by Aline Riva
Tears welled up in his eyes again.
"Look, I know we fooled around with the talk about modifying you but I never wanted to put your life at risk... maybe I should use the cutters and do it right now, get it over with."
"No!" she said in horror, "The fibres could be left behind, Jody needs to do it."
"You're right," Jinx replied, "The zestion's been in place too long for a simple snip to solve it. She'll have to make sure it's properly taken out."
He looked at the alien metal, seeming so alluring under the lights as it shone and weighed heavy, then he leant over her and kissed her cheek.
"I am so sorry I was selfish. I promise you, I'll make this up to you for the rest of my days. I love you, Sin. I want you to be my wife."
Then he reached under the table and she caught her breath, wondering if her secret had been spotted, but as he adjusted the table he leant over her again.
"I've just tilted the table slightly – it might slow the blood flow down there, stop a bit of the pain..."
"Hold me, Rik," she said tearfully, "I'm so scared."
"You don't have to be scared, I'm here," he said warmly.
He leaned closer, wrapping his arms around her as she used one arm to hug him and the other to reach for the Paromycin, as she stabbed the needle into his shoulder and injected he gave a gasp, letting go and staggering back, a look of shock and betrayal in his eyes as he reached for the needle and tugged it from his shoulder.
"What... what...did you do that to me for...?" he said in dismay, swaying on his feet, then he slumped to the floor unconscious.
Sin's first thought was to try and find the others, guessing Harvey and Janey were trying to set the commands in motion to get the ship off the ground. But first she knelt beside Jinx, shaking him gently as she wondered if the preloaded dosage was standard, or maybe a concentrated dose, was it supposed to be mixed with something else? What if she had just overdosed him, what if it was fatal...She had been trying to cure him, not kill him...
"Jinx!" she said, shaking him again.
He turned his head but his eyes stayed closed as he gave a groan.
"Mack..." he murmured, "What time do we leave the terminal...Company won't pay us if the cargo's late..."
Hope shone in her eyes as she realised he was rambling about a time long before the crash that had changed his life and taken his sanity.
"I'll come back for you!" she said, "It's okay now, Jinx...You're okay!"
Then she got up and hurried from the room, heading for main control.
Behind the door of the control room, Harvey had isolated commands to set the flight in motion and was trying to find co ordinates for a return flight to earth. He scrolled through the commands, then scrolled back again, hitting the manual option and subsection three, listed as auto system failure – manual over ride.
"I think I've got it," he said, then as Sin thumped on the door and called out, Janey rushed over, hit the button and the door slid back. Sin ran in and Janey closed the door behind her.
They both stared at the sight of her in the sheer gown, neither wanted to notice the alien metal she had been pierced with and both avoided staring through the sheer fabric.
"Are you okay?" Harvey said.
"Fine," she replied, "We need to get this ship in the air...listen, I don't care what you say, he's harmless now and he's coming with us."
"Who is?" Janey demanded.
"Jinx. I gave him a mind wipe. He thinks he's back in the days of ferrying cargo with Mack. Kill the cause of the madness, wipe it out. It was simple."
"I don't want him on board!" Harvey said sharply.
"I'm not leaving without him!" she replied, "And we need to stay quiet about this place when we get back – I've cured that man and I'd stake my reputation on it, too!"
"You really wiped his mind?"
"Mad is different to bad, Janey. I should know, I've treated enough patients over the years. Do you really think I'd save a murdering bastard beyond redemption? He was a victim. They all were, the ship crashed, they starved, it was months before they were rescued. They ate the dead, bonded too closely with each other...lost their minds. They can't come back from this. But Rik gets a second chance. I've proved the Paromycin works. He's got something like five years of his life he can't account for, maybe more. He will never remember. If necessary, I'll shoot him full of more of it if I have to."
Harvey and Janey exchanged a glance.
"I rather fancy him handing the paperwork to me," Harvey said, "Ownership of the Galaxy Princess. That's a fair exchange for his life."
"Do what you like," Sin replied, "When we get back to earth, he's coming with me. He's a threat to no one."
"Are you sure about that?" Janey asked, "I mean, what if he's always been crazy but the crash just brought it out in him? What if him and Mack had been flying around the galaxy for years before the disaster, going on just as they do now?"
"It's not like that," Sin replied, "It was the crash that triggered him and then the rest of them! They covered up what happened for fear of prosecution. By then they had all gone too far – getting their hands on a private planet made it worse, it reinforced everything they'd taken on as the new normal. I know what I'm talking about, please trust my ability to do my job even if you don't trust my motivation!"
Harvey and Janey exchanged a glance.
"I do trust her," Janey said.
Harvey looked to Sin and nodded in agreement as he silently hoped she was right, then he turned back to the controls.
"I'm about to start the first manual chain command," he said, dropping the subject of the former lunatic who was now along for the ride, "I just have to key in some data to start the process..."
He looked from the instruction screen to the key pad.
"This could take a while..." he added, as the ship emitted a low hum as the first of the main power lines fired up.
Jinx felt the shudder run through the ship as he lay on the floor and it woke him sharply. He got up, rubbed at his aching shoulder and then went out to the walkway and headed for the control room. As he walked, he rubbed his shoulder again, then he paused a short distance from the door and called out.
"Where am I? Mack, are you in there?"
The door stayed closed. He stepped closer.
"Mack..." he said, his voice raising in panic, "Where I am I? What's happening? I'm scared! Mack, let me in!"
"Jinx," called Sin, her voice faint through the heavy door, "Just go and find a seat and strap yourself in. I know this seems strange and you can't remember but I'll explain to you later...I'll tell you everything... please trust me, I love you."
"But I don't even know you!" he exclaimed.
"Just do it, Jinx. Everything will be okay. Please trust me."
"Okay, I'll trust you... I feel so confused... Is Mack okay?"
"Mack is fine. Just get strapped in."
He hesitated.
"Jinx?" Sin sounded worried, "I said, strap in, we're initiating take off."
"Okay, I'll do that!" he called back.
Then he stepped away from the door as he dropped the act, a smirk coming to his face as malice glittered in his eyes and he looked upward, addressing the audio system linked to his voice pattern.
"Cancel flight sequence, power down weaponry but isolate..." he paused to draw his gun, "Hand blaster serial number A2213... code 3341. Open outer hatch, code 702, Send audio signal code alert, 00897, and open those doors to the main control room with gears grinding...I fancy some sparks, code 22 - l1K. Got to make a good entrance! Execution of orders, Command code Ritchie Gregory Mason Jinx, Captain, 101024771 – Alpha!" he smiled a dazzling smile.
The lights flickered in the corridor as the outer hatch opened up, then a siren wailed out above the ship, calling the attention of Mack and Jody who had been searching nearby woodland. The hum that had been increasing ceased, as the launch code was cancelled around the same time every weapon on the ship went dead, save for the blaster carried by
Jinx. He stood waiting for the doors to open, then they crashed back with a groan and inside the lights flickered on and off, stuttering as the interference with the door programming caused a temporary short.
As sparks flew from the open doorway and he stood there in shadow as the lights stuttered, Jinx took a sweeping bow, and there was a look of smug satisfaction on his face as the lights came on and stayed on and Harvey, Sin and Janey stood at the locked controls, their faces pale and their weapons dead, looking back at him in horror.
As Jody and Mack ran up the walkway to join him, the siren stopped.
"What are you trying to do?" Jinx said with an expression of exaggerated shock, as his eyes widened and he looked about the room, "Oh no, please don't steal my ship!"
He reached into his pocket and held up the empty syringe.
"Nice try, Sin," he said, "But I saw the needles, I saw the labels, I swapped them around. You shot me full of the antidote not the memory wipe. A side effect of the antidote is pin sharp memory, thanks for that – I remembered every code I needed in seconds!"
Then he raised the blaster and fired off three shots, hitting the terrified prisoners in a blur of fire power and they slumped stunned to the floor.
Mack and Jody were breathless as they joined him.
"You've got them!" Jody said in surprise.
Jinx turned back to her and Mack.
"Sin tried to wipe my mind. She got me with the antidote instead. I rattled off codes like a pro, had the ship back in under a minute. You should have seen it..."
Then his eyes darkened with anger as he looked to the three prisoners, his rage was rising as he thought of Sin and her betrayal...
"Want to kill them?" Mack asked.
"No," Jinx replied darkly, "Not yet. I've got a much better idea..."
Chapter 9
The birds were singing in the treetops. The sun was high in the sky and burning down and the view of the green field and the tree line nearby, with the ship far off and the house a blur in the distance, was her first sight as Sin opened her eyes. She was on her knees and her arms were raised above her head, her shoulders ached and her hands were turning numb. She looked up and saw her hands were tied to the top of the cage, this was a smaller cage, there was less room to move and the door was right in front of her, locked.
She turned her head and saw a larger cage at a distance away, Harvey and Janey were inside, their hands cuffed. Neither seemed harmed. That fact worried her, why had Jinx not harmed them? If the gun had been set to stun that could only mean one thing – that worse was to come, because he wouldn't have put them unharmed back in the cages for the fun of it, he wasn't having fun unless there was death or torture happening, something he would strongly desire now, after they had tried to escape...And she had tried and failed to wipe his memory. He would be in a rage about that, in a murderous rage...
She was about to call to Harvey and Janey in the other cage, but then she saw heavy boots crossing the field, then as she watched and the figure came into focus, she saw it was Jinx, his shirt was open, he was carrying something in his hand that caught on the sunlight...something metallic, something sharp...
Sin struggled but the rope that held her stayed firm. She looked over at Harvey and Janey, they were both sat in the other cage close together and she saw them look back at her with fear in their eyes. No one knew what would happen next and no one knew if this was the end for all of them...Jinx was in a rage. The rest was impossible to predict...
As Jinx reached the cage, he slammed back the bolts, wrenched open the door and knelt down in front of her, his eyes cold and filled with deep rage.
"Hello Sin," he said, holding up the cutters in his hand, "I have three of you to deal with but I thought I'd start with you as your betrayal was unforgivable. My only problem now is deciding which part of you to cut off first..."
She struggled in vain against the rope that held her wrists as he moved his hand beneath her gown and pressed the closed cutters to her thigh, then slid them up, the unopened blades slipped between her legs, cold steel over warm flesh and alien metal as she shivered and her breathing grew faster and she gave a cry of fear.
"You don't deserve something so rare and expensive as a zestion ring," he said, "I don't think you'll be owning it much longer..." then he moved the closed device upwards, over her smooth flesh, up her belly, then he carried on sliding the closed metal blades along her shaking body until they came to rest between her breasts. Her heart was racing and he was sure he could feel it hammering as he pressed the cold metal harder against her skin.
"For now the blades are closed," he said, "But that can easily change...I am SO angry with you!"
She lost all composure as she started to weep and beg for mercy.
"Please Rik, I'm so sorry..." she gave a sob, "I was trying to save you... make you forget the past... You said you just wanted to be Rik Jinx, flier, again. I was trying to make that happen, I wanted you to forget the bad stuff! Please don't use that thing on me!"
As she begged and her voice went up in a mix of tears and pure terror, Jinx removed his hand from under her gown, then showed her the thin, sharp blades again.
"I've decided what I'm cutting first, he said.
Sin screamed as she screwed her eyes shut on seeing him raise the blades, but then the rope that tied her hands was severed and she fell forward, blood rushing to her arms and hands and then her fingers as her shoulders ached like hell.
"You're coming with me, get out of the cage."
She obeyed, crawling from the cage and then standing up, looking fearfully at the man who had claimed to love her before the escape attempt. He slipped the cutters into his pocket and stood there in front of her, head tilted slightly as he regarded her thoughtfully. He was still angry but his mood was changing quickly. That worried her a lot, because that meant he had some kind of a plan and it would be terrible for her and the others...
"If you try and escape I will bring you back and cut off everything you can lose without dying," he promised her, "And you will still have to face the consequences of your betrayal!"
She shook her head.
"I won't try anything, Rik. I swear it - I won't make that mistake again."
He smirked.
"Mistake? I'd call it a massive fucking error of epic proportion, to dare to piss me off!"
"I wanted to cure your madness because I love you."
As she made that statement she felt as if she had just betrayed Janey and Harvey, here she was all over again, telling Jinx that she loved him – she did not understand why that had not changed, man or monster or both, she still couldn't switch off feeling for him... He looked away to the tree line, towards the place where Cora was buried, then as he turned back, tears glazed his eyes.
"You don't know what it's like to be me. Don't ever say you understand. You can't!"
"So tell me, what it is it like for you? I want to understand!"
His eyes blazed like autumn fire as he met her gaze, holding her in an intense stare that seemed to cut through her. It was heavy as hell and sharp as a laser, all burning together in a blaze of anger and pain and insanity.
"I remember when space was beautiful," Jinx told her, "Vast, deep and dark with shining stars to map the way...That's the adventure. But there's another side to it, the side I saw when the ship crashed and we were stranded for months and the food ran out and I had to kill people to feed them to other people. I was so far from home that earth was just a memory. Imagine something that cold, that lonely and that terrible. That's the other side of space – it can be sunless and desolate and terrible and hopeless, all of those things and so much more... Tear away the pretty views of universal wonders and you have a void that leads to a hell where madness burns like an everlasting, cosmic inferno. It will eat your mind and your soul and what's left becomes like me!"
In that moment, she had seen that void of madness in his eyes, he wasn't ranting or delusional – he was stating a fact and it was unlike anything she
had seen before, as if the dark of space itself had ripped out his humanity long ago.
"So do tell me how you plan to fix that for me," Jinx added bitterly, "Me and it, Ritchie Gregory Mason Jinx, co pilot, was eaten up by the void of darkness and flame and his mind is gone – I'm all that's left! Go on Sin, tell me you really think a memory wipe can put back all it tore out of me!"
Pain and loss and anger swirled in his gaze along with the madness that had touched him and sunk deep after the crash of the Pharaoh.
As she stood there studying the look in his eyes, an odd notion came to mind that she had not thought of until now and her eyes widened as she stared at Jinx.
"You ate the bodies, the ones that died in the crash?"
"What of it? First attempt at cooking the best meat in the universe, it wasn't too bad...I already had the taste for it. No one objected when I suggested it."
"Where did you keep the bodies?"
"Those killed on impact? In cold storage on the ship, I got a generator working."
"What about those who died later?"
"I killed them," he said with a shrug, "What of it? We had to feed!"
"Did you take them outside while they were alive?"
He nodded.
"Some of them slept out by the fire...I was watching for them to die but some didn't so I had to speed it up so we could all eat."
"And where did you all stay, you and the other survivors?"
"The ship was a mess. We used it for shelter when it rained but it was better outside. There was nothing but wilderness, trees, forests, open land – not a living soul but us from the ship."
"What about birds?"
He blinked.
"No birds. No fish either. Just plant life. Why?"
Sin shivered as her face paled and suddenly she found every action Jinx had committed so much easier to forgive...
"You're describing a planet that's full of plant life but no animals. Why no animals?"
He shrugged again.
"So what? The human flesh tasted like nothing else, it was amazing! It was what we'd always wanted, we could tell from the first bite!"