Duval Dirtbag
The Stray
Chapter 46 - Mak’nas (Means to an End)
“Mak’nas,” Michael heard the Shil’vati whisper with exasperated looks during their flight from Daytona back to Jacksonville. I don’t know what “mak’nas” means, but they aren’t saying it around Joph’rena. He watched their furtive glances at her, so he knew it was about her. There was a lot more activity going on in their ship traveling back to base than there was traveling out.
Toward the front end of the ship, medics were attending to the wounded, namely Joph’rena. She hadn’t explicitly stated her level of pain. Probably not warrior-like to complain about pain, Michael thought. She had, though, held up her tusk; eyeballing it and then looking sternly at the medic attending to her.
The medic, however, was less interested in the tusk as she was the oozing surface of Joph’rena’s face. The damage was uneven. There were some flecks of unblemished purple skin on her temple and forehead, while the majority of the right side of her face had cooled from the bright pink that practically glowed so that it was now a dark, charred purple. One medic was cutting and soaking swaths of cloth as another injected two sites in the center of Joph’rena’s cheekbone before she shooed them away. The last medic was fiddling with the fallen tusk; Joph’rena glared at her the hardest.
The medic painted on some sort of adhesive to the root of the tooth. She gestured for Joph’rena to open her mouth while speaking. Joph’rena opened her mouth, exposing perfectly clean molars, pristine incisors and a gaping charred black void where a Shil’vati tusk should be. The medic tried to put the loose tusk into place but there was nowhere for it to catch. The bone where the tusk should have sat wasn’t there, so it sank into her mouth which made it look more like a bottom Human canine than a tusk.
Joph’rena’s eyes broke from the medic. Well, her left eye did. The right eye stayed in place. When her left eye moved, it trained directly on Michael. The left side of her face wrinkled in anger while the right stayed slack for the most part. She growled at Michael, “Can’t you find something more useful to do than stare at me?”
Michael shirked away in an ample mix of fear and obedience before heading to the other end of the ship. There he knew he would find the three old timers they’d just captured from the VFW at Daytona.
Michael heard Shil’vati troops whisper “Mak’nas” to each other as he traveled. Their horrified expressions scared him as much as Joph’rena’s blackened face. He hadn’t felt this kind of concern from any of the Shil’vati since he’d been around them. That atmosphere stank of doubt. Of fear. They channeled that fear into containing the geezers from the VFW.
Old Bill, Tex, and Jack were shackled and sat in separate pens in the back of the ship. Tex rubbed his knee gingerly while trying to position himself more comfortably despite the thick shackles on his wrists and ankles. Jack looked blankly at his surroundings and tugged fruitlessly against the cuffs. Old Bill scowled at every Shil’vati who would look in his direction.
Old Bill saw Michael by the frame of the entrance and spat. “You fucking traitor!” Michael shrunk back away from him. “What a coward to side with these purple whores!”
One of the guards barked at Old Bill to be quiet.
Michael stepped into the chamber. “I’m on the side of peace.”
“Does this look like peace?” Old Bill roared. “Three old men, bloodied and chained!?”
“The racetrack was not a sign of peace.” Michael rebutted, thinking of the destruction of the Daytona International Speedway. “Equal deaths of Human and Shil’vati.” Michael huffed. “Probably more so on the Human side.”
Jack looked at the floor while answering. “Humans who attended that Shil’vati bastardization are just as bad as you. Traitors to the planet.”
Michael huffed, “So no one deserves to live if their beliefs don’t align with yours?”
Tex shifted suddenly, “No one should force another to live under their rule!”
“Live under their rule?” Michael scoffed. “You mean that Humans shouldn’t be under their rule?” He looked over at a Rakiri he knew in passing, but didn’t know personally, who was manning a nearby station. He pointed at the Rakiri. “So Humans and Shil’vati should have them under their rule?”
Tex muttered under his breath.
“What was that?” Michael asked.
Jack spoke up for Tex, “He said that they are dogs, they should be kept in kennels!”
The Rakiri heard the conversation and growled at them ferally.
“Besides,” Old Bill spoke up, “What’s the difference between chains and that get up you’re wearing right now?” The Rakiri met eyes with Old Bill. “You’re practically wearing a disco ball. Why not complete the set and have a chain to go along with it?”
The Rakiri, whose ears had been turned back in anger, now had them slightly perked up; as though they were contemplating Old Bill’s words.
Joph’rena’s voice rang out from behind Michael. “Those ‘disco balls’ were designed by your Human friend, Michael.” She pressed her way past Michael, hardly budging while he was bumped off balance and out of her way. Half of her face was covered in a now-hard shell. “If you have a problem with the armor, maybe you should take it up with him.” She grabbed Michael by the back collar of his fatigues and straightened him up, like placing him on an imaginary pedestal, as though he was the example Human.
Old Bill mocked, “Maybe I should.” He spat at Michael. “Do you feel peaceful and at ease right now?”
Michael didn’t but wasn’t about to say that out loud. “I believe that the Shil’vati will come up with a solution that will work out for everyone.” He replied, not so confidently.
The pilot came over the intercom to tell everyone that they were about to land at the base in Jacksonville.
“Yes.” Joph’rena said with a sinister surety. “We’ll work it out.”
***
Once they had landed, the crew from the ships cruised to an area that Michael wasn’t familiar with; it was closer to Joph’rena’s main office, but more tucked away. The door was large enough for the Shil’vati golf carts to pass through. In all the hubbub of ships arriving and talk of prisoners, Bill tracked them down.
“What the hell’s going on?” Bill asked Michael.
“We’ve got your mom’s boyfriend and his buddies from the VFW. I don’t know what’s going to happen next.” Michael replied.
Bill continued, rhetorically, “Did they come peacefully?”
Michael pointed to Joph’rena with his chin. Bill followed the gesture.
Bill whispered, “Oh shit! She looks like the damn Phantom of the Opera. What happened?”
“She was too close to somebody wearing my reflective armor.” Michael admitted.
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Bill processed what Michael had said, then remade the scenario with his hands. “Like they shot a laser at someone else,” he said, moving his pointer finger at Michael. “And the laser…”
Michael finished his sentence by putting his hands where Bill’s finger was pointing on him and flashed them up at Bill’s face.
“Oh fuck, bro.” Bill’s eyes widened to saucers. “That’s like, double bad on you.”
“Tell me about it.” Michael grumbled. “I’m sure she’ll come after me when she’s done with them.”
Bill looked off in the distance. “I hope she runs out of steam with them.” He then gave Michael a congratulatory slap on his back, continued walking with Michael but distanced himself by a couple of feet and said, “Best of luck to you on that, chum!”
***
Arriving at their mysterious destination, the room was mostly dark but for three spotlights that shone on three metal gurneys. There was equipment with lit-up buttons and diodes that gave a vague notion of how large the room actually was, but there seemed to be people standing in front of them, causing the room to be dimmer as they passed.
The three men were strapped to the gurneys. Old Bill spoke up when his captors departed, “What are we being accused of, anyway?”
Joph’rena spoke authoritatively. “You trespassed on Imperial property. Breached our prison. You aided and abetted a prisoner.”
Old Bill cast doubt. “Why do you think it was us?”
Joph’rena smirked. “Are you aware that the base itself and the roads around us, to a point, have a capacitive input which allows us to charge our vehicles?”
Old Bill didn’t offer any reply, but Michael recalled that fact. He also recalled that he’d used it to charge his phone a lifetime ago.
Joph’rena nodded to an unknown figure at a dashboard in the darkness. The sound of tapping was followed by the gurneys being stood so that the men more or less faced each other. Between them was displayed an overhead map of Jacksonville, which zoomed in on the Shil’vati base. It and more surrounding streets than Michael expected were highlighted with a light purple. The image zoomed in further to display a generic gray vehicle parking across the street from the base. Then three pairs of dark purple footsteps dotted the street from where the vehicle had parked to the base. The footsteps continued onto the base in a meandering path that eventually led to the prison.
A fourth set of footprints joined the three and went in a much more precise line toward the vehicle. The generic vehicle figure in the image then turned around on the road and went in a southward direction.
Joph’rena almost purred. “We know the number of steps you took on our property. We know from his gait,” she pointed at Tex. “That he has a bum leg; most likely, he has gout.” She turned to Jack. “He has the eyesight of a bat.” She stated as fact. “We know when you were here. We know when you left as you saw on the display.”
Joph’rena then took a mocking tone. “We gave you a big red lock icon to unlock the doors to the cell.” She eyeballed the darkness, as if to nudge her fellow Shil’vati in the room. “Technical geniuses, these fellas.”
The old men still carried themselves defensively, but they seemed to admit that the evidence was damning.
“Not only that,” Joph’rena proceeded. “You three aided and abetted criminal activities including but not limited to terrorist attacks on the Daytona International Speedway and attacking officers of the Imperium at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post with the intent to kill. We are investigating further possible crimes.”
“What do you want?” Old Bill demanded.
“Where are you hiding the Human, Rachel, and the Rakiri, Finley?” Joph’rena demanded back.
“I have no idea who you’re talking about!” Old Bill objected.
“You know exactly who I’m talking about!” Joph’rena retorted just as angrily. “Orderlies!”
From the darkness came pairs of Shil’vati dressed in scrubs that had varying hues of blood on them. One of them put a needle to Jack’s neck. Another put a needle to Tex’s thigh. The last of them held Old Bill in place.
Within seconds, Michael could see that the Shil’vati nanites were doing their job. Jack wept as his cataracts were eaten away in a wave of nanites. His focus returned and he saw the other two men for the first time in longer than he’d like to admit. Tex’s posture slacked as his legs melted in relief. He could bend them as much as the padded cuffs would allow.
As Jack and Tex experienced relief, Old Bill was being choked from behind. The ragged cloth created a valley in his neck that spanned its circumference. His chin dipped toward his chest.
Jack, realizing what he was seeing, screamed, “No, Bill! You get your filthy hands off of him!”
Joph’rena stepped over to Jack and practically whispered in his ear. “Where are Rachel and Finley?”
“No!” Tex exclaimed. “Don’t tell them! We’ve been through worse than this. Don’t tell’em nothin’!”
Another medic appeared with a tire iron. Michael gasped when he saw that it was Harley. He could tell it was her because her cocker spaniel ears drooped where the medical mask connected. He couldn’t believe his eyes when she proceeded to swing the tire iron into Old Bill’s right knee. He would have screamed if he could have taken air into his lungs. His face turned purple as Harley pulled the tire iron away from Old Bill’s leg. It revealed that the leg bent in an unnatural angle.
“Holy fuck!” Michael exclaimed. “Harley! What are you doing?”
“I’m just doing my part.” Harley said before being waved away by Joph’rena.
Bill cried, “Goddamn!” He stepped forward before one of the Shil’vati guards held him back. He looked in their eyes. They spoke volumes about their intentions regarding his fighting against them. He looked from them to Old Bill. “I’m sorry.” He said solemnly.
Michael looked over at Bill. “This is out of your control.” He looked at Old Bill as well. “Not that he deserved this, but I can see why they’re doing this.”
Bill sighed. “I know. And I’m not necessarily sorry for him.” He looked at the ground. “I’m sorry for Mom.” He looked pleadingly at Joph’rena. Michael followed suit.
Meeting their eyes, Joph’rena’s resolve lessened. She nodded at the Shil’vati who was choking Old Bill. “He was just turning the right color.”
The cloth released ever so slightly. Old Bill gasped in raggedly. Eventually, he got his breath back and croaked. “Don’t
Tell
Them
Anyt–
Anything!”
As soon as Old Bill was done yelling, Harley appeared behind Tex and swung the tire iron down on Tex’s formerly bad knee; it regained its title of the bad one again. Tex folded over as much as the shackles on the gurney would allow. He wailed in the agony of regaining and then immediately losing his knee.
The cloth tightened back up against Old Bill’s neck.
Jack screamed hellfire on the Shil’vati. When Jack was done with his exclamations, Joph’rena whispered again. “Where are Rachel and Finley?”
Jack looked from one suffering compatriot to the other. “The fuck do I do?” Old Bill couldn’t answer, but his complexion was returning to that of an eggplant. Tex wailed in pain.
“You should probably do what I want you to do.” Joph’rena whispered again.
An orderly stepped from behind Jack with a pair of glasses. These glasses weren’t shaded or bifocal; they weren’t prescription, as Jack didn’t need those anymore. He could see better than he had in years. These glasses had rusty corkscrews. Not that the lenses would turn. It gave enough psychological damage that Jack couldn’t deny that whatever they did would hurt. They’d given Tex his leg back and immediately took it away. They’d given him his eyes back and looked like they were just as eager to take them away as well.
“Fuck.” Jack whimpered. “I’m fuckin’ sorry, Billy!” He turned to Joph’rena. “They’re at Orlando Beach.”
Michael squinted his eyes. “Orlando is in the middle of the state. There’s no Orlando Beach.”
Joph’rena met eyes with the orderly. The orderly started to thrust the jagged glasses into Jack’s face.
“No!” Jack yelled. “No, there’s an Orlando Beach near Daytona!”
Bill thought for a moment. “Yeah, there is.”
“Give me an address.” Joph’rena demanded sternly.
“Let Billy breathe!” Jack pleaded with her.
Joph’rena nodded her approval to the orderly, who released the cloth slightly. Old Bill gasped for his life. Tex tried to move his recently recovered and now once again demolished knee futilely. Their moans of pain were a dissonant duo for Jack’s newly recovered eyes and ears. Joph’rena jutted her chin out in a way that would have been more authoritative if her favorite tusk wasn’t missing.
In fact, the orderlies didn’t react at first.
Joph’rena furrowed her brows and jutted her chin out again, angrily.
The orderlies perked up.
Joph’rena jutted out her chin again, more deliberately this time, and eyeballed Michael and Bill. The orderlies now understood her command and started escorting the two out.
“Hey!” Bill turned back into the room to yell. “You’ve got your information, you’re gonna fix them up and take them back home, right?”
“Of course.” Joph’rena said almost innocently.
When they got to the exit, after a series of twists and turns and doors that they knew nothing of, Michael and Bill looked at each other.
Almost together they exclaimed, “Did we just leave the chow hall?”