The Ganymede Legacy

by A C Bonesteel

  The person on top of her couldn't be Thrall, she realized, right before a small but strong fist smashed into her jaw.

  Pain sang in her mouth, and she instinctually thrust her hips powerfully into the air. She felt her right foot collide with something, and somewhere above her, a whiny whimper of pain sounded.

  Then, a loud, sickening crunch echoed through the room.

  "You like that, you sick fuck?!" Leo roared as Thrall shrieked wildly, and the sounds of their frenzied thrashing overtook their voices.

  Alice listened and knew that her attacker was neither Leo nor Thrall. Was it Sullivan?

  Then, small, but firm hands seized Alice by her shoulders and pinned her to the ground. Alice instinctually jabbed outward with her right hand, targeting where she thought her attacker's throat would be. The strike landed, and Alice felt her fist pound into soft, warm flesh.

  After the strike landed, a high-pitched voice gave a pained grunt close to Alice's face. Hot, stinky breath washed over her as she felt the pressure on her shoulders relax. She immediately pressed her advantage by turning her lower body, pressing her feet against the wall, and spinning herself out from underneath the body on top of her.

  As she felt the hands of her attacker release her, Alice pressed her hand against the wall to guide her movements and quickly climbed to her feet. When she rose, she heard a terrifying noise of fury and pain. Then, a heaving grunt echoed through the pitch-black room, followed by a frenzied scream.

  Alice heard a quickly moving whoosh to her right and knew someone was coming for her. She judged where her attacker was based on the sound and lunged out with a stabbing front-kick. Her kick didn't land, however. Instead, she felt strong hands grab hold of her boot, and then she fell to the ground as her other leg was swept out from underneath her.

  Alice rolled to her left in an attempt to evade any blow that might be coming her way, but she was stopped in the middle of her movement when she collided with one of the dead bodies on the floor. The unexpected obstacle surprised her, and she paused.

  Only a second passed, but then, she felt something cold and sharp crash down into the middle of her back. She felt her flesh and bone being torn apart as cold steel cut through her spine.

  A mix of excruciating pain and numbness shot through her, and panic began to overcome her. She screamed wildly as the realization that she had just suffered a severe, possibly life-threatening injury settled into her mind. Was she about to die? Was the next blow about to land?

  Alice's survival instinct took hold, and she attempted to reach back and extract the blade from where it was buried in her. As she reached back, she felt a whoosh of air blow over, followed by the jab of what might have been someone's boot into her side. She kept reaching for the knife, but something slapped her hand away. Then, she felt a horrific and disturbing sucking sensation as the cold metal was pulled from her back.

  Alice knew she was about to lose consciousness, but she was still there, she could still do something. She wasn't dead yet...

  But the pain was consuming her... Was there anything left in her but pain?

  Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt the sensation of something grazing her neck, then she heard more violent grunting and shrieking above her.

  Silence overtook the violence for the briefest of moments, then Alice heard the unmistakable squishing sound of a knife slicing into flesh, followed by a high-pitched, animal-like howl.

  A second passed, and she heard another soft, squishy thump. After the second blow, there was silence except a very quiet gurgling, and a soft, high-pitched moan.

  The disturbing noises continued for a while, but she couldn't comprehend how long it was. Eventually, like the sound was slowly being carried away down a long tunnel, the moan lowered with a subtle diminuendo and finally ceased.

  Then, a soft rustling issued from near Alice's feet. She instinctually tried to strike out with her feet, but she couldn't feel her legs.

  Alice had no idea what was happening, but she knew she would die if she didn't get help, so she tried to crawl where she thought the exit to the room of death and violence might be. She couldn't move her legs, though, and only managed a few inches before she gave up the effort.

  The knife had cut through her spine. She had felt it. She could feel the warm pool of her blood spreading underneath her. She could feel her consciousness leaving her. She had no idea how much blood she had lost, but she felt weak, and already, sleep was calling her name.

  Alice struggled to remain awake as the dark bliss of unconsciousness called her, but she was held in the present for a bit longer when she heard a glorious sound. With a soft clunking hiss, dim yellow light flooded the room, and Alice could finally see.

  She looked to her left and saw Thrall's bloody, beaten, but still leering face just inches from her own. The sight frightened her, and she recoiled away from him, but he made no move towards her. There was a little bit of life left in his eyes, though, and his leer turned into a bright, excited smile that matched the bloody, dripping smile of his slit throat as she looked at him. With nearly imperceptible movements, he pursed his lips as if to blow her a kiss, then extended his tongue and slowly swayed it back and forth.

  Alice turned away from Thrall when she suddenly felt herself being pulled across the floor. When she looked up and behind, she saw Leo holding onto her left foot as he dragged her across the floor, towards the open door.

  He was now wearing the black pants of one of the Osiris security officers, but no shirt or shoes. She could see blood dripping from numerous wounds across his face, arms, and chest. One wound on his right side looked particularly severe. Dark blood oozed from it and ran down his leg in a smooth flow.

  "It's gonna be okay..." Leo whispered as he dragged her along on her belly and wildly looked around the room. Alice could sense frail hope, as much as confidence in his weak voice.

  "Here, c'mon up..." he gently encouraged as they reached the door. Then, he bent down and slowly rolled her onto her back. A numb, dull sort of pain shot through her as the pressure of her body briefly rested on her wound.

  "Leo, my back..." she moaned as she looked up into his eyes.

  "I know... It's bad, but it'll be okay..." he whispered back.

  Leo slowly pushed his arms underneath her, then gently lifted her off the ground. He bore her weight effortlessly as he stood back up, then turned and walked out of the hellish room of pain and death.

  Just as they left, Alice caught sight of a woman. She was lying on the floor, and a knife was buried in the center of her chest. She held a look of stunned disbelief on her pale, lifeless face.

  Alice would have been shocked if she wasn't so drained. Instead, all that flashed through her mind was light curiosity when she recognized the woman as Justine Orem, Maintenance Technician, Second Class. The dead woman was the same female maintenance worker she had mistakenly struck in the elbow as she had started on her mission to rescue Leo.

  A wave of intensifying pain and nausea spread through Alice's stomach as Leo began to jog.

  "My ship...medical..." Alice gasped.

  Leo chanced a glance down at her before returning his eyes to the corridor.

  "Hangar one... Eleven... B-b-bay... Three..." Alice further explained as her vision slowly fell into darkness.

  As the darkness shadowed Leo's face, he swam out of view. But then, a strong, clear, and essential thought suddenly came into her mind.

  "D-d-d-don't... T-trust... Staff... Station... C-c-compri..."

  Then, darkness took her, and she fell into oblivion.

  Chapter 19

  Adrenaline coursed through Leo, and his ears pounded with the rapid beating of his heart as he increased his pace.

  He held Alice's limp body in his arms, which burned from the exertion. He was careful to bear her weight with his left hand directly upon the wound in her back. He hoped that the pressure would be enough to keep her from bleeding out.

  Alice's warning had shaken him. He was sure
she had tried to tell him that the station staff were compromised. There had been the woman in Thrall's base, the one who had stabbed Alice. She had been wearing a maintenance worker uniform. Had Thrall only compromised the maintenance workers, or were there others in other departments?

  Leo had no idea, but he had a hard time trusting people anyway, and Alice's warning only solidified that prejudice. He couldn't trust any of the station staff, and he couldn't take Alice to one of the station's medical facilities.

  Leo took ragged and deep breaths as he turned right down the dimly lit maintenance corridor numbered 3-1-E. His steps echoed off the rounded walls with a quick, steady cadence. The patter of his footsteps, combined with his rough breathing made for an ominous soundtrack to his escape.

  Leo looked down to check on Alice as he continued running. Her face was pale, and he could feel blood running over his hands from the wound on her back. It was a brutal injury, but one that he expected she would be able to survive with the benefit of her operative implants and enhancements. However, the way Alice had reacted before the fight broke out in Thrall's room of death had shown Leo that perhaps she had been sabotaged in some way.

  He hadn't felt anything before the room went dark. There had been no electromagnetic pulse, no gas agent in the air, but Alice had mentioned radiation... If there was a nuclear reactor nearby, it could have interfered with her implants.

  Leo remembered how his implants had been fried and knew it was likely that the same thing had happened to Alice.

  Leo had been blind in that room, like everyone else, but he had long ago realized that his hearing was better than most. Sometimes he would hear strange noises, frequencies no one else could detect, and his excellent hearing had helped him navigate the battle in the darkness. He had taken many small cuts, but nothing life-threatening. Well, there was a bad wound in his side, but he could already feel it healing.

  Same shit, different day, Leo thought grimly, as he turned his thoughts from his and Alice's injuries to the choices he had before him.

  Alice wanted him to take her to her ship. It was in the same hangar that housed his ship. He had run in the direction he thought would take him there the quickest, but he had not yet decided whether he would take Alice to her ship and stay with her, or if he would try to escape without her.

  He could leave her to die, he supposed, but that choice felt profoundly wrong to him. Even without considering the morality of it, he knew that the Origin Council would send another operative after him as they had done so many times before. Alice's death would be pinned on him, and he would be hunted even more intently than he had been before.

  "I'm not going to leave you, Alice..." Leo raggedly declared as he jogged down the corridor. He had made a deal with her, and no matter how much he hated the Council, he wasn't one to break a deal.

  Alice had treated him with respect, fairness, decency, and more important than that; she had been honest with him. She had stared into his eyes, and he had seen no hint of deception within them, and that was something he had rarely experienced in his dealings with people over the years.

  She could have tranquilized him as he sat bound in Thrall's torture chamber. Then, she could have dragged him off into further captivity. That's what he would have expected from any Council operative, but instead, she had freed him. She had trusted him not to kill her, even though he had every reason to. She had turned her back on him, even though he had murdered many operatives in the past.

  Yes, there was something different about Alice, he thought. When he had looked into her eyes, he had been captivated by what he saw there. Unspeakable pain and guilt consumed her, and it was the same type of pain and guilt that Leo felt every moment of every day. When he had looked into her eyes, it was as if he was looking into his own.

  She could be lying, he supposed. She could be an exceptional liar, but he had gambled his life on worse bets than Alice.

  After running for what seemed a much longer time than it surely was, Leo neared a service elevator that would take him up to the Grand Promenade. Its sizeable rectangular door appeared on the left side of the corridor without warning, and he nearly ran past it as his distracted thoughts raced in his mind.

  Leo stopped and stared at the elevator door, and at that moment, he decided to dispense with any further thoughts of leaving Alice. He was sick and tired of killing. Whether Alice was lying or not, saving her was the right thing to do.

  Leo looked down at the control panel next to the elevator door. He quickly set Alice down on the floor and studied the panel, then touched it gently with his right index finger. It immediately flashed red and displayed: "Access Denied. Code 141."

  "Fuck!" Leo shouted as he realized his plight.

  Authorized maintenance workers would have an implant to interface with the the door, but he didn't. Any other time, he would have hacked the panel and opened the door almost instantaneously, but his hacking implant was fried.

  He quickly tried to think about other ways he could get Alice to her ship but was suddenly interrupted as shouting voices echoed down the corridor.

  Pursuers? Maintenance workers? His mind raced as he listened intently. A moment later, from much closer, but still beyond the slight curve of the corridor, a loud voice rang out.

  "Faster, you idiot! They went this way. We have to be gaining on them. RUN FASTER!"

  Pursuers, Leo grimly realized. Were they as bad as Thrall? Did they torture and murder for pleasure, or were they just being paid to do a job? Did they deserve to die?

  Then, they came into view. They were fifty meters down the corridor, sprinting, and yelling in irritation. There were two of them. One was a large, muscular man, and he was followed by another who was short and slim.

  Anger rose in Leo as he immediately recognized the larger man as one of the four who had ambushed him outside of Club 111.

  With a silent roar within, he broke from his crouch and sprinted towards them while extracting Thrall's knife from his pocket.

  When the duo saw him, they suddenly halted. As they stopped, the larger man lost his footing and fell to the ground.

  Leo covered the distance between himself and the pursuers in a flash, but the smaller man still had time to draw a pistol and fire at Leo. Just as he hurdled over the fallen larger man, he felt a bullet tear through his left shoulder and break the bone in his upper arm.

  Leo grunted in pain, but he still held Thrall's knife in his other hand and completed his majestic fault by crashing down into the small man just he fired a second shot. Leo felt the bullet fly inches from his right ear as he stabbed the knife furiously downward into the little man's neck.

  Leo's left arm dangled uselessly at his side as he stared the small man directly in his eyes. He expected the person he was killing to scream, but instead, the little man was utterly silent as he unsuccessfully tried to raise his weapon to fire at Leo again, then dropped the gun and fell to the floor.

  Leo quickly extracted the knife from the small man's neck, then turned and was greeted by the quiet zip of a mag-pistol. The larger man had risen and was standing feet from him with his pistol raised, and he grinned as a searing pain tore through Leo's abdomen.

  Leo didn't even glance down. Instead, he instantly cocked his arm back and heaved the knife directly at the large man's head. The man fired again and his second shot ricocheted off the floor inches from where Leo was standing.

  There were no more shots, however. Leo watched as the knife spun through the air and found its home in the large man's left eye socket. With a soft squish, the knife penetrated the large man's eye, and it didn't stop until the hilt met his orbital bone.

  The blow didn't kill the man instantly, but he did fall to his knees, drop the gun, and make a clumsy attempt to remove the knife from his eye before speaking a few weak words.

  "Damn... Nice..."

  On his third clumsy attempt, the large man managed to grab the hilt of the knife and pull it out of his eye. But as he did so, he fell forward to the ground
and didn't move again.

  Leo gave a cautious glance back to the warm corpse of the smaller man, then cautiously touched the wound in his side. He winced as his fingers found a large, hot, bloody hole.

  Leo looked down at his side as the shock at the severity of the injury finally hit him. Three square inches of his lower left abdomen had been blown away by the second bullet. Blood spurted profusely from the wound, and he was sure his left kidney had been wholly blown away ,along with a section of his lower intestine.

  "Fuck!" Leo screamed as his heart began to race, and a deep wave of fatigue swept over him.

  He could heal quickly, but he wasn't invincible. The wound in his side was one of the worst he had ever suffered, and he had no idea if it would kill him.

  "Well, standing here ain't gonna fix anything..." he reminded himself.

  The sound of his voice brought him back to his senses, and he decided to ignore his wound. It was painful, yes, and it might kill him, but he still needed to move. He needed to get to Alice's ship.

  With urgency, he bent down and hoisted the small dead man up onto his uninjured right shoulder. He couldn't jog back to the elevator entrance, but he was able to make do with a slogging walk. Each slow, awkward step was utter agony, but he eventually made it. Then, he dropped the small dead man on the floor next to Alice, who was still passed out.

  With a sudden burst of concern, Leo reached down and put his finger to her neck and was relieved to find she still had a weak pulse.

  "Not dead yet," he whispered hopefully.

  Then, he grabbed the small dead man and moved his lifeless left arm toward the control panel next to the elevator door. In spite of his gruesome injuries, he managed a weak smile when the control panel flashed blue, and the door opened.

  Leo drug Alice into the elevator then did the same with the corpse before reaching up to the control panel. He selected the Grand Promenade level, and the double doors of the maintenance elevator closed. Then, he felt his weight being pressed against the floor as it shot upwards.

  Leo looked down and saw a small pool of blood dripping onto the floor from his wound. He could feel his strength waning, but he knew they still had a chance. All he needed to do was take Alice out of the elevator, cover a few hundred meters to get to Hangar 111, then carry her up to her ship's medical bay. It was an Origin Council ship. It would have the most advanced medical capabilities in existence. I would save them...