The Wild Ba’Neesh Chapter Thirteen ©2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

“Miss me?” Brad’s voice boomed at them again. He arrived dragging several carts loaded with various devices. “That back shot blew me around. I have dents.” He pointed one of his massive metal hands at an indentation on his side. He seemed pretty pleased with it. “Your seals holding up, Elias?”

“Yeah, so far Brad.” Elias nodded.

“What’s all that stuff?” Mick asked.

“Well, I had a thought about plugging the tunnel on this side, at least temporarily. I brought some isocyanates and polyol and amine catalyzers and a secret component.”

“English, Brad.” Elias interrupted.

“Oh, right. When you mix them together in the right proportions you get a foam that expands up to a thousand times its size. Biodegradable too, with some help. But, it hardens fast and will give Mael a surface. He’s back there recovering now. We have to slow down the Tule Soc assault.”

“Can’t their mechs cut through that stuff?” Mick wasn’t sure plugging one end of the tunnel while the other was in ruins was the best option for escape. But, there were too many bugs and likely more to come. A choice between what?

“Sure, but it takes time and what you remove has to go somewhere. It’s like tunnel digging, the removed dirt has to be taken away. It’s a logistical problem. I like logistics. Anyway, I’m heading in there to give Mael a surface to play with. Then we will do a second plug over what Mael does. That should buy some time. Besides, he’s been wanting to test this out for awhile. Brought this crap all the way from the Citadel thinking he might get an opportunity.”

“Go!” Elias interrupted Brad’s obvious desire to continue talking.

“Oh, right. Bad pirate. Must go plug hole. Be back shortly.”

“I get the plug thing but what is all the surface thing about?” Mick turned on Elias.

“Ask Mael.” Elias shrugged, he could guess and as easily be right as wrong. He wanted some time to use the head, grab some food and water and generally take a break. “I’m taking a few minutes. Stay alert, there are likely bugs and rats in the rubble waiting to come out. Remember that there’s an operator somewhere trying to sneak up on us. You have the Pirate’s back, at least as far as you can see him and likely he will be providing light. Stay alert.” Elias pulled up on the trapdoor latch and headed down. Neither he nor Mick really noticed that they were operating like a team. Kirsan and Jordy noticed, both of them sensed something else happening here.

“Let’s take this gap to retrieve everything we can and get a good look at the position of the floater, start strategizing possible end points to this encounter.” Kirsan spoke quietly to Jordy. Both of them were watchful of Mael, Xasper and Anya, huddling in a far corner speaking behind a privacy screen. Secrets. There shouldn’t be secrets in a Command ship, but there were.

The Ba’Neesh were reclined on the floor, filling a whole side of the floater making it impassable. Clearly they were guarding the privacy of the Turtle. They had a peculiar relationship with Mael, one that grew stronger as the years passed. It worried Kirsan, the entire evolutionary issue that Mael represented worried him.

“I think Elias is behaving slightly off.” Jordy said. “Not by much. It is clear there is duress, and yet, he is also aligning with Mick. I can’t see where it connects.”

“We can guess it connects with the source of the blue light.” Kirsan answered grimly. He had thought that source was too weakened after the transport attack to attack again. He still couldn’t wrap his mind around the sound the Channels had made, nor the Ba’Neesh’s strange reaction. They obviously knew something. Would they tell, even to the Turtle? He was DireSec’s best chance. If they spoke to anyone, it would be to Mael.

They heard the occasional sound of laser fire and a few explosions and each time they did, heads went up and the sense of another approaching battle teased everyone.

“You know the kid is pretty good with weapons.” Jordy acknowledged. Truthfully, he was jealous of the situation, the opportunity to engage in a real life firefight was almost like a fantasy to him. It wasn’t how modern battles were waged. In a sense it was old school from the era before the Resolution between Nations. War abatement, at least on the surface.

There were still situations but no one called them battles, much less wars even though people still died. Humanity was supposed to be beyond outright war even though animosities remained. Security. Everyone lived with heightened security. Jordy often thought it was an uneasy peace, one forced upon a species not well suited to peace. He had never been able to clearly understand how the Soek and Ba’Neesh fit into what was really humanities picture, in a planetary way. He could imagine the complexity of the politics involved trying to explain this current mess to the local nation-state, thankfully not his job. This particular area was friendly to neither the Directorate nor Tule Soc having once been a fairly conservative place, before the forced peace.

His job, he reminded himself, was to strategize exit plans. How to retrieve the floater, the boy and whatever the source of the blue light was and bring them all secretly into DireSec custody.

Mick was busy watching Brad manually mixing the contents of several large drums. The exo had excellent vid and the light was back, Mick couldn’t tell who was making it and although it interested him, watching out for creepie crawlies around Brad was far more serious. Likely, he thought, every Soek but him could easily make light. The Pirate was a friendly. Mick didn’t question his gut. The improved light made it easy to watch for attack. Getting Brad back closer to the floater became Mick’s primary concern. He saw other bio-suited men on Elias’ side of the tunnel but they were skirting the floater, giving it a wide berth. He could imagine the memory of the blue light was scary enough to keep them back. He could smell Elias eating and that made him hungry too, but he would wait till Brad pulled back a safe distance.

When the reaction started it was fast and Brad hustled backward to avoid getting caught in the foam. It quickly filled the tunnel sideways and then expanded along the tunnel’s length before finally stopping.

“How thick do you think it is?” Mick called out to Brad.

“Twenty-eight and a third feet.” Brad answered with proprietary precision.

Mick blinked and then remembered Elias’ words. “You really are a Math teacher, aren’t you?”

“Absolutely!” Brad had reached the area of the floater. He automatically turned on his scanners to re-check the floater’s hull. There were no new signs of web growth. “Any seal degradation in there, Mick?”

Mick flipped through the various screens Elias had on fast flow. One had charts and figures and a detailed diagram of the floater. “Which metric is the right one?” He asked.

“It’s labeled Primary Seals. Lower right. There is an overall and any leaking seals will be featured at the top in red. Do you see it?” Brad said calmly.

“Got it. There are five yellows. I don’t know if there were five before or if they are new.” Mick said.

“Read them out, I’ll check on the outside.”

Together they examined the five yellow seals and Brad sprayed a fast-curing sealer on each of them. “I think they were damaged earlier.” Brad announced. “I have a super close scanner that goes down to molecular levels and the penetration doesn’t appear to be continuing.”

Elias was standing behind Mick, watching silently. The sensors had been a wobbly yellow earlier. When the repair was complete the seals returned to green. “Looks fine now Brad. We’ll watch it.” Elias said.

“Good. I hear Mael and Xasper are on their way. I’m going to keep the light on so that means I’ll stay here. Is that all right?”

Mick wondered what the man would say if told to go. Would DireSec really give them that courtesy or was it an illusion of courtesy? He couldn’t tell. He did know he didn’t want Brad to go. Somehow with the Pirate there he felt safer, which was ridiculous, all of these guys were DireSec, his enemy. Still, for the moment they were temporary allies. Sleight of hand, he thought, nothing was quite what it might seem.

He nodded to Elias and then raced downstairs for the fastest pee ever. He didn’t want to miss anything. He was back before anyone else arrived to find Brad and Elias checking other systems and discussing the retrieval of the mini drones still outside. Brad was saying the atmosphere in the area of the floater was likely safe enough to at least risk a second external seal opening for the retrieval.

“What do you think, Mick?” Elias wasn’t sure why it was becoming more important to him to align with Mick. Maybe battle bonds? He’d heard of that type of connection before, but never felt anything he thought was real, until now. He was getting a feeling he should protect Mick and maybe himself as well.

“Do you have any sterilizer aerosol with you, Brad?” Mick was now leaning over Elias’ shoulder eating a sandwich from the stash.

“Good idea, and yes, I do. I can spray into the opening before you allow the bot inside and then spray the bot too. That should kill anything clinging to the surfaces.”

They proceeded to sanitize the small charging pockets that housed the mini’s. Then, three bio-suited figures appeared coming from the original tunnel entrance. They walked up to Brad and then turned to look at the floater, allowing the imagers to see their faces. Two of the men were tall and slender, both with dark hair and each of indeterminate age. To Mick’s eyes they both looked edging on stern or even mean. The third didn’t look human. He had a turtle shell helmet that had reshaped part of his face. Mick gaped. The Turtle. He seemed younger than the other two as well as shorter, but it was his eyes that captivated Mick’s attention. They looked like Ba’Neesh eyes.

“Are you Ba’Neesh?” Mick blurted out.

Mael blinked, it was the first time anyone had asked him that. He straightened slightly. “You do know a Ba’Neesh is a female Soek, right?” He said calmly.

“What?” Mick yelled. “Are not? They have horns and shit. I saw them. Hooves and weird hands and antler like a deer or antelope.”

“Exactly. The female form of the Soek is the Ba’Neesh.” Mael said very matter-of-factly. They have horns, antlers, pivotal ears, elongated heads, enhanced smell, enhanced sight, enhanced hearing, enhanced Vrill use, extra jointed fingers and cloven hooves with their human-like toes able to pivot upright. Their arms are also longer and their legs shorter allowing them to run on fours and as you no doubt noticed, some have rather large fangs.”

“You mean my birth mother was a Ba’Neesh?” Mick was struggling to catch up with this impossible idea. He wasn’t related to these creatures, to Kiena, to the blue light, to the bones, to the Channels, to the Beloved, to this weird-looking guy. He sagged, grabbing the back of the seat.

Elias had never heard it articulated exactly that way before. He pitied the shock Mick must be reeling from. He remembered clearly the day he had finally understood, his own terror and self-pity.

“Time is not our friend.” Xasper’s much deeper and harsher voice intruded. “Discuss this later.” He pivoted and the three Soek strode away with Brad watching.

“He was lying, wasn’t he, Elias?” Mick whispered, his hand finding the bone. But, it told him every single word had been true. The holoscreen showed the three Soek had stopped.

“Who are the other two?” Mick had chosen to shove the blob of impossible nonsense out of his thinking and focus on the now.

“Xasper Deeto and…” Elias paused, for the life of him he couldn’t remember Kirsan’s new name.

“Damien Thorne.” The third man answered for himself, “Head of the Directorate, owner of the floater you stole, Mick Huxley.”

Elias nodded. Damn, that was the new name, right.

“You told me the guy was Kirsan something.” Mick turned on Elias. “Plus, that name is a lie.” He said firmly.

Elias didn’t know what to say. His boss was literally feet away down the tunnel and no doubt listening to every single word.

“Block your outgoing, Elias.” Kirsan/Thorne ordered.

Elias shut down the feed to the transports and to everyone but Kirsan directly.

“I was Alesandro Kirsan.” Kirsan/Thorne said. “I’ve aged out of that identity. My new identity is Damien Thorne.”

This time Mick’s bone agreed.

“You will not share this info on open channel, Mick Huxley or my wrath will be upon you.” Kirsan/Thorne warned.

Mick stiffened. There was the DireSec bite he’d been expecting. In a way it relieved him that they weren’t all instant friendlies.

“Okay.” He agreed. What did he care who this Kirsan thought he was?

“Go open channel, Elias.” Kirsan/Thorne ordered. The conversation over.

Mick considered the secret. Clearly it was a secret and clearly Kirsan wanted to limit its spread. Logically that made possession of the secret a danger. Kirsan had just endangered him. Logically that meant Kirsan believed he would be able to control that information which meant control Mick. Non-friendly friendly.

Mick said nothing. Let them think he was too stupid to get it. He found another sandwich and stood back watching the screens.

“What are they doing, Elias?” He asked.

The Turtle and Xasper were pulling out torches from a suitcase-like hardened bag. Mael said, “You stay behind us Thorne, hands on our shoulders, until we get the design done. Xasper will lead the cast. Our clear objective is to fully protect and defend this side of the tunnel. Likely the floater’s MagC will keep it fed for as long as the floater is in this location. A constant trickle will be sufficient.”

“You’re sure this will work?” Kirsan/Thorne asked.

“No. We haven’t had a chance to test it.” Mael answered. “Should work fine.”

“Time.” Xasper spoke again, obviously irritated.

“Right.” Mael agreed. “Now.”

Mael and Xasper activated their hand-held devices. What emerged looked like directed paint riding on a light beam. The two of them carefully drew what Mick realized was a vertical sigil, right on the lumpy surface of the expanded foam. What the sigil represented, he couldn’t begin to guess. Almost the instant they finished he felt like something fresh passed through him.

“We have activation.” Elias called out.

“That was Vrill activation?” Mick asked, his feelings a confusion of admiration and doubt.

“That was casting.” Elias said. “Xasper actually did the cast as we can’t trust Mael to cast anything without blowing shit up. Thorne is the next best conventional caster; they are doing a triple cast to stabilize the sigil. It will lay in wait.”

“What do you mean?” Mick frowned at the strange design. The three men were walking back toward the floater. It seemed like a lot of drama over something silly, even though he had felt that cool sensation.

“It’s a weapon.” Brad answered. “It is passive in that it does nothing if you touch its other side with only good intentions. However, if you have ill will toward say anyone on this side of the sigil, it is likely to respond in unpleasant ways.”

“No shit.”

“Yep.” Brad was lifting more of those big drums of chemicals. “I’m going to seal it between layers. We should buy some time with it.”

Mael stumbled. Both Xasper and Kirsan/Thorne reached over to catch his arms enough to support his weight.

“Casting drop.” Elias said. “All three of them will need immediate assistance. I’m sure Anya is waiting to help.”

“Anya?” It was the first female name Mick had heard in a long time.

“Yes. She is the Ba’Neesh that deals with Mael.”

Mick couldn’t decipher what that statement meant. Deals with? Was that like his relationship with Kiena? A hold on and pray not to die kind of thing? Mick backtracked, “What do you mean he blows shit up?” He asked. By now the three of them were out of direct visual range so that only the mini cams were picking them up.

“You saw the Wind.” Elias answered. “This was Mael’s second working of the day. That was partly why the other two supported him. You don’t want to be around when Mael gets frightened or too excited. He’s what we call a catalyst, he does things no one can guess in advance. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they are simply big nasties.”

Unanticipated actions. To Mick, that sounded far too familiar. He noticed that he wasn’t alone in looking around the inside of the cabin. For the moment, he couldn’t sense her. He took a deep breath. Did that mean they thought Kiena was a catalyst too?

It felt abnormally calm. Brad, outside, was packing out his empty drums and equipment, dragging several large wheeled carts from the floater area back toward the tunnel entrance. Mick thought about how they were half-way trapped. Technically, they could blow the bolts and fly out over the debris, probably and then what? Go where?

He sat back down facing the inside and Elias. Elias could see over Mick’s shoulders to the screens, just like Mick could see over Elias’ shoulders. There was no further sign of enemy activity yet both of them believed it wasn’t over.

One thing continued to eat at Mick, his mother. He knew she would worry and the city security was likely giving both of his parents a hard time. Could this Kirsan/Thorne person help? Could he trade for help for his mother? What did this guy want with him? Kiena? Only problem with that was he didn’t have Kiena, no one did. It was mostly an illusion that she was with Mick, an accident, not a real choice. Or, at least he didn’t think so.

He pulled the slate into his lap. Elias groaned.

Jordy, listening in, frowned. He dearly wanted visuals that neither Elias nor Mick seemed the least interested in sharing. Why?

Mick was back to thinking that what he didn’t know was operating against him. The answer might lie in this slate, inside old classes. In his hands. For the moment DireSec hadn’t made demands on them, on him. That wouldn’t hold. They would. He would in their place. So, he had a window of time, how long remained unclear.

He powered the slate up and returned to the class on Recognizing Vrill. It started to play aloud. He redirected it to play from the slate and not through the big speakers.

In the Command ship techs were scrambling. The class began to play out on the audio.

Mael looked up from where he was sitting, eating. “Elias, is that you at five?” He yelled out.

Elias groaned again. Booger-eating Elias at five. “Shut up, Mael.” He yelled back. It wasn’t like he could do ear plugs; his boss would expect him to keep Mick under constant watch. He rolled his eyes. He could hear faint snickers. Likely both Jordy and Mael, both of them had known him most of his life.

Mick had a spoon and he had taken the non-broken table seat adjacent to the one broken the night before. He sat the spoon on the table and remembered what Kiena had shown him. How to feel and see Vrill leak out your finger. He aimed the small flow at the spoon. Elias sucked in a breath. One fucking night. Hours really. What had changed in Mick? The spoon slid across the table.

“Class off.” Mick said, looking up to catch the tight look on Elias’ face. “Game on, Elias. Game on.”

(Welcome back! The game is afoot. Do you like Battle Chapters, I have lots of Battle Chapters, mischief and mayhem. How much trouble do you think Mick is in at this point? J I hope you enjoyed this chapter. On we go.)