Knives woke up the next morning with another device on his arms. His elbows were
covered with a tight metal sheath. The sheath was jointed so he could move the
lower half of his arm inward and upward but not outwards. The bottom of the
joint was attached very securely to the concrete block underneath him.
"Vash, you really are very thorough," Knives said to himself as he tried every
possible means of freeing his arms.
His wrists still had the large cuffs but they were no longer attached to the
concrete and there was a new kind of green metal just under where the cuffs
contacted the concrete. He folded his hands together in his lap. What was he
going to do first with these women? He couldn't really tell without meeting
them. How does one get a women to submit to one's will? He had no recent
practice in this but he was going to try. Rem wouldn't listen to reason. If
these two didn't, then he'd have to kill them too.
All the scrap metal was gone from the room, there was a new control
panel on the inside of the door and there was a hideous pair of yellow and black
pajamas on the floor of the room next to a blanket that looked as if it had been
slept in.
"Vash, your taste is getting worse and worse the longer you stay with these
degenerates," he thought.
Just then the door opened. Knives' hands were pulled apart as the metal cuffs
were drawn to the strips of green metal by a large force. The cuffs slammed down
against the metal and the hinge at his elbow was locked into place. His arms
once again were at his sides, immobile.
"Damn you, Vash." he muttered.
Vash stepped into the room followed by two very different women. Knives examined
them. The little black haired one might get blown away if you exhaled too
strongly while the other was huge for a female, much taller than Rem but barely
shorter than Vash. The smaller one carried a plate of pancakes. The women both
looked at Vash.
"Knives, this is Meryl Strife," Vash said gesturing at the little woman. "and
this is Milly Thompson." He gestured at the large woman. "They're going to bring
you breakfast and lunch."
"The door locks my arms in place doesn't it?" said Knives, not acknowledging the
presence of the leeches just yet.
"Yes it does," his brother replied. "You'll be released when there's no one else
in the room."
Vash stood at the door as Milly and Meryl walked up to Knives. Meryl placed the
plate of pancakes on Knives legs.
"Hello, Mr. Knives," she said.
"I'd prefer it if you'd called me master, " he growled.
"Okay, Mr. Master Knives," said Milly smiling. "You're a silly one, aren't you?
I had a school teacher and we called him School Master Johnson! He was a short
fat man with really big glasses and we had fun hiding the erasers from him
because he never could find them. Do you want to be called School Mr. Master
Knives? I think that would be cute!"
Milly and Meryl beamed at him. Knives glanced over at his brother. Vash's face
was red, his hand was over his mouth trying hard not to laugh. He had a decent
outfit on though, an aqua shirt and tan pair of pants.
"In what sewer did you find these two, Vash?"
"We're not from the sewer. I'm from December and Milly's from New Bolder," said
Meryl proudly. "Would you like anything else for breakfast, School Mr. Master
Knives?"
"Just call me Knives and no I would not like anything else," he said sharply.
"Alrighty! I'll be back at lunch time," said Milly. The three touched their
hands on the new control panel and left the room.
Knive's arms were free to move again once the door closed. He picked up a
pancake and munched on it. Which was worse, being hand-fed by his brother or
being subjected to the presence of hopeless zoophytes twice a day? Legato was
different. Legato had already been filled with so much hate for his own species.
These two ... Rem would like these two. For once Vash's thoughts as he walked
behind the ladies in the hallway echoed Knives'.
"That went well," said Meryl as they walked back to the elevator.
"He'll be worse when you come alone", said Vash. "Just remember, he can't hurt
you. No matter what he says, he can't hurt you."
"Does he like doughnuts Mr. Vash? Doughnuts really helped break the ice with
you," said Milly.
"That wouldn't help. He likes killing humans. There isn't anything else you can
do for him now. Just be kind to him when you see him."
Vash looked at the two agents.
"I know you'll be kind to him."
Vash pressed his hand on the console outside the elevator.
"Doc changed the main elevator code today so only we can get up to the top
floor. Nobody else comes up here, ever."
They rode down the elevator and went to the tailor's room. Vash helped the
ladies pick out new outfits. Milly chose a white dress with yellow top but
Meryl's outfit, a light blue long-sleeved dress, needed to be altered in a few
places. Vash excused himself from the ladies and went down to the plant
engineering floor.
The room containing plant number two was filled with activity. A new bulb was
being built on top of the main plant platform. Large rectangular pieces of
freshly shaped glass were being hoisted up to the platform with a large crane.
Groups of men and women worked on sections of the walls and floors still
repairing the damage that occurred when Vash was last here. New metal glistened
in several places already. A new controller had been built as well as a new base
for the plant bulb.
Vash was about to introduce himself to a lady welding a section of wall when
somebody shouted, "Get him out of here! He's the one responsible for the ship
coming down. That's Vash, Vash the Stampede."
Vash recognized the voice even though he couldn't see him. It was Michael.
Everybody stopped and looked at him.
The man continued shouting, "He's the one responsible for the deaths of one
fifth of everybody on board this ship. We all know someone who died."
Michael walked towards him accompanied by three men all about the size that Brad
had been.
"Get out of here Vash. We don't want anymore humans to get killed because of
you."
Vash stayed where he was. Most of the people in the room were in there 20's and
30's and didn't remember Vash well. Others were older and Vash thought that he
had known them well. Finally someone else from across the large room, James,
spoke.
"Leave him alone Michael. He's lived on this ship for longer than you have."
Michael, his posse and other people in the room laughed. It wasn't kind
laughter. Michael grabbed Vash's shirt and threw him to the floor. James ran up
to Michael and tried to calm him down.
"Stop it Michael. It wasn't his fault." Michael pushed the older man away. One
of Michael's men, a brown haired man stepped closer to Vash.
"Val's dead because of you, mutant. You should be dead, not Val, you should be
dead."
He kicked at Vash. Vash caught his foot with both hands.
"Let me go you bastard!" the man shrieked.
Vash released the man's foot. He responded by kicking Vash in the face hard. James
grabbed the man and pinned his arms behind him. Several other older men blocked
Michael from getting any closer; one of them was Kevin. Nobody of any age messed
with Kevin.
"Stop this" James said. "Stop this now. Vash is as much a resident of this ship
as anybody here. Nobody has any reason to fear him."
A woman spoke from the crowd that had gathered around them.
"They came here, the demons came here because of him and he brought back Knives
this time. He'll kill everyone this time."
Kevin helped Vash get up off the floor.
"Vash helped raise some of you. He helped raise me when I didn't have a father
to begin with. This man is not a killer."
The same women shouted, "Then why are there 37 more orphans than before we hit
the ground? Why did my sister die if it wasn't because of him?"
The woman emerged from the crowed. Vash recognized her. It was Melissa. Vash
remembered her as a shy blushing child. Now she had tears running from her eyes
and hatred warped her face. This meant Alice, her younger sister had died.
James spoke, "We know who caused their deaths. We scraped their bodies off the
floor, that gauntlet man and the machine. They're responsible. Not him."
"We'll talk to Doc about this," hissed Michael.
He pushed his way to the door and exited with his men and Melissa.
"We all remember Vash," said James raising his voice to fill the whole room.
"For 80 years he lived peacefully with all of us. Nobody died because of him
then and nobody will die because of him now. He's a good man, a friend anybody
would want to have. We all know Doc wouldn't know a man for 80 years and not
know who he is. Doc doesn't let anybody on this ship he think will harm us. If
you trust Doc then you have to trust Vash. We'd be idiots not to let Vash help
us fix our plants. He's the reason they ran so well for 80 years. Now I'm going
to show him around and if he tells you something, you do it. If you have a
problem with that then go see Doc. You don't hit people we all know that. We're
not like the people on the planet. We don't hurt people. Now let's get back to
work."
Several more people left the room. The rest of the crowd broke up back into
their work groups. The eyes of the younger ones followed Vash as James showed
him the unfinished sections of the walls and floor. The young people were
deciding. James took him up the stairs where the new plant bulb was being built.
They were away from most of the people now. Vash felt a little more comfortable
speaking here.
"The base of the bulb looks right but these inner torque bolts aren't lined up
right. I can fix them."
Vash put his hands on the edge of the base of the bulb.
"Sure, no one else knows better than you."
James stood back from the bulb pleased to see the master at work. Vash crawled
onto the base and turned the bolts slightly altering their orientation a tiny
amount. A tiny misalignment like that would normally have been only able to be
detected with lasers. Vash crawled out of the base and looked over at the large
sections of glass bulb. He examined them carefully rubbing his fingers on the
glass.
"You've done very good work. No cracks in any of them."
"We've got about 40 more to make."
"Thirty-eight?"
"Yes, thirty-eight. They'll be done in about a month. The polishing is the
longest part. Our technology hasn't improved any since you were here last. Bulb
assembly should take about a week once we have the pieces."
As they talked more about specific parts James could see a large bruise forming
along the side of Vash's jaw.
"Vash, I'm sorry about Michael. I tried to talk to him after I got off my guard
shift. It just made things worse. He doesn't understand. Both of his parents
were killed during the attack. Doc can handle these situations better than I
can."
"It isn't easy to understand what happened. If Doc thinks I should leave, I
will." Just then Vash heard Doc's voice coming from his earring.
"Vash, I heard that you had a bit of trouble in the plant room. I'd like to talk
to you about it. Can you come by right away?"
"Sure, Doc. I'll be right there."
"Something will be worked out," said James.
"I'll meet you back in the machine shop and I'll take a look at your polishers
when I'm done with Doc."
Vash walked down the stairs and crossed the room to the entrance. Before he
could leave a young man Vash didn't recognize grabbed his arm.
"Mr. Vash, my mother always said good things about you and that I should meet
you if you came back. I'm Robert Dorland."
"You're mother's Marie?"
"Yes it was, but she died a few years ago from cancer. Doc couldn't do anything
for her. I blamed him for her death for a long time until I realized that there
are somethings that really are beyond your control. I'm sorry this had to happen
to you, Vash. If my Mom liked you then you must be a good man."
Vash smiled at him.
"Thank you, Robert, I knew Marie would be a good mother to her little boy." Now
that Vash looked at Robert, he could just see the features of the little toddler
who loved to grab on to his mother's leg and follow her everywhere. Vash
explained that he had to see Doc right now but he promised to save a space for
him at the table for lunch.
"All the young ones aren't against me. Thank you Robert," Vash said to himself
as he walked over to Doc's room.
He pressed his hand against the control panel. The door opened. Doc was seated
behind his desk and the five people, Michael, Melissa, and three others were
seated in front of him. Doc immediately noticed the bruise forming along Vash's
jaw. The five turned around in their chairs and stared at him with
expressionless faces. There was a spare chair next to Michael but he kicked it
away just as Vash was about to put his hand on it.
"Get away from me, mutant," Michael said as the other four laughed.
"Cut that out," Doc said clearly irritated at their behavior.
"This place was peaceful until you came back. GET OUT!" shouted the large brown
haired man who'd kicked Vash.
"I'll stand," said Vash.
"Hush up, Dean. All of you know that Vash does not have to leave," said Doc
sternly from behind his desk. "This place has been his home for much longer than
it has been for any of you and it will continue to be his home."
"Why did you let Knives on then?" asked Melissa. "You know he's killed hundreds
of humans."
"We are trying to be a civilized society. We don't kill people even though
they've been cruel. We'd be no different from the people on the outside. Vash
has taken away Knives' power. He can't harm us anymore."
"What about Vash's power? What about July and Augusta? Who's going to take away
Vash's power?" asked a large black-haired man. Doc addressed him.
"Barry, Vash hasn't had any trouble with his power inside this vessel, not for
80 years. He needs this place as much as we do. Outside is a cruel world and we
can't throw him out."
Michael got up out of his chair and shouted at Doc.
"I don't trust him. Nobody should trust him if they had their head on straight.
He and his brother are killers and I'm not going to let them take over and kill
anybody else. Maybe the city Seeds needs a new mayor?"
Michael left the room abruptly. He was quickly followed by his four companions.
Doc sighed.
"You've always been a good friend and an asset to everybody on this ship, Vash.
They'll realize this once you've been here for a while."
Vash heard Doc's words but he didn't believe it.
"It's very hard to forgive someone for the death of someone you love. They may
never forgive me."
The two talked more about what Vash could do to have him seen in a better light
but every suggestion was too naïve to try. Vash decided that he'd keep to
helping out with the plants. That was where he was most useful. Vash left Doc's
room and went to find Meryl and Milly. He found them back at their room sewing a
black pair of pants.
"Meryl, Milly I need you to help me with the people on this ship."
"What happened to you Vash?" asked Meryl as she looked at his bruise. Vash told
them about the events in the plant room and the meeting he had with Doc and his
detractors.
"What I need you two to do is to find out from as many people as possible if
they want me back on the ship. These people are very angry and I don't want them
to hurt Doc or anyone else."
"We're on it, captain!" said Milly.
"I'll find out everything I can!" said Meryl. "They're not going to hurt you
again Vash, not if I can help it."
"If any of them say anything rude to you, you can tell Doc and he'll talk to
them about it."
Vash thanked them for their help, left the room and headed back down to the
plant room. Meryl was angry.
"Milly, we've got to find where the gossip is."
Milly and Meryl made a plan and went back down to the tailors. After few well
placed questions Milly and Meryl found the hot spots. The cafeteria women and
the ladies who worked up in the nursery came into contact with most everybody.
Milly headed to the nursery and Meryl went down to the cafeteria. Even though
Milly was a youngest child she had helped her neighbors and her neighbors'
neighbors raise their children so she was an expert diaper changer and baby
burper. The nursery did need more help especially with the orphans; some of the
young ones hadn't spoken since the fall.
Meryl had a tougher time finding a job. They didn't need any more help in the
kitchen and they had enough servers except for dinner so Meryl created her own
position for breakfast and lunch, coffee delivery lady. Meryl knew enough about
waitressing to know the importance getting that initial infusion of caffeine
into the blood stream. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner her job was set. In the
morning she'd have to get down to the kitchen early, grab the food for Knives,
and then return and deliver liters and liters of caffeine to the masses.
Three weeks passed. Vash helped the plant engineers fix the plant rooms in half
the time they thought they would need and he'd sped up the polishing and
assembly of the plant two bulb so that by the end of the third week the bulb was
completed. The plant being just needed to be placed into the bulb.
Milly and Meryl went over well with the ship's inhabitants. Meryl made herself a
special apron with a smiling cup of steaming coffee on the front and she
snatched up rumors right and left as she ferried coffee between tables. She
heard plenty of dirt behind the food line. The news about Vash was good. Vash
was firmly reestablished back with his old friends and most of the younger ones
were trusting him more every day. Milly got to help deliver the first Seeds city
child born since the fall and she got the same good impression of Vash's reputation
from the news she heard as the women and men dropped off and picked up their
children at the nursery. It was only the small group of five people who held out
against Vash. They had made it clear to Meryl on her first day of work that they
didn't want any of her coffee.
Meryl and Milly did more to help Vash then they realized. Everybody on board the
ship knew that they saw Knives every day. They were proof that Knives' power was
really gone and that maybe he could eventually live peacefully with humans
again.
Vash was hardly in the cafeteria at the busy times. He like to work when the
plant rooms weren't so crowded with people. It was easier to check the
technicians' work when they were gone and it was easier to give them a little
bit of criticism when they had a full stomach. Vash usually spent his evenings
with Knives, talking about their past experiences with humans, the Gung-Ho Guns,
plant repair, and Knives' serving girl.
One morning Meryl was late coming down to breakfast after leaving to deliver
Knives' food. Clara and Jean, who worked with Milly, started to joke with her
about the possible locations of the popular beverage wench.
"She was so happy when Kevin complimented her style of pouring yesterday. I
think he might be getting a little bit of a crush on her. The sunrise was very
pretty this morning. They might still be up there," said Clara.
"Oh, no!" said Milly. "Meryl would never let a little thing like a crush make
her late for work. I know. I used to let every little thing make me late for
work but this is very unusual for Meryl."
"There's Kevin over at the middle table. John's not there maybe he's up with Ms.
Happy Coffee this morning?" added Jean.
Milly was worried. She excused herself from the table and found Vash in the
plant room rechecking the clear sealant around last section of glass on the
bulb.
"Vash! Meryl hasn't showed up for breakfast yet. Did she come over here? The
cafeteria ladies said she showed up for her food delivery but hasn't come back."
They hurried out of the plant room and up to the fifty-seventh floor. They could
hear Meryl screaming on the other side of the door to Knives' room.
"Take that back, you bristle headed dimwit!"
Vash opened the door.
"I'm not going to take it back. What I said was perfectly true."
"I can fit another one in spiky boy," she hissed.
Knives was completely calm lying back in his bed while an enraged Meryl, in her
light blue dress and happy coffee apron, was leaning over him threatening him
with a grape. Knives' hair had begun to grow out a little bit and Meryl had a
whole repertoire of insults just waiting to be unleashed. Vash walked over to
Meryl. She was definitely angry but unhurt. Vash looked at Knives. Vash pressed
his lips together trying not to smile. Grapes were protruding from the bottom of
each of Knives' nostrils. Vash took the grape out of Meryl's hand. Meryl spun
around startled.
"Vash! What are you doing here? Milly?"
"You're late for work," said Milly as she quickly moved away from the doorway.
"LATE?"
Meryl turned bright red, ran to the door, and slammed her hand on the console.
The door opened and she bolted out of the room. Vash savored the placid look on
his brother's face as Knives tried to convey that having grapes shoved up
his nose was ordinary fair for a superior plant being.
"That one is excitable, isn't she?"
"Um ... I'll be going now," said Milly as she headed out the door after Meryl.
"She didn't hit you, did she?" asked Vash.
"No. She violated me with grapes."
Vash put his hand on the control panel and punched in an override code. Knives'
arms were mobile again and he quickly squitched the grapes out of his nose.
"What did you say to her?"
Knives sat up and looked at his brother.
"I told her that her Mr. Happy Coffee apron was the most revolting, putrid,
repulsive garment I had ever seen and that a moldy laceration was more
attractive."
Vash thought for a moment.
"You're sure she didn't hit you?"
"Yes."
"She's actually showing a bit of restraint," thought Vash. "Knives, that isn't a
nice thing to say to someone."
"I told the other one yesterday that she looked like the swollen carcass of a
skin diseased thomas and she didn't even blink. She said that being big was her
specialty and then she giggled. I'd forgotten how different humans could be."
Knives picked a fresh grape off his plate and ate it.
"Knives," said Vash as he traced a circle on the floor with his foot, "if you
want your nostrils to stay clear you're going to have to cut back on the
insults."
"The little snit said she wouldn't leave the room until I apologized. She said
you liked her outfit. Do you really like that apron?"
"Knives, sometimes there are things you have to say to avoid getting grapes
shoved up your nose. Understand?"
"I'm starting to."
Knives wondered how much his brother had been trained by that little one.
"She really likes hair insults," said Vash as he patted his brother on the head.
"She's had a lot of practice then?"
"Too much practice. I told her not to hit you, but next time she may not be so
nice. If you talk like that to her again, you'll deserve it."
"Fine."
Knives ate a bit of pancake.
"We're putting Suzume back in her bulb today," said Vash as he punched in the
override code and opened the door.
"Good luck," Knives said as he inspected another fresh grape. It was a large
one. "I'm glad she didn't see it," he thought.