Chapter 35

Garden of Minos, The Bear's Den

They dropped down a few ships away from the Den of Bears, so that they could be spotted on their approach. From more than a ship away Jinx could hear the commotion going on inside after they'd been spotted and hoped that it wasn't anything bad.

They slowed down their approach as they got nearer, coming to a casual walk. As they did, they could see a couple of familiar faces looking down at them, each with a different expression, from the open scowl of the Commandant, to the happy expression on Alezander's face, it seemed that some of them were more welcoming than others.

"That is close enough." The Commandant barked as they got near the edge of the ship "What make you think you welcome after you flee?"

"Like we told you, we had business to attend to." Gaige called back lightly.

"And now that you are done, what? You think to move in here?"

"Not at all, we came here to discuss something with you."

"And what could that be?"

"Something that would probably be best discussed in private."

The old man glared at them, probably thinking about what he'd have to do if they were trying to stage a coup or if not that, then how to get them to stay.

"Oh, just let them in." Came a familiar voice from off to the side "They came back didn't they."

Alec didn't take her eyes off her dad as she walked up, meeting his glare with a flat, cold stare of her own.

"If nothing more, hear them out, they might have news from outside our area." Alezander added.

"Very well, but you two take responsibility if anything happen." He turned and limped away with a curt hand gesture to open the door.

The gate slowly opened and as soon as it did, they found the siblings waiting for them.

"I see you found the others." Alec said as they walked up "Still, you took a big risk coming back like this."

"Thanks for sticking up for us."

"Do not make me regret it." She cut back tersely, but with a slight smile at the corners of her mouth.

"Ease off them." Alezander said with a smile "It's good to see you again."

Gaige caught the look he was giving them and shook her head, trying to figure out how she was going to break the news to him.

"We should not keep the Commandant waiting. This way." Alec said, cutting her brother off and leading them deeper into the base.

"Before we get there, there's a few other people that need to be present for this." Gaige said, causing the siblings to stop and look at her.

"Who?"

"Well, you two for sure, and then, let's see, Verichenko is a must, as is Istivan. Other than that, anyone that makes decisions around here."

"So, you want a full command meeting."

"Sure, if that's what it's called."

"This will be hard to do, and the Commandant will not be happy to have it called without his permission. He will think that you are trying to usurp his command."

"This has nothing to do with that. I'm just trying to make sure that the truth isn't covered up."

"What's she talking about?" Alezander whispered to Jinx, who turned to him with a bit of a cold expression before answering.

"You'll have to wait and see, not sure what she's plannin myself."

Alec shook her head and said "As much as I would like to help, I cannot call them. I must take you to see the Commandant now, you can bring it up with him." She paused and didn't look around at the expedition troops and mechanics standing around, many of whom were eying the cannon strapped to the robots back, before adding to no one in particular "Though if they were to show up on their own business, that would be a very convenient coincidence."

She turned and continued forward, but at a slower pace than before. Gaige noticed a couple of people remove themselves from the crowd and hustle off. She shook her head, it wasn't subtle, but it seemed to have gotten the job done.

Eventually they made their way to the Commandant's room, where they found not just Veichenko and Istivan waiting, but another two people they didn't remember being introduced to before, a hard looking man with a heavy scar across the top of his shaved head and a rail of a woman with sunken eyes that gave them an appraising look.

"It seems you will have to wait." The Commandant said when they entered "Others seem to think they need things now."

"No." The scared man said "We just want to hear what they have to say."

"We so rarely get new information." Istivan added with a smile.

The Commandant glared at them all "Room get too crowded." He growled.

"Babe, can you wait outside?" Gaige said, putting a hand on Deathtrap's arm. He nodded and reached out to take their packs before they headed in, to the glowering of the Commandant.

"Now," He said, trying to wrest control of the situation back "What is so important that everyone need hear, but not everyone out there?"

"Well." Gaige said, looking around "I guess the first thing I should tell you is that we're gonna get outta here."

The crowd didn't look impressed, in fact the man with the scars looked like he was about to leave, but Verichenko put a hand on his arm and shook his head to stop him.

"If you want die, do yourself." The Commandant said dismissively.

"Oh, I think you should listen." Gaige said, carrying on like nothing had happened "After all, you aren't going to be able to stay here much longer."

That got their attention, but not in a good way.

"You threaten us? You come here for this?"

"No, no, not threaten, warn. You see the way I see it is this, things are deteriorating around here. Take for instance how often have your expedition troops been attacked by the bandit group, the, uh..."

"The Rust Devils." Alezander offered.

"Yeah, them? How often have they attacked and has that rate gone up recently, say the past few months or years?"

All the eyes in the room turned to Alezander, the head of the expedition troops. He placed a hand to his chin and thought about it before answering "Well, it used to be that we'd see a group of them once in a while, maybe every fifth to tenth expedition, though we could usually avoid them. But yeah, they've gone up recently, I think I gave a report on that a few weeks ago, we're seeing them once every third or so trip, and they're in larger numbers than before."

"That's what I thought." Gaige said, turning back to the Commandant "They're getting desperate. See, there's only a finite amount of resources around here, and they have fewer than you'd think since they often can't get into the ships, at least not without a lot of effort, which means that they've got to raid further and further out, trying to catch whatever they can. It won't be long before they make a large-scale push here, to try and take everything they can."

"We will stop them. We have troops, we have guns, and now, we have Bears."

"Yes, but at what cost." That got the others muttering to themselves, and Gaige waited a moment to let them stew before dropping the next bomb. "And that's not the only thing you've got to worry about, the Bloody Gear clan will be coming before long as well."

"Hah, they can no reach us, impossible for to cross creature area."

"Yeah, it is. Or at least it would be, except the creature is dead."

That got them all talking and a bit of a panic was setting in until the Commandant slammed his hand down on the desk, silencing them.

"Lies." He declared, spittle flying "Creature not dead. Creature can not be killed."

"It's dead." Gaige replied in the same tone she'd been talking in.

"How do you know?" Alec asked.

"Cause we killed it."

This time not even the Commandant smashing his cane onto his desk could quiet them down. The noise was loud enough that Deathtrap threw the door open to make sure that nothing bad was happening.

Eventually the group started to quiet down as Gaige held up her hands and waved them about.

"ENOUGH!" She shouted over the cries of "Why?" and "How?" and when the room had settled down enough, she continued "You all seem to be having trouble with this, but it's the truth, the creature's dead and nothing, no amount of screaming or denial is gonna change that."

"But how we trust you? You could be lying, after all, you say you want our help, so convenient lie to get us to join your suicide. Is possible, no?"

"You're right, it could be possible, but it's not. I could bring a piece of it out, but you'd just claim that it's from some other trophy from the ship. But what if I'm not? What if I'm telling the truth? How long do you think you can stand against both of the clans?"

"If you faced this thing like you claim, then what was it?" The woman said.

"I believe it was called a, no, the Luring Orochi."

"And that's supposed to mean anything?" The scar headed man asked "You could just have made that up."

Artemis spoke up in a soft voice "Then ask us anything about it."

"And you can just make anything up in reply."

"I'll ask." Alezander interjected "First, how does it kill from so far away?"

"It doesn't kill from far away. It lures its prey in to it. It draws in air through a number of its heads into a series of air bladders that it uses to push the air out through, creating a subharmonic frequency that addles the brain of its victim, causing them to walk right up to it in a stupor."

"Wait, what?" Alec said, shifting to look at her "If that is the case, how would you fight it?"

"Headphones. We had to fight wearing headphones." Gaige said.

"You are making things up." The Commandant said.

"No, that actually makes sense." Istivan said, obviously thinking about what they'd said "I mean, why else would we need two layers of walls?"

"It could release toxins that addle the brain?" Suggested the scar headed man.

"No, cause that would've been beat by the masks some of the bandits wear." Alezander countered.

"I still do not believe them." He retorted.

"I do." Alec said, crossing her arms.

"So do I." Alezander said.

"Not that my opinion matters, but I agree." Istivan said.

"Hmm." Verichenko murmured, stroking his chin "I want to believe, they have not lied yet to me. But if it is true, I would ask why. Why did you kill it?"

"Eh, we needed something from one of the ships that was in its area." Gaige said with a shrug. "Well, that and we kinda needed to get rid of it, I mean, she's a hunter and that things a legendary beast."

"And that gun the robot has, that is one of the things from that ship?"

"Yup."

"Makes sense." Istivan said "It was a Jakobs ship you were looking for, and that, I'm reluctant to call it a gun, but it had the Jakobs stamp on the stock. Plus, I've never seen anything like it before."

"So, one gun doesn't mean I have to trust them." The scar headed man spat.

"Enough." The Commandant declared "If you did, if you did not, it not matter, what matter is what we do now. If you telling truth, we need to think. While I do, we have other thing to discuss. We have person that want see you. You go see, we stay and discuss. Alexandrite, Alezander, you take them, we stay. Talk. Make choice on if we believe."

He waved his hand in dismissal. The kids got up and motioned for the girls to lead them out, so they headed for the door.

As soon as it was closed, they headed away and once they were out of earshot, Alezander slumped a bit. "Whew. That was tense, good thing we had everyone there, otherwise you'd probably be going into the cell next to this guy."

"What guy?" Jinx asked.

"You'll see. But I've got to ask, you really killed it?"

"Yeah." Gaige said, shooting him a look. "Didn't you just back us up?"

"Well yeah, but I just had to ask."

"Enough of your prattling, come, it's this way." Alec said, giving her brother a shove.

"Hey, we can walk and talk, and there's no need to push me."

"We can, but you weren't. And I push you cause you standing around, doing nothing."

"Was too. I was talking."

"And you should have been walking."

As they continued squabbling, they led the girls up and across the deck and all the way to the back of the ship, before going to the next ship and back down. Soon they were approaching a heavily fortified door when they stopped and Alezander turned and looking very awkward asked.

"Uh, look, before we go in there, I've, um, gotta ask something, it's just that, well, I was wondering, if, um..."

"Oh, spit it out you spineless Ratch." Alec said, cuffing him in the shoulder "What he wants to know is, are you engaged?"

She was looking right at Jinx when she said it, which took her by surprise "Huh? With who?"

"Anyone?"

"Not that it's anyone's business, but no, why?"

Alezander broke out in a big grin, even as Gaige shook her head at him.

"Then we made the right choice." Alec said with a nod "Because this man, he claims to be your fiance."

"Orion?" Gaige asked.

"Yes, I think that is his name."

"Son of a..." Jinx caught herself and took a breath "I'm gonna kill him."

"Not here. You can not kill person in prison here. We hold execution for that."

"Well, then let's execute."

"Not that simple. Commandant need to approve."

"Then why'd you bring me here?"

"Thought you might like to talk to him. Find out why he say things about you."

"Not really, wait, what else did he say?"

"Nothing. Well, he had big story of how you two fell in love and all, but that was it."

Gaige put a hand on the other girls' shoulder, trying to calm her down as she said "Now, now. I understand that you want to kill him, but we should at least try and talk to him. Who knows, we might even get something useful out of him."
"Like what?"

"I have no idea, but we should at least give it a chance. Maybe if we talk to him, we can at least get him to stop hunting you."

"Fine, but I doubt it."

"Yeah, so do I, but it's better to have tried."

She nodded to the siblings and they opened the door, leading them into a room with a large desk next to another door. Behind the desk was an uncomfortably looking man in his early twenties.

"Hey, Gregor, they got you on guard duty?" Alezander said with a smile as the other man stood and saluted him. Alezander turned to the girls and said "This is Gregor, he's usually with the expedition troops, but sometimes one of us needs to keep watch on a prisoner, though that's usually just someone who lost their temper or had too much to drink." Turning back, he continued "So who'd you piss off to get this duty?"

"No one, I mean, I just spilled coffee in Carmen's lap. Seriously, she's the one who bumped into me, but I get blamed just cause Revig's got a thing for her."

"Yeah, totally not fair."

"I know, right? So, what brings you down here today? And who're these two? Wait, this isn't one of those..."

Alezander kicked him in the shin to shut him up and shook his head with a bit of panic in his eyes.

"One of those, what?" Alec said coldly.

"Er, one of those, um, things, where, uh, um...What can I help you with today?" He said, sweat running down his face as he desperately tried to change the subject.

"We're supposed to let these two see the prisoner. Commandant's orders." Alezander said, quickly jumping on the change of subjects.

All three women gave them a flat look as Deathtrap shook his head from behind them. The two men felt a cold sweat on the back of their necks as they hoped the girls would drop it.

Gregor spoke up nervously, hoping to move things along "Uh, alright, I'll need them to leave their weapons behind, it's a security thing. The robot can stay and guard them, or go with, up to you."

The girls looked at each other and sighed before starting to take their gear off and placing it in the locker that was sitting there. As the door to it opened, they saw inside what they assumed was the prisoners' stuff, a backpack, a belt with a shield on it, a knife, and most notably, a sniper rifle.

"I don't recognize this type of sniper rifle." Jinx said, leaning in to get a better look.

"I think that's a S&S Munitions." Gaige said, leaning over her to get closer.

Jinx thought about elbowing her to get her off her back, but instead spun a little to the side so that the other girl could get a closer look.

"Yep, definitely a S&S." She said before turning to Gregor and asking "Hey, can I take this out to look at it?"

"Well, that is his property, and it's not like he's actually committed a crime against us, at least not one that I know of, so I can't exactly give you permission, but I'm not telling you you can't, so do whatever you want, or better yet, ask them." He said pointing to the siblings.

"Hey, do not look to me, this is not my department." Alec said with a wave of her hands.

"I don't have a problem with it, as long as you don't do anything to it." Alezander added.

Gaige nodded and carefully picked up the rifle, turning it over in her hands. When she got up close to it, she found the manufacturer's tag and groaned.

"What?"

"It's an Orion model."

"Of course it is." Jinx said in disgust.

"Wish I could smash it." Gaige muttered before setting it back in the locker "But that would be rude to our host."

Jinx muttered so soft that only Gaige heard her "I'd be rude." As they continued to put their gear in the locker.

Finishing, they turned and Gregor opened the door which led to a hallway with cells along one wall. "You will find him halfway down. Easy to figure out, he's the only one in there. I will wait here, uh, which one of you is going with?" He asked, turning to the siblings.

"I will." Alec said, giving the two men a cold look "You two have, how should I say? Much to discuss?"

She turned away from them and stepped through the door after the other two girls, closing it behind her and motioning for them to proceed as she leaned against the wall. They nodded to her and walked the short ways down till they saw the man lounging in the bare cell.

He was tall, broad and tanned, things that usually would've got Gaige's approval, but in this case just made her tense. His lower face was covered in a thick beard that matched his pulled back hair. On the exposed areas of his arms were tattoos that she couldn't figure out what they were supposed to mean, but looked primitive. He looked at them with eyes that seemed to glitter with intent, but for what, she couldn't figure out. Other than that, he wasn't all that remarkable. He had better than average looks and was wearing dark pants with lighter splotches on them, heavy boots and a rough top. The only ornamentation on him was the leather band around his forehead, and an arrowhead on a cord against his chest.

"Well, well, ain't this a surprise." He said in a light tone, though his voice was deep. "I'll just bet this gives you no small amount of pleasure seein me this way don't it?"

He fixed his eyes on Jinx and slowly sat up.

"I take no pleasure in seeing you, no matter what the circumstances." She retorted.

He snorted "Same cold bitch. You sure you don't want me to warm you up?"

Jinx threw up in her mouth a little and swallowed it before replying "I'm sure."

"Oh well, yeah ain't really my type anyway, not inta kiddies, prefer a woman with some meat on her bones, like that one sweetie out there, you know, the one with the large...muscles. So, even though this is a blast, if you ain't got any reason to be here other then to gawk, why don't you mosey on, less your friend wanna take your place." He said with a wink at Gaige that reinforced her dislike of him.

"Yeah, I'll have to pass as well." She spat out.

"Ah, in that case, you wanna leave me alone? I got a whole lotta nothin to do, and it ain't gonna do itself."

"I actually do have a question for you."

"Well, she-oot, that's a surprise. Question is, do I wanna answer? I mean, what's in it for me?"

Jinx ignored him and asked her question "Why're you here? And before you say something stupid, I'm not talking about this cell, but why are you in this place at all?"

He opened his mouth, only to snap it closed when she predicted his answer. He mulled it a minute and then shrugged with an exaggerated smile "And what if I say, it's all a co-ink-e-dink?"

"I'd say that you're still a liar. Just like back on Wilina"

"I ain't a liar!" He said bolting up. "You're a damn cheater is what you are."

"Oh, so you didn't tell them that you were her fiance?" Gaige asked, feigning shock.

"Hey, that was different, and butt out, this ain't got nothin to do with you."

"Sure it does, you shot at the both of us." Jinx coldly replied.

"Me? Oh no, you mean someone shot at you? Well, there's no way it would've been me." He said in a phoney concerned attitude before dropping it to coldly state "Cause if it had been me, I would'nt 've missed."

"Right, then how'd you get that cut on your cheek? Shaving?" Gaige asked.

His hand involuntarily shot up a few inches before he caught himself and the fake smile returned. "Why yes, that's it, shavin. How kinda you to notice, so unlike these heartless heathens who wouldn't even give me the most basic of care."

"You're lucky they didn't give you a lead cure." Gaige muttered.

"Enough of your pointless blathering." Jinx said "Why're you here?"

"Blathering? Now that's a word I didn't expect to hear. Quite a vocabulary on you. And I just happened to be here."

"Right, so you just followed us here, and then when you spotted us, decided to take a shot?"

He shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "What else could it be?"

"It couldn't have anything to do with the Montamore's?"

"Now that's a name that takes me back. Still, I will admit to bein a bit sore about that whole incident, a better man should've won the game, but you had to cheat your way to the top and take it from me."

"Right, explain again how I cheated? If you'd been more focused on killing the prey then your fellow hunters, you probably woulda done better, but then again, you didn't even lose to just me, but that other fellow as well, what was his name again?"

She was met with a flat glare so after a moment, she continued "So let's just assume that I'm right, about everything. Save us all a bunch of time. Here's what I think, one of the Montamore's, was it Montford? No, you're probably still doing his moms dirty work aren't you? So, she hires you to eliminate me cause then she, or one of her other idiot relatives can claim the estate once I'm outta the way, that about right?"

When she was again met by silence she continued "Well, you might as well give it up, cause it doesn't matter if I die, I've already changed the line of succession on the estate. See, if something happens to me, it goes to her, then her family, then on to someone else, and on and on. So you see, all of this is for nothing, even if I die, she doesn't get the estate. Her and her kin are entirely shut out, so you've been doing all of this for nothing, so you might as well just give it up and wait, cause in a short while, we're all getting outta here."

Again, Orion said nothing, just sat there with his arms crossed glaring at her indigently.

"This is a waste of time." Gaige said, putting her hand on Jinx's shoulder.

Right then, an alarm started sounding.