by Francis, Ron
Kimiko started to get out of bed. She wanted to get into this conversation, but she was unsure if her opinion was welcome. She couldn’t believe that Jesse wanted to help her after she had stabbed him in the back, literally. She knew they could never truly be friends after what she had done, and she didn’t blame him for it, but somewhere in her mind, she held out hope. How can I ever forgive myself for betraying him? How could it be that this same man wishes to help me now? She thought as she listened at the bedroom door.
He continued, “After Rebecca's accident and .... Polisia. I've been out of it. Nothing in life gives me joy anymore, I have no purpose. Helping Kimi gave me a little purpose, I started to feel a little more like my old self. Now, after her family is safe, I need to take down these people that tried to kill me. This will be my new purpose. Maybe it’s not the best thing to do, but at least it’s something.”
At that, she opened the door and entered the room. Suzy met her with a distrustful glare while surprisingly, Jesse came over, with a look of concern in his eye. “Kimi, are you alright?” He asked, not quite meeting her eyes.
I’m fine Jesse; I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation….”
“I’m sorry,” he interrupted. “I’m sorry that I had to put you down so hard, I couldn't risk letting the fight continue and I'm sorry I was so angry while I was questioning you. I do want you to know that I am going to do my best to rescue your family and get them to safety."
“Jesse, it is I that should be apologizing. The fact of the matter is; you hurt me far less than I would have hurt you if the situation had been reversed. I lied to you and tried to kill you, and yet you still want to help me. I can't even look at myself right now, I'm ashamed of how weak I was. I wish I had had the strength to do the right thing. I hope you can forgive me someday."
“I don't know, but I will try. I am going to help you though,” he started.
“But,” she interrupted. “I have to agree with Doctor Baker, I have no wish to see you die trying to hunt down my master. I do consider you to be my only friend.” As she said those last words she thought she saw a slight look of pity cross the doctor’s face. "I do have one question," she began again, looking a little confused. "How is it that my injuries have been healed so quickly?"
"Suzy has helped to invent a new medical technology that can heal wounds quickly and we placed you inside of it to take care of your injuries. You were actually a bit of a guinea pig. The technology hasn't been tested on too many people yet, but I thought you would want to be at full strength for the road ahead.”
______
Present day…….
Jesse awoke, but kept his eyes closed and listened. He could hear four, no, five adults in the room with him. He also heard a whole lot of children. He knew he was a prisoner of the pirates and he knew he was in trouble.
“We are to be executed!” He heard a deep male voice say as if it were a foregone conclusion. “The five of us and the unconscious one will be executed publicly. The children are all to be sold as slaves to punish the settlement for the pirates we killed.”
This was bad, he thought. He was in a cell with thirty or more children about to be sold into slavery. While he and the five other adults in the cell were apparently to be executed.
Deep Voice spoke again, this time in a chastising manner. “Back away from him, orphan,” he shouted. As Jesse opened his eyes he could see a little face with big brown eyes hovering about three inches above his face, studying him.
“May I help you?” He asked a smile forming. His question apparently startled the little girl enough for her to jump back and run into a corner. He noticed that no one else seemed to be near her.
As she slowly made her way back towards him, Deep Voice again yelled, “Stay back, orphan, or I’ll give you a good backhand.”
Jesse looked at the little girl and asked with a smile, “Your name is Orphan?”
“No,” the little girl protested. “My name is Kiah.” A look of shock crossed her face as if she had never spoken before. She cupped her hand over her mouth and crawled away. He suppressed a smile as he said, “It's okay, Little One, my name is Jesse.”
An annoyed look came across Deep Voice's face as he began to speak; “Orphans are considered outcasts. On Kaldor, it is common social practice to steer clear of them.”
“Really?” He replied before he could stop himself, “That seems pretty stupid. Is it considered taboo for an orphan to talk to another orphan?”
“I suppose not,” Deep Voice replied with a sigh.
“Good!” He smiled, “Because I happen to be an orphan, too.” He said this for the shock value alone. In truth, his parents had died in an explosion during the Pack war almost ten years earlier, which technically did make him an orphan.
One of the other men, a mercenary of some sort by the look of him, began laughing. “Do you see, Mister Mayor,” he chided. “All outsiders think the way orphans are treated on Kaldor is ridiculous. How can a society as advanced as Kaldor still be so backwards in the way they care for those in need? They are not a problem that you can hope will just go away.”
Jesse realized how hungry he was and checked in one of his pockets. He was surprised to find that the pirates had left him the ration bars that were in the pocket alongside his calf. He pulled one out and took a big bite. Everyone else in the cell was staring at him as though he had lost it.
“What?” He asked while chewing his food. “Am I breaking some other kind of social taboo or something? From the look of things, the pirates have already fed you guys some sort of…. um goo, but I’ve barely eaten in the last two days.”
Kiah sidled up close enough to touch him and looked covetously at the ration bar. “She came in with you after we were fed,” the mercenary offered. Jesse looked down at the little girl he had risked his life for and broke off a small piece of the ration bar.
“Don’t feed it,” Deep Voice boomed. Jesse shot the man a glare and tossed the rest of the bar to Kiah while he ate the small piece. Kiah’s eyes lit up, and she scampered away with the food. She began eating the ration bar as if she hadn’t eaten in weeks, which in reality she probably hadn’t.
“First of all, Giant Guy, her name is Kiah. Second of all, she’s a little girl, not an ‘it’. And third, what is wrong with you people? We’re about to be executed, and all you can think to be mad about is someone showing kindness to a little girl.”
Deep Voice looked like he wanted to pull Jesse’s arms off, and he looked like he might be able to do it, too. Even the Mercenary looked a little worried. He really was a large being. The man was humanoid in build, standing almost six foot five and relatively muscular under a little midsection flab. His skin was a deep purple with metallic specs that almost looked like glitter, and his eyes were vertical slits. His face and hands were smooth, but purple hair covered the rest of his exposed flesh. Due to his skin tone, it was hard to tell if he was angry, but his body language said fight. Then the unexpected happened, he began to laugh.
“You’ve got guts, human, I’ll give you that.” He continued. “My name is Grimm.” The name is fitting, Jesse thought. “The mercenary is Reece, and allow me to introduce Mayor Valinor and his wife Seeja of Kaldor City. Lastly, the other mercenary is Tania. She was with Reece on the Mayor's protection detail.”
By this time, Kiah was sitting right next to Jesse, holding his hand in her two little hands. He hadn’t even noticed her until she took his hand. He smiled at her and then looked back to Grimm.
"Look, I'm really not trying to upset you, or mock your culture, but how is it possible that your society can be against helping orphans? It seems excessively merciless. I mean, haven't they suffered enough losing their parents, and it's certainly not their fault, why pile it on?"
Reece and Tania looked intently at Mayor Valinor as he replied, "It all started almost four centuries ago when a plague hit Kaldor. Our doctors were unprepared for it and to this day many believe it was a Zinnebailan biological attack. We c
ould not develop a vaccine quickly enough and it spread throughout the entire continent. The plague left many adults dead, and in the aftermath, orphaned children ran amuck, led by the older ones. They looted, they murdered; it was utter lawlessness until the military put a stop to it, killing many of the orphans."
Jesse couldn't believe what he was hearing, and from the looks of it, neither could Reece as he asked the Mayor. "Did anyone think to check the orphans out medically before they started killing them? It's possible that the plague did something to their brain chemistry."
The Mayor sighed as he answered, "To be honest, no one really knows. Due to the planet-wide panic, records from that era are... spotty." He looked around as he began again, "Another unforeseen effect of the plague was a tainted food supply, which meant many of the survivors were going to starve to death. That situation was actually how we came to start using the sub continents as resource outposts, but in the interim, what little we had was closely rationed and since the orphans had been such a problem, they were left out of the rationing. From that point on, anytime someone was orphaned, if they didn't have family that could take them in, they became outcasts in our society. Eventually, it just became the norm, and to this day, orphans are treated as trouble and most grow to become criminals."
"Of course they grow to become criminals. They are never cared for and basically treated with suspicion their whole lives. Children need to be cared for and raised, not thrown away." Tania added with a passion that made Jesse think she might be speaking from experience.
Seeja looked at her husband as though they had had this very conversation before. He looked at Jesse, Reece and Tania and said, "I believe you are right and I am in a position to do something about it. If we escape this situation, I will begin to initiate change in the way orphans are treated and cared for.
Satisfied that the conversation was over, Jesse asked, “Do any of you know how many pirates are out there?” He was ready to begin formulating a plan of escape.
“I counted seventy-five landing in two ships and eight fighters,” Reece offered. “The fighters can lift off quick, so the pirates don’t need to stay in them, not that they are expecting any more trouble. They have eight speeders, of which four have mounted weapons. They also have two mounted particle cannons.” Reece’s assessment, although a bit depressing, was very impressive. Jesse thought he must have had some extensive training.
"And they have set up a jamming station on the other side of the settlement." Tania offered as she stood and looked out of the cell.
Tania was an attractive woman. Her battle hardened nature would have probably been a bit intimidating to most men, but she intrigued Jesse. She stood about five foot-four with shoulder length silver hair and she wore a black military-cut uniform that was perfectly tailored to show off all of her positive attributes. She had expressive brown eyes and a no-nonsense attitude. Reece was almost six feet tall with dark hair and dark eyes. He was also wearing a black military cut uniform. His hair was significantly longer than a standard military cut but a common length for civilian life. He looked as if he had been a soldier a long time before becoming a bodyguard.
Reece continued. “My men and I killed fourteen of them. Grimm and his two deputies got three more.”
Now, Jesse was really impressed, and also a little surprised. “You’re the Constable, Grimm?” He asked trying not to sound surprised. Grim nodded yes as Jesse noticed that now, Kiah was leaning against his arm.
He continued. “Am I to assume your men didn’t make it, then?” Both men shook their head no, with the same look of sadness he had seen from any good officer that had ever lost men in battle. He knew that feeling all too well, as his mind flashed back to the Rocket Riders at the Battle of Polisia.
“I killed nine before they caught Kiah and me, and there was one dead in the wilderness, half eaten by a giant snake of some sort.”
“Well done, Borragg!” Grimm shouted a laugh.
“You killed nine?” Reece asked, a look of respect crossing his face.
“I could have killed more,” Jesse added. “But I was protecting this little one.” He added as he looked down at Kiah. “So that leaves approximately forty-eight pirates,” he counted. “Could be worse, I guess.”
Seeja stared at Jesse as if he had two heads. “What difference does it make?” she cried, “We’re all going to die anyway.” The Mayor was trying to comfort his wife, but she would take no comfort as she softly cried.
“Not if I can help it, ma'am." Jesse said as he gently placed his hand on her shoulder. "Mayor Valinor,” Jesse added, “If I can get us some blasters, can you help us fight our way out?”
The Mayor looked like he were contemplating an answer, “I suppose, but how…”
“Leave that to me, Sir.” He interrupted as four pirates were walking his way, holding his gear.
“Human,” the first pirate called while pointing at Jesse. He was dressed in the same black garb as the rest of the pirates, with a red sash and red beret. “Captain Janus would like you to answer a few questions.”
“Why doesn’t Mister Janus come and ask me himself?” Jesse answered, purposely trying to rile the pirates. He untangled his arm from Kiah’s arms and stood up so that if they did come in to hit him, they wouldn’t trample the girl.
“That’s Captain Janus to you, scum,” the second pirate added. “And watch your tongue, or I’ll cut it out.” he added.
He let out a snort he knew would anger the pirates. “Yeah, you’re really tough with all of your pirate buddies out there."
The first pirate was already fed up with his antics while Jesse was just warming up his act. Reece, Tania and the Valinors were looking at him in horror, while Grimm just sadly shook his head.
Three pirates came into the cell, two trained their blasters on the other prisoners and one grabbed Jesse and dragged him out of the cell. The other two exited the cell and locked the door behind them. Now Jesse was on the other side of the bars with four angry pirates; which is exactly what he wanted.
The pirates took turns hitting and kicking him in the gut, mostly, for a good two minutes. As the blows rained down on him, he had the wind knocked out of him. His battle suit was designed to take blaster damage and to stop blades or bullets, but those things did leave bruises. The battle suit was not, however, designed to protect from the kind of damage one might receive in a fist fight. It did lessen the impact a little, but not enough.
They stood him back upright and the one who had threatened to cut out his tongue hit him hard across the face. “Are you ready to answer questions now, or do you need a little bit more motivation?”
Jesse couldn’t resist. “I probably need more motivation.” He winked in the direction of the Mayor and his wife while he spoke. He was smiling until he was doubled over in pain by another pirate’s knee to the stomach.
After another minute or so, everything was starting to hurt. He needed to make his move soon. They stood him up again, and a Mannagore, who must have joined in during the last beating, whipped him across the face with some kind of strap.
As blood started to roll down his face, the Mannagore held up his baton shaped MATU and shouted, “What isssss thisssss?”
He looked at the weapon, smiled, and replied, “That's Helga, she's a multiple application tactical unit, or MATU for short. Sometimes I like to name my weapons and this one just seemed like a Helga to me, don't you think?”
The Mannagore whipped him again, causing another stream of blood. “What doessss it do?” Jesse honestly had no idea how to explain the weapon in a believable way to the thugs. Anything he said was likely to sound as if he were still mocking them.
As the Mannagore waited for his reply, he just shrugged and said, “You hit people with it.”
One of the other pirates, the first one who had spoken to Jesse, felt his anger growing. He was tired of being mocked by this insolent human. He flew into a rage and screamed, “Let’s just kill him and be done with it already!”
/> Jesse laughed, “I can guarantee you won’t do that.”
The Mannagore puzzled him a look and answered, “And why not?”
“Garrinoras will want to do that himself.” He replied, spitting blood onto the boot of the nearest pirate.
Reece and the others were staring at him in amazement. They couldn’t believe the lengths this man would go to anger five violent pirates. He had just taken a severe beating for no good reason, and now he was trying to get himself killed.
“What is wrong with this man?” The mayor’s wife whispered quietly. The others had no answer.
“And just what makes you think that Garrinoras would want to trouble himself with an insignificant human like you?” One of the pirates sneered.
Jesse shrugged, smiled and said, “Because I’m the one who blew up your ship over Kaldor four nights ago.”
At this, the pirates were whipped into a frenzy, especially the Mannagore. “That wassss my brother up there.” He shouted as they all began to punch and kick Jesse. They had beaten him before, but this time it was different. The pirates went into a blind rage and the focus of their anger was Jesse.
All the children in the cell including Kiah began to whimper and hide their faces. The adults all had sad, resigned looks like he had just thrown his life away. Tania was screaming something that he couldn’t make out.
Even though it didn't look like it, Jesse had it all under control. He had planned for this exact moment. He saw the hand holding Helga coming down to strike his head and he side-stepped the blow. He then delivered a kick to the side of a pirate’s knee that sent him to the floor. He caught the hand holding the weapon and pulled it down over his shoulder, breaking the Mannagore’s arm at the joint. The Mannagore screamed in pain, and Helga came free. He now had his weapon, and the tide had turned.
Helga was Jesse's favorite toy. Endeavor might have been his greatest accomplishment, but this was his favorite toy. The MATU, is made of Brinium, which is also known as memory metal, and very difficult to forge. Helga, as he named it can transform into several different weapons. When properly forged, Brinium is almost as hard as Gralium, but the major difference is you can insert tech into the Brinium during the forging process, and if the procedure is done properly, it will allow the finished metal to take different predetermined shapes. The MATU begins as an eighteen inch long baton and can become a five foot Bo staff. The end of the Bo staff can become a blade, while the other end of the staff can shoot out a grappling hook with a two hundred meter Brinium cable that will hold up to two tons. All of this, from one solid piece of metal. It also builds up a charge that can fire up to six shots through the end of the staff or blade. Even more impressively, it is genetically activated, which means only Jesse’s DNA and bio rhythms in combination can activate the weapon. It is another piece of technology that was just too expensive to mass produce, but a warrior like Jesse would never object to having a one of a kind weapon like Helga at his disposal.
