The Mulligan Planet
Page 31
feet, a few dozen of his crew surrounding him from what was originally thousands. But there was only one who he truly cared about. He began looking around frantically over the railings of his station for his general and lover, “Shenim!?”
He finally saw her three floors below his where she laid on her side, clutching her stomach. Without thinking he jumped down from his console to her and crouched, “Shenim, are you alright?”
She forced the pain from her face and nodded, “Yes commander. I fell when the ship dropped and caught myself on the railing, I will be fine.”
Neysor was not yet convinced; something that was accentuated when he looked down her to the blood building at the crotch of her white dress pants. White-hot anger was spreading through Neysor, these attackers had hurt his loved one and his child, and now they had to pay.
“Crew of the Yuik! Arm yourselves, we go to the planet’s surface and we’re going to destroy the one they call John Prince!”
Regroup
“Lucy?” I hadn't received any response from the team.
“I can't hail anyone John, there is something jamming my signal, comms are down and I can't track the team.”
I was gliding in slowly and I could make out S's camp, “Alright, try and get a scan of that ship, I'm going to get some reinforcements.”
I was going to overshoot the camp by a few hundred metres if I continued on my current trajectory and I wasn't exactly in a time wasting mood. I grabbed the straps over my chest and pulled, tearing them from the chute. Resulting in me dropping the twenty feet to the ground and landing with a thump in the thick mud.
S walked out of his tent, a smile plastered on his face, “Quite a show you put on up there, nice lot of fireworks. For a minute there I thought that ship was going to come right down on us. Here to finish me off then?”
I shook my head. “Ah, you want help, you want my men to go with you on a suicide mission into the belly of the beast and tear out its heart?”
I nodded, I didn't like him being in my head, I felt like he could leave a glitch or something at any point. But instead of constant internet pop-ups I'd just go crazy. “So I send my best men with you, you do your little mission, then what? You turn on them and come back to butcher me?”
I shrugged and he closed the distance between us, “I will send them with you if you give me your word that you won't hurt them.” A look of genuine concern had replaced his maniacal smile, “Promise me that and you've got a deal.”
I was shocked to say the least, I thought in that brief moment that I'd judged this man too fast. Then the teary eyes of Jessica came back to my mind, “I promise I won't hurt your men,” I put my hand out and he grabbed it, “But once this is all over I will kill you, you know that right?”
His smile came back as he shook my hand, “Oh yes, you're big and scary, but as long as we're in an accordance we can be civilised, so come, break bread with me, I've already got a few men out to bring your group in.”
I followed him into his tent, a large, rectangular table sat in the middle covered in food. The smell of steak mixed with roast vegetables made my mouth water, “I must say I'm impressed, clearly the insane have inherited the world.”
S gave me a light nod and a smile as he sat at the side furthest from the door, “Truly.”
I took my seat and began eating the meal in front of me, the steak melting in my mouth, “How?”
I looked over to S who was politely eating from his plate of mixed vegetables, “I'm clever. I know how to survive, my friends came to me and we had a plan, rebuild. My family and I would make a home in this new world because that's what we had. I wasn't always like I am today. Not really. I know I said I was, but these people need to believe that. If they continue to think that I was always ‘crazy’ they won't question it, they won't ask why.”
I drank from the glass in front of me, it was some kind of red wine, “What changed?”
He sat back in his chair and sighed, “A few days after the initial breakout I started hearing the voices, I refused to tell anyone, I didn't want them to worry. Then I started recognising the voices, they belonged to my wife, my friends, my children. It was their thoughts, I remained silent for another few days. The voices got clearer and clearer, like I was adjusting the frequency and eventually I heard something, something in my wife's mind, turns out she'd been sleeping around for a while. I got... upset. One night I was on watch while everyone else slept, after a few hours I slipped into my tent and... Removed her from the equation. One of my friends heard the tussle, and came in, I killed him. Then someone saw that and I killed them. Within a few minutes my children and I were the only ones in our small group. That's what I thought, the dead had got into my children's tent while I was...” He shook his head, “I ran into some scouts at the military base, I was covered in blood, they were going to shoot me. But I quickly bamboozled them with my mind tricks and cunning, convinced them I was all powerful by reading their minds,” He snapped his fingers, “Like that I was in a suit with a new name and running a slightly larger group.”
I had the last bite of steak and washed it down with the remaining contents of the wine, “Well, on the upside you got access to some delicious food.”
He smiled and sat up, “Actually, you helped me with that one.” After looking puzzled for some time he finally decided to elaborate, “That was Jessica. Weeell, lunch now.”