“But E’Aria hasn’t had her ceremony yet,” Natalia protested.
“True, but it shouldn’t be a problem. If you and Taz want to stay, that is perfectly fine with me. We’ll pick you up later.”
“Benjamin, my business is not concluded here and you’re not leaving until it’s finished!” Taz said. It was her turn to get angry.
“I just told you, you could stay. Are you deaf? Go finish your so-called business tonight. I think it’s just bullshit anyways, you’re not doing a damn thing, just getting in front of people to flex your muscles or shake your ass.” I was on a roll.
“Dad, you need to stop, or you’ll say things you’ll regret later,” Natalia said, her tone much softer.
“Too late for that, dear child,” Taz said. “We should take our leave and go pack. It seems we are leaving tomorrow.”
Natalia went out the door. Taz was a few feet behind her, walking with an exaggerated swing to her hips. She looked back over her shoulder. “You’re half right,” she said and was gone.
I lay there for a few minutes fuming that my daughter had showed no concern for my health. No kiss, no hug, just anger — like she was embarrassed by me. I worked myself into a sitting position and then got off the bed. I walked for a few steps and then changed my mind about a field trip to the brig.
“Guard!” I yelled. He came into the room, looking at me like I was crazy. “Would you have the prisoner brought to me please?” He nodded and left. It had been about ten minutes when a guard arrived with Blue Eyes.
“Have a seat,” I told her. “Are they treating you okay?”
“Yes, other than keeping me locked up. They are very polite and see to my needs,” she said.
“That’s good,” I said. “I like them. They’re good people.”
“The master told us many lies. He said that most of the races were barbarian and could not be trusted.”
“You’ve had time to think on your very short past, haven’t you?” I asked.
“On the creation ship there was almost no contact with outside culture,” she said by way of answer. “The real thing, not the gamblers and criminals that came to watch the battles in the arena.”
“Why did you kill your master and only wound me?” I asked. “No really, why the hell did you have to even wound me?”
“There are a number of reasons. I did not turn out as the master had hoped. I wasn’t aggressive enough; he had a replacement for me and was going to recycle me. That would be the human expression, I believe. I don’t know what happened to her. She should have been at full growth and released by now.”
“Don’t think that happened,” I said. “The Cjittan have control of their ship now and I know two of the clones were killed. One looked like you.”
“I see,” she said. “Well, that’s good for you. She wouldn’t hesitate the way that I did. There is a point in our growth where we become conscious and then the conditioning starts. It follows a set of protocols for what we are being created to do. My sister, the one you named Silk, she was an assassin. She had months, maybe years of training ahead of her.”
“Do you still feel you want to kill me?” I asked.
“Yes is the honest answer,” she said quietly, “but I have fought the compulsion and won numerous times. Other times I have lost. Even on the shuttle — when you kissed me I wanted to kill you. My body shook uncontrollably. I held your arm, squeezing the armor until it passed.”
“That happens a lot to me. I kiss a girl and later she wants to kill me,” I said. She didn’t laugh. “I guess humor isn’t one of those protocols they condition you with. When we stopped for fuel and you and your pirate crew tried to take my ship, was that one of those times?”
“Yes. It seems the farther away from you I am the stronger it becomes. I think it is to keep driving me to complete what I was created to do. Taking your ship would have taken care of two problems. One — we needed a larger ship. The other would have been killing you. I believe that once you are dead the compulsion will disappear.”
“Then what will you do? What happens to you after your mission is accomplished?”
“I don’t know. I’ve just hoped I would go on living, find a way to survive.”
“Blue Eyes, do you know who commissioned your creation and wants me dead?” I asked her.
“No, but I am sure whoever it is will try to kill you again. My master’s services were quite expensive, so the loss will be an angry blow.”
“Good. Whoever it is will screw up again eventually, and I will be watching. Chances are, I won’t screw up.”
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
“I could eat. Have the guard bring us both something,” I answered
“I was hoping you would say that,” she said. “Although they have been polite, I have only eaten once in the last day and a half.”
After we ate, we talked for half an hour — nothing important, I just wanted to see if she might try to kill me. It would be a perfect opportunity for her to end her compulsion. She had mentioned that I kissed her on the shuttle after they brought me aboard. I assumed it would come up again later, so I didn’t mention it. She had never talked to me on board the creation ship as much as she was talking now.
The door opened; they were back. Talking ceased on both sides as they entered the room. Taz and Natalia had brought a few others this time. E’Aria walked in behind them. I couldn’t remember if she had ever seen Blue Eyes before; things were still a little fuzzy. She walked within six inches of her, staring in her eyes.
I decided to sit up and, if nothing else, put myself between them. E’Aria walked around Blue Eyes, looking her over from top to bottom.
“Are you going to keep it, Benjamin?” she asked finally. “You’ll always know it’s just a physical copy, and it will do nothing but cause you heart ache.”
“I might, I haven’t decided yet,” I said, baiting the audience.
Taz, Natalia and E’Aria all had different expressions on their faces.
“You can’t!” Natalia blurted out. “It’s not right. If you do Ill shove her out an airlock.”
“She has done nothing to you or any of you. She isn’t responsible for Andrea, or even her own life. She was created to hurt me emotionally, antagonize me and then kill me,” I said.
“And she will,” Taz added.
“So far she hasn’t been able to accomplish any of those things and had had ample opportunity,” I countered.
“When you return, make sure it is locked up on your ship,” E’Aria said.
“Okay then, that answers that. When we arrive on Athena you are free to go,” I told Blue Eyes. “You will have no problems at all blending in. Maybe we can find you a fake identity and employment.”
“Benjamin, you can’t do that. She will eventually have to find and kill you,” Taz said. “It’s her life’s mission, and even if she wanted to she couldn’t stop it from controlling her.”
“I’m good with that. I just risked my life for all of you and have yet to get even a thank you. I won’t condemn her for doing what she has to do, now that I understand more about her.”
“You acted on your own as you normally do,” she snapped. “Taking matters into your own hands when we had the situation under control.”
“You had shit and you know it,” I fired back. “I didn’t even see your planetary defenses returning fire. You have no shielding for the palace, and some idiot in a battleship was about to turn my family and friends into French fries.” I paused for breath and looked away. “Go get your crown or your scepter of whatever the fuck it is you’re getting and leave me alone.”
I knew my world was unraveling even more as I yelled at her, but I couldn’t help myself. I felt a little dizzy and reached out for the bed. I saw Blue Eyes push E’Aria out of her way and grab me, trying to steady me. I think it surprised all three of the women, who just stood and watched her.
“Natalia,” I said when it was over, “does everyone know we are leaving tomorrow,
and do you want to stay here with E’Aria? I know you missed her, and I want you to have the chance to spend time with her if that’s what you want.”
“No,” she answered, “I’m coming with you, dad. I’m sorry, I told you the other day I wanted you back the way you used to be, and when the old you showed up, instead of supporting you I was angry because E’Aria was angry. But now I know I was wrong, and so is E’Aria.”
“Benjamin,” Taz said softly. “The princess is angry with you for her own reasons, but the king and prime minister, as well as an untold number of others, are all grateful for what you did. Natalia and I were mad because you scared us, and you could have been killed. Had you been wearing anything other than that armor of yours, you would be dead right now.”
Captain Dakkon walked in, entering the conversation. “I don’t think our young friend knows or cares about the laws that govern the universe.”
“No sir,” I chuckled, “I don’t. I was smart enough to grab onto a brilliant engineer who became my best friend. I have ignored the need to replace her, hoping she would come back someday, but I think that ship has sailed.” My anger ebbed away I sat on the edge of the bed. Blue Eyes was standing next to me, and I was happy the angry attention was focused elsewhere.
“It would be wise, Benjamin,” he answered. “Your courage and bravery are no match for the powers that control everything around us.”
“Captain, I’m not a total imbecile. I made my peace with the dark mistress on my way to destroy the asshole trying to kill everyone. I was all hers if she wanted me. It would seem I have better friends than she does, but I’m sure she will get me one day.”
“This is why I like you, Benjamin. You’re right, no matter how wrong it looks. I like that dark mistress reference — it’s very romantic. Don’t you think, ladies?” Captain Dakkon said, looking around the room.
“Don’t encourage him, Captain,” Taz said.
Chapter 18
I walked around the Claymore checking for damage, but I couldn’t find anything. Captain Dakkon loaned me his chief engineer for the day to check over my systems, and, more importantly, the drives. He had put some kind of computer to work on the systems while he calibrated the drives back into perfect alignment.
The Claymore had been new when I received it, but it was due a full maintenance inspection, which I could have had done a couple of weeks ago on Allond had I had an engineer to tell me so. I wasn’t getting a full inspection now, just critical systems, and that was a rush job. Nevertheless, I was happy to get it done.
I hurt all over, but hell, I’d been far worse off than this. This reminded me of the time we had been on a planet with wacked-out electromagnetic storms and fog, I thought to myself, and they had us jump out of the ship because they were too scared to land. The asshole pilot was over a ravine, and instead of 30 feet it was — fuck, I don’t know — 500 hundred when I hit the river. Some of the others weren’t so lucky; they bounced off the stone walls that made up the ravine.
I had good friends then. Our commander, she was a scrapper — she had threatened to shoot the pilots if they didn’t take the shuttle down to my beacon. When she found out how many we had lost, she almost shot them anyway.
My daughter had told me she was sorry another three times since leaving the Allond battle cruiser. Taz never apologized; she said she was a queen and hadn’t done anything wrong, which was mostly true.
I gave Blue Eyes freedom to roam the ship, although I told her I would have the crew watching her. She wasn’t allowed on the bridge or engineering, and if caught, I would have Harry rip one of her arms off. I never went to E’Aria’s ceremony; I had decided her safety was her and her guards’ own problem.
There were a multitude of ships in orbit over Trillond — now that everything was over, of course. It would take some time to get a slot for departure. I just wanted to be on my way, but I wasn’t in that big of a hurry. I thought my biggest accomplishment of the day had been talking Captain Dakkon out of a dozen missiles to replace what I had used attacking the battleship.
“So, how do you feel?” Ronnie asked. She and Shawna were walking up to see what I was looking at.
“I’m good,” I answered. “Been worse, you know what I mean?”
“Yep, sure do. I’ve been around most every time.”
“I know you have, and here you are again. I’m not sure what I would do without you,” I said.
“Not like I did anything to help this time,” Ronnie answered.
“You would have if needed, and that’s what counts. What do you think will happen once we reach Athena?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Half of you are wanted for some crime or another.”
“I think Matt is working on that, but he hasn’t had a response from his contact yet,” she said.
Shawna elbowed me in the side. “I think we have company.”
I looked at the approaching group of Trillond soldiers. “You two go arm yourselves and see who else you can find.” I stepped up to greet the soldiers as Ronnie and Shawna hurried off.
“Colonel Diz’zok, it’s good to see you, I think,” I said. I recognized a few of the soldiers, most of which were from the palace guard.
“The Princess Regent requests your presence,” he said stiffly,
and I’m to bring you to her by force if necessary.”
“Can I ask why she would make such a strong statement?”
“She is negotiating with the Alliance captain who has petitions for the apprehension and arrest of some members of your crew.”
“She has no say or business negotiating anything,” I told him. “She can either arrest all of us or let us go on our way. I should remind those involved that we are transporting the Queen of Cjittan to meet the President of the Alliance. Any attack on us may carry very heavy consequences. Have you ever met the Cjittan in battle, Colonel?”
“No, we have maintained an uneasy alliance with the queen and her empire for many years.”
“Imelda, come and say hello,” I yelled into the hold. I didn’t turn around, I just waited for the looks on their faces. It didn’t take long.
Are we playing another game? Imelda asked.
No, no more games, I’m tired of them all the time.
“Colonel, Imelda is just one,” I told them. “I’ll tell you, though, there are thousands. She is a member of my crew and has become attached to many of them. Tell the regent and the captain to come see me if they want to negotiate. I’ll give them an hour, and if anything happens to any of my people before we talk, I just got twelve shiny new missiles to replace the ones I used.”
Ronnie and Shawna had returned with Harry and Nedra. They walked around and under Imelda and stood next to me. I put my arm around Ronnie and whispered my idea into her ear. She went back into the ship to carry out my orders.
“Colonel,” I said, “you told me the other evening you wanted to meet me so you could see how I reacted, or what I was made of. Let me tell you, you have no idea.”
“I thought our regent and yourself were friends,” he answered.
“We are, Colonel, but that will not take priority over the rest of my people. I have a responsibility to them. It was a dirty deal all the way, what the king pulled, and I think we all understand what happened a little better now. She isn’t one of us anymore.”
“So this is your answer? They can come to you?”
“Yes, you’ve got a com. Call her and tell what I said. If it’s going to get ugly, let’s get on with it. Imelda is probably hungry and my people haven’t killed anyone in about four days. How about you? Your people kill anyone lately? I doubt it, if ever. It’s your lucky day — I’m still sore, so I won’t be moving as fast as I usually do.”
“The regent says she is on her way and I suspect there will be a number of others with her,” he told me after a brief moment on the com.
“No problem,” I said. I walked towards the Trillond guards. They got a little jumpy but held their g
round. The colonel watched with interest as I moved around, talking to them.
“Here’s the deal,” I said. “If trouble starts and you’re ordered to do something stupid, don’t touch your weapon. If you can carry out your orders without your sidearm, then I will guarantee you’ll live through this. You reach for or draw your side arm, and there is nothing I can do for you. Colonel, do those terms sound fair between our two parties?”
“On the surface, but we can’t hope to best your crew hand-to-hand.”
“Colonel, you can try and do your best, and go into it knowing you’re not going to die. It will be very good training.”
“What about those who will be here shortly?”
“What about them? Let’s see what they say and how they act. I would rather nothing at all happen; just leave us alone so we can get going. On the other hand, the odds of that are slim to none.”
It was a large group that arrived a few minutes later. The good news was that part of crowd was the balance of my crew. At least, I thought it was good news. Natalia, Taz and Binda moved from the group to stand with Harry and Nedra. Grubb, Buddy and Adam seemed a little aloof. Blue Eyes made an appearance coming from the ship, joining us and standing next to Taz, of all people.
“Are you three having second thoughts? Do you want to stay here on Trillond?” I asked them.
I looked from the three, scanning the rest of the crowd. Captain Mahajan seemed confident of something. The addition of the Military Intel officer accompanying him was new. He had five armed crewmen who didn’t seem as confident as he did at the moment.
“Ben, we don’t want to stay, but he said we’ll be criminals if we board the ship. Something about aiding in the escape of wanted fugitives,” Grubb explained.
“Well Grubb, today is your lucky day — there are no fugitives on my ship. In fact, there is no one at all on the ship, since right now everyone is out here. Now, if you’re referring to the members of the crew who I relieved of duty, they have departed Trillond already and I don’t know where they are going.”
The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison: No More Lies (Book 3) Page 14
