Planet Leviathan

^{Chapter 6} The Woman with Half a Face

At Stacia’s behest, the woman pretended she had performed the intended services when Faust came back to the room. To the woman’s confusion, Stacia had even made her do jumping jacks to work up a sweat. Faust came in, saw that the woman had obviously been strenuously exercised, and sent her back downstairs without a second thought. Stacia didn’t need him thinking anything other than the normal sexual activity had been going on in here, and the last thing she wanted now was for anyone to think the woman wouldn’t do her job and was in need of punishment. Stacia knew that she was going to return to this problem, and very soon, but for now, she had a meeting to keep.

Faust led her down the hall to the last door, then indicated that she would need to go in without him before turning and heading back downstairs. Stacia waited until he was out of sight before checking the door thoroughly for traps. Once she was satisfied, she opened it to find an office. It looked ratty and cramped by any other standards, yet on Leviathan, Stacia was sure this room would be considered the lap of luxury. There was a desk and shelves, all of them piled high with inked leather scraps like the one Faust had been carrying when he’d found her. There were two chairs in the room, as well, one on each side of the desk, and they too were upholstered in leather.

After what the woman had told her, Stacia did her best not to look at all the leather with disgust.

She was so busy contemplating how many Skins had died to make this room that Stacia didn’t even take note at first of the woman sitting on the other side of the desk. That was sloppy, Stacia knew. A Galactic Marine, whether she was allowed to call herself one or not anymore, was supposed to be able to take in their whole environment in an instant. The young woman’s words had upset Stacia more than she was used to, and she needed to keep a firm hold on her feelings if she was going to get what she wanted out of this meeting.

At first glance, the woman didn’t appear to have a face. She was sitting with her left side to the door, and that entire half of her face was gone, replaced with a fused patch of sickly pale skin where her eye, nose, mouth, and ear should have been. The illusion was likely on purpose, a scare tactic to keep anyone new to Hobbes on their toes. Stacia didn’t react. After several seconds, the woman turned, showing Stacia the other, perfectly average half of her face. She was old, probably older than any other person she’d so far seen on Leviathan, yet there was nothing about the way she carried herself that implied weakness. Now that she was standing here before this woman, Stacia remembered the name Faust had given at her crash site. It was a name she probably would have reacted to earlier, if she hadn’t been so preoccupied.

This woman was infamous, after all. She was the first person to ever be sentenced to life on Leviathan.

“Hello,” the woman said in a gravelly voice. Despite the fact that she was missing half her face, there was no hint of any speech impediment. “I am Lord Commander Alena Lexton.”

“It’s an honor,” Stacia said. It really wasn’t. “But you’ll forgive me if I doubt that. There’s no way Alena Lexton could still be alive. She would be somewhere in the vicinity of a hundred and fifty years old by now.”

“My, has it been that long?” Lexton stood up from her chair and offered Stacia her hand to shake. Stacia stared at it, wondering if this was supposed to be some kind of test. After several seconds of nothing, Lexton chuckled and withdrew her hand. “Just checking.” She gestured for Stacia to take a seat in the other chair, which Stacia did with some reluctance. “I do that with everyone who enters this office. Anyone who actually shakes my hand is killed immediately.”

Stacia nodded. Shaking hands was an old custom, often attributed as originally being a way for someone to show the person they were meeting that they were unarmed. Whether that was the real origin of the custom or not, Galactic Marines wouldn’t do it. The last thing a marine wanted anyone to think was that they were unarmed. Even if they didn’t have a gun or a knife, the marine was still a weapon in and of themselves. Anyone who showed up on Leviathan and accepted an offer to shake hands obviously had never been a Galactic Marine, and if they were here it was for some reason other than to serve their sentence.

“You’ll have to forgive me for not knowing the protocol in meeting you for the first time, but if you’re really Lexton, then you should be dead.”

“Maybe I should be, considering everything I’ve faced on this planet.” She indicated the missing side of her face. “This happened on my first night. First contact with the local fauna. Or maybe local flora. Honestly, there aren’t a lot of scientists around here to make those distinctions.”

Stacia assessed the woman’s armor and realized that, yes, it’s make and age did imply someone who’d had it for over a century. It looked like it had been heavily modified though, with the armor plates looser around the joints. Stacia wouldn’t be surprised to find that Lexton could remove her armor when she wished, with a body underneath covered in borrowed skin.

“Do you know why you’ve been asked to see me?” Lexton asked.

“Faust repeatedly said something about swearing fealty.”

Lexton chuckled. “Well, yes. There is that. Faust can get rather enthusiastic about his loyalty to me. But that isn’t the only reason. I wouldn’t have asked you to my office alone if that were the case. I would have gone downstairs and had you swear your oath in front of everyone else.”

Stacia nodded. “So this has something to do with Stanton Borealis?”

“Yes. Faust told me that you intend to kill him, although he was a little vague about why.”

“I have some revenge I need to get on his mother.”

“Still doesn’t seem like a very civilized thing to do.”

“So is that why you brought me here? Not only do you want my oath of loyalty, but you want me to give up the idea of going after him?”

“Oh no, not at all. You’re here because, after your oath, I need to know what equipment and information you need to wipe that little shit-stain off my planet.”

Stacia raised an eyebrow. “And may I ask you why you would want me to kill one of the citizens of your planet?”

“This is my planet, yes, but he’s not one of my subjects. You’ve heard all about him, I’m sure. Does he strike you as the kind of person who would swear loyalty to me?”

“A pretentious, self-righteous piece of shit like him? No, I’d guess him more as the type trying to organize some kind of hostile takeover of your territory.”

“All of Leviathan is my territory.”

Stacia doubted that. Leviathan was a big planet, and Lexton was only one person, even if she was the original human inhabitant. Not that Stacia would dare say that, not when Lexton was practically offering everything she needed on a silver plate.

“But am I right?”

“Right enough. You’re aware he wasn’t even sentenced to Leviathan, right?”

“He couldn’t be. He didn’t follow in his mother’s footsteps to join the Galactic Marines. My understanding is that he was never more than a low-level politician, an activist.”

“Yes, and the bastard is still a politician even here. The asshole crash-lands here by accident when poking his nose where it doesn’t belong, and then when he finds he can’t leave any more than anyone else, he starts spreading ideas.”

“What kind of ideas?”

“What does it matter to you? Ideas I don’t like. Your role is not to question me. Your role is to obey. And if you do, you will be rewarded.”

“Rewarded with what?” Stacia did her best to sound disinterested, as though she didn’t already have a clue about what Lexton was going to say.

Lexton pointed at Stacia’s armor. “We can have that removed, for one thing.”

Play this carefully, Stacia thought. “Really? You can do that?” She made sure her words held equal parts disbelief and interest.

“This can be a good place for you. It has been for many before.”

“And all I have to do is give you my oath that I serve you?

“Correct.”

“And you’ll give me weapons and the location of Stanton Borealis.”

“See for yourself,” Lexton said. She stood up and went to a crate in a far corner. Stacia had noticed it in passing before, but only now did it occur to her that she was looking at an official Galactic Marines-issue heavy weapons crate. Lexton opened a latch to show Stacia the contents: two 808 heavy assault rifles, four Arliss-Mercer plasma pistols, multiple magazines for all six weapons, and two sonic blades that made the knife she’d come here with look like a butter knife. In other words, a standard armament package for Galactic Marines readying for an assault.

Jackpot, she thought. Probably courtesy of Mr. Faust.

She whistled, pretending to be surprised at the crate’s contents. “How did you get this?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Lexton went back to her desk and rummaged around for a particular piece of leather. “Here are the coordinates of where my people believe Borealis to be.”

“If you know where he is, why wait for me to come along? Why haven’t you already sent someone to take him out?”

“It needs to look like I wasn’t involved. I don’t want him to come off as a martyr for his beliefs. If you do it, considering you already have a compelling reason, it won’t necessarily be connected immediately to me.”

“Even though everyone downstairs already say me come up to swear my oath?”

“It’s not the people here you need to convince. It’s the people Borealis has surrounded himself with. Again, it is not your place to ask questions. You either accept or you don’t.” Lexton picked up one of the plasma pistols and aimed it at Stacia’s head.

“And I assume that’s what happens if I don’t?”

“Of course.”

“All that sounds like something I can live with. But there’s one other thing I want before I say yes.”

“That’s ballsy of you, Miss X-79. You aren’t exactly in a position to bargain.”

“Given what I’ve seen so far, and considering that you want me to go further than any of your other recruits, I don’t personally think what I want is too much to ask for.”

“And that would be?”

“The woman I was with before I came in here. I want her.”

“Didn’t you already have her?”

“I want her permanently. I want to take her with me.”

“Really? Do you honestly think I’ll just give you another human being?”

“From what I’ve seen so far? Yes.”

“Ha! Very well. I think maybe I can let this happen just this once.”

“I would like her here now, to ensure she’s part of the deal. I don’t want anyone else doing something with her in the meantime.”

“Fair enough.” Lexton went to open the door, where she found Faust waiting patiently on the other side. “Faust, go get whatever Skin Stacia was playing with earlier.”

Faust looked surprised. “Already? Should I have Quince prepare his saws and scalpels?”

Stacia had to fight not to turn green at that comment.

“No, no, not yet. She just wanted a little something extra to play with while she does her job.”

Faust shrugged. “I’ll be right back with her.”

Stacia stayed sitting in her seat as Lexton went back to her own. “So what do I have to do for this oath?” Stacia asked.

“Simple. Just raise your right hand and say, ‘I swear my allegiance to the Lord Commander Lexton.”

“Wait, that’s it? No blood ceremony, no bomb in my neck in case I betray you?”

“If you betray me, I kill you, that simple. And I don’t send any of my people to do the job. I do it myself, in as public a fashion as possible. Someone tries something every so often, and once I’m finished with them, everyone else gets the hint. Effective and uncomplicated at the same time. So do you swear?”

Stacia heard two pairs of footsteps coming down the hall from behind her, one the heavy step of someone in armor, and the other the barely perceptible patter of someone barefoot and trying not to give anyone around her a reason to be angry. Stacia dropped her left hand out of Lexton’s sight while raising her right. “I swear my allegiance to Lord Commander Lexton.”

“Good.” Lexton set her plasma pistol on the desk, making sure to still keep it within easy reach. “It would probably be best if as few people see you go as possible.”

Stacia stood up and inspected the remaining contents of the crate. Although she had her back to the rest of the room, she kept very close track of the sounds. Lexton didn’t immediately reach for her gun, but neither did she relax her posture. In Stacia’s opinion, the woman had gotten extremely rusty, given the century plus she’d been away from the Galactic Marines and what looked like the complacency of unchallenged power. But she wasn’t a complete idiot, either. She knew that if Stacia was going to do something stupid, it would be now.

Stacia picked up and pretended to inspect a pistol, as though she didn’t already know exactly what it was and what it was capable of.

Surreptitiously, Stacia clicked off the safety.

My mamas always did tell me I could stand to use a few more brain cells, she thought.

The twin footsteps ceased just inside the door. It sounded like the Skin was just inside the threshold while Faust was outside. Kind of a dumb tactical choice for him. The Shellheads on this planet really had forgotten where they came from.

“It’s going to be kind of hard to get out unseen with all the people downstairs. Do you have another way out?”

“No. Not unless you count the chute I use for the dead bodies.” There was a clicking noise from behind Stacia as Lexton grabbed her gun. “By the way, I know you think you were being cute, but it really was a dumb move.”

“What?” Stacia asked, not daring to move. “I don’t…”

“You hid your other hand. While you were swearing.”

“So? That’s not…”

“You had your fingers crossed.”

All four people stood in absolute silence for half a second.

Then there was chaos.