Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (23 page)

             
For the next two hours, Jones, Dixon and Fielder shared their struggles, their shame, and ultimately, their victory. They all knew he had been the one that donated all of the money for their families and their recovery and they thanked him. When they had said all they could, they thanked him for his time, thanked Lana for bringing them and turned to leave.

             
Before they reached the door, Jesse asked his first question of the session. "So what do you do now?"

             
Jones smiled as if he were waiting for just that question. "I'm a private protection specialist, and Fielder and Dixon are back with their old units, like nothing ever happened. I still play soccer and Dixon runs marathons. Fielder's lazy; she only competes in mixed martial arts tournaments." He smiled and left the room.

             
Jesse suddenly felt really bad for how he had treated Suzy. He looked over at Lana and she was smiling. He smiled a real smile back at her. Somehow, she had figured out exactly what he needed. On some level, he knew he could still be just as effective as he used to be, but seeing it live in the form of three fellow Marines made all the difference. The first thing he was gonna do was beg Suzy's forgiveness, next was begin rehab and then continue the work on his galaxy drive and perhaps the most difficult task of all would be making things right with Kimi. First, he looked over at Lana and said, "Thank you, Lana, I really needed that. Now, come give your dad a hug." He held out his arms in theatrical fashion and Lana laughed. She sat down and hugged him.

             
"Dad, you stink right now," she exclaimed as she wrinkled her nose. "Maybe you should put taking a shower on your agenda."

             
"Ha-ha, you must have inherited the bad joke gene from me. Could you do me a favor and go find Suzy so I could apologize?" She raised an eyebrow at him and he added, "Well, maybe more like grovel and beg for forgiveness."

             
"Sure, Dad, I'm glad you listened to those guys. I need you to get back to your old self; I like him a lot more." She smiled and left the room. A few minutes later, Suzy stood at the door, still looking a bit upset.

             
"Lana said you asked for me," she said without looking at him.

             
"Yes, Suzy, I did. I really had to apologize for my behavior earlier. You're the last person I would ever want to hurt. I didn't know you had made that special for me, but even if it was regular med food, I was still way out of line." Please forgive me, and please don't give up on me."

             
Tears began to well up in her eyes as she ran over and hugged him. "I could never give up on you, Jesse. I just want to see you back on your feet and happy again."

             
"I guess I'll be getting back on my feet soon enough, but as for happy, that won't happen til Bliney is dead. Would you settle for content for now?"

             
"I'd settle for anything that has you talking, and not throwing food. Luckily, I made it in the base kitchen and there's still some left if you're hungry."

             
Jesse smiled and his smile brought a look of pure joy to Suzy's face. "I could eat a little."

______

              ..... On Kaldor, after hearing the disturbing reports from Captain Reed's team, Governor Valinor decided he would chance a visit to Eliphaz Topanar in prison. He was escorted to the visitor's area of the detention facility where he came upon a smiling Eliphaz Topanar. His old friend looked a bit different; leaner, less hope, but the sneer remained.

             
"Tarrick, so good of you to come," He preened. "It is nice to know you are not still holding a grudge for all those times I tried to kill you."

             
Topanar's words rankled, the man just had that effect on people. "So, you have managed to get me to come down here, Eliphaz; now, what is so important?"

             
"Not so fast, Tarrick, there is a small matter of compensation."

             
"Compensation?" He replied, the shock evident in his voice. "And just what might I be compensating you for?"

             
"Information," he replied incredulously. "Information that may save all of Kaldor."

             
"And just how did you come across this information while sitting in prison for the last year?" Tarrick sneered, unable to hide his contempt for the man that had tried to have him killed twice.

             
"I have had this information all along, and it could be of vital importance to your precious Kaldor." Eliphaz smiled, knowing Tarrick could not afford to pass up on his intel.

             
"Fine, I'll play. What sort of compensation is it that you require?"

             
"Firstly, I would like a full pardon for my crimes, I would like to be restored to my home and all of my assets returned to me..."

             
"Let me stop you right there, there is no way you are getting out of here, Eliphaz. Not to mention the fact that you no longer have assets. Everything you owned was confiscated to pay for the damage the pirates had caused to the outposts. It was, after all, your involvement with them that led to the damage in the first place."

             
Eliphaz felt his face redden as his mood darkened, "Fine, then I guess we've nothing to talk about. Have fun watching the planet burn."

             
Tarrick stood to go, but decided to take a gamble. "We'll try not to let that happen, but if it comes to it, I'll be sure to let Tovanoras know how badly you failed his brother, and exactly where he can find you." He turned and a smile crossed his face as he heard Eliphaz' sharp inhale. It would appear his guess was correct.

             
"You wouldn't, you are far too ethical to turn me over to a monster."

             
"You tried to kill me twice and you are withholding information that could be vital to your own survival. Believe me when I tell you that my lone request to Tovanoras will be to kill me after I watch you die." The look in his eye and tone of his voice let Eliphaz know that his former colleague was deadly serious.

             
"Fine, then at the very least, I would like some, amenities, while in confinement. This is nonnegotiable. I would like a bottle of wine per day, a conjugal visit with my former mistress three times a week, and a vid screen so I can follow along with what is going on in the outside world. I would also like an assortment of books, and an evening meal delivered to me from a restaurant of my choice each day. Lastly, I would like a more comfortable bed and a few changes of clothes so I can at least begin to feel human again."

             
"Is that all?" Tarrick asked with amusement in his voice. "Perhaps you would like to live in the Governor's mansion and have some hired servants looking after you, or maybe a harem of young virgins?" His smile faded and his voice hardened, "Here's my counter offer, and it is my only offer. I will allow you a vid screen, some books and a glass of wine with your evening meal. I will see that you have a nice, warm sweater for the cold days out in the prison yard, and if your mistress still wants anything to do with you, I will consent to a visit once every two weeks, but that is entirely up to her. All of this, of course, is on the condition that you have any useful information for me that I do not already know. If these amenities, as you call them, are not to your liking, this conversation is over."

             
Eliphaz sucked in his breath as he thought over Tarrick's offer. It was clear to him that this was the best he could hope for, and since it would cost him nothing and improve his life, he agreed. "Fine, but I want it in writing."

             
"That is acceptable, and I will lay out what I already know so that you do not think you are being cheated." He paused and Eliphaz nodded his agreement as Tarrick continued. "We know that Tovanoras is Garrinoras’ brother. We know that he had been on the outer edge of the Kalephi Galaxy building an army to try and win the sector. We know he has been forcing aliens to join him or become his enemies and we know he hates humans. He has a fleet of over four hundred ships and the aliens he has allied himself with have approximately a combined two hundred fifty vessels at their disposal. This gives him a fleet of significant size with which to further destabilize the sector." As he finished his summary, he folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. "Now, what else do we need to know?"

             
Eliphaz couldn't believe the Governor had been able to gather that much information; it didn't leave him with much to say, but he still had one or two tidbits that would prove valuable enough to improve his situation. "It would seem that your agents are doing their jobs quite well, but there are a couple important things they missed," Eliphaz began like a man that had the upper hand. "Tovanoras was always part of his brother's plan to conquer the sector. He was supposed to hit Ginderbar after Kaldor, Sollonia and Qualoosh were taken. I know that it no longer matters, as Garrinoras is dead, but what may interest you is that Kaldor and Ginderbar are still his top two priorities. As soon as he has consolidated all of the aliens willing to join him, he will attack, and he has one advantage you do not know about."

             
"And what might that be?"
This had better be good, or you get nothing
, he thought.

             
"He has the key to Kaldor's banking system. All of the necessary codes to drain our wealth and bankrupt our planet. He intends to have a fleet hold Kaldor, drain our resources and attack Ginderbar simultaneously."

             
"How could he possibly have our banking information? There are only four people on the planet privy to that information, and no one has all of it for this very purpose."

             
"I stole it and gave it to Garrinoras in exchange for a position of authority before he was killed. I have to assume he shared that information with his brother, just in case."

             
"So now you seek to profit once again from your treachery." Tarrick was really rankled now. He stood to leave and stared straight into his enemy's eyes. "You would have left us defenseless, all to give yourself a better position among beings that hate you." He strode out of the visitor's area without awaiting a reply.

             
"But you will honor our agreement," Eliphaz called after him. "I have it in writing."

             
"Only if I can secure our finances in time." He yelled over his shoulder without looking back.

______

              ..... On Polisia, Jesse was taking his first steps with his new leg. It was the best prosthetic leg available on Polisia
HH
, but not nearly as good as the ones available on Earth. He had already purposed in his mind to design a better leg as soon as he had the time; he would just have to manage until then, and hope no one attacked him. He couldn't imagine needing the protection of others, but he knew if he was going to get past this, he would have to swallow his pride and rely on his friends and family. The problem was that pride was difficult to swallow, refused to stay down and tasted awful.

             
"You're doing great, Jess," Ariel excitedly exclaimed. "By next week, you'll be walking on your own."

             
"This feels really weird." Jesse frowned as he held the rail supporting his weight while he walked on his new leg. "This doesn't feel right. I was told that it should feel just like a normal leg, but it doesn't."

             
"It takes a little getting used to, Jesse," Suzy added as she watched him tentatively step. She was prepared to catch him if he fell. Suzy and Ariel were the only ones he allowed to see him take his first steps; he didn't want to appear as weak as he was in front of his friends. He especially didn't want to let Kimi see him flailing about.

             
He began to think about the history of leg amputations he had been reading up on as he continued his exercise. Some of the treatments had remained the same, for hundreds of years. His wound had been tightly wrapped for several days in an almost plaster-type cast, a small tube protruded through one side to drain any fluid building up around the injury. Once the bandage had been removed, a compression sock had been used to keep the swelling down, and shape the stump until it came time to attach the prosthetic. His amputation was trans-femoral, or an above-knee amputation. This meant a full recovery would take a bit longer, because even with much more advanced prosthetic technology, it still required the use of more energy to walk with the substitute limb. Doctors estimated a few hundred years ago that a person unfortunate enough to have to be fitted with a prosthetic limb had to use almost eighty percent more energy to walk than a person with two legs. This was due to the fact that the prosthetic contained no muscle. Fortunately for him, the tech had come a long way, including synthetic flesh and working synthetic muscle. He would still need to exert close to fifty percent more energy to walk and run as he got used to his new leg, but once the prosthetic became used to his rhythms and routines, he would only be exerting approximately ten percent more energy. The software in the limb would seemingly build up a muscle memory, making it easier for him to move around. The limb would, in essence, become part of him, as it would be wired into his body's systems. As his mind subconsciously began to accept the inputs it was receiving from his leg, movement would become less labored and more realistic, not to mention, easier.