For every beginning there is an end

“This is how this is going to work, “ K’LeS growled softly, her hand tightening around the mans throat. “You will tell me that which I wish to know and I may let you live.” A few garbled sounds came from his lips and she loosened her grip only slightly.

“I’m not afraid of you.” He gasped, trying to fill his lungs with air once more. “My employers would do things to me you could only imagine.”

“Is that so…” A small smile played upon her lips a moment before she leaned in so her face was mere inches from his. “You do underestimate my….hmmm.. Resourcefulness.” She chuckled very softly near his ear as she tightened her hand once more around his throat. “You see…” She slowly licked her way up his jaw line and nipped his ear lightly, “there are much worse things than being left to the hands of your employer.” It was all she could do to contain her amusement as the man flinched beneath her touch. “I….can…..be…..very……very….inventive.” She punctuated each word with a bite that was harder than the one before it. “I think it would take you a very long time to die if I chose to devour you one small bite at a time.” She ended that last threat with biting down on the soft flesh of his ear and pulling her head back sharply. The only thing that stopped his scream was the fact that he couldn’t draw a deep enough breath in to force it past his lips. She pulled back so he could see her, see his blood dripping down her chin and painting her mouth crimson, then she spit the gob of flesh that had once been a portion of his ear into his face. “Now.. We were at the point where you were going to say, ‘I will tell you anything you want to know’”

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“Aye.. I got the information I needed.” K’LeS spoke loud enough for the comm unit to pick up while she busied herself cleaning up. “It took a bit more persuasion than I would have liked and was a bit messier than I prefer but in the end he spilled all that he knew. And before you ask I did not leave him alive to warn anyone.”

“Good.” Ravens soft voice came out in response. “I’ll expect you back here in ten standard days or less. Otherwise I’m going out with the search party.”

“Yes, yes. I shall feel your wrath as I have never felt it before.” K’LeS smiled as she wiped the last of the blood from her hands and tossed her sticky clothes into the corner to be cleaned later. “I will be sure to be back by your deadline.”

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It wasn’t a coincidence that brought her in on the far side of the planet. She had been told through some very reliable, and only reliable after gentle persuasion, sources that any other way to approach would be suicide. It wasn’t because it was so well guarded, because it wasn’t, it was because what guarded it couldn’t be bribed to look the other way. It had taken close to two years , a lot of bribes, more than a few deaths, to even get this far. It really wasn’t her fight at all. But she couldn’t get the haunted look of that first child out of her head. The way he cringed whenever anyone raised a hand while speaking. He acted like an animal that had been broken. It was then that she had learned of the cast off children. Those of mixed blood, who’s parents had been killed, who just weren’t wanted because it was just too difficult to feed one mouth much less two. She had convinced his guardian, rather sweetly she thought, to let her take him off his hands. It had taken weeks of Raven working with him before he would not cover his head and try to hide if someone raised a voice. Now, he was relatively happy and once he felt safe he had told her all he knew in bits and pieces. There were more like him out there. Being parceled out to backwater planets and ships that kept below the interest of all authority. They were bought cheaply enough that it was cheaper to replace them if they didn’t catch on quickly enough than it was too feed and house them. One or two forged documents and you managed to adopt yourself a young boy , or girl depending on your tastes, to do your work for you. So, that was why she was here, riding to the rescue in a slightly battered ship.
It was a day’s walk from where she had landed to where she needed to be. The timing had to be just right or she would have to wait until the next day’s shipments came in and it looked like she was running a bit behind. She barely had time to pause to pull the cover-all up over her clothing before she had to manage a crouching run so she could intercept the first shipment as it appeared near the building. She kept her eyes downcast, her shoulders hunched to make her appear smaller, she let her hair fall forward to shield her face from the monitoring she was told was being done. It seemed to take forever for her to shuffle the load forward and even longer each time she went back to retrieve more of the cargo. She could feel the cold sweat trickle down her spine each time she entered the building. It was by sheer force of will she kept the giant knot of tension from pulling her shoulders back from their slouched position. What seemed like hours to her in reality took only a few minutes. Then she was done and shuffled her way through the passageway like she belonged.

It took her a moment to orientate herself with her surroundings. She had to pull the pieced together lay-out from her mind, it would have been too risky to bring anything with the layout with her. She had to memorize what she had pieced together and hope it was accurate. It was bad enough that no device that emitted any energy signature could be brought in. There would be no handy dandy phaser, no pulse rifle, just the blades stashed beneath her cover-all and she hoped a dash of luck. Maybe not just a dash a big dose of luck would be most helpful, most helpful indeed.

Finally, she reached what was supposed to be the dormitory where those who were waiting to be ‘adopted’ were kept. She paused long enough to scratch her arm, which allowed the dagger to slip from it’s sheath and into her grip, before she went through the doors. Her nose wrinkled at the stench. Sweat, blood, fear, it stank of it all and of things much worse. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the gloom and a moment after that for her to figure out that what looked to be an empty room at first glance was really inhabited by some kids that knew how to take advantage of every shadow. She took a few steps inside and settled down on the floor and began to speak very softly.

“I am here to help you. I know that you have no reason to believe me but I am telling you the truth.” She sat very patiently trying to look as unthreatening as she could possibly look. “I am offering you a way out and a home until you decide you do not want to be there anymore But I will need someone’s help while I take care of security.”

“Are you for real?” A small voice came from beneath a pile of clothing. “You ain’t just tryin to take us without a fight?”

“I am…” She let a small smile, what she hoped was a friendly smile, curve her lips, “as for real as I can be.”

“I’ll help you… ifin you promise to take all of us and not just some of us!”

“Sounds like a fine plan. Now.. How many of ‘us’ are there?” She glanced around the room trying to pick out what was empty shadow and what held life. Her head turned at the sound of a soft ‘me’ and all it took was that one voice before others acknowledged they were hiding. It was one ‘me’ and ‘me too’ after another. Nineteen, twenty counting the first brave soul to strike the deal. “Well, we are in luck, I have just enough room for all of you and me but this is what I want you to do first and you’ll have to be braver than you ever have been before.”

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“That’s how I met her.” the small boy told Raven. “She told me I had to count to one hundred and twenty and then I was supposed to lead the others out to where we picked up our meals and the doors to the outside would be open.” He pushed his shoulders back and stood a bit straighter, “I did it too. I got everyone together and we all counted together. We didn’t all know the numbers all the way but together we got there and we went out. We ran just like she said and went right to her ship. She said she’d be right behind us and not to worry. We had to be braver than ever while we waited.”

“It took a really long time” A young girl continued on with the story. “We were scared but we did what she said and we stayed put. She showed up the next day but she didn’t look very good. She didn’t look good at all.”

“She said she was fine but she wasn’t. I think she may have set off the alarm. I seen it happen one time and it wasn’t nice at all. She was holding her side and she was limping she wasn’t doing that before.”

“Go on.. “ Raven spoke softly as she looked around at the rag tag bunch of kids surrounding the door to her daughters quarters. She had quit trying to get past them when they had descended upon her guard and beat him with whatever they could lay their hands on when he came through the door.

“She looked like she was in a lot of pain and she told us we had to wait a little while longer. She had taken care of everything but since she was going to be running late for her renda….renda… meeting she had decided just to wait here.” There was way too serious of a look on the child’s face as he spoke and pointed towards the controls, “She messed around over there and told us it was very important not to touch anything there. Then she showed us how to get food and said she was sorry she didn’t have anything clean our size but we could clean up and wear what we could find of hers. We didn’t steal nothing! We swear!”

“I’m sure you didn’t..” Raven smiled sadly, “She would have wanted you to have everything you needed.”

A different girl picked up the story, “She told us all the secret you were supposed to know before we let you on but you got on without it!” She tapped her foot in annoyance, “That’s like cheating. So, before we let you any in you have to tell us the secret so we know it’s ok!”

“Ahh..” Raven smothered a grin that threatened to come out. The thought of this bunch stopping her and those that remained on her ship was funny to her but she could tell they wouldn’t like being laughed at one bit. “The secret is, ta’mey Dun, bommey Dun” She watched them confer amongst themselves a moment before they nodded in agreement.

“That’s it.” What seemed to be the leader, an older boy spoke up, “ What’s it mean?”

“It means.. Great Deeds, Great Songs..” Raven said softly as she swept past them and into K’LeS’ quarters.

The tears that had threatened from the moment ‘Les had missed the appointed meeting time slid unchecked down her cheeks as she stared at the still form of her daughter. She crossed the room slowly, her eyes not missing the trail of blood that moved thickly from the door to the bed. With a soft sob she sank down and placed a hand on ‘LeS’s chest her other tucking an errant strand of hair behind her daughters ear. “Great deeds, great songs indeed.”