Chapter Fifteen: Killer Instinct

Chapter Fifteen: Killer Instinct

                        Location Unknown

                        World Unknown

            The view of the lake would probably have made a pamphlet for frontier tourism if humans had found it. But they hadn’t, and its natives were far from interested in the panorama. A small semicircle of hooded and robed beings stood atop a monolithic pillar, their arms outstretched and their voices raised in a loud, monotonic chant. In front of them knelt a figure in white armor, his head bowed. Though the armor concealed much of his skin, several large spikes protruded from the back-plate, through custom-made holes. He was chanting something different than they were, at a greater volume. The chanting momentarily intensified, and then stopped. The red-robed priests lowered their arms, and the one at the center of the hemispheric shape began to speak.

            “Rise, son of light,” he intoned. “We give you our blessing on your holy quest. But first, we must ask you to recite your heritage. What is your name?”

            “I have none,” the armored being answered. “I am a mere servant of the Light.”

            “What is your purpose?”

            “To seek and do justice,” he replied.

            “What is justice?”

            “To punish the guilty and defend the innocent.”

            “What is mercy?”

            “Mercy is willful ignorance of wrongs.”

            “Is mercy itself wrong?”

            “Mercy is a just and holy quality.”

            “When is mercy wrong?”

            “When it allows the guilty to do further harm.”

            “Who are the guilty?”

            “All who transgress the Law of Light.”

            “Who transgress this law?”

            “Those who take life, those who approve of its taking, and those who allow those that take life to continue to do so.”

            “Is it wrong to take life?”

            “It is wrong to do so without provocation.”

            The robed being looked intently at him now. “Which Lifetaker do you seek?” He asked.

            “I seek the human infidel,” he answered. “To work his destruction, with the hope that he might taste mercy in death.”

            “What life has he taken, that he should be so punished?”

            “The life of a wayward son, but one who always returned to the fold, and of our brothers, who perished in their holy knighthood,” the armored giant replied. The priest nodded approval.

            “Indeed. Rise, my son,” he commanded. “You have spoken wisely and truly, as one who knows our Law and will keep it. Go now to the southern reaches. Your vessel awaits. Return to Lurcys VI and begin your search. Rest not, my child, until Carademus and your fallen brothers are avenged. They may have been wayward, but they were of the Chosen, and that is not to be taken lightly.”

            “As you wish, your grace,” the creature replied. “Have my weapons been secured?”

            “You have the only weapon you need,” the priest answered. “But yes. We did secure your arms on board.”
            He bowed once more. “I thank you. I shall go.”

            “Be sure of yourself,” the priest advised. “You are a mere warrior no longer. Go, my White Phantom. Bring justice and peace to the fallen.”

            He nodded. “I will not fail.”

            Frontier space

            Ruby Tanner rolled out of her bunk, rubbing her eyes. Artificial red light streamed from plasmid lamps in the ceiling, and for a moment she thought she was in some kind of prison. Then, full memory flooded back to her, and she quickly got back into her fatigues and ran out of her bunk. It took her about ten minutes to find the ship’s food locker. Thankfully, Cipher One had been about to be deployed, so they had forethought to stock the container.

            “See you found the locker.” Ruby whirled around. Twenty was standing in the metal doorway, but something was different about him. With a jolt, she realized it was his eyes. They had gone milky white at some time during the night.

            “What the…” she started.

            “The eyes?” He asked. “Yeah, I can make them change color. Part of this whole deal…” And he suddenly began to shift and change before her eyes. As the stunned girl watched, Twenty…Connor, she corrected herself, suddenly turned into a perfect imitation of her. “Creeps you out, doesn’t it?” Ruby’s heart almost stopped as she realized he was speaking in a perfect imitation of her voice.

            “No…” she looked into her own eyes. “What’d they do to you? How…”

            “Holographic camouflage,” he explained. “It’s worked into me now. That’s why I did what I did so well.” He stepped into the room. “So what’s your story, huh? How’d the Ministry get your hooks into you?”

            “I don’t…” She smirked, grabbing a bread ration out of the locker. “I was eighteen, fresh out of college. I had a boyfriend, an education, a life ahead of me. Then…” Ruby slashed the package open with her combat knife. “His name was Daniel Grisham, and he was a good friend. My best. It turned out he had advanced stomach cancer, and I tried to save him. See, I was a med student, and I thought I could. In combing research, I ran across something I thought might save him, but it didn’t. The Ministry had seen my work, and they made a deal with me. Save his life if I gave them mine. I agreed, and that’s exactly what they did. They saved him, but they never let me see him again. Turned out that wrecked the boy. He went and joined the army, where he died during the Battle of Earth. After that, I just…didn’t care. And now…now I don’t know what I feel.” Twenty lowered his eyes for a moment, and then he put his head in his hands.

            “No…” he whispered. “I…” He didn’t speak for several minutes, but when he did, he was crying. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I killed him.”

            Ruby blinked, not comprehending. “What?”

            “The reason humanity lost the Battle of Earth was me,” he explained. “The Ministry had me detonate the Omega bomb behind human lines. Sixteen million people died instantly, Ruby. And the contagion killed billions more.”

            Her eyes widened, and she suddenly felt a strange stinging behind her eyes. “So you…”

            “No,” Twenty said. “That wasn’t it. I shot your boyfriend. He tried to defuse the bomb, Ruby. And I told him to stop. I didn’t want to but…” his hand went to his chest. “The Premier almost detonated the bomb then. When I heard the beep, I…I panicked. That was the first time I shot him. Then, he told me to do it again. I didn’t want to, but the first one was off. He was going to suffer before he died, Ruby. And the Premier threatened to kill me. I know that doesn’t make it right, but that’s why I did what I did. I killed him, Ruby. Snapped his neck. He didn’t feel a thing, if that’s any comfort. I know it probably isn’t, and I know you probably hate me now…” She sank against the wall, feeling numb.

            “Did you know?” She whispered. “Did you know in the Crucible, that it was me?”

            He shook his head. “I didn’t. See, Daniel only said he had a girlfriend. He begged, you know…” pausing, he thumbed a scar on his cheek. “That changed things. It was after that that I decided that I was done. And that’s how I met you.”

            “So you saved me because you killed my boyfriend,” she said numbly.

            He nodded. “You have to hate me for this.”

            “I don’t,” she said. And, with a jolt, she realized it was true. She didn’t hate him, even though she knew he’d told her the absolute truth. “But I don’t understand why the Ministry wanted so many people dead.”

            “Unification,” Twenty explained. “Humanity wouldn’t have gathered behind a war effort without a horrific catastrophe. So he picked me as the scapegoat. He’d tested the chemical component of Omega on me before, so he knew it wouldn’t kill me outright. Hurt like you wouldn’t believe, but I didn’t die.” He looked away, his mouth set in a thin line. “Used to think I was lucky for that. Now I think it’s the other way around.”

            She shook her head. “Don’t say that. You did bad things. Okay, you did awful things, the kind that make men do worse things to themselves. But you’re alive now. Haven’t you ever thought there might be a reason for that?” He snorted.

            “Tell me, sweetheart,” he growled, his voice even lower than normal, “have you ever asked yourself what the reason is behind every war and squabble between men and aliens? Ever asked yourself why, when you’re holding a dying nine-year-old girl in your arms, a child you killed, why that child had to die and scum like you lived? Ever watched as men die every day, innocent, good, honest men, and you still live? Ever wanted to find the reason behind evil? Evil itself defies reason, Ruby. It’s irrational. I am evil, and therefore irrational.”

            “That’s what you think?” She asked. “You think that you’re evil beyond saving? That somehow you’ve already doomed yourself?” Twenty scowled and cracked his neck.

            “No,” he replied. “but you have to want to be saved first, don’t you? The worst thing about being the Premier’s little murder-dog was that I understood why he was doing it. It made logical sense to me. And, in his place, it’s what I would have done. How do you get past the guilt of knowing that some part of you wanted to do what you were doing? That you willingly committed atrocities? As much as you or I might want to blame the Premier for what I did, it’d be the biggest lie I ever told to say some part of me didn’t savor every shot and slash. What I’m asking, Ruby, is whether or not there’s a point where forgiveness gets benched and justice has to take the field. Because if there is, then someone like me is well past that point.”

            She shrugged. “I can’t honestly answer that, but can you? If you think that justice has to be done, what is justice?”

            “What’s the penalty for murder?” He asked.

            “You can’t be serious,” she protested. “You want to die?” Again, he shook his head.

            “No, I don’t. I’m just saying that I wouldn’t be that sad if I do.”

            “Well, that’s….disturbing,” Ruby said aloud. “Doesn’t any part of you wonder if you might be insane for thinking this way?” Twenty reached into the food locker, grabbed a container of dried fruit, tossed it in the air, and slashed it open, catching it before it or its contents hit the floor.

            “Maybe,” he replied. “But doesn’t sanity seem that way to the insane?”

            Space

            Stefan sat at the controls of the newly loaned, sleek fighter the ICRF had sent his team, tapping his metal fingers idly on the control panel. It had taken several days for them to send a fighter, but Stefan had found the vehicle completely worth the wait. Quad turboplasmid cannons, rockets, sensor and visual cloaking, and more; what else could he have asked for? Plus, the ICRF technicians had sent a fully-loaded weapons locker, from which the team had outfitted themselves. Although most of team were currently resting, Dani was sitting beside him, loading incendiaries for her grenade launcher. She always seemed like she was loading something, which Stefan had classed as a nervous habit.

            “Ever thought about life after this team?” She asked. “What you’d want to do and where?” Stef shook his head.

            “I don’t think that will be a problem,” he said slowly.

            Dani sat up a little straighter. “You think this new plan’s that bad?” She asked.

            “No,” he answered, “I just…have this feeling about this. I think we’re getting in over our heads here, and we don’t even know it.”

            “Then why not bring this up with the team?”

            “Ever tried using feelings in planning a break-in?” He countered. “Not really a great substitute for hard facts.”

            “You could have at least warned us,” Dani pointed out.

            “I am,” he said. “I’m telling you because you can explain it to them in a way I never could. They trust you, Dani. I trust you.” On impulse, she reached up and squeezed his left hand.

            “I trust you, too,” she said. “You know none of us could do this without the other, right? That we all need each other?” He shook his head.

            “Sometimes I wonder if that’s true,” he whispered.

            “Don’t,” she told him. “Even if the others don’t I still need you. So don’t go dying on me or anything.”

            “Is that an order?” He asked.

            “Would it help if it were?” She countered. Stefan shrugged.

            “I’d listen anyway. Isn’t that what friends do?” Dani suppressed a grin. Maybe he wasn’t so inscrutable, she thought. Maybe this metal man had a chink in his armor after all.

            “It is. And it’s good to have friends. Out here, you need all of them you can get.”

            Aft Quarters

            Fourth room

            Tyler Kane was sitting in his bunk cross-legged, staring at the wall. On a nearby swivel chair, Arthur Brooks was sharpening his machete.

            “Unit for your thoughts?” The hunter asked. Kane shook his head.

            “Just wondering. We’ve been at this for a while now, but we don’t seem any closer to being done. And isn’t that the point of fighting anyway? Being finished?”

            Brooks shrugged. “Isn’t the point of fighting finishing the mission?”

            “That’s another thing,” Kane muttered. “What’s this mission going to cost us, anyway? I mean, the ICRF could easily ask us to die. Are any of us ready for that?”

            Brooks nodded. “I can. Can you not?”

            The other shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, someone once asked me if there was anything in the world I’d die for. I’ve been thinking a lot about that, and I don’t know that I have. And what about the others? Can we really ask that of them? Do we have a right to ask someone to make a sacrifice we can’t?”

            ‘Maybe we should ask the team about this?” Brooks suggested.

            “They probably already know,” Kane told him. “What would that accomplish?”

            Room 2

            Psyn sat alone in her room, crying. Today was her twenty-second birthday, and she was remembering how her father and mother used to celebrate with her. Dani and Stefan had already stepped into the room to wish her a happy birthday, but no one else had remembered. Not that she really faulted them for that; after all, her fact file hadn’t been clear on her exact birth date. Plus, they were all preoccupied anyway, and her birthday probably wasn’t even a marginal concern for them. Her roommate, Natalie, had gone into the communications pod to try to alert the ICRF agents on Cygni Twelve that they were coming and might be able to use a little extra manpower if they could spare it. Having hit up several ICRF caches already, they had arms and rations enough for a small army, but they needed the men to make one up as well. The team was relying on her to negotiate with the ICRF local cell to procure these men, as her father had had significant clout in the organization. Still, Psyn felt daunted by the task. Her brother had been the talker of the family, not her, and now the ICRF was asking her to do the kind of thing that spawned a whole colony of insects in her midsection. She was essentially kicking a hornet’s nest, and she knew it. She was startled out of her reverie by Arthur Brooks sticking his head in the door.

            “Are you all right?” He asked. “Why are you crying?” She shook her head.

            “You wouldn’t understand,” Psyn whispered. “No one understands.”

            “I think I understand just fine,” he put in. “People missed your birthday, and you’ve got problems on top of problems that you’re mentally dealing with that you won’t share because it isn’t something you think we get.”

            She shook her head. “I can’t tell you,” she murmured. Then, she put her hand to his head. “But I can show you.” Suddenly, the world dissolved into a swirling corona of color and thought. What Arthur felt, though, was raw, unbridled emotion. Pain, fear, loss, rage, sadness, and grief, all mixed together in one toxic concoction. There were images too, but he had a hard time following any of them. In all honesty, all he felt was her. In fact, he realized that the whole thing was just her mind, unleashed.

            “Okay,” he called ,shouted, said. He couldn’t tell anymore. “I’ve seen it. I get it. Now stop.” The colors faded, the whooshing noise stopped, and the world suddenly appeared in all its normalcy. “Wait…that was you?”

            She nodded. “Now do you understand why I’m crying?” She asked.

            Arthur shook his head. “What I don’t understand,” he began, tears forming in his eyes, “what I don’t understand is how you ever stopped.”