Reaper Inc. (17 page)

"So you
are saying the being you chased looks exactly like your dead Andrea. I should
tell you the Princess Aok gave me a nanite translator shot earlier today."

"Yes, that
is exactly what I am saying." They both heard the door click and she
walked in right on cue, still wearing the cloak but the hood was down. Ben
couldn’t take his eyes off her face or he would have seen the stunner in her
hand.

"You
bitch! Who are you?" He leapt off the bunk and tried to get his hands on
her. She didn’t even blink when he landed at her feet out cold. She turned and
pointed the stunner at the colonel who didn’t move a muscle. She did stare at
the face that was staring at her. Ben was right, from his description, his mate
was standing right in front of her, but then she wasn’t. The colonel could see
something wasn’t right.

She stepped out
of the door and let one of the male aliens in with two plates of food. He saw
Ben on the floor and handed the colonel hers and walked out with the other. No
need to waste it. She backed out the door, pulling it closed and locking it.
The colonel ate her food and lay on the bunk after checking to see that Ben was
breathing. Tough lesson that. Maybe when he wakes up, he will come to the right
conclusion. No need for nanites if he stays stunned the whole time.

Four hours
later, the moaning started. Ben hurt all over. There was a puddle of drool on
the floor; lying for four hours with your mouth hanging open on any floor would
seem to invite trouble.

The colonel
said, "It seems your mate does not share your feelings any longer."

"Colonel,
it has to be her, I cannot believe I would find her identical twin like this,
maybe she has lost her memories."

"No, Ben
those odds are too great. I have a theory that would make more sense and is
more probable. She has been cloned. I would say though she has other genetic
material spliced into her, they usually try to improve or create something
new."

"So, she
won’t know me no matter what I say or do?"

"No and
you may not want to try and kindle a romance, remember she only looks like your
former mate. She is probably a warrior or assassin now with none of your
Andrea's qualities."

Ben rolled onto
his back and began stretching the kinks out of his back and arms. He stood and
walked around the room. Colonel Dakkon had not eaten all of her food so Ben
asked if he could finish it. She did drink all of what they brought her. One of
the side effects of being stunned is thirst. Ben had been stunned twice and had
nothing to drink. He looked around the room and found a built in com device. He
couldn’t read it so he did what Ben does and started pushing buttons and asking
for some water. Finally a voice yelled through the com at him.

He asked,
"What did he say?"

"Something
about killing you if you don’t stop."

"Oh, is
that all? Well I don’t understand what he said so I’ll keep going and let’s see
what happens. We are hostages, right? Do they think we would just be happy to
go along for the ride?"

"You know
what will happen."

"Aren't
you supposed to be helping me and keeping me from getting in trouble? Isn't
that why you were tagging along?"

"That was
the plan. Now there is no plan. You are on your own."

"I bought
you a new dress. That should be worth something."

"It will
be worth something to whomever gets to wear it. It is not looking like it will
be me."

"Could you
at least ask these assholes to bring me some water?"

"Sure,
move out of the way."

Colonel Dakkon
stood in front of the com and pushed one button. She said something in a
language Ben’s translator bots didn’t know and then she sat down on the bed.

"Someone
should be along shortly." That was the only good thing that came of her
using the com for him. They did show up quickly. There were four of them. One
had two containers of water. They crowded in the small room and the colonel sat
back against the wall trying to hide her seven foot frame."

"It takes
four guys to bring us water! What did you say to them? They look angry."

"I don’t
remember, something about their mothers and sisters and sex with wild
beasts."

"That
would do it I guess." Ben could see a fifth person standing outside."

"You need to
let them win, just curl up on the floor."

"You don’t
like me, do you colonel?"

"Considering
I am a prisoner against my will and may never see my family again because of
you, I would say you are correct." The angry crew had enough of listening
to them and three of them began to throw wild punches and kicks. Ben just
covered up and took it. The space was so tight they couldn’t get any real power
behind their attack. Ben had a couple of new aches to add to the list but it
wasn’t bad at all as beat downs go.

Colonel Dakkon
handed him a container of liquid he hoped was water. It didn’t taste great and
had an oily feel to it but it was something. She stood in the doorway watching
him. Her laser pistol pointed at him. Ben didn’t know what she was thinking. He
started inching his way towards her. She knew what he was doing and let him get
just shy of arm’s reach.

Colonel Dakkon
said, "She is going to stun you again if you don’t get away from
her."

Ben closed his
eyes and inhaled deeply and let it out then it repeated three more times.

"She
doesn’t smell like Andrea but that still doesn’t mean it’s not her. Say
something to her in some different languages. It doesn’t look like she
understands what I am saying."

Colonel Dakkon
said a number of phrases all sounding like different languages but Ben didn’t
know regardless. He figured he was about to get shot if the colonel was
insulting her. She backed out of the room, shutting and locking the door, never
even acknowledging anything the colonel had said.

A few minutes later,
she returned with a crewman and food or something that passed for food. Ben was
famished, after a few bites he was thinking it wasn't bad, just had a chemical
or maybe preservative taste. She stood in the door again watching them eat,
weapon pointed and ready. Ben cleaned his plate and leaned back against the
wall taking the last swallow from his drink. He was looking at her when the
room began to spin and his vision became blurry.

"Colonel, there are drugs
in the food," he said as his head rolled to the side. The colonel just
looked at him then at his captor. Ben rolled on over, having lost control and
hit his head on the floor. The black-haired one was smiling but stopped when
she noticed she was being watched. The colonel heard the rattle of chains coming
towards their room. It must be time to leave the shuttle, she thought.

Ben woke with
his face in what felt like dirt but smelled like shit. A huge hairy foot kept
nudging him, it rocked him into consciousness. He raised his head slightly and
blew, trying to get grit off his lips. Pulling his elbow under him, he started
to raise up when the foot knocked him onto his back. Something that looked like
a giant hairy hippopotamus stood over him saying something, what it was, he had
no clue. Rolling away from it seemed like the best idea so he did and after two
rotations, hit what felt like steel bars. He used one to pull himself up to a
sitting position, pulling his knees up to protect his body. He looked around at
what seemed like bad horror vid.
"Ben and the Pit of Shit"
would have been a good name, he thought. He heard the rumbling of the deep bass
voice again. Reaching above his head, he began to pull himself up.

"Don’t
stand up!" he recognized the voice. He turned in his sitting position to
see Tawniz in the cage directly behind him.

"Ok, I
assume you understand his language." Ben asked over his shoulder, keeping
one eye on hippo man.

"I
understand enough and I have been awake longer to have had the rules explained
to me. You sit until you prove yourself in the arena or in your cage."

"I take it
since you’re standing, you chose option two."

She laughed for
a second. "I did but I wouldn’t advise you to try. They put you in the
champion’s cage. They are the favorites and the winners. Some are angry you are
there and haven’t earned it."

"I didn’t
ask to be put in here with them. They had to see that."

"The one
standing in front of you is curious about it. He knows there is a reason the
keepers want you dead. He has decided to see how it plays out if they don’t
kill you. It is an insult to the champions and the keepers must have thought
they would tear you apart."

"Do they
know who you are?" Ben asked.

"I do not
believe they do. But they will find out. It is you that they know. They put out
the bait and knew exactly what you would do. Who is the human female you
abandoned all reason to chase after?"

"She
looked like the woman I loved, I saw her clearly for a second and it was her or
somehow exactly like her. I know she is dead and it had to be some kind of
trick but I couldn’t help it."

"Black
hair, blue eyes, that is your Andrea?" Tawniz asked.

"Yes, how
do you know?"

"You have
been stunned and drugged too many times in such a short period. You forget many
of us know about your loss. She has been here twice while you were unconscious.
She just stood and looked at you saying nothing."

"It can’t
be Andrea. There is no way she could have survived." Ben heard the giant
in front of him rumble what passed for words in his language. Tawniz was quiet
for a second then replied.

"He says
the female doesn’t know you. He could see she was curious and studying you, her
facial expressions didn’t show recognition." The conversation ended, boots
on stone echoed in their direction. Two guards escorted a third wearing a
hooded cloak. They stopped at the door to Ben’s cage. The other beings moved
back to the back of the cage, not wanting any part of them. Ben just sat, heal
resting against the bars. The cloaked figure saw Ben sitting and then looked
slowly at the rest. No one could see its expression but they knew it wasn’t
happy. He pointed at Ben. The hand had long boney fingers with long fingernails
filed to a point and capped in sharpened metal. The guards, weapons drawn, opened
the cage door and motioned Ben to come out. He didn’t move.

"Come in
and get me, chicken shit," Ben taunted. The guards pointed their weapons
at him. "Go ahead asshole, pull the trigger." The hooded figure said
something menacing and they shot one of the champions. Two blasts to his chest.
Another command and they pointed over the top of his head at a new target,
Tawniz. To her credit, she stood defiantly staring laser beams right back. Ben
knew without looking who they would shoot next and stood up. He walked to the
cell door and was struck with a pistol in the head. He went down to one knee.
His wrists were shackled before he cleared the cobwebs and pulled to his feet.
The guard prodded him with his pistol to walk.

It felt like he
had walked half a mile. The yelling and cheering became louder. The smell hit
him next. Death, rot, shit, vomit, then he was heaving at the stench. Usually
throwing up would block other smells from reaching your brain but not this
time.

Ben knew
exactly what was going on. He didn’t know but felt the human version of arena
death matches were cleaned to some extent. This was horrific and would
demoralize any honorable warrior. One of the guards stood behind him with its
pistol in the base of Ben’s skull while the other unshackled him. They shoved
him into the nightmare.

Ben watched as
a number of carnivores of all different sizes fed on the remains of the fallen.
Somehow all at once, they smelled him and turned to look in his direction. Each
took a slow deliberate step in his direction. Ben looked around for anything he
could use to defend himself. There was a club made of something he didn’t know.
He picked it up and waited. Whoever was in charge let the beasts get within ten
feet surrounding him before a whistle sounded and they all turned and ran to a
waiting cage. The largest, about the size of a mastiff, continued to eye him.
Ben took a step forward, letting his club drop in a back swing. Two more quick
steps and he had it swing in a upward arc, catching the beast under the muzzle,
lifting its body up. He reversed his swing to come down on top of its skull but
it had fallen over squealing then whimpering. He knew this wasn’t the adversary
they had chosen for him but might as well start setting a precedence.

A door flew
open at the far end of the arena and some alien species he had never seen
before came running, screaming, face contorted in anger. The yelling didn’t
stop as it ran not slowing straight at him. Ben stood still and waited, and
relaxed to a loose grip on his club. His pissed off attacker was boney with big
ears and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Large black eyes never left Ben as he
continued on his collision course. Ben side stepped spinning and swung the club
with both hands. The alien tried to adjust but it was too late. The club
connected with its chest and the crunch told Ben he had hurt it severely. It
went down in a heap, rolled ten feet and stopped. Ben started walking towards
it when laser blasts hit the ground near him. He turned and walked back about
fifteen feet. He decided it was time to look for another weapon.

                                   
****

Tawniz felt
their cage lift; she gripped the bars as it started moving. She watched three
others move in the same direction. The cage of champions still sat unmoving.
Time for the new prisoners to earn their place. She looked at all the beings in
the cage with her and knew they wouldn’t survive more than two rounds at best.
Those who challenged her were easily defeated and the weak never even
challenged her in any way. They will die in their first battle. The machine
placed the cage near and in line with a doorway. On either side of the door
were large openings in the wall so they could watch the battles out in the
arena. She saw Ben searching amongst the dead for something most likely a good
weapon. She saw him strip a body of a sword and the harness then a belt with a
knife. He picked up a handmade club that lay on the ground next to him and
began searching again. She heard a gong sound and a door opened to let an
Allith warrior out into the arena. Three hooded figures walked out and sat in
the seats that could only be meant for the ruler of where ever they were.

Tawniz knew of
Ben’s hatred for the Allith and again felt there was more than met the eyes
with their captors. She saw Ben looking at the Allith then up at the three
hooded figures, the tall one in the middle moved his hand and the other two
removed their hoods. The black-haired, blue-eyed female sat motionless as did
the other. Tawniz did not know the species and yet it looked like three species
she did know combined. The result was a very thin bipedal that had humanoid,
serpent and Allond features. She saw Ben look at it for a brief second before
turning to stare at the human female. The Allith warrior looked briefly at the
trio and had no reaction. He began to stalk cautiously in Ben’s direction
coming at him from behind. She began yelling his name to try and draw his
attention to the danger advancing from behind.

                                   
****

"Andrea!"
Ben yelled. Walking towards where the trio sat. "Is it really you? Look at
me!" She continued to stare off into the distance, never looking at him.
The other one was a different story. She watched the Allith getting closer, anticipating
the killing she felt was inevitable. Her body quivered in excitement. She
couldn’t control it.

"Don’t you
remember me?" No reaction, except he saw her hand go from relaxed to
gripping the arm of the chair. The other one looked like she would pounce on
him. He heard his name and the sound of running feet. He dropped like a drill
sergeant had yelled for fifty. The Allith hit the steel wall head on and
stumbled back disoriented. Ben pushed up, got his feet under him and swung his
club at the Allith warrior, catching it in the shoulder. His next attack went
for a knee, he struck it three times till he felt a satisfying crunch. The
overhead axe swing missed the Allith's head and landed high on the shoulder. It
hobbled back in retreat with Ben swinging a non-stop onslaught at various key
locations. He heard its elbow crack and saw the arm go limp. Time to slow down
and not burn out.

                                   
****

Everyone in
Tawniz's cage was trying to watch the fight. Some fought for prime standing
room but none would touch her. Some were very impressed that the human could
even live through the first few seconds let alone have an advantage and seem to
be winning. She felt the touch on her arm.

"That is
your companion?" the small alien asked looking up at her. Tawniz nodded.

"I was
assigned to watch over him and keep him out of trouble."

"It seems
trouble found him regardless of your efforts."

Tawniz nodded again. "Yes,
it seems so."