Memories

Delithita

The clash of swords woke her from her nap in the foyer of her parents home. Getting up and putting her sandals back on, she got up to investigate the sound. Grunting and cursing followed the harsh clang of swords. Scuffling footsteps, another clash, more words and grunts. Coming out onto the balcony that exited into the foyer, she saw the cause of the sound. An Imperial Knight and her father were fighting. Both moving in such fluid motions and speed that she was hard pressed to keep up. Looking, she realized their swords met many times, but the speed at which they hit was so incredible that the sound did not even reach her before a loud clash from a more powerful hit did.

A soft sobbing could be heard just barely amongst the two men fighting in the courtyard. Leaning over the railing of the balcony, she spied her mother, being held back by two additional Knights. Her mother struggled in vain to be free of them, only to have them detain her with more vigor.

Not quite understanding the situation she watched with lazy interest in the fight. She watched as the younger Knight would make a move, only to have her older father counter it with grace. After a short bit of fighting however, it became apparent that her father was starting to falter, his strength flagging in his age. The knight being far younger was breathing heavily, but still going strong. Her father slipped, fell heavily to his knee, and his strike went wide. The Knight, taking advantage of this, swung down with incredible speed and separated her father's hand from his arm.

Grunting in pain, he fell to both knees. His wife screaming hysterically and his daughter above, eyes wide in shock and horror, too mollified to do anything but stand there, mouth agape, and eyes wide.

"Now you rebel spy. Now you will pay for defying His Majesty!" taunted the Knight. Raising his sword he reared back for a finishing blow. Then suddenly he was on his back, his knees folded behind him, and his head at a harsh angle. An angle heads don't go to unless the neck is broken.

At this sudden development, the two other Knights rushed her father, swords drawn. Her father, having barely survived the first one, was no match for two fresh fighters. A few seconds later their deed done, and her mother on her knees crying harshly, they approached her mother, swords still drawn. Her mother looked up. And realized her dilemma, and got up and started to run into the house. She got to the stairs before she was killed. One of the Knights had thrown his sword, and it caught her in the back.

Finally gaining control of her body, she screamed. A loud and ear-piercing scream. The Knights, hearing this, ran up the stairs to reach, and silence the sound.

She jumped. From the three-story balcony she jumped to save herself. Upon landing, she broke her hip when she failed to roll into the fall. But still she got up, and ran as best she could for the nearby forest, where some safety could be found. She ran until finally pain and fatigue took her, and she all but collapsed in the middle of a pine-needle bed. Laying there gasping for air, and crying from pain and grief, she could not run, scream, or even kick and squirm as the two Knights caught up to her.

Upon awakening she found herself unable to move. Pain was the dominant sensation. Every attempt to move she made was answered by a sharp pain emanating from somewhere in her body.

Panicking she began to struggle with abandon. Ignoring the pain in her fright she fought her restraints, hoping to be free of them as a result of her efforts. Suddenly there was light. Piercing through her head, her eyes unaccustomed to such bright intrusions pained her to no end. Her world went dark, as her surrounding got bright.

~~

Waking one day, she found she was in an infirmary of some sort. Restrained to a table by some sort of strapping that covered her arms, legs, and forehead. She could get her head to move a few inches either direction before the restraint... restrained her. Sobbing horribly at her apparent imprisonment she quickly realized that she was on a space ship of some sort. The constant throb of engines keying her off to her abduction from Terra. A soldier came in. A man, white, with a scarred face. Reaching down, and moving the covers off of her arm he held her wrist and looked at his wrist watch. And waited a few seconds. All the while tears streaming down her face, he ignored her and her sorrow. He moved out of her limited range of sight, and mumbled a few things, then left.

~~~

Sleep came often times in the form of a needle administered by Scarface, as she came to think of him. So it was a surprise to her when she found herself in a real bed, inside of a real room. Had it all been a bad dream? She wondered. Hoping that it was she ran for the door. Locked. Locked until Scarface came in to check on her, and give her some more liquid sleep. In her sleep she mused. "I can walk again."

Waking time was fleeting. She spent most of her trip drugged into sleep by Scarface's needle. Until she reached Mercury. Hustled into line with a bunch of other people who looked equally miserable, the issued them spacesuits, and shoved them farther down the line to the airlock. All of the lights hurt her eyes terribly because she'd spent most of her time to Mercury asleep. Donning her spacesuit and stepping out of the airlock, all she could see was bare rock. Nothing but bare rock, hills and crevasse for as far as her pained and young eyes could see. Ahead of them was a land crawler. Climbing aboard, or more akin to herded aboard, she took a seat next to a young lady. Who had a defiant tilt of her chin. And who was also crying silently inside of her suit. She rode in silence for about an hour, until over the commlink she heard a soldier say. "Welcome to the Antipode, enjoy your stay."

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