Chapter Eleven: The Right Price

On February 1st of 2162 in the evening, the discontents had convened with each other before joining the rest of The Elko Commune with the communal dinner.  Each had their own agenda to help them figure out no only what happened to the missing Tesla Price, but also how to bring Winston back to his father Pete Deyes in Delaera.
Wei first decided to sit with Tabitha Ellis and asked her about the deal with the young man hanging around Dahlia Munoz.  Tabitha explained that many a young men will find themselves attracted to Dahlia when they first join Nature's Samsara and suggested that young Winston wouldn't be the last.   
At another table Raymond started explaining in his native mandarin all the thing that he felt the Samsarans needed to know to protect themselves from the outside world.  Receiving only strange stares, Wei saw he needed help and asked Tabitha to come over and help Raymond translate.  Her aid helped make a few people at least curious of what Raymond had learned from The Truth Machine including herself.  They planned to take a couple hours to teach others about the dangers that may come to the Commune, although Raymond had secretly hoped this would give an opening for more investigation the following day into Ivan Sprouse.
  James and Sebastian decided to sit with Dahlia, who not only had Winston leaning on her but also Carl Caywood and Thomas Kelly.  Dahlia praised Sebastian for the progress he made earlier that day and invited James to join them for the lessons about the nature or karma the next day.  James agreed to join.  Carl gave Sebastian some moral support for having survived Fuyao Beimei.  Thomas tried to relate to James as a fellow former bureaucrat.  As Dahlia spent more attention to make sure Sebastian was retaining his lesson, Winston finally left the table in seemingly a huff.  Dahlia let him go.
Celeste took a moment to approach James, revealing that had been chatting with her father, Thomas.  She asked if he would like to take a walk outside the Commune.  James agreed and followed her into the the forest on the outside of the settlement.  Celeste used a blanket and suggestively came closer to James, obviously wanting more.  James stopped the advances as politely as he could, blaming his conservative upbringing for not wanting to be so immediately physical with her, but still being interested to see where things go.  Celeste at first was concerned that she had offended or even imposed on James but then admitted she found him interesting and would be willing to see about taking things slow. 
That's when James felt a sharp pain hit the back of his left shoulder. 
Quickly he and Celeste tried their best to hide in the woods, hearing someone shuffle in the darkness.  James took a moment to examine his wound and discovered something that looked to be a dart had been shot into him.  As his arm became heavy he tried to run out of the area with Celeste, but she was hit in the knee and could not move.  Instead of leaving her he screamed out for help.  Across the commune Raymond and Wei heard him cry, with Sebastian soon following them to where James was being handcuffed and restrained by an armed woman in cloth armor.  Taking their stun batons from Delaera out, Sebastian, Wei and Raymond tried their best to incapacitate the woman.  Wei took a shot into his hip.  Immediately he gave a striking blow to his attacker, slaying her before he double over and cried out for a medic.
Aid came soon.  Ursla and Carl helped get James and Celeste to safety.  Several other Samsarans went to aid Wei as others rushed to get a stretcher.  Raymond and Sebastian went to examine the attacker, a woman who Sebastian had worked with before.  When Tabitha came to them to check them over, she asked if they recognized the woman.  Sebastian said he wasn't sure, which caused Tabitha back away from both of them with wide eyes. 
Dahlia made her way over after spending precious moments comforting Celeste as a mother would.  Looking over the mess that had to be cleaned up, she called out, "What have you brought here?"