Saving Momma

by shenandoahok

Tommy's Momma is captured by the Volge, and forced into slave labor. He must give up his lawkeeper's badge in order to travel into the Badlands to save her.

Saving Momma

By Shenandoah

Every day I watched the cold hard steel of the jail's bars, and wondered if my presences in the NeedWant would have made a difference in saving Clancy's life. Things had changed significantly in twenty forty-six, and tensions ran high in most people. He should've gone into the bar with a slew of deputies in order to keep the peace, but sometimes he liked to handle things with a series of political maneuverings. The last thing a cop needed to be was a politician because the two jobs didn't mix. One deputy could've stood in the corner, while the other deputy could've watched Datak, and so on. It would've shown the evildoers that the lawmakers had complete, unequivocal control of the situation. Clancy-a seasoned veteran-was the Lawkeeper and a soldier, but he went against his own protocol: always have a deputy to watch your back. He walked into that bar haphazardly because he didn't have one man of the law with him, only angry men, and one suffered the tragic loss of his eldest son. It was obvious before they ever entered the NeedWant that all the players wasn't thinking correctly. A lot of bitterness existed between Datak and the other townspeople. Nobody truly trusted Datak because he ran the underground of the city, and often played by uneven rules. Clancy needed more than himself in order to handle the situation when things went south in the NeedWant.

I kept the jailhouse swept during my time in the office, and tried removing the acrid smell of the drunk Castithan who threw up in the cell last night. I should have put a bucket in the cell with him, but I wasn't thinking clearly. The man could barely walk when I arrested him at the NeedWant. His name was Kadar Ktak, a poor Castithan who resided in the Hollows, a slummy place where the lower class people lived. He worked in the mines, but spent the majority of his money on hookers and strong drink. It was common for many of the men from the mines to visit the NeedWant on a daily basis. None of the men ever had any money by the next payday, because they spent it in the NeedWant. If not for the Indogene doctors in Defiance, the town would be full of venereal diseases. At least twice a week, the doctors went into the NeedWant in order to ensure none of the sex workers had diseases. The majority of known diseases were easily curable, but the terraforming created a few new diseases that had the potential to wipe out the Defiance community. The Indogene-according to all I knew-were the smartest people on the planet. They came from the same planet as the Castithans, but focused on increasing their intelligence with cybernetic implants. The majority of weapons used in the Pale War-at least on the Votans' side-came from the Indogene. They had hexagram shaped irises with hexagram shapes built into their skin. Many of them implanted cybernetic machinery into their flesh to give them enhancements related to intelligences. Many of them came off as having an uneasy temperament: short, direct, and to the point. Sometimes I wondered if they thought everybody else were beneath them-at least when it came to intelligence.

The majority of Castithans walk with a haughty attitude like they owned the planet, including Kadar Ktak. They acted like they were the smartest people on the planet, but the Indogene had already proven they had more intelligence than anybody. Kadar had one of those svelte frames with an aristocratic look about him, and wore a thick black suit in order to make his body look thinner. He walked with a black cane, a top hat, and kept his hair pressed straight. His pallid skin almost glowed. The majority of Castithans didn't have a color whatsoever. They looked like albinos, but didn't have any specific sensitivity to the rays of the sun. I saw many of them spend enormous amounts of money in the NeedWant in an attempt to show off the size of their wallets. Their hubris disgusted me. The majority of them walked upright, never slouching, and had a caste system that seemed oppressive to the other races. From some of the stories that spread throughout Defiance, the majority of Castithans that made it on the ark were from the upper caste system. That meant the Castithans came to Earth without anybody from their race to do the manual labor. Sometimes I wondered if this was the reason for Kadar's predisposition to drink. He didn't have an opportunity to exercise his ability to make the lesser Castithans do his bidding.

I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, but the jailhouse still smelled like shtako the next morning. I released Kadar to his lovely wife who seemed almost half his age. She didn't speak much, but thanked me for ensuring his safety. It was a routine thing with him. Her name was Tanera Ktak, and she wore her blonde hair in tight braids. When she walked into the jail, it almost seemed angelic; but anybody who knew the Castithans understood they were not angels on any level. She retrieved her husband, left, and left me with the job of cleaning up his wretched mess.

At first, I spattered some Irathient oils all over the jailhouse, but that failed to alleviate the stench of the Castithan's vomit. I kept a few batches of the oils on my person that I purchased in the Bazaar in addition to some natural cleaners. A few of the merchants dealt in Irathient cuisine, oils, and jewelry-even though they acted like they couldn't stand the Irathient people. They accused the Irathient people of spreading a dangerous plague that killed humans as well as Irathient people too. One of the best things I liked about Irathient products was it wouldn't have any harmful chemicals in it. The Irathients dealt in all natural products, never concocting anything unnatural that would do damage to their bodies.

As I scrubbed the dickens out of the jail, I remembered how Garrett Clancy expected the jail for cleanliness all the time. Even if he had to swab the deck, wipe down the desk, or whatever it took, he didn't care as long as the jail stayed clean. He died nearly a month ago, but I tried to remember the things he taught me. It wasn't above him to inspect each crevice of the jailhouse with what he called his white glove inspection. Sometimes he actually wore a white glove. He'd come into the office with his pressed uniform, and go over each section of the jailhouse with acute precision. He had everybody call him Clancy like his comrades did back in his military days. The deputies made sure the jail remained clean at all times, and Clancy had a detail list of who did what on each shift. He had a bullet about keeping the jail clean on his counseling statements, and several deputies, including myself, received a substandard mark on jail cleanliness. He spent the majority of time on the job-even on his days off. He always made his rounds over at Bissel Pass in order to ensure the stasis net was functioning correctly. If the stasis net stopped functioning, it would allow every dangerous creature from the untamed region into Defiance, and wreak havoc and death. The stasis net probably was the most used alien asset in Defiance; it never went offline for any reason.

With his furrowed brow, he'd spend hours reviewing witness statements and notes from fights that broke out at the bar, The NeedWant, and ended up falling asleep on his desk most nights. He overworked himself, didn't eat right, and brooded over the loss of his family, and the creases in his face were evidence of the toll the loss had taken on his life. I removed the clutter from Clancy's desk three weeks ago in order to get it ready for the new boss arrived two weeks ago, but it was an arduous task. It was one of the hardest task I ever had to do because everything had relevance, at least to me. I kept looking up at the door like Clancy would walk through it at any time, inspect the cell, and give an order, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. He was dead.

When the Pale Wars ignited, the world became a wretched place, and everything went to hell. Some idiot assassinated the Votan's representative to the UN, and the world plummeted into chaos. The aliens had superior technology that we had to match or die trying; and with all the nuclear power plants that went online in order to compete with the alien's energy source, the opportunity for a major, world changing disaster increased by a thousand. I studied old articles about the war that Clancy kept on file in his archives in the back room of the jail. I don't know why the history of the war piqued my interest, but it did. Some of the events that took place that led up to the Pale Wars didn't have to happen in my humbled opinion. We had more than enough land to accommodate the aliens, but we were petty and greedy and fearful of the aliens. I hadn't even been born when the aliens first came to the planet, but it must have been a crazy day.

Defiance became one of the last vestiges of human and alien civilizations making a generous attempt to mend the wounds of the bloody war. The Arkfall eviscerated over three quarters of the human race, and the last of us formed communities with the more amicable Votans. Not all Votans had the same love for life.

Unfortunately, Defiance made plenty of missteps and mistakes that nearly caused the community to disintegrate. Whatever peace that existed in Defiance was tenuous for the longest time. The slightest waver in tensions could have easily sparked a mass exodus in Defiance, and even this very day, everybody has to work at it. The least pull or stretch or thump could easily sever that connection, and the community would dissolve. Whenever politics played a role, somebody always ended up hurt; and when Irainthient kids started dying from preventable diseases like the mumps and measles, the community felt they needed to do something. There wasn't anybody in the town with the ability to give the Irainthients a good enough reason to allow mass inoculations of their kids. Besides, the Irathients didn't have any reason to trust the humans, especially with rumors about reigniting the war floated through the air. In twenty thirty-eight, the Irathients saw inoculations as a way to sterilize the kids, and start the culling process of the Irathient people. I don't think any of the members of the Defiance community wanted to cull any of the Irathient people, but humans had a history of doing that. It caused fear and panic within the Irathient society of Defiance. Some of the Irainthients became hostile after Defiance made an attempt to inoculate their children behind their backs. The Irainthients took a firm stance against the mandatory shots, and the mayor ordered the Lawkeeper to confiscate any child who had parents that didn't comply. The mayor said that it was the responsibility of the community to ensure the children remained safe at all times. And if government couldn't do that much, then why should Defiance have a government? Unfortunately, the Irathient people didn't agree with that picture. They didn't like the government in their private lives, and they fought the inoculations every way imaginable.

Clancy told me this story when I first arrived in Defiance nearly six years ago. It pained me because I knew the Irainthient people, and I called an Irainthient lady Momma for many years. I knew the Castithans wouldn't be of any use in changing the mind of the Irainthient people because the Castithans seemed arrogant and full of hubris to the Irainthient people. The Irainthients picked up clubs and mallets against the people of Defiance in order to stand against mass inoculations, and the Lawkeeper replied with phasers and guns. It was a bloodbath that forced the Irainthients to leave Defiance in one big unified step. It was an unfortunate incident that pained Clancy, shamed the town, and put a wedge between humans and Iraithients that didn't have to be.

After Clancy's unfortunate death, I went through many of his things he kept hidden in the back room of his abode. It was nothing more than a shipping container atop the lawkeeper building, but it was his haven from the ruckus of a wild society. I knew he had a stash of old letters from his past, but I never had a desire to rummage through his possessions when he was alive. He didn't keep a lot of frivolous junk in his tiny house. He kept his hovel bare of anything that made a home a home, and kept only the necessities of life: food, some bedding, a few books, and the letters to the family he lost during the war. He wrote them letters even though they were long dead. He had a tattered picture of his daughter who would have turned thirty-five if she had survived the Battle of Tulsa. She had dark hair in the picture, and not even a scant of makeup on her face. But the Clancy that I knew wouldn't have wanted his daughter covered in gaudy clothes or ostentatious makeup. He kept things simple in case he needed to retreat into the wilderness, and set up a defensive posture against another invading force. He always told me never try to hold on to something that you're not willing to let go. It was a saying I heard reiterated by my Iraithient family.

Clancy often made mention of how swarms of Votans marched through the streets of Tulsa, and scorched thousands of people with their weapons. Clancy-a soldier from head to toe-fought off the invaders for a full day with only a handful of raggedy, stretched-out soldiers from his old unit. According to Clancy, he fought his way across the United States in order to try to save his family from the slaughter, but the aliens impeded his progress on the outskirts of the city. They had fortified machinery that seemed almost impervious to the rockets they used back in those days. He tried his best to extricate his family from the warzone of Tulsa, but failed in the process because of the toll the war took on his unit. The aliens moved into the area, and saturated the place with a bombardment of alien artillery that eviscerated everything in the area. But when the Arkfall happened, everything changed on the surface of the planet over a series of months, and pretty much wiped out billions of humans and aliens. Clancy's family perished in the process, and he tried to fill the void of his devastating loss by trying to teach me about the law. Clancy had already settled in Defiance when I made my way to the haven in the middle of nowhere.

I spent my first few years of life living with some street thugs until I found a group of Irathients who took me into their family. When I was with the street gang, we watched trade routes between Kansas and Oklahoma in order to capture supplies from the sparsely protected shipments. For a short while, they were my only family, and we were like cruel pirates. The only thing the gang ever let me eat was one small bowl of rice, and I hated rice. It clumped together and had some kind of mites in it. I wanted a little more than a bowl of white rice. The other members of the group ate meat, and teased me with it. They would taunt me with a piece of meat, and then push me to the floor when I tried to grab it. I hated it. Before the Arkfall on January 5, 2030 occurred, I tried stealing some meat from the gang's refrigerator, but they caught me, beat me, and locked me in a cellar for several days with nothing at all to eat-not even a bowl of rice. If I remembered correctly, the day I went into the cellar was January 2, 2030, and I cried for the first day. They formed a circle around me, and started kicking me repeatedly when they caught me clutching the meat. I curled into a ball, and tried to protect my head. I know the beating lasted only a few minutes, but it seemed like hours in retrospect. I was only five-years-old at the time, and hadn't eaten anything for nearly two days in that dusty basement. They treated me like a threat and a traitor, and some of the members wanted me dead. They called me dead weight because of my inability to do anything meaningful. They didn't take any mercy on me because of my age either. I had been told several times that I didn't get any meat with my meal until I earned it by stealing something worthwhile. And since I was too small for any real missions, I probably wouldn't have eaten meat until I turned ten or eleven.

At first, I thought madness overtook me when the ground started shaking uncontrollably inside the cellar. I felt as if somebody had turned the heat up in the basement because it got real hot. The walls of the basement warped into bizarre shapes, and an opening appeared in the ceiling. I could hear something ripping the ground apart, and I didn't know what to think. Suddenly, the floor underneath me bulged upward, and nearly crushed me into the ceiling. When I wiggled through the opening, the entire planet had changed into an unrecognizable disaster. Nothing looked the same as it did when I went into the basement. Mountains appeared where none existed and strange looking animals were all over the place. A rusty nail stuck up from the ground, and I accidentally stepped on it. It had protruded out of the cellar. It went through my shoe without any problems, punctured my foot, and I bled in my right shoe. I could feel the blood swishing around in the shoe, but I didn't notice it too much because of the man eating plants that grew out of the ground in front of my very little eyes. I tried finding solace with a group of angry Irathients. I spent several years living with the group of marauders, and learned how to scavenge parts when pieces of space debris fell to the earth. After the Arkfall, pieces of space junk fell to the earth daily, and we harvested the parts for money.

When it came to how the Irathients lived, I am ambivalent. It was hard judging them for doing what had to be done, especially when so many of their brothers and sisters died needlessly during the Arkfall. As a five-year-old kid, I didn't have an understanding of what caused the war or the politics behind it; but now that humans and Votans live in harmony in many regions of the world, I don't know why the world didn't give them a chance. On the other hand, I felt as if they never came to the planet in the first place, it would be a better planet today. But at the end of the day, I believe the Arkfall was nothing more than a tragic accident that happened to a chaotic and cruel world. But at the same time, I learned a lot about the Irathients' love for nature; and even though they had advance weapons, they would rather settle conflicts with a good old fashioned fist fight. If they didn't have to kill another creature, then they wouldn't. Killing wasn't necessarily the Irathient way of settling conflicts.

The Irathient lady who raised me for nearly fifteen years after the Arkfall was Iroza Tar. Bruised from the crumbling debris inside the shelter, I stepped on a rusty nail that went through my flimsy shoe, and into my right foot. Until this very day I can remember how painful it felt when that nail went into my foot. I stumbled haphazardly into their small work area on the outskirts of the city, and ran into Iroza and her band of marauders. They had stripped a piece of alien equipment for the precious metals and jewels, and were in the process of leaving the wretched area when I arrived on the scene. I had a puncture hole in my right foot that made walking extremely hard. Every time I took a breath, the throbbing pain grew worse. I remembered limping with a lot of excruciating pain, and when they were about to drive away, I screamed as loud as I could. Their vehicles stopped immediately, and then a woman in her mid twenties leaped out of one of the small buggies. She waved for me, and I staggered over to her small, rusty colored buggy. It took all my strength, the swinging of arms, and sweat to make it into that car. As soon as I sat in the passenger seat, she pulled the seat-belt over me, and said, "Safety first." Her flat nasal bridge and large, green eyes intrigued me. I couldn't stop staring at her when I jumped into her car. She looked over at me, and said, "What the hell, kid? It's not polite to stare."

"Sorry, ma'am."

She laughed for a minute. "Where's your parents?"

"Dead. They died a year ago," I said. She placed her right hand on my forehead, and then said, "What's wrong with you? You're burning up!"

"A nail went through my foot."

"Take off your shoe," she ordered. "What's your name?"

"Tommy."

"I'm Iroza," she said.

I pulled off the right shoe, the tattered sock, and the bottom of my foot was bright red. It hurt so badly that I couldn't touch it, and Iroza grimaced when she saw the hole in my foot. It throbbed, but I didn't cry. My shoe had blood in it from the wound, and Iroza shook her head as if she was in pain. She flipped up the center console in the vehicle, grabbed a white bottle, and handed it to me. "What this?"

"Spray it on your foot," She said in a strong guttural voice. "It'll heal it."

I sprayed the balsamaceous spray onto my right foot. It hurt so badly that I didn't want anything touching it. Apprehensively, I sprayed a little bit more of the healing spray on my foot. It turned into a white foam, and I didn't know what to expect. It made little bubbles around the sore spot, and caused a tingling sensation in my foot, and Iroza watched with a keen eye as it continued to foam. It didn't take longer than ten minutes before I didn't feel anything at all. My entire foot was covered in a white, soapy foam. Iroza took a white rag out of her jacket, wiped off my foot, and it was completely healed.

"Now isn't that better?" She asked.

When we pulled into their bivouac on the edge of the city, the Arkfall had decimated it. The fire burned everything, and the charred bodies looked as if they didn't have a chance of escaping the heat. Iroza placed her hands over her mouth, and tears flowed down her face. She looked distraught over the burning bodies in the middle of the field. The vehicles had come to a complete halt, and the Irathient male in the other vehicle looked at the burning tents in disbelief. We hopped out of the buggy, and Iroza looked at the burning encampment, and asked softly, "Did the humans blow up the arks?"

Irocuz had a disheveled look about him with his hair styled wolfishly on his head. He looked up at the fire for a moment, and then he looked down at the ground. "Our people are dead." Another Arkfall lit up the night sky, and Iroza pushed me back in the buggy. Her and the rest of the crew drove to another location when a mountain grew up out of the ground. It scared me because I didn't know what was going on, and the ground shook beneath the buggy. Fire filled the sky, and it was the first and only time I had ever seen Iroza cry.

"It'll be okay," Iroza said. She appeared to grin a bit, but then she had a serious look on her face when another piece of the Votan's ships entered the atmosphere. The entire sky lit up from the flare of the burning arks, and the planet rumbled, and changed before my eyes.

After Clancy's death, Amanda appointed Jeb as the new Chief Lawkeeper, and I understood why she put him in charge. It wasn't necessarily a trust issue with me, but sometimes I wondered about that. Perhaps she had something special in her heart for the man because of his strong will to succeed. Even though Jeb came off as being the durable, alpha male type with a weather-beaten face, he had a compassionate side, and had the maturity to work any situation to his advantage. But when it came to my trustworthiness, I sometimes wondered if Amanda truly trusted me because of my past. My past forced people to question my judgement when it came to the Irathient marauders, and I didn't expect anybody ever to give me a chance. I have to admit that I felt partial when it came to the Irathient people. They had the advantage in my mind because I was raised by an Irathient woman. My best memories were scavenging for parts with my family, and learning about farming. Sometimes I felt as if one mistake would put me back on the streets.

Clancy trained me well, but I didn't have the experience needed to take charge of the jail, and I knew that. I'd be the first to admit that. I wanted the job, but I quickly realized balancing the law between the races took experience and understanding that I hadn't developed on a sensory level. I didn't trust the Castithans on any level, and that might have come from my years with the Irathients. Every day I tried not to let what Iroza taught me about them affect my judgement, but then I met people like Datak Tarr, the people of the Hollows, and the political conniving, and it legitimized Iroza's disdain for them in my mind. But at the same time, Datak was only one man, and one man didn't have the ability or the right to set the example for an entire race. Jeb had the practical experience Defiance needed in order to make the tough decisions, the decisions that nobody else wanted to make. If a person didn't have the gall to make the hard decisions, then they probably shouldn't assume command of anything. A good leader attempts to make decisions that help complete the mission. Unfortunately, sometimes completing the mission meant sacrificing certain members of the team in order to do that. Jeb, on the other hand, had the capacity to sacrifice members of his team in order to accomplish the objective. That was how he survived for so long in the wilderness of North America.

Unfortunately, his Irathient daughter, Irisa Nyira, kept quiet most of the time. She was the kind of girl that brooded all the time about life, and took exception to anybody touching her. Smart, independent, and feisty-all the qualities that make her a good soldier, but her loyalties were with Jeb, but not with her people. In fact, she praised Jeb for killing her parents, and that floored me without question. If Jeb died, she wouldn't stick around the city of Defiance for long. She seemed like an abled young woman, and had the gift of knowing how to use a knife. But as far as her dedication to anything worthy, I just didn't know where her loyalties were. I'd like to believe she would stand and fight with Defiance if it ever came down to it, but she seemed more like a runner. Her gutteral voice sometimes caused me to stop what I was doing in order to listen to her words. She wasn't the type of girl to mask her voice with soft sounds, but she roared like a tigress at times. Sometimes I wondered if her aggressive behavior was a result of her Irathient DNA, but I didn't know. There was something about her that I liked immensely, but I couldn't find the reason why. It's highly probably that she reminded me of Iroza. Besides, there weren't too many women walking around Defiance my age; and the ones that were close to me in age, I assumed some lucky guys already claimed them for themselves. But at the same time, I recognized that Irisa was a lost soul like me before she ever spoke a word. Sometimes she felt standoffish, and kept apart from the rest of the citizens including myself. Her green, tiger like eyes told a story of horror and pain; and this might sound strange, but my soul desired her soul, my spirit thirsted for her spirit. It's a crazy thought, but she's the girl I was chasing in my dreams. Her feline like features amazed me, and I found her reddish orange hair desirable. I don't know why my heart turned into an open sore when she came around me, but I relaxed my guard like an idiot because of how I felt about her. Sometimes I gazed in the mirror at myself, and thought, "You're a madman."

Irisa, heavy eyes and an angry stare, propped her chair firmly against Jeb's desk, and fell asleep one night when we were on duty. It was the first time that she felt comfortable enough to relax while in my presence. No matter what, she had a hard time finding her comfort zone in front of other people. So, I refused to take it personal when she snapped at me for getting too close. She told me a few times that I smelled like burning shtako, but I didn't pay that any attention. It was some kind of defense mechanism she used in order to keep her distance from me. She had written a few words in her diary earlier that day, but she spent nearly four hours without saying a single word to me. She looked like an innocent, almost harmless little girl as she tried to find a comfortable spot in the old, steel chair, and she finally placed her head on the desk after struggling to stay awake for nearly thirty minutes. She looked cold. I felt the need to take off my jacket, place it over her shoulders, and she didn't flinch at all. It amazed me because she was as shaky as a wild cat-ready to strike at anything that breached her perimeter, but she didn't move. I saw her nose wiggle from the smell of my cologne, but she took my jacket, and wrapped it tighter around her body, and readjusted in the chair. I kind of smiled at her for a moment, and then she spoke.

"Stop staring, fool!"

I backed away from her because I knew she felt uneasy in my presence, but I didn't fully understand why. From what I could tell, she didn't like too many people breaching her perimeter.

Chapter 2

Jeb received a call from Kenya, the person who runs the NeedWant, in order to remove a rowdy Irathient visitor from the premises. She hadn't had a good week since a hellbug creeped its way into one of her sex chambers-killing a long time customer. It wasn't easy seeing how disturbed the tragic incident made her because she hid it with high quality makeup and a fake smile. She was an avid professional when it came to running the NeedWant. These calls happened almost nightly because of some out-of-control Ivali card game. The majority of time the person being arrested probably was the victim in the mess, but the regulars usually stuck together. The bar regulars weren't about to let an outside person disrupt the functioning of the NeedWant. There were an infinite number of reasons for somebody going off in the bar. It usually had to do with some kind of misunderstanding over a card game or payment for services. Sometimes an individual tried to redact on his payment for services rendered, and that was an automatic fine and a few nights in jail. Once the bar and customer negotiated the price, the deal was signed, and legitimized by all parties involved. It was against the law of Defiance in order to try to redact any written contracts without the written consent of all parties involve. If any party tried to renege on a written contract, then that meant some serious jail time.

Jeb sent Irisa and I over to the NeedWant approximately around ten-thirty in the evening because of a rowdy Irathient stranger who asked about black market weapons. Kenya stated the man was persistent, and threatened some of her customers for not helping him. The report sounded kind of strange to me, especially since the majority of Irathients didn't want anything to do with Defiance; and everybody knew the local weapons dealer was Datak Tarr. The majority of Irathients tolerate the Castithans, but they didn't like to deal with them on a casual basis. Something must have been out of control in this Irathient's life in order to think about making a deal with a Castithan. Irisa had several weapons on her person, but they were all hidden. She looked weaponless the majority of times until she had to flex her muscles. Everybody recognized her as Jeb's lead deputy-even when she didn't wear a shield. She wore her shield most of the time on duty, and loved her lawkeeper uniform. The rest of the deputies wore their shields with pride too, but for some reason, Irisa kept her shield polished. I don't think any of the other lawkeepers polished their shields. I didn't. I think she may have felt some pride working for Jeb, but I couldn't be sure without asking her.

When Irisa and I stepped into the NeedWant, I saw an irascible Irathient screaming at the top of his lungs, and causing a raucous in the place. He threw a few chairs across the room and tipped over several tables. One of the Castithans in the back of the room had his charge blade out of its sheath. He was in a fighting position, and Irisa immediately ordered him to put his weapon away.

"Put it away," she screamed at the Castithan with the charge blade out of its sheath.

It didn't take more than a quick glance to know exactly who the man with the wolfish orange hair was; it was Irocuz, my adoptive father. He had on his war face. Immediately, he stopped screaming when he saw me, and I walked over to him without saying a word. He placed his arms out in order to show me that he didn't have any weapons, and I handed Irisa my weapon.

"What the hell are you doing?" She asked.

I gave Irocuz a hug, and he called me son, and Irisa had a look of disbelief on her face. "Father, ... where's Momma?"

He had a grievous look on his face, and then said, "I don't know. We were separated when the Volge attacked our encampment."

The pain of hearing that my Momma might be dead or at the mercy of the Volge sent a pain directly to my heart. I fell backwards onto a chair with tears streaming down my face because I knew the Volge captured wayward souls in the Badlands, beat them, and then turned them into slaves. They had tons of disfranchised people busting rocks about two hours north of Defiance.

"What's wrong with you?" Irisa asked with a grimace on your face.

"My Momma is missing," I said. She had a blank stare on her face, but that didn't bother me. "I can't let her die."

"Wait? So, your mom is Irathient?" She asked in disbelief.

"We raised Tommy as one of us," Irocuz said, "He's my son."

"That explains a lot," Irisa said, "It really does."

My father, Irisa, and I walked over to the jail, and had a candid talk with Jeb about my family's history, and he too had a look of disbelief on his face. I thought he simply had a hard time believing that my step parents were Irathients, but it was true. They raised me like an Irathient child, and taught me how to fight with a charge blade, rifles, and assault weapons. Since my parents remained in the Badlands for a number of years after the Arkfall, we didn't know the war had stopped. They continued the fight until we ran across a family of humans starving in the Badlands. They had lost one of their kids when a gaggle of hellbugs tried attacking them, and the elements nearly killed the rest of them. My Momma insisted that we give them water and food-even with my Father's vociferous objections.

At the same time, Jeb understood my concerns, but didn't want to involve Defiance's officers in the matter. He said something about it wouldn't be prudent for Defiance to involved itself in Volge matters. Nobody wanted to wander into the Badlands without the proper men, equipment, and motivation, but my Momma's life depended upon my defiance. Even though the Arkfall happened nearly sixteen-years-ago, nobody knew all the devilish creatures in the Badlands. But at the same time, I couldn't let Jeb's inaction get in the way of prying my Momma from the clutches of the Volge. I knew exactly who I had to contact in order to get the weapons needed in order to fight the Volge. The only person with the connections needed in order to buy a stockpile of weapons for a reasonable price was Datak Tarr. Unfortunately, I knew my father wouldn't accept any help-weapons or anything else-from the likes of Datak Tarr. He despised the Castithans.

"This is my mother, sir," I said in a strong voice.

"I know, Tommy, but I can't risk it."

I pulled off my badge and guns, laid them on his desk, and walked out the jail with my father. The way the badge made a clunking sound when it hit in the center of Jeb's desk repeatedly played in my mind. I couldn't believe I just quit the force without thinking twice about it. The funny thing about walking out of the jailhouse without my badge was this: I loved being an officer of the law more than anything, anything except the love I had for my Momma. Jeb made like he understood my reasoning for going on a suicide mission into the Badlands, but he didn't. He sat behind his desk with a stoic look on his face, but he couldn't understand my innate desire to protect my adoptive mother. On the way out the jailhouse, I looked at Irisa, and she wouldn't look me in the eyes. I don't know if she felt torn over the entire situation, but I knew her loyalty was with Jeb, and I understood that. Her orange hair covered half of her face, but I could still see the weary look in her eyes. I wondered if she was brooding over the fact that I had quit my job or if she had reservations for not assisting my Father and I in the Badlands. She kept staring at the ground with an uncomfortable look about her, but I couldn't blame her. My Father and I wanted to free my Momma from the Volge, and that in itself meant a suicidal mission. Besides, I knew Irisa didn't have any loyalty to the Irathients because Jeb-a human soldier- raised her. What would she know about the Irathient culture? She had nothing but praise for the man who killed her parents, and I had some serious reservations about that. I liked Irisa; but if she didn't have any true attachment to the Irathient people, then I couldn't expect her to assist my Father and I on this mission.

I stood outside the Lawkeeper's jailhouse contemplating my next move. Datak Tarr-a Castithan boss- ran the underground gun trade out of the Hollows, and now I had to go to the man I despised the most for help. The Hollows-broken down houses and crime-wasn't a place any man wanted to be after hours. Many people referred to it as the most despicable place on the planet because all items purchased from their came from the underground markets. Since Defiance didn't have that many lawkeepers, we couldn't keep a keen eye on the wrongdoings in the Hollows. We had to give them leeway on many illicit behaviors because their corrupt money helped furnish the town with beautiful amenities. Datak Tarr was one of the only few who had access to better weapons than the lawkeeper's sidearm. I needed a more powerful weapon that could eviscerate any Volge that decided to get in my way. Unfortunately, if Datak Tarr gave me the weapons I needed, then I would owe him something in the future. Nothing was free in the Hollows.

I had never seen Datak carry out a mission in order to retrieve dues owed him, but I had heard scurrilous stories about his collection methods. When I first arrived in Defiance, Clancy had Datak in jail on a claim that he pulled a Castithan female's fingers off on her right hand. The woman became hostile in the court proceedings, and refused to testify against the man. I saw a straight-faced, one handed Castithan woman in the market, and that pretty much confirmed my story, at least in my mind. A part of me wanted to ask her what happened to her hand, but I felt it would be rude to recognize any stranger's frailties.

On the outside, Datak didn't appear to live in a lavish home; but beyond the front door, he had the best house in all of defiance. When I walked up to his door, a bio-man man approached me in a hostile manner. Grinding teeth, gray skin, and very muscular-he grabbed my father, threw him to the ground, and kicked him. When he put his hands on me, my Father leaped to his feet, slid underneath him, and punched him in his off switch. It put the large, bio-man face down on the ground, and a much easier victory than I could have imagined. The key to subduing a bio-man was knowing the model, the location of the off switch, and reaching the off switch.

"That'll teach him," Irocuz said. He had a grimace on his face, and watched the bio-man closely. When we looked up, Datak Tarr had his charge blade drawn on us with an angry scowl on his face.

"What do you want, lawkeeper?" He asked.

"Need weapons," I said in a stern voice.

"I have no weapons except this," he said with a tout look about him. "Why would you ever think I had illicit weapons?"

"Don't play me, Datak. The Volge kidnapped my Momma."

"Don't beg this Castithan, son," Irocuz said, "They all stink of hubris."

"Son? See, I said that you acted like an Irathient when you came to town all those years ago, but Clancy was sure you were in a gang," he said with a laugh. "Too bad he's dead because I love being right."

"What about it?" I asked.

He stood looking down the alley for a second, and then said, "Follow me." He took us into a small building behind his house that went down into the ground. I didn't even know the place existed; but at the same time, Clancy never let me patrol the Hollows; it was part of his rounds. Datak took us into a room with several tables that had green tarps over them. He pulled the tarps off the tables one by one, and had a slew of military weapons like I had never seen in my entire life. He had several po-tech guns that I used on my job as a lawkeeper, but I liked the look of the assault rifles. The po-tech weapons were pretty much useless against the Volge's superior armor. Po-tech meant poor technology, and they were the old human weapons that the humans used the first few years of the war. He had several high capacity magazines that I would need because it would take a lot of rounds to penetrate the Volge's armor with a po-tech weapon. But when Datak pulled the tarp off the last table, he had a fleet of cold fire weapons, the same technology used by the Volge. The guns had the power to incinerate a target on the spot. Datak opened up a black box, and pulled out three charge blades, place them on the table, and then said, "I'll give you five cold fire weapons and two charge blades for free."

"Free?" I asked.

"Yes," he said with a smile on his face. "Think of it as a fair trade for the death of Clancy."

Chapter Three

The guard let down the stasis net for a split second so we could drive out the city of Defiance into the Badlands. I knew this was probably my last opportunity to see the place, so I didn't look back as I drove out the gate in my father's conveyance. Why would I look back anyway? I didn't need anything stopping me from my mission, and everything to my rear was nothing more than a distraction to everything to my front. My Father remained quiet the entire time until he looked up, and asked, "Isn't that your girlfriend?"

"Huh?" I looked over on the side of the trail, and it was Irisa in her lawkeeper body armor. We drove over to her, and I asked, "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for your slow ass," she snapped, handed me my badge, and then said, "Let's ride."

When Irisa hopped into my father's car, she had a calmly look about her for some reason. I don't know why I felt the way I did at the most inappropriate time, but she looked so peaceful and beautiful. Even though I felt that way, the last thing I wanted to do was let her know about it. She'd probably punch me in the throat or something in order to set my mind straight.

After a two hour drive over some of the roughest terrain I had ever driven, I could see a group of humans and Irathients chained together. It looked like they were clearing rocks, and building some kind of structure. I looked through my po-tech binoculars, and my father looked over at me, and asked, "That's some old tech right there, son." He pulled out a scope, and said, "Try this."

When I looked through his more advanced scope, I could actually see scars on the prisoner's faces. It didn't take me too long to spot my Momma. She looked like somebody pulled a lot of the hair out of her head. Her face appeared to be emaciated.

"I see her," I said softly. I handed the scope to my Father.

"She's looking bad," he said.

Irisa stepped out of the vehicle, looked at the prisoners with my po-tech binoculars, and said, "Looks like two guards," she said, "I can come up from the rear..."

"Okay..."

She pulled out one of the cold fire weapons, checked her load, and then said in a raspy voice, "Give me thirty?"

"You got it," I said. She trotted off down the hill, and kept herself low to the ground. She was very athletic. I wanted to tell her good luck, but she was already gone by the time I had a chance to say anything. I worried about her the entire way down the hill because the Volge wasn't a predictable group of people. They collected travelers of different races, and put them to work doing menial labor or slave work. The Volge ran their slave encampments with ruthlessness, fear, and murder. The Volge-warlike and brutal-killed thousands of humans with their fierce fighting during the war. None of the other races in the Votanis Collective knew the Volge were on the arks. It was highly probable that they caused the Arkfall, but nobody truly knew the answer to that.

My Father and I drove to the other side of the hill, and then exited the vehicle. We could hear one of the guards yelling at one of the workers, and then I heard a laser blast. It sent a chill through my body because I didn't know who that guard shot. I looked over at my Momma from behind the rock, and I felt good that it wasn't her. Some of the other workers screamed because the animal killed a slave. It didn't take us long to make it down the hill, and I spotted the guard pacing. I could see Momma from behind a large rock, and she had a look of utter fear on her face. I hated to see Momma looking so raggedy, but what else could I expect? I took out the charge blade because the laser had the ability to cut through the chains. A loud scream-gun fire in the distance-startled me. My father and I ran towards the Volge guard who turned in the direction of the scream, and I lit him up with my weapon. He turned to dust in front of my face. When I ran over to my Momma, she looked at me for a moment, and then placed her arms around me. At first, I wondered if she'd recognized me, but she didn't have any problems.

"Thought I'd never see you again," she said with tears streaming down her face.

My Father walked over to us, and we all held each other. Irisa walked up behind me, and said, "Touching, but we gotta go before the Volge command checks on its guards."

I took the charge blade, cut the chains, and Irisa and I cut all the prisoners free. We zoomed out of the area, and back to Defiance.

When it came to saving my Momma from the Volge, I didn't have time to flounder around with nonsensical things. It felt good to free her from the clutches of the evildoers. We sat down at the NeedWant for a few hours, and I begged my parents to stay in Defiance, but they didn't have any desire for that. My mother wanted to find a plot of land, cultivate it, grow a garden, and farm. It was her dream. I rode with them to the Bissel Pass, and gave my Momma a deep, long lasting hug, and she said, "Irathient women can be stubborn, son."

"I know, Momma."

"I'm just saying. Give Irisa time," she said in a caring voice, "She'll see you're a gem."

I smiled.

"When you're done with lawkeeping, you come home," she said, "You come home..."

"I will, Momma."

17