Once Broken, Chapter 13 (Patreon)

The stone clacked against the one under it as he put it down. As did the one after that, and the one after. A series of steady clacks, unless he had to stop stacking them to get more.

He reached for the latest pile, and his fingers touched dirt. Out of stones again. He growled. Why couldn’t they be close to the wall anymore? Why did they have to be scattered all over the place?

Why did he even have to build this thing? He was Tristan. He’d broken through unbreakable locks, built explosives out of commonly found items. Stacking stones was beneath him. He looked at them, five uneven layers high. He hated them. He readied himself to kick them, and a yawn stretched his jaw until it cracked.

What he needed were tools: a cutter to flatten the field stones, adhesive to stop them from wobbling. The hover didn’t have those kinds of tools; all it had were precision tools to do repairs. A place as primitive as this would only have chisels and hammers, and while those would work, taking the time to learn how to use them meant being here longer.

His father said something as Tristan stood and went looking for more stones. He was probably expressing his disappointment again, but Tristan wasn’t listening anymore. He’d pushed his father’s constant commentary down to the level of background noise.

And there was no Alex, at least most of the time. The human did walk by occasionally, but he kept his distance, and Tristan fought the urge to call to him each time. To ask him to put an end to this, to have them go home, but he wouldn’t plead. He was Tristan! He didn’t plead.

His father snickered.

The locals no longer watched him work, except for the occasional one who hadn’t had the chance to gawk at him that first day. He wasn’t unusual enough for their entertainment. Of course if they knew who he was, they wouldn’t get this close.

His father suggested he show them, and Tristan was tempted, but the wall was more important.

He returned to it with an armful of stones. The stones averaged six inches in length, and three inches in thickness. The length of the wall he needed to build was four-hundred-eighteen feet. That meant more than eight-hundred stones per layer, four feet high meant twelve layers, possibly thirteen, to account for how uneven they were.

Were there even enough stones in the entire clearing? Would he have to go into the forest, eventually? He wished there were more of the original stones left over, but when the building had been blasted apart the last time, there had been enough energy to turn most of them to pebbles.

Voices sounded from the front of the building, and once he dropped the armful of stones by the wall, he approached to listen.

“I wish to thank you again for protecting the herd,” the priestess said. Tristan took a piece of dried meat from the table someone had placed by the building’s wall and chewed it.

“You still haven’t explained to me how you let this happen three times already.”

Let what happen?

“They are armed with human weapons. There may be fewer than us, but they can kill us before we reach them. Unlike with humans, we are not so numerous that we can send fighters to simply die.”

Fighters? Dying? He drank from the water bucket before looking around the edge of the building.

Alex tapped a datapad—not his. “The thing is, these guys aren’t just random tourists here for some excitement. I cracked the encryption, and they were paid to do this. They’ve received fifteen payments at this point. The last one was two days ago, which is when they would have left that city to come here.” He turned the datapad so she could see the display. “Tell me if the three before that match the times you were attacked.”

“They do not.” She tapped the screen three times. “Those are the ones that line up with those attacks.”

The people here have been attacked? Tristan smiled. Alex was implying it could happen again. He shook with excitement at the idea of getting to fight, to have some fun.

Alex looked at it. “I’m guessing the other payments are attacks on other towns. Have you heard about them?”

“We don’t have a way of talking with other towns, and we have been too busy ensuring our survival to travel there.”

“Did anyone die in those attacks? Was anyone living here targeted, or is it always only the animals?”

“Only the herd. Terdaon was injured the first time, but it was because he was impetuous and charged at the humans.”

Humans being paid to kill the town’s food source, but not the people. That was the mark of intimidation attacks. Someone was trying to break their will.

“Alright,” Alex said, “how about you tell me who you pissed off?”

She didn’t react to the accusation. As far as she was concerned, she hadn’t initiated this. She pointed to the datapad. “Would this not tell you?”

“I’ll find out, once I’ve traced the payment back to their origin, but I want to hear you tell me.”

She sighed. “Ten years ago, we were informed that a new corporation had bought the rights to this planet, to us. With this message came instructions for us to prepare for our lives to be changed, to be improved. We ignored it. We live far from everyone. We did not believe they would bother with us.”

“You’ve lived in the cities, among humans. You had to know the corporation wouldn’t leave anyone alone.”

“When I lived in the city, all the corporation was interested in doing was building new, bigger cities, and twisting our beliefs. It’s why I left to come here. I did not expect things to be different, in spite of the message.”

“What happened?”

“Three years ago, a representative of this new corporation came here. Looked around, was pleasant, told us how much better our lives could be if we followed his instructions. He could bring technology to us, improve our homes, bring us entertainment, credits. All we had to do was perform for the visiting humans.”

Her tone became bitter. “He wanted us to take how we live and make it a show. To become a parody of who we are. I’ve seen it in the city, where the humans started telling the House what they should say, how the Source should be called the sun, the Aspect called heroes. I knew this was what would happen here too, if we agreed. I was ready to argue against doing what the human wanted. But I didn’t have to.”

She took a breath. “Dararig is the leader here, and she didn’t see anything to be gained in going along with the humans. She knew of them, but hadn’t met one before. She likes the way things are.” The priestess smiled. “She is set in her ways, and this time it was to my advantage. The attacks began not long after that.”

“So they’ve been attacking you for three years? Only the herd? You do understand what they are doing, right?”

She waved the question aside. “It does not matter. They now know we are not defenseless. When their warriors do not return, they will know better than to come here again.”

“Not very bright, is she?” his father commented.

Tristan nodded, his hand searching the table for more meat, but he’d eaten all of it. This wasn’t over. It wouldn’t be over until the corporation got what they wanted.

It was a simple plan; these people depended on the animals for food. By killing a few of them with each attack, there would come a point where there wouldn’t be enough for them to survive. They’d have to either give into the corporation’s demands, or die off. Either would be in the corporation’s favor.

“Aren’t you happy I taught you to survive off what’s in the forest instead?”

Tristan glared at his father, who was munching on dried meat. Had he taken the last piece? He opened his mouth to ask what he was doing. His father was dead, he didn’t need to eat, but he saw the hover, and an idea formed.

He looked for Alex, but their voices came from inside the House, becoming indistinct once the door closed. He looked at the hover again. 

“Why are you even thinking about doing that?” his father asked. “I taught you better.”

Tristan rolled his eyes. “It isn’t about helping them.” He headed for the hover.

“Of course not. Destroying a corporation would be about impressing that human.”

“No. It’s about doing something productive, instead of wasting my time with that stupid wall.”

“The wall you are building because the human told you to.” 

“So I’ll get better!”

“So the wall is because the human told you to. The corporation is to impress him. I’m seeing a pattern here I don’t like. When you destroy the corporation, don’t come back. Prove to me it has nothing to do with the human.”

“Fine,” Tristan said, entering the hover. He sat in the pilot’s seat and went through the ignition sequence.

Curses came from outside and Tristan looked at the door, but his father was stretched on a couch. He waved at him. If it wasn’t his father, it didn’t matter then. He went back to starting the hover.

Lights blinked and went out. They came back on, stayed on, but the hover didn’t lift off. Annoyed, Tristan got on his knees and pulled panels out.

“What the fuck is going on in there?” He recognized the voice as Jacoby. “Alex, I’m working on—” He was in the doorway. “Aren’t you supposed to be building a wall?”

“I need to take care of something first. I’ll get back to the wall afterward.”

“Then I hope you can take care of that here, because this hover isn’t going anywhere for the moment.”

Tristan stood and glared at Jacoby. “What did you do to my hover?” 

Jacoby raised his hands. “Tech, calm down. I’m just giving it a tune-up.”

“Who’s Tech?” his father asked.

“This was working perfectly fine! You have no business messing with my things. Fix whatever you did, now!”

“Look, Tech, you know how it goes. I can’t just—”

Tristan stalked to him, and Jacoby got out of the way. He went around the hover, to the front, where a tarp was stretched on the ground with components that could be inside the hover on it. They were dirty, one clearly misaligned, but that didn’t matter.

“Put them back,” he growled at Jacoby. 

“Tech—”

“I said, put them back! Who told you that you could work on my hover? Where do you get off taking my things apart? How would you feel if I took your baby apart and left pieces all over the place?” He took a step toward the human. Tristan was going to tear him a part for presuming he could touch his stuff. He reached for Jacoby as Alex appeared between them. 

Tristan recoiled before touching him.

“What’s going on here?” Alex was out of breath.

“Ask your boyfriend,” Jacoby replied, tersely. “He’s pissed I’m working on the hover.”

“I’m angry because it’s mine! You don’t touch my things without my permission! You’ve taken it apart!”

“I’m not taking it apart,” Jacoby replied, exasperated. “I’m making sure it’s in good working order.”

“It’s fine!”

Alex sighed and the annoyance in it made Tristan look at him. “Why are you here? Tristan? The wall isn’t finished.”

“Why is everyone so fucking obsessed with the fucking wall? There’s a corporation hiring mercs to come destroy this place! Isn’t that more important? Wouldn’t me going and stopping them be more useful than building a wall that’s going to fall down at the first strong wind?”

“Tristan, you can’t—”

“Yes, I can! You know me, nothing will stop me. I’ll go through them and there will be nothing left!”

Alex ran a hand over his face. “Think things through, please. Where are you going to go?”

“The city, of course.” 

“Which one?”

“The one we came from.” Where else would he go?

Alex closed his eyes and breathed. Why was he working so hard at not getting angry? He should be pissed that a corporation was attacking this place. He was the one with a protective streak, he should jump at the chance of going along with this.

“Okay, what’s there?”

“The corporation, that’s what I’m going to destroy.” 

“Tristan, that’s just a building, it’s just offices.”

“So? I can blow that up. I’ve done it before.”

“And what’s the point? That isn’t going to stop them, and you know it.”

“It’s going to be fun! I’m bored! And of course it’s going to stop them. Without the building, the mercs aren’t going to have anywhere to go to get paid.”

His father tilted an ear, and Tristan realized that didn’t make complete sense, but he didn’t care. Alex couldn’t seem to find anything to say as a response, so he was on the right track to get his way.

Alex’s face hardened. “Who’s paying you?” 

“What?”

“Are you destroying the building for some form of revenge?” 

“No.” Tristan hesitated. “They haven’t wronged me.”

“So it’s a job. If you take a job, you get paid. Who is paying you, Tristan?”

But it wasn’t a job. It was something he wanted to do. 

“I already have a job for us, a paying one.”

“You do?” They’d gone inside the House, was that what they’d talked about?

“Don’t listen to him, boy,” his father said. “You keep listening to the humans and end up wasting your time.”

“Shut up!” he told his father.

Jacoby searched around, but Alex‘s eyes didn’t move from him. “Alex, I just want…” He indicated the hover. “Please?”

Alex place a hand on his arm. The touch was firm, but not as harsh as his expression. “We have a job. And I need you here to pull it off, do you understand?”

“But—”

“Tristan, I need you to do your part. Can you do that? Can I count on you? We’re a team, right?”

“It’s a trick,” his father said.

His father was right. Alex just wanted him close so he could keep an eye on him. His human didn’t trust him.

“Kill him,” his father said. “Just get this farce over with already. He’s turning you into his pet.”

Kill Alex. His father said that like it was an easy thing to do. He’d tried already. Multiple times.

“Fine.” He didn’t care if he sounded like he was sulking. “What do you need me to do?”

“Right now, we’re waiting. So I need you to get back to finishing the wall.”

“The wall? That’s what you want me to do?” He couldn’t be serious. 

“Until the next attack. Can you do that for me?”

“Wring his neck,” his father ordered. “You snapped mine, how much easier is a human neck to break?”

Easy. So easy. Human necks were fragile, but he knew that if he put a hand on Alex’s neck, all he’d do was caress the flesh. And that was already stirring emotions he didn’t want to have to deal with.

Tristan’s shoulders slumped. “I can.”

Alex smiled, and Tristan fought the wave of pleasure he felt at seeing that.

“I knew I could count on you.” Alex motioned toward the House. 

“You’re letting him dismiss you like that?” his father asked as Tristan headed for the wall. “What has he done to you? Where’s the survivor I raised, trained? That man wouldn’t let a boy like that order him around. 

“Shut up,” Tristan growled, directed the anger that surged at how he’d been treated to his father since he couldn’t target Alex, and Jacoby was now too far behind him.

“The boy I raised would have broken that human, rather than let himself be ordered around like that.”

“If you don’t stop talking,” Tristan said through gritted teeth, “I’m going to hurt you.”

“Oh, you mean like you hurt that human?”

With a scream he kicked at his father, only to connect with the stones in the wall and send them flying. He ignored the pain, too surprised that he’d crossed the distance between the hover and the wall without noticing it.

He looked at the damage he’d done, expecting only a dozen stones to have fallen, but he’d caused a chain reaction and, except for the bottom row, every stone was on the ground.

“Well,” his father said, sounding amused. “You’re going to be at this for longer than expected.”