Reaper Inc.

by Thomas Wright

  The hooded figure in the middle moved his hand and the snake woman jumped from her seat into the arena. She moved fast but not fast enough. Ben dropped and rolled as she ran past him, then up he came back on his feet, bloody club ready. She walked slowly back towards him and struck quickly, a kick, a punch, a punch then a kick. Ben blocked all four until she came in close with a knee to his groin. He dropped to one knee putting his head lower than hers. She unloaded a barrage on him to his head and body. His lip was busted and his face had scratches and cuts. He shoved her hard and stood, trying to move through the pain and not vomit.

  The black-haired, blue-eyed woman watched as her sister exchanged blows with the human prisoner. She wondered if the master would let him live or let her sister kill him. Her sister circled the human slowly looking for an opportunity. He just stood, turning, facing her. Then she made her move, one, two steps she leapt and wrapped her legs around his chest, driving him to the ground. He caught both of her arms and held them as she tried to batter his face again. It would be over soon. He was exposed, her mouth opened and two long fangs popped down. She dove to bite into his shoulder. The whistle sounded and she shut her mouth, her face having no recourse but to bounce off of his shoulder. She turned her head and ran her face against the side of his. She inhaled deeply and licked him at the same time. She had blood, sweat, and dirt on her tongue.

  "I know you now, human. Your taste and your scent. I can track you anywhere." She kissed his cheek with soft dry lips and jump up and back, off of him. She turned and walked back towards her master. She felt better, calm now that she had released some of her pent up energy. He tasted good too.

  A guard threw open a door and placed a bucket next to it. Ben looked at the trio, nodded his head and walked towards the door. The bucket had what looked like water but it was dirty and smelled. It looked like it had started out clean but they may have pissed or shit in it. He banged on the door and started yelling.

  "Bring me some clean water!"

  "Ben. you have won today. Do not cause trouble for yourself," Tawniz yelled.

  A guard opened the metal door and stuck his arm through first with his pistol right in Ben’s gut. Ben turned sideways and grabbed the wrist and twisted taking the pistol from the guard. He threw it behind him, never releasing the guards arm. Holding the guards right arm in his left, he punch the guard in the side of his head, twice was all it took to make him stagger. He took the bucket of dirty water and poured it in his face making sure it went down his throat.

  Three guards came through the door, pistols drawn but not firing. One worked his way around behind Ben and picked up his comrade’s pistol. Ben tossed the bucket to the guard right in front of him.

  "I want clean water or I will beat you all senseless."

  "You can try human." Ben didn’t let the sound of the words fade before he was on the closet guard who had been more engaged in the conversation than noticing where everyone was standing. Ben had him in a choke hold using his body as a shield. He saw the guard who had spoken look to the stands then back at Ben. He wasn’t smiling so he didn’t get the nod he was looking for. The guard was limp in his arms and he just let him go.

  "Clean water or your buddy with two pistols he can't fire is next." Ben said it only as a ruse. Two steps and one big fist to the face and guard number three was down, holding a pistol in each hand. He wasn’t out, he just knew better than to stand back up.

  "It’s a bitch. The boss won’t let you pull the trigger." Snake woman came through the door with six guards in tow. The guard took a couple of steps back and found himself standing next to Ben.

  "You aren’t totally stupid. She is damn scary."

  "And she hassss very good hearing hu'man." Her voice was smooth and dangerous. "Take him." Ben was about to hold his arm up to be taken when they grabbed the guard, took his weapon and led him off.

  "Come, piickup the buucket hu'man, follow." They walked out of the arena and into the long corridor he had walked up earlier. A guard was waiting with shackles but she waived him off. They walked fifty feet, turned, walked twenty more and stopped at a door. One of the guards opened it and she led him inside. There was a row of valves, she pointed to one and he held up the bucket and turned it. It looked like clear water running into it. He shut it off at about three quarters full. If he hadn’t, it would splash out while he walked and he didn’t want to waste any.

  They walked back to the main corridor and then in the direction of the cages. He looked at her as they walked. She was bald and the top of her head was a soft yellow. She had no eyebrows and Ben didn’t think she had any hair anywhere. He wasn’t sure if she had skin or very fine scales. The shape of her head was mostly humanoid; instead of a nose, the bone came out at a sharp angle with a slit on each side and then angled to a mouth too wide for her face then down to a small chin. Her body was covered in clothing and it appeared she had breasts and hips for child bearing instead of egg laying like the Allith.

  "Staring i'sss not polite hu'man."

  "Sorry, I meant no offense. Our Alliance has not met many of the species who live beyond our own area of space."

  "I have no specieees, I am unique. There i'sss no other of my kind."

  They arrived at the cages, completing the rest of the walk in silence. Ben stopped at the cage door of the champions but she kept walking.

  "Come, you will not be staying with the champions." They walked to another cage next to where Tawniz cage would sit if it had been there. Ben looked the cell over. It was as large as all the others and clean, unused. There was a bucket in the back corner. He carried his water bucket and a mat lay on the floor. He could hear a motor running up above. It stopped right above the champion’s cage. A metal claw descended from the darkness above and grabbed the very large eye on top of the cage lifting it up and taking it away towards the arena.

  It was quiet again. She stood next to him letting him watch the cage being taken away.

  "Do you have a name? Am I allowed to address you?"

  "You could not pronounce my name and to let you butcher it would hurt my ears."

  "That bad huh. Well I can’t call you Snake; that one is taken."

  "Lucky for you it i'sss hu'man. I would kill you."

  "How about Fang? It fits don’t you think?" Ben was pushing.

  "Do you wi'sss to die tonight fool?"

  "Give me your hand." She held it out. Ben ran his fingers over her palm and the back of hand up her arm. "How about Silk?"

  "What i'sss Si'ilk?"

  "It is a soft but very strong material used to make many types of clothing. It is very beautiful and the human females love to wrap themselves in it."

  "I li'ike the sound of that, Reaper Benjamin Jami'ssson."

  "Silk it is then."

  "I was going to ki'ill you today hu'man yet you stand here and speak as if it were nothing."

  "Many have tried and you didn’t, you could have ignored the whistle. Then you gave me fresh water and it looks like my own cage. I hope you don’t expect me to thank you or your master."

  "The master gave you everything, not I."

  "But it seems like you approve."

  "Yes, the master has held off your death sentence because he feels you could help me."

  "Help you with what, Silk?"

  "Control, I have to control my battle lust and desire to kill. If I can’t find control soon, then the master will end my life."

  "So you want to kill in every confrontation you are faced with and the master can’t have that because some of your prisoners you need to take and keep alive. Bad for business to kill everyone."

  "Ye'sss that isss the reasson."

  "No I am not going to help you. In the end, your master is going to kill me, knowing that I have no incentive to help you. You know my name and probably other things about me so I don’t think my being here is an accident. Someone wanted me out of the way."

  "She will die first." Silk said, nodding towards the empty space where Tawniz's cage was
sitting.

  "Tell your master that part of the plan he or she may want to rethink. She comes from a powerful family. You might want to let her go or try a ransom and release scheme. That is what I would do."

  "No one can find you or the female. Our ship is masked from prying eyes."

  "Everything changes. When you think no one can touch you, then someone does. Do you want the water and cage back? It is hard for me to get excited about it when at the end of the day, I am still a prisoner and could be dead any day."

  "If the master wishes it then it will happen. Until then, it is yours, get inside." Silk pushed him in and closed the cage door.

  "Tell me about the blue-eyed one who sat on the other side of your master."

  "You will find out in time. Ssshe is like me. We were both sssomeone, sssomething else before, now we unique."

  "Where am I, what is this place? I get the arena but it feels like it’s in a starship."

  She hesitated for a few seconds. "I do not know its origins but it now belongs to my master. The master offers certain services to those who can pay. It also offers entertainment for others who can pay."

  "So, it is a starship," Ben said. "I believe your master is in the business of death."

  "And creation."

  "When will I fight in the arena again?"

  "Sssoon, you will be challenged and each victory will bring a more difficult challenge until you are defeated. It isss a test."

  Ben could hear the machinery that moves the cages whining. He watched Tawniz's cage making its way back to its resting place.

  "How many prisoners are on this tub? I would bet a lot of them are not here because someone paid your master."

  "There are four ssseparate sssectionsss, each hasss a door into the arena. Three are mostly humanoid and the fourth is the beastssss. The master plans each contest so the betting does not start until after the doors open and they enter the arena. No one knows in advance what doors will open or what will come out."

  "It seems it is like a small city inside a very large starship."

  "No more questions. You know what you need to know and if you do not agree to help me, you will die."

  She was like a cobra, seemingly calm, watching waiting then agitated, striking out. Ben looked at her through the bars. "I have already told you I know I am going to die. You do not intimidate me. And if you hurt or kill the colonel, that will be on you."

  The cage settled down in place. There were fewer occupants; the colonel was among the survivors. She was bleeding from a few wounds but nothing too serious. She saw Ben alone in the otherwise empty cage and gave a quizzical look. He shrugged not wanting to tell her anything. He thought maybe to barter her freedom for the training. He would bring it up tomorrow. He watched Silk walk away. He had questions and felt he knew the answers but wanted to hear it.

  Chapter 23

  The champions waited till Silk was out of sight and then started yelling at him. He knew none of the species and there were no translation nanites to help but he didn’t need them to tell him what they were upset about. He sat and drank, his body desperately needing the water, then removed his shirt and washed the sweat and grim off his face and neck. He had half a bucket left and would ration it. The champions having run out of things to yell began to throw shit literally from their latrine buckets towards his cage. Most of it fell short but Ben took his clean water bucket and leaned his pallet over it just in case to keep flying objects out. Tiring of that, they just took the whole bucket and tried to throw the contents his way, most of it falling short.

  Not a well thought-out plan of intimidation; the guards didn’t like mess accumulating where they had to walk and after checking with the powers that be, they stunned everyone in the cage. The slaves they used for cleaning brought water that smelled almost as bad as what was already on the floor and began cleaning and rinsing it all into the grate in the floor. Every fifteen minutes give or take, a guard would walk by and anyone who was moving got stunned again.

  They would blame him and hate him even more once they recovered from having their dumb asses stunned. That was the way something like that usually worked. Soon he would have to start killing. They all would be like Allith to him; a kill on sight standing order.

  ****

  The Warhammer had been cruising through Trillond space for two weeks looking at different prospects for a home base. They had two more star systems they wanted to investigate; the farthest possibly being the best for a permanent home. Captain O'Shaughnessy thought they could make some credits hauling freight from one system to another. She could man the Warhammer with a rotation that would give maybe a third of the crew some down time and hopefully keep them content and happy. A couple of days ago, she received a message from E'Aria.

  Aisling,

  Arrived Allond without further incident if you don’t count Ben almost killing the governor of a small Allond system where we stopped. The governor deserved whatever he got but it just seems to follow Ben. Oddly, he didn’t want to help with the situation and we coerced him into it so again, not all his fault.

  Aunt Alona says to tell you that MI is putting pressure on the Alliance central government to take action against Trillond. They have petitioned the king to reverse his order to not allow any Alliance warships across our border but he is supporting her as he should. They have tried to disguise multiple ships as freighters but were caught and turned away.

  When this is over, we will contact you about a rendezvous. Life is never dull with him around.

  Safe Travels

  E'Aria

  Aisling smiled but it was a sad smile. Maybe he would heal in time and. . . Now was not the right time for her to get hopeful about anything.

  ****

  She came to his cell in what would be considered the middle of the night. Ben lay on his pallet sleeping. Tawniz was awake and watching.

  Tawniz asked, "Why do you come and stare at him. Are you trying to torment him?"

  "Be silent, slave. I do not wish to wake him." She walked to the cage. Tawniz stood at the bars facing Ben's cage and she stood facing Tawniz. "Be silent or you will be the first out and will stay out till you die."

  "Are you sure that is wise?" She turned to find Ben standing at the bars of his cage staring at her. She took a step in his direction and stopped.

  "She needs to do as she is told."

  "Or what? You will kill her? She is Allond and a noble warrior. You do not scare her with your threats." She took another step in his direction. "You shouldn’t come too close to me. I don’t think it would be wise."

  "I am not afraid of you, human."

  "Call me Ben, it’s more intimate if you’re going to be killing me." She took another step and was within reach.

  Ben’s arm shot out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her hard into the bars. She pushed back with her other arm but had no leverage. Ben reached for her face and she tried to pull away but couldn’t. He ran his fingers down the side of her face. The feel of her skin was cool and the texture was off; it didn’t feel bad just not the same. She stared at him as he ran his hand slowly back up, then he let her go. He walked to his pallet and lay down. She stood and stared at him for a couple of minutes before walking off.

  "It is not her, Benjamin." Tawniz said softly.

  "I know. I knew it all along but there was a small hope in me that maybe she was in there somewhere."

  "They call him the master. He travels to battle sites and collects genetic material and makes creatures like her for himself and others who pay. Some are warriors and some are for pleasure but they all are abominations, mixed species grown in a tank. Silk, as you call her, is bred to be an assassin. The serpent people that she shares genes with are some of the best assassins in the empire."

  "Great, I guess we will see how good she is."

  "We missed the ball and I didn’t get to wear my new clothes." She said no sadness in her voice.

  "You don’t strike me as the type to worry about missing it. I had
to push you into just looking at new clothing."

  "That clothing store is one of the best and most expensive in the area. It would have been nice to see everyone wearing what you bought. I am sure it was at least ten to twelve thousand credits you spent."

  "What! You have to be kidding. No wonder she was so nice to me."

  "I am sure the queen was disappointed you were not there. I believe that she likes you." Tawniz was teasing now. "You know how the royal types are. She probably found someone new already."

  "Would they have any way of finding us colonel?"

  "If the peace summit were not in progress, I would say our chances would have been slim to none but I believe we have a few things working in our favor."

  "Let me tell you about this ship. It is very old, at least a millennia if not more. It was stolen and has managed to stay far away from the empire it belonged too. My government has known of its existence for many years but it never stays still long enough to catch it. Taking you and I may have been their undoing. If the governments can agree, the rightful owners could possibly help in locating it. If I were taken captive with anyone else, I believe the odds would be low but I was taken captive with you Benjamin Jamison and a certain queen we know will not sit by idly if she can retrieve a lost ship and the object of her affections."

  "This is a Cjittan ship." Ben said putting it together.

  "Yes, there was a time unknown millennia ago when they traveled to the system they now call home. There were not so many of the insect warriors and drones then. The Cjittan people were more numerous. As time went on, the Cjittan began to produce less offspring and many died and their numbers were not replaced. The Cjittan rulers began to create more and more of the warrior insects to protect their empire out of fear they would be conquered. Unfortunately, feeding an army like that required more than their world could provide and sustain."