“You believe in a lot more chances than that,” Buck said, “Every life taken by the Don from here on out is blood on your hands. You could have stopped it. You chose not to.”
Chris went a couple shades paler and the muscles along his jaw bunched. I almost gave a shout out to Buck to watch himself. But then I realized this Chris guy wasn’t going to kill anyone. Not if he could help it, though. I didn’t know that he had any qualms about busting arms and legs though. I wasn’t going to save Buck from that.
“Is it right to kill billions to save ten, or a hundred?” Chris asked.
“Depends on whose lives get saved,” Buck said, “And if the Don get themselves regrouped, it won’t be ten or a hundred that die. They’re going to slaughterer entire worlds.”
“I don’t believe that,” Chris said.
“Believe it,” Buck said, “They’re as close to pure evil as you can get. It would have been better to just put them down.”
“I’m not a god,” Chris said, “I can’t just commit genocide just because someone ticks me off.”
“You’re close enough to one,” Buck said.
Chris turned away from him.
Turned to me.
My insides turned to ice. Buck don’t get impressed by anything. What he just said about this Chris guy was enough to scare the living crap out of me. I really didn’t want Chris’ attention on me.
I remember reading some Greek mythology back when I was a kid. It seemed like whenever mortals caught the attention of the gods, said mortal ended up in a world of hurt. The last thing any mortal should want was the attention of a god.
He walked over to me, a god, or demigod or something else, wrapped in the skin of a thirtyish looking guy with brownish blonde hair and a tie-dye t-shirt and blue jeans on. I wanted to run, but for some reason my feet were frozen to the floor and wouldn’t obey my brain’s frantic commands.
“Let’s get you fixed up better,” he said.
And that should have made me run, if nothing else. Instead, I stayed still as he put his fingers on the black medallion on my chest.
My entire body went stiff and I felt something pulling out of me. Pulling from every fiber and nerve of my being. It was like having my soul sucked out from my pores.
Then it was over and I slumped, drained of energy. My knees wobbled, but somehow I managed to stay standing. I looked down and realized the black medallion was in Chris’ hand. I touched the bare spot on my chest. There was a small ache there, the skin tender. I felt a pang of regret. I hadn’t wanted the armor in the first place, but I was going to miss the power and security of it.
Then I noticed what Chris’ other hand held. Yen’s old medallion. It gleamed black, threaded with red lines of flame. Before I could comprehend what was happening, his hand was in motion.
The medallion touched my chest and an electric jolt ran through me. For the second time, I felt the armor exploring my body, racing down nerves and and blood vessels to every part of my body. It smacked against my consciousness, driving into my brain and hovering at the edge of my awareness.
Then it was done, and I stood, shivering on the cold deck of an alien starship.
Chris took his hand away and gave me a nod.
“That armor’s a lot better than that other one,” he said, “I’ve programed it to fit you. It’ll respond a lost faster and better.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“No problem.”
He went back to his command chair. I stood there for a few seconds, wondering what the hell I was going to do. I saw Buck looking at me. He had a snide look in his eye. Maybe it was time for his ass kicking.
I shucked off my robe and touched the medallion. Black and red flowed out over me. No jumping required.
The armor closed around me and I got the three-sixty view and the heads up displays. They told me what weapons systems I had and their state of readiness. It was quite the list. I could take on an army battalion with this thing.
I flexed my fingers and arms. Power surged through me. I knew I could karate chop straight through steel I-beams if I wanted.
Or asshole brothers.
I turned my attention to Buck and clenched my hands into fists. Buck grinned.
“I wouldn’t if I were you, little bro,” he said.
The son of a bitch pulled open the top of his button up flannel shirt. There, at the base of his throat, was a dark blue stunted triangle medallion.
Shit.
“Mine’s a couple classes up from yours,” Buck said, “Wouldn’t be a fair fight.”
Dang it. Always seemed to be one step ahead of me.
I huffed out a sigh and willed the armor back into its little box. The armor responded immediately–without any stupid code phrase. My bare skin prickled as the cold air hit it.
I bent and picked up my stupid red kimono and put it back on. I went over to were T’Vey sat and dropped down on the seat beside her.
I looked over to the rest of the crew and shouted: “Hey!”
Chris and Buck turned their heads toward me.
“Are we done here yet?” I asked, “Cause I’m ready to go home.”
Forty-Nine
I wiggled my bare toes. They basked in the glow of the crackling fire I had going in the fireplace. My butt was settled down all comfortable like in my recliner. I lifted the icy bottle of Budweiser in my right hand and admired the beads of condensation sliding down the side.
I put the bottle to my lips and let the precious liquid inside slide over my tongue and down my throat.
Oh my. Pure bliss.
Such simple pleasures I would never take for granted again.
I was about to turn on the TV and watch some Duck Dynasty reruns when someone knocked on my cabin door. Before I could get mad and get my lazy self out of my chair, the door opened and who should come strolling in but my big brother, Buck the jerk asshole.
If he noticed the sour look on my face, he didn’t say nothing about it. He was dressed more normal. Blue jeans, black and gray flannel shirt, work boots and, of course, his black Stetson.
Even from across the room I could smell the cinnamon gum that was snapping between them iron jaws of his.
He came across the room, boots clomping on my oak floor, and sat down on the brown overstuffed couch along the far wall. He nodded at the TV.
“Nothing on?” he asked.
“Was just gonna turn it on,” I said, “Got some Duck Dynasty on the DVR.”
He nodded his head. Did the man even know what a DVR was? He didn’t have no TV in that little single wide of his. The man wouldn’t even have electricity if it wasn’t for me making sure his bill got paid.
“So how you doing?” Buck asked. He put one boot on his knee. He was still staring at the TV, like he expected it to turn on at any second. “You ain’t been by lately.”
We’d only been back on Earth for a month. It’d taken almost an act of Congress to get all my stuff straightened out. I’d been gone for nearly a year. Lucky my cabin and the truck had been paid for, so there weren’t no bank trying to repossess them. But trying to convince the electric company and the cable company I wasn’t dead was a chore and a half. My bank had frozen my accounts. Even my subscription to Field & Stream had run out.
I was all I could do to not shuck off my clothes and show some people what a really pissed off customer could do.
I restrained myself though.
In all that time, I hadn’t said a word to Buck. Hadn’t even gone over to his little single wide overlooking the river. I made sure his utilities got turned back on, but that was about it. I figured he had enough cash stashed around that he could get his own damn groceries, though. Far as I was concerned, none of that stuff was my job anymore.
“Don’t know why I should be over there,” I said, “Thought I made it clear our business was done.”
Once we’d gotten back under way to Earth, I’d taken Buck aside and had it out with him. Made it real plain that what he’d done to me was bey
ond shitty. You don’t treat family like that, I’d told him.
Only reason I done it was because I knew I could count on you, Buck had said back to me.
That only led to more hot words between us. I let him know I felt used and abused. Course, he didn’t see it that way. Accused me of being a big baby, in fact.
Lucky for us it was a quick trip back to Earth. The Dendon ghost ship had the father than light other-space drive. I asked Chris if he was going to share the tech with the rest of the aliens. He said no, not yet. That gave me at least a small warm fuzzy. We had something over them aliens, at least.
Liz flew us down down in a little ship, dropped us off on the road just down the way from my cabin. I didn’t even say anything to Buck. I just spun on my heel and walked away. He didn’t say nothing at the time. Course now that he was sitting in my living room, maybe he was feeling a bit more communicative.
“Don’t think our business will ever be done, seeing as how we’re brothers,” Buck said.
I raised an eyebrow at him. Since when did he get to play the brother card? All my life I’d been doing stuff for him because he was my brother.
“I don’t feel like being your patsy any more, Buck,” I said, “Go find yourself a new sidekick.”
Buck flicked some dirt off his boot. “You don’t care what momma wants any more?”
I just about threw the TV remote at him.
“Since when do you care what momma wants?” I said, “You’ve been off doing whatever the hell you want all your life, Buck. Far as I can tell you don’t give a damn about no one but yourself.”
Buck still wasn’t looking me in the eye. Instead he was watching his fingers flick specks of dirt from his boot to my floor. My clean floor. I run a dust mop over it every day. Now I was gonna have to do it again once he got his selfish ass up off my couch and left.
“Don’t think that’s quite true, Roy,” Buck said, “But I don’t blame you for thinking it. You’ve only saw one side of what I been doing.”
“Really? So what you been doing that isn’t self serving?” I said, “Go on, I can’t wait to hear it.”
Buck shook his head and flicked some more dirt onto my floor. “I’m not much one for telling,” he said, “I figure I could show you if you was interested.”
“No thanks,” I said, “Last time you showed me something, I ended up in an alien prison on Pluto for half a year.”
Buck started to say something but I put up a hand.
“I’m not interested, whatever you have to say,” I said, “We were supposed to be partners, but you never told me jack shit about what was going on. When we was on that oil train you knew which aliens was coming. You even knew why. You knew all kinds of things. You knew about that Galactic Union thing and all the aliens. You knew about Dons and Blinkies and Stickmen and Werlobsters and Lightning Bugs. You knew about that Chris guy, and Liz and her armor. Shit you even got yourself some Don armor somewhere. You gonna tell me when you got that? Was it before or after the Blinkys stole the train?”
Buck rubbed at the dust on his boot. “Was sometime before,” he said.
I threw my hands up. “See? How come you couldn’t trust me with any of that, Buck? You dropped me into a situation I didn’t know nothing about and I nearly got killed. Shit I killed a Don and got myself sent to alien prison.”
“Told you not to kill any of them aliens,” Buck said.
“Buck! You know god damned well you’re in the wrong here,” I said, “Maybe you can figure out a way to justify it to yourself, but you did me wrong. I’ve been doing my best to help you, but you never made it any easier for me.”
Buck didn’t answer right away. He sat there, rubbing his boot like he was trying to put a hole in it. His fuzzy brow was furrowed under the shadow of his Stetson.
“What’re you wanting me to tell you, little brother?” Buck said, “You want a sorry? Okay, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let you come up with me. I didn’t think things was gonna…escalate like they did. Thought it’d be a lark for you, a way to introduce you to the bigger stuff. But when that Don showed up, I knew I’d sprung a trap. I couldn’t take the chance of the Dons getting a hold of me. I knew too much about Chris and Liz and the Dendon. I coulda just killed that Don, but I needed to find out where the trail led.”
My face was getting hotter with every word that come out of his mouth. I thought about the medallion sitting under my flannel shirt. I wondered which one of us could strip faster.
“So you had me put your hat and coat on and made that Don think I was you?” I said, “And what you think was gonna happen anyway? That asshole was going to torture me and then he was gonna kill me. I know I wasn’t the special one in the family, but were you gonna go to momma and tell her you let her youngest get killed in your place?”
Buck finally looked up at me. His eyes were hard and it took a lot for me not to flinch from that look. But then, I’d been through a lot, too. I wasn’t as green as I was a few months back.
“I wasn’t gonna let that piece of shit hurt you,” Buck said, “Fact is, things escalated too fast. I sent a shout out to the Stickmen. Didn’t know there was one patrolling the area. Apparently the secondhand stealth shield those idiot Blinkys was using wasn’t working like it should. Stickman caught a signature and was coming to investigate. Low and behold, it caught a Don ship high tailing out of the area. I tell you, that patch of space over the Idaho border was crowded that night.”
“And how was you gonna keep the Don from killing me?” I asked, “You was up hiding in that Blinky ship.”
Buck shook his head. “You got that wrong, little brother,” he said, “When that Don dragged you on his ship, I snuck aboard. I was there the whole time.”
My jaw just about hit the floor. For a long minute all I could do was sit there and flap my mouth open and closed like a trout on the riverbank. Finally I managed to get my train of thought back on its rails.
“Are you kidding me?” I said, “You were on the Don ship the whole time?”
“Yup.”
“And you didn’t do anything?”
Buck’s shoulders twitched in his bare version of a shrug. “Didn’t seem necessary,” he said, “You managed to take care of things.”
“But…the Stickman…why didn’t you come out then?”
“I needed that Don ship,” Buck said, “I needed to go through its logs and try to find out who sent it after me.”
“But…I went to prison,” I said.
Buck snorted a laugh. “You call that a prison?” he said, “That little thing on Pluto is a vacation resort. You oughta try a Don prison sometime.”
“No thanks.”
I sunk back in my chair and tried to think it all through. It still didn’t make sense.
“What took so long to get me out of there, then?” I asked, “It was you behind my little prison breakout, right?”
“Course it was,” Buck said, “I had a breakout there arranged in case I ever needed one. I figured it was safer for you to stay there until I could get other stuff taken care of.”
“What other stuff?”
“Well, I had to take care of the Don ship, had to get a hold of Chris and Liz and let them know the Don was making their move. Plus I had to grab that Blinky ship out of the Stickmen’s impound and get all them oil cans back to Earth.”
I sat up in my chair again. The way I was going, I needed a rocking chair. Or I just needed to stand up. Except standing seemed like a lot of effort.
I’d forgotten all about the oil train and Ken Corbin’s contract. I was surprised the guy hadn’t been pounding on my door, demanding his money back. Apparently there was a reason.
“Wait, you telling me you went ahead and finished Corbin’s job before coming to get me?” I asked.
“Was one of the things,” Buck said, “I told the man I’d get the job done. I’m a man of my word.”
My head was starting to hurt. I poured the rest of my beer down my throat. I didn’t offer one to B
uck. He knew where the fridge was. If he wanted one, he could go get it hisself.
“Did he do the rest of the payment?” I asked.
“Course,” Buck said, “I did the job, That mean he had to pay up. Didn’t seem all that happy about it, but he seemed to feel better when I told him nobody was gonna be stealing his trains anymore.”
I needed to check the account balances. The money should have gone into the trust fund I set up for Buck. If the full amount wasn’t there, then Corbin was gonna get a visit.
And a chunk of that money had better be in my account, too. I’d more than earned it this time. More than earned it.
I set my sadly empty beer bottle down and rubbed my face with my hands. My palms scraped over the fuzz around my mouth. Funny thing about the goatee. I was gonna shave it off, but it got some compliments from the ladies. And well, once I got good look at myself in the mirror, I decided it looked kind of good. I’d lost a bit of weight over that last year and my cheeks had a touch of hollowness to them. Almost like Buck, except I didn’t have that huge, mangy-ass beard to get in the way.
The goatee gave me a bit of a rakish look. Like I had a bit of the bad boy in me. And everyone knows that gals have a sweet spot for bad boys. I was willing to play that up a little.
I wasn’t going to go collecting scars and tattoos and knocking over convenience stores, though. A guy had to have some standards.
Like my asshole brother.
I sighed and gave him a long look. He was looking back at me, them dark eyes of his glittering under the brim of his hat.
“So let me get this straight,” I said. I started ticking the points off on my fingers. “You took care of the contract with Corbin. You sprung me from prison. Then you stole a secret military spaceship and threatened to destroy an entire world.”
“Wasn’t gonna destroy the planet,” Buck said, “Just kill everything on it.”
“Oh, right, gotta make sure that little genocidal nuance gets in there,” I said.
“I got good reasons for it,” Buck said, “Stuff you ain’t heard about.”
I wagged a finger at him. “That’s just it, Buck. There’s a whole raft of stuff you haven’t told me about,” I said, “All these years I been trying to help you and there’s a whole other side that I never had a clue about. Now you act all surprised that I’m mad about what happened? You’ve done me wrong. Ain’t no two ways about it. And I don’t trust you to not do it to me all over again.”
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