Chapter One
The Hour’s Getting Late
The Hour’s Getting Late
The sun was setting in the west as Ty Lee hurried down the dirt path in Ganjitsu village. The young soldier squeezed past a gray-haired old man in dark dust-covered tunic and trousers who pushed a wheelbarrow full of dark red appleberries, intent on getting to the place she needed to be at the other end of town, where her commanding officer awaited her in the inn behind the harbor, apparently with some critical assignment for her, judging by the terrified look in the unfortunate young woman who’d delivered the message to her in her office on the other side of the island. Suki only inspired that amount of fear in people when there was a serious matter to attend to.
Good, Ty thought, hope soaring in her breast. I’ve been feeling antsy all week and maybe some sort of special assignment is just what I need to get over it. Gods only know it’s been boring around here the past couple of weeks, and too think that, so soon after the war and my release from prison, I wanted some peace and quiet. Silly me. Sill, silly me.
After a few moments of fighting her way past the crowds of natives and sailors from the tradeships in the harbor that thronged the road between the rows of solidly constructed oak buildings and with thatched roofs, she finally found herself free of the mass and standing in front of the largest building in the village. It was a rectangular building made of darkened gray stone, four stories high and roofed over with planks of solid oak. The inn’s name was written in immaculate characters on a sign above the door. Madam Chang’s.
Sighing, the commander of the Second Kyoshi Warriors Detachment walked up the stairs and pushed through the door. The sights and smells that greeted her were typical of Madam Chang’s. The inn’s common room was full to bursting of locals and ship crewmembers alike. She could smell the alcohol and various fried vegetables being enjoyed the various groups that sat about drinking, eating, laughing boisterously at each other’s tales, or, in the case of many of the sailors from the ships, having animated conversations with local girls, many of whom giggled and blushed under the attention. More than a few were making out with some of them in dark corners, and she spied a couple of girls with black hair exiting via a side exit with a couple sailors.
I wish I could stop for awhile to enjoy myself, she thought, feeling a slight tinge of jealousy as she watched the girls leave to have what she hoped would be a good time, and not turn into a double rape and/or murder that the Kyoshi Warriors would have to investigate later. With the shoe on the other foot now, Kyoshi Warriors pick and choose who we take as lovers, not the other way around. And if the men try to force themselves on us, they tend to regret it. She hadn’t done so since she got here, the pressures of coordinating the training of the entire Kyoshi Warrior force, all five hundred of them, in Dim Mak, and running the Second, had all but precluded her from having the time to neck a guy, much less bed one.
She sighed, and pushed the thoughts out of her mind. She pushed through the crowds, ignoring the rather disconcerting smell combination of fried foods and alcohol and the stares of young men who were crawling under her uniform with their eyes. Finally, she reached the desk, which at the time was manned by a young woman with fair skin and dark hair no older than herself. She asked the harried young woman where Suki was, and was directed to one of the private dining rooms on the second floor. She climbed the stairs to the second floor and walked to the one four doors down from the entrance to the stairwell. Gently she pushed the sliding door open to see Suki sitting at the far end of a medium-sized ebony table, polished until it gleamed black in the light of the setting sun coming from the window behind Suki’s head . The table was laid out with a couple bowls of stir-fried rice and vegetables and two pewter cups full of water or rice wine.
Probably the later, she thought to herself.
”Sit down, Commander,” Suki said amiably, gesturing at the empty chair closest to her. “We have a mission to discuss over our meal. As you can see I waited for you.”
The discipline inculcated in her from her earliest days at the Fire Nation Academy for Girls took hold, and she instinctively responded with a curt, “Yes, sir,” and sat down. At Suki’s gesture, she grabbed her chopsticks and the two began to eat. After a few moments of eating her food, Suki put down her chopsticks and said, “I have a mission for you, Ty Lee.”
Ty Lee paused in mid-move, holding a piece of meat with rice sticking to it in front of her face, and said, “I’ve already ascertained that, sir. What’s the job?”
“The locals on Whale Tail Island have made a very interesting discovery. The local Temple to Artemis collapsed and when they were digging out the foundation, they discovered a network of catacombs under it. They’ve discovered some of what you’d expect to find, old copies of the Sacred Scrolls including an illustrated copy of the Book of Pythia. They found some old statues of the Twelve Lords, suggesting the priests there knew of the catacombs and were using it as a storage space. But they also discovered other things.
“I see,” Ty Lee said, curiously. “And what have they discovered on my home island?”
“Well,” Suki said. “They’ve discovered quite a few things. The intelligence pathfinders I sent to indulge my curiosity about the discovery discovered a few mundane artifacts, some jewelry, such as this.”
She reached into her tunic and pulled out a pendant and put it on the table for her to examine. Ty picked it up gingerly and stared at it with fascination; it was gold and worked into the rough shape of a diamond. There were silver highlights following the rough shape of the diamond all over the face, as well as two small gold wings sticking out of the bottom.
“It’s beautiful,” Ty Lee said fascination on her voice. “But this doesn’t look like any style I’ve ever seen.”
“I know,” Suki said, sighing and shaking her head. “But this is even more interesting.” She pulled out a steel device that looked freshly polished. It had a large cylindrical top with a hole in the front and a cylindrical handle sticking out of the back as well as a ring going from the bottom of the top to the bottom of the handle with small steel piece inside the ring.
“What the frak is that?” Ty Lee said, shocked, reaching out for it. Suki handed it to her. Ty Lee ran her hands over the cold steel, and looked at it closely. There words in an unknown language engraved into the handle. “It looks like some sort of mechanical device.”
“We don’t know what it is,” Suki said. “But we believe it to be some sort of weapon.”
“A weapon?”
“Yes, Commander, a weapon.” Suki leaned forward and said. “Your mission, is to handpick a force of fifty and take them to Whale Tail Island by ship. Once there, you are to make contact with our pathfinders using the files on their way to your office as we speak. Once they’ve got you situated, you are to monitor the situation.”
“Anything in particular you want me to watch for?” Ty Lee asked, her excitement up. This is what I needed.
Suki shook her head and gave an exasperated sigh. “Just watch, Commander. I have a bad feeling about this, and I feel better knowing someone I can trust is keeping an eye on the situation.”
Ty Lee stood up, feeling happy for the first time in a week. “I won’t let you down, sir,” she said, bowing low to her commander. It was at that point the door opened to reveal a young man with brown hair, green eyes, and darkish skin in the green coat and tunic of the wait staff. He was carrying a plate with yet more food.
Suki looked at him quizzically. “I didn’t order more food.”
The man smiled, and Ty Lee shuddered as a cold chill entered her veins. “I’m not here to feed you,” he said in a low voice. Without another word, he reached into his tunic and pulled out a black version of the device she held in her hand. He pointed it at them and fired.
A/N: In case you haven't figured this out already, this is a crossover with the new Battlestar Galactica. As the descendants of those left behind on New Caprica during the Second Exodus, they still follow the authentic Twelve Colonies religion, to the point that they believe that the Avatar and the nature spirits seen in Avatar were created by the Twelve Lords.
