by Jessica Snow
“You know you're not going to get away with this, Pinko,” Mathias hisses, but I shrug, stepping back. “You're a dead man, Tauren.”
“We all die. How we live is what counts,” I share with him philosophically, words that Mogar taught me long ago. “Now, on the cot. A Gauss pistol is silent, but your screams when I shoot you in the knee won't be.”
Mathias and his bleeding, whimpering associate climb on the bed, and I kneel down next to Audra. I don't take my eyes off the two idiots on the cot, but instead put a hand on Audra's back, rubbing gently with my free hand. “You okay?”
“Yes....” she gasps, sitting up weakly, still holding her stomach. I understand, she got caught with the toe of a Lancer boot right in the gut, that'll hurt anyone. “You?”
“Could use your help. Can you take my leg shackle, use it to attach those two to the cot frame?” I ask. Audra nods, understanding, and while I cover them, she clips the shackle around both of their ankles, threading it into the cot frame in between. “Thank you. Now.... let's just wait for Jensen to get back here.”
“If you two even make it that long,” the bleeding lackey says thickly though his ruined face. “Our friends...”
“Will be facing a former Lancer with a Gauss pistol and a trained, pissed off woman with a powerlance,” I finish for him. “I suggest if you have any sort of radio on you, you use it to tell them to sit on their asses and do nothing.”
Mathias glares at me, but touches a button on his jumpsuit and speaks into his collar. “Back off, continue to listen in.”
“Smart man. Now we wait,” I reply, sitting down on the ground but keeping my pistol on the two on the bunk. Audra gives me questioning looks, but I shake my head, now is not the time to answer anything. Mathias revealed when he spoke to his comrades that he's got an active circuit, and I don't want Audra to say something that might be used against her later after Jensen's return.
The time passes slowly, and the lackey with a broken nose has fallen into an uneasy, roughly snoring sleep when I hear movement outside the tent, and Jensen's voice. “Audra?”
“It's safe, come in Jensen,” Audra says, and the tent flap opens again, with Jensen stepping inside with two of his men, both of them former gladiators. Immediately, I reverse my pistol and stand up, handing it to him.
“I believe that this belongs to you,” I reply, before sitting down on the grass with my legs crossed underneath me. Jensen looks at me in shock for a moment, then shakes his head, gesturing me to stand up. When I do, he looks me in the eye, and stands aside. “What?”
“You're free to go. I won't keep you hostage anymore,” Jensen says, looking at Audra. “However, before you go, I'd like to talk with the two of you outside. These two men will guard the prisoners.”
“You can't!” Mathias yells, quieting when Jensen turns on him. “He's a Pinko!”
“He's not the one who assaulted my sister. I've already heard about what you had planned, Mathias. Now sit down and shut the fuck up.” We head outside, and I can see that the camp is still buzzing, with sides being drawn almost as we speak, a group of nearly fifty people outside the tent, half of them dressed normally, another half with the black jumpsuits of Mathias' zealots. It's late however, and Jensen looks around. “I've put Mathias and Lian under arrest for assault on my sister, and for disobeying my direct order to leave Tauren alone. They are under guard, and will not be harmed. A medic will see Lian for his nose in a moment. Guards take their posts, but as for the rest of you.... GO TO BED!”
There's grumbles, but the crowd breaks up slowly, two of Mathias' men staying behind. Jensen looks at them for a moment, then jerks his head. “Fine. You go in unarmed however.”
The men nod, and go into the tent without saying anything. Jensen looks at me and Audra, and sighs. “Join me? Rebbie said she'd build me a small camp fire, and I could use the comfort of a fire right now.”
We cross the camp to Jensen's tent, which other than the fact that it's not currently occupied looks no different than any other four-person tent in the camp. The guard tent with the cot's bigger, and looking inside, I see that Jensen in fact sleeps on a mat on the ground. That's it, no more cots for me, no matter what. Jensen notices my gaze, then shrugs. “Mogar taught me, a leader should always choose the most difficult conditions for himself, and never ask his subordinates to do anything he himself isn't willing to do.”
“He taught me the same thing,” I reply, settling in on the grass. “Can't say I've always lived it. I happen to like sonic pulse showers. The way they massage my back after a hard workout is heavenly.”
Jensen laughs softly, and we wait while Audra lowers herself painfully onto a log that was set close to the tent area. “Sorry guys, the gut kinda hurts.”
“So tell me what happened,” Jensen says, listening carefully as Audra tells her side of the story, then turning to me. “Is that what you saw?”
I nod. “When he kicked Audra, I disarmed him, then took the Gauss pistol. I didn't know who in the camp we could trust, so I asked Audra to lock them up, and we'd sit tight. I hoped that his followers wouldn't try anything stupid, knowing that there were two weapons in the tent now. Thankfully they didn't.”
“Thankfully, they didn't,” Jensen repeats, then stands up. “Just a moment please, Tauren. If you'd wait here.”
Jensen disappears into the darkness, leaving me and Audra alone. She turns to me, her eyes full of unspoken words, words she's kept bottled up for hours now. “I guess now's the time for your questions.”
“How long have you been able to do that?” Audra asks. “You moved like a phantom.”
I shrug. “I've had martial arts training on a multiple times a week basis since I was five years old. Probably the only person who might, and I do mean might, be able to take me in a fair fight could be your brother. But I have the advantage there, too.”
“How so?” Audra asks, and I smirk.
“I've been watching him for ten years, remember? I've seen him fight. You guys.... well, you don't know me.”
My words make Audra think, and she purses her lips, looking at me across the fire. “So, all those times we went walking in the woods, or I let you off your cables...”
“I could have escaped. If I wanted to.”
“And why didn't you? Why didn't you escape tonight? Why did you help me?” Audra asks, her eyes flashing in the flickering flames. “Why did you let me just kick your ass the way I did those first few days?”
Her words hit me deeper than I suspected they would, and they make me pause for a moment before I answer. “Because...... at first, it was to learn about the Resistance. To learn about Mogar and how much he's helped them. To learn about what was then my enemy. Over the past few weeks though, I have come to realize that there is another reason.”
“Which is?” Audra asks, and I look levelly into her beautiful face, the sparkling green eyes that I've come to appreciate.
“Because I find you very beautiful, Audra. Because I'm attracted to you, and because I think.... I think you're attracted to me, too. Not for my title, I can hear that in the way you speak to me. I'm Tauren, who happens to be the Crown Prince, with you. With every other woman in my life, I've been the Crown Prince who happens to be Tauren. I've searched my whole life for someone who looks at me that way, and in you, I've found it. And regardless of if you're human, or a former slave, or who used to be your owner... I find you very sexy.”
Audra's mouth opens in shock, but instead of rejecting me, I can see in her eyes that she's pondering what I've just said, and turns her eyes up to the stars, thinking about it all. Before she can respond though, Jensen returns, something in his hands.
“This is going to piss off Mathias' followers, but I'm going to go with my gut,” Jensen says. He sits down, and thrusts his hand towards me. In it, I see a powerlance in a leg holster, an officer's model. “I said in the tent that I won't hold you hostage, and I mean that. But I'd be honored if you'd stay here. Not as my subordinate, and for damn sure n
ot as my superior. But.... I could use another ally.”
I look into Jensen's eyes, and I see the offer he's making. I nod slowly, and stand up, Jensen following me until we're looking eye to eye, the firelight flickering on our faces. “On two rules. One, you don't call me Prince. And two, I don't call you sir or Commander or any of that shit.”
Jensen smiles, offering the powerlance again. I take it, and clasp Jensen in the gladiator style, forearm to forearm, a gesture that means we're brothers in a certain way. Jensen's smile widens, and he lets go. “Welcome to the Resistance.”
“Yeah.... well, as the newest ally of the Resistance, I've got a complaint for you. You've got two men locked up in my tent. Where the hell am I supposed to sleep?”
I wake up cold, but content. Without another open tent, except for Audra's who slept with two other women in a four-person tent to keep the men and women separate, I 'borrowed' Lian's sleeping bag and camped out next to the fire in front of Jensen's tent, in the wide open grass. I'm pretty sure he's not going to want it back when he realizes who has slept in it, but honestly I don't really care. Rolling over, I feel my powerlance press into my thigh, waking me the rest of the way up to see a man in a scholar's robe sitting on the same log that Audra sat on last night. I blink, not sure if I'm awake or asleep still. “Mogar?”
“My Prince, it is a strange place to find you sleeping,” Mogar says, his eyes crinkling in good humor as he studies me. “I haven't seen you like this since your time with the Lancers.”
I sit up, a smile coming to my face. “You scoundrel, it is you!”
“So it is,” Mogar says, adjusting his robes while I get up. He takes my offered hand, raising it his forehead before I pull it away. “What is the matter?”
“I've spent a month without anyone doing that, or kissing my ass, or calling me Prince,” I tell him, smiling. “To be honest, I sort of like it that way.”
“Well then Tauren, let us leave the camp for a while. While you were dozing, I spoke with Commander Jensen, and I think it would be good for our health if you and I were to make ourselves scarce?”
“Did I really sleep that long?” I ask, looking around the camp. Most of the camp is still relatively quiet, I can see some people starting the cooking fires for breakfast, but then, how long has Mogar been here? “Where are Audra and Jensen?”
“Audra I believe is still sleeping, Jensen has yet to go to bed. I taught him the same meditation techniques that I taught you, he says that he will be fine for another day. After I arrived just before dawn, I asked if I could talk with you. I figured after this long that you'd have some questions or comments for me. So come, Tauren. Let your old teacher have a lesson with you.”
We get up, and at first I'm nervous heading towards the fringes of the camp, but nobody says anything as we leave and head towards what I know is a clearing about two hundred meters away. “I hope you didn't bring too many supplies, they'd be terrible to try and transport over this ground.”
“Actually, I brought in two hundred kilograms of food concentrates, so you might be finding yourself hauling a box or two,” Mogar says with a chuckle. I look him over, he's still the same old Mogar. Crow's feet around the eyes from not taking life extenders, looking slightly sleep deprived from overuse of the meditation techniques that are fine for the short term but not enough to offset a mind like his that wants to study and think twenty-three out of twenty six hours a day, and a slightly rumpled scholar's robe that again, he probably slept in sitting at his desk, some piece of information clasped in his hands while his chin rested on his chest. “Think of it as both an early morning exercise, and a chance to make some friends. I'll make sure that you get to carry the box of desserts.”
“Friends,” I muse, shaking my head. “Is that why you set this all up? You know, I should be angry. I should beat the hell out of you, and jam this powerlance up your ass.”
Mogar chuckles again, that same maddening chuckle he would make when I was his student, and he was leading me towards some particularly interesting discovery. That's the type of teacher he was, he never just told me, he always made me find out for myself. “Yet you haven't. In fact, the fact that you are wearing a powerlance is somewhat of a surprise to me. I will admit, I did arrange with Jensen for you to spend time with the Resistance, but the amount of time, and the depth of your relationship with them is.... greater than I anticipated.”
“I rarely see you caught off guard,” I reply, and this time, it is Mogar who shrugs. “What has happened?”
“I think your independent streak might be working against you,” Mogar replies. “The Noble Council has polarized into two groups. One group wants to take a hardline against the Resistance. They state, and I quote, there should be no negotiations with terrorists. On the other side are the ones who feel like getting you back is important enough that perhaps some negotiations are necessary.”
“Let me guess.... Neyton's a hardliner,” I comment, and Mogar nods. “Man's nervous about losing his harem.”
“Among other things. I think he's more nervous about how the sudden freeing of thousands of drug addicted humans would affect his safety and security. The press is already sniffing around what he does like bees around flowers. A hundred freed humans with stories to tell could ruin him,” Mogar says. “And that's not even including the economic impacts. Men like Neyton would be ruined.”
“It is a change that will have to be made,” I reply, and Mogar raises his eyebrow, a gesture that I've come to know means he wants me to continue. “In our studies together, you had me go through a lot of the old records from Earth, both from TAMARIA 1 and TAMARIA 2. You checked my figures as well. Our ships were sent to one of the more isolated arms of the galaxy for exploration, and other Earth colonies have to be more developed than us. They have to also have developed FTL drives of their own. By my best guess, within our own lifetimes we will have first contact with another Earth colony, or Earth itself if it has survived this long.”
“And this worries you?” Mogar asks in that way he has that says he's already made his opinion, but isn't going to reveal anything. The man's a riddle sometimes, and if I have any patience at all, it's because I had to put up with him and his damn questions.
“I am. The history between TAMARIA 1 and 2 was problematic enough. We cannot hope to survive if we are still worried about dealing with slavery or with a potential rebellion within our midst. I'd rather get it out of the way now, before it is forced upon us from outside.”
“And the idea of rights and basic decency?” Mogar asks, and I chuckle.
“I'm a reformer and a member of the Resistance now, Mogar, but don't go that far with me. I do not think that the changes we need to make include everyone gathering together and hugging. I just find the idea of slavery and casual dismissal of all humans stupid, a waste of strength and potential. Don't expect me to give up my claim to the throne any time soon,” I reply as we reach the shuttle. “I still believe that the strong and capable should hold power over the weak and idiotic. The area where I disagree with is the traditional measure of what that strong and capable means.”
“Explain please,” Mogar says, opening the back of his shuttle. I see the boxes lined up, and I grab the one marked 'dessert,' tossing it onto my shoulder. Mogar picks up a smaller box, and we turn around. “I would like to know the mind of my future King.”
“If I were to make change, I'd make sure that talent is not wasted merely because of someone's birth. Like Jensen. I've watched him for a month now, he's a capable commander, inspiring, tactical, better than most of the officers I knew in the Lancers. He's taken house slaves, farm hands, drug addled harem slaves, and turned them into a capable Resistance. He's smart, he's insightful, and even if he's struggling right now with the whole Mathias situation, he's better than any of the advisors Father has on the military council.”
“He's more than a soldier too, Tauren. He's gotten the same education you have, as you know. He's a smart man.” Mogar looks like he's got more t
o say, and it is my turn to give him a raised eyebrow. “And his sister has proven herself capable as well. And beautiful.”
“She is. Your point?” I ask, and Mogar laughs. “What, Mogar?”
“Another unexpected bonus, that's all. You know I have no problems with Tamarians and humans having relationships. My only opposition is to how so many of the nobles have decided to go about doing that.”
“I have a few concerns myself, though,” I admit. “First.... I will not take advantage of her, Mogar. That has always been my rule, an ideal that you know my parents find rather impractical and annoying. Second is more practical. I must at some time turn my attention to having children. In all your research, has a human and a Tamarian ever had a child together?”
Mogar stops, thinking. “Not that I know of. But my initial DNA scans show it should be theoretically possible. Something's missing, some element on one side or another.”
“Well, until that missing element is determined, I cannot have a human as my Queen. Even if Audra would be far superior to Neyilla in every way.”
“Every way?” Mogar asks with humor, and I growl in warning.
“You press your position as my teacher too far, Mogar. Do not think that you are privy to all my thoughts or activities.”
Mogar nods, his face going somber, but his eyes still twinkling good naturedly. “Apologies, Tauren.”
“Forgiven, my teacher. But let's get these supplies back to camp. I do not know what story you made up to explain your absence from the capital, but I am sure the faster you return, the safer you are.”
