And, of course, I was hot on the trail of the winged murder nugget that stole Liz and the Don's little spacecraft.
The thing flapped its enormous bronze wings ahead of us.
It looked like the same thing that took Liz.
So if I followed it, it would lead me to her. Right?
That’s what I was thinking right up until it disappeared.
It banked around the corner of yet another towering building. I skidded around the corner, somehow managing to not drop my awkward bundle of traitor and armored Don.
Then came to a shuddering stop as I found myself face to face with a smooth, white wall that rose a long ways up into the sky.
We were boxed in. There was no way the winged thing could have soared up out of there without me seeing it.
I let out a string of profanities and dropped my cargo. I pounded the wall, but it seemed to not notice.
“Liz!” I shouted to the darkening sky.
I heard footsteps running away from me.
I spun around and grabbed T&T before he could get around the corner of the building.
“Oh no you don’t,” I said. I pulled his helmet covered head up to my face. His eyes were bugged out and his lips moved with words that might have been denials or apologies.
I wasn’t interested.
“You’re not going anywhere,” I said.
I heard a whine of servos behind him.
The armored Don got to his feet. He turned around, panning his armored head up the length of the building.
“My escape pod,” he said, “I need it.”
There were a lot of things we needed. None of them were handy.
I suddenly remembered the metal murder worm. I dropped T&T again and sprinted back out into the street. I skidded to a stop, holding my fists up. Stupidly. What was I going to do? Give the thing my super secret ninja death punch?
The street was empty, but for reddish gray dust gently blowing in shimmery waves down the wide avenue.
Gone.
Just as well. I didn’t have any super secret ninja moves.
I put my hands to my aching head. Fatigue washed over me. All I wanted to do was lie down in the dust and take a nap.
I’d expended a lot of energy. My hand went to the pack that was somehow, miraculously, still on my back. There were a bunch of energy bars in there. But with our ship blown up, that was it. What was in my backpack was the sole supply of Earth food on the planet.
I stood still and took a quiet assessment of myself.
While I was tired, it felt more like emotional exhaustion than anything physical. I didn’t feel like I’d fall over if I didn’t eat twenty pounds of food in the next few minutes.
This was new.
How about it, little buddy, was this connected to whatever I did to get my powers back?
Silence.
Which was what I expected.
Something else to think about.
But where had the murder worm gone? Had it stopped its pursuit? Or just gone around to attack from a different direction.
I decided to try something.
I kneeled and brushed the dirt from a small patch of street. The fine, spicy scented dust puffed away. Several inches of it. But I found the actual street surface. It was a creamy white color, with a slightly tacky surface, but otherwise smooth.
I put my palm flat against it.
Nothing.
Then I remembered my shield.
I commanded it to pull back from my palm. It did.
And in that moment, I connected with the city.
A moan of infinite sorrow ripped through my mind. Thousands–no, millions–of voices. So many that I couldn’t pick a single one out by itself. But the feeling of them cascaded through me.
And the feeling was of loss and longing. Of waiting and waiting and waiting.
The feelings, the voices, pounded my consciousness. Begging me to let them in. Begging me to take away their loneliness.
Enough.
The Dendon device.
Suddenly the voices and feelings cut out.
I rocked back, my mind reeling and stunned.
You should not do that. Even the King did not try to interface with the entire city.
“What just happened?” I said, “It was like touching a live wire of emotion.”
It was the city, the Dendon said, It yearns for its people.
“You mean it’s alive?”
It thinks it is alive. Is that not enough?
There didn’t seem to be any point in arguing.
“Where did that winged murder nugget go?” I asked.
Which I got a big, fat bucket of silence in reply.
I jumped back up. Kicked at the dust, sending a sparkling, bloody cloud into the sunset infused air. I howled a wordless cry. It echoed faintly in the tombstone-like canyon of the city towers.
After (temporarily) expending my rage, I turned back to the box canyon with T&T and our new Don buddy.
And found the Don trying to choke the life out of T&T.
For a brief moment, I considered letting him. But…T&T had been with the murder worm. There was the possibility of wringing valuable intelligence from him.
Boy, wasn’t I getting all grown up, using phrases like: valuable intelligence.
What I wouldn’t give to be back on Earth, sitting in Guydoro’s burger shack with Liz beside me and a Guydoro burger in front of me.
Dream on, dude. Wishing wasn’t going to get me anything.
But, smacking T&T around a bit might.
I hurried over to the Don and T&T.
“Knock it off!” I shouted.
If the Don heard me, he didn’t acknowledge it.
So I grabbed the scruff of his armored neck and lifted him off the ground. Immediately, he dropped T&T and tried to kick me.
At which point I threw him against the nearest, wall.
He smacked the smooth, white wall with an uneven clang!
T&T lay on the ground. Possibly dead. Or possibly faking. I grabbed his leg and dragged him over to the Don. Tossed him in a pile next to the armored idiot.
The Don started to get up, the servos of his suit hissing and whining. Dust cascaded down the front of his suit from where he'd face planted on the ground.
“How dare you!” He shouted, “Do you have any idea who I am?”
I put my fists on my hips and gave him my meanest scowl. Which probably didn’t impress him any. I just don’t have that badass, tough guy look. I look more like some computer nerd.
Which, once upon a time, I had been.
“As a matter of fact, I don’t,” I said, “Who are you, anyway?”
The Don drew himself up to his full height. Which was about the same height I was–and I was barely six foot, so it wasn’t all that impressive.
“I am Lord Kawl Tejoh, Captain of the Don Empire battle cruiser Hojan’s Murder, Thirty-second in line for the Lordship of Tejoh-Kav, and…skilled master of combat. So, be forewarned, puny Earth creature.”
I took a step toward him. He shrank back against the wall.
This guy definitely wasn’t a stone cold killer like the other Don I’d been up against, Bey Jodo.
“Master of combat, eh?” I said. I pointed to T&T, “Tell you what. If you touch T&T again, I’ll rip your head off and punt it into orbit.”
The Don didn’t move. I waited for him to attack. Or do something.
While he was making like a statue, T&T stirred and got to his knees. He twisted back and forth, looking at me and the armored Don. I could almost hear the gears grinding in his head, trying to figure out if he should try to make a break for it.
He decided pretty quickly.
The little rat vaulted to his feet and ran for the street.
I caught him before he got two feet and threw him at the Don. Who fumbled, then caught him. I pointed a finger at the two of them.
“All right,” I said, “I am out of patience. You two are going to cooperate. We have to find Liz. Then
I have to slay some kind of metal dragon. And become King of Dendon. Or something. Things are a little fuzzy after that.”
The Don held T&T, cradled in his arms like a big baby in a spacesuit. They both had their heads turned my way.
“Are you insane, Earth creature?” The Don said–what had he called himself? Kawl Tejoh? That sounded right.
“No. Well, maybe,” I said, “I’m definitely mad. So take it whatever way you want. First things first. Kawl, where’s your mothership? You came down in an escape pod. Can you call your ship?”
Kawl shifted back and forth. “My ship…it was destroyed.”
Which I didn’t believe for a second.
“Kawl, buddy,” I said, “Let’s not start out our new relationship on a bed of lies. If your ship is up there, we can use it. Can you contact it?”
“Er…I don’t think so,” Kawl said, “My armor communicator has insufficient range.”
I rubbed my forehead. Not that I wanted a Don ship coming down here. But what other choices did I have?
A King commands resources.
Oh, really helpful there, buddy. Can I get a list of resources? How about some maps? Directions to the nearest bar and grill?
My inner buddy answered with more silence.
I was getting annoyed with having extra voices in my head. If they were going to talk, they could at least say something useful.
To which the Dendon replied: “….”
Yeah.
Fine. I wasn’t getting any help, inside or outside. What was my next move?
I looked my two companions over. I didn’t know about the Don, but T&T was going to need some more oxygen sooner rather than later. The suits only had a twelve hour supply. I suspected I could go indefinitely.
Plus, I needed to get someplace where I could talk to him.
Valuable Intelligence and such.
And since my Dendon buddy wasn’t being informative, left me with one choice when it came to habitable places on this crazy planet…
The subway tunnels.
A thought that did not fill me with joy.
The murder worms and the flying murder nuggets made their homes down there. I could be walking us back into a trap.
Or I could find Liz.
Forty-Three
Commander Zek
Operational Captain of the Don Empire Battlecruiser, The Hojan’s Murder
That drunken fool, Captain Tejoh.
Zek eased back in the command chair and contemplated the image on the bridge’s large view screen. There was still a slight, tangy odor of Tebenian blood wine on the arm of command chair where that idiot had spilled some from his cup. Had he really thought no one could smell it?
And now, thanks to that fool’s lack of leadership, the entire crew was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Though, some of the blame would no doubt be lain at his own feet.
Assuming they somehow managed to return home.
Something that was very much in doubt.
On the screen was a frozen, grainy image of the monstrosity carrying off Captain Tejoh’s escape pod. The tiny figure of an armored Tejoh was on the ground. Along with two other figures. A few hundred feet away was the smoldering wreck of the other ship.
The prize. Destroyed.
Or one of the prizes.
If the Dendon artifact was indeed on the planet…
So many ifs…
“Sensor Technician, enhance the three figures on the ground,” Zek said.
Sensor Technician Tak cleared his throat. "We are at maximum magnification, sir," he said.
Zek squeezed the arm of the command chair. The cheap metal creaked. The entire ship was substandard. An embarrassment to the empire. Though, unlike most, he knew why. The Don Empire was teetering on the brink of financial collapse. Their resources were stretched to the breaking point.
It had gotten so bad that slave labor was used to construct these outer area battlecruisers. Which weren't really battlecruisers at all, but glorified patrol boats. More than half the gun emplacements on the ship were empty. And the ones that weren't empty…They might as well have been, given the shoddy quality of the weapons.
What did one expect when they allowed Blinkys and Bolts to assemble what should be the Don’s finest craft?
Of course, for HeJovna planetary defenses, the good stuff was used. Ships and weapons assembled by the skilled hands of Don engineers.
And the trusted nobility had high quality equipment, as well.
But for lower classes like those crewing The Hojan’s Murder…
Good luck living long enough to make it back home.
These patrol boats had only one purpose: Early warning. At the first sign of trouble, they were supposed to get on the communicator and warn Central Defense Command. That way, inner systems defenses could be readied.
If a few low quality ships and crew were lost, that was simply the cost of business. They were acceptable losses.
That drunken ass, Captain Tejoh didn’t have a clue about his true status. Zek had done his homework on the Captain, as was his duty. Tejoh was at the ass end of a line of lordship hangers-on who would never attain the status and wealth they craved.
Though Tejoh might have enjoyed a life of ease on the homeworld if the idiot had the good sense to keep his penises in his pants.
But Tejoh also had some small ability at dodging trouble. Getting caught with the wrong lord’s breeding stock could have been a death sentence. Instead, he ended up captain of a trash can on the far edge of Don controlled space.
Justice had a strange sense of humor.
The long patrol had been uneventful, as it should have been. Right up until one of the Dendon buoys caught sight of that now destroyed ship.
And sent Zek hurtling right into the icy realm of treason.
As a highly trained Internal Intelligence officer, he should have immediately alerted Intelligence Command.
Technically, he outranked the Captain of the ship. Though the idiot Captain and garbage class crew had no idea of that. As far as any of them knew, he was simply the first officer, cleaning up after the dribbling messes of their drunken captain.
But it was his duty to keep tabs on the crew and their mission. It was his job to prevent the very treasonous things he had committed to doing with Captain Tejoh.
He really should have just used the encrypted communicator in his cabin and told IC about their find. Let them deal with it.
But, no, he saw opportunity. Same as Kawl Tejoh had.
It had been so easy to manipulate the idiot into going after the prizes. The fool no doubt had visions of the wealth and glory the Dedon Artifact and the faster than light drive would bring. Perhaps even fancied himself becoming emperor.
Zek had more practical considerations. Possession of the Dendon prizes would give him enough leverage to swing his own Lordship. And retirement to a fine estate on HeJovna. Along with a selection of excellent breeding stock.
He had no desire to be emperor.
However, he had a burning desire for a life of leisure and wealth.
The tantalizingly closeness of that goal seemed to be slipping further and further away by the moment.
It seemed there were very good reasons why Intelligence Command had warned him in no uncertain terms to stay out of Dendon space.
What would have been helpful, were some specifics on exactly why they should have stayed out. A simple mention of a still active, and quite effective, defense system would have gone a long way towards quenching his thirst for illicit gain.
The last thing he wanted was any kind of harm to come to his personal self.
He was quite fond of living, and had every intention of continuing to do so. And unlike stupid Captain Tejoh, he wasn’t going to drink himself into a stupor and hope everything came out all right in the end.
No, staying alive was going to take some quick and creative thinking.
The departure of Captain Tejoh put a few wrinkles in that plan, h
owever. Personally, he couldn't care if the fool lived or died. But if somehow they lived through this, he was going to need Tejoh to smooth things over with Central Defense Command.
And by smooth over, he meant take the blame for everything that happened.
Assigning blame was a very, very important factor in keeping one’s head attached to one’s body.
The decision now was…try to rescue Captain Tejoh, or cut him loose and try for the prize?
The question was complicated by those other two figures on the ground with Tejoh. The logical conclusion was they were the Earth creatures who piloted the ship here. It was also logical that one of those creatures had the Dendon Device. Why else would they be here, if not to retrieve more Dendon technology for their primitive little world?
As an intelligence officer, on a mission that put him near the border of Dendon space, he had been briefed on the incident with the favored prince, Bey Jodo, and this Earth place. And the fact that a part of Dendon was now active again.
The intelligence was, unfortunately, sketchy. Agents were working with Blinkys to get a true picture of the situation. But Blinkys were stupid and unreliable. And jealous guardians of their own interests over the greater good of the Don Empire.
Stupid SixUnion culture.
And Intelligence Command probably never expected him to actually be this close to Dendon.
Not that he had, either.
But, when opportunity presented itself, it was foolish not to grab all that one could.
He sat up and cracked his knuckles. The command deck was silent, except for the ever-present hush of air circulators. His crew sat at their stations, expectant. Waiting for his decision. Most of them probably wanted him to abandon the captain and run for safer space.
Defense Command seldom sent warriors out on these long patrol boats.
All Don soldiers were thoroughly tested, both physically and mentally. The best of them–the intelligent, the strong-willed, the cunning–were placed in important positions.
The docile, the simple-minded…
Well, they crewed the long patrols.
Garbage ships like The Hojan’s Murder.
The crew would wait for him to tell them what to do. In a true battleship, leadership would be in constant flux as ambitious warriors fought for supremacy.
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