by M. K. Gibson
“Do not cheer,” Chimera said, silencing the Fae. “We have captured nothing and only wasted our time. We move, now, to Caern Frigida.”
Chimera mounted her chariot with assistance from the giant, who gently lifted her into her position of power, then began fastening himself once more at the lead. The hunt began mobilizing, awaiting her to lead them northward.
As the chariot pulled away, Chimera looked at the remains of the body with a casual glance. The spectral energy that bound it dissipated into ethereal nothingness, leaving no blood and only the clothing behind.
“He was once special to me,” she whispered in response to the double’s question. “But now he is my quarry.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Orphans
Now, in the Waste
I was tossed like a gunny sack in the rear cargo hold of the gunship, hitting the deck hard. The sudden impact caused my knees to explode into pain.
“Goddamn!” I yelled.
“I’m sorry, did that hurt?” Ahlray asked.
“I hope you rust,” I said, rolling to my side, wincing in pain.
“I’ll keep that in mind while you’re in jail and I’m sipping a nice whiskey.” Ahlray chuckled as he left.
The cyborg clanked as he walked up the three metal steps to the gunship’s mid-level. I looked about, trying to recall my time atop the ship, cross-referencing the outer dimensions with the inner. If this ship used standard military layout, then weapons control and sensors were in the middle while the flight deck was in the front of the ship.
The deck of the ship began to vibrate as we began to lift off. In moments, we would be flying back to the city and back to prison. Around me were various carbon-fiber containers affixed with metal plates, stacked in orderly fashion and secured with magna-locks. Several of them were damaged, probably from the ship’s crash landing.
I could smell metal and oil, which made me think some of them were full of weapons and spare cybernetic parts. I also smelled something else, something musky.
“Macha,” I whispered, “I seriously hope that’s you and I’m not talking to an actual wild coyote.”
“Being captured seems to be your natural state of being. It’s sad,” Macha whispered back, stepping around from behind the stacked storage crates. The nude woman knelt down next to me and looked at my restraints. “Why can’t you break free? You tore through that rope I had you bound with.”
“Well, this is duranium wire and not rope. And I don’t have the leverage from this position.”
“You are wounded.”
“Yeah, pretty badly actually. Do me a favor—look in one of those containers and see if there are any wire cutters.”
Macha nodded and looked through several of the containers. After a minute or so, she found a pair of industrial-grade shears. “Will these work?”
“Yeah,” I said softly.
Macha stepped behind me and snipped the wire that connected my feet to my hands. Instantly, I felt relief, followed by intense pain as my legs straightened out. Macha snipped the wires to my hands, then handed me the shears so I could work on my feet. Free of my bonds, I tried to stand.
And I almost fell flat on my face. Macha caught me and helped me back to the deck. “What is wrong?”
“I was shot in the knees yesterday when your mother turned me over,” I said, propping myself up against the bulkhead of the cargo section. “Speaking of, why are you here?”
“Because my mother is wrong.”
“I thought she interprets the will of Wakinyan?”
Macha’s face darkened. “Wakinyan is wrong. Your friend, the boy. . .”
“TJ? What about him?”
“Ehawee is going to . . . sacrifice him. A gift to Wakinyan. I told her she could not. It was not our way. She told me a wise child obeys.”
“She also said you were unwise in these matters.”
“Exactly. I believe mother wished me to come here. To save the boy, I had to save you.”
“I bet that didn’t make you happy.”
“No, it did not,” Macha confirmed. “You appear to be useless. Stay here. I will kill them all.”
“No!” I hissed. “I can’t fight at the moment, but there is something else I can do.”
“What?”
“Cheat.” I smiled as I held up my tech bracers.
Ahlray and Legion no doubt had a dossier on me, and knew anyone who tried to remove my bracers, other than me, would get an electrical charge big enough to deep fry an elephant. Which was why my arms were wired behind my back and to my feet.
Now that I was free, it was time to see what kind of damage a remote hack job could do to a military gunship. Opening a holo-terminal on my left bracer, I ran a passive sweep, looking for a weak wireless network port. After a few seconds, my scan wasn’t turning up anything useful. Ehawee’s lightning strike had really done a number on this ship and its network.
While I was registering a flight system and various controls, the system was on lockdown, flying almost completely by manual. Damn it. Then, I noted something, and a plan formed.
“Hey, Macha.”
“Yeah?”
“How do you feel about completely unnecessary violence?”
“Very comfortable with it. Why?”
I smiled.
********
The ship rattled a moment and Mandy had to grip the manual controls tighter before they were wrenched from her hand. A flashing light caught her eye above. Quickly, she tapped the illuminated diagnostics indicators. Shutting them off, she pulled up her holo-display to confirm the warning.
“Shit,” she swore. “We have a problem.”
“What?” Ahlray asked from the co-pilot seat.
“We have a pressure issue. Something is opening the cargo-hold hatch. I’ve stopped it, but whatever it is, it’s persistent.”
“Someone, most likely.”
“Exactly,” Mandy said, holding the controls tighter. “It’s really throwing off our trajectory. I’m throttling down and dropping elevation. If this keeps up, I’m going to have to go into hover mode.”
“I’ll go down,” Ahlray said.
“No,” Mandy countered. “Send Legion. I may need you here to hold the controls.”
Ahlray nodded and turned on his mic. “Legion, seems like our boy is causing some trouble down in the cargo hold. Go take care of it.”
“It will be my pleasure,” Legion’s voice came over the system.
“Don’t kill him,” Mandy warned.
“He’ll live.”
********
Legion dropped his earpiece and picked up his BEDLAM. Throwing the weapons strap over his neck and shoulder, the assassin moved down the center of the craft and down the metal stairs into the cargo hold.
Salem sat along the far bulkhead next to the cargo ramp. The bastard was free and tapping out some kind of sequence on his tech bracer, as the ramp would momentarily open, then close. Little prick was trying to make an escape. He knew he should have hacked his arms off.
Legion slung the BEDLAM around and dialed the plasma setting to the highest stun setting. He couldn’t kill him, but he would take glee in hurting the prick.
“Howdy, asshat,” Legion said, holding his weapon to his cheek and staring down the barrel. “I’d give ya props for the escape. But you seem to lack the follow-through. So, how ya want it? A couple taps to the face again?”
Salem looked up at Legion and smirked. “Well, that depends.”
Legion smirked, looking at the wounded man. As much as he hated this guy, his stupid tenacity was starting to grow on him. “Depends on what?”
“When was the last time you were kicked in the balls by a beautiful, naked woman?”
“My last divorce,” Legion answered without skipping a beat.
“Oh, well, OK.”
“Why?” Legion asked as he began adding pressure the weapon’s trigger.
“Well, I was hoping you were going to say ‘never’, but this works just a
s well.”
From behind, Legion sensed movement. He turned just in time to see a naked, copper-skinned woman as she planted a kick right into his crotch.
Legion grunted, but held his ground. Thanks to his surly nature and occupation, the occasional nut-shot was a fairly routine occurrence. Legion brought his weapon up, only to see the naked woman grab the barrel and shift her form into a massive, hairy animal-man hybrid.
“Anytime now,” the creature called out.
From behind, Salem tapped his holo-terminal once more. As he did, the cargo ramp dropped open.
Immediately the cargo hold became a vacuum, and everything that wasn’t magnetized down was sucked outward.
The massive beast once more kicked Legion in the groin. The second kick was backed by several hundred extra pounds of force and ended in a hoof.
The assassin tumbled backwards from the blow. He felt a hand on his neck pull him back hard and throw him out the open hold and into the sky.
“Bye, asshat,” Legion heard Salem call out as the cargo ramp closed behind him.
********
I almost felt bad dropping Legion out the hold.
Almost.
“Now we kill the rest?” Macha asked.
“Easy, Bessie,” I said. “Just follow my lead, all right?”
“For now.”
Dangling from the back of a station at weapons’ control, I saw my gun belt and blasters.
“Welcome home, ladies,” I said, strapping my weapons back into place.
Macha followed me in her hybrid form. From the way she was breathing, I could tell she was anxious. And to be honest, so was I. If she was telling the truth, then TJ was in trouble. But flying off half-cocked was a surefire way to get the boy killed. I had to play this one smart and calm.
“Come on,” I said as I walked up the next three steps into the ship’s flight control.
The flight deck was small, room for only a few people. Which was fine for me. Less room for them to maneuver.
“Legion, whatever you did back there, it fixed everything,” Ahlray said over his shoulder.
“Please tell me you didn’t kill him. We could really use the money,” Mandy said. Then she sniffed. “Wait, what’s that smell?”
Drawing my left blaster, I aimed it at the back of Mandy’s head. With my right, I did the same at Ahlray. Before I pulled the triggers, something over Mandy’s shoulder, on the deck’s flight controls, caught my eye, and I paused.
Nodding to myself, I parted Mandy’s hair with the tip of my gun, placing the barrel along the back of her scalp. Ahlray saw me out the corner of his eye and flinched, suddenly coming out of his seat, only to stop when he saw my gun pointed at his face.
“Hi guys,” I said with a smile.
Then I pulled both triggers.
********
“I don’t understand,” Mandy said, rubbing at her head where I shot her with a stunning blast. Ahlray helped to pick her up off the ground. He was sporting a black eye from a similar blast.
“Nor I,” Macha growled from beside me. “Why are they alive?”
The gunship hovered ten feet or so from the ground. I looked through a couple of the carbon-fiber crates I’d stacked onto the open cargo platform. Once I was satisfied with the selected provisions, I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out the only thing that saved their life.
I looked down at it, then added it to one of the crates. Closing the lid, I kicked the crates off the ramp, down to the ground.
“I saw the picture of your sons,” I said to Mandy and Ahlray, while looking sideways at Macha.
When I came up behind Mandy, I saw the photo adhered to the flight control dash. Two boys with smiling faces and a lifetime of hope ahead of them. I saw in them both Mandy and Ahlray, the same way I saw my parents in me when I looked in the mirror. I, like those boys, was the culmination of a parent’s achievement.
The nightmares from the night I lost my mother played over and over in my head. These people may be assholes, but who was I to make their children orphans? I knew what that was like. And in this modern world, with what Ahlray and Mandy did for a living, those boys would know as well one day.
But it didn’t have to be this day.
“I’ve killed a lot of people in my life, and you two damn sure deserve it. Those two boys are the only reason you’re alive. So, when you get home, you hold them close and tell them you love them.”
“So you’re just going to leave us out here?” Mandy asked.
“How do you expect us to get home to them?” Ahlray said, echoing his wife.
“Look, I’m a decent person, not a saint. There’s food, water, spare parts and a radio in the crates. Figure it out,” I said, as I pressed the button, raising the ramp. I paused, then hit the lower button.
“Oh, one last thing. If you two ever so much as fucking look in my direction again, I won’t show you this kindness. Are we clear?”
“Yes,” Ahlray said, pulling his wife close. “Honey?”
“He gave you a cigarette,” Mandy grumbled.
I sighed. Reaching into my other pocket, I pulled out my last pack. I pulled one out and lit it. Then I shot Mandy again, knocking her unconscious.
“What the hell?!” Ahlray said, his weapons systems powering up.
I held up my hands. “Easy big guy. Here.”
I flicked him a smoke. “Enjoy it before she wakes up. There’s mouthwash in one of the crates. You’re welcome.”
I closed the ramp all the way and made my way to the flight control, ignoring Macha’s glare. Let her fume. I had to go save TJ now. I only hoped I could fly this thing.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Plan B
As it turned out . . . no, I could not fly the ship.
“Watch out!” Macha said, gripping the back of my chair as the gunship skipped off the ground.
Again.
“You clearly do not know how to fly.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” I said, trying my best to work the controls.
“What? Did you think you could just fly this craft without training?”
“Apparently, yes,” I said, overcompensating as the ship tilted upwards.
I watched as the horizon disappeared, causing me to nearly puke from the vertigo. I pushed the controls forward and we once again were aiming towards the ground.
“It would have been faster if we walked.”
“Do you think you can do better?” I asked, leveling off and trying to maintain altitude. I got forward and slightly side-to-side using the fusion engine’s hover ability. But the pitch was messing me up. Or was it the yaw? Ah hell, who cares.
“Look, I don’t fly. Back during the war, most of the aircraft we used was built idiot-proof. I thought this would be the same.”
“You got the idiot part right,” Macha scolded, looking at the sinking sun. “If you don’t figure out how to fly this thing, Ehawee is going to kill the boy.”
Shit. She was right. It wasn’t like I could jack the knowledge into my head like Twitch could, or type the coordinates into nav-computer like the Millennium Falcon.
Oh . . . I’m dumb.
I brought up my tech-bracer and opened a static port scan. Collective?
//ONLINE//
Any chance you can slave the ship’s automated functions and fly it for me?
//AFFIRMATIVE - QUERY: WHY NOT REQUEST COLLECTIVE’S ASSISTANCE SOONER//
Because I’m apparently an idiot.
//CONFIRMED//
Gee, thanks, I mentally smirked. The Collective established a link to the gunship’s automated systems and instantly, the ship began righting itself. I mentally instructed The Collective, providing navigation directions.
“What did you do?” Macha asked.
“I learned,” I said with a smile. “Now sit down and help guide me.”
********
The sun was down when we cleared the ravine’s edge. High above, a storm was brewing. Dark clouds rolled in a circular pattern. The P
eople were preparing their sacrifice to Wakinyan. They were preparing TJ.
Through the smashed viewing glass, The People gathered in their hybrid forms. Some were holding torches as the winter storm crackled high above. In the center of the gathered people, TJ was tied down to a large, flat rock. Ehawee was in her eagle-hybrid form, beside him. She looked to the sky, and saw us approaching.
The People scattered, unsure of the approaching ship. I mentally commanded the vessel to turn broadside. Allowing The Collective to maintain control in hover mode fifteen feet from the ground, I pushed back out of the pilot’s seat and moved down to mid-level. I swung open the side door and pivoted the door gunner plasma auto-turret into position.
“Stop!” Macha yelled. “You can’t kill them!”
“Well, I highly doubt they’re down for a pillow fight,” I said, powering up the turret. “What was your plan? Sneak in and out?”
“I don’t know, just not this!”
“Well, subtle I am not,” I said, launching a spray of suppressing fire. The People scattered and sought cover. Ehawee and Akecheta stood their ground, refusing to move.
“No!” Macha roared, shifting into her hybrid-bison form.
Then enraged minotaur lowered her head and ran into me, knocking us both out of the gunship. We fell the fifteen feet or so to the hard ground. I did my best to twist so I fell on top of Macha, but the impact jarred my wounded legs and I cried out in pain.
“Ahh, damn it! Bad, bad Bessie,” I said, wincing.
The People in their hybrid forms gathered around me. They snorted and stomped the ground, awaiting the order from Ehawee to jump me.
“My plan was better,” I said, rolling off of Macha. I pulled both of my guns and aimed them at The People. “I’m taking the boy. Now back the fuck up.”
The People didn’t advance any further, but they didn’t retreat. Painfully, I stood on shaky legs. I kept one of my guns aimed at the bulk of The People while I turned another towards where TJ was tied to the rock.