Begin at the beginning, Scarls or we'll never get anywhere," said Kayden, the closest thing to a friend I have on this shithole of a planet. It was a farming world. Emphasis on the was. When the rebellion started the necessary pesticides stopped arriving and the crops broke down. People starved and died and turned to crime. Eventually a tenuous alliance solved the shortages. Living here is like living on the edge of a razor. Uncertain.
"Where is the beginning Kayden, that's the whole problem. We don't know when to start," I reply, pouring over the holo-map in front of us.
"Start at the dawn of time." That gets a chuckle from me. Kayden's one of the few that can make me laugh anymore. Not since my father died.
"Seriously though you need to tell me what you saw," he continues, his ex-cop side peeking through for a minute.
"It started when my comcaster died. That in itself wasn't worrying, just an empty battery. What was worrying was the four armed men," I explain, my good humour vanishing with the thought of my father.
"Even more worrying was the fact that they brought automatic weapons to bear on my head, the slight warming from the high power laser sights playing across my head."
That was when the hail of bullets started. We both dived for cover behind the bar we were sitting at, drawing our highly illegal sidearms and popping off shots over the top. A grenade rolled next to Kayden's arm. FWOOMP! The explosion hurled him into me with bone breaking force.
"You're coming to meet the boss," it's a gravelly voice, rough and self-serving to the point of complete apathy. The butt of a rifle reared up above my face and my vision shut down...
*************
"Mother! What in all that is holy are you doing here!"
"Saving you're sorry ass Kayden, ungrateful as usual," she retorted, lounging in a plush office chair with an e-cig in one hand.
"Tender motherly love isn't really your strong-point mum. So what do you want," I ask, not forgetting that she's a gangster first and parent second.
"Is it so inconceivable that I might harbour a shred of affection for you even after all this time?" she asked, something that might be hurt flickering across her face.
"What's inconceivable is that you have more affection for me than for your profits, mother!" I'm nearly shouting now, all the rage from the last 5 years welling up behind my eyes,"you left a 14 year old in a hole with a knife for protection and expect him to come back to you like a puppy on a leash and do your dirty work! ARE YOU INSANE!"
"I don't want you to do my dirty work, I want to keep you safe! War is coming to this mudball and you will be forced to pick a side. And who do you pick, the fat old governor who lounged in his ivory tower while we starved and died,or the core world bastards who would tax the very air we breathe if they could?" I shut up fast after that.
Suitably mollified, I ask
"How do you plan to keep us safe from that mother? Even if you could rally every criminal in the galaxy you couldn't stand against the core worlds. The rest of the hegemony tried and they're being crushed into the ground. You have nothing but obsolete equipment and afew boltholes to run to." She grins, that familiar self satisfied smile spreading across her face like a disease.
"I don't plan to stop them, I plan to hide. We know this place better than they ever will and we can slip through a cordon better than the best official," that word is nearly spat,"agent ever could."
"Hiding, that's not like you, usually you see a problem and stab it repeatedly in the back."
"Oh I plan to, but for now I don't know nearly enough about this particular problem's defenses," that's the Selena I know, cocky and full of herself but not stupid. She jumps up out of her chair and marches to the doorway. Turning at the last second she asks,"You coming, or are you still in awe of my master plan?"
*************
"Kayden!" I run towards him and wrap him in my arms.
"Did they drug you or something Scarls, you don't seem yourself." He's joking around but he's right. I'm really not sure why I care so much. We've never been anything more than friends and I like it like that. I let him go and look him in the face
"Who was that swaggering whore anyway?" I ask, still confused as to why we were abducted.
"My mother," he says flatly
"Oh I'm sorry I-I didn't.."
"No it's fine," he leans in and whispers in a mock-conspiratorial tone,"in fact I agree with you."
For the second time that day I'm laughing - practically a new record.
"If she's your mother, then why did she feel the need to drag us both here?" My voice is unsure, we've never really talked about our pasts.
"Let's just say that she's not the greatest or most subtle of parents, apparently she wants me safe and that of course means sending men with automatic weapons after us," his voice holds nothing but a desire for sleep.
"Kayden you look a state, go grab some sleep and I'll take the first watch for once," my voice is also shattered from lack of sleep but still, it always is. He says nothing just crawls into one of the bunks in the room I was put in. I settle in for a long night, I have no intention of waking him for second watch, or third, or fourth for that matter.
YOU ARE READING
Vantura: Collosi
Science FictionA storm has come to the galaxy. As rebellion engulfs the outer colonies and the core world coalition scrambles to crush them an unlikely trio band together to escape the wrath of Admiral Janz Chester.
