Awakening

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  “Yeah, but they’re still pretty cool,” Bentley said, not seeming to catch Jelly Bean’s wariness. She unsheathed the blade in a single motion. It surprised her. With the sword’s length and size, pulling it from its scabbard took a very deliberate turn of her body and lift of her shoulder that she went through automatically, like she’d done it hundreds of times before.

  The blade itself was very beautiful, with a banded wave-pattern forged along the entirety of it. There was a blue sheen to the metal when she moved it from left to right to feel its balance while drawn. Both sides of the blade appeared to be sharp, though the one facing her was serrated.

  “Daaamn…” Bentley admired the weapon. “This one’s Shango’s right? He’s got good fuckin’ taste for a boring old dude.”

  “Shango takes great pride and care in his weapon selection,” Jelly Bean said. “He would not be happy to find one of them damaged or misused.”

  “Yeah, well, he’s got a million of them, looks like…” Bentley began to swing the weapon in front of her, finding the motions rather intuitive. She began to quicken her pace, then found herself using turns of her wrist to whirl the sword about in front of her and to the left in what actually felt like very effective movements for fending off an attacker.

  “Holy shit,” Bentley said with a broad, drunken grin. “Jelly, is it just the tequila playing tricks on me, or am I actually good at this?”

  “You haven’t hurt yourself at least,” Jelly Bean answered.

  “Oh, come on! Give me some credit!” Bentley answered, taking it as a challenge.

  She threw the weapon’s scabbard into the air and gripped the hilt with both hands, then spun around to face behind her, bringing the point of the sword forward and then pulling it back with a fluid grace she didn’t know she was capable of.

  She caught the scabbard again before it fell, and then took a few steps to the left and the right, feeling the padding again, and surprising herself by how light on her feet she was, especially while drunk.

  She resheathed the blade, then crouched down into a stance that she found comforting in its familiarity. Then Bentley pounced, running forward and leaping into the air, drawing the sword again in a quick, deadly cutting motion while her leg came out in a spinning kick, her core torquing her body to make the entire movement come together in what felt like a highly effective combination of attack and defense.

  When she landed back on the mat, she stumbled slightly, but changed the grip on her sword to an underhanded one and thrust it behind her. “Damn!” she said, giddily. “I’m pretty good!”

  “You do seem to have a few moves,” Jelly Bean agreed. “I didn’t expect this.”

  “Man, just let Loco try and throw me in a cell now! Ha!” Bentley shot her leg out in a front push kick, popping her hips out and leaning back to put her weight into it, and then followed it up by planting her lead foot down and thrusting forward with the tip of her blade.

  She could even visualize the utility in it, of pushing the enemy away and then driving the point into him where he couldn’t retaliate. It would have been especially effective, she realized, again someone attacking her with a pair of short blades, like the person she’d just mentioned.

  “I’ll just be like... Pow!”

  She tried to turn and swing her weapon in a wide arc this time, but finally felt the limitations of her drunken state and just barely managed to keep herself from falling over and landing on Shango’s sword.

  “You probably shouldn’t be doing this while drunk, however,” Jelly Bean warned.

  “Yeah…” Bentley’s breathing was elevated, and it made her aware of how much the room was spinning. She sheathed the blade carefully this time and hung it back up where she’d found it. “Maybe I should head back to my room and sleep this off, huh?”

  She began to walk towards the exit, just barely remembering to put her shoes back on.

  “I will accompany you,” Jelly Bean said. “Friends don’t let friends go home alone while drunk.”

  “You said we’re frieeeends…” Bentley drunkenly teased. “That’s awesome. I’ve got an android for a friend…” she leaned on her again while they exited the training room.

  “But damn, I can’t believe I know this stuff. Like, seriously! Do you think in my old life I was some kind of ninja… Super-soldier… Secret agent badass thing?”

  “Yes, dear,” Jelly Bean said, seeming amused at the extent of the tequila’s effect. “I’m sure you were.”

  +++

  Bentley’s Quarters, Aboard the Chesed, Klaunox Sector

  Bentley was getting undressed, the sweat from the training combined with her drunkenness having made the pants she’d been in all day no longer tolerable. She unbuckled and unzipped them carefully.

  “Are you going to be alright?” Jelly Bean asked her. “You should drink some water.”

  “Pfft! Water!” Bentley scoffed at the very thought while letting her pants drop to her knees. “I’m done with water! From now on it’s…”

  She stopped her prepared drunken rant when something fell from her back pocket to land on the floor. It was a small, black card with lines of circuitry in it.

  “What’s that?” Jelly Bean inquired.

  “Hell if I know,” Bentley answered, bending at the knee to pick it up. She handed it to Jelly Bean, who observed it with interest.

  “It appears to be chipped,” Jelly Bean said. “Perhaps some kind of clearance or identification.”

  “Huh.”

  “I can scan it to see if it has anything I can read on it.” she suggested.

  “Maybe later,” Bentley said, flopping down into the bed and kicking off her pants. “I’ve had more than enough excitement today.”

  “Very well,” Jelly Bean said, moving from her room. “Sleep well, Bentley.”

  “Night, Jelly.”

  Bentley had only slept until moderately sober. It seemed to be the middle of the night, or whatever passed as the middle of the night for a vessel floating in space. The ship was very quiet now, and it seemed like everyone was asleep. Maybe even Jelly Bean. Bentley was unsure of whether or not androids needed sleep.

  She’d been woken with memories of that sword she’d found in the med bay, and the old man’s words.

  ‘Protect the sword with your life,’ he’d said. ‘You and the sword are now one.’

  Those words had managed to stay out of her mind for awhile, but the brief time she’d spent in the training room wielding Shango’s sword had brought the thought of it back into her mind. And it had made her acutely aware of that feeling, like an itch so common you might forget you even had it, that the sword was calling out to her. It had woken her up the moment the alcohol had stopped numbing her to it.

  She knew she had no choice: she had to protect it, or at least make sure nobody else found it.

  Bentley tiptoed into the Med Bay, barefoot to minimize the noise. She had gathered some of the sheets from her room into a bundle and tucked it under one arm. She hoped the sword didn’t behave the way it had last time, but figured it was best to make the right preparations for it. Or any preparations, at least.

  As she approached the med cabinet, she felt a pang of fear that the sword might no longer be there. She’d left it unattended for so long, one of the others could have found it already, maybe added it to their collection. If they could touch it without it activating, anyway.

  She opened the cabinet door and breathed a sigh of relief.

  It was still where she’d left it in her old hiding spot. There was a strange feeling of completeness when she laid eyes on the strange weapon, of relief beyond the simple knowledge that it hadn’t been taken. And then she realized she was reaching out to touch it again.

  The moment Bentley’s fingers made contact with the sword, it lit up as it had before, and began to make a buzzing noise that shook the cabinet conspicuously.

  “Fuck!” Bentley whispered, withdrawing her hand from the hilt. Hoping that hadn’t woken anybody, and rem
embering her previous plan, she took the linens from under her arm and pulled them around the sword, gripping it again through the multiple layers of bedsheets.

  There was no reaction; it had worked. The separation between her hand and the sword was enough that she could carry it without it activating in that noisy, potentially painful way. Carrying it in an awkward bundle clutched to her body, she hurried back to her quarters.

  Once she’d returned to her room, Bentley quickly lifted the mattress to her bed and laid the sheet-wrapped sword across the network of metal slats that lay beneath. It wasn’t the best hiding spot, but it was the only place of safekeeping she had on this ship. She replaced the mattress and climbed on top of it.

  The large blade resting underneath her was quite noticeable when she went to lie down. But it wasn’t uncomfortable. In fact, it seemed to bring her a sense of peace she hadn’t felt since she’d first awoken on the Chesed.

  Bentley drifted off into a quiet, dreamless sleep.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Malleghan’s Command Chamber, Dracon Station, Dracon System, Klaunox Sector

  Malleghan sat in his elevated chair, scowling down at the room before him as he tried to enjoy his ashlands wine. Rich men could spend their life savings and never be able to afford a drop of something like this, but worldly pleasures were becoming increasingly weak to him. He grimaced at the thought of the dozens of meetings he had scheduled for the day and resolved that at least one of the people reporting to him would die today. All of them were guilty of wasting his time. Some, simply, less than others.

  A call came in via his private corteX channel. When he saw it was one of his EYES spatial probe vessels, the anger it brought to him was palpable. He hated, more than anything, when his soldiers presumed to call him like this.

  “This had better be worth my time,” Malleghan said when he opened up the channel. “Report.”

  “Yes your eminence,” the vessel’s supervisor answered nervously. “We found signs of what you’re looking for on our latest scan.”

  “Explain yourself,” Malleghan answered. People said things like this to him frequently, and all too often he was disappointed.

  “There was a strange spatiotemporal wavelength on our latest scan. Just a short anomaly, but my technicians have cross-referenced it against all the readings provided by the Geburah’s scans during its approach to the Chesed. They’re a ninety-nine per cent match.”

  “The sword, then?” Malleghan’s lips curled up into the slightest semblance of a smile.

  “It is possible, your eminence. But it was only for a brief moment.”

  “Very good. Send all of the data to my central stores,” Malleghan ordered him. “Dismissed.”

  The supervisor gave him a salute just as the call closed.

  “I suppose your data’s not so useless after all,” Malleghan said with a short little laugh to himself. He directed his corteX to hail the Geburah while he downed the remainder of his wine.

  It actually tasted good for a change.

  +++

  Bridge, Aboard the Chesed, Klaunox Sector

  Jelly Bean was hooked up to the main system, hiding her scans and data inquiries deep within the Chesed’s coding, away from prying eyes while she investigated the data card Bentley had given her.

  It was, as she’d listed in its possibilities, an identification card, and it carried the signature of LaPlace. Dacca facilities, high end scientific research division. And there was Bentley’s face on its coded profile. But Bentley wasn’t her real name, of course. Jelly Bean had figured that much out long before she’d had any proof.

  What drew the android’s attention especially was the nature of the research Bentley been posted to. It was something so complex that even Jelly Bean herself wasn’t able to piece together its purpose on first glance. But it was enough that she wanted to pore over it extensively. That is, until she heard sounds out in the physical world that drew her back out.

  “Delete all associated files, computer,” Jelly Bean hastily asserted to the system as she exited.

  “Affirmative,” the Chesed’s computer responded, wiping away all evidence of Bentley’s uncovered identity.

  When she brought optical sensors back to the bridge, she saw Olofi entering. Loco and Shango followed close behind.

  “Girl or no girl, we need to make repairs stat,” Olofi said, looking back at Loco. “Besides, it’s a heavy population center. Jedson’s men wouldn’t make a scene or come at us there. If he’s even got any men stationed there.”

  “I dunno,” Loco gruffed dubiously, stretching out with a distinctly catlike expression while he yawned. “I could go for some R&R after all this excitement.”

  “Oh no, not this time,” Olofi protested. “Just a supply ‘run and go’. It’s your crazy ideas of R&R that got us into this mess in the first place!”

  “And that turned out to be decidedly un-fucking-relaxing!” Loco argued. “All the more reason to do it for real this time.”

  “You are both arguing about nothing,” Shango said calmly. “We need supplies, and repairs will take time. That will be ample time for recreation.”

  Moving towards his main console, he looked over to Jelly Bean.

  “Bean,” Shango said. “Set us on course for Sparta Station.”

  “Understood,” Jelly answered. She interfaced with the ship to relay the information and co-ordinates, and the Chesed automatically began to set its course.

  “Olofi,” Shango turned back to his companion. “What’s the status on that face-to-face with Max?”

  “He said there’s no chance in hell he’s coming aboard our ship in person,” Olofi replied. “I believe his exact words were something along the lines of: ‘if you think I’m going to take one fucking step onto your death trap to make negotiations on a deal that should be open and shut, you must think I’m dumber than your whore mother was when she-’ well, you get the idea. I think he’s having a bad day.”

  “Good,” Shango answered, not seeming to dignify the second part of Olofi’s report. “He can meet us at the station. It’s a neutral area which we can secure.”

  “But-” Olofi began. He stopped when Shango raised a hand to silence his complaint.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “We won’t just be handing over the girl. We’ll work out an alternative.”

  “I have a feeling Max is already considering an alternative of his own,” Olofi said uncomfortably.

  “We will deal with that when it happens,” Shango said.

  “Well fuck,” Loco grumbled. “Guess we may be getting some action after all. I’ll go clean up Betsy for the ride.” He flashed a wicked smile and left the bridge.

  +++

  Cargo Bay, Aboard the Chesed, Sparta Space Station, Klaunox Sector

  As the Chesed had made port in Sparta station, all of its crew and passengers had now gathered in the cargo bay. Bentley was included here, and while she would have liked to think of this as a sign that they were beginning to trust her, she found it much more likely that they simply didn’t want to leave her alone on the ship before they left.

  Jade was there, too.

  She was unbound for their trip onto the station, and someone had wiped off all of the makeup that had run from her tears. Obviously having a crying girl tied up was something that would draw too much attention on a busy space station.

  “Look at us,” Loco said as he holstered a massive gun to his back. The weapon had the name “BETSY” engraved onto his barrel. “I can’t believe we keep bringing girls onto this ship. Particularly since its always ones I can’t wait to get rid of.”

  “Is it really smart to take her with us?” Olofi gestured towards Jade with a thumb. “Rule one of these kinds of exchanges is usually don’t bring the asset with you.”

  “Well we can’t exactly trust this one alone with her,” Loco said, jerking his head in the direction of Bentley even though he didn’t even look at her. “She’s damn well proven that much.”

  “I
t’s better this way,” Shango stated blankly over their discussion. “Max has access to other covert operatives. If he suspects we left her on the Chesed, he may feel tempted to have them board it while we aren’t here to defend it. This way we always have her in our sights.”

  “He might do that anyway,” Olofi noted. “Maybe try to take the ship as collateral.”

  “That’s why we’ll have Bean here on lockdown while she oversees repairs,” Shango explained, looking over at Jelly Bean. “She’ll run a tight ship while we’re away.”

  “Yes sir,” Jelly Bean said with a graphical nod.