Anachronocity v10p1

By Josh Brown

The Priestess and the Murderer - Part One

"Don't blow me up. Don't you dare blow me up!"

The former priestess of the Goddess Arl held her breath as she approached the lone asteroid that held Xavier Black isolated from life. The dozen or so ships patrolling the asteroid were under direct orders to destroy anything that came in contact with their sensors -- no questions asked. Kai was told by that foolish Interpol officer that the ships should be gone by the time she got there since he sent forward the orders to release Xavier from his hell. Why couldn't those orders include dropping Xavier off somewhere closer to civilization? Besides the stark raving madness that ran his life, the need to kill people on his "quest," that is.

Kai expelled the air trapped in her lungs and grinned. No ships on sensors; the only thing she found was an asteroid waiting to be picked clean of the sole life aboard it. She set the ship to automatically land only a few miles from Xavier's residence and then headed for the airlock.

As she waited for the process to complete, Kai laughed out loud at Sedrick's disbelief when she told him just how well she could control Xavier.

"Your brother?" Jackson Sedrick said with a scowl not even a mother could love. "We have no record of Xavier Black having any siblings."

Kai rolled her eyes at the ineptitude of Interpol and its officers. "Just what records do you have of Xavier's past? Let me answer -- none. You don't know what planet he was born on, who his parents were, or anything else for that matter. Where'd he go to school? What did he do for a living before he started killing? Where'd he live? Anything? Thought so. All you know is that he's a dangerous killer. Beginning, middle, and end of story. So why are you so surprised that he has a sister? It was his idea for me to join the priestesshood and my contacts that kept him hidden from you gorillas for so long."

"I'm not surprised," Sedrick said, his face flushed with anger. "I'm suspicious as to why you'd risk revealing such a secret now. Care to explain that?"

"There's no reason to hide now. Simple, isn't it? Leave it to Interpol to think of everything but the obvious."

"What are you talking about?"

"So what? You know. Big deal. Did you send the orders? Is he free to go?"

"Yes," the officer said. "Top priority. Xavier Black released from sentence. Now go get him and bring me the League -- preferably alive, but dead works too."

The ship shuddered minutely as it touched down to the asteroid's surface, and the airlock hissed as it unlatched. Kai shoved it open then leaned against the wall and waited for Xavier to come to her. He'd come, probably looking for a kill. Then he'd see her and his bloodlust would fade away. Ten long years isolated from all human life would be enough to get him here. After that... well, then the real fun would begin.

Thirty minutes passed, and then an hour. Still no sign of Xavier. Kai started to get nervous the longer this went on. Nobody was ever sent to the surface to check on him. For all she knew, Xavier was wounded at the bottom of a ridge with no way to communicate for help. The orbiting ships had orders to monitor his life signs but that was it. They were to drop foodstuffs and report when he'd finally died. Was she too late? Did the leaving patrols bombard the planet to kill him before they left?

Kai went to a wall screen and accessed the ships main computer. She scanned through the sensor readings of the asteroid when she first arrived and frowned. Four different sets of life signs were found on the surface. All four of them were weakening, nearing death. Even if she went out there and found them, it'd be too late. By the time she landed, they'd have all been dead.

"What have you done, Xavier?" Kai mumbled to herself. She poked her head out the airlock and took in the surrounding area. Hostile wasn't even the start of describing this place. Monstrous peaks of jagged rocks filled the land. Here and there a small open space appeared by not much to do anything with. The cold nearly numbed every part f her face; her eyes felt solid as ice after just a few seconds peek. Off in the distance, she spotted the tiny box they'd left for Xavier to live in. And near that she saw a ship.

Closing the airlock and pressing herself against the heating vent that spewed enough hot air to battle the cold ice running through her bones, Kai reached for the access screen and brought up the ships communications controls.

What would she say? What could she say? The marking son that ship clearly identified it as a special Interpol family vessel. The men and women that patrolled this asteroid couldn't leave until Xavier died, so they allowed entire extended families to come and live on the ships. Really, there was no reason to make people do the job anyway. The computers could be programmed to drop food, monitor Xavier's life signs, and destroy all incoming vessels. But Interpol took no chances with this one. They wanted as many backups as possible to make sure their lucky capture of the greatest mass murderer in history never got away. Too bad they didn't hire smarter, less desperate people to try and take down the Pure League.

Before she could decide what to do, a loud banging on the airlock startled her heart to near explosion. Gasping, struggling to avoid fainting, Kai slapped thee control to give her a view of the airlock from outside the ship.

All she saw as the airlock, the dusty ground, and a large assortment of cargo crates.

"I am not opening it," she said to herself as her hands reached for the release latch. "I will not open the airlock."

Rationally, she told herself it was a death deal if she opened it. But her emotions told her it had to be Xavier. If he'd been on the other ship when she got into range, his life signs wouldn't be visible on the scans.

Again the banging startled her, but not nearly as bad. Aww, Kai just didn't care. If Xavier was alive, then that was him. If he was already dead, then what did it matter? She was good as dead as well. Revenge against Sterling and his bitch would have to come in another lifetime.

Kai shoved the latch and jumped back from the airlock.

"Lizzy! You damn fool, it's freezing out here!" Xavier shouted as he started throwing the cargo crates into the ship. "And where the hell have you been?" He asked as he climbed in and slammed the airlock closed.

Kai couldn't believe her eyes -- or her ears. Nobody had called her Lizzy since she law saw Xavier. Kai was her alias when she decided to join the priestess hood. It came with its own background and got her prime positioning in the Goddess cult. That is, after Xavier tore the previous owner of the name apart with his bare hands. Well, Kai was dead for good now. Lizzy never felt better.

As for Xavier's appearance -- well, he looked like shit; only shit would have won the beauty contest. His body was thin from living off food bars with just enough of the essentials to maintain life. His hair flowed like an oily, greasy, tangled ball of yarn all around his shoulders and down his back. Shaving didn't appear to be a top priority, either. Somewhere in that mass of hair was a beard that stretched for eons. Those eyes, though, they spoke volumes about his life on the asteroid: He was still as vibrant and full of passion as the last time she saw him. The asteroid and Interpol tried to break him, but nothing could break Xavier Black. His quest drove him and until that quest was complete, all roadblocks were mere obstacles waiting to be overcome.

Xavier stood in front of her, ogling every inch of her body. "You know what, woman? I don't give a shit. I've been waiting too damn long to fuck you silly."

Lizzy grinned widely. Despite his appearance, and the rather profound smell suffocating all life in the known universe, she wanted his body just as bad.

Without even a kiss hell, they shredded each other's clothes off and defiled every room on the ship -- three times.

Exhausted, sore, finally satisfied -- Lizzy lay in Xavier's arms on the floor of the bridge listening to the beat of his heart and the vibrating of the ship's engines carrying them closer to revenge. She told him how she convinced Sedrick to release him, bringing a huge barrel of laughter -- just like she remembered -- from his lungs.

"Well, wouldn't he be surprised to see our sibling rivalry all worked out? Your brother! Ha."

"Which reminds me, he's in one of the cryo-chambers down below. I think we may have even had sex on top of him once or twice. Didn't know if he was on your list or not."

"Damn you impress me, Lizzy. Once I got hold of that family on the other ship, I knew the quest was back on. I could feel my fate reawakening from a long slumber."

Lizzy ran her fingers through Xavier's luscious beard, slightly worried. "You didn't kill them, did you?"

"Don't be a fool. I killed four of them, left the rest alive. Only those four were on my list."

Lizzy gazed up at Xavier's face, cautious at first. Despite his choice of words, he didn't look angry at all. He looked down right content. She debated asking him how he knew those four were on his list, but decided it could wait.

The quest was definitely back on. Maybe round two would carry more explanations, because Lizzy was starting to wonder if this "quest" had any foundation in reality, or if perhaps her "brother" might actually be insane.

To be continued...