Why do one thing when you can do three? - Unknown
Keep It Simple, Stupid - Treana'ad saying
Who could have seen my overly complicated plan that depends on each step working perfectly actually failing? It's unpossible! - Tra'agimo'o, Villain of Green Mantid, Red Blood, a Lanaktallan horror media
Daxin pulled on his boots, taking the time to stomp his feet a few times before lacing them up. He stared at the toes of the boots, black dyed leather, brass grommets, nylon laces, hard rubber sole. Primitive, archaic, and obsolete.
Just like everything else the Detainee was carrying, wearing, or using.
He glanced over, seeing her duck her head under the water, leaving behind a big puddle of foam that was swept away by the creek's current.
He reached out and grabbed the canteen, shaking it up again just to make sure the water purification tablet had done its work, and took a long drink.
She hadn't said a word in two days since they had walked away from the starship sitting in the clearing. She marched. Made camp. Cooked and ate a meal. Slept. Got up. Cooked and ate a meal, prepared her lunch, then packed up camp and started marching again.
He had sat on a log for over an hour, refusing to move. At about the hour mark he started to feel foolish, feeling like he was acting like a child hoping an adult would come back to pay attention to him.
It had taken him two hours to catch up with her six miles further. She hadn't said a word, just glanced at him then continued to march, lighting a cigarette without missing a step.
She was grating on his nerves.
An hour ago she had stopped at the creek, dropped her pack, and then unpacked a towel, a change of socks and underwear, then stared at Daxin until he had done the same. She had ignored him while he bathed, then, when he had gotten out of the water and started to dry off, just stripped naked and waded into the creek.
He remembered how often she appeared fully nude and come to admit that she really had no body modesty, that she didn't care about how others reacted to her nudity.
FIDO thumped his tail on the ground as a squirrel launched itself from a high branch, spread out its legs to stretch out a membrane, and glided to another branch.
"He's too high for you," Daxin said.
**wanna chase** FIDO said. **FIDO like it here. Smells good. Lots to chase**
Daxin frowned. FIDO was right. He'd seen a lot of wildlife, a lot of it that looked almost Earth-like.
Dee came out of the water, bending down and grabbing her towel before standing up to start drying off.
Daxin stared in any direction but toward her. Her nudity bothered him and he knew it was because she had admitted more than once to using nudity as a weapon.
Finally, Dee was dressed in cargo pants with boots, a t-shirt, a flannel shirt, and a thick leather belt.
A squirrel chattered at a bird, which screeched back.
"Lots of animals," Daxin said.
Dee just nodded, bringing out a can of mixed fruit and taking off her necklace. It was a long chain of closely linked silver beads that held a smaller chain. There were two metal tags hanging off the shorter chain, as well as what Daxin had discovered was small can opener. She opened the can, put the necklace back on and hid it beneath her t-shirt, then pulled a spoon out of her pocket.
"Lots of animals that look like they belong on Earth," Daxin tried again.
The Matron of Hell just nodded, eating the fruit cocktail.
"So why are they here?" Daxin asked. "What do they have to do with whatever game you're playing."
"Genesis Wrath Gecko," Dee said before taking another bite of fruit cocktail.
Daxin looked around slowly. "You used a xenoforming device?" he asked.
The Lady Lord of Hell just nodded.
"Why?" Daxin asked.
The Detainee swallowed the fruit and motioned at the surroundings with the spoon. "This was a blasted planet. Ocean and atmosphere siphoned away, bedrock cracked. Precursor Autonomous War Machine attack over two hundred thousand years ago," she pointed up at the moon, visible in the day sky. "Had to rebuild the moon too. Nobody was living here any more, nothing would ever live here again," she said. She shrugged. "I needed somewhere to stand while we do this, so using a Khan class Gecko suited my purposes."
She looked back at the can and took another bite, her teeth clicking on the metal spoon.
"That's a lot of effort just to lead me around the woods," Daxin said. He looked up at one of the birds sitting in the tree and realized the tree was a type of pine tree.
The Detainee just shrugged, still eating.
When she was done, she used the can opener to remove the bottom of the can, put the top and bottom inside, flattened the can, and put it in a container off the side of her pack. She stood up, pulled on her pack, and started walking again.
Again, Daxin was tempted to just sit there. He didn't like being manipulated under the best circumstances and Dee was getting on his nerves. Still, he knew that if he didn't get up, she'd just keep going, probably sneering at him for quitting.
He got up, pulled on his pack, and hustled to catch up to her.
FIDO ran by, chasing a squirrel.
-----
Dee finished building the little bed of wood shavings she'd peeled off the wood with a knife, getting out here string and building a bow before starting the fire.
"Why not just use a lighter?" Daxin asked.
"I like this," Dee said.
Daxin just watched, wondering how it all fit in with what she was doing. He doubted that she was starting the fire like that just because she liked it, there had to be a reason for it.
Damned if he could figure it out.
"You gonna tell me what's next?" Daxin asked.
Dee just leaned down and started gently blowing on the wood shavings.
"You rebuilt an entire planet and its moon, maybe even the whole solar system, just to walk me around on this planet," Daxin said. "There has to be a purpose to it."
Smoke started to seep out of the sawdust and wood shaving pile. Dee kept gently blowing with pursed lips, on her hands and knees.
"You rebuilt my body. You removed all the old safeguards like the dendrite impressed ICE and the malware in my DNA encoding. You removed almost all of my cyberware except my datalink and retinal link," he said.
"And your smartlink," Dee said, then went back to gently blowing.
"You made sure FIDO was at optimum condition, then brought me here. You dropped and entire starship in a clearing in the forest for me. You offered me the position of Hell Knight," Daxin said. He leaned forward. "What do you want?"
Dee straightened up as flames started jumping up from the shavings. She carefully put sticks around the tinder pile, then branches on top of that.
"What do you want?" Daxin repeated when she stood up.
"I told you already," Dee said. She knelt down next to her pack and opened one of the side pockets. When she stood up, after closing the pocket, she tossed what she had pulled out of backpack, the object landing at Daxin's feet.
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A belt with ammunition pouches and a holster that contained an ancient Lawgiver pistol.
She pointed at the belt. "Saw wolf and worg tracks."
She turned back and got into her backpack again, pulling out a holster that she attached to her belt at the hip.
Daxin noted it wasn't a standard holster clip, but more like a pair of sliding black metal clips that held the holster and then the two ammunition pouches in place.
He looked at the pistol then drew it from the holster. The LEDs on the side went live and he saw that it recognized his palmprint and DNA scan. Low velocity antipersonnel rounds was the setting. He put the pistol back and belted it on.
"So, what exactly do you think you're going to get me to do?" Daxin asked.
"Whatever you can be assed to do, you lazy ungrateful fuck. It's what you're good at," Dee said, starting to build her tent.
Daxin gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to get up and walk away, or yell at her, or maybe just smack her until she admitted what her game was.
When she was done she made a meal for both of them, tossing FIDO the bones from the canned chicken. She sat silently, eating slowly, often looking up at the stars. When she was done, she cleaned her meal kit and put it away before pulling two beers out.
Daxin accepted the one she held out to him when he was done cleaning and stowing his meal kit.
Long moments passed before the Detainee cleared her throat.
"Mister Freeborn," she said.
When Daxin looked up, she was wearing the black suit, the black sunglasses, the white earpiece.
"Again, I make my offer," she stated.
Daxin sighed.
"You can be alone. Left alone for the rest of your life. I will leave and you and FIDO will be here, alone, until the star turns red and burns this world away," the Detainee said. "Or, you can know there are others out there that you may encounter. You might go to them, they might come to you, but you will not be alone and there is no guarantee that you will be left alone."
"All right," Daxin said. He looked around. "You're going to maroon me here."
The Detainee nodded. "The offer of the starship was a one time offer only. That time has passed, Mister Freeborn."
"So, either be trapped here alone or with other prisoners," Daxin said. He looked around. "Some choice."
"No, the choice is that you will be left alone, as you have always stated you wanted," she said. "Or, you will have to be like everyone else and run the risk of having to interact with other people."
"What, you scraped some poor bastards out of the SUDS?" Daxin asked.
The Lady Lord of Hell shook her head. "Nothing so brute force. I built them when I xenoformed this place. If you are willing to interact with others, they live. If you wish to be left alone, then I'll simply brilliant pebble them. No fear, no pain, just gone," she shrugged.
"They don't deserve that." Daxin growled.
"Nobody actually gets what they deserve, Mister Freeborn," the Matron of the Damned said softly.
"I don't want this. I don't want to make this decision," Daxin said.
"People in Hell don't want to burn, but they do. Their actions, their decisions, led them to my graces. They want ice water, but they haven't earned it, they don't deserve it," the Lady Lord of Hell said, shrugging again. "There are only two options here, Mister Freeborn. You can be left alone for the rest of your life or you can take the chance you might have to interact with others. Their lives, their deaths, are meaningless. The only thing that matters is your choice," she smiled, a cruel thing. "Not making a choice is a choice. I will brilliant pebble them and leave you here, just as if you choose to be left alone."
She smiled again. "Thrice asked, Mister Freeborn."
Daxin stared at her for a long moment.
"Fine. I'll take the chance," he growled.
"Thrice asked and a deal struck," The Lady Lord of Hell nodded then pointed up. "Observe, Mister Freeborn."
Daxin looked up. After a second he saw brief flares of light, tiny specks that brightened then vanished.
"With that, I've removed the brilliant pebbles. You can no longer be extorted by their lives," the Lady Lord of Hell said.
When Daxin looked back down he saw the camping outfit slowly appear. There was a ripple in the middle of the black suit that spread, like thick oil, across the Detainee, leaving behind the chubby matron in the camping clothing.
"They're Bronze Age. Multiple gatherings across this planet, across the biomes, across the continents. They'll grow and change, but it will be up to them. They have traders, wanderers, some are hunter-gatherer tribes. You may, no, you will encounter them in the coming decades," she said.
"Another one of your tests," Daxin said.
The Lady Lord of Hell just nodded.
"I am rapidly getting tired of this game," Daxin warned.
"Then fucking shoot me," Dee snapped. "That'll end the game," she pointed at the pistol where it rode on the belt. "Pull the pistol, shoot me between the fucking eyes. You'll never see me again and nobody will know."
Daxin just glared.
Without a word she got up and tossed the bottle into the fire, where it slowly burned away. By the time it had burned away she had retreated to her tent and closed the flap.
Daxin stared at the fire, toying with the thoughts of just walking away, or killing her in her sleep, or just refusing to play her game.
But he wasn't a stupid man. He wasn't going to underestimate her. Those were choices, even the choice of doing nothing. She would have laid plans for those choices.
After all, he would have in her position.
-----
Another week and the Detainee suddenly stopped, looking around. Daxin slowed down, stopping next to her. When he looked at her, she was wearing the black suit, sunglasses, and earpiece again.
"Another choice, Mister Freeborn," she said softly.
Daxin could hear the subdued menace behind the conversational tone.
She pointed down one trail.
"That way lies ignorance. That way your past before you encounter someone will never catch up to you unless you speak of it," she said. She pointed down the other. "There? That way, your past is known. You will have to deal with people who would know your past, or needed to know your past, knowing who you were and the things you have done."
Daxin looked at both, thinking them over.
"Choose which way. Wipe away the past and hope it never rears its ugly head or confront it," the Lady Lord of Hell stated.
"Why would Bronze Age savages know what I have done, who I am? How would they even comprehend the things I have done?" Daxin asked.
"That is not part of the equation," the Matron of Hell said. "Choose, Mister Freeborn. Ignorance and concealment or the truth, right out in the open, with those who should know capable of knowing."
"Who would know?" Daxin pressed.
"Not relevant to this question, Mister Freeborn. Thrice I ask you: Run away from the past or confront it?" The Matron of the Damned asked.
Daxin shook his head. What did it matter? Everything he had done was a matter of public record. He was Enraged Phillip, Osiris of the Warsteel Flame, and a hundred other names. All of them were easy to find, easy to look up for anyone with a historical database.
He didn't bother answering.
He just headed down the right hand path.
"Thrice asked and a choice is made," the Detainee said. "Face the possibility of your past being brought up. Face your past."
Daxin just tromped forward, hoping that this would get to the end of whatever it was the Detainee wanted.
She caught up, dressed in hiking clothes again, trudging along silently next to him.
She didn't speak for almost a week.
-----
The Detainee suddenly put her arm out, stopping Daxin from taking another step. He could smell wood smoke in the air. Snowflakes were drifting down, he could see his breath, and the chill was sinking into his flesh.
"Forest fire?" he asked. When he looked at her he almost groaned.
She was in the black suit, with sunglasses and earpiece, staring up at him.
"Time to choose, Mister Freeborn," she said.
"What now?" Daxin asked.
"Every choice you have made has led to this point. Whether you knew it consciously or not, every step, every choice, led you here," the Matron of the Damned said. She pointed at the bushes just in front of them that concealed whatever was beyond. "It is here that is your final choice."
Daxin frowned. "What choice? Which bush I want to piss on?"
The Detainee shook her head. "No. Nothing so simple," she said. "I told you, Mister Freeborn, that you must be taken out of play. That you must be removed from the board so that time could march on."
Daxin nodded. "I remember you mentioning that."
The Lady Lord of Hell nodded back. "We both know that killing you will do no good," she said. She reached out and touched the branches of the bush next to her. "Beyond this, is the end of the man as the universe has known him. Should you go forward, you will die, eventually, Mister Freeborn."
"Is that supposed to scare me?" Daxin asked. "It's late. It's starting to snow. I'm cold. I'm tired. Just get on with it so we can make camp."
"There is no we beyond this point, Mister Freeborn. Just you and your choices," the Detainee said. "You are again asked: Do you wish to be left alone, Mister Freeborn, or are you willing to face your past, face your decisions, and no longer be alone?"
Daxin thought about it. "Let's see my decisions."
The Lady Lord of Hell shook her head. "It is not that easy. Here I take my leave. Forward or back, I will no longer be with you. Should you go forward, you face it all. You can, however, turn back and go back to being left alone."
"I might as well see this to the end," Daxin said.
"This is the end, Mister Freeborn," the Matron of the Damned said. "I ask again, forward or back? No longer alone or left alone?"
"Forward," Daxin said. If anything, it would get him away from her.
"Thrice asked: Forward to face your past or will you turn around rather than face where your choices have led you?" The Matron of the Damned said.
"Forward," Daxin said.
"Thrice offered and a choice is made," the Detainee said. "A knock at the door and it will all make sense."
Daxin started to push forward toward the bushes, through the ferns. He felt a touch on his arm.
"Daxin," her voice was soft, gentle.
Daxin turned and looked at her.
"You and I, we're more alike than any of the others," she said softly. She dropped her hand from where she had touched his arm.
"Live well, Daxin," she said softly. Her gunmetal gray eyes were soft and warm. "Live well."
The Detainee, the Lady Lord of Hell, the Matron of the Damned, turned and walked away, back into the dark and snowy woods.
**Bye Not-Mommy** FIDO said.
"Goodbye, not-dog," Dee said without turning around.
Daxin watched until she vanished into the darkness and the snow.
"Well, shall we?" Daxin asked.
**want to see* FIDO said.
Daxin just nodded, pushing through the bushes.
The clearing beyond was knee deep in snow. There were two scarecrows silently hanging from posts that indicated that the cabin and barns beyond survived off of the fields. Behind the barn three cows were wandering around in the snow, uncaring of the chill. On the side of the barn facing Daxin was a pigpen with a shelter, with muddy snow through it. There was a well in front of the cabin.
A rooster stood on top of the single story cabin, flapping its wings. It took flight, soaring down and landing on a coop between the barn and the cabin.
Smoke went straight up into the night air from the chimney, the lights were lit but curtained.
Daxin trudged through the snow until he got to the porch. He stomped his feet, scattering snow, then knocked on the door.
He could faintly hear voices. Voices that felt...
familiar? Almost? Maybe?
The door opened and a young woman in her early twenties looked out.
He stared at her.
"Abithica?" Daxin asked, his voice trembling with shock.
"Daddy?" the young woman asked.
Daxin just nodded, it was all he could do.
"MOM! JESSICA! DADDY'S HERE!" Abithica yelled.
**HOME DAXIN HOME**