Chapter Two: Counterbalance — Part 4
Once it was certain it Orchid’s full attention, Spunky transmitted a signal into the air, using two invisible intersected lasers to produce a hologram of a face. In black and white, the highly detailed face expressed emotions that manifested themselves in ways completely alien to Orchid. Even in person, the face seemed like that of a ghost. It didn’t help that the man who’s face stared back at her acted like the right hand of death, delving out death and defining the course of life for millions of people in despotic, often militant ways. Death, Orchid had to admit, was a requirement of his duty. Death was Quet’s necessity. Enjoying its administration, however, was entirely singular to Quet. The small, bright looking officer in charge of Sholm’s Planetary Defense Corps smiled at her, disregarding her two tears, tears she dared not expose further by wiping from her face.
She knew General Quet well enough, as she had done a few jobs for him in tactical research, and had broken his wrist and three of his ribs in a fight to escape from confinement on Sholm. She had also stolen and returned — as soon as was safe to do so — the entire left side of his face. Not even a trained surgeon with a microscope could tell he had ever had half the skin of his head splayed from muscle and bone. Quet, however, had never forgiven her, because the pain of being suddenly without a portion of his face was forever inscribed in his memory. Spunky had blown a hole completely through his liver and dismembered five of his guards that day. The fact that not one of them had died or suffered any permanent damage beyond the horrific memory of pain mattered very little to Quet. Spunky served its defensive functions just as quietly as it served out its daily routine assisting Orchid in communications. Spunky, Orchid had learned, was armed more savagely than any model of bander available on the public or military market. Quet had seen nothing like it, and for reasons greater than vengeance, craved some personal time with the tiny golden sphere. Even Orchid didn’t know Spunky’s full potential, but sensed that the little droid had held back during the engagement.
Orchid knew Quet’s full potential, however, lay solely in killing. Despite Quet’s urge to control everything and everybody, Quet was soft-spoken and seemingly rational. He had a sense of justice and ethics, and he used them as tools for his conquest. A Polynesian man with tightly packed muscles, Quet saw Orchid from three perspectives. From the first perspective, he wanted to break her and own her for her knowledge. From the second, he wanted to kill her for fleeing him and doing so much damage to both his body and his pride. And in his final perspective, he wanted to force her to give him many children, in hopes that one would mix what he perceived were the best of both their traits. In all of these scenarios, her suffering was a necessity. For Quet, Orchid was just a great big biological battery on which to draw power from. Quet had called her that on more than one occasion, which was as close to an honest compliment Orchid had ever heard from him. She considered again the way he stared at her, longed for her, and kept her loathing in check. Today, Quet was pretending to be friendly with her. Today, Quet had something either to gloat about, or to take offense to.
Quet’s almost inhumely black eyes had an odd, inexplicable quality about them that made them somehow endearing. His eyes were moist and soft in their expression of emotion — the deepened color only added to the effect. Quet’s parchment skin did not make him a Buddha, nor did his rehearsed motions of normalcy make him a harmless, ordinary man. Nothing about him was redeemable, as far as Orchid could tell. He was, in her opinion, the most revolting man she had ever met, and she treated him with only the barest margin of courtesy. She hated Quet as passionately as she loved her brother.
“A word through the vine whispered to me that you brought down the most dangerous butcher in the galaxy, and you did it on my planet. I’m hurt, honestly, that you didn’t stop in and say hello. We have been such good friends, besides a few recent misunderstandings.”
“You tried to detain me, naked in a cell, and use me to advance your own military endeavors.” Orchid said.
Chen chuckled at first, as if considering her reasoning absurd. “That is all the past.” Quet seemed to be dismissing something inconsequential, and forgiving her for her trespasses.
“Only because I keep out of your reach, otherwise it would probably be the present.” Orchid shot back.
“No, No. Not the present. You would undoubtedly be dead by now. It has been five years since our last encounter.” He continued before Orchid could become angry enough to disconnect. “Rumor has it that the biggest name in the illegal body parts business is closing his doors because of what you did. Again, if you had stopped in while on Sholm, I could have thanked you.” Quet said, his pale, withered skin still taut over white, polished bones.
“Considering that you are suspected of being a major stockholder in one of those parts businesses, I’d wonder how honest your appreciation actually is.” Orchid said even as Quet talked, rather loudly, over her.
“I had no involvement, and again I extend my thanks.”
“You only compliment people when you want help. You could care less about Jake the Butcher or anything but war and killing. So spill your line.” Orchid said.
General Quet remained unaffected. He was used to Orchid’s eccentricity, and her dangerous accuracy. If she wasn’t a citizen of another nation that had an alliance with Sholm, he would probably have made another attempt at imprisoning or assassinating her long ago. As it was, Coven’s tactical forces had completely destroyed three of Sholm’s colonial cities and sent ten assassin drones to rip him to shreds in retaliation for his first kidnapping attempt. Only Sholm’s diplomatic Council had stopped all out war from occurring.
Even after many conversations with Orchid, Quet still felt the urge to crush her throat between his fingers, to feel her pulse spasm and stop over several arduous minutes. Fear of his own death was the only thing that kept him in check. He was quite certain that Orchid, if not caught completely off-guard, would end his life in horrible ways. Her bander was of a rare design that had not been beaten even by a dozen of the advanced models available on Sholm. He didn’t want to deal with that vicious machination again.
