Ascent of Lies

Chapter 8

SCREAMING FILLED THE SMALL wooden cabin. The clattering sound of weapons and armoury broke through the wooden planks of the hut's walls and alarmed the three people that were inside.

Fujita shot up. The chair on which she had just been sitting tumbled backward and hit the floor with a thud.

"They found us", she said, looking at Soterios.

The Vulcan stood up as well. "We must leave through the back", he said. Then he walked toward the room which had been closed thus far, his own bedroom.

Fujita and Valentino followed the man, and the Admiral saw the door in the back wall of the bedroom. While they walked toward it, she quickly scanned the rest of the room. It was as sparsely decorated as the rest of the room. Inside stood a bed with simple white sheets. A bookcase filled with ancient novels adorned the left wall.

As soon as Soterios reached the door, he opened it and pointed toward the trees in front. "Go, I will follow."

Fujita looked around at Valentino and started running once she saw that he was right behind her. She dove into the forest at top speed, jumping over trunks on the ground, ducking underneath branches and slaloming between trees.

After a minute or so, Fujita heard the screaming of the Emperor's guards grow closer.

"They're onto us!" Valentino called out.

"Just go on", Fujita said, taking the man by the arm and pulling him in front of him.

As they kept running, Fujita looked behind her. Where the hell was Soterios?

Suddenly, Fujita heard a shot and a projectile missed her head by only an inch. It bore into a tree a few meters away, shedding its bark.

"Woah!" Valentino muttered. He stumbled a few meters to the side. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"It missed me, I'm fine." Fujita took the Ensign by his arm again and dragged him with her. She was panting but she kept running as hard as she could. They had to get away.

Suddenly the realisation hit her that she did not know where Soterios was.

"Bloody hell", she mumbled, and then she yelled to Valentino, "Keep going!"

Fujita stopped running and turned around, scanning the woods around her for signs of the Vulcan man.

"Fujita!" Valentino yelled back, stopping as well.

"Keep going!"

"No, you can't stop."

Fujita turned around. "I have to find Soterios, you have to get out of here."

"But–"

The Admiral's eyes bore into the Ensign's. "That's an order, sir."

Valentino looked at her with a stern face. "You can't court-martial me. We're in the wrong dimension."

Fujita sighed. They did not have time for this. She turned her attention back to finding Soterios, and noticed the yelling of the guards getting closer. She made herself ready for a fight.

Then, a man stumbled through the bushes on her right. He seemed to tumble forward but recomposed himself just before he fell.

"Soterios!" Fujita beamed. "Are you okay?"

Suddenly, another shot was fired and a bullet bore into a tree a few meters away from Fujita. The Admiral turned back toward the nearing guards and saw that they had gotten threateningly close.

"We can't run anymore", she said.

---

His hair was blond, incredibly short but its light colour still clearly visible. He wore a blue tunic with the typical Terran golden breastplate which was decorated with a complex pattern of lines. Around his bulky neck hung a necklace made up off molars – human molars.