Duff Tarver was primarily a raconteur, his
office was a bar or tavern and his audience were his fellow patrons.
But he didn’t merely tell stories he also
collected them from his loose tongued admirers, and he always got stories of
worth.
He was a freelance journalist who sold his
work to whichever media outlet fitted the bill and he distributed his copy
across the known systems of Legion space, and he made a steady living, not
enough to move up in the world, but he did ok.
He was a heavy drinking, down to earth man
in his early fifties with a long-suffering wife, Chani, who managed to bring up
their three children virtually single handed.
With Duff the
phrase, “what you see is what you get”, fitted him like a glove.
He was a popular
man, despite all his faults, as it was very difficult not to like him, even if
he could drive you to despair.
Due to his heavy
drinking he often needed assistance to get home but because people liked him so
much he was never short of a chauffeur.
Most literary
types have a favorite quote, from one of the classic novels or from a
Shakespearian play but his favorite was
“If I ever read
about the dangers of drinking then I’ll give up reading”
Apart from being popular and sociable he was also a more intelligent man than
he would have people believe because he found that if people thought him an
idiot they were more likely to open up than if they thought they were dealing
with somebody who was more switched on.
Duff had already
written his exposé of events in the Eikon Cluster prior to the system wide
distribution of the data regarding the widespread corruption and criminality
within the Legion, so he was the first to get anything publishable to the media
outlets, and was used far and wide so in the aftermath of the revelations Duff
was in great demand.
On one particular
evening, he had been celebrating with friends and other members of his
profession, and had been for several hours, and was a little drunk.
He would have
stayed later but he had arranged with his friend Visitor Parham, better known
as Bagg, to get a lift from Eikon Major to Linden for the next celebratory
evening, so as he was later than planned, he got a taxi to the space port.
He was dropped at
the main gate and proceeded on foot to the apron where the Tornado was parked.
Duff had been
walking for a little over ten minutes when it started to rain, but he didn’t
mind as he was only a few minutes away, but when his destination was in sight
four men blocked his path, but only one of the men spoke.
“In a hurry are
we?”
“I am as it
happens” Duff replied
“Well that’s a
real shame” the man said menacingly.
Pulsat Rad and
Vanzyl were the engineers on the Tornado, Pulsat was born on
Prinsloo in the Rexenor system, a dry desert world, rich in minerals and ore,
which he hadn’t seen for more than 20 years.
He was one of the lucky ones as his parents were able
to arrange for him to get away from his home world before the Mehreen Empire
conquered the planet and enslaved the Prinsloovian’s putting them under the
yoke in order to rape their own planet of all that was precious.
He had never returned and had no idea of what fate may
have befallen his parents, he had met several of his own kind over the years,
but none of them could enlighten him, as they were in the same boat as he was.
He was heavy set and had a rough bony skull which
raised up like a crown which receded to give way to a Mahogany scaled brow,
cheekbones and jawline which framed an ivory coloured face, and he had yellow
eyes and his entire countenance betrayed his reptilian ancestry.
He was incredibly strong and found no difficulty in
finding work among the many mining operations he came across as he worked his
way steadily, from world to world and moon to moon, moving inexorably away from
the Mehreen, it was on one of those worlds, Kordesh, that he met his friend
Vanzyl.
Vanzyl was from Kessleria, the third planet in the
Omeghard system, he was of slender stature and like Pulsat he owed his origins
to reptilian DNA, but his kind evolved from fish and possessed a scaly
countenance and silver scaled skin, a sleek form, large opaque eyes, pursed
lips, and gills.
He also left his home world because of the Mehreen but
in Kessleria’s case they wanted the water, and in taking it they essentially
brought genocide to the peaceful Kesslerian’s.
Vanzyl was more fortunate than Pulsat as he escaped
from his home world with a large group of friends who supported and comforted
each other, but over the years following their exodus, as they endured harsher
and harsher conditions his friends perished one by one until he was finally
left alone.
Subsequently his loneliness was keenly felt because
his solitude was so extreme, and that was because he could only communicate in
clicks, whirls and whistles which none but his own kind could understand, until
that is, Pulsat Rad arrived on Kordesh.
As it was pouring with rain, Vanzyl, as he was from a watery world rushed down the
ramp and stood outside getting wet, while Pulsat who was from an arid planet
was inside staying dry.
Vanzyl walked up
and down the apron and relished the falling rain while Pulsat looked out
shaking his head.
But all of a
sudden he stopped and began to emanate clicks and whirls
“No I dry” Pulsat Rad responded but the clicking and
whirling became continued.
“No, I stay hear” Pulsat replied “I not come outside”
Pulsat’s response was met with loud agitated
emanations, the like of which he had never heard before, so much against his
better judgement he proceeded down the ramp muttering and snorting as he went.
“I wet, I wet” Pulsat said when he reached his friend
and then Vanzyl made a long whistling noise followed by a succession of clicks
and Pulsat looked down to see Duff Tarver’s battered body and Vanzyl let out a
number of low whirls
“I not know” Pulsat replied to his Kesslerian friend
who was uttering another string of whirls whistles and clicks.
“I do it, I do it” Pulsat said as he picked up the
bloodied body.
“We show Captain” Pulsat said “We show Terrel”
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