Leviathan 6

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The blanket slid to the floor and she got up. The door slid open and she left the room. The door opened and she stood before the monk. "What is your intent?" He didn't recognize her, could barely sense her, just a cold distance. "That depends on you." he answered.

~|~

Strike prowled the decks of the ship, restless and uneasy in its confinement. She slept little, her mind full of battle, impatient for more. At first she considered the Others weak and cowardly, killing from a distance, but she was proud to fight at their sides. They were fierce fighters, making up for their lack of strength with cunning and logic. She was glad the Phibians came because she learned that technology made the fight more interesting, less a match of strength than a match of minds. She found that she liked it because it eventually came down to a fight, face to face, live or die.

The Feline didn't roam the ship alone, Storm couldn't rest either. He was worried about Horizon but, like Strike, his mind was also filled with war. He'd done battle many times with those trying to break through the dimensions but war was different and he had to admit to himself it was exhilarating. He liked everything about it, the stealth and cunning, the searches and the battles, especially the battles, Storm had learned he had a taste for killing. The feeling of power as he hovered above his enemy and took their life away was intoxicating, he wanted more. He knew war had changed him and that change and damaged Horizon but part of him didn't care, just wanted to kill.

As if drawn together by their kindred hungers the two came together one night in a passageway. The Feline was about to pass by in disgust but something in the Avian's eyes made her stop. She nodded which was coldly returned by the Avian. "I heard of your exploits, Bird." the Feline said and the Avian replied, "Your name is spoken in many places." History had taught them hatred and distrust for each other, it was all the respect they could afford.

~|~

Cougar sought a dream of guidance and found himself in a place unsought. Battles in strange places, lovers twined together, acts of cruelty, acts of lust, death and conception, the images flickered in demon eyes. Then he saw himself. They had just finished making love and were resting in each other's arms when he sensed a wrongness. "Wait here," he told Dawn Song, "something is wrong." When he got outside he saw an enemy tribe riding down on their camp. He started a war chant and the warriors gathered quickly. As they fought he continued the chant to give them power. One of the enemy warriors broke off and charged him. He pulled his knife, his people called it Cougar's Claw, and met his enemy by burying it in his chest. In that moment Cougar stopped chanting and when he was pushing the warrior off his knife he heard Dawn Song's cry, "Stalking Cougar!" He turned to her and yelled, "Go back to the tent!" Another of the enemy warriors broke off from the fight and was rushing for Dawn Song. Cougar ran at him and they fought for a time before the attacker was dead. He looked back to see if Dawn Song was in the tent. Standing behind her was a warrior with an upraised axe. Cougar shouted, "Dawn Song, behind you!" The axe came down.

A cougar leaped from the rocks.

The axe came down.

A voice, "Kill the beast."

The axe came down.

An image of Night Whisper, "It steals your spirit."

Dawn Song died. So would he.

~|~

Addagee welcomed death, she hadn't any hopes to be dashed by their visit, she had come to die. She'd done her own research, she wasn't surprised when Joel came to tell her he couldn't solve the problem. She was a little surprised that Dancr came with him until she said, "I'm sorry Addagee, if you want out you're free to go." There was something troubled in the crew leader's eyes that made the shifter wonder if there was trouble with the crew because she was there. Most people hated shifters, she didn't expect mercs to be any different. She declined Dancr's offer to leave, she wanted to go on the mission, wanted to die doing something of value.

~|~

The knock on Den's door took him off guard, nobody came to see him, his talent made sure of that. Dancr apologized for the intrusion and explained, "I know you avoid attention so I gave you none in front of the crew but your efforts didn't go unnoticed Den Ar Dhuine." She left before he had to say anything and he immediately got on the nets. It was a difficult search but he finally found the meaning of his new name in an ancient Earth tongue, Dancr had called him Den the Hider.

"Don't hide from me, Den Scre, it's only going to make it worse." It always did make it worse, no dinner along with no vids, but that brief time in hiding gave him time to work on an excuse. It was the excuse that was important, if he could give his mother a good reason why he stole then he might avoid seeing his father, a cold, distant man whose lectures made Den feel small and worthless. When Den hid no one found him, it was one reason why he grew up to be a thief, the other being that he just liked to steal.

He was a great thief, learning the technology besides relying on his talent. By the time he'd become successful he'd learned that his ability to hide was a rare psionic talent that he could control. He had never been caught, he didn't make mistakes, his life would have been charmed had he not felt love. He was fool enough to tell her what he did, even more the fool to include her. They were good together then she wanted to try one on her own, "Just once." she said, once was enough. It was a little mistake but big enough to get her caught, he made sure when they found the thief it was him.

It's a planet for non-violent offenders but violence is a way of life there. The only law is work and that law is strictly enforced, the prison planet Lazar has the richest tarq quarries in the universe. Very little of the violence comes from the inmates, what the work and climate doesn't deal out the guards do. It isn't easy surviving Lzar, the odds were so far against it that Lazar should be upgraded to a maximum punishment prison. The corporations fight it, Lazar isn't the only prison planet mis-typed, it's done to get workers that work. The types of offenders who are sent to maximum are there for life so there is no incentive to work while minimums will do anything to get out of the abominable places they're sent. Den had to fight for his life every day for five years, he came out damaged but with a strength he believed could never be broken. When he came out she was gone and his unbreakable strength shattered.

Den went into hiding after that, got a room and only came out for the rare contract, the rest of the time he spent on the nets. He hacked for a living but mostly he searched for her. She learned his lessons well, he couldn't find where she was hiding but he didn't up hope, never stopped thinking of her, didn't stop looking. Every moment he expected her to knock on his door, to explain what happened, to make everything right again. He'd lived with that hope for years but it was dying and with it came a wish for his own death, then came Aki with a way to fulfill the wish.

~|~

Death was the last thing Aki wanted yet he chose to live so close to it, to think of it constantly as he made it the over-riding theme of his composition. Why did people choose to face death? Clearly, for different reasons. But what were those reasons? Why were his crew members there, why were they mercs? Aki began a new thing in holoflute composition, adding spoken recordings to the music and images as if he were playing a vid. The technique of weaving all three together was hard to learn and tricky to play but when he felt he'd made enough progress he began talking to the crew.

"Will you hide my identity?" Aki nodded, the rookie looked around, "Alright, I'll tell you why. Everybody seems to know I'm military, what I hope no one knows is I'm a deserter. I went over the hill during war, in the middle of a mission. It wasn't fear, I've fought over a hundred missions, it was sanity that made me run. Colonization found a planet with some hostile, non-sentient life and we were sent in to clean it out. My unit was the first to hit and the fighting was rough. There were a lot of them and they were ferocious but we were doing a pretty good job of cleaning out our sector when things went wrong. My platoon came upon six of them in a cave, two adults and four young, the male had attacked and been put down. The female did her best to defend her young but she was no match for our tech. She was dying and we were about to fire into the rest when the female groaned out, 'Don't kill.' in our tongue. We didn't didn't kill her children, didn't kill anyone else that day but when we told our leaders we were killing people they said, 'They're mimics.' and sent us out to kill more. On the next mission I was on recon and ran into three of them laying in ambush. We knew they were clever fighters, extremely adept at laying traps and ambushes, but the leaders told us it was instinct. I shot two of them and had a bead on the third but I hesitated and we stared at each other a moment then she asked, 'Why kill?' I killed her, I knew if I didn't she'd kill me but I when I left her body behind I left the army, too ."

The warrior thought a moment, "Maybe telling how I got my name will explain. I had a partner going in as a rookie, we simmed together and took our first contract as a team. His name was Redge Yawl and he was my brother, we were fulfilling a life-long dream. We watched the vids and played merc every day until we were old enough to train, then we simmed together every minute we had. We got good, each of us had our particular strengths but Redge was the better warrior so he was lead. When he felt like we were ready we sold everything we had and booked passage to Trader's Hand. It was an exciting trip as the realization of our dreams drew near, we talked of nothing but the rookie sim ahead. Only The Dark Star was a good enough for Redge and we came out of Cody's sim with high stats, he gave us our pick of rookie contracts. Redge chose a high-hazard job on Klepmon 2, I was hesitant, the fighting sounded bad and I suggested we go for something a little easier but Redge talked me out of it." The warrior grew quiet for a time and then continued, "We had signed on to a recon team and it was our first mission. We were scouting out a trail through deep jungle, there were six on the team, Redge and I were in the middle where we could do the least amount of trouble. Suddenly we got the signal that there was trouble ahead so we hit cover, Redge and I stayed close in the dense undergrowth." The warrior's silence was even longer, the struggle with emotion subtly playing on her face, finally she went on, "Redge has a weakness, a fear he can't control. I saw the snake and I saw the scream in his eyes, I heard the enemy approaching so I did the only thing I could. I'm the Silencr, the name I earned for killing my brother."

Aki's concerto was gaining heart, the intermezzo of interviews was a powerful piece that would bind the journey getting to Leviathan to what was to come. Few had anything to say about why they chose to go there and the few that did spoke of death wishes. Leviathan was a great an unknown and it seemed that death was the understood end.

Excerpt from Shadow Stalkers by S.E.Estes