Chains of Redemption Page 6

  "What are you going to do with it?" he asked.

  "Find out what I need to know," she answered vaguely, and shut up and leave me alone was implied.

  That was it; whatever her plan was he wasn't to be part of it. She had hidden the fact that she had the equipment in the first place, and now she wasn't going to tell him why she had it. She was leaving him out of the loop, because she didn't trust him to be able to mask his feelings under questioning. Though part of him knew he was safer if he didn't know, it still hurt that she didn't trust him after all this time.

  Right had become accustomed to constant pain these last few horrible years as the worms made a meal of his leg. He could feel every move they made as they squirmed their way around his body. It was an indescribable pain, and one he had to deal with alone.

  He wasn't allowed to converse with, or even have light contact with, the Argy they shared the planet with, because Jessica felt his Argy wasn't good enough to pass for a local, and his emotions were too easily read. So he had no external outlet. Jessica's answer to his pain was to offer to put him out of his misery on a regular basis. She said she'd changed, and she had. He'd watched, in fact he'd had a front row seat as Jessica Kirk had slowly gone completely and totally insane. There were moments of clarity, but there were no truly sane moments with her any more.

  She believed that she had developed a conscience that she didn't formerly have. Truly believed that she had gained enlightenment. Life on Pete had been her personal hell. A way of clearing away the demons of the evil she had committed in the name of the Reliance.

  Right certainly felt as if he'd paid, and paid, and paid.

  Jessica hadn't been through the crap he'd been through. Her perfect body hadn't been invaded by parasites. But she was still sure she'd done enough time in hell. She'd been punished, and now she wanted . . . what, exactly?

  Where could they go? Where besides this hateful planet could they hide? They had come here in the first place because they'd been completely out of options.

  He knew then why Jessica had stolen the equipment. Jessica was going to start looking for options.

  Jessica had all but given up on the pile of electronic crap. At one point she was sure that she would never to be able to boost it enough to get the range she needed, much less hack into Reliance communications. About the time she was ready to throw it back into the shit from whence it had come, she found that one missing piece that had eluded her. Within hours she had managed to hack into just the right Reliance data port.

  She smiled triumphantly. The idiots hadn't even bothered to change the codes since she'd defected. Of course, they didn't actually expect people to be able to store streams of code in their heads.

  RJ was still missing and the Reliance was still claiming to have killed her and her entire crew. No mention was made of her jump out of hyperspace. She found no data to indicate that any ship had entered Reliance or Argy space from 'the frontier.' Certainly there was no data to indicate that RJ's ship had surfaced anywhere in charted space. No unauthorized landings, no audio contact, nothing. For all intents and purposes RJ was gone.

  The New Alliance had apparently absorbed a bunch of Beta 4 humanoids that the Reliance had tried to build into an army to fight the New Alliance. The delightful irony of the news almost made Jessica laugh. The New Alliance had also absorbed the entire planet of Beta 4 and its orbiting satellite Pam Station into their growing empire.

  David Grant had apparently stayed on Beta 4, no doubt to act as an ambassador for the New Alliance on the newly acquired planet.

  Pam Station had been the last place that RJ had been 'alive'. As such, Jessica badly needed to hack into the system there. It turned out to be harder to breach this system than it had been to get into the Reliance military mainframe because of some New Alliance system code named MARGE—Jessica was still trying to figure out what the letters stood for—which kept putting up blocks. It wasn't until she tried a completely different approach—actually with the help of Argy technology—that she was able to get through at all. When she did, she finally had the information she most needed.

  Jessica had expected RJ to be accompanied by Poley, but she'd known very little about the man named Levits and even less about the man they called Topaz. Kirsty, the spy who had infiltrated the new Alliance and handed Alsterase to Jessica on a silver platter, had known very little about them, because RJ had never actually trusted the girl.

  Jessica took awhile to digest that thought.

  If RJ had given in to her instincts and killed Kirsty on sight, things would have played out in a totally different way. The variables boggled even Kirk's mind. It was, of course, all immaterial. Grant had bought the girl's act, had bargained for her life, and from that point on all their fates were sealed for better or worse.

  But RJ hadn't trusted Kirsty, so she'd hidden things from her. Kept her away from the "Inner Circle" as much as possible, and therefore limited her contact with Levits and the mysterious Topaz. She'd been able to pull up Levits' service record, which was one of the reasons Jessica was surprised to learn that he'd gone with RJ into space. She hadn't been able to pull up any record on anyone named Topaz fitting his description in any Reliance system. As far as the Reliance was concerned he didn't exist, which wasn't at all surprising for a resident of Alsterase.

  Even Jessica couldn't have guessed at the truth. As she read the log of one Lieutenant Stratton, she learned not only why Levits had put aside his fear to follow RJ, but also just why Topaz had no record. She wasn't sure that she believed all that she read concerning him, but it was obvious that Lieutenant Stratton did. Jessica found Stratton's telling of her brief but mutually beneficial meeting with RJ and her people enlightening on several counts.

  When she was done reading it, Jessica knew everything she needed to know about Levits and Topaz, and in fact everything she needed to know for the next stage of her plan.

  They were all the Reliance coins Jessica had left. She sat in the middle of the floor bending them over the links of the chain she had found in the mines. Right was watching her with a carefully curious expression on his face. Finally when he could stand it no longer he asked, "Jessica . . . What in hell's name are you doing now?"

  She looked up at him, pulling a look of doom over her face. "It's the chain I built in my life, link by link, and yard by yard I made it. See how cumbersome and heavy . . ."

  "What on earth are you going on about?"

  "Illiterate swine," Jessica mumbled and went on working on her task. "Millions of books spanning thousands of generations of humankind at your fingertips, and did you bother to read any of them? No."

  "I shouldn't have to remind you, but I don't read as quickly as you do." He sighed. "Surely I would have killed to have even a small portion of such reading material these last long years stuck in this pit with nothing to do but watch my flesh crawl and my worms grow. You have been barely communicative, and now . . . Even now when you are obviously working on something. Some plan. Even now you refuse to talk to me, to tell me what exactly it is that you're doing. It's been years since you've let me touch you, even when I have the strength, and now you're getting ready to do . . . something, and I'm not part of that plan, am I?"

  "Of course you're part of the plan, Right. A very important part of the plan," Jessica said with a smile. "I've just been a little preoccupied . . ."

  "Why are you building her chain, Jessica?" he asked in that special voice one used to talk to very small children and crazy people, especially when they were doing something particularly disturbing.

  "Because she doesn't need it anymore, but they still need her." Jessica finished bending the last coin around a link of chain. She held it up. "Isn't it pretty?"

  "Jess . . . That just doesn't make any sense," Right said sadly, no doubt sure that this time she'd gone irretrievably around the bend.

  "Sure it does, baby, it just doesn't make any sense to you. But it will. It's all about redemption. Don't you see? It's all about making w
hat's wrong, right, Right. Fixing what I helped to break." She put the chain down, got up off the floor and walked over to him. She took his hand, and he looked up at her, a little chill of excitement going through him that she felt and drank in. "You've been a very good companion to me, Right, a true friend. How do you feel?"

  "Ah . . . as well as can be expected . . . Why do you ask?"

  She smiled at him in that special way, and he didn't have to ask again. He just followed limpingly as she pulled him toward the bed.

  Jessica sighed, rose from the bed and picked her clothes up off the floor as she turned to look down on Right. He looked peaceful, as if asleep. Or at least he did after she bent down and closed his eyes.

  She didn't feel any guilt about killing him. He had been miserable here, and she couldn't have taken him with her even if she had wanted to. He had died happy, in the way that no few sickly Argy men had died, so no one was likely to ask any questions. They were having sex, she had an orgasm, and she accidentally killed him. Of course the truth was that she just didn't even try to control herself knowing that the end result—being all that she was—would mean that he died.

  His death closed one chapter in her life and opened a whole new one.

  After a few seconds of preparation, she was ready for the next task at hand. Carefully, she took down the plastic shower curtain and spread it on the floor in the middle of the room. Then she picked up Right's nude body, carried him over and laid him on top of it. Using the sharp knife she had laid to hand, she cut his guts open. Then she removed his stomach, intestines and a few other odds and ends, shoved all the stolen computer parts inside him and then carefully covered them with his organs. Some of the stuff had to be thrown away to make room, so she just chucked it down the waste hole knowing no one would notice it among the other shit. Quickly but carefully she sewed the wound shut, cleaned him from head to toe, and then duct taped his whole midsection—just to be on the safe side. Careful not to re-open the incision, she then moved him back to the bed and dressed him in his favorite shirt, leaving him unclothed from the waist down. Finally she picked up the shower curtain, cleaned it in the shower and hung it back up.

  She made herself cry, which wasn't too hard to do seeing as no matter how big a pain in the ass he had been he had still been the only friend she'd had. She had to work at feeling guilty, which wasn't very hard, either, considering all that she had done as a Reliance officer.

  Then she ran out onto her porch screaming into the night, "My husband is dead! My gods! I have killed my poor sick husband!"

  A group of villagers soon gathered to comfort her. Knowing well what had happened and how, no one further questioned her. Since everyone knew he had the worms, several of the men watched as she put on his pants and stuffed him into one of the bio-waste bags they had brought for that purpose. Then they helpfully gathered up Right's bagged carcass and carried it off towards the incinerator as Jessica followed in a herd of consoling women. One told her how she had killed her aged husband the same way only last spring. It happened sometimes, no one ever blamed anyone, she shouldn't blame herself, and he probably welcomed death anyway having the worms in him and all.

  He was loaded into the incinerator, it was set on high, and in mere moments Right, his worms, and the computer components he hid were history. Nothing but dust.

  She returned home to "mourn" on her own. When the others were clear of her abode she sat down and smiled. She wondered when would be a proper time to start the next phase of her plan. How long would she be expected to mourn for Right? She wanted off this filthy planet, but she couldn't afford to screw up, not now.

  She expected that taking into account the severity of Right's illness and how tiresome life with him obviously was that she wouldn't be expected to mourn more than a couple of weeks.

  For two weeks she moped around just shooting out vibes of grief and general guilt. It wasn't hard; there were many things in her life that had made her unhappy. Stewart's rejection of her seemed to be her favorite unpleasant memory. There were a multitude of things she felt very real guilt for, and all stemmed from being stupid enough to buy into the Reliance's propaganda. Which she could blame on her father because he hadn't trained her to think for herself the way he had RJ. He had in fact killed himself rather than choose her over her sister, which made her very unhappy, which fed her guilt, etcetera.

  Finally, she figured she had displayed all the grief necessary. After all, life was short, and life on Pete was shorter. A general "shit happens" type attitude seemed to prevail where all horrors were concerned on Pete. It was time for her to move forward to the next stage of her plan.

  He was watching her. She had noticed when she had finally opened her eye that he always watched her, and she could feel his lust. No doubt her flawless body more than made up for the eye she was missing.

  "Sorry to hear about your husband, One-eye," he said as he approached her close to the middle of the day. It was obvious that he wasn't in the slightest bit sorry.

  "Thanks," Jessica said in an absent tone.

  He laughed then. "I hear you bed killed him."

  That's what the Argy called it, bed killing. She supposed it was nicer than saying "fucked to death."

  She just nodded.

  "He was sickly and weak. You couldn't kill a healthy man," he said.

  Jessica looked up at him and gave him her very sexiest smile. "Now I wouldn't want to bet on that."

  The pig was now fully aroused. She didn't have to use her empathic powers to know it, he was pointing at her—and not with a finger. "I'd take that bet," he said.

  She purposely looked down at her feet and tried to feel coy, though she wasn't really sure what that was. "It's been a very long time since I've had a healthy man."

  "Take me to your place after work and I'll show you the best night of your life."

  She knew that was a boast he wouldn't be able to make good on.

  He was a filthy pig who wanted her to do disgusting things and who liked to get violent during sex, but if he noticed she didn't bruise or bleed he didn't say anything. He didn't seem to mind when he busted his knuckles on her stomach. She was good at pretending, and he was too stupid to figure out the implications.

  He got her so-called "cushy" jobs, as she pretended to enjoy a good beating and screwed his brains out. He was easy to play because he was just so damn stupid, and so sure that he was playing her.

  Jessica knew just exactly how to give a man exactly what he most desired. It was how she had controlled every man she'd ever slept with. It wasn't a week before she had this indecent slob jumping through hoops.

  He moved to slap her hard across the face and she grabbed his arm and easily twisted it behind his back. She forced him face down onto the bed.

  "What the . . ."

  "You know this is what you really want, Shlerb," she whispered in his ear. "To have someone who dominates you."

  He laughed, "And you think you can do it." He tried to get away and found that he couldn't. "All right, Jesut"—that was the Argy name she'd given herself when she arrived on Pete—"this isn't funny anymore."

  "Oh, isn't it?" She slammed the palm of her free hand into the small of his back hard enough to hurt, but not do damage and he struggled. "I'm having a hell of a good time."

  He struggled again, and she leaned more on the arm again, making it hurt, but not pulling it off, or even out of the socket as she could do without even breaking a sweat. Beneath her he quit struggling. "Don't . . . Don't hurt me," he pleaded, and she knew immediately what he really wanted. She slapped his ass with her free hand hard enough to leave a print and could see that his tiny little dick was pointing into the bed. "You think you're such a big, bad brute, but you aren't. You're just a nasty, dirty little boy who needs to be punished. Don't you think you deserve to be punished, Shlerb?"

  "Yes," he said in a small voice. "Yes, I do."

  And so she did.

  Shlerb was now her trained dog. He would have done anything for
her, and so she asked him for just exactly what she wanted.

  He lay in blissful pain in the middle of her bed.

  "Shlerb, I want you to get me inside the very next ship that lands."

  "I . . . I can't do that. I could lose my job."

  "They could give you a worse detail than Pete?" Jessica said, dismissing his fear.

  "Probably," he said, obviously not knowing. "Hey, let's play some more," he winked at her. "I've been really bad, I should be spanked."

  "There will be no more playing till you get me on that ship. I want a real bath and a real meal. I want to see something different, something clean. If you can't even do that for me, then what do I need you for? You told me you had connections."