Assti opened her eyes slowly, he head was throbbing, the light harsh and glaring, problem was the sun
was setting. Assti estimated she’d been out about 2 hours, slowly looking down her body she saw that the little
bastard hadn’t tried to molest her. Not more than twenty feet away from her his slightly rotund body was
perched on a ruined section of wall, again she tried not to gag from the rancid aroma of filth that emanated
from his body. Trying to not make a sound she tested her hands, they were bound? What the hell? How in the hell
had he gotten her shield deactivated?
Tantka was feeling pretty confident he was on the planet, he had a fool proof plan to kill fart boy and
as an added bonus he’d captured that assassin bitch who’d stalked him for months. A sound behind him drew his
attention to the skinny flame haired beauty, she certainly was looking pissed at him, good she deserved it
after chasing him for so long.
“By now I’m sure you’re wondering how I got through your shield,” Tantka said, chuckling at the death looks she
was throwing at him. “It was quite simple really, I have hacked almost all of fart boys programs, he’s so
predictable. After I immobilized you, I just removed it, though it isn’t as good as this one, I can tell it’s
one of fart boys.”
Assti hoped the signal she’d sent out before she was hit had been picked up enough for her sister and
Sam to know where she was.
“Now I have a present for you,” Tantka sneered, “I thought since you went to the trouble of chasing and finding
me I’d give you just what you deserve, plus it’s about how I feel about you.”
With that Tantka dropped his pants revealing an extremely small cock and balls, aiming the head at her face he
commenced pissing in her face and hair. The smell about to over come her, she tried to keep her mouth closed as
long as possible till finally a little made it past her lips.
The smell and the taste finally too much she began to vomit uncontrollably, laughing Tantka began to rub his
piss into her hair.
“There you go, you bitch, just what I think of you, hardly even worth the effort to piss on,” Tantka spat at
her, “serves you right for trying to kill me.”
Assti could hardly hear him she was vomiting so bad, finally stopping she looked up at him as he pulled
his pants up.
“I have a confession to make,” Assti gasped out, “I was going to just, kill you, but I think I’ll kill you as
slowly as I can. I’m going to enjoy listening to you scream and beg for me to kill you, but it won’t come for a
long, long time.”
Laughing even harder Tantka replied, “You keep dreaming you whorey bitch, as if I’ll ever give you the chance
again!”
Tanyka turned to study the capital city, once it was dark he could make his move, looking at the power supply
he thought he had just enough to complete his mission.
Sam and Nissie had been trying to locate Assti for over 2 hours, they’d seen her reach a certain point
then she stopped her comp said she’d been hit by a stinger type of beam. Nissie was extremely worried when Mark
awoke, running to him she threw her self at him crying that she thought her sister was in trouble.
Sam pulled up the last conversation with Assti, “I need Mark, that little bastard has a shield!” Nissie said,
her voice almost frantic.
Mark thought for a few moments, snapping his fingers he turned to Nissie, “I think he still has mother’s comp
it was never recovered and I had assumed that it had been destroyed. The thing he doesn’t realize is that I
built that piece of equipment, I know all the codes no matter what he has done to it. After all I wrote all the
basic programs for it.”
Mark walked over to a comp that was showing constant readings, sitting down he began to type at a furious pace.
Sam was trying to keep up with what he was doing but Mark’s pace was a dizzying one.
“There that ought to do it,” Mark said with a small smile on his face, “In about an hour he won’t have
anything.”
Sam was finally starting to understand all the commands that her brother was typing, but how the hell
had he done it so fast? Looking up Mark saw Sam the look of confusion on Sam’s face, puzzled for a moment he
stopped to ask her what was wrong.
“I’ve been helping you and have been your partner for over 6 years, and still to this day I can’t even begin to
enter or write code even half as fast as you do,” Sam replied.
Chuckling Mark smile then answered. “I was doing this for years before I left the school, we went through
exercises an hour every day for years till reading and writing it this fast was almost normal.”
Sam continued to stare at her brother hardly believing a word he said, “alright, can you show them to me?”
Mark’s face beamed now, he knew that his sister was finally serious about maintenance work, “sure Sam after we
rescue Assti no problem,” this made his sister smile something he loved to do.
Nissie still wasn’t convinced that her sister was going to be safe, “Mark we’ve got to rescue Assti!
There’s no telling what he could have done to her!” Nissie said almost beside her self with worry.
Mark saw the worry on her face and immediately began to type on the comp, again at blazing speed, moments later
Mark’s face held a grim expression.
“Damn it!” Mark suddenly yelled, Nissie rushed to his side the worry on her face even more clear. “That bastard
has captured her!”
Nissie clutched at Mark’s arm, “we have to help her! If Tantka has captured her then it means her tech failed!”
Nissie collapsed in a heap at Mark’s feet crying for her sister.
Holding Nissie close Mark whispered in her ear, “I will personally go get her, that bastard is through hurting
my family!” With that Mark headed out the door without a word to anyone else, though the fact that he took his
full pack was also not lost on anyone.
A mile away Tantka drug Assti to her feet, her face bruised and swelling, a small trickle of dried
blood near her mouth. Laughing, Tantka roughly pushed her forward her left eye blacked and swollen shut from
his savage kick, her right slightly swollen from his slap, she did her best to not stumble as he began a
hurried pace. Mark had been tracking Assti’s com and comp since he’d left, damn it! She’d never put the last
two updates he sent her into her equipment. Mark was less than a thousand yards from them when he found the
spot he’d been looking for. Looking at his time piece he silently cursed, the shut down codes he’d enacted
hadn’t had time to work yet. Watching their position Mark knew he’d have to time this almost perfect, he
couldn’t risk using the probes. Tantka might not be the best but he was far from stupid, from what Mark was
reading Tantka had some type of probes of his own though, they were far too far away to make any difference.
Any moment now, seconds later Assti first rounded the darkened corner followed extremely close by Tantka.
Mark stepped out behind Tantka without a sound, pressing the cold barrel of a plasma pistol to back of
Tatka’s head.
“I was going to say don’t move, but in your case, PLEASE move I am more than done with you, you savage
traitor!” Mark snarled pressing the pistol even harder into the back of Tantka’s head.
“My, my, fart boy came his self, should I be honored? Drop the weapon or I’ll kill this fucking assassin
bitch!” Tantka growled back, holding the knife he had held at her back, now across her throat.
“I don’t know why you are so damn smug, that comp is my invention, I wrote all the codes, I built it, I know
ALL the hidden codes no matter what you think you did to it.” Mark snapped back hoping the codes kicked in
soon.
Mark could see that Assti’s comp was finally starting to kick in, the bruising on her face was starting to
lessen plus she looked at Mark with a glimmer of understanding at his last statement. Mark watched as she
slowly edged away from Tantka as much as she could, suddenly a tone erupted from the comp on Tantka’s wrist.
Assti used Tantka’s momentary lapse to break free, his eyes wide Tantka kicked out making mark jump. Tantka
scrambled away not unlike a crab, Mark cursed his self for falling for Tantka’s trick.
Mark rounded the corner behind Tantka but stopped short when there was no sign of him! Looking quickly
at his comp Mark saw no reading of him, switching over readings Mark soon found that Tantka was heading into
the city at a rapid rate. Helping Assti to her feet they made their way to his waiting speeder, how in the hell
had Tantka gotten a speeder out here waiting for him? Damn it! That was what Mark had thought was stray debris,
he’d have to fix that later. They’d just made it to his speeder when Assti stopped him.
“I don’t want Nissie to see me like this, I can feel the med section of my comp healing me, but it isn’t fast
enough. Catch that bastard, no scratch that, kill that bastard, no fucking mercy just kill him.” Assti said an
almost begging anger to her voice.
Mark nodded his own anger starting to mount, it was time to end this, he’d made a promise to his children, his
wives and to several people who were close to his family. Opening his com, he warned Sam and Nissie to prepare
and make sure they, their children and the king had their com shields set to auto activate.
Mark and Assti arrived only minutes after Tantka but it was almost impossible to track him now.
Mark could see that most of the swelling was half what it was, but Assti still refused to see her sister till
she was healed more. Mark agreed though, he wasn’t sure of the cover story that he was going to use. Walking in
Mark headed to the comp almost ignoring Nissie and Sam his anger more than apparent on his face.
“Did you get to her in time? We weren’t able to get clear readings.” Sam inquired, Nissie standing directly
behind her the hope clearly apparent on her face.
Mark never had been much of a liar and truly disliked those that lied to him, so, as always, he told the honest
truth.
“Yes I got to her in time,” Mark started holding up his hand to quiet Nissie before she started, “she asked for
a little time to heal before she comes in ok? It was her request not mine.”
Nissie nodded it sounded just like her sister, thinking that Nissie was to delicate to see her hurt or weak.
Again with blazing speed Mark had well over half the lock down procedures done when he heard his son
yelling. Rushing to that part of the building he saw Arthur against the wall his shields at full intensity.
Little Arthur was crying, in hushed tones he said, “I tried to stop him papa he had this weapon that pushed me,
then finally caused my shield to pin me to this spot. I tried to stop him, he took Catrina, I was showing her how
to set the auto on her comp when he grabbed her. I’m sorry papa,” Little Arthur hung his head afraid his father
would be ashamed of him.
Gently nudging his face up Arthur could see the pride on Mark’s face, “you did extremely well son, again I
promise you I won’t let that bad man hurt your sister or anyone else ever again.”
Tantka needed a hostage if he was going to make it out alive, ah! children! Good, he hated children especially
little children, grubby, little, filthy wastes of space in his opinion. Hearing the boy explain about the auto
activate he quickly grabbed the girl, the boy’s shield snapped up, firing the stinger beam it only pushed, then
pinned the boy to the wall. Damn it! fart boy had adjusted for the beam, well no matter, pulling the struggling
girl from the room, Tantka ran as fast as he could for his speeder.
Mark wasn’t too far behind Tantka, not with Tantka having to hold a struggling Catrina. Making his
speeder Tantka saw Mark round a corner behind him, firing a few shots off had Mark ducking as Tantka shot off.
Cursing him self, Mark grabbed the fastest speeder he could find and took out after him, knowing that Tantka
was heading for his ship.
“Sam,” Mark said speaking into his com, “have the shuttle prepped to meet me in case he lifts off the planet.’
“You have to get that bastard,” Sam cried, “I won’t have our daughter harmed by him.”
Mark nodded and agreed, pushing the speeder to it’s limit he was soon within sight of Tantka. Damn it! Mark
thought Tantka was too damn close to his ship, god only knows what traps he’s set up near by.
Tantka suddenly stopped, Mark could see that he was struggling, good Catrina wasn’t making his attempted to get
away easy at all, good girl.
Turning and seeing Mark’s fast approach, Tantka’s face was a small mask of terror. Shoving Catrina back
out the door Mark could see her shield was active, good she was ok. More concerned about his daughter than
Tantka, Mark swooped in grabbing her rocketing away, barely missing being singed by Tantka’s ships exhaust.
Racing back Mark left Catrina with Sam and Nissie, running to his shuttle, Mark broke several windows with his
emergency lift off as he left the planet’s surface. Ah good! The tracker he’d planted earlier on his and the
family’s last planet was still working. Accelerating Mark could see that Tantka’s ship was indeed fast but Mark
had no doubt that he could catch him. Again Mark had to push his shuttle almost to the breaking point to catch
up to Tantka.
For 2 days Mark slowly drew closer to Tantka’s alien ship, it almost reminded Mark of an earth beetle
shape, colored green apparently a favorite color of the Styrox. Finally within weapons range Mark still wasn’t
sure his shuttle had enough power to damage Tantka’s ship, just about to fire a proximity alarm wemt off. Shit!
Tantka had been running for the Styrox fleet, now he was within range of them to get reinforcements. Firing off
a few shots Mark smiled when the first two actually hit Tantka’s engines, though it didn’t slow him that much
Mark knew it would completely screw up Tantka’s day.
A com beep caught Mark’s attention, “Mark!” Came the space leader’s voice, “I thought we’d seen the last of you
for a while when you left.”
Sighing Mark replied, “No, I chased Tantka back to King Rufus’s planet, the creep has the Styrox tech, his ship
healed itself. The little bastard almost got my daughter and my sister in law, I’ve missed him 3 times now I
won’t miss again given the chance.”
Nodding the Leader agreed, “Anything we can do to assist?”
Thinking a moment Mark got a plan, “I think you can.” With that Mark went into detail about the plan he’d just
come up with.
The leader’s eyes got wide at the boldness of Mark’s plan but agreed it would definitely help end things.
Tantka pushed with what was left of the scout ship’s engines into the landing bay of the last Styrox mother
ship. As the scout’s doors opened, several Styrox soldiers were there to escort him to the Styrox queen.
Great what does that fucking insect want now, Tantka thought as he trudged along with the soldiers.
The great doors opened unto a throne like room, the huge queen was laying in her recliner type throne, being
attended by twenty or thirty smaller praying mantis like creatures. Sighing Tantka waited for her to notice
that he was there, her long green body rippling as she swallowed her meal.
“Stantka,” she hissed motioning him forward with a huge claw, “you promisssed an easssier victory than thisss,
we barely made the firssst world. Finally though, we are recsssieving fresssh meat, the ssssub queensss are
finally breeding at a fassster rate.”
Tantka only nodded, he hoped this didn’t take long he needed to work on his next plan to kill fart boy.
“I know great queen,” Tantka replied trying to not let his impatience show, “I’ve already started more updates
to make things easier.”
“Thessse upgratesss, asss you call then had better work, or contract or not I will be enjoying your flesssh
asss my next breeding meal,” the queen hissed at him.
Smirking Tantka wasn’t that worried, he knew all their secrets they needed him for more than they let on.
Waving him away as if he was beneath her, the queen went back to her meal Tantka just grunted in disgust as he
turned away. Walking away down the long twisting corridor, new evil twisted ideas began to form in his twisted
mind.
Mark and several techs on board the main empire command ship worked for 3 days to implement the changes
that Mark had drawn up. Though many of them thought he had lost his mind when he detailed everything that they
were to help him do and each had to sign a none disclosure document. The bad thing was it really didn’t matter
he just erase the memory of all the plans without them even realizing it, damn shame too, there were a few damn
good techs here. Finally everything was ready, checking the shuttle for the tenth time he made sure all the
cloaks were working they were the first part of the plan. Before departing he gathered all the techs in the
hanger bay personally shaking all their hands before sighing and boarding the shuttle. Shaking his head he was
sorry he had to wipe them of the memories, but from here on out he was on his own like he’d been when he first
started. Departing the command ship he engaged the cloak almost immediately, shimmering the shuttle vanished
the leader’s mouth hung agape, he’d heard of Mark’s invisibility cloak but he thought it was just another story.
Mark was cruising as slow as he could, he might be invisible but his energy emissions were visible if
he used more than half power. Knowing he didn’t have a lot of time Mark began to fire transmitters in all
directions, watching his screens well over a thousand had shot out these immediately divided, then those
divided, then again till there were well over ten thousand each heading to a ship to quietly and quickly attach
itself laying dormant till needed.
Mark had just docked at the command ship when he got a on his com.
“Mark,” Sam voice came, “We’ve been trying to reach you for days. There’s someone here who wants a word with
you.”
“Daddy?” Came little Catrina’s voice, “Thank you for coming after me, please be careful and come back I miss
you.”
Mark’s heart swelled he loved his children with all his heart, “the same from me and Nissie, you better come
back safe and by the way,” Sam paused a moment, then got quiet, “you still owe me and I expect to collect.”
Mark’s face was a huge smile when he opened the shuttle’s door, several soldiers escorted him to the space
leader on the bridge.
On the bridge the leader asked if Mark’s plan had been successful Mark only nodded grime faced at what
he knew was about to happen. Knowing the Styrox as well as he now did now, he knew they would refuse any
attempt at a peaceful solution.
The leader stepped back letting Mark take center stage, “To the Styrox fleet this is the Maintenance man, this
is your only chance to surrender and be allowed to leave with what fleet you have intact. Refuse and I promise
that less than half your fleet will survive.”
For a moment there was only dead air then the com crackled and a huge praying mantis face appeared on the
screen, “you have no sssuch tech, you have not the numberssss, therefore you no chance to ssstop us.”
“Oh,” replied Mark, “alright then,” holding up a switch Mark pressed a few buttons, at first nothing happened
then a few minutes later about a thousand ships exploded.
“You son of a bitch!” came Tantka’s voice, “you used the outlawed eradicator!”
Mark only smiled and pressed a few more buttons, another thousand ships exploded a few minutes later.
The Queen on the screen was hissing forcefully as the smaller mantis creatures began to run to their
stations.
“So do you leave or do I destroy most of your fleet?” Mark said, his mouth a thin line on his face.
“We will never sssurrender foolisssh human, NEVER!” it hissed at Mark.
“Ok, then you leave me no choice,” Mark sighed as he activated all the buttons on the switch.
Tantka was screaming at the top of his voice working a keypad almost as fast as Mark, then suddenly he was
gone.
Within minutes there were explosions all across the view screen of the command ship, the Queen was now clicking
rapidly as her ship began to shake as the explosions drew closer to the mother ship. Mark and the crew watched
as there was an explosion in the mother ships engines basically crippling it, once everything cleared the
debris field was thousands of miles wide. Damn! Tantka must have found a counter, the mother ship should have
been completely destroyed, sighing Mark was thankful over half the fleet was gone.
A few moments later the Queen came back on the screen, “We concsssede defeat human, we will leave.”
The screen went blank, everyone began to cheer as what was left of the Strox fleet began to limp back the way
they’d come. Almost unseen a ship near the command ship darted past back toward the center of the empire, a few
minutes later 4 more ships darted past though these weren’t unseen, Mark smiled when he saw the now familiar
markings of Assti’s ship, the others he thought must be the 3 slavers. Returning to King Rufus’s world Mark
thanked the king and collected his family, on the way home the com went off. Answering it Nissie and Sam were
surprised to see the emperor on the screen.
“Hello Sam, your parents are glad to see that you are safe,” turning to Nissie the emperor slightly bowed,
“Mrs. Nissie, thank you for taking such good care of Mr. Mark.”
“I know you sire, you aren’t ever this nice to commoners,” Sam quickly spit out, “What do you want?
we’ve had an extremely trying month, we are tired and going home, so please drop this crap and get on with it,
if I owe you an apology, you’ll receive it later.”
The emperor only sputtered a moment then cleared his throat, “I need to talk to Mr. Mark.”
Nissie shook her head, “Not going to happen Majesty, he’s had hardly any sleep the last week, he’s sleeping
real sleep for the first time in that week and I’ll be damned if I’m going to disturb him for anything. Call
back in a few days we’ll almost be home, then he should be awake.” Turning away Nissie quickly turned back and
added, “Also if I owe you an apology you also receive it then.”
With that she clicked the com off, the emperor’s shocked face the last thing seen. Sam and Nissie looked at
each other and started giggling then full out laughing till they could barely stand.
3 days later Mark awoke feeling the best he’d felt in years, the emperor had already called and been
dismissed by Sam and Nissie twice.
Walking into the cockpit to relief the women, the com again sounded, looking down both Sam and Nisse sighed,
Mark curious looked over their shoulders also sighing, great what did that ass want now.
Answering after the women had vacated the cockpit, the emperor’s now red face appeared, “It’s about time you
got up!” The emperor started, “I should…”
“You’ve been harassing my wives, I haven’t even spoken to them yet and I knew from their looks when they saw it
was you. I warned you before what I could do to you in the courts, all the shit I have on you is only the
beginning. Now before I actually get angry, what the fuck are you bothering me about?” Mark spat out, feeling
more venom than he was actually spewing.
“I have to have something to go to the people with, you are the only one who truly knows what happened.
Especially with Tantka returning and broadcasting all th…”the emperor started.
“WHAT!!!? Mark screamed almost knocking the emperor off throne. “I’ll get back to you I have a traitor to hunt,
the true villain in all this.” Again the emperor was shocked when the screen went blank before he got another
word out.
A week later a large shadowy figure crept across the darkened yard of the Maintenance School. Looking
cautiously around it adjusted the comp readings at it’s wrist, slowly the form crept closer to the entrance to
the school. Reaching for the door it gasped when another hand appeared out of no where and grabbed it’s wrist.
“Let me go! I have more right to be here than anyone!” It screamed.
Mark smirked when the lights came on in the yard, as he had expected Tantka had tried to get in the school to
get more tech.
“Now, you son of a bitching traitor you will pay for all the lives that were lost. In the fleet, on Rufus’s
world and almost the entire population of the last frontier world that the Styrox decimated. I have been given
special permission by the emperor himself as to your execution, I decided,” turning Tantka around Mark watched
Tantka’s eyes grow huge when he saw Assti.
“I see that you remember me, good I remember you, I remember you saying I wasn’t worth the effort to piss on. I
promised you I wouldn’t just kill you, I am going to kill you yes, but as I said before it will take a long
time.” Assti spat in Tantka’s face, several of her men immobilized Tantka’s hands, finally placing an electric
leash and collar around his neck. The final insult a sign was placed around his neck that simply read I am a
traitor I go to die.
Assti turned to Mark and thanked him kissing him on the cheek, surprising not only Mark but Assti as well, then
she and her men were gone.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————
EPILOGUE
A year later Nissie gave birth to a girl, a month later Sam gave birth to a boy, though both were
shocked they were more than happy, Sam had finally achieved her ninth year status. Nissie had started to invest
in a number of enterprises that payed off more than triple, Assti finally let her assistant Fouchan, take over
running the business for her. It was said that the screams that came from her business lasted well over 2 weeks
before they were finally silent. Assti told Mark she had been hard pressed to not kill him quickly.
Little Arthur started to assist Mark when he turned 8 entering the school as soon as he could, his sister
Catrina became a mediator as famous as her grand father and mother.
As for the other son and daughter apply named Mark II and Assti after Nissie’s sister, they also became
famous. Mark II became the top advisor to the next emperor, this one far less pompous and a hell of a lot
better listener. Assti went into a more safety related field developing completely flame resistant clothing,
the best space suits in over 300 years plus she had a knack to know exactly what a person wanted almost before
they did. In all the family already rich because of Nissie’s investments, soon became very powerful, second
only to the emperor.