H.E.R.O. - Horde (13 page)

“Oh, it’s far too late for that, Jamis.  Psystar’s a hardcore receiver, she sees through my mental blocks as if they aren’t even there.  You’ve been near her several times; she already has anything she wants from you.”

“Shit.  Damn it man, why didn’t you tell me that before?”

“I didn’t know just how good she was until Monday night.  I only suspected before that.  It’s not a concern - I can read her like a book.  She’ll push herself way beyond any limits just to help.  You should have seen her later Monday night when I faced off against General Angelich.  The kid actually knocked herself out to help me.”

“Yeah, yeah.  I apologize.  You’re right - you do have a good handle on your supers.  So you’re absolutely sure about Chrome?”

“Obviously I can’t make promises for another’s actions, but I’m willing to bet heavily on it.”

“You know it’s your people who’ll be cleaning up the mess if it goes wrong.”

“I know.  I’m not wrong though.  So what did she do?”

I noticed Garrick smiling slightly to my left.  Whatever they were talking about he’d been in on, or at least fully aware of.

Warden Jamis said, “Garrick, you were there, feel free to elaborate.”

Garrick said, “Hello, Captain McCain.  Good to hear your voice again.”

“You too, Garrick.’

“I had Chrome mopping some of the mutant cells – she broke the mop, by the way – and Vox attacked her.  He really didn’t do much other than some scratches and clothing damage, but I guess he did draw blood.  Anyway, he tried stabbing her in the eye with the broken wood, she wrestled him into the corner while he kept clawing at her, and then I came in.  He got off a good slash at my throat – damn glad I heal fast – that one hurt - and she slammed him against the bars a few times and held him until I recovered.”

“Could Vox have escaped?”

“He’s fast, had I been alone, or if Chrome had just stood there he would have gotten into the hallway.”

“What effect did her attack on him have?”

“Oh, she broke a rib or two, I’m sure it’s healed by now.  We don’t have a mutant here who doesn’t heal faster than I do.  She’s pretty good at wrestling and getting a hold on him.  She claims it was her brothers that made her learn that.”

“That’s possible – or she’s a ruffian who got into a lot of street fights.”

I couldn’t help but interrupt him, “No – I never got into fights….”

Captain McCain said, “I believe you, Chrome.  That was an attempt at humor.”

“Oh, erm … sorry.”

“So that was the end of it, Garrick?”

“Yes, sir.  I healed and tossed the mangy mutant across the cell, and then came here.”

“What do you think, Jamis?”

“What about the paperwork, Lon?”

“I’ve got it on my desk – it’s already been signed by Judge McCarthy.  I can have a copy faxed to you in a minute if you’d like.”

“Please do, I would like it for my file.”

“Check your email; you should have an electronic copy hitting you now.  The fax will be a few minutes.”

Warden Jamis glanced at his computer for a moment and then up at me.  “Chrome, I have a proposal for you.  Please, have a seat.”

I glanced at the chairs and said, “I, ah, I don’t want to break your chair.”

“It’s a reinforced model.  I have bricks in here on occasion.”

I sat down and tried to smooth the shirt so it didn’t look like I was trying to show off the slashed areas.  I then realized that some of my own blood had stained the white shirt.

“Captain McCain – here on the phone, and Psystar of H.E.R.O. have both gone to extraordinary lengths to support you.  Judge McCarthy is willing to put you on probation if you would like to take on a post as a guard here at the Jail in the super security section.  You’ll have to use housing here for a while as a condition of the probation until he authorizes you to maintain your housing off premises.  Considering your continuing problems with breaking things that may be the safest course of action regardless.  Does that hold any interest for you?”

“I’m not sure what you mean, sir … Warden.  You want me to be one of the guards when I’m not in my cell?”

“You won’t be in a cell.  We have housing available for the short term.  You’ll be a guard, not simply act as one part of the time, and you’ll be paid as a guard.”

It wasn’t exactly a career choice I’d ever thought of, but it was a lot better than sitting in a cell most of the time - especially if I could help out and stay busy.

“So … is there still going to be a trial or something?”

“No, the Judge – and D.A. took care of that.  It’s part of the arrangement.  You
were
part of something that ended up killing several people.  I’d like you to remember that.  However, this is an opportunity to do something you appear to be extremely good at.  Vox’s inability to injure you to any degree while his claws tore into Garrick here is a perfect example.”

“I … I don’t know what to say.”

Over the phone Captain McCain said, “I’d suggest saying ‘yes’ to it.”

“Then … yes?”

Warden Jamis said, “Are you certain?  You’ve seen how some of the inmates are.  The job does have inherent dangers to it well beyond that of most….”

I smiled, though I wasn’t sure they’d notice it with my metal face, “Yes, sir.  I’m sure.  I’m not afraid of the inmates.  Well, maybe the ones that can take over your mind, but not the others.”

“Not to throw a cloud on this, but you are aware of how much these people have gone out on a limb for you, correct?  If you were to lapse back into being a criminal….”

“No, sir.  I won’t do that.  I get it much better now.  The criminals will lie or do whatever they feel they need to in order to accomplish their goals.  Some of those appear to be killing others at times.”

“I’ll sign off on it then.  Garrick will walk you through your duties in the super security section and assign another guard to help setup quarters, and so on.  I see the judge’s orders here are to require you to stay at the lodging here, but you can leave on your off time should you wish.”

“Thank you – thank you all.”

“Oh, and Garrick – would you have her fitted for one of the special uniforms for supers?  She doesn’t appear to be able to keep her clothes on from the times I’ve seen her after any fights.”

I smiled, “Sorry about that.”

“I’m less concerned about the tears in the clothing than in any injuries you take under them.  I’m glad to see you already healed Vox’s claws.

Captain McCain said, “Gentlemen and lady, I need to be off, but I’m glad you accepted, Chrome.  Do right by us.”

“I will – thanks.”

Warden Jamis said, “I’ll speak with you later, Lon.  Good bye.”

The warden looked back at me, “Chrome, I’ll ask that you follow Garrick for the rest of his shift, and then remain in your new quarters tonight, and I’ll have each shift of guards informed about the change as they come in to avoid issues.  When you break for dinner will you bring her with you, Garrick?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank you.  Now, for the paperwork….”

The warden brought out a packet that he’d apparently already put together before this with the information and rules I needed to be aware of.  After reviewing it and signing off, Garrick brought me to pick up a normal guard uniform until I could be fitted for one of the special ones and began walking me around….

Chapter 12 – Ongoing Research

Tiriffa’s Viewpoint

After the defenders of the Earth city Metrocity aided our research team we returned to the Selestor – Captain Trilk’s starship.  Fortunately, with Kazhan’s ability to teleport the team we’d been able to return to the ship without the humans following us.  While we didn’t mind our dealings with the city defenders for the most part – barring the one attack on us that appeared to have been a mistake – the military of the humans in the region had more interest in capturing our Gahranii technology.

The captain had been working on repairs to the two engines damaged in the attack by the pirate vessel K’Vor with slow progress.  The sensors worked fine during the repairs, however, and our team had gained interesting information about those gifted by the Dark in this region.  We’d hoped for much closer scans of the meteor in space, but until the engines were fully functional we were land bound and becoming restless.

Qarath took the time to learn the primary language of the inhabitants of Metrocity, so now our entire team would be able to interact with the humans should we meet them again.  I was certain we would, if I had anything to do with the decision.

Some of our scans could be performed better on a gifted being from a hand span away, and not at all many miles away, as the Selestor currently was from the city.

Kazhan was happy with the scans the ship gave us, but as I prodded him over several days, he came to agree that if we were going to research the Dark, we’d gain more by obtaining every bit of information we could while on the trip.

In our discussions, I brought up the option of contacting the city defenders we’d met to this point to help us find groups of gifted to scan.  Rishan was opposed.  As a member of nobility, he wasn’t interested in obtaining the aid of lowly defenders, and if our own cities were any indication, the city defenders would turn down a request to aid scientists in research – it wasn’t in their mission.

Rishan was more interested in finding the paragon we’d detected approximately one thousand miles to the northeast, but the trip would be taxing without a vehicle, even with Kazhan’s ability to teleport the group – so long as he could see the location.  This limiting factor meant a minimum of fifty to one hundred teleports each way, along with an increasing amount of wait time between them as his limits were pushed.

Finally, we agreed that the only method of researching multiple things would be to split up.  Kazhan would travel with Rishan to seek out the paragon – whether it be a Gahranii on Earth for some reason, or if an Earth gifted had become that powerful.  Qarath and I would seek out groups of gifted within Metrocity to scan what we could.

Our lack of planet side equipment made it quite an adventure for Qarath and me.  We packed some light food in a pouch to allow for travel time and set out walking for the city.  Both of us memorized the coordinates of the Selestor, for the captain had used his power of imbuing an item – in this case his entire starship hull – with Rishan’s chameleon power.  It wouldn’t affect electronics, but it made the ship very hard to see unless you knew where to look.  We each brought a satchel of additional hand sensor equipment to work with as well.

It took us hours to walk to the city – while we could have jogged, we enjoyed the time discussing our findings on the meteor to this point.  It was so unbelievable that it just happened across an inhabited system, and even more so to have gotten close enough to the one heavily populated planet for them to destroy the meteor.

I had less fear of the humans seeing us after hearing some comments of the city defenders.  Several of them had commented that we looked much like the human version of mutants.  Two of the city defenders had even mistaken us for mutants and attacked our team.  I felt that we would blend in well, even with our different skin coloration, clothing and other differences between our species.

I was unprepared for the many odd looks we received upon entry into the city late in the morning.  While I had not expected their mutants to be commonplace, I had thought they would at least not garner any unusual attention.  We received stares from the humans, and none of them looked even remotely similar to a Gahranii at all.

Fortunately, few very approached us at all.  Those few asked if we were going to some kind of party in several cases, or in a number of other cases called us mutants.  I didn’t mind a being of another race calling me a mutant, even though I was far from being a Gahranii mutant.  Those were exceptionally rare if not in space for long periods of time – such as near the Gahran asteroid belts.

The amount of attention was very odd, however.  On Gahran the occasional visitors from other planets weren’t stared at with such openness as the humans did.

We took our time walking through the city and looked at the different architecture of the buildings, the clothing of the inhabitants, and stopped to look into some food establishments through the windows.  I knew the standard currency was a type of paper, or the use of a flat rectangular plastic item, but neither Qarath nor I had such an item.

I could easily steal from one of the money machines we saw people use along the way, but I had no intention of breaking laws if we could avoid it.

Every now and then, we consulted our scanning tablets to detect individuals or items affected by the Dark.  We came across no gifted individuals, but headed toward a location in the southern part of the city with a large number of them.

The humans appeared to be very similar to most Gahranii in mannerisms.  The largest difference between our species appeared to be in the use – or lack thereof – of flying vehicles.  We spotted a few flying craft far above the city a few times, but in general all travel was done on the ground.  Anti-gravity craft were non-existent.

This trip into the city was so different from our venture to the point of the burst of Dark energy we’d detected a few days ago.  That night our team had teleported to the edge of the city where the event occurred.  Today we passed within a few feet of live humans as we walked alongside the street.

A few humans waved their arms at us.  The fact that they smiled – a shared expression – told us that they meant no harm.  Others waved at each other of their race, so we mimicked them when a human directly looked toward us and waved.

The inhabitants appeared to have very few video screens.  Gahranii cities tended to have holograms that catered to the individual closest to them.  Here there were occasional display screens with moving images, but self-projecting multidimensional images didn't appear to be something they had mastered.

The directional control systems for their vehicles were confusing as well.  Rather than a convenient single hovering pillar that directed all vehicles, they had control lights on every side of an intersection.  It appeared that the humans followed the color of the lights to initiate movement rather than have a computerized system merely communicate with the control system and handle all vehicle movement.