Chapter 329: Drakon’s Gibberish
They sauntered back down the hill on the horses into the opening in front of the mine entrance. She surveyed the area and could see some soldiers around. But she was more focused on Atlas and Yuti who were standing a few feet away from their target who was gagged and tied to a wooden pole.
She rode through the opening in front of the impromptu compound. A few of the soldiers began staring at her as she rode through. Making her way right over to where they had set up a table where the Mirror Jace was being patched up. A soldier marked with a white bandana was wrapping his chest in bandages.
He looked at the bodies that were stacked on the back of two of the horses. Then he looked to Jebidiah who rode back with her. He had a box on the back of his horse. It was hidden from view but it had various sets of electronics that Salem wanted to bring. Then on the back of Salem’s horse was a large box of explosives.
Mirror Jace’s eyes looked over the bodies until he saw the deceased bandit Salem. He stopped at her and sighed. "Thank you for bringing back our dead to us. There are still a few missing but we think they bolted like Salem did. Should we expect their bodies returned to us?" Mirror Jace asked while glancing over at Atlas and Yuti who were off to the side.
"No." Salem answered and nodded at the bodies. "Take your deceased and go back to your side. Most of them died in a firefight in town, so their deaths were inevitable. Then this one-" She pointed at one that she interrogated. "He died in town. Apparently he spent too much time away from the portal and died." Salem explained. She was surprised when she went to retrieve him and found he had passed just a few minutes before she and her counterpart returned to the village.
As it stands she was still trying to figure out what exactly was going on with the time around this mountain. It was weird but time was acting seemingly strange around it. They were only at it from sunset to sunrise which should have been nine hours for this planet. But as far as her communication device was indicating only two hours had passed.
"So the others that ran will end up with a similar fate?" Mirror Jace nodded in understanding.
"Or worse, there are things on this planet that think of humans as snacks. So their best chance to survive would be to go to the nearby village where my people are staying. So they will not get far." Salem explained as she dismounted.
"I understand... but what is in those boxes?" He nodded at the back of her and Jebidiah’s horse.
"Explosives. Which brings me to my next topic. I need you and your people to take your prisoners and leave. I plan to destroy that portal. So I suggest you are not on the wrong side of it when I do." Salem told them and led her horse away leaving the pair of horses with the dead bandits for the soldiers to remove the bodies from. Jebidiah followed her over on his own horse as she moved over to Yuti and Atlas. She looked at Atlas waiting for an explanation.
"As far as we can tell he is far too gone. As soon as he speaks he talks gibberish and it slowly causes us a headache if we listen to it." Atlas explained as they looked over at the man Drakon Lesden was supposed to be retrieving.
He no longer looked like his picture. He still had the same soft expression and baby face. But now his body was skinny and looked like it could be broken with a simple punch. His fingers and appendages were longer like they had been stretched. In addition he was no longer wearing a pair of glasses.
There was no telling what happened to this Xenoarcheologist. He was the first system user to interact with the mirror. But whatever happened must have severed his connection to the system. Because her first interaction told her the system was completely unprepared for the anomalies’ presence.
She wished there was a way to tell them from her people. While she also wished that she had gotten a chance to interrogate Salem. But she had missed out on the opportunity because she felt like her counterpart wanted to die and she wanted to grant her wish.
Salem handed the reins of the horst to Atlas and stepped up to Drakon. He removed the makeshift gag and let him speak for a moment. "Donottrustthewatchers! Leavethefactionalone! Worldendersarehere! Demonscometowarn! Emptyplanetemptyplanet!" He continued to scream nonsensical words as he spoke and Salem could already feel a headache seeping into her mind. So she quickly put the gage back as she let the headache disappear.
She then turned to the others. "So... what the hell do we do with him now?" Salem asked as she stepped back over to them. "Because they figured we would find him dead or coherent at least. Not like... this." She nodded at the man. Who had begun shaking in his binds and was looking directly at Salem.
"Kill him." "Keep him." Atlas and Yuti exchanged a look as they gave different responses.
Salem raised an eyebrow and nodded at Atlas. "Explain."
"His state of mind is not our problem." Atlas answered. "We should bring him back to the Union and hand him over. They will deal with him from there." Atlas gave a very textbook loyal soldier answer.
Salem looked to Yuti. "We should kill him. I may not know exactly what is going on with these duplicates and that liquid mirror thing that gave me a gnarly headache. But I know enough that no one should be messing around with this technology. Our war torn galaxy is not ready for this level of strangeness." Yuti pointed out and she was right. Reality hopping technology meant a whole new branch of technology that their galaxy was most certainly not ready for.
Salem considered their points for a moment and looked toward the formerly missing man. She put her hand on her revolver’s handle and considered whether or not she should shoot him. If she shot him would be doing her own choice. Or would she be doing the part of the role she was playing.
Madame Oracle to trust the path she was on. But was this her path? Was this another person’s path? Who was she at the end of the day? Was she a spy for the Vexical Empire? Was she a member of the Union? At the end of the day what was the mask she wore?
Salem took a deep breath after a few minutes.