Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings (The Messenger Archive Book 1)

by DC Bastien

  "Go to hell!"

  The chair went backwards, and Avery was kneeling on the Judge's chest, knife still drawn and pressed across his throat. Peters' eyes were closed, his head back, panting and straining against his bonds.

  "See, I've got a pretty nice life here," Vadim said, his voice not even changing from a simple, light inflection. "I got friends. I can eke out a living. I don't need the fancy clothes, the fast engines, the way people all defer to you when you enter a room. But Avery, here?" He clucked his tongue against his teeth, and shrugged expansively. "Avery's not used to living it rough. He's an Enforcer before he's Ithon. And thanks to you, now he's nothing."

  Avery pressed harder with the blade, clearly irked by the assessment. "I don't think you're Peters. So who the fuck are you?"

  "I'm Judge Simeon Peters, and the two of you are in more trouble than you've ever seen in your lives. Maybe if you take me back to Lineon, I'll ask for clemency, and you'll not get sentenced to a mining operation. Just set farming somewhere no one will ever come looking."

  "You're not even Hleen," Avery snapped. "I thought it was only them. But maybe it's just that they're the most prominent members of this conspiracy. Maybe you're just in their pockets. How much does it take to buy you out, Judge? If you are a Judge?"

  "Ithon..."

  "A nice retirement somewhere? A nice little asteroid, with a big farm and a huge household? A nice, young Hleen wife? A drag car?"

  "Ithon, he's going blue in the face."

  "Or do you just not give a shit? Did they even need to pay you to sell out your friends? Tell me!"

  "ITHON!"

  All of a sudden, Judge Peters' frame flickered. It hurt the eyes to look at, because where there had been man, now there was an emptiness, a gap in the world. It was like trying to look at something out of the corner of your eye, and every time you turned your head to look square on, it vanished. The Judge made a choked, rattling sound and Avery sat back on his haunches.

  "What the--?"

  The black form seemed to expand, a loud noise and a bright not-light that hurt the eyes, and both Humans called out in distress, shielding their faces. There was a whoosh of air, hot and arid, and then the chains around the chair fell flat.

  The Judge had gone.

  "What the fuck?" Vadim finished for the other man.

  ***

  [Ashroe: If I get too foul-mouthed, let me know.]

  [Sianor: No, no! I fully believe they'd curse worse than they do on the show, if not for the network rules.]

  [Ashroe: Law-enforcement, military... they all have potty mouth, as you guys say. It's why we say cursing like a squaddie or a sailor.]

  [Sianor: I'm a big girl. I know we drink at different ages to you across the pond, but we learn to curse young.]

  [Ashroe: I always forget about the drinking thing. It seems so weird to me.]

  [Sianor: Getting married and joining the army before we can drink? Yep.]

  [Ashroe: Well, you can marry at sixteen here. It always struck me as bizarre.]

  [Sianor: I don't think I'd want to drink. I mean, even if I could. It would mess with my meds too much. And hanging around with people I don't know very well.]

  [Ashroe: It's okay. You think it's cooler when you're young because it's this rite of passage type thing, but then you realise that forgetting what dumb things you did isn't that cool. I drink a bit socially, but that's it.]

  [Sianor: Ohh, let me guess. Do you drink... wine?]

  [Ashroe: What makes you say that?]

  [Sianor: It's kind of refined, like you. I can't see you drinking things with umbrellas in.]

  [Ashroe: Only on holiday ;) - that's vacation to you. I do like wine - reds - and I like spirits and mixers. I like a good beer, but I can only drink one or two before the bubbles get the better of me. Depends what I'm eating.]

  [Sianor: You know, if/when we meet up, I'll have to try like one glass of wine or something, just to see.]

  [Ashroe: It's an acquired taste. You'd possibly hate it.]

  [Sianor: I'd still do it, to look all posh like you! Haha.]

  [Ashroe: Maybe I'd get you onto wine spritzers. They're a bit watered down, a bit weak, but still refreshing. Or maybe sangria, which is when you mix it with orange juice.]

  [Sianor: What? Isn't that awful?]

  [Ashroe: No, not really. Or you can do buck's fizz which is bubbly and orange juice. I even heard there's places that drink red wine and coke.]

  [Sianor: You do mean cola and not the hard drug, right?]

  [Ashroe: I bet A-listers do it with the drug, but yes I meant the cola.]

  [Sianor: You ever do drugs?]

  [Sianor: NOT that I am gonna report you or anything, it's just... well. You're my window into a whole new world.]

  [Ashroe: Haha, I'm not offended. I'll admit I once attempted to smoke a joint, but it was a complete disaster and I barely managed one puff. I was trying to impress a guy. It was dumb, because he wasn't worth it.]

  [Sianor: Oh my god I can just imagine it now.]

  [Ashroe: So yes, I'm going to put my Adult Hat on and say: 'don't do drugs'. Besides, it sounds like you get plenty for free, anyway.]

  [Sianor: Well, on insurance.]

  [Ashroe: I always forget you guys don't get it all free properly.]

  [Sianor: I know :( Well, at least my mom got good insurance to cover me before they found out I was sick. I don't want to think what would happen otherwise.]

  [Ashroe: Move over here. I have a spare room, and you'll get all your drugs for free. PRESCRIPTION ones, before any government monitoring software kicks in.]

  [Sianor: HI MI5!]

  [Ashroe: Shush! They said I'm only supposed to tell one person.]

  [Sianor: I'm laughing so hard it hurts.]

  [Ashroe: Why, because you can't imagine me as James Bond?]

  [Sianor: Because the thought of a spy writing gay fanfic is just wonderful.]

  [Ashroe: I bet they do.]

  [Sianor: Bond/Trevelyan! OTP!]

  [Ashroe: Why do you love so far away?]

  [Sianor: Don't you mean 'live'?]

  [Ashroe: Yes. Oops. Typo.]

  ***

  Chapter Thirteen - Mission: Congregation

  Kre shook her head. "I am sorry. I cannot find any trace of another life-form. Mission should have detected if the Judge's biometrics were not correct, unless he applied his virus when he first arrived on the ship, and did not fully activate it until we discovered his duplicity."

  "Alright. Well... if you can find anything to track down what happened to him, he can't just... stop existing," Vadim said hands making a gesture that was clearly meant to re-enact the dissolving of a person into thin air. "That's not science."

  "So you were listening to my sermon on matter and energy?" Kre chuckled, weakly.

  "I listen to all the stuff you say. Might not understand all of it, but I listen! That was one of the easier ones."

  "Kip's right," Avery put in. "The bits that were Peters - or what looked like Peters - had to go somewhere. There was a very loud noise and heat, so there was energy transfer, but I'd be worried about him floating around as some kind of stalking-cloud."

  "If there's stalking-clouds, we're screwed," the Captain sighed. "We'll never know which air bits are safe to br-- oh no. Am I breathing in Peters?"

  "You are constantly breathing in tiny pieces that were once people, Captain," Kre replied. "But they are no longer people. As for the possibility of sentient clouds... it is true it could conceivably happen, but we have no other attested evidence for this. I would advise against worrying the rest of the crew with it, until we know definitively. In the mean time, we should work on the assumption that the 'explosion' you witnessed was the expiration of the life form which was posing as the Judge."

  "Right. That's the party line. You go tell everyone, okay? We'll... finish up down here."

  "Aye-aye, Cap'n."

  Avery didn't turn to face him.

  "You know it was all for effect, right, It
h?"

  "Of course."

  Vadim sighed. Ithon Avery was one awkward son of a bitch. When he chose to be hurt, he would be excessively formal and polite with you for what felt like years. After the easy way they'd just been working together - like they'd never stopped - being hit with the other side of his personality, the harsher one... it was a difficult let down.

  Avery was righting the chair, picking up the cuffs and re-attaching them to the back of his belt. His shoulders were tight and stiff.

  "When I left - and I know it was my choice - I still felt lost for a long time after. Having direction, orders, purpose for so long. Knowing when you woke up... what you had to do. Knowing someone else would make the decisions... and then it all going? It was hard."

  "I am not institutionalised, Kip. I'm still my own man. You might have felt subsumed by the Ur, but I never have. And this..." he gestured at the smuggling bay, at the ship, at everything. "This is only temporary. It's another part of my duties. To uphold peace, law, and safety for every species, no matter what."

  Vadim grabbed at Avery's arm. "Would you stop it?"

  The Enforcer's eyes flashed dangerously, and he tried to pull his arm free. "There's nothing to stop."

  "You know what I mean, Ith. I know you."

  "You stopped knowing me a long time ago, if you ever did," the slighter man snapped back. He wasn't pulling with his arm any more, but he was glaring daggers. "Let me go."

  "Where? You're stuck with us, unless you're turning us over right now."

  That hit too close to the bone, and suddenly Avery had Vadim slammed into the bulkhead, a hand tangled in his shirt, his jaw set in a tight, tight line. "How could you even think that of me?"

  "Well, the Ith I know wouldn't, but you just said I don't know you," Vadim answered. This was better. Avery shut down was dangerous - both to himself and to others - but Avery pushed to extremis would say what was on his mind and then afterwards... afterwards things would get better. It was a dangerous play, but it was one he knew well.

  "I never abandoned my oath, Captain. I'm still a sworn servant of the people. Unlike you, I believe in helping. I believe in making a difference. I wouldn't sell you out, not unless you were trading in dangerous drugs or slaves. But you wouldn't fucking do that, would you? So reel your neck in."

  "It's going to be okay," Vadim said, taking a half-step back from the height. If Avery was using his title, not his name, he was right on the edge. "Our smarts combined, my crew, we'll be unstoppable."

  Nostrils flaring, Avery was fighting to keep his breathing level. Vadim thought he could all but hear the man's heart pounding. "Your crew are good," he admitted, eventually. "But I would only take Kre into a fight with me."

  "Not everything's sorted with guns, Ith. If it was, I wouldn't need 'em."

  "You replaced me with five others. Doesn't that say something?"

  That... hurt. Vadim let his eyes slide away from Avery's. "I didn't replace you, Ithon. But they are my family, now."

  "Wonder how long it will be before you abandon them, too," Avery wondered aloud. He let go of Vadim's shirt and stormed out. "I'm taking the Judge's quarters. I'll look for clues."

  Vadim let his head fall back onto the bulkhead. His gut was knotted up, and there was too much old pain in there. It had been easier without Avery around as a constant reminder of all he'd given up. It hadn't been Ithon who had driven him away, and if it hadn't been for Ithon... he would have left a lot sooner.

  He almost hadn't. He almost hadn't left.

  But Ithon hadn't been enough to make him stay.

  ***

  [Sianor: I am so turned on right now.]

  [Ashroe: Hehehe. Me too.]

  [Sianor: I never knew I had a thing for interrogations and... and... well.]

  [Ashroe: Welcome to the DARK. SIDE.]

  [Sianor: Those two need to get a ROOM.]

  [Ashroe: Only if we can watch.]

  ***

  The food was warm, and it smelled good, but that was about it. It would likely fill a hole, and it would sustain life, but it wasn't enjoyable. A chore, really. Kre chased around a piece of what should have been meat with her knife, wondering if she was expending more energy by messing with it than she would gain by eventually ingesting it.

  "May I join you?" came the quiet, calm voice.

  The chaplain looked up to find Loap standing in the doorway, head to one side, demeanour reserved.

  Kre had worried about this. Even someone as openly independent and as Loap would find her heritage a lot to stomach. She pushed the meat-analogue around the plate a little longer. "Of course."

  There was a scrape as a chair was pulled back, and Loap sat carefully down.

  For a long time, there was only the sound of cutlery on crockery. It was a vile noise, so eventually the Sianar stopped.

  "I understand why you hid who you were," Loap said, eventually.

  Kre snorted, and looked dolefully up. "Do you? My name - my very appearance - is synonymous with all I despise."

  "I've never once seen you raise a hand except in defence, Kre. Whatever your family did in the past... even your father has stopped it. Maybe not as much as I'd hope, but it'll be difficult for the Sianar to ever admit they were wrong. I understand that. I'm not looking for an apology, not any more. Just... a different future."

  The plate slid noisily over the table. It was horrible, anyway, and now Kre wasn't sure she could even try to eat it. The food she'd already taken in felt heavy on her stomach, as if with every movement she could feel each mouthfull pressing against her insides. It would be a waste to lose the food she had already ingested, so she tried to breathe in through her nose and fight the nausea. "Did you want an apology, before?"

  "Yes. I wanted to hear that it was wrong. That my people had been unfairly treated. But what would that get me? A momentary good feeling, without the past being changed. And a pain for a proud race to admit... no. I don't want it anymore."

  "What changed?"

  "I made a friend, Kre. I'm sorry if the way I have been has made you uncomfortable with who you are. You are a good person, and a wonderful friend. I do not care what your brood did to mine."

  A low, keening noise in the back of her throat. "Loap... I am sorry. I know you do not wish to hear it anymore, and I did not do the things I am apologising for, but I am still sorry. And I am sorry that I could not tell you who I was. Who I... am." She gestured at her bare shoulders, where fur long held down was struggling to rise up properly.

  "Your mane is beautiful, Kre," Loap said, with a flicker of his tongue out. "You should not cover it, aboard this ship. In public, yes, but not here."

  "I won't. Not now."

  "May I join you to eat?"

  Kre rose up from her chair. "Only if you allow me to cook."

  "If you cook, I will clean."

  And so they did.

  ***

  [Sianor: Bonding! Cuteness! Halp! I cannot can!]

  [Ashroe: Ahhh I might be slightly... inebriated. It's probably my fault.]

  [Sianor: For shame! Really?]

  [Ashroe: Yea. All that talk about booze the other day reminded me I have a nice Shiraz. Or... had.]

  [Sianor: Why didn't you tell me you were getting drunk, I could have made pretend cocktails with OJ and... straws?]

  [Ashroe: Have you got tomato juice?]

  [Sianor: Maybe.]

  [Ashroe: Could make a Virgin Mary. Hey. Shall I find some mocktail recipes and we can get fake-wasted together?]

  [Sianor: Fake wasted and real wasted?]

  [Ashroe: Sure. I'll drink for both of us.]

  [Sianor: OK I'll brb.]

  [Ashroe: The Shiraz was nice.]

  [Ashroe: I think I have spirits in.]

  [Ashroe: I'm going to go see.]

  [Sianor: Back... oh. Well I'll wait for you.]

  [Ashroe: I have the remains of many house parties here and lots of glasses and straws and I didn't have umbrellas but I have cocktail sticks and those are for cockt
ail sausages but you can use them in real cocktails too I guess I'll pretend it's a parasol not an umbrella or maybe it got windy and the umbrella part went away in the wind.]

  [Sianor: Are you always like this when you're - uhm - drunk?]

  [Ashroe: Why? Am I typoing?]

  [Sianor: No! You're spelling everything fine. You're just... chatty.]

  [Ashroe: Sorry.]

  [Sianor: Don't apologise, it's funny!]

  [Ashroe: Still sorry. Probably shouldn't encourage you. Bad influence.]

  [Sianor: Hey, I'm making Virgin... Maries? That's not a bad influence. And it's nice to see you let your hair down.]

  [Ashroe: Short hair. Not very girly. Not a good girl. Hang on - take photo of my invisibrella.]

  [Sianor: What is IN that?]

  [Ashroe: Vodka. Gin. Tequila. Blue thing. Orange juice. Lemon juice. And a strawberry because I got some for the tortoise.]

  [Sianor: Is that... wise?]

  [Ashroe: Either all in one or one after the other it is all the same when it is in you. Probably shouldn't drink it with wine because you not supposed to mix drinks but it does not make me ill so I'll be okay.]