undefined

To The Death

“You can stop this!” Chief Medical Officer Anita Leary grabbed my arm and spun me around to face her. Our eyes locked for the briefest of moments before I looked away. I’d done all I could do over the last couple of months to avoid the coming confrontation, but no amount of punishment or threats on my part could have stopped what was about to transpire. And unfortunately, seniority has no jurisdiction here.

I averted my eyes away from her. As captain of this vessel, a figure of authority and leadership, over the years I have stared death in the eye, but right now, at this moment, I didn’t have the balls to meet this delicate woman’s steady, green eyed gaze. I was afraid for her, and for me. Our son’s were about to kill each other, and there was nothing I could do for them, for her, or for me, nothing.

There comes a point in time in a man’s life that the son’s must begin to make decisions for themselves, no longer relying on the parents for guidance. This was life, and in a few short minutes, life for one or both of our sons would be coming to an end. It’s a tough way to learn a lesson.

“Can’t you speak to me?” She reached up and grabbed my hairy chin with her delicate fingers and angled my head back down toward her.

“I can’t stop it this time Anita. As much as I’d like to, this situation has progressed farther than I can reach.”

“Why Dean? Why can’t you stop this?” She allowed a tear to escape her eye and roll down her cheek before wiping it away. She was usually tough as nails, and this was the first time I had seen her this broken.

“They’ve legally called each other out. It’s now against the law for me, you, or anyone else to get involved.” I started back down the corridor, Anita followed close behind me, silent. I could just imagine what was going through her mind. I felt like the weakest person in the universe because I couldn’t tell her what I had planned for after the duel. I trusted her to keep my secret but in this day and age, there is no telling what kind of listening devices are eavesdropping on my conversations, so my plans had to stay unvoiced until the proper time. If my secret got out now, it could mean the death sentence for me.

We entered the small coliseum in silence. Usually, the games played here brought cheers and shouts of excitement, but today, the entire room was quiet. Five hundred men and women surrounded the gaming area, and more were piling into the upper balconies, the nose bleed section, standing room only, or whatever you’d like to call it.

My small, private booth could hold ten people, but for this occasion there were only two others beside myself: My Science Officer, Don Spacey, who was my best friend, and Anita my secret lover. I glanced over at her and she looked away from me in much the same way that I looked away from her earlier in the corridor.

My watch struck the top of the hour and the lights dimmed around us. Music started to fill the room and I shouted into the empty space above the playing field, “Computer! Cancel fanfare!” The music abruptly stopped.

Simultaneously, two doors, one on each end of the playing field, opened beneath the grandstands and two young men entered onto the dirt floor. My son was the one on the left, Anita’s son was on the right.

The two men, boys really, locked eyes and the tension in the room went up another notch. Walking to the center of the ring, they stopped a couple of feet apart, turned, and looked up at me. It didn’t go unnoticed that they didn’t shake hands, as was usually customary, and a quiet whisper swept through the crowd.

I stood and faced the two men. By law, I had to offer them the chance to get out of this situation and I did ask. The doors that they had entered under the stands were still open, and once they closed, there was no way out until a winner was declared or if they both had to be carried out. They turned down my offer and the doors slammed shut. There was no turning back now.

“Rules?” I asked, knowing there wouldn’t be any. They both shook their heads no.

“Then let us begin,” I said. My voice sounded strong and confident, though I didn’t know why. On the inside I was tearing apart. Even though only one of them was my son, I considered Anita’s boy as my own as well. I didn’t want to loose either of them.

Anita reached over and grabbed my hand as if she were reading my thoughts.

Danny and Justin turned to face each other.

“Computer,” shouted Justin. “Display weapons in five minute intervals, starting with the least deadly and progress upward.”

“Yes, sir,” answered the computer and a holographic timer glowed above us in the center of the ring and began to count backwards.

Two seconds hadn’t gone by when Justin and Danny engaged in hand to hand combat. They punched and kicked and jabbed at each other’s bodies in a violent dance of flips and spins. It wasn’t a normal boxing match, or even martial arts, but a mixture of every weaponless fighting style known throughout the universe. I was surprised that they were both evenly matched. Justin was the weapons master on the ship and Danny was fist mate. I had no idea that my son was so gifted in so many fighting styles. I guess that shows how much attention I’ve been paying him. It’s no wonder that he didn’t heed my pleas to not get this deep into conflict.

A buzzer sounded through the auditorium as the first five minutes ended and two panels slid open on opposite ends of the arena. Both men broke away from each other and sprinted to their respective ends of the arena. They reached into the compartment at almost the exact same moment and withdrew a slender, one-meter long stick of wood. They met back in the center of the arena, wielding the sticks like swords, each one trying to land a blow to the others head.

Danny took a few steps back in retreat and brought his piece of wood down over his knee, breaking it into two pieces.

“What’s he doing?” Anita asked, squeezing my hand.

“Just watch.”

Danny danced around Justin and attacked before the other man could figure out what was going on. Danny now had two weapons, one in each hand, and he twirled them around his body as if they were extensions of his arms. He blocked Justin’s blow with one hand and thrust the other forward, grazing Justin’s arm.

First blood.

Anita turned away, and I didn’t blame her. I felt like turning away myself, but I couldn’t. I was transfixed by the battle below me.

The next five minutes were over and the panels slid away once more, allowing the two men to retrieve their next weapon. But Danny didn’t go for his new weapon. He stood in the center of the ring with his two broken sticks, waiting for Justin to return. I was surprised that he didn’t follow Justin and take him out while his back was turned. No one could say that they weren’t being fair toward one another.

Justin reached into the opening and retrieved a small dagger, then turned back to Danny. Justin stopped short. He had been expecting to see Danny just now returning from getting his own weapon. Seeing him waiting in the center of the arena, still holding on to the sticks confused him for the briefest of seconds, but then he regained his composure and started back toward my son. Justin left the stick by the wall, preferring the weight of steel instead of wood.

I could see what Danny was doing. Though the knife was more deadly than wood, he still had the advantage over Justin with the longer reach of the sticks. I say the knife is more deadly, but the sight of those two jagged ends of wood looked pretty intimidating by themselves.

Justin spent the remaining time avoiding Danny’s sticks and never got the opportunity to go on the offensive.

Another five minutes gone and I could see that both men were tiring somewhat.

Anita was watching again, and I could see something in her face now other than horror. It looked like she was enthralled with what she was seeing. Both her son and mine were so evenly matched that it looked like neither would win or lose. But I knew better. I looked away from her again. I wanted to tell her my secret so badly that I could scream, but the time was still not right.

The buzzer sounded again and both men threw down the swords they had been wielding for the last five minutes and rushed to opposite ends of the arena to retrieve there next weapon. Danny now had a large cut on his arm, complementing the one that he had given Justin with the point of his stick.

Both men reached into their compartments and got their next weapon. A gasp went through the crowd and Anita and I both stood out of our seats. Even I hadn’t expected this.

The weapons they held were fairly new and highly illegal. Up until now I had never seen one and knew that the only way to obtain one was through the black market underground back on Earth. Since it’s been a year or so since we’d last been to earth, these weapons, and no telling what else, had been floating around my ship without my knowledge.

They reminded me of fishing poles on drugs. They were long much like a fishing pole, had a wire that held a four pronged hook about the size of a man’s fist. The wire was razor sharp and was a weapon in itself, and the hook connected to the wire would cut through flesh and bone with the greatest of ease. The pole that hid the razor wire was a little longer than the sticks they had used as their first weapons and where their hands gripped the pole there was a round shield that was big enough to protect both their hands and part of their bodies. The hook was also charged with a high voltage of electricity, so if the hooks didn’t catch then it would still give a tremendous shock, severely bruising or even burning the skin. They were aptly named Ripclaws.

The Ripclaw was a very lethal and very messy weapon. Its main purpose was to grab and tear flesh. I didn’t want to think of what would happen if that razor wire were to get wrapped around one of their limbs.

Justin and Danny met back in the center of the ring, and if the crowd could have gotten any quieter, I would have thought that they had all left. Justin began swinging the Ripclaw over his head.

There were two buttons on the grip of the Ripclaw, the first of which let out a length of wire, therefore extending the reach of the weapon handler. The second button jerked the razor wire back into its spindle within the handle. Though Justin was swinging his, Danny just stood there, watching the other man.

Suddenly, Justin let more wire out, bringing the business end of the Ripclaw around in a wide arch toward Danny’s head. Danny saw it coming and ducked out of the way. Spinning on the ground, he jerked his Ripclaw and sent the hook flying through the air at Justin. It hit him in the center of his bare chest in a shower of smoke and miniature lightning as a shot of electricity threw him to the ground. Danny took a few steps back and waited for the other man to stand up.

When Justin finally pushed himself to his feet I heard a gasp flow through the crowd. Justin’s chest still smoldered and was as black as char where the hook had struck him. I was surprised that he wasn’t screaming in pain.

The clock ran down to zero again, and the panels opened once more, offering another weapon. I couldn’t imagine what could be worse than the Ripclaw, and I wouldn’t find out either. Both men had decided to keep the weapon’s they had.

Justin threw his hook out at Danny. Danny blocked the weapon with the shield, sending Justin’s hook in a wide arch to the left. Instead of reeling the line back in, Justin used the momentum of the hook, swinging it around his body as he dodged an attack by Danny’s hook. Danny also danced to the side and away from Justin, but Justin let out a little more line as his hook came full circle and embedded itself into the back of Danny’s thigh.

My son howled in pain and fell to the ground but didn’t let go of his weapon. Sparks and smoke flew from his leg as Justin jerked the hook back, ripping the muscle and flesh from Danny’s thigh. Justin didn’t wait for Danny to get up, but attacked again, catching the other man on the shoulder where the hooks embedded themselves under the collarbone. More smoke and electricity blackened the skin, and I don’t know if it was reflex or if Danny was actually sane enough to know what he was doing, but he threw his own Ripclaw toward Justin, catching him on the side of his torso. Both men were on the ground now, and neither had the energy to remove the hooks from their bodies.

I had to sit there and watch, helpless to do anything for those boys as electricity pulsed through their bodies till they were dead. The crowd roared to life and there was no time like now, through all that noise, to tell Anita the secret I’d been holding from her. I pulled her to me as the crowd, outraged, threw paper and trash onto the playing field as some of my assistants disabled the Ripclaws and began to remove the bodies. I wiped her tears away with my thumbs as I held her head in my hands. She couldn’t take her eyes off her son’s body, so I deliberately moved in front of her, blocking her view. She looked up at me finally and I could see all the hurt of the galaxy pilled in her eyes. Her eyes had died with her son, and I wished I could have told her before now that everything would soon be all right.

“Anita! Anita, listen to me.” I could tell that she was barely registering me. “Everything going to be Ok. I’ve taken care of this.”

“What?” she asked, bewildered.

“You’ll have your son back, Anita. You’ll have him back by morning.” Her face jerked as if I’d slapped her and she looked at me again. Her mouth worked open and closed but as far as I could hear, she wasn’t saying anything.

“I’m having them re-animated,” I said, knowing what question was going through her mind.

She looked at me seriously then, like the old Anita that I knew and had grown to love over the last few years. “Re-animation is illegal, Dean. Punishable by death.”

“Don’t you think that I know that? Nobody knows for sure but my men that they are truly dead right now. As far as this crowd is concerned, they were just unconscious and when one of them reappears to the public, no one but us will know the truth.”

“What about their hatred for each other, Dean? What’s to stop them from doing this all over again?”

“I’ve thought about that. I’m sending my son to The Academy. I want him out of Fleet anyway. Both of them will be under the impression that the other was killed. They’ll never have to know.”

“What about a chance meeting in the future?”

“The universe is a big place, Anita. I doubt we’ll ever have to cross that bridge.”

The crowd was slowly filing out of the arena and the noise level was dropping considerably. “We can no longer talk about this without fear of being overheard. Just trust me on this and when your son asks for you in the morning, you must never let it be known that Danny is alive.”

She shook her head in wonderment and I led her to Medical to help see over the preparations for our dead sons…

…The years passed and my plan for my son and stepson (yes, Anita and I were married soon after the battle) was shattering around me. Though separated by light years, my boys made names for themselves that preceded them throughout the universe. Danny flew through The Academy and was soon sitting on the Universal Council of Governments, neck deep in politics, while Justin lead squadrons of fighters into battle with aggressive alien nations. Victory followed victory and Justin was soon commanding a starship of his own.

As time swept away, thoughts of my sin, of bringing my boys back from the dead, left me until one fateful day, they met. They were older and age changed them as age will, but they recognized each other instantly.

At that moment the universe fell apart.

Civil war erupted. Those loyal to the government followed Danny and fought by his side, while most of the military that served under Justin followed him.

It never occurred to those who fought why this war started in the first place, but Anita and I knew. It started as a conflict between friends that, to this day, I still don’t know what came between them. But their conflict wasn’t what brought civil war. What brought this war was my selfishness in loosing my son and practicing a form of alchemy that had been outlawed generations before me.

The sins of the father really do pass to the next generations. My family is living proof, and the universe is paying the price for my sin. My consciousness hits me hard whenever I hear the death tolls from some distant war, and deep inside of me, I know that I’m the one that killed them.

May God have mercy on my soul…