Reavers (Book 3) (23 page)

As he entered the grade and added a few more notes for review, he let out a frustrated sigh.  Why bother to waste his time so badly?  He would have given him higher marks for not writing anything at all.  Tapping the pad, he shifted through the remaining reports - hoping one would catch his interest.  Not one did.  And from the titles of two of them, it was obvious he had to endure a couple more flights of fancy.

As he resignedly selected the next paper to read, a tremendous shock rippled through his mind.  An unimaginable source of rage had erupted from within the house.  Cassandra had told Rupert - and he wasn’t taking it well.  The seething sense of annoyance and disapproval had gone supernova, and a wave of unbridled hatred flooded Brent’s senses.  Jumping to his feet, he ran downstairs.  The sounds of shouting were barely registering against the torrent of fury.  As he reached the dining room, desperation filled him.

“How dare you!” Rupert bellowed.  “Without our consent!”

“She
is
married,” Abigail said in an impossibly weak voice.

He slammed his fist against the table, splintering the flat surface.

“I never approved of that!  How dare she soil our family name by sleeping with that pathetic norm!”

“Don’t say that!” Cassandra shouted.  “Don’t you
dare
insult him.  Not after what he’s done for all of us.”

Rupert’s eyes were filled with contempt as he stared down his rebellious daughter.

“She’s really good at it,” Brent said in a calm voice, “you know.”

Rupert’s stare instantly locked on the norm, his rage more intense than any fire Brent had felt before.

“Good at what?” he hissed.  “Defending you?”

“Not that, in bed I mean.”

Abigail and Cassandra’s mouths dropped.  Rupert’s fist ground into the table.

“What did you say?” he asked, making sure to slowly drag out every syllable.

“Your daughter.  She is incredible in bed.  I fear I lack the words to describe it.”

“You miserable excuse of a . . .”

“You should see it sometime,” Brent added.  “Probably make you envious.  No offence Abigail.”

Abigail and Cassandra stared in utter horror.  As Brent opened his mouth again, Rupert leapt over the table and slammed his fist into the norm’s chest.  The force of the blow sent him hurtling back against the wall.  The impact forced an unhealthy amount of blood to spill out of his mouth.

Even with the heavy gravity treatments, he was no more able to withstand the punishment than a small child.  To his standard gravity body, the force of the impact had been the same as if he had jumped out in front of a moving transit car.  As the blood drained down his shirt, Brent made the attempt to stand.  He failed, and sat helplessly on the floor.

“Rupert!” Abigail screamed.  “What have . . .”

“I talked her into it, you know,” Brent said as he spat out the blood.  “She wanted to wait until you approved.”

“That’s a lie!” Cassandra yelled out in a pained voice.

“Can you blame me, Rupert?” he taunted.  “After all, your daughter is a sweet piece . . .”

Rupert swiped at Brent’s face with a balled fist.  The force of the blow sent him sliding along the floor face first.  As he tried to lift his head from the floor, he could taste the fibers of the carpet.  A mighty hand grabbed the back of his head and lifted him cleanly off the floor.  Brent hung limp as Rupert stared into his eyes.  His face was completely flushed with anger.  The reflecting image in Rupert’s eyes let Brent know how bad the damage was.  A long strip of his face was bloody and raw from his face slide.  A steady stream of blood trickled out of his closed mouth.

“I guess all heavy-worlders really are as stupid as they say,” Brent forced out of a broken jaw.  “After all, I played your daughter pretty easily.  She had no idea I . . .”

Rupert slammed the norm’s head into the wall and then tossed him across the room.  Colliding with a chair, he could feel a horrendous wave of pain flooding from his left arm.  Struggling to stare in its direction, he found it bent in the opposite direction of what was natural.  As Rupert rounded the table to finish the job, Abigail stood in his path.

“Get out of the way!”  Rupert roared.

“Look at what you’ve done,” she said as she broke down into tears.

“He has to pay for what he’s done!” Rupert shouted, the rage clearly coating every word.

“With his life?” Cassandra asked as she rushed to Brent’s side.

“He’ll be fine, it’s only . . .”

Rupert froze solid.  A tiny bit of reason finally broke through the anger.  He stared in shock as Cassandra cradled Brent’s limp body.  Glancing about the room, he took in what he had done.  A large pool of blood darkened the carpet behind him; a long streak of pink with fragments of flesh carved a path along its edge.

In the wall, a circular indentation was left with more than a few hairs stuck to the paint.  The sound of his daughter crying was perhaps the worst of it all.  It wasn’t a wail of pain or hurt, it was one of loss.

“What have I done?” Rupert asked as he sank to his knees.

“What’s with all the racket?”  Cain asked in clothes that had obviously been put on in a hurry.

“Brent!” Angela screamed as she bolted past him.

She joined Cassandra on the far side of the table and started searching for a pulse.  Suddenly, she turned a dark and venomous stare on Rupert.  His blood turned to ice against the stare.

“What did you do?” Angela asked in a voice without mercy.

Rupert stammered, unable to come up with a defense against the brutal, deadly stare.

“Would someone
please
tell me what’s going on?” Cain asked.

Cassandra turned a tear-filled face to him, unable to answer.  As Angela’s eyes narrowed, a small figure entered the room.

“What have you done
now
?” Octavia asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

“He didn’t mean to,” Abigail said in her husband’s defense.

“Oh, yes he did,” Octavia said as a small smile formed on her face.  “He planned this all out.  Not a bad plan, given how little time he had to come up with it.  So much trouble, though.  There are simpler ways you know.”

“Simpler . . . what?” Rupert asked in a daze at the nonsensical ramblings of the child.

“I wasn’t talking to
you
.”

Octavia quickly moved around the room and sat at Brent’s side.  Cain remained at the door and could barely see the top of her head on the far side of the table.  As everyone stared, the little girl shook her head disapprovingly.

“Don’t you think you went a little too far?”

“It had to be done,” Brent said in a frail voice.

“He’s alive!” Rupert shouted as he jumped to his feet.

“Naturally,” Octavia said with an earnest smile.  “It will take more than the likes of
you
to end his life.”

As Cassandra moved to embrace him, Octavia held her back.

“He’s alive, but just barely.  Save that until later.”

Cain slowly rounded the table and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw the broken body.

“We’ve got to get him to a hospital!” Cain shouted.

“I will see to his recovery,” a firm voice said.

Everyone turned to find a grim man standing in the doorway, a thick layer of disgust encrusting his face.  He eyed Rupert with a murderous scowl that made Angela’s seem downright friendly in comparison.  As Henry pushed his way past Rupert, he gingerly lifted Brent and started to leave the room.

“I’m coming with you,” Cassandra said as she got up.

“You are not welcome to join me,” Henry said without pausing his departure.

As Cassandra started to protest, Angela put a kind hand on her shoulder and shook her head.  While the rest could only hear the dark tone of his words, she could sense deeper.  They did
not
want to upset the grim man any further.

“You will bring him back, won’t you?” Angela asked Henry’s back.

“I will not have to.  I highly doubt there is any force that could stop him from staying by Cassandra’s side.  Or protecting her.”

They all stared, not one daring to move, as Henry left the room.  After a long period of silence, Cain kicked his foot against the wall.

“Man, we missed something big - didn’t we?” he asked Cassandra in an apologetic tone.

Cassandra stared at him, lost for words.

“What I don’t get is why Brent didn’t stop you,” Angela said, resting her head on her hands.

“Stop who?” Cain asked, still not understating exactly what had happened.

“Me,” Rupert said in shame.  “I nearly killed that boy today.”

“That’s the point.” Octavia said with a warm smile.

“The point?” Angela asked as she turned to face the small girl.

“Of course!  Don’t you get it?”

Octavia looked over each of them, and each one shook their head.

“Typical,” the little girl said after a long sigh.  “He wanted to save Cassandra.”

“Me?”  Cassandra asked in astonishment.  “From what?”

“I’ll take a wild guess and say your dad,” Cain said as he gestured to the bloody carpet.

“I’d never hurt my own daughter!” Rupert shouted in his own defense.

“I’d wager you’d
never
try to kill a man either,” Cain mocked.

Rupert eyed Cain angrily for a moment before realizing the norm was right.

“In your state, you would have harmed Cassandra, even if you didn’t mean to,” Octavia spoke as if it were fact.  “Naturally, any harm done to the mother would be several times worse to the child.  So he acted to draw your rage to himself.  He knew that if he angered you sufficiently, you’d go after him and forget about Cassandra.  In effect, he took the blow in place of his wife.”

“Why not simply control Rupert?” Angela asked.  “Brent’s the most powerful Weaver I know.  It would be child’s play for him to have defused Rupert’s anger.”

“Because he was dealing with my husband like a child,” Abigail said as she wiped away her tears.

“I don’t understand.”

“If you
tell
a child that an animal is dangerous, they will pet it and wonder if you were telling the truth.  However, if you let the animal bite their hand, they will never go near it again.”

“He was worried that Rupert might lose his temper later and inadvertently harm Cassandra,” Octavia said as she nodded in agreement with Abigail.  “I doubt that will be a concern now.”

Rupert reluctantly nodded his head.  The image of Brent’s limp body haunted him when he closed his eyes.  The notion he could have done that to his own daughter made him want to vomit.  While he still didn’t approve of their union, he found himself hoping that the irritating norm pulled through.

Two weeks.  They had all been stuck on the Freeport for two entire weeks, and
still
the fighting continued.  Rosalyn didn’t even bother to check on the condition of the ships flittering about as they waited inside the Freeport.  Day after day it had been the same.  A handful of ships would jump in and add to the fight, replacing the disabled and destroyed.  Never, not even in her wildest dreams, had she realized the ridiculous amount of ships at the disposal of the guilds. 

Sighing, she tried to relax in her private bath.  Andreas had only made the mistake of ridiculing her about it once.  She had made him pay for mocking her choice of something so extravagant.  Rosalyn couldn’t help but giggle as she remembered the look on his face when she showed up on the bridge wearing nothing more than a towel.  After that, he didn’t dare mention the stalls or anything relating to bathing. 

Her chuckling quickly faded as her mind asked if the guild that took possession of them would allow her to run things as she had.  Shaking the thought away created waves in the large pool of water, sending some water splashing over the edges.  The bath had been special ordered to be exactly the perfect size for her.  She could completely submerge herself if she wished - an impossibility in the standardized showers of the stalls. 

As she watched the floor dry itself automatically, she wondered if she should have listened to Andreas earlier.  Like clockwork he would bring up joining a guild every single time a Freeport had been acquired.  Frustrated, she slammed her fist against the side of the bath.  The sound was alarmingly loud and dull.

As she eyed the side for damage, the sound repeated.  Blankly staring at her hand, she slowly realized she wasn’t responsible for the sound.  Again the loud, dull thud sounded.  Rosalyn realized someone was pounding on the doorway to her quarters.  With a long groan she forced herself out of the soothing warm water.  Quickly wrapping a soft towel around herself, she answered the door.

“What is it, Andreas?” Rosalyn asked.

To her surprise, the form waiting outside her door wasn’t the one she was expecting.  In fact, it was probably the last person she expected to interrupt her.  Her surprise was so complete that she couldn’t bring the crewmember’s name to mind.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” the girl said as she visibly cringed away.  “I’ve come at a bad time.”

“Well obviously.”  Rosalyn put her hand against her hip and leaned closer to the girl, trying to remember exactly who she was.  “What do you want?”

“Well . . .”  The girl twiddled her thumbs as she mustered the courage to continue.  “I was wondering if I could ask your advice.”

“My
advice
?”

The girl nodded.  Rosalyn sighed as she glanced around the corridor.  No one was around to notice if she let the girl in.  Gesturing did nothing, as the twiddling girl didn’t budge.  Rosalyn leaned out, grabbed the girl’s arm, and quickly pulled her into her quarters before anyone came around.  After all, a captain couldn’t let the crew believe they could interrupt her whenever they wanted.

As Rosalyn pulled out a seat for her guest, she suddenly wondered why she had even let her in.  Not even Andreas had stepped foot past the door’s arch in months.  Brushing the thought aside, she slipped into her closet to throw something on.

“So what brings you here so late?” Rosalyn called out from her closet.

“I didn’t know who else to turn to,” the girl said in a hollow voice.

“Don’t you have some friends to ask?”

“I have plenty of them, but . . .”

“But what?” Rosalyn asked as she flopped on the bed next to the girl.

The girl stared at the lounging captain, as she seemed to shrink into herself.

“Look,” Rosalyn said as she rolled over to look at the girl.  “You’ve already interrupted me, so stop worrying about it.  Just say whatever it is that brought you here.”

“How can I make Kev . . .” the girl quickly paused and shook her head.  “How can I make a guy find me appealing?”

“Appealing?” Rosalyn asked, at a loss for words.

“Like you.”  The girl nodded.  “When you walk past, every guy turns to watch you.  How can I get someone to notice me?”

Suddenly Rosalyn realized who her guest was and burst into laughter.  Sasha blushed deeply as the captain stared at her with an all-knowing grin.

“How bad is it?” Rosalyn asked as she stretched.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, do you want him to hold your hand or share a bunk with you?”

The deepness of the blush that instantly covered Sasha’s face told her it was the latter.

“Since we are about to be,” Sasha said as she started to knead the hem of her blouse, “since a guild will own us soon, I wanted to be with him before.”

“Before what?”

“Well . . .”

Sasha stared down at her lap silently.  Rosalyn was about to force it out of the girl when she noticed a mist forming around her eyes.

“I want Kevin to be my first,” the girl said as a tear worked down her cheek.  “I want it to be my choice.”

Rosalyn tilted her head, not understanding.  Finally it hit her.  Andreas had forced Kevin to undress her on their first day.  The girl sitting on the chair was terrified their new owners would do worse.

She wanted to reassure the girl everything would be fine, but as she thought it over she realized Sasha might not be worrying about nothing.  The reputations of several guilds were less than pristine.  If one of the worst did claim the Freeport, not a single woman would be safe.  Sitting up from her relaxed position, Rosalyn leaned over and smiled.

“Let’s see what we’ve got to work with,” she said soothingly.

Sasha slowly looked up.

“You mean it?”

“Now, I can’t promise miracles.  After all, you don’t have all
this
to offer.”  Rosalyn rubbed her hands over her curves as she winked at the girl.

Sasha chuckled faintly as she straightened up.  Rosalyn looked her over; she had a lot to offer.  It was a wonder Kevin hadn’t already taken action.  Dragging the girl into her closet, she searched through the countless racks of outfits.  Most likely none of them would fit perfectly, but Sasha was close enough that it wouldn’t be a problem.  The girl didn’t say a word as Rosalyn sifted through outfit after outfit.  Finally she found the perfect one.

“You’ll have to ask Revel to beat back the men while you’re wearing this one,” the captain said triumphantly.

“But it won’t fit.”

“Leave that to me.”

Pulling Sasha to the far end of the large room full of fabric, Rosalyn steadied her in the center of four square plates of red.  She eyed the odd plates on the ground nervously before Rosalyn forced her head to look straight ahead.

“Now hold still,” Rosalyn commanded as she pressed the activation switch.

Instantaneously the red color lifted off the ground and worked up.  Sasha held perfectly still, half in fear of the odd moving light and half in fear of Rosalyn’s commanding voice.  As the red light passed over her head it paused midair.

“Okay, now step over here,” Rosalyn said as she pulled Sasha out of the way.

Placing the outfit where the girl had been standing, Rosalyn toggled the switch again.  As the red light moved over the outfit, a small low rumble could be heard.

“What’s it doing?” Sasha asked as the red plane of light moved over the outfit.

“Sizing it for you.  I picked up this beauty a couple of years ago.  I can’t imagine life without it now.  I can buy anything in most sizes and this little miracle sizes it
perfectly
for me.”

Sasha stared in awe as the device finished.  Quickly thrusting the outfit at the girl, Rosalyn smiled widely as she motioned for her to try it on.

“Why are you doing all this for me?” Sasha asked sheepishly as Rosalyn stepped outside the closet to offer some privacy.

“I don’t know.  Maybe it’s because it helps me take my mind off our situation.  Or perhaps I just can’t say no to a girl in love.”

“So what do you think?” Sasha asked as she emerged from the closet.

Rosalyn had been right; it complemented her perfectly.  If this didn’t get Kevin’s attention,
nothing
would.  As she was about to say as much, a loud, emphatic banging against her door interrupted them.

“I hope this isn’t another girl in love.  I don’t want to give away
all
my dresses.”

Sasha chuckled as Rosalyn opened the door.  Instantly, a pair of hands grabbed her and pulled her out.  At first her mind raced to the thought they had been captured, that some knuckle dragging brute was pulling her off to a fate Sasha had been terrified of.  That thought quickly faded.  Andreas wouldn’t let things get that far.  Studying the man pulling her along, she realized it was in fact none other than Andreas himself.

“What’s the meaning of this?” she demanded as he marched off with her in tow.

“They’ve done it!” he said in a strong voice.

“Who did what?”

“The remaining residents of the Freeport, they took it over!”

Rosalyn wasn’t sure what to make of it.  Why would that change anything?  From what Tardos had said, things had gotten too far out of hand for things to simply go back to normal.  The Freeport would be taken over no matter what any of them did.  Silently allowing him to drag her, she realized they were headed to the cargo bay with Sasha following a short distance behind.  Reaching the cargo bay, they found it full of people.

“Who are all these people?” Rosalyn asked.

Andreas silently gestured to a man approaching them.  He was in an elaborate suit, with just a little bit more fat on him than was average.  No doubt one of Duda’s kind.  From his suit it was obvious he was not successful enough to completely disregard other people’s opinions of him, but from the fat, he was successful enough to ignore it somewhat.  Rosalyn was pleasantly surprised when she realized he lacked the overwhelming aroma of Duda.

“Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Longin.  I have a proposal for you.”

“A proposal?” Rosalyn asked, exasperated.  Is that all Duda’s kind ever did?  “I don’t think this is the time for business.  If you haven’t noticed, we are all about to become someone’s property.”

“That is exactly why we need to make this deal.”

“Oh?  What are you asking for?”

“Basically put, transportation.”

“Is that all?  Couldn’t think of anything downright
impossible
to ask for?”

“I’ll admit it is dangerous, but that is where our part of the bargain comes in.”

“They captured those fools running the Freeport, Rosy,” Andreas said jumping to the point.  “They have their ship - and its armament.”

Rosalyn’s eyes widened just a bit as she studied Longin a little more closely.

“Our deal is simple,” Longin said.  “You give us safe passage away from this firefight, and we arm your ship with all the weapons and supplies we can - for free naturally.”

“Is it possible?” Rosalyn asked Andreas.

“It will be tight,” Tardos said as he emerged from the crowd.  “But it is doable.  If they launch the captured ship as a distraction, we can sneak out.  With a full complement of munitions we should be able to hold off whatever doesn’t fall for it.  This is our best chance at jumping to safety.”

“Then we have a deal,” Rosalyn said with a firm nod.  “Get your people on board, Andreas and Tardos here will manage the accommodations.  I’ll have Revel get the missiles loaded.”

“Already ahead of you,” Revel said with a grin as he patted a large crate.

“You should have waited until the captain accepted the deal!” Andreas shouted.

“What could I do?  I couldn’t make all these boys wait around.  Not after finally getting released from the sickbay.”

“Kevin is out?” Sasha asked quickly.

“You bet he is,” Revel said with a wide smile.  “Kevin!  Front and center!”

Muscling his way through the crowd of crewmembers and Freeport residents, Kevin approached the bellowing Revel.  He was carrying a large crate under one arm and was obviously in the middle of loading.

“What do you . . .” Kevin started.

Abruptly, he dropped the crate.  Everyone jumped at the sudden enormous sound.  He had been carrying it with such ease that no one guessed the crate was so heavy.  The tremendous thud reverberated through the cargo bay, revealing its true weight.  As everyone stared at him in surprise, a small smile pulled at the edge of Rosalyn’s face. 

Kevin’s stare was locked firmly on Sasha.  She blushed as she shyly turned away from his intense gaze.  Revel bellowed again, and all the men got back to work.  Rosalyn chuckled as she noticed Kevin would steal a glance at Sasha whenever he could.  The other crewmembers, busy with loading the ship, seemed to have a spring in their step.  They weren’t out of the woods yet, but at least now they could see a path that might lead to safety.