The Teristaque Chronicles

by Aaron Frale

  “How did you know a place like that even existed?” he asked.

  “I was born there,” she said.

  Makiuarnek couldn’t even imagine what it was like for a kid to grow up in that town. He reached out and held her hand.

  “What?” she said.

  “Nothing… I just… I just like being with you.”

  Makiuarnek expected a retort. He was prepared for his sappy comment to be met with her signature sarcasm. However, she surprised him. She kissed him, deeply, passionately. Even though they weren’t in the most romantic location, he knew right then and there that he would be with Cassie forever. He loved her, and he would fight anything his father had in store for them.

  He didn’t hear the charge of a plasma weapon until it was too late. In the middle of their kiss, Cassie’s head exploded. He was showered in her blood and brain matter. Her body went limp in his arms. He cried out in shock and tried to cling to her body.

  Rasmus stood in one of the connecting tunnels holding a plasma pistol. He was surrounded by a squad of his private security wearing the same secondhand IF Enforcer armor he had seen earlier. One of them had their helmet opened. It was Lars. That son of a bitch sold him out. Makiuarnek screamed out in rage and ran towards his father. Lars hit Makiuarnek across the forehead with the butt of his gun, and he fell to the ground. Blood dripped from his brow.

  “You want me to cuff him?” Lars asked Rasmus as he pulled a pair of energy cuffs from a slot in his armor.

  “No,” Rasmus said. “It’s about time he learned to walk on his own.”

  One of the thugs rifled through Cassie’s body and retrieved the hard drive.

  “Don’t you touch her!” Makiuarnek screamed and charged at the thug.

  Lars swatted Makiuarnek away like a bug before he even got one meter. He hit the wall and heard his bones crunch. Pain erupted in his chest. Lars tromped over for another round. “You are lucky your father paid your bill, or this would be the least of…”

  “Stop,” Rasmus commanded. “If he wants to wallow with his criminal girlfriend, let him. We got what we came for. Go spend your bonus.”

  Makiuarnek wiped blood and sweat from his face and crawled toward the headless body of Cassie. Lars nodded, “You’re the boss. Come on boys.”

  Lars and his thugs all started back down the tunnel. Rasmus pocketed the hard drive and turned back towards Makiuarnek.

  “Makiuarnek, son,” he said. Makiuarnek didn’t turn around. “I don’t expect you to understand, but you’ll thank me one day. We may have had our differences, but I want you to know that your room, I didn’t change it. It’s exactly the way you left it. You can come back at any time. You may not believe it, but I love you, son.”

  Rasmus waited for a reply. When none came, he turned to leave.

  “Why?” Makiuarnek said. “If you love me so much, why did you ruin my one chance at happiness?”

  “I know you may not get this now, but women come and go. Only your family is forever. I did it to protect the family business. She played her part and helped me decrypt the hard drive. I knew you had stolen it all along, but at that point, I was at my wits end. I had hired all the best codebreakers and hats in the galaxy, but no one could hack it. When you stole it, I thought that maybe you could achieve what I could not.”

  “You could have asked me.”

  “You never do anything I tell you to do. Trust me. This was the best way.”

  “You killed her!”

  “No, son. I let her live longer than expected. I had planned a hit the same night you showed her the damned drive, but then I thought maybe she was the solution. Shusharian encryption is impossible to break. I had no idea it was using my damned DNA as a cipher. Why do you think that little dwarf planet empire has been such a thorn in the IF’s side? They use our biology against us!”

  “And now she’s dead, all because you wanted a business advantage over some far off alien government that means nothing to the UPE.”

  “I’m saving the UPE. The Shusharians have discovered the largest supply of decrand in the known galaxy. You think they’ll stay a tiny little empire for long? How much decrand will it take to knock on Earth’s doorstep? Those who control Nigramoto control the galaxy. You think I’m about to give it to the Shusharians because they found some damned hole in the ground first? I’m preserving our way of life.”

  “They’ll fight for it.”

  “Of course, they will. The IF is already mobilizing fleets. War is coming to the galaxy, and it will be fought in the space around Nigramoto.”

  “Just leave!”

  “The offer still stands. You are welcome back anytime.”

  “Go!”

  Rasmus pursed his lips and turned to exit. Once his father’s footsteps faded down the tunnel, Makiuarnek scooped up Cassie’s body. For the first time in his life, he cried.

  6

  Makiuarnek opened his eyes. He was surprised to have remembered his death. He was in pain before, but that was gone now. The room around him was white and sterile. He sat up in bed and various sensors attached to his body popped off his skin. That’s when he noticed that it wasn’t his body, at least not the one scarred from the years of service.

  The scars were still there. The Taurilian blade scar that almost pierced his heart was the prominent feature of his chest. However, his skin was different. It had a metallic sheen. He could also see his veins. They had a corrosive green filth running through them.

  His father entered the room. He was cracked with age. A breathing device was embedded into his face. “You’re up!”

  “What did you do to me?” Makiuarnek looked at his hands.

  “You never thanked me before, I couldn’t expect you to thank me now,” his father said. “It’s an experimental treatment, son. I could not accept that I would outlive you. I spared no expense. I reached out to many doctors throughout the galaxy.”

  Makiuarnek looked in a mirror that his father brought with him. His once blonde hair was now metal fragments, and his blue eyes looked more like a cyborg’s.

  “They couldn’t cure the infection, but they could stop it,” his father continued. “They fused your DNA with the Taurilian metal. To be honest, most of them think you are lucky to be alive. I knew that you would live. My boy is a fighter.”

  “You know,” Makiuarnek said, “that’s right. I am a fighter. You said that the company was under my name now?”

  “Yes, you are my son. Of course.”

  Makiuarnek thrust out his hand and grabbed his father’s neck. He could feel the Taurilian metal course within him. However, unlike when he was sick, he could control it. He concentrated on his father. The filth from his veins coursed from his hand to his dad. Rasmus gagged and coughed. He was dead in seconds.

  Makiuarnek tossed the body of his father to the ground. He felt good. A weight had been lifted from his chest. He finally felt that he could put Cassie to rest. He would now focus on that Nig bitch. He would come for her next.

  _______

  Makiuarnek enlisted the day after Cassie’s death. With a stellar letter from Sgt. Lefallfous and other instructors from CIFS, he was selected for officer’s school. There were already reports of skirmishes near Nigramoto between the Shusharians and the UPE. The IF spin-doctors were already at work, weaving stories about Shusharian oppression.

  His father hated the fact that he was going to war. As much as his father was a greedy asshole who didn’t care who he had to walk over for a profit, he hated the fact that his son would be put in harm’s way. Makiuarnek, on the other hand, wasn’t doing it to spite his father. He was doing it for Cassie. She had taught him to stand up for something that he believed in. While the UPE wasn’t perfect, it was better than any alternative.

  When he was packed into the transport that was headed for the IF intake base on the moon, he sat next to a young recruit. He looked to be about the same age as Makiuarnek. The man was bald and smiled. He had a large laugh and would talk about Kansas City Barbeque li
ke it was the pinnacle of human invention. They became fast friends.

  After his newfound friend had outlined his plan to make sergeant one night during intake camp, he asked Makiuarnek about his plans. Makiuarnek didn’t have any, at least none that he could think about at the moment, other than once the time came, he would destroy Nigramoto and that damned decrand-generating machine. It was the least he could do for Cassie. To his friend, he replied, “Captain. I think one day I’ll make Captain.”

  Thank you for reading.

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