by David Welch
“You are aware he’s a defector?” asked Rex.
“His little change of heart makes no difference to us. It does not make up for all the serfs he abused, raped, and murdered,” seethed Keith. “It does not make up for what he did to my wife!”
“No, it doesn’t,” Lucius said. “But that’s rich talk coming from a warrior.”
Now Rex’s eyes widened. He knew, from Lucius’s telling, that warriors were the male children of nobles and serfs. He knew they were raised to do nothing but fight—to be vicious, brutal, and efficient. And he knew that, like nobles, they had free reign to do whatever they wished to the serfs they kept in line, provided they didn’t kill them unordered or overly hamper productivity. Which meant this “Keith” had probably done things just as bad as Lucius.
“That won’t work,” declared an attractive black-haired woman in her early forties. “We know of Keith’s past. He freed dozens of serfs and helped bring them here, where they can live as people. We have forgiven him.”
“Besides,” said another, a tan-skinned older man with a sternum-length beard, “His kind was ordered to be monsters. They had no other choice. But you…you chose to kill and rape! You chose to hurt our friend Helen! You cannot be forgiven!”
“Ever,” said the black-haired woman.
“I don’t ask that you do,” Lucius said. “But despite all your hatred, I can be of use to you.”
“Yes,” sneered Kate. “By dying.”
“Wrong,” Rex interjected. He stepped forward, holstering his gun. He paced up to within three feet of the party. Their guns did not leave him.
“Lucius is right. My name is Rex Vahl. I am a Terran.”
The eyes of the group went wide, several looking from one another, uncertain.
“I, and my crew, including Lucius, work for the External Intelligence Division. Spy stuff. They sent me here because in the imperial communications that we’ve intercepted we’ve noticed an increase in chatter regarding this specific planet—a lot of chatter about it. We were sent to find out why this backwater planet, twenty-five light-years from imperial borders, would attract so much attention. And I’ve found out why. I’m staring at why.”
The black-haired woman lowered her gun, the others didn’t.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I wish I could tell you more,” said Rex. “But so far all I know is that they’re watching this place, and probably know that you are all here. And I bet that pisses them off a great deal.”
“I do not care,” Helen said from his right. “I will kill Baliol.”
“Yeah, I got that,” Rex snapped. “But maybe you could delay your little vendetta, at least until we can figure out what the hell the empire is doing here.”
“And I think I can help you with that,” said Lucius, holstering his gun and boldly striding up behind Rex.
“We do not want your help,” said Kate.
“Even if I tell you that Viscount Calidus Seinsheim-Vasa is a spy?” said Lucius.
Heads cocked in confusion, and then a shot rang out. Lucius hurtled backward, slamming into the floor of the cargo bay, clutching his stomach. Before anybody could react, another shot broke the air. The bearded, old man lurched forward, and fell into Rex’s arms. Rex glanced up, momentarily stunned. He saw a tall man sprinting from the ship, already on the landing pad and streaking across the spaceport. For a precious second the freedmen stood stock-still, unable to register the abrupt change in events.
“He’s a spy!” roared one.
“Run him down!” ordered Keith.
Most of the party broke, streaking down the ramp after their enemy. Keith and Kate remained, guns in hand but no longer pointed at Rex. Rex turned to Jake.
“Help them. Catch the fucker,” Rex ordered.
“Really, with these three still—”
“Go!” Rex snapped. The cyborg looked momentarily frightened, and then took off down the ramp. Within a few moments he had caught up with the freedmen and surpassed them. In the distance the figure of Calidus Vasa disappeared into the village. Rex frowned, hoping Jake didn’t get into too much trouble when a town full of people saw him chasing a person they thought was one of their own.
When he turned back, he found new trouble awaiting him—as if he hadn’t enough already. Helen was standing over Lucius, her gun drawn and aimed at his head. Lucius was gasping in pain, his concealed body armor having absorbed the shot. “Lower your weapon,” Second said. She stood to Helen’s side, gun out and ready. Kate and Keith remained behind Lucius, attending to their wounded compatriot.
“No,” Helen replied.
They waited for Second to say something, but instead she just stood in place, her pistol not moving a hair.
“She’s a good shot,” Rex warned. “Is your hate for Baliol worth dying over?”
“You will never understand my hate,” Helen seethed. “None of you will!”
“Second there might, given her history,” Rex said. “But that’s beside the point right now. You may be willing to die, but are you willing to get your baby killed too?”
Helen’s hand began to shake.
“You said you’ve already lost children because of—”
Helen spun, her pistol on Rex’s chest. Rex froze. He did not have body armor.
“I will kill all of you if I have to!” Helen cried, her voice breaking. Tears streaked down her cheeks.
“You don’t have to,” stressed Rex. “Nobody does. Just put the gun back in its holster, and bring your man to our med bay. It’s more advanced than anything in the Chaos Quarter. It’s his best chance.”
Helen hesitated, glancing back and forth between him, Lucius, and Keith. Keith nodded, looping an arm around the old man. Kate did the same.
Helen lowered her arm. Softly she slid the pistol back into its holster.
“Thank you,” Rex said, he dashed over to where Keith and Kate had lifted the wounded man up. Rex grabbed his feet, helping them distribute the weight. “Second, stay with Lucius, get him to his cabin. Now you two, we gotta get him up the stairs on the right. Once we’re up I’ll direct you to the medical bay.”
He paused and turned to Helen.
“It would be nice if you could accompany us,” Rex said.
She scowled at him and shook her head—a disgusted look on her face. She started down the ramp, walking listlessly.
Rex sighed. Good enough, he thought as she continued on. Keith stared worriedly at his wife for a moment, but then a moan from the old man brought his attention back to the situation at hand.
“All right, let’s go,” Rex said. The three of them began to move awkwardly toward the staircase.
***
Jake sprinted from the small spaceport, across one hundred yards of open field and into Valley Town. He found himself on a side street, bounded by three-story, steep-roofed buildings. He paid little attention to them, dashing down the street until it met a cross street.
This one was wider, and bustling with people. He glanced about, briefly taking in more buildings and a mass of human beings. Then, looking to the right, he saw him: a man moving swiftly up the street. He had stopped running, no doubt hoping to blend in long enough to get clear of the pursuit, but there was no fooling Jake. His computers matched the figure to what he had seen on the ship and singled him out.
He heard murmurs and whispers around him, aware for the first time that people were gawking. He ignored it, and sprinted toward the departing Calidus. People leaped out of his way, unsure of what they were seeing.
Calidus turned, apparently hearing his footfalls. His face went white. Instead of sprinting, he stopped.
“Help! Oh my god, help me!”
Nearby faces turned, locking on Jake. He knew what it looked like: a metallic stranger going after a known and respected citizen of town. Guns came out. Everybody here had them, on their hips and ready. He could see at least four men and a woman forming a knot in front of him, weapons drawn.
Son of a bitch
!
Behind them, Calidus ran. Magnifying his vision, Jake could see a slight smile on the man’s face. No doubt he thought himself clever.
Fuck clever.
He dashed to within ten feet of the knot of armed townsmen, and then leaped. Eyes went wide as he sailed right over them, clearing their heads by three feet. He landed with a hard thump on the concrete of the roadway, but the impact did not break his stride. Calidus’s smile turned to an expression of pure horror as Jake ran him down. Jake extended his hand, ready to grab the back of the man’s coat and yank him off his feet.
Calidus spun around, gun up and ready. Two loud shots filled the air as he fired. They bounced off Jake’s metal skin. Jake’s right hand shot out, grasping the man around the neck. With minimal effort he jerked the Europan up into the air, over his head.
Calidus brought his right arm around and squeezed off a shot. It bounced off Jake’s shoulder. Jake’s left hand shot up a quarter second later, enclosing the gun and the hand holding it. He crunched down with his fingers and then ripped the gun from the Europan’s hand.
“Done?” Jake asked.
“What the devil are you?” Calidus screamed, frantically.
“Didn’t you hear back on the ship? I’m Jake. Jake Gaderi. And you shot my friend.”
He tightened his grip a bit, just enough to begin constricting airflow. Calidus’s eyes managed to go even wider, and he flailed at Jake’s right arm. It was pathetic really, and Jake smiled and shook his head. Behind him he heard the footsteps of running folk. He saw the nine locals from the ship. The black-haired woman was at the lead, breathing hard.
“Well, if you’re still looking for a noble to beat up on, I think I can make your day,” Jake proclaimed.
He smirked, and hurled Calidus to the ground. The Europan spy rolled, smacking up against the shins of the woman. She glared down at him, unbridled hate in her eyes. Her fingers tightened around the butt of her pistol.
“Or,” said Jake, realization of what was about to happen spurring him on, “if you could leave him alive, we might be able to find out what he’s doing here. You know, why they’re so interested in your little colony.”
The glares of the freed serfs did not relent.
“Just a suggestion,” Jake said.
Finally the black-haired woman nodded, holstering her gun.
“The cyborg is right,” she said, forcing out every word. She looked up to Jake, stepping over the downed noble to extend her hand.
“I am Cindy. Thank you for your assistance in capturing this man,” she said.
“No problem,” Jake said, shaking her hand.
“Welcome to Valley Town.”
***
The old man moaned in pain as they muscled him through the corridor. Even with three people on the job, it hadn’t been easy to get the man up the high staircases and into the living areas of the ship. A good deal of cursing and toe stubbing had been involved, but they’d managed.
“Turn left ahead. Keep going until you see a door on the left!” said Rex. He, Kate, and Keith moved down the hall to the sick bay. Rex ordered it open, revealing the small sick bay inside.
There awaited a bench and banks of medical equipment. But Rex ignored it.
“Keep on through the next door. There’s a surgery bay there,” Rex said.
The computer opened the door automatically at his words. The surgery bay was even smaller than the sick bay. On the far side, another door led to the isolation bay, where Vermella was shackled. The surgery bay itself did not look particularly inviting. Numerous metal arms and articulated tubes hung down from the ceiling. They stopped a few feet short of a narrow bed that dominated the room’s center.
“Get him up,” Rex said, ducking to avoid the various appendages hanging from the ceiling. With some effort and a bit more swearing, they got the wounded man onto the bed. He groaned loudly as they lay him down, his skin pale. Blood pooled slowly around a wound on the right side of his chest.
Rex moved quickly, strapping the man down. Kate and Keith backed up instinctively, watching, uncertain, as Rex went about his task. When done he motioned them back.
“Out, all of us, out,” he ordered.
They backed up into the sick bay. Rex closed the door behind them.
“Start the ASU,” Rex said. The computer chirped an affirmative reply.
“What’s going on?” asked Keith. “Why are we just leaving him—”
His words stopped suddenly as a holographic image of the surgery bay filled the room. Robotic arms descended from the ceiling. Several scanned over the old man several times in a half-dozen seconds, getting various internal images of what damage the bullet had done. A large arm came down and covered the man’s face in a mask. His movements slowed, anesthesia mercifully relaxing him. Another arm, with a large syringe at the end, came down and slowly jabbed into the his arm. A tube on the arm pulsed, turning red as blood was pumped into the wounded man’s body.
“Automatic Surgery Unit,” Rex said, reading the question on his guests’ faces. “Can take care of most stuff on its own, can be operated from here by a surgeon for the really delicate things.”
Keith stared at the image in amazement. Arms with scalpel blades descended around the wound, an arm with a suction tube having already cleaned up the blood exiting the wound.
“Amazing…” Keith whispered.
The arms went to work, cutting around the wound, removing ruined tissues, and cleansing it of foreign debris. Several wire-thin arms extended next, the implements at their ends so small they could barely be seen by the naked eye. They descended into the small wound, going to work inside the man.
“What’s happening to him?” Kate asked, her hostility gone, replaced by genuine concern.
“I imagine it’s removing the bullet shards, if any are in there. Probably searing shut any wounds to his insides,” Rex figured. The image of the surgery magnified, causing Rex to grimace. “Maybe we should turn away for this part.”
The others nodded, turning their back on the image and moving a few steps away.
“Liam’s lucky you are here,” said Keith. “Who knows if our doctors would have been able to do anything for him.”
“His name is Liam?” asked Rex.
“Yes,” said Keith with a nod. “He’s one of our councilors, part of the elected governing council.”
“No last name? ’Cause I’ve noticed…”
“No, we don’t use them. Our children will add ‘son of’ or ‘daughter of’ to prevent confusion, but Liam escaped from the empire. Like many serfs, he has no idea who his parents are. So it’s just ‘Liam.’”
“I see. So based on his age I’m thinking he’s been here long? In this colony?” Rex asked.
“Nearly forty years,” Keith replied. “He’s a good man—has helped a lot of new arrivals learn how to deal with their freedom, myself included.”
Rex nodded, saying, “I hear it can be overwhelming for somebody who didn’t grow up with it.”
Keith frowned slightly. “Yes…it can be. When you spend twenty-odd years making no decisions, or at least none that matter, obeying everything you’re commanded to do…”
Rex nodded, and cleared his throat. “Well, I can’t guarantee anything, even with all this tech. But I hope he pulls through.”
Keith nodded his head absently, saying, “All this time…George was a spy. The bastard’s been sitting on the council for six months!”
“No doubt reporting everything to the empire,” Kate said with a scowl.
“Bastard,” Keith repeated, almost spitting the word.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing Lucius is here,” ventured Rex. “Otherwise you’d never have known.”
Kate shot him a dark look, and then went back to glowering.
“Baliol’s presence here may have proven advantageous in this instance,” said Keith, “but that doesn’t mean he’s welcome here.”
“First off, he goes by Alvadile now. Second, do you really think
a man who publicly revealed one of his own kind as a spy is going to be a threat?”
“For all you know, he could be a spy and keeping his cover,” Kate declared.
“I’ve fought and lived with the man for nearly a year now. He’s no spy,” Rex spoke.
“Says a man who is a self-admitted spy,” said Kate.
“A spy for the empire’s greatest enemy,” Rex snapped back. “You remember how we killed a million or so ‘nobles’ in the last war?”
Kate gave him an angry look.
“Yes, killed a bunch of nobles, then quit and went home, leaving us all to continue suffering!” Kate screeched.
Rex was taken aback. He moved to answer but was cut off.
“Enough Kate,” said Keith coolly. “Even the Commonwealth has limits. And this man is not to blame for decisions made fifty years ago. He wasn’t even alive at the time.”
“Well, actually I was…” said Rex quietly.
“And unpleasant as it may be, we may have to tolerate Baliol being here,” Keith growled.
“Are you kidding me?” Kate erupted. “I bring that monster here so Helen can take her vengeance and you—”
“If putting up with him opens us a door to the Commonwealth? A door which trade, aide, or intelligence can come through? If the price of that is temporarily tolerating him, then I’ll do it,” Keith answered.
“Great, dad. Just great. So how you gonna tell Helen how you’re giving her enslaver a pass?” Kate remarked.
Keith shot her an angry look. Rex took a step back, a bit amazed at how this had descended into a family spat.
“We all have to do things we don’t like sometimes to survive. If the Free Terran Commonwealth is on our side, if people know we have their backing, then that means a safer life for us—for me, for you, for Helen, and for the baby,” Keith explained, fighting to keep his composure. “For that I’d risk anything.”
Kate frowned, crossed her arms, and turned away from her father. For a second she stewed in place, and then shook her head disgustedly. She looked like she was about to storm out, like a thousand daughters had undoubtedly done with a thousand fathers. But then she turned. Seeing the holographic image of Liam under the knife, her expression softened.