A momentary lapse of reason - Ch8 complete (15/07)

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Mercenary
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A momentary lapse of reason - Ch8 complete (15/07)

Post by Mercenary » Fri, 14. Jul 06, 17:41

Chapter 1 - The Lapse
Chapter 2 - A Past Life
Chapter 3- Old Friend
Chapter 4 - Pirate Spy
Chapter 5 - Dream Factory
Chapter 6 - Pirate Colours
Chapter 7 - The Ruse


Chapter completed ,,

Chapter 8 – The Other Face


The waitress gave a nod, “She shouldn’t be in here.”

Lumar’s eyes took in every aspect of her face, the concern bordering on fear reflected deep inside her eyes and he did not feel the sympathy of someone unable to act, rather the hard edged resolve of Creed. He said in a gentle quiet voice, “Take our order and when we’ve finished eating, I’d like to have a chat with your owner.”

“What will you do?” Candy muttered in response.

“Nothing that won’t give you a brighter future,” Creed kept his eyes on the waitress and pushed the meal pad over to Mim. He sat back and his right hand surreptitiously released the restraint clip of his blaster.

Mim hurriedly made her choice and waved the pad at Candy, but Creed intercepted it and examined her choice. Then handed it back, “Only a starter? Feel free to have anything you want, but avoid the Rostrec, even though it’s supposed to be a rich man’s delicacy it tastes foul.”

The waitress fidgeted nervously before Mim handed over the meal pad. They both looked decidedly uncomfortable and then Candy turned and walked away. Mim asked, “What did you mean by a brighter future?”

He looked at her without answering and every line of her prematurely aged and gaunt face hardened his resolve. Cold anger smothered every aspect of his Goner teachings, the part of himself that he had spent so long trying to nurture, the part he had come to know as Lumar was drowning. He said gently, “I’ve had an idea.”

“Sorry, it was stupid of me to suggest this place, it’s just I’ve never been in here before. We should go before he finds out.”

“No, we’ll eat first.”

It was not long before the starters appeared and were hastily carried to their table. Candy said, “Try to be quick,” and then disappeared.

While Mim almost vacuum cleaned her plate. Creed took his time, trouble was heading his way and he could feel it without needing to look. The feint rustle of the barmaids dress indicated to him that she kept looking to see if they had finished. He could sense her growing anxiety with every passing moment when suddenly in the other room he heard doors opening and voices talking and laughing.

“Look lively then girls, my guests need drinks and if you’re lucky some company later.”

Candy arrived and gathered the plates, she made no attempt to make eye contact. “Who have we here?” The waitress froze for a moment, and the colour drained from her face.

Creed turned on his chair and looked at the large, solidly built man. He was slightly older than middle age with a pearly white right eye, several scars that looked like claw marks raked down the right side of his face, and the nose was crooked and slightly squashed from being broken once too often. Broad shouldered with tree trunk sized arms and hands bigger than plates Creed could tell the man had been a ring fighter. Two Split bodyguards lurked behind him.

“You must be the one who stole Creed’s ship,” the slave owner said with what appeared to be the pretence of a smile, his one good eye shifting between the three of them.

Creed appeared relaxed, he felt relaxed, in a moment there would be three dead people lying on the deck and none of them would be him, he knew this, he could see it in his minds eye. Some part of his psyche reached into the freezing cold of his anger and pulled out Lumar. He blinked slowly and gave a smile, “That’s right.”

“We normally have rules for dress code but in your case I’ve make an exception,” the words sounded friendly but Lumar had no uncertainty about the implication, “Unfortunately we also have rules about our visitor’s guests, and I’m afraid to say your guest has to go. I will of course find you an accommodating alternative more suitable for these surroundings,” He directed his attention at the waitress, “As for you my dear, we’ll have to explain to you why you don’t serve undesirables in this establishment.”

“That’s my mistake. I took pity on this poor lass as she appears to be starving to death. I would feel bad if either of them are unduly reprimanded for my actions,” Lumar said, ever aware that in a moment he would act to the detriment of everything he was hoping to achieve.

“A noble gesture, I’ll consider your feelings when I’m discussing the matter.”

‘Five moves, three dead people and all without a blaster,’ the though crossed Lumar’s mind. He said, “How much?”

The slave owner raised his eyebrows, “You want to buy them out of trouble? Well let me see, their time is my money let us say you’ve been with them for a stazura, now how much longer would you like to enjoy their company?”

Lumar estimated they had been in the establishment less than twenty mizuras, and gave a practiced smile, “No you misunderstand. I have a whim to buy Candy from you.”

The man looked surprised and then laughed, Lumar noted the waitresses almost break her neck from turning her head too fast. The slave owner said, “You expect to make that many credits from your prize.”

“No, but I expect you to throw in this other starved wretch for free.”

“What if I don’t want to sell?”

“Personally I don’t think you care, you can always buy other slaves,” Lumar responded and was surprised he did not add a considerable amount of venom in his words. Inside he felt expectation with a hint of wanting the man to refuse.

The slave owner stood in thought for some time then said, “Fifty thousand credits.”

There was a small gasp from both the slaves. Lumar took a deep breath, every fiber in his body itching to end the meeting. He said slowly, “Agreed.”

“You two, get out. We have business to finish.”

**

Lumar watched them leave only it was Creed who turned to face the slave owner, “Perhaps we should discuss this in private.”

The pirate gave a toothy smile and gestured saying, “Follow me.”

The two Split bodyguards followed him. Sezuras later Creed strode out of the bar with barely a glance at the gathered clients and crossed the hub towards the sleeping cells with barely a hesitation. A small crowd lingered by the entrance looking in, each and every face a mask of concern. His heart beat was slow and steady, and without any sense of feeling or emotion he released the door to the room. For several moments he stood and stared at the sprawled figures of Mim and Candy. Mim’s face a mask of pained surprise a hole in her chest where the slave locator had been embedded. Blood covered Candy but in a heart beat he realized she was still breathing despite the wound in her side. “Treema, I’ve got a life to save and you’d better have sliced through the station security system otherwise.” He let the sentence hang.

“Transport lock enabled, Engaging transporter field.”

“Get her in stasis. I’ll take the long walk back.”

Candy disappeared and Creed turned sharply on his heal, he tied to persuade himself that the idea of Lumar still existed while he strode along the corridor. He barely noticed the two guards that greeted him when he arrived and left them sprawled, choking the last of their throatless lives away in a bubbling ooze of blood.

Several corridors later and he strode into the maintenance dock.

“She’s not finished,” The dock master commented as he passed her for the Nova’s airlock door.

Without stopping he muttered, “Then you’d better learn to run.”

The airlock door opened and he stepped inside, it closed and the inner airlock door opened. His eyes rested immediately on Candy and he said, “What happened to stasis?”

“The equipment is on board but it has not been configured.”

“You’d better tell me she’s alive or I’m going to get angry.”

“She is alive.”

“I need ice, synth-blood and the full steri-kit,” he said quickly and the medical locker sprung open. Without hesitation Creed closed the wound, “Get us out of here Treema, and if they refuse blow a hole in the hull.”

The Nova hurtled out of the docking bay on full thrusters, beam weapons seared through the cloud as the docking bay doors closed and Treema twisted and swerved through the beams while Creed stood impassively packing the wound in Candy and stemming the flow of blood. All the time he ensured the synth-blood kept flowing back into her body. The Nova broke the Nebula cloud to be confronted by a Colossus.

“Raider, drop your shields and prepare to be boarded!”

Creed said, “ID yourself?”

“This is Admiral Korecmancketras working on behalf of Ray-Tech Security. You have something that does not belong to you.”

“Treema put some shots into their shields and as you come around to the docking bay side let the flax cannons hit the shields. Then get in line with the docking lights and go in full but remember to hit full reverse within forty metres. Signal them we have a critical injury on board.”

Within a few mizuras Lumar found himself standing by an empty blood soaked bunk. He looked down at his trembling hands and found they went out of focus while tears burned his eyes. Some part of his sub-conscious registered that people had entered the cabin and without a sound he straightened and said quietly, “Welcome aboard hell.”

“I can’t even pretend to understand what you’re going through right now but we need to talk,” the quiet voice of Caran Belign washed over Lumar and he went rigid.

“How’s the girl?” The words imbued Lumar’s foremost thought.

“Critical, the initial assessment gives her a five percent chance of pulling though.” Korecmancketras spoke.

“You had better hope that’s a good five percent chance.”

“We should ..” Caran started and then stopped. Creed heard Korecmancketras and the Argon Agent leave the ship.

“And what do you want?”

“To talk my son,” Noah’s voice cut through the air and each word stabbed him like a knife blade even though there was no malice or reproach in the voice.

“I killed men. I took their lives without emotion or feeling and I have no remorse for what I did.”

“Yet you stand here weeping over the body of a near dead woman, that by all appearances. you were doing everything you could to keep alive.”

“You only see a part of the story. Do you remember what I said about slave owners?”

“Clearly my son.”

“Think only on those words.”

“You killed?”

“Eventually.”

“What possessed you?”

“He used to be a pit fighter. A good one by all accounts but vanity stopped him from telling everyone until we had a personal contest. His bodyguards were a minor inconvenience.”

“And is Lumar still alive?” Noah asked in a quiet voice.

“If he were, would he still be welcome at the temple?”

“I have placed you in a position no Goner has ever had to face simply because I saw inside you a desire never to fail. Always I have feared you would turn from the path of the true light, but always I remained convinced you might find a better way. Only I now see I failed to consider other factors. For that I am sorry.”

“Honored father, you have nothing to apologise for. I tried to buy the freedom of two women from slavery and instead I got them killed. Many people paid the price of my mistake.”

“How do you feel in your heart?”

“If the girl lives, there is hope. If she dies, you’ll only be safe back at the temple as my rage will have no boundaries beyond those I respect.”

“Then it is in my interest to see that she lives, as I will be beside you for the next few critical stazuras. And if she dies I will be the first person you see.”

Creed stood with clenched fists pressed down against the bunk and said, “Find out where she’s gone, and for that I will be grateful. Be there when I sit beside her bed but say nothing while I reflect on all that I did or could have done. If she dies, think on this, I consider you a friend and you will survive. Be a voice of reason and you will live, but stand in my way and you will die.”

Much later and Creed found himself staring at the same square pane of glass outside the emergency room of the Colossus waiting room. Within a stazura the ship had jumped from sector to sector gathering every leading surgeon in the universe. He stood silent and impassive as each one was introduced by Korecmanketras who seemed all too keen to mention that the doctor might suffer a severe ailment if the girl died.

Creed said nothing, as he had nothing he wanted to say, even though people tried to engage him in conversation and he remained cold, without thought or emotion and unequivocally silent. He saw doctors walk down the corridor and for the first time since he arrived he moved and hammered the waiting room door open. His hand closed around the gown of a surprised surgeon and in a single movement the man found himself pinned against the wall his feet several inches from the deck. Surprise and terror were reflected in the man’s eyes and Creed could sense others rushing to aid the stricken surgeon, he said in a passive voice, “Will she live?”

“Lumar! Let him down.”

“Will she live?” He swung the surgeon like a rag doll by one hand through the air and shook him for an answer, “Will .. she .. live?”

“Lumar, they have done all they can. Let him down. She is alive, but only time will tell if her body will keep going after all the damage it has sustained,” Noah’s calm and quiet voice had Creed stop and gently lower the man to the ground, when his fingers unclenched the surgeon ran down the corridor.

Creed said, “How long.”

“The next four stazura’s will be critical.”

Creed took a deep breath and closed his eyes, he could feel the tears burning beneath his eyelids and he said calmly, “Take me back to the temple. I need time to meditate and regain some semblance of inner peace.”
Last edited by Mercenary on Mon, 17. Jul 06, 20:12, edited 2 times in total.

KiwiNZ
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Post by KiwiNZ » Fri, 14. Jul 06, 22:54

Very nice one. I like the fluid change into calling him Creed again when aggression takes over. Can't see him walk out of there with the two girls just like that. I am sure the owner has named a price that he considered too high, just playing a game. Now that the shots have been called he'll either stick to it or make a move, his last one. On the other hand, seeing Lumar is taking over more and more of Creed's life, this could be the turn of getting out of trouble w/o a fight. Very nice part!

Looking forward to the next part! :thumb_up:


"now much longer" - now=how?

Mercenary
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Post by Mercenary » Sat, 15. Jul 06, 03:21

The muse has hit big time and the chapter had been finished...

Hopefully the Lumar / Creed switch doesn't confuse people.

And now that it's 3am in Sweden and the Sun is rising, and I haven't finished my beer yet... it's about time to go to bed,,,


Note: none of this is prrof read so it's all first draft and if thing stop making sense just shout ... 8)

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Captain Chris sTc
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Post by Captain Chris sTc » Sat, 15. Jul 06, 04:01

bloody hell that was quick. I finish chapter 7, go to work for a few hours. (short day. then go out on the piss. and when i come home i'm rewarded with another chapter of this story. I'm gonna have to go out drinking more often. :D .

i must say i did like the change from lumar to creed also.

"“Get her in stasis. I’ll take the long walk back.”

Candy disappeared and Creed turned sharply on his heal, he tied to persuade himself that the idea of Lumar still existed"

just after he killed the slaver. "

shouldn't it be he tried to persuade himself.

KiwiNZ
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Post by KiwiNZ » Sat, 15. Jul 06, 10:12

That is an excellent part! I like it how you avoid describing the violence that was going on and just hinted retrospectively. This really is a test for his alter ego. If he had just killed them in the restaurant the girls would have lived. But trying to negotiate and get them out in peace cause one of them her life. It will certainly make it hard for Lumar to consider such choice again. But hopefully meditation will help. :D

Looking forward to the next chapter! :thumb_up:

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Charon_A
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Post by Charon_A » Wed, 26. Jul 06, 16:33

he tried to persuade himself

Great part! Creed is realy controversial :)

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