Chapter 10: The Aftermath 4

Jim’s week had been too long, after destroying the last of the Krong, he begun to destroy all the planets that held the bug like creatures that had infused spies on the imperial planet into weaker humans. True it had been a shock to find out that there were different species of them; still it hadn’t deterred his absolute hatred of all of them. With the Krong wiped out the only ones to worry about now was their allies the Krang, Jim knew it wouldn’t be long before they came after him full force.

So far they’d been lucky the pattern of movement they were on was erratic at best. Jim had destroyed almost half of the fueling stations in the sector of the alien space, so at best there were a lot of mad bugs out there. At worst almost every warrior race would be coming for them; Jim decided to head back to the empire planet, besides Amber couldn’t be absent much longer without the fleet setting out to find her. Once inside imperial space the empress was updated about everything that had happened in her absence. Sighing she wished that this could be quicker this was the most she’d spent with Jim since she gotten pregnant again, damn that man could fuck!

Settling into orbit Jim looked over all the information they had gathered, especially the new allies that Amber had made. What was it they’d called themselves? The Creca? Against his better judgement Jim decided to wait and see but all his hatred for any of the bug races was still writhing near the surface. Amber was almost afraid to leave the ship, Jim had just up and left without her before, though this time if he left she was afraid that he might bring the war to imperial world. Speaking to Dickie before she left she had a feeling that if he tried to leave she’d be hearing an ear full not long after from Jim. Walking to the palace throne room she reminded herself that she had to enter the Creca in the long list of alien allies the empire had.

Jim knew that they had at least a week here before the station would be ready to depart again. It had held up thousands of times better than he’d hoped for and the many modifications he and Mary had made had the station to damn near impregnable. Wading through the endless hours of information wasn’t doing much to lighten his mood either, stopping an hour later Jim was about to click off when a tiny snippet of information flashed across the screen. Thought transfer and brain swap capabilities, what the fuck? Reading on Jim saw that the Krong had perfected a technique of taking and fully integrating a human mind into their computer systems. It appeared that it was one of their most used techniques and it was done through their stinger beams! Jim started to pour over the information even harder studying the plans, how it worked not too unlike his extractor though in this instance it had storage capacity behind it.

Hour after hour he read on, it appeared that the Krong only used it on the fiercest and deadliest enemies. Jim was so tired but refused to give up, he had to find where they kept the brains that they had taken were stored. He held on, hoping against hope that they were there, he just had to find them if they were still alive then they could be saved. 2 days later Mary walked into the lab only to find a red and blurry eyed Jim still where she’d left him. Appearing to be asleep with his eyes open Mary reached to turn off the comp in front of him when Jim screamed, “NO! I’ll never find them if you turn it off!”

Mary jumped away as Jim swung at her, what the hell was going on! “I have to find them they could be alive still. Help them, I can help them.” Jim was saying over and over.

Not sure what to do as she’d never seen him like this, Mary called Amber who seemed to be privy to everything about Jim rather than her who’d known him far longer.

Amber arrived a short time after, Jim looked up when she kissed him tears streaming from his eyes, whispering, “They may be alive Amber, they may still be alive.”

Amber looked at the screen as shock caused a gasp to escape from her lips, “Oh my god! Is this for real they actually had the capability to do this?”

“Yes,” whispered Jim, “they’ve had it for well over 100 years, I have to find out, I have to be sure.”

Amber sat and stared at the screen with Jim, Mary shook her head what the hell was going on what had Jim found that had him pushing his self to the very brink? It had to be something monstrous, something he’d hidden long ago.

2 hours later Jim let loose a shout, “I found it!” Letting loose a huge sigh Jim collapsed causing Mary and Amber to rush to him and gently wheel him to a cot.

Mary looked at Amber, “What had him so excited?”

Sighing Amber guessed that she could tell Mary some of it, “Years ago Jim lost family to the Krong. He thought they were dead and threw himself into his work, I believe that you met him a few years after this. He just found evidence that they may still be alive, well at least their brains. You see the Krong used stinger beams to not only kill but to take the brains of their selected victims. Though were defeated they fought fiercely, Jim thinks that their brains might have been taken.”

“Even so,” Mary replied, “they’d just be brains, disembodied hunks of flesh.”

Amber looked at Mary with an incredulous look, “Mary, you do realize who we are talking about here right? Jim has a whole computer full of ideas, he hasn’t even tried yet, let alone developed.”

Mary looked at Jim a thin line of anger on her face then as quickly it passed, “That bastard! All these years! I bet a lot of mine are in there too! Lost my ass, he’s been holding them all this time.” Turning around Mary marched up to Jim, “You bastard!” as she slapped his face,” Jim stared at her wondering what the hell was crawling up her ass. “You had all my ideas all these years! Lost them my ass! I want them now!”

Finally understanding Jim once again stared at the woman he owed more than just his life. “I tried to give them to you!” Jim replied, “The day I had finally collected them all on a special disc you left.”

“That’s bull shit Jim and you know it! You had every chance those 2 years to give them to me, you just wanted something to hold over my head, damn it! If I didn’t need you right now you’d been dead an hour ago,” Mary was screaming in his face the tirade almost completely snapping Jim out of his stupor.

Jim snapped his mouth shut and reached into a desk drawer, pulling out a high density disc he handed it to her. “I’m still undecided whether or not to kill your ass!” With that Mary stomped away leaving a stunned Amber and Jim in the computer room. “You really should have given them to her back then,” Amber said.

“Hey it was the truth, the day I had finally gotten them all together she was gone, and she told me unless it was important I’d be her next victim, I didn’t think that this was important enough for her not to target me. I am good but she’s been at it a lot longer how long do you think I’d last against her?” Jim replied, the honest look on his face was almost comical.

“You might want to start now, she was pretty mad,” Amber said half hearted, she gotten to know Mary a lot better than Jim knew, She and Jim were about the closet to actual family that Mary had, well ... as far as she knew.

Mary was seething how dare that arrogant bastard hold her ideas, ideas that she could have used to make her job that much easier. An hour later, Mary found herself outside of a huge estate outside the royal city. Drawing close to the outer gate she read the name Stock estate. How the hell did I end up all the way out here she thought, well she was going to see her mother again fingering a set of keys around her neck she still wasn’t sure she was ready to reveal to the woman the she was the woman’s daughter.

Inside the woman snapped off the comp after all these years he never threatened her, never raised his voice, had only said that he loved her. Tears filled her eyes, Jim looked so tired when he’d called, she’d hardly been much of a mother to him though she didn’t blame him for the disappearance of his sisters, it was obvious that he still blamed himself. She was still in awe of him he’d grown so tall and strong she knew his father would have been proud also though he didn’t look much like his father, one could tell he was a Stock.

The woman had just sat down when there was a knock at ... the front door?

Mary wasn’t used to NOT sneaking around, the front door opened the shook apparent on the face of the woman from the hospital. “May I come in? I have more for you that will pay the debt I owe, for my life.” Again the woman was shocked but nodded and let Mary in. They both sat Mary was unsure how to continue the keys were the dearest thing she had and she wasn’t really prepared to give them up. Sighing she had made a promise to her sister that if she ever found their mother, she give her these things and a message from Ann.

“I’ve brought the last of the things I promised to give you, they were very precious to the woman so I don’t take lightly giving them to you. Mary and Ann were extremely dear friends to me, so you understand why I had to make sure you are their mother.”

“Please, call me Maria; I haven’t used my real name in so long if at least one person knows I won’t feel so alone.” The woman Maria said. Mary nodded and handed her the key that Ann had worn around her neck.

Maria Gasp then burst into tears, “Oh my god! Then she really is dead!” Maria said a low whisper, “This was her royal insignia key to think that beautiful girl will never be able to use it.”

Royal? Had Mary heard her right? Yes! that’s right she remembered reading about the Stocks when she hacked in they were very close to the throne cause they were PART of the throne, damn! Mary was a royal? Holy shit! Too bad she really didn’t give a shit. Shakily Mary hesitatingly handed the other key to Maria, This time though Maria only looked at it, “So you really expect me to take that?”

Mary was taken back for a second, “What the hell are you getting at lady?” Mary snapped.

Holding up her hands Maria pointed to the key, “You don’t realize what you hold do you? That’s a specific Dna coded insignia. There are only 6 people that could have removed them intact, 3 died on the station 2 were the owners of them, the last,” Sighing she brushed tears from her eyes, “I haven’t seen in years though he does still talk to me.”

WHAT!? “What are you trying to say?” Mary asked reaching for her plasma pistol and personal shield.

“Look,” Maria started fresh tears in her eyes, “I know you are one of my children which I don’t know, I had enough training from my husband to recognize a soldier, killer or assassin.”

Mary had noticed that the woman had kept her distance, Mary’s heart swelled with pride but was aching to tell Maria, for years though grateful to Thomas, Mary had missed having an older woman to talk to.

“I... , “ Mary started, “I am not sure if I can tell you, I have done horrible things that no decent mother would ever be able to accept.”

“When you are ready, we can discuss about who I really was, I was not the decent mother you think I was not at first, as with you, you’d also be surprised by what you find out.” Maria said a smirk and faraway look on her face.

Mary smiled a genuine smile this woman was starting to grow on her, the more she was around her and found out the more she was starting to like. Mary was about to walk out when something clicked in her head.

“Wait a minute! You said one you hadn’t seen in years? You mean to tell me I have a brother out there? You are referring to Jimmy right?” Mary rushed out, the thought of an older sibling excited her to no end.