“What?” he said.
“You ever think about pappy much?” I asked.
His eyes moved back toward the fire. “Think about lots of stuff,” he said.
“Had some good times when he brought us up here with him,” I said, “Remember when he let us have some of his beer.”
The corner of Buck’s mouth lifted just a bit. “Remember a lot of ammo got wasted that weekend.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes. I was remembering times up here with pappy. Maybe Buck was too. I shifted on the log I sat on. I’d brushed all the snow off it, but my butt was still cold. I’d forgotten the blow up cushions I’d been using the last few years. Pappy would have called them sissy, but the older I got, the more comforts I enjoyed.
Buck was a lot like him. He probably would have rolled his eyes if I’d offered him one of the cushions.
“Momma’s been asking about you,” I said.
“Yeah,” Buck said. Wasn’t a question. He probably knew. Real question was, did he care? Seemed like family didn’t mean much to Buck any more. Not that there was much left. Just me, him and momma. Momma had a brother and there was a couple cousins, but that was it.
“She worries about you,” I said.
“She shouldn’t,” Buck said.
“That ain’t gonna stop her.”
Buck took a sip of his coffee and kept staring into the fire. I shifted on the log again. Momma had been pressing hard for me to find out what Buck was up to now that he was out of the Marines. I know he’s up to something dangerous, she told me, You go find out and make sure he’s being safe.
Something dangerous? More dangerous than the Marines and doing tours in Afghanistan?
Little did I know.
“She’s wondering what your’e doing with yourself these days,” I said.
“What I’m doing ain’t really none of her business,” he said.
My blood beat in my ears and my face got hot. “See here, Buck, she’s your momma and she’s gonna worry over you until the day she leaves this earth,” I said, “That’s her right because you’re her flesh and blood. You oughta give a little respect to that.”
Buck gave me look, his eyes going narrow like Clint Eastwood in one of his old westerns. The fire sparked in his eyes like hell itself. My heart skipped a beat and for a split second I imagined myself having an accident up here in the mountains. Wouldn’t be too hard to make a body disappear in these parts. The skills Buck had, he could just melt away and no one would ever track him down.
But then something crashed through the woods to the side of us. We both jumped up. I had my Winchester beside me and it was in my hands in a flash.
Standing between two big pines, their limbs heavy with snow was the biggest buck I’d ever seen. He was magnificent. I couldn’t even begin to count the points on his antlers. They spread farther than I could reach from fingertip to fingertip. He stared at us, breath steaming in great clouds from his nostrils. The pale fur on his breast was flecked with snow. I saw the rest of his coat was pure white. His eyes were two glittering black points in the night.
I couldn’t believe it. Our deer had walked right to our camp. No more trudging through the snow. I raised my rifle. The buck didn’t move, but I could feel his eyes on me.
“No,” Buck said.
I glanced at him. His rifle was still in its zippered case where he’d put it when we came back to camp. Fact, when I thought about it, he’d carried it slung over his back all day. I wasn’t even sure if he loaded it.
“Dang, Buck,” I whispered, “It’s right here. We can go home.”
“No,” Buck said, “Let him go.”
Then Buck did something strange. He bowed deep, bending from his waist, to the big deer.
The buck tilted his head toward Buck. Then the deer sprang out between the trees. He hit the ground between us, then leapt over the fire and back out into the woods.
I fell back in the snow, dropping my rifle, cursing a blue streak. When I got to my feet I spit a few choice words at Buck. He was looking off to where the deer disappeared.
“What the hell was that all about?” I asked.
He gave me a sad look and shook his head. “Not right to shoot a man in his own house,” he said.
“You out of your mind?” I said.
He didn’t say nothing, just sat back down and took another sip of his coffee.
Next day we packed up to go back to town. Didn’t seem like any point to hunting any more. From then on I paid a guy to go hunt a deer for momma. Seemed easier that way.
It must have snowed that night after we bunked down in our tents. The next morning I couldn’t find any tracks where that big, white buck had been.
Forty-One
The Emperor of the Dons was one damned ugly dude. Even for a Don. His triangular head looked like it’d been run over by a truck. Then run over again when the truck backed up over it. The left side of his face was a mass of scar tissue. He had only one eye, and it was more yellow than orange. Purple pus leaked from the corner of it. Most of the tentacles on the back of his head had been cut off. Looked like a clear cut forest full of stumps. The ones that was left in the front had been stiffened somehow. They stuck straight out from his head. Make him look a bit spiky.
The arm on his left side was gone, replaced with some mechanical contraption. It looked like it was mostly knives.
Both his legs was gone. In their place, he sat on some kind of funky throne platform that moved around on tank treads. Tubes ran from the tank/throne thing. They looked like they was filled with purple fluid. I remembered the purple blood from the Don I killed.
Two big Dons in black armor dragged me into the huge, empty hall where the Emperor waited. The hall must have been a hundred feet tall and fifty feet wide and hundreds of feet long. Ruddy light came through long, vertical slits of windows lining the walls. The ceiling glittered with something. After a moment I realized it was thousands of spikes.
I shuddered. An earthquake would make being in this hall a dicey proposition.
Funny enough, the place didn’t smell so bad. There was still an undercurrent of rancid cat food mixed with dead skunk, but the chilly air in the hall had a clean, almost minty taste to it. Maybe the emperor didn’t like the smell of his subjects.
The armored Don dragged me along the polished black floor until we was a dozen feet away from the Emperor dude. They let go of me and I dropped to the floor. Before coming to what I guessed was the palace, I’d been given a bright red bathrobe thing to wear. Or maybe it was a kimono. Whatever it was, I didn’t give my boys much protection. It came down below my knees and belted at the middle. The only other thing I got before leaving the Blade of Triumph was a pair of slippers.
I sat there, trying to gather what little of my dignity was left. I was getting to my feet when something weird happened. The two armored Don that brought me here spun on their heels and walked away. Chills ran down my spine as I watched them clomp the length of the huge hall, the metal footsteps ringing on the stone floor.
The giant double doors at the end closed with a clang of metal. I stood up slow and turned to the Emperor.
We were alone. At least it looked to be.
“Uh, hey there, your majesty,” I said, “How’s it going?”
The Emperor didn’t speak right away. He rolled forward on his little tank treads. He did a full circle around me, then came back to where he started. He didn’t look scared of being alone with me. Which made me about knock kneed. I’d learned long since that situations that didn’t look dangerous were usually the most dangerous of all.
“Terran,” the Emperor said. His voice was like gravel running down a coal chute. I could barely understand him.
“Yeah, that’s me, citizen of good old mother Earth,” I said.
“You are the first of your kind to set foot on our sacred world,” the Emperor said, “The first of any species. Perhaps you wonder while I soil our planet with your presence.”
“Not re
ally,” I said, “I was given the impression you were going to watch me get executed. Though, honestly, you didn’t need to go to the trouble. Your people could have done it just fine up on your fancy ship. Though I appreciate the extra time, not wanting to die any time soon.”
The Emperor moved forward, the motors that powered his tank throne whined and hummed. He stopped about six feet from me. I eyed that wicked knife arm of his. I wasn’t intending to let that thing come near enough to me to do any harm. If the Emperor wanted to kill me, he was gonna have to work for it.
“I have ruled the Don for a very long time,” the Emperor said.
“And I’m sure you’ve been doing a fine job there, your majesty,” I said.
I glanced around. There must have been another door around here somewhere. Behind the Emperor was a smooth wall, blank of any decoration or anything that might be a door.
“Many things I have seen,” the Emperor said, “I have been to far worlds and crushed fledging life there beneath my boot.”
“Yes, sir, back when you wore boots, I bet you cut a fine figure then,” I said.
“I have extinguished stars that displeased me,” he said, “Burned worlds that offended me.”
“Well, I suppose it serves them right for offending you there, your majesty,” I said.
The tank treads clacked on the stone floor as he inched closer.
“The galaxy trembles under my gaze,” he said, “The races that still exist know the breath that fills their lungs is there because I allow them to live. For now.”
“Right, right, I’ve noticed a lot of general fear and trembling when the subject comes around to the Don,” I said, “I think you’re spot on with that assessment there.”
I took a couple slow, sliding steps back, keeping my distance from the emperor. I wondered what would happen if I shucked off the robe and slippers and tried to activate my armor. Would it work?
My guess is that plasma blasters would pop out of the Emperor’s throne and turn me into a crispy critter.
“Only the Dendon race refused to bow to me,” the Emperor said, “They were an old race but they did not know their place. They thought the Don a young race and that our blood would cool and become infected with reason as the millennia passed. How wrong they were. I scoured the life from their world and left it as an example for the rest of the races.”
“Yeah, I heard about that,” I said, “Sounds like you showed them who was boss.”
The Emperor inched forward, the motor powering the treads growling like an angry dog.
“The Dendon’s technology was far, far advanced than ours,” the Emperor said, “I sent countless spies to their world to steal their knowledge. Of course the Dendon caught them and sent my spies back to me. Unharmed. I executed them for their failure, of course.”
“I understand,” I said, “Good employees are hard to find. Used to be bad ones were hard to get rid of, but it sounds like you solved that problem.”
My eyeballs scoured the walls for something, anything. The slitted windows were too narrow for me to slip though. Not that it would do me much good to get outside. I was still one guy against a whole planet.
Course, that wouldn’t have stopped Buck. He’d taken out them aliens that took him when he was only twelve.
Too bad I wasn’t Buck.
“I threw the resources of my world into duplicating the Dendon technology,” the Emperor said, “But even after a thousand years of work, all I have are cheap copies, pale imitations of the glorious weapons of Dendon.”
“Must not have been too great if you killed everyone on their planet, your majesty,” I said.
“I caught them unaware,” the Emperor said, “They never believed that I would use my technology to destroy a sentient race. Their arrogance blinded them to the reality. They could not see that I was the predator, and they were the prey.”
This guy was going on for so long I was starting to wish he’d just kill me and be done with it. Maybe he didn’t get many people to talk to. Especially if he spent all his time in this big old hall. Might make a person a bit crazy to be here all time, all by himself.
“I knew the Dendon king had created a repository of Dendon knowledge. He understood, even if his ministers did not. But he still believed the Don could be controlled through the covenants of SevenUnion. He and his body guard came to Jome and lodged a protest. They came in their faster than light craft, flaunting their technology. Technology that they refused to share.”
“Sharing is caring, that’s what I like to say,” I said.
“That was when I decided to strike,” The Emperor said, “My weapons had been traveling for decades, slipping unnoticed into the Dendon system. I gave the command and the Dendon world died. They got off a distress call before they perished, and the Dendon king rushed back to his dead world. My makers exhausted themselves before he arrived. A flaw in my technology. I, of course, had the scientists who overlooked the flaws executed.”
“Of course, that’s what any power mad evil emperor would have done,” I said, “Happens all the time back on earth. Least in the movies.”
I kept backing away as the emperor inched closer. It was a slow motion dance. My body was tensed, waiting for him to attack. Already I was feeling the fatigue from adrenaline rush. I had a suspicion the Emperor could keep slow motion chasing me around that big room for days if he wanted to. A big, ugly cat playing with little old mouse me.
“My plan had been for my soldiers to scour Dendon and bring back their technology. Especially their Ark,” the Emperor said, “If I could unlock its secrets, then my power would become infinite.”
“Well, sure, who wouldn’t want infinite power,” I said, “Every power mad dictator wants great big heaping piles of infinite power.”
“But the Dendon King, with his faster than light ship, arrived first,” the Emperor said, “He should have died with the rest of his subjects, but he did not.”
“Right, I remember the executing the scientists part,” I said, “I know crazy ass dictators hate it when their scientists don’t do things like they’re supposed to.”
The Emperor’s knife arm thing moved. It extended out from his body with a hum. There as a metallic clink and the end of it sprang open. I jumped back a few feet. The end of the arm was like a giant hand with a dozen fingers. The ends of the fingers were wicked looking knives of different shapes and sizes. The shortest one appeared to be at least a foot long.
The knife finger hand began to flex and move in a sinister beckoning gesture. I moved the other direction and loosened the belt on my kimono robe thingy. Guess I was gonna find out if my armor still worked.
“The Dendon king and his whore guard destroyed the world’s knowledge centers,” the Emperor said. His knife fingers swish, swish, swished through the air. “They left nothing behind that would allow me to recreate their technology. I did not learn this until it was too late, though.”
“Hate it when that happens,” I said. I kicked off my slippers. The Emperor didn’t seem to notice. His dead, yellowish eye stared forward as his knife hand beckoned and clashed metal on metal.
“They left Dendon, broadcasting to Jome that they were coming back with proof of my so called crime,” the Emperor said.
“I like that: so called,” I said, “Back on Earth we say: allegedly. But so called works too.”
“My ships were thick within the Jome system,” the Emperor said, “I had seized control of the council and the world as soon as the Dendon King had left. I hadn’t expected him to return, but I was ready for him.”
“Yup, I bet you set up a right smart ambush,” I said, “That’s just what the bad guy would do.”
“When his ship disembarked into the Jome system, a dozen warships attacked him,” the Emperor said, “I have watched the video feeds from that moment countless times. The Dendon ship suddenly appeared, white and delicate like a flower. Then my ships attack. The Dendon takes the hits, pieces of her flying off like plucked petals. And as my
ships move in for the kill…the ship disappeared. Vanished.”
I didn’t say anything. The Emperors tank treads moved faster, his chair growling closer now. The knives on his terrible hand clashed and clanged. Sparks flew from the blades where they hit each other. My breath came quick and sweat slicked my palms. I got ready to shuck my robe off and run.
“The commanders of my battleships claimed the Dendon ship had been destroyed,” the Emperor said, “But I reviewed the videos and saw what happened for my own eye.”
“Let me guess, you had the ship commanders executed,” I said, “I’m starting to sense a theme here.”
“The Dendon ship jumped. It went somewhere,” the Emperor said, “For a thousand years I searched. My advisors did not believe, but I did. I knew the Dendon Ark had survived, somewhere.”
I wished I had been able to get more out of Liz about this ark thing. Or talk to Chris about it. Whatever it was, this Emperor guy wanted it bad. Real, real bad.
“And then, fifty years ago,” the Emperor said, “Came word that an energy signature had been detected. I had spread bits of Don technology throughout the races ships. They all unknowingly listened for me.”
“Sounds like you had your bases covered,” I said. Why was this guy telling me all this? Not that I minded having my life extended a few minutes, but if he was going to kill me anyway, why bother with the confessional?
“I sent my most trusted and capable operative, Bey Jodo,” the Emperor said, “The system was far away from the rest of the SixUnion systems. So far that it took him decades of cold sleep to get there. When he arrived he found the Blinkys and Stickmen already there. The Stickmen had detected the energy, too, and had enlisted the Blinkys as emissaries to the inhabited planet.”
“Yeah, Earth, nice place, actually,” I said, “I grew up there, pretty fond of it actually”
The emperors knife hand began swinging back and forth. As an execution weapon, the whole thing seemed unnecessarily dramatic. I hesitated to tell him that dictators on my planet usually just shot a person in the back of the head and called it good.
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