by John Short
The female left the place where she had been sent by her “employers” to wait and try to speak with Jon Connell. She hurried along the tube-way until she came to a small door that led into a quiet meditation chamber. Going to the back of the chamber where she had hidden her mourning robes she quickly put them on over the simple tunic she had worn to the hatchway. She was just finishing putting the robe in place and straightening it when someone entered the chamber.
“Are you ready to leave sister?” the new arrival asked. This slightly taller female was also wearing the black robes of a mourner.
“Yes.” she replied. “I could only say a few words to him. There is so much pain in him right now; I don't think he could have heard me anyway. I gave him the stone the High One asked me to give him.”
“And what of your pain?” the new comer asked. “We all know that you have now lost not only a husband but also your beloved son.”
“I will mourn my son when we return to Sanctuary. In truth I lost him cycles ago when my husband rejected me for another female and kept my son from me all these cycles.”
“We are all mourning with you sister.”
“I know and thank you all” the first female said. “Now we must return. The High One will want to know what I found.” Together they left the meditation chamber and went straight to a waiting shuttle that would rush them both out to a waiting FTL ship. From there they would travel to the secret planet on which the Lexonian Sanctuary had been established many cycles ago.
Looking over to the Nav station Jon ordered, “Plot us a course back to Canari.” Then he ordered the pilot to make their best time to the planet. When he was told it would take them three days, Jon forced himself to get out of the command chair and into the wheelchair. “I'll be in my stateroom.” he told the bridge crew before wheeling himself off the bridge and through the corridor to his quarters. Once there he studied the small stone that the female at the boarding tube had pressed into his hand and an idea began to form in his mind. Jon began to arrange the few personal items he owned that had all been brought to Defiance from Mercury. Among them were several framed photos that he placed on shelves. There was the picture of his parents holding the infant Jon Connell and smiling brightly. Then another of them standing proudly with a young child standing between them. All three with huge smiles lighting up their loving faces. Jon did not remember when either of these had been taken, as he was too young when it happened. His aunt had told him they were memories of their visits to the house when he was still a child and before his parents had been killed in a monorail crash. Then there was the photo of a slightly older Jon Connell standing between his aunt and uncle. This Jon Connell's smile wasn't as bright as those from his younger times, but it was still a happy smile. Then the picture of a much older Jon standing with his uncle as the two of them now towered over his much smaller Lexonian aunt who now stood between them with her own face beaming and the love for both of these huge males evident on it. Again, the smiles were on everyone's face, but like the other, Jon's smile had grown weaker with the passing cycles. He remembered when this photo had been taken. It was his birthday celebration and also the day he had earned his FTL certs. Not a single one of his classmates had accepted his aunt's invitation to the party she had planed. The only ones to come were his aunt and uncle along with a few close friends of theirs from BBITCo.. Jon remembered that at the time there had been some secret between his heart-parents and their friends that none of them ever talked about.
A tear came to his eye when he looked at the next photo. It was one of himself and the Prince standing in their combat armor beside one of their training shuttles. Both males had big smiles on their faces as they looked at the camera with their arms on each other’s shoulders. Only he knew the secret of how the picture had been staged to make Zeprik seem to be as tall as Jon. They had made Zeprik stand on a crate! Then came the photo of his entire flight crew and all of Zeprik's grubs. This one had been staged also and the Prince's smiling face could be seen looking out from the last row where again he'd stood on a crate to add to his height and bring him even with the others.
Finally Jon placed the photo of his mate on a shelf of its own with her bright emerald green eyes flashing out at him and a huge loving smile on her face. He had the same photo on his tablet showing at all times when he wasn't using it for some purpose like reading and sending messages to the company or one of his ship's Captains. Or the many, many messages he had composed and sent to Satrina everyday since he had left on rim patrol but never received any replies from her. He still sent them after he awoke in the med labs on Lexon II. He had gotten desperate to see her once when the pain of his recovery had become overwhelming and his message had begged her to visit him. She had not come to visit, nor had she replied to tell him why she could not come. He refused to believe that she was refusing to see him, but maybe she didn't want to be seen in public with a crippled warrior who had failed to save her brother's life. After all, she was still the beautiful Crown Princess and now with her brother dead because of his failure, she was the only living heir to the throne. He placed a different photo of her dressed in his house colors on his desk along with the small stone he’d been given by that unknown female at the station and turned his wheelchair to head out and inspect what had been done to the Defiance in his absence.
His first stop was the mess hall where he literally ran into Jinkly, rolling over the poor male's foot. He was one of the previous owners of the Defiance. “Hello there Jon Connell.” he said after he stopped hopping on one foot because Jon had run over his other one. Instead of a business suit, the male was wearing the white uniform of a ship's cook.
“Jinkly? What are you doing here dressed as a cook?” Jon asked.
“When I gave my report to TransCo. they got very upset that you had legally claimed salvage on Defiance and that I had honored your claim. They bought me out. I needed a job and your new ship needed a cook. Apparently I'm a better cook than I am a board member.” His foot was still sore from Jon rolling over it, but he managed to put his weight on it and said, “Personally I think more than one TransCo. board member is involved with the pirates. Before they could lock me out of the data banks I found that a number of our ships had made regular runs out to Canari that were not on any official flight logs. Now at least three of those ships have gone missing, but the corporation still hasn't reported them. Plus I found out that they have purchased more of these Destroyers and added them to the fleet. They have three that I found.”
“That's interesting” Jon absently told him. “Seeing as how you're our cook now, any chance of getting some bacon and eggs? The food at the Med Labs was awful.”
“Sure, grab yourself a table and I'll bring that right out for you.” Jinkly told him before limping away.
After enjoying the meal, Jon wheeled himself to an elevator and headed for the Engineering section. He needed to apologize to Phillie for being angry with her. It wasn't her fault that his body was hurting him so much or that his own pride had prevented him from using the chair at the station.
Rolling into the engine section he called out, “Wrenches! Are you down here?”
“Right here Boss. Can I help you?” came her reply from somewhere under one of the computer stations.
“Ahh, what are you doing under there?” he asked.
“Just checking on the coolant mix. I've been getting some strange readings on the screens.” Phillie called up. “Looks like it’s just a bad sender. Should have it replaced here in a few minutes.
“What did you do with the males who used to work in this section? There was a male here who claimed to be related to you.”
“While you were in med lab, I had all three of them transferred to Mercury.” she told him, still laying on her back under the computers. “Three Flight Engineers on one ship is never a good thing especially when one of them treats me like a youngling, but they all seem to get along, so I didn't break them up. I just sent them over as a unit with a full set of s
chematics on the changes I made to Mercury's systems. They'll keep her flying. No worries.”
She slowly climbed out and stood in front of him brushing her messy hands on her stained coveralls. “I really need to go wash this stuff off. It’s a real bother to get out of my fur once it dries. Did you need anything?” she asked.
“Phillie, I am sorry for snapping at you back on the station.” Jon told her. “None of this is your fault.” he said while waving at the wheelchair and his ruined legs.
“Its OK Boss. You were right. You don't need a mother anymore. I don't think you want a friend either. So if it’s alright with you, I'll just keep following your orders so I won't lose the best job I've ever had.” Phillie hated herself for being so abrupt with Jon, but what was said was said and she could not take it back now. Maybe one day he could understand how much he had hurt her when he got angry with her for simply trying to ease his pain, or now that she was angry with him, how it tore her heart into pieces at the loss of the closeness she had once felt for this crazy human male, but that day was far off in the future. “Can I go get cleaned up, sir?”
“Yes, Wrenches. Go wash up. Please make sure you have a look at those frames before we reach Canari. I'll be needing them again once we arrive.” Jon sadly told her as he turned and wheeled himself back to his quarters, quietly accepting that something had changed between them. He stayed in his quarters except for the few meals he took in the mess hall when everyone else was gone leaving the room empty except for him for the remainder of the slip to Canari.
Chapter Eleven
Four full weeks later they exited the slipway and began the trip into the inner orbits of planets, Phillmma brought Jon his eckto-frames. She had just finished working on them. “I think you'll like them now. I changed the hinges from simple rods to bearings. They are silent now.” she told him as she left the frames in his stateroom and returned to her duties in Engineering. Tears flooded her eyes whenever she looked at Jon and saw the darkness that was stealing his soul.
Jon never looked up from the star charts he was studying when Phillie came in. A part of him was aware that she had brought those hated frames, but he didn't remember any of what she had said. He was too busy trying to find an exact location on the charts. It was something he'd found in his father's old notes. There was a reference to The Beast being at a far away location and able to defend itself against anyone who came too close. It was supposed to have been hidden out near Blood Star, but no such place existed on any of the charts Jon had available. Nothing looked “right” about any of the charts he had studied since the raid on the pirates of Canari Prime. He would need to make one last trip to Haven. There were still many items that his ancestors had hidden in the house that Jon needed to collect before he could finally fly away from Haven forever. First he had to visit the scene of his friend's murder. Jon had learned much while he was in Med Lab. The two criminals that he had first found had been ordered to kill the Prince. Zeprik's death was not a causality of war, it was an assassination! Jon had yet to find the person who had ordered the kill, but he one day would find him or her and crush the life out of them with his own bare hands!
He struggled to put on the eckto-frames and get himself upright. He nearly fell twice during his attempts but after much effort he finally managed to strap them in place around his body and stand himself up. He belted his swords around his waist and covered himself with his cape. Now he was ready to return to the command bridge.
“I'll need the shuttle to take me to the surface” Jon announced. “Have Jarrieal meet me in the hanger bay.”
“Yes sir” the Commander said. “We'll be in orbit in a few more minutes. It looks like another ship is already there. Readings indicate that it is a Destroyer class ship, almost exactly like this one.”
“Let's not get caught with our guns cool.” Jon warned. “Better get them ready to defend the ship if you have to.”
“Aye sir” the Commander agreed and sent the order to tactical to get the guns online in case they had to fight their way out of the system.
“Please send word down when you're ready to launch the shuttle. I should not be down there too long.” Jon informed the Commander “I'm looking for a couple of small rocks and then I'll be back up here with new orders.” He then turned and left the command bridge before taking an elevator down to the flight deck three floors below. Once there he met Jarrieal and together they boarded one of the four new attack shuttles that Jon had purchased and outfitted himself for the Mercury but were now permanently assigned to Defiance. These birds carried more than missiles. Each of them also had a plasma cannon mounted on each stubby wing.
They got the notification that the ship had entered Canari's orbital zone and that the bridge was opening the bay doors.
“Where is the other Destroyer?” Jon asked.
“It took off and has already entered the slip, sir.” the bridge told him. “She shouldn't give you any trouble.”
Jon had Jarrieal do the flying because the eckto-frames made it impossible for him to operate the flight controls. “One of these days I'll be able to walk without these things.” Jon told him, “Until then I'm going to need you to fly me to a lot of places. Some of them aren't so nice. Make sure you are always carrying your sword and a gun.”
“I got both with me.” Jarrieal assured him.” Why are we going back to that place?” he asked.
“Someone handed me a small stone back at Lexon Station. It made me remember I had read that there was a custom among one group of humans back on old Earth where they put small stones on the graves of loved ones. It was a statement that the dead person had not been forgotten. I don’t know why the female gave me that stone. I guess she wanted me to remember someone because she told me that she had lost someone in the battle here.” Jon explained. “I've been studying the customs of my people and have learned that the people once called Earthlings had a lot of really good things going for them even though their planet seemed to always be at war with itself. According to one ancient author who escaped the disaster, on the very day that the planet was destroyed there were no less than five wars going on. Even on the day that everyone on the planet died, those warriors were too busy fighting each other to notice their world blowing up around them.” Jon took a moment to gather his thoughts before he said, “Following one of the old human customs, I plan on putting a stone from the spot where Prince Zeprik died on his grave back on Haven. I will never forget that I lost my closest friend that day.”
“Why bother?” Jarrieal asked. “Someone will come along and either take it for themselves or throw it away as just another rock.”
“Perhaps, but I will know and that is all that I need. I've finished caring what others do or don't do. From this day forward I'll do whatever I want and to the ocean depths with everyone else’s desires.” Jon stated flatly. “You and the others must decide. I'm going to hunt down every pirate ship I can find and blow it out of space. I may even use that terrible weapon the pirates mounted on my ship to blow them off any planet where I find them. You all must make up your minds to either stay and fight with me to rid the skies of these vermin or to go home to grow old with your grandchildren bouncing on your laps.”
“I already have. I'll follow your lead into the fires of hell if that is your wish. All of your team feels the same way, even the grubs.” Jarrieal told Jon. “None of us fully understand the depths of your pain at the lost of Prik, but we all know that you're good in a fight and won't do anything dumb like get us all killed at the same time. Hold on, I'm putting us down next to the spot where we found you and Prik.”
“You know he really hated it when you guys called him that.” Jon quietly told his team's copilot.
“Yeah we all knew it. Most of us knew who he really was too, but we never said anything.” Jarrieal told Jon. “He was a really great guy though, once you got that dam Royal stick out of his ass.”
“Yeah. He would have made a great King.” Jon mussed.
“We're he
re Captain.” Jarrieal told him as the shuttle settled softly on the ground and the rear ramp extended.
“I shouldn't be too long.” Jon informed Jarrieal as he got himself out of the copilot's chair and started for the exit. When he stepped out of the shuttle and set foot on the site where his friend had been killed, he suddenly went rigid and just stood there staring at the spot. Jon flashed back to that day in his mind. He saw the two assassins attacking Zeprik and Zeprik trying to get his rifle out of its special sleeve across his back. The way he had fallen made the rifle lock itself in place and was preventing him from using it. Jon saw the assassins firing bolt after bolt of hot plasma into the body of the Prince! He saw himself come upon them and instantly react by killing both assassins using only the two swords he now constantly wore by his sides. It was as if he were seeing it all again for the first time and actually watching himself killing anything that came near him and his fallen friend. He remembered now how he had lost all conscience thought. He had just killed anything that came near. Then Wrenches had come and he had attacked even her. How could he have not known that she would only come to help him? How could he have attacked his friend? Had he attacked any other friends he'd forgotten about? Then he felt the physical pain that came with the months of recovery and the constant pain he now felt in his arms, legs and back. All of which bore the scars of that battle as a constant reminder to him of the uselessness of his struggles to save his friend. Then he remembered his friend's last words to him. “Jon, take care of my sister.” he had said and then he had died.