Political Constraints and Chemical Floods

Chapter 1

SirNi

His nemesis had leapt into the bullet's trajectory. John Crichton had summoned a wormhole weapon, the object that Scorpius had sought after for more years than he could count. It had been his dream ever since he had seen the scientific theories, and had suspected that such a thing could be achieved. He had never suspected the horror it had shown him and the galaxy.

The wormhole weapon had frightened the Peacekeepers, by bounds the strongest faction of the Sebacean species, and the Scarrens, the strongest and most monstrous of all the species in the known galaxy. They had created a peace after their war, the title both ironic and showing that, indeed, the Scarrens had come out ahead once again.

But Scorpius knew that there was a limit to the weapons of destruction, and some things must never be unleashed ever again. Crichton had used the knowledge implanted in his mind and designed the horror, and the weapon was known, for all time, as Crichton's Wormhole. The weapon had been on the very edge of his own name.

Atoning, Scorpius had created a starship, the Iresa, and sent it into a region of space he had never before seen. Perhaps he could find his answers there. Perhaps he might never find them. But he had to try. He had a deep empty place in his soul, and had to fill it with a new goal. More than anything, the Iresa served as that for the moment, and the repairs harshly scratched his soul.

The woman didn't help, either. Scorpius cursed in the language of the Scarrens and flung a wrench at her above his head. The woman, as always, caught it.

"Let me be," Scorpius said. "Get away from me, traitor."

Sikozu didn't answer him. She never did. She waited behind him, arrogant and certain that he could understand her betrayal. But he didn't, and he couldn't. She had joined the Scarrens, a stain on her otherwise wonderful personality. There were lines that a person should not cross.

Scorpius crawled further into the tunnel and darted his light back and forth. The bilge tubes, not for the first time, had been acting up, and the smell had made him mad. Were the smell not so intense and overwhelming, he could have appreciated the heat, and the pleasing discomfort it washed across his body.

However, the smell was horrible, and he found himself barely able to keep from gagging. Sikozu held a filtration mask in her hands, and wore another, but he vowed not to show any weakness. He could not allow the woman even a small victory. The leather mask he wore rubbed harshly against his strong but parched features.

He wriggled further onward, surprised that he could go on. The entire world was heat and leather and a miserable smell. He breathed through his nostrils as much as he could, and, at last, toppled into the bilge pit.

Sikozu waited within the tunnel, holding the mask. Usually she whirled it around, playing with him, but she realised that he was not feeling at all up to his usual. Scorpius chanced a peek at her and felt a surge of conflict at the betrayal she had set on him. She was beautiful, and sadistic.

Sikozu's new outfit, after the Peacekeeper war, combined both the warrior approach she had used for them, and the outfit she had used when he had at first met her. He found himself impressed that he couldn't quite analyze hat the materials and construction represented. Obviously, she was different, but he couldn't tell what the precise difference said about the woman's personality.

Her crimped hair was a contradiction, because it was short and shadowed her face. The woman wore a tight-fitting rubber corset. With long sleeves and a tall neck, it was mostly black and opaque. Eight horizontal lines of bright red sliced through the outfit, pressed a little within it, creating a mysterious effect that he ignored. She wore rubber gloves, and military boots.

He forced sexual thoughts from his mind, and continued with his work. The woman stood at the top where he had left, waiting patiently.

Scorpius sloshed further into the pit of bilge, panting at the heat and the stench. It yanked at his legs with every step, forcing a long march to his destination, on the opposite side of the pit. He held both of his hand out wide, barely holding on to his balance, and finally reached the machine.

He groped at his belt to reach the wrench, found it, and worked on shoving aside the steel panel which could show him what he required. It fell off, toppled into the pit, but Scorpius kept his mind off it. At some point, the panel should be replaced, but he didn't want to think about immersing himself. The smell, as horrible as anything he had ever smelled, became overwhelming, and he puked.

"Think you want the mask?" Sikozu asked.

Scorpius didn't turn around. He spun the gear and slowly forced it to the working position. Anything involving sheer muscle power represented a challenge and he held down his Scarren side. His Sebacean muscles had to do every part of the work. The monsters could not win, even in the slightest.

"Sir," said the communicator on his wrist.

Scorpius roared at the disruption of his concentration. He saw nothing but the warm signatures of the waste beneath him and the cold metal of the starship. The muscles of his arms lashed out and spun the gear into its original position. Scorpius peered at it, angry at his inability to keep his emotions controlled.

He sighed, breathing deeply.

"Yes, Iresa," Scorpius said. "What do you wish to tell me?"

"You set my pathfinding into autopilot," Iresa, the Leviathan mind connected to his starship, replied. The mind had not came easily, and the story had been exciting, but he had told her that she could go back when he was done with her.

"Yes? What about it?"

Iresa replied with a sigh. "Do you know where we are, Scorpius?"

"I'm afraid I don't," Scorpius said.

"We're in the Fifth Sector," Iresa said.

Scorpius knew many things, but he had learned that the galaxy could always present something new, no matter how much you had thought you knew. "What's the Fifth Sector?"

"When can you arrive on the bridge?" Iresa said.

"I'm almost finished with the repairs down here," Scorpius said.

"Good," Iresa said.

Scorpius breathed deeply, shoved himself into the pit, and roamed around to locate the panel. He got up again, waste smeared on him, and replaced the panel above the gear. He frowned at Sikozu, with enough anger that she realised what was on his mind. She crawled backward from the room.

Scorpius spit the waste onto his hand. He peered at it, and realised the feces had not been from a creature he had ever met. He tossed the feces back into the bilge and lifted his wrist.

"I might be a bit," Scorpius said. "I need to wash."

"Since when are you ever crazy about cleanliness?"

Scorpius pondered an answer, but simply sloshed back through the bilge.

Within the shower, Scorpius realised that he had been thinking of Sikozu and worked to keep the thoughts from consuming him. Though passionate at times, they had had a calm love, between people of equal intellect and treachery. Roasting temperatures presented the strongest passion between them, and they often had difficulty keeping themselves controlled within the shower.

Scorpius found it amusing, and wanted to forget it. When he entered the command, with a fresh coolant rod and a scowl, Sikozu crept away from him. The rubber outfit appeared dazzling from the lights on the primary window, and he wondered why emotions he had long ago forgotten were coming again to his mind.

"Tell me about this sector," Scorpius said. "Do you have a starchart?"

"Yes, but it isn't complete and is out of date," Iresa said.

Scorpius crossed his arms. "Tell me what you know. Then set it on screen."

"A conflict has raged on this sector perhaps twenty years. It's been covert, mostly, the news seems to say, and I can only find traces of information. On one side, there's a Sebacean police captain, and the other a criminal syndicate. Neither has achieved progress above the other, and they keep going back and forth," Iresa said.

Scorpius was hardly interested. "Why should I know about this?"

"These people have a war on their hands," Iresa said. "We're in the center of it. Each side perhaps controls a hundred capitol ships and ten planets."

"That's a decent scale," Scorpius said. "Do they want to win above the other? They don't have another goal?"

"I think that's the goal," Iresa said. "That isn't why you're interested."

"There aren't Scarrens here?" Scorpius said.

Iresa made a soft hmpfing noise. "They aren't, sir."

"They aren't chasing us?" Scorpius said.

"No traces of hostile ships."

Scorpius spun around and began walking. "Then continue your flight, Iresa. Don't contact me before you locate some interesting thing. You know what appeals to me. I programmed my goals into your circuits."

"The war is covert," Sikozu said.

Scorpius hesitated.

"It's covert. It's a war waiting for another power," Sikozu said.

Scorpius hissed. "You're suggesting that I play a part in their struggles?"

"Yes," Sikozu said. "You need a distraction, something to get your mind off your problems."

"And you need to prove yourself," Scorpius said.

"I am already confident," Sikozu said, and he felt warm at the sharp edge. "You need to find some, Scorpius, and I have said that I shall stay by you."

"This is partly you, then," Scorpius said. "I have more important things to keep my attention. Good try, but that was all that was."

Sikozu curled her hands into fists.

"Scorpius," Iresa said.

"On screen," Scorpius said.

The starship looked little, like a transport from a Leviathan.

"We are being followed," Scorpius said. "I had figured on that. Captain of unknown transport, tell us your identity."

"I am a messenger for the mistress," said a scratchy Sheyang's voice.

"Mistress?" Scorpius said.

"Please. She'll punish me."

"She wants to talk with me?"

"She knows who you are. You are Scorpius, the half-breed Peacekeeper."

"Former Peacekeeper," Scorpius said. "Tell me about your mistress."

"You'll have to go to her."

"Alone? Or am I allowed to bring a bodyguard?" Scorpius said.

"Bring whoever you want. She doesn't mind, she says."

"All right, then," Scorpius said. "Dock with me, Sheyang. But be warned. I'll subject you and your starship with a weapons inspection."

"Yes. The same as you, when you have your introductions with the mistress."

"Inspection?" Sikozu said. "You want to touch a disgusting slimy creature?"

"You're my bodyguard. That's your duty," Scorpius said.

Sikozu shivered. "Yeec."

"We have a war," Scorpius said. "Get on with it."