Mor Ch. 05

Early morning sun shines on the ship as it rests on an island in the tropical seas. Mor and Breen are snoozing on the floor of Mol Dett's ship. Mor has passed out, lying on top of Breen like a big orange frog. Breen on the other hand is alternately picking his nose with his thumb and his ear with his pinky finger, being careful not to wake Mor. The prox alarm sounds...

Whoop. Whoop. Whoop. Whoop. Whoop. Whoop. Whoop.

Mor snaps up, alert and wary. "The prox!" She shouted, completely unaware of how far my thumb got shoved up my nose when she hopped up.

Rolling to my side and ceremoniously extricating my thumb from my nostril, I got to my feet and made my way to Mor. She was at the console looking at a small screen, panning the image from left to right with a joystick.

"There it is. It's a wolf."

I peeked into the monitor. "That's not a wolf, it's a lizard." It was checking out the deerskins.

"Oh. Well, I've never seen one, but that kind of fits the description." Shrugging her shoulders.

"Not really. If we ever head back north, I'll show you what a wolf looks like."

"Great. But for now, I'm going to kill that thing." She said, picking up a gun and heading for the door.

"Are we going to eat it?"

"What?" She stopped and looked at me like I was a loony. "You want to eat that thing?"

"No, but instead of killing it, why not just give it a wave blast and tie the skins up in a tree? No reason to kill it."

"Oh, well, if you um... Yes. Wave blast it and we can move it. When it wakes up, we'll be gone."

I grabbed my wave gun and, walking past Mor, strode out. I walked up on him while his back was to me and gave the lizard two good blasts. I'm glad his back was to me, he was really big. He rolled off the boulder Mor had put one of the skins on and came to rest at my feet. I walked back to the ship to get some clothes on and pull out the hovercat. Mor was wiping between her legs with a towel, watching as I came in.

"Oh, you're hurt." She said, wiping my nose and face with the cum-soaked towel in her hand.

"Hey, hey, hey, that's all wet."

"Sorry."

I grabbed my shirt and used it to wipe my nose. My nose had bled a bit from my thumb being shoved up in there, but not that much. I put my shirt, pants, and boots on. Mor joined me and we managed to tie up the lizard, especially that mouth. There were an awful lot of very sharp teeth in there. With a substantial effort, we rolled him onto the cat and I activated the wave generators.

With only myself on the cat, I could reach over ten meters of altitude. That lizard's weight kept the cat to less than two meters. Still, we were able to take him about a kilometer away and dump him off. Mor cut his bonds and we hopped onto the cat. After taking a tour of the small island, we figured the only thing this island could offer us is solitude.

"I suggest we check the maps and ascertain our exact location and get back on course." She spoke.

"Sounds good to me. Let's eat first."

"Agreed."

We ate raw deer meat dipped in salty, spiced vinegar, some spicy vegetables, and a tea that Mor whipped up.

Afterwards, we pulled out the maps. I couldn't read the words, though Mor could. She figured that we had come almost due south, nearly two thousand kilometers. Heading east over the mountain range, we would then turn southeast toward lands familiar to her.

When the skins were just about dry, we rolled them up and stowed them in the ship. Carefully, I pulled us out of the trees and headed east while gaining altitude. Ten minutes later, we were still in a slow climb, crossing the foot lands of the range. The range was marvelous to look at. Keeping about five hundred meters above the peaks, many mountain villages could be seen, some inhabited, some apparently not. Mountains gave way to great, grassy steppes with herds of animals running ahead of us. Such animals, I had never before seen. The steppes gave way to great valleys filled with expansive forest and divided by rivers. Valleys gave way to coastal lowlands. This was where Mor began to recognize landmarks.

"Look, look, look. The serpent's back." She pointed at a ridge that did look like a snake slithering along the ground.

"Porta's tears." Pointing at a series of lakes and ponds. "Porta was a star who was cast from the sky by her father. The legend is that Porta stood here and wept until her lover, Gan Ladek, rescued her. Her father, King Thala Kul Dinn, slew them both in his rage. He later threw himself on his sword, suiciding himself in his grief." She scanned the horizon. "Look. Fly there." She said pointing south.

"King Thala's sword." She said, as we approached.

A single spike of stone stood among some low hills. It stood at least two hundred meters tall, maybe ten in thickness. It was an awesome spectacle, an intriguing myth.

"Ok, that way." Pointing south by southwest. "Slow down when you can see a great green river."

I followed her direction and waited for further orders, while she intently scanned the terrain.

"There! See the fortress on the hill? Go there and land a hundred or so meters from the gate."

Which I did.

"Now we wait. Kella, a friend of mine, controlled this fortress. He was formerly a slave. His master gave him freedom as he lay dying. He left everything to Kella. Kella had been the brains behind his successes and the love of his life."

"What successes?"

"Zabot and Kella took the various technologies that they found or traded for, and integrated them, making better machines. Over the years, they developed an empire. Hopefully, that empire still stands and we'll be able to get some help with this ship."

Twelve men walked toward the ship, guns leveled.

"Gul Thuka warships are not welcome in this compound. You are advised to leave." One of them said, several menacing looking machines rolling through the gate as these words were spoken.

"You sit tight. I am going out to talk to them and see if Kella still runs this place. If something happens, don't panic, it'll be fine." Unbuckling and heading for the door.

"Wait a minute, those guys are..."

"Breen!" She barked with a chopping hand gesture. "Relax. Are you listening?"

Sigh. "Yeah." I wasn't feeling too good about this, but I let her go.

I watched her walk out to them. She walked up to them like she owned the place. Hands on hips, head held high, she nodded toward the keep.

One of them raised his wrist to his mouth and spoke, paused, spoke and paused again.

Mor turned and walked back to the ship.

"Breen, bring us into Kella's castle, right through the front gate, slowly. He has agreed to help us." She said, sitting down.

"You got some balls, crazy lady. I couldn't have done that."

"You could've if you knew the lord of the keep."

"Maybe, but you didn't know if he was still there."

"It has only been three years since I saw Kella. It seemed probable that he was still here."

We coasted slowly through the gate and pulled into the courtyard. Most of the people there were my size, except for one. Standing on a balcony overlooking the courtyard was a tall, orange man, wearing a black tunic. As he descended the stairs, his long, blood red hair swung in a braid, hanging over his left breast. He was at least as tall as Mor, substantially thicker in the limbs and wider in the shoulders.

"Is he your brother or something?"

"Well, sort of. We were raised on the same farm. Schooled and trained together. We come from the same stock, but we are not siblings. Set down and let's get out."

I set it down and we exited the ship.

Mor loped over to Kella and threw her arms around his neck. They kissed, hugged, and spoke to each other. I took my time getting over there, letting them catch up. I was also a little nervous about this. I had an idea in the back of my head that maybe Mor and Kella were something more than I had been told. Mor could dump me and send me on my way. I mean, I was on the southern continent now. That was where I was headed. Nevertheless, how would I get back north? And what about the feelings of jealousy when she flew into Kella's arms? I really liked the time we shared. I didn't want to lose that. And, most importantly, I was becoming very fond of Mor.

Shuffling my feet in the sand, I felt kind of awkward. Mor and Kella faced me. Mor beckoned me to come nearer and Kella extended his hand. I approached and extended my hand in like fashion. Mor pushed my hand down and raised the other, so we each had right hands extended. Kella gripped my wrist and I gripped his in return.

"Welcome, Breen. As Mor's friend, you are my friend. As long as you are Mor's friend, my house is open to you. Come, let's go indoors and you can tell me of your travels and how you came to possess a Gul Thuka sprint fighter." With that, we walked inside.

"Nothing has changed since when you were here last, Mor. We have been fortunate enough to acquire some choice pieces of hardware, most of which we are now able to replicate. Business has been good and fortune has smiled upon us, though, without Zabot's childlike curiosity and energy, it feels tedious at times." He fell silent for a moment.

"Ah, the kitchen. Let us fetch some wine and cheese and go to my apartments." Handing each of us a large bottle of wine, he gathered some cheeses and bread in a large linen.

Down the hall and up a flight of stairs, we followed Kella to a lavishly furnished room with low couches and tables all around the room.

After dining on the exquisite food and drink, Kella asked me where we got the ship.

"Oh," I chimed in, "We traded it for some animal skins." His jaw dropped and he just stared at me. "Well, we threw in a bunch of seashells, too." Still as a stone, he sat until Mor laughed aloud.

"Breen is my new master. When my old master was abusing Breen in a rather rude fashion, I was forced to kill him. Thus, we inherited the ship as payment for abuse."

That was nice of her to leave out the details. But, 'master'? What the hell is she talking about, I thought, I'm not even my own master, let alone someone else's. We were going to have to talk about this.

"So how did this come to be?" Asked Kella.

"I was hunting for valuables for my then master, Mol Dett, when I spied a sailboat flying through the air and tried to shoot him down. I thought I had, but he had instead doubled back and laid a trap for me. As I pursued, he caught me unawares and shot me with a wave gun. He stripped me and claimed me, twice. He took me back to the ship, where we had the confrontation I mentioned. We traveled here after a brief rest period."

"I see. Something of an adventure, to say the least. I am glad you made your way to my door. It is always a pleasure to see you. Stay as long as you like. Anything you need, you may have."

"Well," Mor began, "we could use some help working out the controls of the ship, if you know anything about it."

"Certainly, but it will have to wait. I have a couple things that must be attended to before the evening meal. Stay and rest. Have some more wine and I will send someone to get you when it is time for the evening meal. Please excuse me."

Mor arose and embraced him. I stood up as Kella turned to me. We gripped wrists, Kella smiling broadly before bowing out.

"I am not your master. You're more the boss than I am." I said as soon as Kella was out of the room.

"You are my master. You apprehended me while committing a crime. You became my master at that moment. I am your slave."

"You are not my slave."

"You are wrong, master."

"You never called me 'master' before." Shit, I thought, think fast Mr. Rheen. "Look, Mor, you are a free woman. I release you from slavery." I didn't know exactly what the heck I was talking about, but I was hoping I'd say the right thing and she'd say 'oh, ok,' and that'd be that and things would get back to normal.

"You can't be serious."

"I'm serious, Mor, you are free."

"You don't want me." Uh-oh, she was sounding a little hurt.

"I do want you. More than ever. I just don't want to own you."

"You want me?"

I nodded.

"And you want me free, too?"

Another nod.

"Baldo..." She went to her knees and threw her long arms around me, sobbing. She held me tight for quite some time.

"Thank you, Baldo." She called me Baldo twice. She hadn't called me that in a couple of days. Was there some significance? Probably not.

We sat on the couch in silence for a couple minutes.

"Who's up for some celebration wine?" I clinked the glasses together, changing the mood.

She was puffy eyed and wet cheeked. "I am." She said, smiling, and reached for a glass.

Mor and I finished the wine in silence, cuddling up and taking a nap on the couch. It was still kind of early, but we hadn't slept much and we'd done plenty.

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Thank you,

g.