Neko-laus 3: A tale of two kings

Chapter 17: Colors

I woke up all bright eyed and bushy tailed.  It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep will do for a body.  Mags didn’t even twitch when I nibbled on his shoulder.  I hustled out of bed knowing enough by now to leave the sleeping beast lay because I sure as hell didn’t want Mr. Crabbypants growling at me all day because he didn’t get his beauty sleep.  A sly self indulgent smile quirked my lips.  He could be so cute that way.

I got meowed at as I walked the halls but it was all done in good natured ribbing by comrades in arms who have shared blood together.  Kravan was standing up at the T-section giving out assignments so I ducked into my objective without loosing a step.  My hands were fast and furious as I grabbed easily to eat, easy to conceal breakfast.  By the time I got to the end of the serving area  a tall mug of steaming Ground was being held out for me.  Just like old times.  I snagged it as I flashed a smile and hoofed it out the other side of the cafeteria.

“NICKY!” A loud bellow followed me out of the room.

Kravan didn’t sound any better than last night.  Tough.  Not bringing me down.  I inhaled the aroma in the insulated cup.  Don’t have Ground out in the wild.  Teas were okay.  Beer was better but nothing like a hot cup of Ground to kick start the day.

“Hey.”  Grim reached over my shoulder and plucked it from my hand. 

“How much sweetener do you have in this?”

“It better be the usual.”

“And what’s the usual?”

“Three.”

“Nicky, you’re going to rot your teeth out with that much.  Where the hell are you going to find a dentist out there?”

“I thought you said that pod was a full service medic.”

“It’s field hospital. It means it follows the soldiers out on the field of battle.   There isn’t too much of a call for a field dentist.”

I reached for the mug but Grim turned away with it firmly in his possession.  “How are you feeling?”

“Made my tiger purr.”

Grim shook his head.  “Not what I meant.  Show me. Do the circuit.”

“Old Man, I just woke up.”

“I knew a bunny that could haller all night and haller all day and still keep gunning for more trouble.”  Grim took a sip of my mug then grimaced.

“Too bad, I’m a cat now.”

“Do it.  I need to see how far I can push you tonight.  The last thing I want to do is christen this medical pod with RIPper blood.”

I was weak.  I was out of shape.  As Grant so lovingly said, I was down more than up these past few weeks. Without Mags force feeding me, there would be more bones sticking out of me than those hinting at my ribs.  I could barely do a pull up and when I dropped my arms were shaking with the effort.  I ended up losing my balance and staggering sideways.  I slammed into a hard body then felt huge hands come up and catch me around the arms.

The voice was gruff. “You should have eaten dinner.”

“Yeah.”  One didn’t argue with Kravan.  He’d punched me one too many times in the head when he felt I was getting too rambunctious for RIPper protocol...and he was right.  Now when it comes to the big guy, I bend like a willow with him.  Pisses him off to no end but what can he say?  I’m not disputing him. 

Grim interjected knowing that I was pushing his right hand man. “If I ordered you to take an IV...”

“You don’t get to order me around anymore.” I took my mug back ignoring the fact that my hand was trembling like a leaf.  The Old Man didn’t ignore it.

“I could hold you down.”

“I’d make sure it wasn’t worth the effort.”

“Damn it, Nicky.  You look half starved.  You’re weak.  I would like nothing better than to let you and Arthur lock yourself away in your quarters and nurse yourselves back to health.”

Kravan tightened his hold on me slightly.  “You call that nursing?”

I took a sip of Ground.  “It’s good for what ails you.”

“I don’t want you collapsing in the middle of this.”

I let my joking tone drop.  “You’ve been in the field Old Man.  You know what it’s like.  Something like this is just a drop in the bucket.”

The mug was handed back to me.  “I understand that you Faded.”

Kravan dropped his hands away from me.  “It wasn’t out on a mission.  Those damned Latents jumped me in the training hall.”

“Once you Fade that’s it.”

I took a sip of my mug.  “It’s an attitude like that that would have left them as drooling children incapable of taking care of themselves.”

“You fixed them?”

“I didn’t do anything that they weren’t already searching for.  I just showed them how to draw from something other than themselves.  Giving away their personal energy is what got them in trouble to being with.  I left Sarah in charge and trust me that little minx would have given me a run for the money if she was...recharged back on the ship.”

Grim frowned then motioned me to follow him back towards command central.  “So all Latents can tap into hidden energy?”

“It’s not hidden.  I just have to shift my sight slightly to see it.  I don’t know if being able to do that is what makes you a Latent or being able to manipulate it.”

“And doing magic?”

“Leaves me flat on my ass.”

“But drawing from this hidden energy doesn’t Fade you.”

“I’m just a pipe it flows through.”   I could see Grim looking at me puzzled.  “That’s the best way I can describe it.”

I took a drink and savoured it.  “Now, tell me what you want me to do and I’ll tell you if I can do it or not.  I’m not about to jeopardize any of the crew or my people for this.”

“Command center.”  Grim turned and Kravan was on his six as they started down the hall.  I didn’t really care but so much for treating visiting royalty with some decorum.  Ha!  I never thought I would be using the word decorum, much less know what it actually meant.  Damn, that leaky chip really had done a number on me.

“Nicky!”  The Old Man bellowed.  Crap, he was at the end of the hall already.  I didn’t all out run after them, but I didn’t take a leisurely stroll either.

Shamble style command center was nothing like the Empire ships but it was pretty damned close to it.  I don’t think the Empire knew what they were losing tossing Sergeant Pepper over the fence.  Just before he was getting ready to get me up to speed, Mags sauntered in carrying a comb and a smile of satisfaction.  Okay, I remember last night;  I wasn’t that great but my Tiger was truly beaming.  Maybe I was.

He handed me the comb then looked at me with an arced eyebrow.

“What?”

“You said if I grew it, you’d take care of it.  So take care of it.  I’ve got a knot the size of a rock at the back of my head.”  Sure enough Mags hair was damp and there was a massive golden bind there.

“How the hell did you get that?”

Grim leaned over my shoulder and pondered the problem.  “It’s a pillow knot.”

“A what?”

“It’s caused by friction of someone getting fucked back and forth on a pillow.  I guess we know who played the catcher last night, now don’t we.” Grim let a sly smile finish his jibe.

I could see the flush of embarrassment rising up the back of Mags neck.  “No, there was no fucking going on in our quarters last night.  It was love...and if you don’t know the difference, Old Man, I pity you.”

Mags jerked as I started detangling his pillow knot.  Okay I was a little rougher than necessary because I thought the Old Man had over stepped the boundaries of good taste.

“I stand corrected.  Now listen up.  The plan is to knock out a sector of the grid that has the pod in it.”  I watched as Grim pulled up a grid on a large panel.  His touched the screen and blocked out the area. 

Frowning I looked at it.  “You want me to black out the area?”

“We got that covered.  Boom boom at the relays.”

Grim taped on the interface and another map came up.  Schematics of the medical pod.  I kept combing Mags hair as I looked over at it.  Simple.  I fucked up decks on an Empire cruiser; this thing was tiny compared to that.

“How are we moving it?  I’m assuming it’s on a hover?”

“Hook it up to a truck and haul it away .”

I frowned.  “You know my boys did that with a shipping container on a hover.  We couldn’t control it.  We wrecked the score and we damaged a shitload of buildings by slamming into it.  I have a feeling that pod is a little sensitive and really shouldn’t be knocked around.”

“Guards would be alerted as soon as we breech the fence.”  Kravan piped up.

Mags patted my hand then stood up. “Not necessarily.”  He moved to the map.  “This is too isolated.  As soon as the power grid goes down, the powers that be will know what you’re aiming for.  There is a big chance that this pod is bait.”

I crossed my leg over my knee and looked at the area Grim wanted to take out.  It was too isolated.  This screamed RIPpers.  There would be border guards down on us so hard and so fast it would make your head spin.

Mags keep looking at the city grid.  “The medical pod, is it just going to be for the exclusive use of the RIPpers or can anyone who needs help get treatment.”

“It’s intended to be an all access facility.”  Grim watched Mags warily not knowing where he was going with this.  I was in the dark too.

“So why aren’t the other gangs involved in this? “  Mags began blocking off more grids, crossing gangland territories until almost all of the Shambles gangs were involved.  “If there was a bigger power outage, other gangs could use that time to attack the fence and border points.  This would keep attention at those sites and away from the pod so it could be moved with a little more care.  Those gangs would put in sweat equity in acquiring it and wouldn’t feel beholding to the RIPpers.”

“We’re out of time, Arthur.”

I nodded feeling a little more secure in this plan. “Tell them why we need them.  Most of them, at least the ones along this perimeter are open to negotiation.”

Kravan punched up RIPper inventory listings. “We don’t have the explosives to take out more relays.”

I dropped my hand on Mags shoulder.  “You don’t need them.  You got King Tiger and you got Wendy, I mean Grant.  As far as the Empire is concerned, they are dead.  Hide the hair and dress them up in colors, then they would blend in.”

“We could still use the truck...”

Hovers took the entire weight of whatever was being moved but then were prone to strange and unpredictable movement.  That pod dragged by a truck would slamming everywhere like a child’s ball.  We needed to use something slower but powerful.  Something we could control.

“Nicky?”  Mags looked over at me a expression of expectation on his face. 

“Burra.  We could use the burra to move the pod.”

Grim’s face was still for a moment then he turned back to the new grid layout.  It was about four times the size as the original so this meant it would take longer for guard deployment.  If the other gangs kept them busy, we could take out time hauling the pod out of the city proper and get it to the Shambles.

“Kravan, call a Colors meeting.  Nicky, tell your lady wife to get her beasts in order.  Arthur, you and Grant get your hair hidden and we’ll drop off some RIPper colors so you don’t stand out so much.”  I grinned as Mags made a bleech face.  He might be in the Wild with me but he was still so damned particular about his threads.

“Nicky.”

“Old Man.”

“Get an IV.  We are going to need you as well as possible.  I know I can’t order to you do it, but I’m making a request as one leader to another.”

I felt my face go blank.  Well, shit.  Damn it.  Damn it to hell and back.