Pirate Assassin

Page 62

Zack sat there, stunned. "Hostages? What do you mean?" he asked but Elyss was beside herself. "I hate them! I hate the Government for what they've done to us!" she ranted, but kept her voice low. There was such an intensity in her voice and a torrent of angry emotions rushing through her mind that Zack had to fight to keep himself in check.

"What do you.... Elyss, what do you mean hostages?"

"Hostages!" she spat, "My entire system are hostages! All three planets of the Lupin system are kept under trade embargo. We're blockaded, Zack!" She stood with her hands on her hips, staring into the blackness for a while before dropping onto the ground next to Zack.

Finally, Zack mustered some courage. "Why?" he croaked. Elyss drew her knees to her chest. "They were scared."

"Scared? ...Of what?"

"Of what we were. Of what we could've been."

"Huh?" Zack blurted out, confused. Elyss snorted as a shadow of a smile brushed her lips. "To put it simply, we were a threat. To the entire Government. We were a small system but in all aspects, we were a leading force in the galaxy. We are a militaristic system; our army is one of the most well trained and our economy was booming due to us having something everyone wanted," and she held up a small crystal shard, "Cosekite. Its in virtually every handheld weapon in the entire Deltarius galaxy, used to allow plasma and laser bolts to acheive what fancy scientists call the 'piercing point'. Several of the moons and asteroid belts in our system were rich in these."

"So the Government wanted that too?" Elyss snorted. "They wanted it alright! Like bloody leeches!"

"But you can't just....take over an entire system like that can you?"

"There's actually no way; its tantamount to a declaration of war! But the all the sneaky beareaucrats labelled us as an Outsider terrorist threat so all the Plands had to contribute a portion of their navy and armed forces." She looked at Zack with something akin to pride in her eyes. "Never has there been a need to initiate that order, Emergency Deadlock Protocol, before that day. That, brother dear, was how powerful we were."

"But what happened when they reached you? Did you guys fight?"

Elyss shook her head. "Many call High Keeper Wazrei a coward, but I am one of those who regard him wise. He knew that if we fought, it would lead to a very very long and bloody war, on both sides."

"High......Keeper?"

"That's what we call our king."

"Oh okay. So that's when the blockade started?"

"Yup. We were left with nothing. The Government seized everything. Everything. They controlled our entire system. From our jobs to our food and water to even where we walked and what we said!"

"Martial law."

"With a touch of what you Earthlings call communism. The Government took anything and everything and distributed them accordingly."

"No offence, but that doesn't sound too bad. Well, I mean, better then dead or something."

"I'll forgive you," she said harshly, "because of your ignorance. We are kept at our lowest and weakest; they give only one meal and that is barely enough and our 'jobs' consist of manual labour under Government whips! The only way out is to enter service..."

"Which is what you did."

Elyss froze. Zack knew how she felt after today. She had to see her family and friends suffer while she could eat three square meals, wear her own choice of clothes and other things which other people took for granted.

"I'm sorry, Elyss." She looked at him and nodded but with so much pain that Zack couldn't help but tear up. She leaned on his shoulder and was quiet for a while. Zack wiped the tears away when she said quietly, "It wasn't my idea. My parents couldn't stand to see me sick and malnourished. They joined into service and became betrayers in the eyes of the Wolves. All for me. They tried to run away, you know, that's when I met you." Zack kept silent. "There were Government agents on Earth and they caught us. My dad signed us up to avoid execution." She sniffed and smiled wryly, "My parents and I were separated. So my childhood? Just training to be the best silent killer the United Galactic Government has ever seen."

"I take it that it was under supervision." She nodded. "How did they teach you? Didn't you say that you were trained by Wolves? Were they forced to do it?" She nodded again. "Was it because of the imprinting? Because I take that to be pretty random..."

This time she shook her head. "We can't imprint on something we hate. The main thing is to bond, and you obviously can't bond with something you dislike, yes?"

"So what about us then?" She smiled, "I think we were kindred spirits, you and I. We both hated the way we lived and the way life went about us. We were both looking for love and acceptance that we couldn't find. So somehow, that made us understand each other. I mean, my circumstance is waaaay beyond yours and yet...you get it."

"Might not be the exact way, but yeah, I do get what you mean. Anyway, if they already trained you to be what they wanted you to be, why send you here?"

"They wanted to expose me to a Government facility, to soften me up I suppose; to make me believe that the Government wasn't all that bad. It was a success in the end, but not in the way they expected."

"Yeah. We know quite a few people who aren't arrogant snuffs." Elyss laughed.

"Thanks Zack, for listening. Sorry if I tired you out with the history lesson."

He chuckled. "I think you're more tired than I am. You're about to snooze off unless you're trying to trick me with a brain whammy."

"Yeah, I am tired. Letting loose after holding it all in.....is.....pretty....tiring..." and she dozed off on his shoulder. Zack smiled. "Yeah, I can relate," he said as he patted her head. He sat there gazing silently into the night and breathing in the cool night air. Once he was sure she was sleeping soundly, he gently picked her up in his arms and walked carefully down to Elyss' room. He tucked her in and walked out, making as little noise as possible.