Wandita

Wandita - Introduction Chapter

                                                               Introduction


       A single Laser Ball comes out of a five-inch sideways oval shaped barrel that’s
barely peeking through a thin seam between two large trees. The ball hits the Protector
hiding behind a couple of trees about fifty feet away. He is dead before it hits the ground. A
light blue glow appears around him just before he disappears. Wandita can only see his
head and shoulders a little through the seam above her hand weapon, but she knows the
rest of the body is glowing too. It is the same as the last six Protectors she has already
killed. She noticed them following her just after she enters that Wooded Area.
       Wandita squints her eyes and slowly scan among the trees there. She starts with the
trees in front of her. It doesn’t appear to be anyone else there. Wandita isn’t surprised
about that. The last six she has killed have been lone Protectors too. She expected there to
be some Protectors in that Wooded Area, but she figured there to be a lot more of them.
Not only more, but more than just one each.
       After Wandita completes her scans in the direction of her latest kill, she starts her
other scans in the three directions around the tree she is hiding behind. Wandita begins
her scans behind her by looking through the seam between those two trees. She doesn’t see
anyone there either. Maybe she has been wrong about there not being any more Protectors
there. Wandita doesn’t think that she is, though. There are other Protectors there. She
knows there are more there. Wandita just can see them right now.
       Once Wandita finishes with her scans behind her she starts on her sides. Those are a
lot easier to do because she has no trees to hide behind, but it’s also a disadvantage too for
the same reason. Not only does Wandita keep her eyes squinting, but she uses both her
hand weapons to slowly scan those sides too. She’s constantly looking in one direction or the
other. So far, she hasn’t seen any more Protectors to kill.
       Wandita thinks it’s best if she doesn’t scan just one of her sides. That leaves her
back exposed to the other side. The Protectors won’t hesitate to try to kill her that way.
They have already tried to two it three times. Wandita doesn’t want it to happen again. It
may take her a little longer to scan in those directions, but it’s a lot safer to do it that way.
Besides, it’s faster to do it this way than doing them individually.
       There doesn’t appear to be any more Protectors in that area. At least none that she
can see. It’s hard for Wandita to see among those trees, though. They are so thick there it’s
very hard to do it. Even with squinting sideways Wandita has trouble doing it. True, there
are seams between most of the trees, but there’s a lot she can’t see through. There are some
who do have openings, though. Most aren’t big enough for someone to walk through, but
there are a few. Wandita has one of them right in front of her.
       After finishing her scans, Wandita carefully walks over to that opening. She stops
and peeks through it beside one of the trees its between. Not only is she looking for any
Protectors that may be hiding there, but for any other openings large enough that her small
frame to go through it. Mostly what she is looking for are Protectors. That will be a very
good place for them to attack her from. Luckily, for Wandita there doesn’t appear to be
anyone there either.
       Where are they? How is she going to kill them if they aren’t there? Maybe they are
in another part of that Wooded Area, and they are on their way there now. Wandita hopes
that they are. The more she kills before she gets to the small village of Badim almost in the
center of that Wooded Area the better. Wandita knows there are several hundred of them
hiding in Badim somewhere. They are the last ones that Wandita needs to kill before she
can solve that problem. The more she kills now the less she will have to kill in Badim.
       Just then Wandita hears a cracking sound. It probably came from one of the fallen
tree parts. Wandita looks in that direction with both her hand weapons pointing that way.
She squints her eyes and slowly scans the area where the sound came from. There’s no one
there she can see. True, the trees are very thick in that area, but they aren’t bad enough she
can’t see whoever has made that sound. Maybe she just thinks she heard something. That
may be true. Wandita wants to kill them so bad that she’s hearing what she wants to hear.
       Wandita quickly but slowly scans the area where she thinks she heard something.
She shakes her head sadly. No one is there. Wandita must be hearing things. She peeks
through the opening one more time before she goes through it. Once on the other side, she
sees an opening not too far from her. As she walks toward it, she keeps darting her head
around her. So far, she hasn’t seen anyone else there yet. When she gets to that opening, she
takes a quick peek through it. She quickly flattens herself against the tree next to that
opening as several Laser Tubes come out of it.
       The Laser Tubes hit the trees opposite that opening and are absorbed by them.
Wandita smiles. Maybe she hasn’t been wrong about that sound. Then again, maybe she
has been. The cracking sound she thinks she heard came from another direction. Which
means she is either hearing thing, it’s not from the direction she thinks it’s from, or this is
another group of Protectors who have come to kill her. Whichever the reason is, or one she
hasn’t thought of yet, it means there is someone for her to kill.
       From the number of Laser Tubes who just tried to kill her, there is more than one
Protector this time. Wandita goes down two threes before she finds a seam big enough for
her to see through. Mumbling softly to herself Wandita counts six Protectors opposite that
opening. She smiles. Wandita checks the Power Cubes on the bottom side of her hand
weapons hand grips. They are almost full. The blue energy is barely below the top lines of
them. One is slightly closer than the other one. That should be more than enough Laser
Balls to take out these Protectors.
       Wandita just wonders how many more Protectors are going to show up before she
gets to Badim. It really doesn’t matter. She has ten more Power Cubes on her for each of
her hand weapons if she needs them. That should be more than enough to take out however
many Protectors they send out there to kill her and the ones hiding in Badim. Wandita hits
red ring button just above each Power Cube. They change to a solid red button as they are
pushed into her weapons.
       Using her weapons in front of her, Wandita ran past the opening to the other side of
it. As she passes it, she fires her weapons full force through that opening. Several hundred
Laser Balls are shot out of those two weapons. Wandita flattens herself against the tree on
the other side of that opening. She doesn’t know if any of the Protectors have been killed or
not, but she knows some of them have been hit. Hearing several Protector screams makes
Wandita smile.
       There is no response to Wandita’s attack. Maybe she has killed all of them after all.
Wandita doesn’t think that she has done not. If not, then why have they stopped their
attack against her so quickly? That’s what Wandita wants to know. So, what does she do
about it? She peeks around the opening between trees. First, she does it with her weapons.
When nothing happens to them, she does it with her head.
       Once again, nothing happens. Wandita is starting to wonder if she has killed all of
them with her Full Force attack against them. After all, she has sent several hundred Laser
Balls at them. She’s sure that most of her balls got absorbed by the trees, but maybe a few
have gotten through to kill the Protectors. Wandita is shocked at what she’s looking at
when she peeks around the tree she’s hiding behind. Not only are four of the original six
Protectors still there, but it looks like there are about twenty others who have joined them.
       Just then there are cracking sounds coming from the other three directions. Only
this time there are multiple sounds. There must be at least twenty Protectors of them per
direction. It’s not just the number of them now. Wandita can handle that many without too
much trouble. What Wandita wants to know about is why they are intentionally making
those cracking sounds. It sounds like they are breaking those fallen tree extensions on
purpose. Why are they doing that?
       Wandita checks her Power Cubes. They don’t appear to have lowered their energy
line too much. She smiles. Wandita has about eighteen hundred Laser Balls to kill around
ninety Protectors. Normally, that wouldn’t have been too much trouble for her, but with so
many trees hiding them it may be. True, Wandita can kill them all. She will do it too, but
she is probably going to have to use some of her extra Power Cubes on her. Wandita may
have been wrong about having enough Power Cubes to solve that problem. It all depends
on how many Laser Balls she needs to use to kill these Protectors.

                                                                        #

       GorVon sat in a huge swivel chair in the center of a large room he can barely fit
into. He’s very fidgety right now. He can’t sit still, and he’s tapping his fingers again the
arms of his chair. GorVon acts that way whenever they are in SuperSpeed because he hates
it. It does get him to his next destination faster though. He does like that. The sooner they
get there the better his likes it.
       Swiveling to his right, GorVon looks at each of the others there one at a time. They
are all busy doing what they are there to do. He likes that. They’re only there to do what it
is that they are supposed to be doing there, and that’s all. They are not there to do anything
else, and they know what will happen to them if they try to do something else. Not only do
they know it, but they aren’t going to take the chance of what will happen to them if they do
something that stupid. No one wants to do that.
       The others there also don’t look at GorVon when he looks at them. They know only
to do that if he asks them a question and even then, he doesn’t like it too much. Of course,
they know when he’s looking at them. Their backs stiffen up, their heads are bobbing back
and forth between the small monitors in front of them and their fingers that are tapping
away at the control panels under those monitors. Every so often one of them start to look
toward GorVon, but they stop themselves before they do. GorVon smiles evilly every time
one of them tries to do it.
       GorVon stops his looking when he gets to his Controllers, NeiKin and YeaBon. They
are sitting in front of the large main monitor there. It’s showing a lot of white line streaking
away from them. “How soon before we are out of SuperSpeed?”
       NeiKin and YeaBon look at each other and start a silent mouth conversation with
each other. GorVon can only see YeaBon doing it, and he’s not surprised they are doing it.
They always do that when he asks them a question. Neither one of them wants to answer it.
After what seemed like a long time rapidly shaking their heads no every so often it’s NeiKin
who answers GorVon’s question.
       “We should be coming out of SuperSpeed real soon,” NeiKin answers. Only after he
returns his attention to the main monitor.
       GorVon looks worried about something. His face says that he is. “Are we traveling
through Space too fast? It looks like we are to me.”
       This time its YeaBon who responses to GorVon’s question and comment. He glances
over at NeiKin, but they don’t discuss it. YeaBon starts to look at GorVon with his left eye,
but quickly he returns his gaze to the main monitor. “No, we aren’t.”
       “Check Your controls again. I say we are.”
       Just then they suddenly stop. GorVon falls out of his chair. He quickly gets up and
looks up at the others there. No one seems to have noticed him. They are all recovering
from what happened to them too. Some of them are doing it the same way GorVon is. The
others only pitch forward in their secured chairs. Two have bumped their heads on their
monitors in front of them.
       GorVon hates it when he’s noticed doing something like that. It makes it look like
he’s not in charge there, but they know he is. It doesn’t really matter anyway since no one
saw him do it. At least it doesn’t look like they have to him. “What just happened? Did we
come out of SuperSpeed too quickly? Of Course, we have. Who is responsible for that?”
       No one answers GorVon. They just start tapping away at the control panels and
looking up at their monitors every so often. GorVon knows what they are doing, and he’s
not mad about that. They’re doing what they are supposed to be doing. What he is made
about is what has happened again. It’s not the same thing that keeps on happening. It is
something different each time, but something is always happening. Especially the closer
they get to their next destination.
       At first, all GorVon does is walk among the others there. Looking at each one of
them individually. Watching them with an angry look on his face. He’s madder than he
usually is. GorVon stops his walking when he walks down the three steps to where his
Controllers are at and puts his hands on their inner shoulders. “NeiKin and YeaBon, you
are my Controllers. You are the ones responsible for our travel through Space.”
       YeaBon and NeiKin look at each other and shrug. It’s YeaBon who glances up at
GorVon shaking slightly. “We don’t know what happened yet.”
       “All we know right now is what you know,” continues NeiKin. “We haven’t gotten
the chance to look into it yet.”
       “According to our controls we were traveling through Space as normal,” NeiKin
takes over again. “Then suddenly we stopped.”
       YeaBon jumps in again. “Maybe it’s because of the Power Ports. That could explain
why we suddenly stopped.”
       GorVon looks at TraLia. TraLia gulps without taking her eyes off her monitor and
control panel. “Don’t blame me. It’s not the Power Ports. I’m not responsible for what
happened to us. I just checked, and the Power Ports are normal.”
       It must be another Troublemaker. There is no other explanation. Somehow one of
them made us stop, but why have they done that. It’s not like it’s going to stop us from
getting our next destination. At the most, it’s just going to slow us down a little. Unless that
isn’t what they intended to happen. Maybe it should have been more disastrous. No, it can’t
be that. The Troublemakers don’t want to kill us. Unlike me who won’t hesitate in doing it
to them. They just want to stop us from getting to our next destination.
       Besides if they do try to kill us, they may end up getting killed themselves. They
don’t want to do that. Of course, they know they will probably be killed sooner or later by
him anyway, but they want it to be as fast as possible. Which GorVon doesn’t understand.
His way is very painful and long-lasting. It makes more sense if they do kill them quickly,
but they won’t do that. GorVon has always wondered why they haven’t done it. Maybe
someday before he kills one of them he will make them tell them why.
       “If it’s not my Controllers or my Power Specialist, then who is responsible for what
has happened to us?” GorVon asks.
       “Unfortunately, I am. I’m the one who stopped us,” says JunNai without taking her
eyes off the monitor and control panel.
       “Stopping us is the only thing I could think of to do after I noticed we are getting too
close to our next destination,” continues JunNai. “If I didn’t do it we probably would have
been seen when we came out of SuperSpeed.”
       Maybe that’s what the Troublemaker wanted to do. Get us close enough to our next
destination for us to be seen by them. GorVon looks over at JunNai in anger. “Why didn’t
you warn us before you did that?”
       JunNei started to look at GorVon but changes her mind very quickly. “There wasn’t
time to do that. We are that close to our next destination.”
       “How did you discover this near fatal disaster? That’s not your responsibility.”
GorVon asks and comments on.
       GorVon walks up the four steps to JunNai while she is talking to him. “I was
checking out the Troublemakers as you asked me to, and I noticed it.”
       So, it is the Troublemakers after all. GorVon looks over at Communications.
“MaiPun, contact everyone. I want the Troublemaker responsible for this found.”
       “I’m going to make them dead for everyone to see. To see if this will stop all the
troublemaking once and for all.”
       True, GorVon doesn’t think that killing that Troublemaker in front of everyone is
going to stop what has been happening for the last thousand plus years, but he’s got to do
something. GorVon can’t let something like this happen without doing something about it.
Right now, this is the only thing that he can think of to do. Besides, maybe he will get lucky
and that will end the Troublemaker causing so much trouble after all. GorVon knows it’s
not going to change anything about the Troublemakers, but it will make him happy to see
another Troublemaker killed. The more painful it is the happier he will be.
       GorVon squeezes JunNei’s shoulders. “Next time warn us before you do something
like that. A little longer isn’t going to matter that much.”
       JunNai looks up at GorVon in fear. “I will. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. Please
don’t kill me too.”

                                                                        #

       Wandita dive toward two fallen trees that are almost wide enough for her to hide
from her attackers. She flattens herself to the grounds as best that she can, but one side or
another of her is slightly against one of the two trees. It’s not the best hiding place right
now, but it will have to do. Wandita leans up against one of the trees and peeks over the top
of it. She quickly pulls her head back down.
       Just then about ten Laser Tubes shot pass above her. Several more Laser Tubes are
shot at her. Just like the first ten tubes, these are hitting the side of one of the trees she is +
hiding behind. Wandita glances at her hand weapon Power Cubes, but she can’t see how
much energy she has in them from that angle. She should have checked them after her last
fight with the Protectors. Why hasn’t she done that? Wandita has had plenty of time to do
that since her last encounter with the Protectors there in the Badim Wooded Area.
       Once again, Wandita leans again that tree. Only instead of her peeking over the top
of it, she lets her hand weapons do it. As soon as they over the top of that tree Wandita
starts firing her Laser Balls in the direction the Laser Tubes have come from. Turning the
hand weapons slightly not only can Wandita hire her Laser Balls in more of an angle, but
she can see how much energy she still has in her Power Cubes. They both are just a little
under half full.
       Suddenly Wandita stops firing her hand weapons. The Protectors aren’t firing bk.
No screams can be heard. So, it doesn’t look like Wandita has hit or killed any of them yet.
Why aren’t they fighting back? Maybe they have given up on killing her? No, they aren’t
going to do that until they know she is dead. There must be another reason why they have
stopped. Most likely, it’s because they are waiting for more Protectors to show up.
       After thinking about the possible reasons why the Protectors aren’t trying to kill her
right now, it gives Wandita the times she needs to get ready for when they do attack her
again. She knows they are going to do that. She’s just not sure if she has the time to prepare
for it or not. Wandita wants to be ready for whatever the Protectors throw at her. She
knows they are up to something. All she needs to do is figure out what they are doing before
it’s too late.
       Wandita doesn’t have too much room between those two fallen trees, but she has
enough for her to tap the exposed bare skin near her hips twice. Two Power Cubes appear
just above her skin. Now comes the hard part. First, she needs to remove the old Power
Cubes from both her hand weapons. Then she needs to replace them with the new ones.
Taking the old ones out isn’t too much trouble. She just taps them, and they pop out of
their squarish round holes.
       It’s replacing them that’s the hard part. At that angle, it’s very hard for Wandita to
replace her Power Cubes. Wandita lays as flat as she can on the ground between those two
fallen trees. Then she places one of her hand weapons onto her slim front and puts the new
Power Cube into its hole. She then moves it out of the way and does the same thing with her
other hand weapon.
       Just then the Protectors start another attack against Wandita. They are firing their
Laser Tubes at her from the same direction as their most recent attack. So, they haven’t
given up trying to kill her before she gets to Badim after all. She never thought that they
have. Now she knows for sure. Wandita smiles. None of the Laser Tubes have come close to
hitting her. The trees have absorbed all of them so far.
       There is one more thing that Wandita needs to do before she can fight back against
her attackers. Wandita checks her hand weapons and sees her energy cubes are almost full
on them both. She can also see that both red buttons just above the Power Cubes are still
solid and pushed in. Now she’s ready to start her attack against the Protectors. Wandita
points both her hand weapons over the top of the tree where the Laser Tubes are coming
from and begins firing her laser balls at them.
       At first, Wandita uses both of her hand weapons wildly in the direction where her
latest attack takes place. Wandita is firing all over the place. Her laser balls are mostly
hitting trees and being absorbed by them too. Some of them are also hitting the Protectors.
She doesn’t know how bad they are or if any have been killed yet, but every so often she
does hear one or more of them screaming, though.
       Just then out of the corner of her eye Wandita sees several laser tubes headed
toward her from her other fallen tree. Wandita flattens herself out as best as she can just as
those tubes fly past her. She smiles when she hears some more screaming. Once again,
Wandita doesn’t know the details about it, but she hopes that some of them have been
killed by their own attackers. Sure, she wants to kill them all but it’s worse if someone on
their side does it.
       Wandita pushes herself into the ground until she’s almost lying flat on it. She crosses
her arms and lays the barrel of her weapons on top of the fallen trees at an angle, so she can
see the sides of her hand weapons. Then she starts shooting again. Only now it’s not wildly.
She’s still doing multiple shots mode, but she is now aiming her shots with the help of the
images on the side of her barrels that show her what’s in front of them.
       Using those images, Wandita stops killing the trees and starts killing more of the
Protectors. Wandita doesn’t know how many she has killed yet, but she knows she has
killed some of them. She can see them die. At least she does until they disappear. Sometimes
she doesn’t even see that depending on where they fall, but she can usually see some light
blue before it happens.
       The Death Screams are happening a lot more too. Only now she can see they are
indeed Death Screams. Wandita smiles whenever she hears one of them. Every so often
Wandita looks at her energy cubes too. They are still about half full. She probably has more
than enough to finish this fight. If not, she still has nine more cubes for each one of her
hand weapons.
       Wandita may not have enough cubes for this fight and her last one in Badim after all
when some more Protectors join the fight there. She stops firing her hand weapons over the
fallen trees and points them in the direction of her latest attack threat. After glancing down
at the energy line on both of her hand weapons, Wandita starts firing them at the newest
Protectors that are there to try to kill her.
       Now Wandita has a three-way attack to deal with. Only the newest Protectors are
her main threat right now. That’s because she’s more open on that side. The other two
directions she has the fallen trees to hide her. True, the ground will help her body, but her
arm and hands are in danger. She may not get killed right away, but she could be stopped
from killing them. Then it’s only a matter of time before one, more, or all of them kill her.
       There is no other thing that Wandita can do but to take out the Protectors who are
the biggest threat to her first. Wandita continues her attack in that direction. Once again,
she is in wild mode. Laser balls are flying everywhere. Most of them hit the trees, but a few
have already started hitting the Protectors. Wandita not only can hear their Death Screams
but she can see them blue just before they disappear.
       Some of the Protectors are getting a few Laser Tubes headed for Wandita, but they
aren’t any threat to her. There aren’t that many. Besides, all of them have missed her so
far. Why can’t they fire more Laser Tubes at Wandita? It’s because she’s not giving them a
chance to do it with several thousand Laser Balls coming at them all at once. They don’t
have too much of a chance to fire back with her doing that.
       Wandita can now see most of her attackers on that side since the trees on that side
aren’t very thick. They are a lot more open. Of course, the trees themselves are big enough
to hide behind, but even that isn’t helping them too much in their fight against Wandita.
The Protectors are losing that fight. Wandita smiles as they leave to try to get away from
her. They are just easier to kill by them doing that.
       Just then several Laser Tubes came flying over her head in the same direction as the
leavers. Wandita cocked her head back for a better look. She couldn’t see anything except
for a few more Laser Tubes headed her way. Lying flat with her arms to her sides those
tubes flow over her too. Maybe the others leaving isn’t because of her after all. They may
have left because of what just happened. If they have left. Wandita is about to find out the
leavers haven’t. They are back. Now Wandita is surrounded by Protectors. She doesn’t
know how many there are or if there are more on the way. So, why is Wandita smiling?

                                                                       #

       Enaina is walking down a long corridor thinking about what is going on within
Problem Solvers. It has been very quiet here lately. Nothing much has happened in the last
several hundred sunrises. True, there are eleven problems that need to be solved right now,
but only four are on Unnion. The seven remaining ones are on the other planets within
their Groups of Planets. Out of those eleven, there is only one problem that she is worried
about. That problem is the one that Wandita is trying to solve.
       Why is she so worried about that problem? Is it because of Wandita who is doing it?
No, that’s not the reason. Well, it is sort of. It has been a little over two hundred sunrises
since she excepted that problem to solve, and she still hasn’t given her an update on it yet.
What little she has heard about it has come from the planet of Quikan itself, and all she has
gotten from it is that Wandita has been very busy there.
       Of course, Enaina isn’t surprised Wandita hasn’t been updating her like she is
supposed to do. That isn’t how Wandita solves her problems. Wandita doesn’t want to take
the time to contact them when she can spend it solving her problem. Enaina doesn’t like it,
but she does understand why Wandita does it. After all, solving the problem is always the
most important thing.
       Enaina also doesn’t like the way Wandita solves her problems either. Wandita is the
kind of Problem Solver who would rather kill everyone involved with her problem instead
of trying to work it out. Most of the time a problem can be solved without anybody getting
killed, but sometimes they can’t. Wandita’s problem is one of those times it can’t. That’s
why she has been asked to solve it.
       Wandita will solve her problem. Enaina is sure about that. She just doesn’t know
how long it will take for her to do it, but she thinks that the problem is about to be solved.
At least she thinks it will be from what she has heard from Quikan. Wandita is one of the
reasons why she’s one her way to Control Central. She’s going to try again to contact
Wandita. True, she knows she won’t be able to do it, but she must keep on trying to do it.
Suddenly, Enaina stops her walking and slowly looks around her.
       Where is everybody? Enaina know it’s the middle of darkness before sunrise, and
there aren’t supposed to be too many Problem Solvers there now, but there should be some.
She knows that there are about fifteen in Control Central, but there should be a whole
bunch of them in the rest of Problem Solvers. There is no one else there except for her. So,
where are the others? That’s what Enaina wants to know.
       Enaina has started walking again. She likes that time of night. It’s true, as the leader
of Problem Solvers, she should be spending her time in Control Central right after sunrise
to just before sunset, but she prefers the darkness. Not only is it the time when most of her
Problem Solvers contact them with their updates, but she gets to go over what those
updates are telling her. It also gives her a chance to go over any new problems that may
have come up.
       Suddenly, Enaina stops her walking again. Why does she have a feeling that there is
something bad that is about to happen? Enaina doesn’t know why she has them sometimes,
but she does. Every time she has one something bad does happen. The way she feels about
this one it’s something big. Enaina starts walking again. Only now she’s doing it very, very
quickly. Then she starts almost running.
       After she gets to the end of that corridor Enaina stops by running into the wall
there. She turns and started running down a much smaller corridor. Enaina only gets about
halfway down it when she stops again. Only this time it’s in front of an entrance that slides
open as she gets closer to it. She enters that small box. The entrance closes right after she
goes in there.
       Once inside that box, Enaina started shaking slightly as the box begins to move.
Enaina looks up at the part of the box. She can see she is getting closer to the top of that
transport tube. The box stops at the top of it, and the entrance slides open for Enaina to
walk out into another smaller corridor. She starts running in the direction she came from
on the other level of Problem Solvers. Enaina runs into the wall at the end of that corridor
too. After turning into the long corridor, she starts running again.
       Suddenly, the power in the corridor starts flashing a light red. “What’s wrong?”
Enaina shouts. The flashing stops.
       Enaina stops running again. She taps her throat under her chin with a finger and
holds it there. “What is going on? Why have you contacted me? Is there a new problem that
we need to deal with?”
       The voice of Mountiv echoes throughout that corridor. His complete image appears
in front of Enaina. “You need to come to the control room right away.”
       “I’m on my way there now. Why do you need me? Is it another problem?” Enaina
starts walking again. She walks right through Mountiv’s image. Mountiv doesn’t seem to
have noticed it. He just turns and starts walking behind her.
       “We may have another problem that needs to be solved. We’ll tell you all about it
after you get here.” Mountiv quickly catches up to Enaina so that they are now walking
next to each other.
       Enaina looks confused. It can be seen all over her face. “What do you mean by there
may be a problem?”
       Mountiv doesn’t answer that question for a long time. He bobbed his head around as
though he’s thinking about what he’s going to tell her. “We don’t think we should do that
until you get here.”
       “I don’t understand.” Enaina stops and looks at the image of Mountiv. “Why can’t
you tell me now?”
       “We discussed telling you about it now, but we decided not to do it. It’s not safe to
do it until you get to Control Central. At least we don’t think that it is.”
       This time Enaina has a shocked look on her face. Enaina doesn’t understand what
is going on. All the Problem Solvers on Unnion and the other fifteen planets in their Group
of Planets are secure places. There is no reason why those in Control Central can’t tell her
what’s going on now. Enaina knows there is another reason. She just doesn’t know what
that reason is, yet.
       That doesn’t happen too often, but something like this has happened before. The last
time it happened it is because of a problem outside their Group of Planets. Is that why those
in Control Central don’t want to talk about it until she gets there? It’s not just where the
problem originated, though. That isn’t the real reason for all the secrecy. Especially since
there never has been a problem from outside their Group of Planets.
       If it’s not because of something from outside their Group of Planets, then there is
only one other thing it can be. Enaina hopes that isn’t why they aren’t talking to her about
it yet. Whatever the possible problem is, it must be a big one. The other Problem Solvers
there usually don’t do something like this. If they think it’s best for them to wait until she
gets there to tell her what is going on, then it probably is.
       Enaina looks at Mountiv. “Tell the others I’ll be there soon. I want to know what’s
going on as soon as I get there.” Enaina starts walking faster. she is almost running.
       “They already know where you are. I may be the only one talking to you directly,
but they are all listening to us too.” The image of Mountiv disappears. Enaina doesn’t seem
to notice he’s gone. She just continues her walking quickly.
       Of course, she knows that. She doesn’t know why she said that. All Enaina knows is
that everyone there has been listening to her and Mountiv. It’s like the feelings she gets
every so often. She doesn’t know she does it, just that she does. thinking of feelings, she has
been right about the last one she has had. Elaina still doesn’t know what’s going on yet, but
whatever it is it’s big. It may even be the biggest problem they have ever had. Shaking a
little, Enaina has another feeling it is the biggest one.
       When she gets to the end of that corridor she turns right and quickly walks down
another shorter corridor. About halfway down that one, she stops in front of a very large
entrance. Only this entrance doesn’t open into a Transport Tube Box. It opens into a very
large room. An entrance that slides open as Enaina gets close to it. After Enaina enters that
room, she slowly looks around it as she starts walking toward the others there who are now
looking at her. Enaina is there. What’s wrong?

                                                                        #

       Wandita is running through the Wooded Area near Badim. In fact, she is so close to
it she can see it in between the trees in front of her. She’s that close to it. Wandita can also
see the Laser Tube that barely misses her left ear. Instead of her head, it gets observed in a
large tree in front of her. The next Laser Tube does hit her, in the middle of her back. She
barely reacts to it by shivering a little.
       Stopping, Wandita quickly glances around her. Wandita stops her glancing and
smiles when she sees two large trees that are larger than the other trees in that part of the
Wooded Area. All the trees there are very thick and tall, but these two are the largest ones
she has seen yet. She airs dives behind those trees as more Laser Tubes head her way from
behind her.
       Those trees are okay to take out the Protectors right behind her, but what about the
others behind them. At least they are coming after her in groups behind her right now. As
soon as she takes out one group there is another one to take their place. It’s not too bad of
an attack plan. It makes it harder for Wandita to kill them all at once like she has been
doing. That’s why she started running and stopping every so often to take out the latest
group behind her.
       It hasn’t been easy for her to do. Between the Protectors trying to kill her with their
Laser Tubes, and the trees absorbing most of her Laser Balls it has been harder for her to
kill them. She has been able to do it, though. It has just taken her a lot longer to do it. At
first, she tries to kill them the easy way by blasting that area with several hundred Laser
Balls, but that turned out to be a waste of energy because the trees where getting hit the
worse. Her solution is to do it the hard way, one shot at a time.
       Taking aim, Wandita kills a Protector with a single shot to her head as she peeks
around a large tree looking for Wandita. Wandita kills another one the same way before
the first one hits the ground and disappears. She looks for someone else to kill, but there
doesn’t seem to be anyone else. Where are they? They aren’t there anymore. Wandita
wants to know why? One moment in time they are there, and the next they aren’t. She
knows the others are there. Wandita just doesn’t know where they are at right now.
       Wandita takes the time between the attacks to check out her situation. First, she
slowly scans among the trees in front of her. Then she looks to her right, and finally to her
left. She doesn’t see any Protectors. At least they haven’t surrounded her yet. Maybe that’s
what they are going to do. They may have changed their minds about a straight attack since
it isn’t working, and they are about to attack her from all sides again.
       After completing her scanning, Wandita checks her weapons. Both Power Cubes are
almost out of energy. It’s a good thing she stopped killing them with all those Laser Balls at
once. It can be deadly to run out of Laser Balls during a fight. Wandita pops out both of
her cubes and replaces them with two new ones. She checks to make sure that they are both
full. Now she is ready for another attack.
       It looks like Wandita is ready just in time. While starting to scan behind her again
she sees several Protectors. At first, they are only behind her. Then she notices that some of
them have taken off in other directions. They are trying to surround her again. Wandita
mumbles as she tries to count how many Protectors there are. She mumbles about fifty
times. There are at least fifty Protectors still there for her to kill. She’s going to need a
better place to hide if she hopes to kill all of them before they kill her.
       Once again, Wandita scans the trees around her. Only she does it more slowly.
Suddenly, she stops doing it. She’s looking at five large trees in a semi-circle with a small
opening near her. Wandita smiles. If she can get there she can hide from her attackers until
she can kill them all. Her only concern is that there is a very big gap between her and there.
It’s the perfect opportunity for the Protectors to kill her while she’s running for those trees.
       After scanning the area in front of her, and seeing no one there, Wandita ran for
those trees. Suddenly, Laser Tubes come at her from three directions: behind her, and her
sides. No one is in front of her. She dodges them one after another anyway she can. Some
she steps to one of her sides, while others she must swing around, and some she needs to
duck or jump to avoid. Avoid them all she does. Wandita also keeps running toward those
five trees until she reaches them.
       Wandita dives low into the opening between those trees with her weapons out. She
doesn’t need them, though. There is no one else in there. The first thing that Wandita does
after she enters that semi-circle is a check between the trees. Of course, the opening is no
trouble for her, but the seams between the trees may be. She checks between them
individually. She can use almost all of them if she needs to do it. At times like this, she
would have liked to have more weapons that she can use. Maybe finding a way to kill
someone without their weapons disappearing too or them not disappearing at all.
       That’s something that Wandita needs to think about, but this isn’t the time to do it.
The Protectors are starting to surround her again. She is watching them do it. Wandita
peeks through one seam. Then she peeks through the next one. She does that on both sides
of the opening. So far there aren’t any in front of her. Maybe they just haven’t gotten there
yet, or the Protectors from Badim are going to be joining that fight soon.
       It doesn’t really matter where they come from or how many there are. Wandita is
going to kill them all before they kill her. As she looks through the seams one more time
Wandita counts how many Protectors there are for her to kill. She’s not exactly sure how
many there are, but there are a lot of them. It’s not going to be easy to kill them first. In
fact, she may not be able to do it. If she can’t she’s going to go out fighting. Whether she is
gets killed first or not she is ready for that fight.
       Wandita is ready just in time. The Protectors surrounding her have just started
another attack. None of their Laser Tubes come anywhere near her, but they do hit the
trees she’s hiding behind. The trees are absorbing all their Laser Tubes. Unfortunately, her
Laser Balls are doing the same thing to them. Wandita is hearing some Death Screams
every so often. So, she knows that she is killing some of them. She hasn’t seen any of them
disappear, but she knows they are dead because the number of Laser Bullets against her
has slowed down a lot.
       From the number of Laser Tubes hitting the trees on each side, Wandita can tell
there are about twenty of them left for her to kill. Most of the tubes are coming from one
direction. So, she starts killing them on that side. She can still hear the Laser Tubes hitting
the trees around her, but they haven’t gotten through those seams so far. One of them is
about to, though. It hits the tree a couple of trees from her. It’s not anywhere near her.
       The Protectors in front of her are about to join that fight. Wandita doesn’t know
how many there are now. She just knows they are there. That only because several Laser
Tubes suddenly come through the opening. Luckily only a couple of them hit her in a leg
and an arm. The rest hit the trees around her. Wandita stops killing the Protectors she has
been killing to deal with this new threat.
       There’s not much room for Wandita to lay flat on the ground among those trees. It’s
only slightly better than the two fallen trees. Wandita lays flat as best as she can with her
arms at her sides. Only her hand weapons are pointed out the opening. She tries to raise
her head slightly to see out that opening, but she can’t do it because of all the Laser Tubes
that are coming through it. All of them are way above her so far. So, only the trees have
been getting hit by them.
       Wandita quickly lowers her head as several Laser Tubes comes close to hitting it.
Most of the tubes are still hitting the trees way above her, but some of them are getting
closer to her. She doesn’t know if it’s by accident or if they know she’s laying on the
ground. Either way, they are getting closer to hitting her. Wandita needs to do something,
and she needs to do it now. Only there isn’t anything she can do. The Laser Tubes are
coming at her too fast for her to do anything right now.
       There is no time for single balls to their heads. So, Wandita taps the red rings on
both her hand weapons. Wandita starts firing laser balls at them full power. A thousand
balls hit that side of the Wooded Area all at once. The Protectors on that side stop trying to
kill her almost immediately. There are only three sides left of Protectors for her to kill.
Which she does do. She kills them all. Including the last one, but as she is killing him, he
shoots her in the chest. At least she thinks that she has gotten them all as she passes out.


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