Mercury's Orbit

by Lia Black

  A million snide remarks hit Sean’s brain all at once but his mouth remained shut to them. He asked a question instead. “What about your parents? Did you even know them?”

  Mercury looked up towards the tree tops. “Beautiful, aren’t they?”

  It took Sean a moment to process that Mercury had again changed the subject.

  “Uh...”

  “My father is the sun, of course. The only one I know. Up above the world so high... like a diamond in the sky...” Mercury continued to stare up at the trees. A lacework pattern of fading orange moved across his pale face like a kaleidoscope as the trees swayed above, following the fading remnants of daylight. Looking at him now—right at this very moment—Sean could understand why the media loved his face.

  “They are so lovely.”

  Sean looked up and guessed Mercury was talking about the trees.

  “What was I saying?” His forehead puckered with his frown. Apparently his own constant switching of topics had finally confused him as well.

  “We were discussing your father before you started talking about trees,” Sean said. It was getting darker. It was getting colder, and the bag that Sean had switched from one shoulder to the other about a hundred times by now wasn’t getting any lighter. He was falling behind, feeling like he was carrying bricks through quicksand.

  “I don’t much care to talk about him any—” Mercury came to a hard stop, and Sean had to stagger back several steps to keep from crashing into him. When Mercury glanced back over his shoulder Sean saw his face crumble into something that resembled torment. With a gasp, Mercury gripped his head and fell, as if someone had jerked his knees out from under him.

  Sean’s immediate instinct was to drop the bag to see if he was all right, but his better judgment made him hesitate. He did put down the bag, but he hung back— uncertain if he should help— or if he even wanted to.

  “Fuck,” he swore at his own compassion and stormed over to where Mercury lay curled up and shaking on the ground. Sean dropped to a crouch, holding back from touching him. “Hey...”

  In the soft red hues of sunset, Sean could just barely make out Mercury’s eyes. They were wide, running over with tears, and the pupils dilated and contracted as if being altered by a strobe.

  Those eyes shot so quickly to him when he risked touching Mercury on the arm, that he drew back, afraid he might get bitten. He had no idea if Mercury was a rabid wolf now, or a wounded puppy. His lips were moving, but Sean couldn’t hear anything at first. Despite the instinctual self-preservation screaming in his head, he leaned a little closer, ready to move if Mercury snapped at him.

  What he heard was barely a whisper.

  “Stopstopstopstop...it-it hurts...”

  “What hurts?” Sean figured it had to be Mercury’s head, based on the way he was holding it and the messed up things it was doing to his eyes. He looked around, checking to be certain that they were alone and it wasn’t some sort of supersonic disruptor scrambling Mercury’s brain—as if it could get any more scrambled. If that were the case, somebody would be closing in on them by now.

  Mercury was chattering away some nonsense about teddy bears as he remained fetal on the forest floor.

  “Crazy fuck,” Sean grumbled and stood up. It seemed he’d finally broken. Good riddance. He grabbed the rifle Mercury had dropped, plucking off the smaller guns from his hip and thigh. Strapping the rifle across his back, he substituted his own pistol with one of the smaller handguns. Then he slung the bag over his shoulder again and walked away. Let Sol Laboratory’s militia find Mercury. It was him they were after and frankly, Sean assumed that justice was justice— whatever his fate. As long as he was someplace where he’d never get out, that was good enough for him.

  At least, that’s what he wanted to believe.

  He hadn’t gotten more than ten yards away when his damnable conscience made him stop and turn around.

  Mercury hadn’t moved. Despite what Sean wanted to believe, this wasn’t justice. This was leaving a wounded beast to die, and in the process, turning him into something sympathetic, if the media had their way. No, it was more than that. Sean wasn’t a cruel man, and leaving anybody—even an enemy—in such a vulnerable state required a kind of dehumanizing tactic that Sean just couldn’t muster. He was still one of the good guys.

  “God damn it, I’m an idiot,” Sean grumbled and took off the bag, rifling through it for the wires he knew were there. He approached Mercury quickly— no time for caution if he was going to do this— and grabbed his wrists, winding them up in the wire. Mercury didn’t fight and his eyes were now closed, so Sean guessed he’d passed out.

  This was going to suck. He had to carry Mercury and a bag filled with armor, clothing, and other assorted necessities, and there was no telling when they would get to another settlement. He decided it made the most sense to wear one set of armor, complete with helmet so he could see where the hell he was going in the dark, and leave the second set behind. Once they got out of the elements, he could figure out what to do next.

  Crouching again, he got Mercury’s rag-doll body into a sitting position, then he guided him over his shoulder and heaved him up. Of the two, Mercury was lighter than the bag.

  Now, while the psychopath was unconscious, Sean decided he’d better make one goal and multiple contingency plans. When dealing with someone so unpredictable, it was the only way he might have a chance. He had no doubt that when Mercury woke up—and Sean knew his luck was not nearly good enough that Mercury had lapsed into a permanent vegetative state—he’d break his bonds immediately.

  13

  Sean must have been walking for an hour, carrying close to the equivalent weight of two bodies, when the downpour started. “Of course,” he grumbled, shifting Mercury’s weight a little.

  The trees were doing very little to shield him from the rain, and the armor had gaps wide enough around the neck to let water in; when the forest started to thin out, there was little reason to stop. Soaked to the bone, exhausted, and doubting his own sanity, Sean saw a structure of some sort at the edge of the tree line.

  “Oh thank fucking god...” It could be a settlement, maybe another research outpost, and possibly this one might be manned. If so, he could use their hailer to call for backup. Sean stopped in his tracks, gritting his teeth.

  Call who? Until he knew for certain, he had to believe that his CO was just as involved in this as any of them had been. He’d been thinking about it while walking, and his conclusions were leaving him with more questions than answers. It was impossible that Sol Labs—or whoever it was—could have possibly paid off everyone in the galaxy; certainly not the members of the Intergalactic Tribunal. If Sean could get Mercury there, he could be rid of him and might actually be able to sleep at night for getting a conscienceless criminal put to justice. Whatever Sol wanted with their runaway project, they could take it up with the legal system. Sean had an ethical duty to make Mercury answer for his crimes in a court of law. After that, he’d start trying to gather whatever evidence he could to see if he could tie Rodney’s claims of Lyttel’s association to Sol Labs in any way. At least so that someone else could start an investigation; he wanted to stay as far away as he could from LunaMax and Sol Labs after this.

  When Sean reached the structure he found that it was not an outpost or settlement, but the wreckage of a small freighter, which looked to have been there for some time. The hull was pitted by sand the paint had been bleached by the suns. There were broken crates and contents strewn everywhere, probably the work of scavengers. Most of the cargo appeared to be household supplies: kitchen utensils and those sorts of worthless things. It had crashed on the edge of where the forest ended and a stretch of open plains began, the nose buried firmly in the earth.

  Sean set Mercury and the bag down under a piece of sheared metal to try and keep them somewhat dry and crept closer to the hull, a gun at the ready in case something—or someone—was inside. The half-open door was dented and corroded in such a
way that it made moving it no easy feat, but finally Sean slid it wide enough to get himself and his armor through it.

  The night-vision on his helmet readjusted for the difference in lighting. It looked like maybe somebody had been here at one time, but not for quite a while. The cargo hold was not very big, about 150 square feet, if he had to guess; just a small delivery shuttle that brought goods and food to the settlements scattered between worlds. Most of the crates had been moved outside and dirt had made its way in, carpeting some of the floor. Maybe some of the crew had survived the crash and had holed up to heal injuries and get their bearings. Sean couldn’t imagine anyone else—including scavengers—coming this far out just to find a place to camp. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a choice. Sean looked around the interior, realizing that he and Mercury were going to be spending some time together in very close quarters. The sky had been steadily darkening, the rain coming harder the closer they got to the plains. Bloated clouds, the color of bruises, were all ready beginning to descend lower, hanging heavy above the landscape.

  He’d heard about the storms on the plains of Terra Huygen. Here the dirt had a high composition of weird, conductive minerals, and with the magnitude of the storms, lightning danced off the surface, creating tiny threads of electricity. The ship would be safe; all air-travel vehicles were made of non-conductive composites and alloys, but to step outside was a ticket to a slow, or potentially fast yet agonizing death, as static electricity would seize the muscles and singe the nerves. They would surely be stuck in here for several hours—if not days—depending on how long the storms lasted. Even after the lightning stopped, it would take some time for the surface of the plains to discharge.

  Satisfied that the area was clear, and that their time before the storms was limited, Sean turned to head back out the door and came face-to-face with Mercury.

  “Jeezus!” Sean staggered back a few inches as his heart tried to exit up his throat.

  Mercury cocked his head, blinking through wet streamers of silver hair.

  “Oh, it’s you under all that armor, Pretty.”

  “Get inside,” Sean took off his helmet and moved around Mercury, to bring the bag into the shelter. He cracked a light stick and set it on one of the crates left inside.

  When he turned, Mercury was standing in the entrance, looking around. “Well, it’s not very homey.”

  He hadn’t broken free of his bonds yet, but Sean wasn’t just going to sit back and wait. He unzipped the bag, digging through for his handcuffs. The department teased him for keeping an antique pair of cuffs, but Sean knew that they came in handy, whether it was restraining a criminal or a lover. Sean bit his tongue at the memory of his playtime with Evan in the bedroom. Dreaming about him had left him feeling raw. Especially since just prior, Mercury had sexually molested him. The only way to get through this was to stop trying to figure out what Mercury was going to do next, and try not to fixate on the fucked up shit he’d all ready done.

  “I’m hungry,” Mercury sighed when Sean came towards him. Mercury’s mention of his hunger brought his own back to the forefront, for which he was grateful. It kept him focused on the here and now and not some past he could never hope to change.

  Without saying a word, he took Mercury’s bound wrists and snapped on the handcuffs. Mercury pouted down at the new hardware. “Whatever have I done to deserve this, Pretty?”

  Sean shook his head, going to wrestle the shuttle door back in place as a low rumble began outside. “You need a reminder? Look, they’ll be happy to read all of your charges once I get you to the tribunal.”

  Mercury took a long, deliberate look to the left, then another to the right.

  “And how were you planning to get me there? In this?” He went to the far wall and sat down, “Well, I suppose if the money is right, you’ll find a way.”

  “Money?” Sean snorted, “You think I’m doing this for money?”

  He returned to the duffel bag and dug out a couple of MREs. Tearing the top off of one with his teeth, he brought it to Mercury.

  “Here.”

  Mercury did not raise his hands to take it. He leaned forward and scrunched up his nose, then sat back against the wall. “I can’t eat that. I want something sweet.”

  “Christ.” Sean rolled his eyes. He went back to the bag and poked around, squinting to read the labels on the packets. “Is vanilla pudding okay?”

  “I’d prefer butterscotch, but vanilla will have to do, I suppose.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” Sean muttered through his teeth.

  “I can hear you, you know,” Mercury said when Sean returned with the pudding. “And I’m pleased you’re finally understanding your rightful place in our little hierarchy.”

  “Here.” Sean tried again, gritting his teeth to keep from saying anything else. No wonder they’d kept Mercury sedated at LunaMax. He was infuriating.

  Mercury still did not raise his hands, instead he looked up from underneath his thick, gunmetal-black eyelashes and wet his lips with his split tongue. “Feed it to me.”

  Sean gritted his teeth. “Are you going to bite me or something?”

  “Would you like that?” Mercury raised an eyebrow.

  Sean ripped open the silver pouch with his teeth, keeping them set into a snarl and glaring at Mercury. He pressed the opening to Mercury’s lips with one hand as he used his other hand to squeeze the contents of the first packet into his own mouth. It was awkward, but frankly, he’d rather eat while Mercury was otherwise occupied. Inwardly he cringed as he swallowed the equivalent of baby-food. He was so caught up in trying not to throw up what he’d just swallowed down that he let his gaze wander from Mercury for a second.

  It was drawn swiftly back when he felt something warm and soft wrapping around his fingers; he realized that Mercury was sucking them.

  “What the hell!” Sean drew back his hand before the crazy fuck decided to bite down.

  “You need to squeeze more up from the bottom,” Mercury said, blinking his eyes in a mockery of innocence.

  Sean grumbled a quiet curse, and squeezed up some more of the pudding. Mercury extended his tongue, catching the soft ivory goo and rolling it back into his mouth.

  “Can’t you even eat like a normal person?” Sean sighed. He was exhausted and his stomach was threatening heartburn while he fed Mercury.

  “Do you think I’m a normal person, Pretty? I thought you said I was a monster.” Mercury was looking up at him with a wry little smile.

  “You are a monster, and that’s why I am taking you in. I believe in justice.”

  Mercury began to laugh, making Sean bristle. “What the hell is so funny?”

  “Pretty, you have it all wrong. I am justice.”

  “What?” Sean felt himself on the verge of sputtering. He reminded himself that he was dealing with a crazy man, someone whose brain was not wired right. Maybe somewhere in Mercury’s fucked-up sense of logic, he saw what he was doing as something that made perfect sense. Maybe he thought he was a superhero or one of those stupid cartoon fairies he seemed to believe were real. He got up and went to the far side of the room, trying to calm himself down. Goddamn, but what he wouldn’t give for a cigarette right now.

  “All of them,” Mercury said. “All of them gave money to Sol Laboratories to make me,” Mercury’s expression was bordering on pride. “They made a monster, and they want to make more.”

  The hair on Sean’s arms stood up from the electrical charge in the air. He quickly checked the door that he knew was tightly closed. The ground outside was all ready crackling, along with the battering rain and increasingly loud rolls of thunder.

  “What do you mean, ‘they made a monster’?”

  Mercury drew up his knees and rested his cheek on them. “Everyone I have delivered to justice was in some way involved in my creation. And not just mine, although, so far, I am the only one who has been a viable candidate.”

  “Candidate for what?” Sean nearly jumped out of his skin when a loud
crack of thunder rattled the walls of their shelter.

  “Perfection,” Mercury sighed, unaffected by the storm.

  Sean let out a snort. “You have a pretty high opinion of yourself.”

  “Do I?” Mercury lifted his head, blinking at him like he’d just offered an epiphany. The light stick tinted his skin slightly blue, and made him look like he was glowing. “There are— were— three of us,” Mercury began. “My father sees himself as the sun: the giver and preserver of all life. I would say his ego far outweighs my narcissism.”

  Despite Sean’s better judgment to just ignore Mercury’s crazy banter, he couldn’t help but be interested in what he was going to say. And with them being stuck in here together, he really didn’t have a choice but to listen.

  “All right,” Sean sat down across from Mercury, preparing himself for a long night. “I’ll bite. You said there were three of you?”

  “Not me specifically. I was born with a twin—my sister, Venus.”

  Venus. Of course. Sean shook his head, clicking his tongue against his teeth. “So why isn’t she helping you serve justice?”

  “She’s dead,” Mercury answered, closing his eyes. “Let me ask you something, Pretty; why didn’t you leave me behind?”

  It took a moment for Sean’s brain to catch up to Mercury’s shift to a different subject, though he should have expected as much.

  “I told you—”

  “The Witch Blackheart hates the Flutterby Fairies for their pure essence. Blackheart doesn’t like beautiful things. Yet the Flutterbys are kind. They don’t gang up on Blackheart and end her reign of darkness when they so easily could... I’ve never understood why.”

  Sean was getting a headache. He should have known better than to try and keep up with this man and his fluctuating state of crazy. “Sure, whatever.” It wasn’t worth trying to explain logic to a sociopath. “Look, I’m sorry about your sister.”

  Mercury cocked his head. “Why? Did you have something to do with her death?”