by James McEwan
“I don’t know about this, it seems a bit crazy,” Rod said rethinking his life choices.
“Time to nut up, or shut up,” Thad said using another of his references from 21st century movies.
“What?” Rod said confused not understanding what Thad was saying.
“Never mind,” Thad said before pushing Rod off the ramp. Thad laughed as he stood for a second watching Rod spin and tumble. Then he stepped of the ramp himself.
Down below Freya was in the shower and Lex was off getting food for them while Fiona sat petting Commander Cotton Paw. She noticed the cat also had a control slave collar on as well. Fiona asked, “So are you a slave as well?”
“In a manner of speaking, the Ralnai don’t know that I am Bastep Nefamii. They think I am just an Earth cat and nothing more than Lex’s pet. If they really knew who and what I am they would sell me back to my cousin,” the cat said and then went back to purring.
“Wouldn’t that be a good thing?” Fiona asked.
“Heavens no, my cousin the usurper Dark Claw deposed me and tried to have me executed, but my loyalists smuggled me away. That was over ten years ago and I have been on the run ever since,” Cotton Paw answered.
“I’m sorry to hear that, it sounds awful,” Fiona said.
“It is what it is, but someday I will kill that traitor and reclaim control. In the mean time I have enjoyed the adventures that I have been on with Lex,” Cotton Paw said.
“How did you to meet?” Fiona was fascinated with the cat.
“Well as I have said I was on the run and my most loyal friend and litter mate, what you would call a sister, was all that remained of the few who sacrificed themselves to get me to freedom. Little Paw, as I called her, and I were on New Hope,” she paused to lick her paw and then run it over her head as she felt something on her fur that she didn’t like.
Fiona spoke during the pause, “Oh the home world of the Amerons. I have been there many times. My folks used to be deep space cargo haulers and we would take shipments there a couple of times a year. I have fond of memories of New Hope.”
“Yes, well we had stowed away on a space cargo hauler and once we got to the planet we went looking for a human to claim. We had found several possibilities when a bounty hunter found us. He was a Nekton. If you know Nektons they can be ruthless in their pursuits of goal. To make a long story short he found us and my sister attacked him so I could get away. She clawed one of his eyes out, but he ended up killing her and skinning her. He needed her pelt to prove his kill and to get paid. I didn’t want to leave her, but I also couldn’t let her sacrifice be in vain.
I went into hiding and because of where I was hiding I wasn’t able to find food. It took almost a month before the Nekton left and by that time I was so sick and starving I nearly died. Then this little human girl, who herself was on the run, thought my hiding spot was a good one too because she found me and she nursed me back to health. We have been friends ever since,” Cotton Paw finished her story.
“Speaking of food I have brought yours,” Lex said entering the room with a tray full of food. She set it down.
Freya had finished her shower and came into the room with a towel around her and one in her hand drying her long red hair. “Food, do I smell food?"
“Oh good you are done. Lex here was about tell us her story, weren’t you?” Fiona said wanting to know more about her new friend.
“Not much to tell. As you can guess by my last name I am an Ameron. I grew up on a small Ameron colony Destany. I lived there with my parents and my older brother, until I was nine,” Lex said as she sat down at the small round table where she had placed the tray of food. Fiona could tell something bad happened to her then by the look on her face as she recalled the events, “What happened when you were nine?”
“Raiders, Alyn Ru raiders attacked and killed most of the colony. My parents were among the dead. My brother died saving my life,” her eyes watered as she talked. Even though it had been more than ten years ago the pain on her face told them that it was like yesterday for her. She took a deeper breath, “Anyway, once it was over, the surviving adults rounded up the remaining children and sent us to an orphanage on New Hope. However, I hated it there. The women who ran it were mean and beatings were the norm for even the littlest infraction. So, once I had the chance I ran. It was the first place I broke out of. It was only a day later when I found Cotton Paw almost dead and the rest is history.”
Freya popped a piece of what she was hoping was chicken into her mouth, chewed and then asked, “So just how many places have you broken out of?”
“Let’s see at least half a dozen juvenile detention centers, ten or so jails, three prison and oh yea one super max prison,” Lex said as she picked up a piece of the same white meat that Freya had just eaten. “And don’t worry, it is close enough to a chicken that it tastes the same.”
“Do I want to know where it comes from?” Freya asked.
“Probably not,” Lex laughed.
“So, I take it you have been on your own for the last ten or so years?” Fiona asked.
“Well, Cotton Paw and I,” she said and popped the meat into her mouth. “Look, I hope that my past activities won’t put a damper on our getting out of here?”
“No not that I can see, but I am curious, why were you incarcerated so many times? What did you do?” Fiona said.
“Mostly petty theft, and I may have run a few cons on the wrong people,” Lex answered openly.
“Petty theft and cons don’t get you thrown into a super max Lex. Come on, who did you kill?” Freya pushed her.
“No one, I didn’t have to kill anyone, just fell in love with the wrong boy,” she replied.
“Really, how did that get you in prison?” Fiona asked.
She blushed a little, “Well I was on the run from a few different law enforcement agencies at the time and I fled to the Fabien Empire and it wasn’t long before I found myself in front of the Prime minister running a con and I screwed up.”
“You fell in love with his son didn’t you?” Fiona asked already knowing the answer.
“Yep, and I stayed too long and was discovered and once they found out who I really was I was thrown into one of their super max prisons, but it didn’t hold me for long. With Cotton Paws help I busted out of there in what, two weeks?”
“Three weeks,” Cotton Paw corrected her.
“So what you are telling us you have the necessary skills to get us out of here,” Fiona said.
“Yeah I got the skills. Now it’s your turn. Who are you two and why are you so special?” Lex asked.
Fiona let Freya convey their story while she took her turn in the shower.
Chapter 8
The mysterious Seven. The man who was the genetic brother to Thaddeus and now the right hand of the New Galactic Empire. He stood in for the late Lord Marshal Drake, his onetime boss and master. A man Seven had never liked, but had to work for. He never liked Drake, not because of his ability to be cruel, but for his ability to be kind. It was his softness that led to his mother escaping with the Emperor of the Terrain Empire. The office of his former master was plush and filled with things that reminded Seven of just how weak Drake really was. If it had been up to him the office would have been stripped and redone with Spartan fixings. However, he had to keep the stuff to keep up the ruse that he was pretending to be the late Lord Marshal.
“General, come in,” he said to the tall graying man who stood in the doorway. General Ivan Konev was the Fabien General that had been placed in charge of all of the Necromorph troops.
“Thank you for seeing me Lord Marshal,” he said as he shook Seven’s hologram covered hand.
“Any time Ivan. Now what can I do for you?” Seven said hating to have to sound like Drake.
“I will need more troops if you expect me to take New Hope Sir,” the General stated bluntly.
“Hum, I can give you five thousand but no more. The Lord Emperor feels that you already have the numbers
to need to get the job done,” Seven knew he was playing a dangerous game by authorizing more troops, but he also knew that the Lord Emperor underestimated the losses and events on Isis. He didn’t want to suffer as Drake had, nor suffer the fate that he had as well.
“Not as many as I would like, but I’m confident that I can get the job down with the extra troops,” The General said as he stood up.
“You better be my friend, otherwise, don’t come back,” Seven said sternly.
“With my shield or on it, I understand Sir,” he snapped a quick salute and then departed the office.
Back on Earth St. Claire was enjoying a back message from Kára while he was poring over all the intel reports on his new target. He groaned as her fingers worked the deep knots out of his muscles.
“Am I hurting you my love?” she asked as she paused for his answer.
“Not at all, those are groans of pleasure,” he replied.
“Good, because if you were that weak I would be honor bound to kill you,” she whispered into his ear. He turned his head and shoulders to look at her. He never knew if she was joking or not and it showed on his face. She saw the look and laughed, “I would never kill you,” she paused, “well, not for that anyway,” causing his brain to wonder what she meant by THAT!
St. Claire knew that she was dangerous, but that was half of the excitement too. “Good to know,” he replied. “This Yiska Yanisin is a real piece of work. Bombings, shootings, beheadings, uses rape as a weapon of fear, and he does it all in the name of religion. But if you start looking at the events, most seem random. Those however, are a smoke screen. If you look really hard you begin to see a hidden pattern. Amanda was right. He is definitely working for the bad guys. This shitbird has burned children alive, stoned woman to death, and has more blood on his hands than any one I have ever gone after before.”
“Does that concern you?” Kára asked.
“Sure it does. It means he’s dangerous and smart. He has been operating for years without being caught. I also believe this is because Drake has been protecting him. He will not be an easy take down,” he answered her question.
“Are you scared?” She asked.
“No, not scared. Just damn cautious. I would be an idiot not to be,” St. Claire said between groans of both pain and pleasure.
“What is your plan lover?” She whispered into his ear before lightly kissing it.
He set the file he was reading down and rolled over. She stayed on top of him. He pulled her close and kissed her, “It is a grand and glorious plan but rather straight forward. First step, tear your clothes off and ravage you. Second step, find the turd. Third step, we capture or kill him.”
She smiled and kissed him back, “Oh you always know what to say to a girl.”
“Then we had better get to working my plan. Starting with the first step,” St. Claire said with a mischievous smile as he began to initiate his First step.
Thad continued to get a kick out of watching Rod Masters tumble and spin, but he couldn’t bring himself to let Rod become a human lawn dart. Thad was actually beginning to see Masters is a different light. “Rod activate your auto stabilizer,” he told him through the com. Rod heard him, but he had become so disoriented he couldn’t function. “Rod, fire your damn stabilizer thrusters,” Thad barked out the order. Rod still spun like top and was not responding. Thad was beginning to wonder if he had passed out. They were getting close to breaking the sound barrier and if Rod didn’t get stable soon the g-forces would kill him.
Thad knew that Eve was in front of them and she couldn’t see what was going on, “Eve, Rod is in trouble. Can you do something?”
“One second,” Eve voice was always clam. True to her word one second later, just before Rod would hit critical speed and wouldn’t make it, his suit’s stabilizing thrusters fired and he stopped spinning. Maters’ approach was looking good now. Rod’s voice was weak and low, “Thanks.”
“I’m linked into your suits computer, don’t worry, I will make sure you get on the ground in one piece,” Eve said.
No more was said as the trio got closer to the ground. Eve deployed her parachute first and it was all black. Everything about their gear was designed to help hide them. They would have used optical camo, but the motion causes a blur effect that would make it easier to see them. At night old fashion camo, like a black chute against a black sky, was far more effective.
Things were going well until Rod flew his chute over the top of Eve’s. Parachuting at night is one of the most dangerous things a person. The air that gives a parachute lift is captured by the lower chute leaving a void of air above. When Rod flew over Eve’s chute he hit that void and loss all lift. His chute collapsed and folded up into what skydiver’s call a candle stick. He dropped like a rock and hit Eve’s chute causing it to collapse as well. Luckily they were both almost down when it happened. But they fell far enough for Rod to shatter his left leg when they hit.
Eve slammed into the ground and made a bit of a hole and was stuck. Thad landed, cut away and ran over to where the two had hit. Rod was rolling on the ground moaning and making a kind of whistling noise as he breathed in. He looked at Eve who was trying to extract herself from the soft mud that they had landed on. If had been any harder of a surface Rod would have far worse injuries than he did.
“I’m okay for now, just a little stuck. Help Rod,” Eve said when Thad looked at her. He didn’t respond but just turned back to Rod and helped him get the helmet off. As soon as he did Rod vomited, and if it wasn’t for Thad’s ultra-fast reactions he would have been covered in Rod’s puke. As it was he stepped sideways just in the nick of time.
“I’m sorry Thad. I screwed up,” Rod kept repeating over and over.
“It happens to the best of us, now shut the hell up,” Thad said as he dug into the med kit he had brought for the twins in case they needed any medical treatment. He grabbed a laser scissors, a standard device in med kits. It really wasn’t scissors, but it served the same purpose. It looked more like a small flash light with a y shaped head. The medic would place the edge of the garment between the two ends of the y and push the button that activated the laser. Then it was just a matter of moving it up or down the garment to quickly cut it away, and that is what Thad did.
“Oh that doesn’t look good,” Thad said as he looked at the distorted and swelling leg. Next he grabbed a field scanner and took a look at the leg from the inside. It was a mess. His fibula and tibia where in a hundred pieces. Fortunately for Rod, his presser suit had kept enough presser on his leg to keep it from becoming a compound fracture.
“How bad is it?” Rod asked with tears of pain streaming down his face. Thad stopped for just a moment and looked at Masters. Thad was actually impressed with how Masters was reacting to his injury. Most people would have been screaming and trashing about but Masters was almost acting like a real warrior. Almost. And that impressed Thad. But Thad would never tell Masters that tidbit of information.
“Pretty bad, I can do some things to easy your pain and stabilize the leg, but you are going to need surgery to fix this. You are going need a couple of new bones,” Thad didn’t sugar coat it for him. After all, a warrior, even a novice like Masters, deserves the truth. Rod smiled weakly, nodded in understanding and then passed out.
Thad gave him a shot of pain killer and went to work on the leg. The biggest problem was that some of the bone shards were close to cutting his femoral artery. If that happened Rod would be dead before they could help him. So he needed to get rid of those shards but opening Masters up was not an option. Especially in the dark and in the mud. Thad was just grateful he had his robotic eye that could operate in a light spectrums and conditions.
Thad chose to use a fluid injector that dissolved the bone back into calcium that the body could absorb. Guided by the scanner, he jammed the long needle into Rod’s leg several times until he had dealt with the worst of the fragments. The rest he would leave for Foster to fix when they returned to the Gemini.
He dressed the leg as best he could before applying a flex-a-cast to the leg.
Flex-a-cast was yet another Hammer invention. It was a mesh material that would flex or stiffen when voltage was passed through it. It was hooked up to a small control unit that monitored how much support or stability the injured limb needed and self-adjusted as needed. The great thing about the flex-a-cast was that it was a mesh. It was light weight and breathed and the wearer bathed without having to remove it. Eve was filled with the similar kind of material. It was Doctor Hammer’s breakthrough that led to the development of smooth moving muscles for robotics. Which in turn lead to ultra-realistic human robots, something that Doctor Hammer hated.
Once he was done with Rod, Thad came to the aid of Eve who was quietly awaiting help to get unstuck. “Gee Eve, I never thought I would see a sticky situation you couldn’t get yourself out of,” Thad quipped.
“Ha, ha. Now pull me out please,” Eve said has she put her hands out. Thad grabbed them and pulled with everything he had and she moved a little, but remained completely stuck. Because of her custom built combat cassis she was far too heavy for him to pull out without help.
Thad gave up on trying to her free. He let go and she slipped back and a little deeper into the mud. “Well shit, that didn’t work,” she exclaimed.
Thad was shocked as he had never known Eve to cuss. “You never cease to amaze me,” he said with one eye brow raised.
“You can be amazed later. Right now you need to figure out a way to get me unstuck before I sink any further,” Eve chided him.
Thad laughed and then immediately regretted it as Eve gave him a look that could kill, and with her the laser beam look could be a real thing, “Sorry,” he apologized for laughing. “I’m on it,” he said as he activated his DDSD (Digital Dimensional Storage Device). In a flash of green light he was holding a small slaver disintegrator. It was the smaller version that was normally built into the gauntlet of the Starguard’s powered armor. It was use to cut holes in walls for breaching. However, the slaver disintegrator was not developed by Doctor Hammer, it was created as mining tool and in the first star war against the Dreenoi it was heavily used to dig and breach their subterranean tunnels.
