Taner's Running Game (The Two Moons of Rehnor) Read online

  "What is it?" a girl asked.

  "Is it some kind of bomb?" a guy said.

  We all watched as the thing exploded like a pyrotechnic rocket, and for a moment the sky was lit up with a billion stars.

  "Cool!" everybody gasped.

  "Awesome," Tina exclaimed.

  "Weird," was my response as I got back in the water. When we returned home that night, our skins were burnt to a crisp. We found Mom and the Aunts sitting on the sofa in front of the vid crying as if there had been another attack.

  "What happened now?" Tina asked.

  "Who died this time?" I wondered but was shocked to hear my mother's tearful response.

  "Lydia," she moaned. "Beautiful Princess Lydia is dead, and the baby is dead as he should be, too."

  "What?" I gasped. "You're kidding me, right?"

  "Why would they joke about that, Tan-dork?" Tina asked.

  "How did it happen?" I begged.

  "In child-birth," Aunt Gena wept. "Sometimes it happens even when everything seems to be going right."

  "Except this kid was evil," Aunt Mira added getting up to pace the room. She blew out clouds of cigarette smoke while stopping only to look at the vid. "See! That's what they're saying. He was the son of the Infidel and the Saint didn't want him to be born. Poor Lydia sacrificed her young life to save us all. Frankly, she ought to be made a saint, too."

  "Think what you want," Gena replied while loudly blowing out her nose. "The fact remains that Princess Lydia and the baby are dead. The war will start again. Every thing is going to go back to the way it was. The whole thing is just a tragedy for everyone on the planet."

  I went to my room after that because I didn't want to hear any more. I didn't care so much for the kid or the war that would be starting. I only cared for Lydia who had been my star. Her picture still hung above my bed. As I gazed up at her clear gray eyes and sparkling blonde hair, I tried not to imagine her cold flesh turning to ash in the great glass coffin.

  ****

  The war didn't come as the Karupta King abided by the treaty. Lydia's widowed husband, Prince Sorkan, who might have led such an action was content to live in his Duchy of Segefor, and it was said that rarely he resembled sober. I didn’t really care about him, or any of them as my focus then was to get into college and continue to play ball. My grades were average, but I still had my breakaway speed, so the University of Turko admitted me on a football scholarship. During my first quarter, in a practice scrimmage on the field, a defensive lineman tackled me and knocked me flat on my back. As I came down, I twisted my ankle and the bones snapped right in half which ended my less than glorious career while still a freshman bench warmer. I ended up missing the start of fall quarter as I could barely limp to the bathroom let alone college classes. I dropped out of school and sat around watching game shows on the vid while smoking cigs and eating pretzels with my mom, two aunts and Tina.

  Tina was in high school then but was considering dropping out as she was pregnant by a boyfriend although she wasn't certain which one. She still had all her piercings and had added a bunch of tattoos but a least her hair was back to brown and hung down to nearly her waist.

  "Tina leaving high school," mom sighed, "Taner leaving college. At least we still have the government to take care of us because we can't work."

  "Why can't we work?" Aunt Gena asked while coughing up half her lung.

  "Because we're sick," Aunt Mira informed her. "That's why we all get disability payments."

  "What are we sick with?" Aunt Gena pondered.

  "The depression and malaise," Mira replied which was the same answer to the same question which Gena asked nearly every day. We all sat in front of the vid growing fatter and fatter until one day, Tina went into labor and delivered two twin girls. They were cute if you'd like little red squalling things which I didn't.

  "Are you going to move out now?" I asked when the girls were two weeks old, and I had listened to them scream for nearly the entire time. "You've got double the welfare including your disability. You ought to be able to afford a place of your own."

  "I can't be alone," Tina wept which she did almost all of the time. "I need my mom and aunts to help care for my babies."

  "This noise is driving me insane," I screamed. "I haven't slept in two weeks."

  "Then you are the one who should move. Obviously, you're the one who's got the problem."

  Tina was right. I did have a problem, and it hit me like a ton of bricks as gazed in the bathroom mirror. I was never going to play running back again, even if my ankle was better. My butt was as big as old Butch from my high school days. I could have played linebacker now if I wanted.

  "I'm leaving," I announced to the women on the couch while giving the dog a hug because I would miss her most of all.

  "Bye honey," Mom called. "Will you be home for dinner tonight?"

  "No, I'm leaving forever. I'm going to join the Royal Guard. I need someone to kick my butt so I'll get back into shape."

  "Be careful, Taner," Aunt Gena called.

  "Don't get killed," Aunt Mira said.

  "Can I put my girls in your room?" Tina asked. Without answering, I tossed my bag over my shoulder and walked out of the house where I had spent my entire life. I headed down the street to the bus stop but then decided not to take it. I needed the exercise, so I hoofed it the five miles into town. When I arrived at the recruiters, I was totally soaked in sweat, but I went in any way and threw down my bag.

  "Have a seat, son," the sergeant at the desk said. "What can I do you for?"

  "Sign me up. I'm here to say my oath and pledge my allegiance to the Crown and promise to defend this blessed Sainted country."

  "Do you want to go to space?" he asked while checking off a form.

  "Nope."

  "How about the sea?"

  "Not there either. Would it be possible for me to just stay on the land?"

  "How are you with guns?"

  "Haven't a clue."

  "Would you like to be a medic?"

  "Blood makes me faint."

  "How about a cop? We have an opening in Farku for a military policeman."

  "That's not bad," I thought. "I wouldn't mind wearing a badge, and I always liked mysteries. Could I be a detective?"

  "Sign here," the sergeant said and handed me a pen, so I scrawled my name on the bottom of the page and signed away the next ten years. I headed off to boot camp where I lost all the weight I'd gained plus most of my body fat while growing a bunch of muscles. I emerged twelve weeks later, a mean, lean military police machine and was shipped off to Farku to live on the base there. For the first year or so of my Royal Guard career, I dragged guys out of bars in the middle of the night. I arrested others for petty crimes like stealing pay cards or destroying government property in their drunken brawls. It kept me busy although it wasn't the greatest work because often the guys would take a swipe at me before I got a chance to cuff them. I had my share of black eyes and broken noses and once a guy tripped me and re-broke my ankle. The sergeant assigned me to desk duty until my ankle recovered, which was incredibly boring, until one day, a little old lady came in.

  "You had better get over to the University," the wizened old gal said while pointing her crooked finger at my face. "A couple of your guardsmen are causing a ruckus there, and I'm afraid it's going to turn into a nasty conflagration."

  "What's a conflagration?" I started to fill out the form requesting military police assistance at the University of Farku.

  "It's a fire," she replied, "a deadly destructive blaze. Metaphorically speaking, it's what happens in a riot. Did you not study your Mishnese? How far did you get in school?"

  "Not far enough, I guess, since I've never heard of that word. Who's fighting who?"

  "Your guardsman. They're attacking a young Karupta man. You need to go to his aid and rescue him from those brutes."

  "Let me check the schedule." I pulled up the roster. Everyone was busy as Prince Akan was in town. He was Lydia's
younger brother who was meant to be the next king until the Agreement that spawned the marriage which resulted in the death of the Princess. Akan was touring the Navy Base, not far from our own base, and everyone who could was out there guarding his ass. "There's nobody around, but me," I concluded, "and my ankle's still healing. I can come back to the campus with you, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do anything."

  "You're better than no one, I suppose," little Granny sighed. "Do you at least have a gun?"

  "I can check out a laser." We left in a speeder that was parked out front for our use. "How did you get on base anyway?"

  "Your security is non-existent. I merely walked through the gates and entered your office."

  "So what do you do on campus?" I tried to make conversation as we crossed the afternoon sky, the golden rays of the Rehnorian star reflecting in Granny's stiff white bun.

  "I'm a professor of Mishnese. I teach undergraduate composition and creative writing. The young man in trouble is a freshman in my morning class. He just moved here to study as part of the Karupta exchange student program. He was doing very well. In fact, so far he has earned an A."

  "Good for him" I muttered and lowered the speeder in the square of red bricks that formed a courtyard between the college buildings. "Although, being that he's a Karut, I'm not sure I should help him out."

  "Karut is a vulgarity," she scolded slamming her door. "How would you like to be called a Mishak? You will need to help him irrespective of his race. He is being unfairly attacked by those young men who are in your guards and for the sake of your own conscience and dignity, I implore you to do what is right."

  "What is right?" I asked as I followed her across the campus. "Saving a man whose father may have killed my own?"

  The professor turned to me and shook her little head making a tsking noise as if I was stupid. "I'm sorry about your father, but that doesn't change a thing. Right is right regardless of previous wrongs. It's time you and everyone realized this as some day we shall have a Karupta king."

  "No, we won't." I stopped to catch my breath. "The baby died, and he ain't coming back. I remember Princess Lydia's funeral very well."

  "Isn't," the professor corrected. "If you recall the funeral than I ask you, where was the infant's body? Has it never occurred to you that Lydia was alone in that coffin?"

  "Well, no." My ankle started throbbing as the thought raced across my mind. What would it mean if the baby was still alive and hidden from us all these years?

  "Hurry up," the professor called spryly resuming her trek across the campus. "You're terribly out of shape for a guardsman and awfully dense for a detective."

  "I'm recovering from an injury," I protested as I followed her along the brick path.

  "Did that affect your brain?" I didn't respond as just then, we arrived at a building with a crowd gathered on the steps. On the roof, a young Karupta man was bound in a rope, and two of our guardsmen were threatening to push him over.

  "We have no one to fight," a guardsmen announced to the crowd. "Since the Agreement and Peace Treaty, we have nothing to do."

  "So we're going to start this war again," the other guy declared. "This Karut dude will be the first casualty."

  "Stop!" the professor yelled.

  "Release him!" I shouted. "You're under arrest. Let him go immediately."

  "You want us to drop him, Officer?" one of the guardsmen laughed, and from the tone of his voice, I could tell he had been drinking.

  "Don't drop him. Just pull him back on to the roof. Let him go and then come back to base with me. If you cooperate, I'll put in a good word we'll see if your sentence can be reduced."

  "No way, the other drunken guardsmen replied. "I'm not going to do the brig for the next ten years."

  "You're right. You're going to end up in prison unless you stop this right now."

  "Prison," he scoffed, "for killing a Karut? We used to be awarded medals for doing that kind of thing."

  "Get up there." The professor pushed me into the crowd. "Use your laser and take care of this situation."

  I started to head up the steps to the front door of the building when another man rushed in front of me and shoved me aside. "Hey," I called as I banged into the door, hitting my head on the jam, barely missing my already crooked nose. I was pissed off enough now that I finally got my ass in gear and raced up the rest of the steps to the roof even though my ankle was crying out. I discovered up there that the guy who had beaten me to the top was another Karut armed with a light sword.

  "Whoa!" I cried.

  "Whoa!" the drunken guardsmen echoed.

  "Release the boy now," the Karut yelled, "or you guys are going to get hurt." Fortunately, the guardsmen did as he asked. Even they weren't stupid enough to mess with a Karut wielding a light sword. The Karut boy was saved and I made two arrests, cuffing our drunken guys and hauling them back to my speeder. Before I did though, I warned the Karut to put his light sword away.

  "I may have to arrest you too. Those things are totally illegal."

  "This Karupta gentleman is a professor," my Mishnese professor lady said. "He's an esteemed member of our faculty, and he just saved that young boy. You should be thanking him instead of threatening to put him jail."

  The Karupta professor studied me with eyes so dark they were nearly black, but he smiled a little as he turned off the sword.

  "Taner." I offered him my hand. "Thanks for doing my job. Maybe I can buy you a drink?"

  "Pedah," he replied and scratched his small black beard while gazing at my hand as if it were alive. "Thank you but no, I must return to my lab." Then he and the boy disappeared down the red bricks paths of the campus beneath the canopy of pink cherry blossom trees.

  I shoved the drunken guardsmen into the back of my car and locked the door. About a minute later, one puked all over the other.

  "Great," I exclaimed for I would have to smell this all the way home. I got in the car myself and was about to fly away when the old lady professor rapped her knuckles on my window.

  "Thank you Officer Taner," she said. "You have done a good job. Your efforts will be rewarded at some point in the future." I had no clue what she meant by that and frankly, I didn't care. The only thing I was curious about was what subject Professor Pedah studied.

  "He has a doctorate in mathematics. His specialty is quantum theory. Did you think our Karupta friends were less intelligent than we Mishnese?"

  "Well, I never imagined a Karupta being a professor," I admitted. "I thought they all rode horses and lived in villages in mud huts."

  "They were an advanced society until they came to this planet a thousand years ago. Over time, they inter-married with the native people and devolved to their current state. Intelligence is not measured, Mr. Taner, by the size of your flat panel vid. Neither is it demonstrated by achieving levels in a video game. Rather it is attained through people that respect the laws and treat each other with civility and dignity as they would wish to be treated themselves." I looked in the seat behind me at the guys who were now passed out. The Professor had a point there. We were hardly civilized ourselves.

  "So you think it'll be alright," I asked. "If someday we have a Karupta king? You think he'll treat us fairly even though he's only half Mishnese?"

  "I expect that he would treat us in the same manner that we have treated him."

  "Then I hope wherever they've hidden him, things are going well."

  "Indeed," the Professor said and offered me her tiny hand. "Good luck to you, Mr. Taner. I expect you shall do great things."

  I had no clue why she had that thought. I had never done anything great before. In fact, my whole life was mediocre except for my breakaway speed. I had no reason to believe I would ever be anything special at all. Strangely enough a few weeks later, I received a medal for my efforts at the college. Racing to the roof with an injured ankle to the save the young Karupta man was considered heroic even though the hero wasn't really me. I got a plaque which I sent to my mother for he
r to hang on the wall. I also got a small increase in pay which I sent to my mother, as well. Best of all though was a promotion to Lieutenant which allowed me to train as a detective. I was sent to the city of New Mishnah to attend detective school, and because I was so enthused and enjoyed the courses, for the first time in my life I got good grades. I graduated at the top of my class and so was offered the choicest assignment. A posting had opened at the Royal Palace, and without a moment's hesitation, I moved there.

  ****

  "Hey Taner," Telix said slipping onto the stool beside me. I was sitting at a bar in a strip mall not far from the Palace while keeping my eye on two guardsmen who were sitting in a dark corner booth. It was my first assignment as a Palace detective, and I had been at it for almost a week. I was tracking the guys who were bringing in illegal drugs and selling them to other Royal Guardsmen.

  "Shhh!" I waved at Telix as a blonde approached the targets. She pulled out a packet of white powdery substance and slipped it across the table. Money changed hands, and the powder was pocketed and then the woman sat down for a drink and smoke with the two guys.

  "Those guys are Akan's," Telix whispered as he watched the transaction. "Akan protects them. You'll never get the credit."

  "I don't care about credit," I hissed. "I care about bad dudes in the Royal Guard. I care about getting Horkin off the streets and especially out of our ranks. Are you going to help me out or not?"

  Telix shrugged. "Yeah, I'll help." He took a chug of his beer. "Just be aware, you'll get yourself on Akan's hit list."

  "For doing my job?"

  "For arresting his guys. Listen, Taner. I know you're new here, so you haven't learned all the ropes. Prince Akan and Lord Phylyp are untouchable. The guys in their personal regiment are allowed to break all the rules. It drives Captain Loman insane, but he can't do a damn thing about it."

  "What does the King think of this?"

  Telix shrugged and drained his glass. "King Yokaa lets Akan run wild because he's still consumed with guilt over taking away Akan's inheritance."

  "Don't you think it's strange that even though the baby died, the King hasn't declared Akan as the Crown Prince?"