Jaded (2 page)

Jayd looked around absently as she ate the deep-fried dumplings filled with a combination of meat and sweet. Climbing was something that had come with the alteration, and she wasn’t upset by the change to her habits at all.

The occupants of the food court were planning their days, watching attractive members of the crowd pass by. It wasn’t fun to listen to the thoughts of a crowd, but she remembered days when it had been.

She finished her meal and breathed in and out, calibrating her senses to the mood of the crowd. It was an exercise that her instructors had drilled into her whenever she went out. The importance of setting her senses to the ambient mood meant that she would be able to pick up on any changes. It was a vital practice for a judge and jury.

A block of nothing was approaching her. She recognised the sensation immediately; there was an executioner getting closer and he was trying very hard not to startle her.

Sighing at her cessation of privacy, she slipped off the sculpture and stood in the stone tangle. “I assume you are looking for me?”

He was a Nyal mix of some variety; the red eyes gave him away. His skin was tanned with a dark purple sheen to it. His surprise at her appearance was the window she needed and she immediately rifled through his mind and memories without him feeling a thing.

Truanic Heff li Norquip. It was quite the name, but it rather suited the strong set of his shoulders tapering to a narrow vee at his waist.

“Madam, I have been sent to retrieve you. There are warrants requiring your signature.”

She nodded, and he offered her his arm. It was not protocol, but she took it anyway, surprising him.

He muttered to her as they walked through the crowds. “You were not what I was expecting, madam.”

“Funny, you were the general idea of what I was expecting. I guess some of us are just better at this than others.”

He stiffened slightly as they moved around a fountain. “You know what I am?”

“Of course. You should have been briefed on what I am, so it should come as no surprise. Are you going to be my second while I travel? I tend to burn through your kind rather frequently.” She felt it only fair to add the warning.

“I am aware of your history with those in my position. I was warned extensively about your ruthless pursuit of duty. Oddly enough, I signed up anyway.”

She laughed. “You seemed surprised by my appearance.”

“I have never seen one of your position on top of a sculpture before, let alone climbing around on it like a minsk.”

The comparison to a small fluffy tree spider was a little creepy but flattering. Minsk were adorable.

“The climbing came later in life. I was never a climber until the Alliance came to town.”

He looked down at her with surprise. “You really are an Alliance-born species then?”

She laughed. “That is something to be asked when we have more privacy than a courtyard can offer.”

They stood together on the travelling walk and he balanced her as they reached the courthouse where she had temporary offices.

Her assigned receptionist leaped to his feet as they passed the threshold of her office.

“Judge Dex, I didn’t know you were coming in today.”

She did a quick sweep of his mind and found only that he wanted to go for lunch with his boyfriend. “It is fine, Morring. Go about your day as if I am not here. I merely came in to do some signing. This is…never mind.”

Her companion’s lips quirked. He had not given her his name, so she was pretending that she didn’t know it. It was only polite.

Inside her inner office, she closed the door behind them and did a quick sweep for bugs.

He took the seat on the guest side of her desk and once she was sure that it was secure, she leaned back in her chair. “So, do you know what you are getting into?”

“I have been an executioner before but rarely with a judge as prestigious as yourself.”

She snorted and gave him a narrow-eyed look. “As I stated, I have been through a few of your kind. They don’t last.”

“Few judges travel as much as you do. The amount of capital cases that you try is astonishing. You simply wore them out. I am made of stronger stuff.” His lips twitched. “My name is Ex-Hess. I am sure you have already determined my true name if your files are anything to go by.”

“I might have come across it. Do you know why I need you?”

“You need an executioner because the justice of the imperium must be swift.”

She sighed at the rhetoric. “No, because I am willing to go and pass judgement over the corrupt, the wealthy and the depraved, judging them all by a combination of imperium and local customs. When I call for a death sentence, it has to be fast and we have to leave the moment the body drops. Your duties will be to carry out the sentence and then get us to the shuttle. I can fly us from there.”

He nodded. “I am aware of what you need. I am at your disposal.”

She jerked slightly as images of her naked with him kissing the curve of her shoulder sprang to mind. She had never had a perspective like that, so it had to be his imagination.

“Whoa. None of that. I need to trust you with my life, not necessarily my body. Sex just gets in the way.”

He chuckled. “Not if you do it right, but I will respect your wishes in the matter. Where is our first assignment?”

Jayd laughed. “Right here. I have to sign warrants for arrest and formalize other agreements. You can either wait here or get me a cup of caf.”

“With those as my options, what do you take in your caf, Judge Dex.”

She gave him the order and he left, closing her door securely. Dex was her number, not any mutation of her name; it stood for Judge I-ten of the Nyal Imperium. It wasn’t a bad name and it kept a distance between herself and the people she was there to judge.

It was odd to become exceptional and then be turned into a number, but Jayd adapted.

She flipped through the warrants. Three were without legal precedent or any basis, so she dismissed them and sent a note to the officers to get slightly different information and resubmit. If they did it in the next six hours, she would be able to sign off on the documents and they could get their targets.

The other nine warrants she signed without hesitation. Twelve was the limit for any visiting judge. Some days she wished she still got sick when she saw the details of the warrants. Her exposure to the grotesque things that other beings did to each other had caused her to look at the motivations of others with a certain skepticism.

Life was very different away from home, but the larger the populations, the more atrocities it seemed they could fit into an average day.

Not all of the planets in the imperium had death sentences, but those that wanted a more final end to their troubles called in a judge. She could come in, pass fair and equitable judgement and her companion would carry out the sentence immediately. Whether he was incarcerating someone or executing them, she needed a companion to act as bailiff and executioner.

Jayd smiled as her new partner entered the room. Having him being fun to look at didn’t hurt as long as they didn’t act on it.

She sipped at the caf that he handed to her. He was cute and he didn’t mind getting caf for her. “This might just work out after all.”

He resumed his seat. “I am very glad to hear you say that.”

She finished the authorizations for mating matches as required on Neiaki. An in-depth search of familial ties indicated that they were all suitable by local standards. All families were properly matched and the female was always the one with higher social standing.

“You sign off on weddings?”

“For the high families, yes. They sometimes like official authorization from the imperium. It makes everything so much more civil.”

She finished her caf and got to her feet. “I have meetings with some of the local councils and other judges, will you accompany me?”

He lifted a data pad and brought up an acceptance contract. “Sign for me and I am yours.”

She tried to hide her blush as she did as he asked, but the images in her head were now all hers and far more X-rated than they had any right to be.

This partnership was going to be hell.

“You are quite well respected.” Ex-Hess’s voice was admiring.

“You don’t need to sound so surprised. I have people skills, though I rarely apply them. Do you have everything you need?”

He lifted up two bags. “I have my kit.”

Jayd had her own bags and they looked like any two travellers heading to the spaceport.

Two days of meeting with other judges and getting case updates had prepared her for her next three months of travel with Ex-Hess.

“You might want to call me by my name, madam. Truanic.”

“So, you might want to call me Jayd, Truanic.”

He blinked. “That is a lovely name.”

“Thank you. Yours is very lyrical as well.” She chuckled.

They headed for the diplomatic checkpoint and once they were scanned, they left the customs area and headed to the private shuttle pad.

“You have been doing this for five years?”

“Five, six. It all blurs together after a while.” She shrugged.

“How is it that you still have a sense of humour about this?”

She pointed to their shuttle and he followed her to the gleaming beast that would be their home. Her code opened the door and once inside, she gave him the tour.

“We have lift-off clearance in ten minutes. Will you be settled in by then?” She was asking the question from the doorway of his quarters.

He simply dropped his bags on the bunk. “Ready.”

She did the same in her own quarters and headed for the controls. “Wake up, darling.”

The living systems grew bright the moment she spoke.
“Hello, Jayd. How was business?”

“Oh, same as always, sweetie. This is my new partner, Truanic.”

The deep masculine tone said,
“I am pleased to meet you, Truanic. Watch your partner. She is a handful.”

Truanic took a seat. “Your ship is masculine.”

“It made me feel better to yell at him. He can take it. The ship is named the
High Honour
. The mind inside is a new template, designed by the Guardian project.”

She grinned as her ship grumbled.

Truanic eyed the console warily. “Does he have a name?”

“I call him Harry.” Jayd shrugged and settled in as the harness snapped around her and pulled her into her seat.

Truanic was on his own for fastening and when he was done, he asked, “Why do you have a sentient ship?”

“It was thought necessary when one of my executioners decided that my decision was incorrect and he tried to launch me out the airlock.” She wrinkled her nose.

“I gather that he was unsuccessful.”

“He was indeed.”

Harry was working on taxying to a lift position while they chatted. He requested clearance and took their assigned spot, sliding into the launch rail that would take them off the surface and into the stratosphere with mechanical propulsion that did not involve fuels being dumped into the atmosphere. It was quite the thoughtful system, but Jayd really felt the gravity.

Truanic sat back as they were held in their seats by the violence of the rail shot. The moment that Harry kicked in their burners, the pressure changed and it was five more minutes before they could move comfortably.

“Thank you, Harry. You have our coordinates?”

“I do. Your concealers are charged and waiting as well. You are going to need them. You are scheduled for a tarmac trial at the next site.”

Truanic blinked, “You actually do trials at the spaceport?”

“For some species it is the only place they can actively secure. It is always a shame to have a defendant killed before they can be brought to trial.” She didn’t describe how it made her feel.

“I read about one of those trials. There was a miner on trial for negligence. You tried him after the mob got to him and he was found innocent after all witnesses had been examined. It had been a mechanical failure due to unusually high humidity.”

Jayd blinked, and as Harry’s artificial gravity came on line, she unclasped her harness. “You did your homework.”

“I needed to know what kind of judge I was getting as a partner. You are fair and you do not flinch when the judgement is unpopular. This means that you often rub people the wrong way but you are an excellent judge.”

She chuckled. “What brings you out as executioner? It is not a post that many normal folks line up for.”

“Sometimes the best thing for an individual, or a society, is to have the violent offenders removed quickly and mercifully. Of course, sometimes a slow and painful death would be preferable but that is not in my contract, unfortunately.”

Jayd could see instances where he had performed his duty for the quick death and where he had wished that he could use a little more time. He killed with his hands, shorting out the neural synapses and dropping the guilty to the floor.

To be polite, she asked, “What is your technique?”

“Neural shock. It works on all species and is highly effective at ending lives quickly.”

“Why didn’t you opt into the Guardian project?”

“My world didn’t have a Guardian base. It was executioner training or joining the family law firm.”

Jayd laughed at the options. “That is quite the disparity in choice.”

“Well, I was afraid that I would short out the opposing council, so execution and security became my focus. I trained at the imperial court.”

He was telling her things that she could find out by checking his files, but it was nice that he was willing to share.

Truanic unbuckled and checked their projected path as if by old habit.

Jayd asked, “You firmly in control, Harry?”

“As always, Judge. I will sound the jump signal a minute before I shift you.”

“Thanks, Harry.”

Jayd got up and headed to the galley. She called out, “Come with me if you want a more detailed tour.”

She heard him move and felt him looming behind her. “You have seen the crew quarters, but here is the galley and the lounge.”

It was strange, but she could swear that she was able to smell the heat from his body. Jayd felt a blush creep up her cheeks and kept herself facing forward. The images of her backside were in his mind and very hard to ignore.