Cantral The Entra

We need all the help we can get.

The ship glides through the air, over land of green. We rise higher and miss the sky traffic of the region's capital. A vast city that sprawls over the continent. A city, but it's as green as any forest. Trees and plants spiral up towers, viaducts deliver crystal clear water. Children play, as adults watch, in high rise parks, that thrust them upwards under the sun. From up here it's a beautiful sight, and I wonder what it looks like from the ground.

I came to conquer this land. To conquer these people. The actions of my ancestors, of entra still alive and my own personal guilt, rest heavy on my shoulders and I don't believe it will ever shift. Maybe that's a good thing.

We leave behind the city and glide closer to a rocky beach. I watch the ocean through the window by my side. It doesn't look as blue as it did from space. It's grey like the clouds above, cold and uninviting. On the horizon I see land once more. The deserted continent, surrounded by ocean and far from the influence of people.

The ship descends over the land of ice and trees, tall trees with thick straight trunks. Trees like towers. Frost clings to them and transforms them a sparkling white, but brown and green peek shyly from beneath slender cracks. The ship lowers within an icy clearing, upon a frozen, snow-covered, lake.

Fendan approaches and slips a set of cuffs over my wrists. Metal pinches my skin, it chafes, these weren't made to minimise discomfort like the ones the Oneerans used. These were made to remind their prisoner, they are trapped, they are vulnerable. And right now, I couldn't feel more vulnerable. I position myself on the floor, kneeling with my head lowered.

Fendan inhales deeply and clasps his hands together. "Ramet, suit up, and hold a knife to Cantral's neck."

Ramet stands and approaches a locker set into the wall of the ship. She clips her suit in place, each gentle clink is a like a hammer to my head and my heartbeat rises too. I stare at the floor as Ramet nears, her boots strike the metal under me, the sound booms in my ears. She stands behind me. One hand grabs my hair gently and the other holds a curved blade to my neck.

Another lie, another pretence. Another situation that blurs the lines of reality and fiction. Why must it always be this way with Fendan?

"Okay." Fendan nods. "We're ready."

Fendan sits at the cockpit, his hands dart across the console. A holographic screen rises and then Haroc's face appears. He looks different, but he hasn't changed. His skin is still the same shade of pale grey, his hair is still buzzed and black, the incubation units still deceive his true age of over a two hundred and delivers to us, a man in his prime.

I stare unabashed, Haroc can't see me, Fendan has blurred the background. This Haroc, has no kindness in his eyes, there is no softness in his mouth. He sits at his desk, in his office on Prime. This is the Haroc Fendan and everyone else knows. Behind him, windows stretch the full length of the wall, and behind them, Naerris glows. The star's light floods the room and the Universe watches as Haroc condemns worlds. As he condemns us all.

"Fendan," Haroc says, cheerfully, he leans forward, "what do you want?" A smirk pulls at the corner of his lips. "Having trouble? Need ... help?" he utters the words with satisfaction, as if he derives some perverse pleasure from the prospect of Fendan's potential failure.

"Help," Fendan almost sings the word, "yes, you could say I need your help."

Haroc laughs, he leans back in his chair. "Fendan the Entara, my greatest disappointment. I think you need to remind me, just how exactly are you useful to me?" A long smile spreads across his face and reveals neat white teeth. "Three reasons!" The smile vanishes, he's serious. "Now!"

"First," Fendan says, his voice is calm, but I detect the underlying current of anger and humiliation, "if it wasn't for me you never would have defeated Entara, you would not have your empire. Secondly, it was I who enabled you to expand your reach across the universe ... without my scientific discoveries—"