Metal
touched metal and a large volt of electricity surged through Kav’s body until
he felt the shock even in the dark hairs of his beard.
“Bloody
fucking hell!”
His
Scottish brogue, always thicker when he was pissed, ate into the otherwise
silent surroundings. He bit both his lips, waved his hand in the air and hopped
in a small circle before he shoved the pain from his mind. He had no other
choice but to keep going, the girl’s life depended on him making this work.
“I
hate electrical shite.”
He
calmed down and tried again, this was too important, he had to succeed. He retraced his steps, changed one of the wiring
loops he made previously and tried again. This time when he touched the metal
tip to the exposed metal wiring, a green flare lit up the space for a second
before all the lights in the sector went black.
He
smiled, put his tools back in his belt and opened the now unlocked door, hoping
that Aeon was having smooth sailing on his part of this escapade.
Cloaked
in darkness, he made his way to the entrance of a series of tubes used to
traverse the high security building in the case of emergencies and power
failures. He knew it wouldn’t be long before there were guards in the tubes,
but he intended to be quick about his descent to the fourth floor.
Climbing
inside, he noticed the emergency generator had already come on, powering strips
of dim lights along the walls, giving just enough illumination to carefully
navigate the tunnels and stairways when necessary. With his gloved hands on the
rails that lined the ladderesque staircase, he braced a foot against each rail
also. Rather than taking the long and tedious way down step by step, he began a
freefall slide down seven stories until he reached the destination of his
choosing, women’s lock-up.
He
checked his time piece.
“Shit!”
He
was late by nearly three and a half minutes. He forced calm into his veins and
checked the corridors for signs of life, artificial or otherwise. This floor’s
lights were fully powered. He didn’t understand how that was possible, but he
was staring at the truth of it. White walls, interspersed with metal panels and
a concrete floor with a long gray carpet running the very center, not reaching
to either side wall, all fully lit.
His
heart pounded in his chest. Despite what others thought of him, he was not an adrenaline junkie, he just could
not suffer injustice, not in any form. It ate him alive like acid ate flesh,
and he had, some would say foolishly, dedicated most of his life to trying to
right wrongs despite what it did to him personally, as his ulcer would attest
to.
There
was one robotic creature moving away from the tube entrance. It didn’t look
like a guard, it was too small, box shaped, long arms… most likely an
engineeringbot.
“Probably
turning the damn lights back on.”
His
hair was wound into a long braid which he pushed behind his back while he waited,
antsy because time neither he, nor the girl, had, continued to tick by. The
second the bot left the corridor, he stepped out of the tubes and made his way
towards the cell she was in. Only hoping Aeon had already released the lock and
would have her out by the time he arrived.
The
lack of any smell in these places always unhinged him, it wasn’t natural. He
passed by door after door, cells he knew women were locked in, mostly
innocently, but he had to fight his urge to save them all in the hopes of
saving…
His
stomach turned over as he saw Aeon running down the corridor towards him, no
woman in tow, but three guards quickly closing the gap behind him. Aeon was tall
and all lean muscle, the bad part though, was that he was more than matched by
the three guards on his tail
“Oh
fuck me!”
He
didn’t waste time asking questions, just joined Aeon in the dead run for the only
escape either of them had.
The
alarms weren’t sounding; he assumed that meant they hadn’t repaired the damage
he’d done to the electrical system, but a warning shot was fired above their
heads from the guard’s laser weapon. The green laser ricocheted off the metal
paneled walls and finally landed on the glass cover to a firebox, exploding it
on contact.
They
darted around a corner in tandem, their choice clear. Each pressed their bodies
flat against parallel walls and waited. It was Aeon who got the first hit, both
hands clasped; he swung them with full strength into the gut of the first guard
who ran around the corner, he doubled over from the blow. Aeon then came down
on the guard’s back with the same motion, knocking him to the pristine floor.
Kav
only had a moment to feel relieved that the guards seemed to be Hanu and not
synthetic life forms. Hand to hand combat could not have saved them against the
androids that were prevalent at the prison. He threw a right cross, landing
smack on the second guard’s chin. The hit didn’t even seem to register. He grabbed
Kav by the throat and raised him until his feet barely made contact with the
ground. He began to choke, wishing he wasn’t wearing gloves now so he could at
least have the pleasure of digging his finger nails into the flesh of the Hanu.
Aeon
dove at the third guard at the same time the guard dove for him. Kav watched
the movement play out almost in slow motion as the Hanu went sailing over
Aeon’s head. Both grabbed at the other in midair, Aeon reaching the guard’s
weapon, while the Hanu’s only victory was that of revealing Aeon’s short
cropped blond, blue tipped hair as he ripped the knit cap from his head.
Aeon
pointed and discharged the weapon, killing instantly the guard that had Kav by
the throat. Kav fell to the ground, but quickly righted himself, springing into
action, diving on the conscious of the two guards currently on the ground and
snapped his neck. All three guards now neutralized, Aeon and Kav didn’t waste a
second getting to the escape landing at the end of the corridor.
They
climbed down two flights on the ancient fire escape left as decoration on the
otherwise state of the art facility, then jumped the last two. Landing on the
ground, they darted around a corner and down an alley where they stopped to
catch their breath.
“They
already had her in the transporter.” Aeon’s breathing was strained from
running. “They had to have suspected us.”
Kav
shook his head.
“If
he had expected me, there would have
been a lot more opposition.”
“I
can’t believe we got out of that one.” Aeon bent at the waist, placing his
hands on his muscled thighs, sucking in air slow and deep.
“Damn!”
Kav punched a decorative tin box filled with flowers hanging on the brick alley
wall, flattening it where fist met metal, leaving it bleeding rich dark soil
onto the concrete below. “It can’t be too late.”
He
paced a few feet away, then back. Despite the adrenaline still coursing through
his veins, he felt depleted both mentally and emotionally.
“I
could try paying off the transport, but we haven’t got much left to pay off
with, and if we spring her, we’ll need to get her off planet. I’m willing to do
whatever you want, Kav, but we are out of time and options.”
Pain
and fury tore through Kav, clawing at his very soul.
“I
refuse to lose this one!”
Aeon
closed his eyes.
“Kav,
we’re losing most of them these days. We’re out of currency, out of
connections…” He opened his eyes and hit Kav with a gaze that resonated with
the despair he too was already feeling in spades. “We’ve lost.”
“I
refuse to believe that.”
Admitting
defeat was never supposed to be an option. He leaned back against the wall and
sunk to the ground, a sickeningly sweet and artificial scent assaulted his
nose. He hated this part of the city, all façade. Most of the like-new
buildings were nothing more than false fronts with no substance behind them.
All put in place solely for the delight of the high tourist demand. Quite like
this very public transport of a young woman whose only crime was most likely
refusing to warm the bed of some official, despite what the public record would
say.
It
sickened him that the Hanu and much of the Human population had banded together
with the idea of making currency off the pain and suffering of others. People
came from distant solar systems just to witness Earth’s unique way of getting
rid of their supposed criminal element. The cheers from the crowd, as someone
was stripped, berated, and loaded on the transport, made Kav want to kill. It
was barbaric.
“It shouldn’t be like this.” He dropped his
head into his hands and thought of his grandmother and how he had failed
everyone he ever loved. “I’m a stupid-ass fool.”
“Kav,
you’re not. We fought hard and did
save lives, but I think it’s time we pulled up stakes and found a new game.”
Aeon
was right. It was past time. He should have left Earth the day his grandmother
died. After all, she had been the only thing tying him to this godforsaken
planet from the day Earth had finally surrendered to the Vraigor.
“I
want to destroy him.” Kav pushed his fists into his eyes feeling despair to his
very soul.
“I
know.” Aeon spoke solemnly.
He
never questioned Kav’s reasoning, and always had his back and Kav had repaid
that loyalty by repeatedly putting him in situations that easily could have
gotten him killed, and by making him one of the most wanted men on the planet.
“Surrender
isn’t a word that comes naturally to me.” He stood back up, reigning in his
wild mix of emotions. Emotions he didn’t have the luxury of feeling right now.
His
heart was still with the innocent young woman about to be taken to the labor
camps to live out the rest of her days and his impotent ability to save her. As
he walked to the end of the alley, he saw the faint blue glow and heard the
cheers that told him the transport had left. He closed his eyes, attempting to
keep his heart from tearing right in two.
Aeon
came beside him and stood stoically silent. As best friends went, they didn’t
come better than he, but nothing could take away his current anguish.
“We
lost.” He drew a steadying breath. Dizzy as the weight of it all settled heavy
on his chest. “So where do we go from here?”
“I
think anywhere we want.” Aeon shrugged. “I think we should get as far off this
fucked up planet as we can. I hear Cassaria is nice this time of year.”
Kav
caught Aeon’s wicked grin and almost smiled in return. There was only one
reason anyone went to Cassaria, for the sex. There wasn’t a more seductive woman
in the world than a Cassarian woman… Well, there was one Cassarian he could live without ever laying eyes on again, but
aside from that annoying example, Cassarian women were a thing to behold.
“It’s
been too damn long since I’ve loved a woman, Aeon. And isn’t sex is a vital
part of any red blooded male’s existence?” He slapped his hand on Aeon’s
shoulder realizing that a huge chapter in his life was ending. “I think from
this moment on I’m laying down my white hat. I think from here on, I live for
Lucas Kavenaugh and Lucas Kavenaugh alone. Present company excepted.”
“I’m
honored.”
Aeon’s
dry tone made Kav chuckle.
“I
suppose I’ll need to include Nauhuel in on that exception as well.
“I’m
sure he’ll feel just as honored.”
This
time he did laugh.
“God,
this is all so stupid.”
From
the very day he found out the truth about his father and his two mothers,
hatred had burned so hot that he refused to accept anything other than complete
annihilation of everything his father loved. In truth, he hadn’t even made a
dent against the empire his father sat atop. He wasn’t sure if he could simply
walk away after everything, but Aeon was right, it was time to go.
“To
a new chapter?”
Even
as he said it, he didn’t want to go, not without pulling out his father’s
jugular first, but he suppressed his pain, making a conscious decision not to
feel anything deeper than the surface for the rest of his life.
Carnal pleasures.
It
wasn’t a terrible idea.
“To
a new day, friend.”
Aeon’s
quiet confidence almost made his dormant hope stir, but he couldn’t, wouldn’t, believe in any purpose other
than himself ever again. This was it, the end of the line for him laying his
life on the line for anything. There was no other way to bear this failure.
“We
need a crew if we’re going to get that ship of mine out of here.”
“True.”
“More
than just you me and Nauhuel.”
“No
guarantees he’ll go. He’s been on Earth an awful long time.”
Kav
couldn’t contemplate a future where his two best friends weren’t at his side.
“He’ll
go if I have to knock him unconscious and tie him to the engines.”
“Well
that would still leave us down a crew member, so…”
“Yeah
yeah.” Kav smacked the back of his hand across Aeon’s belly. “We’ll figure it
out. There have to be some reliable desperate people still on this planet
willing to do anything to get off it. If we’re really lucky, we may even find a
few with currency.”
Truth
was, they were destitute with a broken down battleship that wasn’t going to
lift off on hopes and good wishes.
A
smile spread across his face as an idea began to burn bright in his mind.
“I
have a plan.”
“You
recover quickly.”
Kav
let the jib go. He was too enthused by his idea.
“Let’s
go to Harbor Gardens.”
“Have
you lost your fucking mind?”
Kav
laughed as the thought crystallized.
“No,
but I know how to get our hands on all the currency we’ll need.”
“And
it’ll give you one last chance to take down your father.”
“I
hadn’t planned on even seeing the man.”
Aeon
grimaced and ground his teeth.
“No,
you’re just going to walk into the heart and soul of the man’s existence and
steal from him, but not see him?”
Kav
shrugged.
“Could
happen.”
He
turned and began walking down the alley, only to stop halfway and bow his head.
He silently said a prayer for the women he had failed to save, ending with… Only you can save her now. When he
opened his eyes, he looked up at the clouded sky, feeling a weight lifted from
his soul, he whispered a solemn, “Thank you.” then turned back to Aeon who
hadn’t taken a step.
“Come
on, it won’t be that bad. Seriously, in and out, no violent rampages against
Satan himself.”
“Your
father is not Satan.”
Kav
sneered.
“Well
he does a damn fine impression of it.”
Aeon
had finally come down the alley and stood beside him.
“It’s
a bad idea.”
Kav
heaved a sigh. “It may be, but he owes
me and if I’m giving up the notion of destroying him, he can damn well pay for
my exit.”
“It’s
your execution I’m worried about.”
He
placed his hand on Aeon’s shoulder.
“They
won’t even know we’ve been there. I promise. Just what we can use for currency.
Then we’ll get the ship running, leave, and never look back.”
He
could feel tension vibrating off Aeon, but he’d stand with him like he always
did. Of that he had no doubt.
“I
don’t like this. I don’t think it’s smart. We can get currency a hundred
different ways…”
“Not
this much.”
Aeon
sighed.
Kav
waited a heartbeat, holding his breath, needing Aeon to give him this.
“Please?”
Aeon
turned and looked directly at him. Something in that look was reminiscent of
the first time he ever saw Aeon. He was so much younger then, a broken boy with
a bad leg, starving, no future. Now he stood here a valiant man, one he was so
proud to know.
“I
owe you everything I am, Kav. You’ve been a closer friend to me than anyone
I’ve ever known, but I feel like you’re taking on this one last death defying
act recklessly which is not something you very often are.”
He
waited in silence, giving Aeon the chance to come around, believing he would.
Moments
that seemed a small eternity passed, then finally, Aeon groaned.
“Fine.
I’m in, but I’m carrying weapons on this one and I don’t give a fuck what you
have to say about it.”
Kav
was getting his way, that was all that mattered.
“Fine, you can be the goddamned terminator for all I care.” He slapped
Aeon’s shoulder, knowing he was probably the only person alive who would get
the reference to the ancient movie. “Let’s go, we’ve got plans to make.”
