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Second Chances - An Earth & Beyond Emulator Novel, Ch.IX


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Second Chances - An Earth & Beyond Emulator Novel, Ch. IX
by Pakkrat

IX. "Tonight on Net-7 News, we have a Special Extended Report from our very own Dr. Pakkratius, NET-7 SOL's Progen Reporter and field correspondent. We take you to an alcove of our station lounge where the two will clarify the epic and stunning events that have taken place these past few days. Doctor?"

Zona Mason fingered her glasses back into their proper place on her nose with her middle finger. The gesture was hard to miss and obvious to whom it was intended.

The cameras cut to a remote camera stationed in the lounge of NET-7 SOL for the interview.

"Thank you, Zona. Jenquai, Progen, and Terrans, 'lend me your ears'," half-quoted the camera-clean Reporter. "Tonight I have with me my younger genome brother, the Collegia Triumvir Pakkrateus who has his story to clarify to the galaxy....."

Thus, using the public sensational retelling under truth-oath and lie detection, the Pakkrateus cleared his name and confessed a few things she would have liked kept just between the two of them.

* * *

She continued to watch the Net-7 News feed as she recalled their last moments together as he brought Siobhan the Sabura to her new home on Porvenir Mons, Endriago planet.

They had arrived at the landing platform to the high-security detail, Sabine Order's Reclaimers, Specialists, and a few interested Versatile. At the head of them was an anxious Vinda. So, it was true, Siobhan had guessed as they walked down the tarmac in the oppressive dry heat of the volcanic planet. Siobhan could very well be the first of the Sabura Project. Vinda would be champing at the bit to see what had come of the unauthorized, ultra-secret, and covered-up experiment.

She had turned to the Pakkrateus as he asked her, "Is this what you want, Siobhan?" He had smiled at her and hugged her when she stepped into his arms a final time. The Privateer may look old but his hugs were vibrant and powerful as any younger Progen male.

"I will forge what I want of this thing they call Sabura Warrior, Pakkrateus," she said as she smiled, plans in her mind. "I shall be a mother to the Sabura, not that egotist woman over there." He had stolen a look at Vinda across the landing pad. The Sabine leader stood with her arms crossed and her boot tapping with expectation.

The two of them had Vinda's backing so long as the Sabura Project remained veiled from the public eye and a secret of the Sabine Order. It assured that no more Reclaimers would be seeking Siobhan and the Pakkrateus in the future. There was also a sizeable reward for the return of what Vinda called "Sabine property." Siobhan had smiled at that statement. She would make Vinda pay for everything Siobhan might not like coming from the Sabura Project.

In his powerful arms, she stood taller and kissed the Pakkrateus before all of the Sabine. It was a Terran gesture. Vulgar to the Progen race, it meant that the male and the female still remembered their genetic origins in opposition to the vat-grown, gestated, and re-iterated copies that the Progen had become in the Crystal Age. Vinda had frowned, but kept silent. No doubt it would go into her personal journal, a musing of what being kissed might be like.

It was a long, passionate kiss. A Warrior's kiss was shared with a Privateer's kiss, was the initial impression. But then as the exchange lengthened, it became Siobhan's kiss embracing the enfolding kiss of the Pakkrateus'. When the observers were well enough shocked by such a gesture, the two parted to merely holding hands.

"Will I find you out there in the Beyond?" he had asked her as Vinda's impatience grew.

"Earth and Beyond, Pakkrateus," she had answered. "But for now, I crave more of my kind. I need to keep that gene-witch from going hog wild with the Project."

The authorities were towing her ship, the Kitten, to Endriago for an overhaul and refit to better reflect the up-and-coming skill-sets in the Sabura Warrior genome matrix. It would be good to have her baby back in her hands.

"We have been given a second chance, Siobhan," the Pakkrateus had said. "Thank you for your time with me. I hope it won't be the last." He looked into her amber eyes. She smiled.

"You haven't heard the last of Siobhan the Sabura, Privateer," she had said, turning to face the waiting Sabine Order. "I will forge my own destiny and you better watch over your shoulder for us."

"I will be glad to contract my Collegiate services to the Sabura anytime," he promised.

As the heated wind pushed on the Progen standing on the platform, Siobhan had walked calmly and with a feminine Warrior's swagger towards Vinda and her Sabine. The Pakkrateus had watched her gait with more than interest before she took her place behind the Order's leader. With a last, friendly gaze, she had nodded to Vinda.

Vinda had nodded in return respectfully to the First Sabura, a ranked title in the new genome matrix.

* * *

Vinda stared across the tarmac that day in the heat just outside the climate controlled city-station, Porvenir Mons. She acknowledged the salutatory nod of the First Sabura, this woman, Siobhan. There was much study to be done and very little time. While her Sabine explorers were combing Aragoth system Varen's Girdle, she was going to see what this girl was made of. But right now, her attention was on the Pakkrateus who watched Vinda's pet Project concede allegiance with the Sabine.

*Very well played, my Pakkrateus. You and your estranged brother, Pakkratius have served me well these past several days. More than I could hope for, you two have done two services to me without me having to lift a finger or dirty them in any way. The Sabura Project is born and another potential enemy of the Sabine Order has been forever eliminated. In addition, you have shown us that cooperation, rather than competition, will better serve humanity in the grander scheme of the implicate order. Well done. I believe I shall extole your genome from behind Andronicus Kerr as repayment for this service. For it was I, in the beginning, who left the file on the warlord where the fool Rex would find it and pour over the records with growing interest. Now re-iterated to the servant-caste, he will make an excellent ship's mechanic for this new Sabura girl to boss around and have no time nor the breeding to try to challenge me for the leadership of the Sabine Order. Again, well done, my pawns.*

With a curious look at the Sabine leader, the Pakkrateus had frowned at Vinda. The rift between the Order and the Collegia Forgemasters was still wedged apart, yet she, Vinda would smile upon this one Triumvir.

* * *

Across the galaxy, on the rim's frontier, a Jenquai warrior breathed a sigh in quiet meditation. His half-lidded gaze took in the exotic view of Fenris once more. The ancestor ghosts of his people could smile upon his service, the unconditional love for all life of the Sev Tushnim, We Who Serve In Silence.

Though he was under no oath of silence concerning the Sabura Warrior woman, Reacher nevertheless decided to honor her humility and apology for the atrocities of war committed against his people. The Jenquai Defender forgave her. He, in expansion, forgave those Progen who had no part in the Torment of Jove City during the Gate War. The emotional cauldron under his nexus of being was at a low simmer for now, though it would stay warm for the rest of his life. There was a metaphysical magic in that forgiveness, a second chance, that Reacher decided to continue with his life as a Sev Tushnim and not fall from grace into the likes of the Mordane or the nihilistic Kaojin (the Kokura).

He was happy again.

* * *

"Welcome aboard the Maze Runner," announced Pakkrateus to his full cargo hold of tourists in their comfy passenger pods. "In your pods you will find a copy of my recent adventure. Feel free to peruse it at your leisure as we enjoy the view of Glory's Orbit and its shared memorials."

The passengers chatted among each other, excited that they had the first run of the Collegia tours by the Progen man that was featured on Net-7 News. Terrans, Progen, and even a Jenquai couple rode in his vessel. They did not complain, nor did they fear his Privateer, the Maze Runner.

Pakkrateus took a long gaze down the length of his ship's hull. The hull upgrade was only slightly accented by the tiny, sleek missile launchers. With his credit account, honor, reputation, and name restored, the Privateer decided on a new approach to doing business. Hindsight may be a bitch, but the second chance to move forward was key.

He reached for a bottle of water and a couple of analgesics to head off his hinting headache. That last forgotten bottle of Pro-Vod vodka was still slowly emptying into the latrine of his ship as he pulled away from the berth of Friendship 7 station in Glenn sector of Beta Hydri. He'd give these tourists a run for their money.

* * *

It was in the Kuiper Belt of Sol System that the unmanned probe found the derelict pusher-hauler frozen in ice. Its distress beacon still flared its call over the region. The probe registered the radiations, the beacon, and a single faint life-sign. Like a shot into the night, it's sensor telemetry was signaled to Earth Station's InfinitiCorp office. A Terran was in need of rescue. De Wynter signalled her authorization with a touch of her stylus implement to a request document on a data-tablet.


*The Pakkrat Master Genome continues....*
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