The Ganymede Legacy

by A C Bonesteel

  He tried to convince himself that it was a simple and easy task, but he knew many things could go wrong. He or Alice could die during the attempt, or concerned onlookers or station security could stop him. A bloodied and broken man with bare feet and no shirt carrying an unconscious woman across the Grand Promenade was sure to draw attention. The odds that they would make it to Alice's ship without being stopped were slim indeed.

  Leo looked down at the dead man and realized he could at least alleviate some of the oddness of the situation by taking his shirt. He couldn't help but feel a bit disgusted as he knelt down and awkwardly peeled off the corpse's black shirt and boots, then weakly tried to put them on. It was a difficult task with only one undamaged arm to do the work, and he couldn't help but curse as he realized that the clothes were too small.

  "Fuck!"

  With a painful struggle, he managed to get the shirt on, but the lowest part of his midriff was still left exposed. He tried in vain to get the boots on, but they wouldn't fit.

  Leo was frustrated and quickly tiring, so he tossed the boots aside, then pulled the bloody knife out of his right pocket and roughly cut away the legs of the dead man's black pants. He winced in pain as he tried to tie one of the pant legs around his lower abdomen as a makeshift tourniquet.

  It was difficult with only one arm, and it took him a few attempts before he was able to fasten a simple knot in the pant leg, then pull it tight around himself. He managed it , and was rewarded with a much-lessened stream of blood pouring from his side.

  He intended to do the same for Alice, but before he could begin, the elevator slowed, and he realized that the ride up to the Grand Promenade was about to end. What time was it? If it were late enough, perhaps it wouldn't be too crowded...

  As quickly as he could manage, he struggled to his feet and bent down to pick up Alice. With a slight struggle, he was able to gather her up with one arm and sling her onto his right shoulder. Her blood dripped down on him as he did so, and the fleeting thought that she was probably dead flashed through his mind.

  Then, the elevator stopped, and the double doors opened to reveal the intent faces of four security officers. Their stun pistols were drawn, and they held the look of calculated violence in their eyes.

  Leo looked at them for a millisecond as Alice's voice sounded in his mind. "Don't trust..."

  Leo's reaction time was inhumanly fast. There was only time for the officers' eyes to widen in surprise before Leo exploded out of the elevator and bowled them aside. Then, he took off and sprinted wildly down the Grand Promenade.

  "Stop...NOW!" Leo heard one of the officers yell at him, followed by their slapping footsteps.

  After a few seconds, he heard thr snapping sound of electricity, and Leo felt four barbs penetrate his back. He then felt a sharp electric shock, and a sudden wave of vigorous energy grew allowed him to increase his pace. Just as when the bartender had tried to stun him with the pole-taser, the electric shock did not affect him, besides to give him a giddy burst of energy.

  There were fewer people on the Grand Promenade than Leo had previously seen, but it was unfortunate it wasn't more heavily trafficked, Leo realized. More people would have provided him with more cover and a better chance to escape.

  He wasn't sure how, but by running as fast as he could manage in his condition, he avoided being caught by the officers that pursued him for half the distance between the elevator and Hangar 111. He couldn't bring himself to look back, though he knew they would surely be able to catch him eventually.

  Then, the door to the hangar came into view. It was only fifty meters ahead. The sight of it energized Leo, and he was able to increase his pace just as he felt something grab at the back of his shirt.

  Forty meters now... Thirty... Twenty...

  But then, futile hopelessness began to fill Leo. The doors to the hangar were shut, and there was no way for him to open it. His I.D. implant was fried, and when he waved his hand in front of the hangar door, it would remain closed. He wouldn't be able to hack it, either. He had made it so far, but there was no way for him to get the door open.

  Leo slowed his pace as the reality of the situation took hold of him. He kept his eyes on the door, hoping deeply that perhaps someone else would open it. Maybe a spacer was about to embark on a long night of drinking...

  Leo's fragile hope shattered as he reached the door and it remained closed. He angrily kicked the door in frustration.

  Then, someone tackled him from behind, and he and Alice fell to the ground.

  Chapter 20

  "Wake up."

  "No."

  Annabelle didn't want to wake up. Her head hurt terribly, and she could feel things inside of her. There were bugs under her skin, itching, scratching, and eating away. The agony was too much to bear, and she knew she was about to die. The least the pretty voice could do was leave her to die in peace.

  Then, in an instant, none of it was there. The pain in her head was gone, and the itching inside of her had disappeared. Suddenly, a river of happiness and bliss flowed from within her and filled her body with soft warmth.

  Annabelle giggled as she groggily opened her eyes and stared at the bright white ceiling. It took her a few seconds to realize that she wasn't stuck in a vast, infinite world of white, and not yet dead.

  She blinked her eyes a few times, then leaned forward as a sharp pain stabbed within her stomach. It was dulled by the flow of happiness that was now running through her, but still painful.

  Then, her recent memories began flooding back. The acid... Alice... Idi... Leo...

  As she tried to process the influx of memories and looked around in confusion, she realized she was sitting in the middle of the Council ship's medical bay. The chair... The needle... The pain...

  Panic grew within her as memories of the needle flashed through her mind. She had needed treatment for the acid, so Idi had injected nanites into her brain. The pain, oh god, the pain. If she had known the torment her treatment would bring, she might have decided death was a better way to go.

  "Annabelle!"

  Another wave of happiness and warmth grew inside her. Then, like an electric shock, energy flowed into her, and she felt the compulsive urge to move. She quickly snapped to attention and agilely jumped up from the chair, then searched the room for Alice.

  "Where is Alice?" Annabelle demanded.

  "Alice needs your help. So does Leo. You need to move. Now!"

  Yes, she had to move. Her inner compulsion drove her to rush out of the medical bay into the adjacent passage, then turn left into the ship's storage room.

  She didn't know how she knew, but she knew there was a weapon in the fourth compartment from the right. She instinctually typed in a 4-digit code into the compartment's control panel, then before the door had even finished opening, she reached inside and grabbed the pistol within.

  After briefly inspecting her new weapon to ensure it worked properly, she turned and left the storage compartment, then rushed down the ship's main corridor to the exit hatch of the ship.

  She was happy to see that the exit hatch was already open, and she didn't have to stop moving as she leaped out of it and started sprinting out of the docking bay.

  Annabelle smiled to herself as she ran down the long exit ramp of Bay 3. She didn't have a clear head or even a clear emotion that she was feeling. She didn't feel like herself, but she did feel a compulsion to run faster. She needed to run as fast as she could...

  "Annabelle. Focus."

  Annabelle smiled. She felt great, and she was about to rescue Leo and Alice. Her smile widened as she increased her pace.

  "Alice and Leo are both severely injured and are trying to get back to the ship. They are being pursued by station security staff. They will reach the door to Hangar 111 in fifteen seconds. When I open the door, you will fire your weapon at the station security officers beyond it. Use your tactical implant to ensure accuracy."

  Annabelle felt a slight confusion at the mention of a tactical
implant. She didn't have one that she could remember, but she had been given orders, and she needed to obey them.

  So, she queried the implant. She wasn't even sure what she had mentally instructed it to do, but her vision was suddenly overlayed by a targeting reticle, threat detection system, and life sign detector.

  The door to Hangar 111 stretched into sight before her as she reached the bottom of the exit ramp. She stopped running and stood still when she reached the door, which began to open just as she reached it.

  She felt elated. Pure euphoria came over her as she thought about gunning down the station security officers. She should have felt fear and shame at what she was about to do. She should have been frightened of the consequences, but she wasn't.

  Then, the door opened to reveal the Grand Promenade, and she pointed her pistol at the four security officers who had Leo pinned to the ground a few meters in front of her.

  "What the hell?" one of the officers shouted as he looked up at her.

  Then, with a smile on her face, Annabelle began to fire.

  Chapter 21

  Leo felt the air being smashed out of his lungs as one of the security officers pinned him to the ground and began attempting to shackle his wrists with handcuffs. If he weren't so injured, he would have been able to overpower the men who held him down, but he was too tired and too weak.

  The right side of his face was smashed ruthlessly into the floor, his head pinned there by the strong hands and ample bodyweight of one of the men who held him.

  He could see Alice lying still next to him. He wanted to reach over and feel her pulse to see if she was still alive, but he couldn't. He had done his best, he had given it everything he had, but it hadn't been enough...

  Then, Leo heard the sound of what he thought was the Hangar door opening. It was a smooth, sliding hiss, barely perceptible above the grunts and roughly spoken commands of the security officers. He wanted to turn his head to the right to see if the door was opening, but was met with increased pressure and resistance from the weight that held him down.

  He felt the hot breath of one of the security officers flow in a steady rhythm on the skin of his left cheek.

  "Don't die just yet, you rat," a cruel voice whispered inches from his left ear. "Thrall wants you alive when he eats you..."

  Leo didn't have the energy to be disgusted or frightened. Alice was dead, and so was he. His near-escape had been just another facet of Thrall's cruel torture.

  "What the hell?" Someone shouted next to him.

  But then, the voice was cut off, and he felt a redoubling of the weight upon him. In spite of the increased burden on his back, there was a change in its nature. The hands that had firmly held him in place had suddenly gone limp.

  Leo gathered his remaining strength and wormed his way out from under the limp bodies. As he extracted himself from the mass of humanity, he looked to the right.

  Like a mythical goddess, Annabelle was standing there. She smiled at him as she quickly and purposefully walked toward him.

  "Annabelle? How?" Leo gasped.

  "No time, handsome. Get up," she replied with a tiny laugh.

  Why Annabelle would laugh in such a situation was beyond Leo's understanding. That was just her, he supposed, and he couldn't deny that the laugh and her smiling face lit a spark of energy within him.

  Leo tried to stand but found that he didn't have the strength. He looked down and saw that the makeshift tourniquet he had fastened around the massive wound to his torso had been dislodged and his legs were entirely coated in his blood.

  "I can't get up. I'm too weak. Use a stun pistol. Shoot me. I need energy... Please."

  He expected her to doubt his request or ask for an explanation. Instead, she immediately ducked down, grabbed one of the stun pistols off of a fallen security officer, and fired an electrified barb into his chest.

  Leo felt the electricity radiating out from the barb, and a surge of energy sparked within him. He focused on the energy, its harmonic buzz, and the beautiful frequency it rang within him. Then, with a heaving effort, he used his right arm to push himself to his knees and clumsily stood up.

  As he stood, he saw Annabelle move swiftly to Alice's side. She then squatted down and easily hoisted Alice onto her shoulders. Leo was surprised at her showing of strength, but it didn't matter. They had to get to Alice's ship.

  "HEY! STOP NOW!" a voice shouted from farther down the Grand Promenade.

  Leo turned and saw at least twelve more security officers running toward them, and they held rifles in their arms instead of pistols.

  "Uh, Leo?" Annabelle asked as she also took notice of them. "Move your ass?"

  Then, Annabelle took off running through the door to Hangar 111, easily bearing Alice's weight and moving much quicker than Leo expected. He followed as quickly as he could, but could only manage a hobbled jog.

  Annabelle quickly outpaced him and began to leave him behind as she ran up the ramp to Bay 3. He watched her pass out of sight and felt a pang of fear. If he couldn't make it, would she come back for him?

  Yes, he decided. Annabelle would. And so, he awkwardly followed, giving an occasional look back to see how much ground the security team had gained.

  He repeatedly steeled himself and mustered his strength as he made his way up the ramp. Each awkward stride was a nearly impossible challenge to overcome. His head swam in clouds of exhaustion as he ran. He was sure that each new step would be his last. His body would soon fail, his mind would lose consciousness, and he would fall.

  Regardless of his fears, Leo pressed on, and when Alice's ship came into his view for the first time, adrenaline and excitement spurred him on.

  The last remnants of his strength were called forth from a place of childlike wonder, triggered by the fantastic ship that he was running toward. What a ship! Its pearly hull was undoubtedly the pinnacle of spacefaring technology. The flowing pores in the body of the vessel distinguished it as near-lightspeed capable. It was amazing to behold.

  Leo was only twenty meters from the ship when he looked back and saw that the security team was about to catch him. They were only thirty meters behind, and they had their rifles raised and were preparing to fire.

  With a panicked grunt, he kept moving, but as he reached the entry hatch of Alice's ship, he stumbled, lost his footing and fell roughly to the ground. He landed directly on his broken shoulder, and it shot yet more pain through him.

  The zip of magnetically fired projectiles shredding through the air rang out, and Leo felt two bullets pierce into his right thigh and one tear through his neck. Strangely, they didn't even cause Leo pain, and he was only aware of them because of the sensation of his tearing flesh.

  Leo looked up through the entry hatch of the ship and saw Annabelle step out into the open with her pistol held up in a firing position. A hail of zipping projectiles was unleashed upon her as she stepped out. Three bullets struck her in her leg and torso, but they ricocheted harmlessly off of her and she didn't even flinch. Instead, she smiled happily and fired her weapon twelve times in rapid succession. Then, Leo turned and saw the twelve members of the security team crumple into a clumsy heap.

  Leo was amazed. Using a pistol at that range and hitting every target was quite a feat.

  Suddenly, Leo felt Annabelle's small hands grab him and begin to drag him into Alice's ship. He stared upward and felt slight relief when his view of Hangar 111's distant ceiling transitioned into that of the pearly white ceiling of the ship.

  The hatch to the ship closed, seemingly of its own accord, immediately after Leo crossed the threshold. Then, Annabelle quickly pulled him down a short corridor to a small white room.

  Alice was there, and that made Leo breathe a sigh of relief. She sat upon a lone chair in the middle of the room. At least seven robotic arms zipped this way and that, injecting various things into Alice and efficiently working on her injuries.

  Leo looked up at Annabelle. Her eyes were closed, and he could see her lips slightly mo
ving as if she was talking to herself.

  "Annabelle..." Leo moaned, but before he could complete his question, three of the robotic arms turned their attention to him. They flew over to him, and one immediately injected him with something in his carotid artery. Bliss quickly overtook him as his pain rapidly disappeared.

  With something akin to awe, he looked down as the other two robotic arms began to repair his body. They tended to the wound on his left side first, quickly filling the massive bloody hole with a silvery liquid substance. He could feel the substance bonding with his tissue. It was like an intense itching sensation, but oddly pleasurable. Then, the third arm appeared to inject him a second time.

  He didn't feel the needle puncture his skin, but whatever the needle delivered caused his strength to rise.

  Then, Annabelle's eyes opened, and she smiled warmly at him. "How the hell are you still alive, Leo? They messed you up something fierce. You weighed, what, about ninety kilos? I bet you lost about three... Guess I should be glad they left me any of you at all..."

  Leo managed a weak smile. "I'll be okay... Is Alice okay?"

  Annabelle turned her eyes to Alice, who still sat unconscious on the chair. "Idi doesn't know yet..."

  Leo looked up at Annabelle in amazement. How had she gotten there? How had she carried Alice so easily? How had she taken down all the security officers with such accuracy?

  "How..." Leo began to ask, but Annabelle cut him off.

  "No time to explain. We'll have plenty of time to talk about things later. We're not staying here. Idi is gonna fly us out of here and will probably have to blow a hole in the station. The lockdown is still in place, you know..."