Cutlass Sharpened

by H. Lee Morgan, Jr

  Excitement as well as the music gave Renee a real rush to see just how far she could push things. Hours flew by like seconds as she analyzed just how it all worked. When her own bone plasma began to diminish she injected herself with more synthetic plasma to bolster storage within. Still she was days from being comfortable with animal testing.

  Next thing Renee knew her com relayed a voice that had her loins ready to be played with. “Red, it’s twenty hundred hours. Meet me out on the deck.”

  She checked the time and realized just how much of it had passed. “Yikes, I’ve been in here all day!”

  “Exactly. It seems we both let the time fly by. You coming?”

  “Be right there. I just need to clean my station.” Renee laid her armored arm flat on the table and swept the slides and Petri dishes off and dumped them in the medical waste disposer that would incinerate everything and automatically melt the glass back into fresh testing supplies. Only a dozen Petri dishes would culture overnight. “I’m on my way. Talk to me while I’m doing so. What did you and Papa discover?”

  “Quite a bit actually. That crashed ship’s everyone on Verard knows of held records and were a trove of information. Jake is so happy. With my help he has finally learned to read the writings, but only with the help of the translating software. I found that Solarians have just three hundred laws. No more and no less. They had a thing for keeping the universe simple and made themselves not take things too seriously. Like Creelin, Solarian society is based on honor and principal as individuals.” Renee left her lab, listening to him finally finding some answers. “They have a punishment policy like human’s. Children get spanked when they are bad. Adults get publically beaten in front of friends and family, but they didn’t hang for the really bad crimes. They publically beheaded criminals and used warriors to do the deed. Often a friend of the criminal did it. It was part of the warriors code. Basically they were friends in life and in death. It was up to friends to keep each other out of trouble. For those too lax in that regard made the warrior also punish himself and still kill said friend.

  “It is also true that although there was one Galactic King, it was women who made most of the decisions in Solarian society. Five queens to be precise in each galaxy. Their belief is that since women carried and gave life, they were the authority and men were there to keep them safe. Also it makes sense, Solarian women I mean.”

  “And what do you mean by that?” his tone irritated her.

  “Solarian women were always much more aggressive than the males except in combat. Unlike human women who are more docile, you clearly uphold who they were. They were smart, but violent with emotion, especially when pregnant. After though they become docile when having a dependent child.

  “In one personal log entry one man was saying his mate was pregnant and ripped the arm off a fellow woman he was talking to just because her shoulder brushed his. Oddly though, the dismembered woman understood and didn’t hold it against her attacker because apparently she did something similar to a Creelin female who barely clasped wrists with her mate.”

  “Well I’m glad you told me this before I let you knock me up. You’d better quarantine yourself. Did it mention about increased sex drive during pregnancy like in humans?”

  “Yeah, it seems to keep from going truly homicidal the pregnant woman needs sex every single day to be reasonably stable. Their aggressiveness is heightened because it was a need in Solarian evolution as Beasts could smell pregnant women and drew them like technology or fresh blood. Men got ruthless to protect their unborn children, plus any Beast foolish enough to go after the woman soon became supper. Win-win.”

  “I’ll bet.” Renee laughed. “Keep going.”

  “Aside from that and the three hundred laws, it was as far as we got. It’ll take weeks to go through the undamaged logs.”

  “Then tell me about these laws.” Renee punched the button for the next elevator.

  “Well the first is about the responsibility to ones mate. Men protect and defend women and children and conversely women guide men and give them said children…” he went on and on as he spoke eagerly of all learned. She smiled as she zipped through the elevator system to eventually reach the deck.

  Renee found him, Rose and Sparky staring up at the rainbow of color swirling around them in subspace. Beside him were two pale and motionless Piranha laying on a serving platter. The meter long terrors had long, needlelike teeth going up and down like some monster out of the worst nightmares, but as one of the lowest ranked Beasts, they were deemed safe enough to transport. “You got dinner huh?”

  Oliver smiled in her direction and her heart gave another involuntary kick. He tapped his ear to say “Thought you might be hungry.”

  “Thought right.” Renee kicked his crossed ankles apart, plopped right between his legs and lifted the fish with her mind to set it in her lap. Her mouth was practically drooling at the fresh catch. Scales hard as steel were no match with a finger focused Kinetic blade that sliced through the forehead first to access the best part first. The only other cut was through the gills by a sword. She grabbed a fork and got to work. As she ate she asked “So how many did Papa get?”

  “Five pools of schools. He got a sustainable amount that can be farmed if we lost FTL capability. We have close to two thousand all to ourselves.”

  “Good, I’m not going back to bland food ever again unless my life depends on it.”

  They ate together and watched the colors all over, leaving no way for shadows to stick. When Renee finished all she could stomach, she broke off a Piranha tooth and used it as a toothpick to savor the little pieces left behind. What she really enjoyed was Oliver showing her how the bracelet could also compact the remnants of her meal into a tiny pea and downed it. Washing it down with more mead he had brought from their room.

  Much of the night was left watching the brightly swirling colors, talking about the discoveries of the day and simply enjoying each other’s company.

  To say the revealing of Oliver being a true Solarian and Renee being manipulated into one going over smoothly with the crew was a massive pain in the ass lie of immense proportions in the following days. Distrust and gossip spread like wildfire during a tempest without a chance of rain. People were better knowing they harbored a fugitive than even use the same hall of the legendary fathers of life on Earth. Trying to engage someone into a conversation was downright impossible let alone hold eye contact.

  The most hurt in private was Renee who had known the crew all her life. In public she was still the hellcat, but rarely approached outside of family. To ease her loneliness Sparky was practically glued to her hip. Since few needed her medical talents, she spent extra time in the lab perfecting new skills.

  The morning of the fourth day though Oliver, Renee, Sparky and Rose were eating in the Mess. As she was cutting into some meat she saw the quirky child figure of Chloe, the ten year old allowed to ride her partner. She asked “Hello Chloe, how are your studies? Getting better? Still having trouble with math?” Chloe couldn’t look at her and went to move away before running into a barrier Renee created. “That was rude. Didn’t Cathy teach you to respond when spoken to?”

  What Chloe said next was the last spark that ignited the hellcat into awakening. “Mama said I can’t talk to you anymore… said it’s not safe.”

  Renee dropped the barrier and locked eyes with said mother and made a leap she couldn’t have done before her body began returning to a natural state. Before Cathy knew what happened all sound in the mess hall was deafened by Renee smacking the little woman twenty centimeters shorter than herself. The smack was so loud it echoed no less than four times before settling, but before it could, Renee’s angry eyes were only overshadowed by the river of tears running down freckled cheeks. “What the fuck, Cat! You told Chloe I’m not safe to be around!” The wounded woman knocked out of her chair looked up in shock to say the least. “I’m the one who used my telekinesis to unwrap the cord strangling her in your belly because y
our power was and is still so weak. I delivered her on this very ship. She’s like a daughter to me too you backstabbing bitch! How dare you teach that sweet little girl to hate me. We abolished racism when splicing allowed us to look however we desire, but you are a fucking racist!” Tears still streamed, but her stabbing words twisted the metaphorical knife. “Who babysat her when you and Derek needed to go on a date? Who fixed her up when she broke her arm in the training room when you weren’t paying attention? Who was it that held your family in place when we crash landed on Zerika? It was me. It has always been me! Damn it, Cat, out of all the people on this ship I would have thought scuttlebutt was beneath you after what your mother did to you… You know what, FUCK YOU. FUCK ALL OF YOU!!!” she rounded on the packed breakfast crowd. “Don’t come crying to me unless I get an apology from all of you. Only children are exempt for they don’t know any better. Of you want to see me as a monster, fine! But until you apologize and mean it I’ll let you die and not lift a fucking finger. My oath be damned for you spineless cowards.”

  With that she went back to the table and ate beside Oliver, who had such remorse for her, but undeniable hatred to the others.

  “Do I need to apologize?” Came a feminine voice by the central circular bar table surrounding the cooking area.

  “Not you, Vanessa. You at least were up front and asked me if I had a disease that could harm little Claire. And I told you my immune system is much stronger than a human’s. Still, Oliver’s system is more potent than mine.”

  After Renee’s outburst the mood had considerably shifted in the ship. Cathy was humiliated in front of everyone and was one of the last to come clean about her shame. Renee accepted each and every response, most face to face. Some spoke over the com in her ear, mainly because they admitted that they would lose courage face to face and would need time to come around. She knew it wasn’t an easy medicine to take, being more than human and after taking the heaping of crow, the unrest in the ship gradually stabilized.

  The ones to really take information in stride were the Hunters and their companions. The more sociable Steven and Visor had come around the next day with a keg of beer and cheered Renee for being such a ball buster. He and Sparky didn’t see eye to eye, having some kind of rivalry neither explained, but this once they called a truce. Steven may have not been the wittiest, but he was fun to be near. His eagle too. Stone was his usual calm, disciplined self yet Deegen and Bell weren’t around too much. When they were, they were pleasant enough.

  For three weeks Oliver worked with the captain. Translation was no longer much of an issue except rarely when the learning program found a hole it couldn’t fill in the complex, circular language.

  Mostly though Oliver learned the Solarian mandates or laws. It was their core beliefs. Mostly though is that they embodied protection and ones honor above all else. But like any species there was conflict among individuals. The recorded logs were mostly personal, giving insight to individuals within one massive group. What was startling and not so much of a head scratcher is that Solarians and humans weren’t very much different as people. Yes they were faster and stronger, but they loved, fought, enjoyed a child’s laugh, were sociable overall, had feelings and fears like everyone else. Oliver also knew that many liked life to be simple as he does. Of course there were geniuses that stood out and they had a military of warriors who swear an eternal oath, but even they too loved life.

  Captain Dorgen though was disappointed that the logs gave no indication of planets on which to so seek and plunder to further his desires and curiosity. Nevertheless he was immensely grateful for Oliver being the missing Rosetta Stone of their time. And Oliver was glad to learn more about his own people as he now knew and believed he was one of them. Too many references made coincidence impossible. Eventually the downed ship’s log turned up no further evidence. It wasn’t a navigation system. It was a personal log for everyone aboard. A log which crewed fifty, always in even numbers as mates rarely left once found. Only the unpaired sought their ideal match. Once found they were near inseparable for long periods.

  Amazingly Renee got the hang of her body rather quickly and her mind grew even more adept at biology. Daily she would run with Oliver at a comfortable nine times normal gravity and quite a few came to watch for themselves when she outran every woman’s speed and endurance record by day five.

  Day thirteen showed Renee sprinting at ninety six point four kilometers per hour. Slower than Oliver hundred and five only because he had a larger lung capacity, longer legs and no breasts that needed restraining. Renee was glad to never again need to double up on a bra to keep her two full boulders from causing a landslide and potentially harm a bystander. Still, she now realized why Oliver loved to run in his spare time. She had only exercised twice a week before, but her competitive side made her want to push her own limits. Though she could never outrun or hold her man’s endurance, she didn’t give up on the need to catch him.

  Her mind though felt as normal as anyone’s, except when it came to learning without the block her father put on as a babe. She did a medical refreshing course that took sixteen years and went over it all in less than three minutes. Now she knew why it was so easy for Oliver to learn. Without repetition though the information would fade like all memories. Except concerning Oliver with a perfect eidetic memory so long as it was technical in nature.

  Sadly though she had to deal with the fact her sense of smell was as strong as any woman’s. A woman’s sense of smell is more acute than men except for a Solarian male. Their overall senses were much more developed as they were the primary Hunters and trackers evolutionary speaking. It made sense to Renee after she brought it up one night when answers eluded even her own resources.

  In the lab though she made tremendous progress. She could do thing not even her synthesizer could manage and she replaced everything rather than refill her field kit. Her bracelet could simultaneously inject up to fifty rats at once, using completely different solutions. Best of all, she could splice others as well as herself better, accurate and more efficient than anyone else alive. After finding this out on a mouse, she injected Oliver with a goal. She made him as hygienically bald under the arms as she and most everyone did.

  So far it was a success.

  Life wasn’t always guaranteeing great sex. Their personalities clashed on more than one occasion and Oliver slept alone out on the ship’s deck, usually up in the crow’s nest of the tallest mast. Renee slept alone and hated those night. Thankfully they always made up the next morning and made up for it with him going balls deep and her screaming his name or thanking the stars.

  Oliver also managed to explore the bulk of the Dorgenox and he was at loss. It was entirely self sustaining if ever they got stranded in the middle of nowhere space. Below the whole length of the deck was a small, lush forest teeming with little animals, butterflies and all sorts of edible insects if supply ever got that bad. Insects are full of protein. There was a lake where regular fish were farmed. Chickens and goats were used for food, eggs and fresh milk. There was even a farm where genetically modified crops grew in days rather than weeks to months. The plants were safer, more nutritious, resistant to pests and supposedly more tasty though to Oliver it was more like bland mush. It was a nice place, but also served a function.

  The forest would continue to make breathable air should life support fail. Able to support a total of over four thousand without aid of carbon dioxide scrubbers. Forest supplied air, animals supplied food, and water was recycled. Add to it the psionic strength of the whole crew to maintain power, the crew could last two thousand years or so plus if stranded. Which was a highly unlikely probability. There was more chance that the ship would exit FTL in the heart of a black hole to be crushed into basically nothing.

  The Piranha beasts were stored in another part of the ship, far away from anyone and under heavy security measures. They were all in five fresh water pools lined in metal not even their deadly teeth could find purchase on to chew a way out
. Jumping from the water was out of the question by a psionic shield covering the top.

  Level eight found Davan Took settling where the science area was located, same level as Stephanie’s artifact room, but further away. He was really busy organizing everything as he liked and cornered Oliver one day to bully him into becoming an assistant one day to help solve his mystery mode of instantaneous transportation. He accepted only when finding out it would take months to settle in.

  Of note was the ship’s engineer Jacob Wrench. A rather tiny, bald man, but spliced to be so to get into cramped places too dangerous to send children. He was maybe a hundred twenty two centimeters, bald of choice as he told that he had been shocked too many times and his hair caught fire. So he did away with it. Jacob’s main mistress was the engines that made not a sound unless it needed him for something the ship’s automatic repair functions could not deal with. His tiny body made for easier access in narrow spaces. He was also the equivalent of a handyman. His power was weakest in all the ship. He couldn’t even telekinetically move something in zero gravity. But he sure made up for it by fixing practically anything. His favorite things are puzzles. The harder it is the more determined he is to solve it with wit over force. He was also a gentle man. Kind, caring and would give away the shirt off his back if it would fit the person.

  Oliver also learned to associate and identify thousands of foreign scents thanks to Stephanie when she had run out of ideas to find the extent of his multi-tool, after her two weeks of serving Jessica’s whims to fulfill a bet. She was also a fan of learning Solarian translations like everyone else when Jake made it available to the crew in the last week of the four in FTL. And Jessica created a program to look into the smudge. She agreed Oliver had indeed found something had been painted on it, but what flecks that remained behind was inconclusive to be repaired without having direct access to the original debris the rubble had been pieced together with. It was beyond even her technological reach.