The Reaper Diaries # 20: Redemption, Chapter 11
27 Nov 2015Michael Wolfe
This is what it was like during the occupation.
New Township was swarming with people, vehicles, and ships that were coming and going. The little mud-caked town itself could never handle so many newcomers on its own, so once again tent cities and pre-fab shelters formed a thick ring in the outskirts, with waste facilities and food depots being established to accommodate the influx of people.
Of course, there were a lot fewer men with guns this time around.
Even finding a place to land was a bit of a challenge. Kyndi had to set down a few miles outside of town instead of right next to it, so there was quite a lot of walking to do, making our way past landed ships and people alike. It was a madhouse of a scene, but it was a damn sight better than last time it was this busy.
Katie was riding on my shoulders, and Kyndie was close behind, trying to read her tablet and fight through the crowd at the same time.
“According to this, both her parents are on the same ship. It’s supposed to land within an hour.”
She looked over at The Duke, the bar owned by Earl and Gerdie. A thick line of customers was already spilling out the entrance.
“I guess having a seat and waiting for her folks is out of the question right now, huh?”
I glanced over to the packed-full diner.”I reckon it is. I think we’re just going to have to mix it up for awhile.”
Near the bar, I heard a familiar, hoary voice lambasting the crowd: “I keep telling yer, we cain’t cook for this many!! Go see the ration lines if yer hungry! Now g’won!”
Kyndi smiled. “I see that Earl is in top form. Maybe he can give us a place to hide from this crowd for a bit.”
I felt Katie lean in close to my head. “I remember that man. He was nice to me. So was his wife.”
Well, you might not see him again. “Do you want to say hi?”
I couldn’t see, but I felt Katie’s nod. I started walking up behind Earl, who was still trying to shoo people out of the bar.
“Say, Earl, you got room for two-and-a-half more in there?”
He spun around as though he was about to tell us to shove off, too, but stopped himself. For a moment, he just stared at us three, mouth agape.
“I can’t believe- you found- Katie?” He looked like he was about to cry. I lifted Katie off of my shoulders, and she ran up to him. He dropped to one knee and gave the sweetest, greasiest bear hug I had ever seen a man give a little girl. Still holding her, he looked up at Kyndi and me.
“Well, it looks like Jack and Jill fetched their pale of water, after all.” He gestured inside, and we walked into the crowded bar.
He was holding Katie in his arms, and made his way to the kitchen entrance. “Gerdie! Gerdie! You need to come out here!”
From inside, we could hear his wife’s tired, irritated voice. “I already told you I ain’t taking no more orders for food! Ain’t these people got ears?!”
Earl set Katie down, and whispered something in her ear. Grinning, Katie walked into the kitchen by herself. We didn’t hear anything for few seconds, and then the sound of a frying pan dropping and a woman exclaiming “oh, lordy, lordy, lordy” told us all we needed to know. We even heard the “Nnnngh” sound of a little girl being hugged too hard.
Kyndie and I exchanged glances, and Earl started to chuckle. “I’d better go get them before Katie gets her eyes squeezed out.”
He emerged a short while later, followed by Gerdie, who was still clinging to Katie, eyes still watery. She looked at us for a moment, shaking her head.
“I still think you’ve got a shifty look to you, but hell if you didn’t bring her back.”
Kyndie smiled. “Don’t worry. He’s behaved himself.”
Earl shook his head and gave Katie another kiss. “I don’t know how you did it, stranger, but I can’t tell you what this means to us.”
Kyndi frowned. “I suspect her ma and pa will say something like that when they get here.” She handed her tablet to Earl, who took a deep breath and wordlessly showed it to Gerdie.
Everyone was silent for a moment, and Earl finally spoke. For the first time, he sounded like he was holding back tears. “Well, her place is by her parents. We was never more than caretakers, anyway.”
He surveyed the bar, watching the refugees and the townfolk eat their potatoes and down their lukewarm beer. He turned to Gerdie. “This ain’t no place for a little girl.”
Still crying slightly, Gerdie nodded and set Katie down. “Well, we got a little more time with her. That’s all I could ask for.”
Earl watched them disappear back into the kitchen. “I suppose you two ain’t staying long?”
I shook my head. “Just long enough to see this through. Then it’s the end of the line for us.”
Kyndi chimed in. “But if there’s a way to get a little privacy in this madhouse, we’d be much obliged.”
Earl chuckled. “Not used to crowds flying around in them fancy ships all day, huh? C’mon. The roof has a pretty good view of everything.”
Leaving Katie in the capable hands of Gerdie, the three of us climbed up an old accessway built into The Duke’s utility room. Once we opened the hatch to the outside, we could see that Earl had set up something of a deck on the top of his building. He handed us a couple beers- again, the good kind like before, and gestured around the roof. It had a few beat-up reclining chairs, an old mini-fridge, and a small wooden table.
“Here she is. Gerdie and I used to come up here all the time before her knees started to give out. It’s a nice view, and it’s warm outside for once. Anyway, you two have a good time. I’ve got to get back down and mind the bar. Gerdie will know when that ship lands.”
For a little while, we didn’t say anything. We just let the warm breeze and the cold beer help us relax. Kyndi leaned against the building, cooling down in a sleeveless black leather top that did nothing to hide her figure or her tattoos. Oh well. It ain’t like she was ever going to blend in at a place like this, anyway.
“How are we fixed for time?” She had been staring straight ahead, watching the transports come and go, offloading another few dozen people at a time.
I looked down at the tablet. “Any minute now. Think we should head down? The transport is breaking atmo right now.”
She looked at the throng of people, down to her lap, and finished her beer. “Yeah. Let’s do this.”
We made our way back down into the main level of the building, and wordlessly joined the noisy throng. In fact, noise was everywhere. People were talking, ships were flying overhead. We silently took our place beside Earl and Gertie, who were both holding Katie’s hand. Like a lot of other people, they had their eyes to the sky, anxious awaiting the arrival of the transport.
Then, it came into view. It was an old Type-6, skimming over the mountains and settling in to a slow hover a few hundred feet above New Township. Like the other ships, it kicked up plenty of dust and wind as it descended, but no one seemed to notice. Too many people had been waiting for too long to care about a little bit of dirt in the eye.
The transport landed as gently as the terrain allowed, and slowly, the landing ramp began to lower. By now, Katie had shifted over to holding hands with us, and was watching as intently as anyone else there.
“Is this it?” Kyndi asked softly.
I looked down at the tablet to double-check. “Yeah. This is the one.”
She pursed her lips and nodded. I could tell that she was holding something back. Well, I thought, it’s been emotional for her.
I looked down at Katie, still holding my hand but otherwise ignoring me to stare at the transport. This is it, Matt. This is what you’re here for. The end goal of this whole damn fool quest.
So why don’t I want to let go of this little hand?
People started shuffling out of the transport- confused, haggard-looking men and women who were shielding their eyes against the harsh Durius sun. Some had luggage, but most looked like they would just be happy with a hot meal.
“That’s them!”
Katie slipped out from my grasp and ran like a missile towards her parents, backpack bouncing from how hard she was running. I hadn’t gotten a good look at
James, but he was thinner than I remembered. Him and- Samantha, I assumed, were still looking around for their bearings when Samantha saw Katie, stared with her mouth agape, and grabbed her husband’s hand to run towards their daughter.
They almost crashed into each other, so hard did the newly re-united family embrace. It must have been a minute that they just stood there, in the middle of the field, arms locked around each other, not moving, not speaking- just enjoying their first moment together in at least a year.
I felt Kyndi’s hand wrap around mine. “C’mon, Matty. It ain’t about us anymore.”
I took one last look at Katie. She was still in-between her parents, still being held by both of them at once. The sun was shining in her face, and she was smiling- really smiling- in a way that she had never done for Kyndi or me. “Yeah. I reckon it ain’t.”
I put my hand on Earl’s shoulder. His eyes weren’t dry, but he was holding his face in a stoic position.
“You had a real big part in all this, you know that? Of all the old roughnecks in this hole, a bar owner and his nagging wife were the only ones to stand up to some scumbag viceroy and help a homeless little girl. That means something in my book, Earl.”
He smiled, greasy and lopsided and tender all at once. “I did the best I could. For once”- he put his arm around a sobbing Gertie- “it was good enough.”
Silently, I nodded and smiled at the man, and Kyndi and I started making our way back to our ship. It was a long way to walk, and we were fighting against crowds the whole way back. Wordlessly, I went inside the ship and changed into my flightsuit. I had been expecting Kyndi to do the same, but when I emerged from the pilots’ cabin, she was sitting at the bottom of the entry ramp, smoking her first joint of Onionhead in what must have been weeks.
Well, I guess Kyndi needs to clear her head. It’s been a hell of day.
I strolled down and took a seat beside her. We were away from the crowd, and there was nothing to hear except the odd ship overhead and a gentle breeze. I looked over to her. She was staring in the distance, eyes unfocused, yet full of thought. For a long time, she just stared ahead, not acknowledging my presence, just puffing on her joint and letting the breeze run through her hair.
God, she’s beautiful.
She must have caught me looking at her, because she glanced my way and smiled just a little. Then, she turned back towards the tundra of Durius and took another hit of Onionhead.
“My folks were explorers. Brett and Caroline McCatskill. Pilot’s Fed, freelance, living the dream. They sold everything except the clothes on their backs and bought one of the first Asp Explorers to hit the market. Started making their way out of the bubble, longer and longer trips. They only went back to sell their scans and take on supplies.”
I was taken aback. Kyndi's past had been a strictly taboo subject the entire time we had known each other. Despite everything we'd been through, I hadn't even known her last name. And now she tells me as casually as eggs on a grocery list. What's going on in that head of yours, Kyndi McCatskill?
Something's happening with her. With us.
Kyndie took another drag, and kept staring into the distance. “It was perfect for them. Couple years into it, and I came along. After that, it was even more perfect.” She glanced my way. “I was born into this life, Matt. Into the idea that a ship is the only home a person ever needs. Into the attitude that the only true freedom is the ability to go wherever you want, whenever you want, and do whatever you want in the meantime. Guess it probably explains some things, huh?”
Like how effortlessly you live in a ship? And why you never stay in one spot for long? You're damn right it explains some things.
She smiled a little, and then looked down at the ground. “That was my childhood. Everything I knew, I learned from them. Ship-schooled, I guess you could call it. Never set foot inside a real one. I was too busy seeing things that no one had ever seen. Going places no one had ever been.”
Another drag… a really long one. “One day, dad came across a distress signal. My parents weren’t do-gooders, but we were way the fuck out in the middle of nowhere, and they were both big into karma.”
She shrugged and pursed her lips. “So, they changed course to investigate. Only it wasn’t some other explorer needing help. It was a pack of Kumos, ships painted that black and red, before they started grabbing headlines. We were in the Pegasi sector, back when it was just an uninhabited bunch of stars, instead of the den of snakes it is today. Nothing we could do about it. Couldn’t run, couldn’t fight, couldn’t bargain. So they let them board.”
This ain’t heading to a happy ending. I leaned over and put my hand over hers. She didn’t make any effort to hold it, but didn’t push it away, either.
“They killed dad and mom right away, and started packing up everything of value. Would have killed me, too, but I was just barely fourteen and, well- there's always demand for young girls in the remote corners of the 'verse.”
She finished the last of her joint, and immediately fished out another.
“So, I was a slave of theirs for over a year. I cooked, I cleaned, and whenever I started looking good to one of them, well”- she looked away, and then at me- “use your imagination.”
I squeezed her hand. Had she ever opened up to anyone like this?
She put the new Onionhead joint in her mouth and used her free hand to light it up. I leaned over to her to give her a kiss on the cheek. “How did you escape?”
Kyndi shrugged. “I stowed away on a freighter that I knew had life-support in the cargo bay. After that, I slipped out on the first station it landed on.”
I looked down at our hands. Was it my imagination, or were hers trembling slightly?
“What about after that?”
Another shrug. “The only things I knew. Cooking and cleaning work when I could find it, but there was way more demand for a young girl willing to dock knock on the side. It was easy work, really. Spread your legs, moan just right, and make some lonely commander a happy man for an hour or so. Most weren’t even bad people, just wanting a quick tumble, but there was one- well, I turned him down every time he came to port. Wanted me to do things even the Kumos never dreamed of.”
She took another drag, a long one, like before. “The other thing he liked was gambling. That I would do with him. Then, one day, I was sixteen and playing with him and a bunch of his pilot friends. Lo and behold, I was dealt a perfect hand. So I started upping the wager more and more. He must have had a pretty good hand too, because he stayed in even after everyone else folded. The stakes got sky high, to the point that the final bet was his ship and all its cargo against one night of access to my body- with nothing refused.”
For the first time, Kyndi smiled her old Kyndi smile. “I can still remember his face when I met his near-perfect hand with a perfect one. He bitched and moaned and tried to welsh on the deal- but he had made it in front of witnesses, and you know that pilots take their gambling very seriously.”
Still smiling, she gripped my hand just a little. “So, I was instantly the owner of my own ship. It wasn’t much, just a nasty little Adder, but it was mine. Me and that bunch of witnesses marched his ass over to the Pilot's Fed office and effected the title transfer immediately.”
Then she turned to me and rested her head on my shoulder. “Then, I sold half the cargo for scratch, and gifted the other half to an older female pilot to show me the ropes of flying. The rest, as they say, is history.”
For a long time, I didn’t say anything. “So this job really did hit you in the gut, didn’t it?”
She didn’t answer immediately, just nodded. "When I took the job, I thought I could keep it on the level. Thought my past wouldn't matter. But the more I thought about her, the more I started to resent, well- everything. I didn't think we were going to find her, but it wasn't just that." She squeezed my hand a little more. "A lot of shit I buried came clawing its way back to the surface, and every time I looked at you or thought of her, all I could do was wonder why no one ever tried to find me. It was too much. So I jetted."
You were facing your past, and you were facing it alone. I'm so sorry, Kyndi. I didn't know.
Kyndie turned to me. "I thought I couldn't do it- not with my past, and not with what I was feeling. But it turns out that I hated myself even more for ditching you. So I came back."
I smiled. "Just in time, too."
"Yeah. So where was I?"
I gestured to the Last Chance. "You had just acquired your new ship."
Kyndi nodded.“Right. Anyway, for a long time, I just smuggled, and drank, and kept in Onionhead. It was all I needed.”
I figured I’d try my luck. “You seem to enjoy a nice romp, too.”
I could feel her smile against my shoulder. “Yeah. Yeah I do. But for a long time, I didn’t. I was disgusted at the sight of men. But… past or not, a girl’s got needs, too. So I gave it another go.”
She sat up and looked me in the eye. “But this time, it was on my terms. The only men in my bunk- or whose bunk I found myself in- were ones that I chose. Not someone else. And not because I had to. Because I wanted to. It wasn't about love, either. It was, I don’t know, finding my power or some shit.” She smiled and looked down again. “I bet that sounds crazy, doesn’t it?”
I smiled and brushed her hair out of her face. “No. It sounds perfect.”
She went back to staring out across the plain. Time to clear something else up.
“So, Kyndi- we’ve been through a lot together, right?”
She glanced back. “Reckon we have.”
I nodded. “Well, it’s just that, speaking of tumbling… we’ve been doing a lot of that lately, and… well, you came and rescued my ass, so I figure I must mean something to you, and- well, I don’t really know how to ask if that means we’re, you know-“
She smiled. “Together?”
I took a deep breath. “Yeah. Together. Or whatever passes for together for people like us.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “The bounty hunter and the smuggler chick, shacked up and kicking ass. Is that what you had in mind?”
Fuck. Was it? “Something like that, I guess.”
Now, for the first time, a bittersweet smile crossed her face. She took a breath. “Matty- how did you think this whole thing was going to end? You and me and Katie become a family? Sell our ships and settle down in a nice neighborhood with nine-to-five jobs and annoying neighbors? Is that what was going in that wormy little brain of yours?”
I must have looked hurt- even though at that moment, I wasn’t sure what I was feeling. She leaned over and gave me a tender kiss on the lips, but she had traces of a sad smile. “That life ain’t for me, and I’m pretty sure it ain’t for you, either. Katie”- she gestured towards the direction of New Township- “is right where she needs to be, but us?” She sighed.
“I like you Matty, really I do. But I swear to God you’re twelve sometimes. People like you and me, well- smuggling and killing for cash is just a day at the office, but falling in love?”- she smiled sarcastically- “now that’s dangerous.”
I looked down at my feet, not knowing what to say. Kyndi pointed my chin at her and looked me in the eye.
“So… no. We ain’t going to be carving our initials into any trees together. But for what it’s worth”- she gave me a deep, satisfying kiss-“I ain’t never gone out of my way to rescue some white knight bounty hunter stuck in the ass-end of nowhere, either.”
She flicked away her joint and stood up. Offering me a hand, she helped me to me feet. “Now that we’ve had that chat, I’m feeling the need to get the hell off this rock before someone else needs rescued.”
I put my hand over my eyes. Were there people approaching the ship? “I hear you darling, but I think it might be too late.”
A group of seven or eight old, haggard people were slowly making their way to the ship. One of them, an sunburned man with wrinkles all over his face, took a few steps and spoke to Kyndi and me.
“Is this ship headed off-world? We came in with the others, but there’s nothing for us here. Our families are gone, homes destroyed. The only thing left for us is to sign a slavery contract and start a new life elsewhere.”
Kyndi took a step back, as if physically shoved. “This ain’t no slave ship, old timer. Besides, I thought Patreus released you all.”
A woman stepped forward, shawl wrapped around her graying head. “He released us alright... with nothing to do except twist in the wind! Most of the folk back in town have kin waiting for them, but what about us? We ain’t got no one. No job, no home- a contact is the only thing we can do.”
Kyndi let out a long, ragged exhale. “We ain’t a passenger ship. We ain’t got room or food. I’m sorry, but we need to be going.”
She stated walking up the ramp, but the first man took a few steps closer, his arms raised. “Please, miss! We’ve accepted that stasis pods might be the only way to get anywhere.” He looked down, an ashamed look on his face. “None of us have anything to offer you. But if you could at least get us to Durius city, that would be a start. It wouldn’t be any trouble. There’s pods right now that Denton’s men are giving away for free to anyone who needs one.”
Kyndi stopped with her back to the ragged crowd, staring up at the ceiling. Slowly, she turned around and looked the men and women hard in the eye. “Is this what you all want? What you really want?”
Looking at each other, and then to her, they nodded. The first man moved forward another step his hands held out. “It’s the only thing we have left.”
Kyndi took a deep breath, and looked at me. “Looks like we’re making it to that shin-dig on Achenar, after all.”
**********************************************
Well, Arissa can sure put on a show, that’s for damn sure.
I had contacted Cassius ahead of time, since his position in Lavignly’s Legion virtually guaranteed his attendance to the coronation ceremony. Since Kyndi had laid down certain conditions before ever visiting Achenar, I was able to talk Cassius into using his connections to book a week’s stay at a lux hotel with a view- with a bottle of obscenely expensive wine waiting.
Kyndi had been pleased, even if it meant walking among a crowd of onlookers for the ceremony. Besides, the occasion had afforded her an occasion to wear a form-fitting black and silver evening gown and tour the marbled streets of the imperial plaza with a glass of wine. It went well with the simple grey suit that she had damn near forced me to buy. As Arissa began to speak, Cassius and I exchanged a look of satisfaction. He had gotten his glorious little PR coup, as some of the assembled slaves were ones that the Legion had rescued. I had finally slain the demon of guilt over my role in wrecking Katie’s life, and had a hand in freeing a lot of other rescued slaves as well.
Arissa gave a fine speech, but pretty much the exact thing I would have expected from a politician- even one I supported. When it was over, the sun was already beginning to set, and although a magnificent spread of gourmet dishes and drinks had been laid out, Kyndi was tugging on my hand and asking to go back to the hotel.
The sunset shone through the glass elevator as we ascended up the skyscraper. Achenar was a worthy capital of the Empire- magnificent Imperial architecture mixed with natural beauty for as far as the eye could see. I slipped my arm around Kyndi’s waste.
“So, what do you say? Was it worth it?”
She finished her last of sip of wine and held it out, toasting the view. “Well, you imperials may be assholes sometimes, but damn if you don’t build ‘em pretty.”
The elevator slowed to a halt, and we exited the elevator. An immaculately-dressed slave held out a silver tray, bowing slightly. Kyndi smiled graciously and bowed to him as she put her empty glass on the tray. “Ok, Matty- a girl could get used to this.”
We walked through the magnificently-appointed hotel ballroom and found our room. It was almost absurdly luxurious- it had a spa, a private holo-viewing room, and a bed almost twice as large as anything I had ever seen.
The view was as magnificent as you would expect. The sun was setting through the orange-red clouds, silhouetting the never-ending Imperial skyline. From behind me, Kyndi handed me a glass of wine and slipped out of her shoes. “It’s bedtime,” she declared.
Taking a sip of wine, I nodded my head, still taking in the view. “I know what you mean. Hauling slaves, wining and dining, and an Imperial coronation can really take it out of you.”
I looked back just in time to see Kyndi’s dress fall to the floor around her. The sunset perfectly highlighted her naked curves- and suddenly, I didn’t give a damn about the Achenar city skyline.
Kyndi walked up to me, smiling her Kyndi smile. She gave me a long, luxurious kiss, her tongue tasting like sweet wine. With her free hand, she began unbuttoning my dress shirt.
“No, Matty. It’s bedtime.”
*********************************************
I woke up to see two things: the most beautiful city in the ‘verse filling my hotel view, and the most beautiful view in the ‘verse standing next to it.
Kyndi heard me sit up, and turned around, wearing nothing but a smile. “And just what do you think you’re doing?”
I picked up the still half-full glass of wine next to the bed and held it up to her. “Just admiring the view, darlin’.”
As I took a sip, Kyndi walked back over to the bed to curl up against me. With her head resting on my chest, she held on to me. “Well, don’t get too comfy with the view. Breakfast is on the way.”
She sat up and gave me a playful kiss. “Of course, I don’t think you rate breakfast, but I ordered enough for two anyway.” Another kiss. “You didn’t do too bad, you know.”
Kyndi settled down against me again, our naked bodies resting comfortably against each other. I leaned back and put one arm around her, and the other behind my head. Above us was a brilliant hand-painted ceiling, depicting various old-Earth myths. One was the old Roman god Mars, standing side by side with Artemis, vanquishing a many-headed Hydra. That brought a smile to my face. That ain’t exactly how I remember father telling that tale. But I guess even Imperial artisans are allowed a little artistic license, right?
I looked down as Kyndi, her head on my chest, a serene look on her face. I smiled again. She had been right.
Not too bad, Matt. Not too bad at all.