KETTY'S SUBDIVISION Wattys2017

Chapter 25-Part VI

Harkentofor and Harazel were one generation apart but their accelerated evolutionary process made them like different species. It was a gap that couldn't be bridged with polite conversation or disciplined learning, where Harazel held to the predatory model of conquest, Harkentofor envisioned a more competitive model where each move was intricately linked in a master plan of annihilation that held victory as the goal rather than the thrill of the hunt. There was time for that later, at least in Harkentofor's mind, and he knew Harazel wouldn't step aside easily. Why should he. To retire was worse than death. What would there be for him if not leading the master hunt.

So it was only natural for him to follow the antiquated looking ship known only as XARC into the robot facility. After all, Mon-catasto had programmed half the robot army for Harazel's use, and Harkentofor was here to claim them for his own

"You should eliminate the scrawny boy robot now, before his master comes to claim him," Harkentofor screeched at his master. He knew the time was at hand for a confrontation, but only after he secured the robot storage facility as his own.

Harazel was prepared for his protégé, it was the way of his kind to weed out the weak and least competitive. But there was one thing Harazel kept to himself. Something his predecessor had kept from him. The weary stiffness and pain in his joints, at only twenty years of life was a dopamine blocker and endorphin flooding force that made him ten times stronger than he had been six months ago. Baird life spans were short, and these last months would make him strong. Harkentofor would be hard pressed to defeat him, even with one foot missing, and why not wait another year until he died of old age? "There are only two things left for me to do in this world, one of which is finish the hunt I started back on Karabellum. She will come to me, and regret it with her life," said Harazel.

Harkentofor didn't ask what his second goal was. "Don't interfere with my ship. Once we are through the airlock, I will seal out the military and eliminate this freighter in a single blow. You can conduct your self-righteous escapade down on the floor."

"Fool," spat Harazel with metal mouthed contempt. "Already you abandon the old ways of our first two generations like they mean nothing."

Now Harkentofor had his sword in his hand and stepped on Harazel's good foot with an ultimate sign of disrespect. His soldiers and crew gathered close at hand, in order to get an account of the dispute. This left a fledgling barely a year old to finish the complex task of sharing the airlock with XARC.

Harazel shoved back. Not a belligerent, angry shove, rather a short peck that sent Harkentofor reeling. He tripped over the control stick and the colossal ship dove a few feet. They collided with XARC, crushing the star bridge and blowing their cover in one stupid mistake. When the two ships collided, the massive weapons sack locked tightly where it smashed into XARC.

Below them, Braunotee wiped blood from his eyes and crawled under one of the massive guns which was lodged squarely in the middle of the bridge. Maratock was there, injured but moaning. He didn't give him a second glance. "Fina," he called out, "where are you?" There was no answer and panic gripped him. Above him, the albatross grated back and forth, trying to dislodge the swollen belly of the gun sack from his ship. But from here he could tell they weren't going to get free. Unless they fired this barrel. The rest of guns looked like a pile of toothpicks to him, not one could fire on XARC, but this one pointed directly down the spine of the ship. It would gut them in a single blow. Through the smoke and debris, he found Fina, crushed under her console. She didn't appear to be breathing.

Her mouth was packed with glass shards and he had to dig carefully before he got them free. Then his mouth was on hers, something he had dreamed of many times but not like this. "You aren't going to die today." His tongue was bleeding now and he pulled one final piece free. A long, ragged, life giving breath sucked into her lungs and her eyes shot open.

"B," was all she could say.

"Stay here, I'll be back for you." He shoved the wreckage free and propped her head on a slab of metal. She smiled and then he was gone, crawling for the storage lockers where antiquated space suits were stored. If he didn't disable that gun, they would all die.

Moments before, Ketty indeed saw the princess of popular opinion waving while XARC executed its landing maneuver, but there the dream ended. Pon-shea was down on the end of the open loading ramp underneath her ship. One hand was on the railing, while the other waved to Ketty.
Then one ship pounded the other, and Pon-shea sailed over Ketty's head like a rag doll. In that moment, Ketty's heart broke. When the princess landed with the dullest of thuds, Ketty thought, she'll never make it. Going to her side, she knelt next to the lifeless body where a single shard of carbon protruded from the back of Sedona's neck. Blood crept from the edges in a slow procession of death. Time stopped and Ketty was unaware of the fury unleashed behind her.

"Ketty?" Pon-shea lifted her head and looked Ketty in the eyes. She struggled to reach out and touch her so Ketty bent her head down and forced the girl to lie still. Cinnamon and rose wafted gently to her nose and Sedona smiled the warmest of smiles. To Ketty it seemed the princess had waited her whole life for this meeting, and in death she was vindicated.

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