END of LINE: Humanities Last Stand - part 3 (51 page)

“Jackal! Get over to that pirate Destroyer; take teams two through five with you. Kill those worthless scum and claim the ship! Jon commanded.

“Take it easy Boss, I got you covered. Don't get yourself all excited over nothing. I'm touching down now, grubs in position for entry in five.” Jarrieal
commed to let Jon know he had the situation in hand.

“SIR!” the Scanner station called to him, “A life pod just released. It will enter the atmosphere in under thirty minutes.”

“Somebody go get that rat.” Jon ordered. “There will be no desertions today.”

“I'll get him.” Jon heard Mopie's singsong voice come over the com. He'd have to declare this a holiday. Jar had gotten him to pilot a ship even though he
hated that job. It would become officially known as 'Mopie Day'! He smiled at his own joke. No time to laugh. They were still engaged in a running battle
with the smaller ships which were blinking out of existence with bright flashes of light as their engines exploded or their hulls were breached resulting
in the ships self destruction as both the inside air and the crew members were flung out into space.

Like the well trained pro's that Jon's teams were, it wasn't long before everyone of the small pirate ships from Cutters to Yachts were blown to pieces
leaving only the debris from the five little ships and their dead crews floating in orbit. They would end up cleaning up that mess so the debris didn't
fall back into the atmosphere and injure someone or something on the ground as it burned its way to the surface.

The teams that Jarrieal had taken over to the Destroyer had spent less than thirty minutes dealing death to the pirates onboard. They even managed to save
three small young females who looked like they had been badly used and not fed in weeks. Just the sight of armed combat troops sent them into fits of tears
and Jar had to find just the right people to get them to come out from their hiding places so they could be taken over to Leviathan to be checked out,
clothed, fed, and cared for. It actually took more time to find them all and talk them out than it did to capture the ship! By the time they had all three
of the females sitting and talking, instead of running and screaming, the pirate Destroyer had been brought in and locked down in Leviathan's hanger bay.

Mopie brought the single escape pod into the Leviathan and before the person inside could get it open and escape, a team of Jon's special troops had it
surrounded. When the troops finally allowed it to open the male inside greeted them with a huge smile.

“Well hello gentle males. It’s about time you got me out of this thing. Take me to the bridge and let me talk to your Captain. My father will pay you all
plenty of credits for saving me.”

On the surface of Sanctuary the ground troops made quick work of dealing death to the few pirates they found who were making it a point of killing any
surviving mourners. The once beautiful structure that had been the home for mourning Lexonian females through many cycles now lay in ruins, and the town's
people stood by in shocked silence. It was only after the troops started yelling for them to either go home or help look for victims, that the people
joined in and helped the men clear away wreckage. A call had gone up for the Healer to send aid and he and all of his assistants were on the ground
offering treatments to the wounded. Burial details where also formed to see to the dead.

Jarrieal slowly walked onto the bridge with his head hung low. The news he'd just received from Med Lab was depressing to say the least. Fully three
quarters of the mourners at Sanctuary had been killed, but what had happened to the three young females found on the pirate ship had been far worse than
mere death. Now he had to tell Jon, knowing that his friend would want somebody’s head for this.

Jon watched him enter and finally said, “Report. What's happened to make you so sad after a mission? Did Phillie get hurt?”

“No Jon, Phillie is fine, I'm fine, everybody is fine. Everybody except those three young females is fine.” The normally tough Warrior had to stop and
fight back tears before continuing. “Those three are still younglings. The oldest is only twelve cycles. The other two are ten. That scum pumped them full
of the lustor drug and used them in ways a decent male could never even think of. They used the drug to make the younglings beg them for sex! The oldest
shows signs of being restrained and beaten on a regular basis. All have lost their innocence. The Healer says the tubes can heal their bodies, but their
minds will take cycles to heal.”

“You know something brother, if we ever find out where that stuff is coming from, I may have to destroy a planet with this ship just to teach the planets
that some things should not be allowed!” Jarrieal had been right. Jon was very angry about this!

“There is more good news. Do you remember that idiot from basic who used to give you and Zeprik such a hard time? Heli something?”

“Helios King. I remember him. Why?”

“It was him who tried to escape from the Destroyer in the life pod.” Jar told Jon. “When we opened the pod he came out smiling and promising to make
everybody rich for saving his worthless ass. The guys took him to one of the empty living quarters and locked him in. It’s one of the smaller ones but it’s
still a lot nicer than he deserves. We should throw him out an air lock!”

“So he tried to escape from the one ship that was attacking Sanctuary from space and claims to be able to make people rich. Did he say how?” Jon had an
idea forming. He thought he might be able to find this Boss King if it turned out they had his kid.

“Something about his father paying us for saving him.”

“Jar, have someone from our intel team go talk to his worthless ass. Find out if his father is called Boss King and where to contact the male to collect
our reward. I'm sure he'll tell us to kill his kid and go away, or something along those lines, but if we can contact the male, maybe our computer teams
can find him. Then we'll send in our Special Troops to collect him and bring him to us. I want to know why he ordered his people to fire on one of my
shuttles and then to tell me to drug one of our passengers.” Jon thought about his plan before adding, “I'll wager you your next cycles earnings that the
plan was to keep the High One away from the novice, get the novice hooked on lustor and sell her to one of the pleasure houses. Except something went wrong
and he sent his baby boy to destroy Sanctuary from space where no evidence could be found that linked this back to him. It seems like a lot of trouble for
just one small female. I want vid of everything that male does, even if it’s just using the relief chamber. If he gives us what we want, we might arrange a
meeting between father and son. Won't that just be special?” Jon looked at Jarrieal with an evil grin on his face.

Jarrieal returned Jon's grin before leaving the bridge in a much better mood than the one he had been in when he arrived. All he had to do now was keep
Phillie away from King. If she found out about the person responsible for the young female's condition before they had the information they wanted, they'd
never get anything out of King's dead body.

Jon commed down to Data and reminded them to be sure they copied all the data in the pirate Destroyer's banks. He could have saved his breath. They already
had several copies with teams carefully examining every bit and byte of the data.

It had been an easy task to locate one of the trusted ships and torture its Captain to reveal where the planet was located. He could pay the male three times what the mourners did to keep it hidden, but why spend the money when an hour in chains with whips could pry the information from the male for free? Helios was very proud of what he'd done and could not contain himself as he told the entire story to the Investgator from Leviathan who had questioned him. He even gave him a direct com link to reach the crime boss who had been running most of the pirate operations and the slave trade on the rim.

Leviathan's data teams had easily located Boss King using the information they'd gotten from his son. It had been as Jon suspected. Boss King was the father of Helios and he was most happy to pay for his child's return. In fact, he was so happy, he was coming to meet them himself instead of simply sending one of his lackeys to fetch him. Helios had been
sent out to pick up the novice but after several weeks with no sign of her arriving, he'd taken it on himself to attack Sanctuary. He thought that
she had found a different ship to travel on, perhaps one of the ones trusted with the coords to the planet. His father had a real surprise in store for
Helios and it would not be to his liking.

Taking only his two most trusted men with him, Boss King left the slipway at the appointed coords and could already see the Destroyer he had assigned to
his worthless son sitting in the distance. What he could not see, because it happened behind him where his own viewers did not show, was the Leviathan's
bright flash as it came out of jump. His first grasp that something was wrong was when a golden mist surrounded his yacht and his expensive systems began
to shut down.

Soon he was floating in space with no power. Only then did he hear the sound of grapples grabbing his ship and pulling it into the maul of
the huge ship that had somehow captured his little private yacht. As the only surviving partner of TransCo, he'd soon learn who had hijacked him in deep
space and make them pay. He had spent cycles building up his position as partner in the company and as the faithful servant of the Regent. Now after
several carefully arranged accidents, he owned the company, lock, stock, and escape capsule. He was also in line for promotion among the Royal Houses.
Nothing would stand in his way, not his offspring and certainly not whoever this monster ship's Captain was.

When the knock came against his hatch, he readied his plasma weapon and opened the hatch to greet his captors. As he raised his pistol in their direction,
a sudden pain shot through his arm and into his brain before he watched his arm fall on the deck.

“You won't be needing that here Boss King.” a strangely familiar voice told him. Looking to his left he almost fainted from fright when he saw the massive
male dressed in a silver tunic and black leggings wielding a sword that seemed to burn with its own light. The massive male who stood before him was also
wearing a midnight black cape with gold edging that hid his face. The image of a fierce dragon floated behind this overly huge male.

“Welcome to Leviathan, Boss King. Please follow these kind gentle males and they will bring you to your quarters.” Carefully studying the apparition before
him, Boss King could not make out the face of the man in the cape because the hood had his features so obscured.

“Why should I follow your men anywhere?. You've ruined my arm, not to mention my best suit!” King yelled. Recognition hit him like a blast from a plasma rifle! Despite all his
efforts to end Jon Connell, here he stood alive and with an armed force of males backing him up!

“Well for one thing, if you don't, my men will have to shoot through you to get those two you brought with you. If you do, I'll deal with your men before I
come to pay my respects at your quarters. I am a man of my word Boss King. I will not harm them provided they throw down their weapons and follow you to
their quarters without causing trouble. If they try anything, I'll be right behind them and you. Once I've cut them in two, I'll hack off both your legs
before I take your other arm and finally your head.” This male had it coming, but Jon needed information before having him and his son killed.

Looking over his shoulder Boss King nodded to his men giving them a signal to attack anyone who entered the yacht. “I'm leaving now.” he said. “I happen to
be Lexonian from the Royal House on Haven. You have no authority over my family or me. Give me my son and we'll leave. I won't even press charges for the
damage you've done to my arm. Any good Healer can repair that minor problem.”

“Strange as it seems, I agree with part of what you've said.” Jon calmly said. “I am also from Haven and have some experience with you bunch of overly self
important Royals from the Summer Palace. However, neither of us is on Haven now. You are on my ship, far beyond the rim in deep space. There is no ruler
out here except the male with the biggest militia. Right now, that's me and I'm slowly riding the sector of your pirates. I have claimed legal salvage on
your four TransCo. Destroyers and half a handful of your larger cargo transport ships. Now I apparently have your private yacht too. It would seem that you
own nothing out here and have very little left on the inner worlds that my people haven't taken including your hidden accounts on Lexon II, but the clothes
on your back still belong to you. So you see Boss, on my ship you are nothing. Come out here, now!” Jon demanded.

“He cut off the Bosses arm with a sword and there is no blood!” came an excited cry from inside the yacht. “I didn't come out here to get killed for you
King. I'M COMING OUT!” one of the males yelled, before tossing a pistol to the deck and quickly getting out of the yacht where he was taken into custody by
Jon's team who put restraints on him and led him away.

“Thirty seconds and I come in.” Jon hollered up into the yacht.

“You'll kill me if I come out. I know who you are now Butcher, you're that freak Connell.” King shouted down.

“If you stay in there, I'll just toss you back into space with no power and let your lifeless body float forever after you run out of air.” Jon threatened.
“I've heard that's not a very nice way to die.”

“Alright! I'm coming out too!” and the second of Boss King's males threw his weapon down and jumped to the deck to be taken into custody.

“Don't make me come in after you King!” Jon shouted. “My mid-meal is getting cold.” Jon's team snickered at this and Jon gave them a stern look to silence
them.

“Go get that piece of sandworm dung.” Jon ordered. “Stand him right here in front of me.” Four men ran up into the Yacht and the sounds of muffled gunfire
could be heard coming from inside the ship. In a few minutes, Jon's men came back out carrying the limp form of Boss King. They dropped him to the deck and
stood away from the unconscious male.