Reaper Inc. (30 page)

They had gotten
Harry out of the picture, he was the first sold from their village, then they
murdered the elder chieftain who had been sick. Harry's wife and child would
not cooperate. They were going to ship them to another village and they fought
back. They beat them to death in front of everyone in the village. Right where
the buyers were standing bidding their blood ran into the dirt. They left them
lying in the dirt and when they slept, the villagers took the bodies and buried
them in unmarked graves

The killers
didn’t care what they had done with them and they started building the platform
next. It had become something hated and feared. It was six months ago. Ben
removed his helmet so the elderly female could see his face. He grabbed one of
her hands and squeezed it affectionately. She could see the determination and
anger in the set of his jaw and his stance. Ben heard Harry take a few deep
cleansing breaths and he joined him again. Ben told Harry to wait. He was going
to integrate into the group of bidders. He told him his plan, when to come out
and where to go. Ben eased into the shadows of the villagers' homes making his
way to a place he felt he would have the best chance of joining the bidders
undetected. He waited watching the two factions who seemed bored and then he saw
his chance.

There were more
alien species mixed in with the bidders he took a second to check out, then not
seeing anything he deemed too dangerous, he tapped the power button on his rail
pistol. It played his favorite tune while he drew and aimed. The sound stopped
and he pulled the trigger. The auctioneer on the platform looked down at the
hole in his chest. The second shot to the forehead had more of the desired
effect.

"Imelda,
mark the ones running to the ship. They are all yours. Kill as many as you
want."

"Ben,
there are many armed warriors coming your way from the ship."

"Understood.
Do not get yourself shot, some coming your way may have a weapon."

"Harry, we
have more bad guys coming. Let's get going."

Ben had given
Harry his battle axe, it would be the most effective against the club. They
rushed at the three Laulaumunda. Ben holstered his pistol and pulled his Katana
and long knife. He would stay low, hamstring them then finish them off. Always
sounds easy to his inner ear. Diving, rolling stabbing, slashing they hobbled
around, but none fell. Ben rolled away and stood up to survey his handiwork. A
laser skimmed off his armor and he looked for cover as more laser fire streaked
in their direction.

Harry buried
the battle axe in the chest of his club wielder. He was trying to pull it out
when another one stepped up club raised above his head to end Harry. Ben
slashed his armpit, swinging upward then dragging the blade out. The arm
dropped to its side and the club fell to the ground. The second arm elbowed Ben
in the chest knocking him to the ground. Harry picked the club up off the
ground and swung with all he had, powering through the damaged arm it tried to
block the swing with, hitting his adversary in the head. Crunch! And the big
body dropped in the dirt. Two down one to go.

The remaining
Laulaumunda, the one they wanted the most, had been moved away by the chieftain
during the fight and now stood with the ugly slavers. Ben yelled at the
prisoners to get off the platform and get down behind it. In another second, he
showed Harry how to pull the axe free of a body; using his foot to hold the
body, he jerked hard. He could tell Harry was a little freaked out killing one
of his own kind.

Their enemy was
angry. They came towards Ben and Harry growling, whining and yipping but not
firing their laser pistols. Ben began to think they wanted to capture him and
Harry; two fighters might bring a lot more credits. Two against twenty one
wasn’t good but Ben was going to work out something, he wasn’t going to ever
wear any chains again. He yelled for all the villagers to lie on the floor of
their huts and for Harry to use the platform for cover. He repeated it a second
time, then powered up his pistol. They stood in a group, not the brightest
bunch. He could kill a number of them with one shot, but that would probably be
the only chance he had. Scattering them would slow things down, to reduce the
number, he would have to fight them all at one time.

He decided not
to shoot the chieftain unless he had to. Ben heard a buzzing noise. Looking up
into the night sky he couldn’t see anything but knew the sound wasn’t too far
away. He looked around, everyone heard it.

"She is
here"
He had an idea who she was. "Harry, the cavalry is here.
Get those prisoners and get them inside. I don’t think it will be good to be
out here in about a minute." Harry could hear the buzzing like the night
just got very big. These were not the small sounds he used to fall asleep to.
He grabbed the first prisoner by the chains and pulled, they all had no choice
but to follow or he would drag them.

The giant moth
landed on the other end of the village. Ben saw her slide off; she was wearing
the silver and gold armor. A second later, the first warrior just appeared and
hit one of the slavers pinning it to the ground. The slavers responded, firing
repeatedly till the warrior fell over. It was a short-lived victory, five more
hit and then eight. There was an explosion in the landing area, but there was
no interruption to the death that came out of the night sky. Harry ran out of
the hut he had just put the prisoners in and ran straight at the chieftain who
was swinging his club wildly at a mantis. Ben ran over to make sure the mantis
didn’t get a two for one.

Harry and the
chieftain grappled on the ground. Eight arms flailing looking like a giant
octopus having a fit. The chieftain threw dirt in Harry's face but it didn't
slow him down; he was on top and going to stay there. Harry reached for a
handful of dirt to return the favor and was rewarded with rock. His second arm
began to beat the rock against the chieftain's ribs and arms.

Ben stood
between the mantis and the two combatants. This one had not tried to
communicate with him and stood cocking its head from side to side studying him.
Imelda walked along behind Tazleaha. Ben just decided to stand still and wait
on them, his hand on the butt of his pistol.

"Imelda,
if you are through hunting, direct some of the others to the woods, make sure
they do not harm the Laulaumunda who might be hiding out there."

"I will
supervise them."

"Great,
now for the big pain in the ass."

Tazleaha said,
"You looked like you could use some help."

"Thanks. I
have had enough of your help, but it was good timing for Harry's people.

"It seems
it was. It looks like Harry has prevailed."

"Yes, I've
been listening." Ben heard a crunch then Harry was standing next to him,
club in his hand, fresh blood on the end, and a rock in his other hand, equally
bloody. Ben walked to stand by the platform, moving away from the feeding that
was going on five feet behind him. Harry watched as his nemesis was quickly
ripped apart and eaten by two of the warriors.

Ben said,
"Harry, I say we burn this platform. It may help lift the spirit of your people
a little seeing it burning to ashes. Tazleaha, can you get the warriors out of
the village now? They can take their prizes with them. This has to be almost as
bad as the slavers, watching these warriors eat another being."

Harry answered,
"I think that is a good idea. I will go and let them know they can come
out as soon as the queen's army has left."

"Why are
you here? I missed the part where you said the reason you are standing here
right now. It certainly isn’t to check on this race of citizens. They have been
sold off as slaves for the past six months." Ben struck a nerve. Even in
the dark he could tell she was angry.

"I cannot
be everywhere and do not, cannot police the entirety of my empire."

"I think
that it is probably good you can't. Your citizens may be better off. Now that
you are here, see anything you want to steal, maybe the last little bit of food
off their table?"

"Do not
push too far. You are angry because I am right and my case was based on truth.
You cannot deny any of your actions."

"Tazleaha,
why were you in my bed? Why did you show me the clones on the ark? You are
beautiful and you played me the whole time. Then when you know I am going to
leave, you trap me. I am more angry with myself but it doesn’t mean you are off
the hook."

"What does
that mean?"

"It means
I don’t care who you are. We are not in a room with over a hundred of your type
of people staring at me. You push me and I'll knock you on your ass and scratch
up your shiny armor."

A wall of hair
invaded Ben's space as two hands grabbed his arms and two rested on his
shoulders. Two large sad brown eyes looked him in the eye. "I cannot let
you attack the queen. Later you would feel even more unhappy because you are
good and it would pain you to hurt her. We should leave soon. I do not want to
be here when they start the process of picking the next chieftain." Ben
felt his anger receding.

"Thank you
Harry, you are right. It has been a real bad month."

Harry answered,
"I cannot express how terrible. I am going to visit my wife and child
before we leave then I am with you and the crew till the end." Harry
leaned down and spoke softer. "It is clear she has chosen you. You have
fought for her and there are witnesses. You may not have understood your
actions but every witness present that evening knows tradition. I will meet you
at the ship." Harry met the elderly female and they walked off towards the
woods, others joined them along the way, there were more graves than just two.

The villagers
had the auction platform blazing and stood together watching it burn. Ben and
the queen were in a bubble, none of the villagers would stand too close to
either of them. Ben looked at her and the fire dancing on her armor but it was
her eyes, deep pools of inky black with yellow and orange flames dancing in
them that seemed to call to him.

"I miss
her. It was hard at first between Andrea and I but it got better. I know I
wasn’t the ideal man and am probably worse now. She knew what to say and seemed
to show up in time to stop me from doing something stupid. She was my best
friend, lover, a wife of sorts though we never actually married. The last four
weeks are like a trail of one bad decision after another. You are used to
getting what you want even if you don’t know what that is. I have obviously made
other mistakes I was not aware of at the time, but I am sure you know what they
are." Ben didn’t raise his voice an octave. He just spoke to her. "I
don’t care about your empire, wealth, position. When the time comes and I can
deal, I will only care about you. You will need to take the crown off and just
be Tazleaha when we are together."

She took his
hand and pulled him to her. "I will give you time, but you can't stay away
too long. You have plans to go to your core worlds and investigate the deaths of
your family. Our people will have a peace agreement soon, so I may visit these
core worlds. Is this acceptable to you?

"Let's
walk to the Claymore and talk about it. Those worlds are nothing like Anubis
where I was living, or your empires. They are covered in metal and plastic and
thrive on automation; machines, androids, robots all scurrying around to
tending the whims of the people. You will have to leave your warriors behind.
There is not much of anything they will be able to eat and what there is will
be off limits."

Tazleaha asked,
"Will there be coffee?"

"Yes,
there will be plenty of coffee and something we call chocolate. Many women love
it, possibly more than coffee."

"It should
be an adventure. I will see you on Allond, we have things to discuss with
Xamand, Alona and Emily concerning your Senator Sims. The information needs to
go to your president along with the information about the clone you
terminated."

"That I am
paying for out of my own pocket."

"That is
between us and should stay that way for your own good. You do not want them to
know what you did. They may think you had something to do with the
disappearance of the senator. This is why I want the others present. You do not
trust me even though what I tell you is perfectly logical."

Ben walked her
to her ship turned and walked away. She stood watching him leave, the flames
still flickering in her eyes.

                       
The End

"How long
has it been since we returned from Harry's planet?" Ben said, eyes closed leaning
back in his chair.

Lorelei
answered. "One day longer since yesterday when you asked the same damn
question."

Binda said,
"Ben, you are doing that on purpose because you are bored and want to
drive someone as crazy as you."

Lorelei said,
"You have been told over and over we have to wait. It takes a long time
for the messages to reach Ares and Athena and we have been ordered to stay
until the responses from the president arrive and there is nothing required of
us."

Grubb said,
"Kasmier overheard Emperor Xamand saying in the previous messages from the
president there was word of a shake down and some military brass have gone into
hiding while others have been arrested. They haven’t put the whole picture
together yet but it looks like they wanted to make the president look so bad he
would step down or there would be a vote to remove him from office."

Ben looked at
them all. "Anyone hear anything about the Warhammer? Are they still in
Trillond space under protection?" Everyone shook their head and gave a negative
to having heard anything. "Where is Harry? I haven’t seen him for two
days."

"He is
with Nedra, they have been spending time together on and off since we returned
and you should see him. He got all his hair cut and some new clothes."
Lorelei filled everyone in who wasn’t in the know. "He still has a full
body of hair but it is shorter and groomed. He has leather shorts that come to
his knees and a leather vest with no sleeves. All were custom made at your
favorite clothing store, Benjamin."

"Who paid
for that? It sure as hell wasn’t me!"

"It was a
gift from Queen Tazleaha is all I know."

                                   
****

They received
word a day later that the president agreed to the treaty in its present form.
Ben was to carry a copy for the Alliance to Athena. It had been signed
digitally already. Everyone loaded, including Imelda, they waited for clearance
from the palace. It seemed Emperor Xamand had ordered them to wait on a
passenger. Harry was emotionally down having become attached to Nedra and she
him, over the last few weeks. Lorelei thought it was her.

Buddy reported
the passenger was aboard and the ship was sealed. Ben sat in the captain's seat
waiting for Lorelei to kick him out.

Imelda touched
Ben's mind about the same time Buddy walked on the bridge with the passenger in
tow.

"Ben, she is here."