Cutlass Sharpened (62 page)

“
Exactly. It seems we both
let the time fly by. You coming?”

“
Be right there. I just need
to clean my station.” Renee laid her armored arm flat on the table
and swept the slides and Petri dishes off and dumped them in the
medical waste disposer that would incinerate everything and
automatically melt the glass back into fresh testing supplies. Only
a dozen Petri dishes would culture overnight. “I’m on my way. Talk
to me while I’m doing so. What did you and Papa
discover?”

“
Quite a bit actually. That
crashed ship’s everyone on Verard knows of held records and were a
trove of information. Jake is so happy. With my help he has finally
learned to read the writings, but only with the help of the
translating software. I found that Solarians have just three
hundred laws. No more and no less. They had a thing for keeping the
universe simple and made themselves not take things too seriously.
Like Creelin, Solarian society is based on honor and principal as
individuals.” Renee left her lab, listening to him finally finding
some answers. “They have a punishment policy like human’s. Children
get spanked when they are bad. Adults get publically beaten in
front of friends and family, but they didn’t hang for the
really
bad crimes. They
publically beheaded criminals and used warriors to do the deed.
Often a friend of the criminal did it. It was part of the warriors
code. Basically they were friends in life and in death. It was up
to friends to keep each other out of trouble. For those too lax in
that regard made the warrior also punish himself and still kill
said friend.

“
It is also true that
although there was one Galactic King, it was women who made most of
the decisions in Solarian society. Five queens to be precise in
each galaxy. Their belief is that since women carried and gave
life, they were the authority and men were there to keep them safe.
Also it makes sense, Solarian women I mean.”

“
And what do you mean by
that?” his tone irritated her.

“
Solarian women were
always
much
more
aggressive than the males except in combat. Unlike human women who
are more docile, you clearly uphold who they were. They were smart,
but violent with emotion, especially when pregnant. After though
they become docile when having a dependent child.

“
In one personal log entry
one man was saying his mate was pregnant and ripped the arm off a
fellow woman he was talking to just because her shoulder brushed
his. Oddly though, the dismembered woman understood and didn’t hold
it against her attacker because apparently she did something
similar to a Creelin female who barely clasped wrists with
her
mate.”

“
Well I’m glad you told me
this before I let you knock me up. You’d better quarantine
yourself. Did it mention about increased sex drive during pregnancy
like in humans?”

“
Yeah, it seems to keep from
going truly homicidal the pregnant woman needs sex every single day
to be reasonably stable. Their aggressiveness is heightened because
it was a need in Solarian evolution as Beasts could smell pregnant
women and drew them like technology or fresh blood. Men got
ruthless to protect their unborn children, plus any Beast foolish
enough to go after the woman soon became supper.
Win-win.”

“
I’ll bet.” Renee laughed.
“Keep going.”

“
Aside from that and the
three hundred laws, it was as far as we got. It’ll take weeks to go
through the undamaged logs.”

“
Then tell me about these
laws.” Renee punched the button for the next elevator.

“
Well the first is about the
responsibility to ones mate. Men protect and defend women and
children and conversely women guide men and give them said
children…” he went on and on as he spoke eagerly of all learned.
She smiled as she zipped through the elevator system to eventually
reach the deck.

Renee found him, Rose and Sparky staring up
at the rainbow of color swirling around them in subspace. Beside
him were two pale and motionless Piranha laying on a serving
platter. The meter long terrors had long, needlelike teeth going up
and down like some monster out of the worst nightmares, but as one
of the lowest ranked Beasts, they were deemed safe enough to
transport. “You got dinner huh?”

Oliver smiled in her direction and her heart
gave another involuntary kick. He tapped his ear to say “Thought
you might be hungry.”

“
Thought right.” Renee
kicked his crossed ankles apart, plopped right between his legs and
lifted the fish with her mind to set it in her lap. Her mouth was
practically drooling at the fresh catch. Scales hard as steel were
no match with a finger focused Kinetic blade that sliced through
the forehead first to access the best part first. The only other
cut was through the gills by a sword. She grabbed a fork and got to
work. As she ate she asked “So how many did Papa get?”

“
Five pools of schools. He
got a sustainable amount that can be farmed if we lost FTL
capability. We have close to two thousand all to
ourselves.”

“
Good, I’m not going back to
bland food ever again unless my life depends on it.”

They ate together and watched the colors all
over, leaving no way for shadows to stick. When Renee finished all
she could stomach, she broke off a Piranha tooth and used it as a
toothpick to savor the little pieces left behind. What she really
enjoyed was Oliver showing her how the bracelet could also compact
the remnants of her meal into a tiny pea and downed it. Washing it
down with more mead he had brought from their room.

Much of the night was left watching the
brightly swirling colors, talking about the discoveries of the day
and simply enjoying each other’s company.

To say the revealing of
Oliver being a true Solarian and Renee being manipulated into one
going over smoothly with the crew was a
massive
pain in the ass lie of immense
proportions in the following days. Distrust and gossip spread like
wildfire during a tempest without a chance of rain. People were
better knowing they harbored a fugitive than even use the same hall
of the legendary fathers of life on Earth. Trying to engage someone
into a conversation was downright impossible let alone hold eye
contact.

The most hurt in private was Renee who had
known the crew all her life. In public she was still the hellcat,
but rarely approached outside of family. To ease her loneliness
Sparky was practically glued to her hip. Since few needed her
medical talents, she spent extra time in the lab perfecting new
skills.

The morning of the fourth day though Oliver,
Renee, Sparky and Rose were eating in the Mess. As she was cutting
into some meat she saw the quirky child figure of Chloe, the ten
year old allowed to ride her partner. She asked “Hello Chloe, how
are your studies? Getting better? Still having trouble with math?”
Chloe couldn’t look at her and went to move away before running
into a barrier Renee created. “That was rude. Didn’t Cathy teach
you to respond when spoken to?”

What Chloe said next was the last spark that
ignited the hellcat into awakening. “Mama said I can’t talk to you
anymore… said it’s not safe.”

Renee dropped the barrier
and locked eyes with said mother and made a leap she couldn’t have
done before her body began returning to a natural state. Before
Cathy knew what happened all sound in the mess hall was deafened by
Renee smacking the little woman twenty centimeters shorter than
herself. The smack was so loud it echoed no less than four times
before settling, but before it could, Renee’s angry eyes were only
overshadowed by the river of tears running down freckled cheeks.
“What the fuck, Cat! You told Chloe I’m not
safe
to be around!” The wounded woman
knocked out of her chair looked up in shock to say the least.
“
I’m
the one who
used my telekinesis to unwrap the cord strangling her in your belly
because your power was and is still so weak. I delivered her on
this very ship. She’s like a daughter to me too you backstabbing
bitch! How dare you teach that sweet little girl to hate me. We
abolished racism when splicing allowed us to look however we
desire, but you are a fucking racist!” Tears still streamed, but
her stabbing words twisted the metaphorical knife.
“
Who
babysat her
when you and Derek needed to go on a date? Who fixed her up when
she broke her arm in the training room when you weren’t paying
attention? Who was it that held your family in place when we crash
landed on Zerika? It was
me
. It has always been me! Damn it,
Cat, out of all the people on this ship I would have thought
scuttlebutt was beneath you after what your mother did to you… You
know what, FUCK YOU. FUCK ALL OF YOU!!!” she rounded on the packed
breakfast crowd. “Don’t come crying to me unless I get an apology
from all of you. Only children are exempt for they don’t know any
better. Of you want to see me as a monster, fine! But until you
apologize and mean it I’ll
let
you die and not lift a fucking finger. My oath be
damned for you spineless cowards.”

With that she went back to the table and ate
beside Oliver, who had such remorse for her, but undeniable hatred
to the others.

“
Do I need to apologize?”
Came a feminine voice by the central circular bar table surrounding
the cooking area.

“
Not you, Vanessa. You at
least were up front and asked me if I had a disease that could harm
little Claire. And I told you my immune system is much stronger
than a human’s. Still, Oliver’s system is more potent than
mine.”

After Renee’s outburst the mood had
considerably shifted in the ship. Cathy was humiliated in front of
everyone and was one of the last to come clean about her shame.
Renee accepted each and every response, most face to face. Some
spoke over the com in her ear, mainly because they admitted that
they would lose courage face to face and would need time to come
around. She knew it wasn’t an easy medicine to take, being more
than human and after taking the heaping of crow, the unrest in the
ship gradually stabilized.

The ones to really take information in stride
were the Hunters and their companions. The more sociable Steven and
Visor had come around the next day with a keg of beer and cheered
Renee for being such a ball buster. He and Sparky didn’t see eye to
eye, having some kind of rivalry neither explained, but this once
they called a truce. Steven may have not been the wittiest, but he
was fun to be near. His eagle too. Stone was his usual calm,
disciplined self yet Deegen and Bell weren’t around too much. When
they were, they were pleasant enough.

For three weeks Oliver worked with the
captain. Translation was no longer much of an issue except rarely
when the learning program found a hole it couldn’t fill in the
complex, circular language.

Mostly though Oliver learned the Solarian
mandates or laws. It was their core beliefs. Mostly though is that
they embodied protection and ones honor above all else. But like
any species there was conflict among individuals. The recorded logs
were mostly personal, giving insight to individuals within one
massive group. What was startling and not so much of a head
scratcher is that Solarians and humans weren’t very much different
as people. Yes they were faster and stronger, but they loved,
fought, enjoyed a child’s laugh, were sociable overall, had
feelings and fears like everyone else. Oliver also knew that many
liked life to be simple as he does. Of course there were geniuses
that stood out and they had a military of warriors who swear an
eternal oath, but even they too loved life.

Captain Dorgen though was disappointed that
the logs gave no indication of planets on which to so seek and
plunder to further his desires and curiosity. Nevertheless he was
immensely grateful for Oliver being the missing Rosetta Stone of
their time. And Oliver was glad to learn more about his own people
as he now knew and believed he was one of them. Too many references
made coincidence impossible. Eventually the downed ship’s log
turned up no further evidence. It wasn’t a navigation system. It
was a personal log for everyone aboard. A log which crewed fifty,
always in even numbers as mates rarely left once found. Only the
unpaired sought their ideal match. Once found they were near
inseparable for long periods.

Amazingly Renee got the hang of her body
rather quickly and her mind grew even more adept at biology. Daily
she would run with Oliver at a comfortable nine times normal
gravity and quite a few came to watch for themselves when she
outran every woman’s speed and endurance record by day five.

Day thirteen showed Renee sprinting at ninety
six point four kilometers per hour. Slower than Oliver hundred and
five only because he had a larger lung capacity, longer legs and no
breasts that needed restraining. Renee was glad to never again need
to double up on a bra to keep her two full boulders from causing a
landslide and potentially harm a bystander. Still, she now realized
why Oliver loved to run in his spare time. She had only exercised
twice a week before, but her competitive side made her want to push
her own limits. Though she could never outrun or hold her man’s
endurance, she didn’t give up on the need to catch him.

Her mind though felt as normal as anyone’s,
except when it came to learning without the block her father put on
as a babe. She did a medical refreshing course that took sixteen
years and went over it all in less than three minutes. Now she knew
why it was so easy for Oliver to learn. Without repetition though
the information would fade like all memories. Except concerning
Oliver with a perfect eidetic memory so long as it was technical in
nature.