Authors: Steve Wheeler
Marko sat very still, listening in horror. ‘They then charged you with murdering two Games Board monitors on Colonel White’s ship, when they were attempting to intercede on your behalf with the alien Colonel White. Once again the evidence is compelling. Not true, as we know, but compelling in the public arena. Jan has been found guilty in absentia and sentenced to Total Death. Her backup Soul Saver has already been destroyed. Your backup has met a similar fate, but the Administration successfully argued that you should live out your natural life, due to your outstanding service record.’
Marko slammed his hands onto the chair’s armrests. ‘Fuck! I need to talk with Ernst. Set a course to take us slowly back to
Basalt.’
He walked back to where Ernst was. He partially unfolded, exposing Jan’s head and face as Marko asked, ‘Ernst, how bad is it and are you aware of the Games Board’s sentence?’
The AI replied in a deeply sad voice. ‘Very bad, I am sorry to say, Marko. Her brain is salvageable, as is the upper half of her spinal column, but she is critical. I know of the Games Board’s decision. Now to let you in on a little secret. Jan’s actual Soul Saver is in me. I hold her real self. I have uploaded the events of your holiday, so they are safe. She loves you deeply and she will find you again. I know this, because in the many many years we have been together, Jan has never had such a strong attachment to anyone. Also, the Administration group she works for would very much like her back in their employment, and they too hold a separate Soul Saver backup, which as you know is highly illegal.’
Marko felt euphoric and also very worried in the same instant. Ernst continued: ‘Marko, I am sorry but there is more bad news for you. Jan must die today and you must let the Games Board take her remains, including the altered Soul Saver that is in her skull. When they query it, they will find the complete persona of a very real, elegant, senior industrialist from the Gjomviks who has all Jan’s memories, excepting her actual assassin self. It will be an intense embarrassment to the Games Board. I’ll wake her so you can spend a few moments together before I allow her to die. I am so sorry, Marko, I really, really am. It has been a tremendous honour and privilege to have known you, and I number you among my closest friends. In a few moments, a clone of me will attend Jan. I have to leave before we get too close to
Basalt.
Goodbye, my friend. Until we meet again, go well.’
Marko patted Ernst’s casing, then stood there weeping as the spitting image of Ernst arrived and Jan’s remains were passed across. Ernst then left the hangar and a few moments later he felt the slight shudder of something leaving
Blackjack.
The medical unit slowly woke Jan. He touched her beautiful face, kissed her gently and all he could say was that he loved her so much and would always do so. Her eyes brightened and she tried to smile. He kissed her again and felt the life slip from her as he cried and cried and, realising that their future lives were dead as well, he howled. Glint hugged him as he sat on the floor cradling a broken Nail and slowly, Marko’s grief was replaced by anger. He cursed under his breath. ‘Fuck the Games Board, fuck the Administration, and fuck all their shitty games, fuck them all.’ He wanted payback and remembered that the Maori had a term: Utu. He wanted UTU! He wanted revenge and it started to burn a terrible hole in his very core.
He stroked Jan’s face once again, said his goodbyes, gathered up Nail and with Glint following strode up to the flight deck and climbed back into the commander’s chair.
‘Open all channels. I want every bastard out there to hear this: “To the shitheads controlling
Basalt
and the arseholes in the attendant Games Board frigate. You complete fucks. You have killed my contract wife and tried very hard to kill me. Get the hell out of my face, right now.’”
A highly cultured male voice answered theatrically. ‘Sergeant Major Spitz, you are totally mistaken. We know her as an immediate real threat to the wellbeing of our great and peaceful society. I am sorry that you now know this, as I am convinced that she fooled you into committing crimes against ourselves and the greater society to further her own twisted agenda. Come aboard
Basalt
and we shall discuss this further in a reasoned and thoughtful way.’
Marko felt such rage that he could not reply as
Basalt
had opened the hangar bay door, allowing
Blackjack
to sweep in and land. Marko left Nail where he was in the co-pilot’s chair, told Glint to find the rest of the crew and await instructions, then walked back, gathered Jan’s remains in his arms from the med unit, then walked out of
Blackjack.
Just as he exited he saw Glint shimmering as his chameleon-ware came online, then crouching down to wait for a distraction so he could leave the hangar bay undetected.
Marko was met by two of the Expeditors, who grabbed his upper arms, holding him tight. He felt a cold fury inside him as he consciously sped up his reaction times, analysing their weaknesses. Their director and another Expeditor appeared, with the director pointing at Jan’s body, clicking his fingers, then pointing at the deck. He lowered Jan’s remains and gently placed her on the cold deck with the two Expeditors still holding him, then jerking him upright. The attendant unfolded her machine and linked to Jan’s Soul Saver. She looked at the director, who reminded Marko of every perfectly attired, smarmy, greasy, smilingly vicious man he had ever known.
The director looked across at the readouts, then suddenly went red in the face. ‘There must be a mistake. That is not Clarissa Jammess. It must be Jan Wester. Test it again. You! Go get the main unit from our shuttle.’
One of the director’s Expeditors immediately ran off.
Marko remembered to speak very slowly so that he could be understood. ‘Where are my colleagues, director?’
The man sneered at him. ‘Where your colleagues are is no concern of yours, prisoner. You are in deep trouble. Just be very cautious with us, because you are about to have a further judgment passed on yourself. You have interfered with a peaceful Games Board school display, which resulted in the loss of four non-armed craft and the damage of a System Airship. Don’t worry, prisoner, we will track down every existing transmission of the video of that incident within a few hours, and it will be only our side of the story that is told. I will see to that myself, once I have passed judgment on you. In fact, why wait? This woman is, as far as I am concerned, Jan Wester and no one else.’
A defiant Sirius walked up behind them. ‘Director, you are mistaken. This is Clarissa Jammess, the industrialist who left her home, stating that she would go on a long adventure, some ten years ago. Your actions have resulted in the death of a desired entity.’
The dapper little man spun on his heel to face her. ‘So, Specialist Sirius, you have chosen to join us. You and your faction are out of order in this matter. This is solely my judgment.’
Sirius grimly replied. ‘I am broadcasting, director. Perform the second tests for all of us to see.’
‘That is not required. Sirius, I command you to stop broadcasting. If you do not, I’ll personally sever you across the hips, then cut your all-precious genitals out, make you eat them and put you back in a machine! Do I make myself clear? Expeditors, prepare to execute the prisoner on my command. Afterwards, you will find and destroy his pets.’
~ * ~
Two
Marko had had enough.
He sped up to the fullest extent of his capabilities, pulled his secret diamond garrotte from its concealed housing in his belt, stepped sideways, lopped the forearms off the Expeditor to his left, pushed off her, and somersaulted over the top of the one to his right — who was moving as if in treacle — sweeping the microscopically thin blade downwards through the base of the neck of that unfortunate, removing his shoulder blades and exposing his spinal column.
He landed, snapped the garrotte tight, then lunged forwards, sweeping upwards, removing parts of the upper thigh muscles of the director, then his genitals, including a large portion of his pubic bone and, continuing upwards, taking off his hands as well. Marko stepped aside from him, spinning around as the returning Expeditor unholstered her pistol, and flung the garrotte with its heavy diamond ends like a bolas, severing her legs out from under her. He ran and seized her weapon as it flew from her hands, then allowed himself to slow down to normal speed.
They were all on the floor and out of the fight but just to be sure he roughly searched them for any other weapons. Blood and body parts littered the deck. After a few long seconds thinking about it, he left their recording units still attached to their heads and activated one of the needles in his left hand, administering a nanote drug that overwhelmed each one’s pain suppression system.
Sirius stared in a state of shock and said in a flat, fearful voice: ‘They will kill you now, Marko.’
Marko glanced at her. ‘They were about to do that anyway, Sirius. Are you with me or against me?’
The ashen-faced woman ground out a reply. ‘I am more useful to you alive — and a long way away.’
He snarled at her. ‘Run then. Run now and head down, not up. I am not finished here. In fact, I should really slice and dice you as well, Sirius. I do not trust you. You are up to your eyeballs in this action.’
He marched across and seized her, twisting her face around to his. She looked at him as if he was the devil as he continued. ‘The only reason I am not gutting you is because I want you to take a message to your handlers, dog. Tell them to watch the shadows very carefully, as I am coming for each and every one of them.’
She started crying. ‘You know that you were recorded and broadcast from the time that you arrived back at the aerodrome, don’t you? My faction was responsible for that because we knew you would fight and I hoped it would gain you the public support that it has. Don’t kill me, Marko. I am helping you! I had the boys’ and the doctor’s images altered so they will not be recognised as I know that is what you would want. The public will support you, Marko. They love this crew and ship, as well, and they fear the Games Board. Alive, I can help you. The only things we do not know are what happened inside Stephine’s ship. The broadcast was blocked. Please don’t kill me, please, Marko, please.’
He could see the desperation in her eyes, but did not dare speak. He grabbed her by the back of the neck and the small of her back, and then roughly pushed her up against the access door to one of the escape pods, forcing her inside. He opened the external control panel, brought up the planetary map, located the centre of the ocean on the planet below and tapped it on the screen and then launched the pod. He strode back to the fallen Games Board personnel.
Their suits had sealed off their wounds, but they were still in agony. Marko grabbed the director’s head, lifting his face towards his.
‘I shall ask you again, director. Where are my colleagues?’
‘Go fuck yourself.’
Marko felt a black rage building. ‘Very well. That would be entertaining, but I think it would be more fun to fuck you up a bit more.’
He rolled him over, grabbed the back of his battledress, lifted him and walked across to where the garrotte lay on the deck. Using it, he sliced the back off the man’s skull, exposing his Soul Saver, which he took out and placed in his pocket. Working quickly, he then dragged them all into one of the larger escape pods and launched it.
Playtime continues, he thought grimly, asking through the crew comms, ‘Glint, have you located everyone?’
The reply came quickly. ‘Yes, I have. In the mess room. They are being guarded by two Expeditors. They are a little battered about. It would seem that the Games Board reverted to old-style brutal interrogation techniques.’
Marko barked. ‘Disarm them.’
‘Can I kill them?’
‘No. Just disarm them, Glint. Patrick. Patrick, can you hear me?’
He ran over to the hangar deck’s arms cote and grabbed a carbine, then a long battle knife. He loaded the carbine on the run, placing the additional magazines against his suit, which held them fast, and said again, ‘Patrick, can you hear me?’
Silence is never a good sign, he thought. He ran as quietly and as quickly as he could to where Topaz normally worked, and found him in pieces scattered around the medical suite. His rage boiled over again and he sprinted up the spiral staircase, meeting one of the Expeditors cautiously coming down. Marko just reached out with one of Veg’s beautifully simple, lethal swords and sliced him through the neck. The head, a shocked expression still fixed on its face, bounced a few times off the wall and then down the stairs when he booted it really hard, blood still fountaining from the collapsing body. On a whim, he sliced the Soul Saver from that one as well.
As he rounded the corner, there was the flat crack of Glint’s linear rifle and Marko was just in time to see bits of arms and hands raining across the mess. Glint had taken his instructions literally. He had obviously lined up the weapons’ arm of each Expeditor and blown it off with one shot. Everyone else from
Basalt’s
crew was there. Harry looked the worst, but still very alive and very angry.
‘How many of the shits came on board?’ Marko called out.
The major answered. ‘Ten. Four went down to meet you. Two are on the bridge. These two here, plus one just went down the stairs. The last one is in the garden smashing plants. And somewhere on board is Sirius.’
Glint was working his way around the room, cutting the bonds that held his comrades to chairs. As soon as they were free, Jasmine and Lilly sprinted from the room, heading up to the garden deck, with Jasmine taking Marko’s sword from his hand and Lilly snatching the carbine from his back as they ran past. He checked the others, then ran after them, while the crew made for the nearest arms cote. As Marko arrived in the garden to see devastation and ripped-out plants, he heard the most bloodcurdling scream he ever had. A few seconds later a very grim-faced pair of amazons appeared, nodded at him and went to find the others.