Drookan lands in the cave, and Kaela dismounts. He is met by an angry Dmoko. "You were told to come straight back here. We sent Djenthu with that message only, for you to come straight here. And instead you risked our safety to find this ... Ponu."

  Drookan looks at Dmoko with scorn, a look that says don't push it. "You know I am her Dowath,"

  He adds as he walks past Dmoko, "...and she is my Ponu."

  Kaela looks up at Drookan. "Why did you come for me? I thought you were going to wait at Vault #6?"

  He looks down at her, "I made a choice. I am not giving up that easily. I will do whatever it takes to win your heart. I took time to think when I was waiting in Vault 6, all the praise from my people, all the esteem, the honor of being the keeper of history, respected by all. It means nothing if I don't have you. Maybe it's futile, maybe you've already decided. Either way, I am not going to give up without first putting up a fight for you."

  Kaela smiles as he says these words. Drookan was risking his pride, his standing among those like Dmoko, to fight for her.

  Kaela walks straight towards Dana. "We have to speak." Dmoko follows, "Yes, the time for secrets is over, let's see this twin tell us all the truth finally." He looks at Drookan.

  "I have no twin anymore," Kaela says, "Francesca is dead!" Dana and the rest are in shock, and news spreads quickly through the cave.

  30 minutes later, in the assembly room, almost all the Ponu are there, and a good portion of Dowath. Kaela, standing in her Ponu suit in the center, addresses them.

  "You all knew me as Kaela, but my real name is JaKaelath. I was born a Ponu, a fact I didn't know until a short time ago. All my life I have been raised as a scavenger, and thought I just looked different, I was teased because I was suspected of being different". She lowers her head. "Sadly, they were right, I was different. No matter how hard I try to deny it, the truth came out."

  She looks at Dana,

  "Kallian, a man you all know, and who even I despise, sent me on what he thought, hoped, might be a suicide mission. To infiltrate the cave and return with information. But when I entered the cave, I found women, not monsters; I found loyalty, not obedience. I found anger, hate, but also love and compassion. You were just like us. I found fear, and I found Zealots and gentlemen among the very beings I had feared and hated my entire life. I told Kallian only part of my report. Still, he attacked anyway. He had wanted to do more. He had found a hidden group of "Geeryo Guard" androids."

  Murmurs and gasps come from the crowd

  "With those, his attack may have gone differently. I sabotaged the command node and fled. Because of that, and his all-consuming hatred of me, he has hunted me ever since."

  She looks down,

  "My camp is about to be slaughtered by Ponu working under the control of Geeryo.

  I heard them; they know Kallian is hiding in my old camp. They want to make it a complete slaughter to ensure he does not escape, and there is no one left to help him escape.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  The people of that camp are not all Kallian. We were decent people who were forced to become part of Kallian's Red Band faction. Please, they need your help. Yes, there are evil people who want to do you harm, who will die in that camp, but there are also good people, gentle people who will die too. My friend JaMaya, who stood with me, making up a lie to save me when Kallian almost had the proof he needed that I was a Ponu. My friend JaLena, the shy JaLena who could not harm anyone. Janeda, the camp elder, helped raise me and saved me from Kallian's wraith more than once. There are many more good, decent people who will die. I ask, I beg, please send your help. I ask for volunteers to go back with me, to help defend my home."

  Silence, as Kaela looks around the room. She hopelessly looks back at Drookan. Then, a voice, "Hell, I'll go". It's Audrey, a muscular Ponu woman with long curly auburn hair, an amazonian physique, and an accent Kaela doesn't recognize but any of the Ponu would recognize as being Texan. "I've never fought with scavengers before, but I'd love to get a chance at bashing some Geeryo zealots' skulls in".

  Many are shocked. Audrey is one of the two best warriors, along with the deceptively dangerous Marcela, that the Cave Ponu have to offer.

  A few more hands raise. A dozen at most. Still not enough to win, but enough to fight. Everyone looks at Dana.

  Dana stands, "Audrey and the others, I can't stop you if you want to volunteer, but we cannot risk the safety of the whole cave on an attack, especially against Geeryo technology. I have seen what they are capable of. They have technology that would frighten even those of us with the most vivid imaginations. Our best course of action is to remain as hidden as we can and only defend if attacked. JaKaelath, I am sorry, but we cannot commit our forces to this".

  "I will go," Drookan says. "Drookan, you can't," Kaela responds. "They have some kind of sound weapon, I have seen it first hand bring down a Sky Reaper. His last minutes were agonizing pain before he died, his ears bleeding."

  At news of the sound weapon, Lana and Dana look at each other. They have seen this terrible device before. The situation is even more dire than they imagined.

  "Then that makes our strategy simple," Drookan says, "Your team, find and take out those devices,

  I will hover at what I hope is a safe distance, and when you give the signal that the device is destroyed, I will join the fight".

  Dmeko chimes in, "WE will hover, and when free, WE will join the fight."

  Dmoko steps up, "I will go too. If they really have such a weapon, we must take it out now, before they get a beachhead." He looks directly at Dana, then at Drookan. "It should never have come to this, but with this terrible weapon, our entire cave is in danger. Think of that Drookan when you praise this alliance and what it has wrought on our people."

  Then it's decided, Kaela, Audrey, the other Dozen Ponus, and the 3 Dowaths leave to try to lift the siege of Kaela's camp.

  Dana calls out to them, offering advice from her own encounter with the device before, "Was there any nearby craft, like a transport? It would probably be heavily guarded, but more than likely that's where the siren will be." "Unless it's a portable model," Lana chimes in, "in which case all bets are off!"

  They watch the assault team leave the cave. Marcela, standing by them, tenses up as if she is tempted to run after and join Kaela's team. Sensing this, Lana grabs her hands. The gloom look Lana gives Marcela tells her wife all she needs to know without saying a word. Please don't go, they will probably not come back.