“Son of a bitch!” he shouted. He let go of me and jumped back, hand going to his nose. “What’d you go an do that for?” Blood seeped between his fingers.
“Because you’re an asshole, that’s what!” I said.
I was about to take another swing at him when Chris the fry cook stepped between us, his hands up, palms flat.
“Hey, how about we have something to eat,” he said, “We’ll all feel better after a good meal, won’t we?”
I just gave Buck the evil eye. He wasn’t going to get off that easy.
“Seriously boys,” Liz said, “Don’t make me come over there.”
Buck let out a sigh and shrugged. He stepped around me and went to the chair on the other side of T’Vel. Liz handed him a napkin and he stuffed it up his nose.
The moment seemed to have passed, and my stomach was begging me to stuff that burger in my face. I sat back down and took the burger in both shaking hands and took a big bite.
Oh, god, it was so good.
Meat and chilies and cheese and more meat, holy crap, I barely chewed it. Before I knew it I was staring at an empty plate. I must have had a mournful look on my face because Chris slid his plate over to me.
“Go ahead, I don’t eat that much these days anyway,” he said.
I mumbled a thank you and dug in. This time I made myself go slow. In between bites, I sipped at the beer. Real beer. Cold and bitter and just the right sting to it.
I realized something warm and wet was sliding down my face. I wiped at it. Tears. God damnit, I was crying. My face got hot. I hadn’t cried in front of no one since I was a little kid.
“You okay there Roy?” Chris asked softly.
“Was thinking I’d never get a taste of home again,” I said.
I looked down at Buck. He gave me a glance, then looked down at his plate.
“Sorry little brother,” he said.
I almost fell over. An apology? From Buck? Had that ever happened? In all our years being brothers I couldn’t recall any sorries coming out of his mouth. Being sorry meant there was some humbleness somewhere inside that concrete head of his. I never thought I’d see the day.
I forgave him immediately. I raised the bottle to him. He did the same and we clinked the bottles together.
I took a long swallow and set the bottle down. I cracked my knuckles and looked to Liz and then Chris, the fry cook of the gods. Or something. He sat back against the far counter, his arms folded. A pleasant smile was on his lips. He didn’t look like anyone important, but I had a feeling there was a helluva lot more under the surface.
“Someone want to tell me what the hell is going on around here?” I asked.
Twenty-Eight
I’d like to say I got the straight truth out of everyone standing or sitting in that kitchen. But that didn't happen.
What I got was more confusion. Like I needed more of that.
Buck put down his burger and dabbed at his beard with a napkin. “Little brother, I don’t think you’re quite ready for what’s going on.”
I gave him a look that woulda cut steel if my eyeballs had laser beams. “How about you try me there, Buck?”
Buck pointed a finger at Chris the fry cook. “That there is the most powerful man in the universe.”
Chris got a sour look. “Don’t say that,” he said, “I’m not–”
“You’re not ordinary, that’s what you are,” Buck said, “You sure you even human any more?”
“As human as you are, Buck,” Chris said. His eyes narrowed and for the first time, I got a sense of tension coming from him. Buck was giving him a hard stare. What the hell was between them?
“I wouldn’t put a bet on that,” Buck said.
“You should not show disrespect to the Lord of Dendon,” T’Vel said.
We all looked at her. I’d forgot she was even sitting there, she’d been so quiet.
Chris put his hands on the metal counter behind him. He gave her a smile. “I’m not a Lord of anything,” he said, “Nor am I the most powerful man in the universe.”
“What’s a Dendon?” I asked.
“It’s a dead world,” Liz said. She was digging into that second burger with gusto.
Dead world. There was something tickling my memory. In an instant, it came to me.
“Was that the seventh world in the former Council of Seven?” I asked.
That got me sharp looks form my hosts and Buck. I hid a smile and refrained from flipping Buck the bird. I wasn’t completely ignorant, despite getting kept in the dark and fed a steady diet of bullcrap.
“Actually, it was the first world in the Council of Seven,” Chris said, “The Dendon were the most ancient star faring race. I haven’t proved it yet, but I suspect they seeded a lot of other planets with life. There are enough similarities in the DNA of almost all the current star faring races to suggest we share a common ancestor.”
I gave T’Vel a sidelong glance. The thought of me and her being very distant cousins seemed like a joke. Or the Blinkies or Dons. Or…
“Even the Stickmen?” I asked.
Chris shook his head. “No, definitely not the Stickmen. As far as I’m concerned, they’re the true aliens in the galaxy. The rest of the races are just…different.”
“So what killed off these Dendons?” I asked.
Chris’ face clouded and he looked away. Something like anger came over him. For an instant the lights in the kitchen dimmed. Just a fraction, but enough for me to notice. Then the lights and Chris’ face was back to normal.
“The Dendon home world was attacked,” Chris said, “There has never been an official accusation leveled, but it’s common knowledge that the Dons did it.”
Which surprised me not at all. I had the feeling the Dons would knife their own mothers for fun. They wouldn’t bat an eye at destroying a world. Which had to be why everyone was so scared of them.
“So why don’t the rest of the aliens gang up on them and get rid of them?” I asked.
“If it were that simple, they woulda done it already,” Buck said. He took a sip of his beer and pointed the neck of the bottle at Chris. “But I think the balance of power has changed. Except this guy is too pussy do anything about it.”
“You might want to watch your mouth, Buck,” Liz said, “That’s my man you’re dissing.”
“Yes, your disrespect is abhorrent,” T’Vel said.
“One genocide deserves another. Is that your reasoning?” Chris asked.
Buck picked at his teeth with his thumbnail. A filthy habit momma was never able to break him of.
“Rabid dogs get put down where I come from,” Buck said, “Don’t see much difference myself.”
Chris’ fingers gripped the edge of the counter. Tight enough I could see he knuckles go white. The lights in the kitchen gave the barely perceptible flicker again. It didn’t give me any comfort to think their ship had electrical problems.
“I’m not willing to write off an entire species,” Chris said, “No one has ever been to the Don home world to see if their evil goes all the way through to their children.”
“You know the dang answer to that,” Buck said, “You’ve been through enough of their shit to know. Just like I have.”
Buck and Chris were doing a stare down. The muscles along Chris’ jaw bunched up. Buck’s eyes were so narrow all there was just slits above his beard. I had the feeling I was missing a whole lot here. There was a bunch of history I wasn’t privy to, and it annoyed the hell out of me.
“The universe would be better off without them,” Buck said, “How many dead does it take to convince you?”
Liz reached over and slapped Buck’s shoulder. “You be nice, Mr. Cowboy,” she said, “Or I will stuff you up your own asshole.”
Buck cocked an eyebrow at her, then gave a shrug and took a sip of his beer. I don’t know if it was because it was a lady or if he took her threat seriously, but he backed down.
An apology and backing down. I was starting to suspect som
eone had switched my brother out with a robot or something.
“May I speak?” T’vel said.
She huddled with all four arms wrapped around herself, her snout and eyes pointed down. Her body trembled.
“Of course, T’Vel,” Chris said, “Tell us what’s on your mind.”
Buck snorted, but he didn’t say anything. That little snort made me want to put my boot up his backside. I really didn’t have any idea who T’Vel was, but she’d done me a huge favor at a lot of risk to herself. She didn’t deserve no disrespect from him.
“The Don are evil,” she said, “Ever since the fall of the lords of Dendon, they have ruled the galaxy. They use SixUnion for their own purposes. They are the power that drives everything. All races except the Stickmen fear the wrath of the Dons. And even the Stickmen are cautious of them.”
“That’s why we oughta take them out,” Buck said, “Do the galaxy a favor.”
“You are arrogant if you think they can so easily be destroyed,” T’Vel said, “Their power reaches everywhere.”
She was shaking harder now. She straightened up, her body tensing. Something was wrong with her eyes. They were starting to change color. The centers of them were lightening. Turning from green to…orange.
“You shall pay for your insolence,” T’Vel said. Except it wasn’t her voice any more. It was a deep male voice.
Heat started to radiate off her. Buck and I jumped off our stools and backed off.
“Liz!” Chris shouted, “Freeze her!”
Liz had already shucked off her robe. She touched the gold disk at her neck. The golden armor flowed over her so fast it was done in the blink of an eye. An instant later she was airborne. She slammed into T’Vel and flew out the door with her in her arms.
She wasn’t gone more than half a second when the explosion rocked the ship. A blast of heat and debris hit us, knocking me and Buck to the floor. Then there was a whoosh as the air was sucked out.
The kitchen doors slammed shut. We gasped like fish out of water for a few seconds before the air came back. Klaxons were sounding and the lights dimmed. The deck was vibrating and groaning under me. I got to my feet.
Chris stood at the island. His hands gripped the metal counter. His eyes were blank, like he was daydreaming. I reached out to shake him.
“No!” Buck said, “He’s flying the ship. Don’t touch him.”
“What? He’s just standing–”
“Leave him alone!” Buck shouted, “He’s the only hope we got of surviving this.”
I lowered my hand. Didn’t make no sense to me. The guy looked like he was zoning out, not flying a spaceship. How the hell could he be flying it holding onto a stupid countertop?
Acrid smoke curled from the vents. The ship shuddered and groaned. I got the feeling whatever happened was a mortal wound for it. What happened any way? Did something attack us? What happened to T’Vel?
Course, part of me already knew what happened to her. I just didn’t want to believe it.
Buck took me by the arm and pulled me away from Chris the fry cook and spaceship pilot. We went over to the door. Buck put his hand to it and just as quick pulled it back.
“Cold,” he said, “We got space on the other side of that.”
“There any other people on this ship?” I asked.
“Just us,” he said.
“What just happened, Buck?” I asked, “And don’t give me no runaround.”
“We got fucked, that’s what,” Buck said.
He went over to Chris. He didn’t touch him, kept a couple feet away in fact. Chris didn’t look at him. He just stared off into space. Flying the ship, my ass.
“How bad is it, Chris?” Buck asked.
“Bad enough,” Chris said, “We’re still out of normal space. There’s extensive damage to the starboard side. Fortunately Liz kept it away from the engines. We’ve got a bad hull breach, though.”
“What about Liz?” Buck asked.
Emotion flickered over Chris’ face. Fear, worry, anger. “I don’t know yet. Most of the sensors are offline. I’m rerouting everything. If we’re lucky I can stabilize us enough to drop down into normal space.”
I clenched my fists. I still didn’t understand how the guy could be doing all that just standing there holding onto a counter. I wanted to do something. I wanted to out and find what happened to T’Vel and Liz. I was useless just standing there.
Buck took my arm and pulled me away again. I jerked out of his grip but followed him over to the other side of the kitchen. There was another door beside the fridge. I figured it led to a pantry or a freezer. Buck paused.
“We got took, little brother,” he said, “And I fucked this up good. It wasn’t my intent to get you so deep in this crap.”
“Buck, tell me what this is all about,” I said, “And tell me straight up for once.”
He shook his head and looked over to where Chris still stood. “It’s about survival,” he said, “There’s a quiet little war going on between that guy and the Dons. He has the power to end them, but he won’t.”
I wasn’t so sure I agreed with Buck on killing a whole planet full of beings. Could they all be evil? I’d met evil people in my life. People who were just nasty down to the core. But they were the exception. Lots of people did bad things for a lot of reasons, but that didn’t make them evil. Sometimes they were misguided, or mistreated or just angry. You take away what’s making them angry, treat them right, those bad apples often shaped up to be solid people.
But Buck was right about one thing. If you got a rabid dog, the only thing you could do was put it down.
“How did you get involved in this war, Buck?” I asked.
He bared his teeth and his eyes bore into mine. “Them blue skinned bastards brought me into it,” he said, “Wasn’t my choice.”
But it was his choice to stay in it.
“Better brace yourselves,” Chris said, “I’m going to bring the ship down to normal space. It’s not going to be pretty.”
Buck touched the door next to the fridge. It slid open and he pushed me through. There wasn’t nothing in it but a pair of recliner type couch chairs. He shoved me at one.
“Strap yourself in, quick,” he said.
The ship was starting to shake bad now. Strapping down sounded like a good idea. I jumped on the couch and looked for seat belts. Course, I didn’t see any. Buck leaned over and pushed a button on the side. Straps flew out around my waist and criss crossed over my chest. They cinched down tight.
Buck was in the his couch, doing the same. He pulled his hat low over his eyes.
“Might as well catch some shut eye,” he said, “Wake me up if we don’t die.”
Easy for him to say. I was going to shoot back a smart remark when the universe turned inside out. Colors screamed up my nose and sounds assaulted my tongue. Everything collapsed and swirled like I was getting flushed down an electric psychedelic toilet.
Then it was done and the ship was shaking like a rock crusher. Weight pressed down on my chest like a pair of sumo wrestlers were dancing on it. I got a sense that the ship was spinning, rolling.
It was making me regret that burger and a half sitting in my stomach. I clamped my teeth together and prayed for the universe to show me some mercy.
Something slammed the ship to the side. My head snapped over and smacked into the raised headrest. Then the ship slammed the other direction and everything went to black.
Twenty-Nine
When I woke up there was a pretty brunette in Army greens leaning over me. She had a nice citrusy floral scent to her that I’m sure wasn’t Army issue.
“I must be in heaven,” I said, “Because you look like an angel.”
The side of her mouth quirked up in a half smile. She pulled a pen light from her shirt pocket and shined it in my eyes.
“Yeah, this one’s fine,” she said.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
She pointed to the name tag over her left breast. �
�Can you read that?”
It was black on green, but I managed to make it out. “Yardley? Is that first or last?”
“It’s all you need, sir,” she said. She got up and walked over to a desk. I watched as best I could. Army greens really weren’t made for checking out derrieres.
I was lying on a hard, narrow bed in what looked and smelled like a small hospital. The air was warm, stirred by a lazy fan above me. My head hurt a bit, but the rest of my parts didn’t seem to worse for the wear. I sat up, then had to grip the edge of the bed while a wave of dizziness passed through me.
Once that was through, I looked around. There were three other narrow beds in the room. The room itself had the no nonsense look of an Army facility. Greenish gray walls, industrial white and gray tile. Rows of fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling. At the end of the room was a single window. Harsh light came around the edges of the slatted blinds covering it. There were some flimsy looking folding chairs here and there between the beds. An Army M.P. sat beside mine, flipping through an old People Magazine. He glanced up for a moment, but went back to his magazine after a small nod at me.
Apparently I wasn’t a threat. Though that didn’t stop him from having a big .45 at his side.
The nurse–at least I assumed she was a nurse–sat behind the desk and started typing something into a computer terminal. A few feet from the desk was a set of double doors. Standing on either side of them were big, beefy MPs with rifles in their hands. They stared straight ahead, not making eye contact with anyone. I had a feeling they were paying close attention to everything I did, though.
“Where am I,” I asked.
The pretty Army lady looked up from her typing. “You’re at Holloman Air Force base in New Mexico.”
New Mexico? I was back on Earth? And alive? For a second I considered dropping to the floor and kissing it. Terra firma. I never thought I’d set foot on it again. It meant I could go home, back to my cabin. I could put my feet up and have a beer and catch up on reruns of Duck Dynasty.
The only thing that stopped me was that I knew nothing was ever that easy.
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