13 Degrees of Separation (73 page)

Kringer got to his feet heavily, panting. Adam stared, eyes
huge. The ape man tried to cover his arm and shredded abdomen. He was gushing
blood, too much for anyone to survive Adam realized. Apparently the ape man did
as well. “You've killed me,” he whined, sobbing. He choked and then twitched
and then lay still, good eye staring at nothing at all.

“Damn right I did,” Kringer said, wiping at his mouth with
the back of one arm. He grimaced, he had a broken tooth and quite a few broken
bones. Definitely a few broken ribs, it was hard to breathe. “Damn,” he said
with a sigh, his eyes rolling back as his strength left him and he wilted.

“Medic!” Adam screamed, waving to the others as he moved in
to assess his friend.

<=={----------

Pope took off at the sound of gunfire, he knew a losing
situation when he heard one. When someone went to rapid auto and both sides
were firing, that was his cue to get the hell out of dodge. He thought about
his brother briefly, he was on his own he thought. Most likely in the thick of
things he thought. Or; he paused in time to see familiar boots sticking out of
a closet. He saw the blood pool dribbling out of the room and scowled,
realizing right off his brother was dead. “Damn,” he muttered. “Sorry bro, next
lifetime I guess,” he said and then went on his way.

He made it to the garage and climbed onto his chopper,
stuffing the slave into a saddlebag face first. “Time for a ride kid!” He
kicked the motor into gear and then hit the trigger to an explosive trap he'd
laid long ago.

Improvised explosives made in Pope's chemistry lab and
lovingly wrapped in nails and bits of metal went off around the outside of the
door to the garage. A second charge blew the door out at the same time. “Let's
ride!” Pope roared over the engines as he  tore through the gaping mouth of his
once impenetrable fortress home.

He rode off wearing his favorite purple hoodie on the hover
bike adorned with a bull skull on it. Others followed him into the night.
Duncan took careful aim and shot, but missed. He did however ignite the hoodie
cape. A follow up shot was too far in front he thought. He grimaced, seeing the
light of the flames showing a child clinging for dear life to the cycle's
saddle bags. He port armed the weapon, eyes gleaming. “We'll meet again,” he
murmured.

They could see the cape's flames as the leader howled in
rage and kept going. Some of his surviving men followed in his wake.

<=={----------

Jane exited into the light, covering her eyes. One hand
held the chain still around her neck. Birdie swooped, Jane's head came up as
she heard a familiar cry. She grinned as the robot dived at her, then did a
somersault in the air and came back to land on her arm. Jane Vinatelli was
reunited with her robot bird. She stroked it with her delicate fingers, the
bird batted at her hand. The battered girl cuddled it close, whispered thank
you. “I thought I'd lost you,” she said over and over. Fresh tears fell.
Finally, finally she let it all go.

<=={----------

Pope snarled and batted the helping hand away. “Leave it,”
he said. He ran a hand through his melted hair, pulling chunks of hair and skin
down. He took out a bottle of rotgut and dumped it on his head and then roared
in pain. He doubled over gasping, trying to get his bearings. He couldn't
afford to pass out.

“But sir...” the servant said, reaching again for his face.

“I said leave it!” Pope roared as fresh pain hit his face.
He slapped the man away. The kid chained to the bike nearby cringed. He crawled
into a fetal ball, covering his face and holding his chain.

Pope touched the mask. That last shot had been too close,
partially blinding him on the right side and fusing the skull mask to his face.
Part of it was melted ruin, the rest made him look like he had no flesh. They
had managed to cut part of it off round his mouth and jaw, he grimaced, looking
in the water of the pond. He truly was hideous, a real messenger of death and
destruction now. He laughed, a hate filled maniacal laugh. “Well! Don't that
beat all,” he said. “I kind of like it,” he said. “I think I'll keep it,” he
said, turning to admire his new look.

“It does sort of give me a dashing appearance doesn't it?”
he asked, wrapping the burnt cloak around him briefly. “Phantom of the opera
eat your damn heart out. Or I just might,” he laughed.

He ignored the looks his men exchanged around him. “We're
down but not out. Fall back. We'll come back and hit them. Head to the nearest
cache of goods,” he ordered.

His voice had changed, roughening with his screams of pain
and anger. It had a new edge to it, an edge of madness. He injected himself
with stim, he would need the boost to keep his head clear. He looked around and
then to the boy.

The boy held up his pulser. Pope took it and checked the
action. “Thanks kid,” he said and then put a round through the kid's head. The
kid's body toppled like a puppet.

“Sorry, no room for dead weight,” Pope growled, shooting
the chain. He ripped it off his bike and then turned to the others. “Let's
ride!” he snarled taking off. The others followed.

<=={----------

The victors cheered, then did an assessment. The mountain
complex was damaged and they didn't have the parts to fix it. But Jane still
wanted to stay to do what she could. She gave them a list as her parents
arrived. Randor came to congratulate them. She handed him the list. “What's
this?” he asked.

“Parts I need.”

“I'll see what I can do.”

“Do that,” she said. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
She fought the urge to sink into herself. She felt Teela put a hand on her
shoulder, silently encouraging her. She gulped and stood her ground.

Slowly Randor nodded, seeing the hell the girl had gone
through, or at least imagining it. It took a lot of courage to stand here
talking to him after what she had no doubt gone through. To want to help...
“Okay. For this, we can put the order of parts through the Antiguan government
since it is for planetary defense. There will be red tape, feet dragging and
paperwork.” He sighed ruefully. “Lots and lots of paperwork no doubt,” he said.

“I don't care, get on it,” she said stubbornly. She even
lifted her chin. She looked a little like Marlena with that pose in her
borrowed jumper.

“Yes ma'am,” he murmured in approval, moving off. He
whistled softly, smiling.

Teela rubbed her arms from behind and hugged her. “You go
girl,” she said in approval.

“Thanks,” Jane said, patting her hand and then squeezing
her fingers. “Can you look after Adam? And we need to go over the security of
this place. I don't want Pope sneaking back in.”

“Yeah,” Teela replied with a nod. “Good call.”

<=={----------

The day after they secured the mountain complex, the newly
elected Governor Jeff Randall called to congratulate them.

“Sir this is Randor, how can I help you?” Randor said,
pressing the mike button and then letting it go. Jane was a wonder, she'd
gotten the communications system back online and even linked to the system in
Eternia just before Teela had chased her off to bed.

For this call he had an audience, Jane was there, as was
Duncan and a few other notable people. Jane flipped a switch then winced when
the audio overhead squealed. “Feedback,” she muttered, turning the volume down.
“Best I can do,” she said. Randor nodded.

“Randor? A relative perhaps?” the Governor asked, sounding
amused and somewhat elated. There was a squelch of static.

“No, Randor is my first name sir,” the leader replied. He
smiled. “My full name is Randor Prince sir.”

“Ah, I see Mister Prince. Well, to avoid confusion, we'll
stick to formalities shall we?” The Governor asked.

“As you wish Governor Randall,” the older man replied
drolly.

“I do I do. So, I heard you have beaten back the raiders,
taken their base, rescued the hostages there, and have even started work on
restoring the Planetary Defense system! Quite an achievement!”

“Yes sir, we've... had a busy day,” Randor replied, smiling
wolfishly.

“I agree,” the Governor replied with a chuckle. “See? We
can do things on our own! Antiguans!”

Randor frowned, look over to his wife and son. His lovely
wife rolled her eyes. Governor Randor had taken a sharp down turn in the polls
his first month in office the moment the admiral left the system had been
confirmed. Some of the shenanigans he and his supporters had pulled on the
admiral, the architect of their new renaissance had also been fed to the media.

The lack of the keys the admiral had taken with him had
also hammered their industrial renaissance. Now the economy had dropped into a
sluggish mire. It hadn't fallen into a recession, there were still goods and
markets on the station and in orbit, but the economy had still taken a
hammering.

“Um, sir, the people who rescued the complex and have been
restoring Eternia are offworlders,” a voice said in the background.

The Governor grunted. “Is that true?”

“Some of us sir yes. We're from the Kiev 221 and Prime.”

“Oh um...”

“We had a lot of help sir. And we're here to stay. That is
if you'll have us.”

The Governor cleared his throat. “Very well then, carry on,
um...” the radio link died. Adam snorted at the expression on his parent's
face.

“You enjoyed that. Admit it,” he teased.

“Maybe a little,” his father said chuckling and stroking
his beard. He got to his feet. “Come on, we've got a lot of work ahead of us.
We've got to get the city sorted out then get power to this defensive complex.
If we can get it online then we can protect the city and the surrounding area
from any pirates.”

“What about bone face?” Teela asked, rubbing her wounded
arm.

“He's running. Let him run. We've already gotten the word
out about him and his people. Wanted posters have hit the police net. They'll
be caught.”

“I'd still like to be there sir,” Teela said.

“Yeah well, I'd like a lot of things, it doesn't
necessarily mean I'll get everything I want. But if we work hard... maybe. Or
at least we can see it happen. Hell, I don't mind not being there as long as
the bastard is caught.”

“True,” Duncan said, nodding. His friend clapped him on the
shoulder. Duncan looked at the hand. “I'll check security.”

<=={----------

They managed to make a trade with the station for a new
power cable. Randor also received parts for the city infrastructure in exchange
for food stuff and semi-processed metals and materials. Eternia has some of the
best glass fields on the planet, the iron concentration was below 1 part per
billion. It also had other sources of silicon and graphite.

Getting trade going was difficult. Randor and his wife
spent long hours negotiating with people to get the trades worked out. When the
coiled cable arrived it was a logistical nightmare getting it from the space
port to where it needed to go.

<=={----------

A month after retaking the mountain complex they had
finished the install. They had a quiet ceremony, marking the date of the
successful test of the power cable and repair of the complex. “We're finally
getting somewhere!” Jane said in triumph.

“Well, minimally active,” a tech said, wrinkling his nose.
He was dismayed by the work but Jane wasn't. She just rolled her sleeves up and
dived into the work. Robots were busy cleaning and repairing what they could.
She was still bitter, but maturing into a better woman through therapy. She led
a therapy group for some of the other female victims of Skeletor.

<=={----------

Another month passed before Skeletor ran a raid, hitting
the power cable and severing it with explosives. His raiders got in and out
clean, driving off into the swamp to be lost in the tangle of trees and vines.

Duncan sent out his fast reaction team but they didn't
arrive in time. They did secure the site while work crews came from the
mountain complex as well as Eternia to survey the damage.

When they arrived Skeletor's men tried to snipe them from
the tree line. Duncan sent robots to flank them. The snipers stayed a little
too long, by the time they heard the robots crashing and buzzing in the bush
and overhead they were almost surrounded. They ran, flushed out of their hides.
They were trapped in a gulley and taken down in a barrage of weapons fire when
they turned on their hunters and tried to fight their way out.

Then, as the army team started to celebrate they got the
garbled radio report of a fleet of pirate ships coming through the Beta 459C
jump point. The emergency broadcast expected an imminent attack and instructed
everyone to gather emergency supplies and find shelter.

"Oh you gotta love the timing..." Duncan sighed,
hefting his pulser. He swapped the half expended power pack with a new one he
had in a pouch on his harness then carefully pocketed the old one. He turned
surveying the broken cable.

"Was it timing? Or was it pre-planning?" Randor
mused, stroking his beard. He too was studying the cable.