My Kingdom Come book 1: The Saints We See
Chapter 22: In the Dark

661 standard years after the signing of the Alliance treaty

Hathu’s head hurt. He groaned. He tried to rub his face, but something was holding his hand back…both of his hands. He cracked his eyes open. One wouldn’t open. He blinked. It was dark. There was a muted beeping sound, there were small dots of colored light in the darkness. He was laying on something comfortable. His head was pounding. He tried to move his hands again. There was a clinking of metal and resistance on his wrists. He was handcuffed to whatever he was laying on. He frowned.

He twisted trying to see around the room better. There was a raking pain across his ribs, a sharp pain in his right leg and he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness and nausea wash over him. He fell back swallowing hard.

A curtain parted briefly, letting in a sharp shaft of light. Hathu grunted, squinting and the curtain closed.

“What are you doing awake?” A female voice muttered quietly.

“What happened?” Hathu asked. “Is Walesa safe? Is everyone at the school safe? What happened to the cargo ship?”

The voice didn’t answer. Hathu felt himself fading. “Wait, I have to know. Please. Is she safe?”

“Who?” Asked the voice.

“My…” Hathu’s mouth wasn’t working properly. “My Deetha.” Everything went dark again.

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The next time Hathu opened his eyes things were brighter in the room. He couldn’t feel any pain. Both his eyes opened this time but things looked a little odd. He felt like he was moving underwater, slow and uncoordinated. There was an IV tube attached to the inside of Hathu’s left elbow. He was laying in a hospital bed, handcuffed to raised railings at each side of the bed.

There were two official looking men in army uniforms on one side of Hathu’s bed, and three other people in uniform who were waiting in the background.

“You’re Hathu Fons?” One of the official looking men asked.

Hathu tried to answer, but nothing came out. He coughed and cleared his throat. “Yes.” His voice was hoarse. “What happened to my people?”

“Who exactly are your people?” The man asked.

Hathu frowned. He was having trouble gathering his thoughts. He remembered Walesa falling on him, the shuttle wobbling out of sight, the line of Ir’Klahn at the school waiting to be attacked. “The school.” He finally said. “My people were at the school. They are running out of supplies. Father is going to attack, we…we blew up his ship.”

“Who’s Deetha?” The man asked.

Hathu frowned. “Who are you?”

“Who is Deetha?” The man repeated.

Hathu frowned. “No. Who are you? Where are my people?” He tried to get up and was stopped by the handcuffs again.

The other man stepped forward. “Don’t try to get up. You were hurt pretty badly, son.”

Hathu looked at him. He had orange eyes; they seemed kind. “Is Walesa okay?”

The man’s face turned sad and he shook his head. “She saved your life. You set off a series of bombs when you hit that trip wire. Luckily for you we came in a few hours later, or you would have died. Walesa didn’t make it.”

Tears welled up in Hathu’s eyes. “No. She has to be okay. It was my fault, not…not hers.”

“I’m sorry.” The man repeated.

Hathu tried to cover his face, but the handcuffs stopped him. He turned his face away from the men. “Who are you?”

“This is general Fareez Kahn. I’m colonel Veli Hira. We’re here on behalf of the army.”

“The rest of my people, what happened to them?” Hathu asked.

“The people that escaped the planet?” General Kahn asked.

Hathu frowned in confusion. He turned to look at the men. “What? Who es- shit. Father got to his ship, didn’t he?” Disappointment filled him. He felt like he should be feeling a lot angrier. “Did you drug me?”

Colonel Hira glanced uncomfortably at the general.

“You’re on pain medication for your wounds.” The general said briskly. He turned to a young man who was standing on the other side of Hathu’s bed, near the beeping machinery attached to Hathu’s arm. “Give him more.”

The young man bit his lip, nodded and pressed a few buttons.

Hathu’s thoughts slowed down even more. “I don’t like how I feel. I don’t want pain medication.” His words were slurred.

“That’s not your choice right now.” The general said. “We are trying to determine what your true purpose is here.”

Hathu frowned. “Purpose? Where?”

“Why didn’t you go with your family? Did they give you a mission?”

Hathu frowned. “My family hates me.”

“Did you stay behind to try to gain their love?”

Hathu frowned. “They wont ever love me. I’m different. Weak.”

“Were you trying to prove your strength to them?”

Hathu shook his head. The room spun.

“Why did you stay behind?”

“It’s a warriors duty to protect.”

“Protect, who? Your family?”

“Well, yes…but,” Hathu frowned. He was having a very difficult time shaping words properly. “They don’t need my protection. My team. The students. They didn’t know. I told Nar-” Hathu stopped. He felt vaguely like he shouldn’t be saying anything about Narish.

“You told who?”

Hathu blinked. “Who are you again?”

“Give him more.”

“More what?” Hathu asked. Another voice said, “sir, he’ll only pass out.”

“Don’t let him pass out, then.”

“Sir,” the voice answered weakly, “that’s, that’s not…”

“Kahn,” broke in another voice. “What are you hoping to gain? Everyone says the boy is a hero. He saved them.”

“It’s all just a bit too convenient for me, Hira. The one person in his family who is left behind. I’m sure they left him behind as a mole, to spy on us, give them inside information. They probably thought we wouldn’t suspect him, if they made him look like a hero. How else can you explain everything? How does a fifteen standard year old hold off a bunch of insurgents like this? We’re still trying to mop things up in three of the other prison outbreaks. No one but the insurgents survived in any of the others prison breaks. Not a single inmate, grandmother or child. This has to be a set up.”

The other man sighed. “Maybe he was able to survive and save all these people because he was part of Nediz’s family. He knew what to expect from him.”

There was a snort of disbelief. “I’m not buying it. Did you turn his medication up?”

“Sir, I’m surprised he hasn’t already-”

“I said turn it up.”

Hathu began to see bright colors around the room. The light on the angry man’s face turned bright pink.

“Where’s Deetha?” Hathu asked.

The man leaned closer. “What?”

Sounds were echoing in Hathu’s ears, the room was going dark. “Is Deetha safe?” He tried to ask, but his mouth wasn’t working anymore. The room went black.

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