My heart was trying to pound itself through my ribcage. Jabar Adviego grabbed my sweaty, unshaven jaw and looked me in the eyes. His hansom features were all nothing compared to his green, alien, penetrating eyes. His business suit, spotless and without wrinkle, furthered his appearance of superiority over the enemy Don. But the superiority of the Adviego's would never penetrate appearance.
“Don Duega! Cabrone!” He smacked me across the jaw with the back of his left hand. After so many smacks if I tried to close my mouth my teeth felt out of place. My jaw and right ear hurt when I tried to chew. Something in Jabar’s ear beeped. “I hope you found our meeting productive, Don Duega.”
I clenched my fists and spat in Jabar’s face, and he boxed me to the ground. I had not the strength to put up a fight, it had been around three days after my capture. As I lay there, moaning, Jabar pulled out his 9mm and exited the cell. “Cabrone, Don Aviego!” I screamed at the door. My family was here to extract me from the hands of Familias Adviegos.
I reflected on the week gone past. Don Jabar Adviegos had called a meeting, which would supposedly end the Feud de la Familias, but it was not so. Instead I was ambushed, after a long firefight captured, tortured, and yet no information escaped my mind to help the Adviegos. Duega's were too strong. Unless they were to kill me, pain could not last forever. Familias Duegas could never be defeated by pain, only by financial ruin. Familias Adviegos had untouchable resources, but in battle they could not contend with the Duega snipers. We killed their hit men, and they robbed entire colonies of their assets. They hijacked our freighters, and we hung their wives.
An explosion rung through my ears. My whole body shook suddenly and violently as I tried to get back on my feet. Through the room came three men in fatigues carrying DO-5 Sniper Rifle’s.
“Samuel! Come with us! We have taken control of security. Don Adviegos has escaped, but his children were on this ship and were shot by their own room-mounted security turrets. We have Adviegos coordinates, do you want to follow?”
One of the men handed me a suit and a pistol, and they stepped outside as I changed. The Don de la Duegas would not be seen in dirty rags commanding a ship. The pistol was a Desert Eagle, made of polished silver and with a perfectly shaped leather grip, I cocked it and stepped outside the cell. The three men saluted me and I followed them to the bridge. Along the way I inhaled the air furiously. The stench of the Adviegos prevailed throughout every corridor.
The bridge was full of my best crewmen, and I noticed that weapon controls outnumbered everything else. Adviego was truly weak to give up such a worthy vessel. I walked to the front of the bridge and looked out at the stars. I looked down and spat on the floor, then mopped up the saliva with the tip of my boot.
“I want every spot in this vessel cleaned and then cleaned again until the stench of the Adviegos is gone! Set course for the S.S. Cuban. Tell them to prepare a sniper platoon for transfer to the S.S. Stench.” I said. Talking was a task after all the blows to my jaw during captivity.
I had chosen to christen the ship “S.S. Stench” to remind everyone that it was once owned by their blood enemies, and it was only a captive of war. Never would it be a full-blooded Duega.
***
I stormed down the deck of my courier. My 9-year-old son watched me in my rage, wondering why I was so untamed after only moments before I was full of bliss. My wife shouted at me, but I could not hear her words. I pulled my fist back, and my son ran up and grabbed hold of it. I calmed down. I could not strike my wife, especially in the face of my child. I could not make this defeat under Familias Duegas any more difficult than it already was.
“I should of killed him. Damn my mistakes, Clara, I should of slit his throat as soon as he was in my sight!” Clara and I walked into our room, shutting our son out behind us.
“Darling, another Don de la Duegas would of come. You could kill that one, too… He would also be replaced. We have more to worry about. You should be glad your son is studying more about the Zerg than of Familias politics. Soon the Duega will be crushed, and we will live on because of our prudence and foresight. Get some sleep, my love.” The words of my wife rolled beautifully off her tongue. It was as if she had practiced her own inherent accent, which is one of the things that first attracted me to her. She wasn’t even concerned over the lost cruiser. All she worried about was her family, and in the end that was what Familias stood for. I had to start following her example.
“Clara, we are going to have to move our ships past the Duega routes. We have no other choice. Once they see the carnage we are escaping; they will follow. Then the battles will be great will slow us down. Eventually, the tide of aliens will overtake us. All I can do is hope.”
“I know, dear. I know.” She said. Jabar’s comlink beeped.
“Damn…” Clara sighed.
“What is it?” I asked, hoping my irritation would make this a quick conversation.
“I have a man onscreen asking for Signor Adviego. It is clearly important, Uncle. I would not disturb you otherwise.”
“I know, William. I’m coming.” As I got up and left, my wife held onto my palm until I was too far out of reach. Her soft hands always reassured me that everything would work to my advantage in the end.
On the main screen of the bridge was Fadio Ramirez. He was an old friend with a large network that provided its clients with current events around Koprulu. Ramirez and his network was possibly the first organization to notice the approach of the Zerg. “Hello, Fadio.”
“Signor Adviego.” He replied from his scout ship “New Puerto Rico”. “There are still sizeable forces fighting the Zerg behind us all. You’re not the only family moving out of the way.”
“Good to know the Spanish aren’t the only ones with brains, eh?”
“Yeh.” He replied. “Sorry to hear about Duega.”
“Let’s not talk about it.”
“Of course. Listen, Jabar… I recently witnessed a battle between Zerg, Protoss, and Terran forces. The Zerg were outnumbered three-to-one. Their leader smashed them all. I have a feeling, however, that her control is beginning to thin.”
“What do you mean, friend?” I asked, puzzled. “If you imply that I might return to fight the Zerg, you are wrong. The Duega would come behind us and stab us in the back, even if it meant meeting the aliens at the other side.”
“I know, I know. I’m just saying that the Zerg multiply throughout the whole sector by the billions. Literally every day we see entire planets that probably have not a spot that isn’t walked upon by the Zerg.”
“But we all know how the Zerg operate by now, Fabio. They have methods of extending control beyond the single mind.”
“Again, I know this Adviego! But the Overmind was nomadic, and did not stay in one place multiplying the broods so rapidly! He used what he needed and nothing more. This former Confederate is not even an Overmind. It is a former human. In as little as a month it will not possibly be able to control, by any means, the full extent of the broods that will exist by then!”
Just as my thoughts began to stir, the alarm went off. On our radar red dots flung themselves towards the position of my courier vessel…
