“Then you do know him?” Madame Terra asked but Bradford wasn’t listening.
All he could do was think about how terrible this was, how much trouble he was in. One of his greatest enemies was here, and from what he was trouble, worse than ever! But how had he been able to get those people to follow him? He just didn’t understand, there had to be something else at work here, something that he couldn’t see. The only thing that fool had was money, that was it. He didn’t have much brains or charisma so how……. He went still as a terrible thought was born in his brain, and suddenly everything made sense.
“Mr. Bradford? Sir, are you okay?” Madame Terra asked again but Bradford ignored her.
All the times that fool had almost killed so many people when he made those unsafe buildings. The attacks on Bradford’s company, sure were done by mercs. But whenever he tracked down the person who set it up, his forces always found them dead by then. And there those attacks were always after he had done something against that bastard! It didn’t take any guises to know the scum was behind it all! But to prove it, that had been impossible. But how had that fool even gotten them to think a sacrifice was a good idea? The only reason was if he had something helping him to convince them, and that meant the Power!
But how did he get it? The Federation had been trying to understand how the Ancients did it for decades and nothing. The Power was beyond every trick they had tried. The few people who developed it were checked and nothing was different about them. Even when they used it, the only readings done when a subject used their Ability were normal. The subject reported being hotter, but there were no signs of that heat. So how had that bottom feeder gotten the Power, what had he done?
“SIR!” Madame Terra bellowed.
Bradford blinked and looked at her, and then he smiled. “My apologies Madame Terra. I was just thinking how bad this is for us all.”
“So you know him then?”
“Yes. He’s the owner of a company that I have investigated many times. Unsafe working conditions, the safe violations! Not to mention the improper storage of waste products…… the mind just boggles. But of course, the bribes he paid to inspectors always were through middlemen helped a lot. And the man hates me!” Bradford said with a scowl.
“OH,” Madame Terra said as she looked at him.
Bradford looked at her and took a deep breath. So he would have to tell her about that secret then? The Special Service would have his hide, but they all needed to be alive to be caught. And spending a hundred years in prison wasn’t so bad. It might even help his chances for a reelection campaign once he was out if he was honest. “I know that makes my words suspected. But the two of us are honest in how we view the other. So trust me when I say this. The only thing that fool had going was his money! But in this environment, that means nothing. So he had to have used something else. And I fear that I know what that something else is.”
Madame Terra looked at him and took a deep breath. “Sir, are you saying that there’s something different about him? Something that makes him more than a normal person?”
“Yes. I don’t know how that thing got it, but it does exist. You see, the beings we know as the Ancients……” Bradford began.
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Terra looked at Bradford as he explained, her heart-stopping. She didn’t expect to hear this again, and she didn’t have the time for that talk. “Sir, does this have to do with the Ancients? What they can do? Without tech?”
Bradford blinked a looked at her in shock. “Yes, that madam. I
“But what does what they can do have to do with….. you think he’s gained a Power that lets him influence people!?” Terra began as she looked at him.
“A Power? That’s a term that is mostly correct. But yes. But how do you know about it?” Bradford asked in confusion.
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“Some of the people in the people here, they’ve developed their own Powers. And the Chief told me about them. Saying something about the Ancients and what they can do. But this is bad,” Terra said and Bradford laughed and shook his head.
“You have no idea how bad,” Bradford said with a scowl as he shook his head.
“How bad is it? What or who is this guy?” Terra asked as she looked at Bradford. All in all, the way Bradford was reacting told her that.
“The Dacount family has a long history at my home. They championed the industrial progress of my home world’s moons for generations. And his grandfather was my predecessor,” Bradford said with a slight scowl. “His father became my rival for that election, I won of course.”
“So you knew him through knowing your rival?” Terra asked and Bradford shook his head.
“Not exactly. His father didn’t want to win, only keep the other person from winning. I first met Roch Dacount when he was over ten years old when his father came to my victory party. And I will never forget him,” Bradford admitted as she looked at him. His eyes were hard and his face was set in a line. “His parents were emotionally neglectful at best, abusive at worst. When I saw that boy, I saw what I thought was true evil. The party was at a property of mine, and the cleaners found something. One of the local strays is dead. The body was of a feline-like creature with six legs. Its eyes were torn out, the middle legs were broken in multiple places. But the worst was the bit marks on the corpse. An investigation showed that the body had been eaten when it was alive.”
Terra looked at him in horror as he looked at her with a completely serious expression. “And you never found anything that linked him to it!?”
“The strays were considered a source of disease by some people. Some towns even had bounties for their skulls. And I didn’t think much of it for months afterward. Only when I was looking at a picture did I see him with red remains on his face? But I served pasta and tomato sauce, and eating messy was the fad at the time. So again, nothing to link to him,” Bradford said with a scowl.
Terra looked at him, trying to understand what she was telling her.
“But you found something, you had to if you’re talking about it. Right?” Terra asked as she looked at him.
Bradford looked away, a scowl on his face. “Nothing definite, but little things. Missing people, dead animals, and corpses of beings were discovered. And all of that near properties his family owned! And then his parents died, in that ‘accident’! Every chance I had to get him, and there was nothing I could do! I started to keep an eye on his company after that, and I set up laws that targeted the abuses my people found! And in return, raiders stole from me!”
“You think he was behind it?” Terra asked as she stared at him in shock. Terra couldn’t understand, if Bradford knew that Roch was that bad, why didn’t he do something?
“Again, not proof. The middlemen always got bounties for only their deaths after the mission. And back home we need airtight proof before anything can be done. That’s the law,” Bradford said with a hard tone.
Terra looked at him and then she shook her head, trying to understand this. She had thought that there were problems with Roch, but nothing like this. And that was an opening that he would probably. A Power that let him influence minds, that was the worst. And that meant that …..Terra looked up, her mind going dark places as she saw everything. There had to be decisions made, and then had to find a reason to get someone away from Roch.
“Bradford, I want….” Terra began and then she heard roars from above. She gripped her riffle and looked at him. She had to get up there fast, and then she had to try and handle Roch. But she had another problem to deal with here and now.
“NOVA! Bradford get in there and tell Chief Duncan what you told me! Lock down the capsule! Nothing in or out until I saw so! Have the other deckhands try and find some blasting charges while you’re at it!” Terra barked as she turned and ran towards the hill. Behind her, she heard the door open, and then slamming shut.
As soon as she could see the field, she saw everyone standing towards the left side. Without a word, she spotted Jessie and ran towards him. She had to figure out what was going on!
As soon as she reached him, she slammed her right hand onto his shoulder. He looked at her and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank the stars! We’re in trouble!” Jessie said as he held his pistols in his hand.
Terra nodded as she looked beyond him, and saw the shield rippling. Her gaze saw something that she hadn’t expected, a new kind of creature.
There were five of them, and they were unlike anything that she had ever seen. Each one was a quadruped beast with bright green…feathers. Each limb ended in three talons. They didn’t have wings, nor did they have tails. But they did have black beaks and each one was open. Above the beaks were eyes, and each one was closed.
For a second, she didn’t understand what she was seeing, and then she did. Somehow, these things were shouting beyond the range of human hearing. And the force of the ‘blasts’ was causing the shield to ripple.
Before she did anything, she needed to make sure everything was safe behind the shield first. Looking around, she found Roch a good twenty feet away with a female deckhand. With a scowl she grabbed two people, looking around for anyone else. Then her eyes found Bob’s tanned skin and she grinned. “Bob!”
“Terra?” He said as he turned to look at her, his white hair moving a little.
“Bob, don’t ask questions, just do it! I want you to go over there and move that civilian we rescued away everyone! Put in by the shield on the other side of the clearing! And have that girl wait for me by the capsule’s door. And don’t touch him!” Terra said sternly.
“Do we have time to do that now!?” Bob asked in shock.
Terra just scowled and pushed the two deckhands she had grabbed before nodding. “You’ll make time! Go do it now!”
Bob was about to say something when something in Terra’s gaze made him nod. “Right Terra! Follow me you two!”
“What was that about?” Jessie asked as he looked at three people as they ran.
Terra ignored him and looked around, trying to make a plan. “Long story, I’ll tell you later. How’s the shield?”
“It dropped around five points in the last minute!” Jessie reported with a hard stare.
Terra stared at him in horror, five points might not be much. But in a minute? From an attack from a biological living creature? That was unheard of! And there were only three of them. They needed to send people to deal with them, and now!
“Jessie, get five people! Go out of the shield from the north, take those things down! And keep Jones here!” Terra finished with an afterthought.
Jessie nodded, running towards the others and barking out orders.
Terra looked around, her mind going over everything that she could think of. The monsters could be trying to get people to come fight them, and the shield was blocking their screams. If they were smarter than they looked, then they might just be a diversion. That meant that they had to be ready for anything that might come at them from the other sides. “Everyone, fall back! To the second defensive line now! All others but Jessie’s team!”