The Life, Death and Life of Amelia Hollow

  ***

  “So… you think it’s Cameron’s ship?” Sven asked as we strode through the second part of the lab. We had to ignore all the horrendous experiments and just continue forward.

  “Well, he and my science teacher were the only two I told my plan to.”

  Despite everything, my father had a little smile on his face that said ‘that’s my boy. Sure, I came into Tamarax Station and saved his life, but when Cameron comes in with the mop-up crew he’s prouder of him. Typical.

  Cacey turned and looked at my father with his good eye. “You have two kids?” He asked as if it was the most shocking thing in the universe.

  Sven shrugged: “Yes?”

  “That’s legal?”

  “Yes. Is it different for aldorens?” Then Sven remembered the third-class laws in the USM and swallowed.

  Cacey shrugged. He would not know seeing as he had never been to his own planet. He only knew the religion of his original copy and nothing about the politics of his planet. He, like Sven, knew that most third-class species were not allowed to have more than one child under normal circumstances because of population control. If a third-class population grew too large they could not move to another planet. That was why second-class was slightly better than third. Humans could move around the whole Solar System if Earth was overflowing with people (which it wasn’t).

  “My son is actually a first-class citizen.” Sven said proudly. I glared at him even though he could not see my eyes.

  That shocked Cacey even more. “How?”

  “His mother’s first-class.”

  “You had a child with a first-class citizen?”

  All the cadets were listening into their conversation. They didn’t really have a choice seeing as none of them had sparked up conversations. They actually found it interesting to listen to Cacey and learn what it meant to be a slave clone or third-class alien. – And they had thought their lives as second-class citizens were bad. They found it strange for a second-class citizen like Sven to have a child with a first-class alien, but Cacey had to find it even stranger. The first-class domain was so far away from his own.

  Everyone turned around when the door we had originally come through slid open. If it had been one of Tamarax’s personnel then they would gotten the crap beaten out of them by eighteen pissed-off cadets. I really wished it had been a henchman instead of Chorst. I didn’t have to look too hard to see what was in his arms. Only after he had reached us did I dare look at the lifeless body.

  Something inside all of the cadets was lost that moment; innocence. The most virtuous creature we had ever known had been tortured to death. I say death even though he had only been tortured into grey state because I considered the two to be the same things. I instinctively looked to Kel seeing as he had been the grimmest when I rescued him. He was not crying, just staring wide-eyed at the lifeless corpse the trinard was carrying. One of the female cadets whimpered ‘no’ although I was not sure which one it was.

  “A USM Naval spaceship is orbiting Tamarax Station.” Chorst stated impassively. “We will attempt to make contact with them.”

  He dropped the body on one of the benches so that he had easier access to his wrist computer. All of us kept our distance save Veck. She felt the least repulsed about seeing the corpse of the innocent boy. She wanted to see what had caused his death. At first she thought it was the loss of his eyes, but then she saw the large amount of clear blood coming from his chest and understood.

  “Are you alright?” She asked Chorst even though she knew he could not answer. Unsurprisingly, he remained silent.

  “What is Cameron Vis Homen’s contact information?”

  “I’ll call him,” I said with a gulp. I could not take my eyes of Nis, “providing he’s in range.”

  “Can I join the call?” My father asked, tapping his earpiece.

  “I don’t know how to connect you to the call if you don’t have a wrist computer.” I muttered with a hint of embarrassment in my voice.

  Back on Earth I was the master of technology. Out here, I was a technophobe. That was pretty depressing seeing as alien tech was not that different from technology I would find on Earth. Of course I had the iWatch 750 back on Earth that vaguely resembled the USM wrist computer, and yet I still could not understand how the stupid little computer worked.

  “Am?” The image of a black helm appeared on my little screen.

  “Cam?”

  “You okay?” He yelped femininely.

  “Hi!” My father said abruptly and moved into the view of the wrist computer. He was a little disappointed that Cameron had hidden his face, and he knew it was him.

  As my father could not hear what I heard, Cameron just waved before returning his attention to moi.

  “We’re fine,” I thought of Nis and Cacey. “, for the most part. Ya think you could send some USM guys to come pick us up?”

  “I’m coming to get you.” He said before windowing my image so he could find us via the GPS tabs in the cadet suits. I heard someone muttering behind him. Cameron looked up, a little surprised. “Oh… and apparently Frek is joining me.”

  “Frek?” I said aloud so the cadets could hear.

  The sound of guns firing came from my brother’s side of the line. “I gotta go!” He said loudly over what sounded like a bomb going off. “Stay put and we’ll be there in a minute!”

  I tried to say ‘okay’ however the harsnic had already ended the call.

  My father eyed me suspiciously. “What’s Frek’s full name?” He asked.

  “Freksen Von Blooblebottom or something weird like that.” I joked before I remembered that this was not an appropriate time to be making jokes seeing as I was in the same room as a corpse.

  “Frekostillion?” My father asked. “The harsnic from Hashtish 8? The science nerd assassin?”

  All the cadets, including moi, exchanged looks. I recalled that Frek had said he knew my father and many of the other ambassadors, but had he just called the harsnic an assassin?

  “Did you just call him a… Oh no.” I shook my head. “You didn’t sleep with him too did you?”

  My father scowled. “No. We were friends.”

  “I know. He told me.”

  “And you know Frek?”

  “He’s our science teacher.” I gestured to all the cadets, including the corpse of Nis. For some reason I just expected him to wake up and start being his usual jubilant self. I think all the cadets did. We were so shocked that we were denying his death.

  That surprised my father. The harsnic had an excellent CV. Frek had not only trained to be a science officer, he had also been trained as a personal assassin for Mel which is why he had the title of ‘lord’. Why in the universe would Frek settle for just being a science teacher?

  In the silence I heard someone singing almost in a whisper. It was Veck. Her hand remained on Nis’s chest as she hummed. Even though I could hardly hear her it was easy to tell that she had a lovely alto voice. She mouthed the words so faintly that I could not tell what she was singing about. Like all the other cadets I presumed it was religious hymn from her planet. The song was obviously for little Nis.

  All of us had different feelings about death. Argon passés had built their culture on respect of their own bodies and the bodies of their loved ones. However, they had less care for the bodies of anyone outside of their inner circle. Nis had quite obviously been deeply integrated into Veck’s circle. She felt the need to pay respect to his body.

  It was different for trinards who did not care for their physical bodies at all. They saw the mind as a separate entity from the body and it was the only part of a person that had real value. Then again, they understood that beliefs were different throughout the USM which was why they paid more respect to the bodies of other species. Belief-wise, I was probably more similar to trinards than I thought. I cared for Nis’s body, but certainly not as much as Veck. I felt he had been more valuable alive. I would not complain if Chorst had not brought hi
s body back from the torture room.

  “What’s happened between you and Geraldine?” I asked my father spontaneously after a moment of silence.

  Cacey thought who’s Geraldine? While Sven wondered how I could tell something had happened between the two of them. He slowly opened his mouth to answer, but then we all became distracted when the door we had originally been heading for opened. I relaxed when I saw USM soldiers. Although of their faces were hidden, I could instantly tell Frek and Cameron from the group of USM personnel. Well, mainly Frek as his armour and weapons were slightly different from the standard USM ones.

  Who did Cameron notice first? Sven of course.

  “Father!” He cried before sprinting across the long lab. He slowed just as he reached the Swede so that he could do the harsnic single-arm hug. My father ignored that and just used both arms.

  Frek did a headcount of all the cadets before he noticed the black figure on the bench. His heart sunk when he realized which cadet it was. In situations like these the USM did not generally collect the body of a bhe marc. They could not return Nis’s body to his home planet as it could send his family into grey state. Frek knew this, and yet decided that they would take the body back to Starside and give Nis a proper cremation.

  “Everyone else okay?” The teacher asked as he strode towards the group. He noted Cacey’s bleeding face, and then he saw Sven and swallowed. He had been the one that ended their friendship badly because he just flat-out stopped talking to the human and never told Sven why. This was a very awkward reunion.

  He looked at the alien female behind him. “Help him.” He pointed to Cacey.

  The woman was hesitant. She knew Cacey was an aldoren and they were not supposed to provide medical assistance to third-class citizens. If she had known he was a slave clone aldoren then she would have completely gone against Frek and denied the blue boy any assistance.

  After Cameron released him, Sven gave Cacey a reassuring look to tell him that it was okay to accept aid. The blue boy looked terrified of the USM soldiers. The woman had to forcefully remove the jacket from the left side his face to as she tried to aid him.

  “Oh, Nis.” Frek whispered solemnly as he looked down at the cold body. Veck looked to the harsnic with sadness filling her large black eyes.

  “Tamarax must die.” She hissed. “When the USM finds her they cannot hesitate.”

  Frek agreed, although he could not say it out loud.

  I will avenge Nis personally. I thought coldly. This time, it was not the dark voice at the back of my mind, it we me and me only thinking that.

  “What happened?” Cam asked Sven in a whisper. My father shook his head to tell him “I’ll tell you later”.

  “We got to get you all back to the shuttles.” Frek said firmly to break the gloomy atmosphere. He then looked back at the USM soldiers. There were only eight of them including himself and Cameron. “We’re going to have to be careful. Stay in a tight formation.”

  Zand tossed the stun gun to Chorst. “You’re gonna need it more than I do.” She said almost as a joke. Of course she would not need a stun gun to defend herself… She was made of Jell-O.

  Not to be melodramatic or anything, but looking around at the cadets I realized that Nis was not the only one who was not going to make it back to Starside alive. Damn Bennu for showing me their fates. I could not place faces to deaths. However, I had my suspicions. Due to the dreams I vaguely remembered, I suspected something was going to happen to Chorst. Whether he lived or died, I was not sure, yet he would have the same fate as everyone else in the universe if I didn’t…

  “Let’s move!” Frek barked when his sensitive harsnic ears picked-up on footsteps in the corridor outside the lab. He picked up Nis’s small body and threw him over his soldier carelessly. He felt for the bhe marc, nonetheless he had to focus on the living at that moment.

  It went without saying that Chorst and I had to assist. Our armour was weaker than the standard USM armour, but at least we had some protection. The other cadets were screwed if they got shot.

  “How’s Alk?” My father asked Frek. It was strange that this was the first time in years that they had spoken.

  Frek adjusted his grip on the corpse as they strode towards the door. “Due to the situation she’s anxious. Could you hold him?”

  How could my father say ‘no’? Frek passed Nis’s body to Sven before grabbing his cylinder weapons. My father found it hard to look down at the dark boy even though he had hardly known him. Sven was happy to look up when Cacey caught up to him after having his scars temporarily dealt with. They were still very obvious cuts that stung, however they were no longer bleeding. The lady who had treated him had done a half-ass job because she thought he was third-class. Had she known he was a slave clone she would have just let him bleed to death.

  Finally, I got to see Frek use his strange weapons. I was right about them being sabers, but sadly they weren’t like lightsabers. When activated, the sabers were both light purple with very visible sword outlines. Purple electricity made them alive with vibrancy. Who knew my science teacher could be a badass? Maybe the German accent did not suit him as much as I had thought.

  “We’re coming your way, Dek.” He said into his earpiece.

  “You better get here soon.” Dek replied anxiously. “We’re getting hammered.”

  Of course they were getting hammered. Despite their great ship they were shockingly outnumbered when it came to the head-on battle in hangar four. They did not expect to win the battle with physical contact, they had just come down to rescue us and then they intended to blow the crap out of Tamarax Station once all the USM personnel had been evacuated. A part of me knew I would not be joining the others on the Titonic. I had a different route to take.

  “You want me to carry him?” Cacey asked my father solemnly. “I-I don’t mind as much.”

  A bald-faced lie. Cacey hated death and he especially hated corpses. He just wanted to be nice and take stress off Sven. The Swede already had his own two children to look-out for and holding Nis would restrain him.

  My father hesitated. Was it wise to pass the body of Nis to a boy with only one good eye? There was no time to discuss. Frek had already bolted out of the lab and was decapitating the henchmen one by one. Sven carefully passed the body to Cacey and caught up to Cameron who was nearly at the door. Sure, he didn’t have a gun, but my father still wanted to feel like he could defend his children.

  The cadets and Cacey stood away from the lab door meekly unlike Chorst and I who were just behind the USM soldiers with our stun guns at the ready. It was established that us two would be the last line of defence seeing as our guns and armour were so weak. I was okay with this; it was better than the alternative of being sent out first to be used as distractions.

  “Stand back Daddy-O.” I said semi-jokingly.

  Reluctantly, my father got away from the door. Just in time, all the cadets jumped like they were watching a horror movie when a laser grazed the doorway and left a smouldering black mark. This did not intrigue moi as much as Frek did. Unlike the other USM soldiers, the harsnic was fighting the henchmen head-on with his sabers. I almost felt empathy for the beastly men as Frek diced them into pieces. It reminded me of the time our teacher had beamed to the terrorist spaceship and slaughtered the crew ruthlessly. He had felt guilt after murdering the trinards on that ship, then again he was an assassin and killing was what he did.

  One of the USM soldiers called looked back at the cadets, Sven and Cacey and told them to get ready to move. The cadets knew how to take an order. They ran like wolves were chasing them when the soldier gave them the signal. My father and Cacey were less obedient mainly because the aldoren had to carry literal deadweight and my father decided to stick with the boy so he didn’t get left behind. He knew the USM soldiers would have loved to leave Cacey behind because he was one more person they had to look after, but Sven would not have it.

  “I don’t think Alk prepared us for this.” I joked to C
horst as we jogged behind the other soldiers. Shockingly, the trinard did not bother to reply.

  I looked ahead to Cam. He looked more like a cadet than any of the other USM personnel. They were marines while he was just a tactics officer who had come to save his family. The marine guns were large like the ones Tamarax’s henchmen carried, yet they were far more glamorous. They had the same silver and black skin our stun guns had with an electric blue pulse window. However, besides size, the major difference in the guns was that they could switch between the ‘stun’ and ‘kill’ settings. Right now, none of them even considered switching to ‘stun’.

  It appeared to be clear sailing down the corridor after Frek disembowelled and diced up the henchmen. I could not tell if it was best to laugh or be disgusted when Donn didn’t watch his footing and fell over a corpse. He looked terrified so I chose to not to react to the matter.

  I was not prepared for three henchmen to meet us at the corner of the corridor. The bastards shot one of the larger USM personnel down in the instance that we all raised our guns again. My father and I both gasped when Cameron fell. I could not tell if Sven screamed or swore but he certainly made a loud noise. My father broke away from the wall –which all the cadets and Cacey were pushing themselves up against to avoid getting shot– and joined us at the corner. I thought he was getting on his knees to mourn his son. No, he was grabbing the gun Cam dropped. The USM marines were huddled up against the wall trying to avoid getting shot, and then there was my father, without armour, walking straight into the fire. Of course, the marines followed him because they were not about to be upstaged by a second-class human. All three of Tamarax’s henchmen fell in an instant after the marines, led by Sven, jumped out from behind the corner. USM soldiers had shot down two of the henchmen while my father got the third right in the eye. According to the giant hole where the beast-like soldier’s eye used to be, Cam’s gun had not been set to stun. – My father had just killed another living creature. My father; the pacifist.

  Yes, it was not the appropriate time to be thinking about my father’s sudden change in heart. It took me a moment to realize that Cameron was lying on the floor. Everyone else seemed to have the realization at the same time I did. Now to worry, before Sven could even turn to look at his son Cameron was already trying to get to his feet. If I had looked hard enough beforehand I would have seen that the laser had not been a direct hit and had only grazed his side. My main concern now was how deep the graze was. There was no armour protecting the sides of his torso. The fact he was finding it easy to get to his feet suggested he was not badly wounded. Probably a little bewildered, but that wasn’t going to kill him.

  “You okay?” Frek asked. I could not tell if he was talking to Cameron or my father who was trembling.

  “He has better aim than Am.” Donn smirked with Veck before both of them realized that one USM marine was still dead on the floor and the body of Nis was only feet away in Cacey’s arms.

  “I-I’m fine.” Cameron reassured everyone. He was a little embarrassed that he had fallen down even though the laser had only scraped him. “We should… Father, did you just kill that guy?” He looked down at the giant rhino-like henchman on the floor that was missing an eye.

  “I was just trying to stun him.” My father explained as we all continued our venture through the corridors. We left the dead USM soldier behind on the floor. He was too heavy to carry back easily. “How bad is the damage?” He asked Cam to quickly to change the topic.

  “A little painful.” The harsnic admitted. “I can handle it, though… Thanks.”

  Sven was not sure why his son was thanking him for killing someone. Then again, he could lie all he wanted about how he thought the gun was set to ‘stun’. My father had known very well that it was set to ‘kill’ and he had intended to murder that giant henchman. My father was a pacifist… until it came to his children.

  “You have a deadeye, dad.” I muttered to Sven as we walked. “Did the gun culture Wyoming finally get to ya?”

  “There isn’t a gun culture in Wyoming.”

  “There are eight gun clubs in the Laramie region alone. Imagine how many Cheyenne has.”

  We both laughed at a joke nobody else here would understand. Yes, I meant the posh gun clubs where the guns were provided and you could not take the guns from the clubs, but a gun club’s a gun club. When I did target practice my father had always sat in the lounge area playing on his tablet and sipping an iced tea while Geraldine and I had a riot. Apparently at some point in his life Sven had learned how to aim a gun. Maybe when he was in the space program it had been compulsorily to learn how to shoot. That would make sense.

  My gut began to feel strange as we neared hangar four and encountered more henchmen that Frek quickly diced up. I looked back and took one good long look at all the cadets –and Cacey who happened to be holding a cadet– and sighed. If only I could tell them that I knew something about their fates, but I did not know what I knew about their fates. Some of them had multiple endings. Most of their fates were tied to my own. I would not be able to save all of them, then again I could save those who survived from Tamarax and her ‘little friend’ inside the secret spaceship heading towards a star I knew all too well.

  Speaking of which; where was Tamarax? I was pretty sure that I was going to have to confront her at one point. She had to know that too, otherwise she would not have gone through the elaborate trouble of capturing all the cadets and my father. That was why I was pretty sure I was not going to die in the battle in hangar four. The biatch had probably planned for us to have some sort of dramatic duel over a sea of lava as our first and final confrontation. Maybe a battle over lava is an exaggeration. Who would be stupid enough to have a battle over lava anyways?

  “We’re gonna need some cover.” Frek said into his earpiece. “We still control the left flank? That’s the side we’re closest to.”

  “For the most part.” A voice replied. “Aim to get the cadets to shuttle nine.”

  Frek acknowledged before looking at the whole group and eyeing Cacey and Sven. “We’re going to have some extra passengers as well. Hope that’s okay.”

  “Who are they?” Dek replied, unimpressed.

  “Ex-ambassador Sven Adalwin Hollow and… some aldoren fellow.”

  “Eh?”

  “Excellent question. I’m still trying to understand the situation myself.”

  I did not like the big black door staring down at us. The dark monolith-like door knew what awaited us on the other side. I sniffed when the name ‘Tak’ popped into my head spontaneously. Obviously I was thinking too much for that Tak guy’s liking so they wanted to remind me that my brain could melt at any moment if I thought too hard. Despite this, I looked at Chorst, mainly his belt, and thought about the Bennu Bomb he was holding for me. I was going to have to be discreet when I got it off him because I did not want anyone else to be suspicious of why I had the most powerful bomb in the known universe. Frek knew I had it, but had not said anything about it because he was thinking the same way I was. A part of me wanted to know how much he knew and know how he knew it, yet with the clock ticking so there wasn’t time to ask. You would think with all the strange knowledge crammed in my brain that I would be able to figure him out. It was like his information was blocked. Was my mind a database like on a computer? No, if it was I would have a paperclip telling me what to do instead of the dark voice.

  Looks like you want to know more about Lord Frekostillion Hes Canamao. Do you need help with that?

  No. Stop harassing me!

  “Well, it sounds like we should have a clear route to shuttle nine.” Frek said. His words contradicted his actions as his grip tightened on his sabers. “Except you two.” He gestured to Cacey and Sven who both froze. “Sorry, but you both have to get on a different shuttle because it’s a different procedure for non-United Systems of Mel personnel.”

  “Shit.” Sven groaned before he remembered that he was standing next to Cacey who was holding the
corpse of one of the most innocent creatures in the universe. He was still frustrated, though. Poor man did not realize that that was going to be the least of his issues in a few moments.

  “Right, let’s get going.” Frek gestured for one of the USM marines to open the door. “Keep low, go quickly, and be quiet. We should make it out okay.”

  Oh, cruel irony. As soon as the door slid open we were greeted by a dozen soldiers. You see, the problem was that Dek and Frek had had a misunderstanding. Dek was on the opposite side of the hangar and his right was Frek’s left. The USM had actually made their territory on the other side of the hangar.

  I was a little surprised when Chorst pushed moi out of the way of the lasers. I was in a bit of a haze after being moved so abruptly, but I swear that I heard Frek curse Dek’s name. I watched as the harsnic used one of his sabers to deflect the lasers while using his other to attack the giant beasts single-handedly. I went stiff like a plank of wood as Chorst kept me against the wall and defended me with his own body and gun. Once I snapped out of my strange state I pushed him away from me so I could raise my own stun gun to aid Frek who was quite alone in the battle. Where the hell were the USM marines? Dead. The beasts got them right off the bat seeing as they had been closest to the door.

  Cameron! I thought anxiously. Then I saw that my brother was behind me protecting a petite Nor with his body from the lasers while he fired back with his own little gun. He was still in great danger, but at least he was not dead.

  Zand impressively took action. She dropped down to a dead marine and picked up the large gun. It took the Jell-O a moment to figure out how the massive thing worked, however she became trigger-happy when she figured the weapon out. She got really aggressive when Merr was shot down right in front of her. The bastards had killed her first officer; now it was personal.

  I was relieved when out of the corner of my eye I saw that Sven and Cacey were safely out of the way of danger. They were against the wall where the corridor curved out of the henchmen’s views. Sadly, in front of them was Donn kneeling over a deflating blue uniform as Jhan’s body melted down into gel. Her body could not stay formed after she was shot directly through the brain. Donn did not know what to do. He just sat there staring in shock as the green gel began to dampen his knees. Once I realized that he wasn’t going to get out of the way of the fire I stepped away from my wall and made a bold leap across the corridor to go to the other wall where the fish boy was. It was up to moi, Chorst, Cameron, Zand and Frek to defend the remaining cadets –plus my father and Cacey– until the USM marines from the other side of the hangar were able to make it over to help us.

  Many of us panicked when we heard Veck shriek. The argon passé would not shriek unless she was really scared or surprised. I tried to only glimpse back, but what I saw made me stare. The pale woman was shaking as she held Kel. The algrin had a large hole blown right through the middle his chest while Veck had only a minor injury on her lower torso. Kel must have run in front of Veck to take a laser for her. That was shocking for various reasons. I was surprised that Kel was dead, but I was stunned by the fact that he had sacrificed himself for Veck out of all people. He had never liked her for his own pitiful reasons, and yet he had redeemed himself majorly by throwing himself in front of her. I thought of his wife, Jaedorra, and his other wives and children. What would happen to them if he was dead?

  “Cover me.” Zand commanded of me, Cameron and Chorst before sprinting for the doorway. I thought she was going to run out and help Frek, but she had other plans. “Frek!” She called out while her hand was resting on the panel that controlled the door.

  Frek looked back and understood. He sidestepped back towards us. Even when one of the henchmen got him in the arm and made him drop one of his sabers he did not stop. Zand smashed her glove-covered hand down on the panel as soon as Frek was through the doorway. A wave of relief came over me as the giant door closed. The relief was short lived when I realized that Tamarax’s soldiers had the power to open the door from the other side. No, Zand dealt with that by crashing the back of the large gun she was carrying down on the panel, making it shoot sparks. The clever Jell-O girl had just jammed the door electronically, but it could still be open manually even if it was a heavy door.

  “It would be unwise to carry them all to the shuttle when we are short of trained personnel.” Chorst said while looking at all the dead cadets and marines. “We will leave them here.”

  “He’s right.” Frek said while holding his bruised arm. Luckily he the wound was not major as he had been protected by his armour. “If we have time we will send personnel back to collect them.”

  Cacey trembled as he laid Nis down on the ground. He would need his arms if we were going to make it through the hangar. He, like Veck and many others, wished that they could take all the bodies back to Starside and ultimately return them to their families. That, sadly, was most likely not going to happen.

  “We need to…” The harsnic looked up properly and saw who had died. “Oh, Amori.” He gasped. Until he had looked up he had thought that Chorst was just talking about the dead marines, not the cadets too.

  Although I could not see Frek’s face, I knew he would look utterly surprised. Even though he had only been our science teacher for a short amount of time he felt responsibility for us. Even on one level he cared for us like we were his children. I was not sure where his fatherly feelings came from. Even though I could not figure out his backstory for some reason, I knew he had no children.

  He had the same question I had; what was going to happen to Kel’s wives and children? Legally, once Kel was dead his wives and offspring would be given to the closest male relative which happened to be his father. At that point the USM would not intervene anymore in the affairs as Kel, his wives and his children were not protected by the first-class laws. Their own laws would take over.

  “What’s the plan?” I asked the harsnic as the henchmen began to try and pry the door open from the other side.

  Frek did not answer immediately. He was just staring down at lifeless bodies of Kel, Jhan, Merr, Nis and all the marines. How could he have let this happen?

  “Frek?” I said firmly as the door began to shudder.

  Cameron took control of the situation. “We’ll have to move discreetly to the other side of the hangar.”

  I nodded along even though I wasn’t sure why I was even following all the others. I was not getting on the shuttle with them. I would just play along until I was given the sign that it was time to meet Tamarax.

  Cameron and Frek both froze at the same time as they got an incoming message.

  “Some more USM Naval spaceships have arrived on the scene.” Cam said. Even though he was wearing a helm I knew he was smiling.

  Frek finished the message for my brother: “And apparently Mel has arrived… although we don’t know where she’s parked.”

  “She gonna take out Tamarax?” My father asked.

  “I hope so.” Frek said while looking at moi.

  We all looked at the big black door when it made a vulgar creaking noise. The henchmen were about to get it open.

  “Time to move.” Frek said while striding down the curved corridor.

  None of the remaining cadets –save Chorst– were ready to leave the fellow dead cadets behind. Not even I was ready to go. I felt for Nis, Jhan and Merr but I felt guilt around Kel. I felt that I should have apologized to him before he died. I was not sure what I would have apologized for. Maybe just a general apology. Veck was feeling the same way. We both wondered if we could have been the better people in the situation with Kel because we both knew he certainly would have never been the better man. We could have taken the high road and been nice to him even if he had been a phallic. No, we were biatches to him. And he died thinking that nobody liked him. That was what struck me most of all. What a horrible death.

  I sniffed. Not out of sadness. Bennu had just informed me that Kel’s final thought had been about his wife and unborn baby (babies
?). Oh gee, thanks Bennu for telling me that just to make me feel sadder and also thanks for making my nose start bleeding again. Yeah, Bennu, Tak, tear in the space time continuum, whatever, you really suck.

  I don’t understand why Cacey started snivelling. It was most likely his years of built-up emotion and depression finally surfacing. He could not exactly cry out of his left eye but his right one was watery. He did not know these cadets and marines and he still cried for them. My father was not exactly sure what to do. Hugging was what humans to comfort someone, but maybe aldorens did something different. Cacey may have actually been offended his Sven hugged him. My father just hesitantly put a hand on the blue boy’s shoulder.

  “Let’s go!” Frek ordered even though he too wished he had more time to mourn the dead.

  We were all surprised when we heard a large amount of shooting coming from the other side of the door. Were Tamarax’s henchmen really dumb enough to try and get through the door by shooting at it? No, there were plenty of thuds as the giant beasts hit the floor.

  “Don’t move.” Dek told Cam and Frek through their earpieces. “We’re coming for you.”

  “Hold up.” The older harsnic told us while putting up his hand to signal halting.

  “What’s up?” I asked Cameron.

  “The USM is coming to help us.”

  “You sure?”

  “Well, we have personnel to spare now that more spaceships have arrived. Controlling hangar four should be easy.”

  If only they had arrived earlier and then there would have been less death. I thought cynically.

  “Open the door.” Dek said to the two harsnics.

  Frek gestured for Zand to open the door with his one good arm. The Jell-O girl was a little hesitant. She didn’t know how to open the door now that she had broken the panel. Luckily, Chorst knew what he was doing. He pulled off the front of the panel to adjust the circuit that Zand had impaired before putting it back. He had to push the ‘open’ button firmly because the panel was still damaged.

  Zand kept her large gun at the ready as the large door slid open again, but she lowered it when she saw USM marines standing over the corpses of the henchmen. Within minutes hangar four had become completely USM territory as so many more soldiers arrived on the scene.

  “You dropped this.” Dek joked before tossing Frek his lost saber. The harsnic’s arm trembled as he caught the cylinder. He was still in pain.

  Despite the fact I could not see Dek’s face, I made assumptions on what he looked like. He probably looked similar an insect with a very thin exoskeleton and yet a very large head. Like Gorirtz, he had extra arms that had slicers instead of hands. It was possible Gor and Dek were the same species, however in such a large galaxy it was likely that many species had similar features.

  “My left, your right.” Frek joked before realizing that cadets and marines had died because of the confusion.

  The hangar was full of USM shuttles and marines. Through the electromagnetic field I could see the massive USM Naval ships orbiting Tamarax Station and blowing the crap out of their defence systems.

  Dek stood with Frek as the harsnic got his arm healed by a medic. “What happened to all the marines?” He asked as soldiers marched down the dark corridor and over the dead marines and cadets.

  “My left, your right.” Frek repeated more solemnly this time. “The cadets and En Cam proved themselves in battle despite the fact they are not fighters.

  The insect-like man glanced at Zand. The large gun was obviously not hers.

  “They’re going to make excellent officers and captains in the future,” Frek noted before sighing, “the ones that make it that far, at least.”

  “Do we finally get to go home?” Donn sobbed. I did not know what he meant by ‘home’. Starside certainly wasn’t mine.

  With his arm back in to full health, Frek typed a message to Dek so that no one else would intervene in their conversation.

  “We’re going to have to get some Ministry of Customs, Immigration and Asylum Assistance representatives down here. I believe that aldoren is a slave clone.”

  Dek looked at the message, and then at Cacey.

  “We guessed that there would be some slave clones so the Hashtish Alliance representative of the MCIAA is on her way along with a few other smaller representatives. I can’t guarantee what will happen, though.”

  “It would be wise to access Tamarax Station’s database once the battle is over.” Chorst said to Dek. The insect man was surprised to have a cadet telling him what to do. “Tamarax’s information would be valuable to the USM.”

  “Speaking of which.” Dek looked through the records of the current battle on his wrist computer. “We haven’t seen Tam yet. I hope she didn’t get away.”

  I hope so too. I thought. Then it hit me, it didn’t matter if Tamarax got away or not. Providing I stopped her ‘dear friend’ Tak the woman would have no power. The 4th dimensional creature’s collision with the time energy was happening very soon. So I had to get a fast enough ship to stop it.

  Saving the universe can wait. The dark voice and I thought alike when we noticed a creature lurking in the dark shadows behind the window that showed a corridor. Tamarax, she was watching me. My end was near, but as long as I did not die at her hands the universe would be safe.

  Now, to sneak away subtly so that no one suspects. I needed to have a ‘private’ talk with her about the whole Tak and Bennu thing.

  “Daddy?” My father turned back to look at me. He had been talking to a marine about the process he, as a second-class non-USM personnel worker, had to go through before he went back to Earth. “I gotta go. I’ll be right back.”

  “What?” Sven, Cameron and half the cadets asked. Cacey did not say anything. He knew who I was going to see.

  “Where the fuck could you possibly be going?” My father asked, striding back to meet moi with Cameron following behind.

  “There’s some information I need to get.” I told him equivocatingly.

  “I’ll come with you.” Cameron said, and Chorst, who was watching me as well, was thinking the same thing. If I needed to get some information off a computer then he certainly wanted to offer his services.

  “No.” I shook my head. “I gotta do this alone… please trust me.”

  Ooh. The ‘trust’ card. Could Frenchy, Cameron and my father deny me if I asked them for trust?

  Frek aided me. “I’m asking her to get this classified information. Don’t worry; this is not a dangerous task. USM marines are meeting her on the other side of the door.”

  It was a good think me and Frek’s faces were hidden because our eyes could not hide our dishonesty. The harsnic knew what I had seen on the other side of that window. He had been told I would see Tamarax and that he had to let me go.

  Sven wasn’t sure what to think of moi. Were both Frek and I lying straight to his face?

  “I’ll be right back.” I hugged him. “I promise.”

  “If you’re not right back then I will ground you. I don’t care how many light years you live away. I have that power.”

  My father was making jokes. Good. I knew he still did not believe me. The fact my face was hidden by my helm made him wonder if I was actually his daughter.

  I looked back at the window, Tamarax was gone, but I would find her. She wanted me to find her.

  It was awkward having everyone watch me leave. They all questioned what I was doing and also my sanity. I questioned those things as well.

  Sven looked to Frek. What were the harsnic and I in on that he wasn’t? He knew Frek would never tell him. He did not have to. As a lord, he never had to explain anything to anyone besides Mel.

  “We’re not leaving without you so hurry back!” Donn called out on behalf of the cadets. I turned back and gave him the thumbs up.

  Sadness filled me as I looked away from them all. I was never going to see any of those people again no matter how my confrontation with Tamarax went. I wish I could have been a real daugh
ter for Sven just one more time instead of estranged creature hidden behind a mask. Cameron also deserved more of a sister, but he had never really had one anyways so he had lost less.

  “Where the hell is she going?” Sven asked anyone who would anyone who would answer.

  Chorst did not like the situation. The trinard recalled that he had taken the Bennu Bomb off moi. I had made such a big deal about getting it that he wondered how I could have forgotten about it. The answer; I was insane and wasn’t thinking properly about anything anymore. While all the cadets watched me walk through the dark corridor he made his way to Frek.

  “I need to give this to her.” He whispered so nobody besides Frek could hear.

  Frek looked at the Bennu Bomb a little surprised. “Yeah… she’s probably going to need that. Get out of here discretely and then come straight back once you’ve given it to her.”

  Chorst gave no answer. He did not intend to come straight back if I was in trouble.

  Dek whistled to get the attention of all the cadets, Sven and Cacey. “Right, get to shuttle nine.”

  “We’re not leaving without Am!” Donn reiterated. All the cadets nodded in agreement.

  During this time when everyone was looking at Dek, Chorst slipped away. Dek did not understand where the trinard was going, however Frek nodded to tell him it was fine that Chorst was leaving. He shrugged. It was not his job to question a lord.

  “Yes, but we’re still in the midst of a battle so we need you somewhere out of the fire. We won’t make the shuttle take-off. We just don’t want any more death.” The insect man said darkly as the bodies of the cadets were carried from the corridor and to the shuttle.

  “I’ll stay on the ground until Amelia returns.” Cameron reassured my father.

  “Oh, you two go wait in shuttle twelve until representatives from the MCIAA arrive.”

  “Della Vis Homen is one of them,” Sven sighed, “isn’t she?”

  Dek shrugged even though he suspected the harsnic woman would arrive seeing as she was the primary Hashtish Alliance representative.

  Cameron swallowed. Once his mother learned that he had punched the first officer of the Titonic she would nag him. Even though he was an ensign his mother still nagged him like he was a little boy.