“I was with a Patrol man at the time in a suit decontamination locker . S o I have a rock solid alibi you bitch.” Chet stepped back toward her with his arms out trying to grab her.
Mark started to get up to intercept him as the woman slapped Chet across the face again much harder knocking him sideways staggering. “You keep your filthy hands away from me you lying murderer, I don’t want to ever see you or dad ever again.” Hitting him again as he tried to s tan d back up . “Stay away from me or I will kill you now you don’t have father’s protection with his two top henchmen dead thanks to Mark . Dad doesn’t have anyone to inforce his demands and kill anyone that does n’t follow his orders now . ”
As Mark started to stand up, sat back down Chet growled. “Stay out of this Dweeb or I will finish caving in your head. I know you spent the afternoon in Sickbay half dead from a concussion.” A shit eating grin crossing his face as he glance d turned back to his sister and then smiled at Mark . “One hit and you are dead so you best stay out of this kid.”
Then turning to the woman. “You listen to me bitch. You are going to come with me down to the union hall and help me muster the troops to strike and start tearing up the cargo until those morons let father go. You are going to say what I tell you to say or I am going to throw you in the hole with the other pleasure slu t ts. You will show more respect once you are hooking.” Smiling from ear to ear as he bent in close to her and whispered. “Once you get a couple dozen tricks under your panties , you will be begging to please r me and say anything I want. Now come along before I have to hurt you. The stupid cargo gorillas will do anything you ask them to without thinking about it much so I don’t need Peery to inforce dad ’ s orders . Now move.” He reached out to grab her again but she stood up putting her body into a slap across ped his face that was hard enough to send him falling to the deck. pushing him away again.
Mark finished standing up started to get up again as a couple of Ship’s Patrolmen walked up. “What is going on here?”
Chet turned as he climbed to his fe et, rubbed his face where she had hit him , looking at the officers. “Nothing that is your stupid business.” Then his face changed. “Hey! It’s you fuckers again. I told you to stop following me. Now get out of here before I charge you with harassment.”
The Patrol Sgt. smiled. “It looks to me that you are the only one harassing anyone around here.”
“This is family business. Butt the fuck out.” Chet grabbed for his sister again but got slapped again. His red face started to get pissed and then he smiled. “I want her arrested for assault.” Turning to her. “You will do what I say or you will spend the night in the brigg little sister.” Turning to the patrol men who hadn’t moved. “I said arrest her. I am formally charging her with assault and you have to arrest her.”
“Now isn’t that funny. You beat the pulp out of someone and since we did not see it happen we have to take statements from victims’ that are too scared to tell the truth and file charges that get squashed before we can arrest you but now we have to jump in and arrest someone just because you demand it.” Looking around at his partner smiling. “Sorry but I didn’t see anything. Did you Patrol man James?”
“Not a thing Sargent.”
“What a shame. Now move along Mr. Greedly and stop causing trouble before we have to take you in for loitering on the mess deck since you do not even have a dinner tray.”
Taking a breath as he puffed up. Chet snarled. “You two better watch your backs.” Chet walked across behind Mark placing his body between the patrolmen and Mark. Once his arm was out of sight of the Patrolmen Chet jabbed his fist out hard to the side toward the side of Marks head.
Only Mark’s hand was suddenly in the way catching his fist. Mark jerked it down easily since Chet was counting on his hand hitting Mark’s head to stop the momentum of his whole body he had put into the fast h ard jab punch .
Mark simply guided Chet’s body’s momentum down between the seats . Being off balance when his hand missed Mark’s he ad, until Chet fell face first down until his ’s head hit the edge of the table without ever coming close to Mark ’s let alone his head. The table solidly mounted to the deck shook , rattling the trays and utensils on the table top with a big thud.
As Chet collapsed to the deck leaving blood on the corner of the table Mark sat back down and . Mark turned his chair around presenting his back to the cursing Chet holding his head rolling on the deck. Looking at Chet’s sister, Mark waited for her to run to her brother’s aid or even attack him which the last few minutes could very well be a set up for.
As he waited for her to do something he found himself tensing up. Disappointment growing inside him for her participating in such a stupid ambush after saving her life a few days before. But as time lengthened and she sat and actually started smiling as she shook her head in disgust looking past Mark at her brother, Mark found himself pleasantly surprised. Even starting to get interested in the young woman as Chet started cursing behind at Mark ’s back .
Chet had rolled away across the aisle to the next table expecting Mark to attack him . Slowly Chet cli cli mbed to his fee t . Ruddily pushing the woman that sat their out the other side of the seat. Then crouched their using the bac k of the chair for protection, t far from any threat Mark ’s back could pose behind Mark’s back .
“Mark! Chet is getting ready to lung at you again. If he does hit your head hard enough , he could do some damage. You won’t be fully healed until you go through two more growth light healing sessions. The next one is s are at 2300 tonight and then 0800 in the mornin g g sessions . I am also not yet finish armoring your skull with my Nannites, leaving your thinner than normal skull extremely vulnerable if you get hit in the head tonight or even the next few days .”
“What the hell are you talking about Mickey armoring my skull? And why is my skull thinner than normal?”
“I have shaved the inside of your skull a few silly millimeters to make room to create a carbon armored shell with special foam padding around your skull to protect and cushion your brain from impacts and blunt force trauma like you have been getting since we joined forces. By the time you wake tomorrow morning, you will have a small helmet around your brain protecting you from most concussions even if your skull gets cracked again. Though over the next 6 months I will be reinforcing the outside of your skull as well to be more resistant to damage.”
“Just when were you going to tell me about this?” Mark started to get mad. “Is that why I went through so much pain this afternoon?”
“Maybe a little but I reduced your pain a little as well in other area’s. The net effect was somewhat neutral compared to the pain your treatments were causing . Please… Mark Duck!”
Mark suddenly found himself watching Chet lunge for him at slow motion as the world around him slowed way down for the second time in as many minutes. Something he had tried to do but couldn’t when he had grabbed for the pipe earlier that day just before he was hit in the head with it. This time he found it easy as he watched Chet’s doubled up fists swing toward his head. Mark started to slide his body sideways out of the chair. “Mickey that was easy. Why couldn’t I do this a second time earlier today even though I tried really hard several times during the fight?” Mark watched Chet slowly fling himself in his direction picking up speed.
“I told you why Mark. You have not spent years training as an Imperial Inspector or had any enhancements. I used your pain from the treatments to shrink and and repair the damaged neurons while creating more. I also , to help ed your body create new nerve paths throughout your brain and body as well as increasing the size of your blood vessels to increase handle the flow of more blood to your brain. Feeding it more oxygen and nutrients as well as helping to cool it , while the foam and special cooling channels in the armor will help get rid of the excess heat that is the result of over clocking your brain. A process that they were just starting to experiment with when my Inspector was terminated with the first neutron bombs of the War
a thousand years ago.”
Mark watched Chet continue to move in slow motion as Mickey spoke almost too fast to understand. “You were already able to over clock your brain faster than any recorded Inspectors in my data base which resulted in your brain heating up at an incredible rate during the first few seconds of the attack when you successfully defended yourself. Your inability to supply food and oxygen and cool your brain prevented you from doing it again until your blood was able to pump enough blood through your head to not only cool your brain down but resupply the used up oxygen and nutrients. Which you were not able to do in time. Resulting in you almost being killed. Next time if you get a chance to kill someone trying to kill you, stick the damn torch into his chest and pull the fucking trigger. Please.”
Mark tried to speed up his all too slowly responding body. Trying to overcome his body’s natural inertia. “Mark Don’t try so hard to move your body. You have plenty of time. I am reinforcing your tendons and muscles as well as the blood supply to them, but that takes time as well. You can easily pull a tendon or do other damage until I finish the work.” Mark stopped trying so hard, forcing himself to resist the fear driving him not to get his head bashed in again as Mickey continued. “ Your failure to defend yourself forced me to try and upgrade you when I had the chance. The fact that the upgrading temporarily expanded the inside of your skull incasing your brain, also increased your chances of surviving the treatments you would have died without. Please do not be too mad at me love. I did it for your own good. And if it had failed, we both wouldn’t be around to lament my decision so there was no sense in worrying you about it which could have hindered your recovery.”
As Mark stopped trying to run in panic he realized that he was moving plenty fast to get out of Chet’s way and relaxed and suddenly felt the world start to speed up again. Surprised at the feeling and being able to notice it in the first place, Mark decided to see if he could maintain his fast thinking longer just for that hell of it. “Ok Mickey. The old, do it before asking so you can’t be told no, ruse right? Just remember that only works if the results will benefit the person able to say no Mickey. If not you will get yourself into a world of shit. Believe me I found out the hard way and wound up forced to become a fucking Officer.”
Mark felt the heat in his head building up and started letting the world around him speed up a little just to see if he could control it. He noticed that Chet was going to slide past him and realized that the chair would not catch him before he hit the table again and wind up crashing across the top sending his plate and his parents plates into his parents. Making one hell of a mess mostly on his parents. With a devilish smile Mark moved his hand the few inches he needed to grab the side of the chair using his own bodies mass inertia to spin the chair around until Chet would fall over the back instead of onto the seat and across the table.
Letting things speed up even more, Mark quickly stood up to the side and watched Chet fall over the back of the chair at half speed. Chet’s face hit the table, schnozzle first into Mark’s dinner tray plastering the remaining food out over half the table including his parents and the young woman as Mark turned to watch well out of the splatter zone. Deciding a little food was better than the plates and all in his parent’s laps.
“Damn Mickey , that was is neat.” As Mark continued to watch with the world around him at half speed. “Oh. Aaa Mickey , my head is starting to hurt a little.”
“Well , you have spent a very long time at a hundred time’s normal speed and now you are at ten times normal speed. I have not finished with your enhancements for cooling and providing the needed oxygen to your mind yet. So use that as a warning telling you your mind is overheating and starving for oxygen and food. I i t is time to return to normal.”
“Ten times normal? Now that’s not bad.”
“Actually Mark, you were at a thousand times normal for a fraction of a second while you were panicking. I told you, you are were faster than anyone in my somewhat flawed recorded memory. You need to watch that. You could burn out your brain in only a few seconds at that speed even with my upgrades. Another reason I was forced to try what was only still experiments a thousand years ago.” Then at Marks disbelieving confusion. “I told you I have no record of someone being able to clock up their brain as fast as you. Which worries me. Though the fact that you are learning to control it this fast is hopeful. In time you will be able to hold mild clock accelerations for considerable times , maybe hours without worrying about damaging your mind. I have already been speeding up your mind during my sleep teaching sessions for several hours but no were near what you can do on your own . ”
Mark let time slow speed back down to normal up . Now worried about over doing it, but could not help smiling as Chet made the mess worse as he slowly flung himself around trying to get up and away from an attack he again expected from Mark . While he started to feel concern for his parents he turned his attention to Chet’s sister. Again worried about what she would do as he started to move forward to keep Chet from taking his plight out on his parents. But then the Patrolmen, who had already been moving toward Chet rushed forward and grabbed him first. Slamming his face back down into what food there was left in Mark’s tray as they hand cuffed him. Again spattering food across the table. Then dragging Chet up over the back of the chair he had fallen over and onto his feet and away from anyone he could hurt as the tables around Mark finished emptying out as others watched from a short distance.
A woman from a hundred feet away jumped up from a table and started rapidly walking toward the commotion. Getting Mark’s attention simply because she was in a hurry and coming his way while everyone else was walking away or just trying to see what was going on.
“You are under arrest Mr. Greedly.” One of the Patrolmen said as they started going through his pockets. “For assaulting a Ship’s Command Officer. Under article 13 Mutiny. You have the right to remain silent, any statements you make can be used against you in the ships Court. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, the ship will assign you an attorney at no expense to you. Do you understand these rights I have read to you?”
“Yes he understands his rights Patrolman and I demand that you release my client immediately.” The woman had ran past the last few tables pushing rudely past the both people sitting at the tables and those just standing trying to see what was going on.
“The Patrol Sgt. turned to the woman and smiled. “Sorry but we watched him try to assault the Commander.”
“That is not what I saw Sargent. All I saw was my client tripping and falling. Did you actually see my client hit the Commander?” She looked at Mark. “Fact is I see no marks or bruising or damage on the Commander at all.”
Mark watched Chet’s sister as she shook her head disgustedly and stood up. “Well I saw him try to assault the Commander while the officers could not see what he was doing. Which he is damn good at. Hell, I have watched him break a kid’s arm while the kid ’ s parents were watching him do it but could not see his hands. And then blame the kid himself.”
“That is hearsay and not germane to this incident.” The Lawyer dismissed Chet’s sisters attempt to intervene. “I ask you again Sargent. Did you actually see my client hit the Commander?”
The Sargent grimaced and turned to the other Patrolman. “Release the son of a bitch.” Then turned back to the woman , Pissed , without saying a word.
“Very well Sargent.” Raising her voice to carry across the mess deck. “Now I want you to arrest this murderer , arrest Commander Collins for assaulting my client. My client has suffered obvious harm from the Commanders unwarranted attacks. He may get away with murdering my client’s family but I can hold him accountable to this assault.”
The Sargent snarled. “As you first said when you walked up Counselor, I saw your client trip and fall. I did not see Commander Collins lay a hand on your client. Your client did all the damage to himself.” Smiling at the councilor. “You best help your client to Sickbay
before he trips and falls again.”
“I demand you call the medics Sargent.”
“Sorry mam but I am busy and I see no life threatening injuries. Do it yourself so you and your client have to pay for the service. Also means you won’t have a police report you can twist into assault charges against the Commander.”
An old lady a couple tables away stood up. “You are that man the news lady said murdered all those people. Officer, I saw him attack that young man for no reason at all. You have to arrest him.”
Chet’s sister turned from looking at the old woman to the Sargent. “Bullshit Sargent. That old bag had her back to us the whole time stuffing her face. She couldn’t have seen anything but I did and Mark did not touch my brother while my father would have broken his fucking neck for even attempting the first attack let alone trying it a second time.”
“How can you say that about your own brother after losing your family you nasty spoiled little girl.” The old woman said disapprovingly.
Smiling as she turned back to face the woman. “Because my brother is the a lying, murdering ass hole, you bitch. My brother has spent his life making goody fruity goody old stupid women like you feel sorry for him as he robbed and beat up and terrorized there kids in front of them.” Shaking her head disgustedly. “As for losing my and his family, Chet is the one that murdered them you stupid bitch.” Her voice seemed to echo across the silent Mess deck.
Trampship Wars 2 Page 18