The last song of the ancestors

After the confrontation with Nyatui, General Luena flew quickly to the Ilu Nla Army General Hospital. She made a forced landing in the institution's parking lot. She stumbled across the courtyard until she reached the lobby. She asked for emergency assistance. The attendants were shocked to see her condition.

The soldier roared furiously, destroying part of the lobby with her laminated wings. From then on, rationality abandoned her. A medical team came to help. They struggled to contain her. Until, after shots were fired from projectile-electrocutes, she was contained by the hospital's security guards. Not before seriously injuring some doctors and nurses.

The pain kept her mind conscious after that. Her senses were failing. Her touch was hypersensitive and her speech was slurred. When she communicated, her voice came out slurred and disjointed. She was rushed to the intensive care unit. A battery of tests was carried out, but it was not possible to diagnose the cause of the strange necrosis on her amputated right forearm.

Surgery was to be carried out on her shoulder. Luena, in her desperation, didn't consider doing it herself. She feared the worst. Her action could have triggered a new reaction. However, the medical team had no time to lose. Wait any longer and her life would be forfeit, which would cause problems for the military hospital.

The surgery was carried out as a matter of urgency. A customizable cybernetic arm was put in place. It would help with healing and allow her to continue fighting without disadvantage.

General Luena slept for hours. When she woke up, she found herself in an intensive care ward. It was cold and aseptic. Next to the window, he noticed the presence of a figure. He turned towards her. Without his military armor, he felt vulnerable. Instinctively, the woman clenched her fists and rose from the bed.

"I'm glad you're all right, General Luena."

"General Gahiji? What are you doing here? I hope you didn't come to kill me in my sleep. That would be too low even for members of the Phalanx."

"I would never use one of his tricks, and besides, I don't consider you an enemy. There's someone much more dangerous around us."

Gahiji walked across the room. His hands were clasped behind his back, adding to his suspicious appearance.

Luena noticed his grim countenance, very different from the proud military man of his rank, formal and respectful. He looked nothing like the old General Gahiji. She attributed this to the loss of his subordinates.

Suddenly, Luena felt a pain in her right arm. It was as if the tendon was strangling her bones. She put her other hand on her cybernetic prosthesis. Although the circuits were connected to the tissues and nerves in her shoulder, she didn't feel the cold of the metal, or the electricity running through the circuit boards.

She felt deep pain. The arm that no longer existed ached as if it had melted into acid. Luena sweated. She struggled, and with her other hand tried to unlock the prosthesis connector. She began to perspire.

"Get it off me! Argh! I want to get out!"

"Wait, General Luena…"

The woman tried to get up and escape, but she fell. Her naked body wouldn't obey her. The basic biocybernetics structure that supported her body was unable to exercise its main directives.

With a care that amazed the military officer, Gahiji helped her back onto the bed. Suspicious, she didn't thank him. She closed her eyes. She bit her lips. She turned her face away.

"Don't expect any gratitude from me. If you've come to mock my situation, leave!"

"I don't have these childish moods."

Gahiji sat on the edge of the bed. General Luena put his legs together and crossed his arms. He maintained his self-defense posture.

The atmosphere of tension between the two only increased. The ties that bound the members of the Phalanx were much more one of rivalry than camaraderie. Their loyalties were divided between subordinates and interim President Ojwang. Only the strong presence of the Head of State kept the balance of the conflict in suspension.

"I don't think General Gahiji came to wish me good luck in the post-operative period."

He turned to Luena. His face was like a stony mask. It was as if all feelings had fled into the shadows of his coldness.

"There is a powerful enemy between us. One that we are so close to that we ignore it. Don't make that face. It's impossible that all our efforts have been in vain. We are generals, not incompetents, General Luena."

"I don't understand what you're implying. You seem paranoid to me. You need to control yourself or these imaginary enemies will defeat you, General Gahiji."

The military officer slammed his fists on his thighs and got out of bed. He walked back and forth across the room. Then he stopped, put his hands on the bed sheets. He stared at the military officer in front of him, and between his teeth, he said:

"It's all General Jitujeusi's fault."

General Luena was startled. It was the first time she had seen her fellow student in such a state of madness. She wondered what was going on in his head. The loss of his Phalangettes had come as a shock to him. His mind had denied his own guilt in underestimating his enemies, and now he was transferring it to the other general.

He didn't know whether to agree, and thus keep himself safer, or contradict him and try to reason with him. Luena was sweating. She felt at risk in that presence. In that state. Gahiji could turn against her, he would be an easy target. She had to be ambiguous. She decided to instill more doubt than certainty in his mind.

"How did you come to that conclusion?"

"Don't play the fool, General Luena! You know that Jitujeusi is a man without scruples or principles. He joined our cause at the last minute. He flatters our leader Ojwang in a shameful way, and has even managed to get custody of our biggest political prisoner: Adsa. I think he's even planning to take the president's place."

Gahiji was making serious accusations. Outside that room, those words would provoke a civil war in the Ilu Nla Armed Forces. Between facts and delusions, General Gahiji was making Luena reconsider his position.

The military woman put her hand under her chin. Reflectively, she pondered the situation and thought that the rivalry between the other two generals would soon escalate into war. By making the two clashes, she could override the survivor and form a new Phalanx of which she would be the leader. This desire was nurtured by all three, each in their own way.

"Even if you're right, and I don't doubt that you are, General Jitujeusi looks after the military-engineering area of the cyber troops. He's also a scientist, and has the trump card of keeping Adsa under his wing. He's the closest to Ojwang, that's for sure!"

"Listen, General Luena. My enemy is our enemy. He won't stop doing us harm, he'll undermine our strength and place in the Ilu Nla Army. If you're willing to listen to me, we'll remove a trojan horse from our lives."

"Okay, I'm all ears."

General Gahiji outlined his plan in great detail. Military cooperation between the generals had already been authorized by President Ojwang, and anything that came of it would attract less attention from the others. The time was ripe. Ojwang, the presidential entourage and General Jitujeusi would be absent.

They were traveling to Ethiopia to take part in an African Union summit. The continental and intergovernmental organization would make Ilu Nla official as a member country. There would be bilateral meetings and the interim presidency would strengthen ties with African countries.

Luena's eyes flashed when Gahiji finished speaking. If everything went well, they would defeat General Jitujeusi, the Circle of Sages and the Ilu Nla Liberation Movement at the same time. When everything was over and all the spiritual keys were in his possession, he would report General Gahiji to Ojwang.