Chapter 3

Prévious : Chapter 2

Shara was taken in a small low-ceilinged room whose walls included many recesses, lined with bars, which formed small cells. The lighting was pale and accentuated the feeling of suffocation and oppression that gave the scene. Shonie entered in one of the cells, pointed to a bench next to which there was a man in a white coat and asked him to sit down. Upon entering Shara noted that the small escort that had not stopped monitoring from the beginning had remained at a distance. Shonie beckoned them to close the door which gave access to the room. Unlike the others, she did not seem afraid of him. She sat on the bench beside him.

The young woman had dark blond hair, cut short. She stared at him with her brown eyes with a determined air and accuser. She seemed hardly older than him, maybe a year or two more, but it seemed that she had in her eyes charisma and maturity of someone who had lived much.

- You understand that I am obliged to be prudent, for the security of all, she said dryly.

Shara nodded. She continued:

- The man who is next to you is a doctor. He will examine and treat your wound. It does not bother you?

Shara shook his head and held out his hand to the man in the white coat who began to treat him.

Shonie continued to observe Shara:

- Faïgon told me what happened. First I want to thank you for what you did for them. But there are things in this story that I want to clarify. Tell me first who you are and where you came from!

Shonie noticed that the young man did not seem impressed. She was determined to detect any signs that could betray him if he was a spy in the pay of Nitai. He began his story. He seemed calm, as if the fact of being shot and being in a cell with strangers that monitor him did not bother him in the slightest. The state of dirt in which he was giving the impression that he had spent much time on the street. Yet he had fine features and a sweet face that made him look like a child despite his three-day beard. He did not look dangerous. He had even an endearing side. But Shonie remained suspicious. She continued to observe, watching for the slightest suspicious gesture.

He told her that he had not known his parents: they had entrusted him very young to a grandmaster who ran a martial arts school in about four days walk from Pyxis, in a small village high in the mountains. The master was called Dschubba. He was well known and many men from all countries asked him to be part of his students. But it was a privilege granted only to the chosen few. He considered Shara as his own son and, in addition to martial arts, taught him everything he knew.

The doctor interrupt the story and tell to Shonie:

- Nothing serious: the bullet grazed I'll just make a few stitches.

Shonie saw the small blink of an eye discreet he addressed her: she knew that meant he had nothing abnormal detected that could suggest they were dealing with a cyborg. The army of Nitai was very technologically advanced, particularly in robotics. They were able to design more or less autonomous machines. Some had a human appearance: androids. They also exploited the concept of mechanical prostheses to treat their wounded amputees of one or more members. They were sufficiently developed to create human whose body was constituted for more than eighty percent of mechanical and electronic organs, covered with artificial skin very similar to that of humans. But these cyborgs showed psychological instability. Shonie had read a lot of articles about this, where experts explained that monitoring was essential for these people to accept their new body. But the army of Nitai was not in lace. Even if they had understood, after several failures, that they had to operate on volunteers, Shonie strongly doubted that theses super-soldiers had some sufficient psychological support.

The more she watched Shara and the more she thought it was "normal": he remained calm and had even had some small grin of pain while the doctor cleaned the wound and sewed. But the fact that he was really hurt did not prevent him of being a spy. She encouraged the young man to continue his story.

He stated that his master taught him, when he was ten years, that his parents were dead. He refused to explain under what circumstances. He just explain to him that they were called Maya and Alderon and they were great warriors. They had entrusted their son to protect him from a great danger. The master was not a man whose orders were discussed, while Shara had never sought to know more about it.

Shonie noticed that the young man had the emotion in his voice. He paused, as if the memory of the story was painful to him, then continued by telling that less than a week earlier, when he had gone to cut wood like every morning, he heard cries that came from the village. He rushed there but arrived too late. The village was on fire and all the inhabitants were massacred. The vision was terrible. Even students of his master, who were all very good fighters, had been struck down. Yet Shara did not saw traces of firearms. It was hard to understand how the fighters who lived there were not able to defend themselves against their mysterious attackers. They had disappeared, leaving behind a devastated village.

Shara paused again. Shonie saw that he was holding back tears. He stated that even his master, seemingly invincible to everyone, had had no luck. Shara had held his lifeless body in his arms for hours before deciding to bury all the victims. There were a total of forty two people, men and women, he coasted since childhood. They had all become his family. Then Shara left the camp and walked for four days before arriving at Pyxis, guided by the lights of the city. There was wandering aimlessly when he noticed the corner of an alley, and Jodie and Faïgon in the hands of soldiers.

The young man was deeply moved by her story. He was honest. Shonie felt she could trust him. She was not the type to give her confidence so easily, especially to a stranger. But something good came from it. It was indefinable, but enough so she decides to follow her instincts, which had rarely wrong in the past: she would give him a chance. Abandoning his distrust, she watched again. He was still trying to hold back his tears, and she found him touching. She then offered to show him a place to sleep and where he could clean up and change clothes. Then she motioned to the five men who were still waiting behind the door that they could go.