Posted by Lieutenant Commander Daggum Hammor (Chief Operations Officer) in Elsewhere- A Honeymoon

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Elsewhere- A Honeymoon

(snips)

“Not specifically no,” Faye said, joining him in the other chair. Again that weird sense of dissociation appeared again, but she didn’t leave. She was grounded here with him even as her memories drifted elsewhere. There was also a strange sense of foreboding at the mention of the crest, but well, she couldn’t do much about what Kodell’s family might or might not have done over the years.

~Faye

Daggum took her hand in his and he leaned back, his eyes looking far into the past. “We weren’t close… the fighters, that is… at least not often. It was kind of pointless to become friends with somebody you might have had to kill the next day. But I had a friend… and we did become close. I mean, we were kids, so we ached for companionship no matter what. But the fighters were rarely there long… either sold to other groups or cities… or they just didn’t make it long enough. Anyway, Sek and I did become friends… and something of a pair in the Pit as well. They’d put us together and have us face off against bigger animals or groups of other fighters. And we always held our own, he and I. They even put us in cages next to one another for awhile. That lasted… maybe a year? Year and a half? Every couple of weeks they’d trot us out and we’d fight tooth and nail against whatever they threw at us.” Daggum took a deep breath and was silent a for a moment.

Faye remembered about Sek but he had never gone into great detail and it was one of those things like her time here are Ebu Manor that needed to be revealed when the person was good and ready.

“Then one day, Sek was gone. Sold, I heard the Pit Boss say. Rich family wanted a pet fighter, so off he went. I was sad, but it happened… I kinda expected it. Didn’t see Sek for about three months… then one day I step in the Pit and there he is.” Daggum looked at Faye, the smoldering anger he reserved for slavers and others like them in his eyes.

Reaching out, she rested her hand on his briefly, just as a reminder that he was safe with her here. Strange as those words were rolling through her mind right now of all times.

“Seems his new owner wanted to see who was the better of the two of us. So they had arraigned it so we had to fight each other. Now, it was most common for those fights - ones where people had invested lots of cash in the kid fighters- to be to first blood or whoever quit first. But not this time… seems like the bookies wanted to make some fat cash, so Sek’s owners had made it a death match.” and his jaw clenched and gold tears welled up in his eyes before being stifled back down.

“That rock in my bag? That’s what I used to kill my best friend. Caved his skull in from ten meters away. It was the only revenge I could have at the time. I knew Sek wouldn’t kill me, he didn’t have that in him. And if he had, it would have broken him and he wouldn’t have lasted another month. So… I grabbed that rock off the ground and I threw at him right as the gong sounded.” He leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment. “My fastest fight. Over in less than five seconds.” and he was silent for a long moment before opening his eyes and looking at Faye. “That crest? That’s the family who bought Sek. That’s the family that made children kill one another. Your guy Kodell probably has the record of that fight in here somewhere…” Daggum said softly as he looked around the room before looking back at Faye. “And don’t worry. I’m not gonna lose my shit on him.” and he smiled a melancholy smile and then looked around the room. “Might ask him if he knew who in his family did that, though…” he said wistfully.

Daggum

Tears had flooded Faye’s eyes and it took her a minute to catch her breath. She knew that Kodell’s family had been involved in all sorts of activities. Most of them legal here on Orion, but that wasn’t always saying much given she herself had been purchased as a household servant. “It was probably his mother or his uncle,” she said softly, swallowing down the bile. She rose from her seat and slid onto his lap, wrapping her arms around him and curling up against him. There were no more words needed but she just wanted to offer him comfort.

But a moment later a strange feeling moved through her and Faye all but jumped out of his lap. “Come on I’ll show you to the Atrium. It’s pretty cool and he’ll be there soon. Besides, he said there are new bookcases and I really want to see what he has acquired. The man and his contacts have a gift for finding really cool old books.”

~Faye