Burning Bright

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “Uhhh. That isn’t at all on the same level as this,” Zea huffed.

  “I agree. It was a comparison, but perhaps it was a poor one,” Eve said with a frown.

  “No, I get what you are saying,” Zea sighed.

  “I don’t get what you are saying,” Paula said.

  “These people might honestly think and feel that the Magate Order is in touch with their god. They might honor this tribute process. The young women might go willingly and be pleased they are chosen.” Eve shrugged.

  “I fucking doubt that,” Kasta said, and I was once again surprised by her anger. The longer I spent time with the android woman, the more human she seemed. “And if they are pleased to be chosen, they probably have a change of heart real damn quick once they find out these fuckers are really just slavers.”

  “I want to help these people also, but we are jumping to the conclusion which might cause the fabric of their society to tear,” Eve said.

  “No, Eve,” Zea said. “I understand that you want to investigate this more, but it doesn’t matter what we find out. These Magate Order fuckers are slavers, and they are taking women. I don’t care if stopping them hurts these idiots’ feelings and causes them to rethink their religion.” Zea’s jaw was clenched as she turned to me.

  “Let’s fly to the other side of the planet,” I ordered. “We need food, but I don’t want to talk to the natives until we eat and get food supplies in our storage.”

  “How are we going to get food without talking to anyone?” Paula asked.

  “The same way they used to get it before there were starships,” I said, but the beautiful engineer still looked confused.

  “I’ll hunt for it,” I explained, and then she smiled.

  “Ahhh. Are there animals to hunt on the surface?” Paula asked.

  “There are ranches, and farms. Animals tend to escape and flourish in the wild. You’ve got the scanners. I’m sure you can find a herd of cattle or deer. I’ll shoot a few, butcher them, and we’ll cook them.”

  “You know how to do all that?” Zea asked with surprise.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’m a marine. I can kill anything, and I can cook most of what I kill. Zea, take us to the other side of the planet. Paula, look for something I can shoot and cook. Once we are done eating and stocking our kitchen, we’ll find a small village or town where Eve can talk to a few people.”

  “But--” Zea started, but I didn’t let her finish.

  “I’m with you. So is Eve,” I said as I looked at the vampire. “Even if these people are brainwashed into thinking they need to pay tribute to these slavers, we are going to put a stop to it. We have a few days, we can talk to some of them, and Eve can use her powers to find out what the real story is.”

  “Yes, I like that plan,” Eve said as she smiled at Zea. The blonde hacker returned her smile and then turned back to the controls.

  “Alright. Let’s go find something to eat,” she said as she pushed on Persephone’s acceleration.

  Chapter 8

  We found a herd of free range cattle a half an hour later. It was almost exactly on the other side of the planet from where Shiro’s city was located, and it was a good twenty kilometers from a small town. Some of the settlement could have possibly had long range sensors that could scan our descent through the atmosphere, but I doubted it. I gave Zea the order to descend, and then I went down to the armory after we entered the atmosphere so I could grab a rifle.

  “Can we help?” Kasta said as she and Paula stepped into the elevator with me.

  “I was going to take the APC we stole from Lith Dae, shoot one, and then bring it back,” I said.

  “If you show us how to butcher it, we can help you,” Paula offered. “Then we can fit more in the back.

  “We have plastic wrap in the kitchen and plenty of knives. I can even set up a few of our machinist work benches outside so we can process them quicker,” Kasta said.

  “That would work,” I said as I looked at the two beautiful women. Their sudden desire to help me was welcome, and not out of character, but the twin smiles they wore seemed a bit mischievous.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?” Kasta asked as she raised an eyebrow.

  “You both seem eager to help,” I said.

  “Any chance to set foot on a planet,” Paula said. “We’ve never seen cattle graze before, just in the stockades on Queen’s Hat.”

  “Ahh,” I said as the door to the elevator opened on Persephone’s lowest floor.

  “I’ll go back up to the kitchen, get the knives, wrap, and whatever other airtight containers I can find,” Kasta said after her sister and I stepped out of the elevator.

  “I’ll load the tables in the APC and drive,” Paula said.

  “I was going to drag the carcasses back into the hold so I could work on them inside of Persephone,” I explained.

  “Can we please do it outside?” Kasta asked. “My sister and I enjoy the sun, the air, and the smell of the grass.”

  “Alright. I guess we are far enough away from anyone who might attack us. I’ll meet you both there after I grab a rifle.” I nodded to both of them, and we went our separate ways.

  I made my way to the armory and looked through our growing arsenal. I’d left the sniper rifle, pistols, and carbine back in my room, but none of the three would have been a proper choice for hunting. The sniper rifle wouldn’t leave any meat, and the carbine had expensive armor piercing rounds.

  I grabbed one of the rifles we’d taken from Cynthia Jayhee’s men when they tried to kill Eve and me on our shuttle. They used smaller caliber bullets than my usual rifle and were plenty accurate. I didn’t really need my ammo webbing rig for this short trip, but I felt naked without it on Queen’s Hat. I strapped the twin pistols around my hips, the revolver across my chest, put a few extra magazines of ammo for the rifle in one of the pouches, and then checked the long knife sheathed on the left rear of the belt. As soon as I was satisfied everything was in place, I walked to the hold.

  “Need help?” I asked Paula as I saw her maneuvering a metal folding table up the APC ramp.

  “Sure,” she said, and I helped her push it up the ramp.

  “Strap it in, I’ll get the other two,” I told her as I walked down the ramp to the other tables.

  “Hey, Captain,” Zea’s voice came over my transponder.

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m going to set down. The hatch door is pointed at roughly where the herd is. They are a little over a kilometer away. I didn’t want to get too close and spook the animals.”

  “Good call,” I said as I pushed the table up the ramp and handed it off to Paula to tie down.

  “You mind if I come with you?” Zea asked.

  “I’d rather you wait on Persephone,” I answered. “I don’t expect an attack, but I don’t want to be caught flat footed. You’re the only one who can get us out of here quickly. We are going to work on the butchering outside, but will only be a few meters from the hatch. It will probably take us six hours.”

  “Got it. Eve and I will hang out on the bridge and chat.” Zea’s voice sounded happy, and it made my memories our love making flash through my brain. “Landing in ten seconds. See you when you get back.”

  “I’ll bring dinner,” I said with a chuckle.

  “That’s my man,” she replied, and then she cleared her throat. “I uhh. Well, I was joking. You know what I mean. You are… ahhh… Eve’s also. I don’t want it to seem like I’m--”

  “I love you,” I interrupted her.

  “Oh,” she said with a bit of surprise. “I love you, too. Can’t wait to see you again. Be safe.”

  Her words pushed my memories back to our time in the shower and bedroom, and I closed my eyes for a few moments.

  Persephone slowed and then drifted downward. Zea’s piloting skills had dramatically improved since we first stole the ship, and I only felt a tiny bump when the landing gear connected with the surface of
the planet.

  “Last one,” I said to Paula as I handed her the table.

  “Thanks,” she replied as she attached the table to the inside wall with a holding strap. “And thanks for letting us come with you.”

  “I’m grateful for the help. It will make it easier.”

  “We want to help. We like it on Persephone,” Paula said. “I want to apologize for my sister again--”

  “It’s fine,” I said as I held up my hands.

  “She’s a bit jealous,” Paula explained, and then she gave me a curious look when I let out a laugh.

  “I was about to say: ‘she’s only human,’ but she isn’t. You did a great job building her.”

  “Thank you. I feel like an amateur though. You should have met my sister.”

  “You’ve said that before. Sounds like she was an amazing engineer. I’m sorry about what happened to her.”

  “It’s not your fault.” Paula laid her hand on my forearm and smiled at me. The touch didn’t seem romantic, but my eyes drifted down to glance at her fingers. “I’m glad you decided to help these people. My sister and I would follow you anywhere, but we feel strongly about this.”

  “I understand,” I said. “I do as well.”

  “I’m here!” Kasta said as she stepped into the back of the APC. Both Paula and I jumped, and she hastily pulled her hand off my arm.

  “Am I interrupting something?” Kasta asked. Her beautiful face was painted with a coy smile, and her eyes bounced to her sister and me.

  “Nope.” Paula crossed her arms. “You get everything?”

  “Plenty of stuff to store the food, and a few of our sharpest looking knives.” Kasta gestured to her back pack.

  “It all fit in there?” I asked.

  “Aye, Captain,” Kasta purred. “I’m very good at sliding big things into tight spaces.”

  “Ugh,” Paula moaned. “I’m driving. Captain, you can ride shotgun. Sis, you should stay back here with the equipment.”

  “Awww,” Kasta sighed as she pushed out her lower lip.

  “I’m kidding. The front seat can fit five people. Just stop making passes at the captain, please?”

  “He likes it, don’t you?” Kasta winked at me.

  “I’m almost positive you and I have already talked about this,” I said.

  “We have, but you are smiling right now.” Kasta shrugged. “You like the attention.”

  “Kasta, ple--”

  “He’s a tiger-man!” Kasta interrupted her sister. “Cats love attention. He’ll come around to the idea.”

  “Let’s focus on the task at hand.” I walked out of the back of the APC and hit the switches that opened the bay door and extended the ramp. The air outside was warm and dry, and a slight wind carried the scent of grass to my nose.

  Paula drove the APC to the edge of the ramp, and I climbed into the passenger seat next to Kasta. Then we were driving down the ramp and across an endless stretch of prairie.

  Paula didn’t drive particularly fast. The ground felt a bit soft under the wheels, and we were only a kilometer away from the edges of the herd. I guessed she didn’t want to risk us getting stuck, but I’d driven the vehicle before so I knew it could plow over or through pretty much anything.

  “Can you please roll the window down?” Kasta asked us, and her sister pressed the button on the door to lower the thick armored glass. The warm, dry heat filled the cabin, and their blonde hair began to dance with the currents.

  “So beautiful,” Paula said as she looked out across the grass. It was mostly yellow, so I guessed we were in a summer phase of the planet’s rotation.

  I saw the herd of cattle up ahead, and I calculated we’d be in shooting range within another half minute. “I’ll tell you when we are within range. Then I’ll shoot a few. The herd will run away from us, and then we can drive closer and set up the tables.”

  “Good plan,” Kasta said.

  “I’ll teach you both how to butcher them, I’m sure you can figure out the best process for making it work.”

  “Yes, we can,” Paula said.

  “Here is good,” I said a few seconds later. We were about a hundred meters from the herd, and I stepped out of the truck with my rifle.

  I picked out a few of the fattest males near the edges and passed my sight dot over the spot where their skulls met their spines. Shooting bulls on a field isn’t very sporting, but I had plenty of excitement in my life. A quick squeeze of my trigger took down the first beast, and I was able to get two more before the herd figured out what I was doing. They stampeded away from the APC, but the ones I’d killed were at the edge of the group and didn’t get trampled.

  “Good shooting,” Kasta said as I climbed back in the cabin. I nodded at her, and then Paula drove us to the spot where the carcases lay. She flipped the truck around so we could unload the tables easier, and we went to work on the butchering.

  I was no expert at cutting up meat, but the twins were quick studies, and we carved the first one into standard pieces in about six hours. The work was incredibly messy, but Kasta thought to bring us cooking aprons and gloves, so most of the blood stayed off our flight suits. After we packed the first carcass, we went to work on the second, and I was a bit surprised by how quickly the two women wielded their blades.

  “You both are naturals,” I said after I watched them remove the intestines with a method much more efficient than what I first taught them.

  “We’ve studied anatomy,” Kasta grunted as she pulled the heart out and put it in a bag.

  “I had to, I wanted someone to be very life-like,” Paula said as she nodded at her sister.

  “That makes sense,” I said as grabbed one of the haunches they had cut and moved it over to a table.

  The air was hot, and the work difficult, but I was doing most of the lifting of the heavier pieces so the women only needed to worry about cutting the meat. The job would have been easier if we had ceiling hooks, but the amount of beef we were getting from these three animals would last us at least six months, and it wouldn’t cost us anything more than our time.

  “How’s it looking?” Zea asked through my transponder. “You’ve been at it a while. Almost done?”

  “Just started on the second,” I replied. I was a bit surprised that she didn’t message me earlier, but I figured my two lovers had a lot to speak about.

  “Just started? You’ve only done one? How many did you take down?” she asked.

  “Three in total,” I replied.

  “Fuck, you’ll be there all night. Can we come help?”

  “We can use it,” Paula said. “I’m getting a bit tired and can use a break, and some water. Also, maybe one of them could start cooking some of this. I’m hungry.”

  “I’m worried about getting attacked,” I said.

  “No one’s going to attack us,” Zea said. “We are out in the middle of nowhere. These Magate Order fuckers won’t be here for approximately sixty-ish hours. I can bring Persephone over and land her right next to where you are. Then Eve and I can come out to help. If we need to, we can run back to the bridge. We are super bored and want to help.”

  “Alright,” I said, even though the idea sat wrong in my stomach. Maybe I was overprotective of my friends, but I didn’t like the idea of us all being outside of the ship when we knew slavers were coming.

  Especially when we were on a planet that seemed to welcome their arrival.

  Having two extra sets of hands would make this go much quicker though, and then we could get back into Persephone. I knew I was being too conservative, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of being over exposed. We tended to get hit when we least expected it.

  But we also got hit when we did expect it.

  I saw Persephone lift off the ground and glide over toward us. She looked beautiful in the air, and I stopped my butchering so I could watch Zea land her next to us. The hacker did another great job, and the ramp extended down three meters from the front of the APC. Eve and Zea walked down
the ramp a few minutes afterward, and they brought us jugs of cold water to drink.

  “How can we help?” Eve asked after Paula and I had guzzled the water. The vampire’s eyes were fixed on the carcases of the cattle, and I guessed that she’d enjoy the butchering process more than Zea, who actually looked as if she might puke when she saw all the blood on my apron.

  “Paula needs a break. I would like Zea and Paula to take the APC into the hold and put the meat into the freezer?”

  “Yes,” Zea agreed, and her face betrayed her relief.

  “Eve, I’m putting the bigger pieces on the table. Kasta can show you how to cut them.” The vampire nodded at my words, and then took Paula’s knife.

  Zea and Paula returned an hour later, and they rolled out a serving tray with cooked meat from the back of the APC. Kasta continued to work, but the rest of us washed our hands and then ate together as we lounged on Persephone’s ramp. The sun felt as if it was about mid afternoon, and the dry heat combined with the food in a way that made me want to take a cat nap.

  Of course, if I went up to my room to take a nap, I’d bring Zea and Eve, and there wouldn’t be much sleeping going on.

  “It’s really peaceful here,” Paula sighed as she leaned back on the ramp. Her head rested on her arms, and her blonde hair fluttered in the wind like the grass surrounding us.

  “Yeah,” Zea agreed. “It’s a lovely planet. Much nicer than Trappist - 1e.”

  “What is your homeworld like?” Kasta asked as she bent over a giant hunk of meat I’d moved over the table before we took a break.

  “It was a strange mix of rocky desert badlands and humid rain. I think they messed up the terraforming so the soil never took. Everything had to be grown in greenhouses. The city I lived in was crowded, and there were lots of starving people. Lives didn’t matter much.” Zea’s voice grew soft as she spoke.

  “Sounds like a lot of places,” Paula said. “Even here, on this pretty planet, they are giving a group of slavers bodies to sell.”

  “We are going to put a stop to that,” Zea growled, and the other women nodded.