The sudden stillness of the scene was oppressing. The recruits found themselves unclear about what to do in front of the now silent cave. The noise caused by the blood falling to the ground became deafening, and only the ragged breath of the boys and girls managed to overcome it.
Khan's group had done it. They had cleared the cave and killed every Kred. They could move to the next step of their plan, but everyone required a second to snap back to reality.
"Break the bars and free the recruits," Khan ordered when he saw that some of his companions were still in a daze in front of the bleeding corpses. "We can't stay here."
The orders forced the recruits to ignore the cold and scary feelings surging inside their minds. They all began to move and focus on other tasks to keep themselves busy, but some of them didn't miss that Khan went straight for the end of the second hall.
The cell containing Lieutenant Sehlolo soon unfolded in Khan's eyes. The wolf-shaped Kred was still facing the end of the hole when he arrived, but she turned when she heard noises coming from behind her.
Khan had crouched in front of the cave, and his emotionless eyes inspected the Kred. Lieutenant Sehlolo couldn't help but compare that gaze to the memories in her mind. Only a couple of weeks had passed since the beginning of the semestral missions, but Khan had already transformed.
"We need to talk," Khan announced when he saw a tinge of regret appearing in the Lieutenant's eyes.
Lieutenant Sehlolo opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She tried to say something a few times, but her eyes eventually fell to the ground.
She couldn't stand to look at Khan in the eyes. The stark change in his behavior reminded her of the blood spilled during the rebellion.
"Do you regret what you did?" Khan asked when he saw that scene.
Khan's words transformed into sharp blades when they reached Lieutenant Sehlolo's ears. She tried to speak again, but she ended up turning her face on the wall to hide from the living reminder of her actions.
"The situation will only worsen if you don't do anything," Khan explained. "These prisoners are nothing more than targets among the trees. The Kred will kill all of them, and their blood will be on your hands."
Khan made sure to use his entire knowledge concerning human interactions during his speech. He relied on his previous talks with Lieutenant Sehlolo to choose words that could make her mind give in. It was clear that regret was eating her insides, and Khan wanted that feeling to grow.
Feelings seeped past the mental barrier during that speech. Khan had to be cruel during the past two weeks, but he had never enjoyed that behavior. However, a warm sensation spread inside him when he saw Lieutenant Sehlolo suffering due to his words.
Still, Khan decided to suppress that dark feeling too. Revenge was useless in that situation. He had to get the Lieutenant's help to have a chance to survive the crisis.
"You can still save us," Khan continued. "You can remain inside your cave and wallow in your regret, but we need something. We are basically stranded on Istrone unless you tell us how to get out."
Khan didn't know how the Global Army behaved in that situation. Part of him even feared that the higher-ups were busy solving greater issues since nothing in the last two weeks had hinted at the arrival of reinforcements. He needed the Lieutenant's knowledge to understand what to do and devise a plan to get him back on Earth.
Lieutenant Sehlolo opened her mouth, but no sound came out of it again. Still, Khan waited in silence at that time. He let her experience the pain that her species had inflicted on the young recruits while his cold gaze remained on her.
George and the others had started to free the imprisoned recruits, and noises inevitably spread throughout the cave. Most sounds were suppressed sobs or painful cries, but a few angry voices also reached the end of the underground structure.
Lieutenant Sehlolo heard everything. Each sob made her body shake. Her hand trembled whenever one of the prisoners exploded into tears, and her eyes flickered whenever curses reached her ears.
The prisoners were reminding her of the pain that her species had caused. The rebellion had destroyed the innocent excitement of mere kids and had transformed it into despair and anger. Those recruits would turn into soldiers who hated the Kred. The grudge between the two species had only intensified.
"You can help them," Khan added when he felt that the Lieutenant was ready to break. "You can save them and help your species. Wars will inevitably happen, but your actions can reduce the damage. Talk and help both species."
Those words tore Lieutenant Sehlolo's insides apart. Khan's eyes remained still when he heard the Kred clearing her throat. He didn't need anything else to know that he had succeeded.
"The rebellious factions have destroyed the teleport and blocked the communications with the orbit," Lieutenant Sehlolo explained. "The Global Army has a space station around the planet, but its sensors can't find much without receptors on the surface. The mana in Istrone's vegetation creates a shield that stops every attempt to inspect the planet."
"The higher-ups should still see the blank spot on their scanners, right?" Khan asked. "Why didn't they send someone at its edges and inspect the whole area?"
Khan didn't know how the scanners for Istrone worked, but it didn't make sense for the Global Army to be completely in the dark. After all, the soldiers must have known where the semestral missions happened. The complete lack of reinforcements in that area left him speechless and worried.
"The dark area isn't as small as you think," Lieutenant Sehlolo revealed. "The rebellious factions have deactivated the sensors in many sites."
"They should still know where we are," Khan continued.
"Not really," Lieutenant Sehlolo said while turning her face toward Khan. "The army makes sure that only a few trusted soldiers are aware of the location and details of the semestral missions. The families would find a way to help the recruits otherwise, and the Kred know that."
"I bet these soldiers aren't on the space station," Khan said.
"Leaving them there could create a breach in the security," Lieutenant Sehlolo explained. "All of them were on Istrone, and my species has taken care of them before the rebellion."
The situation appeared quite grim after that explanation. The higher-ups didn't know where the recruits were, and the Kred had even disabled many structures.
Convincing Lieutenant Sehlolo to become a guide for the group wouldn't help since Khan and the others would have to cross a long distance to reach the first working structure. The soldier could even be unaware of the actual size of the blind spot, which only worsened the overall situation.
"Do you think they are looking for us?" Khan asked.
"Definitely," Lieutenant Sehlolo revealed. "I wouldn't be surprised if many experts from the Global Army and the various families had already reached Istrone through the teleports outside the blind zone. They must be already on their way. I believe they'll converge here in a few weeks."
"But the Kred know that," Khan added when he saw that sadness had appeared in Lieutenant Sehlolo's voice during the end of her line.
"Yes," Lieutenant Sehlolo continued. "They are ready to move all of you soon."
Khan sat on the ground as he went through the issue in his mind. There wasn't much that the recruits could do. Even obtaining Lieutenant Sehlolo's full cooperation would still leave them in the middle of the rebellious factions.
"Do you think their sensors are pointing toward the blind zone?" Khan asked as a vague idea formed in his mind.
"Of course," Lieutenant Sehlolo replied, "But you would need something big to appear on their screens. Simple flares won't be enough."
Khan nodded before standing up and leaving the cave in silence. A grim spectacle unfolded in his eyes. His companions had freed most of the imprisoned recruits by then, but that wasn't enough to soothe their pain.
George, Cora, and the others had recruits clung to their shoulders and arms. Loud sobs came out of their hidden faces. Most of them were actually fine after spending so long inside the caves, but their minds were far from ok.
"What should we do now?" George asked when he noticed Khan. "Most of them aren't ready to move, and having such a large group inside the jungle will only turn us into a loud target."
"We need to get louder," Khan explained before claiming Dorian and Luke's attention. "Move everyone out and seal each passage. I don't want to see if she reacts in the wrong way."
Most of the prisoners knew that Lieutenant Sehlolo was inside a cave. The wardens had often mocked them about that, and Khan's companions had learnt everything from the cries that had reached their ears.
It was clear that Khan had something in mind. His worry about the Kred also hinted at something that the alien species wouldn't appreciate, so his companions decided not to probe further until they left the range of Lieutenant Sehlolo's ears.
It took a while to move all the recruits outside the cave. Dorian and the others even had to make sure that none of them overreacted in front of the sudden freedom. Calm was necessary, and Khan even needed everyone's help to deploy his plan.
The empty area around the cave unfolded in Khan's vision once he stepped out of the cave. Even that spot featured rich vegetation, but most of those plants barely reached his ankles.
Mana flowed inside those plants and made them quite resilient, but they were far from sturdy. A firm pull could break them, and fire could burn them if deployed correctly.
"What do you have in mind?" George asked when he saw that Khan remained silent while inspecting the various trees and plants around the cave.
"We need to create a signal," Khan explained. "I hope that a big fire will be enough."