STEP 5: Identify the hand that profits from the war.

  RG Doctrine

  Expose the one who needs the fighting to continue.

  Feebee’s ‘manual’

  Feebee leapt up, immediately screamed.

  “Get back, out of the water and away from the stream. EVERYONE. NOW!!! Secure yourselves!!!”

  She saw her Alphas step away and move back into the jungle. The women in the stream had heard the warning. She struggled against a strengthening current, trying to get to the bank. She was near the edge and turned, looking up stream.

  A wall of water filled the gorge, a good two or three yards above the current level of the stream, smashing it way towards her carrying all sorts of debris.

  Feebee sprinted across the beach and dived into the water. Colliding with the woman who drew a knife. Feebee knocked this from her hand and grabbed her by the waist just as the two of them were consumed by a tidal wave of pure power. It swept them over the waterfall.

  As they fell, Feebee slipped the strap of the rifle over the woman’s head, pulling them close together. She then renewed her grip and hugged the woman tightly as they crashed into the pool below the waterfall. They were pummelled by the flood that continued falling, holding them under the water.

  Feebee kicked hard away from the water crashing down from above, holding her under the water, churning her and the woman she held. All sense of up and down was gone. The water dark.

  Nanites scrubbed her blood, extending her ability to fight the water but she could feel her strength waning.

  Then the water glowed with green light. Off to her left. It was the green mote.

  She fought the water, striking out towards the mote with one last effort. Feebee managed to escape the intense pull of the waterfall and the water crashing down on her.

  They broke the surface. Her lungs were bursting. She took a massive breath of air, and another and another. Then swam to the bank, dragging the woman out of the water. She flipped the woman onto her back, but she wasn’t moving, the chest wasn’t rising. She was unresponsive.

  Feebee tilted the woman’s head back, pinched her nose and blew for a second into her mouth. The chest rose. Feebee took a breath, the woman’s chest fall. She did this five times, then started CPR.

  The woman convulsed, vomited and started breathing on her own.

  Feebee sat back and leaned against a rock on a beach. They were behind the waterfall on a small beach.

  There was movement off to her left, she span round.

  ‘Don’t!’

  She turned, hands raised.

  Four people stood on the bank. A man, an older woman and two teenagers; a boy and a girl. All carried rifles. All pointed them at her.

  Feebee froze. Then slowly rotated her hands, showing they were empty. One of the teenagers rushed across to the woman and lifted her, gently. Cradling her head.

  “Mum. Mum. Wake up.”

  The woman slowly raised a hand and laid it on the girl’s arm. Then, opened her eyes and tried to get up. The girl held her mother down, “It’s Ok. Take your time. You’re safe.”

  “How?”

  The girl didn’t answer, just stroked the woman’s head, neatening her hair.

  The man worked his way down, closer to Feebee but not close enough for her to attack him. He limped badly but kept the rifle pointing directly at her.

  “You’re not Royal Guard.” He spoke standard and spat the last words.

  “No.”

  “I saw what you did. Why?”

  Feebee thought on that, why did I do it?

  “I don’t know. It was pretty stupid.”

  The man laughed. “Stupid… and brave. But you saved my wife,” he pointed to the boy and girl, “and their mother.”

  “You’re welcome.” She nodded slightly as she said it.

  He heard honesty and truth in what she said. “You’re not like the others.”

  “Thank you.” Another nod of the head.

  “You're a problem for me.”

  Feebee laughed, “Yeh, I get that a lot.”

  The man laughed.

  Feebee continued, “Look, I’m not Royal Guard. You can see that from my uniform. I'm about the same age as them." She pointed to the teenagers. "I’m not here to kill you. Can't we just talk?”

  “How do I know you won’t try to kill me?”

  Feebee smiled, “I said I wouldn’t. But I guess you don’t.”

  The man smiled, decision made and held out a hand, “John Peters.”

  She understood the custom and the shared trust it required. Let's hope your honourable too. They shook hands, “Feebee Jones.”

  They sat in a circle. The two teenagers close to their father, while the older woman, Peters mother tended the mum. She was still coughing up water but looked to be ok. John's gun lay on the floor, beside him. The others, less trusting, kept theirs trained on her, although given how close they now were to Feebee she could have disarmed them easily.

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  The discussion was benign. They relived the flash flood, then the water fall and Feebee’s resuscitation of the mum, Ellie. Ellie Peters. They wanted to know how she knew first aid.

  “I trained as a field medic. Basic stuff but enough.”

  Feebee tired of small talk, “I saw you limping earlier. What’s with that?”

  Peters cursed, “Stood on a thorn. Went through my boot. Got infected.”

  ‘Print me something to fix his infection.’

  ‘Yes, but…’

  Feebee cut across the QI, ‘Just do it. Please.’

  She felt the backpack vibrate as the nano-forge started up.

  "I might have something for that limp. May I?" She indicated to her pack.

  The two youngsters steadied their guns on her. "Slowly else you die. Whether you saved mum or not."

  Feebee took her time, reached into the pack and started rummaging around.

  'PING' appeared in her overlays along with scratchy QI laughter. Feebee shook her head.

  "Here it is. I use this myself." While it was still in the bag she squeezed some out so it looked used, then tossed it to the man. He caught it easily but wasn't sure how to get the cream out.

  "No lid. Just squeeze, gently. Comes out the black end."

  He took a boot off. Wasn't wearing socks.

  Then squeezed some cream out the pack.

  Sniffed at it.

  "Haven't smelt that smell in quite a while. How often?"

  "Once usually does it. Clears things up pretty quick. Its broad spectrum and analgesic." She didn't mention the medical nanites.

  "Thanks." He rubbed the cream into the foot and lower calf; it went in easily. Disappeared quickly. Whatever the infection was, it had spread beyond a minor thorn in the foot.

  "Is the thorn out? All of it?" Feebee asked.

  The boy answered, "Yes, but it may be infected."

  "May be? It is infected, and badly. That'll fix it."

  There was another period of awkward quiet. Then Peters spoke, “How old are you. You look like you’re the same age as River.” He pointed to his son.

  “My physical age is nineteen.”

  “That’s a strange answer.”

  “Hhmm. Yeh. My age isn’t that simple. Don’t actually know,” was all Feebee said.

  “River’s nineteen next cycle.”

  “Oh. Ok. Good.”

  Peters stood up and stamped his foot, “It feels funny.”

  River raised his gun and steadied it on Feebee. Finger on the trigger.

  Peters continued, “The pain, it’s gone. Foot feels… tingly.”

  River relaxed.

  “It feels like that when the cream’s working. When proper feeling comes back.” She pointed to his leg. “The redness. It’s gone.”

  “That was quick.”

  Feebee shrugged, “It’s good stuff. How come you haven’t got your own medicines?”

  Peters’ mother scoffed. “We used to have before the RG came. They took everything.” She continued, “Took the best farms for themselves. Some try to fight back.”

  “Are you aligned with the dissidents?” Feebee felt she had to ask.

  "Dissidents?" Peters laughed, “What dissidents?”

  Feebee spoke gently, “The ones attacking the RG. Destroying crystal farms. Attacking our ships in orbit.”

  Peters laughed again, louder this time. “You think that’s us? We’re farmers who walk everywhere. Space is beyond our reach. Even the next valley is out of reach for most of us.”

  “Then why the camo and the rifles. Why were you stalking us?” asked Feebee, staying calm as she asked.

  The mood changed.

  “Us? You said us. There are more?”

  ‘Be careful.’ The QI caused Feebee to think and take her time before replying.

  “Yes, us. We’re here to observe and learn.”

  “Observe what?”

  “The RG and this place.”

  “How many observers are you?” Peters asked. “Ten. And hundred. More?”

  “There are two others.”

  “Oh. Only three?”

  “Yes. And this is our first day.” She laughed, “Turning out to be one hell of a day. How many of you are there?”

  “Of us?” Peters smiled, “We’re it. This is our family. My father died a while ago. We have mature fields, scrape by.” He turned to his mother, “What do you think?”

  Her voice was deep, carried gravitas, was lived in, “I believe her. She’s clearly not RG. Too young, the uniform and she saved Ellie. Risked her life.”

  River added, “Also, the jungle accepted them. We couldn’t see them...” The father shot the boy a stern look. He stopped talking and dropped his head, realizing how much he’d given away in those two sentences. “Sorry Dad.”

  “Will they be looking for you. The others.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Yes. They know I’m hard to kill.”

  Peters laughed, “Clearly. Are they dangerous?”

  “Yes. Very. But their orders are to observe and intervene only if necessary.”

  “Are they observing us now?”

  The thought hadn’t crossed Feebee’s mind, but maybe they were. She looked around. They were behind the veil of the waterfall but the Alpha’s could have found their way here.

  “I don’t know.” Truth. She then asked the QI if it had the ability to send a CLICK message that the Alphas so they’d know she was alive.

  ‘I can try, but we have no way of knowing if they receive it. You lost the comms gear in the water.’

  ‘Do it.’

  Feebee turned back to Peters. “I’m confused. Why do you think there's a war?”

  “I didn’t realise there was?” Peters looked to his mother, wife and then the two children. “Did you?” he asked them.

  “No.” It was Ellie, her voice fragile. Quiet. “And by the way. I was tracking you, trying to see who was on our farm. And why. That's all. The RG raid us occasionally. Send spotters ahead. If we see them first, we hide some of the harvest and get a fair price for it. Through traders. That’s if they don’t come and take it first.”

  “Steal it more like.” It was River, angry. “They take what we have and smash up what’s left, then burn it. They kill and burn, that’s all they do.”

  “Are there others like you?” Feebee asked.

  “Yes. Many. Some work directly with the RG but most try to sell to free traders as well.”

  ‘Did you know there was a trade in crystal?’

  The QI answered almost immediately. ‘I’m looking. It’s not obvious there's trade, nor what its used for.’

  Feebee decided to ask, “What is the crystal used for?”

  The family all looked at each other, “Honestly. And this is going to sound off. We don’t know.”

  Then River spoke up, “But the RG do. They’re the ones buying it. And off world traders.”

  River was tasked with guiding Feebee back to the area where they'd been washed down stream and over the waterfall. He didn't seem to mind, asked the Alphas questions about where they were from, what they'd done before meeting Feebee. She learnt more about them in those ten minutes than she'd learnt in all the time she'd know them.

  He became excited, animated. "Do we have time? Something I'd like to show you."

  They looked to Feebee, she nodded, "Fifteen max. Ok."

  "More than enough."

  He took them off the track they'd been following and through a dense thicket. "Careful of the thorns."

  They pushed through some more and came to a break in the jungle. The canopy open with the sun streaming down.

  And there, in the middle was a solitary standing stone. Crystal vines wrapped around its base, but none climbed. They were thick, old vines; coiled like a crystalline serpent strangling its prey. Motes began to appear and quietly circled in the gloom beneath the crystal canopy, like moths to a flame, a silent Flame. As Feebee walked into the clearing the ground pulsed with each footfall. Tendrils of light that reached towards the standing stone but also towards River as if seeking connection.

  They approach and there, on the smooth surfaces that no vines dared to touch words appeared.

  The Duu’ra shall not walks alone.

  One shall stir the flame.

  The other shall hold back the dark.

  Together they shall teach stone its true name.”

  As she read the words she felt them resonate deep within. Her bones shook, and she felt a voice demanding to be heard. "Touch the stone. Let it see you. Touch the stone." It repeated these words over and over, with increasing urgency. The clamour in her mind was hard to ignore.

  Feebee reached across and touched the spiralling mantle cut into the stone. It pulsed brightly, her arms lit up and the jungle screamed. Some crystal fronds, young and brittle, shattered and fell, crashing to the ground. Feebee felt as if her life was being siphoned off and collapsed against the standing stone.

  She looked to be on fire as light continued to stream through her and into the from her. River rushed forward to help her but tripped and fell against the stone. Both hands rested next to Feebee's and suddenly the jungle became calm. The fractured crash of crystal ceased and light slowly left Feebee. As if a flame had been gently quashed.

  "What was that?" asked Feebee, shaking her head.

  "Sometimes, the jungle reacts and looses balance. Dad says it's overwhelmed by chaos."

  "I heard a voice, an inner voice." Feebee's voice trailed off, she'd brought chaos to the jungle, when all she ever strived for was balance. It worried her.

  'Did you hear the voice?' She asked the QI.

  'No.'

  River lead them back to the jungle path they had been on and led them close to the waterfall.

  "You know your way from here?"

  Feebee nodded and as he turned to leave, Feebee reached into her backpack and pulled out a JSOC Challenge Coin. She’d wanted to give him something tangible. Something that may help. It was the QI’s idea, it had even printed one for River.

  It didn’t look like much. Heavy for its size, dull matte finish and slightly thicker than normal coins. Around the front of the coin were the words “Timing over Force” and on the back was a grid with just one square filled in. It was supposed to mean we take one action, the correct one. Few people ever got that without being prompted.

  River looked at it, turned it over not sure what to do with it. “What is it?”

  Feebee explained, “It’s a marker. It tells people that I have spoken to you personally. Never lie when holding it because it says to people that I stand behind your words.

  “Tell people that 'Captain Feebee Jones asked you to look at this before deciding what to do.' It only works because no one before you has misused it. And if you do, it’ll stop working for all those I could help in the future."

  “When this is over, I want it back. You return it to me. Responsibility goes both ways. Agreed?”

  River was about to make light of it but saw the truth and honour of the moment. “Will it protect me?”

  “Not from criminals. Only from people who care about consequences. And those people will recognise it. If they don’t, then step away quietly. Yes?”

  “Yes. Agreed and thank you.”

  As River left, he turned to wave and saw Feebee by the stream talking to two older men. Both dressed in the same black fatigues as her. She saw him wave and waved back.

  In his hand he held the coin and kissed it.