Chapter 4
~ Cassidy ~
Getting shaken awake, Cassidy thought for a brief moment it might have been the handsome commander. Rolling over, she opened her eyes to her sister’s smiling face.
Leaning over, the woman whispered, “Who’s the hottie?”
Sitting up, she hurried over and pulled on a form suit. “His name is Commander Daron. He posed for me last night. I guess I must have lost track of time. When I looked up, it had been hours and he was fast asleep.”
“Well, he has magnificent morning wood. Want me to leave and come back later?”
Twirling around, she glared at Carolyn. “Of course not. You have a dirty mind.”
“Let me guess. If a hot guy has morning wood while sleeping on your sofa, that requires a next level Cassidy investigation to determine the potential for…”
“Shut the hell up already. Good grief, I’m not that bad.”
“The hell you aren’t.”
Stalking over to the laundry chute, she pulled down the access panel to retrieve his cleaned clothing. Sliding out his fresh uniform, she walked over to him, and shook him gently awake.
“Come on, big guy. I don’t know what time you work, but I had your clothing cleaned.”
“You didn’t have to do that, but thank you Miss Cassidy. Did you complete your drawing?”
Shaking her head, she smoothed a wisp of hair off his face. “No. You’ll need to come back one or two more nights. How did you sleep?”
Taking the uniform from her hands, he stood, allowing the blanket she’d covered him with the night before to fall away. “Remarkably well. The males of my line have always slept better when they have females to protect.”
“You know that doesn’t make any sense, right? Get dressed, and I’ll make us a quick bite.”
Smiling, he teased, “So eager to get rid of a scarred warrior once you no longer have use for him, I see.”
Looking over her shoulder, she bit her bottom lip as she tried to find the words to explain. “More like I don’t want you to get in trouble for being late, so you can come again tonight.”
“As you wish, pushy female.”
He began wrapping his hair again and made a mess of it.
Padding over to him, she entreated, “Stop. I’ve got this.”
Grabbing her brush and a hair band, she pointed to a seat. He immediately sat down, which struck her as a little too accommodating.
“One night and you have him trained.”
She felt Daron jerk under her hands. His head snapped around to look in Carolyn’s direction. “Who are you?”
Gently turning his head back around, she murmured, “My sister, and she doesn’t bite.”
“I shouldn’t be here with one female, much less two.”
“Stop whining. You’re with me and no one else.”
Nodding, he agreed, “Until your drawing is complete.”
“We’ll see. There, that’s much better.”
Turning, he looked into the glassy surface of the wall; he seemed to admire his neat top knot a moment before speaking. “Thank you once again, Miss Cassidy. I must leave for my shift now. I have no time for food.”
Tossing him a huge meat cookie, he grabbed it out of mid-air.
“I’m impressed. That was a good catch.”
“Hunger is a strong motivator to keep one’s food from the floor.”
“Don’t I know it.” She had meant the comment to be playful and funny, but it had the opposite effect on the overly protective warrior.
Stopping in mid-stride, he walked over to her. “Hard times and deprivation are now behind you, my new friend. You’ll have a warrior with means at your side soon enough.”
“If you say so.”
“You speak those words a lot.”
Carolyn walked over as they watched the large warrior leave in much better shape than he’d arrived.
“Well, that explains a lot.”
Turning on her sister, she queried, “What?”
“When you turned down Erin’s offer for a bring the house down, girl’s only party last night, I thought you were tired of having me around. Now, I find out that instead of me time, you’ve taken in a stray.”
“That’s a shitty thing to say about a nice guy.”
“Jesus, are you serious about him?”
“I’m serious about unraveling the mystery. Do you know the clan leaders and their wives can simply toss anyone out on their ear? They don’t even need a reason. Once you’re de-clanned, you’re homeless and scrounging for food. Everyone’s so terrified of getting cast out, no one dares to speak up.”
“Are you serious? That’s awful. Your commander is really kind of handsome when he’s all cleaned up.”
“He’s not mine. Since I know what it’s like to be clanless, I want to help him. Something as simple as sharing a shower, and a meal makes a big difference to these guys. They’re all hoarding their credits, hoping to save up enough to buy their way into one of the poorer clans.”
Scrubbing her hands over her face, Carolyn finally raised her head to make eye contact. “You’re doing the right thing, Cassidy. Even if we can only make their lives better for a few months that we’re aboard this vessel, we have to try.”
“Daron was really sweet and accommodating. The military screens them, so I don’t think we have to worry about any bad apples.” Shrugging, she sank down into one of the large chairs. “I honestly don’t know what else to do. I’m not so happy with the way this mystery is unraveling, I can tell you that much.”
“It seems like a really crappy, no-win situation for them.” Carolyn perked up. “I have an idea. Let’s spread the word to all the women. I don’t know exactly how many clanless there are, but I’ll bet we could comfort a lot of them during this voyage.”
“Agreed. I hate to have to tell you this, but when we reach the Sylon home world, I’ll probably have a look at the other species. The way the Krylon treat their warriors bothers me. If they can treat each other with such casual disregard, how will they treat us when we can no longer bear their children?”
Cassidy watched the understanding click onto her sister’s face. She commented dejectedly, “I might have a look at the clones. Someone said they’re blue.”
“You’ve always been fond of blue.” Her voice sounded hallow and disheartened, even to her own ears. “Come on, Carolyn, let’s go to the dining hall and chat the women up.”
“You got it, sis. There might even be a handsome, clanless diamond in the rough, waiting for me to polish him all up.”
Smiling faintly, Cassidy followed her out the door. Halfway to the dining hall, Carolyn got shouldered roughly by the Earth Gov soldier.
Cassidy stepped to her side. “Look where you’re going. You almost knocked her down.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know the cargo could talk.” The man sneered at them, after glancing around to make sure no one else was around.
“Why are you being such an ass?”
“Cassidy, don’t.” Her sister’s hand grasped her arm imploringly.
“Yea, little Cassie, don’t provoke the guy who’s trained to kill.”
“Training someone to kill isn’t all that hard. Training them to be a decent human being must be the real challenge though, if your behavior is any indication.”
The man took a menacing step towards them. Before he could get close enough to touch them, a huge, muscular body collided with him, sending him sprawling on his ass. An impossibly large human soldier positioned himself between them, staring down at the man, who now held his side.
“What the actual fuck, captain?”
“On your feet, you worthless sack of shit. Excuse the language, ladies.”
Cassidy was losing patience with the entire situation. “Who the hell are you?”
“Captain Christopher Douglas, Earth Gov special scout for Operation Search and Deliver, ma’am. Nice to meet you.”
Carolyn rubbed her shoulder. “I guess that’s what they’re calling the resettlement operation.”
“Grab that stupid fucker.” Two soldiers stepped forward, a male and a female. Each looked nearly as lethal at their captain. Hauling the man to his feet, they pulled him forward. “That’s two strikes, Tucker. One more and I shove you out the airlock my damn self.”
The man’s belligerent attitude slipped away in an instant, replaced by naked fear. “You’d vent one of your own, over whores who aren’t even batting for the home team.”
“The Krylons are the home team, you idiot. They’re saving our race from extinction and if you can’t get your racist attitude under control, I doubt you’ll even see our new home world. You wouldn’t be the first I’ve dealt with harshly.”
“I heard you did that, but I just didn’t believe it.”
“That makes you a slow learner, in addition to being a security risk.” Motioning to the guards, he jerked his chin towards the left. “Get him out of here. Keep him on lockdown for the next ten days.”
Cassidy watched as the two soldiers perp-walked him down the corridor. “That was fairly heroic.”
Shaking his head, the man replied gruffly, “I’ve been flying these friendly skies for coming up on six months. The job didn’t get any easier, so I got tougher. Good day to you ladies. Feel free to report that you were accosted by private stupid. I’ll be making a full report myself.”
“Let me guess, it’s part of the treaty?”
“You got that right. Have a nice day, ladies. You shouldn’t have any more problems with my soldiers. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask for me.”
Hurrying towards the dining hall, they kept their heads down. “How’s the shoulder?”
“Fine. I’m tougher than I look.”
Grinning at Carolyn, she noted curtly, “I know that better than anyone. We’ll keep a lookout for private stupid.”
Her sister responded weakly, “You heard Captain Douglas, he’s on lockdown for ten days.”
“Look, Sarah is sitting alone. Let’s talk to her.”
Grabbing trays and tossing food on quickly, they headed over to the captain’s table.
Cassidy teased, “I think they’re adding Tiberian insect legs to the cereal. It’s considered a cheap, high-protein filler on most worlds.”
Sarah tossed her an amused, but disapproving look. “Sit down and button it up, you two. I don’t know where you’re getting your intel on the foodstuffs, but you’re driving my husband crazy and panicking the other women.”
Grinning, Cassidy plopped down. “Where I come from, that’s called a two-for-one deal. You’ll be happy to know, that I created that devious tidbit, on the spot for your personal amusement.”
“Cassidy, you’re too much. I can’t decide if I hate you for all the stress you cause Yearl or I love the way you spice things up around this boring place.”
“If you help me with something close to my heart, I’ll take it easy on the captain for a while.”
“Don’t tell me, you’re infatuated with one of the clanless. If it were anyone else but you, I’d be worried for a woman getting involved with one of them. Knowing you as I do, I almost feel compelled to warn him off.”
Winking at her friend, she smirked. “Locked away in the subsection of the ship the way they are, they could probably use a little Cassidy shenanigans.”
Carolyn was always better at keeping things on track. She leaned over the table and asked, “How many clanless are being housed down there? Cassidy said they were packed together like sardines.”
Shock jumped onto the woman’s face. “None of us is supposed to be down there. You go too far, Cassidy. If Yearl finds out they have women down there, he’ll lock this place down so fast it’ll make your head spin.”
“Because they’re all criminals who got thrown out of their clans?”
Nodding, the woman looked at her wide eyed.
“Only, they didn’t commit any crimes. The military won’t take them if they were de-clanned for breaking the law. The one I spoke to was de-clanned because his stepmother wanted to steal his inheritance for her own offspring.”
“I don’t think it works that way.”
“It sure the hell does.”
Sarah shot her a dirty look, and then glanced down at her little one. Lea, who was about four, giggled and murmured quietly, “Bad word.”
Cassidy felt her face flush a deep red. “Sorry about that, Sarah.”
“I know a clan mother. Let’s com her and get to the bottom of this.”
Following the woman to her quarters, they watched her pull up Clan Chalon and the face of a human woman with short hair came into view.
“Calling to brag, Sarah?” The woman’s words may have sounded harsh but the look on her face was warm and friendly.
Sarah preened a bit before responding. “Almost two thousand this time, Jennifer.”
“First let me say, you’re a turncoat for running off with Yearl to join the alliance. God only knows what they are trading to get those kinds of numbers.”
Cassidy chimed in recklessly, “We’re mostly scruffs.”
“Ain’t no shame in that. I was a scruff once myself.”
“Well, now you’re a clan mother and we want information on the clanless.”
Turning her gaze to Sarah, she suddenly turned serious. “It isn’t a good system. Men get de-clanned and slowly starve or succumb to the elements.”
Sarah shook her head. “I thought only criminals were de-clanned.”
“Nope. They can get de-clanned for just about anything. We have an older gentleman who got de-clanned literally for looking at a woman wrong. She claimed he wasn’t sympathetic enough about the loss of her unborn child. Honestly, he’s the nicest person you’d ever want to meet.”
“We’ve got four hundred of them on this ship.”
Cassidy broke into the conversation again, “They keep them all crammed into little cubicles in the lower level of the ship, and ration their food and water.”
“Oh, hell no. You didn’t just tell me they’re turning warriors into scruffs.”
“It’s just about as bad as it was for us on Earth. Like I already said, they get a tiny, cramped cubicle, along with water and food rations. In exchange for doing all the dirty and dangerous work, they’re given a small stipend to purchase extras. The thing is, they’re reluctant to spend it on extra food or water for cleansing because they’re hoping to buy their way into a poorer clan. Their situation is pretty untenable in my opinion.”
“Heck, I didn’t even know buying your way into a clan was even possible. I know the clan mother for the Sylon home world. She saved my life once. I’ll talk to her and see if something can be worked out for the clanless who haven’t committed crimes once you all land. Krylon prime is arcane, and the emperor is very strict. The three princes of the Sylon home world have made a name for themselves as being progressive.”
Sarah nodded. “Thank you. I hope all is well with the twins.”
A huge grin ate up the woman’s face. “They’re riding with their father. You wouldn’t believe how big they are. Come for a visit, between Earth missions.”
“Sorry, once we unload the women aboard this ship, they’re sending us back for another load. We’ve been tasked to move as many brides as possible over the next few months. They have a quota, or something like that. Mum’s the word on that, by the way.”
“My lips are sealed. I’d never do anything that might get in the way of women getting a fresh start.”
“I know. The thing is, I get paranoid sometimes and forget who I’m talking to.”
“Stay safe and watch out for insectoids and space pirates.”
“Will do. Give the kids a hug from me, and that handsome husband of yours a big sloppy kiss.”
Laughing heartily, Jen held her stomach. “He’d die of embarrassment if I told him you said that.”
Winking, Sarah quipped, “I’m counting on it. Then you can run off and join the alliance as well.”
“I’m a clan mother now. My place is here with my people. Gosh, that still sounds weird when I say it aloud, but it’s true nonetheless.”
When the screen went dark, they sat for a moment trying to make sense of the new information.