Chapter 10: A Simple Thing

Paulie was flying through the air, less gracefully than a bird. Maybe more like a shot fired out of a cannon. The wind rushed past his ears and his face was torn into a crazed grin however, the gleam of his eyes fueled by the cocktail of hormones that flooded his system as he sailed towards the other obstacle tower.

For a moment he was weightless, and then reality reasserted itself as he slammed into the side of the other tower, his arms catching the lip as his booted feet hit the side and his knees bent to absorb the kinetic energy of his wild maneuver. In the background of his mind he heard a chorus of gasps, chirps and surprised yelps. But he ignored them. Let whoever wanted to watch him. He was still focused on the task at hand, he had always been good at directing his focus.

Paulie glanced around, he was atop the other tall tower, the other side covered in protruding handholds that one might painstakingly grasp to scale or descend the tall tower. He shook his head with a jerk, why waste the time? He took a millisecond to judge the distance and then stepped off the edge, aiming for a point about a meter below him.

He bent his knee as he used the climbing hold to slightly redirect his fall, another point pushing him to another and another till only a few heartbeats later he slammed into the ground hard enough to strain his knees. But he was feeling good, and so he took but a second to recatch his breath and jumped back into the course.

Nothing that came was nearly as strenuous as the towers had been. He leapt across a gap like it didn’t exist, bowled straight through a series of inflated canvas bags and then under a roped off area before coming to his feet at the foot of a rope wall. He pulled himself up and over the top in a few seconds before sprinting the last few meters to the finishing point.

As he skidded to a halt, breathing heavily, he heard a series of chittering barks, yowls and barks. He straightened and saw that officer Tell’eal was already standing near to the finish line, waiting for him apparently.

He let out a whoosh of air and walked over to her, “So.. what do you think? Good enough?”

She shook her neckless head slightly, a low chuffing emitting from her plate-like mouthparts. The translator buzzed as she spoke in that same groaning alien tongue. “I would be forced to concede the win to you. You have smashed aside all previous records and expectations. Even after all this time you continue to surprise me, Paulie.”

She surprised him by reaching out a chitin-covered, four fingered hand towards him. He tentatively grasped it and gave it a shake, “Alright. So you think it checks out?”

The large mendagoonian shifted from side to side a little. “On you it does. More testing would be required before I gave the clearing for others to wear anything similar. I fear that you may be one of the only ones capable of using that armour to its maximum potential.” He smiled again. That was about the highest praise he had ever heard from her.

He looked around, there was a small crowd gathered around them, watching as they generally did whenever he did anything. Apparently his actions were as superhuman to them as they would have felt to him back on Earth. These aliens all seemed adapted to the much lighter pull of the worldlet’s surface. Maybe that was the real reason they continued to call him an apocalypser behind his back? The very pull of Earth would have sufficed to crush or maim many of them.

Paulie nodded and gave a small wave to some of the onlookers before settling the weight of his new armour across his shoulders again. “Well, I think it fits well enough too. I need to go and talk to Mack about my carry qualification. Thanks for.. everything.” He smiled at the large alien woman.

Officer Tell’eal’s antennae dropped as she signed at him. Her translator clicking with minor static, “It is well that you came to be here. I think you are just what Mack needed to see his life’s work through.”

The way she said it she could have been talking about doing the laundry. But somehow he got the impression that she was getting at a bit more than she was letting on to. Though he had no way to know for sure and didn’t really want to ask in front of a small crowd of curious rubberneckers.

So instead he just acknowledged the remark and walked away. Nothing too dramatic, he was not always the center of attention and he liked that fine. All the eyes being on him had always made him a bit nervous, and so he strode from the room with determination.

The walk from the obstacle room back to the armoury was quite short, the sounds of distant gunfire growing in intensity as he reentered the large space and checked his communication device. The commie lit up, the English text telling him that it was near to midafternoon. About five minutes before he had been scheduled to meet Mack and Jakiikii in the armoury for his final qualification.

Truth be told, Paulie was a bit excited. He had never owned a gun back on Earth. He had never seen the need, but here, in this place where danger seemed to lurk around every street corner. Well, he was looking forward to strapping himself up. Would be nice to be the one doing the shooting for a change.

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He chuckled a little at that, he wasn’t looking forward to more fighting. Not really, but he had to admit that with his unique abilities he was pretty good at it. Looking around quickly, he saw Mack and Jakiikii entering the far side of the room from another adjoining hall. Jakiikii seemed to notice him immediately, the termaxxi lifting one of her many arms to point his way while another jostled Mack’s shoulder at the same time.

Paulie walked their way and they met near to the middle of the large open chamber. Mack nodded towards the range area, “Let’s head over to the range. I have something for you again.”

That was exciting. The shooting range combined with the promise of some new trinket perhaps, probably the latest variation of his special project? He was practically bouncing on his toes as Jakiikii sidled up beside him and nudged his side with one of her longer top arms.

“I heard you wowed the crowds in the obstacle course this morning. Officer Tell’eal was practically babbling about your performance over the local channel. She said you jumped the tower gap?” She gave him her equivalent of a sideways glance, two of her petal-like eyes glancing his way surreptitiously.

Paulie gave her a smile and shook his head, chuckling as he spoke. “I guess, I was just trying to push the envelope, you know? Like Tell’eal is always trying to tell me. I am built for a lot tougher gravity than this, it wasn’t really anything all that spectacular truth be told.”

He noticed her looking at him strangely. A pulse of white flashing over her exposed skin as she slowed her pace ever so slightly. “Nothing spectacular?” She seemed to mutter, so quiet that he almost didn’t pick it up. He glanced at her and she pulsed white again as she ducked her head slightly. She looked over towards him with all six eyes, turning her head towards and up to his taller frame. “I mean.. I would have considered it pretty spectacular.. to see you.. do that.” She grumbled to herself a little as she finished speaking.

Paulie smiled and nudged her back. “Well, thanks. I am happy that the armour fits well, it’s pretty heavy so I was just making sure it wasn’t going to slow me down too much.” He shifted a little. “You know, I think it’s actually helping me more than it is hurting. Makes me feel heavier, more normal. I am supposed to be three times heavier than I am here you know?” He shifted again as they neared the shooting range. The two of them walked side by side, near enough to almost be touching.

Before they were allowed to approach the main floor of the range they had to go through a checkpoint manned by a bored looking vishu’uieum female with brightly colored plumage. Her two eyes were set wide on fin-like growths that protruded from her shoulders and these dark orbs locked onto Paulie and Jakiikii as they reached her.

Jakiikii started, “Oh, hello Mee’dri.. we were meeting Mack to..”

A pair of small arms appeared from under her thick covering of feathers. Where they had originally been concealed under the coverings she now waved them at Jakiikii with what must pass for her species' version of a scowl. Her large tendril-ringed mouth spoke sternly, “Oh no. I know exactly what you are here for.”

“And what is that?” Paulie asked her sweetly. Smiling as he said it.

She shimmied side to side on her oversized gorilla-like arm-legs as she waved one of her smaller arms at him. “You are here to stir up trouble. If it isn’t her shooting the bolts off the target resetters it is you firing one of those oversized cannons you seem to like so much. The ones that make my head hurt from here.”

Paulie shrugged. “It isn’t my fault that hearing protection wasn’t required before. None of your guns are really all that loud, back where I am from..”

Mee’dri butted in. “That savage underdeveloped apocalypse world..”

Paulie gave Jakiikii a glance, “Yeah. that’s the one. You know, it isn’t like I am firing off a .50 BMG anti-material rifle or a main battle tank’s cannon after all.”

The alien’s eyes narrowed slightly and she just reached down to press a trio of buttons. The first two seemed to clear them and open the main gate while the third caused a low buzzing tone to sound from the main shooting area followed by a flashing green light that easily grabbed attention on every different shooting position. She reached down and then handed them a series of small dark disks that they accepted gratefully before nodding their thanks to the vishu’uie.

“Hey, thank’s Mee’dri.” He said genuinely. The woman snorted, but it seemed a little half hearted. He suspected that she acted grumpy as a matter of course but was likely quite a sweet person in reality.

He noted that many of the others that were currently on the range had stopped their shooting activities to look up at the alert and then back towards him and Jakiikii. Instead of shying away he put on a wide smile and puffed out his chest a little as if to say, ‘Yeah it’s me.’

Jakiikii herself hunkered down a little and crept closer to his shoulder as if trying to hide. She could have hidden almost perfectly if she had wanted to, her species camouflage abilities combined with the enhancing effect of her stealth suit could render her nearly fully invisible to most forms of light. Though he had noted that she was still slightly visible as a shimmer in the air, almost like that of a heat mirage.

He felt her wrap a hand around his arm as they walked and glanced at her. “You okay?”

She nodded. Though he could see from her odd behavior that she didn’t like the attention. He had seen her act like that before, usually around other officers that he didn’t know. He frowned, had she been mistreated so badly that she couldn’t bear to be the center of attention? Paulie felt his fists clench involuntarily at the thought and he forced himself to take a deeper breath to calm down a little. The pushing sensation from his parasite making his emotions more difficult to control, he smashed the dark shadow in the back of his mind back down. Was it his imagination or did it resist his mental attack a little more this time?

He was brought back to reality by a squeeze of his bicep from Jakiikii as she tried to get his attention. “Paulie..” She hissed, the sound coming from somewhere low in her chest. “Mack.” She gestured to the miriam detective who was looking at him with poorly concealed annoyance, his large grey eyes boring into Paulie.

Paulie nodded to the man, “Hey, you wanted to show me something? Is it the new model?” He asked excitedly.

Mack placed the case on the side of the range, the man had no need for the sound dampening disks it seemed. His sensory spines must not be as susceptible to loud noises as Paulie’s own ear drums. He glanced at Jakiikii who had placed her own sound dampeners over the two small smooth patches just behind her eyes. Otolith crystals as he had learned as her ears were largely internal.

He placed his own dampeners over his ears as Mack clicked the case open and then stepped to the side. The world took on a slightly muffled quality as he stepped up past Jakiikii and Mack to look at what was contained within.

Inside the case was a gun. Not like the sleek electronic designs of the MDF guns or the plasma casters he had seen others use. No, this gun was much simpler. Its simple exterior, a gunmetal grey with little adornment save the single English word engraved upon the barrel of the large bore five-shot revolver.

As Paulie reached forwards to gently cradle the gun, he looked at the word and read it aloud with reverence for its meaning was multi-layered to him. Paulie whispered it reverently, the word falling from his lips like a promise.

“Nemesis.”