Smuggler
by SupMario

Chapter Five

On top of a small hill, a lone figure stood surveying the small
village nestled in the valley below.  He target was somewhere
down there and she would find him easily enough.  She was an
assassin for the same organization that her mother worked for
and had been doing contract assassinations for a year now, ever
since her mother, Zayla, had finished training her.  It had been
a hard three years of grueling exercise, both mental and physical.

Her mother had taught her how to read people's minds which made her
work a lot easier.  She was trained in four types of martial arts
and was a top marksmam with the small blaster she carried on her
hip.  She was 14 and had long red hair cascading down her back
and a lithe, athletic figure.

Carrie was her name and killing people, very special people, was her
game.  She was also a top notch spy that her mother trusted when it
came down to the wire.  Carrie wasn't always a spy and a killer.  She
had once been the lover of a kind and loving man, but she remembered
nothing of this, thanks to her "mother" Zayla who had kidnapped her
3 years before and brainwashed her into becoming her daughter.

Carrie walked down the valley's rim and into the small village humming
tunelessly, walking with a spring in her step.  She loved making these
evil scum pay for their crimes, it was so exhilerating to watch them
beg for mercy and then vaporize them!  Or sometimesm if he hit was in
a dangerous area, she'd drop a death drone into the air and program
it to home in on the target.  The things were so silent, they could
sneak up on the target and WHAM, the end.

The teenager opened her mind and tried to seek out her target.  It was
a older Ralarian female who had murdered fifteen people on her home
world and then dissapeared.  The intergalactic police had been looking
for her for years.  But what's more, one of the people she had killed
had been a top ranking member of the organization and that was why
Carie was here, seeking her out.

When she finally found the woman, she realized that the situation was
more complicated than she was normal.  Usually these types would hide
out and stay rather secluded, hiding from authority.  This woman had
started a new family and had two toddlers nursing at each breast.
She didn't mind killing the guilty, but innocent children?  Even she
couldn't make herself do that.  She decided the best thing to do was
return to base and explain herself to her mother and hope she didn't
get into too much trouble.

She walked back to the secluded spot where she had landed her small
fighter and got into the cockpit.  She made the preperations and then
took off, flying out of the planet's atmosphere and towards her home,
on Travilia 4, where the organization's HQ was.

Her flight was unenventful, and she landed in the large hangar bay,
eager to see her mother after the four months that she had been in
space, doing her job.  The corridors seemed strangely empty to Carrie
as she walked down the twisting passageways that led to her mother's
spacious quarters.  She keyed in the code for the door and slowly walked
in the room.  Her mother was lying on her bed asleep, snoring softly.

Carrie got undressed and slipped into the bed with her mother, and
snuggled up to her and swiftly fell asleep, glad to be getting the rest.

Now long ago, Zayla had realized that to keep Carrie with her, she'd need
a way to keep her from reading her mind, along with all of the rest of the
people who knew the truth about Carrie.  The solution was a small microship
which was surgically planted the into the brain.  This kept the mind free
of telepathic snooping.  Zayla, in the months since Carrie had left, had
developed an inoperable form of brain cancer, which even in their advanced
society, they had no cure for.

The microchip had been taken out in one of the many attempts at treatment,
and so when Carrie awoke, several hours later, she had total access to her
"mother's" mind.

**********

I awoke feeling rested and looked around me, wondering where I was.  I was
in mother's bedroom, and mother was right her with me.  I shook her gently,
but she didn't awaken.  Startled, I reached into her mind, trying to see if
she was alright.  I kew she didn't like me using my abilities around her,
but I was concerned.  What I found was nothing short of astonishing!

She was really my aunt, my mother's twin.  She had kidnapped me three
years ago and brainwashed me.  I couldn't believe it, but I did when I
found the codeword in her mind that unlocked my hidden memories and
suddenly I realized that I hadn't seen Scott in three years!  My god,
I thought deperately, I hope he's okay!

**********

It had been three long years since I'd lost Carrie.  I had tried retiring
for a while, but without Carrie around to keep me interested, I quickly
grew bored and went back to smuggling.  I was good at it and it kept my
mind off other things, like losing the one true love of my life.

I had gotten home from a long run in the Gresious Nebula when there was
a knock on my door.  I opened it and a red and black blur knocked me to
the ground.  It was her.  After three years she just arrives on my
doorstep.  She was crying in my arms and babbling incoherently.  I got up
and carried her over to the sofa, closed the door and went over held her
in my arms for the first time in three long years.  Soon I was crying too,
out of joy.

End of chapter five.