Brinus was at a bar and grill with baroque-style wood paneling on the walls, polished wood floors, and a mirror-paneled top. It was there he saw Tangent. She was looking for Brinus and found him sitting in a booth with Georgia, Tom, and Castillio. The bar and grill was noisy and crowded with patrons and fumed with cigarette smoke and vapor. Brinus had an eight-ounce mug of wheat beer in front of him and Georgia had a glass of native grain beer.
Tangent hopped over and sat at the table. “Hey, Brinus, who are your friends?”
Brinus got up and hugged Tangent. “What are you doing here?”
“I needed to get a budget for my new rifle so I am meeting the chief purser and the new first lord of the admiralty tomorrow. What’s up with you, honey?”
“We were just hanging out.” He turned to his friends. “Hey, y’all I’m gonna sit with Tangent. I’ll see y’all later.” He got a nod from one and the others were too busy with their drinks to acknowledge him.
Brinus put three one hundred credit chips on the table and left. He lifted Tangent on his shoulders and carried her to some outdoor seating away from the smoke and vapor inside. Tangent carefully managed not to spill her mead all over him.
Brinus sat Tangent down and a waiter droid came handing them menus.
“Are you ready to order hun?” asked the droid addressing Brinus.
“I want a space cow cheeseburger, terra fries with no sauce, and a diet Cillia Soda.”
The droid looked at Tangent, “What about you hun?”
“I need a few minutes.”
The droid left.
Tangent put her paw on Brinus’s arm and said, “I heard about your mother. Are you okay?”
Brinus crossed his arms and sighed. “Yeah she was a bitch and the universe took care of the trash.”
“Did you know they found her with a bottle of pills in her cell?” Tangent sounded concerned.
“So? She was a coward. Couldn’t face the consequences like a noble. Doesn’t change a thing.”
Tangent took a sip of the mead she had from inside. “Did I ever tell you about my family?”
The drinks were brought out and Brinus shook his head. “No.”
“Me and my husband had five kids, three boys and two girls. They were at school when the federation hit my homeworld. I remember once my middle child failed his math test so I spent all night helping him with math problems and then the next day he retook it and passed. My oldest daughter got accepted to medical school and we threw a big party with the whole family.”
Brinus smiled and began to relax, “I thought you were young.”
“I was about 38 when I died. Most Lapori have children and get married around 17 to 20. Mainly because female lapori lose fertility at 30.”
Brinus looked at Tangent with a blank expression and then said, “What is it like having a healthy family?”
Tangent ordered another mead and then said in a happy voice, “We all love and support each other. For instance, when I was running late from work, My mother in law had to come from the other side of the city and watched my kids for five hours.”
Brinus saw the waiter bring Tangent another mead. He asked, “How many drinks have you had?”
“Just three.”
Brinus uncrossed his arms and then opened up his legs. He said calmly, “Why don’t you tell me more about your other kids.”
Tangent smiled as the burger and fries were brought out. Brinus grabbed a bottle of replicated ketchup and put some on his buns.
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The next morning Brinus woke up in his bunk bed in the barracks room with a churning stomach and a swirling head swimming with nausea and pain. It wasn’t as bad as the vape withdrawal but still uncomfortable. The room was filled with the golden rays of mid-afternoon sunlight from the floor-to-ceiling window at the opposite end of the room. Brinus noticed he was still in his blue jeans but was barefoot and shirtless. He leaned over the bed and vomited into a trash can.
Castillio entered the bunk room and looked at Brinus. He had a replicated sports drink in his right hand.
“Hey! You’re awake!”
Brinus took off his blue jeans and put on a pair of gym shorts. “What happened?”
Castillio laughed and said with a smile, “You tried to match drinks with Tangent and then you got drunk. You started flirting with the male bartender. You tried giving him a massive tip for ‘company and conversation’. At that point, the bartender cut you off and the bouncers ejected us. We took you to the barracks but you kept talking about Simmie and how much you loved him. I didn’t think sociopaths could love or feel emotions.”
Brinus scoffed and snatched the bottle out of his hands. “We feel emotions; shit, we can even feel love. Just not the same kind of love you would feel. I don’t know how to explain it. I don’t feel no empathy but I’ve bonded with Simmie ’cause he completes me and fills my needs. I bonded with Tangent because she gives me someone to protect.”
Castillio swallowed and looked Brinus in the eye, “Do you bond to people? Like do you want to make friends or even able to have friends?”
“People are tools. Some people I enjoy hangin’ with; some are useful for a purpose.”
Brinus reached for his vape by the bed and realized he didn’t have one anymore. He turned to face the door, “I have class tomorrow and I gotta rest.”
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A medical examiner examined Marci’s body. He was dressed in surgical scrubs and surgery shoes. The autopsy room was small with an organ weight, a full body scanner, a surgical table, and various scientific equipment. There was a smell of disinfectant and chemicals filled the room.
Doing a Y-incision, the examiner noticed there were no organs in her body. He took a sample of her tissue and looked at it under a microscope after preparing a slide. He activated the Cellular scan mode and noticed a slight deviation in her Nuclear DNA structure like she was cloned. He then looked at the pills that were brought in. He noted the bottle said, “Talxidam, 100mg 30 pills.” It was shaped just like the generic version of the opioid drug. He crushed it up and ran it through the Chemical Analyzer. It was a drug called Sodium Di-bromide trioxide polysulfate.
The medical examiner did a quick search in the drug database and found it was a coma drug called Tritex used by the federation in covert ops. He then took another tissue sample and ran it through a tissue analyzer. It didn’t have any drugs in it.
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A detective came into the observation room and pressed the intercom button. “What do you got?” He asked in his classic smoker’s voice.
The medical examiner responded in a firm tone. “It looks like prisoner 2256 was broken out of jail by the feds.”
“You know the emperor will want your real report. But I think you know what it needs to say.”
The Examiner sighed, “Yes detective, she died of suicide from pain pills.”
“Good man, get me the fingerprints of the prison guard who delivered the pills. You will need to prepare two reports. One for Navy Brass and the Emperor, and one for the Press.”
The medical examiner smiled and then laughed. “You will have both reports before lunch.”
“Good.”
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Brinus sat in the Barracks commander’s office. The office had a plain wooden desk with a computer terminal, a cup of cigarettes next to the countertop, a bowl of lighters, and a white marble top. The office also had various awards for service from the Third Pirate Wars and The Second War of Federation Aggression. The was a plain rug and two wooden chairs in front of her desk.
She had her brows furrowed and a scowl on her face with her arms crossed as Brinus sat at attention in his chair.
“Mind telling me why you showed up at the barracks drunk at 0200 hours in the morning screaming about your husband? You woke up half the barracks.” She snapped in an aggressive tone.
“Ma’am…”
She held up her hand and then made a shushing sound. “You know, I will escalate this to your commander if you lie or try to make excuses.”
Brinus swallowed. “I want a family.”
“What?”
Brinus moved in his seat and then said. “I was talking with Tangent about her family and then tried to match drinks with her. I wanted to get drunk to numb the fact I have no family, she got drunk for fun.”
The Barracks commander came up from her seat and sat on her desk in front of Brinus. “This is about your mother isn’t it?”
He nodded. Was that a tear? She swore she saw a tear in his eye.
“Tell me. What if I gave you seven days leave? You’ll need to get it approved with the lead training officer but I can pull some strings.”
Brinus continued sitting at attention and said nothing.
I knew this would happen. It always does. It’s a good thing I already spoke with his commander yesterday after we spoke. We’re just waiting for HR to give final approval.
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Brinus had a rucksack over his shoulder with his uniform, a change in navy clothes, and a grooming set at the gates of the admiralty base. His seven days bereavement was approved and he was dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a black leather jacket, and earth snakeskin boots. He also had a pair of star pilot sunglasses and his wand in his coat pocket.
The snake skink boots were easily worth twenty thousand credits with the jacket being a high-end designer brand popular with people who were actually rich, not just popular designer brands. The jeans were custom-tailored with a five thousand credit, black leather belt. Brinus figured if he was going to be a duke he may as well dress the part.
A limo pulled up and he got inside. The butler addressed him once he was settled.
“You must be our new Duke Lord Helios. My name is Master Condi. I am your great house butler.”
Brinus nodded in acknowledgment.
The butler was an elderly man at around 65 years old with shiny white hair and emerald green eyes. He wore a suit and tie and had shiny dress shoes on. Master Condi was thin with golden skin, brown eyes, and red hair.
After a few moments of silence, he asked. “Do you have any questions, your grace?”
“Did any of my family contact you?”
The butler shook his head and sighed. “No. We attempted to contact a few of Marci’s family and your father’s relatives but they either blocked us or had their servants tell us they don’t associate with criminals who are wannabe peasant noblemen.”
“Take me to the nearest vape store.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
They turned off the highway and went down a side street into a mixed-use neighborhood with two-story houses and shops on the first floor. The limo stopped at a shop called “Hippie Street Vapes.”
Brinus noticed flags on his car but went to put money in the meter. The butler stopped him.
“Your grace, the flags give you diplomatic immunity.”
Brinus smiled. “Really?”
He then went down through five parking meters on each side and put credits into them. The butler snorted and his nostrils flared. Brinus figured he could stick it to the cops. As far as he was concerned, any money taken from the police department was money earned. He saw a ticket for one hundred credits on someone’s car and dropped a one hundred credit chip underneath the ticket. He made a giant smile and gave the camera watching the street a middle finger.
Brinus then walked up to Condi. He then snorted. “You realize you are the establishment? Right?”
“Fuck the police,” laughed Brinus as they both walked into the store where everyone recorded Brinus.
Brinus took a fist full of credits from his coin purse and then threw them into the air, laughing manically. As everyone scrambled for the money, he approached the counter. Brinus felt guilty about relapsing and wanted to create as much chaos as possible for shits and giggles.
The desk worker looked at Brinus. “We don’t get too many noblemen.”
“Do you have a juell 2.0 with cotton candy and pink bubble gum-flavored vape juice?”
“We do.”
“Where?”
The worker sneered, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Seriously?! this guy comes into my shop, creating chaos, just acting crazy and he thinks I am going to sell to him? Oh hell no. “They aren’t for sale.”
Brinus smiled, “How much?”
“They aren’t for sale to people like you.”
Someone knocked over a display of vape cartons as the mad scramble for credits continued. Brinus pulled out his wand and pointed it at the pile of boxes and they restacked themselves.
“How much?”
Brinus put ten one hundred credit chips on the table.
The worker leaned over the counter and into Brinus’s face. “You’re not going to cause chaos in my shop. Get the fuck out of my store and don’t come back.”
Brinus and the butler walked out of the store.
They went to another Vape store where Brinus began browsing. Two cops entered the shop. Three more were outside. Brinus noticed they watched him through the shop mirrors and the three cops guarded the doors. He felt his heart rate increase and his mouth go dry. Those assholes are watching me.
Brinus looked at the butler. “Who the fuck called the police?”
The butler rolled his eyes and then grabbed a set of coils for Brinus’s vape and some cotton balls. “Seriously?! You’re asking that question?! The only reason you aren’t being arrested is because you’re a duke. You’re acting like a petulant child!”
They purchased their items and as they went to the door all five cops surrounded Brinus and put their hands on their shock sticks.
The corporal spoke after stepping forward. “Hello. Name, date of birth, and reason for visiting this shop.”
“Am I being detained under section 10 of the criminal code of justice or section 15 of the criminal code of conduct?”
The cops looked at each other. Immediately they knew they had someone they couldn’t bully. “Okay, you wonna play this game? You’re detained under Section 10 of the criminal code of justice the charge is crime 28 in a class 4 residential zone.”
Brinus smiled. The cops think they are cute, do they? He said, “Technically according to section nine paragraph four of the criminal code of justice a mixed-use residential zone with shops that employ ten or less people are classified as a class one commercial zone which would make the charge crime 28-b with a fine of 500 credits. Is there a way I can resolve this?”
The cops looked at each other and then turned off their body cams.
The copropal asked, looking around the room, “What do you propose?”
“Is there a fine I can pay directly to each of you?”
The cops laughed. “You’re not a normal nobleman are you?”
“No, I am not.” Brinus flashed his Orin syndicate tattoo and his burglar tattoo on his stomach.
“I can take payment of your fine. You will pay the fine to us personally. We will take care of everything.”
Brinus handed the five cops five hundred credits each. The police left Brinus and his butler.
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The police captain was on the phone with the sergeant as the medical examiner waited in his office. The captain’s office had an epoxy wood desk with molten tin poured onto a cut tree trunk. There was also a rug over the blue carpet floors and two painted neo-imperial chairs.
“How much money was made from the fine? Really? Wow. He must have been rich. I want my cut as usual. Yes, sergeant. No, we will not arrest him later. Can you imagine having a duke who is an ex-syndicate member in jail over disturbing the peace? He sounds like he knows the law better than most of my detectives. Yes. Goodbye.”
The captain turned to the medical examiner who held a metal sphere the size of a musket ball.
“Did you get the fingerprints?”
“Yes, sir. Here are my reports.” He handed the police captain his metal sphere.
Master Condi Came out of the shop and then laughed nervously. He said, “Where did you learn the law like that?”
Brinus shrugged as he got into the limo. “I’m a trained pentestor. We have to study the law and know it better than most cops in order to know our job.”
Brinus used his magic to charge the vape and then put some juice in the pen along with the coils and cotton balls. He then took a hit and smiled at his pupils dilated and he relaxed in his seat.
The butler looked at him with his left lip curled and the corner of his eyes hardened. “You know, real nobles don’t smoke.”
Brinus flashed his teeth at the butler in a screw-you smile. “I didn’t smoke for six months. Does that count?”
The butler growled. Whatever this kid’s rank he is no gentleman. No wonder he’s an outcast.
As Brinus let the AA nicotine wash over him they arrived at the great house.