by Jake Bible
But at no time in all his experience had Roak seen an Urvein as large as the one that was crashing through the counter to get at him. Crashing through the counter. Not going around or over, but through. Roak’s jaw dropped as splinters of plastic and metal went everywhere.
Roak’s surprise and confusion at the size and strength of the Urvein didn’t paralyze him, though. He saw the red eyes and threw himself to the ground as the Urvein swiped at Roak’s head with one of the meat cleavers. One of. The being suddenly had two once again. Roak rolled across the floor, not caring where the Urvein got the second cleaver from. Roak was on a mission to get one of his own.
Dodging a furry foot that was aimed at his head, Roak kept rolling and came up with the meat cleaver the Urvein had thrown to knock his Blorta from his hand. Roak slashed and the being roared in pain as most of the fur and skin from its right shin was sent falling to the already blood-caked floor.
Then Roak caught the other foot to his ribs and cried out as several things inside snapped. He still gripped the cleaver, though, and he took red eyes’ Urvein right foot off just above the furry ankle. Hot blood splashed Roak’s face. He didn’t bother to wipe it away. Roak rolled again, groaning loudly as the ends of his broken ribs ground against each other. He reached above him and pulled himself up by the closest booth seat.
The red eyes Urvein was howling as it hopped about, meat cleavers dropped and paws gripping where a foot once had been. Blood was gushing everywhere. A being that size and weight had a serious disadvantage when a limb was severed. Gravity, no matter what the planet was, liked to expel blood from exposed stumps as fast as possible.
“No!” red eyes bellowed. “I am above this!”
The Urvein stumbled away, back into the kitchen, and Roak took his chance to try to get closer to the front door.
There was a lot of clanging then a whoosh and howling. The smell of burning flesh reached Roak’s nose about the same time he reached the front door. He reached for the door handle, but stopped as his world became a spinning confusion of pain. The back of his head throbbed with agony and he realized he’d been hit with something.
Unable to make his hands work properly, or see straight, Roak rested his forehead against the plastiglass of the front door then managed to twist himself around so he could see what was coming at him. The exposed flesh of his scalp scraped against the edge of the front door and he sucked air in fast through his teeth as he forced his vision to clear.
Roak blinked and saw the Urvein a meter away, grinning at him. The being’s massive canines drew Roak’s attention. Then he looked down the being’s body and saw it holding one of the diner stools. A second stool was at Roak’s feet.
“You threw a stool?” was all Roak could think of asking.
“Use what is at hand,” the red eyes Urvein said. It lifted the stool it held and started to throw it at Roak, but instead stumbled back as blood bloomed across its chest. “What…?”
Then Roak’s ears caught up and heard the plasma blasts. The plastiglass next to his head had several smoking, melted holes in it. Roak’s eyes saw that, his mind registered the facts, but he couldn’t quite figure out what it all meant.
“Shit,” was all he said.
The red eyes Urvein was balanced at the edge of the hole in the counter it had created, its watery eyes staring down at the wounds in its body.
“How…?” the red eyes Urvein asked then looked up. The watery eyes narrowed. “You…”
The door to the diner was shoved open and Roak saw her walk in, plasma rifle to her shoulder. She cleared her left then her right then aimed the rifle back at the red eyes Urvein.
“You gonna live?” she asked Roak without looking at him.
“Reck,” the red eyes Urvein said and coughed up a good amount of blood. “Are you helping him? Helping Roak? I have seen stranger things in life, but this here… You’re helping Roak? Really?”
“Don’t know what it is to you, scumbag,” Reck said.
“Reck?” Roak rasped. “Meet Father.”
The plasma rifle dipped for a second then came back up as Reck moved closer, her trigger finger squeezing a hair tighter, but stopping just short of firing.
“That’s not Father,” Reck said. “You killed Father.”
“I told you he wasn’t dead,” Roak said. “Might want to start listening next time.”
The red eyes Urvein gave Reck a small wave.
“The eyes,” Roak said when she didn’t respond to him.
“I see them,” Reck said. “This is a hoax, Roak. Someone is playing you, playing us. Father is dead. You killed him and scattered us.”
“Yeah, I wish,” Roak said. “But we had a really long conversation and I have no doubt who is behind those red eyes.”
Roak pointed at the black-clad corpse with the hole in its chest.
“Except he was that guy a minute ago,” Roak continued. “He uses the implants to take over the bodies.”
“Implants?” Reck asked. “Now I know it is not Father.”
“Oh, it is I, daughter,” the red eyes Urvein said.
Reck snarled and spat at the dying Urvein.
“He tell you what you needed to hear?” Reck asked Roak out of the corner of her mouth.
“Pretty much,” Roak said.
“We need him alive?” Reck asked.
“Did we ever?”
Reck fired twice, putting smoking holes in the red eyes Urvein’s forehead. The body dropped, crushing one of the diner stools under it.
Reck kept the body covered with the plasma rifle and waited for a full five minutes.
“It’s dead,” Reck said.
“You think?” Roak asked and coughed up a hunk of bloody phlegm. “I’m going to be dead soon too. Mind giving me a hand to the ship?”
“Not with your ship,” Reck said. “I have my puddle jumper parked down the street. Weird town. No one even came out to look. Until I came in here, I didn’t see anyone else. I thought maybe your AI was wrong about your location.”
“Hessa sent you here?” Roak asked.
“Sorry, Roak,” Hessa said over the comm. “She was closer and I am having a bit of an issue with our take off.”
“What kind of issue?” Roak asked.
“The not being able to take off kind of issue,” Hessa said. “The local flora has been enhanced somewhat. The ship is…tangled.”
“Go scorched earth and get that ship in the air, Hessa!” Roak snapped.
“Don’t think you’re in much shape to be giving orders,” Reck said. “Can you walk?”
“Probably not,” Roak said and looked down at himself. “Definitely not.”
“Yellow Eyes is working to clear the vegetation from the engine drives as we speak,” Hessa said. “We should be able to lift off within the next few minutes.”
“Good,” Roak said. “And Bishop?”
“He is good,” Hessa said. “Bishop is recuperating in a med pod. Removing the device from his heart nearly killed him. But I did it and the device has been disposed of.”
“Let’s get you to my ship,” Reck said.
“Hessa is on her way soon,” Roak said. “Just get me outside.”
Reck hesitated, glanced at the dead Urvein, looked about the diner, then nodded. She slung the plasma rifle across her back and slid her arms around Roak.
“Easy,” Roak hissed.
“Why? You die or you don’t. My being easy isn’t going to change that,” Reck replied.
Roak started to argue the merits of not having his ribs grind against each other, but held back the words since he knew Reck really didn’t care too much about the pain he was in. Or, more accurately, she liked the fact he was in that much pain and complaining would only have egged her on.
Gritted teeth and short, fast breaths, was how Roak endured the journey from inside the diner to outside the diner. The fresh air hit him and he gulped at it as Reck carry-dragged him down the sidewalk.
“My Flott,” Roak said. “I left my Flott five-six
in there. We need to go back.”
“Not going back.”
“Not leaving my Flott.”
“You are leaving your Flott because I’m not going back to get it.” Reck let go of Roak and he balanced precariously on the sidewalk. “Go back and get it yourself.”
“I’ll get another one,” Roak said sourly.
“They’re hard to come by,” Reck said. “You may not find another one.”
“Cute.”
Reck grabbed onto Roak again and they started walking, limping, shuffling down the sidewalk once more.
They both saw them at the same time and froze in place.
“Found the townsfolk,” Roak said. “They’re checking out your ship.”
A good-sized crowd was gathered around Reck’s puddle jumper that was parked a few blocks down in the middle of the street. The townsfolk all turned as one and regarded Roak and Reck. Even from that distance, it was easy to see the beings’ eyes flicker with red.
“He can’t inhabit them all at once,” Roak said. “He’s trying, but he can’t do it. We hurt him.”
The townsfolk laughed.
“Merely choosing the perfect avatar, Roak!” a woman called to him.
“Picking the best of the meager options!” a man shouted.
“Don’t want to rush the process!” a small girl said.
“Here we go!”
A tall, thin man separated himself from the crowd. He had a carbine resting over his shoulder and holstered pistols on both hips.
“Howdy,” the man said and a holo badge flickered into life on his chest.
“A lawman?” Reck yelled. “You do love irony!”
“Let’s go the other way,” Roak said.
“What?” Reck asked.
“Let’s walk the other way. Just don’t engage. He’s only going to hop from one body to the next, over and over and over. Or he’ll mind wipe them and send the lot at us like drones. I’m not fighting, so it’ll be just you against them all.”
“I’ll kill two-thirds before they reach us,” Reck said.
“I don’t doubt that, but it still leaves a third of them,” Roak said. “Hessa? How we looking?”
“Yellow Eyes is almost done,” Hessa said. “The foliage grows back so fast.”
“Take off now,” Roak said.
“I am trying,” Hessa said. “Ah, there we go, Yellow Eyes has the engine drives clear.”
“Take off now!” Roak shouted.
“What about Yellow Eyes? He’s still… Oh, here he is. Taking off now.”
“Turn and walk away,” Roak said to Reck.
“What about the lawman?” Reck asked.
“Sure. Take him down,” Roak replied. “That way he can’t shoot us in the backs.”
Reck let go of Roak, snagged the plasma rifle from her back, barely seated the butt against her shoulder, and fired. The lawman was knocked off his feet and sent flying backward into the crowd. Reck returned the plasma rifle to her back
“What about my ship?” Reck asked.
“Do you really care that much?” Roak asked. “Ships are simply ships.”
“I heard that, Roak,” Hessa growled in his comm.
“There are exceptions,” Roak said.
“Not happy,” Reck said more to herself. “You’ll owe me a ship.”
“Fine.”
“One better than a puddle jumper.”
“What?”
“That’s my price for leaving the ship behind and for helping you.”
“I doubt that’s all it’s gonna cost me.”
“You are not wrong there, Roak.”
“New ship, better than a puddle jumper. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“Can we walk away now?”
The crowd wasn’t rushing at them, but it wasn’t moving at a leisurely pace, either.
“Yes,” Reck said as he helped Roak again.
The crowd saw them turn and then the pace quickened. Half of the beings started sprinting at Roak and Reck.
“They’re coming,” Reck said. “I should drop you and open fire.”
“These aren’t Father’s acolytes,” Roak said. “They’re innocent townsfolk that got caught up in our mess.”
“Your mess.”
“My mess.”
“And since when did you care about innocent townsfolk?”
“I don’t. But there’s no need to kill them.” Roak nodded at the sky and the incoming ship. “See? Here comes Hessa.”
“That was fast,” Reck said.
“She knows how to push it when it’s needed.”
The Borgon opened fire at the street and the crowd of townsfolk skidded to a stop then fled in all directions to escape the plasma that rained down on them.
“She also knows how to provide cover,” Roak said as the ship landed in the street and the side hatch opened up, a ladder automatically sliding down to the ground. “Shit. That’s gonna hurt.”
“Here. I’ll help,” Yellow Eyes said as he took Roak from Reck and carried the bounty hunter up into the ship.
Roak screamed and cursed the entire time until he was placed in a med pod and the lid closed.
34.
For the first time that he could remember, Roak didn’t want to get out of the med pod. It was un-Roak-like of him for sure, but the thought of facing the galaxy with a living Father in it made his gonads shrivel. He wondered if he could step from the med pod and straight into a tavern where he could drink himself into a stupor and stay that way for months, perhaps years.
“Hessa?” Roak asked. “How close are we to Xippee?”
“The tavern planet? We are nowhere near Xippee,” Hessa replied over the comm.
“Didn’t think so,” Roak said and sighed as he activated the med pod’s lid and watched it rise.
It took him a bit to muster the strength to sit upright and swing his legs over the side. He’d been in there for a while and Hessa had told him that he’d feel groggy for a time due to the fact that it became harder and harder to repair his body after all the damage it had taken over the years. There was a distinct possibility that one day the med pod would barely be able to heal a scratch on his body. The phenomenon of becoming immune to the med pod’s therapy was something Hessa insisted was singular to Roak’s physiology.
Roak had a feeling Reck was in the same boat, but he doubted she’d spent quite as much time in med pods as he had.
“Where are we at then?” Roak asked as he slid his feet to the floor and walked his naked ass over to a chair where clothes were waiting. He got dressed, but didn’t leave the med bay. Instead, he walked over to a different pod and stared in at Bishop’s sleeping form. “Hessa? Where are we?”
“Sorry, Roak, I was conversing with Reck regarding your unique upbringing,” Hessa replied.
Roak froze. Then he turned and hurried from the med bay.
“Where is she?” Roak asked.
“I assigned her quarters on your level,” Hessa said.
“And where are we?” Roak asked. “Try answering the question this time.”
“We are sitting at the edge of the Klatu System,” Hessa said.
“The nightmare system?” Roak started to argue then shrugged as he made his way to the lift. “Yeah. Good call. No one will come looking here. Keep an eye out for trouble, though.”
“I have scanners set to full and I am sweeping the system regularly. If one of the unspeakable horrors comes for us, we are close enough to the wormhole portal to get away.”
“Good to hear,” Roak said as he stepped onto the lift.
He rode up to his level then got off and went the opposite way of his quarters. He pounded a fist on the first door he came to.
The door slid open and Reck was standing there shirtless, wiping a pistol down with a rag.
“Put a fucking shirt on,” Roak snapped as he pushed past her.
“You know we aren’t really related, right?” Reck said as he closed the door and walked to a small table where an ar
mory’s worth of weapons were laying in various stages of cleaning and repair. “And we’ve seen each other naked more times than either of us can count. Remember those two years of Father’s no clothes or armor policy?”
“Still, put a fucking shirt on,” Roak said.
What he didn’t want to say was the sight of the scars that crisscrossed her torso brought back memories he would have rather left buried.
“Whatever,” Reck said and fetched a shirt from the back of a chair pushed up to the table of weapons. She slipped it on and bowed. “Better?”
“Yeah,” Roak said and plopped down into a small couch in the corner of the stark room. “Where are we dropping you off?”
“Nowhere yet,” Reck said.
“Funny. No, where are we dropping you off?”
“Nowhere yet,” Reck said again, but slower.
“Med pod must have messed with my ears,” Roak said.
“Knock it off,” Reck responded, setting the pistol on the table and picking up a weapon that had a short blade at either end of its handle. She started wiping one blade then switched to the other quickly. Back and forth, back and forth.
“Where’d you get all the weapons?” Roak asked.
“We looted my ship before leaving the planet,” Reck said. “The townsfolk destroyed the engines, so I wrote it off as a loss. But I wasn’t leaving these behind.”
“Ah. Good to know,” Roak said. “You know what else would be good to know? Where we are dropping you off!”
“Hessa and I had a chat,” Reck said. “I’m sticking around. That’s what we were actually talking about, not our upbringing. I don’t talk about that.”
“Neither do I,” Roak said. “And a gigantic no to you sticking around. All you are going to do is try to get me to come back to the fold. I don’t want to come back to the fold. If you haven’t noticed, the fold is the last place to be. If Father is coming at me the way he is, what do you think he’ll do to the others?”
Reck shrugged. Roak cocked his head.
“What aren’t you telling me?” Roak asked. “What didn’t he tell me? What’s going on, Reck? Why did you answer the door shirtless while cleaning a pistol like you’re living here now?”
“Because I am living here now,” Reck said. “There’s nowhere else to go, Roak.” She growled like she was in great pain and shook her head. “Fine. Here it is. The fold is gone. Everyone is dead. Father wiped them out. I didn’t know it was Father, but now I do. I’m all that’s left. And you. We’re all that’s left.”