Once Broken, Chapter 20 (Patreon)

Jacoby enjoyed routines—a leftover from his structured army days, he suspected. He worked on the hover in the morning, exercised, spent a few hours teaching the Samalians at the shooting range, getting in his own practice, then went back to the hover.

Other than Rig, he hadn’t bothered learning any of their names, since he couldn’t talk with them without Rig translating. He kept track of them by fur color. Rig and the fiery-furred female were the best shooters; their rivalry pushed them to outdo the other. After them, it was the sand-dune male and the chocolate one. The rest were at the point where they wouldn’t kill themselves handling their guns, but Jacoby didn’t see them being much help in a firefight. Those four were the only ones Jacoby trusted with their guns. He allowed them to keep them powered at all times.

Rig invited him to accompany them back to town at the end of each day, to relax with a drink. Jacoby declined. Unlike Alex, he had no interest in getting to know them and making the job personal. They were his trainees, nothing more, and they were only part of the job because Alex was making this personal, no matter how much he denied it.

Tech seemed to feel the same way, Jacoby thought, not letting any of the Samalians get close to him. The three of them had been here long enough they were no longer strange, so kids were allowed to wander the field that had become the training grounds. Tech growled, roared, and screamed at them, sending them fleeing when they got close.

He wondered if Alex was right about Tech having an easier time destroying than building. Anytime he lost his temper, he brought the wall down. Then despair hit, but once he regained control, he set right back to work.

Only once, since the brawl, had Tech wandered back among the fighters. Alex had gone to town with the younger ones, the older fighters staying, almost expecting what was coming.

Jacoby had worried he’d witness another brawl, but only one Samalian stepped forward, the biggest of them, the one with the most scars. The fight was hard, quick, and vicious.

Tech was the one standing when it was over, and he looked surer of himself as he limped back to the temple. The other Samalian had needed help to stand, and then walk toward the town, but the tone of their talk, as well as the cheering, spoke of jovialness that made Jacoby shake his head.

The guy had just gotten the crap beaten out of him, and they were acting like he was some big hero—like he’d stood on his own and stopped an invading force. Jacoby went back to calibrating the power coupler once they’d left. He didn’t understand aliens, never would, and he was happy for that.

Alex, on the other hand.… Since the brawl, he spent a lot of his time in town. When the kids pestered him, Alex talked with them. He might’ve been wearing pants all the time—although now they were more shorts to deal with the hotter days—but if he was learning the local’s language, he was going native, and that spelled trouble.

Rig was another one who spent a lot of time with Alex. If the Samalian wasn’t at the shooting range, he was hanging around Alex, sparring with him, talking. Alex did go back to town with them after training. If he didn’t know how devoted to Tech Alex was, Jacoby might think those two were going at it.

Not that he cared if they did. What others got to in private was their own business, although he didn’t get what people found attractive in aliens. He got Alex and Tech. For all the fur he had, Tech was basically human. Nice, dependable, loyal. But the locals, they were so different. Jacoby didn’t get it.

He didn’t get why Alex wanted to spend time with any of them.

Just this morning, a group of kids had raced through the clearing, and Alex left the training to spend time with them. They’d laughed and pointed at objects. Jacoby couldn’t hear them, but he expected they were saying the names. There was an ease in the interaction that told Jacoby it wasn’t the first time the kids had done that with Alex.

An adult called them back to the temple, and they sat outside, Alex with them, listening to the teacher. There too was an ease that said this wasn’t the first time it happened.

Jacoby couldn’t focus on the shooting. He kept glancing at the fighters, at Alex, and how comfortable he was with them. He even seemed to be able to hold conversations now. Alex wasn’t growing soft—he had them fight as hard as before—but that ease of being around them bothered Jacoby.

Once the training was done, Jacoby called to Alex before he left with the others. Alex joined him by the hover, Rig in tow.

“You mind?” Jacoby told the Samalian. “We need to talk.” Rig said something in Samalian to Alex before leaving.

“You understood that, didn’t you?” Jacoby asked, once Rig was far enough.

“Some. He’d going to Padtir’s, and he’s going to keep a drink for me. He also said something about you getting jealous, but I doubt I got that right.”

“What are you doing, Alex?” Jacoby noticed how many of the slots in the charging array were empty. They’d noticed he was distracted and had used that to keep their powerpacks. He was going to have to talk with them about that.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what I asked. What are you doing? Alex, you spend all your time with them. You wear shorts, but I don’t see you putting a shirt on.”

“In this heat? Is what you’re wearing temperature-controlled? None of my stuff is. This gets any warmer and I’m going back to being naked.” Alex sounded amused.

Jacoby massaged the bridge of his nose. “Are you going native on me?”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “How do you go from me dressing for the heat to me going native? Maybe you’re the one who needs to take off a few layers; seems your brain started boiling.”

“My brain’s fine. Yes, my clothing’s temperature-controlled. Considering how comfortable you are around them, around them being naked, can you blame me for wondering?”

Alex looked at him like there was something wrong. “You did say you knew about me and Tristan doing our morning runs naked. You do realize Tristan didn’t just do that naked, right? They aren’t the first Samalians I’ve seen without clothes on. I might not be entirely comfortable with how they don’t cover up their excitement, but even that I’m used to seeing. The only time Tristan wore something was when we were in town.”

“He’s wearing pants now,” Jacoby pointed out.

Alex rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and he’s completely out of it. You smell him recently? He hasn’t washed since we got here. I’m willing to bet he doesn’t even realize he’s wearing them. He was naked the entire time we broke him out of the Sayatoga and didn’t realize it.”

“That isn’t my point. You’re spending too much time with them. Alex, you’re learning their language.”

“And who am I supposed to spend time with? Tristan can’t stand having me near him. So the only one left is you, and you’ll have to excuse me if I have no interest in listening to you talk about hovers and their parts all day long. I had trouble listening to all the technical stuff Tristan tried to teach me, and I had an incentive to pay attention to him.”

“So what? The only alternative you can think of is spending all your time with Rig? Are you looking for a replacement already?”

“Watch it, Jake.” The threat in Alex’s tone was clear, but Jacoby ignored it.

“It’s Jacoby. You still haven’t earned the right to call me that.”

“Then don’t even hint I might be looking at another guy again, or I’m going to make you swallow that rifle you’ve grown fond of, Jake.”

Jacoby gritted his teeth. “This is a job, or so you claim. What are you doing mingling with the client? That’s unprofessional.”

“Have you looked around? Who else is there? Unlike you, I don’t deal well with being alone—as in people end up dying if I grow restless.”

“Then go on the net.”

“Oh? You fixed the comm system?”

Jacoby clamped his mouth shut. Of course, he’d forgotten about that. “Isn’t spending all your time around them putting them at risk? What if you lose it while you’re in town?”

Alex rolled his eyes. “They keep me distracted. Learning about them gives me something other than my problems to think about. So I won’t start obsessing about something I can’t control, like you’re doing.”

“I’m not—”

“Come on, Jacoby. You want to leave. It’s the only thing you think about. It goes beyond wanting to go home at this point; you can’t stand being here, among them.”

“Are you calling me intolerant?” Jacoby wasn’t sure if he should laugh or punch him.

“Well? Isn’t it true?”

Jacoby settled for poking Alex in the chest. “Listen here, I’ve worked with more aliens than you’ve ever seen.”

Alex grinned. “You should look into who I used to hang out with before Tristan, before making that claim. And working with aliens isn’t the same as knowing them. I happen to know what it looks like when you’re seen as something inconsequential, as a something rather than a someone. You wear that look anytime you look at them.”

Jacoby’s hand was a fist, and he considered punching Alex when he heard yelling. A Samalian was running in their direction, pointing in the distance behind him, or her.

“What are they saying?” he asked Alex.

“Oh? I thought learning the language wasn’t something I should be doing.”

“Do we really have time for either of our prides right now?” Jacoby replied.

Alex grew serious. “The gist of what she’s saying is that you’re about to get someone to hit other than me. Arm up, we have incoming.” He ran around the hover.

Jacoby placed a hand on the butt of his gun to confirm Termy was there, before grabbing the Arlian rifle and walking toward the Samalian woman. Alex joined him, gun belt on and more knives on his harness, and they picked up speed.

Alex barked a few Samalian words, and she replied with a quick barrage, falling into step with them. Alex shook his head and said something else. She replied, slower this time.

“The approaching hover is still far. Samalian hearing is almost better than scanners. They’re coming from the south.”

Jacoby oriented himself. The sun traveled west to east, so south would be… “Then they’re going to land over there, probably as close to the treeline as they can. Is there any way you can have some of them get there ahead? Take position and wait?”

“No.” Alex said something to the woman. “Just confirmed it. They never worked out anything complex for the howling. She can send them in that direction, but she can’t tell them what to do. Going to have to work on that next. How do you know the layout of the area?”

“The job is protecting them,” Jacoby answered. Tthat means knowing the terrain I’m going to have to fight over. I happen to think that’s a better use of my time than socializing. Just what do you think protecting a place this big involves? Just running at the enemy and hoping you can kill them before they shoot you down?”

Alex shrugged. “That was Tristan’s side of things. I just run and kill the people he points me at.”

Jacoby glanced at him. “We’re going to have a talk about that afterward.” He smiled as he realized something. “You have no idea how lucky you are.”

“What does that mean?”

“I mean, the kids took advantage of my distracted state to keep their powerpacks. It means everyone with a gun can use it.” He sighed. “I just hope they didn’t drain the packs during practice.”

“Are you telling me you’ve had them walk around with guns that don’t work?” Alex yelled.

“Did you expect me to just let them run around armed and deadly?” 

“That,” Alex glared at him, “we’re going to talk about when we’re done here.”

The town was empty as they ran through it. Jacoby caught sight of people in the buildings through windows and open doors. None of them looked afraid or even worried. They’d simply put themselves out of their way.

Rig was standing on the other side of the town, looking at the approaching hover, visible over the trees. It looked larger than the previous one.

“Rig’Irik!” Alex called, “where’s everyone?”

Jacoby did his best not to pant when they stopped next to the Samalian. Alex and the woman didn’t appear winded at all. He needed to get more into running after this.

“Hiding.” Rig indicated the surrounding buildings. “Wait for them here.”

“Ambush fighting?” Jacoby was impressed. “Who taught you that?” 

“Not our first fight.”

“You’d know that,” Alex said, “if you bothered talking with them. In bad years, the neighboring towns will raid each other for food.”

“What neighboring towns?” Jacoby brought up the rifle and looked at the hover through the sight. “There’s nothing around here but trees.” Yeah, larger, but still a civilian model, as far as he could tell.

“Some years are really bad.”

The meaning registered, and Jacoby lowered the rifle to stare at Alex. “That’s barbaric. Why don’t they ask for help from the cities? There has to be some sort of system in place to keep them from attacking each other?”

Alex indicated the hover, landing by the treeline. “You’re calling Samalians barbaric, when it’s the corporation sending in people to kill their food source? You realize that LeisureTek is the one engineering the starvation forcing them to attack each other, right? And that they control the cities?”

Jacoby nodded. He hated having to agree with Alex on this, but it wasn’t the first time he’d seen a corporation strangle a population into submission. “We need to hide, too. I expect the locals know how to proceed, if they’ve dealt with attacks before, but remind them to wait until all the marauders are within the town proper. We don’t want any of them turning around and calling out to let their handlers know we were ready for them.”

Alex nodded and spoke to Rig in Samalian. Rig eyed Jacoby with an expression he didn’t recognize, but he could guess. Don’t tell me how to do my job.

Jacoby found an empty building with a window facing the incoming attackers. The amateurs had positioned themselves so the sun was in their face. It was still high enough it wouldn’t be a problem, but it ensured they wouldn’t be able to make out anyone looking out a window from within a darkened building.

Jacoby counted a dozen attackers, more than double the last attack. They hadn’t bought the accident Alex had manufactured. They’d decided there had been a proper defense, and they were responding accordingly.

He wished his trainees were better shooters. With the number he had, if they’d been accurate, they could have taken those people down before they reached the town and ensured no bystanders got caught in the crossfire.

Still, Alex and him had trained them, so they’d hold their own, and Jacoby was looking forward to a good fight. 

It had been a while now.