Burden was already mincemeat. One part of him was against the wall, the other part had been thrown back down the hall with the force of the gunfire. Commander Asher roared in agony and nearly jumped in to try to save Burden, but Tira grabbed the back of his collar and heaved him back with all her might. She could see that it was already too late for Burden, but the Commander’s connection with his longtime crewmate was seemingly clouding his judgment.
Mishra would have made it, but he made the mistake of grabbing Grisham and pushing him ahead. As he did this, Mishra fired his weapon off to the side. A satisfying scream opposite him meant that he had hit at least one pirate, but his victory was short lived; it died as quickly as he did, his neck exploding from a ferocious impact of kinetic gunfire and his head, suddenly expressionless, toppling to the floor.
Darwin and Grisham came crashing into the room, stumbling and rolling along. Asher took one last look at his dead crewmates and shut the doors.
"Get something to block these doors!" Asher barked. "Quickly! They should hold out against bullets, but we need to keep them closed at all costs."
As he held the door shut, Grisham and Tira moved farther into the cafeteria. They began dragging tables, benches and chairs over and wedging them against the door. Asher also moved back after a few moments and helped them shove the makeshift barricade into position.
"That should do it for now," the Commander said, shaking his head. "We're down too many to fight. We'll just have to hope for diplomacy. Fat chance of that."
"Hey," Grisham said, pointing. "What's with him?"
Tira turned, and saw Darwin slumped over a nearby bench. A pool of blood was forming under him, flowing like syrup over the floor.
"Darwin!" Tira said, running over. She put a hand on his arm. He had seemed fine just a minute ago, when he came running through the door. But now... he was just barely hanging on… already going cold.
"Help me!" Tira shouted.
Grisham swooped in, and together they lowered Darwin to his side. One look at his face told Tira all she needed to know. He was dead. Gunshot wound to the lower chest. Or shrapnel, more likely.
"How is he?" Asher called from the door, as he shoved more items onto the barricade, just in case.
"He’s gone," Grisham replied, hanging his head.
Tira shook her head slowly, falling onto her knees in a puddle of Darwin's blood. She reached out to touch him but her violently trembling hands suddenly froze in midair, as if unable to surpass an invisible barrier around Darwin’s cadaver. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t even look at him anymore. A wave of overwhelming nausea washed over her entire body as she crawled away on all fours and vomited onto the floor in front of her.
She wanted to stand. To be strong in the face of this insurmountable adversity but she just couldn’t summon the necessary strength. Somewhere in her mind, at the end of a long, dark hall, a video was playing on loop. It was that magical hour or so that she had spent in her office with Darwin. All she could think about was how warm he had been. How strong, how alive.
A loud banging at the door brought her back to reality. Her head was sagging, and she realized she was staring straight at her data slate. Maestro v2.5a must have taken control of it, because the screen had changed; it now showed the security camera footage. Namely, the feed from the camera just outside the cafeteria doors.
"They're here," Dr. Duvernay said. "Over twenty of them."
"I know," Commander Asher confirmed as his mind scrambled to think of a solution.
There was another bang. On the screen, Tira saw the corresponding image from the other side of the door. A tall, broad-shouldered man, with long salt and pepper colored dreadlocks slammed his right fist against the door. He looked to be in his early sixty’s and something in Tira’s gut told her that this was likely the pirate captain Andre Greyson. A man who had so easily become the bane of her very existence.
"Asher!" Greyson mockingly called out from the other side of the cafeteria door. "You still alive, in there?”
Silence. Tira, Asher, and Captain Grisham remained deathly still as they waited and listened.
“You know there’s a spot on my crew for you, Ash. Think about it! It’ll be just like old times. You just pop the rest of those fools in there with you and we can get the fuck out of here.”
Tira watched as Commander Asher clinched his jaw and gritted his teeth. The doctor couldn’t tell if this was out of anger or if the Commander was lost in deep contemplation. Whatever the case, Dr. DuVernay was concerned by what she saw.
“You expect me to trust a goddamn pirate?! I don’t even know you anymore Andre," Asher called back. "Even if I was dumb enough to consider that ridiculous offer, I know there’s about a ninety-nine percent chance that you’d kill me anyway.”
Commander Asher grew even more agitated as Greyson burst into laughter on the other side of the door. Deep roars of hysteria echoed down the hall as the rest of his crew joined in.
"Yeah, you got me," Greyson finally admitted. "What can I say, Ash? Being dead has been quite lucrative for me, man. It’s nothing personal I just can’t risk letting the word get out, you know?”
“So what happens now?” Asher asked. “Even with all those men out there I doubt that door’s coming down any time soon. I think we’ll just wait it out in here. See what happens when the military shows back up.”
“Yeah, this door is kind of thick. But I think we’ll manage. And if my guys can’t get through with a little elbow grease, I’m sure we’ll find something to pop this baby open with. Between this building and that freighter there’s got to be a blow torch or two lying around.”
Tira’s heart beat quickened as the other side of the door fells silent.
“Alright boys,” Greyson’s voice eventually rang out. With that, Greyson’s pirates came together and ran full force at the door, slamming their bodies into it. There was a loud screech as the barricade shifted slightly. One of the chairs fell off the top of the pile and slammed against the floor.
"Shit," Asher grunted, scrambling over and shoving against the barricade. Tira and Grisham ran to help, and they were just able to get their shoulders into place before the pirates slammed into the door again.
Tira winced, falling back. On the slate, she saw the pirates were rubbing their shoulders too, moving away from the door again. Going back to standing around. Meanwhile, Asher and Grisham were desperately trying to push the barricade back to where it was. It had gone about an inch or so out of whack. Still, Greyson was right. With enough time, the three inside the cafeteria were screwed.
"I’ll give myself up, Andre! Do you hear me?!" Asher shouted. "These guys in here with me aren’t soldiers. I’ll give myself up and join your crew if you let them walk."
He was grasping at straws. Tira and everyone else in the building knew it. Greyson had already made clear his intensions to kill them all but it seemed something in the Commander just couldn’t come to grips with the idea that all was lost.
"You haven’t changed a bit, Ash," Greyson said as his pirate horde resumed slamming against the door. “Still looking to play the hero at every turn.”
Asher took his eyes off the barricade and turned and looked at Tira. For the first time, she saw the ever-present glimmer of courage within his eyes failing. The Commander was finally starting to give up. But who could blame him?
"We still have one option," he said to her, as he glanced down at her data slate.
“Maestro,” Tira whispered as she suddenly remembered their debate over whether or not to remove the advanced version of Maestro’s inhibitors.
Tira was just about to respond to the Commander when a scream from the hall interrupted her. The sounds of the pirates slamming against the door outside suddenly ceased and the eerie stillness was soon followed by a barrage of gunfire that didn't stop. Asher was on his feet in a second, raising his gun, reaching out with his free hand toward the barricade. To bolster it or remove it, Tira didn't know.
She l
ooked at her screen, wondering if the pirates were playing some kind of joke. What she saw was a total frenzy. Half the pirates were no longer in her sight. The other half were firing madly down the hall, screaming at the top of their lungs. After a moment, they started to back up. One man remained alone in view of the camera, standing with his feet planted wide, firing at something.
Something blurred across the screen. Something big and indistinguishable. Something that moved way too fast. When it was gone, only the bottom half of the pirate remained. His legs remained standing for half a second, then went limp and folded in half.
"What the hell?" Tira whispered.
"I can hear them dying," said Asher. "This is our chance."
He started pulling at the barricade, tossing chairs over his shoulder.
Tira shot to her feet. "No! Something's out there. Something— it-it’s killing them! Do not open that door!"
Asher looked at her. She showed him the data slate. On it, Maestro v2.5a switched the displayed footage to one feed after the other, leapfrogging along, following the pirates as they ran for their lives. One by one, in quick succession, they were killed as quickly and mysteriously as the first man.
Asher watched on in astonishment, his face going paler by the second. Then he started grabbing the chairs he'd gotten rid of and piling them back onto the barricade.
Grisham was hiding under a table, holding his hands over his eyes.
On the slate, Tira and Asher watched as the last few pirates, including Greyson, ran like the wind through the base. They followed the hall in a big square, and soon approached the cafeteria from the other direction. Two of them stood guard, swiping their weapons back and forth, while Greyson approached the door and started knocking again. He was covered in blood, not his own, and he seemed to have lost his weapon.
"Let us in!" Greyson called. "Ash! Let is in! There’s something out here man!”
“Fuck off!” Captain Grisham yelled back.
“Ash! Listen to me, man! I’m not fucking around here, man! This thing is fucking huge and fast! It just tore through twenty men like they were nothing! You’re gonna need me man!”
Grisham continued to shout obscenities as Tira looked to Commander Asher. Asher was hesitating. His lips were pursed tight as he quickly weighed their options. Tira gave him a subtle nod as the two of them locked eyes. Under normal circumstances she would never have dreamed of suggesting that Asher open the door for the pirates but the sight of what that thing had done to Greyson’s men made her fear it much more than she did the now hapless raiders.
After she witnessed the mysterious fiend literally rip the first pirate in half she initially thought that the moon base’s advanced version of Maestro might be behind the intervention but she immediately dismissed that thought when she remembered that they had not yet made any modifications to the advanced AI’s inhibitors. With her inhibitors still intact, the moon base’s Maestro wasn’t capable of inflicting the carnage that Tira had witnessed on her data slate. With that in mind the doctor could only deduced that the mysterious fiend outside those doors would inflict the same brutality upon them if given the chance. It wasn’t a decision that she made lightly but she knew they didn’t have a choice. In the face of such a frightening and terrible foe what else could they do but join forces against it?
Greyson continued to yell from the other side of the door as Commander Asher approached and reached for the barricade.
"Commander," Grisham warned. "Don't open it. He'll kill all of us. Don't be a fucking moron!"
The screaming and gunfire in the hall erupted once again. This time even louder than before. The mysterious fiend had no doubt returned. Grisham moved to stop the Commander but Asher quickly shoved him away and then used both of his powerful hands to pull the barricade apart. Greyson fell in and collapsed to the floor as soon as the door opened, breathing heavily and bleeding now from several fresh slices to his chest. Behind him, Tira caught a quick glimpse of something big running past with a mutilated, screaming pirate in its grip.
As soon as Greyson made it to his feet, he turned and helped Asher put the barricade back. He was hyperventilating, in a full panic. Tira used the opportunity to look him over from head to toe. She saw no weapon, but she didn't think that meant anything.
“I can drive it away with the fire suppression system if you would like,” Maestro v2.5a suddenly called out over the cafeteria’s intercom.
“Yes!” Tira screamed. “Do it!
On Tira's data slate, she noticed nozzles in the ceiling just outside the cafeteria door open up and flood the hallway with some kind of white gas that looked either very cold or very hot. The beast, or whatever it was, roared once and quickly fled the area.
"It's gone for now," Maestro confirmed. "It should also be noted that all of the pirates have been terminated, with the exception of the one you willingly allowed to enter the cafeteria.”
“You don’t approve?” Tira asked.
“I don’t have an opinion on that,” Maestro v2.5a replied.
Something wasn’t right. Tira could feel it in her gut. It was such a seemingly small thing but Tira was almost one-hundred percent certain that the advanced version of Maestro had just lied to her.
No one else seemed to notice the peculiar exchange. They were too busy freaking out. Grisham had pulled himself from the floor, and was now admonishing Asher for opening the door, saying they all could have died. Asher himself kept asking, "What the fuck was that?" over and over again, with no answer. Greyson was clearly growing weary of listening to Captain Grisham, and was seemingly seconds away from punching him in the face.
He didn't get far. Asher struck first, driving a fist straight into Greyson's cheek. It was an incredibly hard hit, but somehow the pirate didn't go down. A second later, he and Asher were engaged in some kind of standing wrestling match, throwing each other around.
Grisham turned around, ran to where he had dropped his gun, and picked it up. He aimed it at the fighters and screamed at them to break it up. When they were separated, he aimed the gun straight at Greyson’s head.
"You fucking bastard, this is all…your… fault," Grisham growled, through a flood of tears.
Asher gripped his gun tightly, keeping it down but at the ready. “Put the gun down, Grisham,” the Commander warned as his eyes shifted from Captain Grisham to Dr. DuVernay.
"Captain," Tira said, stepping slowly toward Grisham. "Stand down. No one else has to die. We need to work together to figure out what the hell is out there. It's the only way to-"
"Shut up! Just shut up, okay?!" Grisham spat. "Always hovering around, hoping I make a mistake so you can pounce in and take my fucking job! Well, fuck you, lady! I will not stand down. You know why?! Because I’m the fucking captain! That’s why! He is a murderer!" Grisham continued as he thrust his gun at Grayson once again. “You can’t relieve me of duty for killing someone who killed nearly everyone on our goddamn crew!”
Tira slowly continued toward the Captain, who kept his gun trained on Andre Greyson.
Commander Asher remained silent but his eyes were now trained on Grisham’s trigger finger.
Grisham cut his eyes at Tira as she neared. He swung his hand to strike her, but he pulled his punch at the last second. Ashamed, he stared at the floor.
"He's had it," Greyson said through a nose full of blood. "Put the poor bastard out of his misery."
Grisham was sobbing and seemingly seconds away from completely blowing his gasket. Tira stared in disbelief. She had seen a lot in her short time as a psych officer, but this was the first time she had seen a man's mind shatter entirely.
"Everything will be okay Captain," Tira said, purposely referring to Grisham as ‘Captain’ in order to allow him to feel that he still maintained a certain amount of control over the situation.
“You know I’m right,” Grisham choked out.
“Of course you are,” Tira said, trying her best not to sound condescending. “It’s just that right now, we have
bigger problems. You understand that, right? You saw what happened out there.”
Grisham nodded. His grip on the gun grew weak. He had nearly dropped it. After a few moments it seemed that the standoff was nearly over. Tira breathed a sigh of relief.
Tira darted forward and wrapped her arms around Grisham’s shoulders as the Captain dropped his gun and collapsed to the floor in a defeated heap. He didn’t belong there. They all knew it. Overall he had held up better than Dr. DuVernay would have thought but in the end the stress of this once and a life time crisis was simply too much for him.
"Can’t believe you hit me with a sucker punch," Greyson said to Commander Asher, as they both watched Dr. DuVernay console the weeping Grisham.
“You deserved it,” Asher grunted.
"Maybe,” Greyson admitted as he used his shirt to wipe the blood from his face. “Still, it’s not like you to fight dirty. That’s not the Ash I knew.”
“Yeah, well things change. It’s been twenty years, Andre, what did you expect.”
Tira glanced over and watched as Commander Asher and Andre Greyson looked at each other.
“I should have told you, Ash. I should have told you that I was still alive. I see that now,” Greyson said as a wave of sadness washed over his face.
“Can’t change the past, man. No use living in it,” Commander Asher scoffed.
“You can say that again. Still, it sucks that my ‘death’ ended up coming between you and Nadia. I’m not gonna lie. That kinda got to me,” Greyson admitted. “To be honest, that’s the only reason I even considered that fifty-fifty split.”
“I know,” Asher said, his face still stoic and expressionless. “That’s why I made it up. Figured I could get you with that.”
“What?!” Greyson said, his eyes now wide with surprise. “So, Nadia never left you.”
Darkside Dreams - The Complete First Series Page 19