The Mind Snatchers are coming and Whadgaf is worried. Maria notices that Whadgaf is tense and they don’t speak much. They have been on Oin for about a rount since they recovered Darker, a little more than a week by IP timekeeping standards, and Whadgaf has been in communication with Representatives Eakran and Kiarle Brom. They have agreed to travel to Oin and should arrive soon along with Eakran’s other Earthling companion, despite the impending arrival of the Mind Snatchers. Whadgaf’s confidence in the militia’s ability to fend off the Snatchers had convinced them, and they travel with a sizable security detail to add to the forces of the Ointite militia. They are at a dark site, a secret location where they plan to bring the Representatives after they have arrived on Oin. It reminds Maria of a desert; they are in lowlands in an unchanging landscape that is rocky and only patches of vegetation grow. It’s as though the desert is cracked and it has settled in this bumpy formation that Maria can see stretches for miles all around them.
Maria assists Whadgaf and her crew at the humble building of the black site and she is happy to be doing something. Sitting with Darker is depressing. He doesn’t speak much, though he had assured her that he was fine.
“This is just a lot,” he told her before she joined Whadgaf on this mission to receive the Representatives on Oin. “Being on that planet, alone, it was a lot. I just need some time.”
Maria can understand why Darker is shaken. Even though she has been separated from Eakran and their crew since they escaped the Mind Snatchers, she has felt very safe with Whadgaf and there was never a time that she felt lost in the new world in which she had found herself.
Maria helps the Queen Ravileth and ten or so other soldiers as they arm large weapons in defense of their position. There is a sizable contingent of the Ointite Militia, about a hundred, at the black site already and Whadgaf is waiting for authorization that would activate two hundred reserves in anticipation of an attack by the Mind Snatchers. Maria enjoys work with the Queen Ravileth. Whadgaf is obviously irritated that the militia is delaying her authorization to activate the reserves and she yells at anyone she notices doing anything wrong.
“Why wouldn’t they just go after Eakran?” Maria asks the Queen.
“Whadgaf believes they want you Earthlings just as much as they want the Representative dead.” The Queen concentrates on a handheld screen that she uses to calibrate the large proton cannon that the two had installed.
“We will end their meddling here,” the Queen says confidently. “The Mind Snatchers are our scourge on the universe and we are late in eradicating them. I am happy to finally do so.”
Maria remembers the Mind Snatchers from the brief time she was a prisoner on their ship. They were big and their bulbous heads were monstrous, throbbing like they were about to explode. The Queen Ravileth is an elegant creature, long limbs, fit, and her bulbous head is like a pleasant exaggeration of human-sized heads that Maria is used to. Her skin seemed to be subtly moving; the bold, grey pigmentation seems to be vibrating along steady currents that moved around her body. Maria could hardly see how the Queen Ravileth and the Mind Snatchers were the same species.
“Why are they called Mind Snatchers?” Maria asks. “I haven’t even thought to ask.”
“They can take over your mind, Earthling. Once they have you, you always belong to them.”
Maria smiles. “That’s it?”
The Queen Ravileth looks up from her work. She is angry that Maria doesn’t seem to comprehend the threat.
“My brother was taken by the Cabal. He is probably on the ship headed here now to attack us, and I vowed to free him the only way I know how. The Snatchers don’t kill you, they give you a fate worse than death. They stomp down your consciousness, they bury you deep inside yourself while they use your body like a puppet. It is not a smiling matter, Earthling.”
Maria apologizes, “I didn’t mean to make light of the threat. I just, I can do that too.”
The Queen puzzles at Maria.
“Stand and give me your device,” Maria says and the Queen Ravileth obeys.
As she stands before Maria and regains herself, she glares down at her; the Queen is taller by several inches. Maria shrinks back.
“You may be my brother’s saviour, Earthling.”
The Queen Ravileth hails Whadgaf and she angrily joins the women.
“Still no word on the authorization?” The Queen asks.
“A monarch is coming to speak with us,” Whadgaf says. “Do you know anything about this?”
“How would I?” The Queen says. “I’ve been preparing with you. Is it related to the authorization?”
“I guess we’ll see. What’s going on here?”
“Show her,” the Queen says to Maria.
Maria has Whadgaf fly up into the sky and land in the same spot.
“What just happened?” Whadgaf asks, genuinely confused.
“That’s what it feels like,” The Queen says. She stares at Whadgaf seriously. “She can do what they do. She might be able to break their control. Some of them aren’t monsters by choice.”
Whadgaf considers Maria. The Earthling has impressed her more than once since their first meeting.
– – –
Whadgaf watches as a vehicle approaches over the bumpy terrain. She knows that it is the monarch and she stands with the Queen Ravileth and the Earthling Maria. Most of the militia soldiers at the dark site are resting, waiting for Whadgaf’s orders.
The vehicle is specially designed to handle the uneven terrain and it looks like the body rests on a metal structure that stabilizes it as the wheels bound around the nooks and crannies in the ground. It stops and all of the doors open. Whadgaf is surprised to see Sevi emerge with the King Yazit. They are escorted by militia commanders and they all sit inside the small building to talk. Maria sits with Whadgaf next to the Queen Ravileth.
“First,” King Yazit starts, “I should commend the militia and your efforts in keeping many Ointites safe. Whadgaf Jiris, you are a true gift of the Center, and Oin is a better place with you here. Your commanders have nothing but excellent things to say about you, not to mention by dear Sevi.”
“This feels like build up for a let down, King,” the Queen Ravileth says. “We appreciate the niceties, but there is impending danger we’d like to attend to. Please get to the point of this.”
“Very well, Queen Ravileth. I am here to explain to you in person the militia’s decision not to support your authorization for activation of the reserves. Oin will no longer serve as safehaven for the Earthlings. We ask that you please find another location to guard the Earthlings if you wish, and you are free to take the hundred or so soldiers with you for protection.”
Whadgaf is baffled. “King Yazit, it is true that these Earthlings are of no consequence to Oin, but to deny them help, against your sworn enemies, flies in the face of Center doctrine. They are creations of the Center just like you and me, and they did nothing to incur the violence of the Mind Snatchers.”
Yazit nods thoughtfully and looks to Sevi who has been quiet until now.
“I don’t know what’s right, Whadgaf,” Sevi says, looking sincerely into her friend’s eyes. “I don’t feel good to send the Earthlings away, but the Mind Snatchers will be very cruel when they come here looking for them. They are eager for an excuse to seek revenge on us. We have to diffuse this situation as best we can. That is my opinion.”
“Thank you, Sevi,” Yazit says and turns his attention back to Whadgaf. “You do not have to feel that you abandoned the Earthlings. We just cannot defend them here, not with the potential consequences. Even Sevi agrees.”
Whadgaf protests,”The Representatives are on their way, I told them I could protect them…”
And Yazit interjects, “We have contacted them. They are waiting to rendezvous at a safe location away from Oin.”
Whadgaf stands. “Fine. I will only take willing soldiers. Thank you for this meeting.”
Sevi stands to leave with her and Yazit is surprised.
“Where are you going?” he asks.
“To help my friend. I agree that it is shortsighted to bring the threat of the Mind Snatchers here, but I stand with Whadgaf. She is a true daughter of the Center.”
King Yazit leaves soon after, and Whadgaf leaves Oin with Maria, Darker, Sevi, the Queen Ravileth, and about fifty Oin Militia soldiers in five battle ships, each capable of exploding a moon. They are no match for the fleet of ships that the Mind Snatchers pilot. As they leave the space around Oin, they encounter of a fleet of a hundred ships and their leader radios to Whadgaf.
“You are outnumbered. Let’s see if we can’t hammer out conditions of surrender that won’t result in the death of your crew.”
Whadgaf agrees to speak with the man on an asteroid while the ships of their crews idle in space. The leader of the Mind Snatchers stands alone on the asteroid surface in his suit that allows for a clear view of his grotesque head. Whadgaf disembarks her ship with Maria and the Queen Ravileth and they stand at a distance; they don’t have to yell because of the communicators in their suits.
“My master wants Eakran dead,” the Mind Snatcher explains, “and he wants the Earthling that was on Vwrawl. That is it. You others can go about whatever business. Give us the Earthling, we know that he is with you. We know he was on Oin and they booted you to avoid us. Smart move really, we have no business there now that he is here. But, depending on the decision you make right now, you can still bring unnecessary pain to Oin. Resist and we will attack the innocent of the planet and they will know that you could have stopped it. Tell us where we can find Eakran. Protect the innocent.”
The Mind Snatcher smiles and it is truly disturbing, even at a distance. Ointites have teeth similar to Earthlings, but because of the strict diet of the Mind Snatchers, their teeth are jet black and the insides of their mouths appear to be coated in dark oil. When the Snatcher smiles, his oily black teeth are visible and it makes Maria gag.
“Why doesn’t he just control my mind and make me do what he wants?” Whadgaf asks the Queen Ravileth.
“Because he is too far away,” the Queen says smugly. “There’s a limited range to your snatching isn’t it?”
“What about you Maria?” Whadgaf asks. “Do you have a range?”
Maria concentrates on the Mind Snatcher who looks very confused by the confidence of the women. Maria focuses on commanding the Snatcher, but as she directs her inner voice into his mind, she feels her consciousness slip, and she finds herself inside the consciousness of the Mind Snatcher. She can see through his eyes and hear his confusion at his inability to control his body. She can see her own limp body in the Queen Ravileth’s arms; both she and Whadgaf are very concerned. This has never happened before, but Maria has snatched the mind of the Mind Snatcher and she forces herself back to her body. She recovers in the arms of the Queen.
“You did it?” Ravileth asks.
“I had his body,” Maria says.
“Then call them off and let’s get out of here.”
Maria retakes the body of the Mind Snatcher before he can fully regain himself and she orders the hundred ships to leave. When she returns to her body, Whadgaf and the Queen Ravileth have carried her back to the ship and they blast off in search of Eakran as the ships of the Mind Snatchers retreat to their base of operations.
– – –
On Oin, King Yazit is sad. He had been encouraged by his time alone with Sevi; he had seemingly convinced her of his opinion of the delima with the Earthlings and she had agreed to reason with Whadgaf. He thought that it meant they could be closer. But it had only precipitated her leaving Oin again.
He is tending to official duties at the Infirmary Center campus and it keeps him distracted from his feelings about Sevi; the campus is one of his most favorite places to visit. It is always nice here, always pleasant with Ointites happy to be alive.
He walks the mall just as the sun sets and the daylight sky is giving way to the spectacular starlight.
Suddenly, the serenity of the Infirmary Center is shattered. Yazit sees it all happen and he is lucky to be on the walkway furthest from the tallest building at the campus center. He sees what appears to be a large rock, like a meteor, descend quickly and smash into the resplendent statue atop the center building, that collapses under the destruction.
Yazit watches it in a horrific slow motion. Another meteor, the exact size and shape as the first, crashes in the same spot and there is an explosion. There is horrible destruction at the Infirmary Center and twenty Ointites lose their lives.
PRL Serials 