Vengeance
A Story By Lord Vido Alunas
©1999, All rights reserved.
It was nearly 5:00 in the morning and I was on my way to meet my girlfriend. Melina had accompanied her father on his voyage to the Mars Colony where he had something to do with trade or so. I don't really remember. There weren't many people at the railway at this time--only a sleepy human girl and a man with dark clothes who kept staring at me like I was a Vorlon without a protective suit. I looked out the window but I only saw my own reflection: a young Centauri man with a not-long, not-short, nearly black hair-crest, a lean face, and narrow, long eyes. I hoped we would arrive at the right station quickly; I couldn't bear the way that man looked at me any longer.
Two stations later, we arrived. I went through the large hall, trying to remember the directions to the place Melina had told me. It was the third exit which led into a long corridor.
I thought about Melina and looked forward to seeing her again. She always said we had great luck and I thought so too. My sister has been married for 5 years now and she still hates her mate. Melina and I had loved each other from the first moment.
I found her in a room where her father was just talking to three humans, of which two had every dark skin-color. To be undisturbed, we decided to go back into the hall. We should have better stayed at her father's room in the hotel. Suddenly a tall man was standing in front of us. It was the one from the railway.
"Hey, alien-boy. You have a nice little girlfriend. Can I...'borrow' her for a while?"
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Come here, friends," Four other men came out of the shadows and stood around the tall one. "The alien wants to make us think he's an idiot. Or are you trying to make ME think I'm an idiot?!" He was heavily drunken and smelling.
"Please, let us go," muttered Melina.
"What?" One of the other men said, and tried to touch her face.
That was too much! I lost control and tried to strike him. The other four men came over to me and...
...that was the last thing I remember.
When I woke up, I felt like I had been through a long night with bad dreams. I heard voices but I didn't recognise them.
"How do you feel?" I saw the face of a young earthian man in a light green coat hanging over me. I smelled something like disenfectant and realised I was in a hospital. I was not able to answer. Though I had just woken up I was tired. Then I remembered the fight and asked what had happened. A woman helped me to sit up and the doctor explained.
"We found you at the corridor to the hotel. We..."
I interrupted him, "What happened to Melina?"
"Don't be alarmed! She is okay. Everything is okay." Then the doctor told me that we would continue this later and left me alone.
When he came again the next day, I had just woken up. "Okay," he said, "I must tell you something more serious now. The men who beat you up injured you severely. You had a skull fracture. A bone splinter was lodged in your brain. We had to operate on it for three hours. You can count yourself very lucky that you are still alive."
I passed my hand over my head. "You shaved my head?" I had stubble and a large scar on my forehead, but it was nearly healed. An alarming thought came to my mind. "Was I in a coma?"
"Yes, but only for two months."
Only! This human doctor was a comedian! "You will be able to leave the hospital in three days," he said. "There is no reason to keep you here any longer."
I spent the next three days sleeping. When I was packed and ready to leave the doctor came in again. "Mr. Alunas, I know it will be hard but I have one more thing to tell you." I was alarmed by his worried voice and expression. "Your girlfriend. It was too late for her. She was already dead when you were found."
"You told me she was all right!"
"Yes, but you had just woken up and we--well, we did not want to scare you like that. I'm sorry."
As I sat inside the ship home I still couldn't believe it. Melina was dead. Like on my way to Mars I saw my reflection in the window. It wasn't very similar to that one anymore. I was no longer slim, but emaciated. Over my face only a few milimetre-long hair, and the long scar. I had the feeling that for others, I must have looked like a maltreated prisoner.
Back at home, I went straight into my room. I knew I couldn't endure my family at this very moment. When I arrived all my family members tried to say how unbelieveably sad they were and how they could understand how I felt--and while they were saying all these things, they kept staring at my head like my cropped hair was contagious or something.
The next month I was voyaging nearly all the time because I tried to keep away from all places which reminded--or even could remind me--of Melina. Because I had never seen the station I went to Babylon 5. Some friends of mine had told me about it and said it was interesting to see so many people from different races at one place.
There, I rented a room and decided to visit the Zocalo. As if it were destiny, I saw a man standing in a niched between two stands. I didn't need to look twice; I knew him: it was the tall human who had killed my girl and very nearly killed me too. I passed him by; my thoughts were whirling around in my head. I turned around and stood at a stand near the niche, half-hidden by it. The tall man spoke to another human, wearing a kind of uniform and gloves, who surely belonged to the earthian Psi Corps.
The telepath said, "Mr. LeMarche, I know you have a lot of influence on Mars but we really cannot do that. When they find out that I have done that then...I cannot even imagine."
The man, LeMarche, answered, "Think about it! I'll be here for another six days, you know where my room is."
I followed him. At the Zocalo it was easy but it got different in the corridors and I had to stay far behind him . After he had gone to the public restroom, bought a new suit, and pestered a young Minbari woman, he stopped at a door and went in. I passed by.
Back in my room, I tried to make a plan and a few hours later I descended to Babylon 5's underworld. After asking some ill and dirty-looking humans I got somewhere at a man who seemed not very sympathetic to me, but I was sent to him because he would sell me effective poison.
"Um, excuse me," I said. I wasn't used to talking to this kind of people. "I..."
"Come to the point! What do you want from me?"
"I want some fast-working poison. I have..."
"Anything special?"
I thought about it. I wouldn't need anything special. I would get rid of him and disappear from the station. "No. But...it should be painful!"
I was happy to be at a more busy part of the station again. In my room I thought about what to do next. I tried to get some information about Mr. LeMarche and found out that his full name was Etienne LeMarche and that he was a businessman who came originally from Earth and lived at the moment on Mars.
The next day I bought some earthian clothes, slicked my hair back with some gel, and set an appointment with LeMarche. As I sat with him at a table in his room, I had to hold myself back not to choke him. He behaved very nice, made small talk before coming to the point. "Where do you come from?" he asked. I was startled. "Italy?"
"Ah....yes! How did you know that?"
"I recognised the accent. Want something to drink?"
I hoped he wouldn't notice my relief. "Yes. Would be nice. Thank you."
Later, when he went to fetch the papers for the contract, I put some of that white powder I had bought at the underworld in his drink. I delayed the signing of the contract and waited for the poison to take effect.
Finally, LeMarche started having trouble breathing. "What's wrong with you, can I help you?" I said as friendly as he had been the time before.
"What have you done to me?" He wasn't able to move anymore.
"Just poisoned you a little!"
"Why?" He could hardly speak.
"I'll give you three guesses!"
He collapsed to the floor, dead. I left the room, being careful not be be seen. I was a little disappointed he hadn't lived long enough for me to tell him who I was.
I took the next ship to Centauri Prime and decided it would be better to say there for the next few months!
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