The Lord of the Plains

Chapter 24

  The trouble didn’t start with Maztar, but it ended there.

  When it came to a head nobody found out until after, after the body had been found.

  Maztar was charged with the murder of another gemeng. Whether he would be exiled, executed or imprisoned was still up for debate.

  Riley didn’t believe it. She didn’t know how one day Maztar could be training with his unit and the next could be charged with murder.

  She remembered noticing he had been upset. Upset like Jillia, she’d thought, but she hadn’t paid much attention after that. There had been Peitar, her retest. Then she had been busy trying not to draw attention to herself. She didn’t want to be shot.

  Had she been wrong in drawing a similarity between Maztar and Jillia?

  ‘Did you hear?’ Jann asked morosely. ‘Geilar seems kinda down.’

  ‘I didn’t hear.’ Riley lied. She’d heard something, but that something didn’t make sense.

  Jann sighed. ‘I guess this is why we train so hard, so we can protect each other from this sort of thing.’

  ‘What sort of thing?’

  ‘Gemengs being… gemengs.’ he shrugged. ‘I guess Maztar was born here so everyone thought he’d kinda had that violence bred out of him. Do you ever feel like that?’ Jann asked her, and for once he seemed serious as he looked into her eyes.

  ‘Feel like what?’ she asked uneasily.

  ‘I don’t know, letting your gemeng-ness out. Hurting people.’

  Riley stared. ‘What happened?’ she demanded.

  He dropped his eyes and sighed again. ‘You know Alann from TU-7?’

  ‘Yes.’ Maztar’s unit, TU-5, and Alann’s unit had often traded places on the leader board. One day Maztar’s unit would be ahead, than Alann’s would take their place. They had an intense rivalry with each other. The leader of Maztar’s unit had been put on cleaning duty for three months because he’d used the wrong setting during a training exercise with TU-7. Two members of TU-7 had ended up with bad burns. Things had only gone downhill from there.

  ‘Well… he beat him up so bad… he just… died. They found his body in the park. Maztar turned himself in.’

  Riley didn’t understand. She felt like she’d been feeling that a lot lately. Was it really because of the violence inherent in all gemengs?

  Riley decided to go ask Maztar himself.

  He was being held by the military. There were less than a dozen holding cells in Astar. Keeping people locked up where they had to be fed and couldn’t contribute to the defence of Astar was not considered an efficient use of resources. People were rarely punished with lockup time for their crimes. There were other ways to punish a person.

  There were specific visiting hours so the first time she tried to see him she was turned away. The next time she came at the right time.

  She was only allowed to talk to him through the bars. As he was sitting on the ground, she sat too.

  He glanced up at her then down. He looked terrible. His face was covered in cuts and bruises.

  ‘Maztar.’ she said by way of greeting.

  ‘What do you want?’ he asked, not looking up.

  ‘What happened?’

  In a tone that suggested he’d said this many times before and was well and truly sick of it, ‘my unit and unit seven met at the park. They wanted me and Alann to fight, because last time the humans fought they got in trouble. So we fought. Then, I don’t know, I won, Alann was down a-and I don’t know! The unit seven guys left after some shouting. Then, then, Garis just told us to leave, so we left. Alann was on the ground when I left. Ok? Are you happy?’

  Riley felt something ease within her. ‘Where is your unit?’

  He shrugged. ‘Dunno. Celebrating?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean they’re not here! Why would they be here? I was the one who h-hit Alann.’

  Riley didn’t know what to say. As bad, or worse than the bruising on his face, was the pain in his eyes. ‘Thank you for telling me.’ was what she ended up saying, feeling that it was inadequate.

  Maztar thought it was inadequate too.

  Riley was satisfied to tell Jann it was not because of any violence inside gemengs that Alann had been killed.

  She wanted to find out what had happened with the rest of Maztar’s unit and TU-7. Clearly, Maztar had done something very bad. But the other members in the unit had some blame to share as well.

  To say Riley was surprised when during the next combat training session they were paired against Maztar’s unit, minus Maztar and plus a new human member, was an understatement to say the least.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded, interrupting Colonel Hamnar.

  ‘Um, kicking your ass? What are you doing here?’ one of the members of TU-5 answered.

  ‘So Maztar is out of lockup?’

  ‘No.’ Garis said. ‘He was executed last night.’

  ‘W-what?’

  Garis shrugged. ‘They couldn’t exile him from Astar, he knew too much about our defences, and he was too violent to stay in Astar. So execution was the only option. It’s a bit of a shock, really, he was part of our unit for over a year and then he does something like this.’

  Someone was dragging her away. She didn’t know who.

  ‘Let’s discuss our plan, ok? Twenty minutes, remember?’ someone was saying. She didn’t know who was talking. Her eyes were on Garis.

  Riley was a defender this round. So she defended.

  She silently circled the base. She shot one human. He walked off quietly.

  She defended the base.

  Geilar was also a defender, and Batar. She’d had little part in today’s planning. If she had she might have noticed the plan was more about keeping her and Geilar contained than winning the session. Geilar was sitting in the base, a moody look on his face. Batar was watching him like a hawk.

  Riley defended the base.

  She shot another human. That was two.

  There was a sound behind her, she spun.

  Garis.

  His SIGPEW was raised. He was pointing it at her. It seemed to move so slowly. The SIGPEW was aimed at her, there was nothing she could do.

  Wasn’t there?

  But he moved so slowly, so at odds with the light that came from the energy weapons so fast it seemed to be just there. Riley could not follow that light with her eyes, no more than a human could.

  But Garis, he moved so damn slowly. She could see how he pointed, his finger on the trigger.

  Who said she had to avoid the light? The light only came at the call of a human, and she could avoid a human so very easily.

  It was a surprise for both of them when the light arced across the room and she wasn’t there.

  In that moment when the trigger was being pulled but not yet pulled, she moved.

  He thought he’d missed.

  Perhaps he had.

  So she watched again, her eyes not on his weapon but on his hands.

  And he missed.

  A laugh was bubbling up inside her. She glided closer.

  He missed.

  She couldn’t avoid the SIGPEW, but she could watch him and avoid him.

  He was panicking. Somewhere she had let go of her weapon. It hung by a strap around her body.

  Closer, closer.

  So close he could no longer hit her with the large SIGPEW.

  She grabbed his hands, his scrabbling hands.

  They were such weak hands.

  He was making blubbing sounds.

  She was alive to his every movement, his every sound.

  His wrists were so fragile beneath hers. She squeezed a bit harder. So very fragile.

  Could she break them?

  She was curious.

  She didn’t squeeze any harder.

  But she was curious.

  ‘H-help!’ he’d been calling for some time now.

  How strong was she?

  People were coming.

  Riley smiled at Ga
ris.

  He was afraid of her.

  ‘Garis, you needn’t be afraid.’ she said.

  He fell quiet.

  ‘If I wanted to hurt you,’ she smiled, ‘you’d already be hurt.’

  There was another discussion with Colonel Hamnar after that.

  ‘That’s very impressive. I’ve seen gemengs from outside Astar do that on occasion, very concerning when they’re trying to kill you. Let me guess, you weren’t focussing on the SIGPEW?’

  Riley nodded.

  ‘Hm, well, that’s why we have RAWs, isn’t it?’

  Riley didn’t respond.

  ‘I understand you’re upset about what happened to Maztar.’ he said, scrutinizing her with those steely grey eyes, forcing her to meet his eyes with the force of his gaze.

  ‘Yes.’ she bit out, ‘the other members of his unit were involved. TU-7 was also there. They watched him fight and then left Alann alone.’ she closed her mouth and glared at him. ‘What happens to them?’

  ‘Do you expect humans to get in the way of two gemengs fighting?’ he asked mildly.

  ‘They started the fight. And watched. And left him there.’

  ‘I see. Well I’m afraid those eight other people you think should be punished tell a different story. They say they met to talk and when Maztar and Alann started fighting they were afraid to get in the middle of it. In fact, they were so frightened, they ran. They’ll be punished for cowardice, but that’s all.’

  Riley’s glare did not subside.

  ‘I imagine from your expression you don’t believe that story.’

  Riley said nothing.

  ‘I hope your attitude changes, but if it doesn’t well,’ he shrugged. ‘You wouldn’t be the first gemeng to decide they’re not happy here.’ His eyes were cold, his voice colder. ‘This is disturbing and recent news to you. You’ll be given a little time to come to terms with it. Do you understand?’

  Momentarily afraid, Riley nodded and said, ‘I understand.’

  Riley left as quickly as she could. She put on a calm face, while inside fear and anger and turmoil swirled.

  When she had a chance, she talked to Fergus. She was careful though, lest he get the idea she was discontent. He told her that what made all this so troubling was that Maztar had been born in Astar. Maztar would serve as an important reminder, Fergus said, that even gemengs who had known only civilization could still fall prey to the violence that lived within them.

  Upset and troubled by his stance, she asked Jillia, carefully. Jillia’s response had been a reassuring tirade about Astar. As Riley was leaving she passed by Mr Bogresh, who stood outside watching the forest. As she passed he said with a grin that was more a snarl, ‘the violence of a gemeng!’