Vacuum (The Cataclysm Series Book 1)

by Michelle Rene

  “There is a bar roughly three yards long. We are approaching the very center of it in about ten paces. The height is just below your chest,” she said.

  Salem was good at this. I lifted my hands and rested them on the counter of the bar with the ease of a sighted person. I ordered us a drink while enjoying a smell I recognized. It smelled like beer mixed with the warm, soapy scent of newly washed glasses. There was also that ever familiar, tangy odor of standing water and mixed overspill you get in used bar rags and bar mats.

  The trembling beneath our feet slowed and eased and I heard the faint rustling of fabric as everyone cheered.

  “Broke through the atmosphere?” I asked.

  “I suppose. They are opening the curtains along the outside windows and everyone is cheering. I wonder why they waited till we went through the atmosphere to open the curtains.”

  “I’m sure the majesty of empty space is far lovelier to look at. Besides, burning through an atmosphere leaves a lot of flaming debris. They probably don’t want to panic people with the view of what looks like flaming chunks of the ship flying off.”

  “Uh huh.”

  She sounded far away. I could feel her pulling me ever so slightly toward the window.

  “Have you ever seen the stars, Salem? I mean, in person?”

  “No,” she said absently.

  “Go on.”

  Her head snapped toward me quickly.

  “You don’t want to come with me?”

  “I’ve seen it.”

  There was a questioning pause.

  “I wasn’t always blind, and this is not my first trip. However, it seems to be yours, so go. I remember how it looked, so I don’t blame you for wanting to go see.”

  “I really shouldn’t leave you.”

  “I’m fine. Bar here, dancing floor at nine o’ clock, and stage at eleven thirty. I’ve got the room.”

  “Alright,” she said with trepidation.

  I felt her hand release my elbow and her presence leave. It faded away with every tiny click of her heels. I drained my glass and ordered another drink.

  The murmurs around me were not terribly interesting. They were the musings of so many different souls it sounded like a light din of birds. It wasn’t until the gruff man spoke I suddenly paid attention.

  “He’s over dere. Yeah, dat one. The one wit da smug fuckin’ face.”

  He and two others were breathing hard and roughly about twenty paces to the left of me. There was menace in their voices and not just the kind that only talks.

  “He insulted dat group of Leonites in line to register. He halted their pilgrimage.”

  “So what? That’s not our order,” said a second man with less anger under his breath. “What should we care if he was rude to a bunch of pilgrims?”

  “It ain’t the point! We are supposed ta be da protectors.”

  If I had eyes I would have rolled them. I knew this type—they were of the Handley Order. It was a religious order of brutes with violence issues that hid under an edict of protection granted by the United Collaboration of Religious Orders. They had a reputation for beating and sometimes killing whoever crossed them and then blaming religious intolerance as the reason for the attack. Most religions stayed a far distance from them and practiced their own non-violent existence. Of course, they all knew full well that to revoke the Handley Order’s edict of protection would result in their own orders becoming the target of the Handley’s brutish ways. So, most religions politely looked the other way.

  “We protect our otha religious brothers and sisters, and they was assaulted today.”

  “They were insulted, not assaulted.”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “It does so. I don’t wanna get in trouble like we did at that bakery.”

  “That pig baker chick deserved it!”

  “Enough,” said a third voice.

  There was an air of authority in this voice, and the other two stopped chattering immediately. I hoped this man might talk some sense into the other two.

  “He insulted our brethren. He will die by our hands. That is what our order demands of us. No more discussions about it. We are the protectors. Let’s do this now before anyone cottons on.”

  Chapter Nine

  “Shit.”

  I said it to myself, and no one, but the bartender, heard me. The rest of my drink got thrown back in a hurry when I heard the shuffling of footsteps from the direction of the men’s voices. They were on the move, and I had a pretty good guess where they were going.

  It was my fault. I had baited that scientist into the altercation with the pilgrims, and now these idiots were going to kill him for it. I hated to intervene with things like this, but I couldn’t let this happen, not when it was my fault. I remembered the scientists had congregated near the stage before, and I hoped beyond hope they were still there.

  I made my way through the crowd in the direction where I knew the stage to be. In the process, I bumped into a man who smelled of pressed linens and oils.

  “Pardon me, friend,” I said quickly.

  “Absolutely no problem,” said an overly friendly male voice.

  A pilgrim, I could tell. This could possibly work to my advantage.

  “I was wondering if you could help me, sir?”

  “Surely, my good man. What seems to be the trouble?”

  The crowd fidgeted and stirred around us, and I wondered how close the goons were and how long I had before they made their move.

  “My helper has run off, and I am looking for a Doctor Richard Mellar.”

  There was a short pause.

  “Why on Artemis would you want to talk to him?”

  The pilgrim’s voice was filled with disdain.

  “I am looking for him so I might give him a piece of my mind,” I retorted. “Bastard thinks he knows everything. Those science types always do. So arrogant.”

  The air around the man relaxed.

  “You’re preaching to the choir, my friend. May I buy you a drink?”

  “Absolutely, but let me tell that idiot off first while I have a good head of steam. Can you please point me in the direction of where he is?”

  My insides pulsed, but I tried to keep my gut in check. Surely the goons were not going to wait too much longer to make their move. I didn’t have time for this.

  “The doctor is right over there, my friend. He’s no less than a hundred paces from you at your three o’clock.”

  I nodded to him.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  I hurried in the direction he had directed me. I heard the good doctor’s steely voice right away and smelled that disinfected smell of his. He seemed to be carrying on a conversation with a fellow scientist and a crew member. The air of the crowd started to become more and more agitated. The casual conversations continued, but there was an aura of discontent all around me. I could not tell for certain if it was just the violently opposing viewpoints so near to each other or if it were the goons moving in on their target. Either way, I stuck close to the doctor.

  That’s when I heard it. It was faint, and I barely caught it in the din around me, but it was definite. The sound I heard was the unmistakable sound of a gun charging. It came from directly behind Doctor Mellar. Leave it to this type to shoot a man in the back.

  There was no one in between me and the doctor. He stood to the left of me, unaware of the danger behind him. My senses honed in on the source of the gun, and I heard the sound of three men breathing hard and smelling of perspiration. At least they were in one place. This would be far harder if they flanked us.

  In a quick movement I pressed my left shoulder into the right shoulder of the doctor and spun around so we were back to back. I heard the click of the metal gun as the man in front of me raised it. I pulled my barrook and struck the hand that held the gun in front of me before the man could react. The severed hand made a soft splat on the metal floor in between us, the gun clanged as it fell next to it. Before the man could scream,
I thrust the end of the blade into his chest, stopping his heart. A gurgling sound penetrated my ears, and the rusty smell of blood filled the air.

  I heard his compatriots activate their pistols on either side of him, so I spun and disarmed them with one long slash. The metal of my barrook sang with the movement, and two more hands fell to the floor. They choked with the shock of it all, giving me the perfect target. With two clean swipes, I severed their throats and they joined their friend on the ground before me.

  The scent of blood and metal mixed together in that all too familiar way it does. I knew they were dead. The angry air they had stirred up was settled and peaceful now. It was replaced by the vibrating essence of fear.

  For the first time all evening, the entire room was silent. It was as if everyone was in shock and waiting for me to turn around to tell them what they had just witnessed wasn’t real. They probably hoped the blood was syrup and food coloring. Maybe this was some elaborate skit performed by really talented actors. Later, they might tell their friends about how real it had all seemed at first, but in truth, they had seen the seams on the prosthetic arms before the act had started. Surely, this was a skit. They could not have just witnessed three men get maimed and killed by a blind man.

  The screaming started when the realization hit home. Then, there was more screaming. People scurried around me without touching me. They were afraid to touch me. I laid my barrook gently on the ground at my feet to signal I was no longer a threat to anyone, but they still ran around me in fear.

  “Why did you do that?” asked the steely voice behind me.

  I turned around to face him.

  “They were coming to kill you.”

  That’s when I felt the strong hands on my shoulders.

  Chapter Ten

  The bench in the ship’s holding cell was hard and cold. I could feel the chill of bite through my pants, but I did not move. Even when the cell door opened again to a lot of cursing and commotion, I did not budge from my spot.

  “Let go of me you Metal Head freaks!”

  “Get your ass in there!”

  I heard a scuffling near the door and the clang of a Metal Head’s heavy armored footstep. The other voice was female and all too familiar. With one last shove, she was forced into the cell with me. Salem fell to the floor and scrambled to get back up. I heard the tinkling sound her jewelry made and the whoosh of slinky fabric as she moved. Alas, her heels impeded her speed and the Metal Head slammed the door before she could get to it.

  “Screw you! You have no proof!”

  “Yeah, yeah. Keep it down, thief.”

  She was panting and obviously riled.

  “Hi Salem.”

  I said it gently, but she still screamed in reaction. Apparently, with all the turmoil of her capture, she hadn’t seen me already sitting in the cell. She panted harder, and her heartbeat reverberated through the metallic air.

  “Sorry,” she said breathlessly. “You shocked me. I didn’t know they brought you here too.”

  “It’s alright. At least it’s a big holding cell.”

  Salem panted a bit more, and I heard her heels click lightly on the ground as she walked to the other side of the room. She sat on the floor and leaned against a wall where I knew a window to be. I’d scoped the room out after they had put me in here. I had provided no resistance.

  “So, you wanna tell me why you killed those guys?”

  “Did that shock you?”

  “I think it shocked everyone if you hadn’t noticed.”

  “Yes, but did it shock you?”

  “Not really.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’ve seen enough, and as you recall, I know what you are. I’ve seen people get killed and mutilated before.”

  “It couldn’t be helped.”

  “Oh yeah? Why?”

  “They were going to kill that scientist, the one that started that riot. I heard them at the bar. It was my fault they targeted him in the first place. I couldn’t have that blood on my hands, so I waited by the doctor for them to make their move.”

  “I knew there had to be some reason or else that stunt you pulled would be a death sentence and for a stupid reason. You still aren’t off the hook for this, even if what you say is true. They might still kill you, Shadow Man.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “What proof do you have you are telling the truth?”

  “I don’t have any proof other than the truth.”

  She was quiet for a moment as she surveyed me.

  “You sure are still and calm for a man who just killed three men.”

  “There is no reason for me to fret about this. I killed three, armed men bent on assassination. I saved an innocent man’s life and retained my honor. Guilty people fidget and wring their hands in jail, trying to deduce their next move. The innocent sit still knowing the truth will always set them free.”

  “Sounds like a lot of nonsense to me. What if the guilty man knows he’s done for, so he figures fidgeting all night will only be a wasted effort? Might as well get some sleep if you know the gallows await you the next day and there is nothing you can do.”

  “You sound as though you speak from experience, Salem. After your tantrum, you sat down and have barely moved since. Are you guilty or is this all a misunderstanding?”

  Salem breathed out slowly, and I could almost hear her heart slow with the action. The air around her was comfortable in a way only those who are used to a jail cell can command.

  “Well, a bit of both. Without proof there is no crime, especially with the crime of thievery. They cannot hold me here for the crime of stealing a rich woman’s watch if they never find it on my person.”

  “That doesn’t exactly answer the question.”

  “It does in a way. I can guarantee they will never find that watch on me no matter how hard they try. Therefore, I am innocent of the crime.”

  I smiled. Thieves, you never could get a strait answer out of any of them.

  I heard footsteps coming our way shortly after Salem’s non answer. Some belonged to Metal Heads, all heavy and clunky. One set in particular was light without being dainty, the sound of fine men’s shoes. The door moaned as it opened, and we were greeted with three Metal Heads and the good Doctor Mellar.

  “Keep an eye on the girl in the corner,” said the gruff voice I had heard yelling at Salem earlier. “She’s trouble.”

  I heard nothing from where Salem was sitting, but I could guess she was smiling.

  “Excuse me,” stated the Doctor. “Mr. Um… er… what is your name?”

  I didn’t respond.

  “Do you have a name?”

  “I assume you’re speaking to me.”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, there are four other people in the room with us. How was I to know?”

  “Well, I am speaking to you. What is your name?”

  I sighed deeply.

  “Why don’t you just ask the question you want to ask?”

  There was a brief pause.

  “Alright then. Why did you kill those men tonight?”

  “They were going to kill you.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Other than the fact they were holding armed weapons and pointing them to your back? I overheard them at the bar. They were religious enforcers, and they thought you had insulted their brothers.”

  Silence choked the room. I could feel a million questions bubbling at the side of everyone’s mouths, wanting desperately to get out. However, the longer the silence ran, the harder it became to break the silence with a question. I waited because I had all the time I needed. To my surprise, one of the Metal Heads broke it first.

  “Why did you care?”

  The Doctor scoffed with indignation.

  “What? He doesn’t know you from Adam! Why should he put himself in harm’s way instead of calling one of us?”

  “It’s a valid point,” said the gruff one.

  “It was my fault yo
u instigated that riot. I poked you into it. If they had killed you, your blood would have been on my hands.”

  There was another pause while everyone processed that.

  “But you have now killed three men,” sputtered the Doctor in disbelief.

  “Yes, but those were just killings. Armed men against armed men.”

  “I see,” said the Doctor, but I could tell he didn’t. Men like him, men of reason and science, never did see that.

  “When is my trial?” I asked calmly.

  The Doctor cleared his throat.

  “There will not be one.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I did a little detective work before I came to visit you. You were not the only one to hear the plot before the assassination attempt happened. I have three other eyewitnesses that say they heard the same thing at the bar. Apparently, they weren’t quiet about their distaste for me. Also, there are at least two people who swear they saw the men activate their guns moments before you intervened. I am good friends with the captain of the Goliath, and I hold sway with his staff. You are released, sir.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I’m not about to let my savior sit in a frigid cell. I have arranged for your release. The report will read the truth just as you’ve told it. You are free.”

  I stood slowly and surveyed the situation. The whole thing seemed genuine, but far too easy. On the other hand, I had rarely saved a well off scientist. Apparently, there were perks. Without knowing how else to respond, I bowed respectfully in his direction.

  One of the Metal Heads exited the cell and brought back my barrook. He handed it to me with the blade up, and I heard Salem giggle a little in the corner at its improper handling. I took it and returned it to its sheath.

  “I’m afraid you frightened quite a few people tonight. You might have a hard time making friends on this ship.”

  “I’m not looking for friends, Doctor. I have only one friend here, and I would consider it a great favor if you would release her.”