Castaway Planet

Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 154 of 365. Sol standard year]

Days after of Crash landing/ 2

Uninhabited Island / Underground tunnel/ Circle Cavern

Galactic Standard Time / 1630

Paige looked on as Sara looked over the baby, moving ever closer to Roy. So far Roy hadn’t seen her or even noticed her movements. If they were lucky, then he wouldn’t. She didn’t know how she felt about all this, but then what choice did they have? If what Al ‘said’ that everything was true, then Roy needed help. And if they couldn’t help him, they had to keep him from hurting them all. And if something set off the ‘bomb’ in Roy, then the baby would be the first one in the blast zone. Paige knew enough about Roy that he wouldn’t want her to be hurt, so they needed to stop him. No matter what, she hoped that Sara could help Roy, or that whatever happened to him would wear off.

“So far she looks perfectly fine Roy. I mean, maybe she could have eaten better food, but she’s as good as any of us. All in all, I have to give her a perfect bill of health in these conditions,” Sara said as she looked up. Paige thought she saw Sara’s eyes flick to her, and all Paige did was nod.

Roy released a sigh as he looked at the baby. “Thank you, Sara, I was getting worried. I mean, she was without her parents in that capsule, I just. I wanted her to live.”

“Her parents weren’t there? You know…. There were no kids in our capsule, but one in yours? What happened to us?” Sara asked with a small amount of horror in her voice.

Paige watched as Roy seemed to stare into space and felt her worry increase. They had to act soon, the effect Roy was under was slowly growing worse, and she could sense it. Roy was slowly starting to feel unhinged and she was starting to wonder when he would snap. As she took a step to the right, she went still as her eyes caught movement from above. Paige looked up at Jinn who was looking down at them, a hard look in his eyes.

Paige could feel Jinn’s emotions, and he radiated pure confidence. He locked eyes with her over Roy’s head, pointing at her. He raised a finger and made the ‘go’ signal from their security training making the sign for ‘Leader’. After that, he pointed right at her and Paige swallowed before she nodded. Jinn was telling her that she had control, what she said was what Jinn would do.

As she looked back at Sara, Paige swallowed again as she saw Sara make the sign for ‘team member’ out of Roy’s sight. So both of them were following her lead then. Then the first thing they needed to do was get the baby out of harm’s way. Then they could handle Roy, and she just hoped that this was the right play.

Paige looked at Sara and made two signs with her free hand. All she could do was hope Sara understood the meaning of ‘VIP’ and ‘Protect’ in this situation.

Sara bent down and picked up the little one, smiling at Roy who shook his head.

“What are you?” Roy asked with a small unhinged ton to his voice.

Paige felt her blood go cold as she looked at Roy. Even without her Ability, she felt Roy was getting closer to the edge. They had to act fast, there wasn’t any other choice. She looked up at Jinn and flashed a single sign at him

“There’s enough bandages for me to change and clean this little one. But I don’t think that changing her in the open is the best idea. So I thought, let’s do it in the cave. Smart, no?” Sara asked as she looked at Roy and took a small step backward.

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Roy looked at Sara, his mind going dark places. He didn’t know why he had thought it, but for a moment all he could think of was going for Sara’s throat. How dare she take his precious one in her hands! And how dare she plan to take him out of his sight! The baby girl was his to protect, and anyone who took her would face his fists! Yes, he should have fought those things, not run. He was one of the blessed ones, and how he objected to protecting the little girl proved that.

As he looked at Sara, his rage slowly growing he never noticed Paige slowly coming towards him.

However, when he felt something press against his neck on the right side he lashed out. Roy wasn’t shocked that the others had betrayed him. He knew it was only a matter of time, but this?, Taking his little treasure? Planning to hurt her? He felt his rage erupt ass he looked at Sara holding what was his. He would make sure that the little one wouldn’t be twisted by these fools if he had to.

“TRAITORS!” Roy bellowed as he saw Paige dodge his blow.

“JINN, NOW!” Paige roared as Sara turned and ran for the cave, the baby in her hands.

Roy looked up involuntarily, seeing Jinn jump off the upper level. All Roy could feel was shock and horror that Jinn was brainwashed like the others. As soon as he landed he ran at Roy, dashing past him. Roy tried to turn but Jinn had tackled his back, forcing him to the floor.

“TRAITOR, SCUM! HOW DARE YOU BETRAY ME!?” Roy screamed as he tried to buck free and his vision darkened.

“Roy, we’re trying to help you! We think something from when you were attacked by those things is still affecting you. Like a poison! We need to knock you out to make sure you’re okay man!” Jinnn said forcefully as he held Roy down.

Roy screamed mindlessly as he lost consciousness. As he lost the fight, the only thing on his mind was curses sent wordlessly at the others.

Jinn looked down, panting a little as he saw Roy go still. He had to admit, that he had half hoped that they were wrong. But with the way that Roy fought back, they were right. They had both been trained to escape holds, but the way Roy reacted wasn’t. It was like he had forgotten everything that he had been taught. It was more like he was a wild animal, trying to escape a hunter’s net. No, it wasn’t. When most animals fought back, they at least tried to escape. Roy seemed to be trying to wound Jinn with no thought to how he would be afterward. If that wasn’t a sign that Racha was right, then he didn’t know what else was.

Jinn caught his breath as he looked down at the back of Roy’s head, trying to keep his temper. This island was throwing everything he thought was possible in his face. Iit broke every law of nature he thought existed and it wasn't done. If there was one creature that could affect someone’s mental state, then there were others. And if they could affect the mental state one way, then they probably could do other things. The very idea of what might be out there almost caused him to throw up. If half of what modern games were possible in real life, then they had a lot of trouble ahead of them.

Jinn looked up as he registered the silence, seeing that only Paige was relaxed as Sara still stood back. His right eye caught movement and he turned and saw Al climbing down to the bottom floor.

“You okay there Jinn?” Al asked as he came over and looked down at Roy.

Jinn just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head as he looked down at Roy’s body.

“Well, whatever happened to him was something, hu?” Jinn asked as Sara looked at him as she handed the baby over to Paige.

“Hold him down, I don’t know if what I can do will wake him up,” Sara said bluntly as she looked at Jinn.

“I’ve got his legs, you get his arms,” Al said bluntly as he moved to Roy’s legs.

Jinn nodded and moved Roy’s arms over his head. As Sara moved towards them, Jinn watched her. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but as Sara looked down at Roy he saw a flash of something in her eyes

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Sara blinked at the text that appeared in her right vision. She had been trying to figure out if her ability would let her heal Roy, or if it could tell her what she wanted to know. Instead, this happened.

Subject is suffering from mental contamination, Skill Remedy not able to cure without reaching LV2. Remedy skill meets all requirements to evolve. Allow Evolution?

“Yes?” Sara said before a comforting warmth spread through her body. As it flowed down from her limbs, it collected in her center before it suddenly burst out. It shook her for a single second, a kind of warmth that was nice. She had never liked tanning growing up, but if it had been anything like this it would been wonderful.

This was amazing, it felt like her whole body was more than it was before! She could do anything, she could conquer the world! She could…..

“You okay Sara?” Al asked Sara blinked as she looked around.

She tried to play it cool but the blush on her face probably told everyone that something happened. She put her hand above Roy and spoke up.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Give me a second. Remedy!” She said as a pulse of light left her hands. The light shined down at Roy and Sara stopped her hand from moving. She stared in shock, surprised that this was even possible. She had thought that her ability was touch-based, but this was ranged. Could the evolution that the voice talked about mean this?

This was amazing, and it opened up a lot of possibilities. If someone could be healed while the person doing it wasn’t touching them, that was beyond anything she knew. The way to keep people alive, the ways that people could be cared for. Even they could only heal people with drones back in the Federation if they could bring this back.

As she looked down at Roy’s body, another string of text appeared in her vision.

Subject healed. Skill evolution successful, Mana drain increased by 10 units. Further Evolution is not acceptable at this time. Skill, Rejuvenation learned. Skill, Rejuvenation cost 30 units; able to heal the health of subjects

“I’ve gained another skill?” Sara muttered as she took a step backwards. She hadn’t believed Jinn’s idea, that their powers were from nanites, but this? This seemed to support his idea, it was the only explanation that even made sense. “I….. whatever gave me my Skill? It’s showing words in my line of sight. They say Roy’s fine, that I healed him. And it identified what happened to him. It called it ‘mental contamination’, whatever that means.”

As she tried to understand everything, she missed the way Al’s eyes widened at her words.

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Al stared at Sara, his mind going a few thousand miles a minute. The nanites, whoever had made them were now affecting Sara’s vision as well? That made no sense at all. Nanites that affect eye nerves had to be calibrated for each person they were grown for after all. But now besides letting people wield these powers, the same nanites were affecting Sara’s eyes?

These things were beyond any science the Federation knew. The nanites gave different bio-enhancement properties, sure that was possible. But now this, affecting nerves? There was only one single thing that could explain half of this. The nanites were able to modify themselves for the host. That was insane, what was it with this planet? That kind of tech was the ‘mother code; of the Scholar’s School. Every Tech-pope wanted to be the one whose followers found out how to make them. The very idea was one of the inventions that would make the discoverer a saint.

And this planet had it?! And to top it off, this tech was added by airborne nanites. Those were at the cutting-edge of possible science. They were still devolved back on his world. And the few papers showed that the current generation was terrible, barely worth the work. They had to use a lot of them get into the body for them to work. Plus the total time for ‘infection’ was minutes when a shot was in seconds. Whatever race created these nanites were emperors of technology, farther developed than anyone. And if their bio science was this good, he didn’t want to see their weapon tech. What weapons had much be beyond anything he could even think of. It was said that the society who could make these nanites could….. “No.”

Al went still as he suddenly looked around the cavern, his mind going to strange places. From the bug that had an organic gun to the powers Jinn and Sara had, it suddenly all made sense. The very idea he had, it took all that he had to now throw up is shock and disgust. A hand on his shoulder caused Al to look over his shoulder, staring at Jinnn’s face. Jinn had made it to him without Al even noticing, that was concerning.

“You okay Al?” Jinn asked and Al nodded, trying to smile.

“Yeah, I’m fine man, I just….. I was lost in thought my thoughts,” Al said and JJinn looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Al looked away, his mind racing. “I made a theory…. Something that might be bad. I need to polish it more.”

Jinn looked at him and tried to think of anything but he nodded.

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Above them Racha stepped back from the caved-in tunnel, smiling as she looked at it. The fallen rocks had completely blocked the passage, nothing could get by. And once they set up the sensor here, they could sleep without anything getting through. Once they had a good rest, they’d be able to make it to the sea the next morning. Once there, they would be able to travel to the yard ship. Once they knew what it could do, they’d hopefully have a better hand to play.

As she turned towards the lower level, she saw the group around Roy’s body. She smirked and called out. “So it worked?”

As they all looked at her, Racha repelled down, her feet hitting the ground seconds later.

“Yes, he’s normal. I don’t know what effect what happened to him will have on him, but this is the best I can do,” Sara said and Jinn grinned at her.

“Sara you did more than anyone else could have. It would have taken years, and Roy would have died before a month was out,” Jinn said as he smirked and laughed.

Racha watched Sara blush as Jinn turned and looked at Paige before he spoke again.

“And you Miss Paige, a perfect command! You hit the mark, and made the perfect call! Few people could have done as well as you have!” Jinn said and Racha frowned.

Most thieves or pirates fought against each other a lot. They didn’t have any ideas of command, the one who was the loudest was the leader most time. In those bands, the strongest and meanest or most charismatic was always the loudest. Up until now, she had thought that Jinn was one of those who got cold feet, but now? Jin was saying he knew true leaders, that he had been on missions like hers. Who was he?

Racha shook her head and looked at Al. That was something she could figure out later, for now, she had to keep a handle on everything. “We can pat each other on the backs later. For now, we have work to finish. Al, get one of the sensors up to the tunnel. Paige, keep an eye on Roy, let us know when he wakes up. Sara, watch the child and Jinn. I need a better account of your hunt.”

“One more thing,” Racha said abruptly as she looked around, a scared look on her face.

“Yes?” Racha asked and Paige looked around and took a deep breath.

“I don’t want anyone to know what I can do,” Paige said softly as she looked at the group, a scared look in her eyes.

Racha looked at Paige, a million thoughts going through her mind. She heard what Paige said, and she didn’t understand.

“You’re still scared,” Jinn said and everyone looked at him as he gazed at Paige. “The people you’re running from, you don’t want them to hear about you.”

Racha felt her heart beat faster. That was it, that was the last piece of Paige’s puzzle. After everything that happened, even after the crash. Paige was scared, she was scared of what caused her to sign onto the Spirit.

“Yeah, I don’t. I just…… I planned on escaping onto a colony founding group. I wanted to escape from anyone tracking me. And after what Roy said he experienced, I want to keep what I can do under wraps for a bit longer,” Paige said softly as she held her arms.

Racha felt both terror and shame. Paige was a citizen of the Federation, she shouldn’t even feel half of that terror. The fact that the Service hadn’t even heard of people like Paige and those who hunted her was something that was! It was shameful, the fact that people who hunted others were still in the shadows. Meanwhile the Service had a whole division to track down Tax evaders!

Racha smiled and looked at Paige, trying to look calm. “I don’t mind. We don’t have to tell anyone you don’t want to. If you develop Powers….”

“Skills! The text calls them Skills,” Sara said and Racha blinked before she shrugged.

“Okay, Skill. So whatever. We don’t need to tell anyone that we had them before we dropped onto this planet. And I think I can speak for everyone that they will follow that decision,” Racha said as she looked around. She met the eyes of everyone, and they nodded after a few moments.