Free Fleet #03 No Rest for the Wicked

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Free Fleet #03 No Rest for the Wicked Page 16

by Michael Chatfield


  “Thank you for the food and taking care of us I will..,”

  “It is a tradition among our people that we eat before our battle master. That way we might serve him better and leave him the best of the food,” Krom said before I could finish my sentence. He was obviously not taking any chances.

  “Very well,” Marhtu said as Krom picked a piece of food, bowing his head to Marhtu. Thank you,” he said before eating what looked to be some kind of doughy thing covered in meat and nuts. Inside there was a tangy smelling sauce and crunchy wafers of something.

  Marhtu smiled, the expression not getting to his eyes as I did the same. I felt as if I had walked directly into the lion’s den. Something was definitely off.

  Marhtu was served food by the female Shafio. Her tentacles picked up a delicacy, feeding it to Marhtu as he lounged on his cushions. Another tentacle waited with a drink as he finished eating the morsel.

  “Thank you for coming down to see me Commander Salchar. We shall have so much fun together. I am really looking forward to Daestramus and your fleet working together,” his tone making my skin crawl. I didn't know if it was because his skin didn't change color, or the spark in his eyes when he'd said 'fun'.

  “Thank you. I think it will be a good working relationship,” I said, trying to remain as professional as possible.

  “I hope I'm not stealing you from any prior engagement you might have with your fleet. I know that a large group left on a mission. What was that for?”

  “They were going to head to the nearest inhabited system. Ouquishar,” I said with a smile as Krom proceeded to his third plate. Not scouting around this system and connecting a FTL relay at all, I thought as I smiled.

  I had been in bad spots before. I needed to keep my cool.

  “So how is your home planet? I have to say I have not seen most of your races before,” he said as I kept up my smile.

  “Well, we come from far away. We saw what the Syndicate were doing and we thought we might offer another solution. A way to get rid of them and make it a better place to live.”

  Marhtu's skin flickered with colors. I had no doubt it was a carefully made display, everything about the Slevaran spoke to his planning.

  “Sounds like quite the opportunity,” he said as I smiled, bowing my head slightly. I couldn't miss the gleam that entered his eyes as I did so.

  The representatives from before took over asking me questions, the camera person getting a bunch of angles as I entertained them for the rest of the dinner time. It was short and terminated abruptly as Marhtu stood.

  “We shall meet tomorrow and talk about signing,” he said. We stood as well, but he indicating to us to resume our seats.

  “Please, enjoy. You will need to keep your strength up over the next few days through the negotiations.” He left, never touching another thing as servants and his three ladies left the room. Everyone seemed to relax, I mentally noted as I stood.

  “Well, I think we shall also return to our quarters and get some rest,” I said, my protection detail rising.

  The reps hounded me till we got to our rooms. It seemed they wanted to get everything that they could out of us. The others kept silent as I dealt with the majority of questions. We slurped on the rations built into our suits as we walked back towards our rooms.’ No one said anything as we didn’t know what would be passed on. When you know people for so long and trust them, a simple look is all that's needed to send a message.

  Krom was displeased, and Shreesht agreed with him. They could smell the fear from the slaves. Which was becoming a reality I was finding hard to deal with. Three new minders stood in the same spot as the first three had. It was clear fear kept them on their feet. It didn't make sense to me why someone that was under the thumb of the syndicate would use slaves. Life was already terrible.

  I still wanted to continue with the mission and wait till at least tomorrow before leaving. Something that they had agreed to. We all had upgraded implants that Resilient was monitoring. It gave us a silent alarm and made sure that we didn't get the flu that the first team did. The other thing they all agreed to was the fact that I was going to sleep while they took watch.

  “Alright. Night girls and boys,” I said as everyone but Calerd went to sleep.

  I lay in my bed, the steam rising around me. Relaxing but different, as I heard Calerd trading banter with Janice. Just as I felt my body start to get groggy as an alert cranked through my mecha. Air extractors fired up as wake-up brought me around. I stood as Shreesht burst in my room.

  “They're trying to knock us out,” he said as I stood, pulling my rail gun from my back and checking it.

  “I think it's time we got the hell out of here,” I said.

  “Sir, the second relations team has been taken,” Janice said over the general channel.

  I checked my connection to Resilient. It was jammed to all hell.

  “Krom, signal to the fleet that we're in danger. We're going to go after the relations team. Calerd, Shreesht, cover the doors in case more try to take us. Janice, Dave, find out for me how the hell they took the relations team. We're going to follow,” I said as Krom found the weakest point in the wall and started shooting. He rarely brought his gun with him, the beast of a weapon was more like a tank turret than a portable cannon. It smashed into the wall, penetration rounds digging in and then exploding as the room began filling with dust.

  Boots could be heard as the doors opened. Calerd and Shreesht fired discarding rounds which exploded a preset distance before the enemy.

  Sending clouds of shrapnel at Marhtu's guards. The guard’s armor was mostly ornamental it seemed as guard’s were torn to shreds.

  “Got it,” Dave said as Krom was hitting the armoured side wall of the city. He made it out through the armour before turning to the doorway. Holes appeared in the walls and floor as rounds punched through everything, wreaking havoc on anything outside our room.

  “Move it! We're going after the relations team,” I said as Shreesht and Calerd used Krom’s cover to get to the doorway. Janice and Dave were already down the secret hole in the floor.

  “Thi.... Esilie.... re....ort” Vort said over my communicator. Resilient was probably cranking their communications to get through the jamming. I cranked all of the communications up to full.

  “Marhtu has betrayed us. He has the relations teams. We're going after them,” I said, putting it on repeat. Hopefully they'd get some of it.

  “Come on, Krom,” I said as he fired off his remaining round, chucking the gun into the doorway, a plasma grenade attached to it. An unlucky guard grabbed the weapon as it went up.

  I followed Janice and Dave down the hole with Shreesht, Calerd and Krom following as we found a transport. We got on it, the thing dropping out below us before shifting and going sideways. We quickly came to a guarded platform.

  “Weapons down and no one gets hurt,” I said as a nervous soldier let off a round.

  The other soldiers on the platform were just raising their weapons as my protection detail put them down. Screens came alive around the platform. There were two images, one of the first relations team with explosives strapped to them and the other the second relations team facing a firing squad.

  “If you continue I will have both groups killed,” Marhtu said, stopping me in my tracks.

  I barely knew the relations team, but they were my people. I needed to do everything to save them.

  “What do you want?”

  “You,” Marhtu said. “I want you all to put down your weapons, get out of your mechas and surrender to my men. You don't and I'll kill your people,”

  “What kind of guarantees do I have?”

  “My word,” Marhtu said.

  “Don't do it, Commander,” Krom said.

  “They're our people. I'm not going to let them die if I can do anything about it,”

  “He's already gone back on his word once,” Dave said.

  “I know, but what are we going to do! Charge in there and s
ave them? He says the word and they all die.” I lowered my voice so Marhtu and his minions couldn't hear me. “The rest of the Fleet is still above us. They know something’s up. They'll find us. We have the upgraded implants, the relations team doesn't,” I said.

  “You're the boss,” Janice said, her voice neither condemning nor condoning. What I said is what would happen.

  “You promise to not kill the relations team?” I asked.

  “I promise,” he said. Fuck, what choice do I have? I thought, looking at the relations team.

  “Take your weapons and armour off,” I said, a bad taste in my mouth.

  As soon as our mechas were off gas grenades were tossed towards us from up the hallway. The gas worked quickly and it was only seconds before we were all slumping to the floor.

  “Fu-u-ers,” I said, my face going numb as I felt my eyes rolling back.

  ***

  I woke up to a pristine room. It didn't even feel as if I had been knocked out, but I was naked, spread apart by chains. I looked around, finding the only other occupant of the room. A woman wearing the weird multiple material clothes studied me, her baton in hand.

  “I am Savrare, I will be your Orv,” she said her eyes dull and lifeless.

  “What is a..,” she touched her baton to my ribs and it felt like they were breaking. I screamed in pain.

  “You will not talk unless instructed to do so. You will address me as Flower,”

  “Why am..,” she touched my stomach and I screamed again, my body arching in pain as I felt something rise from my stomach. She moved away as I spat out blood. I felt a pin prick in my arm and the pain remained but little blood followed.

  “This is my kaaOrv,” she said, showing me the baton. It is not like the crude pain implants that the Syndicate use. This is a much more refined tool. It does muscular and nerve damage without killing the one touched by it. The drugs will keep you alive forever, you will die hundreds of times, but still you will come back,”

  “What is..,” She applied her kaaOrv to my side and it felt like my broken ribs were being pushed into me. I could feel my nerves from the pained area to my spine as I tried to get away from her, the chains stopping any movement as I blacked out from pain.

  I came back to pain on my head, and I thrashed as it coursed through my body. It wasn't like pain implants. It wasn't that I just didn't feel in control of my body. It was the surety that I was going to die. My body jolted in pain as I let my head hang.

  “Your first death petal. Isn't it so sweet? Maybe one time I will be able to add your petal to my others,” she said as she patted her clothing. Horror dawned on me.

  It's not different materials, they're different skins. She ran her kaaOrv down my neck as blood clogged my airways. The light dimmed as I fought for air, my hands’ struggling to move as I tried to do something, anything to stay alive. The fog cleared as blood covered the floor.

  “We're off to a good start, petal,” she said and I lost track of time as I had in training. There was nothing but pain. She moved from my face to my chest, killing me three times.

  She was clinical, like a doctor, seeing how long I could withstand her kaaOrv, what was the most painful. What happened after repeat occurrences. She moved down my body and touched the baton to my thighs, which felt like the muscle, the tendons, and the bone were trying to separate from one another. Wherever the kaaOrv touched it left a cut. That was my only scale of time. The amount of blood I spilt. She ran it along my foot, and it felt as if my toes were bleeding and my ankle breaking.

  Then there was nothing but the pain of my body, no fresh pain added.

  She put a view screen in front of me. She dragged my head back, fixing it into a harness. I shook my head to fight her, getting a stroke of the KaaOrv to the back. Panting, she pressed something to my eyes which stayed open. The view screen came to life, Marhtu sitting on his skin cushions.

  “I didn't want you to be without some entertainment between training sessions,” he said, his skin going orange with anger as he bared his teeth.

  The screen turned into sections, each showing one of the first or second relation team as well as my protection detail.

  “You fucking..!” A light touch to the base of the skull ignited my body on fire and I bit my tongue. There was no use yelling now. I would just have to do as I was told until I got out of here.

  I watched my people screaming in pain. All of them being asked questions about the fleet. Most of them resisting.

  Just tell them it's not worth the suffering not to! I mentally yelled at them, knowing that I would hold out for as long as possible before answering Savrare. I didn't try to look away. I would watch their suffering knowing what they went through, and me with them, even if they didn't know it.

  “Now for another hour,” Sevrare said as she moved the view screen away.

  I cried openly. This was no place for heroics.

  She had tortured me for one hour. It had felt like a lifetime. She got a bucket and put it under me. She stepped behind me running her kaaOrv along my back. My world dissolved into pain as all I thought about was the excited, almost manic smile she had as she worked.

  ****

  Resilient appeared in Rick's quarters without pre-amble. He and Marleen both raise their weapons before realizing who it was. Resilient gave off a light blue hue and she looked concerned.

  “Salchar,” she said.

  “What happened?” Rick asked as he finished putting on his battle suit, Marleen doing the same.

  “He was being jammed. Then Krom shot through the tower wall and we have a partial message from him as he descended from the top of the tower. We're not picking up anything now,” Resilient said.

  They walked out of their room to the bridge, Resilient’s holographic presence floating with them.

  “For a few seconds the tracker wasn't active but now it is. I think they pulled his tracker,” Rick set his jaw, fire in his eyes. Marleen grabbed his hand, squeezing it, and he returned the gesture. She looked at him with eyes that seemed to say, we’re getting him back.

  With that they were at the bridge bulkheads. They cycled open and closed. The second watch captain moved from Salchar's chair and Rick settled himself in it.

  “Fleet on alert. I want a line of communication to the surface,” Rick said, his joking manner gone.

  He was only this serious when he was in battle, getting James the information he needed while he directed the fleet.

  “Hello, this is overseer Marhtu's office,” a Slevaran answered the communications request.

  “This is COS Rick. I would like to talk to Commander Salchar,”

  “What is this regarding?”

  “We have some new developments with Ouquishar,”

  “I will tell him in the morning. It is our sleep cycle here and we do not wish to disturb him,”

  “He would want to know,” Rick pressed, trying to not look desperate as he remembered to smile. How the hell does Salchar keep up this facade with people? He thought as the secretary looked to be checking something,

  “Overseer Marhtu is also asleep. We have strict instructions to get him before disturbing our guests. It is one of our traditions,” they said with a smile.

  This one's a good actor. Made that tradition thing sound almost real.

  “Then wake him up. This information cannot wait. I am pressed to get a shuttle down there to have him brought up and look at it himself.” Stick that in your beak and smoke it, Rick thought as he kept up his smile.

  “I will have to talk with someone of authority on the subject. I will contact you as soon as I know if it is acceptable to have them communicate with you,” The secretary bowed her head as she closed the channel.

  “Nice how she didn't mention when that would be, or if she would get them after their night cycle,” Vort said. The first shift had been rotated in as Rick was talking.

  Everyone looked to Rick for an explanation.

  “Resilient, do you want to tell them what happened
,”

  Resilient told them all what she had told Rick and Marleen. Rick wasn't surprised by the anger that seemed to radiate from the bridge crew.

  “I want the Fleet prepared. We need to make sure this is a real issue. We can't make a planet of thirty trillion our enemy over some mishap,” Rick said as the bridge came alive with everyone checking over their systems.

  “Rick I think there is an issue with my systems, someone has been sending messages to the planet,” Resilient said.

  “Who?” Rick felt his hands bunch in anger.

  “I am not sure but I am left to wonder what is amiss.”

  Rick cursed when he realized what was going on: he had time to think on the bridge. Edwards hadn't been on the bridge the entire time that the Free Fleet was in orbit of Daestramus.

  He opened a channel to Commander Carsickle.

  “Get me Edwards now,” he ordered, his voice cold.

  Chapter - Control

  Overseer Marhtu sat upon his pillows as military leader Jelum bowed as low as he possibly could.

  He stayed like that until Marhtu told him to rise.

  “Are the communications ready?” Marhtu asked.

  “Yes, my overseer. We have the videos ready to make it look as if Salchar is meeting people.”

  “Good. Do you have everything that you need to break the communications code of these ships?” Marhtu asked as his Shafio Orv fed him.

  “Almost. Your Orv have worked for a day and a half now but still these stubborn creatures have not revealed all of their secrets. They have been hard to break.”

  “Are you saying that my Orv are not up to the task of breaking them?” Marhtu said conversationally.

  “No, my overseer!” Jelum said as he prostrated himself again in front of Marhtu.

  Marhtu let his hand glide over the Shafio's gelatinous mouth cavity, which had the strength and elasticity to separate his arm from his body in seconds. Marhtu shivered in excitement at the control he held over the Orv, a beautiful female that had been thought the best in her community. Until he turned them into his creatures and their gentle and kind manners were removed. Replaced with nothing but the feeling of pain.

 

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