Places I'd rather forget
Part 4: Protection
As the ship sped to Sinti Dylan paced command though he desperately wanted it there was nothing else to do, and with nothing to do all he could think of was how he'd failed to protect a member of his crew and how Harper now lay dieing in med bay because of it. It wasn't really his fault and on some level he knew that though he couldn't help feeling responsible anyway; it was his job as captain to keep his crew safe and he'd failed. He knew Harper was vulnerable to infection he should have sent someone else or made sure Harper had taken his immune boosters but he didn't.
Dylan went to med deck to see Harper at least he could be there for him now. As he watched Harpers still form he thought of all the times Harper had saved them from destruction including this latest were he had almost literally worked him self to death; he thought sadly how that still might be.
To his astonishment Dylan realised he couldn't ever remember saying thanks, not once had he stopped to say well done to the young man, ok perhaps he had once or twice but it was far less than the young man now lying in front of him deserved. He vowed to change that so although he was not so good at this kind of thing he sat down next to Harpers bed and began to tell him how sorry he was for taking him for granted, and how he appreciated all he had done; most of it above and beyond the call of duty.
Though Harper couldn't hear the words on a conscious level some how a vague impression of their meaning imprinted itself upon him, and all though Dylan couldn't know this, they helped ease the pain of the scene now running though his head.
"We've come for the child named Seamus" a voice boomed.
"He's not here" his mother replied.
"Your lying" stated the Uber sending a swing at his mother bone blades slicing though her delicate skin causing a cascade of crimson fluid down her face.
"No we're not" his father stated we lost Seamus a few days ago to a sickness please leave your upsetting my wife."
"Don't lie to me Kludge, I know he's here." The Nietzschean began to tear up the place destroying their few possessions.
"If you continue to protect the boy you will die" the voice stated.
"He's not here" insisted his father for which he too received a viscous blow. Seamus watched the whole event safe in his hollowed out pit beneath the house the small view plate was splattered with blood, but it did little to protect him from the scene unfolding above him.
The Uber continued to ransack their tiny home, unaware of the hideaway, the wooden heart his father had carved for his mother many years ago went flying though the air falling into the tiny fire place and burning his mother tried to rescue it but the Uber held her hands in the flames; though the pain was unbearable she did not cry out she refused to give him that satisfaction "I want the boy his skills will prove useful to us" His mother could not speak so his father said it for her.
"Never" had his father not been standing on the exit of his hideaway Seamus would have tried to stop what happened next but he suspected that was his fathers intention. The Nietzschean picked up his mother like a rag doll and threw her at the wall her neck snapped on impact even in his basement hideaway Seamus could hear the sound and knew it would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life.
Seamus watched helpless as his father drove at the Nietzschean who with lightning fast reflexes pulled out a knife and slit his fathers throat that scene too he would never forget. When it was over and he had cried all the tears he had to spare Seamus left his childhood home planning never to return again as he sought the solace of his now only surviving family member Brendan.
"Seamus what happened" cried Brendan when he caught sight of his cousin.
"Don't call me that" snapped Seamus I don't ever want to hear that name again!"
"Seamus I don't understand"
"Harper" snapped this cousin "I told you I don't want to hear that name again and I meant it; it reminds me of them and that hurts too much to bare."
And once again Harper broke down. The only words clear amongst the sobs were slavers and their dead.
Brendan didn't need to ask who 'they' were or what happened as the awful reality began to dawn on him. Sadly it happened every day to some poor family; slavers came to take loved ones away and those that resisted died.
The ship shock as it exited slip stream finally they had made it to Sinti.
Part 5 comming soon