Rowdy Dead Productions

By David C. Daoust

Craiden awoke with a pounding headache. He’d learned a lot about his mother last night, the least of which was just how much she could drink. Craiden knew his mother had been a star-fighter long before she started her family and moved to Twin Crown, though the stories he heard growing up, were tamer than those he’d heard last night.

He made his way from his small bunk, down the hall to where the kitchen joined with the living quarters on the highest floor of the Crawler. He’d thought of synthesizing coffee, maybe finding something for his head, though smelled the coffee already brewing before he even reached the kitchen.

The idea of royal blood was just ridiculous to Craiden. He had heard rumors in the past that his mother was of royal descent. He never took it seriously. Often times he witnessed her being treated differently by some of the older members of the First Wave. Truly, there were a lot of people that made the claim that they were of Royal descent, though never had he heard his mother claim it herself.

Craiden’s headache was the least of his problems, the persistent cough, that was now just part of his day, rarely let up, and the meds had to be taken every twelve hours. He was not sure how long he was asleep; he must have passed out. Yesterday was a busy day, he spent most of it unpacking drones. This is when his mother pulled him aside for their talk. At the end of which, for his mother’s sake, he decided to call off the raid on Grady.

As he made his way around the corridor, he heard his mother’s voice.

“No, that’s not possible…” her voice came from the kitchen. “I stopped it before the drones were ever launched…

“What?” she asked, Craiden could not tell who she was talking to, and it seemed he could only hear one side of the conversation, “how can that be?”

“I realize you have eyes everywhere…” she started to say, Craiden couldn’t imagine who she was talking to.

“My goodness…”

Craiden watched as his mother stormed from the kitchen just as he entered. He found no one there. Who the heck was she talking to? She was clearly upset as she made her way through the crawler, down into the hold. Craiden decided to follow her, though the smell of coffee was tempting.

It wasn’t till they made it to the hold that he figured out something was up. Much of his family and crew were standing around, cargo bay doors wide open, and where the lifeless drones were set up the night before- nothing but empty crates.

Craiden was startled by this and rushed to his mother’s side.

In the distance he could see the large form of Vincent walking through the sands, heading for Grady’s high walls.  As an industrialized unit, without any safety rings or programming installed, Vincent was not allowed to roam cities and towns.

In all his years of living on Twin Crown, Vincent never once entered Grady in his mining-bot form. There was a chance it could be confiscated by the authorities;He wasn’t street legal. This alone was enough to tip off Craiden, that Vincent knew something Craiden didn’t about what was going on.

Craiden shared a knowing glance with his mother as they both ran back to the hold. Craiden hopped in the driver’s seat of the land speeder parked there in, just to have his mother suddenly push him aside as she jumped in next to him, effectively pushing him into the passenger seat.

Mari’s deft hands had the machine hum to life and roaring out into the sandy wastelands in a matter of seconds as Craiden, coughing up black mucus, tried to figure out what could have happened.

“Well, I understand that…” his mother said aloud, seemingly to no one. “He clearly knows something…

“What?” Craiden asked, suddenly worried he was in a vehicle with a mad woman.

Mari raised her hand, indicating Craiden should not speak so she could hear. Though what it was she was listening to was beyond Craiden.

“Fine,” she said seemingly to the air.

“Those drones are attacking Grady…” Mari suddenly informed her son.

“Who are you talking to?” Craiden asked

“You,” she answered shortly.

“No before…” he gestured to a second ago.

“Right…” Mari said with a strange look on her face, “that’s more complicated…”

“Wait…” Craiden said as she suddenly soared past Vincent. “What about Vincent?”

“We have to get to a Doctor in Grady, to help end the assault.” Mari explained.

“A doctor?”

“Right.” She nodded to Craiden as though that cleared it all up.

“Right?” Craiden didn’t like being in the dark. “How is a doctor going to help?”

“Again more complicated.” Mari said simply, clearly more concerned with how fast she could make the land speeder carry them to Grady’s gates.

“Well I think we got a minute…” Craiden muttered slumping in his seat.