Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer (13 page)

“Wait, what about Red
?  If he finds out we have escaped he will kill us all.”  Fiona was terrified.

Thad put his arm around the frighten girl, “Don’t worry about him.  He is going to
be taken care of, and he will never hurt anyone again, I promise.”

There was a buzzing sound and both collars snapped open
.  Fiona tossed hers away from her as if it had been a poisonous snake.

“So how did you two end up here?”
  Thad asked, as he gently wiped the grime from her cheek.

Fiona sat down next to her sister and gently shook her shoulder to wake her, “We were with our parents on a cargo run
.  You see they were long haul cargo jocks.  They were taking us back to Earth where we were to attend college.  We were about halfway there when we were attacked by the Night Terror. After a short battle they boarded and captured us.”

She was trying to fight back
tears, “At first we thought they would just take our cargo and leave us be, but those monsters forced us to watch as they raped my mother to death.  Then for fun, they tossed our father out the airlock.  The bloody murderers made bets on how long he would last before his blood boiled out his ears.”  A large tear escaped and ran down her cheek.

Thad gently wiped the tear away
. At first, she flinched at his touch, but then she placed her hand on his and squeezed it a little.  Her eyes said thank you, even though she didn’t verbalize it.

She let go of his hand, “
Red said we were worth way too much to be touched so he chained us to the wall and left us in here with nothing, but a bucket.  That was two months ago and I didn’t think that we would ever be free again.”  Freya started to come around.

“What happened to
,” he was struggling to remember her name.

“
Freya,” she said.  “One of Red’s thugs thought that putting his manhood in her mouth was okay because he was not…”

“Soiling the merchandise,” her sentence
was finished for her by Freya who was sitting up now.

“Well
Hello Freya, I’m Thaddeus,” again he was able to rustle up a smile.

She looked at Thad
, then at her sister “What’s going on?”

“
It’s okay Freya; this man has come to rescue us.”

“Really
?”  She looked up to see Thad standing with a metal man next to him.

“Really
,” Thad bent down and held out his hand.  She took his hand and shook it.  “Now you were telling me what happened to you.”

“Well I’m not the kind of girl
who would sit by and let a man do that kind of thing to me.  Not after what they did to my mother.  So I fought, and when he finally got that sinking, slimly piece of meat into my mouth, I bit down for all that I could,” she said with a hint of pride and defiance in her voice.

Fiona laughed, “You should have seen his face when she bit off his dick.”

“It was the worst tasting thing I have ever had in my mouth, but when I felt the warm blood in my mouth I knew he would never do this to anyone, ever again,” Freya said.

Fiona’s
tone changed, “After she bit it off the man screamed and rolled around on the floor while his friends laughed at him.  When Big Red heard what happened he came into the room.”

Freya took up the story, “He stood over
the man and shot him in the head.  After that he ordered the others to toss his body out an airlock.”

Caught up in the story telling
, Fiona took over again, “Red then beat her because, as he said, she cost him a good man.”

Thad nodded his head, “Well Freya
, I think you did well, and if I were you, I would have done the same thing.”

She smiled at him, “Thank you.”

Thad stood back up to his full height, anger still burning deep in his steel gray eyes, “Archie I’m going to find that bastard.”  Archie said nothing, just nodded.  Thad tried to soften his voice as he said to the girls, “Hang in there just a little longer, your nightmare is just about over.  It’s Big Red’s turn to face justice.”  Thad stormed out of the room.

Big Red was in his berth, surfing the net for information on everything from cargo routes to
the latest news on law enforcement in the outlying areas.  He was so engrossed in planning the best way to squeeze Nome dry that he did not hear the door slide open.  Red sat with his back towards the door, an easy target for Thad. He could have killed him a dozen different ways, but it was the thought of those poor young girls down below that stopped him from killing the scum out right.

Quiet
as death himself, Thad crept up behind Red, leaned in close and whispered in his ear, “Hello Red.”

Red
screamed like a frighten child, the tablet he was holding went flying.  He spun around to see who had the balls to sneak into his ship and into his private quarters.  He came face to face with the barrel of the gun.  “Who the fuck are you?  And how in seven Hells did you get in here?”

Thad could not resist, he
pistol-whipped Red across the face “I will ask the questions here.  Got it?”

Red, to
his credit, took the blow without flinching, “You have some balls coming in here, too bad you won’t get to keep them long.”

Thad let lose another blow
. This time it tore open Red’s check and blood poured down his face into his great red beard.  “You don’t listen well do you?”  Thad said.  He found himself unable to control his anger and he struck him again. 

Red spat out a tooth, “Okay, okay before you knock out any
more of my teeth, who are you and what do you want?”

Thad, with
pistol still aimed at Reds head, “Well if you must know, you tried to kill me a few years back.  You left me to die in the desert, with this in my chest.”  He held up the knife that he had kept the last two years.

For first time he saw
real fear in Red’s eyes, “You were dead!  I saw it myself.  How can this be?”

“What can I say
?  It wasn’t my day to die,” Thad said as he threw the knife down, sticking it in the chair Red was sitting on, mere centimeters from his manhood.  “You should learn anatomy better, you missed my heart.  It is a few millimeters more to the left.”

Red was
scared, but trying not to show it.  However, he couldn’t hide his shaking, “Look if you want money or girls I can get you anything you want.  I have a couple of real beauties down below, real hot, twins. You can have them, just let me go.”

That was the wrong thing to
say.  Thad fired.  The laser bolt burned off Red’s right ear.  Red let out a scream of pain.  Holding the burned side of his head, he groaned, “Okay not the girls.  Look, you can have your stuff.  I kept it, all of it.”

Thad was not expecting this, “What stuff?”

“All the stuff we took off you, from your hotel room, I kept all of it.  It’s in a box over there,” he pointed to a large chest in the corner covered with vid chips and porno disks.

Thad
, with gun still covering Red, walked over to the box and lifted the lid with his foot.  He took a quick glance inside.  Confused, Thad looked at the gear in the box.  It was worth enough for Red to retire, “So why didn’t you sell it?”

“
I tried, but no fence would touch it. I tried for six months to unload the stuff, nobody was buying, and then I found out why.”  Red said still holding his burned head.

“Oh,” Thad said as he let the lid fall closed.

Red put his hand down, “Look, I may be a crappie criminal and a bad man, but I’m not so stupid as to mess with the Federation.  It turns out your gear there traced back to a really nasty Federation black ops group.  I have no deSire to bring that type of heat down on my head.”  Red was trying to position himself to get something from the desk drawer.

Thad seemed to be lost in his thoughts
.  This new information raised yet more questions about his background, questions he must answer, but not now.  Red thought he might have an opening, and while Thad was distracted, he slowly pulled the drawer open.  He placed his hand on a small pistol.

Thad saw what he was doing out of the corner of his eye, “Nice try Red.”  Red looked up just as Thad
fired again, this time burning a neat whole through his upper left arm.  Red screamed out in pain.  “Not so fun to be on the receiving end is it?”

Archie had been in the cargo hold looking for better clothing for the girls.  “Here, these are for you,” he handed over the clothing.

Freya held up a woman’s shirt
. It was about three times too big, “Well bucket head at least they are women’s and there are clean.”  The girls really didn’t care, they were just happy to have clean clothes. 

Archie
stood there, not moving, waiting for them to dress when Freya spoke up, “Hey metal head, you going to stand there and watch?  Get out and give us some privacy.”

A
rchie shrugged and left the room.  His comm beeped and Thad’s voice came from Archie’s speakers.  “I have Red.  Meet me in the cargo bay in five minutes and bring the girls, I think they will want in on this.”

“Will do
Sir,” he said.  Archie waited until they finished dressing and then accompanied the girls to the cargo bay. 

There
they found Thad sitting on a crate.  Big Red the once terrifying, pirate, murderer, and rapist was now hanging by his hands with his feet a few inches off the loading ramp.  His face was swelling and bleeding from the beating Thad had given him.  When Red saw the two girls, he put his head down and looked at the floor.  He knew it was over for him. 

“
Archie get up to the bridge and take this heap of shit up to about ten thousand feet, and hold it there for me.” 

“Yes
Sir I’m on it,” Archie said, leaving Thad with the two girls.

Thad walked over
to the girls, “Ladies, I was going to kill Red for the things he did to me, but then I met you two and I think it’s only fair I give you a chance to avenge your parents.”  With that he placed his hands behind his back and pulled out two .45 cal pistols.  They were among the gear in his box, and he felt they were just the ticket for the girls to have their revenge.  Thad held them out for the girls.  Fiona hesitated, but Freya didn’t waste a second.  She took the pistol and pulled the slide back to see if it was loaded, and it was.  Fiona then took the pistol offered to her. Standing side by side, the two sisters faced their worst nightmare.

Red pleaded for his life, “Please, don’t do this, I will give you anything you want.”

It was Fiona who spoke, “Really?”

“Really, money, the ship
, anything you want.”  Red sputtered through tears.

The girls spoke in unison
, as if they were one person, “We want our parents back!”

Fire leaped from the barrels
, as bullets smashed into Red.  Blood splattered from him, as bullets tore massive holes in his flesh.  Freya placed her shots in his groin area, where they ripped away his manhood.  Fiona wanted to shoot him in the face, but changed her mind and chose to shoot him in his arms and legs.

Red screamed out in pain as each shot
punched through him.  The girls pulled the triggers until the guns were empty and the slides locked.  Both of them lowered their guns and walked up close to Red.  Fiona lifted his head and spat in his face.  Freya then took her turn to spit in his face.  Approaching Thad, Fiona spoke, “We’re done, he is yours now.”  Thad nodded his head, acknowledging them.   

Th
e ships loud speaker cracked, “we are at ten thousand and holding Sir,” Archie announced. 

Thad walked over to a wall panel a
nd pressed a button, “Good work, now can you put it on autopilot and come back down here.  Oh, stop by the engine room and grab the engineer, please.”

“Be right there
Sir,” Archie announced over the speakers.

In
a few minutes, Archie came into the cargo bay with the engineer over one shoulder.  “Drop him over here,” Thad pointed to a spot close to Red.  He walked over and dropped him on the floor.  The engineer hit the deck with a thud.  He let out an agonized groan. 

Thad walked over to the control panel
and opened the loading bay doors.  The rush of wind and noise was almost deafening at first, but then calmed. Thad walked to the barely breathing Red, being careful not to slip on the deck, which was wet with blood.  He lifted the pirate captain’s head and looked into his eyes, “I thought you would want this back,” He held up the knife Red had left in his chest.  Red spit blood at Thad.

“Time to say goodbye Red,” Thad said as he plunged the knife into Red’s chest, making
sure he missed his heart.  Red groaned, and his eyes started to roll back in to his head.  Thad got close to his ear and whispered, “Hurts doesn’t it?”

Thad pulled out a second knife and cut the rope holding Red
up.  As his body started to fall to the deck, Thad gave him a push.  Red fell backwards out the open loading bay door.  Thad stood and watched as Red’s body tumbled out of sight.