Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 155 of 365. Sol standard year]

  Days after of Crash landing/ 4

  Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405

  Galactic Standard Time / After 1520

  Bradford

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  As he looked around the group of passengers, Bradford smiled as they looked at him. “Now my friends I know your pain! But you must understand, there are things that we just can’t know! But trust in those under the command of Sir Duncan! They are good people and they just want us to be safe and alive!”

  “Are you sure about that sir Bradford!?” A voice from the back called out.

  “Completely! While I will say that there are reasons for us to stay down here, and they are good reasons! But trust them as I do! They just want us to stay safe!” Bradford said as he looked around, seeing the faces of the people before him. His skills were telling him that he almost had them and that all he needed was another push and he would have done it. “Please understand good citizens! These people might not be of the Guard or the Army! But they are one and all those who would have done well in both groups! As I said before, I will say again! They just want us to stay alive against the threats out there!”

  “I heard they set up shields they found in the storage! What could get through them on this planet!?” A female voice called from the back.

  “Wait, shields? As in a domed, military shield?! What was something like that doing in the hold of an escape capsule?!” A male voice cried out in alarm.

  Bradford hid his wince by the barest of efforts and tried to keep calm. He had expected that there would be some blowback, but again he had practiced this. As long as he could get back some inertial, then he didn’t need to worry about this all.

  “Wait! During the War, the Ancients were able to use their powers to break through our defenses! Are there creatures out there that have the same abilities as the Ancients!?” A mad-sounding female voice called out.

  Bradford kept his face blank as he took a slow half-step back. The door was behind him, and if things went wrong in the next few minutes he’d have to run. It might hurt his standing here, but he could spin it right. Something about how the nanites within him took control in certain situations? These fools might listen to him.

  But then something happened that changed everything, something that stunned him.

  “Oh Stars! No wonder they want us to stay down here!” A Female voice gasped, and then the others all looked at her.

  “Of course!” A man called out, glee in his voice. “They must want us to stay here so they have us all in one place to defend!”

  “Those brave souls! Putting themselves in the path of certain death all to keep us alive?” A woman asked awe in her voice.

  As Bradford watched in shock, he could barely keep his face expressionless. To think that all they needed to stay calm was to talk amongst themselves? He couldn’t believe his luck sometimes. But he could run with what these fools thought of, and use it to keep control. “Well, you know the truth then!”

  As everyone looked at him, Bradford quickly created a perfect speech to pull them into his web. “I admit, there are threats out there! Things that I thought would never be, things that are beyond even my mind to think of! So Duncan ordered the supplies we had to be checked! Then they found the shield and they put it together! We faced another attack and that damaged it before it was active! Now they’ve found things out there that can mess with our minds through the shield itself!”

  As the people all gasped in horror and some looked ready to faint, Bradford hid a smirk. Now the second part of his speech, gets them scared and ready to do what he wanted them to do. “But fear not! As we all know as long as we stay here, we’re safe!”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “How do we know that!?” A man roared, anger in his voice.

  Bradford only smirked and chuckled, glad he had someone else ask the question that he needed them to. All he had to do now was pull, and everything would be in place.

  “Simple. While we slept here, nothing attacked our minds!” Bradford said as he smiled. There were chuckles around as the people started to look a little scared. “But please! Just trust in them! Things have gotten better! We must trust them!”

  As the people all looked at each other, all ten of them nodded at each other as they left the small chamber. Bradford had wanted to talk to everyone in small groups, hoping that he would be able to talk to them easier. And it had worked!

  “Now who will want to talk to me next?” Bradford asked as he sighed and shook his head, smiling a little.

  “Mr. Bradford?” Vivian’s voice called out.

  Bradford looked up and saw her there, and smiled at her. “My dear! Please, what can I do for our defenders?”

  Vivian kept a blank face and looked at him. “Sir, we can talk somewhere else, someplace secure. This is sensitive information.”

  “Of course! But please, whatever this is can’t be as bad as you make it out to be! But if it will make you feel better, I’ll be happy to talk to you!” Bradford said with a smile. One thing he knew, was that there was no way that she could have anything to tell him that would surprise him!

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  Tatrina

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  “WHAT!?” Bradford screamed as he looked at her.

  Tatrina only crossed her arms and scowled as she looked at him as Bradford took a step backward. She had honestly expected that he would handle learning what had happened up in the clearing. But then the exact flow of events was something that had been near impossible. But then maybe she had expected more from him than he had. Not the worst thing to find out. “Yes, I know. But do try and keep up, please. We have a lot to go over still.”

  “But an Ancient!? One of them was in that cell?! And their free!?” Bradford asked in shocked horror.

  “Yes,” Tatrina said and Bradford looked at her.

  “And you were an investigator this whole time!? Who were you looking into at my parties!?” Bradford demanded with a scowl on his face.

  Tatrina only sighed and shook her head. The fact that she had been trailing many suspects was something that she shouldn't say. And the identities of exactly who she had been chasing down was something that she was going to keep quiet on. Given how close Bradford was to some of them, she didn’t want him to know. While she was sure that he wasn’t behind it, he could still have been getting paid by the mastermind. And that meant that she had to be very careful here. “Truthfully, no one. I was hoping to get close to someone that I thought was connected socially to my target. And since that person is planning a party at one of the planets we were going to stop at, it seemed a smart thing to do.”

  “Oh,” Bradford said, blinking as he looked at her. “Well, that’s….. something. Is there any way that I can help when we get off this hell planet?”

  Tatrina only looked at him and smiled a bit as she looked at him. She wasn’t completely sure that he had kept Bradford from thinking he was her target, but she had to hope she had. The fact that she had to reveal who she was to him was bad enough. If he told anyone of her true targets, then….. she went still. She hid a smirk as she realized that if he told any of her targets and they reacted, then they might be involved. And that could help her find out the truth.

  Tatrina looked at Bradford and smirked. “Thank you, sir Bradford, I will. But for now, let us talk about the Ancient out of the shield.”

  “Yes, him. There is no need to say that this is the most delicate situation that I have ever heard of! The fact that the Ancients can speak our tongue is something that so many of my former peers are going to go crazy over!” Bradford said, and then he snickered a bit. “But I can’t say that some of those people who were there at the signing didn’t deserve it!”

  As hard as she tried, Tatrina couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “I know! The old stories about some of those people! But there is the problem with the living Ancient right here.”

  “Yes. You said he took the bigger robot out of the shield? Could we keep him out?” Bradford asked but then he shook his head. “No, Duncan would never allow that. So what else can we do?”

  Well. he seems to be one of those honorable types. And most of his weapons were short range so there’s that. And he seems to owe the person that let him out. We can use that to use him,” Tatrina said with a smirk.

  Bradford looked at her in shock as Vivian scowled. Finally, Bradford was able to speak and asked a question. “Use him how?”

  Tatrina smirked. For a moment she wondered if she should tell Bradford about the ambassadors. If he knew there was a chance he might let something slip. But thinking about how he had spoken about the Ancients in the past, that would be a mistake. No, now that she thought about it, the best thing to do was keep silent about them. “He’s strong, and he needs to live. And I remember my old training, the strong are stronger together. So if he stays with us here, he might be on the front lines, killing monsters so our people don’t have to!”

  As Bradford looked up, Tatrina saw Vivian’s scowl. As she looked at Vivian out of the corner of her eyes, she mentally frowned. What was her problem? The way that she had explained the idea to Bradford should have masked her idea to use Dam’ien as a living shield.

  Bradford meanwhile was grinning wide. “YES! Perfect idea my dear! And along the way why don’t you try to get an understanding of what he will say about the Power!”

  “The Power? Oh, that brainwasher. Yes, I didn’t think about that, but someone like him should know a few things to handle prisoners. If their society even has them,” Tatrina said with a scowl.

  The sad thing was the Federation knew nothing about the Ancients. Even learning their name all those years ago was a challenge. But here they were, with a live one. And the poor sap thought he owed them. She wanted to know everything that he would let slip about his people. Every bit of information would let the Company and the Federation figure out how to judge how to treat them. With an Ambassador and his party aboard the ship, the Company saw the chance to open their lines up to that Policy. The chance to be the first to be allowed to tour the worlds of the Ancients? You couldn’t make better PR in a movie!

  “We just have to wait and talk to him! I’m sure once Duncan goes out with a party to back him up, he’ll talk if we ask him questions in the right way!” Bradford declared with a broad grin.

  Tatrina didn’t try to keep her look of ignorance off her face. And the way that Vivian reacted she had no idea what Bradford meant either.

  But when Bradford looked at them his face fell, and his eyes widened. All in all, he looked like he was going to have a stroke.