My first sci-fi short story(sounds like a photo album, but true:) )

Ice

By Dawn Robin (ScoutFinch180)

He had never killed a monster before. Not that he was unused to killing. On occasion, he would kill people who stood in the way of the highest bidder if he was bored. Mostly he preferred to con and steal from those who were wealthy and lived in luxury while the rest of the people lived in boring apartments and had boring food, boring clothes, and boring jobs.

Jade hoped, as he now skimmed the surface of a forgotten ice-moon, that the sub-zero wind as it pushed into his spacesuit and cooled his bionic limbs that this would be a sufficient job to keep him interested. True, it would be more comfortable conning a light headed and haired super-model than skim the surface of an anti-freeze dump, but going after difficult targets did put a good many tokens in the account… and was good to keep his mind off things. Anyway, the cagey scientists who would pay him to bring back the body (or at least the head) of what they said was an experiment on a thrid gone awry would do just that. They even provided him with their own specialty weapons, like the hulking high-energy rifle slung on his shoulder to accompany his lucky duel blaster.

He turned into the jet-stream of a distant oxygen-generator to blow him along for a few miles. The loud whirring of the distant, useless generator breaking the howling of the wind through jagged peaks of ice that rushed to meet him up ahead. Jade swallowed as the little dot flickered with proximity on the screen of his opaque visor. The signal was awry, since it was a cold-blooded animal, but it was strong. Jade smirked behind the visor, the front mirror-bright but see-through for the wearer, the lizard had found a good place to die.

When he was at the foot of the ice mountains, he veered left and skirted the steep foothills. A screen between the handlebars indicated that he was close to his target. The green interface telling him of the sub-zero temperatures and when the hover-bike would need to recharge flashing orange. He shut off the engine and the bike coasted for a few yards in the low gravity before landing a few inches above the snow. He dismounted and checked his tracker to ensure its functionality before switching on the cloaking device… would not want Marian and her girls looking for him.

He looked up at the range of peaks ahead, searching for the best way up. As he eyed the path his gaze was drawn upward to the faint outline of the gas-giant’s belly imposing upon the whitish-blue sky. He let in a slightly raspy gasp and checked the air filter, it would be a few hours before he needed a change. He pocketed another wrapped in foil packaging, just in case.

He looked around, checking for any signs of life. Nothing but his target. No other bounty hunters looking for a kill, which Jade expected. People who messed with him ended up floating through space in a ship with no fuel and limited air-supply, very poor and very confused, or ruined in some other ‘unfortunate’ way… but always outwitted.

Jade began to climb. His gauntlet of a hand gripping the ice and his metal foot kicking handholds for himself; the climb was so much more effortless than it would have been six months ago. Looks like even acid-bombs could have their perks. The sheen of the platinum used to plate his modifications was not too ugly, either. A waitress had complimented him on his new arm when he paid the bill at a bar… but of course, no one was around nor could see under the tough fabric of the suit.

He pulled himself up the final bit of the incline and looked down upon the electric blue ocean of an anti-freeze dump reflected in the front of his helmet. He wrinkled his nose as some of the sickly-sweet smell invaded his filter. He swung over the ledge, stood on top of the peak and looked around, more symbols indicating everything it thought he needed to know. But all he needed now was about a dark lump in the distance, on the edge of the dump. He squinted and the screen in front of his face zoomed in on a run-down oxygen-generator, the massive blades of its fan for blowing out breathable air paralyzed in old age. Even from so far away, the machine appeared roughly as big as a mid-sized space-station.

He pocketed his gadget and slid down the mountainside, using his bionic hand and leg to slow his speed before he fell with a poof into a snowdrift. Wriggling out of the heap with a good many curses he returned to the daylight shivering. Isn’t the spacesuit supposed to be able to handle these temperatures?

Jade brushed himself off and crept close to the drifts on this side of the mountains, his eyes fixed on the looming generator as he hurried along. He thought through his mind of what he had to do as he would before pulling a heist or getting his initial impressions of a mark: 1: find the thrid. Already doing that. 2: kill the thrid. A giant blue lizard with scales that resisted almost all calibers of blaster. Fortunately, he had been provided with the right kind of weapon, and for good measure had his lucky blaster in a holster at his hip, should make short work of the thing. 3: drag the thrid over a mountain range and across an ice plain to his ship. Not so easy. 4: get the tokens the scientists had promised and hightail it to somewhere else before Marian found out where he was.

Jade heard a loud clank and froze. Unseen, his eyes fixed on the generator as what he had not expected to see stood at the entrance: a thrid, standing on its hind feet, it’s limbs seemed somewhat elongated and much more muscular underneath the spacesuit that covered it, the clear helmet showing the sagging blue skin of the monster’s scaly face and it’s fanged mouth. Of course Jade had been told that he was going after a highly intelligent thrid and to be prepared, but a thrid walking on it’s hind legs and in clothes was not what he anticipated. He thought it would be trapped in a crashed spaceship.

Giving it a wide berth and out of view, Jade scrambled to the arching metal side of the generator. He took his rifle and pressed a button as it began to charge with a faint whirr, he only had two shots before he had to put another charge in. Jade hissed through his teeth, inadvertently making another rasp of the filter.

The thrid jumped and looked around, up at the mountains, down at the snow, and towards Jade in time to see him blast a jet of yellow light at the thrid. The creature gave a noise between a shout and a scream as he ducked away from the blow, his hoarse voice drowning out the noise of the blast.

Jade pulled the trigger again and another blast hit the monster square in the chest. It reeled and hunched low, watching as Jade approached, deftly inserting another charge. It spoke in a deep and rather garbled voice: “Sta… P-Plea… I dun’t want ta harm ya.”

Jade nearly dropped the rifle, then recovered from his shock and aimed.

The thrid spun, it’s thick and surprisingly long tail knocked Jade’s bionic leg out from under him and he fell on his side, the ice sending shockwaves to rattle his teeth as he felt the minute technology in his leg send messages of pain as it ground against itself. He rolled onto his side just in time for the thrid to snatch away the rifle and run towards the generator.

Jade heaved himself to his feet and darted after it, the monster turned around as Jade approached and gave him another whack with its tail, this time in the chest and sent Jade flying across the interior of the generator and crashing into a metal wall. Jade stumbled to his feet in time to see the thrid switch his rifle to stun, a faint purple flash ignited in the barrel. Jade dashed behind a broken piece of machinery then out by the sea again as the monster pursued. Jade drew his pistol and fired a shot at the thrid in a jet of red light. Missed. He spun on his heel to face the approaching thrid as he stood cornered on the edge of the anti-freeze: shot, missed. Shot, ricocheted and hit Jade square in the chest and sent him careening backwards into the anti-freeze and the pistol flying from his hand.

The filter choked up, he held his breath and scrambled for the surface, watching blue crystals paralyze his arm as it reached up and he sank. his heart pounding, he screamed – a dark hand reached down towards him like death as everything went dark.

A sharp bang crashed Jade into consciousness. He sat up and the skin on his right side stretched too far. He flopped back with a grunt of pain and stared at his welted skin, his solitary ring and pinky finger to his stub leg shriveled with partially healed acid burns. He looked at the place where the grey sheets should have draped over his right leg, someone had taken off that, too. Had the ladies of Artemis gotten a hold of him… again?

Jade turned to the sound of another clank, cringing and closing his eyes as his neck rotated his head, then let out a faint gasp as the demolished skin on his cheek stretched with the expression. He had asked the surgeons to make his face look the way it used to be, but he wanted them to keep the pain present… to remind him.

When his eyes opened, he saw the monster seated at a workbench, holding Jade’s metal leg as he scrubbed it with a steel brush, unaware of his guest. Jade reached for the blaster at his side, only to find he was in his underwear. His heart fluttered, and he looked around the room, there was a fireplace that looked like it was made of an escape pod’s engine, connected to a series of pipes that lead up towards a flat ceiling. There were makeshift metal walls and a metal floor, their leaden grey scarcely reflecting the light. there was also a faint yellow illumination that looked like the light outside, but as Jade rested in a sort of alcove with three beds all scootched together and he was in the middle, there was no real way to see the exits.

He looked at the monster again, its fierce face bent over the machinery. He had removed his spacesuit and was now wearing a pair of well-fitting trousers, his broad chest exposed to reveal the muscle that rippled under his scales. Jade frowned, the monster had clothes to keep him warm? And it was fixing something – something that belonged to the man who had tried to kill him? Was this some sick dream? Jade looked at the claw like hands (or hand like claws) that held the leg and brush, they were long as was proportionate to the lizard, and they appeared strong. The scales were thick and it’s nails somewhat long,curved, and sharp, but it had just as much dexterity as a human.

The thrid looked up. When its eyes rested on Jade it paused. Overcoming its shock before Jade could say a word, it opened its mouth and somehow managed to make words come out by moving its tongue in differing ways and maneuvering it’s jaws as if he was a puppet. Like the ones Jade had used to entertain his brother when they were kids, “Ya feel alright?”

Jade jerked back and groaned, he rubbed his eyes and stared at the face questioning him. He answered slowly as he propped himself up with his undamaged arm and spoke in his much more polished voice, “No, thank you.” He scanned the room again, “Where are my clothes?”

The monster stole a glance to the part of the room Jade couldn’t see; “Drying.”

Jade leaned back, “I hope you hung them to dry?”

The monster nodded, “Yes.” And went back to scrubbing the leg.

Jade cringed as the steel bristles scraped over the enamel: “You should be a little gentler, that’s pure platinum from the supernova.”

The monster chuckled, a sort of low growl, “A fancy leg, that is!” Its white teeth flashed in the firelight, and shadows sported in its gaping mouth as it gave a sort of off-kilter smile, “Goes W-ith yar p-retty hair.”

Jade rolled his eyes and swept his long, ashy-brown waves out from under his head with trembling hands. Of course, other men gave him no mercy for wanting to dress nicely, but they all looked the same, all had short hair, lackluster clothing habits, and if prosthetics, usually muted and a sort of steel or (if they were extremely wealthy) imitation skin. Too many people wanted camouflage, and Jade had always hated being the same as everybody else.

The thrid got to its feet, “I should check ta see if ya are sick.” the monster took up some sort of small, elongated thing that looked dangerous and approached Jade.

While the monster had no tue aura of malice about it, and it spoke good naturedly, Jade could not help shrinking away from the creature and squirming away from when it reached for Jade’s head. The monster laid a heavy claw (hand?) on Jade’s present knee, “Settle down, I W-on’t…” the monster shut his eyes and mouthed the next word before forcing it to his throat, “B-ite. I know I half face uf thrid.”

Jade looked up at the ugly blue face as he shrank under the heavy hand. The eyes as they peered down the long muzzle were large and round, the chemical blue eyes had pupils circular instead of the gash-like slits its kind usually had. Jade forgot his fear in sudden fascination. How was this possible? The scientists hadn’t told him that the thrid would be an anthropomorph… just highly intelligient. How had they gotten the lizard to evolve? No wonder they wanted to body back, too good an advancement to let go to total waste. That thing was worth thrice its weight in tokens!

As Jade stared at lizard, the thrid turned his head back slowly and held up a scanner. “I W-ill check yar vitals.” Jade opened his mouth and let the white stick go under his tongue. The thrid removed the scanner and examined small symbols and colors that arrayed themselves down the stick, “Gud, na M-ur fever.”

The monster went out of view and returned with a grey jacket that was big enough for Jade to fit his leg in the sleeves, “Na idea if this’ll fit ya.” It laid out the jacket on one side of the bed and pulled aside the sheets so cold air prickled Jade’s skin. “B-ut it’ll kee-p ya w-arm.”

Jade sat up, “That looks like it’s your size.”

The Monster shrugged, “Eh, it’s mine, b-ut ya are nigh naked.”

Jade reached for it and the monster took hold of his wrist, the cold, scaly hand’s texture seeping into him. He jerked back, “I can do it.”

The monster’s eyes narrowed, “Un hand can’t do ‘ell wit zi-PP-ers.”

Jade sighed, it was probably best to obey the thing anyway. The monster propped up Jade so he could put his arms through the sleeves without having to use his stomach-muscles. The monster did its attempt at a grin, Jade refused to smile back as he leaned back, the rough cloth made him feel like a pauper again… faceless, just another man in the masses. The monster said: “Ya r…est ‘ile I get ya a snack and a drink.”

Jade gave a muted sigh then focused on keeping his expression stoic as the monster went away, the tight pain of his burnt skin told him clearly he was awake, but this all felt like a dream spiced with memory. He had to get out of here.

The monster returned with a food bar and a metal bottle, “Here.”

Jade took the food bar and nibbled at the edge, then sniffed the contents of the bottle. Satisfied that neither were poison, he allowed himself to satisfy his hunger, “Where am I?”

The monster gestured around the room, “M-y hut.”

“As in, ‘my hut’?”

The monster bobbed his head. “Y..es.”

Jade looked around again, “But where is it?”

“Ya ant curdinits?”

Jade raised an eyebrow, “Coordinates?”

The Monster shrugged, “Yes, I na a-B-out thus.”

Jade pushed his hair out of his face and stared at the place he had hit the monster. There were a few signs of abrasion and bruising, but nothing major. He swallowed, that was the most powerful energy-blaster available, and it had not worked.

The Monster fingered the place, “Ya na nothing of thrid scales.”

“Hmm.” Jade should try to shoot it in the mouth next time.

The thrid pulled up a stool and sat by Jade, “I na W-hy ya try ta kill ‘e.”

Jade blinked and rubbed is forehead.

The monster looked down and away, running his hand along his spines he said, “I dan’t na exactly w-W-hy. I gess cause ya humman…” he used a sort of snap of his jaws to make the word ‘humman’ come out, “hummans hel’ hummans.”

Jade pushed back his hair, smirking; “But you’re a thrid.”

The monster looked down, muttering, “Am I a thrid?”

Jade shrugged, “Anyway, from my experience, ‘hummans’ only help ‘hummans’ if they intend to get something from them.” Jade sighed, the gods don’t even care. They never cared about my brother, Jade shoved the thought out of his mind, he was already outlaw enough without being a heretic, “So really, why am I here?”

The monster got up and muttered, “’Cause ya are humman.” And sat by the workbench, taking the metal arm in his hands and scrubbing at it, “life is P-recious.”

Jade huffed, “Well.” He saw the gleam of his blaster’s handle by where the brush had been set, too far to grab from here, and the thrid had no intentions of killing him yet, so he may as well use the free hospitality while it lasted. “So, Thrid, what are you going to do to me?”

The monster jerked as if he had been pricked with a pin. “I… intend ta send ya a-W-ay ‘en ya better…” the monster looked at Jade, “‘eye the W-ay, W-ut’s yar nam – I m-ean – na-M-e?”

Jade lifted his chin, “I don’t need to tell you.” Best not to share it if he could help it.

The thrid shrugged, “I don’ ‘anna call ya killer, an’ I na ‘ant ya ta call ‘e thrid.” The monster put a hand on his breast in the usual gesture of introduction, “I an Fa’ian.” The monster frowned and looked down, “Na… Ffffa… Tabe… na, Fub… na.,” the monster’s mouth screwed up as if he had eaten something sour… “Fa-B-ian. Thare.” Fabian almost smiled and leaned back, “That was hard.” Fabian gestured towards him, “An’ yars?”

Jade swallowed; of course, the stupid thing had to have the same name as his brother. Har-de-har-har. But this was a monster with a name, nothing more. “You can call me… Jade. It’s Pretty easy to say, too.” He glanced at the thrid as it stared at him. He rubbed his eyes, “If you want to know my job I suppose it’s fairly obvious: I’m a thief and con-man, sometimes I take a killing on the side…” Jade smiled, “Basically an all-around scoundrel.” He glanced at the monster’s blank face, he shrugged, “It’s what I do, what I’ve always done. No hard feelings.”

Fabian opened his mouth then closed it, he looked back down at his work and scrubbed.

Jade yawned, drowsiness beginning to come over him, he would have to rest up so he could plot his escape. He turned his head away and closed his eyes.

As Fabian went at his work, he looked at Jade out of the corner of his eyes and listened to the man’s breathing. In a slightly tremoring voice he whispered, “It’s nat W-ut ya al-ays dun.”

Jade squatted beside the frozen peaks, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The blizzard had passed, and everything was buried except the anti-freeze ocean. He hit the side of his helmet and the glass changed to clear, the light glared upon him like some surgical light.

How long had he been running?

Long. Exceedingly long.

Where was he?

No idea. He was an easy target for the women of Artemis wherever he went.

Jade looked down at the blaster he clutched, suddenly realizing he had shot Fabian. Probably killed him. His hand unwillingly shook as he fingered some frozen splatters of blue blood on the gun, it could not have been Fabian, as in his brother, that he had killed. The image of the small frame half-dissolved… Jade shook his head, allowing the tight pain in his neck to swarm him.

Footsteps approached.

Jade looked up to see Marian standing before him, there was no ice in her expression and she stepped nearer. Jade stood up and pointed his blaster at her. Marian gave no reaction other than to aim her own blaster back at him. She had on that rare expression of hers that looked as if she was melting again. The end of Jade’s blaster quivered and he clutched it with both hands.

Marian stared at Jade, “Fabian is in critical condition.”

Jade’s shouted, “Go away!”

Marian shook her head. “I have my duties.” Then her eyes seemed to freeze over, “and you yours.”

Jade shook his head, “No.”

Marian nodded, “Yes. I was there when your mother…”

“Shut up.”

Marian walked forward. “No. She asked you to take care of…”

He sank to his knees and clenched his blaster, “I know.”

Marian put her hand on his shoulder: “Your little brother is dying.”

Jade grunted through his clenched teeth. “You’re lying so I’ll go with you.” He shrugged off her hand.

She crossed her arms: “Do I ever lie? Your mother’s dying wish must not go disobeyed. There are laws… and…” she looked out at the anti-freeze ocean, “I… would rather you not break more than you can help.”

Jade swore, his shouted profanity ringing through the frozen peaks and out across the hard skin of the moon. Chest heaving, he snapped the only response he could think of: “Of course you always sense it… and it’s always the law! Will you ever stop saying that?”

Marian squared her stance, “I am an elf, I have telepathy. I am trying to say things nicely. What do you want me to say? You have broken the one promise you wished to keep? That the one person I know you never cheated is shot by your hand, that if your mother were still alive she would disown you for what you’ve done?” Marian shrugged, “If you come with me, you may at least be able to apologize for once in your life.”

Jade cursed and shot, even as his brilliant green eyes, the eyes that his mother had named him for, streamed tears he had refused to shed. Marian grasped her stomach and staggered back, her eyes widened and she gasped in a low, unearthly voice as her purple blood froze over the wound and trickled out her mouth, “You regret this…” before she collapsed.

Jade’s stomach plummeted and he ran and knelt over her, her eyes were open and her breath hissed through her teeth. Jade swallowed, he had shot someone uselessly for the second time that day. He would get no money for Marian, nor his brother.

“Drop your weapon!” a high-pitched voice drove into Jade’s ears and he looked up. The weeping girl and a few other women stood around him.

Jade gulped as he stared at the red-rimmed eyes of the small figure before him. he opened his mouth then closed it. He let his blaster fall from his hands and land in the snow, he scooped up Marian as she gave a weak gasp and her slender body shivered in his arms. He tried to speak again and eventually he managed to force out, “I can carry her. She’s wounded… but she’ll be alright if she gets medical attention. You can keep her alive for a few days to get a surgeon.”

The weeping girl was staring at Marian’s belly. She looked up at Jade, “You make one bad move, and I shoot.”

Jade gulped and walked submissively back to the ship, finding his eyes trained on Marian’s struggling face. Her eyes forced themselves open and her lips slowly forced out the words: “He’s… dead. I… I’m…”

Jade hissed, “Sh.” Even as tears trickled more earnestly down his cheeks.

Marian was right, of course.

As he carried Marian to the medical bay, he saw him. Fabian lay on the floor with a couple girls sitting around him. his eyes were closed, and medical equipment lay strewn about him. Jade passed, his grip tightened on Marian so she whimpered.

As he laid Marian on a gurney, she gave his human hand a light squeeze before he was pushed away and into a cell. A tight, small room he couldn’t lay flat in. he peered through the fogged face of the force-field door into the hallway. He removed his helmet and sat against the back wall looking at Fabian, a pool of blue blood around his head. Jade swallowed hard and rested his forehead on his knees, allowing the constant pain in his face to erupt as his mouth pulled and his eyes squeezed shut.

He didn’t know people had fused Fabian’s brain and eyes with a monster, but it made sense. His brother had had a phenomenal mind and a gift for learning –though he didn’t know how or why he had been put in a thrid. He knew now by the ripping sensation in his chest that his dying wish was broken and Marian had, as she always had, told the truth. His grief was inevitable.

And so, he thought, was his fate. He would be sent off to die in a blackhole. The gods would give him no mercy for messing with Marian all those years ago… and for breaking his mother’s last wish that he and Fabian should always take care of each other until they died. The vision of his maimed brother flooded his mind, the flesh devoured by the acid, no blood, but stench, boils, and exposed bones. The wide electric blue eyes and the mouth open in a scream of horror.

Jade clenched his head and pulled his hair, a low string of curses issued from his mouth as he tried to drown out the feelings he didn’t want to feel, the world in which he didn’t want to live, the death he did not want to die, and the deeds he had done that day. Jade looked up at the ceiling and smiled bitterly, he could not escape the inevitable. He was the monster that should be killed.

The End

Thanks so much for reading!

By SE did you mean Story Embers or Kingdom Pen?