Defiance

by Sean Liebling

  "It's okay, my master. Everyone forgets the tiny details," she breathed as tears coursed down her cheeks.

  "Perhaps, but they shouldn't. You are my life, my soul and my reason for being, here and now. I left word with Conrad to spread around. Any time you wish to leave the city and go pick apples for your master you may. But, don't blame me if the men give you an honor guard for protection while you're out picking. If you are determined to run away, I won't stop you because I love you too much. I simply won't free you." Ivy gave a long sigh at his words and finally looked up at him. That she stared him in the eyes, was considered a breach of protocol for a privately owned slave but she didn't care and it didn't look like her master did either. She saw that he was staring at her with a smile on his face and not a condescending smile, but a nice smile that made his eyes twinkle. She could not help but smile in return.

  "I don't want to run away, I was just hurting so badly and I was angry," she whispered.

  Slowly he held out his hand to her, a hand she gratefully accepted and then seconds later she was swept into his arms as he smothered her in kisses while holding her high off the ground in a bear hug. She giggled as she wrapped her legs around his waist and held on tight. With a smooth movement, he shifted his arms so that one forearm was under her ass, holding her up and the other disappeared only to appear with a small jar held tightly within the large grasp of his free hand. It was the pain ointment and a sight that caused her to giggle.

  "I'm really sorry I forgot this, mine," he breathed against her lips. "How can I make it up to you?"

  "You can get rid of those smelly rats in our home. They stink and they make noises and fight with each other in the middle of the night. I wake up hearing them and it gives me nightmares. Besides, if I'm all that you say I am, you won't need them anymore." Ivy was now grinning at her master which caused him to laugh with abandonment and carry her from the alleyway.

  "Oh, you are such a clever minx. Done!" he laughed, as he gently set her down on the clean cobbles of the main sidewalk just outside the mouth of the alley. Instantly she kneeled beside him on this left and waited patiently to be commanded. As many walked past them a few cast covetous eyes upon her but were careful to keep their expressions hidden. She was well known in the city now as completely restricted to her master and no longer needed to carry the cardboard sign around her neck indicating such. She was in effect, under the cities protection.

  "Let's go get those apples and bring some to Conrad and the guards, shall we? This way your secret will remain safe, although if I had to guess, I would say that Conrad saw right through it. He simply never said anything but it was he that handed me the jar of numbing salve when I walked up. Handed it to me without saying a word but with a stern expression on his face. I was chastised like a little boy," grinned Jack, to Ivy's giggles.

  Laughing they walked off to the market, but instead they stopped at a nearby bakery. There, Jack purchased almost two hundred small apple cinnamon pies and ordered them to be delivered to all the posterns and main bailiwick with the exception of the northeast corner where he and Ivy went next after a brief stop at his office. This is where Conrad resided, in his new throne telling stories to various guardsmen that walked up. Ivy held the small wicker basket of small pies and as they entered all three men and two others there in attendance, stood and saluted their commander.

  "I caught this little ragamuffin in the market and after the brief thought of whipping her, had a much better idea than buying fresh apples. I suggested it to Ivy and she whole-heartedly agreed, so enjoy men. A treat from Ivy," said Jack with a flourish as he indicated Ivy and the large basket in her arms. She was quick to go to each man, bow and hold the basket out, indicating for each to take two. The remainder she sat on a nearby table and asked the guards to give them out to any off duty guardsmen that showed up to hear master Conrad's stories of battle and debauchery, a comment that made all present laugh.

  "Come along mine, I need something cleaned in our quarters," snickered Jack, to the roaring amusement of the others as he pulled Ivy away from his men.

  *****

  Chapter 15:

  Jack smiled and swatted Ivy on the ass as she walked through the door ahead of him. Normally he would go first, but he did so enjoy looking at and touching her ass. It was then that he caught the flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye upon entering. Something was moving from the desk where he had papers piled up to the left corner of the room right at its apex. He frowned for a moment as he rummaged in a bag beside the bed. It contained spare weapons and carefully he pulled out five knives, all well balanced for throwing and after laying then on the nightstand, he turned to Ivy with a smile.

  "Lay down in the bed mine. This will only take a moment.

  "Yes, my master," she murmured with a smile as she removed her silks and lay back on the furs in anticipation of his taking of her. She was once again happy and over her funk concerning the branding and piercing. She would please her master in all things and was glad he found her, as she honestly had no idea what she would have done if left on her own. She no longer wanted to be alone, she wanted to be with this man, her master. She wondered how he would take her this evening and was excited at the prospect.

  Jack frowned as he picked up two of the knives and started to juggle them in his hands while out of the corner of his eye he watched the blurred outline of 'something' in the upper corner of the room. He had first noticed it two days ago, a slight blurring in certain areas. Tiny spots and just enough to catch his interest and make him wonder. He thought it might be a spirit, although there was no indication of such things no matter how hard their priests tried. The Gods they worshipped seemed to be absent. However, this seemed like the next best thing. Turning smoothly with both knives in his hands, he threw the first, the point thunking into the wood of the wall, mere inches from the blurred object and as it darted to the right, the second flew to hit the other wall, pulling it up short. Instantly he grabbed two more knives as he demanded.

  "Show yourself, spirit or whatever you are. Are you from the creators?" He scowled, as he readied to throw again. "I will not miss on the third one, just a warning, friend. However, you will show yourself to me now. I've been watching you for two days. You are a sloppy spy." Jack readied himself to throw and was just about to loose the third knife, when a mechanical voice said, "Hold". The voice was obviously artificial, if that was a word, but it was what came to Jacks mind and instinctively he also knew a bit about the creature he had caught.

  "Show yourself, construct!" he demanded. Beside him, Ivy had sat up and was staring in wonder at her master and the thing in the corner. Slowly, it morphed into a solid grey steel object with small tendrils jutting at all angles. Eight in total. It hovered there for a moment, before gently and slowly gliding over to the desk, upon which it sat, for lack of a better word. It seemed to be waiting patiently for Jack to say something, so he did.

  "You are capable of communication obviously. Are you a construct? Or, are you sentient," he demanded as he kept the knives ready.

  "Both," intoned the construct, causing Jack to frown. He tried again.

  "You are not living flesh and blood, correct?"

  "Correct."

  "Then let me speak to your master. Now and immediately."

  "I will connect you." The small metal orb with tentacles was completely silent as it sat there and Jack wondered how long he would have to wait, when another voice sounded from the device. This one was warm and obviously human and Jack smiled in triumph.

  "Ahh, hello?"

  "Who is this and why are you spying on me? I won't bother stating my name and rank since you must already know it." Jack was furious at the intrusion, but his curiosity was getting the better of him.

  "My master, what is goin..."

  "Hush mine. Let me talk."

  "Yes, my master."

  "Ah well, you were not supposed to see the AID. It's remarkable that you did as it shields itself and only has two sensor wan
ds out at any given moment, each less than a quarter inch in diameter by your standards." The voice droned on for a moment but Jack was not exactly paying attention. He was walking up to this 'sensor' as it was referred too and laid his hand upon it. It was warm and the tentacles curled around his hand as he held it.

  "Answer my questions, underling," he snarled.

  "Ahh, why do you think I am an underling? I am Andros, first officer of the Battleship Odyssey."

  "Because you say Ahh too much, get me your Captain."

  "He has been woken and will be here momentarily. Now release the sensor."

  "Nope. Get him talking to me and we'll negotiate." muttered Jack, as he held the 'sensor' tightly in his strong grasp. It no longer tried to get away, and was simply vibrating while directing two of its tentacles his way. He immediately assumed these were viewports for whatever species was on the other end of this strange, yet wonderful connection. Slowly, he backed up until he could sit on the bed beside Ivy and waited patiently. He was nothing if not patient. The wands gravitated to her form, waved up and down, obviously viewing her and then focused back on Jack.

  "As you wish, Jack." The other voice cut off and silence ensued for a time. Jack, becoming bored, dropped the knives to the bed beside him, both clasped in his right hand now when he grasped the orb and with a nod of his head, directed Ivy to draw him a mug of mead, a task she quickly performed, stirring in the spices and then warming it between her breasts. He was taking his first slow swallow when the orb in his hand spoke again.

  "Greetings Commander Jack, Son of Reimus."

  "Greetings, I assume you are the Captain of this...battleship, whatever that is." Jack growled as he took another quick sip of the thick syrupy liquid then handed the mug to Ivy to hold while he conversed.

  "I am indeed. My name is Henricus."

  "Well met, Henricus, my name is Jack as you obviously know. Now, why are you spying on me?"

  "Well met, Jack. It's complicated but let's simply say that we are trying to save your world. You never should have seen this sensor, let alone captured it. I am blaming my First Officer for that."

  "Stop avoiding the question and answer it. Since I do not say please often I would advise you to step up your game a bit or I'll crush this one and go hunting for others. I'm sure they are around, aren't they." Now Jack was grinning as he felt an advantage over the other.

  "Actually, there are five total in Ashton, three of them focused on you, Sir."

  "Why." The question was simple and Jack could not wait for the answer.

  "Well it's complicated but suffice to say, we have examined all of the tribes and groups on the planet, including all of their commanders and you appear the most likely to achieve our goals."

  "What goals would that be?"

  "Unification of the planet." The voice was dry.

  "Why?"

  "Because if we don't, if you don't and we can't protect you, then you will be sucked dry within a thousand years."

  "That is a very long time. Explain."

  What followed next was a brief history of the peoples of Paradise's relocation and development, how their world was created and the forces at play within the universe. It took some time to recite it all and by the end, Jack had already finished his first mug of mead and was working on the second. During all the time that ensued, Jack listened in rapt fascination and finally asked a question when the Captain fell silent.

  "So there is such a thing as a soul?"

  "Oh yes, upon death it goes to another dimension, we can track it, but we cannot go into that dimension. Nothing returns once it enters."

  "So that is supposedly the God's realm and these Malum feed on souls before they can get there?"

  "Yes again, the soul is actually a high energy power source for them. That is why they create these worlds and seed them with people such as you. You are simply a food supply to them, although they claim it to be the nature of the universe and keeping in harmony with such and whatnot. Basically trash to justify their feeding off souls. Souls, which will never reach the afterlife. That is why we fight them."

  "So you are in an artifact up in the sky somewhere?"

  "In a manner of speaking, but actually we are on the other side of your solar system. Many millions of your miles away and we are speaking through what is called a tachyon transmission."

  "You can see me, show me yourselves. Now," demanded Jack and almost immediately he heard a sigh on the other end, and then a blue shimmer appeared in front of the orb he was holding. Within its light, he saw what appeared to be a brightly lit expanse of white with many consoles of unknown design or purpose. Like thick desks, but for some reason he knew they were called consoles. Before him stood two men. One, quite tall and in what appeared to be Jacks age, with brown hair and eyes and a thick shock of dark brown hair. The other, shorter with sandy blonde hair and an easy grin on his face. It was easy to figure out who was whom and Jacks eyes fasted on the tall one.

  "Greetings, Captain of the Battleship Odyssey. How large is your ship?"

  "Well it is actually approximately twenty kilometers long, to be honest. Almost half that in width."

  "I see, quite large. So where do I fit into all this?"

  "I won't bullshit you Jack. I would never do that, but you are the best hope for this planets salvation, if you can pull it off."

  "You guys keep saying that. Explain."

  "As I stated, we need the planet unified. Only then will the council allow us to help you. We no longer assist planets that are not unified. There are reasons, the foremost being that they never stop fighting each other and it's a huge drain on our resources to pacify them. We need to bring new planets into our Federation and under our umbrella of protection, but not have them fighting each other and instead fighting beings that are untold millions of years old and consider themselves self appointed Gods. Suffice to say that the council will never grant your petition for protection against annihilation unless you are unified under one government."

  "But we have a thousand years, right?"

  "Maybe. You already number over three hundred and thirty million. That is quite a snack for the Malum. I hate to be blunt, but that is simply the way it is in this universe. You are either predator or prey."

  "I get it, but why me?"

  "You stand the best chance of success and the quantum computers give you a greater than even chance of it. Please do not ask what a computer is, suffice to say, it is a device that figures things out and decides on the best course of action."

  "I'll take your word for it and you want me to take over the entire planet?"

  "Yes."

  "I have a boss you know, he's called the potentate."

  "We know, you would be called the Warlord."

  "Sure of that are you?"

  "Very sure."

  "Alright. I will let you go for now, but you will be available for intelligence. It strikes me that if you can put one of these sensor things here, you can also put one in Turnin for intelligence gathering. My first question would be how large is their guard?"

  "Eight thousand, four hundred and twenty three, currently on active duty and almost one hundred in the barracks infirmary. Next?"

  "Wow, that many. That makes it a bit more difficult."

  "True, but we have mapped at least nine tunnels leading into their city and some are quite large. All but four are unguarded and one of our droids can trip the levers to open the entrances for your forces if need be."

  "Why are you being so helpful?

  "Because not only are we your salvation, but you are ours. I will explain later, in the meantime get some sleep and we can talk tomorrow. Good night Commander."

  "Good night, Captain and quit spying on me," muttered Jack as he stuffed the metal ball into his pack and securely fastened the flap. He would quiz them later and perhaps in the morning.

  "Agreed," came the muffled response.

  "Bed time, mine. No sex as I need to think about these things."

  "I
t's okay, my master, you do what helps us all, I am here for you when you need me, but can you tell me what these or who these new allies of ours are?." Ivy responded.

  "Ivy, you know exactly as much as I do at this point. We'll find out together."

  "Yes, my mster."

  Slowly, Jack lay down on the furs and gathered her in his arms after throwing a few logs into the fire and continued to think.

  *****

  "Well, I think that went well," remarked Andros, as he smiled at his Captain who stood there and glowered at him.

  "How in hell did he discover the drone?"

  "Shit happens?" gestured Andros, helplessly.

  "I don't believe in 'shit happens' number one. You were snooping around and he caught the movement, didn't he!"

  "I'm not positive, but that is probable. I had the drone on autonomous function so it mostly had free reign. I simply wanted information on every aspect of this man's life. That is how they were most likely discovered."

  "Well, it's not as if this is unprecedented after all, a few decades ago we were simply dropping landing craft down into their midst and calling it good. You do realize he captured one of our drones, right?"

  "True, but it can easily cut its way out of that leather satchel if you wish it done."

  "No, I think we'll leave it there for now, we'll see how he utilizes our knowledge and I do not wish to alienate him. It does behoove us to offer support where able. We simply cannot offer any military assistance until we take out the sentries in orbit."

  "I know Captain, I'll keep you informed."

  *****

  The following morning had no new answers and plenty of questions for him, nor did the morning after that. As he and Ivy left their quarters that day, Griss ran up, not out of breath, but sweaty. Jack could tell he had important information to impart.

  "Sir, the emissary's are here, from eleven of our allies that is. The twelfth hasn't show up yet. They must have ridden all day yesterday. As requested, each brought their Commanders of the Guard. I have taken the liberty of booking rooms for their entire retinue including men in nearby inns and they should be quite comfortable although I think the bars will be quite lively tonight."