Hard and Fast

Chapter 11

Ramses and Setg boarded their ship and started take off procedures and engaged the engines as it roared into life. Entering the destination to the nearby planet, the ship took off at speed. Neither of them had spoken to each other, but both sensed the urgency of the mission and how important success mattered to them. Setg felt the continuing stabbing of pain at the thought of loss of Carly and the baby whilst Ramses thought of collecting Bekken's head for his attacks on the clan. The bastard had caused enough pain to everyone already and it was time to settle the score.

Finally, Setg broke the silence..."I'm sorry for not coming to you sooner... but I did not trust anyone, I was foolish... and now I fear I may lose her and the baby."

Ramses grizzled. "There are more important things at stake here now and we do not know the extent of the damage that Bekken has in store for the clan. And there are also now some unborn babies that may not survive being born even with Cha's help.... Who knows what mutations he has done..... Berserkers are bad enough but Bekken's seed is twisted as the male himself... and now I have a baby to raise.... Who knows what potential threat lays dormant in that babe..." Ramses rubbed his chin.... He felt old remembering his history with Bekken... he had enough of Bekken's curse.

Setg nodded. The Berserkers constantly fought and raided the clans and was determined to be a persistent threat. Their concept of honour was almost non-existent and if they weren't so consumed with fighting amongst themselves as well, if they ever banded together, they could wipe out the clans. Setg thought about his new baby brother.... "So what have you named him?"

Ramses shrugged... "I have not thought about him since this ordeal but I will think of one.... I'm glad he does not resemble Bekken."

"Father... Why is Bekken trying to destroy our clan? What does he have against us? This is the part I find most perplexing. And what does this have to do with Carlee?"

Ramses sat back and closed his eyes and sighed heavily. "I had hoped this day would never have happened. I had hoped that Bekken was just an eccentric male that the clan overlooked his underlying issues but here it is..... Bekken and I are both ancient.... We have seen the rise of man and are one of the few Yuatja to still be alive.... The clan had originally come to Earth back when they were still learning...evolving.... Some of our race took it upon themselves that we should nurture and raise these oomans, to join us in our community... and this is what our clan embraced...

But there were some clans that believed the oomans were there to be enslaved or destroyed... which led to war... we pushed them off the Earth and then we erased our presence and we were forgotten with time. That war... there were terrible losses.... the oomans came to our side and we fought against these clans... Some of these clans became the Berserkers.... For a while, we thought the ooman race would not recover, but they are resourceful and eventually they pulled through.... I do admit that I enjoyed my time on Earth and hence why I have an Earthen name instead of Yuatjan one... For I am born on Earth... and I still think of it as home.... My half-brother was ooman... albeit he was odd looking for an ooman, but he gathered the survivors and rebuilt them.... When we left, he chose to stay.... His name was Shendjw... which means Crocodile... due to his appearance... but that was a long time ago.... "

Setg sat there amazed... His father never told him anything and here was the first time he had heard any part of his father's ancestry.... His father was truly ancient... "So how does Bekken fit into this? That still doesn't give him a reason..."

Ramses nodded, "No that's not the reason. His clan and ours were allies but only for that time we were fighting in the war and Bekken was injured and missing in action. We could not find him and we were at the lowest point of the fight, we were losing.... It took a long time to rally back to that point... the carnage you would not believe .... Then one day, we found him.... He had this female ooman and he wanted her. He insisted that we take her back to the clan ship.... We denied him, it was in the midst of war, nowhere was safe... we were dying all around us.... We could not risk everything for a single ooman.... There was blood being spilt everywhere. We told him to hide her, that we would come back when the area was more secure and when they could move the ships without being attacked... I told him, we just need to push forward more... she would be safe hidden.