…it began with the five leaving the eight as it was with many leaving the third.
Tags: Ancient WhispersRelated posts
Ancient Whispers, Fiction, The Bleeding Rose
April 26th 2010
“YARR! SURRENDER YE BOOTY OR I WILL SLAY THEE!”
“How was that Aunt Leainati?” Breanne asked.
Leainati laughed out loud, “That was very good. We will make a pirate out of you yet, but you need to sit down and finish your lessons first.”
Frowning, Breanne too off her pirate hat and eye patch. Slowly, dragging her feet, she walked back to her chair, sat down and took up her data pad. Witihin minutes, she was hard at work on her lessons again. Life had settled down for her. She had a caring aunt, her mother Neresa was close by and “Uncle Twig” as he had become known, was ever true to his promise.
“I will come back my little acorn.”
***
On the other side of the Essence region, Ga’len was sitting quiet in space. Well, sitting was not really accurate. He was of course suspended in his pod and his pod was in his ship. So, Ga’len was willing his ship to hold position while cloaked. He had been waiting many hours for something to happen. Finally, his comms system sprang to life. In his mind, he could hear Neresa’s message.
“Hound 12, Cat 14, package alone, three-seven wrapped and departing.”
It happened. The message Ga’len had been waiting for had arrived. Transport three-seven would undock any moment now and would begin it’s journey towards the outgoing stargate on autopilot, just as Neresa had programmed. The package would never make it to the stargate. The package was unaware of it’s fate. The package, Taren, would receive her justice for what she had done.
Just as Ga’len had finished his thought, transport three-seven undocked. He willed his Vagabond to move towards the ship and uncloak. A few seconds later, his targeting systems did their job, locked the target and the warp scrambling module was willed to life. It would only be a few moments before the sentry guns from the station would identify his threatening actions and fire upon his ship, but a few moments was all he would need.
Again, Ga’len’s comms sprang to life, “ATTENTION HOSTILE VESSEL, CEASE FIRE OR YOU WILL BE DESTROYED!”
Hid mind commanded his guns to open fire on the transport, “Not before Taren dies“, he thought.
As Ga’len’s Vagabond received blow after blow from the sentry guns, he continued to fire on the transport. He willed his comms to listen in on the local transport vessels signal. He could hear his heart sing as he listened to the sole person about the ship, Taren was terrified.
“HELP! SOMEONE! THERE IS NO ONE HERE! STOP THAT PIRATE!” she screamed into the comms systems. A moment later, there was some static and then silence as the hull of the transport ship simply evaporated away.
Ga’len began his evasive maneuvers, willed his ship into warp towards a planet. He would then warp to a point in space and cloak up for a few more hours. He turned his mind to his scanner and examined the debris behind him as he warped away, a single corpse was floating in the cold of space. So cold and alone in the void. Such is the way of revenge.
His comms obeyed his mind and opened a secure channel.
“Cat 14, Hound 12. Package confirmed eliminated, quietly exiting when able, out.”
***
Karled was struggling to get free. Neresa had done a good job of securing him in the chair with the sheets from his bed. There would no escape for him this time. He strained and strained and then he stopped. He saw the security officers come in through the open door.
“So, you are Karled,” one of the officers spoke. She seemed to be in a very bad mood, “I hear that you tried to kill your wife and you ran away with the child.”
“I WAS FRAMED!” Karled yelled and be began to struggle again.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before, take him, he will be dealt with.”
Neresa remained hidden in the hallway, all she could hear was his screams. Her delight was interrupted when her data pad signaled in incoming message. She read the words from Ga’len and again, she was filled with delight.
***
She was curled up in her bed, fast asleep. From her breathing, Ga’len could tell that she was in that cuddly warm kind of sleep that only a child knows. On the floor beside her bed he could see the pirate hat and eye patch he had given her. He smiled. Neresa came up behind him silently and joined him looking through the door.
“She’s a wonderful girl Neresa, you should be very proud” Ga’len whispered softly.
Neresa smiled as she continued to watch Breanne sleep, “Yes, she is.”
From behind them a quite “Aww!” reaches their ears. Leaniati quietly walks up, “This is such a site. The three of us watching our little piraty acorn sleeping.”
Breanne slowly opens her eyes. She looks up at the three people standing in the doorway and with a voice heavy with sleep says, “Heeelllloooo.” Sleeps takes her back into a warm slumber.
Leaniti askes, “So, now that Karled and Taren are ‘settled’, where do we go from here?”
“Well”, Ga’len continues, “to the lounge for a drink.”
“No, I mean after that. What do we do with out lives?”
Neresa looks at them and simply says, “Live our lives, one day at a time. We do what brings us happiness and we have fun doing it.”
The three of them noded to each other, turn and walk towards the lounge.
Tags: Breanne, Ga'len, Karled, Leainati, Neresa, Taren, The Bleeding Rose, VagabondRelated posts
Fiction, The Bleeding Rose
April 21st 2010
For weeks, life on the station took on a simple routine. Get up in the morning, help out in the HellFleet mess hall, see the various capsuleer pilots off as they headed out from the station, welcome them home when they returned, eat a good meal with them and revel in their achievements.
Everything was fine with this routine save one particular issue, Hellfleet were pirates. Would living among pirates be safe was the question that haunted him but not for the obvious reasons.
Karled had a secret to keep and every day being here led him closer to his treachery catching up with him.
He was filled with the dread of the unknown to so many questions. How safe would his secret be and for how long? How much time would they have before she showed her face in the station? Would Taren understand that he had lied to her all this time?
He would know soon enough as his eyes realized his greatest fears. She was standing there in the mess hall.
The brand new Hellfleet emblem was clear as day upon her uniform. She had arrived in such an unlikely perceived probability that always seems to catch those guilty of such treacherous acts. Karled stood there, shocked and frozen in fear.
Neresa was shocked as well. She was shocked at Ga’len’s message last month. Neresa had figured that Ga’len was in for the long haul with Ushra’Khan, but the news about the reclaiming of 9UY4-H changed many things across New Eden. It would seem that such events had led to this fortunate reunion.
Karled could tell easily from looking at Neresa that she was close to state of uncontrolable rage. The fierceness in her eyes and the way her arms from her shoulders to her fists were rigid told the story of her anger. Her rage was swelling in her chest as she so spoke loudly that all in the mess hall could hear.
“Hello Karled. I see that you and that tramp are still together,” she eyed him with such intensity that you could see a hole being burned right through him. Neresa continued, “What, you don’t recognize your wife? You know, the woman you loved for years, who bore your child and has spent the last 5 years looking for you? At least you have taken care of our daughter…oh wait, you let those Amarr bastards have at her!”
Taren looked up from her plate in shock and fear. She now knew as Karled did that they would not escape from their past. All questions would soon be answered, everything was to become clear and there would be a reckoning for their crimes.
Breanne was sitting on Ga’len’s lap. She looked at his face and then at Neresa, speaking slowly, “She’s not a tramp! You are not my mommy, she is and she loves me!”
Her small hand pointed to Taren. Taren looked at Breanne with fear in her eyes as she spoke, “You are,” Taren’s mind was trying to piece this all together, “are, alive? We killed you! Neresa, you can’t be alive! Karled, we need to get out of here!”
Neresa shouted, “DON’T MOVE YOU BITCH! YOU STOLE MY HUSBAND AND MY DAUGHTER, YOU WILL PAY!”
Again, silence filled the mess hall as everyone was waiting for someone to make a move.
Ga’len’s voice broke through the quiet like a knife through a thick fog, “So Neresa, you received my message and joined our ranks. Welcome my old friend, but please, don’t spill any blood yet.”
All eyes turned toward Ga’len as he continued to speak, “Yup, it’s all my fault Karled. You see, I have a habit of being informed. You think I would let anyone about my ship without knowing about them? Funny thing, I was not actively looking, but the medical bays on the D-GTMI Outpost did a good job of checking out you, Taren and Breanne. DNA scans were part of the check my friend. It’s too bad for you that Neresa had some DNA data for a jump clone in that station, otherwise your secret would have remained hidden.”
Ga’len slowly looked down into Breanne’s face and spoke softly, “My little acorn, I am so sorry. My friend Neresa is telling you the truth. She is your REAL mother. Taren may have loved you, but she is not your blood.”
Breanne began to cry uncontrollably.
Ga’len held Breanne close and spoke with his ‘fathering voice’ as they all had become to call it, “Breanne, Karled is your father and Neresa is your mother. Taren and Karled took you away from her a long time ago.”
Breanne looked up at Ga’len’s face, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her lips were quivering and she tried to speak with a choked voice as she pointed to Neresa, “She’s….my…mommy?”
“Yes my little acorn, ” Ga’len said in a continued calming voice, “Neresa is your mommy and she’s here to take care of you.”
“Will she take me away?” Breanne asked, tears still flowing, “Like Taren and Karled did? Will the Amarr get me again?”
Neresa came to sit next to Ga’len. She reached for Breanne and they embraced each other. “No baby, I am not taking you away, I am here to stay. You, me, Aunt Leainati and Uncle Twig will be your family now.”
Ga’len rose from his seat and stared at Karled, “I don’t know what went on between you and Neresa, but I won’t let this stand. For the sake of your daughter I will not kill you. You two will leave here right now and never return. Breanne will tell you when she wants to see you. Until that time, I suggest you be elsewhere….now.”
Continued…
More of The Bleeding Rose
Related posts
Fiction, The Bleeding Rose
March 31st 2010
Darkness was all around except for a single bright spotlight high above. The small room smelled of blood and sweat, it pervaded every pore of his being. Again and again, this place has seen such horrors.
“PLEASE STOP! PLEASE! I WILL SUBMIT!”
The man was in agony and the slaver loved it. He loved it so much, his soul was burning with passion. He wanted this man, he wanted him so very bad. “Such desire,” though the slaver, “I must punish this man for making me want him.”
Whoosh, crack, SMACK, “AAAHHHH!”, whoosh, crack, SMACK, “PLEASE!!”, it was a horrible rhythm repeated again and again and again…
“YOU BASTARD! YOU MAKE ME WANT YOU! FEEL THE STING OF SIN!” the slaver yelled at his poor victim.
“PPPPLLLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEE!”
***
Karled woke with his own hands choking his throat. He was covered in sweat and gasping for air.” Damn, another nightmare,” his thoughts cursed him, “did I wake them?”
He realized that he was choking himself to keep quite and quickly removed his hands. His gasps for air subsided, he was able to compose himself and looked around quickly, watching the slow rise and fall of the two others who were with him under the blankets.
The bed was a simple shelf in the cargo hold and yet it was a luxury to be cherished. It wasn’t on the floor, among the filth and rats. It wasn’t a dark hole, stinking of sweat and death in the bowels of some station deep in CVA space. A simple shelf with a blanket may not sound like much, but what lay beside him in this bed was the greatest thing he could have hoped for. His family, alive and reunited after many years.
These past few weeks had been the most eventful of Karled’s life. He had found his wife when a station in Z-R had been liberated by -A- and their allies. It was a miracle that he had prayed for and his prayers had been answered.
Miracles it would seem, would become something more present in his life. That drunken pilot, Xious, was a miracle, or mainly the story he told over many rounds at the liberation party in Unity Station. The story of how one of the Warriors of the Ushra’Khan, an “improbable Ammarian” as it was put, had taken in a small child slave that was recently freed. This Ammarian and his half sister were looking after her. Another miracle in finding this Ammarian, the miracle of his assistance in rejoining with his beloved Taren and the speed in which they were brought to D-GTMI station, where the greatest miracle of his life was before him. Breanne was alive and for the most part, unharmed.
Yes, the shelf was not a real bed, but being together with family again was the one thing that melted all these past years away.
“Finally,” Karled thought to himself, “we are a family again. What do we do now?”
Breanne began to stir, her eyes slowly opened, small slits slowly crept apart, revealing very sleepy eyes. She was all tucked in under the blanket with sleepy warmth radiating from underneath. She yawned as she began to speak, “AArree we there yet?”
“Not yet but we should be docking soon,” he continued, “want to come with me and get mommy breakfast?”
Breanne yawned again and tried to sit up, but the blanket had other ideas and continued it valiant struggle to pull her back into a deep sleep. The blanket won this round and she drifted back into serene slumber.
Karled smiled and silently extracted himself from the the warmth of the bed. He had to bit his lip and his foot touched the deck, it was keeping true to a morning’s chill. He could not sleep anymore, his dreams were simply too horrific. “When will this be over?”
Karled’s stomach decided to change the topic of this mental conversation and remind him of it’s emptiness. “Okay, okay, breakfast first then,” he muttered to himself.
***
Leainati was working in small galley of the ship. Small was a kind work. These Vagabond heavy assault cruisers were built for battle, not as a tourist cruise ship. She had barely enough room to prepare food before the heat was too much. As she left the tiny room, she say down on an old crate that her brother, Ga’len, had left secured to the floor. She didn’t wonder why this crate was here, just outside the entrance anymore. Sure, it was blocking the hallway, but you needed someplace to take a rest. Many things her brother did seemed to not make any sense, not until as he put it, “time and knowledge finally decide to sit down and have a little chat.”
Karled could be heard coming down the corridor, “Ahh, so you are finally awake. I trust the little one is sleeping well?” Leainati spoke cheerfully.
“Yes, she’s sleeping well, ” Karled spoke while rubbing the back of his neck. His face was still wearing lines of a restless night.
“Still having the nightmares are we?” Leainati asked as she handed him a plate of food.
Karled took the plate of food, “Thank you. Yeah, it’s funny, ” he continued, “I thought that things would go back to the way they were once I found Breanne and Taren. I thought we would have our lives back. I guess I didn’t ever think it would really happen. Now that it has, I just, I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”
Leainati placed a hand on Karled’s shoulder, “It took me a while to become comfortable with not looking over my shoulder every five minutes. I must admit, I still struggle with the nightmares, the memories of the torture at the hands of some Amarrian pig.”
“Does it ever end? Do the memories stop haunting you?” Karled asked with hope in his eyes.
“No, ” Leainati said, looking down at the floor, “the memories will never go away, you just get used to them being there,” She looked up at Karled’s face, “The important thing is to let them be memories and nothing more. Don’t let them control your thoughts and actions. Not all Amarrians are bad people and not all Minmatar are victims of the slavers.”
Karled took a bite of food and tried to smile as he chewed, “I know, I know. Your ‘half-brother’ Ga’len, he’s not like any Amarrian I have ever met. I hope people are as kind as the two of you have been.”
Leainati smiled and chuckled, “You had better stop flirting with me. I’ll have to kick your butt.”
SMACK!
Karled’s eyes were wide open. Behind was his daughter, Breanne. She was grinning from ear to ear as she pulled her hand back to smack her father on the butt again.
“DAD! Why are you flirting with Aunt Leainaaaatiiii?” Her voice struggling past another yawn.
“Yeah dad, want to explain why you are flirting with this….woman?” Taren asked, winking at Leainati.
“Uh, uhm…I was…,” Karled’s mouth opened and closed but he simply could not form words. Taren moved forward and hugged her husband.
“You are so easy to torment sometimes,” Taren chuckled as she spoke, “Come on, let’s leave Leainati alone and get packed. Ga’len signaled me on my data pad, we will be docking soon.”
Continued…
Tags: Breanne, D-GTMI, Ga'len, HellFleet Alliance, Hellhounds, Karled, Leainati, Taren, Unity Station, Ushra'khanRelated posts
Fiction, The Bleeding Rose
March 17th 2010
It was quite a party. The hanger deck was littered with empty bottles of alcohol, passed out Warriors of the Ushra’Khan and -A-. Xious could be seen staggering about with the assistance of quite a few ‘Ladies of Love’. He was smiling in a drunken stupor, singing some ancient song about a drunk Scotsman and a blue ribbon left by some admirers.
It was a glorious mess and it had been a long time coming. Unity Station had been freed after years of fighting. Now came the push further into Providence. CVA had been defeated again and again. They would continue to push deeper into their space.
CVA will fall. The death blow had been delivered, the rest of the body did not know it yet.
Ga’len stood, as best as the many spirits he had consumed would allow him. It was a hard fight, but he was finally aboard Unity Station.
“So,” Ga’len began to speak to a recently freed slave, “What do you plan to do now?”
“Well, the man over there,” the freed slave spoke while gesturing towards Xious and his gaggle of love,” he said, or rather slurred heavily, that I should speak with you.”
“Oh, what about?” Ga’len was looking at this man’s very intense look on his face.
“Well,” continued the man,” I think you may know about my daughter.”
***
Moments later…
“Whoa. I must have had to drink than I thought,” Ga’len said slowly. He was lying on the floor of the hanger, looking up at this man, “I thought you just said something about your daughter.”
“I did, but, uhm, perhaps you should let me explain,” continued the man as he extends his hand down to Ga’len, “I am Karled. Xious tells me that you have been taking care of a young girl that may be my daughter.”
Karled shows Ga’len a photograph of a younger Breanne. “Please, have you seen her?”
Ga’len graciously takes Karled’s hand and is helped to his feet. “Good sir, yes, my sister and I have been taking care of her. I will take you to her at once.”
Karled exclaimed, “Oh thank the Gods!”
Ga’len and Karled made it quickly across the hanger decks to Ga’len’s Vagabond, An Bealach an Vaga. After securing Karled in the rarely used passengers section, Ga’len got into his pod, his “Jovian Spud” as he sometimes called it and engaged the loading mechanism.
Undocking from Unity Station in 9UY4-H was fast and simple, not a single slaver in sight. As Ga’len willed his ship into motion, he willed the internal ship comms into life and brought Karled up to speed on the event leading to the discovery of his missing daughter.
“I can’t thank you enough. My wife is in Z-RFE3, looking for Breanne at the station there,” continued Karled, “Is it possible to send her word as to where we are going?”
“The panel in front of you should be active now,” Ga’len spoke from his mind’s voice over the internal comms, “Let her know that we will be arriving at the station in 15 minutes. Breanne is with my sister at the station in D-GTMI. I will be happy to take you both there .”
Ten minutes later, Ga’len jumped into a gate camp. Several tackler ships and a few battle cruisers to provide the damage dealing needed to destroy a target.
“Sod it,” Ga’len mutters in his mind. He aligns to a planet and engages his micro warp drive. The local comms channels come alive as Ga’len yells in his mind, “SLAVERS REPENT! LEAVE NOW AND YOU SHALL LIVE!”
The panel in front of Karled displays the visuals outside the ship. He chuckles to himself as the entire Slyph gate camp simply flees into random directions away from the gate.
“So,” Karled speaks slowly, “They flee before a single ship?”
Ga’len chuckles in his mind as he engages the internal comms, “The slavers who held this space know that they are defeated. It’s time for them to protect what they have left, tuck tail and run. We shall be in Z-R soon, I am alerting my sister, Leainati, that we will be arriving in D-GTMI later today.”
A few minutes later, Ga’len had his vagabond docked in station safely. Karled and Ga’len made their way from the hanger decks where they happened upon a very petite woman. She had to be Breanne’s mother. It was her eyes, they were so blue. She was trembling and it had been obvious that she had been crying recently. She tried to speak, but her voice failed her.
“Ma’am, I am Ga’len. Breanne is safe, she’s with my sister in D-GTMI. If you come this way, we will head there immediately.”
She said nothing, just smiled broadly as we turned back towards the hanger.
“Ga’len,” Karled spoke, “This is my wife Taren.” Taren nodded as they quickly walked toward the hanger.
“Don’t you worry,” Ga’len said quickly, “We will be there soon. My sister Leainati is expecting us. If I know her, she’s already alerted our fellow warriors to help secure our route, we should get there within the hour.”
“Is she….how is….,” Taren’s voice was very shaky, she could barely speak.
“She is safe and unharmed, ” Ga’len assured Taren, “She’s a beautiful child. Yes, she has all her fingers and toes and none the worse for wear so to speak. She does think that you two were killed when you were taken away, but that will all be over very soon. Let’s get you two aboard and get going.”
***
The trip to D-GTMI was fast and fortunately, without incident. Many Warriors of the Ushra’Khan who were in systems they had to travel through were actively providing intel on enemy movements. Before Ga’len realized it, they were on final approach to the station in D-GTMI.
Docking was quick as everyone had been alerted by Leainati that Ga’len had VIP passengers for D-GTMI station. She told everyone who the passengers were, but to keep things quiet around Breanne.
They were greeted by Leainati on the hanger deck, she spoke warmly as Karled and Taren were climbing down the embarkation ramp, “Breanne does not know you are here, I wanted to keep this a surprise. She’s on her way to the hanger as the thinks that ‘Uncle Twig’ is here for a quick visit.”
Karled and Taren looked at each other and then towards Ga’len with a shared questioning look between them.
“Well, she took to me. She’s a wonderful child, ” Ga’len smiled as he spoke, “everyone in Ushra’Khan has become her family these past few weeks.”
As they approached the corridor doors, they parted and out came running Breanne. She looked at Ga’len and then stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes wide, she stood with her jaw agape.
Ga’len walked over to Breanne and knelt down on one knee and spoke, “My little acorn, look who I found.”
Breanne’s eyes filled with tears as she slowly began to walk. Taren fell to her knees and she started to cry uncontrollably as Breanne started to run towards them. They all knelt there on the floor, hugging each other and crying.
Leainati walked over to her brother as he stood up, “How in the world did you find them?”
Ga’len shrugged, “He found me, said he heard from Xious that we were taking care of a little girl. He showed me a photograph of Breanne and I thought it would be best to get back here as soon as possible.”
They all gathered back together near the corridor door. Taren had regained some of her composure, walked up to Ga’len and gently slapped him across the face.
Ga’len was slightly stunned and glared at her as she spoke, “I hate all of you Amarrian bastards. Your people took us away from our daughter but you are not like your people are you? You take that slap to your face and you return it to them ten fold.”
“No, I am not,” Ga’len continued, “I hated how my family kept and abused slaves. It’s why I left that place. Don’t you worry, that slap has been delivered to them time and time again.”
Karled spoke, “And now -A- and Ushra’Khan are freeing Providence from that slaver oppresion.”
“Yes, they have,” Ga’len agreed, “We came for our people and now, my work here is done.”
Ga’len smiled as Leainati looked at him, “I joined Ushra’Khan with the hope of helping them return to their home at Unity Station. I joined them to help re-light the fires of hope, to light the beacons of truth. That part of my work is finished now.”
“So, with the slavers in Providence all but completely dead,” Leainati asks, “What will you do now?”
“I shall return to that which I know best,” Ga’len replied, “I shall go back to being the rogue who wandered. That was my home, it’s time I returned.”
Breanne looked up at Ga’len as he slowly knelt down to the ground, “My little acorn, oh my child, I must leave. It is time for me to go. Don’t you worry, my friends in Hellfleet are expecting me.”
Karled spoke, “Well, we can’t stay here. It’s still not that safe for us. May we come with you? We will find a way to pay you.”
Breanne threw her arms around Ga’len’s neck and hugged him, “Please take us with you!”
“If you wish, I will take you all with me,” Ga’len assured them, “but you need not worry about money. Loving hugs are the best currency. I must head back to Unity Station to say by goodbyes.
***
Back at Unity Station, the meeting hall was almost empty as Ga’len walked through the door. He was wearing his old clothes and was carrying a satchel with his Ushra’Khan uniform.
There was no one from leadership there as he had hoped. They were all called away for another battle. There was a note left for him however. It read simply, “We will miss you, Ga’len, take care. Keep the uniform, you may be back one day as the Ushra’Khan bug is not easily ‘cured’. We would have been here to say goodbye, but we had to go…for our people.”
Ga’len smiled as he looked out the window. He saw the massive fleet warp away to battle. They would free Providence of the slavers, that was to be sure.
For him, it was time to head back to D-GTMI, collect his “family” and head to his new home in low security space. The time for piracy had returned.
Tags: -A-, 9UY4-H, D-GTMI, Piracy, ProviWar, Slyph, Unity Station, Ushra'khanRelated posts
A Blade of Truth, Fiction, The Bleeding Rose
March 1st 2010
