravely serious tone and genuine expression of fear.
"Of course I did Krovel! I was the one who filed the charges against him. He cost me a lot of money. Losing half of his cargo to the savages." The colonel stops and considers what he just said. "Actually make it a double watch, better safe than sacrificed as they say." With that Nocte dismisses his assistant with a flick of his thick wrist and then turns his attention and bulk toward the captain.
"Go ahead captain, what is it you want?" Nocte replies looking over at the leader of the Endeavor.
"In private sir." Slade requests.
"Oh, very well." The colonel says as if the captain just asked him for a huge favor. With much moaning and groaning the fleshy man heaves and squeezes himself out of the ample captain's chair. Slade follows him into the captain's ready room adjacent to the bridge. It is a simple warship ready room with a large synthocrystal desk for the captain and a large conference table for the ships officers.
"Nocte, what do you mean by telling the men they can go to the tavern? Our plans have always been to leave as soon as we’re done here. You know as well as I do that the forest peoples emotions are raw when their sacred trees are harvested and that felac attacks have been more frequent after harvests. "
"Captain, the felacs are a part of the federation." Colonel Nocte says dismissing the captain's serious remarks with a wave. "Once we are afraid of going into a federation establishment because we are completing a federal project then we have actually lost the war we fought so many years ago."
"It hasn't been that many years. You know as well as I do that a fight will break out, and my men will get hurt as well as felacs. If they are federation citizens then we should protect them, not provoke them and our soldiers into fighting each other." Slade says in a smooth deep and far more confidant and commanding voice than his superior officers. "Let's just go home. We’re almost done, we’ve all been up for over a day, and the felacs don’t want us in their tavern." The captain says softening his voice, trying to appeal to the colonel’s ego.
"Nonsense, the men deserve a break and the savages need the money." Nocte says as he turns his bulk from the captain and waddles over to the desk and sits down with great effort from him and the chair. But before he turns he flashes Slade a wicked smile which ignites an inferno of emotions within the lesser officer.
He knows full well a fight is going to start... He wants one too, but why? He’s sadistic but also very clever and cunning. He must be up to something.
"We are going to the tavern tonight Captain, that’s an order." The smug colonel says without looking up from the crystal display on the desk.
Slade stands perfectly still as he seethes inside.
"Dismissed." The colonel says sternly still not looking up.
Turning smartly the rog soldier marches out of the ready room and onto the bridge. Once the soundproof synthocrystal door closes behind him Slade’s facade cracks as a snarl crawls over his face and a deep thunderous growl escapes his lips.
Startled the entire bridge crew turns to look at their usually laid back and level headed Captain. They have all served with Slade for years and respect him more than any other officer in the federation. They also know full well of their leaders feelings for his leader. Nocte is the only one they’ve seen penetrate the tough rog's otherwise impenetrable skin. They have seen him step into the crossfire, disable the felac attackers and then save a soldiers life by cauterizing his severed leg without even flinching.
Slade collects himself and without looking at his men he strides out of the ship.
Once outside the overly emotional man suddenly settles as he is struck by the harsh destruction before him. He has never gotten use to the sight of a harvested crystal tree bog. Every time he sees a crystal bog he is overtaken by its beauty and awed by its magical majesty. He was raised with the federation's magic and is very proficient in its use as a weapon, but there is something about the magic of the crystal trees. It’s natural and fills him with a soothing peace which penetrates his soul.
But the sight before him has the exact opposite effect. Instead of soul soothing peace Slade is overwhelmed by the sense of loss as he looks out over the unnatural landscape. The afternoon sun suddenly sparkles off two small trees still rooted in the rocks below the cliffs. The man's spirit quickly changes as he focuses in on the distant trees.
Using his black iridescent visor he thinks the commands which allow him to zoom in on the trees. Almost as if seeing the trees for the first time he is startled by their beauty. Even when there are only two they still inspire awe.
The federation captain recalls the first time he saw a crystal tree.
Behind enemy lines and in naturally hostile territory, the lone federation soldier flew over the forest for hours before he came to the to the Gulf coast. The young Slade saw strange lights coming from the coast. As he got closer he was able to see that it was some kind of crystals growing near the water. But it was when he landed that he saw the most spectacular sight he had ever laid his eyes upon: crystal trees growing in a swamp. Stunned, he wandered around looking at the beautiful trees with their twisting hanging branches pulsating with crazy colors.
The young rog took advantage of the sunlight and brackish water to regenerate his armor’s supplies. Filtering the water and slowly turning the sunlight into energy the man relaxed on a high hummock, his back against a crystal tree. It was then that he first felt the magical properties of the crystal bogs. Despite everything he had been through he never felt better in his life.
He was taken by surprise when a large bird like man flew into the swamp and landed on one of the trees.
Slade hid while he watched the owl-man hunt for phish and then fall asleep. The young corporal was about to come out of his hiding place when a male felac raced up to the sleeping owl-man.
"Whisperwind, we need your help." The young felac man said urgently.
The owlwin awakened and asked, "What is it Dek?"
"One of the flittens has taken very ill and is on the verge of passing, we were wondering if there is anything that you can do for her." The man says with great sorrow in his voice.
The owlwin flew from its perch in the crystal tree down to the felac and said. "Let me gather some supplies and I will be at the tavern shortly." Then the felac left and Slade watched as the owlwin went up to one of the crystal trees then took a container from one of his pouches and placed it up to the tree. He used his visor to zoom in on the owlwin's hand.
The lone soldier watched as the man extracted a greenish liquid from the tree using a small wooden device to collect it. An excitement builds in the boy as he watches the container fill with a familiar substance. Not wanting to jump to conclusions the rog soldier remembers his training and used his visor to analyze his the green liquids magic signature. He was shocked when his visor confirmed that the owl-man was extracting liquic from the crystal tree.
"By Aries!" The young rog soldier couldn’t help but mutter as he realized the significance of what he was seeing. He looked around at the hundreds of crystal trees all around him , his visor still in enhanced zoom mode. He could see that the changing colors within the twisted branches were actually liquic pumping through thousands of tiny crystal capillaries.
"By Aries!" Slade thought as he discovered the secret to the felac's most powerful and only useful weapon against the federation. Now he only needs to get it back to Ultor, over two thousand miles away.
When the owl-man suddenly flew away Slade decided to follow him.
Shia watches in horror as the soldiers approach the last two small crystal trees. She is high up in the rainforest canopy adjacent to the desolated swamp. Saddened the young felac is unable to weep openly for her favorite tree only a couple dozen feet from her. She is afraid that the rogs only a few more feet away will hear and see her. Hearing them talking about what a good time they're going to have in the tavern tonight morphs her anguish into rage.
As the soldiers begin disintegrating the trees buried roots with their magical red and violet laser, Shia watches the roots growing from the ground whither turn black and then vanish. Thus severing the small trees connection to the web of life.
Shia is on the verge of losing control when they take away her napping tree's little neighbor. She can still remember when the tree sprouted eleven years ago.
Only one of the harvesting vehicles is running now and it seems like it is moving in slow motion as she watches the rogs return from the ship and start to remove her tree. She watches as the liquic’s colors go crazy and burst brightly before they begin to slowly fade until they are dark. The dull branches will never glow and sparkle again.
The forest girl breaks down, blinded by tears as she watches them take her tree away. It seems to take a lifetime, in which she relives her life with the tree.
Slowly the orange sun sets over the mountains as Tyc sits alone in the deepening darkness, looking out over the crashing sea, the stars beginning to dot the sky above.
Hilly disappeared about twenty minutes ago, and Tyc ran out to the water tempted to let the sea take him rather than whatever the hell it is doing this. He did not want to be alone. But when he saw the colorful reflection of the setting sun in the sea the beauty took his will to die away. So he simply wept.
Tyc sits on the edge of a large rock as the sun slowly sets behind him. He watches the sky turn from dark blue to black as the stars begin to twinkle all around. A breeze blows the youths short hair as he takes in his final breath.
It starts as a strange numbness on the top of his scalp, that quickly spreads and changes to an icy hot tingling which consumes his head. Tyc feels paralyzed as the tingling feeling slowly spreads throughout his body. The nearly maddening tickle quickly turns to what feels like flames consuming his body. He tries to move or scream or something, anything, but he is paralyzed, all he can do is sit and watch the end of the beautiful darkening sea as the pain consumes his very being.
Tyc’s vision starts to blur and dim as the pain forces him away from this place. And then it feels like his head explodes. He screams out in his mind but he no longer hear his own thoughts.
Blackness surrounds the boy as the brain-shattering pain makes any thought impossible. He feels like he can’t breath as he tries to inhale. He tries to reach for his mouth but he cannot move. In a last ditch effort the boy uses all his spirit to summon up a picture in his mind of his parents, Autumn, anything. He fails, and his mind slips into a deep, heavy, blackness,
