Cleansing
10 Nov 2023Ryuko Ntsikana
Part Twenty-Three
Cleansing
_____________________________
Jason was too scared not to do as he was told. The carnage he witnessed seemed endless. She made a picnic of the affair, resting under the ship with food and drink. He watched as each recalled ship landed, their power plants mysteriously shutting down, exposing them to throngs of crazed survivors who boarded each one and cleared out their crews. The screams of those who managed to jump from the ships could be heard across the facility, reaching their landing pad.
How she managed to accomplish this unfolding nightmare was beyond him. She had to have paid off the right people, long before her ship was interdicted and boarded. That he had a chip or nanobots inside him, controlling his actions, Jason was convinced. But the only explanation for the control of others had to be an astronomical sum to get so many to turn on their clan and purge it.
Jason watched her in silence, convinced her mind was becoming unhinged as she talked in quiet tones, but not to him. She explained the hellish scene as if talking to a child, outlining the necessity of cleansing those who could not be redeemed to make way for the one in whom there was hope. The dark euphemisms she used to describe what was taking place sent a chill through Jason.
Whether she enjoyed the sight or not, Jason could not tell. Neither a smile nor a look of concern crossed her placid features. He knew he was the puppet of a woman who was revealing herself to be ever more insane with each passing moment.
Taking a chance he knew might not end well, Jason interrupted her private conversation. "You don't think any of those crews could have been useful?"
"None that could be remade in your image, no."
Jason suppressed the reflexive huff response, scared that she might take it the wrong way and find another to replace him. That he was the least and therefore the easiest to control as her finger puppet, he had no doubts. But there was a dwindling supply of others, just beyond the pad, who could just as easily take his place. He had to tread carefully.
"Where do you want me to begin, once this is complete?"
She surveyed the scene again, not saying anything for several minutes, as she chewed on a piece of food. A few of the crew had managed to jump down and attempt to run away from one of the recently arrived ships that had been overrun. They didn't make it far before those nearby cut them down.
"Cleanse the place and tend to the injured with great care…" Her eyes drifted to something beyond anything he could see, looking more into the far beyond of whatever was within than anything outside. "Then you rebuild," she continued, her eyes once again focusing on the scene in front of them.
That unnatural subtle giggle on the wind swirled around and dissipated once more, unnerving Jason, who took it as a hint to stop asking questions and sit in silence, witnessing what hell might be.
The purge persisted through the planetary evening, with ships from afar gradually returning to the base. The landing pads neared their capacity, and Jason was left to wonder how many would survive to replace the fallen crews. Those who had allied with her, fulfilling her wishes to eradicate the old in favor of the new, carried out their tasks with unnatural brutality. The few faces he saw from their pad appeared dazed, almost crazed, like individuals under the influence of some mind-altering substance.
Had she bribed them and had them drugged to render them more susceptible to her will?
They had returned to the Diamondback Explorer, where she told him to rest before assuming his new role. Jason had washed up in the sonic shower before reclining on the bunk in the small quarters, but he could not sleep. He watched the events outside from his data tablet.
The fires had been extinguished and to his surprise, small crews were moving between different damaged locations, beginning repairs, without having had any rest. He knew they had to be on some type of narcotic. After a long day of running battles, boarding and clearing ships, and moving bodies, they were now starting repairs, with no real break in between each of those tasks. At their current pace, most would eventually collapse or expire from either overdose or exhaustion and wouldn’t be worth anything.
Jason leaned his head back on the pillow, wondering who this unhinged woman was. She had timed her presence perfectly for his now late captain to interdict her. What business she had with what was now becoming her clan, or to be his clan, he couldn’t wrap his head around. Did someone cross paths with the wrong person? It wasn’t unknown for some nobody to have connections high up someone else’s food chain, who had the credits to make things happen.
Usually, it would be payment to remove one or more but to have enough credits to turn an entire pirate clan in on itself? The price had to be far beyond what he could imagine, and Jason smirked at the number that appeared in his head. He could imagine a lot and it probably did not come close to what was taking place outside had cost her.
How he fitted into her insane menagerie scared him. He was a no-one in the hierarchical structure, but she wanted him because he was salvageable, being so new to this life. Now he was going to be her personal hand puppet, for whatever twisted vision she had for the future of her private band of pirates.
“You’re mind is too active on what ifs. What you need is a rest for your new role,” a disembodied voice said as Jason’s eyes opened wide in fright that she might be watching him from some hidden security camera.
“Hard to sleep with so much excitement,” Jason replied, looking slowly around as his vision blurred.
“We will help you…”
Jason’s head fell back on the pillow as his thoughts went mute and the lights began to fade.