Deirdre Chen: Saviour of the Multiverse

Epilogue

Ehutu

“Ow, my uterus!” Bengo yelped as he fell onto the container. His elbow jammed between two grooves, the sound of it went through Ehutu, but she couldn’t think of a better way of getting him down.
  “No Bengo, it’s your humerus.”
  “No Ehutu, male Lormians give birth, from our elbows.”
  “I stand corrected,” Ehutu said, looking away in embarrassment. Maybe she should have stood beneath Bengo. Having rendered him possibly infertile, Ehutu deactivated the electric restraints, allowing Bengo to move his arms and stand himself up.
  “Sorry about the bounty hunters, I only found out after they’d kidnapped the Chen girl. Speaking of which, how did she know I was up there?”
  “Something to do with a penguin, I still don’t understand.”
  As if reading her mind, Bengo asked, “What happens to them?” Bengo pointed over to an unconscious Manea and Mengo, who was still nattering to himself.
  “Prison for your sister; psych ward for your brother.” Mengo posed no threat now. Prison would be a fruitless waste of time. Mengo would not be conscious of the punishment he was receiving.
  Bengo exhaled through his nose and nodded.
  “You are going to keep your end of the bargain, aren’t you, Ehutu?”
  “Certainly.” Ehutu took the mind wipe out of her belt and twisted it in half, finally realising why Deirdre compared it to an Oreo. She placed each half onto Bengo’s temples. Fluorescent blue flowed like rivers under the skin of his head. Bengo wanted a clean mind; his memories were now like limbs turned gangrenous by betraying his family. He had always loved them, in spite of their actions. Ehutu would ferry him to a remote world, somewhere tranquil and pretty, a farming planet perhaps. This was an execution. The body would remain, but what is a person if not the product of their memories?
  As Ehutu lay Bengo down, she looked over at Mengo. “Now, what are you on about?”

END