END of LINE: Humanities Last Stand - part 3 (32 page)

“I love him as a brother. He saved me from a dull life selling used parts to space pirates and other rif raf from a small shop at Lexie Station. Please
stop calling me furball.” Phillie asked.

“I am sorry. I mean you no harm by it. Wrenches is not a very feminine name.”

“You think furball is?” she asked astounded.

“On my home world, many of our females have coverings of long beautiful hair. So with my kind to be a furball is a very sexy thing to be. For a female of
course. Calling a male that would earn you some bruises.” Jarrieal laughed and so did Phillie. “Are you feeling better now?”

“Yes, thank you.” she honestly told him and then walked out of the exercise area and back to Engineering to tweak another few revs out of the engines.

Jon felt like a fool. Why had he exploded at Phillie the way he had? She was only trying to be his friend. He didn't want any more friends. Friends either
refused to answer your messages or they got themselves killed! It hurt far too much to have them and lose them than it did to not ever have them. Most
especially it hurt when the only really important females you've ever known pack up and leave without telling you why they were going first. He could learn
to live with the loss of a friend in battle. Many of those he'd called friends had died on his last missions and many more would die if they followed him
on his quest to find and kill the person who ordered Zeprik's murder. Those he could live with. They were the causalities of war. However, to lose another
female that he cared about would take too much from him. He might drive Phillie away, but she would never be injured in battle or leave him because she
didn't love him. That much he knew. She was like a sister to him and that was all he'd ever let her be.

“ATTENTION ALL HANDS! Defiance will be entering Haven space in twenty minutes.” blared out from the ship-wide coms. Jon hurried to finish his shower using
the specially installed bench in the cleansing area that Phillie had put in for his use. Then he dried off as best he could before putting on clean
exercise clothes for the trip back to his stateroom in the wheelchair.

Once in his sparse stateroom, he managed to get into his dress white Peacekeeper uniform with his swords at his waist before calling out on his com badge.
“There will be an impromptu memorial held for our friend and team Lt. the Crown Prince of all Lexon Space, Zeprik. Uniform will be dress whites or for
those who didn't bring them with you, wear your best tunic. A shuttle will be made available in the loading bay to transport attendees to the surface and
back up to the ship. Zarrieal, please have the LT's squad and our flight crew standing by at our shuttle.” Then he set about getting himself back into the
eckto-frames. Before leaving his stateroom Jon pocketed one of the crystal cubes that now held a stone with Zeprik's blood still staining it captive. He'd
had the Canari jeweler place a small plaque on the bottom edges of one side of each cube that read, “You will never be forgotten.” He had also had the male
add a super strong adhesive normally used to glue together panels on spaceship hulls to the bottom. Once Jon placed the cube on Zeprik's grave, it would
take an expert using the latest explosives to remove it. He then made the trek down three flights to the hanger bay and greeted those who would be joining
him on the surface. “I plan to stay in orbit for two days. After today's service I will be going by my home to pick up some things and tomorrow I plan to
sign over my shares of the local BBITCo. revenues. I'm keeping the FTL ships and turning over all Haven system operations to my partners. Anyone who wishes
to take leave has two days to spend on Haven, after that we're leaving. Anyone not interested of heading back out to the rim, let me know and I'll try to
get BBITCo. to find you work here in system.”

“Suppose we have family who wants to come out to the rim with us sir?” someone asked. “My kid brother has been begging me to ask you for a job.”

“What can he do?” Jon asked.

“About all he's good for is hacking computers.”

“Tell him to find three of his buddies who want to go and they're all hired. Alright people, load up!” Jon called out.

On the way down to the surface Jarrieal commented on how beautiful the planet was with its vast forests and clear lakes. Then after only a few minutes the
shuttle's coms came alive. “Shuttles entering Haven air space, this is Haven Control. State your purpose.”

“Haven Control, we are shuttle teams 1 and 2 from the Defiance. We are planning a unit wide memorial service for our fallen comrade, Prince Zeprik at the
Summer Palace. We'll be out of your hair in a couple of hours.” Jarrieal told them.

“Welcome to Haven. You are cleared to land at the Palace pad Teams 1 and 2. We're very sorry about the Prince. Everyone here liked him. Haven Control out.”

“Good thing you didn't tell them that I was with you.” Jon told Jarrieal. “Last time I was here they had a fit because I parked Mercury in orbit. If they
knew Defiance was mine they'd all be screaming for my head right now.”

“What did you do to make them so mad at you?” Jarrieal asked.

“I was born here.” Jon told him. “For some people that's more than enough.”

“Relax Captain, your secret is safe with me. I won't say a word about the richest Warrior in three galaxies parking a Destroyer class Warship on their
doorstep.” Jarrieal laughed and Jon chuckled along with him.

In a matter of minutes, Jarrieal had landed the shuttle and was waiting as the team 2 shuttle shut down its drives before opening the rear hatch. Still it
took over ten minutes for both shuttles to cool down enough for everyone to unload and arrange themselves into a proper military formation. These ships
were never designed to be used to ferry troops. They usually opened the bottom doors and threw them out in their drop gear. When the engines cooled, Jon
had Jarrieal lead them over to the guardhouse where he addressed a surprised Palace Guard. “Guardian, I am Admiral Connell and these people have all come
to pay honor to a fallen comrade. Could you please arrange to have us escorted to the grave of Prince Zeprik?”

“Certainly my Lord. If you will follow me, I'll take you there now.”

“Thank you.” Jon replied and walked off behind the guard who lead them along a path of beautiful flowering plants and directly to a polished stone
monument.

“This is it my Lord. How long will your party be staying?”

“Only a little while Guardian. Not longer than an hour.” The guard then gave Jon the fist over the heart salute that had become the standard sign of
respect and backed several steps away so as not to interfere with the ceremony Jon had planned. Turning to those who had come to pay their respects Jon
called out “ATTENTION! Here lies our fallen comrade. He was a loyal friend, a trusted leader and a hard core fighter.” As soon as Jon said that the
Prince's entire team of grubs gave their team's war cry and the courtyard rang out with the yells of mature males calling out their own war cries. “Prince
Zeprik, we have come to your resting place today to give you our respect and to wish you a safe journey to the after life.” Jon then took two steps away
from the grave and one by one each person came forward and said one or two sentences before bowing to the grave in respect and to give the salute, then
turning and walking back to the waiting shuttles where they all waited until the last man left the grave.

When everyone had said their peace and walked away, Jon took the crystal encased stone from his pocket, peeled the protective backing away from the
adhesive and carefully placed it on the grave. Standing, he bowed his head before muttering, “I'm so sorry Zeprik. I should have gotten to you sooner. Know
this my only true friend from this goddess forsaken planet, you will never be forgotten.” Then he offered the one fisted salute, turned and walked toward
the shuttle.

Before he could get past the guards at the Palace gates a male dressed in fine robes approached him. “Excuse me, are you the Warrior, Jon Connell?”

“Yes, how can I help you my Lord?” Jon asked. He was still on the Palace property so he decided to play nice with whoever this over dressed idiot was.

“It is I who may be able to help you warrior.” the Regent told him. “I am Regent to the King. I have been sent here to inform you of changes in the status
of certain relationships at the Lexon Palace. With the death of Prince Zeprik, Princess Satrina is now in line to inherit the throne. As the sole Royal
Heir, she cannot be seen in the company of someone such as yourself. There is not even a single drop of Lexonian Royal blood in your veins. Her duty to the
throne is to marry from the Royal Houses and create an heir worthy of the throne. She knows this and has sent me to ask that you stop sending her messages.
She will not answer them. She will be our Queen one day and any offspring she bears must be pure. It is our way and she has been raised to take her proper
place. She knows this and intends to do her duty to the throne and to the Royal House.”

Jon bowed to the Regent, “Yes my Lord, you have been a great help to me. Please tell her that I wish her only the best, always. She will not be bothered by
me anymore.” Then he turned and walked into his shuttle. Reaching the cockpit, he slammed his fist on the engine starts and shoved the throttles full on.
“Jarrieal, fly this thing!” He bellowed.

“Sure thing Captain, where are we going?” Jarrieal asked.

“Head south, follow the road away from the Palace and you'll come to a large building made from trees. A short ways past that is my house. It sits back
away from the roadway near a clear blue lake. You'll find it. If you fly over a city you've gone too far. Land in front of the house. I'm going to ask that
you help me load a bunch of stuff I want taken up to the ship.” Jon instructed him. “By the way, I'm all done being anybodies Captain. My company says I'm
an Admiral, so either call me Admiral or Jon. No more Captain.” Jon sat in the copilot's chair and fought back his tears. Satrina had abandoned him. He
could have faced anything with her at his side, but now she was to become Queen and she no longer wished to have him as her mate. Damn the Royals to the
lowest levels of hell! He'd go out to the rim and start killing things until the rim planets were safe or he had found this U'Lanto that had ordered his
friend Zeprik killed. First though, he had to find the beast and wake it up!

“That was easier than I thought it would be.” U'Lanto said to himself. Now he just had to let the Princess know that her giant had told him to his face
that he would not be sending her a message and the stage would be set for him to take the throne. He even had one of the trusted Palace guards as a
witness! Now, if he could just convince the stupid female to leave the Palace for sancturary sooner than expected, everything would be in place for the final act to begin.

Three hours later, Jon and Jarrieal had loaded all of his things from the house into the shuttle and he was about to close the ramp when a huge black tiger
lunged into the back and lay down. Jon had not expected his pet to suddenly decide to come, but now that it was here, he was glad that it had. Here at
least was something he could trust from his home. His cat had always been loyal to him. Jarrieal took one look at the massive animal and nearly experienced
heart failure. He had heard about these huge beasts, but this was the first one he'd ever seen up close and with it sitting between the pilot and copilot's
chairs, it was too close! “You do realize that we are about to take a wild animal onboard a spaceship. Right Jon?” Jarrieal asked.

“He'll be fine.” Jon told his pilot.

“Its not him, its the rest of the crew!”

“You sure its not just you being afraid of a little kitten?” Jon joked.

“Kitten my ass!” Jarrieal said. “Wrenches is going to scream all the way back to Lexon!”

“We're not going back there Jarrieal. When we get everyone onboard, I'll give navigation our new destination coords.”

“I thought you said we were heading out to the rim worlds. You not planning to take cargo out there?”

“Defiance will be our cargo. We'll be flying something much bigger and carrying Defiance along for the ride.”

“Why in the Goddess' dress would we do that?” Jarrieal asked.

“Because we'll need a base of operations once we get out there and I know just the thing. What would you say if I told you I know where we can get our
hands on a ship that could easily load all five of the ships in my fleet with room to spare?” Jon smiled as he passed a photo of a massive spaceship over
to Jarrieal. “Meet the beast. The humans who found her and flew her here named her the Leviathan, but she had a Umin name before that. She was originally
named Galaxiey, the very same name as my aunt. I think that was the secret my uncle and his friends never discussed.”

“You know where this antique is?”

“I have the coords and the pass codes to let us get aboard without being blown up. Once we get there I'll have Wrenches run a complete check of her
systems before we try to take her anywhere. Once we know the ship is OK to fly, then we'll start looking for cargo and try to attract pirates to us.” Jon
leaned back in his chair and continued to rub Talga's ears. “Tomorrow I plan to contact the local BBITCo. office from the ship and make arrangements to
have plenty of fuel crystals loaded on Defiance. I don't know how many it will take for us to reach Leviathan or to get back if she is too far gone to fly.
So I'm planning to have plenty of them onboard before we leave Haven System.”

“And just what are you going to do with your friend here?” Jarrieal asked pointing at Talga.

“Jar, meet my good friend. He is as loyal as a wild animal can be and has never asked for anything more than a bowl of warm milk now and then. Talga, meet
Jar. Jar is a friend, we're going to live on a spaceship, but I'll make sure you get to run and play. Will you help me?” The huge cat rubbed against Jon
and purred. Then it looked at Jarrieal and rubbed its head against the male's side nudging Jarrieal's hand until he found himself scratching the cats ears.