The sound of windswept snow and distant thunder rang through the frigid air while Demitri trudged through the snow in the same fancy black and gold tunic as before, the last 2 buttons open, even in the cold, to ensure his bare chest was visible. A smirk lay on his face and shackles bound his wrists. Green glasses glistened in the bright light while Gizzy and Vinn followed behind him.

“You know…” he said “If I had not peeked at the bridge viewscreen and confirmed we had a mission here, I would wager this was an execution rather than an untrusting mission.” He said while peering back.

“You got the glasses, me and Nicole just got one lens, so that means you lead the way, back turned to us. Navigators don’t need to be armed, you’re lucky I gave you a sword. Keep walking. We have a tusk to find.”

“So your computer is connected to the book of fate, and yet all you get are hints and riddles to search for. What faith you must have in your destiny.” Demitri said.

“Hey, it always seems to work. We don’t understand it, but it works. It gave us a planet, and a half decoded sentence about blue ivory and a touch of tusk. So we got an elephant gun and scopes. Your fancy ass seems to know everything we don’t, so you lead the way with your fancy bifocals of destiny and find us a frozen space elephant on an ice moon.”

“Oh, I should probably not mention this so early, but I am quite proud of myself.”

“Maybe I can’t kill you, but I can take my time trying if you don’t finish that little statement.” Gizzy said, nodding to Vinn as Jack sat up in the shuttle and turned the radio up, in case of problems.

“That Casket you found me in. It’s quite fragile. I don’t believe it would hold together in the vacuum of space if it were to be ejected for some reason.”

“Get to the point.” Gizzy barked.

“I merely point out that you scanned for weapons, IN the freezer, not the freezer itself, did you? I ask of course rhetorically, or you would have already asked me to disarm the device. Not to worry, the timing mechanism has several days before it requires my delicate touch to disarm in order to avoid detonation.” He said as Gizzy stopped in her tracks.

“You brought a bomb on my ship?” she asked.

“No dear, YOU brought a bomb on your ship, and you armed it by letting me out. This is your own doing but I will gladly disarm it when we return. After all, we’re part of the same team now, maybe not family or friends, but certainly mutual allies and allies would never leave anyone behind to die on a frozen snow planet or shoot them in the back. That would be rude and quite dishonest.” He said, turning around and looking concerned in a sarcastic manner. “Is it time to rest, or are you merely adjusting your mission plans?” Demitri asked. Gizzy gnashed her teeth and took a heavy breath of frigid air, almost steaming hot on the exhale.

“I’m just taking in the scenery… since we have plenty of time to get the artifact and get you back to your casket.”

“Ah, then onward we go. And what a shame Jack had to stay behind in the ship. I enjoy his company. Humans are so fragile to the elements. The cold, the thin air. He should really see a doctor about that condition.”

“I like having eyes from another vantage point. Don’t you worry about Jack’s human condition.” She assured.

“Well, he must be a sturdy exception, with that wife of his. I’m sure she is more gentle with him in their privacy than she was with me under interrogation. You did give that order did you not? I don’t believe sweet little Nicole would even suggest treating a guest roughly."

“She does her own thing sometimes and she gets scolded for it. But maybe I’ll let this one slide since you do bring out the passions in people.”

“That I do… I certainly do. And here I thought you were the passionate one. At least yours are mostly under your own throttle and control. You are a beast of zen, Miss Gizzy, but young Victoria seems to have a slightly rogue side to her that comes out at night. I’m sure you are aware.”

“Jack, turn off your radio, that is an order.” Gizzy said into her com.

“Understood.” He said turning it off and back on, kicking his feet up.

“Vicki is not your business or problem, and you need to forget she even exists as far as I advise.”

“I offer truth and you tempt me with threats. What a trusting family you all are, keeping secrets and riddles of your own designs. The irony is amusing that you cannot trust me for telling the truth in a poetic manner, yet you gild lies and bury the truth from each other. Perhaps I do not belong to this crew after all. Shall I begin deceiving you and plotting things behind your backs to fit in?”

“Jack, lock onto his location and power up the shuttle guns. Confirm order.”

“Order confirmed.” Jack sighed. Realizing he just admitted to keeping his radio on in order to follow orders. Demitri chuckled to himself, realizing the same thing and keeping it to himself aside from the slight outburst of contained laughter.

“Sometimes family has to keep secrets from each other to protect them…” she said loudly so Jack could hear. “Sometimes the truth just hurts you and you gain nothing by knowing it. That’s the difference between an enemy and a true friend. An enemy lies to you to gain control or to harm you, a true friend knows when to tell you the hard truth and when you tell a healing lie they should keep to themselves. Like how telling the girls on the ship that you have a bomb in our cargo bay they can't diffuse only brings them fear and worry, whereas hiding that from all of us was for your own personal gain and puts us at risk for your benefit alone. That’s the difference, Demitri. I lie to spare people, you lie to dominate your opponent. I do the same thing to my opponents, I just don’t do that to the people I wanna be friends with. So congratulations asshole, you proved my point and why we don’t want you on the ship. You’re an opponent, not a friend. And you may have secrets from us, but you don’t know all of our moves like you think you do.” She said as the roar of a large animal in the distance echoed through the hills.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Guys… we have our tusk.” Jack said. “And it’s delivering itself to you pretty quickly, so you might wanna get to cover and take your safeties off. It’s big.”

“How big?” Gizzy asked as they diverted to the hillside.

“Oh, you’ll see it. It’s difficult to miss.” Jack assured. “Vinn, double check that your gun has the 30mm deplete uranium rounds loaded. You’ll want that.”

The three braced for a mammoth to charge around the hill and Gizzy’s eyes widened when the beast entered view. Its skin was glistening blue and covered in silken white fuzz, almost glassy transparent, and where the trunk should be, there was a series of four trunklike tentacles, supported on either side by four giant tusks. The beast rushed Vinn first while Gizzy opened fire, bullets vanishing and leaving tiny dots of red, like a mosquito bite, in the beast's hide. Letting out a roar, it thrashed its head, sending Vinn into the sky, gun in one direction and his ragdoll body the other way.

“Fight!” Gizzy yelled to Demitri.

“In shackles and for my enemy?” he scoffed. “We have become friends now that you need me?” he laughed, suddenly ducking a tusk and rolling to evade. “And with what weapons you have provided?” he asked. The beast turned to Vinn, scraping the ground as he stood up and braced for combat against a monster 50 times his mass. Gizzy held the gun tightly, holding down the trigger and dumping the magazine of 50 cal grenade rounds into its flesh, barely annoying it as it locked eyes with Vinn and rushed. With a casual grab it picked Vinn up in its tentacles and slammed him into the rocky cliffside, like trying to open a Vinn-shaped coconut for the pulpy center.

"Gizzy, shoot the damn thing!" Jack yelled,

“I don’t have a gun!” she yelled back into the com, realizing her gun was empty and that those were the meanest rounds she carried.

“10 feet to your northeast, Vinn’s gun has almost a full tube of 30mm.”

“Are you shitting me?” she barked, rolling her eyes and digging for the gun. She picked it up before fumbling it.

“Hurry, Vinn’s gonna die!” Jack barked.

“It’s a hundred and eight pound rifle, Jack. I can’t shoulder it or even reach the fucking trigger. Let me figure this out.” She barked back. Racking the bolt, confirming it was loaded, she stuck the gun to her shoulder and just barely managed to reach the grip and get the tip of 2 fingers on the massive trigger. She lifted the barrel and it tipped forward, re-adjusting and taking a knee to find a grip with her left hand. Sliding her left foot as far forward as she could and standing hunkered, she locked her eyes on the target, visualizing the gun as if it was aimed. She braced her back, heaving the gun upright in one, hefty jerk, and at the apex of the heave, just before it began to tip forward, she lined up and pulled the trigger. The gun went flying end over end as Gizzy’s body rapidly rotated to the ground, her head and right shoulder landed in the snow first, packing the powder a good ten feet back from where she was standing, and then her feet landed. She stared up at the clouds, not sure which way she was facing, and feeling she just got hit by a sedan at 45 mph.

“Confirm the kill.” She wheezed.

“It’s a hit, it’s limping away.” Jack said excitedly.

“It’s still alive?” she groaned.

“I got drones on the way to finish it off. Vinn’s vitals are stable. Are you good?”

“No, I’m not good. I’m not even kind of fine. I’m blind in my right eye and fingers aren’t moving properly.” She said staggering to her feet. “I’m gonna need repairs when we get back.”

“You actually took damage? How does Vinn fire that thing?”

“By being 4.4 times my size and having hands the size of a briefcase. Even he says it kicks a bitch. He’s wrong. It kicks like 5 bitches, all at once, with lead heels. I didn’t make it to be fired by a human sized person. Give me some slack, you’d be dead if you shot it. It’s designed to be the most belligerently powerful thing that’s medically safe to fire, for a guy the size of a cocaine Grizzly bear.”

“Can you laser the target and track it at least?” he asked.

“Jack, I can barely stand up without wobbling. I got things broken here. Let the drones do the killing, they can track the tracer round I stuck in it. Get a med evac for Vinn and then get one for me after he’s stable.

...

Gizzy sat on the med-lab table, strangely unfamiliar with being the patient as Vinn examined her with the scanner, part of an antler missing and his own wrist in a brace.

“Yeah, you must have twisted weird on detonation, you snapped a nerve cable in your neck, tore the shit out of your shoulder muscle and bent the rotary cuff bracing slightly. I don’t even know how to attempt to repair that.”

“It’s only 2mm deformation, we’re just gonna leave it.” She said as Dee stuck the probe needle into the back of her neck to repair the broken cable.

“Saved my ass back there.” Vinn coughed.

“Didn’t save your wrist or those 2 broken ribs.” She shrugged.

“We got recovery shots. I’ll live.” He wheezed.

“Stop moving, I'm trying to weld.” Dee scolded. “You’re lucky I can just download repair manuals. Still, I can’t fix this laparoscopic; I’m running a whole new optic cable. You’re just gonna be half bind until we can print a new one.”

“I’ve taken arrows to the eye before. I’ll live.” Gizzy groaned. “Well, I need to check something else. Vinn, can you give me a moment of privacy?”

“Yeah, I don’t wanna know what you’re repairing if you want me to leave the room. My furry ass is out. Thanks to both of you.” He said making his leave.

“Okay he’s gone.” Dee said. “If I hug you will I hurt you?” she asked.

“No, just miss the right shoulder.” She said as Dee immediately grabbed her and hugged her tightly. “Dee, I’m fine. We’re modular. We can print the repairs.”

“You could have died, what if you got trampled?”

“I think Vinn’s gun was worse than what the mammoth would have been.” she smirked.

“Well, since Vinn got injured by the mammoth and regularly fires the gun that broke your shoulder, I seriously doubt that.”

“Dee, I clone back. If I die, you just print me back.”

“I don’t wanna lose you, even for an hour of printing. An hour where you’re just… not in this universe and don’t exist at all is terrifying to me. Gizzy, I’ve never died before. I don’t know how horrible that is, but it can’t be okay.” She said while tearing up slightly, proving that the upgrades worked.

“You’d be amazed at what things you get used after you’ve done them over and over. Ask Jack. He may have a death counter higher than mine.”

“That’s not okay. Not to me.”

“Well, we’ll bring a spare Vinn next time to shoot the big gun.” She joked as Dee squeezed her, refusing to let go for a strangely long time.

...

Jack and Vinn sat in the mess hall. Staring at the giant tusk on the other table.

“He just stood there. Like he didn’t give a shit.” Jack sighed. “You almost died, Gizzy’s messed up from it, and that asshole just stood there and watched. He didn’t even try to help.”

“Dude, he didn’t have a gun. Gizzy only gave him a display sword as a joke and the 20mm grenades weren’t even breaking skin. The hell was he gonna do… seduce it?” Vinn shrugged, wincing and holding his wrist.

“He could have broken the shackles, he just didn’t even seem like he was afraid. He’s tougher then he lets on and that’s what scares me. He’s playing prisoner and he wanted that thing to kill you guys.”

“I mean… if he’s a bad guy, then like, duh. If he’s not a bad guy, he’s kind of our prisoner anyway, and if the mammoth eliminated 2 of the biggest threats, that’s an edge to his escape or taking over. Of course he didn’t fight it. We keep saying he’s the enemy. Why help us?”

“It’s a valid tactical move. It’s just… cold.” Jack squinted.

“So what’s the tusk for? How does that help us? Why did fate want us to get our asses kicked over some trophy tusk?”

“I dunno. I got one in the scanner. Nothing significant so far. What do you do on Delmar with tusks?”

“Nothing. We make wall displays of the antler of opponents we killed in the pit. Gizzy got a few of her own. Other than a display trophy, I got nothing. Ask Gizzy.” Vinn shrugged. “She’s killed a lot of big animals for population control, kept tusks and antlers and skulls and shit. Have you never seen her skull room back home?”

“Yeah. I’m not shocked, but no.”