Duval Dirtbag
The Stray
Chapter 49 - Taking Action (No Regerts)
“You can’t even wait until we’re back?” Michael complained. The Shil’vati Marines had placed Finley in what amounted to a cage in the ship that was traveling to Jacksonville from Daytona by way of heading to orbit in order to avoid the hurricane happening up the eastern coast of Florida. They’d only just left and were already positioning themselves around the Rakiri menacingly. “You just murdered his girlfriend.”
From the fray, the poodle-looking Rakiri princess, Fala, emerged to snidely retort “Wasn’t she your girlfriend at one time?” Sst Remington, her Great Dane like bodyguard, was close behind.
That stung, Michael thought before recognizing her. “Fala! You’re ok with whatever they’re doing.”
“He’d betrayed my trust, I’d have them do whatever they’re doing just for that.” Fala said with an unquestioning tone. “There’s also the presumption that he’s selling Shil’vati information to the Aurors. Oh and the murders. The death. That he is, at the bare minimum, an accessory to multiple counts and then we know about the murder on the base.” Sst Remington smirked in agreement.
“So you won’t be swayed?” Michael asked, hearing the whooping of women working themselves into a frenzy.
Fala didn’t waver. “No. This is the way it’s done in the Imperium.”
Michael saw an opportunity. “Is this the way a Rakiri Princess might do it?”
Fala’s demeanor changed. Her allegiance to the Imperium had been in question throughout the tenure of their relationship. It wasn’t exactly what happened, but it was like when a dog goes from wagging its tail happily to suddenly stopping because they caught a scent in the wind or a butterfly came into their vision. She spoke with a harshness in her voice. “No. We would send what we call an ‘alpha’ in to take care of the one who fell out of the pack.”
Michael felt a familiar, foreboding presence behind him.
“Alpha.” The familiar voice mused aloud. “I like the sound of that.” Michael turned around and found himself face to chest with Pennar’dun. He looked up into the Shil’vati’s face. Her smile was full of wrath. Michael had nothing to say. She gave him a bemused chuckle before she stepped toward where Finley was being kept. Her swagger was enough to part the waters as other, lesser Shil’vati Marines saw her and got out of her way.
“That” Michael half whispered half screeched “is not justice.” He took a half look back to make sure that Pennar’dun couldn’t hear him before continuing. “That is rape!”
“How can you be so sure?” Fala asked.
Michael continued at his whisper screech volume. “Because I was raped by her in what I guess you could call her ‘off season’ from raping prisoners!”
“Penn?” Fala scoffed. “No.” She could see the seriousness in Michael’s face but still ignored him.
“Look, Penn’s gonna mess around with Finley. Scare him a little.” Sst Remington shrugged. “Girls will be girls.”
Michael’s mind raced at how many times he’d heard men say that “boys will be boys” and thought something about tables turning. His mind spun further. I can’t. I CANNOT stand by and let this happen. But how? Behind him he heard the hoots of the Marines as well as what he could safely assume was the opening of the door to the prison cell where Finley was being kept. He stopped, frozen in his indecision. What do I do? What do I do? Michael thought frantically.
Fala and Sst Remington were no help as they didn’t believe him in the first place but also stood dumbfounded by the accusation that Pennar’dun was a bad guy in this situation.
Michael envisioned Pennar’dun lurching over Finley as he could clearly hear Finley’s whimpering. Finley is no hero, but he doesn’t deserve this. And I can’t relive what happened to me while I stand by and let it happen to anyone else.
That’s when Michael snapped. He went to the armory and grabbed the rifle he’d been assigned when they were on the ground. He gripped it with both hands and trained it ahead of him. He eyeballed the safety a few steps in and made sure it was off by the time he found the crowd. The Marines were worked up to a froth. He wasn’t sure how to get their attention. In between writhing bodies he saw that Pennar’dun had undone her belt and was pinning Finley down. Finley looked terrified.
“That’s enough!” Michael yelled.
Only the Marines nearest to him heard but their attention wasn’t drawn away from the assault.
Michael didn’t want to fire the gun while they were in orbit but he didn’t see another option. He didn’t really hear the “clink” of her belt as her pants hit the ground because of the cheering of the crowd, but he knew it was there. He was familiar with the corrosive nothings Pennar’dun was whispering into Finley’s ear. He looked for a “stun” setting on the rifle, but doubted it existed. If he was firing it, it was doing damage to something. He closed his eyes before considering one other option! He backed up out of the sight of the crowd and looked for a bare portion of the inner surface of the cabin. He held his breath and pulled the trigger. There was a defined purple light that came out of the muzzle. He released the trigger. Was that it? He thought. Then he remembered seeing the light on Amber’s face just before it wasn’t there anymore. No, I’ve got to hold it down before it really fires.
Michael pointed the rifle at the bare spot again. If I don’t shoot at a panel or a button or something integral to the spaceship’s survival, maybe we’ll get out of here and I can stop Pennar’dun. He held his breath and pulled the trigger. The light shone purple, intensifying the longer he held the trigger, then a brighter flash emitted from the rifle and struck the cabin. He stared in disbelief. He’d not fired a rifle before and wasn’t sure what would happen.
There was a softball-sized hole in the hull where he fired. Stars twinkled in stark contrast to the deep plum interior of the ship for a moment. If he had been more philosophically inclined, Michael might’ve considered his place in the grand scheme of things: stars and galaxies with potential lives and treasures beyond the scope of his capability of visiting screamed with light that had traveled billions of years only to reach his eyes. He perceived the void and it should have humbled him.
Instead he thought of the Aliens sequel where the grotesque Human-baby-faced alien got pulled through the ship’s hull by the butt and sucked out to the so-called vacuum of space. Why isn’t that happening to me?
He saw a swirl of steam curl from the edges of the laser cut waft out of the ship and felt a slight tug of the ship’s atmosphere go from the area of high concentration inside to low concentration outside.
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Is this it? Michael thought. This isn’t going to get anyone’s attention. Why did I bother to do something risky if it was of such little consequence? The light from a star a seemingly impossible distance away twinkled in the vapor that was once a solid spaceship shell. It was almost peaceful.
Michael felt peaceful before whining neon purple klaxons lit up around him. An authoritative artificial female voice announced
“HULL BREACH DETECTED.
HULL BREACH DETECTED.
REPAIR BREACH IMMEDIATELY.
HULL BREACH DETECTED.
HULL BREACH DETECTED.
REPAIR BREACH IMMEDIATELY.”
Michael stood dumbfounded and deaf to everything other than this command. He did see several more seasoned Shil’vati crew members rush past him toward the hole. He only noticed the gun—and his arms—were above his waist when the crew sealed the hole and they dropped limply to his sides. He then noticed that his hearing had gone out when the seal came together and he heard a shrill scream.
Surprisingly, the scream wasn’t coming from him. Sst Remington grabbed the rifle from Michael’s hands. “Why the fuck would you do a thing like that?” He grabbed Michael apprehendingly then they both followed the sound of the screaming.
They turned the corner and saw that the screaming came from Finley. He was twitching, growling and snapping like the frightened chihuahua that he was. “First this galoot comes after me threatening to twist my dick off! Then you try to kill us all!?!”
Pennar’dun saw her opportunity. “Where are the Aurors?!”
“Everywhere!” Finley blurted before thinking more. “Nowhere!” He sighed in defeat. “I don’t know where they are exactly. We drop coded messages in the Shil’net, dummy Omnipads—“ Michael thought of the stack of Omnipads on Joph’rena’s desk. “—Dozens of ways but little to no physical contact.”
“You’re an Auror.” Pennar’dun pressed. “But you haven’t met any other Aurors?”
“Oh, there are many of us but the only time we all met in person was when they gave me my teeth.” Finley almost purred. Michael thought about the gold teeth Finley jammed in his mouth when he’d stabbed Bill at his Mom’s house in Daytona Beach.
“What do they want?” Pennar’dun grilled. “Why did they attack the terradomes on Mars?”
Finley held his tongue. Pennar’dun glared at him. She then saw the gun Michael had had that was reclaimed by the Marine who apprehended him. She grabbed it and aimed at Finley. Finley kept this mouth shut.
Pennar’dun then smirked and pointed at the cabin wall above Finley. Alarmed again, Finley blurted, “The trees! The Aurors are after the tree market. If there are naturally occurring plants that convert CO2 to Oxygen on two planets then the market on breathable air gets diluted! Fucksake! Don’t kill meee!”
Pennar’dun pulled her pants up and grinned. She then looked over at Michael. “Nice going. I almost didn’t think he’d squeal.” She winked. “But your name will be nowhere in the report.” She jutted her chin out at the crew member who held Michael and waved an arm for Michael to be led beyond her into the cell with Finley. A sinking feeling took over Michael.
I was hoping to bow out of military service more gracefully than this, Michael thought. But this could do just as well.
Finley ranted quietly to himself. “I can’t fucking believe they killed her. They really killed her.” He blinked manically. “And they didn’t kill me.” He blinked again and looked at Michael as he was placed in the cell. The arresting Marine locked the door with the two of them together. “And why the fuck didn’t they kill this little bitch?”
Michael frowned. “Your guess is as good as mine.” He looked at the floor. “I’m sorry that Rachel is gone. I didn’t think that that was going to be how they handled it. I thought—oh God—she’s gone. Like, really gone!” Michael started crying.
Finley looked at Michael and then at the floor as well. “She should be in this cell.” He sniffled loudly. “She should be raving at you about how stupid you are to trust the Shils.”
“She should.” Michael agreed, wiping tears from his eyes. “At the very least, she should be here to tell me ‘I told you so!’” He sat down beside Finley and they wallowed in their shared loss.
“She still loved you.” Finley admitted quietly.
“I must’ve loved her too.” Michael admitted as well. “You can still love someone while wanting them to face justice, can’t you?”
“We can wish she faced justice but this wasn’t that.” Finley said before he was quiet for a moment. Then he said plainly, “We’ve killed a lot of people, though.”
“So many people.” Michael agreed.
Finley looked away. “I still have an out.”
Michael leaned his head against the wall of their shared cell. “What’s that?”
“You’ll see.” Finley smiled slightly.
“What kind of fucking answer is that?” Michael asked in frustration.
Finley looked back at Michael. “Let me put it this way: you’ll know it when you see it.”
“I’m sure I will.” Michael replied, entirely done with this conversation.
***
When they arrived at the base in Jacksonville, Finley and Michael were carted to the brig. Joph’rena met them at the door. She waved Finley on in but stopped Michael.
Michael asked Joph’rena without looking at her. “What’s next?”
“You can’t come back.”
“Good, wouldn’t want to.” Michael replied flatly. Then stated, “Rachel’s dead. Aurors are caught or dead now that Finley’s scared to death. What will you do with Finley?”
Joph’rena gave a slight smile. “Governess is coming to rend judgment tomorrow.”
“That seems more just than siccing Pennar’dun on him.” Michael spat. “I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”
“Glad you aren’t making big decisions.” Joph’rena looked Michael in the eyes. “Go get some rest. Tomorrow might be a bigger day than you expect.”
***
Michael made his way to his room. He didn’t recognize anyone in the barracks. Changes everywhere. He grabbed his phone and saw that he had a missed call from Jessica. He growled before he tapped his phone to call her back.
“Good evening. You need something?” Michael asked as calmly he could muster.
“What’s your weekend look like?” Jessica asked in a way that sounded more like a statement.
“Probably looking for a place to stay.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I fucked things up here.” Michael said matter of factly. “Things are fucked up and the only way to make it better was to fuck things up more.”
“Uh huh.” Jessica replied. “What’s your plan?”
Michael scratched his scalp. “Probably going to head back to Kentucky. Mom’s not doing well and—“
Jessica cut him off with ”You’re going to run again?”
”It’s not running. The kids, with any luck, will be taking care of us. Plenty of time with them. I need to be with Mom while I can.”
”Well that’s selfless, huh, Mike?”
”Huh?”
”It’s never your fault. You’re never the one to blame.”
Michael grumbled. ”I can’t do this right now.”
”Yeah. Sure Mike. You’ll regret this, you know..?”
Michael took a deep breath. ”I. Regret. Nothing. I don’t regret marrying you. I don’t regret our kids. I don’t even regret what you heard happened with the Shil’vati, you know why? It led me here. I lived through all that. I’ll make it through whatever troubles come in the future. Some day, hopefully, I’ll get a happy ending. But it won’t be here. And it won’t be with you. I don’t regret leaving you. I love you but I can’t be with you.” Then he pressed the big red button to hang up.
It’s not as satisfying as slamming the phone on the receiver, Michael thought, but it’s all I’ve got right now.