A New Beginning Ch. 09

As the 'Jean-Paul' and the three other ships started their last jump towards Heaven Five. Their plans set and ready for a hopefully peaceful bluff.

The outer rim...

Far away from any Holy Company planet was the partially terraformed orb called Kellos. It took months for messages to reach the far flung Reacher planet and even longer to get there by ship. Not even the fastest FTL drive could get a ship from the relatively close Janus System in less than twelve weeks.

The Reacher people had chosen it for that exact reason. They had little wish to interact with the Holy Company.

The little contact they had with the Company was via it's stationary space station, 'Heaven Five'.

***

Three giant rings rotated slowly around a central spire, the whole construction in a stationary position above an unnamed planetoid. It's gravity strong enough to anchor the massive station that the holy company had constructed to watch over the 'Reacher' people on Kellos.

The Holy Company had called the far-flung station 'Heaven Five'. To the people on it, it was a long way short of heaven.

Originally designed by two bishops that wanted a station that could observe the 'Reacher' people as they terraformed the harsh planet of Kellos. It had been populated by some of the Companies best and brightest.

However, over a Hundred years had passed by.

Rotations had been fairly frequent at first, keeping the crew sharp and alert. Now though, it had been years since any new personnel had been assigned and much of the crew had become jaded and lazy. A few had even gone insane.

Very few onboard held out any hope of leaving and returning to the civilized worlds and for many, this was now considered home. Born on the station they had no real hope of leaving unless they chose to join the Reachers, an option hardly anyone would entertain.

With only the barest of communication back to the HC, Heaven Five was mainly free from Holy Company interference but still held to its ridged standards of social behaviour. It's commander being a slightly Jaded but loyal Company man with a strong security force and total backing from the more elite members of the crew.

***

Commander Lawson looked out through a large window as he ate his breakfast. The view was depressingly the same as always, the dark expanse of space dotted with stars, only the Reacher planet stood out with it two rings, both a light yellow in colour. A generous person might describe them as golden. He wasn't feeling generous and saw them as they were. Yellow.

"This milk is off." He grumbled as he still swallowed another mouthful of cereal.

"It can't be off daddy." Replied his daughter. She was used to the way he was always grumpy in the mornings.

"Tastes off." He mumbled.

Jenifer Lawson rolled her eyes at her father while managing to smile at the same time. They both knew it was impossible for the milk to be bad. It wasn't real milk for a start.

"A Reacher ship docked this morning... I was hoping you might let me go see it?... they might have some things to trade or sell... fresh milk for instance." She said to partially change the subject while secretly praying he would give her permission to get off the upper level and see parts of the station she had never seen.

To her surprise he nodded in agreement and said she could go, also telling her he would assign two of the security team to go with her.

Jenifer kissed his cheek as she hugged him gleefully. Her eyes twinkled with excitement the way they had as a child.

"Thank you daddy... I didn't think you would let me go." She told him honestly.

Station commander Lawson kissed her forehead and smiled, looking deep into her pretty blue eyes. Eyes that were still so full of innocence he almost changed his mind.

Yet he wanted her to see the lower levels, she was eighteen now and would need an understanding of the whole station.

"You can go, just stay with the security team and if anything happens... do what they say." He told her.

"Yes daddy... I promise... I'll stay with your goons." She laughed out as she stood up and headed for the door, her long nightdress swishing as she padded barefooted to get ready.

"I mean it." He shouted after her.

She turned and smiled.

"I know... I'll stay very close to them." She promised again, her face turning serious this time as she knew some of the dangers. It was impossible to grow up on 'Heaven Five' without hearing some of what happened on the lower levels.

********

A few hours earlier...

The cramped corridors were packed with people as two Reachers made their way through the crowds.

Guardian Gregory Jones walked beside Citizen Helena Shaw. He watched everywhere but had only been off world twice before, both times to 'Heaven Five' but something felt different this time.

The Reacher people were usually only tolerated because they brought fresh food and planet side things to trade. Yet today many people moved out of their way respectfully and gave him and Helena friendly nods or smiles.

"Somethings not right." He hissed out in a whisper as they headed towards the dock masters office and more people acted in an openly friendly manner.

"Yeah... it's freaky." Whispered back Helena. The way people were acting was making her nervous. She was used to thinly veiled hostility not this. Out of the two, she knew and understood the lower levels of Heaven Five. She even had more than a passing familiarity with the upper levels.

A tall slim man stepped out to bar their way just as they turned down another hallway.

"Brace wants to see you." He said with a grin. It was full of confidence and rightly so.

Helena nodded in acceptance. She and everyone else knew who Brace was. Leader of the people, self-proclaimed ruler of 'Heaven Five's' underworld. He was a man she tried to avoid when returning to 'Heaven' but rarely could. A long time ago she had lived on this station and Brace had seemed an ideal distraction from her once boring life.

Two years of passionate sex with him had been fun when in her youth but as she got older and wiser she had seen him for what he was and fled both him and the station.

Brace had lived his whole life on the Station, watched his father cripple himself trying to make ends meet and then watched his mother sell her body for meds to keep the old man alive. He was a bitter yet charismatic man that had quickly risen to power with rhetoric the common people liked and understood.

With a strong base support among the lower levels, he had soon organised strike actions and managed to get some extra things from the Holy Company. Things that he claimed were for the people.

In a way they had been. The concessions given, had helped the lower levels. They also catapulted Brace into the role of unofficial leader.

Moving quickly, he had pressed that advantage and used it to gather a core group of hard men and women to him.

People that saw Brace like a saviour and would do almost anything for him.

One of those men now escorted Helena and Gregory off the main area and through a series of small corridors. Eventually bringing them to a halt outside a cargo bay.

On the outside it looked like any other cargo bay. The large double doors shut and bearing no indication that this was where Brace now made his home.

The large doors opened to a view of boxed supplies. Obviously someone had seen Helena and her escort arrive.

Helena nodded to their guide as she passed him and entered. Crates were piled high but a small gap remained for them to pass through.

Once past the crates the place changed dramatically. People buzzed around in well worn work wear. They all looked like commoners with dirty hands and faces, grease stains on their patched up clothing.

Clearly they were not well off. Most of them had gaunt faces with hard eyes.

The room was filled with tech. scanners and display screens that flickered from low power, a general hum came from the old outdated equipment but the room seemed to be filled with drive and purpose.

"Citizens... welcome." Brace said with a sardonic smile as he stood in the centre of the repurposed area like a king in beggar's clothing. Using the Reacher form of address seemed like sarcasm from him.

Helena walked towards him with Gregory only a pace behind.

"What's going on Brace? You know I can't help you." She said. Forthright as ever with the man who had once been her lover.

"Helena... so good to see you again... who's the new boy?" he replied, deliberately ignoring her question.

She sighed. Brace had always been the jealous type, even after all these years apart and having himself a new woman.

"Guardian Jones... my protection." She said with a shrug, making it clear that Gregory wasn't getting between her legs. Thinking it best to steer clear of Brace's well known mercurial temper.

Brace grinned and indicated towards a side room. He rated the Guardian less than a stain on his boot, the Reachers had no proper military and their security training was woeful at best.

"Leave the puppy.. lets talk." He commanded as he strode to the rooms door and held it open.

Helena nodded to Gregory and followed, leaving her Guard to nervously look around at the room full of bedraggled but dangerous looking people.

Brace closed the door behind them, then walked casually over to a messy desk that held a bottle of whiskey.

"Drink?" he asked as he pored two tumblers full of the golden liquid without waiting for an answer. Proffering one towards her with a smile.

She took it and they both looked at each other as they took a sip, one warily, the other still with a gleam in his eye.

The strong flavour hit her as she swallowed. It tasted good.

"Expensive." She commented in surprise.

"E3... good stuff." He said with a grin.

She nodded pensively. He was being nice.. too nice.

"Brace?... what DO you want?" she asked softly.

He moved close, uncomfortably close and she was reminded of just how strong he was, how tall and handsome in his rugged way. She held her breath as he cupped her chin gently and tilted her head up. Even after all the years, she felt a small jolt of her former attraction to him.

The kiss to her lips wasn't a big surprise but it was a surprise to her how much she liked it. Helena melted into it and kissed him back. More followed and their mouths worked together briefly in a passionate and hard kiss.

It was Helena that pushed away.

Breathlessly she stepped back. Looking up at him with a slightly heated face. Her mind full of a confusing mix of emotions and half thought out questions.

"Don't." she gasped out.

"Why not?.. we both know you want to." He said. Still with an arm around her waist.

Both of her hands were on his chest, holding him back as she shook her head.

"You have a WIFE... for gods sake, just let me be." She said softly but with a hint of steel in her voice.

Brace smiled down at her.

"I remember when you had a husband... Didn't stop us then... We go together well." He said throatily. Full of passion for her.

He descended onto her like a hawk on a mouse. Kissing her forcefully and she hardly resisted, her own tongue darted over his as she let herself be overwhelmed with need. A need for him to be inside her. A need to feel something for once because she often felt a bit dead inside.

Life with the Reachers had taken a toll.

In moments they were pulling off their clothes, his tough work wear weathered it well, her more delicately made blouse and long skirt got torn, her knickers were ripped off as she went down to the floor and opened her legs.

"Fuck!! .. those are expensive." She breathed out.

Despite her voiced concern for the expensive panties. She still hooked her legs around him and pulled him in.

"I've plenty of fancy stuff, you can take your pick." He grunted out as his cock slid inside her.

"Shut up." She growled as she bucked her hips to take him deeper.

Brace didn't argue. Wisely he kissed her hard and fucked her like he used to.

Helena shuddered as she felt him fill her. His cock felt so good inside her as she closed her eyes and went back in time... reliving those nights she would come to the docking bays and fuck her lover in half hidden places. Lifting her expensive and fashionably chaste dress to feel him inside her.

***

Helena played with Brace's chest hair in a lazy manner, she was sated and relaxed.

"Sooo... that was nice." She said with a smile.

Brace breathed hard, still catching his breath.

"I need a favour." He said.

She scowled immediately, her mood spoiled.

"ahh... I see." She murmured as she pushed away and stood up to find her clothes. Her tone angry.

He watched her dress. His eyes slightly sad.

Helena pulled on her torn skirts and fixed the fastenings as best she could before pulling on her blouse and angrily tried to get the few remaining buttons to close it.

"fuck you Brace... look at this." She growled out in frustration.

He shrugged, he had bigger things on his mind than her ruined clothing or the fact she looked like she had just been fucked.

He didn't bother to get dressed. Standing tall and naked, he poured another glass of whisky and threw it down his throat.

"I'll get someone to fix it before you go... Right now I need you to play along." He told her.

"NICE." She said scathingly... "GOD you haven't changed a bit." She retorted.

"Helena. You know I care about you... I just have to get this station and the people on it a better life." He replied hotly.

As always he tried to twist things, make it about him and his people when she knew all he really cared about was how he was perceived.

"Keep telling yourself that... We both know it's bullshit." She shouted back.

Brace threw his glass to the floor.

"It's NOT the same anymore Helena... things have changed, people are DYING and I can stop it." ... "All I need is a little help from you and your fucking Reachers." He growled out fiercely.

She blinked. Something about him was different.

"What are you talking about?... people die all the time." she asked, her tone a little softer.

He shook his head.

"Not like this... longevity drugs aren't available to the commons anymore, the filters on the lower levels are fucked, hydroponics hardly produces enough food and the Company doesn't care... just last week they spaced five kids... KIDS Helena... Fucking KIDS." He told her in a haunted voice.

"Children?" her voice shocked as she sat down.

Her mind flashed to her own daughter, safe on the upper levels but in her minds eye she still saw her Mousey haired daughter as a child, even though she knew Jenny must be eighteen by now.

Brace nodded. His visage serious as he waited for the one woman he had ever cared about work things out in her mind.

A flick of his fingers brought up the screen on his desk.

"I'm not lying." He said gently as he played the stolen footage of four young boys and a girl being herded into an airlock.

Helena turned her head, she couldn't watch. But she heard them crying and then the silence... Such a terrible silence.

"Why?" she sobbed.

"Heaven is broken... it was a rush design and with population growth and few resupplies from the company... it was always going to end up like this." he whispered in the kind of voice that told her he wasn't quite the same brash rebel that he used to be.

Helena had been a scientist when she married Commander Lawson. She was well aware that without the inhibitors that the longevity drugs had, the birth rate would have sky rocketed.

His next words were not a big surprise. It had always been a contingency plan for stations like Heaven.

"Any crime is punished by spacing now, those kids stole a few things to eat... Fucking Sec Corp caught them and spaced them without a trial, tried to cover it up too." He added.

Helena was torn. She was a Reacher now and was fully committed to them, yet this had been her home once and she still had a daughter here.

"What do you need?" she asked. Her voice firming as she made her decision.

"weapons, we need the guns on your ship." He replied instantly.

Helena ran a hand through her slightly greying hair. No longer taking the longevity drugs herself, she was starting to look her age.

"It's just side arms, we don't have any pulse rifles or RFRG's" she told him truthfully.

Brace shook his head.

"couple of side arms isn't what I want.. I meant the RG's on your side turrets." He explained.

Helena gasped.

"I can't do that." She replied in a shocked voice.

Brace walked towards her, closing the distance at a slow pace.

"I've already told people that when the next Reacher ship arrives we will make our move... with or without you Helena... we are going to take over this place." His voice so determined that she felt a tremor of fear.

The way people had acted towards her and Guardian Jones also clicked into place. She knew that he was asking as nicely as Brace asked for anything.

She also knew he wasn't above taking what he wanted. Her crew had no idea and would already be laying out the supplies. Cargo doors wide open and easy prey to a sudden assault.

*******

Jennifer Lawson was properly dressed in a fashionable yet demure dress. It covered everything.

The collar fastened tightly around her long slim neck and had a ruffled lace edge. The hem brushed the floor and hid her ankle boots. Boots that had a high heel and laced up past her ankle in case her dress swished a little high. Long sleeves with lacy gloves covered her arms and she looked the very picture of Holy Company edicts on how women should dress.

Her long hazel hair was held up by twin combs made from rare Salka bone, each comb worth more credits than a common dock worker made in a year.

She didn't think about those things as she walked slightly ahead of two well-muscled men in Sec-Corp uniforms.

Her large eyes seemed to get larger as she took in the sights around her. She was excited and had to hold herself back from running like a child. Everything looked so different.

Despite the overall tattiness of the lower levels, she found herself loving the raw humanity of it all and moved from improvised market stall to the next in a kind of wonder.

She stopped by one stall and picked up a bracelet that was intricately made from copper and steel with glittering core crystals of blue and green interwoven into it. Each crystal held in place with fine mesh made from more copper and steel.

"Excuse me... how much is this?" she asked the stall holder politely.

One look at her and the stall holder knew she was richer than anyone he had seen in a long time.

"Only fifteen credits Miss... very rare and hand made by a blind Reacher who has sadly passed away... you won't find the like ever again." He told her with a sad little smile as if to say he was loath to part with it.

Jenny couldn't help but love the story behind the bracelet and the hawker saw it. He felt he had a sure sale and so he pressed just a little more.

"I wasn't going to sell it, but times are hard Miss..." he added for effect.

She nodded, she had just seen how poor the people were and without a second thought held out her thumb. Expecting the stall holder to have a universal credit scanner.

"Ah... sorry Miss, cash only down here." He said with a sigh, seeing the chance of fifteen credits disappear.

"Oh... okay." Jenny replied brightly and opened her purse, lifting out a one hundred credit chip and holding it out.

The man coughed as his eyes widened, he knew those chips existed but had never seen one.

"Erm... anything smaller, I can't change that much." He stuttered out as he recovered from the shock of seeing such a sum.

Crestfallen, Jenny shook her head. The merchant sighed and then tried a different tack as he noticed the two beautiful combs in her hair. Sparkling Salka bone that was worth a fortune. Gambling that she had no clue as to their worth, he offered an exchange.