Cutlass Sharpened (16 page)

Renee saw Oliver’s heroics, but also cringed
hearing a bone slip with a sickening ‘pop’. And he was in the
direct path of two more Stingrays without benefit of his sword
which fell away in the limp arm.

Renee this time was ready, but unlike a
gentle rise of her hair, they snapped straight up. Each hand
pointed palm first to a different Stingray flying nearly straight
down for wounded prey. Sparks of psionic plasma condensed into a
ball over each before releasing a kinetic blast that fired at the
speed of light like a straight bolt of lightning. A massive hole
was left behind, two meters wide, taking away everything between
those widely spaced eyes. They fell several meters away from the
brown cloaked man who saved her from being eaten.

Near the deck’s main airlock Deegen’s whip
crackled with blue-white power and cut four Stingrays in half while
throwing one chakram at another coming up behind Stone as he leapt,
hacking through. It was wounded, but was enough for Stone to finish
both.

Steven defended four cowering women who
didn’t manage to get away to lead the flying Beasts with his long
lance as bait. When they took it they were met with a crushing blow
by a flail. Two now lay dead at his feet.

Stone then fought four singlehandedly as
Deegen finished the last. Stone though made sure they were in range
before unleashing a sharp wave of power from his hatchets just like
Oliver had against the Salamander, only Stone’s moves were specific
and refined to use only necessary quantities of energy. The
remaining four creatures fell in eight separate pieces.

Oliver was in tremendous pain. It was
different from a groin kick. This one didn’t leave him weakened
till it stopped. The shoulder caused tears to sting the corner of
his eyes, but he could get up. It hung limp as he began a wound
check.

“
Oliver!” Renee yelled and
hurried over. Concern replacing all other emotions.

Fingers touched the warm armored shoulder and
he jerked away angrily saying “Don’t you fucking touch me, Renee.”
And walked to the railing.

“
I’m trying to help,
asshole! I need to relocate your shoulder. You can’t do it
yourself!”

“
Watch me.” He turned his
head as the helmet over his head rippled away like water. Oliver
grimaced as his right hand grabbed his left bicep, pulled it up and
slammed it down atop the starboard railing. “AH!” he yelled as a
hot whiteness stole his vision for a moment. Not realizing till
this moment why many refer to it as a white hot pain.

The medic winced, hearing the sound of it
going back in the socket. He flexed his fingers, showing the arm
was functional again. “Let me see it now.” She demanded with forced
softness.

“
Fuck you!” he glared, his
chest rising and falling in both anger and pain. The venom in his
words froze her to the core. “I don’t trust you. Not anymore. You
crossed a line when all I’ve been is willing to learn and help.
Right now I’d trust a Beast over you. At least they don’t deny who
they are. You say you are a medic? What about the code of do no
harm to innocents?” She winced as if he struck her. “You’re worst
than a Beast. If you knew anything by how difficult all this is
for
me
you’ll
finally pull your head out of your steel trap of an ass! I don’t
want an apology. I may be different, but you have no right to treat
me like a fool.”

He walked past and she fell to look up in
complete shock. She saw him stop cold and look down and saw a deep
sadness. A sadness she knew all too well. It was a sadness of being
alone. He turned away just as fast.

He lifted his sword and swung it to remove
nearly all the purple blood to sheathe it. Then he threw the
smaller half of the Stingray he slew atop the larger. Oliver then
grabbed the long tail and began dragging it away.

Behind he didn’t see or hear Renee silently
crying her heart out in remorse.

Stone and the others were speeding over. He
asked “How is Ms. Dorgen?”

“
Go see for yourself.” He
said bitterly without stopping.

“
What are you doing with
that?”

“
I’m hungry and found it
didn’t happen till I killed this one. Renee killed two, but only
this one makes my mouth water. If you want to find me I’ll be in my
quarters across from the med bay.” ‘shht’ ‘shht’ ‘shht’ it sounded
as each step pulled it long, leaving a bloody purple
trail.

He took the shortest distance, but didn’t go
unnoticed. The crew backed far away from such a huge Beast being
taken by a man with a cape. Along the way both Stephanie and
Jessica appeared, but he didn’t acknowledge them. They took the
hint he wanted to be left alone before reaching the elevator taken
down.

Oliver made it to his room and folded the
supple fins so it could fit inside. He dropped it over the much
smaller table. As soon as he door closed he sat down ashamed and
broken.

Throbbing in his shoulder prompted him to get
up and go over to the refreshment pod in the wall and made it eject
a large amount of ice he wrapped into his cape and tied it around
the whole shoulder. Ice’s cooling effects were fast acting.

Hunger took over, but he was conflicted. Raw,
uncooked meat was not healthy, but he craved it as fresh as
intended. So he made a compromise and used his sword to slice off a
strip of the fleshy Beast and set it over his vambrace and hoped it
worked.

Better than expected, but made him marginally
more exhausted. The strip laid across began to sizzle and pop like
bacon. As it did he was thinking how psionic technology worked. It
drew on synaptic strength. The vambrace and sword did the same
thing. With a glove covered hand he turned the thin strip over till
perfection, or to his untried assumption.

At first touch on the taste buds the cooked
meat wasn’t revolting, but not tasty either. It was edible.

Tasting raw on the other hand was delightful.
It was delicious to him in every possible sense he could think up.
Juicy, sweet and sour, tough and tender at the same time. His sword
perfectly cut it’s tough hide and noting other than cartilage would
be spared. During the feast he was drawn to the large brain and it
was more delicious than the meat. It energized him, replenishing
reserves. Once every part of brain was gone he returned to the meat
and organs his body craved.

Nearly five kilos disappeared along with five
glasses of purified water from the wall.

“
Ahhh…” he sighed,
completely sated. Licked his lips and began deciding how to
preserve the meat. And didn’t need to bother as the multi-tool had
an infinite range of uses. It thinned considerably to a bracelet,
throwing the rest of itself out like a net without a hole.
Blackness enveloped the entire Stingray to begin shrinking,
compressing all vital nourishment down to a kidney bean sized ball.
Left behind on the table was the cartilage skeleton and a two meter
long stinger.

It was so compact he decided to do what felt
right and swallowed it whole since he would have broken a tooth
otherwise. Oddly it didn’t weigh heavily. It felt lighter than
possible and chalked it up to the thing attached to his arm.

It would dissolve over time, making him not
need to eat for weeks to come.

Sadly, not all rooms were fitted with
sanitation crystal nanites by empire law. Only medical, and certain
facilities that need a microbe free environment can use them. It
kept humanity from becoming fat and lazy… too reliant on
technology. Cleaning up your own messes by hand or with basic tools
such as a mop or broom remained. Living longer let basic chores eat
up ones boredom since eternal boredom led to unrest and chaos in
any society.

Oliver stood and went to the closet to grab a
bucket, microbe cleaning solution and mop more sanitary than ones
of the twenty first century. He filled it with water in the
bathroom sink and got to work after wiping the Star-saber clean,
but as soon as he thought about doing it to his suit it began
moving every splatter of blood to his palm. He couldn’t help
smiling as the blob fell in the toilet. Next came the main
room.

An hour and a quarter passed before there was
a knock on his front door followed by “Oliver, are you willing to
see me. It’s just me.” Stephanie’s voice.

Truthfully, Oliver could see why cleaning
remained. It did distract from sore thoughts that would suffocate
if let run wild. Chaos and unrest indeed.

He put down the stinger more like a javelin
and approached the door. It opened to show only the archeologist
still in her green dress was holding just the egg shaped crystal
tablet she let him use earlier. The only difference is wearing a
new pair of high heel shoes since he ruined a pair.

Stephanie noticed he had modified his suit
again. He wore simple brown pants and a shirt with a large bulge of
cloth still containing ice to keep swelling down. And he was
barefoot. “I see you are assimilating quite quickly. By the way the
blood you dragged all through the ship is cleaned.”

He looked down. “I’m sorry. I should have not
done it…”

“
Hush. Cleaning after a
Beast attack is nothing new for us. While you were locked in your
room we jumped to the Sapphire Nebula, basically our own private
home away from home. The Stingrays hid in the asteroid belt and
snuck up on us. Luckily they are easily dealt with. Just teeth and
a stinger. Weak compared to most Beasts…” she glanced past and into
the room to raise a lone eyebrow. “Where did the rest
go?”

“
I ate it.
This
shrank down what I
couldn’t stomach and condensed it and I got it down.” He showed his
right arm and she nodded, wishing to have seen it.

“
You look in the mood to
talk now. May I please come in?”

“
Be my guest.” He stepped
away and she entered to take a seat on the large sofa. He took the
other side. “And please skip pleasantries. I’m going to turn in
soon. I’m sore and tired.”

“
Quite understandable. I’m
here for two reasons. This is the first.” Holding out the clear egg
gemstone. “I want to give this to you, but I want to know why you
left when Renee arrived in my lab. You don’t have to, but I don’t
like making assumptions.”

Unbeknownst to either, Renee secretly
listened in on the other side of the door.

Oliver took the device
saying “Thank you so much… and I knew why Stone called Renee about
a minute later when I learned about neurology, but that is not why
I felt the need for isolation. I know what would have been found
had I let her. My subconscious is what let me absorb everything. My
consciousness though was merely along for the ride. I can’t control
my subconscious, but it let me learn at ninety eight point two
percent as the tablet is capable of functioning and stored
it
all
away. I can
call upon it right now in word for word detail, but I need sleep to
let it seep into long term memory.”

“
Ninety eight percent total
processing power? Are you sure?” He could only nod. “Could you
absorb more if given more power?”

“
Not by much. I wanted to
learn all I could as fast as possible, but it was straining.
Especially trying not to blink.”

“
Then what triggered the
real reason to leave?”

“
Please promise me to keep
it a secret?” She did. “Renee caught me off guard and the moment I
smelled her I fought to assert my consciousness over
sub…”

Stephanie spoke when he could not bring
himself to say it. “You were about to mate her?”

“
It would be seen as rape
and you know it. But yes. She is a strong female.” She remained
calm and collected. It helped she didn’t judge. He liked her
patience. “I almost lost control of that urge because I wasn’t in
control. What stopped me was I was researching romance and love.
Stories. I like stories… especially since mine was stolen from me.
I’m intrigued by it. I want that kind of connection with someone…
no that’s not quite right… I
need
it, but I can’t express why.”

“
Most of humanity take
mates, but as you know between myself and Jessica we are married.
She took my name so you know. Few of us pair bond permanently,
nearly all rather take mates for a few months or years till another
is sought. I met Jessica forty one years ago and even to this day I
cannot live my life without her. It could be possible you are like
me and need a permanent mate you know will never leave you. I met
her on this ship actually. The Dorgenox drew me…”

“
Because you are obsessed
with history. This ship was shaped via crystals so the wood retains
integrity in space. It reminded you of your mother’s obsession with
model ship building during the fourteen to seventeen hundreds… I
uh, read your notes.”

“
I’m not offended. Flattered
actually. Too few ships resemble what our ancestors used before
electricity and steam engines was harnessed. The Dorgenox is the
best case of ancient design and integrity with the latest
technology. The captain and my wife love the ancient roots we come
from. Yes, I was drawn to this ship as it reminded me of my mother
and as soon as I laid eyes on Jessica I just knew we’d marry and be
together… what
else
made you leave?” She returned them back to the
subject.

“
Well, a part of me wanted
to see if Renee was the only one who made me feel this way. Many
women live aboard and they all smell nice. Those with men in their
scent are far less alluring…”