Location: The Hana Paloi Federal Building
Ailanian Standard Time: 1100 Hours.
Moke stormed into his office.
Jack bit his lower lip and sucked in his gut, as he realized his boss looked upset.
Audrey braced herself. She realized that Moke had just gotten done speaking with his Aunt Ulu and Wram Karamotzain.
“Ah crap,” Audrey sighed to herself, “There will be no getting him back in a good mood again.”
Moke sat down angrily.
Jack gave his Captain a serious look and said, “Sir, I have to tell you about how I feel…”
“Don’t say anything, Jack!” Moke said sharply, “Just go out and find me some more targets for that Special Forces Team to destroy…apparently what we have is still not enough for the Moralist majority. I’m taking you, and your agents, off any assignments that you might have so that you can be completely committed to finding targets. Audrey and her agents will continue looking out for any more members of The Evil, while you and your people will immediately begin looking into what is left of the Pilikoa family’s operations. We’ll concentrate on bringing them down first!”
“Sir,” Jack said with a respectful voice. “I don’t know what you’ve been told before, but the fact is, we still have next to nothing to focus on. We have been watching trucks owned by the Pilikoa family go into the jungles of the Sacred House Reservation, and not return. The undercover agents I do have assigned to the Pilikoa family are reporting that those people are doing nothing but fighting amongst themselves for turf and supremacy. As far as we can tell, very few of them are actually manufacturing anything because no one is getting very much Makani. Everyone is suspecting everyone else of stealing from them and they are killing each other because of it. The Cutz gangs are in a state of total chaos right now…”
“Jack,” Moke said in an abrupt, angry tone, “Are there Cutz producers on this planet right now?”
“Yes, but….”
“Can you locate where they are producing this narcotic substance?”
“Yes, we probably can, however…”
“What the hell is the problem, Jack? This is what you wanted!” Moke clenched his fist glared at Jack with eyes that could kill.
Jack narrowed his eyes, and glared back for a few moments, before he finally said, “There is no problem…sir.”
“Then go do it,” Moke said as he clenched his back teeth together.
Jack gave Moke a long, hard look. He relaxed and tried not to appear rude as he bottled up his feelings of anger inside. Jack felt his pulse racing as he realized that keeping his anger in check was getting harder and harder to do.
Audrey glanced at her partner and noticed the distain on his face as she thought, “I know he wants to express how he feels. He believes all of his advice and suggestions have been neglected and ignored. He feels that all these disastrous results, which have recently occurred during our assignments, could have been avoided had certain things that he had suggest to Moke had not been overlooked. He wants say how we missed opportunities and dropped the ball during crucial moments…”
For a moment, Audrey felt afraid that Jack might actually get brave and say something to the man he once held a lot of admiration for.
She wiggled her fingers slowly, nervously as she thought, “He once believed in Moke…I fear that I have failed him as well.”
After pressing his lips together tightly, Jack stood up, adjusted his jacket and tie, and walked out of the office.
When the door slid shut, Moke turned to Audrey and said, “Find me these people who are producing The Evil, and if any of them have outstanding warrants, or even an overdue parking ticket, throw them in prison. Crack down on every single one of these people. I searched my sister’s computer files at home and found a list of names…I e-mailed you the list…have the people on that list questioned immediately. I also e-mailed you a file with information on every anti-economic revampment protest leader who is still currently active. I want background checks done on those people, twice. I want them under constant surveillance. Anyone who gets out of line, goes to jail, is that understood? Let them know that any protest rallies they organize will result in arrests…and when they ignore your warnings…go out and start arresting people…I want our jails to be filled with protestors and deviants…and even terrorists if that is possible.”
Audrey seemed confused as she said, “but sir…”
Suddenly, Moke began choking and put his hand to his face so he could hide his disappointment and fear.
“Wram ordered this…it’s not what he wants…that’s why he is so angry right now,” Audrey thought as she reverently nodded her head. She lowered her eyes and inhaled deeply. She wanted to say something in protest; she wanted to say anything in defense of her uneasy feelings. Audrey felt her jaw starting to ache.
She saw how Moke was staring at her with cold eyes. “Is there anything else Agent Winters?”
“No.” She lowered her gaze as she stood up and walked away. She sighed and shook her head as she thought, “Actually, Captain…I want to know why you have become such an asshole lately. And secondly, I want to know some things about Captain Harris, because the things I read in his file… they terrify me…and reading about his life has me questioning my own. Who am I? Who was my real family? Why do I have such terrible feelings about what I read? Oh my gods Moke, I am so afraid this new path you are taking us down, is going to make us we become what we wanted to defeat…”
When she had finally left the room, Moke sighed and sat down at his desk and thought, “The jails will be overflowing with people soon…it’s what they want…they want criminals in jail…maybe that alone, will buy me some time…before my past catches up to me…”
Moke pushed a few buttons on his monitor and moments later, a picture appeared. It was a picture of him that was taken over twenty years ago, but Moke recalled the events of the year, in which the picture was taken, as if they had happened yesterday.
Moke suddenly gritted his teeth and clenched his fists as he recalled how the bright lights had been hot and blinding as the maniacal voice relentlessly shouted at him, “Who is Fats Manawilli?! Goddamn you! Answer me! Who is Fats Manawilli?!”
Moke opened his eyes and slammed his fists onto his desk as he looked at the picture on the monitor. His mind soon became flooded with more unpleasant memories. This time, in the back of his mind, he could see a large, Kupano man, dressed in a fancy suit, who was smoking a cigar as he laughed and said, “Ya see, son… these are things that you don’t learn in school. Life isn’t a choice between good and evil…it’s really not even a choice. We do what we do to survive, because we just ain’t as lucky as those people, who got to be in charge of things. And what do those people, who are in charge, do exactly? They tell the commonman a bunch of lies aboutthis so called Ailanian dream. Tell fill your head full of all kinds of bullshit, like for instance, how it is possible to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and achieve anything you want with hard work.They fill us full of lies about how the size and scope of government needs to be limited from interfering with your life, so that you can succeed and be an individual. And what does it mean to be an individual? I guess an individual, and a true moral person, is someone who stands on their own two feet and doesn’t live in a way that allows them to feed off their fellow man like a parasite. And ya know what is funny about that philosophy? The fact that I ain’t met ANYONE in this whole world that would qualify as moral, if those are the requirements.”
Moke felt himself shuttering with confusion, guilt and sense of self-hatred as he remembered how the large, Kupano man in the fancy suit smoked on his cigar as he said, “And by the way, if a moral person, is someone who does not use their fellow man as a means to an end, or feeds off their fellow man like a parasite…how can those rich people, and the politicians who pass laws which allow them to stay rich call themselves moral? Thou shalt not be a parasite who used your fellow man…isn’t that exactly what Ailanian Corporate CEO’s do when they go to the government for bailout money? Isn’t that exactly what those rich corporate assholes are doing when they lobby for legislation that forces the government to turn a blind eye to the fact that Allied corporations are robbing us blind? Fuck Capitalism…fuck patriotism…fuck them before they fuck you. Ya see, here’s the truth…long before there was a corrupt Ailanian government being fed by money, which comes from greedy Capitalists, who need the government to pass laws so that they can rob the people of every dollar they make…Ailana was a tribal society. Ailana used to be made up of tribes…and the tribes worked as a community…they worked as a team. And guess what, boy…there ain’t no I in team…there ain’t no you and there ain’t no ME in the word team. Before these rich, corporate assholes teamed up with the government so they could be guaranteed a steady stream of income, there were just people working together to make each other’s lives better. And back in the days of the law of the jungle…it was all about being strong…not about being politically connected and rich. There was a time on this planet when people had simple needs. They had to eat, they had to have a warm, dry place to sleep, and they probably had to have the occasional religious experience and maybe an occasional festival as a reward for doing all the things that allowed people to eat and sleep in relative comfort. But then, the tribes were conquered. They were convinced by someone that this planet needed shopping malls, fast food, movie theaters and television sets full of commercials for all kinds of shit they don’t need….and now, because of that race to achieve the Ailanian dream, our brothers walk around on this planet with slumped shoulders and eyes that appear to always be begging.”
Moke closed his eyes and inhaled deeply as his heart raced while he remembered what the large Kupano man with the cigar said next, “But not me…and hopefully, not you. We are part of something bigger and better than that…we’re in the process of bringing back the tribe…we’re in the process of bringing back the community…and we are in the process…of bringing back the honor that was stolen from us when someone with wealth and political connections told the whole world that people, who live in tribes and believe in supernatural superstitions, are savages…and savages should be civilized with the ideas of individuality and the Ailanian dream so that they may prosper and advance. I haven’t seen my brothers and sisters advance very much under the heel of this so called Ailanian dream…I’ve only seen a once proud people reduced to beggars and slaves…and with your help…I intend to free them…and in order to free them…Atlas must shrug…and Ailana… needs to wake up from the dream… ”
Moke flinched as he thought about what makes criminals go to jail for a moment, until the voice returned with more advice he had heard when he was young and impressionable. “They tell us lies about how we should not want the government to tax the rich, or get involved in their business, hoping that we’ll buy into their bullshit theory of trickle- down economics. But then they wine and dine High Senators behind our backs so that they can get access to government bailouts when their risky business ventures fail. And when they fail…all our lives are affected…when the rich make the wrong decision because their greedy minds want more and more money coming to them faster and faster…it’s the common man that loses his job, his house, his health insurance…and his paycheck that was supposed to help him buy the Ailanian dream. But here’s the best part…the rich still get richer and they get to enslave us even more because they convinced us to gut and declaw a government, which could have protected us from their lies and their greed! Our desire to be patriots and individuals with freedom becomes our demise! Think about it, they get off scot-free while the rest of us lose our asses! What kind of deal is that? It ain’t fair! It ain’t what the religions of Objectivism and Moralism are supposed to be preaching and accepting as right, fair and just…what we have happening here…is THEFT and BLACKMAIL. There is no free man accepting whatever wage he feels he deserves for his talents and labors when those at the top of the pyramid cause the whole thing to come crashing down! There ain’t no austerity involved in their formula for success and whatever they are doing…it sure as hell is not Capitalism. Open your eyes, boy, look around you, we live on a planet, with a whole lot of misguided people, who are quite confused about the true meaning of the ideology and theocracy they have decided to follow so blindly. There ain’t nothing conservative about what those rich men and our government are doing behind closed doors…Atlas would truly be able to see what he’s been missing out on…if he would just shrug off those who have been keeping him on his knees! Those who have claimed to be following the ideology to the letter…are the ones who have it completely wrong! They are using the people of this world! They’re like leaches…they feed upon their victims…and their victims are us. The leaches that feed upon us realize that they need to find a way to keep us from realizing just how much blood we are really loosing…and so they tell us that slavery is actually freedom…and we are so willing to put on our shackles because we believe that they are good for us! What the fuck is wrong with us, Moke? Why the hell are we letting these people fill our heads with this bullshit?”
Moke reflected upon the profound effect those words had on him as he remembered the passion in the man’s voice as he said, “If what they tell us is true, then life is nothing more than pursing your own self-interests…and stomping on the backs of whoever you can to get what you want! I don’t know what you believe now, son…but let me tell you something, there is no rule book for life…and if there is…then it’s only read by those people out there who are suckers! So tell me, you wanna make some money? Ya wanna be able to walk around on this planet with your head held high because ya ain’t got someone, with ill-begotten power and authority, putting some kind of weight of the whole fucking world upon your shoulders?”
Moke ran his tongue over his teeth as he remembered how convincing the man with the cigar had been as he said, “Tell me, son… do ya wanna be free? Do ya wanna be your own man? Ya want to be able to impress your girl with some nice flowers and pretty things so that she will respect you as a man? Go to this address…there will be a hovercar parked there…a hovercar that a bank is about to repossess. Wouldn’t it be a waste if some pseudo-capitalist, who couldn’t keep up with his payments, lost his hovercar to a bank before we got a chance to put some of our people to work tearing it apart? It works out better this way. Some rich asshole banker gets to claim a loss on his debit sheet, and the government bails him out. We, on the other hand, put a few members of our tribe to work. We pay our people in cash that they can use to feed their families with. Meanwhile, the guy, who can’t afford the car, can claim it as stolen to his insurance company, and we can sell the parts for a big profit…that’s the way things should work for us…a tribe all working together to survive in a newly made savage world. That’s the way to live tax free, with no government interference in the way we do business. There ya have it, the pursuit of self-interest… the way of the true Capitalist.”
Moke bit the inside of his cheek. In his mind’s eye, he could almost see the man’s face through a cloud of cigar smoke. The words that came from the cigar smoking man’s mouth seemed almost prophetic, “The keys will be inside, all you gotta do, is come up with the courage to do the right thing…think about it, Moke…the prophet Ayn spelled it out in a pretty black and white manner…it’s good to be selfish…you shouldn’t have to live as anyone’s bitch…freedom, is all about the opportunity to use your fellow man as a means to an end…and you’re truly living the Ailanian dream if you get the chance to fuck them…before they fuck you…”
Moke clenched his teeth and felt a nervous knot forming in his stomach as he pressed a button on his monitor. The picture of him standing next to the large, cigar smoking man suddenly disappeared.
Moke sighed with a bit of nervous relief as he saw the words, FILE DELETED<
Moke smiled a bit as he thought to himself, “I’ve still got a few things up my sleeve that you don’t know about, you son of a bitch…I’ve got a plan for dealing with Captain Ronald James Harris, and after I am finished with him, I’m going to have you by the balls soon enough.”
Location: The HanaPaloiFederalBuilding
Ailanian Standard Time: 1200 Hours.
“I need to clarify some facts about Captain Harris. I think Moke is up to something…and maybe if I can learn about who was…maybe I can find out who I am…” Audrey felt her nervous thoughts racing as she noticed how the old Ailanian woman looked prim and proper. Audrey found herself fidgeting in her seat as she noticed how the old woman seemed to look down her nose at her while she spoke.
“Ronald James Harris?” High Senator Ulu Jinkua said as she sat behind her desk, looking important and powerful. “The last time I heard that name, it was coming from a bailiff in my courtroom. I remember, back when I was still a High Court Judge, I sentenced him to a special school for troubled teens.”
Audrey swallowed as she felt a twinge of guilt for sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. She thought of the medical file and how she purposely kept it longer than the time she was allotted for it. She thought of the lies she had told to Moke, telling him how it wasn’t completely decoded yet, and how those lies had bought her more time to read what she was not supposed to see. She thought of the lunches she had and the questions she asked.
Ulu gazed at her for a moment before she said, “I suspect that you have had a conversation or two with Kara…and I suppose that she told you how I thought Ronald Harris was a bad influence on my nephew. However, as it turned out, when they were growing up, my nephew was actually a bad influence on him.”
Audrey bit the inside of her cheek and sat silently, contemplating what that meant.
High Senator Jinkua inhaled deeply and said, “I reasoned this out, because Moke’s bad behavior actually got worse after they were separated…but he did get into fewer fights, since he didn’t have his muscle-bound, dim-witted friend to back him up anymore. But these are things we don’t talk about, Agent Winters…my family has secrets that need to be kept confidential. We Kalapanas are royalty…we have to be the ones who set the example. I tried to keep my nephew’s…youthful behavior, out of the public eye, if you know what I mean, Agent Winters…and I don’t see the need to bring such matters to light now.”
Audrey tried to look humble as she said, “I’m not trying to pry, ma’am, but do you think the way Moke treated Ronald Harris all those years ago, might be the reason why he does not want him to return to Ailana?”
“You are asking the wrong person, Agent Winters,” High Senator Jinkua said flatly. “I simply never spent enough time with them to know much of their relationship. I thought they were good friends…they might not have always been good boys, but then again…who am I to say? In his mother’s eyes, Moke Kalapana could do no wrong. In his sister’s eyes, Moke was hardly in the right…in my eyes…let’s just say there are some things should just not be talked about in certain circles, in certain situations, Agent Winters. Sometimes it is just best to let the past, stay in the past.”
Audrey said, “Unless of course, there is something in your past, which could somehow affect your future.”
“There are lots of things that can affect one’s future, Agent Winters…but sometimes, we simply have no choice in the matter. Our fates lay in our destiny, and as far as our family is concerned, it is our destiny to lead.”
Audrey bit her lip. She realized that she would get no more information from this woman and it would be futile to push the subject anymore. She sighed and said, “High Senator Jinkua, do you approve of CIA’s course of action so far?”
The old woman said, “Whatever sort of action we are taking is irrelevant, Agent Winters, as long as the effect allows us to achieve our goal of getting this newest generation of Immoral Ailanians off of drugs and booze, and back into the workforce. And that goal is going to require more than brute force because the greatest shame this planet and its people have known has not come from the greed of drug dealers, but from the laziness and apathy of their customers.”
Audrey seemed confused as she asked, “Ma’am?”
“What I mean, Agent Winters, is when you create a society, where everyone has everything that they need, they forget how to want and achieve something. We have more people with these so called, dreams and ambitions that they are never going to achieve because they are more concerned with getting intoxicated and satisfying immoral pleasures than they are with attaining that goal of doing something meaningful with their lives. We refer to these people as prisoners of paradise…people who are adrift in their own delusions of grandeur, constantly planning out their purpose in life, and never really attaining anything, or accomplishing anything because they are more concerned with self-medicating their physical pain and mental anguish away. These people must be shown the error of their ways.”
Audrey interrupted her, “but Ma’am, what does that have to do with our course of action?”
Ulu’s voice became gruff as she continued with her rant. “What I mean, Agent Winters, is instead of analyzing, and overcoming the obstacles they face, many of the people on our world, stare at their monitor and television screens, while lying on the couch in an inebriated state of mind. They think of nothing but short term pleasure and pain relief…they desire nothing, and have very few expectations of their fellow man, nonetheless themselves. Blowing up some drug dealers doesn’t bother me, Agent Winters, if that is what you are asking. I only see drug dealers as obstacles standing in the way of the progress we as a people need to protect.”
Audrey said softly, “It seems rather forceful…but we certainly will see a dramatic drop in the availability of Cutz.”
“Don’t forget that force is sometimes necessary, Agent Winters. When you have a child, you spank it when it misbehaves…and hopefully the pain from the blow, will install a sense of boundaries, and submission. And the reason why you punish is not to be mean, but to help foster within that child, what is known as a guiding purpose in life. I did, what I did, to the young Moke Kalapana, so that he might have a chance to become Captain Moke Kalapana. I made my decisions, hoping that somehow, he would find a guiding purpose in life.”
Audrey remained as polite as she could as she said, “but is it right to use force in order to control the lives of people, who do not live and believe the way you do?”
High Senator Jinkua narrowed her eyes and her wrinkled mouth became downturned as she said, “Agent Winters, I only make logical decisions, and I make them, because I know what is best for the people of my planet. The people of Ailana need to be made aware of the higher purpose that they could serve, if they could just learn how accept the help we are offering, so that they may stand on their own feet. Why is it wrong to enlighten the unenlightened? What is wrong with showing the people of this planet that there is an ocean full of opportunity for those who desire to make an effort to learn how to swim?”
Audrey submissively said, “But Ma’am, we are allowing The Military to detonate bombs…”
Ulu acted as if she didn’t hear Audrey speak as she said, “You have to understand, Agent Winters, Ailana has developed a peculiar, political economy…from dependency. This planet has become the home of legions of life-long welfare recipients, along with the bureaucratic and corrupt political structure which sustains itself by maintaining its ‘clients’…in poverty. While the postwar economies of Aurora and Earth have been booming for the last three decades, millions of Ailanians have known nothing of the wealth, prosperity, nor the spiritual and tangible rewards of having a guiding purpose in life. They only know a sedentary life of welfare check cashing, along with the feelings of futility and depression, which leads to the disintegration of the values created by our traditional Ailanian family structures and the traditional religions that guided them.”
Audrey felt as if she was being lectured, she had heard similar speeches by her foster-parents her entire life. Her Hokupi father was a doctor, and he often made reference how so many of their fellow Ailanians had become “chronically ill” of body, mind and spirit. She recalled how he often complained that the hospitals could not cure these “chronically ill people.”
Aunt Ulu’s voice seemed to get louder. Audrey began to pay attention with curious interest as the stern old woman said, “Take for example, Ronald Harris’ mother…well for starters, she was fooled, by her husband, an immoral man, into believing that he was worth a damn. But according to the tenants of Moralism, that is not an excuse, in the eyes of the Moralist, every single one of us has to accept responsibility for the mess we find ourselves in. That woman was in the same situation as millions of other Ailanian mothers, the fathers of their children are nowhere in sight…all of her life, that young woman had known nothing but immorality and dependency, and the only real belief that she could muster and sustain, was the one that led her to conclude that she was ‘a victim of the system’, and that, ‘she was owed something.’”
Audrey suddenly realized how she hated what the old woman was rambling on about as she blurted out, “Could you tell me anything else about Captain Ronald James Harris? Was he angry with Moke before he left for Earth?”
Ulu looked down her nose at her and said, “Agent Winters, please do not interrupt me…there is only one way for me to answer your questions. Before I was a High Senator, I was a Judge in the Ailanian High Court for forty years. Do you realize how many people have stood before my bench with the belief that they were owed something by society? These are people that give no moral arguments against things like self-centered, criminal activities such as producing and selling drugs, or stealing, or even killing their fellow Ailanians in order to get what they believe is owed to them by their society. They truly think that the system is holding them back from the success that eludes them. We must stop them, no matter the cost. And if Captain Harris and Captain Kalapana, the two men who are supposed to be an integral part of stopping these drug producers, cannot get along to do the job, then you must do whatever it takes to make them work together. I don’t know, nor do I care, if my nephew is happy or unhappy with his old friend…just as long as they do what they are told, that is all I care about.”
Audrey realized that her patience with Moke was running out. She had enough time to think of what her gut feelings were really telling her. “Moke is not telling me everything…he’s hiding something…what could it be? What is he not telling me?”
Ulu’s dark eyes narrowed with anger as she spoke, “These are the things that we must focus on, Agent Winters. We must provide the citizens of this planet, with force if need be, a guiding purpose in life. We shall hopefully soon become aware of how everyone in this world has a purpose, and that the direction of their life, should be guided by a moral cause that is bigger than they are. Today, my nephew is a good example of someone, who has a higher purpose in life, and it is a good purpose. We all play our role, Agent Winters. We all have our purpose…sometimes, we stray from the path that we were meant to follow in life. As it turned out, sending Ronald James Harris to Earth was exactly what needed to be done in order to ensure that Moke Kalapana did not stray from his intended path again. And if they had some kind of…falling out…before I made my decision that cannot be…”
Audrey felt herself snap to attention. “What happened? What was the reason for the end of their friendship? How did it happen? What happened? Will you please tell me?”
Ulu simply stared back in a stoic manner and replied, “What does it matter, Agent Winters? If you asked that question to my sister, she would tell you that everything about a person’s personality is found in its purest base form when a child is five years old. If you observe the behavior of five year olds, it’s almost as if watching a simplified version of all humanoid behavior. Small children will play with each other, in pairs, for ten minutes, and then proceed to get angry with each other, for some egocentric reason, and not want to be friends for five minutes. And then, after those five minutes are up, they will play together for twenty minutes. And then, after getting angry again, they will not want to be friends for ten minutes, and so on and so forth well into adulthood. Who knows why it happens, that is just the way it is…you should just really leave it at that, Agent Winters. As long as these two men can work together, just long enough in order to do what we have ordered them to do, our plan to help the Moralist cause will succeed.”
“Yes, but in this case…” Audrey suddenly bit her lip and thought, “I think Moke has his own plan that he doesn’t want anyone to know about…”
Ulu interrupted her, “Again, Agent Winters, I must remind you that we Kalapanas are royalty, and thus we must set the examples…my family has many secrets, some of which are centuries old. The secrets that my family must never tell, could even affect the future of our world. Please trust me when I tell you this, Agent Winters, sometimes…it is best to let the past, remain in the past.”
Location: EMS Signet.
Standard Ship Time: 1800 Hours.
Jhett Jonez stepped out of the crew’s shower room feeling refreshed. After Bloke had let him out of his containment unit and revived him from the coma, Jhett felt the need to take a long, hot shower. He took an extra- long time while he washed his hair and shaved the stubble from his face. He took his time drying his muscular body. After snooping around the locker room, he found a decent set of clothes that fit him. The pants were made of a thick, black fabric and were probably worn by someone when the ship’s engine or other hardware needed to be maintained or fixed. He found an extra-large white T-shirt and ripped the arms off in order to accommodate his bulging muscles. He found a pair of black leather work boots that fit as if they were gloves and he immediately took a liking to them.
When he emerged from the locker room, he took a sharp left and proceeded down the hallway until he found the ship’s galley, where he found Bloke sitting at the table, using a large knife to cut the meat from one of the dead crew member’s arms. Bloke didn’t look up as Jhett entered the room. He just kept to the task at hand. Jhett felt a bit of queasiness boil into his stomach as he watched Bloke stick the slice of muscle into his mouth and swallow it whole.
“You know…you could….cook that,” Jhett said in a low, patient voice, “they do have a stove.”
“But I’m hungry now,” Bloke said. “I’m feeling protein deficient.”
“I’m sure they have other provisions on board.”
“These assholes were all vegetarians,” Bloke said as he sliced off another piece of arm. “All they have for protein…is tofu.”
“Individualism, the pursuit of self-interest…Lord have mercy,” Jhett said as he rubbed his temples and shook his head. “You just don’t give a shit what people think, do you? Well, when you’re done with your…meal, could you please assist me?”
“I’ll be ready in about twenty minutes….want me to save you a piece?”
“No, I’m trying to cut down,” Jhett said and walked out of the room with a straight face. He turned and began walking toward the control cabin. The door was open when he got there, and the room’s occupants, were just as he left them. Jhett’s thoughts became vengeful, yet contemplative as he looked at his prisoners, “Someday, we shall be allowed to see what is truly written on the hearts of men. Someday soon we will know if their actions the result of principles and honor…or were their choices made because all they know are shame and cowardice?”
The bound men became immediately frightened.
“Herb! Bronson!” Jhett said in a happy voice as he strode into the room. About an hour ago, Jhett and Bloke had retrieved the two terrified men from their containment units. Herb seemed to be a bit more stressed than Bronson, and was currently struggling against the locking restraints that held him securely to the pilot’s seat. Bronson had his head leaned back against the co-pilots seat and was breathing very heavily.
Jhett walked between the two chairs and leaned up against the control panel. He crossed his arms and smiled at the two men he had securely fastened into place, just before reviving them from their comas.
“How are you boys doin’? Are ya comfy? I bet you weren’t expecting this to happen, were ya?”
Bronson shook with fear as he said, “Look, Jhett…I dunno what is goin’ on here but…”
Jhett raised his left eyebrow and said, “But I gotta let you explain a few things to me, right?”
“Look! I didn’t know Makula was going to go after Loko Kalaheva like that! I didn’t know anything about what was really happening on Ailana! I was just a consultant! Honestly, I don’t know what the hell happened! I didn’t know that white haired bastard was going to get involved in our plan!”
“I thought as much. Well, how about you, Herb?” Jhett asked in a kind voice, “Is there anything you wish to tell me?”
“Listen, I didn’t know anything about this shit either!”
Jhett said impatiently, “Herb, you might want to know that Bloke is in the galley right now, eating the remains of the ship’s crew. You’ve been such a good employee in the past? Why the bullshit all of the sudden?”
Herb showed his teeth as he said, “Look, you were taking so goddamned long! I was beginning to panic! He came to me!”
“Oh he did eh?”
“Yes! He was gonna kill me, Jhett! He was gonna kill us all!”
Jhett narrowed his eyes as he said, “so you thought you’d save your own skin by ratting out Bloke, Skelter, Strife, Lynch and not to mention myself, to that murdering bastard did ya?”
“What the hell could I do?!” Herb yelled in a voice that sounded like it was on the verge of tears.
“Ya know, Herb, your turncoat attitude really makes me sick,” Jhett said as he crossed his arms. “I mean, we had a good, solid plan. We delivered the goods we brought in with us…because of our efforts those dude, who were playing soldier of fortune out in the jungle nearly choked off Makula’s Makani supply. The whole idea was start a gang war AFTER we had collected all the Cutz we stole from Makula. Thanks to my brains and Bloke’s brawn, we had collected all of the goods we needed to haul out of there, and we even got hooked up with a very nice spaceship, courtesy of Rex Broadstein’s misery and woes with the Ailanian bureaucracy. We were well on our way to having a monopoly over the Cutz production on Ailana…all we needed to do was hope the boys in the jungle would grow and harvest some Makani exclusively for us since we gave them the weapons they needed to keep the gangs out of their jungle villages. Then, all of the sudden, shit goes hittin’ the fan…and you two cowards start panicking and making deals behind our backs in order to save your own skin! Well, look what it got ya…”
Bronson shouted in pain, “Jhett we had no choice…”
“Oh there is always a choice!” Jhett slammed his fists down on the control panel as he said, “tell me this Herb, did the guy in the trench coat happen to mention who he was really working for? The Military usually does not require such chaos and mayhem to bring fugitives, such as ourselves, to justice. And we’ve done all sorts of jobs like this before and never once did we have a run in with that white haired, secret agent man…why is he doing this to us now? What is he really doing on Ailana?”
“I don’t know what he’s doing or why he’s doing it!” Herb yelled and began to sob. “Ya gotta believe me, Jhett! Ya gotta believe me! Oh come on, Jhett…let’s all just shake hands and make up! Look man, we got ourselves a ship now! We can dump all the comatosed prisoners and turn this thing into one hell of a piece of pirates’ equipment! We could be at Balkner Space Station in a matter of days. We could get work and start making some dough again. We can forget this shit ever happened!”
Jhett remained quiet for a moment as he found himself lost in thought. His mind seared with images of the man in black standing over him. Jhett felt his heart beat increase with feelings of fear and loathing as he thought about the images the man in black had showed him before he shot him with the stun gun and placed him on this ship with a one way ticket to a maximum security prison on the edge of the colonized galaxy.
Jhett rubbed his chin as he thought, “Marco got hooked up with Loko Kalaheva so he could obtain the capital needed to finance his plan. Someone else must have been looking over Loko’s shoulder the whole time…and they must have pieced together what Marco and Loko were up to. A plan to steal the planet’s Cutz production right from under the noses of the criminals, who invented the process, now that would be worth causing some major chaos over. Someone is up to something. But it ain’t just about moving drugs…it’s got something to do with The Prisoners of Paradise. The Evil…they knew about The Prisoners of Paradise…and Marco got to know some of those geeks in The Evil…he told em’ he’d steal those bombs for them if they stole him some money from Loko Kalaheva’s accounts. The man in the trench coat…he showed me something…something about where the money in those account came from…Loko got that money from…”
Jhett’s eyes suddenly opened wide with surprise as he made a mental connection.
“Oh my gods…”
A moment of silence fell upon the control room as Bronson and Herb nervously looked at each other.
“Jhett,” Bronson said sheepishly. “What’s the plan here?”
“We’re going back to Ailana, Herb,” Jhett said carefully. “We were somehow duped into setting the stage for something tragic to occur on that planet…we could be talking about the deaths of millions of people here. Plus, I have a ship and a large wad of cash waiting there for me…and if the event, which I believe is gonna happen, goes down there after all…everything will be lost.”
Bronson struggled against the restraints as he said, “Ah man, to hell with Ailana! It’s someone else’s turf now! We don’t need to go back to that bullshit planet!”
Jhett closed his eyes and sighed with a bit of anxiety and guilt as he thought about what was going to happen on that lonely, backwater of a world that no one else on this prison ship seemed to care about.
“You’re right, Herb,” Jhett said as he stood up straight and began to walk out of the control cabin. “We don’t need to go back Ailana…however, I do.”
“What are you gonna do, man?!” Herb whined. Tears were running down his face. “What are you gonna do?!”
Jhett felt himself involuntarily blocking out Bronson and Herb’s pleas for mercy as he became lost in thought. He couldn’t shake the images in his head that the man in black had put there, right before he and Bloke had gotten caught. He couldn’t ignore the thoughts of guilt as he realized he knew about something important, something that he just couldn’t keep to himself.
“Goddamn it,” Jhett said to himself as his thoughts became consumed with images of blue skies becoming red with flames and the sounds of millions of screaming people being burned to death. “I shouldn’t have to do this…none of this is really in my self- interest. I should just do what Herb is suggesting and run away from this…destiny…that I have been recently been made aware of.”
“What do ya say, Jhett?” Bronson said in a pathetic, whiny tone of voice. “Screw Ailana, nothing good can happen if we go back there…just untie us. Let’s go raid the liquor cabinet and make cocktails till we’re so drunk we can’t see straight. We don’t have to make a decision about what we’re gonna do, we can sleep on it!”
Jhett saw a final image enter his mind as he whispered, “Sleeper cell…”
“Are you listening to me, Jhett? Fuck Ailana! We don’t have to go back there!”
“Are you kidding me?” Jhett shouted, “Something really bad is gonna happen! That’s why we have to go back there!”
Herb looked a bit shocked as he said, “you don’t need to think about those people on that planet! You only need to worry about yourself…and US of course!”
“Just sit tight, boys…I need some time to think about what is truly in my own self-interests here…and I can’t do that with an empty stomach…even if all there is to eat…is tofu.”
As Jhett walked, he could hear their panic stricken breathing all the way to the end of the passageway.
Location: EMS Rousseau…The kitchenette in the Officers’ Lounge.
Standard Ship Time 0800 Hours.
“Where did you learn to cook?” Patrick asked as he watched Harris work in front of the stove.
Harris was somber as he said, “Sometimes I have a lot of free time that needs to be filled in constructive ways.”
“Oh,” Patrick said while he sipped his coffee. He had nothing at all to do today, so he was more than happy to oblige Harris and ask him some questions. His voice became inquisitive with a sexual tone as he said, “There’s been rumors floating around this ship. As I understand it, you… have made a new friend.”
“I guess you could say that,” Harris replied dryly.
“How is she doing?”
“She’s doing really well. She’s now officially reached middle age. Well, in terms of the treatment that is,” Harris said. “She actually looks quite good now. She can sit up in bed and walk around some. She’s on solid foods now…and she once told me how she loves pancakes. I thought I’d surprise her.”
Patrick teased Harris as he said, “I saw you walking her down the hallway the other day.”
Harris tried not to blush as he said, “Yeah, she needs to get exercise now.”
“You were holding her hand.”
“I was just…supporting her, like a crutch,” Harris said as he flipped a pancake. “It’s real tough getting used to using your legs after you have lost use of them…believe me, I know that all too well.”
“I’m so surprised you helped her the way you did.” Patrick raised his eyebrows and said, “She was so mean to you.”
“Well, I can’t say I blame her…going through reverse menopause must be real tough, lots of hormones and all,” Harris said. “She’s actually a real sweet person, once ya get to know her.”
“I understand she’s an archeologist or something like that.”
“Yep, she’s got a Ph.D. in archeology,” Harris said while flipping over another one of the pancakes in the pan. “She’s going to Ailana to do some excavating.”
“Is she is going to look for some sort of a lost civilization or something?”
“She hasn’t said…but from what she has told me, she sure chose an interesting career.”
Patrick took a sip of coffee and sighed, “I chose cooking because, as a child, it allowed me to stay close to my mother. We spent hours in the kitchen together making all sorts of treats and meals for the family. What made you decide on your career?”
“I really don’t know…” Harris said as he began to stare off into space. “Sometimes…I think it was chosen for me.”
“Well for me, becoming a cook was easy when I was conscripted into The Military…I’ve always cooked.”
“And I’ve always killed…for someone,” Harris said. His eyes starting to glass over, his mind started melting again.
Patrick said, “I hated The Military at first, because I had to leave my mother. I had to join because I got fired from so many jobs on Earth and I got caught shoplifting. Later on, I went to school for cooking, it was an interesting experience.”
“Yeah, I know what ya mean…school was a real interesting experience for me too.” In his fleeting mind, Harris saw the dark waves gently washing up onto the sand and then retreat. It was night and there was no moon. Harris remembered how the young man, who was bound at the wrists and ankles, laid on the sand, his mouth straining to form words through the tape that was slapped across his face. He seemed to panic as he lay there, helpless, and scared out of his mind. Somehow, he knew he was not going to walk away from this. But that didn’t stop him from begging for his life. Harris felt his head hurt as he remembered how the boy sobbed and pleaded the best he could through the tape.
“Please…don’t do this…NO! NOOOOO!”
Harris gasped as he remembered another young man’s queasy voice saying “Iki…do we have to do this?”
Harris clenched his teeth tightly and held his breath until his lungs burned as remembered the sound of his own voice replying, “Yes…we do.”
Harris remembered how the sound of gunshots rang out. He recalled seeing how their victim was soon bleeding all over the sandy beach. He closed his eyes and felt himself shaking as he remembered how the giant crabs rose out of the sand, grabbed the body and disappeared into the water with their dinner.
“Captain?” A voice called from the fog. “Captain Harris, you’re burning that pancake.”
“Oh,” Harris said as he snapped to attention. “Thanks, I almost didn’t notice that.”
Patrick seemed melancholy and bored. “So, why are you going to Ailana anyway?”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Harris said as he tried to concentrate.
“Yeah, I know what ya mean. I’ve done a number of things on that planet that I would rather not talk about either. Whoa, the last time I was there, let me tell ya…the prostitutes, are unbelievable. However, with these new sex change operations that they got nowadays…ya gotta be careful when you’re in the Red Light Districts on Ailana, because sometimes…the boys can be prettier than the girls…if ya know what I mean…”
Harris looked at him as if he was unimpressed.
Patrick decided to change the subject as he said, “My parents moved to Ailana from Earth, and tried their hand as colonists there for a while before they got smart and moved back to Earth. They told me all about what it was like to live there during the height of the War Machine era. Earth made a big deal of the whole thing, my parents were told about sunshine and beaches and palm trees and endless opportunity in the brochure. However, they ended up living in a crappy, over-priced, little apartment, eating Meals Ready To Digest, working in an ammunition factory…and partying way too much. But the cool thing was, if they got tired of working, they didn’t have to show up, the rules for the workers were really lax back in those days, vacation hours and sick leave could be abused and no one got fired. There was just so much work available that they could take a few weeks off and just go lay around drunk on the beach if they wanted to. It seemed that they could party all they wanted, until they ran out of money, and needed to go back to work in the factories again to earn more.”
“Yeah,” Harris said, “I heard all about the War Machine Era…it must have been quite a time.”
Patrick said, “My parents told me all about the big parties the native Ailanian people would throw with music and dancing, booze, care-free sex and drugs. My gods…they got to do all kinds of drugs, the lucky saps. However, my parents were a couple of spendthrift Immorals and living on Ailana didn’t get them anywhere in life, because all they wanted to really do was drink and get high…but apparently, I was conceived on the beach at one of those wild celebrations after they got incredibly high on Makani leaves. And unfortunately for me, after my mother got knocked up…they decided to clean up their act and move back to Earth. But I often wondered if my father really was my father, because, well, quite frankly…I really don’t look anything like him. Gods, they must have had fun, they keep telling me that if you actually do remember the War Machine years on Ailana…well then, you really weren’t there.”
“So I’ve heard…”
“It really was too bad for guys like you and me, Captain Harris, the Moralists crashed the party that our parents got to enjoy and things just went to shit there…ya can’t just have fun the way ya used to on that planet. Did you ever smoke Makani leaves, Captain?”
“No,” Harris said sternly, his head buzzing with anxiety and his face stoic to cover up his white lie, “I grew up during The Moralist era on Ailana…I never did anything like that.”
“Oh come on, Captain,” Patrick said in jest, “You were born and raised there and never smoked Makani leaves when you were a kid? Be honest now.”
“I don’t remember much about being a kid anymore, Patrick,” Harris said as he finished his work for the breakfast in bed and got ready to leave.
“What do you mean by that?” Patrick asked sounding a bit perplexed.
“Doesn’t matter, apparently most of my life ain’t worth remembering anyway.”
Location: EMS Rousseau
Standard Ship Time: 2300 Hours…(Adjusted to match time in orbit)
“Can I open my eyes yet?” Jori asked as she walked, with just a slight limp that slowed her down and made her concentrate on what she was doing.
“No, not yet,” Harris said in a friendly, fun-filled voice. “We’re not quite there.”
“Ron,” Jori said and giggled, “What is this about?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“Really?” Jori said, giggling some more. “That sounds kinda neat.”
“I know you’ll like it,” Harris said calmly.
He was holding her hand to help her walk, since she wasn’t quite used to using her legs yet. Her face was beautiful and her long, white hair flowed radiantly about her. Her skin was smooth as silk with a milky white appearance and she looked young and vibrant again.
“We’re almost there,” He reassured her.
The effects of the space travel accident still afflicted her. She felt herself fatiguing easily and the walk was a long one.
“I’m not as tired as I used to be,” she said.
“You’re doing great,” he said as he sympathized with her plight. They walked slowly as he made sure she didn’t fall from her limping. They took frequent breaks on the way to their destination, which was closer to the stern of the ship. They stopped at lounge areas and quietly made fun of the shoes other people wore and the hairstyles that they had. A few minutes ago, Harris had told her to close her eyes.
Jori was finding this journey to be thrilling as she said, “Can I open them yet?”
“No. Not quite yet,” Harris said as he pushed a button that made a circular doorway open. “O.K., watch your step. There’s a puka on the other side of the door.”
“Puka?”
“Oh yeah, sorry,” Harris said, “That’s an Ailanian word. It means hole. Well, I guess it means, depression, actually…the floor is lower on the other side of this door. It’s, like a step down, so just be careful.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Jori giggled as she clutched Harris’ hand for support. When they were in the next room, Harris closed the door. “O.K. you can open your eyes now.”
Jori opened her eyes to the most beautiful sight she could imagine. Harris had led her down a passageway, to a room that had a very large, round window, which was pieced together in several triangular sections that gave it a convex shape.
Outside of the window was Ailana a beautiful, pale blue sphere.
Jori instantly noticed that the island continent of Gwanlachek could not be seen from where they were in orbit. She gasped as she saw how the sunlight illuminated the ocean side of the planet turning it sapphire and deep royal blue colors. Her eyes opened wide and were filled with amazement at how the planet appeared like an enormous blue pearl, sitting on an endless piece of black velvet, as the stars around it sparkled like tiny diamonds.
Harris saw the look on Jori’s face. It was pure fascination and astonishment, like she was paying homage to a deity.
“It’s beautiful,” she said with awe in her voice. “It’s so very…beautiful.”
“Yeah, it sure is…” Harris said with an almost uninterested tone of voice.
Jori snuggled up to him a bit more. Harris seemed almost like ice.
“What’s troubling you?” She asked. Her voice was like a warm quilt.
“I just realized something….” Harris said softly, he seemed to be holding back tears. “The last time I saw this view…I was leaving…I remember I was standing in a line with a group of recruits. We were being shipped off to basic training…I remember thinking to myself, ‘this is it…I’m leaving home…this will be the last time I ever see it.’”
Jori got even closer and said softly, “There’s something else bothering you, isn’t there?”
“Yes.”
“It’s got something do with…coming home, right?”
Harris spoke quietly, with a hint of unconscious self, “I guess…I just don’t know what to expect down there…it has been so long…it has been so…so very hard.”
“What’s been so hard?”
“I don’t think you’d be able to understand,” Harris said with a sad voice. “I really don’t understand why I feel the way I do. I feel like I should be so happy to be coming here. I spent a lifetime here, but one day, I left…and I don’t really know why. It’s so hard to explain how I feel about this.”
She looked at him with love in her eyes as she said, “I want you to try.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He then opened his eyes and faced the light as he said, “Like I said, looking out this window, just now, my memories of seeing this planet right before I was shipped off to basic training, just came back to me. But the strange thing is…if you had asked me about that memory yesterday, I couldn’t have described it for you…it’s like it didn’t even exist until this very moment.”
Jori smiled as she put her head on his chest. “I’m like that when I look at old picture albums…memories that were suppressed in my mind come leaping back unexpectedly.”
“You don’t understand,” He said with a sigh. “They told me that my combat suit might screw up the wiring in my brain…they told me the medicine would block the horrible memories of war…but they never said that my tour of duty in The Military would cost me the memories I wanted to keep.”
She patted his chest and looked at him with sorrow-filled eyes.
He looked emotionally drained and spiritually lost as he said, “Tomorrow morning…I’m meeting with an Ailanian Law Enforcement Official. He’s someone I grew up with. I knew this guy…I was close to him. I know that I knew him well…but as I stand here with you…I can’t even begin to describe one thing about him. I couldn’t tell you even one thing that we did together. A logical person would assume I would remember lots of things about who we were as kids and what we did together. But I don’t remember anything.”
“Ron, that doesn’t make any sense,” She said with a sympathetic voice that still somehow conveyed her sense of being skeptical.
“Of course it doesn’t…but the reality is that when I was briefed on Earth for this mission, and they told me that I would be sharing command of this mission with a friend that I went to high school with…one would just assume I’d be thrilled…but his name and his face didn’t register…for the life of me, I couldn’t remember him. Then, about half way through this trip…I started to remember some things.”
“Like what?” She said with curiosity.
“Just stupid things like…gym class and playing games after school, pointing to girls walking down the street and commenting on their good looks. Surfing…I remembered how Captain Moke Kalapana and I used to love surfing. And then…I remembered some things that we did together…which don’t make any sense at all…and then, what’s worse…I remembered something this morning…”
Harris felt himself gasping for a breath; the fear was beginning to paralyze him.
“What?”
“I remember all the e-mails I wrote to him when I was in basic training, and when I was in combat in the Nexus system…” Harris realized that his lower lip was trembling and he closed his eyes and breathed even harder.
“What is it Ron?”
“I remembered how they were all sent back to me…return to sender. I remember how I tried to call him…and he didn’t want to speak to me. I think I did something to this guy…something that must have been unforgivable…something that he hates me now for. I know I’ve done a lot of selfish things in my life but…I thought he was my friend.”
He cringed as he thought to himself, “What did I do, to make my best friend hate me?”
His mind began to draw him into the memory of the beach and how the night skies made the water look pitch black. He remembered the voice, “Iki, do we have to do this?” He remembered the sound of the gunshots, and the sight of the blood on the sand.
He gasped as the memory ended, as if the film had run out of the mental movie projector.
“Ron?” She said as she shook his arm, “Ron? Are you alright?”
As suddenly as the anxiety attack came, it left, and Harris smiled at her. “Yes, I’m alright.” He looked over toward the corner of the room. “Oh Jori, I am so sorry…I almost forgot why I brought you here in the first place.” He let go of her and briskly walked over to the corner of the room to where a monitor was placed in the wall.
She smiled and said, “What are you doing?”
Moments later, some familiar music began to softly trickle out of the speakers in the room. Jori felt her face lighting up. “Oh my gods! It’s…tiddlywink music. Where did you find this?”
Harris smiled as he walked back towards her. He reached out his hand as the obscure Aurorian folk music began to sound a bit jazzier. “This might be our last chance…to dance.”
They embraced and slowly began turning around. Their feet were soon shuffling lightly and they started taking baby steps in a circle as the band played on.
Location: EMS Signet
Standard Ship Time: 1300 Hours.
“Hey Jhett,” Bloke’s voice said calmly over the com. “We gotta get this show on the road.”
“I hear ya,” Jhett said as he folded the com in half and put it into his jacket pocket. Less than an hour ago, they had shut down the prison ship’s engines, setting it adrift in space. When he arrived at the main storage hanger, Jhett saw how Bloke was busy fine tuning a radar scanner underneath the belly of the small spacecraft that was about to take them out of here.
“Are we ready?” Jhett asked as he walked up the shuttle craft’s gangplank.
“I believe so,” Bloke said as he closed up the panel.
During the course of the day, they had dismantled every important item they could find on the prison ship, in order to modify this tiny vessel for the flight back to Ailana. Jhett felt leery about that as he walked up the gangplank into the small ship’s hold.
“Let’s just pray the duct tape holds,” The enormous man said as he began to walk up after Jhett.
The shuttle was cramped, even for just two people. But Jhett felt right at home as he sat down in the pilot’s seat and felt a brief sensation of ecstasy wash over him.
“Freedom, there is no better feeling in the whole universe.”
Jhett took a deep, soothing breath, and after he exhaled, the reality of the situation fully set in. They were about to blast off a carrier ship, into deep space, in a tiny shuttle craft that was not designed for this sort of a voyage. Luckily, the distance between their current location and Ailana was actually short in terms of space travel and did not require a jump into faster than light speeds. However, Jhett’s piloting, would have to be extremely precise, getting lost on the way there, was simply not an option.
“O.K.,” Jhett thought out loud. “Do we have enough food?”
“I sure hope so.”
“Goddamn it! I’m serious!”
Bloke looked at him with a calm face and smiled. “I was able to make about five liters of that ‘crew stew’, plus we have lots of dinner rolls along with canned beans and vegetables Oh yeah, I packed you some tofu sandwiches. Just as long as this ship doesn’t run out of fuel…we’ll be fine.”
“Man…it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to enjoy some good old fashion Ailanian worm casserole. I can’t wait to get back there,” Jhett licked his lips and started the ship’s engines.
Bloke’s face seemed to light up as he enthusiastically said, “can we go get some Zoppy’s chili when we get there?”
Jhett sat in silence for a few seconds as he contemplated slapping his comrade. He then decided against using violence and simply reached for compromise as he said, “Sure…sounds good.”
After letting the little shuttle warm up for about ten minutes, Jhett pulled back on the throttle. The small shuttle lifted into the air and glided across the floor of cargo bay. It was soon engulfed by the blackness of space.
“Were did you put those explosive charges?” Jhett asked.
“By the anaxium recirculation system,” Bloke replied. “Right next to the largest storage tank.”
Jhett realized that he and Bloke had been about halfway through a demolitions course when they had both decided to defect from The Military.
“I’m sure that will work,” Jhett said as he dialed a few buttons on the ship’s console com. There were a couple of buzzing sounds and Jhett said aloud, “Bronson, Herb…this is my way of saying thank you…but your services…are no longer required. Don’t get me wrong…we think you’re great guys and we admit, we couldn’t have gotten the work without you. But in the end…keeping you on the payroll means less money for us…and that, my friends, is simply the kind of enlightened thinking that creates good Capitalists…and only allows the strong to survive. Goodbye gentlemen…it was nice knowing ya.”
There were cries of anguish from the com as Bloke pushed the button on the detonator. The yellow-blue explosion started at the rear of the ship and crept its way toward the front, ripping the hull apart and spreading metallic debris everywhere.
Jhett smiled as he watched the explosion dissipate, leaving nothing but empty space behind.
Location: Moke’s House.
Ailanian Standard Time: 0500 Hours.
“Have you lived your life with the sole intent of impressing others?”
In the dream, Moke remembered the smell of wood, and the taste of blood in his mouth. He remembered the tears falling down his young face as he sat in front of the large desk and watched as a very large Kupano man lit up a big cigar and smiled at him.
He recalled how the large man said, “Looks like my boys beat you up pretty bad, Moke Kalapana. What did you do to piss em’ off?”
Moke remembered trying not to sob as he said, “I guess they don’t like me because I’m a Royal.”
“You’re a Royal?” The large man said as he puffed on the cigar. “Who’s side?”
“My father was Mo’okuli Kalapana…”
“General Kalapana? The guy who took all those Kupano soldiers to Farcry and got em’ killed?”
Moke only remembered how he put his head down and started sobbing again.
The large man said, “Son…ya gotta stop crying now…it’s time for you to become angry…”
“Are you the school principle?”
Moke remembered how the man chuckled and said, “The principle? Naw, I ain’t the principle. You could say that I am the…head master…and I make the rules around here. Them boys that beat ya up…why are they so bashed and bruised? What did you do to them?”
“I didn’t do anything to them…it was Iki who beat them all up…he was defending me.”
“Iki?” The large man asked, “Ya mean the blonde haired, human kid did all that to them boys who was kicking the tar and feathers out of you? That human boy is one tough cookie…how do you know him?”
“He’s my best friend.”
“Oh, he’s your best friend, huh? Well, Moke…if you got a best friend like him…you ain’t got much to worry about…that is until your best friend ain’t around no more. It looks to me like you better learn how to stand up for yourself. Ya can’t go letting these other boys around here make you look like some kind of chump. Didn’t your daddy teach you how to fight?”
“He did, sir…but he couldn’t teach me much because he was gone so much.”
The large man said, “Well…how about if I teach you how to fight. Even better yet…how about if I teach you how to become mean…so mean in fact, that no one will ever mess with you again. Would ya like that? You Royals get told what to do a lot…your whole life is dedicated to service, to your Royal duty. Your father did his Royal duty…and look where it got him. Doesn’t that make you mad?”
“Yes sir.”
“Oh I bet it does…I bet it makes you so mad, that you would like to go and punch someone…and that’s why them boys of mine went and started kicking your little, Royal ass. Tell me the truth, son… it was you who went and picked a fight with em’ because you’re…so angry.”
Moke remembered how he felt a chill going down his spine as he clenched his angry fists.
The large man said, “Well, how about if I give you a reason to be angry…and how about if I give you someone to punch? I could use a strong boy like yourself…and I know I could use your friend. You boys could help me out…I got a job for you, son. How about if you do something for me? How about you do something for me, that might just make you feel better about yourself?”
In the dream, Moke remembered the skinny man, who was tied to the chair. He could see how the large man with the cigar was walking slowly around the room as Moke felt the anger inside of him growing.
Moke remembered how the large man with the cigar was saying, “Ya see, boys…this is a man who says that you need to be patient and just wait for what is coming to ya. Now he owes me money…and some of that money he owes me…I’d love to be able to give it to you since I like you both so much. I tell you what…why don’t you both take turns hitting this guy in the face for me…and when he feels like telling me where I can find my money, you can stop hitting him. That is, if you really want to.”
Moke remembered how he felt his hands curling into tight, destructive fists. He remembered the rage he felt as he punched the terrified man over and over again. He remembered how he cried out in rage as the man tied to the chair cried out for mercy. He recalled how the blood looked on the floor. He remembered how the man, who was mercilessly bound to the chair, begged him to stop.
He then remembered how the moon looked on the beach that night, and how the words felt sticky in his mouth as he said, “Iki…do we have to do this?”
“Yes we do.”
Moke gasped and sat up in bed as the sound of gunshots woke him from his dream.
He starting panting with fear as he thought to himself, “Oh my gods…what have I done? What did we do? I’m so sorry, Iki…I am so sorry for what happened to you…and I am so sorry…for what I am going to have to do now so that no one ever finds out what we did all those years ago! I’ve got secrets that I need to keep…secrets that could destroy me if the wrong people found out about them…and I can’t let anyone find a way to convince you to tell them what you know. What I need to do won’t be easy on either of us, my friend…but if I don’t go through with this plan of mine…the results could be disastrous. Oh gods, please forgive me…I didn’t know my sins would lead to this!”
Location: Downtown Polynea.
Ailanian Standard Time: 0600 Hours.
“So tell me more about this plan of yours, Kenny,” Charlie said as they slowly drove away from the scene of their latest online bank robbery. Kenny had transferred some unsuspecting pseudo-capitalist’s savings account into a branch account that he would be able to easily launder for Awa and his gang.
“I haven’t worked out all the details yet…but I can tell you that it involves art,” Kenny said as he thought about how nice it would be to sleep all day long after three hard nights of work.
“Art?” Charlie said as he tried not to yawn. “How is art going to help you spring your wife and kid from that Moralist prison?”
“Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten that far yet…but trust me, Charlie…if you stick with me…and help me out…I will make it worth your while. I promise.”
“Hell yeah, you can count me in,” Charlie said as he bit his lip and thought. “I better start working another angle with this guy…we need to locate some Cutz producers real soon. I don’t know how much longer I can keep this little act up.”