by E. A. James
Kneeling down, she placed her sidearm on the floor, pushing it to her right and standing up again quickly. Their eyes locked once again, and the room filled with a tense silence.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
“Who are you?” he shot back.
"Captain Kira Winter, and I'm the pilot of this…,” her nose wrinkled as she finished, "…this once fine vessel."
“I am Commander Luthor Rockhold, but I’m known as Thor,” he replied. “And, yes, I am—or was—the prisoner on this ship.”
“How did you escape?”
“When the power failed during the attack, the door to my cell was unlocked, temporarily.”
“That was awfully convenient for you,” Kira muttered.
"It was," Thor said, crossing his arms over his chest, "even more since my incarceration was unjustified."
“Said every guilty man ever,” Kira replied sarcastically.
“Perhaps,” he said with a shrug.
“You don’t really think I’m that gullible.”
“You don’t have to believe me.”
Her curiosity was rising, and the awkward tension passing between them was mounting. She took a slight step to her right, and he stepped to his left, keeping himself planted directly in front of her.
"Just tell me," she said with a frustrated grunt. "It's clear that neither of us is going anywhere, and this stand-off is getting old—fast. What makes you believe you’re innocent?"
“I was a soldier in the Arcanum,” he began.
“So were Snakeman and his twin,” Kira noted quickly.
“Snakeman?”
Kira motioned to the lifeless body of her former bodyguard lying on the ground about 20 feet away from her. "Snakeman," she said firmly.
“I’m not going to ask,” Thor said, looking at the man over his shoulder.
“Good. I wasn’t going to tell you.”
Thor turned his attention back to Kira. "It's common that the soldiers in the Arcanum are cybernetically enhanced, as you have seen with my colleagues here."
Her eyes flitted to Snakeman again, falling quickly on the cybernetic implants lacing their way through different parts of his body. She quickly looked back to Thor. She remembered the way he moved so smoothly and quickly out of the line of fire spilling out of her Phantom. Another shudder ran up her spine.
“Colonel Grimm has been doing more than a few slight modifications on his soldiers,” Thor continued. “He has descended into madness, claiming humanity as the galactically superior race. He has been violating the Modessi Limit, and running grotesque genetic experiments.”
“The Modessi Limit…” Kira said in disbelief, remembering the section of course work she did in the academy around cybernetics.
The Modessi Limit was put in place shortly after Dr. Victor Modessi began his experiments in 2232, testing human capacity to be cybernetically and genetically altered. At first, his experiments were highly successful and praised. But then, as Victor began to push his trials further and further, the results became horrific and tragic.
His subjects turned into abominations and death was not uncommon. Modessi was promptly charged with crimes against humanity and quickly went into hiding, but the roads paved by his tests remained. Today, humans were still modified. However, according to the Modessi Limit established by the Terran Alliance, no more than 8% of an individual's genetic material can be altered. Exceeding the limit proved very dangerous and unpredictable.
“You’re lying,” Kira said quickly. “I’ve known Colonel Grimm for years, and his ethics have always been beyond reproach. He couldn’t do that.”
“He would and he does. I was part of the experiments—in the beginning. But, as I watched my companions become more abomination than human, I refused to continue with the procedures.”
As he spoke, he took another step towards her. The space between them was becoming closed off, and Kira found herself feeling vulnerable—a feeling she was not very familiar with. She tried to take a step back, but the wall was at her back. Glancing quickly at her Phantom on the floor, she weighed the risks involved in trying to reach for it again.
“You won’t make it there before I do,” Thor said, following her line of sight. He looked at the gun and then back up at her. “I may not be as ‘enhanced’ as your guards were, but I definitely am more than you are.”
She knew he was right, and fixing her gaze on him again, she nodded for him to continue.
“My refusal to continue with the experiments infuriated Grimm. He gave me an ultimatum—continue with the study or be shipped off to Jaantu 7. The only thing that kept him from killing me was the honor between soldiers.”
“And you chose Jaantu 7,” Kira finished his story for him.
Thor nodded, his eyes still fixed on hers. The way he looked at her made her feel conflicted. There was sincerity in his expression, urgency almost. His dark eyes were no longer filled with a look of aggression or hostility. They were almost kind. Somehow, the edginess that seemed permanently wrapped around him softened.
Another heavy silence fell between them. She wasn’t sure she could trust him—she didn’t trust him. Despite his earnestness, she couldn’t bring herself to believe that Colonel Grimm was the monster Thor was painting him out to be. Still, her options were limited. They were the only two left alive on the ship, the ship that wasn’t working. If they were going to somehow find a way out of this situation, they were going to need to work together.
“Other Zel’Dar may be coming,” she said frankly, changing the topic of conversation quickly. “That was a small swarm, but there are always more out there.”
“We should get moving, then,” Thor said.
He turned around and began walking towards the couch in the center of the room, stepping over Snakeman’s body as he went. His movements were surprisingly graceful for a man of his size—large and bulky. Although he was wearing loose military grade khakis, his light green shirt was tight and form-fitting. She could see the muscles in his back flex as he moved and couldn’t help but gaze at his arms, toned and athletic.
Following behind him quickly, she said, “The ship’s disabled. Somehow in the attack, we lost power and navigation controls went offline.”
“I suppose that’s another thing that’s worked out well for me,” he said sarcastically.
“It’s your lucky day,” Kira replied, standing in front of him and crossing her arms over her chest. Looking down at him sternly, she added, “except for the fact that the bounty hunter we’re supposed to be meeting with will be waiting for us. He probably knows our flight plan.”
“You have a point,” he said, leaning forward. “So, what do we do?”
“Well, if you want to just sit around here, enjoying my company until Nico Rax comes barging through the door, I’m all for that.”
“While you are a very pleasant conversationalist, I think I’d rather enjoy your glowing presence over a drink, not in the midst of impending doom.”
“Why? I can be charming in virtually any situation.”
“Then put on your most captivating persona while we get this thing fixed.”
“So, we’re going to work together?” she asked, a bubble of nerves forming in her stomach.
“I promise not to kill you if you don’t try to kill me.”
“Try to kill you? I could if I wanted to.”
“You couldn’t.” Thor leaned down and palmed her Phantom, holstering it at his side.
She let out a disgruntled scoff as she continued to hover over him, looking down at him with frustrated anger. Still, his story continued to ring in her mind. What if he was telling the truth? What if Colonel Grimm really was pushing the Modessi Limit? She still found it hard to believe him, but she knew that working together would be the only way to get them both out of this increasingly dangerous situation.
“Fine,” she said, stepping towards him and holding out her hand. “Allies?”
He pushed himself up to his feet and slipped
his hand into her, his grip firm and strong, “Allies.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
The engineering bay was cold—a bad sign. The small room was usually hot from the heat given off from the ships complex warp generator.
Still, they went to work. The were not engineers, so for all they knew, they were making things worse instead of better.
“It looks like a lot more than navigation is damaged,” Thor observed as they futilely worked to try and understand the complicated diagnostics presented on the control panel.
“What’s going to happen?” Kira asked, sitting back on her heels and turning to look up at Thor, kneeling down to her left. “What will happen when we don’t reach the rendezvous with Nico Rax?”
“Well, as you so acutely observed earlier, he’ll come looking for us. I have an unlucky feeling that he won’t be alone.”
His words were haunting.
Thor continued to pour over the diagnostics and as he reached out to continue work on the control panel, Kira saw the edge of a tattoo peek out just below his shirt collar. The thin red ink seemed to be part of an unintelligible circular design but Kira couldn’t make out more than that.
“I’m guessing your luck isn’t inversely related to mine,” she said, shaking off her curiosity about the ink on his upper chest and refocusing her attention on the conversation.
"Sorry, Captain," he muttered, "I'm afraid that you're as caught up in all of this as I am now. I imagine that a galactic ‘dead-or-alive' bounty will be placed on all four of us—the two of us and our previously alive hosts."
“What?” Kira asked, pushing herself up quickly and stepping back from him. “What did I do? Why would they put out a bounty on me?”
“You are transporting valuable cargo,” Thor said, flashing a cocky smile at her over his shoulder.
“Oh, is there something else on this ship I didn’t know about?” she snapped back quickly, looking over her shoulder mockingly.
When she turned back around to look down at him, she was surprised to find that he, too, had stood to his feet and was now towering over her.
“Unfortunately for you, it’s just the two of us.”
“Joy,” she said, taking another step back.
“I’m confident that Grimm will do anything to keep me from walking free. He’s desperate to keep his activities a secret and he will do anything to keep from being exposed. He’ll have our images broadcast through the galactic bounty network, and before long, we’ll be the next big news.”
“I have always wanted to be famous,” Kira replied, trying to remain calm and nonchalant.
“Well, I’m glad I could elevate your social status.” He looked back down at the control panel. “We’re not going to be able to fix this stranded out here. The Zel’Dar attack must have damaged systems outside the ship.”
“We have to do something to get out of here. My ship was destroyed unceremoniously on arrival, so I’m out of options.”
Thor thought for a moment. “Your ship?” he said softly. “There might be another vessel on board.” Thor seemed to be lost in thought and he quickly started to leave the engineering bay. Kira followed after him.
As they marched quickly down the main corridor of the freighter, whatever fear or panic had previously started to form in her stomach was quickly replaced with the rush of adrenaline and her mind shifted to the familiar analytical state that always kicked in when she found herself face-to-face with danger.
“They may have destroyed your ship, but I bet they kept the one I was brought here on,” Thor explained as they went. “It’s small, but it’ll do.”
“We’ll have to do something about this ship,” Kira said. “If they find the ship destroyed, maybe they’ll just think that we were all killed in an attack—no need for a bounty when everyone is already dead.”
Thor slowed slightly but didn't stop. "That’s possible," he said, continuing down the corridor. "Those soldiers were carrying a surprising amount of explosives with them. I'll rig the ship with explosive, you go down to the cargo hold, find our ride out of here, and start familiarizing yourself with it. We may not have a lot of time before they realize we’re no longer on course."
“Got it,” Kira replied, quickly moving down the corridor in the direction of the ship’s cargo holds.
“Wait!” Thor said. “Take this - just don’t shoot me with it later.” He handed Kira her Phantom.
“No promises,” Kira quipped, appreciating the gesture of trust nonetheless. Thor forced a concerned grin in her direction before hurrying off to collect the explosive ordinance and rig the ship.
Kira reached the end of the corridor and found the service ladder that would take her down to the cargo holds. As she approached the ladder and peered down she could see that power had been compromised on the cargo hold deck, it was emergency lighting only.
Kira cursed under her breath. She un-holstered her Phantom and turned on the tactical light located beneath the barrel. It wasn’t much, but she needed all of it to navigate through the darkness. Slowly, she descended down the ladder onto the deck below.
As she reached the platform she was startled by the darkness. The Zel’Dar attack had clearly damaged this section of the ship, and she wondered if their way out of here had been damaged, or worse, destroyed.
The emergency lighting was poor, spaced about twenty feet apart and some were either not working or flickering ominously. Where the lights were not working, Kira was forced to walk in near complete darkness with only the tactical light on her Phantom guiding her way. She could barely see more than four or five feet in front of her at any given moment.
The ship groaned from time to time, as the metalwork twisted and bent from the damage sustained in the attack. Kira clutched her Phantom tightly, walking with the weapon raised in front of her. Sweat dripped from her head and her heart pounded in her chest.
After Kira had come about ninety feet down the corridor she came to the first bay door that read “Cargo Hold #1”. She pressed the door release button. Nothing happened. “Shit,” Kira muttered.
She walked another two steps and approached the large door. She noticed the door was not fully closed and one of the panels was damaged and bent. From that bend, she could see into the cargo hold. Kira poked her Phantom into the opening to get a better look.
The light illuminated a small part of the cargo hold and she could make out the outlines of a small shuttle craft about fifty feet away from her. “That must be the ship,” Kira thought.
Kira looked at the control panel by the door for an intercom control to tell Thor she had found the ship, but there was none. “Must be inside the hold,” Kira pondered.
She took a step back, and suddenly, a scurrying noise from down the dark corridor grabbed her attention. She pivoted, bringing the Phantom up to face the direction of the noise. Her breath caught in her throat as she strained to see through the darkness.
Kira’s eyes remained fixed in the direction of the noise. The silence was deafening. Her arms ached from the strain of holding her Phantom at the ready.
After a solid minute of staring into the darkness, Kira knew she had to make a decision. She lowered her Phantom and braced herself against the cargo bay door. She pushed lightly against the door to see if it would budge. Slowly, the door began to grind against its metal tracks – the noise reverberated through the corridor – Kira grimaced at the sound and stopped pushing.
A low guttural growl echoed back from down the corridor and the scurrying sound resumed. Kira pivoted back again, bringing her Phantom up in the direction of the noise. There, about one hundred feet down the corridor Kira could make out a large shape running towards her position. The creature was moving fast and the emergency lighting revealed it momentarily before it disappeared back into the shadows as it made its way towards Kira.
Kira clenched her jaw and fired a quick shot from her Phantom. The red beam of energy burst forward, illuminating the corridor as it flew towards the creature.
&nb
sp; The beam flew past the creature and carried on down the corridor, but as the beam missed, Kira could make out distinct features for the first time – it was a Zel’Dar. The sight of the dark blue and brown exoskeleton sent adrenaline shooting through Kira.
She fired three quick bursts and the creature deftly dodged the first but was struck on its right side with the second and third. It shrieked loudly and dove off into a service corridor about fifty feet from Kira’s position.
The scurrying sound had subsided but Kira was certain she did not kill it. “Fuck,” she exclaimed, her breathing rapid and tense.
After another moment, she decided she had to get into the cargo bay immediately. She lowered her weapon and braced herself against the door again, pushing with all her might. The door began to shriek, the sound of metal on metal ringing loudly down the corridor.