Crack of Dawn

  Laying there in each other's arms, Bucket watches her peacefully sleep. A long clump of her golden hair is swept over her face. Her eyelids part like clouds--like a clear, spring sky her sapphire eyes beneath are revealed.

  When she becomes aware of the fact that he's gazing into her eyes she dons a wide, sleepy smile. He goes to brush the hair from her face but snaps out of his timeless, love-drunk intoxication and becomes conscious of the fact a hand is no longer there. Awkwardly, he jerks his arm away, but she grabs it firmly, bringing it to her lips she gently kisses where his hand used to be.

  Gazing into her eyes he knows it is just him, his feelings and her. This is the most at peace he's ever felt. All the pain, all the nastiness in his life is deafened, melting into the background. He'll do anything to protect this—to protect her. He imagines scenarios where he protects her, defeats an ambiguous opponent as men deeply in love tend to.

  Love. Yes, Love.

  “Emmy, I...”

  She gently places her finger on his lips, “Shhh, not just yet.” She kisses him on the forehead and taps him on the back, “Washroom.” He moves his arm back and she stands, she grabs his shirt she was wearing the night before. He grabs the other end of it, as she turns it slips from her grasp. She turns, hands on her hips, looking at him with her head tilted and her mouth straight, “You let me wear it last night.”

  He grins, “Well it'll be here waiting for you, when you get back.”

  “Well I won't need it when I get back,” The edges of her mouth curl into a demure grin as she strolls to the bathroom. “Hey, we broke the toilet paper holder and a communicator.” She yells.

  “I think it was more you that broke the toilet paper holder.” He yells back.

  “Oh, right.” She yells, he hears her giggle. “Hey, I have something to talk to you about with the Unlinked. I'm still involved with them.”

  “Is it something you should be yelling?”

  “Probably not.”

  There is a knock then his door opens, Glitch barges in, “Hey Bucket.”

  “Why're you barging in at the crack of dawn?” He says with a sigh. Not the time for early work.

  “Well, for one, it's 0900. For another the lock is blown out. Hey are you...” He looks down, Emmy's dress on the floor, “Oh.”

  “Yeah, Oh.” Bucket says.

  Tales and the Colonel walk in. “Fucking hell...” He mutters. “I need to get a lock back on my door.” He says in a much louder, blunt voice.

  “Are you still in bed Blake? We have business to discuss.” The Colonel says, her gaze goes down as she sees Emmy's dress laying there, her eyes narrow and her nostrils flare. Tales rolls her eyes. Bucket balls up his shirt, tossing it to Emmy, whose arm is sticking out from the barely opened bathroom door.

  Emmy emerges a moment later wearing his shirt and her halfslip. She walks over, grabbing a cigarette for herself and Bucket she lights them both.

  “We have some top secret things to discuss, you need to leave Emmy.” The Colonel snaps.

  “I will, Blake is still recovering though, he's not to go back in the field for a week,” At the sound of her saying Bucket's name the Colonel breathes heavy through her nose. “Tracy said he needs another week's rest. I was going to get food for everyone, does anyone have any special requests?”

  “Just lots, thanks Emmy.” Tales says.

  Glitch gestures his hands in a nondescript fashion then starts setting his deck up on the desk.

  “Colonel? What do you want, that's available, on the menu?” She asks, giving a side glance to Bucket, then the Colonel, mouth straight she does a heel hop. “There are a lot of orders, I don't want to mix them up.” She innocently says.

  “Your presence removed...” She says in a low mumble.

  “Right, egg and ham.” She says with a chipper nod. She grabs her dress, goes to the bathroom, emerges fully dressed and heads out the door.

  “Hey, um, your hand is taking up a lot of room here.” Glitch says, inspecting the jet black sparkle encrusted raven. Bucket holds up his arm, Edgar flies over, morphing into a hand. “Well, that's pretty damn cool.”

  “Ok.” The Colonel says as she picks up the cigarette pack, “Do you mind?”

  “I was going to be a prick about it and say no but that's just being petty. Help yourself.”

  “Thanks.” She lights up, “Ok. So, we need to hand Nadine back to the Net Lords.” They are all silent, all that can be heard is the droning of the electronics fans and the slight humming of the partially burnt out desk fan. Bucket stands, grabbing last night's clothes off the floor he lumbers to the bathroom.

  “Why the hell are we doing that? She poisoned Bucket and I.” Glitch says.

  “She's also been walking around here way too long, it's a security risk.” Tales adds.

  Bucket emerges fully dressed, takes a long drag of his cig, “We need to find out what she knows.”

  “What do you mean 'find out what she knows'?” Tales says, tilting her head in an inquisitive way.

  “What the hell do you think I mean Tales? You know the training, do you think I want to interrogate her?”

  “Define 'interrogate'.”

  Looking at her he furrows his brow and shakes his head, “So now you're going to get all squeamish after we just executed 5 men against orders? I don't follow your logic.” His new eye shows her vitals are indicating she's bing deceptive.. She doesn't look much different than before, but it feels like she can sense he's suspicious.

  “It was just. And planned.” She blurts.

  He gives her a long look, she breaks her gaze before turning it back to him. “'And planned?' What does that mean? We planned it from the day before, but that was more ‘I planned’.”

  She stammers, “You fricken know why we did it, did you want Emmy charged with treason?”

  “Wait, what does she have to do with the execution?” The Colonel asks.

  “She executed the first one when we were standing down.” Tales says.

  “Oh, is that so Bucket?” The Colonel says.

  He's still hanging on to Tales’ words, she's avoiding looking at him. He drops it, for now, “Come on, if it was anyone else in this room, any other soldier we would have done the same and you know it.“ He takes a drag of his cigarette, “We're getting offtopic.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Agreed.” The Colonel says. “So. I have a contact, a Net Lord. He gave me a list of traitors working for him, in our government. Giving back Nadine is part of the give and take as a price for the info. He wants us to kill her real body in the Hive.”

  “Well frick, at least he's not asking much.” Tales says.

  “Yeah. Giving back Nadine is the easy part. He's patient, we can take our time to plan getting to Nadine. I already have a plan for the first traitor, I’ll need you on the mainland when Jen goes back for the trial. Bucket needs to be here, he is the sheriff after all.”

  “Does it pay well?” Glitch asks.

  “Do you have to be so fricken mercenary?” Tales asks.

  “What? I am a merc now.”

  “Just bill the Sheriff's office. While we have it. I'm on leave right now, the psych eval is postponed. Actually my psych eval is part of my plan.”

  “So what about Wizbang? After I got sent back to the mainland I lost track of what he's been doing with Nadine.” Glitch says.

  “We need to pick him up, throw him in holding. I don't want to leave that in the hands of one of the stand-in deputies. I'm still not 100%, someone want to join me to pick him up?” Bucket asks.

  “I will.” The Colonel says.

  Bucket and the Colonel navigate the catwalks made up of wooden planks of dubious integrity, climbing to the Unlinked slums above. A maze of troughs and large pipes patchworked together funnel the mess of the human condition to the far side of the Cavern then down into the ocean below. The air is heavier up here, chunks of creosote periodically drop, the air has a lingering smokiness that smells of burnt grease from a deep fryer whose oil should have been changed years ago.

  Huts made of salvaged wood, all sorts of scavenged plastic and metal panels seem to defy gravity—anchored to the wall and ceiling by synth-concrete and human grit. As below, the area is illuminated mostly with a variety of fluorescent tubes of all designs, the large spotlight used during the day time is mostly pointed below, it's much darker above.

  They are almost to the main platform, the Colonel motions to stop, she takes a moment to catch her breath.

  “Want a smoke?” Bucket asks. She just looks at him, wheezing.

  “It's not just that, the air compounded with the climb. I had no idea the air quality was so bad up here. I don't want to come up here asking for people to be turned over while I'm wheezing, not exactly a power move.”

  “Yeah, it is burning some in my lungs. I'm used to having the kinetic jelly from the echo-suit in my lungs but this crap just burns.” He pulls out his communicator, checking it he smiles and puts it away.

  Watching him she rolls her eyes, “So what do you two talk about? Breakfast sandwiches?” The Colonel says.

  His smile changes to a sneer as he looks at her. “How odd you pay attention to what she's doing these days...” His mind lingers on what Emmy said. How could the Colonel just sign off on her being separated from what little family she had? “Let's go.” They press on.

  They arrive at the main level and start making their way through the crowds. Most have cloth coverings over their mouths. Wizbang and Nadine are reported to be in a small hut to the north end. The deeper they get in the Unlinked shanty town the more eyes on them. Bucket doesn't feel welcome. His eye is showing a few armed with revolvers, illegal for citizens to own, but the further in they go the more he sees.

  “You armed?” He asks.

  “Yes, why?” She says.

  He draws his 1911 and holds it beside his leg, “Draw your gun, a lot of these people are armed.” She does as he says. The crowd around them gets thicker and thicker to the point it almost chokes out their progress. “I am the Sheriff, here on official business, two people need to be brought in.” Bucket calls out.

  “Two?” The Colonel says.

  “Yes, it looks like we'll be lucky to get one. We're here, we need to make a play for both of them while they're off guard.” Bucket says. She nods.

  The crowd parts way, to reveal is a heavyset Unlinked, the glean of his skull sports tufts of ill kept hair on the edges, a large simple white cross hanging from his neck. In front of two men each armed with an AR stand beside him. Heavy greywares’ plugged into his Unlinked jack, a lens folds down over his eye. He takes time analyzing Bucket.

  “Well Bucket, you have a lot going on. The hand in particular intrigues me.” The man says.

  “Yeah, since I got it all you tech heads have been looking me up and down like a sailor that just hit port checking out a $5 whore.”

  “We don't allow deprived acts like prostitution up here.” The man raises his voice as he replies, like a shepherd he scans his flock as he speaks.

  Bucket snorts, “Ok.” Bucket pauses, there are a lot of armed citizens around him, he chooses his words more carefully. “It was an analogy. Anyways, we're here for two people; a Spector and Nadine.”

  “I have them in custody.” The man simply states.

  “On what authority are you detaining citizens up here?” The Colonel says.

  “On the authority of us being the authority and governing ourselves. We protected the citizens up here when the law left. There were no soldiers up here running around forcing themselves on the women.” The man gestures to them with open hands. “There is no need for guns, put them away so we can have a chat. I wish you no harm.” They holster their sidearms. “Please, join me somewhere more private.” He gestures to a door. Bucket nods as him and the Colonel follow the man into a small hut.

  It's a simple room with a small round table made of reclaimed wood, the four chairs are each different, made of scraps. The walls are mostly advertising signs for synth clone meat companies and the apple orchard company.

  Bucket offers the man a cigarette which he accepts. All three of them light up.

  “Thank you Bucket. I'm Caleb. I am happy you made it up here Colonel, this gives us an opportunity to speak.”

  She exhales a smooth stream of smoke, “I've had many men ask me many important things over the last 48 hours. How about you get to the point Caleb.”

  “Very well, as you're well aware, high up here in the Cavern a large percentage of Unlinked live. Out of the over 6000 citizens in the Cavern over 1500 of us are Unlinked, living in peace, scraping by mostly in producing crafts, and garments. There is no prostitution up here and next to no drug use.”

  “Yes, because we're all angels up here, hm?" Bucket puts his hands together in a pious fashion," It's not like you all go to the town below, come back up here, your balls drained, drugs in hand and spit shine your halos before you reenter the blessed land.” He holds his arms outstretched, looking to the heavens. The Colonel hides her smile at his words.

  “True,” Caleb says, straightening in his chair, “but you have to admit, violent crime is almost non-existent, correct Colonel?”

  “You're correct. So, your point?” The Colonel says.

  “Talk has been going around for years about petitioning for a governing role up here. After the last 48 hours we're no longer petitioning; I'm officially informing you I have been appointed the Governor of the Unlinked.”

  Bucket and the Colonel are silent, Bucket looks through the outer wall of the shed with IR, he sees dozens of people with mostly revolvers, a few with sawed off shotguns. His eye gives him more stats on the weapons. He knows who uses those models.

  “Where are you getting the guns from?” Bucket asks.

  “Where did you get that eye from? I don't recognize the tech.”

  “What eye? There's no eye, that's why I wear a patch.” He says.

  “What guns? Walk around and you see no proof of the guns.”

  Damn politician. There is far more going on than what he figured, and they have leverage now. But he understands, these people are not the enemy—but at the moment they aren't his friends either.

  “Well I'm in no position to promise you an autonomous government in exchange for those two. They are a security risk to us all.” The Colonel says.

  “Not near as much as lawlessness, for us. We want a sit down with a Royal representative.” Caleb says.

  Scanning around one of the citizens catches Buckets eye. He turns to Calab, “We need to speak to him.” Bucket says.

  “Who?” Caleb says with an innocent grin.

  “Lets go Colonel,” Bucket stands, taking her arm he heads to the door.

  “What is it?” She asks.

  “We'll be in touch Caleb.” Bucket says.

  They head out the door and down to the main docks.

  “What the hell is it?”

  “Not in public, I need to check something first.”

  “Shit.” Bucket says. They are standing before a large locker, in a side alley behind a hut.

  “We're in private, what is it?” The Colonel says.

  “This is a Nightfall gun stash. There was over 40 revolvers, 12 AR's and a half dozen 12-gauge sawed off shotguns. All the ammo is gone as well. The lock says Leech was the last to enter the code, I saw him up top. He must have emptied it and gave the guns to the Unlinked for protection.”

  “And now they can back up their request to self govern. Dammit...” She says.

  “More importantly Caleb will likely consult Leech, so even if we were to set up an OP to extract Nadine and Wizbang it would be more difficult. We're losing Tales as well, she would be perfect for a stealth OP. When is the ship due in?”

  “2 hours. But they can't get in if the gates are locked.” She says with a wry grin.

  “You have a way to lock the gates?”

  “If they didn't change my codes, which they likely didn't. That would give us Jen for a night OP when it's quiet, to sneak in and snatch them.”

  “Not much time to scout things out though. We better get to it.”