The Black Box Chapter Two
Chapter 2
As a week went by she told me of many things. She explained why there are three suns now in the sky instead of just one. She told me that they where called sun sprites or baby suns. They have little mass and really cause no trouble at all. She also told me of the newly developed weapons they have created. They do not harm people but only stun them for a short amount of time.
Vony mentioned that the outsiders have been trying to steal the newly developed weapons, and that in some cases they had succeed. They really have no idea why the outsiders want to steal the weapons for they are no good in harming others. I pointed out the one thing that had yet to cross their minds. That maybe they didn’t plain on using them the way her people had created them for. That maybe they where altering the weapons to cause them to be able to do both, kill or stun at the turn or push of a button.
This brought great fear into Vony’s eyes as she realized the terrible thing that may happen. If ever a war where to arise, the weapons her people developed where to make sure no lives where lost. But now the terrible realization of a life being lost to another persons deeds seemed to flash before her very eyes. Shock was very abundant in her features as she suddenly became rigid.
“Its okay. I’ll do everything I can to prevent having lives lost. Please believe in me?” I said trying to ease her fear.
“It is not them I fear. It is their actions that hunt me in my dreams. I do trust you Chris. Honestly I do, but I don’t know if your effort will be needed. Throughout this entire war, not one life has been lost. Thank you for your concern anyway.” But the idea of death seemed to linger in her actions. No matter how much she tried to hide it, it was still apparent.
As time went by over the next few days, Vony told me about herself and lifestyle. I asked her how old she was and found that she was a year young than I am at the age of twenty. Which makes me twenty-one. She told of the government which really hasn’t changed much. The only real difference is that they no longer have an Executive Branch of any kind. She says that law enforcement is no longer needed because every one now lives in peace within the city limits. The only time force is used is when the outsiders try to invade the city borders.
I also found out that she was adopted at the age of six for a deadly plague killed both of her parents and most of her family. She was an only child which made losing her parents even harder for her mother was six months pregnant with a baby boy, who perished with his mother. Her only remaining living relative is my professor. Things seemed as though they couldn’t get any worse, but naturally they did.
I got my first encounter with an outsider two weeks after I arrived. He had dark scraggily hair, brown eyes, and where filthy rags that where torn and patched in many places. He seemed to be frightened of the things that where happening around him. We asked him what his name was and he only muttered a small sound that was barely audible. I asked Vony what they intended to do with him since they have not had the executive branch for over five-hundred years. She told me that after they had questioned him and got the answers they wanted, they would set him free in the forbidden lands.
That did not appeal to me as a very good idea. The outsider could learn many things even being in one place for a very short while. A well trained outsider would be able to pick up information just through what was said to them. Vony’s people where so desperate for peace, that they ignored many signs of possible danger. Her people may be underestimating these outsiders a great deal.
‘Why? Why are you truly here?’ I asked the man to myself. ‘Is there some prepuce that you are here in our midst? What is it that you hope to learn from these hopeful people that could very well lead to their own destruction?’
Even while these things spun through my mind, Vony was having a difficult time getting answers. That is when I asked the man sitting next to me that must have sounded startling because he went rigid with my words.
“Do your people still make truth elixir?”
“Yes, why?”
“There are a few things I would like to ask this gentleman, (I said gesturing to the man on the other side of the widow), that I would like to actually have answers to.”
The man lifted himself from where he was sitting and said he would be back in a moment with a syringe.
He indeed return in a moment with a syringe filled with a clear liquid. “Inject it all for quicker results, and wait for about ten minutes. After that he will answer any of your questions without hesitation.”
I thanked the man and I left the observation room to join Vony in the questioning.
When I arrived she looked exhausted with frustration. I told her not to worry and that I had something that would help. She looked at me puzzled until I should her the syringe behind my back. She jumped at me in an instant and tried to take it away.
“We haven’t used those kinds of things in years! I don’t want to bring that back into this culture! I won’t - let you do it!” she was crying when she finished what she had to say. She sank to the floor in a shuddering heap. She looked so fragile at that point that I had to do something to help. I went to the outsider, still nameless for his stubbornness. I injected the solution into his neck and then the wait began.
I returned to Vony who still lying on the floor. I knelt beside her and cuddled her into my arms. She trembled in my touch as I told her that what I had just done will help bring peace and possibly save her people from a disaster that would surly destroy her peoples hopes and dreams for peace.
Her trembling slowly subsided, and her breathing came in long smooth rhythms. She had fallen to sleep in my arms. It had only taken a few minutes to see how much need that she had gone through to finally get the one thing she desired most. For her just to be held and allowed to cry like a small child in a parent’s arms. A thing, and chance, that was taken away from her so long ago and at such a young age.
I stayed there and asked my questions from the floor. “What are you doing in the city? What is the prepuce of your mission?”
The man looked at me startled by the question, but could not resist the notion to answer my question. “My mission was to come steal medicine for a sick child in my house hold. She has the illness that killed so many in the city and it is the only place I can get the cure. Please, she is my daughter. Help me!” He sobbed into his hands his final plea.
I slowly removed my jacket and rolled it into a ball. Then, placing it on the floor, I gently moved Vony’s head, carefully so not to disturb her. She did not stir as her head came to rest on the soft surface. I then got up from where I was sitting and left the room.
The one thing I had been so sure of was that he had come to spy. Then to find that he had come on behalf of saving his child’s life was devastating for me. I had label them a hostile group of people. I had convicted them of crimes only by going on what I had been told. This was not me. I promised then and there that I would meet the accused from then on out before convicting them of a crime. The truth serum had possibly saved me from making a terrible accusation about a group of people who’s actions that they acted upon where still a mystery.
When I reached the observation room, I asked the man that had given me the truth serum for the antidote for the plague that had once ripped through the city. He jumped up from his set without asking for an explanation. He returned a few moments later with a large bottle in his hands.
“Tell the man that this should be enough for his family with possible extras. Tell him not to only give her one pill, because an infected person needs ten pills in a period of five days. Two a day, or he could just look on the bottle.” He added with a slight smile.
“Thank you,” I said taking the medication from his extended hand. Looking through the window at Vony lying on the floor I added without much thought, “Vony will be happy with what we have done here tonight. I just know it.” With that I left the room without a backward glance.
When I reentered the questioning room the man looked at me as though he thought I had failed in the effort to help him save his daughter. But when I held out the large plastic container, he was finally able to relax. “You are free to go.” I said without true consent of anyone else. “Good luck to your daughter and pay close attention to the label on that bottle.”
I offered my hand and he took it.
“I will.” he said. “Thank you, for now my daughter has another chance at life.”
With that, he was gone.
I returned to Vony’s sleeping side and lifted her into my arms. I left the room and returned to the observation room. There, I asked the man sitting once again in his chair where Vony lived. He told me to go out the front doors of the station and down the left of the street. He told me to keep walking along there until I came to a white house with blue trimming. That, that would be Vony’s home.
I thanked the man one last time for everything he has done and turned to leave.
“Wait!,” called the man. I turned and waited.
“Take good care of her. I knew her mother and father very well. They would be proud to she her finally at rest in good hands. Good luck.”
He had seen through all of my actions to the very heart of the reason for it all. I was stunned to see that I had not hidden it enough to the point that no one could tell. Yet, some how still stunned by his words I couldn’t help, hoping that they where true.
*to be continued*