Death Drop (The D-Evolution)

by Sean Allen

  “So, like I’ve said, ‘round ‘bout an hour to kill before we load this wreck with our cargo…”

  “And?” Dezmara said caustically. “What can I do for you, Simon?”

  “Well, we’ve been flyin’ together for nearly three years—reckon you can trust me by now.”

  She looked over her shoulder at him, still slightly crouched in an attack stance, and raised both eyebrows in response.

  “Right, as I was sayin’, luv, we’ve time to burn and we don’t talk ‘bout nuthin’ ‘cept missions an’ runs, pick-ups an’ drop-offs. I’ve got questions an’ I think we’ve been mates long enough for you to finally come clean with me.”

  “Well, by all means,” she said with a trace of sarcasm. “I’d hate for you to go on flying around the universe earning a king’s ransom without having your questions answered.” She became a blur as the knuckles of her left hand slammed into the bag in a vicious, spinning backfist, which she followed with a right hook underneath. The bag let out a deep thud as it lurched backward on its rattling chain and wobbled back toward equilibrium. Simon swallowed hard and then began.

  “Who…who are you?” he said as delicately as he could. “I mean, why all the disguises and secret whatnots?”

  “Simon,” she said, breathing heavily, “this was not part of the deal.” She looked at him firmly as she placed her heavily wrapped hands on her knees.

  “I know, luv. It’s just that…well, I’m a smart chap an’ I thought I’d have it all figured out by now, but I don’t have the foggiest idea what you’re hidin’ from or what we’re lookin’ for out”

  “What I’m looking for out here,” she said icily. “We aren’t looking for anything.” Her eyes could have burned through the hull and they were locked with Simon’s big yellow orbs. He wanted to look away, but he was determined to make his stand: he was determined to get an answer this time.

  “If I remember correctly,” Dezmara countered, “you were just as interested in a ‘no questions’ arrangement as I was when you signed on. Are you breaking our agreement? I’d hate to leave you on the next rock we come across and find myself a new mechanic.” She raised her hands into guard position and began dancing nimbly on the balls of her feet in front of the heavy bag as if to say that the conversation was now over. But Simon knew better. He was the best damn mechanic in the galaxy—probably the universe—and they had been through too much together for Dezmara to let him go that easy. He had been without answers to this puzzle for far too long. He decided to go for broke and call her bluff.

  “All right, luv. Have it your own way,” he said as a small smirk of victory edged Dezmara’s lips. “Saloodus isn’t far from the pick-up. If you wouldn’t mind terribly—drop me off on your way…” He paused and looked at Dezmara. She stopped bobbing, steadied the swaying bag and turned slowly toward him. She considered him for a moment. His hands were folded behind his back and his face calm but determined. She let out a deep sigh. He had won. In three years he had never given her any reason to doubt his loyalty, and she would be hard pressed to find anyone as good with the Zebulon. She realized, at that moment, she cared more for the Kaniderelle than she was willing to admit.

  “Tit for tat,” she said with a hard edge. “I spill and then it’s your turn. Got it?” The fury was back in her eyes as she waited for Simon to agree. He hesitated in her glare as he wondered if it was too late to dismiss the entire idea as rubbish. After an awkward silence, he realized it was too late indeed, and he nodded soberly in agreement to Dezmara’s terms.

  Dezmara let go of the tension in her shoulders and her arms relaxed to her sides. She took a few steps toward Simon, put one ankle over the other, and plopped to the mat cross-legged. She blew the tangle of sweaty hair from her forehead and looked Simon in the eyes again, but this time it was much softer; almost as if she was lost and he was the first being she had seen in a very, very long time.

  “I don’t know who I am,” she said quietly, shifting her gaze to the floor just in front of her. “I can’t remember anything before eight years ago. Not who I am, where I’m from, or who my people are, but I think—I mean, I’m pretty sure—I’m…Human.” She lifted her eyes slowly to meet Simon’s.

  If Simon was like every other person in the universe, he had probably never thought about what a Human would look like—they only existed in ancient legends and stories: stories most people considered nothing more than myths told by old dusters and deep space pilots that had been in the dark too long. But now he was looking at her, head cocked to one side, with rapt curiosity.

  Simon stood there as still as stone, and Dezmara could tell he was still reeling with the revelation of her secret—her Humanity—and she kept going before she lost her nerve.

  “I’ve never seen anyone else like me—and I know that doesn’t really mean anything these days—but there’s also something else. There’s this…voice. It talks to me sometimes—I know it sounds crazy—but I know it’s not in my head. Someone talks to me and tells me I’m Human—they tell me someone is hunting me.”

  “Do they talk to you all the time? What do they think about you lettin’ me in on your dirty lit’le secret?”

  “No, it’s not always there and when it is it’s…distant, almost fuzzy, like we can’t quite tune in to the same frequency, you know? It’s almost always that way…except…”

  Simon raised his eyebrows and leaned forward as she trailed off.

  “’Cept what, luv?”

  “Except…the first time,” she said hesitantly. “That voice is the first thing I remember hearing when I woke up eight years ago. It called to me in the dark. It told me who I was. It told me ‘Wake up, Dezmara. They’re after you!’ That voice brought me to life.”

  Simon paused for a moment to consider Dezmara’s last statement.

  “I don’t quite understand, luv. Brought you to life how? From where?”

  “Eight years ago a runner crew found a derelict floating in deep space. They were charting new routes for runs between Iljin and Nebulanx when they happened on the ghost ship. When they boarded their new-found salvage, they found something they didn’t expect: me in a functional cryo. My vitals were weak but I was alive. I heard the voice right before they came aboard.”

  “So that’s how you got into the biz, eh? They took you in!”

  “Yes,” she nodded slowly as she stared through Simon into her past. “Felix Grinnik took me aboard his ship, the Serian, and nursed me back to health. He was the first person I can remember coming into my life, and he was kind to me. When I was finally out of the infirmary, we spent long hours together—him asking questions that might help me remember who I was and where I came from, and me trying to learn everything I could about where he’d been and how I could search the universe to find the answers to his questions. He let me go anywhere on the ship and try anything that the crew undertook, and in a very short time, I knew two things about my life before they found me: I had been able to hold my own in a fight, and I could out-fly anyone in the universe.

  “Felix was almost happier than I was the day I took the controls of the Serian and piloted us to the fastest time ever recorded from Chalebruex to Kalip 3. He was so excited he insisted on using part of the winnings to buy me my own ship—this ship—to start his fleet. He said I earned it and I was only too happy to accept. It was a secret, of course. He said that it gave us an advantage if no one knew the Serian and another ship were working together to win runs. So, because of our secret pact and my mysterious past, we named her the Ghost.

  “The crew of the Serian was like family and Felix had become a father to me. And I had become one of them. I felt like I had something—a light to shine into the deep dark of my past and guide me back no matter how far I searched. It was a good life. I was winning every run we entered; pulling my weight and then some. Felix encouraged me to take the Ghost and fly as far as I wanted to look for my home, my people. ‘The Ghost is yours,’ he’d say, ‘and she’ll go wherever her captain dares to
take her.’” Dezmara blinked several times to clear the tears that were silently welling in her crystal green eyes but she didn’t try to turn away. It felt good to say the words out loud, words she had never spoken to another living soul in eight long years.

  “Then what, luv? Did you tell Felix you thought you were…Human?”

  “I didn’t know at the time and I never got a chance to tell him,” she said as tears now fell freely to the mat in front of her in large plops. Simon gave her a sympathetic yet puzzled look. “The voice didn’t come back after that first night and tell me I was Human until…after…”

  “After what, luv?”

  “They’re all gone,” she sniffled. “Berzerkers attacked a little over three years ago during a run from Abanok to Xilun. Felix hailed me from the Serian and told me it was a runner ship trying to make a move on my position—I should’ve known better. He said he would run interference so I could win and collect our biggest payday ever. I was so far out in front, I didn’t see the Berzerkers ambush the pack from behind one of the small moons of Logi. It wasn’t until I landed in Xilun that I found out and learned that only two of us survived—me and an old duster captain. He said that he’d never seen a ship like it in all his years. Wouldn’t say anything else—no description—just babbled on about how unstoppable it was and how he barely escaped.”

  “Sounds like a load of bollocks,” Simon said skeptically. “Attackin’ with one ship isn’t the Berzerkers’ style, luv.”

  “Nothing else makes sense. Pirates don’t destroy their quarry—there’d be nothing left to loot. Only the Durax and their twisted puke servants kill runners without mercy…

  “I miss them, Simon…I miss him.”

  Dezmara pulled her knees to her chest, buried her face in her forearms, and sobbed heavily. Her body shook as she wept and then her shuddering stopped, interrupted by huge gulping breaths, only to begin again as the engine of her broken heart churned out tear after tear with no signs of stopping.

  Simon stepped lightly across the floor and knelt within arm’s reach in front of his bereft captain. He stretched a furry, grease-streaked paw out and gently touched her knee. “’Sall right, luv. Go on an’ let it out, ol’ Simon’s gotcha.”

  They stayed like that for quite some time—a confused Kaniderelle and a sobbing Human—one trying to understand the other and one trying to understand herself.

  Eventually, Dezmara stopped crying. She emerged from the cover of her damp knees with stormy, red eyes and tear-stained cheeks, and she looked at Simon again but said nothing. He looked back expectantly but she stayed quiet—it wasn’t that she didn’t want to talk to him anymore, there was simply nothing more to say—she had told him everything she knew about herself. Or so she thought.

  “Dezmara, luv, what ‘bout him?” Simon asked as he quickly glanced over one shoulder then the other to make sure no one else was there. She gave him a puzzled look, not quite understanding who ‘him’ was exactly.

  “Oh, c’moff it, luv—HIM!” Simon said as he motioned through the open doorway with his head.

  “You mean Diodojo? What is it with you two? Why can’t you get along?”

  “Bloody beast doesn’t like me—don’t know why. Can’t like somethin’ wut hates you from the git, luv.”

  “Doj was found on the derelict with me. They said he was standing guard over my cryo—wouldn’t let anyone come close at first. Come to think of it, he kinda treated Felix and his crew like he treats you.”

  “An’ they turned out to be stand-up chaps, all right, didn’t they? Jus’ goes to show, he’s nuthin’ but a wild animal, that one—you’ll see. I’d bet my knickers”

  “RAAAAAEEEER!”

  “’oly shite!” Simon cried as he tumbled sideways and then scrambled to his feet, only to cringe against the wall, trapped and scared out of his mind. Diodojo had crept into the room and was threatening him with a low, guttural death growl that pinned Simon helplessly in position.

  Neither Dezmara nor Simon had any idea what Diodojo was or where he came from. He moved gracefully on four paws and a long tail swept down from his back, slightly curling a few inches above the ground. The short fur on his body was a silver-gray with large, dark circles and it shimmered as his muscles moved and rippled. He inched his powerful frame forward, closing in on the cowering Kaniderelle. Dezmara had never seen him so menacing. Diodojo had green eyes the same shade as hers but now they glowed with ferocity. His ears were pinned to his sleek head and each snarl flashed his deadly teeth.

  “Doj! What the hell’s gotten into you?!” Dezmara scolded.

  “Call’im off, luv! He’s off ‘is nut, he is! Call’im off!”

  “Doj!” Dezmara called with a hard tone she had never had to use with him before, but he steadily inched forward, head down, ears pinned back, eyes squinted to protect them from the flailing limbs and gnashing teeth of the bloody melee soon to come. He was poised to tear Simon to shreds.

  “DIODOJO!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, and this time it sounded more like a plea than a command. Her voice was strained with desperation and Diodojo could hear it. He stopped his advance and the intensity of his growl decreased to a low grumble in his throat that could barely be heard over Dezmara and Simon’s panicked breaths. Diodojo backed away, still flashing his fangs as pulses of anger quivered his lips. He retreated slowly at first, keeping his gaze locked on Simon, who kept his eyes fixed in terror on his would-be attacker. If Dezmara hadn’t been so confused and scared, she would have laughed: Simon looked like he was about to turn around and climb the training room wall just to get away.

  Diodojo padded backwards and flashed his incisors one last time at Simon for good measure before turning abruptly and rubbing his left flank against Dezmara’s thigh in his usual greeting. The affectionate blow pushed her sideways and she took a few steps to regain her balance. As he curled around her, she turned to scold him and saw that he was baring his teeth at Simon again.

  “Doj! What the hell’s your problem?!” she said as if the creature could answer. He couldn’t. Diodojo didn’t speak. He looked at Dezmara and the fire had gone out in his eyes. He leaned against her leg as he brushed past again. Dezmara reached out to calm him, but he stopped short and pulled his head away with a jerking flinch.

  “Ruddy beast ‘as gone bonkers—dangerous, he is—you’ll see. He’s bloody”

  “Approaching port of entry—Trinity Straits,” the voice of the holodex chimed into the room, cutting Simon off, but Dezmara didn’t notice. She didn’t hear the beginnings of Simon’s rant or the holodex. She was fixated on Diodojo and urgently needed to know what was wrong with him.

  “Doj,” she said gently. “Doj, what’s the matter? Why won’t you let me get close?” She stepped softly across the padded floor toward him and carefully ran her fingers down the bridge of his nose. He responded in his usual manner. He squinted his eyes and flicked his long tail as a soft purr rumbled up from his chest. She ran her hand along his snout, moving slowly upward to stroke the top of his head. As she moved past the ridge of bone over his right eye, he winced and let out a growling yelp but didn’t pull away. Dezmara explored his head further, gently parting the fur with her finger tips. Diodojo grimaced and gave a muffled groan as she probed the length of a large, raised lump stretching from the upper ridge of his right eye three inches onto his head.

  “What the…how did this happen?”

  Dezmara jumped as he let out two loud roars. She placed her left hand under his chin and softly stroked his head on the opposite side of the wound.

  “Sy, do you know how this...” she trailed off as she turned to where Simon was cringing against the wall, but he wasn’t there anymore. “That’s weird. Guess he doesn’t trust the auto-pilot to guide us into the Straits—they’re not that dangerous. C’mon, Doj, let’s see if we can’t find something in the infirmary to take the sting out of that bump.”

  Diodojo walked reluctantly behind Dezmara out of the training room. He didn’t want an
y medication—he wanted to be alert—but the pain in his head was excruciating. It was a miracle he was able to get up from the engine room and get to Dezmara. His vision blurred with every step, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could fight the overwhelming urge to lie down and go to sleep. He wished she could understand him, he wished she knew what he knew.

  Dezmara led him across the threshold of the small infirmary and tapped the shiny cushion on the bed twice.

  “Up you go.”

  He aimed the best his drowsy eyes would allow, but his strength drained from his limbs as soon as he left the ground. His legs crumpled beneath him on impact and he landed on the table in a heap on his side. His eyes fluttered and he saw Dezmara reaching out to him and shouting something, but her words couldn’t penetrate the thick haze of drowsiness that rolled through his mind. He didn’t want to pass out—he needed to make her understand somehow. He gave out a weak grunt in a final, desperate attempt to warn her, but it was too late. He succumbed to the curtain of darkness that fell over him and slipped into unconsciousness before he could get through to her. Diodojo couldn’t make her see—Dezmara was in the gravest of danger.

  Chapter 22: The Great Gate

  Dezmara cleaned Diodojo’s wound, bandaged his head the best she could, and left him to rest in the infirmary. She was back in her captain’s chair staring out the forward viewing pane at an immense asteroid field—they had finally arrived at The Trinity Straits.

  Long ago, early pioneers in search of precious minerals and new worlds to claim as their own discovered three identical planets orbiting the sun of Luxon. So similar were they in composition, terrain, resources and ecosystems, the explorers named them Trinity Major, Trinity Medar, and Trinity Minor, based on their relative sizes to one another. All three of the Trinity planets were rich with a rare ore and Triniton civilization thrived for thousands of years around industries based on its multitude of uses. Unfortunately, after the Durax invaded the Trinities, they found the ore valuable as well.