Chapter 29

Ashley

I felt like my heart had shuddered to a stop. Was Holey going to give us the answers that Kahina had refused to even acknowledge?

"How did you get that from the priestess?" Axon asked, looking as shocked as I was with his eyes wide, tracking every movement of the pendant.

"I'm her acolyte." Holey held her chin up high. "I have every right to use the pendant if I wish. She knows that. All I had to do was ask."

"And she just gave it to you?" I cut in.

Holey's confidence wavered for a moment. "Well, no. She told me I could borrow it after the full moon. So I slipped a large amount of sleeping herbs into her tea and stole it. She'll be out until tonight."

"Won't you get in trouble when she wakes up?" Axon asked.

"I...I don't know." Holey chewed her bottom lip. "It doesn't matter. I think you deserve to know the truth."

She was looking at Axon now, who's shock was wearing off.

"Come on then. Let's get to the ship."

It took a quarter of a day to get back to Axon's moon cave. Once we were close enough, Holey showed us a different path to go that led directly to the ship instead of going through Axon's tunnel system. Instead of going to the entrance with the carved goddess statues, it led us directly to the ship.

We stood there, reverently, in front of the aging technology and waited for Holey to show us why she brought us here.

"This village was our people's first settlement on Valo Prime," she began. This is where we landed three hundred years ago."

Axon squeezed my hand as he took in this information. We'd been right.

"Why were we never told about this village?" he asked.

"I could tell you, but I think it'd be better to let them do it."

"Them?" Was there someone inside the ship?

Axon grew tense and he held his breath as Holey put the pendant flush against the hull of the ship where the matching emblem was. Then a moment later the door to the ship opened with a hiss.

"Let me show you."

Holey walked inside and Axon followed her with his tail lashing nervously behind him. The walls and ceiling of the ship were made of a gray metal, while the floor had a purple cushy silicone coating that reminded me of those non-slip shower mats.

We entered a hallway. To the right was the cockpit and to the left there were cabinets and lots of closed doors that could have led to the crew's personal quarters.

"This way," Holey led us to the cockpit.

"This is what they called the data center." She pointed to what looked like a computer built into the wall.

"Here, sit." The young acolyte pulled out two chairs for Axon and I.

We dutifully sat in the chairs and I intertwined my fingers with Axon's reminding him that I was here if he needed me. His tail wrapped around my leg, and he gave Holey a curt nod, signaling that he was ready.

"Our people didn't just suddenly appear on this planet three hundred years ago. They came from our home world, Ozinda. Here, I'll let them tell you the rest."

Holey pressed a few buttons and suddenly the dark screen before us was filled with the image of a white-haired Sirret woman wearing a robe similar to what Kahina wore. She was also wearing the same pendant.

Holey zoomed out on the image, and there was the ship, and the trees, and to her right was a sirret male using carving tools on a tree. We'd passed that tree as we walked to the ship. It was carved into a statue of the goddess, but this video was so old that the carving wasn't finished yet.

"Hello. It is the year three thousand five hundred and seventy-six in the standard galactic calendar. I am Yara, the pilot of the ship we named Miracle. My crew and I set out from Ozinda six months ago looking for a suitable world for us to build a new home.

Ozinda has become a dark and twisted place, full of greed, poverty, slavery, and war. We believe that technology is at the root of the vile darkness that has twisted our fellow sirrets, which is why we chose to leave.

We didn't choose this planet, but I do believe it chose us. Once we entered the atmosphere, our ship's instruments stopped working, causing us to crash. Fortunately, this is a lush land, full of fruit, and workable soil."

The woman paused to look up at the sky. The male carving the tree stopped what he was doing and smiled at her. The priestess's cheeks flushed a dark blue, and I wondered if they had been mates.

"This is our home now. We will build a new future without technology, and we will live a simple life as we believe the goddess intended."

The speaker pressed a button on the recording device and the screen went black.

"That was the first priestess," Holey informed us. "As you can see, it was their goal to get away from all this." She made a broad gesture indicating the entirety of the ship.

"Over time, they became more strict about things. Here I'll show you."

Holey pressed more buttons and another woman came onto the screen. She stood outside of the ship as well, but now the tree was fully carved into the goddess statue that it is today. Not only that, but it looked dark and weathered as if it were made seasons ago.

"Hello. I am Urnika, the third priestess of our small dekes. We have decided to move on from this place to a valley we found. It is much safer, and there are more fruit trees there. We've also decided to keep this place a secret from future generations. It was the will of our grandparents to stay away from this technology and all the evil it contains.

Our children have grown curious about the ship and have started to wonder what things it can do that might improve our lives. This goes against everything the founders who brought us here wanted. So we will leave and tell our children the ship has been destroyed. We will tell them never to speak of it again, and punish those who try to tell the future generations about the ship.

It is clear to me how quickly our founders will can be forgotten, which is why I have decreed that from now on it will be the priestess and her acolyte's role to come back here, listen to the videos found on the ship, and remember why we must keep this place a secret.

Future generations might try to create technology of their own, but you must not allow it. I am calling to each priestess that watches this message. I am begging you to prevent any technology from being made. We are meant to live a simple life. Our grandparents left everything they knew to bring us that life. Remember that. Uphold our values. Keep our secret."

The robed sirret, pressed the button on the camera and again the screen went black.

Axon's gaze met mine. His jaw hung open in shock. I couldn't imagine what he must be feeling at this moment.

"There are videos in the ship's database that our people did not make. Videos that show people from Ozinda living their lives. Some are happy and some are sad, but I'm not convinced it was the technology that made them feel one way or another."

Holey sat down in a chair next to us and sighed.

"I had resolved to keep the secret even though I did not feel the same way as those before me, but when you came asking for the truth, it felt wrong watching Kahina lie to you. This is your history just as much as ours."

She met our eyes and there was a courage there that I hadn't seen in her before."We should not be bound to the will of those who came three hundred years before us. They got to live their lives in a way that pleased them. We should have the same opportunity. No more lies. No more secrets."