Seeing Helen cry over the loss of her sister broke my heart. I did not want to see her that way. It hurt me that she was hurting. I only wanted to see her smile and to be happy. I wanted to see that brave sensual soldier that she was. So I knew I had to do something in order to find her sister.
I ordered Lieutenant Baisen to get on the transmission to find out what other Veruka were in the area. Helen had gone to take a rest. I was glad for it. She had been through a lot emotionally and physically in a short amount of time. I could handle it from here. I could find Hannah for her. I wanted to rescue her sister as a gift to her.
“Captain, there seems to be a small amount of transmission activity on the far side of the island. We cannot tell what it is. It is mostly just static. It could be one of our ships, or it could be cyborgs,” Lieutenant Baisen said as he came into my room on the ship.
“Yes, we reviewed the data over and over again, and it is coming to us in pulses. We think it is in response to the distress signal beacon that we sent out,” he said.
“Ready a ship for me with ten soldiers, I am taking one of the larger ships this time. I want to be gone within ten minutes; do not make a big fuss about it. I do not want the humans to know that I am leaving. Go now,” I said.
What I meant was that I did not want Helen to know. I did not want her to go with us. She had gone through enough already and I did not want to raise her hopes that this signal could be her sister only to see her let down again. I could not see that look in her eye again, of defeat and despair. No, I would go alone with my soldiers as it should be and find out what was going on. If it were a cyborg encampment, then I did not want to put her in danger. I had already done that more than once since I met her.
A few minutes later, my ship was in the air with ten weredragon soldiers headed out across the bay to the other side. But when we were leaving Willow Springs, something caught my eye.
“There, what is that?” I said pointing along the shoreline. It was glimmering.
I knew that I had to get to the transmission as soon as possible because it might be gone; if it was Hannah and other Veruka then we could lose them. But I couldn't allow this band of twenty or so cyborgs to get to Willow Springs. Helen was there, and people she cared about, plus my army; I didn't want an entire war to break out.
Suddenly we were in a fight with the cyborgs. They shot their guns at us, and we dropped bombs on them each time we flew by.
“There, on the right! It's a keddle!” I shouted pointing to the large silver capsule.
“I see it. Guns!” the soldier shouted. We blasted the keddle with as many laser blasts as we could. But nothing was happening.
“We have to take it out. Once it fails, the rest of the cyborgs will follow,” I said. “Bomb it,” I said.
“Charge a bomb! Dropping!” the soldiers shouted all around me as they went to work.
Boom! The bomb landed on the keddle. It blew up. We cheered. The rest of the cyborgs became still and did not move again.
“We did it! We won! Willow Springs will be safer now. Now follow the coordinates of the transmission. The sun is setting, and it will soon be dark,” I said.
I was relieved. The transmission signal was still coming in, and I manage to stop the small band of cyborgs from reaching Helen at Willow Springs. Now I could try to find the clues to get me to Hannah and safely bring her back to Helen. I only hoped that this small transmission signal held some answers of who in the Veruka army took her. I only hoped that whoever it was had not taken her to Haven Brook. That human colony was very far, and I would not be able to abandon my post at Willow Springs in order to go back to Haven Brook. I would have to dispatch a smaller band to go to Haven Brook to get a message to Hannah, and that was if they had even made it if they ventured that far. It would make things more complicated, and it would only make Helen sad and in despair. I could see that being without her twin sister was crushing her. The light was slowly leaving her eyes, and I did not want to see the fire burn out inside of her. Especially if I could help it with my strength and army.
“Captain, we are coming up on the transmission. In that group of trees,” the pilot said.
I walked to the windshield and looked at the group of trees along the bank of the bay. I couldn't see anything. But then I saw a weredragon fly up into the sky. He was signaling and getting our attention. I couldn't see from this distance who it was.
As soon as we got closer, I could see that it was General Razook. But what the hell was he doing out here? He was supposed to go south. Where was his army?
Our ship landed, and the door opened. I walked out to him. General Razook and I didn't exactly get along, but we were Veruka soldiers and Veruka soldiers stuck together no matter what the personality differences were.
“General Razook! What the hell are you doing out here? Where is your army? You are supposed to be south?” I asked.
“Jex, it is good to see you. It is a long story. We went south, but the human colony was already destroyed. King Karik told us to come north to find colonies here and disperse the virus. Things did not go as planned and we came across a human colony that was hostile. They did not want our help, and a small battle erupted.”
“I am looking for a human female named Hannah. Have you seen her? I am helping her sister find her,” I said.
“Helen? You know Helen?” I heard a voice say. I turned to the trees to see a woman walk out. She looked exactly like Helen. My shoulders dropped in relief.
“She is at Willow Springs. I have come to find you to take you to her,” I said.
“What are you doing out here? Where is your army?” I asked General Razook.
“We got separated in the battle. I was in a small ship that crashed here, and I engineered an emergency beacon out of the remains of the radio, what is left, that is. I have not been able to contact the rest of my army. We did not have a stationary camp, so I cannot fly to find them,” he said.
“You will come with us to Willow Springs. It is a human colony that is hospitable to having us as guests. We will find the army and transmit your location,” I said. “Pilot, get on the airwaves and see if you can find a fleet within range of here. We were not in range at Willow Springs,” I said. “Give them the coordinates to Willow Springs.”
“Thank you. I have been through hell, especially with this one… Stubborn human female,” he said gesturing toward Hannah.