by Aer-ki Jyr
It was in these transition periods from planet to orbit that she often did a lot of thinking, still with too much adrenaline to sleep and no more requirements to rigidly constrict her mind. She often wondered where she went from here. As a minor star in the ADZ she already had over 4 billion credits to her name and that would easily buy her inclusion in a tier 2 colony of her choosing for infinity or one of the private luxury residences in Australia, but neither of those was really a big deal now. She lived on her jumpship most of the time, traveling from system to system and racking up the credits for herself and her supporting label. The ship was hers, as was her team now, though the label still organized her performances and marketed her music, but they no longer gave her orders.
Not that long ago Mina had worked her ass off to earn her freedom by graduating from the maturia, and now she’d earned her freedom from her label, able to do things entirely her own way and being too valuable as a credit-earning asset to be argued with anymore. She had enough currency to stop singing and do whatever she wanted, which often made her wonder what she was doing this for now. There were bigger names than hers, a lot of them, and the challenge of rising up to that level did appeal to her, but she sensed she wanted more than that.
And it wasn’t a guy. She could have as many guys as she wanted, and that kind of ruined the appeal right there. She might be sexual, but she hadn’t had sex since the maturia and planned to keep it that way. Too many people she’d followed had gone off course once they’d coupled with someone, and her maturia training had made it clear that maintaining one’s individuality was key to achieving self-sufficiency.
That was her primary goal, and anyone who thought otherwise was just plain stupid. But there was something else nagging at her, and though she had a well-defined schedule ahead of her plus next year’s concerts to choreography and a list of other important to-do items, Mina felt like she was treading water and not really headed anywhere. That thought kept nagging her as she soaked in the jacuzzi, with her dipping her head under the water and coming back up into the cooler air with a sense of aloneness.
Her team was just below decks, meters away if she needed them, but it finally dawned on her that they were all here for the job and not her. They were her friends, for sure, but if she stopped singing they’d move on to assist others and that’d be the end of that. Mina was around people constantly, so much so that she’d never really felt alone, but now that her maturia classmates had gone on to do whatever with their lives she’d been so busy with building her career she’d never thought about it.
With trillions upon trillions of people in the ADZ she didn’t matter. If she quit singing and just disappeared a lot of people would be upset, but they’d move on. No one really knew her as a person, just a celebrity, and for the first time she really felt the aloneness…and the fear that came with it. The fear of no safety net and the galaxy being wide open before you. The openness was more intense than her first nude concert and it made her feel truly exposed and alive.
It was scary too, but she wasn’t going to turn away from it. Even though she had people around her constantly, in truth she was alone navigating a sea of strangers and she wasn’t going to let her mind veer from that into the delusions that the masses lived their lives by. Mina clung to the feeling, essentially placing a wedge in her mind to keep that viewpoint open as she sat up, bringing her small but chiseled breasts up above the water line and looking around as the cool air hit her wet flesh.
There was a sound dampener on the doorway so she couldn’t hear anything from the rest of the ship, so aside from the sound of the water and her breathing there was nothing else to hear…which was why she belatedly realized she liked it so much. It was a sanctum away from the hive mind of society…but that hive mind was an illusion that she was now able to see through. Even with people around her she was always alone, and that epiphany was not something she was going to forget.
Mina settled back down into the water as the tiny pinprick of light ahead of them began to grow into the silhouette of her jumpship, but even the sight of it didn’t strike her as ‘home’ anymore. It was a place she stayed and worked out of, traveled on, but her real home was her body. Wherever she went she was home within the confines of her skin.
No wonder she liked disrobing so much. The clothing was essentially a hitchhiker on her journey through life.
She continued to ponder her new insights as the jumpship grew outside the clear canopy. It wasn’t as large as the Star Force models, nor as fast, but the Kefron produced Nightstalker model was more than sufficient to get her from system to system in a timely manner and avoid the hassles of having to book transit on the ADZ grid. It was her private possession, and since Star Force owned all property on planetoids the only way you could get your own bit of turf was by building it in space. Stations required permits and were harder to obtain, but buying a ship and moving about gave you a little island of your own where you could do your own thing.
There were no monitoring devices in the corridors like in the Axius colonies. Star Force might respect a person’s privacy in their own quarters, but public movements and actions were always monitored so they could track down problems after they happened by going back through the exhaustive records…and it worked too, with almost no violations whatsoever in the colony she’d lived in after coming out of the maturia. But there was something about being away from observation and on your own that was appealing to many people, hence the extensive ship building industry outside of the Star Force line.
But now Mina realized that even in the Axius colonies she was still alone. Watched via people and technology, but still alone. It was a very freeing realization that stayed on her mind as the jumpship grew to fill almost the entire forward half of the bubble dome over her jacuzzi and interrupting her bathing in the stars.
Knowing that they had only a minute or so before landing in the bay, Mina stepped out of the tub and walked down to the lower level of the dropship and the exiting ramp, dripping a trail of water all the way through the ship and out onto the jumpship’s bay floor that tracked across to the entry door before resolving itself down to a random drop here and there as her body slowly dried off. While her team dealt with unloading and other measures she headed off into her ship alone, always liking the idea of dripping as she went.
It was messy, but totally clean at the same time. It was just water. It would dry so no harm done, but it did seem to mess with the unspoken rules of society and she liked that, even onboard her own ship where she could set the rules however she liked…except she couldn’t, because her crew brought with them their own expectations and culture and whatever else you wanted to call the hive mind that society operated off of. Mina had always been slightly put off by it, and now even more so as she seemed to finally make the mental disconnect and realize what it really was to be an individual in both mind and body.
She walked through the ship’s corridors to her private quarters, dunking herself in a shower tub for the autowash’s scrubbing cycle that scoured off what grime the concert dunking and jacuzzi had left on her, then she walked into a drying tube that left her with a pine-like scent when she stepped out and into some silky soft pajamas. From there she headed over to the ship’s dining area and the chef whipped up an array of small portioned items that she favored in only a few minutes, giving her an opportunity to get into bed without much delay.
Mina fell asleep quickly, exhausted from this planetary stint and having already cycled the adrenaline out of her system. Dreams would ensue but she wouldn’t remember them when she woke, for she rarely did…not to mention the circumstances of her waking would wash away any lingering memory as sheer panic set in.
7
Mina woke to a loud bang on her door so intense and quick she wasn’t sure why she sat bolt upright in bed, thinking for a moment it was all in her groggy mind’s imagination until the second thud sounded. Then a third and fourth came in quick succession and she scurried out of bed and over to the door
, pressing the button on the wall that slid the panel open into the midst of a scuffle between one of her security guards and a non-human…someone that was definitely not supposed to be on her ship.
She took a step back as they tussled, then the green-skinned biped that stood a good six and a half feet tall got her guard in a headlock and began choking him out with a knee into his back to keep him from wriggling away. Seeing that he was losing, Mina ran out the door and jumped on the pair of them, wrapping her own thin arms around the Fahmren’s neck and feeling its skin plates slice into her skin as she pried it back using her weight and her own knee in its back.
She succeeded in pulling it off her guard, but was pancaked as it fell backwacks and something in her left knee popped under the weight. Unable to move with the Fahmren’s mass on top of her she was pinned and could do nothing, hoping she’d done enough to help the guard get free as she still clung to the attacker’s neck.
The next thing she knew her head slammed into the ground again, knocking her half unconscious. The weight on her chest disappeared and she heard a plasma blast, feeling a trickle of heat wash over her before two more sounded and the Fahmren fell to the floor a meter past her feet...then the guard was standing over her and pulling her to her feet.
“Get back inside,” he ordered, standing over her protectively as she tried to step on her injured leg and yelped from the pain. He grabbed her by the arm and yanked her inside, tossing her on the floor as a red plasma bolt shot down the hallway and they both ducked inside her quarters. He shut and locked them in, then pulled her out of the way so he could have a clear line of fire.
“What’s going on?” she shouted, with the guard’s answer cut off by two huge bangs on the door. Instead he pulled out his stun pistol and pushed it into her hands.
“I hope you remember how to use this. That door isn’t going to last long,” he said, with his prophetic words being followed up with a glow mark popping up about a meter off the ground as it was hit from the outside with a plasma blast, quickly followed by many more as they began to burn their way through into her quarters.
Mina saw that he held some type of rifle she wasn’t familiar with, ostensibly the same one the Fahmren shot in the hall had been carrying. “How many are there?”
“At least three…probably more,” he answered as a small hole was torn in the door and a bit of red leapt across the room and into the far wall, thankfully below the skylight that led directly into space. Melt that and the whole room would depressurize and they’d be dead, though in theory it should be made of material more sturdy than the door. “We’ve been boarded. I don’t know how or why, but we should have jumped out and didn’t. I can’t reach the bridge and barely got to you before that bastard did. The rest of security is down or missing.”
“What do you want me to do?” she asked, wincing against the pain as she held the stinger pistol at the ready. All Humans had a decent amount of combat training in the maturia and she had always been a good shot, but she’d never expected having to put those skills to use onboard her own ship.
“Unless there’s somewhere to hide in here that I don’t know about, we just shoot as many as we can. They’re here for you.”
Mina swallowed hard as a fist-sized chunk of her door blew out. “I can’t walk on this leg.”
The security guard glanced at the door, then decided to make a quick change. “Grab my neck, I’ll swing you over to better cover.”
She did as told, making sure not to tip the barrel of her pistol into his head just in case the trigger got pulled. It wouldn’t kill him if it fired, but the last thing she needed right now was to stun her only protection. In truth he and the other six were here to guard her against rabid fans, but they’d all had far more extensive combat training than her for a situation like this. Mina just didn’t know if he’d be enough on his own and hoped the others were still alive elsewhere in the ship.
Swinging from his neck like a child, he walked her over to the other side of the main room and into a walk-in closet. She grabbed a hold of one of the shelves to steady her, then he left and headed over to another portion of the room and fired a shot back in through the door that was now more holes and smoke than a barrier. The red bolt hit what she didn’t know, for it was out of her line of sight barely, but anyone coming more than two steps into the room would be in her firing line. Holding onto the shelf with her left hand and aiming with her right, she stood ready on one leg to get at least a few shots off.
A sound of sudden cracking preempted her guard’s return shots and then all hell broke loose as two more Fahmren came into view, one falling over as he was shot by her man before he had to duck down on the other side of her bed for cover. She nailed the other one in the left arm, causing it to go numb and the next plasma blast to hit the floor as it suddenly couldn’t aim. Mina fired twice more, knocking it down before her view was obscured by black uniforms and more green flesh as she was hit in the face and her weapon knocked from her grasp.
Mina fell to the floor, her knee exploding again in pain, then suddenly she was spun over and face planted into the carpet as her arms were bound so tight she felt like her wrists were being cut off. A few more plasma blasts sounded then all was quiet, which was a very bad sign.
She was yanked up off the ground by her arms that were now locked behind her back, then she crumpled over again when her leg wouldn’t hold her. Mina yelled in pain, then was picked up and carried over the shoulder of one of her attackers out of her quarters with her able to catch a glimpse of the smoking corpse of her guard on the floor next to the bed.
After that it was a pain-ridden ride through the hallways, with most of her vision being of the floor and the backside of the Fahmren hauling her. They took her down several levels, then when the flooring changed and she recognized they were on the hangar deck she realized with horror that she was being taken off her ship. Not knowing what else to do she began bucking and kicking with her good leg, but all it did was make the thing mad enough that he tossed her down to the ground and grabbed her by the neck, dragging her forward and out of reach of any of her kicks.
She could barely breathe in his grip, but she had to do something. If they were willing to kill her people to get to her then there was no way of knowing what they’d do to her.
The pressure on her neck disappeared a split second before several ‘pings’ filled the air, followed by dozens of plasma blasts crossing over her head. She was laying on her back, hands bundled up between her and the floor as the red and pink crisscrossed over her head for a moment before another Fahmren grabbed her and dragged her over to the doorway of a ship she didn’t recognize…only to get hit in the chest with a pink glob of energy and fall face forward on top of her.
Mina had no vision and had to twist her head to the side to get any air as she was once again pinned down, but she knew there was another firefight going on and those pink blasts weren’t the stinger pistols that her crew carried. She was left there underneath the body of one of her attackers for what felt like an eternity until it was rolled off and she was looking up into the faceplate of a dirty white armored Human that she knew was from Star Force security.
“Relax,” he said through the external mic as he sized her up then turned her over so he could get to her bound hands, “you’re safe now.”
“Thank you,” she said, crying with relief. A moment later her hands were free and she balled up on the ground, cradling her hurt leg and not even trying to stand. “How many…are dead?”
“We’re still searching the ship, but I’m staying here with you and to guard the hangar. Nobody is slipping back out.”
“They killed one of my security team. I don’t know about everyone else,” she said, letting the tears flow freely and not thinking she could stop them if she tried.
“If they’re here we’ll find them,” he said, but the angle of his helmet had his eye line on the surrounding area. “Do you know how they got onboard your ship?”
“I just woke
up…I don’t know anything.”
“Your leg?” the commando asked.
“Something is broke. I can’t put any pressure on it.”
“We’ll get a medtech to you as soon as we can, but right now you’re just going to have to hold on. We’re sitting in stellar orbit and had to get to you in a puddle jumper. We’re just a reaction team and I can’t leave this position to grab a med kit just yet.”
“How many of you are there?” she asked, closing her eyes and wincing against the pain…which just squeezed out more tears that were adding to the puddle on the deck beneath her head.
“Two.”
Mina sucked in a quick breath, suddenly feeling at risk again.
“Relax. They can’t take us down with a few plasma shots. Not in armor. My teammate will clear the rest of the ship and I’ll be here to guard you and make sure nobody gets off until reinforcements arrive. We’ve got a ship headed to our position, ETA about 40 minutes, and no other hostile vessels in sight. We’re good, so just stay where you are and ride this out. They’re not getting to you again.”
“Thank you,” she repeated, but kept her eyes open and scanning as much of the hangar as she could, seeing the ugly transport sitting in her hangar bay next to her own dropships and the small, gleaming Puddle Jumper-class Star Force ship sitting just inside the energy field covering the hatch into space. That hatch should have been closed, making it impossible for anyone to board short of boring a hole in through the hull. How the hell did the attackers get onboard?
“Caught your concert via relay. You’re damn good at those vocal spikes.”
Mina laughed, a mixture of anxious breath and tears being blown out like a grenade explosion. “Thank you,” she said automatically, but it was obvious that she didn’t care about anything right now except her current situation.
“Have there been any threats recently?”
“No, nothing,” she said, trying to think and finding her head still swirling in panic. “Not that they told me.”