RIPE & DRAGGERS

CHAPTER 16

She began to feel her implants functioning as it used to. As a survivor, it is tantamount that her cruiser is equipped with medical droids for emergencies. She has never used them so extensively before, but now it is proven to be of real value. This one is a close call indeed.

For almost 48 hrs she laid helpless in the swamp area of Circle city's lower grounds. Only when triggered by a beacon program did her droids started to rescue her and bring her back here to the ship for surgery and implants repair. She laid there in the swamp mud for as long as she can remember; contemplating on her so called career. For a while, it is somehow rewarding for a master of the silent-arms to become an assassin-like hunter. Her successes is quite endearing if you look at it at one point, especially the recognition from the monastery. However, there is another part of her that questions the value of such a job.

Kyoto and her Maltice tribe of ancient bodyguards used to stand for something. It used to represent honor and discipline. A proud tradition of protecting the royalties of her home planet. But now, they are reduced to hands for hire.

And, what's more frustrating about it, is that at the height of her so called career, her supposedly 'trophy-kill' in simple words just obliterated her. She should have died in that fight, to deduct insult to her shame but she didn't. That Runkan spared her. Was it mercy? Or cruelty to leave her there to die? Alone and covered in mud.

It is very odd indeed for a Runkan to leave an enemy alive. Seven great wars in their history tell the whole galaxy that a Runkan warrior never leaves an enemy stronghold intact, nor take prisoners for that matter. In the battlefield, it is a known legend that you either kill or be killed by a Runkan. There is no middle result. This is why everyone recognizes the Runkan superiority.

So why would he not kill her? Is it because its peace time? Or the Runkan agenda has changed over the past years?

Too much question lurks into her troubled mind. It is all compressing at the same time. This led her to pursue her next course of action. Enough with the bounties for now. Something about her last prey intrigues her and she will find out why.

"Lili... set course for Quant system at curve-jump half speed." She said to her on-board AI.

She will find out why a Runkan hired a hunter to kill another Runkan. One that surpassed her skills and spared her life. She will know more about Gener, who is probably on his way to the Rikish Quant colony, she thought.

Little did she know that the guy she's looking for is actually sleeping in Euclid's quarters at the same moment her cruiser made the curve-jump to the Quant system.

Gener's ex-wife brought him here to recuperate while she prepares for departure herself. Euclid is a member of the council like Bob. Since she divorced Gener a year ago, she had more time to devote herself to politics and serving the capital. Now that she learned of Pedro's plan for war against the Rikish, it caught her attention as to why her ex-husband would be so interested in such a matter that is almost at the edge of the Runkan sovereignty. It is simply too far and too remote to even involve the council for a session.

It is only when the notion of genocide did it occurred to her that Pedro has grown to God-complex disorder. A somewhat both rare and common mind set for back-draggers reaching middle age. The same disorder suffered by his genetic grandfather Dualen, when the latter tried to attack the Brahm planet by his own regiment alone; causing thousands of lives in the process.

This mythical side effect of the powers of the Runkan has added more to the extinction of the specie than those of the actual enemies.

And the war criminal Dualen must be apprehended. Only a back-dragger such as herself may be able to do that, otherwise Dualen and his delusional lab-grandson would cause the galaxy more turmoil than she could imagine.