by Jessie Wolf
I can tell that my wife is well loved and respected by all those here. After a few more drinks I see my sisters being led away by their maids. From the looks of things they’re more than a little drunk. When I point this out to mama she just frowns. But it’s Top who surprises me. “While I hope they know that I’ll have their little butts up at the crack of dawn. We still have a lot of work to do around here and I’m going to need them to be my runners.”
Both Alice and I start to giggle at the thought of my sisters hung-over and running around doing errands for Top. “You two aren’t excused either. Your mama and I will need all the help we can get if we’re going to have the compound back in order before you five head off to school.” When Alice hears this she starts to tell Top flat out that she isn’t going but Top puts a stop to it before she can even get started. “Alice, you need to go back to school, honey. Yes I know you have your E.D. but that’s not enough anymore. You lack certain social skills you’ll need now that you’re a High Families Lady. Don’t you see that, honey? Please, this is for your own good. Besides, I can’t find anyone else who can keep that hellcat you’re married to in line.”
This starts her thinking then giggling as she hears me called a hellcat. “Ok Top, I’ll do it. Just to keep my wife in line for you.”
“Thank you pussycat.”
Alice does a double take then looks dead in his eyes. When all she sees is love there she begins to cry. “No one has called me that in a very long time. Thank you …daddy.” She puts the ‘daddy’ in there like she is afraid she’ll get yelled at for some reason.
“Give me a hug pussycat you too, kitten.” It takes me a minute to realize that he just called me kitten. It strikes a chord deep inside of me. I know it’s the behavioral programing, but I just can help it. It makes me feel loved by this bear of a man.
I wait for Alice to step out of the way before I give him a hug as well. “Thank you, daddy, I know that must be a little weird coming from me.” Before I can finish he just smiles up at me and says.
“You’re no longer that person, Maiha. You have a chance at a new life and a new future. Now take your wife and go to bed. We have a lot of work ahead of us and it starts tomorrow morning.”
Chapter 12
The next morning….
“Oh my aching head.” As I wake up the next morning I can feel my hair growing. I hurt in more ways than I want to even think about. When I look over at Alice I can tell she ain’t feeling too good either. “I take it, love that you can hear the grass growing, love?”
“Oh, not so loud. Yes, I can hear the grass growing. I haven’t been this hung-over in a long, long time.” I watch as she slowly gets up and heads for the bathroom. It is at this time that I notice our maids are nowhere to be found. That’s strange; they normally wake me up long before I want to. I wonder where they could be, and then I came to my senses. Getting up, I follow Alice into the bathroom and the shower. After a quick shower we climb into the tub of hot water that I had started before joining her in the shower. After about a half hour of soaking we climb out and dry off.
As we enter the changing room our maids finally show up. Gin hands me and Alice a tall glass of something. When neither of us takes a drink she explains what it is. “My Lady’s, that is an old family recipe hang-over cure. It may not smell too good, but it’ll take care of what ails you.” Not knowing what else to do and really wanting to get rid of my hangover I trust her and down the smelly stuff. I almost gag on it, but get it all down in one go.
“MY GODDESS! Gin, that stuff can remove grease off an APS hip joint! Uhga! Talk about nasty.” I began to shake my head and body as the nasty stuff works its way down to my gut. Now in my time I have tried more than one hangover cure, but most never really worked. This one however just might, because it has to be the nastiest one I have ever tried.
Alice is in full agreement with me on how nasty it tastes. “OH MY GODDESS! Gin, that is truly awful. Where on earth did your family come up with that concoction?” she is also doing the whole body shimmy. “If my hangover wasn’t killing me before that stuff sure will. Uhga. I don’t think I’ll ever need that stuff again.”
“No joke, love. That is some nasty stuff.” However the nasty stuff seems to be working. My head ache is easing up, the nausea is slowly going away, and my aching joints are slowly starting to feel like they’re not being ripped from my body. “However, I must say that it might be working.”
“Yah, I have to agree with you, love. On both accounts.” Alice puts in.
As our maids help us get dressed I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. In a few short weeks it’ll be stupid school uniforms and teenage bullshit. Man I can’t even believe I said I would do this. Why can’t I just fade away and enjoy a niece quiet retirement?
The answer to that my dear is simple (Dee De)
“Oh, really? And what pray tell is that, oh great and wise one?”
You’re a sucker for the Emperor. That and you have an over inflated sense of honor, and duty. (Dee De)
“I do not have an over inflated sense of duty, or honor.”
Yes you do, Maiha. (Charley)
“Now wait one damned minute here you two. All I have ever done is follow what I felt what was right. Sure, there have been times when I have done what was best for the Emperor and the Empire, but it has never been against my better judgment.”
Keep telling yourself that, hon. But we know better. It is your sense of duty that will always drive you more than anything else. (Dee De)
She speaks nothing more than the truth, Maiha. It is that core trait of yours that will always be your defining characteristic. (Charley)
When I hear them go quite I am left with a great deal to think about. Have I always been so duty driven that I never thought of doing something else? Sure I became a Death Dealer when I was only a kid, and served for over fifty years. I became one of the most respected of men in the Dealers. I was both feared and respected. I rose to the rank of First High Lord of the Death Dealers, one of the first ever in over two hundred years. But I was a husband and a father for more than fifty years. I raised two fine children. Both of whom went on to join the military against my desires. I never wanted that life for them, but they chose it anyway.
Now I have a whole new life in front of me and I don’t know what to do with it. Sure I can continue to be the First High Lady of the Death Dealers, but do I really want to? Isn’t there more to me than just being the Daughter of Death? Can I be more than that? I mean the Emperor did appoint me as the System Governor for the Death Gates System. But I lack the social or political skills to be one. Maybe if I go to this finishing school I can learn the skills I need.
Alice must have sensed my mood changing. “What’s wrong, kitten?”
“Uh… oh it’s nothing, love.” I try my best to lie to her, but I fail miserably.
“Maiha, in your own words, Bullshit! Don’t try that line with me.” she turns and looks over at our maids. “Before you say something, ladies, I know that was unlady like, and right now I don’t care. Leave us!” I watch as all three bow to her and head out the door.
Kina is the last one to leave, but stops at the door. “Lady Allison, please just ring the servants quarters to let us know when we can return?”
“Of course, Kina, thank you for understanding.”
“No need, my Lady. We understand the need for spouses to talk privately. You’ll find that when it comes to our discretion we will be far more willing to disappear now that you two are married.” With that she stepped out the door, closed and locked it so we would not be disturbed.
Turning to face me, Alice looks me dead in the eye. “Ok, spill.”
I can tell by her stance she is not letting this go. To buy me some time I walk over to our table and sit down and collect my thoughts. “Alright, love, you want to know what’s eating me I’ll tell you.” For the next fifteen minutes I lay out before her everything I was thinking of. How I felt I didn’t have the skills to do
the job now that peace had been won. How I felt like I wasn’t going to be anything, but a weapon. How I feared failing all the people who put their trust in me. I told her everything.
When I finish she just looks at me for a moment then leans over and smacks me in the back of the head. “Wake up! Kitten, if there is one thing I know it is this. You are not just a weapon or anything like that. Sure you have all the social graces of a pissed off bull in a china shop. Yes, you’re the biggest tomboy to ever come down the highway. All of this can be overcome. You my dear, are first and foremost one of the greatest things to ever happen to me. Now as for the rest, well you just need a little help and training.” When she stops and takes a very deep breath I look into her eyes. “And so help me I’ll be right there beside you all the way. Even if it means having to go back to that gods be damned, pain in my ass, good for nothing, school filled with all its stuck up, egotistical, little prima donna, rich bitches again.”
“Ok, time for you to come clean. What’s up with you and J.E.S. School for Young Ladies?” now I really want to know why she has such a hard on hate for that school.
She looks down at her hands in my lap for a few minutes. When she finally begins to talk I start to understand. “It’s more than just a finishing school for the rich and powerful families’ daughters. It is also a corrections department school.”
“Ok, I can see that, because mama’s three little project children will be going there. How is it you know this? It’s not exactly something they would advertise?”
“I broke the law when I turned fourteen; it wasn’t bad enough to be sent to juvey, but bad enough to require confinement. So the judge sent me there. I was sentenced to be there until I turned eighteen or I earned my E.D.” I could tell this was hard for her, but she needed to get it out if she was going to move past it. “Anyway, I spent the next two years there, until I couldn’t take it anymore. So I talked the administration into letting me take the Equivalence Exam and drop out on my sixteenth birthday. I had met all the requirements the judge had put on my release so they couldn’t keep me. I figured I had it made I was free. But the judge who had sent me there figured out what I was up to. The only way I could stay free was to join the military. The bastard was doing everything to keep me and my family under his thumb.”
“Love, I have two questions I need you to answer before you go any further. First what did you do to break the law? Second who was the judge who sentenced you?”
“Oh, I thought Dee De would have told you?”
“Honey, if you have a juve record it will be sealed. No one can access those records. Not even a Death Dealer AI, those records are not kept on the net. They are paper only and kept in a secured vault that only one person has access codes for.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that. Anyway I got caught stealing food from the local grocery store. My dad lost his job when the planet was closed and money was real tight. When I was brought in for the theft I saw a Judge Jacob Wendell. Anyway I was there for a total of fifteen minutes before I was being taken out and fitted for an ankle moniter and shipped off to J.E.S. for the next four years.”
“Wait a minute did you say his name was Wendell?”
“Yes. What about it. Sure it the same last name as mine, but it is a common enough name around here.”
“Alice you said your dad came from a big family when we first met. What do you want to bet that judge is a relation?”
She gets this faraway look in her eyes. From the looks of it she is having a quiet conversation with her AI Mary. When she looks back at me again I see real surprise. “He is related to me. The good for nothing s.o.b. is my uncle.”
“Now, before you go running off to gut the man. I want you to think about something. If he acknowledges you in the courtroom as his niece he would have had to pass your case off to someone else. Someone who might not have taken in to account that you were stealing food to survive. Now if he sends you to say one of the finest finishing schools that also happens to be a correction facility as well, why not? You get one of the finest educations while serving out your sentence all at the expense of the tax payers. When you pull an end run and graduate early he makes sure that you join the military which keeps you off the streets and puts you in position to help out your family.”
It takes her a few minutes, but when she starts to put two and two together and comes up with four instead of five I smile. She had never thought past what was in front of her. Great trait in a pilot for an APS, but a handicap in anything else. When she starts to cry I get worried. “Alice what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, these are happy tears. Everything I have done has not been for nothing. I always thought that judge was trying to punish my family for not keeping me in line. Instead he was trying to help us, me really, by sending me to that school.”
“Now, that you have that part figured out. Tell me about your time at the school. What was so bad that you just couldn’t stand being there for two more years?”
She takes a deep breath then looks me in the face. Whatever it is must really be bad. Did they beat her or abuse her in some manner? “The Heathers.” She says that with so much hate in her voice, whatever these ‘Heathers’ are it must be terrifying. Not seeing understanding in my face she tells me. “They are the alpha bitches for the whole school. If you don’t cow tow to them they make your life a living hell. They’re the most popular, beautiful, and rich bunch of girls in the school. If they find out you’re a ‘detainee’ they go out of their way to make sure you know where you stand. If you try to improve your place in life they find some way to smack you back down.”
I can’t help it I start to giggle. Here she is a six time APS ace, proven warrior, and an actual war hero; and she’s afraid of a bunch of teenage girls. The girl who would take on APS opponents who out gunned her so many times it’s funny, is afraid of a bunch of little girls. When Alice hears my giggle she just glares at me. “If you think that’s funny, you’ll just love this. As a ‘detainee’ if you break the rules in anyway it’s straight to juvey. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred credits, you go straight to jail. No appeal, just an orange jumpsuit with silver bracelets. Oh, and the administration always takes the side of the Heathers’ because they’re such ‘fine upstanding examples’ of how a student should behave. Just wait until we get there you’ll see.” Oh boy is she pissed. These girls must have really pushed her to her limits.
“Do you think they’re even still there? I mean it’s been what four years since you left. Surely they would have graduated and moved on by now?”
The look Alice gives me is one of pity. As if to say you poor deluded fool. “Maiha, the ‘Heathers’ are like a club. They may graduate, but there is always someone there to replace them. As a matter of fact each member who graduates must appoint their replacement. So you see their numbers never fall, and with the status of being ‘Heather’ they always have plenty of replacements waiting to get in.”
The more she tells me the more I begin to see how these ‘Heathers’ were able to terrify a fourteen year old girl who just avoided going to jail. I wonder how many other young girls like Alice were being taken advantage of by these bitches. If they were that bad four years ago, and no one has stood up to them, they’ll be even worse now. I wonder why no one has ever put a stop to their bullying. When I ask Alice about this she is more than willing to tell me.
“They are all members of one of the High Families. If you’re not a High Families ‘princess’ you have no chance of getting in. that goes for the ‘detainee’s’ as well. Those bitches practically run the school.” The more I hear the more I find myself wanting to gut these little princesses.
“I think I need to talk to mama about us going to that school.” I tell her. That’s when Alice decides to remind me of my duty to the Emperor.
“Um… kitten, I don’t think we have much choice. Remember Princess Daniella is going to that school along with Susan, and Lisa. You did say you would do your best to look after them. Also if
I’m not mistaken your, I mean our, family has a duty to insure her safety.”
“Damn, you’re right, I forgot all about that.” I start thinking fast and furiously. I will need a plan on how I’m going to deal with the ‘Heathers’ before we set foot in that school. “Alright, pussycat, I’ll have a plan on dealing with the ‘Heathers’ by the time we get there. You just leave them to me.” there must have been something in my voice or eyes. Because she gets this worried look on her face.
“Kitten, you realize you can’t use violence to solve this right?”
“Oh, my sweet, but misguided, pussycat. There is more than one way to skin a rat. You just have to trust me, ok?”
“Alright, I trust you, but I want you to promise me that you’ll not lose control and blast them with your PPC or PPL. For that matter I want your promise not to use any of your combat weapons on the ‘Heathers’. I know you; you’ll try and find a way to turn them into steaming piles of mush if I give you half a chance.” I swear the woman knows me all too well.
Sighing I raise my right hand. “I promise that I will not use any secondary configuration Death Dealer weaponry on the ‘Heathers’. There are you happy?” just because I had my fingers crossed behind my back, was not a sign I was going to break my promise. Besides there are still the original Death Dealer weapons at my disposal. I just want to keep my options open.
Alice gives me a hug and kiss, and then leans back. “Now, let’s go see if mama and Top are up?”
Smiling I point over to the in house com system. “Why don’t you ring them first? I wouldn’t want to interrupt them in an embarrassing position.”
