Chapter 33
Secrets revealed
The officer knocked on Lionette’s chamber door.
“Enter.” came the simple response.
The officer entered the room and bowed. “The prisoner is here My Lady.”
“Well, bring her in Captain.” Lionette said.
The prisoner was lead in the room. She had heavy chains on her feet and wrists that were fastened to a thick heavy belt wrapped around her waist.
Lionette’s heart skipped a beat. There in front of her was Timtam, alive.
Lionette took a step forward to greet her before she caught herself.
“Lift your head prisoner.” she ordered.
The prisoner lifted her head and laughed. This was not Timtam. The prisoner’s eyes revealed a cruelty that could never have come from Timtam. She could have been Timtam’s sister if it wasn’t for those eyes, those terrible angry eyes.
“I guess I lied when they captured me My Lady. I told them I was Timtam so they would bring me here in front of you in person.” she ginned.
“Your lying stops now ! Who are you and how do you know of Timtam?” Lionette demanded.
“Not so fast My Lady, too many ears and eyes for the story I have to tell you.” the prisoner said looking at Lionette’s advisers standing in the room.
Lionette glared at the prisoner. “ Leave us.” she said coldly. Lionette did not like not being in control. The others bowed and quickly left the room shutting the door behind them.
The prisoner shuffled over to the side board and picked up a bottle of Feloid wine. She motioned if it was alright to have a drink. Lionette let the prisoner have her drink although her patients was wearing thin.
She swallowed the drink and rolled her eyes back in ecstasy. She put the glass down and turned to Lionette. “ My name is Enna, I met your ex slave when I was on Geirgor a few weeks ago. She helped me to escape.” she said waiting to see Lionette’s reaction.
Lionette sighed in relief to find out Timtam had not died there but had some how escaped. “Where is she now ?” Lionette asked.
“Not so fast your Highness. I have and unbelievable tale to tell you. A tale of betrayal and lies by some of your most trusted friends. A tale of such magnitude that I want a few things agreed upon before I tell you.” Enna smiled.
“You will tell me what you know and then I will decide if you should be hung or not.” Lionette took a step closer to her putting her hand on her light saber.
“Relax Princess, we need to work together on this. My story will shake your existence to it’s foundation I promise you that but first I will tell you something that I want, then I will give you a piece of information. If you agree it is worth it then you will give me what I asked for. If you find out I’ve wasted your time then have me hung as a liar.” Enna said confidently.
“Agreed, start talking pink head.” Lionette said.
“I want a heavy scout ship. It must have a pilot droid because I still haven’t learned how to fly yet, you see, I’ve been very busy lately.” she smiled.
“Talk prisoner.” Lionette pushed her to continue.
“First you need to know that your prison planet of Geirgor is anything but that. The prisoners have been living there for years in unknown caverns. The caverns are rich with gems and precious metals that they trade to smugglers and pirates. I know this because I was one of those pirates. The whole operation is run by Brumbarus. Your own father thought him dead but he lives and controls the whole operation.” Enna said smiling and putting her hands out to be released.
“You know that there is no inspection of the planet because there are no escapes. The real reason there are no escapes is because no one is trying to. The pirates and the smugglers could take them away any time but they are to busy making money to leave.” Enna said trying to gauge Lionette’s reaction.
Lionette paced back and forth for a minute stopping on occasion to study Enna.
“You will come with me to Geirgor. If what you say is true you will get what you want and more.” Lionette said.
“If we go there they will kill us…you know that, right ?” Enna said in disbelief of what Lionette had just said.
“No they won’t. I can guarantee you of that.” Lionette said.
“Look this is ridiculous. I can’t believe you guys are still mad.” Kllair said. Tarin and Baltis had finally agreed to take Kllair and her crew back with them.
“Technically we weren’t working for you back then at the compound. So let’s all just forget about it and move forward.” Kllair smiled.
“You could have gotten us killed Kllair. Okay I admit your crew is good but you take to many risks for me to back you up.” Tarin said.
“How many times do I have to say it? We weren’t working for you or by your rules, okay? Now that we work for you things will be different I promise.” Kllair smiled again.
Baltis was watching Kllair’s crew trying to size them up. The twins were sitting next too each other with their arms crossed. Once and awhile they would glance at each other as though they knew what the other was thinking but they would also whisper to each other as well. They were inseparable. Even Kllair didn’t realize they were their own crew first and then part of Kllair’s.
Elith the Zeltron was the youngest and least experienced. She always hung close to Kllair. She was still learning the business and wasn’t sure of her abilities yet. She still had too much fear in her to not follow orders.
Novuh was harder to read. As a cyborg she was harboring a lot of anger but was it because she had been disfigured and had to be put back together or did she have that anger even before her accident. Something like that could make a difference some day.
The one think that Baltis did notice was that none of them spoke to Tarin and himself except Kllair. They were a team of the first order. How much of what they let outsiders know about themselves was very carefully calculated by them. He felt this was a good thing if he could bring them under his wing and convince them to be loyal to him.
“Haven where is that hydro-spanner? We need to have this engine finished by tonight !” Mykala yelled.
“I don’t know what a hydro-spanner is, I’m a diplomat Mykala, I negotiate things, I throw dinner parties, I don’t fix broken space ships !” Haven yelled back. Haven was dirty and drenched with sweat, her own sweat.
“There it is by your foot !” Mykala was frantic. She had the best news any of them had heard in a long time and she couldn’t get the ship off the planet so she could tell everyone. They couldn’t use the transmitter in fear that the big ship they saw earlier might be able to locate them.
“I’ll get it.” Timtam jumped in to help. She didn’t like Haven and Mykala fighting.
Timtam grabbed the tool and handed it to Mykala. They had been hard at work on the repairs almost as soon as Stella left. They had been at it now for ten hours non stop.
“Okay, enough is enough ! Mykala we need to get some rest. I want to get back as much as you do but we need rest. If we make a mistake on these repairs we could all die. I don’t think a few hours to rest and gather our senses is too much to ask.” Haven said in a controlled tone.
Mykala jumped down from the top of the ship. She was filthy as well. She threw her hair back from her face. And looked at Haven breathing heavy. Mykala walked over to Haven and sat down on the tool box.
“I’m sorry, I just want to get back.” she looked up at Haven and smiled. “You need a manicure and a facial, quiet frankly Haven you look like shit.”
Haven smelled under her arms. “Quiet frankly I smell like shit your Highness.” Haven and Mykala both laughed. Mykala saw Timtam standing off to the side. She grabbed her hand and pulled her close and sat her down next to her. “That was some bad ass gunnery you pulled off Timtam. You can be my gunner any day.” Mykala said throwing her arm around Timtam’s shoulder.
“Thank you Mykala.” Timtam said sheepishly. She had shot down many enemy ships while with Lionette but she very rarely was complimented on it. It was what she was expected to do.
“Boy those guns are big, they shook the whole ship when they fired.” Timtam was trying to get in on the conversation as best she could. She was never allowed to view her own opinions when speaking with Lionette. Now she was free she found it strange that it was expected of her.
“You handled them just fine, how many did you get Timtam?” Mykala was pushing Timtam to speak her mind more.
“I got six of those suckers.” she smiled looking at Haven and Mykala.
Haven smiled at Mykala for what she was doing for Timtam. She was showing her respect. Respect was something that she had never had before. Mykala had learned that your team had to feel like winners if you wanted them to be winners. Only a fool would belittle the people that helped them.
“You are my Royal Highness Mykala.” Haven said to herself paying Mykala a compliment for her classy way of helping out this little slave.
Mykala looked at Timtam. “Are you sure? I thought it was more like twenty.”
“Maybe I got a hundred.” Timtam said and laughed at her own joke loudly.
“Yep, I think it was a hundred.” Mykala laughed with Timtam.
“ You two make quite a team.” Haven said.
“You too Miss Haven, you’re with us too.” Timtam said.
“We all make a great team.” Haven said correcting herself.
“Time for this team to get some sleep I think.” Mykala said.
Lionette was surprised just how easy it was to slip past the security patrol that guarded Geirgor. She had landed the Blood Claw near the prison camp as it was shown on her map. She had made sure to bring Enna with her to see if what she had said was true. Lionette had Enna’s hands manacled behind her so she would be less of a threat. The two made their way through the jungle and to the edge of the camp. Lionette raised her eyebrow when she saw the prison was a village with shops and even a town square. What an incredible embarrassment to her Clan that their prison planet was actually a safe house for pirates and smugglers. She took Enna by the arm and walked into the center of the village.
“I wish to speak with Brumbarus !” she yelled. She was part angry and some what humiliated at this whole fiasco.
“Who wants to speak with him ?” a guard came up carrying a rifle.
“It is your enemy, Lionette Ty.” she said.
Everyone in earshot froze in disbelief. They had always feared they would be found out and the Ty clan would send soldiers but no one thought Lionette herself would show up alone.
The guard looked at Lionette standing proudly in her fine clothes and holding on to Enna the pirate as if she had just caught an unruly child.
“ Really, you’re Lionette Ty?” the guard said.
“ Yes really. Now take me to Brumbarus you idiot.” she snapped.
“Don’t move, you’re my prisoner.” he said as he suddenly pointed his gun at her.
“Fine, fine if you must but will you take me to Brumbarus now or must I find another guard to do so?” Lionette said calmly.
The guard motioned for her to walk up the hill towards the buildings up on top.
Lionette walked up the hill in brisk steps dragging Enna behind her as the guard tried to keep up. They came to a large building under construction. There to the left was a makeshift tent with Feloids going in and out. Lionette walked past the guards and stormed inside.
“Where is Brumbarus !” she yelled. The occupants all stopped and stared. They couldn’t believe Lionette Ty had just walked into the main hall of their secret base.
A large Feloid came out from behind the curtain. Her was terribly disfigured and looking right at Lionette.
“Lionette Ty !” he roared.
“Brumbarus?” Lionette turned to see him.
“The last time I saw you was in your fathers court. You are still a beauty, however it seems your father has taken my good looks away from me.” he laughed.
“What is the meaning of all this. This is supposed to be a prison colony.” she asked frustrated.
“It was I can assure you of that. However through some strange tilts of fate we discovered this planet was actually quiet habitable. So we just did what our kind does My Lady, we exploited it.” he said with an air of respect.
“I see you’ve returned us our dear friend Enna as well as paying us this fine visit.” he added.
Enna shrugged her shoulders at Brumbarus.
“You’ve done all this right under my families nose. Do you understand what this will look like to the other clans? What you’ve done here is inexcusable.” Lionette was livid.
“Your family left us little choice My Lady. We just wanted to stay alive, can we be blamed if we did a really good job of it. After all, it was your family that put us here on this fine planet. What else should we have done?” Brumbarus asked politely.
“Well now I have to send my troops to wipe you out. There’s nothing else to do.” she said.
“Now I’ve thought about this day for a long time My Lady and I wish you would listen to what I have to say.” he said smiling his pirate smile.
Lionette looked at him. “ Go on.”
“ Your family put us here to build the facilities for a new colony. If you look at those facilities we’ve done that and on schedule. We wanted to be sure no one came here and started to snoop around.”
“Continue.” she said.
“Well in all fairness we’ve done what you sent us here for. We can’t be held accountable for not dying like flies in the process can we? Under my rule here this planet has become a profitable mining colony with paying customers. I’ve made more money running this operation then I ever did as a pirate.”
“What is your point Brumbarus?” Lionette asked.
“The way I see it you have two choices. The first one is you send your troops here to punish us. If you do that you will find we have vast tunnel complexes and arms that will make you loose a lot of good brave Feloids and destroy everything you have had us build here, not to mention the embarrassment your Clan will endure because of what we have accomplished right under your nose. All in all ,not a good situation for you at all.” Brumbarus said in mock sympathy.
“And what of choice two.” Lionette asked suspiciously.
“Ah, choice two would be a good deal for every one. It is my idea that we become partners with your clan. We will give you a percentage of our earnings for past crimes we have committed. In exchange our children will be free to leave here when they are old enough and be allowed to join your clan as free borns. This prison will become the colony your family wanted here anyway. It isn’t exactly what your family intended but you will not appear weak to the other clans. There are some small details that will need to be worked out but choice two doesn’t cost the lives of your soldiers and allows you to save face.” Brumbarus added.
Lionette stood looking at Brumbarus. She wanted to punish them all for this but he was making sense. His way would save Feloid lives and the criminals that were here would not only remain here they would now be paying restitution for past acts. She hated to admit it but the whole plan was better than the original one.
“I’ll think on it Brumbarus. You have made some good points. I see why my father had such a hard time catching you now.” she said.
“You are your fathers daughter My Lady. I respected your father a great deal. Even though we were enemies I did respect him truly.” Brumbarus said proudly.
“Now what should I do with you?” Lionette said looking at Enna. She had remained silent the entire time.
“You see everything I’ve said was true.” Enna smiled.
“I know but I will have to think about our bargain as well.” Lionette said.
“But we had an agreement.” Enna protested.
“ I know but there are still unanswered questions I have. For instance, where is my slave Timtam now. You told me you escaped together, where did you go and where is she now?”
“We went to a breeding facility to raid it. I was over powered and she turned against me. I was locked up but I escaped.” Enna explained.
“And then what happened?” Lionette asked.
“As I hid waiting for my chance to sneak aboard a ship I over heard them talking about Timtam being rescued by her friends. They must have tracked her from here.” Enna said.
Lionette went white. “You mean to tell me that her friends new about this planet and what was going on here weeks ago!”
“ Yeah, they must have. It’s the only way they could have found out where we went.” Enna said carefully.
Lionette was in shock. She thought that Kang and Adda might try to rescue Timtam, no, she hoped they would but they new about this planet and what was going on here but they remained silent for weeks about it. What possible reason could condone such a breach of loyalty? They could have told her somehow but they didn’t. They would have to account for this. There had better be a good explanation. She had fought along side of these people and trusted them. There had to be a reason for their silence. She would not allow herself to jump to conclusions.
First she would have to take care of Brumbarus and Geirgor. Lionette had not come here alone. She had four cruisers scheduled to arrive after she had landed.
“Commander Visoth, this is Lionette Ty calling. I want you to keep any ship from landing or leaving this planet. Nothing is to come or go without my permission is that clear Commander?” she asked.
“Loud and clear My Lady.” came the response.
Tarin and Kllair had slipped past the guards on this level of the palace. Tarin had almost finished picking the lock to Cheena’s room. They had come to find the book. A small electrical fire on the floor below disabled any cameras to this room and also made sure every one was fighting the fire.
“Got it.” Tarin whispered. The door swung open into a completely empty room. All the furnishings had been removed down to the hard wood floors.
“Now what?” Tarin asked Kllair angrily.
“Relax, it was hidden in a secret compartment.” Kllair smiled. She hurried over to a pillar at the far end of the room. Kllair pushed a hidden button and a small door opened. Kllair reached inside and pulled out a metal box.
“It’s here, we are holding the most important thing in all of Feliod space in our hands right now.” Kllair said staring wide eyed at the box.
“Well just don’t stand there, open it up.” Came a male voice from back in the corner.
They both wheeled around in shock. They didn’t clear the room as they should have in their excitement.
Mundis stepped forward into the light. He was holding a pistol aimed at them. The box, place it on the floor and step back.
Kllair looked at Tarin. Tarin just tilted her head back and closed her eyes in disgust. Kllair placed the box on the floor.
“Now I’m sure you have a back up plan so before you pull one of those incredible assassin tricks I want you to know all of this is being recorded so they will know it was you if you kill me.” Mundis said picking up the box. “When Lionette showed me the security recordings of the night Cheena confessed to Timtam she mentioned a book that told of the Feloid true origins. After Lionette told me what had happened I had myself put I charge of removing all remaining traces of my sister from the palace. I searched for quiet some time for the book but could never find it. Then once again I got lucky. You were using Lionette’s private shuttle. It has a security surveillance system that records every thing that goes on during flight. Our head of security told me about the plan you had to steal the book so I just waited for you to find it for me.” Mundis opened the box and looked inside, it was empty.
“Well this is certainly troubling he said nonchalantly. He tossed the box to Tarin so she could see it was empty. Tarin showed it to Kllair.
“Cheena said it was there.” Kllair said thinking they may believe she was pulling a fast one.
“I Don’t believe we’ve met.” Mundis said pointing his gun at the floor.
“Kllair, the name is Kllair.”
“Well… now what are you going to do?” Tarin asked Mundis.
“ To be honest I haven’t a clue. I was just going to take the book and having then out smarted you, I was going to let you go with the knowledge that I had the book and your scheme was undone. However I never took this scenario into consideration.” Mundis said looking at them.
The three stood for a moment looking at each other awkwardly.
“I guess we’ll go then, unless you have something else to say.” Tarin asked Mundis.
“No,no that’s all I had. The fact that there is no book really ruins everything doesn’t it.” he replied holstering his pistol.
“Sooo, we’re going to leave now.” Tarin said as she carefully stepped to the door.
“Very well, if I need you later I’ll know how to contact you.” he smiled. Mundis then went over and held the door open for them as they left.
Tarin and Kllair walked down the hallway as fast as they could .
“He seemed nice.” Kllair said to Tarin.
“Shut up and keep walking.” Tarin said.
The repairs to the Stella One were finally completed. Haven made Mykala try everything out before took off. They had all grown a little closer in the past few days while the repairs were made. The ship took off and slipped out of the cave mouth with ease only to be met by a barrage of laser fire coming from six new Imperial fighters. Mykala pulled the nose of the Stella one straight up and hit the throttle. The repairs held and the Steel One roared upward.
“Oh come on !” Mykala yelled as she found herself looking directly at the huge underbelly of the gigantic Imperial ship.
“Very bad ! This is very bad !” Haven yelled.
“We’re not dead yet.” Mykala said.
She kept accelerating upward right into the stream of fighters pouring out from the hanger bay below.
Timtam had jumped into her gunners chair without being told and started to fire the guns. She scored hit after hit on the fighters. Her years of experience had showed her these new fighters were fast and maneuverable but they had almost no armor or shields.
“What are you doing !?” Haven yelled at Mykala.
“I’m going to plug that hole !” she yelled back.
Mykala was firing the forward guns as she neared the hangar bay causing every shot that missed a fighter to hit somewhere inside the massive ship.
“What I wouldn’t do for one proton torpedo right now.” she thought to herself.
Timtam scored two more kills as she continued to fire forward combining her turret guns fire power to the forward firing hull guns.
Once inside the hanger bay Mykala pulled hard to the left and kept the ship circling inside the huge hangar. Timtam had more options now so she concentrated her fire at the launch pinions for the fighters. Since she was in a turret she could continue to aim at those places even though her ship was moving in the opposite direction.
Haven looked out of one of the port holes in horror as she saw the fighters that they had flown by on the way up begin to fly into the hangar bay and chase them round and round. Timtam swung her turret around and started hitting the fighters trailing them. It was complete chaos inside the hangar bay until it happened. One of the fighters that had been chasing them or maybe it was one that had just come out was hit and flew into the pinion racks for the fighters and exploded. The explosion wouldn’t have been such a big deal in the vacuum of space but the massive ship was operating in the atmosphere. The fire swept into the fighter maintenance deck causing weapons and ordnance to burn and explode.
Mykala was counting on the chaos in the fighting to cause something like this to happen. Too many pilots doing too many things in a small space was trouble, for them. As soon as she saw the first explosion she rolled the Stella One up side down and dove out of the hangar towards the back of the huge ship. The remaining fighters all scattered trying to get clear of the ensuing destruction in side the ship. Mykala pushed the throttle forward and the ship took of at an incredible rate of speed once more for the stars. The fighters eventually began their pursuit of them but this time she had enough of ahead start to make the jump to hyper speed to escape. Mykala put the Stella One on autopilot and went aft.
“You are either a tactical genius or completely out of your mind.” Haven said blocking the doorway.
“You mean I have a choice?” Mykala smiled.
“That was fantastic Mykala ! How did you know that would happen?” Timtam asked smiling.
“She got lucky honey, we all got very lucky.”Haven answered.
“How did she know we’d get lucky?” Timtam couldn’t believe Mykala didn’t have everything under control.
“ I used my Jedi powers Timtam.” Mykala answered herself this time.
Lionette sat on the couch in her study. Her brother Mundis was standing by the huge window that over looked the valley below.
“ So all of Geirgor is actually run by the convicts themselves you say?” Mundis said swirling his drink.
“You don’t seem very surprised brother.” Lionette said.
“ I’ve decided not to be surprised any more. I shall live in a constant state of always waiting to be surprised from now on so when something surprising happens I will be expecting it so then it won’t surprise me.” he looked at Lionette and smiled.
“Are you going to help me with this or not?” Lionette asked.
“I say take their deal and be done with it. They remain prisoners and the Clan makes some extra cash. The alliterative is to admit we were tricked for years by hoodlums and thieves and then send our forces to die for no real gain.” Mundis said as he finished his drink.
“What about that pink head that gave you the information, are you going to honor your deal with her?” Mundis asked sitting down on the couch with Lionette.
I think I will, I’ll have a tracking chip installed in the ship and the droid first of course so I can keep tabs on the filthy little creature if need be.”
“Well then everything is taken care of I suppose.” Mundis said sitting back to relax.
Lionette stood and walked to the window. “ I found it, I found the book in Cheena’s room two weeks ago Mundis.” Lionette said.
“Have you read it? What does it say?” Mundis leaned forward in anticipation.
Lionette turned and looked at the fireplace. “It’s in there, I burned it, I didn’t want to know what it said. That book had been closed two thousand years. When our sister read it she had our father murdered. It has caused death since it had been opened. It would only cause more death if it got out so I destroyed it.” she said.
“I understand your point. It’s better to give it back to the dust of time.” Mundis leaned back to relax again. “I just can’t understand how you could have had the strength to just burn it without at least taking a peek inside.” Mundis said pouring another drink.
Lionette turned away from Mundis. “ I read it, I read the whole thing cover too cover.”
If you have enjoyed these stories please check out my first all original book series at Amazon.com. The title is Beyond the Crystal Heaven.
Once again thank you for your support.
Last Updated (Tuesday, 10 September 2013 01:59)