The Maintenance Man Book 2: Another Repair

Chapter 6

Assti opened her eyes slowly. Her head was throbbing, the sun was setting and the light was harsh and glaring. Assti estimated she'd been out about two hours. Slowly looking down her body, she saw the little bastard hadn't tried to molest her. Not more than twenty feet away from her, his slightly rotund body was perched on a ruined section of wall.

Again she tried not to gag from the rancid aroma of filth that emanated from his body. Trying to not make a sound she tested her hands, they were bound? What the hell? How in the hell had he gotten her shield deactivated?

Tantka was feeling pretty confident, now that he was on the planet. He had a fool proof plan to kill fart boy and as an added bonus he'd captured that assassin bitch who'd stalked him for months. A sound behind him drew his attention to the skinny, flame haired beauty, she certainly was looking pissed at him, good, she deserved it after chasing him for so long.

"By now I'm sure you're wondering how I got through your shield," Tantka said, chuckling at the death looks she was throwing at him. "It was quite simple really, I have hacked almost all of fart boys programs, he's so predictable. After I immobilized you, I just removed it, though it isn't as good as this one, I can tell it's one of fart boys."

Assti hoped the signal she'd sent out before she was hit had been picked up so her sister and Sam would know where she was.

"Now I have a present for you," Tantka sneered, "I thought since you went to the trouble of chasing and finding me, I'd give you just what you deserve, plus it's about how I feel about you."

With that Tantka dropped his pants revealing an extremely small cock and balls, aiming the head at her face he commenced pissing in her face and hair. The smell was about to over come her. She tried to keep her mouth closed as long as possible. Finally, a little made it past her lips.

The smell and the taste was just too much, she began to vomit uncontrollably. Laughing, Tantka began to rub his piss into her hair.

"There you go, you bitch, just what I think of you, hardly even worth the effort to piss on," Tantka spat at her, "serves you right for trying to kill me."

Assti could hardly hear him, she was vomiting so bad. Finally stopping, she looked up at him as he pulled his pants up.

"I have a confession to make," Assti gasped out, "I was going to just kill you, but I think I'll kill you as slowly as I can. I'm going to enjoy listening to you scream and beg for me to kill you, but it won't come for a long, long time."

Laughing even harder, Tantka replied, "You keep dreaming you whorey bitch, as if I'll ever give you the chance again!"

Tanyka turned to study the capital city. Once it was dark he could make his move. Looking at the power supply, he thought he had just enough to complete his mission.

Sam and Nissie had been trying to locate Assti for over two hours, they'd seen her reach a certain point, then she stopped her comp, said she'd been hit by a stinger type of beam. Nissie was extremely worried when Mark awoke, running to him, she threw herself at him crying, she thought her sister was in trouble.

Sam pulled up the last conversation with Assti, "I need Mark, that little bastard has a shield!" Nissie said, her voice almost frantic.

Mark thought for a few moments. Snapping his fingers, he turned to Nissie, "I think he still has mother's comp. It was never recovered and I assumed it had been destroyed. The thing he doesn't realize is that I built that piece of equipment, I know all the codes, no matter what he has done to it. After all, I wrote all the basic programs for it."

Mark walked over to a comp that was showing constant readings, sitting down he began to type at a furious pace.

Sam was trying to keep up with what he was doing but Mark's pace was a dizzying one.

"There that ought to do it," Mark said with a small smile on his face, "In about an hour he won't have anything."

Sam was finally starting to understand all the commands that her brother was typing, but how the hell had he done it so fast? Looking up, Mark saw Sam with a look of confusion on her face. Puzzled for a moment, he stopped to ask her what was wrong.

"I've been helping you and have been your partner for over six years, and still to this day I can't even begin to enter or write code even half as fast as you do," Sam replied.

Chuckling, Mark smiled, then answered. "I was doing this for years before I left the school. We went through exercises an hour every day for years till reading and writing it this fast was almost normal."

Sam continued to stare at her brother hardly believing a word he said, "alright, can you show them to me?"

Mark's face beamed, now he knew his sister was finally serious about maintenance work. "Sure, Sam, after we rescue Assti, no problem." This made his sister smile, something he loved to see.

Nissie still wasn't convinced that her sister was going to be safe. "Mark, we've got to rescue Assti! There's no telling what he could have done to her!" Nissie said, almost beside her self with worry.

Mark saw the worry on her face and immediately began to type on the comp, again at blazing speed. Moments later, Mark's face held a grim expression.

"Damn it!" Mark suddenly yelled. Nissie rushed to his side, the worry on her face even more clear. "That bastard has captured her!"

Nissie clutched at Mark's arm, "we have to help her! If Tantka has captured her, then it means her tech failed!" Nissie collapsed in a heap at Mark's feet, crying for her sister.

Holding Nissie close, Mark whispered in her ear, "I will personally go get her, that bastard is through hurting my family!" With that Mark headed out the door without a word to anyone else, though the fact that he took his full pack was also not lost on anyone.

A mile away, Tantka dragged Assti to her feet, her face bruised and swelling, a small trickle of dried blood near her mouth. Laughing, Tantka roughly pushed her forward, her left eye blacked and swollen shut from his savage kick, her right slightly swollen from his slap. She did her best to not stumble as he began a hurried pace. Mark had been tracking Assti's com and comp since he'd left. Damn it! She'd never put the last two updates he sent her into her equipment.

Mark was less than a thousand yards from them, when he found the spot he'd been looking for. Looking at his watch, he silently cursed, the shut down codes he'd enacted hadn't had time to work yet. Watching their position, Mark knew he'd have to time this almost perfect, he couldn't risk using the probes. Tantka might not be the best, but he was far from stupid, from what Mark was reading, Tantka had some type of probes of his own, though they were far, too far away to make any difference. Any moment now. Seconds later, Assti first rounded the darkened corner, followed extremely close by Tantka.

Mark stepped out behind Tantka without a sound, pressing the cold barrel of a plasma pistol to the back of Tantka's head.

"I was going to say don't move, but in your case, PLEASE move, I am more than done with you, you savage traitor!" Mark snarled, pressing the pistol even harder into the back of Tantka's head.

"My, my, fart boy came himself, should I be honored? Drop the weapon or I'll kill this fucking assassin bitch!" Tantka growled back, holding the knife he had held at her back, now across her throat.

"I don't know why you are so damn smug. That comp is my invention, I wrote all the codes. I built it. I know ALL the hidden codes, no matter what you think you did to it." Mark snapped back, hoping the codes kicked in soon.

Mark could see that Assti's comp was finally starting to kick in, the bruising on her face was starting to lessen, plus she looked at Mark with a glimmer of understanding at his last statement. Mark watched as she slowly edged away from Tantka, as much as she could. Suddenly a tone erupted from the comp on Tantka's wrist.

Assti used Tantka's momentary lapse to break free. His eyes wide, Tantka kicked out, making Mark jump. Tantka scrambled away, not unlike a crab. Mark cursed himself for falling for Tantka's trick.

Mark rounded the corner behind Tantka, but stopped short when there was no sign of him! Looking quickly at his comp, Mark saw no reading of him. Switching over readings, Mark soon found that Tantka was heading into the city at a rapid rate. Helping Assti to her feet, they made their way to his waiting speeder. How in the hell had Tantka gotten a speeder out here, waiting for him? Damn it! That was what Mark had thought was stray debris. He'd have to fix that later. They'd just made it to his speeder when Assti stopped him.

"I don't want Nissie to see me like this, I can feel the med section of my comp healing me, but it isn't fast enough. Catch that bastard. No scratch that, kill that bastard. No fucking mercy, just kill him." Assti said, an almost begging anger to her voice.

Mark nodded, his own anger starting to mount, it was time to end this. He'd made a promise to his children, his wives and to several people who were close to his family. Opening his com, he warned Sam and Nissie to prepare and make sure they, the children and the King had their com shields set to auto activate.

Mark and Assti arrived only minutes after Tantka but it was almost impossible to track him now.

Mark could see that the swelling was half of what it was, but Assti still refused to see her sister till she was healed more. Mark agreed, though he wasn't sure of the cover story that he was going to use. Walking in, Mark headed to the comp, almost ignoring Nissie and Sam, his anger more than apparent on his face.

"Did you get to her in time? We weren't able to get clear readings." Sam inquired, Nissie standing directly behind her, the hope clearly apparent on her face.

Mark had never been much of a liar and truly disliked those that lied to him, so, as always, he told the honest truth.

"Yes, I got to her in time." Mark started, holding up his hand to quiet Nissie before she started, "she asked for a little time to heal before she comes in. Okay? It was her request not mine."

Nissie nodded, it sounded just like her sister, thinking that Nissie was too delicate to see her hurt or weak.

Again, with blazing speed, Mark had well over half the lock down procedures done when he heard his son yelling. Rushing to that part of the building, he saw Arthur against the wall, his shields at full intensity. Little Arthur was crying, in hushed tones he said, "I tried to stop him Papa. He had this weapon that pushed me, then finally caused my shield to pin me to this spot. I tried to stop him, he took Catrina, I was showing her how to set the auto on her comp when he grabbed her. I'm sorry Papa." Little Arthur hung his head, afraid his father would be ashamed of him.

Gently nudging his face up, Arthur could see the pride on Mark's face, "You did extremely well son, again I promise you, I won't let that bad man hurt your sister or anyone else ever again."

Tantka needed a hostage if he was going to make it out alive. Ah! Children! Good, he hated children, especially little children. Grubby, little, filthy wastes of space in his opinion. Hearing the boy explain about the auto activate, he quickly grabbed the girl. The boy's shield snapped up, firing the stinger beam, it only pushed, then pinned the boy to the wall. Damn it! fart boy had adjusted for the beam, well, no matter. Pulling the struggling girl from the room, Tantka ran as fast as he could for his speeder.

Mark wasn't too far behind Tantka, not with Tantka having to hold a struggling Catrina. Making his speeder, Tantka saw Mark round a corner behind him, firing a few shots off had Mark ducking as Tantka shot off.

Cursing himself, Mark grabbed the fastest speeder he could find and took out after him, knowing that Tantka was heading for his ship.

"Sam," Mark said speaking into his com, "have the shuttle prepped to meet me in case he lifts off the planet.'

"You have to get that bastard," Sam cried, "I won't have our daughter harmed by him."

Mark nodded and agreed, pushing the speeder to it's limit he was soon within sight of Tantka. Damn it! Mark thought Tantka was too damn close to his ship, God only knows what traps he's set up near by.

Tantka suddenly stopped. Mark could see that he was struggling. Good, Catrina wasn't making his attempted get away easy at all. Good girl.

Turning and seeing Mark's fast approach, Tantka's face was a small mask of terror. Shoving Catrina back out the door, Mark could see her shield was active, good she was okay. More concerned about his daughter than Tantka, Mark swooped in, grabbing her as he rocketed away, barely missing being singed by Tantka's ships exhaust.

Racing back, Mark left Catrina with Sam and Nissie. Running to his shuttle, Mark broke several windows with his emergency lift off as he left the planet's surface. Ah good! The tracker he'd planted earlier on his and the family's last planet was still working. Accelerating, Mark could see that Tantka's ship was indeed fast, but Mark had no doubt that he could catch him. Again, Mark had to push his shuttle almost to the breaking point to catch up to Tantka.

For two days Mark slowly drew closer to Tantka's alien ship. It almost reminded Mark of an earth beetle shape, colored green, apparently a favorite color of the Styrox. Finally within weapons range, Mark still wasn't sure his shuttle had enough power to damage Tantka's ship. Just as Mark was about to fire, a proximity alarm went off. Shit!

Tantka had been running for the Styrox fleet, now he was within range of them to get reinforcements. Firing off a few shots, Mark smiled when the first two actually hit Tantka's engines, though it didn't slow him that much, Mark knew it would completely screw up Tantka's day.

A com beep caught Mark's attention, "Mark!" Came the space leader's voice, "I thought we'd seen the last of you for a while when you left."

Sighing Mark replied, "No, I chased Tantka back to King Rufus's planet. The creep has the Styrox tech. His ship healed itself. The little bastard almost got my daughter and my sister in law, I've missed him three times now. I won't miss again, given the chance."

Nodding the Leader agreed, "Anything we can do to assist?"

Thinking a moment, Mark got a plan, "I think you can." With that Mark went into detail about the plan he'd just come up with.

The leader's eyes got wide at the boldness of Mark's plan but agreed it would definitely help end things.

Tantka pushed with what was left of the scout ship's engines into the landing bay of the last Styrox mother ship. As the scout's doors opened, several Styrox soldiers were there to escort him to the Styrox queen.

Great, what does that fucking insect want now, Tantka thought as he trudged along with the soldiers.

The great doors opened unto a throne like room, the huge queen was laying in her recliner type throne, being attended by twenty or thirty smaller, praying mantis like creatures. Sighing Tantka waited for her to notice that he was there, her long green body rippling as she swallowed her meal.

"Stantka," she hissed, motioning him forward with a huge claw, "you promisssed an easssier victory than thisss, we barely made the firssst world. Finally though, we are recsssieving fresssh meat, the ssssub queensss are finally breeding at a fassster rate."

Tantka only nodded. He hoped this didn't take long, he needed to work on his next plan to kill fart boy. "I know great queen," Tantka replied, trying to not let his impatience show, "I've already started more updates to make things easier."

"Thessse upgratesss, asss you call them, had better work, or contract or not, I will be enjoying your flesssh asss my next breeding meal," the queen hissed at him.

Smirking, Tantka wasn't scared, he knew all their secrets. They needed him for more than they let on. Waving him away as if he was beneath her, the queen went back to her meal. Tantka just grunted in disgust as he turned away. Walking away down the long, twisting corridor, new evil, twisted ideas began to form in his twisted mind.

Mark and several techs on board the main empire command ship worked for three days to implement the changes that Mark had drawn up. Though many of them thought he had lost his mind when he detailed everything that they were to help him do and each had to sign a non-disclosure document. The bad thing was, it really didn't matter, he would just erase the memory of all the plans without them even realizing it. Damn shame too, there were a few damn good techs here. Finally everything was ready.

Checking the shuttle for the tenth time, he made sure all the cloaks were working. They were the first part of the plan. Before departing, he gathered all the techs in the hanger bay, personally shaking all their hands before sighing and boarding the shuttle. Shaking his head, he was sorry he had to wipe them of the memories, but from here on out he was on his own, like he'd been when he first started. Departing the command ship, he engaged the cloak almost immediately, shimmering, the shuttle vanished. The leader's mouth hung agape, he'd heard of Mark's invisibility cloak, but he thought it was just another story.

Mark was cruising as slow as he could, he might be invisible, but his energy emissions were visible if he used more than half power. Knowing he didn't have a lot of time, Mark began to fire transmitters in all directions. Watching his screens, well over a thousand had shot out. These immediately divided, then divided again, then again until there were well over ten thousand, each heading to a ship to quietly and quickly attach itself. laying dormant till needed.

Mark had just docked at the command ship when he got a call on his com.

"Mark," Sam voice came, "We've been trying to reach you for days. There's someone here who wants a word with you."

"Daddy?" Came little Catrina's voice, "Thank you for coming after me, please be careful and come back I miss you."

Mark's heart swelled. He loved his children with all his heart, "the same from me and Nissie, you better come back safe and by the way," Sam paused a moment, then got quiet, "you still owe me and I expect to collect."

Mark's face was a huge smile when he opened the shuttle's door, several soldiers escorted him to the space leader on the bridge.

On the bridge, the leader asked if Mark's plan had been successful. Mark only nodded, grim faced at what he knew was about to happen. Knowing the Styrox as well as he did now, he knew they would refuse any attempt at a peaceful solution.

The leader stepped back, letting Mark take center stage, "To the Styrox fleet, this is the Maintenance man, this is your only chance to surrender and be allowed to leave with what fleet you have intact. Refuse and I promise that less than half your fleet will survive."

For a moment there was only dead air, then the com crackled and a huge praying mantis face appeared on the screen, "you have no sssuch tech, you have not the numberssss, therefore you no chance to ssstop us."

"Oh," replied Mark, "alright then," holding up a switch, Mark pressed a few buttons, at first nothing happened, then a few minutes later about a thousand ships exploded.

"You son of a bitch!" came Tantka's voice, "you used the outlawed eradicator!"

Mark only smiled and pressed a few more buttons, another thousand ships exploded a few minutes later.

The Queen on the screen was hissing forcefully as the smaller mantis creatures began to run to their stations.

"So do you leave or do I destroy most of your fleet?" Mark said, his mouth a thin line on his face.

"We will never sssurrender foolisssh human, NEVER!" it hissed at Mark.

"Okay, then you leave me no choice." Mark sighed as he activated all the buttons on the switch.

Tantka was screaming at the top of his voice, working a keypad almost as fast as Mark, then suddenly he was gone.

Within minutes there were explosions all across the view screen of the command ship, the Queen was now clicking rapidly as her ship began to shake as the explosions drew closer to the mother ship. Mark and the crew watched as there was an explosion in the mother ships engines, basically crippling it. Once everything cleared, the debris field was thousands of miles wide. Damn! Tantka must have found a counter, the mother ship should have been completely destroyed. Sighing, Mark was thankful over half the fleet was gone.

A few moments later the Queen came back on the screen, "We concsssede defeat human, we will leave."

The screen went blank, everyone began to cheer as what was left of the Styrox fleet began to limp back the way they'd come. Almost unseen, a ship near the command ship darted past, back toward the center of the empire. A few minutes later four more ships darted past, though these weren't unseen. Mark smiled when he saw the now familiar markings of Assti's ship. The others he thought must be the three slavers. Returning to King Rufus's world, Mark thanked the king and collected his family. On the way home, the com went off. Answering it Nissie and Sam were surprised to see the emperor on the screen.

"Hello Sam, your parents are glad to see that you are safe," turning to Nissie, the emperor slightly bowed. "Mrs. Nissie, thank you for taking such good care of Mr. Mark."

"I know you sire, you aren't ever this nice to commoners," Sam quickly spit out. "What do you want? We've had an extremely trying month, we are tired and going home, so please drop this crap and get on with it. If I owe you an apology, you'll receive it later."

The emperor only sputtered a moment, then cleared his throat. "I need to talk to Mr. Mark."

Nissie shook her head, "Not going to happen, Your Majesty, he's had hardly any sleep the last week, he's sleeping, real sleep for the first time in that week and I'll be damned if I'm going to disturb him for anything. Call back in a few days. We'll almost be home, then he should be awake." Turning away, Nissie quickly turned back and added, "Also if I owe you an apology you will receive it then."

With that she clicked the com off, the emperor's shocked face the last thing seen. Sam and Nissie looked at each other and started giggling, then full out laughing until they could barely stand.

Three days later Mark woke, feeling the best he'd felt in years. The emperor had already called and been dismissed by Sam and Nissie twice.

Walking into the cockpit to relieve the women, the com again sounded. Looking down, both Sam and Nisse sighed. Mark, curious looked over their shoulders also sighing, great, what did that ass want now.

Answering after the women had vacated the cockpit, the emperor's now red face appeared. "It's about time you got up!" The emperor started, "I should..."

"You've been harassing my wives, I haven't even spoken to them yet and I knew from their looks when they saw it was you. I warned you before what I could do to you in the courts, all the shit I have on you is only the beginning. Now, before I actually get angry, what the fuck are you bothering me about?" Mark spat out, feeling more venom than he was actually spewing.

"I have to have something to go to the people with, you are the only one who truly knows what happened. Especially with Tantka returning and broadcasting all th..."the emperor started.

"WHAT? Mark screamed, almost knocking the emperor off his throne. "I'll get back to you, I have a traitor to hunt, the true villain in all this." Again the emperor was shocked when the screen went blank before he got another word out.

A week later, a large shadowy figure crept across the darkened yard of the Maintenance School. Looking cautiously around, it adjusted the comp readings at it's wrist. Slowly the form crept closer to the entrance to the school. Reaching for the door, it gasped when another hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed it's wrist.

"Let me go! I have more right to be here than anyone!" It screamed.

Mark smirked when the lights came on in the yard. As he had expected, Tantka had tried to get in the school to get more tech.

"Now, you son of a bitching traitor you will pay for all the lives that were lost. In the fleet, on Rufus's world and almost the entire population of the last frontier world that the Styrox decimated. I have been given special permission by the emperor himself. As to your execution, I decided," turning Tantka around, Mark watched Tantka's eyes grow huge when he saw Assti.

"I see that you remember me. Good, I remember you. I remember you saying I wasn't worth the effort to piss on. I promised you I wouldn't just kill you. I am going to kill you, yes, but as I said before it will take a long time." Assti spat in Tantka's face. Several of her men immobilized Tantka's hands, finally placing an electric leash and collar around his neck. The final insult, a sign was placed around his neck that simply read; I am a traitor, I go to die.

Assti turned to Mark and thanked him, kissing him on the cheek. Surprising not only Mark, but Assti as well. Then she and her men were gone.

Epilogue
A year later, Nissie gave birth to a girl. A month later, Sam gave birth to a boy. Though both were shocked, they were more than happy. Sam had finally achieved her ninth year status. Nissie had started to invest in a number of enterprises that payed off more than triple. Assti finally let her assistant, Fouchan, take over running the business for her. It was said that the screams that came from her business lasted well over two weeks before they were finally silent. Assti told Mark she had been hard pressed to not kill him quickly.

Little Arthur started to assist Mark when he turned eight, entering the school as soon as he could. His sister, Catrina, became a mediator as famous as her grand father and mother.

As for the other son and daughter, apply named Mark II and Assti, after Nissie's sister, they also became famous. Mark II became the top adviser to the next emperor, this one far less pompous and a hell of a lot better listener. Assti went into a more safety related field, developing completely flame resistant clothing, the best space suits in over thee hundred years plus she had a knack to know exactly what a person wanted almost before they did. In all, the family already rich because of Nissie's investments, soon became very powerful, second only to the emperor.