by Aer-ki Jyr
“There’s no damage to the exterior of your ship. And aside from the distress signal we received, there was no indication that this rendezvous was unplanned. Your ship held in stellar orbit and allowed this one onboard as far as we can tell. I hate to say it, but unless there was some technical wizardry going on this looks like an inside job.”
Mina’s eyes became lasers as she turned her head and looked up at his helmet, knowing in her gut that he was right but not able to suspect any of her team.
“We’ll find out one way or another,” the commando said, “we just don’t usually get hijackings inside a Star Force system when they know we’ll be all over them. The dumb ones usually try fast hit and runs before they’re caught, but boarding a ship takes so much time there’s no way to pull it off under our noses unless you have backup and a very good plan. Doing it in stellar orbit never happens.”
“Too much maneuvering room,” Mina said, remembering navigational lessons from the maturia.
“Exactly. Even if your hangar door was open you could still run and they wouldn’t be able to dock with this ship on the move. You just sat here and let them come over, and they would have got away with it if it wasn’t for your distress signal. As it was we got here about 2 minutes before it would have been too late. We still would have ran their ship down, but with you as a hostage it would have been a lot harder to deal with. We don’t give up on a mission, no matter how difficult, but whoever sent that signal saved you.”
“Can you put me on your ship?” she asked, almost pleading. “I don’t want to stay here.”
“I need to stay in sight of the door so none of them can slip back onboard their ship, but if you can hop or crawl over there you’re welcome to sit inside.”
“Give me a hand up?” she asked, tears still flowing.
With his stun gun in one hand the commando reached down with his other armored glove and pulled her up by the arm, letting her balance on her good leg for a moment before letting her go. She took a small hop, not touching her bad leg to the floor but sending a spike of pain up through her with the jolt anyway. Mina pushed through it and hopped across the deck all the way near to the exit into space where the Star Force craft was sitting, blocking as much of the blinding sunlight behind it as it could and just to the inside of the warning zone that amounted to a few meters of deck painted with no-go markings to keep people away from the field so they didn’t accidentally fall outside the ship.
Feeling a little leery about getting anywhere near it with her balance being so bad, Mina headed in as straight of a line as she could over to the open personnel ramp, then let herself collapse to the ground so she could crawl up it, keeping her bad leg on top as he pulled herself up the length and over the top bump, finding the bit of Star Force territory to be immediately welcoming and feeling safe.
She curled up there and waited, crying out more tears than she knew she had in her until the reinforcement team arrived and the medtech got to her.
Mina woke to find herself in a Star Force med bay as an armored hand shook her shoulder, snapping her out of the little nap she’d lapsed into.
“Hey, you awake Starchaser?” the commando asked, using her professional nickname.
She blinked her eyes open and saw him standing next to her, still wearing armor but missing the helmet. “Yes.”
“We’ve found some survivors. 3 in total. The rest were killed by the Kripcha.”
Mina coughed, both in relief and horror. Some had survived, but only 3?
“Kripcha?”
“They’re a known fringe unit, more criminal than mercenary. That’s who the Fahmren belonged to.”
“Why?”
“Not sure yet, but there was a fight on the bridge, we think prior to their arrival. Everyone was dead, four to poison and a fifth with a crushed windpipe. We’re guessing that was the rat who betrayed you, and whoever got the distress signal off got him before they finally succumbed to the poison.”
“Who was it?” she asked, sitting up and dragging her numb leg across the bed with her, for it was wrapped up in some kind of healing cradle that was locking her knee joint in place.
“ID matched to Iryna Chordag. No history of bad behavior or links to the Kripcha, but I’d put my money on him. Without any internal security cameras there’s no way to be sure, but we’re having an analysis team go over the ship thoroughly to see if there’s anything else to find.”
“Are you the one that saved me…back on the hangar?”
“Yes I am.”
“Come here please,” she said, motioning him towards her with two fingers.
He stepped closer and sat down on the bed next to her. When he did so she reached out quickly but gently and pulled his head to her, giving him the biggest kiss of her life before transitioning into a stranglehold hug overtop his hard armor and feeling like she never wanted to let go.
“Thank you,” she repeated in a whisper, with more tears flowing.
8
September 16, 2825
Epsilon Eridani System
Optimus
Mina laid out on the wide beach beneath a pair of sunglasses and nothing else, soaking in the sunlight and trying to burn away the nerves she’d had ever since the attack. With most of her team dead and her head a mess, she’d canceled her upcoming concert schedule and disappeared from society, heading to the tiny Australian piece of Star Force that had been quickly transforming into the commercial elite. If you had credits you could probably buy it here, including seclusion, which she desperately needed right now.
The beach she was on was half full of people, but all were guests of the resort facility she was living at indefinitely and none were adoring fans or murdering kidnappers. She’d booked her stay under an alternate identity and even dyed and cut her hair so she wouldn’t be recognized. As it was no one here was interested in anyone else, for everyone had bought their way into the resort to get away from the mass of people out there and didn’t feel like mingling or meddling.
Every day Mina would come to the beach, strip down, and lay out for as many hours as her skin could take without burning trying to make some sense of what’d happened. She was so lucky that one of her team had got that distress signal off, otherwise she would have been dead by now, or maybe worse, and she still couldn’t shake that sense of dread. The brutality of it all, her injuries aside, had stunned her.
They’d killed her people just so they could take her…and for what? Ransom or some perverted pleasure? She didn’t want to think about it but she couldn’t stop herself, making her days at one of the most luxurious resorts in all of the ADZ feel decidedly uncomfortable, but every now and then the sunlight would bake her into a numb drowsiness that would allow her a few minutes of a blissful nap…only to wake up and have the mental simulations resume.
Lots of people had offered her assistance afterwards, but she’d have none of it. Whether they were trying to help or push their own agendas she didn’t know, but she didn’t feel like talking to anyone or doing anything other than wrestling with these thoughts and nerves until she could get a handle on them.
Try as she did, she hadn’t been able to shake them for a month now and was worrying that she might never be able to. Not having a clue what to do, she just kept up her simple routine of coming to the beach, getting nearly burnt, then retreating back into the indoors for more time alone and constantly looking over her shoulder at every bend of the corridors. Mina tried to make herself stop, but she couldn’t help it. Everywhere she went felt like a trap was about to be sprung…save for out here in the open. Being so exposed seemed to negate the danger in some way that she didn’t understand, which was also why she came out here so often. Hiding in plain sight, her subconscious told her.
Today was no different, and when her body had soaked up all the radiation it was going to tolerate she forced herself to roll onto her knees and stand up, grabbing her clothes and pulling on a pair of shorts and shirt before grabbing her towel and sliding her sandy feet in
to a pair of sandals. Forcing herself to look around and see that there was no one following her, she spun a full 180 before walking up the shallow slope until she got to the soft walkways where the sand ended.
From there she headed left and walked a while, not wanting to go inside just yet and following the beach perimeter. Most of this planet was ocean, with only a tiny bit of landmass on its surface and nearly all of it having been given over to Australia centuries ago. There were Star Force cities out in the ocean, some even visible if you looked at the horizon really close on a clear day, but their denizens were banned from the Australian territory and didn’t migrate or mingle here save through proper channels that allowed the Australians to pick and choose who they let in…mainly those with credits to pay their way.
In compensation the Australians had made sure to make their accommodations far more luxurious than what Star Force offered, which was a tall bar to reach, but they achieved it through keeping a low population and giving everyone more room and resources than was standard in Mainline Star Force colonies, enticing people to migrate here and their other territorial possessions to boost their population and power within the ADZ.
This resort and others like it were even higher up the ladder, specializing in luxuries that Star Force never touched. Had she wanted to, she could have rented or purchased a set of quarters that was the size of a starship and had an interior waterpark. Mina didn’t want any part of that nonsense, so she’d taken one of the other options the resort provided…which for her was a small treehouse set inside one of their forested parks far away from everyone else.
There was a tunnel link underground to get to it, but no ground access on site, meaning unless you climbed a tree you couldn’t get up to where she was staying, keeping even the idle forest wanderer away from her, though there were no paths or other treehouses within 500 meters of where she was staying. But she didn’t want to go back there just yet and stagnate. In fact she hated that, for her mind would spin even more and bog her down, so she did the next best thing and kept walking, towel rolled up and pinned under her arm, and just wandered the spacious grounds.
She walked for so long that the sun eventually started to set, and with the rays no longer burning into her skin she worked her way to the northern beach and spread out her towel again as the other guests were leaving. She stripped down and laid out, forgoing the sunglasses and soaking up the slightly cool breeze coming in as she watched the sun start to dip below the horizon.
It felt more dangerous now, but she stayed almost as if to invite trouble. Part of her mind wanted it to happen now if it was going to rather than waiting for it to come later. Mina didn’t know if that was stupid or not, but she really didn’t want to go back to her treehouse so she made herself stay until the sunlight was gone and the stars came out.
Along with those stars were brighter dots on the ocean marking the location of distant cities. Behind her there were more lights breaking through the trees from the surrounding buildings and from the small security lights on the paths. Those were little more than glowing rocks and just enough illumination to see where you were stepping. No broad flood lights to break up the pleasant atmosphere. It was dark and was meant to be dark, but not so much that you’d go stumbling around not able to see where you were going.
Mina relished the change, wondering why she hadn’t done this sooner, but her thoughts wouldn’t settle down. She kept replaying what had happened over and over again, trying to find some mistake she’d made that could have averted all of that…for the last thing she wanted to be was helpless, and if she’d made a mistake that was something she could change, putting her back in control.
But she wasn’t. She’d been caught completely off guard and had only survived through a sheer stroke of luck. Star Force security had saved her, but they hadn’t prevented the attack from happening. For as large and dominant as their grip on the ADZ was, it was obvious that things could happen under their noses that they had no idea about…bringing her back to the fact that she was alone despite being around so many people.
But that exhilarating openness and fear had soured into panic and paranoia. She couldn’t go on like this, but saw no way out. It felt like she couldn’t bear five more minutes of this jumble of emotions and conflicting thoughts in her head, but the clock would tick on and she didn’t die or explode, she just suffered…and in a place where suffering was the last thing that should be happening. The guests here were happy and relaxed, but no matter how luxurious her surroundings were her threat was in her head and she couldn’t shake that no matter where she went.
When a wave of goosebumps hit her toes and traveled all the way up to her head she sat up, realized how cold it had gotten but she refused to put her clothes back on…then on impulse stood up and walked down to the water. She was scared of it, despite the fact that there were energy fields further out keeping the unwanted debris and critters out, but the claustrophobic and vulnerable position she’d be in in the water terrified her...but right now she had to do something, and stupid or not she was going to make herself freak out even more.
She walked into the edge of the gentle waves until it got up over her ankles, then sat down in the water and scooted herself out, arms and legs rigid with fear, and inched her way in deeper and deeper until the waves lapped up and tickled her chin. Mina sat there shaking, and not from the water which was warmer than the chilling air. The coiled fear inside of her was coming to the surface along with the threat the water posed and she kept expecting someone to push her head under and kill her right there.
It didn’t happen, but the fear didn’t diminish. She held herself there and eventually the tears started to flow again…the first time since the day of the attack. With them her walls came down and she felt everything fresh again, this time letting herself internally collapse into a wad of pathetic Human rather than fighting it all. She held her head up so she could breathe, but her will was gone and she just suffered through a few minutes until her arms got so tired of fighting the waves that her head dipped under enough for her to get a mouthful of water.
With that real threat manifesting she surged a little remaining energy and crawled up the slope until the water was only half a foot deep. She stayed there on all fours, head down and continuing to cry as the weight of the galaxy seemed to finally come off her shoulders and she realized just how messed up she really was. Accepting that and the truth that she had been denying the past month, Mina sat back on her submerged feet and looked up at the starry sky wondering why she was here.
Not here as on this planet, but here as in being alive. What was the point of it all? She was helpless, truly helpless. If certain people wanted her dead she couldn’t stop them. If a moon fell down on top of her she couldn’t stop that, or if her food was poisoned. She couldn’t check everything she ate. Every piece of clothing she wore…though there was an easy way to fix that. Every room she slept in, every shower she used, every bottle of water she drank.
Mina just had to admit to herself that she was constantly vulnerable, and there was no right way to do things to make herself safe.
Flipping over and pushing her way back up the shore a bit she laid back in an inch of water and let the waves wash over her as the tears finally stopped, and with them the thoughts as well. Everyone lived and acted like life was scripted and they knew what they were doing, but they didn’t. It was a giant delusion they were playing and clinging to. Pretending they were safe and that things like credits or family mattered most, but that was just a part of the delusion and a way to avoid looking at the harsh reality around them.
Mina didn’t know why she’d been born or what she was supposed to do here. She’d been winging it since day 1. Star Force had never told her why, nor pretended to know, telling her that she was alone as were all of them and that they needed to work together to help each other, with the maturia lessons being knowledge passed on from others that had come before for her benefit, but her path was always hers to figure out and that she
should use what she learned as she saw fit.
Those lessons flashed back in her mind now with an entirely new meaning. There hadn’t been the danger evident back then, confined within a maturia and knowing nothing of the outside world, but now they rang truer than ever. The day she left the maturia and entered society there had been a different vibe, that of the delusions that people lived their lives by and it had crept into her somewhat. There was an apathy to it, a denial that bad things were or could be happening. Star Force had everything under control, and the few situations where something did happen were minor and didn’t affect you.
Well they had just affected her and now her eyes were open. She felt like she didn’t deserve to be rescued, like she should have been taken off her ship and faced whatever it was that was coming her way because she didn’t see it coming and prepare, but now she felt the opposite. Those commandos had saved her and given her another chance, stopping something horrible from happening not by predicting and preventing it, but by reacting and fighting when it did happen.
And therein lay her answer. She couldn’t stop people or things from attacking her, and it was possible that she could end up in a no-win scenario that she couldn’t get out of. All she could do was face what came her way and fight it however she was able, and she wouldn’t know that until it happened.
Mina coughed, feeling an ache in her chest that was more emotional than physical as she seemed to hack out some of the darkness hanging around inside her. She started coughing so bad she had to sit up and turn over face down until she cleared her lungs of whatever it was. When she finished her head felt clearer than clear and she realized she was still live.
Not alive, but live. If everything was a game she had just nearly lost, and it had felt like she had, but she hadn’t. She was still in the game and had been wasting time this entire month. She’d felt like the walking dead but she wasn’t. Never had been. Just a trick of the mind and her messed up emotions.
