by M. D. Cooper
Trevor was still picking through the food on the services table while Jessica walked toward the nearest exit, not slowing as she approached a lightly-armored man and woman standing on either side of the door.
When one, the woman, stepped in front of her, Jessica stopped short, a look of surprise on her face.
“Excuuuse me?” She gave the woman her best entitled whine. “Out of my way.”
“Sorry, we’re under orders to keep you here,” the woman—Kelly according to the name on her armor—replied.
“Do you see a can in here?” Jessica said in her best nasally voice, one that annoyed even her. “I really gotta peeeeee.”
She watched Kelly look at Phoebe, and then her eyes darted to the right, the woman’s Link-tell.
Jessica turned and saw Phoebe nod slowly. She smiled brightly in thanks and turned back to the guard.
“Follow me,” Kelly said, and turned down the hall. Jessica fell in behind her, with the other guard trailing after.
The restrooms weren’t far, and when the guards came in with her, Jessica laughed. “Curious to see if my piss glows too?”
“A bit.” The man laughed as he walked through the entrance. “Is it purple, too?”
The woman elbowed him. “Shut up, Rand.”
With a casual stealth few would expect from a man his size, Trevor slipped into the rest room and grabbed Rand by the head, lifting him bodily.
“Yeah, Rand, shut up. That’s my lady you’re talking about there.”
Trevor threw the guard into the row of stalls while Jessica took advantage of the distraction to deliver a strike to the base of Kelly’s skull. She cried out and spun to face Jessica. “Fucking bitch!”
“Both of those things are often true,” Jessica said with a grin that disappeared as Kelly drew her pulse pistol and fired.
Jessica dove out of the way, only taking a small amount of force from the edge of the pulse wave.
Kelly turned to Trevor and fired a shot at him, which he shrugged off. He rushed the guard and drove a massive fist down on her head, then sunk another into Kelly’s stomach.
She fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes and Trevor bent over her. “Shit, I think I broke her neck.”
“I still read a heartbeat,” Jessica said as she picked up the pulse pistol and waited for Iris to disable its bio-lock.
“Hey Rand, you guys should get your bosses to spring for better armor,” Jessica said as she approached. “Or at least full helmets.”
The man’s eyes widened with fear as Jessica fired a pulse blast into his face.
“These two are going to be looking for a new job tomorrow.” Trevor chuckled. “Well, maybe not tomorrow.”
Jessica eyed the guards’ armor. “No way either of us can fit into that. We’ll just have to walk to the labs like we belong here and hope no one stops to question Retyna Girl and her entourage.”
“Entourage of one, eh?” Trevor chuckled. “You’re gonna have to work on your fan base.”
“You know,” Jessica said as she cracked the door open and peered out into the hall while Trevor stuffed the guard’s rifles into the duffel, “if it wasn’t for this whole pending war between Orion and the Transcend, I could maybe see myself getting into acting. It was kinda fun.”
“Might need to figure out how to undo the glowyness—which would honestly make me kinda sad,” Trevor said as they stepped out into the hall. “Probably not a lot of roles calling for glowing purple women.”
“Good, because I’m starting to feel like a fucking lightbulb,” Jessica said.
“And never was there a sexier light bulb,” Trevor commented.
Jessica laughed. “That’s a weak one, Trevor. Light bulbs aren’t known to be sexy to begin with.”
“Hey, they can’t all be winners.”
The Retyna Girl shoot had taken them toward the end of the station’s second shift and they passed only a few RHY employees as they walked through the corridors.
Those they did pass gave her appreciative looks, and not a few open-mouthed stares. Almost all of them kept to the far side of the corridor as they passed.
Jessica replied.
Jessica said.
Trevor chuckled.
Jessica laughed aloud.
Trevor chuckled.
Jessica punched him in the arm. An action that probably hurt her more than him.
Trevor rubbed his arm, giving her a hurt look. Jessica shook her head in response, gestured at her eyes with two fingers, and then pointed down the hall.
Jessica recognized the area they were walking through. They’d been here the night before. She and Trevor were approaching the labs where she’d seen the automatons managing cultures. If she had to guess the one area in the facility where the dangerous stuff would be handled, Jessica would put her money on the labs where no humans ventured.
However, entering labs where only robots worked was not something on her bucket list, and Jessica kept walking, heading toward the areas where human technicians worked.
Jessica replied with a mental nod and approached the door. She tugged gently, but it was locked. She casually leaned against the wall, and placed her hand on the access panel, feeling the tingle of nano passing through her skin. It felt different, more concentrated, and she realized that Iris must be routing it around the microbe colonies.
Jessica drew the pulse pistol she had taken from Kelly in the restroom and kicked open the door. There were seven people working in the room, and she opened fire on the three to her right, while Trevor hit the targets on the left.
It was nice working with someone for so long. After a while the tactics just came naturally, with no need to discuss who was covering what angle.
Jessica rushed around a table, and checked over the prone figures.
“Clear,” she announced.
Trevor fired another shot at a man on the floor. “All set here.”
“So,” Jessica said. “They apparently don’t have cameras in bathrooms, but they probably do in here. I bet we have thirty seconds.”
LATE ARRIVAL
STELLAR DATE: 09.03.8938 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Hermes Station
REGION: Naga System, Orion Freedom Alliance Space
Nance was securing a load in one of the starboard holds, when Cargo called down.
Nance gestured to the cargo-bot hovering nearby to hold down the security net on the far side of a stack of crates while she locked her corner into the anchors.
Great, I’m sure he’ll be waaaay better than the cargo-bot, Nance thought to herself before responding,
Nance had hooked on two more corners of the safety net when Sabrina called out on the shipnet.
She passed Finaeus amidships and called out as she passed. “Secure the last three stacks, then the bot, and sweep the other holds for anything unsecured.”
“Sure thing, Mom,” Finaeus called over his shoulder.
Nance laughed aloud.
She reached the airlock, and paused to watch as the station-side lock slid open on the holodisplay above the main bay’s doors. Misha rushed in and pressed himself against Sabrina’s outer lock as pulse blasts rippled through the air out on the sweep.
With a wave of her hand, she triggered the main bay’s lock to open and Misha fell in. As the door closed once more, a pulse blast slipped through and clipped Misha in the shoulder.
“Shit,” Nance muttered and signaled the station’s portal to close and save Sabrina from taking any more fire.
She sent a command for the station’s lock to close, but the command was rejected. The station-side door remained wide open.
Several figures in mismatched armor appeared on the feeds, four continued to fire pulse blasts, while a fifth set down a case and began pulling out the components for a railgun.
Nance said.
As she worked, Nance glanced at the video feed on her HUD to see Misha reluctantly stripping and allowing the airlock to run its sanitizing cycle.
She reached up to run a hand through her hair and hit the helmet of her hazsuit. Why was she wearing this stupid thing anyway? The nano she had received on the Intrepid offered more protection than any suit.
Old habits die hard, I guess.
She rolled her head, stretching out a kink, and saw th
at the man with the railgun was nearly done assembling it. And now another appeared to be holding a detpack.
Erin said.
The first few rounds from the railgun hit Sabrina’s outer airlock. The ablative plating chipped and dented, but managed to hold.
The station-side airlock flashed a warning light, and a decompression announcement passed over the station’s general net a moment before the doors slammed shut, narrowly avoiding the man with the detpack.
As she spoke, the inner lock opened, and Misha rushed in, hazsuit on, though the seal on his helmet wasn’t aligned properly.
“Shit, you guys gotta go, those asshats have a ship and they’re mad enough to shoot!” he yelled as he ran toward Nance who stepped back.
“Seal your helmet! That station is crawling with Retyna germs!”
“What? Fine, but you have to go!” Misha yelled.
Nance watched the man re-seat the hazsuit’s helmet before approaching him. “Follow me. We’re almost undocked.”
Nance led Misha through the central passageway toward the ladders.
