Chapter 106: Decisions (Patreon)

“Day, we need to discuss this.” I tried to be adamant and authoritative in my tone. 

Zinuetet walked into the room, and though she had her spear in her hand, she didn’t seem to be showing any intention to use it. Her face was quite a mess, but at least she had cleared away the tears. 

“We’re discussing, aren’t we? Aren’t we? Look.” Day knelt down, and though he refrained from touching the boy, he gestured with his hand. “The boy can’t even understand what we’re saying. He doesn’t have a Citizenship Chip. Kids born outta society don’t.”

I watched the strange alien child. I had mostly ignored its cries, but seeing it crying made the noise reappear in my focus. It had blue fur, with patterns of different shades of blue atop it, and a long snout. It reminded me of no animal on Earth. It was definitely the same species as those we’d been killing. 

If I’m to be honest, I’ve no more sympathy for children than ordinary people. One might think that I’d developed a soft side towards children, having been abused as a child. One neglects to remember, though, that I was first abused by other children. 

Children were just as capable as cruelty as adults. Only, it was a more detached cruelty—a curiosity. ‘I’m curious what happens if I were to do this to a living creature.’ I knew of a story where a child had put his little brother in a microwave. It was enough to make even me nauseous, thinking of it. 

Even still, I’d probably not kill the kid without being directly ordered to by Ruel. Despite what my rational brain told me, there was still something in my gut that told me, ‘its done nothing wrong.’ Maybe that was why the chip told me I was a ‘potential’ psychopath. 

“So, what, you’re just going to pick up this kid, not more than eight, and slam his skull against the wall? You want that? Do you?” Day stood and yelled, holding his arms wide. 

I stepped forward and pointed. “Day! Calm the fuck down. I haven’t said anything about what I’m going to do.”

Day went quiet and stared at the kid. The child was terrified, backing away from the three of us, staring at its dead parents, and crying profusely. I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl, but then again, I suppose it didn’t matter when they were this young. 

I let out an exasperated sigh. “What the hell would we even do? Take him on the ship? You think that’ll be accepted?”

“I got on a ship,” Day countered. “It’s how I got where I am today.”

“You stowed away,” I shook my head, predicting he’d mention that. “You were also a lot older, already had a Citizenship Chip, and the guys still almost killed you.”

He lowered his head in thought. 

“Listen, I can try and help you with this. I don’t want to kill him any more than you do. The best we can do, though, is take him to one of the nearby cities. That’s assuming that Ruel even allows this to slide.” I caressed my forehead in exasperation. “I’m not the leader of this squad.”

“Damn it. Damn it all. I don’t want this kid to grow up in some shithole slums. They’re terrible. Loud, painful. Hate them. I hate this place.” He stood and walked to the child, motioning to pick him up. It squirmed and tried to run, tripping over some debris in the room. 

“You killed his parents, Day. I don’t think you’re the best one to carry him.”

“I know. I know that.”He slammed his fist on the wall. 

Zinuetet handed me her spear. I didn’t know why, but I took it quickly. She walked over to the child and kneeled. She stayed their patiently, staring at him, holding out her arms, and making soothing noises. After a long amount of hesitation, he did come into her arms. 

“He’s terrified.” Zinuetet remained silent, and held the boy in her arms as he cried. “He reminds me of my little brother. I don’t know why.”

I bit my lip, feeling a headache coming on. “We’ll take him to Ruel. He’s the squad leader, after all. You can plead your case. I’ll try and help convince him, but… damn it, Day, you’re really pushing your luck.”

Day said nothing. His lack of twitches was unnerving to me. This was definitely what he looked like when he was angry. 

#####

We had gathered back in the central room of the abandoned ship, which had been turned into a dining hall by the bandits. It was more reminiscent of a murder house, now. The bodies were brutally dismembered. Vast was examining the bodies, and Giir was standing watch over him. Zinuetet held the child, whose throat had gone hoarse from crying. 

“I won’t kill him. I’d die before I let you kill him,” Day said almost immediately.

“Day, you’re really making things worse, you realize,” I said, trying my best to refrain from open mockery. 

He shut his mouth and crossed his arms. 

Ruel looked at Day, and then to me and Zinuetet. Vast stood from his corpse examination and joined the rest of us. The remainder of the squad slowly filtered in from the rest of the ship. Everyone was covered in gore and viscera—not at all pleasant, both in appearance and smell. 

Hey, now Gray feels right at home! I couldn’t bring myself to laugh at my own joke. 

Ruel sighed, and ran his fingers through his fiery hair. There was some blood in it, now. “Casimir, what exactly happened?”

“It’s not hard to guess, is it? When Day was doing… clean-up, I suppose, he killed this guy’s parents. But killing a kid? Do we… really have to? I’m with Day in that regard.”

I specifically said, ‘we,’ knowing that Day would be appreciative of me backing him in the future. 

“Headquarters specifically said that we had to kill every one of the bandits.” Ruel spoke monotonously. 

I visibly saw everyone stiffen. The child’s hoarse and terrified cries echoed out into the silence of the night of black sand. 

Ruel sighed, clearly seeing everyone didn’t want to follow through with the order. “What exactly do you want to do with him, Day?”

“Bring him on the ship back home,” he said, not daring to look Ruel in the eyes.

“That’s not possible. Not at all,” he responded quickly. 

I sought to press the issue. “But the Archduchy could alw—“

“It’s not possible,” Ruel said angrily, crossing his arms. “The kid doesn’t even have a Citizenship Chip. He’d have to get one of those before we could even consider it. Even then, I don’t want to get in trouble with administration. Bringing in a kid eight, maybe ten years old? It’s just not reasonable.”

“So you’re just going to leave him in a shithole slum?” Day snapped.

There was a crack and a yelp, and Day was kneeling on the floor. Ruel was standing over him, pressing him against the ground with sheer force by his shoulders. 

“My decisions are final. I’m your Captain. We take him to one of the cities. If there’s an orphanage, we leave him there. If not, we leave him with a local family.”

Ruel released his hands from Day’s shoulder, and the jackal-man visibly de-compressed. His breathing was heavy. Ruel walked away quickly, irritated. 

I said nothing. I considered saying, ‘we did the best we could,’ but from my experience, that was always the worst thing that you could say. Instead, I looked at Zinuetet. She looked quite troubled. 

Space dictatorship… kinda sucks, huh?