Slave Line (The Young Ancients)

by Power, P. S.

  Ah.

  "I see. You heard about the illusion I made to get Denno free?" He was about to get angry over someone having told, but didn't bother. It would come out eventually.

  His mother chuckled at him darkly.

  "Heard? I saw part of it. By accident. Scarred for life. Denno has a recording of it in his things. He did swear it wasn't really either of you, but said that you made it. It seemed rather... enthusiastic, didn't it? Not that I blame you, Denno is quite attractive." She was trying to be playful, which was almost better than scorn or ridicule, so Tor decided to just go with it. The odd thing was that everyone else seemed to know about it too. Well, not the kids, but Ali winked at him.

  "How the heck did that work then? Was he just showing it to everyone on the ship for entertainment while I was working?"

  Carlos made a noise, like a choked off laugh.

  "At night too. That was how I saw it. Rather good quality video. Three dimensional. No wonder everyone is waiting for you to produce the next one. I can't wait myself. Maybe put a woman in it though? I'm not into men myself. Everyone has seen it at least once."

  Timon shook his head.

  "Not everyone. I refuse to take part in this, thank you. I want to remain pure of thought and untainted as long as possible." He looked at Tor solemnly.

  "Besides, I know that this will bother Tor. You should all be ashamed of yourselves." Timon glared at the others, especially their ma, and grimaced a little.

  "There are some things better left alone. He did it to save a family member in mortal danger, who was being held by a madman. Making fun of him with it is beyond wrong." It came out softly, a little kid voice, but everyone else looked down, as if ashamed.

  He waited for Tiera to say she'd done the same thing, but the girl just sat shelling peas, finally she looked up and made a face at Laurie.

  "It was gross. I didn't even know men could do that. Did it hurt? I mean, when he put his thing up your behind?" She said it innocently, too much so.

  Tor sighed, feeling anger build in him, real anger, with a real cause. He kept it out of his voice though.

  "It wasn't real, so I don't know if that would hurt or not. I imagine it would though. Now if everyone will excuse me, I need to let everyone know that dinner will be ready soon. About fifteen minutes Carlos?" Tor started walking toward the door, the Blue following him, her eyes slightly dilated. Wary, but of the others it seemed, not Tor.

  Carlos called after him.

  "Twenty-five, the dining room next to us here. Towards the back, not the front one we've been using, it's too small now."

  "Got it!" He waved as he left, then jogged a little thinking as he did.

  Denno was faster than he was, even at the best of times. Tor could outpace him using a Not-flyer though. The man didn't have a shield on, Tor didn't think, but could probably fight a lot better than he could, all things considered. You didn't live to be thousands of years old without knowing how to protect yourself. Tor decided not to give him a chance to do anything fancy.

  At the open sided craft, everyone pointing at different things in the air, images that floated in place, slightly transparent, seeming to be in agreement about something. Denno was watching closely, but saw Tor and smiled. It seemed creepy now. Predatory.

  Mean.

  "Hey everyone, dinner is in about twenty-five minutes, Denno, could you help me with something?" Tor tried to sound innocent and not angry, but the man wasn't totally fooled at all. He was a master at reading people, body language and all that. Or at least good at reading people that seemed about ready for combat.

  When he got to him, about twenty feet from the side of the craft, Tor sighed.

  "Does anyone coming have allergies that you know of to any kind of foo..." Tor stopped, furrowed his brow and pointed with his left hand.

  "What's that?"

  Denno turned to look, and seemed almost surprised that there was something there, it looked like a

  stone block with four people on the top playing horns. It bounced a little in the air, as if riding a wave up and down. The thing was huge and gray, but Tor couldn't tell anything else about it yet. There was a low buzzing sound that got louder as it came closer.

  "Oh... Julie!" The man's voice got suddenly excited.

  That was when Tor hit him.

  Right in the back of the head, as hard as he could. He wasn't a hundred percent as far as physical things went, so the Ancient didn't go down, but Tor didn't let that stop him from doing it again and then delivering a blow to the left kidney, followed by a stomp to the back of the knee.

  He kept going, with blow following kick as fast as he could make himself move. It wasn't a blazing pace, and Denno managed to crawl away fast enough to start running and awkward thing on all fours. Tor rose into the air about four inches and followed, hitting the man with a boot to the behind as he caught him, sending him sprawling.

  Denno crawled weakly then, which got him another couple of kicks. One of them to the head. It didn't take him out though. Sneak attack or not, the man was tough.

  "Decided to make me a laughing stock, did you? Showed my fucking mother and little sister things to make me look bad in their eyes? Think your clever? How's this for clever you jerk." Tor kicked again as hard as he could, targeting the small firm hip instead of anything vital. He was going to aim for the head again, but two explosive weapons were being pointed at him.

  Kara and George. They probably thought he'd lost it and were going to kill him. Great. He'd totally forgotten about that part of things in his anger.

  "He... Showed my family fake dirty pictures of us having sex! I'm not crazy, I'm just kicking his ass. So stop acting like you're going to kill me and get me a stick so I can do this right." They didn't do that, but they did back up and lower the weapons. Hesitantly.

  Kara spoke softly, but the words didn't help a lot.

  "That was a good show though. I saw it at the palace before we left, when he showed the Queen. I especially liked the part where you..."

  Tor kicked Denno several more times, making the man grunt loud enough to drown out whatever the Royal guard said.

  "Kara, are you looking to have your turn next? I can do this all day you know." He kicked one last time, knowing it wasn't true. He didn't let himself pant of gasp for breath, but he was tired already. Stepping back he glared at Denno and spoke in a low growl.

  "If you do anything like that ever again, I will hunt you down and make sure the worst thing you can imagine is played to every Austran home on a repeated loop. That's if I don't just drop you out of a Fast Carriage at five thousand feet. You knew that I was embarrassed by that thing. I should have never saved you." Tor walked away, knowing he seemed childish, but also knowing that it had been more than a dick move to show that to anyone. He should have had it destroyed, but instead Denno used it to humiliate him. Even showing it at the King's palace.

  Why?

  He would have asked, but really, that didn't matter. Denno would just claim to have some good reason, or that he didn't know that it would cause Tor to feel that way. Except that he did. It was too obvious that the whole thing had made him uneasy even at the time. Brown had even said that he understood that. So it was just meant to goad him? Or insult him? Of course Tor was just supposed to take it, wasn't he? Maybe say something and storm off, but not do anything about it. Well, that was the old Tor. The new Tor wasn't putting up with this shit any more.

  He walked back over to Denno and kicked him under the chin as hard as he could, knocking the man out, making him shake and spasm a little. It was just to buy him a little time to subdue the man. He didn't know if they had any rope around at all. No one helped him out that way, except that one of the city people came running up with a coil of thick strands about three minutes after he started looking for something. Denno was awake again already. That was too dangerous, especially since the man was clearly lying in wait for Tor to close with him to counter attack. It would have worked too, but Tor didn't give him a
chance, pulling out his Fast Carriage amulet and parking the vehicle right on top of the man, holding him in place. Painfully. At least the gasping sounded that way.

  Working carefully Tor wrapped the rope around the man's neck, since it was the only thing he could reach and tied it off around the driver's seat inside. Then he climbed in and slowly raised the craft while everyone else screamed at him to stop. He had to make the floor clear to see what he was doing, but as soon as Denno stood, standing on his tip-toes and gasping for breath, Tor jumped out of the Carriage, using his Not-flyers to catch his weight, so he wouldn't have to take the twelve foot falls impact.

  "Now, Denno. You have twenty-four hours to have every copy of that thing in the world destroyed. If I ever even hear of anyone having seen it again I'll finish the job. Do you understand? Gasp once if you do." Tor waited, but there wasn't a reply, not a real one.

  "Fine, be that way. Twelve hours." He didn't growl the words but he was still angry about the whole thing. Who did that to a person? Showing his little sister pictures that looked like him having sex with a man? That was...Evil was what it was. Sickening.

  He barely restrained himself from kicking Brown in the groin full force. It was only the fact that it would kill him that stopped it from happening. Everyone else was just standing around looking at him like he was the one in the wrong. Everyone except Orange. She looked at him, but had a small smile on her face.

  "I agree. You aren't Burks Green. Still, is Denno's prank worth his life? Not that you're being unreasonable, giving him a full day to at least start repairing this. It might take a little longer to do however and there are limits to how controlled information can be in a technological society, so he may not have power over all of it, but if you kill him, he can't do anything." She spread her hands gently, the movement slow, as if trying not to trigger combat reflexes that she had and he just didn't.

  She had a point.

  What was he going to do then? Destroy an entire land because he was embarrassed and hurt? That would be silly. Criminal even. Worse than what Denno did by a magnitude of millions.

  "He's not dead yet, he still has time to fix this. Though really Brown, I suggest you get moving. I'll give you that full twenty-four hours, just because Orange suggested it, ignoring the fact that I'd already lowered it to twelve, probably trying to help you out. You won't get two chances though. This whole thing has been a set up from the start and I'm done with it. Do you understand? Take your stupid pictures of me, your faked up invasion from space and all of it and put it in a vault, because I don't need it anymore, and I don't need you." Tor moved to go inside, leaving the man dangling, dozens of people watching, including the new comers from Soam.

  "Might as well go home Julie. This was just Brown trying to set us up for something. Let's not fall for it."

  She looked at him, walking toward him with a hand outstretched, her eyes soft pools of ice blue and skin shining in the sun like a pearl. She was white, but had multiple colors at the same time. This time she wore clothing at least, thought it just looked like a plain white nightshirt, instead of just a short skirt, which is the only other thing he'd ever seen her in. The fingers tried to touch him, but he stepped back, avoiding the contact.

  "None of that please White. I just got my mind free, I don't feel like being anyone's slave anymore." He wasn't sure if it was her touch, but she could enslave a man to her will pretty strongly, turning them into devoted puppies that didn't seem to realize it was happening.

  "What is this Purple? Brother? Why do you lash out in anger at Brown? Has he wronged you in some fashion?"

  It was reasonable to ask, but Tor didn't feel like explaining. Still, since he may still have to kill the guy over it, he might as well do it sooner rather than later. He sighed and ran through the whole thing, which she already knew part of, then told her how Denno had betrayed his good will by showing it to people to humiliate and mock him. As Tor should have expected the Ancient sided with her own.

  "Are you certain that was his intent? Perhaps there was a greater meaning behind it or..." At least she floundered there and went quiet. It was pretty hard even for an Ancient to come up with a good reason to do something like that, wasn't it? It just didn't make sense.

  "Perhaps. It was still an insult and there is no other way that it could be taken by me. I matter in this case, and he did it in such a way as to destroy my family relationships. With members of my immediate family that will be around for a long time. My mistake was in helping him. I won't make the same one again."

  She tried to reach for him again, which got Tor to stand back sharply.

  "I said don't do that. If you try to use your tricks on me, I'll have to kill you to make certain it doesn't happen. I actually like you well enough, and consider you family, but it's pretty clear that some of you old people are trying to do something to me. I don't know which ones, but I'm not sticking around to find out." Not that he was certain he could really take Julie in a fight. It would be too hard to actually hit her, even if she just stood there taking it, which wasn't guaranteed at all. Plus her people looked ready to throw themselves in the way to protect her if he did. They didn't fight as a rule, but that wasn't the same as being cowards. One of the women had even picked up a rock about the size of her fist. Julie didn't seem to notice, but Tor didn't figure she was holding it to comfort herself. If he moved on White, that woman would at least be trying to stop him, pacifistic culture or no.

  Everyone was looking at him still, accusing him with their eyes. He walked away then, not listening to what they were saying even though someone called his name several times. That was Burks most likely, planning to call him to account for his actions no doubt. Fair enough, but he was still too angry to not think he was justified. Tor just walked into the kitchen and plastered a smile on his face, trying not to look insane. No one said anything about how he looked, so maybe it was working.

  "Good news everyone. It turns out Brown was just playing a trick on us to get everyone here, so we don't need to actually stay. Bit of a waste of time, but we can head out now. Or after dinner. I'm planning on going home myself. I suppose we can eat first, so as to not waste the food, which smells delicious Carlos. They've probably cut Denno down by now, so we can take my Fast Carriage. It's already set up out front." He snagged a roll and tore off a bite of it. It was fresh and warm, still just a tiny bit too soft yet. Good though.

  He was shaking just a bit from all the fighting and yelling, but he managed to keep it out of his voice, even though he did look sullen. Trice tilted her head at him, obviously copying his traditional mannerisms, though probably on a subconscious level. People did that when they were around each other a lot.

  "Cut down Denno? Did you tie him to the Carriage...?" She was holding a pot of something, gravy, Tor figured.

  "I kind of hung him from it. By the neck. I left him alive though. If he doesn't destroy all those copies of that thing he showed you all, I'm going to hunt him down and kill him." Or at least kick his behind again. It would take another sneak attack no matter which, but that was fine. He could do it, if he was clever enough. He wouldn't be going unarmed if he did it though. Brown would be better guarded against him the next time.

  Then, for some reason, everyone ran from the room.

  He looked around for the threat, or to see if he'd slipped into a combat rage, but there was nothing. That meant they were just going to see about Brown. Probably fair enough, but if no one sided with Tor on this one he was giving up on them for the last time. Part of being a friend meant backing your people, not just siding with the loser because it seemed more sympathetic in the moment. He got that Brown really did seem like the victim, if you were able to divorce yourself from what he'd done. If they did though, Tor was just through with them all. It would hurt, but he had a long time to make friends now, or he might at least. The whole immortality thing kind of stretched things out a bit. That and gave you more than one chance at things when you screwed up.

  He walked afte
r everyone, since it wouldn't be fair to not let them know it was a test after all. If you were going to force people to pick sides it didn't make sense to do it in secret, did it? He got there after everyone else, not hurrying, knowing that he might have to fight again, if Denno had recovered enough. Tor might have to fight them all, he realized, if there was really some kind of plot against him. Or even if they just couldn't see his side of things. He'd taken his shield off and hadn't been carrying a weapon at all, but he had some spare shields in his room. It was at the top of the fake tree, which meant walking up a lot of steps that spiraled up the middle, but it made too much sense not to do. Shields were useful.

  Especially since it was very possible that he'd be driven away directly after he went down. Not that he'd blame everyone, because violence was scary. It had been justified though, because no one else in the entire world could have punished Brown for what he'd done. It was either do it himself, like he had, or let the whole thing go, which would tempt the man to do it again. No, even if he felt a little bad about it, it was the right thing to have done.

  That he felt bad about it was normal enough, but it wasn't as sharp a feeling as it should have been. He just felt a little guilty, but still angry and like it was OK for him to have stood up for himself. Before he would have been wracked with remorse and trying to justify having taken any action at all. Really... he probably wouldn't have been able too, since this was mainly just about him and his own embarrassment.

  By the time he got to the front of the building again, shield on this time, Denno was already free and had been healed. He didn't even look slightly sweaty at all. Perfect almost. When he saw Tor he smiled, hands spread, white teeth shining.