by J. Naomi Ay
Akan's guards backed away but Akan recovered his gun and was pointing it at me. We stared each other down, he on the floor with a gun and I above with the light sword too heavy for me to hold very high or for very long.
Akan said something to me and his lip curled up.
I wanted to kill him. I wanted to punish him for all the crew and innocent civilians he had killed here today. I wanted him to writhe in pain for the years of abuse that he had hurled on my husband. I wanted him to suffer for locking a child away in a prison on Andorus. I was crazy mad with this. I didn’t just want to hurt him. I wanted to execute him, but I was not a killer. I couldn’t do this.
The gun wavered in Akan's hand. I was going to die if I didn’t swing this sword and hit him with it first.
“Kill him,” I heard a whisper.
“Kill him, kill him!” The sound was like the wind. Many voices surrounded me, whispered to me, and hissed in my ears.
I raised my eyes from Akan's and I saw them. There were boys, ghostly Karupta boys calling to me. They were all bleeding, their long black hair and young faces covered in blood.
“Kill him, kill him,” they chanted. I glanced down upon Akan, Prince of Mishnah. He smiled back at me, challenging me, daring me to do it.
“It is his time,” a man’s voice said. I looked up again and where the boys had been there was now a man, sort of. He had long flowing silver hair and was bathed in silver light. He had wings, majestic silver wings protruding from his back and rising up behind him like a great cape. He was incredibly beautiful and for a moment, I could do nothing but gaze up at him.
“Kill him, Sister,” he said and his voice was like honey in my brain.
The gun wavered in Akan’s hand but the barrel clicked as it was cocked and I saw as if in slow motion, he pulled the trigger. I heard the shot and felt it pierced my arm.
“Help me,” I cried and the angel-man placed his arm on mine and together we lifted the light sword. Then, I drew it down, slashing Prince Akan, bisecting him from head to groin. Blood and brain matter splashed on me. I screamed and dropped the light sword. It hissed and burned the stuff that was splattered on the floor and then it turned itself off. My knees gave out from under me and I fell into the hideous mess of what had been Prince Akan.
“Blessed Sister.” The angel man held up his palm and touched me on the forehead. He disappeared into a mist of silver light.
“Katie, are you okay?” It was Jerry shaking me. The man was gone.
“My arm,” I gasped. My hands were covered in blood.
“I've got her!” Thad threw a coat around my shoulders. I was trembling and Thad held me tightly. “Jerry, you deal with Ron. I'll bring Katie back to the ship.”
“Did you see him?” I asked.
“Who?”
I looked at Thad. He had a nasty cut on his forehead and blood was dripping into his eyes.
“Come on,” he said.
“Senya's light sword,” I mumbled, bending down to get it even though I couldn’t feel my left arm anymore.
“Let's get out of here,” Thad urged, pulling me to my feet. I carried the light sword which I had used to kill Prince Akan. It didn’t weigh nearly so much when it was off. It had a gold and platinum hilt and the Eagle Crest was engraved on it.
“Come on, Kate,” Thad pulled me. “You need to get to sickbay.” A Mishnese officer approached us. “Back off!” Thad yelled but the officer raised his hands to show he was unarmed. He spoke to me but the only word I understood was MaKani. Then, he dropped to his knees and bowed in obeisance. I looked over his back and watched as all the other Mishnese in the room did the same.
“Where's Senya?” I asked Thad.
“Jerry just left with him,” Thad whispered, his eyes wide.
“Well then who are they bowing to?” I cried.
“You, Katie,” Thad replied. “You’re going to be their Queen.”
The Captain strode in just then along with more security and the Governor of the Spacebase. The Captain came straight to me, looking at all the prostrate Rehnorians and then he glanced at the mess on me and what was the body of Akan.
“You are hurt?” he demanded.
“She was shot in the arm,” Thad replied.
“Get back to the ship and clean up,” he ordered me. “Then write up your report. I want to know exactly what the hell happened here.”
“Yes, sir,” I said and walked out clutching Thad. I was sick in the hallway. Thad waited patiently while I lost all my protein bars.
“I'd be sick too except I already upchucked them on the ride,” he teased lightly.
I could barely stay on my feet after that. My arm started burning like never before.
“I've never been shot before,” I told Thad. “Senya's been shot so many times. Akan kept trying to kill him.”
“I know, Princess,” he said, picking me up and carrying me back to the shuttle.
“It hurts,” I cried.
“We'll be in sickbay in just a few minutes. My dad was shot once. Do you want to hear about it?”
“Okay,” I replied, but I must have passed out because I didn't remember anything more.
When I woke up, my arm was in a cast and a SdK monitor was over my head. Tilia was sitting next to me.
“How do you feel, MaKani?” she whispered.
I sat up and tried get my bearings even though my head spun.
“Where is Senya?”
“Dr. Jerry said the sickbay is full and the MaKennah can recover in your cabin. He sleeps there.”
“Thanks, Tilia.” I swung my feet to the floor and stood up. My arm felt like it was chopped in half even though I could see my fingers emerging from the cast.
“Hey, where are you going, Commander?” It was one of the nurses, Lynne.
“Give me a pain pill and let me get out of here,” I ordered her. “You can use this bed for someone else.” There were patients sitting along the walls and on portable gurneys. There were signs on both surgeries flashing “IN USE”.
“Put this sling on,” Lynne ordered me back. “And here are your meds. Jerry said to tell you that as soon as Ron can get up, he needs him here.”
“Okay,” I agreed and then Tilia and I headed back to my cabin. Two more Andorians were standing outside, guarding the door. They bowed to me in the way the Andorians did, on one knee.
I went in the cabin by myself, leaving Tilia with her comrades and found Senya asleep on the bed. There was a note from Caroline on the portable monitor above the bed. She told me I needed to give him a sponge bath because he was still covered in red dirt. I should let him sleep until he woke up on his own and not to worry about anything else because his vitals were sent by telemetry to sickbay and someone was monitoring them. I should take my own pain pill every eight hours even if I thought I didn’t need it. Lastly, I should send Ron over as soon as he was up because they were swamped.
There was also a note on my vid screen that I had been placed on mandatory probation, pending Spaceforce Command review due to the fact that I killed a foreign national and used an illegal weapon to do it. If Spaceforce did not decide in my favor, if they determined that I used undue force without exhausting all other non-lethal options, I could be fully court-martialed, reduced in rank, or at a minimum, denied further rank increases.
The first thing I did was shower for about an hour using way too much of our precious water. Fortunately, my cast was waterproof. Then I sat down to try to explain to Spaceforce Command how Akan and his crew came after us and blew apart a Spacebase trying to kidnap my husband. I lied and told them I had no idea why they were after us, instead proposing a theory that because of our wealth from the SdK, they thought they could garner a large ransom. I lied again and said that to my knowledge, my husband had relinquished all ties with Rehnor and his Rehnorian citizenship and had done nothing to encourage this attack.
I explained that he was in possession of a light sword having taken it off of another Rehnorian soldier even though I k
new this one was his. I admitted that it was I who had killed Prince Akan and I had done so because he had a gun pointed at me and in fact, shot me.
I finished my report and reread it about ten times before I submitted. If they convicted me, I would quit the force that day. I had no choice to do what I did. I did what needed to be done and I realized as I thought this that I was sounding exactly like Senya.
I had another epiphany at that moment. Spaceforce was created to protect and defend the Alliance, yet we were not allowed to discharge our weapons without Command's approval despite how our own lives might be in danger. Most of our time was spent filling out paperwork like this, while pirates and tyrants raced around the galaxy killing and stealing. The best we could do to stop them was demand a Vessel Inspection.
I sent my report and turned back to look at the bed fully expecting Senya to be smiling at my revelation in that arrogant, supercilious way that he had. He wasn't though. He looked dead and red dirt was all over the sheets.
At this point, I wet towels, filled a basin with warm water and soap and washed him off as best as I could with my one arm. I couldn't even begin to turn him over to get to his back, so I had to ask the Andorians outside to come in and help me roll him. Then Tilia and I changed the sheets.
I lay next to him at night feeling the alternating heat and sweat that emanated off his body and listening to his labored breathing. My arm ached and I wasn't comfortable, so I slept very little. He wasn't going to die, I assured myself. I sure didn't like him like this though.
Chapter 8
Caroline
We were exhausted. Lynne, Geoffrey and I were the only nurses and we had worked around the clock for more than three days. Every bed was full and any time we released someone, another person checked in. Jerry and VJ, who was only a resident, had the surgeries going constantly too so when Ron finally showed up in sickbay, back with the living, we all pounced on him.
“You feeling better?” Jerry snapped.
“Yes, thank you.”
“Good, get scrubbed. VJ, you go get some sleep. Caroline, that kid in Bed 7 that VJ worked on two days ago is festering. Take him into OR 2 and Ron will open him back up and see if VJ left a piece in there. Then you can give him all the other surgeries that have been waiting for the last few days. That should keep you busy until tomorrow. Lynne can take over for you when you get tired, Caroline.”
“I'm tired now,” I said, but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to talk to Dr. Ron so I headed for Bed 7.
Jerry turned back to the burn patient he and Geoffrey were working on.
“Ron, can you do skin grafts? I've got a lot of burn work here.”
“Yes,” Ron replied from the sinks.
“Good,” Jerry said. “I'll start sending those in when you've finished all the orthopedic.”
“I thought his specialty was neuro and brain?” Geoffrey asked.
“In Spaceforce,” Jerry replied. “Your specialty is whatever is needed at the moment.”
I wheeled Bed 7 into the OR. It was a security man named Jay. He watched Ron putting on gloves.
“Whoa!” Jay looked at me. “He's going to work on my shoulder?”
“Lucky you don't have to pay,” I said. “You wouldn't believe what he normally charges.”
“Hey, Doc,” Jay called when Ron came over and picked off the oozing bandage.
“Can you feel this?” Ron asked.
“No, sir,” Jay replied.
“You have a piece of metal lodged beneath your subscapularis muscle. How did that happen?”
“I was in the stairwell when those assholes blew it up. I got hit by some of it. Took some in my leg too but Dr. VJ got that part out. Maybe you can look at that too, make sure he got it all. I don't want to have a gimpy leg for the rest of my life. I need to be able to run.”
“Sure,” Ron said and waved to me to get the anesthesia going.
“Hey, Doc?” Jay asked before I put the mask on his face. “I saw you throw that light sword. That was an awesome throw man and those things are damn heavy. You ever play football?
“No,” Ron said already picking through the wound.
“What's your favorite team, Doc? I'm a Steeler fan, always have been.”
“Ravens,” Ron replied and even though he was masked, I could tell he was smiling. No matter what planet a man is from, he sure does love his football.
“Baltimore? No way, man.”
“Not Baltimore,” Ron laughed. “Mishnah.”
“Don't know that team, Doc. Are they good?”
“Terrible, but they probably could beat your Steelers.”
“Hey, well maybe they can play each other sometime? That would be cool.”
“Yes, it would be cool. I will ask them to do that.”
“No shit? What are you like the team owner or something?”
“I am ‘or something.’” Dr. Ron indicated I should put Jay under.
“Awesome throw, dude,” Jay mumbled as he fell asleep.
Dr. Ron cut open the seam of VJ's stitches. He folded back the skin to reveal some ugly puss. I suctioned it away and then he cut through the muscle and moved it aside to find a tiny metal chip.
“I didn't realize you did orthopedic work,” I commented as he sewed the muscle back together.
He was intent on his tiny little stitches.
“I did this exact procedure when I was fourteen.”
“You're kidding!”
“It was in a meadow and all I had was a blade and a couple buckets of boiling water.”
“What happened?”
“A boy was hit by a spear and the spearhead lodged exactly here.”
“Did you know what you were doing?” I asked as he gently folded the skin back in place on the now clean wound.
“Sort of,” he replied.
“What happened to the boy?”
“He healed fine. He was killed two years later.”
“Oh my!” I gasped. “Who killed him?”
“Akan.” Dr. Ron finished stitching so I wiped the wound with antiseptic and bandaged it.
“Was he that guy? The one Katie killed?”
Ron nodded and looked at Jay's leg. “Ay yah,” he said and stripped off his gloves. “The leg is fine. What's next?”
I don't know how many hours later it was when we finally finished but it certainly helped to have Ron there. He worked quickly and could do anything. Eventually, everyone was finally treated and put to bed.
“Who wants something to eat?” Jerry asked. He looked exhausted and hadn’t shaved or showered in three or four days.
“I don't know if I'm more hungry or tired,” I said. “But if you want to go down to the pub, I will force myself to go with you.”
“I am hungry,” Ron replied, stripping off his scrubs.
“You look hungry,” Jerry agreed. “When was the last time you ate?”
“About four weeks ago,” Ron said and Jerry and I laughed because we thought Ron was joking.
The three of us went to the pub and Jerry ordered breakfast and I ordered a burger. Ron decided he wanted both and ordered a dozen eggs scrambled and then four burgers. We also manage to put away a few pitchers of beer between the three of us.
“You are hungry,” Jerry remarked as if it weren't obvious. “So are you going to tell us what happened?”
“Where?” Ron asked between bites.
“Everywhere,” Jerry replied. “Like what you were doing almost dead in that mud flat when I just so happened to come along and save your worthless life.”
Ron smiled a little. “It is complicated.”
“Okay, how about you tell me why those assholes chased us all the way to Spacebase 37 and then shot up the base.”
Ron shook his head and grabbed another burger. “Jerry, you really don't want to know these things.”
“Ain't it obvious, Jerry?” I asked. “They wanted him. They were trying to kidnap him. He's worth a lot of money, you know.”
“They had
to kill a bunch of innocent people to do that?”
“Those Rehnorians are really, really bad dudes,” I said.
“Not all of them,” Ron replied and took a gulp of beer.
“How do you know?” Jerry asked, raising his eyebrows.
“I am Rehnorian.” Ron finished his burgers and still looked hungry.
“No!” I gasped. “So does that mean you're not really Rozarian?”
“No.” Ron pushed away his plate so he could light a cigarette. Just about then, Katie appeared, and she was pissed.
“Nice of you guys to tell me you were going to be in the pub. Thanks for waiting dinner for me too. It's not like I'm so busy doing stupid inventory paperwork because Command can't make up their mind whether or not to court martial me.”
“Whoa!” Jerry cried. “Caroline, what kind of drugs do we have Katie on? We need to cut it back!”
“Here Katie, you can sit here.” I started to stand up so she could scoot in next to Ron.
“Stay there, Caroline,” Ron said, pulling me back down. “You need to protect me from her.” So help me, how my heart raced when he touched my arm.
“Very funny,” Katie snapped. “Don't think I wouldn't climb across this table to break your neck if I thought it necessary and I'm damn close thinking it's necessary!” She sat down on my other side and poured herself a beer. “Bloody fool.”
Ron was smiling into his beer. His eyes were bright again behind his dark glasses.
“Why is he a fool?” I asked.
Katie took a drink of her beer. “Well, let see,” she said. “It all started because he had to go be Johnny Appleseed in the Karupatani Continent and then forgot to… stop it!” She glared at Ron. “So help me…”
“She is really mad at me,” Ron said to Jerry and took a long drag on his cigarette.
Jerry shrugged. “She's gets that way. I'm actually glad it's your problem not mine.”
Katie's face was bright red and her mouth was open but nothing was coming out. She looked from one to the other man like she wasn’t sure which one she ought to be yelling at. Then she shut her mouth and took a long gulp of her beer. Ron stared at her with this smirking kind of smile on his face and sucked on his cigarette. Katie started to fan herself with the menu.